My Scrawls

“Quilling” is a paper art where thin strips of paper are rolled/coiled to form different shapes. Then these delicate shapes/patterns are arranged together to form a complete design. In order to do quilling one needs thin strips of paper and the quilling tool. This tool is basically like a needle with a slot in between that holds the paper strip. Twisting the quilling tool repeatedly, coils the paper strip into different shapes and sizes as needed.

As a child, most of us would have had the habit of drawing flower whenever we get pencil to scribble on. Same continues here. Though there are lots and lots of quilling designs available on the net, I first wanted to try a simple flower and butterfly Here is my paper quilling art work.

Quilling design with the frame

Quilled Flower and a butterfly

I was thrilled to see the outcome. This has triggered me do venture more in the field of quilling!!

General Paper quilling artwork, quilling designs, quilling pattern

Thanks a lot for all your wonderful wishes. We are really blessed to have many loving hearts wishing and praying for us. It was indeed touching to hear that archanas were performed to “Ranganathar” at Srirangam and “Lingeshwarar” at Chennai on our behalf We had visited the Aurora Balaji temple on Saturday and offered our prayers to the lord.

Special thanks to Anna for providing contributions to the Sevalaya. We are glad that we spent our special day by serving the poor children and receiving their wishes.

I had prepared a simple “Sana sampaka”. Baked an egg less cake (will post it soon). Webcam sessions and calls kept us busy thru out the day! Went out for dinner had our favorite Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisine.

Since it was a weekday, we couldn’t plan for outing. With all snow and ice all we could do was to skate on the pavement We do have few places short listed to venture out… and yes we are waiting for spring! Do stay tuned to the travel section and join us in the virtual sashay.

General Our first wedding anniversary

Chicagoans are staunch winter lovers. What ever be the weather here, Chicago remains busy through out the year! One of my friends passed me a forward which describes the Chicagoans reaction to the change in the weather. Here I share it with u all. Exaggerated but very very hilarious

Here is a piece of info about the first daughters which surely is not overstated. The school which the first daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama attend in Washington was closed due to moderate snow.

The kids, accustomed to the Chicago weather, used to play in the snow and enjoy the outdoors at their previous school in Chicago! They were left perplexed and couldn’t understand why their school should get cancelled on a snow day? Well Malia and Sasha would have seen enough snow and chill climate here at Chicago that the winter at Washington wouldn’t really bother them! Being a Chicagoan, I thoroughly enjoyed president Obama talking about his lovely daughters and highlighting the winter in Chicago

Few days ago, I posted an article about the Winter in Chicago. I had talked about the chillness and snow here at Chicago. It’s mid of February and the temperature has changed a lot. Though it’s officially “Winter” here…we can smell the spring in air!

Last weekend invited the heat wave to give a break to the chill weather at Chicago. We enjoyed the pleasant sunny weekend with temperature above 40F (nah… above 50F). After seeing the temperature in –ves of Fahrenheit, anything just above the freezing point is warm and pleasant to us

It’s been raining since morning. As I look through the window, I can see people walking with their umbrellas. Feels like they have recessed their winter jackets!

Is the nature playing a prank on us? Are we going to see cold waves after this temporarily entertaining warm weather? We might find the answers to these questions in few days. Till then let’s enjoy!

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Bhagavad Gita is one of the most scared scriptures of Hinduism. It is the message delivered by Lord Krishna. Krishna explained Arjuna the way to lead the life and in turn achieve the self mastery.

Here is the Geeta Saar (Courtesy: Geetasaar.com)

Whatever happened, it happened for good.
Whatever is happening is happening for good.
Whatever that will happen, it will be for good.
What have you lost for which you cry?
What did you bring with you, which you have lost?
What did you produce, which has destroyed?
You did not bring anything when you were born.
Whatever you have, you have received from Him.
Whatever you will give, you will give to Him.
You came empty handed and
you will go the same way.
Whatever is yours today was somebody else’s yesterday and will be somebody else’s tomorrow.
Change is the law of the universe.

Here is the Geeta Saar that I received as a forward.

Modern Geeta Saar

For the benefit of my non Hindi speaking friends, I have tried to translate the modern Geeta Saar. Here is the (funny) description of this modern Geeta Saar – Essence of the IT Life!!

Project is an illusion|
You do it today,
Some other person would do it tomorrow,
Some one else in the future||

This is the modern Geeta Saar for the technical… rather IT world! Cute message from the IT head (Lord Krishna) to the fellow coder (Arjuna).

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We all enjoy reading forwards that we receive. Even I take immense pleasure in devouring the jokes as they are real stress busters. Off late most of the jokes that I receive would target “Sardarjis”. Honestly speaking though I enjoy the wit or humor part of the joke, I do not like to offend a particular sect.

How did the sardars fall prey to these jokes? How do they take the jokes targeted them?

We all are aware of the famous “BARAH BAJ GAYE”, a remark that intends to imply that sardars lose their sense at twelve O’ clock. Here is the story behind this remark that I found in Wikipedia.

During the Mughal rule in India, non Muslims were generally humiliated and mistreated. Nadir Shah raided Delhi and was in the process of carrying away treasures and nearly 2200 Hindu women along with him. The news spread like a fire and is believed to have been heard by Sardar Jassa Singh who was the Commander of the Sikh army at that time. He attacked Nadir Shah’s caravan the same midnight and rescued the Hindu women.

This happened again and again. The Sikh army attacked the looters at or around midnight 12 O’clock or noon 12 O’clock and rescued our treasures. The looters concluded that it is very difficult to fight against Sikhs at 12 O’clock, as the Sikhs get some Extra Power at that time. The attacks were so ferocious, that the Muslims began dreading the expected attacks of the Sikhs at 12 O’clock, midnight or noon. It was these people, who are believed to have coined the phrase that “Sardaron ke barah baj gaye”, which it seems might have evolved into the snide remarks purporting that Sikhs lose their senses at twelve O’clock.

Here is the story behind the origin of sardar jokes that I received as a forward.

The British army, during their rule in India, was stunned to see the valiance of the sardars. It is they who started cracking jokes intended on sardars so as to humiliate the sardars!

Well I am not sure about the veracity of these stories! Many joke books containing sardar jokes have been compiled by Sikh authors themselves (Khushwant Singh as an example) Here is a cute joke (Person A and B instead of Santa and Banta )

Two person were in conversation on the beach
A: Ise ‘beach’ kyo kaheete hai?
B: Tumhe nahe pata?
A: Nahe pata.
B: Woh to Aasmaan aur Zameen ke beech mein hai esliye eesai beach kahete hai.

I have few sardar friends and have seen them taking these jokes on a lighter note. Leave alone sardars now-a-days we do see jokes on “Mallu”, “Bihari”, “Madrasi” etc! My belief is not to hurt anyone…so I have stopped forwarding jokes offending any particular sect. What about you?

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