CHAOS

Dear mom,

I really hate myself when you scold me for making the house as dirty as possible.I can really imagine how painful it would have become for you to see a trail of inorder spreading away in my wake that you-my sweet little mother has to speak spiteful words for your own brilliant little daughter.

I wasn't like this remember?When you used to proudly praise before the neighbours about how clean I used to maintain the house?When I would not allow even you to do all the cleaning work and took on the whole house scrubbing it clean and leave it shining cleverly leaving a couple of nooks which I knew were frequented by lizards?When looking at more than usual spic-n-span house neighbours would immediately know Aditi was at work?When the cleaning frenzy reached such heights that I would gather all utensils dirty or not and scrub it till it shined like a diamond?(seriously) And when old women seeing the shiddat with which I worked proclaimed you to be blessed?

You might wonder where that cleanliness freak, ordered Aditi went?

Well she discovered that cleanliness is overrated.I still hate the sticky kind of uncleanliness.But i love clothes strewn across my bed.It helps me sleep better.The clothes about me,embracing me,soothing me to sleep.I love books stacked upon every empty surface.There's not a better decoration.And it makes finding things easier!!You loose things anyhow and in finding things through a neat,ordered stack,you damage the order in it and its traumatic,believe me,destroying the order you set up with your own hands.And then there's disorder-you push aside things pick up what you want and get done with it.

I will tell what's with the books.You have very faithfully partitioned your cupboard to have physics,chemistry,biology,time pass books and notebooks in different sections.Then the Biology book mentions the use of NMR to study cells.I can google NMR.But google does not explain magnetic resonance as well as my physics textbook and next thing you know you are digging into years of books looking for the elusive textbook.Then you realize it has a chemical aspect to it and out comes the laptop to refer to a chemistry textbook pdf copy.Then you remember an article on magnetic equipments several years ago in safari and you pull out the heavy kitbag in the store room containing centuries old science magazines and knock out a few utensils in the process bruising your knee badly but then you have the magazines and the next thing you know your room is strewn with magazines your hungry mind wolfing down as much as it can.

Also it improves your athletic abilities-jumping over obstructions,bending about in your chair at wierd angles to get what you want?What's a better exercise?So dont corelate my untidiness with my laziness.

Okay I know I dress untidily too.I look like a drug addict at home and am just 20% better dressing for college.But again I like that.You wear good fashionable clothes and you have to take care of your clothes rather than the other way round.And more horrible then that is that people notice you.And that's the last thing I want-people look at you and by mistake you look at them,next thing you know they are talking to you and you are forced to have a very painful conversation with a human being.

So that's it my darling momma. That's why I m sitting here writing this to you - surrounded by a half empty chocolate box,wrapper and a half licked chocolate wrapper(oh ya i am so clean I lick up to the last bit chocolate and ice cream wrappers as well as plates and utensils sometimes(the last part is exaggeration,honestly)),with my teeth full of bacteria for having eaten so much chocolate,my hair untidy,the stack of newspapers I have been wanting to read in-depth and revise since a week piled up beside me and slowly yellowing- only because I do feel bad about myself but am just aadat se majboor...

Yours lovingly,

Aditi

:)

The beauty of chaos

BROWN BREW

We South Indians abide by our morning coffee.Not just some coffee-very particularly filter coffee:frothy,foamy,brown,strong,slightly bitter with a sweet after-taste.

Words arent enough to describe our relish for coffee dear coffee.When a guest arrives he is offered a glass of coffee even before water.Not a cup of coffee,George m'boy,a glass of coffee.A small stainless steel glass placed in a small stainless steel cup.Let the Chinese keep all their porcelein,we will mine out all the iron from Kudremukha to quench our thirst for stainless steel flavoured frothy,foamy,brown,strong,slightly bitter with a sweet after-taste coffee.

