Wondering...

Its always good to know when to quit. 

Hyper enthu...

I used to be this super enthusiatic teanager and mostly restless about many things. Actually, many people may wonder how this can even be a problem. It is. Your expectations from life, people, situations and yourself will be way more than others. That can easily stress you and lead to the feeling of being let down! This hyper enthu sometimes even leads you to take yourself too seriously! One good thing though is one cant be feeling low too long, that will bore the hyper enthusiastic!
I thought age would "cure" me of this hyper enthusiasm about life. But age by itself will not change anything, unless one does a concious effort to identify certain aspects of life and try to change them. Probably this is what most people actually imply when they say, things change with age!

Not being a control freak...

Trying to control the way things are and things can be, is quite human. But this should be done sparingly, else will sap our energies and leave us good for almost nothing! Let go.  Go with flow. See how it goes. There is some fun in letting go and discovering some beautiful things that you never realised, existed! Letting go is also being unselfish, giving a chance to life, accepting that there are somethings beyond control and being at peace with the world.

Have been thinking what I can do to practice :
1. Say some soothing prayer. If you acknowlege there is a higher power and belive things will be taken care of may be helpful.
2. Deep breathing. Drink some water.
3. Imagine what is the worst thing that can happen if you cannot control/alter the situation you badly want to.  Is there still a way to do without it? Will it impact your life after five or ten years from now? Remember some past event that bothered you so much, but later things turned out to be alright.
4. Remember that this too shall pass. Change is inevitable.

P.S: easy to say, hard to follow, I know! :)

For a healthy mane…

Add equal measures of coconut oil, castor oil and sesame oil. Heat it and apply on the scalp and hair. Steam the hair. Leave the oil for about 30 minutes and take a shower. It makes your mane healthy and nice. It is tried and tested! J

New game..

One thing I love playing is solitaire on my phone. Uncovering the unknown is fun, trying to know which card is under this one is also fun. But sometimes I wonder if life has become one of those games in which you don’t concentrate for a while and then end up with very few choices and reduced patience. You wonder if there was a “new” game option. May be every day is a new game option of life!

Blissfully…

Things sometimes get complicated. So what do you do?
Ignore.
Does it work?
Yes, 9 out of 10 times.
What about the remaining one time?
Ignore!!! :)

Food tips for myself

1.Drink plenty of water. Especially when angry, help yourself for a glass of water("Gussa pele", like in Chak De!)
2.Drink milk for stronger hair and bones.
3.Have green tea whenever you feel like having coffee or tea.
4.Whenever you get lots of chocholates, share them, good for the heart and the waistline!

Five things I got to know...

I sometimes read "five things you dint know about me" in the newspaper featuring some celebrity and many are not things you would want to know anyways! Like would you want to know if this person likes cats or dogs, or what this delicate actress is most afraid of. I mean no one gives their number there! But after seeing a nice photo of theirs I still go ahead and read it! Here are a few things that I dint know(or noticed) about myself till lately:
1. I like to finish the omlet as quickly as possible as I dont like the smell of eggs! - I am a "vegetarian" in the sense that I also eat egg. Once in a long time when I smell omelette on the frying pan, I want to have it and then once I starting eating it, I cant stand the smell of egg, to my horror I feel like puking! Its probably not the smell of omelette that is pleasing to my nose, its just the onions and the masala, I really dont like having eggs that smell like eggs! In pastries its not a problem.
2. When I boiling from inside I have a lot of steam!(huh sounds very funny). When I am very angry, I have a lot of energy. These days if I channelise this energy, although not intentionally, I can walk 6kms on the treadmill or wash a bucket full of clothes in one go, read half a book in one sitting, make the wardrobe and so many more things. At home(home as in the place where I grew up) I used to throw tantrums when angry and sulk till I find something interesting to do!
3.I dont find ironing clothes taxing. I had ironed several times right from childhood, but only in emergency - when my mother had not got it done by our local "dhobi".(Although we gave washed clothes for him to iron, he was still called a "dhobi"!). Also when it comes to some delicate clothes or the ones that I like I somehow would not do it, for the fear of burning them. I had never ironed a whole lot of clothes till recently. And two male friends of mine who had recently been to foreign countries on official trips were saying the most difficult chore is to iron one's clothes. In someway this was also a trigger to try it out. I am not sure if the male wardrobe is made of "difficult-to-iron" dresses, but mine were pretty easy to do and I did not find it taxing!
4. I was under the impression that washing my hair at night would give me a running nose the next day! My mother once told me so when I was a little girl, and I never gave it a shot until a couple of years ago when I started gymming. Since then I have done it a great many times and only a couple of times caught cold!
5. Without this thing or person, it would probably be difficult to cope - was what I used to think. Life goes on. Mine is no exception! -This bit I have known, but often forget...

