A CANARY'S DIARY

The Valentine Within

2012-02-14T00:18:00.002+05:30

With all the blush and hoopla around this day, somewhere most of us forget to find love in one necessarily important place, ask where? You don't have to think much, stop a while and have a look within. What is that you really love about yourself, are you grateful and happy that you are so, ever gave this a thought?:-)

I am not talking about the selfish or the self centered kind of love, which most of us own more than necessary. Think of your strength, weakness, feelings, likings, desires and dreams. What amongst them drives you to live and pushes you to find love around you? If you aren't finding anything, I guess its time to. Its never too late. Let me know what about you drives you crazy ;-)

There is more to celebrating this kind of love today or tomorrow or any day for that matter. When you love yourself, truly madly and deeply, life becomes more special because the love within is meant to stay. While you wish your near and dear ones today, pray that you love yourself more and more so that they and the others love you more and more ;-)

Wishing a love filled day to you all:-)

"Our first and last love is...self love"

-Christian Nevell-

-R.

When Eyes Do The Talking

2012-02-11T23:19:00.000+05:30

Picture Courtesy

“There are things of which I may not speak;

There are dreams that cannot die;

There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,

And bring a pallor into the cheek,

And a mist before the eye.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow-

They were sitting together at the shore for quite sometime. He looked at the sky, while she looked at the sea. There was nothing to say, absolutely nothing.They knew not of what the other was thinking about, but deep down in some little corner of their hearts they wished they did.

The waves and winds rippled in an eerie silence. It was beautiful, perfect. And at that one right moment they turned their gaze towards each other. No tears and no smiles, no questions and no answers, no perceptions and no decisions. One look into the eye, and they knew it was not meant to be.And yet it was perfect, the moment for all the peace that it brought.

More of life unfolds when eyes do the talking. And that is the reason everything falls in place some day or the other.We just have to keep them wide open, sometimes more than our hearts.

-R.

Garlic Bread

2012-02-03T21:52:00.004+05:30

Picture Courtesy

Few days ago while we were at our best with some heavenly junk from a pizza outlet a dear friend of mine casually asked me " Now that I have ordered all this on your request will I be considered as your best friend?" Munching all that I could this is what I had to tell him "You are like this garlic bread I desperately like, but definitely not my pizza! " and somehow he knew this was coming ;-)

You will agree if I say, all of us have and have had these kind of friends. Most of them are special for a lot reasons. But somewhere in the whole scheme of things that matter in life, they come close but prefer or are rather forced to keep some distance for reasons even more. We connect and yet there is something left to fill each other's satiety, often we are too laid back or too busy to figure that out. In simple terms we are okay with it. Maybe thats the way it is until we get to gorge on our pizza, meanwhile we manage with the garlic bread. If not for them, trust me our pizza is not going to taste any better :-)

-R.

The Timing

2012-01-30T22:11:00.005+05:30

A new acquaintance of mine came across this blog recently. Among all the posts, he thought my poems are a huge box of surprises. Some pleasant, some ordinary, some fleeting, some profound and some extremely touching, that is what he said. What touched me most was his remark "What makes you write like this, it is so unlike you!"

I have been wondering since then. There are a few moments when words flow with ease, like a river wanting no direction, no speed and yet there is this strange momentum which makes the lines worth a smile or a tear. On countless other occasions, I find not one word to pen down for the many things inside me craving for a say. All I do then is wait for that one right moment.

Poetry to me is mostly impulse which for reasons many comes with a lot of patience. It is about wanting to learn and wanting to write better every time I begin to write one. It is not the mood or the feeling, neither the meter or the rhyme. It is all about timing :-) If it matches with that of the reader's, nothing like it ;-)

Picture Courtesy

-R.

The Party

2012-01-28T23:14:00.001+05:30

The best thing about the oldest of our friends is that their advices come when we most need them, often even without asking. Everything they say or recommend are enough to put things back on track. They can break our heart open the way it needs to be. There is something apart from motivation in their words, their actions and the way they put matters across. Knowing them pretty well we often fight, judge, and come to conclusions. At some point we may even think that they may not be the best in town for help or for any kind of solutions, we may lose hope but the truth is whether we realize this or not there is our guardian angel in one form or the other in them. Their casual comments, subtle remarks and sometimes just one thinkable thought is enough to give us that one push. One such friend of mine asked me today "Why don't you live life like its a party?" I have been thinking since then, and I am glad that I am:-)

Considering where the worm in my head came from, I could not stop sharing this strip:

Picture Courtesy

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.”

-Shauna Niequist-

-R.

Black Out

2012-01-18T22:15:00.002+05:30

Picture Courtesy

Wikipedia usually makes thinking easy, but today it threw a bouncer. Think of a world without free knowledge it says, well if we actually are thinking of buying this idea or taking it even for free it definitely is a difficult one. I am hopping back from their page with much despair, each visit more than the previous.

Knowledge never comes free, information may and Wiki has been more than kind to us in giving it. But today it just proved that even the best of our support systems can give up on desperate days, and we better learn to deal with it. I am running now to my books, well you?:-)

Another thought if you can take it, imagine a world without knowledge. Do not break your head, more than half of the world lives in it and is doing pretty well by the way. Sometimes ignorance is the ultimate bliss, if you chose to act on it. Take this Calvin Hobbes advice. It works, really does.

Picture Coutesy

-R.

The Leaf

2012-01-15T15:02:00.001+05:30

"The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance.

The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life.

You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose."

-Arnold Bennett-

At the start of this year I gifted the favorite corner of my home a money plant, with a wish that the climber covers and brightens up the entire window frame, hopefully in a matter of few months. It is growing devotedly, without me having to contribute much. A change of water now and then, that's all. The most beautiful thing about it is the stuff that this plant is teaching me. Most of the lessons of life are right in front of us, in subtle things, in surreal moments.

Watching this plant, I have learnt that there is always new to come. All it takes is patience. I have learnt that it requires not much from the outside world to grow from within, if you have it in you there is nothing stopping you. I have learnt that I can grow without throwing demands. I have learnt to hope, to hope for the good always :-)

-R.

A Dream

2012-01-11T19:57:00.001+05:30

Picture Courtesy

I dream of a fenceless field with dandelion wisps in the air

With you and me, like how this earth and sky make a pair

Hand in hand, through the greens we shall stroll and catch

Clasp them tight, fill our pockets lest someone can snatch

I dream of a muddy puddle standing still up to our knees

With one wink of an invite 'Jump with me pretty please!'

Hand in hand, we dance with him till we turn soil brown

In a joy without reason fall on the ground and roll down

I dream of a cold night with stars playing hide and seek
With backs on the grass, eyes all open and sleep bleak
Hand in hand, we count them till the sun brings a dawn
When we shall kiss a morning to dewdrops on the lawn

I dream of a bunch of such million dreams, only for you
In a life that is worth to keep, always all alive and anew
Filled with moments of memories that you wish to make
Friend, only for you I promise to give all that it can take

-R-

Lumpy Life

2012-01-09T18:59:00.000+05:30

Picture Coutesy

"One of life's best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem.

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you've got a problem.

Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy.

A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump.

One needs to learn the difference"

-Robert Fulghum in 'Uh-Oh'-

Every other quote that I come across sends something up my neuronal circuit, but this one just rewired and set it right. To be frank I have been the kinds who can complain about anything and everything, anyone and everyone! Of late with life's lessons hard and well learnt I can or at least try to decide what qualifies as a problem and what as an inconvenience.

We often spend our time contemplating about icky people and circumstances, I do about multiples! It is a difficult process to prioritize among that lot, and there is where the lump usually appears. What matters more, who deserves our time and attention and how satisfyingly enough we give it is what which decides where our life goes. We fall and we fail, but not all of us raise and move on. Life is lumpy, very. But to know the difference, well there lies the catch;-)

-R.

Let's Explore !

2012-01-04T22:42:00.000+05:30

Image Courtesy

“Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn't it wonderful? Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new! A new year...a fresh clean start ! It's like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on! A day full of possibilities! It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy...let's go exploring!”

- Calvin in Bill Watterson's 'It's a Magical World' -

Newness is a relative niceness, that is exactly what I learnt on the eve of this year. Celebrating it with the ones I met for the first time right on that night there was this strange thought reeling inside my head of how every day of our lives can be so beautifully unpredictable.There is so much that happens in our world without we having nothing much to do about it.

The number and the kind of people we come across, the circumstances that we get into and the places we go, well just think of it- the good, the bad, the better, the worse, the best and the worst. We do our part, and yet there is so much that remains which can actually decide whether we have lived right and enough. At the end of the day its all about the moments which make us feel that.

Wishing many such moments this year to the ones who visit A Canary's Diary and make this place worth exploring. Live,laugh, learn and have fun.

A very 'HAPPY NEW YEAR' to you all :-)

-R.

Tête-à-têtes In The Microbe World

2011-12-30T21:13:00.003+05:30

* "Ah !Proteus! Did a truck full of them pass by ? Living by the sea shores I tell you, comes with all this..." -a colleague remarks after a whiff of air brings the smell of fish. By the way Proteus are bacteria whose colonies on culture plates smell like those. Apparently a Sea- God in Greek mythology shares the name, interesting huh!

Picture Courtesy

* "Oh ain't buying it, its too Gram negative"- me on seeing a PINK dress in a store. And this is what Gram negative bacilli exactly look like:-)

Picture Courtesy

* " You either turn sensitive, or be resistant...do not play safe in the intermediate zone" - my advice to a friend, while he deals a difficult issue. Only if life's problems were solved with something like the Kirby Bauer Method we use to test for antibiotic sensitivity of microbes.

Picture Courtesy

* "Eeeks ! Looks like the Lactobacillus have been overactive!"- me again, while eating curds. Yes, they are exactly the ones who turns milk into curds. We have overly friendly microbes as well;-)

Picture Courtesy

Last but not the least, the most satisfying of all...

* " Keep the phone, let me go take a bath. I am back from the field. Ticks you see, they have to be removed within twenty hours !"- a friend of mine from and of the forests bommerangs my words.

Picture Courtesy

Life like a microbiologist sees it, a life like the microbes make it :-)

-R.

Thursday Challenge #7- Light

2011-12-29T21:29:00.002+05:30

"Deepamjyothi parabrahma
Deepamjyothi janardhana
Deepo me hara tu paapam
Deepaa jyothir namostute"

A Strange Place

2011-12-26T23:19:00.000+05:30

I walked past him, unfettered and unbothered. A few steps ahead and it struck to me” What if it was me or someone who I know on the road tomorrow like that?” A chill ran down. I turned and looked at him from a distance. I was scared to get near him for obvious reasons. He seemed to be in his twenties, too young to die but not too impossible, well if alcohol flowed instead of blood in his arteries past last night. His limbs lay in a solid freeze, was he dead or was I just imagining too much?

To an imagining mind, imaginations once set shall have no boundaries. On the distressing side of it, I thought what if he was lying there after a heat stroke or a heart attack or someone hit him or he was sleeping after a tiring day at work, normal as that. All possibilities occurred to me and it stopped there, as human as the feeling could get.

I did not think more than this much, and walked away like those thousands of strangers who had seen him throughout the day and yet ignored him. I know not what became of him after that. Not my concern maybe, not yours, not anyone’s, or is it?

What does it take to cross that line of hesitancy to help someone who we do not know, or should we? The fear seems bigger than any purpose or conscience. Does this count up over there, well for that matter even while we live in this world? Bet this, it is a strange place full of strangers, almost always. Contradictions are welcomed. I know not of my fate if I were there instead of him, it frightens me.SERIOUSLY.

