CAUSE THERE'S MORE TO DO THAN JUST MOVE IT MOVE IT.

Monday, April 30, 2012

A bad listener

My friends have often complained about me being the world's worst listener.
Here's what happens:

I want to also speak while you are speaking.

I think my story is more interesting.

I am not interested in listening to your story.

If you think I'm listening but my eyes are looking right next to your face, I am probably pretending to listen to your story,

I am counting the number of times you say 'like' in your story.

And wondering how long it took for us to evolve from apes.

I'm crossing off my to-do list in my mind.

And thinking about what I'm going to eat 20 minutes later.

The truth is...


Saturday, April 28, 2012

A fragment of the universe

What do you wonder about?
In those moments in the day just when you're waking up. 
Before you sleep. 
When you stare at the ceiling. 
Look out of the window.
And you see nothing.
You are just lost for those few moments.
In deep thought.
Only to forget about it moments later.

I often wonder about what I'm here for.
What's my purpose on this planet?

On some days I feel so important.
Like the sun, moon and all the stars revolve around me.
Like the world is my oyster.
And the universe is my snow globe.
And then suddenly I feel as insignificant as a speck of dust.

What is the point of us being here. Why are we here? Does anything we do matter?
I just don't know how to feel about it.

Someone asked me the other day if I ever feel connected.
Connected to other people?
Do I feel their pain? Their energy?

Well, sometimes. 
But most of the time we are so disconnected from it.
It is said that in large gatherings, whether for prayer or even a dance, you do feel that energy sometimes.

And you feel so much more of a part of a whole.
Of something big.
But I hadn't really ever felt that.

And then I watched this video which made me feel significant again.

And I felt so much more of a part of a whole.
Of something huge.


The video was posted on Facebook by Mumbaiboss.com.
What they wrote with the video was: 
Parents, when your kids ask you 'where do I come from?', show them this.
It's the scientific truth.
And it makes so much sense.

It's a nice thing to think about in those moments of blank thoughts.
And will make staring at the night sky so much more meaningful.
Make you feel connected with nature.

Like in James Cameron's Avatar.
[Don't watch it in 3D or like me you will be amused with the bioluminescent forest, trying to catch the glowing particles.]
What he has shown in the movie is the connection between man and nature and that's a beautiful thing.
Something I think we also have on our planet.
We just lost it somewhere along the way.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

My favourite

You are...

the one who stole my He-Man
stole most of what was in my piggie bank

the one I fought with because I didn't want to share my cake batter with so I could eat it all by myself
the one who told me I'd get sick when I would eat it all by myself in a locked room

the one who's fashion mistakes I learnt from
and who's personal diary was my tea-time read.

the one I started all my pretend businesses with from being fisherwomen to hairstylists
with our paper cup and string telephone line that connected our 2 cubicles

the one who always gave me the right advice
before I'd go and do the exact opposite only to realise later that you were always right

the one who can find anything on google much better than I can
my tech guru
my inspiration
my motivator
my sister.

Happy Birthday Aku!
This year is a big one.
Let's just call it a milestone.

via Pinterest.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Silence!

The hardest thing for me to do in life is be silent.
I am not the best listener and I always have too much to say.

So trying Vipassana is a plan I had to throw out of the window.
People say it helps with self growth so I always thought maybe I should give it a try.
Plus it may help if I ever get stranded on an island like Tom Hanks in Cast Away without a Wilson.
I just think it's not for me.

But, I've always wondered what some silence in my life would be like.

And last week, I experienced it twice.

Part 1
I went for the screening of an old French film.
All the French I know is from about 3 French songs and about 10 more words.
But, it didn't matter since this was a silent film.
I walked in about 10 minutes late which sort of added to the confusion.
The film was called Three Ages.
It was a comedy film about a man trying hard to win over the heart of a woman which is shown over 3 ages - the stone age, ancient Rome and the 20's which ended up looking like a mash up of the Flintstones, Ben Hur and the Artist.
What made it interesting was that a French jazz band called Ozma was playing the background score for the film. Live!
It was a bit strange but good strange.
It ended with the good guy finally winning the heart of the woman. 
Love. Good winning over evil. Music. 
What's not to like?
Everyone went home pleased with themselves and with life in general.

Movies like this make me believe in happy endings.

