A penny for a smile

If I got a penny for a smile, I would be a millionaire by now. I remember back in college, I was widely known as the girl who-would-smile-at-anyone-and-everyone. After all, I always have believed that smile can only spread warmth. Unless you're smiling at a totally bizarre/sad/ironic/sadistic situation. That's a totally different thing if you expect me to remember every one's names! :

So, please don't be ticked off with me if next time I smile at you but give an uncomfortable gaze; I'm just trying to place your name.

In my defense, I don't forget faces. But that is equally untrue when it comes to me and names.
I was caught once in a sticky situation with my embarrassing problem. I bumped into some college friends with my sister. They asked me to introduce them to my sister.
Well...What could I do?
I said.. OK! Why don't you guys get to know each other.. I will just go get some of those groceries quickly!
Yeah right. That would have been much smarter. But, instead I only managed a stupid, "Umm.. Sure..This is my sister.. and you are? "
Their eyes could burn me down right on that store aisle. Eeks.

There are enormous number of situations which can land you into soup for this helpless problem of yours.

1. You smile...They wave. You talk. You exchange phone numbers. You don't even know what to name the number.
Solution: Ask them their last name. "Eh... so your last name is..". They are bound to tell their first name as well!

2. You smile..Acknowledge their presence in this world. Almost everyday. They suddenly meet you elsewhere and expect introduction to your family and friends.
Solution: I am yet to come up with one. Do tell me if you have one.

3. You smile..They smile. Never spoken to each other. One day they stop smiling.
Solution: Tag them as creeps. Maintain safe distance.

4. You smile..They think you're a freak.
Solution: Reduce the angle of your smile. Maybe you're giving a loony-axe-killer-smile all the time.

5. The prize definitely goes to;
You smile.. They think you like LIKE them.
Solution: I have stopped smiling at strangers. Unless they produce an identity card. :

I have put up a new poll on this folks; Do express..lets see how many smiles reside in this world. How much does a smile cost anyway? Perhaps just a few calories to stretch your facial muscles. :) Just a small comic strip below which was captured with this little one...

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HIP HIP HAPPENING SUNDAY!

Firstly, thanks to ALL the people who checked on me if my Lazy Hazy Saturday went okie! It indeed did! :D .

Started off with a movie marathon of Bridget Jones (Part 1 & 2 because I wanted to compare the novels to the flicks! For those who haven't seen these. I would definitely recommend part 1 and part 2 ONLY for Bridget's skiing scene; I was somersaulting with laughter; no exaggeration) and then The Princess and the Frog (Umm..I'd say just a usual Disney movie, time pass cuteness). By then my eyes begged for mercy and my twisted body postures on the sofa needed a stretch. So, I stepped into the kitchen.

As promised to myself (or rather to my growling tummy), I rewarded myself with a sumptuous lunch of;
- Basil and oregano herbed potatoes and peas.

- Francesine Pasta in Ginger-white sauce (Oh these pretty little babies were soaked in cheese too ;) .. what's pasta without cheese.. Aye?). I was so shell-shocked to learn that pasta comes in only as near as THIRTY SHAPES! :O http://www.food-info.net/uk/products/pasta/shapes.htm

- Patties.. Good old frozen ones. Yummy as sin.

- Sandwiches with three kind of fillings;
Cornichons (Gherkins) with honey mustard sauce.
Sweet Cucumber sauce.
This one was my favorite, spiced tomato chutney with cream! You sure wanna give a go to these range of cute little Jars of hand-made sauces at Nilgiris. Here's a sneak peek I managed to click for you guys;

Anyway the hogger-pot me decided not to eat the day away on Sunday. So, I went for this movie LSD (Bollywood Movie). The movie is A-rated, rightly so. Although a little disturbing, I would say its indeed a very well-made movie. A must watch for everyone to know what goes behind all those news and juicy video gossips or even the random videos updated on the net. Most of the times, its us encouraging these...by just viewing them. Think again.

We took a little walk to build our appetites (and do justice to the lunch) and that's when I was gifted THIS by Prasad to deal with the Indian Summers.. and to add to my Birthday gifts list ;) !

With a little Oomph.. Oooo.. :)
Was also gifted a looovely Pink hand bag which will be appropriately displayed when I get the right match in the wardrobe! All you girls, MUST VISIT; Sigma Mall, Bangalore, 4th Floor, Tiny Boutique Stand, run by lady called Sheela. Gorgeous and hip bags and hats. :D

YAYII. WOHOO!

Being a lazy Saturday morning, I first contemplated on bed for good one hour, before deciding to crawl out. My wrists still hurt from yesterday's silliness of warming up on the pretext of 'kick-boxing'. Yeah, don't ask me; I'm myself undecided yet on the relation between the kick boxing and the wrists. :|

While my eyes kept getting misty with the Tulsi tea below my nose, I had a flurry of thoughts & suggestions in my head for getting my day started...

