Its Christmas!!!

Brightly lighted stars and well decorated christmas trees greet us from every nook and corner of the city....Yes! Its christmas season on...Gifts, feasts, holidays,what not! Preparations for the celebrations are much grander in the west,now India is catching up with the trend fast(thanks to IT companies and clients abroad :P )...  So few facts(that are less known) about this much awaited christmas!

• The story of Santa Clause originated in Europe in the 4th century when a bishop named St.Nicholas of Myra spread goodwill and generosity throughout the land. He was known to go about on a white horse giving anonymous gifts by night.His travelling clothes were bishop red and he carried a staff.

• Santa Clause's raindeers are called Dasher, Dancer, Prance, Vixen, Comet, Cuppid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph.
• It was St. Francis of Assisi who introduced the Christmas carols to formal church services. The word comes from the ancient Greek word 'choros' which means "dancing in a circle", and from the old French word Carole, meaning "a song to accompany any dancing".
• Evergreen tree as Christmas tree - The ancient Egyptians and Hebrews considered the evergreen tree,because it is perpetually green, as a symbol of eternal life.
• Why do we decorate the x'mas tree?- Christmas tree decorations in Europe, were customarily made of food,principally cookies and candy.This symbolically expresses thanks for"Our Daily Bread".
• X'mas- It is used as because the Greek letter "X" is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ,Xristos. Xmas therefore means "Christ's mass".

Let this Christmas bring lots of happiness and prosperity to all!  Merry Christmas!!! :)
                                               Jingle bells Jingle bells Jingle All the way...

 

The 'Kolaveri' fever

There is a possibility that you may have a very high resistance power that keeps viral fever at bay but not the 'kolaveri' fever. This epidemic is fast spreading throughout the world. I realised it today when I was waiting for my bus at my stop. I heard this 'kolaveri song' in a completely different style and accent. I looked around and was stunned to see a foreigner humming this song. I don't think even the makers of the song would have expected such a big reach during the recording.

Many tried to keep themselves away from the attack of this deadly "kolaveri virus", but all attempts failed. If they opened their facebook, kolaveri video was put on the wall... had they missed it  and switched on their tv set... Our 'kolaveri virus' welcomed them... If they had escaped in both the attempts owing to the most frequently visited guest to the house,"power cut"... Not to worry, newspapers took over the job. Headlines flashed about this... The recent one was by Times of India, when Virender Sehwag created a record with his 200 plus runs..."Why this KOLA-VIRU ji?" covered the first page... Commentators used it during match-commentary... Radio stations made use of this opportunity and kept broadcasting the song every now and then...Celebrities tweeted about it...What not? :lol: Am no exception... I kept updating myself with the latest 'kolaveri' developments and in turn made it into a blog (my way of spreading the 'kolaveri' virus ;) )

I heard that the video has got more than a million hits in a day. So what's making this a national..I mean international phenomenon? What's so special about this? Frankly speaking I have no clue ;) But there is something in it that creates this magic...Some say its the tune and some say 'the broken english'... In fact I really didn't know the meaning of 'soup song' when I heard it first. I was taken aback when I got to know the meaning which was no way related to the phrase "am in a soup" ( I actually assumed there might be some similarity initially :P ). The catchy tune has paved way to many remakes..Now we have a series of kolaveri videos, divided into categories like for kids ( sung by Nevaan Nigam...Sonu Nigam's son), for girls(female version), for students(exam version) and so on...
As always this song too had many criticisms... About its lyrics, broken english etc. Whatever said and done this song has become a massive hit. So critics.."Why this kolaveri?" towards the song :) It has made heads turn and take notice of it!
                                   
                              So I write this blog-u, to keep up with the trend-u :P
                                                               As we are all fans-u ;)  

Yummy :)

Feels great to blog today!!! It has been a very very long time(almost a week) since I posted. I always open my blog to write a post,some work or the other crops up and I'll have to close it. You see I can't spare you all for long(from reading my blog), so finally decided to curb the growing defaulter in me :P Get ready friends..here I go :P

My friends and me were discussing something and suddenly one of my friend asked us about a vegetable and its availability here, only the hindi name was known. Soon all of us started asking her for more details about it as if it were a missing kid ;) Immediately each of us jumped up with Eureka...I found the vegetable...As it always happens all of us were wrong with our findings...Soon the discussion changed its course(girls are very good at jumping from one topic to another) and we started talking about the speciality dishes in every state( Wondering what happened to that vegetable right..?poor thing...we termed it as extinct as we are not aware about it :lol: )

