I’m Committed!

When people enquire about my busyness and the response comes out to be ‘I’m engaged or committed with something or somebody’, why can’t they just let it be? In awe, the follow-up is usually, ‘Why haven’t you told me yet?’. I mean, why should we announce if it’s just another part of our normal lives? Won’t you get to know if you’re meant to know?

How come the words ‘committed’ or ‘engaged’, in a multitude of minds, just associate themselves with romantic relationships alone? Can’t someone be committed to their family that requires special attention, their dreams that require extra efforts, just those regular chores that happen to be unusually long, or some self care practices that require more energy?

I strongly believe that commitment develops depths of emotions and understanding, be it in a hobby, a goal or a relationship. But, I don’t understand why this personal responsibility often gets mixed up with societal expectations.

Circle of Life

The word “wee”, the prompt for SoCS this week, led me straight to a YouTube video. “The lion sleeps tonight” is my go-to song whenever I have a bad mood. Having watched both versions of “The Lion King” movie, this is one of my two favorite parts of the remake. Weembaway (YouTube link to the song sequence; embed available at the bottom) – at least that’s how I pronounce it – is always joyful to listen to as well watch.

The last time I watched this song, it gave me quite different vibes than the usual. Maybe, what I saw was influenced by my state of mind.

When the ambiance around is good, so many friends stay around the singing Pumba and Timon to enjoy the music. But when in danger, only Timon stays. Even if he can’t help Pumba, he’s the one who encourages him to run for life – “Run, Pumba, Run!”, “I’m coming, Pumba. Hang in there”, he keeps calling as he himself is running. Also, Pumba doesn’t fail to warn his friend even when he’s in a trap – “Run for your life”, he shouts and only then starts his run. Maybe moral support is what we all need in life!

Nala interrupts the best scene in the woods. Life is always such, pulls a brake when everything is so smooth and happy. How easier life would’ve been had Nala not entered the forest! Maybe that’s the perfectly right time or the perfectly wrong one. Who knows?

Solitude

To my left is an open window. Caged in, I let my memories wander.

Night life rushes to the front. When it’s night, why’s there light? Staring through the window at the beauty of the moon, I’ve had sleepless nights with music by my side; Lights from roads have haunted me resulting in recurrent dreams for more than a fortnight.

When it’s bright, all I see are members of the animal kingdom – the chirping birds that pluck out plants from the hanging pots; a cow that chased when I carried a heavy school bag; squirrels that get around the climber and disturb my nap by cracking open walnut shells over the compound walls; a distant well surrounded by coconut and toddy palms – a comfortable resting place of woodpeckers and Baya weavers.

To my left is an open window. Caged in, I let my memories wander.

Night life rushes to the front. When it’s night, why’s there light? Staring through the window at the beauty of the moon, I’ve had sleepless nights with music by my side; Lights from roads have haunted me resulting in recurrent dreams for more than a fortnight.

When it’s bright, all I see are members of the animal kingdom – the chirping birds that pluck out plants from the hanging pots; a cow that chased when I carried a heavy school bag; squirrels that get around the climber and disturb my nap by cracking open walnut shells over the compound walls; a distant well surrounded by coconut and toddy palms – a comfortable resting place of woodpeckers and Baya weavers.

Academic Integrity

I have my own moral principles, and one of them is not to copy in an exam, or do any sort of plagiarism. Whether it’s a class test, term test, an assignment or finals doesn’t matter to me.

I’m someone in the top strata performers. I listen to lectures diligently. When there was a surprise test a few weeks before the finals, I failed at school. I didn’t regret it because I knew I deserved it for my preparation level. There have also been times when I’ve stood alone at college for non-submission of assignments. This made me lose marks in the internals. However, I’ve been happy for not choosing to compromise on my value.

I was tampering with this value – my academic integrity – in other means somehow, under the guise of being good. Little did I realize it until I got punished for being good.

Library Love

Untouched books crowded his shelves, shiny leather spines and faded first editions, meticulously dusted and never read.

