Life - or something like it

Oh! You Atheists and Agnostics please do not run away from this post, I am not here to preach about God. This post is all about how a casual walk with a couple of youngsters turned out be an interesting one hour, trying to answer difficult questions and admiring the thought process of the younger generation. Yesterday, Hubs and I took our friends kids, a girl aged 8 years (M) and a boy aged 10 years(K) for a walk near the Lancaster canal. Our friends were going to join us there in some time.  The kids are boisterous and intelligent, always full of questions and curious observations. It all started with their recent fad of making wands out of sticks, a la Harry Potter style. Being a Harry Potter fan myself, we discussed the spells you can cast with your wand and Hubs created new ones like 'Archimedes Galileo'. After some discussion about 'How Earth was considered flat by people many centuries ago' , the conversation turned to God. 'M' was walking with me so I

Just like Indian movies have their famous lines 'Kitne Admi the? (How many men were there) from the movie 'Sholay' and 'Mere pass maa hai' from the movie 'Deewar', here are a few of my personal favourites from some specatcular English movies. 1) "Houston, we have a problem."  This is a line from the movie Apollo 13 where stranded astronauts on a mission to the moon struggle to survive in a crippled aircraft some 205000 miles from the earth. 2) "My mama always said, 'Life is (was) like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." The words made famous by Tom Hanks from the movie 'Forrest Gump'. A story of a simple minded man who proved determination, love and courage are the most important things in life and you can achieve anything. 3) "After all, tomorrow is another day!"  Scarlett O'hara from the movie  'Gone with the Wind' made these words famous. An epic tale of a woman&

I have been living in the UK for more than 2.5 years now. Here are a few of the pictures of my trips across this beautiful country. Ingleton Waterfalls The famous Ingleton Waterfalls Trail has some of the most spectacular waterfall and woodland scenery in the North of England. The trail is 4.5 miles/8 kilometres through ancient oak woodland and magnificent Dales scenery via a series of spectacular waterfalls and geological features. Crook O' Lune The River Lune meanders through a timeless landscape of lush pastures and ancient stone villages, many of which feature historic churches and wonderful traditional pubs. The Lune valley provided poetic inspiration for the likes of Thomas Gray, John Ruskin and William Worsdworth and locations such as Crook O’ Lune, a shepherd’s crook-shaped bend in the river, moved the landscape artist J M W Turner to produce numerous rustic masterpieces. Snowdonia - Wales Mount Snowdon, in Welsh, Yr Wyddfa, meaning 'the tumulus', domin

Here are a few pictures of the Lancaster Canal which is a stone's throw away from my house. A beautiful and tranquil location for a walk, a cup of coffee and conversations.  How I envy these people, who live in these houses hugging the canal           A bright spring morning and the boat people are flocking to the canal The Water witch Pub Lancaster University Student Accommodation                               Yummy Cappuccino at The Water Witch Pub                                        The canal frozen in the winter                                                                               And here are a few funny signs Sign outside the Pub Sign at a desi/Indian store

Someone, quick..stop the Paparazzi.   Amit   has given me this Beautiful Award. Words fail me as I accept this award. Thank you dear friend from the bottom of my heart. I have been tagged too... Here are the rules of this tag : 1) Thank the person who gave you the award.  2) Paste the award on your blog. 3) Link the person who nominated you for the award. 4) Share   7 things you find to be beautiful around you . 5) Nominate 7 bloggers or more Points 1, 2 & 3 dun dun dun.... Now for the Tag... - The crisp beautiful sunshine peeking through the curtains in my house is a blessed sight. A hint that spring is on the way. - A loving smile on hubbies face when he reads my posts. - My parents voice on the phone. It brings back all the memories of childhood. - Nature in all its shades....(I simply love this place) Snowdonia -Wales - An unexpected call from a long lost friend who calls you after 15 years and your heart is filled with joy on hearing his voice. Where no explan

Lots of you visited my blog to read my last post. Even if you were here for some thrills, I am thankful that you stopped by, who am I to judge anyone when I can write about it. Its settled then, you are not mad at me for tricking you. I am glad we understand each other so well. For the past two days hubs and I have been praying for the speedy recovery of one of our loved one. She is a great lady and has been a support to us for the past year in this foreign country. We tried to find a cure for her illness but it seems that her time has come. We are not yet ready to say our goodbyes. My heart is heavy and I cannot breathe as I am all choked up. Okay.....I can't do this...I suck at this. I am talking about our car. It is surviving on borrowed time and very soon it will be joining the heap of dead cars. It is kinda old and I can't blame it for dying on us. Getting it repaired will cost us more than buying another second hand car. First time hubs encountered a problem, he t

