Thoughts for the day

The days seem to be just flying. Feels like yesterday that we went to Mayya's , struggled with the stairs and lift there to get to top floor and after reaching there , found that we will get our turn only after 1 our or so :P Yes , this was last weekend and already weekend is here again :D As I was saying, its like the weeks , the months are just flying and I don’t know if I must feel good or bad about it. Good because , this feeling ( time flying fast ) means that I am keeping myself engaged and busy in work and at home, and not just lazing around and waiting for the time to pass :D Bad cos , the days are just passing and I will be one more year older soon :D But , I am never much bothered about my age and 25 is not much of an age to bother about I guess :D So , nothing much bad about this after all.

I have seen an increase in the number of beggars near signals these days. And I am really in a dilemma whether to give money to them or not. I don’t think much if it is an old person. But I really don’t know what to do when some child , or some lady with a baby in hand , etc come asking for money. I really feel sad and want to give money , but other side of me says that it is not good to encourage this kind of a thing by giving money.

All my friends seem to be doing the vanishing act these days. Many of them have gone on-site , and few are in unavailable state ;) So , there has been less meet ups , very less or no trips nowadays . Good thing is Ashu is coming back this month end :) Hope things fall back into place soon :)

Deepu keeps asking me now and then as to what my goal in life is. I have really thought hard and have decided that my goal is to travel as much as possible and visit as many places in this world as possible before I die :D . Deepu says , this is not such a proper goal , and I should have some professional goal as well . My traveling goal falls into personal category I guess :D Well as far as my professional life is concerned , I still have to figure out that "BIG" goal :D

My wardrobe is one big mess right now :( ( Its all Yashu's fault , not mine :P :D ) .Everyday I think that I will arrange it in the coming weekend , but I get lazy during weekends to do that . I really admire people who keep all their things properly in place . Also girls who take so much care about having right set of clothes for all occasions  and also matching accessories for all those sets .May be I should make a resolution right now that I will keep my things properly from now and spend some more time and put some more effort on the way I look every time I step out of my house :P ;) This weekend , I will be in Davangere , so once I am back from there , I will start working on these things :D ( Hopefully ;) )

New recipes tried out : Only one . Tried out gojjavalakki , and it turned out pretty ok :) Need to try out more recipes. I myself have got bored with things I am preparing and there is a need to add some new and exciting items to my menu :D

OK! That's it as of now .More thoughts in future posts :D

starting a tag - 7 things about myself :)

I saw this tagging thing in many blogs and wanted to try out one. Since no one has tagged me till now , I thought I will start one myself and then tag my friends who blog ;)
Well as I got from other blogs , following are the "rules" for tagging :D ,

1. Tag seven people 
2. Link their pages in your tag post
3. Leave a comment in their comments section telling them they’ve been tagged
4. In your post, mention the person who tagged you and link his/her page
5. Write 7 things about yourself.

Let me start off with the last rule ;) Don't know if I can write anything which everyone already do not know :D But let me give it a try .Here are 7 things about myself :

1. I have starting problems with people. I mean , it takes lot of time for me to get along with any new person I meet.But once friends , I talk so much that all my friends laugh when I say "I am a silent girl" :D 

2. I bite my nails most of the time , especially when I am trying to solve any problem , I am tensed , waiting for some result ,etc. But I don't when I am happy :D

3. When with me , you will mostly find me laughing :D I laugh at any small joke :P Whenever someone is cracking a joke , I try to visualize the joke and that makes me laugh more than anyone and louder than everyone as well:D People who do not know me well might find this a little odd sometimes I guess ;)

4. I love travelling. I have lots of places to cover still . Sad thing is , I have not done much of travelling this year , and have to really start off :(  Sandeep , are you listening ,or reading rather :D I know this is a PJ , but I laugh at such jokes too :P :D

5.I read a lot . Mostly novels. I am not much into books which preach , books with philosophical stuff , etc . I am more into detective stories , romance . I do love reading biographies and auto biographies :) My favorites are Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie Novels . My favorite pastime is munching some snacks and reading a book :)

