The Loss Of A Habit

A long time back I had read about this quote.

~~ Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits.
~~~~ Robert Puller

Well, when I read this one, I prayed to God that all the good habits that I posses stay with me, forever.

But sadly, in recent months, I have lost one very good habit which I possessed. A habit which I deeply cherished. A habit which made me many a precious friend. A habit which started countless discussions in innumerable situations.

It is the habit of Reading. It was the habit of Reading.

Sadly, I have lost the habit of reading in all its forms. Be it news papers, or magazines, or books. All of it.

There was a time when I used to start my day with reading of the newspapers. I would go through all the pages and read the most eye-catching ones first. I would also make a mental bookmark of the articles that I needed to catch up later in the day - possibly over the evening tea or while having dinner.

But off late, early morning sleep has been more precious. The only thing after getting up is to get ready and head off to work. This has made reading of the news papers a rarity.

The only solace is the fact is that I manage to catch up with the online newspapers - spending a maximum of 20-30 minutes a day on it. But it does not give the same satisfaction as that of reading a "real" news paper. What's bad is the fact that the quality of news articles that show up on the first page of the website are not upto the mark or diverse enough to give me full fledged information about the going on's in the world.

Next one is the habit of reading books. I was a voracious reader at one point of time - gulping upto three books a month in my tight schedule. Reading was the most common pastime over the weekends and holidays. I enjoyed reading about any topic under the sun - fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, comics, romance, business, biographies - the list was endless.

Back in school, during the summer vacations, I used to enroll at the local library. It used to offer a facility to take two books at a time, for sixty rupees a month. 

I used to make the best use of that opportunity by reading two books a day. And most importantly, every school year - wait for the vacations to arrive.  

But then came my personal computer - only to steal away the company of my humble books. Enticing Electronics took over the humble Paper.

This picture made me wonder whether it was the same me who used to read the Harry Potter books on the same day of they being released, keeping every other thing on the sun aside, only to finish the book and get to the end of the mystery. With Harry Potter, the mystery never ended.

I would also love to read before sleep. Falling asleep while reading was one of the pleasures life used to offer.

I maintained an online compilation of the books I had read and I planned to read. Shelfari was the website where I maintained this list. It took me quite a while even to recollect this website. I had to take support of my email to do so. That explains the gravity with which I have lost it all.

And then came the habit of blogging. Blogging, like Reading, is quite addictive. And for the last few months, it has been Blogging Vs Reading. Blogging has won hands down.

The advent of movie franchisees has been another factor which led to this situation. Twilight has been one of the most sucessfull novel series in the last couple of years, and I was keen to check it out - by reading. Ultimately, I ended up seeing the movies - killing any chance of reading the books.

Another thing which has contributed to this downfall is the short articles that we read on the internet. Although they are easy to grasp, they have resulted in a reduced attention span. And a reduced attention span does not make life easy for reading books.

There was a time when every alternate shopping trip with friends consisted of visiting the neighboring book store. Flipping through the books, looking for interesting stuff was a great way to pass time and connect. And If something caught you eye, by God's grace, you could buy it. And make the best utilization of the purchase by sharing it with your friends.

These days I force myself to get a few of books - every few months - just in the hope of kick starting back the habit. Or maybe read some magazines to develop the interest back.

The only book that I can remember of reading in recent times - without putting it down - was "Freakonomics". I loved the concept of the book and the answers put down to simple, real world, questions.

Books make you think, and that was the case with "Freakonomics" too. I had purchased this book while traveling for work - over the Xmas weekend. Incidentally, the travel back home was delayed due to bad weather, delayed flights and a shutdown airport (in the capital city of the biggest country on the earth). 

Made me wonder - Why do we have all the travel troubles in the midst of the holiday season?? If you have read "Freakonomics", you will acknowledge that this is one question which the authors of the book would love to answer - with their excellent analysis.

This loss has been hurting me more over the last few days - since I discussed books with two people. Some one told me that she had slept only at 2.30 in the morning - because she couldn't sense the time while reading. That made me jealous. That made me recollect my old times. 

And someone else told me that her favorite book was "The Kite Runner". And I professed that "To Kill A Mocking Bird" is my favorite. Incidentally, this lady was able to recollect the most significant line of this book - thanks to her sharp memory. 

~~ "Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

~~~~ Atticus Finch, in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

All this made me wonder - maybe it is time to revive this wonderful habit. I can't make a resolution, because, they say that resolutions are meant to be broken. But an attempt can be certainly made.

