Gum chewing habits.

Yes, I chew the gum,very often. Chewing gum, ching-um, rubbery juicy thing. Anything you call it, I love it. You can say, I need gum to think, to write, to see performances/movies, to travel, to study, during mid-night strolls, while listening to music, while waiting, etc etc. In short, every activity that needs me to talk less. [Ha ha, not that i have not mastered the technique of talking while chewing the gum.]
It helps me de-stress, postpone hunger till real meals, refreshes me, helps me concentrate, makes me feel better...

Barring very few places, I turn up anywhere chewing like a ruminant. Given a chance to chew, I pounce on it. Everyday, while traveling, chewing is a must. You will always find a juicy fruit pack or orbit strip or big bubble or boomer or various new catchy brands like bubbaloo [:-], in my bag, always. I chew 2 strips at a time, if in mood, blow blow, blow all over the place :-P. Currently chewing 'juicy fruit' as I type this. If I am giving a presentation, i need it right before and after it. I even went to dates, chewing :-P [not that I have had too many, still..]

Well, the places you will never find me chewing gum would be,
*~*while eating, for obvious reasons.
*~*in lectures, never. Its like you are insulting the professor.
*~*while sleeping. No, on second thoughts, u might catch me chewing gum, yea, possible.
*~*while on phone. Not that I have not tried, people can't make out what I say.
*~*in debates. You have to speak most and speak fast to make your point, he he..
*~*in front of mum, she hates it, gum.

According to my mother's glorious theory, when we chew, stomach releases gastric juices to digest the food. This helps in good digestion, thus the purpose of chewing every morsel 25 times. Well, in case of chewing gum, we chew so much, but no food reaches the stomach. so?
So, leads to acidity, burrpp!
As a kid, I used to argue, "can't it be stored and used when we eat food later?" Well, now as a biochemistry and food science student, this argument sounds so stupid. No, it cant, pH of gastric juice is 1. store? body cannot tolerate it. Degrades the stomach lining cells. Yea, does...
Moreover, chewing too much spoils dentition, not that mine needs any more spoiling....

Why am I typing all this here? Coz even when I know its wrong, cant give it up! What to do, I love to chew! [rhymes :-P] Yea, yea, call me a cow from the previous life [courtesy mum]. And then, I feel guilty :-(

Do old bad habits never die?
Did you guys give up something you have been doing all your life? Are you still trying?
Or do I have to try really hard?
But do I wanna give it up?

Darn! I am confused.......

Wild Wet Wacky

HOLI HAI!!!

Saluting the spirit of holi. The festivals of colors is here. Colorful holi. Red, Green, Pink, Blue, Yellow.....
Memories of this festival are too old. Getting drenched with colorful water as kids and sitting on the building terrace eating garam jalebies. I remember in 7th std, we had planned a "safe holi". Gone one step ahead and bought natural colors. Sadly, the safety of the colors never came back to us. I lost hope, gave up playing holi.

Ever since I have not played holi. Just offer gulal to god in the morning and munch on stuff made by mum on the auspicious festival. Parents continued to be cordial to neighbors and family-friends. This would be my 8th year of not playing holi. No regrets, none. I don't even look at people playing, no fascination. Most of the day is gone in hiding from people and giving explanations. The days prior to holi, I take notice of kids throwing balloons sitting in the comfort of their homes, avoid them; Travel mostly by the car. On the day of holi, just don't leave my room. For visitors, I am either studying, or not well, or just not home.

Honestly I am a more Diwali kind of person. I don't play holi. Not only coz of the safety sake anymore. I don't like powdery-liquidy stuff on my skin, hair, nails. Nor do I like being wet. The water bags were the worst things that happened ever. The festival has lost its authenticity. Grouping of women off-guard, dirty colored oil-paints that take 1 week to fade off, drenching unknown people from building tops etc. this is what has remained of this festival sadly. And then they say "Bura na mano, holi hai."

Prolly there are many aspects that I have failed to recognize. Prolly I need to check the current format of the festival out and participate in it. Prolly it is not correct on my part to not share joys with family friends and be aloof. But, I have shown indifference for long now.

Manao holi, khub manao, par sirf unn logo ke saath jo manana chahte hai.

Have a safe holi with your family and friends. Spread the joy, not perversion.

Tag - 7 random things.

was tagged by jiggs

Rules
Write about 7 random things that come to your mind
Tag 7 people.

Here I go, 7 random things.

1. I am posting my 1st tag! Dunno much about them, but guess works well for blogger-bonding! Lova ya jiggu! Thanka for tagging :-D

2. My basic genre of preference in music is Rock. I do listen to a LOT of genres, appreciate a variety of music-[majority of sub-types of rock and metal, Hindustani and western classical, Pop, Bolly (barring quite a few artists) etc.]. But I just don't like hip-hop or rap how-much-ever I try.

3. I HATE mia. Not coz shes pretty and uses her assets to attract public, coz of her irksome dumbness! Talking of VJs, I am in love with Anusha dandekar, Sarah-jane-dias, Rannvijay, Cyrus sahukar, Nikhil chinnappa, yea, thats it :-P

4. I perfer CCD to McD or barista or any-other hang-out for that matter. If money has to be saved, I might as well munch on vada-pav.

