..And the dream we were
conceived in
will reveal a joyful face.
And the world we
once believed in
will shine again in grace.

It’s so hard to believe the guy who created this beautiful song is no more. I’m not quite the kind of person to mourn for dead pop stars but this song comes very close to moving me to tears.

For many years in school, I’d thought this was another prayer song. That was when any song sung in the school assembly, whether or not it had a ‘I love you Jesus’ in it, was a prayer song to me. I loved the song then, and loved it all the more when I knew it came from the Micheal Jackson (or was it the other way round, I loved MJ for this song?). The song that featured in the first mixed tape that I made (which for some reason I hold close to my heart), the first song that I remember searching in google for, the song that plays in every playlist of mine and one that gets copied to every back up CD that I create. A song that’s seen my every mood; to me, it has always meant more than just another anti-war song.

While the world remembers Micheal Jackson as the Thriller, Bad and Dangerous guy, I’ve always known and loved him for ‘heal the world’; and now, miss him for it. May he rest in peace. For you and for me.

You can see the music video here. (youtube refuses to let me embed that one)

(Side note: If you’re wondering why this post comes about a week late when the rest of the world is done mourning, well, readers of this blog will know, be it raising a toast or paying tribute, it has always my blog policy  to rise to the occasion a tad late. That or I’m just very very lazy!)

(Side side note: If you’re wondering why the above text is so tiny to read, well, fine print is generally not meant to be read and if you did read it, you’re probably  a geek and you’re probably wearing big glasses anyway)

by Abirami.

Now, the unbelieving, skeptical cynic that you are, I know you’ll go to her blog to check if she really did tag me and  on seeing her blog protected, you will find it hard to believe that I was indeed tagged. Well, what can I say, you’ll just have to try and believe me. (Abirami, see, this is one of the million reasons why you should have your blog public).

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Throw a tantrum big enough to make him wish he was never born; failing which, just try to pretend he was never born and move on!

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
I can’t decide which one I want to come true. Can I inky pinky ponky?

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
This guy in office who keeps tapping on my desk for no reason, every time he passes my cubicle.  I’d like to kick his butt and break his fingers too :-/ It’s all the more irritating when I’m concentrating on work, you know. Like now.

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
First things first. Convert it to Rupees and then, hire someone to count it for me.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
If I happen to fall in love with him, he being my best friend would be an icing on the cake.  (Before you start wondering, no, it was just a theoretical answer)

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Depends on who of the two someones is more good-looking.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
Forever. But while I wait, just make sure I don’t get bored, ok?!

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Secretly wish he’d get himself cloned soon.

9. If you like to act with someone, who will it be? your gf/bf or an actress/actor?
Actor. Any single actor. Who would later become my bf and then husband, and would then leave me a large alimony amount when we get divorced.  (Well, since Qn  4 was hypothetical,  I’m just making my own plans for the billion dollars)

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Being snubbed by someone I care about. But then, I get myself up pretty soon too. After a lot of cribbing and whining, of course.

11. How do you see yourself at this time ten years down the line?
Well, definitely not sitting in office at 7PM, answering questions about my love-life.

12. What’s your fear?
Ok, here comes the big list (may be, I should categorize them, put them in alphabetical order and number them)
- Accidents. Particularly that, someone I know (and needless to say, care about) would be involved in one. The very thought freaks me out.
- Flying cockroaches (Seriously, why do these creepy creatures have to have wings?)
- Spiders (three or more legged)
- Being home alone at night (Strangely, being out alone in the dark doesn’t scare me so much)
- Lift doors. Well, lifts in general.
- *Kinda embarrassed* Electricity. (I have this strange premonition that I’m gonna die of an electric shock. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing that my premonitions never come true)

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
Awesome writer ( if only you could read her blog). And, I wish I’d gotten to know her better in person  when I had my chance.

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married but poor?
Single with a rich boyfriend. (It’s nice to be pampered…without the hassles that marriage would bring, no?)

15. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?
Try to pick my thoughts from where I left them the previous night…

16. Would you give all in a relationship?
Mm..can I answer this later? Later as in a few decades later?

17. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
I’ll have to pick? Can’t I have them both? Why? Ok, the one who can make me laugh, even when I’m in a not-so-laughing mood.