Part 2
[Don't laugh].
I went to a silent disco.
It was out of sheer curiosity.
I was more than excited to experience this but unfortunately it turned out to be a little disappointing.
Now you may wonder what kind of a nutjob goes for a silent disco. And what is a silent disco?

Well, a silent disco is one where the DJ streams the music straight to your wireless headphones.
The point of this is:
1. So there can be more than 1 DJ at a time and you can choose which one you want to tune into so everyone is dancing to different music at the same time.
2. To look like a complete moron to those who don't have headphones on.

To me all these reasons sounded good enough to go and give it a try.
I thought this could only be fun or funny so what have I got to lose?


The silent disco that I went to was in an open ground so anyone could walk in and enjoy it.
It was at an Indo-German event in the city. They had covered the ground with beautiful mini pavilions for their different events and you just didn't feel like you were in the middle of Bombay.

Unfortunately, in our case, 
- there was only one dj - Ada who took a while to start playing the fun music.
- and the reception on the headphones wasn't perfect so I'd keep reseting it and had moments where I was listening to cricket match commentary, Gotye, Coldplay and Munni badnaam hui on the radio.

We even got 3d glasses to enjoy the visuals created by B.L.O.T
Just to make sure we looked as ridiculous as possible if we didn't already look funny enough dancing with headphones on.

For some reason I felt like one of those people who were trying to contact aliens by using various devices.

EEE TTTT!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Black or White

ilovedoodle
What's with the world's fascination with colour?
I, for one, being an artist, have always loved colour. All kinds of colour.
Life would be so boring in black and white.

That's how animals see the world and yet we are the ones who discriminate.

If you watch Indian television, you will notice our obsession with light skin.
It all started with Women's fairness creams. Complete with a shade card (like the one you refer to while deciding what colour you'd like to paint your room).
Which graduated to Men's fairness creams - because a manly man can only use a manly fairness cream or he'd be a total woman.
Then there were body lotions - so the colour of your body matches your face.
Then there were facewashes - to wash out your tan?
Then they had special creams that were also sunscreens.
After which there was an underarm fairness deoderant - incase you're going in for an arranged marriage and they want a girl with only fair underarms.
And now theres even a fairness cream for 'you know what'.
I'm saying you know what because the word is as unmentionable as Voldemort.
Ok, it's vagina.

Is it so wrong to have more melanin than others?

When I go to buy lotions or makeup, they always love to tell me how I have uneven patchy skin and need to fix it.

And I thought I was that perfect tone of sepia.

And the one telling me this is the lady behind the counter who usually looks like Mimi (from the Drew Carey show) - her face being a sample palette of all the eye shadow shades (incase you miss seeing the actual product) or because she wishes to look like a rainbow.

Dear Mimi lookalikes,
Wearing white lab coats does not make you a doctor.
Sincerely,
Reality.

But, what is it with this colour obsession?
While growing up I remember watching Michael Jackson's song Black or White. And as much as I loved the song and the video, it really confused me.
Was this song really about the world or about MJ trying to be his own therapist?

Did he not care if his Baby was Black or White?
Did he not care if he was Black or White?
And more importantly was he Black or White?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Add to Flipboard

Being an Apple products addict, I find it my duty to discover every new App and promote it so that others can join in the fun.


My new obsession is Flipboard.
If you are an iPad or iPhone user, and are not already using it, do yourself a favour and get it NOW.

You can read about various subjects  - News. Art. Design. Style. Travel. Technology. Anything at all.
And Flipboard randomly selects articles from around the world on your chosen topic and gives you a whole lot to read everyday.

You can even search for your favourite websites and add them onto your Flipboard.

If you wish to add my blog to your flipboard, here's how you can do it.

> Go to your Flipboard Account.
> Click on More
> In the Search bar type the URL of my RSS feed which is

feed://nehakamath.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

This is when my blog should appear below.
Simply click on it and then add it by clicking the + button.

Voila!


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The quick brown fox...

In college, I was a Typography student.
I carried my Typolog and Letraset with me everyday. And they were heavy books which had nothing in them besides the pangramThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog written in hundreds of fonts.

Looking through these books everyday turned my mind into a kind of font book.
And when I'd be out and about and look at road signs and movie posters and shop name boards, I'd browse through my own little library and look through the hundreds of fonts embossed in my mind.
And most of the time I'd be able to tell which one it was.
Now it's not a talent that I was excited about and I felt more like a machine scanning a fingerprint to find a criminal.

