Hug-Me-Not

A Hug; Wikipedia says, is a form of physical intimacy that generally involves closing or holding the arms around another person or group of persons. The hug is one of the most common human signs of love and affection, along with ....etc etc.

You can see the whole definition at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug with some pretty descriptive Forms of hugs. ;) Some VERY familiar ones would be the Pound hug; " Hey dude!" guyish hug,

... and THAT is not it.. :)

The Bear Hug; You MUST have seen this in WWF, the wrestling one. Better not try that at home ;o)

Thinking on the same lines, I had caught this hilarious episode in Seinfeld where Jerry and George are waiting at the airport for Jerry's friend, discussing how Jerry should interpret how the woman will greet him. If she shakes his hand it's bad, says George. If she hugs him, that's good( like Wohoww good ;) )...Just so long as it's a proper hug and not the 'shoulders touching but the hips are eight feet apart' hug.

Finally, the way she does it, its worth watching...

Since childhood, Hug for me has been an integral part of life. We have always been a huggy- huggy family. Always hugging. {))} <-- Thats symbol for hugging on SMS, I guess most of the SMS-addicts would know.

But as I grew, the various forms of hugs that I came across were actually quite amusing!

1. The Friends-in-college hug; you really dint know HOW long to continue the procedure? Who goes first? Do you hug every friend? Or just the ones who first make the move? Quite complicated. Just glad that phase is over.

2. The Aunty-in-weddings hug; a. You are caught without notice, b. you really don't know WHY? Why you? c. You stand their like a pillar, smiling, not knowing if you should too put your arms around or just be her pillar of support. Waiting...for it to be over with passage of time. This one, I will never get to know.

3. The Kiss supplemented hug; I never felt I would be the type of girl who'll kiss her gal pals when they meet up for shopping. You know the kinds! Not me...

But, with time, I did that too. This one is like a custom, then a ritual, then a habit, it grows on you. :)

4. Then of course, The Memorable ones;

5. The Senti meeting-parents hug; Now that we've been staying away from parents. That precious hug when we meet, or part, says it all...

6. The "Excuse Me! Stranger"-Hug; Apart from these people you get comfortable with, a hug from just anyone is not appreciated. Well, you don't want any random individual jumping into your space bubble. With common consesus, this holds good for everyone. Even my Lizzy. She expresses that by growling back.

(this is just for representation, courtesy Google Search results)

Well, I won't really snarl, but, end up going with the flow with a forced smile. :o\

(this is just for representation, courtesy Google Search results)

So, take my advice, the next time you plan on going for this physical act; run through the above checklist in your head and make sure you're not in one of those creepy ones.

JUST .. another ..Saturday..

Good old stress-tested alarm snoozed for the fifth time, begging me to get up..
Why should I? I still have time. I had made half of the things for my tiffin last night itself.

Hey! wait a minuuute, today's saturday.. I dont NEED tiffin.. aaaaaaaaah.. More sleep.

Maid came in a little too late herself. On workdays, that would have meant greeting her with a twisted smile, but now, I just smiled, with an unspoken consent, its Saturday!

The routine started, the ritual of ginger tea for others, simultaneously, the vegetables being cut, while the milk boils. Straining the tea I realized, what all things I had to get done, the kitchen looked unusually greasy, the clothes stack for ironing seemed monsterously large. The fingerprints on the fridge seemed to pinch into my eyesight. Better got started with the breakfast and the lunch preparations. Where did all those cobwebs come in the porch from!?? Arrrrrrrghh...The dining table also could also use some..hmmmm...its gonna be a Long day.

Surprisingly, the long To-Do list got over by ten. :O

Now what.

Thought of giving myself some MY-TIME. Did that too. SMSed all friends waking them up. No reply. I guess its not even morning for them yet.

The newspaper seemed to be interesting today. Although depressing stuff in the first page itself. Well, thats usually most of the days. Looked at the watch. Has it stopped??? Nope. Working just fine. Its never THIS slow when the alarm is snoozed in the morning.

Walked down to the tailor, for some pending work. Whiled away time gaping at other customers there. Walked back.

Phew...

Finally, I get to watch some TV.

.......

.......

SOMEHOW, at THIS particular twilight zone hour, NOTHING worthwhile seems to be coming! On the contrary, when I have some work on hands, the programme which I have waited for all my life, seems to be on air!

