What’s the longest stretch you’ve ever pulled off of posting daily to your blog? What did you learn about blogging through that achievement, and what made you break the streak?
I have been posting almost daily for more than 2 months now, but it was the NaBloPoMo that has made me post regularly to my blog for the past 30 days at a stretch.
In reality, I have not been able to understand the importance of the daily blogging habit. Well I enjoy writing and so I do not mind doing it but why should it be a must ? I have taken the #100happydays challenge as well and that has made it easy to post everyday too. When I have something to say or share, I enjoy doing that. The Daily Post has given me adequate inspiration or I have interpreted the prompts in my own way.
You were caught in an avalanche. To be rescued, you need to make it through the night. What thought(s) would give you the strength to go through such a scary, dangerous situation?
This is an interesting prompt because I do like cooking and it is part of my day and life in many many ways.
My affair with cooking started after marriage. As I was just out of Medical College , I had no clue about cooking and had apprised my fiance about this fact. He and I had a pact that we would learn cooking together. It goes without saying that this momentous decision was never translated into reality. But I realized that he loved food and home-cooked food at that. To give him his due, he was extremely of my initial “disastrous” attempts.
There was no Uncle Google then and my first culinary teachers were the various cook books that came with my first pressure cooker, food processor etc. The results were sometimes pathetic and would have been funny if they had not brought tears to my eyes. I did not have even a gas stove and toiled over a Kerosene wick stove and a pump stove for my first productions in the kitchen.
It was under these trying circumstances that one fine day, I was told of an impending “party” at home for “just 10 -12 ” people. I was aghast but my husband was confident that I would do just fine. I did not share his enthusiasm or his confidence and had huge butterflies in my stomach. The big day dawned. I started at around 9 in the morning and worked till 5pm when I realized that I was far behind my schedule. The kitchen looked like a hurricane had visited it, my table was not laid and the house was in a mess. Hubby dear was busy in office and when the bell rang at around 6 pm, I opened it and promptly burst into tears. He was stunned. Anyways I controlled my tears and made the house and kitchen and myself look as presentable as I could.
The guests arrived. They were all bachelor officers with healthy appetites. Now, one of the dishes on the menu was “Dosa “. When it was time for dinner , I was told by my enthusiastic guests that all of them wanted only dosas!! The end result was that I made Dosas continuously for over 2 hours. By the time it was my turn, the batter was finished!! But I had some very happy guests and a very proud and happy husband as well.
So I would rate that as my best attempt at a meal, given my inexperience at both cooking and hosting guests.
Have you ever faced a difficult situation when you had to choose between sorting it out yourself, or asking someone else for an easy fix? What did you choose — and would you make the same choice today?
Yes I have turned to “Uncle Bob” and “Aunty Jane” off and on. I guess it would apply both on my professional as well as personal fronts.
I have always believed that two heads are definitely better than one and if faced with a situation wherein I need help or even just a fresh perspective , I never hesitate to ask. In my profession a small mistake or inability to rise to the occasion in whatever manner can affect and even cost lives. So if I feel the patient would benefit from better expertise either in my own field or in a related one, I never fail to ask help. I have been a teacher and member of the faculty in a Medical College – even so, I am not averse to learning the ropes from others. With the medical field evolving as it does at breakneck speed, I strive not to be caught napping and for that I need help. Its not about an “easy fix” – I am acutely aware that I deal with lives and at any time if I feel that the patient’s interests are best served by another opinion or another pair of hands I would never let over confidence or ego come in the way.
Went out to a friend’s place to celebrate their anniversary …. came back and spent a few precious minutes in my daughter’s room – the backdrop is a huge poster her friends made for her on her 16th birthday !
Incidentally this is my 100th post on WordPress. Am happy today.
I decided to celebrate it by mentioning a few of the recognitions I have not yet acknowledged by my fellow bloggers.
A few words about my journey so far. I used to love words from childhood – an avid reader, I did not write more than the occasional contribution to the school magazine or a poem about my friends or people I liked or loved on their special days. I did win a poetry competition held in my Medical college hostel day Celebrations. Other than these elementary steps, I did not “write”. But I loved putting my thoughts to paper, be they in the form of letters to my family and friends or diaries that all young girls love to maintain.
