hmmm.....

I left the life sciences but the life sciences did not leave me. I do not know how many of you science geeks reading this learnt this world because this world later became out of date. It meant to describe animals that resembled plants in appearance. A neat art of camouflage in my opinion. And say 'zoophyte' the animal that springs to mind is a 'Sea Anemone'. They are such fascinating creatures. They can look colourful or pale, almost sparkling or so dull but an aquarium (since those are the only places I've seen them)with them is lit up. Yet, looking or studying closely you realise that they might not be so very pretty after all (So close to human beings :) ). Looking at them from afar you would not think that these erstwhile zoophytes can be producing toxins to help paralyse their prey. Of course, in the case of humans this is not openly possible. Then another similarity with would be their symbiotic existence with certain algae. The differences wo...

(translates to : This life, as is) Have you ever watched plays? Nope, not the ones in school or college but by professional actors on a proper stage setting? Too bad if your answer is wrong. If yes, have you watched a comedy on stage? If no, well too bad. But if you answer is yes...that is precisely the feel you get when you watch this age old Doordarshan show. Its the simple yet fantastic script and dialogue that made this series a classic. Something you cannot get tired of watching and a show which in many ways shows relevance even till date. Although I did not see it on its original run, I watched the show on reruns and then when we managed to buy the entire set for home. Yesterday being Sunday, especially the night breeze reminded me of the monsoon Sundays where we used to have our lunch while running this show's cd because the cable wires go put a lot due to rain. Once again, here's to 'small happiness-es' in life. Yeh jo hai zindagi! ...

Yesterday, a friend was wearing a t-shirt with 'MCMXCVIII' on it. And I was like 'How much is that' and pat came the reply '1998' (I would have calculated if I was not distracted by a dear American friend trying to jot down  all the States of the US). And that took me back to the time we worst learnt Roman numerals as to how fascinated we were by them. Okay, maybe it was just me. I love(d) mathematics. Although I found the classes fairly boring. But I remember when we were first introduced to the world of xyz! I wondered why were there letters amidst numbers and voila it made sense. My love for x grew with the solutions it provided to many a maths problem. Even now, we use x is some basic math problems. God bless x. And atleast this way people used x a little more so thanks to maths too.  Just like life is made of several little, almost insignificant pearls of happiness that make up a imperfect but pretty necklace, this little xs and ys make our ...

Like it has happened several times during this challenge, I have gone back and forth with the title and contents of the posts. Most often than not, it is because of something that happens during the day I am supposed to post stuff. I had changed the title and content at least two times before coming back to the beginning. And then when I was watching a movie in the morning I was wondering how movies, books and everything can start stories or end them revolving around names. Just like the poster seen in this scene and also the actors' names in the below mentioned movie. Just in case you are wondering what triggered it...it's Avasaralanand his 'name' movies. (Screenshot courtesy: YouTube) So I was re-watching Oohalu Gusagusalade Srinivas Avasarala's take on Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. And noticed this which I did not notice the first two times I watched the movie. It shows Avasarala's humour which in simple Hyderabadi words is 'B...

You cannot hear the V we say For we say V in another way What V do you know that we don't, What V do we know that you don't. Nevertheless, we do understand your V, Even if you cannot even try to understand ours. For we come from a land of many accents, dialects and languages, While you come from a land of just one or two.

Close your eyes & Imagine the best rain you've ever seen,what do you remember? Just try it once. Do you remember being under an umbrella? If your answer yes, you probably did not grow up in Hyderabad or if you did you were/are just too posh. I remember playing in the garden/front yard of Amma' s house when we were little. All her grandchildren. Aged between 2- 20. Playing games taught to us by each other or our moms or Amma. Playing with wet mud, making mud dolls. And in all this I remember my colourful umbrella (at that point I believed ---to an extent even now I do) that it had all the colours in the world. I remember running around with it,twirling it like they did in those black and white movies we watched and seeing if the wind made it fly. But a couple of later like a lot of colourful things,it was eaten by rats (along with a small drum but that's another story). So there went my umbrella. Enter umbrella#2. A one all the way from...

