Monday 28 December 2015

mundane monday #62

and so here it is, the last monday of the year.
theres a lot about this year that i'd like to forget, but one of the few things that i'd like to remember is that this is the year that i became a potterhead. (oh yeah, i know i'm supposed to be an adult and everything, but hey.)


i posted something about books last december too. still, i end yet another year without reading as much as i would have liked to.





Thursday 24 December 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #20


what could be better today than some wonderful vintage christmas cards - here are some four of them... i've linked the sources below each of them.

 a little boy heading out into the snow, from the graphics fairy.


these lovely birds with windmills in the backdrop, from flickr.


 two young boys in sailors' clothes, waving from the top of a ship, found on wikimedia.

lastly, this funny looking card for a christmas party in december 1918, from wikimedia.
the party announces fancy dress and cards(whist)... note the menu - it is apparently from 1918(according to the info in the file) - the 1st world war would have just ended, and most food items like sugar & butter would have still been in rationing.

Monday 21 December 2015

mundane monday - #61

just one more monday to go in the year...

'tis the season... and the halls are decked...

as the year winds down and another is around the corner, i think it is at the very core of human nature, to rise up from all that seems to drag us down, and move on with eternal hope. 
in reply to every adversity that life throws our way, hope is the only answer that humanity has to offer, time and again. 
hope that each day shall be better than yesterday, that each year will be better than the one gone by. 




Monday 30 November 2015

mundane monday - #60

i haven't been taking a whole lot of photos lately, and this soapy sponge is one from the archives :) i had taken this in 2012, but i think it didnt make it to the monday posts so far. the original picture is here, but i've posted today a slightly edited version. 



Monday 23 November 2015

mundane monday - #59


november is drawing to a close, and it is the beginning of the end of the year. the dipping mercury makes you crave warm cups of tea, crank up the heater and just curl up under covers - until of course, reality gives you a kick behind and reminds you of the never ending list of chores :)

meanwhile, coming to this monday's picture, the one below is a set of rattan boxes from ikea, called 'fryken'. (i use them to hold an odd assortment of stuff in my living room and bedroom, but emptied them out to take the pic.) it is the one here. the original photo when i took it looked quite 'blah', but turned out much better after a bit of editing.
see my other photos of stuff from ikea here and here.

mundane monday - ikea fryken rattan boxes

Monday 16 November 2015

life is fleeting...


if there is one thing that i have been reminded of again and again and again in the past few years, it is that life is fleeting. you never know what is going to hit you when.
the more you try to make sense of life, the more you realise there is no sense. the more you try to find a purpose to your existence, the more you are convinced that there is none. what matters is just the moment, every moment. the ‘now’. just live. because you dont know if this moment will extend into the next. and that into the next. make the most of it while it lasts.
sometimes it feels like this world we live in is a lost cause. it has become pretty much routine to wake up to depressing stuff, whether its war in the middle east, bombing in europe or floods in india. lives have become mere numbers, mere statistics. sometimes it feels like the more progressive our technology has become, the more regressive our hearts and souls seem to have gone. but then as much as you hear about the violence and callousness, you also hear heart warming stories of strangers who pitch in to help, of policemen and firemen who put others’s lives before their own. and such things make you feel like there is still hope. who knows.
of late i really feel the need to ‘detox’ myself of all the news overload, because i realise ‘news’ has just become jobless people bickering over useless stuff. im convinced that im going to lose nothing significant by being a little less ‘updated’, instead maybe spend my time and bandwidth on better stuff in the world.
strangely, as much as it depresses, it also seems to strengthen my resolve to “make each day count” (as jack, in titanic, would say). how do you do it ? i’m not sure. but hey, if you can allow yourself to be a little more silly and a little less worried, i guess that counts. if you can squeeze a few more laughs into your day, i guess that counts. if you can feel good about who you are right now, and not try to meet some imaginary standards set for yourself, i guess that counts. ( that last part, feeling good about yourself - so tough.) 