He knows he’s in deep trouble now. A few months back, he came across a girl in the library he visits. He stalked her timings for about a week, not with wrong intentions though. With his observations, he started reading books in her often-visited genre. He initiated casual conversations one day and they gradually became friends.

She offered him book suggestions which he really enjoyed. She is someone who just doesn’t focus on the content or is bound to the works of one favourite author. She explored varieties. At times, she used to choose a book, just because the cover is attractive.

Spot – Puzzle – SoCS

Here is a rebus puzzle with a hint to decipher its meaning. A rebus puzzle is usually a picture illustrating letters, words, or symbols arranged in a certain way. It is more like encoding of a phrase or saying.

The puzzle above decodes to a simple phrase and is of ‘easy’ difficulty level. As a hint, it is something that is charged to the defaulter on having caught red-handed for a misdoing.

You can leave your guesses or the firm answer in the comment section. (Answer revealed in comment section) 

LINK – Solution to Puzzle – SoCS

Thank you all for your patience! Those who don’t get a hold, kindly read the previous post for better understanding.

Loge – Iapetus – Narvi – Kari

These are the satellites of the planet Saturn. Had you noticed the word ‘satellite’ that was present in the previous post, the ‘connecting link‘ would have been a cakewalk. The hint wasn’t planned to be placed, but a mere coincidence. The word ‘satellite’ didn’t lead me to my line of thoughts. It was just a traceback.

Why did I choose Saturn?

I tried to frame a meaningful acrostic for LINK but couldn’t come up with any (without much planning; that’s a condition for the SoCS prompt). I started the previous post with technical jargon, which included uplinks and downlinks. That gave me the thought of space, and I got inspiration from a recent news article of planets visible to the naked eye.

Link – Puzzle – SoCS

The concepts that struck my mind on reading the prompt word ‘link‘ are all related to computers – the linked list, one of the basic data structures; anchor tag, the tag in HTML to add hyperlinks; and finally, uplinks and downlinks, that are related to mobile communication and satellites.

But, I didn’t get a way to proceed with my thought. And so, I’m proceeding this no-editing prompt with a new concept, a puzzle.

Loge
Iapetus
Narvi
Kari

The four words specified above, that sound like an acrostic, are actually linked to each other. Find the connecting link. Also, there is a hint right within this post to answer the puzzle.

Song Lyrics – #SoCS

This week’s #SoCS prompt is to find a picture and then perform a task.

1. Find a picture, the closest one to you.
2. The prompt is the title and/or lyrics of the first song that comes to mind when you look at the picture.

This was quite an interesting prompt. Instead of choosing a picture that’s close to my heart, I chose the one that was physically near me. I was charging my camera beside my PC. The first picture that appeared in it was that of my laptop, which I shared in yesterday’s post.

On looking at the picture, the first song that crossed my mind is “Oh Maria” from a Tamil movie “Kaadhalar Dhinam” (translated to Valentine’s day).

The song was quite special during the days of its release, because of the contemporary historical and economic reasons. Internet services were available in India since 1986. But then, they were restricted to educational and research communities. Only since 15th August 1995, the 49th Independence day of the nation, the internet was launched for public usage.

Tossing Fun

Little Manu lived with his grandma on his vacation. He loved the food she cooks and was fascinated by watching her cook.

Whenever she cooked, he used to accompany her in the kitchen. Watching her simple culinary knacks of blending, chopping, grating, and baking immensely enthralled him.

One day, watching her toss the skillet, he gaped and got curious to try it out. He gathered little pebbles from the garden, borrowed a pan from his granny, and started his fun adventure.

He’d toss and fail. He’d try again only to fail again. After repeated attempts, he somehow wanted to perfect the toss.

But now, he changed his technique as well as the target. He took a pebble in hand, closed an eye, and

Coffee, Tea, Or Me?

Sunny came to his balcony with a cup of tea to read in his morning hours. He spilled it entirely on the floor accidentally.

He stood up to make a cup of instant coffee to save time.

The book in hand that usually speaks through printed words, seemed to question him