Stainless steel flavoured frothy,foamy,brown,strong,slightly bitter with a sweet after-taste coffee wakes us from our nocturnal slumber.A morning woken up to the chocolatey smell pervading through the house is a morning well woken up to.The aroma sneaks in through the nostrils,somehow reaches the medulla oblongata and stimulates it to escalate my need for the beverage to such an extent that all my morninng ablutions are carried out quickly and even during my prayers i can do nothing but thank god for bestowing mankind with coffee and making the world bearable.Then as i reach out for my coffee i can't but feel a strong surge of love for my mummy dear for making such excellent coffee.Every south indian woman every morning boils water and pours it into a coffee powder containing filter- a quintessential of every south indian household-and  leaves it for a while to trickle down through the tiny holes into the lower container.Till then she washes the front yard and decorates it with white rangoli.By then the filtrate called the decoction is collected in the lower container which is mixed with milk and sugar,boiled and poured into a glass from quite a distance so as to produce the necessary foam at the top.

The sugary,chocolatey liquid steaming hot is best consumed steaming hot.The taste of this coffee on a blistered tongue is unrivalled.It travels down your esophagus,soothing and clearing your throat and reaches your stomach where it makes a smooth landing filling that muscular sack much better than you would expect of a liquid.Even your tummy dear quivers with the joy of containing such a heavenly fluid!!!

Also our night slumber is brought about by stainless steel flavoured frothy,foamy,brown,strong,slightly bitter with a sweet after-taste coffee.Caffeine stimulates you?Makes you feel awake?Bull shit!!Just see us sleep after a glass of hot filter coffee.

Other than this,any hour of the day is coffee hour.Feeling bored,drink coffee.Woke from siesta,drink coffee.Lights out,nothing to do-drink coffee.Headache?Drink coffee.Any season is coffee season:coffee in rains accompanied with bombai bonda-totally scrumptious.Coffee in winter with a novel,a rug over your legs and roasted kaju:out of this world.Coffee in summer out in the balcony on the swing:delightful.Non-south indians have a misconception that we are obsessed with idli-dosa and people are like,"Din me kitne baar idli-dosa khate ho?"

Ask that for coffee,people.That's more sensible.Those who have tasted mere ghar ki coffee cant stop raving about it.This same coffee is sold in the market at 90 rs per cup!!!The experience of coffee at my home is priceless ;)

Just Google it.You would get a lot about the health benefits of coffee which i would not bore you with.Also the residue in the coffee filter and the stale decoction are not wasted:they are extremely good moisturisers which are used to wash the hair and scrubbed onto the skin leaving you with lustrous black hair and radiant skin.

One in your lifetime do taste this coffee.Maybe in a small canteen amidst the Western Ghats surrounded by virgin forests interspersed with coffee plantations.Or at a small cafe somewhere in Bengaluru with the rain pouring.Or badger your South Indian friend till they invite you over for coffee. ;) :)

But taste you should. ;) (y)

 

Filter Coffe as served in CTR Bangalore.

ME AND MY LOVE AFFAIR

I am a lovely person and I admit I have had numerous love affairs.Many scandalous,numerous fleeting and a couple long-standing ones.

Now come,come.Given all your fertile imaginations out there it makes it necessary for me to mention that all these affairs are not with humans.No sir, not a single affair with a human.

My first and most lasting love affair has been and continues with:books.

Books of all shapes,sizes,colours,genres and smells.When i was a toddler,my momma used to bring those thin books with huge colourful pictures depicting the ideal daily routine and with captions in Kannada script.She would read out to me and i would repeat and this continued till a time when i had all the captions of the respective pictures by heart.A funny incident that is well reminisced  in family circles is  when i, picking up a book sat down studiously before my uncle and began reciting the captions as though reading a book and my bewildered uncle overwhelmed to see his 3 year old niece deciphering the curled-as-jalebi Kannada letters brought the entire household into the hall only to find my mother bend over with uncontrollable,unending, speechless laughter at how convincingly studious her daughter can appear. 

That initial acquaintance with books i really enjoyed.And i didn't want it to end.So as i grew up and learned to read i developed a voracious appetite for reading.Lying down,sitting up,eating,watching tv,I had to read:be it individual letters,letters strung together to form words or words arrayed to form sentences or sentences woven together to form text-I HAD TO READ IT.Be it in books,on t-shirts,on walls,posters,products-written words make sense and i had to comprehend it.

But the joy of reading words out of books is undoubtably unmatched.The feel of the book on your hands,the rustle of its pages in your ear,the aroma of the pages wrapping around you and the words resounding in your head:all of this is certainly unique to reading books.I have tried reading soft copies but the experience is nowhere as thrilling.