Chintapandu-Imli-Amilo-Tamarindo-Tamarinde While I always loved Tamarind, I have met so many people here from various countries (Malaysia, Phillipines, Indonesia, Singapore, Mexico, Germany, Equador, Chile ) who love all things Tamarind like us. In India, its especially a South Indian thing to have tamarind in so many different ways, so meeting people from the rest of the world and those who love the taste like I do, makes me feel right at home. I did not find photographs I liked only of the fake-sweet Tamarind we find in supermarkets and wedding buffets in India, but it is worth a special mention.  Just so you know or wondering, yes it is imported to the place I stay in right now (eh, fruits and spices are imported, a lot of vegetables too, so it actually goes without saying) So i have a stock of Tamarind always. Of course I can't wash Basalu with the remainder of Tamarind pulp over here but hey, its close enough. Do you guys have Ta...

I was supposed to post this yesterday but we'll, fell sick and better late than never...right? When I first cam  here in August, I knew I'll have to adjust to new people and talk my way out of the awkwardness I usually feel when I meet new people. And slowly I did meet a lot of people whom I did could with pretty easily. One such person I met was non other than the notorious AJSong. I don't know how we became friends but we'll we did and the fact that we love karaoke and a certain Doctor just made things better. Over the meals she did not ditch us, we discovered several similarities about our cultures of chaos. First and the one we don't stop finding laughable is precisely what the title of my post is about...'same corruption index' Example conversations: Do you have actors turned politicians? We do too. Same corruption index. Oh this place looks like a market from home! Same corruption index. So the other day I found thus book in...

As I did not take any Sundays off like it was supposed for the challenge, I'm taking three days off (Friday to Sunday) The other and more genuine reason is to give AJSong time to catch.up. As our letter S will have the same title.

Do you remember the time before you could read? Well okay maybe a little. What according to you is reading? How many languages to do you read in? When did you start reading? (What age,which language) Why do you read? Where do you like to read? What do you like to read? What do you want to achieve will all that you read? These are the questions I ask myself. And come up with the same answers. Reading is something that makes you know, hence builds your knowledge. It is something that helps you think and at times a distraction, a good one at that to all the chaos around you. I read in three languages. And hope to read in more before I die. I read because it makes me travel staying in one place. My favourite places to read in the world are my room, the balcony of what once was my sister's room, my aunt's house in Mumbai, on Trains. I love to read simple writing, although I can be strange at times thinking writing that of Foucault are simple. Ig...

Interesting. Naming a person who is 20years old.

These days I almost always...post posts which are post posts. In other words~ I write a post,draft it because its incomplete or I feel like I need to write more.  And post that I feel like the post was not post enough. So I wonder if post-poning the posts was a good decision. Also , O meant that I was in wondering mode last night. Post out now folks.♡

is for how I feel right now. So see you at P.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICSLQcoFac8 is of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w When we were studying Culture Communications, we had to read a paper about how some famous art works are still being reproduced on a mass basis. I will do a sequel to this post, with photographs to show you guys as to how this absolutely holds true to the campus I currently reside in. Its brilliant. @AjSong : If and when you read this post, the title means 'Imitate with intelligence' 

For those of you who don't know the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp05ZCG3yMk And of course, other songs in the movie. This has been my perenial playlist . (The above sentences were written in the morning and I was re-listening to Mental Manadhil etc. and what do I find, the movie itself. And well, needless to say, I watched Ok Kanmani! Happpies!) For the uninitiated Mental Manadhil is from Mani Ratnam's latest movie Ok Kanmani and it is a simple simple movie. And I do like simple movies.So enough said I guess. Our second vacation this summer thanks to a 'deadly disease' has gone by so very quickly. And like all 'holiday homework's in my life, its not done. Truth be said, I did however study- Stuff which was not even remotely related to the afore mentioned homework. (Onoooooo. Just discovered another movie I've been waiting to watch is on youtube finally. HdoL,see you tomorrow. Boohoo.) My roommate often wonders as to how many movies (...

Is something I admire in people immensely. It is something that makes me not want to let go of certain people even though their loyalty lies with others. What is the one quality you love in people around you?

