kutty kutty things that make my day!!

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on."

-Robert Frost.

I strongly believe that its some of the smallest things in Life that make it worth living. Not everyday is bright and sunny. Some days can be so gloomy to the state of pushing you into hibernation, a state of mental absence. Even at such gruelling times, when we attain the heights of depression, its the smallest things in life that come to our rescue. We have all the reason and right to be happy. As I always tend to realise, Life is the same to every person, only the perceptions are different. Its left to us to enjoy this moment which is inevitable. As I was thinking about these " kutty " things that bring a smile to my lips, I was surprised at the number of things I came up with... Here are some of them..



1. Gobbling Pani puris at a road side shop, much to the annoyance of Mom.

2. The walk on the beach, playing running and catching with the approaching waves.

3. Meditating whenever possible, preferably in the peace of a temple, with the scent of agarbatis and temple bells chiming away.

4.Brave attempt at tasting something for the first time - Red wine,at my friend's place . Though it tasted more like a tonic and I hardly had a sip, it was enough to make me lift my collars and parade around telling whoever would listen that I had atlast tasted wine. ;-)

5.Meeting an old school mate at a very boring place, exactly at the moment when my hands are folded in desperate prayer, to send someone to rescue me from the boredom.

6.All the fuss people around you make, when you recieve a scratch from falling down. Only you would wear that secret smile on your face.

7.Going to school after years, meeting old teachers who all look the same, except for maybe a few grey hairs and bifocal spectacles.

8.Laughing and giggling in class , whenever possible, at all the "mokkai's" the girl next to me (sharmi)puts, at the "sight" of her many loved ones.

9. When someone in whose life you would have been a part of, knowingly or unknowingly, long time ago, remembers you. Eg : When a junior from my X-X-School came upto me and asked me if I remembered her. ;-) ofcourse I din't! but I had to say I did!

10.Listening to favourite music and lyrical wonders, musing over them again and again.

11.Buying "Kuchi" ice - Orange flavour, tearing the wrapper immediately, licking all the way home, sparing the stick and as soon as I reach home, checking if my lips have turned the right shade of orange.

12.Sharing dairy milk with friends in college and fighting for the "wrapper" waiting to be licked.

13.Missing college bus, on a dreadful , full theory classes day. A secret desire inside that no alternative buses should pass by the same route (like today..I missed the bus which made me so happy that I'm blogging about it)..

14.There's nothing more delightful than surprise parties - no matter which end you are in - the delivering or the receiving end ;-) . Recently it was at Domi's birthday. Me and Shara threw a surprise party especially for her with candle-lit cup cakes!! hehe.. not exactly a birthday bash with black forest chocolate cake, but it was her happiest moment in life, and that moment made our day! !

15.Relishing mom'a cooking during the week-ends, which is the only time I eat at home -thrice a day.

16. A cup of coffee, "I'm reading this at present" book, and the sound of music and rain in the background.

17.Appreciation from the most unexpected people and the least expected times .

18.Watching the kids on the street play cricket, their funny conversations, and chasing them when they break our window panes. Acting big sis, whenever possible, and scaring the guts out of them to pay for the broken glass.

19.Riding my bike all alone to class, without any escorts (Bharat and Dhivya), and successfully getting back home without meeting with any "major" accidents.

20.Observing people and letting my mind do all the talking, which turns out to be positive and negative as well.

21. Reading a diary after a long time and being transported to the memories of the past.

22.Glancing through old photos, wishing I could still have been a kid and regretting it the next moment thinking " who'll write X and XII exams again!!Jesus! "... ;-)

23.Writing an exam on the most darkest day of my life, which has been a catastrophe right from the moment I wake up till I step into the hall, but still, passing that exam by inches.

24.Getting through the Viva(Practicals) atleast on a 50-50 basis. I suck at VIVA- My greatest fear next to cockroaches.

25.Sitting right behind the driver( in the college bus) and cracking up with my accomplice , Domi, making the driver throw us weird looks in the rear view mirror,which would never go unnoticed by us. But still, we always end up in fits of laughter, for small things that we encounter, during our 40 minutes journey, on the rickety bus on an evenmore rickety, dust-filled, Old Mahabalipuram Road. *Sigh*.. Life is sure worth it!!



I started with a quote by one of my favourite poets of all times - Robert Frost. Now I end with another relevant quote I came across somewhere. Here goes..



"Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort”

C-R-Y-!

