Shaq, Le Bron and Dwight Howard all stars dance-off

Shaq, LeBron, Dwight Howard All-Star Dance-Off

hilarious impromptu dance contest at East Practice during 2007 All-Star Weekend
Who would've thunk? :o
Black men can jump AND break it down.
Shaq totally killed it. Nice video vamp moves.Whaddya think?

I haven't been feeling upto making new posts of late..

Maybe the Holiday Season has gotten to me.
Check out my art for a change.I am a self taught Photoshop doodler...








Not too shabby eh?

Get rock hard abs at home

I have to admit, while I am stronger than most women my age and size, I used to struggle with leg-lifts because of my heavier than your normal pins.. and I hate to look like I am struggling in public.My trainer used to pretty much kill me with his abs-workout and leg-lifts routine until I struck a deal with him to do this at home, so he'd leave me alone at the gym until my abs got strong enough for me to do leg-lifts in the gym without looking like I was struggling.
This video is about abs-ercises you can do at home without investing in any kind of home gym equipment (provided you still believe in couches)
I skip the side crunches routine, since this tends to add muscle mass to the sides making the waist broader... I don't like that

Meet The World

Profound depiction of the problems of a few countries through their national flags by Brazilian artist Icaro Doria.Icaro is 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years.

Angola


Brazil


Burkina


China


Colombia


European Union


Somalia


United States

The cutest thing I saw today

An obligatory kiss pout.. awwww!

Random striking images I came across while browsing imageshack.us

My favorite pair of jeans is the one that I didn't buy.

This (now well worn) pair of jeans landed up with me by sheer serendipity.It was a giveaway from a close friend of mine, she'd bought this pair of jeans for herself, but couldn't even get down to removing its tags beacuse soon after, she got married and got pregnant.So I was at her place one fine day and she casually asked me if I mind wearing something of hers.I was reluctant because the garment concerned was a pair of jeans.Something I couldn't get right size-wise even if I bought it myself.What were the chances?
But I drooled as soon as I saw the label.( I cannot resist words like 'Dominator' and other valorous connotations of the sort)Almost like it was cut for me, calling out to me me to wear it!I tried it on with my mouth gaping open at how beautifully it fit me, well-fitting at the waist, comfortably snug at the bottom and the thighs, flaring out gently knee-onwards (I only wear boot-cuts).It seemed to hug my body, which I've never seen happen with non-lycra blend fabrics before.

My friend told me that in the inner circle of the women's apparel industry of India, this Mumbai based brand of jeans is celebrated for its amazing fits and hardiness.Well now I know why.

It fits better than any other pair of jeans I've ever bought myself. Life's little miracles! (ah well I am just gushing)

I heart aluminum foil

I talked about wrapping up empty beer bottles to make them into do-it-yourself vases in this post.
Some puritan snots may have rolled their eyes at the suggestion, aluminum foil being the corniest thing in the world to do home decorations with.I being a part time puritan snot should know.

Well seeing is believing.I am posting a picture of my 'home made' vases sitting pretty on my desk.
The shiny bottle goes perfectly along with my Rs. 30 velvet roses Very kitsch, very celebratory in its feel.






I know people who have and will pay 500 rs.upwards ($ 12 approx) for something which looks exactly the same.
This blog has a deeper undercurrent of serious economics, I am telling ya!

Fie Apple! get your music off your I-pod and onto your computer.

I had 3 GB worth of awesomelicious music on my I-Pod Nano, I had the same music on my computer as well.But I formatted my hard drive and off went my music collection (an unfortunate partition selection mix-up).Oh but ofcourse I had my music stored on my I-pod right? But what if I want to hear the music on my computer through my massive speakers, what if I want to burn someone a cd of the same or what if I wish to swap or combine two different music collections from my I-pod and PC respectively?

Convention says you can't do that EASILY (i.e unless you're a tech expert) for reasons best known to Apple

There are now gazillions of software (most of them open source and FREE) to get around Apple's tantrums.I have not tried them yet.But will sometime in the future and let you know what I think.



