I lost my cool series - entry 1

101 things that I want to do in life - 1 to 22....

__________________________________________

101 things that I want to do in life
With little introduction to the title of the post, I am going to start
typing right away...
just two things:
- These are in no particular order of priority/ relevance...
- I am probably not going to type 101 things at one go...
- (I know there were supposed to be 2 things, but I just changed my
mind). I am posting after a loooooong time, not because I didnt feel
like, but because in the effort to keep it anonymous, I shifted the
authorship of the blog to a new gmail ID and then forgot the new
username and password :D.... but (very luckily) just when I had
completely given up on efforts to retrieve it, I just manage to
recover my uname/pswd!!!!!
- (ok, I have already broken the '2' limit). For the record, I am
posting from Istanbul, in transit to Dusseldorf (Germany). I am
comfortably seated in a business lounge; and while I am trying not to
flaunt it, the real fact is that contrary to my own expectations (that
I will be ambivalent to B-class), I actually loved it; no reasons for
guessing why..... why because, I managed to peacefully sleep for 5
straight hours in a flight :)

Now, to the subject matter of the post...
________

1. Start and actively manage a gardening blog
2. Start writing poetry again. - hindi poetry preferably
3. Try my hand at quilling. I just bought a quilling kit. I think they
have just started selling those in India... I am yup so happy!!
4. Euro trip with 'AM'
5. Join dance classes
6. Learn Indian classical dance (pref Bharatnayan/ kuchipudi...) some day..
7. If I have a daughter, I will enable her to learn Indian classical
dance (dont gimme that look, I am not 'forcing' my
yet-unplanned-unborn-may-be-a-girl child.... I said I will 'enable'
her ;-)
8. Want to be a mother - well I will discuss this on a separate post someday
9. Speak fluent Bengali... I can speak in bits and pieces currently
10. I will keep my hair short n'sexy when I am 50+
11. Do a temperature-raising salsa number.... now this one is
preferably with 'AM' again; but, he has two left feet, so... I mean I
have to do the number anyhow!!!
12. Be a good manager, a good boss
13. Learn swimming... at least enough to make use of a pool!
14. Be a sexy mom
15. Sketch better, sketch extensively
16. Be good at my office stuff - no matter what I do, I should do it
well... very well
17. See Ajanta Ellora
18. See Hampi
19. See Ladakh someday, though its difficult for some undisclosable reasons :(

____________

20. I want to make a nice quilling creation
21. I want to have a garden (won't mind if its a 'potted' one even!)
but has to be 'mine'.
22. I want to decorate my garden and do up the interiors myself

101 things that I want to do in life

With little introduction to the title of the post, I am going to start typing right away...

just two things: 

1. These are in no particular order of priority/ relevance... 

2. I am probably not going to type 101 things at one go...

3. (I know there were supposed to be 2 things, but I just changed my mind). I am posting after a loooooong time, not because I didnt feel like, but because in the effort to keep it anonymous, I shifted the authorship of the blog to a new gmail ID and then forgot the new username and password :D.... but (very luckily) just when I had completely given up on efforts to retrieve it, I just manage to recover my uname/pswd!!!!!

4. (ok, I have already broken the '2' limit). For the record, I am posting from Istanbul, in transit to Dusseldorf (Germany). I am comfortably seated in a business lounge; and while I am trying not to flaunt it, the real fact is that contrary to my own expectations (that I will be ambivalent to B-class), I actually loved it; no reasons for guessing why..... why because, I managed to peacefully sleep for 5 straight hours in a flight :) 

Now, to the subject matter of the post...

________

1. Start and actively manage a gardening blog

2. Start writing poetry again. - hindi poetry preferably

3. Try my hand at quilling. I just bought a quilling kit. I think they have just started selling those in India... I am yup so happy!!

4. Euro trip with 'AM'

5. Join dance classes

6. Learn Indian classical dance (pref Bharatnayan/ kuchipudi...) some day..

7. If I have a daughter, I will enable her to learn Indian classical dance (dont gimme that look, I am not 'forcing'  my yet-unplanned-unborn-may-be-a-girl child.... I said I will 'enable' her ;-)

8. Want to be a mother - well I will discuss this on a separate post someday

9. Speak fluent Bengali... I can speak in bits and pieces currently

10. I will keep my hair short n'sexy when I am 50+

11. Do a temperature-raising salsa number.... now this one is preferably with 'AM' again; but, he has two left feet, so... I mean I have to do the number anyhow!!! 

