....tick....tick....tick....

The clock doesn't stop. It ticks on. Another eventful year passes by. 2009, for me, started on the wrong note, but ended on an excellent one. I thank the following entities for making my 2009 rock!
(I'll be generic here :) )
1. God. The real meaning of multitasking - God knows! Pun intended. :)
2. My family. For all the love and care.
3. My friends. For being there. Love them, hate them, can't live without them.
4. My colleagues. For all the support and learning opportunities.
5. My vehicle. For taking me places.
6. My mobile phone. For helping me create contacts.
7. My wallet. For...well. Self explanatory. :)
8. My computer. For making MY world a global world.
9. My comb. For making me look right.
10. My jacket. For keeping the coldness away.

The list goes on. I stopped at 10 for 2010. :) Sorry to other important or mundane things I left out of the list.

Have an excellent year people. Love your pets. Be good. And slap yourself if you use excess plastic.
Cheers!

le or la?

French gender is a constant headache for many students of French. Why is manteau masculine and montre feminine, when both men and women wear both of them? Le is for masculine nouns and la is for feminine nouns.
Why is it la beard? La beard is usually on le boys. Usually. It doesn't make sense that the beard gets a female gender.
Why is it le baby? If someone is having a baby, how do we know its already le and not la? Unless of course, you get an ultrasound and get to know beforehand.
Why is it le vegetables? Why are vegetables masculine? A bitter gourd definitely doesn't look male to me. Heck, none of the vegetables look masculine to me. They're just vegetables.

Here's a question: What would "the blog" be? Google Translator says its le blog. Well. I would like to call my blog la blog. Thank you very much. Call me feminist. Whatever.

Imagine if english had genders for non-living things as well...
I went to the market today. He was very crowded. I had to buy some vegetables. I bought some carrots, to try a new dish with her in it. He came out very well. After dinner, we sat and watched TV. She had become very old. We needed to get her exchanged in the market. But since he was crowded, we decided we'll keep her anyway. Tomorrow is a brand new day. I hope he will be good. He who? He, the day!

PS. I found the Gender Genie. Check it out. Its fun.

Story telling.

For our English writing competitions, we used to have a story telling part, where the stories used to be given in bits, and we had to form the full sentences. Following that pattern, here's my post...

On bike-pillion rider-message on cell phone-check-phone falls-on road-yell-bike stop-turn around-stranger picks up phone-boards bus-vanishes-I panic-lots of contacts on cell-no back up-call up my number-stranger picks-hello-I WANT MY PHONE BACK-Come to the next bus stop-Ok-hurry-got phone-Phew!

Have to board a bus-to go 20 km destination-bus not frequent-walking to bus stop-bus comes-and leaves-I panic-what to do-brilliant plan strikes-caught an autorickshaw-chased the bus-tell auto driver-Please overtake the bus-driver speeds-rash driving-again I panic-driver succeeds in overtaking bus-I jump from the autorickshaw-run and catch the bus-Phew!

At home-relaxed-1 year old cousin comes home-cute-playing with him-house maid comes-sweeps the floor-starts swobbing the floor-I pick up kid cousin-start running around house-puddle of water-did not see-slipped-with 1 year old cousin-cousin falls-starts crying-yells if shoulder is touched-I panic-rush to pediatric-after examination-shoulder fracture-minor-arm in sling-15 days-slowly cured-Phew!

It is a war.

The battle has now reached India. Slowly but steadily it creeps into each state so silently, that you don't even realize its presence around you. Once it is positioned to act, it does so with no mercy. Swine flu has its plan of action well set.

It is a battle between the humans and the virus. Humans develop better technologies, better medical equipments, better vaccines. The virus is no less. It can mutate and develop better attack techniques. A usual viral fever nowadays is accompanied by severe joints pain. Humans aren't sure if its viral fever or Chikungunya or the swine flu. See the fear the virus brings with it? In Darwin's words, it is survival of the fittest. We cannot really blame the virus, can we? Either we live, or they do. I just hope its the virus which follows the dinosaurs' foot steps.

And the forces of nature refuse to help. Why should they? The indifference humans have shown is clearly visible in the pages of history. Who asked you to throw your waste into the rivers? Who asked you to pollute the air? Who asked you cut down the trees? Who asked you to live like you don't care? The earth is tired of the abuse humans have inflicted upon it. It will not take sides. Earth will live on. The sun will rise. The rivers will flow. The rains will pour. Irrespective of whether humans exist or not.

Humans should learn to co-exist. Not dominate. Humans are not the superior species. They're just one among the billion species on earth. It is not a favour that humans plant a tree or help an animal or clean a river. It is what they are supposed to do for their own survival. It is their duty and responsibility which they owe to the future generation.

Wake up mortals. There is still time. Nature forgives. Stop abusing it. Respect what you have.

An E-mail I got. Something to think about.

It is August in a small town on the south coast of France. Holiday season is in full swing, but it is raining so there is not too much business happening. Everyone is heavily in debt.

Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks for a room and puts a Euro 100 note on the reception counter, takes a key and goes to inspect the room located up the stairs on the third floor.

The hotel owner takes the bank note in a hurry and rushes to his meat supplier to whom he owes E100.