Beginning with my first novel-an abridged version of Iliad and Odyssey- at the age of 7,there was no looking back.I gobbled up Enid Blyton,gulped in Ruskin Bond,drunk in Rudyard Kipling,crammed in J.K.Rowling,guzzled down Mario Puzo and devoured A.C.Doyle.

To prove the ingenuity of my feelings for books,I can well describe to you the three stages i went through falling in love:

1.Dunno what drew me to books but there definitely was attraction-sizzling chemistry.I would always be aware of its presence if a book was about me,stealing glances and studying in those stolen glances all that i could of its appearance.It would linger in my memory,every breath i took reminding me i have still to read it.

2.When i would at last get my hands on the book....i could just not keep my hands off it. Ishhh...the way it fills my mind,numbs me to the world,keeps me to it-all to it and the way i cant stay away from it till i have read it COMPLETELY like in COMPLETELY ...haiii

Promise: never has a guy succeded in doing this to me :P :D

3.And once i am done reading i cant but keep thinking of the book,the characters,the events and fantasize about what i would be doing if i were a part of the plot.I wish to read it again,go over all my favourite parts.It then becomes a part of a sweet memory which when remembered brings a smile to my lips.

And yeah this one IS a scandalous affair.You have No idea how much my family opposed my involvement with books.But kon samjhaye...pyaar andha hota hai... ;) And thats exactly what their argument was:you will go blind reading at this rate!!!

Crossword at Alkapuri,Vadodara

I knew my books which have always been a reliable companion to me throughout my life would bring out a solution to my weakening eyesight and sure enough I stumbled across yoga and naturopathy books which helped me stabilize my aankhon ka number.

Now my liaison with books will be incomplete without mentioning some of the highs.The first high lasted years long:my fling with the Harry Potter series. Like every other Potter maniac i did believe in the existence of a magical world till a certain age and used to keep looking over my shoulder at the window expecting an owl to bring me my letter of admission to Hogwarts.

Then i read Mario Puzo with his slick Italian dons, gun laden Mafia and love i did reading those books.

Now i have fallen for the writings of two beautiful women: Jhumpa Lahiri and Anita Nair.Another woman to reckon with is Agatha Christie.The neatness with which she writes crime stories is unparalleled.To know more about my appreciation of their works click here.

I am still waiting to read numerous other books,to relish a dip into diverse minds and lead several parallel lives in my mind.

For the record my other flings include dance,acting, painting, etc.

One of my more recent ones and a rather 'serious' love is my passion for wildlife. This love for animals was within me but has blossomed over the last few years and now i combine it with my passion for writing and poems.

So i end this with the hope that i am no longer bombarded with questions regarding my love life-all secrets have been revealed today people...there is nothing more to hide;)

WORLD MUSIC DAY

Every year numerous countries across the world celebrate the phenomenon of music...a phenomenon which surpasses all boundaries,heals souls,connects hearts and sends vibrations of utter positivity and junoon through each and every nerve and sinew of men of all orders and classes.This celebration of notes and rythms,raag and taal,accelerato to bisbigliando takes place on 21st June which marks a solstice. 

It was American musician Joel Cohen who gave the concept of an all-day musical celebration on the days of the solstice.He spent two seasons as a producer of musical radio programs for the French National Radio in the 1970s.The idea later was adapted as a national celebration on each June 21 in France and made official by the French Minister of Culture,Jack Lang.

In October 1981, Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance at Jack Lang’s request.He applied his reflections to the musical practice and its evolution.When he discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people-and to top that- one child out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets.

It was first celebrated in 1982 in Paris as the "Fête de la Musique" and is currently celebrated the world over as "World Music Day". 

It is celebrated with the concept of  "music everywhere and the concert nowhere".To show that music doesn't only belong to professionals,amateur musicians besides professionals are encouraged to perform free on the streets and other public places.In Paris,this is done under the slogan "Faites de la musique" which means "make music". The Fête de la Musique organization has been established in Paris especially for this festival.

On this day,all concerts are free to the public and all performers perform for free making all genres available to the public...the only eligibility being burning passion for music...a desire to wrap yourself in the soothing waves of music and get lost.

