O’ Ho Ho Snowflakes!

 

Snowflakes O’ pretty little snowflakes

Falling from far above

When the Sun caves in for you – For The Pure White flakes of Beauty

When the wind plays in to your tunes

When the ground beneath embraces your presence

When humans welcome an inherent smile upon their faces

When the unseen dark forces get outclassed by white

When nature is proud of its own beautiful architectural creation

When trees fail to realize the absence of their leaves

O’Snowflakes

You make me forget myself and enjoy the Simple Pleasures of Life!

 

Mythological Phoenix = Real Glass top

I was under the belief that disasters in my life ended with the year 2010 and the New Year would be a new beginning to a safe future. Well, that myth just got shattered when the glass top of my dining table decided to behave like the Phoenix. In an effort to sell the furniture that I will not be able to take with me to the new place I am moving to, I posted an ad to sell my dining table (glass top) and some tables.

Within an hour of posting my ad the deal was fixed to sell it to this Indian woman who had just come to US 3 months ago. Since she did not know anyone here I decide to help her by booking an I-go car and moving the things. So here goes this morning : Get the car, Pick her up from a common point, come to my place, park the car. With caution we first move the tables and the chairs of the dining table and set it securely in the trunk. When we realized that it would be better to dismantle the dining table I offer to go back up, bring the hex key and the glass top after which I started dismantling the table apart while she held on to the glass. When my hands started to freeze she started removing the screws and I held on to the glass. Within no time of me holding the glass, the Glass decides to Shatter into a ZILLION pieces in my hand. I barely get scratched but the Loud shatter (it felt like an atom bomb in my ear) left me and this girl SPEECHLESS for as long as I can remember now.

I blame the sudden change in temperature – warm apartment to icy cold outside for if it had to break in my accidental prone hands it would have while I transported it from my apartment down three flights of stairs to the car. Instantly, my mind raced for a good analogy and all it could come up with was the phoenix in Harry Potter – the mythological bird which is extremely loyal to Dumbeldore and flies away/burns itself to ashes upon the death of its master – The glass shattered when I decided to make someone else its owner. Unfortunately for her and for me since it is the real world glass does not behave like the phoenix in being re-born from its ashes!

Moral from this brand New “Accident Free” month in the New Year 2011: If you are transporting glass and you expect a change in temperature, place the glass securely inside the car FIRST before you venture doing anything else! If not, neither party gets to enjoy the pleasures of the glass top dining table! Yet again look at the brighter side of things – atleast the glass decided to just extinguish itself without taking me with it!

I think my life is a never ending saga of lessons learnt!

Journey through my life in 2010!

Self-Preservation skills sounded like jargon to me in the year that just passed – 2010! That was one glorious year for there wasn’t one month that passed without me having to suffer pain from some tragedy. Having said that I must take this opportunity to mention that each event whether it was under my control or not taught me something valuable which I chose to use to shape my future life. Let me take the pleasure of walking you through the journey of my life in 2010…..

January 2010 – Was the quietest month possible as I had just come back from my 4 week long trip to hometown –India. They always say that beware of the silence for it brings with it the storm right behind (might have slightly contorted to suit my needs but something similar I guess). I believe it now for fun things started happening in feb 2010!

Moral from this month: Nothing lasts forever. If there are bad times good times are not far behind!

February 2010 – My apartment got broken into. I should rather say that it got shattered for the people who were interested in the things that belonged to the apartment smashed the door open to suit their needs. I live on the third and the topmost floor of my building which is a part of a complex collectively called the Bingo Farm (name changed). Entrance to the apartments in my building is achieved by entering through two gates. The main gate barricading the entire complex which although has spikes on it, can be easily surpassed by a rock climber and I presume would be child’s play for thieves with determination! The next gate is inside the building that opens doors to all the apartments – two on each floor until the third. That gate has been preserved, in my view, from the post war era (from when my building was built) for not only does the golden color metal plate covering the lock look like steel but it is also bent beyond recognition. Flabbergasted at the way my apartment door looked, I had to walk the stairs twice and re-trace my steps to make myself believe of what had happened. It also made me think like a thief – jump the main gate, open the bent door with a crowbar, walk up three flight of stairs – but wait why? Well…for one if anyone heard unseemly noises, people living below my apartment would just assume that I am home (no-one cares enough to walk up the stairs to check) and secondly if I was to steal a first floor apartment I could get busted by someone who lives above?

