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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Guilty eating

Today I ordered a Pizza for the evening snack. Before ordering, I checked when the last that I had ordered was. I found that it was 20 days ago. Was a 3-week gap ok before I ordered the next one, I wondered?
The hygienically prepared Pizza ordered from world-class Domino's today frightens me more than the golgappas/pani puris/puchkas prepared by the dirty hands of the golgappawalas in my childhood. I enjoyed every golgappa that went into the mouth …and to top it...20 were available for Re1! Never thought of how it would affect the health...just enjoyed the taste with an abundant pleasure.
When I eat the Pizza now…its like…am I eating it too frequently? How many calories am I consuming? Being careful not to order the extra cheese. A feeling of guilt with every mouthful and a regret at having ordered and eaten...a resolve of not eating at least for the next 2 months!
These days we people even don’t eat white bread…when we order a sandwich, we select the brown bread. The more we become health-conscious, the more we opt for health foods, the more we seem to be having health problems.
Did our elders ever have these worries? Food was eaten with a gay abundance earlier with no remorse. Diseases seem to be affecting the young these days. Unheard were BPs and sugar for a 20 year old earlier!

20 minutes of Magic

I will be writing frequently about my experiences while traveling by the train to work. Each day brings with it amazing experiences.
Yesterday we were in the train going to work as usual. In Secunderabad station, a group of around 25 school girls got into the train. After sometime, they probably got restless about the time taken traveling and decided to sing.
They took off with recent hits of Tollywood...soon the infectious zeal caught on and the tempo increased..song after song...the latest ones kept rolling off...We couldn't help but get caught in that fervor.
Many a traveler usually plug in the i-pod as soon as they embark on the journey..I saw one college girl smilingly remove her i-pod to get lost in this slightly off-beat but very honest rendering of the songs.
The girls got off 20 minutes later. The i-pod was plugged back..I got lost in the newspaper again.The 20 minutes of magic was over.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Nostalgia

Imagine the excitement of meeting your classmates & friends after 25 years! I registered myself on the yahoo groups and found, to my amazement, many of my childhood friends & classmates.
When I watched the pictures of my friends 25 years later, I got a weird feeling.
A while back, I had received a mail of the current Indian film celebrities with imaginary images of how they would look 25 years from now.
I got the same feeling looking at all these photographs. Etched in the mind were the images of my classmates and friends as they were 25 years ago. How could they look like this now? It was a like I was seeing a distorted version of my friends.
Though overjoyed at seeing them after all these years, I shudder at the vulnerability of human mortality.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Dedicated to all the late-risers

Definition of DAWN: The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old men prefer to rise about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walk with an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh.
They then point with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe years; the truth being that they are healthy and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them.
The reason we find only robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all others who have tried it.

Courtesy: Deccan Chronicle dated Wednesday 20th February

The world is beautiful

This is my first blog.
I want to share something that happened yesterday which confirms my belief that the world is beautiful.
I was looking for a transport to take me to the venue of the client visit. The auto that I came in dropped me a good 750 meters away from the office that I was to go to. This was a different building- not the usual one that I go to everyday. I was panicking as I was getting late to the meet. I have rarely done this but I thumbed down a taxi that was passing by.
The driver- a bearded one- didn't bother to stop. I wasn't surprised and kept walking. After 1-2 minutes, I saw that he was waiting for me ahead. He asked me where I had to go. I told him and also said that I wasn't familiar with the place. He asked me to get in. I got in with all the skepticism of a woman wondering if I had done the right thing by getting into a stranger's cab.
He not only gave me a lift but also dropped me to the gate of the building. I was relieved not to be late for the event.
A simple thank you was all that I gave him. He didn't ask for payment-simply dropped me and drove away. I felt that God sends his messengers to take care of his people and also to confirm our belief in his world.