Reality v/s Perception

My dear doggie, Fluffy, attacked my friend's mom while she was at my place. She just passed by his kennel nothing more. It's not serious apparently. I came to know about it after a few days. Told my mom about it and she was astonished. He never does that, he is such a darling. Why would he attack only her? are a few of the things that she blurted..

Truth is... he does that... often. He only likes family and no one else. In my mother's head he is the materialisation of good behaviour itself, playful but so composed. I didn't wish to shatter her vision of the Fluffy d'amour so I uttered not a word more.

Made me ponder though... about how blurred our vision gets by our emotions. We only see what we want to see. A few examples of that would be: girl falls for bad boy hoping that he will change his ways, guy falls for gold digger, parents refusing to see that their kids are actually bullies.. They are all examples of how love can sometimes be blind like the saying goes. What about the others: aversion, anger, sadness? I think it's basically the same. Our emotions taint reality and distort it to make it become our perception of it.

How not to get drowed in this ocean of emotions we constantly swim in?

State the facts... that's all. Well it's more simply said than done eh... I admit.
One illustration of how stating the facts work would be the case of the soup gone bad.
Wife asks husband to keep soup in fridge after using. Husband forgets and leaves soup out all night. Come morning, wife finds soup gone bad.
Case 1:
Wife states to husband that soup has gone bad. Husband realises and apologises. And they get on with their day.
Case 2:
Wife blames husband for being careless and wasting food. husband gets defensive. It escalates quickly and they have a row.

We would all choose Case 1 but it we more often fall in case to when it comes to situations... It takes training not to dive in the sea of emotions... it makes us feel so alive. But is it woth it?

Diamonds v/s Flowers

I've never been much of a bling bling girl; more the T-shirt, shorts and sandals wearing type. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against diamonds, bien au contraire like they say in french.

I was randomly surfing (Pinterest actually, that's where I go when I'm bored on Sunday nights). I came across this phrase and it more than just caught my attention:

"I'd rather have flowers on my table than diamonds on my neck" - Emma Goldman

It hit home beautifully. I have to admit I didn't know who Emma Goldman was but I just had to, this woman had just made my day. I googled :D Turns out she's a German anarcha-feminist who lived a few centuries ago. That was just side information. Let's get to the point where we analyse things. It's said that diamonds are forever and a girl's best friend. They are shiny, lustrous, elegant, precious, expensive, mostly expensive and they last an indefinite amount of time which can be considered as forever. As for flowers they are pretty, colourful, smell good, bloom out of nowhere, are available everywhere, share their beauty and then fade to nothingness. Put like this the diamonds seem like a more intelligent deal than the flowers, right? For anyone in their right mind.

Then why does the flower have so much more appeal for the free-thinking "rebel woman" Emma Goldman and I, not to forget countless other women, I hope? Would it be because the flower is a living thing? Or would it be because the flower reminds us of the fragility and impermanence of our own lives. It could also be because of the cycle the flower goes through. The flower becomes the fruit which becomes the seeds which then becomes the plant to become the flower again. This one is my personal favourite. Whatever it is, fresh flowers make me happy. I love having them in my bedroom, they breathe life and sunshine, even and specially in winter.

Dialogue: Letting go and moving on, one worrier to another

Today, after a long while I finally had the time to catch up with one of my best friends, Yashweena (aka Yash). It’s surprising how time takes a toll on us and we get caught up in life: work, colleagues, money, university, dissertation, exams, health, weight issues, home, boyfriends, other friends, boyfriends’ friends, family, siblings, distance (she’s in the UK and I’m in heavenly Mauritius). Yet somehow, we always find a way to always find each other again. Here’s an extract of my refreshing conversation with her about all these things.
…
Anjalee: Don’t let yourself get blown by these events. Be stable and remain positive else you’ll be submerged
Yash: Already feeling submerged right now T_T. I just feel so conflicted in so many areas in life; trying to sort them out is such a struggle.
Anjalee: It doesn't have to be.
Yash: emotionally mentally physically draining
Anjalee: you are trying to control too many things. Just let them be. Ani Kim told me yesterday
loads of things don’t work out in life. We just have to let go and move on, move on and on.
Yash: So hard to let go. How do you do it? O.O
Anjalee: It's hard. Specially when one is a worrier. I tell myself if I can’t do anything about it, my worrying will only add to the overall negative energy and make it worse. And every time I think of that situation I tell myself: it's temporary, it'll pass
Yash: Sounds like a good method. Lol, worrier incarnate although way way less than before
Anjalee: When you know things don’t last even if you need to remind yourself of that it takes away the fatality of the situation.
Yash: So true it does seem so end of the worldish when there is a problem which you can’t seem to deal with. Arigato. Feel a bit lighter.
...
Then we go on talking about other stuffs. I blogged about this because often we know things but we forget (I've been there so many times)or when in a situation it doesn’t cross our mind and we need to be reminded. Like this time I reminded Yash, and at countless other times she reminded me that we do have methods, ways to be almost at peace, no matter the situation even happier. Oh happiness, I have to blog about that one too... Soon. Until then…

The Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi gives Indian mythology a new feel

I finally got my hands on a series of books I have pinned for a long long time. It made my Christmas  (I'm not a very Christmasy person)  really merry. Big thanks to my bro Julie.

