Life lessons

Life teaches you so many lessons. One of the best way it teaches us is through loss. Sometimes, you lose a lot, and are left to the bare minimum. And it is then that you rediscover yourself, because there’s hardly anything more left to be seen. Like a newly-wed bride who’s just taken off her make-up, the reality in the mirror is not pristine, but it is pure and beautiful.

Odd Man Out

Every time I visit Hobby Lobby or Michales’ I couldn’t help but notice that they are predominantly female focused stores. Go through their posters and you will find that 70% are flowers or buildings with plants, the other 22% are couples kissing, women dancing, cute animals or something similarly gay. It is so hard to find a simple piece of abstract or realism. Where is a guy suppose go do his art shopping?! Especially if he is poor like me.

Then these women shopping there, who are basically 99% of their clientele, smile at you with these meaningful smirks. As if they approve of you for daring to look through their domain. I mean whats’ so freakin hard about decoration?? I would argue that Forest Gump can do it if given someone else’s credit card. I don’t need their approval and they can keep their smiles to themselves

While I am at the subject of shopping, let me also say that I hate all these big clothing corporations for making big bucks out of someone else’s sweat when the poor labors earn less than a dollar for a shirt they sell for fifty. But mostly I hate them for not making odd sized waists and X.5 shoes. Does their capitalist, blood sucking brains can’t get the fact that there are people who aren’t even? I bet God loves odd!

Aiming High

When I see my health in comparison to friends,  I predict I will be leaning back the walls in 15 years from now,  and will be looking for a chair as soon as I hit fifty. Couple of close friends really became an inspiration for me. I still avoid taking vitamin pills. I prefer fruits instead. I have made a promise to myself that I want to be able to pick up my grand daughter and go up a couple dozen stairs without being out of breath!

I hear friends and acquaintances talk about health and their inspirations are to look good, get into a smaller size clothing and often for girls/women is to be ready for theirs or someone else’s wedding, party or any other function like that. For guys its all about muscles but all such inspirations are sure to die down and they won’t help you live independently when your hair starts to turn gray.

Yeah … aim high as good health is a way of life not a one time fling!

Eye lids

are…

exhausted…

happy …

content …

sweaty …

revealed …

wired …

brain bursting with ideas …

heart aching for a good night sleep

and yes, I am eye lid tired!

But I must work on …

Randomness in Life

There is a lot of randomness in life. A lot of things are circumstantial. For instance, a farmer can plant the seeds, yet not control the weather. A student can study hard, yet not help if they get sick during the morning of their exam.

Over the past one year, life seems to have taken me on a wave of extremes. At times, I have wondered as to who is controlling the trajectory. I think essence of life is… to be at ease. Do our part. And let what is not in our control not be worried about.

There were times when I used to think how helpless we are. But that’s not true. A student may not be able to completely control their health at exam time, but they can ensure that they are well prepared. When we take care of our parts, uncertainties are minimized. The remaining randomness… is what makes life exciting, worth living!

 

 

Easy Excuses

‘Everyone does it.’ or ‘Even XYZ does it, so why can’t I?’ Such an easy way out of any argument, isn’t it? I have caught myself making that justification and often people around me bring it up. Sometimes we do it to justify something that is good, which only serves to strengthens our habit of making these excuses whenever convenient.

Those who make this excuse often, lack self confidence and are followers, not leaders. Leaders are those who take the road less traveled and lead by example. They might not always be right but it takes courage to say what others can only think of or do what others can only talk about.

I am trying to get rid of this habit from my own, so at least when I try to make a point, I don’t come out as a hypocrite. Already I do a lot of things that make me uneasy when I realize that kids who I volunteer with will be doing these too. From little things like, not stopping completely at the stop sign or a casual lie (ok, not a lie but not the whole truth) just to avoid the hassle of answering the endless trailing questions.

While we teach our children, they teach us things about ourselves we will never realize otherwise.

Audio Journal, labels and weekend

I wish I could start an  Audio Journal. I thought about Vlogging via YouTube but I’m video camera-shy.  Sometimes our voice express the emotions that our written words can’t.

I have been thinking about it from quite sometime that I need to get rid of the labels in my life. From the shoes I wear, to the car I drive. I have bought their stuff, I don’t intend to be their living ad running around. So, one thing at a time I intend to peal of all the labels from my life. The car logo that says Volvo, the shoes from New Trend, the watch from Casio, the tees from Gap, the jeans from Levis .. every bit of ad on me got to go.

