Spin the Globe

I once dreamt of travelling the world,
See in real what the tabloid boasted off.
Big wide roads and cool shopping malls,
A life many dont get to see.

Out of the blue
My stars started to grace me.
I took up to the sky
Flying like a cuckoo.

From east to west,
I underwent a change I never imagined.
Tall towers and lovely beaches,
meeting people and funny creatures.

The introvert became a tourer
Learning more about different cultures
Then she met the man of her dreams
Now I call for bookings and say "for two" :)

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The Incomplete post #1

Here is a post I found in my drafts today: 

Since the time that G & I got to know that we are going to have a third member in the family, I have been meaning to write a post about our feelings and the amazing journey we'll be taking together - capture few emotions in words worth reading after years!

It was the first month of the new year, day 17, I can never take those 2 pink lines out of my head :) felt so surreal and G had tears in his eyes. It was every couples dream, every parents wish to hear that they are going to become grandparents - grand news indeed for all family n friends! We decided to keep the news amongst immediate family till the 1st trimester went smooth. Mugdha Parasnis - our OB advised us to go for the first sono after 2 weeks.

The first trimester was a mix of nausea, giddiness and frequent visit to the loo'se ;) but overall went faster than I daunted.

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My Inspiration

When I opened my blog site today (after what seems like a decade) to share it with a friend , I realised that the last post was written by me in Jan 2012 - that's exactly when I got to know I am pregnant :)

I thought it's time to get back to writing and what more do I need for inspiration than my beautiful angle Sasha! She turned one last September and the times been flying like a Boeing aircraft and I feel like a passenger in it without a seat belt.

It seems like just yesterday that she was born and today she is stacking dabbas in the kitchen and calling out my name like a cute little bunny. Seeing God's miracle everyday firsthand is what makes people have kids, I guess. Cause who would otherwise want to sign up for a year long sleepless night shift ;)

 

Right now I am juggling between office work, house keeping, photoshoots, editing work, album designing and the most important being a mother. All this is possible cause of my hubby Glenn, my spine and my to whom I everyday whine ;) I hope I continue to post my thoughts here from time to time so that years later when I sit and read these with my daughter, I can share a good laugh and a soulful tear with her. Thank you Almighty to have blessed me with such a beautiful life!

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Ten Things That We Will/Won’t Miss In 2012

Looking back, 2011 was surely a year full of wax and wane, creating history that will be studied by our future generation. As we come to an end to the first month of 2012, lets ponder over a few events and muse over personalities that/whom we will and will not be missing in this Year of the Dragon

           

 First let’s cover the events that left a deep impact on us and will always be remembered with a scar. 

People who we wish never reappear:

            

            Apart from Voldemort, we will certainly not be missing the departure of Col.Muammar Gaddafi and the terrorist that shook the US of A, Osama Bin Laden. 

History was made when protests led to the resignations of the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents, and when UN-sanctioned Nato air strikes helped Libyan rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal dictatorship. Gaddafi’s capture and death on Oct 20^th at his hometown Sirte, Libya, at the hands of the rebels closed a long and dark chapter in the country’s history.

Another black chapter came to an end in the early morning hours of May 2, 2011. A nearly decade-long search for the world's most wanted terrorist came to an end - Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed in a US operation in Pakistan in May in a mansion outside the capital of Islamabad. 

Events we wish never happened:

             

              2011 was also known as the year of disasters. With historic floods, droughts, and tornadoes, this year has broken the record for the number of billion-dollar calamities. 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011 triggering tsunami alert along Japan’s Pacific Coast and to at least 20 countries. This largest tsunami catastrophe was the worst history of earthquake in Japan but what’s creating more global concern is the possibility of the leaking radiation to the air following the explosion of two nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan. From January 1-31, earthquakes hit Argentina, Chile, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Tonga. By the following month that was from February 4-21, earthquakes struck Burma, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Sulawesi, Fiji and New Zealand.

 

            As if nature’s fury wasn’t enough to wound us all, Anders Behring Breivik, shot 69 people, in a summer camp in Oslo, Norway. He said his actions were ‘atrocious but necessary’. In Nov, the court-appointed experts ruled him criminally insane.

Now let’s talk about those events & people that we will be missing for years to come. 

People who we wish were immortal:

             

            As some say, 2011 was a year when music died. Shammi ji and Dev Anand were the charmers of 60’s and 70’s. Bollywood can boast of songs that were composed, sung and picturized on these two heroes even today. We also lost the Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh to the after-world. The singer struggled with a brain haemorrhage for 17 days before he breathed his last on October 10. He mesmerised music lovers for over four decades with his soul stirring numbers. 

The music world lost a few more of its gems with Amy Winehouse, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (one of the greatest legends of Indian classical music and the oldest living exponent of the Kirana Gharana), the soulful voice of Ustad Sultan Khan and the legendary singer-composer and the most iconic figures from Assam, Bhupen Hazarika.

On the other side of the world, millions mourned the death of Apple’s visionary Steve Jobs. One of the greatest CEOs of his generation, Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56. His death gave us a chance to reflect upon what a great corporate leader can do to the world of technology.

Events we wish could be frozen in time:

             

            Without doubt almost every Indian will never forget this year as Dhoni and his team bought back the World cup to India after 28 years. Co-hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the World Cup eclipsed every other event between the 19^th of February and the 2^nd of April this year. The fact that India won the Cup on home soil was the perfect icing on the cake. The whole nation was euphoric and Indians from all over the globe were on the streets celebrating joyously.