Meanwhile

If you are not willing to try out any specific software for the purpose of copying your I-pod music to your pc pr any other pc for that matter, this is the method that experts use.
You should give this a shot
How to transfer I-pod music to PC


If you are willing to download a little piece of completely FREE and Spyware-free utility.Go
HERE to free your tunes

What Bruce Lee and I have in common...well its mostly very cool facts about Bruce Lee, so don't run yet, read the whole post! :D

1. Bruce Lee’s Family Gave Him a Girl’s Name: "Little Phoenix" (My family gave me a hefty sounding dude's name.. I think)
Bruce’s family never called him "Bruce." They preferred to call him by his nickname "Sai Fon" or "Little Phoenix." It was a girl’s name, deliberately chosen by his parents because they believed that evil spirits did not like boys in the family (their firstborn was a son who died in infancy). So, by giving Bruce a girl’s name, they believed they could fool the demons into sparing his life!

Actually, "Bruce" was a name given by a nurse at the Jackson Street Hospital, San Francisco, where he was born (Bruce’s father was traveling with an acting troupe at the time). The nurse thought that giving the baby an English name would help avoid any confusion with his American birth certificate (yes, Bruce was an American by birth - he never had any other citizenship).
Hmm to think about it, there must have been some sort of of curse.Both Bruce and Brendan Lee died real young.

2. Bruce Lee was Part German
Bruce wasn’t pure Chinese - he was actually part German (his grandfather from his mother’s side was half German).I am of Turkish descent from way back, does that count?

3. Bruce Lee Never Lost a Fight
Well, actually he lost a fight only once in his life: when he was 13 years old. This loss actually prompted Bruce to learn martial arts from a Wing Chun master named Yip Man. After other students learned that Bruce wasn’t pure Chinese, they refused to let him train in their class. Yip Man had to train him privately. (Image: Portland Kung Fu Club)
Ditto, I always whoop azz

4. Bruce Lee was a Bad Student
Academics didn’t interest Bruce in the least. After primary school, Bruce entered La Salle College, an English-speaking boys’ secondary school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, where he often got into trouble. Bruce was expelled from La Salle for disruptive behavior.
Umm yeah.But since when did academics become a measure of genius?

Even after his parents moved him to a different school, Bruce kept on getting into street fights.
They can move me into a padded cell for all they want , I'll start punching the walls..

5. Bruce Lee was an Excellent Dancer and Boxer
Actually, Bruce studied dancing as hard as he studied martial arts: he was an excellent dancer who, at 18 years of age, won the 1958 Hong Kong Cha Cha Championship! Bruce was also a great boxer: he won the 1958 Boxing Championship - by knockout, of course.
Boxing is a form of dancing, nimbleness of the feet ,flexibility of the torso, ability to anticipate a partner/opponents moves intuitively make you a good dancer/boxer.

6. Bruce Lee was a Philosophy Major
Bruce wasn’t just all muscle and no brain. He attended the University of Washington, where he majored in philosophy with focus on the philosophical principles of martial art techniques. As you might imagine, Bruce supported himself in college by teaching martial arts. Later, Bruce dropped out of college to open his martial arts school.
Yeah I can philosophize too, real nice.

7. Want to challenge Bruce Lee? Just tap your foot on the ground!
After he got famous, a lot of people thought they could beat Bruce - they would walk up to him, tap their foot on the ground (symbolizing a challenge) and then proceed to attack him! Well… maybe not that literal, but Bruce’s popularity certainly attracted a lot nutcase trying to prove they’re better than him.
and all you have to do is just look at me the wrong way.

One day, while filming Enter the Dragon, an extra taunted Bruce Lee and challenged him to fight. The whole thing went on like this:

"This kid was good. He was no punk. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce’s brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart."

"I mean Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn’t touch him…Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent’s chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly."

