Being brave has nothing to do with being unafraid !

~Northern Borders

Of Paper parfum and anti-aging creams

When a woman has a cozy fall afternoon to spare all curled up in her bed and nothing to do, nothing could be more fun than flipping through a Vogue magazine if you love fashion.So recently my husband got me a Vogue subscription since I am the only person he knows who can run a shopathon for more than 12 hours (clocked in at almost 14 hours with a minor coffee break last Thanksgiving) for latest styles next to his cousin sisters. I heart them. God bless their shopping loving souls ! So I was saying that while I was enjoying flipping and already imagining how I could imitate those classic styles; if not the perfect cut and  design from the affordable retail stores, I was also getting absorbed in the beautiful themes that Vogue ran. From Victorian to Gatsby, Medieval to pop, pages after pages Miranda Kerr and Sasha Pivovarova -esque models transported me to a happy place. It made me feel suave, urban chic, Victorian prim and modern hip. And ah ! Those paper parfums they run inside the magazine. Just slit and smell. After reading a few issues, I started rating the parfum as if by doing so in some parallel universe I am BFFs with the beautiful ladies they feature in the magazine and we have tea and discuss world issues and fashion.So were these fragrances for me or not for me ? Floral or fruity ? Strong or subtle ? Fendi L'Acquarossa - Strong but just very attractive. It would make you keep coming back for more. Modern Muse by Estee Lauder - Love it. For me.Narciso Rodriguez for her ? Made me feel like I was already in a very upmarket expensive store where whenever the ladies pass by, you always get a whiff of whatever you wish for and money can buy. Tory Burch claimed to be effortless chic but I wish there was little bit of effort because it was too faint. Sorry Torry and Viktor & Rolf sorry you are too fruity for my taste. But Coco Chanel Mademoiselle you will always hold the key to my longing heart.So I was flipping through the Nov issue featuring Kate Winslet and I was doing my rating when I came across not a parfum but a popular anti aging cream sample attached to a page. Well for a woman in her thirties you just dont flip by and move on to other pages. It just makes you step back from your vivid beautiful lovely smelling world and go - Let's try this. Tried I did and sorry anti aging cream I didn't feel anything more coarse and sand paper-ish on my face before. I give it a skip ! Maybe my skin is still too soft and baby supple (transferred back to my alternate universe I guess!) for it. I cuddle up a bit more in the cozy bed. I will think of anti aging creams just another day. Till then I will just stick to parfum and couture.

~ A, loves Vogue

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

- In C.S. Lewis's words from The Four Loves

Jumps from space and lands on feet , Felix Baumgartner.Salute mankind for grit and perseverance.

One learns more from his loss than his win.Trick is not to make a habit of it.

~A, Learns.

You are

"You are just your intelligence" - Late Kalpana Chawla, NASA astronaut, while in space.
How profound ! While we go through life obsessing over a perfect body size ,  in space it literally  doesn't matter. You are just your intelligence. It's not easy to rid the earthly life of its eartly miseries.But once in a while the real self deserves to take a step back and appreciate the real you.

Some people have luck on their side the day they are born. I am just going to persuade her to be on mine; or atleast I will die trying !

Saw a bumper sticker -

"If you are going through hell , keep going ".

When I hear Adele , it's so plain to realize that honesty needs no effort.

Seek and you shall find.

~ You definitely will , you will.

One of my fav songs 'Beth' released in 1976

Beth I hear you calling
But I can't come home right now
Me and the boys are playing
And we just can't find the sound

Just a few more hours
And I'll be right home to you
I think I hear them calling
Oh Beth what can I do
Beth what can I do

You say you feel so empty
That our house just ain't our home
I'm always somewhere else
And you're always there alone

Just a few more hours
And I'll be right home to you
I think I hear them calling
Oh Beth what can I do
Beth what can I do

Beth I know you're lonely
And I hope you'll be alright
'Cause me and the boys will be playing all night

I just have to say one thing to Beth - O Beth , aren't you glad there was no facebook
to find out how much all your friends were having fun while you were alone at home ?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

~One of the best known sentences in the English language.

Living in a city that never sleeps , doesn't mean you don't have dreams.

~A , inspired

And there was four

~A , 8th Jan

Strange Dreams and Stranger Facts

We all dream.We remember some and forget some.Zip back fifteen years.An excited teen poring over an article published in the Sunday edition of the paper about the Bermuda Triangle.The article spoke about how mysterious and unexplained the Bermuda Triangle was.Fodder for thought , all kinds of explanations popped in my teenage imaginative head - Scientific to mystical.And the mystical version was my personal favorite.But with so much excitement in my inquisitive mind , it was quite inevitable that I ended up dreaming and solving the mystery in my dream that night.Since it was a very vivid one and since it made me so happy that I solved the mystery I still remember the dream very clearly.I was in flight and at one point , I was amidst a thick envelope of clouds-I was moving in a tunnel of clouds and I lost consciousness.I crashed and died. I was a hero in my own dream.Zip back to now.A day off and wanting to watch a dose of Discovery Channel , I ended up watching an episode of Bermuda triangle.Small point , but I see in the series a guy who actually survived the triangle.The unusual event he reported was of moving in a turbulent tunnel of thick gravity-less clouds and having only partial consciousness all through it.He did not crash and burn.He survived to tell the story.There was an uncanny similarity between my dream and the survivor's story.Very very strange.Maybe dreams do speak.Are we listening though ?

~A , Fascinated

Don't underestimate the power of good intention.

~A, noticed..

"Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know...."


~Human , The Killers

Living life on your own terms , listening to your heart ; Following it ? Hardest things to do even though seems like they would be the easiest...Sometimes you need to start all over again in order to fly !..

~A , and it's my way....

After 3 years , I have stopped complaining about the cold.And it works.I don't feel so miserably cold in the winters anymore.I have started actually enjoying the winter.The most lovely part is the white blanket that covers up everything. The pretty little shops with decorations from c'mas still hanging and a whiff of white snow blanket covering them.Flakes of snow now and then sweeping across the city.People still dressed warm.And there is absolute beauty at night in the city.People hustling across to different events,friends sharing a drink or couples huddled over coffee whispering sweet nothings.Probably what gives me a warm feeling in the heart is that everybody is indoors all warm and cosy.It's winter and cold outside whereas it's warm and lovely inside.

~A ,glad to have made peace with winters forever....

3 and proud...