Do you believe in magic?

These words by Roald Dahl are my favorite.  People believing in magic may be taken as panglossians so let it be.  Magic is not necessarily making things appear or disappear.  My definition of magic is -

• Finding  money in old coat or jeans which has been forgotten 
• When someone is expecting you to get furious but you keep your calm. 
• The resilience with which one comes back after every misfortune and adversity.
• Believing that things can and will happen
• The alarm which pushes you out of bed to have early morning run ;)
• Seeing a lower number on weighing scale
• The smile on the face of person whom you have helped in hour of need
• When you are able to stick to your new year resolutions even after a week of making them ;)

Do you believe in magic? If yes, what's your list?

Twisting Thunderstorm

What a day it had been.While on my way to  Workshire country side, I bumped into Catherine.I saw her after a decade and  recognized her at once as time must have stood frozen for her. It seemed she had not aged a day and looked amazingly young for her age. Before I could know, I had almost spent two hours chatting with her. I could have continued if it had not been for  few appointments so we decided that we will meet after ten days. Now I am eagerly waiting for her visit to my place. This is what Anna was telling about her evening to her husband Victor. Victor Wishbow  was a vicar in the church nearby.Victor did not heed much attention to the conversation but he knew that Anna was unstoppable.

A day passed and Anna started again with Catherine's talks. Now it was unavoidable for Victor. He asked her to at least have patience till the time her dear friend would be visiting them. Anna was kind of embarrassed with her obsession about Catherine. She just gave a little apologetic smile to him and continued with her chores.

Finally the day arrived. The dawn turned into dusk but not a sight of dear friend Catherine. Victor teased Anna about her excitement and a damp squib the day finally turned into. She blabbered few words about the uncouth behavior of her friend and wrapped up tasks and went to sleep.

 She tried taking Catherine out of her mind but all in vain. There was this charisma about her which got Anna back to her time and again. Anna tried to recollect the two hour chat she had with Catherine. She could recollect the fleeting mention by Catherine of her residence. She told her husband that she would visit Catherine's place the next day.

After wrapping up chores the next day, she told Victor that she has to run errand and will be back soon. He let her go. He knew that Anna was definitely going for searching out her long lost friend. The moment Anna reached the place mentioned by Catherine. She was taken aback. A dilapidated colonial house, long unkempt grass in the lawn, cobwebs, creaking voices, graveyard near by were few things she could see. A perfect set up for a ghost story. This is what she thought when she crossed that dark street on that fateful day.

 She was trying to gather herself but then came a loud sound from sky and she was stuck in a thunderstorm. Now with no option left, she took a shelter under tree. It was struck by a lightening bolt but Anna survived miraculously. Now it was getting difficult for her to stand. She thought of moving towards her home but it was not a nice option either.

Finally she heaved a sigh of relief because she caught glimpse of Catherine. She called out to her but Catherine seemed to be unaware. Anna decided to run after her. Anna was already out of her breath when she reached Catherine. The moment Catherine turned her face towards her , Anna could not believe her eyes. Catherine was looking like a wrinkled old lady, the far cry from what Anna had met few days before. The old lady understood Anna's predicament, she at once blurted out that she was Catherine's aunt and  Catherine died years back.

The moment she said so, Anna could feel her heart stopping and she collapsed. The old lady checked Anna's pulse and ensured from every angle if she is alive or not. After checking, the old lady called
someone from the corner of street. That someone also checked Anna's pulse and gave old lady a smile and removed her make up.
Catherine and Victor went back hand in hand while Anna laid on the ground---- a victim of thunderstorm.

"Morning Run" is always an effort

No matter how long you have been running, getting up in the morning and going for a run is always an effort for most of people. I am also one of those "most of people". Getting up and heading for a jog is always like a case fought in court by me against me!! I am the Judge, Prosecutor, Defense lawyer and all other fancy words of  legal jargon.

List of  arguments by "Lazy Me" which my "Not So Lazy Me" have to counter-

• Argument #1 :  World is not going to end if you don't go today.
• Argument #2 :  Why baby why? You don't want to be a model.
• Argument #3 :  Are you participating in Olympics?Then why?
• Argument #4 :  Are you not feeling pain in your feet?
• Argument #5 :  Today should be the day of rest.
• Argument #6 :  Tomorrow is the new beginning. 
• Argument #7 :   Listen to your heart

My "Not So Lazy Me" does rise above all these arguments in 80% of cases but it requires lot of cajoling, coaxing and coercion. Actually only coercion and not cajoling or coaxing. Some people would like to use motivation in lieu of coercion. I prefer using COERCION because this is what it is !

Step by step guide for successful coercion-

• keeping  alarm clock/mobile phone at least 10 steps away from bed.
• Not to mention about the alarm tone. It should be sure shot winner of any cacophony event
• Keeping running apparel with the alarm clock
• Fleeting thoughts about other good looking and fit friends ( Now my fit friend would know that how often I remember them )

I do follow all the techniques but  of all these, keeping my alarm clock away from bed works in most of the cases.

What about your struggle with morning exercises and your coercion/motivational techniques ?

Whats your name?

