Faith, like we can understand!

Faith, is knowing that Danny Cartwright will eventually have his innocence proved and that the true murderers will get more than their deserved punishment at the end of the story, no matter how unabashedly they lie in court, how dangerous their plots to keep him at bay are, or how heavily the odds are stacked against Danny's freedom!

Faith, is believing that Jeffrey Archer knows what he's doing, and its our business to just read on, enjoying the twists, because when the climax comes, itll be worth sitting back and enjoying!
After all, Jeffrey Archer knows best, and if you cant trust him with his story, what can you?

Everybody's Free (to feel good)

Blog-surfing, which is currently my unconfessed hobby, led me yesterday to Ranjana's Blog, and from there to "The Sunscreen Song". It is what sounds like a commencement speech, set to music. In fact it is not a real commencement speech (though it should be!), but rather a column that appeared in the Chicago Tribune on June 1, 1997 entitled "Advice, Like Youth, probably wasted on the youth" by staff writer Mary Schmich.  

Sometime around Thursday, July 31, 1997, Mary's article found it's way onto the internet in the form of an email hoax, claiming to be the 1997 commencement address of Kurt Vonnegut to MIT grads. The real address that year was actually delivered by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on June 5. 

A year later, the email re-circulated claiming to be Kurt's commencement address to the Class of 1998! The email caught the attention of Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, who eventually tracked the source of the speech to Schmich, and bought the rights to the words to turn it into a song. He took Quindon Tarver's "Everybody's Free (to Feel Good)" song, remixed it, and hired Sydney actor Lee Perry to read Schmich's "speech". 

The end result became the seven-minute long "Sunscreen Song". The song received heavy airplay from American radio stations nationwide after KNRK in Portland aired an edited (about 4 1/2 minute) version in the spring of 1999 -- about the time of graduation that year. According to Luhrmann's label, Capitol Records, it became the most requested song on radio morning shows in Atlanta and Philadelphia 

So, here's the song, Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen, by Mary Schmich:  

 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99
Wear Sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, Sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.
oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded
But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked...

You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday 

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing 

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss 

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself 

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements

Stretch

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium; Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding
anniversary. What ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own

Dance... even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good 

Be nice to your siblings they are the best link to your past, and the people most likely to stick with you in the future

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get the more you need the people you knew when you were young 

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft

Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths. Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders

Respect your elders

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund; maybe you have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40, it will look 85

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it

Advice is a form of nostalgia; dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth. 

But trust me on the sunscreen

 

 

 

Tagged! again...

Okay Iv changed the Tag quite a lot. Just to suit myself... but then, So what? In case you want the tag as its supposed to be, Check out Rama


Ten random things about myself

I want to talk as if there wont be any tomorrow, but at the same time I often wish people would just leave me alone. I can talk about anything in the world. Like the solution for rising fuel costs to marriage and love advice. I might soon start giving sex advice . Who said you need experience to tell others what to do.

I know Im not ‘normal’, but I don’t think I really mind, and anyway, Iv learnt to live with it!

I seem to like the things noone else does, have a general distaste for the ‘in-things’ and a complete lack of understanding of fashion.

Im very much what you’d call a poseur. A wannabe. But of course, I manage to make sure noone else notices.

I don’t take myself seriously anymore. I used to, but realised it wasn’t worth much. So today I really don’t give a damn if someone spreads stories behind my back, ‘thinks’ I am a fool, or doesn’t want to talk to me. I call it bliss not to be bothered.

I ‘believe’ in God. No actually, I ‘know’ God. And I think that makes a helluva lot of difference!

Talking of God, I feel Iv been abundantly blessed in life. Everything that happened now looks like a really wise Man way ahead of time carefully planned it! Than ya, buddy up there!

I really don’t believe in sorry’s. I don’t say sorry to friends. If you make me say sorry, you’re not a friend anymore. But I don’t insist people say sorry to me. All of us make mistakes, don’t we?

I have this amazing knack of catching the wrong friends. For some reason, the friends Iv been most obsessed with are the ones who’v never really respected the person I am.

I too am a hopeless romantic. Staunchly refusing to believe that love can happen only in movies and that love can be just a feeling. I will fall in love. One day. I surely will (Oh God, this already sounds like a closing statement)

Nine things I wish I wasn’t/didn’t

Have to attend concerts (which is what I love the most) alone!

Keep losing all the friends Iv really cared for. Be forever on this pursuit of eternal friendship!

Believe (and keep on believing) that I could do things noone else could. Believe that I was created to do something only I could. (well, it started long before I read Harry Potter, so you cant attribute it to that) ….(Oh freak I cant believe I just saw a Nike ad saying ‘Take it to the next level – Just do it! lol….LOL)

Have to motivate myself so much. I must be the most inspirational person. Almost every night, for the last two years, Iv resolved to be more disciplined and hard working. I try in the morning also. It just doesn’t happen.

Surrounded by so many people who can ‘work’ for 8 hours everyday, who are so disciplined, and who seem to want to excel at work.

Be so ambitious. No, I wish I was more ambitious the way everyone else is. All I seem to have are a lot of crazy ambitions with just one common denominator – ‘Its something noone else will/can do’.

