If’s and but’s were candies and nuts, every day would be a Merry Christmas

I can’t count the number of times that I wished I could have changed something. An “if” or a “but” if you please. Sometimes , I wish I had a real ‘undo’ button in my life that I could use generously and roll back life a little bit. I think each and every one of us, have wished for this possibility.

If only I hadn’t given him my number, if only I had kept my mouth shut, If only he/she was single! if only I could run him over with my car!!

The buts are no different, the buts too sometimes give us a pain in the ‘butt’. “I tried to steer clear of the “bandha”, ‘but’ he hit me anyway!”, “I thought he was a nice guy, ‘but’ he turned out to be a pain in the ‘butt’!”

However, life had another plan, and now if we sit back and analyze, what it could be if the “if’s” and ”but’s” actually came alive? How life would have been if these could come true?

BUSH –“DAMN! If only we had invaded Amsterdam instead, I could have at least smoked a couple of J’s”.

RUPUNZEL-“if only I had shorter hair, charming would use the stairs instead!”

Yet life’s not been so bad after all, sometimes it’s best that those if’s and but’s didn’t do their magic, it did make me upset for a while, but also gave me things to look forward to. So when you set your goal, regardless of all obstacles, if a mountain comes in your path, go around the mountain and achieve your goal[don’t ask me if your goal is to climb that mountain].

Finally in the end, “what cannot be helped must be endured”. In life, the candies and nuts makes us feel a little closer to Christmas which sooner or later arrives with the same candies and nuts.

- MohandaaS and Taniya

On the Other Side of 18

With age comes maturity , with age comes wisdom . But on the other hand with maturity and wisdom we age ! .

I am not saying that i am a mature person or even relatively wise , i recently did lose my house keys and wallet in the swimming pool. but one thing i do feel these days is that i am not part of the “IN” generation anymore .

There were couple of tell tale signs.

1 > When you realise your younger sister is way more popular in her school then you ever were.

2> When she spends more time on the phone then you do.

3>When her monthly phone bill is more then you spend on outside food with friends for a month!

4> When you buy a pair of canvas shoes just as the ones your juniors are wearing and you hear her tell you they are “converse” not canvas.

5>When she asks you the meaning of “shape” [out].

6>When she is laughing at the tv and you cant figure out why.

7>When you cant follow what she is telling you in gtalk , and ask her to expand LMAOPQRST!

8>And finally she tells you she doesn’t need a drop to her friends place she will manage.

My mom always used to say that a generation gap existed between younger folk and the older ones , I never did want to believe this , and always felt “You are only as young as you think you are”.

And it is true , i don’t think I am young anymore . With the curtain falling on the education part of my life , it is time to take up responsibilities , deal with “wisdom “ , “maturity” . and leave my sister to fill the “converse” Shoes.

-MohandaaS

The seasons of life, have just taken a turn,

Shedding off teenage, like a withered leaf dried

With a zeal mixed with perplexity, much I have to learn,

Has the fresh spring of adulthood, just arrived

Looking back, just as if it was yesterday, I see myself, in my little ‘teen’ sister, arguing, debating, fighting over a silly issue, with an unshakable faith, as though I know what’s right, and I know it all. Life looks all so different, in the golden years of ‘teenage’.

The zeal of knowing and being the most hyped and talked about person in our little social circles, the joy of being in the comfort of our first innocent crush, the courage of picking on fights with people much mightier in stature for a dear friend, and the pride of being the most faithful fanatic fan of a movie star, all just leave me speechless.

But the fact that makes us realize that we have indeed come onto the other side of 18 now, is simply when u meet your ‘teen-self’ in a nagging adamant headstrong teenager. But now the beauty is that you realize why you reacted the way you did in your past. So, when you find yourself stuck in the same argument with a ‘teen’ next time, do cherish the moment with a smile.

The days ahead, are also sure to give us many beautiful moments, but are immature and innocent ‘teenage’ is definitely the best gifts that life has given us to relish for a lifetime.

-Taniya

To Plan Or not to Plan

Lets Try a Plannin!!

I am the normally the kind of person who has a totally unplanned agenda. My aunt calls me happy go lucky, and it is perhaps true. To cite an example a recent bike trip to Yana took a 177 km deviation from the planned destination Yana to kodchadri.

