Quid Pro Quo With The Gods

@Iravati
On Crosswords (822)
During my early life, we had word contests with attractive prizes. There would be twenty questions and there would be two answers to each. For example, This is most important for our life- Air/Water. You will have to tick the right answer. After spending something like Rs.1000 on it, I once won Rs.10 being the last prize. With my dream thus coming true, I bade a goodbye to the contest.

The word Sudoku is said to be derived from Japanese su (number) + doku (single). Sudoku comes in different grades depending on grills provided. I am a highly tolerant man but I get wild with sudoku players. I once tried to make conversation with a sudoku player in the train and the nasty look that he gave me froze me!

Ditto. Lot of people tried to persuade me to join Facebook but I stoutly resisted. The traditional phrase 'Face is the index of the mind' has now become 'Facebook is the index of the mind'!

 

@Iravati
QPQ worth topics (823)

Not for me. As a banker, I have faced them day in day out. I handled at least one case of 'died intestate' every month. We had some mind boggling formalities in dealing with such cases.
But if a person had left a will, his death posed no problem in settling his estate. There may be complications if wills themselves are tricky. For example look at this will of Heinrich Heine
The German poet left his entire fortune to his wife, but with one catch: she had to remarry "because then there will be at least one man to regret my death."

 

@Iravati
To be on Time's Cover Page (824)

You mean it's Time for me to be on Time's cover? I hope they give me at least a month's notice to make myself Time worthy! To be honest with you, I have been on many newspapers in the past. I mean whenever I did not get reserved berths in trains during my youth, I have slept on newspapers in between reserved berths.

 

@Iravati
Transit Topics (830)
This reminds me of Audrey Hepburn making Gregory Peck's home as her transit room in Roman Holiday. Some guests walking into our life make it so beautiful. All guests are not obnoxious! I don't know about other places but down south, guest room is the place where all the unwanted and barely-used stuff are stuffed in.

Cary Grant is my favourite too. I have seen him in Charade with one of my top favourites Audrey Hepburn. That movie was worth seeing just for the titles alone! North by North West and How to steal a million are two of his movies I like most. I have seen movies of Marcello Mastroianni and I liked The Poppy is also a flower and in The Pizza Triangle. I loved them.

 

@Iravati
Death by Books (831)

I also agree. In RK Narayan's Man Eater of Malgudi, the hero died in an attempt to smash a mosquito sitting on his temple! This is sheer variety that only someone like Narayan can conjure up! But the most bizarre end was that of Isadora Duncan. It came as a movie later with Vanessa Redgrave doing the title role.
Hired assassins are very much on the increase in these parts and the murders take place in broad day light. We read about them in the Newspapers and move on to the sports or movies page!

 

@Iravati
On standing upside down (832)
Do you know that Sandya, the heroine of Jhanak Jhanak was V.Shantaram's third wife? She lived with him till his death at the age of 89. He was hailed as the Visionary Director

Almost all Brahmin girls of Tamilnadu try to learn Bharatanatyam and leave it mid way! The famous dancer Balasaraswati continued with her dancing career till her death at 65. The famous star Vyjayanthimala continues to dance at well past 80!

The upside down yoga is not recommended if one has high blood pressure, heart palpitations, or glaucoma. This means that three fourth of the population cannot indulge in this difficult yoga form. I recently received the following message:
Do you know that, if you bath twice daily, avoid alcohol, avoid smoking, go to gym daily for fitness, have sufficient sleep, eat fruits after each meal, avoid stress, stop using all sorts of drugs, stop drinking tea or coffee, and practise yoga regularly, you will still die when your time comes!
A very wise advice, I should saY!

 

@Iravati
splendidophoropherostiphongious (833)
I just cut and pasted this word. I can never get it right in all my life. When I googled for this phrase as is my wont, I found the following:
"How pleasant to know Mr Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough."
I love such guys. A man has got to be queer to be interesting. Our QPQ is based on this philosophy. I wonder if you have seen the weird and wonderful words

 

@Iravati
The beckoning mountains (834)

Mountains hold me in a great feeling of awe. The Himalayas are indeed imposing. I have spent a couple of years during my career probing the length and breadth of the mountainous terrain. This was during my early thirties. At my present age, climbing even to the first floor of my building is a great effort! The curse of aging! Books on the wonders of ageing are all in the list of blockbusters! They are all written by younger people. There was a well known Tamil writer by name Tamilvanan. He wrote a book on 'How to live for a hundred years?' He died at 55!

 

@Iravati
The bane of auto-corrections (835)

Your auto-correct must be a great fan of Kangana Raut. She leaps like a kangaroo in every role she takes!
When I googled for The Bane of Auto-correct, I got 353000 results! I am grateful that there is no auto-correct in our day-to-day life. If there had been one, my life wouldn't have been half as interesting as it is now!

 

@Iravati
The learning of Vedas (836)
Vedas are quite inspiring and illuminating. The Rig Veda starts with paying obeisance to the laudatory role of Agni in our lives. We need not chant vedas but we must have a basic knowledge about them to understand the stellar role they have played in the shaping of our understanding of our life.