The Maxims of Life

She opened the bathroom door with a soft knock. It was dark inside, the only light coming from the lamp in their bedroom. He was sitting there on the bathtub rim, lost in thought, cigar smoke swirling all around him. Sensing her presence he looks up and smiles. But the smile falters, seeing her upset, because he's AGAIN sitting up late in the night SMOKING. "This is the last one, I'm going to quit. No more cigars from tomorrow.", he says. She rolls her eyes in anger, which then gives way to a resigned look. She's been hearing it on and off since they got married. 10 years of marriage and 3 beautiful daughters later the story is still the same. The resolve usually lasts only for a day. And he sits idle that entire day. To do anything worthwhile, he needs a puff. He follows her into the bedroom, turns her around and repeats his promise earnestly. And like all the other times, hands her the remaining packet and lighter asking her to destroy it. She takes out her

Sleep seems to have evaded me. So thought of tapping away on the keyboard and the outcome is this post. It was only last year that we moved down to India. Having lived abroad most of our life, it has been very difficult adjusting to the way things work out here. Back in UAE we could set the schedule for a year and not have to worry about making many changes. Life was that predictable!! Save for the occasional bouts of cold or fever that came with the seasonal changes, nothing much happened that disrupted the smooth functioning of our household.  Woaw! Things happen pretty fast here. Sometimes you can't even plan ahead for a week. An unexpected Hartal or Bandh, someones's Shaadi or a House warming, the list just goes on. But what I found most interesting living here is the scenario I have with my neighbours. Initially I was shocked by the kind of nosiness that these people showed. For me relationship with neighbours had been limited to the polite smile you shared when

Several friends who've come across my blog have been wondering why I haven't posted anything in such a long time. And since I'm not really inspired to write right now :( I'm going to post the few lines I've put together on various occasions and get away with it :P Music is an expression of life.  The changing seasons from birth to death. Some people form the notes of our life,  Others join along to give rhythm. The music moves on Scaling ups and downs. Eventually the music comes to a stop  Yet to start again as another life...... You bring a smile to my face And add sunshine to my days You are my happiness and cheer, always. You bring a twinkle to my eyes Making me feel young and nice You are my joy and spirit, always. You make me want to do more Pushing me on to the fore You give me courage and my strength, always. If, I were to lose my loves A bitter sadness it would arouse, And Life would never be the same,

I don't know how it works for the others out there, but for me a slight dip in the reading of the weighing scale gives me immense pleasure. Not that I am a Size 0 fanatic or something, but I feel so elated whenever the scale dips, even if its only by a mere 0.5 Kg. I feel so full of glee and guilt free at having lost some weight, that I don't think twice when I sink my teeth into the next calorie loaded yummy thing out there. My current station usually doesn't permit for the kind of fast food trend I have been previously accustomed to. Since the kids are having their vacations, I've ventured into the world of experimental cooking. Hubby darling not being around helps a lot, coz a hungry testosterone laden male is hardly conducive to experiments in the kitchen. They'd very much prefer the tried and tested fares we lay out, especially during meal times. My first attempt was at banana cookies because I was craving something really sweet and buttery. Since I h

Inspired by my writing that goes in fits and starts, my daughter has started a blog :D It was fun watching her check out names for her blog. After 5 attempts she was losing hope of coming up with a name. Most of the names she came up with were already taken. She would immediately go and check out that blog. The last post on most of them were dated anywhere between 2001 and 2005. She gets frustrated and angry at all those people who have started out with the blog name she wants and then not bothered to maintain the blog. She put up her first post a few days back. A Day Yet to Come And I'm wondering what the fate of the blog will be, few years down the road. Will the enthusiasm fade and the blog wilt away like the ones she had checked out. I'll have to wait and see. Their school has a blog, but she has always been hesitant to express her views out there. When she went ahead with this blog, I was curious about the sudden change in attitude. Her smart ass reply was, "

For every post that I publish I always seem to have two in the pipeline. And this is one of those, which I actually started writing sometime last year. Procrastination and me and conjoined twins so its pretty tough to escape that bad guy. I had made an escape from the harsh world of reality to my blissful (though virtual) blogging world. But once again, I was sucked back into the deep cauldron of life, where several things were brewing and boiling and brimming over. Its taken me almost 3 months, but whew! I've just made a short escape back, as we do in our dreams............ That blissful state in sleep where we live out the unknown. Some days you live out the serene and beautiful life of a princess. Other nights you might have aliens chasing you down mysterious passage ways. Once, when my sister was just a kid she'd stopped midway through explaining her dream telling me to continue since she couldn't remember what happened after that point. Everybody had tur