Celebration means......

Celebration means......
Four friends.
Bahar barsaat.
Four glasses of beer.

Celebration means......
Hundred bucks of petrol.
A rusty old bike.
And an open road.

Celebration means......
Maggi noodles.
A hostel room.
4.25 a.m.

Celebration means......
3 old friends.
3 separate cities.
3 coffee mugs.
1 internet messenger.

Celebration means......
Rain on a hot tin roof.
Pakoras deep-frying.
Neighbours dropping in.
A party.

Celebration means......
You and mom.
A summer night.
A bottle of coconut oil.
A head massage.

You can spend
Hundreds on birthdays,
Thousands on festivals,
Lakhs on weddings,
but to celebrate

all you have to do is spend your Time with your loved ones.


P.S: - Read this in one of my mails. I developed an instant liking for these lines and couldn't help posting it here :-)

Of Bears and Bulls

I'm the kinda person whose knowledge of all things fiduciary is non-existent! Today morning, while hubby was watching CNBC, there was this term that flashed across the screen and sounded rather funny to me...Bullish! Now what was that? When I asked him, he immediately took 'stock' of the situation, and in his characterestic style (he likes wearing the pedagogic garb every now and then) ,gave me a lengthy exposition on bulls, bears and other wild life stalking the stocks. For a financially challenged person such as your's truly, it was news that carnivores had migrated outside Animal Planet and National Geographic and wandered into CNBC.

But here's a gist of my new-found knowledge :-
Bears are cautious animals who don't like to move too fast. Bulls are bold animals who might
charge right ahead. An investor is said to be "bearish" if he or she believes the stock market
will go down. A "bearish" investor will buy stock cautiously. A "bullish" investor believes the
market will go up. He or she will charge ahead and put more money into the market. An investor can be bearish or bullish about a particular kind of stock.

Likewise, the term "bear market" describes a time when stock prices have been falling on the
whole. A "bull market" is a period when stock prices are generally rising.

On Wall Street, the bulls and bears are in a constant struggle. If you haven't heard of these
terms already, you undoubtedly will as you begin to invest.

Here's a pic of
"Bull and bear statues in front of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange"

If your expectations are real, there are no setbacks.

"If your expectations are real, there are no setbacks. If you are going to have unreal expectations from life or work, there will be setbacks. I mean, you will think they are setbacks. I never ever really think anything fails. Especially in creative work, you can't fail" . These are lines from one of the recent interviews of King Khan. Couldn't be closer to the truth!

Voices Within ..

That's the title of an incredible book on Carnatic music written by renowned singers Bombay Jayashree Ramnath and T.M. Krishna together in collaboration with Maithili Chandrasekhar, an acclaimed journalist. They describe it as a coffee table book. Coffee table books are rare, and readable ones are rarer still. This is surely one well-researched, well-written and thoroughly enjoyable addition to your coffee table (though you might want to take care not to spill any coffee on it, priceless that it is)
It's a tribute to seven carnatic titans of the last century. The book is steeply priced at Rs. 1900 and I had my initial reservations about buying it. I did not realise its worth until I attended the inauguration ceremony of the book by the authors themselves, at the Bangalore Gayana Samaja. Excerpts from the book were read out, just enough to pique the listeners' interest, but good enough to make them want to possess it. The book also had rare, vintage pictures.
For the first time, Jayashree and Krishna sang together in public. Though they denied the fact, it was a "zabardast - jugalbandi". They sang a favourite raaga / famous song of each of those seven musicians of yesteryears.

My hubby and I are now proud owners of this book.

P.S: - The book, which was released at a private function by President, A P J Abdul Kalam, at Delhi some time ago, talks about seven maestros who changed the course of Carnatic music in the last century-- Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, T N Rajarathnam Pillai, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G N Balasubramaniam, Palghat Mani Iyer, M S Subbulakshmi and T R Mahalingam (Mali).

Kuch Sawal Zindagi Badal Sakte Hain...

That was the punch line of the ad campaign launched for the promotion of KBC-3 by King Khan! Though I'm an ardent SRK fan, I've not liked him in his KBC avatar thus far. Big B was far superior. Maybe SRK is trying too hard to live up to people's expections, but at times he appears arrogant and high-handed. Of his new-found shibboleths..."kachha kachha / pakka pakka" is doubtlessly the most irritating

Nevertheless, SRK's avowal in the ad campaign was indeed cool!