For better or for worse, Happy New Year

I know its Christmas time and the air around is filled with lots of festivities and joy, but it also translates into being busy for a stay at home mom, with my daughter having her holidays, my blog has been pushed to take a back seat. 

But heres wishing that all my readers and fellow bloggers had a very merry and cheerful  Christmas and wishing for a new year that comes with loads of love, luck, happiness and more of good things for all of you. (please leave your wishes too…need them lots and lots!) May it being with it the gifts of joy, goodness, passion, humanity and empathy for all of us. 


Though we all know about the prophecies related to year 2012, we shall all welcome the year with grand celebrations as always, that is what HOPE is all about, such is life. LIVE ON.

The End of the Mayan Calendar is scheduled for December 21, 2012 (give or take a year). The possibilities of what this “end” might mean is an increasingly hot topic on the Internet, in conferences, printed articles, and in discussions all over the globe.  This is because it just might be an incredibly important moment in history — e.g., the end of history!

For more information on the year 2012 and 2012 prophecies read this article: 2012 Prophecies This powerful article explains everything about the year 2012 and how it relates to the Mayan Calendar. It explains various 2012 prophecies and the significance of the year 2012.


You may also enjoy the article “2012 Problem” by Ralph Miller. It is more of a shamanic view of the year 2012 and the 2012 prophecies. It combines the ancient wisdom of the sacred plant “ayahuasca”. You can read this fascinating article on the year 2012 here: 2012 Problem

I also read here ( It says, Every significant Internet provider around the globe is currently in talks with access and content providers to transform the internet into a television-like medium: no more freedom, you pay for a small commercial package of sites you can visit and you’ll have to pay for seperate subscriptions for every site that’s not in the package.) now this worries me. But looking at the blog, I would rather like to believe that the author has made such remarks to garner more publicity for himself than anything else. Still got my fingers crossed.




How can we forget when how we welcomed the year 2000, even then  the world was going to come to an end, gadgets, phones, machines were not meant to work in the 2000 format, knowing all this we partied harder, so for better or for worse, Happy New Year! 

Destined to…live

With many crusaded dreams,

Painfulcherished moments

Cruellycrushed creatures,

Live life toyour fullest

We are oftentold.

Close my eyessee stars,

Even with openeyes, see stars,

Darkness makesthem black,

Man makes themblue.

How does onelive, love or forgive

What never iswhat you want

You get onlywhat you deserve

What you aredestined, fated

But who knows,who decides?

Child likepleasures,

Man likepassion

Woman likemisery

No you don’tknow it,

No you don’tcare.

That’s how Ishall keep.

That’s how I shall try to

Live.

Compliments

My days’ started off wonderfully.I got the 2^nd most beautiful comment in my life!  (But bothof them haven’t come from my husband, or boyfriends for that matter.)

I know I never write about personal stuff much, but don’t know today amtyping this, will find out only later if I post this or not.

Coming back to the compliment I received,ohh, the only thing that could beat it was if it had come from my husband, orjust any other guy instead of this sweet girl.

She saw me at the gym, lazilyworking out, I am THE laziest member ofthe class, even the instructor says so, but I’m also the only one who’s beenattending his class from the start, so I guess it evens it out.

After the class, we met in thechanging room, she started hesitantly, “May I say something to you?”, and I waslike, OH no, here it comes, what could itbe, my shoes my top or my pants, or even worse, is there a tag stuck behind myback…gosh!

“Ya, sure tell me” with a small smile that took more force thanthose push-ups!

“Your face…”

My hands instantly go to my face, what?

She continues, “Your face is veryattractive, your features are very nice…”

I relax and even blush, “Oh thank you, that very sweet of you.” I can’ttake criticism but I don’t even like getting compliments, it embarrasses me. I know they mean well and good, but still I happento look at the person suspiciously.

“When I saw you I felt like I wantedto keep looking at you, could not take my eyes off your face”, she adds.

Well now I was almost blushing,has this person been a guy I would have swelled, but as she was a female, mademe wonder, think and even suspect her motives, see I told you na I get suspicious.

But later when we spoke and I figuredout she was not a lesbian and meant no evil, I felt swell! It made me so happy that I hope I dint gain some inches with theswelling!

Giving compliments is a meantask, especially to a stranger, so kudos to this girl, whose name also I dintget. But even otherwise, one needs to put aside his/her ego and to give a compliment,more so if it to someone of the same sex.

But there are some compliments whichsomehow sound like insults. Any accoladeor praise, even though meant in good spirits, that leave you confused is a badcompliment. Theystrike you like, no she dint just say that, not in front of an audience!

 “You are looking nice today”, don’t I look nice on other days?

“Your hair’s looking good, wheredid you get it cut?”, are you saying myhair’s not nice, but only coz of the cut it’s looking good?

“Are those your real eyes?”, no I’m wearing artificial eyes!

 “That dress makes you look thin”, Am I fat?

“Wow, is that a natural tan?”, yes I was born dark, nothings fair.

“You havea very photogenic face”, does this mean Idon’t look good in real?

Another of these confusedcompliments that most of us receive while growing up is, you can do better. Why isn’t what I did good enough? Why youwant better?

Your daughter in law is very good”,identified and accepted as a perfectbali-ka-bakra (sacrificial goat) cause “good daughter-in-law” here means, dumb,as in both stupid and mute.

