Word challenge : Day#8/30

Here, Paulo Coelho asks readers to write on a list of words : miracle, torture, prayer, suffering, advice, xenophobia (fear of the unknown) and marriage
Decided to make that as my Day8 post :

Miracle :
Somethings can never be explained. Not by logic. Not by science. Nor by any rule in any book ever written.
This is one of them. And you don't really need anything to experience it...miracles are what all of us experience every single day, in the smallest things. I always feel magical when I'm around butterflies :) And luckily for me, I have always managed to find some where ever I live :)
Sigh! Miracles :)

Torture :
The word itself is extremely 'thorny', with strong negative connotations. Brings to me memories of the hell recreated by TV and films. The hot coals, burning oil, huge thorns, etc etc. But leave all external forces apart...one can't control them anyhow...so look at yourself...do you inflict torture upon others by being brash, a sudden insult belted out, arguments carried on for the sake of arguing, slight misunderstandings that weeded out strong friendships...the list is quite long if you care to inspect. But most of all, make the list of the things you torture youself about...the goodbyes said hastily, the acquaintances never made, the things never said, the second chances never asked for and never given too...these inflict far more torture than mere notions of some imaginary hell...

Prayer :
Pray with your soul. Not for money, not for fame, nor for smaller everyday things...I feel it's too much to bother Him with all our daily issues ;-)
Pray for peace. Yours. And the world's. Pray so you can hear clearly what your mind says. Be still, Serve people, Teach, Work, Learn, Love, Play, Cook,
Feed, Travel, Share, Talk. Most importantly, Live. You can practice prayer in many forms :)

Suffering :
Most times it is a self created thing, might be circumstantial too. But one thing is certain, it makes heroes out of ordinary people. Its a hot furnace with burning coals that shapes and strengthens the soul of the sufferer. Sometime, sooner rather than later, we get the strength to break the shackles of suffering and emerge victorious.

Advice :
Haha! :P Something I love to give my brother for free, especially when he obviously is least interested ;-)
Well, listen to advice, everyone's. But be sure you analyze it before you believe/act on it. There's one nice quote I had read which sums things up quite aptly, "Never take advice from someone who doesn't have to live with its consequences" :)
Well, and it never harms in being miserly while belting it out too. Especially more so, when you know the person listening believes and trusts you...:)

Xenophobia:
Something everyone deals with their entire life. I guess free will is its positive side...because afterall free will gives us endless possibilities, and endless possibilities lead to innumberable paths...multiple crossroads...not knowing, i.e choosing one path. And staying true to it. Also, retreating if you think you've come the wrong way. Trusting the signs, trusting yourself and believing that you will ultimately reach the destination. Not forgetting the unknown journey will bring you more than the destination ever could.

Marriage :
I wanted to write 'a sacred bond', but that would make it too 'heavenly', too bookish, very filmy. Marriages may very well be made in heaven, but it's people on earth who give it meaning. Two mortal beings. Not 'perfect' by themselves. May be not 'perfect' together as well. Actually, might not be 'perfect' for each other too! Two people who know that the road will never be smooth. Potholes and speed breakers and accidents are all a part of the ride. But who still want to travel together, believe that they will sort out problems together, enjoy the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and rains and storms too. Who know they wouldn't be judged and will be loved even when they are at their worst behaviours. And grow with each passing day. Share a dream. Strive for it. And in the process, inch towards being 'perfect' together...

Bas! Am done
Stopping now :)

Something's just not right : Day#7/30

A lump in the throat
A tug at the heart
A tear just waiting to roll off
And you know that something's just not right...

However far it might actually seem
the pain is really very near
Almost friendly
like a neighbour
Always peeking in
Always looking into your life
Probing, Questioning, Staring.
May be because it knows
something's just not right...

A photograph long forgotten
Or a poem long lost
A word oft spoken
A person passing by
A favourite song
Small things really; but are enough
to bleed you afresh
And then you know something's just not right...

However hard you try
However fast you run
There are times when you can't stop
Sadness from creeping over
There are times when you can't deny
Something's just not right...