While daydreaming, I visualised this line and decided to draw it out.
And then I thought why not make it a little more interesting and build a story around it.

Q: Why did the quick brown fox jump over the lazy dog?
A: Maybe he was the star acrobat in a circus jumping through a hoop of fire which was positioned right above the lazy dog who just happened to be drinking a glass of beer.
Or maybe not.

Erase and Rewind. 

But with the ballet shoes on. It's important for a fox to look foxy at all times.
Or maybe they were just auditioning for Rose's part in Titanic.
Drama drama drama!
Or maybe not.
I just wanted to have some fun.


Concept & all illustrations by me.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter

via Pinterest.
Today is a great day because:

It's Sunday.

It's a holiday.

It's Easter.

Jesus was ressurected.

And we can celebrate that with loads of marzipan.

And it's been 2 years since what's possibly been the happiest moment of my life.


Happy Easter!
Have a good week.
And Be a good egg.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Siri-ously?

Everyone's searching for answers.

And some find them with the help of:
Tarot card readers.
Face readers.
Past-life storytellers.
Ouija boards.
Zoltar.
Magic 8 balls.
Or even Palm reading iPhone apps if you are my sister. Only for $0.99.

This morning I decided to spend an hour finding some answers with the help of my dear friend Siri.

Test question
Me: What time is it?
Siri: It's 8.35 a.m.

Me (in my mind): Wow, she's so smart. let's ask her some more vital questions.
I decided to keep it short and ask only 10.

1. Will the world come to an end in 2012?
2. If I write with a pen on my palm, does the ink go into my bloodstream and make me blue blooded (Royalty)?
3. Can I not touch my toes because my legs are so long?
4. Why do birds freak me out?
5. Was I meant to be a vegetarian?
6. Was Eminem ever the Real Slim Shady?
7. Why do straight Indian men hold hands?
8. If I kill an ant will his friends attack me in my sleep?
9. If I stand over a Subway grate in a white halter dress will I look like Marilyn Monroe?
10. Am I more likely to become President or win an Oscar?

I'm not done yet.
11. Is the universe someone's snow globe?

And what did I get?
No match found.
Playing Time to pretend.
Please activate FaceTime.
And it made many calls to people I really didn't want to speak to.

Maybe I'll have better luck with a Chinese Proverb in a Fortune Cookie.
According to me, the answers to most questions can be found in Chinese Proverbs.
Or any proverb said with a Chinese accent.
by Rafa Jenn.
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

Go figure!

Monday, April 2, 2012

A little advice

Every Sunday I look forward to reading 2 things.

One is The Speaking Tree which is a newspaper full of articles about spirituality, old folk tales, a few non funny jokes and healthy living in general. Sometimes it's got too much wisdom to handle on a holiday.

But more than that I enjoy reading Devdutt Pattnaik's articles in Mid-Day which tell us how to deal with our day to day lives by giving examples from Indian mythology.

Here's some wisdom from yesterday's newspaper:

Mid-day newspaper, 1 April, 2012

This article had nothing to do literally with disrobing so if that's what you thought please read it again. What I learnt from it was to surround myself with the positive influences in my life that help me grow and to cut out the Duryodhans. We are all able to identify them and yet we let them affect us so often.
Such simple advice told through old stories is such an interesting read.

My sister had a class in her MBA program where they were taught to apply the principles of the  Bhagavad Gita to increase Managerial Effectiveness.
Now you might wonder about how what Krishna said to Arjun has anything to do with our lives in the 21st Century but to me it actually made a lot of sense.

I wouldn't call myself a religious person but I welcome advice from the most unexpected places.

Anything that helps me become a better human being.

So whether you follow a God, a Guru, Mr. Miyagi, Yoda or Oogway, all that matters is that we should  grow to become the best person we possibly can be.

Have a great week!

May the Force be with you.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Yes I can

I plan on rejoining Yoga this month.
I have bunked class for a few months now and the closest I get to doing yoga is stretching like a cat when I wake up.
I love Yoga but I'm just so lazy and 1.5 hours makes me restless.
I can't do anything that lasts more than 60 minutes. Not even a massage.

What I feel during Yoga can't be explained any better than this.

by Gemma Correll

But now it's time for a new beginning. 
I will get myself to not be lazy and go for Yoga.
Yes I can. Yes I can. Yes I can.


Who am I kidding?
It's April 1st today.
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