Festival of lights!

Every year it's getting different in a way that I celebrate Diwali. This year, I invited few friends to do a kutti pooja on Diwali (when family is not around, friends assist, u know? ;)) And the result is what the picture says. Few things happened differently without any plan. As I lighted the new cute diyas, I started rendering a devotional song to my surprise, well to everyone's surprise. Although I did not give those friends a sumptuous feast, I could feel the sense of enlightment in me when I offered the sweets to them. As usual, I prepared Rava ladoo (that's not different though :)) and the traditional Idli/Sambar combo. And greeted family and friends. When I did this, I remembered a college friend of mine who wrote in my autograph 'Virundhombalna adhu Raji dhaan' :) Better late than never - Wish you all a 'Happy Diwali'!

A Known Stranger

Origin:
I was sitting in the aisle looking at the passing clouds. Was thinking about 'Where has my creativity gone?'. It's been a long time since I squeezed my mind atleast a bit to come up with something new. I took a paper and pen and started writing about 'A Known stranger'. When I read it after completion, my heart was filled with a sense of fulfillment reminding me that the sense of coming up with a 'new' novice thing still resides in me.

Whereabouts:
A Known stranger he is in me
But an unknown face to win me

I wonder why he comes only once in a blue moon
And yearn why this time does not come soon

'Like' is a word of average usage when I mean him
'Hype' is a word of pompous usage when I get to see him

Nothing but a sense of happiness
That erodes my drowsiness

He comes when there is no anticipation
And goes when there is exuberation

He taught me 'Life is an illusion'
Where I saw him in hibernation

Neither can I argue
Nor can I bid adieu

A known stranger he is in my chart
Yet close to my heart

I see him in beams
And I call him 'Dreamzzzzz'

HR - Part II

I have been writing about him since I am a huge fan of him. I did not have any intentions to write about this part II until there came a situation. I had my dance sessions y'day and was very tired after coming back. Had my dinner and was about to sleep. Since I had to give sometime after dinner for digestion, opened my laptop to watch Jodi #1. After watching that, I hit on the KWA link to see who's the guest this week. To my surprise, when Anu said that she's going to invite the singer of 'Melliname Melliname', all my drowsiness went off and I was back with all my energy and excitement to watch HR. HR came with his all time smile and I thoroughly enjoyed all his singing esp. Nirpadhuve Nadapadhuve to the core. Perfect diction, sruthi and when he sings, I feel a sense of music within itself without any BGM. And he sang my recent favourite of his 'Anbae en Anbae' from Dhaam Dhoom. With only kelvi gnanam, he has come till this - Tat sounds great to me :))) And now, I am more pepped up to listen to his songs in my ipod.

1..4..3..

I was into this new place for the first time. Although I have done it lot of times in a different place, this is a new place where I came to shape my eyebrows for the first time. It was an Indian lady's house. Me and my friend went there. She had to put Mehendi on her two hands for an occassion called 'Karva Choudh' (I guess i spelled it correctly). Last week during my dance practise classes, people were talking about this KC and I got information about it (not meant for me though ;)) After we went there, I got my thing done in 15mins. Since Mehendi stuff takes time, I had to sit and watch it. Then there came these two kids - Dhikshu and Siddhu. First, I was watching them play and later I joined in their team. Dhikshu said that I look very dark and I nodded. I played with them for about 2 hours and without any problem, they ate their stuff in between. Then we played till my friend's mehendi was done. I told the kids that I am leaving and Dikshu came and hugged me saying 'I love you!' and looking at me 'When will you come back?'. I bent my knees and sat closer to her and hugged her saying I will come there often and play with her. Siddhu was hiding behind his mom's dress and smiled at me when I waved bye to him. I came back home with a sense of happiness and fulfillment and when I said this to my mom, she said 'You always attract kids! You are a hit among the kids!' Oh..ok! I know - I said that and smiled. One thing I have realised is that when you are with kids, you can be yourself. Kids are very honest and they tell whatever comes to their mind. I love kids! (Who don't?)

The 'Will'ower!

The picture says it all!!! A boon to India and to the world of cricket, he is!!!

And here's his stats:
http://scores.sify.com/match/player_profiles/25.html

Courtesy: Sify & NDTV

Unconditional love...

Guess who can give it? Anyone can...will be the answer if you do not understand the deep meaning of the question. But there's only one answer to this question, according to me. Tat's mom, of course :) That's how I have always felt and will feel anytime without any doubt. Although friends and other relations can give a sense of care and affection, nothing can beat that unconditional love of the motherhood.

When you were inside her belly, she did it!
When you are outside the world for the first time and you saw all the new faces around and cried aloud, she made you smile!

When you grew and played very late, she waited for you to come and eat and sleep quietly!