18. Would you forgive and forget, no matter how horrible a thing someone has done?
Forgive, yes. Quite easily. Forget, No. Though, I sometimes wish it was the other way round.

19.Do you prefer being single or having a relationship?
Single.  And in a place where it’s OK to be single.

20. List 6 people to tag
One more time I tag my friends, I’m sure atleast one of them will find 20 creative ways to kill me. So, if you have a blog and if you think the tag is cool, and if you’re NOT my friend, consider yourself tagged.  And if you will do it, well, so sweet of you!

(Part 1 here…)

One day, as the little crow was flying around, she saw a glass jar. It was a normal looking jar, except that it did not appear to hold any water. She thought it was strange for all jars she’d seen so far held water, atleast a little bit. She flew down to look more closely at it. She noticed that it was a fine jar – not very ornate but well made. She treaded forward, a tad cautiously and sat on the brim of the jar, from where she could look at the world around her. Strangely, the world appeared more beautiful from the brim of the jar than it did when she was flying above.

She sat there for a long while, not really doing anything, when she suddenly noticed there indeed was some water sparkling in the jar. She was a little surprised that she hadn’t seen it all this while she was sitting there. The glistening water mesmerized her. Did I tell you, it was quite a bright and sunny day? Without thinking much, she picked a pebble from the ground – strangely the pebble wasn’t as heavy as she had expected it to be – and dropped it into the water. The ripples it created startled her for a moment. But then, it was beautiful too. She wondered if she should drop another pebble in. The water was glistening again in the sun, brighter than before. She told herself it wouldn’t matter whether the water ever reached the brim or not, she could fly away any moment she wanted to. She wasn’t so scared now. She picked a few more pebbles, one by one and dropped them into the jar, choosing first the lighter stones and then, the heavier. The water kept rising with each pebble, sparkling even more each time. Every now and then, she stopped, wondering if something could go wrong, for she always knew something could…but she liked picking the pebbles, she liked the sparkle in the water and she liked everything about the jar.

Soon, the jar was nearly filled with pebbles and the water rose very close to the brim. It scared the crow now for she didn’t know what would happen when the water reached the brim. She had no clue. Nevertheless, she kept dropping the pebbles in till she could see the water very nearly touching the brim. She picked the last pebble, and holding her breath, gingerly dropped it into the jar…

Suddenly, something happened. Something she had feared all along. The water started flowing down between the stones, towards the bottom of the jar and was quickly draining out. She could not entirely understand what went wrong but she realized somewhere along the way, while she was busy dropping the pebbles in, the jar had cracked. She was ready to pick more pebbles and drop them in if it could help, but it was too late and all too suddenly, over.

She sat there at the brim, feeling sad and wishing the jar had somehow not cracked, wishing she had never dropped that last pebble, wishing she had never picked any pebbles…wishing she had never stopped to look at the jar, wishing she had never seen the jar. The other crows urged her to fly away. ‘The river isn’t far away’, they said, ‘fly’!

But the little crow just sat there watching the jar -  now filled with stones, and the traces of water fast evaporating – hoping she would soon find the strength to fly…

Related Posts:

The road I took…
Don’t Look Back
The Little Things
The little red balloon

(This post comes in two parts – only ‘cos it was too long to fit in one. I don’t intend to make it into a mega serial or anything. That said, the post could be as boring as a mega serial. Don’t say you weren’t warned)

“Once upon a time, a thirsty crow noticed a huge jar and saw that, at the very bottom, there was a little water. For a long time the crow tried to spill the water out so she can drink some and quench her thirst. After exerting herself for some time in vain, she thought of an idea. She picked some pebbles lying around and tossed them into the jar. As the pebbles settled down at the bottom of the jar, the water rose and eventually, she was able to take a drink”

Now, you should know that it’s not everyday that a crow would do something this clever. The foxes never liked the crows and the swans were wary of them, but the cuckoos, they always made crows feel very stupid. So, naturally, our crow’s ingenuity in fetching water from the jar spread far and wide. Books were written about her, the principles on how the water rose were discussed, several debates were fought and our crow, eventually, went down in history as the crow that fetched water from the jar. The jar became significant too. People wondered what kind of jar it was, how much water it had when the pebbles were dropped, whether it being a pitcher made any difference and so on. Every physics textbook discussed the Water Jar principle in much detail.

