Preeth's Blog

Life of Pre

2011-02-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

Reading Yann Matrel’s ‘Life of Pi’ is like reading my own story. In a way. Not that my father was a zookeeper or that I crossed the length of the Pacific with a Bengal Tiger at an arm’s length. The semblance begins and ends with the way Pi is introduced to 3 religions at almost the same time!

You see my very first prayer was a ‘Kalima’. My first school being a Muslim school in an essentially Muslim town called ‘Adiramapattinam’ located right at the coast of Bay of Bengal. The morning muslim prayer at school comes as no big surprise. But that being ‘my’ very first recital prayer is!

To me Adiramapattinam seems like a town, as I recall now, far removed from the rest of the world. Yet that was hardly the case. The town thrived among the trading communities who travelled to the Persian Gulf, Malaysia, Singapore or where ever one believed the greener pasture was! It is believed that the muslims from Egypt were the first to arrive there and married the tamil locals and voila, a brand new community is born! Although in my memory it stays as a quiet town next to the sea where nothing ever happens!

It is curious that although we lived there for 2 years, we never once saw the sea. Everyone spoke about the sea and to me ‘the sea’ was a far away place. I thought I had to cross the ocean to see the sea. Or some such muddled up thoughts filled my simple head. It will take another five years and a completely different town to let me in on the secret of the sea, the beach, the ocean and the smell of fried fish which succeeded in violating my very being.

Anyway people of this town however were simple, courteous and extremely friendly. I vaguely remember large uncles in shiny blue shirts and white dhotis smelling like they have just bathed in perfume bringing all sorts of goodies from across the ocean. Translated, Dubai! Via a big white ship no doubt! Cup and saucers made of glass, small bottles of perfume closed with a cork, shiny cloth material, wallet for my dad, shinier sarees for my mom which would eventually be regifted might I add!

Step outside the house and ours being the first on the street one could see the entire street by just craning the neck forward like an ostrich. I even remember the way how our house looked like from the outside. A modest house with a little greet gate on the outside which was perpetually left open. A wide walkway in the middle with tiny gardens on each side leading up to two steps and the door. A green or a blue one I am not sure. The part I loved the most of course was the big, really big open play ground that lay right across our street. I don’t remember ever to have played with ever a slipper on. Bare foot on red mud, drenched in dirt, sweat and glee! I remember running with my brother, breathless and always in the mood for chasing games (Odipuducchu). ‘Tag - you’re it’ my daughter calls them now with her brand new Nike shoes :( (Sometimes she removes her shoes and her socks while playing in the well-maintained playroom vexing all those other mothers who have instilled good habits in their young ones! :P)

And then of course the unforgettable sweet muslim lady Who lived 2 doors down and who gave me dried lemon pickles from that big clay jar one day. Which, I later realised, to my horror, housed dried fish (karuvaadu) at the bottom topped by a pickled lemon layer as a preservative! One of which was in my mouth! I remember the way I slurped on those long juicy twisted lemon wondering why mom never made these for me. The sweet lady asked me whether I’d like some more and I nodded. She filled my open palms with more twisted lemon and my mouth watered at the prospect of eating all of those eventually. I walked towards my house carefully carrying my priced possession, all the while chewing onto one, with a small bit treacherously poking out of my mouth while saliva dripped at its tip. When I reached home however, my mom very gently broke the truth about the pickle’s lifetime until it had reached my mouth. She was very kind about the whole thing and wondered the truth aloud. But it was enough to gag my mouth and forever refuse to eat anything offered by anyone! You see even at that very young age I was a devout vegetarian. I couldn’t bear the thought that I had enjoyed something that had preserved a dead creature!

But I digress, yes the first prayer was a Kalima. I was so proud of it.

“Onram Kalima, Abdul Kufri, Laa hi Laa haa, illal laa haa, Mohammedu ra suill ill laa haaa,”

I recited all 5 Kalimas full throttle whenever it was asked of me at home. I knew them by heart in Tamil. My dad’s muslim friends in shiny blue shirts approved and swore that even they did not know all 5. And here I was a 4 year old Hindu Brahmin ‘girl’ reciting Kalimas with such reverence and gait. My school day began with the Arabic class. Writing Aleef, bae, thae…. from right to left, from right to left we got reminded incessantly. And then I forgot. All of it. Just like that!

It seems so abrupt now. My dad’s promotion and transfer to another small town, called Dharumapuri. I promptly transitioned to 1st standard at the best Catholic school in town reciting ‘Our father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done….’ with equal reverence every morning! All the while unaware of numerous sanskrit prayers available for recitation at my disposal.

I think my parents were super cool about the whole mixed up religion I was growing in. Democracy and liberty at its best!

Today when people here try to scare me saying that my daughter learn her ‘Indian’ language and not be influenced culturally, all I do is nod and pooh-pooh them in my mind. I want to scream and say that it was what one might call, ‘experience’! :)

Celebrating Life

2010-11-17T11:40:00.003-05:00

Often times, there are words and phrases for which you don't know the meaning.

I don't mean the literal meaning of course.

'Celebrating life' for me is one such phrase.

I have been happy, yes, but, what is celebrating life?

It is obviously something much bigger.

Really big while not being obvious, yes?

A very difficult concept to capture.

It is almost like that particular elusive feeling for which there are no words in the English language.

Refuses to be captured in a bottle.

But here, the words are very much there but the meaning, now that's a mystery.

For which I am glad.

Otherwise people wouldn't attempt to capture it.

In music.

In books.

In movies.

Sometimes in life.

I have written about movies before. A few that manages to capture 'that something' in that unique way.

'Amelie' does it exceptionally well. Like a flower that wilts with deliberation. Like a red balloon that flies at will.

The red balloon moves here and there but it is so red. You cannot take your eyes off its redness. Your heart lifts up and you admire it against the blue sky, the gray building, a sudden rain. The red balloon flies.

I am glad it takes a whole movie to capture life while it is celebrating.

I am glad it is made in a language that I do not easily understand.

I am glad there is life beyond English.....

I wish I could hum it here.... mmmmmm

2010-05-04T18:16:00.009-04:00

Whether you arrive here by accident or you meant it, take a moment to listen.

Quelqu'un m'a dit - Carla Bruni

You don't have to understand her. I bought the song without understanding anything much. I thought if I knew what the song meant, somehow the magic would die. If you are like me, listen and quit. If not scroll down a bit :)

I’m told that our lives aren’t worth much,
They pass like an instant, like wilting roses.
I’m told that time slipping by is a bastard
Making its coat of our sorrows.
Yet someone told me…

That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?

I’m told that fate makes fun of us,
That it gives us nothing and promises everything,
When happiness seems to be within our reach,
We reach out and find ourselves like fools.
Yet someone told me…

That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?

Well ? Could that be possible?

So who said that you still loved me?
I don’t remember any more, it was late at night,
I can still hear the voice, but I can no longer see the face,
“He loves you, it’s secret, don’t tell him I told you.”
You see, someone told me

That you still loved me
Did someone really tell me?
That you still loved me
Well, could that be possible?

I’m told that our lives aren’t worth much,
Passing in an instant, like wilting roses,
I’m told that time slipping by is a bastard,
Making its coat of our sadnesses.

That you still loved me
Someone told me…
That you still loved me.
Well ? Could that be possible?

How to make money?

2010-03-05T13:21:00.003-05:00

Although I'm not crazy about self-help books, it does serve as a constant reminder that one has more to learn in this bad mad world.

But on second thoughts, is there? Really?

Lately I have been observing a few articles on Yahoo! and other popular websites. Let's just take the example of Yahoo! for this particular post.

The topics can be from 'How-to-save' to 'How to ask for a raise at work' to 'How to deal with boredom' to 'How to eat healthy ' to 'How to get a job' the list goes on. The topics are varied but the presentation is horrendously similar. And the content states the obvious! I mean really obvious!

Examples: How to get a job -

Suggestion by Yahoo!: Get a linkdin account, write a good resume with all the key words, Make a list of contacts you already know (duh!), send them your resume, float your resume on popular job sites (duh! duh! duh!) What the hell?

How to eat healthy-

Suggestions by Yahoo!: Eat green leafy vegetables, Drink at least 7-8 glasses of water per day, eat a handful of nuts, avoid fried stuff and lastly a 'surprise' bonus point which has nothing to do with eating..... EXERCISE!

If you had clicked on the Ad while you were at it, you just gave them some money for having wasted your time and testing your patience! Yahoo must really think readers are pretty dumb or maybe I am smart! (oooh.... i like that thought!)

Here is how you write an article which could generate MONEY people......so pay attention!!

A very catchy headline. A small introduction. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 dumb points with a follow me on twitter message right at the end. And yes, a small photo of the contributor at the beginning. Sort of gives an authentic look for a really crappy article.

Now comes the big question. Topics to choose.....

1. Have a list of popular search topics that goes on in popular search engines. (use a search engine to get this list! - Do i have to tell you everything??)

2. Select topics which require no prior knowledge or skill of the subject (much like this one!)

3. Or select topics which require very little research. (If you were smart you'll pick one from this post!)

4. Get a thumping headline (ok..... a little creativity is needed here I agree)

5. Now write it as if you know what you are talking about.(Bloggers! we rock at it donchathink)

No, I do not have a twitter account! :D

Not a subscriber....

2010-02-25T10:50:00.004-05:00

I realised I don't like to subscribe to websites, blogs, messages, feeds because I like to visit the pages myself and see if there has been an update! Many a times if there are no updates I like to browse the earlier posts and almost always find something interesting to read about....... The downside of course is that you show up late everytime! which could make you look callous and perhaps miss a post or two ..... but how long can one keep up with appearances! :D I like the clicking and waiting and reading and commenting and clicking and browsing and...... well, needless to say I spend a lot of time hopping .... hop hop hop..... before I forget...

Give it up for 'Tendulkar' folks! :) Congrats!

What do you do?

2010-02-17T20:14:00.004-05:00

There comes a time in a woman's or a man's or any body's life for that matter when you don't exactly know how to deal with a particular situation / emotion / feeling ........

I was recently touched by such a situation and I am ashamed to say that I scored an abysmal 0/100 :(

By now you guys would have guessed that I cannot say what the situation was but I can say what it did to me and would like to know what you guys do in a similar situation.

Edit: In a nut shell, someone said something to me and it hurt me badly and I couldn't yell back at this person for whatever reasons!

I was on an emotional roller coaster. I felt terrible, disappointed and hurt. The worst part was I didn't know what do about it. It really ate me up. I had to let this feeling take its course and die a natural death which I am proud to say it finally did. May it rest in peace never to get up!

I tried to keep myself engaged with a few activities that I enjoy but it really didn't help. I was aware of its presence and I lost a lot of time just sitting and brooding.

At one point I realized that I wasn't brooding so much over the situation itself but with the fact that after so many years I was still incapable of handling such things properly..... and it led to more brooding and by evening I was all hunched up and bunched up!

So here ends my story..... what a pathetic post! Well, I just thought I could put it up here either to hear people say it happens to me too or provide me with a magical solution if such a time comes to pass in the future..... (I'm hoping it would be option no :2)

PS: This in spite of the fact that I got my own 'Gucci' sunglasses from dear hubs for 'V' day :D :D :D Cheesy I know, but couldn't let it pass....... BTW if you guys are wondering, my particular situation had nothing to do with hubs.... he tried to cheer me up but i wouldn't budge! (did that just rhyme?! eeeks!)

Let's call him Mr. White!

2010-02-13T23:07:00.004-05:00

After the snow storm. Our first ever snowman :)

Did you notice the snowman turning a wee bit of his cheek to Tanya? ;)

My own 'Kindle'

2010-02-08T11:44:00.009-05:00

Ladies and Gentleman... here it is. My own 'Kindle'. Yipee!

I will tell you how i came about to owning one in about a minute, before that comes the story...

When 'Kindle' was first introduced, i was very skeptical, mainly due to the fact that it was new. I generally don't take to new things that easily, bit of a 'old hag' syndrome here... but that's how i felt when the digital book was introduced. Besides i felt the digitalizing of classics especially as some kind of a nameless violation...

But everytime I was in the stores, I invariably wound up in the area where 'E-reader' was around.

I would turn around and say, "Oh! look at that! How in the world did i land up here? Since i'm here and having nothing else to do, let me just see how it works."

Fiddling, fairly impressed, still said, "Hmmmm.... looks nice but wouldn't feel like holding a book now, will it? It's just another technology that's going to die soon"

Once or twice my better half (yes, i honestly think he is better! :)) seeing how i 'accidentally' landed up around 'Kindle like e-reader' every time we went to an electronic store asked, "Are you sure you don't want to buy it? You seem to like it a lot."

Me: How in the world did you ever get that idea? I'm just looking. Just browsing the aisle. Reading a book on a screen will never match up to the real thing... no way.

This pretty much silences 'the man'. Although at hind sight now, I think he seems to be a better judge of me!

So one fine morning, I get a package from someone who had no idea about this constant struggle that had been happening....... Yup, got 'Kindle' as a gift from my dear brother! :) And people i tell you i was super duper happy ..... Thank you bro! Sometimes you don't know how much you really wanted something until you got it.

It has been 5 days since i got 'My Kindle' and the verdict... "LOVE IT"

1. It REALLY does feel like you are reading a book and it is easier since you don't need to remember the page number! *winks*

2. It's extremely light weight, so it doesn't tire your hands.

3. You can lie down and read! Special ((hugs))

4. There are way too many free e-books. I have downloaded many classics for myself.

5. Operating it is simple and it feels like Mac. (A quality i personally endorse)

6. Finally I read somewhere that if you own a kindle/ sony reader, it just means you love technology more than you love books! Personally, this comment was my deterrent. Now I can truly say that this is not at all true. In fact it is quite the opposite.

PS: Kindle, Coffee and Manhattan by the hudson ...... my own heaven!

Celebrating.......

2010-02-03T12:06:00.002-05:00

If there is one place in the world i'd like to go right now, this'll be it. It was announced today that 'The Wizarding world of Harry Potter theme Park in Orlando, Florida' is opening on the night of the Super Bowl (The final match of the football game).

People i can't tell you how special I would feel to be in the grounds of 'Hogwarts', finally. Although i must admit i'd have loved it if it were in England. No matter, this is no time to brood.

I can enter Ollivander's, buy 'Butterbeer' and ride on a broom and meet 'Sir Nicholas' and i'm sure, the Sorting Hat would be there. Can't wait to try it on. I'm determined to visit the park in it's first year. In Spring 2010 if possible. I hope the magic doesn't fade away, you know, with all the commercializing... I never could visit 'Disney' when i was a kid of 5 or 6. (I'm glad that my little one did), but HP Park would be my Disney :) .... Here take a look....

It's 150 feet tall..... looks awesome doncha think?

I'm happy today :)

PS: I do hope 'Parents' get to sit on all the rides and get to do all the stuff that kids do. If not i'm going to make my daughter call me 'sister' :P

To do list

2010-01-22T18:11:00.002-05:00

Nope!

This is not a post about a long list of things i need to get done.

Because honestly I'm not that busy.

But there is this strange feeling that has been growing in me for a while...

I want to step out of the house and take a long walk. When i mean long, i really mean long. I want to see how far i can walk. I don't want to have a destination in mind. I just want to walk. I think i can walk for 10 miles. I don't mind taking some rest, ideally i wouldn't want to but there are no rules, i can if i really feel like it. So what do you think?

Of course there is this problem of me not good with directions - AT ALL.

But i came across this product on TV that's a kind of GPS that you can carry in hand.

I thought that was a perfect solution.

I have one less thing to worry about - me getting lost and calling Arv!

Next i need to carry my cell phone ( yes, i still think i might get lost!) and some cash / credit card. Want to set out around 10 in the morning.

This idea took hold of me when i finished reading 'The Lord of the Rings'. In there, people walk, i mean they really walk. I felt tired just reading about it and wondered how far i could walk..... Well, guess what i bought some comfortable walking clothes today! Yup! It's still extremely cold so i want to choose a sunny day, when the temp is atleast 4 or 5 degrees. I think that'll be comfortable. Don't want to carry my ipod.

I have one logical problem though, if i do walk as far as i can then how do i walk back? I don't want to decide somewhere in the middle and turn back. I really want to see how far i can go. I don't want to take a cab from there since, this is just idle curiosity and i wouldn't want to pay the cab guy.... and i don't want to go in loops.... you see, the point of this pointless exercise is to see how far i can walk and to not know where i'm heading to. I just want to take left and right as i please...... If you guys have a solution, do let me know.....

Well, i'm excited. Haven't bought the GPS thingy, will buy that soon and then i'm all set i think.....

Dream on....

2009-11-09T17:40:00.003-05:00

So, what is it about writing?

Really, what is it all about?

I read moving stories, i feel extremely touched by it, you can even find me weeping in a corner with a book in hand, trying to hide the tears but i will never ever be able to write a sentimental story or anything sentimental for that matter.

Just can't.

Not that i want to. Although my love of writing goes very far, too far sometimes.... ummm.............

I don't think i'm making any sense. Let's try that again people....

I hate reading newspapers. I hate it. When I was student of literature, i could never pick up a newspaper and read. Not even when i became a student of Journalism! You would think that one who loves to read would do it, but not me. No.

I tried several times, i keep trying but i know i am just pretending to be interested in NY Times while all i want to do is run as far away from reality as possible. I am not just the kind i suppose. Anything that reminds me of the reality that surrounds me can be uninteresting. I don't like conversations surrounding the sale at Macy's and JC Penny's. I would automatically tune off. Why? I do enjoy a good buy but hate to talk about it. Isn't that odd?

Forget the buying, it is the reading that really bothers me... 'Bothers' might not be the right word, it is the reading that 'irks' me. Are irks and bothers the same? I don't know, but I'm sure you get my drift.