When you fought with your dad that you wanted to go for an Economics group and he didn't accept which made you cry, there she was soothing you and calming your father!
When you told about your crush/love to your mom, she was there waiting nervously to put that before your dad and get all the scoldings on behalf of you!

When you were there with her, she cared!
When you are miles away from her, she still cares and waits to see you with the same love that she showered you with,when you were born!

When you get married, she cries!
When you become successful, she still cries...all out of boundless joy!

What did she earn from all these? Nothing in return! But she never expects anything, judges and hates you for anything that you had done wrong in life.

Does she need you to earn money and success for all that you have been entitled to? Nah...Tats wat most fathers wanted for the money that they have invested on you all those years.

Does she need to soothe her when she is in a family feud? Nah...She can just see your photo and make herself smile and forget all the sorrows...There stands everything in life!

Does she needs you only when she is in pain and not in joy like most of your friends do? Nah...She just needs you to call her once a week and say 'How are you?...That makes her day shiny!

Does she shows love at first and takes everything for granted like your partner? Nah...She just does the former and not the latter.

Does she gives you only those things that she never liked or wanted that your sisters/brothers do? She can even give her expensive necklace or the one thing that she liked the most in her entire life, for the sake that she loves you more than that.

Is she like your relatives who can tell you should have done like this, that and makes you feel a sense of discomfort? Nah...She wants you to enjoy what you do and never want you to get hurt. That's what she wanted in life through you!

Is she like people who give gifts only for the reason that you gifted them? No...Neither does she give you gifts nor do you...That's the whole essence of this 'unconditional love'!!!

Four to Fatal...

Hmm...It's my fourth attempt in writing an article for a magazine. I had to go over all my blogs to see which category I should choose and which ones look above the average kinds atleast. Hard to choose...u know? The first three times my attempt was fatal resulting in no selection. So I am not expecting anything resulting in a big bash in my fourth attempt. In all these 'try-try' writings, I don't understand one thing - There may be loads of articles coming to the Editorial board and they may have certain selection criteria; When they select/don't select an article, I would say it's good to provide a feedback. If not, I won't know why mine is not selected at all. Providing a feedback would motivate the writer and make him/her realise the technical snags of it. That's my opinion. Let me see if my attempt bashes or crashes this time :)

Excel Sheet

I am known as the 'Excel' queen among friends, @ office, @ home etc., I proved I am worth the title again :) You know what? I can get tonnes of appreciation for just using the excel sheet in whatever way I could. I guess I can teach Scoblizers and Gates' on how to use it at different places in an efficient way. I never used micros or macros while I used the xl sheet but I ended up gaining praiseworthy names like this :) Initially when all this started, I used to say, 'Come on, am not the one who uses it' and people say 'Yes, everyone uses it but not the way you do :)'. But now with an edgy smile, I admit that I cannot live without a spread sheet. If I can write a blog in an excel sheet, I can do..No surprise at all :) Long live XLS!

Oh...watz in a name?

As few of my friends and office buddies are in the verge of giving a life to someone new in their life which brings 'My joy knew no bounds' type, I headed for a 'What can I name my kiddo?' conversation. I am the odd woman out in that conversation but people thought I am good at giving different names and included me. All those religious type names and 'I like these names' came to my mind. There's no website needed to identify a great name - You have to come to us to find one. Oh...The list was flowing in tonnes and I was like 'Is there any other name left out in this world?' and everyone laughed. There were Ryans, Rohits, Pranavs, Rahuls, Ananths, Adityas, Nitins, Nikhils, Joshuas and much more in the boys category (My brain couldn't hold more :)) and Aditis, Akshayas, Pratyusha, Vaishnavis, Samyuktas, Sambhavis, Ruchis (reminds me of pickles though), Rias under the girls category. After discussing so much, everyone had to tell which is the one name that they would opt for and my turn came. I said 'Rishi...' as it's my most favorite name ;) This name Rishi seems to have a poorva kaala bandham with me...Whenever someone asks me for a name, I end up in Rishi (is this something to do with sainthood in the last jenma?;)) Jus kiddin! For that reason, I have never come across anyone by that name. Am going to wait and watch how many of my friends are going to end up in a name that's favourite to them.

Regret or Rejoice?

For the past two months, I did not update my desktop background. This being one of my hobbies and as I used to be consistent in updating, I do not want to miss one for this month. Usually I spend lot of time to get a picture that I like. To me color, message, simplicity of the picture matters a lot. But this time, it was too easy to grab one in a min. and here it is:


Regret or rejoice? It's our choice! Absolutely true...

Morph...

