being 'Karna' in real life...

One of the most famous characters in the indian epic of Mahabharata is Karna.

A fearless and brave warrior, known for his unparalleled generosity, his life was embroiled in controversy, confusion and curses right from his birth to his death.  (Having been born without a biologically consummated relationship, he would have been the poster boy of assisted reproduction clinics if he was living now. but thats not the point of this post.)

one of the curses on him, as a result of having lied to his guru Parasurama, was that he would forget how to use to the Bramhastra (one of the most powerful of weapons)  in the hour of his greatest need.

i was just thinking this afternoon that we all have our 'Karna' moments. not in our valour or generosity, but in the fact that we forget the most important things when we need them the most. how often do you try to recall a detail or remember where you kept something desperately, but cant in the least figure it out. nothing but a total blank.

had that frustrating feeling today, trying to find the data cable of the phone to transfer some pics and couldnt find it anywhere. despite one of those almost 'no-stone-unturned' searches, no luck.
the only consolation that makes you feel you're in a slightly better position than Karna is that you end up unearthing random stuff that you have otherwise long since forgotten or given up on. 

mundane monday - #32

i have been looking through the old pictures in the mundane monday album.... i had started taking pics and posting them in the picasa album from march 2012, and started posting them on the blog from october 2012.the blog posts started from the 25th mundane monday onwards, and there are quite a few from the first 24 that havent got posted on the blog.

so decided to post one of the early ones this week - the very first one is one of my favourites. i had all my spoons and forks in a white mug on my counter, and took the photo keeping it on a black coloured desk.

thinking back, i cant remember now if i took this pic and then decided to make it a weekly thing, or decided to have a weekly thing and then began with this pic !

also i can see i have captioned and tagged the early photos, and have quite detailed descriptions on the early ones posted on the blog. over time i can see the captions dwindled and the writing became brief. i suppose thats an indication of my mind becoming preoccupied and my time bogged down by other commitments. but i have been trying to keep this alive as best as i can, going on despite missing a few weeks here and there.it just gives me a nice feeling, to look back on all the pics once in a while.

the weeks that went by...

After about 3 weeks of being away, i'm finally back to base camp. 

like i always say, its the little things which matter the most. being able to stretch your legs and take it easy, eat when you want, wear what you want, read or write whenever you want. these are what make us feel 'at home'. 

like Jane Austen says, these are the real comforts to me which mean 'home'. (below quote is from Emma - i havent read it though.) 

coming to other things, the upside to these past few weeks was that i got to try out two new restaurants, both of which had good food and ambience, and also happened to catch an excellent classical dance (bharatnatyam) recital of Jonathan Livingston Seagull - it was unusual for an english book with no song-lyrics to be presented in an indian classical dance form, and the result was delightful. 

more importantly, Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a metaphor of our lives. it is a message that life is not for eating and existing alone, but is a journey where anything is possible. we are limited only by our thought.

that is something to ponder upon, isnt it ?  i suggest you grab a copy if you havent read it already - its a great read, and takes very little time. 

mundane monday - # 31

So its the first monday of 2014, and what better way to start, than with a big, beaming smile ?

lets hope 2014 gives us lots of reasons to smile. better yet, to keep smiling whether it does or not. no matter what.

i am normally not much of a new year's resolution kind of person, but i've decided that one of my biggest priorities this year is to keep myself happy, love myself a lot more, and judge myself a lot less. because if we dont do it to ourselves, no one else is going to.

i'm keeping this post brief, but more on this later. as i find ways to motivate myself and keep myself cheerful and happy, i hope to share and talk about it more.

may 2014 be the year that sees us smile as wide as a cheshire cat :) or as big as clifford's buddy T-bone below :)

and among other things, i realised that the last post where i compiled my favourite mundane mondays from 2013, was the 100th post on the blog ! that was a nice thing to note, as i dont really keep count all the time. i know it has been a slower journey than that of a snail stuck in peak hour traffic, but hey,when i started the blog i had no intention of amassing numbers, either by way of post count, or page views, or anything else.
i had planned for a blog revamp in jan 2014, but things had to be put on hold the past couple of weeks... so not sure when i'll have it all completed, but do keep peeping in now and then !

have a good year !

mundane monday - #30 - annual round up of 2013 !

So here come the curtains down on 2013... Another year, another medley and mix of the good, bad, and ugly... lets look back with contentment and look forward with hope...

Wish you all a very Happy 2014 that fills your hearts with peace and happiness... 

Here is a collection of my favourite mundane monday photos posted over the year - though there were lots of gaps in between, and many mondays missed. Lets see how the coming year fares !

Here are the links for the individual posts of each pic above, clockwise - 

Mundane Monday - #16

Mundane Monday - #13

Mundane Monday - #15

Mundane Monday - #18

Mundane Monday - #27

Mundane Monday  - #22

Mundane Monday - #24

Mundane Monday - #14

Mundane Monday - #26

mundane monday - # 29

ok, i'm officially in hand-sanitiser heaven. being a germaphobe, i always carry around hand-sanitiser in my bag.

while your regular purell or germ-x does the job efficiently, i got a set from the pocketbac range of bath&body works, and was delighted with the delicious fragrance. yup, delicious :)

from left to right, the scents in the picture are crisp golden pear, winter cranberry, fresh balsam, vanilla cupcake, and sugared vanilla wish.  i'm using vanilla cupcake right now, and it smells great! havent opened the others yet.

From mundane monday

and coming to other things, there is just one more monday to go before the year winds down. i dont know if i'll be posting anything much in the coming week - maybe something to wrap up - but i hope to be making some changes around the first week or two of 2014. will let you all know how that goes, and meanwhile, wish you all a happy and joy-filled holiday season ahead !

mundane monday - # 28

today's mundane monday  pic is one from the archives... something i took more than a year ago, last fall... was just looking through old pics in the folders and came across this one, so thought i'll 'refurbish' it a little and use it :)

From mundane monday

or, in today's world, maybe listen to TED talks while you are doing the dishes.

in the pic, are some chai-spice shortbread cookies that i made last year. The quote is that of Tasha Tudor, an american illustrator of children's books, who lived an 18th century lifestyle in the 20th century. read more about Tasha Tudor here and here.

oh, btw, by posting this, i dont mean to take a stand pro-housewives or pro-working women. i just believe everyone has a reason and a right to make their own choices, and no one should be judging or questioning the choices of another. if only every housewife had a dollar every time someone asked them "you are just a housewife ?" or "what do you do all day", they'd be sitting on a pile of dollars, trust me.