Times...

Times are good
Times are bad
Times of happiness
Times of sorrow
Times spent in laughter
Times spent in grumble
Times dipped in love
Times dipped in hatred
Times meant to cling to
Times meant to let free
Times of harmony
Times of unrest


But....
Times written cannot be rewritten

Times gone wrong cannot be made right
Times spent cannot be gained back
Times bygone are bygone

Realize the time at hand


Time doesn't give a second chance, does it?

P.S. Do you remember my artsy craftsy entry for June? Its up for voting now. Please vote for me if you like my entries (Nos.26 -29).Voting closes by 29th June Midnight.

50!!!!!!

Blogging was never a passion to me. My only indulgence in the world of blogging used to be the blogs of my college friends Sravan and KP. But at no point of time, it struck me that I could also start blogging. Maybe the reason was that I was so much preoccupied with my work that I never thought about anything else other than PL/SQL, Forms and Oracle in general. This year probably God decided to show some mercy on me and decided to bless me with very little work. So, it meant more boredom (because obviously you cannot roam all the time nor watch movies 24X7 or the K-Serials 24X7) and a more grumpy nature.  In the midst of all this, Sravan did a post on soul search in 24A.  Well, this got me into some sort of a soul search. I was never grumpy in my life, I always knew to smile in the toughest of times (although am short tempered and the temper doesn't last beyond 10 minutes) and certainly I was not one person to sit idle. 

So, instigated by all these thoughts, I thought why not start blogging? I setup my blogger account and my very first post came up. Not a very good start but yes I tried to better myself along the way. I started to take part in Blog-a-ton, was dumbstruck by the Blogadda Pick, awards which flowed in from blog friends, never-ending chain of comments, tags and blog contests. A big Thank You to Blog World which accepted me so open heartedly.  And today shonawrites proudly celebrates her 50th post. 

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 

Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

What more could express a blogger's thoughts more beautifully than this poem by Rabindranath Tagore. Truly, Blogging has given me that platform to express my thoughts and opinions in the way I want. My blog is a reflection of me, my thoughts and my actions. It has become that perfect gateway of bliss which I look forward to every day. Is this an addiction or not, I don't know but it has certainly helped me to fight my loneliness and be happy all the time. It has helped me to discover a "New Me". In fact, my colleagues now joke that Shilpa sits in a cloud surrounded by her blogs and remains unaffected by all official matters. 

Very true, in fact I found out one of my colleague wants to blog too and we have a really good discussion on blogs, politics, books and everything under the sun. I guess its always easier for like minded people to talk. The same holds good for my blog friends. People whom I have never met but leave their love and warmth on my every post, People who have encouraged me all through these 49 posts and People whom I will remember all through my life. So, here is presenting my Toonbook of all these lovely people who have left their imprint on my blog life as well as my real life. 

I would especially like to thank Anu, Uma and Swaram who have been really very sweet and encouraging right from my very early posts. It was through their blogs that I started to connect with the rest of the blog world. Thanks a lot ladies :)

There have been a lot of people whose blogs I love to read:
1. Mohan : Blogs on a plethora of topics
2. Shruti  : Holds the amazing Artsy-Craftsy contest month after month
3. Pree : Her blog is a pandora's box of house decor and truly yummy delicious recipes.
4. Pixie, Smitha, Pal : All of them write straight from the heart - simple and sweet posts
5. Tavish : Read his fiction and know him better.

Also presenting to you two important people who are the pillars for this blog. Goondi No.1. What would I do without you girl! K has been my right, left, center and all possible directions hand. Low times she is there, High times she is there, Every time she is there. :D Poor thing gets tortured by me all the time. She has to read my posts (whether she likes it or not), review it, make corrections and tell her opinion. Sometimes she sincerely does it but mostly she always has a clever way to tell no to me :D. However, she is my PRO and she is doing a good job of advertising my blog in her circle :D.

Make way, Make way for Goonda No.1. Big B has been a very dear friend for the past 10 years who sincerely makes a con call for every festival/birthday to all our classmates and we have a ball of time giggling away to glory. Even though he is a really really very very sincere sincere student, he always finds time to read my posts and comment (According to him in a recent con call he told he doesn't comment unless and until the post inspires him to). So, I consider myself lucky if I get a comment from him in my posts. 

