Rosemary

"Gardeners say that the seed of rosemary never grows in French soil, but if you pull off some little branches of rosemary, strip them down toward the base, hold them by the tips, and plant them, they will grow again. If you want to send rosemary branches a long distance, wrap them in waxed cloth, sew them up, anoint the outside with honey, dust them with wheat flour, and send them where you will."

My First Tag

'Twas fun to do. Might be tiresome to read though.

Last Movie You Saw In A Theater:
El Orfanato, a Spanish spookie.

What Book Are You Reading:
Malcolm Caldwell's Blink

Favorite Board Game:
Taboo

Favorite Magazine:
Ever heard of The World & I?(although I have grown out of it) And, someday, I would like to say The Economist here, if only I understood 60% of the analysis in there.

Favorite Smells:
Distinct scent of grandmama's zari sarees and skin. Bath and Body Works Gardenia Lily body splash.  Crispy air right after the rain. Freshly mowed grass,  Sea Spray.

Favorite Sound:
Wind chimes tinkling, sounds of a gale, church bells tolling, voices of a couple of people.

Worst Feeling In The World:
Helplessness in the face of injustice small or big. Disappointment with oneself.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
Depends. Mostly God.

Favorite Fast Food Place:
Subway.

Future Child's Name:
Sathya (irregardless of sex of baby). Or Mohana Leela.

Finish This Statement. "If I Had A Lot Of Money I'd…"
travel a bit by air, water, road. Settle down to do some gardening while simultaneously fund a top-notch geriatric home.

Do You Drive Fast?
Umm…Is 50km/hr fast?

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
Technically yes. But only because my pillow unravels into a 2m long green, slimy snake. Never slept with teddy bears and other furries.

Storms-Cool Or Scary?
Awe inspiring. So that would be, cool.

What Was Your First Car?
My dad's car. Don't know its model. brownish and looks sensible.

Favorite Drink:
Badam Milk.

Finish This Statement, "If I Had The Time I Would ….."
learn to fly, learn Latin, Korean, French, Esperanto, attend a Vedic school, attend Kalakshetra in Chennai and get a dance degree, read all the Latin classics, learn gardening and work as a asst gardener, climb up the peaks of Kilimanjaro, Mt Fuji, Kota Kinabalu and couple more sidey mountains, learn to …    

Do You Eat The Stems On Broccoli?
With gusto.

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Color, What Would Be Your Choice?
  A tinge of brown.

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You Have Lived In.
Vizag, Singapore, Houston, London, Oxford,

[definition of 'living' being staying in a place for more than 3 months continuously]

Favorite Sports To Watch:
Olympic Games.. I know, I know, it ain't a sport. But hell, I watch every sport during the Olympics. And of course, India vs Pakistan matches

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:
Not Applicable.

What's Under Your Bed?
My bed is actually part of the wooden parquet. So, it has these really cool, hard to detect drawers which slide out in a jiffy to reveal my messy life - I stow away my costume jewellery, financial statements, 6 non-functioning earphones, ipod, papers, files, everything, note paper, bed time reading, aroma candles, lamps, paper clippings, knickknacks.... I mean everything..

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
Yeah. I like myself a whole lot. (no that wasnt a joke)

Morning Person Or Night Owl?
Both. Its not the timing, it's the quietness I get during dawn and twilight. So both.

Over Easy Or Sunny Side Up?
Scrambled.

 Favorite Place To Relax:
My toilet or a quiet library or a movie theatre

Favorite Pie:
Blueberry.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor:
Vanilla.

You pass this tag to -
Anyone who wants to pick it up.

Of All The People You Tagged This To, Who's Most Likely To Respond First?
Lame Q.

An extract from Claudius, the God

Sorry, I haven't been able to think/blog as much as I would like to. But I was re-reading certain parts of Claudius, the God ( a present from a friend :-) ) and thought it was pretty telling of how sharp witted Emperor Claudius was contrary to historian's belief that he was dull witted-

" Before I forget it, there is another story that I want to tell about a stolen gold cup...Once I [Claudius, the Roman Emperor], invited a number of provincial knights to supper - and would you believe it , one of the rogues, Marseilles man, went off with the gold cup that had been put before him. I didn't say word to him, but invited him to supper again the next day and this time gave him only a stone cup. This apparently frightened him, for the next morning the gold cup was returned with a fulsomely apologetic note explaining that he had taken the liberty of borrowing the cup for two days in order to get the engravings on it, which he much admired, copied by a goldsmith; he wished to perpetuate the memory of the enormous honour that I had done him, by drinking from a similarly chased gold cup every day for the rest of his life. In answer I sent him the stone cup asking, in exchange, for the reproduction of the gold one as a memento of the charming incident."

More Native American Wisdom

This time, its Big Elk's wise words -

"Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, that all nations and people must obey. What is past and what cannot be prevented should not be grieved for ... Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives - they grow everywhere."

Such seemingly simple calming words are difficult when faced with circumstances that the Omaha Indians faced - disease, war, disappearing hunt, intruding white men, pressure to become 'civilized', etc.

Crowfoot's Dying Words

are :

"What is Life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is as the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

Wise words of a wise man.