...is power And as we all know: With great power comes great responsibility.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease: where there are tongues, they will be stilled: where there is knowledge, it will pass away. -The Holy Bible

At people who refuse to allow 'the unusual' or 'the unconventional' in life.

Home is where you stay reside in everywhere even when you move away a part of you is always there Home is where you walked for miles aimlessly and otherwise Where you met people for the first time Where you lost people for the first time Home is where you grew up, you dreamed and hoped they'd come true Where you met friends and not so friends too   Home is where you hoped that person waited but you have no regrets Where you loved and recieved love and more Home is that place that gave you hope and gives you still Home is where as they say your heart is Home is and always will be Hyderabad (Hyderabad: The once little city which is now crazy big, the city with ever changing landscapes, the city where I always hope to belong. I am not homesick (for a change) but I miss it. The buttas, the autowalas, the chotey samosas, the Santosh dabbas, hanging out with friends in so many gallies. When I go back, it'll be to a different place bu...

When I first read this word (a long long long time ago), I thought it had to do with 'food' or 'digestion' etc. But when I looked it up, I found out that it means ' spirited initiative and resourcefulness'. So deceptive I thought. But we often encounter such words, which we think probably mean something but mean the exact opposite.Personally I have come across many more, but will stop at Gumption.And ask you guys this... What about your experiences?Any such words? 

When asked by our teacher for the semester as to what we had done over our last vacation (FYI: That was last week, we are back to vacation now) I said ate a lot of free food. Through the course of the next class hour, I happened to take the example of free food atleast two more times. This lead the teacher to exclaim that 'Reefknot seems to love free food'. To which I said that 'who doesn't'. And the minute I said that (or lets say, everytime I say that) i realise of Hyderabadi I am.  It will be a while until I find time to re-explore our every changing city but till then...the spirit is all I have. Through college we always looked for that senior to 'treat us' or that poor friend who lost and found something as measely as pen landing up treating us. And more often than not, I managed to get fed.  Often, they used to mention that they did not mind because I did not eat that much. And thanks to the 'broad spectrum' of friends I have ...

For few things in life are still for few things are ever after. Houses that saw your childhood, shoulders that carried you everywhere, people that waited for you, roads once taken, games once played Disappeared like a whisper But somethings in life are Ever after, Smiles that left you happy, Words that made your day memories of happy times, and music that moved your heart Marks you left in others' lives Laughter you passed on, Kind words, and a bit of crazy Everafter

A set when you sleep. The rest when you are up and awake. How do dreams come true? Well scientifically we have dreams around the subjects we've been thinking about all the time. On the other hand, the dreams we make ourselves, the aim for the best possibilities that is what gets us going. I am currently leaving a dream. If you told me few years ago that I would be here, I would have laughed you off. If you told me a few years ago that some of my other dreams would not come true, I would not have believed you. However, I have acquired a tad bit of cynicism over the years when it comes to this aspect of my life. Yet, whatever dreams may come. I believe, it could happen to you. Hope is the word that goes hand in hand with dreams, as long as I have mine, I will find them even if the path is longer than it was for others. I will live more of a dream than I dreamt of. You too folks, dream well. And finally a couple of lines from one of my favourite poems 'Come to...

Phew

Last night, while I was falling asleep after reading AJSong's post,I was wondering what would my next post be about. B for Bethaal Okay, technically not an English word, but a name. For those of you familiar with Indian folklore or DD of the 90s or Chandamamma or Grandparent's tales (all of which I was lucky enough to experience) you would know what I was talking about. But for those who don't, here is the story in brief: Once there was a king called Vikram who was challenged by a Magician (Tantric) to bring a 'spirit' aka Vetala/Betaal. The king finds the spirit but the spirit comes along only on the condition that the king answers his questions at the end of every story narrated by the Betaal. If he does answer it, the Betaal goes back to the start and if he doesn't, the king dies. At the end of the twenty fifth story, Betaal manages to baffle the king who remains speechless but is not killed by Betaal.The rest of the story is for you guys to find out...

...is not just the Alphabet, not just 'everything' but also the A to Z challenge which I did not manage to complete last time for unforeseen reasons.  But this time, I am going to definitely complete it along with the New Ditcher in my life a.k.a AJ Song. Lets do this! :)