A writer’s dilemma…
well… call it a writer’s dilemma..
else, what would you name a syndrome, where a thousand thoughts are continuously running through your head… you are searching for the perfect inspiration to get back to your used & abused keyboard…
thoughts race.. .. pictures flash… u find a reason… … BUT, its not good enough…….
and then there are the half chewed at drafts…
[yea... somewhere down there.. that's how i'd like to decribe it.... ]
This is what long breaks do to you…
hmm… have i lost it…?? I donnoo…
Am i gonna revive it…??? I want to..
and I thought.. what more can i begin with .. than the ‘writer’s dilemma’…..
only to put myself to some use, and get back to those chewed bits…….
…………. 
Troubled Chaos
I’d tell you how it feels like to be suddenly consumed by a violent choking force…
I’d tell you how hard it is to breathe, when you know the whole world’s crashed in your wake…
I’d tell you how my story’s going to change…. How I’ve lost the plot today…
And how I’m not able to bring myself to be picked up from a ragged destiny that awaits…..
My voice’s just tiny….
Nobody wants to listen to me…
Not even my own conscience.
I am troubled.
So deep, that I’m afraid, I’m plunging headlong into it…….
Club 99. Registrations??? ;)
How often do you stop to think of why you are doing what you are doing?
I mean, in one o’ those, thought provoking long term thinking times…
Getting a wee bit confusing here, isn’t it??
Here’s a story…..
We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires.
That’s what joining The 99 Club is all about………”
[Courtesy: Royston.]
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However, closing with this thought…. If man did not join the elite ‘Club 99′, would progress have ever happened ??
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Thank you Roy.
The 2 kinds of people…
This had been a little while back… I’d been riding over to a friend’s place..
On my way, while I’d been stuck in the traffic, my glance fell on this woman..
Call her a tramp, beggar, nomad, anything that you wish…
But there, on the road side, she sat.. under the shade of an overtly less attractive tree.
She was oblivious to the surroundings, the sounds, the blaring horns, the stares…
Lost in her own world, all she was doing was picking at the grass and murmuring to herself..
Looking at her got me thinking for a while.. She looked like she was into her early 40’s. However, that dejected, ’she’s done with life and things cannot get any different’ expression was there on her face…
This made me think of how her life’s not been fruitful, of how she’d have spent an eternity doing only what she knows best, ‘Begging’, of how insignificant a role she’s played in this world apart from the fact that she’s existed…
This’d only induced me to think of the two different kinds of people who are born to form a part of this world…
One, the kind who are born to lead lives as it flows, letting things be, going through the different processes of life of growing up, education, getting a job, getting married, having kids and going onto dying of old age…
The other, the kind who does about the same thing as the above, but live to live passionately… the kind who’d look at the world with a purpose to contribute to mankind something substantial, or the kind who’d want to make a difference in other people’s lives for their betterment, or the kind who’d not want to give up ever, but keep fighting through every facet….
People more or less fall into these two categories. I’m not saying, the first doesn’t serve any purpose to their existence. They’re definitely here to appreciate the goods or deeds of the second kind…
I exist.
- I did not disappear. It was merely a break to refresh my Nonsensical skills
- Nope, blogs don’t get deleted off with prolonged neglect.
- My scheming skills have sharpened too.
- Time & tide waits for no man. [I have no idea why i just put it in there.]
- Creativity gets vaguer with every effort used to define it.
- I’ve been busy & constructive for most parts of all days. I’ve switched automatically to destructive mode for the other parts.
- My victims have been vandalized non-end. A slow obliteration is my subjective option.
- I still am not intimidated my vampires, do not like cats, think needles are the worst invention, do not believe in the lizards’ superstition and will add onto this more when I begin collecting my thoughts holistically.
- I haven’t learnt to swim, move salsa, karate chop or even dangle onto the edge of a building while I balance an egg at the tip of my nose during this inconspicuous period.
- And i had to write that my cell’s dictionary doesn’t have the spelling of ‘mango’ in it. [discovered long time ago though]
I’m Back!!!!!
Pink is the new Black.
