Minuscule world, this blog world!

Yea, so we blog. We and post stories and fiction and memoirs and pictures and rants and leg-pullers and all kinds of stuff.

We make friends, and ‘sisters’ and ‘brothers’ and ‘soul mates’ and all kinds of relationships.

And there are times when you come across a blog through another’s, read through, like it and comment on it. And that person comes back and reads through, likes it and comments on yours.

And it’s all the normal bloggy stuff.

Until.

She (evidently a dog lover and still nursing memories of Goofy) shows pictures of your long lost pet to her husband. And, is in for a surprise when the husband, instead of noticing the pet that was intended to be noticed, notices the man standing by it and says (not verbatim) “Oh! I know him. This is xxxx who lived behind the Vanchiyoor Court (Trivandrum, Kerala). I’m sure.”

So she mails you and asks “Hey. I was showing pictures of Pumbaa to my husband when he looks at your dad and says he’s very familiar. Did he live in Vanchiyoor”? And so, a trail of mails goes to and forth till you realize you’re no longer just blog-friends, but relatives too!

And my dad knows not just her husband, but his brothers, the house they lived in, and even knew one of the brothers who was in the Income Tax!

This weekend, I realised Shail (Shail’s Nest) is my dad’s uncle’s brother-in-law’s wife’s first cousin’s wife! 😀 😀 😀 Yey! How much closer can we get?

Okie! In simpler terms, the brother-in-law mentioned above is just like my grandpa to me. So, that makes us pretty close relatives! 😛 😛 😛

And to think I’ve seen the name “Shail” and noticed her comments in many of my blog friends’ comment sections since a loooooong time, but never bothered to link through and read it… and the week that we actually linked to one another, we realize we’re relatives.

It isn’t just a small world, it’s a rather minuscule one!

Blogging rocks! 🙂

Bored? Then Rock on !

Hehe…no, this is not the review — because I haven’t seen it. Yet.

Disclaimer: Whatever follows are my views only and is not intended to hurt anyone, so please do not take offence. This is meant to be a ‘funny’ post. If it doesn’t make you laugh, I shall hone my humour skills. But if it makes you angry, please calm down, take a deep breath and close the tab/window 😀 )

I was in one of those brain-blocked moods, with nothing to do. I was blog-hopping, trying to land up on something really interesting. Well, I guess the best bloggers are already on my roll 😉 😛 ! Either that, or I was too dumb to understand what was written in all these new ones I hopped into. 😀

I was fighting against boredom, crawling up the slope of irritation and frustration (one followed by the other) and finally saw my latest, favourite hobby loom up ahead — and I promptly started cursing Christianity. 😀 😀 (1st round was for Hinduism; am done with it! 😛 )

I’ve been caught up in this great urge for blasphemy recently! I’ve been having sessions with a Christian lady who is trying to teach me Christianity. It’s a recent mishap. I got into it voluntarily, now am striking a delicate balance… to resist being pulled in and avoid being pulled out 😀 Though I find the religion, the faith very nice (and a lot too similar to Hinduism), I despise the Church and the priests for skewing it up! And in the process, though a part of me likes the faith quite a lot, a bigger part absolutely despises the Church (read as preachers)! 😀 And well, ahem, I’m fed up of these classes and am in hiding now. 😀 I do not attend her calls and am pretending to be out-of-town (forever)! 😉

Meanwhile, relatives and friends who know of this recent religious awakening of mine, are trying to convince me why Hinduism is superior to any other faith. How we are more tolerant. How they are violent and murderous. And I’m delving deeper and deeper into blasphemy! 😛 (Any Muslims who wanna preach and send me deeper down ?) 😀

“Priya! Don’t talk like that. Blasphemy will get you nowhere. You’ll be a sinner. You will not be one with God. You’ll not attain salvation.” (Gist of what the Christian lady tells me!) 😐

“Priya! Don’t talk like that. Christians and Muslims are totally different. They’ll do everything to pull you into their faith. We are a different class of people. We are tolerant. We accept. We are open minded. They are not.” (Gist of what my relatives and friends keep telling me.) 😐

I am not an atheist, in the true sense of that word. But I do not believe in “Gods” who have form, body and sound. I can never fathom a God who walks down in a king’s attire wearing necklaces and bangles and anklets and earrings and a crown (some dress sense, I must say! 😛 ). I cannot fathom a God who drapes himself in a white cloak, has a long white beard and speaks unto humans in a booming voice from the skies…or in His Son who can walk on water and perform miracles, but cannot realise He’s being plotted against and then dies a painful death! (Love and forgiveness? Crap!) In this wide, wide (er er…round) world, I really cannot fathom a God who makes devotees go sit somewhere at about 80 km from the Red Sea Coast! (If God is powerful and omni-present, why not bless them at their houses?!) 😐

“Bah!”, I think, “God! Divinity! Rubbish! What I need now, is to watch Rock-on! I’v been bombarded by raving reviews of the movie from all over the country!”