 

            One massive event happened on April 29^th - the British Royal Wedding between Prince William and Catherine Middleton. After months of top-secret planning, the invitations were mailed, the details finalized, and the big day arrived. For estimated 2.4 billion people watching the royal wedding, it was definitely the wedding of the year, probably even the decade! 

            Apart from these a few more events on a positive note include Anna Hazare’s rise to bring corruption to an end with his Lokpal campaign, F1 Indian Grand Prix Race coming to India, Sachin breaking another record to score 15000 runs in Test cricket, the world’s cheapest tablet PC Akash launched in India and a medical breakthrough with All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) creating a new drug called Naringin, for treating Alzheimer`s disease.

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Blind with eyes open

You tune out when they need you the most
Can't you see the fragile hands?
Can't you see the pain behind the frame?

Too busy to underpin, you let them take support of peglegs
Have you forgotten the time when he gushed you on your first step?
Have you forgotten the days when he was the gladdest dad watching you crawl and run?

Keeping them happy in a swish house full of likewise geezerhoods,
Is similar to providing freedom to a bird in cage.
All they ask for is some time worthwhile, not seeing you turn guile
So open those eyes, wake up and foster those dry leaves. 

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What's with the staring?

Have you ever tried to dress differently in a crowd? Be it going in shorts for a movie in chinchwad, wearing a singlet top at laxmi road or even a summer dress at MG road? I bet you'll get more stares than Rajni and Shahrukh together! Esp from the fairer sex. And I am not talking about revealing clothes or way out of the ordinary - just simple attires but a little non-desi. I sometimes avoid them but nowadays can't help but stare back at them and sometimes even ask "Is something wrong?"

It's one thing to check-out what's in and who's wearing what but these arn't those. These are more like "How can you wear this?" or "which country did you buy THAT from?" It really bugs me and I even tried to ask my friends if they get the same kinda gaze and yes, they do too! It's disappointing that this happens more often in India than any other country. Have we not heard the term 'Minding your business'?

So if any one of you fall under the lot of 'gazers' please enlighten me on why do you stare so much or you truly not aware that you are gapping at a girl awkwardly? Wonder what Lady Gaga thinks about this!

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Paranoid about Android?

We all keep hearing about Android and Android phones, but what exactly are they? Well, quite simply, Android is a mobile operating system, based on Linux kernel and developed by Android Inc., in 2005 that was purchased by Google. They all have a nice touch screen interface like the iPhone. But there are other features that distinguish it from the rest of the lot. One is that Google built Android as an open architecture – that means anybody can develop applications (“apps”) and enhancements for your phone – making it infinitely customizable. Other touch screen phones may allow you to add apps but might not give you the flexibility to change the core interface; don’t like the way your phone handles text messages? You can download a different text messaging application. While the most phones can only run one app at a time, the Android is a proper multi-tasking mobile OS that can run multiple apps like the Google Maps, media player and browser at the same time without any hiccups. Android Market is the online app store run by Google, though apps can also be downloaded from third-party sites. Developers write primarily in the Java language, controlling the device via Google-developed Java libraries. No wonder Android is world’s best-selling Smartphone platform. The operating system (OS) is also used on net books, tablets, Google TV, and other devices.
The release of version 1.0 was in September 2008 and there have been a number of updates since its original release. These updates to the base operating system typically fix bugs and add new features. Generally, each version is developed under a code name based on a dessert item. The code names are in alphabetical order (Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, and the future version, Ice Cream Sandwich).

Facts about Android:
1. Android was devised way back in 2003 by Andy Rubin and Rich Miner only to sell it to Google for $50 million. Google put the concept in cold storage until 2007 when it announced plans to launch the Android mobile platform. Today Rubin is the director of mobile platforms and Miner the group manager, both at Google.
2. The Android operating system consists of 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML, 2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75 million lines of C++!
3. The first publicly available application was the Snake game.
4. The first mobile phone to run on the Android operating system was the HTC Dream G1 released on 22 October 2008.
5. The first malware for the Android OS was the SMS-Trojan, which was called Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.apk that would run up your text messaging bill.
6. A recent survey revealed that the majority of Android users are men. Actually, the majority of all Smartphone users are men, but in the case of iPhone the difference is slight, 57% are men. With Android 73% are men. So now you know which one to gift to your spouse. ;)
7. An important point to note about Android is that concerning of music and video. It does not have the official media to desktop syncing client.

How to choose an Android Phone?

Some of the best selling Android phones in India per thinkdigit.com are Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Incredible S, Google Nexus S, LG Optimus 2x and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. As you might know it’s raining Android phones in the market. Moot on the following factors before you buy one:
a. Processor - Welcome to the 1GHz and dual core processor age, bringing lightning fast performance to many new Android Smartphones. Dual core Smartphones are increasing, but a lot of smartphone buyers may find adequate power by sticking with 1GHz.
b. Data Storage – Most can go up to 32GB of external memory with a Micro SD card, but do not forget the internal memory especially those of you who run a lot of applications or multi task at a high rate.
c. Display - Decide between a multi-touch display, a traditional physical QWERTY keyboard, or a hybrid; this will greatly narrow down your search.
d. Battery Life - For those that are using their device for work or other situations where a long lasting battery is key, this will be a major consideration when comparing devices.
e. Price - Last but the most important factor is how much of your pocket do you want to burn to possess the gizmo? Or as the ad says, what did YOU do to get your android phone?

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