The Happy Gardener

** Wrote this blog a couple of days ago and am posting it only now. I love flying out of international terminals - even when I am flying domestic, like right now. There's something very holidayey and fun abt being around international travel - everyone is excited and happy and sorta hassled. There's passports and languages and accents all over the place. Fun fun. I haven't been blogging for the last few days, thanks to the move. Spent quite some time with friends over these days and last night, as I was unpacking in the new apartment, I came across a bunch of greeting cards, invitations and notes from my friends over the years. It was great to sit there and go through them. I decided that I need to write something for my friends. So here's an honest thank you to all my friends. Thank you , to old friends and new. in India, in the different states of America and everywhere else. For moves and packings and unpackings. For helping me buy things, from vacuum cleaners to car...

It 4:4 - me vs the Snow Gods. 4 times they buried my car and 4 times I dug it out. It's also 2:0 - me vs the Snow Gods. I made 2 attempts to move to my new apartment and failed both times. Well, the attempts ended in my parking lot but still. I am turning out to be quite the New Englander. I must say that I rather enjoyed digging my car out this evening after being cooped up at home the whole day. I have taken inspiration from this quote in a book that I read (The Inconvenient Truth, I think) - "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing". Layers is the way to go. Meanwhile I am watching the Giants go to overtime with the Panthers. Precious years of my life are being lost in the last 2 mins of the fourth quarter in all these games but no complaints. If the Giants win, that is. OK - time to concentrate. Will be back after the game. Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!! That was fully awesome!(like the hamster in Bolt). And we are now in love with Derrick Ward. And so, happil...

Yes, that is right. The title is a phrase. A random phrase . Deal with it. Wodehouse said it right. Life is rummy. Today was rummy. A friday - the penultimate week of the year. Little work, indifferent packing and an unplanned, unspecific hang out day with friends. A crazy snow storm outside. Many inches of snow on my car.(Tangent - what do the snow gods have against me ?! I have parked in every single spot in the parking lot on snow days and my car is always the one that gets buried while, read this carefully, the ones on both sides of my car have a dusting on them). After every one left, I settled down on my couch to watch some TV. It felt strange - thinking that this could be the last night I hang out at home. This home. I get waaaaay too emotional about unimportant things. All my emotions are reserved for unimportant, trivial, non-living things. Or living beings on tv. Or in books. It was an excellent evening for watching tv and of course, there was a wonderful collection of mind-n...

I am in dog tired heaven. What is dog tired heaven? It is the best kind of heaven there is. This is what you need to get to DT heaven : You need to be dog tired - really exhausted. Add a hot shower, air dried hair, a couple of aches and pains, some mindless tv and a home cooked dinner and you are there. I feel so at peace with everything right now... I am not even sure if I am not high. How came this to be, you ask? And 'tis a wise question, my dear reader. Looking at my blog these last few days and weeks, you could easily be excused for thinking that I am in no danger of exhaustion in my daily routine. Granted. Today, however was that day. That day when I got tired of it and said - "What the squash! I need to be in the gym". So off I went and spent an hour on the old faithful treadmill. 6.5 miles and several calories later (I must admit my body was seriously ready to quit once I hit mile 5), I stepped off the treadmill and realized ...... that I looked like a beetroot. I...

It's 10.12 pm and yes, I am tired and sleepy. It's just been that kind of a day. My neighbors are driving me crazy. Not the ones who have those ear-popping and eye-opening fights once in a while. No - these are other neighbors. And no, they are not noisy, or messy or weird or anything. They are just great cooks, I think. Every evening I come home and this delightful smell of fresh, home cooked Indian food wafts up to me. It's torture I tell you. I hang out in front of my door for a while, taking my time opening the door, etc - hoping that the neighbors will step out, catch me in the corridor, say hello, introduce themselves, chat, figure out that I am the friend they have always been looking for and invite me over for dinner and insist that I join them for dinner every day. It hasn't happened .... yet. Hope, my friends, is the best thing there is. Alright, may be I should get some quality sleep this night - to make up for last night. And a special prayer for my wisdom t...

