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SRS
Anwesha Ray
Numerounity
You have won yourself the below book as well as a Jaico T shirt.
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BOOK GIVE-AWAY
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Howdy Bibliophiles!!!
August is here and M is back with a give-away.Â
Spreading my love for books is a passion that keeps me pepped up all day. I keep an eye on all that comes up on the bookshelves and looks yummy to be lapped up. Here is one of those which has caught my eye and I am all smug with my copy. I am sure that gets you curious too!
We have a new book from Jaico Publishing House, that has a promising preview,
WISE ENOUGH TO BE FOOLISH by Gauri Jayaram.
This is a story of a woman’s journey to make something meaningful out of her life. Its a tale that absolutely connects with every Indian girl. At the same time, its being called entertaining and thought-provoking both.
If you want your own copy too, just get talking. Here is what you got to do!
Write one foolish act of your childhood that you still wanna do. Some act that you did unknowingly and it was termed foolish, however, now you wanna do it purposely. May be you want to bring back those memories or you feel that being foolish in a way is being wise. The goof-up could be a hilarious or damn serious one. Just open up and share your stories.
I am all ears!!
      Comment below or you may blog about it and I would love to read it.
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**** BEST 3 Answers will win the book WISE ENOUGH TO BE FOOLISH ****
Pendown thanks Jaico Publishing House for supporting the contest. Don’t miss this one because we have Jaico goodies too for the best foolish act of yours.
We would appreciate if you could
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Tweet your answers using Wise Enough to be Foolish and Jaico.Â
Happy Reading!!!
THE CONTEST ENDS ON 15th August 2013.
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Books in all forms attract me and make me gleeful. If you love them too, lets get going from today. Books are no less than best friends!! Glad to share the love on friendship day.
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Happy Friendship day! 🙂
Hey Participate in this.. looking forward to you answer…
This happened when I was in primary school – I used to take “Bharatnatyam “ dancing lessons and the dance school was about a 10 minute drive and a 30 minute walk away(this was the 80’s and there wasn’t much traffic :)] My dad always picked me up after class at around 6.00PM – sometimes he would be delayed due to other chores but I would wait for him. One particular evening he didn’t turn until about 6:45 p.m. This had never happened before – me being the carefree kid that I was, decided that I was bored waiting for him and took matters into my own hands. I decided to go home by myself – yes! the 30 minute walk! I knew the way so I thought why not?? I started walking and even stopped at the Ganesh temple on the way to pay my respects to God..By now I was only 10 minutes away and I was in such a good mood that I even practiced some dance steps along the way! It must have been a funny sight – a kid in her dance uniform dancing on the road..just as I was swaying my hips (like dancers of course) and walking, someone called out my name with an element of shock, surprise and relief…It was my dad, apparently very relieved on finding me…he had been to the dance school and panicked when he didn’t find me there and nobody knew where I was….he was rushing back home looking frantically all over when he spotted this crazy kid dancing and walking on the road! Must have been a hilarious sight! Well, I went back with him on the scooter and got a earful after we reached home on how I should not disappear without informing people and that I should exercise more caution! Best part is my parents were actually laughing while trying to be strict with me…the sight of their daughter swaying her hips on the road was too hilarious to be serious about! 🙂
This contest made me wonder what it was that day that made me do what I did….it was the fact that I did not think much or had much fear of the unknown. In my head I knew the way home, I knew the traffic rules(they had taught me in school to use the footpaths; these were quite usable back in the 80’s and I also knew the look right and left rule while crossing the road) and I was just spunky enough to take the route and walk..I had NO FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN! These days its all about analyzing any situation and then planning our next moves with every care and precision possible, so much so that many a time we end up not doing what we want to do! Many adventures are not experienced…we live our lives dreaming and not acting or implementing – all because of the fear of what may go wrong and insecurity! I would love to make that mistake I made that day when I was in class IV – NOT FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN and just do what I dream to do!
This all happened when I was in Class II. I was very shy kind of girl, didn’t talk much to people, preferred staying alone, believed in people too soon in whatever they said. Yes, I did have some friends back then. I had a small girl gang of mine. I wasn’t the lead captain though.
