min-myinnersoul

Memories of those days, goes the title of this post in Tamil. Alumni reunions are an American tradition. It was not very common in India, until recent years. You passed out of school and college - and that was that. You went your own way , kept in touch with a  few, lost touch with most and lived your own life.  Rarely did you return. But that trend is changing. A week ago, the 1961 batch from Madras Medical College held their 50th year reunion. Everybody was 70 plus in age, obviously. Some 60 odd batchmates attended, it is reported. They came from far and wide. They went back to their old classrooms . They went back to their labs. They sang the songs of their days. Including this one (sorry its in Tamil) which was actually released in their year in college.  They ribbed their mates as they used to do so long ago. In short, they had a whale of a time. What is it that attracts people to reunions. After all they have gone so far a distance that they may not even be able to relate to the

It was a long time coming. In retrospect its actually surprising that the backlash is starting only now. The backlash against email, I mean. A few days ago Atos Origin, a French IT company, started the ball rolling by announcing that it would ban email in the company by 2014. Now Volkswagen unions have struck a deal with the company that emails to their unionised employees would be switched off after office hours. This had to happen. E Mail addiction is an extremely serious epidemic as this blogger observed here . It is a global pandemic of epic proportions. Walk into any office or meeting - you would see rows and rows of people peering into their screens or thumbing away at their Blackberries. Eerie scenes more suited for George Orwell's 1984. Its well known that more than half the emails you get are completely useless. And you get a LOT of emails. For some reason your genes are so programmed that you have to see each and every one of them 15 nanoseconds after they arrive. The

I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year...I just let time get away from me...& pure laziness settled in:o) So this year, I sent out an electronic Christmas card version. A few weeks ago I won My Memories  digital scrap-booking software. I have been playing around with it and I have really enjoyed it. There are some really great templates to choose from. This is the one I chose for our card. The original version had our names where the tree is. I just swung over to  Picnik  and added the tree...for privacy purpose, ya know:o) So anyway, we hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! Hoping to see you all back here next week after the BIG day, and I will share some of the gifts I made.

Saturday's Holiday Walk was a success. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves, and they were very kind in their remarks on our house. Since we had so many coming through the house, I finally mustered up enough motivation to set the dining table. This is what I came up with. We have a fun week ahead of us. Lots of gift and cookie making going on here. I won't be sharing any of the gifts until after Christmas though:o)  Have a great Monday!

Rahul Dravid, India's elder statesman of cricket, delivered the Bradman Oration at Canberra last week. If you want to hear a classy, graceful, charming, stylish speech, look no further. Class, grace, charm and style define the man and perhaps it is but natural, that his speech was all of that.  It is about cricket, of course, but even if you are not a cricket fan, listen to it if you have the time - this is how a speech should be made. Its 40 mts long, but I really wished it wouldn't end. Rahul's speech follows in the lines of another classic speech - from Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka, when  he delivered the Cowdrey lecture in July. Another gem, you can listen to here . English oration is alive and well in the colonies, atleast in the sporting world !

I decided to take a break from the crazy cleaning frenzy that I am in the middle of. We are on the Holiday house tour for our neighborhood tomorrow...YIKES!...and the house still needs lots of work. I really wanted to share what I made yesterday with all of you. I made these cookies to give as gifts. They are melted snowman cookies & they WERE delicious..."were" meaning there are NONE left:o) The hubs took some to work and said they were a big hit.  For instructions and recipes, visit  Crazy Domestic  for all the details.

For the past 3 years, my children have received a special email message from Santa. It's a personalized video that directly addresses your child. If you follow the link below the picture, you will be taken to the site where you can personalize your message. Portable North Pole . The message is the same for everyone, so I let each of my children watch it by themselves, so as not to spoil "the good news" for the other. My kids absolutely love it, and they don't really remember seeing it from the year before. They do change things up from year to year, though. If you are into this sort of thing, definitely try it out. You will be amazed at how your child's face will light up.

