Pain...

Got stung by a bee yesterday.
The pain had tears coming out of my eyes. I haven't had that sort of physical pain in years! Makes me wonder how we took all our falls in childhood? Was it easier then to just accept that it was all a part of growing up?
I felt awful, because of the hurt and because the poor bee died :(

Jeffery Archer…

What a master in the genre of short-story writing!

I have read every single book this man has ever written. There couldn’t be a more loyal fan when it comes to following his short stories.His latest “And thereby hangs a tale” almost has you biting nails and furiously turning pages to figure the twist in the story.

Unputdownable!!

Marley & Me by John Grogan

I will guilty admit that I picked up this book on a whim. It had a cute lab puppy on the front cover! Today as I finished reading it, I can't thank my stars enough for having picked up this book!

The story made me laugh, cry and want to own a dog like Marley right away. Very few books move you like the way this one will.

Beautifully and so effortlessly written, this lovely tale about the life and love with the world's worst dog really reinforces your belief in the art of good story telling. More importantly, it paints a hilarious and true picture about the many benefits and drawbacks of owning a crazy dog as a family pet.

I strongly recommend this book for all dog lovers and would be pet owners.

It's worth every bit of the crazy ride!

Thank you Mr Grogan. It's a wonderful story well-told.

Need and want…

I was doing some random skimming through a magazine last night and a particular article caught my eye. It talked about three women who, despite being way below the poverty line, had adopted children and were giving them a good life.

I started thinking about how many people I knew who would be that selfless. Who would be willing to live a life that is so untouched by greed or want for something or someone?

I couldn’t name anybody L

All of us want something. All of us have a hidden agenda somewhere. Dig deep enough and there is always a motive, no matter how sub-consciously embedded it is.

We all want a vacation.., that salary increase…, that perfect life fraught with materialistic things…Why are these wants so ubiquitous? Before you get rid of one there is another one knocking down your door.

Really come to think of it and you will find that some of the things that bring the greatest joy are not “things” at all. A hidden smile, a private joke, a hug, the feeling you get when you read a warm letter, playing your favourite sport, the joy of singing the way you want to, your dog wagging its tail when it sees you, the smell of your mum’s cooking…this list is endless! Yet all of us strive to make misery where we can.

If you don’t get what you want (and it’s usually something worldly that seems completely absurd after you really think about it) you crib, you cry, you vent, you rave…not once stopping to think about where this is taking me, will this make me truly happy?

What makes us forget the little delights?

As a generation, are we getting so caught up in attaining better, bigger, shinier things and becoming so acquisitive that we forget what is everlasting may actually cost nothing?

There is a very thin line between need and want. Very few people are able to walk that line and be altruistic enough to give back.

I’ll endeavor to get there someday.

:) :) :)

Hmm...

I read this today.....

"Why compound ignorance with inaudibility? Why run and hide?"--E. B. White

I agree with it. Takes guts to face your demons.

Before Sunrise…

I just saw the whole movie for the very first time and fell absolutely in love with Love.
How perfect is this movie? ;)
Sigh.

A cup half full…

I was reading this random mail forward yesterday. An analogy of sorts.

A professor holds up a sack of rocks and then asks his students what happens if he held it high for 5 mins. The students say nothing.

“What will happen if I hold it for an hour?”
The students jump up and reply that his arm might ache.

“What if I hold this all day?”
The students say, “The pain in the arm will be unbearable!”

“So what is the solution then?” asks the professor.
Some wise back-bencher says, “Put the sack down!”

The mail then went on to tell me that life’s problems (sack of rocks) are as big (Hold them for 5 mins or hold them for a day) as you make them out to be.

Hmmm.

That’s an interesting concept!

Personally, I am not sure if I can be so detached from some problems that I face. First of all, not all problems are the same; hence solutions to these problems also vary.

Second, if only solutions were that simple, how happy we would be!

All problems and their solutions start and end depending on how you see the cup—half empty or half full.

Isn't it?

The best ever nutty sponge cake! :)

Good fun making and good fun eating ;)

Random-ness galore....my workspace this month!

Just finished reading “Khushwant Singh selects Best Indian Short Stories—Vol II”

The book made for utterly delightful reading! Although I had read most of these stories somewhere or the other, this compilation really is a collector’s delight. All these stories have appeared in the Illustrated Weekly of India—at one time considered as the publication that was the end all and be all of any writer worth his words.

