Calvin and Hobbes

I remember reaching for the newspaper first thing in the morning and flipping past all those pages with incomprehensible intimidating words to the page with all the wonderful looking, coloured cartoons being funny, comic strips! My all time favourites are Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes, and of the two the latter tops the list. And that hasn't changed, even today as soon as I'm up I need to say hello to my favourite pair ever(even though the comic strip ended more than a decade back)and so I start my day with a smile.. a quiet laugh too sometimes.. :)

From Calvin's fantasies about adventures and his friendship with Hobbes, to their humorous antics, to the thought provoking philosophical and ethical questions these two raise, they are simply adorable in their best and worst days.

''Reality continues to ruin my life''

''As a math atheist, I should be excused from this.''

Calvin: I'm a genius, but I'm a misunderstood genius. Hobbes: What's misunderstood about you? Calvin: Nobody thinks I'm a genius.

''I think life should be more like tv. I think all of life's problems ought to be solved in 30 minutes with simple homilies, don't you? I think weight and oral hygiene ought to be our biggest concerns. I think we should all have powerful, high-paying jobs, and everyone should drive fancy sports cars. All our desires should be instantly gratified. Women should always wear tight clothes, and men should carry powerful handguns. Life overall should be more glamorous, thrill-packed, and filled with applause, don't you think?''

"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?"
"I'm not sure that man needs the help."

"I'm learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of my life ... Procrastinating and rationalizing."

...Some of my personal favourite C&H quotes... :) A smile ensured!

Bill Watterson, THANK YOU! :)

P.S.Today's strip=SO ME!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="518" caption="Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson"][/caption]

Monday Movie Marathon!! ♥

A Monday like no other indeed! With a mug of coffee and Sleepless in Seattle!!! And oh did I mention I absolutely LOVE romantic comedies!.. One place, no, the only other place apart from books where you always find happy endings and the best guys ever… I’m not the romantic kind, oh no I’d end up having a fit of laughter if reality was anywhere close, but movies I don’t mind, I totally love them!...Melodrama looks good as long as you know it’s made up. Hypocrisy? No, it is knowing what is and what will never be.

Whatever my views on the emotional sensitivities of the world in general, I totally love to watch it on screen or read about it in books, and genuinely like them even. There are a couple of movies that I’d watch over a million times and never once feel I’ve had enough (Ok maybe not a million but you get the idea). Oh no not the overdose of emotions with unnecessary weeping, unrealistic events, over the top icky romance, no that’s downright pathetic. Those are just plain dumb, exaggerated a little too much for normal sensibilities to live with.

Easy going movies with the perfect ending…♥

I love the idea of a lone heart with just a cat for company finding herself in the middle of a big adorable and loving family, a fiancé she always had a crush on and eventually finding the Mr. Right one Christmas (While You Were Sleeping).

How a single day, even if nothing seems to go right, can turn out to be the best ever (One Fine Day).

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are always so good together, be it in ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ or ‘You’ve Got Mail’.

And the Classics! Witnessing Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet putting aside their pride and realize they’ve found in each other what they’ve always been looking for (Pride and Prejudice). When the proud Miss. Emma Woodhouse realizes that her heart, which she had been sure would never love, is no longer in her power, and her fate in this matter is now uncertain due to her own misdoings; the dangers of misconstrued romance! And then to see Mr. Knightley fix it all is a delight (Emma). The stately manors, the lush grounds, the carriages, the balls…the feel of 19^th century England…who’d think any different?!

A good start to my week surely, Monday morning blues? SO not for me!

No Tacit Temper

Warning: The author was at the time cranky, irritated, frustrated, depressed, angry, exasperated, affronted..in an indescribable mood. For better effect of the post imagine the author in the most animated form with arms flying all over, eyes popping, eyes rolling, draaaaaaaaaagggging accent at the mossssssttttt feeling words. Also appreciate the author’s herculean efforts to remain civil throughout the post, something that is a formidable task given the state of mind.

AARGGGHHH!!!!... Sometimes.. no scratch that.. Almost always things go awfully wrong and one such incident plunges you into an abyss of such melancholy it’s more vexing than depressing really! Like the vacuum sucking out all the light of the place.

