This Cartoon Got the Best Political Cartoon Award

Hopelessly clueless...

Are we the so called modern women who grew up focusing on getting an education and building a career, become out of touch with reality that is society? I remember when other mothers were urging their daughters to beautify themselves, my mother would be urging me to study more. When other mothers would be getting hyper about their daughters not getting married, my mnother would get hyper because me, her daughter is not finishing her Ph.D. Most of my girl friends had similar kinds of mothers. Grew up in such an environment, blessed with liberal and understanding parents who never limited my sky or my ability to reach out for that sky. I dont ever remember any discrimination between my brother and me. Along the way I started to believe that this is how the whole world is. Everyone in it is like my parents, they encourage women to be self sufficient, to have careers. In the long run never learnt some of the traditional skills which are important tools of womanhood in our culture. One stray example. Never could sing, tried learning once or twice, then gave up. My parents did not force me irrespective of that fact that everyone in my family is a superb singer. Never ever in my life did I feel the need to sing. I mean somewhere deep inside me I wish I can sing. But it is not a major regret that I cannot nor has my life stopped because of it. My definition of my self does not have a singing component.

Suddenly I meet people for whom traditional skills are way too important. They want to fit me to the box that is traditionally meant for Indian women. I was never kept in that box and all my life I have grown further and further away from it. I do not want to go to it, dont want the restrictions and the impositions. If in the process I lack some skills so be it, but in exchange I am a survivor and a fighter. My open space and my freedom is way too dear to me. Am I being naive or do these people need an update about the changing times?

Why is it always the onus of the woman to change? Why?

* This picture is a result of google search.

Why???

battering of the self and the soul has become an adrt form. oh why do we concerntrate on what we lack, and not on what we have????

Random Quotes

Lets see if the wisdom can cheer me up...

If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it’s OK. But you’ve got to shoot for something. A lot of people don’t even shoot. (Confucius)

Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. (Confucius)

Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt and live like it’s heaven on Earth. (Mark Twain)

The happy ending is you...

True, this week due to Republic day falling on a Monday there was no Monday blue. But sadly the Tuesday has turned out to be blue-er. It is a blue, blue Tuesday. Initially it was acqua marine blue, but soon the vividness, which was anyways blinding me, dimmed and slowly it is turning to prusian blue. I could stare for hours at this blue and not get any work done. But alas!

Latelty I have been feeling rather down and lonely, my life is going all on her own direction. Sometimes I get perturbed that life does not even bother to consult me. She just merrily goes her way dragging me along with her. At times I get angry. Hey it is my life, do I not get the chance to have an opinion? Most times I do, sometimes external forces dominate, sometimes life is just bizzare, does her own thing. And at times when I have been feeling blue for sometime, I just let go. I become a passive observer and watch from the sidelines. It is like all the things that are happening to me are not actually happening to me. I am not in my body, in me anymore. I am just a spirit, hovering over me and silently watching the journey. I dont know if I am able to make you understand what I am talking about.

I was aimlessly flicking through blogs when I came across a post with this title "the happy ending is you". Is it really true? Could the happy ending be really me? Do we actualy have that kind of power over our own lives? How do we stop people from being rude to us? Or for that matter how do we stop feeling neglected? I know you are going to talk about positive energy and positive thoughts and all those Feng Shui and self-help guru stuff. At times the spirit does not want to strive towards the light, does not want positivity and false hopes, all it wants is to sink in the prusian blue, which is steadily turning into a dark dark blue with endless pit and just get lost.

Aantaheen....

''City life is millions of people being lonesome together''~~ Henry David Thoreau

Went to see the new Bangla movie Aantaheen....which means endless. It is in a sense an endless movie...the waiting seems to be going on. After a long time in Praiya cinema hall, could not get ticket for the afternoon show and had to go back in the evening, and then had to queue up. It seems to be a hit movie, good for Bangla movie industry. It deserves a break and some crowd to motivate the movie makers.

