THE RAT DIARIES

In a recent episode of Fear Factor 2 on AXN, I watched two women as part of a challenge, allow rats to crawl over their heads and face head on, with immense bravery and fortitude the possibility of being bitten and scratched and worse, infested. Though it was revolting just to watch them, I’m all appreciation for their incredible guts. I on the other hand, am like the majority of women who wouldn’t go anywhere near rats, let alone touch them. Seeing one of them is enough to make me freak out.

The critically acclaimed animated film “Ratatouille” won an Oscar and several other awards. However, I wonder what inspired directors Brad Bird and Jan Pinkaya to make a movie revolving around rats. The movie was great but I remember wishing the rats could be replaced by some other animal species. If I were a movie director, I would have liked to make a movie with a cute, furry Pomeranian because I’m a big lover of all things canine….but rats…..hmm…not really to my taste. Anyway, thanks to their award-winning movie, I now know about a dish called Ratatouille. But that’s beside the point.

Last night, my dad laid a trap for a scheming annoying rat using a tempting piece of coconut meat. In principle, it was a brilliant idea, simple and foolproof. However, the species of rat seems to have evolved over the ages into a cunning race. The next day, the coconut meat was gone…., and so was the rat!

About three years back, we had a situation where we’d opened the fridge one morning and found the tomatoes half-eaten. Post the tomato feasting incident, we were never able to catch the slippery plunderer red-handed, despite several regular appearances of half eaten food. In fact, we were never even able to catch sight of it. One fine day, I opened the fridge and saw the rat’s spherical eyes looming at me from a dark brooding corner, and then as quick as a flash, it disappeared. Where to? I didn’t know then. It was as if the rat had made its way through a secret door or become transparent like H.G. Wells’ “Invisible Man.” If my memory serves me right, we had actually called in the fridge mechanic to play CBI investigator for us and find out how the rat entered and through where it exited. Our aged investigator discovered that the rat was cozying itself in fetal position in a warm area of the fridge’s system. His point of entry and exit was a small space between fridge and fridge door.

In the course of my years of inhabitance in India, I am happy to have discovered funnily enough that just as every man is unique, so is every rat. On two occasions, I had rat visitors swinging into my home through my cable TV wire connection. These were the Tarzan variety of the rat species, I presumed. Interestingly, though they swang themselves inside almost effortlessly, getting themselves out using the same prop was a major struggle. And how can I forget the rat who liked to feed on our bath soap of all things?

It’s past 10 pm now and very soon I will be hearing that repetitive knock knock sound. It means my latest unwanted visitor has arrived once again on its nightly visit. This time dad and I have laid a sure trap for the intruder.

Positive Thinking

Just wanted to share a few lines from the movie "Love Happens" that remind me to make the best of what I have instead of always complaining:

When life gives you lemons, you have two choices.  First, is to make a sour face. Second, is to make lemonade.

Interestingly, I found some other options on the web:


"squirt juice in your enemy's eyes."  

"keep them, you're getting them for free right!" :D

The New Pictorial Warnings Will Hopefully Dissuade Indian Smokers......Will They???

It is really heartening to know that close on the heels of World No Tobacco Day which is today, The Indian Central Government has issued a notification about new pictorial warnings which should compulsarily be printed on packages of both smoking and smokeless kinds of tobacco products. I hope that the notification which would take effect this December would dissuade Indian smokers from continuing their smoking habit. I also hope that once they are dissuaded, they would encourage others to quit too.

However, I am curious about one thing. I believe that the new rule may discourage the educated section of the public but what about the uneducated, illiterate sections. I have often noticed them going to the shop to purchase a cigarette or two at a time. I don't think they buy cigarette packets. So what about them??? I must say that in my opinion, the radio and TV are more effective media to get the "no smoking" message across. What do u think?

Can u Have No arms and No Legs and Still Be Happy?

"I Love Living Life. I am Happy." These are words coming from a man who nether has arms nor legs. Hard to believe? It's true! Yes folks, Say hello to Nick Vujicic.

All of us have times in our lives when we feel very low and miserable and wonder why we even continue to live. Feelings like these have pushed many to end their life. When i was feeling particularly low one day, I decided to go online and see if there was something that would brighten my mood. While I was in the process of checking out my mailbox, I saw a writeup from the "Inspiration by God" Newsletter. The writeup carried a link to a video about a Serbian guy called Nick Vujicic. Nick was born without arms and legs but God did give him two small feet. What's more, one of the feet has two toes. In spite of his disability, Nick learnt to comb his hair, answer the phone, play drum pedals and golf, shave, brush his teeth, and use a computer.