Moral for this month: Look at the brighter side of things – while your neighbor lost her laptop I just lost replaceable jewelry. Did not lose my passport or my apartment wasn’t broken into while I was home!

March – April 2010 – I was frantically looking for a new place to move into which guaranteed more security or where the gates don’t look like they could be displayed in a historical museum. Alas –at the nick of the time when I almost finalized a sub-letter for my apartment and found a decent place the management in the building I wanted to move into decided to give it away to a crack addict who signed the lease as soon as she saw the apartment! Convincing myself that if I was the owner to the place that got broken into then I wouldn’t have shunned it with the first break in I decided to stay put and be brave. However, after the break in I hid my camera under the sink, my passport in a safe place that no one can imagine, and almost every day I walked back home expecting my apartment to be broken into once again.

Moral for this month: Shit happens to everyone. You are no one special. Just laugh it off, take precautions and flow with the tide!

May 2010 – I sprained my ankle so bad that it was almost close to a fracture. Ultimate frisbee has been my recreational love for about two years now. During the third game of summer league, while the game was on, I cut out from the stack, caught the Frisbee from the handler, tried to set myself in the mushy grounds (the grounds sunk in after 24hours long rain) and WHAM I fell to the ground while still holding the Frisbee in my hand. Only after I realized that I cannot get up without help that I dropped the Frisbee to the ground and yelled – I had to atleast make sure that the game wasn’t turned over right? Walking on crutches for over 2 weeks was definitely not fun for although they look cool, crutches hurt your armpits and arms like a Beeetch!

Moral of the story: Never let the Frisbee go off your hand until you know for sure that your ankle/leg is screwed beyond words! Everything is an experience – now I can claim that I was hard core to have walked around practically everywhere with crutches for 2 weeks (time is relative – 2 weeks felt FOREVER)

June – July 2010 – Was recovery period for my close to fracture ankle although staying away from sports was making me lose my traces of sanity in me.

Moral for the months: Sanity in possession = Stable healthy mind.

August 2010 – I bought my first gorgeous sexy super sharp knife. Excited about cutting vegetables I decided to try it the Chef way and I went chop chop chop CRUNCH – there goes some flesh off my left index finger. After much resistance, my friends convinced me that if I did not step into the ER that I would bleed to death. Least did I know how broken the medicare system in The developed U S of A is. I was made to wait for over 4 hours after which when I went to seek information about when I would be seen by the higher authority, what I hear is “Since your case is not a typical emergency you still have 18 other patients in front of you”. That is when I snapped and bid them Good Night! Unfortunately for me I still got slapped a good 200$ even though I was just seen my this frustrated, morose, insensitive nurse who dressed my wound worse than what I would have done for myself!

Moral of this month: Unless you are dying do not go to the ER. They are just going to let you bleed to death and slap you with a bill for lack of service!

September 2010: Ellis avenue is one of the busiest streets in the University as it is bustling with students walking by – going home, coming to lab, going to gym, running and the list is endless. Despite that, automotive owners choose to play it their way and drive as fast as they possibly can on the busy road. I was biking to the gym, and just when I wave my left hand to indicate to the cars behind me that I intend to turn to the gym, a car decides that it would be faster and safer if she just sped fast enough and pass me before I turned. WHAM! She hits me; I go flying out of my bike landing on my chin and breaking it open. Shocked by the entire situation, I start walking away from everyone just mumbling that I am fine, I am sorry until I start seeing big drops of blood dripping from my chin. Fortunately no stitches were required and I am just left a very tiny scar.

Moral of this month: Everyone around you is blind and/or stupid so YOU need to boost YOUR Self-preservation skills!