What is really annoying is that the very undesirable bad luck waits lurking in the dark for that one moment when you absolutely need no miracle or a great stroke of luck for things to go smooth and make them work. Smooth running, no glitches, job done. But NOOOOooooo…. Bad luck comes and comes with a force that knocks the day lights off you. Casting its shadows on every turn, a curse upon the happening and there goes the simplest of things that COULD’VE been. And the result? A restless, agitated, frustrated mind! When nothing goes your way, when every attempt of yours comes right back to the ground, and it seems like the universe is conspiring AGAINST you as opposed to doing it for you, nothing else seems to be making sense either!.. You’re thrown into a world on confusion and a restlessness that keeps dragging you back into those murky waters you’d rather stay clear of. Like you’re running amok with the “Target me” sign around your neck, with a bulls eye mark and so the continual bombarding. And this is how I find myself at this very moment. How many times have we shouted out at the sky with the question “WHY ME?”, “WHY THIS?”, “WHYYYYYYYYYY?” .. Ok maybe not everyone is as dramatic but I certainly have. And find myself doing that yet again. :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

WHYYYYYYYY?? :-( Can you not give me a rest? Can you not find a rock to torture?!!!!!Can I not have one single thing go smoothly without any struggles and so much of head-breaking/nerve-wrecking/maddening complications that have me on the brink of insanity? Well apparently no. That’s all the answer I get and a very subtle ‘get on with it kid’. OK SO BE IT!... HMPH!... I may not win but I will definitely put up an undeniably good fight that will make things considerably difficult for the universe to ruin it for me! HA! There you go!.. *deep breaths* *calming down process* Ok I cannot do it, I need yummy food, bye!

P.S. I had to delete all the unnecessary exclamation marks, a direct consequence of my mood!!!!!!!! Poor keyboard of mine..

Romancing the Rains.

Pitter patter they fell; drenching the world,

Soaking the mud the trees and men alike,

A varied set of emotions they unfurl

Of gloom, of hope, of simple bliss or love?

I’ve always had a super liking for the rains, right from my school days when we were made to wear those horrendous coloured raincoats, all through my teen years and now. All I feel like doing is stay cuddled up in my blanket and stare outside, something I found out a lot of us would love. And it makes me do one more thing I totally love.., write.

No more a child, no more a teen even(although that’s a bit difficult to sink in), and still the sound of the threatening thunder, the whiplashing lightening, the soft calming drizzle and the total downpour each hold something special…The weather has always known to be a metaphor for one’s thoughts, feelings, moods et all, for none the same..

And so our mood interprets the rains as well, but the one common ground is that it is always welcome.

Of Gloom and hope...Even for those who think rains are gloomy, sadness is still beautiful. The feeling that the sky knows you’re in pain and is crying along with you, and then goes on to give you the most splendid rainbow lit up across its bosom gives you the hope needed, to tell you it’s all alright, that the worst of storms come to an end and that it all happens for a reason, that in not giving you what you want the universe is getting you something even better…you only have to wait for the sunshine, and together with the glistening raindrops a rainbow is formed. And so we live on with this hope, following nature’s example.

Of the simple joys...For some like me, the simple task of watching the rain splash across your window while you sip at your hot chocolate, reading one of Jane Austen’s classic, makes it the best time ever spent. Having oneself for company, it’s a very satisfying sign of being completely content, at peace with yourself and surprisingly with the world at that very moment. If there is any feeling that would describe harmony, between mankind and nature, between the heavens and earth it is this. The smell of earth during the showers is divine; it is the smell of tranquility, of nature, of purity and is easily every human’s favourite. (So that implies… think about it)

Of love...And then there is that lot who simply love the rains for somehow... for some strange reason they find it very (for the loss of a better word) romantic. And no not just the ones who’re in love with someone, even those who’re in love with the idea of love, love rains… right! This mostly is due to our highly creative and entertaining cinema, apna Bollywood where we have from time immemorial witnessed the suave dashing handsome ‘hero’ and the shy rosy cheeked (no mention of makeup it would ruin the whole mood) ‘heroine’ dancing around trees in the rain, or just looking into each other’s eyes while it rains with that deeply-in-love look, basically an overdose of the lovey-dovey coochie-cooie sentiment they want to convey.. ok we get it, you’re madly in love…Paani ki barsaat se gaano ki barsaat aa jaati hai, as we croon the cheesiest of rain-themed songs.

So here we are, linking rains with romance and why not, it’s a time when we all want to feel warm and cuddle up, be it your soft toy, your dog or the person you love.

End of it all, each one of us loves a rainy day, we have all found immense joy in getting drenched against the elders’ warnings, standing alone facing the sky hugging the rain, riding our bikes in the drizzle, craving for garam pakoras, sipping hot tea, chocolate, coffee whatever your taste.. Easily the best time of the year, no summer days, no cool winters will ever be anticipated as much as this splish-splash season.

