On 'The best friendship'...

Ok...noone asked me to define this but I thought I will form a series of 'few' liners on few topics this week and so as this.

It comes with
No bias,
No caste,
No religion,
No selfishness

It comes with
An acceptance of who you are,
An acceptance of how you are

It does not count on wealth,
But it does count on wavelength

It grows stronger during bad times,
It grows merrier during good times

It lives forever,
when there is honesty
It dies forever,
when there is dubiety

On 'love'...

I was talking to few of my friends here and I was asked to define this :) Here is what I said:
It's a bliss to possess...
And a curse to lose...

What do u say? ;)

'Crazy' kiya re...

Its been a long time since I saw him on screen and I was 'super' excited to watch him judge and sing in between in this week's Airtel Super Singer Junior. Do you know who am I talking about? It's Harish Raghavendra. It's for his voice I got a cassette full of his songs as a gift, it's for his voice I ran from behind the stadium which holds 1000s of people to the front to watch his 'live' performance. Although his voice is not heard in the charts frequently, his voice is still afresh and has the same specialty of diction in it. I had the privilege of making my friends become fans of his voice :) One of his latest and one of my favorites of his' is here:

KS....

Its been a year since I went to a movie with friends here in Colorado. Had a chance to watch the newly released 'Kandhaswamy' here today. Although there was much hype about it, my instinct said that it would be a great flop. I went just to pass time :) Writing a review for KS is not worth it and so I am going to end it with these two lines.

Kandha Kandha Kandhaswamy
Naan poi vandhen vandhen nondhu swamy :)

Aarusamy
Malaisamy
Govindasamy
Ayyasamy
....
Ellame doopu...
Kandhsamy
Perum floppu....:)

Books - An inner view

Few years back when life was showing me unexpected ways, twists and turns which was hard to take in, since I was experiencing a hard blow for the first time in all walks of my life, that is when my sis introduced me to this 'Books are the best companions in life. Life changes, you will experience a blend of good and bad, people leave you and you would be left alone at times but books can accompany you anywhere, anytime teaching you what life is about and give you treasures of knowledge'. She did say something in these lines of context which I took very seriously and that's when my reading habit started. During the initial days, it was hard to push myself into that habit and I would be left reading only 1-2 pages of a book a day whereas some of my friends could read a book a day even though it was huge with small case letters than my book which was only few pages with big letters than those of my friends'. Slowly (may be 3 yrs), I too plunged into the habit of voracious reading that I became a counselor to my friends suggesting what kind of books can one read. I used to sit and talk to friends when they come up with a problem and thought I would console them and give them a way with those learnings from the book and relating those to real life. I don't take credits for that :) It all started with something to read where books ranged from novels of Sidney Sheldon to books of RK Narayan (I was told that the language in these books is easy to understand and good for beginners like me) After 2-3 yrs when my reading habit transformed from lacklustreness to voraciousness, I started with Spencer Johnson's 'One minute Manager' and 'Who moved my cheese' which I could get in the platform shops in TNagar for 20 bucks. I became interested in reading the books of personality development or the kind that epitomised life enhancing skills. That changed the outlook of life, my perception towards life and people and as well inculcated a habit of facing anything with a positive sense...all for good! With all these good factors, a magazine called 'Frozen thoughts' was added to my collection. Even now, although its bit costlier than any other magazine here, I am getting it shipped from India.

Why do books entice me? There's a reason...I did a case study/experiment on this . When I did not touch any books for few months and subjected to few changes in life, few happenings that went to an all bad state and was too stressed and things were going haywire without any control...I saw myself devastated, lost all positiveness that I thought I had. Losing temper became a new thing...Decisions did not come with a mature sense...That's when I thought a book could change my life and grabbed one and it did wonders...and I was back with all those I had before...with a positive look towards, with high credibility and energy. And fortunately, got few books as gifts and now I have my own set of books to order in the coming days...Reading books is a hobby, an interest like watching TV/movies. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But the weight of advantages in reading a book is more than its disadvantages. It could change life, perception, outlook, thought process and imbibe principles, enhance life, build a maturity level, improve vocabulary and overall a treasure of knowledge. Anyone can read a book but what you take from it is more important than completing it. What a life's experience can teach you in years is what a book can teach you in days. It depends on every individual who reads it, who takes the learning and how it is interpreted and how it is applied. To me, a good read is worth a good deed :)

Note: All my 'book's here relate to the kinds that develop one personally.