So emotional. So tender hearted. So selfless when it comes to keeping a relationship alive. That I wouldn’t feel so bad about having to hurt others, howmuchever I was hurt!.

A social Outcast. And so out of place in ‘high society’.

Find it so difficult to enjoy myself in a group. I just cant seem to. To make loud jokes that are funny in the company of friends!.

Eight things Im wondering right now

In the good old days (uh, ie, the days before I was born) they had the guts to make movies without happy ‘all’s well that’s ends well’ endings. And ya, Malayalam movies were damn good those days (ok, this time its about the 90s – when Actors didn’t look so glamorous, and didn’t have an image to live upto, and when actresses wore the clothes viewers could also wear, and when stars took pain to talk and act like you and me on screen, rather than the other way round.

Lizards look scary. Oh ya, they do. Especially the ones in my part of the world (a.k.a, the walls of a certain bedroom in a wooden house in a kerala village)

They’ve got balls to still call this ‘Gods own country’

A lot of people spend time trying to convince God why they deserve to pass their exams. Im right now telling Him that I don’t deserve to pass this exam on merit, but please, because, I really don’t want to go through this rigour another time. And anyway, how much I know doesn’t really matter to Him, if He wanted to get me through.

How my life would have been if I had actually passed CA Inter the first time I appeared. Sometimes failure can be the best blessing in your life! How different my life would have been if I hadn’t been so fascinated by the internet. If I didn’t have people to mail. If I ddnt have started blogging. If I didn’t meet some of the friends who were around when I went through the hardest of times. If I was still stuck up in kerala. I shudder to even think of it.

Talking about blogs and the net, WTH is wrong with Rama (I mean, generally)

Why is it that Im always an under-performer at work?

Okay Iv written so much. I wonder how many people will actually bother to read this whole thing!!!!!


Seven things that cross my mind a lot

Will I ever make a friend I can have and cherish for life!

If I actually get married, will I have a ‘lived happily ever after’ story to tell, or will it be another of those cases that just don’t work out in spite of your best efforts.

Will I have kids that treat me like I treated my parents when I was fifteen. Oh freak, thats the scariest feeling?

Will I realise that all my ideas are actually just idealistic cravings only when its too late to go back and start all over again!

No, wait a minute, am I saying that all these cross m mind the most? No. What crosses my mind the most these days is whether God will actually pull the plug this time and decide Ill have to pay for my excesses. In other words, that, I’ll have to write this blasted exam another time. Oops, God, please, just one last time!

What’s for dinner?

How can I be so cool and relaxed in life when everybody else is worrying their heads off? Or am I more than ‘just a little abnormal’


Six things Id like to do before I die.

Meet 'the thousandth man’.

Travel without a destination. Just a backpack to last me till I decide Im sick of living out of it, and hopefully a companion!

Report from Wimbledon.

Conduct a 300 voice choir, Probably even a full-fledged orchestra.

Be a prime-time news reader on TV. (okay, I guess that’s asking for too much, but maybe I am a little naïve) and host a live quiz show!

Write a book unlike any other book ever written. (Of course, I don’t know what Im talking about right now, but if I write a book, it will have to be unique)


Five turn on’s

Music! Four part harmonies, western classical, the 70s pop, violin symphonies. Music that tickles the soul. Conversations about music.

Smiles – oops this should’v been right on top!

Beautiful faces, especially of the feminine variety

Ideas! Arguments. Something to think about. Something to discuss. Good lyrics in songs, good dialogues in movies, good thoughts in books, I hang onto every syllable.

The smell of the rain, the chill of the breeze, the darkness of the night. They rouse the romantic in me!


Four Turn off’s

Secretive people, people who hide more feelings than they show. Actually it makes me more nervous than anything else.

Frowns. Faces without smiles!

Too much of makeup and too less of clothes :-D

Loud music!


Three ways to win my heart

Talk to me! That’s a general rule. No matter what else you can do for me, if you cant spare some time for a decent conversation, don’t expect appreciation :(

Talk to me! Oh ya, long conversations, personal conversations. Open, frank ‘straight from the heart talk. Put up with my, sometimes even excessive, bragging. Appreciate stuff like good music and everything else I take a fancy to. Talk over dinner, take a walk together just to chatter!

Talk to me - :) no, no. just kidding – It should be something like ‘show you care’. A ‘just like that’ call, or a wassup message. Something to show you thought of me, and something to show you enjoy the relationship!


Two smileys that describe me

:-)

:>) - that’s the yahoo messenger smiley with the devils face…. Yeah, I love getting under someone else’s skin. The only problem is quite often, I get into people’s skin and get out of their lives – nevertheless I still :>) a lot)

One confession

Contrary to what people think about me, Im not a very brave person. I would be the most unsure person you would have met, if you really look behind this mask of self assurance. I fret about the most trivial of things. Most of the time, the ‘strong’ decisions I take would be the only sane course of action. And when people think Iv got balls to ‘be different’, Im just praying things wont really get out of hand. In fact, so often I would just wish problems away, and I turn yellow when faced with the possibility of getting into a real fight.