If you're wondering if its a campaign for "Child Relief and You ", you are wrong. Though I would love to blog about it (maybe in the near future), right now I meant the literal sense of the word - "cry". Someone said "Smiles form the channels of a future tear.” I can see you nodding away, thinking to yourself "How true!".

Today, I fell down and hurt my leg.Actually fell into a sump.I don't want to elaborate on that.I luckily escaped with a scratch and a minor swell . I had to go to a hospital for a TT injection and coincidentally, one of the physicians was a paediatrician and that was the only clinic close to my residence. I reached the place and was greeted with the cry for help - mostly from kids. I was astonished as I had never seen so many kids at one go, and all "crying". It was faster than a nuclear chain reaction. What was even more amusing was that only one child at a time was injected.Watching that child triggered the one next to it to cry, and the next and next and so on, resulting in the fastest chain reaction in history. I was so amused that I forgot that all the mothers were throwing me daggers with their looks, as I was smiling at the crying kids. Gee..couldn't help it..! I went back in time to an hour back when I had turned into Humpty and had a great fall. Though I fell completely inside with my hands stretching out, and the depth wasn't much, my dad caught me in a jiffy. But still that shock sort of triggered uneasy emotions and I cried- sorry Wailed like crazy. I can laugh now, thinking about it. So sitting in the wooden bench at the clinic, waiting for the doctor, I was wondering what actually made people cry. What evoked the tears? What was the scientific reason behind it? After the injection, I came home and started searching about the science behind tears. Wikipedia and few other sites had the answers. Here's what I found..

Tears are a liquid produced by the body's process of lacrimation to clean and lubricate the eyes. The word lacrimation may also be used in a medical or literary sense to refer to crying.Tears may be classified into 3 types:

*Basal Tears

*Reflex Tears

*Psychic Tears

Basal Tears :

Tears are continually produced in small quantities by the Tear Glands, which are located on the outer side of each eye, slightly above the eye and underneath the eyelid. Tears, which are spread evenly over the front surface of the eye during blinking, clean and lubricate the eye. An important component of tears is lysozyme, a chemical that inhibits bacterial growth on the eye's surface. Some of the tears evaporate, but the remainder are drained into the nose through the Tear Duct, keeping the nose moist. Lysozyme from the tears prevents bacterial growth in the nose as well.

Reflex Tears :

These result from the irritation of the eye by foreign particles, or from the presence of irritant substances such as onion vapours, tear gas or pepper spray in the eye's environment. These reflex tears attempt to wash out irritants that may have come into contact with the eye.

Psychic tears :

These tears have more to do with emotions and hurt - both physical and mental. They are also caused due to depression and emotional stress.However the chemical composition of the tears in this case is different. An interesting discovery was made by Dr. William H. Frey II, a biochemist at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center in Minnesota.On analysis, they found that emotional tears contained more of the protein-based hormones, prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin (natural painkiller), all of which are produced by our body when under stress. It seems as if the body is getting rid of these chemicals through tears. No wonder we feel better after a good cry!

The discovery of facts from http://www.wikipedia.com/ and http://www.scienceiq.com/ :

#1. "The crocodile tears syndrome" is an uncommon consequence of recovery from Bell's palsy where faulty regeneration of the facial nerve causes sufferers to shed tears while eating.

#2.Keratoconjunctivitis sicca , more commonly known as dry eye, is a very common disorder of the tear film. Paradoxically, sufferers can experience watering of the eyes .

#3. Here's my favourite ;) . An insincere display of grief or dishonest remorse is called crocodile tears,from the ancient anecdote that crocodiles would pretend to weep while luring or devouring their prey.

#4. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions. I don't know how far this is true. My granny says that the onion vapours increase the sharpness in sight . Same with the smoke from the flames while performing a "homam" during housewarming ceremonies.

#5. In space you cannot cry because there is no gravity to make the tears flow. HA -HA -HA...!

And nOW.. for my theory :

I think tears are a way of expressing helplessness. The reflex action arising out of confusion. Like when you suddenly meet with an accident, get hurt, there's a moment when you can feel pain at various angles. Like how I felt today. My stomach, legs, ankle, knee , elbow were all competing and when someone asked me where it hurt, I din't know where and I cried. Adding to the effect of helping me in my transformation into a child, was my mother, who said "Hayo evlo valikardho!" (meaning- Oh my God, How much it would pain") . That was the signal, and slowly the confused tears started making sense and became a wail and finally reached the peak of the vocal chords into the cry of a banshee.

