I am heartily ashamed that my NaNoWriMo writing has been abandoned at about 1000 words (thats 49000 words short of target).
However, Aparna is going full speed on her writing and I am sure she will make the 50000 mark well before the deadline. She is probably the only one I know who is actually writing the thing and is on track.
Sitemeter no longer gives me the referral pages that brought visitors to my blog.
So now I can no longer see what weird Google searches brought people to me. For a few days I thought that only people who knew of my blog were visiting me, but then later on looking at the details, I found that this wasn't the case. Anyone have a clue what is wrong?
This is my second tag ever! This one is a little more difficult than the last one since it is a bit more free-form. Am I very silly to be excited by tags? Who cares? Here goes!!!
Rules of this Tag:
1. Name the person who tagged you.
2. 8 things about you.
3. Tag 6 people.
Name of the Person : Ms.N
Her pictures speak volumes, but her words aren't too far behind!
8 things about me
1) I am a die-hard web addict. Nothing too techie, just that I like being online all the time, on my various messengers, reading Wikipedia articles and recipes if there is nothing more pressing to take up the time. Because of this, I had to go out and buy one of the "Natural Keyboards" yesterday and now I am typing on that. It really helps! Those with any symptoms of RSI, go out and get one ASAP!!!
2) I don't like it when it gets all cloudy and grey and stays that way for days. I am more of a bright, sunshine-y kind of person.
3) I love to dance! I like to learn new kinds of dance and I am really happy when I find friends who share my interest. I am lucky to have a few of those!
4) Before reality bit me, I wanted to be an astronomer. The astronomer idea was actually a compromise from the astronaut, because when I reached the age of 9 or so, I realised that being an astronaut takes a lot of physical fitness, which was not something I was very good at (still am not, of course).
5) I am an atheist but I love visiting ancient temples. The older the better. I like ruins of all kinds, of course, but temples are usually better preserved that any other sort, and are more numerous in our country anyway. Of course I don't like going to temples that are more recently built. If it isn't at least 200 years old, it's not worth seeing, IMO.
6) I am not very fond of watching movies. They are the last candidate on my things to do on weekends, because I can't get over the idea that I will be wasting 4 hours of my weekend on a movie when I could be doing something more productive (like napping).
7) I love getting haircuts. A new and different haircut can change the way you look and can boost up sagging spirits! No wonder my hair never grows beyond shoulder length.
8) I am "dromophobic", which as far as I could find is what it means to be afraid of crossing roads.
Now to tag 6(!) people (do I even know 6 bloggers???)
Aparna, Spiral Architect, KoPoS, Anshuman, Mithun, Ritesh
I am a proud participant in the NaNoWriMo. Target is to write 50,000 words by Nov 30th. Wish me luck, everyone!!! And all you wannabe novelists like me! Click on the image to go sign up!!!
It's a strange co-incidence that two of the blogs that I frequent a lot (both written by Bong women) have a tagline related to DesCartes' famous quote. As does mine
Aparna says "I think, so I am" but does not go on to explain it anymore. M, on the other hand does not have the quote, or any paraphrase of it, as the blog title, but instead quotes it in her profile and gives a bit of explanation of how it applies to her. I have, of course, stolen the phrase, twisted it to suit my needs and, of course, retained the original Latin of it. When I thought it up, and then looked to google for the correct translation of what I had in my mind, I thought I was being awfully clever and original. But there are a bunch of sites listing this phrase and what it means.
DesCartes' is a quote is worthy of a "सप्रसंग व्याख्या"(think back to Sanskrit classes of yore). Though I don't think mine deserves a "व्याख्या" per se, I could at least give an "अनुवाद" and a bit of "टिप्पणी". The title of my blog can be translated to "I laugh, therefore I am". What it means to me is that in this world full of negatives, looking on the bright side is essential for me to survive. It means being an optimist and it means being able to laugh at myself. If it weren't for laughter, the terrible weight of the world around us would make it impossible to exist.
When I tell any of my friends about my decision to be childfree*, they always say "I hope you have given the matter enough thought", or something to that effect. To me, this is quite incomprehensible.
I have been married for more than four years now and have a lot of time to think about it. We have talked it over between ourselves and have come to a decision. That is more than I can say for a lot of couples who have had kids. I have acquaintances where having the baby was almost a unilateral decision on part of the wife!
