The MInd, Body and Yoga

Ok..so here I am on the path to finding myself and an important part of this project is to have some kind of discipline in life, the ability to shut off negative influences and concentrate on what is important to you as a person, a pure mind and body etc., I am not going to go on cos I might sound like a philosopher which I am not even close to... Speaking of a pure body and mind (ahem!! My body probably cries every time I feed it junk and my brains are overworked as they never rest) I have just started taking yoga classes as an important step of this journey :) I was skeptical at first about yoga - you would be too if parts of your childhood were spent sitting with an aunt who chanted "Om" when you looked on like a deer struck by headlights wondering how this supposed to be fun! Anyways I digress.

Have you ever had the experience of trying to stretch like a cat years after school and college ? More simply put you are no longer between the age range of 16-27?? The only way I can describe how I felt when I tried the most simple and basic yoga stretches is confusion and pain!Here I was trying to concentrate on holding a cat-dog or cow or some kind of animal pose (maybe it was pigeon which actually makes it a bird pose) without tripping on myself or someone next to me! It seemed to be that my body was taking revenge on me for the years of abuse it had been subjected to over the last 3 decades!! And you what they say about pay backs - you get much more than you gave! And it didn't help that some others were doing all of this without breaking into a sweat when I couldn't even touch my toes..Those who know me well know that I am obsessed with touching my toes. It has been a life long endeavour of mine to touch my toes...I couldn't do it when I was a kid, when I was dancing full time and I still can't do it! I keep blaming it on my genes whilst some say its my hamstrings. This "unable to touch my own toes complex" has become a regular joke in my life because of which I have decided to overlook this inability of mine while navigating the journey of life. Getting back to my class, towards the end of it I was desperately looking forward to the death pose where you just lie down and relax!

All said and done a few classes later I find that I can do the cats, cows,dogs and even cobras but not the bird!! I try to take inspiration from my cat who can stretch himself like nobodies business and who thinks I am just being silly when I try to do the cat-cow and dog... he runs beneath me trying to play the "let me see if you will fall" game! But I do look forward to every class so maybe, just maybe I am finding some kind of discipline in my life after all.

So here is to me trying and filing my experiences here so that I can look back one day when I can do all the fancy back bends and remember my humble beginnings and laugh at the girl who was trying to something - I am hoping the future me would have it figured out the "something" by then :-)


P.S - I had a very silly look on my face as I typed out this post - I have missed not posting on the weekend and I had nominated myself for the nablopo of all things....

The curious case of the designer bag

Have you ever wondered why you can never find something when you need it the most? You are turning the house upside down to locate that important bill that you need to pay today as it is the last day and you just can’t seem to spot it? How you can’t find your keys or those discount coupons when you need to leave the house in the next few minutes? And surprise, surprise how these objects usually turn up in the most unusual places when you are not looking for them! It seems to be some weird law of nature that states:

a) You shall never get anything when you need it the most!

b) One can never stick to a budget when it comes to gift vouchers! You would always have to spend more than what is on the voucher to make us of it!

I am pretty sure there are Murphy’s laws which states these weird ways of life. If you are wondering why I wrote this post, please keep reading as it describes how both laws came to play in a single day though in different ways:

Yesterday I realized that I had a gift coupon from one of the huge stores in the area. The store carried pretty much everything from clothes, shoes, bags, kitchen electronics, bath and bedding, cosmetics, jewelry and more at affordable costs. It was the last day that I could use the coupon before it expired – so I decided to go and treat myself to all the possibilities that the store offered. I was excited to have found the coupon before it expired and not after! The first law was disproved and I was excited. I made a trip to the store and spent about 1 hour walking through the entire store only to find:

• The jacket that I wanted was not available in my size. They had a size bigger and a size smaller but no stock when it cam to my size.

• The pretty yellow sweater I wanted – they only had the larger sizes

• I didn’t want shoes or jewellery so those sections were out of the running

• No kitchen electronics to interest me and I didn’t care much for kid stuff or make up!

• And the bags – none to catch my interest! I had been looking at the same bags in the store for more than a year now!

What’s a girl to do? The first law was rearing its head again…..Finally I spotted a beautiful handbag in mustard yellow under a mound of dull and boring bags. I have wanted to get a bag in that color for a long time now! So I inspected it and found out that I had to shell out extra cash (apart from the gift voucher) to make it mine! Hello second law!

I walked another half hour throughout the store checking if I could find something else instead. Defeated I finally walked up to the billing counter and parted with the extra cash. The lady at the counter exclaimed – wow you found an amazing deal and all I thought in my head was “Lady, you have no idea!” As I walked out with my new bag, I consoled my self saying that I had got a nice designer bag at an affordable cost. Nature’s laws had struck again but in different ways – I did find the coupon but didn’t really find something worthy of it and per the rule had to spend more to get something worthy. And this is how I ended up buying the mustard yellow color bag which I have wanted for quit some time now.