October 2010: While playing flag football, I charge for the quarterback to pull the flag off her waist and/or to make her drop the football and WHAM I hit my left thumb onto the football. It hurt but not enough for me to give up playing. It swell up and for 5 weeks, under the impression that it was a mere bruise I went climbing, played fall ultimate Frisbee, worked and what not. 5 weeks hence, my thumb looked like a balloon and completely unhappy. After having gotten X-ray done,  I hear that it is a pretty good fracture and that I need to stop anything that is going to wack my thumb again. I get a splint and am barred from sports. There I saw my sanity walking away from me.

Moral of this month: Focus on the flag and not the football. Start honing your self-preservation skills.

November 2010: Fall ultimate tournament day- Nov 5^th 2010. While playing, I cut out of the stack, tried to catch the Frisbee, fumbled, dropped it and fell to hit the back of my right ear hard enough to lose focus for a fraction of a second. Fortunately for me, the temple lobes and the centre back of the head are the worst places to get hurt and the back of the ear is almost harmless. Phew!

Moral of the story: Nothing is more important than maintaining the perfect structure and profile of your physical and mental self – Not even a Frisbee!

December 2010: After having pushed myself into the ditch for the past several months my body decided to take revenge by making me suffer through a sensitive stomach. Sparing you guys of the details that you wish that you did not hear, all I want say is that I am still paying for the torture that I put my body through and hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel! 😉

Moral of this month : Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Indulge in every bit of food that you can possibly find and be merry.

Lessons learnt and the grand conclusion: HONE YOUR SELF-PRESERVATION SKILLS!

Forked Brain….

The only words that the audience heard at Howard Berg’s interview (Guiness book of records for world’s fastest reader) in the late 90’s were- And Died. He would read each page from a novel in fractions of seconds which sounded like bees buzzing in my ears and then two loud words every few seconds – AND DIED. I heard something similar to the work of fiction in reality: X years in relationship X years married And Divorced. Y years in a relationship Y years married And Divorced. Do you see an analogy in the two examples mentioned? Well… if not let me enlighten one and all –

“And Died” is to “And Divorced” is like

“Not knowing what happened before And Died” is to “Not knowing what went wrong before And Divorced”.

Few years ago I heard P mentioning that she has decided to put the word Divorce into action. While on one hand I was happy that she was doing the best possible for her life, on the other I was wondering where those 4 years in a relationship and the so called “Wedded Bliss” for 4 years vanish making me delve deeper into reasoning things about relationships in general – Is 8 years truly less to know and understand a human being? I am aware that humans are complex creations with the most complicated brain of all mammals but then are we so twisted that it takes more than 2920 days (8years) or 70,080 hours in getting to know even one of them? Is one lifetime enough? Weird! Well….giving both of them the benefit of doubt I came to a conclusion that it was one sporadic incident and that such things don’t happen so easily. With time a.k.a few years later I have heard more such stories. Let me give you two examples: 3 years in a relationship, 4 years living together in sin, 1 year into marriage AND the magic word….DIVORCE; 3  years in relationship, 3 years being married AND DIVORCE. What IS in the word MARRIAGE that ruins everything that was cautiously nitpicked to carve the relationship? Is it the word itself  that rings so loud in the ear that makes one want to shut it off their system or is it something about being “Bonded” to the person beside that makes one want to break off – Every action has an Equal and Opposite reaction???

Marriage comes with some materialistic and some emotional things bundled together in a package:

1. A big stone (or golden band) on one’s finger
2. A man (or woman) who was always introduced as Boyfriend (or Girlfriend) and is now re-named as husband (or Wife)
3. A family that wasn’t one’s own until after acceptance of the ring
4. A sense of having to share everything that you possess
5. A sense of being not only emotionally but also socially bonded in a relationship
6. A sense of having less freedom than what could have been possible if it was “merely” living together

What amongst the above pointers makes one shirk from Marriage the moment it enters their lives? The only explanation that possibly makes any sense to me is: it seems as if the words Being Married dawns upon oneself a feeling which is psychologically more traumatic than being realistically plausible! Possibly the ambiance of being married brings along with it a sense of being bonded so deeply that one begins to get claustrophobic in their minds although reality might not seem as bad as they visualize it to be. I find it curiously funny to see how estranged and forked our brain functions – where on one hand we long to be in the arms of a loved one while on the other when it is time to take the next step in concretizing the bond shared between one another we prevaricate till eternity so much so as to lose the one we Loved in the first place. Why?  No matter how hard I try to think to try and find answers to the interminable thoughts in my head I fail miserably. Hence I turn to my readers out there – single or mingled, dating or away from it, broken hearted or mended –

