Happy Holidays

Pic: Courtesy of Google Image


I feel like I am out of school, yes, in some ways it is true. Our office closed for the holidays on Dec. 19th and we don't head back to work until Jan. 5th. Spent the last week organizing an XMas party, exchanged gifts and cookies and wrapped up stuff at work.

It is definitely a nice feeling to be at home- sleeping in without any alarm to wake up to, taking the day at leisure, watching Sun Tv, cooking and eating home made hot food, the afternoon naps etc. Guess, it does make a nice change in routine to be at home. Just realizing that there are so many home projects to do- cleaning out the closets, getting rid of old stuff, emptying out the pantry, reading old journals and going through albums from the past, there is enough to do at home to keep one occupied.

And, am I not glad to be away from the snow storms and blizzards of the mid-west and north east. I wish I could be in Hawaii, ideally, but, given where I am I should not complain too much. I wish a flight to Chennai could be less than 8 hours and cheap, so that a quick trip to enjoy the December/markazhi kutcheri/concert season can be made, but, those are all just wish lists for the time being.

Wishing all bloggers a great holiday season, have a safe journey if you are flying or a bash with your family and friends or simply soak in the festive lights and spirit of the holiday season at your home.

Seasons Greetings!

An Award to make your day

Krishnan of Musings and Miscellany has graciously bestowed the Proximity award to me. This award couldn't have arrived at a better time to boost my spirits and motivate me to write more regularly. At a time, when you are trying to get out of blogger lethargy and get out of being caught up in the mundane routines of work and home life, an award like this, definitely makes you sit up and think about living upto to it.

What is this Proximity award about?
"This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So, without further ado, here are my 8 selections to whom I would like to pass on this award, you have all indeed been truly proximate through your writings, be it a cooking recipe or a family blog or a space where you write about your ideas and thoughts .

1. Sachita
2. Sundar
3. Laksh
4. Cham
5. Sasa
6. Priya from Canada
7. A-kay
8. Aparna


Enjoy the rest of the week!

Break in Service and Other Things

It's official that I've been out of commission for a while now, didn't have much enthu to write about stuff nor had the motivation to read all my fellow bloggers posts, though, I've occasionally glimpsed through some of them. I guess blogger lethargy sweeps in once in a while and am hopefully attempting to break the spell and start writing again.

A lot has happened in the past few days and we aren't even done with the first half of December yet and I am already wishing for this year to end.

The Mumbai attacks have indeed caused immeasurable losses, pain and more than any other emotion, anger to a lot of Indians world wide. While, almost every blogger has expressed their hurt and concern over the brutality, I have no additional thoughts to chip in. A Caucasian colleague of mine who read every Indian and Pakistani paper there was to read online on the attacks, sent me this one liner titled humor out of tragedy- "Forgiving the Terrorists is GOD's responsibility. But fixing their appointment with God is entirely OUR responsibility."

A year that is steadily seeing the US unemployment rise at a frenzy that only seems to make layoffs the norm in several work places. Come every Thursday and Friday, irrespective of whether the company's earnings report comes out or not, there appears to be announcements of job cuts. With this rapid cut in our workforce, even top economic analysts are unable to predict when the job market will hit the bottom. And, the bad news doesn't stop with this intensifying recession that is still seen going well into the first half of 2009 and when a recovery comes, if it does, will it bring more jobs or sustain an already suffering middle class. Will Obama's stimulus package bring in some sort of relief? Will the US auto industry ever be able to rise from its worst ever? Will national security and terrorism continue to be a significant factor on the new president elect's agenda? Lastly, will most employers be able to find some budget saving relief by mandating forced shutdown for atleast 2 weeks for their staff?

Well, with so much clout hanging over our heads, I sure don't see us heading into a cheerful holiday season. This year's Xmas and New Year are going to be low key gatherings for many families where gifts are probably not going to be exchanged.

Not to end on a negative tone, but, atleast let's try and think of the good things and blessings that life has bestowed upon each and every one of us and use that as a tonic to get us through some tough times.