This movie is all about urban loneliness, it shows individuals who are all busy and how in their rush to live life, never get the chance to be with their loved ones, or even if they get the chance mountains of accumulated pain does not let them breach the gap. The movie is very well made, a visual treat and the music is superb. Suddenly the end disturbs you and you cannot come away unaffected. The movie makes you realise what you are upto in your own life. Are you lonely, if so why? It is a big question and the answer is not always very comfortable. The movie wants to make you reach out and tell everyone around you that they do matter, that you do care even if you do not show or talk about it.

Scenes like eating dinner alone, spending time on chat abound. Suddenly you feel, hey I do that too. Then you feel but for me it is different. Then you wonder how is it different when you eat alone or when you prefer talking to a stranger on the chat or spend time on the internet when you could be spending time with your loved ones? Suddenly there is no answer. Suddenly your computer, the great friend becomes the chief accomplice of your loneliness. In today's world do we take refuge in our computers? Have computers or rather internet become an escape for most of us? This movie is all about taking our life for granted, when what we do not realise is that none of us have infinite time-- time and oppurtunities are finite and needed to be made use of.

I would reccomend watching the movie. I loved it, though I am not sure that I would go back and watch it again.

Bedtime...

Can you believe it is just nine mminutes past eleven and everyone in my home is already asleep! I mean this used to happen before electricity came to India! But now, in today's Kolkata it is unthinkable. It is Sunday night, tomorrow is a holiday due to the 59th Republic Day of India and here I am at a loose end. Dont know how to entertain myself. Tried watching television, it is airing all bogus stuff....I somehow think on Sunday everyone working in television and radio channels slots some old reruns and just goes home. Time and again I have seen that Sunday evenings all old reruns are being aired.

Right now reading Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth...not liking it much...so far read three of the short stories...did not even make out the last one...where there are two characters called Amit and his wife Megan or someone....never before has Lahiri has bored me like this...

There is some pending work which I should be finishing off, but not in the mood. Even that would not take more than 10 minutes. Do not want to watch any movie on the net. I have seen in times like these I never remember anything exciting to do. Yet when I am busy and have to finish some deadline or the other, there are so many other things that I want to do-- read up something on the net, search out some article, do something creative. But now, no now I wont be remembering anything worthwhile or exciting. My memory has always been a traitor in that sense.

One option is to stop boring all of you, shutting my computer and just being a good girl and going to sleep. Dont remember the last time I slept this early. Maybe when I was in daipers. Sleep at 11.40 is not going to come. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Take your chance baby!

How often are we ready in life to let go of our comfrot zones?

I was talking to a friend who has landed a great job and she is super excited about it, yet a little apprehensive too. She had been in her old job for sometime and this was a known field for her. She is a little worried about leaving behind her comfort zone and plunging headlong to the unknown.

While adivicing her I realised that if such a situation ever arose in my life I would be reacting exactly the same way. I have always moved towards the unknown, willingly faced fresher challenges, yet a part of me always feels uncertain. I always wanted to leave home and make it on my own when I was young. Yet when the time came I just wished even though very briefly that it was not yet the time.

Lately a friend does not know what is happening in her love life-- the guy is there yet not there. She was discussing the pros and the cons of having him and not having him in her life. When you have hit the 30s and have had not so good experiences a certain cynicism sets in. It is difficult to let go of it. Even after having someone as steady as Indranil in my life I often get into its grips. So I can understand very well what this friend is going through. But somewhere you have to take your chance. Was watching Life in a Metro yet again yesterday evening and this is exactly what Monty (Irfaan Khan) tells Shruti (Konkona Sen Sarma) "take your chance baby"!

Bells...

Have you ever heard the bell ringing far away in some mandir or a chruch and felt a moment of peace? This keeps happening to me. When I lived in Toronto there was a Russian Orthodox chruch just a house away. We used to hear the bell toll every day. I remember one night I was feeling very blue and lonely and then suddenly I heard the bells toll for the midnight mass. It felt like a signal for me to hang on. From then on I used to wait for the bells to toll. Somehow the bells became my friends in a strange place. There are some fond memories. I remember the first day I saw snowfall, I was standing out there on the footpath, with my face raised towards the sky and snowflakes drifted onto my face. Suddenly the chruch bells started ringing, completing the enchanted moment.