If wishes were horses, and horses could fly, I would also love J.K. Rowling to start writing again. Her narration was awesome and reading her books kept me engaged for hours altogether. 

A visit to the bookstore at my office could also help. They offer a generous discount of 10% on every book that you buy.

Maybe the help of the good old "Reader's Digest" can be sought. It's short articles might help to tide over the attention span problem. And once that's taken care, a good flowing book can bring back the good old days. 

A few of them are already in the pipe line - an almost biography of Winston Churchill, a book by N.R. Narayana Murthy on the Indian society - A Better India, A Better World, and a book with the name - Flirting With Disaster.

Well, only time can tell whether I will be sucessfull in my endeavour. A worthwhile resolution could be to come back to this blogpost and leave a comment on completely reading the above mentioned three books. Let's see how soon it happens.

And have you lost any habit recently? Was it for the good or bad? And if it was for the bad, I certainly hope that you are taking those small steps back - to reclaim that habit which was a wonderful part of your life.

Liz Hurley

You have people who are hugely talented and skilled. And this makes them famous and popular. And then you have some who are popular just because they are pretty, beautiful and smart. And you also have some, who are social bees, which moves them up the popularity chart.

If you know Elizabeth Hurley a.k.a. Liz Hurley - you would wonder about the category to which she belongs to. But whatever may be the category, she is hugely popular with the newspapers and the tabloids. And this has been the way for the last fifteen years.

All of 45 years, Liz is an English model and actress. 

She has been an actress since 1987 - acting in about 32 films since then. Her films have not been hugely popular - but she has been extremely popular. 

So what has made Liz move up the popularity chart over the years??

Well, in 1987, a hitherto unknown Liz Hurley met the British actor Hugh Grant. And they were good friends, a couple in fact, for 13 years till the year 2000.

And it was with Hugh Grant that she propelled herself up the popularity ranks. 

At the age of 29, in 1994, she walked with Hugh Grant to the premiere of his film - Four Weddings and a Funeral - wearing a black Versace dress. The dress was held together by several gold safety pins and it immediately put her right at the center of the media's attraction.

This "Safety Pin" dress was later voted as the greatest red carpet gown of all time.

An year later, she was signed up by Estee Lauder to model for their products. And since then, she has been an icon for them - helping them sell their stuff across the world. 

Most famously, she helped them sold their perfumes - becoming a style icon. Sensuous and Pleasures were immensely successful.

Liz Hurley also supports Estee Lauder's breast cancer awareness campaign.

All of this happened much before I knew someone called Liz Hurley ever existed. That was when she starred in a movie named Bedazzled. A review of this movie introduced me to her.

She split from Hugh Grant in 2000 and had a baby with Steve Bing in 2002. Later in 2002, she started dating Indian business man Arun Nayar.

Her relationship with Arun also went through intense media scrutiny. They finally married in India in the year 2007.

All through these years - till date, she remained good friends with Hugh Grant.

And after her much publicized marriage to Arun, she announced that she had split form him in late 2010. And this was via Twitter - the new age communication media.

And if you are wondering what had possibly triggered this, then you should have a look at the picture below. 

This was at the races in Melbourne in July last year.  If Liz is famous, so is he. He is none other than Shane Warne - the greatest spinner in the world of cricket in the last 25 years.   

Since then, the media has been intensely speculating the nature of the relationship between the British starlet and the Aussie spinner.

They had been keeping their long distance relationship alive with a lot of tweets. And when the Liz decided to go to Australia to meet Warnie, the media was all gung-ho. Her visit has made it right to the front pages of the tabloids.

What is it about Liz which makes her immensely attractive? Is it her charm or is it her intelligence? Is it her beauty or is it her persona? What makes her be in the media's spotlight continuously? 

Keep contemplating.

So here is Ms. Hurley - going from strength to strength - becoming a hugely sucessfull social celebrity. And if she does end up marrying Warne, then she is bound to be a darling of the Aussie masses.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

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Click here for India wins Cricket World Cup 2011
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Click here for a view on the finals

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In India, they say - Cricket is a religion. And Sachin is the God.

For the unknowns, Cricket is a game. And Sachin Tendulkar is the most cherished player in Indian cricket.

And for the knowns, this introduction is not needed. 

What also is not needed is a reminder that the biggest festival in the game of cricket - The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - is set to start in the less than 10 days from now in the Indian Sub-continent.