I guess its a day I asked for, a Realxed Saturday, a Relaxed Saturday with no work.

But, somehow, it just doesnt seem to do the trick, does it. :/

Hypnogocic Myoclinic Twitch

I saw my darling Lizzy, my 7 yr old german shepherd twitch in her sleep. She was sprinting in her sleep. I had seen her pups and even grand-pups doing it. They even suckled and whined and woofed in slumber. It was hilarious and adorable.

I guess any of us who've had pet dogs would have surely seen this too. I knew its known fact that dogs dream too, just like us. I have grown with pets and my curiousity about canines took me to the Google nirvana.

R.E.M or, Rapid Eye Movement. Just like us, when dogs too enter the Deep Sleep phase ( after the SWS/ Slow Wave Sleep phase), they experience R.E.M. phase. This is when they Dream, just like us. :)

In fact, little tangentially; for those of you who don't know, when your pet dog is looking really cozily curled up, he/she is mostly not into the R.E.M. phase. Because, in this phase, his/her entire body has to get relaxed(...remember your own body, the final pose that gets you snoring is not the rolled-up-around-yourself one!). Thinking about that, I rememebered those INNUMERABLE times when my cousin would fall off the bus seat snoozing/ banged his head on the window / slept on all the fellow-passengers' shoulders/ woke up startled...obviously scared everyone with his blood-shot red eyes/ shook with a jolt while sleeping . All the others were side-splitting except for the last one. That one seemed to be an interesting one.

Again, Google to rescue.

Hypnogocic Myoclinic Twitch. I had read about this in Femina few months ago. A small mention. Even now, its was really weird that I found only ONE HIT IN GOOGLE on this!

Being something that I am sure 99% humans would have felt in their lifetime. It IS surprising, you see. This particular phenomenon is seen when your body gets into the R.E.M. phase and your muscles tend to relax. But, sometimes while you enter this phase, your response system in the muscles send a signal to the brain which is very similar to the one that happens when you're free falling. Thus, brain sends a sudden responsive signal to the body to pull together the muscles! This is seen as the Twitch/Jolt which we experience.

Being such a mysterious and vague fact doesn't stop it from being amusing for the onlookers of the victim. Thanks to Youtube; I found some comical and some eye-catching videos;

You can watch them too;

Dog Twitching in R.E.M. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKouAUIFkaw

Cute baby- funny expressions in R.E.M :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZm5MzO5m8I

The Untouchable Vs The Touchable

Water we ALL know is the universal element, blah, blah.
But the most fascinating thing about this fluid is how we love it as well as discriminate against it. All depends on WHERE the H2O is! So basically the "situation" in which it is present decides what respect it receives from us.

The water (although salty) coming from our eyes; and you see your friend wiping it for you. Nevertheless, the poor salty water lost its way and came outta your nose...God forbid, wipe it yourself Snoty!!

We ALL know how much we need that precious water in our bathrooms, right? We pray in the public bathrooms..."Dear God, let the water last atleast until I am done!!". Don't we? And BANG! The very next second, the underprivilaged water on the floor becomes our object of despise and we go.."Good Lord! Why are people so gross, spilling water on the floor!"
To the extent, that in my house, we loathe this untouchable water so much that we've kept the "Mop Rule". Anyone who bathes or, spills any water, MUST wipe off that forbidden fluid off the floor. No exceptions.

We have managed to remarkably divide the same fluid into The Touchable one and The Untouchable one. We do this discrimination ALL the time. But recently one thing, put me into a major fix. I was viewing this show on TV about what all people do to collect water for survival. Now, I am not sure if this was a mockery or what, because, they DID say, do not try at home!!

These two young..ummm..should I say researchers? ...They were trying to convince the audience that the human Urine, yes, you read that right, the human Pee, is 80% water, pure water, so that can be consumed, if the other 20% is removed!!
Thats easy. So they just showed a tiny experiment where the Urine is heated and the vapours are collected into a container. They did Cheers and gulped it down. Thats H2O for you!! :)

Now, Ok. I agree, science is science. We DO have scientific reasoning for everything.
Science says; Pee-Bad things=Water. It must be true! I believe in science. In fact, maybe some day we will be SO short of touchable water that we would be doing this experiment as a part of our routine life, in our kitchen maybe.