And then my phone rang…

It’s a number that’s foreign to me. Must be the Christian lady calling, from another number, to check if I’m out-of-town in Trivandrum 😀 !

In a voice that I’ve never heard myself speak before, I say:

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is xxxxxx, calling from Radio Mirchi. Your number was selected at random from

a list of previous callers. You’ve won two tickets for Rock On! Would you be interested?”

“Huh? Yes…yea…yes, of course. :D”

“Come to our office anytime before Saturday. It’s for the Saturday show!”

“Wow, thanks!”

“Bye…and keep listening to Radio Mirchi. Sangathi hot aanu!” (That’s their “It’s hot!” tagline in Malayalam.)

Divine intervention? A reminder of divine existence? God’s awareness programme?

I slowly let my phone fall on my lap…and felt that wicked smile at the corners of my lips. And I said to myself: “Priya! Blasphemy will take you to the theatre, if not anywhere else!” 😀

P.S.:Thank you, Radio Mirchi!

P.S.: Uh…uh…thank you, “God”! 😉

P.S. of P.S.: There was no “list of previous callers” and “random picking of numbers” 😀 The RJ who called up is a verrrrry close friend. I’d been bugging her for tickets for quite some time. She just happened to call at an apt time 😀 .

Image courtesy: cartoonstock.com, google-images

My dad’s 60th birthday!

Birthdays come every year…but the 60th one comes just once 😀 . Exactly why we decided to celebrate it with much ado and make it really, really special for my Dad on 6 July!

Early March: The planning started when I, in union with my brother, decided to dedicate a book to him! That didn’t sound too impressive, did it? Well, let me rephrase it—when I, in union with my brother, decided to actually write a book and dedicate it to him. Something to the effect of ‘Chicken Soup’ series…and since there are 60 members within the family itself, we thought we could get stories from all of them about their relationship with ma Dad. Well, the idea bombed! 😀

Late April: Then we thought we could kidnap him, tie him up, blindfold him and whisk him off to some place he would like…and celebrate with friends, family, food and the best of all—alcohol 😀 . The idea sounded disastrous for health (ours, especially!). 😀

Late May: Then we thought we could ask all his sisters and a brother to come down to Trivandrum…and give him a pleasant surprise—they are all across Delhi, Gujrat, Coimbatore, New York, Atlanta…But well, we knew few could promise attendance…and half the crowd is never as good as the full one (or so everyone says). So, we killed the idea. 😀

Late June: Then we thought we could plan a trip to the Bali islands…my brother had won a 7-day free package to the place—we’d only have to pay for the tickets. A bit too late, we realised Dad’s passport had expired. Damn! The idea died a sudden death. 😀 (The offer’s valid till August end, and Dad doesn’t want a ‘belated burrrday trip’…anyone wanna come along? 😀 )

Early July: Then we thought we could give him a ‘normal’ surprise party…with just the few of us who could make it. By then I had changed my mind just too many times, and was actually in danger of not getting any tickets. But well, I left my self respect in my bag outside the agency…and literally begged the guy to give me a ticket—and I got it. I called up Mom to tell her when I’d be landing and all that…and got the rudest surprise ever…e.v.e.r.! My Dad, who had till then got no inkling that there’d be a birthday party, was going out of town on his birthday! 😀 😀 😀 . The idea backfired!!! 😀

Hehe…I was shocked, but I actually went home without changing my mind further. And we made it…we bought him all sorts of ‘unlikely’ gifts—and well, a Blackberry! And loads of kisses, hugs, and of course, PJs…hehehe 6 July midnight was a fun time at home. He was stunned when he got the Blackberry, and as we expected, he was up till 3 a.m., fiddling with its features and technicalities.

And then, beaming, he said he loved everything! We didn’t even need any more proof since we actually saw him showing it all off to Mom 😀

Glad you loved it, Dad.  And you have no idea how glad we are that we didn’t get the whole family down for the ‘surprise party’…we’d all have been surprised to find the birthday man out of station!

And well, we didn’t even give him a birthday card, not to mention the book 😀 !