I was  tagged by Shikha at Lonely in Space to do this tag some moons ago. Some secrets to reveal and some to fabricate :) Here it is folks: 1. What is your current obsession? 24- the tv series....I am watching all the seasons again. Damn it 'Jack Bauer'. 2. What are you wearing today? Too many layers. Shabby clothes all hidden under a smart black jacket. 3. What’s for dinner? Soup and toast. 4. What’s the last thing you bought? A chicken Sandwich 5. What are you listening to right now? Bollywood songs.....I love all the fast numbers. 6. What do you think about the person who tagged you? She has a beautiful way with words and she should blog often. 7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be? Somewhere in the Bahamas. 8. What are your must-have pieces for summer? Huh!! what is that? I have heard of it...  The British summer is  a mirage. 9. If you could go anywhere in the world fo

Gotcha ! I know you are rubbing your hands gleefully right now. Calm down, the word to remember is 'COULD'. I am not getting sued by anyone right now, but I might after I become a really famous blogger. The past few weeks, I have been in cyberspace so much that I have forgotten what life is. I swear, ask hubs. Just today, I was about to throw a vase at him thinking him to be a burglar. It had been so long, I actually had forgotten his face. Jokes apart. To be a blogger is tough. Everyday you need to think of new posts to torment your readers. You also want them to come back and get tormented over and over again so, you need to be constantly evolving. I started blogging just as a hobby but am now caught hook, line and sinker. Its addictive, because readers like you, motivate me to write. The world of Blogging is full of bumps, potholes and stop signs. Words like link referrals, tweet backs, SEO and track backs are thrown at you at surprising speed. Most of the time, I am trying

I first heard the word 'makeup' while reading novels. The sentences in the novels 'expertly applied makeup' or 'flawless makeup' always intrigued me. While growing up, my mother had a 'solitary' lipstick, which she promptly forgot to use. That lipstick was used on my elder sister and me as a 'rouge'(hideous blobs of red) to stain our cheeks and also as a lipstick. This was the makeup for the many school plays and dances, in which we participated. My first brush with actual makeup was, when I saw my eldest sister using a compact, lipstick, kohl pencil and mascara. I was not fascinated by it so much...just thought it as a natural part of being a grown up (I still had some catching up to do). That indifference slowly waned as I grew a bit older and started going to college. That time, my elder sis and I shared whatever bits and pieces of makeup we could buy. We shared our lipsticks and nail polishes. Having a separate arsenal was not viable as makeu

The other day, I asked hubs a question. Me: Sweety, do I nag a lot? Hubs: (A perplexed expression on his face) I am sure, I caught him off guard. I tend to do that most of the times. Not being a novice himself, he recovered quickly and said not at all dear. To tell you the truth, I was just doing live research for the post...ha In a relationship between any man and woman, we have already set our stereotypes. A beer drinking, football watching man, who does not give any heed to the woman. A harridan, whose main pleasure is to scream at the man to do chores. We do come across such people in our lives but there are people who have some tricks up their sleeves and do not have to convert their home & hearth into a battleground. You come to know of each other's likes and dislikes after living together for some years. You might on occasion want to escape from the mountain of housework and chores both of you are putting off. The problem happens when one of the parties has a different i

For all you globetrotters, here are a few pointers for people planning to travel to the queen's country. Each country has its own peculiarities. For e.g. India is a vibrant throbbing mass of humanity. It is exploding with colors, customs and smells. Travelers to India have to deal with a lot of customs they find curious. Similarly, if you are coming to UK you need to keep some things in mind. 1) Language : Yes, they do speak English here, you've heard right. There will be times though when you will shake your head and start feeling little bit like a blockhead. The local accent colors the language and makes it sound nothing like the 'Queen's' English. The farther you go away from London, the weirder the accent. God only will help you with the Scottish and Irish Accents. Do not get offended and bash someone up because they called you 'Lov' or 'Lovey'. This is not eve teasing. These are just terms of endearment used by people. 2) Cities : London is not

The pain was unbearable. It was coursing like a knife through her and all she could do was bite her lips and endure it. She kept waiting for relief and prayed feverishly for the end. Suddenly she saw a figure dressed in white moving towards her and she closed her eyes waiting for Salvation. She knew the end was near and was glad for it to get over. And suddenly the figure spoke 'please open wide', she heard a wrenching sound, blood gushed out and finally the rotten tooth was out. This is how one feels during a visit to the dentist. I have a love-hate relationship with the breed called Doctors. Not that I despise them, maybe hate is a strong word. Let's say I am unnerved by them. They are peculiar creatures, if you ask me. I have a strong doubt that along-with medicine they teach doctors, 'How to push the patient over the edge by giving blank expressions, after they ask you questions about your illness'. Very few people can shake a Doctor to his core and my Mom is on

Hubs and I made a short trip today afternoon to a town called Penrith in the county of Cumbria. It was a spur of the moment thing. Penrith is an hour away from Lancaster. We saw some spectacular views of snow covered terrain and mountains on the way. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. Misty Mountains The Journey Highway Paradise Vanilla Ice Intriguing Ruins Please do appreciate the fact that I have clicked all these pictures from a car moving at 80 Mph.