Month: December 2017

CFFC: Some Quick Quirky Ones

Just in time for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – well I’m going to pretend I am anyway 😉 A challenging challenge as usual – photos have to have the letter Q in them and the grey cells got ticking only just now 😀 For quite a while I felt all hazy and unclear, and couldn’t see the way ahead

Opaque landscapeMuch like this opaque foggy or is it smoggy landscape

BouquetThen as the mist cleared I found this bouquet of trees – isnt it a lovely arrangement?

EquineRejuvenated we went to the Kolkata museum and admired the equine sculpture, though I do wonder why it looks so sad. Perhaps it is just exhausted, like I was

ConquerAfter the archeological exhibits I gave up and collapsed on the bench unable to even conceive of conquering the rest of the museum.

Queen of storeWhile shopping we were lucky to catch a glimpse of the store Queen. Though as you can see she is very camera shy and kept shaking her head. Or was it my hand in such exalted company?

Quick chaiTired and desperate for a quick cuppa chai we ordered it. Did you know tea comes in this beautiful paper flask? 🙂

Square boxStarving, we ordered dinner soon after and it arrived hot spicy and delicious in a square box 😀

QuicheDesperate for some quiche we tried calling Hogg’s Room but sadly they didnt deliver from Kolkata to Mumbai 😉

QuotaTaking inspiration from these two blissful canines we too decided to call it a day and catch up on our quota of sleep.

Quirky clock

But before I take your leave I must show you this quirky clock. Can you tell the time?

Thanks for visiting and do let me know in the comments how many rules were flouted in the making of this post 😀

 

SPF: A White Wedding

220-12-december-17th-2017

A White Wedding

Words: 200

It was the most exciting Christmas ever, pretty much like her tenth birthday when she had got a puppy and a bicycle. And now after 25 years, her prayers had been answered with not one but two suitors.

“So Ryan or Dave?” Sheila asked.

“Dave is just a friend!” Fiona protested.

“Who loves you…”

“But I love Ryan,” Fiona wore a dreamy look. “I can’t believe that someone like Ryan could ever…”

“So you are grateful and overwhelmed with his attention?”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Seemed like it to me.” Sheila shrugged.

“Why do you say that?”

“Here you are at the ripe old age of 35, a self-made entrepreneur, no expectations of getting married ever, and in comes Ryan, the dashing handsome rake that you’ve always been warned about…”

“Yes I know!” groaned Fiona. “Dave is safe while Ryan is like skydiving. My brain says one thing and my heart another. It’s a tough call.”

“If you had to choose one, the puppy or the bike, what would you choose?”

“Mr. Pups for his unconditional love. The bike gave me a lot of grief. Even broke my leg.”

“Well, there’s your answer.”

 

“I do.” Fiona smiled mistily at Ryan.

 ***

Written for the Sunday photo fiction – a story in 200 words or less. Thanks to Alistair Forbes for hosting the challenge and and photo prompt. To read the other stories inspired by this prompt click here.

Just 4 Fun # 68

GM

and of course

Cold

wish you all a very happy brrr winter 😀 Looks really cool and chilled out right? 😉 Tough for those who are getting married and those having to attend weddings. Fashion usually wins over weather blues. But then again some prefer to cover their bases. Even if the entire world is watching

Vsocks

The highly popular actress-cricketer at their wedding – don’t miss Virat Kohli’s socks!!! I personally found it rather cute 😀 And I cannot resist another one on them

Coli

Good one huh? 😀 And here’s a few on changing times

1980

Guilty! 😦

Selfie

Sadly true…

Wifi

Again guilty – what about you?

Play

This one doesnt apply to me – I was always a homebody, a bookworm. What about you?

Moving on to some interesting and informative news:

NewsJust in case you weren’t quite sure about the gender involved…

houseLooks like the architect is fond of ships 😀 What do you think?

Okay that’s it from me this week people – have a super week or what’s left of it anyway 😉

Hope you found something that you enjoyed – none of which are mine by the way. I found them on the internet or received them as forwards and am just keeping the fun going.

And do let me know your favorite – or better still post your own and leave me a link I will be along in just a bit.