6. I am more of a family person than career oriented .I try to give my best towards my job , but family is my first priority and everything else comes later :) 

Oh . I have already finished 6 points! Ok , let me put everything else I want to say in the last point then :D

7. I have small number of friends , but i love all of them , and try to keep in touch with them as much as possible :) But , I am really bad at this "keeping in touch" thing. I get lazy to even to call up any of them :D But they have been good enough to call themselves and I guess due to all their efforts , i am much better in this now :D And yes , I like cooking :D

OK , I am done with the last rule :D Let me go to others ;)

Nobody tagged me , so I need not mention that :D  I need to tag more people and here I go : Deepu , Yashu , Pavan , Sadhana , Ashwini , John , Raju.I will send them a mail asking them to write rather than leaving a comment :D

serial killers

No no , I don't really know any serial killer as such , nor will I try to go into any serial killer's mentality :D But this is about something which is as dangerous as a serial killer is.At least that is what I felt after watching them for few days now , when I was on leave , thanks to throat infection , cold , fever , etc , etc ;) Actually , no etcs . Its just throat infection , cold  and fever :D

OK coming back to the topic..oh.. I haven't mentioned the topic till now . Its about these mega serials which are aired almost all the time in all the channels ;) I have started watching some of these in recent past. Its not that I watch them regularly , but just rush through them while browsing channels. Actually I don't have enough patience to sit and watch the same story for half an hour or more and then follow it up daily :P Some points , well lets say , some aspects which are sometimes irritating , annoying , amusing , amazing ,funny , etc about these serials from my point of view ;)

All people seem to wear designer clothes all the time , even when they are at home , while cooking and sleeping as well :P Yes, the ladies ,even when they go to sleep , are draped in heavy sarees , with full make up on ! It seems that the guys get to wear some modern wear ( jeans , T-shirts and other stuff ) , but even they wear the same things to bed :P I was just wondering , if people start dressing themselves up so intricately on a daily basis , half the day would be just gone in dressing up and down :D Does anyone know if in any part of country, people being like this? No idea! :D

Almost in all serials , there is a devoted wife who is trying hard to keep her husband to herself . And there is this other lady who is trying hard to snatch the husband using her charms and evil plans :D And the poor husband does almost fall into the trap of the evil lady , while the wife is still trying her best , by being sincere , loving and all that :P Give me a break! :P :D Can't they be a little more practical :P Why would an educated , good looking and self-dependent girl go after some useless guy who is already someone's husband :P And why would a lady continue to be devoted and loving to her husband even after knowing that he can fall for any other woman who comes after him :P But may be this is what the audience today enjoy watching .That's why they are using this theme in almost all the serials today :P

I don't see any serial which will cheer you up after watching it .In almost every serial , somebody or the other is crying and somebody or the other is trying to make someone cry :P It will not be a wonder if we are in a mental shock after watching these for few hours :D

I thought that the world is changing .Girls have more rights and respect these days. And people are much more broad-minded and less superstitious than they were , lets say a decade or more ago . But these serials do not want to change. They still show husbands dominating wives , and wives meekly following every order of husbands' , even if he is bad to core, there is child marriage being glorified in one serial where they depict it as if its nice to get married while you are kids and then grow up together , another one where they show a girl's parents going and begging the guy's parents to accept their daughter's hand :P , and so on . The list is endless. I wonder how the TRPs of these serials are high ..

I may be wrong in saying that everything is good in every other family in all over the world . But I think that it is the responsibility of the makers of these shows to give out positive and good ideas to so many people watching these shows regularly and not fill their mind with such backward,negative and stupid ideas :P

ಸುಧಾ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯವರ "ಮನದ ಮಾತು"

ಈಗ ಕೆಲವು ದಿನಗಳ ಹಿಂದೆ ಸುಧಾ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯವರ "ಮನದ ಮಾತು" ಎಂಬ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದಿದೆ.ಸುಧಾ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯವರ ಕೆಲವಷ್ಟು  ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳನ್ನು ಓದಿದ್ದೇನೆ . ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಬಹಳ ಸೊಗಸಾಗಿವೆ. ಅವುಗಳನ್ನು ಓದುತ್ತ , ನಾನು ಅವರ ಅಭಿಮಾನಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದೇನೆ :)  .

ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಟಿವಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರ ಸಂದರ್ಶನ ಮೂಡಿ ಬರುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಅವರ ಮುಖದಲ್ಲಿ  ಎಂತಹ ಕಳೆ! ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಮುಖದ  ತುಂಬಾ ಮುಗುಳ್ನಗು. ಅವರಿಗೆ ಇಷ್ಥವಾದ ಹಾಡು ಯಾವುದು ಎಂದು ಕೇಳಿ ಅದನ್ನು ಹಾಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಪ್ರತಿಯೊಂದು ಹಾಡಿಗೂ ಚಪ್ಪಾಳೆ ತಟ್ಟಿ , ಜೊತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ತಾವೂ ಹಾಡಿ ಸಂತೋಷ ಪಡುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸಂಗತಿಗಳಲ್ಲೂ ಸಂತೋಷ ಕಾಣಬೇಕೆನ್ನುವುದನ್ನು ಇವರನ್ನು  ನೋಡಿ ಕಲಿಯಬೇಕು.

"ಮನದ ಮಾತು" ಪುಸ್ತಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಅವರ ಜೀವನದ ಕೆಲವು ಘಟನೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕುರಿತು ಬರೆದಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ಸಂಗತಿಗಳು ಎಲ್ಲರಿಗೂ ಅನ್ವಯಿಸುತ್ತವೆ. ಈ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸಣ್ಣ ಕಥೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಲವು ಮನತಟ್ಟುವ ಮಾತುಗಳ ತುಣುಕುಗಳು ಇಲ್ಲಿವೆ ,

• "ಬಾಲ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವುದೇ ವಿಷಯ ಚೆನ್ನಾಗಿ ಕಲಿಯದಿದ್ದರೆ , ಮನೆಯ ಬುನಾದಿಯೇ ಸರಿ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದ ಕಟ್ಟಡದಂತೆ ಆಗುವುದು. ಮುಂದೆ ಎಂಥ ಉತ್ತಮ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರಿದ್ದರೂ ಪ್ರಯೋಜನವಿಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪಾಶ್ಚಿಮಾತ್ಯ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೆಳಗಿನ ತರಗತಿಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ತಮ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರಿರಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ಬಯಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಪರಿಶ್ರಮವನ್ನೂ ಪಡುತ್ತಾರೆ" . -- ಲೇಖನ: "ಗುರುವಿಗೆ ನಮನ"
• "ಕುಷ್ಠ ರೋಗ ಅನುವಂಶಿಕ ರೋಗ , ಒಂದು ಬಾರಿ ಬಂದರೆ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಔಷದಿಯೇ ಇಲ್ಲ , ಹೀಗೆ ಹತ್ತು ಹಲವಾರು.ಆದರೆ ಇದೆಲ್ಲ ಸುಳ್ಳು.ಕುಷ್ಟ ರೋಗವೆಂದು ತಿಳಿದ ಕೂಡಲೆ ಔಷದಿಯನ್ನು ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಂಡರೆ ಖಂಡಿತವಾಗಿಯೂ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣವಾಗಿ ಗುಣಹೊಂದಬಹುದು.ಈ ರೋಗ ಗುಣಪಡಿಸಲು ಬೇಕಾಗುವುದು ಔಷಧಿ ,ತಾಳ್ಮೆ ,ಪ್ರೀತಿ ಮತ್ತು ವಾತ್ಸಲ್ಯ " -- ಲೇಖನ: "ಒಂದು ತುಂಡು ಬಟ್ಟೆ"
• "ಭಗವಂತನು ಕೆಲವೇ ಜನರನ್ನು ಹಣವಂತರನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಿರುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ಪರರಿಗೆ ಸಹಾಯ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಅವರ ಕರ್ತವ್ಯವಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ." -- ಲೇಖನ: "ಒಂದು ತುಂಡು ಬಟ್ಟೆ"
• "ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ನಾವು ಕೊಡುವುದು ಅಪಾರವಾದ ಆಸ್ತಿಯಲ್ಲ.ಜೀವನವನ್ನು ಅರಿಯುವ ವಿವೇಚನಾ ಶಕ್ತಿ ಮತ್ತು ಆತ್ಮ ಸ್ಥೈರ್ಯ , ಬೇರುಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ರೆಕ್ಕೆಗಳಿದ್ದರೆ ಯುವಕರು ಎಲ್ಲಿ ಬೇಕಾದರೂ ಇರಬಹುದಲ್ಲವೇ?" -- ಲೇಖನ: "ಹಿರಿಯರಿಗೊಂದು ಕಿವಿಮಾತು"
• "ದಾನವನ್ನು ಶ್ರದ್ಧೆಯಿಂದ, ಸತ್ಪಾತ್ರರಿಗೆ,ಸಂತೋಷದಿಂದ ಕೊಡು. ದಾನ ಪಡೆದವರಿಂದ ಏನನ್ನೂ ಅಪೇಕ್ಷಿಸಬೇಡ. ದಾನ ಕೊಡುವಾಗ ಕುಟುಂಬದವರ ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆ ಪಡೆ.ಶಕ್ತಿ ಮೀರಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟು ಮನೆಯವರನ್ನು ದರಿದ್ರರನ್ನಾಗಿ ಮಾಡಬೇಡ. ಧರ್ಮ,ಜಾತಿ,ಮತ,ಲಿಂಗ ಮತ್ತು ವಯಸ್ಸಿನ ಕಟ್ಟುಪಾಡು ಹಾಕಬೇಡ". -- ಲೇಖನ: "ಕೆಂಪು ಅಕ್ಕಿಯ ಕಣಜ"