Next 2 on my list:
'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell
'Talent is Overrated' by Geoff Colvin

What I read recently?
'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho

On my reading shelf:
'The 7 habits of highly effective people' by Stephen Covey
'Mindset' by Carol Dweck

Brain matters...

I was watching Mark Gangors' theory on Male brain vs Female brain and aftermath of that is this blog post. Some of the content may resemble what he has said/enacted in the video but some of these is what I perceive ...You can even call it as fact if you agree :)

Male brain is made of boxes - Each box represents one particular area be it family, friends, work, money etc. None of the boxes touch each other. One opens at a time and closed when its job is done. On the contrary, the female brain is all set with interconnections. It goes here and there and each area is entangled with one another. So, there's always lots of things going in and around at the same time. Is it why they say noone can understand a woman or her feelings easily? ;) In male brain, emotion is the least occupied area and even when it opens, it closes soon when compared to a female brain which takes a long time to close and most of the times it is considered to be left open. In general, since male brain's area is closed when not needed and not interconnected with anything else, a man cannot remember things like birthdays, wedding days of friends even his self, easily when compared to a woman. A woman can always relate one thing to another and can easily remember all these things. Thats why when it comes to reading or mugging up books, a female brain can win easily over a male brain who cannot relate things to one another and remember. When problems occur, a male brain chooses to concentrate on that particular problem and closes it off when done. At the same time, a female brain relates the problem to other areas and can get confused and make the problem even worse. There's one huge difference between a male brain and female brain other than these - Area of 'nothing'. A male brain can do nothing but a female brain cannot. In times of crisis, a male brain always wants to stay calm without telling anything to anyone but in contrast, a female brain cannot rest. A male brain seeks more practicality whereas a female brain seeks more emotions.

I know that there are people who are ready to criticize that this one is better than that et al., As I said, it's my view and there could be difference of opinion :)

The 'diversity' show

It's the first time that I participated in the Colorado Springs Cultural Diversity show. I did not know that there would be a big crowd and a floating crowd of around 5000...Booths, volunteers, performers, kids - it looked like a festival. Car parking was not at all easy although I went with my co-participants in one of their cars. When we entered, there was some African dance that was going on. Then there was a song by a very small girl. Once that got over, it was the Indian community's turn which started with a classical Bharatanatyam dance by kids. Believe me, although there were performers from different countries, with the outfits and the expressions, the Indian community performance stole the show. After the Bharatanatyam performance, there was a 'Krishna Jayanthi' dance by high school kids. They looked charming and so as their dance with the bamboo attempt. Then came our performance for 'Jai Ho'. It always happens to me that my heart pounds fast till I enter the stage but once I enter, I dont know where I will get the energy and excitement. I did forget one step and did something else but people said it was not noticeable and we were the only ones on the entire show who got 2 rounds of applause :) This is the first time I put a thilak on my forehead to depict 'Jai ho' and I loved it. After our performance, there were lots of other performances but I loved two of them - One is the ballet dance and the Taekwando show by the US group. It was amazing! Overall, I enjoyed performing as well as watching others perform. A good experience!!!

'R' tag

1. What is your name: Rajalakshmi
2. A four Letter Word: Rise
3. A boy’s Name: Rohit
4. A girl’s Name: Rakshana
5. An occupation: Receptionist
6. A colour: Red
7. Something you wear: Rubberband
8. A food: Ravioli
9. Something found in the bathroom: Rosewater
10. A place: Rhode Island
11. A reason for being late: Ride
12. Something you shout: Rascal!
13. A movie title: Ravana
14. Something you drink: Raspberry juice
15. A musical group: Ramones
16. An animal: Rabbit
17. A Street name: Rodeo Dr
18. A type of car: Reva
19. A song title: Rasave unna nambi...
20. A verb: Ruin

OK...now for the tag rules that was posted by my blogger friend Raji by whom I was tagged on this 'R' tag :)
Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag your friends. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real… nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question. Have Fun!!

