Welcome to my new address

Dear Friends,

Welcome to my new destination on the internet.

I recently moved my blog to this new site www.lazypineapple.com.

You already know that since you are here.

Why name your blog ‘Lazy Pineapple’ you might ask?

Its funny ,wacky and different.

And life is a gamble so isn’t it apt to name it after a type of poker game.

I hope you will give the same love and affection to this site as you gave to ‘Musings of my Mind’.

Do keep popping in, to say Hello and share your ideas and comments.

I look forward to meeting you here.

Sometimes I sit and wonder

is it correct? The path I have taken.

The life I am living, was it meant to be this way?


Fate, destiny, luck are these just mere words?

Or they really play a role in my life?

Every Crossroad in life is a challenge.

Is it there to mock me or make me what I am supposed to be?

The road to peace and happiness is full of struggle.

Will I have the spirit to reach my goal?

Everyone says once you are grown up you have answers to questions.

I have more questions than answers.

Sometimes I sit and wonder.

The Saga of Designer Spectacles

It all began one day when I started getting a severe headache in spite of using my spectacles the whole day at work. In addition, the constant staring at the computer monitor was not helping much. Eventually I stopped wearing them for a couple of days and then concluded that either my visibility has increased or decreased. This conclusion needed to be checked out by having an eye test.

Walking in town during my lunch break, my eyes fell upon a sign that said ‘Free Eye Tests’. Nothing like ‘Free’ right? I rushed to the shop and booked an appointment. An ‘Optical Wear’ shop provided free eye tests. The catch was ‘You had to buy your spectacles from them as they did not give you your test results’. I fell hook, line and sinker since I came to know of this only after I had completed the eye test.

The ‘Eye Test’ itself was routine. In India, I had my eye doctor who funnily enough went by the name ‘Andhare‘ which means ‘darkness’ in Marathi. I used to look forward to the eye tests, as he was quite jovial and used to wear fantastic colognes/perfumes. It was definitely worth it after sitting for 30 minutes with an itchy and burning solution in your eyes, which helped dilate your pupils.

I was reminiscing about the eye tests in India when I met up with the doctor here. The same routine of reading the lit up board with alphabets whose size goes on decreasing from top to bottom. The same itchy solution and at that point I sorely missed the joviality and cologne of Dr. Andhare.

After boring my eyes with piercing light and pressing my eyeballs the doctor declared that, my eyes are healthy and there is nothing to worry about only for a slight change in the power of my glasses.

Now I had two options. To forget this eye test ever happened or make a new pair of glasses. I chose the second option and lo behold! I made my first mistake. I was so excited by the prospect of changing my look with new glasses that, I enthusiastically was hooked into the trap of the shops selling strategy. They had a scheme- three designer glasses for the cost of one. I thought Wow! What a deal! I exuberantly tried glasses on to chose the three pairs. Caught up in the moment I threw caution to the wind.

After I had chosen the three pairs, I asked for the bill and my eyes popped out after I saw figure. Too embarrassed to walk out and excited at the prospect of wearing ‘J K London‘, I caved in and bought them all.

The impulsive purchase for glasses gave me sleepless nights 2 days in a row. I eventually accepted my decision and am using them now. Family and friends complementing on my look has finally put my mind at peace.

Has it ever happened to you? You bought something and then cursed yourself for buying it. You dreamed of all the money you spent on an impulsive purchase that can be used for paying bills or buying something useful. Do share with me your embarrassing shopping sprees and what you wish you should not have ever bought.

Till Death do us part

In spite of the title sounding so ominous most of you must have guessed. I am talking about marriage and that too specifically arranged marriages. Recently, a few of my friends have decided to venture on this well trodden path and the experiences that they shared with me prompted me into putting this post.

Even though the trend is more towards love marriages now a days, there are many who go by the age old routine of getting hooked the traditional way. Parents of the prospective brides and grooms have become quite lenient with the ‘Ladki/Ladka dekhna routine’. Gone are the days when, if the grooms family come to meet the family of prospective bride, the bride is not inspected as a piece of furniture or like a cattle whose qualities and virtues have to be spelled out in bold.