Spent most of the day packing. When I finished for the evening, I wanted to be sitting in an easy chair and listening to desultory conversation between 4-5 people I know - without participating much other than "Hmmm"s and smiles and nods. Yes, I tend to have very specific moods. Anyways, due to the non-availability of such 4-5 people in my living room and anywhere within 5 miles radius, I switched on the TV. A plethora of Christmas spirited movies and shows were on - well, as much of a plethora as one can have in 14 channels. This bugged me. I mean, I am all for the Christmas spirit generally but this was way too sugary for me especially given the fact that I was not getting the desultory chat I ordered. So, I popped in "The Pursuit of Happyness" in my DVD player and settled down to watch. This was the perfect antidote to the slew of Christmassy shows/movies. It is an optimistic movie but it has a good solid amount of realism ( it helps, of course, that it is based ...

Life is wondrous. December in Massachusetts. Below freezing and crazy wind chills two days ago. And today, at 8 in the evening, you could step out in shorts and flip-flops, even if it was for just a couple of minutes to take the trash out. You could also step out at 9 in the evening in your shorts and flip-flops if you realized you hadn't take all the trash out. I love Kira Willey's "colors" song. I was hooked when I first heard it on the Dell ad and hunted it down. The lyrics are so vivid : I am orange today Loud and messy like finger paint on the wall. I am red today Hopping mad like a playground ball. And now for a blessed 8 hours ... finally.

I am in one of those strange moods this evening. I came home pretty late and then something happened that was frustrating and of course, hilarious. So it's just going to be a bunch of unconnected thoughts today. I am so defiant. Every time some one or some thing challenges my idea, perception or methods of happiness, I seem to get happier with vengeance. Is this healthy? But then, what is healthy? I was just watching Fox news - happened upon it as I was surfing the whole gamut of 14 channels that I get on TV - and heard this "A dog may be called a man's best friend but this woman swears that her pooch helped her detect her cancer early .....". Fox news. Enough said. I have a few hours of work to do. I am sleepy. I need to be entertained while I work. There is nothing on TV. Is Earl Grey going to save the day ? I think my friends should chat with me while I work.

If you could trade your passion for a life of no pain, would you ? If you had to sacrifice your spirit for a life of contentment, could you ? If you could hand all your love to just one person, would you give it? If you could relive every single day of your past, would you live it ? If you had just one wish, would you use it? If there was a life of no regret, would you choose it ? If perfection was in a moment, would you see it? If you had clarity for a second, would you feel it? If pure friendship knocked on your door, would you believe it ? If true wisdom beckoned you with open arms, would you receive it ? If beauty eternal looked you in the eye, would you cry ? If you had to pass through fire to find solace, would you even try ? Would you trade your youth for power? your empathy for equanimity ? trade your dreams for your pride ? your laughter for loyalty ? Your faith for knowledge ? and hope for the world ?

Look at him! Just look at him. Isn't he adorable?? He's Bolt and I brought him home over the long weekend. He is just plain irresistible and I must say it's been a pretty rough few days for the rest of my stuffed animal family. What's that you say? - too many stuffed animals in my life? Oh yeah, that's a whole different post. Tangent : just saw this on the news. They plan to increase the toll on Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels from $3.50 to $7. $7 each way!!! Are you zucching kidding me? They should stop calling it toll and call it what it really is - highway robbery. Or rather, toll pike robbery. Dab all tolls. Anyways, coming back to my weekend. It was blissful. Nice and relaxed. Finally got to see that Prudential tower. Slept long hours. Watched movies. Talked to friends. Did this and that. Stared at ceilings. Worked on and gave up on a poem. Finally shopped like a girl on Sunday. 'Twas a good weekend. I now own walking shoes. I have running shoes, hiking sho...

It has been brought to my notice that lately my blog has been a whole lot of grocery talk. So I figured I shouldn't comment on the 2/3 red cabbage ( 2/3 in size - not in color) still sitting in my fridge or the bitter cranberries that I picked up today (come on!). This is the life, what? Done with work early, no logging in from home, potatoing the heck out of the couch, a nice, long weekend coming up and no snow on the roads yet. Lot of thanks to give, indeed. Of course, I am sure I will mess up the weekend, or not make the most of it or something like that but that's the point - the weekend is my oyster. But I'm vegetarian. So the world is my ...... cauliflower! Hey, it's my blog - so quit complaining. You know how sometimes you look back at something you said or did and think "What was I thinking? Oh God! I don't even want to think about it !" . I do that like 10 times a day but yesterday I took a look at some of the stuff that I've written over the ...

