Farmville

I can't wait for 24th to come so that I can start opening the gifts under my christmas tree in Farmville.I hope they are worth the wait and the suspense.I've been asking everyone to send me wrapped gifts so that I can put them under the tree and it can grow.(It grows a little bit with every 20 new presents).
So far,mine has had only one growth spurt:(

Farmville has become quite a phenomenon.For the uninitiated,its a real time farm simulation game where you can grow and harvest crops, raise farm animals, put up building in your farm etc etc.Basically , you can become a 'zamindar' in some time.
Compared to a lot of people on my friend list, who have expanded their farms and bought red barns and tractors and what nots,my farm has still some way to go.These days I am on the lookout for more neighbours ,so that I can expand my farm(a certain number of neighbours is the prerequisite).


What made me fall in love with the game is the look of the fully grown crops and the fruit laden trees.The plots get submerged with water when you plant rice and there are creepers for grape.Strawberry is a great money spinner as it costs just 10 coins and can be harvested in four hours but then again,it wilts as quickly.
I get all excited to move up a level just to see how the new crops would look on being planted.These days I'm into planting Poinsettias as they give the maximum number of XP points in the least time.As in life, there are too many pretty things to be bought in Farmville,but too little FV cash.There are giant snow flakes and snow piles ,lighted hedges and candycane benches, redwood trees and gingerbread houses.But what I'm lusting after is a teeny tiny pond.It looks really pretty.I love the lighted christmas trees also, which take 2 days to harvest.But its worth the wait when you see them glittering with blue and yellow lights.I got gifted with a lot of trees: maple, olive,passion fruit, oranges, apples etcetera etcetera
And my farm had quite an orchard in one corner but then they were taking too much space so I sold the trees to make room for fresh plots and a barn. Yes, I'm the proud owner of a new barn.Yippee!! And I managed to snag an Architect ribbon too.
Achieving a ribbon gives some extra XP and coins.There are ribbons to be got for having a particular number of buildings on your farms,for having harvested a certain number of unique farm animals and trees,for having fertilized so many of your neighbour's crops and so on.

On logging to Farmville, a new kind kind of farm layout is shown everyday by Farmville, which gives some brilliant ideas on how to decorate your own farm.But it shows all the mouthwatering goodies which you cannot buy using your limited FV cash.
FV cash is the other currency used, besides the coins which are earned by harvesting the crop.You earn FV cash on reaching a new level.It takes more days to earn FV cash as you go to higher levels.( Found out by bitter experience )
It does get a bit boring when you've planted all the crops and there's nothing more to do but to wait for a day or two for them to be ready for harvest.But you can always occupy yourself by being the friendly farm neighbour.You can shoo away the foxes and the crows, rake the leaves and pull out the weeds and fertilize your friend's crops.In the process you earn coins and XP.And the best...you can take a picture of your farm too.And, for a thousand coins you can cover your farm with a snow blanket , for that christmassy feel.


Chicken coops and dairy farms are also a good investment because then you don't have to harvest an animal individulally.But, now I've sold all my mooing cows and grunting pigs and neighing horses and the reindeers too (don't know what sound the reindeers make).In their place I've got pretty white fences draped with lighting(lighting being one of the indulgences on which I spent my hard earned FV cash )I'm just waiting to accumulate some more cash so that I can buy a harvester and a seeder
to do all the planting and harvesting.Poor little forefinger hurts when it has to harvest and then plow and then plant about hundred and fifty plots.Forefinger would love it if the farm were to be mechanised.

Quite a few blogs dedicated to farmville have sprung up.There are a lot of farmville cheats also available on net which proclaim to have tricks to increase your cash and move you up the levels faster and similar things.Never tried them though.

I have a gift laden artificial christmas tree decorated next to my cubicle too.But, what I want most is to get home and check if my poinsettias are all right or not.
(Ya, I know I'm addicted)

By the way, does anyone like the holiday postcard things on the google logo? I don't. I expected it to be better.Disappointed.

