Thursday 27 November 2008

Of open fires and attacks

Who would think that an ordinary sounding day could suddenly unfold an eventful night ahead?
Last night in very unfortunate happenings Mumbai, the financial capital of India was attacked, yet again. Though this is not the first time of this kind one can never (and in my opinion should never) get used to these.
I always fail to comprehend what lies in the minds of those taking lives of the innocent. How can this ever be justified? When would all this stop?
Salute to the heroes who put themselves up in the line of fire, fully knowing what lies ahead.

Tuesday 25 November 2008

Hilarious!

Last night I watched a movie – Dostana.
Its been a long time since I watched a light movie with the subject handled so well.
I went crazy laughing well almost the entire theatre was roaring with laughter (so those who have seen me laughing and are thinking that I cant stop once I start, its not just me). I admire the talent of the writers and the director to handle a delicate subject in this manner. They have gone all out but not over the top. It is commendable given that it would only be a thin line that would have to be crossed and the movie would turn out gross! But no! It is cute and funny. The movie goes on with a fast pace.
Priyanka Chopra looks good. John looks hot and both he and Abhishek have acted well.
For those who have not watched it, just go! Be prepared for riots of laughter.

Monday 24 November 2008

I cant help falling in love…

Right this minute I am eating a Ferrero Rocher. And every time I eat it I fall in love with it… every SINGLE time.
I just love how these chocs are made each layer intricate. With so much detailing going in I think they deserve all the attention they get – from me anyways!
I prefer eating them while I’m on my own (or with family who tolerate a lot of my non-sense). Why – that way to give each piece full justice, I manage to eat each layer separately.
Ferrero – Are you looking for a brand ambassador by any chance?


Ok… before it this starts sounding like I am going to blog about chocolate reviews, let me stop… and maybe eat one more of those rochers.

Tuesday 18 November 2008

The everyday journey

Today we had a belated birthday celebration in our bus!
Whoever heard of that?
Well, yes we did have a celebration in the bus!

Yesterday one of my colleague celebrated his birthday and among the options of choosing for the celebration we hit upon this idea of having a breakfast party! So the birthday boy (of course he was the host!) was to pick veg puffs and cup cakes from a local bakery and bring in for all the travel companions! It was fun!

Our bus gang (yeah I dare call it that!) is cool. Some time back, due to road works our travel time increased considerable and the bus we had was not in too good a shape. This necessitated us to make the journey tolerable if not interesting. As they say necessity is the mother of all invention – I introduced the game of ‘Dumb Charades’ during our daily journey. Not that this game needs introduction much less is it my invention but I used the word ‘necessitated’ earlier on and it needed company! So there we go – playing charades on our way back home from office. The daily play instilled camaraderie among us and we started to enjoy the travel.
We usually occupy the last seats – reminding me of a term we used a lot in school/college days. We used to call ourselves (yeah I’ve always been that) ‘LLB’ (not the law school type) aka ‘Lords of the Last benches’. That’s where you get to be naughty and playful and make all the noise you want!

Since it is thanksgiving month (that’s what is going on around the blog world) I thought I might as well thank my travel companions (who are my colleagues) for making the journey so not-a-rut (wish I could think of a suitable word there)! It so helps to leave work and office and go ‘home’.
I sometimes think that this Thanksgiving tradition in the Western world is needed here as well. (Or maybe it’s just me – I don’t thank people in my life enough!)

Isn’t it amazing that small things can make a huge difference!

Monday 10 November 2008

Made by Me Monday – Quilling

I learnt of this craft while surfing the blog land and thought I must give it a shot.
So I did and what you see is my piece of art!
I used strips made from the fliers/pamphlets that come in the mail for this – of course with my reuse-recycle mantra you would not expect me to buy paper strips :)


This will most probably be given to a friend from office.

Friday 7 November 2008

Strangers – Random acts of kindness

I am inspired by the blogsofnote blog http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/ where a topic is given and you write about it in one minute. Though I know I’m going to overrun the slotted time, I am still going to write coz the subject is nice and I have some things to share…
So this is about some strangers I have encountered who have done nice things!

We were on our road trip to Kerala -India and driving towards our next destination – Munnar. Instead of taking the 4 lane highway, we decided to take an off route which would be shorter and more scenic. We were to meet the city road at one point and then head off in the required direction. We touched the road and started on the journey further. There were no directions for about 10 km and when we did hit upon one small milestone it displayed a town name which was not supposed to be on our route. A few km further and we saw another big city milestone which was not supposed to be in our route. Finally we decided to stop and ask a traffic policeman. This was a small town. We had communication problem since we did not understand their language and neither did he understand ours (Marathi/Hindi/English). He collected some other townspeople in that area to help us out. One of them understood some English and comprehended when we showed him the map and our destination. He translated it for the rest of the crowd but unfortunately none of them knew the directions. We were confused but decided to go further till we hit proper direction hoardings. We were backing our car and slowly moving ahead still discussing which way to go when in the rear view mirror my sister who was driving saw a man frantically waving to us on his bicycle. We recognised him from the crossroads back where we had stop to ask the direction. We waited and he asked us to go back to the crossroads as we were on a wrong route. Reaching there we learnt that the traffic policeman had asked some other people, came to know of the correct directions, stopped a passer by on bicycle and sent one of the men we were talking to behind us to get us back. Then the man who knew directions, helped us out, then wrote the names of all the small towns we would pass on our way in Malyalam (for other small town folks to understand if we were to ask again). What nice gesture and all this for strangers!
Another incident happened to me when I was in the US. One weekend we decided to go skiing. Well it was my first time and we took lessons. After a while we went to the beginners slope and the one a littler harder than that. On my way down the fifth or sixth time, I fell down. I could not get up on my own and neither would my skis come off. My back hurt (though thankfully not much). I kept sitting there hoping that one of my friends would spot me on their way up through the cable or down the slope and help me. One of my friend saw me while zooming past the slope but she thought I’d just fallen and would be ok. Then a small girl ski-ed past me. Apparently she saw me on her way down earlier too and so she slowed down and asked if I needed help. When I said yes, she stopped and tried to help me get my skis off or get me up standing. That did not work so she went down and got an older person (her dad I think) to help me. He helped me get up and took my skis off, carried my skis to the ground while I walked back down. Thanks to them I was back down safely.

Friday Foto - Yellow Door


Monday 3 November 2008

Made by Me Monday – Bookmark


I made this bookmark for a colleague who is … you guessed it addicted to coffee!

After all my talk of being environmentally aware etc, there was no guilt factor here as the paper was recycled – it came from invitation cards – base paper as well as the one where I’ve drawn cup and coffee beans and appliquéd on the base.