its easy enough to stop and smell the roses once you start trying. forget the big stuff and just do the little things. because hey, most of the ‘big stuff’ are not in our control anyway. i’ve been realising this all the more recently, as i spend a lot of time with my neighbour’s kid. as often as i keep contemplating on life and such, i have also been letting myself loose, colouring on ice cream sticks with markers, playing monopoly, or making craft projects with cotton balls, food colours, and glitter.
it is so liberating to shut off the newsfeeds, and instead spend an afternoon watching sea lions in the galapagos, fish in the maldives, or elephants in kenya. or even the taj mahal or ajanta caves if you like. it is amazing to be virtually standing inside museums online on the google art project. it feels such a relief to laugh out loud till your sides ache, looking at silly ‘pinterest fails’ - just go ahead find your own way to give yourself a break from all the toxic nonsense around.
do what you need to do and move on. there is a surprising calmness inside when you realise that should just stop over-thinking and become over-emotionally invested in your own life and that of others, because after all,
que sera sera... whatever will be, will be.... the future is not ours to see.

Monday 9 November 2015

mundane monday - #58 | diwali special, throwback monday !


today happens to be not just any monday, but the eve of diwali, india's biggest festival.
i think that is an excellent reason to have a post that combines both my monday and thursday series, making it a throwback monday :)

and so, here is a vintage diwali ad, from one of those classic indian brands, HMT watches. (hmt stood for hindustan machine tools)

image source - from here

and i also found this article about 5 of the iconic models of hmt - interesting to read about the 'dowry watch', i had no clue about that !

Thursday 15 October 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #19

october 15th is the birthday of my most favourite humour author, the unparalleled p.g.wodehouse.

his characters like the bumbling lord emsworth, the intrepid wooster clan of bertie and his aunts, and that gentleman's personal gentleman, the impeccable jeeves - are immortal.

nothing would make me more happier, than being left alone undisturbed with a stack of wodehouse books by my side :)

wodehouse in his library









wodehouse, using his typewriter

both images above are from the website of the P.G.Wodehouse Society UK

Thursday 8 October 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #18

october 8th, 1932 - the Indian Air Force was established in british india. its motto, "nabhaḥ spr̥śaṁ dīptam" meaning "touch the sky with glory" is taken from the 11th chapter of the bhagavad gita.

the first squadron was commissioned the following year with four westland wapiti biplanes and five indian pilots. 























a westland wapiti biplane, the first kind of aircraft to be used by the IAF, seen flying above new delhi.

Monday 5 October 2015

mundane monday - #57





yeah. i've generally been a person for whom 'makeup' means just moisturiser. i wear 'real' makeup (like foundation+compact+lipstick etc) no more than a few times a year.
but then there are certain days in your life when you get up in the morning and see in the mirror, and the real 'natural' shocks the hell out of you. you find some creature in the mirror which seems to be a hybrid variety got by crossing medusa with a mountain troll.
i think mornings are not a good time to look 'natural', at least not for me.

Friday 18 September 2015

wrapping it up, yet again...



i've said it before, and i'll say it again - fall (or autumn) is a jinxed season for me. it is seriously uncanny that it happens every year at almost the same time. ugghh... see here and here, and you'll have an idea of what i'm grumbling about. anyway, its that time of the year again, and things arent being any different around here. we are finding ourselves again at the beginning of another end, of wrapping and packing up yet another house... 



one certain advantage it has though, is that it helps me in my goal of being a minimalist. i really think a lot before buying or accumulating stuff, knowing that i'll always be dealing with it all before the end of the year. 

Monday 14 September 2015

mundane monday - #56

coming after a considerable break, today's monday photo just happens to be a splash of colour ! not that i planned for it, but i just saw it and realised it would look beautiful.


this is a bottle of fennel candy - or candy coated fennel - whichever way you prefer it. though i'm sweet toothed, i personally find this too sugary for my taste. and yet, it looks so colourful that i was tempted to take a picture of it :)

fennel candy is common at most indian restaurants, given at the end of a meal as a mouth freshener. it is also very much a part of indian weddings, called 'meetha saunf' in hindi, and 'arisi mittaai' or 'palli mittaai' in my mother tongue tamil. it is also common in south indian weddings to have the names of the couple written with this fennel candy, on a tray filled with sugar ! the colour combination of pink and orange itself reminds me so much of an indian wedding !

find one more photo of this here .

