For September's Sake

I have waited the entire month to find something to blog about. Nothing seemed to be remotely interesting. So on this 29th day of September of the year 2009 (शालिवाहन शक 1931 or विक्रम संवत 2065), the following is for September's Sake...random pictures taken on spur of the moment which I shall never upload anywhere else.

My hyper-active, clever nephew, Raadnya

A born drama-queen, my cousin, Shreya, on her 4th birthday

Thankfully, I just got half a blue-coloured worm painted on my nail as against the WHOLE earthworm in black that my cousin got!

A new beginning amidst the concrete forest?

My photo identity card when I visited Pfizer. Apparently, these cards are issued to EVERY visitor EVERY day. Their office building has just 3 floors - ground + 2 - and they still have a lift! The company has SO MUCH MONEY!! But will they pay us??

Two of my friends discussing their exam.

And the remaining. This was after a seam-splitting dinner of chicken and fish taken from a good phone camera by a not-so-tech-savvy मावशी! But I like it all the same :-)

Starstruck !!

"Captivated by famous people". That is what I am. STARSTRUCK!! :) And the star? A new author (from as much as I know) - Monica Pradhan. For those who are lost, she has written a really cool, contemporary novel about how the ABCDs* are ABC-ed. Actually, there is less of the confusion part and more of the "finding a new meaning to life"- cum -"mid-life crisis"-sort of situations. With mouth-watering recipes thrown in at intervals, this book is a great read. Specially for mothers and daughters. Not that guys are banned from reading it, but well...they are guys! I am not going to review the book here. Making it a 'compulsory read' for Mum, my aunt and cousins is a review in itself! But what I am going to write about is the starstruck part of the entire thing.

Blame it on my efficiency or recession, I found I had nothing to do (work-wise) yesterday morning at work. Since I was reading Meg Cabot's blogs (another fantastic writer!) and was very much into books (when am I not?), I decided to Google Monica Pradhan. Not getting satisfactory information, I FB-ed her. Something got into me and I sent her a message (& a friend request which embaressed me A LOT as I couldn't undo it). But YAYYEE........ she not only replied back promptly, but also accpeted the friend request. So YAYYEE........ again !! And that is why I am starstruck!!

After the initial bubble of excitement ebbed a bit, I decided to blog (Mind you, I am still floating!). But for my initial reactions, read along:
"This is just so cool you know. Because Meg Cabot, J. K. Rowling, and so many other favourites have a huge fan following. They can't really take time out and reply. But this lady is just GREAT !! Besides, you know, I have never joined a fan club or some thing like that. Nor am I a celebrity-worshipper. But this is so cool!! :) She is a proper author and now a 'friend' (YAYYE... :D). And she seems totally cool about adding me as a friend!! And all this is so exciting because:-
1) Most of the authors that I like/love are dead (except the 2 mentioned above and they can't reply for the reasons stated above) so they can't reply as it is !!
2) And this is just so cool...saying "Yeah. Monica Pradhan...nice lady... A friend of mine you know..." (Oh so cool. Sounds super cool when I read it!)"

Can't stop grinning ear-to-ear!! Imagine this: My name has been added to a good author's friend's list on a social networking site !! Wait till I tell Aai.

*American Born Confused Desis.

"Its all about the liquid Ma'm!"

An hour at a beauty parlour is a good way of expanding one's knowledge on a wide range of topics - Bollywood gossip, latest films, household remedies on infinite problems, train crowds and rush hours, latest numbers of piggy-flu deaths, weekly offs, pollution, diseases, latest on the daily soaps and reality shows, scandalous marriages, children, rains or no rains, senior colleagues who are not present, junior colleagues who are present, rising costs, un-availability of vegetables, problems with in-laws, .... and it goes on! During my last visit, little did I expect that I would learn more about biochemistry!

While getting my hair trimmed, the hair-dresser started commenting on greying hair at early ages. For those of you who know me well will know that I have a lot of white/grey hair ever since the last of my school days. Now, this kind lady was patiently explaining that one should not pull out grey hair. I nodded (to the extent possible to let her know that I was listening) thinking, "Of course not! It would hurt a lot!" But she had a different story to tell.

"People always pull out their white hairs Ma'm. But you know Ma'm, it is not good to do like that. You know, there is a liquid at the hair roots (I beg your pardon?). When you pull out you hair, this liquid spreads to the surrounding areas and goes into the roots of surrounding hair (I was silently crying "Miracle" by this time). And they also become white!" (I couldn't control the hysterical burst of suppressed laughter any longer, so I said aloud, "Really? Incredible science!!"

And I was thinking, why do they not teach this at college-level? Its all about controlling the spread of that stupid liquid! I mean, if science can control spread of harmful rays, water pollutants, virus (up to a certain extent), then why not that damned liquid?!

Friendship Day & more...