When a couple has a baby before their first wedding anniversary, does anyone ask them if they had given the matter enough thought? Rarely, if ever. At the most, they may be asked if it was a good idea to have a baby so soon after getting married. But once the deed is done, there is no going back, it is an irreversible act. You are bringing a human being into this world and will be responsible for raising it to adulthood. The decision will change your lives completely and will change the way you relate to each other and to everyone around you. It will have enormous repurcussions on your career(s) and one of you may have to quit working. But does anyone ever ask parents-to-be or new parent whether they have "given it enough thought"? Nope!
But when a couple wants to maintain status quo, to be as they are without bringing another factor into their relationship, to keep living their lives as they have been, then all the questions come up. Even though the decision to be childfree need not be necessarily irrriversible. With the advances in medical science, older women are having children too, and there is always the option of adoption if you are not hung up on "flesh and blood". But everyone assumes that the decision has been made on the spur of the moment, because the couple is too busy enjoying themselves to have kids right now, because they are too wrapped up in themselves and their careers and they haven't thought about having a baby at all. I personally feel that couples who make a choice to be childfree actually give the matter much more thought and deliberation than most couples who have children.
*I use the word "childfree" to indicate a concious and voluntary decision to not procreate, as opposed to "childless".
I have finally migrated my beloved template to beta after a lot of tweaking to make it look similar to the old blog!
Hacks used:
Here are some of the world's most expensive foods. I don't want the whole meal. Just the dessert will suffice. Any volunteers?
In the past 2-3 days I have had 36(!) hits on my site from one sort of google query. They have all gone to this one post, which I had made a few months ago in honor of the solar eclipse that was to occur. This time, the queries were made in honor of the partial lunar eclipse that occured yesterday, and could be observed from all parts of India.
What were the queries about? They were all, unanimously, about "precautions for pregnant women during eclipse" or with out without the same words. And most of these queries return my blogpost as the first result. What surprised me yet again (I guess I should cease to be surprised by these things anymore) is that supposedly net-savvy people use Google to find out whether superstitions like this are actually true!
I suppose a lot of people got disappointed yesterday because my post did not reinforce their belief that eclipses are harmful for pregnant women. I am hoping that at least a few of them got to re-thinking their attitude about the wonderous phenomena of eclipses and has seen them for what they are: beautiful coincidences where we can rejoice in the grand ballet of the celestial spheres rather than some demons taking a bite out of our main sources of energy and light.
So, what is the opposite of "positive reinforcement"?
Out of curiousity, and maybe inspired by something I read recently, I present an opinion poll. Please answer the given question completely honestly, in as many words as you need to use. If you want to express an extremely negative answer and don't want to reveal your identity, then please use the anonymous commenting option, but please do not hold back.
I am an atheist. How does that make you feel (about me, in general, etc.)?
Why am I doing this poll? Because I am really curious about what my friends think about my lack of belief in a deity. And this is what inspired it.
So please be honest, and verbose. If you have questions, I will be glad to answer them too.
This is my very own Google search blog post. Which means, it is one of those posts which are so much in vogue these days where bloggers sift through their sitemeter stats and look up the referring URLs and the funny google searches in them. Now since I don't have that many hits on my site, the number of searches that refer me are also limited. But the trend in these searches is that while people find something related to their queries on my site, the post that the link comes to is not exactly what the people have been looking for. In other words, the search results lead to disappointments. Lets look at a few examples:
1) Searching for "1:3" airtel dsl takes you to this post where I express my happiness on the lifiting of the blog ban by my ISP, Airtel.
2) Searching for ataullah songs acha sila brings up my page second on the list!!! And what is inside is a post wondering why such songs are so popular.
3) A search for drunken beef takes you to my post raving about the drunken beef I had at a friend's restaurant.
4) Arthur Dent character analysis brings you to a post about Superman(!) where one of the commenters has mentioned Adams' protagonist.
5) But what takes the cake is that searching for scientific reason behind fasting brings up my post as number 1!!! And what is the post about? Eclipses and the unexplainable effect they have on the minds of perfectly reasonable people who start fasting and throwing away perfectly good food. Oh the irony!
Just wanted to say to all the people who come to my blog via misleading google searches... sorry to disappoint, but thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed reading the blog (and looking at the chocolates) even though it wasn't exactly what you were looking for.
So of course, I felt a whole lot better after eating a couple of them. It has re-inforced my belief that chocolate can cure most, if not all, problems.
Looks like I am chocolate dreamland...It's the season for reviews. But unlike most, who have been posting reviews for movies, I shall post a review for, you guessed it, food.