Typical of Bruce Lee, after the fight he didn’t fire the extra - he actually gave his challenger lesson on how to improve!
thats so me, only if I deem my challenger worthy.So I guess Lee found the soon-to-be smashfaced dude, a worthy opponent

8. Bruce Lee was Strong
In 1964, Bruce was invited to a karate championship in Long Beach, California. There he performed his famous "One Inch Punch," where he would deliver a devastating blow from only an inch away, sending his opponent flying back!
I am very strong and I've been told that ...without the compulsory 'for a girl' phrase attached.*wink*




Bob Baker of Stockton, whom Bruce hit, said "I told Bruce not to do this type of demonstration again. When he punched me that last time, I had to stay home from work because the pain in my chest was unbearable."

… and Fast!
Most martial art films are sped up to make fighting scenes appear fast, but not Bruce Lee’s. His moves were too fast to be captured on the regular 24 frames per second film - so they had to film him at 32 fps, and run the film slower so you can see his moves.

9. Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris, who would win?
Here’s a clip of Bruce Lee fighting Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon. You can see how fast Bruce Lee moved … though it’s obvious that Chuck Norris would be immune to the One Inch Punch as his one-inch chest hair would absorb the punch with ease!


And the most bizarre Bruce Lee fact is this:

10. Bruce Lee’s Corpse Acted in his Final Movie!
Bruce Lee was filming Game of Death when he died unexpectedly. So what did the studio do? Well, they rewrote the script so Bruce’s character faked his own death to escape the mafia. Then they took footage from Bruce’s actual funeral - including close-ups shots of the open casket showing his embalmed face - and work that into the movie!
I hope the day doesn't come for me..


Source: Bruce Lee [wikipedia]

Holy Guacamole! Its Ghost Riderrrr!

A helmet shaped like a skull, how cool is THAT?

Santiago Chopper takes you to the highest realm of badassitude with a helmet shaped like a skull.

I am so sure Big J would so love that hehe

Oh and you can actually BUY it here

Uhmm

Hello kids and grown-ups.I've just put in a search bar in the sidebar, to search this blog's content.So if you are looking for a specific post, just type in the keywords and hit 'search'.Hope it makes navigation a bit easier.I am still working on making this blog better.Any constructive criticism and tips are more than welcome.

Inside the mind of a manic depressive

An entry from the weblog of a manic depressive

December 12th, 2007

My ability to engage in passive conversation has left me. I can’t trust my mind right now, it has become poison. There is no contentment behind my words. My eyes have become hypercritical and ultra particular. I must refrain from participating. I lose control too easily. It’s the momentum of thoughts and how they begin to snowball. I get carried away by the compulsion of my ideas. The confrontation pulsating through my body. One taste and I spiral into disregard for everything. Committed to a path that I will soon regret. Forever tainting my appearance to the world that knows so little about what is happening inside my head. I must stop. My future depends on it.

This blog struck me as poignantly candid.It is a real time documentation of a man's descent into the hell that manic depressive illness is.
Usually manic depressives are perceived by people as being plain mean, evil, manipulative and unpredictable.Its more like a human being trapped inside an invisible electrified cage struggling to get out, to reach out.Whosoever ventures forth to rescue him/her, gets a shock and since he/she cannot see the fence, he blames the victim for it.A manic depressive usually ends up isolating himself greatly, inspite of himself.
Even for mental health care professionals, friends and empathizers in general , it is easy to overlook the signs of this illness and brand the sufferer as a vicious person after having spent a little time with them.
This illness does not display overt signs usually congruent to other mental illnesses such as blatant incoherence or hysterical behavior.In my experience it is the super smart ones who are struck by this illness more often than not.Cursed by their genius.
I do not quite frankly know the take of the psychiatrist fraternity on this, (nor do I care since all of pharmaceutical industry is fuelled by pure greed and lack of even the most basic ethics or empathy for human life) but as far as I've seen MDI doesnot respond very well to drugs.

To those who do not know much about MDI.There's no better way to understand it than vicariously experience it through the mind of a manic depressive
Maybe you'll recognize yourself or one of your own family or friends in him.

