d’s questionaire

What time did you get up this morning?
4:30 – really!!

Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds

What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Kungfu Panda – I know! I’m way behind!!

What is your favorite TV show?
dancing with the stars,deal or no deal, power lunch, anderson cooper 360,can’t think of anything in Sun TV sorry!!

What do you usually have for breakfast?
honey bunches of oats with cold milk

What is your middle name?
I dont have one..Maybe I should split my 16 letter last name into two!(D, what!! same goes for me!)

What food do you dislike?
anything with karela in it

Favorite sandwich?
Subway-veggie delite

What characteristic do you despise?
hypocracy!

favorite item of clothing?
recently obsessed with scarfs

If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Europe

What color is your bathroom?
creamish with burgundy rugs and towels

Favorite brand name of clothing?
Gloria Vanderbilt

Where would you retire to?
Chennai, of course!

What was your most memorable birthday?
every birthday is memorable!!(sounds corny?!!-but it’s true!)

Favorite sport to watch?
Not big into sports but Super Bowl (mainly for the Ads)

Farthest place you are sending this?
Chennai 600086

What are you wearing today?
Brick red sweater and jeans(hey D, what a coincidence!! but my jeans are black)
What is your favorite candy?
Godiva chocolates

What is your favorite flower?
Rose and jasmine may be

What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?

Earliest one is 27th Nov..(hey D! isn’t it strange we have a lot in common?!)

What are you listening to right now?
sakkarakatti

What was the last thing you ate?
Thenga sevai lemon sevai

Do you wish on stars?
I wish to be one!

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
turquoise blue

How is the weather right now?
brrrrrr!

Last person you spoke to on the phone?
my husband

Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Ofcourse! My little darling!

Favorite restaurant?

Ming,Khasiyat, Saravana Bhavan,Olive garden, Taco Bell

What did you do last night?
tried to alter my daughter’s halloween costume
How many keys on your key ring?

a bunch of them!!

Favorite day of the week?
Friday(another thing in common with D!)

How many cities have you lived in?

 

10

Do you make friends easily?
Ofcourse!

How many people will you be sending this to?

the ones i would have sent to are already taken! May be one more

Deepavali

Wet hair with water dripping on the back of new clothes, the taste of Deepavali marundhu in the mouth,eyes burning from lack of sleep and the foggy smell of fire crackers!! My Deepavali!! Hope I get to enjoy this sometime!

Wednesday

I had kind of given up on Indian movies for a little while. I was, at one point in time, infatuated with movies, especially, Tamil and Hindi. I would watch almost every movie that came out and would be so involved with them.(So much so that ppl at home called me “See Pai” {cinema paitiyam}). Somehow, I just lost interest in movies after a while. Not that I didn’t watch any movies but I really didn’t enjoy them much and if there was an option of doing something else I would resort to that.I consider the reason for this to be movies, recently have been highlighting the underworld, violence and ugly scenes, all in the name of reality! I agree that they do bring awareness about how difficult life is getting these days, no doubt, but they tend to get too realistic sometimes. Actually they kind of leave the audience with sad and negative feelings that tend to haunt them for days! All because they get too realistic! Everybody knows that life is hard and there are many hurdles to face. It is not like these movies bring out solutions to problems or suggest a positive way of looking at life where there is so much fear and uncertainty! There are a few feel good and positive movies like Mozhi and Tare zameen par but there aren’t enough of them. Most of them are either mindless Masala or these wannabe
socialistic films. There doesn’t seem to be much of a choice, is there?!

However, one movie that I watched recently really impressed me! Wednesday – a simple movie with an off beat approach! I liked it because it is not ‘filmy’ but at the same time, there are no gory scenes and dingy or gloomy backgrounds (reality ngra Perla!). There is no angry young man (well, there is, but not the hero!). There is no claim to do super human feats to reform the society! But it has perfectly captured the emotions of a common person who goes about his/her routine just like the next person. At the same time it has a gripping narrative quality that commands the audience’s attention. I wish there would be more movies like it.

Proxy Post

This is by Anna Bright:

I love to read. When I start reading, there’s no stopping me. With some books, I feel like I’m actually in the story, meeting the characters! In most stories, I imagine the homes of the characters. For instance, in Fudge-a-mania, I picture Peter’s house as a small apartment with a kitchen and a hallway. In Ramona’s World, I think of the Quimby’s house as a one storey house with a basement. Still, in The Famous Five, I think of Kirrin Cottage as a beautiful seaside house with a view of Kirrin Island from every window. I think it is the power of the authors’ writing that gives me the ability to visualize so many different images.

Peer Pressure

Is Peer Pressure a good thing?! I wonder all the time. Peer pressure could sometimes be misunderstood for “healthy competition”! We hear all the time about kids that yield to peer pressure which ends up making their lives miserable! True, but kids are not the only ones affected by peer pressure. Though most of us may hate to admit, we are very much swayed by peer pressure. It affects the adults in a more complex way.

A lot of time, I find that parents are actually more competitive than their kids. They somehow feel that their kids are God’s way of giving them a second chance to do all the things they missed out on while they were growing either due to lack of opportunity or due to lack of initiative or, of course, to fight the effects of their parents’ peer pressure (am I going around in circles here?!) It is not fair for us to make our kids live the life we wanted to live. I agree that it is important to provide our children with all the opportunity to learn and gain from life. Parents always complain that their children ask for things and blame peer pressure for it but how different are they. I have known many parents who put their children in various classes and other activities just because their neighbor’s or friend’s child does it. It is another way of comparing our kids with others and it may have serious repercussions. In trying to force our kids into something we may actually be succeeding in creating an aversion for these things which, left to themselves, they may want to try out. I believe that it is good to let the children try al these co-curricular activities and let them decide reasonably which is the activity that they most want to do. Of course, children tend have prejudice over many things without trying them at all. For this reason they should be exposed to a variety of activities to choose from and when they make their choice, they should be able to validate it. A reasonable agreement can be arrived at after discussing with them. This gives them confidence and a sense of independence at having made important decisions. Easier said than done, I accept but this way they learn to take full responsibility for their actions and feel good about being treated like an adult.

I had mentioned earlier that Peer pressure can sometimes be misunderstood for competitiveness. It is good to have the drive to try and excel in any activity or comeptition but it is very important to know that winning is not everything. I went to this dance show where many young children did wonderfully well. There was this little girl who did a classical number,adorned in beautiful costume and jewellery. She did a reasonably good job though she forgot a couple of her dance steps. She looked a bit upset as she got off the stage and desperately searched for mother hoping to be comforted by her. Her mother came upto her and instead of hugging her and appreciating the fact that it was brave of her to go up on stage and performed and telling her that it was allright and nobody noticed her mistakes, she immediately took her to task for making mistakes and saying that it was no good! I doubt if the child would ever willingly go on stage for another dance performance again and all thanks to the mother’s “competitiveness”.

we often hear ourselves telling our kids that just because the neighbor’s son or daughter has a certain thing is no reason for them to expect to have it too but at the same time we would go and enroll our child in an advanced class because our friend’s child goes there!Children can be cured of Peer Pressure only if their parents are cured of it first!! Hope writing this helps me not be a victim of Peer Pressure!

Think a Thought

Think a thought that you never thought before and this could be the best thought you ever thought until now!!
– Anna Bright