C'est La Vie;That's life

There's only a thin, pencil, marginal, fine line between the two. Let me clarify. You see people with a lot of pride in who they are and what they do. These are the ones that not only sound confident, but also act that way in whatever they do. Graceful and giving others a chance to talk. More often, they don't even care what you think of them. You take one look at that them and go....."Wow, I'd kill someone to get that smug, smart look". They are our ideal idols, gurus, role-models....you get the picture. On the other hand, you see the other kind of people. Lots of self-confidence. Check. But wait a minute, what's this tagging along? A nasty overdose of attitude. Hmmph. Now, the scale tips all the way to a different category - arrogance. People who are immediate put-offs and downright annoying. If they are in an airplane seated next to you, jumping off into the troposphere doesn't seem to be a bad idea to you at all. Hey, at least birds don't brag. Get

Of the world of books, I mean. It's an ethereal feeling to slip into a world weaved in the over-active mind of a writer, completely immerse in that realm for hours together, mesmerized by a story and be one with whatever the characters are playing out that personal drama just for you and you alone and....and....and.... just when you are all wired up and trying to desperately know what happens in the next few lines - one loud, big snap. You have been woken up from your trance and slowly realize that someone is yelling or shouting at you. You have been forced to slip out, into the real, aka boring world. Reason? Maybe lunch's ready or there's yet another mindless chore. Whatever. Point is, you have been rudely interrupted and suspended momentarily in time. But, chill. You can and will always go back as soon at the earliest. And, prepare to embark that special journey all over again. So tell me, are you getting ready to slip in ?

Yeah, just like the Spiderman song, except for missing in action - a super hero sprawling his webbed feet on our windows. Talking about spider man and his neighborhood, here's an unfriendly thought. Ok, he gets bad guys and saves the world, blah blah, but can you imagine opening your curtains every day and peer into a grotesquely-dressed, not even remotely spider-like, eeriely-masked man staring at you? Eeeeek. Back to reality, our neighborhood is a very child-centric, a la Sesame street style. Only a brightly feathered, nasal-voiced yellow bird and an unbelievably over-hyped, shockingly high-priced, ridiculously-talking red moppet are missing from this pretty picture. What? You say, enough with the parental vent and the way too many hyphenated adjectives? Ok, fine. So be it. Strict sentiments from now on. Any given day, you can come around our locale and see children riding their bikes, scooters, roller skates or maybe hop scotch, hide and go-seek. Shrieking voices, chatters, whi

Our mugs a.k.a faces can be very fascinating. If you think about it, with a finite set of two eyes, one nose, one mouth and two ears, shape of the face and ok, let's throw in two cheek bones too - the permutation and combination of all of the above ends up what's unique to each of us. Forget the science, just aesthetically, it's mind-boggling. Don't you agree? Also, how we identify a familiar face in a crowd, instantly go through our brain's database, recognize that mug along with a name and that too, all under a minute (for most people) is beyond wonderment. For bumblers like me though, sometimes it could take longer than a minute.... or othertimes, how about....it could take, hmmm, maybe never ? Warning: An oxymoronic "funnily-sad", but true story coming up. I can never, ever forget the night of my wedding party. Maybe it was the bright lights or rich food, whatever, but I felt that my grey cells were starting to melt. So much was thawing away that when

Bored of the monotony. Take the visual effect around you. Same well-manicured trees, streets everywhere. Same stores, malls, gas stations. Skyscrapers, buildings. Houses look the same too. People are not wearing clothes any more colorful than dull, gray pigeons. We might as well be the largest collection of human clones ever. And, I bet you can go anywhere in America and it'll be the same. Save few vibrant cities like Frisco or the Big Apple. Everyday life is more of a humdrum. Same chores, same work. Restaurants, parties are hardly different. No variety, whatsoever. If you listen closely, you can even hear a droning, machine sound in the background. You say, what about taking a break? Yeah, vacations are great, but you got to return sometime. And, let the noisy drone begin. Maybe, there is something called "too much of a routine"? Interestingly, when we moved from India and landed in the US, this was what appealed to me most. I loved the certainty that life gives, a guar