There was one friend of mine who was too good with people. She could easily dissolve in crowd, mix up with people and talk with them like she’d known them since forever. Honestly, I envied her. -_-
We were just kids and remembering those days I laugh my stomach out. We were a group of 5 and the captain girl told us that we were secret fairies, meant to help people. She would tell us about the fairy godmother praising us all and that one of us would become the ‘Queen Fairy’ and that one day we’ll meet other secret fairies. We imagined ourselves to have some magical powers and maybe that was because once or twice what we’d said might have come true and so we took it for ‘magic’. We composed our own magic mantra which I don’t seem to remember now. Our names were in colors like ‘Pink Fairy’, ‘Blue Fairy’, ‘Green Fairy’, ‘White Fairy’ and ‘Yellow Fairy’. On the school grounds, when the other kids would be playing, giggling or roaming around, we used to have our special meet. Whenever the clouds used to shape themselves in a weird manner, it was assumed that the fairy godmother was praising us all.
We were so much into that thing that we thought we were fairies for real. Later, we grew up, got into different schools , lost contacts and we weren’t fairies anymore.
Yeah, it was kinda ridiculous. But now, remembering that time, I can’t help but laugh. Maybe if I’d get a chance, I’d like to be that fairy again. Not so in real. But too much near to feel it real. 🙂
Hi,
My small talk on- Wise Enough to be Foolish……
http://shellymona.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/a-wise-fool/
Thanks Shelly for connecting through this… it was a nice story and definitely wise one..
Turned my comment into a blog entry – Couldn’t help but write about this 🙂
http://muddledup.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/foolish-or-wise/
I am so glad you did this…
I was a very naughty child till the age of five, and by then I had managed stitches on my head and inside my nose. This incident dates back to when I was 2 or 2.5 years of age. My mother had a diamond on her wedding ring, gifted by my father after he had saved some money for marriage. The diamond had loosened from its crest on the ring and fallen one day. Ma was in a hurry, so she picked up the piece, wrapped it in a paper and kept on the table hurriedly before rushing for some chore. The inquisitive kid that I was, I picked up the package, opened the paper, found the diamond and assumed that it was a piece of broken glass. Later, when Ma was searching frantically for the diamond, I told her, “Why had you kept broken glass in a paper? I threw it down the drain.” Needless to say, my parents were shocked at my foolishness. But I was too young to be explained the value of a diamond and scolded for stupidity.
When I look back, sometimes I find myself foolish too having thrown a valuable diamond. At other times, I feel I had the core knowledge of life at that tender age that diamond is akin to a piece of glass to somebody who cannot afford it. The love that my father had embedded on that ring for Ma was priced much more than the diamond which flushed to a sewer and probably lost forever. I believe that when I will grow old enough to be indifferent to material pleasures, I would cherish my foolish deed unlike now, when I still rue over the lost diamond.
P.S. – My father substituted the diamond for another one a few years later when he could afford it. 😛
I think was almost eight when I finally admitted to myself and came to terms with the fact that I didn’t have a twin sister. Till then, I did; and I was the only one who knew her. We went to the same school, sat side by side on the same wooden bench; and because the teachers couldn’t see her, we could get away by sharing only one set of homework. We always wore identical clothes; sometimes with a minute difference – like, while my delicate lace dress sported a beautiful pink rose on the left shoulder, hers was on the right. And I would jump up and down with glee in front of the mirror, cleverly pointing out the difference to her and delightedly discuss with her how impossible it was otherwise for anyone to tell us apart. I would run to her when things would go wrong; and her eyes would water with mine; a silly joke, and she would throw back her head and chuckle just like I did; only, her upper right tooth was missing, while I had lost my upper left. But then, I didn’t need the mirror to feel her presence. She travelled in the car with me; she went on holidays with me and my – our – parents; and shared my Barbie blanket every night, hugging the same soft pink teddy bear. I guess I knew somewhere deep down that she wasn’t for real, considering I never told anyone about her and never insisted that my parents buy four tickets for the movies. But she gave me so much comfort that I wasn’t ready to give her up anyway. If I thought I heard someone whispering under the bed at night, I would close my eyes tight and hold her – my – hand till the whispers stopped. And, I was never lonely; I wasn’t even familiar with the concept of boredom; which is a big thing to say for an only child who didn’t have too many friends either. I would spend hours playing with her and talking to her, often in crowded places as well, without moving my lips. I never got tired of making up both sides of the conversation, putting words and jokes in her mouth. I would see siblings in school and the park and I would say to her the same things they said to each other, behave the same way. So, understandably, there would be disagreements and arguments too; we would fight (during the course of which I would go to the extent of pulling my own hair!) and not talk for days. But I would always make up with her, for the simple reason that she was I, and no matter what you do, you can’t stay angry with yourself for ever.