-R.

Clippy Mood

2011-12-26T00:07:00.002+05:30

Bring the people of this world in a line right now and this is how you shall find all of us. Interesting right, how different people in different places go through different things at different times and still connect. That is the way everything falls in place and makes sense, lest we fail to understand.

I bought these cute paper clips today, a Christmas gift to myself :-) The emotive side of me feel in love with them at first sight. This is exactly what my face goes through, well everything in one day. The fourth from right is so me!:-D Which one are you?

-R.

A Not So Merry Weather

2011-12-24T23:38:00.001+05:30

If you were to live in a town where you cannot help but observe lush green coconut trees swaying in bright sunshine to the tunes of winds from the sea all throughout the year like I am doing right now, I bet you shall forget what winter or Christmas eve is like.And no holiday to top that, can it get more dreary ?

Every place on this earth has its fair share of seasons, this place does without winter.I am learning to do without it too. Of course I miss those steaming hot coffees in the foggy mornings, the warm and fuzzy sweaters, the urge to snuggle under the thickest of rugs at home. God answered my prayers when I moaned back then maybe. Strange isn't it ? The way prayers work, when you want something you do not have it and when you have something you do not want it :-)

On a merrier note, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all:-)

Picture Courtesy

PS: Santa if you are not on a holiday like this and are listening tonight, heaven sake get me some winter!

-R.

Lines For Life

2011-12-17T22:40:00.000+05:30

Some books are close to my heart, and some lines closer. They have changed the way I look at my life and my people. Some have made me smile, some have made me cry and most importantly all of them have made me feel. I sleep and wake up with them. Here are a few of them. Let me know if any of them touch you too. In no particular order:

" For you a thousand times over"

Hassan in Khlaed Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner'

"I keep myself busy. Time goes faster that way"

Clare in Audrey Niffenegger's 'Time Traveler's Wife'

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends"
Albus Dumbledore in JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'

“Love simply is.”
Athena in Paulo Coelho's The Witch of Portobello

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life”
Lily in Sue Monk Kidd's 'The Secret Life of Bees'

“Every life has one true love snapshot”
Mitch Albom in his 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven'

Do share your favorites:-)

Chicken Out

2011-12-12T19:12:00.000+05:30

Picture Courtesy

If you happen to be a vegetarian, living and especially eating in a town where food is equivalent to meat comes with grave aftermaths. I am in Mangalore, and I am a vegetarian.Nothing like this mismatch.Here is my story.These days brunch in the college canteen is my only calorie intake for the day. Today surprisingly or not so surprisingly I ended up with the wrong thing on my plate, chicken! I realized it with the first pierce of a fork, the texture and colour seemed pretty weird and very fortunately it did not reach my taste buds.What followed was a hell of a scene, quite naturally. I swore silently to myself never to enter the place again.

Few of you may ask me what is so criminal about what had happened.Well nothing! I have nothing against KFC and places alike, their chicken wings and legs or people who devour them. It is more to do with the choice of what we want to eat. Many in the world aren't blessed with this. If somebody does not respect that, and calls incidents like these as accidents, bless them with the famines of Somalia.

“If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.”

-JRR Tolkien-

-R.

Fathers And Lessons

2011-12-12T00:06:00.001+05:30

Life's unsolicited but logical lessons, most of them come from my father. And over a period of time I have realized that it gives him a immense fatherly satisfaction if I nod my head and say "Yes, Appa" even if he is on the difficult side for whatever reasons. Call it concern, responsibility or plain possessiveness, he believes he thinks the best. Men in general are funny, fathers funnier and mine the funniest!

"Any man can be a father.It takes someone special to be a dad."

-Anonymus-

-R.

Busyness

2011-12-10T18:55:00.000+05:30

Image Courtesy

Praying that this board does not hang outside my door very soon.

-R.

Running Race

2011-11-30T22:23:00.000+05:30

Picture courtesy

If you fear that you are running alone

While your every step meets a stone

Look behind, ahead and around

This world is on a loose ground

In an not so ordinary search

Not any little, but too much

For some silence in a solace

For some peace in the race

Of life, on the road to dust

Thinking running is a must

Don’t you wish you stay

To walk your own way?

-R-

The Kolaveri Question

2011-11-29T00:42:00.000+05:30

Why this kolaveri di ???

The best part of the song well according to me is "only english":-) Aaa....Di....while most of us are in sync with Dhanush and his song, I happened to ask one gobbledygook question to a friend of mine today "Can your anger 'kill' someone?" and this is what I got to hear" Play Angry Birds, you will know":-)

Insaneness is a weird pleasure, sometimes for more than the moment it lasts. Anger is undeniably one among the many of mine, the repercussions are unbloggable. Under the pressure of this song, let me ask the same thing to you all. Do let me know:-)

Good night

-R.

Good Heavens!

2011-11-20T22:30:00.000+05:30

You know when a book has befriended you for life? You reach the last page, last line and the last word and realize that you have traveled a beautiful journey all along. You feel like reading or beginning something like it all over again. I am not talking about good books. This is about the ones which leave you thinking; this is about those which leave you feeling.

More often than not, this happens to me with every other book I read :-) But this time I am completely out of earth, literally. A level higher in fact. It has been a week now since I read 'the five people you meet in Heaven', the book is back in my shelf and every time I look at it sitting there quietly I get ‘This-happened-right-in-front-of-my-eyes!’ kind of flashbacks. Some crazy thought process occurs in my mind which says the protagonist’s life is a part of mine. That’s the magic about these kind of books, simple yet ethereal.

Well, feels strange thinking of the five people I will meet in heaven if at all I happen to reach there. Wonder who they would be? What will heaven be like? What really happens when we die? How do we know, should we? This book made me believe that death for reasons many is as wondrous as life. What say?

Calvin knows about heaven better;-)

Live Your Time

2011-11-14T00:02:00.003+05:30

“I wish I had a little more than twenty four hours a day”, we say and hear this every now and then. Don’t we? Humans by nature are hankers. We wish for a lot of things, amongst them the most desired is time. If we had it more, if at all! Some of us may think of hobbies, some of us may think of trips and treks, some of us may think of being with family and friends, some of us may think of helping others, some of us may think of taking a break just like that, some of us may even think of work! Reading through the many posts at Indiblogger, I realized something very doubtlessly true. There is so much that everyone wants to do, in the so little time we all crave for. I could not help but smile, because there are many of you like me out there. Thank you all for making me feel that I am not alone ;-)

But let us stop awhile and think, what new good is to be done or old bad is to be undone if we had some more hours in a day? If you were to ask me, that which cannot be done in the twenty four hours in hand is highly unlikely to be done in the next twenty four hours too, leave alone those extra hours whoever shall gift us is what I would say. What we all wish to do in the time we do not have but wish to have is something which can be done in the time we already have. It is not the lack of time, but the lack of something else, and that ‘else’ is what we all have trouble figuring out. It takes time, and sometimes all life.

So when I put on my thinking cap, I had a long list of things which I want to do in those two extra hours if I were blessed with everyday. I would read more, I would write more, I would talk more, I would paint more, I would work more, I would play more, I would learn more, I would smile more, I would laugh more, I would love more and I would live more. Those two hours shall be as beautiful as I want the rest twenty four to be. As extraordinary as my routine can get :-)

Over a period of time, I have come to believe that we all have varied opinions and values about time. If I were a child like before I would have wanted to play on the swing or build a sand castle on the beach or climb a mango tree, and now that I am what I am now I want to do all that I wish to like what I have already told you, and if I were in my gray haired days, trust me its going to be completely different! Something which I know that I do not know right now. With time ‘everything’ changes, even our wishes. Do what you want to and are destined to, just let it pass. No plan is fool proof, no life is exemplary. We are here to live our hours, not to count them. Take my word, take your time and most importantly live it :-)

PS: This post is written as a part of Surf Excel Matic #GetSmart Contest at Indiblogger, in the process of figuring out an answer to their question "If you had two extra hours in a day, how would you spend it?". Thank you for making me realize the value of each moment of my twenty four ;-)

-R.

Ripples In The Sea

2011-11-10T22:26:00.000+05:30

Ripples in the sea, fading ripples in the sea

Yeah, we all are! He, she, they, you and me

Substance, sight or spirits within just a wee

When we part in pain or get together in glee

A tempest wave, wish we wish we like to be

To storm the still waters in a fleeting spree

To kiss the sandy shore, to rise and fall free

But where we exist not, we stay only to flee

And call it life, live it, you may or will agree

Ripples in the sea, fading ripples in the sea

Yeah, we all are! He, she, they, you and me

-R-

Milestone

2011-11-06T00:01:00.015+05:30

Picture Courtesy

Today is the usual, but a little momentous. It’s my twenty fifth birthday. Of late I have started thinking that these kinds of days are just an another milestone on the way, an obvious thought which is a part of growing up. It does feel special, more so the right time to sit back and surmise why, how and where I am heading towards. I wish I knew it all.

I was speaking of goals with a dear friend of mine last evening until he decided that I am irritated, and we had to end the conversation. A goal is a critical thing. Especially if one wants to live, not just survive. My suggestion if you are on similar boats, keep your goal(s) permanently interesting. Something which pushes you to do better , makes you feel that you are a step closer to it each day. Take your time. Remember all goals are not measurable or explainable, at the end of the day it is only you.

On the contrary, there are these easy moments when I feel what is the point if I know what my goal is or anything else, let me not bother about it and move with the flow. This does come with consequences, good or bad or maybe even neutral. But is it so very criminal not to know or regard something so very important and be on the other side of life? The ideal thing we all know is to keep a balance, all of us are striving in this direction in one way or the other right? Uncertainty is what which drives us, though we have two options, we fail or we succeed.To see what we want to see, to do what we want to do and to be what we want to be is what life is all about.

I am not going to hop on either side of the fence today. No quarter life crisis, no quarter life hoopla. This birthday of mine has no resolution, no regret, no pondering, no whining, no need, no want, no thank you note and no wish list. It is about me being where I am, how I am and what I am. As simple as that.

Woody Allen has a very interesting take on life, many of you would agree like I do. Read what he has to say:

“In my next life I want to live my life backwards. You start out dead and get that out of the way. Then you wake up in an old people's home feeling better every day. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day. You work for 40 years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school. You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born. And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila! You finish off as an orgasm!”

Image Source

PS: Another milestone on this blog, this is my 200th post here. For reasons many, the feeling is very out of the world:-)

The Power

2011-11-05T23:08:00.000+05:30

How many of us realize or believe in this power?

-R.

November Rains

2011-11-03T19:58:00.001+05:30

November rains, there is something mystic and intriguing about them. This is an unusual transition of weather. The showers are bringing all coldness and weariness of the world to my town. For reasons such and else the coming winter seems to be quite melancholic.

The view outside the window is picturesque, this is how it looks these days. Bland yet beautiful. The rain drops are like a translucent curtain clouding the landscape. Every so often I feel like wiping the fog off and seeing what is outside, at times I just let it be and watch the drops slide down in a line racing against each other slowly. Either ways it feels like the bliss of solitude.

Unexpectedness is uncomfortable, but it is something which can carry us forward if we take it with ease. Sometimes we just have to wait, do a lot of things or a little thing or maybe even nothing. The things which we deserve will surely reach us. Clouds may fill our skies, rain drops may fall on our windowpanes. We just have stand and watch.The rains and winters shall pass because sunshine is always on its way.

