I’ve moved!

Hello everyone,

Thanks for visiting. However I have moved my blog from here to www.lifezamazing.com

It is also supported by wordpress but it is hosted separately.  It gives more freedom and hence the shift.

Don’t forget to visit.

Love

Minal

How I debate myself everyday before waking up!

6:45 am

Trrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnn goes the alarm or
if it is in the mobile it goes tiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnngggg tiiiiiiinnnnnnnnggggggg tinnnngggggg!

And I am shaken from the midst of deep slumber. Somehow I am the sleepiest when alarm is about to go off. We, myself and my alarm have this strange chemistry- we are simply not fond of each other.

But once it voices its ominous sound, I kick and move and make strange noises and cover myself more with the bed sheet and simply wish that it had not rung this one day. But it already has. So I got to pay attention to it. And then starts the world’s classiest debate between myself and my alter (the well-wisher who tries to wake me up.)

My alter says: Wake up! this is not the first time you have to wake up.

Me says: I knoowwww!! And that’s what I don’t like. WHYYYYY do I have to wake up everyday??!!

My alter says: You lazy bum, come on move your ass! Getting lazier by the day :@ Come on STAND UP NOWWW

Me says: But hey five minutes won’t hurt. Just and justtttt give me five more minutes to sleep. Promise. God promise I will wake up at the 6th minute!

My alter says: Noo hold on, hold onnnnn.!! (The bum is already asleep. Lets wait for five minutes. 1…2…3…4…5…)
Come on five minutes over. Get up

Me says: Seriously? how sad! okkkk i will wake up… aaawwwwwwwwww (the longest yawn that I can manage!!.) But hey it is only 6:55. I have to go for a jog at 7:30… there is an awful lot of time to it. Why r u troubling me!

My alter says: Okk so then keep sleeping. Then don’t dream about reducing weight and looking great. You log.. you sleep here and warm the bed and collect some more fat around your hips! Thats all that you can do.

Me says: nooooooooo i want to look good… Okkk okkkkk don’t get pissed I will wake up. See I am already sitting! What more do you want?

My alter says: Thank you. Now stand up… no .. noo….noooooooooo you are not lying down again. No nothing doing. Wake up now or me is also sleeping off!

And so goes on the argument. At times I listen to my angel alter and at times I make sure it listens to me. But all in all it has always been a gruesome debate that has occupies my mind for quite some time in the mornings! Ahem!

How common cold rejuvenates my marriage!

I am a relatively very healthy girl (at 25 I do qualify for a girl, okk!). I can jog upto 2 kms and eat in good amounts and shift furniture in the house and change the wheels of the car, etc. etc. In short most things that typical ‘girlish girls’ can’t do, I can. And I am kinda happy with my macho-girl image. The reason is that I don’t like to ask for help for every small thing (it is my idea of feminism and all that but I will avoid discussing it here.. will do it in some other post some other time).

Okk, but I too fall ill and I fall ill only in one fashion- allergic cold. I am hyper sensitive to dust and all things unclean (and in India it is not hard to come across such things). And if by mistake my hands reach near my nose after I have touched a surface that is not wiped clean then God help me! Because for the next three days all you will find me doing is S..N..E..E..Z..I..N..G my lungs (heart, stomach, liver, kidneys…) out all through the day in a huge napkin. At times I am even prompted to use a towel but then I control my whims.

So all in all I am in deplorable state physically and everyone around me is annoyed with my condition. But I am not because now I am accustomed to it. I know exactly how many days does it take and when it will subside and all of that.

But I maintain that poise ONLY till my husband, Abhi, is not around me. As soon as I see him somehow a bout of self-pity overtakes me and my mind starts reasoning “Whhhy me, God??:( ” (i never ask that to God when I am having chocolate ice creams) and my behavior forces Abhi to consider that if he doesn’t attend me right away I might just expire. I constantly debate myself saying that I can manage it and I was fine just a while ago and no need to act so childish, blah, blah, blah. But even when I am debating I am actually acting like an attention-hungry-five-year-old.

And then comes the best part about falling ill. He would see my pitiable face and hug me and tell me that its ok and God has no ill-feelings for me and its not the first time that I have fallen ill, and all the other things that I KNEW only until he arrived. And then he would put me to bed and apply Vicks (i know its a brand and that its not the worldwide name for mentholated creams but we Indians are so accustomed to Vicks and Colgate that all OTC medicines related to cold are Vicks and all tooth-pastes are Colgates! ). He would rub it on my chest and neck and on the forehead and even put some INSIDE my nose (the yuckiest part as you would imagine but the most effective nonetheless) and treat me like a child.