We started exploring the diversity that exists in our country... It started with our our Paschim Banga...West Bengal...The very first thought was Rosogullas.... Bengali sweets are something that none of us would have missed! Mishti Doi (a typical Bengali dessert made from milk) tops my list! Man!The mere thought of it makes my mouth to water ;)
Next came Mumbai's very own vada pao...A very simple but a distinct snack from our west India! We travelled south to discover the kitchen wonders! Gonghura welcomed us to "the spicy state"...Yes! Andhra... I would always term the pickles from here as "The Pickles"... Its just Bindaas! Not to forgetHyderabadi Briyani which has got fans from everywhere!

Now its the turn of Our God's own Country...Kerala! Known for its lavish use of coconut...I actually had a tough time deciding the best ones as all the dishes are delicious... Ada pradhaman, chakka pradhaman are my favourite... Erissery, kootan, avial and how can I forget.. The nendram chips(banana chips) are authentic kerala dishes and a must try!

Last but not least...The state that boasts of Idly-vada-sambhar... Tamil Nadu! We have its dosa fans spread all over the world...Other than these show toppers we have several other dishes from various districts in TN... Like Chettinad special items...Kuzhipaniyaram(I had a tough time explaining this to my friends), aapam are sure to attract any foodie!
 
India is rich not only in its culture but also in its food varieties! No one can eat just once, is very apt for our dishes :)
Hope you are hungry now :lol: My job is done ;)

Déjà vu -"The creepy feel"

Have you ever felt like you have already been to this place before,though you are visiting it for the first time? Similarly, meeting the person for the first time but feel you know him/her before? If yes...Cool...(hi5 :P )... Am not alone...I get this feel many a time!  I will have this eerie feel that I have  relived the entire situation that's happening now, already! I know it sounds weird, funny, terrified, spooky...Whatever you term it ! But its true...Initially I thought I had some special magic powers and that so called ESP power :P

During my schooling I came across this word Déjà vu... That was the time when I was in a quest of finding new words to use in my daily vocabulary in school...So this new word interested me and immediately I started learning more about it! I just got to know that it is a french word meaning "already seen"...
When I read more about it recently, I found it very very interesting!!! Déjà vu in simpler terms can be interpreted as "been there, done that" feel...It is defined as "familiarity without awareness"! Arthur Funkhouser, describes about 3 types of déjà vu in Perspective-A Mental Health Magazine...

•  Déjà vecu(Already experienced) - It is the most common of all the types...It is the sensation of having done something, being in an identical situation and knowing what happens next!
• Déjà senti(Already felt) - It is rare... It is a feel of experiencing sensations like smell, taste etc.
• Déjà visité(Already visited)- Feel of being in the same place before.

I also found a reasonable scientific explanation for this kind of feeling. One possibility is simply the occasional mismatch made by the brain in its continuous attempt to create whole sensical pictures out of very small pieces of information.Another explanation for déjà vu is that there is a slight malfunctioning between the long and short-term memory circuits of the brain.When the new, recent piece of information is drawn upon, the person thinks that the piece is coming from long-term storage and so must have come from the distant past.A similar theory says that the error is in the timing of the perceptive and cognitive processes. Sensory information is rerouted on its way to memory storage and, so, is not immediately perceived. This short delay causes the sensation of experiencing and remembering something at the same time, a very unsettling feeling.

But the psychoanalysts have a different take on this. They feel that it is a manifestation of wish fulfillment..déjà vu is the subconscious repetition of a past experience, but with a more positive ending. I found that they link it to the other debatable topic, past life. They feel it gives a sneak peek into our past life.Most scientists scoff at these "magical" explanations for neurological events, citing that they break many of the laws of nature. Some, however, point to more recent findings in physics, such as the possibility of particles that can travel backwards in time (tachyons), time loops and multiple universes. They say that these may give cause for more non-traditional ways of seeing causality and for the possibility of neurological "time travel".
Déjà vu, the more you read about it, the more unclear it becomes!I have feel of Déjà vecu right now...of having written this blog already ;)


PS: Learnt about it from various sources....Would require a separate blog to list out all the sources ;)

Idioms and Their Origin!

Idioms play a very important role in English! They beautify the language...I was coming across few idioms that we use in our language and decided to find out the same ! It is interesting to know how these idioms originated...

