What we do in Life Echoes Eternity

Nanny Ogg seems to be freelancing as a headline writer at TOI. Honest.

An article on the ND Tiwari sex scandal is actually entitled After sex sting, AP governor Tiwari ejects prematurely.

wanted to attend mid night mass this christmas eve. sigh.
didnt happen.
chatting with too many ppl online right now after a long long time. i mostly get online frm mobile otherwise - poor lil me.

and ok, fine..no one comment alright. nobody ok. just don. there's a bomb in my post which keeps everyone away right? fine. just stay away. AWAY.

Hope Santa was good to you all. And that the New Year is even better. :)

I was apparently a good girl for I got a music system I am in love with. K got a violin [she wants to learn how to play one], and Aj got a helicopter that actually flies. The little bugger is good fun and I've spent a lot of time listening to music while perfecting kamikaze manouvres. :)

J deserves all the credit for making it a christmas the kids loved. He got the loot and took care of everything from stockings to the candies and small toys that went in them, to the gifts from us and my rents.

I will be offline from Monday, for at least 10 days if not more. Be good till I get back. ;)

There is a famous anecdote about a wise master and a tea cup. This story is one of my favorite zen stories. The short version goes something like this:

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

Like this cup, Nan-in said, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?

- taken from this post

Its a simple and beautiful story that hits home. What is amazing is that Hollywood has been dishing out different versions of this story way too many times.

There were mentions of parts or the entire anecdote in both 2012 and Avatar (and possibly many others I havent watched). To be honest either movie is not symbolic of great writing but seriously people shouldn't you be trying to come up with something a little different than the original story.

Ps: And guys dont waste too much Tea while getting the message thru ;)

hello.. so been lookin for company to go for 3 idiots.. the social scene is quite sad in pune n i refuse to meet ppl im not v fond of.. really, i like it that way!

wil be going tomorrow for 3 idiots..YAY!! thats one movie i really want to catch up on the moment its released! or maybe i end up saying this for every movie that releases :P

rest been chillin out at home.. going to goa in jan. yup its gonna be super fun. eat.drink.dress up like nobodys watchin.n drink some more n again some more. lol cant wait.. been adding nice chic dresses to my wardrobe alrdy n all sorta colors i wudnt otherwise dare wearin it in the city like shorts of dark yello, red, orange, parrot green, sky blue colors.. ;D its mostly going to be all girls trip. soooo looking fwd.

ummm nothing much otherwise. i heart Taylor Lautner btw! more than pattinson. but sigh.. hes like 4 years younger to me..tsk tsk tsk. cant believe there r ppl younger to me acting now - i feel soooo old!

im head over heels in love with my niece maahee. omg shes super duper cute. love her to bits n cannot stop looking at her pictures. the cutest n the most most most beautiful baby i hav ever seen. her first ride home was in a BMW.. lucky one i must say :D


anyway merry xmas again.. enjoy the christmasy dinner, im a veggie so i hav v few options but hey who says im complaining? i love it nonetheless. ;)
later

Maybe I should have written this post immediately after watching Avatar. It has been a few days since I watched Avatar, but I think that actually helps coz the whole experience had its time to sink in.

If you are reading this wondering - Should I watch Avatar?
The answer is an emphatic - Yes, but only in 3D.

Avatar isnt just any ordinary movie, with it taking 14 years to make, it is nothing short of an extaordinary experience. The visuals and effects simply take your breath away. While too much effort is put into the effects, they seemed to have over looked more than a few basic requirements.

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Merry christmas!!!!

Hey guys!!!!! merry xmas!!!!!!!!! :)
I have got the bestest gift this christmas!!:D :D
thanks santa!!!! :) I know i have been a good girl! ;)
errr or maybe not! but santa has been too kind :)

how u been, guys?? *whoever is alive on LJ that is* Im twitter-ing but not much - just random i mean nothing intense as such!

alright be good all of you and make merry!!:D
ciao.

And now three dozen flowers - tuberoses, tigerlilies and red roses.

Who *is* he?

In other news, the rising sun turns my burgundy curtains into a lovely shade of vermilion and my room is bathed in a vermilion glow. I think I spent more time looking at the play of light this morn than in actual writing....Mmmmm.... :)

And Aj is so incensed by Santa's propensity to control lives [in this case, bedtime on Christmas Eve] that I have been told to tell Santa that Aj requires no gifts from him. I should not be surprised, not when I have 37 years of experience of my self, but I do seem to have spawned a rebel who panics at the thought of living by someone else's rules. We are currently negotiating a settlement with Santa, viz: Aj sticks to his normal routine, and Santa doesn't threaten with a "naughty list", and Aj is graceful while accepting the gifts. He has told me to throw in a thank you letter too, if Santa is hard to convince....

Good morning :)

Aj: Do we need to buy gifts for Santa?
R: No love
Aj: Do we need to leave anything out for Santa?
R: Cookies and milk
Aj: Humph.
[rushes out of the room]
Aj, to Koko: What do you know! Santa doesn't leave anything for free! You have to give him cookies and milk!
Koko, drily: It is thanking him for giving us gifts, y'know. At least it is for people with any grace and manners.
Aj: Ah. I am only four, y'know. I'll learn.