But the most dreaded complimentthat no woman wants to here has to be, “congratulations, your baby bump is socute”, when you are not even pregnant! I’vestopped congratulating people till I’m 100%sure that she’s expecting.

Another female oriented compliment-cum-insulthas to be, “you drive pretty well for a woman”, and I don’t have any words for this one.

Once a very long time back, a friendof mine had tagged me as “a tit-for-tat person”, later she tried very hard tojustify saying she meant it in a good way, but I was not. It was for this sameperson that I had got into a fight with my seniors at work, and she was saying thisto the same senior “That’s how Pooja is, let it go”

I remember, I colleague of mine gotengaged to this jerk of a guy from the same office, and when I found out, thebest I could say was “good for you”,she not knowing that it was not a nice compliment took it as a congratulatoryremark.

I know it tough to get over someof these compliments, but the best possible way to deal with them, as per my experienceis, to ignore them. Say a thank you, with a smile and let it go, as innocentlyas it was said, take it like it was not meant to be that way. Maybe the speakeris not as fluent with her language skills as you are. Most of the times, theperson’s intentions are innocent, but even it not, thank you works best, as it’slike a missed shot for the person. It will annoy the person when you don’t flareup or get hurt as per his/her expectation.

Have a good day! And make sure yourcompliment are just what they ought to be.

A Starry Sunday

Yesterday two “stars” were inIndore. I’m not naming them because I don’t want to give them any morepublicity than they already have garnered, as it is, these days it’s prettyeasy to guess who one is talking about, as the options are limited to those whohave a film releasing in the near future.

Well we, ,my husband and me, wereunaware of this fact (habit of not reading the newspaper on Sundays is a badone and needs to be changed ASAP), and happened to take our daughter for a funfilled Sunday at the same place, my daughter happens to love that particularmall’s play zone. But we were in for a shock. 

The moment we entered the mall wewere faced with a sea of people, not knowing the gravity of the situation, weassumed it to be limited to the ground floor only. Thinking the floors onhigher levels would be better off we started towards it.

But only the ground to 1^stfloor escalators (lifts were closed, and even the escalators were notfunctioning), were passable. On the next level we realized we were stuck,security people would not let us go down thinking we (a least interested coupleholding a scared 5year kid) would mob the stars and the audience would not letus go upstairs thinking we would take away their precious prized positions.

As it is someone later told us,that the mall’s staff was all busy keeping the crowds in control behind thetight ropes, so there was no one available at the play zone. So now going downwas the only option left.

Somehow we managed to get a“spot”, actually an envious spot, on the same escalator through which we hadcome upstairs. The view was great from here, we could see the stage clearly andat the same time, there was no-one pushing or pulling us either. We had morethan once requested, demanded and even pleaded the security people to help usleave the mall, but they told us, as the crowds was getting larger the gateshad been closed so as to keep new people from arriving.  So finally we accepted the fact that we weredestined to give the “stars” a glimpse.

Stuti, my daughter, wanted toknow where did so many people come from and why, it’s the biggest pool ofpeople she had ever seen, and when I explained to her about the star crazypublic, she innocently asked me “so Mumma, all these people have come from allover India?” and she was shocked when I told her no beta, they all are fromIndore only, but then she had to ask me where do these people go on otherSundays? To which I had no answer.

After waiting for more than anhour (an hour for us, more than 2-3 hours for many who had come since a longtime to get to see these actors), being told another 10-15 minutes for morethan 10 times, the stars finally arrived. Arrived they did! To mikes notworking, bouncers hitting and pushing the crowds, and whistles all over themall. Did I mention the air-conditioning or ventilation was also not doing itsjob properly!

What happened was complete chaos,not at all properly planned, ridiculously managed and even pathetically executed.Temperatures were rising, tempers were flying and people were getting more andmore out of control. To add to all this, 2-3 glass panes, huge glass panes,fell off from escalators on the ground floors. Thank God no injuries werecaused.

First of all such events, I feel,should not be planned in enclosed places, and even if they are the authoritiesshould make sure their infrastructure is appropriate not for the crowdsanticipated but for the actual numbers. And if you are having such stars come,don’t advertise, as it is, word spreads, by leaking it the media you areinviting the general public, then don’t tell them how to behave.

 

On talking to a few of thesecurity people, I found out they had not anticipated such a turn around. Hello,what do you expect? In a country where actors and cricketers are only second toGod, who would miss this opportunity, especially on a Sunday?

I think, even our public is to beblamed. Can someone please explain to me, yes I’m an idiot, what does a guy getwhen he sees a beautiful actress (only after she’s layered herself with tons ofmakeup), on a stage, just waving her hands to generally everyone or rather noone, after waiting for more than 2-3 hours and shoving and pushing the crowds,and also fighting with the guards? After being treated like a jerk, he still ishappy just seeing him and her on stage?

                                                                                                                                 

Hands on Haiku

This is my frist attempt with Haiku, contrary to what most of us think, it is not at all simple to be simple.
Haiku is  a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities: Hope, Peace, and Harmony, as per Wikipedia. But for youknowthatblog it is a simple 3 non-rhyming lines of just 5, 7, and 5 syllables as per the theme of the week.
This weeks theme is Absence, and here follows my first attempt.


Never have, never will notice
all those years ago went missing  
love joy innocence around.


Shall I say what feels
within the insides of  me
crippling as times fly


But if I do say
presence can turn to absence
so let words be scarce 

Please give me your feedbacks, as I’m sure there have to be some miscalculations.