If you or a loved one is suffering from MDI, here are some tips which seem to help
1)try and keep yourself busy doing what you love.
2)If you have artistic/creative leanings do not choose a lucrative career over what you'd rather be doing.
3) Cultivate humility and respect towards fellow human beings.Keep all your judgements (if you must absolutely pass them) objective.Realize that others are merely as human as you are.Keep yourself from falling into the cynicism trap.I have a rule that every human being deserves basic respect, regardless of what his or her position is monetarily, his/her age, level of education, level of intelligence or physical appearance.Feel one with all of humanity.every time you suffer, there are millions other who suffer with you, just like you or worse.
4)Indulge in some kind of charitable work.Actual participation, not just donations.
5) Have a reasonable view of yourself as well as the world.Avoid both hypercritical as well as megalomaniacal propensities.
6) Have a pet (unless ofcourse you hate animals which for me is impossible to do)
Do not write off owning a dog, unless you've actually had one.
7) Go for long walks and breathe in the sights with your eyes and remember nature is as mundane or exotic as your own mind.
8) Write a journal, this takes some mental steeling on your part.Write how you feel, bare yourself to the world.Don't put on a front you'd like people to believe in, write who you are.Write what makes you feel weak.We are usually at our best behavior when we are being watched

Most of us are in a gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars

Something really cool

A generation next paintbrush!



At first glance, it looks like your standard brush, but upon closer inspection you’ll find integrated LEDs, touch sensors, and a camera. This gadget basically “lifts up and captures photons”, allowing artists to draw with “special ink” picked up from their immediate environment.


Its like Photoshop, only it works in real time!
Check it out in action, up close and personal.



"Magic" Digital Video Brush - video powered by Metacafe

Drive Through

Calorie calculator

Well my gym instructor promised me that I'll knock off 10 kgs
on a 500 calorie- a-day diet within one month.I didn't have that much to lose in the first place, but I'd asked him nevertheless how I could knock off say 10 kgs in a month, just for fun.
I didn't bother telling him I was already on a 500 calorie diet.I knocked off only 4 kilos, 6 kilos off the mark, but pretty good nevertheless.The instructor was very pleased too, I asked him not to be "whoa you said it'll be 10 kilos!" (again for fun, you see I am that kinda gal)


But the point is that even a certified gym instructor is no fortune teller because.....

Calculating how many calories you need(to cut down?) per day to reach your desired weight in a given period of time is intricate math involving the parameters of your age, height, weight, body mass index, basal metabolism rate, current calorie consumption, required calorie consumption, gender, current level of activity, desired level of activity ....... whew wait a minute.

Make it simple! Let someone else do the dirty work (just this once) ==> HERE

Check out check out check out their snazzy how-many-calories-a-day-calculator

Anywhere but here.

This is a digression from the usual snappy stuff I blog about, but I just have to get it off my chest

Show me a gentleman on a crowded Delhi street and I'll show you a woman.


In this country, if you wish to live in peace either be born rich or a man.


So much for gender role reversal.I find myself playing the eternal gentleman on the street stepping aside for one man after another coming at me full steam ahead.

Dress an electric pole (or a boa constrictor) as a woman and they'll walk into it for sure.


Even Ms. Sheila Dikshit, the CM of Delhi took note of the burgeoning uncouth male immigrant population from neighbouring states.(I am taking the liberty to assume that 'burden on infrastructure' was the politest way she could make an allusion to the rape Delhi is being subjected to)
Apparently that wasn't polite enough, she had to publicly apologize for noting it in public.I assume that she said something that only a Balasaheb or a Narendra Modi could have gotten away with in this country (by the virtue of being MEN obviously)

These are strange times we live in.
Ms. Dikshit is embarking on a mission to ban the influx of diesel vehicles into Delhi in order to curb air pollution.
Something tells me that the proposition to curb diesel vehicle effluent pollution will be infinitely more welcome than curbing human pollution.Human pollutants in this nation have a symbiotic relationship with their benefactors, their patrons ; the uber-pollutants which threaten the very moral fabric and infrastructure of the country in their quest for the perks that absolute power affords.