A special mention to the following stories—they have a timeless essence and are hard to forget.

Khushwant Singh’s “The Agnostic” and “The Bottom-Pincher”
Mohan Rakesh’s “An Unprofitable Sin”
R K Laxman’s “ An Accident” and “The Gold Frame”
P L Deshpande’s “Namu, the Dhobi”

I strongly recommend this book for short-story buffs.

All's well that ends well?

Ever had one of those days when nothing goes right? Everything quickly reduces to helplessness and then finally despondency? I had one of those days today. Not a single thing was on track, not a single person good enough to work with. The boss was incorrigible and the work was wretched.

Personally I believe any place that does not have meetings and micro-schedules must be heaven. Being idiotically naive and annoyingly optimistic means I strive at things earnestly and whole-heartedly. It also means that unless it is a dangled under my nose, I don’t get signs.

The greatest problems are not due to the work itself, they crop up due to the relationships you develop with the people you work with. Someone once told me that your colleagues can never really be your friends—they are all striving for just the same things that you are! Once an agenda, albeit even a hidden one, comes up means friendship cannot blossom. I think somewhere this logic holds true. Isn’t this sad? You spend more time with these colleagues than you do with say, your family or friends—shouldn’t you be able to depend and trust them effortlessly?

I find that I have managed to make some meaningful friends who were my colleagues from my last company. Guys I can depend on without thinking about it. It feels great. But I couldn’t think of them as “pals” when I worked with them! Strange but true!

I digress. Sorry.

Coming back to today, feeling low and rather angry, I messaged a few of my friends about what I should do to up the mood. Some of the absolutely ludicrous answers make me immensely grateful I have goofy friends. One guy gave me REIKI gyaan, whilst another one told me to get drunk. One told me ditch it all and take a vacation in Delhi (psst…the book fair is on!) and the other one prodded me to listen to loud Bollywood music. One even told me it was time to find a husband! It all made me smile. Suddenly it put things in perspective! Sometimes when you work you don’t realize why you do it. Your entire life is NOT work. Problems you face at your work place should never be credited for more than what they are. A lot of your life must be lived outside of what you do. It defines who you are and what person you become. Every now and then, I strongly believe you should do things that bring your acuity in place—like making sure you make time for these very crazy buddies. They keep you grounded.

Another incident stands out. Most of you already know how all my life’s wisdom come from Bangalore autowaalas….here is another one. While travelling back home in the evening today, my auto suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere. The driver then turns around and tells me that a wire is cut and he can’t go any further. I had few options. Walking home would easily take me an hour—an hour being a conservative estimate. Getting any mode of public transport at that hour , at that place was near impossible. Muttering, almost thinking this is like the icing on the cake today, I was ready to get off. The driver then stopped me. Told me to wait while he tried to get me another auto that would take me home. He went on to apologize about the failure and even told me how this is the worst area one could have a breakdown in!

After about 20 minutes of trying to get the attention of every auto that passed by, this man came up to me and said that I should keep the faith. If it meant he had to do a quick and rather clumsy job of fixing the cut wire he would do it, but he would get me home! It’s a promise!

I stood there on that busy road, while the traffic zoomed past us and thought—if this man can do something like this, be so interested in doing his job so well and so till the end, I have little to crib about. He could very well have let me off and left me to my own devices—it was almost what 99 out of a 100 would do!

I stood there in awe, thinking—wow! So much pride, so much honesty and the smile never leaves his face! Every day he possibly faces the worst things and severe pompous attitudes. What makes him so happy? What makes him want to do this and do it the best he can?

The answer I think lies in two things.

One is the honesty about doing something. If your heart and head is in the job / relationship / thing, you will go to any level to stick by. You will strive at it / for it like no tomorrow. You won’t even realize how much of an effort you are putting in. Be true to yourself about this in all things.

Two is the fun. If your job or relationship with someone is not fun anymore and you have exhausted all possible ways to mend it, have the courage to let go of it honourably. Things can only improve from there.

I did get home in an auto that this driver found me. The bad mood was gone; a smile was found where none existed.

All truly is well if it ends well.

The Coconut Barfi.....

Something got me cooking today.....this is what I made..

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/pallavimv/TheCoconutBarfi?authkey=Gv1sRgCIys4qqy8JH6KQ#

Finger licking good! :D

Bye bye 26th

Hello 27th! :)

Can’t do without….