1. What does the word Marriage mean to you? Is it just a means to be bonded in the eyes of the society to make living together righteous or does it really mean something more than legalizing an already existing deep hearted relationship?
2. Is it just a means to self assure that the man/woman is mine or does it have a depth to its rituals?
3. What mental or psychological change does MARRIAGE bring into your life that “Mere” Live In relationship lacks?
4. Why is it that a “change” in your companion’s attitude into 8-9 years of relationship and marriage seems to perceive like a Big deal when being together should ideally bring out the best and the worst?

P.S: Words within quotes are meant to exude sarcasm

The Two little Monkeys in my Life……

What would your reaction be if you were woken up from your barely 5hour long sleep by these little monkey clad 3year old kids the first day of your vacation??? You read me right……I yelled – MOOOOOOM…..take these kids away and let me sleep for atleast an hour more.

My first morning of my month long vacation in India began with this amusing adorable nuisance. The latter word was what ran through my mind when I was woken up but with time it got lost into the wilderness never to show its face again. My little monkeys are – My nephew Kedar who is 3.4 yrs and my niece –Trisha who turns 3 on Feb 7^th 2010.  Every morning without fail my monkeys would rise and shine, trouble my parents first, then their parents and after testing everyone’s patience their minds would wander to a new victim and whom do they choose ……. ME. Curiosity kills a cat but it killed my sleep instead when the two monkeys decided to barge into this closed room (they wondered why it was closed???) and then jump on me yelling out Veena Chitti (Chitti meaning aunt in my language)atleast a zillion times. The first day I reacted and told my mom to take the kids away and let me be but the days after I gave in to enjoy every bit of the harmless trouble that they bestowed upon me! Trisha, the leader of all mischief kept calling out my name whilst Kedar was busy stomping away and walking all over me. When they realized that I am not reacting to anything they decided to play it smart by coming to a conclusion that I am sick and need immediate medical attention. So while Trisha was busy stroking my hair in every direction possible, Kedar quickly sprinted and brought back his Doctor kit which was nothing but some cotton lying around, his shades a.k.a stethoscope and a bottle of moisturizer that he claimed was the cure to my problems. He slowly started breaking small pieces of the cotton and covered my entire face with cotton making me look like a brown poodle! Trisha was carefully watching all this, saw that what Kedar was doing was more fun as opposed to the lame stroking and started seeking some cotton from him for she could either be a nurse or yet another doctor trying to examine this poor patient. Soon there was a fight over cotton which they efficiently resolved between themselves with the string of conversations between the two monkeys going something like this :

Trisha : Kedar, thoda de na ( Thoda – some, de – give, na – just an expression)

Kedar: Pinches out a small piece and hands it over – I could actually count the strands of cotton that were in there

Trisha : Oh some more

Kedar: Oh Bach (Pronounced more like Bas – that’s all)

Trisha: Oh some more na

Kedar: Ok

Trisha: Oh some more ….and the saga continued for another good 5minutes until Trisha felt that there was a fair distribution of cotton.

Then they began again – take the cotton off, put it again, take it off, put it back on! Its amazing how kids find ways to amuse and entertain themselves while as adults we find it hard to find happiness even at the end of the street. I thought that growing up was equivalent to honing one’s skills….Alas… we as humans tend to leave the good things behind and easily adopt the darker shades of life!!

Every morning was a different treatment but all the days I was the needy patient. The more annoyed I was during my vacation for having lost my sleep the more I missed my cute monkeys in Chicago. The first day when I woke up I felt a sense of vacuum, a sense of no gibberish talking around, no doctors treating me, no poodle effect, no jumping on me, no Veena chitti, no Nothing…..I was alone…. back in the real world where I had to fend for myself and wait until my next vacation when I see the little angels of energy and happiness with a slight difference – they wouldn’t be talking gibberish anymore and would have moved closer to being an Adult!!