The World Cup will be hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh jointly. Pakistan was initially decided as one of the co-host. But a spate of terror attacks in the country in 2009 resulted in Pakistan losing its chance to be one of the co-hosts.

Stumpy will be the Mascot for this World Cup.

Cricket is a game which is played most commonly in the Commonwealth nations. Considering this, you will see most of the nations participating in the game to be Commonwealth nations. The Netherlands in the exception.

Fourteen nations will be participating in this year's World Cup. Four of them are the associate members of the ICC while the remaining ten are the permanent members.

The World Cup will be played over 42 days - starting 19th Feb 2011. The finals are scheduled in Mumbai on 2nd April 2011.

The matches will be played across 13 stadiums across the 3 nations - 8 in India, 3 in Sri Lanka and 2 in Bangladesh.

What makes this Cup special is the fact that it is 10th edition of the Cricket World Cup.

What makes it special for me and you is the fact that it will be played in our country. India as a co host are one of the favorites to win the World Cup.

Back in 1983, India won the third edition of the Cup in England - beating the mighty West Indies.

Four years later, the Cup travelled to India. Australia won the Reliance World Cup in 1987.

Circa 1992, the Cup was played in Australia and New Zealand. Pakistan, under the able leadership of Imran Khan, emerged as the victors.

The Cup was back on the Indian Sub-continent in 1996. India managed to reach the semi-finals but were blown away by the eventual winners - Sri Lanka.

Later in 1999 and 2003, Australia were the champions. They played like lions - under the leadership of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting.

The 2007 World Cup is the one of which I have the faintest of the memories. Played in distant West Indies, I don't think I even managed to see a single match. Australia were the winners once again.

But off late, the Australians are no longer the ruthless warriors.

India, under the wings of their charismatic captain, M.S. Dhoni are the new superstars. At this moment, they are right at the top of the ICC rankings.

The draw is out and each group comprises of 7 nations - with round robin games to be played between each country.

In Group A - Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan - look like the favorites to go into the knock out stages.

In Group B, you have India, England, South Africa and West Indies looking like the most likely candidates for the next stage.

But in a stage big as the Word Cup, you have a few rookie nations who can upset the applecart of these biggies. Bangladesh, Ireland, Kenya and Zimbabwe have the capability to beat these star nations.

As always, all of India hopes and prays that India will win the World Cup.

Sachin Tendulkar - at the age of 37 - will be playing in his sixth and last World Cup. And he would definitely like to crown his superb career record by winning the World Cup for India. 

And with the final to be played in Bombay a.k.a. Mumbai, Sachin will just have one thing on his mind for the next month and a half - lifting the Cup with his proud hands.

Chitrangada Singh

"Ohh My God!!!". 

This is what I said when I looked at this picture of hers less than 24 hours back.

She is none other than Chitrangada Singh.

I was reading a new article which had her interview. It said - her name meant - someone with unique features. I wouldn't disagree.

All of 34 years, the Indian actress has been on silver screen for the last 8 years. Yet she has acted in just 5 films.

Six years back, she made a stunning debut in the film - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (A Thousand Such Wishes). Her role as Geeta Rao received widespread appreciation.

In this movie, she didn't dress up in alluring clothes. Or didn't have any enticing make up. Yet, I found her amazingly attractive.

A month back, I wrote about Attraction. And contemplated why someone is attracted towards someone.

It's very difficult to say why someone is attracted to someone. And Chitrangada is that someone for me.

After 2005, Chitrangada took a hiatus from making movies. 

And when she made her comeback in 2008, starring in Sorry Bhai, I made a beeline to watch her movie on the first weekend.

And then she disappeared again. Only to come back again in 2011.

Starring in Yeh Saali Zindagi, she is making waves again.

So what is it about Chitrangada which makes her so enamoring, so tempting, so alluring, so charismatic??

Is it her eyes - which makes you drown in them??

Or is it her dusky looks, coupled with a messy hairstyle which gives her that desirable look?

Or is it her oomph factor - elegantly conveyed in the snap below - which would give the super models a run for their money?

Or her cute smile?

Or is it simply her elegance?

Keep thinking. And let me know if you are attracted towards her.

Internet Addiction

Addiction is a bad thing.

The dictionary would define it in two ways.

The first one says that an addiction is an abnormally strong craving. Craving in itself is an intense desire for a particular thing.

