We have this little Rastafarian doll at home that I really like. He’s a constant companion sitting on a ladder near my table. We’ve had him for a while now but I’ve never given thought to rastafarianism, comfortable in the cocoon of ignorance. So, today’s the day! 🙂

The first thought that comes to my mind when I think Rastafarian is Bob Marley, Jamaica, dreadlocks, dope, music and hippy. Which is a pretty narrow way of looking at it, isn’t it; so next step – some reading.

I was right when I said pretty narrow, coz there is so much to Rastafarianism. Starting with rastafarianism is a term considered derogatory and offensive by most Rastafari. The wikipedia page was loong… Here’s are a few things I gleaned.

The Rastafari movement is an African-based spiritual ideology that arose in the 1930s in Jamaica. It is sometimes described as a religion but is considered by many to be a “Way of Life”.

The name Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafari, the title (Ras) and first name of Haile Selassie I (Tafari) before his coronation.

The Rastafari Movement was founded by Leonard Percival “Gong” Howell in 1932. Leonard P. Howell was a Mystic Jamaican born in the hills of Clarendon, Jamaica in 1898. Rastafari developed among poor and oppressed Jamaicans of African descent who experienced a society which was largely contrary and apathetic to their problems.

Haile Selassie I in the 1930s

Rastafari worship Haile Selassie I (1892–1975), who was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. They believe he will lead the righteous into creating a perfect world called Zion – the ultimate paradise for Rastafari. They say his coming was prophesied in the Bible in Genesis. Haile Selassie I is also refered by Rastas as “His Imperial Majesty” (or the acronym HIM) and “Jah Rastafari.”

Jah is a Biblical name of God, and most Rastafari see Haile Selassie I as Jah or Jah Rastafari, an incarnation of God. Rastas tend to be firm adherents to the proposition that in the eyes of Jah, all men and women deserve equal and just rights, treatment and respect. Rastas say that Jah in the form of the Holy Spirit (incarnate) lives within the human. For this reason, they often refer to themselves as “I and I”. “I and I” is used instead of “We” to emphasize the equality between all people.

For Rastas, smoking cannabis, commonly referred to as herb, weed, kaya, sinsemilla (Spanish for ‘without seeds’), or ganja (from the Sanskrit word ganjika, used in ancient Nepal and India), is a spiritual act (often accompanied by Bible study); they consider it a sacrament that cleans the body and mind, heals the soul, exalts the consciousness, facilitates peacefulness, brings pleasure, and brings them closer to Jah. They often burn the herb when in need of insight from Jah.

According to many Rastas, the illegality of cannabis in many nations is evidence that persecution of Rastafari is a reality. They are not surprised that it is illegal, seeing it as a powerful substance that opens people’s minds to the truth — something the Babylon system, they reason, clearly does not want. They contrast it to alcohol and other drugs, which they feel destroy the mind.

Some Rastas claim that cannabis was the first plant to grow on King Solomon’s grave.

The wearing of dreadlocks is very closely associated with the movement, though not compulsary. The length of a Rasta’s locks is a measure of wisdom, maturity, and knowledge in that it can indicate not only the Rasta’s age, but also his/her time as a Rasta. Rastafari associate dreadlocks with a spiritual journey that one takes in the process of locking their hair (growing hairlocks). It is taught that patience is the key to growing locks, a journey of the mind, soul and spirituality.

Rastaman in Barbados, wearing the Rastafarian colors of green, gold, red and black.

The Rastafarian colors of green, gold and red are said to signify – red the blood of martyrs, green the vegetation and beauty of Ethiopia, and gold the wealth of Africa.

Music has long played an integral role in Rastafari history and Reggae is one of the forms associated with it. Reggae was born amidst poor blacks in Trenchtown, the main ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica.

That was a lot of reading and noting down. And this is maybe one-tenth of what was there. Read the whole article about Rastafari movement on Wikipedia.

Did you know that Rastafari had so much more to it that Bob Marley and dreadlocks? What do you think of the Rasta way of life?

Photo and Text Credit: Wikipedia and Chenthil

Photo Credit: Chenthil

I consider myself a quirky person, someone who is strange/not normal but cool or strikingly unconventional or as Google describes it ‘having or characterized by peculiar or unexpected traits or aspects’.