As a kid my favourite part of going to mandirs was to pull at the bell strings and make them swing. I remember when I was a kid most of the times I would not be able to reach to the bells hanging high above the ground, my dad used to pick me up. Even now when I go to mandirs and see some kid being lifted by an elder this memory comes back. It used to be a competition amongst us, the kids, who could reach the bell strings and who could not.

In Kolkata nearby there is a mandir and every afternoon just after lunch when I feel the laziest and am trying to fight the battle against sleep some days suddenly the bell tolls. Somehow this sound has the capacity to wake me up and motivate me like none other. Best part is the peace it brings to me. I have often wondered why, but have not been able to come up with answers.

Apart from that I love the bells that people tie on their pet animals necks. The couple of times I have been to rural India, I loved watching a horde of cows or goats move with the bells hanging from their neck tinkling. When I was im Himachal Pradesh I asked the family from where they had got the bell for their cow. I was pretty shocked when they said that they had picked up the bell from a hardware store! Dont know where I was expecting the bells to be sold. Anyways searched that market and that store and picked up two bells. Of course I do not have cows to tie them on, use them for decorative purposes.

I am sure most of you remember the Austrian cow bell that Kajol had picked up in Vienna and eventually left for SRK in DDLG. Somehow this became a very romantic gesture for me. Indranil all on his own (there was, I swear not even a hint from my side) has promised to buy me an Austrian cow bell and even better take me to Austria to buy it.. I know it is going to be filthy expensive but oh well some things in life are meant to be. Lets see finally when we do make it.

Over the last few years, I have collected a substantial number of decorative bells. But keeping in mind my almost nomadic life, they all are small bells, stuff that I can easily move around with me. One day when I have my own house, I have decided that instead of an electric calling bell, I will install an old brass bell and whoever comes visiting me would have to pull at the strings. Would'nt that be lovely? Some shops have bells attached on their doors, I just love going there. Apart from that you get ear rings with bells attached to them which I love. Indranil teases me saying that cows wear bells and so I, s logically that makes me. Well you can call me a cow all you want, but I am not letting go of these tinkling bell ear rings.

Anubha is another bell crazy person. The piece d' resistance of our barsati ( flat with the huge terrace )was a marvelous Himachali bell that she had picked up to gift a friend but which never reached the friend!

Wind chimes are another favourite of mine and a must have in my house. In my room there are always a couple of wind chimes, on summer nights I love listening to them swinging gently to the breeze while I drift off to sleep. But my brother hates them and says the sound irritates him. yes there are people like this in this world too.

Hey how is your good mood today?

Ok guys, after the depressing previous post, some lively stuff to report. One out of the two of my best friends, the Delhi one, is now a days in a perpetual good mood. Whnever you ask her how she is, she starts gushing about how good she is, how good life is etc etc. I took it one day, two days, a week, a month and eventually I felt suspicious. Well enormously so. What is all about this continous good mood? I kept asking her, I am dead sure she is seeing some man and not fessing up. I am even sure that the man is married hence the silence. It is pretty disconcerting to see someone in a perpetual good mood. I mean we are so used to being up and down and sometimes up for a long time and down for a longer time, that suddenly when your friend stays up all the time it gets to you. It sure gets to me. I mean come on, we all have problems in life, how come she is so super cheerful. I know she leads an immensely stressful life juggling full time Ph.D with full time work. Then I scold myself saying that I have become overly critical, here one of my best friends has found the fountain of good mood and all I am doing is being suspicious. If it was someone else, I would have been deadsure that she/ he is on drugs. But this girl and drugs or external stimulants just do not go together.
The standard dailouge between us now a days is, I ask her "hey how is your good mood today?" to which she repiles "hey my good mood is good today!".
Now tell me in today's stress is such a thing believable? Or am I the cynic here? Just because I cannot do this, I am suspicious of her as well.

When is enough enough???

When do you draw a line in friendship?

What happens when friendship clashes with your principles? Yesterday had a fight with an old friend. Latey her crossing the line seemed endless. And suddenly you realise what you are supporting is something you are principally against. After a long time I actually madly, ruthlessly and completely lost my temper. I am sure I surprised and pained her, I surprised myself no less. There was once a time when I used to floy of the handle quiet a lot. Then broken heart, staying away from home and adjusting with strangers had made me a lot more docile. Yesterday suddenly I was off the hook. I realised that I could be regreting it today but strangely do not. I did what I felt to be right at that point and I still feel the same!