Now, the girl and the boy are both given an opportunity to chat, go out and talk to each other at length to find out if their attitudes match and whether they like each other or not. Since the advent of Internet, Matrimonial sites are doing brisk business. The task of matchmaking which was earlier performed by relatives and friends has been replaced. Its refreshing to parents changing their stance and gradually changing with the times.

A new trend is also becoming very common, love-cum arranged marriages. Here the boy and the girl decide to get married and the families are also giving their support whole hearted. This seems like a win-win situation.

Personally, I am all for this love-cum arranged marriages. I have never been a fan of arranged marriage in spite of my parents having been married that way.It is such a tough task to choose your life partner in just two or three meetings. That too when both are at their best behaviour and trying hard to impress each other. You have to make adjustments in every marriage be it love or arranged but in a love marriage you are ready for compromises.

I know that everyone cannot have a love marriage and they choose to have their parents find the right match. It must be a tough task to choose someone without knowing him/her well and to decide to spend your entire life with them. Thankfully I never had to go through that experience. How do you decide?? What criteria to look for? Which people to avoid?? Are you taking the right decision?? Is that the right family for me?? the list is endless.

The age old question remains When do you know you have found the right person as your life partner??

I have a sincere admiration for the people who have the courage to embark on such a difficult journey. And for people who want to have a glimpse of what I am saying, please go and see the movie ‘Just Married’.

Yey!!! I got my first blogging award

Thank you ‘Sumit’ for giving me this Award.
This is my first blogging award and I am honoured (Taliyan).

I would like to nominate this award to the following friends

Kaustubh
Amit
Ayon

Kaustubh is a good friend and to him I give this award for his Humorous writing style.

Ayon is my ex-boss and now a blogging pal- I give him this award for his tips on Management and for his punch in the gut fiction writing.

and to Amit who became a pal when I started blogging – I give this award to him for writing from the heart.

Each of these people have their unique writing styles. Folks do go and have a look at their fabulous blogs.

Happy Mothers Day!!

Tommorow is ‘Mothers Day’ and I wanted to dedicate this post to my mother and many other wonderful mothers I know.

My mother is a wonderful person. She is a chatter box and from her I got the quality of being a talkative person. She cooks amazing food and is a very good singer. She is a great mom and quite emotional even though she vehemently denies that accusation.

I know that if she would have got a chance to follow her dreams, she would have been a very successful singer or a Master Chef. The choices were made for her and she like dutiful daughter and wife played by the rules. Even though she is emotional and soft when it comes to her daughters, at the core she is a strong person who has been with my father every step of the way for over 40 years.

She has an immense reservoir of patience. I do wonder sometimes that did my mother get exasperated when I learnt to walk and eat? When I spilled something on my clothes or when I must have puked on her clothes. The endless hours of going without sleep and feeding, diaper changing and pacifying my cries. I am sure it must be difficult and she must have definitely wanted to scream with exasperation.

I remember that she was always there for me and is still there when I need a word of advice or just to cry because I am exhausted and confused with the ups and downs of life. Even now after having my own family and being far away from her I still turn towards her for support and eternal wisdom.

This ‘Mothers Day’, I would like to thank her for all the sleepless nights she spent worried about me. Her loving and wise words. Her patience and love. Her selfless devotion. Her encouraging and supportive nature and for never getting angry at me even when I was behaving like a Incorrigible child.

Thank You ‘Aai ‘ .

The following poem says it all even things I was unable to express:

Without You

Mom, without you, there would be no me.
Your love, your attention, your guidance,
have made me who I am.
Without you, I would be lost,
wandering aimlessly,
without direction or purpose.
You showed me the way
to serve, to accomplish, to persevere.
Without you, there would be an empty space
I could never fill, no matter how I tried.
Instead, because of you,
I have joy, contentment, satisfaction and peace.
Thank you, mom.
I have always loved you
and I always will.

-By Joanna Fuchs

What should I name this post…?

