Secrets Revealed!

Thanks to Renu... I did a little self-introspection and identified some of my weird traits!

Eight things about me that hardly anyone knows: (you may ask why eight and why not ten… 8th is the day on which I was born…)

1. I kiss the pillow before I put my head onto it every night I go to bed. It’s like saying: thanks for cushioning my head all night!
2. I read anything that is readable. I even read from the newspaper covers that we put over school text books. Once I even found a very interesting article that I removed the cover and straightened the folds and read the whole thing!
3. I remember and recognize the distinct smell of all my family members. It is not the smell of the lotion or deodorant they use; it is the smell (rather stench!) of their sweat.
4. I suffer from morning sickness on almost all days of winter. Hey don’t come to any wrong conclusions! ;-)
5. If someone calls me when I am fast asleep, I can chat with them sensibly for hours together. And on the next day morning, I can’t recollect even a single word of what I spoke. In fact on some days, I end up checking up my received calls list to verify if the conversation happened in reality or in my dreams!
6. I don’t wait for special occasions to give gifts to my closed ones… Whenever I feel like, there will a little gift from me to all my special ones… Who knows you may be the next one to see a gift wrapped box on your desk!
7. I prefer to sleep on the floor, rather than on the cot.
8. I hate doing any of the household chores! God knows, what will happen to my husband if at all I get married! ;-)

Comprehension

Gentle whispers… Sweet nothings…
Cuddling… Snuggling… Nuzzling…
Cozy Talks… Soothing murmurings…
Tinkling laughs… Contented Sighs…
Playful pranks… Naughty teasers…
Mischievous Flirting… Declarations of love…
Friendly admonitions… Sincere Praisings…
Unrestricted by time…
Unhampered by distance…
Unhindered by the entire world…

Does this bring a glow onto my face?
Does this spread a mysterious smile onto my lips?
Does this add an extra bounce to my gait?
Does this add chirpiness to my tone?
Does this envelope me with warmth
And give me a sense of security?

No!
Not at all!
But why?
Because all these were never meant for me
They belong to another soul…
To another being who is all the more different from me…

No one can replace that soul…
Not even me!

Happy Birthday Sriram!

Sriram, Wish you a Fun-tastic Birthday! :-)

Let’s hop and skip
And swing and sway
For it’s Sriram’s birthday today!

Let’s twist and turn
And rock and roll
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s jump and leap
And somersault in the air
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s sing and dance
And yell and scream
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s slide and glide
And do a jiggety jig
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s run and catch
And play non-stop
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!

Let’s blow the candles
And cut the cake
And smear cream on all faces
For it’s Sriram’s Birthday today!


Sriram, Wish you a Fun-tastic Birthday! :-)

What is love?

"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it?

It makes you so vulnerable.

It opens your chest and it opens up your heart

and it means that

someone can get inside you and mess you up.

You build up all these defenses,

you build up a whole suit of armor,

so that nothing can hurt you,

then one stupid person,

no different from any other stupid person,

wanders into your stupid life...

You give them a piece of you.

They didn't ask for it.

They did something dumb one day,

like smile at you,

and then your life isn't your own anymore.

Love takes hostages.

It gets inside you.

It eats you out

and leaves you crying in the darkness,

so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends'

turns into a glass splinter

working its way into your heart.

It hurts.

Not just in the imagination.

Not just in the mind.

It's a soul-hurt,

a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain.

I hate love"

-Neil Gaiman

Selflessness

Can you imagine yourself giving away your new T-shirt for someone who needs it during fancy dress competition? Can you imagine yourself lending your favorite bag to your friend for three whole months? Can you imagine yourself staying back late for giving moral support to someone who is neck-deep in project work?

Well, I am proud to say that I am very fortunate to have such friends… friends whom I can trust… and friends who trust me!

This post is about one such buddy of mine. The first time I got a glimpse of his benevolence, was when my sister needed a digital camera for her college project. She had been given an assignment of taking pictures of extraordinary posters and hoardings in the city. She also needed some pictures for her own posters related to her project on Water Conservation. This buddy of mine was just an acquaintance then and I had not even asked him, but he was willing to lend his camera to me. I was very much surprised and was wondering how he could trust me with his couple-of-months-new cam! In fact when I took the camera from him, it slipped off my hands and fell on the pavement. But he did not even scold me. He gave me a warm smile and picked up the camera and gave it back to me. The camera was in its case, so nothing has happened to it. “Thanks” was all that I could give back for his warm gesture!