Nevertheless, I prefer to believe, thats far far far away in future.
And all said and done, No Thanks! But, I can't raise my toast to Pee. :

The Hair-Do Metamorphosis

Somehow, any hair-do has never been The One for me.

When you're a kid. Your hair is pretty much your mother's territory. She decides what looks good on you. Rather, what is worth-keeping or chopping.

My entire infancy went as a small boy. As you can see in my previous posts, I was a boy wearing a hair band! Well, I guess the little girl in me, wanted to do that stuff, be it, minus the hair. I'd say it was "cute" though. Although someone told me once that "cute" meant, ugly but adorable. Now, I wouldn't really argue on that here. ;)

Nevertheless, over the years I grew, my hair grew too. I had my own chance of R&D in that department as well. By the end of teens, I had tried cutting my hair, growing it, coloring it (twice; burgundy and brown), straightening it and curling it. So you see, I am quite a learned in that domain.

But, teen years also taught me some memorable lessons that these things were not really THAT good for hair as they claimed in the ads! I remember I had many stories to tell through those times, which usually sounded like;

"..Malaika Arora's burgundy hair DID sparkle when she walked that carpet in the ad.. I got the color, alright. Where the he** is the sparkle?"

"...That Simone Singh told in her ad; Try karke Dekho! I took her word for it. AND?
...She didn't say what happens next ! I am still trying to figure out!!"

"...I got those curls right. Neverthless, they say; you gotta feel the pain to gain. Oh I did feel the pain piercing through my skull into my brain in the form of those curlers giving me sleepless nights."

".. My Straightened hair was a hit. So I don't really care about that little burn I got all over my ear from the straightening rod...my straight hair should hide it. :) "

Years have gone by but my quest for the perfect hair-do has still not gotten over.
Just looking through my yester years' pics is so much fun seeing what all stunts have been tried on my head. Aamir Khan's ad said, you should never resemble your passport size photo for more than 3 yrs! I can beat that. I have the photographic evidence too!!

I dug out my 1st standard onwards passport size photographs (obviously, some really non-viewable links in the series have been voluntarily censored ;) ) .

Nevertheless, scan the Hair-do Metamorphosis for yourself :) ( I know some of them make it hard to believe that its ME. Well, all I can say is every Frog was once a Toad. :) )

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-->And the search goes on :)

The Impatient Patient

Have you experienced those few frustrating moments while you wait before the microwave door, as it beeps, beeps, beeps, beeps. So that you can barge in and get your food out of it. Why did they have to make those Four beeps! Why not the conventional oven-type Ting! and voila..you can grab your food.

Is it just me or everyone is lost in those Two Whole minutes you put the conditioner in your hair and you really don't know what to do in the mean time, coz;
1. you're in the bathroom,
2. you're cold and
3. you're pretty much not in a condition to do anything else but stare at the walls, any cob webs present or the imperfections in your physique.

Its pretty much the same feeling that runs through my head when I have a mouth-watering, steaming hot delicacy in front of me and I gotta wait for it to cool-down enough to be gobbled down my mouth. I don't know what else to do in those few fractions of seconds, not try to eat it, look elsewhere-well thats not possible :) , eat it anyway and suffer with tongue burns for next two days. I do the last one, you see, I have the problem of an impatient patient.

The Impatient Patient; who is in the hospital. She was ill. But now she's Ok. Nevertheless, doctors refuse to let her out of the hospital. She feels absolutely normal. She begins to wonder if the doctors love giving her those sickening medicines, or maybe its the nurses who love administrating those painful IV into her veins. It could be the latter you see, sadistic pleasure. Hard to believe, I know, but could be true. Or, its just those house-keeping maids who love cleaning up her garbage everyday. Nah, they couldn't be the villians. If at all, they are the victims here. Don't think she's paranoid. She's just impatient. You know.

Anyway, this Impatient Patient begs the doctor for her discharge from the hospital, on every pretext and likes to believe she is fighting fit. She tells all her in-mates about how well she is feeling and that she doesn't belong to the hospital at all!
Finally, she is discharged.
She comes home.
She is at peace now. And thinks, Ok, great, now what?
:)