I believe living life a day at a time, yes I concur with the AA! Normally every day begins at 7 am, and depending on my taste bud [yes I do mean food] it takes me to varied places. If I have a mood for cooking, it will be a movie and simultaneous parata and palak paneer making [read instant]. Just yesterday a taste of idly took me to malleswaram, ctr and fried eggs at coffee house. My every stimulated taste buds have taken me on trips to coorg and even chennai for a dig at ponnaswami's kekada.

To cite examples, a bored day may lead me to mandya to have a little bit of that butter and ghee my aunt makes, or a 25 km cycle ride to kanakpura to meet a friend. Life has always been random for me, my friends from varied places from schools, colleges, messaging to friends whom I travel all over Karnataka having met them on orkut.

So this has been about me being random , before my coauthor curses me for deviating from the topic , which is that I would write about what if I had a planned life , Let me begin by saying my priorities would still remain the same , Food , Food , Photography , Family , Friends [not necessarily in that order except for the first 2 :P].

For example, the day of the solar eclipse, I was given a guilt trip to stay at home. That day was well sorted out, one of the very few days I have actually planned out! 4 movies and jeeves by my side.

Some serious things on the other hand are quite planned out, for example my 40 odd GB of photos are organised into DVD's of 4 GB each. After every 4 GB of photos I make it a point to back it up on a DVD regardless of exam and sometimes I even forgo food.

But life to me is a combination of spontaneous explosions and sometimes planned schedules, a quote comes to mind, “life is too important to be taken seriously ".

- MohandaaS

Life without a plan. (As straight n simple as mohandaas's hair)

"Ahhhh!!"It’s like living my worst nightmare! Life without a plan? For a person like me, who plans and schedules (with timing) each activity, where running behind a schedule alone presses the panic button, the mere thought of relinquishing control completely gives me the shivers.

the basic essence to live without a plan I feel, is be the absolute brave heart who accepts on is willing to take in anything that life throws at you with open arms, and adhering to the default prototype from which I sum designed imp not like that at all..

But, as an experiment, if I were to let myself go completely, I guess I’d end up looking like the sole player in the dodge ball game at which the entire opponent team is aiming at.

But, why is it so different after all to play this game of life, out n out, maybe because I loose out or my safety gear, or rather my backup plan on which I know I can fall back on safety. so , in short it’s tough to come out of the safety zone.now,for a day in this mad adventure, where I am blind folded would mean , firstly a big brave heart , to be ready for anything anytime. Secondly, another big heart for consolation [just in case nothing at all happens that day]. Thirdly a big positive attitude to smile at myself even if I fall [very difficult]. Next peace of mind and most importantly a great playlist. [To take care of me in any and every possible mood]- see I do keep a safety backup after all. And yes I have been on such trips and yes I have freaked out. And the worst ones are those, when a bunch of us [good for nothings] say plan up a place, and lets meet up. and when we do , the reply comes don’t know , let’s go , we will end up somewhere [ boy that freaks me out].because these end up somewhere places always make us end up 'late' and 'hungry' to hotels which say lunch time over . In short somewhere most often ends up in nowhere.

But like MohandaaS copies when he says, “the journey is the destination ", these journeys are actually beautiful since there is no order or no actual way to do things right, rather there is no right. It’s just all of us acting totally drunk. Cheers to the madness or rather life without a plan.

-Taniya

Its Indian English Yaar

The YENDIAN YENGLISH BUGGER!!

English, it’s more than just a language. It’s the American style, with the desi tadka!

From ‘hi yaar’, to ‘cho-chweet’, it jus our outright way of pouring our emotions into the language. Simply put it's, “how you??”, "where you go?" How u did your paper?

Or it may be just the accent, “I have big ‘hole’ (hall) in house”, “watchya doing ya?” but sometimes when this yenglish, gets twisted, as in... ”I saw a kangaaaroo on tv yesterday it was sho louvlii..” ,I totally loose track.

But, our colloquial accent is so affluently rich…especially with our regional words coming in that…”left tako, right tako”, “what a faadu paper”, or “yo macha wats up?” just doesn’t seem wrong at all.

And sometimes, by twisting the English …as in ”chillax!!” , or “puahleeiij”, “your such a dumbo”, it ends up making us look cool!

