You look nice today!

How often do we give compliments? And receive?
More important is the question, how often are the compliments that we give truly heartfelt?
A few years back, it was Diwali time and festivities in the air. Girls don’t need a reason to dress up anyway and it being festival time, it was decided that we all would be adorned in our best festive and traditional attire. Thus, there we (me and a friend) were heading to office in sarees!
Along came some gals we knew – and then as is customary, we appreciated each others sarees and jewellery and looks. Its kind of a deal – you say I’m looking nice and I say you are!
And then came a couple of other girls and again they complimented us on well we looked etc.
Then amongst the two of us we started talking and saying that these girls don’t mean what they say. So just as a sport for that day, we started categorizing the compliments! So here were our categories –
Artificial – just because I saw you and you have done something different, I must tell you that you look good!
Envious – You are looking nice and I don’t like it but I shall not say that to your face!
Return Compliment – You complimented me so I just have to pay back!
Rare and Genuine – This one speaks for itself!

Some things are so etched in your mind! Since that day whenever I receive a compliment, I can’t help but categorise and it is instinctive! And when I give one I try that it be only when I genuinely feel so…

What’s in a name?

Today I changed the name (url) of my blog. Of course all of you who have reached here know it (I am saying its gibberish) but still for the record - Today I changed the name of my blog.
Again for the record, the title still remains the same as still ‘its only words’!

I’ve wanted to do this since ages but somehow or the other it got procrastinated (ok I’ve been lazy)! The main reason being the want of a good name.

Ok this calls for a look in the history. Some of my friends used to address me as ‘prax’ and I started writing blogs in the month of may and so when the time came to name the url of my blog, it turned out to be praxmay – well not very creative and not very attractive (I know). Since then this feeling of changing the name! Earlier I thought it there may not be a facility to change the url once published and also to think of reposting all the blogs held me back.
After contemplating a lot I decided it should have an element of confusion – well to signify the hoards of ideas floating around in my head at any moment. So came up with hotchpotch, mishmash, medley etc. But then that wouldn’t be entirely true – I do try to put these musings in order and try to make some sense of it! So there just like they show in the cartoons – a light bulb flashing on in my head –I struck upon the new name!
Lo and behold – here I am offering to you some ‘sensible gibberish’…

Of Movies and Travel

So what is common between movies and travel? Hogging... Yeah well food and lots of it!
I remember the time when as kids, during the vacations we used to travel to my grandmom's place. The journey used to be by train and it would take us 4 and a 1/2 to 5 hours of travelling to reach Mumbai from Pune - yeah just that and I'm not even talking of long distance travel!
It used to be a big event - along with our clothes and stuff required for the entire 2-3 months we used to spend at granny's, there used to be one bag full of goodies to munch on. We used to usually board the 6 O'clock Sinhgad Express. In about an hour, some of the munchies used to come out of the bag. By the next hour, the train pantry department used to start sending out breakfast and the smell of it, made everybody want it. In another hour's time we used to reach the Karjat station where we just had to have the famous 'Batata Wada'. We would find that invariably spicy (but in spite of that we couldnt miss it!) and then to pacify ourselves - there use to be the biscuits or the chocolates. Next some tea/coffee or cold drinks and by the time all this wrapped up, it was time to descend and proceed for home.
Same was (and still is) with the movies - you sit in the theater and within half an hour of the movie starting, you can hear packets opening, and the crunch crunch crunch sounds surrounding you. There is popcorn which is like the must have for movies. Then during intervals - samosas or sandwich and later coke/coffee.
I wonder how did we then (and even now) managed to eat so much in that span of 3-4 hours! I believe mom too must've had this bothering her as she used to have a tough time otherwise to even make us drink a glass of milk before packing us off to school!

The Pause

As I’ve already written in this blog and most of you, my friends, know I read – a lot. I need something to keep my idle brain occupied lest the frustration start creeping in and I go mad (I know some of you would say that I am already mad – in which case u don’t wanna see me getting madder still!). That’s not the topic of this blog though. I manage to have a steady supply of books, through friends, friend’s friends, friend’s friend’s friends (well yeah!!) and thanks to all of them I get to read lot more than I could have if I were to purchase every book I read. So thanks to this supply, I usually have two books with me – one that I’m reading and the next one lined up for reading.

I read and finish the book. Most of the times it takes a long time to finish the last few pages (as I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs – ‘For a few pages more’).
Even so I usually take a ‘pause’ after reading the book in hand and picking up the next one. At this time, I think about the story, the characters, go back and read some of the incidents/interesting chapters again.
That is also the case with movies. If I’m watching a particular movie for the first time, I prefer not to watch another movie back to back. Some high impact movies, I play the movie in my head lying down on my bed.

Sometimes I wonder, is it only me who needs this pause?

