It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

The Lights are going up!

Thanksgiving is in our hearts

Choirs and Carolers practicing

Pantomime volunteers play their parts.

Excited shoppers fill the malls

Families everywhere Deck the halls,

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 

As you see the decorations 

Go up on the walls.

Santa has started to fill up his sleigh

Children start counting down to the day

When under the Christmas tree they will see

Gifts galore for you and me.

Christmas Time

Come 2019!

Come 2019 and my thoughts ramble on to how the past ten years have hurtled towards 2020 - another 365 days and we'll be there! At the turn of another decade ambitious resolutions made to be broken take center stage as you realize its easier broken then kept. I for one don't believe in resolutions - New Year or any other kind, because resolutions are just 'rules' you impose upon yourself and name it 'resolution' to make it sound fancy. Aquarians are cool like that, they don't wanna be stifled, canned or fitted into boxes. They like to colour outside the lines, burn their own paths, create their own trails and admit only to themselves that they got lost on purpose only to 'find themselves'.

So yeah come 2019 I'm here grateful that the hurtling decade that I just survived has not snuffed me out just yet. My (all be it) burgeoning body paths have only led to a fictional prosperity that I am yet to lay my arthritic hands on. Come to think of it that 'where do you see yourself 10 years from now' question still remains a googly. Ten years ago....what was I even thinking??.. only Facebook brings up memories I now faintly recollect. Where do I see myself in another decade?? Who knows. The truth is in the end that we are where we are meant to be at every moment of our lives. So then all you may ever sensibly resolve to do is to live in the present, let go of the past and dream up a better future. For “To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”  ~John Burroughs

Till my next ramble this is what I resolve to do. Keep it simple, subtle and spontaneous!

If poetry is painting with words read on...

Flappy – The Little Pink Elephant

Deep in the forest, beside the silver lake

When the birds were asleep and the owls were awake

A small little elephant was born

News of his arrival brought all the animals to visit at the break of dawn.

Mrs. Duck came with her brood of ducklings

All in a row

Mr. Sparrow hopped along with Mrs. Sparrow in tow,

‘What shall we call him’? his papa trumpeted aloud

Papa elephant was in his element, standing tall and proud.

‘Look mommy’! cried baby rabbit wanting to have his say,

‘Why is this baby elephant pink and not grey’?

Instantly there was a sudden hush, as all eyes watched the little baby pink elephant.

While he softly flapped his little baby pink ears Swish, Swish, Swish,

Swish, Swish, Swish he flapped them from side to side,

As his mommy Mrs.Grey looked upon him with love-filled eyes so wide.

Then with a loud trumpet papa elephant proudly said: “He will be called Flappy”

As he stroked his baby’s head.

‘Flappy, flappy, flappy,’ – the big brown toad croaked!

‘Flappy, flappy, flappy,’ – chortled the baby turtle, as in the soft mud he soaked.

‘Flappy, flappy, flappy,’ – the blue birds in the cherry tree sang.

‘Flappy, flappy, flappy, makes me so happy’, said baby rabbit in his baby rabbit twang!

 

Feels Great to be Back!!

Look whose here again!! After a healthy hiatus of nearly 2 years I've finally found a lil time to Ramble again and boy does it feel good!! 'Enough with the exclamations', you may think but this is worthy of as many exclamation marks as a blog could have, for it truly gives a blogger a sense of accomplishment to be at the keyboard rambling away. So yeah :). LIFE has rambled on since I last blogged, TIME has flown, KIDS have grown taller, LOVE has weathered more storms and GOD has been good to me. So yeah :) a lot has happened. .......and I've got pictures to showcase all that has!!

 

What are the odds?

That you someday find you have a namesake who also has a blog with the same exact name as yours! True story :) Rochelle Liang is another 'Little Rock' who found to her pleasant surprise that there was my blog 'Ramblings of A Little Rock' staring back at her when she Googled to find her own. Whats more we had named our blogs this for the same reason!! Truth is stranger than fiction even in the virtual world it seems. And how a small coincidence can connect two people on opposite sides of the globe amazes me.