Friendship Day calls for celebrations! And thats exactly what we did yesterday. I was hoping to meet at least 5 of my friends, but managed to meet just 2. But this blog is not going to be about my friends. It is going to be about my parents' friends (who also happen to be my friends' parents!)

Our parents met 22 years ago, when we started school, and have come a long way since then. Hats off to them and long live their friendship! Lately, however, they have started acting like teenagers. I have been the sole witness to this event when we were at Saral, a village near Alibaug. And as if squabbling, arguing and chattering like kids was not enough, they have started planning on watching movies. Just yesterday, at the above mentioned Friendship Day celebration get-together, following was the conversation that had me frozen on the spot with the sambar spoon suspended midair.
सं काका: "ऐका जरा...'लव आज कल' ला जायच का? रात्रि चा सर्वात शेवटचा शो? पीव्हीआर ला जाऊ या."
पू मावशी: "ए हो...आम्ही पीव्हीआर ला गेलो होतो दोघे... खूप छान आहे."
सं काका: "कुठला बार पहिला सिनेमा आपण? हा....'कंबक्त इश्क'. धमाल आहे रे सिनेमा...फुल टाइम पास."
बाबा: "हो. मंगळवार बार पडेल."
शि काका: "मला मंगळवार नाही जमणार. शुक्रवार जमेल का?"
सगळे: "हो जमेल की. मग ठरल तर...ह्या शुक्रवारी 'लव आज कल'."
...............
Moving on to other things, I have started reading Atlas Shrugged, again! And there are so many parts that I did not completely understand the first time I read it, that I am glad I started readng it again :) This is a must read book for all who hate to see ability being wasted.
...............
Coming back to the topic of friends, our parents will be celebrating 25 years of friendship 3 years from now. I wonder how many of us will be there for the "event". It does seem strange that the people because of whom they got acquainted may not be present on that day. I hope at least one of us will be able to make it.

CCD

Social networking sites - and Facebook is what I am specifically talking about - have given rise to CCD.
Compulsive Commenting Disorder.
And I have started feeling repulsive about it, so much so, that I sort of like it when nobody comments on my status/quiz updates.

I guess I am just being... well... ME. The not-wanting-to-talk-to-too-many-people-and-not-wanting-too-many-people-to-talk-to-me Maitreyee!

Of Times Gone By

Ever wondered about the first page of a history book? Has anyone ever read it? May be time has! It must have even lived the first page of history. And is sure to live long enough to tell the real story about everything. Only if it had a tongue!

Some of the things I would like to know from Time:-

1. How exactly was the first living cell formed? And how/when did it replicate?
2. Was Nature so pleased with herself that she went on indefinitely replicating cells, so much so, that they formed dinasours?
3. How did the Harrapan people sound like? I mean, their voice. How was it?
4. Who invented the fire and who invented the wheel? Were they proudly smug about it?
5. Did Marie Antoinette really say, "Then let them eat cakes, instead"?
6. Who was the one who thought that observing stars could lead to something? Did he/she have any idea what a lot of science as well as a lot of crap it was going to lead to? (No, I don't think he did!)
7. Before the Big Bang that led to the formation of the current universe, was there life anywhere at all?
8. Did गणपती really exist?
9. When Australia and New Zealand broke apart from the main land and sort of started drifting away, did the people and/or animals notice it? Did they jump from this part of the land to the other and then back when the two land masses were close enough?
10. And where did Jesus Christ breath his last?

Only if time had a tongue...

Mail's Here!

I love getting mails. I mean, the conventional, postal mail. Though these days, it has reduced to bank statements, cell phone bills and the likes of it, I still love seeing an envelope with my name on it. It gives me a feeling of belonging to a place though I am physically not there! (Not cell phone bills!). Too bad we never got anything from school/college send to us by post. Though I got my felicitation invitation through post, I sort of knew it was on its way, so I don't like to count that. It was a photocopied letter, anyway.

I also love writing letters and occassionally posting greeting cards. They are much better than the stupid flash e-cards that are available. Its just that these things are more personalised. They convey the 'real you'. I agree this form of communication is extremely slow than the ones used today, but I never feel elated in the true sense when I get an e-mail. Hand written letters, even if they are short, always rock!

The hand of the writer moves along as he/she writes the letter...one can never get such a feeling with an e-mail (Fingers of the person punched certain keys? Ew..I don't think so!)
Reminds me of a book, "The Walled Garden" by Catherine Dunne. A major chunk of that book is in the form of letters written by a mother to her children. Also, I could truely connect with Snape's feelings when he found Lilly's letter. So true. My eyes stung reading that bit. Because I myself have a few letters written to me by my grandparents and cousins that I treasure a lot.
On the whole, its better to pen down one's thoughts than to type them out. Is it hypocricy on my part that I am blogging about 'pen-ing down thoughts'? I wonder.