So, Goondi No.1 and Goonda No.1, heres to our friendship. 

"Ye dosti hum nahi todenge, Chodenge dam magar tera saath na chodenge" :D :D. Ye fevicol ka jod hai thootega nahi!!!!

Last but not the least, Daddy this is for you:

Words of wisdom, you taught me

Good and Bad, you guided me

Strength, I imbibed from you

Independence, I gained from you

Tough times, you held my hand

Good times, you let me enjoy it

Bad health, you looked upon me every hour

Good health, you made me gorge like a demon

Education, you gave me all

Life Partner, you left it to my choice

You look upon me for advice

But I am still the small kid who may stumble and fall!!

Be always by my side Daddy!!!

Now, moving away from the sentimental things, to some lovely awards that my blog friends have passed on:

Thanks Priya

Thanks Priya

Thanks LEB

These awards are duly passed on to every single person mentioned in this post.

And do you remember the "Cool couple contest". I finally decided to announce the winners. And the winners are:

1. Comfy says

"The song I would sing: Kuch is tarah teri palkein.. because well the song says it allhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQDv25a8i7Y

He would probably sing: She is always a women to me.. because women confound him because how quickly and often we change and I am all of that..but through it all I am his woman to him and he loves me just like that..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkfkJCyqCBc"

2. Priya says

For me... there are a lot of favorites but 2 songs that immediately come to mind are
Aisa sama from Zameen Aasmaan
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFilS1RHBZQ]
Kishore Kumar's Aise na mujhe tum dekho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7uD2BKOcIU

Comfy and Priya heres your "Cool Couple" award.

P.S. I have already mailed you all the toon picture. So, please go ahead and display them in your blog. A token of love and appreciation from me to you.

Block me!

Artsy-Craftsy is again round the corner and I cannot be far behind right!!!So, here we go, this month's theme being block printing. 

I had some ready made blocks at disposal which look something like below:

Source: www.stampinred.com/stampinred/gifts/

This picture was made 2 years back with the help of ready made blocks and maroon stamp inks on white craft paper. I did have this framed and it does make a great wall hanging.

Basically, these ready made blocks can be used to stamp onto anything of your choice. So, I made this bookmark with the same block used in above painting and some satin ribbons to adorn the corners. Simple isn't it?

Since, I was on a stamping spree, I didn't stop there. I stamped these on the thin cloth covers usually used to cover handbags. And these came out as good candidates for table covers.

And the final ones in the stamping arena. A card and a bookmark and if you are wondering you have seen that dove somewhere. Yes, you have. Its the dove on the "Dove" soap and don't worry the black stamp ink can be easily washed off the soap. So, I stamped and smudged the whole paper with a tissue paper. 

Play time over ... lets get back to work :D

Aplish - 2

Forgive me Lord for I am ignorant!

Dear Lord,

Forgive me Lord for I am ignorant

Forgive me Lord for 

I don't understand the craze behind cricket

I don't understand how people can watch the same ball being bowled again and again and the only excitement is when there are 4's and 6's

I don't understand why people bite their nails when their favorite team needs 4 runs from the last ball in the last over to win the match. I would do that only when watching a horror movie

Forgive me Lord for 

I don't understand why people refresh their browsers and exchange cricket scores more frequently than replies to official mails

I don't understand why my friends get up at 5 in the morning to watch a match  and seeing my ping only reply "Watching match" 

I don't even know what is that which keeps up my colleagues at 3am in the night to watch cricket

I don't understand the huge crowds outside TV showrooms with people in a frenzy when an important player has been bowled out

Forgive me Lord for 

I don't understand the difference between a test series, a one day match and all other series. For me, they are just various names of cricket matches

I don't even know what is off side, clean bowl, spin bowler and all the other phrases which sound greek and latin to me

Forgive me Lord for

The FIFA fever has not caught unto me

I don't know the thrill or happiness you get on seeing a 1.5 hour match with people crazily running around a ball knocking people down and injuring some in the process too

I don't know even know a football player except for Maradona and thats because he is a legend in himself

Forgive me Lord for

I feel like an alien from Zoombie land

I am so very ignorant and may continue to be so

But I have only one wish, Please don't make me so much ignorant in my next birth :).