Partnerships...

Life is all about partnerships, good partnerships lead to success and happiness and bad partnerships are a part of the package, which help us learn faster... All the things that one enjoys could be the result of being with someone, of a good partnership.
Two things triggered my thoughts on these lines. One, while playing su-do-ku with mom, I usually feel the "hard" ones are really hard. But mom said we can do any of it with a little more patience and thinking out of the box. She dint exactly say this. She doesnt get into lecture mode, since am not very receptive when people are preaching me. In her own sweet way she convinced this and we ended up doing it in quite the same time as any other "medium" or "easy" puzzle. It felt great and most of the "hard" part of the puzzle seemed to be in my head.
Also the recent Indian cricket team's victory against the "mighty" Aussies in two straight finals. Wow what a way to drive home a point. I was mightily impressed. It served the most arrogant foul mouthed team that have seen in international cricket. I felt it was the way our players stuck together, believed and celebrated each other that lead to the victory.

It could those board exams you cleared with good grades - a partnership between a child and parent or child and teacher, it could be enjoying shopping/going out for a movie/chatting over coffee - a partnership with a friend or sibling. There are these people who love us and help us win, help us face many a challenge, pray for our welfare. So most of our success is not just a result of our hard work. It could have big contributions in the form of trust, faith in one's abilities, prayers, wishes, time of your loved ones - parents or friends or siblings.

Good partnerships make life interesting, open up new possibilities, make you realize previously “impossible" things. They make life wonderful.

Last evening...-2

The world is a very unfair place to be.(Ok I will keep saying it because it IS an UNFAIR place to be!). This has nothing to do with the below passage.

Another friend called me after a long time to check if I continue to exist - precisely thats why some friends call me up for. We caught up with each others lives. In the due course I suddenly realized (because my friend pointed it out to me), that I had made some remarks about relationships and marriage. All this advice was not even targeted at him, for he is a mature guy himself. We were just discussing about something and I got into the lecture mode unconsciously. This is what I had said(it cant be exactly the same words, and since I was the one who said it, I have the license to...) :

There are a lot of things in this world which you do to prove a point. Marriage is definitely not one of them. Dont marry to prove anybody a point. There are a few people involved whose life will get affected by the decisions that you take. Be practical, be reasonable. In the height of ecstasy, when high on love, people dont think of the practical implications. You must think about the consequences. If you are content with the way of life at home, if you are proud of your roots(and you enjoy a lot of the vernacular stuff) , if you are sure you want your everyday things to be how they have always been, do not try anything drastically different in this area! Just imagine wanting to watch a kannada movie/play and hoping your spouse, who cannot follow kannada, could appreciate it, when initially it did not even seem like a requirement for the relationship! Think. Because this will be having an impact on your partner as well. If you are the kind who would end up with such unrealistic expectations(they become unrealistic in this particular situation, otherwise having such expectations from people of the same backgrounds is very valid)and are convinced it’s a reasonable expectation to have, then cross-language and cross-culture marriages are not for you. This will be a very unfair thing to do for a person whom you have “loved”. Things will not continue to be rosy forever. Get real. Don’t make your old parents go through difficult times adjusting to the new person-new language-new culture(This will not be a problem if you are from a cosmopolitan background). Marriage should stabilize life not add more confusion! And more than everything it depends on fate (yes, I am a “practicing” hindu!!! LOL!). If things do not happen the way you want, they were just not meant to be. Blame nobody(This is easier said than done!)…….

