Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu…

I shall narrate some very funny incidents that happened long ago–
At school we were taught to pronounce circle in a very specific way. We used to call it ‘sek kel’ – with the ‘r’ being silent and the k heavily pronounced. As happens in childhood, whatever is taught in school, I used to come home and repeat (read teach) to my younger sister and parents! Now imagine the plight of my parents when they used to pronounce ‘circle’ as ‘seRkal’ and I used to ask them to repeat it over and over till they get the pronunciation right!
The next incident is told to me by mom and some of her friends (me being too young to remember it – 4 year old to be precise). Mom had come to fetch me from school when it was closing time one day. Our teacher was leading us from the play area back to the classroom. Mom was their with some other student’s mothers (who turned out to be great friends later on). As instructed by our teacher, we all (at least the obedient ones) were walking with our hands folded and fingers on our lips – to curb the noise and limit the ruckus created! Mom spotted me walking in the line and called out. And what could be my reaction? I tell mom – ‘Shhh. No talking while walking back to class.’ And I just walked off while mom and friends burst out laughing after recovering from the initial shock!

Why am I reminded of these incidents now? Well, today is Guru Pournima. How much ever we write about our gurus or teachers it would never be enough! We can never thank them enough either. Thus, I decided to muse upon (on a light note) the earliest incidents relating to the impact that a teacher could have on the students!
My sincere regards to all the teachers, mentors and not to forget the first ever teachers- our parents.
Guru Brahma Gurur Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwaraha
Guru Saakshat Para Brahma
Tasmai Sree Gurave Namaha
Meaning:Guru is verily the representative of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He creates, sustains knowledge and destroys the weeds of ignorance. I salute such a Guru.

Cleansing

I was cleaning out all the e-trash from my machine. I have a lot of old-stuff hanging about and it was time I cleaned it and made some space. I had some idea of how much of old data I have been carrying but I did not realise the magnitude till I actually started the clean-up drive! Phew! Its gonna take me days.
One thing led to another and I started cleaning up my mails as well. Now that was a mammoth task. Consider some mails lying around since 2002 – yeah that’s what I said 2002! I have been pretty organised (some modesty huh!) but that sometimes is a curse. I have some 20 personal folders (pst) files to be cleaned. Now you know why I say it’s a curse! I wish it were as easy as deleting the whole pst at one shot. Alas! I compel myself to keep some important communication and delete the rest.
So there its quite a bit of stuff to keep me occupied for the rest of the week, if not more. I have no reason to complain (you would know if you have read my t…i…c…k… t…o…c…k… blog). So what is this all about?
The point to ponder on was – while I was cleaning out some of the old mails, I realised it is not only the mailbox or the machine that needs a clean-up. I need to de-clutter my mind too. This led me to thinking -

Maybe its time to cleanse my system as well.
Maybe its time to stop dwelling in the past.
Maybe its time to move on.

Utterly Butterly!

Yeah that’s right, this is the tag line of Amul butter and I am indeed going to talk about it.
I shall not talk about butter though and only about Amul butter as a brand. I am very much impressed by the advertising agency who works for Amul. They come up with the campaign with the most recent topic for the week and it is linked to Amul in an amazing way! For quite a few months (years is it?) I have been noticing this hoarding at the main crossroads at Deccan – just at the onset of the Lakdi pool. The spot they secured was great too as it is a busy crossroad and the waiting time at the signal quite a bit.
They say you don’t miss something until you lose it! How true it is. It is a treat to watch this and I quite look forward to it. I had not realised that I like to know what is the latest that they have come up with. This was until sometime last month or before that, the hoarding I am referring to was pulled down. Some construction work began at the location and I started missing this Ad campaign. Last week, on my way back from office, looking out of the bus window, I notice this black and white billboard! From all my ranting above you would know that this was for Amul and I was glad about it!
A tribute was being paid to the great Sam ‘Bahadur’ Manekshaw who recently passed away.
This week the theme is – There is an arena and a person sitting on a bull (as it is so closely associated with Spain!). He has tennis gear on him. Clearly they are celebrating Rafael Nadals’ victory at Wimbledon. And the punch line says 'Rafa ka Lafa' and tag line says Amul ‘Fed on it’ so honouring Federer as well!
Delicious I would say!