1. I could make a simple breakfast as suggested in the "Be Cool in Summers" article in the newspaper; cup of tea with non-sugared cereal. ( Personally, on any other day, this is my ideal breakfast. But TODAY!..Blehhh..)

2. Or, I could make the Breakfast-Like-a-King, with Corn and Peas patty, spinach and cheese omelet, honey mustard cream toast and chilled strawberry milk shake. ( :D Yes! Yes! I Like! I Like!! )

3. Or, I could read the paper, clean my cupboard, take a shower and then do either Step 1 or 2 or none.

4. Or, I could have another round of tea and ponder into pennyless thoughts.

5. Or, install and explore all the Coolio features of my new Nokia E63!! (Thank you Jiju and Sis. :) )

6. Or.....

After finishing my tea, I just plonked into bed like a dead fish and lay there still in a position remarkably similar to The Vitruvian Man.. I think.. for two hours. I Think.

But then, I did slither out of bed again and decided to blog about my sleeping sickness. But heyyy! What do I see...I got my first blog award! :D Thanks to Casey for considering my blog for the same.
I nominate my Blogger Buddies;
Hungry?
B Log
Cinnamon Girl Studio Design
Flowing Against Time
my mind's an open book

Do give them a read.. :) and have a happy lazy hazy Saturday people!
I'm heading to watch a movie marathon at home this weekend.. If my eyes survive through it, my hands will definitely write about them.

Falling in love..Just like that..

Pretty certain of the fact that;
My job + Blogging + Chatting + Twittering + Facebook-ing had given me the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome; I retreated to my books for this weekend. In my defense, human is a social (networking) creature :|

With my nature, a full-time employee is mandatory to keep my grey cells engaged. So, I have employed my brain at it. With all these entertainment modes taken away for two long days, I desperately hung on to...The Bridges of Madison County.

Monday.. it left my wrists much better and Mmmmmmm......me, so full of love.

For those of you, who've not heard of this ever before (just like I hadn't)...here.
For those of you, who have heard/seen it. I second you, its by far one of the most touching love story you come across.

I believe my imagination is much more stronger than my sight. I need one vision or hint and my brain cells work overtime to concoct the images in my head. Thus, when I read novels, I am living in that scene. With Bridges of Madison County ( Caution, those who want to read this novel/watch this movie, stop reading further)...
What I loved is the simplicity of falling in love. Just like that.
Finding beauty in someone who may not apparently look like Aishwarya Rai or Hrithik Roshan...Just like that.
That there is no age to fall in love.
Even though away from your loved one, Living in love.. All your life.

Living in Iowa, Francesca, 45, wife of a farmer and nurturer of two teenage children; falls in love. With a stranger. Robert Kincaid, 57 (or so), photographer of National Geographic (Oo..this makes him so mesmerizing already and me; all coy and tingly), who's in Madison County, Iowa working on an assignment photo shoot on Covered Bridges, who's forgotten what it is to be in a relationship; falls in love. With a house wife and mother.
They spend only four days together but realize towards the end of it that what they are so deep into, cannot be pursued because of Francesca's children and family. They part their ways..only to spend two more decades of their lives, hoping to be together someday.

Trust me when I say, novels can make you cry.

To a listener, this is bound to be judgemental scenario. Of course, wife falling in love with a stranger when husband is away with children for four days! But, if you would, I would say, read this 170 page novel... and all you'll have in your mind and heart when you reach the last page is.. Love.

While I read it, I had already conjured the faces of the two lead roles in my head and I was delighted out of my wits to find out who they were; two of my favorites. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.
Have a glance at these pics below and let your feelings stir like mine did.. :)

Happy Birthday GraphiCurry!!

You will know you've been to a High Profile Page 3 party when you can't feel your high-heeled legs the next day! Trust me, because I I'm considering walking on all my fours today. Yep, I was there and if I find myself in any papers today; you bet I'm gonna put that up! :D

P.S. I saw the likes of Jackie Shetty and Veena Bhat up close and personal!! (Eeeeeeee..)

So Prasad's child, GraphiCurry celebrated its first project completion yesterday at B52, Koramangala with great pomp and show. Its right above Ambrosia for those who'd like to visit it.


Oh hey, I didn't mention GraphiCurry to you all. This is the venture that Prasad ( and well me, for all my moral support that I credit myself for ;) ) had envisaged for years and now has materialized. This is an end-to-end solution for going Digital to brand your product. And lets face it, what's not digital nowadays practically doesn't exist.