Perfume and Water

When I go blog hopping I generally notice that most folks write about humorous incidents that have happened in their lives and it just feels so odd that I have never been able to recall anything funny that happened with me while I was growing up. Or maybe it was funny and I just didn't see the humor then! Anyways I have been thinking over such incidents that may seem funny to me now and I remembered this one.

Growing up, my 2 cousins lets call then D and V and myself used to almost always vacation at Bangalore at my aunts place! Being from hot Chennai, it was the 'it' place to spend your summer holidays. Anyhow this aunt had a daughter (she was our cousin too) who was studying medicine. Apparently my aunt and uncle thought their daughter, lets call her S was the best thing that ever existed and there were strict rules about not making too much noise, not disturbing her while she studied blah blah! So naturally most of us were in awe of her as she was destined to be a success story. S had all the nice things a girl could have - fancy clothes, shoes, accessories, perfumes, make up etc., all courtesy my aunt who used to make plenty of trips to the USA to visit her other daughter and son! You see visiting the USA was huge in the 80's...now its like making a trip from Chennai to Bangalore! So getting back to my story, future doctor S had this amazing perfume (again from the great USA) which smelled like a dream!D, V and myself we just wanted to try some - you cant blame kids in the 4th, 5th and 6th standards! So we decided that one day we would definitely try it out!We got our chance one afternoon....

You see D had this habit of sleeping most of the day! She would easily spend about 16 hours sleeping (nights and afternoon combined) so she just missed out on the fun! V and myself went to S's room and opened the perfume bottle. We just wanted to dab a little bit on ourselves and see how it felt. In our efforts to open the bottle and get a little someone (I don't want to point fingers here) ended up tilting the bottle then fell on the carpet spreading perfume all over! None of it was left in the bottle! We panicked not knowing what to do! Then we hit upon a brilliant idea and filled water into the bottle and put it back! Naive as we were it didn't occur to us that the room was smelling like a perfumery! We went about our business for the day and that evening when S got home she got suspicious considering her room was smelling like the perfume department at a fancy store! She discovered the bottle with water and threw a big tantrum and made a huge ruckus! Everyone got so worked up about the perfume and V and me just didn't get why it was so important. It was just perfume! D escaped just because she slept through the whole mischief! Finally we were chided so much and V even tried to blame it on me and tried to take and escape route! I wasn't going to let that go and fought back! She has always been like that - ever since that day I never trust her!We were all so mad at everyone and mentally I thought the future doctor or her parents would not be going places especially when they could be so petty about the tiny perfume bottle and not understand a kids prank! I just remember being mad at everyone and learnt to be wary of everyone since that day!

Today, almost more than 2 decades after that stupid incident I laugh about it. I think it was pretty funny. We wanted something and we went for it - where is that instinct now? I guess I would just have to say that I grew up and these days am concerned about so many other things when it comes to going after something that I really want. This incident did teach me a lot about who you can and cannot trust and that something that may be insignificant to us would be valuable to another - even something like perfume! However I still do resent being called the mischief maker when it was just a childish prank. Well, at least I had fun and the rest of them just wasted a load of their energy trying to think what they could call us kids! Guess I did have the last laugh after all and I sure feel glad that this is now out of my system!

Fighting Negativity: One Annoying person at a time!

Some of these random questions have been troubling me of late: Where would you draw the line for those trying to nose their way into your life and yack about how you should or shouldn't be living it? Is it appropriate when relatives want to know how much you earn and what your spending pattern looks like or what you should or shouldn't wear? How do you deal with all those who think that they know all and have it all together? Do people have the right to push their opinions on you whether you like it or not?

When it actually comes to being useful to those around you I feel there are two kinds of people in this world. Those that can actually make a positive difference in your life with kind words, moral support and genuinely try to help you and the others who claim that they know everything (when they don't) and think that they help you while blabbering hours together about what you should and shouldn't do and don't really help you at all! I hate this second category and sometimes I just wish I could do away with such folks. But the journey of life is such that these people get rammed down your neck whether you like it or not and you just can't tell them off [especially when you are related :( ]

The best escape mechanism I have come up with is avoidance! If I think that these people don't exist then they don't! Call it living in denial!! A single phone call from folks like this can spoil you entire day and since I decided that I won't have more days in my life ruined I avoid such calls :) I prefer to read my books, do my sketches, listen to music and basically do everything which in "their" opinion means wasting my life! How do you deal with problem cases like this? Is my way the best way or do you have something better?? Do let me know - Your thoughts could prove to be extremely useful.

