tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19294750147558524652023-11-16T11:43:24.638-06:00Parul Bhatia's blogArts, Entertainment, Theater, Films (Bollywood and Hollywood), Religion, Politics, Health, Parties and moreParul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-88425893062675287502021-02-23T11:16:00.002-06:002021-02-23T11:16:47.788-06:00Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism is a practice of chanting with determination<p> </p><h3 style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-size: 1.9375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: courier;">RHYTHM</span></span></h3><div><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a;">Chanting <i><b>Nam-myoho-renge-kyo</b></i> motivates us to take action with focus, energy and strength</span><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a;">. It is the source for advancing our lives. Here is a quote on chanting from Nichiren Daishonin who </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;">was a Japanese Buddhist priest of the Kamakura period (1185–1333), who developed the teachings of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5f6368; font-weight: bold;">Nichiren</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156;"> Buddhism, a branch school of Mahayana Buddhism.</span></span></div><div><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fefefe; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></span></div><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #333399;">I am praying . . . as earnestly as thought to produce fire from damp wood, or to obtain water from parched ground.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #333399;">“Rebuking Slander of the Law,” <em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">The Writings of Nichiren Daishinon</em>, vol. 1, p. 444</span></span></p><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Soka Gakkai President Ikeda explains: “A person’s attitude in doing gongyo reveals itself in how that person lives. A person whose gongyo is weak will lack vital energy and will lapse inevitably into a feeble way of living. If you do gongyo only as if it were a chore or out of a sense of obligation, it will be hard for you to feel joy in your faith. Therefore, let’s encourage one another to do a refreshing and rhythmical gongyo, like a mythical white flying horse galloping through the sky. Together let’s aim to do a superb, powerful gongyo each day, one that will move the entire universe and is infused with our earnest prayers” (<em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">The Human Revolution</em>, p. 1790).</span></p><h3 style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; font-size: 1.9375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: courier;">VOICE</span></h3><p style="background-color: #fefefe; box-sizing: inherit; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Regarding the voice, SGI President Ikeda says, “When we chant with unhesitant faith, our voices, just as they are, become the voice of the Buddha who is always here expounding the unsurpassed Law” (<em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">The Heart of the Lotus Sutra</em>, p. 341). Chanting with a clear, resonant and confident voice leads to our fulfillment and victory.</span></p>Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-72018018364334842362021-02-21T19:09:00.004-06:002021-02-21T19:09:51.095-06:00February .. and the Sun is back <p><span style="font-size: large;">No I have not been hibernating. Or maybe I have but no not really .. as I have been on the air, doing my radio shows .. from Chai Time to Bollywood Top 10, and writing a script for the next film, and doing Odissi .. a dance form I'm very passionate towards. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And with that I've also been teaching English Composition courses at Dallas College .. yup online coz of this COVID situation. Life has been quite a ride since Feb 2020 .. and hey wait up it's already been a year! We are in 2021. And this is Feb. One year has slipped by and we are ahead .. leaving behind a lot of people who are no longer breathing, and as we stepped into Feb we had a snowstorm in Dallas TX .. power cuts, water-pipes bursts, cooking inside the fireplace (if you have electrical oven top like we do) and now the sun is shining through. There is always a ray at the end of the tunnel. Isn't? So do I have a "Yes"? The other side of midnight is always bright. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">February also happens to be my birth month so I thought of being born again .. as a person who wants to share her ideas and thoughts, passions and grudges from my side of the hood. </span></p>Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-77370183988218115062016-12-28T10:05:00.002-06:002016-12-28T10:06:21.602-06:00Back before 2017 kicks in<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yes I' seemed to have taken a hiatus, a vacation if you will, from posting things to my own blog. Reason being that I was so sucked into doing day-today things these past few years, including raising kids, family chores, teaching, and of course being active with other social media platforms suc has FB, twitter, instagram, youtube etc. But before 2017 kicks in I decided to post something, for you and me. Welcome back to my blog. </div>
Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-22229628797325454382014-03-17T07:46:00.000-05:002014-03-17T07:46:22.924-05:00Latest Bollywood movies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Lately some interesting movies have made it on to the screen. The genres have become more and more diverse and experimental to say the least.</div>
Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-60617883203100832732011-05-01T22:43:00.000-05:002011-05-01T22:43:46.847-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlq22D3seCr0uWR2oARvGLpYvaOnp3cbYH-jOhB8oDiagSkZgMJv-rTntpZKeTi4P7FwXhOGRFceV7zlrkrdaNohJaHxSSDEVWZUl_q-IYue8VA0q631a-IoKjfqwjQKJJYqr9vefFNcI/s1600/Geeta_Front_v2a.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: both" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlq22D3seCr0uWR2oARvGLpYvaOnp3cbYH-jOhB8oDiagSkZgMJv-rTntpZKeTi4P7FwXhOGRFceV7zlrkrdaNohJaHxSSDEVWZUl_q-IYue8VA0q631a-IoKjfqwjQKJJYqr9vefFNcI/s320/Geeta_Front_v2a.jpg" /></a><div style='clear:both; text-align:LEFT'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-23965684195525747672010-06-25T00:13:00.001-05:002010-06-25T00:20:38.193-05:00Dance - drama and lifeWhat would life be without dance and drama. Yup that is my topic of discussion. Tell me can you imagine a life with no color? A life with no shape, no edges, just round and predictable. We often like to sing, dance, and act out our emotions on stage or off stage. It satisfies a need in us, a need for peope understanding us and relating to us and appreciating us and applauding us. Lights - Camera - Sound - Action!<br />Woman: Lekin tum aisa nahin kar sakte, I am about to have your baby (tumhare bacche ki maan banane waali hoon)<br />Man: (hisses) Yeh Jhoot hai, tum jhoot bol rahi ho (you are lying)<br />Woman: (Angrily) Kaminey tu kuta hai<br />Man: Koi Shuck (the guy was not Shahid from Kaminey - otherwise the dialog would have been CUT)<br />Director yells "CUT"<br />Director: That was an awesome shot madam.<br />Madam breathing heavily, snaps her fingers and looks hungrily at the guy who was playing in the film. She has a strong need to be with him.Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-45265573560453957922010-05-31T22:36:00.001-05:002010-05-31T22:36:54.662-05:00ThoughtsAvocado rice and kabab .. hmm pretty innovative dining at my end. The night stares silently as I hear the bugs<br />chatting .. my eyes are empty<br />Coz there are no eyedrops left .. and I smile .. faintly .. and I smirk beligently .. and I sing voraciously .. and<br />in the end the night<br />the night stares at me with a moonless blanket as I tweet and twitter and tell a few tales waiting for an avatar<br />with a tail to come and ...<br /> sweep me off the floor with his tail and I smile and I smirk and I sing while he smiles and smirks and sings a<br />song about wind and fruits ..<br />about passion and flutes about dining and wining about tales and sails .. and we smile in rapture, we smirk at<br />others and we sing together .<br /> a song that is ours a sail that is small a house that we've built in a hollow tree on a mountain green where wind<br />sings and fruits fall ..<br />fruits fall upon our garden filled with roses and jasmine .. and we stare at eachother fervently passionately<br />relentlessly ... together w uParul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-11880827485897423702006-12-11T22:44:00.000-06:002006-12-11T22:53:15.448-06:00Dhoom or SpiritWhat is it going to be for you this year? Yes .. you got it .. I think .. I am talking about this year's New Year's Eve bash/extravaganza/gala .. or whatever you wanna call it. The idea is to party where you can have one rocking time, not having to pay so high that your next month's mortgage is in jeopardy, or having to sell off your fake Armany watch and having to party without one!! Makes sense .. oh well .. I am not trying hard to make sense anyway. The point I am trying to make is that this year if you want to party and party hard to NON-STOP music, and have champagne, drink specials, food, masti and more then you can pick from either of the 4V party. The one at Clay Pit in Addison is DHOOM and the other one is at the Campbell Center in Richardson and that one is called SPIRIT. Spirit is a Family event as well .. so hey that's right your kids don't have to left in the doldrums with a nanny who is hating having to spend time with a bunch of kids. Oh well you may be lucky if you have a really sweet and caring one and she might genuinely be looking forward to tucking your puppies in the bed. But what about you!! Do you not want to see them have their faces painted, and play with balloon toucans and orangutans .. and that too right in front of your eyes!! Well this can actually happen as your kids dance and laugh to a clown while you enjoy a buffet from Akbar and then get ready to jam at the DJ lounge. Not only that, you can also pick up a private hall for your friends and just go in their with all the kids to have a crazy insane time. So if that's what you want then join the wandbagon, BYOB .. you heard me right .. Spirit is a BYOB event .. so comeon over and PARTY!!Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-6933181263432688992006-08-19T11:39:00.000-05:002006-08-19T11:40:01.994-05:00Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (KANK)Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna<br />Another Karan Johar (KJ) film hits the camp. And it is once again a star studded bonanza, with billion dollar Manhattan sets, mansions, penthouses and the works. KJ certainly has the art to spend tons of money on the sets, costumes, accessories, hair and make-up. The story is about love, and essentially that love is what sustains a marriage. Without love marriage is more of a burden than a relief. The story advocates that if one finds love in one's marriage then life is complete even if it incomplete in other areas. The ending was a strong point of the film. It was different, unpredicatable and had a ring of justice to it. Another strong point of the film is that the spouses are not portrayed as evil, no-good, malicious, or clearly worthy of dumping. the characters of Priti and Abhishek have many likable streaks. Especially Abhishek is turly a happy-go-lucky-in-love-with-his-wife-ready to-do-anything-for-her husband. Despite his