April showers bring May flowers

April, claimed to be the month of Aphrodite, is almost over. Showers are aplenty along the east coast, this time of the year. I havent been on a long drive for some months now. Chilly winters are really boring since the trees have shed their leaves and the brown landscape is anything but picturesque specially after soaking up the wonderful autumn bursts of color in New Hampshire.

Last weekend, despite the thundershowers, I managed to set out on a short-long drive(oxymoron, indeed!). It was a beautiful, around 8am on a lazy Sunday morning. With music and a pot of coffee to accompany me, I was in sheer spring heaven. Since it had rained all night and the morning clouds hovered over the skyline, there was a misty(mystic?) feel to the landscape throughout the drive.



There was not a soul on the road. Not even a stray coffee shop or strip mall to pick up a refill on coffee. Gas stations were miles apart. There were some houses with their inmates getting ready for church.

A perfect long-drive, in the real sense of the word. Thats when I realised, I always felt I could jump into my car and go for a long drive any time, any day. Alas, that is so not true.

This one was worth every bit of the effort. A third of the year is over, but summer is closer now and that makes all the difference.

Tis the twilight hour

Tis the twilight hour
The time to unwind
time to de-stress and decelerate
time for dinner with the family
time for soft music in the background
time to talk about the day
time to settle down amongst soft cushions on the couch
time to put your feet up
time to slip into pj's and tee
time to have a late cuppa
time to pull out that half-finished book
time to bring out the journal
time to jot down the thoughts
time to listen to the day's events on the idiot box
time to chat with online friends
time to blog
time to retrospect
time to look ahead
time to let the mind wander freely
time to not check on the time
time to check all items on the to-do
time to plan for the next day
time to listen to the soothing windchime as the winds blow softly

Twilight- that time of the day to proclaim "After all ... tomorrow is another day"

Picture courtesy of

Milind Desai

The pastel prejudice

My desiwear wardrobe, for most part, is controlled by my kid sister! On the rare occasions that I go to India, I take my previous collection, add it to her already-vast-bulging closet and try to build a new one. I dont have a problem with this, though I end up spending a lot of time in this process. Added to the fact that at times I dont get the shades I am looking for or the patterns and that I have to make multiple trips to the tailor to get the stitching done before I leave.

Now the second route is that sometimes I ask Chiclet out there to buy clothes and send it through someone thats coming here. Thats when I run into this issue time and again. So this is how it works. When I see some new trend in a recent hindi movie or someone else sporting a fashionable garb, I immediately call her and describe in great detail the design that my mind has conjured up (in a valiant effort to be unconventional, remember?). She listens to this in entirety, agrees to putting it into action immediately, hangs up and lets it out of her other ear. The lack of interest and enthusiasm also stems from the fact that we are poles apart as far as color preferences go. Honestly speaking, we are poles apart in every way possible. Sometimes I wonder how we could be flesh and blood. When we walk together we have a hard time convincing strangers that we are related.

To quote her "You are an earth sign, you love the "earth" tones and prefer the brilliant reds, yellows, blues and greens" she says of me. All of this is true, I dont deny it. She , on the other hand, is the afore mentioned "pastel" princess. She goes for the lilacs and mauves and sea greens and such. On one trip(on every trip, actually) it so happens that both my suitcases are so full of gifts for this creature(thats one suitcase-fyi) and the rest of the family(suitcase #2) that I dont get to take a lot of my clothes. And no, just to clarify, I dont believe in nudity. I reason out that I could always survive on her wardrobe for the entire stay.

Anyway going back to my trip, when I stand in front of her closet to find something to wear for the day, I am immediately depressed. From the hangers stare a wide range of this "pastel" apparel. Honestly, I am disspirited already. Somehow I cant sport a radiant-sunshine-smile if I am wearing a mauve salwar with twigs printed all over them. "Uggggggggggh" I shudder. "Well if it upsets you so much, you dont HAVE to borrow my clothes!" she barks. "Chiclet, be nice and let her wear something she likes" chimes my mother. I'm sure my mother has resigned and reasoned as thus- "After all, its only for 3 weeks that I have to bear with this offspring at home."

