Two weekends ago, I spend some fantastic twenty-four hours with my friend Karishma. You will recognize her name from my site, where she is a frequent contributor to "The Friend's Corner".
Early Saturday afternoon of Memorial weekend, I took a train from Penn Station to join K and her Trinidadian Hindu family at Nassau Coliseum for the "Bollywood Movie Awards". This was to be an affair bestudded with my favorite Hindi film industry Hunks and Hunkettes. Bipasha Basu - the woman responsible for most of modern day's global warming (she's that HOT!), Arjun Rampal - a fantastic looking ex model turned actor who acted in one of my alltime fave films "Ek Ajnabee", Ragav - a Canadian/Indian singer responsible for the hit "Angel Eyes", a smooth ditty on a hard reggae beat, and finally Vivek Oberoi - a dashing, smooth cutie with good moves and looks, whom I am known to jokingly refer to as "my husband". It never hurts to dream!
Awards were handed out to, among others, director Mira Nair, Soha Ali Khan and even Danny Glover, for his lifetime work in charity and the movies. It was awfully suspicious that the only people receiving any awards were those who just happened to be present (and most dancing!) but such is the game in Bollywood. The title "Award" stands - misleadingly - for Tour or Show.
Although I expected endless plugs for local businesses and obscure personalities of the local Indian community to interrupt my entertainment pleasure, I was proven wrong and ended up enjoying myself immensely, dancing in my seat and singing along with the hits. For photo highlights, click on the photo link, here on Virb.
After our night of pure entertainment, the morning after was filled with great wisdom and life lessons. With Karishma, we went to visit her grandfather Papa, a 92 year old wonder, who does not look a year over seventy. Despite some recent health issues, Papa still reads daily - without glasses - and can reason just about anything and everything. He finally explained to me, in the most simple and understandable way, the basic significance of the third eye:
"Nina, you know, we are all born with three eyes; two we use to see what is around us. The third is what allows us to see what is not in front of us at the moment. If, right now, you think of your own home, you can imagine all the furniture and see it as if you are there, no?! That's the third eye, allowing you to clearly "see" what is not seen by your two other eyes". BRILLIANT!
About our purpose on earth:
"Well, there are two purposes for us humans to be here: one is for us to take care of the soul that has been bestowed to us in this lifetime and the second is to DO through actions. But in both cases, we have the option to go wrong, by not nourishing the soul while it is with us and in our actions, where we can choose to do right or to do wrong. That's our life choice."
Finally, I will leave you with another of Papa's pearls of wisdom:
"The Hands that Help are Holier than the Lips that Pray."