Having said that, I know I'm the kind who'd get excited to see even a Roti inflate but, check out the website www.graphicurry.com and tell me if it doesn't register in some important section of your brain. My favorite section in this is the Caricatures; but of course, because Mine is the first in it! Don't miss it. :)

Being a staunch believer of Service for All concept; GraphiCurry caters to anyone and everyone. It helps them materialize Concepts and Ideas ultimately helping them achieve the not-so-ulterior goal of any business..i.e The Right Magnetism for your intended Customer base/Audience.

So any of you who're keen to follow any further launches can follow GraphiCurry at Twitter! And here comes my yet another fav part... the pics@B52;

Hiding in the Cardboard Castle!

Location change upsets me. Mostly.

It reminds me of all those childhood times when distraught Papa and Mom would be running like little headless chickens all over the house, packing the trillion boxes of luggage. While me and sis could help, all we would concern ourselves with was, the food neighbors would be sending in as farewell. So you're wondering whats so depressing about that? Its just the inertia. Honestly.

Same is with my office space. Its was one of its kinds. I felt at home in it, obviously due to the entire decor I'd created around it with things beginning from my personalized coffee mug to my pillow. The wall bore the evidences of events I'd attended from last five years; the ticket to shows me and Prasad had attended together, to his first gifted card, memories of my and sis's outings, friends pictures, Get-Well-Soon cards, Valentine gifts and even my Premier IPL League ticket! Sigh..

Now, I sit in the middle of a cardboard castle. We moved to a new location and I don't know how to describe it in a polished lingo. I've been allocated a desk in the middle of the highway, or at least it feels that way. I miss my snug little cube that was ideally located near the loo as well as the cafeteria. If there was a contest for Best Located Cube, my cube would have won it hands down. :|

I know I cribbed about that one being located next to the Window-which-was-public-phone-booth. But, here, people are so incredibly close in proximity that I think I can answer the phone calls for at least five people in my one-hand-radius when their cell phones ring.

Nevertheless, as I always do in any bleak situation; think of the positives...for me.

1. I'm closer to my team members........team bonding initiative(?).

2. I'm closer to my boss..........

3. I'm visible to the public, so I would be noticed in case I pass out working someday!

4. At least I'm not sharing my cube with another person. Don't get me wrong, I have no qualms about space-sharing. Its just that with the given size of the cubicle, I feel its slightly suffocating if I turn around and almost land in the lap of the other person. Right.

5. Well, till now we were undisciplined with pushing our chairs ad-hoc. Tch. Tch.
Now, I can only slide my chair; under my table, horizontally across-outside my cubicle, or, just lift it and take it out of the cube. So, that's some chair-discipline for you.

6. That's all I can scrape my brains for.

So, I was looking for some humor on cubicles, to cheer myself up;
I couldn't resist putting this one up... Quite apt I would say :)

Why does my head hurt!

Today I woke up to a headache. Ugh. I hate such days.
But then post - three cups of tea, one gallon of Balm smearing on head (which is rightly named the Axe Oil) and two more hours of thoughtless sleep on the bed lying like a piece of crumbled paper; I was a new person.

As I said that I've taken on book reading by its neck, I'm at The Da Vince Code right now. Yea, yeah.. I know many of you have read that book like trillion years ago. But then, everyone has his/her time destined. So, now is mine. :)
There is no denying the fact that book reading, whoever boring it may sound to a third eye (excluding me and book) is an eye opener for ALL. Even for know-it-all people, like me! (A sorry humor I agree).

So, getting down to what I learnt from Mr. Dan Brown of The Da Vinci Code. (OMG, here comes the list!) I don't even know where to start because through out the novel I had my mouth open and eyebrows twisted in all angles, in pure bewilderment.

So this list is but of course for the select False-Know-It-All people like me so the other learned people may bear with it) :o)

1. The whole of 489 pages is the story of ONE NIGHT. So imagine the pace of the novel and the sleepless nights that I spent wanting to know what happened next on THAT night!

2. Now I FINALLY know whats the whole fuss about Swiss bank accounts! Jeez. I used to really it was a Bollywood-run-of-the-mill cliche that every villain would transfer all the evil-black-money to his Swiss account! But... BUT.. that's because, Swiss banks have their world wide reputation for providing ABSOLUTE anonymity to the account holder. To the extent, they won't even know your IDENTITY! Now there, now it makes MUCH more sense why villains love the Swiss. I thank Mr. Dan to enlighten me on this one.

3. Good Lord, the dissection of the paintings of Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. I actually spent a LOT of time revising the content and telling people about it. Its just unbelievable that the world out there knows all about it and I'd never known! Feel like an illiterate. The fact that Mona Lisa might just be the painting of Leonardo da Vinci himself wearing women's wear! Or, the fact that Mona Lisa's name originates from Amon-Lisa uniting the Male and Female Gods' names and making a point to the fact that Mona Lisa 's face is androgynous(no offense!) Much more on this at Wiki if you just look up Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

4. Mary Magdalene !!!!! I never knew this name as well. Shame on me. Please DO read about her if you don't want to be left out feeling a dope like me.

