Acrylic and Oil

Misty Morning

Walking by the snowy road on a misty morning...
Feeling the dew on the face seemed like a long awaited dream,
Standing by the broken fence, to look at the trees yonder
I tried to figure out the shapes past the hilly border
The tree tops, the dew drops, the snow flakes, the mist,
there was something in the air today that took me adrift
I looked back at the path on as far as I could see
Traced my steps in the silence of the hour into the sleet
The feeling so intense was to not let go of that beautiful dream,
I stayed on till the sun rose and put a pearly gleam.

Dawn


Sun brought a new dawn , with bright red sparkle
The day was certainly on my side, with yet another one of natures miracles
The sky wasn't blue and the sun was still to be true
the warmth of the color shone on my cheeks too...
The mist began to dissapear and the snow to melt
my footsteps were now convered with lively grass blades
and as I looked again on the path I had walked
I saw my home sparkling in glee and the swing on the tree,
ready to embrace me back.

Fairness - boon or bane

Natural Selection : The famous term coined by Charles Darwin. Natural selection is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population and unfavorable heritable traits become less common.
How is that related to fairness: When a couple, with one dark-skinned and one light-skinned partner, have a child, the child will usually inherit the dark skin. This is simply because nature makes the better choice. Yes, thats correct dark!! Fair skin has a lot more problems as compared to dark skin. Fair skinned people are more likely to have skin diseases due to the derth of pigment melanin. So obvioulsy unbaised nature makes the better choice.
Now for some facts that wiki has for fairness creams: Asia has the biggest market for fairness creams. Basically they are obsessed with white. Asian men no longer believe that fairness is only for women. Indian men, as well as their counterparts in other Asian countries, including Korea and Japan are turning to fairness cream. According to trade analysts, men’s fairness products is valued at Rs 30 million, and constitutes 35 percent of the market.
Initially the reason for dark or fair skin was related to kind of work people did, manual hard labour done by workers in fields versus indoor jobs done by more educated people, which soon led to caste distinction and later on to color distinction. Though India has come out of the caste distinction, its still stuck on color and the growing sale of fairness creams only helps to reinstate the belief.
Cmon, again which generation is it? We are not health consious as much as fairness concious. We do not live in a Utopian society where choices were made by the way things appear or look. We live in a modern world with a Utopian attitude. Thats was 16th century. We say Nature is the best teacher. So why not learn something from it?

Halloween

A good harvest of pumpkin and the right tools are the 2 basic neccessities for pumpkin carving. Good harvest because it means getting a pumpkin for 69 cents and I say right tools because I broke about 2 knives the last time I carved a pumpkin. But this time the tools,teacher,company and weather all being right, it really turned out to be fun.



Apart from being fun, it marks the end of the harvest season and start of winter and daylight savings. Some explainations I have heard about the pumpkin carving tradition is that, people used to light lamps during winter as it used to get dark early. Due to a good pumkin harvest, they were good containers to light candles I guess. Soon people realised of the fun shapes they could put on the pumpkin to make it look more ornate. And hence came into existence the pumkin carving tradition.
Sybollically:
The carved pumpkin lit by a candle inside is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions.

As far as the wiki story behind it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

Warli

I wanted to paint atleast one Warli design since the time my Aunt had used it on some fabric when I was young. It looked really intricate though it does not have a lot of shape or forms as you can see here. It usually converys a village scene. Warli art infact dates back to around 2500BC when people spoke this language a mixture or sanskrit, marathi and gujrati. Recently it came into fashion when modern homes wanted enthnic looks and brought in warli painted bed covers , cushions, table clothes or just hangings. That still did not suffice the need and slowly it got into the garment industry where "Tantra" and other kurtha making industries promoted it all the more.
Here, in the US people have a certain interest in mounting painted plates over the walls. The plates have pictures of seasons, light houses, animal paitings etc. I never thought that use of plate until I came here and it looks really good and they have extremely useful mounting accessories for this. One of my friends here wanted to give her house an Indian look and I thought what better idea than to merge the two :)...So there is my first attempt, though now I am trying a different color for the next one. This does not take more than 2-3 hours :D...well that is if you use acrylic for paint.

