Welcome to Soup to Nuts Blog Carnival

Welcome, Khush-am-did, Bon Jour, Hello and Namaste… This indeed is a great pleasure on my part to bring to you the Hors D’ Oevreues of Soups to Nuts Blog Canival v 2.0.

At any tiime, you wish to roll up your sleeves and move to the next course, here is the menu:

• The Lives and Times for Appetizers

• Health Plans Plus for the First course

• Simple Pleasures for the Main Course

• Fear and Loathing for the Dessert

This time we have a huge number of great entries to fill by and let me assure you it will be a time well spent.

So with this shall we get the ball rolling? Oh yes, we will

Warren Buffett once said, “heed my advice, never give credit cards to your kids”. The Money Blue Book said something very similar here. Often the rush of life and a huge disposable income on our hands surely and steadily mean all those junk food and all those calories. So what do you do when you are faced with a mammoth on your morning mirror. Visit this

There is something this time in US which has changed the very face of social networking. The US Elections 2008. Obama, Clinton both have their own Facebook and MySpace pages. Interesting isnt it. Oh yes, especially when phone and mobile is leveraged along with new media promotion. Check this out!

With the rise and spectacular popularity of blogs, effective and good copywriting is no more a luxury but a necessity, one of our times. Carol Bentley has a few word of advice And if you still sweat too much at the sight of copywriting your resume and articles, then go on and read hyperhidrosis. [I think I will be advising one of our friends about it, It surely is helpful]. Leanderthal, the Light House Keeper has a short piece on his encouragement of the Republican McCain. GOP takers anyone? Read him out here

And now that we are at the national issue, read how a North Canton City High School is supporting to build the wall of heroes. Read the news here, and it should come as a good thing for the parents who feel the current generation is losing its patriotism and stand on the national and moral issues. Now that we are at it, read about some WW-II bombers and their history on this part of the digital world.

So many a times in our lives we have been beaten and defeated in something which we never thought will not be ours. I for one has seen this from a real close quarter. So when finally the success comes I think it makes it even more sweeter. HorseWoman has something to tell about the sweet smell of success. Read it, you will enjoy it. Latins have a nice saying, mens sana in corpore sano. Meaning, a sound mind lives in a sound body. And both are absolutely necessary for success. Read how to train body for overwhelming fitness here. To keep the mind healthy, you sometimes have to shun, cope and deal with negative people. Alex has a word of advise to bring you on to deal effectively with negative people. I think this post is perhaps the most important thing to have come by in recent times across my way.Must read.And while you are at it, prepare for the new week with this eye opening post from Atma Jyoti Organisation here in New Mexico in how to control your thoughts and desires. As I said before, health is an important constituent of our happiness, so it is imperative that the way we want to live so should we eat. Meaning, eat healthy think better. Health Plans Plus has an interesting thing to say about lycopene one of the most essential antioxidants.

Success is different for different people. For some people it is love, for some it is acceptance. For most of us ,its the gratification from being the power of money. Sometimes, you need to know how to make money too. Read Woody Maxim on the quickest way to make money. And while you are on your way to make money, lets first check where is your money going first of all. Debt Reduction made easy.

Unwind and check out an American single mom’s take on Berlin and Berlin Film Festival of this year. So many times we take, curses and abuses for granted. Nun of the Above here have a news about a guy who is waging his own crusade against such words. Way to go boy! Encourage, Spread and read about this piece of article. Have you seen what Paul’s view out of his window? He lives in British Columbia, Vancouver and give this wonderful picture a look.

Summer is out here in this part of the world, India and I am living in south India where the heat is beating down on me, so when my friend Anthony sent me this link having 8 photographs of the after math of an ice storm, I just wished I could be there. But I will keep visiting it for the rest of the summer , for some relief from the scorching sun.

Read this wonderful piece on past lives by How To Abutei. Read the meaning of the word, abutei in this blog. Its wonderful. Winding down bit more, have something to laugh about at the Mad Kane’s humor blog. [Disclaimer: Dont blame me if you fall out of chair laughing]. Here is her Yard Yarns haiku prompt.

US Economy and the global economy as such is under huge pressure from all sides with the current system of sub prime crisis and auction rate securities. For an honest and fresh perspective, read Freddie at his blog CAN US ECONOMY SURVIVE DOOMSDAY ?

