Step Into My Shoes..

Year 2003, "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix" book released. Year 2003, I started reading "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"; my very first from the series. It was just another book for me, and since I had fallen into a habit of taking a book to wherever I went, I took it to school. I used to read it on the way, during classes and between them too. What I could ever have understood reading from the 3rd part of the series, I don't remember. We had one big library but it had one issue each of the 5 books. I had to wait forever for the first one. And yet, I managed to read all of them at least 3 times. Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, (   Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon  ) Those were magical days...of wishing there really was Hogwarts so that we could get on to Jacobite at the beginning of a school session, of drawing Hogwarts emblem wherever I could find an empty space, of making a scrapbook full of Harry Potter news clips, of...

I'm not a big fan of short stories, and I can count the number of stories-collection that I've read in my life. However, there is one book that I do read time and again. It is "Chicken Soup" for the romantic soul. Now, I am definitely not the romantic type of a person but it is fun to read about the romantics sometimes. Here is a story that is my all-time favorite. It is short and very sweet. I can't help but smile when I read it every time. "It was a Friday morning, and a young businessman finally decided to ask his boss for a raise. Before leaving for work he told his wife what he was about to do. All day long he felt nervous and apprehensive. Finally, in the late afternoon, he summoned the courage to approach his employer, and to the businessman's delight, the boss agreed to the raise. The elated husband arrived home to a beautiful table set with their best china and lighted candles. Smelling the aroma of a festive meal, he figured that so...

Because it will give you courage. Because it will give you strength to move on. Because crying and giving up has never done anyone any good. Because it will lift the spirits of your loved ones. Because you look ugly when you look sad. Because it is an antidote to misery. Because it is a way to be thankful you're alive. Because it is the best way to greet the day ahead. Because it is also the best way to say goodbye to a day. Because it has the power to make someone's day. Because it can wash away your pain faster than you think. Because it looks more beautiful on you than the most expensive of clothes. Because "it is the best way to get away with trouble even if it’s a fake one" Because it is contagious and the world will smile right back at you. Because "it is the way the soul says hello" Because everything will be alright. Because life is worth it. Because YOU  are worth it.

“Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”   - Ross Wakeman, from "Second Glance" by Jodi Picoult.

My memory fails me at times. I am not that young any longer. I recall someone telling me that I sound like someone beyond my age. If they did not see my picture, they'd believe I was a middle aged woman wallowing in the memory of my good old days. I know an occasional dysfunctional memory is anyone's pain in the neck. And I just made a big thing out of nothing, just like old women do, or just like people like me do. What brought this on is a picture which was preceded by a word. The word - tapioca: a food substance prepared from cassava in granular, flake, pellet (pearl tapioca), or flour form, used in puddings, as a thickener, etc. And the picture: Now this strummed memory cords in an unusual way. Where have I seen this? I have tasted it, perhaps years ago, or maybe it was just months. Its taste is like a phantom that lingers at the roof of my mouth but I do not have a solid recognition to grab on to. Is it an imagination? The word is a stranger, the pictu...

I still get emails from websites like Tarot, I Ching, Horoscope Daily...but despite their diligence, they always end up in my "deleted" folder without being read. I suppose there is a time in life when you fall for anything and then later realize how stupid they have been the whole time. To be honest, back in school, I used to buy newspapers just to see my horoscope. That would be a way to prepare me for the day. If Sagittarius had 5 stars, I'd be happy, thinking that my day was going to go flawlessly, and that something good was going to happen. But if someday, there was a 2/3 stars then, my spirits would just slump and I'd dread going to school at all. Teenage: boys, boys, boys, or just that special one; a casual attraction or a deep love, no matter how mistaken. Truth be told, going to school has only a handful of motives, nearing the top is the people of opposite sex; my crush, my friends’ crush, my crush's crush, etc. And horoscope came a lot han...

Sometimes I wonder if I have had too much effect of reading in my life. What a man reads defines who he is. That is true. Of all work of literature, I am not at all shy, even in this age (almost mid 20s, yes) to say that I am still a huge fan of the Harry Potter series. You might think I like the heavy loads like, hell I don't even know many of them. I just read what I like and like what I feel most close to. But let’s not wander astray from the main thing I am about to discuss here, although some of it does have to do with a Harry Potter thing, and significantly it is. May be it because I have read a little too much of the Harry Potter series, especially the third edition, maybe it is not, but when I was in school, I couldn't just get the notion of seeing myself as an adult out of my system. I used to say to myself, One day, one day the older me, a twenty-four year old me(that's just about now) would somehow pop out and I(the then sixteen year old me) woul...

Today is Shrawane Sankranti. Sankranti, as far as I know, is the beginning of a month. So it's the first day of the month of Shrawan. When I was on my way to work this morning, I saw women with green bangles and lots of Mehendi already. So it's the beginning of this wave also. See, my family is as religious as it is ritualistic - which is not very much, on both accounts. My Mom used to observe fastings till she couldn't do it anymore because of Gastritis. And her fastings used to be limited to not eating meat, or practically anything except fruit, and then roti and curd, may be after sunset. This fasting used to be a weekly business - every Tuesday, to be precise (that means Lord Ganesh). And then there was Teej. Like I've said, my family has never really adhered to rituals very much. By rituals, I mean the kind of practices that are all too common among strict Brahmins, or even some Newars. So during Teej, despite of what was common during the festival period,...

"When nothing is sure, everything is possible."~ Margaret Drabble Let me start off by quoting one of my favorite writers, Jodi Picoult who in her book " Handle with Care " said, “I wondered about the explorers who'd sailed their ships to the end of the world. How terrified they must have been when they risked falling over the edge; how amazed to discover, instead, places they had seen only in their dreams. ” How many times have we lost our way, how many times have we caught ourselves in dilemma, how many times have we taken decisions on the spur of the moment, how many times have the decisions proven faulty and how many times have we regretted any of our choices. I'd say countless. Against all belief, I say that life is long. Sure, it seems to pass at the speed of light, but if only we learnt to live one moment at a time, it is a long life that we have all been granted with. That being said, I'd also like to agree that the length of our lives is...

If you're done with gaping at the title of this blog, I'd like to assert again that I DON'T LIKE CHOLOLATE!! And I'm not the only one, if you're wondering what the heck makes me stand out from this chocolate-loving planet. Granted, it's proven that chocolate's ingredients have a significant impact on brain chemistry. It is said to stimulate the brain's pleasure centers. Chocolate have been shown to help our body produce more of a special chemical known as “serotonin.” Because serotonin makes us feel relaxed, eating chocolate has a pleasurable, relaxing effect that makes us feel good! It may be true for the 96% of the population (A survey showed that 4% people did not like chocolate) but it's not a fact that is true for everyone.  Chocolates are too sweet, and I'm not too fond of sweet items. I said, not too fond. But then again, some chocolates aren't sweet, just bitter. Either way, I don't like them. Period. I don't not-e...