Several generations later, though the water jar principle was still much discussed and taught in schools, life wasn’t so difficult for crows as it was earlier. There was water everywhere – in the streams, rivers, fountains, broken municipality pipes, everywhere – and crows never went thirsty. Yet, many crows still liked to drink water from the jars, dropping pebbles into them. Some did it for the fun of it, some said the water from the jar tasted better and some were just curious…

Now, there was this little crow, who flew around all by herself, drinking water from where ever she could get and stealing food from houses, whenever she was hungry. Life was as smooth as it could get and she was happy. She was bored some times, yet she wasn’t troubled. Every now and then, she would hear stories about how the other crows drop pebbles in jars to drink water. She never understood why anyone would want to do that – sit all day long at the brim of a jar, drop pebbles in and wait for the water to rise. The water might taste very good but she knew, for quite sensible she was, that anything could go wrong when dropping the pebbles in and you might never get the water. The jar might be too deep, one of the pebbles might break the jar or the water inside might just evaporate before you got to it. Nevertheless, she was amused by the stories she heard. She was always curious to know what happened to these crows. She was happy for the ones who succeeded in reaching the water, sad for the ones who failed and angry at the ones who broke the jars.

(Continued here)

Saw it here. Liked it. Stole it. It isn’t really a tag but a forward made into a tag; a fun one though.

1. Were you named after anyone?
Nope, but had they given me a choice, Roopa would have been the last name I’d have picked.

2. When was the last time you cried?
I don’t remember but those tear glands of mine are super active. They come to life every now and then for no reason.

3. Do you like your handwriting?
Sometimes yes. Mostly no.

4. What is your favorite lunch?
Anything that is not our cafeteria food.

5. Do you have kids?
No.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
Yes. In fact, I’d prefer being my friend than being me.

7. Do you use sarcasm a lot?
Not a lot. Just sometimes when I’m miffed and sometimes when I’m bored and sometimes when I’m happy…alright, a lot.

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
Yes.

9. Would you bungee jump?
Sure. Let me finish this suicide letter first.

10.What is your favorite cereal?
Cornflakes.

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
No.

13. What is your favorite ice cream?
Umm..I don’t quite have a preference. (Some people don’t. Now, stop giving me that look!)

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
The way they are dressed..as in neatly, badly or carelessly.

15. Red or pink?
Red.

16. What is the least favorite thing about yourself?
My cribbing.

17. Who do you miss the most ?
As of now, reality.

18. Do you want everyone to send this back to you?
Yes but who is everyone here?

19. What color shoes are you wearing?
Not wearing shoes now.

20. What was the last thing you ate?
Dried dates.

21. What are you listening to right now?
Someone yelling in Kannada on the road. Oh u mean music? Nothing.

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Red. We ran out of red? Ok, black.

23. Favorite smells?
Petrol, fresh paint, anything lemony..and oh, the smell from the pages of a new book.

24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Bro.

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
That’s like asking a thief, ‘do you like the person whom you stole from?’.

26. Favorite sports to watch?
Er..

27. Hair colour?
Brownish black…or blackish brown. Whatever.

28. Eye color?
Brown.

29. Do you wear contacts?
No.

30. Favorite food?
One more question on food and I’ll scream! Alright, anything to do with baby corn.

31. Scary movies or happy endings?
Scary. But it had better end well.

32. Last movie you watched?
Don’t remember..

33. What color shirt are you wearing?
White.

34. Summer or winter?
Winter.

35. Hugs or kisses?
Both. The Hershey’s ones please. Thank you.

36. Favorite dessert?
Litchi with ice cream.

37. Most likely to respond?
To what?

38. Least likely to respond?
Er..

39. What book are you reading now?
Critical – Robin Cook.

40. What is on your mouse pad?
I don’t have a mouse pad.

41. What did you watch on tv last night?
News…that said my company was laying off people. The very few times I watch the news, I hear stuff like this :(

43. Rolling stones or beatles?
Will have to pick? Ok, Beatles.

44. What is the farthest you have been from home?
A state away.

45. Do you have a special talent?
Stuff like eating scorpions, lifting airplanes, etc? No.

46. Where were you born?
Coimbatore.

47. Whose answers are you looking forward to getting back?
Change this to “who are you going to tag?”.  Abirami, Prathiba, Shoba and Shriram. Hopefully, atleast one of them will do it.

