Good, Boy, and Girl Friends

Teenage girls and boys naturally get attracted to each other and have crushes. Some enter into relationships. But what most of us ignore is the fact that friendship can exist between a boy and a girl who like each other and they need not have a relationship. This is because, in a relationship, understanding, sharing, and caring- all aspects common to friendship- are equally important as compromise, commitment, love, and bonding- things that may not be part of friendship and may require more than what teenagers can or should get involved into.

A boy and a girl can be good friends by sharing an emotional bond and yet not be a couple. However, in the surge of stupid, corny emotions that are characteristic to teenage, the idea of being just friends rather than a couple is washed away, only to be fished out a few years later, when one can recognise the difference between love and crushes. Then, as adults, we find out how many good friends we can have from the other gender and yet not fall for them.

I can confidently say so because if one takes a good, open minded look around, we can see so many adults, married or otherwise, emotionally very close or open to people from the opposite gender. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are in a 'relationship'. In fact, they share a very unique, sacred relationship that is very strong and vastly different from love or lust.

Footpath Faltugiri!!

It begins with Mr. Kalmadi beautifying the city in preparation for the Commonwealth Youth Games. Our Pashan Sus road, already a 'development' hotspot, got quite a facelift. Our long pending, halfway through road widening was completed, a fragment of the vast open expanse on one side of the road was utilised. The undivided road was wide enough for a good helipad, excluding the footpaths, wide enough for three mes to lie down comfortably, head to toe. One side has been developed into a wonderful promenade with a grass lawn running along the footpath for a good half kilometer. Lovely lamps adorn the edges of the footpath and young peepul saplings line the lawn along with other multicoloured leafy plants. There are sophesticated benches and garbage bins at an interval of 5 metres.

The morning sees the sprinklers coming on and the golden sunshine shimmering on the wet grass. Walkers, joggers, cyclists are abundant. The evening brings in families, friends, couples, individuals, camera bearers, dog walkers to enjoy sunset and the time beyond with a not-so-uncommon treat to kulfi or chana or their own picnic baskets! Well, here's showing you how we make the best of it all-

We sit on the benches and

• Chat
• Debate
• Sing
• Joke
• Act stupid!

Now you know what I mean.



We love our Footpath!

Series

Another Series has come to an end- giving me more than just a good reading experience. In fact, it has left me with a lot of things to cope with; which comes as no big surprise, as most books end with the reader struggling with the dilemma. The Twilight saga is my latest read, preceded by the Inkheart Trilogy and the Harry Potter series. The good part about all the three series has been the fact that I am one of the first 100 readers or so. That helps me to maintain unbiased, unprejudiced ground while reading the books*. Harry Potter, of course, was the first ever novel I read, at the age of 7. In the case of the Inkheart Trilogy, I began as a critic and ended up as a fan. As for the Twilight Saga, I am yet to decide.

Well, what does the series leave me with? What do I get from reading a single story, continued over several books? The answer, as I said, is 'a lot'. So, instead of burdening you with long, not-so-juicy paragraphs, I am giving you a list (which, I hope, is crisp enough):

• A series gives you an individual style of writing. The combination of sentence structures, choices of words, descriptions, et cetera, is unique to every writer. And these styles and their analysis gives me good variety to feed on!
• The whole process of waiting for the next in the series can be quite exciting and thoroughly rewarding, if you know what I mean.
• The longer a series, the more involved are the fans*. Forums, dicussions, events, products, movies, are all part and parcel of successful series. And that certainly adds to the value.
• The characters become a prominent part of the readers' lives. Sometimes as friends, sometimes as crushes, sometimes as advisors, and at others, as fears. And oh yes, they can even be role models, confidantes (though imaginary), ideal partners and so on.
• The words, events and characters in the books surely have some impact, some influence, in our lives, big or small. There are some unforgettable quotes, unimagined situations, admirable traits that invariably stick with you, long after the books may even have been forgotten.

*1- I can safely say that because I am pretty unenthusiastic about the Eragon series, because I did not get to reading it when I wanted to, and I lost the desire to read it once I watched the movie and heard others about the books.

*2-The same cannot be said of the Princess Diaries; the thing just streches, why, drags on and on and on! It just gets too boring, too much to bear with.

Well, with that, all I can add to conclude with is my open invitation to any and all criticism, debate, and (rare) agreement.

Look what the recession brought me!

Recession. We're all pretty used to this word by now, I suppose. And what do we relate it to? Loss of jobs, capital, shares, trade, markets, opportunities. Only loss. How about some gains? Well, I did gain something from the recession. Some lessons in market trading or job hunting, you'll say. No; I'm talking about simple gains here.

We visited the Mall. Mighty, Expensive, Branded Mall. With Designer and Branded Outfits (what happened to the clothes?) hanging high on display. Look around. Spot a good Outfit. Look at its tag and sigh. Let go. Move on. Aren't there more practical clothes, more practical prices; more simplicity? Oh, what are you thinking of? You're in a mall, son. Mighty, Expensive, Branded Mall.

