A way to pass time

Given my fondness for books, its surprising really that i havent posted on this topic.

Oh wait, i think i have. a review. well, never mind.

Anyway, lifted this thing (i believe its called a meme) off SEV’s blog. So here goes:

“Look at the list of books below, bold the ones I’ve read, italicize the ones I might read, cross out the ones I won’t read, underline the ones on my book shelf, and place parentheses around the ones I’ve never even heard of.”

>>The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
>>The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
>>The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams
       Does having a soft copy mean its on my shelf?
>>The Great Gatsby – Scott F. Fitzgerald
>>To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
      An all time fav.
>>The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
>>(His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman)
>>Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – J. K. Rowling
>>The Life of Pi – Yann Martel
    I have read it in snatches…don’t think I’ll like it.
>>Animal Farm – George Orwell
>>Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
    It’s like this for a reason…it’s only half-read.
>>The Hobbit – J. R. R. Tolkien
>>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon.
    Awesome book.

Home Truths

Gleaned from personal experience and observation.

. You can get to know someone more in 1 yr than others whom you have known for 4.
. You can stop liking someone, but you can never really stop caring for them.
. Conversely, you can hate someone with all your might, but if they go through a bad phase, you still pity them.
. You can bare all your secrets to anyone, or confess anything you want, but for the post-confession time, no one can wipe your tears better than  your mom.
. You can wear your heart on your sleeve all day, and for some people it’s like part of your clothing, for others, it’s a prop to use to their advantage. For yet others, it’s something that brings you closer.
. You can wish away to glory that some people move out of certain ruts, and you can push them all you want, but they aren’t going to budge until they convince themselves of the fact they need to move.
. And on a lighter note, pure happiness can be achieved in bursts; to be happy all the freakin’ time, you need to be a saint or something.

To ban or not to ban

‘High heels should be banned’, said my male colleague after entire days of listening to ‘clackety-clacks’ on the hard floor outside our bay. i couldnt agree more. Nothing is more annoying than those sharp sounds going to and fro with irritating regularity (we unfortunately happen to sit near the drinking-water trough, plus, it gives sound bytes about who’s going where when and how many times). However, to lend more weight to the cause, i propose the following list of things which should be banned. No matter is too small for my notice, and so you shall find variety in this list-

# Wearing hawaii-an shirts to work…it spreads the holiday mood. No one works then.
# Putting the room temperature regulator within reach of 3 or more people. No sooner does one reduce the temp, than another cranks it up. So it continues until the end of day. The winner (of only the battle) is the one who leaves last, for the war continues in full swing the next day. A totally unintended side effect is that the temperature varies from glacial cold to hellish simply by the icy looks and furious glances of the warriors.
# Admin assistants not replenishing the stationery supply cabinets. Often results in minor warfare over the last remaining pen or notepad.
# The cleaners coming at 5 sharp to clean the office area. They dust nonchalantly around you, while chewing gum and jabbering away on their cell phones, going into corners you dont tread for fear of lumbago and arthritis. You have to keep moving in front of them, lest they mistake you for part of the office furniture and dust over you. Wouldn’t blame them either, office furniture is so abstract and retro nowadays.
# Uncovered parking lots in front of offices. Such madness!! Would you like your employees come indoors in the winter, shaking like aspen leaves and looking white as though they had seen a ghost or were trying to impersonate one? Someday, they might just all freeze outside and you’d have abominable snowmen with cute white cars adorning your parking lot until next summer.

taking stock

This took a lot of soul-searching. Wasnt easy, i tell you.

8 things i am thankful for
  1. my family; even if saying so sounds trite.
  2. my friends. spread geographically over quite a few countries. love you all, and miss you like crazy.
  3. my reading habit. i pity those who dont even try.
  4. my new-found ability to write. agreed it aint great, but its something.
  5. a curiosity which makes me want to travel, want to find out whats beyond that corner, want to find out how things work, why things are the way they are. unfortunately, that curiosity falls under both intelligence and stupidity.
  6. the humour in most situations in life. some of which i can fortunately glimpse, even though most are missed.
  7. the chances and oppurtunities given to me, whether i deserve them or no.
  8. animated movies, and the brew called tea.

8 things i wish for
  1. the ability to make friends easily. i take time, and its a painful process more often than not.
  2. a bit more maturity. i am told often i am way beyond my age already, but i am not really. inside, i am just a seething mass of contradictions and confusions and questions.
  3. to be (more) un-selfconscious in whatever i do.

2 minute maggi and more besides

. the bell ringing when the teacher asks you to stand up
. the last bus trundling into sight when you thought you’d missed it
. getting a toe-hold grip onto the Andheri train when you are already late for work
. finding a solitary xerox shop open late at night, the night before your assignment’s due
. Deciding to meet up a friend someplace, to find that the place’s closed. Meeting up anyway and discovering a better place tucked away in a niche
. clearing an exam paper – Score 41
. having a friend cover an awkward pause for you in a conversation
.locating a familiar face in a strange crowd
. finding a coin in the very depths of your purse for extending the phone call by one last minute, when you are on the point of saying ‘bye’
. a formidable, yet friendly-looking aunty coming into sight on a deserted railway platform
. getting scared out of your wits hearing a strange and apparently unaccountable sound coming from the inner room, and finding out it was only the furniture creaking

Such are the things lifesavers are made of!

Oh, these thoughts

Going thru’ my mind right about now.

*The inside of my head is not a pretty place to be in.

*Neither is the outside world!

*Do all the employees of all the watch shops adjust all the watches in the shop to spring forward and fall back in accordance with DST changes? Gosh, but what a waste of time!

*Why is the human race searching for ETs, trying to establish contact with them? No seriously, what if they turn out to be exactly as shown in scary movies? Critters, anyone?

*In that case, can we sue the corresponding movie writers/producers?

*There should be a law banning random people from asking “How you doin’?” and then leaving before you can get one word out of your mouth in reply.

*It’s so hard to remember chemical formulae which you pored over years ago. What, for example ..is the formula for sodium bicarbonate. Or methyl alcohol. Ask me why i am trying to remember. See if you get an answer!

*It should be possible to selectively tune out people (kinda like changing a radio station) who talk at or above a particular frequency. Or a certain volume. Or in a certain tone. The possibilities are endless.

*Starbucks has a coffee blend called ‘Komodo Dragon something something’ with a ‘Bold’ intensity. Whoa! Easy there, baby…

*And this is just about killing me. What does JK Rowling mean by ‘..the Deathly Hallows’. Quick, before i die of puzzlement.

P.S. I will be back with more thoughts. Just in case you were wondering.