AN IRISH BLESSING FOR YOU

“May you always have work for your hands to do.

May your pockets hold always a coin or two.

May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.

May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend always be near you.

And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.”

-R.

That's All We Know

2011-10-25T17:32:00.000+05:30

Internet does keep most of us in a hopeful mood. If we want to know about something we know what to do right, "Google it!" is what we advise each other in such circumstances. I often grumble "Why can't you just tell me!!!'' when I hear something like that from my friends, but I do agree it is the best and the easiest choice we have. Surprisingly this is what I was greeted with on my laptop screen a few days ago.

Picture Courtesy

This was more like a Catch-44! The immediate question in my mind was what next, rather where next. Glitches apart, isn’t this robot or whatever it looks like impressively innovative. Look at the falling nuts and bolts, the helplessness depicted is absolutely hilarious yet technical.

What made me think was the last line highlighted in grey “That’s all we know”, now imagine something or someone on whom you are entirely dependent on telling you this when you need them the most! The problem at times is that we are never prepared for the unexpected and that is what makes us vulnerable to whatever little difficulty life throws at us. We panic, lose our cool and give up. The best of our things may go kaput, the best of our ideas may not work or the best of our friends may throw their hands up. It can happen, there are possibilities.

What can happen how, where and why we really do not know, because “That’s all we know” We are indeed very little and imperfect when we think of our power in this world. All we can do is what Google suggested me here” Please try again…” Well for me it did work after 30 seconds;-) My suggestion when you face something like this, remember what Sue Monk Kidd says in her book ‘The Secret Life of Bees’-

"There is nothing perfect...only life."

-R.

A Perfect Fairy Tale

2011-10-23T21:42:00.000+05:30





Picture Courtesy


Dad: He took her hand, and he kissed it. Then he swooped her up onto his horse. And the beautiful princess and the handsome prince rode off to his castle...where they lived happily ever after... 

Sam: Do fairy tales come true, Dad?. 

Dad: Well, no. But dreams come true. 

Sam: Do you have a dream?

Dad: Yeah. My dream is that you'II grow up and go to college and then maybe someday you'II build your own castle.

Sam: Where do princesses go to college?

Dad: They go...where the princes go. They go to Princeton.But, Sam, you know, fairy tales aren't just about finding handsome princes.They're about fulfilling your dreams...and about standing up for what you believe in. As I always say, never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.

If you have watched the movie 'A Cinderella Story', this father daughter conversation in one of the first few scenes may seem familiar. When I watched it I could not help but smile because this is what precisely I have been hearing from my Dad all through my life. Some fathers are typical, aren't they? They want their daughter not to be any prince's princess but they want them to be their own queen, strong and independent. Nothing else makes them proud.

Very long ago when I was in class three I had played the role of Cinderella in a drama during the annual school day function. The flowing cloud blue dress and the dark blue tiptoeing shoes are etched in my memory forever. The movie stirred those good and naive times of childhood. What I remember even more is the excitement with which Dad and Mom were running around the whole town for a week or so in a search for the perfect attire. And when I was on the stage wearing what they had brought me their happiness knew no bounds.Isn't it wonderful, the smile on the face of someone to whom you mean the world, especially when you are the reason behind it?

Fulfilling your dreams and standing for what you believe in is worth more than any crown which can make you a princess is what I have always been told, just like Sam. If you know what you want to be and where you want your life to go there is nothing like it, now that is exactly what I call a perfect fairy tale. I believe in it, do you?:-)

Angry Bulls

2011-10-18T21:19:00.001+05:30

Expecting life to treat you well because you’re a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you’re a vegetarian.

Even if a herd is behind,stay good:-)

Good night

-R.

On The Other Side

2011-10-11T23:03:00.003+05:30

Picture Courtesy

I have always had this secret wish to teach at least once in my life, exactly like my teachers in school. These days it is more than coming true. Everything comes tagged with a clause right, and therefore today I was with a bunch of not so nervous but test giving students, I was invigilating them for an hour or so. Very mundane and tiring task, now I get what it takes to be teacher.

Being on the other side in an examination hall and having nothing really worth to do, it is fun to watch the plethora of expressions on the face of someone who is trying to figure out what to write. While some stare at the walls and ceiling, some bite their pen like it is the only food for thought and some refuse to lift their head up because they are really busy scribbling an epic tale. Watching them I had this ‘been there done that’ feeling and I realized that I belong to the third category. I could not help but smile.

Every teacher can write a book titled ‘Funny Answers By Students’, this one is an entry to mine:

This was supposed to be a short note for five marks, and whoever wrote this answer took the meaning of ‘short’ in the most literal sense I guess. This is all he had to say. Whatever this student has written is definitely right. Our answers to all those questions of life...I wish they were this simple, sigh.

Have any test episodes and experiences to share? You are in the right place:-)

-R.

Live Or Flutter By

2011-10-10T22:06:00.001+05:30

The forests are not perennially green but yet our dear dame Vanessa, a butter yellow butterfly roams every nook and corner, every creek and crevice to meet every bush and plant everyday. She greets and thanks them all for everything that they give her while she needs them the most. The periwinkles are her favorites. She makes sure that she hugs them tight with her wings at least once during her visits. She loves her wings although they are not really bright and bother her now or then. But one day it was different. “Dear Vanessa why do you just flutter by?” asked one of the periwinkles out of concern, her critics that they are. This made her think. Things were different from then on. She flew back thinking of an answer. She had to come up with one. And now she is sitting on a rusty window sill looking at the rain on the other side of the glass, pondering over the purpose of her life. She is hoping to know.Can you help Vanessa, why do you think she is in this world ? Why do you think you are in this world?

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever."

-Carl Sagan-

We all have these Vanessa moments now and then. Everyone wants to be something different but at the end of the day what each one of us gets back home with is a deserved share of pain and happiness, nothing else. If everyone and everything is unique in this world, why do not we show or appreciate it enough ? What binds us to the sameness we live in? Thank God, Vanessa has her periwinkles to make her realize and save her. Not everyone has. You or me may not have, you or me may not need. You or me may not be Vanessa at all. But remember what this little flying fairy has to say " Look at me, my wings are the worth of all joys and my days are the length of all life in this world".Understanding this she flies back to the forests again.This time to hug the cherry blossoms, daisies, lilies, leaves, mosses and weeds along with the periwinkles. Vanessa has found her purpose, have you?

You are special...feel that you are...show that you are:-)

-R.

Ding Enough

2011-10-06T23:21:00.004+05:30

Ah well he did put. To do what you say you want to do is a feat by itself, an ode to this man for that. Not many of us own a life that can inspire another few. Steve Jobs, mostly known for his exceptional contributions which have changed the world and more so for this Commencement Address at Stanford in 2005 has left us with a firm belief that Apple is more than a fruit.

The part of his speech which has dinged my mind and always stayed with me is this:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary"

The life and words of Steve Jobs have taught me:

Where you come from is not what that matters, it is where you go that does

Be open to learning new things because you never know what, when and how anything can come to use

Work is a large part of our lives, DO NOT settle. If you do not like it do not do it. Love what you do

Look into the mirror, question yourself, find your own answers

Look backwards, connect your past to your future

Accept success, embrace failure

Most importantly live your dream, inspire the others to dream about your living.

Greatness is not in being famous, it is in making a positive difference in the lives of the people who matter and who do not as well. Most of us shall leave this world with memories for our kith and kin, but this man has left us with a life full of ideas and inspiration.Ding enough.

R.I.P.

-R.

The Sunrise

2011-10-06T00:10:00.001+05:30

The world is cloaked in darkness when I wake up in the mornings. The curtains draping the windows of my room seem like giant stage screens before an opera begins, I pull them everyday because I always wish for something new out there. The winds from the sea which smell of salt have quietened themselves. The crickets who have hummed throughout the night are mellowing down. I look at the book which kept me busy before I fell asleep. It is lying open next to the pillow on the page I was reading, the story had paused. It is then when I notice that everything has.

What is the point in getting up from bed if you are too tired doing the same dreary thing again and if you do not know what else to do with the next twenty four hours that you have? What if you have had enough or are hungry for more? Being busy is sometimes enough to make you feel dull and dead. Believe me it is possible. Sometimes a pause or a change is the need of the moment. Well, what it shall be and how it shall come is the question. The answer to which not many of us can predict or know. That is what life is all about. Maybe that is why we believe in hope, and we wait for the sunrise. I daily do.

-R.

Specialization

2011-10-02T11:29:00.000+05:30

Picture courtesy

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert Heinlein-

Agree? I am a fanatic when it comes to lengthy quotes, more so when they make the most sense.Sharing this one with you here:-) Specialization is not every human's forte, but when we do something we should be giving it our best. Every activity that we want to do is worth a try, every effort is worth a result. There is no room for inertia if we are on the move. Stand saying "Oh some other time!" and watch the jumbos tramp over you, you see specialization is really for the insects;-)

Good Sunday

-R.

The Bugle

2011-09-30T00:49:00.002+05:30

Picture Courtesy

I woke up from a sleep not so mine

To look around to see if all was fine

Mad crickets in great unison sang

Bats came flying together to hang

Witching hours frightened me more

Or was there someone at the door?

Were those lights two eyes of glare

Who was that walking down the stair?

Did a whisk past the curtains move

Or any of my nightmares come true?

While I cursed and said O’ my spite

I found you asleep holding me tight

In a snore so guileless and glorious

My only fear that made me furious

And yet I laid next to you astound

For when you are beside or around

O’ sound for life, my bugle dearest

No devil or demon dare get nearest...

-R-

The Singing Bird

2011-09-27T21:41:00.002+05:30

I came across a video on Youtube now, I am sharing it here. Wonder what makes it sound like the best music I have ever heard. All I want to do now is stroll alone in the woods with a reed in my hand stamping every puddle,crossing every brook and hearing every bird possible. Watch it in mute for the first time and then with the audio.Let me know the difference if you feel any. This is what it made me think:

-R.

Cock A Doodle Doo

2011-09-25T10:44:00.000+05:30

”Why did the chicken cross the road?” so asked a mademoiselle trying hard to get humorous while she was nibbling a leg like there is no tomorrow. Some people are never done with chicken, food or joke in either way. To balance them there are some devoted vegans who cannot bear both. My reply to her was quite impulsive actually” To get to your plate my dear, sad that it met with an accident in the process, perfect oral autopsy by the way!” is all what I said. Little did she know that I belong to the latter category, the sulk on her face was for the records.

There is no end to the list of ignored and unanswered questions in this world. We humans are in an eternal quest of knowing how, what, who, where, when and why. Have you noticed this, we have this tendency of using humour as one of our last resorts when the answers to our questions are beyond our capacities of comprehension. Chicken like every animal and bird else has unfortunately been our victim;-)'Just joke away, eat it anyway' is what we believe.

Picture Courtesy

Yes, I seriously do! If there is one question about the chicken for which I would like to know the answer, it is this- What about the chicken makes it ‘finger lickin' good’, is the murder worth the eat?” Do let me know if you know, well I am just being curious;-) Meanwhile read Chicken Philosophy, this is what the great men had to say in answer to this thought provoking question:

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD???

Plato: For the greater good.

Aristotle: To fulfill its nature on the other side.

Karl Marx: It was a historical inevitability.

Machiavelli: So that its subjects will view it with admiration, as a

chicken which has the daring and courage to boldly cross the road,

but also with fear, for whom among them has the strength to contend

with such a paragon of avian virtue? In such a manner is the princely

chicken's dominion maintained.

Hippocrates: Because of an excess of light pink gooey stuff in its

pancreas.

