Raasthe

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Links to Pictures and Videos from Wedding!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Our vows

Astha wrote her vows, and I wrote my vows starting with "Because I love you, I ___ " We then read them to each other and combined them to create one set of vows that we both would take. Both of us read these vows to each other during the Wedding Ceremony.

Going through this process definitely made the wedding ceremony much more meaningful for both of us.

Vows:

Because I love you, I promise to always be by your side spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I promise to understand where you are coming from and to be patient. I promise to share what's on my mind and in my heart. I promise to always be ready to listen to what you have to share. I promise to challenge you and learn from you. I promise to help you overcome any challenges, help you work towards your goals, help you question and look deeper, and help you live what you believe. I promise to love your friends and family and treat them as my own. And if I'm not able to keep to these promises, I will always bring the focus back on our love for each other and our common vision. I am committed to you and the life we envision for ourselves. Because I love you, I promise to trust you, to respect you, to take care of you, and walk through life with you hand-in-hand.

Questions in Wedding Program

In our wedding program (which explained the Hindu wedding ceremony and had our vows), we included two questions that we wanted our guests to answer. In the below posts, are their thoughtful, funny, and heartfelt responses.

What does living a meaningful life mean to you?

Fun/Entertainment
Success
Family
Charity/Helping Others

> Life is a balancing act. Making sure your spouse, family, and everyone you care about is happy will always make life meaningful. The most comes from balancing whatever is important to you in the above quadrant.

> Living life with loved friends and family because that’s what enriches our life.

> Filled with LOWE!

> Trust each other

> Contentment, peace, and love

> Being able to grow together as a couple but most importantly supporting each other fulfill their individual goals

> Finding purpose in life & being able to do good for others

> (Picture of a home, sun, and three people walking in)

> Surrounding yourself with loved ones

> Making a difference to the world & touch as many lives as you can

> TV, wife, dog, and Scotch is all I need to be happy – Milan / He was supposed to put wife first! – Monika

> Good companionship, under each other & come to the right decision. Do whatever you want to do in your life!

> Existence is for the benefit of others. Be a witness and watch. Watch your Wishes ActionsThoughts Character Health
Married life is to carry on your duties for material, cultural, and spiritual progress.

> Being in service to others.

> Positioning myself well to make a difference for others in a positive way, which will then make my life positive.

> Finding freedom of the mind (or working toward)

> Living a life full of love & happiness shared with family & friends

> Work hard and help others in need

> Personal growth & global impact

> Raising a family with the best of spiritual & educational goals – to better the society.

> More than living life blindly. Adding meaning to life by focusing on your intentions, your values, the effects you have on the greater humanity, and using those ideas to guide your decisions through life.
AKA: Follow your heart.

> Happiness – “Living life as an act of service.” (-Amit)

> Giving to others time and love, and showing interest in what matters to them

> Devotion to, love of, and loved by God and Family

> Enjoy what you have, be happy, do good deeds, and stay connected with family and friends

> Do good. Have fun.

> Man: caring and sharing
Woman: Being in the midst of the energy of close
Relationships.

> I am still trying to figure it out.

What is the most important element of a successful marriage?

> Trust, Compromise

> Communication – this is important for both the “little things” day-to-day as well as continuously conveying your feelings, thoughts, fears, goals, etc. with your spouse.

> Understanding each other and compromising

>
Resilient / Romance
Energy
Sensitivity
Patience
Excitement
Communication
Teamwork

> Love each other

> Communication, Honesty, Sense of humor, Closeness, Adjustments, Love each other, Respect each other

> Understanding between 2 minds and Compassion between 2 hearts

> Healthy “discussions” (arguments)

> Trust & support one another… even if you’re not sure if you should

> Don’t forget who you are

> For Raj, first year of marriage, say ‘yes’ to what Astha says and after that, Astha say yes to everything he says. Talk everything out.

> Adjustment, compromise, sacrifice, and love (above all)

> Marriage takes 16-1-20-9-5-14-3-5

> Scotch or beer – Milan / Honesty - Monika

> Love and forgiveness are the most important elements of a successful marriage. – Alpa & Kaushal

> Sacrifice for each other, compromise, say yes to each other, & understand

> Always think – “What can I do for you?” Unless it is a question of principle, let it go and forget it.

