The Blue Envelope

Parties are not always associated with introvert people but Ron is somewhat different.  Although he finds himself tongue tied amidst strangers, deep inside he is a highly extrovert person. In the world within his mind things are different. Whenever he runs into someone in his thoughts, he controls the imaginary conversation that ensues. He chooses the dialogues for both and usually the other person appreciates his ideas so much that his ego soars like a hot air balloon.

When it comes to the real world he is not too confident that he will get similar response. That fear has made him keep to himself and sometimes fumble with words in front of others.

His wife Ana is quite a different character. She could befriend a stranger within moments and adjectives like vibrant, bubbly, vivacious, ebullient, lively etc wouldn’t do enough justice to describe her personality.

They met in a conference many years back where was presenting her research on “the contribution of introverts to the field of creativity”. She spotted the handsome young Ron shying away from all the networking that was going on.  Ana was moving among the crowd during with all her grace and elegance. While she had most of the people vying for her company, she felt a natural attraction towards him.  

It took her only a while to get the quiet Ron talking and before they could realize they began to see one another. At the start of their relationship Ron thought she was just another time burglar and he would be better off in his own world, he eventually fell for her.

“I deal with introverts for a living. So when I see one I know one” she once told during a candid discussion in a party. The weekend parties were then a weekly ritual and hosting it at their house once in a while was a celebration. Ron was nervous at the beginning but Ana’s managerial skills brought in the planning, organizing and calmness to the whole affair. Those were very intimate and cozy affair and soon Ron started to enjoy those immensely. Good food, good wine with intense discussions at night and wake up late in the morning after Ana’s repeated nudging.

Today Ron was again woken by Ana’s voice. “How long are you going to be on the bed? It's time to start your day with jogging.”

“You know that I do not jog anymore”, he pleaded and turned around.

He finally woke up realizing he has been dreaming of Ana again. He remembered the date and staggered towards the closet on the other end of the bedroom. He felt somewhat excited that the date was finally here. He advanced like that kid rushing for the present on the Christmas day. But this time there was no Santa or happiness. He picked up the blue envelope from the drawer. His name written on the top in Ana's calligraphy.

He had discovered the envelope a few months earlier by sheer coincidence and was about to tear it open when he noticed Ana’s instructions on the reverse.

“If you love me, please wait till the morning of 14th February.”

He put it back saying “damn!”

Today he picked up the cover and headed for the living room couch. He read it a few times and began framing a response.

“Dear Anasua,

Since you are I gone, I find it very difficult to find things around the house. The other day as I was preparing some curries in the kitchen, I could feel your presence behind me. Were you actually there? Another day as I was about to pour my third drink, I could hear your irate voice scolding me and I Went for  my dinner instead. No one plays the music in the evenings anymore and many a times when I sit in this couch and try to read my book, I could feel your hand teasing me just like those days. When I light up the candle and the incense stick in the evening, I could barely see your face smiling from behind the frame. Don’t think my vision is blurred because my eyes are old. It’s because they turn watery whenever I think of your arms around me.

Stay happy sweetheart and wait for me there. Say my hello to God and remember to convey my thanks for all that HE has given us.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you too!

Yours Ronbir”

He started slowly towards the neighborhood forest for his ritualistic morning walk supporting on his companion... the walking stick.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’

Water For Our Birds

Designers and developers are often criticized for using water features in developments in our urban areas. But during hot summer days in cities like Delhi, these adds to the few remaining water bodies  for our avian species. 

Note: These are my photographs and you are free to use them if you need them.

30 Ways to Be Happy

Happiness in its absolute term is achieved when the needs of life is fulfilled. It is the feeling of contentment that life is ‘just’ as it should be. The trouble though is with the definition of this term ‘JUST’. Unfortunately by no means it has a constant meaning. It not only varies between people, it also changes for any individual depending on the circumstances at any given time.

What makes life just for me could be ‘not enough’ for you or the vice versa leading to the conclusion that happiness is a state of mind and also a personal choice.

