Coffee: The first peripheral

Some interesting quotes I happened to come across which I strongly concur with!

An English proverb says, “Behind every successful man, is a woman”. And Stephanie Piro says, “Behind every successful woman is a substantial amount of coffee”. Kudos to Stephanie! How witty! :)

And if in case I don't have my cuppa this is what happens to the computer in my brain:
“Caffeine Allocation Error: COFFEE.SYS Not Found: User startup disabled” ;)

I must confess, I’ll die without my daily dose of caffeine. Inexorably addicted! :D:D:D

DRIFT

How many of us are often asked to DRIFT? I mean, DO It Right The First Time! And this is so much so heard all the time in every other meeting at work, re-iterated and re-emphasized! The idea behind DRIFT is that management wants all of the processes that make up the Just in time philosophy to be done correctly and efficiently so that there are no delays in the production process. Now, as I mulled over this, something infinitely worse hit me. How can one be right the first time? How does one know that he is right? Nothing can be right the first time. If it is then it is assumed and asserted to be! If somebody says that something is right and it can be that means he has done it before. If someone has done it before how can it be the first time when I do it? In that case things become simpler when he guides me to do it right when I do it for the first time. Am I making any sense at all?

Hence, one can do it right some time when he has perfected the art to do so. And as we know, practice makes it! Rather, “guided” practice does it. But at the end of it no one is perfect and nothing is perfect. So where are we headed? What are we striving to achieve? One is bound to make mistakes consciously or otherwise. And we all learn from it which leads to the betterment of something that we are currently doing. It’s just that one must not stop trying to do the right thing. And one has to stop considering it a problem! There is no problem so big and so complicated that there is no solution. Even a no solution could be a solution in itself. You just never know until you have tried. Triumph against the overwhelming odds. Just bounce back and achieve what has to be, without worrying about doing it right the “first time”! That is all there is to it. Take time to realize that “PROGRESS” is better than perfection and keep moving. One step above. Each time. Every time. You just have to discipline yourself to work on achieving it. What do you think? Does drifting against DRIFT make any sense at all?

Bits...

... of a travel in the woods.

First showers.
Wet eyes.
cross roads.
Jigsaw puzzle.
A miscellany of odds and ends.
The bridge.
Time of change.
Road less traveled.
Unending journey.

No hardfeelings

26/11/08. Mumbai terror attacks. The worst that happened to India. And the last thing I can do about this is to pay my heartfelt condolences to all those who lost their loved ones. It was gruesome and a heartless act. Such events are a norm in India. Every other attack (inter or intra) only becomes just another attack. And it would soon become history, and people forget them as if it were just another day. But India needed something to this intensity to awaken! Anyways, having said that, how easy is it to forgive the sinner, forget what happened and move on? Anyone who has been victimized has no middle ground to what he decides to do about it. He either decides to forgive or hold on to the anger/grudge/bitterness.

Life is not fair most of the times. Let the situation be what eva. We always ask, why me? Why is life so unfair to me? Many incidents in life teaches us a good lesson but with a price that of pain. Have we ever been thankful for what happened? For awful lot of people it is difficult to forgive. You end up hearing something like “I haven’t been forgiven. Why should I?”. So, with hardened hearts and stiff lips, they say, “I’ll never forgive”. And the sad thing is that in wishing to send someone to hell they end up sending themselves there as well. Trust me, when you are angry, your big mouth can do a lot of irreparable harm and get you to trouble. Doesn’t that hit us hard and let us take some time off to think? According to the law of karma, what goes around will definitely come around.

Develop the attitude of gratitude. The art of forgiving. Well, I understand when I say this that it’s easier to say than do it. True. But you can’t carry the bitterness all your life. In year’s to come, you’ll only turn to be a potful of venom. Now, none of us wanna be that. Sure? Remember, vengeance is not the solution. It neither can heal you. Well forgiveness is not reconciliation. It is a larger process of which forgiveness is but one part. Forgiving does not mean that you have to let then\m go off the hook legally either. But the energy that keeps the grudge will just drain the strength in you.

The beauty of forgiveness lies in giving it even before you are asked for it. So remember that if anyone has ever hurt you, you don’t find forgiveness, you give it. Forgiveness is the act of untying yourself from thoughts and feelings that bind you to the offense committed against you. And it is purely emotional. YOU have to do it and you can’t be forced to do it. And more often than not, ego, self-esteem et al shall raise their hoods and stop you from doing so. But have you ever realized the sense of satisfaction you get when you do forgive? How much you heal yourself and just everyone and everything around you? You free yourself of your greatest burden: hatred. Care less about how much the other person values your attitude of forgiving. Everything comes with a cost. But a word of caution – do not become a person of whom people can take advantage of. It’s often a notion when you smile back at the person who hurt you is that, you are weak. They take you for granted and just do not mind hurting you again, and again, and again. Just be firm and strong. And yet, forgive and forget. And mind you, no ongoing references to the events of the past. Practice to perfect it. At the most you can do when you are hurt is to do nothing at all. It’s only the strong who can forgive and not the weak! To err is human but to forgive is divine. Be willing to be brave. Brave enough for love.

Oscar Wilde quote: “Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them most”. How do you like that?