Dictionary:
delicious
(dĭ-lĭsh'əs)
adj.
Highly pleasing or agreeable to the senses, especially of taste or smell.
Very pleasant; delightful: a delicious revenge.

Bright Yellow

Today I thought I would post a picture!
Loved the colours of the flower against the background earth shades. Clicked at Lakewood resort.

T…………i…………c…………k ………………… T…………o…………c…………k

That slow – Yeah that’s about how slow my time is passing at this moment!
Time, they say, does not stop. But it sure varies its pace. Seems so to me at least!
When there is loads of work and long lists of tasks to be completed, the time just flies by.
And then when there is not much to do it seems you have all the time in the world AND it does not pass!

Here I am counting seconds go by – waiting for the work day to get over and there I know of a few friends who have their hands so full, they can only pack so much in one day!

Perspective?
Or the time is not right?

Exhausted but refreshed

Yeah this is paradoxical. I never said what I write is all sensible!

Every year around this time, we have these incorporate sports tournaments with matches for badminton, table tennis, football etc. Every year, this time few enthusiasts (sport enthusiasts will not be entirely correct – please read on for why) like me pick up the badminton racket and are all charged up to play! Further to explain why I can’t call myself a sports enthusiast, I held the racket in my hand last year and then now. In this meanwhile I have not taken any efforts to work on my stamina and neither my shape. Needless to say, you can imagine the quality of my game. And then I show up on the day of the tournament and face what comes my way. Brave eh? Nah – stupid is more like it!

This time it is a little better though, I have actually played twice before the actual tournament. After the first practice session, I knew the worth of my game and was all set to quit. Yeah I played that well! Then thanks to mom, I did not withdraw entirely (though I did from the singles event). Nonetheless after the second practice game, we all were shaken and decided that we just have to play – tournament or no tournament. So it goes that we played for a good two hours on Saturday. That felt good – physically and mentally. I was dead tired and all the body parts aching but happy all the same – Pleasure in pain as they say!

Thus we have decided we shall play every Saturday (at least if not more) to keep up our energy levels. Am not sure if playing once a week will do the wonders of keeping me fit, but its not too bad for the first step (shot if you please) is it! Also keeping up the hope that our resolve to play would not die down like all the other plans.

Hair and Now

We girls share a love hate relationship with our hair. I mean all the girls I know have at some point or the other complained about their hair. Girls with short hair want a longer mane, the ones with curly envy straight hair (I’m one of them), straight haired girls want curls. If nothing else, brunettes want be blondes, red heads and all. And then there is this inevitable ‘I’m greying let me colour the hair’!
All this no doubt gives huge income source to the fashion industry.

Whenever I get bored of my look (basically looking at myself in the mirror) I turn to the easiest and the sure shot way of changing the look which is to get my hair cut. So it feels nice when I walk out with the new style – and it feels nice only then since it is nicely styled. Day 2 and the style goes sloppy and washed away and it ceases to look nice. My sisters keep telling me – the only day my hair looks good is the day I have a haircut!
This blog would be incomplete if I do not mention an incident. This was a couple years ago and a friend of mine Dee and I used to be flatmates in the US. We used to grumble and whine about the hard water and how it is bad for the hair (though for credit, somehow hair grows in length there!) So there we were getting ready to go for a party. Dee was trying to set her hair and most of you would agree, when we want the hair be set in a particular way, it never does, so she was not happy with the result of her style. She blurted out ‘I hate my hair’. This was not the first time I’d heard this from her and this time I joined in saying ‘Me too.’ First she thought I’m being sympathetic to her saying ‘I hate my hair as well and it’s the usual story etc’ but then she looked at me and I with a straight face said ‘Yeah, me too, as in I hate your hair’. We just burst out laughing at this and this has been our long standing joke since then.

I have been obsessed with those tresses for quite some time now. A few of my friends sail in the same boat. Every now and then comes up this topic where somebody says she is suffering from hair loss and the rest join in the cribbing. Some bold souls try to chip in with remedies – eat this, apply that. But the saga continues.
Sometime I wonder, am I losing hair over stress or am I stressed about losing hair!