Spirited Start to my Day

There is nothing more relaxing than to be able to read the Sunday newspaper in total leisure, without worrying about being late to work or elsewhere.

I'm forced to get up early even on a Sunday, because my housemaid is an early bird. She rings my bell at 7 A.M sharp! How i loathe to get out of bed so early on a Sunday! As i rub my eyes and lazily open the door, the sight of the Sunday newspaper on my doorstep, lifts my spirits. Immediately, i forget how early it is or the fact that my sleep was rudely interrupted (while my husband peacefully snores away in bed) and i become excited about having 2 whole hours to flip through my favorite newspaper- The Sunday edition of "Times of India".

Newspapers are an obsession with me. There was a time when i could not comprehend the joy people got from reading small font black print, in random sized boxes, with an occasional picture. Then i was too young for newspapers. I don't know when i got the whiff of reading newspapers- but now it is definitely an obsession!

My favorite part is reading the editorials. I keep the best for the last. Reading those wonderfully framed articles, analyzing the affairs of the nation, keeps me hooked. Of late i'm reading the business page, in a vain attempt to understand money ebb and flow.

It is said the world's first newspaper came into being in 1605, in Germany. In India, the first newspaper came into being in 1780- The Bengal Gazette. India consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007—making it the second largest market in the world for newspapers!

I was recently talking to a friend about how my partner is never free to go out for a nice holiday.. to which she instantly replied "Maybe you should have a staycation!". "A WHAT?"-I asked her. "Staycations" she promptly informed me were the alternative to expensive holidays in these times of recession, where the family has a vacation in their own city-which invariably is not well visited by the residents of the city in comparision to tourists.

Hmm!..curious to know more such "recession-genic" words.. i did an online search.. and came up with some suprising findings!..

In-sourcing: when workers float through different departments in lieu of temps.

BBR: buy, burn, and return. Buying DVDs or software from a store, burning them, and then returning them for a refund.

Intaxication: euphoria when receiving a tax refund.

Wii bum: a person who has no Wii of their own, so goes over to others' houses largely to play their Wii for free.
 
Sellsumer: a consumer/entrepreneur who hawks insights and ideas to corporations to help sales.
 
TALF’d: Tricked into believing something big is going to happen when it doesn’t.

Ponzimonium: describes the recent spike in mini-Madoffs.
 
Furcation: an unpaid, forced holiday.
 
Shovel-ready: local infrastructure “ready to go” projects waiting for stimulus money.
 
Duppie: a downwordly-mobile urban professional. 
 
Renoviction: when a landlord moves a tenant out during renovations and then jacks up the rent.

The Funniest Diary Ever!

Im not a major fiction fan..although an avid reader, I prefer periodicals and non-fiction paperbacks to reading a novel.. . so if I'm recommending a storybook.. it must really be special. Recently, while visiting my local lending-library, i came across the book "Bridget Jones Diary". Having seen the movie, I reluctantly picked it up and flipped through a few pages. Hmm.. it seemed interesting enough.. so i brought it home to read. And I landed up reading it cover to cover, without a break, laughing to my self, all the way. It was simply hilarious!. Every woman (and man) must read this masterpiece of comical writings. It is written like a diary.. as the name goes.. each day's entry starts off with her weight/no of ciggis she's had/ no of glasses of alcohol she's consumed/ and her remarks about the same!. I think every woman can identify (at least in part) with BJ's life- her mistakes in love, her obsession with her appearence/weight, her friends and their advices, her parents and their concerns and most of all her never-dying resolution to change (for the better!). Badly need a laugh?? Get you hands on this book!

Words of Change

its amazing how many words/phrases we are bombarded with every day. some new, some old. some in a unfamiliar tongue. i like the way new words/phrases come our way along with the times..here are some of them doing the buzz nowadays..

• Non state actors- term used by pak to refer to all the terrorist elements in their land, very convieniently!
• Recessionista- a fashion freak wearing budget wear in these times of "economic meltdown"
• Slum tourism- what Dharavi slum dwellers are offering to all the foreign tourists visting the "sets" of Slumdog Millionaire
• Terror tourism- infamously propagated by the RGV of bollywood
• Conscription- compulsory military training for all youth.. after 26/11..on every news read

and here are some of the most overused words today-

• Change!
• Recession/Economic meltdown/Financial crises///
• Terrorism/Cross-border terrorism//
• Pink slips!
• Breaking news/Flash/Developing story///