Multiple things have occurred over the past few days. Angels and Demons has been read - at the cost of an entire night of sleep. First time in my life, I think - I went to bed at 6.30 am. Bolt! has been watched and it is AWESOME!( the way the hamster says it). And we have found yet another random word to bung in as the title. (The author shall heretofore use the royal we to refer to herself.) And we are now sitting here considering setting up an alarm to wake up at 4.00 am on Sunday morning (don't ask - long story). And instead of salvaging the few hours of sleep that we have, we insist on blogging. Our last name should be Masochist. OK - now, I really sound like Gollum. Bertie Wooster, while referring to Madeline Bassett in Right Ho, Jeeves said " I don't want to wrong anybody, so I won't go so far as to say that she actually wrote poetry, but her conversation, to my mind, was of the nature calculated to excite the liveliest suspicions". Now, I believe my convers...

What's the deal with red cabbage? I have always steered clear of vegetables that are not in their native( read Indian - pun unintended) colors but today was that kind of a day. I was driving back from work and suddenly decided that I should cook the cabbage and potato curry that my Mom makes. So, with said intentions, I arrived at the grocery store and found that the green cabbage looked rather healthy. I chose the smaller red cabbage instead, after a couple of minutes of thought. Later, as I washed the cut cabbage, I noticed, with semi horror-semi amusement, that all the water was colored a deep blue/violet shade. Drumsticks! It's like they dyed the poor cabbage and it was bleeding color now. I am not sure if I want to eat it anymore. I'll finish cooking the curry tomorrow morning and probably eat it ok but what am I supposed to do with the other 3/4 of the cabbage? Red cabbage juice - that's an idea. Something tells me that after this week, I won't be eating/drink...

It has been 6 days since a 47 year old Senator from Illinois told us that "Yes, we can!". Of course - I always believed in him. And I wasn't swayed by all the discussions and advertisements either. I took the decision based on two very important factors. A. He is currently based in Chi-Town - which is awesome! and B. He entered my radar with this very important and extremely impressive speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3vf1lRMDMo). If you think these are flaky reasons to base such an important decision on, I say to you - squash! Did you watch that video carefully? Besides, anyone with such wonderful eye crinkles has to be an honest and trustworthy person. Anyways, I was so caught up in all this optimism and enthusiasm that I decided that I needed to do something abt my own situation. I've had this feeling for a while now that I've become pretty lazy. I mean, other than working, I do very little these days. So I decided that I will turn my life around and be ...

I will never climb Mt.Everest. Not that there was any danger of it happening any time soon. But still. I am firm on this decision. I finished reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. It is a raw and real book and illustrates, among the many other qualities, the stupidity and recklessness of humans, as a species. Finally took my car to a car wash over the weekend. And now it's like watching the world in high definition as I drive - it's like some one just upped the resolution and the windshield doesn't even exist. This happens every time I get my car washed. I should do something like this for my glasses too, once in a while! I've been very bad. There are people out there who are not only willing to read my blog, but also willing to acknowledge the fact by leaving comments abt my blog and I haven't replied to them. The problem here is twinfold : a) I somehow don't get to read the comments until much later. b) I don't have anything witty to say in response. Now ...

Does anybody else think that the guy from CSI Miami (apparently his name is David Caruso) is a little too orange? I don't know if it is the bad color settings of my TV but that guy always reminds of an apricot. Just had to express the thought. Running through an empty grocery store aisle with a cart, achieving critical speed for lift off, cruising, and decarting in the nick of time to prevent a collision with the cereal boxes is one of life's pure undiluted joys. And just like a fairy tale, at the end of the rainbow is a box of cereal. As I was loading the bags into my car after my exciting trip to the grocery store, I started thinking of our typical daily paper/plastic footprint. I recycle as much as I can, try to use my reusable shopping bags whenever I can, and never throw away any plastic bag without loading it with some trash and yet, I feel like there's all this plastic and paper in my life. Compared to this, I think India was/is light years ahead in this field. Wheth...

And on to the next post. Massachusetts, in an attempt to keep driving fun when there's no snow and salt on the roads, has rotaries. What are rotaries? They are roundabouts or traffic circles. I think they should be called newbie-traps or HonkFests. So Mass folks added rotaries to their roadways. And, on a whim, they decided to do away with the yield signs. Until some guy in the Roads and Traffic Department(which itself was voted out of MA in early 70s, I believe), came up with the bright idea. He said: "Why remove them when you can place them in highly ambiguous positions around the rotary?". "'Tis true!", said the wise men of the council, nodding their heads. And thus came to be the yield signs. One is never sure if one is the yielder or the yieldee. Actually, that seems like a pretty deep, philosophical statement. "Who is the Yielder? Who is the Yieldee?". Anyways, back to fun and games at the rotary. When I first started driving around in MA an...