Friday 11 September 2015

9/11

Like a Phoenix, it rises...
Remembered, and Rebuilt...

1 WTC 

Thursday 27 August 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #17

been a few weeks since i showed up and marked attendance here... travel, being a bit under the weather, and sundry other excuses as usual.

i've just not been in the best of spirits lately, and i was thinking of something to post today while still being in a sore mood.
the only thing that came to my mind was that, when you are feeling blue, the best medicine is a little purple :) yup, what quickly cheers me up is thoughts of my beloved cadburys. (to be precise, real old cadbury's, before it became kraft. somehow its never the same inside my head anymore.)

anyway, ended up browsing through vintage ads of cadburys and found this one -

          image from flickr, here


( i wish I find meself some cadburys real soon. right now all i have on hand is some white chocolate, which im using as an emergency substitute.)


Thursday 6 August 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #16

august 6th, a day in history that humanity never should, and never will, forget.

american forces used the atomic bomb for the first time on august 6th 1945, completely destroying the city of hiroshima and killing hundreds of thousands of people, both immediately and later gradually, as a result of radiation exposure.
nagasaki would be bombed three days later on august 9th.

one can only hope that never again will the world witness such a horror, even though the kind of news that we wake up to each day leaves us with less and less hope for humanity.

make love, not war.
hiroshima bombing, august 6th 1945



Friday 31 July 2015

the summer i became a potterhead

where exactly do i start this one ? with a confession ? with a disclaimer ?

how exactly does one explain discovering and falling in love with something that everyone else in the world has been doing for nearly the last 2 decades ?

this is the summer that i became a potterhead. in lay terms, a harry potter fan.
the (slightly embarrassing) confession i have to make is that i am in my 30s. (not that being in my 30s is embarrassing, but admitting that i haven't read harry potter till now, kind of is.)

i hadnt given much thought to either the books or the movies when the whole world was raving about them. i had never been one to buy into hype - never standing in lines at midnight to buy anything or queuing up in front of theatres to watch first day shows. and so for nearly two decades i didnt really bother about harry potter, even being slighly dismissive of it as just over hyped children's or young adult fiction. (yeah i know, it sounds judgemental or prejudiced, but i assure you im not normally like that.) also, i'd always say that it was not really my kind of genre, being that i had never been interested in fantasy fiction like LOTR, narnia, etc.

some months back, a relative whose opinion on books and other academic stuff i had respect for, recommended that i read the books. and later, in the first week of june, one of our neighbour's kid was gifted with the first book, and i ended up borrowing it to read. thus was my entry into the harry potter universe. needless to say, there was no looking back. borrowing alternately from the neighbour's kid and the library, i finished the entire series in less than a month, including the gaps of the days i had to wait to find the books in our library.

what made me a fan was the extremely well constructed plot and the excellent writing. it has suspense, humour and also in many places a philosophical touch with dumbledore's sagely quotes, which i loved.
it is not so much about magic as it is about the triumph of love over evil. what makes it great, is that it is not just about some 'make-believe' stuff that you try hard to fit into, but is about very relatable issues that you've known and seen all around you.

love, hatred, jealousy, friendship, loyalty, discrimination, war between good and evil, rumour-mongering press, obstinate and corrupt governments - rowling weaves it all in between well constructed plots and an impressive narration that leaves you convinced that you actually belong there.

