I find noisy people unbearable.
I'm a messy person when I'm working on a a project; the things around are there for a purpose which remind me of the bits as they are sewn together in a story, or idea.
Also, messes can be controlled. You can tuck them under the bed, bolt them away in the cupboard; what is out of sight can be out of mind.
But how do you shut off the noise? Gunpoint!

jumping bright

Taking up a dare is a bigger challenge than spilling the beans. While both of them take me out of my comfort zone, the dare-devil in me will always opt to take up the challenge. It may be silly, it may be embarrassing, but it will surely be a lot of fun. Having everyone in peals of laughter is a good day's job done.
Telling the truth will nag me and make me feel guilty about breaking the Omerta.

No way!
If I knew whether I am going to be successful in the future, I would be happy now, but the sense of achievement & sheer joy would never be reached.
On the other hand, if I knew I wasn't going to succeed in the future, I would abandon the struggle, instead of enduring it, missing out on all the lessons I would have learnt on the way.
Astrology is a cultural inheritance in India, how it is interpreted varies from fervent followers who will not drink water if the wise man so asks.

Todd Turtle is my newest pet. I've had him just over a month, and we enjoy each other's peaceful companionship. After spending most of his under water, I pick him out, and place him near my desk, where he walks up and down in contemplation for his next BIG idea.

I am horrible at remembering names; even worse when it comes to incidents which occurred with me, alongwith the person whom I shared the experience with. Instead of treating this as a weakness, I have come to enjoy this trait.
I don't remember movie plots. So even during reruns each moment is a revelation, and I experience the same rush / fear when the plot thickens as I did the first time.
I don't remember jokes, anecdotes. Which means I shall never get bored of friends / family recounting the same thing over and over at different times, because I enjoy it each time, and laugh heartily as I did the first time.
This makes it very surprising that I am exceptionally good at remembering roads. Even without a map, if I have trodden down a path, I will remember how to return. I don't ever getting lost on the road, or unable to find my way back. At times, when the GPS navigation in the car goes array, my keen memory for roads has led way.

Mango milk-shake, made with divine Alphonso mangoes, sweet condensed milk & crushed ice. As long as I lived in India, my mom made this all summer, every morning for breakfast. A tall glass of this heavenly nectar, nothing can top it, nor complement it.
A poor yet passable substitute for this is the McDonald's Mango-Pineapple smoothie.

After hearing rave reviews of being the next best thing after The Dark Knight, I was really looking forward to X-Men First Class. Even paid extra bucks to watch it in high-definition.
Although the story tied in everything in the earlier 3 movies, it was a boring storyline. No real AHA moment, neither were there any exulting action scenes. There were bits where I was yawning, and went out of the hall for a drink from the water spout.

After hearing rave reviews of being the next best thing after The Dark Knight, I was really looking forward to X-Men First Class. Even paid extra bucks to watch it in high-definition.
Although the story tied in everything in the earlier 3 movies, it was a boring storyline. No real AHA moment, neither were there any exulting action scenes. There were bits where I was yawning, and went out of the hall for a drink from the water spout.

Given a chance, the only person I'd want to speak to is my mother. And especially today, which would be her birthday. 3 years ago, we celebrated her last birthday with a small cake. Her painful chemotherapy had numbed her taste buds, so that she couldn't really enjoy it.
As the person I was closest too, whom I used to speak for hours at end, the only person whom I trusted to purchase everything fashionable, I miss speaking to her everyday, and seeking her counsel for my life, career, everything.

It has been quite a while since I worked my ass off, creating a new piece. Being offered a job with a salary would be great news right now. Although working from home has its perks, I like the process of getting ready and going to work, interacting with colleagues face-to-face.

Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams

Promise?

1. Learn to drive a car
2. Write a dozen short stories
3. Fly a plane
4. Learn to swim on my back
5. Lose 10 pounds
6. Increase my monthly salary by $1000
7. Complete my cross stitch project
8. Cultivate a herb garden
9. Learn a new dance form
10. Go on a cruise

To Make a Coffee

My poison is coffee. And I like it coming hot and steamy, till the last drop. To ensure this, I've picked up some accessories, and a few more left to complete the perfect Java experience.
My obsession with coffee led me to start a blog on exploring the details which work to create that perfect cuppa. Follow my fixation at http://theqahwaroom.blogspot.com

The cleanest and greenest city in USA, I love the weather where I live. Based on a hill top, I wake up to clouds passing through the parking lot. The grass is sprinkled with fresh dew, and as the day progresses, the conifer trees all around rustle and sway, until the clouds part and admit sunshine. The crisp afternoon is often followed by a brief spell of rain, which cools the evening for a crackling barbeque on the front porch.
Although I have been here for less than a month, I am heady with joy to live in a place which reminds me of the vacation cottage back in my country.