And I ENJOIIIIIIIIIIII it to the core. I make sure that I am pampered and I enjoy my overindulgence in Vicks! It is one of the loveliest moments of my marriage and I would not trade it for anything. I have tried a lot of tricks and tactics to overcome the allergic cold for good but honestly have never felt sorry when neither of them have yielded results. I enjoy my small reason for being spoilt even if it costs me three whole days and a hell looooooottttttt of misery!! Thank you Abhi for making me enjoy my illness.

India won!! A billion people won!! 1/6th of the world won!!

I know I am too late to write about it but I was too busy all day but am still too much into its trance to write about anything else.

If there is anyone of you out there who cannot make a head or tail out of the title then let me give you a brief history of it. India plays only one game(it plays others but they are not worth mentioning) and that is Cricket. It is India’s religion and cricketers are Gods. Pakistan is its arch-rival and a match between India and Pakistan is no less than a battle. Yesterday India won the Cricket’s twenty20 World Cup against Pakistan in a match that brought the entire subcontinent to a standstill for the entire duration.

Details of the match can be found all around the blog and news world and I am sure there is not one aspect of the game that has not been discussed. And I went surfing all over the web and came across this blog iccworldcup07 that had covered the entire twenty20 world cup in ABSOLUTE detail. My hard luck that I found it after the world cup was over.

But what I want to talk of is the spirit of revelry and joy that swept around the country with the final catch by Sreesanth. As soon as the match was over and the Pakistani captain gave his impossible remarks on “all Muslims around the world” (it has been discussed in good detail at Soul witness ) the entire India was out on the streets celebrating and rejoicing. There we youngsters on the streets S..C..R..E..A..M..I..N..G INDIA INDIA!! And my city, Ahmadabad, has a road called C.G. Road that is the unannounced address for all occasions of joy. People somehow always land up at CG without any invitation. Its as if the entire city has been ordered to meet there. And once the crowd gathers up you find a motley of people befriending strangers at unbelievable speed. It seemed as if everyone knew everyone and all of them were brothers in the sense that our Pledge wants us to.

Coming back to the CG road we had one fellow with the Indian flag dancing ON the car waving at thousands around him. Another one was with a trophy (which is supposed to be a world cup ;)) in his hands on the bonnet of the car and the entire crowd had a smile sooo content that it seemed as if all of them had deliberately forgotten India’s shameful loss at the world cup in early 2007. Bu then that is how it has to be. Life is to forget the scars and celebrate the victories.

I was elated to see the amount of joy a single victory brought us. India is a nation starved of victories and hence when we win, WE WIN!! Nothing about our victory is small or dispensable. It is our pride and we want to enjoy it. So the cynics (if there are any, yet) PLEASE leave us alone. Let us bathe in the glory!!

Why watch horror movies?

Are you a horror movie buff? Fascinated by those unearthly characters and those shrill, chilling voices? Do you enjoy the blood and darkness that is all-pervasive in those movies? Is your idea of a thriller movie a spine-chilling tale of death and violence?

If you do then tell me something, are you scared of the dark? Do you think twice before entering a new place after evenings? Does the fear of ghosts and wild creatures grip you as soon as you are all alone by yourself? Does the trrrr sound of doors or rustle of leaves remind you of a horrific scene?

If you have answered in affirmative to the first set of questions the chances are very high that you would answer in YES in the other set too. Come on let’s face it, the reason why we fear ghosts or spirits or aatmas or etc. etc. is because we know something of this sort exists and that it does BAD things to human beings. But imagine if you never knew that any such thing existed?? Life would be quite a boon, isn’t it?

I have come across so many people who have a captivating fear of all things non-existent. And their fears are not only self-sustaining but self-growing. Their fear feeds on itself. It gives those individuals some uncanny sort of kick to fear more! They seem to like to get petrified. It’s as if the fear seeks more reasons to fear.

But what I fail to gather is WHY on earth do they watch such stuff when they know that it is going to scare the shit out of them and that they would not be able to take one step outside on their own? Isn’t it quite silly?

On closer observation I noticed that those who watched such stuff they mostly did it when people known to them would be around. With their friends or family or in familiar comfortable environments. And at times they even did it to prove their strength and brawn. They try and control their mind and do not show fear while watching it. But that happens only as long as they are in familiar environments or with known people. As soon as they are alone the first thing that flashes in their minds is the bloodiest scene of the movie. They may brush it aside for an instance but it does stay put only to pop up later when it is exactly not required. And then it scares the wits out of them. I know a family that does not miss a single episode of the horror serial that comes on the TV. They all get together and watch it. But later in the night if someone wakes up to fetch water or if the door creeks a little the entire family gets cold feet. Now, isn’t that silly and stupid to say the least? Why watch such stuff when you know that it does nothing but handicap you further.