I drag myself to the finish line (somehow)

I just finished reading the Zahir by Paulo Coehlo. I may not be right in saying that I was disappointed. Well I had not read very good reviews of the book to have any hopes on anyway!
I didn’t much like the book. It takes off and reaches its peak in the first 2-3 pages. After that it’s a lull, nothing really happening in the story and the same lines being repeated over and over again. There is no build of the story and at a point it gets quite boring. I am a compulsive-till-the-epilogue reader – by which I mean, I usually don’t leave book half read – I need to complete them till the last page. Only that stopped me from putting this one away and I thought I’d rather finish it.
Of the Paulo Coelho books I’ve read so far, I only liked ‘The Alchemist’. I have read ‘By the River Piedra, I sat and Wept’. ‘Eleven Minutes’, ‘The Pilgrimage’ and ‘The witch of Portobello’ (which again I made myself complete). Sorry if anybody is his big fan but somehow I find that most of his characters in all the plots similar. Its like cashing in on one big hit!

Ouch Potato

No… I have not missed ‘c’ and it was not meant to be ‘couch potato’…
Why did I think of this – well, today there were 3 of us for lunch, all of us had potato subji and all made differently!
Hence, here is my ode to the potato!

This is one veggie which I’m glad is universally available (well at least in all the countries that I travelled to).
I was wondering if the potato were not available, life (ok that’s going too far) food for me would have been quite different, especially out of India given that I’m a vegetarian! Available from the smallest size the size of marbles called baby potatoes to the largest – baking/jacket potatoes, they are used in multitude of cuisines, can be cooked in various ways – have them baked, boiled, roasted, fried, mashed, whole, spiced or bland.

Without dragging this too much, here are few interesting things that I know about the potato –

• The year 2008 has been declared the International Year of the Potato by the United Nations
• Potato-based alcohol fuelled German planes in World War II?
• (This is what we heard in Belgium) – French Fries are not really “French”. They originated in Belgium, and are called ‘Frituur’ there, but because Belgium was under the ‘French’ rule then, the French publicised them as ‘French Fries’!

My bit for the world…

Today is the World Environment Day so I thought I should write a bit about that… I try to do my bit to protect the environment -

• I have CFL lamps at home
• I switch off lights / appliances if not in use (even in office)
• I switch off my monitor (and others around me) when I’m away from my desk
• I try to close running /dripping taps – wherever I find them
• For short distances, I prefer walking
• I use mass transportation system (bus) to most places – though its partly also due to the fact that I don’t much enjoy driving bumper to bumper on the small streets
• I try to use less paper – I’ve stopped most of my paper bills and have opted for Online bills (most banks now give paper bills when asked for and e-bills regularly)
• I use the printer less often
• I keep complaining about wastage of paper (to the point of sale) if the paper bills in stores are bigger than required (yeah I’ve been thought of being a fanatic I’m sure)
• I carry a jute bag for lunch
• I try and refuse using plastic bags as far as I can
• My vehicles are PUC certified!
• Try to make people around me aware of our duty towards the environment
  

I am guilty of -

• Not planting /nurturing trees
• Sometimes (unwillingly) wasting food
• Using plastic bags (when I forget to carry one of my own)
• Travelling by air (international – once a year at least: that’s my job though – cant avoid)
• Don’t always buy local
• And more… though I’d try and change this!

Washed

The sky with dark clouds overcast
Grey light it spreads all across,
For a few days thus they will loom
This is not the grey of the gloom;

There it finds an opening
And there it pours down,
Small droplets wash dirt and grime
To the ground;

Making the mundane look fresh and new
The greens are greener
The roads look cleaner
Everything bright, colourful and gay;

I drift in the rains
And get myself soaked,
These drops will cheer me
Is the hope;

The change everywhere I see
I need to feel it deep within me,
I need a rain of my own…
I need a rain of my own…

One meal is what I need…

The signals are abound by beggars and vendors and it is now such commonplace that nobody now pays heed to them I think. I was on my way back home from office. The traffic light had just turned red and there was already a long queue of vehicles that could not make the green light. So it was more or less known that the bus may not make the next green light either. We had just started from office, the bus, by virtue of being parked not in shade had heated up and most of us were still cursing the heat around. I just happened to look out and what I saw moved me to say the least.

There was this lady, a youngish girl rather who was with her child, sitting comfortably(?) on the road divider. The child (I doubt if he was even 8-10 months old) was sitting across his mother and looking at her expectantly. Suddenly I noticed that she had this foil takeaway package of food. There was no way of knowing if this food was fresh or not –probably something given to her as charity or somebody’s leftovers! She went ahead to pick up a morsel to feed her child. The child gestured that he would eat. He picked up a small morsel of food, put it in his mouth. His face lit up and he moved his head in a manner to convey his appreciation of food – something he really liked the taste of. At this, tears welled up in his mothers eyes and her expressions brightened. She could not contain the happiness of having fed her child for that day at least. She looked up to see if anybody was watching and I turned around lest she feel embarrassed.
I will never forget one of the happiest smiles I saw…