But this post isn’t about my quirkiness, it’s about my quirks. As I was tossing words around for ‘Q’, I selected quirky and quiet but I didn’t know what to write about each. Quirky seemed easier but then after some thought it started to sound like I was just so full of myself. So, I landed up thinking about my quirks. And I have so many of them, that even I don’t know them all. Should ask Che sometime, he’ll know all and more. 😛

Without further a-do, here’s a list of a few of my quirks –

• I always squeeze the toothpaste from the back.

• Then there’s the seat, I always put it up after use. Oh, and wipe it down if it’s wet.

• I will go back to double-check after a bath if I switched the lever back to tap or not. (that applies for the geyser switch too!)

• I will give the soap a bath if I find even a grain of sand on it.

• I wash my bathroom after a bath coz I can’t stand finding stray hair.

• I am crazy particular about everything kept in it’s place, even if the place is a right mess.

• I have to pee just before I get into bed at night, else I can’t sleep.

• I love the combination of cheese and mango pickle in a sandwich. Ever tried it?

• I’ll never go anywhere without a book.

• I pee just before I go out anywhere (drives Che crazy!).

• My handbag is almost a survival kit!

• I fiddle with my toe nails when I’m thinking.

I’m doing that right now as I racking my brains for more quirks… Our quirks make us who we are don’t they, each person unique in their combination of quirks. Some quirks seem cute, some not so much, sometimes the same quirk that’s cute in one person is down right irritating when another does it. Quirks make me smile though when I think of how stuck up I am sometimes, well mine made me laugh as I thought of them. Some of mine are just so silly.

What are your quirks? Do you share any of my quirks? Which is your most irritating quirk of all time?

P.S. – Che’s doing a Project 365 with his new camera and the your’s truly one up there was shot by him. You can see other photos from his project on his Tumblr page. 🙂

Years ago (feels like it) when I was a kid in the 90’s, way before brands, the big store in Bangalore was Kidskemp. Wearing a Kidskemp dress to school on your birthday was the in thing. I have a lot of memories of that place, we didn’t shop much but we did a lot of window shopping. They used to have these special days with a fair atmosphere; there would be a lot games and activities that we enjoyed as kids, from caricature to mehendi, there was so much to do that we’d have fun filled evenings.

My Bro and Me way back at Kidskemp

Here’s a video from the movie Vishnu Vijaya (Kananda) / Ashaant (Hindi) which has a dance sequence at Kidskemp. FYI: Made in two languages it had Dr.Vishnuvardhan and Akshay Kumar in lead roles. Vishnu Vijaya was a hit and Ashaant was a flop.
All the characters in the song were in the store, how could kids not want to go to Kidskemp.

Back then in Bangalore there weren’t all that many cars either. The IT boom was yet to happen and cars were still a family vehicle and a luxury. It was easier to remember cars you’d seen before. I remember seeing PMA written on a few cars that I came across often. The letters intrigued me, even more when I found out that those cars belong to the Kidskemp family.

One day I finally came across one car that helped but writing below in small print – Positive Mental Attitude. Reading that set off a strings of thoughts in my head, and I wondered of that was their secret to success, was it an organisation, a club? I tried to ask around but those were the days when we didn’t have internet, so after a while the question got shelved as unanswered.

I’d forgotten all about it until I got thinking this morning about the word positive and what I would write about it, when I remembered the letters PMA and it all came flooding back. I couldn’t find out then but now I have the ‘internet’ so here what I found out.

PMA isn’t an organisation or club but rather PMA is recommended as an Attitude by RVM. Yeah, some more abbreviations. Some more digging and I figured out RVM stands for Ravi V Melwani, the man who owned the stores – Kids Kemp, Big Kids Kemp and Kemp Fort.

Over the years the Kidskemp and Kempfort craze dwindled (even the shops look sad today), it is now all about the big brands and so I thought the brands killed it but seems they weren’t the only ones. RVM decided to move away from his retail business at the peak of his career. He switched tracks and moved to doing meaningful spiritual and humanitarian work.

Currently RVM is dedicating his life to spreading the RVM philosophy – Rejoice, Value life, Make a difference. RVM is many things but he is also a philosopher, poet, singer, speaker, motivator, author and philanthropist.

RVM seems to be doing a good job at what he’s doing. He has a blog and a website and seems to be doing a lot of stuff, making a lot of money. His bio says he had a change of heart et all but it seems to me that RVM is smart, he got out of the retail business right on time and got into the next money spinner. Nothing wrong with a smart businessman and if PMA has worked for him all these years, I’d sure give it a try.