Now for an instance imagine if we were NEVER exposed to such movies or programs. Would we still be scared of such things? Would we not enjoy the breeze and the bristling sound of leaves in late autumn evenings? Wouldn’t the tweaking sound of door remind us to oil the hinges rather than flash some gruesome memories? Wouldn’t darkness be simply that and not a canvas of death and bloodshed?

Much of what we are today is the sum total of our experiences (known and unknown). If only we could wipe clean our memories of those ghastly tales that we have watched so far then darkness, ghosts, spirits, etc. would have no bearing on us.

Can’t believe me? Just ask yourself this question- Were you scared after watching Casper (or Ratatouille- the latest animated adventure of a rat with a French chef as the ghost)??

No, right? Why, you should have been scared! After all the two of them too had ghosts! But no, you would not be because those ghosts were presented in a manner to entertain you and not scare you. So do you get my point? You shall be the slave of unwanted fears only as long as you let your psyche experience those fears. So next time simply say a NO to horror. And I know what to show to my kid when he is growing- the friendly ghosts of Casper and Ratatouille! 🙂 So ghosts will be his buddies and darkness shall not be his limitation!

How technology can help families come closer

Talk of technology to anyone who is not into the world of technology and the usual reactions are

‘It is deriding families of the “family time” that they had earlier’

‘It is a bane to the social system. It is an invasion on our family’s privacy’

‘Our children just don’t speak to us. They avoid family outings and gatherings. All they want is their PS2s or Nintendos or mobiles’

‘The gadgetized world is going to tear apart the tradition of families’

blah blah blah!!

The list is never ending. However I do not agree to it. I truly do not feel that technology is averse to the closeness within a family or any relationship. But before I explain why I feel so let me tell you I am a purely NON-TECHNOLOGY person. I am a people’s person. I am a books’ person. I need to see, feel, touch things or people to understand them. But I have learnt over a period of time that technology can be used to my advantage and to achieve what I enjoy. Technology is not my enemy anymore (it was earlier).

And yeah when I say technology here I am not talking of NASA’s space projects or a breakthrough in medical science. I am talking of technology that we see around. That affects us directly. Technology that we have to deal with wishfully or forcefully .

Alright now, how is it that I have managed to enslave technology and not the other way round? Simple because I have learnt to update myself on technology and when to switch it on and off.

The first thing that I learnt was that I WILL have to educate myself on technology or become a moth-eaten, timed-out obsolete individual with levels of self-confidence dropping at an alarming rate.

I chose to survive. I decided to look stupid rather than become extinct. I mean I started questioning simplest of simple things. Things like what is bluetooth ( I don’t believe I didn’t know that!), what is the difference between yahoo and yahoomail, how do I text a message, etc. etc. In short I was laughed at many a times.

With this gumption I took to the world of technology and today I feel that it can (and at times even does) help families come together and not grow apart. So sticking to the topic of how families can use technology for strengthening family ties I would say

Learn the use of it. Especially elders. Evolve or become extinct. Don’t expect your children to have meaningful conversations with you when you cannot even spot the difference between a PS2 and a Nintendo or a CD and a DVD.

Now assuming that you have learnt the basic ropes of computers, internet, mobiles and video games how do you make the most of them?

• Join the most frequently used social networking sites in your group. It could be any like facebook, myspace, orkut, bebo, hi5, etc. Don’t fall for the cynics words that it is only for the teenagers and college-going kids.
• Text your friends or family not just on certain occasions but simply to share a nice thought or just to say good morning!
• Ask the younger lot about whicht are the latest favorites in terms of video games or PC games.
• Play those games. You may be ultimately pathetic in the first go but doesn’t matter. You would at least not feel like an idiot when next time they use the game’s jargon.
• Surf the net frequently. The language barrier on internet is slowly coming down and you can find almost everything in your own language.
• Moreover the net has an awesome amount of information on everything and especially technology. Learn about something that your children or spouse too would not know about and act like tech-guru when you disclose your knowledge.
• Send virtual gifts. After all they cost you nothing!
• Use applications like Google doc, spreadsheets and calenders to plan family vacations or outings. And believe me there are families who do it. I just came across one such person whose blog is titled Postmodern Puritan.
• Define times when to use the gadgets and when to switch them off. Have ground rules laid like ‘Mobiles to switched off in bed’ or ‘No video games after 10’
• But yeah don’t play the spoil sport always. I mean don’t curse others when they are having a good time with it. If you cannot comprehend it or update yourself on it, you have no right to snatch away other’s pleasure of being in sync with the world.
• Don’t fall for lame logics like ‘the world survived before the advent of the computer’, ‘technology lacks human touch’. Because if you do fall for it, keep in mind you are choosing extinction over evolution.
• And hey, after all technology IS human made. Could you imagine a generation ago about sharing your birthday party’s photos instantly with everyone you know or learning about your distant cousin’s illness in moments?