ಹೀಗೆ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಓದುತ್ತಾ ಹೋದ ಹಾಗೆ ಅವರ ಅನುಭವಗಳಿಂದ ನಾವು ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬಹುದಾದಂತಹ ಸಾಕಷ್ಟು ವಿಚಾರಗಳು ಸಿಗುತ್ತವೆ. ಈ ಎಲ್ಲ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಬರಿಯ ವಿಚಾರಗಳಾಗಿಯೇ ಉಳಿಸದೆ, ತಮ್ಮ ಜೀವನದಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಪಾಲಿಸುತ್ತಿರುವ ಸುಧಾ ಮೂರ್ತಿಯವರಂತಹ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಗಳಿಗೆ ನನ್ನದೊಂದು ನಮನ :)

RUN ka FUN ;)

Well! So many things to write about , but I have become so lazy nowadays :P But this one event , I have to put it down here :) I am talking about the SUN FEAST 10 K which was there on 23rd MAY , Sunday . I had registered for this event more than a month before the event day . I usually run for 5K  . "Usually" doesn’t mean that I have run many times , but only twice :D SUN FEAST 5K last year and 5K run in IISC arranged event . IISC was a nice experience because of the superb campus :)

Well as I was saying , I registered for 10K thinking that since there is more than a month's time to practice , I would be ready for the run by 23rd may . But the practice never materialized due to my laziness :P Till the last moment I was not sure about my participation. 

On the D-Day , I did a stupid mistake. I wore new pair of shoes and my feet got scratches and boils due to that before even I could start running. But when the run started , I forgot about all this :) Loud music , thousands of cheering and excited runners around me , and I started running :) 

But I couldn’t run for long , big time problems with my shoes . Once or twice I even thought that I will remove my shoes and run bare feet :D I didn’t do that though ;) So I walked the whole way . 

There was one person who was running , though he had only one leg . Another was wooden . But he almost finished with me :) He was so active and excited about all this :) He was saying that he was going for 15,000 feet trekking in Himalayas . Hats off to him :) . And one thing which was a little embarrassing for me is the volunteers all along the way who were cheering the runners . I was way behind all the runners , and wherever these people were there , they were shouting at me to RUN :D At one place , somebody started shouting into the mike " Run Rashmi Run " and so on . Guess they got my name from the running number that I was wearing . I felt like shouting at them saying " I don’t need any cheering , let me run( rather walk ;) ) at my own pace " :D.