Headless chicken...

Ok this missive is totally Smriti insired. I was about to go to bed when Smriti suddenly popped into my Gtalk and paid me lavishing compliments about my blog and disappeared. Now I am too much of a blogger to let go of such golden motivation. So at 12.40 on a Thrusday night when I should be in bed saying good night to Indranil, I am up blogging. Oh well it is Friday tomorrow and then I get two whole days off. So that is cause enough for celebration.

Ha to start on the topic I want to talk about today. Many men I meet, educated, non chavunistic and sensitive, seem to think that women are headless chickens! Headless as in brainless. Chicken is my addition. But seriously I get rather perturbed when men say such things. And these are non vindictive men. They seem pretty frustrated by these brainless women they encounter. My friend thinks Indian women are primarily conditioned not to think. Our European sisters are aparently smarter and much more headmore (oh well for a headless, headmore is the opposite of headless!).

Painful jokes apart, what do you women think? I know we Indian women had it really bad and for ages all our self confidence had been systematically eroded away and we were socialised into not thinking about ourselves. But surely the times has changed, out there surely there are loads of Indian women who are emancipated and love themselves first and dont take shit. All my women friends are thinking beings and know what they want out of life, though they have been forced to take shit at times. But I know here I am essentially talking about a very niche group, very urban, well educated and from progressive families. But what about those women who are not fortunate enough to belong to this group? I know in my kind of work I encounter all kinds of women, but I always prefered to think that what these women face are exception rather than normal. But honestly in India exploitation of women is an unending story. Now a days SouthAsia TV have started showing Bhawandar again-- the docudrama on expploitation of women which used to be shown on Indian television long time back. Watching that makes me face a lot of uncomfortable questions and as a not so helpless woman feel rather enraged.

But essentially men do not talk about these women, they refer to women who have had oppurtunities in their lives and in spite of them still continue not having ownership of their own lives. I too have met many such women and they frustrate me too. So what actually makes a woman self confident and capable of living her life independently, rather than as beautiful creepers? Is it something that is gene specific or socialisation or culture specific????
Not meant to offend anyone. Just want to know your views.

Dedicate 2009 to finding Mr Right...

In the last two days I have had three interesting conversations that I must share. They are all my friends and I have promised not to disclose identities. Hence this discreet, without disclosure, sharing.

Two days back we met for a drink. After drowning two pinacoladas we got into not so discreet (read rather loud and boisterous) discussion in a bar about the men or the lack thereof in our lives. Right now she is in between men and not in a very good shape. The last guy was someone with whom she had gelled really well. But then she jumped the gun and wanted to discuss the future and wham and bham the guy got scared and ran like hell. Tell me men, why do you register yourselves to these marriage sites if you don't want to talk about the future? Talk about confusion!!!!!!! And what is it? What do you think we women are? Police, roaming around with handcuffs, about to imprison you? For records we women are equally commitment shy and are not interested in getting married to just about any Raj/Rishi/Rahul who pops up. Still continuing, so this friend is still moping about this guy, pretending to be strong and trying to act like she doesn't care and failing miserably. Right now she is going through pangs of guilt thinking she has pushed away a nice man away from her life with her aggression and is down in dumps in the process. What I cannot convince her is that if this man was this perfect he would not have run. We had a serious conversation whether she should be trying to get in touch with him. Though it was she who brought the idea up, she is totally unsure. It is a continous 'should I, should I not' for her right now. Having gone through such situations in life, I know oh so well what she going through. To get back, I am all for her getting in touch with this guy, primarily for her own self. Rather than her lingering thinking about all the what ifs and trying to find solace in pinacoladas, she should just get in touch with this guy. I firmly believe she needs this closure. But in the process we had a great laugh about men and their madness in general. My friend to add further complication and drama in her life, really badly wants a baby! I know this is not the right way to go about finding a man. You should have the man first and then the baby, oh well ideally! But she is at a stage where she wants a baby more than a man! I convinced her that she should dedicate 2009 in finding Mr Right. Let us assume that there is a Mr Right for all of us somewhere. Mine was/is sitting in Denmark and had it not been for this friend I would have never found him. Similarly hers might be somewhere, in fact anywhere from the North Pole to the South. Hopefully by the end of this year, she can plan her baby with her man. I hope he comes looking for her and is equally impatient to get to her, like she is. On a serious note, I am so happy that in spite of all the confusion my friend still is laughing about it and at herself.