So, here it comes, no realities, no newspaper, probably includes a lot of magazines, many novels, short stories.... all thrown out of the window. Lets see, what am i left with? Some Period Drama, Sci fi, Supernatural, sometimes even religious stuff if it carries some intrigue, sometimes a good mass fiction, yeah, that pretty much sums it up. But the only problem is, i like to read a well-written book. In these categories, period drama is easy, you'll find a lot of good material but in the other two categories, it could get challenging. Loved / love J.K. Rowling, like Asimov, Jeffrey Archer was interesting but what about a zillion other new/ old authors. Tried Salman Rushdie, couldn't go beyond 100 pages. maybe because, he talks about Indian history that is too close to my reality, tried Gabriel Garcia Marquez, started with 100 years of solitude, didn't like it. Eventhough it has a lot of aspects that i like, quirky stories, supernatural stuff, out of reality etc. etc., it still didn't cut it. Oh, did i say that i despise Dan Brown's books. Da Vinci Code was tolerable but not handsome enough to tempt me. Yes, love Jane Austen. I truly enjoyed Hitchhikers guide....... it was such a laugh. It had something very special. And surprise surprise love Arundathy Roy's, God of Small things. Me, an avid Indian writer hater, loved Roy's work, forgot the story completely, read it some 8 years ago, i just remember liking it so much. Her style of writing was awesome. I'm yet to come across a more original style. She truly stood apart. This you see defies my earlier theory of me not liking stories placed in the real world. God of Small things is very real, yet i loved it. Again liked kite runner and a thousand splendid suns. All very real. Alchemist was just okay. So you see my difficulty here, i find it extremely difficult to pick up a book to read. So damn hard. I end up reading the same books again and again, but then there is this element of fear that i should not end up being bored with the books i once loved. So i try not to over do it.

Is there a solution? Oh just remembered loved The agony and the ecstasy. That's it. Now that i have my dislikes and likes in dear old words, i want to pick up some 10 books and curl up in a corner and read. But i can't seem to find any that fits my bill. What do i do?

You'll find two big open cupboards in my rented apartment filled with books. Not one serves my purpose. maybe i should throw them all out you say? Nah, presents a great image of myself to my visitors so i tend to keep them all. How vain? I know. That's the absolute truth, stacks of books make me feel so good about myself. And everybody knows i enjoy reading but they should not think of gifting me with one, too complicated!

Well, suggestions, if people still pop in here now and then, are welcome! :)

Fighter jets over my head!

2009-04-28T16:42:00.005-04:00

Calls for an immediate post. I was an eyewitness to yesterday's 3 low flying aircrafts over New York and New Jersey fiasco that resulted in panicked staff being evacuated from the buildings, running out and finding a safe place to stand and wait.

And where was that place? Right below my building at the edge of the water! Yes.

The whole crowd from Goldman Sachs and other folks from the Jersey City's Financial district flowed this way as the planes started circling and i thought somebody has decided to bomb them all and put an end to the financial crisis!! ..... Ok that was a PJ i admit but i cannot deny that the thought did not cross my mind as it did to about a few hundred of them i'm sure who had lived through 9/11 and were standing right now looking up and down wondering what to do...

I saw atleast 2 of those airplanes and heard all three. Boy oh boy it made such a huge noise and the whole crowd looked helpless and wanted some explanation. I was looking from my balcony down below and saw many things, calls were flying, people were taking pics. and the mood was so serious. I didn't know, the crowd didn't know and the people who were witnessing this fiasco from our apartment building and other buildings did not know that IT WAS JUST A DUMB PHOTO SHOOT! duh! How can they scare people that way? I have to now tell you that Jersey city is not a place where people are not used to flying machines over the buildings, infact most of the CEO's here i presume travel by helicopters or small aircrafts, i see atleast 50-60 such pick ups and drops everyday since my building overlooks Manhattan. So it was not that people were not used to that noise but the noise that 'Airforce 1'(apparently) made and the two fighter jets made were HUGE to say the least. Anybody would think we are being attacked. And trust me it is an unnerving feeling. And just as we were all standing, rooted, there comes a mini van with a mike announcing that there was nothing to worry and it was a sanctioned photo shoot!

The crowd was relieved, i was relieved and then people became angry.... why did they ever make them all go through this shit! (Excuse my french!)

Well, here is the CNN story link, in case my post did not make any sense to you whatsoever...

PS: You see the blue building in the pic, i'm right behind it....

You Tube Video- Fighter jets and people's reaction.

The 7 minute walk.....

2009-04-23T21:15:00.003-04:00

I pause and see,

observe

think,

not the hurried sort of way that i got so used to this past year,

i mean, really think.......

and i hear

my neighbours,

'the hudson' by the window

the stillness in the air,

the rain,

the light rail that passes by every few minutes,

watch the sun set

once again

every day

sipping coffee

thinking..........

I missed you life, i missed me........

I'm enjoying taking tanya to school nowadays, you see we walk to her school and just by taking these slow walks i have come to realize that she's so much like me in so many aspects, we have both started to observe how slowly a blade of grass grows compared to Tulips that were planted at the sidewalks at the dawn of spring, we watch the birds, pausing enough to feel the pinch of forgetting to carry a camera every single day, she tries to guess the names of the birds, maybe it's a 'robin' amma, and i say 'maybe' (Got to mention here that she has a better knowledge of birds, animals and things that crawl around here than me!) I no longer make her cry asking her to hurry up when all she wants to do is kneel down and watch the Squirrel family, I don't tell her to not talk to me because i'm running late to office, I relish walking at her pace, she has so much to say and she sees so many things, she has an opinion on everything nowadays. Maybe she always did i just didn't notice them as much...

(BTW she has insisted on growing her hair long! She looks like the hippies of the 80s !!)

Hmmmm.....I have more to say about our walks, maybe with a few pics next time, stay tuned and take a walk with us......... you'll get to know a thing or two about dandelions, robins and a grey owl that never flies....

Of everything 'New' and a lazy day at NYC

2009-04-18T10:53:00.010-04:00

Today as i was flipping through the 'Book Review' session of NY Times i came across a title, that at this very moment stands in No:3 position in Trade Fiction -

'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. Description: The classic story retold by "ultra violent mayhem".

My heart sank to the deepest level it possibly could and i wondered who gave him permission to do this? How dare he put his name by her side?...... if by some miracle my blog gets followed by my old blog pals they'd know the high esteem i have for Jane Austen....

Jane Austen you see wrote her novels at a time when women were not accepted in the literary circles! She was a rebel in her times. Audacious and smart and witty.......

But that got me thinking ...... who am i to stop this new method of writing that seth grahame-smith has followed, maybe he is the rebel that Jane Austen was in her times. So how do i see new things nowadays? have i become old(too sad to contemplate ;))? have i fallen into the circle where i'm no longer open? or is this book just junk? Don't know, and i'll never know 'cos i'm never ever going to pick that book for reading.... but that's just me...... now we come to the 'Lazy day at NYC' (as my friend put it:) )

You see bad economy finally knocked on my door and i'm not working at the moment :( But not to worry i'm taking this opportunity to enhance my skills.... and to just laze around :) loving every moment of the immense amount of time i have on me and relishing it ... on that note i went for a mini NY city tour with a good friend of mine who knew a lot about the city although he's originally from LA. After several stops at various queer spots, we hit the elite spot - 'Christie's' (the world renowned auction house like Sotheby's)

So what has this got to do with the book review i had mentioned earlier in the post?

Well we happened to be at the Christie's when Betty Freeman's (a Collector) collection were on display. She had collected various contemporary art work by various artists and i was shocked at the collection and the pricing. I thought they were ridiculous. It didn't make sense to me.

A set of tubelights, yes, you read it right 'tubelights' put together is priced $400,000 - $600, 000! Why? She is an old, kind woman, respected among the elite circle who apparently brings hidden artists to spotlight by patronizing their art. She likes all that is new! She accepts them.... so where do you draw the line between new and ridiculous? Maybe I have a closed view about things or maybe not. Maybe i need to travel more, see newer things, pick up books that aren't my style. So will that make me a new person or will i be faking the whole damn attempt? I'm bringing in some pics and a link to Betty Freeman's at Christie's.

Sorry about the pic being blurry folks.

There you go, the pic, price and the thoughts...... There are many paintings in her collections that are truly wonderful, you can find them in the link below

The Betty freeman video with her byline

"I have always been interested in everything new and don't know why others aren't"

PS: Finally to all of my dear dear blog pals who consistently visited my page and left comments that encouraged, reprimanded and reminded me of my duties towards maintaining this page, thanks so very much..... even though i could not respond or visited my own page too late to respond, it kept the fire alive, hoping to add a few pounds of coal for it to roar again :)

Thanks again folks.....

Of sins, canyons and poetry

2008-08-31T16:58:00.007-04:00

So what does it take to be not tempted in the city of sins?

Blind eyes and deaf ears?

Well, what are all those women doing selling their bodies everyday?

doing the pole dance?

'All naked'... 'totally nude'..... these are the few adjectives used while describing a woman on the floor in Las Vegas...

Are you now curious to go to Las Vegas or are you totally disgusted??

Me? I feel neither.....

I accepted at Las Vegas that women here are there to entertain ...... and all those mexican looking men and women were having stacks of naked women's pictures in there hands on the road and showing it to all men walking single just to lure them to enter the "Gentleman's" club right behind the door.

I wanted to stand there, pick one card and enter that forbidden club just to see what it was all about .....

But what about my disgust for it?

Will i deal with it tomorrow?

Is this how men walk into those clubs?

deal with guilt tomorrow?

Will there be any guilt?

Why should one feel guilty?

Is it bad?

Is it really a sin?

It is just a feeling..... one is just gratifying one of their senses....

there... do you see the grey shades now?

Do you see reasoning fade away?

Do you see the line vanishing?

That is what Las vegas is all about...... a place where people let go. Where there is no right and wrong. Where everything is ok.....

Where the thick line becomes thin and then vanishes a little bit and probably reappears tomorrow when you have come back to you nest .....

This is what i saw in Las Vegas....... apart from the grand structures and tons of money spent on building a city that glitters ..... all that lingers in my mind are men on the streets selling women. No judgement here.......

Anyway i was on a road trip for the past 8 days .... Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Bryce canyon etc. The trip was awesome.......

But i'm not going to write a travelogue now, because most of my thoughts cannot be put into words, they stray, move, linger, die and rise again.... so am just going to give bits and pieces of this trip....

Grand Canyon of course was breathtaking and all other canyons were too but what is shocking is the totally strange landscape...... there i feel the earth has worked differently, as if another part was attached to it. Because land, mountains and canyons have grown in different shapes and sizes, almost alien. And me being an Indian, it was hard for me to see miles and miles of land on both sides with no people. Absolutely no one. I could not see an end to all those lands on both sides of the road and again and again the one single thought kept coming back, that someone had taken the efforts to lay roads, with warning signs, with maximum miles per hour laid at all the right places, so it wasn't wild at all. Infact it was a well planned tourist spot with 16 million acres of desert, canyons and just plain land with only 300,000 of the Navajo tribe covering the whole of it and the tourists of course. Mmmmmm......

That apart Tanya had a lot of fun in the trip. All she ever wants to do is climb on things. So mountains, canyons were her turf now..... she had a lot of fun and i noticed something else on the last day of my trip, she has totally shifted to speaking in english only. She doesn't speak her mother tongue anymore! I was totally shocked when i realised it. Now i'm working on talking to her in Kannada only! Extremely difficult for me too. You may think i'm lying when i say i did not notice the transition but i really really didn't....... I will keep updating all you guys on her language skills......

Well now comes the whimsical part..... as we were traveling to 'monument valley' in Utah i saw poetry on road. It was the name of a restaurant. It was right near the corner where Highway 160 and 163 met in a place named Kayenta in Arizona. It was named 'The blue Coffee pot restaurant' . It was coloured in blue, dark blue, white and red. There was something strange about the board, it looked as if it did not belong there. It cannot just stay on a highway! The name i thought is meant to be elsewhere with its colors and the way the board stood on the road....

it looked like the line had been plucked out of a poem to be discovered by me on a highway to be described about on a blog post. And i also intend to create a blog page by its name....

"The blue Coffee pot"........

Can you see what i mean? Don't ask me how i'm going to maintain 3 blogs when i don't seem to do justice to one. I don't know but all i know is i want to own this board in someway.....
There ......... that's how my trip ended..... with a feeling of a poem conjured but not delivered, yet....

To the world of worms who live in books!

2008-08-16T19:23:00.005-04:00

I was tagged by 'Shalom'.
Love anything and everything to do with the books. Especially few suggestions when you go to a book shop and don't really know which one to choose...... anyone who drops by here, kindly take up the tag if you feel like it or if you want to write reviews on books here or otherwise and think is worth reading..... ADD ON PLS...

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you really love (and strikethrough the ones you hate!).
I'm coloring the books i love in yellow and keeping the ones i hate in red. Couldn't find underline and strike on my blog page!!
4) Reprint this list in your own blog.

----------

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Started it, didn’t finish!!)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - I have started this twice and just could not finish!
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (Absolutely loved it. You’ll laugh your guts out!)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy (loved the movie!)
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (bleak bleak stuff!)

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Naboko
v63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnights Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (about to finish it)

80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ( a part of it was prescribed for my frech class, weird stuff!)

I have read 17 of these. I think it is disturbingly less!! I counted at least 3 times... man! one good news though is there is so much more to read....

Drink and be merry!

2008-07-04T10:33:00.005-04:00

The reason for me to have not written for so long I think is because I have not read anything of any interest to me in a long time now. I'm still working on being normal while on a job. mmmm........

Now, getting down to today's topic......
I'm what you call an absolute novice when it comes to the world of Wines, Names of the wines, Wine tasting, Vineyards, names of the countries that produce good wines so on and so forth...
And what's with this swirling of the wine in the glass before taking a sip and what exactly are they looking for when they smell the wine? - A daffodil? It all just alcohol buddy...
Yeah, I've been doing a lot of wining and dining lately and hence the topic.

Oh, I must've tasted many different types of wine. Here is how i go about it - go to a restaurant, ask for the menu card, choose a red or a white wine (desperately looking for a description underneath each one of those!) Look confident after you've pronounced the bloody french-dutch-Italian wine in your mind at least twice or thrice before spilling it out with a dazzling smile on your face all the time hoping that the guy actually buys it!! That's me people. The vain Me.

Yesterday I put an end to this by doing some research / some reading!! Here is what I found. If you guys are coming here after so long you might as well learn something with me and perhaps leave some of your wisdom in the comment box!

Let's drink to that folks.....

Here are a few extremely basic facts:

There are 6 different types of wines
Red Wine
White Wine
SparklingWine (in other words - Champagne!) Ah, I bet some of you didn't know that!

Rose Wine
Dessert Wine
Fruit Wine

The Last 3 as usual are not considered very special. But lets begin at the beginning.

Red wine - Made from red or black grapes. Names of the wine are based on the names of the grapes they are made from! ( I didn't know this, never thought of the 'WHY' factor)
Some popular grapes and hence the wines are - 'Pinot' family, 'Merlot' family, Australian Shiraz etc...... My personal favourite - Pinot Noir.

White wine - Made from white or light coloured grapes. Like other wines, white wines can be made from either one single variety of grape or by blending several. 'Bordeaux' is one variety that's well-known among the blended ones. I have not tasted enough in white wine to find a personal favourite yet! Still a long way to go.....

Sparkling Wine - Champagne Folks!!- Interesting stuff here!
Any wine with bubbles in it is a sparkling wine. Champagne is the most famous of all the Sparkling Wines. Apparently how the fizziness in the wine is brought about determines the texture and the taste of this wine. The name 'Champagne' is because of a particular variety of grape from the Champagne region in France that undergoes a process called champenoise that gives that bubbly effect.

Rose wine- No, no. It is not produced by blending red and white grapes sillys!!
Infact it is produced by crushing red grapes. Interestingly enough by not letting the skin of the red grapes be in contact with the juice for long, we can produce rose/pink wine. Howzaat? and believe me folks the pink wine looks so pretty but tastes very dry and very acidic.

Dessert Wine or sweet wine - It is produced not by adding sugar but by halting the fermentation of the grapes by adding a particular fungus that stops the fermentation and increases the sugary, fruity flavour in them. They were considered cheap! But I seriously feel every wine has a particular character that will have a following.

Fruit Wine - made from fruits i suppose, didn't bother read about this.

And yes, 'they' swirl to test the heaviness of the wine. The lines that the wines produce by the side of the glass and the time it takes to dribble would say how old the wine is!! I'm gonna try this folks! The smell ofcourse depends on our imagination! Apparently, the smell can actually remind you of a particular fruit, flavour, an emotion. Not sure about trying this!!

All this sudden knowledge has made me more curious about so many other things.
So I made a mini list of things i would like to know more about...... Islands, Kings and queens. Well, please feel free to add to my mini list.....

PS: One thing I'm least interested in knowing about is Flowers!

Updates and more....

2008-04-26T09:55:00.002-04:00

So, one really good thing that's come out of my 'hibernation'....(as Nancy has put it! :))

Got to read one month of Calvin & Hobbes in one go! :) he heeeee

Now coming to the promised updates.

I GOT A JOB! YIPEE......

Well it has been 3 weeks since i've started working....

I thought it was going to be extremely difficult in the beginning.

Tanya's school, cooking and working, dropping her off in school, picking her up......

But i have to tell you, everything has fallen into it's place

Reaching office in time is something that i'm still working on! *winks* *winks*

So what am i working as?

'A Recruiter'! in a Consultancy. How rewarding! Yes?

Getting jobs to other people...

Anybody (living in US) looking for a job in the IT sector, I might be able to help!

I'm serious.

You can reach me at forthewebs@yahoo.com

OK, that apart, I find that lots of mothers who are at the brink of gearing up their careers have read my previous posts, to all of them i want to say that being a little patient

and staying focussed in finding the right job, HELPS.

Planning helps.

Starting somewhere helps.

Solving the bottlenecks one-by-one helps.

When everything seems right, you are ready. Then comes the waiting,

networking, ...... all of this helps. But the important thing is ....'don't give up!'

My my, i sound like one of those 'self-help' guides, right?

mmmmm....... my next few posts are going to be about Tanya and her creativity at school.

It has been such a wonderful experience for her.

So stay tuned!

One thing i missed the most is my beloved blogging and all my fellow bloggies.

From now on, I am going to make it a point to browse from office ;)

and then delete 'history' he heeee.... need tips from all the legends who've been doing this for quite some time!!

Laughing....... is a good thing! ;)

2008-03-26T16:08:00.002-04:00

For this and this post alone I wish all who come here

do not keep abreast with all the desi news that runs around in the internet.

'cos i want to do the honors....... :)

This one tops it all, if you ignore the bit of cruelty that resides in this situation that is!

Well, sometime last month, a desi woman, a punjabi i think got arrested in Canada!

Actually got arrested twice!!!

She's been living there for 5 years now. A Ph.d holder et al.

So what made the seemingly sane woman, look like a fool. What do you think...? the typical desi way, that's what....