My outlook totally changed after watching that video. I realized that there are so many people out there who might have been in a worse situation than myself and yet emerged happier and stronger than before. I'm talking about people like Nick Vujicic who realize that life is not about what you don't have but about how you make the most out of what you have. It is about how you defy odds to become the best person you can be.

You can read more about Nick Vujicic from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Vujicic. You shouldn't be surprised to know that this inspirational 28 year old has a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. What's more, he is now  a motivational speaker and preacher, and also director of "Life without Limbs," a non-profit organization.

I Admire

1. Mother Teresa
2. Padre Pio
3. Pope John Paul II
4. Kiran Bedi
5. Sonia Gandhi
6. A.P. J. Abdul Kalam
7. Kalpana Chawla
8. Jesse Owens
9. Muhammad Ali
10. Nick Vijucic
11. William Sahespeare
12. Milton

Teena's Tips for the Good Life!!!!! :D :D

After reading so many email forwards about how we can make our life so much better, I was inspired to write my own set of tips for the good life. I am hoping to follow them some time soon. He He!!! Of course, you would have heard of most of them. Hope you'll like it. Please give me your comments.

• Start your day with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. In your prayers, don't forget your enemies. Also pray for the poor and underprivileged in the world.
  


• Be yourself. Keep your ears open to good advice, and closed to unproductive criticism.
  


• Dress the way you like but also be conscious of the image you're portraying to the outside world.
  


• Do something wild - a crazy hairdo, camping or trekking, go and learn something you always thought was kind of impossible for you.
  


• Make it a habit to do at least one good deed or to make at least one person happy. It can even be someone you're meeting for the first time.
  


• Be a friend to someone who has no friends. It would give you immense satisfaction.
  


• If there's some kind of friction between you and someone else, talk it out in a calm manner. It is really not worth keeping things unsaid and allowing the hurt to remain and the anger to grow.
  


• Exercise - Make it fun if exercising is boring for you. Try some lively music. You can always bring some neat dance steps into your exercise to make it more fun. Dance is exercise too!!!!!!!
  


• Go on a balanced diet.
  


• Get a good night's sleep.
  


• Express your feelings to the person you love now. Who knows, you might never get another chance.
  


• Write down all the positive things in your life now or in the past. Try to read what you've written when you experience the blues.
  


• Set some time aside at least on your day off to engage in a hobby.

I Too Have Travelled By Train.... Yipee!!!!!!

Rail Gaadi Rail Gaadi Chuk Chuk Chuk Chuk

Bhich Waale Station Bole Ruk Ruk Ruk Ruk

Being a protected child and having had spent a major part of my life in Dubai, I equated a journey by train to just another impossible dream. If people asked me how being 20 plus, I still had not travelled by train, I had a ready answer for them: "But I have travelled by plane."

Luck and maybe some divine intervention gave me an opportunity to make a nice trip in this primitive locomotive a week back. My destination was the "Divine Retreat Center" in Potta. The thought of being able to enjoy my first train journey for six hours made my heart leap in joy. My mind danced in excitement.

That first day in the train, i mentally transformed into a little child curiously probing new territory. It was a wonder to me that a train should have so many compartments, both a window and a shutter, and a holder for water and bags, could be a place where u could buy books and CDs, and sadly, could be a place for begging too.

From stories and narrations that I have come across in books and movies, I have come to understand that the train is a great place to make new acquaintances. In my opinion, the "one-day" ( "one-hour" is perhaps a better term) acquaintances I made on the train were really "one-day friends," the memory of whom I would probably cherish forever.

Every person in this world is unique. That is something like a kindergarten lesson for us all. On that train, the venerable Cape Mumbai Express, I realized that every guy is unique. I chanced to have the fortune or misfortune of being seated near two men, one on the "to"journey, and the other on the "return" journey. While the first was strangely friendly to the point of revealing to me that he was a complete zero in studies, the other seemingly preferred to turn his head the other way when a female species was near. Yup, that's different men and different backgrounds for you.

I also met two really nice young girls. One seemed to like me so much that she was so closely huddled against me even though there was sufficient space on the sleeper we were seated on.

Despite all the fun I had in my train journey, what i really regret is that I couldn't take a bite of any of the tempting eatables that the caterers were carrying up and down the train. My father wouldn't let me, fearing that the food would be unhygienic, a fear that i too shared, but grudgingly.

One thing is for sure....the next time I want to go on a trip or excursion, travel by train would be something I would definitely consider. However, I won't stop with traversing Kerala - I'm going to Delhi!!!!!!!

BYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!