Regards,

Your faithful follower. 

I ...

I am an individual.
I am the way I am.


They say I denotes egoism.
They don't realize that I is also for individuality.


They say I am always happy.
They don't see my stifled tears.


They say I should watch my step.
They don't see that life has taught its lessons to me.


They say I should be mature.
They don't see the kid in me wanting to break free.


They glorify amusement parks.
They turn blind to my love for nature.


They say I don't understand the present.
They fail to understand that my actions are an outcome of my far sight.


They say I am peculiar.
They fail to see that they are peculiar somewhere else.


They say a lot, They fail to understand more.
Times may come, Times may go.
Its I standing testimony to time.
Its I against whom the tides of time lash at and erode me slowly.
Its I who will withstand the onslaughts and move from strength to strength.
Its I who is responsible for my actions and they can never replace I.

Sing - a - long

While everyone has been busy with the "Na Blo Po Mo", the "Red Marker Marathon" and many of the blog world contests.... I too have been busy.... Not with blogging or work but rather with parties. Now if you are wondering why so many parties, then here it goes:

Reason No. 1: New member in the team and so we had a welcome party
Reason No. 2: We had a team lunch courtesy the Business Manager
Reason No. 3: We had a project party also

Reason No. 4: Our team seems to be hooked onto the month of June with the maximum number of birthdays in this month (This includes 2 small kids and 4 big kids). We have already had two parties in a row. This is not to forget the cake cutting party at 0:00 hours.

Reason No. 5: I went shopping and had a party for myself.

Reason No. 6: I have been hopping around my colleague's home and have been having a ball of time with my colleague's daughter. Well, thats a party of sorts as the smile and happiness on her face is priceless :).


In short, in 11 days, I have had 5 parties, 1 midnight cake cutting session, 1 lunch outside home, 1 party by myself and I expect a lot more in the coming days... :D :D .. Phew!!!!!

So, it was party time yesterday also and the birthday boy/man who is also the best singer amongst us was asked to sing a song for his wife. Even after 10 years of knowing each other, wife dear always blushes to the core :D. This was the song sung by the birthday boy for his wife. 

And the wife sung this in return (all blushing and smiling again :D)

And we didn't stop at that, we made all the couples sing for each other :). This is what the only Tamil couple sung for each other.

By the husband (At the end, wife was so happy as this was the first time that he had sung a song for her):

By the wife: 



So, I thought why not make my blog friends also do the same. So, let the emotions in you flow. Which song you would sing for your better half and which song do you think your better half would sing for you? If you are single, imaginary better half's are accepted :D. Let loose your imagination and the coolest pair of songs will receive this sweet cartoon from me :)

Aplish - Release 1

Aplish

P.S. Aplish will be a weekly cartoon comics which will give you an insight of the funny/stupid incidents in my day-to-day life. In general, it will be a potpourri of many things. I hope you will enjoy it :)

The "Baap" of IV's - Bhongir (Part - 3) - Last and Final Part

Walk down the memory aisle with Bhongir part 1 and part 2. Thank you all for your lovely comments. My friends have been reading them and have been overjoyed at the response from the blog world :) :)

And so, we all set out from Bhongir to Hyderabad, carrying along some sweet memories (I guess you must have got the proof by now). We were cramped into a jeep along with our professors, instruments and luggage. Now, this prof of ours to keep us entertained was telling us jokes which only the guys could laugh at and girls had to look east, west, south and north with a sheepish smile and think "When will this journey end!!!". Added to his, KP had a bad back ache which the cramped jeep was not helping in any way. We were also not able to do anything and were watching her with sad eyes. The only thing we could do was to wait until we reached Hyderabad and pounce on T, our class rep. You cant expect 19 people cramped up with no movement space along with luggage and other stuff to be quiet also right?