My parents never bother about the prices when they buy from the mall. 'High quality, high prices' they say and justify the expenditure coolly. But I do mind the prices. i do bother about them. Ever heard of 'Good quality, good prices'? Well, anytime and every time we buy something for me from a mall, I feel guilty. But this time, I didn't. Thanks to recession.

Back to The Mighty Mall. All the sides are plastered with 50% off posters. Inside, the Outfits have descended from their high hangers. It's a pitiful sight. Half the mall is empty and unlit. The other half has a few staff persons lingering around like a few last bees that linger around a broken beehive hoping to reclaim their honey. The Outfits are lying stuffed in large cardboard boxes and bins; some are scattered on the floor.
I pick up some Beatles T-shirts. They are up for half their price. I happily purchase them. No guilt!
At the supermarket, Baskin Robbins is selling their ice creams at half their price. We indulge in the rich treat very frequently.
What has the recession brought you?

Real Bloggers

I've recently surfed blogs. And found very few worthy of reading (I do not claim to be a good blogger, myself, either). However, about the few good blogs I found, I did not fail to observe what made them stand out; what made them interesting; what made them real. This is what I observed:

• Effective Expressiveness

These bloggers are capable of effectively expressing their thoughts and opinions. Their descriptions are not repetitive or uninteresting. What they put down makes you want to read on, read more.

• Likeable Lingo

The words, phrases and other aspects of writing are catchy; unusual; imaginative; creative. So what if they are invented by none other than the blogger? As long as they make reading the post a pleasure, they are a plus point.

• Cool Candour

If the writing contains some good candour, it really is appreciated by the reader. Nobody is perfect. And candour only emphasises this truth. It is crucial in strengthening the reader-blogger bond. This is one blog populariser!

• Wit Works

Some blogs are pouring wit! Some others are just sprinkled with some. Either way, wit is instrumental in making a post a good read. Be it sarcasm, humour, embarassment, mocking, any kind of catching-the-reader-off-guard thing really works.

• Relevance Rules

Whatever be the blog about, the posts must have some relevance; some relevance to the time; to today's world; to the reader. Any kind of rambling is certainly not recieved well. It must be relevant.

Any more suggestions?

Blogging Successfully

Although this is more of a note to myself, I'd like to share what I think makes for a good blog and welcome feedback from all readers. So here's what I can think popular blogs are made of:

• Good Layout

The template, font, text size and colours are the first things noticed by the reader. If these are not appealing enough, it discourages the readers. The colour combinations should also enhance visibility, not hamper it. The whole overall appearance needs to be attractive; and although the idea of attractiveness varies in genders and even individuals, one can clearly make out which blog grabs attention and which doesn't.

• Good Writing

It is the single most important ingredient of the blog. The appearance of the blog is like the makeup on an actor. What really matters is the writing, the contents. Please refer to my next post, Real Bloggers, for more.

• Good Thinking

What you write reflects what you think. A blogger must give every post a good second thought before publishing it. The amount of thinking that goes into every post can easily be made out. The more thoughtful the post, the more interesting it turns out to be. Once again, please refer to the next post.

• Gathering an Audience

Once you publish a post, however good it may be, it needs an audience. And as far as I have observed, readers need to be invited to read your posts. So there are three ways of doing it:

1. Informing and inviting your friends to read your blog.
2. Mailing updates to your contacts every time you post or something of that sort; and the most effective way being

Reading and commenting on other peoples' blogs, inviting them directly or indirectly to read and comment on yours.

• Interaction

Last, but not the least, comes interacting with your readers. They are being very nice to you by reading your blog and commenting on it. Returning this kindness will only boost your image and increase your popularity. It is a very important aspect of blogging (atleast in my opinion).

Well, that's all for now.

Cribbing!

I have quite a few reasons to crib:

1. I'm running out of topics to blog about! And that is one of the reasons why this is turning into a post.
2. There's noone reading my blog-I have to face it. I really want my blog to be useful; I want to debate, criticize, discuss with people and not just have some stupid one sided correspondence!
3. Forget my blog-I'm finding hardly any readable blogs! Where do the popular bloggers get good blogs on their lists from? Half the blogs are in all other languages apart from English and the other half are Advertising blogs!
4. Back to me (God, I hate this!) I realise fully well that I don't write half as well as most bloggers do-nothing interesting which will make anyone want to read my writing!
5. Over the last two years, I've thought over and over again and promised myself that I shall never write such utter rubbish on my blog; but here I've ended up, so desparate that I'm actually posting it.
6. It's my BIG summer vacation, a fruit of my BIG study year of standard 10, and I've accomplished almost none of the goals that I'd planned to- this is not turning out to be half the fun I intended it to be!
7. I'm consuming tablets for some slight hormonal imbalance-and that's really an unnecessary concern and cost for my parents.
8. Lately, I've only been crying-beginning right from my Geometry examination where I lost 4 marks, losing my I-pod, gynac consultations, to my mother's words. When will it get a little dryer?
9. I'm wasting time playing games, posting crap like this, watching TV and thinking about unnecessary things...
10. There are very few people to interact with. I'm unable to contact the people I really want to talk to or meet them, either.

That, I guess, is enough frustration for one post.