AAA-OOO-MMM - peace!

It was the time when I was subjected to various complexities of the mind - primarily plagued with the fear of a six-letter word -Career. I had just completed the Higher Secondary, technically considered eligible to join College. I was a confused soul , unable to come to terms with what I wanted in life.I had ambitions (too big a word, desires would be appropriate ;) ) which were many in number, each making me go crazy,crazier,craziest. It was then that my cousin, Sowmya,who thought I was too "vetti" decided to act pioneer and pushed me into Pranayama classes. My mom and bro had already experienced the "Isha touch" before and so they had no objections. So I went along to Isha, to learn pranayama and "shunya" meditation,which sure helped to block out the building complexities in the head. It was a totally new experience. Very gratifying and it gave me a very new outlook to life. More than the exercises, it was the discussions we had everyday that really helped me. It was more to do with "self realisation". We enjoyed every moment and the sessions were very interactive. People, totally strangers, the previous minute, spoke freely, like they knew you for ages. It was a blissful experience. All good things come to an end, the course soon got over. It was the eve of the last day. At the stroke of twelve, me and my cousin,came up with a poem. Our experiences at Isha.....


THE LIGHTER SIDE OF ISHA…


For those brooding about the past
For those dreaming about the future
Bang came the knock on the head
Teaching them about the present.
Dumbstruck sat the gaping frogs
Accepting all that came across.
Adding colour to the place, with the clothes we wore
Opening our minds door, listening to Deepaji
Croaking and unfrocking the masks we wore.

Break the rules, we did it
Follow the rules,we didn’t.
OUR RULES,we followed it!!
Responsibility on ones shoulder,was like carrying a boulder
But the “ability to respond”,rolled the boulder,down the shoulder.
Out of temptation,we started meditation,
On continuation,we found that there's no expectation!
Man sowed the seed of conditional love
And eventually reaped the fruit of hatred…
Bygone days are bygone…for now its time to unweed…
And create a paradise of unconditional love indeed..!
Jesus said “love thy neighbour”
Isha said..”LOVE ALL EXISTENCE”


Note :
I read this poem the next day in class. Luckily didn't mess up much. Those who have been on the course will understand the poem better. 'cause every sentence is a lesson we learnt. our everyday classes dealt more with Life . Just in case you were wondering, Deepaji , was our guruji at the class. It's been like almost 3 years since we wrote this. I haven't modified it till now. I don't care if it sounds silly ;) . . About me in touch with the exercises..guess you'd know better - I tried,but I couldn't!!! I wouldn't mind enrolling a second time though.