The butcher takes the money and races to his supplier to pay his debt.

The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay E100 for pigs he purchased some time ago.

The farmer triumphantly gives the E100 note to a local prostitute who gave him her services on credit.

The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owed the hotel E100 for her hourly room use to entertain clients.

At that moment, the rich Russian comes down to the reception and informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is not satisfactory and takes his E100 back and departs.

No one earned anything… but the debt of everyone has been cleared. The small town people are happy and look forward to their future.

Could this be the solution to the global financial crisis or is there a catch somewhere?

I was wondering..

* Bournvita 5 starz sucks. It should've been Bournvita 1 star {Yes, I still drink milk. It has calcium.}

* Why does a :-* smiley always have a red lipstick on?

* What's the difference if you cut a Pisces's daily horoscope and paste it as aquarian's? Will it make a difference in their lives?

* New York is better than Delhi 6. The movie.

* A pizza costs 554 Rs. ONLY. If only recession affected pizza prices..

* Next time you go to the bank and somebody asks you for a pen, give them santoor soap. {See the Ad.}

* I always have trouble with Bullets and Numberings while making a presentation slide.

* As soon as the signal turns green, there's no need to honk. Really. We know what green means. And we have no intention of spending time at the signal. A little patience would be well appreciated.

* When at a function, please don't exclaim, "ooohh, look you've grown so much". Its not our fault you didn't see us 5 years ago.

* 12:34:56 07/08/09. Cool huh? Waiting for august!

* I have a hard time remembering dates. I ended up writing 15/07/2009 instead of 15/06/2009 on my exam answer sheet. Oops!

Super mario!

I've started playing supermario on my friend's nintendo a lot these days. It is SO much fun. I've reached world 8. I still haven't figured out how to unlock world 4 and world 7. Sigh. I will though..

I prefer playing simple games like mario than the world famous NFS or fifa or tomb raider or blah blah blah ....
Have you ever played hocus pocus ? Oh what a fun game!! You've to go and collect crystals all over the place, drink all kinds of potions..

Maybe I prefer these games because I played them in my childhood days. There are many memories attached with games like these. Prince of Persia, Alladin, Gold Runner, tetris..
Me and my sister used to play Alladin together. I used to shoot with the CTRL button and she used to control the navigation! oh what time we've had, collecting the apples, the gems and the flutes...!

Then there was this sudden rage of video games. We used to exchange those yellow color game cartridges having 99,999 games inside them!
There was a game of tanks, don't remember the name, it was a 2-player game. The goal was to save a plant(?) guarded by bricks. I can hear the game's music in my head right now.. we could build our own battle field using brick, grass, cement, water etc.. On killing the enemy tanks we used to get powers as well.. Anybody played it?



Even the cartoons aren't the same anymore. Its no -mickey mouse-chip n dale-quack pack-duck tales- days anymore. Its ben10, pokemon blah blah.. They all seem the same to me..

I'm taking the risk of sounding like an ol' grandma in this post.. Oh who cares! I loved my childhood!!

The DOG.

This looks like some kind of a robo-dog.

He kept looking at me patiently while I switched the camera on and focussed on him.
Very cute, I must say.

Sometimes when I go to a zoo, I wonder whether we're looking at the animals in the cages or the animals are ogling at us.

Flowers as gifts.

A dialogue from the movie My cousin Vinny. Love the movie btw.

Vinny Gambini wants to go deer hunting. Mona Lisa Vito-his fiancee does not approve of it. Here's the conversation:
Vinny Gambini: What about these pants I got on? You think they're okay?
Mona Lisa Vito: Imagine you're a deer. You're prancing along. You get thirsty. You spot a little brook. You put your little deer lips down to the cool, clear water - BAM. A fuckin' bullet rips off part of your head. Your brains are lying on the ground in little bloody pieces. Now I ask ya, would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son-of-a-bitch who shot you was wearing?


The post is titled "Flowers as gifts". Yeah I'm coming to that.
I really don't like giving flowers at reception/marriages/birthdays/any occasions. Not only is it a waste of money, its waste of flowers as well. I mean yeah it really is "awww, how nice, you got flowers!" But the very next second its lying on the floor, probably being trampled on by somebody. Whats the point, really? Its either a I-don't-know-you-very-well gift or a I-don't-know-what-else-to-give-you gift.
But at times, even I've ended up giving flowers. They wrap it in such pretty wrappers with ribbons and stuff. But still, I don't approve of flowers as gifts.

Coming back to the movie reference I made at the beginning, the flower, if it could think, wouldn't really care what clothes you were wearing. Go naked or suit up, won't matter to the flower.
PS. Thats just from the flower's point of view.

Paint away!

The HowtoGeek website has got a very cute logo. Check it out : HERE

It reminds of of those days when I got newly acquainted with the Microsoft paint tool! I used to come back from school, switch on the computer and open paint. Then I used to get started by creating like a really cute face, rubbing out the mistakes with that cute little rubber! [Note the usage of cute: twice] I used to love the spray paint tool! I always used to make the eyes using spray tool.

I used to be so proud of myself after the completion of a drawing. I even took a print out of a really *ugly* face which I had created. Those were the days....