Now, many countries recognize this day as an important one in their calender and observe it with the democratic spirit associated with World Music Day.India with it's huge cultural diversity is not one to be left behind.After all,India has one or the other festival being celebrated in some corner at any given time and music is an inseparable part of a festivity.Even on World Music Day,the celebrations are on in full swing.Be it Rabindra Sangeet flowing in from the east or the dhols echoing from west,Carnatic classical music vibrating from the south or Hindustani classical music reverbrating from the north, the salubrious oscillations of earth's healthiest sounds echo all around.

Vadodara,where I reside,being the cultural capital of Gujarat has it's music loving citizens celebrating this day enthusiastically.So,apart from numerous free concerts, the famous park Kamatibaug is stage to numerous groups performing all over in the park and a large audience which not only speculates but also join in the singing with great ebullience.

Well,whatever the reason for celebration,there are always limits and so does World Music Day by having restrictions on volume levels and time limits.

But for World Music Day 2015,the night is still young and music is waiting to be celebrated...So,get there into the fervor and feast your eardrums on the choicest beats.

Till then, Joyeux Fête de la Musique!!!

EACH FRESH CRISIS WE ENCOUNTER IS AN OPPORTUNITY IN DISGUISE

A crisis should never be regarded as a burden,a calamity or a hindrance.It is at the time of a crisis that a person's problem-solving abilities take a fore-front and he becomes aware of himself,his inner strength.

As the esteemed John F. Kennedy had once said,"Crisis when written in Chinese is a two-lettered word.One character meaning danger and the other for opportunity.The opportunity to improve yourself,to magnify your talents and abilities,to make something of yourself,When in a crisis insted of wallowing in self pity,one must step upon one's problems,stamp and crush it out and come out of it with wings that now enables you to fly farther away to new skies,to new crisis,to find a newer,better you.With each crisis,you realise and add to your strength and so become a better person.Stars can not shine without darkness.

There's no better example than the distinguished author Paulo Coelho.At the age of 30,he was fired from his well set job,a great blow seeing that he was very near to reaching the heights in his field.Two years of looking for a job and not finding one propelled him to write a passion which he had always nurtured but never did professionally.Now, he's one of the most celebrated author of our times.

Also,crisis gives you one of the most beautiful moments of life which you can savour later on.As it has been said crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.What we might be finding terribly difficult today may seem relatively way too easy tomorrow just because of a crisis which enabled us to do it.

More than often, it is crisis,difficulties and problems that bring out the best in a person.So,it depends on you whether you bow down under the burden of crisis or stand up,bring the difficulties and emerge with winning colours.Then, when you look back at your critical days,cynics and backbiters,you can smile smugly and say,'Who's the man now?' ;)

So,definitely crisis is more of an opportunity which one should deal with bravely.

Would you rather be underrated than overrated?

Being overrated is the state of one's capability being underestimated.An underrated person may not get the chance to do the work she or he is actually capable of doing just because his capacity to do that task is not known by his colleague.

Overrated is when a person's capabilities,skills and talents are held in high regard and she or he is relied upon for all kinds of jobs.
I would prefer being underrated initially.It gives one time to understand the environment,the people and the work.Slowly,I would start exhibiting my abilities and make my worth known to one and all.Being underrated motivates you to better yourself,break bars and achieve higher goals.
Also,being underrated is a very useful weapon in competetion.Your adversary makes the grand mistake of underestimating you which makes it easier for you to surprise him or her out of his or her wits and strike the winning blow.. ;)Your opponent has himself handed you an advantage.For instance, in the game of kusti or wrestling,the player who is bulkier or taller is considered capable of winning over his opponent.Such a player in his smugness may not consider his loss by the simple tactic of his smaller companion if making him lose balance of his feet resulting in his fall and consequent loss.
(and trust me there's no greater feeling of elation then looking at the face of a smug,defeated opponent!!)
On the other hand an overrated person has a lot riding on his or her shoulders.They need to constantly prove their mettle and keep up with their image.Even the seniors expect a lot from them and heap them with more responsibilities.This increased work load leads to saturation and on being unable to meet the demands,colleagues and seniors feel let down.
Thus, I would prefer being underrated rather than overrated.