Jacques Derrida: Any number of contending discourses may be discovered

within the act of the chicken crossing the road, and each

interpretation is equally valid as the authorial intent can never be

discerned, because structuralism is DEAD, DAMMIT, DEAD!

Thomas de Torquemada: Give me ten minutes with the chicken and I'll

find out.

Timothy Leary: Because that's the only kind of trip the Establishment

would let it take.

Douglas Adams: Forty-two.

Nietzsche: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road

gazes also across you.

Oliver North: National Security was at stake.

B.F. Skinner: Because the external influences which had pervaded its

sensorium from birth had caused it to develop in such a fashion that

it would tend to cross roads, even while believing these actions to be

of its own free will.

Carl Jung: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt

necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at this historical

juncture, and therefore synchronicitously brought such occurrences

into being.

Jean-Paul Sartre: In order to act in good faith and be true to

itself, the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into

the objects "chicken" and "road", and circumstances came into being

which

caused the actualization of this potential occurrence.

Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road

crossed the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

Aristotle: To actualize its potential.

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-nature.

Howard Cosell: It may very well have been one of the most astonishing

events to grace the annals of history. An historic, unprecedented

avian biped with the temerity to attempt such an herculean achievement

formerly relegated to homo sapien pedestrians is truly a remarkable

occurence.

Salvador Dali: The Fish.

Darwin: It was the logical next step after coming down from the

trees.

Emily Dickinson: Because it could not stop for death.

Epicurus: For fun.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: It didn't cross the road; it transcended it.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The eternal hen-principle made it do it.

Ernest Hemingway: To die. In the rain.

Werner Heisenberg: We are not sure which side of the road the chicken

was on, but it was moving very fast.

David Hume: Out of custom and habit.

Saddam Hussein: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were

quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

Jack Nicholson: 'Cause it (censored) wanted to. That's the

(censored) reason.

Pyrrho the Skeptic: What road?

Ronald Reagan: Well,...................

John Sununu: The Air Force was only too happy to provide the

transportation, so quite understandably the chicken availed himself

of the opportunity.

The Sphinx: You tell me.

Henry David Thoreau: To live deliberately ... and suck all the marrow

out of life.

Mark Twain: The news of its crossing has been greatly exaggerated.

Mishima: For the beauty of it. The chicken's extension of its

sinuous legs sent shivers of a dark despair into the souls not only of

the silently watching hens but also the roosters, who felt a sudden

sexual desire for their exquisite comrade. The dark courage of the

chicken was as beautiful as drops of dew upon jade at midnight, struck

by a partial moon, its light filtered through clouds. One of the

deeply aroused roosters could stand the intensity of the moment no

more and bit off the head of the beautiful, courageous chicken-hero,

whose wine blood was deliciously drunken by the road, and he died.

Johnny Cochran: The chicken didn't cross the road. Some

chicken-hating, genocidal, lying public official moved the road right

under the chicken's feet while he was practicing his golf swing and

thinking about his family.

Camus: The chicken's mother had just died. But this did not really

upset him, as any number of witnesses can attest. In fact, he

crossed just because the sun got in his eyes.

John Sununu (again): I would argue that the chicken never crossed the

road at all. That it is a story concocted by the Clinton

Administration to distract attention from their failed agriculture

policy. Where is the evidence that the chicken crossed the road?

Where, Michael?

Michael Kinsley: Oh, John, come on! Everybody knows the chicken

crossed the road. What evidence do you need? It's obvious that the

chicken crossed the road. Your whole argument is just a smoke and

mirror tactic to distract us from the fact that most chickens polled

now back the Democratic Party. You ought to be ashamed of yourself,

John.

Siskel: I don't know why it crossed the road, but I loved it. Thumbs

up!

Ebert: I disagree. The whole thing left the audience wondering; the

chicken's crossing the road was never clearly explained and the

chicken didn't emote very well. It couldn't even speak English!

Thumbs down.

Michael Kinsley: But you both agree it did cross the road, right?

See, John. I'm right as usual.

~~Dis~~claimer: This post was written out of an inquisitiveness to know what makes one's flesh the other's food.The intentions are to make the carnivores think, not to hurt. Do think and let the world know you are opinion if you are one.

Good day

-R.

The River Of Life

2011-09-21T20:13:00.000+05:30

One drop of difference in the cloud

One whiff of air in the blue skies

Turns a drizzle into a downpour

But the river of life shall flow

In silence and serendipity

In trouble and turbulence

While we in earnest pray

For the storm to pass

For the rain to fall

Before we wish

Before we join

The river of life

Will cross us all

-R-

Enough

2011-09-20T21:39:00.001+05:30

Picture courtesy

"The trouble is that you think you have time."

- Jack Kornfield-

Gee! There you go, today will soon turn into yesterday. It will really! The sun will rise tomorrow and we shall wake up with a list of things to do and hope for. Baggage from the past, needs of the present and expectations for the future. Our minds and hearts do hold the maximum, don't they? While most of us talk, some of us do. Why is it that? Agreed that there is some strange gratification in letting go time and putting off work which is not the need of the moment.Lets face it, we all enjoy it.But what does it really take to avoid procrastination?

Nothing but guts.There are many boondogglers in this world who believe" There is enough time to do everything that I want". Yes there is, but it is never sufficient, never! Life is too long if we decide to wait for anything to happen and too short if we do not make it happen, either way it is a disaster.

Time appears like a snail, while in reality it is quite a sprinter. Every second is an another addition to our past, but how well and for what we we use it is what makes this blink period called life worth living .The sun will set and we shall sleep dreaming the easy and possible, while there are difficult and impossible things out there eagerly waiting for us.So if you think you deserve to experience them, go seize the moment. Remember there is no enough time to live that every little magic within and around us. The livers understand, the losers procrastinate. Nobody but you can decide who you want to be....

Picture courtesy

-R.

Doomsday Divination

2011-09-13T21:21:00.009+05:30

Picture courtesy

“The most dangerous animal in a zoo is man” so writes Yann Martel in Life of Pi. Look at this from a wider and a wilder angle, would you agree if I say man is the most dangerous animal in this world? Well for an instance, not so long ago a bunch of us students were in the elevator which is one of the places where most of us avoid making eye contact with ‘known’ strangers, if one can call them so. Notice this if you haven’t, we tend to do it often. You see, man is the weirdest animal too ;-)

Midway during our rise against gravity someone gave a thundering shriek all of a sudden. We stared at each other wondering what befell. Some of us had ‘The-fall-of-elevator-and-the-rise-to heaven’ look on our face. In the seconds of stunned silence that followed what we heard was petrified squeaks from the middle of the elevator. All eyes were on the attender from the Pharmacology department standing unstirred, more so on the bucket in her hand. In which lay three furry snow white rabbits, too nervous to stay still. The chicken who screeched looking at them couldn’t stop saying “O’ my God! O’ my God!” there were a couple of loony toons who added their trademark remark” O’ so cute! O’ so cute!” and then there were a few ordinary ones with ‘Not-my-business’ attitude looking at their watch and waiting for the elevator to get to their floor. Everyone totally lame and human.

The impulsive in me forced to tell them” Don’t scare those poor little ones!” and guess what I got to hear in return-” You like rabbits is it?” .What if I do not like them, does it mean I should scare the s*** out of them? Strange and sadistic! For all we know or do not know every other living being on this earth has infinite reasons to curse our existence. We chose to believe otherwise. They can in fact do without us, fortunately none of them are on a dinosaurs like rampage.

Picture courtesy

This is no Ripley's Believe It or Not!;-)

While moving out of the elevator, I asked the lady carrying the naive bunnies ”Where are you taking them to?” She grinned and replied “To the lab, for drug experiments”. Someone was right when he said “The world is our laboratory”, it is just that we forget that on one fine doomsday we might run out of all our guinea pigs. A divination, nothing else.

Prayers for the rabbits and every being that bear with us and our vices.

-R.

It Is Complicated

2011-09-11T14:25:00.001+05:30

Most of us have had this picture at least once in those forwarded mails in our inbox. It seems quite stereotypical right? Now before anyone calls me a feminist ( which I am for the modest reasons!) or we have a ineffectual discussion on who is more complicated, here is my question. Agreed, men need a single switch to turn them on or so this picture and the majority say, but what if the switch goes kaput or there is a short circuit??? Think, think;-) Everything and everyone in this world is complicated in a way, what say? Here is a fact which is nothing but the truth:

"Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it."

-George Carlin-

-R.

Where Do You Think You Are?

2011-09-07T17:31:00.001+05:30

Picture courtesy

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons."

-Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy-

“For as long as I can remember, I've been searching for something, some reason why we're here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer... I don't know, I think it's worth a human life. Don't you?” so says Dr. Ellie Arroway, the protagonist in the movie ‘Contact’, based on a Carl Sagan novel of the same name. The purport of existence is something which every scientist or scholar, in fact every human would not mind knowing. Aren’t we in this quest in a way or the other, what if we are not, is that okay? One may ask what is wrong in living without knowing why, how does it matter and many questions else. There is a difference, between existing and enduring which is all the answer.

Apart from all the scientific and religious theories which attempt to explain the intriguing fact of how we came into being and are managing to survive on this planet till this day, there is an imperative reality we all ought to know no matter who we are-‘Where do we stand in space and time?’ Take a look at this picture, it left me quite ‘bamboozled’. Yes, that is exactly the word.

When I finished reading this all I asked myself was” Where do you think you are?” Frankly I have never felt so very little in a good way.I am humbled and happy. If there is anything called heaven, here it is! We all are living in one of the most gifted planets of this universe, the value of which we acknowledge not. Whatever we do or give in return if at all we ever want to will always be imperceptible, but does it mean we should never?

Have a look at this video, it made me drop a tear.Hope you like it too.

Have an earthly life all of you...

-R.

The Change We Wish To Be...

2011-09-06T23:03:00.003+05:30

I found this picture on the Internet today,and I thought this is worth a share on my blog...

How many of us give how many of these reasons at least once a day? We do know that no reason in these clouds or anywhere else is worth the change we actually deserve. Among the hundred hitches which will always stop us, the biggest one of all is we ourselves.Most of us understand this pretty well right, let us pray for the human mind and all the fickleness and indecisiveness that it carries.

Have you noticed it anytime when you do not do something which you ~~badly~~ goodly want to do, what is it that stops you? Is it worth more than what you desire for or dream about? Do let me know:-) If we find our answers, half the change has already happened and the easier part then lies in our hands.

This one is is for a thought:

PS: This snap was clicked by one of my friends during our last visit to Mangalore together. And now that I am here in this town, all I wish is to have them here everyday.Such is the change, such is the life!;)

-R.

The Walking Stranger

2011-09-04T00:22:00.003+05:30

A stranger the world calls strange,

For reasons stranger

Walks in no search but solitude

In trails the strangest

When the trees of the boulevard ask

Have you touched him

He says, yes of course

In your supple green

When the warblers in the skies ask

Have you heard him

He says, yes of course

In your saccharine song

When the winds wholly wayward ask

Have you felt him

He says, yes of course

In your silent breeze

When the stars of the nightfall ask

Have you seen him

He says, yes of course

In your silvery light

When the mortals under oblivion ask

Have you found him

He says, yes of course

In thy part, in my heart

In our nature and so I walk.

-R-

PS:"Nature is the art of God"- Dante Alighieri.