At the end, hold to the thought that you too are human and you can be at the receiving end some day. Standing there, to be forgiven. Jus slip into that moment and think about how you would feel if you are denied forgiveness while you are begging for it heart in heart. And when you are truly sorry about just what eva you did, you can even feel like killing yourself. Would you like to be punished? When you think something is not good for you, it just cannot be good for others either. Right?

A message!

Wishing you all a very happy new year!
Click on the image to view full size.

"Just scale"

Key in that harmonic note
It is chromatic, or do u doubt?
There is a constant frequency
That sometimes seems frenzy
It multiples between the notes
Perhaps, ensembles rumbling gloats.
Just tuning fines the scale
Splendorous though is the laic tale
Such is the pity and irony of gaiety
Thank thy mind, for anonymity!!
Why make sense and feel so pale?
Pretend, pray and play. Just scale.

The Lotus effect

The lotus that had beautifully bloomed in my aunt's garden pond had captivated my eyes, when I had last visited her. It was still very tender and young. Then, she was also considering about the landscaping. I had always wanted to bring the beauty of
lotus flowers on my canvas. And I had shared this thought with my aunt. So she called me up this weekend to inform that the pond was full of lotus blooms and that it's a delight to see them! This was pretty much what I wanted. We were getting our house painted and hence had to mine and dig out my priced possessions from the carton box. It was a sad scene, looking at the paint brushes, the pastels and the pallets that had caught dust. Poor them! I decided to liberate them and give them salvation! I asked myself, "How long has it been that you have touched your brushes and paints?". “Ages!”, I mumbled. Drawing and painting is sheer fun! I have always wanted to and i still want to spend enough time on this but blame it on the schedule. Traveling eats away most of the time! I couldn't wait and drove off to her place. With my papers and pastels this time of course.

I reached the place and what do I see? The pond was full of "Momo Botans" and "Empresses", names of the lotus flowers (Empresses are whitish blooms with gentle strokes of pinkish colors on the edges of the petals. The lotus flower called "Momo Botan" is a truly elegant water blossom with a deep, brilliant pink double blooms). The blooms were impressive and they had flourished in her personal outdoor sanctuary. It simply created an even more beautiful place to relax and unwind at home. They were simply gorgeous! My aunt always said that the perennial plants such as lotus flowers are a great idea for any garden pond. They had reached their full, flourishing, healthy, and most beautiful size and conditions of the blossom. Beautiful round olive and forest green leaves covered the pond like a blanket, providing a restful and a delightful retreat for anyone to enjoy. The fragrance of the pond in general was very cheering. The blossoms looked like lovely ladies dressed in pink and white, swaying everytime the wind blew. These charming ladies had grown as tall as 5 to 7 feet. To add to this, the garden landscaping was done wonderfully. I learnt that gardening truly is an art. And gardening is the only thing that's worth getting dirty for!!

After a chit-o-chat with my aunt about the lotus flowers, floriculture, gardening, landscaping and hell a lot of other things, I walked outside with my instruments. I had taken my pastels. I loooove pastels. They are extremely portable, easy to clean up, and can give you a wide range of looks. Oil pastels give you the look and feel of oil paint and with the freedom of pastels. There's no water to worry about, no special brushes, no messy clean-up. Best of all, though, it lets the artist who mainly draws get the look of a painting while still getting to draw. The heat is what will make your oil pastels look like paint. I let them sit in the sun for a few minutes. I like to use canvases with a pre-treatment of gouache or paint for extra texture. Sand paper which has a raised grain to it, is perfect for holding layers of oil pastel which makes it the best choice for a canvas. It is well teethed to grab hold of all that creamy pigment, else the painting will end up muddy. I chose an angle and put my board. I made myself comfortable. The weather was quite soothing and complimenting. Every season has something wonderful about it and colors found in nature are often less saturated and more pleasing to the eye than their artificial counterparts. This time of year can bring some amazing weather that just has to be documented creatively. There is inspiration everywhere. Your eyes just have to find that perfect spark of inspiration. Finding an idea about what to write about can sometimes be harder than actually writing it. And it is the same case with drawing and painting. Much depends on who you are as a person at that moment! Plain psychology!A frame of mind for any artist is imperative and especially when it comes to painting. The mind has to be tranquil and devout. And absolutely devoid of any other thought but for the subject matter.

As I sat down next to the lotus, I marveled about each of nature's creations. It is beautifully and perfectly fitted to its station in life and exhibits a complete propriety of form and function. Nature is wholly consistent. I reminisced at the irony of beauty in filth. I got engaged in that thought and began my work. I concentrated on bringing the wonderful play of colors and light that I was able to witness. I worked on the flats and the depths giving them equal emphasis. I was so absorbed trying to capture those shadows...beneath the layers. I was in another world, as always. Transcending to another world doesn't take much time with me! Dancing and acting feels like that quite often. The walls of the rehearsal room simply disappear. And on the stage during a performance you completely forget about the audience. It's a terrific jolt when you come back to reality. Forgetting oneself is the best thing about painting and acting and dancing for me.

I din take notice of my aunt who was standing beside me with lotus juice (Yes!Lotus juice). She said she had called my name at least thrice!!! I was buoyant and afloat. Lotus effect, really![Wink]


PS: Lotus juice is an extract of lotus roots sweetened with honey which has great healing power. It was just toooo GOOD! Divine, infact!