Here it is!!!!

Parties of last year’s end bring warm memories.

New year resolutions have been upheld successfully so far.

Friends have been kind enough to drag me out of career routine.

Picnics, art museums, boating, cricket, just sweet nothing hangouts…

TRULY BLESSED I AM…Thank you for sharing your lives with me.

Entry for: http://totallyoptionalprompts.blogspot.com/2008/04/totally-optional-prompt-is-late-spring.html

Somehow, I have learnt to accept life as it is.

And thankful too, to the past.

Yes, I desired to excel in school, but was lazy.

Wish I could go back to advice

But what a lot of lies

will I say to the dreamy me?

You have to be number 1

for life to be easy?

Nah, that is not true,

I have seen to date.

So, what life is, is mostly random.

Make a healthy attitude towards life.

Life could be worse than what it is today,

And remember, Happiness is a state of mind.

Just Do Your Best!!!

And prepare for worst.

There is no way I can travel forward in time to see

what will become of me.

There are n decisions to be made,

each with 1000 alternatives.

Then, there need to be n raised n futures to see all the possibilities.

Duh, too lazy to visit them all,

let it be…

All that I need is to use my pea brain

to figure what I have to do now

to have the tomorrow I want today.

My entry to http://writersisland.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/prompt-link-time-travel/

As I opened the window blinds,

I could hear the soft fall of pure, crisp snow.

As I walked on, it crushed.

When Sun shone on it slightly,

it became hard ice.

Later, it melted into water streams and

flowed into the nearby pond.

During summer, surface water-line decreased in the pond,

acknowledging natural water cycle.

Yes, Water, the elixir of life, keeps changing its shape and form.

Change it does.

But, WATER IT IS!!!

My friend, I hope we too change as life goes on, still retaining the inner beauty that makes us.

My entry to

http://writersisland.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/prompt-link-changed/

Have you lived today? @ http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com/2008/02/have-you-lived-today.html

I loved this picture also from there, borrowed it from her, will have to let PS know, soon.

What is it in us that makes us all propel forward?

Why do worldly attachments bring pain and sorrow as much as the comfort? CUTTING OUR HEART IN 2 AND BACK INTO PERFECT SHAPE.

Coming to think of it, none of us know what is going to happen tomorrow, if we are granted one.

It could be a result of all the random acts in past or just PURE MAGIC!

One moment we are here, next moment we are not - DISAPPEARING ACT?

Or just a TRANSFORMATION of mental attitude - rabbit to dove?

…only the MAGICIAN knows the answers to his TRICKS!

My entry to http://writersisland.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/prompt-link-magic/

Ingredients:

 - 1 cup full of red pearl onions

 - 1 slice of ginger

 - 2 pods of garlic

 - mustard, oil, and urad dal, curry leaves

 - 2 tsp of sambar powder

 - 2 tsp of tamarind paste

 - a pinch of asafoetida powder

 - salt

 - 200ml of toor dal boiled in pressure cooker and mashed.

Procedure:

Tamper with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves, ginger slice, and garlic.

Add onion and saute for 5 minutes in low heat.

Add 2 tsp of sambar powder and water.

Fry for 30 seconds in mdeium heat.

Add 2 cups of water.

Add boiled dal.

Let it simmer for 10 minute in Med-lo heat.

Add tamarind and asafoetida powder.

Add water to bring to desired consistence. Once it simmers, turn it off.

Onion Sambar is ready.

My entry to JFI : Onion     http://radhiskitchen-radhi.blogspot.com/2008/01/jfi-february.html

LESSON LEARNT:

Do not take final picture in Kadai, present it artfully on a nice single-serving dish

Cilantro is a good garnish and helps with aroma too.

If there were no desires in great minds, there would be no inventions or discoveries. There will be no miracles to feel grateful for. There is no growth.

There is no life…!!!

Entry to http://writersisland.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/prompt-link-desire/

Know not why,

but for sure alive.

What can be done while still here,

is more important than why.

So many equally wonderful options to choose from, too!

No matter what the path is,

a clear mind, and a pure heart -

filled with grace and faith,

are all that is needed

to make this life and the next - meaningful.

Entry to http://totallyoptionalprompts.blogspot.com/2008/01/totally-optional-prompt-why-youre-alive.html

I read this right after Ramanujan, only because I realized Plano library could finally lend it to me without waitlisting to the 32nd position

I could not believe what was being said about all the terrorists and their Islamic beliefs. One moment they seem to be against Colonialism(UK), next, communism (USSR), and then, capitalism (USA). It conveys that these radicals are angry at everything and everyone. They seem to be upset that USA is taking their oil (which of course they are selling) and flourishing much more than the land it comes from.

At one point Osama seems to be mad at King of Saudi for letting Saddam grow his military, soon he is upset with King for letting USA to use Saudi land to defend against Saddam’s Quwaiti occupation.

The book also portrays him to me as a Don Quixote when he leads a group of Jihadis to fire a ‘few’ shots against an already retreating USSR troop from Afghanistan

Author has mentioned Osama as a psychopath / sociopath, also, a character of utter humility.

SOMEHOW, I cannot believe all that the book depicts. I want to know the other side. Why would a human kill so many other humans? What could cause such hatred? What can be done to avoid this in future? Is all that the author is saying really true? If so, Osama is a stupid. But, he can’t be so stupid. At least his stupididty cannot be the reason for people’s death.

ACTUALLY, I DON’T EVEN WANT TO KNOW!!!

Maa kuru dhana jana yauvana garvam

Harati nimeshaat kala sarvam

Maya-mayamidam Akhilam hitvaa

Brahma padam tvam pravisha vidhitva

-Sri Adi Sankarar

My friends and family are my biggest treasure, I have infintely re-iterated Emerson’s ‘Friends are the ornaments of a house.’

Secondly, I treasure my body and health.

But, I also COMPLETELY agree with Adi Sankarar in I should not be proud of myself due to the wealth/health/status in society I possess. All of this can be wiped away in a single second. What cannot be wiped away and will be the true treasure is our faith.

Without faith, plan, perseverence, persistence, and patience, the four virtues I believe in, will have no further progress. Also, faith acts as a glue to bring together these 4 habits, individually they are nothing more than silliness. Reverse is also true. Faith is not just a 5 letter word, to acheive it you need the 4Ps. I guess I have just discovered a spiritual theorem

As a kid, faith comes from outside in, parents and teachers begin to plant it in us. As we grow, we need to have faith in ourselves, and hence, stems from inside out.

Entry to