And the biggest source of these blunders are our very own teachers,”take your seats and sit down”, or “I will slap you whether she is a boy or he is a girl”, I think they make their trademark with these lines.

let me give in a little secret(which some of you may know), the “cheater cheater…you are a bloody cheater”, which we say all so very proudly and loudly, well the word ”cheater” does not exist..its ‘cheat’! With painter, liar, builder in such vast usage…I wouldn’t be surprised when very soon…’drawer’ comes into existence.

The rj’s have a ball with our almost perfect accent, and have shows so proudly dedicated to it, like ‘life in Bangalore with rajni saar’, or even ‘chamrajpet charles’, just leave us with bubbles of giggles, but the truth is, that’s truly, the ‘yendian yenglish’.

With more twisted additions to our all so very twisted yenglish each day, we are soon going to proudly present to the world…”yenglish2”- the yendian way!

-Taniya

Its Indian English yaar!!

A typical English conversation with me would include a couple of Kannada, a couple of Hindi words, and on some occasions some ‘rasss’ thrown in.

I love our Indian English, with its barbaric pronunciation to ending certain sentences with the word ‘ONLY’. Yes Indian English is like that ‘only’!! . I have forever admired the shape that the English language took in the sub continent. Shakespeare gave the English language ‘assassin’ and we gave the English language masala . I don’t mean the word masala, but the spice added onto the language!

The masala in the language, apart from the clichéd ‘appu’ (read homer Simpson’s perspective) accent, includes many ingredients, A typical Hello equivalent of English could translate to, wats up ‘maga’! How are you ‘da’ ! Howz it going ‘BA’! On occasions we have the Indian English version of English words too, for instance, why has this ‘bugga’ chosen such a topic, would be a typical example. Why are my exams not over ‘ONLY’?

The language has had many influences, India as a diverse nation, has had diverse effects on the language. The tamilian equivalent of dude, ra, telgu da, Kannada maga.

And let’s not ‘porget’ the Pronunciation parts, the extended ss. Why ‘sss’ the word round! wats the ‘myatter’ with you. ‘ Thaa’ world is not flat. The mix up of the singular and the plurals, ‘I have 2 chidrens both of they are girls! ‘. ‘The hairs on my hand are standing ups ‘.

With the Indian version of the language, we have had our revenge on the English .after centuries rule coming to an end, we finally ‘haves’ victory. ‘Downs’ with the queen!

The Indian English is here to stay , and i say i love Indian English .Lets ‘celebrates’ this victory! make your comments in Indian English . So say it proudly maga , we are heres to stay and stays we wills !!

-MohandaaS

The White Hangover

We all as kids, have read the story ’the ugly duckling’, and in tat age of innocence, have sympathized wit it. but some of us, in reality, could also, relate to it.wat I intend to bring to light,....are those innocent dark faces tat shine in moonlight….girls who wish they could grow out of being the ‘dark’ ugly ducklings..into a ‘white ‘ beautiful swans…..just the many victims of the ‘white hangover…..’

The world today, is biased towards the fairer complexion….as bold and harsh as this statement seems to be….so is its truth. And wat greater an example, to prove this, than our very beloved late MJ, who chose to be the more loved ’white’ face of the world rather than ever to see the face of the sun, ever….

At the first look of her newborn, the only overwhelming expression, of a mother is..’beautiful!!’ and this is universal….irrespective of colour, so are we not still the same person…? Has beauty changed her definition over the years…?

It is, the very nature of man…tat he always craves for wat he lacks,…….with the ‘white-west’ drooling over the ‘tanned’ look, and the’darker-east’ craving for the white skin…

From the sun kissed skin of the western origin….to the drop dead beauty of Arabian sand, form the perfectly toned African skin…to the chiseled features of the Indian land…. We are all….’beautiful’

-Taniya

According to Research Human origin has been traced to the dark continent Africa , So when Adam looked deep into eve’s eyes , and whispered “sorry can’t make love to you , your too dark for me “, the human race went into extinction

Or did it, Most of us Indians are always in favour of the fairer complexion, I have always been puzzled for the absolute love we have for our pigment deficient comrades,

India has always been admired for many things, its natural beauty, and its spirituality and most importantly for its women dark and fair skinned.

