I need a break - It's gonna be my day...

I hardly remember the last time I spent a whole day doing jus' what I wanna do .. Thou' it hasn't been much of college due to strikes and variuos reasons , the last 2 weeks have been pretty hectic with tests and other college work . With 2 more tests to go the following week I have planned to spend my Saturday doin' jus the things I want to ..

So you can look forward for my comments in your blog space and more posts here too .. I'm planning to catch up with a lil bit of reading , napping and shopping ..

How I wish I was a small girl again ;) .

Oscar!

I had jus' finished a test in college when I heard about A R Rahman winning 2 Oscars for the movie Slumdog Millionaire .

The movie is now richer with 8 Oscars :) Woha!! Should I call it Slumdog Zillionaire? ;)
Many congrats to the movie crew .

Monday Morning Inspiration # 63

My 9-year-old daughter and I were flying from our home in Charlotte,North Carolina, to spend a week with my husband in Miami, Florida. Mikehad been in Florida for five months working for an Internet start-upcompany. We were excited about the trip because we had seen him only fivetimes in five months, and Kallie missed her dad terribly.

As usual on the Charlotte-to-Miami flight, the plane was totally full.I had noticed a troop of Boy Scouts at the gate and commented to mydaughter that if anything happened, we would be OK with all those Scoutson our flight! Little did I know....Because we did not get our boarding passes until we arrived at thegate, Kallie and I could not get seats together and were separated by theaisle.

That wasn't such a big deal, except that Kallie was nervous aboutthe trip and had counted on my reading to her the whole way. Trying toread across the aisle would be a challenge.When the two passengers who shared my row boarded the plane, I askedif they would switch places with Kallie and me, so that we could betogether and so that she could sit next to the window. They refused,saying they thought they should stay in their assigned seats.

Meanwhile,a mother and her three children were in a panic several rows ahead of us.There had been a mistake in their boarding passes, the whole family hadbeen split up.The passengers in her row also refused to move elsewhere. The mothercould hold her baby, but her 6-year-old son and his older brother hadbeen scattered around the plane. She was very concerned about the youngerboy sitting with strangers. She was in tears, yet nobody offered to helpher.

Suddenly the Scout leader stood up and said, "Ma'am, I think we canhelp you." He then spent five minutes rearranging his group so thatadequate space was available for the family. The boys followed hisdirections cheerfully and without complaint, and the mother's relief wasobvious.

Kallie, however, was beginning to panic at the thought of not being next to a window or her mother. I told her that there wasn't anything Icould do; we would have to sit where we were. Amazingly, the man sittingnext to the Scoutmaster (not a Scout himself), turned around to me andasked, "Would you and your daughter like our seats?" referring to himself and the Scoutmaster. He said he was cramped in the window seat and wouldreally prefer the aisle. We traded seats and continued our trip, verymuch relieved to be together and watch the scenery from Kallie's windowseat.

Would that man have offered us his seat if the Scouts hadn't done sofor the mom and her children? I don't know. But I do know that kindnessis contagious, and good deeds beget good deeds!

- Phyllis Yearick

To read other Monday Morning Inspirations click here.

Monday Morning Inspiration # 62

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised. That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn't sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Moral of the story: If you don't give your hundred percent in a relationship, you'll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent.. This is applicable for any relationship like friendship, love, employer-employee relationship etc.,

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.

My Valentine's day out

Getting up at 7 in the morning ( I was already late , had planned to be up by six) and checking up with my friends as to what they all were upto ..It was already 7:30 .
I jus' had half hour to get ready and leave to the local train station. I took the 8:15 direct train to college (else I had to change 2 trains to reach college). I had promised my friend Krithika to be there in the college by 9am but ended up meeting her at 10.

It was the second day of our college cuturals Milan'09 at SRM University. Was there to see my friend Jayashree perform at the classical singing competition. Thou' I'm not much into singing myself these days , being there at this competition has made me fall in love with carnartic music all over again btu only second to DANCE :)

I have been trying to recall the songs that I ve learnt in my 7 years of classical training. Not bad, I do remember a considerable amount :)

Following this , I jus' had a peek into few other shows that had been going on before we could leave from college a little later than noon. Got back home , slept and evening went shopping with mom to get gifts for my parents and my best friend Dhruv for Valentines day .. Later, in the evening I was sweetly surprised when my parents got me a personalised photo frame for V-day and a wonderful card .. Thanks ma and pa :)



And I also got a cute hand crafted gift from my friend Dhruv and a beautiful card. We ( me and my mom) still wonder if guys could select such nice cards. Later that day had a small meet up with few of my friends before I could have my dinner and crash .. That was how beautiful my day went by :)

Taggie !

I'm back to do a tag after quite sometime and this time over Vasanthan from Singaporean Indian has tagged me.

Rules:
It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag ten people.
Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name : Shalini
2. A four Letter Word : Sand
3. A boy's Name : Sanjay
4. A girl's Name : Shilpa
5. An occupation : Singer
6. A color : Silver
7. Something you'll wear : Skirt
8. A food: Seekh Kebab :p
9. Something found in the bathroom: Soap
10. A place: San Diego
11. A reason for being late : Sleepy
12. Something you'd shout : Stupid!!
13. A movie title : Sound of Music
14. Something you drink : sugarcane juice
15. A musical group : S5
16. An animal : Snow Leopard
17. A street name : Sardar Patel Road
18. A type of motor : Skoda ( I don' know if it actually is a motor name, but this is all I knew in S)
19. The title of a song : Safe in your arms

Thanks for this fun tag Vasanthan. All those of you who would like to take up this tag please drop by a comment , will be there to read yours :)

Monday morning Inspiration # 61

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live.
They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”
“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the son.
“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered: “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

“We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.
“We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs.
“We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.
Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

To read other Monday orning Inspirations click here.

My pink city Travelogue

I have started posting my travel experiences in Pink city (Jaipur) where I had been for my vacations a month back with family.

You can read them at Shalini's travelogue.

My experiments with baking # 1

We got this new electric oven couple of weeks back and last weekend I along with my mum made this Chocolate muffin and I should say it turned out to be really yummy *beams with pride* ..

Monday Morning Inspiration # 60

Once upon a time two brothers, who lived on adjoining farms, fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a conflict. Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's tool box. "I'm looking for a few days' work" he said. "Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?" "Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you."

"Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor; in fact, it's my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll do him one better."

"See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence --an 8-foot fence -- so I won't need to see his place or his face anymore."

The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."

The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.

The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all. It was a bridge -- a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all -- and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them, his hand outstretched. "You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done." The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other's hand.

They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder. "No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother. "I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, but I have many more bridges to build.

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.