It's a Rangoli

There's this Tamil Paati (at least in my imagination) who does these beautiful Rangolis by 7 am everyday. One of the highlights of my morning walk (note, not jog but not stroll either) is waiting to find out what piece of art she has created today. It is weird to walk by looking over-casual, use darting looks to make sure no one from the house is actually outside and inconspicuously click a pic . Everyday. But they look so awesome don't they  !

One day though, I saw a youngish lady outside (heart shattering sounds of "she's not a patti" were heard) and I walked up and said, hey I like the rangolis you put everyday, they are beautiful and she laughed and said "no, that's not me, that's owner aunty from upstairs" . So, it still might be a Tamil Paati no ?

Flashes of inspired thinking..

During a discussion yesterday, while talking about someone who got real rich in a short time, someone said, "now he's successful" and I had a one of my "How didn't I realise I was this smart before" moments. 

I wondered why it was that being rich is considered being better than any other goals that humans tend to have, I realised that it's probably because it's a quantifiable quality. You can't measure how happy a person is , or how much good one has done, but you can definitely measure all the things one owns! Even kings were feared or respected based on the sizes of the kingdoms they conquered. 

Hence, the need to live in the tallest building, own the fastest car and what not. In the movie 3 Idiots, isn't that what the Class Topper tries to show off - amazing house and car, pretty wife - all quantifiable. Of course, we are shown finally that he depends on the hero for it finally, but I digress. 

While I am writing about the nuggets of wisdom that I have come up with, here's another recent one. I travelled down a stretch of road and back one afternoon, onwards in a mad hurry and on the way back like I was spending a lazy vacation day on a beachside hammock. While going, I just needed to get ahead, I took some risks zigzagging, bounced in and out of all available potholes, had flashes of road rage, I couldn't believe people were ambling about so aimlessly (and more importantly, blocking my road because they weren't pushing their limits to make way for themselves) While coming back, I was in the Fuel Economy Zone Speed, noticing new hoardings, no honking and was enjoying the ride. Standby for Wisdom Transmission.

Isn't that how we live life? We decide how fast we go, where to stop, what risks we can take, when to stop and smell the roses. We see others and are quick to judge their decisions while we do whatever catches our fancy. Well, I guess what I realised was, when we have a goal, we do more to make it happen and there is fun in making things happen but stress too because we are stepping out of the comfort zone.When we don't have that sense of purpose, things still happen, we still finish the journey probably more relaxed but we don't use all the abilities we have. Well, that's just me thinking, a journey and how living life is almost the same!

There must be so many more amazing thoughts floating around in the spaces of my mind. I'm off on a hunter-gatherer mission to find them all.

Being Inspired by the Idiot box.

And no, I'm not writing this one about the likes of NatGeo, Discovery , you've been warned !
There are always interesting characters around us, seeing them on tv(though fake) gives us time to see so many nuances in the personality that we don't get to see in real life.
For quite some time, I liked House. Of course, I've always liked characters who are super smart, but this guy goes from being Mr. Little to House MD and of course his characters in all those British comedies.
The latest tv show that I have been regularly watching is The Good Wife. It's almost exactly like any other lawyer show but I like the leading lady. She has some amazing conflicts- working as intern competing with a fresher working tirelessly,dealing with all sorts of weirdos. She likes being a good person and doing the right thing even when she crosses the line many a times to win her cases or to survive in her world. An instance is when the firm introduces peer reviews and a partner asks her opinion about it and she says "It gives everyone a chance to say something bad about the other" and he says "I read your reviews, you haven't". I sort of liked that scene. It shows the audience that there is a chance to be different, if only you want to :)
Well, this post has certainly been a ramble, not what I set out to write .. but hmm ...

The joys of a flashback...

After a loooooooong time, I saw a movie where I could 'joll' over the hero. For anyone who isn't familiar with the term , it means 'to drool over'. I'm all for acting skills are important, the looks just have to suit the role and all that ... but when it comes to a good looking guy making goo goo eyes at his onscreen love interest, ahem .
You know how when you are young, you know exactly the definition of good looking. There is a list of items to check off and there is no room for compromising (everything has to be a 10 , a rare 9 is just that, a rarity) Typical, Tall , Fair , Handsome, Great Eyes, Great Smile ... One of my favourite tests to judge if a guy was good looking was "If I pass by him on the road, will I turn around to look a 2nd time?". I remember being very particular about what I thought good looking was supposed to be. And I guess I used to see enough guys fit the bill , total NSP (Nayan Sukh Praapti) . I love stumbling on old abbreviations. NSP was the term we used to describe just looking at people. (Pleasing to the eye - that would be the closest meaning in English to NSP, but NSP sounds so much better)
Then somewhere down the line, (read along with growing older) , the definition changes. You realise looks are not important, that most people have only partial 'good looking'attributes . And most importantly, you begin to find people attractive for who they are more than how they look. And slowly, you change. You see only the good in everyone, for example - my doctor is this bald man with glasses and he's shorter than me but everytime I see him smile at a patient or see the way he holds babies and coos while patiently fixing all their problems  - All I can see is that he has a beautiful smile and that makes him good looking to me !  ( Teenage me would be shuddering now)

For most of my life, when I attend weddings with my mom and invariably we talk about the physical appearance of the groom and bride . My mom would say things like "He looks nice", "You can't expect guys to look better than that" for people I would rate 5 or 6 on 10. And of course all the aunties around would agree. And I would always think , what is it with old people and low standards in the looks ;) Now I realise that maybe the older generation was looking at the sort of person the groom is, or his social standing or his accomplishments and that colors their perception of his looks. And I get that. Now. Damn , have I gotten THAT old already ?

 But after seeing the movie, like a jolt I remembered all my teenage ideal guy criteria. It has been so long since I've looked at someone and gone "Haiiiii" (other than my hubby of course!! I go Haiiiiii alllllllll the time :) ) I kept looking at the scenes and songs and kept going "My God, he is one good looking guy" quite loudly into hubby's ear much to his annoyance. Well, I did see the movie and listen to the dialogs and all that but mostly it was nice to just look at a good looking guy . Here's to NSP !
Oh and I'm talking about Sidharth Malhotra in the movie Hasee Toh Phasee.