Social Networking

How many friends do you have? May be like 50 no no wait I think my orkut says 245...huh? really....oh I wonder when was the last time I spoke to the 245th person on my list, yeah the 245th person doesn't even have a face..I mean there is no photo, which means there is maybe like a 1 in 245*1000 chance of the 245th person replying...Nevertheless I will not give up. How many friends of friends do you have, now everyone is familiar with that lingo. Ok lets do it again, how many connections do you have....15? think again...oh yes around 50 and still going thats Linkedln....how many connections of connections do you have...yes I exactly don't know how useful this talk is becoming. Lets try again? which Jane Austen charachter are you? what?...ok never mind...Can I cast a spell on you or send you a hug, yes you got it right the Social networking site Facebook just cast a spell on you!! Ok lets do a different round, how many minutes did you spend on your account 5 may be, on your friends, I think about 15 min or maybe 30min. And on friends of friends ooooohhhh I just kept on going from one account to another, lost count of minutes....Yeah right whoever said time was precious, forgot to say friends of friends are more precious. Who in the world has that much time? Last week my roommate asked me did I see her photos on orkut...nice one, I um forgot to look at orkut....and she said...you what? you did not log on? don't tell me this is true? I don't think so? I mean common what...I know social networking is important,but I like to do my monologue sometimes without the need of any other social network...Social network is becoming easy these days with these sites, but how much of the friends or friends of friends or connections or connections of connections we maintain is the point. We hardly get time to maintain it...So atlast I decided to curb my curiosity and let it grow only to the point of my friends and not their friends. After all we can give a gift or a jaddu ki jhappi or real flowers all in person and cast a much loving spell...he he...I had to explain it in your lingo people!!

My Mom's Philosophy

Mom, are you studying? Yes! How long to your finals? one month precisely!! Howz the subject coming along?...Its difficult to follow, but I am getting there! Yes this is a conversation between Mom and her daughter, completely reversed. Talking to my friend who asks..."which subject does your mom study"...Philosophy is my proud reply. Now there it is. I personally think that Moms have their own philosophy, and hence "Mom's are always right" and when they study a subject called philosophy, sure it will be darn difficult for them to follow someone elses won't it be? Jokes apart. I am not 12 and my mom is not in her 30's. She is around 45 and just finished her MA in Yoga and philosophy topping her class. She has come a long way from studying in Marathi medium to getting an MA in Philosophy in English medium. I have attempted to read her books, but Kant, Aristotle, Plato were smart and people of heavy words. I have learnt in an English medium through and through and still the first para of book was enough for me to open up a dictionary. But dictionaries give literal meanings of words and not the hidden philosophy in them. So there you go reading the same lines in the book again and again, unless you have a good teacher.

Journey of my Mom in 3 years of Diploma in Yoga and MA in Philosophy was not easy for her age but definitely entertaining. No I am not mixing the words serious and entertaining. You will be surprised to know it is nothing related to serious and so people stop giving weird looks to people who study philosophy. It is not Psychology either and hence not a study of human behavior. So lets get our ideas straight and for beginners that is those who are still looking at this article weirdly you might like to entertain yourself with a book called 'Plato and Platypus walk into a bar'. Even if you don't get to the deeper meaning of the book, it is definitely a wholesome entertainment.

So let me give a bit of introduction of this course offered by our own Kalina University in Bombay. It is a one year diploma in Yoga and a two year MA in Philosophy course. The teachers had definitely designed the subjects well by which I mean: Over the period of the course, the students had a lot many guest speakers from here and abroad sharing their views on western philosophy, Hindu/Jain/Buddhist philosophy and yoga philosophy etc. While the airing of movies like matrix and Ice age and a talk of philosophy of those movies was definite entertainment as we all know. I was just glad my Mom watched some good movies :) The course also offered an opportunity to make projects and present them in front of speakers and have them evaluated. Its awesome to see how well the course is put together with fun and turned into an extremely interesting journey.

After her MA, My Mom went ahead and gave an all Maharashtra test for Lecturers, in order to qualify to become a lecturer for such course. She met a lot of ladies in her exam hall all in different age groups and she asked one of the 25+ girl why was she studying the subject. And her quick reply was, its definitely not boring as it sounds and it will go a long way to help me lead my life with a extremely different and practical approach. Another lady of my mom's age in the hall was also of the idea that its never to late to learn anything at all. After which my mom came home and gave me the example of the 25 year old girl to me and also made some of her friends join the course, for which all of us were thankful to her later. So ladies, well not many men were in the course, but then as everyone knows if you educate a woman you educate the whole family, its a profitable deal, if you are interested in pursuing something think of what your Mom would have said...because after all this the fact remains "Mom's are always right" :) Pursue it!!

