Bookworming.

I'm reading a new book after a long time. Its something I love doing, but don't get as much time as I would like to read. I love the feeling of going to a book shop and buying a book. There's a different kind of pleasure in that.
 I bought a book for myself a few days ago after a very very long time.
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrel. A lovely little book to sink into. To lie down and read before bed.
About beaches and boat trips and olive groves, charming little islands and animals.

Its very sad that kids these days don't read. Reading is like getting lost in another world. Its one of the best ways to get away from the real world for a while. People who don't read can never experience that feeling. Very unfortunate. Who wouldn't like to go off on adventures with the Famous Five(to say nothing of their picnics, as anyone who has read them will recall!), or solve a mystery with Poirot, or explore life and magic with Harry, Ron and Hermione?  

After Three Men in a Boat, this book is probably going to be one of my all time favourites. 

Thought bubbles with macaroni.

I come back again after abandoning my blog. To write another silly post. The new blogger is great! Maybe that will inspire me to write more?

I'm obsessed with Masterchef again, the show has redefined the meaning of 'foodie'. Being a foodie doesn't mean eating huge amounts of food. Its about appreciating different kinds of food and being open to new flavours and new combinations of tastes. Its about really allowing yourself to eat with all your senses. Really observing tastes, smells, textures, temperatures and everything about food. Not just stuffing it down your throat. Of course, there are people who claim to be foodies, and love to eat, but really whats the point of eating tonnes of something without even realizing how it tastes? So even if I can't really cook much , or cook well for that matter, I can atleast enjoy food.

For the past few days I've been having this urge to cook pasta, so I'm cooking some macaroni today. I wanted to try something different rather than the tomato sauce I usually make with pasta, but my family doesn't like anything too cheesy, so I wonder if I should experiment with mixing some flavours, or go with a safe recipe. There's a problem both ways - I don't end up cooking much, which is why I want to experiment but maybe its a better idea to do the basics first? The tomato sauce has a popular vote, but I was thinking of saving that for sometime later when I cook spaghetti. I've really wanted to cook spaghetti but since there was a packet of macaroni lying at home I thought I should finish that first. So maybe I'll make a lemon  butter sauce with garlic and put cheese and tomatoes and then bake it. Or maybe the flavours will get all mixed up which I dont want. I always have a problem with taking decisions. Always.

And I want a new camera. I wont get a DSLR yet, but something good enough.
I'm also waiting for my Pottermore beta access email.
I love watching Glee AND I want some new music. Desperately!

"Summer stretching on the grass"

Finally a post after god knows how many months.

I'm having a pretty nice summer so far, with my project and everything and it feels good to be contributing a tiny microscopic little bit to research that will some day go a long way to cure people with spinal cord injuries. We are working with clinical samples of cerebrospinal fluid from patients with varying degrees of spinal injury, and trying to analyze what proteins there are, compare their expression and eventually figure out what causes degeneration. At the end is the answer to the very fundamental question we've taken for granted all along - why can't neurons regenerate? What I find very interesting about this is that we'd learnt all along, ever since we had biology, that nerve cells are the only ones that cannot regrow. Something we were just made to accept as a fundamental fact. But now, we asked why. Of course there must be a reason! And we're going to get an answer some day.

I guess for the people who do this all the time that novelty isn't there because this is their work, the procedures are things they do routinely.  But for me its exciting now not only because the procedures and concepts are totally new to me, but also because when I learn something there and so something with my own hands, I feel like I too am playing a tiny part that will eventually lead to a solution to the problem. What little I'm doing is probably inconsequential but to me the experience matters, and maybe the little work I'm doing now is repetitive and monotonous, but its thinking about the big picture that will shape up one day because of this work that keeps me on my toes. Its like a drop of water in a bucket.
But whatever it is, I'm learning and I know this is what I want to do!

And otherwise I'm failing miserably regarding my plans to go to the gym (again!), I desperately want something to read, and I wish I could play more table tennis.

Another few weeks and we're 3rd years, officially! :)

Beauty.

Birds at dawn, the sunlight through the window as you yawn and step out of bed for the first glimpse of the new day you've awoken to. The wind blowing softly and the sunshine just right, warming you skin. Blue sky shining above.
People smiling, working, getting the day started.
Waiting for the bus, the seat by the window to watch the same old roads go by again and again but its never really the same. The cliched saying 'change is the only constant'. Songs on the radio. Energy buzzing around.
Energy, people. Talking, walking, playing, singing, fighting, learning.
Colourful clothes.
Meeting and waiting.
The hi's and hello's and smiles.
A few moments by the window to let your mind fly away for a while.
Dusk and the crimson sun, visible over the bridges and buildings but slowly disappearing.
And walks through new roads, new places as the light dims and the streetlights flicker on.
The wind that gets colder, whipping your skin. A sharp chill that bites, but is beautiful because you want to feel it to feel alive.
Ink blue sky like a blanket with the stars shining through. So vast, so endless. Staring at the sky is freedom. Losing yourself , pulling away from reality.

Love and liberation.
Life is beautiful if you let it be.
So why not let it be beautiful? There's beauty in everything if you give yourself a chance to find it.
There's no black or white or bad or good. They are all colours. There is no 'normal' or 'default' or generalized definitions. There are just people and emotions all intertwined in different ways that don't have to be defined or named. Thats all.
And that's where the beauty is.

:)

I had a nice Saraswati Pujo. Wore a sari and strutted around all day. Met some friends, ate lots of delicious khichuri. :)

And I finally watched Dhobi Ghat and I loved it because it was so real. It wasn't 'acted'. They showed how relationships are undefined, they don't need to be defined. They showed what its really like when people interact, the real expressions, the way they really say things, the way people really converse, the gestures, the little gaps and silences, all of it. How lives intertwine. It was a refreshing change from the movies we usually watch. You know they are movies, you know they are acting but here it doesn't feel that way. These kind of relationships are something every one of us relate to but never talk about or explain, because we don't need to, we just live with them sometimes without even knowing. It's all a part of life, it adds colour. They are like the shades in between. :)

So I think everyone should go watch it. It's nothing that complex you can't understand its quite simple actually. :)