…and it’s that time of the year when people make you feel a tad left out and unwelcome in the excitement… ‘cos you did not stay up late on New Year’s eve thinking about how the previous year went, how you’d like the new year to be, what you’d like to change in yourself and all that interesting stuff that new year blog posts are generally made of. Instead you were busy thinking about who you should call, who you should message and who you should give a missed call to before the mobile networks shutdown for 30 minutes in  memory of the past year. The next day, New Year’s day, when people ask you what your new year resolution is and your mind suddenly goes “er..”, you realize you aren’t quite welcome into the New Year without a resolution to share.  Now, not that my new year started any less happier than anyone else’s but this have-to-take-a-resolution thing that people insist on always leaves me feeling a li’l lost. I mean, what’s wrong with the way I am, except for the fact that the way I am sucks?

Anyway I finally decided to give in to the pressure and take a resolution this year. (A whole week late, I know, but what the heck. They taught me in school that it’s better late than never and I’m going to utilize that excuse to the full extent whenever and wherever possible)…

You know how every time you get those forwards on astrological signs and you start comparing your own personality with the traits of your (zodiac) stereotype? Well, I’m not so much into astrology and I don’t quite care where the stars and planets chose to party when I was born (liked they cared about my birth!), but I think  Taurus is the coolest sign to be in. I’ve always been proud of being a Taurean. But, then, I look at myself and analyze how well I fit in as a Taurean; and that’s when the proverbial fall comes. I’ve none of the cool Taurean traits I’m supposed to have!  I sometimes wonder if I really was born in May or my parents just chose May for my birthday ‘cos it would be summer vacation and they wouldn’t have to buy me toffees to distribute in school.  Anyway, getting back to the resolution stuff we were talking about, here’s  my resolution for 2009:  Become a real Taurean…ok, atleast a near Taurean.

The cool Taurus traits I will try to adopt starting 2009 (note the emphasis on the “try”. That’s to keep you from asking me for status reports):

–Stubborn–
The Taurean trait. I call this a birth right more than just a trait.

–Determined and strong–
Let me just say, I SO want to be…

–Practical–
My blog title, “drifting away from reality”.  Need I say more? Time I stepped down to earth. Things must have changed a lot there since I last visited.

–Sensible–
Tough one to work on, I k now, for a person blessed with less than required common-sense but heck, I’m atleast gonna try.

–Patient–
Well, while I am usually quite patient with people (now, that’s not a cue for you to test it, ok!), being patient with myself and life, in general, is what I think I should try to be.

–Ferociously angry–
The very phrase, ‘ferociously angry’ sounds like fun, no?

–Relaxed and laid-back–
“Someone please stop this whirlpool in my head. It’s dragging me in!”.  A line I keep telling myself very often. High time I cleared the garbage dump I’ve made of my mind in all these years.

–Lazy–
I’m enough and more lazy already but what I’m going to do is to stop worrying about people nagging me about it. I’ve the right to be lazy ok! The stars said so.

The cool traits that I don’t have and can’t do anything about:

–Creative–
ahem!

–Artistic–
I can’t, for the life of me, understand ‘Art’.

–Financial wizard–
(Saw this in one of those astrology sites) Finance? Me? Seriously?

The un-cool traits that I ‘don’t have and don’t care’ much about:

–Possessive–
I don’t think this is a Taurean trait. There must have been some mix up somewhere. Cool people are not possessive.

–Honest –
bah!

–Punctual–
how very boring to be punctual all the time! Nobody would even notice you.

–Law-abiding–
I’m not exactly sure when being law-abiding went from cool to uncool but really, I don’t care much.

–Loves food–
:D A big joke! people who know me personally would vouch for that.

So, people, now that I have a resolution (as fuzzy as it  may be), can I please enter 2009? Thank you.

