The long sigh

"Oh thank you my darling" said the gentleman in his hoarse, yet strangely calming voice. 

I involuntarily let out a long sigh that lasted a few good seconds.

I looked up slowly and furtively and took in the scene. He must have been in his fifties. The lady who joined him at his table had brought him a cup of coffee along with her cup of tea. 

A simple gesture, I thought as I reluctantly dragged my eyes away from the couple. That is something I do everyday, more than once. In fact, something like this would be one of the least laborious things I do every day. I am expected to do a whole lot more than bring over a cup of coffee that someone else had made. 

Yet, I have never ever been thanked like this in my entire life. His words had a musical quality to them. It seemed to me that he had sung it to her, not simply said the words of thanks.

Thank you my darling, he had said. 

To be called darling by someone who matters to you. What a privilege. Or may it seemed like a privilege only to the common observer, and not so for this lady. She may have been given this lovely attention by her people everyday. It might even be something she takes for granted. 

Yet, the man does not seem like the kind of person who grants anyone anything so easily. Perhaps not even when he was a child. It is hard to imagine him as a child, but i try. 

In my imagination, he is five or six years old. he is seated at the breakfast table with his mother. If he graces her with his attention, his mother would have surely placed her coffee down at the table and turned to him, giving him all her attention. "What is it, my darling?" she would say. 

"Would you like a piece of toast?"

She would then proceed to pop in a slice of bread into the toaster. She would choose a good shaped slice and would not choose the crusty piece. She would wait for it to pop up as she sips her coffee calmly. She would not start eating her sausage in the middle of this, because she is still making the little man's toast. She would not want it to grow cold before she can apply butter on it. 

Or maybe she already had a piece of toast on her plate, which was untouched and it had butter applied on it evenly, all over it. She would have given that to him, so he can have his toast right-away instead of waiting.

But if there was no perfect toast on her plate, she would be doing exactly this - waiting for his toast to pop out of the toaster. As it does, she would pick it out nimbly and apply butter to it carefully. Bit by bit, smoothing it out, reaching all the corners, covering them evenly and then she would present him with the nice toast, which he would eat, after thanking her. 

That is the kind of child he must have been, this gentleman who thanked his lady so kindly and musically as she brought him a cup of coffee that someone else made.

Celebration of the suffering woman

I am part of yet another whatsapp group that adds 1% value and 99% noise to my life. we all have that, dont we?

I have been recently exiting from the ones that give me almost 100% noise - have to say, my life is marginally better.

Smirk all you want, marginally better is still better.

This particular group is that of the women in the nearby apartments. They share a lot of forward messages, and once in a while get together to celebrate stuff, which is good. Life should have some celebrations.

the most recent call for celebration has been for karva chauth, a north indian festival in which the women (ONLY women, not men) fast the whole fucking day, without even drinking a drop of water until the moon comes up in the sky. Reason for fasting - so that the husband can enjoy good health.

Ironic, i would have thought its a better idea to starve the husband so that his digestive system gets some rest and thus improve his health.

but then, what do i know? I am from the south, thats not even India right? thats just where all the anti-nationals live. Anyway, thats another day's discussion.

So a load of 'happy karva chauth' and wishes for this 'blessed' and 'precious' and 'joyous' day lands on my phone. The ladies would be dressing up, make up jewellery et all, and gather to celebrate and wait for the moon.

Fun fact. its a cloudy night in Singapore. it rained almost all day. and they arent supposed to break the fast till they see the fuckin moon.

Ever since I am part of this whatsapp group, i have been enlightened. The calls for 'vrath' (fast from food & drinks) for women and the glorification of the clueless male in the house happens every few months.

There is raksha bandhan - here the sister bows down to touch the feet of the brother no matter how young the boy is and the boy is supposed to vow to protect the girl.

Bhai dhooj - something similar to raksha bandhan.

I hear 'teej' every now and then, this happens more than once a year - again the women fast. its supposed to signify the victory of a wife's love and devotion to the husband. this is just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more.

All in all, you get the drift, it is entirely one sided. the women celebrates the man.

There is not a single vrat that the man observes to win the wife's love or praying for the woman's health. Clearly signifying that it doesnt matter.

Throughout the rituals and festivals, the same singular message gets reinforced. 'a man is important, a woman is insignificant'.

and then when the female baby gets killed at birth or there is female foeticide, we just cannot understand why!