And read about Ohio and its latest news on this blog. Ohio had been under the scanner for quite some time due to a steady fall in employement levels, and has been quite an issue in the current US elections. Read about Ohio

Coupled with such sober news read an Art History student living in France and her take on the way she prefers to cite references and do her studies. Friday is coming, prepare for some fun Read about the Marshall baby out here. Its sorta cute and heart warming to read this young fellas blog. I mean his parents blog about this kiddo.Read him here . This weekend is also a wonderful time to catch up on old recipes, new recipes and forgotten recipes and oft made recipes, so give a whirl at how to make hummus. Change is the way of nature and new comes up always to replace the old. But the new its also important to take care of the old and help them in making their transitions into their world in the most comfortable way. Telling it like it is, has a very helpful piece of advice on the challenges and necessity and ways to take care with aging parents.

But sometimes the old, has to just go and not turn back and cling to what is not theirs. Disillusioned Words have a thing or two to say about Burma and its old rotting military junta. Touching upon the new, Tired Garden digs up some interesting facts about a really ‘new’ information. I wont let you know what he found out, but the subject is running the car on water. Can it or can it not? I know what you are saying, but he said, scam scam scamity scam…

Yosemite Reservations has something to tell about the room with the arguably the most majestic view getting a little better.Dive in and give it a read.

With this we close our Soups to Nuts Blog Carnival Part 2.0. Before we close in, lets stop for a moment, let the incessant clicks of mouse rest and the soft keybuttons cease. With this lets fill our hearts with the most positive thoughts and quotes from people who indeed did something worthwhile over here, till they were living. Read to turn in Your Success Corner.

Thank You everybody for participating, and contributing to this blog carnival. My special thanks to Fear and Loathing, The Lives and Times, Simple Pleasures and Health Plans Plus to come up with something so amazing.

Soups to Nuts: The Last Call

Hello Everyone,

Back after a long time I must say. April 30th is fast drawing in. For me , my proverbial “fingers-in-the-many-pies” have gone too deep. Dabbling with various diverse interests of mine[as you can very well understand from this post ], has made 30th April come way too soon, than I would like it to be.

So here I am, making one last call, for all ye bloggers to dive in this blog carnival, Soups-to-Nuts, a unique five-in-one blog carnival, in the lines of progressive dinner.

I will be hosting the Hors d’Oeuvre of the blog carnival, Kilroy at Fear and Loathing will be hosting the Dessert Section, the Appetizer course will be on at Nicole’s on Musings of a Manic Mom the first course at Helene’s on Health Plans Plus, and the Main Course will be served by Dana at her Simple Pleasures

So wait not for a moment more, and join in for this one of a kind blog carnival.

You can enter in the carnival through this link

Hope to see you soon…. 30th April is not too far…

Soham
http://soulwitness.wordpress.com

A streak of madness

You are only given a little spark of madness
You mustn’t lose it

-Robbie Williams

[continued from the previous post]I turned and took the road which led me out of the city. I didn’t look back; Just kept looking down [and in the way I very nearly killed myself by a bullock cart]

On the entire way down I kept walking, contemplating whats the issue with myself. Trust me! I didn’t find anything wrong. I let out a muted scream in my frustration and managed to scare the school kids away. Frustrations as they say! For a moment, I was almost close to breaking down, the next smiling and then the next talking animatedly with myself. It was crazy, I tell you.

I kept on walking and I dont-know-when reached VGP Golden Beach. The lawns were well maintained, you know? Visited a chapel in between.It was SughJivam Holy Mother Church.Took a seat on one of the chairs, but how long could I stay silent?Unfortunately the Padre felt I was talking more to myself than the fellow up in the heavens, he saw towards me and gave a disapproving look. I grinned at him.

My next stop was half an hour later. I came cross a road which led itself to the sea shore. It was called the Sparkling Sands Avenue. Trust me for one moment, I forgot, that I was supposed to be frustrated. The pink flowers on the trees, the trees laden with beige leaves, the road ahead and the roaring, inviting sea ahead. I, for a moment felt, this is life.

I didn’t think twice. Took the road and walked down in the cool shades of the trees. The air was laden in a heady aroma of the spring flowers and the leaves rustled in the mischievous winds of the sea. For the next half an hour I spent drenching myself in the blue waters alongside the street urchins and the kids of the fishermen.