12. Be a good manager, a good boss 

13. Learn swimming... at least enough to make use of a pool!

14. Be a sexy mom

15. Sketch better, sketch extensively

16. Be good at my office stuff - no matter what I do, I should do it well... very well

17. See Ajanta Ellora

18. See Hampi

19. See Ladakh someday, though its difficult for some undisclosable reasons :( 

..... to be continued...

Colours, brushes, palettes... .

Hey ppl! I am back after a long break – and believe me I have been planning to do this post since months now!.... And guarantee you something which you have rarely seen on this blog before!! i.e. the artistic side of me… !

Here is one of my  recent DIY (do-it-yourself) projects... (there are slew of them in the offing!) 

Embossed work on Aluminium sheet. 

Size - ~ 20" X 26" (if I correctly remember ;))
Time taken: ~10 yrs (Ya, I see your expression "!!!???"..... did the embossing when I was in school, and then nothing happened for ~10 yrs.... then one fine day so happened that my dearest mom was hell bent on proving my lethargy and she pointed this as an example to AM. AM obviously seized the opportunity and pestered me day-in-day-out to paint and mount it....  He in turn was motivated by the fact that (we think) it will fit well into our drawing space**.... So, here it is.



Comments most welcome!

The expensive gift that I didn't like :(

How is it?!, said an excited, loving AM.
Hmm, 'you tell me how it looks on me!', said a trying-to-look-excited', hesitant me, trying to hide my real emotion....

Well, the fact of the matter was straight, I didn't like the diamond pendant-earring set that I was just gifted. Secondly, the fact that we have been trying to save for our house down payment, such an expenditure seemed so unwarranted to me, esp. given the fact that I am not too gungho about gold from a fashionista perspective (its a great investment though!).

But somehow I managed to evade it.... but not for long though, an hour later as AM and me were driving down to drop me to office, he asked again 'I think you didn't like it too much'.... that was enough to start me off in clarification of 'why I didn't like it'...  and in the process I did manage to make it clear 'I DID N'T LIKE IT!' .....sometimes its so rightly advisable to shut-one's crappy opinion to self... but I didn't and here I I spoilt it all for him in so many words... :( :(

ultimately, he did add in frustration.... 'AS, you are such a difficult person to gift!'.... well, which girl would cringe at a loving 30k gold jewellery gift on Karwachauth'!! ??probably I am.

PS: I did add in the middle of the conversation somewhere that 30k could have bought lenses for my 'desired' SLR camera! .... and also managed to ask him 'how much making did they charge on the jewellery?'

A distressed Hindu

The 'secular' parties tell us: please do not fight for religion. They tell us that castes are a 'reality', so must be included in population consensus, so "Aye all, please declare your castes". but but but, "Do not believe these religious fanatics, rise above religion.... Religion is an impediment to peace & progress". The English media tells us "that the youth no longer care for Ayodhya", yes may be they don't, they are now fighting for reservations for 'their caste', well, that gets some people 'undeserved' jobs, and gets the politicians 'votes' .... The Secular parties tell us that religion is divisive whilst caste is a reality (though I would have thought the reverse)... The non-rightist parties tell us that "We owe these reservations to a vast majority of people who have been oppressed since centuries by 'Upper class' hindus"....  (and only in India, we have Dalit muslims & christians too, Voila, thats great, who says we have lost the path to innovation!.... So, basically, you convert and retain your "Hindu caste"...  But thats a debate for another day...)

 I do know that each one can have their view.. so here is mine.... I know that what I say here is what an educated, city-elite Indian is probably ashamed to say today.... I regret the way it happened, I would regret if there is a single drop of blood on the street, I do not support the way the structure was demolished.... but I somehow feel that the Temple is rightfully ours, Its not a Mecca/ Medina for Muslims, its just a structure build amoungst the thousands of structures build by muslim rulers over hindu temples....I think the secular India owes this to its Hindus - Hindus who since centuries have been traumatized and trampled by the powerful muslim invaders. Hindus who have no significant place of their own but this Bharatvarsh.... Bharat whose eastern & western sides were blown away, and the whose head continues to be pulled away by Muslim fanatics.... This time India owes it to its Bharat, this time India owes it to its Hindus. 

