Yesterday, we bought this glass bowl and 4 goldfishes into our home. I am still unsure on why I took this decision suddenly to bring a pet into our home. I hope the changes they bring in our life will form the answer…
Writing prompts and ideas
Yet another Saturday. The Writetribe will bring out “100 words on Saturday” prompt soon. It brings out prompts on Wednesdays too. And if you are in need of daily prompts, the daily post at wordpress blog has published an free ebook for publishing blogposts daily. And then there is the “pressure” theme related prompts for those participating in Nablopomo January 2014. Recently I found out another Blogathon January 2014 post containing prompts for the month of January.
Why am I listing out all these prompts? Because I am very bad at them. If given a prompt, my mind will shut itself out and refuse to think on the topic. This also reminds me of the popular exam question from the school days, on making a sentence to include the given word. This is one of my main hurdles to overcome in the process of becoming a better writer. If you are a lyricist, you should be able to write to a given tune. And if you are a writer, you should be able to write on a specific theme, or a prompt, right?
Another improvement I wish to bring in is to include photos in the posts. For every travelogue I have written in this blog, I should have uploaded some photos, to say the least. But I am that lazy to copy, crop or resize, edit and upload for just a single post. A picture do say a thousand words, and being the photo lover that I am, I should be including more pictures from Google even if its not a photo post. Also, most of the posts in this blog are unedited and written on the go. I feel I have a lot way to go if I really need to hone my writing skills on that aspect. The post can be more structured, planned and organized into sections, or points, edited for proper English, you get the idea? But what if my post then seem artificial and not straight from the heart. That would be my worst fear becoming true.
I remember reading about Blogathon among personal blogs from the blog of the famous author, Preeti Shenoy. There are innumerous blogs, which make money, by providing tech content, news, reblogging other posts, posting daily and making it more professional. They did had a reason to blog daily. They needed to bring traffic to their site to gain money. But here she was blogging away for happiness because she loved to write. And each of the posts, were straight out of the heart, as if a virtual friend is talking to you about some topic, or how did the day went etc. On reading such posts, it made me happy. Every day I would look forward to her posts, so that it brings in some cheer or some positive thought to my lonely mind. And the guest posts by her husband, Satish Shenoy was sprinkled with lots of humour, that you end up having a lingering smile on your face.
Then I read a similar Blogathon on Subha’s blog, which again was another personal blog. And I was really surprised at the huge lengths of the blog post, that I could not finish reading them. Most of them were a potpourri of thoughts, travelogues, day to day happenings, or pieces of life which passed its vibes onto me, watering the seed in me to write more and more. The new year rang at the right time when the iron rod was indeed hot. And here I am, trying to write a blog post, for the tenth consecutive day!
For me, writing such heartfelt posts gives me immense satisfaction rather than writing with keywords and SEO in mind. And that’s why I failed in the last attempt to write actively. Do you feel the same?
The story of hand prints
When you are doing a daily post challenge there is an invisible pressure to churn out new blog posts. The background thread in your mind has to be running full time to generate new ideas, or view the day to day happenings with a blogger point of view, just like a photographer views a real picture with his photographic eye. There are some days when I write two posts together and schedule them over the days, while this post was written with a blank mind. And that’s when some of the lingering thoughts from your mind, pours out of its cocoon to fill the blog post.
One of the key takeaway from the Rajasthan trip we had in December was the Mehrangarh Fort. It was the most impressive fort for me. The entire Jodhpur view, huge walls, the intricate carvings on the stone with the bugle music and drums echoing through the corridors, and the winds blowing right on your face. The guide was helpful in showing only the main art museums and galleries and was rambling many names of the kings and wars happened at the fort. He left us on the way back when we declined his offer for visiting shops and he missed out some interesting points which I had found online.
While I was searching for reviews and travelogues for planning this trip, I had stumbled across many blogs. One of them had a post on this Jodhpur fort. It was a photo showing the handprints of the queens who performed sati ritual. And as we walked down out of the fort, I did notice them on one of the gates. Unfortunately, the camera was with RK who was already few steps ahead and hence I could not take the photo myself. Though some forum say they are symbolic, the mere fact that women like you and me underwent that ritual sent shivers down my spine. Our next stop was the Jaswant Thada which was the cremation ground in the olden days. The combined effect of the handprints and the logs of wood lying scattered around the rocky hills has left an imprint in my mind thinking how the grand lives led by the queens and kings came to an end.
Though I could not find that exact post which triggered this series of thoughts, I found another post describing the visit to Mehrangarh Fort which shares similar view on the old ritual.
Mac and eggs – Indian style
Most kids love mac and cheese. N is no different. She loves macaroni. I had started it so that she can survive hotel food, whenever we travel and stay in resorts. From the time she learned of “Yanke Doodle” rhyme song, and found the word “macaroni” in it, her demand for macaroni has increased exponentially. I too love Italian food like pizza and pasta but not on all days! Its like you dine at Barbeque Nation. Before visiting the restaurant, you feel you haven’t been there in ages, and you start yearning for the fried starters. But once you come out of the restaurant, you feel so full that you pledge that you would never visit this restaurant again. Its the same with me for pasta. Though I order it first, the creaminess of the sauce makes me feel so full and awful till the rim of the neck and I end up passing rest of the meal towards my faithful, loyal and loving husband to finish off the rest.
