Ripples of my Reflections

I think, therefore I write

Author: Keirthana (Page 17 of 66)

Quote Challenge : 1/3

August 27, 2015 / / 1 Comment

I know, I know, this is long overdue. Forgive me, for I had been psyched about doing this challenge when the Lioness tagged me but then got immersed in the house-shifting activity that I totally forgot about this one. So let me do this now.

It’s a known fact among my friends and family that I love quotes. I collect quite a few too. Although not as exhaustive as The Lioness. So I was so excited when she tagged me in this quote challenge. The only sad part of it is that I can only name 3 quotes I love the most. Only 3, Sigh!

Anyway, here’s my all time favorite:

 

mappendantcomImage Courtesy: mappendant.com

I am a great fan of Dumbledore quotes from Harry Potter and would often be using them as my status on messengers. This one is my absolute favorite and has quite helped me during some hard times. The wisdom in those words is very deep yet gets across so easily.

Often, there come times when we would be down in the dumps or at least believe that we are. Such is life, none can escape it. However, the actual answer to all our problems is not the problem itself but how we react to them. We have the happiness within, the key to solve the problem, the light to our darkness, but hardly do we remember it. We keep searching the happiness outside, in others, until we get tired and give up.

I know that this is easier said than done and that I don’t quite follow this fully, but that does not mean I should give up trying and forget that the happiness I am searching for is within me. My husband follows this diligently and has pulled me up a lot of times when I was upset, with this simple logic.

Today I nominate 3 of my favorite bloggers, those who have done this already can choose to start again or ignore:
1. Visha
2. GB
3. PeeVee

I cannot thank Soumya enough for tagging me in this. We both share a common love for quotes and I enjoy digging her quotes collection posts and reading them time and again. Thank you Leo!

What is the 3-Day Quote Challenge about?

1. Post one of your favorite quotes on three consecutive days. The quote can be from your favorite book, author, or your own. (You must post 3 different quotes in all)
2. Nominate 3 bloggers each day to challenge them.
3. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.

Until later 🙂

Book Review: The Cuckoo’s calling

August 24, 2015 / / 3 Comments

I have been holding off on this book since I couldn’t imagine Rowling’s style of writing in any other way than the Harry Potter series. Being a huge HP fan, I didn’t want to be in a prejudiced state of mind when I read this. However, curiosity got the better of me as I started reading more reviews about this book and most of them rated the book above 3.5. And they were right, I like The Cuckoo’s calling to bits.

When I started the book, I immediately felt comfortable with the author’s writing style and wondered if it was my prejudiced knowledge of the author. But, as I read page after page, I realized that it is not so. This book was in a different league from the fantasy fiction of Harry Potter, it had a unique writing style that made me fall in love with it. The descriptions of characters, situations, places – everything kept me hooked to the book and that’s exactly what any reader would look for in a crime fiction. Cormoran Strike, the protagonist takes the reader through the case with ease and keeps us guessing what’s next.

When the famous model Lula Landry falls to her death under suspicious circumstances, none except her brother thinks there’s something fishy about her death. Even the rigorous rounds of police investigation concludes that it was a suicide. But there is a witness who overheard an argument seconds before Lula Landry fell and there’s a CCTV footage of two men running away from the scene of crime with their faces covered. These evidences are proven to be false or insignificant to the case in the police investigation. However, John Bristow, Lula Landry’s brother is not satisfied. He brings in Cormoran Strike, a war veteran resigned to private detective after his leg injury, to investigate the case further and find justice for his dead sister.

Was it indeed a suicide? Was Lula capable of going from perfectly happy to suicidal in a span of few hours? Was there a motive for someone to murder her? All these questions are strewn across the plot as Lula’s complicated familial and upbringing situations are analysed. The book effortlessly navigates through a detective’s analysis and keeps us guessing about all possibilities. However, I was a little disappointed about who turned out to be the criminal since this had been done and dusted a little too many times. The story could have been twisted into using a different leg but that opportunity is what I felt is lost towards the climax of the book. Also, the title of the book is derived from a very insignificant plot or phase of the story. It could have been more relevant and provoking.

Otherwise, The Cuckoo’s calling is an unputdownable book that is immensely enjoyable. It cost me my weekend for the most part as I started it and I was compelled to sit and complete this, instead of doing the household chores. I am planning on buying the sequel The Silkworm soon as I cannot wait to read more of Cormoran Strike and his investigation tactics.

My rating: 4/5

Until later 🙂

Back with a new beginning

August 9, 2015 / / 16 Comments

Yes, I am back! Don’t ask me where I was or what I was doing the entire July. No, don’t even start thinking of asking me. Because, though I am familiar with Murphy’s law and his infamous life tricks, what I didn’t realize was that he has a patented right to rule over your life when you are planning something big. Yes, I finally shifted to my own place and kinda slowly winding down like that toy car which is on the last turn of the key. I had wound up myself pretty much to the breaking point before I started this entire shifting houses thing and that and only that helped me last this long. Only that helped me face the pretty things that Murphy dropped along my way.