And I am tagging Saranya, Shanmugha and Danny...

Vizhi moodi...

This song is in my recent favourites list. I love this song for various reasons:
1. Surya's dance steps at the beginning of the song. There's so much charm in it
2. The creative thought in rounding of 'deva' in the pages of the book
3. The small kid's cute step when it has 'colors' in hand
4. The way karthik has sung it with ease
5. It reminds me of 'Munbe Vaa' sometimes which too is one of my favorites
6. And of course, the lyrics :)

A soothing recipe...

When you expect something to happen but the unexpected happens in a negative way, people tend to crib, cry, blame others, speak ill of others etc. Its out of frustration, disppointment, dejection..you can add any word related to it. Most of us do this but I believe that there are 3 important things in life which people should learn to feel inside when things go haywire...
a) This too shall pass....
b) Everything happens for a reason
c) No matter what, life goes on...

A 'nostalgic' blog...

It's been two years since I started to blog. Same day in 2007, I remember sitting in the dining table and thinking of what format, font size of the text, background, theme and mainly how to start as a blogger. Two years passed so fast and I am thinking what has changed in terms of my blogging...(Refer image :))

Being nostalgic, I took few of the posts randomly and read those again which brought back memories...

Random picks on each category:
Music:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/05/varaprasadham.html
Movies:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/friday-films.html
Books:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/01/bookish-my-1-2-list.html
Motivation:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/03/living-guide.html
Business & Management:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/05/mr-inspirer.html
Personal:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-firstlast-penfriend.html
Tags:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/commentakshari-s.html
Sports:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/lax-go-getter.html
Love:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/09/this-is-chemistry-balancing-equation.html
Romance:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/feel-it.html
Health :
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/10/health-is-wealth-series-1.html
Language:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/11/englipish-speaking-woman-in-me.html
Jokes:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/tamil-mokkais-of-day.html
Cooking:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/yummy-ladoos.html
Habit:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/12/wake-up-call.html
Haiku:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html
Festival:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/03/thiruvizha-kozham.html

My attempts/creations:
Drawing:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2009/03/carnation.html
Song:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/saami-kitta.html
Dance:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/12/hahaha.html
Poem:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/10/known-stranger.html
Contest:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/08/ace-anagrams.html
Puzzle:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/10/my-little-masterpiece.html
Quiz:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2007/11/t20-captions.html
Tunes:
http://reflectionsraji.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-first-attempt-on-this-casio.html

Of all these, I am missing one category which I intend to do in the coming years - Writing stories :) It's not new to me and I did write a story few years back which was a hit among friends but I lost that story somewhere, somehow :( Will write one when I have a definite storyline in my mind.

I dedicate this blog to my blog 'Raji's Reflections' itself for its second year anniversary :) And, I take this moment to thank everyone who read, commented, honored, praised, criticised me. You all are truly a driving force for me to write more...

More to come...

With smiles,
Raji :)

World of surprises...:)

