Celebrating Holi!!!!

With Holi just around the corner, and a long weekend smiling at us, our happiness knows no bounds! But how DO we celebrate the festival of colors??? DUH!! With colors of course!!

Today we are celebrating World Water Day wherein Twitter and FB are uploaded with words of wisdom like Save Water, and we are killing the planet and so on! However, exactly 2 days later the same twitter and facebook will be bursting with people drenched in colored waters ‘celebrating Holi’ totally forgetting the words of wisdom shared 2 days ago!

I mean who does not love colors, but is it necessary to drench ourselves in colored waters looking pink or green for the next week just to prove we had fun?

Believe me I am not the Grinch who is trying to steal Holi from the merrymakers! I am just trying to say, enjoy with dry colors and let the water be for other essential purposes like drinking and bathing and watering the plants and other food sources.  

Article initially published here;  http://itemmom.com/celebrating-holi/

Image courtesy: www.festivalofcolorsusa.com

Ageless Comic book Men & Their faithful friends

Yes! I read comic books… a lot!!!!!  I’ve been reading them since I learnt how to read.  

Some of these characters seem like old best friends who were a part of my formative years. Maybe that’s why I like magic and supernatural compared to the real mundane world; or may be just that I have lost my marbles… Not sure though!

Anyhoo, I was cleaning my book box the other day and I revisited this world of my childhood comic books and I realized I still loved each character just as I did back then. Now that we have been blessed with Google, I started to read up on the characters and realized most of them are as old as our grandparents.

Tintin & Snowy

Herge` has created one of the most iconic characters of the comic book world.  On Jan 10th 1929, reporter Tintin and his favorite canine partner Snowy appeared in in the children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtieme Siecle wherein they set off on an adventure to the Soviet Union. As of today they are 87 years old and still evergreen amongst old and the young.

Asterix, Obelix & Dogmatix

This tremendous trio (along with the other characters) was born on 29th October 1959 in the French weekly magazine Pilote. In the very first issue ‘Asterix the Gaul’, the creators René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo introduced the Gaulish village folks and their arch nemesis – The Romans!!!

Mandrake the Magician

Mandrake the Magician is an all American, suave crime fighting dude who uses his magic for the good of mankind and fighting evil.  Created by Lee Falk, Mandrake went into publication on June 11, 1934 making him all of 82 this year.

Phantom, Devil & Hero

Another crime fighting costumed Hero created by Lee Falk, The Phantom debuted as a comic strip on February 17th 1936. Unlike other fictional costumed heroes, the Phantom has no superpowers and relies on his strength & intelligence to defeat his enemies. Like the Mantle of the Bat, Phantom is an idea and not just one person. The current phantom is the 21st Phantom who has dawned the skull ring and mask. He has 2 faithful friends watching his back during his crime fighting; a Wolf named Devil and a horse named Hero. All of them turned 80 in 2016 

These fictional grandpas rock hard till date!!!!!

Silver or Gold... that is the question

Silver lining, silver spoon, silver tongue, silver platter, silver surfer, silver screen... etc

If so many desirable things have silver in it, why is it cheaper than gold; considering all that glitters is not gold... 



image courtesy - www.halalfocus.net 

Life is messed up for Crazy dog people

Life is not a cake walk for most people; however, it is specially messed up for dog lovers. From a personal stand point, I face these issues on a regular basis

Neighborhood roadies cry at night, and I lose my sleep thinking are they hurt? What if they need medical attention? What if they are hungry? What if they are feeling cold (There goes my peace of mind straight outa window)…

Every time I see a hurt dog on the street, first thing I do automatically is curse the person who did this. If I were a witch with powers, I dunno how many people would have been cursed by me; but nothing happens (so I know I am not a witch with powers).

I am always broke at the end of the month as I spend more than half of my salary trying to feed my neighborhood and office building dogs. (No regrets there, only wishing that there was more money to spend on these cutie pies).

When any of my dog friend dies (of natural causes or otherwise), a piece of me dies as well. The actual feeling is that of someone trying to scoop my heart out with a spoon or something… (Bidding them farewell is the most difficult task… EVER!)

Anyone can die in a movie or a TV show and I don’t care; but if you abandon, hurt or kill the dog, I want to ‘Avada Kedavra’ my TV for letting that happen! Since it is established before that I am not a witch with powers, nothing happens to the TV, so the water works starts (like a dam breaking).

I am almost running outa names to give my roadside friends now. Names like Patchy Pacharelli, Lady Lola, Serious Sam, Bholi Rani, Lazy Bum, Kaloo Baba, Tubbs Babu, Granny, Dadu, Romeo, Brown Paper Package, Buddha Baba, Kali Baby, Spotty Kumari, Inspector Chulbul Pandey, Lado, Gangsta, Kalia, Chintoo, Lali and Tarzan… have all been given. 

