My Thoughts Keyboarded

His voice pierced through the humming of the bus and snatum kaur singing from my earphone.  Few heads looked up with mine, to see who is making the noise. We were sitting on the top of double-decker bus, which was making a steady pace on the highway to work.  Sitting in the front seat was the loud toddler in uniform, who clearly seemed different and special . He was repeating some gibberish in a familiar nursery rhyme tune. Sitting next to him was his father, who neither responded to his loud singing, or to the murmurs of fellow passengers. He caught me looking at him and smiled at me and I responded with smile. He turned around kneeling in his seat to face me. He stretched his hands to reach and I extended mine. He got excited now, and started singing louder, holding my hand in swaying movement.  His hands and eyes did not coordinate, and he kept looking at the passing trees. Listening closely I realized he isn't singing gibberish but the actual r...

“ Then the king became sad about the princess ” my mom said, while she fed me a ball of rice and greens. “ aand whaaat happen ” I enquired chewing my food. I don’t remember whether I was 4 or 5. We were sitting below the sapote tree on a concrete bench. Mid-morning sunlight peered through the tree leaves all around us. Wind spoke in hushed tone with leaves.  I was wearing a white and green stripped half sleeve shirt and short pants. I smelled like a cocktail made from Johnson & Johnson powder and coconut oiled hair. “ Since princessss had a poor eye sight, the king consulted the wise lady who lived in the jungle, faaar away from the kingdom ”, she made another ball of rice and stuffed it in my mouth.  I followed her eyes and hands as she narrated. “ The wise lady asked the princess to stay with her for few days ”. “ hmmm ” I nodded, swinging my legs back and forth. “ When the princess returned after few days, her eye sight was so sharp that she could shoot a bird s...

In the world of, LAP full of technical TOPS and HAND full of PHONES, it is no wonder some of us feel so far away from ourselves.  Well we live together with machines, it's only true as the saying goes "couple who lives together long starts to look the same". Have you seen Jellyfish swimming ? They glow in dark and it's the most magical and mesmerizing scene to witness. Like a luminous aqua blue Christmas lamp dancing in rhythm. For all we know they are here for more than 600 million years,  outdating even dinosaurs!  Remember we use to consult our grandparents for all the biggest decisions in the family? well it's time we consult our great great grandmother of all, the Jellyfish! This is one of my submission for a design contest for a food restaurant called "Jumbo Crab" for their 25th anniversary. Can you spot the jellyfishes in the surrealistic background? 95% of Jellyfish is made up of water! We are essentially made up of five elements, more of o...

Sitting at front of City hall metro station with a cup of rice balls in soya milk, I am watching people walk by.  It's about half past five in the evening and air is crisp. The shoppers, the commuters, the suited men and the ladies with baby stroller. They all seem to have one thing in common. They seem to be in their own world, confined to their own private aura.   In my 3 plus years of live in relationship with Singapore, I found it challenging to start a decent conversation with a localite here. A smile, or a hello are usually responded with a god-knows-what-weird expression.  On the other hand, it's easy to talk to expats, tourists and young hearted seniors. You can talk about weather, their work, ask for direction, guide them for direction or in my case even share a meal.  Being single here, I mostly end up sharing the dinning table at Kopitiams (food courts of Singapore). And invariable say hello and start a conversation with the person attending to hung...

Leaf succulent are plants that grow in extreme conditions of the dessert. To be precise, they stay dormant for most of their life, waiting for a random cloud to get lost and pour down some love. Within few hours of rain, they grow, bloom and store as much as water they can in their fleshy inside. A bed of colorful flowers in the middle of the dessert! Then again the dormant cycle begins, it could be weeks, months or even years until it can rain, yet they wait patiently. I came across this, in kid's encyclopedia that I was reading out to 6 year old Sam, my landlord's kid. "Is the plant sick?" he asked me , tad worried. It took me couple of seconds to realise why he is asking me that. Sam's mom is a nurse and patient can only mean one thing. It's been just couple of weeks since I moved in here, but all it took for Sam and Angeline to befriend me was just a smile. Angeline is turning 3 tomorrow, and had little idea about the discussion, yet she enjoyed sitti...

