Let me begin with 2 wise SMSs:

Change does not happen when circumstances improve
Change happens when you decide to improve your circumstances

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A wife will always forgive and forget
But she will never let you forget that SHE had forgiven and forgotten

Let me confess beforehand that I do not know all sides of this whole Telangana issue. However, as a common Indian, it hurts to see people asking for separate states so many years after independence. And this has set a dangerous precedent. Now any regional political force wanting a separate state can go on a hunger strike. Will the government give in every time?

And then the next disturbing question – will we finally go the USSR way?

Truly, I couldn’t have resisted this one. :-) Looks like the Tiger isn’t out of the Woods yet – because many of his ladies are still crawling out of the “Wood”work ;-)

A friend forwards absolute gems of Urdu poetry so you have him to thank if you like the following ones:

फिर इतने मायूस क्यों हो उसकी बेवफाई पर फ़राज़

तुम ख़ुद ही तो कहते थे के वो सबसे जुदा है


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कुछ धड़कता तो है पहलु मे मेरे रह कर

अब खुदा जाने याद है तेरी या दिल मेरा

I will sign off for today with another forwarded SMS:

क्या रखा है अपनी जिंदगीके इस अफ़सानेमे ग़ालिब
कुछ गुजरी यार बनानेमे, कुछ गुजरी यार भुलानेमे

Red Sand - by R. Karl Largent

To be perfectly honest, the list of the author's previous books was odd - Red Wind, Red Skies, Red Rain and Red Ice. In fact the author seems to have covered all the basic elements except Fire :-)

Still, I picked up Red Sand - by R. Karl Largent - because as usual the story at the back seemed very interesting. It begins with the discovery of a young woman's dead body. Then the Russian State Head who has come for his first-ever visit to the US is assassinated as soon as he steps out of the plane - in full view of the Secret Service guys. These events are somehow related to a trainload of state-of-the-art Russian nuclear ICBMs that are being shipped to Odessa for the disarmament program. And there is a strong possibility that whatever is on that train is not exactly state-of-the-art!

Commander T.C. Bogner doesn't have too much of time at his disposal. What he has, however, is a seemingly impossible task of stopping this train before it reaches its destination and to get a passenger off it.

If you are looking for action, you will get it in this novel set in the coldest part of what was once the USSR. And though I am not able to put my finger to the exact reason, I don't think I will reach out for another book of this author!

Time for some forwarded message:

जाने कैसे जी लेते है लोग यादोंके सहारे फराज
मै तो कई बार मरता हू एक याद आने पर

I watched Surat episode of "चख ले इंडिया" with great interest and then cringed when a chef put Broccoli while preparing ऊन्धिउ. Of course he claimed that he was making "Active ऊन्धिउ" - meaning it was full of anti-oxidants. But if you ask me, I would rather chew on raw Broccoli than find it in ऊन्धिउ :-(

The act of tinkering with traditional dishes to make them healthy should be made punishable by law :-)

Team India made my day today and God knows how rare that is :-) But we gave Lanka an Innings defeat again, won the series 2-0 and in the process have become #1 in Test Rankings of ICC - after playing Test Cricket for 77 years. What better way to start a Sunday than on Cloud Nine :-)