***Balloon Fighting***

While I rummage into my cupboard trying to find a missing scrap of cloth for my latest patchwork bag, I stumble upon a dusty bag. When I open it I find it having some balloons; the balloons so old that some of them were fully stuck to each other and some others were stuck to the polythene bag. Mind you! All of them were unblown balloons looking so limp and frail with no air! Why not get them pumped up?

I start blowing balloons and tying them up. A couple of them burst on my face due to lack of elasticity… or did I blow too much of air into them? ;-)

While the number of fully-pumped balloons increase, my eyes fall on my sisters who are busily doing their tasks… I catch hold of a balloon and aim it on them. Thump! Thump! Thump! A shower of balloons hit them gently and they pick them back and aim at me. Thus starts our balloon fighting… it’s so much fun; more so, because the balloons are very light, so they can not travel long distances… We duck and bend and aim back… a good exercise after a whole day of sitting at the computer!

We recollect our childhood days when we would play outside our house for long hours and return home with more energy and fresh mind. That’s what is lacking with us now. Wish we all could go out for a long vacation and re-live those childhood days. Are you both ready for it, Gangs and Yams? :)

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