U smile !  that's what you do when someone takes a photograph of you, unless there is a good reason behind it, perhaps a death ( although I wonder who would take a picture of in that moment) or if you have made a eternal pact, not to smile at the person behind the camera. On the other side, why to smile while being photographed ? cant we own the weirdest-custom-made expression that we carry on our face ? I pondered on it, while my photo was taken last night in the Christmas mass at a church here. The photographer is a warden in her early 40 , dressed elegantly in black gown , lush red lipstick and a hair clip and shoes that had feathers in it .she must be from the high class. She seem to be interested to capture the patrons who turned up for the special mass. As she made her way back to her seat her heals drummed the floor, It was loud enough to be heard in the packed church.  Before I could reach a conclusion about...

"Chichu mama, eppo enna pannum" ( uncle whats now ?) "nee school ponum " ( you must go to school) "Appo evening collage okya" (can we do collage in the evening ?) "ok for sure" "Ok chichu mama, bye poren" , and after the exchange of ample amount of flying kiss. " come soon ok ? " It doesn't matter whether he is leaving for school or I am going out, its always come soon for him. "chichu mama down poi tata pannanum "  (say bye when I go down). We live in 10th floor and his day care is nearby. The view to the long road is quite clear from lobby and vice verse. So  for the next few minutes we keep waving to each other making funny faces. The bittersweet feeling of watching him go is hard to explain. Back home, Everytime I leave my home, my parents would make it a point to send me off  from the gate. They would wait patiently until I walk the whole street. The good bye is never complete without a waving from t...

That’s some title with a forbidden word isn’t? But I promise by the end of this post you would appreciate it better. Swaram and Anu both awarded and tagged me to write 10 honest things about myself. Considering I write every post straight from heart, Please excuse me for writing only 5 points. 1. I have a strange habit of proof reading after publishing my posts. I somehow feel the urge to publish as soon as I have written down my thoughts. I am also particular about extra spaces between paragraphs. Every new post would undergo at least two to three changes after they are published. 2. I am still in touch with my ex. We were friends for a long time and I don’t want to miss my friend especially during the rough tides. My love is totally cool with it. Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such unconditional ever understanding love. 3. I firmly believe Julie never had a bath before. I want to give him one and not sure how he would react. I am just waiting to get more comfor...

Last night, I remembered the time I did the reverse bungee in Singapore. I was sitting in this open capsule, all strapped up to be shot to 700 meters up in the air. I looked at the crowed gathered around and many of them cheered me while the count down began. I asked myself why they would cheer me. It’s not like I am helping humanity or giving them a free beer. Then I realized for many it’s something they wish, but never do. They are applauding me for facing the fear, the one they too poses. They can empathise the fight within and cheering me for victory over it. At the last minute, I heard my heart beating faster and saw a blurred image (partly owing to the fancy smoke beneath the capsule). Then I told myself “I let go”, for there is nothing I can control about it. Within seconds I was in the air, fear reached its maximum threshold and adrenaline rush took over. While the excitement can be explained in many ways, I believe it was because of the internal shift. I crossed the boundary...

The thing with being on bench (term used to describe officials not assigned to any project, hence not working) is what it does to one's self esteem. It’s like a leaky bucket, the more you are in it, the less self esteem you would be left with. You would even question yourself "why would I need to press my clothes, polish my shoes and be on time, when all I do is nothing". As much as I am hopeful and positive about my situation, living through bench is quite challenging. Its like the relationship phase that makes you wonder whether its going to break up or patch up. I am not sure what's expected out of me and to be honest I rather be jobless than paid for doing nothing. If you need a free mud face pack, all you need to do is drive without helmet in one of Chennai roads. Of all the transportation problems we face, the worst one is dust. Not only it creates eye irritation and dirty clothes, it also creates breathing issues and numerous allergy related diseases. The nex...