one of my favourite things about the series is the female characters - they dont just sit there, being pretty and waiting to be saved by some macho guy. each of the female characters (both the good and bad ones) shine in their brilliance and strength. they dont have men and women sporting teams, but men & women play a sport as team-mates, as equals.
the development and transformation of the characters as they grow, is beautiful(with neville longbottom taking a special place). and the best thing - subtlety. im a big fan of subtlety and rowling is a master of it. it is those touches, the effort she has put into everything right from the characters' names, that i really love. for example, her choice of the name of remus - its the name of one of the founders of rome who was raised by a wolf.
and hermione's patronus being an otter - otters belong to the family of weasels and im not sure if rowling intended that as an symbol of her future being 'weasley' :) but it certainly feels nice to think that way, given that the weasely family also lives in 'ottery. st.catchpole'.

and more big and little things, like each horcrux being destroyed by a different person, the black family first names all being after stars or constellations, and prof. mcgonagall's dressing gown always being tartan.

as of now, however, i have only seen one movie in full - the first. the rest i have caught some scenes here and there, and i consciously avoided watching them once i started the books since i didnt want to watch before i was finished reading. you cant of course, isolate yourself totally from inadvertently seeing movie clips or references now and then, because, they are practically everywhere. this meant that i knew mostly which characters were going to die even before reading the books, but still that did not ruin the suspense as i did not know how and when, the exact details... in fact i should say it lessened the impact of shock i would have otherwise had the first time.

if at all there is one thing i wont forgive rowling for, it is that she caused too many deaths from the 'good side' (the order) than was necessary, in my opinion. my most favourite was the third book and the least, the fifth. i just couldnt tolerate harry's teenage temper tantrums and the resulting dragging of the book more than i thought was necessary. also, i wished the last book had more of a closure than the epilogue provides, but then the innumerable tumblrs by fans, and pottermore kind of make up for it.

in the coming weeks i plan to finish watching all the movies - (i love the excellent casting and the sets) - and i know i'll come back to reading the books many times over, as i always do with all my favourite books. it is a world that once you enter, you dont want to leave, and i know generations of kids to come will discover and fall for its magic.

so, this day draws to a close the month that i finished reading harry potter for the first time, and the reason why i'm posting this today, 31st July 2015 -

Happy 35th Birthday to Harry Potter and Happy 50th to J.K.Rowling !

apologies for the pathetic picture - thats all i had the time and patience for today :( 

Monday 13 July 2015

Thursday 9 July 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #15

on 9th july 1877, the first wimbledon tournament began - at the 'All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club' in wimbledon, london.



the program of the first wimbledon is below, announcing the players, the prize money, and the dates. the original date of the finals was to be 16th july and was later postponed to 19th july due to rain.




Thursday 2 July 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #14

july 2nd, 1962 - the first walmart store opens in arkansas, USA.

walmart is today the world's largest company by revenue and the world's largest private employer.



crowd gathered outside the store for the opening day 

Thursday 18 June 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #13



on june 18th, 1928, amelia earhart would become the first woman to have flown across the atlantic ocean. the flight departed from newfoundland (on june 17th) and arrived at the welsh coast more than 20 hours later, braving risky weather.

amelia earhart accompanied two other pilots on this flight and kept the flight log. her own solo flight across the atlantic would happen four years later, in 1932.

amelia earhart's transatlantic flight, june 18th 1928 - new york times front page
image source - the new york times


crowds gathered at southampton to greet amelia earhart after her 1928 transatlantic flight.



Thursday 4 June 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #12

june 4th, 1919 - the 19th amendment to the united states constitution was passed, granting women in america the right to vote. (many of the states though, had passed their own legislation before, allowing women to vote.)
the 1920 general election was the first one in which women across all the states in the usa had the right to vote.

women's suffrage bill signed on june 4th 1919 granting women in the USA the right to vote

Monday 1 June 2015

mundane monday - #54

who among us doesn't wish life came with a remote ?

if only we could skip the scenes we didn't like, or go back and forth as and when we please...


