I am currently reading this book called Three cups of tea. It is about a mountaineer turned philanthropist, Greg Mortenson. This book talks about his failed attempt to conquer K2 and his efforts at improving life in the remotest parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
I came across this prose by Omar Khayyam from the Rubaiyat in this book which goes something like this...
"Why ponder thus the future to foresee,
and jade thy brain to vain perplexity?
Cast off thy care, leave Allah's plans to him--
He formed them all without consulting thee."
This is so true when we are especially fretting about the small things in life.
Putting this here as a reminder for tough times! We do our best and leave the rest to the person up there....
Monday, July 25, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Life
One minute you don't have a care in the world and the next minute it comes crashing down on you. It is a lesson for everyone that life should never be taken for granted. You never know what is lurking around the corner.
A dear dear friend lost his father to a road accident. I cannot imagine the pain and the suffering his family must have gone through when his father was in the hospital. The first phone call received, the panic and the hope that everything is going to be ok. His friends and family prayed for his recovery, but God had other plans.
No amount of prayers can save a person sometimes :( Thats life for you.
Dear Sanju, I am praying that God gives you the strength to withstand your loss and help you tide over tough times. A big warm hug to you from across miles.
A dear dear friend lost his father to a road accident. I cannot imagine the pain and the suffering his family must have gone through when his father was in the hospital. The first phone call received, the panic and the hope that everything is going to be ok. His friends and family prayed for his recovery, but God had other plans.
No amount of prayers can save a person sometimes :( Thats life for you.
Dear Sanju, I am praying that God gives you the strength to withstand your loss and help you tide over tough times. A big warm hug to you from across miles.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wishful thinking
What is it about human mind that tends to worry about the something or the other all the time? No sooner you get something that you wished for, you start thinking about the next thing you have always wanted. You go ticking the to-do-list mentally. Can the mind ever be contented at what the present has to offer? Is it ok to keep aspiring for one thing or the other? Would you want nothing more once you are a hundred years old. I doubt that. If not something for you, there is always that little something your son/daughter/grand kid wants. You start building castles in air on their behalf as well. The mind is always thinking of an "i wish" thing. I wish we could afford a bigger house. I wish i could buy the new furniture that i saw at the store. I wish i could travel the world for a bit more. I wish my kids would study harder. I wish my grandkid lands his dream job....Even after you are dead, people are trying to fulfill your last wish!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
patience!
Patience, they say is a virtue. It is easy to say that, for me to put it into practice is difficult. Be it in any situation, most times all i need is a little bit of patience and tolerance. That is the single most thing because of which i end up screwing up things. And that is the most common advice i get from K, my mom and sis!
For example, i ended up wasting more than an hour at work today for something to work, all because i didn't have the patience to wait for the machine to finish what it was doing. I kept restarting the damn thing only to come back to the same state.
It has been the same thing with the relocation thing at work. I get the same reply every time i ask them. They are working actively on it and don't want to let go of me. While it is good to know that they are considering helping me relocate to where K currently is, it is very frustrating to not have a plan or a timeline. sometimes i feel i should just quit my job and go.
I take inspiration from this wonderful couple i know. They are seeing each other for a while now and want to get married. But the usual hurdle of acceptance from the family is stopping them. They are SO patient, that they have been trying to convince their families for almost 2 and a half years now! They just grin and bear all the adversities.
So from today on i will be trying to practice getting a hold on this "virtue".
Take deep breathes and WAIT! Things will happen when they have to happen...
For example, i ended up wasting more than an hour at work today for something to work, all because i didn't have the patience to wait for the machine to finish what it was doing. I kept restarting the damn thing only to come back to the same state.
It has been the same thing with the relocation thing at work. I get the same reply every time i ask them. They are working actively on it and don't want to let go of me. While it is good to know that they are considering helping me relocate to where K currently is, it is very frustrating to not have a plan or a timeline. sometimes i feel i should just quit my job and go.
I take inspiration from this wonderful couple i know. They are seeing each other for a while now and want to get married. But the usual hurdle of acceptance from the family is stopping them. They are SO patient, that they have been trying to convince their families for almost 2 and a half years now! They just grin and bear all the adversities.
