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As I said last Friday, we traveled the weekend. We were in Ahmedabad and enjoyed the two days thoroughly. The up and down rounds of Alpha One mall was fun. Did a little shopping. Met a very close colleague and enjoyed dinner at their place. Colleagues who also make great friends are assets to be cherished! The train journey to and fro gave some time and opportunity for me and my daughter to have that little mother-daughter talk :)
Back home, small drizzles did lift our spirits for a while. But the temps have not yet smiled upon us. Neither will they do so soon, it appears.
New look
Change is the essence of life and variety is the spice of life. Agree?
I love change. For me change signifies life, improvement, growth, energy, dynamics and kinematics. Otherwise I feel life has come to a stand still, a static point. Therefore I decided to give my blog a new look. This new dynamic template seems to be simple yet attractive. Well, some of the widgets do not seem to work on this template. So I opted to remove them and stick to simplistic look. Will change the colours and backgrounds with the passage of time.
I keep changing the arrangement of things at home every now and then. A new arrangement after every season refreshes our thoughts and renews the energy at home.
The roses and jasmines in our garden have started to bloom. Jasmines, well, have been blooming past 1.5 months. Come summers, and my favourite after-office activity begins...... plucking ready-to-bloom jasmine buds (I observe, they bloom after late nights usually) and make garlands for evening prayers. By the way, the tulsi (holy basil) and kadi patta/meetha neem (curry leaves) have also grown back fully. And the aloe vera that I thought was no more is showing some signs of life :)
Change is the essence of life and variety is the spice of life. Agree?
I love change. For me change signifies life, improvement, growth, energy, dynamics and kinematics. Otherwise I feel life has come to a stand still, a static point. Therefore I decided to give my blog a new look. This new dynamic template seems to be simple yet attractive. Well, some of the widgets do not seem to work on this template. So I opted to remove them and stick to simplistic look. Will change the colours and backgrounds with the passage of time.
I keep changing the arrangement of things at home every now and then. A new arrangement after every season refreshes our thoughts and renews the energy at home.
The roses and jasmines in our garden have started to bloom. Jasmines, well, have been blooming past 1.5 months. Come summers, and my favourite after-office activity begins...... plucking ready-to-bloom jasmine buds (I observe, they bloom after late nights usually) and make garlands for evening prayers. By the way, the tulsi (holy basil) and kadi patta/meetha neem (curry leaves) have also grown back fully. And the aloe vera that I thought was no more is showing some signs of life :)
Reading is a habit everyone of us has to develop and cherish. You may say, being a librarian it is obvious for me to opine this way. Not just as a librarian, as an academician but also a person, a parent, I strongly feel reading is one such habit, a seed that needs to be sown very early in our children. I have learnt from some of my friends living in the US about taking their small kids and even toddlers to the local library. The libraries organize programmes for various age groups of children. What a lovely culture! This way the kids imbibe love for reading, early.
As a child I have been a voracious reader. As I entered the world of responsibilities and slipped into various roles in both personal and professional life, my reading habit declined with time. Nevertheless, my profession, which happened by serendipity rather than a clear choice, helped me to anchor myself at some very good docking stations along the sea of information and knowledge. Till now, a majority of my professional life barely left me with little time to explore the world of books other than the ones related to either my profession or the parental body that I served. However, I must admit that the period I spent at a university that I served, did let me have a sneak peek at some very interesting works. Of late I feel, apart from professional reading, it is also important to read books of general nature, sometimes may be scientific or social in nature (depends upon the ability of one’s comprehension and scaling up to understand to some extent if not completely).
It takes time for a person to evolve as an individual, with accumulated knowledge from experiences, with gathered knowledge through his readings, perceptions etc. Our actions shape our personality as individuals. I consider our major actions for this purpose, after reaching a stage of physical and emotional stability as our knowledge that is derived from our observations, perceptions and reading.
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Go gluten-free!
My colleague's little one is suffering from celiac's. How unjust! Poor thing, she gets irritated with the limited variety of foods she can have. Well, the fact is we are all survivors and that is what makes us proud! Just like how Nana in the Madagascar series says - we are New Yorkers and we are all survivors!
Anyhow, going gluten-free occasionally seems to help our system. While forging for some varieties of foods for the little one, I found an interesting snack. This one is very popular and famous in Andhra kitchens. I remember my granny making them for almost every festival. As rice is gluten-free, anything made of rice, per se, (provided the other ingredients used with it also cooperate for being free of gluten) can be had by those who are gluten intolerant.