1. You can be a perfectionist planning everything to the last detail. You can write down literally everything to the minute that you are going to do. You can be the God of check-lists. Still you will be left with a hoard of stuff to do, glaring at your face.

2. When you are shifting houses, especially to a new place which has to be set up from the scratch, you better start the de-cluttering process months before. Otherwise, you will be neck-deep in the junk vs usable filtering process and at the same time running around to set up the new place.

3. Once you move in to your new place, don’t expect things to settle down. Everyday some or the other thing will come up to greet you in the morning and to make the day a lousy one.

4. The best of all learning, moving into a new house of your own only means more work. The cleaning, dusting, arranging, rearranging will just eat your time up. There will be nothing else.

5. And hence anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In all aspects of life.

Despite all this, this entire moving to a new house has been a huge learning experience for me. The retrospective view that I got during this experience was indeed an eye opening one. I learnt to differentiate between people who genuinely help and those who just give sound advice. I learnt that being posted to Hyderabad for my first job was not as bad after all. The Telugu I learnt there has helped in ways I never thought it would. My broken Hindi was repaired to some extent, thanks to my carpenter who bore all my lingual mistakes and still understood what I was trying to tell him.

Amidst all the chaos, we finally moved into our new place and set it up. I know that this feeling of achievement will soon be replaced by one of a long sigh that signals exasperation. But I also know this signals another milestone in our life, a new life, a new beginning… Here’s to a new place and a new start. Cheers!

New-Beginning-Pictures-5Image Source: quotesfans.com

Until later 🙂

P.S: My reader is overflowing with unread posts, give me sometime to be back in action, will ya? 🙂

The hobbies that I never thought I’d have

June 28, 2015 / / 8 Comments

There are certain hobbies of mine which I considered to be not-my-cup-of-tea when I was back in college. I considered them to be too docile for my tom-boy nature. But as I grew up, I realized that there are better reasons to do them than to shrug them off. Kolam* is one such thing. I was absolutely disinterested in this art when I was growing up and was thinking I’d paint a permanent kolam in front of my house and be done with it, like many people in Bangalore. But things changed when there was a sudden interest in trying a few simple kolams which led my house owner to appreciate it and ask for my help during the Pongal* season. That was when I realized that my kolam was good enough for people to give a second look.

From then on, I started taking more interest. I am still no pro, the main reason being my shaky hands. I cannot draw a straight line without a scale and that has been the case ever since I remember. And the uneven ground in front of our house does not help either. So doing this is kind of out of my comfort zone but I am trying. Here are some kolams that I felt came out rather well for my attempts.

This is the Pongal kolam that started off the whole thing:

IMG_20150114_202128

A very amateur attempt

These are some of the daily designs I try out:

DSC00983

Deepam designs always catch my eye

DSC00985

One of my favorites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DSC00989

Curved lines are still not my forte

DSC01039

A bigger challenge I took on a Sunday and I was rather pleased with the result

There are many more better works but I couldn’t capture them as I was rushing to office in the morning after spending a good deal of time in their making. Anyway, this is one hobby that I thought I’d never take up but it made me eat my words. Now I am cribbing that once I move into our flat next month, I wouldn’t have enough space to experiment bigger designs as there is only so much lobby space in front of the flat. 🙁

A couple more unconvincing hobbies are making their way up my ladder but slowly – Cooking and Crafts. Cooking is something I try to enjoy but end up not sustaining the interest. It’s like an on and off relationship. But what I do sustain is making interesting by-products out of ordinary and sometimes boring dishes. Like Dosa and Sambar is very common for us, but I make a Dosa Lasangna out of it by layering them and adding the Sambar like a sauce and then adding some toppings like coriander, nuts or tomatoes. Here’s a click, it is not very clear that it is a lasagna because the dosas were very thin and were only 3 layers. Needless to mention, my photography skills are still scraping the bottom of the pan.

DSC01056

Without the toppings

I have just started taking clicks of such things I do, so I don’t have more, But I have tried this Greek Yoghurt Sandwich and I also make a variety of sandwiches with common items like mint leaves chutney and tomato chutney. I make an Indian Pulav with Carrot, Coriander, Peas and so on. I am planning to do more of this.