So from today on i will be trying to practice getting a hold on this "virtue".
Take deep breathes and WAIT! Things will happen when they have to happen...
Thursday, December 23, 2010
2010 Round up
Looking back at my blog entry for 2010, i only seem to have stuck with one resolution of staying healthy and fit. I am happy to note that i tried to get a fair share of exercise and i didn't fall sick at all. We even ran the marathon this year :) That was a first and I hope to do it every year.
Looking back it has been a good year for me. It started off with a trip to Canada. Even though it was an official trip, i was very excited as it was my first one ever to any place on my own. It was nice to experience solitude and be on my own although at the end of one month i wanted to be back with K. I also got to visit my sis in the US :)
We did a fair bit of travelling and socialising. Not to mention lots of friends got hitched this year.
Workwise it has not been a great year. I did nothing earth shattering. It was mostly the same stuff that i have been doing for a while now.
This year, K and I were together for roughly 8 months! I dont like living apart one bit and the whole long distance relationship sucks! God knows how some people manage to do that for years together. I really appreciate the effort it takes for them to stay apart from their spouses or GFs/BFs.
2010 has been kind to me but i am really looking forward to the new year. Lots of exciting things in store am sure :)
Looking back it has been a good year for me. It started off with a trip to Canada. Even though it was an official trip, i was very excited as it was my first one ever to any place on my own. It was nice to experience solitude and be on my own although at the end of one month i wanted to be back with K. I also got to visit my sis in the US :)
We did a fair bit of travelling and socialising. Not to mention lots of friends got hitched this year.
Workwise it has not been a great year. I did nothing earth shattering. It was mostly the same stuff that i have been doing for a while now.
This year, K and I were together for roughly 8 months! I dont like living apart one bit and the whole long distance relationship sucks! God knows how some people manage to do that for years together. I really appreciate the effort it takes for them to stay apart from their spouses or GFs/BFs.
2010 has been kind to me but i am really looking forward to the new year. Lots of exciting things in store am sure :)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Bakery items!
One of those moments of hunger pangs and i was transported back to childhood days.
A walk to the nearest bakery and there are so many varieties to choose from.
This is not the high-end fancy place where you get pastries, croissants, quiche and other unpronounceable delicacies.
This is good old Mr L J Iyengar's bakery whipping out yummy stuff using his imagination. Such bakeries are common in the city where i live.
Slowly being replaced by high-end pastry shops and cafes. For some reason, most of these bakeries are named after L J Iyengar.(who is this guy anyway?)
The most common one was the vegetable puff with the palya* in it.
And who can forget the Alu bun. Back in school days i stopped eating it for a while when someone told me that they actually put all the potatoes in a sack and stomp on it to mash them! Then there is the "toast", so called because it is made of a slice of bread toasted and covered with the yummiest onion palya.
And then there is the dil khush, dil pasand, our own desi version of pizza with a filling :D The filling is a sickly sweet combination of tutti-fruity, coconut, raisins. Just thinking about is makes my mouth water.
It was a Saturday morning ritual in school for us to go the nearest Nilgiris(the slightly upscale version of an LJ Iyengar bakery!) and ask for apple cake. This black-brown round cake-thing was rumored to have been made from leftover of other cakes. And then there are the honey cake and sponge cake. Oh the sheer joy of biting into one of these :)
I haven't even gotten started on the biscuits** and rusks. Benne biscuit, khara biscuit , koppri biscuit.
My cousins born and raised abroad never miss an opportunity to eat the milk/sweet bread which is not available in their countries!
You won't get to see any of the multi-grain/ brown-bread/low cal/no trans fatty acid stuff here. There is only place for heavenly mouth-watering goodies made of maida/vanspathi. And yes, they are always called bakery "items".
* filling made of vegetables
** cookies
A walk to the nearest bakery and there are so many varieties to choose from.
This is not the high-end fancy place where you get pastries, croissants, quiche and other unpronounceable delicacies.