Thursday 28 May 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #11

on may 28th, 1937, the volkswagen car company was established in germany.

it was born as a result of hitler's intentions to have a 'people's car' that the german public could afford. the first car prototype, built to hitler's specifications and obejctives (by ferdinand porsche and his team) was called the 'kdf-wagen', which would later evolve into the iconic beetles.
with the onset of the war, the production turned to military vehicles and used slave labour.

the post-war revival of the company, made possible largely due to the intervention of the british army, is a whole other story.

thus began das auto !

camping with the kdf-wagen (volkswagen beetle) c.1938
image provided by the german federal archives to wikimedia commonsBundesarchiv, Bild 146-1988-019-16 


Monday 18 May 2015

mundane monday - #53



potpourri on the table... 


potpourri bowl

why is it that fragrances and memories are so connected ? why do a favourite fragrance and a fond memory both make us close our eyes and take a deep breath ? 
what are the scents that kindle your memory ?

Thursday 14 May 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #10

may 14th is the day that the world's first vaccine was given - by Dr.Edward Jenner to an eight year old boy called james phipps. the year was 1796. edward jenner is the father of immunology, and his work paved the way to save millions of lives through preventive medicine.

the word vaccine itself comes from 'vacca', the latin word for cow - based on dr.jenner's research of using cowpox for preventing the occurence of smallpox. it took 200 years though, to eradicate smallpox entirely from the world.



Thursday 7 May 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #9


may 7th is the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore -  poet, artist, philosopher and thinker. he was the first non-european to be awarded the nobel prize for literature, in 1913.

he was knighted by the british in 1915 but renounced it in 1919 after the jallianwallah bagh massacre in amritsar.

his verses have been chosen as the national anthem of two countries, india and bangladesh.

seen below is a photo of rabindranath tagore with einstein, taken in 1930.


we had to read tagore's famous verse "where the mind is without fear" back in school, and it has remained etched in my memory ever since.

another of tagore's famous songs in bengali, "ekla chalo re" was used as the theme song for the indian government's 'clean india (swachh barath) mission' launched in 2014. click here to hear the beautifully rendered version by kishore kumar, one of india's much loved singers.

Monday 4 May 2015

mundane monday - #52


 i was looking around the house for something to take a photo of, and it suddenly struck me that i hadn't introduced to the world my very latest friend, companion and partner who has been in my life the past few weeks.
and so, without further ado, i present to you the lovely hp chromebook 14. yup, in my favourite turquoise. (just look to your right and left in the blog, and you'll see how much i like the colour :) )

so far, i've been really liking the experience of using it. i have to mention though that i have been a devoted chrome and google user for quite a few years now, so except for slight differences in the keyboard, my transition from pc to chromebook was pretty smooth - its definitely not for those who may need to use specific software and such. but pretty much all i do with the pc, i do it on a browser and so i had been convinced for long that it would be a right fit for me.  (i'll leave it here, since i dont intend to make this a full fledged review. but if you have any questions about it feel free to ask !)


among other things, the weather has turned good. and i mean open-up-the-doors-and-windows good. and if that doesn't give me the much needed nudge push (and shove) to spend more time outdoors, i dont know what will.

Thursday 30 April 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #8


april 30th, 1945. hitler committed suicide inside his war bunker with eva braun (who was 23 years younger than him, and whom he had married two days before, after their relationship of many years).

the newspaper is dated 2nd may, as his death was announced to the public only on 1st may.


Monday 27 April 2015

mundane monday - #51


i was going to leave the post pretty much wordless this week... but i thought i'd leave it with this quote instead. 


"the shoe that fits one person pinches another ; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases" 
-  Carl Jung





and i added the quote to the image later - 

the shoe that fits one person pinches another ; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases  -  Carl Jung







Thursday 23 April 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #7

today is world book day. april 23rd was chosen as the date since it is the death anniversary of Miguel Cervantes (author of Don Quixote) and Shakespeare.

i wonder what sort of a world it would be in the absence of books and libraries. the silence of a library is somehow one of the most soothing atmospheres to be in - a sort of surreal feeling knowing that you can choose to be in the company of the greatest minds of the world.

the image below is that of the Gutenberg's Bible, from the collection of the american Library of Congress in washington, d.c.

the library of congress is the largest in the world, and second largest by number of items in its collection. it is one place i want to visit just to see its breathtaking Great Hall.
Gutenberg's Bible, Library of Congress.


