Wishing for -what- will make this better?

There are some emotions you don't readily share with the public. Actually, these are hidden away in some obscure recess of your own psyche, just to emerge when something truly despicable happens. 

Like it happened 3 days ago. An act of cowardice and sheer evil. First reaction (as spectators from far) is anger, then helplessness... followed by hatred. It is such an ugly emotion, and I hope nobody ever has to feel so. 

It reduces a sane human being to a diabolical creature. 

And I feel that in times like these, it is justified. 

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I need a "publish privately" feature on this blog. Maybe that will make me able to rant clearly. 

Cosmic joker

Funny coincidence: every thursday at 5, T and I find ourselves driving towards the music class. On 90% of those days, that fevicol of songs plays on the radio - Light up, light up sketchers. I mean, the song is so bad, so, so bad. And it sticks :(

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Poetry is the salt

I happened to read some verses from rashmirathi today. I have always loved this epic. Of course when I first read it, I was too young and naive to even begin to understand the sheer genius of this creation. So about 15 years ago, when I first saw the entire epic (which is seven parts with several chapters in each) on kavitakosh, I was truly blown away.

So, one of the remnants of the good old era of nice-internet is kavitakosh. As far as I know, its a not-for-profit venture run by volunteers. Please do visit. It hosts so many gems that we do not come across anymore. 

Rashmirathi has been permanently bookmarked on my browser ever since then. Every now and then, I do happen to read a verse or two and it never fails to amaze!

सच है, विपत्ति जब आती है, 

कायर को ही दहलाती है,

शूरमा नहीं विचलित होते,

क्षण एक नहीं धीरज खोते,

विघ्नों को गले लगाते हैं,

काँटों में राह बनाते हैं।

The wind rises

Summer is in full bloom here in Hyd. As if on cue, the amaltaas have flowered right around Ugadi. So its an even more colourful display of beauty around us now. These trees dont believe in modesty I think :p

Even our humble balcony has been painted pink making the morning coffee an affair with beauty.

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The ghiblify trend has openAi's GPUs melting they said. I dont know if Miazaki would be happy or sad at this trend. I for one have no right to complain having tried it myself. 

Flame of the forest

A couple of weeks ago we went on a road trip to Tadoba. If I had to choose two words to describe this road trip, they would be - (1) roads and (2) trip. Just kidding, the words would be (1)where and (2) tiger.

Apart from our usual road trip itinerary (eating loads of junk because calories don't count on the road) we were able to witness something magnificent. - SPRING in the jungle. I was constantly reminded of the poem -"aaye mahant vasant". So many vibrant colors - palash, yellow elder, pink trumpets.. everywhere in the forest. While the boys were busy bouncing around to catch a sight of the beast, I was happy feasting my eyes on these beauties. 

I love libraries

 Overheard between two 4th graders in the school library... and I should add for context, they're both boys - "Did you know Bruno Mars isnt actually from Mars?"

I was there for a reading program. Loved it.

Because I like food

Over the years we have made our peace with the realization that we are a noisy family. There is no doubt or debate about this anymore. Social engagements are planned keeping this fact in mind. Which is also one of the reasons we love outdoors so much... lol

But jokes aside, we talk a lot, and constantly.. and sometimes all at once (yeah I know how that sounds. No, we are not a misbehaved lot. We just have so much to say). So, coming back to the point. This phenomena of talking a lot means that a lot of words are used everyday. Maybe this is why, it is possible to observe "semantic shifts" even within our limited population. The trends are often short lived (upto 6 months). Some of the currently trending ones are:

a) using related nouns as verbs, even when an appropriate verb is available. e.g. I am fooding for I am eating, sleep me for help me sleep.. etc.

b) eliminating intervening vowel sounds from 2 syllable words. e.g. This juice tastes gd for good, I need fd for food. 

(Please note that (a) and (b) can also be combined to form - fd me i.e. food me which in turn means - Give me food)

c) Inserting "the" between multisyllabic words to separate the syllables.. e.g. wa-the-ter for water, re-the-mote for remote, etc.

d) Distinct neologism.. This phenomenon isn't short lived at all. In fact, some words have crossed generations now :)

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My newfound love is for pickled root vegetables. So usually beetroot, carrots and.. radish ! Now the kids hate the smell of pickled radishes, or radishes in general. And I have discovered this is a very effective method of getting myself some quiet time. All I have to do is open a jar of pickles :)