This definition gives a moderate picture of an addiction. The second one depicts a more harsher reality.

Addiction is being abnormally dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit forming. This habituation or dependency is alarming.

Why am I thinking about this??

Well, today afternoon, I was disconnected from the online world for more than three hours - courtesy a power cut. With nothing else to do, sleep not forthcoming and no one to talk to, the desire for  connecting to the internet was getting onto me.

It made me think - Have I become addicted to the Internet??

A few hours of disconnection shouldn't have ideally mattered. But then when you don't get something when you are really expecting it, the desires grow stronger and multiply into enormous proportions. Net result - an addiction.

The first thing that I did after the power was restored was to switch on the computer and get back online.

And this isn't a good sign for someone who is online and connected to the net - more than fifteen hours a day, for at least 5 days a week. And for the remaining two days, its twelve hours a day.

What is more troubling is a small fact. 

The number of websites that I most commonly surf do not exceed ten. This includes - a mail site, a couple of social networking sites, three news papers, a tabloid and a blog. These days, it's on a very rare occasion, that I go beyond these trusted companions.

It made me think - Is the addiction really worth it's part??

But addictions have an habit of demonstrating themselves - so that you can introspect and take the required corrective action.

And what's the signal??

A silly me, sitting up in a dark room just moments before sleeping,  at half past twelve in the night, writing a blog post entry about Internet Addiction. 

Was this really warranted?? 

The fact that I can't stop writing until I post the blog entry is the crowning moment of the addiction.

I'm hoping to take some steps to reduce this mad desire for internet in the coming days. And I pray to God Almighty to help me succeed in my endeavour.

And this might become my wallpaper in the coming days. :-)

Hair Color

A long time back, when I was a child, reading was the most common pastime. 

Back then, we didn't have Cable TV, Internet, Computers et all to keep us  engaged. And reading was one habit which I pursued a lot - although it was mostly limited to vacations.

Apart from reading fiction and detective novels, I was passionate about reading comics. Phantom, Archie, Mandrake, Chacha Chaudhary etc etc were my favorites. 

Each and every story of Archie comics is incomplete without the two pretty girls - Betty Copper and Veronica Lodge. They battled on various fronts - including vying for Archie's attention. 

The duel which stood out was that of hair color's. 

Veronica commonly took swipes at Betty's blonde hair color - often accusing her of being dumb. Quite on the contrary, she was the most intelligent among the lot.

Veronica was a beautiful brunette - who considered herself to be more intellectually superior to Betty - while she was to the contrary.

And this battle of hair color's continued for as long as I remember. 

This made me think - what are the most common hair color's for people across the world? Does being blonde or brunette matter?

The most common hair color for people across the world is black. 

We don't have any percentages about the people who have black hair. But it is considered to be the most common.

Then you have the brunettes. They have hair with a shade of brown.

Featured above is Katie Holmes - the better half of Hollywood star Tom Cruise. 

Other starlets who sport this hair color include Penelope Cruz, Keira Knightley and the current Twilight heartthrob - Kirsten Stewart.

Then you have the "legally blonde" hair color. 

These are most common in people who have their origins in Eastern and Northern Europe - yet it can be seen in people across the world.

You would find many actresses with enticing blonde hair color - Charlize Theron, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Uma Thurman et all.

Before we go onto red hair, have a look at the Auburn colored hair. Auburn - as per the dictionary - is a hair color which is moderately reddish brown.

Kate Winslet, Kylie Minogue are some super stars who are known to have auburn colored hair.

And then you have red hair.

This color has the distinction of being the least commonly occurring hair color among the people.

Among the few stars who have red colored hair are Julianne Moore, Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst. The list is very limited - due to the rare occurrence of this hair color.

You also have honey colored hair.

Jennifer Aniston, Jenifer Lopez, Eva Mendes commonly sport this hair color. 

And there would be several such hair color styles - which we might not be even aware of. But needless to say, the people who own them would be proud of them.

In this age of commercialization and fashion, you can have a hair color of your choice. All you need to do is buy some Hair Coloring Solution. 

It will change your hair color - either temporarily or permanently. 

Temporary change of hair color is in vogue these days. After all, you can sport a new hair color every few months. That's why they said - variety is the spice of life.

And maybe that's the reason I found Kirsten Stewart featuring almost every possible hair color while researching for this blog. 

Catch some of her pictures below

Here she is with black hair.

And then with Blonde Hair.

And then with Auburn Hair.

What next??