A Brand New Coiffure

It’s time for Sunday Trees and this week I present one with an elegant and unique hairdo. In an earlier post, Theresa had suggested that “the tree is a woman wearing a lovely hairdo.” I agreed but only as an afterthought because I had already found my own favorite coiffured lady 😀

But before you scroll down for a glimpse of her, do visit Theresa’s post on two special trees who sent me messages, which T was kind enough to home deliver right across the seven seas – amazing isnt it?! Thank you once again Theresa 🙂

Did you see them? Okay now you may scroll down 😀

weird strange crazy hairdo heart hairstyle

😀 Taken from here.Oh another one inspired from animals.

 

Hmmmmm... *Animal hair styles?

Time for some hairdos inspired by trees don’t you think? Here’s one for inspiration – and a true original

 

Hairdo

So which one is your favorite? Do let me know!

 

WPC: Sky High

The Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge this week is Ascend, literal or otherwise. I opted to share one that has languishing on my desktop for quite a while now but is deserving of a larger audience. I often view it just to get a high albeit with a twinge of envy. I wish I could have seen it for myself.

Mini sky
Photo taken by my niece at Lyon

Nature in one of her moods 😉

 

CB&W: Howz That!

Yeah yeah I am late again 😦 But hey! Better late than never right? 😀 And I have just the right set for Cee’s last week’s Black and White Photo challenge: Houses. But then I may be prejudiced so I’ll let you be the judge – free and fair!

Got your wig on? Let’s go, I mean scroll 😉

42This house (okay building – Cee did say we could be creative 😉 has its head in the clouds. It’s in Kolkata and called The 42. Apparently they wanted to build 65 floors but were denied permission (as it would be too close to heaven?) and restricted it to 42. 😀

OyoI snapped this photo in Bengaluru for the reflection – looks really cool doesnt it?

Punascha

This is an open terraced house Punsacha (once again) at Santiniketan where the Nobel laureate Guru Rabindranath Tagore penned his immortal pieces. I was entranced by the idea of windows on the side walls of the open terrace. But then it was probably put there for the rainy days when the terrace would be covered with tarpaulin.

SantiniketanAnother house at the Santiniketan complex which I preferred to admire from afar 🙂

TreeH

Kolkata is a city of contrasts much more than any other metropolitan city in India, except perhaps Mumbai. And scenes such as this one is liberally interspersed between swanky new state of the art buildings.

TreeH2

We were bewitched by the house or should I say the invisible residents of the house?

TreeH3

Ruins

Was it not

just yesterday

when you

cut me down

to build your empire

upon my ruins?

 

The Genie

lampost-s-pier-sandra-crook

The Genie

Words 100

 “Dadu, what did you get from the haat*?” His grandchildren crowded him.

Snehlata cracked another areca nut and spoke through a paan* stuffed mouth, “More junk for this junkyard.”

Ignoring her, he held up his treasure.

“What is it?” Rina wondered.

“I know!” Deep’s eyes sparkled. “That’s Humpty Dumpty. They put him together again!”

“No.” Dadu coughed. “It’s Aladdin’s lamp.”

“Rubbish!”

“Didu’s right,” Rina spoke hesitantly, “it doesn’t look…”

“They fooled us all these years.” Dadu spoke in hushed tones.

“Call the Genie Dadu,” Deep urged.

“Genie!” Dadu coughed. “Bring my inhaler!”

Snehlata held out the inhaler. “Dinner is served.”

 ***

*Haat: Local market in rural areas in India

*Paan: a preparation combining betel leaf with areca nut among other ingredients such as tobacco. It is chewed for its stimulant and psychoactive effects and prevalent in India since the 3rd Century A.D.

Written for the Friday Fictioneers – a story in 100 words or less. Thanks to Rochelle for hosting the challenge and Sandra Crooks for the photo prompt. To read the other stories inspired by this prompt click here.

Just 4 Fun # 67

Image result for i'm late rabbit

I could have pretended that this week didn’t happen, what say? 😉 But the truth is I was busy

BodyShopping and body building 😉 😀 And now post travel blues, megrims and migraines not to mention a pile of office and homework…

In other news, it is getting cold and apparently some people are suffering from brain freeze:

On a cold winter morning, a wife calls husband and says the car wont start and the dashboard shows the pic of a person sitting on a toilet seat. What should I do? Worried the husband asks the wife to send a pic of the dashboard which she dutifully does:

IMG-20171207-WA0002I guess she didn’t charge her neurons too well 😉 Or she shouldn’t have gotten up in the morning

Sleep

And health (readers of Moonshine hope you understand!) But with maturity comes wisdom…

His hersWisdom on how to ensure perfect harmony and marital bliss at home 😀

By the way any Wodehouse fans? I came across this fabulous list and just had to share

Vintage Wodehouse

“He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.”