sincerity of love his wife does not feel any love for him and I think there in lies the tragedy of the film. The falling in love with another man, the deciet, the infidelity, the passionate lovemaking all add to her edispleasure but the final straw comes when her own father-in-law Amitabh discovers her loveaffair. Her discomfort, sense of guilt reaches the zenith but all falls flat when she hears her dadinlaw give her the advise that the best thing to do would be to move ahead, to leave her husband, and to not be in a marriage that is depriving his son of true love he deserves. Amitabh was a show stealer in the film. He was funny, witty, flirtatitious, emotional, and wise. He can do to a role what butter can do to a parantha. Shahrukh brought the edginess of his character well to the suface but there were instances where his acting could have made this film much stronger. Rani looked a million dollars but she really needs to lose that untimely smile. Why can't she stop smiling where there is no need to do that!! That will always be her flaw but then I guess it is forgiven given her brilliant shemistry with the Khan. They do have a rocking chemistry. I think most women who act with him actually do end up falling in love with him. I can't wait to watch his Don.Preity had many scenes where she looked oomphatic but then some scenes she looked a highly tensed up brow raising siren. Some works need to be undone on her. Karan Johan is worthy of complimenting in KANK for a fresh outlook on marriage, an outlook that challenges tradition, tradition that preaches suffocation. It is a feminist approach to living that he prescribes rather smoothly. Definitely a movie that will raise discussions over coffee in many a circles. In the end it is a film you want to not miss but when you leave you'd certainly wish it was a good half an hour shorter. The essence of love one feels when the Mitwa song comes is very strong. The empathy one feels for the lovers and at the same time for their spouses is well pulled from the audience. Hey with so many strong points I will say that the film is a success. Kudos to KJ.Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-85728241689876972552006-08-17T15:18:00.000-05:002006-08-17T15:23:51.208-05:00ReligionUltimately what is religion? Isn't it a means to reach the Almighty? The Supreme. Its a path to get connected to the Lord. There are different religions and thus different paths. Why do people feel that only one path is the path to reaching the destination? It is like different airlines professing that their's is the only way to reach destination x. But there are so many way to get there. I love and respect all religions but I do hate people who hate other religions. I love tolerance and respect for all religions. That is true humanity. I went to the Hare Krsna temple last night for Janmashtami, that is Lord Krishna's Birthday. It was great. Enjoyed the darshan, His Holy face gave me hope and happiness. It was really nice to rock His cradle. Then enjoyed eating some really good prasadam. Jai Sri Krishna.Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-85163210164162091772006-08-15T13:13:00.000-05:002006-08-15T13:20:51.575-05:00JanmashtamiJanmashtami celebrations are right around the corner. Janmashtami celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna. The Hare Krishna temple in Dallas is celebrating the birth of the Lord. Please mark your calendars for August 16th 2006. For details visit:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.radhakalachandji.com/home.asp">http://www.radhakalachandji.com/home.asp</a><br /><br />This is the schedule for August 16th:<br />Mangala Arati/ Tulasi Puja 4:30-5:15am<br />Guru Puja/Greetings Arati 7:00-7:45am (new outfit)<br />Bhagavatam Class 7:45-8:30amBhajan/<br />Kirtan 8:30-NoonRaj Bhoga Arati 12:00-12:30pmBhajan/<br />Kirtan 12:00-4:00pmDhupa Arati 4:00-4:15pmBhajan/<br />Kirtan 4:00-6:00pmLecture 6:00-6:30pm<br />Sandhya Arati 6:30-7:00pm<br />Park Entertainment 7:00-10:00pm<br />Prasadam 7:30 pm onwards Abhiseka 8:30-10:30pm<br />Krishna Book Reading 10:30-11:00pm<br />Spiritual Presentations 11:00-11:30pm<br />Kirtan 11:30-Midnight<br />Midnight Arati Midnight-12:30am<br />Prasadam 12:30 am and onwards<br /><br />For more information call 214 827-6330Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1929475014755852465.post-17035553989922674042006-08-15T12:58:00.000-05:002006-08-15T13:08:31.750-05:00Indepence day of IndiaWelcome to the 4Visions' blog. My name is Parul Bhatia and I am the the contact person for this blog. This blog is not just for me. It is for me, you, and everyone interested in sharing their opinions about topics that matter. Lets kick off this blog with India's Independence Day. Today is August 15th 2006. Inida attained its freedom in August of 1947. It has been 59 years!! We have come a long way. From being this rich golden bird that rest of the world adored a few centuries ago to an upcoming democracy that has a promising potential for the East as well as the West. Have we arrived full circle? Well we may not be a golden bird today but we certainly have a promise to offer to other Indians. And this promise has strong shades of gold in it. We are the fastest growing economy today .. yet the poverty lurks strongly through the slums, the pollution, the evergrowing poplulation!! We are a nation of IT programmers and architects yet the hospitals are underequpped in their programs to take care of the poor. We are a capitalist society where the spirit to succeed makes us rise again and again despite the bomb blasts that killed so many Mumbai-ites on 7/11/06. This spirit to rise and go on with one's business is something that makes us true Indians and nothing can dampen this spirit.Parul Bhatiahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13218686637286689378noreply@blogger.com0