RL lost no time in emailing me and sharing her surprise and I'm glad to have found a new friend with the same name. A couple of emails later I have found that she has removed her old blog (Ramblings of a Little Rock) and started a new one to showcase her extra-ordinary talent. She makes mouth watering pastries so go to her page and check out her stuff! https://www.facebook.com/alikklesliceofheavenjm

Whatever the odds ...I'm glad to have met RL all be it via the waves of the cyber network :) All good wishes from one Lil Rambling Rock to another!!

Only in India

Strolling along a typical Chennai street on one of my evening walks around the block where I live, the two way traffic is a tight jam :(. With no 'foot path' dedicated for such strollers like moi there's nothing to do but gingerly press along the compound walls of the buildings whilst dodging on-coming cyclists and bikers. Suddenly from out of the blue this cyclist comes straight at me and says 'side walk please ma'! meaning please step aside. This took my mind rambling to the many instances of chennai-ites and Indians on the whole using English words and phrases woven into the vernacular to convey meaning that makes perfect sense to the local listener. So only in India you have phrases like : 'nadu-centre' meaning bulls eye, 'aana-but', 'backside entrance', 'cooling glasses' meaning sun glasses, 'loose motion' (lol) , 'one tight slap' and 'time pass'!

Only Indians will get what 'wheat complexioned' is, or that the bridegroom 'purchases suitings and shirtings' while the bride 'itself' wears loads of jewelry around her neck though it may be 'paining' her but still pose with their 'batchmates' for an album pic. They also 'take the blessings' of their co-brother' and 'co-sister' who present the bride with a 'nose-pin' all the while 'ragging' the newly weds about their 'first night'!

Yes don't be surprised to hear words like 'godown', 'gully', 'mugging', 'tiffin-box', 'vote-bank', 'dickey' and 'flyover'. It is only in India that you will find people who 'cheat like anything', students who 'bunk' classes and get pulled up by the 'Princi', who will send for the 'lab ass' (laboratory assistant for those of you 'scratching your heads' wondering what a lab ass is) to buy her 'samosas' filled with spicy 'masala' while she thinks of a way to punish those playing truant.

Only in India going on outings with the extended family can be 'pakka' fun, 'chaddy buddy's' are 'childhood friends' and you may not like being called an 'enthu cutlet'! MIL's (mothers in law) are the real terrorists even in an 'arranged cum love marriage' and you call your friends mother 'aunty'.

Sigh! only in India while I stroll along I pass the 'puncher shop', near the corner 'bungalow' with its 'gurkha' keeping watch, I quicken my strides as I find 'pye dogs' sniffing at my heals while my nostrils are assaulted by the overpowering smells from the 'chaat' shop that's just a stones throw away from the 'bus stop' where 'traditional girls in modern dress' wait to get a ride home. Finally I reach home...sigh! only in India can I expect hot dinner waiting for me! freshly cooked steaming rice and curry courtesy my 'ayah'! If you are not a local reading this blog please google 'samosapedia' for the meanings of all the phrases you dint get! :)

Be Yourself, Be Happy, Be Blessed, Be The Best!

Most often I have found myself looking at the wealth of talent around me and subconsciously comparing my strengths with people I meet. In the almost 40 years I've lived, I've been good at many things and yet there have been times when I've not been quite good enough in my own eyes! Over the years I have consciously weaned myself away from comparing my lot in life, my situations, my achievements, who I am with peers, colleagues, friends....all & sundry. And yet the subconscious pulls constantly towards doing just that.

Until recently I thought I was the only one having to deal with an over comparative subconscious, however I did realize there were others who also dealt with the similar predicament. This struck me when a friend commented: ' I really wish I had your youthful looks ya, how d you manage to look the same as you did when we used to hang out years ago'! We got talking & that's when it really hit me, Eureka! There were others on the planet who also had over comparative subconscious's that looked at my life, situations, achievements and compared these with their own. To all such and to myself I say : Be yourself, Be Happy, Be Blessed, Be The Best! You can only be what you are created to be - Unique.