Of Quirky England! #1

England is where cricket was born and football is worshipped. India, I confess I do not know what sport was born here, probably chess (?), but cricket is most definitely an addition to our many Gods. As a highly skilled migrant from India, cricket jargon came with the crib, I had no choice in the matter whatsoever, you see, but well football, not so much. Now that I have established how I met MANY cricket fanatics, football fanatics was a first for me when I landed here.

It is easy to spot a football freak in England. It is still easier to find if there is a match going on at a stadium near you. A clear indication of whether there is a Hull City match at KC Stadium (or anywhere else for that matter) is the bee-like appearance of old and young, yellow and black striped T-shirts swarming the city pubs. And while all these bees sit in front of a beaming light-box (more like light-planks, now that all pubs have super-sized flat screen televisions), sipping frothy, fermented nectar from pint-glasses - frankly, it felt odd walking in the opposite direction away from the bustle and into the arcades, where shops were getting progressively emptier as the match got increasingly interesting! Good for me!

What made me ponder over this apis phenonmenon was the difference I noticed in the sports watchers' cultures. In India, streets clear out as people head home hoping to watch the Indian cricket team win the day's match, for a change. While India headed home, England came on to the streets into the pubs in support of an equally appalling football side.

P.S.: A disclaimer is in order, I do not watch sports obsessively, I would not watch it all if there was a film (any film) on television. I know what you are thinking, I'm not judging anyone and you shouldn't either!

Of Anniversary Playlists.

Dedicated to N!

Rascal Flatts - This Everyday Love
Keith Urban - Better Half
Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You
Keith Urban - Making Memories of Us
Carrie Underwood - That's Where It Is
Plain White T's - 1,2,3,4

Love...

Of Job-hunts.

Making CVs and hunting for jobs is the only time that one is mandatorily made to introspect. What am I? What do I know? What do I know that most others might not know? What skills should I advertise? What should I hide? What insignificant incident can I manipulate and magnify so that I sound brilliant to have done it? How am I better than everyone else out there? This is the sort of introspection that calls for all the vanity one can muster.

And asking those questions, sometimes I've come to undesirably awful answers. In this situation, what does one do? Answer them all and be brutally honest? Or fake it a little, gloss it a little and give them the precise answers they want to listen to? Any person, who had to do as extensive a job search, will agree that the second option is the way to go. My only problem being, in this crunched, cramped and unemplolyed economy, everyone is writing the same old faff. How do I make my gloss glossier is the question?

Oh, well! I hope I overcome the recession without depression (pun intended).

Of Jumping Blogs.

I started a new blog with the same name! Can anyone believe it!?! Call me crazy. Call me weird. I needed a change of some sort. Let's just say that a change was in the offing and this was the best I could came up with! So, I moved here sometime back. It's no different from here, but it feels a lot tidier, and most importantly, it feels new, that's all mattered. I enjoy rambling there just as much. Let me say this before you assume otherwise, I am not abandoning this blog. I just want an alternative address for some more blabbering, that's all.

Hope to see you at both places.

Love and warmth,
The Solitary Dreamer.

Of Nightingales and Norah.

Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?

Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer
To a question I can't ask
I don't know which way the feather falls
Or if I should blow it to the left

All the voices that are spinnin' around me
Trying to tell me what to say
Can I fly right behind you
And you can take me away

--Norah Jones

I've come to regard these lyrics as a definition for my life in general.

Looking forward to watching "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist", which is releasing soon at a theatre near me. :)

Of Marriage And More.

Thoughts...
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Married. Nothing more, nothing less.

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Carved dreams of togetherness and life.

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Of passionate disagreements and involvements.

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Tenets of understatement and understanding.

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Shared sense of belonging and acceptance.

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Of forthright judgements and unquestioned rights.

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Exasperated expectations wild and convoluted comprehensions of us.

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Desperate cry for insatiable intimacy.

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Letting go of common sense to avoid hurtful people running scott free.

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Of illusions and reality.

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Notes Of A Bride-To-Be. #1

Meetu gave her way-to-go-about-looking-for-a-mate mantra.

“Judge how much you’d have to change for this person.”

Following had been my selection criteria and it can be different for different people, but I have a feeling that the more intellectually inclined people will understand what I'm saying here (or so I would like to think). :D

I was looking for "THE GUY", not the "The Right Guy" because there IS no such thing. This was my marking system, a system where you will never get a full 100%... (let me stress again) because there is not such a thing as the "The Right Guy":

a) Talk it out and see if and how the guy fits into what you want for your future. If he wants the same/similar things... 10 points scored!

b) Try and see if you can identify where the guy is coming from. Let me explain; I strongly believe that where, how, and what of a person's background affect who the person is today. If you can do some digging and find the origin... 10 more points scored!

c) See if both of you "like" (not necessarily love) to do the same things in your free time (coz you'll be spending most of your free-time with your significant other). If you can find atleast 2-3 things that match... 10 points again!

d) See what the guy likes and you completely dislike. If it's not more than 2 things... 10 more points!
(thats where Meetu's mantra comes in, coz this is prolly how much you will have to change)

e) Meet him under different conditions, for example, meet him where he is in his comfort zone, meet him outside his comfort zone and again in a neutral zone. This will give you a fair idea if the guy is really what he says he is. If he is almost the same under all those different situations, he most likely isn't faking it. 10 more points!

f) Meet his family. If you like the family, 10 points!

g) If you can have long conversations with him without "much" effort. 10 points again!

After all is said and done, 70% is a good enough score for you to jump into marriage. And I use the word "jump" because you will never be ready for marriage until you actually jump into it. At least I am unaware of any person who was "ready"!

I intend to continue this with more of my notes... because life continues after the JUMP and brings with a lot of surprises! Trust me! :D

Single

I'm almost single!

I'm getting married in less than 2 months. My fiance is in another country. So, this is the closest I'm ever going to be to being single. Now the question is, after all the hoopla about why-can't-I-find-someone-special?... do I really want to be single?

Hmmmnn...

Just the transition between single to married is a curious phase. And anyone who knows me will know that I am more fond of the (*high energy*)transition states than I am of the two extreme ends (assuming there are only two ends (just to make life simple) on either side)... and this time is no different. As much as I want to get married, I also want to stay single!

To many more irrational "happy" transitions!

Of Anything But Ordinary.

Sometimes I get so weird
I even freak myself out
I laugh myself to sleep
It's my lullaby
Sometimes I drive so fast
Just to feel the danger
I wanna scream
It makes me feel alive

Is it enough to love?
Is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die?
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please

To walk within the lines
Would make my life so boring
I want to know that I
Have been to the extreme
So knock me off my feet
Come on now give it to me
Anything to make me feel alive

Is it enough to love?
Is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die?
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please.
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please.

Let down your defences
Use no common sense
If you look you will see
that this world is a beautiful
accident, turibulent, succulent
opulent permanent, no way
I wanna taste it
Don't wanna waste it away

Sometimes I get so weird
I even freak myself out
I laugh myself to sleep
It's my lullaby

Is it enough?
Is it enough?
Is it enough to breathe?
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
Is it enough to die?
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please

Is it enough?
Is it enough to die?
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please.
oh
I'd rather be anything but ordinary please.

--

Anything But Ordinary by Avril Lavigne