Changing the car break light

This is the first time I have done any kind of work on my car. My roomate checked the break light and announced, it was not working. When at a friends place for dinner during a conversation I realised that anyone can change the break light of a car. Even a girl! Now I had to win against me. So I decided to do this break light repair myself....ofcourse with a lot of help from friends :D.

Ok, so here are the steps:

1) Get a light!!, not a life... (so I went to autoparts and guess what there were rear light, front lights, break lights, some fancy lights..overwhelming!..so usually at such shops there are computers and list of inventory which match your car and parts. That was great!, In 5 min I was off from that store with a rear light. While, at the store a mexican was buying a huge part of engine ---I assumed he was a mechanic....and I dared myslef...one day to change that part of some car not mine...I love my car...:D)

2) The rear lights of car lie beneath a covered panel which can be unscrewed from inside the trunk. thats the best I can describe it in lay woman's term...
So get a toolkit!!
Well I nearly spent 2-3 days enquiring to my friends on toolkits they have and reminding them to it till finally I got a nice trendy red toolkit with all kinds of instruments...

3) Now we require the kit, lights and lot of broaddaylight.
I started working towards unscrewing the screw and after 15 min of effort and sore back by standing in awkward step to unscrew the panel, I decided to take a break...
This was starting to become a pain...gardening is definitely more effortless though equally backbreaking...I sit on the hood thinking, then I devised a plan, get halfway into the car trunk and start to unscrew the panel again..less effortful...and definitely worked faster...Now, the panel is off and I wonder where the bulb is as it is nowhere in the vicinity except for wires. So here I get some help from my friend, he pulls out the bulb and clicks it loose...thank god I din't have to think this one through. Because, all I could see was another huge panel to unscrew and at the end I would have had car parts...:P

4) I clicked the new bulb back and put the panel on it and cried to my roomate to come check it out. After she gave me the heads up...We declared me the official mechanic of girl gang, btw we also already have the official toyota nation advisor in the girl gang...:)

5) Don't forget to check how much you saved,
....Well I spent only 2.5 dollars on the bulb...rest of my manual labour and toolkit came for free

Gooooood morningggggggg!! 90.3 Market Place

Gettting out of my house to get to office as every morning. My car clock says 8:42AM. I can't believe 2 weeks in a row and I am still making the same time every day.. I am turning into a machine. Alas!

I try to change a bit in my course of action, so as to feel human again. But there is not a lot to do when you are stuck in the drivers seat of the car and paying attention on 65 speed limit of the interstate. So instead of my regular Ipod, I decide to start the radio. But I am not in mood of playing the blarring hip-hop or soft country music or the instrumental jazz. Still I just turn it on without giving another thought and a guy(radio-man as I will hereafter call him) is talking about 'Barack Obama'.

Yes!! the news is on from Market Place New York on 90.3.
Well Since I hardly read a paper in the morning and don't have time to watch news on TV, my only source of news is the BBC website which I have access to from the desk in office. Yep a Software engineer's life. And since its impossible for me to bury my head in New York times in the morning, this feels like a pleasant change. For the 15 min drive to my office, I get completely transported to the busy streets of NewYork and around, with commotion, stock rates, traffic, crowd pushing their way in and out of path-rails, people who make page3-of-fashion-section walking on the roads with aristocratic suitcases, waiting a while at the buzzing round-the-corner coffee shops to pick up breakfast, news from important places like white house, NSE, WallStreet pouring in. I get all excited and ready to be at work. Being a city girl at heart, these things catch on to me.

Wait!!, Can I smell coffee, bagel...Can i? This wakes me up a bit. I want to get out and stop at a bustling coffee shop, when my exit 252 calls for me to get off the interstate. Good God, the coffee worked (atleast the virtual one). I din't miss the exit. I check my clock again 5 min to 9. I dont have enough time to squeeze a coffee and more so I don't have a bustling coffee shop around the corner. Drat!