It was around 11.20, I guess… I kept on walking. I don’t know what all happened around me. Milestones came and went. Buses stopped and left. People kept on gesturing that the next bus will be soon, but I kept on walking. I don’t know. Lost in the thoughts of mine.
“Whats the problem with you dude?”
“I dont know”
“Tell me, what do you want?”
“I want… I … “

Sholinganallur [dont try to read it even] was left long back. VGP was far behind. I walked around 11 kilometers from the last place I knew. I was still wondering.Uthandi [u-tan-di]. I was staring myself at an entire troop of policemen, searching for the god-knows-what-contraband.There I was, nonchalantly walked right under the very nose of all those SUV owners and salon drivers.

Uthandi Toll Plaza was half a kilometer away, and trust me, when I crossed the toll booth, the journey just got shorter. The road turned itself from a lifeless entity to a joyful merry life, tempting me to keep walking. The East Coast Road just got a life.

Image courtesy TNRDC

Image courtesy TNRDC

I kept walking and around 12.15 reached Muttukadu [mu-ttu-ka-du]. I sat on the bus stop and had a swig of the bottle. My first swig of water in the last three hours. The milestone said Chennai, 26 kilometers. I thought and then walked up and down the length of the shade, then thought again and for sometime I didnt think at all.
Then it came!
It was here, that I found my answer. It came as a dim ray of light and came flooding in when the realization dropped upon me. I understood what was the reason for my unease. I smiled, thinking it was so easy that it was right in front of me. I felt foolish and then grateful. I smiled, and the old man sitting beside me, flashed a toothy grin. I smiled even brighter, appreciating the beauty of the moment. Here I was 26 kilometers from Chennai, 17 kilometers of walk, tired, drenching my parched tongue with some water, a stranger sitting beside me flashing a toothy grin. It was surreal, let me tell you. I extended my right hand, the bottle in it-
“Tanni?” Water?
“Kurunge” Give.

I soaked in the nature around me. The wind was light. Breeze. Leaves rustled and birds cooed. I took the bottle, emptied it and carried onwards. The ECR got increasingly desolate with only two or three cars rush away at a time. The road ahead felt like curving away to entice me,tease me, with its beauty. Life couldn’t have been better. My legs had started to ache long back. But this was turning out to be a dominating mistress. And then a moment came, when I was all alone, not a single car, not a single life present. I looked back, looked ahead. Zilch. It was so lonely that I could hear my own footsteps, the calling of the birds and the roaring of the seas. I wondered if they can hear all these sitting inside their SUVs and Sedans.

Taj Fishermans Cove, Dakshina Chitra, Green Coconut Resorts…

Image courtesy dream chaser

and then Covelong , 29 kilometers from Chennai, 20 kms on foot. All left behind.

I walked on, 21 kilometers and counting till I reached a bend on the East Coast Road where the road ran parallel to the shore. And I mean dead parallel. From the grey tarmac you could see the horizon vanishing away, the catamarans drifting and at the midst of all, a guy sitting all alone on the scenic ECR facing the blue seas. Heaven!
Time 3:00 p.m 11th March 2008, 24 kilometers on foot, 28 kilometers from Chennai.

I reached home that evening and contemplated on the past two weeks. It was time to act. It was time to prove.
Today, I have joined office again, and doing things which I do the best. I am back doing things which I love doing , sort of back in my elements. Solve challenges, crack problems and reignite my desires . And in this entire process, I understood what I desire and I what I aspire.

Someday, inshallah, I will make this journey once again, only to relive these exciting times, those exciting days… that exciting moment, when I walked 24 kilometers from my office just on a bare whim.

The entire jouney can be found in my google map : here

Two weeks and the walk back to life

I don’t know, how to start this. I don’t know do I even need to do this. Zilch. Nada. Sifar… I really don’t know.

Many of my friends, almost everybody were offended. I didn’t take up their calls, didn’t reply their mails. When they came in knocking, well they didn’t find anybody inside. Its not just with my friends, it was with my family too. Poor fellas. I didn’t take up the newspaper, no mails, no news, no sms, no nothing…. Nothing which I consume[non food of course]. No corporate mails too. I don’t know from where did the idea germinate. I really don’t know. I was lying on my bed, half-sleepy half-contemplating [ okay don't ask me, how do I do this, I intend to scare my gfs away with this], then that idea came to me. It was more of a realisation.

