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...