Life - or something like it

There was sound of labored breathing in her ears. All around her was dark, only the moonlight trickled through the gap in the leaves. The shadows of the trees were like old men with gnarled limbs, frozen in time. The forest floor covered with pine needles muffled her frantic footfalls. Tracy was running as fast her feet could carry her. She could hear her heart hammering in her ribs. Her breath felt like hot flames. Her throat was parched and the stitch in her side was making her wince with every step. The forest was thick with pine trees and other trees she could not recognize in the dark. It smelled of damp and rotting leaves. Her heart had missed a beat more than once when a cackling flock of ravens had shattered the silence. The shrieking Ravens had made a sharp increase in her adrenaline making her imagination run as fast as her feet. Tracy did not know why she was running or from what. She wanted to take a pause and examine her fear. Her rational mind was coaxing her to do...

I am not talking about Dinosaurs here. So all you ‘Jurassic Park’ freaks wait a moment before you start doing the Jig. Not your fault, it does sound like the name for a Dinosaur (I am a Dino freak too). I know, you are googling 'Trypanophobic' right now. I will let out the secret.….Hubs is scared of needles. I have seen him turn as pale a ghost and become a shadow of his robust self at the sight of a teensy weensy needle approaching in his direction.  Not that I was never afraid of them. As a child, I was terrified each time a Doctor even mentioned ‘injection’.  I was scared of needles till my 10th grade. Each year, our entire school had to take 'cholera shots' (not to have Cholera, but to stop it from invading our body). My school was a All Girls Catholic School. There were no boys, so none of us had to pretend to be brave. The closer the line snaked towards the Doctor’s room, the more agonizing it was. I would have preferred getting my nails ripped off from...

Someone, quick..stop the Paparazzi.   Amit   has given me this Beautiful Award. Words fail me as I accept this award. Thank you dear friend from the bottom of my heart. I have been tagged too... Here are the rules of this tag : 1) Thank the person who gave you the award.  2) Paste the award on your blog. 3) Link the person who nominated you for the award. 4) Share   7 things you find to be beautiful around you . 5) Nominate 7 bloggers or more Points 1, 2 & 3 dun dun dun.... Now for the Tag... - The crisp beautiful sunshine peeking through the curtains in my house is a blessed sight. A hint that spring is on the way. - A loving smile on hubbies face when he reads my posts. - My parents voice on the phone. It brings back all the memories of childhood. - Nature in all its shades....(I simply love this place) Snowdonia -Wales - An unexpected call from a long lost friend who calls you after 15 years and your heart is filled with joy on heari...

My friend Kautubh  has invited me to write guest posts on his blog. I have written the following post for him. Just posting an excerpt here. You can go and read the complete post on his website ' ekoshapu '. Thanks Kaustubh for giving me this opportunity. You can also go and check his two wonderful blogs ' Cipher ' and ' Swataha '- A Marathi Blog. ______________________________________________________________________ Writing- an Art or Passion? As children our parents try to inculcate in us various hobbies for our development. I remember going to painting, dancing, singing, guitar classes and whatnot. Writing on the other hand was not even a choice. Also writing was left to professional writers or mainly journalists. Things changed after the explosion of Internet throughout the world. Writing an online diary became a hobby for many people at the start of the millennium. This slowly changed to writing Blogs which were not limited to online diaries but have mo...

There was a sudden gush of tears in Mita’s eyes. People were whispering and looking at her with pity. She tried to put up a brave face and gave a weak smile. Her mind was trying to escape but her feet were rooted to the ground. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and found that her best friend Asha was trying to comfort her.  Mita had come for the baby shower of her cousin. She wanted to share her cousin’s happiness but as always her presence was not appreciated on such a happy occasion. Her Maushi (Maternal Aunt): “Mita you need not have come, after all what you will do here?” A cousin Aaji (Grandma): “It is inauspicious for a barren woman to attend such a ceremony. It is not good for the unborn child. How can you be so selfish?” Another Kaku (Aunt): Beta, It is better that you leave early. I hope you understand. Mita just nodded her head. She was not able to breathe and wanted to rush back home. Her friend Asha quickly took charge and took her home.  Asha and Mita...

I feel, I have been living under a rock somewhere. Today, my usual Blog surfing unearthed a lot of interesting things which definitely made me go, Huh! I do like experimenting with different products but some things I discovered hit me smack on my head and made my eyes pop out of my skull. Call me old fashioned if you want. All of us have heard of the infamous 'PMS'. Yes, the same one. It is that time of the month when most women go on a rampage. I do too. Hubs knows better than to mess with me as I walk around the house like a three headed monster spewing flames out of my mouth. He keeps the knives hidden and the scissors stashed away some place safe, wearing a Kevlar vest and a helmet all the time. 1)  For those WOMEN friends, who forget their dates:  Here is something to help you....presenting  iPeriod . You can customize it and also can track your mood. Image Courtesy: www.winkipass.com Isn't it great? I am totally buying this applic...