Odisha vs Orissa

The only time when a parliamentary bill gets passed swiftly is to change the names of places from anglo to vernacular.Case in point being, Orissa to Odisha and Oriya to Odia.Though, it has taken an year even to do that.The fastest way to grab some footage in media is to make hullaballoo over the names of cities.Be it Bombay as opposed to mumbai or Bangalore as oppose to Bengaluroo (city of baked beans,apparently).Now, the foreigners won't be 'Bangalored',they'll be 'Bengalurooed'.Not quite the same thing.The other way to get your fifteen minutes of fame is to bash up women wearing jeans and couples holding hands and maybe much more on Valentine's Day.

Yesterday, I made a foray to Landmark to pick up the latest Chetan Bhagat offering.Then, was in two minds between buying a hundred rupee Cosmo/Vogue or 2 States (Aforementioned Chetan Bhagat timepass). Finally, ended up buying a special edition of WEEK featuring long dead Indira Gandhi.Have decided to rent "2 States" and "Cosmo" from the friendly neighbourhood librarian.So, while thinking all this on my really tired feet (as the couch had already been hogged by some unchivalrous people :-/),I chanced upon 'Kama Kahani' books.

Yes, they are the indigenous response to the videshi Mills and Boons (which I still pick up sometimes).One of my relatives had a collection of 150 MB's some years ago.I'm sure it must have grown by now.And my cousin and I were simply awed at the age of 13. (By the way, its perfectly OK to begin a sentence with 'AND' when its not an independent sentence but it refers to an earlier context. So I have learnt during my abysmal GMAT experience.But, I'm digressing from the topic.Back to Kama Kahani)

Its a semi erotic collection launched by Random House, India.
The three books set in the 18th and 19th century are named 'Mistress to the Yuvraaj' ,'The Zamindar's forbidden Passion'and 'Ghazal in the Moonlight'.

So, the moral brigade has already sprung in action.The usual arguments have been given: vulgar stuff , corrupting the young minds and what not.They have even tried to enquire if romantic fiction is legal.Maybe, now the next attack would not be on Archies shops but on shops selling Kama Kahani.M&B's might even get banned and then we'll have to ask people returning from phoren to get them.I better hoard MB's and pick my Kama Kahani copy soon :)

I'm a Sofisticat !!

I love the way 'Sofisticat' sounds :)
Took this personality quiz long back on visual DNA though putting it up now.
Love the way these people have transformed words and ideas into pictures.
So, here's my Visual DNA..

Dilli 6

'Marammat muqaddar ki kar do maula '

Just love this line.
Who doesn't need a little bit of darning and patching of their destinies by the master craftsman himself ?
**********************************************
Dilli 6 reminds me of my stay in dilli at an address of 16/16 :)

Success

" Winning . Winning . Winning . Winning.
That's my measurement of success . "

- Hillary Clinton

A serene thought for the day..

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

What's in a name ??

What's in a name ?.. they say..
Quite a lot I believe..

I never liked my name that much..liked it but was never excited about it..
I always wanted my name to be a little unique..something with 5 syllables.like kaamayni or riddhima or something a little less ordinary than my present one.

But , when I was told about the various names my mother was toying with..
She thought of naming me 'Java'.. (all you raised eyebrows.. I know.. ) Apparently its the hindi name for Hibiscus..Nice thought but, still.And , in gujarat they would have made such fun of me..because 'java' is a verb meaning 'to go' and its variations . Then its the programming language in IT and its not over yet.. its the Coffee Beans and the old name for Indonesia or something.

Naming someone after hibiscus reminds me of another story.. one of my aunts is actually named 'gudhal', another hindi name for you guessed it, Hibiscus. So, one of my other aunt always gets confused and she stops herself just in time from calling her 'kathal' ( Jackfruit.. and I have not made this up ).
The surname 'Biyaani' always made me feel that a missing 'R' would have made it all wholesome and tasty.