She apparently wanted to impress the Premier (a political post in Canada) of Ontario Province. So when she heard the Premier say that he likes Gulab Jamun, our Ma'am sent a Gulab Jamun mix to the Premier. Since he wasn't available, she left it with his staff and later emailed the Premier asking/(checking up on his staff) if he'd received it?

And then she did something more

She wrote in the email "If she didn't give it to you, I'd kill her"

("Main use maar daloongi" thing that we say 'innocently' at home!!!!!!!!)

Now obviously it is clear now that this is not something that the Canadians say 'innocebtly everyday at home!

She gets arrested in the typical FBI fashion, gun men showing up arresting her without explanation!! he he heeeeee. Sorry but can't help it.

She's one clueless desi woman i say. Well the drama doesn't end here.....

after 6 hrs of crying, her husband bails her out only for her to mail the 'Premier' again apologizing for her behavior and gets arrested once more for breaching the bail conditions!

And now the judge recommends a psychiatric help for our poor Neelam Vir.

Well what can i say, world sometimes conspires just to make us laugh and cringe a little bit

PS: So why this particular topic?? All that surrounds me now never tries to hide the fact that I'm from a different world living in a stranger's land.

And yes, it feels great to be back :)

Me, myself and I.

2008-02-29T09:08:00.004-05:00

My daughter's school admission finally came through two days back after being on a waiting list for 8 months ...

So what is so great about the occasion? I'll tell you. It is no less than a life changing moment for me. That's what is...

This post is not about how I'm going to miss her when she goes to school.

Although I will, immensely but i'm going to be more selfish here and talk about what it means to me, myself and I.

This post is on behalf of all those women who love their career almost

as much as they love their family but have to sacrifice one for the other.

It has been 4 years since i stepped into 'my' office. Motherhood has been awesome but

I cannot deny that i have longed to create my professional identity.

I know many of my friends who are content doing their household chores.

I admire them immensely. They've had similar dreams as mine but had no qualms

ending it and taking on the role of a family woman in a jiffy.

They've remained content, happy and totally at ease.

And Yes, i've asked them personally and they've all assured me that they are perfectly happy.

With all my heart I wished for a similar change in me.

I wished for it because it would then make so many things easy for me. Constant battle within me would stop for a start. I wouldn't feel that the whole world is moving on without me....

'Change' never came....

I always wanted more out of life.

I wanted more from me.

I wanted to make money.

I wanted to climb the corporate ladder.

I, I, I, it never stopped.

I know a few mothers who have their family members at home to take care of their baby,

or appoint a nanny and start where they left off. Pick up their professional life and move on.

I admire them too. They are so sure of what they want more and i'm sure they've had some

hard decision-making moments but in the end found their balance.

I could not do that too.

I could not imagine leaving my darling with someone. I always thought I was the best for her.

Nobody did a better job than i. Who will feed her like i do? Who will love her like i do for most part of the day? Nobody!

All i could do is wait for my little darling to grow up a little and start her journey on her own.

No longer searching for her mother's eye looking for her approval,

no longer running to her arms every time somebody starts to pick on her.

(She throws her own punches nowadays :))

Yesterday i took her to her new 'school to-be' and introduced her to her teacher Ms. K and her class. She joined them without looking back.

She sat down and started painting with a brush that was given to her. After about 10 mins she joined an exercise class and performed pretty well. All the while i was standing in a corner watching her in her new second home. She was happy. That's all that mattered. And Ms. K and her class took to her pretty well too. She already had a chinese friend (a boy, might i add!)

Now, my journey begins, once again. I wish I had her courage to join the world without looking back....

Wish me luck :)

Today is a special day....

2008-02-26T08:49:00.005-05:00

Today is a special day for me. Why?? mmm......

Valentine's day just went by.

I wanted to write something appropriate, something about love etc.

But it stopped with 'wanting to'....

I saw many blogs that day that had their post featured on 'Love'

Some approving of the day and feeling perfectly normal about the celebration.

Few others calling it a marketing strategy to sell all those over-priced love-goods...

Some on the history of St.Valentine and others on the impact this day has on present day India.

I read, liked and approved everything... :)

But today Feb 26 2008 is special day for me because i was reintroduced to the feeling of love with simple comic strips by a fellow blogger. I read most of the strips early in the morning and truly felt the innocent feeling that overwhelms you when you love someone....

Thank you 'sunshine'

She has posted many but here is one whimsical one...

Want more of it click right here.

Go.... fall in love. And enjoy the fall ;)

Dream!

2008-02-22T10:16:00.003-05:00

It is snowing heavily here people. Yipee! It is just so beautiful.

It's white, it's pure and it is wild! That is the best part.

Being pure and wild.

Guess what it reminds me of?

The Sun!

I know. It's odd. I think Tanya gets her fixation on Sun from me....

But i just can't help it. I miss that bright, shiny guy today.

So i thought i could post something bright and beautiful.

This was shot at Highway 1, San Francisco.

Isn't it beautiful? My dream drive. My dream shot.

The Mountain, the sea, the bridge, the sky, and the road- all in one shot.

I clicked it during my California visit last december.

I first heard about it in a movie....

'Shawshank Redemption', one of the few masterpieces that Hollywood has delivered.

Tim Robbins talks about 'hope' to Morgan Freeman and describes a place much like the one above.

You hear something like that and you realise all of a sudden how beautiful the world you are living in, actually is! I wanted to see what it feels like to have mountain to your left and the Pacific to your right and move with the wind and watch the sunset as if there were no tomorrow.....

I did.

Cold Logic

2008-02-17T09:51:00.004-05:00

Last week one of my friends was telling me that her son

refused to get out of his spiderman suit for 3 whole days!

While i was very empathetic to her plight i couldn't help but think how and why she

couldn't convince her 5 year old son to get out of that suit.

I would, i thought.

What do you think happened to me the next day?

My daughter refuses to get into her jacket when we have to go grocery shopping!

She has been doing it for a week now.

Refusing to wear a winter jacket!

so how do i solve it?

I ask her "Why don't you get into your jacket?"

She: " I just don't want to"

Me: "Why? You tell me what the problem is and i'll solve it"

She: (pause) " I just don't want to. I don't want to go shopping!"

You see when it comes to my daughter and her world, all her problems have one definite solution...... LOLLIPOP :)

Mention of that magic word brings everything back to normalcy.

The 'lollipop phenomenon' worked for 3 days but on day 4 it lost its charm.

Although i could coerce her into getting into her jacket she would be fidgeting through out our shopping and our short walk back home.

Day 5: Nothing works. Lollipop, story time, singing, anger .... nothing works.

I drop our shopping trip and play with her instead.

Day 6: It is 5.30 p.m. Ran out of milk, yogurt, vegetables. I have to go shopping.

I start dressing her up and she knows. Starts her tantrum and even manages to spill a few tear drops...... This time i ask her all kinds of questions and finally she begins to tell me why?

me: I'm listening. Just tell me what it is...

she: Well. It's the Sun.

me: (Thinking.. what the hell!!)

Ok. What about the Sun?

She: (Looks very Surprised at my question!)

C'mon mom, you know how when we enter the shop the Sun is shining bright and when we come out it's gone! You always hide the Sun after our shopping trip. And i love Sun.

Me: I try my best to stop from bursting out laughing..

Tanya, you must know that our shopping has got nothing to do with the Sun. It goes to sleep precisely when it means to!

She is not convinced, but i tell her a few Sun stories and take her shopping.

And when we come out, she is absolutely right! The Sun is gone :)

What do i conclude....

Most of the problems can be solved by slurping a lollipop....(Yes it really does work!)

I'm more powerful than Zeus or Surya Dev! (Personally, I like this bit:))

I spend way too much time shopping!

My daughter has logical + Imaginative brain.

Take a look....

2008-02-13T14:07:00.003-05:00

For the first time here, I'm going to post My Work.

It is a story. It is long. Take your time to read. Would love to hear what you guys think. I saw ceedy's post today and thought I could put something across too. So it begins.... :)

Ubertur - An insignificant story

Ubertur was an arrogant, self-opinionated, proud girl.

Yet, this story is not about the girl. It is about a loss, a loss of a grand tradition in the life of Colors. YES. Red, blue, white, black, green, pink, rose, yellow, purple, orange, brown and all other million hues and shades that reside in our world lost something wonderful on this tragic day. And it was all because of that arrogant, self-opinionated, proud girl named Ubertur.

Now Ubertur was a color also. The most beautiful color ever made. We don't remember her now because of what is to happen today.

It all started on a dreamy day, which looked deceivingly normal with its usual comings and goings until the sky started getting dark and then darker as the minutes passed by. It was strange. There was no cloud hiding the Sun. It was not the usual light blue turning to dark blue and gray. Instead, the sky started rearranging the shades of blue. Moving dark here and light there. There was no order. The sky was starting to look like a giant-blue-patchy-quilt. There was no graceful movement and merging from light to dark, only absolute disarray of the sky. But you see that was precisely the sign.

Ezegeros' was about to start. Yes. That was what it was called. Ezegeros - the color phenomenon'. Even though this phenomenon will sound strange to us humans, it has been happening for ages. The colors were holding their breath to what was to come next. You see the colors wait a thousand years in the human count for this single day.

By now this shocking sky show had obviously caught the attention of men, animals, birds and all other beings that had cared to look skywards. Those who saw were shocked, scared and confused. Then, they all foolishly waited, perhaps for an explanation. As if nature owed it to them. But then, here again I have to remind you that we are not here to discuss human behavior. We are not to digress from the phenomenon itself! So, absolutely nothing could've prepared them for what happened next.

The sky broke.

The patchy blues started falling from the sky. First, the darker shades and then the lighter ones. They fell like hailstorm and started a swirl like movement in mid-air. A whirlwind like shape with the darker shades at the bottom swirling at top speed and lighter ones joining in. It was most amazing because if one had been audacious enough to stand for a minute and watch, it would have been obvious that the blues' were having fun! They looked absolutely thrilled. There was nothing scary in their movements, they were dancing, swirling, twirling, twisting, jumping andwell, swirling again.

The first whirl of Ezegeros. One day of absolute freedom. The one' day when colors tear themselves from all objects. The only day when Nature shuts her eyes and lets her colors enjoy.

The blues' from the sky, the greens' from the trees, the browns' from the sand and all other zillion odd colors tore themselves from a zillion odd objects and were zooming from all over the world with a kind of impetus fury, either to join a whirl or create their own whirl or simply drift from object to object. Totally meaningless. Absolutely chaotic. The colors were at their creative best. They skipped, hopped and jumped from object to object. They made sure nothing looked the same for more than a minute. By now most objects were colorless or were visible for a minute and were always finding themselves dressed in the oddest of colors. They were overjoyed with the kind of confusion and shock waves they were causing.

But Nature had her responsibilities. She had to make sure that the thinking world kept their sanity. This included men, animals, birds and other unlucky ones thrown in. So She closed their eyes, froze their mind and body and erased their memory as She always did on this particular day. The rest of the world of course was partying, except our girl Ubertur.

In the world known to us, if one used Ubertur while painting, they will find a crystal-like color fill the space. She had the most unique crystalline look. It was so deceiving that when used cunningly she was often mistaken for crystal wears. Ubertur could also be mixed with other colors and they instantly formed crystal green, crystal yellow, crystal red and so on. But of course any color once touched by Ubertur almost never wanted to go back to its original form. She enhanced only the best in them with the kind of crystal strokes and shades only she knew how. A few colors envied her but most were in love. And they loved her with absolute certainty. Her beauty you see surpassed far above her arrogance. She was never known to have joined the Ezegeros party. The proud maiden felt it was beneath her to join the crowd.

Ubertur as stately as ever started drifting in a kind of slow rhythm as if a melody was engaging her ears only. She saw the crowd getting bigger in every whirl. World was becoming colorless once again. She couldn't fathom the crowd's excitement. After all, it wasn't the first time Ezegeros' was happening. The same old tricks everywhere, the crowd was getting sillier by the minute as, they were running out of ideas to amuse themselves.

She could never bring herself to join them'. This time she had ideas of her own. Ubertur had decided to deceive Nature. Yes. She'd leave. It was time she traveled beyond the boundaries of Earth. Forbidden or not. She wanted to see newer things, experience newer objects and see for herself if she stirred the kind of response in a foreign ground, a different universe or perhaps in an alien medium as she did here. As these ideas started to take form, an unfamiliar fluttery feeling caught her. It felt like as if a million bubbles were rising in her stomach waiting to erupt any moment. She found it hard to contain herself. She almost shouted her plans aloud. After this difficult moment passed by, she concluded that this journey was meant for her. And only her. Just like her flurry of thoughts all her crystal colors from around the world started zooming into her whirl. She was summoning them for a grand entry into the new world. As her whirl grew bigger, all other whirls, big, small, tiny stood absolutely still watching her dance, twirl, twist, swirl. It flipped the heart of every single color watching this butterfly dance. So graceful, so unique, almost mystical. After this unbeatable performance she rose up in the air, touched the empty sky, all the layers that came after and poof! vanished into nothingness. Just like that. Never to be seen again.

It must've been the 1055th Ezegeros had the tradition continued. But without the return of Ubertur, Nature forbid Ezegeros from ever happening again. The colors had begged, gotten angry, grown pathetic arguing that it isn't their fault that she fled. But Nature was very firm. Nature you see was not always fair. She had laid the rules and somebody from their clan had broken it. There was no repair. Without Ubertur the colors had lost their privilege.

As for Ubertur no one knew what became of her. Initially the colors had wondered but then had grown so angry that none cared anymore. Except Black. He had loved her the most. He often secretly wondered even to this day why she had done it. Why she had left a place where she was almost worshiped. Was she enjoying her position elsewhere? Was there a Raphael or Da Vinci giving her a new look? Only black had expanded well enough to look for her beyond this world. And he did, every single day.

Men, animals, birds and the few unlucky ones thrown in had no knowledge of what they had lost. Their memory had been erased. Ubertur was forgotten. And like Ubertur, Ezegeros was forgotten. Ever since, the colors have stayed where they've always stayed. Remembering their party every once in a while. A legend. A myth. An insignificant story.

Discipline

2008-02-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

I'm not very disciplined.

As in, not as disciplined as i'd like to be.

All around me i see people doing their chores in time.

You know,

Cooking in time.

Sleeping in time.

Eating in time.

Reaching office in/on time.

Doing their everyday things with ease.

People take all these things for granted.

I don't.

I'm not one of those people.

I have never been.

I'd rather sit and read a book without proper food the whole day living on juices and cereals.

I have never done this but i sure wish i could!

I'm fed up with rushing things the last minute

I'm fed up wishing for someone else to do all the work.

I want to change......

This was me Three months back.

Now i seem to manage everything.

And doing it with ease.

It all started with one single disciplined practice a day.

I started lighting the diya everyday at a stipulated time.

You know after 10 days of this i started feeling guilty if i hadn't.

Maybe because God was involved.... I don't know.

I don't think that was the only reason. Just that i felt i had let myself down.

After this daily ritual, my disciplined behaviour slowly started seeping into other everyday chores without me knowing it. That's the best part.

There was no struggle, no need for encouraging words, just easy movement with least resistance.

Happy disciplined Preethi, I like her this way :)

Care to have your coffee with me? :)

2008-02-08T10:33:00.000-05:00

View from my balcony.

This is something i wake up to every morning.
And i'm not sure if i'm proud to be in a place where i can see such beauty or if i just enjoy the sunlight that graces every single building and lights them in a way that only the Sun can.
Maybe a mixture of both....

I have my own set of prejudices even though i resolve not to have any!
Such was the one where i believed the best Sunrise would be the one you'd see on a mountain
and the best sunset is one you see on the sea.

How wrong I was!

I see my Sun rising from behind all these tall buildings in The New York City.
Sipping my coffee gazing at The Empire State moving to Chrysler holding it on the other buildings there... It is pure Bliss .... I sure wish that crane wasn't there though :)

Our Family Portrait

2008-02-06T08:57:00.001-05:00

Here it comes.......
My daughter has successfully graduated from dots, triangle, circle, square, lines, suns, moons to people, people!
What she had been learning for the past few days came together in this portrait!
Although she wanted to incorporate the shape 'pentagon' somewhere, after much deliberation concluded that it doesn't fit here and dropped the idea.

Left to right: Tanya and Mommy.

I got the camera clicked a few ones and now i asked her where her dad is.
She started saying 'at office' but realised that she had not been thoughtful enough. Ahem..... Looked guilty for a while and searched for the chalk to complete the family portrait while i went back to my computer. Here is the finished product....

I was super thrilled and clapped my hands but did you notice the poor one-legged dad? he heee
I asked her after she had basked in her glory about the missing leg.....
She started looking for the chalk again but stopped for a second, looked at her work and said

"It's behind my leg"
I considered her explanation and asked her how her dad's big leg would stay hidden behind Tanya's small one? .... Now she knew she was stumped or so i thought, she looked at me and said
"Well. It is MY drawing and i've hidden it!"

I had to give it to her :)

2008-02-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

There is all these fleeting thoughts that pass by.

It doesn't stay long enough for me to probe into it....

maybe they have this desire to keep it that way.

fleeting...

.............................................................

like the small feeling that comes when you smell old books,

like the thoughts that come when you see a black and white photo,

like the feelings that rush into you when you hear old songs,

like the thoughts when you listen to an alien tongue that rustles like a maiden's skirt....

I wish i could capture it somehow, but it just seems like an impossible task

It is raining outside right now,

and i know it gives me a distinct feeling,

something lost and gained

yet i do not know what it is.

how i love this mind, this heart of mine which knows so many words

but yet refuses to word it

how this feeling keeps growing

how many scenes from the past, from the movies, from the books pass by every fleeting minute.

like a jar full of mud

pouring very very slowly,

there is a beauty in this rhythm,

there is a love hidden somewhere,

she peeps out now and then, how i love her games

that's it

the moment has passed, i cannot pen down anymore.

Review..... here it comes

2008-02-01T08:56:00.000-05:00

Has anyone seen what the letterhead of Rastrapathi Bhavan looks like? I have..... ;) That of 1969...

To all those who have been following the story and others, of the comment of the author Tahir Rahman in my blog when i previewed his book previously, here is the update...

Well, Tahir Rahman kept his promise and sent me a signed copy of his fantastic book sometime last week :) I was super thrilled of course but took some time to read through the book to write the promised review....

We came in peace for all mankind- an untold story of Apollo 11 silicon disc - Tahir Rahman.

I'm going to be honest here ..... what do you think i did first when i got the book.....