The details will kill us all. The number of things that one has to remember on an average day is staggering. Like this morning : I was packing my lunch and I suddenly remembered that my rent was past due. "Broccoli!", I thought, " I completely forgot about it." Tangent: I've always thought that it is the act of swearing, and not the actual swear word, that gives us the release. Half the time, what we say when we are swearing doesn't even make any sense in context of the object we are swearing at. So, I think, if said properly, any word can make a good cuss word. This had prompted me, in recent times, to try to move away from my favorite D words (dang, darn and damn) to the new B word - Broccoli! This works fine - especially if I emphasize the first syllable. There was still the problem of the C word (crap) - what with WTC being an oft used expression. Broccoli just didn't go with it. Neither did squash. What the squash!? What the Squash!? What the SQUASH...

Apparently, Siddhartha was leading a pretty good life, filled with beauty and luxury, until one day when he went out for a little drive, came across some sick and old folks and decided it was more than he could handle. He then turned away from his life, became an ascetic, achieved Niravana and became the Buddha. If I ever end up the same way, it will be because of my car insurance. The greatest peril of leading an optimistic and cheerful life is that you end up inviting the wrath of Fate. It is called "Asking for It". Basically, Fate just gets sick of your annoying grin and has to try real hard not to sock you in the eye. This is a general observation.

Weekly reports are the bane of my existence. Having said that let us move on. I miss my parents - miss coming home to my parents once in a while. But today, as I walked to the grocery store (I love the fact that I can walk to the grocery store - even if I only do it 10 times a year, I LOVE it), I started thinking of how we take some joys in life for granted. And I came up with a list of frequently overlooked advantages of growing up, leaving home and living by yourself: - In the words of Seinfeld : "I enjoy the fact that now, if I want a cookie, I have a cookie. Okay? I have three cookies or four cookies or eleven cookies if I want.". - The above is also true for brownies. - I am the master of the remote control. And of the couch. - At any given time, if I open my fridge, everything in it is something that I like, or liked at some point of time. - I can get up at any time of the day, on weekends atleast. - I can potentially wake up and just read my novel for a while. - I can ...

Fall is a beautiful season. I am sure people have mentioned this before but I feel compelled to state it anyways. It is really gratifying to walk out of work and see so many hues of orange, amber, rust, maroon and yellow along with green. And often, you get to see all these colors in a single tree! Today, ofcourse, nature decided to show off. So around 6.15 pm, it arranged for a light drizzle, an overcast sky and a misty rainbow in the parking lot, to go with the colors, as I walked to my car. I drove home on the short windy road, with lots of trees on both sides, as I do everyday, marvelling at the colors and was a couple of minutes away from home when a small part of the sky started clearing a little, and sunlight came in at that perfect angle to light the clouds and show the world that there are indeed, 87 hues of blue and pink in life - and not just in the a Sherwin Williams catalogue. Talking about colors, I discovered the name, burnt sienna, when I bought my first oil colors kit....

I sometimes wonder if my whole life is going by while I search for my glasses. I do this almost every single day. Most often in the morning when I'm trying to leave for work. I go round and round my apartment until I finally find them or reach the hecessary escape velocity to get out of home. It doesn't help that I have a dozen "usual places" where I leave my glasses. Come to think of it, it is amazing - the number of flat surfaces that you can find in an small apartment where one could leave one's glasses on. See, it's not that I have a bad memory. Well, it's not just that I have a bad memory. I have an incorrect memory. Like the other day. I looked and looked and looked for my glasses in the morning. I kept thinking : "I remember putting them in my jacket pocket as I left work and I remember having them around when I walked home from the car last evening and now I can't find them". So I looked. And I looked. And I looked. And I finally said...

Nasdaq and Dow Jones sat on a wall Nasdaq and Dow Jones had a great fall and all Bush's men and all Congress's clauses don't seem like they can put the economy together again. I think they should do news in little rhymes and poems. It'll be a lot more fun. For now, I'll take Frasier any day over the 10 0 clock news. Better this way, I guess. With my family's luck in shares, I shouldn't be allowed to touch stock with a bargepole. I found my soulmate when I was 12. He was wise, had a way with words, shared my values and priorities and was already published in my 6th grade English text book. Which made him fa-aaa-mous. And he had a nice solid name. William Henry Davies. I post his poem here so your life may be better for reading it. Leisure by William Henry Davies What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrel...