Pink is the new black. Sounds ridiculous? Well.. it is a catch phrase and a form of saying that pink has gained popularity at the expense of black. Today, pink is the colour of power; the power to influence and steer public. Yesterday, it was black…
Pink — this flamboyant and sensitive shade — isn’t synonymous with being blonde or stupid anymore..
What was it about this colour that created a preconceived notion in one’s mind?
Pink, in the yester years, had always been associated with girls. A pink baby kit for the baby girl, those pink princess frocks for your toddler’s birthdays, the cheesy pink outfits for teens (personifying innocence); pink in different shades became a girl’s signature statement.
Reese Witherspoon spoke volumes with her character Elle Woods in the movie, ‘Legally Blonde’, as the lawyer who looked far from being taken seriously, but won her cases with her convictions and outlook of life.And just like Reese Witherspoon’s character, pink has broken barriers to make way into today’s boardrooms and corporate culture.
Imagine this, an important meeting is scheduled and your boss walks in looking like he just stepped out of the vogue magazine. However, his attire’s one in interesting hues of pink. What is the first thing that comes into your head?
Do you smirk at your boss’ sudden change in dress sense?
Do you sit up and wonder if the meeting is some prank that’s going to go on national television?
And when your boss does continue undeterred by all o’ the curious looks, do you take hold of your senses and get back to taking the meeting serious enough or continue to tsk-tsk away at what you think is lack of professionalism on your boss’ side?
I say volumes of confidence oozes in just being able to make such a loud statement. And this is the changing scenario in our country. More men are adopting the colour pink in their wardrobes, lest they are bracketed as a member of the old school of thought. The bold statement made – colour does not determine or undermine one’s personality.
Look at the colour from another point of view. Pink on men is a USP when it comes to ad making. You can have a male celebrity endorse unisexual products (such as soaps, creams etc), sporting a pink shaded shirt or T-shirt.
- Why the pink? To add a feminine touch.
- Why the celebrity? Reachability, Marketability & Saleability.
- Why use a Man? It is just an out-of-the-box concept of innovative ad making whereby a strong message is sent across – that men today, are equally conscious about complexion, looks and appearance (1st priority of the ad) and are also compassionate and warm personalities (suggestive by the pink outfit).
Another thought provoking twist – Can pink also suggest ‘sinister’?
It is an accepted thought process, that when you describe anything as ‘dark and evil’, black immediately springs into your mind. How can pink evoke such an implication? Take the villainous characters, Joker or Two-Face from the Batman series. These two villains are not only famous for their violent crafty nature but also for their odd sense o’ dressing in shades of pinks and the like ‘innocent’ colours.
It is just a cheesy way of making the statement – ‘Appearances can be deceptive’ …..
I wanted a couple of quotes on ‘the future of pink reigning the top spot’, and asked around…
Quote1: “Year 2015, the Bollywood Industry has the biggest blockbuster of the Year… Hrithik Roshan and Ash starrer flick – Dhoom 9. First frame, Hrithik sashays into the screen wearing a pastel Pink sleeveless vest showing off his bulging muscles and Ash smokes a Davidoff in the backdrop atop a Harley Davidson in the black roadie costume”.
Quote 2: “Year 2019 – The Indian Cricket team rechristened as the Pink Brigade, enter The Oval to play the Finals of the ICC World Cup 2019 against the best team in the world, Bangladeshi Tigers and Pepsi being the sponsor, launches a new drink in pink called Pinksi.”
Quote 3: “Sometime soon, the Indian Political Machinery would witness a transformation from the Armani’s and Veshti’s to a very chilled out and funk outfit in modern pink, with The Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha having special days like ‘Ethnic Day’, ‘Regional Costume Day’ in order to preserve the culture for the future Indian generations.”
[chuckle..]
All that I say now is, get trendier and think Pink!
One of our crazy conversations… :)
I think I’d be a lil nuts to be posting this up… But one of the chat conversations I had with one of my friends…
No sooner than a while into it, it was obvious that insanity had taken control and we’d gone berserk…
Characters : Eibu Thomas & Me…
Drama: We began writing short poems, limericks.. donno what u call them.. but yea… was a small war o’ words…..
It all began with the name ‘Eibu’….