I would not call myself a very well-traveled person, but there is one thing I know for sure about Delhi women.Unlike women from other metros and semi-urbanized towns of India, they are flowers in a perpetual half-bloom, stunted by caution, stunted by weariness and stunted by insecurity.

Their inherent blaze has been dimmed by the constant attack their dignity is under, on the street, sometimes in their own colleges, or even in their own homes.By the prying, lecherous male gaze, the leering, the completely unsolicited remarks, whose lewdness cannot be described for the want of superlatives, the groping, the pinching, the rapes.
They get their engineering degrees, their medicine degrees, post graduation degrees, post doctorals, their professorships, their honorary felicitations in front of a ten thousand strong crowd, the adoration of young pupils bordering on worship...
But do you know throughout the course of their education what is the one thing they all learn?
On the street, you are no professor, no doctor, no engineer.Just a piece of meat, dangling on a hook amongst thousands of hungry dogs and what you have between your ears does not matter, only what you have between your thighs.

So what do they do? They run.They run ...into matrimony, to the US, to Europe, or to Mumbai, they run into baggy loose garments to conceal their curves , and if they can afford none, they run into resignation.They flee to breathe, because here, there is no air.

Thank you!

So far I have had six votes from fabulous people who think nothing but the best of this blog.I am honoured.
Keep visiting.

And have a gumball.
go on, its on me!

Whoopie its random tip time!

1)A crumpled ball of aluminium foil makes an excellent scrubber for scouring blackened griddles, kadahis and pans.
(but please leave the teflon coated nonstick untensils alone, this method works well only on bare metal, covered with grime.)

2) Sprinkling a lot of chilli powder on ledges and other places where rats and mice are likely to enter from, discourages them like anthrax would discourage a human.But of course its not of any use if the place has a lot of human traffic, we want annoyed rats not sneezey bleary eyed humans.


3) horrendous empty beer bottles can make excellent arty looking vases if you wrap them up in aluminum foil. crumple the foil a bit before you wrap the bottle in it.
If the beer bottle is coloured, scrape off the label, wash it good and wrap a string of fake pearls around it, just loosely.It instantly becomes a trashy glam vase.To give your cheap trashy lightweight vases (yes I know you have them, everyone does) a steadier foundation, take some plaster of paris powder, dissolve it in water so its runny enough and carefully pour it in the vase till its about 1/5th full.Give it a day or so to dry and it won't topple over anymore when you put flowers in it.
Plaster of Paris, when once dry and set, is waterproof.

4) Toilet cleaning fluid or Drain-O, when diluted, is an excellent grease cutter.
Exercise great caution while handling it though as it is greatly corrosive.Wear thick latex gloves and if you are clumsy enough , those funky chemistry lab glasses too
Put the diluted fluid in a pistol spray gun bottle and spray on greasy kitchen tiles and other non porous surfaces.Leave there for a while and wipe off, it'll work much better than regular cleaning fluids.Again please wear latex gloves while using this and keep out of reach of children.
Don't use on flooring or granite or laminated countertops as its likely to discolour them
Soak stained chinaware in the same liquid and years of built up coffee ,tea and food stains will come off in minutes guaranteed! For best results soak for as long as possible.



This blog gives the finger to everyone who looks down upon household chores and seems to feel proud about employing another human being to pick up after them.There's nothing to be proud about paying another human being to clean your filth.Its degrading, both to yourself and to the other person.