Trying to put together this list of things that make me smile made me realize that I have many joyous moments in my daily life. I am therefore, a much happier person today than I thought I was.

Following is the list in no particular order:
1. A hug from my child.
2. When I could bring a smile to a person I love, it makes me happy inside out.
3. Doing something for others.
4. Driving for ice creams with daughter after dinner. 
5. The thrill of personal achievement whenever it happens and it could be as simple of being able. to renew a professional membership through continuing education.
6. Remembering the name of something/someone I had forgotten, as it happens quite frequently now a days with the passage of time.
7. I am happy to listen to the ‘pop’ when I open a can of beer or soda.
8. Listening to the rainfall with thunderstorms when I am indoors.
9. Enjoying either Freshly brewed tea/coffee with Indian snacks.
10. Or with the smell of a fine wine.
11. It makes me happy when I am on a drive and all of sudden the rain starts lashing on the windscreen. 
12. And it doubles when a favorite song comes on the radio while the drive.
13. And triples if I could spot Rainbows.
14. It gives me immense happiness after Meditation even if I am successful at that for a couple of minutes.
15. I love having time to myself.
16. Doing exercise and cheating myself with shortcuts.
17. Laughing with siblings, family and old friends at silly things so hard that it hurts.
18. Receiving a letter or call from an old friend.
19. Dancing when nobody's watching.
20. Singing in the shower or when nobody’s listening.
21. Finding money in unexpected places even though it does not happen too often. 
22. Getting new stationery and the smell of new books/magazines.
23. Listening to TED talks, particularly the inspiring ones.
24. And off course eating Biriyani or Macher Jhol or Payesh or other Bengali sweets.
25. Listening to the National Anthem Playing makes me happy as well as proud.
26. I love to watch my collections of stamps and dream of filling the gaps in the collection.
27. Watching an action packed match of cricket or football give me happiness.
28. I am a novice at sketching with strong desire in my heart to master it one day. I get pleasure trying to draw random faces from the media and when someone appreciates those I feel very happy. 
29. Like any other person, I too find happiness in finding a bargain in the sales.
30. Finally I love the feeling of chocolate melting in my mouth and often go ahead and double the happiness.

More often than not we miss out to celebrate our happier moments disillusioned by not knowing what we really want. When the realization dawns on us it is usually too late and we end up saying “we were so happy then or there!”
Let’s take an oath to celebrate every happy moment now on and broadcast it to the world with a broad smile on our face.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

How Many Words Is a Video Worth!

Video blogging or Vlogging is a new trend and quite rightly everyone is joining the band wagon. I am in no mood to delve into argument if video will one day force written journalism to extinction. Today, I would rather contemplate how much worth would a video be if a picture is worth a thousand words. I would imagine it would be a few millions at the least!

A picture leaves a lot for the viewer to analyze and infer but a personal video usually drives the message straight home. For a fashion blogger, a Vlog would also demonstrate how one could carry the designed dress. That's quite a few steps ahead of just a pretty photograph.

I am neither a popular blogger nor do I have a successful Vlog. But that doesn’t deter me from contributing my 2 cents about excelling in Video blogging.

So this is top list of important (in no particular order) to do aspects for good video blog:

1. Contents - preferably should be scripted and practiced well in advance before delivering. Unless it's an impromptu event.

2. Videography - camera should be in the hands of another person. Alternatively one should use  a selfie stick or a tripod. Facing the camera at the correct angle is desirable.

3. Post Production - The raw video should not be uploaded in any case. Editing to remove noise and blanks are crucial. Another vital advantage of editing are the credits and notes. Remember words will add another 1000.

4. YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion are probably the most popular hosting sites.

My tween-aged daughter has her YouTube Channel. I try to help her with that with setting up the camera and post production. You can check that out here. She loves to unbox various stuff and also introduce places. The one below though is a song she sang.