So somehow I walked and reached the finish line , though my timing was really bad ( over 2 hrs ) . But my goal this time was to finish the run and I did that :) . 

But , there are some lessons learnt 

1.Don’t run with new shoes :D , guess if I had consulted any of experienced runners , they would have already told me this ;)
2.practice at least for a week if you are planning to go to any event like this , daily practice would be even better :D

I guess if I follow 2 with new shoes , then 1 will be followed automatically :D

We reached back home fully tired , then slept for the rest of the day :) Hope to have lot of such great days in future too ;)

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
-John Bingham, running speaker and writer

Well I guess I can say that the above saying goes well in my case ;) And here's my certificate for finishing the run :)

Yes , its a NO!

YES! It is difficult to say "NO" . At least that is the case with me , or shall I say , that was the case with me.

I always found it very difficult to say no when anyone asked me to do anything. I thought saying no would be rude. I really don’t know why it was so difficult for me ,for so many years ,because now I can easily do it ;) .If anyone asks me anything , willing or not willing , with a smile I would say yes and then put myself into difficulty.I guess lot of people might face the same problem.

But gradually , I have realized that it is better and more practical to say no when the thing asked is out of our scope , or when we are not at all willing to do that favor, help  or any commitment that is asked of us. Guess this is one of the many lessons that I have learnt out of my experiences in life ;) . It is not that I have totally overcome this weakness of not saying no. I still find it difficult with my family and close friends. But to an extent , I have improved. I am much much better than what I was few years back :)

Now , in any situation , when anything is asked of me , I think twice before saying yes to it. I have realized that it is good for me and the other person as well. Saying yes , and then struggling to do whatever is asked of , and then the end results might not be as expected. So , in first case itself if we had said no , other person would plan something else and results might be much better. One more hazard of saying yes always is , others' expectations from us is always high . They get so used to getting an yes from us that , sometimes they don’t even bother to ask us ;)

So , I will conclude saying that whenever anyone asks anything from us , lets think practically and not emotionally before saying yes or no.

This will surely make things much clearer on either side and avoid any future complications ;)

Bikhre bimb - an amazing play

We had been to this play last Sunday. Off late I have watched few plays and am loving the experience of watching plays :) Its not that I didn't watch plays before , but very rarely used to go to rangayana in Mysore. The frequency of watching plays has increased now. We watched " Jugaari cross" and "Bikhre bimb" on consecutive weekends ;) . "Bikhre bimb" is the Hindi version of "odakalu bimba" in kannada written by Girish Karnad. Its English version is " Heap of broken images" .

As we enter the theatre , we see a TV studio setup on the stage and a big screen as well. This is a nice way of letting the audience start thinking about what might unfold on this stage :) . Its a solo act by Arundati Nag. This was the first time I saw her in a play and she is just amazing :) 

Coming to the play itself , it is about a kannada author Manjula Nayak who acquires instant fame and money by writing a single English book , which is a work of genius. She comes to the TV studio to talk about her book and once that is done , she is about to leave when she hears her image talking to her from the big screen.Then the image starts interrogating her about the book , her past , and skeletons start tumbling out of the wardrobe. Whole sequence of play which follows is just amazing. I kept wondering as to how difficult it must be for the actress to sync with a recorded sequence playing on the screen..

The emotions involved in the relations of Manjula with her partially paralyzed yet highly intelligent younger sister Malini ,who was staying with Manjula and her husband , with Husband ,the dilemma and tragedies  involved in the lives of these 3 people when they were living together and at present , is brought out beautifully.Though there are negative shades in each of these characters , you can empathize with each of them. Though there is a single actress carrying off the whole play , you are taken through the emotions and feelings of all the 3 characters and you kind of know and can visualize the other characters very well. 

I started off thinking that I will write out the story of the play. But then thought , I shouldn't spoil it for others who still haven't watched the play :) Do watch it if you get a chance. I am waiting for the kannada version to come , want to watch the original ;)