Teabags, are we?

"Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!"
— Eleanor Roosevelt


The song of the week this time around, is a sooper duper one by Cutting Crew, Died in Your Arms Tonight. I absolutely love this song and am definitely gonna sing it along for the rest of the week. :)

cheers!

Pass me that bottle of aspirin… please

I was fetching a bottle of water from the water dispenser at work and couldn’t help overhearing this conversation between two associates I didn’t know.

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Mr. X: [leaning against the wall, absently dipping the tea bag into his cup of milk with total disappointment on his face] Oh no! Now what will happen of their future?

Mr. Y: [holding a cup of coffee in his hand, suddenly all interested and perky eared] Who’s future?

Mr. X: Indian cricket team’s.

Mr. Y: Ooh! We’re talking about the Indian cricket team, are we? [with a smirk]

Mr. Y now recalls how Mr. X and his friends spent a few extra bucks on the Indian team t-shirt (something that he'd would'nt ordinarily do) and wore it the whole day at work just a few days ago.

Mr. X: Yeah! Who would’ve thought that they would lose so disgracefully?

Mr. Y: Are you saying you didn’t expect this? [barely hiding his smile now]

Mr. X: Well! * sigh * Now the BCCI are going to convene again and are going to take some grave decisions that may affect the current team strongly.

Mr. Y: hmm. [trying to look all thoughtful now]

Mr. X: what do you think will happen?

Mr. Y: Me? [taken aback by the sudden interrogation] I don’t think there’s any need to think about them.

Mr. X [openly offended] What do you mean?

Mr. Y lets a few seconds pass before he answers.

Mr. Y: umm. Did you know that we tested the Astra air missile successfully a coupla days ago?

Mr. X: huh? What does that got to do with the Indian cricket team?

By now, Mr. Y was getting a little impatient.

Mr. Y: Well? Did you, or didn’t you?

Mr. X gives him a sheepish no for an answer.

Mr. X: But I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.

Mr. Y: Not that sport is any less important, but did you know that India is growing dramatically in the Science & Technology and IT sectors among others? Have you ever wondered how bright India’s future is in those sectors?

Mr. X baffled, doesn’t know how to defend himself.

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The way I look at it, at least if India did a fairly good job at the world cup, Mr. X would've had something to back his argument with! Tch tch tch...

Do our boys have the faintest idea how many poor Mr. X’s are fumbling with words out there?

Another piece of conversation; I was involved in this one! :)

Four gloomy faces (my team members) walk out of one of the conference rooms. They’ve just taken a test for one of the certification programmes our company is offering. All of them said that they hadn’t performed well, except one; this one said that he’d nearly pass. (Psst: the pass score for this test is 70%). One needs to take a series of tests before one can appear for the final exam for this particular programme, and their percentile scores are added up as well.

When I asked the other guys why they couldn’t perform as well as this one did, one of them retorted proudly: “He’s like the Indian cricket team. They perform well during the warm up matches, but fail miserably during the finals. And WE, we’re like the Australians, we perform badly during the initial matches, and then miraculously take the trophy home!” [all the while having that jubilant grin on his face].

To think our cricket team has become the butt of all jokes is very sad.

But I can’t take this any longer! I’m done listening to jokes and reading forwarded emails and sms’ on the cricket team. Pass me that bottle of aspirin… please. Thank you!

Sunday Scribblings: #52 - In the Kitchen

All’s well that ends [at least half as] well!

Having to make your own meal, and knowing that it’s ONLY for yourself can sometimes get to your nerves. Not when you’re 25 and all grown up, you say? *Sigh*

Well! It’s not as if I don’t like to cook. I’m pretty decent at South Indian cuisine. But it’s the postmortem activities such as cleaning up the mess that gets onto me. When I was living alone, and when I DID cook at home occasionally, I used to sit on the kitchen counter and eat directly from the same dish I cooked on, to save the ordeal of washing some extra dishes. :D

The part where I screwed up big time was during one of those days when I decided to cook not only for myself, but for another poor soul as well. It happened a little more than a year ago. I was late from work and just as I was leaving, it started to drizzle. A colleague and friend of mine, offered to make a quick dash and drop me home before it started to get heavy. As luck would have it, just as he dropped me outside my house, it started to pour.