Name is what you are.People start associating name with the personality. Some people make names desirable with their deeds while there can be few people who bring untimely deaths to names. Parents play an important part in giving that unique name to their kid but sometimes end up giving quite thought provoking (read embarrassing ) names to kids.

For bearers of embarrassing names, only solace is the quotation of "Bard of Avon". They find a lot of strength in "What's in the name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Needless to say that they can't thank Shakespeare enough for providing them this light in dark alleys of names.

Parents spend a lot of time in giving that unique and striking name to their kid but their intelligence just goes away while giving them nicknames;). Most of nicknames can be quite embarrassing and may be actually opposite of what your personality is.

 In India, atleast the Northern part, one will find child named "Golu" in every second household . I can vouch that if some combing operation is done in a square mile area, we will have quite a population of "Golu(s)" in all likelihood. For the benefit of those who do not understand what "Golu" is, it means chubby. By the way all the "Golu(s)" have alternate formal names which are used in very rare situations. Though that is a entirely different thing that few "Golu(s)" grow up to be perfect spheres thereby maintaining the sanctity of their names but few "Golu(s)" do turn up traitors and  grow up to be lean and fit. Whatever the case may be but once a "Golu" always a "Golu". This is the unsaid rule followed recklessly in the part of world where I live. Just spare a little thought to handsome looking fellow who meets his aunt after ages and the first inevitable dialog which comes out of her mouth is - "Oh My God, Golu ...you have grown so much'. Now tell me what Golu is supposed to think ! 

By the way whats your nickname  and are you the esteemed contributor in name game for any of your near and dear ones ;) ? If yes , do share (if share-able :p)!!!

Soliloquy...Thinking loud works most of the time

Soliloquy  is the act of talking to oneself or talking when alone. No I have not lost my mental balance. Thinking loud does work.  Remember those pages from Shakespeare where Hamlet does a "To be or not to be" soliloquy and could find answers with in himself. Try recalling all those instances where you had a bad day at office or at home or may be some cases where you were put down by others. What did you do? Many would have found shoulders to cry on and many would have resorted to soliloquy.

Bad day at office - a little loud ranting in a solitude helps ease off the pressure. Need that little push while running , give yourself a boost by saying to yourself  "Yes I can do It". It works wonders. I have tried that myself and believe me you will not be alone in doing so. If you observe there would be fellow runners doing the same thing.

Sometimes you can be your best friend and best critique. we might be in denial mode forever but we know where we have faltered and where we have gone wrong. A little bit of monologue can help there. I came across a quotation which goes - "Once you've accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you." Soliloquy just helps you in identifying your flaws and accepting that.

I do it quite often. How often do you indulge in monologues for self motivation and boosting?

 

Pigeon-Statue Conundrum

Words of wisdom tell us that we should accept this fact with open arms that some days we will be pigeons and rest of the  time statue. If  I were writing some self help blog , I would have eulogized these words of wisdom but I have never been a fan of self help blogs/books.With this kind of background, writing a self help piece would be too much an  asking from a fragile soul like me.

Wisdom is fine but just tell me who wants to be like this --->

Now that you know that wisdom is not going to find any place in this blog, let me tell you affront that I have a big issue buying this pigeon-statue story. Keeping wisdom aside and getting emotions forefront , no sane person would like to be statue. The  fact is Statue days hurts big time while the kind of sadistic pleasure you get in you pigeon avatar is the one you remember for quite a long time. I know people are not going to agree on this but little introspection will let you know that side of yours and would find that you are more comfortable in the bird's life. There might be a little percentage of saintly stoic population but I have never come across anyone like that till now.

This unbreakable bond of bird and statue is very often seen in office environment. Emotional  people take droppings(Bosses' bitter words) to heart while the other side of population just take it as their daily dose of vitamin. I doff my hat to this pachyderm "I do not care" class.

If you ask me,I belong to emotional/touchy category of people when it comes to statue avatar. However I enjoy my pigeon avatar thoroughly ;). What about you ?

Go Cold Turkey on Vices.. Really?

Everybody has one or other vices. I have read somewhere that  only way to get over your vices is to go Cold Turkey on them. It means leaving something abruptly. For example you can go Cold Turkey on facebook or may be coffee or may be smoking or eating sweets( my perpetual pain area).

With this principle I decided to go Cold Turkey on Sweets and guess what happened? The Turkey remained cold for few days and then it came out of oven smoldering! The vice was back with vengeance!

This Turkey thing did not work for me.  Does this way of giving up vices really work or gradual step by step approach is the way to go?I tried doing the gradual approach too by making a doable plan as I thought it  is most likely to work. Jotting down the plan and tracking it works because one can see where one is cheating. Based on this , I made my plan and I was fairly able to stick to this till the time few relatives from US of A arrived with a pack of Hershey's nuggets. Before I could realize half of the packet was empty. Of course that hand was mine only which was going into the packet and maneuvering the nuggets into my mouth!


Finally I have realized that for incorrigible people like me neither cold turkey works nor does any other approach. I fail to understand what secret approaches my super fit friends use. Paging all my super fit friends for answers !!