The men and the boys eat first, served by the women and then whatever remains is eaten by the women - served by themselves. the boy gets education and the girl is married off early by giving loads of gold and cash to the man.

The high number of rapes can be no surprise to a culture that treats the woman as the submissive servant.

Out of all this, what angers me most is calling the suffering as celebration. Right now, there are couple of dozens of starving women down there in the common area 'celebrating' and feeling great about their sacrifice.

Congratulations, your husband is not any fitter than he was yesterday, you on the other hand after the 50 times you fasted last year, could have caused yourself irreversible damage.

but that doesnt matter to you, does it? You have been taught and now you fully believe that you dont matter.. if you needed to matter, even to yourself, you should have a penis.

Vaanga engineering pannalaam

There was a story that our language teacher in school used to relate, quite often. too often.
You can imagine..with the kind of memory power that I have, it has still hung on to my brain.

back in the times of yore, there was this learned guy, who used to speak a lot of languages. he was so skilled in all of them that no one really knew which language was his mother tongue. This guy used to go to several kings' courts and challenge the ministers there to find his mother tongue. The kings' men used to bring scholars and linguistic experts and make them analyse the wise guy's language to find out if his speech had an accent or inclination to certain state, area or country. but none of that worked and wise guy kept getting popular and making money out of his challenges.

One shrewd minister thought of a not-so-nice way to find out the truth. while wise guy was asleep, well into night, the minister slipped in through his bedroom window with a huge hammer. The minister then tip toed close to wise guy and banged hard with the hammer on wise guy's right toe and immeditely slipped behind the curtains.

Wise guy woke up into a fit and started cursing black and blue and not finding what had stung him, went back to bed still muttering and cursing and whining from the pain.

Next day in court, the minister related the previous nights accounts and announced with conviction the mother tongue of the wise guy. Finally the challenge was won.

Ya so, as it goes, This language- our mother tongue, the thing that we think in.. also the one by which we show our extreme emotions- We get angry in that, we love in that, we crack jokes in that. but facts can always be taught and understood in any language. E=mc^2. Mariana trench is 35,797 ft deep. The first world war was between 1914-1918. I learnt them in english, which is definitely not my mother tongue, but i still know them facts and in fact learning them in english has helped me not to confine myself within the state of tamilnadu.

So what I really dont understand is, why has the tamilnadu government decided to introduce new engineering courses in Tamil?! and how does the government expect the kids graduating from these colleges to find jobs???

Why cant they just leave us to do our cursing and joking in tamil.. who are they trying to please by making us learn engineering in tamil, what purpose do they think that education will serve? Enna koduma sir ithu..

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/TN-to-experiment-with-engineering-courses-in-Tamil/articleshow/5614006.cms

Talent in happiness

Where does happiness come from?

An especially ragged morning... these days it doesnt take much to put me in a ragged mood. just a cup of tea spilling and i can switch to a tragedy queen internally and mourn long enough to even miss the best that life has to offer me that day.

Elizabeth Gilbert said you have to have a 'talent in happiness'. I wrote that down some time ago. I wanted to develop that talent, that was the mission of my life. until the tea spilled or something similar happens.

it wasnt just any tea mind you. it was taj mahal, and had the right balance of ginger and sugar. and i did not get a single drop of it. my flask fell to the ground from a good height, the whole of the tea blasted out on to the white floor. i just looked on helplessly and a little mesmerised.

When you are frustrated, watching things get smashed or destroyed is like chicken soup to the soul. i have experienced this once before, few years ago.

I was wearing a hideous bracelet. i had never really liked it, but it came as a set with a necklace i loved and it also matched a number of my clothes. so i wore it anyway. that day was a very difficult day, i going through something at work for many days and it had reached a peak and this day, had been heart breaking, at the same time i wanted to break some people's bones.

Come to think of it, i dont remember what it was that set me off. its always like this, isnt it - things that matter soo much, over which we get so flustered about, 3 years down the line, you cant hecking remember them!