Following a little etiquette, I invited him inside and we ended up bitching about some work people, all the while waiting for the rains to stop. Before long we realized that it didn’t seem to cease anytime soon and I volunteered to make dinner for the two of us. This was my first mistake. But it wasn’t just mine, was it? He should know better than that!!

I used up almost an entire hour to make a simple meal of rice, rasam, and ladies finger curry. Usually, when I cook, the only distraction would be the music from the radio or television. So obviously, with all the talking adding to the pressure of cooking, I don’t have to mention that my concentration was hardly on the stove.

Lotsa talking, very little concentration, lack of a fully equipped kitchen and ingredients! Consequence? Rasam as was good as salt water and the curry was only partially cooked.

If it was a disaster, thankfully, he never reacted to it. :)

Click here, to read more scribblings.

She won... again!!!

A Classic...



Something mystical about that tall sloping "R" ever soo neatly drawfing the other letters.

Words fail me. I just completed reading this book and can't help thinking how brilliant it is.

I'm definitely gonna write substantially about it some day!

Psychotic?!?

Well! What can I say? A handful of my friends (if not all) would completely agree with the fact. And now it’s proven! A friend insisted I take this test (and not forget to mention the score to her, of course). I should mention that I was busy trying to get my grey cells working on that estimate my boss had asked me for and wasn’t one bit interested in taking that test then. But upon her further persistence, I finally took it. As it turned out, the test seemed to have been designed just for ME!

And guess what? I’m suffering from Bipolar Disorder with serious symptoms (as the quiz results put it). Now you know who you should stay away from.

Anyway, my test score was 54. Care to take it?

Oh and before I sign-off, this time, the song of the week happens to be Affirmation from Savage Garden. There’s simply so much depth in this song!

I believe the sun should never set upon an argument
..
..
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned
..
..
I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye
..
..
I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness
..
..
I believe in Karma what you give is what you get returned

I believe in them too :)

Sunday Scribblings: #51 - Inspiration

Was down with fever these past few days and all that hype about shopping over the weekend, eventually ended with a lot of sleeping and taking medicines! :-/

Anyway, I guess I’m a little late for this week’s prompt at Sunday Scribblings, but not too late, I’m almost there!

This week’s prompt was Inspiration; what inspires me, what doesn’t, et al. I didn’t spend too much time thinking over this one and therefore just about listed a few things that came to my mind right now.

• Lying on my back on the terrace watching the stars on a still cloudless night (away from mobile phones)



• Interesting sign-boards



• Interesting advertisements on TV :D



• Personalized mail (not the email kind, the one that arrives through post; and does not include my bank or credit card statements either)



• Music (absolutely any kind)



• Hot tea and homemade bajji’s on a cold rainy afternoon :)



• Tax refunds (I’ve got this only once in the past, but wouldn’t mind receiving more often. :-P)



• Strawberry milk



• Friends



• Nature photography



• Travel; anywhere



• Major inspiration to write? YOU guys!!! :)
  

There's more, but this is all I can think of right now.
Click here, for more inspirations.

Holy war?!?

I happened to stumble upon this, between this and the weekend. Apparently, this guy (a follower of Islam) from Germany wanted to name his son “Jihad” (or “Holy Struggle to please God” as wiki puts it), and the Berlin authorities rejected his application quoting it as an inappropriate name for a child. Eventually, this man fought for it, and the Berlin court countermanded the ruling, and let him name his son Jihad.

Notwithstanding how holy it may be why would anyone want to name their child “holy struggle”? Beats me :-/ But who am I to ask, if it’s a commonly used name in the religion.

All that side, it’s funny how some “people” (as Big B would like to call them :-P), conveniently re-interpret its meaning to “Holy War” and end up doing certain unpleasant activities under that name!?! I wonder if God really approves of it! Would they rather ask their God before they indulge in it or justify it?

Wanna read some of the rules of Jihad and its ethical limits? Go here, but ask me no questions, ‘cos I haven’t read it myself and obviously don’t want to entertain cultural differences.

