For whatever reason, June 11th is the most popular birthday in my birthday calendar. Today, as many as 15 of my old friends get birthday calls from me! That is almost twice of my daily average. Not terribly sure how to explain the popularity of this date… but here is some interesting analysis of the mix of those birthday boys and girls. The gender distribution surprised me and I am fairly sure that it is not representative of the whole birthday list for the year…

All by myself
Sitting in hot water
In the woods
Amidst pouring rain
That kept diluting my wine…

I just don’t want this time to end….

That was what was the official description of the monogram of the school I went to from fifth thru tenth grade back in India. In line with the learnings from that school, today, Nikita and I sat down in our yard and listened to an episode of “Says You”. If you have not ever heard it, give it a try – it is a rather humorous radio show on English words. I accidentally fumbled onto it while fiddling with radio channels one Sunday night about seven years back. Now, I just download the episodes and listen to them.

We lit a small lamp in the yard, sat around it and learnt some new words. Have you noticed how the guy at the restaurant, when he gives you a glass of water, puts a straw in it and but leaves a small piece of paper wrapper in one end? Well, that has a name – “strawphylactic” !! Remember, how I note that my parents, when I visit them, complain about how the world was much better in the past (which I disagree with). Well, we found out today, that the word for that is “pluperfection”.

While they were on a “interstitial” (you and I will call it a “break”), Nikita and I tried experimenting with taking pictures of the flame of the lamp. This one came not too bad…

This one was even more enjoyable since it came at the end of a 7 mile run.

… It’s is about learning to dance in the rain”.

With all due respect to Vivian Greene, I am not really down with the getting down thing… but I am totally up for getting out in the rains with a glass of wine and enjoy the feel of the cold sharp drops on the skin and the bald pate… as I get soaked to the skin…

She came in to the music room saying she would listen to some music with me…

… and landed up stealing the only one audience member I used to have.

I should have known better, for…

… this is exactly what she had done to my heart too twenty five years back …

I had just finished my tenth exams and my NTSE (National Talent Search Exam – a standardized test in India for earning scholarships for higher education) tests. On a whim, decided to visit Swarup-da in Bishnupur. Swarup-da was my teacher who helped me to appear for my NTSE tests.

I recollect vividly sitting outside his parents’ house in some dim light with his sister Shikha-di, his close friend – Lalmohan Agarwal and of course, himself. We were all sitting out in the open and listening to some unbelievable songs from the movie “Nikaah”. Helped by Lalmohan, we unraveled the meaning of the lyrics that evening. (Hindi was not the forte of any of the other three).

This is one of those great numbers that I listened to again this evening … from the haunting voice of Salma Agha.

“Dil ke armaan aansuon mein bahe gaye
Hum wafaa kar ke bhi tanha rahe gaye
Zindagi ek pyaas ban kar rahe gaye
Pyaar ke kisse adhoore rahe gaye
Shaayad unka aakhri ho yeh sitam
Har sitam, yeh soch kar ham sahe gaye
Khud ko bhi humne mita daala magar
Faasle jo darmiyaan the rahe gaye”

Roughly translated… (improvements welcome)

“My heart’s desires flowed down thru my tears
I was left alone even after putting my faith in you
Life remained for me as as an unquenched thirst
And my story of love remained incomplete for life
Hoping it would be the last blow (suffering) from him
I endured every last blow (suffering) from him
I obliterated my own self; and yet
The distance between us remained as unfathomable as ever”

1.
The Top ten countries are Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.

Apparently, to be very happy, you need to live in shivering cold 🙂

2.
India (my birth country) is at rank #122. Its arch nemesis Pakistan is #80 and every other (much smaller) neighbor – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and get this – Myanmar – has outranked it. Upon reading this, India slipped further 3 ranks this morning 🙂

3.
Finally, there is a curious correlation between per capita alcohol consumption and happiness index. I am not suggesting any causality. Just saying 🙂

For serious readers who want to read the article and how the indices are measured… here it is… http://s3.amazonaws.com/sdsn-whr2017/HR17_3-20-17.pdf

Looks like due to a bug in a plugin, all my personal posts were getting cross posted to LinkedIn!!!