NO. Nah. Nada. Whatever, it’s a NO.

Addressing NO, as I know it

You have no idea, how very important you are. You have often helped me salvage my self esteem. You have, in more occasions than one have saved me from hot red ears and a flushed face. You have protected me from being labeled a) liar; b) timid/sissy/pansy; c) nincompoop. You give me power, I feel in control.

Would it be wrong to say that you have quite changed my life? No it wouldn’t be. You have and I am looking ahead to using you more often than ever.

Well, now that I am done with what I consider a very clever wordplay; I take a moment to advice. Whenever in doubt, hmmm, doubt of the faintest, the remotest kind… just say NO. You have no idea, how simpler it will make your days. Easy no?

First there were none, then there were a few, then a few more and now, they are all gone.

2010 will be about not having to worry about comments [more appropriately, the lack of it]. I will write anyway. Because I like to write and I want to write. Period.

Having said that I think I have been a confused writer, I write stuff that is targeted towards a TA who isn’t my TA right now. Holy moly! Did I just call myself a writer? And did I just use the words writer and TA in the same sentence? Yes, I did. Ooohooo it feels super nice. So, zero comments is not something I will worry about, I will not spend 3 hours on tweaking a sentence, I wouldn’t care much about that witty headline either. But images are something that need to be beautiful, so I will keep stalking corbis, getty and flickr…

side note: I will also not always explain my choice of image. They are here because they are nice to look at.

Addendum: did I also mention that I wouldn’t spend sleepless nights thinking about a sharp sign off? So in the days and months ahead, you [if there’s a you] can look forward to boring, silly posts, crazy, unnecessary posts and beautiful images. Am I taking my blog a little too seriously?

[An interrogation mark involves the reader, so said one of my ex bosses…]

Of New Year resolutions, few realizations and a stronger resolve

Good that 2010 is here. Not that 2009 was bad, and I take a moment to thank God for that, but 2009 was very plain, nothing spectacular happened. Like there’s so much more I could have done, that I didn’t, then there’s a lot, which I shouldn’t have, which I, well have. So, I am glad 2009 is over, and the new year gives me yet another chance to do things right, and most importantly do things. To make new to do lists, to note things that I would want to change about myself. If 2009 was mostly about dreaming, yeah lot of dreams, about my perfect job, my body, the way I choose to live my life, the way I keep my home, the kind of fun I have, the places I go, the way I do away with things/people I don’t like/want. 2010, will, yeah most certainly it will be about doing it and doing it most of what I have been wishing to.

2010 will also be the year of being organized and structured in every possible and every little way. 2010 will be a year of zero laziness. This will be the year of doing things and getting things done. 2010 will be a year of being a more balanced, matured and knowledgeable person.

It’s the fourth day of the New Year, and no I haven’t done anything earth shattering yet. But I am very hopeful of a very energized and a busy 2010, busy in a good way of course. The kind that does me and my dear ones good, and first step towards is to plan ahead. Yeah, planning ahead… my day, my meals, my weekends, everything.

What I have here is an extremely structured resolution list. I have categorized them into - professional, personal and miscellaneous. And then, I have sub-categorized these categories. Yep, I do not intend to be interesting here. So in the sub categories we have,

Professional 1 Day Job

Professional 2 Knowledge for my day job

Professional 3 Goals

Professional 4 Priorities

Professional 5 Networking

Professional 6 Get Rid Of

Professional 7 Get More Of

Professional 8 The art of following up

Personal 1 Family

Personal 2 Friends

Personal 3 Me [this one would be quite complex, but will figure it out :)]

Personal 4 Goals

Personal 5 Get Rid Of

Personal 6 Get More Of

Personal 7 Learn

Personal 8 Priorities

Miscellaneous 1 Paper Work

Miscellaneous 2 Learn

Miscellaneous 3Organize

Miscellaneous 4 Get Rid Of

Miscellaneous 5 Get More Of

And apart from that impressive resolution list that I’ve compiled, I am also looking at being more in control of things, decisions, choices and the life in general. :)

Dear Santa…

If you are looking at gifting me something this year, gift me time. Whole lot of it. Time to do what I love, like and enjoy. Time to read more, watch more television [a woman can have a few vices you know], to run more, spend more time with family and friends, cook more, and yeah do some real travelling. And yeah, loads of happiness and cheer.

I have never believed in Santa, not even at age seven. Let's say, Santa did't quite feature in our Christmas celebrations, 25th of December was all about cakes and cousins, and ten days of respite from school. I was that kid, who knew there's no Santa, but played along anyway.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I now say, I want to believe in Santa, the chimney, the stockings... the whole thing. Maybe because now my wishlist is longer than it ever was.

Merry Christmas!

Wake up and smell the coffee – Part Deux

The feelings. Be cautious. Very cautious.

Yeah the quintessential feelings bit. You are now at a very, very vulnerable state of mind. You have all the time to read between the lines, the words and often the alphabets too. So, do advise your friends, ex-colleagues, parents, neighbours, maids and particularly the spouse to refrain from speaking without thinking. And often refrain from speaking at all.

But make no mistake; you don’t quite function this way. You don’t have to. Remember, you are the vulnerable one. You have the liberty to let your feelings lose, thinking with your heart or the brain, as you please. Or for that matter, not thinking at all.

addendum - The image is here because, when you go to corbis and type 'feelings', this is the most arty and pretty image you get. The image description did not make sense, and why do I care.

Wake up and smell the coffee – Part Un

The thing called TIME.

When you don’t have to worry about time, you tend to notice/imagine/comprehend things that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

Take more than 7 minutes to pick an orange and you imagine that the ones that you aren’t selecting have some rare skin disorder.

Don’t hurry with your walk back home from the corner grocery store and you would notice the three new stray dogs in your locality. All of them hate you. Make your move, stop to say hello.

You could also experience something murkier than cute dogs and bright oranges. Like witnessing a neighbourhood extramarital affair; one that could get you killed. No ordinary death would do, a let’s-silence-her-before-she-spills kind of death. And if you must know, the man and woman in question could be above 70 years of age; but what has age got to do with love or for that matter, the ominous look, that yes-we-are-on-to-something look. And that’s the look, you get every single time, you look at them. And why do you look at them repeatedly? What else can you do, when you walk at 2.1 mph for an hour.

A new month, a new number… new tidings

[sorry about the most typical image, but it's pretty]

It’s been sometime since I felt this way. That feeling of uncertainty that hope, not knowing what to expect, not knowing what to let go. Wanting the phone to ring, the inbox to be busy. That funny feeling in the tummy [guess with this one I am going overboard, but really there is].

I have been wanting to advise. So what do I do when I want to advise and do not have any takers? I use my blog space to do so. Will you judge me if do a little advising here?

Good andt comfortable makes sense. Of course it does.

Boring but comfortable, still makes sense.

But bad and comfortable doesn’t.

If it’s bad and comfortable, then it’s time to scoot. Just run okay?

Don’t think too much about the repercussions, sure there will be. But if you think too much, you will never get to scoot, and which means you will never know, what awaits you after the run. Did I make much sense there? Did I?

Didn’t I start on a sunny note? Whatever… it’s time for new, new things!