PS: Well, please don't be alarmed pplz, everything's alright really :)
Just a melancholy working Saturday does this sometimes ;)
The 'something' is probably the code I'm working on...and this is what I do when it doesn't work even after eating away into my weekends. :(

--Written on 6th April 2014 #original

#PledgeToVote : Day#6/30

This video left me speechless! Will definitely feel guilty if I give some lame reason to not go cast my vote after this! :-)

The song that makes you sing : Day#5/30

I came across this today on fb :

For me, the song is "Chammak Challo" (Ra.One wala!)
Our aerobics class instructor used to play it in the 6AM session (!) (yes, we used to go that early even in chilly Jan mornings to listen to bollywood songs play :P) almost in a loop, while me and C laughed and joked and sang along - everything except follow the dance steps ;-)

Now everytime I hear the song, I can't help remembering the aerobics class TP and singing out loud :-D
Sigh! Miss those Bangalore days...

"My kinda" meditation : Day#4/30

Well, I am actually skipping days...
Whatever! There's just too much going on in my mind lately and it's not really easy to come up with posts every day! :-P

One of my (bad?) habits is opening too many browser tabs...wayy too many :P
I have this tendency to think "I'm going to need this page..let me keep it till I finish XYZ task" and since the XYZ task obviously runs in parallel with ABC, DEF, PQR and TUV tasks (yeah, yeah I am going to stick to these variable names, even if it feels like reading 10th std Geometry textbooks again ;-)) Anyways, the point is all these tasks and their associated pages always stay on my browser tabs.

Here are the two current snapshots (and I really haven't added/deleted any for the sake of the post ;-) )
The images are pretty small, but my blog template only supports this much width.
And Lazy moi isn't going to bother changing that, so I'll give you the counts instead :P

My 'web' browser (23 tabs) :

And my 'code' browser (well, pretty coincidence, 23 tabs again, saves you the need to take an average :P) :

Well, friends complain because whenever we are googling for things together, or looking at some code, they get confused overwhelmed looking at my browser and always always give me a strange look that says it all :P

One of my friends had sent me this pic after looking at my browser ;-)

Can't say I can deny my mind works like that! Precisely the reason I can use it to my
advantage as well!
How, you ask? Well, I have my very own way of 'meditation', or call it 'Chromitation', since I use Chrome :-P
The thing is, whenever I'm done with my XYZ task, I go through all the related tabs and close them one by one...and seriously, (plz dont laugh :-|) I feel like a huge load is off my mind.

Well, you would definately argue that I shouldn't have kept them in the first place, so I would never have felt that load anyways...but that's not how I work and so I need 'my kinda meditation' to keep things going!

I don't really want anyone to try it, but if someone already has this same habit, they should definately try 'Chromitation'.
May be you already do, maybe everyone already does this. Or may be most people are saner and follow the lifehacker tip of max 9 tabs...
Either ways, to each his own, and I got my Day#4 blogpost. ;-)

Someday : Day#3/30

#iSketch #Life #Lessons

A place in the sun : Day#2/30

Well, I bunked the Day#2 post. :-P
So posting #2 and #3 together.

Take me to that place
A place in the sun
Where crossroads are commonplace
and 'not-knowing' is so much fun

A place in the sun
From where you see the stars shine bright
and things are simple
come day or night

A place in the sun
Where 'today' is the favourite day
and you cherish and count your blessings
and not fret seeing other's play

A place in the sun
Where you stop and smell the roses
not bothering about pimpled freckled noses
A place in the sun
Where there's always a way
Even if you go astray

Take me to that place
A place in the sun
that makes you realize
Things might not be wrong
even if they don't seem right

~Written on 2nd April 2014 #original

PS: I really really need my place in the sun! NOW! Yeah, a bit boggled and battered by life and things in general. Just a phase. A very very bad time (or is it a good one assuming I'm in a mood to vent and rant) to have started the blog marathon! I hope I don't end up cribbing all over the blog :-P