After much debate, I settle for a soft pink "jute" salwar. Thats another thing, my sister is a stickler for new age material-like jute! and khaadi!

So coming back to getting her to pick clothes for me. I send innumerable emails and make multiple phone calls to describe in detail what colors I need("What colors would that be?" you ask?. Naturally its either red, yellow, green or blue, sometimes different combinations of all of them with bold prints.). "And oh yes, please dont send me cotton kurtis and salwars" I quip. You know how difficult it is to starch and iron them here. For me laundry includes dumping the clothes in the basket to the machine and the dryer and out. I stick to wrinkle-resistant, iron-free clothing-thank you!

"Can you get me something in georgette or chiffon with good prints and a lot of sequin work or something fancy?" I add. "No one wears those nowadays." she yells. Here's my reasoning for this request. I only get to wear Indian clothes when I go to desi functions and parties. If all I collected was pastel shades with simple prints and arrive at one of these parties they'd probably think I just got off the illegal-immigrants-boat or ran away from the refugee camp!!! Right or wrong? Of course, I am right!!!! Its not the same for her, she has such a wide window of opportunity to wear desi garb that naturally she can afford to experiment with lavendar.

"Alright, alright I got the specifications" she grunts. I heave a sigh of relief, glad that my sister(my soulmate and confidante) understands me, even if she doesnt agree with me. I perk up with excitement and anticipation for the next few days. When the next consignment of clothing arrives from India I open the parcel excitedly. Its usually well packed with my name splashed in bold letters all over with a black "sharpie" in my mother's familiar writing. Out springs multiple salwars and kurtis most of them with full-sleeves, in cotton and in black or grey or brown hues! Go pastel!!!!!

Once again....I rest my case!

Nuts about Peanuts

For many years now, I have been an ardent Peanuts fan. I have read every comic book, strip, newspaper, magazine and website that caters to Peanuts. I have grieved over Charles Schulz death for a while. I have vowed to visit the museum the next chance I get to be on the west coast. I love all the characters. There is something very human in each one of them that anyone can relate to. Of course, Lucy is my favorite. A description of Lucy at the Peanuts website, says thus of her -




"Lucy Van Pelt works hard at being bossy, crabby and selfish. She is loud and yells a lot. Her smiles and motives are rarely pure. She's a know-it-all who dispenses advice whether you want it or not--and for Charlie Brown, there's a charge. She's a fussbudget, in the true sense of the word. She's a real grouch, with only one or two soft spots, and both of them may be Schroeder, who prefers Beethoven. As she sees it, hers is the only way. The absence of logic in her arguments holds a kind of shining lunacy. When it comes to compliments, Lucy only likes receiving them. If she's paying one--or even smiling--she's probably up to something devious."

How can one not love such a "character". The cast list includes
Snoopy - the silent beagle that can say it all
Charlie Brown - the worrier and blockhead
Woodstock the bird
Linus -Lucy's brother with a security blanket
Sally-Charlie Brown's sister
Schroeder-an ardent Beethoven fan and Lucy's crush
Peppermint Patty, Marcie , Pigpen and Rerun(such cute names!).

No amount of praise can sufficiently recognise the genius and imaginative powers of the cartoonist-Charles Schulz, affectionately called Sparky. The dialogues of each character in every comic strip of the Peanuts series is not only filled with wordly wisdom but also day-to-day humor, enough to fill our lives with pearls of genuine entertainment. It has been said that most of the Peanuts characters are modelled after real-life persons in Charles Schulz life. Most noteworthy being Charlie Brown that drew inspiration from the author's life.

I collect as many collectibles as possible and will probably have an entire room based on the Peanuts theme, some day! Till then whenever I spot a Peanuts character I cant help but smile!

For more about Peanuts, go here. And dont forget to take the "Which Peanuts character are you? quiz. (I am Snoopy-yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!)

For more about the author, our knowledgeable wiki has this to say.

Enjoy some of the strips as you scroll below. Remember to checkout the daily strip at the Peanuts website.

And thus spoke the prophet.

Power struggle at hotel rooms!

What is it with hotel rooms and lack of power outlets?????