Having spent 5 hours yesterday being a human WallE ( I volunteered at a recycle event) and 6 hours today helping out at a friend's Kuchipudi graduation event, I am tired. Also, this being my blog, I reserve the right to post what ever I want to. So, I shall now shamelessly post a blog that is more than a couple of years old. It's a blog I'd written way before I started publishing my blog (!?!!). Here it is. BTW (which stands for By The Way, all ye uncool people), I had named it Two Cauliflowers. I have two cauliflowers in my fridge. I live alone. I have no roommates. Cauliflower is not my favorite vegetable. Yet, I have two cauliflowers in my fridge. This is a mystery and I must confess that it's mystifying to me too. What happened was this. I went to the grocery store day before yesterday and wanted to buy some squash ( Do not ask me why - when I was making the grocery list that morning, I decided that I'd buy squash. I have never cooked squash before and am not su...

Having assured people that the fact that more than two people now read my blog would not affect my blogging style or lack thereof, I began wondering if I would crack under the pressure. I mused on it for a while and figured that the only solution to a problem of performance under pressure or high expectations is to the set the bar low. Waaaaay low. Once I thought of this, I realized that I had this thing in the bag. One thing I excel at is precisely this - setting the bar low! The method that I picked to achieve the same was to delve into the details of my happening suburban life. Which brings us to today's subject. My sweatshirt. My new blue sweatshirt. It's AWESOME. I love it. To begin with, it is blue. You will recall, my dear reader, from a previous post that I favor this color. The sky is blue. Most water bodies are blue. Violets, contrary to what their name suggests, are blue. Bluebells, much as their name suggests, are blue. Copper sulphate too is blue. My new sweatshirt...

Here's the story of the globe: I saw a globe today and decided that I had to get one too. Immediately. I've always wanted to own a globe. For some reason, I've never bought one, though. Just been wanting to own one. So I decided that this is the day when I shall buy a globe. I drove to Borders and after walking around in the store for a good bit, I asked an employee there if they had any globes. He checked in a couple of places and said that they didn't. They had no globes. They were globeless. They were without globes. Globes in absentia. I am, however, with yet another Yoga DVD. I know - I can't explain it either. I checked in another store and finally decided to go to that one store - the store where I'd find my globe and the happy yellow smiley would rollback the price on it to boot. Walmart! But alas! They didn't have it either. And to think that I always believed that I could even get a copy of my birth certificate in Walmart! (only, it would say ...

Just got back from watching Rock On. I thought it was well written, well made, well edited, well shot and well acted. And the music was very good. And I am not sure if I am more in love with Farhan Akhtar or Arjun Rampal. I know - high praise. But 'tis true. Just this evening I was thinking about how, when I was younger, I would wait for some movies and watch them and come out of the theater still happy with the end result and how I would be on that high for a day or two (sometimes more). It's been a long while now that I've waited for a movie, watched it and walked out of the theater without at least a bit of disappointment. More often that not, I walk out thinking " There goes another 3 hours of my life that I could have better spent clipping my toe nails or something". I am talking about desi movies here. Anyways, it happened today. Quite unexpectedly, I ended up watching this movie and I liked it. Really liked it. The simple pleasures of life! Yes, I know - mo...

Had a couple of indifferent 4 mile runs over this week. My shin splints are back. It is becoming increasingly clear that I won't be able to do the half marathon in mid October. What is my plan? Do exactly what I've been doing and my shin issues will go away and everything will fall into place. Denial is the key to happiness. After watching some ads for upcoming movies and new seasons of some TV shows, I have decided that the future of TV programming is bleak.

I recently read in the news that the book that won the oddest book title of the past 30 years is "Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers". So now, as I chug sparkling apple cranberry juice straight from the bottle, I am contemplating my hitherto unconsidered (by me) publishing career. Think of all the non-fiction I could publish : "All the Gas Stations that I have filled up at over the past 7 years", "The pop culture references that I didn't get in the first 3 years in the US", my blog (though one wonders if it strictly non fiction). Heck, I could even publish "Nepali Zoo Keepers and Their Preferences in Tooth Paste". The end.

Since it is so late that it is the next day, I have decided to post a picture instead of my usual banter. Maybe this is what I'll do from now on - on days that there isn't much to say, there shall be pictures.

