Postcards From J

A few weeks ago, I learnt a new term thanks to @mehulved : " TIL ", which was basically an abbreviation for "Today I Learnt" (shouldn't it be "Today, I learnt"? Sorry, I'm just being a Punctuation Prude with that comma! :P). So, in that spirit, I'm going to tag all posts related to random web surfing finds as TIL. I had done a few posts like that before. Remember? One was about a brilliant video on The Girl Effect , and then another on a text word art creator Wordle , and more recently about Picnik.com 's photo editing features. And... TIL about this fun NO-chart you can make and it's brought to you by the good people at GOOD. Just 3 clicks are needed: 1. Upload a photograph 2. Write your own question 3. Save and share the result <--- See what I made. You also have the option to share your work with a public gallery or keep it only for your own reference (a link is generated). Try it out yourself by visiting Good Labs' Make Y...

Growing up as a child and as a teenager, I always had a strong sense of my religious obligations. I was an active participant in church services, attended Catechism class with much enthusiasm, took initiative with organizing programmes for others, and in general, was considered a "good girl". While I didn't exactly turn out to be "bad" in any way, my spiritual connection with the Almighty has been on a massive decline since a few years now. Make no mistake though. I still believe in God. Or rather in the idea of "God" - someone out there who's all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful and who we can turn to in life's joyous and sorrowful moments. What I've experienced in the last few years though is a sense of discontent, a disconnect from that omniscient force. And it's only because I started questioning what happened/happens around me; why we blindly follow certain rituals, why we are so concerned with getting others converted to our bel...

I don't know what I'm doing here by trying to write. This week has been mixed. More 'down' than 'up'. And tonight just killed the little excitement I had for my upcoming travel plans. No, I don't want to talk about what really happened. Because, frankly, I do not know what it actually is, and how it came to be. In the space of a few minutes, opinion has swayed, known people became strangers, loyalty is being mistaken as rudeness. And all this is just not making sense. I've always strived to put others in the foreground. I hate the spotlight. Yet, some accusations were made which have left me terribly upset.  So, I'll try to sleep it off. The television's on, but there's nothing worth watching. Maybe I need to remind myself about the sun... it sets in the evening to rise the next day without fail. With vigour, with hope, with peace. Good night.

Beware, this post is a bit of a ramble. Not sure where it's headed. So, 16th September 2011 will be remembered as the day Rahul Dravid, one of India's best batsmen, bowed out of the limited overs version(s) of the game. Paeans were written before and after the 5th ODI versus England at Cardiff. Unfortunately, the Indian team couldn't seal a victory capping off an extremely tough and a winless tour. Dravid, along with Virat Kohli, managed to get an excellent partnership going and their efforts helped the team go past the 300+ run mark. Captain MS Dhoni also scored a quick knock but England has had the upper hand throughout this tour and emerged victors in a rain-marred game. Anyway, I wanted to blog about Dravid. Hopefully soon. For today, presenting just the image above. There never will be another one like you, Rahul Dravid. Thank you for the wonderful memories. PS: Please excuse any typos and weird sentences. I'm way too sleepy. 'Night!

... of being brave. ... of having to tackle so many different things AND being expected to succeed at all of them. ... of expectation.   ... of no expectation. ... of being the go-to girl. ... of the potholes in Aarey that make my back ache. ... of noise, pollution, filth, humans. ... of not being able to run for a train like I used to since three and a half months. ... of feeling too scared to walk quickly, leave alone run. ... of being taken for granted. Every effing time. ... of playing too safe. ... of making travel plans in my head.  ... of dreaming too small. ... of giving. And forgiving. ... of well-meaning "advice" (go to the ortho; get your thyroid checked; lose weight; stop eating junk; don't work so many hours; don't socialise so much; save money; get married). ... of life. Soon. Sent from my iPod Touch

I've been trying some online resources for photo editing, especially since I'm Photoshop-challenged.  One of my favourite sites is Big Huge Labs .Their tagline is simple:  "Helping you do cool stuff with your digital photos since 2005. :-) Have fun with your photos!". You should try it sometime. Another one is Picnik . I had checked it out ages ago and was very annoyed with how slow the site was. But then, I rediscovered it recently, and while there are quite a few of their features for premium users, I still think it's a good bet to do something fun with your photos. Earlier in the blog, I did try the Polaroid (in Frames) feature with a photo. This time, I tried the Sticker (speech bubble) and Text (Eat me!) features. The result? Quite nice, I thought. See: I went to Frames and chose the simplest one after selecting the colours for the two borders.  The downside? You need to sign up for an account and as a 'free' user, you can upload just 5 photos at...

Just realised I've never really had a bucket list. But then again, I'm not the kind to go about making and ultimately sticking to resolutions. (Horrible, I know!) It probably stems from my lack of serious ambition. So, I thought of listing down all that I must do, experience, see, eat, drink, make, travel to before I, errr, kick the bucket... 1. Learn to code.  Nothing elaborate, just one line of something. Any language. I never liked studying 'computers'; neither did I ever take up programming at any point in school or college. The only reason I did opt for the subject in school was because it was a choice between that and needlework (ugh!). Maybe I should ask Dan to help me with this. She's the smartest coder I know. 2. Travel the world. More realistically, India. Some places to explore in the immediate future include: Old Delhi for its history. And the food. Hyderabad for biryani. Kolkata for Durga Pujo. Shantiniketan. Eden Gardens. Mother Teresa. Puchkas a...

It's curtains for our August Blogging Challenge or ABC (Isn't there a Bieber song called ABC?). The idea was to get going on the blogging front on a regular basis, and I'd like to believe that having a challenge helped to a large extent. I'm quite sure I will be posting regularly even after this challenge has ended. And even more confident that Lo  will not disappear from the blogosphere. She totally aced the challenge, no? To the tiny number of my blog readers, first of all... SORRY for the sometimes random posts when I was bereft of ideas. I tried to cheat a little by posting photos, YouTube videos, writing about my frustrations, and just about anything that caught my fancy.  Second, if you're still reading my blog, THANK YOU . Your encouragement and support mean a lot. Special thanks to DeeSeelicious  who enquired one morning on Twitter about any new posts. It didn't really hit me till then that there were actually a few people (other than myself) reading...