Every single hotel room I've been at- be it the Motel 6, Days Inn, Hilton or the Ritz, its a struggle to locate ONE frikking power outlet. Now if you need two or more(laptop, cell charger, PDA charger, bla bla) God help you!

The hotels never seem to get this right. Whats the deal with that? I mean how hard is it to add some outlets close to the bed(preferably, thank you- in this 21st century people prefer to use their laptops in bed and charge cell phones next to their beds). In most hotel rooms, I have had to decide if I could do without the table lamp- well, I'd like to have the lamp to read! Or could I do without the clock?-well, I'd like to look at the time and/or set an alarm for the morning. Thats a tough choice! So that concludes, there's just two outlets close to the bed. If not, you'd have to crawl under the bed(those beds arent high enough-just fyi) looking for power outlets. And if you've decided to do away with the lamp-good luck! Cos by then its dark underneath the bed to be looking for power outlets. Thats an exercise in futility is what I have gleaned after several unsuccessful attempts of lurking beneath hotel beds.

Its open war now. I intend to leave a suggestion note in every hotel I stay in which cant provide TWO frikking OPEN power outlets within 5 feet radius of the bed!!!

Invariably I am forced to charge my cell phone a few miles away from my bed AND tripping over the laptop power cord thats connected to an outlet near the tv/study table while trying to answer that 7am phone call. I might as well charge for the damages.

baaaah! There- my first rant on my blogsite.

Footwear fetish

Ok, I am no Imelda Marcos and no, I cant afford a Manolo, Prada, Gucci OR Jimmy Choos yet. But yes, I do collect footwear.

This is a recent thing. Well by recent I mean for the past 5-10 years or so. Its a time-consuming process. And dont believe it when someone tells you they acquired a collection overnight!. Its just not possible.

Let me tell you how you go about building a collection. Obviously, you go one pair after another. You walk in to a store, more specifically, the shoe section and casually glance at the variety. If the store were to possess THE pair of shoes, then all your senses, nerve-endings, veins, arteries....you get it....every body part would tingle when you set sight at the pair of shoes you absolutely have to have in your collection. Thats whats called shoe-sight! Yessiree.

Its love at first sight. Of course, after that comes the trying-on part, provided the store were to carry your size as well. You wear BOTH shoes and walk and prance around the aisle(preferably splashed with mirrors, conveniently posted for you to admire your feet AND the shoes!). You do a couple of rounds of this, just in case. All's fair in love and war, right? Next you take the shoes off and examine at close quarters. You need to feel the texture and the shape. Once you have been gratified with the results, then you turn the shoes over to check the price. Well by now, price shouldnt really matter, because by now you are in love (remember?...helloooooo;).

Now the price could be one of the following :

First would be jump-with-joy-its-so-low-I-could-buy-10-of-these kind. These are the best ones. I mean here you have a pair of shoes that you not only fell in love with but the price is so low you could afford to buy the entire store. This is a cakewalk(shoewalk, maybe).

The second case would be the price-is-right variety. For the quality and brand(errrr!!) the shoes should and does cost as much. Alright, this situation isnt half as bad. I mean come on, you like a piece, you got to pay its price.

The third case would be the good-lord-this-is-way-too-much. This is a tricky situation. I say that because then you have to enter into major reasoning mode. Do I NEED this? Do I WANT this? Is it worth the money? Should I be spending this much on a pair of shoes? Isnt my shoe closet overflowing and the apartment shrinking with the space occupied by footwear that which was meant to be for human occupation? You see what I mean? By the time you are done answering this questionnaire, either you are exhausted and dont want to buy the shoes anymore or you give up on the line of reasoning and pay up anyway. See! This case has extreme results. One can never be sure.

So thus you go about acquiring a footwear fetish. Before long, you will come up with bizarre reasons to buy a pair that you just cant let go. Thats when you realise you're a pro(errrrr! maybe the right term would be addict? shoe freak? shoe collector? footwear aficionado?). Whatever!

No kidding, I once bought clothing to match a pair of shoes!!! Such is my fixation with collecting footwear!