Have you ever seen two trains honking and waiting for the traffic to clear up in the level crossing? This is what I witnessed on my way to office today. I am pretty sure it’s weird enough to take a small space in tomorrow’s paper. Unfortunately I too was part of the stamped and had no choice but to go with the mob. Even the most safest and right thing like stopping at the red light, had me bumped last night. For some (most) yellow light means speed up, not slow down. This is what Indian traffic is and I am not proud of it. I think anyone if honked by the train and bumped at signal would feel so. We Indians are fast (crazy to the limit), furious and would even risk our lives to save couple of minutes during the drive. After such near death ride I am sitting at office on a comfortable chair .. err I am actually on bench. Two days in a row and all I do is check mails for every 10 minutes (that include both personal and official). Due coffee and lunch breaks and serious discussion with t...

Hello my friend, how are you doing? After 2 long years I am home. This is supposed to be my break time but it’s getting busier than ever. That’s strange because mostly I am the one inventing the work like cleaning, fixing etc. On the very day I reached here I started cleaning the living room (for the records I am not clean freak, I am just jobless). I brought this home 2 years back and never got to live in it. Now that I am here I am doing a facelift (sometimes even surgery) to make it a better place for my family. I am not the nagging-non-residential-Indian who complains about everything. But the noise here is bit annoying. While the road fills my ear drum with hundreds of horns (I bet no country makes best use of it) and roaring vehicles, Home does its part by blaring umpteen TV channels. My Dad is retired and my mom is a home maker. So they have used to watching TV all day long. Worse is when they argue with each other on top of lousy soaps or upbeat Tamil song, which forms an i...

I watched 2012 in the weekend and quite fascinated by it. The movie as you might expect, opens with a shocking research findings, from Indian scientist Jimmy misty. He discovers that sunspots and ‘super neutrinos’ boiling the Earth's core, which would lead to the disastrous doom’s day as predicted by Mayan’s calendar. Then it follows a divorced couple (John Cusack and Amanda peet – looks lovely by the way) and kids (it reminds me so much of War of worlds) trying to survive it. After 20 minutes the movie kicks in with so much action, that I found hard to cope up with it. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, meteor showers and the magnetic displacement of the poles, everything happening at the same time! The creative imagination of this orgy is a lot to take in at one sitting. There is no spoiler alert for the movie, even if I write scene by scene you would still want to watch it. The visuals are so (destructively) impressive, that it would be really hard for any movie to top it. I ...

The page markers I made for consolation prize, The one on the left is for Rachana's Humming Today. The one on the right is for Savitha, It denotes her vibrant yet sensitive and elegent personality. Today I ate rice by hand at lunch (I have lost this habit a while ago). It does have a difference in taste. I read somewhere that it helps by preparing the body to assimilate the kind of food you are taking. (Contact with oily food would make u secrete more gastric juice required for the digestion) Talking about food, Singapore has got vast variety even for a veggie like me. When I pack my bags by next month, I am going to miss eateries/food that isn’t available in India. Here goes the rest of the stories from the contest , I am sure you are going to have as much as fun as I did while reading them. I have included the details of my favorite foods (of Singapore) in between for you to snack while reading ;) Ondeh Ondeh, a malay sweet, equivalent of Kozhakatti with sweet center, I am ...

Complement expressed in colors , Click to have a better view I never thought I could write anything more than emails. Finding the right words to convey the expressions wasn’t easy for me for many reasons. I wrote my first post in 2006, and few other posts down the line which mainly served as means of gaining volunteers to scribe for visually challenged students in India( If you are in Chennai and wish to help, please let me know ). Each one of us has different way to handle stress and pain. Lost in self, with a break up from 12 year old relationship and living all by myself in abroad forced me to write. Only after writing this , I started believing I could actually write. Pain flowed right out of my veins to keyboard as I found my closure . Although grieving gave me a good start, it was the encouragements from you that kept me writing. I soon realised simple and truthful words are much better than flaunting oxford dictionary posts. Be it my crush or my mom’s birthday , I told m...

