The Musing Mind

--- 1 --- This week has been a busy one. Looking forward to a busier week ahead :) The mercury has risen beyond 47C. Praying the rain Gods to shower mercy! --- 2 --- Our journey from denial to accomplishment. This picture defines my journey of blogging, I suppose :) Ever since I discovered the blogging activity, the different tools and techniques available to make the blog posts interesting, I have climbed each of these steps. Don't they appear to be relevant to most of our life activities where we encounter difficulty? Be it doing a project, undertaking a job, clearing an examination, specially when we are not willing to do something but are compelled to do........ or ........ sometimes even overcoming our fears! --- 3 --- Came across an interesting post on one of the food blogs ( Dr. Saila's ) I follow. The blogger, Dr. Saila, describes the benefits of using a "Stone Pot" for cooking. Here I borrowed the picture she posted. Stone ...

--- 1 --- I am picking up my writing strings again :) Feel like writing these days. Hope to continue writing and post atleast every Friday. --- 2 --- Thanks to my good friend Jason Pannone@ Pannoneappetit for introducing me to this wonderful template. I really liked it a lot. It kind of gives you the flexibility of writing different pieces, broken down into manageable chunks and integrate different formats like text, audio, video, graphics etc. --- 3 --- On a lighter note....... rightly said! Isn't it true that we all need some introspection and retrospection some time in our lives? I do it quite often. Not just introspect and retrospect but I also feel one should spend some time in absolute solace with one's self. --- 4 --- Weekend usually means cleaning, cooking, music and possibly a movie or two (if the TV Gods are merciful enough to uphold my interest). Last week it was khaman dhokla , sabudana khichdi   seasoned with Rang De Basanti . I wonder what ...

Tearful adieu to the departed innocent souls in the school shooting massacre in CT and prayers, asking strength for their parents and families to endure this pain. RIP little ones! (Sandy Hook massacre ) This is not the first incident. There have been many such in many other countries, of varied nature, varied magnitude and with varied motives in recent years. Do we still believe that something more heinous and horrendous will happen on 21.12.12 to bring this world crashing down on us for apocalypse? Will Santa still come down to his little ones? What will happen to the innocent minds of all those little ones who are a witness of this demon-like act? I am sure each one of them must be having a dozen questions for their mommies and daddies. Where are heading to?  This incident has thrown a challenge into our faces - can we retain the belief of Christmas and goodness in this world? Let's try and make our small worlds peaceful to live in!!

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite things Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite things Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite things When the dog bites When the bee stings When I'm feeling sad I simply remember my favorite things And then I don't feel so bad" (Source: Sound of Music) This song reminds me of those simple things which we often tend to forget amidst our fast-paced lifestyle. We all run different races every day, every hour in our lives. Personal, professional, social races. Each with a different target, different pace, different style and...

My darling (only) daughter took her class X CBSE board exams and successfully completed them on March 26, 2012. Now it was my duty to find her a good pastime until her school reopens and she moves into class XI. Usually in the CBSE system schools reopen after a brief break in the academic session, roughly around the mid-month of April and close for summer vacations in mid-May. Since she is moving from class X to class XI where you expect new students to join and some old ones to leave for other boards or junior colleges, we presumed that not much activity will take place in school during this period of April-May. After a bit of research we came to a discussion point that she should explore learning of a foreign language in this summer break. Since there are no such facilities in the place we live (Jodhpur), the nearest and convenient place for her would be Ahmedabad where she can be put up in my uncle's place. We found out that the Alliance Francaise centre at Ahmedabad runs Frenc...

It has been quite some time that I have written anything. Today I was browsing through Flipkart.com , my personal favourite site for books and gadgets (lately). My very first book, a fall out from my Ph.D. thesis was listed there too!! I like that! Who would not? That makes it more easily available in India. Well, I never planned to go global with my publication, but thanks to LAP Lambert for their proposal. The book was published in November 2010. Back then, I informed some of my knowns informally about that and it is also listed on globally most popular site Amazon.com . Whoa! What's more? It's on Barnes & Noble too!! When I turn back and review the kind of time it was, from 2004 to 2009.........sigh! Many people around the world do research and I was not doing something extraordinary. Yet, I can say, it has been a very eventful and learning period. Not just academically but that period marked growth of a professional, a person, a human being! I met some very i...

I (we) had been riding under and over chaotic situations for quite sometime now. Not uncommon! Everybody does. In  fact I had been racking my brain as to how to plan for so many events, responsibilities and commitments in life so that I (we) do not end up crashing into pecuniary problems or demeaning situations. I was checking through all kinds of opportunities for earning, saving and investing etc. I am not a wise shopper. Nor am I a big spendthrift. I may perhaps figure-out somewhere in between these two. Despite having a decent job and a reasonably decent pecuniary footing, I still feel insecure. Comes naturally to females, I guess! While engrossed in the interplay of such thoughts and regular office work during hot climes of April, my colleague brought me in the freshly arrived bunch of magazines for the month. As a regular practice I browsed through the magazines and chose Reader's Digest for a detailed reading. In that issue, an article by David Hochman particularly caught m...