There was one thing very surprising. I have never taken a stand on this matter before. I did not even know I think on these lines(now). I have always claimed to be a hard-core romantic – as in, you cannot help falling in love with people (and falling in love somehow translates to marriage, thanks to my conditioned mind!). It was a great eye-opener to myself!

Makeovers..

There is a show on TV that interests me a great deal. Not being a regular TV viewer, I keep surfing through the channels and stop mostly for songs and ads! And while surfing through the channels I catch this program mostly and it has to do with "makeovers". Two people, either spouses or friends or siblings are given a "makeover" by a team of experts - dress designers, hair stylists and the kind. Initially I was a little skeptic about this show, as in "would I not know what I look good in, why should someone else tell me" kind of attitude. But then what are experts for, and there is always a scope for improvement. Also, there is a pattern that I have noticed among most people. Most of us look for comfort when we select our dresses, which is very good. But more often than not we do not experiment. So we stick to the same colours or fabric. And our wardrobes are full of similar kind of clothes. Be it cotton salwar-kameezs or shirts of all shades of blue! And like everything else in life, we probably resist changing the way we dress. After these “makeovers” some people really turn out to look much better.

After watching this show, I let myself imagine giving makeovers to people around. I find myself telling, had this person worn a lighter or darker shade it would have been better. May be this colour shoes dont look good on this. I imagine how a person would look with shorter hair (For girls I like short hair or long hair, in between lengths don’t look that good, now don’t ask me how else would you expect it to get long otherwise…I never had long hair, ever!) I have always been experimenting with my clothes. I mix and match and see if it looks good. People say it takes a lot of confidence to carry of clothes, which you are not used to wear or colours you have not tried before. I never force myself, experimenting comes to me effortlessly – its as simple as, I get bored if I look the same for long! (LOL!). And many a time I would have bought the dress myself, so no question of forcing also. When people give me second looks, the first thing I feel is “now whats wrong?” (this is the confidence building activity I put myself through for all the effortless experimentation!)

But sometimes making small changes in our look does loads of good. And surprisingly enough all that, that is given in these “makeovers” involve giving a neat haircut, manicure and pedicure, and clothes and shoes that the “experts” think suit you well. And if we notice carefully this is what we were taught as kids. Presentable meant wearing neat clothes (yes pressed), keeping your hands, feet and hair clean, and wearing neat footwear(remember those polished shoes and clean socks..). These days a lot of emphasis is given on personal grooming. And it is so very interesting also! A little thought, some interest and some genuine effort and you well end up looking “groomed”.

Goldfish memory....gone in a blink!

I feel like a goldfish! Looking at huge lines of code. I have an uncanny feeling that the moment I blink I forget all that I had analysed and theflow! Like the goldfish memory. You blink, you forget. Like the girl inthe movie "50-First dates". Fortunately it happens only with the code.But forgetting in some ways is a gift. Life becomes simpler if yourealize what to remember and surely remember what to forget! No extra baggages please.

Coffee...

I wasnt this crazy about coffee until a couple of years ago. I always wondered why people loved this drink the way they do. At home I had always seen my mom start her day with a hot cup of coffee. And beleive me there are thousands of people who are real crazy about this drink..

Now even I start my day with a cup of this heaven! Unlike most other people I like my coffee not very hot. It cant be called hot also! Its a little hotter than what is called warm and a little colder than what is called hot! Ya, I am so particular about its temperature as well! Crazy me!

Coffee has even inspired a recent talk show to be named after it. Koffee with Karan, and Karan Johar dint spare even the humble coffee. He added a 'K' to it as well! See dint I tell you Koffee can be Krazy! And with so many cool looking coffee shops I guess coffee is no longer that humble drink.

And coffee has this very romantic association with mornings and newspapers! What a way to start your day with hot (not that very!) cup of coffee reading your favorite newpaper!

But let me tell you, too much of anything isnt good as well. This is from my own experience. I used to down cups of it when I felt very sleepy. Its a diuretic. It can cause gastric disorders, prevents one from getting hungry and the list goes on...

Hmm.. my strong admiration for coffee dint diminish anyways. I take it in the right amount and enjoy it now. So herez some space on my blog for this special drink!