“What am  I doing? God! what the hell am I doing”
[trying to sleep? one tiny voice said almost as if asking me]
[Shut up!]
“This sucks! This sucks man!Something is wrong!  I am…. I am..err… yeah… I am not happy, something is wrong! I got to fix this”
[yeah right!]
“Yeah.. I need to fix this”
[but whats wrong?]
[I dont know!, gotto figure it out]

And I don’t know how did the solution come to me, but it was weird. I looked at my cell to check out the time[the revelation hour], and I got pissed off.
No time. No contacts. No news. Nothing…. From now onwards, I don’t know till when maybe days/weeks/months, till I feel like coming back.I switched off my mobile.

The next day I got up[ imagine, if we didn't have bio clocks] and set onwards to my office. The same slumping thoughts. F*** I hate them. As if all my life force was taken out from me. I thought, okay lets give it some time. In office, once I reached, I pulled out the jack to the server. Pfoof* . Kiss the broadband connectivity goodbye, baby… But wait!! I had to update my files to the common server. What about that… okay, I connected it back, but resolved, No Outlook, no Thunderbird, no Rediff, no Mozilla either. No news, no sneek peak at newspapers too, no blogs[yeah that included the WordPress one too.] and I didnt carry my mobile at all.

Honestly for the first half an hour it felt awful. But you know what? I survived. In fact I started enjoying the solitude. Honestly [no doubt cave men were very satisfied fellas]

It went on. Till today. And honestly I didn’t find an end to the gnawing corrosive thoughts inside me. I was getting stagnant, almost devoid of any life force[ a la Calvin].

I got up pretty early today in the morning. Was good. Felt good[at last!] I dressed up and reached the road that leads to the office. Its where the auto wala leaves me, and I make the last two minutes of my walk.

Two minutes thats it! Just two minutes. Its such a small time. But still thoughts. The same thoughts came to me. I was getting stagnated. I had to solve it. Now and I mean right now!

I slowed down. The sea straight ahead was visible. I looked back.
“Chuck it! I am not going to office today”

I turned back, and was standing on the ECR road[read the wiki slug]which connects Chennai to Pondicherry along the Bay of Bengal coast.

I had the option. One side lead me to the city, the other out of it.

Authors note: Trust me, my family is still spooked out when I told them what I did today.

[Continued in the next part]

I smell a rat!

Oh yeah, I smell a rat! A stinky one, that too. The entire world seems to come to an end, and here I am smelling a rat? You want reasons, why I am smelling rats? Okay take this then, for starters of course, how about the Chinese Year of Rat have started, and I am supposed to celebrate as people in media (print or otherwise) are trying to convince me how all of my wishes are going to come true this year. And to top it all, my Zodiac animal is Ox… it still seems a puzzle to me how this year is the luckiest time for me.

Okay, oh yeah I do smell a rat not just because Ox and Rats should I just say, don’t go together, but because I don’t understand how Chinese people had it all figured out, that Ox indeed go together with rats!!!

And yeah, but Ox and rat is the least of all worries of mine( told you it was just for starters!). Lets first talk some finance, Indian and otherwise. In India, two almost rocking IPOs were cancelled… should I say the name? Emaar and Wockhardt. Believe me, I know Khorakiwala right from childhood, ahem ahem… give or take 18-20 years on the higher side( okay not exactly, I knew him but he didn’t know me) , and knowing how will he be feeling right now, boy I can almost see him feeding his IPO papers to the rats!!! And then, with the volatility in the markets, this indeed seems to be the cursed time for Khorakiwala. Never mind… And yeah Dow Jones is swinging more than Charlie Brown and Lucy’s swing in the park. But hold on… what about subprime crisis? Oh yeah blame it on rats and dogs, and Bears and Stearns, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch… And my my I can literally smell the shit coming this way, to be precise rat shit!(heard they smell the most, I didnt do the survey boy! Dont look at me like that).

Now, lets come to some better news. Hey of late, I heard that NASA people have started getting Beatle-sick[ read it here ]… they love their Beatles isnt it… boy, I love my Black Sabbath too… especially they have such a uncanny resemblance to each other… they both sing songs, which I could never appreciate. Well, I tried hard to listen to Black Sabbath, and never tried Beatles. But still boy I love their music! And you know what, aliens were the first people to hear non-DRM music before us!! Wonder, how much did Steve Jobs bribe NASA for that? What does Steve think, boy? He thinks-”… lead to exploration of new markets…”. What ?? Now is Jobs going into rake alien mullas too? Told you boy, I am smelling rats, alien rats!

P.S: For that matter, rats were the first animals to be sent to space, isn’t it?