So after being pampered by the grandparents who had come to Bangalore for our Rajasthan trip, N wanted macaroni to waive off her ‘loneliness’. I did not feel like having the cream sauce and was wondering what twist to bring into it, when I saw the recipe in the MTR macaroni back cover. It asked for red chilli powder and garam masala, but N did not liked spicy food. So the below is my twisted recipe I did at the end.
Ingredients:
200ml(1 glass) pasta boiled and drained as per the instructions on the packet
200ml(1 glass) pasta boiled and drained as per the instructions on the packet
1 small onion
1 small tomato
1 small carrot
2 eggs
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 Amul cheese slice.
For adults, I would have added generous amount of pepper, red chilli flakes and oregano instead of the cheese slice. N love eggs, so I added two to give it more flavour.
Steps:
1. Boil and drain 200ml (1 glass) of pasta as per the instructions on the packet. I do add salt and a bit of olive oil while boiling pasta.
2. Heat olive oil in a pan, and add chopped onions to it .
3. After 1-2 mins, add the chopped tomato and grated carrot and saute till it cooks.
4. Add some ginger garlic paste, sprinkle some salt on it and give it a toss.
5. Crack two eggs into the pan and stir occasionally till scrambled eggs are formed.
6. Add the drained pasta into the pan. Toss and serve with grated cheese on top.
Do try the same or go “Fearless” and experiment with ingredients to give it your own twist.
The tea break..
She woke up her obedient daughter. It was getting late to school. The school van would be arriving within an hour. She went back to kitchen to complete preparing the breakfast. Time ticked on. She was so engrossed in her morning household work, that she was startled when the little one came behind her asking for her dose of milk and cornflakes. The warmth of motherhood flowed into the household environment, till the school van honked to announce its arrival to pick the daughter up. As she waved her good bye smilingly, the light from the aura of excitement and love, went down slowly. She walked back to the kitchen, had her breakfast and prepared herself a cup of tea. She sipped it slowly, standing in the balcony of her apartment, as she does daily. This was the special short break time, before she immersed herself back to the chores…Far across the road, in a small hut, the workshop was already opened early in the morning. Maybe he had got more workload today…
With unknown eyes watching from the distance, the blacksmith had started doing his job. He had got a great offer yesterday to complete an assignment within one day. He had arrived at his workshop much early that day. Before the sun started getting hot, he immersed himself in melting and beating the hot iron rod, with great energy and precision. The process of moulding and shaping was very hard but the reward had always been minimal. The boy from the nearby tea vendor shop arrived with his cup of tea in a mini glass. He kept his weapon down, and started sipping it slowly watching the increasing traffic on the road, as he does daily. This was his short break before he immersed back into his back breaking work…The tall apartment buildings with beautiful balconies and tall windows, across the road reminded him of his small dreams of owning a piece of land..
Little Reader’s Nook
I got my reading habit from my father. I remember reading “Far from the madding crowd” by Thomas Hardy, owned by him when I was very young. When I read the book in high school, I did not understood a single word. Though my sister too was interested in books, the children’s membership was entitled to me, and so I enjoyed a major share of Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton, Secret Seven, and Famous Five. Though I did not understand the political part, I was so influenced by the diary writing from “The diary of young girl” by Anne Frank , that I started writing a diary and hiding it from my parents and locking in my wardrobe in between my clothes. But at the same time, I am not so in love with the hard core book addicts like the little ones immersed in heavy Harry Potter books at the airport, who should be actually making ruckus and running around and like real little children.
I had read on internet, about mommies who want to instill reading habit in their children, by reading to them everyday. Though I do read occasionally, I am not a voracious reader, neither do I have patience to read out and tell stories to others. As like any mother, I also want my child to read, and hence I enrolled for Little Reader’s Nook By Devaki. Initially I was apprehensive, whether it was worth the money, since N is not interested in books, and the few books she already have, has got tears and pages pulled out by now, due to her fiddling. But the books I received were really age-appropriate(compared to another reader kit I had subscribed to), and N had atleast one book, which she considers her favourite from the lot of books we receive every month. Now the onus is onto me, to cultivate the patience in me, to sit and read for few minutes with her, bearing her antics, while I read my lungs out, even if I know she is least interested in the English I speak, and more excited to pull out the folded papers. And the customer service was also very good. Devaki was very prompt and responsive to all the queries, intimidating every details of the shipment and books each month, and in reminding to renew the subscription. The personal touch and involvement makes you feel its not a company based service, but rather a friendly next-door neighbour service for your child.
Now that I am settled with the book reading subscription, I am thinking of starting the art and craft based subscription kits in preparation for the summers. Which one do you reckon in Bangalore, or from India?