Half cup of tea in the morning

Reading the newspaper …….books…..reading anything

Checking mail

Goofy people…goofiness galore

Listening to music

Seeing the funny side of things

Making people smile

Mum’s kadhi chawal

White Musk perfume

Thinking about getting a dog

Thinking about getting fish

Bread and butter

Animated movies……romantic comedies……all movies!

Popcorn

Best friends (S, M and S—you gals make my world vibrant and vital)

Watching programs on animals or travel or cooking on TV

Listening….and truly believing that it helps

Drama in everything, so that I can weave stories when I get old

Water

Greenery/plants

Intelligent conversation

Writing

Stationery

Procrastination

Lounging in pyjamas once in a while….doing nothing

Extended sleep on Sunday mornings

Mangoes and watermelon

Singing out of tune on purpose

Attempting to whistle

The colour blue

Silver bracelets and silver earrings

My watch

Day dreaming

Jeans

Calvin and Hobbes

Remembering trivial utterly useless GK

Asking questions

Invariably putting my foot in my mouth

British humour

Eating the cherries off cake and ice-cream

Subtle sarcasm and mild flirting

Telling the truth

Writing bad limericks

Getting ribbed…………blushing

Remembering numbers and dates

My iphone

Forgetting why I got angry

Brother’s advice

Being fascinated by lights and fireworks

Being agony aunt

Consulting…counseling…..worrying

Learning new things

The elephant God and His humourous ways to test us poor mortal humans

Never finding the right clothes to wear

Wishing I could play tennis more often or atleast watch it being played

Planning to not die till I learn or attempt to learn salsa

Thinking P G Wodehouse is the greatest author ever

Making a “things to do list”….then promptly forgetting to look at it again

Wanting to drive an SUV

Enjoying the smell of the first rains

Wanting to finish a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle

Having an opinion on most things

Being on time

Wishing I had said the right thing at the right time

Always regretting words spoken in anger

Being annoyingly optimistic

The window seat…always!

Wanting to see a F1 race someday

Believing that all things are equal and yet the balance tilts to favour those who show enough courage to want it badly

Reading between the lines…..then getting into trouble

Watering plants

Giggling

Wanting to see the world—the hills, the valleys and all that lies in between.

Logic, practicality and science….and also that some things I cannot explain

Wanting to be a student for ever

Thinking about being a photographer someday

Experimenting with cooking

Standing by the window when it rains

Coming up with every excuse to not workout

Wanting to see and touch snow

Cuddling up with pillows

Being a hopeless incorrigible romantic

Wishing I could play the piano or the guitar

Talking forever……saying everything and nothing at all

Letting go….when I can’t do anything else

Keeping the faith

Believing that hope always floats

Wanting to see a Broadway musical

The fact that what goes around comes around……and the world is a small place

Being naïve sometimes

Reading a book...never figuring out when I fall asleep

The knowledge that humour helps lessen the pain when it hurts the most

Admitting that it all happens for your own good.

Of auto fans and psychos……

I have this uncanny knack of picking the wrong autowalla no matter where I go.

In my unmatched travels in Bangalore I have come across enough specimens to be inspired enough to write this blog.

Let’s begin with a very scary auto fan/ psycho type: This guy is forever parked outside my street. He is also forever ready to go anywhere I ask him to. He never uses the meter and always charges less than what the fare would normally come up to. All this is still tolerable, until he begins asking me questions—what are my office timings? Do I work Saturdays? Can he come to pick me up in the evenings? What is my phone number? Can he call and check if he can come and pick me up in the evening? Can he call in the morning and come and pick me up from my building? Who is my watchman? Etc etc…

As you can probably understand……..I make an effort to not take this auto in the morning. If it means I have to leave a little early, little late, or from another street, then I just do it.

The second category of autowallas includes the geography gene deficient chaps. This is how the conversation usually flows;

Me: “Race Course Road?”

Him: “Eh?”

Me: “Race Course Road??”

Him: (Scratching his chin or poking his ear, looking sufficiently mystified) “Where on Race Course Road?”

Me : “Near Taj West End”

Him: (Now vigourously working on scratching that chin or digging uranium in that ear, looking positively dumbfounded!) “Which route to go?”