This other friend of mine on the other hand is dating three men. Yes guys you read it right, she is currently, all at the same time dating three men. I am soooooo impressed and soooooooooo j. Well she says that she has nothing going on with any of them, but the very fact that she has three men to choose from is such a liberating idea. I mean just imagine on Monday you meet A, then Tuesday B and so on and so forth. If she is not in the mood for C, she can spend time with B. If B is being cranky, A is the man of the evening. Man I never had such choices in my life. And to top it, out of these three, my friend says two are definitely nice guys while the third one is totally into her. Every woman in her life must have such a situation at least once. Ever since I heard this, green spots have started coming on my face. First there were the pimples, then that awful mustache and now green spots!!!!! Some of us gets ugly spots while others all the men!

Another girl friend of mine has adopted a cat. Well she says it is a kitten and not yet a cat. Her husband had rescued this kitten who is really cute and rather nakhrewali. For this friend, this has made her really domesticated. She is the last person whom I imagined to have turned into a momma for a cat. She has promised to send pictures of her cat. Oh well this new year sure is churning out surprises in great numbers!

Random Quotes

Today morning I saw this comment left by a person called Mari. Once I knew a girl called Marie Riba, a Delhi University law student who had interned with me, I assumed this Mari must be that Marie. Then I clicked onto her webpage and realised she is Mari L. McCarthy, a professional writer herself. Wow a professional write reading my stuff and liking it and bothering to leave a comment! Needless to say I am thrilled to bits. Went through some of her writings. Found this quote in one of her writings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

The Solitary Reaper...

Ok, enough of worry my head silly and getting into bad moods. Yesterday had a long chat with Indranil. Conversations with him always make me feel better. So today morning decided that I would shed all negativity from my mental composition and rewrite it positively.

In a bid to cheer myself up posting this ballad by Wordsworth. I love this one. This ballad always has the capacity to cheer me up.

P.S. One worrying thing about me is that I always need external inspirition to cheer up. But then since the reasons of bad mood are also external. So it is ok I guess.

The Solitary Reaper

BEHOLD her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highland Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gently pass!
Alone she cuts and binds the grain,
And sings a melancholy strain;
O listen! for the Vale profound

Is overflowing with the sound.


No Nightingale did ever chaunt
More welcome notes to weary bands

Of travellers in some shady haunt,

Among Arabian sands:
A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard

In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
Breaking the silence of the seas
Among the farthest Hebrides.

Will no one tell me what she sings?—
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow
For old, unhappy, far-off things,
And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay,
Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,

That has been, and may be again?

Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her song could have no ending;

I saw her singing at her work,
And o'er the sickle bending;—
I listen'd, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

William Wordsworth. (1770–1850)

Blog Hooked...

Some days I feel blog hooked. Today is the day.

It is a bit of feeling like you want to cling onto your parents forever and dont want to grow up...if you cling long enough, or smell in your mother's sweet smell, you will not grow up...
It is a bit of feeling like you want to hold onto your beloved forever...just hold him...if you move, or slacken your hold, he may vanish, or worse you may wake up and realise he was a dream...oh is he?
Similarly some days you just write and write and write. It is as if you dont write, unpleasant thoughts wont come clamouring to you...the world would not be a happy place...no no...dont pause, just type on...breathe but dont let the oxygen reach your thought inducing grey cells...let words fill that empty space inside you...let thoughts erase the confusion, let ideas balm your soul...who needs chicken soup? writing therapy suits me fine...at least till I write...but the moment I stop...they all come knocking, it doesnt take them time to break through barriers...they march in and demand ransom which is too high...I cannot sit in office and brood...why is worry such a demanding emotion? why cant i put him in some corner and let him fizzile out? Nah that would make life way too easier....