This weekend, I made a trip to Bangalore for the first time in my life. Apart from the thrill of going to a new city, one of India's finest, at that, there was the anticipation of eating at Shiok. This restaurant is run by Madhu, whom I met online, and made friends with over our common interest in food in general and in Indonesian food in particular. So when my Bangalore trip was planned, of course, a trip to Shiok was on top of the agenda.
The website for the restaurant has details about how to get there, as well as pictures of the interiors, so I shall get straight to the food ;-) We began with the tiger prawn satay... which taste as heavenly as they look on the website. Flavors of fresh turmeric and galangal burst on your tongue and the prawns are grilled to succulent perfection. Next came the fish cakes redolent with zesty lime leaves which gave them a unique taste. Then we got to the chicken in golden baskets, which give you a mixture of the fragrance of coriander with the sweetness of corn and crispiness of the baskets and all around yumminess in general.
I desperately wanted to try the crab, and Madhu got one wonderful specimen out for us to see. It was huge!!! And alive. Which, sadly, put our friends off the whole thing. They did not want to eat something that was so alive. I would have gone for it on my own, if it wasn't so big. After all, if all the foxes felt dissuaded from eating the fluffy bunnies and the tigers got swayed by the big bambi eyes of the deer, then ecological balance would go for a toss? But, maybe next time.
Anyway, we were already quite full with the three rounds of starters. So we tried to keep the main course frugal. We had drunken beef, which is not really drunk itself, but is so appellated because it is a good thing to eat while getting drunk, and which is actually a "starter" according to the menu. Along with that, came the highlight of the evening, the nasi goreng. One spoonful of it, and I was transported to a warung in Java, and my happiness was clearly reflected on my face.
There was absolutely no room for dessert, so Madhu made a super secret dessert drink for me (which I suspect was some mix of ice-cream soda and vanilla vodka). And there ended our feast. Madhu, you are indeed a maestro, and I look forward to giving you many more opportunities to showcase your culinary prowess on my visits to your restaurants! Thank you for one of the most memorable and satisfying meals!!!
I seem to be on a meme roll. Anyway:
Here are six statements about me or my family. Three are true and three are false. Guess which are which. I'll post the answers next week (if I have enough guesses).
1. My first memory is of a crow stealing one of my toys off the window. - True. I guess it stuck in my mind because it is such a wierd memory.
2. I'd never been to a movie theatre before the age of 5. - False. My parents have always been great movie buffs, and used to take me along to the theatres from a very young age, because they had no one to leave me with. Needless to say, I hated it!
3. I can lick the tip of my own nose. - True! Absolutely.
4. My father once thought I was dead after I fell down the stair and fainted. - True. Gave the rest of the family quite a scare. I was 3 or so at the time.
5. The only body part I've ever broken was my ankle. - False. I haven't broken any bones that I know of.
6. I'm grossed-out by dead fish. - False! Fish was the second solid food I ever ate, the first being payesh.
ETA: OK, my dear little brother has put in a spoiler for #5. Well just wanted to say one of the commenters has got them all correct, and it is not my brother!
ETA (2): To add some motivation, winner(s) (those who get all correct without resorting to devious means) will get a small prize :D (pls note the "small")
So the prize goes to Sarita! For being the first to guess all of them correctly!
I've been tagged by Tarun!!! For the first time ever! So of course, this one will be done with all my heart...
I am thinking about...
vacations in exotic lands.
I said...
a lot today, and bored a bunch of people. I was training a class of 15 today, you see. And it continues tomorrow. *yawn*
I want to...
sleep for three or four days straight.
I wish...
I could find some fresh blueberries in Hyderabad.
I hear…
the wind outside my window and...
... I wonder...
if it is raining or if it's just the leaves.
I regret...
buying a 29in TV with a woofer. Now it is on at all hours of the day and night. *sigh*
I am...
a "Certified Chocolate Lover"!
I dance...
every weekend now, with some really great salseros!
I sing...
from the bottom of my heart (or lungs, more like).
I cry...
when I read a sad story (A Tale of Two Cities), when I watch a sentimental scene (last scene in Superman Returns (?!?!?!)), when I listen to a sad song (Lag jaa gale, ki phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho...). Yikes! Looks like I'm quite a cry-baby.
I am not always...
dressed to receive company *blushes*
I make with my hands...
lovingly rolled chocolate truffles.
I write...
better with a pencil than with a pen.
I confuse...
people who like to slot women into "married" and "single" categories.
I need...
a massage from a really strong "maalishwali", kneading my shoulder muscles and working out all the kinks in my back.
Oh-kay now... Aparna, KoPoS: you're it!