This blog was born out of a desire to focus on something to keep my thoughts and mind under control and maybe allow expression – an outlet for the hundreds of thoughts that find their way into my mind. As I took those tentative steps, I found it brought me joy and a balance in my life. As I read and understood others thoughts, I understood myself even more.Continue reading →
What’s your idea of a perfect day off: one during which you can quietly relax, doing nothing, or one with one fun activity lined up after the other? Tell us how you’d spend your time.
Why oh why do I have to choose?
Can’t I just let my mind run loose?
Sometimes let it sparkle , sometimes still
Sometimes exotic, sometimes run of mill.
My idea of a perfect day, if I can have my way
From madding crowds , is to be far far away
On a rainy mushy day, give me a cozy corner
Some munchies, lotsa books and a crooner.
I am quite happy on my ownsome
Even if it may make me lonesome.
Quiet companions – my phone and laptop
All this and I’ll be happy even on a rooftop.
But there are days when I want friends and fun
Where my voice can drown even that of a gun.
So my moody mind does the final choosing
Of Sparkling days or still waters- what’s amusing.
Cousin It : We all have that one eccentric relative who always says and does the strangest things. In your family, who’s that person, and what is it that earned him/her that reputation?
As I sat before my laptop several visuals from the past flashed before my mind’s eye as I harked back to my college days …these, then are a few of my favorite “salad days”….which I revisited…
The day I started Medical school, stars in my eyes, looking forward to living a seemingly unattainable dream…
All of us – small stars or even suns in our own small worlds – were now forming a constellation. A constellation that would last a lifetime, though we were unaware of that , then.
The struggle on the first day with wearing sarees (an Indian attire which was a dress code on the campus) with most of us wearing it for the first time… tentative looks into the mirror and towards each other for assurance…looks repeated in classrooms and labs, as we battled the new words and meanings.
The clinics and the classes… as we saw each new symptom and sign we learnt, they found an echo in us and ours, as cadavers gave way to patients, teaching us the secrets of illnesses and cures.
The hallways of the college, the wards and the classrooms, the scarred desks, the proxy attendances, the back benchers and the front benchers, the heavy books, the tests and exams and vivas and results.
The first brush with failures, something that most of us in our young lives, till then had never encountered, making us realise that success should never be taken for granted.
Friends, ever ready for innocent fun, be it shopping, movies, seeing off someone or a treat for scoring a distinction – any reason was good enough for a trip to ” town”, mostly in creaky crowded buses, which none of us seemed to even notice.
The evening trips to the local College Canteen, Indian Coffee House…. dressed in starched n freshly ironed sarees… ending in an unacknowledged but unmistakable race to catch a seat facing the door- my best friend was the best at this.
The heartbreaks and heartaches… sometimes lending a shoulder… sometimes looking for one…
Taking to the streets to make our voices heard…leaving our fears and apprehensions behind.
The slogans we shouted, the placards we held, the police we braved – all with a passion that only youth can bring.
All for justice for a grievously wronged student, ready to face the wrath of the powers that be.
The undulating campus dotted with spots and names that make sense only to the CMCites ..The Horizon, The Fisheries, The Coffee house, The Golden Dragon, The Clock tower, The Library…the list goes on and on.
The trips back home made in the earliest train out of town in happy little groups .. none of us had ever heard of reservations or even sleeper coaches .. as the wooden slats of the unreserved coach served as the most comfortable seats to chat the night away … as minds met and forged friendships that remain with me to this day… as animated discussions on any topic under the sun let the night run away – we even wished on some occasions that the train get late.. but it never did!!
The late night life-changing discussions … the sharing of thoughts words and views shared seamlessly as we connected and reconnected over cups of stale tea and coffee…
Friends… some “just friends” .. some “good friends”….. some “best friends”…
The college Youth Festivals.. the Inter Medicos… the plays and dances …the Sports days and friendly Cricket matches.. the film Festivals .. the new age “high thinkers” on the campus…
Friendships that lasted sometimes for a season …sometimes for a lifetime… but always for a reason they touched our souls.. and we were never the same again ….somewhere in each of us they live on.. as we do in them….
The smiles and tears, the stolen glances and shy smiles…the hookups and the break ups.
Memories….. words tumbling out……but let me stop… they are but memories …from another time… another day…..Our Salad Days……
Most of the wonderful bunch of starry eyed kids from the Silver Jubilee batch are now celebrating Golden jubilees of their own existence.
So it is that we look forward to reunions
Look forward to revisiting these Salad Days
Salads that look so appetizing… so wholesome…. so nutritious…
Nov 2014
Ripples N Reflections 