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I'm no psychiatrist so I cannot possibly unravel the mystery and answer the question as to why we’re so hooked onto Facebook. Why every face is glued to it, why without it the day feels incomplete, we feel restless and we fear the world would end *eyes wide in horror*, oh yes who needs 2012 for that. But its true!

So we all want to stay connected, want to catch up with long lost friends, want an easy and convenient way of letting them know what’s going on, but FB has taken it a whole notch different. Apart from being a brilliant site there are a lot of things about it that irritate the life out of a sane person. To list a few…

1. We have people spending hours together taking care of their ‘farms’, making a living in ‘yoville’, taking care of their ‘pets’, feeding them on time, harvesting crops, buying tractors, waiting tables at their ‘cafes’, playing ‘uno’ to ‘cricket’ to warring with others donning the avatar of a mafia or a socialite or a vampire, there’s a whole range of choices you’ve got. So we turn into farmers/chefs/event managers/socialites/mafia don/werewolves/zombies/vampires/treasure seekers/completely jobless morons.

Till a certain point it’s actually fun, then bearable, but jeez people seriously get a life!

2. Another highly irritating thing about FB wannabe’s is God-save-my-ear kind of screams, the shouts for attention.

So you took a quiz that says you were a princess and you publish it with the awwww’s and the hearts and you actually have people commenting on it! Sweetheart, you need help..So you took a quiz that says today your ‘lifebox’ gave you a ring.. do you even HAVE a guy?... So you took a million quizzes that say you’re caring, loving, true friend, will save a puppy from the villains(get the picture?) and you publish one, then the other, then the next, for which you keep commenting and liking. Seriously you need help if defend yourself saying the results of such quizzes make you feel good and happy..WHAT ARE YOU.. 4?

3. And another pain.. ‘LIKE’… Again with the FB wannabe’s, you think liking gazillions of pages would make you interesting? Sorry to burst your bubble but you will remain the same, just that your profile will be a total mess… Right from ‘The sky is blue’, to ‘you suck’ to ‘we’re jobless’ to ‘dude can you like get a life’ you go and click that teeny like button on every darn page you can set your eyes on saying 'ooohhh I feel this way too', 'ooohhh I do this too' or 'oooohhh I would want to like this' or 'ooooohhh I wish I could do this but wth I’ll just go ahead and like it cze heyyyy it’s easy'.. One could write an entire novel out of just the pages some people like! One thing I’ve never really understood is why on earth do people go ahead and ‘like’ their own status msgs?! Or any of their posts or pics?? Dude, if you hadn’t liked them you wouldn’t have posted them, we get it!!

4. Also, STOP COPYING!.. That’s just so lame! Do you even read faking news? NO! But when one person likes it, next thing you know you have a dozen other friends liking it as well!... It’s fine if you read it and genuinely like it, but in the ‘faking news’ case out of personal experience I can tell that there a lot of people out there who’d like just about ANYTHING!  The ‘Ooh she /he liked it must be good/cool/happening let me like it too’ will NOT make you cool and happening you poor babies!

Like I said, till a certain point it’s fun, and then you MOVE ON! Not continue being addicted! Give those silly quizzes a rest and let them be, leave them for the time you are bored to death and have absolutely nothing to do! And WHAT IS the deal with the death calculator!?!?! :O Don’t even get me started on the Lifebox! Right now I just happened to get a request for something called the ‘Fire God Mountain’! Helloooo!!!

Among this set of rubbish is are some very few decent applications, social interview for one, and a few more like it..the games are pretty alright till a whole bunch of friends keep pestering you to ‘help them raise their barn’, or ‘gift them a dish’ or ‘do whatever it is that you’re bugged to death for’. Then is the time you ask them all to simple grow up!

I wonder how many people actually care or know or make an attempt to know about the zillion awareness groups they join…Join join join…like like like… If that was a real wall I’d bang their head on it!

Play all you want, looks like you’ve got a lot of time on your hands to spend, but when that box appears that asks you if you want to publish it or skip, do us all a favour and SKIP!.. We’re the ones with the messy homepages cze FYI we’re NOT interested if you’re a butterfly or a stinky bat, if you were Cinderella or Cruella or if your bridal dress is made out of leaves or if you’re going to die listening to Himesh Reshamiya (Although if you do listen to him you probably deserve it).

So grow up, get a life, get out, play some real games, get some real adventures, do some real shopping, take care of some real plants and trees, adopt a real dog, give a real hug to a friend,  enjoy the site and DO NOT take it to the extremes that would drive others up the wall!.. NO not the FB wall!!...