Its one of those weeks when your mind is really sluggish and even the ‘C’ of creativity has abandoned you. You can actually guess that from the title of this post as to how bad my situation is.

There also the guilt of not updating your blog hanging on your head. So my blogging pals be dears and tolerate this post of mine . I racked my brains to bring out a funny post or even a serious one for that matter but, words are eluding me.

Work wise life has been quite hectic for the past few weeks. For those who don’t know me personally. I am doing 2 part time jobs in a week. At both places I work in accounts (Least of preferred job profiles by me). Though I had definitely worked longer hours in India but, the longer hours included gossiping with colleagues, catching up with friends on chat/phone and working as well. So, the stress of work did not make so much of an impact.Whereas here my nose is to the grind for 7.5 hours of the day.

At one job I am the only employee so, interaction with another human being throughout the day is just limited to my boss who pops in to office for just a couple of hours. At the other job I do have colleagues but all of them sit one floor above me and are in sales and so are always on the phone. There goes my gossiping out of the window. With nothing to break the monotony of the job, it becomes quite difficult sometimes to get away from the pressures at work.

I miss the gossiping and general yakking sessions with colleagues when I was in India. They provided so much of fun and distraction. The day passed off quickly and I never had to keep glancing at the watch to see when the day would end.

P.S.: Sorry guys for being such a drag in this post. Hopefully I will bounce back soon.

To lose friends and avoid people

There are times in your life when each one of us wanted to avoid certain category of people. We have actually taken efforts to run away from them and disappear. Here are a few people whom most of us tend to avoid.

1) MLM (Multi level Marketing) or the AMWAY person : I have been hounded by these people for so long, I became a pro at avoiding them really well. They are mostly your friends or acquaintances at one point of time.

Once they join any MLM company with dreams of getting rich in a jiffy, there persona completely changes. Supercharged with the idea of spreading the riches around, they start roping in all the people they have ever met in their life with a wild frenzy to climb the MLM ladder.

The poor suckers who get temporary blindness with rupee signs flashing in their eyes fall for it really hard. Whereas cynical and jaded people like ‘yours truly’ run as fast they can.

When I was in college, this mad wave of people joining the company ‘Amway’ suddenly attacked my city. My neighbours, my cousin and many friends became members and tried all their wily tactics to make me a member. I was looked down upon by many as a brainless critter who is running away from prosperity. I thank God that I did not join the bandwagon.

2) Insurance Salesman: Again, this category can be made up of friends but they are mainly people you know in passing or are distant relatives.

They are like a dog with a bone. They will literally make your life a living hell. Since you know them, you have to entertain their calls and visits and sit through painful and descriptive narration of the Insurance Policies. How the policy is beneficial to your well being will be reiterated to you again and again.

To make them go away you have to either take a policy which is an expensive affair or desperately search for someone who is thinking of taking up a policy and quickly shifting the spotlight to the victim you have searched.

3) Credit Card Salesman: These people are like octopus. They will use their tentacles to catch their prey and literally squeeze life out of them. I am very cautious with such people. With their slick tongues and their glittering eyes they will make you dream many a dreams and that too with just a swish of the card. They will make shopping sound like a dream come true and will completely forget to highlight the most important aspect of paying up.

Many a sucker has fallen for there shenanigans and have been woken up rudely from their dreams when the monthly bill arrived by post.

4) The complainer : These people are never satisfied in life. They are always waiting for that perfect life to happen. To feel good all they do is complain. Also, they are unhappy with other people’s success. Comparing assets and bank balances is one of their favourite hobbies.

All of us meet this type at least once in our life. More than not they are related quite closely to us and some are even friends who never showed their true colours in the beginning of friendship. It is difficult to avoid such people so the best way to deal with them is to stuff your ears with cotton, put on a sad face and nod your head after every few minutes and keep saying ‘Yes, I understand.

5) The Mr. Know it all : The name says it all. There is not a topic on earth on which they cannot speak on. They have an opinion on everything whether they actually know anything about the subject or not.