“He had the look of one who had drunk the cup of life and found a dead beetle at the bottom.”

“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

“She looked as if she had been poured into her clothes and had forgotten to say ‘when’.”

“I always advise people never to give advice.”

“A melancholy-looking man, he had the appearance of one who has searched for the leak in life’s gas-pipe with a lighted candle.”

“There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine.”

“It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A.B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column.
He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn’t.”

“And she has got brains enough for two, which is exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.”

“When I see lovers’ names carved on trees, I don’t think it’s sweet. I only wonder how many people bring a knife on a date.”

“At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.”

Hilarious aren’t they? My favorite is A.B. Spottsworth (I think!) which one is yours?

Okay that’s it from me this week people – have a super week or what’s left of it anyway 😉

Hope you found something that you enjoyed – none of which are mine by the way. I found them on the internet or received them as forwards and am just keeping the fun going.

And do let me know your favorite – or better still post your own and leave me a link I will be along in just a bit.

PS: Apologies to readers of Moonshine. I hope to be back on track from tomorrow (fingers-crossed).

 

The Freeloader

Hello! I am back – anyone miss me? Ah well neither did I – so there! 😉 I have been busy traveling and I did lots of shopping – tree shopping 😀 I saw scores of grand aging graceful and otherwise eye catching trees. But there’s one (or should I say two) that stand out among them all.

20171208_163623.jpg

The outer tree is a deodar tree and the inside one is the jarul tree (Lagerstroemia speciosa giant crape-myrtle, Queen’s crape-myrtle, banabá plant for Philippines, or Pride of India). At least that is what a local guide told us. But I am not really convinced, especially about the deodar tree which grows in the Himalayan regions and has needle like leaves. Perhaps it is the sal tree? Do you recognize the trees? Ferdi? Anyone?

But these are technicalities and as the bard said what is in a name? Especially when there is so much to see, marvel and wonder over.

Can you see how the jarul split the mother tree? And that despite being split she continues to nurture her protege? Did you notice how the jarul tree was cut away from its base and roots but yet it continues to grow deriving nourishment, sustenance and support from the parent tree.

A marvelous example of nature’s beauty, tenacity, and capacity to survive against all odds isnt it?

Linked to Becca’s Sunday Trees

20171208_163855.jpg

No one

can save

me

from you

not even

me

SPF: Laughter the Best Glue

219-12-december-3rd-2017

Laughter the Best Glue

Words 201

“Happy fiftieth.” She placed his morning cup of tea on the table beside him as he sat bundled up in front of the heater.

“You’re losing it woman.” He grunted. “I was born in summer.”

“What!” she halted in the act of sitting down. “Are you…?” she looked at him worriedly before easing down on the chair opposite him. “Very funny!” she huffed.

“Aha!” He chortled. “You thought I had lost it.”

“Aren’t you going to wish me too?”

“Fifty years?” he mused. “Such a long time yet seems like yesterday doesn’t it?”

“You were busy plotting ways to keep me jumping through the hoops.”

“I have been difficult haven’t I?” He looked at her. “What made you stick around?”

“Why did you?” she parried.

“I asked first.”

“Never mind,” she sneered loftily, “I know why.”

“Because I love you?”

“Nonsense! Because you are lazy!” She twinkled. “And you hate any sort of change.”

“But you revel in change.” He peered at her over his glasses. “So what’s your excuse?”

She shrugged. “Same difference.”

“How?” He frowned. “You like change…”

“And you are so unpredictable.” She dropped a kiss on his shining pate. “Besides you always manage to make me laugh.”

 ***

 Written for the Sunday Photo Fiction – a story in 200 words or less. Thanks to Alistair Forbes for regularly hosting the challenge (even if I dont always manage to rise to the bait) and the photo prompt. To read the other stories inspired by this prompt click here