With billions of stars blanketing the sky, the best place for stargazing is next to the person whom you want to spend your life with.
We had gone to a resort in Daman for the weekend. While everyone else wanted to enjoy sipping their chilled beer that night, we both walked over to a circular tiled mosaic ground, it was probably a play area for kids. We sat there, and eventually lay down, side by side, on our jackets, staring at the sky.
It was about 15-20 mins before we got called away, and stuffed into a van.
Since then, there has been just one more occasion, I did stargazing, in a haunted (I thought so) fort, and lay awake all night taking slow shutter pics of the earth rotating on its axis; Psychedelic.

In Every Language

The neighborhood I grew up in, had people from a variety of backgrounds. Our floor had 8 houses, with nearly every family speaking a different native language - Punjabi, Farsi, Bengali, Marathi, and my mother tongue Gujarati. As an Indian, Hindi becomes the default second language, after English, and Marathi the next compulsory third language. Briefly, I also studied Sanskrit, as an add-on language to Marathi, since it was a more scoring language.
During my childhood, my father, who has studied in Urdu medium, would read beautifully descriptive stories in the language.
Being a Moslem, prayers have to be learnt in Arabic; the only problem with this language is that I can hardly decipher the complex pronunciations, let alone the meaning of the words. Arabic however came really handy during a holy trip to Iraq, where everyone spoke the language. I discovered the music in the sonorous words, and made sincere efforts to understand, and respond, even if only in monosyllables.
Like Sanskrit in school, French was considered a scoring subject during my college years. So I did pick up a few words and phrases in French, but I wouldn't dare utter them when hailing a taxi during my trip to Paris!
Friends have been as diverse as the community I grew up in. That's where I picked up a bit of Konkani, Sindhi & Kutchi. I make no high claims of making intelligent conversation in these tongues, but I can understand a good amount of what is being spoken.
My 3-year stint in Bengaluru, which is the only liveable city down South (according to me!), I picked up fragmented Tulu, Kannada and I daresay Tamil.
Do I want to learn any more languages - why not!

The Seventh Commandment

Bragging to a friend about my so-called 'pehchan' (influencers) in showbiz, I told him about this school-mate of mine who'd been dating the then-hotshot Sparkly (not his real name!) through grapevine.
A typically calm person, friend suddenly jumped up and wanted to know more about this school-mate. Taking little notice of this uncanny behavior, went on bragging about how they were an 'item', but it then ended badly, when Sparkly's wife entered the scene. She went to school-mate's house and threatened her. All of this was juicy gossip, and I bragged like I was the gossip-columnist who'd uncovered the story.
Turned out, the BIL of Sparkly was my friend's close mate. The mate's family had been much traumatized by the affair, and were trying to sort the mess.
S**t I was hurling around, had just hit the ceiling. I had not only put my foot-in- mouth, but nearly swallowed it whole by now. There was nothing I could do to save face. My only saving grace was that I wasn't the girl Sparkly was having the affair with!

Warbirds, Shiney P-38L Lightning

I'm living on the other side of the earth, which is the furtherest one can be away from home. Although on the clock, its just 12 hours away from home, it is a 24-36 hour journey by flight to get back home. From here, the furtherest I can go is up, on the moon.

Barely a teenager, my brother agreed to teach me to ride the gearless Kinetic Honda our family owned. I hadn't even changed out of my school uniform, and I ran at his helm, lest he change his mind if I don't go follow him right away.
Since I was already going to school on a bicycle, balancing was not going to be a problem. I was surprised at how difficult it was to balance this motorized creature. My brother was sitting behind, and would quickly hold the handle if I veered too close to the parked cars in the building compound, or put his legs down to slow down the scooter. After 15-20 minutes of practise, we stopped; not because I was tired, brother had to go...

A non-aggressive person, I am very competitive when it comes to being the boss's pet at the workplace. As my profile relies on me working directly with the company CEO's or President's, I strive to be in their good books at all times. So if someone else gets a compliment, and I don't, the war toll has just been rung in my arena.

Went to Kamshet for a paragliding Tangent session. It was the most enthralling experience, flying high up in the sky like a bird with wings, floating over mountain tops, and kissing the cloud wisps on a hot summer afternoon. Memorable is not just this, but the peripheral experience of a nightcap in a deserted fort, hitch back from the place, and everything else in between.

I was a kid back then; it had been my brother's idea to go for the movie. Infact, I didn't even know what the phrase 'Full Monty' meant, until the movie was over!