Shakespeare sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

**** Bulb glows **** I understand !

How many times does it happen to you, that you dont realize something immediately in the situation and it takes time to realize the right words to say or do!

Happened to me..:)  Today. The enlightenment happened several moments (hours after the incidence) ! For sake of anonymity, I ll leave the incident out of the blog..:-)

The million dollar question

I wanted to write this post for a long time and now is the time, I think. Atleast when my parents are on the verge of throwing me out of the house, disowning me, etc if an answer is not imminent. Before I churn out, I have few things to say. I grew up like a son in our house. A very soft spoken but a strong personality type person. I have this habit of making sure everything is right, always worry that my brother and sister did their homework, etc. Even to this day, I cannot believe that my sister has graduated from college. I make decisions after ensuring that my decisions are not going to let me down anytime later. I think of long term plans. That said and done, my parents are asking or rather pushing me to the brinks of sanity to get married. Yes, the million dollar question. Sometimes for the heck, I want to go run away somewhere not being able to field their questions. And they think I am telling a joke every time I tell them that what what should happen at what what time will happen happen only. Which does nothing to alleviate their concerns. At maximum, it aggravates the situation.

I dont know if people fall in love at first sight. For me, it takes time to actually get to know people and then make friends alone. And love is way far behind. There are few people who have said it loud or tried to befriend me with intentions of being in a relationship, but for reasons that are better known to me, I just don't reciprocate their emotions. Sometimes I think they might as well have cursed/jinxed me that I should never find Mr. Right in my life. 

To be a fair judge, my criteria for Mr. Right is something like this(yeah, at the cost of sounding cliched). He should be well read, well educated, be pleasant looking, have an understanding nature, etc, etc. Most importantly he has to be family man. Since I cannot have Arvind Swamy or Surya out of Roja or Varanam Ayiram, anybody close will do. I will forgo the looks part, well educated part but not the well read part. At least he has to be able to appreciate that I read a lot.

As I have begun to understand these days, people can be very very eccentric in nature, I have to say this. I don't mind even if Mr. Right earns very few rupees but has to be a man of pride. Pride that says its ok we can make do with whatever little we have. I will manage all other eccentricities but not a few things that can be extremely dangerous. You will have my respect if you are that hard working man.

It will be better if he is a teetotaler, and be happy with it too..:). This, I am willing to relax,provided that he be a hardworking man. There are a few things that I have to say to him, like giving a verbal introduction to our family. There are things that I have to tell and that which I cannot leave it to rest without telling.

My grandmother says when a guy really likes a girl, he'll accept her  just the way she is. Something that I find it hard to accept, but I have to do my part. My grandmother also has an opinion that it is important that the boy like the girl more than the girl liking the boy for the family to be perfect in which case the boy will try hard or support the girl to keep the family intact. I don't agree with everything my grandmother says, but on this alone, I agree with her.

I think that sums Mr. Right for me. The next time my parents ask me to see a guy, I think Ill just direct him here.

Random thoughts

There are days when you feel like Rajinikanth, and there are others when you feel like a bandit whose treasure has been looted.

Totally random!

Dusting off the old cow webs !

Its been a long time since I wrote something here on this space. I have no thoughts of abandoning this blog. God! Never. Just like everyone else I am getting busy. Tell me about growing up and handling responsibilities. And tons of them. You see, for a long time, I imagined I would never grow up. And never become one of those irritable elders that I have seen people transform into. But now, standing here on the threshold, walking miles in their steps, I feel their anguish. Difficult people, difficult situations, people who make mountains out of molehills, one has to deal with them. Everyday. Every single moment. One feels like one is waiting for the days to be over. Just over. I have seen the worst blue days of my life in the past few days. I have yelled, become snappy, jumped out of madness over someone, etc, etc, in the last few days than I ever did in all my life. Looking at it, I don't repent it. People yelled at me, and I yelled back at them. Case closed. Which is so totally unlike me. Earlier, I would not bother to yell back. Did I tell you how nagging parents can be over some things, I understand their concerns but really they are stepping on my toes this time. I love them still.

Change is welcome when it is for good. Also, talking about dusting of cow webs on my blog, there are some fun things that I have done too. Remember that I spoke of how badly wanted to have a research paper published, I went ahead with that idea and got it done. The paper is under review in one of the journals, and I am pretty sure that it is going to be published. I am contemplating doing a Phd in the near future.

On the other hand, I took off my regular well paying job and went ahead and built a house. I laid the bricks of the house, applied the mortar, and worked on the house like any other laborer would have. I thought that was exhilarating, awesome fun.

Another thing, I never opened the email of this blog. But recently after a long time, I did open it. There were no new comments on it. However, one person by the name MB had written a personal email of how he enjoyed reading my blog as  much. Thanks MB. I don't know if I write well, however, I felt good reading an email telling that I write well. Thanks again. These days, friends and other people never write back. You took the time and patience to read my blog and write an email as well. Thank you.

Its not like I dont have good friends, its just that all my good friends are in different places and I find it difficult to make new friends. P, You know how I miss u.  Regarding the snappy behavior, I am going to take some time off and make new things happen. If you ask me if I was happy, its not like I am unhappy. I aimed at 100% and I am here standing at 80%. SO ITS FINE. :-) Overall, I love a challenge, and life has been kind enough to provide lots of them. Sometimes, so much that I cannot handle them. However, I am happy with the overall quality of life. There are some loop holes and flaws, but hey I still have the 20% to compete with.

With that, I make a grand comeback to my blog.

Yes, finally..

After getting disheartened very many ( I like this term, "very many" which I found is the correct usage) times about reading or rather not reading "Lord of the Rings",  I finally started reading the first volume and reached a poem. It was perfectly what I wanted to know.

Not something that anyone who read "lord of the rings" would not know, but since I like those words very much, I am posting it here.

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

It also means that I am going to watch the movies soon and quench some innate nagging in my head that I haven't seen those movies so far.

A twist in the tale.

It was the first time he had been in love. There were girls he found intriguing. But the perfect embodiment of his dream girl was never in the girls he seemed to know. A lot of his friends had told him that there is a bell ringing in one's head when one meets his/her perfect mate. He had brushed it aside or laughed it off as a joke. He knew it was no longer a joke. She was standing in front of him at the coffee counter. Her silky, shiny perfect hair sprawling all over her shoulders. She had worn a red T short over jeans and she looked perfect for him. The bells really did ring in his head, he thought. From where he was standing, he could only see her back. If her hair was so beautiful, he thought, how perfect her face could be. He could envision her face, as he structured each feature of her delicate face. He knew she was the one for him. Immediately not wanting to loose her in the crowd, he went and stood behind the long queue in front of the coffee counter, not once removing his glance over her. She seemed to be engrossed in her talk with her friends when her turn to buy coffee came. She bought her coffee and turned towards one of the tables that he could actually see her.

And all together at once, his heart broke. It was the hair that broke his heart. Not the hair on the scalp. But the  hair on "her" philtrum.

Life and times of M. S. Subbulakshmi

I was wondering if there was/were any good biographies / autobiographies of M. S. Subbulakshmi. I have looked online, and looked for the same at Tata Book House as well as Crossroads.

The legendary M. S. Subbulakshmi is very well known to everyone. While her talents are very well known, the rise of a small town devadasi's daughter to become one of India's most well known and prolific singer is not known to everyone.

If there was someone who knew of the book or anything that sheds light on her life is something that I would love to hear from you.