I am suddenly on the slow moving, calm quite country road. This reminds me I am in a small city which at times and mostly on internal roads feels like a town. No-one is in a hurry to move forward. People are chilled and relaxed. Atleast I like the look on their faces. No tension, no rush.

The radio-man goes on Dollar rate, Gas prices fall.....Well did he just say gas prices..Did he just say "Fall"...Woooo I look at my gas tank, showing half full.. Well I don't need to get any gas today. Maybe I can just wait and listen to this news every morning for it to fall more. Maybe I will just make it in time for the lowest-gas-price-day-of-the-week. Now I am happier in the self analyzed version of what the radio-man just said. My eyes are still set on the couple of gas stations near the exit showing high prices near to 4/gallon in font size 72.

Just then the radio man changes the topic and now its a zero-calorie sweetener. New found from some herb. And all aerated drink companies are rushing for it. Diet coke just became 'Anorexic coke' because you might just loose the will to drink it anymore. Hey coke lovers, just kidding here!! I think they should even work on changing the shape of the bottle. Well why not, when companies have already worked on changing color like the pepsi blue. No try is going to harm the already declining market of diet coke (quoting the radio-man here). Another sweetener, well why does it keep reminding me of coffee!! I can take it no more. Just then I halt at exactly 2 min to 9 in front of my office. Look at the building. take a deep breathe, visualize it as the tall 60 storey office (well in reality its just 4 storey ;), say hi to a couple of people on my way in, stop at the break room, get my dose of coffee - feel important carrying it to my seat and have my first sip. Yup! back to normal, the first sip did it :)

Sip's and Stroke's

Its a DBa's life

I lead each day a different day, trying to look positive, bearing that smile which is hard to maintain after continuous frustrating unidentifiable hex coded uncoded, unable to decode, hidden behind a simple sentence "I cannot log in"
But today, I had reached my frustration level, started to think I ws dumb when I came across this article: http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Fun_stuff

SDome of the excerpts are so near to my heart....:((

SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0;
SELECT * FROM clients WHERE clue > 0;
etc....and so on

Yesterday: A DBA's backup song
YESTERDAY (to be sung to the tune of the Beatles' song - Yesterday):

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay
Now my database has gone away

Oh I believe in yesterday

Suddenly,
There's not half the files there used to be
And there's a deadline
hanging over me
The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say

Now my data's gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
The need for back-ups seemed so far away.
Thought all my data was here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

Q/A
Q. What if your Dad loses his car keys?
A. 'Parent keys not found!'

and if you are a true DBa, you will go ahead to read:
http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Fun_stuff

The small a in DBa signifies which position I am in right now, b and c look so far away...And that this was not enough my computer denies to perform anymore for the day...I guess its just a way of telling me to rest...I can blame it on the slow processor!!

Enjoy!!....After all its a DBa's life

On my Carbon trails.......

My attempts at Mehendi designs

The Big B - Bombay

Bombay, when I shifted to this city of 7 islands it was still Bombay. Till one day Mubaikars decided to be so. WHatever the name is, it hardly matters. I still love it.

