Amruta's Writing Block!

Trying to find a balance between my need to communicate, to be in control, and to get over my writer's block – all to fulfill my dream of being the new kid (or old lady) on the "writing block"… Yeah, yeah, I do sarcastic comedy on the side! :D

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  • My first blogging award! :-) :-) :-)

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    Amruta

    Thank you so much Alyssa @ castlesineurope for nominating me.     It means so much to receive an award from someone you have never met, based only on what they read on your blog! Thanks, thanks, thanks, again! 🙂 The rules are that I must post the award on my blog, share seven random things about me, and nominate seven people for the award. So here are 7 random things about me: 1. I am a big, big, big Harry Potter fan; I also am a huge Paulo Coelho fan! 🙂 2. I love exploring places on foot, and I am very… Read more

  • My favorite romantic songs – Happy Valentine’s Day :)

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    Amruta

    Ahem! It is that time of the year again: Valentine’s Day, when love is supposed to be in the air! 😛 I am not a romantic person at all, but I am a big fan of Bollywood music. And Bollywood music makes romance really shine! So here’s a list of my favorite romantic Bollywood songs, in no particular order. Listen, view, and enjoy the YouTube songs! (But know that I don’t own the links :D) 1. Abhi na jao chhodkar This is one of the oldest romantic and really sweet songs! Jo khatm ho kisi jagah, ye aisa silsila nahin…… Read more

  • Their feelings, too!

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    Amruta

    Here is the loose translation of a Marathi poem I wrote a couple of years ago (You can find the original poem on my Marathi blog, here). It is based on the concept of irony, and me having to tell you this explicitly, is an ode to irony itself! **************************************** He was a little boy Innocent, and care-free I always want to be like this, Dreamily thought he. But alas, his teachers said You must learn the world’s ways… Can’t even educate their own children, About your parents, the world says! —                … Read more

  • My Bucket List :-)

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    Amruta

    Well, well, whether life’s short or long, and ambitions and dreams are high or low;  everyone, at some point or the other in their lives, thinks of a bucket list, and has one – on pen-and-paper or in their minds; said out aloud, or mused upon while solitary… I, too, have a list, and it is quite long, of course. Some items on the list are trivial and easy-to-achieve, while some are very important to me and hardly-achievable.Nevertheless, I do HOPE to achieve them sooner or later, before I kick the bucket! 😛 😀 [To those uninitiated, the term ‘bucket list’,… Read more

  • Crazy Dreams!

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    Amruta

    Got a really, really crazy dream last night! A boy says to Stewie (from Family Guy): “main tumhe markar tumhare tukde tukde kar dunga” (I will kill u and scramble u into pieces). Stewie replies:  “You can’t… I am already in millions of pieces! In fact you are actually UNscrambling me right now…  That’s how you can see me on your TV.  Bwahahahahahahaha (Stewie’s evil laugh) And then the camera panned out and showed the boy watching TV. Crazy, huh! 😀 Read more

  • Women empowerment begins with women’s efforts first! (And we can do it!)

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    Amruta

    For the past few days, the media has been abuzz with protests from various different groups about the increasing violence against women.  While the vote is split between those who want capital punishment and those who don’t; while people argue about whether or not death meant the end of woes for the brave girl; while the guy-bashing is at its prime; a thought still hounds me… What are we, as women, doing to fight against this violence and this terror? Is it enough to light candles? Is it enough to discuss furiously among ourselves? Is it enough to teach our… Read more

  • Happy New Year 2013!

