tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-299887842024-03-14T09:22:39.922+00:00This is a Title??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.comBlogger397125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-36005704677898439632014-08-30T11:15:00.000+01:002014-09-05T13:12:35.553+01:00A growing problem, too
A follow-up to the last post. Didn't realise it hadn't been posted earlier. I really need to pay a bit more attention to lil bloggy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A corollary to the ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-61914824712638801112014-08-21T15:29:00.001+01:002014-08-22T06:01:31.970+01:00A growing problem
I'd like to think it's because of the way I was taught to eat food - if it's on your plate, you finish it. And that somehow this extended in my mind on how to read books - if you started it, finish it. Or maybe I just watched too much Mastermind.
It used to be a point of pride. No matter how plodding the book, how utterly bad the writing, how boring the plot, if I'd got past the ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-83525300199887444842014-08-11T15:47:00.002+01:002014-08-11T17:01:03.539+01:00The city of my dreams
Whenever I visit Bombay now, I'm a fragile vessel of conflicting and equally-demanding emotions.
Appreciation. Of the architechtural quirks and delights that dot the old city. A new-found, on-third-look, see-past-the-grime type. I always liked and admired them, but I didn't really understand how wonderful they were till I spent sufficient time with the ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-55318675694677793932014-08-01T10:18:00.000+01:002014-08-02T06:22:18.770+01:00A Manual of Life: Things You Didn't Realise Till You Did #94
Yellow lightbulb. Light yellow walls. Switch light on. Stare at the part of wall closest to the bulb (and where the light is brightest).Yellow fades to green.Mind blown.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-89695237386792772852014-07-28T13:13:00.001+01:002014-07-28T13:13:44.893+01:00A quiet chat
Do you remember ICQ and MSN and Yahoo messenger and GTalk?
I used to use several of these, because different friends had different addresses and preferred the look-and-feel of a particular one. And then people started shifting to Orkut and FB and Twitter and Whatsapp and Viber and Snapchat.
It slowly got lonelier and lonelier. After all, in this always-connected world, who needs those ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-48198203333764220522014-07-24T14:32:00.002+01:002014-07-24T14:35:06.022+01:00Happiness Index
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
<![endif]-->Everywhere I turn, there seems to be a new Index to measure how happy you are. None of them seem quite right, though. So, after much thought (this afternoon), I came up with the Chai-Toast-Book Happiness index.
The index is mapped using the quality of three??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-68843255121640040702014-07-18T14:52:00.001+01:002014-07-18T14:52:13.074+01:00Friday Fun: Fact/Fiction
Sometimes, at random occasions (always when I'm alone), I find myself wistfully going om nom nom. Just because the interwebz discarded you for other fancies doesn't mean you aren't still fun, little poppet. Who's a little wunnerful meme? Who's a perfectly lovely mouthful? Who? Thaaaat's right. Om nom nom nom nom.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-10826229797771226782014-07-16T16:10:00.000+01:002014-07-16T16:10:04.782+01:00Hidden deaths
There's a dead wasp on the path. Ants swarming round, calling in reinforcements till they successfully begin to lift-drag it away. I wonder if it died, fell and was then discovered, or if it was got injured and fluttering on the ground, got pounced upon by this army.
I realise I don't know how long wasps live, or how they die if fortunate to live their entire lifetime. Do they just stop ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-39256040681330007802014-07-08T13:26:00.002+01:002014-07-08T13:26:24.928+01:00Unreasoned
I have taken to hiding every single pop-up recommend, trend, suggested reading, additional reading, feedback request, and quick survey that happens across my browser.
Without offering any reason why*.
I do it in the faint hope that somewhere, a data-sucking, ad-misselling, clickbait-creating algorithm writer will end up screaming in frustration because at the lack of information.
And ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-27812509153374315522014-03-28T05:56:00.001+00:002014-03-28T10:53:21.410+00:00For Feanor
And your collection of food in books.
He opened it and then poured equal quantities of brandy and champagne into three large glasses.
....
The kitchen ... was stone-flagged and at one end a positive battery of charcoal fires glowed and winked under the bubbling pots. The walls were covered with a great variety of copper pots, kettles, platters, coffee pots, huge serving dishes, and??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-72004721339899281452014-03-11T13:29:00.001+00:002014-03-11T13:29:11.153+00:00Of cricket and madness
The full article here.
"There was a moment as he struck it that you thought he'd messed it up;
but he hadn't, and then all you could do was bang on tables and throw
water on yourself."
- Hassan Cheema (Cricinfo blogs)
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-76228720265283751032014-03-10T12:02:00.000+00:002014-03-11T12:40:25.414+00:00Planting roots
Increasingly, there are days when I daydream of planting fruit trees.
Over the years, I've had the fortune of having access to private gardens and courtyards that have had a plethora of fruit trees. There are the friends and family who've lived on land where fruit trees existed
(some of which they planted themselves). In England, the houses I lived
in and visited all had fruit trees, ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-1043515507007360482014-03-05T11:18:00.002+00:002014-03-06T04:24:20.874+00:00A Manual of Life: Why Not To Have Children
Reason #319
You realise that, unlike your (sensible) father, you would actively support and facilitate their watched-too-many-kungfu-films* plans to become Shaolin monks.