One of our man fridays at one of the PG I used to say was named 'Bechelaal'. Our Pg lady asked us one day, " Have you listened to the story behind his name or not ? You should. Its quite interesting and he loves telling it ".So, we caught hold of Bechelaal of the stinky poccha fame and spiderman acrobatic skills and asked him about it.The story went something like this , all the children born before Bechelaal did not use to survive for long.So, his parents decided to break the jinx by selling him to his naani for a chawanni (25 paise) when he was born and hence, the unique name Bechelaal. By the way, the aunt of mine who used to have problem with names, always ended up calling him 'Chedilaal'.

And Gujaratis top the list in picking weird names for their unsuspecting kids.Once, while travelling in train I asked this 20 something mom about her daughter's name. It was 'Panache".. yes, Panache as in the word 'flair'. Wow !! is all I could say.But , the best I find is NRG's( Non Resident Gujaratis) naming their kids 'Neil' or 'Dave' . Nice names which are there in both Indian and American culture and easy to pronounce for the firangs. Then they also have these unisex names like 'Snehal' and 'Mital' and the worst is 'Peenal'..uh hullo ??

Considering all this, I was glad my parents finally chose what they did.

Pursuit of Happyness

Am yet to watch the movie..
But, here I am putting up an excerpt from the book Eat , Pray and Love( the last book to be read completely by me)

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.You fight for it,strive for it,insist upon it and sometimes even travel the world looking for it.You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it , you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into the happiness forever , to stay afloat on top of it.

Funeral Blues

Heard this one in the movie "Four Weddings and A Funeral "..

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

--W.H. Auden

I Carry your heart with me...

I love this poem by EE Cummings...
Heard it first in the movie "In your shoes " and loved it..
So, here goes..

I carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Books...Books..books..

I like books.
But ( forgive me for beginning a sentence with but..) I do not recall even a single instance when i received books as gifts...I guess I haven't publicised it enough that I would like to have books for gifts...( I amend this critcal error right now)
I end up gifting ppl books( because I like books..I think...irrespective of whether they do or don't.. ;))..

My foray in literature happened with Hindi "Sahitya"...
I read all the stories in my hindi book...( I am starting from the beginning..from the time I was in second or third grade)...then I moved on to the books of my neighborhood bhaiyya and didis who were 4 or 5 years ahead of me academically...

Then some years were spent reading Russian books translated into Hindi..courtesy one "Raduga Publication".I was sick for sometime and couldn't go to school for about 4 or 5 months..so my Dad bought a load of these Russian books for me.
Some were Russian Folktales( " Roosi Lok Kathayein" to be exact) and some were Sketchbooks.
I loved those stories...
The Hero(or the protagonist) was always called Ivan ..or sometimes Andrei , who'll eventually fall in love with a beautiful girl with some exotic Russian name . But , the king would also have his evil eye on her and to get her, he would send Ivan for seemingly impossible tasks .
Ivan would return home dejected and the pretty and intelligent wife( oh yes, now I remember, her name would usually be "Buddhimati Vasilisa ") would tell him...."So jao. Raat ki baat kabhi sach nahin hoti . Subah zaroor koi rasta nikal aayega ".( I still think of this phrase sometimes when in despair...That's why I end up sleeping so much ..)

And then in the morning she would wake him up with a solution. She would give him a ball of wool with the instructionto follow the ball wherever it rolls.And the woollen ball would always stop in front of a hut rotating on "murgi ka panja"..Ivan would ask it to stop so that he can enter it.Once inside he would be greeted by the witch "Dhaddho Baba Yaga" with a
stump for a nose and a broomstick for an automobile.The witch would ask " Ae rusi khoon tu kahan se aaya hai aur kahan jayega".Ultimately, she would agree to help Ivan in his tasks.She would sometimes refer him to her other sisters also.In the end, Ivan would return victorious after crossing " nau tiya sattais"( nine threes are twenty seven) countries.

