Sustaining exercise regime....elusive!

Currently I have taken fancy to brisk walking in the morning.It has started with the bang and lots of promises done to myself by myself  as done by lot many  people like me.Its been a month now and fortunately I am sticking to my promises.But how long ? A very big question! Exercise is an activity which solely depends upon self motivation and needless to say self motivation is quite an elusive area .

While doing my morning walk I was just thinking that people can be  categorized in three classes.

• First category of people always feel motivated and take their regime quite seriously and somehow miraculously continue to stick to their routine.
• Second category is on-off people.These guys start with the bang and then they go into hibernation.After a while they will spring up again of course after piling on weight  and so on so forth.The on off sequence goes on and on. 
• Third category belongs to the elite class who just keep accumulating all the possible gym equipment , fancy gym gear but somehow cannot make them to work.Things bought by them are either used by their friends or relatives and of course free of cost. I don't call this category  benevolent for nothing.

I am fortunate to have got face to face with last two categories. Third one goes hands down to my husband.An orphaned bicycle ,a lonely never used tennis racquet ,erstwhile cross trainer(now used for hanging clothes) are few of the items from his treasure. Second category belongs to me.  As per  the
 characteristics of citizens of my class, I have been taking to exercising every now and then for the past two years but all in vain and my latest thing is walking. Walk walk walk ....... this is my mantra these days.I have not felt demotivated even for once in last one month so I think have found peace with myself .Lets see how long can I stick to this and gradually move into first category of people.Amen!

As you finish reading this post  you must have found your category.What is your category ?

Good old world of comics

People who have grown up in non internet era will connect to my post at once. Do these images remind you of your childhood?

I am talking about the time when kids in the colony would fight tooth and nail to guard their treasure of comics .It was a time when there was no 24x7 TV.

The overgrowing pile of comics would be  matter of pride and the owner of the largest pile would be undisputed king or queen of herd.It is amazing how kids organized and tracked  their little trove which included swapping of comics with one another.

During vacations kids of colony would have a meeting where it was decided that what all books/comics to be bought by each one. It was done to avoid the repetition of comics :-).Once bought , books would change many hands .It was a kind of community library run by everyone. It was unsaid norm of taking proper care of books and surprisingly even the naughtiest kids followed the rules without being told because defaulters were chucked out from the community library immediately.
Kids used to opine about the stories just like reviews of books which one sees today.The books with maximum number of opinions would be most sought after. Those were the days .Kids would learn so many things related to organisation , dealings ,responsibility just by doing these little things on their own.

While writing i have got so nostalgic that I am just going to finish this post here only and search internet If  I can get old editions of my favorite comics on internet.

By the way , what was your favorite book or comic or character?Mine was Mandrake the magician.Though my friends always discounted his charisma owing to his magical powers.They were more into macho hero like Phantom.I did like phantom but not over Mandrake :-) Though I liked Phantom's mysterious cave and family.
 

Joys of rains in hills

Rainy season always bring freshness in my mind. With freshness , it brings a lots of nostalgia which take me back to my days in Shimla.People who have visited hills in rainy season will connect to my thought on the same.

Sipping hot tea and listening to pitter patter sound of raindrops soothes mind to the deepest.You can pass hours and hours just by watching  raindrops trickling down and making their way from spikes of cedar trees.Occasional sound and flash of thunder and lightening is the only sound which can get you away from your thoughts. This is also the time when friends can get together and can gossip for hours over cups of teas and pakodas. The cosiness this season brings is wonderful.

Sun gets into naughty mood and gives way to magnificence of colurs in nature while playing  peek a boo with clouds.It shines through trickling water from roofs,leaves and if you are lucky it will give you a glance of rainbow too.The sunshine makes drenched trees,bushes and shrubs  appear more fresh and a cool breeze accompanying makes it heavenly.

A stroll in the misty weather under the canopy of trees is enough to awake your romantic side or may be your writer part.Clouds get so near that you can almost touch them.

As I finish this post , i am yearning so very much to revisit hills in rainy season.

Drenched road and trees in misty weather

So guys if you too love misty weather and rains, hills are beckoning you...go and enjoy

Some eye talk

Eyes are  by far the most prominent feature on face which get noticed except for the case if the person you are talking to has some special kind of nose! If that is the case then nose takes the cake else eyes are at the helm.

Most of the times eyes are the true reflections of person's personality but sometimes they can be just opposite of it of what person actually is.

Arrogant persons have eyes that just  cut through you with their sharp looks whereas humble confident eyes will have assured look. Diffident eyes will never look into you. Beautiful eyes will always capture you.Deep eyes will get you engrossed.Twinkling eyes have freshness and naughtiness to them.Wicked eyes gives you jitters.Talking eyes do lot of talking silently and then there are eyes which are in the middle of water reservoir! A little trigger will make them flood in no time .Sad eyes are always lost in some thoughts.Spy eyes are always searching for something or other.

Color and shape  plays an important role in giving a distinct character to eyes. Blue eyes fall in the elite class of most likable .Green and hazle eyes also fall more or less in this class.Shades of black and brown are quite common. By simple rule of demand and supply princple and the amount of pupulation we have of these eyes , they definitely fall in common category.

Then  of course there are colours like yellow which falls into sick category and and should be treated as an  invitation from a doctor. And not to forget  red colur. If it is due to hangover then please go and have lime water else just stop reading this and give your eyes a much deserved rest.

