The 10 Day 'You' Challenge: Day 2 - Two Songs

There are soooo many lovely songs that I enjoy. But 2 songs which are special to me:

(Click on the song names to watch the video)

Words by Bee Gees.
This song  even made up the soundtrack for our wedding e-invite. That's how special it is! Here are the lyrics:

Smile an everlasting smile, 

a smile can bring you, near to me.

Don't ever let me find you down,

cause that would bring a tear to me.

This world has lost its glory, 

let's start a brand new story,

now, my love.

Right now, there'll be no other time,

and I can show you,

how, my love.

Talk in everlasting words, 

and dedicate them all to me.

And I will give you all my life, 

I'm here if you should call to me.

You think that I don't even mean,

a single word I say.

It's only words, and words are all I have,

to take your heart away.

And the second one is a long-time favourite hymn. In fact, I've even sung it as a lullaby for my nephew when he was a baby :-)

Blessed Are You Lord

Stanza I:

Blessed  are You, Lord, God of all creation
Thanks to your Goodness
This Bread we offer
Fruit of the earth, work of our hands
It will become the Bread of life

Ch: (Repeat Twice)

Blessed be God (2)
Blessed be God forever, Amen

Stanza II:

Blessed are You, Lord, God of all creation
Thanks to your Goodness
This Wine we offer
Fruit of the vine, work of our hands
It will become the Cup of Joy

What are your special songs?

10 Day 'You' Challenge: Day 1 - One Picture

 

Okay so I too decided to join the bandwagon! Over the course of the next 10 days, I am going to put up a series of posts, with each day describing something about myself as depicted in the given pic. I hope you find it interesting and also, why don't you join too? Let's have some fun discovering trivia about each other!

Today being the first day, the challenge is an easy one. One picture of me. So here we go!

Okay I lied. (Ya rite! As if you didn't know that!)
Ta-daa! Here I am!

An Award And A Tag

Yayyy :-) Got my second "One Lovely Blog" award from Arpitha Holla of Me-ing! Thanks girl! I am truly flattered :-)

So she has tagged me to answer her 7 questions. Here goes! 

1) Which is your favorite "Lays" flavour?  

Cream and Onion. Yum!

2) Which is the one place you would love to go but have not been there as yet? 

Tooo manyyy! I actually wrote an entire post on this! But if someone is pointing a gun at me and asking me to choose JUST one then it would be Hawaii.

3) Which is the one color you hate?

 Brown 

4) Given an option to rescue a wooden log or a wooden plank which one would you rescue? 

Wooden plank

5) Why did you rescue whichever you rescued? 

Because I would guess that more amount of work and effort has gone into the wooden plank than the log and I wouldn’t want all that be wasted.  

(BTW I found this question puzzling! Could you please explain what made you come up with this one?!)

6) Dogs or cats? 

Dogs.

7) Which is the one gadget which you would like to own which you don't already have? 

Again only ONE!?! Not fair! Hmm okay as long as I am wishing let me wish for... A fully equipped robot to do alll my household chores!

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

An old published review of mine.

Directed by David Slade, the third part of the Twilight movie series based on Stephanie Meyer’s novel of the same name, stays as faithful to the book as possible. Of course, many still consider the book to be superior to the movie, but then that is almost always the case with books which are converted to celluloid.

Interested? Please head over to Women's Web to read my full review over there.

Have you watched this movie? Share your thoughts with me!

Supporting Social Change

I guess that by now most of this blog's followers would be aware that I have switched careers from IT to Journalism. I had the opportunity to interact with another such person, who has switched from being an Engineer and has gone on to become the Chief Editor of The Alternative, an online platform that focuses on social development in India. If you are interested in learning more about The Alternative's initiatives and plans, please head to Women's Web, to read my interview with Aarti Mohan.

The Chosen

The Chosen by Usha K.R steers clear of clichés, but manages to stay convincingly relatable and appealing.

Image Source: Rediff

This is another first. Much like the previous review I posted, I had neither read nor even heard about Usha KR.  But I am glad that I gave The Chosen a try. This book is about a young girl, Nagaratna, who is forced to move out of her village after her father’s untimely death. She and her mother join her brother’s family in the city, where she continues her studies and starts working. The events that unfold in her life and her evolution and growth into a worldly-wise woman, without losing her innate qualities pretty much sums up the book.  

The first thing that caught my attention was Usha’s descriptive writing. Although this story is based in Bangalore, it was really not difficult to picture the everyday life and surroundings of Nagaratna. In fact, I could clearly see the crowded and bustling market streets, the busy shops and the lower-middle class dwellings replete with the sights and sounds of such environs. I have shopped in such shops, walked down such streets and visited such dwellings – therefore it was easy to relate to the described life of Nagaratna. Usha’s attention to the minute details is highly evident and she beautifully weaves an interesting tale.

Nagaratna, yearns to go beyond the squalor and mediocrity of her surroundings and the people currently in her life, be it the gossipy neighbourhood women, her ardent admirers or her shallow friends.  In direct contrast to Nagaratna’s upbringing and social standing, is the school where she joins work as admin personnel. An island of tranquility and a sophisticated beauty, it is everything that Nagaratna has longed for. She idolizes the Principal, Miss Pandit. Nagaratna is swept away by the classy and suave Miss. Pandit, who seems to have clever answers and clear solutions for everything. In fact she seems so smitten by the lady, that at times I was almost scared that the story would morph into some lesbian love story. Thankfully it doesn’t. (No offense to lesbians; just that, that was not why I picked up this book.)

Speaking of clichés, I was equally glad that Nagaratna’s sis-in-law is not some kind of stereotypical, selfish shrew who is jealous of her or who quarrels incessantly over petty matters with her mother-in-law. Instead she happens to be a friendly and supportive person, which of course is good. Neither is the mother-in-law a bully and both share a cordial relationship. Also the school is run by a spiritual ashram with all the yoga, dhyanam, holistic healing gyan attached to it. So again I was a tad worried that it is going to turn out to be some kind of “Hare Rame! Hare Krishna” -hippies-who-get-exposed-as-a-sham story. Again, thankfully it wasn’t. There is also a love story thrown in between Nagaratna and the much elder Vasant. Although not exactly a satisfying love story, again I was thankful that there was no sordid details of naïve-girl-taken-advantage-of-by-bad-man-and-got-pregnant kind of stuff.  Grateful to Usha for not putting it such done-to-death and lame digressions.

I am a kind of person who dislikes tragic endings. No matter how much tragedy happens in a story, I would much prefer it, if everyone is happy at the end. The Chosen is not really a tragedy. I would say, maybe it is a realistic story. This is not a fairytale and no one sails into the sunset to live happily ever after. I presume Usha didn't want a cliche in her ending either. So I guess the ending did not totally appeal to the impractical dreamer that I am, but I can quite see the practicality of it.

On the whole, The Chosen was a good read of a young woman who is "torn between who she is and who she wants to be" and I enjoyed it. Will I look out for more of Usha’s books? Sure!

 

The $1 Date

Who says that a memorable date needs to dig deep into your pockets? I just had one – a long walk with a cool breeze caressing me gently, chit-chatting with my husband while sipping fragrant cardamom tea and munching on crispy onion pakoras. It was a beautiful date. Wouldn’t you agree?