Happy Birthday, Mr. Twister!

Mr. Twister just got a year younger! He now stands on the brink of entering his forties. Yes, the much dreaded decade where you know you arent getting any younger, your skin is showing faint wrinkles, your hair isnt getting any thicker, you gotta take care of your health, you need to spend more time with your loved ones, you need to revisit your life's plans, make smarter investments for the future etc etc.

I, of course, wont know how it feels like, unless I hit my forties, but the least I am hoping for is to be wiser than I am now. Less gullible, smarter, more efficient, better communicator, better connected, more culinary experiments, a 5K runner and perhaps, more patience thrown in, in this mix. It is about time I start collating my bucket list and start striking things off before it is too late.

Oh, looks like I unwittingly veered to my own self, but lets stick to Mr. Twister as this is his Birthday post. We, the 'family' met at a Thai joint for a laid-back evening dinner, post which Mr. Twister cut an appropriately-sized-for-audience  birthday cake, which he dubbed the $3 cake (which it sooo wasnt!), amid protests of 'nobody loves me' based on the size of the cake! All in fun, and I'm glad he continues to live up to his apt pseudonym!

Here's a little poem that I whipped up for Mr. Twister on his birthday.
God bless him and may he have a 'roaring' forties ahead of him.

I hear it’s a special day today,
Happy birthday to you, Mr. Twister
Hope your day is absolutely splendid,
Revelry, red wine, and oh, a feaster!

I hope and wish your dreams come true,
Spending quality time with your darling son,
Sumptuous food, happy wines, vineyard trips,
And even that year-long Europe vacation!

Today is your birthday, look in the mirror,
Nature has been fair - not one time, but tons,
We must say, you look not a day over thirty,
Or perhaps, thirty with nine years’ experience!

Age is just a number, albeit, a very telling one
No reason you can’t get wild & have lots of fun
You’re young at heart and can party till late,
Sure you'll manage to stay up least till eight!

Today, New Year resolutions, you can bend,
It’s all 'maaf' on your very special day,
Wanna revisit those 200 'exercise' hours?
Promise, we will look the other way!

Don't worry about the future; sure you'll have a bright one,
Don't worry about the past, it is all dusted and done,
Don't worry about the present, haven’t got one for you,
We know we had exactly a year's time, but hey - boo hoo!

But on your birthday, let us wish you plenty of joy,
Coz now, you’re on the right side of forty, in fact,
And with it, let us give you some pearls of wisdom too
Smile wide while you still have your teeth intact!

Love & god bless, always
S & K (in absentia)

Which is your favourite?

I am usually a very blissful person. Anybody who knows me can vouch that I do not exactly fit into 'Man, The Thinker' shoes. I am not contemplative or introspective, not argumentative or critical, not opinionated or overtly analytical. I cant spend too much of my life scrutinizing and worrying about this or that - I do my best for the desired outcome and it usually works out well.

So I was very surprised when I found myself mulling over a ridiculously simple question that I got asked during the weekend. Not just plain thinking, I was thinking real hard. It consumed my mind for some time before I slept and also after it. The question was - which is your favourite perfume?

Now that is a very innocuous question. Something that most of the perfume-happy mankind (oh, have they changed it to personkind now?!) can answer in a jiffy. After all, it is your favourite - something you dig, something that makes you not just happy, but the happiest - the supreme feeling. And imagine the enquirer's (lets just call him Mr.Twister) surprise when I had multiple answers to what was clearly not a multiple choice question.

Now let me tell you something about Mr. Twister. He is razor-sharp, energetic and engaging. Can be somewhat aggressive at times, but has an amazing clarity of thought and an abundant capacity for dialogues. And oh, how can I forget, he is extremely clever with words.

So while Mr Twister questioned and cross-questioned and grilled and interrogated and probed me, my mind blanked out. Tried deliberating again and again. No answer to Mr.Twister's satisfaction. I felt dumb. Big time! I felt run over too, but that's secondary. The problem was I couldnt come up with ONE answer. How could I not! That kept me occupied long after our conversation had ended.

There is absolutely no problem in NOT having favourites, but I was kinda stumped as to why I could not answer the absence of one, especially in the perfume world which I know considerably well. I am aware of the ones that I have used. And I have already set my mind on which ones to buy next. In my humble opinion, that would have sufficed; but it clearly looks like you need to aggregate your thoughts (a la data warehousing), make a list of 'likes' in descending order and store it in some part of the brain ready in anticipation of a question like this!

Then realization struck (later of course). I have never bought the same perfume twice! Buying something over and over would automatically classify it as a favourite and I have never done it before. It is not because I hadnt liked the fragrances. It was simply because I like experimenting. My philosophy is simple - I hunt, I like, I buy. But never ever the same perfume twice. Why waste money on something that you've already tried. As simple as that. Which translates into - all the 20-25 brands that I have used till date are either all winners or there is none.

Well, the perfume talks ended amicably and are now behind us. And I am looking forward to spending more time with Mr. Twister and his tad-acerbic-tad-comic wit in the near future. Of all the exciting outcomes that will happen because of it, I am sure of one - it will make me start thinking about things that I have never thought needed thinking!

Now, is that good or bad?