Me: You are like a pinata.
Her: You mean full of sweets? Aww..!!
Me: *No, I want to hit you repeatedly with a stick* Yes.

Favorite posts - Part 1

Comments are so helpful. Appreciative comments make me want to write more. I love how some bloggers (I am looking at you cookie's crumbs ;)) leave the most thoughtful comments on the posts. I find it a bit lame to write a simple "good post" or just an "awesome post" under those comments. I read each and every post in the 37 blogs I follow on Feedly. I read the post write a comment and then just think about how odd it looks and just erase the whole thing. Or I post a comment and just think how ridiculous it might sound and not comment on any posts I read that day. I have some insecurity issues I need to sort out I guess.

Anyhoo, I thought it would be a great idea to just list all the posts I loved every week or two. So today I have for you some posts which I think you should read and some blogs which I think you should follow (If you are not already which I doubt). So here is the list. Enjoy.. :)

1) Soumya of Life of Leo has a story which is being put up in parts which are really interesting. These are the parts which have been put up so far.
Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

2) Cookie crumbs has a really nice series going on about the 99 things that make her scream from joy. I loved this and I have started my list and the fact that I cannot go past 20 really gets my goat. And cookie, I am still waiting for the last part in this list.

3) I recently came across this amazing blog which is called A Walk Across the Bridge. I have read almost all the posts in this blog. But I keep coming back to read two of my favorite posts, Please and Is he ?
If you are not already reading her blog, do go read.

4) This is a blog which I have been following for quite some time now, I have three words "just go read". I just have too many favorite posts in this blog.

5) This witty post by Sreesha of Rain and a Book (and Petrichor and Clouds) which I loved reading and which I read twice but don't know what exactly to comment. Go read it here.

So this is the end of this list. I really hope to write more such lists. I also want to discover new blogs and writers. Comment below and let me know if you have any suggestions.

tahtah :)

You again.

The first drops of rain come down and the sweet smell of the earth is everywhere.
The weather could not be more beautiful.
I am huddled up in my bed with a big sweater and a cup of hot chocolate
Through the open window, I can smell the rain.
I think nothing can make me happier.

And then I think about you. You can.

But you won't and I think nothing can make me sadder.

Not the petrichor of the post rain evening.
Not the lukewarm cup of chocolate.
Not the big sweater under which I have slowly started to sweat.
Nothing.

Losing weight and all the drama that unfolds - #2

It has been exactly one year since I wrote this post. Sometime after I wrote this, this diet stopped working for me. I read somewhere that it happens. Over the next 5 months, I gained 2 kilos back and also lost it. After that I went to attend a friend's wedding in Kolkata, I gained 4 kilos. I ate rasgullas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I hogged on misti doi like my life depended on it. So I may have got a little, teeny, tiny bit out of control. I could not go on a diet after this. I stuck to my diet portions of food and walked whenever I could and I stopped fretting and checking my weight every other day also the job had started weighing me down and food was the only good thing going on in my life. After a job change, now I am back on track. I am now back to the weight logged in the old post. Yay! me. This was my goal weight one in the 51 in 501 list. :)

Some things I am following now:

1) Gave up juice, I don't love them, but I would drink it if my friend is or if I am offered one in a party or something. I would drink a large cup of coke or Pepsi with burger or pizza (I should just stop eating burger or pizza right ?). Now, replaced all these with water. No more juice or any kind of drinks.

2) Gave up biscuits. I love Bourbon biscuits. But I don't eat them anymore. I don't buy them, don't eat them if offered.

3) Go grocery shopping with a full stomach and a bottle of water. Previously I used to go grocery shopping after 2-3 hours of breakfast and never carried a bottle of water with me which usually ended up with me in the billing counter with at least 3 types of biscuits and 2 cans of some kind of drink which I finished up as soon as I reached home.

4) No more sugar. I have coffee two times a day. With milk. I would like to say it is a small cup, but it is usually a big cup. I have slowly started adding less and less sugar in my coffee and probably by the end of this week or beginning of next week, I will be having my coffee without any sugar. :)

5) Counting calories. I check the calories on everything now. If I am craving for something, I look up the calories for the said thing and calculate how many minutes of walking and exercise is needed to burn those calories and this usually kills off that craving right then and there. Thanks to my sister for this tip.

6) Detox drink. A big bottle of water with a lemon squeezed into it and a few crushed mint leaves (because only lemon gives bad breath) two or three days in a week is enough I guess. Don't take my word on this. You can do a little research of your own. I started getting cold because of this so had to stop after just two weeks.

I tried to give up chocolate and ice creams also, but this is not possible for me. Especially since Tender Coconut ice cream from Naturals Ice Cream has bought a special meaning to my life.

That's about weight loss and thank God there has not been much drama from anyone around.

So like I say, if this helps just one person out there, I will be happy. :)

Blood things

Yellow things and red things,
Blue things and red things.

Your favorite colors yellow and blue,
I adorned your room with just to please you.

Now look all those things have gone red.
Just. Like. You.