The Killer

2011-09-02T21:56:00.002+05:30

“Oh common Willie, do not give yourself a flop show! This is not the time to fold your fins you loser!” said a small voice from within. Like most of us with frivolous inhibitions, Will had a hundred of his own. The blue of the water gave him blues, the coldness chilled his spine and the mere sight of limitlessness made him choke. Many a times he would wake up from his dreams thinking that he is drowning in the deep seas until his Mama would remind him ”Will, you are a big fish now, remember my boy and go make your life”.

Will was scared but smart. He knew swimming was not impossible, he realized that he was destined to do it. The ocean was the place to be! One fine day full of sunshine and showers, despite all his nightmares he made up his mind to go for the big lap. He tried wading through and against the high tides, every time he did that a magical instinct started catching him. He jumped in glee as he dived. It was pure ecstasy, something that he deserved. He knew ‘this’ was it.

The underwater seemed very contradictory to the silent surface, so full of life. It was the most colourful place he had ever been to. He made friends with Twister the turtle, Shirley the starfish, Oliver the octopus and many more. Over time the blue which once frightened him has now become vital for his survival. It throws new challenges, new routes and new opportunities. Each day has started getting better. The nights are now meant for some peaceful sleep. Everything inside and outside him feels natural. He is making mistakes but he is conquering his fears. He is learning about the little and big wonders that surround him. He swims all the way along the coast and in the abyss. He explores, he wanders because his only desire is to ‘live’.

Years down the lane Will is sure that he shall enter the big league, for he tries to make today better than yesterday. He oozes a certain flair and confidence with all modesty. When his buddies and strangers praise him saying” Willie, what a plunge man!” all he replies is”Oh thats nothing! All you require is a little strength in your flippers and flappers but trust me when I say a lot, a lot in your heart. Let me teach you, lets try now!” and lo he jumps in the air and dives into the waters. The world then completely spellbound looks at him and cheers”Voila! After all its our Will, the Killer Whale!”

Picture Courtesy: National Geographic

When we focus our energy towards constructing a passionate meaningful life, we are tossing a pebble into the world, creating a beautiful ripple effect of inspiration. When one person follows a dream, tries something new or takes a daring leap, everyone nearby feels that energy and before too long they are making their own daring leaps and inspiring yet another circle.

—Christine Mason Miller-

PS: Inspired by my Killer Whale, the killer of my fears:)

-R.

Jeene Ke Liye

2011-09-02T15:03:00.002+05:30

'Har ek friend zaroori hota hai' so says the new Airtel ad.Quite a catchy jingle right?;-)I loved it. This one is stuck in my head since days. We all have these subtle 'full-of-life' moments now and then. Thanks to the buddies around us. We 'need' them, but everyone on everyday? Well maybe, or not. When and why do we draw a line or cut the connection.How do we keep them if we want to? What do you have to say about it, are friends only a necessity? Why do you need friends?

"Do khwaab dekhne ke liye

Do pal hasne ke liye

Do gaane gunguna ke liye

Do dost jeene ke liye"

-R-

What Do You Know About Love ?

2011-08-31T11:44:00.004+05:30

This is exactly what happens in love;-) Who else can define the feeling, other than the brilliantly bizarre twosome-Calvin and Hobbes. So where have you found it or planning to find it? What do you know about love? Do let us know, because 'To love is to live...to share.'

Wishing you all a festive time:-)

-R.

'Strong' Reasons

2011-08-28T16:25:00.001+05:30

Reporting in the laboratory is a serious business. A tiny microbe missed under the microscope is nothing less than a blunder. For reasons like this and many more we tend to remain quite sober and involved while working in the department. But sometimes it so happens that we cannot help but laugh. This happened around last week or so, everything was as usual. Screening was on in the different sections of the lab in the afternoon. Bacilli and cocci were our routine visitors but along with them we had a special guest this time. Everyone was more than excited and in fact we were all in a queue to have a look at him. We microbiologists fondly call him ‘Strongyloides’ and this is what my peers had to tell about him, amusing and interesting perspectives I must say!

A: So cute!!! [Really?]

B: Looks like a baby snake !!! [Well, he did look like one!]

C: No wonder he is called ‘STRONG’ yloides [ Quite a whipper he was!]

D: Aww…must be hungry, poor fellow.

E: No! He must be searching for someone.

F: Is he the one who causes ‘Loeffler’s Syndrome’[ A nerdy opinion this was !]

G: His esophagus!!! Can you see it??? [Nerdier...]

H: What do we do with him, why doesn’t he stay in focus? [ Ahem…]

And finally we clicked his pictures for our lab memories. In case any of you are wondering what makes him so special, here is all the microbiology associated with him Strongyloides stercoralis-Wikipedia.While I was searching for his kinds on the Internet, I came across this list:

‘Reasons to date a Microbiologist’

-We do everything 10x 40x 100x bigger and better

- Size does not matter

- We know the meaning of complement

- We always wear protection and use sterile technique

- We can run our own pregnancy and STD tests

- We do it on a stage

- We don’t wear anything under our lab coats

- We know the importance of direct contact during conjugation

- We wash our hands before and after everything

- We love Corona virus with a lime

It’s a microbe’s world after all;-)If you do not believe here is what Bill Bryson has to say:

“Every human body consists of about 10 quadrillion cells, but about 100 quadrillion bacterial cells. They are, in short, a big part of us. From the bacteria’s point of view, of course, we are a rather small part of them”

-R.

Fence And Fortitude

2011-08-26T18:14:00.001+05:30

Picture courtesy

Fenced by the wires of a strange reality

My feet stay still on the no man's land

While there are striking forces at play

The ones which make all life look bitty

I see the sky and wonder why I stand

When wings of power within heart lay

Well why do not I try, why do not I fly?

What keeps me bound to the unseen?

The clock ticks whether or not I think

Hopes a hundred in a silent choke cry

Or is it how the whole world has been

Does fortitude stay only for a blink?

-R-

Between The Lines

2011-08-25T23:15:00.004+05:30

Picture courtesy

Among the many things I always feel like doing is visiting a book store or a library.The sight of books gives me some weird 'feel good' joy which no other thing does. It has been ages since I was at one, hopefully I can find here in this town. I am planning to search for one tomorrow or day after, anyone knows a good place for bookworms in Mangalore? Suggestions please! I am currently hooked to Emperor of All Maladies, a very insightful perspective on a very ill understood illness what we dread and call cancer, a highly recommended read.Having lost a few close ones to it and first of all being a doctor I could not stop myself from reading this book.And last week I finished reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel, another interesting tale which for all good reasons made me think 'The world is an open zoo:)'. I loved it in and out.

The beauty of books is each tale takes us into a different world. Even a ill written one has something to say, something to teach us. When someone says "That makes a bad read" all I tell them is that it is actually good because it is letting us know what qualifies as bad. Isn't that absolutely necessary?How can a book be bad? Do you know of any? Tell me why you found it so:)

Here is my 'To Read In The Coming Days And Nights' list:

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Marley And Me by John Grogan
Notes From A Small Room by Ruskin Bond

I will definitely be adding more;)
What are you all reading by the way?:)

-R.

The Difference

2011-08-20T17:20:00.000+05:30

Picture Courtesy

Some friends are just like the butterfly, they flap their little wings and the breeze they send is strong enough to lift our world to cloud nine!

This poem is for the only butterfly of mine:)

A story begins with a word

A sky is no place without a bird

A drop does make a sea

A leaf for the green of a tree

A petal to blush the rose

A friend I will always keep close

The world may wonder what this rhyme may mean

Though just one, he is all the life I have ever seen

And I call him

'THE DIFFERENCE'

-R-

Here Is Where I Belong

2011-08-13T11:10:00.003+05:30

Picture courtesy

The whiff of air through the window was like a pleasant alarm, it woke me up to a familiar sight. Blue buses and yellow black auto rickshaws were rushing past the green Namma Metro boards and the concrete pillars in the wee hours of morning all along the road. The busyness was slowly and serenely reverberating. It felt like a heaven which I know of and have lived in for years. I realized what I was missing all these days.

Times have changed, people have and so has this city. From a retired man’s paradise to a silicon valley this place has been all. Like anywhere else, there are many positives and negatives here but somehow the former outweighs. There is a strange welcoming calmness in the faces, they smile and you smile. This is one of the few places in the world where the locals try and speak the tourist’s language.The roads want to be walked on and the air just wants you to breathe free. Traffic, pollution and all other complaints apart let me tell you something, if you are a Bangalorean by birth or by heart you will stay so for life. That is the magic.

I reached today and I am here for a couple of days which already seems very little. I miss this place not only because I was brought up here .This city has given me everyone and everything. It has made me what I am today. Despite all this and more good there is something about Bangalore which makes me feel 'Here is where I belong'. I guess every Bangalorean will feel this. And every time I keep my foot down from the bus and reach home this feeling just gets stronger than before. I think it should. The road back home is easy right? It is just that most of us find it hard to turn back even for a moment, sigh life !

-R.

I Live, I End

2011-08-10T23:46:00.001+05:30

I live

Time flies

Colour fades

As I sit quiet on this fence

And look at the ones who come and go

A wanderer among them today gives me a stare

While he asks me “O’ lady bright and beautiful

Why does the world call you the ‘bougainvillea’?”

All I tell him”Even I do wonder why, why so

What is in my name, what is in my pink?”

As I sit quiet on this fence

Colour fades

Time flies

I end.

You And I

2011-08-06T19:36:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of August and we all know what is special about it. Cards, gifts, parties, roses, texts, wishes and friendship bands aside think of that one friend who gives you this feeling every moment “Ah! Blessed is life!” If you have one, well you are lucky and if you have many, luckier! It is not hard to ~~find~~ make such friends, but it is harder to keep them. And the efforts are not always mutually exclusive.

While we have grown through various phases of life we have categorized our friends into childhood friends, school friends, gully friends, pen friends, stamp friends, coin friends, cricket friends, college friends, neighborhood friends, travel friends, office friends and then came this current network era of online friends, orkut friends, facebook friends, twitter friends so on and so forth. It is more of the lasts in this list nowadays.Don’t you think this categorization is pretty lame and ordinary?

How many among these are the ones who give us that ‘blessed life’ feeling? Although the availability of candidates for our idea of friendship will be surplus, the way in which our relationship shapes up will depend on a hundred other factors and circumstances. Not all carbon turns diamond if you notice;-) A few among the bunch touch our hearts where no one has ever dared to. These are the people who love us just like how much we love them or maybe even more!

Isn’t this entire concept wonderful, two persons by random chance meet and relate to each other so much or so little and still never get fed up of being with each other! Sociologists say ‘No man is an island’, everyone needs friends but how many of us today make them only to keep them? Or do we make them only because we need them? Why does it have to stop at that or does it?

I have so many such questions in my mind. In all these years I have lost friends more than I have made, a few weird ones just choose to stay for all the goodness that I show ;-) When I look back I realize nothing was planned, everything just feels like it was meant to be. Of course I regret not keeping in touch with a few, the distance has inevitably come. But what is it that makes some friends really special that you can do anything to keep them? Will things be the same if we do not talk to them or see them for years? Should be, right? Actually more often than thought we are scared of losing such friends, at least I am!

And on occasions like these I come up with such gratitude filled blog posts, I also make sure that I show a little of my love in some way or the other everyday to at least one of them. Because I think ‘Life Is Too Short To Hide Your Love’ and my friends are the ones who make everything about it matter. These are subtle feelings, it may not matter if we do or do not acknowledge every time I know. But I am sure most of you will agree when I say that sometimes a laugh, a hug, a smile, a look and even a little tiff with such friends makes a lot of difference in our lives, a lot!