Of course, after that day, he never loses any opportunity to describe the kind of pics my sister had taken… upturned bucket… a bucket with a broom etc.. etc… :-)

He understands me to the core and most of my thoughts match with him and we confide in each other. He never showcases his generosity publicly; it’s just there inside him and he is ready to extend a helping hand for anyone who needs it. We never need to ask. He has sixth sense to understand and empathize with our situation and assist us.

When I was to be sent to Chicago on project work, he was the one to explain me things… to counsel me and make me prepared for the whole new world. He lent me many of his things (some of those are yet to be returned to him!), but I was not able to give him anything in return! Not even a gift from Chicago! I really feel very bad about it and I don’t know how to rectify the situation.

I appreciate the way he rides his bike. He never breaks any traffic signals, not even when the roads are empty. He is the only one whom I trust to drop me home safely when I am wearing a saree!

I am finding no words to express my deepest sense of gratitude (the way Karthik would put it!) to this invaluable friend of mine. All I can say is I dedicate this post to you, my dear and I am thankful to God to present me with a friend like you.

Lori

This post is dedicated to the joker of our group, Mr. KT. No.. No.. Please do not hit me for calling you a joker. I just wanted to say that just by looking at your face, anybody will feel cheered up! :-)

We all were on our Kerala-Kanyakumari trip, traveling by car. All of us had been on the road for the past several hours and everybody was too much exhausted. Some of them dozed off, while others were playing some game or the other to keep themselves occupied. I was looking out the window taking in each and every change of landscape and humming to myself. Karthik was complaining that he was trying to best to sleep but could not. That was when I sang the Lori from Mission Kashmir.

Soja Chanda Raja Soja.... Chal Sapnon Mein Chal...
Neend Ki Pariyan Pehen Ke Aayi Pairon Main Payal...
Thujhko Apni Narm Paron Par Lekar Jaayegi...
Sone Ka Ek Des Hai Jiski Sair Karaagegi…

I went on humming this song continuously as if the player was put in a single-song-repeat-loop. Magically, Karthik fell asleep and so were some of the other friends who were busy playing! From then on whenever I feel restless in the night and am not able to fall asleep, I hum this song to myself and sure enough I start snoring at once (I can’t confirm about the snoring part! Ha ha ha)

Possessed!

Why do we sometimes become so possessive of our possessions? Even if someone uses our pen or hair-band, we really get annoyed with them. I never like sharing my comb with anyone, not with even my own sisters. The same goes for my towel and my blanket! That does not mean that I am very possessive of them. I am just being very over-cautious about cleanliness.

I don’t mind others using anything of mine as long as they ask me and then use it. I hate it when people take my things for granted and use them freely as if they are their own.

I remember an incident where I had lent a college book of mine to my friend. And she never bothered to return. Whenever I would ask about the book, she would say it’s at home and ask me to rummage her shelf and take it back. One fine day, I went to her place and was shocked to see the state of the book. The book was dog-eared and the very first page of it had her name in block letters. Just imagine someone writing his/her name on your book. I was furious and asked her why she had done that. She said she could not help it. How dare she do something like that! At that very moment, I took an oath that I would never lend her any of my books again.

Now when I think about this incident again, I feel that I had over-reacted to the situation. After all she was one of my closest friends and it was just a book. Was that book more important to me than her? Well, we never know!

Not just with things, we even become over possessive about people.

Why do we have this possessive feeling? When someone talks ill of our family members we defend them and would not think for a second time before severing our ties with them forever!

I am very possessive about my friends too. I stopped talking with one of my friends just because he forgot to inform me before he went to collect his degree certificate.

I also fought with another friend of mine for a very silly reason. He works in another branch of our office and every evening he travels to our branch to play TT. And every day he firsts meets me at my desk and keeps his bag and helmet and then goes and meets everyone else. One day he met someone else and then came to my desk. I became very furious. I felt unwanted. I felt he did not care for me anymore. What a foolish feeling I had!