Kambli came and did a Kuthu
Irfan came and stood shy
Nikhil came and acted
Bhajji came and did a Bhangra
Sreesanth came and did it casually
Dinesh came and rocked

I watched it yesterday. Seeing these cricketers in a different form is not so interesting. It started it in the first show itself where they had difference of opinion. Poor gals...They were so great in dancing and looked good; And it has become a fashion nowadays that people doing without any reluctance in front of a big crowd...Bhajji did to SSen yday; Sangeetha did to Sanjay in other show; Rakhi did to Salman in DKD; What was that? Newspapers claim it as a proposal...And I am like, Pls..grow up!

Satiety...

She came and asked. I said OK! I was looking forward for it. I was very excited and happy thinking 'Will it happen this time?' I missed last time but I hope it will be fulfilled this time. In a row of 5 years, it's the only time I missed it and I know how I felt bad about missing it last year. I was so close in getting it but I missed it. Let me not think about this past, I told myself. I had dreams about me enjoying it and I remembered how some unknown faces came and praised me after I did it couple of years back. Also, I did get reminded of how I got bad comments from my friends when they saw me doing it first time 5 years ago. Giggles, Guffaws, Smiles, Excitement - I saw my friends in my dreamz reminding me all of those. It used to be like this - My friends calling me within few mins after I complete it and talk about the nuances and I loved hearing it from them. And now, I am excited to do it again after 2 years. And bad luck strikes...Next day an email comes and I came to a conclusion that I cannot do it and dropped myself from it. I thought to myself - Ok...No problem..now it's two years in a row you are going to miss it! My dreams became jus dreamz...I forgot about it for a week and was surprised that I was called again. Next day I went there to do it and as usual I felt so shy after seeing the whole crowd and stood at the corner until a voice called me. They showed me this...They showed me that...I was just watching. Then they said it was my turn to do it and I did it. Break...People there told me that I have grasped the nuances so quickly. And finally I thought 'Hmm...even years pass by, I have not lost the passion in it'; With my hand fists clinching I said to myself, I did it and now am doing it again and went for a merry-go round. Hmmm...I am dancing for two songs in this year's Diwali function :))

(For, By, Of) The People...

Being a people's person is neither an easy target nor easy to acclaim. On a high level, there are two kinds of people - People by mind and People by heart i.e. People who go by what their mind says and People who go by what their heart says. There is a clear distinction between the two. On a day to day life, I am sure most of us would have come across both kinds. From what I have seen, I have my own perspective on these people.

People by mind are very judgemental; They always like the material pleasures of life; They can easily hurt people; They carve for money; They are selfish; They have their own set of rules; They cannot help others unless it is beneficial for them; They always think what they do is right; They want to be on the top of the world always; They are mostly successful; They feel superior; They work very hard and get what they deserve; They fight for their rights; They cannot digest failure; They are bold and independent; They are very outspoken; They are mostly honest

People by heart are cool headed; They can lie but they cannot hurt; They are weak in arguments; They enjoy people's company; They carve for money but it doesn't come to them easily; They aim for success but never attain it; They crib most of the times; They care for people; They are generous; They can sacrifice anything in life; They think they are inferior sometimes; They cannot see someone cry; They judge people at times but never show; They think this is how life is; They cannot tell the fault in a person even if it is their close friend

Major difference between the two is - Former enjoy the mundane life which they have made by themselves whereas the latter enjoys the life which has been made for them :) Don't ask me which category I belong to! Where do u belong?

Giveaway...

• There's a set of options towards charity
• Each towards a particular purpose
• All options make sense
• Every other choice looks important
• But you can choose only one and once

So, what do I opt for?

When it involves something about children, my vote goes towards it...And hence, I did the same here:

http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-charity-giveaway

Making a difference in someone's life gives utmost satisfaction than anything else in life and makes it worth living.

My Team

Am out of touch from Cricket for a while and thought this would help me to revive. With the first test against the mighty Oz around the corner, if someone asks me (actually Sify did before the entire hoi polloi:)) what would be my choice of team for both the long and short version of the game, my answer would be this:

Saurav Ganguly
Virendra Sehwag
Sachin Tendulkar
M S Dhoni (C/WK)
S Badrinath
Gautam Gambhir
Suresh Raina
Yuvraj Singh
Irfan Pathan
Zaheer Khan
Harbhajan Singh
Piyush Chawla

The reason behind choosing this set is I would love to see a blend of oldies, the goldies with a plethora of experience and the youngsters with josh and passion. With MSD's management techinques, three S's experience (Sach, Saurav and Sehwag), the allrounder attitude of Yuvi, Batting techinques of Raina, Gambhir and Badri, Swingers of Zaheer and Irfy, Spinning sense of Bhajji and Piyush - I guess this would make it a 'wholesome' team.

Will the actual team drive the Oz crazy? Will they create a history? Let's wait n watch!