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    Amruta

    Hey all readers, (again, if there are any left, that is! ) Wish you all a very, very happy new year! May you have a wonderful year, full of joy and prosperity and wisdom and laughter and fulfillment. The last year ended on a mixed note for me. It was a year of major changes, some good, many bad. I am hoping that this new year is one of major changes, too; and mainly good ones! Amen to that. 🙂 Now, a new year is a time for making resolutions! I love making resolutions, and although I don’t love breaking them,… Read more

  • The Sense of Smell, Part 1 – My Favorites

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    Amruta

    The smell of mud as it starts raining…ahhh…It enhances the wonderful pleasure that is called the rains.  I wish they could bottle it so that we could enjoy it year-long! This post about my favorite smells in the world couldn’t have begun with anything else. 🙂 The smells of new books and new raincoats…woww…they cannot be described in words and yet, are so irresistible. I used to love them as a child, and I love them as an adult! Coffee, well not the typical Indian mix-it-in-milk type, but actual freshly brewed coffee! The bitter-sweet aroma gives you a feel of… Read more

  • My Favorite Bollywood Rain Songs

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    Amruta

    [Update: 25th June 2021] After a very dry spring in Michigan, it has started raining again; and has made me very sentimental and dreamy and whatnot! So I thought of rehashing this old blog post of mine (from April 2012!). And as I’ve grown a bit since then, and my tastes have changed more than a bit, I also updated the post a bit lot. So, here’s a list of some of my favorite Bollywood rain songs, in no particular order. Disclaimer:  The links of  YouTube videos are not owned by me; I just found them on YouTube… 1. Saawan Barse Tarse… Read more

  • I so love The Hindu ads! TOI – are you listening?

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    Amruta

    I have been reading The Times of India ever since I was a child. In fact, back then, it was considered imperative to read the TOI to improve your English. I lived in Goa, and all we had access to was the Mumbai edition of TOI which hit the stands in Goa only in the afternoons, which meant that the newspaper delivery guy delivered the TOI a day late.  Yet, we unfailingly read the day-old newspaper everyday. Later, my parents also began paying the newspaper delivery guy, who lived right next to our house, to deliver the newspaper to us… Read more

  • New beginnings!

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    Amruta

    Hello all! Now, as cliched as the title of this blog may sound, I am definitely going to create something new here, from now on… Confused about the abrupt beginning ( if there is something like that!) ? Well, that is because I was taken aback after finding out that I last blogged on the 20th of July 2010, which is one and a half years ago! Whoaaa!!! And more so, because I just checked my draft posts section, and there are 36 incomplete fellas sitting tight there! For a minute I began to wonder whether I have lost my… Read more

  • Inception! Fascinating! (No spoilers)

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    Amruta

    Have you ever been out wandering around the country, with lush green pastures and a cool blue sky to keep you company? Have you been so engrossed while watching the trees and birds and flowers that you lost your way but still did not panic, as you were simply happy taking in the calmness of your surroundings? After a long long while, has the feeling of being lost registered finally? Have you craved to get back, only to see a thunderstorm approaching you with all its ferocity? Have you hidden in the first hut you laid your eyes on, and… Read more

  • I felt ashamed of myself today…

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    Amruta

    Picture this incident – The driver of a PMPML bus that was quite vacant, shut both the doors of the bus at an overcrowded Sanghvi Fata bus stop, so that people couldn’t board it. A boy, 15-16 years old, protested and asked for the door to be opened. The conductor did not listen, and barked that there was another empty bus behind. As we had already guessed, there was none! As this bus tried to make way through the heavy traffic, 4-5 ppl including the boy, again caught up with it, and began yelling that they had been waiting for over an hour there,… Read more

  • Where the mind is without fear!

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    Amruta

    Just remembered my school prayer..thought you all would appreciate it too… It is an extract from the great Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel-winning Geetanjali…Here it goes… Where The Mind is Without Fear WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is… Read more

  • It’s time to take a stand! We are no longer the “third person”!!

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    Amruta

    A 14 year-old girl from Patil Estate slum got raped by fellow slum-dwellers last month. She was coming back home from work when the incident happened. After this incident, the slumdwellers have been afraid of sending their daughters to school… What do you all have to say about this? “Oh yes, we hear about rape cases all the time!!”, or “Tch tch, how unfortunate!” , or “It’s a bad bad world out there!”, and even “Why did the girl venture outside ? Was she going to meet her boyfriend??”? Someone slightly angrier shall also say, “The rapist should be burnt alive,… Read more