I believe as Indians we are yet to come out of the colonial hangover that had ruled us for centuries , be it cricket , or the over use of foreign locations in our movies . It is only we Indians who are so aghast at having our daughter or son getting married to a pigmented partner

And Cosmetics companies take advantage of this , we spend billions of dollar in trying to fix something that need not be fixed , and worse off these ads just promote the already prevalent idea that people need to be fair . Thank you Mr.Srk

Padma Lakshmi is my current wallpaper , and any man who says he would not want her , is either lying or plain homosexual, We have many beautiful women with a darker complexion be it Priyanka Chopra, or from our own Calcutta Konkana Sen Sharma.

I would like to say in the end, its just a pigment. Would Chocolate taste Chocolate if it were vanilla?

- MohandaaS

His & Hers

Strength of a MAN

MAN as God created….”the crown” of his creation…the master of Earth….someone to whom (according to some religions)…the angles had to bow in honor…

.

But in gen’X’…the modern man….has somewhere lost out on what god pictured him to be…, modern day pressures of meeting the stringent deadlines, with growing jealousy, envy, rage waiting to vanquish, and the very own ‘female’ volcanic urge to prove ‘herself’ better….gradually tends to push him to the edge…

But, somewhere in all this modern world where battle of sexes is the most ‘happening’ thing…we have kind off forgotten that tender balance god made for both of us … he distributed all qualities in various proportions between us, so that when we unite we are complete…for example..

Strength as a quality was given more ‘physically’ in men, so that they could shield, protect cuddle us in wen we are weak…and women could support, understand and uphold a man in times of distress…

So, for those of you who think being dominated by a man is a crime….think twice is it real domination or just a hierarchical order of urn environment (jus a natural setting of ur office...)…and if you really wanna compete…then compete with the brain behind the real idea and not the sex to which he belongs…

I believe that life without guys… and a world without men is really not worth living, cos they tend to think in a completely perpendicular direction, talk shit… but at times are more loyal and trustworthy than your girlfriends…

So you love them or hate them u certainly you certainly can’t ignore them….so lean to love them anyway…n life can get really interesting;)

-Taniya

The Strength of a woman

Women and men have always tried to outdo each other in all avenues of life, but one thing we fail to realise is that nature never meant for us to compete rather to compliment.

Why do we men go ‘gaga’ over the female gender of homosepiean? Is it because of the ‘assets’, or is it because every man longs for the love of a woman.

Lets discuss, why this species is so important to us, they are emotional, sometimes clingy, cry at the smallest torment. But underneath it all lays the strength of a woman [Shake off the shaggy song]. The strength of a woman lies in her emotions, a male only society would have probably wrestled itself to death, and we need women to bring out our caring side, whether it is the cup of coffee mom gives you in the morning, or a sweet smiley passed to you in class by a special someone. A hand drawn greeting card by your sister. All these brings out emotion in men, which surely we would have never experienced .

The Power of a woman is quite immense, the Indira Priyadarshini who held India to gun point for nearly 2 decades, or even the healing touch of mother Teresa. Women have to power to be tyrants or a ‘cute puppy with sugar sprinkled all over’.

This is a tribute to women, you rock! For guys who think otherwise, Adam and just the apple would have been a really sad story .

- MohandaaS

Farewell My Indomitus Ignis

Indomitus Ignis , in Greek is Wild Fire , I am talking about my companion for 5 years , my partner , she made me smile everyday at times laugh till my stomach hurt, she helped me navigate the most serene places , yes I am talking about my Phone .

In an age where slim was in, where the thinner they are, the hotter. She begged to differ, a little meat made her that more attractive. In an age where wi-fi was in, she begged to differ, games where her maiden name, Splinter Cell, Call of Duty and on a lighter side Snakes.

She was a wonder to most, enabling the key pad was a task to many. A Piece of art most peoplewould compliment upon. Good maintenance some would say.

She survived some of the toughest times. Through pounding rain, a fall in the bucket of water , drenching in the Bay of Bengal. An owner who would throw her hard, just for losing a game . She survived the Humidity of the Chennai summer, The 3 day trek through Karnataka’s most treacherous paths.

But in the end age caught up to her, every beginning must have an End.

Filled with guilt , like an ungrateful owner euthanizing his dog , I had to put her out of her misery , a final switch off and battery removed and the final cello on the cofin , now she rests, as though just asleep.

Dedicated to my Indomitus Ignis, may you come back as a better model. Amen!

- MohandaaS