The untold story

Once upon a time in India, in a district called "Dharapuram" , in the wee hours of the morning, a beautiful girl was born. She was the last one in a family of 5 and became the cutest "kadai kutty". Her folks named her "A" . She was an inborn mathematician, something she had inherited from her dad, who was a high school teacher. They then moved to Trichy. She did her schooling and graduation in an "all-girls" institution. She grew up into a strong and independent woman, who landed up in a job at a telephone exchange.And that's when she met Mr."B". Now a little background information about Mr.B. He was the third child in a family of 9 kids. Luckily,his granny was fond of him and he grew up under her care at Palayamkotai, Tirunelveli dist.,while his folks with the other kids stayed in Trichy. He was always full of energy and had an undying thirst for knowledge. He grew up into a very intelligent,dark and handsome young man, with an unbeatable sense of humour, which many of the opposite sex found totally irresistible. As fate would have it, he ended up in the same office as "A",who was the "woman next desk".
A and B soon became good friends. They had common interests which mostly figured around fiction and non fiction books, music and drama. Each found the other extraordinarily amusing and their relationship initially was a bond of friendship between two colleagues. It was those times when a guy talking to a girl was considered as the greatest "sin",with no chances of forgiveness!Their friendship looked like "Sin" to the scavengers in office,dying for some element of excitement,which would be the driving force to come to work the next day.Rumours started spreading like wild fire, in the office. Everything would have been perfect if they both were strong about their friendship.But then,"surprise surprise!". B was secretly in love with A. B knew quite well, unlike his future endeavors,that a love untold would remain untold forever.So mustering up the little courage that was left in him, he proposed to A.It was the hardest times of his life. A liked B but din't love B...well, not yet! "A" took her own sweet time. She had a lot of things to consider.For instance, their distinctive family backgrounds, A being an orthodox "iyer ponnu" and B belonging to a Non -Brahmin family. A was a strict veggie , even smelling an egg was equivalent to crime and nausea for her. B was brought up with an instinctive belly for the "non - vegetables". Considering all these facts,with some persuasion from B's faithful and emotionally driven buddies, she made up her mind. It was the hardest decision of her life and she made it. She never looked back after that.
Their love life bloomed into something so beautiful,something more like a fantasy,a dream come true. They wrote to each other regularly, met very rarely, and each time they met, their unconditional love for each other became more intense.Then what shouldn't happen, happened. Exactly like in the movies. "A" got caught.Guess how?? The Letters! I guess in those times, A didn't know that letters(love) were meant to be hidden,or rather burnt. Everything went from bad to worse, war broke out.The two families, on the very first acquaintance, waged war against each other. The usual hierarchy of events followed suit. A was completely isolated from the world. Totally under home arrest. B could do nothing but pine away for his love. Things went out of control and B decided to marry A in a Register Office. It was a fine day,a very special day for someone. She dressed up in a very ordinary saree,flung her bag on her shoulder,strapped her watch in position and snapped back to life. She was getting ready for work. She took one look at her Dad, Sis, Bro, all of whom had made the past 6 months of her life a catastrophe. Then she looked at her Mother,who's eyes welled up at the sight of her daughter looking normal,after what seemed like ages. She knew that they would love her, no matter what she became. A stepped out the house and their lives. B was her life now. They got married in a temple and went undercover, even on their honeymoon, as A's Big Bro was getting all serious about the issue and was trying to track them down. B had guts but not enough to handle thugs! So A and B travelled to a lot of places, along with a C,who was in the wireless service, and was B's close friend. After some months, B got a job in Bangalore and they started their life in a single bedroom,sorry, single room house, a cot and a wooden stool being their first piece of furniture. Life was too good to be true. Both of them earned and contributed to B's widespread family.A was immediately accepted by her in-laws , not the same with B. B was soon accepted, a year after their marriage ,when their first gift from God arrived - when their son was born. Things were back to normal. A and B still live with the same love and compassion they once felt, long time back, when they shared the same work space. Soon after their son was born, they had a daughter . A daredevil female, who had all the guts in the world,to blog about her parents, thinking it would be a nice change..Yea! you're right....!! Thats me!!!!! hahaha..................!!!!!!!!

The Art of Gargling

It is the time when you feel totally lost. Your nose turns into various shades of pink. Your body burns like you have fever, but those around would say its nothing. With desperation in your eyes, you try to say something but all that comes out is "AAAAchhhhhhhhhhhhooooo" , accompanied by tears flowing down,on the side of a beet-red nose. You go looking for a hanky and suddenly the throat decides to take a "wild safari" ride, you can almost" hear" rather than "feel "the hoarseness down the throat, till the end of the oesophagus. Mom comes round the corner and says "gargle" with salt mixed in hot water. Dad comes around and says with a smile, gargle with "Smyle". Not one of them says "how" to "gargle" ! Giving them a bewildered look, you decide to attempt it once . Master the art of gargling. You pour the "whatever" slurry down your throat, praying that you don't swallow,setting rules that you'll be out if you swallow.You let your throat buds play pinball with the newcomer(liquid)down the lane. The tossing and turning results in a mixture of "gurgle - gargle" sounds resonating at the walls of the larynx . You wait till the game's over, till you reach the heights of endurance, before finally spitting out the" losing team " onto the basin. You muse over the success and the reason behind the nomenclature. You feel like shouting "EUREKHA" , but all that comes out is yet another "aaaaachoooooooooooo!"

Blue is the colour of my heart

"Everybody" wants to know what it eeeez !!It was my status msg on google talk for quite sometime. It had people all perked up and trying to figure out why my heart was "blue"! Well, so I thought they all deserved an explanation. "Blue is the colour of my heart" is a heartfelt acoustic balad by Danny Cowan group from their album ""Drivin' Back To Texas". Tracy Cowan is the lead singer. Her melancholy can pull at your heartstrings with a touch of pathos, never felt before.
The Danny Cowan Group began in October of 1999 with its core trio. Their first album "Drivin' Back to Texas"was released in December, 2000.