Again, Crafts was something I never thought I’d venture into. In fact, I thought I didn’t have a single crafty bone in my body for so long. But after seeing GB’s artworks, I was overwhelmed with desire to make something that beautiful. She also cooks so many awesome recipes that she posts on her blog and her food blog. Some dishes have made me crave that I had an ounce of her talent and interest in cooking. Anyway, on seeing her art works, I started researching on some easy to do craft works and stumbled upon paper quilling. It is relatively easy for a beginner to try and so I did. I made a couple of cards for my friends  for their birthdays and it turned out that I did have some craft sense in me.

craft

The first birthday card I made with quilling

As I am trying out these new hobbies, the only thing I am running short of is time. And I don’t know how I am gonna indulge in gardening too when I move to our flat. I am planning to have a few plants in the balcony for sure.  But I must say, amidst all the crafts, cooking, blogging, work, attempting new kolams and packing and planning to move into our own place, life is pretty awesome 🙂

Until later 🙂

*Kolam– It is the rangoli that we make with dots. Some call this as Rangoli, but I was taught that free hand designs and coloring was rangoli.

*Pongal- It is the festival that we celebrate for the harvest season by offering it to the Sun god.

Forlorn beauty

June 21, 2015 / / 6 Comments

I had written a post earlier about how we tend to forget what a marriage is beyond that wedding day or maybe once the honeymoon period is over. What pushed me to write that post was the number of people I met, who were once love-struck and couldn’t stay away from each other even for a minute yet turned into zombies living the routine once the wedding was over.

When I was writing that post, my thoughts ran to the marriages that we see in the elder generation, maybe consider a couple of generations back – Your grandparents. What about them? They never had a choice, for the most part. Their parents decided the groom/bride, the date, the location of the wedding and then how to live after the wedding too. All they were told was to do their job – which was to show up as told and live as told. Once the marriage was over, the man was to take care of his wife, procreate and continue to provide for the wife and kids for the rest of his life. While on the other hand, the woman went about the house, turning it into a home, satisfying the needs of the husband, and then the kids as they came along. Such was their life.

On the outside, it does look like a programmed life without any bugs – Even if there was ever one, the bug was quickly pushed aside with such deftness that there was never a second thought about how to live life. However, when I look closer, I see a different version than the one that we imagine their lives to be. Somewhere in between getting acquainted with a stranger and settling down in life with him/her, there blooms a sweet romance. They wouldn’t call that romance and would rather call that understanding and fulfilling one’s duties. However, I would insist on calling that romance to do justice to what they manage to build in the span of their years together.

For the sake of painting a better picture, I am giving an example here – Adit’s maternal grandparents. They had a beautiful marriage of 60+ years (I am not sure of the exact number) until recently when grandpa passed away. I have witnessed their relationship up close, even if it was only for a few months. I still cannot comprehend the enormity of what they shared. In all those years of getting to know each other and forming a routine, they had added a little more care and respect all along the way. The understanding that comes with knowing how he likes the food and the respect that come with what she needs to run the household without being told explicitly. They followed an impeccable discipline which they passed onto their 4 kids. Towards the last few years of his life, Grandpa’s memory started failing him and he had turned into a child who would ask the same question over and over. And grandma would answer the question every single time, with the same smile on her face and in the same soft tone as she always does. When he forgot things like his food and medicine timings, she cared for him as she would for an infant. When he threw silly tantrums about the clock not working or the TV behaving weirdly, she patiently told him that she will get them repaired and she did. Every single time.

themetapicture

When you see such people, it just reinstates the faith in marriage even for a person who doesn’t quite believe in the institution of marriage. They have been through it all, seen it all, and lived it all. Together. When a man is 60 years old and in a marriage, we do the Sashtiapthapoorthi*  to celebrate their time together. But would any amount of celebration do justice for a marriage that has lived for 60 years? I have often wondered why the celebration is centered around the man’s age rather than the age of the marriage he is in. Their marriage spoke volumes of trust and faith you could have in your spouse. The mutual respect shines through all those years, unblemished. Witnessing this kind of a relationship which shines with love that was never acknowledged by anyone left me in wonder. When they, who had no choice about their life partner, built such a beautiful marriage, why are we struggling to hold up a relationship, when we have all the choices in the world? Why is it that couples of this generation stand in line at family courts, when they were the ones who chose their spouses?

love-story-old-love-quote-together-Favim.com-542203

Marriages live beyond the lives of the people involved and tell their tales. Even after grandpa passed away, grandma lives in that same house with his memory for company, refusing her children’s requests to come live with them. The forlorn beauty that meets me every time I visit grandma and see the garlanded picture of grandpa is something that inspired me to write this post. And the same melody I hear from their silent love is what inspires me to love more and live more.

*Sashtiapthapoorthi is a matrimonial celebration when the man reaches 60 years old. The base for this tradition is to revive the memories and taste of the good old days for the old couple when they started their marriage because with time, they get used to living for their kids than for themselves.

Until later 🙂

Image Credits: All the images used were picked up from Google search
« Older posts Newer posts »

No plagiarism, please!

Please link back when you refer/use any media/content that I own, in your website. Let’s not encourage plagiarism, there’s enough trouble in the world as it is.

© 2025 Ripples of my Reflections

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