10 things that don't have a price tag

1. Nature's tears of joy: As the first few drops fall downwards, the smiles that spread across many faces as the pitter - patter gets more audible, the change in the colour of everything open to nature's tears of joy. If the water from the heavenly abode had a price tag then I am sure all of us from Dubai would pay anything to have it to sprinkle down more often here.

2. Time : Don't we all know this one. Even if you turn the hour glass upside down just as the last grains of sand are about to trickle down, you will not get time back. Blank cheques are completely useless to purchase time too.

3. True friendship : It may be hard to find, it may take time to realize you have it but when you have it, you know you're lucky. Such friends leave an everlasting impression on you.

4. Encouragement: Encouragement is something I value greatly and I know encouragement is something that comes from within and does wonders.

5. Enjoying music: It may or may not cost you to listen to it but to enjoy and feel it on every level of your being and attach some good memories to it, you don't need a dime.

6. A good day: Getting up in the morning feeling energized and refreshed is all you need to have a good day. It's something everyone wants but vicious beliefs have lead people to believe that it visits as rarely as when tooth fairies visit children.

7. Talent: It can't be bought or sold, from interest its cultivated like a seedling and one day blooms into a beautiful flower and unveils itself to the world.

8. Praise that comes from the heart: It makes you feel good, it makes you feel special and most of the times its impossible to forget. You wish you could re-live such moments but for all you know there are many more to come.

9. Feeling good about yourself : It doesn't matter if you're wearing Gucci, Armani or just your old pajamas because ultimately theres no price to like the person you see in the mirror.

10. Inspiration : Everyone gets inspired by different things. Different things inspire us at different times, most of us have a new muse everyday.Inspiration is like the spark that ignites a fire.

Fourteen Candles

Fancy wrapping paper, gifts, cake ,candles and guilt free shopping ,I am talking about that time of year - my birthday. So how did I spend that glorious day? That's what I am going blabber about in the next billion words!

In my previous blog posts I have mentioned my obsessions such as chocolate and shopping now I am going briefly introduce another one of my obsessions :- The Twilight Saga. After reading all four novels cover to cover, plus a supplementary book and watching 3 of its movies , I still can't seem to get enough. The third installment i.e. The Twilight Saga : Eclipse released a few days before my birthday. I decided to go for the movie with a best friend of mine on the day of my birthday. At the theatre there was some chitter chatter between me and my friend but after the lights went down I transformed into a Twilight zombie who watched, stuffed nachos in her mouth and passed comments all in a mechanical flow. That's when it happened - the fashion disaster of 2010! Most disasters have warning but this one was completely unexpected ,it was the so called 'innocent' movement of my friend's elbow that tipped over the tray of nachos on my lap.This disaster hasn't been recorded anywhere (besides this blog) as the only witnesses besides my friend was a theatre hall full of wannabe vampires and werewolves who preferred vampire - werewolf feuds than a human girl's war against nachos and a nacho cheese stain. My friend kept muttering apologies followed by my "it's okay" though her first apology wasn't followed by my forgiveness rather a death threat. To my luck the saviors of the day were present in my bag - tissues! I cleaned up my dress with my attention on the screen rather than my dress. As soon as the credits started rolling we left. I went home to the pleasant surprise of a cake on the dining table surrounded by candles and potpourri. After the birthday song I cut the cake. My mother then left the cake cutting station for a minute while we cut slices of cake for ourselves ready to dig in. Then my mother returned, her expression declaring that she had something on her mind "Aishwarya you didn't blow the candles!" and then I stared at the 14 candles lit and eagerly waiting for a huff and a puff. I blew 13 candles and paused before I had to blow the last one. I made a wish and the last one was out. So that was my fourteenth birthday which was concluded with the nail biting FIFA finals. So all in all it was different then my usual birthday celebrations but never the less one of the best.

Mission hopefully possible : Clean up Cupboard

An inside look of my cupboard revealed clothes of various hues scattered and toppled one over the other. My cupboard has been called a black hole by my mother with given proof that small items of clothing that found its way into my cupboard usually never made it out. Closing the doors of my cupboard was an impossible task because unhappy shirt sleeves, legs of pants would jut out the bottom hence preventing the doors from being closed and in process giving more than a peek into the shameful plight of my cupboard. Last week I reached a decision regarding my cupboard which was clearing out and organising it. It was a full day job only interrupted for emergencies such as a hungry stomach or coming down with what I call bored-itus. Besides my breakfast and lunch, music was my fuel. And then it began , pulling out clothes, folding most of them, putting the rest on hangers and repeating. The new clothes were put on hangers and the rest was folded and put in piles. The foundation of these piles was made of clothes I would never wear even if I was brainwashed and the clothes I would wear made the rest of the pile. I let out a sigh of satisfaction when I was finally able to close the doors. Then a few days later the greatest natural disaster unknown to human kind occurred - a cloth avalanche! I stood there traumatised as clothes from the top of the piles came crashing down. Further investigation or just common sense revealed the cause of the avalanche to be poor foundation. Someday in the near or distant future I will once again venture out on mission : Clean up Cupboard.

