Thank you for the Music

I owe this piece of music to my dad.
Yes! It was my dad who introduced me to all the songs of ABBA, he gifted me the cassettes The best of ABBA and ABBA Gold and made me listen to it telling me stories about how great a band they were, their music, their tours and the movie that was filmed on their tour. He loved their music and used to hum most of their songs while driving.

As a little girl I didn't think twice. I had learnt that all that my father likes has to be good and I immediately started liking and learning all of ABBA's songs. Fernando will remain closest to me as it's of course dad's favourite song. He used to make me repeat the lines 'If I had to do the same again, I would my friend Fernando...' and I cheerfully did it over and over.

I didn't really learn a lot about the band, how they came into picture and why they broke up back then. While watching the Euro Vision concert last year there was a mention about ABBA being one of the most successful bands to come out of the Euro Vision concert and they brought Sweden victory and a place in the history of the concert. And then the website, wiki gives us loads of details about them and their songs so I won’t dwell into it.

If I am forced to sing a song anywhere anyplace it has to be a song from ABBA and most likely Dancing Queen. After all these years I am still a fan of ABBA and haven't been bored listening to them.

Favourite songs on mine Thank you for the music, Winner takes it all, Fernando, SOS, One of us is dying, Dancing Queen, Chiquitita, Mamma Mia and pretty much everything else...

So I say......

Thank you for the music....for giving it to me.

Bitten by the Twitter Bug

I don't remember when I actually created a 'Twitter' account and I am too lazy to go back and check. However, initially I wasn't the brightest to understand what the fuss about Twitter was all about. I was wondering what is there to tweet about! What is the concept of tagging! What on earth is a retweet, quote tweet, what happens when we use a '@', when to use a '#' and so on. I basically didn't get it! I thought I was completely not cut out for it.
But today I am totally changed in my view about Twitter! Yes #somethingsDOchange :)
I think it's a great platform for people who like to talk, who like to express and for some who just like to record day to day activities.

Now, I always thought a Blog is great, however, it's quite an effort to maintain it and when you have just a statement to make it isn’t so great. You wouldn't want to churn a blog for a note. I always pushed myself to maintain a diary, but I found myself not keeping up to it every day. Now everyone is not like Bigb or SrBachchan as his blog’s changed now - it's awesome how he writes every single day!

Facebook is on a slightly different scale - but I was not always comfortable about putting up everything I think.

It's connects to people on such larger scale. If I want to know about what someone or some organization I care about is doing it's a great informal way to connect - opening up a bigger audience.

More than all that what drove me towards it is that I love to talk! And in my opinion Twitter is cut out for people who love to talk but don't have a person to always talk to. It's great to capture life's little moments, day to day thoughts and just quote...sorry tweet a random note about a little something.

So I conclude saying ....... Happy Tweeting!

Cousins

I read this quote somewhere 'Cousins are your very first friends.... They are like childhood friends. Nobody will understand the craziness of your family better than your cousins'. As soon as I read it, I was nodding away.

I think one is very lucky to have had a childhood with Cousins. It's like having a ready friend who is around any time you need them, who can bring fun to summer holidays, give a whole new context to family functions and other small family gatherings which otherwise can be quite boring. Festival celebrations and shopping for these occasions are exciting. I have this cousin who is just a few years younger and we used to get dresses and clothes which were similar and very often exchanged it.

We have numerous stories about various topics and this does not run out! About the movies we have watched together, the trips we have been on, we have had joint crushes on movie stars or cricket stars. Saving up the little pocket money or mainly the money we get as a gift during festivals to eat street food or
ice creams. The nights we have spent talking away while doing the many stay over’s at each other’s places. I have never tired talking about these stories over and over again. Of course talking about these to the people in context is never a bore, though others not in the loop might give you a 'I have heard this before...'

On the flip side it can also take a reverse turn, especially when it comes to studies, sports, competition at school or just about being good at 'something'. The first comparison is made with the immediate cousin which is absolutely not the nicest thing to go through. It's all about, oh! She’s done well in her class, he's topped his class, he won something, she is the school leader and whether you are good yourself or not, this Like vs Like comparison has no end.

We have also had times when you talk every now and then, don't talk much for ages, talk a lot- all the time... having been through all these phases I can now say for sure that connecting with cousins always has made me happy. There are some things with cousins you cannot share with friends or anyone else and I
thank God for the lovely cousins I have had.

The Comfort of Ignorance

While talking to a friend recently about random things we spoke about certain people who you might not really know you well, but who tend to share something’s close to them that they cannot do with people who they know intimately.


It might be a good thing or a bad thing. But typically, they tend to discuss thoughts about other people, crushes they might have had at different times, some failed relationships, perhaps issues at home too.

My friend and I were talking about why is it that some people open up such thoughts to others who they just know as an acquaintance. They might know nothing about you or your life; however tend to easily shell out what they have.

My friend put this in a nice way that it is ' The Comfort of Ignorance' that's makes people open up such way to someone they hardly know. Even better, to a person who doesn't know much about them as a person or their world. They can talk about people in their life and typically pain caused easily as the listener here knows no one and can just listen with an open mind without any preconceived notions.

This thought that my friend put across and what made us discuss it is why this note took shape in my blog today...

Something About Sunsets

Who doesn't enjoy a perfect Sunrise or a Sunset. Well, the Sun rises and sets everyday, however, when you are at a picturesque place, by the sea, on a cliff, by the river it's all the more thrilling to witness the change in colours of the sky and the big ball of fire rise and brighten or fall and darken the sky. For not being a 'Morning Person', I prefer Sunset. At least, I don't have to wake up really early - How Vain!



I really enjoy the palette of colours across the sky which changes from blue to pink to Orange to deeper orange, a red and yellow splash before it makes way to deep bluish purple sky and ends in darkness.


A lot of people are excited about capturing this perfect moment in paintings or poetry or the easier option being photography. I haven't tried the first two, however have tried the third option and have been more disappointed than happy about the outcome. The following pictures are not what I can say was a great sunset. It was a simple evening on Lake Kumarakom. The perfect picture of a Sunset for me is with Coconut Trees and water. This is what makes me put this up here...reminiscing the evening.

Miles for Missing People

Well.... This is an old story and I dont want to sound like I'm braggin! I write this because for someone like me, it is a huge thing to be able to do a 'Run'. This one was a Charity Run called 'Miles for Missing People' - a 10Km run in Hyde Park. Yeah Yeah...I know it's 10Km and not a Marathon, but it's still a big one for me as I suppose Marathon is something I would never attempt to do!

Now, why did I do this? Every now and then I have this Fitness Bug (like many other people in Life) and just to feed the habit I needed a goal of some kind. The other slightly more important urge was to do something good for the charity and I saw this idea of doing a run to raise some money for a cause a great option. The most important thing why I choose to do it was the name - Miles for missing people! Lemme explain. This Charity works for finding those people who go missing, either by being kidnapped, or lost or they are depressed and they go away and leave family and friends missing them.


Thank you God! I don't have an incident like that and would never want to have one like that. However, the fact that I do live so far away from my known world, my people, family and friends make me miss them more than I can put in down in words and hence I did this run for all the people I Miss.....all the time.

To all of you lovely people in my life ...some in touch, some not....I remember you and miss you as I go by....

And.. for the not so important fact, I finished the race in just over an hour, Slow but Happy.