My monkeys ….my sweet little angels

Who live with the motto :

To make life seem rosier than meant to be

To teach lessons to one and all to lead a life where Ignorance is Bliss

To enjoy every moment like there is no tomorrow

To relish everything to its zenith

To never complain

To fight galore and yet get back to ties by saying Sorry

To live and let live

To express unconditional love without inhibitions

Just by being themselves!

Hello world!

A scientifically driven mind yet bound by superstition that maybe changing loyalty would infuse in me some ideas to write and yet again break the spell of being unable to type out life’s experiences and thoughts for others to read and comment! I welcome myself to WordPress with a  hope for light at the end of the mind blocked tunnel.

The Cake KILLER

One minute it was this gorgeous looking, beautifully carved Strawberry Mousse cake and the next it is a flattened, smashed, tarnished, sad looking mushed THING! Such is the efficiency of Veena the CAKE KILLER.

This was the day I re-joined lab after a scientific burst of information at a conference in San Diego at the Salk Institute ensued by an EXPLOSION of unlimited fun in San Francisco…in short the Gorgeous Mountainous California. I was barely getting over the fact that my teeny weeny vacation (actually any vacation seems less) had culminated and while just about when I was reorienting myself to the CST and the lab premises as opposed to the gorgeous ranges and the Red colored GOLDEN gate bridge my lab-mate informed me of the most enticing and delicate looking, meticulously prepared strawberry mousse cake (reiterations are essential in an effort to assert the beauty of the cake)prepared by the tech in my lab who had recently begun exploring the baking world! My very first instinct was to run amok, get a piece for myself and devour every crumb of it to the best of my capabilities. Instead I chose otherwise…..I decided to be a bit LADY LIKE and wait unto eternity a.k.a let my salivary glands prepare for the big event, suffer before I actually introduce them to something wonderful so as to make them appreciate it better than they normally would. Finally the moment arrived when I could wait no longer, resist no longer and decided to take the plunge. I went into the coffee room, walked to the cake box, and while talking to the person who made it, I tried opening the box but for some reason the box was unyielding making me more anxious than ever. Trying harder to make the box succumb to my pressure was a terrible idea for the box slipped. Trying hard to not let it fall on the ground was even worse for the box toppled even further, went upside down and SPLAT on my shoe. The beautiful Strawberry Mousse Cake NO MORE. There was a momentary 2 minute silence in remembrance of the mighty cake followed by a forlorn face and strings of apologies flying everywhere. The tech gave a shrieky shriek and then went into peels of laughter. Momentarily I thought that watching the cake undergo the drastic transition made her insane and that any moment she would pounce on me and eat me alive. Fortunately I was wrong and she was genuinely amused for there existed “NOONE…..NOONE who could’ve performed such a difficult task to such a perfection” (as stated by the post-doctoral fellow in my lab).

One dire deed sweeps thousand virtuous ones. Killing the Cake flounced every noble act I had amassed in the times of yore. Standing on square one I now wait when I have yet again accumulated a thousand noble acts but this time striving hard to preserve its integrity! Whether or not I would see this plan being victorious is for time to tell.

Please wait you are in Qatar??

Kripya Prateeksha Karein Aap Kataar mein hain….Please wait you are in Queue….Were the words that arouse the DEVIL in me while I was reading my cousin’s blog and I stumbled upon those last profound words by none other than the literature GOD – William Shakespeare. Here it is:

“How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank.
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.”

– William Shakespeare (Very Romantic and Deep indeed)
For some reason I was constantly smiling while reading this and something in me kept instigating me to translate it into Hindi just to see how Ridonkulous this could sound. Most, if not all the Hi-Tech Hollywood movies get dubbed in hindi because they can’t be re-filmed with the Bollywood actors (Thank God for the little mercies) for a valid and a sensible reason that re-filming the very same movie with the Sean Connery likes in Bollywood or the Pierce Brosnan likes in Indian film industry would be nothing less than plain simple ATROCIOUS!!!Having lived in New Delhi for 23years of my life, the very same Bollywood effect (sounds like the El-Nino phenomena right?) forced me so to say to translate this beautiful piece of literature to Hindi. For those who can understand Hindi read it and enjoy it and the Hindi Illiterates just Believe when I say that the translated version is Perfect!!

