The Unruled Notebook

Never in a thousand years did I think I would be obsessed with a late, delusional psycho who was also an exceptional artist and a noteworthy character with a peculiar interest for romance. My affair started around 8 years back; a time when I had started writing and blogging for the first time. I visited this pop-up museum of contemporary art which showcased Vincent Van Gogh’s choicest documentaries. Many of his famous paintings were also on display. That was the day I fell in love, with his art, with the way he loved, with the way he expressed himself before he fell into life’s inevitable trap. The beautiful yellowish hues that dominated his paintings, the sunflowers, the potato eaters and the starry night which comes alive in my dreams every night. Those letters he wrote his brother Theo with care, love and a pinch of attitude. That unconditional brotherly love, that aimless love he showed his friend and mentor Gauguin, that love he showed the random women he saw and paint...

Food in the time of dieting. This is exactly like love in the time of Cholera, only, here, the love is for food. Your cravings are at an all-time high, you surprisingly become more lazy, you feel anxious when eating out, you are looking up every diet plan there is in the planet, your best friend suddenly looks thinner, your weighing machine needs repair and perhaps you are even subconsciously praying to god to help you shed those extra luggage. It is not because you have started eating a pea less than before that your body feels so weird when you start a diet. No. If you have any of these symptoms , trust me, your body has nothing to do with it. I am not a diet expert or an aspiring model, but I know what I am talking about. I have been through this outrageously pathetic stage of my life during my adolescence when I felt that cringing need to diet when some really jobless people called me a pumpkin, literally. I was too young to reason with myself. I started this tailored diet pl...

This post is a part of   Write Over the Weekend , an initiative for   Indian Bloggers   by BlogAdda. I do not usually write a post as personal as this but I  couldn't  stop myself; got to give it to blogadda’s ‘Back in time’ for that. Not that I need an opportunity to wake up one day as a 5 year old or to go back in time; I can do the following even now. It is fact enough however that I am a grown up when I am writing about the things I’d do ‘if’ I were 5 year old. It is silly to be confining this opportunity to just a few things but I have the liberty to be silly being in the shoes of a 5 year old, right? So, without much ado, here goes my list: Image Source - Google Unwinding the reels and reels of tape from a cassette; I have killed some good music, folks! Phil Collins, I am sorry dude! I wish, I so wish I could get hold of one right now *evil grin* Just being - Yes, just being the naughty little kid I am, not trying to pl...

The monsoon makes me want to write poetry, but poetry doesn’t come so easy to a compulsive thinker as me. When I see the rain, I think about the mist clad mountains, I remember Hobbit’s “Far over, the misty mountains cold, dungeons deep and caverns old” and it echoes in similar macho voices in my mind. It is a tad spooky, don’t you reckon?   Rains lashing, cats and dogs pouring down, I sit inside the car and muse how the clouds swell up and how rain pours down. Magic!    I will not stop at anything. I will not stop at anything but food. Those are the words that keep me going when we are driving from the North to the Southern part of Kerala. A beautiful retreat of a journey it is, lovely landscape and welcoming backwaters. With my nose struck to the glass window of the car, I see a motion picture unwind in front of me. I see goats, cows, dogs and sheep, I even see snakes. I dwell in the comfort of being the pillion rider and never miss a chance to look out...

Awes and gnaws – this is exactly how I’d describe my time spent in Sydney. I always reckon it is not the place you live that matter, it is the people around you that do. Some people just fit tactically in your life when you badly need them like a missing puzzle piece found. They are not your friends, not your relatives, not even people you meet at work every day. They are strangers waiting to make that moment of yours memorable. A few people I met in the lil’ old granny flat in Burwood made it an unforgettable stay for me in Sydney for which I am eternally grateful. The experience was not all that pleasurable in the beginning, I turned out to be home sick which I thought I’d never be, I turned out to be not-so-social which I believed otherwise and it turned out I am Hemophobic. The Opera House - In Sepia   One particular summer day, when I was getting used to my flat (which is a small room with an attached bathroom), I heard someone knock my door. I thought...

We dream about things, places, people, cakes and cars. I have an exquisite one about my favorite destination. The story began when I was 12 years old. The Language Connection The history of this particular fantasy of mine dates back to those days, when I was a fan of the History subject at school. Miss Dorothy made it all the more interesting for me; she made people and places of old times come alive through her way of teaching. The chapter was World War II and I was quite inquisitive in knowing how people killed each other ruthlessly and of course, how the war ended. This particular chapter had a good 10 pages about Adolf Hitler. Now, don’t you dare think I fantasized about him!   I still remember this part clearly, “Hitler didn’t care two hoots about Rhineland”.   Here, it was not that Hitler didn’t care about something; it was this particular phrase in the English language that caught my attention. I have a little appetite for such things . After the ...

I find myself to be ‘Nosy’ at times; in the literal sense of it. Today, when I was sniffing the news column, I found exactly what I wanted to read. No! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about nose jobs!!! It is a rather interesting topic of research and the result suggests that we have 10 different categories of smell . Here goes the latest list according to the pros. The suggestions are mine... Do share yours if they are different !!! Picture Source: Google Images ·          Fragrant (L'Occitane's Cherry Blossom Perfume?) ·          Woody/Resinous (Crushed Walnuts?) ·          Fruity (Non-Citrus) (Mango Ice Cream?) ·          Chemical (Nail Polish?) ·          Minty/Peppermint (Polo Mint Candies?) ·          Sweet...

I find it hard to relate the word omnivores with human beings (No offence meant to other living beings). Come to think of people eating roaches and crickets!!! Holy Cow! Well, wait, even the cows aren't spared, are they? This post is about my personal interest towards vegetarianism and veganism . ************************************************************************* Picture Courtesy - Google ************************************************************************* I am a vegetarian by birth, by that I mean my parents; my grandparents and my ancestors were vegetarians too. It is one of those advantages of being born as an Iyengar. Though I didn't quite follow the rules, I have now come to think of veganism as a way of life. It isn't very easy, folks! Let me start with an incident that happened to me when I was down under. There was this Christmas lunch arranged in one of the big restaurants in Sydney and my clients generously agreed to treat ...

                                                                                                                                        (Picture taken by 'Yours Sincerely') First of all thank 'You' for choosing to read my posts. I have been wondering all this while about what I should write in this space I created....