BTW what do your eyes reflect? 

My sweet little peccadillo

Everyone has hidden sins which seldom make to public stage.I too have my sweet little peccadillo which can not be hidden and any party and celebration manifests it more . Hold on to your high horses...my only sin  is my unconditional love for chocolates and Indian sweets!

Since my childhood , this thought is deeply imbibed in my heart and brain that stomach does have different compartment for desserts and you have always that extra space even if you have eaten like a monster !

As I grew up , my brain did change it's idea(thanks to internet for getting Ms. Calorie into center stage)  but heart still abides by that imbibed thought :-).My heart and brain are at antipodal positions when it comes to eating sweets and needless to say my heart wins by unbeatable margin :) And my accumulated pounds do echo the same.

I am not alone in this quandary .I have many acquaintances and friends who too struggle with ...to eat or not to eat  sweet and eventually they end up eating only .I myself have tried to give up sweet many a times but I guess it's deep there in my DNA .When you don't find any logical reason .... DNA is an easy culprit to put blame on !But my food DNA is not that bad ....I owe big thanks to it for disliking ice creams infact a very big thanks (looking at calorie content of ice cream ) and a bear hug for making me dislike cold drinks and pastries .Imagine if my food DNA had strayed more into sweet territory I would have ended up with menu like -  ice cream for breakfast ,chocolate for mid morning snack well supported by aerated sweet drink , pastries for lunch  and so on ....

Thank God for making my DNA sane .So for now I am just  trying to find peace with my peccadillo as I have come to know  DNA is a blueprint... unchangeable!

Finally it is one story with happy ending :) Tell me if you think otherwise.

Colonial Williamsburg.....step back into time

I have just finished reading  Ken Follet's "A Place called Freedom".The major part of story revolves around Virginia and Colonial Williamsburg.I get deeply engrossed in the literature which is set up in the areas which I have visited or lived.This happened with this novel too.I could visualize each and very place mentioned there. This made me recall my Colonial Williamsburg visit which happened few years ago.Though I am not able to place my photographs but this visit is still fresh in my memory.I have taken few photographs from internet(Photo credit link at the end of post).

This place is so romantic and vintage that the moment you place your foot in Colonial Williamsburg, you get transported to 18th century in no time. You want to get into corsets and long flowing dresses and ofcourse  hats.

 A ride in a horse drawn carriage takes you back into time.The stroll in the main street and a peek into houses gives the account of how people used to live at that time. The clean low  white fences surrounding the houses are very picturesque.


 Everything has been preserved so well.Visit to various retro shops gives you glimpses of how businesses were carried out at that time.You will come across people dressed in vintage clothes enacting lives from colonial past.It is the living history museum.


As the day gets closer to twilight ,you can see the streets illuminated by lanterns.Walk  in the street in the evening gives you quite an eerie feeling. It somehow gives you the feeling that you might be having ghosts walking by your side! There are many ghost sighting stories associated with Williamsburg. Fortunately I did not bump into one but that eerie feeling did not leave me for quite a long time!
 

 

My evening was wrapped up by watching  18th century play in theatre.It was a sheer delight seeing the actors submitting to the encore cheers of audience.


Photo Credit links:

 photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hbarrison/2463602185/">HBarrison</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_g_travels/1235957400/">Mr G's Travels</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vamcmag/10819607435/">MizGingerSnaps away...</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a
 

The dark world of short stories

I have never been a voracious reader but yes I am not bad either.I can read anything but self help books. They mention very obvious.If you have not lost your commonsense , you would anyways know those things and will stick to them.In case you have lost common sense ,then no matter how many self help books you read ...you will always be a forlorn figure. I have seldom voiced my opinion as it can be taken as sacrilege.After all people are very sensitive to these books ;-)

Though I do not shy away from novels but what catches my attention the most is anthology of short stories.These are the stories which take you into different cultures and give you different perspective in few pages. Every story offers a distinctive view.I have huge respect for authors who do the daunting task of etching characters in few words and still able to stimulate your thoughts.Many of these stories have made their place in our school books and reading them all over again takes me back into time.

I have read quite a few pieces but stories which have caught my fancy are the ones by Saki(H H Munro).His stories always have surprises at the end and are very well woven.If one speaks of dark humour then Roald Dahl takes the cake.Being from hills , I have special love for Ruskin Bond's work especially his ghost stories based in colonial architecture. Alice Perrin ,Rudyard Kipling are the  must haves for lovers of  colonial era literature.

Few stories just remain etched in my memory because of their queer endings.Biscobra by Alice Perrin is one of them.It has a macabre ending and not quite enjoyable.It leaves lot to reader's imagination.Reader is bound to get nightmares after reading this but nevertheless the way it has been written and built up is commendable.
Similarly there is a story by Roald Dahl which tells about the super anxious lady who locks her husband in the house before going on vacation. Then there is "Parson's pleasure" by the same author where the super smart antique dealer becomes victim of his own smartness.Saki's "The phantom Luncheon" tells you the story of three sisters who have habit of piggybacking on others and finally gets to pay for that.The "Upper Berth" is the story about the haunted room of ship.And the list goes on....

For beginners who want to get into the corners of this dark alley...Roald Dahl is the good starting point.....Do share your thoughts once you get there.