Twenty- five Seven

Last full moon in 2012

December 28, 2012
The year’s come to an end and I couldn’t be happier. I got up at 3 am early enough to catch the last full moon of this year.

Unfortunately this was the best I could manage of this glorious moon a glorious orange orb looking strangely like the sun!

It looked really gorgeous in the early hours of the morning when moonlight danced on the ripples and a few lights flickered in the buildings below. Were they early risers studying hard before the exams in the coming month? Or were they cooks and servants getting ready to face the household in the day?

I enjoyed those precious hours before day break , a time to reflect and think about the awful year that’s soon going to vanish into the past, a year I’d gladly erase .

For happier skies around the world !

http://skyley.blogspot.in/
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How to get a man to get rid of his five o’clock shadow

December 27, 2012

This post is a part of the ‘Shave or Crave’ movement in association with BlogAdda.com

‘How you would make men crave so that they get rid of their evening stubble’.

Facial hair of a male. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I hate men with whiskers and I was most upset when Hubby dear let his stubble grow and grow so much that he was mistaken for a terrorist on the loose ( this was post Operation Blue Star). My daughters too watched with dismay as their once dapper father squeezed out the coffee from his beard and wiped the butter off his whiskers. “Mama make him shave” they begged, so one day we marched him off to the barber’s and got him to clean up.

What is it about men and facial hair? Macho as a man may look, there’s nothing more uncomfortable than nuzzling up to a five o’clock shadow. And there’s nothing a man likes less than being told what to do especially if you tell him to get rid of his poky stubble.

So what would you do to make a man shave
Get rid of his stubble so that you could
Nibble his ear
Without scratching your face?

Especially on a Sunday when he wants to laze?

Start early in the day by changing the sheets
To smooth satin creamy.
And candles and flowers strategically placed.

Bathe well before he does leaving the bathroom
A mist of perfume and fragrance divine.
As you wave his newspaper under his nonchalant gaze
Tickle his nose
With a sharp coffee haze.

A basket of strawberries
all luscious and red
a plate of hot waffles served in his bed.

Just leave him be lazing
Alone in the room while somewhere
Around the house he strains to
Hear bits and pieces of his favourite tune.

Don’t mumble, don’t grumble

Stay out of his hair,
Don’t mention his boss
Your friends or his mother
Just talk of sweet nothings like you did long ago
When you had just each other and no one to say
“Mama it’s me”
Disturbing your rare moment of intimacy.

All through the day go about with a calm
Sense of mystery, a hint of romance.

And then in the evening as the sun goes down West
If subtlety fails and his five o’clock shadow is getting on to six,
Just
Grab his razor and tell him
“Buddy just shave or you’ll spend the whole evening
Alone on your own.”
Annus horribilis – Thoughts at the end of the year

December 25, 2012

chinese fishing nets found in fort cochin kerala (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: The Six lane section of Kochi Bypass near Vytila (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This Latin phrase meaning ” a year of horrors” was first brought into the public domain by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2 in her New Year address of 1992. The Americans promptly dubbed it the year which was a bummer and I must say I couldn’t agree more. A Bum Year seems a more apt translation than horror which implies something scary and terrifying.

The year was not all bad: infact it couldn’t have started off better! Basking in the joy of having successfully celebrated a family wedding, we went for a short holiday to Kochi. It was a wonderful weekend at Anna Shetty’s house which was marred by some terribly unsettling news, news which unsettled me so much that by the end of the year I was pretty much unravelled, dealing with an emotional crisis, sleepless nights and health issues including having to deal with a TIA.

But of course, 2012 was not entirely black. In this seesaw, there were some rays of hope as well – the return of Anna Shetty to Mumbai, the progress on my cook book, a delightful European holiday and some other bits of good news that had me grinning from ear to ear.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t handle the bad news and I spent the better part of the year feeling miserable, helpless, angry , sad, regretful and at times out right suicidal. It is only now with the year coming to a close that I can sense a closure and the composure which I always wanted to have.

As they say, these days will also pass and this horrible year is finally coming to an end. Every year I find the days passing faster and faster as though I’m on a spinning wheel but this year has been paradoxically moving fast and slow at the same time. Fast because it went by in a whizz (thank God for that) and slow because of several days of needless and mindless agony.

The week before Christmas was particularly horrible with TV channels blaring news abut the horrific gang rape of a young girl in Delhi. While I feel that nothing really changes, it doesn’t mean we do nothing. Like most people I feel that the rapists MUST be punished – castration would perhaps be the best according to me, killing them off would be the next best option because that way a criminal is eliminated but on the prevention side, my suggestion would be a proper identification and exposure of the rapist – i.e. his name, his parents’ name and his face should be widely publicised so that it may be sheer shame that would deter someone from committing a crime. I mean it is idiotic especially in a clear case like the current one where there is NO DOUBT at all about who the rapists were to hide their identities behind a sack or not reveal their names.

In an attempt to ring in the new on a better note, I’ve spent the better part of this month cleaning up, clearing up, re-visiting old hobbies and getting things in order. I hope when the Old Man is set ablaze on several street corners of a city that is surprisingly cold this winter, the evil wind that was blowing this year is blown away forever and the winds of change bring good cheer.

Undoubtedly ,after an Annus horribilis I could do with an Annus miribilis.

Good wishes to all ! May 2013 bring you luck, love, good health and happiness.