I first flipped the pages to get to the part of the goodwill letters from the countries to the astronauts and landed right on what India had written... :)

There it was, a typed letter from Rashtrapathi Bhavan signed by Indira Gandhi!!
I was all WOW. I have never seen a Rashtrapathi Bhavan letter-head before you see.
I then flipped and flipped to all the other neighbouring countries that held my interests to see what they'd all written. There were photographs of scores of letters handwritten and signed by leaders we've only read in history books! It was an amazing experience for me.

As always I have my personal favorite ....
The letter from Ivory Coast. It was so beautiful. Here is the excerpt...

"..............I hope also that he would tell the Moon how beautiful it is when it illuminates the nights of Ivory Coast.
I especially wish that he would turn towards our planet Earth and cry out how insignificant the problems which torture men are, when viewed from up there.'.....

Felix Houphouet-Boigny
President

Isn't it just lovely....

I then started all over again from the beginning. The quality of the book is just amazing. As in..... the photographs, personal interviews with Neil Armstrong ..... I lived it all. There is so much information in this book and yet all of it comes with a touch of human hand.

Whether anybody is interested in history or space or books... it doesn't matter. It is a treasure that one would be proud to own....

The object of my affection - tagged by Preethi

2008-01-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

PROLOGUE

Prabhu was a stamp collector at 15. He had 2 albums. One - a huge album with a floral design on the glossy cover (which could easily be mistaken for a wedding album!) with 100s of stamps inside. But the other one was what held his interest- the secret dark green album. The ones that will hold the real valuable stamps.

A tri triangle stamp, a cook Island stamp, a gold and silver stamp etc.... all originals.

This was the book that was exposed ONLY to the ones he trusted. You see stamp collectors can get very tempted, they would steal it if they think it is valuable at that age. So one had to divide the treasure from the tradables. So the green book was a secret. Only his closest of friends knew about it and his sister of course. Nothing escapes her eyes you see ;)

The tag - the object of my affection........A small photo album full of things other than photos...

At 12, seeing him, I wanted to collect something too. I was so attracted to all this very serious business of collecting. The discipline, the amount of time spent on it and the discussions associated with it all looked so grown up! And most of all the prospect of keeping secrets was most alluring.....
So my trials began, i started with the stamps of course, spent 2 days collecting and trading and on third day realised i was not up to that mammoth job of remembering the country names, capitals, assessing stamps for trading... and besides it’ll take forever to catch up with my brother. So donated my little collection to him!

In the next couple of days as I was walking home from school i heard some strange noise coming from the side-roads. I knew i wasn’t allowed to stray but couldn’t resist, so two doors down that lane found its source. A house with a huge bird cage in the front yard, filled with love birds.

It was a sight i’d never seen before. I mean they were close to around 100 and they all seemed to be talking at the same time. keeech -keeeech- keeeeech. I was super thrilled. There was green, and there was greenish yellow, dark green but the best looking ones were the ones in blue.

Yes, collecting feathers was my call.

That day was the beginning of innumerable days of returning home late! The next day I mustered enough courage, called for the owner, begged them to sweep the floor of the bird cage for me to collect the feathers. They were amused at first but saw how serious i was and kindly obliged. I began my collection in a humble white box and finished in a humble photo album. But the next 2 years i spent on collecting and trading and secretly storing and all those memories that come streaming in now cannot be traded for a million bucks.

But i wasn’t as wise as my brother. I would flaunt it to anyone who wishes to see my collection. So lost 2 of my loved ones. One a huge soft feather of a brown-white eagle that i had climbed a tree to collect :( and the other of a peacock, a very small feather with its eye right in the middle. Learnt my lesson that day. I cried for 2 days i think!

The best one though was a beautiful feather of the five coloured parrot (pancha-varna-kili). My granny’s gift to me from her village. My crowning jewel!
Green-red-blue-just a tinge of yellow-a hint of blue.......all in one feather.
I remember sleeping with the album beneath my pillow that day.

Every now and then I flip through the pages of the little photo album full of things other than photos ...... remembering all the stories, names, friends, traitors and best of all, the givers ... keeeech-keeeeech-keeeeeeeech love birds, parrots, eagles, peacocks.................:)

Thank you Preethi for this wonderful tag. I thoroughly enjoyed it....

You're invited....

2008-01-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

No feminists, MCs or politically right statements please... I'm fed up!

You'll know why in just about a minute.....

Anything true, honest is welcome with open arms...

So what do you think happens when families meet up in the US.

Young couples/ young couple with kid(s) get together for dinner mostly.

It gets interesting after this.

You see i was and still am new to these things.

Even though i love meeting up with people, getting together for such meetings is one of the most boring things that a woman can go through in her life. Why you ask? Will get to that in a short while.

You ask why do you go then?

I like the feeling of being included. Simple.

Lets move on now, You reach the designated house around 7ish. 7 families invited.

Here is the interesting factor.

The males and the females get split up.

Women enter one of the rooms after the 'hai, how are you?' factor.

The men stay in the den. Mostly the host keeps them interested with things...

The women start with their kids,
schools,
mini achievements,
then move on to recipes,
then some healthy gossip,
more recipes,
restaurants. Stop.

Before i forget

healthy Gossip= no body bitches about anybody, no swear words (kids are around!), just information gets passed on about the ones "not invited for the party". Nobody can ask why they weren't invited because "It's personal choice". You don't ask such personal questions!!!!!

Then you'd think some real conversation will happen...... but
The women start with their kids,
schools,
mini achievements,
then move on to recipes,
then some healthy gossip,
more recipes,
restaurants.

"World just goes on round 'n round" la la laala laaaaaaa whatever.....

Then the hostess forgets that she's supposed to pass on the starters(the first course) to both men and women, I offer to help. ('cos that's what you do! you offer to help, never mind the fact that you're seated cosily in a corner)
But lo behold what do i find out? The men are having the Real Discussions in the den- Google story, stock markets, books!!(spcl hugs), movies, intrepretations of the movies, unknown factors about the same, asteroids.........

I'm with the plate full of starters and forget about distributing, start eating them, find a seat and join the gang!

After 5 minutes.....
Rashmi (name changed) peeps from inside.....
"Preethi what are you doing here?
We are missing you inside!!"

And i'm thinking Why? why? why? why the hell are you missing me?

Then i say "Oh! just found the conversation here a little interesting for a minute" (smiles smiles)
I can distinctly see the crease, mild frown appearing on her face....
It vanishes in a second,..........

She says ....Oh God these guys can never talk about anything else but movies, sports and stock markets and weird stories....

And i'm thinking 'Exactly!'

But i follow her.................. (sniff! sniff!)

2008-01-28T10:40:00.000-05:00

I want you now, here
I want you to cherish me
I want you to love me
I want you to trample me
I wish to be crushed by you,
only by you
‘cos i want to know you completely
I want you to feel me in every emotion
I want to see you in every act
I want you to throw me out
‘cos the wait to return to you
is unmatchable.
I could almost die for that ‘wait’
but NO
I want to die for you,
only you
I want you to possess me
in death too.
I want you to give me pain
because i don’t want to
leave anything of you untouched
I want you as a man,
a complete man,
who has both love and hate for me
for i’ll be jealous of those
who you hate
Because you are thinking only
of them when you hate
But, i want to be thought by you
at every waking moment
You have to have me possessed
all the time, all day
Both love and hate of yours
should have me, only me,
and anything in between
and beyond them too
I want to submit myself to you,
only you
I want you to hold the key
of my very existence
I want you to handle me without caution
as careless as possible
only then
can i be a granted thing to you
you’ll have the power to do
anything to me
and you’ll do anything,
because i want to be handled by you,
only you
without any thought, any dignity
any reasoning
because if you think of them
i’ll be jealous of them too.
I want to seep into your existence
into you
as yourself.
You’ll love, hate, cheat, punish,
submit, analyze, deprive
and all the other things that
you do,
I want you to do it to me,
because i want to reach your soul
I want to get into it
and wait for you
to do anything to it
Just anything
Because only then
will i be you
and you can call me, I.

Yes i penned it. A long time ago.
The title of this shud be.....
Dominique to Roark...

I've been tagged for the first time

2008-01-26T18:39:00.000-05:00

Here is the tag.... thank you Solitaire. Special day for me

Instructions:Remove 1 question from below, and add in your personal question, make it a total of 20 questions, then tag 8 people in your list, list them out at the end of this post. Notify them in their chat box that he/she has been tagged.

1. Name Three Most Valuable Assets?
My family, Integrity, Intellect.

2. If you have the chance, what would you probably say to your beloved one?
Never fear when i am here!

3. If you were to be stranded on a desert island, who are the 3 blog buddies you would take with you?

Deepali: She is most entertaining with all her quirky thoughts. Makes me smile, laugh and think all the time. And also she is one person i feel i’ll be most comfortable with.

Ceedy: He is one very dependable, very nice guy, extremely optimistic too. And also, he being an architect might be in a better position to build a raft/boat for us to get out of there :)

Cosmic joy: Dunno why, but seems like an obvious choice for me. Again it is the comfort feeling, wise man with a steady head on his shoulders and with a good sense of humour too. When Deepali, me and ceedy fly with all our grand thoughts he’ll keep us grounded! he heeee

4. Where is the place that you want to go the most?

Somewhere in space where i can see the Earth from far far away.

5.If you can have 1 dream to come true, what would it be?

I dream about my mom most of the days. She’s passed on. I will want those dreams to be true.

6. What are you afraid to lose the most?

Hope.
Memories.

7. What would you do if you found a briefcase full of money?

First i’d chk who it belongs to. Look for an address and such. If i don’t find the owner i would most definitely give all the money to charity.

8.If you meet someone that you love, would you confess to him/her?

I have and it feels great.

9. List out 3 good points of the person who tagged you...

Great observation skill.
Writes pretty well.
Honest.

10. What are the requirements that you wish from your other half?

When single looked for these...... and found them all in the person i am married to :)
Love, good sense of humour( v.v. imp.) understanding, live with a sense of freedom.

11. Which type of person do you hate the most?

I dislike Self-absorbed people. (not hate)

12. What is your ambition?

To write a book that sells (in millions) :)

13. What is the thing that will make you think someone is a bad person?

When someone Commits a sin/crime again and again being fully aware that it is wrong.

14. Christmas is coming, who do you like to celebrate with?

In Hogwarts with Harry and his friends.

15.If you could do one thing different in life, what would it be?

Wish i had been more focussed in life regarding my carer.

16. Are you a shopaholic or no?

Oh yes. I am.

17. What is your stress buster?

Writing, shopping, chatting with my closest of friends, reading.

18. What should be done to people who make such long tags

Hug them for making us feel special for the moment. ((U))

19. What are the 2 skills you wish you had or would like to learn?

Horse riding, Professional photography.

20. Name one favorite song of yours.

‘Hey there Delilah’ by Plain White T’s

Ok. It is done. Had to think hard for a few questions!

Solitaire has tagged some of the guys i’d have liked to tag... deepali, cosmic, solitaire and Ceedy so am going to tag only 4 of the 8 i’m supposed to, since i don’t know another 8 people..

KP, CU, Preethi and Romila.

Appearance of Who!!

2008-01-25T08:57:00.001-05:00

Inspiration is the life force of the written word. Don't you agree?

An interesting post by a fellow blogger - Reeta Skeeter set me off on my own clicking of my mouse. Starting from finding the meaning of the word 'Theophany' to some truly interesting facts and questions.
By the way the meaning of the word according to Wiki...
Theophany - an appearance of a God to man, or a divine disclosure.

I didn't know there was a word for it! 'Appearance of God to man' concept is still contested right? Nevertheless they decided to give a word for it i suppose! Who are 'they' by the way?

I suppose 'they' are the same ones who decide what is 'myth' and what is 'history'?
'They' are the same ones who've ignored the fact that India was far more advanced in astronomy than they'd ever care to accept.
'They' are the same ones who conveniently say most of the population in India are 'Aryans' who migrated to India in some godforsaken B.C years!
'They' are the same ones who disagree to the fact that 'Vedas' were the words of God directly spoken to the mortals.

Inspite of the fact that 'they' have coined a word for such an appearance! Phew!

Anyway i've never understood why Greek mythology is far more popular than Indian? Even though ours is action packed as well and comes with a moral most of the time. Has a solution for every grave situation that humanity faces today! Maybe all this 'morality' puts people off! Who knows! Well, i was kind of excited when i came upon a Greek king,
Agathocles of Bactria (who reigned between 190 and 180 BCE)
whose coins apparently has the avatars of Krishna on them. Here is the picture from Wikipedia.

(For use of this image anywhere please read the copyright laws of wikipedia)

Left: Krishna with His Chakra
Right: Balarama (another avatar of Krishna)
The writings though are in Brahmi script. The official language of the ancient India.

Later as i did some further research found that the only reason he had made these coins were to impress the people of India. Why you ask? Well, so that when he does invade, they wouldn't see him as a threat. He had it all planned out. Further research revealed that similar Buddhists coins were also made by him!
Starting from Kings to researchers, scientists, phonologists and even historians they all seem to ignore/exploit our rich culture. Why?

Damn the fotos!!

2008-01-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

The past 3 days have been fun.

Lots of football (quality time!) at home. And the fact that i watched an amazing movie...'Cloverfield', will write a proper review after couple of days and also

'Patriots' won! yipeee!! They sure are getting closer to their Super bowl (much against KP's wishes! he heee)

Anyway as always i was fiddling with my computer and came up with this urge to post my picture in the blog profile. And what do you think? Out of 100s from my recent California trip, I couldn't find that one perfect picture!

Not enough light, looking too serious, shadow on the face, looks too fat(!), not smiling enough, smiling too much, not a good angle, too far away, too close............. all rejected!

After loads of searching, cropping, posting, not satisfied and searching again.... the only consoling feedback from Arv was an amused look!

After my incessant,

What do you think?

he finally said....

'What you have is what you see!'

How very helpful!

He actually might have a point there!.....

It just got me thinking if all you folks who have your pic. on blog or have thought of posting one found it as difficult.

I 'll just hate to add one more to my 'weird problems' list standing all alone there. mmmmm....

Tanya and me in our musical adventure....

2008-01-20T09:46:00.000-05:00

Today, I thought i could just elaborate a little bit about raising kids.

You see along with it being a huge responsibility, with loads of diapers, sleepless nights etc. it can be an absolute fun ride if you have a good sense of humour!

And also i personally get to influence another little human being. How cool is that?

Before you go judging on me, whether a parent agrees to it or not, however hard one tries to avoid influencing the kid, it is there, at least to a certain extent.....

Anyway when such is the case, my daughter's total disinclination towards music was a shocker to me. Although i never admitted that it disturbed me, i was like why? why doesn't she get interested?... Although she liked a few rhymes and a little bit of music here and there she never had any tolerance for good music. As a mother you tend to question yourself...

Maybe i did not listen to good music during my pregnancy!...

Maybe there is something going on in her ear drum...

Maybe my daughter is different. Yes i'm proud of that! ( Although you know you really aren't!)

Such was the musical quest until my hubby bought an ipod and downloaded some songs in there. For the first time i saw her totally engrossed and she was automatically making all the cool dance moves, the head banging and everything with the ipod plugged into her ears!....

Here comes the moment of revelation my friends.....

She was plugged into hip-hop ... SEAN PAUL was on her ears and boy o boy she was going crazy. She wouldn't give us the ipod.

She looked at me like,

why didn't you ever listen to such good music before?

All those 'Plain White Ts, goo goo dolls and James Blunt were killing me.

Look at me now baby!... accompanied by the head-banging of course....

She would top all those crazy females you see swaying for hip hop.

A true authentic natural hip-hop fan who is three years old!

Now, Sean Paul fills my house and I borrow some cool dance moves from my daughter...

I know what you are all thinking! ---- Look who was talking about influencing!! I know.

A comment from the author in my BLOG!!

2008-01-18T09:18:00.000-05:00

There are a few days in one's life my friends when the cosmos works its magic entirely to make you happy!
I think we generally live all our other days in anticipation of this day.
What will this special day bring us?
A call from a long lost friend, some unexpected money from somewhere, a beautiful gesture from the one you love or a totally unexpected wonderful comment on your BLOG which just brightens your day! :)
In my case a comment from the author of a book that i previewd
We Came in Peace for all Mankind- the untold story of the Apollo 11 silicon disc
by Tahir Rahman...
just two posts before. Click the link The other silicon disc to take a look at my post and below is the comment i recieved. I feel somewhere close to feeling honoured....

The comment by the author Tahir Rahman himself...

Thanks for your interest Preeth. Nice blog! I hope that my book makes people aware that the moon landing was definitely real. Young people seem to have lost the reality check here. I have met many of the 12 moonwalkers including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They really did go to the Moon!

The silicon disc has many messages from the world. I like the fact that there are messages from India, Pakistan, Israel, many Arab nations, the Vatican, etc.

My parents immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan in the 1960's. The moon landing was mankinds greatest adventure. It is my hope that the worlds unites again for mankind's next great adventure into the heavens.

Tahir Rahman, author of We Came in Peace for all Mankind- the untold story of the Apollo 11 silicon disc

Wow! What do you know! I sure i'm going to pick that book up. A review of that will be posted here as well.

In the name of Pepper....

2008-01-13T09:19:00.000-05:00

Don't you just love books? I do.

I've written about this before. I just adore the fact that books have this capacity to transfer us into another world. That too in about a minute or two!

I just finished reading 'Water for elephants' by Sara Gruen. It is one of those books where you are not really sure whether you liked it. It just grew on me as i was reading. It was in first person, which put me off slightly but, the story i suppose was different, circus in America during the depression. Anyway, it is the next book i laid my hands on which compelled me to write this post... 'Freedom at Midnight'. History that runs like a novel! That too pages and pages of Indian freedom struggle, of British Raj, of Viceroys and Queen, of Pakistan and Kashmir and of Indian Independence of course. In other words what should have been a technically boring 600 pages turned out to be the most entertaining and informative book! A true masterpiece.

It is just a wonderful feeling when one's prejudice gets broken. I remember hating those times when i was compelled to answer history questions. 'Quit India Movement', 'Clement Atlee' 'Indian Mutiny' etc. How i hated the history question paper! But today i can't wait to get back to those pages. Well, what do you know?

Just thought I could share this bit of information here.... It seems the Dutch privateers who controlled the spice trade raised the price of Pepper, five shillings a pound, which the merchants in England thought was outrageous! Hence 25 merchants decided to hit the seas in search of the 'Land of Spices' - India. Thus was born the East India Company, hence the Imperialism and Independence and hence the title....