An alert reader reminded me that I hadn't used this word as the title (I'd said that I would and then forgot). Congratulations Alert Reader! You just won yourself a fully paid three day, two night vacation in Macchu Picchu .... NOT! :-) Spent two blissful hours in the arboretum today. I ambled about the lawns and gardens, looked at trees and shrubs, vines and flower, took a few pictures, went hither and thither and napped for a short while under a tree. A perfect summer day activity. It was one of those blue-blue sky days with a slight breeze once in a while. I had forgotten how it is to walk from bright, hot sunlight into the shade of woods - dense and deep, cool and dark. It is truly amazing. I had to drive about an hour to reach this place but I was glad I didn't live close to this park. Then, I'd feel compelled to run along the trails in the park. And then, I'd hate it. You see, I am not a natural runner, not a born runner. One can safely say that I am not to ru...

Spent the early part of the afternoon reading and eventually finishing Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. It is a good book. It didn't change my life though as some folks had suggested to me earlier. This could be because I have already been exposed to some ideas that were in the book or because everything else, I pretty much did not understand. That is the problem with Nirvana - it needs some serious thinking ability. Albeit, nice book - short too, which adds to its charm :-) Having spent most of the afternoon in understanding the quest for the universal soul within the self, I moved on to the more urgent matters of lunch and idling away a few weekend hours. It started raining sometime this afternoon and kept on raining. I had already decided that today would be my long run so for a change, I was rational and decided to run on the treadmill at the gym. I ran 11.85 miles, with a short water break after 6 miles, at various paces from a 9 min mile to a 15.7 min mile walk during the last mil...

There was murder at 10 am at my apartment. I spent an hour and a half this morning cleaning up my balcony garden. I pulled out a bunch of plants by the roots (okay, some of them were weeds but still). I pruned, I killed and I cleaned. Finally, after summer's almost over, I finally have a neatly organized garden. Job done. It's a nice garden if I say so myself. Colorful and busy. So I ran ~4.5 miles today in around 38 minutes. But I walked in between and was really not in any shape to run further. This bodes ill for my half marathon attempt. Oh well, it'll be a learning experience. I really need to learn to plan well and pace myself - instead I just run (pun sorta intended) headlong into all challenges. OK - considering that I have decided to lead a super efficient life from tomorrow, I should now retire with my Herman Hesse. It's Friday tomorrow! And I got a Batman greeting card and a Bumblebee transformer for my belated birthday. Today is awesome! ;-)

This certainly was the word of the weekend so I had to use it as my title. I apologize to all my dear readers for leaving you hanging on the cliff hanger that is my life, but I had to enjoy my long weekend vacation. It certainly was a vacation of the highest quality. Came back rested, relaxed, well-laughed and a little drunk on the sunshine. Some day folks will study me and figure out I was a vine all along which is why I am all about sunshine. My blog has often been accused of having little entertainment and no information. As a rebuttal, here is some information. Dante's Divine Comedy is not a comedy. It has some amount of divinity involved but no comedy. Either that or this dude's sense of humor sucks. I started reading it a few days ago and I am not too pleased with it. I will, however, continue to read this for a while because I am a masochist. I saw the most glorious scene this evening. I just got off my flight and was getting out of the airport feeling bad about having t...

What - you thought only random nouns were allowed to be my blog's titles? Ha - I quite surprised myself here. I was going through my day as usual and then suddenly this word came to my head and I thought "It's a verb. But why the heck not?". So there. Thursday night. Man, I am ready for Friday and this weekend. It'll be nice to get out of here for a while and get some fresh air. I'll be able to clear my head and get back to my routine with renewed energy and focus after the long weekend. Or I could go to Michigan, realize that I always wanted to live in a city whose first three letters are all consonants and move to Ypsilanti, MI and live happily ever after. I'm just saying. Yes, I agree - time to sleep. Goodnight, me hearties. P.S: I already have a word for tomorrow's title(For my own reference it is C_ _ A_ _ E_

Distracted. One word to describe the week so far. Haven't gotten much work done. Have been too busy wondering about life and its journeys, the internet, books, careers, yoga, plants, windows (not the Microsoft ones), the passage of time, etc - not necessarily in that order. I wonder ( yes, wondering is my secret super power. Hang on, is that what Wonderwoman is all about? DO NOT GET SIDETRACKED!!) if I can put that up on my weekly report due tomorrow morning. I could also touch on my suspicions about me suffering from severe ADD. I am bored of this topic - moving on. I re-read this article today that one of my friends had pointed me to a while ago. I like it. I know it's kinda cheesy but it's sweet and seems honest and is ..... well, sweet. http://www.enjanerd.net/2004/04/20/the-daily-collegian-what -she-doesnt-know-will-kill-you/ And now off to sleep while Mahendra Kapoor croons "aaja aaja re tujh ko mera pyaar pukaare"

