Jan 16, 2013

Live each day, fully, one at a time!

Some days things crowd up so much that it becomes difficult to breathe - literally. One has to sit still then and take time to savor each minute that goes by. And such moments are when I turn to the easiest stress-busters of all that are right here on my computer: old pictures.

Take this one, for instance:


This was taken on a serene evening in Coorg back in 2003. DH and I were on our first trip together after our wedding. I remember sitting in the city park. We had taken loads of pictures of every beautiful vista on terra firma when we discovered that we could just sit on a bench, point our camera upwards and capture several masterpieces from the show above us. Somehow, I like this series much better than any picture we took on that trip!

Now this one was taken in Detroit, in fall 2005:


We were billeted at an extended stay hotel for 2 months and were desperate for a library membership. In front of the library was this gorgeous maple in the full yellow and red glory of fall. It had also carpeted most of the lawn in front of the library with its largess. We plonked Kunjunni right in the middle and started snapping like crazy. It's one of our favorite pics of our first-born.

Now this picture - although it looks like any touristy snap in front of the Niagara waterfall...


...reminds me of how thankful we should be for having arrived safe and sound in Niagara on that Thanksgiving Day.

We started from Detroit early in the morning when snow was being removed and soon drove into a bitter snow storm even before we reached the Canadian border. We had no snow chains and saw quite a few vehicles that had turned all the way around and were stranded in our lane and on the other side of the divider.

Halfway along, DH felt a craving for some chewing gum which, unfortunately was stowed in the boot. We were driving very slowly and DH eased the car on to the shoulder of the highway - or at least that was his intention. We ended up yards away from where we had intended to stop and were poised precariously on a downward slope in a heavy snow drift!

Panic set in and we thought of calling emergency services when I suggested that we should try reversing the car. To our relief, the came back up, I retrieved the gum from the boot and our trip was henceforth uneventful. While we unwound at our hotel, I turned on the TV to find out that there had been scores of accidents on that stretch of highway that morning and we were part of the luckier ones who came out unscathed.



This picture was taken in 2006, in Duluth MN. It's one of the most beautiful places I have visited on this big, blue marble. It literally took our breath away when we found that even at the end of May, the wind that blew off Lake Superior was very chilly. We hadn't packed any warm clothes, so had to buy some! It was one of our best road trips to date. I can't imagine how cold it would be in mid-winter in Duluth. But in summer, she was magnificent!

There, I feel better already. Thanks for coming with me on this trip down memory lane!

An organizing tip for digital pictures: The path to one of my typical picture folders looks like this: Photos -- 2012 -- 0329MeenaBharani.  From this I can easily find out the pictures we took during the Meena Bharani festival of 2012 in this folder and can make out that it was on the 29th of March that year. Naming this way also means that the folders are arranged in chronological order too. All I have to do to maintain this is to spend an extra minute to think of the date and an appropriate name for the folder when I download pics. On my comp you can find years from 2002 to 2013 in the same folder format. It makes finding pics super-duper easy! Hope this tip helps!

Jan 2, 2013

Happy New 2013!!!

Yup, yup, yup, I've been having perfection issues again at notsoperfectkarthi as in, "What would be the perfect xmas/year-end/new year post???"  Result? A no-show at Xmas, year-end and New Year. I know so many of you might have been looking forward to those ever so humorous and witty posts from moi, sorry I couldn't oblige! :-) (A little confidence goes quite a loooonggg way, huh?)

But first of all, let me wish you all,  my dearest wonderful readers, a very happy new year! May all your days hide twinkling gems of immense value that will reveal themselves to you through the course of the day, making you gasp with wonder and prompt you to send up prayers of thankfulness. I wish that for one and all of you and for the whole world! So go find that particular gem/s for the day and make a note of them each day so that when 2014 comes by, you will have a bowlful of those lovelies to marvel at.

In case you are wondering whether I have gone bonkers, I have been looking back at 2012 with my treasure-seeker's eyes and have come up with quite a lot to feel thankful for. I did this because the month of December and even New Year's day have brought us some not-so-good news. I have been thinking of how to react as positively as I can to each.

To the Nirbhaya case: probably suggest legalizing prostitution (not my idea, Swami Vivekananda's actually) or to suggest importing women from other countries to improve the sex-ratio (why should innocent girls be penalized for rampant female foeticides?). To my Mom's cancer diagnosis: forgive her for  having known about a lump and not paid much attention to it for six years and get her as much help as early as possible. To the death of a neighboring young man in a bike accident right after the birth of the new year: send up prayers for the safe return to home of each  youngster who speeds by me.

One of the first things I did on New Year's day was to take down all our Xmas decorations and stow them away safely. I did it although I will miss the riot of twinkling lights that greeted me each December morning as I came into my dark living room. It made me smile each time I looked at them. Bye bye Xmas tree, see you in 11 months!


Could there BE any more tinsel up there? :-)

I also put away my old diary after a cursory look-through. There are several blank pages as usual, the sick days, the so-so days, but not a red-letter day was missed even if I had to sit down and write it several days later!

Which brings us to my new diary and day book:


Isn't it so appropriate that the diary I chose back in November (looking as usual for just the features like month-at-a-glance and full page for Sunday) should say Think Positive and Be Positive on the cover - the universe has sign-posts everywhere!!! As I had told you, last year's theme was gratitude! And each page of that new diary will be divvied up like this:


As you can guess, it's my next step in increasing my productivity and not forgetting anything essential each day. I started the habit in November when I saw the idea for some day planner pages with similar categories in a website. I thought, "Why print out those pages when I don't even fill up half my diary pages each day?" So I started writing out a simplified version in my diary. It's been very effective! All my planning and day's summing up in one place as well as my expenses!
The best sight I had on New Year's Day was this:


- all three guys in my life snuggling happily two hours after I was up and pottering about. This is another sight that is guaranteed to turn my heart to mush each time I see it. And how blessed am I to be able to see it almost every day!!

Happy New Year once again!

3 Movie Reviews in 1: Nanpakal..., Romancham, and Pranaya Vilasam

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