We are still blanketed with a lot of snow everywhere. Mostly because it's the added on snow ploughed from the roads and the pavements. So, as I walk onto the pavement there are two walls sandwiching me! Although - hang on, I haven't been walking about on the pavements. I have been on house arrest in fear of ice on pavements. Every morning MIL starts off with a "good morning and will there be ice on the road" question. I explain to her that as the temperatures fall below zero overnight, whatever snow that has melted will most likely evaporate during the day or freeze up overnight. Stupid me, gets myself in trouble - as it follows with, "well, in that case you shouldn't go out!"

So, I have been sitting at home the last three days. Monday of course, I myself dared not venture out as there was just too much ice and the roads/pavements were not really cleared yet. Our office was closed anyhow. And mostly hubby was back and I was ever so excited to have him back. So, even otherwise I was planning to take the day off! 

Tuesday, I was ready to go and the above conversation occured. This morning,  I spoke with my director (who now is in Luxembourg) and found that no one else would be at office. So, I need not go if I wished. So, I am at home doing some work and then have the day free! 

And oh my God, Tuesday I was so emotionally strung up, I was crying over everything. I was getting upset over everything. N was so surprised! Yesterday, I did go out to help him shovel off the snow off the car. I had to get the clothes out of the dryer and so went down a bit later. By then he had already finished. But after all our squabbles, it was a nice "reunion"! We took a short walk together and then headed back home! He is a sweatheart, did I mention?!

So, there are a lot of things to do before our trip comes up on Friday and I'd better get started!

My curtains are finally here...and my home looks lovely. All pretty and stuff. What I am enjoying the most:

- The fact that the display cases [think 1970s glass covered cases] hold a lot of my graphic novels and favourite reference books. The girls had put weird stuff there...but look, it is *my* home, and...well, that was meant for my crystals and my books....

- My bedroom is now mostly a lovely burgundy. The mirror has been put up and the kids look at themselves *all* the time...it makes me giggle.

- All the paintings and photos are up where they belong...

More stuff is still needed. At the risk of shocking lamentables, if I manage a trip out of the house in the next few days, it will be to pick up essentials like rugs [I now know what accents I want in each room], cushions, ordering of more photos to be framed.... Albert Kahn's collection will just have to do without my appreciation for a while longer....

But for now I have an important decision to make: do I enjoy my tree lights tonight or the burgundy and gold tea-light holders tonight...

And then comes the last exam syndrome.

It has been around as long as I can remember. The last thing that you have to do for the year / semester transforms into the _most_ nagging, _most_ irritating task ever.

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York :)

The sofas are done. The curtains will be coming today. The Xmas tree has been taken out and washed and we will start decorating it today. :)

The house rings with Christmas carols [except early in the morn [classical] and late in the night [mostly Mozart these days]] and there may be baking in the offing...

I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year. May your lives be filled with love, laughter, joy and beauty. And may you get your heart's desire.

Behind the cut is a poem I have loved since I read it first. It is not seasonal at all, but it is lovely, and it speaks to me. I hope you enjoy it.

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Sitting in same office building, same cubicle doing the same work under the same manager. But one fine day you come in the morning to see the board in front of the office has been changed to different name altogether.
NORTEL --> AVAYA
We are part of a different company now which was our competitor earlier!! Its sad to see a 200year old company coming to an end like this. Even the Roman empire had to fall, thats how the world is may be, everything has to reach an end someday!!

Aj, sitting with a bowl of grapes:

Mum! Look Mr. Grape!
Mum! Look Mrs. Grape!
And look! Baby Grape!

Ah, I ate the entire family.... The last in tones of affectionate satisfaction.

Sometimes going thru the infinite turns and surprises in life, you are often brought to situations that you believe you were the first one to experience. Some of these are pleasant and you feel privileged to be a part of it... Then again there are times where you simply dont like having this 'experience'. You look left, then right and then left again but there is no let up.

Some choose to sprint away and ignore the situation till the situation disappears into the background. Some choose to face it and fight their way out. Some find their own unique solution... Whatever we choose deep down we hope that we never have to be in that situation ever again.

Then one fine day you notice someone else going thru the exact predicament you went thru. You see the way they are handling it and it reminds you of what you did. All of sudden you see flaws in what you did and what you should have done. You wonder if you had stepped back for a moment and looked again could it have worked out better.

And then you realize the important thing is not how you handled it or how it should have been handled but rather it is the lesson that the situation carried along with it. Sometimes its subtle and sometimes more pronounced but in the end there is always a lesson.

Years ago, while I was pregnant with my youngest, an artist friend in Canada traded me a copy of _Ender's Game_ for a short story written by me. I had just finished that story then and it was called _The Legend of Ahilya_.

Late last night/early this morning, I found a mail from my friend [RD] in my inbox. She mentioned how she had really liked the story and wanted to do something visual with it. So she has written it out in an accordion style book, with designs all around the text, and these will be painted later. And she sent me a link to a picture she had taken of the work done so far. You can see it here.

It has rendered me rather excited and bouncy.