Notice how it seems to just fit into a sentence. For all you know, it could just be thrown in among a group of random words, and you could notice it to be a collection of that random group itself… in short.. ‘it fits in’.. & that is exactly how Eibu in person is like.. fits in.. anywhere.. everywhere… anyhow.. our antics out here..
Me: Eibu the beebu
Was no dweebu
He swam thru the seabu
Met his meebu
And lived happily ever after, in a treebu!
Eibu: OH MY GOD!!
Me: Triangular eibs..
Fry angular deep.
Splice tangy like spice
Season with garlic n fries.
Eibu fumes… He thinks.. and he begins off on his masterpieces…
Eibu: this flu neethu
who no clue iz tintu
never a blue will be boo
but born in a zoo
lives in a shoe
to feel the dew
alwyz imbue u with construe
wat to do she the due
adieu
Need I say, we caught onto it… And it was a volley.. one after the other…
Me: Eibu, freebu
Treebu, leapbu
Fallbu, Stallbu
Wigllebu, Jigglebu
Nobu, Joybu,
Backbu, Leapbu
Eibu: crazy neeths
never to lazy to daisy
sways the busy dayz
hazy in the rain
funky in the evening
psycho in the night
insanity her middle name
goofy her best name
shy her weird name
Lady her perfect name.
Eibu: neethu girlo with no bounds
a girlo with no end..
neethu the tintu..into the wordu.. threw into the crew.. grew into a screw..
accrue with brew…crazu like eibu.
Well…. after that punch.. I’d decided to write hima nice one.. where he’d go all awwwwwwww……
[Yea yea eibz.... when you read this blog... this is my webpage.. so i get to shine in it the most..]
So, next came the finale… dedicated to u ……
Me: Fly, fly on high eibs,
Soar, soar to the top.
Sing, sing with all might,
Preach, preach that what is right.
Stay, stay in this morn ray,
True, true to our kind.
Dance, dance like never before
Open, open your mind.
Leap, leap beyond walls galore
Fall, fall to rise and stand.
Love, love this world and more,
Live, live one of a kind..
Toast…! To many more crazy bits and pieces….
A today that will shine on forever…
The longest I’ve stayed away from posting somthing on my blog…
I’d done this interview with the principal of a toddlers’ academy. Thought I’d post it on this time…. An enrighing, insightful experience it’d been…..
Enter Luiz Academy, you get the feel of having entered into a place which instils the Gurukul system of teaching amongst its students. Partially true to the concept, Ms.Lilly Luiz, the Principal, declares, “Children should grow up in harmony with nature. This encourages their overall development.”
Ms. Victoria Fernandez, fondly know as ‘Lilly Luiz ma’am’ to all, encaptures your heart with her convictions and deep rooted passion to being a teacher. Her career graph began at the age of 22. It has stretched from teaching at the Girls High School for 21 years, being the founder and then the Principal of CCPLM School, then moving onto being the Principal of Greets Public School and finally, beginning The Luiz Academy for toddlers in 1999.
The academy that began off with 5 students, now boasts of a whooping 70 students in strength. They are toddlers who fall within the age group of two and a half and eight years. Ms.Luiz believes in the saying, ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’. She feels that for the sound development of a child’s personality, no restrictions must be imposed upon him, yet mild punishments must be given for any indisdciplined act observed by him.
“The students at Luiz Academy need wear their uniforms on just two of the five working days,” says Ms.Luiz. And keeping in mind that a wholesome meal for proper growth of the body and mind, Ms.Luiz makes sure that a juice is provided to each student daily, made from an assortment of fruits, the main one being seasonal. Snacks provided will be a mixture of both English and Indian food.
Utilization of every second wisely is another principle of Ms.Luiz’s. For that reason, while the students have their recess, the food is provided in a hall where a large TV is placed, which plays rhymes and other educational songs everyday for them. The children sing along while they have their food. She has also designed a play pen for these students for their personality development and often take them out to the adjacent field which consists of a large ground and a pond where the children could play.
This is the 4th generation of children she’s teaching. She is overjoyed when her old students come back to her, requesting her to take their children in under her wings. Ms.Luiz’s methodology of teaching is a fusion of both old and new techniques. Her stringent principle remains,”You are just not educating one child, but you are educating generations through him.” Teaching makes her forget everything around her. When she goes travelling around the world, she grows on her enthusiasm for this profession by enquiring about the teaching methodologies in those places, willing to accept a principle that she can implement over here. She was inspired to get into this profession by her grade 5 teacher.