Today's title is not as unrelated to the entry as has been the case for my last couple of blogs 'cause I was just wondering if my hair ever going to grow as long as it was a few years ago. First I cut it, then I wonder. Typical me. Meanwhile, I have been working on finding a solution for an issue I've been having and in the process have been working with a customer service agent named Gobu. I kid you not. This guy's name is Gobu. I even held back my laughter for a few minutes and asked him (in as controlled a voice as I could ) what his last name was. His reply was : " Ummm, my name here is just Gobu, madam". Gobu is, as I found out over the last couple of days, a pretty nice person, if mentally negligible. It's funny how life is interspersed with these insanely funny moments amidst stressful situations. I am still fighting for a resolution to my problem but my life is better for having Gobu in it. Alright, it is way too late and tomorrow if way too busy f...

I signed up for the Bay State half marathon this morning (58 days to go) I've been thinking of this since I randomly ended up running around 12.5 miles a couple of weekends ago and today I went ahead and registered. Now that I'd done it, I figured I should train. I haven't really been running lately except for a 4 miler, 6 miler and 12.5 miler on three consecutive weeks. And that was 2 weeks ago. I know - not really a consistent schedule. So I went out today and ran 6.34 miles at a pace of 8:21/mile. I pushed myself a good bit and was pretty happy with it overall except that now I think I have a blister coming up - serves me right for running without socks. Yeah, that's right - I figured making the blog boring isn't enough so I turned to my other skill, making it gross. In other news, I love my downstairs neighbors. I usually end up dancing at least for 20 minutes every day. Either practice or just jumping around to some happy music. And they never complain. Even wh...

So I remembered that I had this blog. And that I hadn't written in the longest while. There are two reasons for this - a. Nothing interesting happens b. Anything interesting that happens - I am not comfortable blogging about it. That pretty much limits my blogging opportunities. Nonetheless, I have decided to start blogging again. And do it very often. Bash on Regardless is my motto. Which implies that I've now entered the competition for the World's Most Boring Blog. Given my life style and surroundings, I practically have this title in the bag but just to prove it to the world, I shall heretofore capture my daily life in painstaking detail. One example of this - the word 'blog' appears in this blog in some form or the other 7 times in this blog. Wait, make that 8 now. Good night and God Bless. And just for fun, I've decided to label my posts with any word that catches my fancy at the time of blogging (Dab it! it's 9 now)

Today, as I was walking past one part of our office that is being renovated, I suddenly got a whiff of this real strong smell. Immediately, I realized that I knew this smell - knew it well. And then it came to me - it was the smell of the white shoe polish that we used on our canvas shoes for school when I was younger. It's a very distinct and strong smell. What was amazing was the line of images it brought to my mind. Lazy and still Sunday afternoons when we ( my brother and I) would polish our shoes, the sports uniform that went with those shoes and how some kids would frantically rub chalk on their shoes in a last-ditch attempt to make their shoes look white enough for the occasional inspection at the assembly. The image that really stayed was that of the pair of shoes leaning against a wall in the verandah where they would dry. I know - all this poetry around a smell that apparently is very close to the smell of white out. Nostalgia is a very powerful force. And finally, after ...

So I was working on my tax returns a few days ago. I have this software that I use - it asks me a bunch of questions that I answer and once I've keyed in every significant thing that has ever happened in my whole life - information about my ancestors, my pocket money when I was 7, the couple of bucks I had borrowed from my friend in undergrad, the mileage on my car and my blood group - this software eventually tells me that I owe the feds a little over one grand. The questions change a little every year but the end result is the same. I never learn and I always hope that this time will be different. Anyways, I was in the process of answering the multitude of questions this software generates when it asked me for some information regarding some shares and fair market value. Fair Market Value was defined as something like the price a willing, knowledgeable buyer would pay a willing, knowledgeable seller when neither has to buy or sell anything and both understand the conditions of th...

Got the go ahead for my India vacation today!!! This is awesome. It's been more than 2 years since I went to India and I am excited about this. Will need to start planning soon. Just wanted to add an entry for today. I was talking abt Gulzar recently, right? One of his amazing songs: Humne dekhi hain un aankhon ki mehekti khusbhoo haath se choo ke ise rishto ka ilzaam na do sirf ehsaas hain yeh rooh se mehsoos karo pyaar ko pyaar hi rehno do koi naam na do Such beautiful, such sublime lyrics. But of course, he has to start it with the line "Hum ne dekhi hain un aankhon ki mehekti khusboo " !! Craziness, I tell you.