Since I’ve been driving my mum crazee ...

...with my Schnee scha schnappi song every morning at the kitchen doorway (not to mention, trying to sing it with that 6-year old’s voice :D), I’ve decided to change the song this week. It’s an amazing track by Daniel Bedinfield; the lyrics made me weak at my knees…

“I don’t wanna run away, but I can’t take it, I don’t understand
If I’m not made for you, then why does my heart tell me that I am”

Awww!!!


And yay! Its Wednesday; just two more days to the weekend (ohhh dumb ass; its Wednesday morning, that’s three days to the weekend :-/). I’m soo looking forward to a weekend of a sleeping, shopping, writing (sunday scribbiling possibly), and a lot of uninterrupted reading.

Sunday Scribblings: #50 - Dream Journey

I always wanted to Sunday Scribble. And this week’s scribbling challenge happened to be two of my favorites; Dream! and Journey! :) Actually I’m supposed to write about my dream journey, but I think I’m gonna twist it a little (to suit my convenience) and make it “A journey in my dream”. So go on and read it (if you can make it to the end, that is) and do comment. :)

My earliest memories of a dream journey was someplace in the English countryside. I absolutely hate the Americas and hated everything to do with living there. If there is a journey I always would like to take (either in the near or far future), it HAS to be a calm, serene, country side…umm… alongside the sea maybe. Alright, here’s my first attempt at scribbling.

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Last night …

… I dreamt that I was atop a cliff, more like a last bit of a hill that one could reach to. I was standing a good five feet away from the edge of what could be at least a 200 km drop into the crevice below. Ahead, was another tall rock, which appeared to be much too close to the one I was standing on. This one had a hard, almost round rock above it that looked like it would topple off the edge any moment. The rock looked dark on it base and bright and shiny on top; the result of enduring the stiff hard stormy winds on itself perhaps during the winter and the harsh rays of the sun during the warmer days. Even whilst standing there trying to get an idea of where exactly I’ve landed, I found myself slowly rocking back and forth without my own might along with the wind; my hair ever so slightly caressing my face.

I took a few steps forward to try and get a glimpse of what lay beneath. The sun wasn’t bright enough and I had to squint my eyes to get a clear picture of what looked like thick bushes in a deep green colour or black. I shivered and instantly stepped back to what I thought was a much safer distance from the edge of the cliff, when I realized that I wasn’t actually reeling from the shock of looking down, but had shivered because of the chill. Quite strangely, I was not wearing warm clothes to keep me from the chill. I proceeded thence, to wrap my hands around me in a hug, to brace myself against the winds, still wondering what brought me there. On an impulse, I looked up and found soft cotton clouds being hurried from one mountain peak to another by the strong winds. The clouds, each racing against the other, as though, hastening ahead to greedily clutch the next summit ever so tenderly, with their soft fluffy arms; each time, letting it go, and rushing to the next.

My uncertainty about where I was standing then, remained unsolved even as I turned around with much apprehension to see where the narrow path lead to. The path looked like it had been traveled upon very sparingly. I took it either ways, because I considered that there couldn’t have been any other way I would’ve gotten up here.

On either side of the long winding narrow path were tall eucalyptus trees and thick unkempt short plants of what appeared to be wild rose bushes. I could have stopped by and picked one of those flowers, but didn’t. My mind a whirlwind, I ignored them, even as they appeared to be greatly tempting. Each time I took a turn, I desired to make a fortunate discovery of land, of a clearing, where I should find an explanation. As the road gradually sloped downward, and my disappointment mounting to its peak, I found that the trees started to decline in number and tall grass took its place. Further down, the path had the impression of being taken by many, through the years.

Abruptly, as though someone were listening to my heart’s call, the grass around me cleared and I could see a tiny stone cottage in the distance. I could tell that it is being inhabited by the steady smoke coming from the chimney. I took shorter quicker steps toward the cottage; and as I neared it, I realized that it wasn’t as small as it appeared to be. The cottage itself was buried deep inside a large garden surrounded by white fence. The huge iron gates were kept open, as though telling me that I should get in at once. I tried to ignore the garden once again as did I at the mountain path and hurried through the neatly kept wide pathway; wide enough for a car or two to comfortably steer through. The roses caught my attention once again, as this time the flowers were neatly maintained, watered and looked fresh and delicate. The right side of the garden was filled with bright yellow roses dotted with white ones in between.



