Thank you everyone for the wonderful wishes :-)

Thank you those who loved and still love me so much, I love you all too so much and you make my heart go fonder every time.

Thank you those who cared and still care for me, you make me feel important all the time.

Thank you those who entered and still are there in my life, because of you I am who I am today.

Thank you those who stayed and are still there with me in all my ups and downs, you showed me what true love and friendship is all about.

Thank you also those who hated and still hate me, you make me stronger with each passing day.

And last but never the least,

Thank you each and every one who wished me happiness and a great future on my birthday today, you all made my day even more special and beautiful :-)

Loads of hugs.

Accent crisis or identity crisis?

When I was in Germany, there was something I observed very strongly there. It amazed me how, many people tried so hard to be someone they were not! Many students and professionals going there or to the USA or for that matter, to any country abroad, from India, have sometimes this absolutely annoying tendency of trying to imitate the accent while speaking!

Yes, I am aware of the other side i.e the work commitments or business requirements that force many of us to do so! Nevertheless, has anyone seen or heard people from other nationalities do the same thing? They stick to their accents whereas we somehow feel ashamed of our own! Why should we try to imitate the so called all cool slang? Though we have studied in English medium schools and know very well that there is no correct pronunciation, why do we feel ashamed of a touch of either Tamil or Hindi or Kannada or Telugu accent to our English? I do remember that I had written about "The way of the Mallu" in one of my earlier posts. However, if I had even a  touch of Malayalam in my accent, I would only be proud of it :-)

I always feel that it is absolutely okay to be different and be respected for that difference. If we are confident and proud of it, people will automatically respect us and try to understand us. We don't necessarily have to say "caayn't" for can't or "laderrrr" for later, do we? Sometimes I genuinely feel that by trying to copy their exclamations and jargons, we just end up looking nothing but stupid!

I feel that this is no different than going through an identity crisis more than the language or the accent. The only difference being that we never realize we are fighting with ourselves here! We never speak with the same accent when we are with our own folks back home, then why do it when we are elsewhere? Yes, we might be mocked at for being ourselves. But, trust me, we are better off being mocked at by people we don't know than by people we do know...

Ever wonder why?

I've always wondered why people say "Bless You" when you sneeze! There are probably hundreds of reasons but the common ones I've heard are -

• When you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond! I guess saying "bless you" is a way of reviving it!
• In ancient times, people believed that when you sneezed, your soul flew out of your body and saying "bless you" made it go right back in!

Really weird huh? Well, speaking of sneezing, did you know that if you sneeze too hard, you might fracture a rib? And if you try to suppress it, you might even rupture a blood vessel in your head/neck and die?

Wow...talk about scary huh...

Some other interesting but potentially useless facts that I've heard of are -

• On an average, more people fear spiders/cockroach/lizards than death!
• The ant always falls over on its right side when it is intoxicated! I have no idea who had the patience to actually observe this one!!!!
• Coca-Cola was originally green!
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the match!
• The heart pumps blood in the body with enough pressure to send it squirting 30 feet!

I have absolutely no idea how many of these facts are really true and I don't really have the patience to find out. I just thought that it made interesting reading!

Questionable Thoughts!

Well, the other day, I saw two really close buddies having a big argument. It seemed to me about something really  important. Though they seem to have apologized later and back on track, I have been thinking a lot about it and there seem to be too many questions bugging me!

I just wanted an outlet for those crazy questions. So, brace yourselves!

• When two people in a close relationship fight or have an argument because one of them said something hurtful, then do they ever get past it? 
• Does the other person stop hurting even if the person who made the mistake apologizes? 
• Does the person who apologized ever feel less guilty about whatever they did? 
• Does apologizing really help? Is there even a thing as to "forgive and forget"? 
• Is saying sorry really the hardest thing to do? Or is it just a quick and easy way of ending a long drawn-out argument? 
• Is it ever too late to apologize if you really really mean it? 
• Does making a mistake condemn you for life? Does every fight come with a price?
• Why do misunderstandings always creep between those people who supposedly know each other in and out? When friends, siblings, spouses know each other for so long, then shouldn't the arguments become less? Is that the price you pay for that close relationship? 
• Is it ever possible to be close to someone and never argue? Is there even such a thing as a fight/argument-free relationship? Or, as some say it, does fighting mean you are more affectionate?
• Why do relationships get more complex the older you grow? Why do things that never bothered you when you were young, get to you when you're older? As a child, you never read between the lines, you never assumed, you were never crazy or paranoid. Why does growing up come with all those extra attachments/baggage? 
• Does there ever come a point in time when you don't feel confused and lost anymore? How long does it take to attain emotional maturity?
• Why do I have so many questions? Is there such a thing as "too many questions"? Do any of these questions have answers? Do we just keep asking, in the hopes of finding an answer some day, or do we just accept the fact that they have no answers and stop wondering altogether?

Does any of this make any sense!!?

Is this the right choice baby?

A while ago, I took this mock English language proficiency test online just to check where I stood when it came to English. I had to answer 75 multiple choice questions in 60 mins! I wasn't particularly worried about the time limit. I mean, I've been studying English right from my school days and it's always been one of my favorites. So, an English test should not be a big deal...right?

Right...well, almost! The paper was mostly okay but there were some tricky ones here and there. Questions, that made me stop and think for a while...the kind of stuff that makes you doubt your abilities...like the words principal/principle, discrete/discreet, advice/advise, collage/college etc. These words are a piece of cake actually. But, sometimes, these are the sort of simple yet complicated words that suddenly fall into the "I'm not so sure" list, even though, deep down, you probably know the right answer!

There was this one question, even though I knew the answer right away, had me stumped for a while as I got suddenly transported to the not so sure domain!! For the grammar aficionados out there (wow, till this moment I thought aficionados had two 'f''s ...thank you spell check, its only one 'f'!), this was the question -

"Either you or I [is/are/am] to blame"  (Choose the right option)

So, there I was, trying to figure out the correct option with a completely confused head. I knew the answer right away but somehow suddenly I was not so sure! I said the line in my head again and again with different options every time, until the sentence with a particular word started sounding alien with one particular option. But as it is, I got more confused. So, I decided to answer the remaining questions and then come back to this one in the end, hoping that by some miracle, I would arrive at the answer when I look at it with a fresh mind. But no such luck! I must have looked like an idiot to my family members as I screwed up my face in all possible ways hoping to get the answer by the right intonation in my head which ultimately showed on my face!! 

I was getting frustrated. I had finished the remaining paper and only this question was troubling me. I have almost always worked grammar this way. If it doesn't sound right when I say it, it probably isn't! What was the right choice? What do you do when your first instinct tells you one answer which you know is right but something else insists that none of the options is the right answer?? Ultimately I answered the question with my first gut instinct.

This got me thinking. What happens when such a confusing question pops in our life and there are only a few valid choices that you can make? Your first instinct tells you that the answer lies in one of the options right in front of you but somehow you feel that none of them is the ideal solution. You imagine your life with the solution fit into it and somehow it doesn't feel good or right. What do you do? How do you choose? What helps you make the right decision? Is it the beauty of life? That there are no right or wrong decisions - just decisions and what 'you' make of them?

Well, I do hope so! :-)