So the crux of the whole story – ‘Positive’ is my ‘P’ word of the year. 😛

Photo Credits: geralt on Pixabay and my Papaji. 😀

Ushoo… I said the taboo word… 😛 Agreed orgasmic means ‘able to achieve orgasm’ but informally it also means ‘very enjoyable’. As in an orgasmic new drink or orgasmic fresh strawberries. And I really would like this year to be orgasmic, not the the standard kind of way but the cool or different kind of way.

Let me explain… and what better example than condom companies? 😛 (one more ushoo…)

Almost all condom companies in India have similar advertisement; they all go for the ‘condoms are seductive’ approach where there there will be a man and a woman engaged in some form of foreplay (that just doesn’t happen in real life, at least not all the time). There will be suggestive music and a complete theme of seduction. Considering it’s India we’re talking about, nothing much is shown, it’s all just suggested. (I guess we should be thankful that we’ve moved on from the roses bumping into each other era.) 😀

However one company does things differently. The first time I ever noticed a Durex ad was about 10 years ago when I came across this.

Oh man, I laughed my guts out.

Then a week back, Che showed me this.

It’s pretty cool isn’t it! Now I have Do-The-Rex on constant rerun in my head, and since it’s Ranveer Singh, it’s got visuals too. 😀

BTW this ad led to Rituparna Chatterjee asking the question “Where’s the condom ad for normal, bloated, bored women with no nights out, kids and very little time and energy to ‘Do The Rex’?“.  Someday I would like to see a condom ad with a woman in the central role, and Durex being Durex, just might pull it off!

Durex does things differently; even in their advertisement. Where other companies are striving to make condoms sexy, Durex makes condoms cool and smart. Here’s some more Durex ads to make you smile. 🙂

I really like the baby-seat and football team ads, which ones did you like?

I’ve always wanted to have a garden, not the pretty kind but the edible kind. 🙂 Growing up we had a garden for a few years but those were my college years, who wanted to garden then. Later over the years I never had garden space, until now. Our new house has a little garden along one side of the house and I’ve enjoyed watering, working and watching it the last few months.

I’ve already had so many cool things happen because of the garden, that I figured I’d make a list of until now along with my wish list of stuff to do. Ok, lets get the want to do over with, coz that’s simple – This year I want to learn more about gardening, plants, and the birds and animals I see around here. And some of this I have plans for, for the rest there is YouTube so it’s all under-control. 😀

Now on to the highlights of the last four months, I figured photos would work well here. Hope you enjoy it. 🙂

The garden in full spring bloom…

There were so many flowers I didn’t take photos of, why, [hitting my head] I have no idea; but here are some that I did get –

And I’ve seen fruits galore too, I forgot to click the drumsticks and you saw the Singapore Cherries yesterday. Here are the others until now –

The garden’s brought in creatures galore too. From rats to bats and a large variety of lizards –

Not to forget the Spectacled Cobra we caught the other day 😀

The latest news is we’ve got a nest now. I saw it first on Monday and today I found a egg. 🙂 Seems to belong to either robins or bulbuls, need to watch out for the birds.

After the snake incident I’ve taken to having the dogs around when I’m watering the garden, but here’s what happens on some days while there are still muddy puddles… 😛 (Thankfully Max loves being hosed down)

I’ve been enjoying the garden, it’s a bit of work watering it everyday but it has something new for me to see every day. Can’t wait to get my hands dirty in there over the next few months.

Do you have a garden? Love gardening? Which is your go to place for gardening advise?

I’ve been thinking of a word with ‘M’ since last night and have been putting of writing all day. Choosing a word with M just seems so difficult.

This morning I gave up racking my brains and even searched Google for words. I found a few that sounded good – Meaning, Motivation, Miracle, Magic, Making a difference, Mastery, Meditation, Mojo and Maza. But none of them rang that bell. And so I put of writing all day as I juggled words.

Meaning – Sure, my life sure needs meaning right now. I don’t need 15 year plans but I’d really like to figure out the meaning of life in washing vessels.

Motivation – Oh this one I need by the bucket loads. Just being regular with my A to Z Challenge is a challenge. I’m proud of getting to the 13th letter and post with this one but I need to push in other areas now too.

Miracle – It’s all about the miracle of life and everything around us. You know that spiel…

Magic – Now this one was a topper on my list. The life I lead is like magic, even though most times I don’t see the pixie dust.

Making a Difference – I ain’t all that hung up about changing the world and all. I try to make a difference around me (which also blows up a lot in my face) or atleast I try too. But the work that got me here was Make.