Wrestling with tigers

I glanced at the clock , 5:40 pm as I remember it , that was when I reluctantly chose to face death. I was prepared to wrestle with the tigers. It was just a few days ago when my mother enquired when I planned to wrestle with the tigers , my reply had 'teamwork' carefully hidden in it but my mother heard the teamwork bit crystal clear. "You are in high school and you can't cover your textbooks by yourself?" Clearly I had to go solo on this mission. I came out of my reverie and saw my textbooks stacked in a pile on the table and the roll of brown paper lay on the floor standing tall. The referee in my head announced "On this chair , weighing who knows how many pounds, we have - Aishwarya!" The audience cheered. "On the table, also weighing who knows how many pounds, we have - the books and brown paper also known as the tigers!" The audience booed. TING TING TING - Round 1. Snipping, Sticking, folding and of course my occasional sighs of frustration. It was 9 textbooks and 1 roll of brown paper versus one human girl. Talk about being outnumbered but luckily I did have help from a pair of scissors and sticky tape. The tigers were very stubborn but somehow I managed to take care of a few. TING TING TING - Round 2! The tigers unleashed their latest trick to the audience - the deadly air bubbles! Whats worse ? I realized that my poor 'wrestling'(covering books) skills contributed to the air bubbles. But I somehow tackled a few more 'tigers'(books) despite their new trick. 6 down 3 to go. TING TING TING - Round 3! As our wrestling match continued the tigers kept producing air bubbles. Finally it was down to one tiger and as expected it produced an air bubble. I pinned the tiger down to deal with the air bubble. " One ..…Two….Three! And we have a winner!" The clock said 7:40 pm by the time I was done wrestling with the tigers. I walked away from the table content with my performance. Another day , Another accomplishment!

Namesake

"And the Academy Award for best actress goes to…… Aishwarya Nair!" I hear loud applause and I blush in mild embarrassment. I walk towards the stage then I hear my friend's voice echo "Which Aishwarya Nair ?", and thats when my alarm clock interrupts my red carpet fantasy. I took a surgical knife to my dream and came to the realization that I was in a similar situation. It's kind of like Borne Identity minus the bloodshed and violence. A friend of mine has the same first and last name as I do. But she has a middle name ,which is represented by it's initial and I don't have a middle name. We had been in the same class since kindergarten upto 8th grade. Unfortunately the spotlight only shone on the first and last name and the middle name lay in the shadow. Result : Utter confusion. So somewhere along the line a teacher put my last name before my first name. And I had to live with that for over 5 years! Can you imagine 007's catch phrase becoming "The name is James , Bond James."? It was not an imagination but a reality in my case. Well my 'new name' still didn't manage to cease the confusion. I was quite upset by the whole thing. My parents tried to get my name put correctly but their efforts in vain. It may not seem like the problem that requires a serious debate by world leaders but it wasn't just the problem that my name was wrong ,teachers and students got mixed up between me and my like named friend. When we participated for competitions confusion followed. I had given up the battle to get my identity back. When we were in the 8th grade , we were put in different classes and my class teacher changed my name to what it should be. That is something I am very thankful for. No mistaken identities ever since. The name is Nair , Aishwarya Nair.

Chocolaty Obsession

Chocolate , chocolate, chocolate, need I say more? Sensory perception is the way we enjoy chocolate. We hear the crackle of the wrapper , we see the chocolate and admire the physical properties like shape and color, we feel its texture with our finger tips , the smell of chocolate may not be that strong in one bar of chocolate but I am sure if you visited Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory the smell would be a lot stronger and last but not the least the taste that is something the words of the English language could never describe. Well I may not be a shopaholic but I think I am a chocoholic. Its crunchy sometimes, creamy sometimes all I can say is the diversity of chocolates is like the diversity in human personalities. The color of chocolates sometimes white or different shades of brown depending on the chocolate. Very much like the color of human skin isn't it? Whether its dark chocolate , milk chocolate , white chocolate , chocolate with nuts and raisins we all like a different type of chocolate that's just like the way human interests are diverse. Chocolate in many ways replicates human beings. Wouldn't you agree?Well I have no plans to put a bar of chocolate below a microscope and later run tests to unveil the great secrecy behind the pleasure it brings to one and all instead I plan to enjoy it and let you enjoy it. Pop a piece of chocolate in your mouth whether you slice it with your teeth or let in melt away in your mouth there are no words to describe what you feel on your tongue and in your mind.

Predators

As I had mentioned earlier ,one of my favorite paring of words is buy one get one free. Recently , well it wasn't that recent , it was 2 months ago , I visited a 'buy one get one free' sale with my sister. The shop was huge and consisted of various brands. The first sight of the shop unleashed a strong desire in me - the desire to shop! I wouldn't call myself a shopaholic but I can't deny the fact that I take pride in bringing shopping bags home. There was plenty of variety in color and style but unfortunately not in size. Within some time , the shop began to resemble a cyclone struck area. Clothes of various hues hid the beautiful sheen of the wooden floor. And us merciless predators were reluctant to spare anything that catches our eye. I marched up and down in utter disappointment for whatever 'prey' I targeted wasn't a part of the offer. With my sister's help I found other 'preys' that eventually had to submit to me. Our basket full , we headed towards the trial rooms. It was quite a brilliant idea to only have 6 trial rooms in a shop so large. Many predators like me were lined up with their 'preys' in their baskets. All us predators ready to pounce when we heard a door unlock. The wait was worth it. We left the shop content with what we purchased. The predator inside me was satisfied and looks forward to the next hunt.