Even when my best friend got engaged and started spending more time with her fiancé, I had a similar kind of a feeling. And I was really mad at her fiancé and wished he would not come between us. And now when I think about it, I feel like laughing! But as long as the feeling lasted, I really felt miserable.

Is possessiveness a positive trait or a negative one? Got to ponder more on it! Got any thoughts on this?

The Unsaid Truth

The moon dreams to be with the earth
And the earth dreams to be with the moon…
Their endless courtship continues…

The moon tries to pull the earth towards itself
But only manages to tickle the waves in the ocean…
The earth reaches out to the moon
And that’s when we have high tides in the ocean…

The earth and moon meet twice during the day at the horizon...
First time at the moonrise and the second when the moon sets...

When the hour of rendezvous nears,
The moon becomes bigger and brighter in anticipation of the meeting
And the earth blushes in its milky white glow…


And when it’s Amaavaasya, the earth becomes dull and sad...
It drapes itself in black and mourns through the night.

During one such nights,
The wind moves in to be a new neighbor to the earth
When the wind peeks out of the mountains,
It sees the earth in sorrow.
The wind blows its gentle breeze
Trying to cheer up the earth…
The wind whispers into its ears and soothes the earth
The earth wraps up itself in the wind
And falls into a dreamless sleep

As time goes on…
The wind becomes very possessive of the earth
It can’t bear to see the earth with anyone else…

The D-day arrives…
The wind showers the earth with its sweet fragrance
And sends the clouds to spray the earth with water
The earth welcomes the drizzle with greenery
And waltzes in the rain

The wind swooshes around the earth in excitement
And confesses its love to the earth
The earth does not know what to do
But tells wind that they will never to able to bind together for life!

The wind stands transfixed in shock
And hides itself in the mountains…
The earth lays barren with no rain
And the hot sun makes the life worse for it…


Meanwhile the moon is suffering the curse of amaavaasya
It stands all alone with no earth for its company
The Polestar sees its plight and comes closer,
And gives the moon a twinkling smile.

The moon smiles back at its childhood friend
And the saptha rishis dance around them
The polestar twinkles and sparkles for the moon.

The moon finds its solace in the space…
In the vast emptiness and in the vacuum...
The moon realizes that this is what it’s destined for.
This is its home!
And when it pours out these feelings to Polestar,
The pole-star talks about its destiny.
“You are my destiny!”
The moon is dumbstruck,
To know that its childhood friend has been having such notions in mind.


But there is no time for any more thoughts,
For it’s the moonrise time…
The earth waits at the horizon with out stretched arms
And the moon lingers at the horizon for longer time.

During its transit across the sky,
The moon broods over its life…
About the earth… the pole-star… and their destinies…

When it nears the earth at the moonset time,
The moon realizes that they can only dream to be together,
But its home is amongst the stars.
It tells the earth about pole-star’s proposal.
“I am going to accept the pole-star as my better-half,” the moon says.

The earth is devastated… It trembles and shakes
Innumerable earthquakes and tsunamis occur within itself
It tears itself apart and grieves to oblivion.

The wind longs to see the earth
And so, it returns to blow threw the veins of the earth
Bringing back the lost shine onto the earth
The earth realizes that its fate has been bonded with the wind
And so, accepts to unite with the wind for life.

The wind floats on cloud nine
Its joy has no bounds
And it hops and skips around the earth
And wags its tail like a contented puppy!

The wind takes an oath,
“No matter what, I will always keep the earth happy!”


The moon, oblivious to the condition of the earth,
Spends its time with its honey.
It enjoys the tranquility of the space with its sweetheart.
The polestar is overjoyed
To see the affection that is showered on it…

Only when the moon has to traverse the sky,
It becomes very uneasy …
But the earth makes the moon feel comfortable
It shares the good news
And keeps talking more and more about the wind…
And the moon quietly listens
At the surface, both of them seem to be deeply involved in this conversation,
Yet they both know that it is all superficial.
It’s just a compromise they both had to make
They will never want to give words to their thoughts
Some things are best left unsaid!

The wind perceives the surge of love that the earth feels for the moon…
It knows that their rendezvous everyday is something beyond mere friendship.
Yet it shows no surprise nor gets angry with the earth.
It calmly backs off at the very sight of the moon

And then we can hear…
…the wind howling in the caves of the mountains all through the night!