One of my favourite stories has the title "Jaao wahan na jaane kahan, Lao use na jaane kise".
Another one which I had really liked was called "Kohkaaf Ka Bandi" .I believe the English version is known as "The Prisoner of Zenda".Here, a soldier returning home is captured and held for ransom by the Tartars( a Russian Tribe ).The story revolves around his attempts to escape and also about his friendship with a young Tartar girl who helps him.

Then , when I reached 7th grade I grew out of this magical world of Russian folk Tales where the wolves could talk and you could go into one ear of a stallion and come out as tall , dark and handsome out of the other,of evil Kings and helpful witches, where one whistle from a notorious dacoit killed hordes of people( from "Seetiwaala Daku"...Believe it or Not !!)

I now entered the Land of Faraway Tree with Enid Blyton where there were no worries and days were spent gorging on orange and cream tarts and jugs full of cold milk and lemonades,where the Five Findouters scurried away when they heard the trin trin of Mr.Goon's ( I think I got the name correct ...apologies if not) bicycle.And now my favourite amongst all the Enid Blyton books..."The Malory Tower" series....with Daryl and Sally and Alicia and
how can we forget ..Gwendoline Mary( who used to brush her hair a thousand times or a hundred maybe ,every night to keep them soft and shiny...I think, once,even my mother gave me some funda like this...I never had the patience or that much
hair...)

Around the same time , I also discovered Mills & Boons and Barbara Cartland.The timing was very wrong...on one hand I was reading all the kiddie Blytons and on the other MB's. At my grandparents home there was a huge collection of Perry Mason also.Initially, I found it interesting...the suave Perry Mason, a little hint of romance between him and the secretary Della Street , and last but not the least, the private investigator Paul Drake. But, then the lengthy court room cross examinations became monotonous, so I hopped on to Sidney Sheldons. I don't know why people love Sidney Sheldon so much...he always has some bizzare and gross sexual drama also going on besides the main story...maybe that's why.

Back to Mallory Towers for a moment...
When I went to a residential school in 9th...my cousin asked me in her letters if we also had midnight feasts...I wrote back saying that we had, albeit of a different kind ( aloo bhujia and tomato sauce).We didn't have a small pool as the girls at Mallory did but even we could go for Horse Riding. This whole residendtial school thing and Mallory Towers remind me of a
term found only in the vocabulary of hostel sudents , "TUCK".ItsBrit term meaning sweets and snack food but for us it meant something from home,something to be excited about and something which won't last for more than one night.

Next , came the classics.."Gone with Wind " and all...But , I never had the patience for Pride and Prejudice kind of books.There was this phase of Danielle Steel also , where the girl is just seventeen and gets married to someone who is fort five or fifty.Then some years down the line she falls in love with someone who is more her age. Though , all this time she also loved
her husband who was old enough to be her father.Then the lover would get killed or something.Basically, by the time thewoman reaches forty or fifty herself ,she has gone through quite a few men.

The books I read and liked in recent times are "To Kill a MockingBird" , "Memoirs of a Geisha" , "Kite Runner" and some more. But, more about them in the next post.

Letter From Abraham Lincoln ....

This is a letter from Abraham Lincoln to his son's headmaster.
I suddenly remembered this because in one of my schools this letter was inscribed very beautifully on a red stone , shaped like a scroll.

So here goes...

"He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just and are not true.
But teach him if you can, the wonder of books.. but also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun and flowers on a green hillside.

In school, teach him it is far more honorable to fall than to cheat.....
Teach to have faith in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him he is wrong.
Teach him to be gentle with gentlepeople and tough with the tough.
Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone getting on the bandwagon...

Teach him to listen to all men; but teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth, and take only the good that comes through.
Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad...
Teach him there is no shame in tears.
Teach him to scoff at cynics and to be beware of too much sweetness..
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to highest bidders, but never to put a price on his heart and soul.
Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob.. and stand and fight if thinks he is right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him, because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage to be impatient..
Let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will have faith in humankind.
This is a big order, but see what you can do. . He is such a fine little fellow my son!

- Abraham Lincoln"

I Do Not Love You...