The series in question is the Shiva Trilogy, which consists of three books (obviously, since it's a trilogy. duh!):
1. The Immortals of Meluha
2. The Secret of the Nagas
3. The Oath of the Vayuputras (released in March 2013)

The main protagonist is the much loved hindu deity Shiva, also known as the Destroyer (Brahma being the Creator and Vishnu the Sustainer, thus forming the Trinity, but this story is not about them but about Shiva so let's focus on that.) The author intelligently fished in the vast sea of gods and goddesses of the Hindu mythology. There's also Nandi, Shiva's bodyguard and companion; Sati, his love interest who then becomes his wife... Daksha, Kali...  He breathed life into them in the backdrop of the Indus Valley territory (makes me reminiscent of my Social Studies classes and gives it a whole new dimension).

2 more days: Story of the old monk and the woman

I love stories. I came across one and it made me reflect. Here it goes:

Two more days

Long ago, in some far away land, there was an old monk going on a pilgrimage on a mountain far far away. Aged and weak, he was treading the long dusty road alone, seeking alms along the way. After many long months, one morning he gazed upwards and saw the majestic mountain in a distance. By the roadside, there was an old woman working the field.

"Please tell me," he asked, "how much longer I must proceed before reaching the mountain?"

The woman just looked at him, uttered a guttural sound and returned to her hoeing. He repeated the question a second and third time, but still there was no answer.

Thinking the woman must be deaf, he decided to push on. After he had taken a few dozen steps, he heard the woman call out to him, "Two more days, it will take you two more days."

Somewhat annoyed, the monk responded, "I thought you were deaf. Why didn't you answer my question earlier?"

The woman replied, "You asked the question while you were standing put, Master. I had to see how fast your pace was, how determined your walk!"

We often find ourselves in the same position as the old monk in the story, standing still and wondering why no one tells us how fast we'll get "there", where ever there would be. Sometimes walking through life, not willing to ask for any direction and, getting frustrated as to why no one comes to our assistance. It may be that we are being assessed, our strength and determination being tested or just that we forgot to ask. I believe that whatever we go through, someone somewhere must have been there before. The conditions may be different, the circumstances not the same but life is too big for it to be entirely different.
And like says Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, "Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it."

Therefore discouraged be not, but forge ahead!

Too much dairy for my own good

This is the story of how I almost got sick because of too much dairy.

It was a fine summer evening, the sun was setting and there was a light breeze.
I was heading to my humble abode after a long day at work. I met one of my best friends and we ended up ingesting an enormous amount of ice cream.

I am personally not a great fan of dairy products specially if sugar is added. I just feel like milk is sweet enough as it is. And I don't like sweet stuffs much, not too sweet. It ruins the taste of things. I love desert though.

The only time I can tolerate milk is every morning, that also plain (just to ensure that I have enough calcium intake ) Not a fan of yogurt (unless it's very little and on top of a variety of fresh fruits) either nor any other form. I like cheese normally but again that depends on what. I like ice cream though, not chocolate ice-cream.

Love chocolate; love ice-cream but not the combination.
Chocolate ice-cream just tastes wrong. *Sigh* I am so full of oxymora.
Initially I wanted chocolate but here's what we got:

Why we heart Adele

But why do we love Adele?

Here are a few reasons why I think we love Adele:

• The voice, THE VOICE, what other than that VOICE.  Those high notes she reaches give goosebumps and the huskiness...
• The lyrics, for all of us, for at least one of her songs it feels like it's been written just for you. It's o.O mind boggling how accurate the feeling of that far far away long lost and forgotten love of one time  and her songs match. A bit over dramatic sometimes but lets face it, we've been there time and again, cried those tears, wiped them, cried again and moved on. Some of her songs help get the tears flowing, the earier they are out of your system the quicker you can move on.
• She's real. It's actually refreshing to see a star of that caliber with some real curves, makes the rest of us mortals relate to her more.

Reading reeks of sexiness!

Books are amazing and reading is sexy! 

I can't say it enough.

When one grabs a book and opens the first page, one embarks on an unknown adventure. You don't just read a book, you live it. A book is a personal thing. It's a one to one relationship between the reader and the book, and a very intimate one for that matter. Not only the book finally but also the author, because the book is always tainted by the author's experience. Always!

As one breezes through the pages one sees things the way the author is projecting them, tainted once again by one's own experience, the imagination being the channel. You feel what the protagonists feel, you get wrapped up in the book, well some books. Some just blow your mind, some leave you breathless, some to nothing more than just annoy you. But a book never leaves one indifferent. One is always changed in some way after reading a book. Maybe it taught you a few new words or it actually made you rethink concepts you hold or ponder upon where you are at that point in time and space in your life.

All in all, I maintain, books are amazing, and reading is sexy!

The habit of uneasiness?

There are days like that when you just don't feel right and you can't put your finger on the reason. You keep digging your head. Is it the headache, the weight on the shoulders, not hearing from someone you wanna hear from, missing your bus, your car breaking down, your boss shouting at you, not getting your favourite meal? What is it that's making you feel so small? It may be all those reasons but it just doesn't seem to add up to how bad you're feeling. You try to rationalize  look for a reason big enough , to smile (as a test of how dark the cloud is) but even the idea of a smile is strenuous. You wonder, there have been worse days and you weren't feeling so low. It doesn't make sense, not at all...

Master - Slave paradox

Thought for today:


"The master is only master as long as the slave is slave."