I don’t remember the exact day when I started seeing myself rather than her when I stood in front of the mirror; and when I finally ran out of things to say to her. But even after all these years, I can’t help smiling as I think of her – just a shadow of a little girl’s imagination, but so real all the same. And I often find myself wishing that we still shared the kind of relationship in which I could hold her hand when I am scared, and everything would be alright; and when all I needed to do to beat my loneliness would eb to face the mirror.
This was lovely. I have no siblings and I too have had a invisible twin sister for long..
My childhood was filled with many acts which people considered foolish then but appreciate now or which I liked doing then but laugh on them now. Still, I wish if I have re-do them again! One such was- climbing up fences n trees and roof tops as if I was a baby monkey 😉 Before you stretch your imagination, hold your horses- I was quite an adventure seeking kid and contrary to extreme quite behavior during the first of my childhood, I was totally restless, footloose and raring to go type of a girl in later half of my childhood. Here’s the detail-
My upbringing was done at my maternal grandparent’s house in MP. My grandpa had an oil mill whose roof I love to climb. The mill was relocated from the original place to a newly built big area at our big backyard. The roofs were quite steep and bore structure like those two side slanted aluminium/ steel factory shades. There was a boiler room next to huge residual peels of groundnut (used for oil). I would often trek above that residual covering, climb up to the adjoining boiler room and from there I would climb up the steep parapet walls of the mill. There was a mango tree next to that mill and in summer it will bear lots of fruits. I was fond of eating mangoes and loved to pluck them directly from tree rather than eat the fallen ones. I was neither keen on eating low hanging fruits with help of a long stick (as if am a small sissy girl who doesn’t want to spoil her frock. Nah) I would rather go on top and pick the choicest fruits from there. My all these endeavors would leave my grandparents and uncles highly perplexed and worried as away from my parents and in their house, I was their responsibility. My grandpa would often scold me for such acts and whenever caught, I was asked to step down immediately and access to the mills would be locked for me. I never took his scoldings seriously then and continue to do same whenever opportunity helped me creating them 🙂 I could understand his worry as the groundnut peels use to be very harsh and can disrupt skin. Also the boiler room was not very well covered and even a minute slip up can make a human being a chicken barbecue tikka. Plus those factory shed were shiny, hot, slippery and sharp at edges. Falling from them means, landing down to a stone filled ground that is almost 2-3 storey down. But the adventurous, explorer me was invincible.
Why I want to do it again and what did I learn from them- I don’t want to earn brownie points but I think I should tell you this to draw coherence to the story. Some years later, I lost my leg in a road accident which made my mobility very limited. Now even if I want, I cannot climb a tree even if my grandpa agrees to it (he is no more as we lost him too at the time of my accident, coincidently). SO with limited mobility these are the memories that I can cherish and tell the younger “couch potato” generation about life and beauty of outdoor activities. Besides these acts told me to challenge myself and my limits. They told me not to take what is lying down but strive to get best. I could have easily asked my oil mill staff to climb and bring the top fruits but delegation without knowing/experience takes you nowhere.It can satiate your hunger for the fruit temporarily but wouldn’t empower you in long run. Today I may not be able to climb that tree but my exploration self has taken me to travel different cities and live on my own, off course with little help of my parents 🙂
PS: This was my contribution. You can find me on all your pages. Sorry couldn’t blog about it yet owing to time/connectivity constraint. Hope you like it)
This is a wonderful lesson and definitely you have perfectly extracted wiseness out of a foolish act….though not foolish. We often prevent children from climbing trees as they can hurt themselves or may invite a big fall… but at this age when we have actually turned couch potatoes… this looks so inviting to me…!!
Thanks so much! 🙂 yes, I miss those days, climbing trees involved a good amount of mental & physical alertness and am glad that I did when I could 🙂
Good contest but I think I am standing very close to the time limit. Maybe next time !
Hi Uma… Sure!! many more contests are planned round the corner… keep checking.. 2 Great books to be available soon…
Are the results out yet? If not, when are they expected?
Hi Anwesha, They will be out today… Cheers!!! keep your fingers crossed…
Hey! This is great – thanks! I am thrilled as this is my first official win based on my post and am looking forward to reading the book….