What does Gulzar mean half the time anyways? He drives me crazy, that man. The thing that gets me is that I actually understand parts of his lyrics. I would be at peace if I didn't understand a word of what he says. But no, I kinda get the meaning of a few phrases but when I put them all together, I am not really sure. Like that solution to a problem that you get in your dream, it stops just short of making full sense. After years of struggling with this, I have decided that this is precisely his intent. Oh well. They still sound beautiful and make me feel deep so I shall continue to enjoy them. Imagery, that's how he gets us. He can just create the most amazing and simple images in our heads without our brains fully understanding the lyrics. He has found the shortcut, bless his soul. In other news, I almost scalded my hands doing the dishes just now. I always do this. Somehow I believe that only by washing my dishes in near boiling water can I ensure that they are clean and di...

Had a blessed evening. Came back home after a good day of work and a pleasantly exhausting workout. After a surprsingly early dinner, I just lazed abt the couch watching tv and listening to songs. I didn't need to log in to work in the evening and chose not to cook. So, after a busy bunch of days, I had a fully relaxed evening. I love relaxed evenings. Couches are one of god's finest creations. A couple of calls to friends later, I called home and spent close to an hour telling them abt all the little things in my day and listening to their day in detail. Such conversations are wonderful. You can tell I am in a happy mood :-) Am listening to Mukesh croon " Aa laut ke aaja mere meet". I've picked out a nice playlist to put me to sleep. Life is beautiful. I thought I'd close out with a poem I'd written a while ago after a conversation with my parents, but lucky you - I can't find it. Well, Good night and God Bless. Tomorrow,I will find the poem (evil s...

I've figured out my call sign or call phrase or whatever it is. If there is a huge war in the future, and I enlist and am sent deep into enemy territory and need to pass a coded message to the base station, that message will be "The crocus is wilting". To get the full picture, you must imagine this message on a radio with a lot of static - "The crocus ..... is wilting. I repeat, ... crocus is wilt... ". Don't fear for my sanity, my darling readers - the bean is safe. I just happen to have a crocus plant in my living room and, in conversation with P just now, I mentioned that it was wilting. And once I said that, I knew it instantaneously, that this would be my call sign. Anyways, I probably am still not all here. The thing is, I am sleepy. And I can't go to sleep 'cause that darned David Letterman show doesn't air until 11.30 pm ( I actually like the Letterman show a lot - that man is insane ). No, I'm not addicted to that show but tonight,...

You are the ones The Gods of the field, unbesmirched by the ground, The living legends, favored by the crown. Relentless pursuit and prodigous fate in happy circumstance do meet. You are the golden bar that drives you are the end to which they strive. You are out of reach, beyond compare. The shimmering mirage, you are the dare. you are the perfection I admire. you are the dream, you inspire. You are the others The stumbling mortals, the rallying warriors the cursed children, the doubted wonders. A painful grit and the will to persevere shine through in your every hard won endeavor. You are the heart that dares to reach, the cheer of spirit in which I exalt. You are my sanguine belief that in each lies the power to rise beyond thought. The mirror in which I search for my redemption The whisper of hope that confounds reason And now this day as the curtain falls on humbled gods and hallowed Men I wish that victory and glory's call may yet beckon you both again So each may toil to ris...

Happy New Year! Let us hope 2008 is one good egg! One pearl of a year! One string of glorious moments! Or to use the new word I found and liked today, may it teeter on the edge of perfectitude ! Ok , coming back to practicality, it is Day 4. I had a pretty good day at work and came back home and practised dance after a long while. I felt reasonably good and watched one item from a Kuchipudi DVD that I have. The dance was performed by Ms. Uma Muralikrishnan and she is so graceful and elegant in her expressions and movements. By the end of it, I was feeling pretty bad about how I danced. Time to get cracking on this - I need to be more flexible and strong. Some chores, clean up, dinner, etc later, I am sitting with my laptop listening to a worn tape of Kishore Kumar hits. The tape is seriously worn. " Tum aaaaaaaa ga yeeeeee hoooo nooooo ooo oor aaa gayaaa hain ". I am too lazy to get up and put another tape in and like most other people, sit here waiting for the...