Oh why cant you?....

for god's sake what is it that i have done to you?

nothing if you think about it.
i have done nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing as of yet...

yet i intimidate you...
yes yes i scare you...

but grow up, will you please...
i dont want anything from you...
all i want is my own life...
all i want is my own thing,
all i want is some peace,
and happiness,
and of course to be alive,
let me be...
i beg of you...

Saturday Evening Bluey Binge...

Saturday after working the full day, I was in the mood to be indolent and pamper myself. Got my cousin to go with me, wanted some beauty treatment. Hell I was tired of my bushy eye brows and my mustache. Wrong things grow on wrong sex. I am sure my mustache would have made a Rajasthani man proud, or at least a teenage boy who peeps into his mirror every 10 minutes hoping against hope that at least of hint of mustache has appeared on his chin.

While my eye brows were being pluckered, I kept debating whether I should get a facial done or not. I am still not used to these beauty parlours of Kolkata. I miss Blossoms which was on the ground floor of my home in Delhi, the convinience of the parlour, the gossips girls and their thousand questions about my room mates and me. Of course debate won in me being indulgent. Had the most horrible and undatisfactory stuff done on my face. Oh yes the most expensive to boot. Came out feeling throughly unsatisfied. What to do next, ah for a yummy chocolate pastry.
Conviniently there was a Barista next door, march into Barista. Order chocolate estasy with ice cream and all. There were a couple of people hanging around drinking coffee. Sigh! I can never understand how people can sit in a cafe and just drink coffee. I wish I could be like that. My cousin and I, we literally attacked the dessert, finished it like an army is about to attack us. That done moved onto sandwiches.

The food made me feel better. Finally it felt like a weekend. Called up Jayshree she was celebrating her birthday somewhere, was hanging out with a bunch of people from office, half of whom I dont even know. How time moves....in November I was part of that bunch...in January I dont even know half of the people. I tell myself this move of mine is for the best, better things are on my way etc etc. But on empty weekend evenings such pep talks fall short. What remains is the emptiness and the realisation that I need to work in fitting into my old life again. Once Kolkata was home, this was all the life I knew, I had all my friends here. I was the most comfortable here. But for too long I have been away. This had become the place where I used to come for vacations, when my parents would suspend their normal lives and be with me. Now I am back to living here, my parents follow their own rhytm of life, my old friends are mostly dispersed or busy. I do not live with friends anymore. Lots of things to digest and internalise. All the good mood created by all that chocolate estacy vanish.....................

When they came for me...

Old forward, but really like it.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out

Random Quotes

Socrates: Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

Snow Globes...

beth got this for me from florida

indranil got this one for me from denmark

i picked this one up from quebec city, it shows the furnival

I do not remember the first time I saw a snow globe. I guess it was in some relative's house. And then I used to see them in television or in English movies. Even before I had any of my own, I remember being fascinated by snow globes. They are such wonderful things. When in Canada I picked up one of the Quebec City's Furnival. Both old city of Quebec and the Furnival are such enchanting places it seemed worthy to remember them through a snowglobe.

Beth knowing my craziness got me one when she went to visit Florida.

This time I went crazy seeing the snow globes for sale during in all the pre Christmas fairs in Europe. Indranil got me one of an angel from Denmark. All my three snowglobes are my favourite decoration objects. I do so love turning them around and then setting them right and watch when the snow drifts down. It seems like there is a small world held inside that glass ball. I stare at the globes and fantacise about many things. Time seems magical there, what with snow drifting down on the small object inside the globe.

Wherever I relocate I drag my snow globes along. All three of my snow globes are small ones. As it is snow globes are heavy stuff so the bigger ones are rather difficult to carry around. Especially if you are frantically trying to limit your luggauge to 20 kgs. But I do so love the big snowglobes. One day when I am down with all my crazy relocation and decide to build a home, I plan to collect some big snow globes with music and make a shelf of these only. It is a pity I have never seen a snowglobe in India. Imagine if our artisans started making snowglobes they would make such beautiful ones. I would be one dedicated buyer for sure.