I do not know how it can be achieved without shedding blood, and thats probably the biggest irony of it all...  given a choice, I would still cowardly choose peace to 'my right' ...... and in the same breath, I do understand that the dilemma courts face, I know faith has no  importance in the eyes of a court, and I respect that... but if I try to look from the timeline perspective of several millenia... I do somehow feel that it would be so wrong for that place to be taken away from Hindus. So, here I am, caught in the dilemma of peace and 'what I think is right'...  

- A proud Indian and a distressed Hindu

Are you anxious? I am.

Are you anxious? I am.
My political views: Moderate rightist.
and what do I mean by that? It means that I am a proud Hindu but I do believe that everybody has a right to practice their religion. All religions are true. However, why do I call myself a rightist then? Because I think that some amount of 'hardline' Hindu elements are required to counterbalance the politics of appeasement that we have been subject to under decades of Congress rule. So, I am caught, I do not believe in 'militant' Hinduism, however I think that some amount of 'resolute'/ 'strong'/ 'stubborn' Hindu elements are a 'necessary evil' for 'True Secularism' to come to front - wherein the State wouldn't care about your religion.

My qualms with the Indian Muslims
However, I think that the Muslim population in India (& across the world) has a typical trait. They partition the country they live in. Be it British-India, Czechoslovakia, erstwhile USSR or now Kashmir; somehow their Muslim identity always overcomes the identity of the Nation that they live in - They always seem to be asking for a 'separate land' (rather than for say development).
Now, I agree thats too much of generalization, so I would add some specific points to it. Religions, just like people, need to change according to times. Christianity has 'moderatized', so did Hinduism, and so did Buddhism; however, the Muslims (and I can say that about India) have had no meaningful reforms. So, in a way, its an anachronistic faith in current times. This has caused problems, since there are no 'voice' for 'moderate muslims' (I do hope there are some).
Muslims are a militant lot - I do understand that this is a vicious cycle of poverty, illiteracy, backwardness, militancy, alienation from society, poverty, illit..... and so on..... However, that doesn't change that Muslims are a militant lot. and sometimes 'Force' can only be dealt with 'Force'...  or a revolution from within. With no 'internal reforms' in sight, its just remains 'Force' vs 'Force'

Are you anxious? I am.
Ayodhya judgement is awaited tomorrow. and I am anxious, very anxious.

believe

Oh, I know how you feel dear... I know how you are shaking, I know your crying alone in the far away country...
I know the way your heart is ripped, I know how your soul is torn... 
I don't really know what you desire, but I do know that you are worn.
Don't give up honey, be strong... like all moments in life, this is a phase it will pass.. 
I am there for you :)


"Don't take life too seriously, after all nobody gets out alive anyway!". Gaze to the deity that you have worshipped for years, he doesn't look like a deceiter, does he? Believe me, he is leading you though you don't know.


Believe.

arz kiya hai

Mar 2010... unhone likha... 


Na mails ke jawab ate, mobile par sirf callertune hi sunte, 
Na mails ke jawab ate, mobile par sirf callertune hi sunte, 
Aye mere humsafar, sitaronki bheer mai, 
reh gaye  hum apne chaand ko dhoondte!


PS: Might not rhyme well, but it did time well

Valet Parking

 - Where is the parking?

- You can leave it here Madam.

- No, its ok, I will park.

- The valet is coming and he can park for you. If you want to park, you would have to park a little farther down that lane.

- Oh, is the valet parking free?

- (he switched to hindi) haan madam, yeh nih-shulk hai.

- oh ok, thanks, could you please get it parked for me.

Now, three years earlier, I would have scoffed at somebody trying to save the 100 bucks (this is the amount that many seven-star hotels in Delhi charge) for valet services.

Today, I did it myself! Reasons that I can think are:

1. I am confident of myself. Yes, I am no longer concerned about what a security guard will think of me! and am more sure now that he won't refuse me entry for asking a question like that! 

 2. 100 Rupee does matter to me more than the slight hitch in asking. As you start spending your own money, you realise the importance of it even more.