Came here when I was in 5th. Switched schools twice, started learning hindi from the first alphabet as opposed to my kabir ke dohas which I had started to love by now. Hindi was better than marathi, because I was a hardcore 'MP'ite, my friends thought it weird. The place I came to live in was still a subarban village of Bombay with a police station and dhaba next to our building. From a convent school to a normal one, from the good old ICSE board which I so much love and still consider the epitome of good education to SSC was a pleasent change as I had to study less. In approx 2 years there sprang building beside ours and I could no more see across the higway. Though I could still see my school bus coming from around the corner and run down in a jiffy:D Soon I forgot there existed a highway across and was happy settling for the part of world I could see and experience.
My dad taught me to ride the bicycle and then my first scooter in which I crashed and never touched a motorized 2 wheeler again. Bicycling is still my favourite sport. Thought havent done it for years. I had my first music lessons in Mumbai, as my mom always wanted me to learn to sing. And I am glad that she had discovered my passion for music. I love and appreciate music. I had a bengali music teacher, who taught it in her typical sweet Bengali accent :)
My brother loves Mumbai though he was born in Bhopal and I still love the small town feel, A disscusion on Mumbai and you will know he hates to get out of that place and dreams to make it big there. Bhopal has no importance other than the place of birth. I guess thats is why he is the hardcore Mumbaitte and not me :)
He was very young then, I still remember his running around in that fav red sweater and playing with my gang of girls till I was in 10th. After which he attended my school picnic and that was the end of my gaming sessions with my bro, where I had to finally declare that he make his own friends.
Extremely naughty fellow, who always got me complaitns in school, but which only made me love him more. The bond and understanding with which we grew, will always be as strong and I am glad, I have a sibling.
Then came the junior college and I spent more time at home that usual, bunking college... The transformation from school to college was really enriching experience from new friends to new dresses to new teachers, new subjects, new travel in local train to even a few crushes. Things were always merry. The love hate relations of life just started and thats when I understood the ppl of this city more. While in school I only interacted more with families staying in my colony.We had a bengali, tamil and bihari family staying on the same floor. Then I was awed by the strong bengali culture, the importance of women they potrayed, while at the same time I could see the boldness of the biharis and the simplicity, hardwork and religiousness of the tamilians. We had north, south, east, west exp...all in one.
But when I went to college, that is the time I experienced the real Mumbai culture and the sweet people. The maharashtrians and gujratis though being different have over the years struck a sanguine relation. And its hard to differeciate anymore. They stay in one family while sharing the cultural beauties with each other. Going to engineering college, always being interested in other cultures, I had more gujrati friends. Getting to see their culture from such proximity was something I cherished.
The fourth year of engg was even better with a project at IIT, one of the biggest university campuses in India was worth experiencing. With a good professor and a nestle canteen and the powai lake and four project partners, life had come to a standstill for the moment after which we did not know where our lifes would take us. My journey of Mumbai was for 13 years after which it was time for Infosys and moving on to another Big B. There is a lot more to write, but for now its late, the clocks ticking and dreaming of it sounds like a better idea :)

Toast

We usually meet people in our long life to create memories and part to preserve them. But along the way some people become the way of our life. My roommate of 3.5 years is getting married and the memories of our togetherness come back to me and fill my heart with all the beautiful things, times and emotions. I recently read in a book: "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed." Its same, when we meet, we get used to each others ways.
Once we spend some considerable time together everytime we look at something or do something, it reminds us of that someone important in a happy way. The time I have spent with Richa will never come back, but the memories will, the love and care will always be there where she had made her special place.

I still remember the first day of school when I met this bubbly kid, joining school so late so as to not being able to register for any of the classes she liked. But still happy. Then she lost her way going home and through a lot of efforts came to our place to be dropped back, still with that smile.
The next interaction with her was, she came to our place to look for accomodation, we being in need of a fourth roomie.
Since then we have moved around from four roomies, to five, to two, to three, to four and back to two.

We came to share all the good times and bad, from getting up late for classes, to studying together, to cribbing about assignments, to get to know about each other and family and trying to fill the gaps, till last year when she announced she wanted to marry Davey, the intial surprise which I soon accepted, because he is such a lovely person, that its difficult not to like him, his qualities, his knowledge, his love for books, his anecdotes, his always being there for you, all started to become a important part of our lives. I always felt the trust that he so confidently put in the relation towards Richa and all things important to her.

And that could be because for you all who have known Richa for some time, know, she is adorable, smart, extremely lovable, highly caring, and cooks awesome food :) Also, She has always had a happy disposition alongwith matureness and strength of mind.
You learn a lot of stuff form your roomies. Similarly I unknowingly learnt a lot from her too, what loving your people in the right sense means. Love does not mean only feeling a lot for a person, it is a mix of compassion, care, complementing other persons shortcomings, working on the qualities of a person making them stronger enough so there is no more place for shortcomings, doubts, distrust or fear. Love is not only feeling but showing too that you truly love.

No outsider can see the friendship we have, let alone understand it. Because sometimes we ourselves don't say anything, but just understand and so its definitely going to be difficult to say "good-bye"
With all the love that she is going to take forward in the Templin family, who have always been so supportive and been pleasure to be with, I am so sure she will make a great wife, a caring daughter-in-law and a fav granddaughter...

May Richa and Davey life be long and happy,
Their cares and sorrows few;
and the many friends around you
Prove faithful, fond and true.