Ms.Luiz also talks about children with dyslexia and how discovering it early can nip the problem in the bud. She talks of an instance where dyslexia was discovered in a child past his 9th grade and she had taken him into her care. She got him to get his books from U.K.G. and took pains to teach him for a year to overcome his shortcoming. She recollects with pride, “That boy had a 68% in English for his boards.”
She further talks about how many children suffer from less concentration spans. To tackle this, she’d developed a method of asking the students themselves to create questions to portions they’d learnt. She says, “It is easy to make answers or learn up the answers given for a particular question. However, it is difficut to make good questions. When children are asked to do this task, they not only concentrate better on the given text, but also grasp the text with full understanding. Only then would they be able to make good questions. This helps in improving the concentration power as well as making the child learn the text indirectly.”
Ms.Luiz has been through many hardships in life, yet she continues to shine like a beacon of light. Her iron-willed armour resolves her testimony of life, to create the hopes of tomorrow. She smiles brightly and says, “I find complete joy in a teacher’s role.”
Ms.Luiz’s enthusiasm and passion reflects in her eyes.. Her will to spread knowledge self-lessly makes you want to think of what you do to give back a portion of yourself to society.. This’ my initial draft on her story.. There were many more things that’s worth mentioning, but having to stick to a word limit’s restricted all that I have to say about her.. Also aware, that this draft’s goin to go through some heavy duty editing … but I continue to voice… her principles abt life’s worth listening to and emulating…
When the sparkle of the Arabian Nights hit my city…
Word moves around quick, and it moves around quick in a city like ours. The latest bit of gossip that’d reached me was about the Arabic restaurant, Sandunes, that had opened up on North End, T.D.Road. No sooner than that did I make a trip to the newfound discovery.
Arabian cuisine comes a long way from the Mediterranean side of the world. Myriad images and thoughts of Egyptian figures, mummies, women in burkah, nomads, stories of the Arabian Nights, Alibaba and the forty thieves and the Walt Disney cartoon, Alladin and the magic lamp, came rushing into my mind. I was excited, yet mystified as to how well an ambience be created in our city.
Upon reaching the place, the first warmth of ambience hit me with the spatially lit room and the welcoming décor. The plush low seating, the artistically drawn heavy set curtains, the privacy, the comfort and the ready service was alluring enough to settle down and get down to ordering my food. But when the service help informed me of the roof top and a brief account of the open kitchen there, I couldn’t help but steal myself away to see what lay ahead.
On top, I came to meet Dr.Abhilash Anand, the young spirited entrepreneur, who is behind this brainchild and we settled down to a quick chat. “I began formulating this idea about a year and a half ago,” he said, “I felt our people had to get culturally exposed to such cuisines too, considering that a huge part of our population is breadwinners in the gulf countries.”
I looked around and took in the setting of the roof top. The Egyptian images I’d conjured are drawings splashed across the walls. There were throw pillows to sink into. The seating’s drawn even closer and he confirmed my views, that the roof top also aims at those customers who’d like to hold informal business meets with the required privacy.
My eye caught the open kitchen, when the suleimani chai and the veg appetizer polpettes I’d ordered comes. “We have filafels made there,” quiped the young doctor. “I can assure you that the food we have made over here is of top quality. I’ve researched extensively over South India to provide for the best. My staff’s also trained specifically in Arabian cuisine. We also have hookah provided over here in various flavors and mixes, which again required extensive research to attain the right combination.”
The Arabic flavor of the food I’d ordered was exquisite. I’m told of their specials supreme ala moutarte (chicken in mustard sauce), calamari fritters (squid in Lebanese sauce) and fattoush (salad) and I promised to come back many more times. As I made my way down, I saw, in the floor below, a lady with her two kids, settling down to the restaurant’s sparks and a couple of other youngsters on another side, laughing out loud and enjoying their moment. I smiled and stepped out, consciously ticking against the spot as a favourite on my eat-out list.