This post of mine is dedicated to all of them and this poem is for that friend of mine who makes that huge difference in my life:

You And I

The smile in your eyes when you show me the clouds and stars in the sky

The tight bear hug that you give when often and for no reason that I cry

The endless fights that we have when our fiery moods swing low and high

The spark in your voice when you shout and mean only the truth but no lie

The sound of your silence when you hint ‘Anything for you O’ friend my’

A million such things beautiful turns friends like ‘Us’ from ‘You and I’.

-R-

Nothing matches the feeling like this song does. A Happy Friendship Day & Sunday to you all:)

-R.

On The Broom, Behind The Bug !

2011-08-05T18:34:00.002+05:30

I do not mind riding a Firebolt;-)

Imagine a life in which you are a cleanliness freak, and also you study nothing but microbes everyday. To spice things up there are contrapositive souls sharing your space. Well I am living one right now and it is really tough, especially when you belong to the kinds who think a hundred times before even daring to oppose the other. It does not necessarily mean that you can bear with all of it either. The funny thing is to hear to the list of complaints they come up with, like the famous Sanskrit Subhashitha goes:

संपूर्णकुंभो न करोति शब्दं अर्धोघटो घोषमुपैति नूनम् ।

This is equivalent to the 'empty vessel- more noise' idiom in English. Someone must listen to the people who surround me here, they are exactly like the 'Ghatam'. I just stay mum. When I look at the mess that is around me I cannot help but wonder "Am I being too fussy, why don't I take it easy? What if it is just lying there, let them clean it if they want to!" and then is when I satisfy myself with this thought "Cleanliness is next to godliness, a ritual which I will practise everyday no matter who does what!".It is difficult but possible and also let me remind you it is more of the former when it comes to enforcing it on the others;-)

This issue sounds more like a complaint I know, I just could not resist blogging about it today. I will come up with some humour next time as per someone who advised me, he finds my blog posts very philosophical these days. Frankly I am a very serious person who takes trivial things more than seriously, if you speak or do something remotely close to nonsense I will complain about it and think of staying away from you for the rest of my life.Oh I forgot, that someone also says" Stop Complaining!".I guess this is the only solution that will help me survive anywhere I go, especially here.

~~Sometimes~~ it is always good to mind my own business is what I am learning now. This is not typical of me but it does not look like I have a choice either. Most of us satisfy ourselves with this, right? We ~~cannot~~ will not do anything if a crazy man spits from a moving bus, we ~~cannot~~ will not do anything if another crazy man is voiding everything that is stored in his bladder on the wall. The world has all kinds of such and more specimens you see, most of them obnoxiously human and shamefully out of human control. And trust me when I say more than half of these culprits are well educated !!!

What is more disturbing is all of us treat and think of this planet as nothing but a dustbin in some way or the other. How ethical is it when we let our filth flow down into the rivers and ask for only mineral water bottles to drink, or when we give the atmosphere only smoke instead of the oxygen that we breathe every moment. We write essays and debate in schools on every pollution that we are accountable for, our governments make futile policies and hold awareness days once a year and that is the end of it all I guess. This planet has never and will never have anything filthier than us humans. Our conscience hardly pricks and even if it does it can only stab the others. Like how it is happening over my place right now, and if someone is at the receiving end of all the rubbish like me, we ~~brag~~ blog about it. I am having a hard time for I am not able to decide where to draw a line with these people. It is all the more difficult because I have to see them daily and cannot completely keep away from them. I cannot teach them about being clean for they think they already are, I hope you get what I mean! Can someone suggest me something?

Some smart fellow must have come up with this:

'Support Bacteria-They are the only culture people have!'

-R.

Academia Here I Come !

2011-07-27T21:27:00.003+05:30

This made it here.

“I of all people can’t be normal. You think I should be ‘normal’? Myself? I need to sit and work in the rules of the setup... its really tough…”

So said a Calvin prototype who I look up to when it comes to such rare sense and sensibilities. On such occasions I end up giving him lengthy advices [most of us are good at it ;-) ], some practical and some very idealistic. At times I wonder if I can follow everything of what I suggest him!

When we want to do something new we begin with soaring spirits. We have ideas, plans, expectations and our own way of doing things. Everything appears perfect and colourful, what we actually see is the tip of the iceberg ;-) As time passes we realize that the system is sophisticated, the truth is every system is, was and always will be! There are assignments, projects, deadlines and submissions always on our mind no matter what our area of study or work is or how interested we are in them. There are rules meant to be followed although we laugh them away by saying they are meant to be broken. There are important people above, below and at the level of our hierarchy to be handled. There are countless limitations that will stop us. There are just too many things that we slowly and tactfully need to get aware of. It is a process precisely and to be good at it is a skill. All this comes with time, patience and experience.

The joy of learning and living comes with a lot of pain. It is really okay to complain, crib and whine occasionally, pretty human thing ;-) If you are in a mess seek for help, ask for some more time or just take a break and do something you really do not mind doing anytime! And of course do get back to what you are supposed to do actually ;-) If nothing of this is possible, just face it! Monotony and dilemmas hit all of us now and then, but it is up to us whether we make it synonymous with our routine or decide to separate them.

Quite a wisdom to take right? Did not I tell you most of us are good at something, well I belong to the most! Over here it has been two months of masters in Microbiology right now. I have thirty four more and the rest of life left ;-) And it never ever before had occurred to me that I can be busy doing this all day too! I am finding it strangely nice. I managed to write this while I was making my dissertation protocol right now, break time you see ;-). Because writing is something what I feel like doing anytime, so here I am giving some free advice on my blog. No better place than this, what say you my kind reader? :-)

The legend always inspires me...

I am back to work, protocol calling...

Academia here I come! :-)

-R.

The Sm'ART' 'NO'

2011-07-21T23:28:00.000+05:30

Random soul: Will you do this for me???

You,me,him or her: Err…hmm…okay….yes.

Image courtesy

If we have to make a choice between the two, many a times it is more difficult to choose the second one isn’t it? This does depend on the reason and the manner of request though,unless it is very impossible or impolite. Most of us have this problem,saying a ‘NO’ makes everything seem like hell.I am talking about those obligative souls amongst us who can sometimes let go their personal commitments and dreams at the cost of somebody else’s.Such people do exist and I am weirdly proud to say that I am one of this kind.The ‘YES’ just comes out of my mouth without any second thought. It is later that I wonder what made me say it!

But of late I am getting this feeling that I have had enough of being so, because today’s world for many reasons is hostile and thankless to all the little niceness that can exist.Ain’t any angel but I hope you get my point. I feel that each one of us is too busy to truly care or acknowledge what the other has to give. It is during such instances that I cannot help but think”Oh like it matters if I care!” which is not good but sometimes very necessary.

Image courtesy

“Learn to say ‘no.’ It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin”

-Charles H Spurgeon-

Saying ‘NO’ in the right place for the right person at the right time is an art is what my mother tells me, and I desperately need to master it. The difficult task is to draw the line between what we call parasitism and symbiosis[I have been reading a lot of microbes these days, germs and pests I tell you!].It is easier to follow the former. But tell me is it right being the bird all the time, how many of us do not mind being the worm occasionally? Or does life work like how this song goes ‘meant to be’.I love this one for its subtle sense.Listen,enjoy and let me know if you were the bird or the worm today;-)

Video courtesy

Its a rainy night here,a good night to you over there:-)

-R.

Burn Me Bright

2011-07-20T23:41:00.001+05:30

The lone sun drowns slowly in the oceans deep

While I stand on the shore with a heart to pray

For hope, peace and strength in this dark night

The million stars bring no love or trust to keep

While those tides hit hard and thrust me away

And the skin of my feet trembles like their light

The white of the moon is just too fickle to seep

While solitude strikes I wish to hold just a ray

For that will let me stay still with all my might

The fire within for long is in a unkindled sleep

While I wish for a beacon to hold me if I stray

And all I need is your spark to burn me bright.

-R-

In The Pensieve

2011-07-16T20:01:00.001+05:30

Image Courtesy

Some stories are heard while some are read. But there are some exceptions, the ones which belong the third category-stories which are heard, read, discussed, debated, loved, admired and cherished. All you Harry Potter fans out there will know what I am taking about. Like how Eagan said”Never judge a book by its movie”, I have always criticized and compared the Harry Potter movies with their respective books. The movies have never matched my expectations but I do have fond memories of times spent watching them with my friends. Today I am off with the same gang to watch the last one :-)

Everything about Harry Potter is special to me not because it was the most popular of the lot during childhood. I hardly knew of Rowling and the book when I was in school though many classmates of mine were well aware of it. Almost everyone around me used to say” Read it, you will definitely like it”. After a lot of suggestions and persuasions I started reading. And yes like I did, in fact loved it! I happened to become a fan by chance and I shall remain one by choice.

The beauty of these stories is that we can identify ourselves with them irrespective of what age group we belong to. Every time I pick up a book in the series and start reading I feel like am in a completely out of the world kind of skit. I then wish my school be Hogwarts, I wish my principal be Dumbledore, I wish my friends be Harry, Ron, Hermione, Sirius, James or Lily. The list is just endless! There is so much that I have learnt and bettered as a person reading every story. Each line feels like a powerful spell when I read them even today.

The situations and characters with their virtues and vices are perfectly etched, touching and upsetting at the same time!I still remember how eager we were to know who the Half Blood Prince was and how dead it made us feel when we came to know that Dumbledore is no more!Call this addiction or obsession-the pre orders for books, the talks which turned into fights,the run for movies and the countless telecasts back to back on Pogo during weekends,all this gave a different high ;-)

Anti Potters who chose to follow the other way and believe otherwise let me tell you Harry Potter is more than a product of fantasy or a figment of imagination.Life’s important lessons are more between the lines and you will get that only if you read it.You will learn that living becomes beautiful with school, teachers, family, friends,enemies,work,challenges, games,gain,loss,love and laughter,not because of potions or spells.Rowling with her words teaches you this in every book.The movies have tried to make it lighter, easier and have partly succeeded. I know there are intellectuals who think anything to do with Potter is juvenile stuff and that this is a crazy fan writing a crazier blog post. All I have to tell them is that “You have no idea what you are missing!”

Life is magic and much more than that.One needs to have a fine taste of imagination for enjoying it.Nobody can imagine for us and like us,except us.What say witches and wizards?So how many of you entered the Pensieve and watched the movie this time?Let me know how it made you feel.I am in a very nostalgic mood today,very...bittersweet!

Image Courtesy

"We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already...we have the power to imagine better"

-J K Rowling-

-R.

On The Fence- A Fear Or A Fault?

2011-07-12T20:19:00.004+05:30

Image courtesy

The other day I was talking with a close friend of mine who is currently residing outside India and since then I am with this big bug in my head. It was the usual questions and answers ‘How-are-you-I-am-fine’ kinds, but there was something else that we discussed which is now bothering me a lot. This is a dilemma to every Indian of today’s times I guess, especially the youth. Many among us are right now pretending to be unaffected and unaware about this issue, inside as well as outside India. For us life goes on, no matter what the country is going through!

When someone is off from India for higher studies, work or reasons whatsoever their folks and friends back home have this habit of asking “So when are you back?” and I did that with this friend of mine, well it’s been months I met him in person and therefore it was an obvious question from my side. And more obvious was his reply! I am not complaining about him, but the factors that have brought this change in his ideologies and perspectives, also of many Indians here and elsewhere about India are of grave concern.