The other silicon disc...

2008-01-10T09:22:00.000-05:00

After having seen more than my share of fantasy movies and space movies and having read at least half the numbers, it is hard to believe that the only real ‘out of the world’ mission we’ve accomplished so far is going to the moon and back!

I never gave much thought to this. I had already mentally accepted the reality of space travel. Tomorrow if some scientist came up with a way to make space travel, a reality , i am sure am going to think “Well, it’s about time!” .... Just like how my daughter is totally cool about dinosaurs. If at all they start walking on earth i think children would be the only ones who’d say...
“Yeah...so what’s the big deal?”

Browsing through space.com i came across a little untold story from the past, to be exact, from the year 1969 when Apollo 11 first landed on the moon. As inconsequential as it may seem it just made me go back in time and relive their grand achievement.

We all know about Aldrin and Neil Armstrong’s visit for about 2 hrs and 30 mins on the moon. Along with planting the American flag there and collecting some 50 odd moon stones, answering a surprise call from President Nixon, they had to do something else.... Leave a small silicon disc (not a cd) a coin shaped object about the size of 50 cents with Messages of Peace from the then World leaders (from 73 countries) inscribed on them.

Houston had about a month to collect the messages in time, inscribe it, place it inside a box about the size of a woman’s compact, place that inside a cloth bag to be left beside the flag. Phew!

The message around the disc reads

‘FROM PLANET EARTH JULY 1969’

I say these words are cooler than the coolest of sci-fi stuff i’ve ever seen or read!

here, take a look, Tahir Rahman has written a book on this...

The Silicon disc.

Breathing the fresh air my friends!

2008-01-08T15:56:00.000-05:00

Today is one of those days when you just cannot help but be happy.... :)
Why you ask?

Jersey City is at the moment 64 degrees F.
It should technically be somewhere in 20s and must be snowing!
Instead feels blissfully like a spectacular spring day.
People are sporting skirts.
There are joggers on the road.
Dogs are taking a lazy walk.
No gloves, no over-sized jackets, no head gears, no snow shoes...
I'm looking human again!

Sorry to disappoint blog mates who visit this page looking for something other than just weather report! But i just can't let this pass.

I went out with my daughter for a long walk-play-chomp-chomp spectacular day.

Sunny, bright, warm first week of January. (that's a paradox right here!)
It literally feels like Winter saying ...

" You know what i'm taking a day off. I mean i'm just bored with all the cursing and swearing especially from those immigrants who just can't take a few chilly-windy-frosty months!. And this constant comparison with their country! I'm sick of this. Go have a summer day...!"

Well Winter, please do stay in your sunny...er...cool mood.

Barack

2008-01-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama wins the caucuses in Iowa.

I know this is the headline in almost all the newspapers here in the USA and perhaps a few outside the country as well.

But it is personally, both a victory and a self-defying moment for me.

I who have never voted but once back in India and that was because i had just turned 18 and wanted to claim my right to vote and get the black spot on my finger had one of those unbelievable moments back in Mumbai almost a year ago.

You see my Grandpa has walked with Gandhiji during out freedom struggle and he used to tell me how grand his speeches were. He used to talk about Nehru's speech and how people used to leave everything they own including relationships to walk with those galvanic personalities during our freedom fight. I just couldn't understand how people could do this. I mean if you personally feel that you need to participate in the struggle, i can understand. But turning to 'freedom struggle' after listening to a speech was something i just could not comprehend.

But my friends i was sitting in my cosy sofa back in Mumbai flipping the channels and landed on BBC and there i first laid my eyes on Barack Obama. I understood that day. Yes, am deliberately making this sound dramatic because it was such a moment for me. He was simply astounding. He was talking about 'hope' and 'belief' and 'change' and i was just zapped. A bomb could've gone off and i wouldn't have known. When the speech ended i wanted more, i didn't know who he was yet i wanted to walk with him, vote for him, and wanted to participate in his struggle. I just couldn't believe i felt so much for a complete stranger in a different land.

That evening i told my hubby that Obama will be the next American President. I was so sure of it. Aravind was kind enough to not laugh right at my face. He took a moment and said, 'he's a 'black' preethi, America will never make a black ... 'The President', trust me. But i just knew he was different. I wanted him to win. Yesterday i had my own small victory. 2008 has brought with it my first victory. I know it is too early to say that he'll be the President but i am going to hold my head high. A state with a 98% white community selected a Black leader.

This has made me look deeper. I'm not indifferent to Politics after all, it is just that i don't find such candidates in India. Sad but true. I don't vote because there is no one i trust enough. That is the fact. When will i see a young new blood who trusts himself completely and readily brings about a change in India. Corruption will end. Education will rise. People will turn to honesty because it is still the best policy and they will have a proof that it pays. Where is such a leader? God, how long has it been since i felt this way? How long has it been since i loved my country enough to wish for a change. I don't deny that we've risen economically in the past few years but how grand would it be if there was a man/woman with a spinal cord.

'Hope' has not forsaken my heart afterall...

Welcome 2008.

2007-12-31T15:50:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year Folks!

Another year ends for a new beginning.

This time am going to really take a moment to pause.

I've always read about it, seen other people take time off their life to do this but

i've personally never done this.

Maybe because i think i do this almost everyday!

You know look back at the events that made the day and those that didn't too!

But looking back at a year must be a whole lot different i think.

And looking at all the years that is yet to come will be different and difficult as well.

It is going to lead me into lonely alleys and less travelled roads.....

It is going to be impossible to do this on the first few days of the New Year at least.

Calls to make, people to wish, settling in the New year will take time....

End of the first week will be the right time.

mmm.... now the time has come to wish you all.

I wish all you guys know what is important to you at this point in life and may you all be blessed with it.

And may God be kind enough to see all those things that you can't see and help you take right decisions.

A very happy New Year to you all.

the first situation of this kind

2007-12-26T10:24:00.000-05:00

I've always known what to blog even before i sat down to blog.

But today seems like a special day.

For the first time am not really sure. Ummm...

I always have too many things to write about, when there is nothing happening in my life.

You'd think that when many things are happening it is going to be exponentially high right?

Strangely it is not.

We are now vacationing in California with my brother's family. It has been a lot of fun.

6 more days to go, a travelogue is due i know. Travelogue, anecdotes and Tanya's chronicles will be coming in its time...

Somehow i thought i owe it to the blog community here as to what is happening.

It is this assumption of having an audience who wonder about your whereabouts that keeps the wonder going. Another 'first time' feeling here!

Will be back for the New Year. Wouldn't want to miss out on that.

Until then happy Holidays.

the Stuart little philosophy...

2007-12-20T14:26:00.000-05:00

I have sort of always been conditioned to think that all the difficult questions in life have complex answers..

Why are we here?

Who am i?

Why is there so much evil? etc...

after a while these questions and answers get boring.

May be it is the complexity that drives me away. I don't know. You see right here is an example, i can't find the answer as to why they get boring after a while...

Being in this state if you do find an answer to one major complex problem in the most unlikely place imaginable from the mouth of the most unlikely creature, now that's what i call interesting...

I was watching this movie 'Stuart little 2' with my daughter for the nth time. It is a kind of cute movie but .... well.... it is a kid's movie. So i can't expect much out of it. Never paid close attention to dialogues. But yesterday i did and look what i found...

A quick story line here..

(Stuart, the talking mouse is adopted by a human family, the Littles. Stuart makes friends with a small talking bird, Margalo who he believes is in the clutches of the evil Falcon. So he goes in search of the li'l birdie to save her. Snowbell, the smart-ass house cat reluctantly agrees to accompany him on this quest to find the bird.)

the scene...

Snowbell and Stuart have been searching for hours now with no sign of Margalo so Snowbell

says

"Give up Stuart. You know giving up is a good thing. If more people gave up there'll be fewer wars"

I tell you it was a sit-down-and-think kind of statement.

What a simple solution for the wars here. Just give up. I have always associated 'giving up' to being negative. But if people stop resisting certain things then maybe there'll be fewer struggles. Something else struck me too.... The answers can be simple. Utterly utterly simple.

Words fall short...

2007-12-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

I've been in one of those moods lately... where my thoughts don't seem to stay on anything particular. It skips from one to other so fast. Elusive thoughts.

Emotions seem follow these thoughts. Or maybe emotions lead the thoughts. I don't really know. Sad, angry, happy, forgiving, nostalgic, dreamy.... all of this in so few minutes.

Somehow it feels really refreshing.

Like how it feels when you turn your cd on the random mode.

You don't really know what comes next, and it's exciting...

I like the fact that there are still certain aspects of the mind that words fail to capture.

Language has a lot of catching up to do i suppose...

Or maybe words and language can never really catch up with the mind. More thing to ponder over...

Tell me your name and i'll tell you who you really are!!

2007-12-17T19:26:00.000-05:00

I'm always fascinated by names of people.

Not nicknames. Real names.

Indian names especially has so much to tell about the person.

Purely from a sociological point of view that is.

It is a kind of conscious-sub-conscious thing that happens when you hear someone's name.

And it is okay if my first opinion changes of course. That's is fun too.

I would say it's a study.

i know many of you reading are going to say

'Don't judge a book by it's cover', but indulge me a wee bit and break away from norms

and you might be surprised by things....

What has my fascination with names got anything to do with you or this blog??

I'll tell you.

most of us blogging have only our names as our identity.

So for me it has become almost a study.

Now i'll come to the point without much adieu...

There is a website that gives the analysis of a person just by knowing their first name.

'Kabalarians'

It is not astrological or anything they claim that it is science...

Interested to know about yourself and a bit more about others too.

Blog pals beware everybody is really going to know everybody else;)

The general information is free so plunge in right away...

Tell me your name and i'll tell you who you really are..

Chronicles of Tanya

2007-12-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

Lets say one day me and my daughter tanya are going out grocery shopping.

Lets say we get into the elevator in our building.

It is approx. 6ft x 10ft.

Lets say for some reason the elevator starts to shoot up and reaches the 27th floor.

Lets say a woman and a man get into the elevator

Lets call her Ms. Tight Pants and him, her boyfriend, Mr. Armani.

What say we drop 'lets say' and get on with the story....um?

She looked like someone out of Vogue and he a meek sidekick. She was upset with him for some reason and in that oh-so-sexy accent was blasting him nonstop. Her tongue was rolling without control and it kind of sounded musical to me but for the horrible reflection of her face i could see on the walls of the elevator. Mr. Armani saw that i saw. eeks! Embarrassing!

And me Ms. High Maintenance was thinking how ill-mannered these Europeans are and how bloggable this topic is. And suddenly a very audible sharp voice asked Ms. Tight Pants

"Are you a girl or a boy?"

Yes. That was my daughter.

The woman i say looked soooo womanish (if you know what i mean!) that it would be considered blasphemy in her dictionary. You can imagine her shock. She went speechless.

Mr. Armani( i'm almost certain) looked ready to laugh outright but some sense made him stop. I just started with my apologies when the elevator opened again and more Armanis and Tight Pants got in. We were on the 9th floor now.

You see here i have to enlighten the ways of my daughter a little bit.

She never stops asking the same question until she gets an answer.

Yes. She did it again. Overpowering everybody leaning appropriately looking straight at her went again,

"Are you a girl or a boy?" . I know what you are thinking. She's just a little girl and nobody is going to mind but i tell you when there is only 6x10 ft space inside, you wish the elevator would just plummet down.

Anyway like all moments that pass this did with my more profound apologies and a curt "Stop it" to my daughter.

But just when i thought i had come out of that space with dignity, i added

"I'm sorry. You see i still haven't taught her how to differentiate!"

Now the laughter was audible. Very audible!

I could have said a million appropriate things but in moments like this i feel the tongue has a mind of its own!

The elevator hit the lobby and boy i've never been so relieved to meet the ground.

And yes i answered her question into her ears and whisked her out of the building..

One more 'not to do list' for my daughter while getting out of the door

Don't hit the alarm bell

Don't press all the floor buttons in the elevator.

Don't ask "Are you a girl or a boy?"!!

Balding men, tummy tuck and saving lives.....

2007-12-11T17:00:00.001-05:00

We have answers for everything.

Y O G A

Of late i've been fascinated with Indian Yoga, Mudras( science of finger and hand position), breathing excercises etc... Here are some pretty interesting finds...

According to Baba Ramadev, rubbing you finger nails can stop hair loss! In some cases regrow hair on the scalp as well. Who knew? and you thought your cat was just sharpening his claw.

And look at all the hair he has. Grrrr......

Method: Hold both your hands in the claw position and rub the finger nails against each other, this apparently solves the balding problem. 5-10 mins a day will do. (Costanza would be elated...)

2. Kapalbathi

A kind of abdominal breathing excercise having many benefits like curing diabetes, building strong immunity...but the icing on the cake is natural 'tummy tuck' for women and men who hate to sweat it out at the gym. 'Crunches!' begone i say!!

3. Now this is serious dudes and dudesses.

Mritsanjivni Mudra

This particular hand finger position is known to normalize the pulse rate and strengthen heart muscles but most importantly when this mudra is administered on a patient having a heart attack. Yes Heart Attack, it acts immediately like a sorbitrate tablet and the patient gets miraculous relief in the form of first aid! Isn't that a wonder.

Click on this link below for learning this mudra. Who knows you could save someone's life!

Mritsanjivni image.

Friday and saturday.

2007-12-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

2 happy days.

I was not unhappy even for a second on these two days. Isn't that an achievement?

Around 9 p.m friday, it sort of hit me that i've been happy throughout and i thought

2 more hours and i'll be in bed with my small victory. I should admit that at this point

i sort of manipulated the rest of the day a wee bit. Smiles smiles.

We watched 'Lord of the rings: Fellowship of the Ring 'for the next 2 hours. Every time i watch that movie i get suspended from reality and roam around with the hobbits, the elves, the dwarfs into a different land, different time... JRR Tolkein created a whole new language while writing this book. He created Elvish. The letters, words, phonetics, grammar and everything that comes with creating a language. And he being a professor was supposed to have been a brilliant one at that too. I wish i could sit in one of his classes. What a religious experience that would be. Listening to Old english as it should be spoken. Not understanding a word of it yet being fully alive at that moment! Anyway with such thoughts there was no space for anything sad in my mind.

Saturday started as usual and i had forgotten all about my little achievement till mid-day, we were already at the mall waiting to watch 'The Golden compass'. Tanya was all excited. She wanted to ride 'Iorek Byrnison', the huge Polar Bear. She was fidgeting in the seat until he appeared, with Ian McKellan's voice booming, Iorek the bear bounced up and down and tanya was in squeals. I was shoo- shooing her.(pssst. only for others' sake secretly enjoying her thrills) Nothing about the movie itself. Rest assured. Wouldn't spoil your movie day. Well, the day ended with us buying Transformers from Direct T.V. watched that too for the second time. An instant classic. I love the movie. The concept, the visuals and to top it all phenomenal dialogue delivery. Recipe for success.

Yes. Movies. Two days of perpetual indulgence. Superficial you say. I say nah! Anything creative that has the ability to keep you in that state cannot be superficial.

Gods.... lend me your ears..

2007-12-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

When i sat down to blog today, i was resolved to write something from 'me'.

Meaning no stories from anywhere. Just my thoughts and words.

But blew it when i clicked on BBC. It was such a funny story that i just couldn't let it pass.

This news report is from India.

The deities of Ram and Hanuman have been summoned by a judge to appear in a court!

Yes. You read it right.

A judge has actually sent the Gods a court order to appear in court to settle a dispute

regarding the ownership of a 1.4 acre plot. The priest claims that the land belongs to him.

But this land houses the two temples. The Gods had to be involved in such a case!!

Further when the Two didn't turn up with the first notice, the judge sent another one which reads

"You failed to appear in court despite notices by a peon and later through registered post. You are herby directed to appear before the court personally" !!!

Nobody escapes the Law. Nobody!

I don't know what will happen if they really showed up tomorrow! I'm going to follow up on that.

Here is the link for the full story. Smile around :)

Of buying and selling...

2007-12-06T11:11:00.000-05:00

"It's better when you win it"

That is the tag line of some curious e-bay ads that's been airing for a while.

Never have i bought or sold anything on e-bay of course, forget bidding.

Typical Indian mentality i'm afraid.

'Guilty until proven otherwise'. Very distrusting of such sites however big they've made it on the virtual world. But as usual things change.

I was in the company of a very interesting friend yesterday who has bought loads on e-bay.

Never sold anything though.

From a stamp with Hitler & Mussolini on it for 50 cents to wooden handmade aircraft models of the MIG series. Nothing above $100 mind you.

He is currently collecting currency notes with the face of the Queen printed in 70 countries so far across the world and intends to display it in the collector's guild somewhere and probably hopes to sell it for millions (!!!) later sometime.

And i was thinking 'Why the hell didn't i think of stuff like this?' Forget the money just to say that you're collecting these things makes you, what is the word?... 'eliteeeeeee' is it ;) just kidding. It must be fun, as close as you can get to archeology right?

Now the mind wanders.... Do i have something even vaguely interesting that is worth selling or be proud of owning?? And there it was, my crowning jewel ... my own , my precious..... There is a picture of J.F.Kennedy and Jacqueline together waving to the crowd at my uncle's place back home, personally signed by both of them when he was the President. My uncle who was a huge fan of the two had written a letter to them congratulating them and they in return had sent a snap with the letter from the White house. Is that cool or what? I'm tempted to try my hand in e-bay now. Although technically speaking it is not my ...er....own precious :P

Anybody got some extra bucks on you?

2007-12-04T09:53:00.000-05:00

About $3 million would suffice ;)

Imagine going to space for a short vacation!

$3 million a ticket for a back up seat on a space probe.

Anybody interested?

An agency named 'Space Adventurers' will train you for a space trip,

you know to whizz around the Earth.

As and when there is a drop out by an actual astronaut for whatever reason you get to take that seat! You know, you get to fill in. Isn't that neat? Just a few million bucks and you are all set.

And with $30 million you get to fly a rocket. mmmm....

Now we know what the super rich do!!

These are the hours when i say 'If only..... ;)

For more info click on this link Space.com

When death knocks!

2007-12-03T08:52:00.000-05:00

I think, kids don't fear death like we do.

I remember when i was a kid, i used to do all sorts of really risky things. I mean really risky.

