Christmas Card Collection 2011

Any particular favorites, anyone?

3 Truths and a Lie

We were made to do this as part of a 'team building exercise' at work today. So I figured I'd try and resuscitate my blog with this! Can you guess which of these is the lie?

• I once traveled in a Maruti 800 with 9 other friends. We got chased away by cops later that night..but not because there were too many people in the car! Stupid Chennai cops :P

• I was part of the winning team - 'The Smelly Cats', at a F.R.I.E.N.D.S quizzo held earlier this year.
• I spent a summer at my uncle's home in Spain and his home overlooked a nude beach.

• I once convinced my brother and younger cousin to sleep under the Christmas tree, so that they could catch Santa when he came in with the presents.

Finished Pieces

These are 2 of first few completed pieces! I'm really thrilled with how they turned out :)

We Are Family

I seem to be back to my once-a-month random posts :P bleh..

Two trips to NYC in a week..it's been crazy!!! But I couldn't even begin to describe how totally different these two trips were.

Case 1 : 6 friends from Philly decide to try and cover as many touristy things in New York that they can fit into 2 days. Madame Tussuad's, Empire State, Times Square (walked up and down for some reason or the other at least 6-7 times!), Rockefeller Center, Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Brooklyn Bridge, Little Italy, Jackson Heights. I think we would have easily walked around 30 miles (read 48 kms) in those 2 days.
We stayed in this 'hotel' which had small cubicles as rooms. It reminded some of us of prison cells and if you want to be a little more imaginative - those tiny bunks that you've heard exist in battleships ;) There were rules stuck in every possible crevice - "Don't be afraid of your freedom", "Please try not to slam doors or talk in your room after 10pm when your neighbours may be SLEEPING." , "Please flush frequently. Do not over stuff the toilets with paper. They clog easily. We appreciate your cooperation.", "Price subject to change according to customers attitude". Boy, were we glad to get out of there in the morning!
Overall..it was a trip to remember :) I'm pretty sure that the next time we go, we probably won't be staying overnight!

Case 2 : The congregation of 3 cousins. I just loved it. I haven't necessarily met these cousins many times before. There were the usual doses of chaotic family get-togethers, weddings and brief house visits. And there we were, all well into our 20s (as much as we'd like to deny it :P) , attempting to make a new beginning. Laughs turned into giggles and then eventually snorts over nothing much in particular :) Conversation flowed..opinions were exchanged..we had a lot to catch up on!
What I found weird was that even after all the years that have passed, we still had some vague sort of connection. Numerous attempts to get in touch earlier had failed for some reason or the other. But what was nice, was the fact that it had worked out this time :)
It's a refreshing change to meet someone after so long and for them to accept you unconditionally. For them to probably have more faith in you than you might have in yourself and vice versa. The fact that you can just kick back and relax - be yourself. I guess that's the magic of family. I just needed to be reminded of that..

Mera Bharat Mahaan

The last two weeks has been a roller-coaster ride for "the world's largest democracy".

You might have caught glimpses of the 'debate', which had all the makings of a prime-time soap opera series; with friends turning foes, men going hysterical with rage, a grand old man trying to maintain peace and women enthusiastically beating down on the desks (instead of their chests as portrayed in serials being churned out by the dozen by the Ekta Kapoor production house).

One could easily focus primarily on the negative aspect of our democracy that was brought to light during the course of the show. I would much rather choose to dwell on the positive aspects that I took from the experience. Somewhere in the middle of all the chaos, I felt that all hope was not lost and that the future of Indian politics may not be as bleak as I had earlier thought it to be. There were a few 'leaders' who stood out based on the content of their respective speeches.

I have to admit I did not understand Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav's speech entirely at first. It was simply amazing to watch the entire house listening to his every word and laughing along with him instead of interrupting his every word. A glance at the newspapers the next morning showed me that even though his speech was quite humorous, he managed to counter-attack every single point that had been brought up by the Opposition. For an Opposition who seems extremely eager to oppose a motion for the sake of opposing it, it was a pleasure to see them actually listening to someone else's point of view for a change!

The Prime Minister showed that he was a man of his word. He seems to have proved yet again why I have always thought of him as a politician with a difference. He isn't getting any younger but he sure is getting bolder with his speeches! I don't think that the Opposition realized it at the time but they were only making it easier for the man to make a much bigger impact on the nation with his speech by not allowing him to speak.