I love surprises, in a positive sense though. Be it giving a surprise or getting surprised, it's always a delight :) Few sample surprises are here:
1. It is your B'day...And as usual, you would be thinking what your friends are going to do to make the day special and they will be normal like any other day making you wonder what's wrong. And you leave the place not knowing what will happen and when you reach your hostel, someone calls you from behind and take you to beach where all your other friends are there with a blackforest cake that you love waiting for you to cut it and they can dress you up with cake...not with the eggs and tomatoes but with the buttery, creamy cake which you loved to eat but ended up all over your face and you look like a clown in the beach :)
2. Your friend emails you saying that one of his friends is coming to your place and he can get something for you and give it through him. And you don't know when his friend is coming and one fine day, you are there in the canteen sipping coffee with friends and there comes the devil...your friend himself handing over gifts and chocolates :) And you have your mouth wide open with your eyes showing an unbelievable sense...
3. You are there practising for a cultural show and busy in getting the costumes...And when you enter your work place, people come running to you and hug you and few others wishing you on a well deserved promotion. And you are like 'What? Me?' and you rush to look at the email and call your family to tell the good news :)
4. You are with your friends on some award function at workplace. You did not know that you would be called to come on stage for more than 3 times to get the awards and the chief guest who gives the awards
whispers in your ears 'You need not go from here. I am sure that the next one will also go to you. Don't waste your energy by going back and forth..you can stand here till the awards get over' and you give a great smile with pride :)
5. You come off stage after dancing and about to grab some dinner at the buffet. And there comes few unknown faces towards you shooking hands with you saying that they loved seeing you dance on stage and asks you where you get all this energy from :) You never knew you were such a delight to watch in dancing...
6. There's this big event where few celebrities have been invited. Not knowing that one of your most favorites is going to come and perform on stage, you were for a surprise when you hear that name and you run close to the stage to show how crazy you are :)
7. You come home and check the mail box where in you received a package and you think it was the one that you ordered. But, when you open it, you see something else and come to know that it was a gift for you in advance for your birthday and you feel so happy for getting a gift in surprise :)
8. You go home without intimating parents for their 25th wedding anniversary. In addition to that, you hand over a small gift where in there is a gold ring for your mother and a watch for your dad. Your mom never worn a ring before other than on special occasions and you dad has been wearing that old watch for more than a decade...And you look at their eyes which is filled with tears out of joy....
9. You have a group of friends whom you are meeting after an year. You casually chit chat with them and after few minutes, you give a big round box and you friends are like 'What's this?' and when they open and see a big collage with you grouped with everyone. And they come and hug you...:)
10. You prepare a CD with the unforgettable moments, you get a saree, you decorate your friend's house for his/her b'day or wedding day...all that as a surprise...Who will not cherish these moments?

I started writing and did not want to edit after completion. So leaving it as it is...I know there are lots of past/present tense mixes...if there's a grammatical mistake, it came out in a flow...so, excuse :)

When taking a gift is a cherishable moment, giving and seeing the 'happiness' in one's eyes/face is more than anything in the world...Although all these moments happened years ago, it's still fresh in the mind. I had been in 'cloud nine' moments but never had been in a moment where I can say 'Now, I feel that I am on top of this world'... :):)

'Dance' season...

It's been more than 6 months since I danced and now it's the season. Starting with a diversity show and then Diwali and much more on the cards :) Although I am not a great dancer and been doing the same styles so far, it was quite a surprise when I got introduced to salsa and hiphop steps during the practise yesterday...I was trying hard to get into the groove :) It's for a fusion of 'Jai ho' which has both the Hindi and English mix. Before I put efforts to remember the steps, this has been my strategy - Listening to the song as many times as I can which would help me to tune myself to the step...And dancing is a great workout...See, I've got a good reason to dance :) Let's see how it goes...

A breakthrough act...

This is one of the best dances that I have seen in the recent times. This one is by 'Strikers - All stars' for America's best dance crew which caught my attention while I was flipping through channels and saw Randy Jackson elaborating on the finest performances so far. The challenge was to perform 'Gimme more' of Britney Spears' with a mirror. Those guys did a fantastic job especially when they had to and break away from sides and finally a 'clinging' moment...

After watching few perfomances tonight, I have planned to watch the new episode that is about to start from next Sunday.

Watch this now :)

Rewind...Forward....Static...???

A wild imagination though...but if everyone had a time machine in this world by which anyone can go to whatever phase of their life they wanted to, how would that be?

Remember that you may be going to a particular phase in life, but others in that phase that you thought you would be with, would have been actually travelling in a different pahse. It would be total chaossssssssssssss....What do you think? Pour your thoughts :)

Something...:)

I wanted to draw something different and started with a picture of a 'ship wreck' but gave up after I was half way done. It looked really bad :( So, stopped and drew very simple pictures of a design from web. Not sure what to name it and ended up with something...