(Now I think I will name them as Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Diana Prince, J’on Jones, Kara Danvers and so on)

What I am trying to say is even though it sucks sometimes on an epic level to be an ardent fan of dogs, I would not have it any other way; if I had to redo my entire life again, I’d still love these fur balls the same way (or more if possible)…

Note: The image is for representational purpose only;

Image courtesy - www.kolkatastreetdogs.in

Mundane… Boring…Blah…Prosaic…

It is very poetic to say ‘Follow your heart’, ‘Heart wants what the heart wants’, ‘Be yourself’ so on and so forth. I’d say it is a load of bull poop… you actually cannot be yourself anytime you want to or follow your heart, unless you want to face consequences. 

For example, someone is talking non-stop nonsense in front of you… and what you want to do, with all your heart, is slap the person’s face off… But can you do that and not have consequences. 

This was just an example, situations like these are unending and being the true “you” seem more and more bleak…

What I want to do is take my babies and go for a holiday in a forest, what I am doing is leading a mundane adult life; what I want is to go to Disneyland, what I am doing is shuffling between work and home; whom I want to meet are Jim Parsons and Mads Mikkelsen, whom I am meeting are the clients for work. 

Not that I don’t enjoy my work or family life but I hate getting stuck in a routine-life and I am stuck…

I want to throw my arms out wide like a crazy person and sing “I want to break free….” Then I remember I cannot sing… 

Image courtesy - mikikoponczeck.tumblr.com & j-dubbb.blogspot.com

A Hero at Heart

This is my building dog Yeda AKA Inspector Chulbul Pande… He is a sweet kid just like any other roadie and a big Hero at heart. He is a chilled lazy dude who likes finer things of life like food, sleep, play and heavy petting.  Chubby looking kid with big brown eyes is a sight for sore eyes when I return from work every evening. I always loved him but from today he is my all-time favorite action hero… Let me tell you WHY…

Just like any other morning, I take Ole Kumar out for his walkie session and as usual Inspector Pande also walks alongside. In our area we have a very aggressive dog that lives in the apartment opposite to ours. Everything happened so fast that it took me few seconds to realize and get a grip…. One moment Ole Kumar was pooping happily and Yeda baba was chilling and peeing in the nearby bush when this other dog came charging at me and Ole to bite us…. Out of nowhere, Yeda ran interference and tackled this huge canine... twice…  (He had broken his leash and had run away from his walker)…

Chester (aggressive dog’s name) still wanted to bite Ole but he could not as I was standing between them and brave Yeda was behind him, warning him not to charge…  After a struggle of few minutes, Chester’s walker managed to leash him again, and he was taken off the grounds.

It was a turbulent morning, as my Ole is a quiet and a submissive dog who does not like confrontation; but he was brave too. Between Yeda and Ole, poor Chester must have been three times…

 

Chester happens to be a very aggressive dog because of his not-so-nice owners and lack of exercise and human touch… Hopefully knocking some sense into the owner’s head (which we did today) would bring about a change in Chester’s lookout.

However, at the end of the day, I am very proud of Ole and of course Yeda (the coolest dude I know in the canine world…)

Sushi Lou - From Malwani to Colaba

Poor pup had a bad start of Children’s Day considering she was bumped on her snout by an auto rickshaw. Less than a month old, the little thing was crying her lungs out when Ole` and I found her during our morning walkie session.  On asking around, we found that this pup belonged to some other area and street kids played with her and dropped her off in our area as it was their time to go home. The baby was stranded in an unknown area and hurt. 

She was rushed to the rehab center of AMTM where the good doctor Ankita and other members gave her the emergency aid took very good care of her. 

After staying at the center for an entire week, puppy was ready to move into a foster home as she needed further care to be healthy.  

Friendly and adventurous by nature, she settled right in with Deborah Cornelius (the foster mom).  2 weeks into her foster care, Sushi Lou (named by Deborah) returned to her bouncy and healthy shape, making everyone around her falling in love with the ball of fur.

Then came the final step and probably the most difficult one… finding a forever home for the baby. It was killing me to even consider dropping her off back in the street as she would be without her mother or siblings. Plus she was too tiny to make it on her own.

All Hail Social Media!!!!!! After loads of sharing photos online and pleading for a home for her, Sushi’s future father Gireesh Singh contacted us as he was looking for a puppy for the family. He mentioned that he has had pets in the past and would be delighted to include her in the family.  What could be better than the fact that Sushi Lou would get a family who would love her like their own?

It was a bright Sunday when Deborah and I took Sushi to meet her new father.  They were rather pleased to meet each other. She bounced along in her new home exploring all corners and looking for all possible hide outs.

Although when we left her at her new place, we were almost in tears but we knew that she is in good hands now and I hope that she has a long, healthy and happy life…