hello. world?

dad says too much work never hurt anybody. i'd say i'm trying really hard to prove him wrong :o

this week was one continuous stretch of work. but now that i know the hanuman chalisa, i know i'll live :)

take care, world.

resolutions

so, i never got round to listing my resolutions. the ones i can remember (read - list off an email to adu) are as follows:

• floss daily
• do back exercises every day
• memorize the hanuman chalisa
• eat all those green healthy things i loved to avoid
• eliminate luxury foods from my diet (more on this below)
• read gandhi's "the story of my experiments with truth"
• take better care of my clothes
• not call shotgun
• love everyone
• give kindly and often
• not bitch

at the end of the year, i will be a better person. if there are things anyone wishes to point out/add, please do. i shall include them in my list for next year :). so far i'm on day 18 and doing ok. here's what ok means:

• flossing every day. my teeth are breathing now.
• doing exercises, but sometimes i do a shorter set than other times. my backache is in control these days, touch wood.
• hanuman chalisa duly memorized.
• have ordered broccoli multiple times and eaten it too. turned this one into a resolve to eat one "healthy" and previously undesirable item a day.
• no cakes, desserts, sweets, snacks. gandhi ji and i are on the same page here.
• reading a little every day, and filling with greater awe. so far, have not burst.
• taking some care. not to my dad's satisfaction, but it's a slow process. years and years of damage to undo.
• not called shotgun.
• it's not easy to love everyone, but i try some every day. my milestones aren't for public consumption though :).
• again, slow progress, but at it - no doubt.
• oooh, a hard one :). this is for others to judge me on, and check me when i fail.

on taking photos

today as i waited at starbucks for a friend i studied the fountain outside... it's green in color and lit at night. the lights were on then, giving it a surreal look. immediately my thoughts went back to a's account of his cinematographer in india. about how he could take a picture of the most mundane thing in the world and make it look artistic, beautiful. i realized that my love for taking pictures came from the same desire... to capture the beautiful aspects in all that i see - anything at all. obvious things like a silhouette in the sunset, the colors of leaves in the fall, or the smiling face of a child, and the not so obvious - such as buildings made of concrete, an 'in n out' board, or a lamp-post. it is one of my firmest beliefs that there is beauty in everything in the world, everything that we are surrounded by, that our five(/six?) senses can perceive. and as the eyes chance upon these elements of beauty, there is a burning desire to find a means to express that beauty. taking photos is one.

this felt like a revelation that i thought i should pen. perhaps it was merely a revelation about myself to myself... i understand now where my love for photography comes from, and thus it becomes a more fundamental part of me.

to push or not to push

i do not believe in stopping people from doing what they dearly like to do. but i experience serious conflict when i see people ordering/drinking coke, particularly when my concern for them screams out to me to stop them from. once i was a coke drinker as well, and many years ago i believed that the drink was the ultimate luxury i was deprived of at home. but i know better now, and i wish i could change the world :(.

read this and you'll know what i mean. i hope.