I had fully understood what it is 'to die' meant i was probably around 10. But i would nevertheless try a lot of things. It gives me shivers now!

But as i grew up something happened. I fear the 'What if?' factor, i think. I even tend to avoid the topic as much as i can. If you are anything like me, read on...

Somehow this Oprah Winfrey show about a father, victim of spleen cancer, with 3 beautiful sons just seemed different.

This man who was about to die in 6 months had a message to give to this world. In a crux it was 'Don't sweat about small stuff and it is all small stuff'.

He had made his life's responsibility to get the message across to as many people as possible. He has gained popularity because of his dedication and thoughtfulness in such a crucial moment. It was really touching. He could go and wallow in self-pity instead he chose to tell people something important. He looked young, intelligent, very bright and healthy! yet he was going to die. And nobody could do anything because of its advanced stage. I felt helpless. Like me, the audience and Oprah herself were in tears with her suggesting that miracles could happen if God wills it and suddenly Oprah asked,

"How do your friends feel about this?"

And he said

My best friend says "You know you've become so famous because you are going to die that if by chance you lived it might actually be a little embarrassing" and smiled at everyone.

That instant almost all of them came out of the sinking feeling and actually laughed. He just taught us a lesson there. He could joke about his own death looming over him. How many can do that? I can't. The very thought gives me jitters. But he looked like like a man who had conquered death in his own simple way. He had accepted it completely.

And as one of my friends put it very wisely, he must have lived his whole life that way,

strong willed yet humble and knowing the knack to flow with life where ever it takes us. I learnt something that day. Yes i did.

PS: My daughter saw snow for the very first time yesterday and boy was she thrilled! No camera here, just memories. Safely stored ;)

Porcupine! ;)

2007-11-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

Sitting through a sitcom and laughing away is cool, but finding humor when you least expect it

is cooler! After 15 mins of fidgeting around the channels, i finally landed on HGTV.

Yep, Home and Garden Television.

A programme on Condos was running. These modern day condos with huge glass windows overlooking something amazing like a mountain or a river or something. It kind of reminded me of Fountainhead, when Roark builds such apartments. So i wanted to see more. Initially i was paying attention to the building wondering how you can live without walls. A huge hall defined only by different kinds of furniture placed here and there. Then i noticed this old couple who owned this condo being interviewed by this guy from HGTV.

They both looked very bright and there was something quirky about the old gentleman and the lady herself was an ardent student of yoga who was strictly vegetarian. They looked perfect together, he smiled easily but it was getting obvious that he was getting mildly irritated by this young fellow who was asking all sorts of serious and sometimes dumb questions. This gentleman was trying to lighten the mood but our man persisted on.

By now they were in the last room(er..place) which was the kitchen. She was vegetarian but the old man was not. He tried to experiment with many things crawling, walking, swimming... Our man was bang on the question

our man: What? she is veg.. you are not. How do you manage? You don't have 2 kitchen spaces, i find it difficult to imagine how you do that!

ol' man: (took a moment b4 replying) Just like how porcupines make love, CAREFULLY!

I was laughing my sides off and our man stood rooted, zapped.

All about my darling!

2007-11-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

As i was going through my posts today i realised that the posts i most enjoyed writing about

were about my daughter Tanya. There is something about the way kids grow that makes you want to cry and laugh at the same time.

I miss her early years. But entertainment never stops ;)

She has now started telling us stories. Her own stories.

Her stories are never complete without a dinosaur and a monkey. (Aliens are a new addition thanks to Ben 10) We'll pop up here and there of course. One thing that surprised me the most was that she is not always the heroine of her stories. You would think that a 3 year old will like that very much. But she doesn't seem to mind getting hurt and someone else saving her!

And her stories i realised are very detail oriented and action packed. Big, small, dark, blue, red, a lot of kicking, jumping and running. By now, she gets all excited and jumps down from my lap and uses her hands, legs, eyes and movements and brings her story alive.

After she's done, we clap our hands, totally amazed and blissfully happy. She is beaming now and for some reason runs blindly, throws herself at the sofa and hides her face, laughing! Is that shyness i see? By now i sense a small lump in my throat.

She is a big girl now, isn't she?

2007-11-25T18:31:00.000-05:00

CONCEPTS

Theory of the Absolute.
Vedas.
Teachings of Buddha.

Stephen Hawkings
Lucifer
The Bible
Shakespeare

A handful of people seem to have shaped the present society.

Not all from the list above. (These are mere popular names and concepts!)
Nor does the list end here.

A handful of people seem to have propelled the initial impetus formation of concepts, sentiments, ideas and thoughts.
It has stopped now.
Add to this list are all those names that have never been printed or heard
Pre-historic names
Obscure authors of great stories.
The first leader of the first tribe who laid the first of the rules in this world.
These unknown people have perhaps contributed more than we’ll ever dare to accept.

Today, all we do is discuss already existing concepts or if you extend your imagination then take a thread from an already existing theory, idea and give it a brand new look
that manages to trick us into thinking that it is ORIGINAL.

The discussions, the arguments, the essays on things
are only a reflection of something that has been said by 1000s if not millions
already.

Think about it, we are talking about the same things over and over again.
In stories.
In movies.
In books.
In blogs.
In media.

Right and wrong
Good and bad.
life and death.
Sin and love and so on.

All our arguments, our thoughts and our sentiments on things are merely our acceptance or rejection of certain schools of thought.
Somebody else put all those thoughts into our heads through various means.
Parents, schools, teachers, society, friends, books, media other mediums etc.

Discussions on right and wrong!
They all seem so futile. Who came up with what is right and what is wrong?
Anybody who supports whichever sentiments is not going to say anything remarkable.
They are merely going to recall something that has been said by someone and that someone heard it from someone and this goes on.
Words may be new but ideas, ancient.

Wearing clothes is a compulsion because human body cannot endure certain extremities in the weather.
But whoever said a woman should be covered waist above and below to be considered decent whereas waist below would suffice for a man?
What is ‘decency’ by the way?

I’m not trying a feminist angle or anything. Just stating one particular well accepted CONCEPT. Whoever said it first was very successful and their idea became popular and is now a norm. Wow, how original is that!

Here is another one. When man first evolved he must’ve been an atheist.
After few years of this, the man or a woman who came up with a concept of something superior existing in this world is what i call an ORIGINAL thinker.
But if God is not a concept, if he does exist (discrediting Darwin’s theory) then this particular man or a woman merely chanced upon His presence which makes God himself ORIGINAL and nobody else!
(This is not a philosophical discussion. An example to make it easy for me to express myself)

All we are doing now is take sides. That is all there is.
For or Against?

Discoveries are no longer remarkable.
They have existed before. We chanced upon them now.
So existence of Electricity, X-ray, Protons and other millions odd discoveries that science makes still confirms that God is the only original thinker(If he exists that is!)

If we give this idea a break and think that discovering something, is something and not nothing then
Discovering new lands are out of fashion. We have covered pretty much everything.
Space is an old idea. Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Hawkings, Isaac Asimov and a few others have covered pretty much everything. All other futuristic concepts based on space and time are mere threads taken from their work.

Likewise if we look deeper we’ll find bare bones of our society and we’ll realise how these people who are long dead and gone still hold the strings of our race.
A handful i say. Just a handful.
Today the world is filled with imitations and we revel in them.
Mediocrity is celebrated.

Movies, books, T.V channels, Blogs are filled with things we already know about.
They are all taking sides to state concepts using a different language depending upon their skills.
So next time you are browsing the net or the T.V and nothing seems to hold your interest then rest assured that there is no problem with you.
The world has stopped producing original thinkers.

So where do you see originality?
Music
Inventions.

Is there even a list beyond this?

Hey there delilah!

2007-11-23T08:12:00.001-05:00

Hey there delilah! is this cute, beautiful song from Plain White T's.
It tops the charts in 2007, eventhough it got released in 2005! A slow pick up.

Anyway, moving beyond these statistics is a cute story and a story within a story as well.
So brace yourselves.

Tom Higgenson, the lead artist from Chicago apparently visited New York sometime in late 2004.
A friend of his introduced him to a girl named Delilah.
He fell in love with her immediately,
he was totally blown away, proposed to her and wrote the song Hey there Delilah for her!
This is one of those OH MY GOD! moments for the girls
but our heroine was already in a relationship so she said 'take it easy'.
But this song went on and became a hit in 2007.
Every radio station, every music chart, any decent jukebox has this playing for months now.
The song, the unrequited love story, the lyrics has got Americans swaying.

A thousand miles seems pretty far
But they've got planes and trains and cars
I'd walk to you if I had no other way

Hey there Delilah
You be good and don't you miss me
Two more years and you'll be done with school
And I'll be making history like I do
You'll know it's all because of you
We can do whatever we want to
Hey there Delilah here's to you
This ones for you

Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me
Oh it's what you do to me

(If you like what you see here ,google for the complete lyrics.

i tried pasting the link, some error is popping up)

Now comes the story within the story,
Both me and Aravind got our curiosity piqued and wanted to see what was so special about her.
(Searched for her pic)
Actually it was more for aravind's sake since he found this
mysterious, apparently beautiful woman and a song for her, all too interesting ;)
So we searched the all knowing web

look what we found!
i know the whole story about where the song came from, but i was wondering if anyone could find a picture of her? i googled her name (delilah dicresenzo) and pictures of a track runner came up, and i know she was an olympic hopeful when he met her, so it might be her, but im not sure. thanks.

More such jobless morons doing the same stuff, this was from yahoo search!! he he heeee
finally got her pic with our dude

So the mystery was solved
the complete circle.
But poor Aravind didn't find her all that beautiful and was disappointed!
Sometimes things are not meant to be solved, if he had let the mystery be
the song would still have had that spell on him i think.

But hey it is a wonderful song
If you are in a mood for some sweet song, plug it in and let the music tell you its story!

Monday, tuesday, thursday, wednesday

2007-11-19T08:57:00.000-05:00

People of the world - here are the rules.

Monday’s arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who took over the Sicilian mafia from former Mafia kingpin Bernardo Provenzano led to the retrieval of the rules. The FBI has the original now :)

The Ten Commandments are:

1. No one can present himself directly to another of our friends. There must be a third person to do it.

2. Never look at the wives of friends.

3. Never be seen with cops.

4. Don’t go to pubs and clubs.

5. Always being available for Cosa Nostra is a duty - even if your wife’s about to give birth.

6. Appointments must absolutely be respected.

7. Wives must be treated with respect.

8. When asked for any information, the answer must be the truth.

9. Money cannot be appropriated if it belongs to others or to other families.

10. People who can’t be part of Cosa Nostra: anyone who has a close relative in the police, anyone with a two-timing relative in the family, anyone who behaves badly and doesn’t hold to moral values.

Please pay close attention to rule no:10 No admittance for those who 'doesn't hold to moral values'. Ha that's cute.
And chk out rule no. 7, I love'em folks.
Even though No.5, seems to over ride it. mmm...

Clouds..gray silver white..magic

2007-11-13T16:56:00.000-05:00

There is magic in this world.
You can find it everywhere if you but take the effort to
sprinkle a little of the heavenly dust on your eyes, don't you think?

I realised this in the most beautiful way possible.
After having moved here, there has been much to see.
Our home is very close to a beautiful riverside walk path.
The other side of the river being the New York City itself.
If you enjoy watching skylines, this is a place to be.
About two weeks back, real Autumn started setting in.
I could see the subtle changes in the clothing.
Boots, Scarfs and mild jackets were popping here and there.
I knew that the trees would soon start changing their colours
and i was at the fag end of everything green.
Lets say i was lamenting a wee bit on the windy days ahead and the frosty
ones that'll soon follow.
With such murky thoughts i was taking a long walk by the riverside
with my daughter and i saw something that in a way brought about a change
It gave me such pure delight and humbled me in a way that was an affirmation of the existence of something superior whose fingers touch upon us when you least expect it.

I saw bundles of clouds, black and gray with golden rims twirling and lingering on all the tall buildings of the New York City.
I have always associated clouds with mountains, blue green and white.
But this was a sight to behold.
White wisps hopping from The Empire State to Chrysler to Metlife and a few other odd tall buildings as if they were dancing in this wonder themselves.
I wanted to grab the passers-by and share this rare moment.
The buildings which always looked lonely dressed in gray suddenly found themselves in the company of rolls of clouds hugging them tight.
I'm sure it must've been the best days of the buildings there and they wait every year for these foggy days.
What can i say?
I felt blessed to be there and witness such intimate moments.
Then i thought soon these buildings will be snow-capped!
My own snow-capped mountains just down the road and across the river.
I shall now wait.
Wait for thsoe frosty days ahead!

Move on

2007-10-31T17:54:00.000-04:00

Do you know what's gonna come out of all this?
You'll move on. Albeit with some difficulty.
Do you know what 'move on' means?
Waiting and dealing with a much bigger problem than the one you are presently facing.
Actually, wait, it just has to be newer. Not even bigger
Yes, that's it.
After that the old one becomes a memory whooosh..

Moving from one problem to the other.
That is all life is!

I thought i had a huge problem until my daughter came down with a high
fever and constipation.
Do you know what this can do to a parent?
Flush down all other bloody unworthy problems.
Yeah, that's how powerful it is!
I almost sound glad, ain't i?
Now that's a problem. Am i a sick sick person? uh?
(Note: To all those who are wondering how she is doin?
She is getting better)
(Note: To all those who weren't wondering, let's move on)

Sports

2007-10-26T09:03:00.000-04:00

I never imagined i would be writing about a sport, any sport for that matter
ever. It has never inspired me enough to write about. But you see paradox never ceases to be a part of me :)

Standing before you as an American football fan.
New England 'Patriots' is my favourite team.
New York 'Giants' come second but that has got to do with
the fact that they are closest to my new 'Hometown' i suppose.

Questions like what does it take to be a Quarterback?
A Running back? pop into my head.
I genuinely admire the game.
I who was just a notch above a sports hater!
Can't take it for more than 45 minutes.
Used to be a fickle minded cricket lover. Never gave my heart to it completely.
Used to enjoy tennis only if the game is exceptionally good
or the player is!

When i was reading 'Playing for pizza' i did not realise i was beginning to like the sport. It happened so unconsciouly.
The novel is full of descriptions about American Football since the lead is a professional NFL Quaterback who is playing in Italy and for Italy!
Thankfully i have a living, walking sports dictionary at home.
I was eating his head until I
graduated from an illeterate to a... grade B i suppose in about 4 days.
( yes i'm just trying to be modest ;))

Hate to be a book spoiler, so nothing much about the book itself.
Looks casual, is meant for casual reading but had the power to convert me!
It is fun. Real fun.
Lots and lots of food, wine, Opera and CHEESE,
I would've added pounds just reading about them.
A sneak peak into the real Italy with its people in flesh and blood.

Yes, give it up fellas, give it up for American Football!

Story so far...

2007-10-25T08:12:00.000-04:00

here is a quick update and a post too.

I've moved from Mumbai to NJ.
I've lived here before so didn't expect anything new
But it turns out that it is really interesting this time around.
i've taken a few fotos and as usual thoughts to accompany them,
i will be posting them sometime in the future.

After the initial setting up of the house, me, Aravind and Tanya took a trip to Chicago(later about the trip)
On my way back, i picked up a couple of novels.
1. Khalid Hosseini's - A thousand splendid Suns.
2. John Grisham's - Playing for pizza

i had exactly 3 minutes to select and bill before boarding
so my usual discretion was absent and i simply bought the book by its cover
( no pun intended)

If Hosseini turns out dissappointing i had plan B and that was Grisham.
First of all Hosseini's story had the present day Afghan back ground
which i tend to avoid whenever i can.
A fiction according to me should take me elsewhere.
I don't like being reminded of the present day cruel world.
I read about them in newspapers and watch them on TV so enough already!
But i had underestimated the power of great story telling.
It was simply beautiful.
When the novel ended i wished it hadn't, i wanted it to go on.
i had picked that book because the title 'A thousand Spendid Suns'
sounded very poetic and different.
It so happens that it was taken from one of Khalil Gibran's poems.
One of the great poetic minds of many that Afghan has produced.
This book has politics, hopes of a child, innocence of first love, the brutal truth
of a woman's condition elsewhere in the world, justification of a murder, punishment for the same, the life of a muslim man and a woman in comparison, the hopes
of people shattered in a jiffy only to be rekindled by the turn of events which is beyond an ordinary man's control.
Every time Hosseini mentions 1996 .. 1999..2000...2001 etc. i couldnt help but recall what was happening in my life then.
I was happily enjoying the vagaries of life with the security of my family, friends and soceity, totally oblivious to the sufferings that was happening elsewhere.
How strange.
How i had everything then and had still craved for more.
What a contrast.
I hear that his 'The kite runner' was a best seller. I want to get hold of that but not yet. i still savour moments from this book every now and then. When i have rerun it many times more in my mind i'll go in search of more splendid moments.

It is raining...

2007-06-17T07:47:00.000-04:00

It has started raining here in Mumbai. And boy how lovely everything looks.
It is strange really but i feel a certain calmness that has comeover everybody.
And i don't think it is my imagination.
Somehow the world looks dreamy.
Most of them look skywards with a tiny smile.
Not very obvious but if you look for it, it is there.
I wonder what's on their minds?
When i see people soulfully happy all the bitterness that i carry seems to slip away.
This is what we must be doing.
Being happy. Remaining in the state of happiness for no particular reason right.

There is a huge window beside me here
and i can see bluish grey sky drizzling waiting to start a downpour.
mmmmm... i cannot miss it for the world.
Off i go with a cup of tea to my window seat. mmmm......

Namesake!! Fresh ideas, where art thou?

2007-04-18T04:50:00.001-04:00

Yes, it is about the movie.
Spoiler warning: Plot, ending discussed.

2 reasons for this post.
1.My prev. post's title was taken from that movie.
2.Hunting for new talents.

Fresh ideas, where art thou?

We have seen this so many times. Indians searching for their roots in the US.
Desis wanting to come back.
'American born Indian kids' and their parents having a large gaping hole between them.
It is time we moved past this stage.
What i have noticed in such movies and books is that
an extra marital affair seeps into the plot.
And someone dies.
I always feel that a writer brings these in only when he/she runs out of ideas.
Or is desperate to create an impact on the viewer without trying too hard.
They know that Indians being the 'gossipy types' will grab on to the story
where there are the 'cheaters' and the 'cheatee'
Pick any Indian author the story is bound to contain a couple swimming but not really drowning mind you, in this whole messy 'affair' soup.

