NaNoWriMo and my Quikut knife

Aaah, I finally think I am reaching somewhere. For years I have been looking at the NaNoWriMo website, hesitating, dillydallying and shillyshallying before brushing aside any notion of joining to some dark corner of my mind. (For those who don't know: National Novel Writing Month is meant to be a motivator to sit down and write something that is at least 50,000 words long - in short, a novel.) But today I was led there while browsing through some blogs and it seemed almost serendipitous that I reached it with plenty of time to start. I took it as an omen and signed up before I had time to think and backpedal. One of the things that they ask you to do in their welcome mail is to tell as many people as you can that you are writing a novel in the month of November. So here I am, declaring my intention to write a novel. Why don't YOU join me as my writing buddy? Don't have any idea about what to do or write about? Don't worry, neither have I. But I have not let that stop me from putting the first step forward. So why are you hesitating? Join me and let me know by clicking the comments section!

I have read several articles about the brain hemisphere dichotomy. I have been trying to analyze the actions of my own brain halves and have come to the conclusion that both of them are pretty active, but the right one is pretty dominated by the left. For example, while cooking, my right brain goes, "Why don't you try adding some chicken masala to the sambar? We'll see if it makes any difference or whether people enjoy it more!" and my left brain screams, "Shut up!" and goes ahead and instructs my hand to pick up the sambar masala. As you can plainly see, it is sometimes best that the left brain is in control. But lately my right brain has been giving me images of a green-glove-clad hand wielding my long Quikut knife and slashing at my overgrown yard. Our four Quikut knives are testimony to a winter evening's temptation for a good deal at a local Walmart store in Detroit. Along with our other possessions, all their "bone-splitting" power has been lying unused for around 4 years. I have a favorite cleaver that also doubles as my coconut splitter, so there is no real work for a meat knife in a household that buys poultry once in a month or two.

Today as I was feeding my roses with nutritious rice gruel water, I was irked by the weeds that had almost grown half as tall as I am. I jumped into the house, took time to wear just one glove and get my Quikut knife and jumped back into the middle of the weed patch. Ten minutes later, my weed patch had an inch-long crew cut, weeds including the hardy, thorny touch-me-nots lay defeated on the ground and I was panting and sweating from all the stooping and hand-swinging workout. I have finally used my Quikut!!! Hurray! I will reserve the twin of this knife for the next jackfruit season. Let's see if the triumphant knife can hold its own against the hard jackfruit skin that usually yields only to the axe. So till then, Quikut rules as my lawn mower and exercise accessory! More power to my right brain!!!