• To put a spoke in someone's wheel: 

Meaning: To deliberately hinder someone's plans.                                                                          
Origin    : hundreds of years ago cartwheels were made from solid wood. The front wheels of a cart would have holes in them through which a spoke could be thrust in order to prevent or slow the cart from running away downhill.

• To kick the bucket:                                                                                                                

Meaning: To die.                                                                                                                                     
Origin    : In slaughterhouses, the rail on which pigs are hung after slaughter to drain off the blood is known as the bucket bar. Muscle spasms after death sometimes lead to the dead pig twitching as if to kick the bucket bar, hence the expression.

• Back handed compliment:

Meaning:A compliment that also insults or puts down at the same time.    
Origin    : Back-handed is synonymous with left-handed. For example in tennis, a backhand stroke is a strike by a right-handed player from the left side of the body.The left side of the body has always been deemed sinister. The Latin word for left is sinister. Hence, back-handed means round-about, indirect, or devious.

• Crocodile Tears: 

Meaning: Pretending to cry in an attempt to manipulate or exploit, phony tears.                              
Origin  :  It was often thought that crocodiles shed tears that slid down into their mouths, moistening their food and making it easier for them to swallow. Hence the tears appear to be an expression of emotion but are in fact a means to make it easier to swallow (possibly the observer).

• At the eleventh hour: 

Meaning: When a person wants more than is good for them.                                                          
Origin    : On a 12-hour clock (rather than the 24-hour clock used by scientists, the military, et al) the hours of 12 noon and 12 midnight seem to hold special significance. De-marking the transition from morning to afternoon and the end of the day, they are often used as deadlines (high noon, the stroke of midnight).To come at "the eleventh hour" implies that it comes in the last hour before the deadline. The choice of "the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" as the time to end W.W.I was quite apt.

• Face the music: 

Meaning:To accept the truth.                                                                                                            
 Origin    :Comes from the British military. When someone was court marshaled, there would be a military drum squad playing, hence face the music. The term "drummed out of the military" came from this practice....
 
These are few of the popular ones.There are many more which are available in the source that am giving below. Its fun to know how these words came into play!


Source:http://www.pride-unlimited.com/probono/idioms1.html

The Girl's World !

I was reading Revolution 2020, I came across this "Girlese" (It is the term,the writer, Chetan Bagat uses to describe about the language of girls)...Why not write a blog on this?
The way of thinking of girls is completely different from that of boys. Being a girl, I completely agree with what's given in the book...If a girl replies to a text message with "Fine"...Note: F caps... Then its actually not fine! There is something that is not going down well with us about it!
If we reply with "Hmmm" or "gud" etc...One word texts, then understand its time to change the topic! If the text is a long one with lots of smileys then infer it to be a happy mood...
Not only texting when it comes to many other activities like shopping, girls have their own way. We analyse each and every detail before spending on it...We ensure that we buy the best ( This makes the shopkeeper get irritated always)...After its bought, we expect people to notice it and ask about the product when we use it. If this happens...Shopping successful! Else mission failed...We'll have second thoughts before going to that shop again :P Girls always "pull" a door when its written "push"...Then change the direction by realizing the mistake (Most of the girls will smile while reading this).
Girls are superb at bargaining...Its an inbuilt talent! The person at the other end must be a person with strong heart...else he'll die of heart attack ! There will be several rounds of bargaining and finally a compromise will be sought...where both will be the winners :P
Girls keep their things very neat and clean! A girl's room will always be clean...things in its place...bed neatly made...clothes folded or hanged neatly in the hanger...90% of the girls are perfectionists...Everything should be done as it is supposed to be...Any change will cause a strong reason to be upset! When a girl is upset, she is very quiet...She hardly talks unlike usual :)
All said and done both, boys and girls are unique in their own ways... There are always these kind of differences between boys and girls in order to strike a balance in nature! Once you start respecting these differences...life will be much better!
Proud to be a girl :)
PS: Exceptions are always there...These are just generic statements what I felt! 

Interesting Acronyms!

I came across few acronyms....It was interesting! We use them in our day-to-day life but many of us wouldn't know these full forms... Take a look!
COLD : Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease
JOKE : JOy for Kids Entertainment
DATE: Day And Time Evolution
AIM: Ambition In Mind
PEN: Power Enriched in Nib
BUS: Break Under Stopping
NYLON: NewYork LONdon (manufacturer)
SMILE: Sweet Memories In Lip Expression
BYE: Be with You Everytime