All the characters in the movie hardly smile.
They make the Indians look very dull, morose and serious about life, all the time.

I'm still waiting for a movie made by an Indian that's 'arty' with a lot of drama yet not nauseatingly sentimental.
A story that sits close to your heart without any of those dirty little cheap tricks.
A story that doesn't scream but whispers.

'Life is beautiful''Chocolat' 'Finding Neverland'
Well, you know what i mean right?

Traveling, without moving an inch

2007-04-13T01:30:00.000-04:00

A typical Sunday morning at home.

My daughter goes round'n round in her cycle inside the house! not the 3 wheeler, a two-wheeler mind you.
My dad is watching T.V switching between NDTV profit and 'the Cricket channel'
Aravind is with the newspaper. Looks up only when the news on T.V is atleast remotely connected to cricket. And i'm thinking, what to cook?
Dreading to go inside the kitchen with the temp. reaching 40 degrees.

As the song goes ' To have you by my side, all i have to do is dream'
all i need to do, to take a break is pick up my book.
I'm now reading 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'.
I try hard to remember the page no.
I never can, you see. I flip through and i finally reach the page.
It is amazing how the scene suddenly shifts to a different world.
I'm sitting with Mr. Henchard and Farfrae looking at the barn over a mug of hot coffee listening to them intently.
I have travelled back in time, to a place that i have created along with Thomas Hardy ofcourse.
And now, I read. Forgetting where i'm and who i'm.
A willing suspension i should say.
I read on until my present brings me back and i slide into it with ease as well.
Blessed are those who have taken to reading don't you think?
And God bless those who write.

The Vacation Continued...

2007-03-01T02:02:00.000-05:00

After an almost ethereal stay in Munnar it was time to see the real Kerala. A four hour drive took us to Allepy. We stayed in a hotel named 'Cardomom Estate'. A restful night and a glorious morning was ahead of us. We were promised that we can spot wild animals (tigers, leapords and such) if we take the early morning ferry through the waters. The animals come there to drink water. Apparently, not one was thirsty that morning. All we spotted were some birds looking all solitary yet free.

Periyar National Park

Again, the scenery was the same all around us. Does it really matter if there were no animals?All i did was close my eyes and listen to the morning calls of the animals that rose above the soft humming of our engine. Absolutely fantastic.

After Tanya's afternoon nap we were off to see her favourite animal, the elephants. She calls them 'Naithu'

That is Tanya on Naithu's lap! Doesn't she look all cosy and comfy? I will be posting more from this foto session later.

Here, Tanya's dream came true. An elephant ride through the jungle!

Our vacation was at its final lap now. Kumarakom it was. Mixed feeling crept in. I felt like enjoying every moment of this while it lasted but i just couldn't shake off the thought that a couple of days later i'll be stepping into my reality. But reality was far off from where we were heading.

That's Lake Palace. No road leads to this place. All we did here was take relaxing boat rides.

Waiting for the ferry.

The Sun Sets.

The Vacation

2007-02-20T00:39:00.000-05:00

About a couple of months back, we had gone for a vacation.

Mumbai> Cochin >Munnar> Allepy > Kumarakom > Cochin > Back Home
Kerala is really the God's own country. Hope you enjoy a tiny part of it here, with me.
Here are a few pics with some description.

Spot ME here!

Lots of such alluring waterfalls enroute Munnar from Kochi. I'm getting into the vacation mood!

We stayed in a wonderful hotel named 'The Tea County' in Munnar

Sounds english right? It looked English and felt like one too. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Me and Aravind enjoyed the typical Kerala massage here. It's a must for all those who enjoy getting pampered and more so for those who don't. You'll realise what you'd been missing so far!

This is the right view from the balcony.

The front overlooks the mountains. Would have loved staying here for eternity, sharing my days with those magnificient trees and watching every bud bloom.

After a quiet morning, sipping tea and watching the sunrise, we were ready for a little excitement. We took a boat ride in a lake in Munnar.

Tanya was all excited after this photo. She looks a bit scared here. That's calm before the storm ;)

This is another spot for a Kashmiri boat ride. We skipped that but just look how amazing the place is.

Spot Aravind here!

After this we were off to the misty mountains. Lot of winding roads, but in the end we reached a spectacular spot and literally took a walk in the clouds.

It is kind of curious when you can't see how deep the valley runs. I always imagine it to be extremely deep! ;)

Can you see that house in the edge of the cliff?
I wonder how it would feel living there?

Next day was our trip to 'Aanamala' ( elephant-mountain), a 45 mins bus drive from the town Munnar. Private cars aren't allowed here.

Just look at the backdrop.

Close your eyes,
turn any which way and open your eyes for a brand new magnificient view.

There will be a part 2 to this in a short time.

Droplets, pearls and the likes

2007-02-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

I believe there are little droplets of untouched part in everybody’s life.
You know a memory that only you can have
A feeling that only you can remember
A place that brings a kind of emotion that can never be expressed.
These little pearls are so important to us don’t you think?
They inspire us to write, to create, to think, to paint, to experience poetry,
to feel the music or to simply smile.
The exact sequence of a particular memory gives such pleasure
It always keeps you in your wonder mood.
Will there be any experience more superior to this.
Is this the zenith?
The sequence of these incidents in the memory cannot change of course.
It is like the little box of assorted things that you collected when you were a school kid.
It was so important to have the whole collection.
Not one can miss from it.
Everyday you open the box to check if everything is there.
You have your favourites there too.
The ones that should never be lost.
But they did.
Like memories.
You lost your favourite ones to be replaced by new ones.
And then there comes a time
After very many years your old favourite thought shows up.
Your lost memory comes back.
A mixture of old and new.
A poetry in mind.
A wave in creation.
A beautiful mind. Of course it’s beautiful.

Her treasures...

2007-02-06T05:59:00.000-05:00

Torn hutch bill (she likes the logo. My guess is because it looks like 3 birds flying)

The red outer Kit Kat cover ( colour perhaps)

Broken pens ( no clue why)

Tissue paper, torn to pieces ( mmmm.... maybe she feels all powerful tearing it to pieces)

Yesterday's cooked rice which is all dried up ( i tried it and found that it gets kinda chewy when you put it in the mouth!)

My hair clips. ( sole purpose of driving me nuts ;) and she tries it on secretly in front of the mirror he he heee)

Aravind's car keys ( purely to drive him nuts!! i like that)

House key!! ( tries to lock the already locked door from the inside!)

T V Remote ( shows who the real master is)

At any point of the day one can find atleast one of these in her hands.
One gets the feeling that it is difficult to raise babies right. You bet it is.

But....... think again....... 6 months back....her treasures were.......

Mud
slippers
broom
used banish mosquito mat
comb
soap water
soap
any dirt lying around that'll fit into her mouth

All of the above has only one purpose
goes straight into the mouth and gets chewed or washed in until it gets unrecognisable
and a temperature of 101 the same night is a sure thing.

By the way the temperature always shows up at night, always!

Now am i not in a better position
Her 'purposes' have changed with her treasures.
Less of doctors and medicines and more of searching for things. But that's ok.

mmmm....i don't think i need to worry for a few years,
well,.... atleast until her treasure turns to the one and only all powerful plastic card that every woman loves to carry in her purse ;)

PS: Yes, am writing again. I hope to see a better 'me' this time.

why? why not? and when?

2006-09-12T06:15:00.000-04:00

Mediocrity is something that i detest in any form.
I had always thought
as i start writing i would grow from wherever i was before.
This was a kind of experiment i guess.
Eventhough i realised a few things about my skills ,
i'm not exceedingly happy or anything.

i'll have to make a few changes.

Why not make all those changes now and get on with it?
Well i'm not sure what all those changes are to be.
i need a new direction.
a theme.
a niche of my own.

why am i writing about all these things in my blog for all of you to view?
Well, once i declare, i'll have the compulsion to live by it right?
So i've folded this paper
and put it in my folder named ideas and dreams.
It is in a very safe place.
It will be re-opened when this particular dream is fully realised.
Will meet you all then...

The naming...

2006-06-27T05:17:00.000-04:00

One of the few things i enjoy in
being the mother of a toddler
is teaching her stuff.
It is immensely satisfying
more satisfying than feeding her i suppose!
But lately i have been facing a unique problem

1-10 is done. She had problems with 7 but it is all in the past.
She simply rattles away.

A B C D E is done.

T A N Y A is done.

Now comes the part where she really excels...
naming the body parts.
Or rather should i say pointing to the correct parts when we name them.

Eyes is eyes
nose is nose
mouth is mouth.
ears is ears
hair is hair
head is head
leg is leg
hand is hand
stomach is stomach
lips is lips
tongue is tongue.

But it is nails that is the problem.
she knows what a nail is.
but she insists
that
nail is infact the tongue.
i say NO.
She doesnt care. She says NO and points her tiny forefinger
to her tongue when i say nails.
If i insist taking her cue on insisting she gives a roaring NO sound and sticks her finger really hard on her tongue.
She gives me a look which says,

" Didn't you hear me lady, how long is it going to take for me to
get it through your head as to what a nail is!!"
I'm sure she is thinking along those lines.

Well, what can i say
When those big eyes look at me with a certain kind of 'sternness' a tiny doubt creeps in
maybe, just maybe Samuel Johnson did go wrong when he made the dictionary.
Maybe nail is infact the tongue.

What if?

2006-06-26T06:21:00.000-04:00

One can get away with all the ridiculous ideas
just by pre-fixing those with' What if?' right?

for instance,
What if someday the sun rises in the west?
What if ours is actually the world of the dead and
the dead are the ones who are actually living??

all such questions which stand on a really thin wire wobbling
some where between idiocy and imagination find their way
in those science fiction movies and thrillers and even books.
But today is not the day we'll be discussing about its stupidity
but a brand new one... ;)

What if there was only one government which governed the entire world?

tut tut tut.... before anybody tries to form any statements,
arguments as to why this isn't possible and how stupid and impractical this whole idea is
well..... just hear me out first.

1. This will not be right now. It will evolve.
If evolution can happen to create perfect human beings (that's subjective i agree) from just a teeny tiny cell, we'll all have to rethink on what we consider as possible and impossible in this world.

2. All the fiscal problems will be solved with single currency system (SCS) ofcourse but before that there is a major problem to be addressed which brings us to point no.3.

3. The demarcation amongst first, second and third world countries could be erased
if only India is let to make a call on that! Reservations of course. (I'm for it by the way) .

4. The population should be distributed almost equally. You know, spread out.
It could start with Rs. 10,000 per person to go to any european country!
No passport or Visa required since the whole world is yours. Just pay for the tickets.
And what's more, those governments which pay their citizens to make
babies in their country will have one less problem to worry about right?
A Bihar from India would suffice. ( Canada and Australia could be helped right away)

5. The form of the govt. will be entirely new. i.e. neither democracy , communism, socialism
capitalism will rule the world. It will be a new form. And that needs to evolve as well as you might all have guessed.

(I had a discussion with people around me here and these were
some problems that could come up.)

Prob 1. Nobody would want to be here then, they'll all migrate to the US, UK, Europe etc.
Ans. After the evolution the whole world would be as pleasant or as dirty so there might not be much of a difference.

Prob 2. And how exactly is this evolution going to take place?
Ans. I don't have answers to all your questions, Why don't you come up with an idea for the start of this evolution.

Prob 3. If all the places look the same where will people go for vacations?
Ans.1. Virtual reality.
Ans 2. Travelling to other planets.
Ans 3. Since each country's history has been different there would still be different
historical stuffs to look at and enjoy.

Prob 4. Language problem?
Ans 1. A new language (english being heterogeneous could infact absorb more words from different languages and decide the best words to be used)
Ans 2. No language required for communication. It's all telepathic.
Ans 3. Translators could be attached to the brains at birth.

Eventhough the above is just a part of the conversation i had with a very patient man
you can all agree that i'm getting somewhere right? So how is the idea?

The walls have opened...

2006-06-13T05:47:00.000-04:00

The walls have opened...

The walls have opened ,
the mist has come in,
the stars have sunken,
and the waters are drunken
with wrath, lust, envy
waiting to gush in
twirling and twisting
from beyond the misty mountains,
behind the terrain
from below the valleys
and by the trees,
waiting to gush in.
The earth has shaken
but what really did happen?
alas! the walls never opened,
they were broken.
Broken to let the water come in.
not gush in.
The walls were broken by men
and women.
to let the waters flow in.
NOT gush in!

This is what the media is doing today.
Making the good look bad and
the bad look good
as and when they please.
When all are done reading, writing and
fighting against reservations
you could click on this link.
It might perhaps bring about a teeny tiny
change in your perspectives. GL.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/03/stories/2006060301841000.htm

Something from the past..

2006-06-12T08:44:00.000-04:00

It is always curious when there is a power cut.
Because it cuts you off from your routine.
And it becomes interesting when your mind tries to occupy
itself with things that are available.

Yesterday night there was a power cut for about an hour and a half at approx. 2 a.m.
It had been a really hot day and there was absolutely no breeze.
Aravind was next to me trying desperately to go back to sleep,
and tanya was already asleep and i was hoping she wouldn't wake up.
I wasn't trying to sleep because i can never sleep when there is no breeze.
So i got some newspaper and started fanning Tanya.

And this was when i remembered a funny story from the past.
You see my mother and her aunt happened to be of almost same age.
Odd, i know but it is a fact.
They were in the same school but different mediums.
mom in eng. medium and her aunt in tamil medium school.
So these two met only during breaks and while commuting to school and back.
Annual day functions were nearing and people were selected for
different cultural programs in school.
And aunt got selected to play a part in a tamil play of a king-queen era.
And she was the queen.
She announced this at home and people at home
(which was a really big group of
over fifteen people in a really huge house. Six sisters and some
of their families living in the house )
got excited about this because
nobody has ever been IN a drama before.
But aunt wasnt really forthcoming with any information but was prompt
in going for practice sessions.
She wouldn't even tell mom much about it eventhough they were thick friends.
So the day was nearing and when there was only a day left for the show
aunt announced that nobody from home should come to the play.
If she knew that there were people coming she wouldn't go.
After a lot of questioning, finally all of the them agreed that they wouldn't come.
But you should know better than to believe that. There was a secret plan ;)
It was show time, aunt had left earlier
and the whole group got dressed really quick with even a few neighbours
joining in. They were all stacked up in 3 huge cars.
This was 35 years before. So going in a car was a big deal and
that too for all the ladies leaving at the same time was an event of a
different magnitude all together.
The cars reached the school grounds.
Great grandad was very well known and respected so they had a huge welcome show.
They were all seated in the VIP rows and they all waited for the show to start.
The king came... after a while the queen entered the stage.
the moment had come... but it was not aunt,
(as some of you might have guessed!)
The family was promptly in confusion and after some futile discussion
concluded that there might be another queen in the play.
But someone said the story has only one queen.
That is when mom spotted one of aunt's class mate and asked her where Shanta(aunt) is.
And she pointed to the stage.
But there was only the queen there.
Maybe it was afterall Shanta with all the make-up looking different.
Mom said " she looks different with all that make-up"
"With that crown it is almost impossible to believe"
Friend says " crown? Oh my God. It is not the queen
but the one that is fanning the queen."
It took a while for the whole party to digest this information
and they all promptly looked behind the queen and spotted the girl
and burst out laughing.
All this while she had gone for practice sessions to fan the queen.
They couldnt stop laughing and grandad was upset with this whole fiasco.
After the play the whole group came home ( aunt was to come later)
with firm instructions from granda that nobody should laugh or ask any questions
regarding this. Granda was a serious person and not one had the guts to defy him.
So she came home, and people were curiously silent
she probably expected a parade of questions,
she looked relieved until grandad very innocently asked someone to switch on the fan for the
girl and they all started laughing uncontrollably and aunt burst out crying
and for the next 10 years all they had to do was mention the word
and she'd start her moaning very very silently slowly turning it to a loud cry.
But the family had one more thing to laugh at and never missed a chance.....

An experience

2006-05-10T06:32:00.000-04:00

How many times have we heard someone say that
a particular experience cannot be described in words only felt blah blah.....
Well am going to be one such people today ;)

It is about an experience in the genre of spirituality.
I'm not really all that spiritual but
I've always been curious to know about things that
are hidden from us.
You know hidden from the obvious.

I'm talking about having experienced one kind of Samadhi.
You must know what other kind of samadhi is though ;)
On saturday i experienced this state thrice.
As wikipedia states
Samadhi is a state in which the mind becomes
still (one-pointed or concentrated)^[2] but the person remains conscious.

I never did believe such a thing could happen.
actually, i never understood it before, until i experienced it.
I won't call it bliss or anything but it was amazing to
know that my own mind is capable of doing something as great
as the great rishis, sadhus and satgurus.
If you don't know these terms you could take the help of wikipedia.
I'm undergoing this course which promises me that i'll have a
better understanding of myself by the end of it and find
answers to all those questions that we all ask at one point or the other.
Starting from Who am i?.... and well use your imagination for the rest....

I will now try to put my experience in words.
I'm doing this for the first time let me see.

I was asked to breathe in a particular fashion,
with eyes closed giving my 100 percent.
A recorded tape was running to guide us
there were about 24 of us in the room.
And all of a sudden i did not feel most part of my body.
I could feel the part of my legs that was touching the floor but
as for the rest there was no feeling.
this lasted for about 10 minutes i think.
And slowly i stopped concentrating on this fact and was
only thinking about breathing right.
And all of a sudden i did not know where i was
as i drifted i remembered my daughter and my husband and that is it.
i did not have a single thought.
I really don't know how long i remained in that state.
And i wasn't breathing too!!
i could hear the sounds around.
Like the buzzing sound of a fan, the instructions from the tape etc.
But it felt like it is all coming from somewhere far far away.
And then i remember thinking that
I want to remain in that state for as long as possible.
The moment this thought crossed my mind i came back to this world.
I was dissappointed but what happened next was even more amazing.
i kept going back to this state for atleast two more times.
I got very excited and my breathing must have gone erratic.
It lost its rhythm and then i did not go back to the samadhi state
but still was not feeling most of my body.
And then the tape guided us to come back to our own human state.
And i did, very very slowly.

well, what can i say?
There was definitely something happening.
I wish others can experience this too.
And there is a lot of good coming from this course but i'm not going to
write about all this here.
If anybody is interested to know about this,
the foundation is called
The art of living Foundation,
by shri shri Ravi Shankar.

