Today is Election Day in AP, and the streets are awfully quiet. There was no more campaigning for the last 48 hours and it suddenly feels weird not having loudspeakers blasting day and night, not seeing party workers dressed in their party colours and roaming the streets and shouting slogans. The wine shops have all been closed since yesterday and that means the street below our balcony looks like any normal street. As I write this people are standing in long queues to vote for whomever they think is best to rule the country for the next five years, whomever they think will be the best player in this ridiculous game of power.
Speaking of games, have you heard of this online picture puzzle game Klueless? It is developed by IIM-Indore, I'm sure many of you might have heard of it because the first level, Klueless 1, was launched way back in 2005, a long long time ago in the online world. Like the slowpoke I am I discovered this game last night and I played it till my eyes closed on their own. It’s very interesting and addictive. Four levels have been launched in all, the links and the rules of the game are below. Enjoy the game, and if you have played it, please keep the answers to yourself. There are plenty of blogs and forums out there where Klueless is being discussed; you might want to hear what people said about it.
Rules of the game
Klueless 1
Klueless 2
Klueless 3
Klueless 4
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Summertime
• Cool nights
• Juicy mangoes
• Sudden showers
• Dripping ice cream cones
• Wearing fewer clothes
• Great hair, great skin
• Lime soda
• The smell of the sun on freshly washed bed sheets
• Long days
• Midnight trips to highway dhabas
• Coconut water
• Predawn moments
• Vacations
• Bare feet
• Swimming pools and water parks
• Lassi
• Watching terrible movies just to escape from the heat
• Sleeping on the terrace
• Movie marathons
• Ice cubes
• Power cuts
• White clothes
• Holiday flings
• Window shopping at air conditioned malls
• Watching the sunrise
• Going to sleep after sunrise
• Kulfi
• Dust
• Weekend getaways
• Holi
• Blossoming gulmohar trees
• Dreaded exam results
• IPL
• Watermelon
• Going home and enjoying the mountain breeze
• Going home and feeling cold because it’s raining cats and dogs
• Going home and meeting old friends you haven’t seen in years
• Going home and doing nothing for two weeks
• Going home and never wanting to leave again
• Going home and feeling suffocated and out of place
I'm not going home this summer.
P.S. I cannot stop laughing over this -
• Juicy mangoes
• Sudden showers
• Dripping ice cream cones
• Wearing fewer clothes
• Great hair, great skin
• Lime soda
• The smell of the sun on freshly washed bed sheets
• Long days
• Midnight trips to highway dhabas
• Coconut water
• Predawn moments
• Vacations
• Bare feet
• Swimming pools and water parks
• Lassi
• Watching terrible movies just to escape from the heat
• Sleeping on the terrace
• Movie marathons
• Ice cubes
• Power cuts
• White clothes
• Holiday flings
• Window shopping at air conditioned malls
• Watching the sunrise
• Going to sleep after sunrise
• Kulfi
• Dust
• Weekend getaways
• Holi
• Blossoming gulmohar trees
• Dreaded exam results
• IPL
• Watermelon
• Going home and enjoying the mountain breeze
• Going home and feeling cold because it’s raining cats and dogs
• Going home and meeting old friends you haven’t seen in years
• Going home and doing nothing for two weeks
• Going home and never wanting to leave again
• Going home and feeling suffocated and out of place
I'm not going home this summer.
P.S. I cannot stop laughing over this -
Sunday, April 5, 2009
War of the worlds
I'm a person who hates losing. Sometimes I’d avoid battles if it looked like I would lose, and then sometimes I would get into one just to see how it would turn out. As a rule I don’t like making enemies, I guess nobody does, but there are times when you just cannot avoid being on the other side of the fence. There are times when the other party is such that you cannot but hate it, cannot but wage a war against it, and can in no way bring yourself to coexist happily with it. The world just isn’t big enough for the two of you.
I have this particular enemy who just wouldn’t give up the fight. With this longstanding adversary I’ve fought endless battles, we’ve had hundreds of encounters, and I’ve set out on hundreds of missions to destroy this foe. But I’ve never succeeded. It just wouldn’t die. It is one of those undefeatable things which no matter how badly it was beaten or routed somehow always finds its way back to you, and since I'm not exactly known for my meekness and tolerance we would once again end up drawing swords. It is all around me, unavoidable, unlovable, unlikeable, it surrounds me completely, and I can feel its presence merely by breathing.
Summer is the time when it is most aggressive. During the scorching days and the hot nights I sometimes thought the whole world is conspiring against me, that everything is on its side. It taunts me and mocks me from every corner, and I in return go after it with a vengeance that can only be described as relentless. But although I have employed many fighting strategies and applied war tactics of Alexander and Napoleon and the like, I’ve always found myself on the losing side. But do I give up? Oh no not me. The world is a battlefield for the two of us, and I don’t see us shaking hands anytime soon. I will chase it, will wipe it off as much as I could, and it will also follow me everywhere I go and be with me as much as it could.
I don’t have hopes of winning. I know it’s a losing battle I'm fighting, and my enemy will ultimately defeat and kill me. It is as old as time, has the advantage of being older and more experienced, has travelled to the four corners of the earth and back, and fought in all the wars the world has ever seen. Against such an enemy do I stand a chance of winning? Not at all. Eventually the day will come when I will have to bow my head in defeat and go over to its side, becoming a soldier in its army and fighting all its wars. I know this because it was written in Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
I have this particular enemy who just wouldn’t give up the fight. With this longstanding adversary I’ve fought endless battles, we’ve had hundreds of encounters, and I’ve set out on hundreds of missions to destroy this foe. But I’ve never succeeded. It just wouldn’t die. It is one of those undefeatable things which no matter how badly it was beaten or routed somehow always finds its way back to you, and since I'm not exactly known for my meekness and tolerance we would once again end up drawing swords. It is all around me, unavoidable, unlovable, unlikeable, it surrounds me completely, and I can feel its presence merely by breathing.