Look what you made me do

Look what you made me do.
With a wreath in my hand, I stand near you.
Your body a shadow of your former self,
Your eyes closed, you could just be sleeping.
You look like a very ill person on his way to recovery. Maybe ?
But we knew it was hopeless all along, dint we ?
Even though you insisted otherwise, I knew.
Look where we are now,
Me standing near your coffin, thinking about all your pleas to not do it.
Look what you made me do.

Life update.

1. So I have a 51 in 501 days list of goals now. Making that list has brought a lot of things into perspective. I keep saying that I want to do this, I want to get there, but I never seem to actually achieve any of it. Also, people who are trying to get me gifts can have a looksie and life will be easier for both of us.

2. My blog has crossed 20 thousand views. Yay !! I am also sure that 19 thousand are my own because I love reading my old blog posts.

3. I finally got my hands on "Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book", a coloring book for adults. It takes my mind off of all the things which frustrate me, but personally I find reading novels more relaxing. But I love coloring, the finished drawing makes me feel so proud of myself and then I do that thing where I compare it so I go online and check how other people have colored it so beautifully I am back to square one on the pride thing.

4. I got a decent internet connection. Previously I had a 2G data card which tested my patience so much that one not-so-fine day I took it and threw it at the wall and it broke (Just kidding, I stepped on it and the elephant that I am, it broke). So to complete the 16th goal in my 51 in 501 list, I have to get my laptop repaired.

5. I have decided that I will be actively blogging from now onward. As I write this, I can almost hear the universe conspiring against me. Hopefully, I can keep writing.

6. I have started and abandoned the #100DaysOfHappiness challenge on Instagram. I had quit on it in between for a week, and started it again after PeeVee and Sreesha coaxed me to, but I was having a really bad time at work and nothing seemed to make me happy. I will be starting it again sometime in the future and I hope I will be able to finish it the next time. The other reason I stopped is because I felt that it was slowly turning into a 100DaysOfOkayness. I have got a whole post planned for this, so will come back to it later.

So, how are you doing lovely people of the blogosphere ? :)

Reading

I started reading when I was 6 years old. Not exactly read, but I used to go over the pictures in the comic books and make up my own stories. Slowly I started reading those comic books and my dad used to buy Archies and Tinkle for us. I read only comics till I was 11. My first proper novel was Agatha Christie's "Murder in Mesopotamia". I read it twice. The English was difficult and so were some never heard before words. I kept referring to a dictionary for the first few chapters, and then my dad saw my struggle and told me to just go on reading and to understand the context in which it has been used to understand what the word meant. I loved it. I loved the book, the author and promised myself that I would read all her books. I started reading Enid Blyton's "Secret Seven" and "Famous Five" also. I still remember pestering my dad to buy me more books written by Enid Blyton. That is when I chanced upon Harry Potter. I found this book in my cousin's car, my dad was busy speaking with him and I saw this book peeping out of the seat pouch and I started reading it and asked if I can borrow it and he told that he might never read it and asked me to to keep it for myself. I still have this book. I read the second book first and liked it so much that I made my dad buy me the first book and I was hooked. Harry Potter is my first love and will forever be my favorite book. My dad likes legal thriller, medical thriller and thriller in general, so we had a lot of books by John Grisham, Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, David Baldacci, Ken Follet, and I read through them all. I had a 5 month gap after I finished my PUC, before joining engineering, I made full use of this by archiving my dad's entire collection of books. There were over 600 books. Now you know where I get my love for books from. After this it has been a long reading journey..

I have never been able to give a proper review of any book I have read. Some times I give a book a 5 star rating on Goodreads and read some of the reviews and realize that some parts of the book were really a drag and in some there were loopholes which everyone was pointing out. I then realized that for me a good book is all about the way it ended. If the ending was something which I liked then it is an awesome book. So this is me.

I don't think I love anything more than books. Books have taught me and made me what I am today and I love them all, the good ones and the bad ones.

Love

"Love was the rain, drenching you in happiness. It was the sun shining in on your darkness. Love was the wind, blowing away your worries. It was the earth below you, supporting you always. Love was the sky, always there to look up to. It was the clouds, drifting around making you smile. Love was the laughter in your heart. It was a glow oozing out of you. Love was meant to heal. It was supposed to be surreal and it was.
Love changed.
Love felt like the storm, running you down. Love became the scorching sun you wanted to run away from. Love became a tornado, spinning you in circles, stopping you from moving forward on your own. Love was the bump in the road which kept making you trip. Love became the dark sky, not even a single star shining, and looking at it it makes you want to cry. Love became a hole in your heart and it let out all the laughter. It broke you and the pain was all too real."

Inspired from this quote by Neil Gaiman & this video bought to my notice by a cutie called PeeVee here.

Rescue

I want you to come to me, break every wall that stands between us and come to me.
I am standing here alone, with self worn bandages on my hands, my shoulder aches.
Come rescue me.

Break the walls you have built around yourself, like I have broken mine.
That wall you built so that you don't love me so much that you go weak in the knees when you see me.
The other one which was meant to not make me fall in love with you.

If you love me now, you already know the walls are paper thin.
Tear through them, burn them.
Come rescue me.

P.S : Have you ever written something and it made a lot of sense when you wrote it and you feel that it would make no sense to people who will read it, but still you want to put it out there because you really want to see if someone out there can understand it and say "so relate-able".
P.P.S : Fictional