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose,or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other waythan this:
where "I" does not exist, nor "You",
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

----Pablo Neruda

Hindi Hamari Rashtrabhasha...

I just couldn't help being amused when I saw the hindi translations of nearly everything..around this particular campus..

Here are a few gems..

• Taran taal

• Chhatraanivaas Shashtham

• Vyakhyaan Bhavan

• Sankaay Bhavan

• Paschimi Prayogshalayein(there are uttari ,dakshini and poorvi prayogshaalayein too!!)

• Haankey evam handball kreeda sthal

• Sanganak vigyan evam abhiyantriki vibhag

All of you guys can take a guess at the english versions and post them...and person having the most number of correct answers will be declared the winner by me...!!

Why I just Love Winters...

Some of the reasons I absolutely love winters....

1.Bright quilts and rajais to snuggle into.

2.Misty and foggy mornings when you can't see anyhting beyond a few feet....
Gives you an illusion of being comfortably alone..

3.Colourful pullovers and lovely shawls to drape around....

4.Lazing in the sun with a steaming mug of coffee..(my favourite among favourites...)

5.Gajar ka halwa ;) and other gastronomical delights.....

And now you can tell me some of urs.. :)

Just something I stumbled on..

CRAVE......

"And I want to play hide-and-seek and give you my clothes and tell you I like your shoes and sit on the steps while you take a bath and massage your neck and kiss your feet and hold your hand and go for a meal and not mind when you eat my food and meet you at Rudy's and talkabout the day and type your letters and carry your boxes and laugh at your paranoia and give you tapes you don't listen to and watch great films and watch terrible films and complain about the radio and take pictures of you when you're sleeping and get up to fetch you coffee and bagels and Danish and go to Florent and drink coffee at midnight and have you steal my cigarettes and never be able to find a match and tell you about the the programme I saw the night before and take you to the eye hospital and not laugh at your jokes and want you in the morning but let you sleep for a while and kiss your back and stroke your skin and tell you how much I love your hair your eyes your lips your neck your breasts your arse your... and sit on the steps smoking till your neighbour comes home and sit on the steps smoking till you come home and worry when you're late and be
amazed when you're early and give you sunflowers and go to your party and dance till I'm black and be sorry when I'm wrong and happy when you forgive me and look at your photos and wish I'd known you forever and hear your voice in my ear and feel your skin on my skin and get scared when you're angry and your eye has gone red and the other eye blue and your hair to the left and your face oriental and tell you you're gorgeous and hug you when you're anxious and hold you when you hurt and want you when I smell you and offend you when I touch you and whimper when I'm next to you and whimper when I'm not and dribble on your breast and smother you in the night and get cold when you take the blanket and hot when you don't and melt when you smile and dissolve when you laugh and not understand why you think I'm rejecting you when I'm not rejecting you and wonder how you could think I'd ever reject you and wonder who you are but accept you anyway and tell you about the tree angel
enchanted forest boy who flew across the ocean because he loved you and write poems for you and wonder why you don't believe me and have a feeling so deep I can't find words for it and want to buy you a kitten I'd get jealous of because it would get more attention than me and keep you in bed when you have to go and cry like a baby when you finally do and get rid of the roaches and buy you presents you don't want and take them away again and ask you to marry me and you say no again but keep on asking because though you think I don't mean it I do always have from the first time I asked you and wander the city thinking it's empty without you and want what you want and think I'm losing myself but know I'm safe with you and tell you the worst of me and try to give you the best of me because you don't deserve any less and answer your questions when I'd rather not and tell you the truth when I really don't' want to and try to be honest because I know you prefer it and think it's
all over but hang on in for just ten more minutes before you throw me out of your life and forget who I am and try to get closer to you because it's a beautiful learning to know you and well worth the effort and speak German to you badly and Hebrew to you worse and make love with you at three in the morning and somehow somehow somehow communicate some of the overwhelming undying overpowering unconditional all-encompassing heart-enriching mind-expanding on-going never-ending love I have for you."-Sarah Kane ,Crave