Members of the band
Danny Cowan- guitars & vocals

Tracey Cowan- lead vocals

Craig Ricks- bass

Hector Gonzalez- drums




Now for the Magnum opus , the lyrics of the D-song.



Blue is the Color of my heart




Today I saw my baby

He was looking..oh so fine

Dint seem as though he missed me at all...

I watched him through the window

As he sipped a glass of wine

Suddenly,the tears began to fall

and..blue is the color of my heart

o0h yea and blue is the color of my heart.


Seems like only yesterday

He asked me please be mine

Kissed me and the love shone in his eyes..


Now all I see is emptiness,

Just dark and lonely times

Can't believe..he is out of my life


and blue is the color of my heart

ohhh yea and blue is the color of my heart(2)



You can download the song from http://www.dannycowangroup.com/Bandpage.html



Note : I searched and tried my level best to post lyrics from an online site. But I couldn't find the lyrics anywhere. So I decided to type them myself.Hence the lyrics posted above may have some errors, other than those in punctuations!

Tring!Tring! - Nomore!

The chirping of the birds, the low hoots of the auto rickshaws, the cacophony contributed by the street dogs, the sound of a bike roaring down the lane. Yes. It was early morning. I was in the same state as Frost, after he was finished with picking apples in one of his poems “After Apple Picking “. It was a state between sleepiness and being conscious of the surroundings. The tranquility was then spoilt by the sound of my shrieking alarm and the calling bell, ringing simultaneously, not giving me time to choose between the two. Struggling to turn off the shrieking alarm bell, I stumbled out of bed and opened the door to face a fat woman in a dull flowery saree, sporting a Nokia N- series model in one hand and a packet of milk on the other. My jaws flew open at the sight of the mobile and she gave me a weird look, as if I was going to snatch it from her. I smiled to myself, thinking how much the lifestyle of the folks in the big city has changed. Since I had started the day with an amusing thought, I decided to keep my eyes open to more encounters with the folks with “branded” mobiles.

All through the day, I kept count of the number of people (whom we basically refer to as the “lower income” class) showing off flashy mobiles. Though not all owned a Sony Ericsson (z-800i) nor N-series models, most of them at least had the basic models costing about a minimum of around Rs.1500.What has caused this “mobile exposure-explosion”? Thanks to the mobile phone companies increasing day by day. Reliance,Airtel,Aircel,Hutch and soon we’ll be seeing Univercell, Airvoice and more to come. Everything we do adds to the companies’ funds. There’s stiff competition between these companies in advertising and marketing all of which ends in a reduction in the charges, basically more talk time and more validity. This can be one of the reasons to why people have suddenly gravitated towards usage of cellular phones. Not to forget the hidden charges. The connection providers make clever moves. If it’s a day which calls for a national celebration, obviously a national holiday, some connections charge for the SMS which is generally free otherwise. More corporate services would charge on the day before itself, without the slightest hint to the user who would eventually end up with a miserably low balance after wishing his kith and kin “Happy Independence Day”, a day ahead,like a true patriot! There was a time when people used phones only to talk. The sole purpose of the invention of mobiles was the easy accessibility and transportation. The primary mobiles offered not only this but other exclusive features – SMS, MMS, GPRS, Camera, surfing, games, music player, Radio, IR, Bluetooth, etc followed suit. All this in one phone. The price – hikes up with every utility. The brand new Blackberry phone (palmtop model) is a computer by itself, held within the palm. With such developments in technology, it is hard to ignore the shift in lifestyle of the people. The “mobile fad” was initially a matter of adaptation to a developing technology which slowly blew out of proportion into an issue of high esteem, “a matter of honour”. The “it’s IN” generation consider mobile as a fashion weapon, a Trend Setter. In a peer group, a brand new model can win more raised eyebrows than an honorary royal title. Media can make people go crazy. Bonkers over national issues. One fine example is the voting campaign for Taj Mahal. Every vote by SMS was charged. Finally the companies profited from the voting expedition and UNESCO decided to forgo the decision taken by SMS voting. Exploitation on open grounds, without doubt! The right object in wrong hands is synonymous to kids owning mobiles at the wrong age. The Delhi incident is still boiling at some corners of the country. Though we can go on and on about the ill effects of the technology, mobiles still have a soft corner in people’s hearts. They have become soul mates of loners, lovers and loafers. The only difference is in the way each person views it. Life has sure become an easy affair with mobiles around. Lending a helping hand now and then, sometimes, no hands required (hands free)!