5. The Beautiful Symbol of Phi . Now this concept is something which makes Symbology and similar streams of study TOTALLY scientific to a person like me. Basically, Phi=1.618.. The Divine Proportion. Another thing, that's totally Google-Worthy.

6. The Holy Grail concept.

7. Most importantly, The fact that I finished this novel in precisely 6 days. And now I know, why I have that headache every morning. :}

The Forbidden

Its only when my father pointed out that I realized that I'd been using a little too much 'regular' profanities in my previous posts. (Woops!) Who else but a parent can you rely on for checking on these. :D

So my apologies to all my readers who might have come in to read a nice light composition and found some gibberish rantings. :)

Its so true that you can never grow up older than your parents. Obviously, metaphorically.
I still chuckle remembering the times when me and sis were asked to shut our eyes when some objectionable scenes came in the flick. Speaking of Parental Guidance! It used to be hilarious cause we could obviously hear everything and imagination is much more powerful tool than sight. ;)

The fun starts when the sides are swapped and you're doing the Parental role. I haven't got there yet but, my hands automatically cover the little eyes of my younger cousins who'd be trying desperately to peep through my fingers. There's always been an argument that the thing that is forbidden is more lucrative to anyone. Is that true?
There's always a fear and an attraction to the Forbidden. That's true. For anyone.
I think its the emotion behind the person-who-forbids-you, that stops you. Nothing else. :)

Don't Mind..Its Friggin' Holi!!

My facebook status says it all; Would have preferred a Holi-day rather than just an official Working Holi day.. :|

So today was Holi, the festival of colors, fun and loads of food. The last two pretty much being there in any other Indian festival!

I remember chewing my parents' brains until they got me the water-guns and loads of messy colors for smearing on my friends. And on the Holi day, I was unstoppable. I would gallop out of the house before any one else on the street and come back the last. The image of me and my sister in our tattered clothes (obviously cause mom wouldn't let us wear something fancy! Duh!) grubby with Holi colors being washed up with the garden hose is so vivid in my head. How I used to love this festival that I would relentlessly scram up and down the road filling up my water gun and spraying people on their faces (practically into their mouths) when they least expected.

I fell out of this love as I grew. As I was harrassed repeatedly by friends with chemical-clad colors and filthy water resulting in bad skin, hair and lungs. The festival got dirtier as people discovered innovative ways to vent out their prior frustrations via this medium. Then came the time when you'd to watch out for silver paints, eggs or even something which I swear smelt like shit. (EEWW!) And all you gotta reconcile with was the fact, "Bura na maano, Holi Hai!" ("Don't mind, but its friggin' Holi!)

The last time I played it was when I started working. I remember people being mopped on the ground for smearing colors...cause we ran out of the color stock.

Well...After that, I've only celebrated it by locking myself in the house and making goodies to eat and feed. Although, I believe one day people will realize that the festival is just an excuse to celebrate ourselves. Then, why the nasty chemicals and sadistic ways! THEN... My dear friends, will I step out again on this day.

HAPPY HOLI!

Be Wise.. WEAR IT!

I want people to wear masks ALL THE FRIGGIN' time! Why?
I was a hail n hearty gal last evening till I could hear people snorting away and sneezing at work. And I knew it, I was gonna catch something. :|

It was just today morning when I got up with a croaky throat, I wanted to go out and give away free masks to ALL the people as a measure against bio-hazard. Because the ill ones for sure won't wear it.

Why is it that people who have an infection just wouldn't give a break to themselves and to others; BY STAYING AT HOME! I've seen people hiding the fact that they are ACTUALLY suffering and proving (I really don't know to whom) that they aren't ill. Isn't the magnitude of Indian population harmful enough in its own right that people have to inflict this sadistic germ-weapon on fellow mates.

Phew. Done ranting. On a serious note (which comes out rarely from me, might be due to the overpowering germs within me); I really wish people realize that its OK to wear a mask while they are ill. It doesn't make them The Untouchable. Masks can be really cool. See, Spider Man wears it! Zorro even made his identity out of a mask! Jim Carrey swears by it too. Although I do agree that our regular green mask might not be that cool. Nevertheless, I've come across some cute ones or rather fashionable ones on the net;

Some more at http://inventorspot.com/articles/eight_surgical_masks_survive_swine_flu_style_27297

Now these have gotta make you feel hip about wearing them. Alriie! :)
To all the fellow sick-people, Get well Soon and Don't Sneeze On Others as form of Revenge.