Yesterday spent the evening watching the movie “The series of unfortunate events”. The story revolves around three Baudelaire siblings Violet (Age 14), Klaus (Age 11) and Sunny Baudelaire (Age 11) who are orphaned when their parents are killed in freak fire accident. The children are then shoveled to one of their queer relative Count Olaf (Played superbly by Jim Carrey), the rest of the story continues as they meet their strange relatives & how they cleverly escape from them is crux of the story. The story & cinematography of the movie is excellent.

While watching the movie, I was thinking about my own family, not my close dear ones but total family including distant ones. In today’s jet age, families might have got shorter but they have also become distant. There are several cousins of mine whom I haven’t met yet. Every family has a nasty relative, a talkative aunty, a deaf uncle or grandparents who tell their life’s story to those lend an ear. But we still accept them or bear them because they’re OUR family.

Just when think your relatives are err…….boring, you might be surprised with their kind attitudes when you meet them. Family meets have always been boring for me, with distant relatives asking me whether I recognized them or not, when they perfectly knew that I was 6 months old when I last met them. But the last family meet was a good one & changed my perspective about such meetings. Everyone was in good mood so we hit on a good conversion (of course, the senior members were trying to sabotage the good mood with their old war stories or politics!) In the end, a guilty feeling stuck me; they were not bad as I used to think about them. As the meeting ended (Thanks to Nasty Aunty!) with good dinner, I was wishing for more of such good times.

At last it dawned on me, it was not the relations that were binding us, it was love.

The addition of 3 more planets in our quite solar family has raised quite a few speculations & chaos amongst scientists & common junta. The only ones who seem to be happy with this change are the news channels who are flashing this news & displaying shows on basics of universe.

My first reaction to the news was “How is it possible?!!” But with time, the news sinked in my mind. It is true that it takes time for a person for news to be totally accepted, with these fraudulent times, I doubt if many of them might really be true.

I can now well imagine what medieval people must have felt when Copernicus declared that Sun was the center of solar system (….and maybe centre of Universe) & not the Earth as believed. Many intellectuals & Astronomers have now waged a battle weather to acknowledge this change or not. History is witness that any change suggested has not taken place without a conflict, so why this be different.

This is famous Ramkund- the holy place on the banks of river Godavari where legends say that Ram took a bath while on 14 years sabbatical.Now the most religious hotspot for tourists.

This is Phalke smarak, created in memory of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian Cinema.The smarak includes 2 open air theaters, 2 museums & some archeaological artifacts.Situated on foothill of Mt.Pandavlena

My college, K.K.Wagh polytechnic & Engineering college, where I spent three years(barely)studying.The best college of Nashik;)

How many more innocents will sacrifice their lives for terrorism?

Will terrorism really ever end??

How many innocent victims will have to sacrifice their lives for government to realize to take some action rather than mumbling some consolation or condemning speech? When is government going to take responsibility of protection & safety of citizens?

Will the culprits ever get punished for their misdeeds? Till now 1993 blasts have not been caught.

Mumbai spirit is still radiant; it is admirable how the city has picked up the pieces & has resumed normal fast lives. But how many disasters are Mumbaikars going to tolerate?

I am now in seventh heaven indulging in my most sumptuous desires. I am feasting on an assortment of chocolates thanks to a book!

I am currently reading “Chocolat” by Joanne Harris. A complete chocoholic, this book has mesmerized my mind (& maybe my stomach!). I was avoiding this book for a long time in the library, but its bewitching aura enticed me to read it. The temptation of chocolate is just too hard for me to resist, it does not matter in which form.
The story revolves around mother-daughter moving in a town. Vianne is an accomplished chocolatier who moves into a nascent, orthodox town where eating chocolate is asserted to be sinful by the church & townsfolk. How Vianne inculcates love of chocolate in townsfolk & while embarking on various adventures forms the crux of the story. This story has also been made into a movie starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Binoche & Judy Dench

Each page to the book is laced with vivid descriptions of chocolate preparations, chocolate cakes, truffles, mousse, pies, mocha, fudge, cookies, etc, which tend to make mouth water with intricate narration, effectuating every dish in our minds. My cravings for chocolate have intensified manifolds & I am gobbling every chocolate coming my way. According to statistics, my chocolate devouring speed has increased from 3-5% per day to 30-40% with the advent of the book.