The weekend was productive. Lots of house work and Sunday I went for a long bike ride. It was a bit cloudy & too windy but the ride was priceless none the less. Oh and I did finally learned to make new food receipe. The lasagna turned out great!!!

Girls

It doesn’t matter if you are born here or there, have a brown skin or white. Girls aren’t the first choice. They might be better than nothing but certainly not the first choice.

My cousin had a baby daughter. His elder brother has two daughters. I heard about it 3 days late. It reminds me when one of my aunties had the 5th daughter born and I came to know about it when I went to their house four five months after her birth. It was heart wrenching.

What is it in the girls that we don’t like? Are we afraid they might turn out of be sluts or are they so much of a financial burden? Are they generally more disobedient or do they change our way of life too much?

When I say that girls aren’t the first choice in any culture, I base it on the comments I received from  friends when they hear that I’d prefer to have a daughter first than a son: From “Wait till she turns 13” and “Do you own a baseball bat for all her boyfriends” to “Boys are easy to manage”. Every culture has its own biases against girls, just different forms of fears.

“B” has a 14-year-old son, she shares with great joy his girlfriend stories. “C” has a 12-year-old daughter, she is dreading that she will demand to be dating soon.

Strange Days

The vast majority of these songs had already been written and arranged prior to the recording of the debut. Many of the songs hail from the same song writing sessions that produced their first long player. Since they largely already had a bunch of material ready this album appeared only six months after its predecessor. They sound more assured this time round, perhaps due to greater experience in the studio. The keyboard bass was replaced by a sessioneer on regular bass guitar for part of this record. It sounds slicker than previous recordings. We open with the title song. The keyboards swirl in madness, Morrison’s voice booms out loud and clear and it’s a fine song. A good start to the record all round as ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’ and ‘Love Me Two Times’ follow. The lyrics to ‘You’re Lost Little Girl’ and the tone of Jims voice gets to me every time. ‘Love Me Two Times’ is just stupendous! Especially arriving on the heels of the previous track. ‘Love Me Two Times’ works as a great rock song with a groovy rhythm! The Doors once again prove themselves adept at middle section breaks when great piano comes in guaranteed to raise a smile! A superb song all round.

‘Unhappy Girl’ despite the lyrical tone is lighter musically but extremely melodic with it. The music contrasts the lyrical content and helps you focus on the words, actually. Fine words they are too. ‘Horse Latitudes’ is very hard to take seriously. Musical effects bordering on the humorous despite their admittedly unsettling nature accompany Jim in preacher voice, reading out his spoken word poetry. Thankfully its short. It does serve a purpose breaking up the record sonically. In a sense its there to provide variety. One of the Doors earliest songs gets a recorded appearance next. ‘Moonlight Drive’ is another fine song on an album full of them. Very little faulting this record, actually. ‘People Are Strange’ has been covered a number of times and with good reason. Another fabulous set of intriguing lyrics and music full of hooks but without neglecting depth. ‘My Eyes Have Seen You’ is a great phrase to build a lyric around and the music is up-tempo and features plenty of Ray attacking his instrument with vigour! ‘I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind’ slows things down, sounds unusual but perfectly natural at the same time. Some exotic sounding guitar playing in particular a highlight of this track. Another great piece of cover art, incidentally, cementing The Doors position as a band that were indeed different from the norm.

The epic eleven minutes plus ‘When The Music’s Over’ closes the record. Strange Days indeed? It features Rays keyboard bass, is wonderful throughout and drags the album up a notch all by itself. Very intense and full of passion. Great playing from Ray, Robbie and John. We do have ‘Horse Latitudes’ however. We also have admittedly ‘Love Me Two Times’, ‘People Are Strange’ and ‘When The Music’s Over’. But, these apart, the record lacks obvious standouts of such a quantity as their debut. All the songs are still pretty great though and overall this is another fine and frequently exhilarating ride, no doubt about it!

Ins and Offs

To be a little more clear, there is a difference between what you want in life and what you want of life. In my observation people can’t make out this difference.

For example, what I want in tea and what I want of tea are two different things. I like honey & milk in my tea but I want a feeling of warmth, almost a buzz, of my tea. Does this mean what I want in my tea dictates what I want of my tea? Not necessarily. Two people can have two different things in their tea but want the same thing of of it – something warm.

I think it is important to know what we want of life and let it dictate what we want in our life, rather than the other way around.