Source: picsauce.com via Marina on Pinterest

Happy Monday morning to you all! I trust that you all have almost wrapped things up with your Christmas shopping, and are completely relaxed and ready for the big holiday approaching...HA! Funny, right?:o) Anyway, as promised, I am sharing my Ballard Designs knock off that has been hanging on my wall for months.  There is NO tutorial on this. Sorry girls.  I found this drying rack at a yard sale last summer for $5...not in it's current state, mind you.  And I apologize that I do not have a before picture.  It is made of pine and at one time was probably part of a home filled with country blues and pinks that we all loved so dearly....20 years ago. When I saw the Accordian Drying rack from Ballard, I kept trying to figure out how in the world I could get the hubs to construct it for less. It just seemed like too much work, but I knew that I wouldn't be forking over the $199-$269 that they cost. So I just resigned myself to the fact that I would never have one. Photo Credit You c

As is often the case, the seemingly trivial turns out to be a giant event. I suspect this is the case with Huawei's announcement , buried in the back pages of financial newspapers that it would no longer pursue new business in Iran. So what , you might ask.  Read on. One of the fundamental principles in China is the total separation of politics  & economics. It has one of the freest of capitalist systems (at least for Chinese) and one of the most controlled of political systems. In foreign affairs, China has diligently pursued a policy of complete non interference in political matters. Its policy in Africa is unique in history. It is rapidly colonising economically, but scrupulously keeping away from interference in local politics. It will do business with anybody - God, Archangel Gabriel, Satan, Devil whoever, as long as there is business to be done. Before you denounce it, consider that there is some merit in this approach - the Chinese say political matters are for the citiz

I hope that you all are having a great day. I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of my Christmas decorations. About time, right?:o) I have added a few new things, but most of the decorations are the same as last year.  Here is our mantle.   The headboard above our mantle and the sheet music wreath are two of my favorite items in the whole house. Me loves them!;o) The "Merry" pennant banner was made from painters  canvas, twine, stencils & black fabric paint. I have two more hanging in the house as well. I added a few more paper wreath ornaments to the tree this year. They were left over from my craft booth. I was actually kind of glad I had so many left over. I love how they look on my tree. I finally got our family pictures in some frames. I still have 6 more that need to be framed..ahh! This picture is awful, but there is no natural light in this area during the winter months. Anyway, you get the general idea:o) I got E a new tree this year. I noticed last ye

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We(mostly the hubs) have been busy out in the yard moving dirt, bushes and mulch. It is looking so good in our backyard. I can't wait to show you how it looks:o) I found a really cute hand towel a few weeks ago made by  Mud Pie . The price was really good, but I knew it was something that I could make. I couldn't find their version online, but mine is pretty similar.  The towel was made from an old shower curtain I found at a thrift store back during the summer. I also had the ribbon on hand. I didn't have enough to alternate the colors evenly, but I think it still turned out pretty cute:o)  I just cut 28 strips of ribbon at 3" long. (I think the width of the ribbon is 3/4".) I started at the bottom row with seven strips of ribbon folded in half and stitched them to the towel..the next row 6..and so on.  Just a little side note...if you plan to make this towel, make sure you put your ribbon on at an angle to make the tree fo

What's common to beautiful, popular, controversial, helpful, successful, deserving and proud ? Besides being adjectives ? What's common is that they don't apply to this blog. Nothing here is beautiful, popular ......; you get the drift. When you are tagged to apply those adjectives to your blog, you have to really scratch your head. Tagging used to be a rage three years ago when blogging itself was a rage. Blogging is now in a steep and precipitous decline. The ladies who started deeply intellectual tags that asked "What are you wearing" have all disappeared. Tags have naturally vanished. But Reflections , a star blogger started this tag and Preeti , a master blogger has tagged me with extremely affectionate words that have gone straight into my head. I was also tagged by a blogger I deeply respect and admire, and since she did me the honour of not linking my blog but simply saying incredibly kind words, I am doing so likewise. So I have force fitted the adjective

There are more people in the world today who own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. This may startle you, but its true, at least according to 60secondmarketer.com . There are 4 bn mobile phone users in the world. The annual sales of toothbrushes is 3.5 bn. This won't surprise you if you read the excellent book, Poor Economics , by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. My good friend Ravi, who often comments on this blog, very kindly gifted it to me and it makes fascinating reading.  It was named as the Financial Times Business book of the year . As the byline says, its a book about rethinking poverty and the ways to end it. The book destroys many myths about poverty and provides fascinating insights into the behaviour of the poor. Its no surprise then that they would rather own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. One of the big insights is that things that make life less boring are a priority for the poor. The  quote from Oucha Mbarbk, a poor Moroccan villager sums it all up "Oh, bu