Make – This I want to do a lot of. I want to make more time for myself to make a lot of things. This one I really want to do this year. I miss my craft and I keep planing to do some everyday but it just gets put off for something or the other. I need to make up my mind and make time for this ASAP. 😛

Mastery – I’m a jack and I like it. It means I have a varied amount of knowledge even if I don’t know everything about one thing. But I’m wondering if mastery is a good thing for some skills…

Meditation – I need to get back to regular meditation and mudras. I’ll tell you another time about my time at Vipassana and how it impacted my life.

Mojo – I mean, come on, do I even have to explain . 😀

Maza – This hindi word is something I want this year to be packed with in loadfuls. Maza encompasses very form of fun you can thing of, from the small tips to the fair to Disney Land, it’s all maza, and I want more.

Hmmm.. so that’s the list and I still can’t find a word that sticks out for me. Guess I’m going to settle for a tie between More and Maza. I do really want to make time to make more stuff this year whether it’s backing, cooking, gardening or craft, and doing all that will be, what maza I say. 🙂

But I also want to take time to do the little things that I suddenly feel like doing. Like today morning on my way back from the store with breakfast supplies as saw lots of red in the tree. I love Singapore Cherries but until today the caving hadn’t hit. This morning I stood outside the gate jumping about quite a bit eating berries. And it was yum and fun, with a little exercise. 😛 I need to do the small things that make me smile more often!

What word would you have chosen for me with ‘M’? For yourself?

Some days feel that loaded!

A lot of the work related to the dogs and house is labourious, some fun labour and some not so much, but either ways the labour has to be done.

Some days are just labourious days, on these days just the to-do list of the day makes me want to hide under the covers and not wake up. It’s not about the length of the to-do list, it’s about what’s on it. Meat sorting day, mopping day, changing sheets day are just some of the day’s when I hide under the covers wishing that the day would just miraculously happen without me.

Yeah right! Like that’s going to happen, how I wish the floor would get mopped, the meat bought, sorted and boxed and the sheets changed, washed and dried without my intervention. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon, so rather than push the chore to another day, I push myself out of bed to confront the day.

It takes a while for the grumbling in my head to fade away before sanity kicks in and I realise that times a-ticking. And I get to it. Some days I manage to get it all done without realising how much got done; some days just drag on and on, like they will never end.

Today was the former of days, I got a lot done and didn’t feel like it was a lot. Some thing I’ve been trying lately is to not think to much about the job and instead just plunge into it. Thinking about it too much just makes it all look bigger and more than it is, it also brings in negative thoughts about the job and people around.

So I make a clear to-do list with a route map for all jobs in my head and just go at it. Breaks between jobs are monitored closely, so I don’t slacken and kinda slip into lazy or too tired mode. I just keep attacking the list; along the list the route map gets realigned off and on but I work at it like it is a mission.

This seems to work coz before I’ve thought too much about it, the jobs are all done. And I have so much of the day for myself left. I even managed to have a leisurely bath after all that sweat and toil. And I feel great about getting all that done.

This method seems to be working for me, (thanks Vidya for the tip-off on long lists) and I’m going to keep trying to practice it. What do you do to help you on days when you have chores that are just physically draining? What do you use to get you though the day?

Che and I had some work in town yesterday morning that took too long and caused me to call off an afternoon call. With no reason now to rush home we decided to have a nice lunch before turning homeward.

After some hunting on Zomato we came across The Rogue Elephant. We have been wanting to go to this one for ages, the last time we tried, we went to the one in Ulsoor, over a year ago. We reached to find it closed and people around said it had moved, we returned disappointed.

So yesterday when we came across it again and the address said Jayanagar, we were excited. The Rogue Elephant is easy to find if you are using Google maps.

On reaching there I was pleasantly surprised to find a quaint garden café, I was expecting a fancy structure with expensive decor, etc. But the Rogue Elephant is a simple old feel garden cafe. As you walk in there are antiques and sculpture lying around. I later found a little store inside too with some great antiques and organic stuff on sale.

A couple of tables are strewn on the lawn but most of them are tucked in under shelter on one side of the garden. After choosing a table and grabbing some menu cards we sat down to absorb the ambiance and select our dishes.

The menu has a variety of choices from Mediterranean to Indian. We started by tossing up between a salad and a soup. The salads listed sounded exotic and yum while the mystery of the soup of the day was enticing.