5. I don't eat chocolates. Yes, give me looks, call me names, I just don't eat them. I don't like them, especially Cadbury's dairy milk. But I like melody and can kill for white chocolate. I guess the dark chocolate flavor doesn't suit my taste, and the sweetness of milk chocolate in small quantities is tolerable to me. So rejoice people, the less I eat them, the more there is to be eaten by y'all. Also, I gift them [dairy milk] to everybody! Makes them so happy, moreover I don't have any feeling of attachment towards them, so I can easily let-go :-P

6. I am listening to Metallica's King Nothing right now. I just love the music made by these guys. Favorites are so many, a section of a post ain't enough. More on it later.

7. I am soon going to go away to pune for 2 and a half months! The very thought of being away from home, home-made food, mumbai crowd, local trains, my regular life-style, all my best friends, blogging is so scary! I just hope to cope up well so that I can accomplish the target this is a part of.

Phew, but this was fun, hope it is fun to read too.

Oh yea, I tag, errmm 7 people? tough job man, sabko jiggy ne utha liya! I ll take badla!! grrrrr....
Still, here I go....
Nilesh, Amruta [Am], Poorva [hakunamatata], Jay [Mephistophelian Sage], Shabarni, Sushmita, and Ishaan [metal-militant].

Also, I grant permission to anyone among these people, who don't wanna do it, to not care about it. At least my job is done, he he..

Namesake express

I love my name. For people who have still not gathered, it means, "a span of 100 years, a century"; and it IS a common name among the Bengali. Well, some highly amusing incidents that happened with me co-related to my name.
Every time, Every damn time I introduce myself, I get it. "Hello, my name is Shatabdi." Grin, "Express?". No, you are the first person who noticed!
Some-one actually thought that I was born in running Shatabdi Express. Gross.
People were under an illusion that my parents work(ed) for the Indian Railways. Ha ha! should try telling them that.
There were this group of people who were convinced that I used to be an athlete, ran fastest, so they changed my name to suit the same. This is the most hilarious one!
Some mates thought I had a sister [at times twin], and my parents chose to name both of us as 'Shatabdi' and 'Rajdhani'. This was the sickest one.

Well, by and large, I have lived with my name, and I like it being so unusual.

Coming back to the point,
My experiences in the mighty train I happen to share the first name with :-)
I have taken the train twice, and each time be proud of being associated with the train.

The first time, It was on my way to Goa. And I was excited as hell! Along with my parents and elder brother! Bhaiya dearest kept wondering aloud, whether we get special concessions if we shared the same name and I kept throwing disgusted looks. But I loved the journey. Yes the train was great, clean and organized. My respect for Indian railways just kept rising notches higher. Also, because the scenery was absolutely amazing. And yea, it was short :-)

The second one was the more recent one. On my way to Ahmadabad. This time with my parents. The train was a lot different, we had personalized televisions, which showed crappy stuff. Worse, we didn't even have the choice of shutting the damn things off! But the service was sexy. Every half hour, they made sure they gave us something to stuff our mouths with. but people were such bhukkads they wanted more complimentary things. Well, journey was alright, comfortable and all, but boring. Short again.

Shatabdi express somehow gives me the picture of India by large. Facilities are changing, progress is evident. But then mentality of people remains the same. Yet, not a sorry state.

It just gives me a high when I co-relate myself with something so fantastic, so forward when compared with its counterparts, something that symbolizes class, speed, time-savior, progress.....
I oh so love my name.......

Expression.

I think communication is one of the key tools to understanding. Here I would like to mention that when I say communication, I mean talking, yes, but also communication of a product via package, in the form of typed notes, music, poetry etc.
Talking to yourself is essential as it enables us to understand ourselves and thus, eventually help us make others understand us!

Alok says, "I am what I think." I kind of agree with it. The belief that your personality depends on your thoughts and view-point is very correct. But this phrase is incomplete.
Your thoughts make you, true. But till you express them, your thoughts serve no purpose.

Einstein wouldn't have made the brilliant contributions to science if he didn't believe in his thoughts and work to eventually make all his findings. But also, he wouldn't have been what he is today if he wouldn't know the art to express his work and make others understand the same.

Expression.
This is what makes teaching a very difficult profession.
This is what makes more communicative doctors more popular.
This is what helps depressed people to come out of their trauma.
This is what enables us to understand any form of music.
This is what makes sure we fall in love.
This is what provides an outlet to all our thoughts.
This is what completes me.

Prolly this is why my blog-name is express. Another more practical reason is, "express" is the first reaction I get when I introduce myself to people :P

Comfort is the key...

Nothing, absolutely nothing in the world is more comfortable than...
*~* A good old pair of blue jeans...
*~* and with it, faded extra large plain white T-shirt...
*~* Thick pair of cotton ankle socks!!
*~* No footwear, bare feet...
*~* If footwear be necessary, floaters...
*~* Sleeping with your head on nani's lap...
*~* Mother's hug...
*~* Home...
*~* Homemade food...
*~* Talking for endless hours, without constrains of time, topics, difference of opinion...
*~* Listening to mellow music before passing out each night...
*~* Walking on the evening beach, with damp sand all over your feet...
*~* Laughter...
*~* Pouring your heart out to your best friend(s), without having to worry about the consequence...
*~* Winter mornings under a thick blanket...
*~* Bathing, especially during summers...
*~* Watching television on the couch with endless supplies of popcorn/ chips...
*~* Short, open, soft hair...
*~* Nothing fake, no make-up, none at all...
*~* Ability to laugh on oneself...
*~* A hot cup of vishnu's chai...
*~* The company of the one you desire...

People say, "You can reach to the best of your potentials only when you step out of your comfort zone." Very true.

But even the comfort of reaching to your best can't beat the things listed above...............