Hold it there...I am not reviewing Apple's iPad or anything. I have seen enough Apple bashing in blogosphere recently. Believe it or not I am going to review a very non-technical kitchen gadget. Ha! Now you will wonder how come a cooking-hater  is doing a review of Kitchen Gadget? Read on and you will know.... I am a 'kitchen gadget stalker'. I get starry eyed whenever I visit shops selling kitchen stuff. My heart skips a beat and I feel like a kid in a toy shop (I must be a cook in my past life, no wonder I obsess so much about cooking in my Blog).  My eyes glaze over and I am smacking my lips....okayyy, I know you got the picture. So, during one of my forays into 'The Kingdom of Delights', I came upon a gadget which I thought will make my life a bit easier. After much haggling with Hubs I went and bought this thingamajig. I present to you.... I had to quickly put this wonderful looking gadget to use. I decided to make some Pasta. And yes...I needed Garl...

Lots of you visited my blog to read my last post. Even if you were here for some thrills, I am thankful that you stopped by, who am I to judge anyone when I can write about it. Its settled then, you are not mad at me for tricking you. I am glad we understand each other so well. For the past two days hubs and I have been praying for the speedy recovery of one of our loved one. She is a great lady and has been a support to us for the past year in this foreign country. We tried to find a cure for her illness but it seems that her time has come. We are not yet ready to say our goodbyes. My heart is heavy and I cannot breathe as I am all choked up. Okay.....I can't do this...I suck at this. I am talking about our car. It is surviving on borrowed time and very soon it will be joining the heap of dead cars. It is kinda old and I can't blame it for dying on us. Getting it repaired will cost us more than buying another second hand car. First time hubs encountered a problem, he ...

I know you have come here expecting some dirty talk, right? Let's get down to it then...why waste precious time. I have previously written about this topic albeit, a bit clinically. It is time to give some personal touches now. While growing up, I was a clueless doofus...clueless in terms of birds and bees. Most of the information I had, was provided either by books or by equally clueless friends. My first ‘X-rated' book was 'Lady Chatterley's lover' and I was rocked to my hinges after reading it. It was too much to take in, at first go. I had sneaked it off from my father's collection (I am positive, he still does not know that I have read it).  As Indian families are, mine was also quite conservative about this topic and I gathered the information mainly from books (TV was extremely sanitized during my teenage) and never had anyone informing me of the nitty gritties of 'Sex' (There, we are already talking dirty...aren't we?).  I had my chance ...

SNAFU, Here is a crazy ass word for you. In short, 'I royally f***** up'. Remember this? Photo Courtesy : Flixster.com I am not in a much better state at the moment. Both my eyebrows now look as if they are running scared from each other.  I am in a 'Joey' moment and AM not liking it a bit.  Call me a lazy bum....I deserve it, for not getting up and plucking my eyebrows under better light.  I have scant hair in my eyebrows and so missing a few hair at odd spots really makes me look scary, maybe I will get a job to scare the pants off little pesky kids, bwahhhha Or I can join celebs ....no eyebrow thingy was quite hot last year and I can start a new trend all together. I usually pluck errant hair around my eyebrows and chop off the too long ones to bring them into shape. It was easier and cheaper in India, where you just hop into a salon and get them threaded by a beautician. Lancaster does not have any salons that provide this service and even if ...

I love dogs and I am a sucker for all Dog Movies. I have never bawled my eyes out so much in a movie. This is was a real tear jerker and pulled at my heartstrings. I cried a few tears while reading 'Marley and me', but this movie is in a league of its own. It too is based on a real story.  *Spoilers Ahead* 'Hachiko' or Hachi (DVD Version) is a remake of a Japanese film 'Hachiko Monogatari'. The American version is a bit different from the original story. It is about a college professor who adopts an Akita (Japanese dog breed) puppy wandering on the platform of a railway station. That is a beginning of an unbreakable bond between the dog and his master which transcends beyond the death of the master.  Hachiko, during his owner's life, bade him goodbye each day at the front of the station and used to be there at the same place to greet him when the professor came home from work. This ritual continues till one day the professor passes away. He suffers ...

It was one of those nights when sleep was evading me. It rarely happens, but yes it was happening yesterday night. I tried all tricks to fall asleep. 1. Counted sheep, jumping over the fence. Some of them even started looking like Usain Bolt & P.T. Usha. I must have counted at least a 2000 sheep, all of them merrily mocking at me. 2. Guzzled warm Milk. 3. Tried to relax my body from head to toe (Yoga style). 4. Pretended to sleep so my brain was fooled in to it. 5. Squirmed in to a comfortable position on the bed (this meant pushing hubby near the edge). Nothing worked. I was a walking zombie... (Quirky, this is entirely your fault). The bed felt too warm, so I threw off the covers. For a while, I thought, yes babes this will do the trick but I was freezing in sometime. This dance continued for a while. I was frustrated and the tossing and turning was not helping much. The blasted alarm clock became my nemesis. Every tick and tock was hammering in my brain. I cou...

I was  tagged by Shikha at Lonely in Space to do this tag some moons ago. Some secrets to reveal and some to fabricate :) Here it is folks: 1. What is your current obsession? 24- the tv series....I am watching all the seasons again. Damn it 'Jack Bauer'. 2. What are you wearing today? Too many layers. Shabby clothes all hidden under a smart black jacket. 3. What’s for dinner? Soup and toast. 4. What’s the last thing you bought? A chicken Sandwich 5. What are you listening to right now? Bollywood songs.....I love all the fast numbers. 6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? She has a beautiful way with words and she should blog often. 7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Somewhere in the Bahamas. 8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? Huh!! what is that? I have heard of it...  The British summer is  a mirage. 9. If you could go anywhere in the wo...