This is good old Mr L J Iyengar's bakery whipping out yummy stuff using his imagination. Such bakeries are common in the city where i live.
Slowly being replaced by high-end pastry shops and cafes. For some reason, most of these bakeries are named after L J Iyengar.(who is this guy anyway?)
The most common one was the vegetable puff with the palya* in it.
And who can forget the Alu bun. Back in school days i stopped eating it for a while when someone told me that they actually put all the potatoes in a sack and stomp on it to mash them! Then there is the "toast", so called because it is made of a slice of bread toasted and covered with the yummiest onion palya.
And then there is the dil khush, dil pasand, our own desi version of pizza with a filling :D The filling is a sickly sweet combination of tutti-fruity, coconut, raisins. Just thinking about is makes my mouth water.
It was a Saturday morning ritual in school for us to go the nearest Nilgiris(the slightly upscale version of an LJ Iyengar bakery!) and ask for apple cake. This black-brown round cake-thing was rumored to have been made from leftover of other cakes. And then there are the honey cake and sponge cake. Oh the sheer joy of biting into one of these :)
I haven't even gotten started on the biscuits** and rusks. Benne biscuit, khara biscuit , koppri biscuit.
My cousins born and raised abroad never miss an opportunity to eat the milk/sweet bread which is not available in their countries!
You won't get to see any of the multi-grain/ brown-bread/low cal/no trans fatty acid stuff here. There is only place for heavenly mouth-watering goodies made of maida/vanspathi. And yes, they are always called bakery "items".
* filling made of vegetables
** cookies
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The social network
I spend quite a bit of time on social networking sites. It amuses me no end about various updates that people put down to the last detail! This is just a fun list that i am putting together...I may be guilty of some myself. :D
Cutsy pics posed with teddy bear and other soft toys if you are a grown up.
Kids having their own profiles. And adding all and sun dry to their friends list to get the numbers up. Seriously are 10 year olds allowed to have their own profiles created? Don't parents monitor a child's internet activities.
Updating country and city even if you are on a two day trip out of the country to show off your are abroad.
Using the word 'dear' to address someone. This usually happens most often between girls. Example : thanks dear, you too dear, nice dear..... gag!
Status messages like "I miss you honey, i miss you wifey blah blah"...if you are missing your husband/wife, please give them a call and let them know. The whole world doesn't need to know :P
Having chat conversations in the comments section. Please spare us the spam.
Students updating their status about bunking classes, bitching about their lecturers and teachers. Its so not cool.
Uploading all snaps that you ever clicked when you were on vacation. Sure i love looking pictures posted by others, but i don't want to know about every single moment of your vacation.
I knew this one guy who posted hourly updates about his journey while he was on vacation. "At the airport... boarding pass in hand...just landed...taking a taxi this city" etc etc...
Creating profiles for your pets and expecting other people to "like" them. OK, i did click "like" because everyone else did and these people are good friends.
Do you have any pet peeves?
Cutsy pics posed with teddy bear and other soft toys if you are a grown up.
Kids having their own profiles. And adding all and sun dry to their friends list to get the numbers up. Seriously are 10 year olds allowed to have their own profiles created? Don't parents monitor a child's internet activities.
Updating country and city even if you are on a two day trip out of the country to show off your are abroad.
Using the word 'dear' to address someone. This usually happens most often between girls. Example : thanks dear, you too dear, nice dear..... gag!
Status messages like "I miss you honey, i miss you wifey blah blah"...if you are missing your husband/wife, please give them a call and let them know. The whole world doesn't need to know :P
Having chat conversations in the comments section. Please spare us the spam.
Students updating their status about bunking classes, bitching about their lecturers and teachers. Its so not cool.
Uploading all snaps that you ever clicked when you were on vacation. Sure i love looking pictures posted by others, but i don't want to know about every single moment of your vacation.
I knew this one guy who posted hourly updates about his journey while he was on vacation. "At the airport... boarding pass in hand...just landed...taking a taxi this city" etc etc...
Creating profiles for your pets and expecting other people to "like" them. OK, i did click "like" because everyone else did and these people are good friends.
Do you have any pet peeves?
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