Roses Are Red......

The other day i was writing about the march snow in chicago...n the same day i happend to this CLICK event for April 2009.I might be relatively new to the blog world but i thought of giving it a try.....so here i am submitting an entry for it......

Spring, spring is coming soon,

Grass is green and flowers bloom,

Birds returning from the south,

Bees are buzzing all about,

Leaves are budding everywhere,

Spring, spring is finally here!

"April prepares her green traffic light,and the world thinks,'GO' "-Christopher Morley

Every season has its own beauty,be it the snow in winter,amazing color's of the leaves in autumn,beautiful flowers in spring etc.....But out of all my favorite was always spring,where i get to see the beautiful flowers,butterflies,birds....Its so refreshing to see it after many months of white snow .....which turns the whole place into black white.

Spring brings not only a fresh lease of life to the plants and birds but also to us.....because we start with a new year (ugadi).....which inturn brings us new hope ,new begining.....Since spring signifies color....I thought of submittimg this "Basket weave cake with red roses"..

That's a choclate cake with chocolate frosting topped with red fondnat roses.As said in my earlier post ,i made that for valentines day...becoz the two things that go hand in hand for valentines day are Chocolate n Red colour so i incorporated both of them into my cake .

But apart from that the cake had bright red roses which signifys spring as well .So thats the reason for me sending it to this event .

Roses signify a lot of things but a red rose always signifies love....Lets all start this new year (ugadi) by sharing this love with one another and make this world a better n worhty place to live in.

IF...?????????

After a nice full and heavy meal on Ugadi day,that afternoon i happened to this good telugu movie called "Happy Days" on Tv.I have seen this movie several times before.....n i was like each time i see it...i think ....is this movie trying to remind me of something ?.......N then there was the answer Yes.....It reminds me of something....so what is it...

For those of u who didnt see the movie It is about a few friends n their life in an Engineering college.....Apart from this what caught my attention was a poem which one of the friends had to byheart n recite it back inorder to impress a English Lecturer.......It was this that caught my attention...I have heard it somewhere.....Where ? Where did i first hear it .....??

Any Guesses?????

Till my 8th standard i studied in a catholic school St.Josephs in vizag ,It had a ICSE syllabus n from 7th or 8th std we had a book on poems it was called "Flights Of Fantasy".....n Two poems that made a place in my mind were IF---Rudyard Kipling n Daffodils-Williams Wordsworth.

Two very good poets i am found of.

IF---??????

No matter what ever we do in our daily lifes,everything starts with a If....What if i do this? What if i do That? What if my boss doesnt like it? What if this will happen? etc etc etc.......They are so many if's and but's in our life.....thats because man is a social being...we need to socialise with people wherever we are...So it's not always What we like to do..its sometimes What we can do for others...

Oh my god thats a lot a Philosophy from a girl of my age.......but thats ok....it did one good thing ,it reminded me of my school days...While in school i was staying in a hostel and i can say i had the best time in life with all my friends..We were a bunch of naughty friends...

IF---Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

There is a lot to learn from this poem,it tells us how we should be . Its one encourageing poem we can look at when we lose anything....

If" illustrates the practice of self-confidence and expresses that, in being confident, the reader must have the courage to face unpopularity and disagreement.It helps to find a balance between private ideals and public action, warning against making the machinations of the mind an end in itself. In other words, to be a leader an individual must be able to put private dreams and philosophies to public action.

It tells us how a individual should regard both profit and loss, neither of which is permanent.It shows that model leadership requires action that is based on a worldview that is complex, multifaceted, and ultimately inclusive.

It tells people to work against favoritism and work toward regarding men with equality.By emulating the characteristics of a model leader, an individual can achieve "manhood." That's how all of us should be .

Let it Snow.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

March 29th 2009 when i woke up this morning and started brushing my teeth ,i heard my hubby shouting.... Ammu .......come fast come and have a look at what happened!!!!!.I was like what,what must have happened so early in the morning....then i came out n he was standing in the balcony next to our living room.

....and i was like WOW!!!!!!! thats so pretty.I was so surprised to see snow all over the trees and from between the branches i could see the lake flowing calmly and two ducks having a nice swim in it....n there was our apt office just near the lake appearing like a small cottage with snow all over it...My idea of a perfect dream home...I was so happy n excited...that i didnt find any words to express it .....but here is how exactly i felt like..... in the word's of Billy Collins


Snow Day by Billy Collins:-

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,

and beyond these windows
the government buildings smothered,schools
and libraries buried,
the post office lost under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea and listen to the plastic radio
on the counter,as glad as anyone to hear the news .

And now I am listening hard in the grandiose silence of the snow.

Thats how exaclty i felt ....

Seeing the snow i became a bit lazy and enjoyed the calmness for sometime,then got romantic heard some good old hindi kishore kumar songs,with a nice cup of masala tea and masala dosa.I know ur mouth is watering as well...

Its nice that once in a while we get to enjoy such beautiful things of nature....forgetting all our worries,responsibilitys.....etc from the regular hustle and bustle of life.The last time i felt such a peace of mind was for fall when we to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for fall....n went to some beautiful spots like Cades Cove,Clingmans Dove,The blue ridge parkway....

They were simply superb...I never get tired going to places like that over and over again....which are very scenic be it the beaches like Bora Bora(Tahithi),Santorini(Greece),Maui(Hawaii),Bahamas etc or the mountains like Smokys or Yellow Stone national parks, or The snow clad Alaska n Swizerland......Of course those are my dream holiday spots

So back to what we were discussing ......this sunday i was so excited to see the snow,that we went to the forest preserve nearby....we took our camera as well....I Fell in love with the nature so much ,that my camera started clicking...CLICK!!!...CLICK!!!!....CLICK!!!!.I am not a professional photographer with the SLR cameras......But i felt like one big photographer with just slim n sleek olympus camera.For more clear photos u can follow this link

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/amukta.ch/MarchSnowfallInChicago?authkey=Gv1sRgCJzz5ML0-Lb_dw#

All the photos are in there original colors,except for one or two which were processed......the moment i stepped out it was all black n white......all the trees appeared black n snow was white.....that must be the reason why people say "As White As Snow"

And so u can see some of my good work in all the above photos .We were walking in this forest preserve in the parking lot taking some photos ....n my hubby pointed his finger towards the trees....n there i could see a family of deer ,i think 4 of them 2 big with beautiful antlers n 2 small ones sitting on the white snow staring towards us.....that was a very good sight ....but i couldnt capture it in my camera as they were too far....n they didnt stay there for long..

So that was One beautiful day in chicago suburbs....wihtout the regular complaints from why its so windy n cold in chicago.....We will surely miss it wherever we might be.