The King - MJ

Cant understand how fate works sometimes. Woke up today to the news of the demise of Michael Jackson and I just couldnt understand how it happened so suddenly. Iavor do remember discussing him a week ago, about his predicted skin cancer and how he was one of the persons who just ruined a sky high reputation in a turn of a finger.He made a whole lot of things famous - Plastic surgery, cosmetic skin color change (or excessive make-up), American legal system etc apart from his speciality - amazing music and some out of the world dance.

I personally think MJ introduced America and englees (its not a mistake, people who listened to MJ were branded the englees kind in our times) music to India. Dangerous and Beat it were the favorites in farewells, dance competitions, culturals until I graduated and even now may be. Who can forget screaming "ALL I WANNA SAY IS THEY DONT REALLY CARE ABOUT US" in buses during excursions? I bet everyone who loves dance tried the walk/skate twist around routine in our bedrooms in front of TV. He opened the doors to the American world, their music, their movies and their lives. He made a PrabhuDeva, and millions of aspiring PrabhuDevas. Most of our music directors and choreographers have him to thank for "inspiring" music and extraordinary dance moves.

Good Bye, King of Pop, Legendary Dancer and an Exemplary artist, may your soul have atlast found the peace it seemed to have been searching for years.

Tulips in the backyard

WELL, After a hiatus of 6 months, here I am, back with something to write about. As I mentioned earlier, we have made a move to Finland, (Its near lapland, land of Santaclaus, and is actually very close to the Arctic Pole). The country is miniscule when compared to India and the population is just abt the size of the population of one of our big cities. Its cold here throughout the year, I think Jackets and hats are like hands and legs for these people. When we came in March, the place was covered in Snow. We are living in an individual house, and the place is a radical change from the busy streets of Tnagar :). I really started appreciating the beauty of this place only in May, when the snow faded away and the Sun started staying longer. Our backyard has transformed with lush green grass.

The apple tree!

The Tulips!

Even Namma oor Saamandhi!

The owners of this place has done a tremendous job in landscaping the yard, with beautiful multi-colored tulips, a few rose bushes, 3 apple trees (u cant believe the feeling when u know u have apple trees in your garden), spring onion shrubs and for my turn, I planted some coriander which is also coming well.Its amazing when u wake up to the sound of sparrows and cute black birds, my son has made friends with a little rabbit and a squirrel that comes everyday at lunch time.We get to enjoy this only for the next 3 months, after which the place will become cold and chilly again. But, for whatever time it is, it is bliss. Its my own eden. Here are the pictures.

Fear

While I am typing this, PK is out on a team dinner at Fisherman's cove. I am just not myself, my usual easiness abt him having dinners outside is not there today. Instead, I am just tensed and hoping he would be soon as soon as possible. Now, Oberoi, or Fcove, Wasabi or Southern Spice, everything seems equally vulnerable to terrorism.

Until 2 weeks ago, 5 Star hotels were a symbol of prestige. A place for celebration, enjoyment, opulence - to an extent, publicity and what not. But now, the new factor of "fear" has joined in. I still am not able to stop from feeling queasy when I think of planning a lunch date in Taj or Park Sheraton. The very fact that it can happen anywhere is frightening, and what remained so long as a comparably secure place than local joints, is no longer like that. If there can be one reason that I would be angry at God, it wud be for what happened in Mumbai. But whats the choice, I can only pray shamelessly to him, that such a thing does not ever happen again. No matter which country, the feeling would be the same in this respect. 20 years ago, there was less money movement, but atleast people did not contemplate to go shopping over weekends, because there was a terror scare around in the city. I liked those days better.

Words

"Apple". "Papaya". "Bottle". "Anna".Mundane words. But, they have a whole new feel, when you hear it the first time, from a baby. For it just spurts out at an unexpected moment, and you feel thoroughly accomplished at the utterance of such a small word. I felt elated when my son first pointed at his feeding bottle and told me what it was. Same when wondering blogger's kid shouted "apple" on the phone while we were talking. True, kids just change our life forever. I dont have time for a lot of things I wish to do, its been ages since PK and I had a social life, I have just stopped planning on even small things like I need to go to naidu hall tomorrow, for God knows when my son is planning on a cranky outburst. Still, at times, when I get a toothy smile for some mischief done, when I see him do hip movement for the "nakka mukka " tune, when he just comes and pats me on my shoulder as though trying to put me to sleep, I feel its worth all of it.

New Gen Friendship

I just heard from a relative the other day that her undergrad studying daughter had gone to 3 stores to look for a diwali dress, came back with nothing, for nothing suited her like. It seems she wanted something really hep, while her mom felt the budget was way out of her line. When asked why she wud want something so affluent, the reason she gave was she was trying to "fit in".Now, this is when I started to think back. Does that mean that she was too embarassed to move with a crowd that dressed in modest manner? or does that mean that the so called group that she was trying to fit into cared just about their friends' appearance than their persona?

looking back, I was way too lucky on this front. Mine is almost a rags to riches story, though rags part is not all bad as it sounds.Every one of my close friends know how I was in college, the place I lived at and the change over that has opened to me over the past eight years, thanks to the wonderful west and an awesome hubby. But my friends have not changed a bit. As far as I know, they all were doing quite well than me but never seemed to mind it. Sometimes I was secretly embarassed to invite them to my house, for it was much smaller and lower in standards than what they were living in. However, they were quite matured to just not show any of it to me, spent as much time in my house as they did in theirs, and had the same clean fun.Even if I had a little bit of complex abt my way of life, I lost it in their company. At the same time, when I had a headstart in my career, they were there, encouraging me, visiting my parents when I was abroad and giving me the kind of support that I cud never dream of. Today, when I am reasonably well settled, they are still the same cheerful self, making me laugh day in and day out, The point is with my friends, I never had to "fit in:, I feel sorry for the girl. I only wish she realises what she has lost.

Everything has a First Time

Can anyone have a "Writer's Block" even before you can start writing? Thats probably what I have.May be it simply means that I may not be good at this, but as you see, I dont let such revelating thoughts spoil my drive to do something.Now, all of a sudden, it became like "here a blog, there a blog every where a blog blog iyya iyya oo" (u can't quote from Brian Adams when u listen to nursery rhymes atleast a 100 times a day, thanks to my one year old) and I just felt that I should have one too! So, when I saw the "Create a Blog" sign while viewing wondering blogger's post, I clicked. Well, Its been a long time since I signed in to anything and was baffled to see a whole bunch of things I need to do create a blog. I just started filling in the boxes one after another, and in a matter of minutes I had a blog of my own and I had called it "Touring Blogger". Actually I wanted it to be my signature. Not without a reason though... Thanks to PK, we have been doing quite some touring and we are also planning to make a countrywide move.

Now, I had a link, I had a header, but had no clue what to write. Lazy blogger is high funda, one who can write about anything- from american politics to avial recipes with great ease. Busy blogger is quite funny, persona reflecting in words too. Wondering blogger finally gave me the idea to treat this blog like my diary. That sounded good, and until I reveal it to PK, I can even talk abt him in it :).Well here goes the first post, may be its a little long, but still its my first.