Dame Anita Roddick

I was browsing the net looking for something else when I found this website http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/services/aboutus_anita-roddick.aspx. I am sure all women know about The Body Shop and their products. Personally I find Body Shops products way too expensive, anyday prefer Shaznaz Hussain products. But this piece is about the founder of The Body Shop, Dame Anita Roddick and what a truly inspirational piece it is. She was some lady. Why I never heard of her before I wonder.
Please go through it, I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

School Reunion

We have this group of friends who have barely managed to hold onto each other since school. In this group most of us know each other since we were three years old. While in school we were not necessarily best of friends, but over the years somehow the bond strenghtened. I remember the first time we had consciously gone out as a group must have been when we were in class vi or vii during pujo. The regular meeting point was Anondomela in Gariahat. Oveer the years the group had been really fluid, people came and left depending on their convinience. During the school years the strenght would be twenty odd, after school the number lessened and came down to thirteen/ fourteen. After school, we became much more regular in meeting, we would meet in someone's house, spend the whole day together, pull each others' legs and have a lot of fun.

Then a time came for dispersal, some friends left Kolkata, me included, some got married and some got busy with careers. Our meetings decreased substantially. Even though not meeting regularly, some of us would be constantly in touch, while the rest would be intermittently in touch. Some would just read the emails but never reply back. Some of us would meet when possible. In the meantime most of us got married and settled down. Some we lost trace of, and are trying to establish contact.

Now thanks to orkut, most of us are back in touch. Lots of other school friends are also back in touch. Since this group was always fluid to begin with, chances of expanding this group always remains. But the old veterans always refer the old and restricted composition. These are the bunch of friends who we feel most comfortable with. You can just relax and be yourself and have loads of fun in the process.

Some of us met suddenly a few days back. It was like revisiting the good old school days.

Most Complicated New Year Wish, ever...

Amidst all the new year greetings, this one stuck me because on the first read I could not decipher it at all. Sent by none other than Mr Amitrajeet Chattopadhyay, born of India, educated in my school along with me and recently living and working in the US of A. Violently naughty as a kid, disruptive as a teenager, became surprisingly mellow once he landed in USA. At least we can attribute one success to the great American dream (ok ok there are many sucesses), he went slightly or significantly crazy with Obama fever, wrote a lashing email against all those "Indian" friends of his who thought he had gone over the edge with this election after Obasma won. Dreams to be a film maker,(at least did the last time I checked, which I confess has been 5 years ago), has the best 'about me' in Orkut, is in love with a girl far far away...generally a complicated, new age man but a damn good friend, always patient and very reliable....

I think the prelude has gone on too long, here is the wish...


Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the confines of the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion and/or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious, secular and/or atheistic persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, according to the dictates of their own consciences.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generallyaccepted new calendar year of 2009 - but not without due respect forthe calendars of choice of other cultures, societies or histories,whose contributions to society have helped make America great (which is not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country, territory, principality or region, or that the only "America"in the western hemisphere is the United States of America) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the following terms: this greeting is subject to reasonable clarification or withdrawal,and is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. it implies no promise by the wisher to actually implementany of the wishes for herself/himself or others and is void whereprohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole and arbitrary discretion of the wisher. this wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period ofone year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting,whichever comes first, and its warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole and arbitrary discretion of the wisher.

Phew....

Happy 2009

What if....

What if one day you do not want to conform to your self or to the world at large?

What harm can it cause if one day I wake up and just decide to be different?

What if I am rude and shocking and scandalising? Would my co workers still work with me?

What if I am bitchy and mean? Would my friends still love me?

What if I am immature and unreasonable? Would my partner still accept me?

I am asking all these rethorical questions because I suddenly feel that people we interact with, love, cherish and honour, we do all of that because something in that person, some quality we admire.

But what if the other person or for that matter me, have no qualities worth admiring or loving, would the people still be interested in being in some kind of relationship with me?

Ar'nt relationshops way too 'me' centric? How much do we actually think about the other person in a relationship?

What are the relationships we actually value so much, actually worth? Or are relationships matter of convinience like A loves B when it is convinient for him to do so and vice versa?

Just some random thoughts. What do you think?