PS : The only time I stand real strong is beside friends. And that’s the only time I haven’t really got my due!



Now finally, to distribute tags.... In case you find your name on the link list to the right, and you havent done this tag in any form, that means you're tagged!
happy blogging!

The Quantum of Solace

The hardest thing I've ever done is keep believing
There's someone in this crazy world for me
The way that people come and go through temporary lives
My chance could come and I might never know

I used to say "No promises, let's keep it simple"
But freedom only helps you say goodbye
It took a while for me to learn that nothing comes for free
The price I paid is high enough for me

I know I ask perfection of a quite imperfect world
And fool enough to think that's what I'll find

So here I am with pockets full of good intentions
But none of them will comfort me tonight
I'm wide awake at 4 a.m. without a friend in sight
I'm hanging on a hope but I'm all right

(Another Carpeneter's song. Its amazing the way they come up with songs that make you think "Hey, wasnt that just me?")

*

Iv finally reached the stage in life where you not only stop, look back and notice, but actually accept that maybe things may not be the way they make it out to be. Accept that people can be cruel (though a lot of time maybe without meaning to be) and that you have to get on with and in spite of it. That spreading cheer and happiness and all that jazz cannot be a goal in itself. And that you've got to give your own self some self respect and love.

But surprisingly, once I got myself to accept it, I found it isnt as difficult to live with. And in fact, the last week, Iv been more relaxed than ever... hehe, i told you na, Im done with whining :)

Ok, I know this is far too abstract to make any sort of sense to you. The explanation in my next post, whenever that is.


PS: The above song is actually titled "I know I need to be in love" . I removed that part of the lyrics because well, that wasnt the conclusion I arrived at. But in the course of writing this, I just noticed that never in my life so far have I never really considered being in a serious relationship. The fabled 'love affair". Maybe thats the only way to get what Im looking for, but right now, I dont want to disturb the solace... Haha, Im almost tempted to call it the quantum of solace!
Well, i think I will... so here's the "fooled you" in case you thought I was gonna write about James Bond or his new femme's!

50, Retired

So, another year’s almost done! And going by what everyone seems to remark, you would actually think that God was actually scissoring out an hour here and an hour there, just when we weren’t looking!

Well, anyways, it’s gone by way too fast for comfort! You’d almost wonder if the Old man upstairs is upto something sinister. As if He was in a rush to get the days done and over with!!!! Or maybe He’s just sick of laughing at the frivolity we put on display. And anyway, I occasionally do get the feeling that he wouldn’t want his angels, or whatever it is that He actually calls his trusted lieutenants, see a lot of the stuff that is on display on earth these days!

Well, anyway, a lot of us are just taking it in our strides. Some of us, like me, have just accepted that there wont be the proverbial 24 hours that we all take for granted anymore! The daily schedule is virtually halved, with the included half consisting of the stuff’s that you really cant avoid, like reporting at work on time, all the choir practices and concerts around the city, and oh my god, we’re forgetting the 7 hours of sleep! Eventually some things don’t get done, but then, hey how can you blame me for God being pissed off with the rest of you? And ya, its God we’re talking about, in case you didn’t notice!

Ok, so back to the reason why I started the banter! (which reminds of dear Princess, she pulled one back on God, writing a christmas plus Happy new year post three weeks before time. Just in case He decided to cancel of the rest of the days of the year, and just announce it on TV or something like hat!) No, this is not another year end post on how ‘the year gone by was a bag of goodies all designed by the Hand that knows all, though some goodies were disguised as pepper flavoured toffees’. Forget it. It wasn’t and it sucked! It was an experience that can only be described as the real fire test for every dirty thing the world can throw at you. Oh come to think of it. I really don’t know why I had to go through most of the stuff I did last year. What joy could anyone have gotten in depriving me of every damned friend I could ever connect to? What joy could anyone, say Anyone, get in making me feel like the most unwanted person in the world. What sarcastic pleasure in seeing me prove that I will never enjoy anything in life that is even remotely ‘work’!

Oh freak. There goes my resolution not to crib! Well, not to the purpose of this post. Actually there are multiple purposes, and counting.

To start with this is my 50th post. Okay that’s fifty posts in a year and a half. That also means Iv enriched the world with fifty pieces of so-called literary experiments. Two, this is the post to mark my break from blogging. Iv been considering quitting for sometime now. Quitting ditching out trash on a weekly basis. I mean, does it do anyone any good? But whenever I think of it, there’s always some good idea coming out. But then, of late, everything ends in a whine like this. So there goes my blog for the next five months. Finally, this marks the end of my whining. Okay that was the decision made before my Christmas break. And its not working to the extent intended. But this time its with more resolve. Its done and over with! The year. Iv seen the worst. Nothing could matter anymore. And 2008, Iv arrived.

So that’s it folks from here, for the next half year. When Im back, itll be with a new look and a new story!
Happy new year and Happy Easter!

Update 1 : Its been the perfect start to a year.. its jus been all goody-goody...

Hey Buddy up there! thanks a million.. Luv ya! I thought You had given up on me....