They are opinionated and bombastic and will never leave an opportunity to show you what a nincompoop you are. You just cannot have an opinion and even if you do have one or even are an expert in that area your word does not hold any meaning. They can actually harm our self esteem.

There are milder version of such people all around us. They can be usually found in the position of our bosses. But, if you meet the original specimen all you should do is, run for your life like a rabid dog is after you.

It is not possible to avoid all these people. Some of them are in your social circle whom you do meet in everyday life. You need to be able to master the art of tackling these personalities with practice and patience. Though sometimes you do wish that ‘Houdini’ could have taught you the disappearing act.

Games We played

I really pity today’s generation of kids who really don’t know what its like to go out and play with kids your own age.

They lack social skills and most of them are either glued to the ‘Idiot Box’ or the computer to even explore their surroundings or discover new games.

Oh this not a bitchy post but just an observation. I was chatting with my cousin and suddenly remembered the weird games we invented and had a gala time when we were growing up together.

I grew up with a younger cousin(X) and a sister (Y) just a year older than me. My eldest sis (Z) is quite a bit older so was never interested in what we were up to.

‘Y’ was a mature and disciplined kid for her age and she expected her wayward and curious sibling (Moi) and her unruly cousin ‘X’ to behave and fall in line. She was a enthusiastic participant in our games in the beginning but eventually gave up when she saw that we were getting more innovative and adventurous in our games.

These are a few games we played :

1) Dead Dog : You need a bed sheet, a willing dead dog and two people to pull the sheet. The technique is simple. We took turns to play the much coveted role of ‘Dead Dog’ and the other two would be pulling the dead dog through the house. Basically being the dead dog was the best deal. You got a free joyride in spite of being labelled a stinky dead animal. This game was discovered when we saw Muncipality workers in our city piling up dead dogs on a blanket and dragging them to be carried away. I know our minds were really a wealth of imagination.

2) Dark Room: This was a favourite game in summers when it was scorching outside and not possible to play in the sun.

You cover all the windows of a room with dark curtains to block any light coming in and make the room pitch dark . One person will try searching for the others who are hiding in the same room. It so much fun when no one can see anyone.

3) Burrowing : This was a bane for our mother. She used to send us to play dressed neat and tidy and we came back looking like street urchins.
The ingredients required are a big mound of sand and eager children who want to burrow in the sand.
The lane we grew up in (mysteriously) always had a big mound of sand throughout the year. Looking back I think it must be a kindly neighbour who knew how precious the sand pile was for us kids. The game was to dig a big hole in the sand and then sit in it and cover yourself up completely with sand.

4) Mudslides : We never needed any equipment to have fun. Whatever was available suited us just fine.
Our House was getting some repairs so the workers had dug up mud at the back of our house and had dumped it in our front yard. The mud pile was nearly 6 feet high. Added to that, it was the monsoon season so the mud was quite slick and wet. Here it was, a readymade slide for us. We used to slide down whooping with joy. This was not only for us but the entire klan of kids from our neighbourhood. I can only imagine the scrubbing we must have got from my mother. Poor Mom.

5) Make your own swimming pool : This was a special favourite of my cousin ‘X’ and me. In the monsoon we used to go up on the terrace and block all the outlets on the terrace so that we could collect water in the torrential downpour. Once the water was upto our knees it was good enough for a swim.
This game of ours went on for a couple of years and was immediately banned by my parents when they discovered the mystery behind the leaky roof.

Childhood was such a wondrous time for me. I never needed any games to entertain myself. Anything and everything could be used to play with. A pile of rocks, a length of clothes line or even a ‘Guavava ‘ tree were used to invent new games.

I never needed a computer, a PS2 or game CD’s to stir my imagination. I am sure most of us were more interested in waiting for play time with friends from our neighbourhood. The eager wait to come from school and just gather all friends and start a game of Hide n’ Seek, waiting for the summer holidays to begin and the thrill of learning to master a new game was all the head rush we needed.

I completed 1 year in Blogging!!

Hi Folks!! I completed 1 year in blogging on 31st March and completely missed the date….

Yeyyy for me…

Thanks to all my Blogging friends for their Support.