Siri, Cortana, you and the machine next door

Are you one of those who gets psyched by the dominance of Artificial Intelligence in our lives and scared that they will very soon take over the world? Well this is entirely possible and in this post I am going to show you how it could happen. But ever wondered the voice behind Siri and Cortana are of real persons of flesh and blood? I will introduce them to you towards the end of this article. If you are women, then you more susceptible to voice theft. It has been scientifically proven that people are more likely to take instruction from a female voice and it might start from birth.

We have been obeying machines voice instructions through answering machines, telephones, banking systems, ATM machines etc. It has been one way communications as we were always in the “listening end”.  But then came Siri along and usehered in yet another Apple initiated makeover to our world. At the beginning, both Google and Microsoft ridiculed Apple’s idea of voice assistant but both companies quickly dropped their objections and copied Apple. The rest is history as they say!

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is increasingly becoming the backbone of everything from self-driving car to virtual assistants. Recently Google’s Sundar Pichai had demonstrated how google assistant could fix a saloon’s appointment or secure a restaurant reservation. If you have read Dan Brown’s latest book, “The Origin”, then you have already met Winston and experienced his prowess.

Susan Bennett has been talking for the machines for decades. She has spoken for ATM machines, airlines, movies and list will go on. In this interview she explains how she has recorded for 4 hours for a period of a month without having any clue that she would end up becoming the voice for Siri. Jennifer Lee Taylor, an American voice actress has given her voice to Microsoft’s Cortana. Similar to Susan, Jen too recorded short sentences over a period of time. Now the machines synthesizes those short sentences to form their answers for whatever questions that we might ask.

One day in the near future, a rogue machine would coerce you to lend your voice. Then synthesize that to form sentences of its own to take over your family, your friends and finally your life. Someone might be already recording your telephone conversations secretly for that very purpose.

As The Day Dawns

The sun rises every morning oblivious of billion worries of the people awaiting it. No matter how much people request him to come early or late, he remains unperturbed. He has a job to do and that is all that matters to him! I personally requested a late start during school exams or college submissions and am quite sure that many others have wished for the night to be a bit longer for a variety of reasons.

Every night we sleep hoping that tomorrow’s Sun rays at the dawn will usher in a new day filled with opportunities and possibilities. This hope or faith keeps us going. But the dilemma here is do I sleep late or wake up early. A more important decision for to make is when to sleep late and when to get up early. A thought I had shared earlier.

The place where I live and work is amidst a high density residential tower block punctuated with roads and parking lots. The windows are thickly draped to keep the dust and heat off and therefore we are detached from the nature and dependent on the beep of the alarms.

But when we are in Kolkata, it’s a completely different world. The banyan tree by the bedroom window is a habitat for a variety of avian species. With the first ray of the dawn they start chirping and one wonders what they might be discussing before starting their day.  Although crows dominates, we get a lot of other visitors throughout the morning.

I keep my camera handy with the hope to capture a decent image but I have learnt the hard way that it’s not easy to frame one of those extremely fidgety individuals. Perhaps the equipment that I own is not up to the mark. Undeterred by the failures, I keep attempting for the best shot, motivated by their beauty. Amazed by how bright and shiny are their feathers, I wonder if I would ever be able to paint one of them. It will probably take more than a lifetime to mix such colors in a palate.

Unfortunately as the Sun gets brighter, the roaring and rumbling of the vehicular traffic with frequent honking gets louder.…..and the human beings takes over the world.

‘This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.’ 

WOW

Happy Friendship Day

Someone might ask what's special about today! Isn't it just a date in the calendar and another ploy by the capitalistic world to sell products or services?  I find this as an opportunity to reach out to all my friends. The ones always in my thoughts, the ones I meet regularly, the ones I would like to meet in the future and the ones I know I will never meet in this world.Today as the line between virtual and real is getting increasingly blurred, I also reach out to my friends in the cyber world ... my blogger friends, my social media friends and corporate friends...

Happy Friendship Day 2018!