...on Resolutions

Be stirring as the time,
be fire with fire,
threaten the threatener,
and outface the face of bragging horror;
so shall inferior eyes,
that borrow their behaviours
from the great,
grow great by your example
and put on the dauntless spirit of resolution
~SHAKESPEARE

New Year's Eve...

New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the
universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage
of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same
thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights

~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

...Christmas Quotes

~Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home. -Carol Nelson


~Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. -Mary Ellen Chase


~Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age. -Carrie Latet


~Christmas is for children. But it is for grown-ups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. -Lenora Mattingly Weber


~Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas. -Kin Hubbard

Life has bigger plans for you than you can possibly ever know, so trust
that wherever you are at any given time is exactly where you were meant to
be

~ Anonymous

The wit of Capt. Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce

• Korea's pretty much the same story: the fighting goes on, the hatred, the violence, the senseless brutality, men behaving like animals - and then there's the war.
• Don't worry, I've never lost a patient. I never lose anything. Have you seen my stethoscope?
• Let's shoot him and put him out of our misery
• Frank was once the innocent victim of possession. Through some tragic error they exorcized the nice guy and left that.
• I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns. I'll carry your books, I'll carry a torch, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over, carry forward, Cary Grant, cash and carry, carry me back to Old Virginia, I'll even 'hari-kari' if you show me how, but I will not carry a gun!
• You know what they say Charles, time wounds all heals.
• Look, I realize I'm dressed to kill, but don't take it literally.
  

Leo, The Mighty Lab

I used to look at (my dog) Smokey and think, 'If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking,' and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'

~ Fred Jungclaus

p.s. ...that's LEO...he isn't mine, but I have been covered with enough doggy-drawl and fallen-prey to enough 'puppy-dog' eyes to forget that l'il fact...

aaj Pehli tarikh hai...

Aaj Pehli Taarik hai……and I can’t get the Cadbury Ad out of my head. It’s catchy and appeals to my innate silliness. AND I didn’t know that it was, in actual fact, an ol’Kishore Kumar song from a movie called (what else?): Pehli Taarik.
So yeah, I have a retro mind-worm and I hum it at the most inappropriate moments.

…............................................................................ (um, cos I don’t know how to jump from one topic to another seamlessly)

And what better way to start off a month than with *Four Weddings and A Funeral*? I love this movie. The only chick-flick I can sit through without making gagging sounds. Though the ending was a bit too hindi-filmi-ish for my liking.

But, great lines...Hugh Grant...fantastic ensemble cast...Hugh Grant...and well, Hugh Grant. And I have always wanted a wicked-mad uncle like Gareth…cracks me up every single time. Brit-humour is the best; drier than a bone with a sting in it’s tail.

Here are a few:

Tom: Oh, I don't know, Charlie. Unlike you, I never expected "the thunderbolt." I always just hoped that, that I'd meet some nice friendly girl, like the look of her, hope the look of me didn't make her physically sick, then pop the question and, um, settle down and be happy. It worked for my parents. Well, apart from the divorce and all that.
~
Fiona: Where's Gareth?
Matthew: Torturing Americans.
Fiona: How thoughtful of him.
~
Carrie: Having a good night?
Charles: Yes. It's right up there with my father's funeral for sheer entertainment value.
~
Tom: The great advantage of having a reputation for being stupid: People are less suspicious of you.
~
Matthew: I remember the first time I saw Gareth on a dancefloor. I feared lives would be lost.
~
Gareth: We had the most delightful girl at our table. Carrie, apparently her fiancé's terribly grand and owns half of Scotland. How about you?
Charles: I seem to be stuck in the wedding from hell, ghosts of girlfriends past at every turn. Next thing I'll bump into Henrietta and the nightmare will be complete.
Henrietta: Hello Charles.
Charles: Hello Hen, how are you? [Hen bursts into tears]


That was it, first post of the month. Am brushing over the ick moments, as we all know that I am Lady Bountiful where those are concerned. Plenty more posts to whine and whinge about those. So long....a happy, non-homicidal month to all.

FANTASY by George R.R.Martin

The following passage captures everything I feel about the Fantasy-Genre.



"The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.


Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab.


Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end.


Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot.
Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?


We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.


They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth."

A passage by Neil Gaiman (..from American Gods)

~I believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.



~I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass.



~I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.



~I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like Martians in War of the Worlds.



~I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.



~I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead)



~I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.



~I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.



~I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." — Neil Gaiman (American Gods)


~

...yet another HAPPINESS quote

For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy
getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with
family or friends, then the chances are that you're not going to be very happy.
If someone bases his happiness or unhappiness on major events like a great new
job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that
person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand,
happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap,
then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.

~ Andy Rooney

The Old Cherokee's advice

"One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.`

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

~ Author (Unknown)

Sometimes you just need ol’fashioned advice to do the work of a much needed pick-me-up. Today it’s Emerson’s words that inspire…..

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

"When it is dark enough, you can see the stars."

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."

"Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them."

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer."

"Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true."

"Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes."

"Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all
your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Giving Peace a Chance....

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, and also Non-Violence Day…it was inspiring to read Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s editorial in the Times Of India. While how much of it is practicable, is up to each one of us. Here are a few which I particularly liked:

“Every reader has seeds of fear, anger, violence and despair, and also seeds of hope, compassion, love and forgiveness. As journalists, you must not water the wrong seeds. You have the job of selectively watering the right seeds. You must attempt to tell the truth and yet not water the seeds of hate. It’s not what’s in the story, but how you tell it that’s important” (On being asked by the TOI on what they should do on a day like this)

“You don’t have to run into the future, you have enough conditions to be happy right here and now….the kingdom of god is available for you. But are you available for the kingdom?”

“I am made of so many non-me elements – my parents, the food I eat, the education I received, knowledge gained from others. Take away all the ‘non-me’, and there is no ‘me’ left.”

“We cannot often choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to them: that is our real freedom.”

Brida

All I could conclude after reading Brida was that either I am a complete heathen or singularly incapable of feeling stronger emotions. Because, I still fail to see what all the hype is about. There I go picking up another Paulo Coelho ("The Alchemist" being my only yardstick to go by), hoping to come away enlightened, charmed, awed or any of the numerous adjectives that generally pepper a Coelho review.

What my pea-sized brain gathered from the blurb was that the book was about overcoming your fear of commitment, searching for love despite all the pitfalls that you have already faced and basically never stop looking.

Reality (as always) turned out to be something else entirely. The book is infact about a young girl Brida's initiation into the wiccan world. Her quest for knowledge and search for her soulmate are often accompanied by pagan rituals, bouts of introspection and the occasional trip into a past life. Somewhere along the line, things get a bit repetitive and tedious.

The only quotes that I liked and made sense in an otherwise rambling narrative:

Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day" ~ Brida's father (Pg.99)

"What is now proved was once only imagin'd" ~ William Blake (Pg.174)

"I learned that the search for God is a Dark Night, that Faith is a Dark Night. And that's hardly a surprise really, because for us each day is a dark night. None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, and yet we still go forwards. Because we trust. Because we have Faith." ~ Brida (Pg.24)

This is a quote from "Grey's Anatomy" by the eternally confused Dr.Meredith Grey. Succinct and matter-of-fact, it made a lot of sense to me. So I am storing it for those times when I get really mad and am all ready to throw the mother of all hissy-fits!!!

"Love the people who treat you right, forget about
the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get
a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said that it'd be
easy, they just promised it would be worth it.”

The Last Sunset of 2007.........................

New Year's eve is like every other night;
there is no pause in the march of the universe,
no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage
of
another twelve months may be noted
and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with
the
coming of darkness on other nights.

~ Anonymous

Passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia)"

A passage from "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia ~~~ C.S.Lewis)" triggered a sense of déjà vu.

Sometimes, somewhere a certain element acts a catalyst.....triggering a long forgotten but fond memory. It infuses you with a warm and comforting feeling. The mention of the word alone can wash away the cobwebs of the mind and cloak you in a blanket of security and comfort.

Just out of grasp, but never too far away......

The children hear Aslan's name for the first time and the following paragraph explains the varied emotions experienced by the four:

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan
was anymore than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words
everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a
dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it
feels as if it has some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns
the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into
words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and
are always wishing that you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At
the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside.
Edmund felt a sense of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of
music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake
up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the
beginning of summer.

The Good Life

I came across this song in a book. It is from the Greek Island of Crete, appropriately sung at a wedding. No great lyrics...no hidden meanings.....just a straight-forward, homely number.

Kaloperasi meaning "The Good Life"

Little by little the Lords sends the rain,
Then comes the quiet snow,
Cold in the mountains,
Snow on the hills.

But the man who has a well-roofed house,
Fruit in his storerooms,
Oil in his jars,
Wine in his barrels,
Wood in his yard,
A girl to kiss as he sits by the fire,
He doesn't care what the north wind brings,
Rain or Snow.

"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted."

Think cutting wit....think Groucho Marx!! The man with the greasepaint moustache and fake eyebrows has left behind an entertaining legacy, which almost always manages to tickle your funny-bone!!

Here are a few of his choice gems:

1. From the
moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with
laughter. Someday I intend on reading it.

2. I don't care to belong to a
club that accepts people like me as members.

3. I find television very
educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a
good book.

4. I thought my razor was dull,
then I heard his speech.

5. In Hollywood, brides keep the
bouquets and throw away the groom.

6. A man's only as old as the woman he feels.

7. A hospital bed is a parked taxi
with the meter running.

8. Alimony is like buying hay for
a dead horse.

9. I read in the newspapers they
are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday
from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they
started at 6:30.

10. I was
married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

11. If you write about yourself, the slightest deviation
makes you realize instantly that there may be honor among thieves, but you are just a dirty liar.

12. Outside of a dog, a book is
man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to
read.

13. I wish to be cremated. One
tenth of my ashes shall be given to my agent, as written in our
contract.