The joy and agony of being parents

“It’s not always easy being her daughter..”, She said.

“Sometimes, I think, it’s hard no matter who’s daughter you are”.

We always begin by loving our parents as kids and then slowly as we grow, our world expand and begin to demand more space, some amount of collision is bound to happen.

Children are born with new eyes. They see things parents have shifted to their subconscious and don’t really think about that much. Parents, on the other hand, are holding up a universe together that they have to pass on to their kids. Traditions, culture, knowledge, social experience, stereotypes and conditioning.

Valentine's Week:- Rose Day

A Rose Day Story

"Missing him was dark grey all alone,
Forgetting him was like trying to know
Someone you have never met,
But loving him was Red,
Loving him was Red..

Red roses were her favorite. She cut the stems of the beautiful big roses growing outside her window and assorted them in a large vase. Taylor Swift, the modern goddess of love and longing was filling the vacant spaces of her lonely apartment with notes of Love.

Social experiments:- Do they work?

2014 was the year of the social media. Sometimes I can' t thank the world enough for the internet and it's optical fibres connecting all of us together. One small voice can snowball into a movement in no time.

Social experiments have been put to use since as old as 1960s. These days, a few "social scientists", organizations, filmmakers and bloggers are all posing the questions that many are finding hard to answer. Indeed it is easy to speculate about what one might do in the situations posed in these experiments but what happens when the situation actually arises? Do we really live up to our own ideals of who we think we are? Some of these experiments are merely for fun but a few indeed make you stop and think.

Why trains fascinate us

I am sure we remember this memory from our childhoods: a chugging train full of passengers who we used to wave enthusiastically at and wonder as to how far and where all those people were going. The sound of 'chukk chukk' and the belching smoke running up in billows as the train moved ahead gave us the twinkles in our young eyes! How fortunate those passengers were to be travelling in the train, we thought! So exciting! Trains were wonderful! In the playground, we mimicked the trains as we lined up one after the other, with our tiny hands holding the waist of the child in front of us, and the one in front leading us gleefully in any direction whatsoever and all of us shouted "chukk chukk"!!! 

10 reasons to date a Foodie!

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a foodie as “a person with a particular interest in food; a gourmet.” Given such a broad definition, a foodie these days could be anyone who is a connoisseur or even someone who regularly watches Masterchef!

There's an old proverb, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach". Well that IS a bit sexist for sure but we believe there are a list of reasons to convince you as to why guys or girls, foodies make the best of partners.

Four kinds of Friends

Friends are the blessings of our lives. Friends make adventures more fun. Just like a music band has members of different talents, a gang of friends has all types of characters who make friendship and life even more worth the while!

Different types of friends serve different purposes and nourish and enrich our lives in different ways. While we are lucky to count good friends on our hands, I have observed that in a gang of friends, we broadly have four different types of friends. 

Lets Go Shopping

Bonnie’s ‘Retail Therapy’ session went quite well; she visited the local mall for her fix of new lip-butter, as well as a pair of new obnoxious but cute earrings. Nothing beats spending money to forget about your troubles, she thought with a smile!

They do not call Shopping ‘Retail Therapy’ for nothing. There seem to be positive consequences to buying oneself a small treat: one really does feel better!!

The Right Guy

‘Do you know?’ He said, taking her hands in his, ‘Do you know what it is to love someone and never, never! – be able to give them peace and happiness? Do you know what it means to not feel like you are the Right person for someone?’

The Right guy is never wrong. The Right Guy makes things last. The Right guy makes it all Right! The image of the right man, the tough man and the true man are all rolled into one man in our fantasies as ‘The One’. The need to look for ‘The Right Man’ is as old as our dreams themselves! Since we spend so much of our young life wondering, waiting and evaluating men in the cast of ‘The Right Man, is he?’ , my Muse for this week is : Who is the Right Man and how do we stop lookin’ for one!

Andaaz Apna Apna - A Cult

Let's rumble into 1994. India rolls out the short range Prithvi Missile. Sushmita Sen became Miss Universe. P.V. Narsimha Rao defines corruption. Kapil Dev raises the bar of test cricket. Andaz Apna Apna happens to Indian Cinema.

Amar aur Prem. Amar Prem. Bhakti ras se bharpoor. Naam sunte hi main jaan gaya tha ki tum dono awwal darje ki filmi aur awara ladke ho.

The modern girl's manifesto

It's 2014 and some people still seem to be stuck in the Middle Ages as far as mental attitudes towards women and girls are concerned. To facilitate their smooth teleportation into the current day and age so that they are not blinded by the contrast from their own mental timeline when they reach 2014 from 32 B.C., I hereby declare a girl manifesto to re-inform them lest they be in  unfortunate possession of seriously twisted ideas of gender roles. And in this Time- Spaceship we will carry several of our Indian brethren too. Men and women alike. Happy journey to all aboard!