Anyways, T got left and right from me and KP and then we let him go with a warning. Then, we all started towards the rooms allocated to us in the hostel at Uppal. Definitely much better than the tents, but somehow we had started to miss the tent life. It was almost evening by that time, so we refreshed and spent the rest of the evening playing shuttle. Initially when K had carried the shuttle rackets, Captain and many of the guys had kept on her scolding her for bringing additional luggage. Later on, with nothing to do in the evenings in the camp as well as at Uppal, we all ended up playing shuttle almost everyday. So, that extra luggage had been a blessing in disguise. So, when we traveled to Hyderabad and then to Chennai also, the shuttle rackets were treated with utmost reverence.

The initial two days went off with some training programs and visits to some survey institutes. We looked like a bunch of information hungry kids trying to gobble up as much information as possible. We also got to see some live satellite data recording although the data and the process was greek and latin to us. The only exceptionally intelligent geeks like Y, V, B, Sab and T were asking questions while the rest of us tried or atleast showed that we were trying to understand every word told by the instructor in those institutes. 

One particular institute we visited was quite far away from the main road from where we could get a share auto to Uppal. Not knowing how to reach the main road, all of us started to walk. After sometime a tractor came along, and all the guys asked the tractorwala for a hike to the main road. The guy readily agreed and so as you can see below, a bunch of smiling faces riding away to glory in our brand new Mercedes. 

The last two days of the trip, we were left to ourselves. The professors relaxed in their rooms, while we went about roaming. It was Birla temple, Hussain Sagar Lake, Koti and of course, Charminar. Now, B has always the weirdest of ideas (Some things can be really weird). So, this time his weird idea was to dress similarly. Although skeptical at first, we all agreed to it and went about shopping for it. As you very well know, guys cannot shop much so the very first dress shop which had some nice jibbas on display was attacked. We entered, we selected, we bargained and finalized on 12 pieces of a particular Jibba. The guy went to his godown and nearby shops to gather exactly similar 12 pieces of the "Jibba". We did get the 12 jibbas but with a slight color variation.  So, the next day was decided to be the inaugural day of our lovely and pretty "Jibbas". Every filmy family has a family song or a tattoo to identify their kid if the kid had got lost in "Khumb ka Mela" but we had the "Jibba" to identify the entire batch :). What a family!

I know I know, you must be all laughing on seeing the above pics but thats what we looked like - A bunch of crazy people. Wherever we went we got stares, giggles, funny smiles but nonetheless we wore them through the day. Now, for the scoop, our professor on seeing the jibbas, went to the same shop, told the guy that he had sent the 12 people the previous day to buy the Jibbas and got a cool 20% discount. Really smart uh! 

After all this circus, it was time to catch the train to Chennai. We came back well in advance, packed our things, cleaned up the room and were about to leave (or so we thought). The guys brought in some share autos to take us to the Secunderabad station. We had almost reached the gate, when the guard locked the door and didn't allow the autos to proceed further. We all were confused. The guys and professors got down and tried to reason with the staff. Their claim was that one of us had broken one of the buckets in the hostel. We knew that this was just a means to take some money from us as we all had buckets with us and certainly, it needed a lot of extra effort to break one of those iron buckets. We argued, tried to reason but to no avail. Moreover, it was getting late and we had just an hour to reach the station. Finally the professors and guys got frustrated and gave the guy/staff Rs.100 after which he let us go (So much drama for money!!). More than the  money, what we felt bad was this staff belonged to an institute which we all idolized as students and we had certainly never expected such a thing to happen over there. 

With 45 minutes left, the share autos started towards the destination. Well by now as you will also be knowing the autowalas also had to be appeased with promise for extra money for the waiting time. 5 minutes, the autos were moving smoothly, 10 minutes, the autos had to slow down a bit and 15 minutes later, there lay ahead of us a huge traffic jam. Another 10 minutes went by and we were left with only 20 minutes to reach the station to catch the train. The station was a good 15 minutes walk from there and that too if we walked fast. All of us took one bag each and started to run. The guys formed a queue for as long as they could form and went on passing the other things. Gasping, panting and numb on the legs (at least me), we reached the station. 5 more minutes were left but all the boys had not come yet and then came Indian Railways to our rescue. "Hamesha Aapke Saath!!!" should be their slogan. The train was another 10 minutes late (Big Relief!!!). The missing guys had come by that time and we heaved a sigh of relief :D. Thereafter it was a smooth affair, no more such incidents (Thankfully!!!)