Dignity of labor
Now and forever!
-A fabulous woman


Being a man is no excuse for being a useless spoilt slob.
-A Fabulous woman


The secret to being happy is not having the time to be unhappy.
-A fabulous woman


The fabulous woman is my mother :)

Quotes by Women, About Women, For Women

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."
~Clare Boothe Luce



Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge. ~Author Unknown


The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley Chisholm


I think it's about time we voted for senators with breasts. After all, we've been voting for boobs long enough. ~Clarie Sargent, Arizona senatorial candidate

*APPLAUSE!*

Never let the hand you hold, hold you down. ~Author Unknown


I wish someone would have told me that, just because I'm a girl, I don't have to get married. ~Marlo Thomas


Women are the only oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their opressors. ~Evelyn Cunningham


Feminism is the radical notion that women are people. ~Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler


I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman. ~Anaïs Nin


Man endures pain as an undeserved punishment; woman accepts it as a natural heritage. ~Author Unknown



I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament. ~Alanis Morissette, quoted in Reader's Digest, March 2000



I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay. ~Madonna Ciccone

*attagal!*


When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings. ~Julia Ward Howe



Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths. ~Lois Wyse



There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women. ~Madeleine K. Albright


The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes. ~Bella Abzug


I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing. ~Gloria Steinem


I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tunafish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock. ~Barbara Grizzuti Harrison


A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual. ~Gloria Steinem


The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. ~Lucretia Mott


To tell a woman everything she may not do is to tell her what she can do. ~Spanish Proverb


Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry. ~Gloria Steinem


can't be a rose in any man's lapel. ~Margaret Trudeau


No man is as anti-feminist as a really feminine woman. ~Frank O'Connor


Why is it that men can be bastards and women must wear pearls and smile? ~Lynn Hecht Schafren


Easy is an adjective used to describe a woman who has the sexual morals of a man. ~Nancy Linn-Desmond


Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, a good mother, good-looking, good-tempered, well-dressed, well-groomed, and unaggressive. ~Marya Mannes



It starts when you sink in his arms and ends with your arms in his sink. ~Author Unknown


I'm just a person trapped inside a woman's body. ~Elaine Boosler


We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters. ~Gloria Steinem


Many beautiful women have been made happy by their own beauty, but no intelligent woman has ever been made happy by her own intelligence. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966


One does not have to sleep with, or even touch, someone who has paid for your meal. All those obligations are hereby rendered null and void, and any man who doesn't think so needs a quick jab in the kidney. ~Cynthia Heimel, Sex Tips for Girls, 1983

(don't let them buy you a meal at all!)

For my girls, women, ladies!

The most phenomenal poem I've ever read.A B-12 shot for the feminine ego. Read this and feel the pride woman! I KNOW you relate to this!

PHENOMENAL WOMAN
by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies.
I say
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips
The stride of my steps
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please
And to a man
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees
Then they swarm around me
A hive of honey bees.
I say
It's the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth
The swing of my waist
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say
It's in the arch of my back
The sun of my smile
The ride of my breasts
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say
It's in the click of my heels
The bend of my hair
The palm of my hand
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

P.S :- YOU are the phenomenal woman and you are loved for the phenomenon you are.Thank you for visiting

Things to do right before you make the dash out of the house in the mornings

Show me a successful person and I'll show you a list maker.

Indian households are so severely dependent on maids and servants that even if for a day the maid/servant doesn't turn up, the entire machinery of the household seems to crumble into a disorganized heap.A little self sufficience can go a long way.Your house does not have to look like a pig sty even if you are a busy bachelor/bachlorette. Some families have full time servants and maids.I shake my head in disdain and disbelief at the idea of a person who is not a member of your family, having unrestricted access to all the corners of your house and your life 24 hours a day!

All you have to do is to reign the lazy impulse in and accommodate a little time in your daily schedule for general chores.



Here's a list of things to do before you go out of the house in the mornings.

Wake up atleast an hour before the time you usually leave the house.Make it 1.30 or 2 hours if you wish to include an exercise schedule (highly recommended)

The bedroom

Make the bed, straighten out the sheets, fold the comforters, blankets etc

Lay out the clothes you plan to wear for the day on the bed before you hit the shower.

The bathroom , right after you shower.