Monday 20 April 2015

mundane monday - #50

im one of those people who love rain. there is something about it that lifts my spirits, makes me instantly cheerful.

so today was one of those days where i had the joy of seeing raindrops splash down on the windows, making the whole world outside look fresh and all washed :)

the past few days have been really good weather-wise, with trees that were just all twigs suddenly bursting into bloom, and the grassy patches getting greener by the day. magnolias and daffodils are beginning to show their heads, and it cheers me up so much every time i see them...

nature is so wonderful, it changes your mood like nothing else can. (well at least it does for me :) )

i also realised when starting this post that this is the 50th mundane monday post ! i started the mundane monday project on the blog towards the end of 2012, and counting how many mondays are actually there over a period of almost two and a half years should give an idea of how 'regular' the posts have been ;)  well at least i'm happy that i'm still sticking to it and making my best efforts despite my limitations.

yeah, i know i probably sound like giving myself a 'star' on my homework, but hey, what is there to life if not for these little indulgences :)

also, im super happy that the 50th post happened to be about rain, which is one of my most favourite things. rainy days just make your everyday cup of ginger-chai all the more special, dont they ?

rainy on the window

Thursday 16 April 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #6

I'm a big fan of trains, and i think train journeys have an element of romance around them. i've always loved gazing dreamily at the world passing by outside a train window and imagining the lives of people in those far-off, unfamiliar places.

if you grew up in india, trains were a big part of your life since they are the backbone of the indian public transport network. the indian railways, owned by the government, is one of the largest in the world.

this day, april 16th, in the year 1853 saw the first passenger train introduced between bombay (mumbai) and neighbouring thane. 

below are some pics i found on the internet. 

the bombay-thane train chugging on its way.



Thursday 9 April 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #5

a couple of days back this week was william wordsworth's birthday. (april 7th to be precise.) maybe the man should have been called wordsmith. i still remember the 'solitary reaper' from when i was in school.

below is a page with wordsworth's handwriting, containing what is probably his most famous work, 'daffodils'.



Monday 6 April 2015

mundane monday - #49

found this little tag at the bottom of a new t-shirt that i got. 

one of those things that seem more easier said than done. especially the first part. you cant always do all that you like, can you ? there are always so many factors that restrict what you can do, regardless of what you like.
being able to do what (or whatever) you like feels like such a utopian dream. 


right now, however, i guess i like taking tacky pictures of my clothes hung near windows and putting random filters on them, so i'll leave it at that.
at least i like the little things i do. they matter, too. 

Thursday 2 April 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #4

since this week saw the date (31st march) of the inauguration of the eiffel tower, there is no getting past this week without posting a vintage picture from the opening day. the year was 1889.

see these beautiful images from the google cultural institute.

found the pics below thanks to the nbc news site. i did not know that they had originally meant to take down the eiffel tower after 20 years !



gustave eiffel standing in the first floor of the eiffel tower during its construction.


Monday 30 March 2015

mundane monday - #48

ha. its almost the fourth month of the year and this is the first mundane monday post of this year. i know i've been in blog hibernation, but whats worse is i havent been taking that many photos either. i had used the camera only a few times since the start of the year and even those few pics are waiting to see the light of the day, because my pc has been acting up and i have trouble transferring them.

funnily, turns out that i'm not that much of a mobile camera person. somehow i'm not that happy with how phone camera pics turn out - especially when seeing them on a bigger screen like a laptop.

nevertheless, i took this one today and i liked it after a few touches and filters... (for editing phone camera pics, i find either snapseed or google photos most convenient.)



it is a wonder how much your relationship with sleep changes as you age - when you are a student you have that supreme ability to fall asleep anywhere anytime, but as you age, you find yourself counting sheep everyday till you run out of numbers. makes you wish you still had your textbooks from school, but i seriously doubt if even that would help once you reach that stage when you find that your body has stubbornly decided it belongs to that nocturnal league which has among its members everything from rodents and owls to vampires and werewolves.

and thus the sleep-aid industry flourishes, peddling us everything from pills to memory foam to lavender lotions to white noises... while there seems little respite for the 'zzzz challenged', as we lie wondering how many lengthy miles we have to go, before we can finally 'sleep'...