However I think the highlight of the proceedings were the speeches of Omar Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi. They both seemed extremely sincere, passionate about the issue at hand and the choice of words in both cases was almost impeccable. Some people likened Mr.Gandhi's speech to that of a school head-boy. I think his point about it being "time for India to start thinking like an emerging super-power by taking into consideration how we may impact the world and now how the world may impact us" may be slightly premature but definitely the attitude for the future. But if he hoped for the speech to be inspiring and thought-provoking, I have to say he did a pretty good job out of it :D

And after all this drama had unfolded, terrorists decided to strike in both Bangalore and Ahmedabad. As if we needed any more excitement in our lives. These people have sick minds. It shakes you up especially when they strike close to home. But life goes on. The Indian spirit has proved that it can take a lot of beating time and time again, only to spring back with renewed vigour. We've seen it with Mumbai and Udaipur. Life goes back to normal eventually because you can't really put your life on hold just because of these trouble-makers. You can only hope that the next time they strike, not many innocent lives are lost in the process.

Learn to be Still

I've been at home for over 2 months now. For a person like me, who is so used to having something to do or some deadline to meet, it has felt like torture at times. Unless I make a conscious effort, the only people I meet are those in my family and that's when they come back from school or work.

I woke up this morning and realized that a whole year has passed since I passed out of college and there is just about a month left before I fly away. A house has been fixed up for me, clothes have been bought. A new chapter is about to begin. I've done a million things things in the last year. I managed to live in a totally different city on my own. I learned how to bargain in flea markets (maybe not entirely, but it's a start!). I learned that nothing can beat the feeling of meeting old friends and being able to share the same magic that we once shared. I thought about growing up. I miss the days running around the neighbourhood, kids on cycles and dogs faithfully wagging their tails behind us. I miss sleepovers. Those long conversations about issues that seemed so life-threatening at the time. I miss it all.

There is always something calling to me to travel more, to get out there and experience new environments. In the world we live in today, there seems to be very little time to stop what you are doing and appreciate 'now'. Being still requires practise, taking stock of yourself, your actions, thoughts and feelings.

I can be still in the literal sense but have an inability to relax. I'm always thinking. But I'm tired of thinking. I'm ready to sit down and learn to be still.

Cleaning Out My Closet

Every year my mom insists that we sort out our belongings and give away things that we don't need anymore or have grown out of. I have a habit of never throwing away gifts. Sometimes this even extends to gift wrapping paper. That might explain why there's a treasure trove of paper and cards piled up at the bottom of my cupboard and it shows no sign of getting any smaller!

A few days ago, I settled down in front of my old cupboard and tried to establish some order in the mess. Even though I might end up keeping everything, it doesn't necessarily mean that I've stored it all properly. I had tossed them into a box at leisure and then I ran out of leisure in the shambles of the usual clean-up mode, so they got caught up in the bale-it-up-and-stuff-it-in-the-box-and-we'll-straighten-it-out-next year syndrome.

I hauled out the box, spread out all the things across the bed, settled down with a glass of lime juice and a puzzled frame of mind. Just to help, I put a CD that had been compiled by an old friend in my portable CD player and cranked up the volume.

Here it all was. Candles and pine boughs, CDs and pictures, cards containing heavy messages about love, joy, peace and goodwill. If that wasn't enough, there were all those handwritten messages of affection from friends and family.

It was as if I was watching my life over the past 22 years like a slide show. Seldom have I felt so bad and so good at the same time. So wonderfully rotten, elegantly sad, melancholic and nostalgic.

What can I say? I guess wonder and awe and joy are always there in the attic of one's mind. It doesn't take a lot to set it off. Yet there is a terrible and wondrous truth working here. That all things live only if something else is cleared out of the path to make way. No death; no life. No exceptions. Things must come and go. People. Years. Ideas. The wheel turns and the old is cleared away as fodder for the new.

I picked up the letters and cards to stack them away; with respect if not enthusiasm. Wondering at what is going and coming. Quietly awed into silence by what I have now come to understand but cannot tell.

You Learn

I've been doing a lot of reading lately during the time when I'm not involved in making life changing decisions about housing, passport work, visa booking etc. To say the least, I've been occupied :P

Here's an excerpt from the book "All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum:

"All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

• Share everything
• Play fair
• Don't hit people
• Put things back where you found them
• Clean up your own mess
• Don't take things that aren't yours
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
• Wash your hands before you eat
• Flush
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you
• Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
• Take a nap every afternoon
• When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why. But we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup- they all die. So do we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK. "

I just had to share this with all of the 3 people who check my blog from time to time. It's amazing when you think about it. Take any one of those thoughts, convert it into 'adult-talk', apply it to any situation (be it in your family, your work, your government) and it'll probably hold true. Think of what a better world it would be if we all had a basic policy to put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. There would be no Hitler, no Iraq war, no insurgency by totally psychotic terrorists..you name it.

And I think it all comes down to this - now matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.