As I was standing there taking in the beauty of the flowers, the sound of someone talking brought me back to reality with a yank. I quickly turned around to find a 6 foot tall man dressed all in white blocking the door frame of the cottage. He must have said a little Good Afternoon which I didn't notice. He was smiling at me, almost like a grin and said “Your roses are glad to have you back, Madam!”

My eyes opened wide and it took me a few seconds to realize that he was in fact talking to me. Bewildered, I looked down at the roses once again, not wanting to look him in the eye; lest he might find the confusion on my face. “Your tea is ready to be served, Madam. Would you rather have it in the library?” he continued.

Continuing to feel like Alice in her little wonderland, for the first time since that afternoon at the mountain top, I spoke “Yes, yes I will”. He waited for me to make my move, and when I finally didn’t, he continued “The weather is blustery outside Madam. If I were you, I shan’t stay there. You should perhaps step inside”. Saying so, he stepped aside from the doorway, letting me in.

The hallway was made in grey and I was fully aware of the awkward clunky noise my shoes made against the hard wood floor. I continued behind the butler to the living room stepping into the plush carpet. If he was frustrated of the fact that I was walking on the expensive carpet with my soiled shoes still on, nothing of the disapproval showed on his face. Not allowing him to start another conversation, I quickly stepped out of my shoes and clumsily stepped into the carpet, letting my toes sink deep into it. There was a large ornate coffee table in the middle, with two low long couches around it.

For the first time since that afternoon, the hair on my nape settled back and my neck muscles relaxed involuntarily. Before I could look around the room any further, the butler showed me to the library and stepped away. The fireplace inside the library was set; and thick huge logs were burning inside it. I was grateful for the warmth that lapped on me; which instantly reminded me of the cold winds on the hill top. I brought my thoughts back to the room where I was standing and tried to concentrate, taking in each item, trying to figure out if I remembered anything about this room. I looked around the room in silence; the thick light-blue curtains against the windows were drawn. Books were stacked from floor to ceiling; the carpet a different colour now, I couldn’t remember what colour the carpet was in the living room. There were two comfortable chairs in front of the fireplace; its cushions that looked like it had been recently sat upon. The corners of the room were dotted with ornate souvenirs. At the far end of the room, there was a writing desk and a high straight-backed chair. A man was sitting on the chair and writing something on a paper with a long slender pen on his right hand. His left hand held down the paper on the blotter. I couldn’t see anymore of his tall figure and took a few steps in front to get a better view…

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… and then, I woke up from my dream! Aaah! I sooo wish I were able to see who he was though ;) but hey; what the hell; so much for imagination! I’ve stretched it as much I as I could! :-D

OK maybe it’s not a dream journey; it appears to be a lot like a dream destination huh?! :D

Thanks to the ladies at Sunday Scribblings! :) I’m gonna try and be a regular.

Picture Courtesy: Google

Schnappi

I've been listening to this song for almost the whole of this week; and been tapping my feet to its irresistible music :D

Here you go, the lyrics were originally written in German and the English translation is right below it.

Happy snapping! :)

GERMAN LYRICS

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil
Komm aus Ägypten,das liegt direkt am Nil
Zuerst lag ich in einem Ei
dann schni-,schna-,schnappte ich mich frei

Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil
Hab scharfe Zähne, und davon ganz schön viel
Ich schnapp mir was ich schnappen kann
Ja ich schnapp zu, weil ich das so gut kann

Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil
Ich schnappe gern, das ist mein Lieblingsspiel
Ich schleich mich an die Mama ran
Und zeig ihr wie ich schnappen kann

Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp

Ich bin Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil
Und vom Schnappen, da krieg ich nicht zu viel
Ich beiß dem Papi kurz ins Bein
Und dann, dann schlaf ich einfach ein

Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (schnapp!)
Schni Schna Schnappi (ja!)
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (schnapp!)
Schni Schna Schnappi (hmm!)
Schnappi Schnappi Schnapp (ja!)
Schni Schna Schnappi
Schnappi (hmm) Schnappi Schnapp.


