Wicked witch of Mecloud

A long long time ago, back in the times of golden chariots and kings and queens. When there were kingdoms not countries, lived a wicked witch. People lived in fear of this witch, no one knew where she lived. She would just appear in the town dressed as a fruit seller or what have you. Everyone had to be careful when outside of their homes, you never knew if the person you were talking to was basket case or the wicked witch. I remember hearing from jimmy me old pal down at the pub, that a man was fighting with his wife at the pub, he thought she was his wifey and was giving her a peace of his mind. Than suddenly there would be a puff of smoke and the man lost his deep thick voice. A voice every man dreams of having, helps with the ladies if you know what I mean. Instead the poor old sod has a thin squeaky voice, the high nasally one, if you know what I mean. Since then the people of mecloud had to be civil with anyone they talked to. Kind of a benefit if you ask me. But the town was fed up, if you know what I mean. You need to lose your steams once in awhile, imagine not been able to blow up your tailor for uneven pants! Gets my blood boiling if you know what I mean.

Then what happened uncle ?

Hold on to your pants, matty, the story is just beginning, where did I keep those blasted tea leaves. Oh there it is. Coming back then, the king finally decided to do something about it, not a day too soon if you ask me. He decided to call his council of sorcerers, a scary bunch known as the devils own, a nickname given by the towns people. But to the king's surprise, the devils own seem to have their knickers in a bunch. First they said it was inauspicious to launch an attack on any magical being during the month of the solar solstice. The king knew this was a bunch of hog wash.

From my garden

Light and shade

Light streaming through tangled palm leaves

No idea what flower this is

One in focus and one out of focus

This plant gives those beautiful white fragrant flowers that Indian women put in their hair (gajra)

This is a very photogenic plant in my opinion and for some reason reminds me of snow covered Russian forests. It called a silver something, I cant remember.

Conversations

Let me introduce you to my parents:

Conversation with my dad a day before I come home for one week:

Dad: "Where are you?"

Me: "Going to the mall to buy Pork sausages"

Dad: "I assume those are for me"   (doubtful but still hopeful low tone)

Me: "Yes they are"

Dad: "I bought chicken sausages for you" (high tone)

Conversation with my mother:

Ma: "You should prepare for GMAT, join an online course"

Ma: "You should do that six month copywriters course"

Ma: "You should learn to cook, that is how you will get married"

But I was happier when I was with them, much more happier than I am now.

Facebook

I temporarily deactivated my Facebook a couple of weeks back. This is not the first time, this is the third time I have deactivated it. But this is the first time I am free from the need to check Facebook, Check who is doing what, who is saying what, who is looking beautiful, who is looking worse. End of all the nonsense. In the olden days, if I wanted to gossip, I would seek that information, for which I needed to talk to another human being. But now all I need to do is checkout someones page where they put up pictures of what they did, where they went, with who. Personal moments became public moments, validated by 100s of likes. You don't even need to talk to another person. Every time I checked my mail, Facebook said I missed some happening story, every time I logged in, it asked me what's on my mind. The funniest part is every time you deactivate your account, Facebook asks you why and suggests a website that will help you. A website to help you deal with your problem of spending too much time on Facebook. It tells you five randomly chosen people who will miss you. Sometimes it will choose someone I liked in the past and I use to wonder, does Facebook know. Sometimes I didn't really care for those five people who will miss me. I now have the phone numbers of the people I want to keep in touch with and who will hopefully miss me when I am really gone. Today, at this very moment I felt less cluttered, more in control of the information I was getting about someone, more in control of the information I was letting out about me. My mind is at ease, I don't know what is happening in other peoples lives, I don't want to know. My own life is hard enough. I do agree it is a great site to keep in touch and reconnect with people in your past, but I don't really think we where were meant to know so much more about that person's life. Everyone's life, doesn't matter how boring, is a personal journey, what is happening in someone's else's journey really shouldn't be a part of our own. Its like driving on the road, you were not meant to keep an eye on what is happening on a parallel road, you will crash otherwise.

I forgot

I made this sometime back, I completely forgot about it. So much so I couldn't recognize the painting when I saw it!

Giving in

Last week another one of my friends left mumbai, I am kind of getting use to this isolation. It has been a recurring theme for the last four odd years! I wonder why, but even after four years of wondering, I am no closer to an answer. But this time I have decided not to reach out of my shell, I will stay firmly with in it. Take all my introvertedness and wrap it around me. No more making new friends, Just trying to keep in touch with the old ones. Keep to myself, putting less effort to make people like me. Doing the opposite of what is advised and what I generally do.

This time I will stick to people who get me and let the people who don't, let them be. I try to stay positive and keep asking my team for more work and keep myself busy. Somehow I feel good when I have a lot of work, I feel useless when I have none. Maybe that makes me a workaholic but I feel more balanced when I have something to do, to take up the time that I seem to have. People say life is short, But for me I feel the gift of time is going wasted. I waste my days like a rich spoiled kid wastes his dad's money. Let see if this works. I have also come up with new philosophy if I foresee an uncomfortable situation, I will save myself the misery, I will make my life easier and avoid it. I was the kind that took the uncomfortable situation head on, but no more, I embrace the shell philosophy, at least for now. Give myself a break. I am also going to go a little easy on the self criticism, as I noticed that other people see it as a permission to criticize me.

There are situations while you are in it you know its not a big deal, you know you will look back at it with a light heart. But while you are in it you cant help yourself, you cant help but take it seriously. It is like when you trying something for the first time, you are fully focused on it but then after a point of time it becomes a habit. Right now my full focus is on it and I know I will laugh after a few years (let up hope it is just a few), but right now I will let myself focus on the  situation fully and do everything in my control to make it easy for me. No more grin and bear it, no more pretend happy, no more. From now on I run, run from the situation. When I feel up to it, I will grin and bear it, but for now I leave the grinning to other people.

Beautiful song by outlandish - walou            (the word apparently mean nothing)