Wednesday Weirdnesses #1

I've decided to start a weekly post celebrating the eccentricities of life. So every Wednesday, starting today, I will present to you one hand picked Weirdness from across the globe.

For today I present a Weird Word.

Presenting to you,  slubberdegullion.

As if the world wasn't short of invective already, slubberdegullion means a filthy, slobbering person, or "a slobbering and dirty fellow, a worthless sloven."

Its etymology doesn't seem to be consistently agreed upon. Slubber seeming to come from the english 'slobber' and the second part likely from French goalon "a sloven." It could also apparently be "cullion, an old word for a testicle (it’s related to French couillon and Spanish cojones), which by the sixteenth century was a term of contempt for a man."

There you go, one more way in which to show your wrath to the world outside. And probably not have them know it!!

Happy Wednesday !

Cafe Aarogya

This might be the first time I am doing a review of sorts. I don't usually care enough to review too many things, [sheepish] but this place deserved mention. This is a place that I happened to chance upon today. I'd gone to Jyothi Nivas College, Koramangala (Bangalore!) to see Russell Peters in action. Looked around for a quick bite before the show started, and happened to find this place called Cafe Aarogya.

The website tells you a lot, but I can give you an idea. It is in very simple terms, a healthy food place. Tasty food with healthy ingredients.

I went with a couple of friends. I had walked out of the restaurant below because they didn't serve sandwiches.  Then we decided to try our hand here. No sandwiches => disappointment. A different sort of menu with exotic and 'healthy' sounding dishes => some disappointment again. But we decided to try it out. 

We were greeted by the store manager who explained to us that all the food is made with healthy ingredients, cooked with olive oil only, a minimal amount. We opted for a soup (Tomato and Basil) which was very impressive. It had just the right touch of spices. We also went for the whole wheat aloo paratha with Low Fat curd, again very nice, with zero oil as far as we could see. Also the Corn Sheekh kabab, which they serve with green chutney - tasty! I also tried low fat chocolate smoothie :) which is made from unsweetened cocoa powder, palm sugar, skim milk and other healthier alternatives.

Overall, we were a very satisfied three. I'm very impressed at the effort that has gone into experimenting and coming up with a fabulous array of dishes that are definitely low on oil and tasty. Their food is prepared without heavily processed and refined foods, sugar, dalda or vanaspati, soda or artificial substances/alternatives, preservatives, artificial flavourings. 

This place is like a heaven for the health-conscious or even slightly-health-aware. Strongly recommended. Check out their website to know more about them.

The.. brain.. hath.. stopped

It's not working anymore!!

Now, now, those who would merrily like to take this opportunity to inform me that it never did in the first place, calm down. Remember those merry old days when I would use the blog to say the silliest of things without inhibition? I would tell you about sneezes and commuting, God and slimming advertisements. Sigh, even that isn't happening anymore!

Have I stopped finding joy at the silly nothings?
Hell, have I grown up ??

I actually do have some things to tell some people, but unfortunately I cannot tell everyone, so this blog is not the place for it :(

But then, what do I do to revive the rusting grey blob resting within my skull? It does exist. It does rest there. No arguments.

My dear readers, i beg of you, save me, save the blog.

COMMENT!!

Well actually, just tell me what to do to get me ideating again! (Ideating, hmm, isn't that a weird sounding word?)

Help!!

The mystery..

..of the perfect pair of jeans..(or genes, for that matter.)

This time I'm even willing to settle for near perfect. :) Then why does it elude me so...?

I find it hard to believe that the makers of this fashion product do not cater for the masses. Why else could any pair that looks half decent otherwise, not look half decent when you well.. wear it?

And if they do cater for the masses, I find it hard to believe that 'the masses' have such perfect bodies. I mean, take a look around. Its not all lovely.

And therefore.. shouldn't more effort be going into making the 'imperfect body' jeans? Or am I so far removed from the average? :( That's so depressing I'm going to go indulge myself some more. Chocolate anyone?

Getting. Wanting. Needing.

There was this song, not so long ago, that caught my attention with these lines: I want you, I don't know if I need you.

As I write this today, I am overwhelmed by instances of us not being happy with what we have anymore. A friend recently said this was because we had too many choices. I said the availability of options should make us feel empowered. He said it only leaves more room for dissatisfaction. Meh, glass half full, half empty, thought I.

Life wasn't supposed to be this hard, was it? I envisioned myself years ago having to make a few choices at different points in my life, and making them easily enough. You can roughly translate this post as "Coming to terms with reality." :)

But seriously, I speak not merely for myself, but also close friends that are a part of my life. All of us have, in some way or the other, well within our reach, that, which is close enough to what we always wanted, but is not really "it". And as a result of that, we are not willing to settle. Is this the arrogance of youth? (The grey-haired wise men do not think as we do.) Or is this the type of persona, that we got conditioned to grow up into? Will it change? Will we settle once we hit the rough spots? Or will our adamance pay off?

And do we always know ourselves well enough to know if what we want is really what we want?

Relative perception, ladies and gentlemen, the killer. Reduces you to knowing nothing about anything. At all.

The cat got killed.

I read an article that told me how to be successful.

It said I should know something about everything.

Then it pointed me to an article on how to do that.

That article said I should be curious about everything I come across.

Then it pointed me to an article about how I can cultivate curiosity.

Curiously enough, I was curious.

That article told me that the way to cultivate curiosity
In many many many words was
To be curious.. (who'd have thunk!)

Then it pointed me to another article.

I wasn't curious any more.

Sulk and Grumble

Friend tells me my blog is a mess. No he wouldn't insult the writing (right at my face.) He was merely pointing at the splattering of unnecessary thingummies on the blog page. Ironically it started when I said I was a messy person, in general, and he said yeah, look at your blog. Hence the erstwhile l-o-a-d-e-d aMUSEings blog page has been stripped down for a newer lighter b-o-r-i-n-g look.

And then I grumble grumble mumble nevertheless.

That's the thing.. So how come we can't take criticism when its not even something we're unaware of! I've never been the gracious acceptor, Mommy knows that very well. Its not a tragedy either, but well, at least I can write about it.

Why does one twitch when someone else points to you what you already know? Ah its this person who goes by the name of Ego, that sits pretty in the way of what is potential betterment.

Note to friend: Do not fret. Do not take me seriously either. Now try viewing it, don't you tell me its crashing again. And again.
And yeah, see me as the bigger person, who did the right thing. :)
Still grumbling though.