Thursday 26 March 2015

throwback thursday - TBT #3

the next weekend will be easter, and that brought to my mind cadbury chocolate eggs. if you grew up in india, cadbury's was 'the chocolate' of your childhood - the undisputed choice over everything else - but cadbury eggs were one thing which did not really make it to the indian market. 

when i searched for vintage cadbury egg pics, i came across this article which has wonderful pics from the early days of cadbury, and some of the old ads. i couldnt have been happier. images below are from the article.

even though i dont celebrate easter, i love seeing the pastel colours all around - the blues greens and yellows are kind of an official reminder that spring is upon us !

ad for a cadbury egg in 1930 stating it costs 3 shillings and 6 pence

Cadbury egg Easter cards from 1914

im such a cadbury lover that when some years back the ownership changed to american hands, i took it really personally and felt kind of let down :( somehow cadburys will never feel the same again, i think !

Thursday 19 March 2015

TBT # 2 - mad as a march hare.

technically its supposed to be the first day of spring tomorrow, but the weather outside is anything but 'spring-ey', to say the least. who needs a snow warning on the first day of spring, seriously ? - utter madness is what it is.

which got me thinking about the phrase 'mad as a march hare'. apparently hares start behaving excitedly, jumping up and down, starting in march - which is the beginning of their breeding season. it has resulted in that phrase which has become so popular ever since lewis carrol used it in alice in wonderland (along with the 'mad hatter' ).

below is the illustration made in 1865 for alice in wonderland, by john tenniel. it shows alice at the tea party, with the march hare and mad hatter.







image source - wikimedia commons 

well, even though the weather might seem as mad as the hares now, spring always brings with it a sense of new beginnings, of hope... its definitely a heartening sight to see the empty branches start sprouting leaves, to see buds and blooms make their way out after months of icy frost. to be able to remind oneself that there is so much of colour to look forward to in the world, and the bleak frosty days dont last for ever. 

Thursday 12 March 2015

catching up, over a TBT.


long time, no post. i know. 

sometimes i think i'd rather not write anything if i'm not in the best of spirits, than to write in a bad frame of mind and have the negativity within me spill out here. despite having been an optimist as far as i can remember, there are times when i think im increasingly becoming a cynic about life. i dont know. i just keep telling me i need to make peace with myself. that, honestly, seems to be the most difficult part.

despite whatever may happen in life, what keeps me going is my 'fraulein maria attitude' of simply remembering my favourite things whenever i'm feeling sad. and thats where pinterest comes to play a big part. as anyone who has been on pinterest even once knows, you can be there forever and forget there exists a world outside. if you are looking for a non-prescription, non-alcoholic way to drown your sorrows, i highly recommend it.

on that note, one of my favourite things to search for is vintage stuff. pretty much anything vintage catches my fancy, so i have been toying with the idea of starting a throwback thursday series, based on vintage things that i find around the internet. (only that im not sure if i start a series, how regular it will be. as always things here are subject to so many things. lets see. at this point i dont have too much expectations for myself.)

and so here we go - i saw this pin of a set of typewriters. in addition to their beautiful charm, each one has a note to say which one was used by whom. 

i couldnt make out the models from the image, so i searched around with the caption in the pin ('typewriters and men who loved them') and found this article, i think originally written to go along with the pic. olivetti, corona, hammond - you can find out who liked what. 

out of the collection above, i liked the beautiful blue one belonging to McCarthy and also those of george orwell and steinbeck. i do not like that big red monstrosity at all. sorry. 

in my childhood, i remember my parents having a facit typewriter, and my uncle had a remington i think. if you close your eyes and take a deep breath, i bet you can catch a whiff of carbon paper and typewriter ribbon ... and the sound of the carriage return from another era.