Take a stiff bristled, long handled brush and remove the hair and other gunk from the shower drain(yechh I know, but see what it turns to if you DON'T take care of it daily), Don't pick it out of the brush with your fingers! Use several layers of toilet paper or old newspaper to pick it out of the brush, and toss the crumpled paper into the bin.There! wasn't so hard was it?

Now wipe out the shower curtain, the mirror, the counter top around the washbasin.Keep a rag in the bathroom for this purpose.You can skip this step if you like having water droplet marks everywhere.
Collect all your dirty laundry and toss it in the laundry bag.Try and use separate laundry bags for coloured and whites.

If you wish you can flush the john, pour some toilet cleaning fluid in there and put the seat down, You can come back from work/school and scrub it at leisure later. (You can skip this step everyday, and leave it for just once a week)

It would be excellent if you get an small fan or an exhaust fan installed in your bathroom.Leave it on after you shower, alternatively you can leave the bathroom ventilator or window open. A dry bathroom is hostile to mildew and mold! (less tile scrubbing terror later)

Also keep a long handled wiper mop in the bathroom to quickly direct the water towards the drain.

If you get ready in the bathroom itself, put all the makeup, hairbrushes back in their place after you use them.You don't want to end up putting toothpaste instead of foundation on your face accidentally (which is what my mom would have done once, had I, the superhero(ine) wasn't there to take note and stop her in her tracks)

Ditto even if you get dressed in front of a dresser.

Note - Do not ever use a hair dryer or other hand held electronic appliances in the bathroom, no matter what!
Okay the bathroom's set , it may look tedious but its not, it takes no more than 5-10 minutes. sometimes even less


Off to breakfast table


After you are done having breakfast,

Wipe the crumbs off the dining table

Fold the newspaper back (had you been reading it) Ideally you can wash the breakfast dishes right then if you are having dry food for breakfast (eg. toast), but most people I know, including myself have a problem with doing dishes once they are all dressed up to go out,So you can leave the dishes etc soaking in a sinkfull of detergent water and come back and do the dishes later.By that time the detergent will have loosened the grime and grease on the dishes and they'll pretty much clean themselves.

Since you are in the kitchen already to put the dishes back might as well wipe off the kitchen top and the burners etc.This prevents any grease from accumulating in the long run and more importantly keeps pests away.



Last minute check before leaving the house-The Important Stuff
Turn the bathroom fan / exhaust off

Unplug the iron/hairdryers/microwave oven and other such appliances.Someone, especially the elderly and children may accidentally turn them on and forget to turn them off.Recipe for disaster.

I do not recommend leaving the computer on unattended while you're not home, even if you are fond of your massive movie downloads.

Check the cooking range and make sure its not on.Even if there's no flame, still make sure the knobs are turned to 'off' position.(put florescent paint dots on the 'off' position marker as well as the tip of burner knob so you can clearly see that they are aligned, hence OFF.. a good way to teach children how to turn the gas off as well), Gas leakages can cause potentially life threatening disasters!

To be on an even safer side, turn the knob on the gas cylinder off before leaving home.(Recommended! Small children absolutely love turning cooking range knobs around haphazardly)

Close all the open windows and doors, latch them good, lest some unwanted guests drop by!

Make sure you are wearing your work shoes, not the comfy bunny slippers you trot around the house in.

Also make sure you are wearing pants

and/or have the curlers out of your hair before you dash out.

Parents please note that inculcating a habit of undertaking chores in your children , however young they may be, is not cruelty.It is the greatest act of kindness you can perform towards them.Dependence is a curse, if babied enough as children, adults get stuck in the infantile mode, unable to pick up after themselves in the house and life itself.This attitude translates to other aspects of life as well, such as inability to accept responsibilities in relationships and at work, inability to cope with life's challenges etc.
and yes boys needn't be treated any different than girls.What a girl is taught in an Indian family, a boy must know too.That includes making round chappatis!






There you have it.Please credit me or leave a link back to this blog if you use this article anywhere.I read all the major dailies and women's publications in India, and a few from abroad so I'll know

And please comment if you found this article useful in any way to you.

Have a productive life!