From corruption to politicians, scams to hunger strikes, donations to price hikes and bribes to bad roads we blamed and cursed them all. And like every time and in ever case the talk ended right there with a ‘Nothing-Can-Be-Done-About-It’ sort of common opinion. My friend told me that he plans to work outside India after his studies, which means he shall be away from home for a few more years with a few visits to the country now and then probably. An ideal and a brave but not a very pleasing decision for everyone, not because of the lack or excess of patriotism or anything else. There is much more to loving our motherland and living with our fellow countrymen is what I believe. I know he can do that, no second thoughts.

But right now he has his reasons, and all of them are genuine. There is nothing that I find to support my point. I just had to nod in agreement for I felt he was right in a way. We are the kind of friends who usually joke about things for hours together which the rest of the world remotely finds funny, this one was not even amongst that. In fact I still have not found an answer to one of his questions, during the middle of this serious conversation he asked me” Do you see a future for your kids in India?” and for a second I realized that we are growing up in a frightening place! There are now going to be a hundred national, social, professional, financial, ethical, emotional, personal [in whatever order one may like :-) !] duties and responsibilities for all of us soon. The very thought of managing everything sends a shiver down my spine. Will we be able to?

Can someone help us? *Pratibha Patil? Manmohan Singh? Anna Hazare? Baba Ramdev? Sonia Gandhi? Suresh Kalmadi? Kanimozhi? A Raja? Rahul Gandhi? Jayalalitha? Mukesh Ambani? Yedyurappa? Mamatha Bannerjee? Karunanidhi? Arundathi Roy? Bal Thackeray? Mayawati? Narendra Modi? JRD Tata? Rakhi Sawant? ;-) Any other popular public figure for any reason good or bad we can think of? Lets try asking them if they can help us in paying the petrol price for a day at the least or in getting our friends back home at the most!

All of us speak a lot about this like how I am blogging right now. After reading this one may think about it for a few minutes and finally get back to his or her routine. But give it a thought, why are we stuck at square one when it comes to equality in progress? The poor get poorer, the rich get richer and then there are the average folks sandwiched in between making ends meet. Is this what we call unity in diversity? Today the common denominator does seem far from reality. These unbearable compromises are definitely demoralizing. Better is possible and all we lack is the willingness to try. Let us not forget that what we cannot risk losing in the first and the last place is our human resource and by now we already have let go gems in majority.

Years down the lane what if we repent that we did nothing about this matter but rely on someone else just because we think that it is not directly affecting our lives, someday it definitely will in a huge magnitude, actually it already is! Why do we leave everything on our so called leaders more than doing something ourselves? Why are we letting this happen? Why are we running away? What is that we can do individually and collectively? What does it take in the present to value our past and build a better future? I am so confused and I am not really glad that I have company,most of us really are!!!

By the way all I could tell my friend was” Looking at the current situation I will surely think a hundred times before having one;-)!”

Does a tree lose its roots while fanning out its branches in the sky, then why do we? Here is a beautiful poem and some advice from a tree for all of us to follow.Nature always has a way to teach us everything about life, its just that we refuse to walk that way.

Advice from a Tree

Dear Friend,

Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter

Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night.
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light

Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots

Enjoy the view!

-Ilan Shamir-

*Random sample of names, no offence or defense meant. Any omissions regretted!

-R.

My Best Friend

2011-07-08T21:37:00.006+05:30

Few days back I had mentioned an very famous essay ‘Umbrella Morals’ in one of my blog posts and now I am back again with an another tale. This time it is completely mine. These days I prefer to call my umbrella as my best friend because the showers here are as eerie as the folks of this town. The actions and reactions are lifelessly slow and silent, nevertheless sweet. So are the rains, beautiful yet troubling! I am not yet used to any of this. And an umbrella is the only thing that can safeguard me from some perish is what I feel.

Last evening not very surprisingly the fragile black one of mine happened to give up all its efforts to save me and decided to deceive me during my hard times. It turned upside down breaking here and there beyond repair, thanks to the winds and rains this place is blessed with. I had actually made a bad choice when I bought it for I was new to this place and I did not know what works here, rather what does not! And a day without an umbrella here is like living in a desert without an oasis! So today I was forced to go on a umbrella hunt in the Hampanakatta market where I found this:

Liked it? Blue and yellow are my favourite colours. Very floral I know but for some strange reasons umbrellas are a fashion statement in Mangalore. These long kinds are in fact known as ‘Ajjana Kode’ [Grandfather’s Umbrella!] but times now have changed and every other girl here owns it. It is strong and sturdy and therefore serves as a protection weapon maybe, enough to bash up a gang! Meanwhile I am wondering how long it shall last in these grieving months of ill weather, I am just hoping that at least this one wishes to stay as my best friend!

And this is what my bona fide best friend whom I fondly call Calvin had to say after looking at the picture I mailed him:

“Ayyo too girly! I won’t be able to use it if I ever come to Mangalore!”

Calvin says

'True friends are hard to come by'

And all this Hobbes has to say is

'Best friends are harder to please !!!'

-R.

The Moss On The Wall

2011-07-04T22:35:00.001+05:30

I was in one of those clouded moods of mine today, the kind of times when I am difficult to please or handle. Wonder if it was the weather or the sheer monotony and indecisiveness of life that I am feeling these days. Surprisingly someone who I hardly know happened to notice this and say something to me. They were one of the most beautiful and meaningful words which I have heard recently. I am glad that he told them to me when I needed it the most.

I and a new friend of mine were walking down the street near my home after work. The thoughtful frown on my face was very evident which made him ask if anything went wrong during the day. When I told him that things are really difficult and I am just not able to decide who to befriend and trust in this new place, he looked at the sides of the road and said this:

“Do you notice these walls here? Once upon a time they were as clean as a slate, and then there were the rains of confusion and discomfort which gradually turned them weak and wet. The green mosses started growing on them almost everywhere. Nothing stopped them, not even the wall. There are a lot of these dirty kinds in this world, don’t let them grow on you. Stop them, fight them or do whatever you can.There is nothing wrong in drawing a line and not obliging to someone beyond your limits. Grow a flower if you want to, you will look pretty but remember it takes a lot to be a clean wall, a lot! You definitely can be one...only if you wish!”

I walked with a smile and a sensible advice after days.

-R.

From Your Heart

2011-07-01T08:08:00.001+05:30

Lights of love,where do they wish to glow

From your heart to mine or I thought so

Tides of love,where do they wish to flow

From your heart to mine or I thought so

Winds of love,where do they wish to go

From your heart to mine or I thought so

Bonds of love,where do you wish to throw

From your heart to nether I now think so.

-R-

It's A Small World

2011-06-26T17:55:00.004+05:30

This is a fact superior to the technological advancements mankind speaks of. Today in the name of progress and evolution we have let inanimate and insensitive ‘things’ rule our world. And somehow they have started defining our existence; we have reached a no turn back point where we cannot do without what we call ‘gadgets’. Life is now easy and complicated at the same time, a tangled state of affairs. And only our gadgets can help us.

When it comes to gadgets everyone wants to own the best of them, but to be the best without them? A handful maybe! Gadgets reflect our personality they say, nothing is more true. But to prove that we need not have to cross our limits of liking and abilities and own them. Sadly many of us do that, we rush and buy the ‘IN THING’.I confess I have done that with mobile phones and after a month or so I have felt like changing them for no reason at all. Though late but for good I have realized that there is much more in calling a gadget life defining.I am writing here about mine.

When I think of gadgets which have made me feel ‘Change Is Easy’, the only thing which flashes before my eye currently is the MICROSCOPE.I know this may sound a bit eccentric. I could have ranted here about my watch, mobile phone, laptop, television, refrigerator, washing machine, toaster, iron box and whatever the rest of the world can come up with. These gadgets have of course made my daily living easy like the rest of yours, but what makes the microscope more special in my life is that I am a budding Microbiologist and that is why the obvious choice.

You see, I see life with the microscope. Tiny cells and organisms in all shapes, sizes and colors greet me all day. Sometimes they are too difficult to identify and we in the laboratory cannot diagnose what the patient might be suffering from. They are the best at mutations and variations; trust me when I say they are wittier than us humans. And all we do is speak of change and gadgets! I sometimes wonder how do they manage to live and in fact flourish without any of them, or maybe we should learn something.

These days I am spending a lot of my time with the microscope; this is one gadget which I cannot imagine myself without in the years to come. It has brought me closer to life, quite literally. My world has now started living under it. I call everything I see through it as frenemies actually, they look very beautiful but at times they can be a pain in the eye, I mean it. I must say that I am learning to focus the right thing in the right light, in life as well.I now can observe more than I can see.I now can face the minutest but toughest of all challenges.I now can understand that the most little things in this world are the most strongest.For many reasons else what makes me what I am and what I can be is only the MICROSCOPE.My heart feels for it and the rest is just secondary;-)

"Nothing inspires the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly but itself.

The best change is from within,change is easy only if you make it"

PS:This post is written as a part of Change Is Easy Contest by Indiblogger and Dell India

-R.

A Bumpy Ride

2011-06-25T22:30:00.000+05:30

An awful experience made me write this today,'The Universal Theories Of Auto Rickshaw Drivers'.It does sound pretty generalized and insane but that is the way how things are no matter where you live.If you relate to this do share your theories here,let the world know:-)

1.The Meter Down Theory-The Black Box staring at you in the left corner,it either runs faster than the auto or never runs at all.So please pay the roundabout.

2.The One And Half Theory-Before six in the morning and after ten at night these fellows are the best in their business,please note the timings may vary but the charges will not.

3.The Cut A Short Road Long Theory-Somehow these fellows will end up convincing you that they are on the shortest route,so be ready to be taken for a ride.

4.The Sorry No Change Theory-Mind you these are no chillar party,do keep enough in your pocket.

5.The I Know You Are A Traveller Theory-They have a wonderful knack of identifying you if you are new to the town,so before you reciprocate to their cordiality and make a fool of yourself think twice about boarding one.

6.The My Radio Your Call Theory-If you have not heard the latest and wackiest song take an auto and hear the man in front of you on the driver seat sing in sync.Do not forget not to make a call because he is never going to reduce both the volume,believe me.

7.The Sound Not So Sweet Theory-There is no better teacher to teach you the local lingo,you can call them a speeding dictionary of swear words for no hump or pothole can stop them.

8.The I Ride A Plane Theory-Many of them believe in this strongly,the sky is clear and the road is clearer is their idea.

Well I feel sorry for the odd decent ones here and there amongst these fellows,this post is definitely not targetted at them.The problem is there is too much bad to hide the little good,everything else thus goes unnoticed and uncared for.Wonder where these rickshaws or today's world is heading to,what say?Any idea?:-)

PS:I wish his bed catches fire.

-R.

In The Desert Of Dissertation

2011-06-23T21:31:00.006+05:30

I am planning to write a book titled 'Know All About Your Thesis Before You Begin It'.The abstract of this book is here in fact form.Any takers feel free to contact me, the consequences of the advice however solely rest on the reader and his material, methods and applications.Do not blame the author for any unavoidable troubles or undesirable results or for she is already getting ready to face her own.

Fact#1: Choosing your thesis topic is like choosing the best fruit from the basket, you do not know what it is like until you eat it.

Fact#2: The Guide is the God, bow down to him everyday.

Fact#3: Expenses are entirely personal, no reimbursements are to be expected.

Fact#4: References are life jackets, it is just that you do not find them when you need one.

Fact#5: No thesis is approved without modifications.

Fact#6: Thesis=Life, and the rest=Death.