Summer is the time when it is most aggressive. During the scorching days and the hot nights I sometimes thought the whole world is conspiring against me, that everything is on its side. It taunts me and mocks me from every corner, and I in return go after it with a vengeance that can only be described as relentless. But although I have employed many fighting strategies and applied war tactics of Alexander and Napoleon and the like, I’ve always found myself on the losing side. But do I give up? Oh no not me. The world is a battlefield for the two of us, and I don’t see us shaking hands anytime soon. I will chase it, will wipe it off as much as I could, and it will also follow me everywhere I go and be with me as much as it could.
I don’t have hopes of winning. I know it’s a losing battle I'm fighting, and my enemy will ultimately defeat and kill me. It is as old as time, has the advantage of being older and more experienced, has travelled to the four corners of the earth and back, and fought in all the wars the world has ever seen. Against such an enemy do I stand a chance of winning? Not at all. Eventually the day will come when I will have to bow my head in defeat and go over to its side, becoming a soldier in its army and fighting all its wars. I know this because it was written in Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Roses
Every Sunday morning fresh fruits and vegetables arrive from the villages and are then sold on the roadside in the area where we live. I'm just assuming here that they arrive from the villages because I’ve never seen them actually arriving, all I know is that when I go down in the mornings they’re already spread out by the vendors on the roadside, kind of like the Mizoram Saturday morning markets. You get fresh and dried fishes too. Each vendor has a regular spot, and the faces have become familiar, I’ve been going there for almost a year now. The guy who sells me potatoes always asks where I was if I missed a Sunday or two. The lime-soda guy always puts less salt for me. The dried fish vendor always asks me to buy some although I never did, not that I don’t like dried fish, I do, immensely, I just don’t buy them. The young man who sells fruits is always ready with a smile. You see, I know them quite well.
Last Sunday I went down a bit earlier than usual, I think it was around 9. What I usually do is, I’d go until the end and start my shopping from there until I eventually reach our doorstep. So off I went, and hadn’t bought much when I saw these roses, beautiful roses in different shades of red, pink, orange, and some yellows and some whites, being sold by the man who usually deals in fruits. There was quite a crowd of housewives around him, and his assistant was shouting at the top of his voice “Five roses for ten rupees.” Ten rupees is quite a popular scale in this market. I thought, “Two rupees per rose, now that is cheap!”and fought my way through the fat women and soon found myself at the front row. Five minutes later I had with me a bunch of yellow and white roses, and I continued with my shopping.
When I reached home I discovered we didn’t have any flower vases so I cut an empty mineral water bottle in half and arranged the roses as best as I could. Next came the problem of where to keep my arrangement. All the tables were covered with bags and newspapers and books and chargers and earphones and drawing sheets and magazines and crayons and coloured pencils and T-squares and all sorts of scales. So I put the “vase” on top of the medicine box on top of the fridge. It gave the house a happy summery feel to it, and I gave myself a pat on the back for having bought the roses.
A few hours later, I found that most of the heads were bent down, as if they’ve had their last meal and were now waiting for the executioner’s axe to fall. It was then that I realized that the roses were way too close to the ceiling fan, making them bow their heads in submission. I straightened them, and looked for another place to keep the vase. The only horizontal surface that was free from clutter was the computer table, so I put my arrangement there.
Sunday went by in a flash, and on Monday morning I thought I’d change the water to keep my roses fresh. But to my horror I found they were almost dried up, and the water had gone down almost to the bottom of the bottle. I took them all out, tied them up with an old shoelace and hung them upside down on the kitchen wall. After a few days when they are completely dried I will take them down and paint them and I will have beautiful dried flowers, but will not have a place to keep them.
Last Sunday I went down a bit earlier than usual, I think it was around 9. What I usually do is, I’d go until the end and start my shopping from there until I eventually reach our doorstep. So off I went, and hadn’t bought much when I saw these roses, beautiful roses in different shades of red, pink, orange, and some yellows and some whites, being sold by the man who usually deals in fruits. There was quite a crowd of housewives around him, and his assistant was shouting at the top of his voice “Five roses for ten rupees.” Ten rupees is quite a popular scale in this market. I thought, “Two rupees per rose, now that is cheap!”and fought my way through the fat women and soon found myself at the front row. Five minutes later I had with me a bunch of yellow and white roses, and I continued with my shopping.
When I reached home I discovered we didn’t have any flower vases so I cut an empty mineral water bottle in half and arranged the roses as best as I could. Next came the problem of where to keep my arrangement. All the tables were covered with bags and newspapers and books and chargers and earphones and drawing sheets and magazines and crayons and coloured pencils and T-squares and all sorts of scales. So I put the “vase” on top of the medicine box on top of the fridge. It gave the house a happy summery feel to it, and I gave myself a pat on the back for having bought the roses.
A few hours later, I found that most of the heads were bent down, as if they’ve had their last meal and were now waiting for the executioner’s axe to fall. It was then that I realized that the roses were way too close to the ceiling fan, making them bow their heads in submission. I straightened them, and looked for another place to keep the vase. The only horizontal surface that was free from clutter was the computer table, so I put my arrangement there.
Sunday went by in a flash, and on Monday morning I thought I’d change the water to keep my roses fresh. But to my horror I found they were almost dried up, and the water had gone down almost to the bottom of the bottle. I took them all out, tied them up with an old shoelace and hung them upside down on the kitchen wall. After a few days when they are completely dried I will take them down and paint them and I will have beautiful dried flowers, but will not have a place to keep them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)