Me: (Controlling the urge to hit the man, wondering why they always ask you questions when you are running against time to reach work….) “Over Old Madras Road….”

Him: (Scratch, scratch or dig, dig, Oscar winning cinematic look of deep mystery and incomprehension) “After Old Madras road, which way?”

Me: (Grating teeth, wishing for something hard to hit his head with, with increasing volume…) “Over Dickenson Road, then you take a right , parallel to M G Road, then you drive straight down to Raj Bhavan Road, then you take a left at Chalukya circle, then straight down to Race Course Road!!!! The whole thing will last 30 mins ! ARE YOU COMING OR NOT???”

Him: (In deep thought for over a minute, working out on that chin or/and ear)“ No madam” (cheesy grin)

Me: “ THEN WHY THE HECK DID YOU ASK THAT MANY QUESTIONS???”

Him: (another cheesy grin)

Suddenly another auto draws up almost running over your toes……

Him2: “Where to madam?”

Me: (hopeful again, there is a lord!) “Race Course Road?”

Him2: “Hmm”….scratch……

And life goes on…………..

The third category belongs to the virgin autowalla. Rare and very hard to come by, this auto walla doesn’t know a single place in Bangalore. He asks you if you know the way (bloody gall I tell you!) and as is the superior human tendency of non auto drivers; you smirk and tell them that of course you do! Then begins the jolly ride, where you realize that this absolutely cunning and shrewd fellow has made you his Bangalore guide for the day………he insists on knowing when the Ulsoor lake came into being, or when a particular street became one way, or why old Madras Road is called that, one guy even asked me what the price of a film ticket was when we passed a mall! All in all you are mentally drained, not to mention pocket empty, by the time you reach your destination.

The fourth and final type of autowalla are found dime a dozen. They wait till you are seated and then say; “20 rupees extra”

Smart these fellows are! They know you cannot jump off a moving vehicle and that you are sufficiently and psychologically cornered into accepting. Yet I have learnt after a lot of fighting that this need not be an all encompassing losing battle for you….I usually say, “WHAT!!Stop this auto immediately”

Ah ha! You have realized that their weakness lies in not having a scene (here is where you feel like grinning goofily, but since you are having a fight, you must look distressed and agonized enough…)

He persists and tells you, “You won’t get any savari (customers) from there!”

You retort with, “So? Is that my fault?”

You have managed to stump him! Hurray!

The euphoria doesn’t last too long. He says, “Madam, what is 20 rupees to you? We have to come back empty from there….”

You reply, “So that gives you a right to cheat people?”

Again you have come up with a winner! (Pat on your back my friend!)

He says, “Ok madam, 15 rupees, not yours or mine”

You: “ You think you can cheat people is it? No 15 rupees! You want to come for 10 rupees then come otherwise stop this auto right now!”

That my friend, is when it strikes you that you have comprehensively lost an extra ten rupees for absolutely no reason. It is then that you should just meekly accept that the laws in this auto filled world are conspiring to constantly win against you and your silly little brain. Just give up and lead a peaceful life.

Life without drama, like I always say, is no life at all.

Heat , rain and some candles......

.....life.

I am usually, almost incorrigibly, definitely annoyingly optimistic about most situations that come my way.
I stand defeated and very alone today.

Vacation?

I was feeling a bit frustrated last week. There was no particular reason really.....I just wished I had a little more "patience" to step back and see any situation from a third party perspective. I wished I didn't jump to conclusions or get emotional about the whole thing, so quickly! This invariably lead to hurting oneself. I have learnt that there isn't much that is worth this kind of involvement...

The bigger picture gets lost when you deal with trivial--and as you will later realise, utterly useless--by-issues. I have to keep telling myself--more often now, when something makes me angry--that this is just a small part of your life and not your entire existence! Don't give situations undue credit especially when it isn't due...

"Compartmentalising" you life is hard. It is not entirely impossible though. Boundaries are lost over time and some things gather all the priority they don't deserve. Trying to avoid mixing bogies is a full time job.

Phew!
What a roundabout way to say I NEED A VACATION! :)

WHY?

Why do things happen?
In the way in which they do....
If we could see the outcome,
Would there be a sadder few?

If you could see Tomorrow,
Would you be really glad?
Imagine seeing the future
and all that can be had!

But Stop for a moment and think like this....
the Future is but a lump of clay,
if you didn't know the shape you are meant to have,
you may mold it any way!