********************************************************

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

I am Snappy, the little crocodile
I come from Egypt, located at the Nile
I was trapped in my egg at first,
But snip-snap-snap and then it burst.

Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap
Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap

I am Snappy, the little crocodile
I have sharp teeth, show lots with every smile
I snap up everything I smell,
I snap because I can so well

Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap
Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap

I am Snappy, the little crocodile
I like to snap because it makes me smile
For my Mom, I’ll set a little trap
And then she’ll see how well that I can snap

Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap
Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap

I am Snappy, the little crocodile
I could go on snapping for a while
I’ll just bite my Papa on the toe
And then off to sleep I go

Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap
Snip Snap Snappy
Snappy Snappy Snap.

Bwahahahaha

Usually, the status message on my chat client would either indicate what music I’m listening to then or would simply say “Killer Migraine!” (meaning, stay away from me). And then, no one would bother me on chat until after that message is gone.

Cutting to the present, a long lost friend got online and buzzed me today. And quite neatly also slipped in the fact that he’d stay online from then on; obviously I was glad. Need you ask someone like me, who can spend the whole day chatting with five or more people at the same time!? (I’d like to call it multi-tasking :D)

Hours later when I got back to my desk after an utterly futile meeting, I found that this guy had broken his promise and gotten offline. This time, the status on my chat was “Dodooo! Where are you???” Not that he would hear, but it was worth the try. How you ask?

I had less than a dozen contacts online then, and 8 of them (which included some of them that haven’t talked to me in a while) buzzed me out of the blue. I could have taken a few responses and put it down right here, verbatim, but for the most part, all of them pretty much admitted to the fact that they were all dodo’s :D

How? Most of them, in some form or the other, were:

“I’m here! I’m here!” or “here I am :)” or “I'm right here! cant u see me?”

That WAS fun :D. Either they all agree that they’re dodo’s OR I have this silly habit of referring to one too many of them as dodo’s .... OR like one of them put it “well you have that effect on us... before your presence... we all feel like dodos :-P”




PS: Will tell you guys about this TOTALLY cool tool that I've been hooked onto for the past couple of weeks, in one of my subsequent posts. It was introduced to me by none other than the craziest human being I've met; Dodo!

PPS: And for those of you who hate reading long posts (and that means you Digital Monk), I've tried mighty best to keep this one short!

Wordless

For all the times that I’ve been fretting over the unacceptable behavior of our traffic cops and sulking about the hopeless state of affairs on our roads, here’s one that made me smile. :)


I’ve been religiously following the “I’m grateful for” posts by Novel Nymph and Dharma. But it never occurred to me that I should start writing them too. Not that I will in the near future either! I’m not someone that can go by a timetable :-/

Anyway, I woke up a little later than usual this morning, and found that my legs just wouldn’t co-operate, they just felt like lead! :( :(. Anyway, with the anxious feeling of wanting to take the day off from work, I continued to drag those legs and started for work.

With the completely crapppieeee mood that I was in this morning (the heat making matters worse), I was astounded when that fat, dark, pot-bellied traffic cop frantically waving to vehicles trying to get their attention at the Cenotaph road / Mount road intersection, gave one more look at me, smiled, and let me go before he cut the signal for the ones behind me. :)

That gesture really made my day (at least for a couple of hours :D)

Aargh!

I havent posted in a loooong time (at least by my standards). But before i get back to more frequent blogging (which i promise i will), i wanted to share this with you; some tragic photographs that really bore on me; moved me and had me stop working and spend a few silent moments... especially a few pictures from Afghanistan, Sudan, and Romania.

Tragedy is... they are all pictures from the 21st century.


PS: Apologies to all those bloggers for not having visited them in a while! :-/

Supernova, now that you have told that i've been tagged, I'll soon stop by and find out what that meme is all about :)