Some Sizzling Scintillating Speculations

What do you think some pigeons love to eat out here? Grains? Rice? Murmura(puffed rice)? Ah well, you're sooo wrong. They love to eat gaathiya.  Now, for those not 'in the know' about Gujarati snakes(read'snacks'), gaathiyas are lil long yellow pieces of fried besan-based snacks, forming a staple food(If you can call anything fried by that name) for many in my favourite Baroda and other places. See how to make them, right at this place , which,obviously, I googled for. Alongwith jalebi,phaphda,gota,bhajiya,etc...haha!But,that's a post for another day.So, let's go to the pigeons. I observed this on a number of weekends(Fri-Sat) during my walk- outside this Gujju restaurant, there are two square zones where tree saplings are supposed to be planted. But, as of now, one of them has grains scattered on it, of course, for the pigeons. The other has gaathiyas, at the bright and early hour of 730 AM or so. The first time, hardly 2-3 pigeons were busy nibbling at th...

Thought for the day:  A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. --  William James Have you come across people who like to mark everything? Or, are you one of those? If so, I’d like to know what makes you tick, punitively speaking. I saw one of these ‘marker’s during my walk yesterday. This guy was standing at a bus time table signboard( Here, these signboards are about five feet high ,  in white acrylic and have the full day’s schedule for all buses) And, this funny guy was using a pen to mark his bus timing options on it. (Luckily, there were no cops around, or he’d have been jailed for defacing public property).  However, it reminded me of quite a few such people in the past, who’ve made me wonder why they do what they do and, of course, where they do it.  For example, at restaurants- now, if the menu is a throwaway kind, like the McDonald’s one which they use as a tray mat, it’s fine-you may mark on it, rub your nose with it, make...

Hello,Hello-I'm well and I hope you're all also in the well!! LOL - no reason to use that fractured English quote, except that I saw a new notice on the garbage room door today, which said' Please do not leave cartoons on the garbage room floor' and, I was grinning away imagining people leaving Tom, Jerry, Popeye, etc on the floor ...Strange, what funny ideas the mind gets at times. But then, that's me- when I'm in an off mood, it's difficult for me to make myself laugh...and,when I'm in a light mood, I can be hilarious..for myself as well as others round me. ---- On a slightly different note, the last two weeks have honestly not been the best, for some of my friends- bad news here, there, everywhere- and, that's why I was in no mood to write posts - but then, everyone's resilient-and, I'm sure everyone will come out of their difficult period sooner rather than later...here's saying a silent prayer for them! ---- I love reading newspaper...

Thought for the day: I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. Albert Einstein I haven’t done a movie review since quite some time. But then, maybe it’s because I haven’t had the patience to sit through any recent movies. Give me a movie like ‘Hungama’ or ‘ Bheja Fry’ or ‘ Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and I wouldn’t mind sitting through it all over again.Albeit, on video, not on TV where there umpteen ads to bear in between. I mean, how many snack breaks can you take when you’re trying to follow a strict diet regimen? LOL. But then, that’s a ‘post another day’ tale. On to the movie. ‘The Other End Of The Line’ is a collaboration between our own Adlabs and USA’s MGM, starring Jesse Metcalfe and Shriya Sharan. It is a nice movie, in the true sense of the word. A simple storyline, almost believable and a smooth flow of scenes from the first to the last. It’s all about this Indian girl Priya(Shriya Sharan), working at a call centre for an American Bank where they have to make clients believ...

They are back, they are back- those little lines I love so much. Those lines which I read, either when I begin my walk or when I'm ending it..you got it-I refer, of course, to the interesting ads people put up on every possible place- from the wooden board of a construction area to the lighting poles to the sides of cola dispensers...here are some of the good ones,nee,better ones. (Expert comments are welcome!) --------------------- - Wanted: Man/LAdy bedspace and couple also! --------------------- Bedspace available- AED 675- only bath attached and balcony --------------------- Room available for decent couple (My takes on this one- - Imagine some couple landing up at the advertiser's doorstep and saying' Hey,man!We're pretty indecent. We'll roam around in the room nude most of the time. But we're interested in taking this room... - Or,imagine someone saying' We're not really decent-we never maintain the place we stay in, and keep the rooms and the ki...

Thought for the day: What is to give light must endure burning…Viktor Frankl I am always fascinated by the questions people ask in the column ‘Open Space’ in the Sunday Times . Even I throw in my two bits now and then, and send in some answers as well, which get published occasionally. This has been going on for more than ten years now, and I still look forward to the column, every Sunday. It’s always a learning process, answering some of the questions. For example, do you know what a busman’s holiday is? Answer: It turns out that a busman’s holiday is a holiday when you do the same things on your holiday as you do at work. Amongst the origins of the phrase are two which caught my eye: It is said that the drivers of horse-drawn omnibuses in London in the 19th century were so solicitous of their horses' well-being that the drivers would often spend their days off surreptitiously riding as passengers on their own trolleys to make sure that the substitute driver was treating their hor...