"Foot" note :
A shoe that is too large is apt to trip one, and when too small, to pinch the feet. So it is with those whose fortune does not suit them.
- Horace

Aaah..the monument

 

The blessing called wikipedia

I am totally in awe of this website. Google on any word these days and invariable something on wikipedia shows up. Its almost as if the wiki knows it all.

So for the uninitiated www.wikipedia.org is the new web Bible. No kidding. Its a "free" online encyclopedia that can answer any question. It even has a section describing what "wiki" means(Of course, I told ya-wiki knows everything!). The term wiki is a shortened form of wiki wiki which is from the native language of Hawaii (Hawaiian), where it is commonly used as an adjective to denote something "quick" or "fast" (Hawaiian dictionary).
To know more, go here, bookmark and attain nirvana.

Just out of curiosity, I searched for "karela" on wiki. Ok, ok-not the best example, but hey I got to get my point across. And Voila! not only does it cough up the word for karela in 5 different languages, it even explains the entire botanical background of the vegetable. Try daal. Replete with recipe!!!! What did I tell ya!!!

I rest my case........QED(Quad erat demonstrandum)!

;) Couldnt resist.

Spring has sprung!

This weekend I managed to catch Ice Age 2 at the theaters and just to stay with the theme, rented and watched Ice Age 1 for a second time.

The meltdown does stay with the Ice Age theme, though the first one definitely is the better of the two. Nonetheless a movie worth a watch. Scrat and Sid, as always, are as entertaining as ever. Queen Latifah's voice-over for Ellie brings a twist to the mammoth angle. Other than that, the meltdown lacks a strong story-line as the first movie did. Since the characters remain the same, I would have preferred a good story to keep the movie going.

Another weekend is over. Spring is here and that is a good thing. I managed to get some spring cleaning done. Now I have to find out where the closest GoodWill or Salvation Army donation bin is located. Thats it for now....

Data lost, data never regained

Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.
-Marcus Aurelius

Some years back one of my friends had asked me what would be the one possession I'd grab if I had a choice before running in case of an emergency evacuation. And I'd instantly said my PC. Ever since music was made into mp3, I have stored every song that is close to my heart. Like an ant, I have diligently amassed a vast collection of mp3's and since I bought my SLR two years ago, I have carefully saved every picture that has captured a million unsaid words.

For a while, I remembered to save the photos onto CD's as well. But I reasoned to myself that the HDD was less than a couple of years old and I had eventually planned to get a backup drive and store all the data I needed.

Just two days ago, I woke up to see that my PC had crashed with a hard disk read error on it. Mechanically, I powered it off and turned it back on. Same error. Uh Oh, I tried the same procedure some 5-10 times before it sank into me that the disk was a goner. I tried to boot a couple of times with a boot disk without success. I was literally on the verge of tears. The very thought of losing all this data was enough to make me drive to the nearest store to have a professional take a look. After 2 days of attempting to restore my data, they gave up as well.

My PC is now back with a new hard disk and I have spent 2 days trying to install all the software I need but I really dont feel like logging into it. There's just no data. No music, no pictures, just nothing. I have to start afresh all over again and just the thought is depressing!!!

Of this and that

Weather here in Northern VA is looking up these days. I've been waiting for these warm days for a month now. I get tired of winters and jackets and socks and shoes very easily. This place isnt as bad as the rest of the North-east for sure. I still do enjoy the east coast- I love the change of seasons. I have such a short attention span, that I get bored easily. The seasonal changes definitely are welcome.

I am still in the process of porting my blogs off of another site over here. The "Curiously strong" series is all imported, I wrote them a long time ago and just never revisited them and/or blogged since then.

Ships.........

I've always been fascinated with ships and sailboats. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than standing by the shore and watching ships and sailboats sail through. Gives me the feeling of travelling towards the unknown. I've never been on a ship leave alone a cruise ship. Its still one of my many things-to-do in my lifetime. Until then I can only dream and imagine what it would feel. I love the unknown. Gives me the liberty to imagine my own version of what could happen. I have always liked to read books about pirates and pirate ships and surprisingly mafia stories. Ah well, some day maybe I will get to travel on one. Who knows- I might get sea-sick and nauseated.



Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

-Sarojini Naidu