*#**#??!!##*

I love my mobile! Actually, I'm crazy about it! It's a Sony Ericsson W910i and obviously the main feature is the walkman facility...

The sound quality is supposed to be really good and all...I never doubted it...

No place for second thoughts about it's sound quality especially in the wee hours of the morning when it seems to have mustered up all it's energy to screech out my (((ALARM))) with zest and the damn alarm music (btw, I chose that horrid song in the hopes that it would jerk me out of my slumber and numerous snoozes) isn't all that great either (imagine setting a soft instrumental as an alarm).

To top it all, you try to switch it off and a whole list of options pops up, by the time you manage to pry your eyes wide open to read them...you are fully awake!!!...and so begins yet another day with a grumpy, groggy me dragging myself to the shower!!!

They should probably add this aspect as well in their adverts...walkman and excellent alarm

...a classic example of what one is capable of when one is deprived of topics to write about!!!!...sheesh...where's this world going??!!

On second thought

At the end of my blog, I've added a gadget "Useless knowledge", though it doesn't really deserve that name, I think it's enough to pique one's curiousity.

One such fact was about handshakes. It seems, like in our day, even during the Middle ages, trust was a difficult thing and when one approaches another, he/she held out his/her hand in the palm-up position to indicate they come in peace and they are not going to attack the other person. This gesture slowly evolved to the handshake of today.

A very sobering thought!! To think we use handshakes as formal greeting these days, for wishing or congratulating people...we even teach our young ones to shake hands.

Some even teach their pet dogs to shake hands. In the ancient connotation, it's like teaching even these lesser mortals (who ironically are supposed to be very trusty and loyal) to distrust!!

Lead by the nose...drifting along one day

I’ve been pretty upset with myself lately.

I’ve realized that I’m totally unable to write! Don’t know if it’s a simple case of a writer’s block or perhaps I’m just not as passionate about writing as I’m about reading!! Or maybe the excitement of opening a blog has just died down and probably it’s lost it’s novelty. And I realize that I’m just doodling now hehehe…

I suppose atleast this simple doodling has temporarily satiated my blog’s hunger!!!

I’ve recently begun taking a lot of snaps though, I just keep clicking away! One such day was about a couple of days back, just drifting through my usual day…got back from work…decided to go out for a walk and visit some friends. Passed Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala and decided it’s time I made that long overdue visit to my pure-Malayalam-speaking friends there (I think my malayalam is passable, but wonder why I get blank stares!!!).

I’ve found myself visiting the clinic as a kind of retreat…never gave much thought to it, but the last time I was there, I realized that I felt like I was being transported to a whole different world, very traditional, relaxing and peaceful! Almost like being transported to “God’s own country (Parashurama-bhumi)” itself.

For those who don’t know much about them, “Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala is a charitable institution offering authentic Ayurvedic medicines and treatments to patients from all over India and abroad. It was founded in 1902 by Vaidyaratnam P.S. Warrier. The salubrious climate of Kottakkal at Malappuram district in Kerala,(South India) and the picturesque and ecologically rich landscape of its environs make it an ideal location for Ayurvedic treatment and convalescence”.

Well, now that you get a picture, you will be able to understand what I write here now.

Let me tell you, I usually hate going to clinics and hospitals, the smell of the disinfectant, nurses in their pristine white and not-so-white uniforms, glucose drips, just makes me sick. And ever since, I came across the term “nosocomial” infections, the fact that you could actually contract diseases and infections at hospitals hit home.

But this place was different, the smell of the medicines wasn’t really unpleasant, there is a very cozy, buoyant atmosphere about the whole place. The medicines they prescribe have long, amusing and unpronounceable (lol) names and I suppose the sophisticated nature of those names themselves provide the patients half their cure in the weird way that our brains work and our weird reasoning. They have bizarre concoctions and potions, one that I came across recently was something that involved black, lizard-egg-sized (yuck) pills previously soaked in water, mixed with egg white and ground to a paste (photo: paste in the white bowl) and used as an external application (thankfully!!) for reducing inflammation.

They use a mixture of roots, herbs, powders of herbs, rose petals, turmeric, oils made from various types of vegetation for treating ailments. Seems like they didn’t leave any vegetation (:-p) unturned in order to find a use!! So, you can imagine the odor this place emanates…hmmmmmm…seemingly salubrious and rich…kind of makes me feel nostalgic, don’t know nostalgic of what…but nostalgic all the same…I find myself going there just for this experience…an oasis of rich, inducing and aromatic odors in a desert of dry, suffocating fumes of the city!!! Feel like being taken back in time to some exotic, bygone era with people clad in traditional outfits, going through rituals, potions being concocted over fires, with the smell of frankincense hanging in the air, in some remote location in the middle of a jungle...

SNAP!! You can wake up now!! hehehe...

The sense of smell is a strange thing, it can evoke memories in a jiffy, the smell of a familiar perfume can remind us of a loved one, the aroma of freshly baked cakes brings to my mind’s eye a picture of my mom in the kitchen with gloves peering into the oven...

It’s said that of all the senses, the sense of smell is the strongest and most important but is also easily overlooked. In fact lots of people have lost their sense of smell for one reason or another, and yet relatively few of them complain about it to their doctor. It can induce a strong sense of nostalgia. Hmmmm…that being the case…dogs might be nostalgic every minute of their lives!!! Hehehe…