I better go & have another chocolate, writing this post has aggravated my craving.

Warning: If you are thinking of reading this book, make sure you have a dairymilk or a chocolate drink within reach in order to avoid temporary insanity.

Each of us have so many passionate desires, expectations but are we really able to fulfill them? Not all of them or maybe not at all. This may not bother us now, but it will certainly bother us later. Yesterday I heard my father talking passionately about how he played a superb instrument in his childhood, but could not pursue it for education. He still thinks he could have become famous, if only he had concentrated his efforts on his art along with his education.

How many of us get glorious chances of fulfilling our wishes but are afraid to do so. My friend is good writer & wanted to start a blog, but she was afraid that no one would read her blog. So she made every effort to get her blog known, she spent all her time in link exchange & SEO, forgetting all about joys of writing from heart. She eventually stopped writing as visitors criticized her poor quality writing.

Life may go on, but it is never going to come back, so while I am still young, I am going to make every effort to fulfill my desires, atleast some of them if not all. To really live a life….

We have been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures within and to find them automatically in the outer world of our environment.
-John McDonald

What we prefer is our choice:
CREATION OR DESTRUCTION

I am on a rather long Sabbatical,Thanks to my examinations.
Will be back in next week.

From childhood, I have been reading books, magazines, novels, etc. I was total bookworm & read every book I could lay my hands on. Seeing my reading habit, my parents were convinced that I was a child prodigy & would surely excel in education.

But their hopes of prodigy were dashed when I read all the books, but hardly took any interest in Study textbooks. My mother forced me to study, but I was more interested in worldly knowledge.

That was years ago. Now after years of experience of appearing in exams (reluctantly), I still get nervous as the exams looms closer. I prefer to study on the eve of the exams, as that is the only moment I concentrate, there is a desperate urge to pass.

“Why don’t you start studying earlier??” is one of the most common phrases I intend to hear. But coming from genre of “bindaas” types, I never take them quite seriously. Seriousness only gets me more nervous. So I just study the way I can.

Examinations are drawing closer & I am experiencing all kinds of emotions. Exams are not just a test of our syllabus, but test of our emotions & how we cope with it. For me, exams always bring fears. These are emotions; one goes through when undergoing exam process:

Happiness: when exams get over.

Sadness: when paper doesn’t go as you anticipated.

Pain: of not studying harder.

Jealousy: when a friend has completed all studies & revising, when you barely manage to complete.

Confused: When don’t know which question has which answer.

Hatred: When the paper is toooo tough.

Anger: When your friend does not help you in copying.

Embarrassment: When you are caught copying.

Empathy: When your friend fails.

Anxiety: Day before results.

Surprised: At good results.

Shocked: At bad results.

Satisfaction: When you grind through the whole process & emerge topper.

This is just a fragment of our feelings; the total emotional turmoil cannot be put on paper.

It is recent five years that have given shape to modern Nashik (Maybe the Kumbh Mela necessitated the changes).Malls like Big Bazaar & International chain outlets like McDonalds, Pepe, United colors of Benetton springing on college road(The hottest growing place in town).Three Multiplexes with international standards spell the modernization of the city. But sadly, many of Nashikites still retain their orthodox thinking. The city is changing but not the attitude of common man. Superstitions are still taken seriously. Although there are exceptional citizens who are changing this scenario, the process is working too gradually

Just had a short visit to Pune & I was surprised by intellectual thinking of the citizens, it is no wonder that the city is progressing so beautifully.

But on the other hand there are many advantages too:

1. Less congested roads,
2. Low Pollution.
3. Quick access to several facilities.

The process of evolution of Nashik is slow, but I am happy that it is taking place.