Well, if you are admiring the guys of my class, yes they are really praise worthy. Our IT career teaches us about team work, but these guys are really a team without even having to tell them. Emotions and friendship is what has really bound us all and kept us together over the years. But then boys will be boys and are not without their quota of hilarious stories.


"Sight Adhichifying" would be a degrading term. The guys of my class call it "Admiring beauty" and thats what they did on the train to Chennai too. Mr. 3 Clap M and Mr. Tall R (who thought of himself as Mr.Chennai) first took a survey of the train. First towards the right from where they returned empty handed and then to the left. Left side they hit the jackpot as there were two sweet girls in the next few seats itself. They talked to them, made friends and those girls even came and played cards with us and our guys were on "Cloud No.9"/* Click on the picture below to listen to it */. The goody goody faces of the guys at that moment was a sight to see. I never understood what pleasure guys got in talking to girls. Realized it very much later. 

One of them Su was even more bolder. This was while we were roaming around in Hyderabad maybe around Charminar or Koti in the evening. This was a typical Muslim area with girls in burkha roaming around with their kid brothers. Su stopped each kid coming in our way and asked "Do you have a sister?". After 5-6 kids, we literally dragged him away from that place least we all got beaten up :). But besides these basic "guy" qualities, they are all GEMS :).

This brings us to an end of this three series nostalgic post on our trip to Bhongir. It was fun reminiscing those 10 wonderful days. I couldn't post many incidents least this series became boring. Maybe I will post a cartoon series on those incidents in the near future :). And as I always say, "Friends are the best, Nothing to beat them!!!". This trip and many more which we had during our college times brought us all together and bound us all. "Ye Fevicol ka mazbood jodh hai... Tutega nahi!!!" :) . Would love to go back to college and re-live that time.


P.S.  "Sight Adhichifying" is "Line Maarna" in Hindi. 

        GEM is Ginger Eating Monkey and not the real GEM :P

Travel with me...

Travelling to me in India was no more than the Industrial visits/tours that I got to attend in college covering a few parts of South India. Japan brought out that traveler in me who enjoys nature in its purest form. Traveling around I realized some of these were places I had read about in my History and Geography classes. The emotions that open up when you actually see those places in reality cannot be  described. My travel tales around Japan show casing some well known and some not-so-known places.

I also thought what you thought, "What is so special about this building in ruins that onlookers were so curious about?". Little did I realize, that the Nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima had exploded almost over this building. This is the A-Dome/Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, Japan. Although, the city has technologically advanced to great heights but that single incident of 1945 nearly wiped out humanity from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The museum beyond this building houses many artifacts related to the explosion including videos which are quite depressing. It also makes you feel as though "Man is his own enemy".

A smile came on my face when I saw this natural structure at Udo Shrine, Miyazaki. This is probably a shape which just cannot escape your eyes. It looked as though it was telling me "Come on, Hop onto me and we shall go on a long drive". In actual, this place is famous for the shrine but more than the shrine, this was what held my fascination for long.

What would you do if you ever  had to stand on an active volcano and it erupted right at that moment. Thank God that nothing like that happened but standing on Sakurajima (An active volcano in Japan) on that day, the only thought which crossed my mind was "When will we leave this place, I am scared!!!"

A very serene place, isn't it? There is nothing marvelous about this building, most of the Japanese buildings have the same structure but what struck me was the serenity this place eluded. This is the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. A golden beauty surrounded by lush greenery. The top two stories of this Buddhist temple are covered by pure gold leaf and this temple houses the relics of Buddha (Buddha's Ashes). A perfect resting place for the preacher of peace.

Last but not the least, who would not smile on receiving a bunch of flowers/bouquet or even a single rose.  This colorful beauty can make any day of yours more livelier and more cheerful. This is what compels me to visit this beautiful garden (Nokonoshima Island) year after year in Fukuoka.

This is my entry for BlogAdda's Travel Photo Contest and something from Pringoo which I can use in my blog would be the below one.