Fact#7: There are high chances of your thesis turning outdated the next moment you are done with it, well before you reach the cloud nine.

Fact#8: The world gives you infinite things to work on, you can always begin all over again!

Other important facts of grave concern will be addressed in the sequel of the book which I plan to write during the process of my thesis work if I find time, by the way I will be working on 'High Level Aminoglycoside And Vancomycin Resistance In Enterococci With Gene Detection' for three years and before anyone faints hearing the title or thinks of asking me what it is all about let me tell you something, I am as clueless and dumbstruck as you!.Hope I do not end up like this...

-R.

Outside My Nest

2011-06-21T19:50:00.000+05:30

Outside my room this is what greets me everyday.I find this view extremely serene yet energetic.The lush green coconut trees swaying with the winds and dancing to the tunes of rain,the countless number of birds which come flying over the roof to pester me and that tiny building far away are a few things which interest me.I wonder about the people who live there.I wonder if their routine is like mine.I wonder if they are thinking about me just like I do about them sometimes.

Mangalore is a strange place, firstly the Kannada which I find totally perfect and entertaining.I am learning to speak like the people here, somehow this comes naturally to me! Then there is the inseparable umbrella, a Mangalorean's best friend.Lastly the speed with which things work here, even the tortoises will think twice before participating in a race with them.I am slowing down to get in pace with the folks here! Though I must say that I have not found an another town with such simple living but high thinking.Silent and resilient, not to forget that it is famous for all reasons.

Being here right now is kind of making me realize the sweetness and importance of my roots.The feeling of 'this is where I belong' is all the more good, very strange though for someone who has never been brought up here.I am loving this place and will so forever.So what say Mangaloreans all over the world,do you too?:-)

Pa

2011-06-19T14:46:00.000+05:30

"I thank you Pa for what you feel for me is nothing but true

There can be nobody who can love me more than you do"

'Happy Father's Day'

He is a difficult person to photograph,somehow managed a faint smile here in this one.This day is meant for him for my every day finds a new meaning because of him.But there is little that I can give him back right now because he stays in another town,thanks to his work.The nice but weird part is that he does not mind it.I am eagerly waiting to meet him this August.Today when I called him up to wish,the joy in his voice was enough to make my day when he said 'What all do you remember!Thank You Magale'.And then he adds on 'Are you studying or whiling away your time!'.That is how all fathers are,maybe.I will always love him for that:-)

Ice Cream For Life

2011-06-19T10:01:00.005+05:30

Mangalore is giving me a heavy dose of the coastal weather as I had expected. The sweating heat of summer and the wetting hammer of monsoon in transition. Everything is in its extremes in this place, literally everything! The very thought of spending three years of my life seemed to suck every colour out of my life until I came across something which I have come to believe is one of the most colourful things of this world.

Looks tempting and delicious, isn’t it? Believe me when I say this is equal to a tummy filling meal. A tall glass of God-knows-how-many-flavors of ice cream scoops with slices of banana, apple and pineapple, chunks of dry fruits and nuts, a layer of jelly to dance on your tongue and a few tutti-frutti here and there to make you smile while you relish. This combination is popularly known as GADBAD, an exclusive delicacy of the ice cream parlours of this town.

Now this is something which I can never imagine to go colourless. All of us love ice cream, don’t we? If you don’t, well do try this out. I am sure you will fall for this one.What makes GADBAD one of its kind despite its ingredients being very simple is the pure pleasure of digging the glass with a long spoon and letting that big bite melt in your mouth.Aah, the feeling is priceless!

There is more to why I choose to write about this amongst the many bright and brilliant things that I know of. I feel GADBAD is very synonymous with life, the name as well as the content.Colours are filled up to the brim and spill down the sides of the glass. There is everything that I ask and do not ask for, things that can cheer me up like the raspberry jelly and things that I personally detest like the bananas. And very surprisingly I do not notice that I am eating them together! By the way a cautionary advice to those trying this out, only one person can finish a serving unless the other who has accompanied you has not ordered one! So if you decide to eat one, it is a tough but a nice commitment. Isn’t this so much like life? If we have enough things that can keep us happy any trouble will seem trivial. There are a hundred hues and shades within and around us but in the end what matters is the colours that we choose for ourselves. Nobody else will and nobody else can!

A word of thought who think otherwise, are not black and white colours? Isn’t a full moon in the darkest of nights one of the most beautiful things to see? According to me there is nothing called colourless, not even transparent. Colours are more a matter of perception and appreciation. To let our life fly in colours we first have to paint our hearts and then the world with every colour possible.Because each colour has a beautiful story and with GADBAD I relate to an epic called life, the only thing which I wish to see and make colourful.

You see, Ice cream [scream] for life;-)

To know more about GADBAD visit:

PS: This post is written as a part of Take Flight With Colour by Indiblogger & HP.

From The The World Of Microbes

2011-06-15T19:28:00.001+05:30

I know this blog has been in the stationary phase since the last few days, courtesy my post graduation course in Microbiology.And by the way microbes are now my frenemies!I must say that life has now turned quite colorful with culture medias,test tubes,reactions,reagents,antibiotic sensitivity,streaking,inoculation, identification,incubators, slides and the microscope.There is lots of learning to do and three years for this course is seeming too little to me.I never had thought that I would end up being a Microbiologist for all my life!The feeling is sinking in slowly.I am liking it.

This means blogging will be given less attention for obvious reasons and unavoidable circumstances:-(But I will make sure that I will hop in here whenever possible during my free time for this place is very special and so are you,the ones reading this.A confession of sorts,I missed you very much all these days and that is why I am back here blabbering.So what are you upto my dear ones?:-)

Just Dream

2011-05-24T22:28:00.004+05:30

I dream of a cold summer night

When the stars shall shine

Like your baby eyes

And hide behind

Those clouds

In spite

I dream of a warm winter day

When the sun shall burn

Like your silly love

And hide behind

Those hills

In sulk

I dream of the time in between

When you shall hold me

Under the white quilt

Near and forever

And whisper

"Just dream..."

-R-

Ps: Submitted for Poetry Potluck 36 at Jingle Poetry

The Best Gift

2011-05-21T17:49:00.002+05:30

Impressive and innovative ad, isn't it?These days busyness and boredom are the two common but contradictory complaints in this world.Everything is all about time,it is either the lack or the excess of it.It flies past us like a silent jet and when people go in and out of our life we actually miss telling them how much they mean to us.Somewhere in between all this we fail to notice and miss those little moments of happiness with them.When we look back and try to collect those bundle of memories that they have given us everything for once feels very wonderful and perfect.

If you notice if there is anything that many of us can let go easily today it is a relationship.It really doesn't matter compared to our other priorities.We find it very hard to get back,all we do is give a sigh and run forward.As we reach far over the years the bridge breaks down slowly and one day before we realize there is nothing that can help us cross back.There are many people out there amongst us with money,success,fame and all that they ever wanted.But there is nobody around them to share their joy.How fine is that?If life was only about chasing our dreams,isn't living a nightmare better?Aren't we creating islands for ourselves in the process?

"The best gift you can give a dear one is your time"

A passion to run our own lives is a normal human tendency,the intensity varies with different individuals but one thing which is essential to everyone is a strong group of family and friends.When we are tossed of our boats it is this support system that saves us,they pat our back when we achieve something and keep us going.Despite all that they give us we find it hard to express what we feel for them.We take them for granted and acknowledge nothing or little.Why is that?

How many of us remember the first toy our parents brought us?How many of us remember the first story Grandma told us?How many of us remember the first walk with Grandpa?How many of us remember the first fight for a tricycle ride with our brother or sister?How many of us remember the boy or girl who sat next to us and shared our lunch box at school?How many of us remember the first poem our teacher taught us?Blame the time or call all this a way of life.We know not of what we have until we lose it and sadly through each phase of life we lose more than we gain.

All this is nothing to do with nostalgia or memories,it is about living while we grow up which somehow we forget.A small act of love and care can bring lots of magic around us,lets do that when we can.Fortunately God sends people to stay with us who ask for nothing more,the world will be filled of lonely fools if we lose them.We are drifting from each other already even though we have all the connectivity possible.

If you are missing someone really close to your heart like I did today,do not hesitate to tell them that you are no thing without them.Go give them a tight hug if possible.Let me know how you made them feel and how you feel after that.Live,love,laugh and most important of all 'RESPOND'.By the way I am feeling awesome!:-)

"A hug is a handshake from the heart"

-R.

Being Beautiful

2011-05-19T21:43:00.012+05:30

"The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion.But cosmetics are easier to buy."

-Yves Saint-Laurent-

What a smart thought! Beauty and women are quite synonymous, aren't they? Most of us think beauty tips and beauty parlors, make ups and make overs are more of a feminine thing.Lets not forget that to be beautiful is men's right too! Sadly they do not get, or more so they do not give themselves the attention that they deserve in this matter.My heartfelt concerns and empathies with them.The situation these days is changing, thanks to the awareness and exposure to the hundreds of products and services available.Everyone is ready to spend their time and money to appear their best today, men and women alike.Who does not desire to look beautiful but ever wondered who desires to be beautiful? Which of them is an easy task? These are some thoughts to ponder about.

There is no standard criterion which can define beauty.What looks stunning to me may appear terrible to you.It is rightly said that 'Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder'.On the contrary imagine this, what if the petals of a flower look exactly like its leaf, can we notice it easily? There is something about the flower that makes it look different and that is the reason why it catches our eye.But no one painted a color on it, no one asked it to bloom or no one helped it to spread its fragrance.Everything comes natural and by self to it.It may wither away some day but the joy it gives too us is meant to stay.John Keats was more right when he said 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'.But being beautiful does not mean one should try hard to please another, it is in trying hard to satisfy oneself despite all adversities.The attention just follows.No amount of concealer or foundation can help here.So look at the mirror, stare at your eyes and catch your real beauty because nobody else can!

"Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."

-Khalil Gibran-

One impressing thing about it is that the more one tries to fake it, the more dirty it looks.Some people just lack the whole idea and intention of 'BEING BEAUTIFUL', they make a mess of every fine thing that is gifted to them.If only they understand that there is more to beauty than looks, symmetry, weight or height! This does not mean one should not worry about his or her semblance or health, it is our duty to pamper and please our body and mind.But beauty is neither skin deep nor bone deep.To appreciate our strengths, to understand our weaknesses and to leave no stone unturned to better ourselves is a beauty of the highest order.Nobody can steal or spoil it.If we have it there is nothing that can stop us.

Beauty is both inside and outside us,more in the latter.It is in loving and respecting every living being and thing around us.It is in finding everything beautiful in something which the rest of the world finds ugly.It is in willing to learn from the best and to share with the helpless.It is in the demeanor which we show when we face the worst of possibilities.It is in creating a personality of our own.It is in more than being for oneself.Beauty can be called real only when it is remembered by the world even after it fades away.Real beauty is not permanent, it is persistent and lingers beyond memories.

"Beauty is an experience,nothing else.It is not a fixed pattern or an arrangement of features.It is something felt,a glow or a communicated sense of fineness."
-D. H. Lawrence-

Here is my poem which sums up what real beauty means to me:

Life Is Beautiful

A seagull's passion for our hopes to fly

A spider's will for our minds to try

A gazzle's strength for our feet to run

A firefly's light for our hearts to burn

A dolphin's dash for our dreams to dive

A bee's might for our souls to strive

An eagle's vision for our eyes to see

One life to learn all these

Is 'the' real beauty if you ask me.

-R-

PS1:'You're beautiful'

PS2: This post is written as a part of

-R.