> Being in service to others.

> Friendship and patience. Allowing your partner to explore what is right for him/her without imposing what you think is right for him/her

> Love & respect for each other

> Anticipation of the next twenty to fifty years of interesting and insightful conversation – infinite exploration

> Also responsible money management =)

> Understanding, listening to each other, & cooperation

> Continuously explore each others opinions & motivations through joyful times & strife alike

> Forgiveness, love & respect especially during difficult periods

> Trust, knowing, & believing that my wife/husband will always be there for me

> Trust, respect, and lots of love

> 1) Astha’s always right. 2) When in doubt, refer to rule (1)

> Trust & being flexible

We got hitched!

So... we just got married a couple days ago! It's been a long time since we've done a blog entry... but I think we're going to bring back the blog to post some aspects of the wedding weekend.

First off, THANKS to ALL our friends, family, and everyone else who made this past week possible. It was really a magical week. =)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Activity #11 - Time in Nature

I am posting this activity AFTER we both already did the activity.

The activity was: Spend time in nature... about half an hour... and just reflect. Both of us are super busy right now... and at times, quite stressed... but nature has this quality to soothe. It has the ability to automatically put life in perspective and realize that there is a bigger picture.

So the task was... find a spot where you are in natural surroundings... and then just write about how it was, how you felt, what thoughts went through your head...

Raj:

(It's really hard to write this like THREE weeks after I did the activity.)
First... I find it really sad that we have to GO to nature... instead of just being immersed in it and living with it... interdependently.
That being said.... I went to a beach in Alameda called Crab's Cove. Alameda isn't that far from my school... basically, it's right over a bridge. Alameda is an interesting little island in the SF Bay... right next to Oakland. While Oakland is mostly low income and minorities... Alameda is higher income and significantly whiter. Anyways.. not sure why I'm going into that background.... because that doesn't really have anything to do with my nature time.
So, I had heard my students say that they've been to the beach in Alameda... so, that was something I wanted to check out. It only took me about 15 minutes to get there... I went after school one day. First, I took a bunch of pictures

Astha:

I agree in it being hard to actually type these things out. We do it, talk about it and then its like crap we still have to write.

It truly is amazing how well nature can soothe. I don't know if its a combination of actually making the conscious decision to stop and literally smell the roses vs nature's natural beauty, but I clearly remember how refreshed I felt after I did this activity. If you don't know, I have been going through my intern year (i can't remember if that was mentioned before) and life has been a little hellish. I pride myself in being fairly balanced and am just amazed at how imbalanced my life has become. I had been delaying the activity but I finally decided that I needed to when I was post-call. Post-call means I had finished a 28-30 some hour shift with no sleep. I slept a few hours during the day and then woke up to a beautiful day and put on the running shoes to step out into the world. Mind you, it had been 2 months (kind of ridiculous) since I had used those running shoes.

Out I went and hello world.

I chose to run to a spot in Van Cortland Park. Though so out of shape, the running was a beautiful thing. To be moving again...felt so good. And then the act of just running past life...when surrounded by sickness all the time...it made me happy and gave me hope again. The spot that I was at basically looked like this picture except fall leaves. I ran through some of the park before getting to the spot and to find such greenery and abundance of nature when almost half a mile before I was in the heart of the Bronx, it amazed me. I still heard the cars in the background and know the city wasn't too far away but still a nice getaway. And then I found a perfect spot (remember Raj I do that really well :)) and just sat and took it all in. I noticed the big things, I noticed the little things. I saw the ripple effect the tiniest movement had on the water, I saw the reflection of the amazing colors in the water and how the colors blended together in the reflection. I noticed the birds, our ducks that seem to always be around, and a white swan off in the distance. People fishing around the lake. Little bugs defying normal physics and walking on water. I could go on but it was great.

All in all, so glad I did this. Gave me a much needed piece of mind and got me motivated to run again. Sad that it still takes such effort to stop and notice the beauty around us but that is a different battle.

And raj I still finished before you. Just had to throw that in :) hehe. And after I am done being mean to you I want to thank you raj for pushing me to do this even though I fought you on it and made many excuses. It was so good for the soul.