After consultation with Raju our host, we finalised on a Melon & Avocado Salad with Chicken along with Mango Smoothies as the first part of our meal. The word smoothie did more magic in the heat that the word soup. 🙂

The smoothies came quickly, followed by the salad a little later. After all the running about in the sun we had done, the smoothie and salad was the perfect cool down we needed. The smoothie was just right, not too sweet, not too mango-y, not too cold. As for the salad, I’ve never before tried the combination of melon, avocado, lettuce and chicken but now I’m a fan. The salad tossed in a yummy dressing had us contemplate licking the plate clean.

We were quite full already so again we turned to Raju for help. He suggested a dish of pan fried fish with lemon butter. I’m am fussy about fish, but these fillets were done just right. Not fishy yet tasty, with a buttery sauce that was so yum, I soaked my fish in it. There was also mashed potatoes and stir fried veggies, but I couldn’t take my tongue of the sauce.

Over all it was a lovely meal and I look forward to eating at the Rogue Elephant again. Great ambience, smiling service, yummy food and not hefty bill. It hits the spot on all parameters.

My only grouse was the four girls sitting at the table next to us. Rich teenagers, they were noisy but it was fun to eavesdrop through the meal and get an insight into their rich fancy lives. One thing I noticed: they didn’t talk boys much. 😛

I consider myself a rather modern minded, scientific girl but I do like believing in superstitions when they work in my favour and destiny. I believe everyone has a kismet (even the word sounds wonderful), a destiny that is worked out for them. I also believe each one’s kismet is in their own hands. The larger plan of our lives is already planned to fit the grand pattern/web of all things but we have control over the small things.

The destination and big stopovers are already chalked out, but we get to choose the route we take to get there.

And that’s where the Rogue Elephant fits in. It’s the small joys and things we do that make our kismet a happy one. A quite lunch together makes being together so much more joyful.

I need to remind myself to do more of these small things this year.

As sit at the Koyambed bus stand waiting for my bus, to start my journey home, I’m thinking of today’s post. But with that thought also come thoughts of my day today which isn’t yet over.

I had a fun day in Chennai meeting and catching up with friends I hadn’t seen in a while. But let me start at the beginning of the day.

Reaching here early morning I took a long bus ride across town to Tirvanmayur where Dosai lives. And there I got to meet Sam for the first time, and she is a doll. Like all babies I love, she doesn’t cry when I take her in my arms and so we chat a bit before it’s feeding time. Then she hogs while her parents and I chat.nbsp; Yeah yeah, it was a chatty morning. 😀

After a long overdue session of catching up over a couple of coffees, we get ready and head to Church. After all it’s why am here, today is the big day, Sam’s to be baptised.

St. Teresa’s is a fairly large church with a large congregation too it seems, as they were packed with back to back services. Sam’s baptism service was in Tamil so I didn’t understand much. But that said, a couple of things stood out for me in the service. The choir sang in English (except 1 Tamil song) and they sang well. I found myself looking forward to every musical break in the program.

The other was the professionalism with which it was all done. The service had a presentation that ran along side it so at all times even though I didn’t understand what was being said, I knew which part of the service we were in. And in all of this professionalism they got personal too, the priests called up two boys to the pulpit and the entire congregation sang happy birthday for them. 🙂

Then like all good things, even this one got better. We trouped out and into the hall for some good Biryani. And with lunch came more friends and more fun.

Now that my purpose of coming to Chennai was achieved, I started to think of making my way to Koyambed. The bus stop seemed off the route for everyone but Dosai didn’t blink when he said he’d take the detour to drop me. However he had a sleeping baby and a tired wife to take home so I didn’t feel like imposing and said so. ‘But’ , he said, you took a larger detour to come to Chennai.’ I just nodded and said ok as I felt tears well up.

After a two hour wait my bus has finally started the journey homeward with the Kannada movie ‘Lucky’ playing. Time for me to get back to the point.

‘Josh’ is a Hindi word that when translated into English loses some of it’s meaning. In Hindi it means infused, enthusiasm, energy, spirit, and passion. The word Josh has a lot of strength, and means more than any of these words mean singly.

Josh is what I felt today as I travelled to Chennai and back within 24 hours. Josh is what I felt as I caught up with friends and did all I did. Josh is what I feel as I type this post on my phone in a moving bus.

Josh is what I want this year ahead of mine to be filled with…

PS – Not home but we’re half way there 😀
PPS – ‘Lucky’ is a bad movie, not worth the time. But the songs might be topping charts, coz the guy next to me was singing along, loudly!