My blog needs some everyday posts very badly. For one, its becoming like Discovery Travel & Living with travelogues and food, and secondly it’s challenging to synchronize sights information, history and my personal take on them. Also the thought of finding nothing interesting to write after finishing the travelogue, is scary. Last night was as memorable as the first time I read Hindi words, or the first time I rode bicycle without anyone’s help. Last night I finished one complete lap in swimming pool without break (I am learning). Although it's a breath-wise lap, the satisfaction and happiness I felt after completing it was worthless. I am yet to learn prefect swimming, but this would remain as first time ever ;) One of the side effects of being in love is it takes most of your time. Even 2 hours of talking (which involves from the food we had to global warming) over phone wont suffice the daily quota of sufficient talking. More so when such “important” conversation had to ...

Today I am fighting one of the worst enemies, boredom. Off late it’s very quiet at work and I am flipping out. I believe busy is good; at least it keeps us away from the devils of mind. Otherwise boredom would crawl in and spread like a virus. Then we would feel low, lethargic and slowy turn into 3 toed sloths. Worst of worst it could kill our spirits like a slow poison. Then we merely exist. We accept a less than ordinary life as if it’s the penance for being born on this world. We resent, blame the situation and god for all the wrong things in our life. We pretend that we are bothered about it. But we have already retired from fighting a good fight! Several months back, I have witnessed my spirit rotting because of my job which is not fulfilling. It’s like travelling in a wrong train and realising it after many stations have already passed. I found my passion in media industry and decided to shift, which is easier said than done. Ten years of IT work, good pay, comfortable lifestyle ...

I am pretty much addicted to music. I can survive Mondays without coffee but not without songs. The first thing I do at work is tuning into AOL online radio and put on my earphones. Also I have noticed that they play songs according to my mood, blame it on law of attraction! I am very choosy about what I hear and take my time to upload a song to IPod. If I like a song thats being played in the radio, I find it in YouTube. I hear it online few times and only if it's impressive I download a mp3 copy. I don’t want to buy the entire album just for the one song I like - Which mostly turns out to be the only good song in the album. Off late I find recycled music everywhere. It’s either a remix or a tune that resembles one or more songs. Last week I was listening to Kelly Clarkson new song " Already gone ” which sounded like Beyounce’s- “Halo”. I noticed a striking similarity in the backing track, piano and drums. Apparently I am not the only one who felt this way. During YouTube ho...

Everyday life brings us gifts. Some are pleasing and others are not. The last couple of weeks are such. A close friend got married and another got pregnant. While these long awaited events made me happy, an unexpected death of a close relative pushed me deep down :(. I miss you vasu anna, may your soul rest in peace! This has helped me to realise, how grateful I am for each breath I take. To own a comfortable life and many caring people in it. Today, it’s been three months since my honey has walked into my life, its only getting better and better each moment. I love you so much da! Today is another happy day to remember =) One of my best buddies from blog world G3 is celebrating her birthday. From the number of posts written to wish her and their ragging comments, you can see how much she is loved by everyone. Happy Birthday G3, have great days ahead! : P Aparna - a new found mate is very good at writing small, sweet and sensible posts about her son "Chotu". Her po...

I have read somewhere that the best stories are the ones said from heart. I always try to adhere to this saying when it comes to writing posts. However I try hard not to write about regrets, guilt, or resentment be it my own or others. But today I just feel like pouring my heart out. My buddy circle at work used to be amazing. In the last one and half years, we watched movies, cooked, played shuttle/cards, and have taken numerous trips together. There were ups and down, stupid and serious fights but we always retire to the oneness vibe. But these days the ego clashes going on between some is shaking the entire group. I am faced with outmost difficulty of maintaining neutrality. Worst case, I am getting involved in this energy draining exercise and it backfires. I find it hard to convince them, even to do the right thing. It seems people are just fine the way they are and don't want anyone to shake their "perfect" universe. I always go out of my way to pacify, to be good ...