So please don’t curse technology if you can’t make head or tail out of it. It is you who need to update yourself.

And if you still don’t believe me, you should meet my mother. She could hardly handle the mouse but that was until she found that her long lost game of Tetris was now available on my teenage brother’s laptop. Since that day my mother is hooked to it and it has now become more of her laptop than his. And of course on the way she has learnt the difference between ‘C’- the programming language and ‘C:’!!!

And not to mention, it has brought the two of them closer as they now have something to discuss even if it is about teasing my mother on her naivety in computers.

So, you see technology DOES help families come together. Only that you should learn how to use it.

[I had just completed the post when I came across this website on technorati that lists a number of vendors who print a few copies of photos for free! Now can you beat that? Not just share pics for free but even print them for free?! And who was talking of family being pulled apart by technology?]

Take a break! Let monotony not rule you!

So, have you experienced the same boorrrrriiiing life with same routine and a sequence of events that seem to occupy you forever? Well if so then you need to break out of it. We as human being have a tendency to seek change, to seek newness, to improvise (and at times make things worse while improvising). But there are times when we just can’t do it. No matter what you try your schedules are too packed to allow something so trivial as change or surprise in it. So then you give in to it and wait and wait and wait for a time when you can take that long vacation or a weekend off. But how often can you do that? If you are as lucky as my friend Anjali then you can probably six times a year (excluding weekend breaks) but otherwise you would have to manage with 1 or at most 2 vacations. But what about the other 340 odd days of the year that you slog and pity yourself. Nothing they are simply SAD. But that was only until I felt that sadness. When I did I started thinking of ways to entertain myself. Ways that would bring me a wasp of fresh air in a not-so-fresh-aired city. And moreover the ways had to be such that they should fit in to my daily routine. After all I am not as lucky as Anjali!

So, here are some ways that would help us break the vicious circle of monotony within our day. I have tried a few of them and am on the way to try the rest.

• Bunk work on Monday. No seeming reason just a treat for yourself
• Keep up till late in the night to watch the favorite movie on the channel and then challenge yourself to reach the work in time next day. And just an off the record tip- forget the bath to make it in time. You see one more way of breaking monotony!
• Put on the oldest clothes in your closet and smile when people give that weird look.
• Smile at strangers. When they smile back give them a straight look and then laugh over their confusion.
• If you order food or coffee regularly over some cafe try different varieties. They may be whacky but just try it. Or for that matter try a different eatery altogether!
• Take the stairs instead of the lift. If you can’t make it all the way to your apartment take a lift from middle.
• Jump steps. I mean climb two stairs at a time.
• Surprise your spouse. Land up at his/her office for no reason. (But don’t be disheartened if he/she is busy with something. Remember it was your idea to do it.)
• Take a different road to your work or back home. enjoy the breeze and sights on the way.
• Play the radio/CD LOUD in your car with windows rolled down. And yeah shake to the loud music. When others stare at you in disgust for playing music sooo loud, give them a lovely smile that would make them feel jealous of the fun you are having.
• Write a note to your loved one. It could be your spouse/child/parent or anyone. Leave it discreetly at a place where they would not be expecting it. Like the shower or on their handbag. Use your imagination.
• The note doesn’t always have to romantic or mush-mushy. It can be something as trivial as- “Just wanted to draw your attention!” or “S M I L E”
• Cook. If you regularly do- have your husband or children do it. Don’t worry about spoiling. It happens.
• Paint. Doesn’t matter if you are bad at it. Just give it a try. And then laugh at yourself if it is indeed crazy.
• Pamper yourself. Visit your beautician or relish a cake.
• Dress up beautifully for a simple dinner at home. Don’t get into reasons and ‘why’ and ‘what for’ about it. Do it just like that.
• While walking, dance or sway a little. Take a few long steps and then take very tiny steps.
• Kick the pebbles, cans whatever is lying on the streets right to your home. When you reach home with your kick-buddy, kick it hard and shout GOAL!!
• Just sing ALOUD. Sing to your favorite tunes.

Ohh there are million more ways to do it. I just can’t stop but for now these should be sufficient. I am sure you too would be having a lot of such ideas. If you do please post me a few. Would be glad to include them in the list. Let’s make it a spirited post!

Other ways to kill monotony as submitted by the readers.

Deepti Jani says- “By shopping! As it removes sadness, takes out boredom of our lives and also reduces the pain of stuffed wallet!”