Book Review: How I braved Anu Aunty & co-founded a million dollar company ~ Varun Agarwal

Source: Google Images

Title: How I met Anu Aunty & co-founded a million dollar company - a true story

 

Author: Varun Agarwal

 

Rating: **** 1/2*

 

Cover: Anu aunty illustrated, standing in front of Varun's world & what's in it. Clearly an impediment.

 

Pages: about 250 in medium font.

Language: English, clear and lucid Price(less) at: Rs 140

Publisher: Rupa Publications

 

Quality of the book: Very Good

Fonts: Readable

 

Characters: Four main characters. Rest supporting.

Narration: First person

Flow: Smooth

 

10 lessons to learn from Gabbar Singh

Gabbar Singh, loosely translated from hindi means the proud lion. He was true to his name and starred in the movie Sholay that truly immortalised him. Sholay was and still is one of the most successful movies of bollywood. Amjad Khan who brought Gabbar Singh to life on the silverscreen, did complete justice to the beautifully written script. It was not just the powerful dialogues but the actor's persona and his rendition of the character that has etched Gabbar's memory in our minds forever.

Indeed, Gabbar Singh is the most quoted bollywood villian of all times. Not just this, with some seriously good script writing by Salim - Javed, there's timeless wisdom in Gabbar Singh's character. Gabbar was
more than just a ruthless dacoit he was also a management and marketing genius. Just have a look at all that we can learn from his enterprising character:

When life gives you lemons

Ingredients:

·         1/2 lime

·         1/2 cup grapes

·         1 apple (cored and sliced)

·         One 1/2 inch fresh ginger

·         1 cup water (sparkling) 

Directions

:

Juice Grapes, apples and ginger together and add lime juice of half a lemon. Pour in your favourite glass and fill to the top with a cup of sparkling water. Add a slice of lemon on the side and Voila!

The queen of Arcadus

Once upon a Time there was a mighty King who ruled a wonderland called NoNeverLand.

One day after a heavy afternoon lunch, the king felt particularly inclined to a deep slumber. Since it was a hot day and most of his attendants were dozing off in the effect of a scrumptious royal dinner themselves, the king, tired of fanning himself for so long thought that maybe it would be appropriate for him now to tip-toe across the hallway to his room for a power nap. So off he went, really slow, one concerted step ahead of the other, taking care to not wake the guards up, careful not to tangle the royal nape at their sleepy legs. He did care a bit too much for his subjects, you see!

Marriages are made in heaven

‘Whaatttt??!  It’s 7 a.m. already?! I can’t believe I slept so much!’

Rashmi looked at the snooze clock and woke up with a start.  Rishi will be back from his jog anytime now! ‘Oh God, I am late!’

She slipped into her fur sandals and ran to the bathroom while running a continuous mind-check! Brush my teeth.. scrub my face  .. take a quick bath. Aannd.. done! She was used to getting done up quickly. And more so when she had little time! If looks could kill, so could she! 

Why I read

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The one who never reads lives only one.”

Books have always had a magnetic effect on me. I am pulled towards them like a new day tugs at the sun and the moon pulls away at the waters of the ocean. Inevitable! They coo their soft stories into the winds and catch my breath when I pass by them.  And so I have to stop by. The pages keep flowing and Time keeps passing us by!

Maid in India

I live a Queen’s life. I am in charge of my Time and I spend my endowment as I wish to! Well there is an economist who agrees with me too. A kind gentleman called Richard Thaler who proposed in the 1980’s that behavioural sciences dictate that people are more likely to retain and pay more to keep what they think is their own. This applies to my Time! I pay more to earn more of Time to do what I want to!

Cosmetic Therapy

Cosmetology is the ‘the professional, skilled practice of beautifying the Face, Hair and Skin’ and Cosmetologists are professionals who help you enhance your natural endowments- hair, skin and outward appearance. Branches of this science of personal care include hair-care, cosmetics, manicure/pedicure, skin care, laser procedures, etc. 

An Ode to Summer

There is a time for everything, 

a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

A time for love and (no) time for hate..

(*quoted*)

Seasons, they are all beautiful. They come with a tip-toe, very coyly at first, and then grow more comfortable as they settle around you! They express themselves in full force and then subside, quietly carrying you onto the threshold of the next.

Dark is Beautiful

“She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change to truly see her..”  ~ Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How images of Beauty are used against Women

The Beauty Myth. It’s a transformative book. Hard hitting. Unabashed. Powerful. Just the way I love my feminism to be. Back in America, she famously said, Beauty provokes harassment they say, but then they are looking through a man’s eyes! How I love this woman! And Nandita Das, back in India, the one who says that ‘Stay UNfair, stay beautiful!’.