Life, Universe and Everything

Title – Life, Universe and Everything
Author – Douglas Adams
Series – Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Genre – Science Fiction, Humor

Summary: Once again, the book was a journey through space and time that made me loose my way around the pages every now and then. This book is no exception to the usual crazy humor that is a consistent throughout the series. Arthur tries hard to find the meaning of Life, Universe and Everything and in the process saves the Universe twice and rescues the ashes. By ashes I refer to the ashes from burning the cricket stumps of England and the cricket series for winning back the same. Being one of the keys to destroy the universe the ashes are stolen by the alien robots from Krikkit so that they can destroy the universe. There is also a lot of insight about the planet Krikkit, which was probably the source for Cricket and the usual weird characters that range from a talking, flopping mattress, a floating couch landing in the middle of Lord’s and and a floating party! Does Arthur find what he is looking for? What is the meaning of life? Is it really the number 42?Find out all this and more while reading this book!

Verdict –Borrow and Read
Finished: 6th February 2009

The Humble Upma

My mom used to prepare Upma often for breakfast or quick dinners and on most such occasions, me being myself, used to strike. I would make smart alec comments about why we shouldn't be eating upma. These used to toggle between 'Ohhhhhh...', Uggghhhhhh.....',' Oh no! Not again!', funny facial expressions and more. Exasperated at times, my mom used to unleash upon me her own thoughts about why I would be better off minding my own business and eat if I wanted to or else forego the meal. It has been three years since I moved away from home and I had forgotten all about upma until about 1.5 years ago, I chanced to watch a movie where the hero chided his lady love for not sharing her upma with him. The heroine kept having upma for lunch in that movie! Oh dear! The upma had made it to the movies; it seemed to be screaming "In your face yo!!!" to me.

After the movie, I had this sudden urge to make upma, which I did and attacked with gusto wondering why my preparation did not look as inviting as my mom’s. Since that day the humble upma came to my rescue often when I was lost for menu choices. It could be concocted in about 15 minutes and ready to go. Today as I cooked this for lunch-cum-dinner wondering like always as to why it did not reach the bar set by my mom, fond memories of me bugging her and intimate family dinners came to my mind - those were fun days. As funny as it seems this simple dish helped create some good memories. To those who take upma for granted (am sure many of you do) you can run, but you can't hide! This one will get you!

Happy Halloween

The eve of ‘All Hallows’ Even or Halloween is celebrated throughout the western world in a spooky fun way with amazing costume parades, carved pumpkins, trick or treat events and parties. Food and costumes dominate the festival where yummy snacks with wacko names likes ‘Witches Fingers’ (for biscotti’s) and ‘eye of newts’ (for sugar candy) find their way into pretty pumpkin baskets carried by ghosts, monsters, fairies and even the friendly neighborhood spider man. This celebration is not yet a rage in India, where most folks wonder what differentiates a witch from a vampire and didn’t really pay attention to the fact that ‘trick or treating’ found its way into the lyrics of a song called ‘Hum dum Suniyore’ from the movie ‘Saathiya’!

While discussing costume selections with a friend yesterday, it occurred to me that life is like one big Halloween party. The custom of wearing masks and costumes and assuming a new identity for a few hours of fun is something that everyone does unconsciously throughout their lives only minus the masks and costumes and also the fact that we don’t really do it for fun, but actually try to get through the day! Think about it – we usually start the day in a stressed out frame of mind (unless you are superman or woman and even they have had bad days) thanks to the zillion things that we need to do, zip past some bad traffic or take the public transportation, find a parking spots after a lot of hunting but the moment we enter the work place, we greet an annoying colleague with a Colgate smile! We strive to present a better angle of our personality to the world. Most parents are always surprised with their kids who are extremely polite to the folks next door while choosing to be a sour puss with them. Newlyweds and couples in the earlier phases of their courtship are always trying to please each other incessantly, a direct contrast from what is going to follow a few years down the line. A girl at the billing counter bids you good bye wishing for you to have a nice day when hers has been plain rotten and a disgruntled employee makes sure that he makes his boss feel like God while grimacing at the very thought of it! Ultimately what ensues is that we are more hospitable to strangers who have no real place in our lives, while taking for granted our near and dear ones.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could use the masks of pleasantness and gratitude with the people that matter to us? Every day we are courteous to strangers, so why not to those close to us? Maybe we can start this Halloween by putting those masks we use every day to good use – try and start the day with a smile, call your mom and thank her for the delicious lunch she packed, enjoy a game of cards with your dad, treat your family to a surprise dinner, smile at your maid or present some candies to her son, anything that you can think of that would make a difference in a dear ones day; just give your support network a break! Happy Halloween folks!