“Kitni meethi hai yeh chand ki roshni sothey huey is kinaare
Yahaan hum baithenge aur is sangeet ki dhwani ko
Raingne dein in kaanon mein; komal pavanrahittha, aur yeh raat
Banne dein is meethi taalmail ka sparsh”

-Veeliyam Shakespeare

This was the closest I could get to try and break the Writers/Thinkers/Lazy Ass goers/ Blah Blah block that I have been having for over 4 months now!! Alas…not too successful…Until the next time Adios Amigos. 🙂

TeleKinetic Pinches??

Heard of Telekinetic pinches?? Well I heard this term for the first time but I experienced one before terming my experience as one!! Its all in the dreams…you dream funny things, scary things, weird things, dreams within dreams but dreaming that something is happening for real is freaky!!!

The dream from last night was one of its own kind…The basis behind my dream was not only a recent conversation with a friend but also the sense of longing for a break….a getaway from the rigmaroles of day to day life for as long as I can remember now (Time is relative when you yearn for something!!). So….I have a night out at my friend’s place and the next day he rents a car from I-Go car sharing on MY name….hah…One, my friend doesn’t have a license and definitely doesn’t have my username or password for the car sharing site…but of course it’s a dream and dreams are like Bollywood movies where a single bullet can be torn apart into 6 to kill 7 targets!!! Oh well….moving ahead….So we start driving and while driving towards Milwaukee to pick up my friend’s bro , the road I visualize is the Nelson Mandela Road in New Delhi where I have lived 23 years of my life. The fact that I love Delhi a lot can account for seeing the road but, my friend who doesn’t have a license, books a car on my name with God Knows what username and password is driving to Milwaukee on a New Delhi road????? I sense something which can be spelled as W E I R D!!!! Anyways….we reach Milwaukee and my friend goes into his bro’s office and forces him to take a leave by telling a lie that there is a family emergency! We then head to Michigan….YAYYYYYYY!!! Something in me on the way to Michigan shouts out loud that it is a dream and it is not happening for real as a plan as sudden and drastic as this cannot materialize so easily!!! So I tell my friend’s bro to pinch me to make sure I am alive and in a real world and definitely in the car that is headed to a GETAWAY!! My friends start teasing me coz they feel I am being histrionic (like any typical male would call a typical Woman!) but I fight my way out and make my friend pinch me. Well…..GUESS WHAT???????? I feel that pinch in the dream (that’s the telekinetic pinch from my friend living in Milwaukee in my dream) and then feeling elated that I felt the pinch I realize that the trip to Michigan indeed is a reality and not a MERE dream. In that ecstatic moment, I raise my hand extend it forward to grab something in the car and BAM….my fingers hit the wall in front of me HARDDDD…..and this wakes me up to the SAD “REAL” reality that I was indeed dreaming!!! That just proved one thing : That my instincts are DEFINITELY not dead when I am sleeping and that even within a dream my brain can think of ways to convince me that I am in a real world, doing real things, with real people who apparently can pinch me and call me HISTRIONIC and not being just a mere fictional entity. Now the Question is….Do I actually get a REAL GETAWAY????

RE"Solutions"????

A Dozen New Year Resolutions to Break at the Advent of the New Year!!

1.Speak less so that the other person doesn’t zone out while I am talking

2.Speak less British words so as to receive less Bewildered looks from the Americans

3.Learn to say Oh my Gaad rather than Oh my GOD or just say OMG for I can save the energy lost in reiterating

4.Speak Slowly for I am not missing a flight

5.Work more to get reproducible negative results

6.Write my lab notebook everyday to keep a track of my progress

7.Read one paper a day on my research topic

8.Take less walks in Snow for a longer face time in the lab

9.Remember not to throw Snowballs on one’s face during a snowball fight for someone might get offended

10.Drink less to have a respectable reputation until I graduate

11.Learn to play and be a Pro at Trivia Pursuit so that atleast 1/10th of me feels like a Pseudo-American

12.Last but not the least…BE NICE to people

New Year Resolution to keep :

NEVER TO MAKE ANY RESOLUTIONS!!