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| Courtesy: http://www.gayatrivantillu.com |
This week's book
"How To Read a Book: The classic guide to intelligent reading" by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. (A Simon & Schuster publication)
I would highly recommend this book to everyone, specially those who will be entering into their undergrad as they will be exposed to a wide variety of books from now onwards. This book answers some of our very fundamental questions like "Why do we read? What are the goals of reading?"
The book is divided into four parts. The first one shows us different dimensions of reading, introducing us to various levels of reading. It also explains the first two levels of reading that are elementary reading and inspectional reading. As students, most of the time, elementary reading is what we generally do till we are in high school. If we are exposed to some literary activity in school, then we may have done some inspectional reading too, that would answer some questions like "What is the book about? What are its structure and parts? etc." Well, we in library science are taught to write book reviews that usually involve inspectional reading.
The third level of reading is analytical reading, which is preeminently meant for understanding. And the fourth level is syntopical reading. It is the most complex and systematic type of reading and places heavy demands on the reader irrespective of the level of the text. This is the kind of reading generally adopted by academicians and researchers. While reading syntopically the reader reads many books on similar or related topics, and places them in relation with one another. It involves more than mere comparison of texts.
Part two explains analytical reading in detail. Part three describes the approaches to different kinds of reading matter, such as, practical matter, imaginative literature, stories, plays and poems, history, scientific works, philosophy and social sciences. Part four broaches on the fourth level of reading and explains the ultimate goals of reading. The last chapter is of special interest that talks about reading and the growth of mind, and what good books can do for us.
Have an insightful reading!
"How To Read a Book: The classic guide to intelligent reading" by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. (A Simon & Schuster publication)
I would highly recommend this book to everyone, specially those who will be entering into their undergrad as they will be exposed to a wide variety of books from now onwards. This book answers some of our very fundamental questions like "Why do we read? What are the goals of reading?"
The book is divided into four parts. The first one shows us different dimensions of reading, introducing us to various levels of reading. It also explains the first two levels of reading that are elementary reading and inspectional reading. As students, most of the time, elementary reading is what we generally do till we are in high school. If we are exposed to some literary activity in school, then we may have done some inspectional reading too, that would answer some questions like "What is the book about? What are its structure and parts? etc." Well, we in library science are taught to write book reviews that usually involve inspectional reading.
The third level of reading is analytical reading, which is preeminently meant for understanding. And the fourth level is syntopical reading. It is the most complex and systematic type of reading and places heavy demands on the reader irrespective of the level of the text. This is the kind of reading generally adopted by academicians and researchers. While reading syntopically the reader reads many books on similar or related topics, and places them in relation with one another. It involves more than mere comparison of texts.
Part two explains analytical reading in detail. Part three describes the approaches to different kinds of reading matter, such as, practical matter, imaginative literature, stories, plays and poems, history, scientific works, philosophy and social sciences. Part four broaches on the fourth level of reading and explains the ultimate goals of reading. The last chapter is of special interest that talks about reading and the growth of mind, and what good books can do for us.
Have an insightful reading!
Like many, I have always been fascinated by advertisements. They are colourful, short, and witty; and most of them hit their targets right. No wonder if I say they are the retail mantras! I am awed at the creativity that goes into these ads. Recently I was checking upon MICA’s (Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad) website and found super creative ideas from their students. Applaud their creative thinking skills! Most of them are amusing, funny and some are serious. Love them all.
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This week's media pick: Anand - a timeless classic
Yet another time we watched this movie, do not remember how many times previously we may have watched. Soulful music score by Salil Choudhury and paramount directorial skills of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The singer and actors deserve a superlative applause. None other than Lt. Rajesh Khanna could have justified such a role.
Enjoy the melodious rendition of Late Sh. Mukesh ji.
Wishing you all another happy weekend, only to begin yet another eventful week.
Yet another time we watched this movie, do not remember how many times previously we may have watched. Soulful music score by Salil Choudhury and paramount directorial skills of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The singer and actors deserve a superlative applause. None other than Lt. Rajesh Khanna could have justified such a role.
Enjoy the melodious rendition of Late Sh. Mukesh ji.
Wishing you all another happy weekend, only to begin yet another eventful week.
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