* If you haven't already planted such ideas in their tiny brains *wicked chuckle*.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-84712880267011893632014-02-27T06:21:00.002+00:002014-02-27T06:25:47.394+00:00Green, but pale
I keep telling myself that growing up, my attention was on books and sports, and that's why I never really was too interested in learning what sort of trees and plants surrounded me. I could identify banyans, and gulmohurs, and Ashoka trees, and palm and coconut, and .... well, that's pretty much it (sure, I could identify a lot of fruit trees and several flowering plants, but only with ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-47064606125169937352014-02-14T15:29:00.002+00:002014-02-14T16:22:17.914+00:00Of bikes and blogs
You know how they say resuming an activity is just like riding a bicycle again?
Yeah, very helpful.
Because they don't tell you that it kind of depends on the kind of cycle you're going to use. And the kind of bike you were used to. Whether it had gears or not, whether it used thick, knobbly tyres or smooth, thin ones. Whether it had a bottle-carrier clip, or had quick-release ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-22440788488750015292014-02-13T06:08:00.000+00:002014-02-13T12:35:56.166+00:00
This is me
making tea;
with leaves, black
and green,
making it mintea.
This is me
making tea;
brewing by colour
filters,
bulb yellow, white tube,
mixed view two-by-two.
This is me
making tea;
tasting by sight,
testing by smell,
swirling, stirring, pouring, purring.
This is me
drinking tea;
damning the world,
happy.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-1704456238259444412013-12-06T16:34:00.001+00:002013-12-06T16:39:48.214+00:00Friday Fun: Food Fiesta
It's been a while, na? And it's winter, when cooking offers you the excuse to warm up in a nice cosy kitchen. So what better time to resume?
************************************************************************
Ravishing Red Salad
Time required:
About 10 minutes.
Keep ready (to serve 4 people):
3 plump winter carrots
One small pomegranate
One medium beetroot
Sumac, ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-45595736383849438892013-12-03T06:11:00.002+00:002013-12-03T06:15:07.053+00:00Long, long ago
... I'd written about how my personal library now expands almost entirely thanks to the existence of street-vendors and charity shops. Well, five years since then and things are pretty much the same. And yet, not.
I still almost never buy new books for myself, although I don't buy as many books anymore* either. I still prefer thumbed-through books, but I've started leaning towards ones ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-34799704108291576462013-11-06T07:07:00.002+00:002013-12-03T08:21:38.693+00:00cross purposes
He talks about
and about
and about
you and I and us and we,
needs and wants and demands
jumbled
like a bumblebee
in a banyan tree.
She thinks about flowers
tumbling into leaves,
and the strangeness of the word
about.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-1989360534938761712013-11-05T09:26:00.000+00:002013-11-22T12:12:16.168+00:00A Manual of Life - Alternative Definitions
Wintern., An excuse to lower your ironing, and bathing soap, bills by hiding behind well-worn warm outerwear.
Also see:
Resources conservation; tea-addiction; "One can never have enough socks"
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-22464979568544867492013-10-31T05:39:00.004+00:002013-10-31T05:39:49.948+00:00A Manual of Life - Alternative Definitions
Humility
n., Always remembering that while your life may be a wonderful and amazing tapestry, you are merely a plot-point in countless other stories.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-39192626264807150532013-10-14T06:47:00.001+01:002013-10-14T11:56:15.917+01:00Manual of Life - Ways to Keep Yourself Entertained #25
1. Land up in India.
2. Put on your most innocent, cheddar-wouldn't-melt-in-your-mouth face.
3. Head out into the public and find a suitably overcrowded location. Bonus points if it is an sweaty-armpits-and-chameli-oiled-heads environment.
4. Gradually ease your way politely into the centre.
5. Summon up your best AmrishPuri-in-Nagina voice to proclaim "Alakh Niranjan".
6. Wait till crowd ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-58830017636934573702013-10-10T13:21:00.001+01:002013-10-11T05:18:08.968+01:00Relapse
I know it's early days, but it still feels strange being back.
Yes, yes, I know I promised to lay off this topic for a while. It's like a drug, ok? Just read on.
I
look at this blog and it feels ... surreal. Like something I know from a
dream. I scroll through my feed-list, and there are some names and
blogs I don't recognise. At all. I can't remember why they had
been ??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-48300804482582040572013-10-09T10:57:00.001+01:002013-10-09T10:57:10.394+01:00Experimentation
You know you've got too much fruit, and too much time on your hands, when you slice up some papaya, sweet lime and unripe star fruit to see how the mixture tastes*.
Also, the colours!
* ....interesting.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29988784.post-36846834662090996922013-10-04T07:53:00.003+01:002013-10-04T07:53:56.977+01:00Manual of Life - Things You Didn't Realise Till You Did #47
Almost nobody says 'semi-liquid(s)'.
We're all state-ists. Shame. So much shame.
??!http://www.blogger.com/profile/03791417518093723373noreply@blogger.com0