Wish you all a happy year ahead!  (Didn’t I tell you, it’s better late than never?)

(This post has been lying around in the ‘Drafts’ for quite sometime. Considering the movie is still running in the theaters, you wouldn’t consider it too stale if I go ahead and publish it, would you?)

Take Dil Chahta Hai and make it a little boring, take Boys and make it a little matured or take any ‘we-shall-beat-all-odds-and-fulfill-our-dreams-after-10-years’ movie and strip all emotions off – and surprise, you get ‘Rock On’! A movie in a class of it’s own…but only because it could not belong anywhere else. I’m not even sure whether I liked it or not. It did rock in some ways – ways that are quite beyond me but in most other ways it only rocked me to sleep.

Anyway, I’m not going to crib about the movie here like what you might expect me to do (if you’re new here, well, for no mistake of mine, people who know me consider me as this incorrigible criboholic. But that’s not true ok?). I just wanted to leave a little open note to each of the cast, appreciating their very existence in the movie and the world at large (and I think the 160 bucks and the 3 hours that I spent on the movie has earned me the right to use their first names)

Farhan, a little drama in a movie never hurt anyone. But forced laughs, a croaky voice and I-don’t-know-what-to-do-so-I’ll-just-stand-around-here looks, that hurts a movie rather badly. And you aren’t even that good looking, you know? (though you got a cute smile) Anyway, this movie makes you an all-rounder in movies huh? That’s nice and that’s huge…but you know what? We like you better as a director. Stick to that, ok? Seriously!

Arjun, Man! With that looks, you can get away with anything, but acting just isn’t your thing. Hey but don’t go away. We, girls want you on the screen…more. (Btw, you absolutely rocked in that bandana look during the first half…but the second half, please please tell me that wasn’t you)

Luke, you were good but I’m sorry, even the I’m-sick-hold-me scenes did not fetch you any limelight in the movie. They could have used you a bit more.

Purab, acting is not just standing around and smiling at every damn thing!

Shahana, you were the only one in the movie who could actually act but we’ll keep that compliment a secret ok? We don’t want our Farhan boy all upset. It looks like, even in real life, he can’t stand anyone stealing his thunder. (Btw, if only I were a guy, I’d have fallen in love with you at first sight)

Prachi Desai (I’ll address you this way ok? you don’t sound  good with just your first name), you are as cute as a wax doll, which, mind you, is not  a compliment. When it comes to acting, well, here’s where people get to say ‘no comments’!

Rest of the cast, you pretty much never existed in the movie but thanks for being there anyway.

And the guy who came up with the script (you aren’t even worth a search in Wikipedia for your name), what’s the opposite of ‘catchy’? We’ll call it adjective, dfkjnisdnkbbmid ok? That’s what your script was. A big dfkjnisdnkbbmid!

So would I recommend the movie? Well, for sane, matured people like me (ahem!), it’s not a movie to plan for but if someone insists on taking you for it and promises you free popcorn, go for it. It won’t kill you. For all others, a must see movie.

…after months and months of hiding behind the ‘writer’s block’ excuse.

To the countless readers I have around here (countless because I once tried counting and the numbers were disappointing) I apologize for having left this blog stranded for a  rather long time. It was due to some unavoidable circumstances, which I shall make up and present to you in a convincing manner at some later point in time. For now, please welcome me back and wish me luck!

For the lack of anything else worth posting, here’s a quick stats that WordPress reported for my blog today:

Total views: 7,192   (No, I did NOT rig the numbers. Stop insulting me ok!)
Busiest day: 64 – Sunday, October 28, 2007   (Is it a co-incidence that it’s a Sunday, a day most people are jobless?)
Views today: 0 (Didn’t I just say ‘count-less’? And you thought I was bragging!)
Posts: 31
Comments: 191
Akismet has protected your site from 645 spam comments. (Now, here’s one sincere, regular reader I have for my blog – the spambot)

Before I leave, thanks Abirami and Anonymous (who seconded and thirded Abirami) for goading me to write again. I don’t know if I really will be writing or just abandoning the blog again (you know what they say, once a cheater, always a cheater) but thanks anyway. I will definitely try to keep writing but you know, those unavoidable circumstances…I haven’t made them up yet.