I have 2 more days to go.
let me see if i become wiser!! ;)

There is more to it than what meets the eye...

2006-05-04T06:43:00.000-04:00

The one in red and the other in black are innocently playing with the mud.
So cute! right?
Well, if that is all you got from the pic. you are all so wrong!
I know the story behind the two.

The one in red is waiting for her mommy to turn around so that she could
gobble just a mouthful
of that dish right in front of her. So she waits....

The one in black hates the one in red, for whatever reason. Just when she is about
to push her she realised that red's mommy is holding a camera!

This new information changes everything and she is nothing less than
a very very dear friend. She helped her climb the small wall shook hands.
Lovely!

Right after this photo session, pushed the red one. The red one howling
managed to grab a mouthful of that dish!

red- 1.5 yrs old.
Black - 2.5 yrs old.

When the hell did they learn cheating and pretending and posing and...

Simple truth.

2006-05-03T07:26:00.000-04:00

I just discovered that
one needn't
be
complicated
in order
to be
interesting.
Being utterly utterly simple
would
do the job.

There will be a part 2 to this
just ponder over this thought in the meantime.

Nobody needs to save the earth.

2006-04-29T06:51:00.000-04:00

Of all the slogans and outcry one has heard and seen,
'Save the earth' propoganda is the most
outrageous.
Or should i say, a huge sham!

This thought is hearsay and not my own.
But i really really wish it had been my own though.
for instance,

the o-zone layer issue,
the ice melting in the poles,
the back to the ice age scare,
Extreme climate/ weather change,
deforestation!
pollution,
Nuclear war,
the list doesnt stop here...

These are right around the corner and will eventually
destroy the good earth. right?
Wrong.
Well, earth has survived all of the above for millions of years now.
ice ages have come and gone and earth has lived through all that,
quite effortlessly i should say.

So when they say 'earth' they actually mean 'human race' right?
Human race cannot take the uv rays.
human race will dwindle in ice age
human race needs the forests
Nuclear war will kill the humans and other beings.
hu...

Earth doesnt give a damn.
Nobody needs to do anything to protect the earth.
It will remain round and bald or round and completely white
for another few billion years until it gets engulfed into the Sun
during its red giant star stage or something.

So earth as the humans know it will not be there!
that is all.
when such is the case why use the word 'earth' at all?

Save the human race!
This might just create the impact that we want you know
....er.....
actually on second thoughts whether it creates an impact or not
it will atleast be the brutal naked truth!

Source of inspiration:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html
If you want a good laugh check this link out.
It is outrageously hilarious.
10 ways to destroy the earth. enjoy!

From the onlookers...

2006-04-28T06:18:00.000-04:00

There is a cosy family of three who live next door.
Their home is 2ft/0.5 ft big.
And we share the same window!

That's baby dov-dove and biiigga dov-dove for you
in the softest tone that your vocal cord can provide ( husky i say)
Just as my daughter calls them.

We, my daughter and me
have been observing them for quite sometime now,
from inbetween the glass panels.
Intrusion of privacy?? we just topped the Bush Govt!!,
anyway and found two things of note ...

ONE.
The young ones are a riot.
In whichever world they are born.

Just when the mama tries to relax a wee bit the young one is all alert.
It tries to squeeze out from underneath her belly,
growing rebellious and almost succeeds in taking a peek at the outside world.
Until mama shoves it back, right where it belongs -
Under her wings!

TWO.
Papa and mama doves take equal turns in sitting on the riotous young one.
Incredible to see that the animal-(bird) world is more equal and progressive than ours! ;)

My daughter seems to say yes to point two.
but not so much to point one!

2006-04-12T08:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the first day my daughter had her first kill... !!!

She was running around in the hall shouting what distinctly sounded
like a series of curses.
An empty water bottle in hand( her weapon)
A polka dotted head-band around her neck
A diaper around her waist.
And determination written all over her face.

She was going mad trying to kill a housefly with the bottle.
She was running, the housefly was flying.

In between her curses came poooocchhhiii-poooocchhhiii!!
(insect-insect in Tamil)

And Bang, it was over.
The poor pooccchhhiiii was dead.
And a smiling Tanya looked over
satisfied for having saved her mommy from the deadly poocchhii.

It will be a while before i start teaching her what killing is.
Until then ignorance is bliss.

Did you know?

2006-04-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Did you know that giraffs have the same
number of neck bones as humans!!

2006-04-10T06:39:00.000-04:00

lights off!
blinds down!
it's movie time.

After a lot of soul searching i came to a conclusion.

'Lord of the Rings' triology has to be the best movie(s).
( i just cudn't pick one really, so i take it as the ONE)

'The league of extraordinary gentlemen' the worst.
(there was absolutely no difficulty here!)

As for LOTR those who've seen it and gotten into it will know
that there is not a single entity in the whole movie that wasn't a 100%.
( i hate the term more than 100%, it is ridiculous)
Anyway, the other day (watever day that was) i saw this pink-headed
interviewer ask Peter Jackson (actually he was not pink-headed, i'm just so mad at him!)

If you had the chance to just improve one scene
what would that be and how will you improve it?

Jackie looked ready to thrash him then and there.
(improve!! yo pink-head, that is why i'm here and you are there!)
i just wish he had said that but he just smiled and said..
(believe it or not i didn't pay attention to his reply!
i was still so mad at that P-H.)

Now coming to LOEG
oh my God! that's the worst movie ever made or what?

You know until i saw that movie i seriously thought that production and
casting is everything. 'Timeline' was a great book but the movie production was so bad
that it glowed
lowbudget-lowbudget-lowbudget-lowbudget
up-down-right-left-centre everywhere.
so a great story got royally screwed.

But LOEG changed all that,

You know what the tagline should've been : A Tragedy
(or a tragi-comedy he he ee i think that's even better)
a tragedy that'll make you laugh! ha ha haaaa

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	....	Allan Quatermain
Naseeruddin Shah	....	Captain Nemo
Peta Wilson	....	Mina Harker
Tony Curran	....	Rodney Skinner (The Invisible Man)
Stuart Townsend	....	Dorian Gray
Shane West	....	Tom Sawyer
Jason Flemyng	....	Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde
Richard Roxburgh	....	M
Max Ryan	....	Dante
Tom Goodman-Hill	....	Sanderson Reed
David Hemmings	....	Nigel
Terry O'Neill	....	Ishmael
Rudolf Pellar	....	Draper
Robert Willox	....	Constable Dunning
Robert Orr	....	Running Officer

With so many people everyone got lost i think.
The production cost must be pretty decent but...
just when you think it couldn't get any worse it does.

You should observe the dialogues and the dialogue delivery
Naseeruddin Shah states the obvious always,
Sean promptly follows suit.
It begins pretty ok, but don't be deceived,
you'll not be dissappointed. you'll have your laughs.
roaring, roaring laughter.......

ok that's enough bitching for the day i think.
anybody got any more bitching about any movie
you are welcome to leave them in the comment box.

2006-04-06T02:16:00.000-04:00

I never see it coming.
Never!

Walk in the clouds...

2006-04-05T09:14:00.000-04:00

Rising sun we have seen,
Shining moons too,
have you heard of lazy clouds
that dances in the blue screen?

Fancying the mountain tips,
like a blanket for stretching heights,
swirling and winding in rhythm,
clutching the rock with love,

hazing our vision of thought,
slowly entering our souls
rising us on air
and we walk in the clouds...

........................................................................................

for the movie "A Walk in the clouds".
The backdrop was so ethereal that i just wished
i could be there,
waking up everyday with just clouds as my company,
roaming aimlessly among the vineyards,
crushing the grapes now and then
feeling it spread all over my mouth..

but i could do none of them...
instead i wrote this small poem way back
when it first came on TV...

Dinesh from upstairs...

2006-04-04T05:56:00.000-04:00

Deceivingly obscure moment,
might suddenly gain importance
and turn so powerful
that it might end up changing
the whole course of one's life...

Dinesh from upstairs waiting in the hall
for my elder brother to join him for a game of cricket
asks me what i'm reading.
I say, 'zoology'.
He says 'lemme see the book'
i give it to him.
300 pages is it?
i say 'yeah' and botony is another 300.
(in a little prouder tone.)
He starts laughing
and
goes on and on and on...
finally i break it and ask him what was so funny?
and he says you know i've taken comp. science
and it has only 72 pages. 72 for the whole damn year.
you could finish it in an hour.
Instead you are in your 11th grade mugging up
nomenclatures! sad indeed.
i suddenly seem to realise that he is right.
At that precise moment by brother comes out and they both
leave for the game.

I could've been a doc.!!!, a reasearcher, a botonist
someone in bio-tech etc.....
But what did i do??
I went and changed my group the very next day.
And have loved every moment of my life from then on.

Gave up carrers after carrers when one of those
'Dinesh moments' appeared.
From teaching to journalism to advertising and publishing.
Simply because i was no longer afraid of change.

Selective amnesia...

2006-04-03T04:38:00.000-04:00

I'll tell you what blogging has done to me.
My mind tends to shift back and forth from the past to the present,
the moment it is free from my everday chores.

And this weekend i gave it a rest by hunting for my old diaries.
The journals i had so religiously maintained.
There is some entry for almost everyday.
From 1996-2001.
Wow. It was a real treasure.
So many things have happened in my life!
It is hard to believe that for so young a person(he he heee)
these many things should've happened.
I wish i could share some of the funny stories.
Let me see.

Now coming to the title, i was just wondering
what is it about the past that is so charming?
Why do i always tend to marginalise the present
and sometimes even the future, when i think or talk about my past.
well, the answer was quite simple once i had figured it out... ;)
I tend to remember only the good from the past.
i know for sure that there were loads of miserable days
but i remember very little of them.
I forgot the exam days, detention days, major heart-break days ;) etc...

If it's college i see myself laughing and giggling with
the best of my pals.
( i never could make such friends ever you know.
All of them were real galvanic personalities)

well, having said that expect stories from my past
appearing here.

Where did you come from baby dear?

2006-03-31T10:13:00.000-05:00

Where did you come from Baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here.

Where did you get your eyes so blue?
Out of the sky as i came through.

What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?
Some of the starry spikes left in.

Where did you get that little tear?
I found it waiting when i got here.

What makes your forehead so smooth and high
A soft hand stroked it as i went by

What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?
I saw something better than anyone knows.

Whence that three cornere'd smile of bliss?
Three angels gave me at once a kiss.

Where did you get those pearly ear?
God spoke, and it came out to hear.

Where did you get those arms and hands?
Love made itself into hooks and bands.

Feet, whence did you come you darling things?
From the same box as the cherub's wings.

How did you all just came to be you?
God thought of me and so i grew.

But how did you come to us my dear?
God thought of you, and so I am here.

-by George Macdonald

Even though i was past five months into my pregnancy
not until the moment i read this poem, did i realise how blessed i was to
have my baby. Tears streaming down my cheeks i walked out of the bookstore
with the poem collection held tightly as if she was right there in my arms.

My darling is almost 18 months old now.

here is her foto
PS: Boy, she's growing up fast.

Paradox again

2006-03-31T03:21:00.000-05:00

Memory is perhaps the greatest gift of God
but to forget sometimes seem
even greater.

a thought too often put into words........

2006-03-30T04:38:00.000-05:00

Yet, today being Ugadi ( New Year)
i thought i could just take a moment to thank technology,
and all those who have been behind it.

Really, all the goodies of the world that we are now enjoying is because someone
somewhere put his/her heart into their findings.
I don't care whether they did it to satisfy themselves or in service to the world.
I'm sitting here at home enjoying every moment of this generation.
All because of someone else's brain wave.
With all this propoganda about the too much negativity in this world,
one has to consciously remember that
there is always something good happening.
It is how you see it.

Yesterday i sat down for more than 8hours just browsing the net.
It felt so wonderful to see so many share so much information from
all over the world for free!!
It is amazing how people take precious time out of their lives
just to give information to absolute strangers who will never
thank them even.
I got to know about so many different things.
All of a sudden i felt all knowledgable!

To all these people all over the world
THANK YOU.

What do you do when your doctrine is questioned?

2006-03-29T05:04:00.000-05:00

I'll tell you what i do.
i simply refuse to accept defeat.

Most of times i've observed that it is not really the faith in my doctrine
that drives me to argue and fight diligently for it,
but my pride.
The very fact that i've held on to it for so long seems good enough a reason for me
to argue and prove it right.

the day i got slapped

2006-03-27T07:28:00.000-05:00

It happened last sunday.
I was just having my early morning coffee by my window
looking outside for nothing in particular.
It was one of those days when you have this
gut feeling that it's going to be a perfect day.

But all it took
was for a bird
a beak
some flesh
some blood
and something more
to change all that......

I watched a bird, a strong one grab a small rat from the sidewalks.
I knew what was coming next,
all i had to do was move away from the window and
the moment would just pass away.

But i stood there with hatred and disgust for nature.
It had no right to save this and kill that. Quite an unquestionable law they say.
But i saw only cruelty in the act. The small body was twisting and turning.
Goosebumps appeared all over my skin. But i was rock still, full of contempt.
The bird started poking the body, tearing it apart.
Just when i thought i couldn't stand it anylonger...
the bird flew over to its nest and started feeding its younglings.

It really felt like a slap on my face, my thoughts and the whole ethical system of the world.

I felt like a fool. All these years I've been standing near my window sipping coffee
judging the less fortunate world. Don't we all?
Seeing everything in black and white.
Having double standards according to our convenience.

A hungry kid stealing for food is wrong, but downloading
songs and movies from the net without paying is ok.

A man asking for a dowry is so wrong but a woman looking for
a well-settled, educated, NRI is okay. Aree yaar, she obviously
is looking for big bucks right? So what is the bloody difference??
But nobody is ready to admit that. Instead we stand by the window sipping coffee
shaking our heads...........

All names are equal but some are more equal than the others

2006-03-26T01:42:00.000-05:00

If u have ever named a dog or a band or well...
just about anything for that matter, read on.....

For a start i love my name.
Preethi means 'love' in sanskrit.
Isn't that cool?

In India with so many diverse cultures, castes etc.
naming the right name becomes very difficult.
Christians are blessed i suppose,
their names are more equal!!
But in Hinduism just a name alone can put u in the suave bracket,
an ordinary one or even an embarrasing one.
know wat i mean.
its difficult explaning really. Its a kind of socio-cultural thing!
watever that means.

and this is precisely why, naming a dog, a band
or....er.... anything is fun.
the whole cool-uncool, name-game thing is all in the head. Right?

i think if i ever own a dog i'll name him "Highway"
taken ofcourse from 'Bridges of Madison county'.
(wat a marvellous book that was)
actually i did have a dog for a while and i had named him 'Snowy'
u know from the Tintin comics.

as for my band
mmmm........haven't thought much about it but hey..
did u know how all these famous bands like 'Nickelback'
and 'Five for fighting' got their names?
it is interesting u kno'

the lead singer of 'Nickelback' band was working with starbucks before
and he always had to pay the customers a 'nickel-back' for their cappucino
or some latee.
he was so used to doing it that when they had to name their band it just popped
into his head and he thot it was just perfect. now that's a story uh....

'Five for fighting'. There are two versions for this apparently.....

The lead singers mother walked in on the boys while they were wrestling (yeah right) on the beds (they set them up in the room like WWF) (this was a sin in this household), she couldn't think of anything to say as she was in such disgust , she pointed at her son, pointed outside and said 'five for fighting' - the boys cracked up and it stuck. Submitted by: Jayle
The members of the band liked hockey and one day were playing when two of them got in a fight. The lead singer was one of them and his friends gave him five minutes in the penalty box for fighting. They just picked the name from that. Submitted by: tbuck

isn't this all fun. yah equally funny he he heeeeeeeeeeeeee

all about a book and a movie

2006-03-24T23:42:00.000-05:00

There are very few books that leaves u with some kind of satisfaction
when u r finished
and fewer still which leaves u both satisfied and tingling.
when that happens
its a true masterpiece.
"Pride and Prejudice" is the only novel i've read so far which has done this.
closley followed by "God of small things"

Well when such a novel is made a movie, one expects all those subtle sensations
to come alive in you.

I saw the latest version of P & P yesterday and.........
Kiera Knightely who plays Elizabeth Bennet carries the movie well
but she lacks that subtle dignity of Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet.

as for Mathew Macfayden who plays Darcy....
i would pick Colin Firth any day

the movie itself has failed to capture the romance of P & P
When i'm reading the book i can't wait to get to the pages of Pemberley.
but in the movie the scenes of Pemberley where these two are supposed
to talk and move in close quarters looks
clipped and a bit unfinished.
it was probably because of time constraint but to cut the scenes of Pemberley is almost unpardonable

the only part that was done very well was Darcy's proposal to Eliza.
they're outside
It is raining heavily and both are wet
and he proposes
the location is superb
sound effects of the rain were fantastic
it was just so perfect.

having said that i love the BBC production of P & P more
here is the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/prideandprejudice
(the images are that of Colin Firth who played Mr. Darcy & Jennifer Eyle who played Eliza in the BBC production)

what's ur signature??

2006-03-22T06:26:00.000-05:00

When emailing came into existence
it was such a ooohh-aahh thing
with just one teeny tiny problem for me tho

"the signature"

it was supposed to be smart.
it should show something of you.
people actually notice the signature and kinda form an opinion abt you.

and i'll be so amazed how most of my friends
had come up with their cool signature.

here are a few that i found interesting

one who had just given birth to a really cute baby boy had
the image of a baby with a blurb beside which read..

"If u think i'm cute, come see my mum"

another one read..
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education" - Mark Twain

its a pity that its no longer a cool thing
many i know have removed it.
i guess blogging has taken away some of the fancy stuff from mailing.

"The King is dead, long live the King" ;)

in between dreams

2006-03-17T06:10:00.000-05:00

Someone told me the other day

(actually i know exactly who told me and when!)
it was vignesh my close friend who told me this on my b'day when i was in NJ
"if u want to make God laugh, tell him your plans"
mmmm.....now u may think its a smart oneliner but its also a true oneliner.

Life, for me is passing like a dream.....
i say a dream because
my dreams are my own
but apparently i have no control over them
even though i create them
a bit of a paradox eh??
so is life.

i bet there are millions who feel the same way....

i made plans, more plans and some more plans
and i tell u i'm still making lotsafem

u see here i found one of my plans come alive.
i'm writing
(look who is laughing now!)

some nerve i have, defying God et al eh??
but that's a discussion for another day

as for now i'm just gonna write.................
chao