So anyway, i stepped out of the office, i could not take it any longer. I was out near a small garden, walking furiosuly and something got stuck in my shoe. i ripped it out and threw it away.

in the force of what i was doing, my hideous bracelet slipped out of my wrist and hit a nearby rock with such violence that it broke. it didnt just break, it BROKE. it blasted. in 50 directions. i think it had as many as 25 beads. but it seemed to blast in 50 directions.

i just stood there, time went still. i felt like i saw it in slow motion. every single hideous bead flying helplessly away from the violence of what just happened to them. even the band that held them together, something elasticcy, broke into a few pieces. it was glorious.

about 3 or 30 minutes had passed. passers by stared curiously at me. I could have said 'f**k off' but i didnt. In such times of intense vulnerability, life has taught us to always care about what perfect strangers who matter nothing to us and will not even remember us the next moment thought of us. but in that moment, i could have told all of life's teachings to go fly a kite. but i didnt care enough to do even that.

what i just saw was therapeutic and those people had no idea. and i needed therapy. strangely, the frustration had vanished. in its space, there was... nothing.

so i took in a deep breath with my eyes closed and time slowed again. I wanted to fill this emptiness with something. something useful, something helpful. fast, i told my brain. My brain sprung into action, looking at its archives for memories. finding all sorts. it kept tossing out the angry ones, the sad ones, the bitter ones, until it got to the happy ones.

My son looking into my eyes,
my mother and i on a trip,

I am eating a steaming hot plate of perfect fried rice,
and my lungs had reached its full capacity, my breath was done, now it was time to exhale..

I slowly opened my eyes and let out a long, calming breath of air.
Talent in happiness, here i come.

and to all those people whose bones were spared, my hideous bracelet said 'you are welcome' from the 50 different places its pieces lay.

Preg talk 1

Me: That guy looks like Christian Bale
He: No way
Me: Yes he does
He: Of course he does not
Me: (slow head turn towards him, one eyebrow raised with a killer evil look) I am pregnant and I will be for a while, this is the time you have to agree with everything I say. so?
He: Hmm, yes he does look like him
Me: like who?
He: Christian Bale
Me: (sitting back relaxed) Good.
and the day goes on peacefully

Husband did a kind gesture. 

Me: you are so sweet. please stay this way. One of us has to be sweet, because I am going to be a bitch for a while

Him: (after an eye roll) a while?

Me: what?!

Him: erm...nothing my dear

Me: dude..that was such a poor joke
He: well..my jokes were alwyas like this, you don't like them nowadays because of ur hormonal imbalance
Me: hm, u r learning..

"I dont like masala.. I dont like rice.. I dont like chicken curry..
I dont like a lot of things nowadays.."
(slow head turn towards him with what is now a routine of one raised eyebrow with the evil look)
"You! You count yourselves lucky you are not one of them"

This last one came out so good I am thinking of making a video, and adding the dr.evil finger move at the end.. 

Sleep...eluding sleep

Its frigging four in the morning and i still cant go to sleep. All my brain can do at this time is look at the coincident rhyming of "frigging four" and laugh!

So Generally, why can't people sleep?

Snowden can't sleep because he does not have a home. This guy surely had to be sleepless. At least I hope so. 20 something countries are said to have turned down his asylum request. The Indian govt tweeted that they don't have a positive response. Imagine that, They tweeted! U won't find this funny unless u had Indian government office experience in ur life. If not, well I'm not in a mood to explain, remember? Its frigging four and I cannot sleep, last thing I'm gonna do is explain my joke.

I just googled sleepless and I learn that 20% of Americans aren't asleep, I sure hope so, it's broad daylight over there now, if there is only 20% that are not asleep and rest sleeping, then God save America.

Oh and there is another search result, 2% ppl have super powers, so that's why they dont sleep. Hmm, I wonder what my super power is. I see open windows, Maybe I should test, jump out and try to fly. Bur no cape! im sure super power does not work without thr right accessories.. What is batman without his bat wings, what is super man without his red undies and cape? Just plain normal sleepless people!

Actually I don't give a shitake mushroom why other people cant sleep! Why the hell can't I sleep???

An ode...

I am not new to this game, consider me a novice by no means.

I have done my share, mind you. I have used the likes of you! some much better than you. Deserted them all and never looked back when I had to move on. I never felt any regret, nor did I sense any guilt or remorse. Not even once did I feel compelled to linger, to come back, to surrender, to feel addicted. But with you..

The smile I have when I think of you.. is not exactly new, I admit. but I am surprised that it has not changed even after the novelty has worn off. On the contrary, I feel your need more and more and I do not want to think of those days when I cannot kiss you anymore. In simple words, I need you.

You have changed my habits, my whole day.. in a way, my life.

Addiction is not a good thing, I know. but thats what I have for you - All beans, no chicory, freshly ground.. oh my cup of coffee now that I know you, have you, I dont ever wanna let you go.

Nay..not dead

Alive kicking and married. Thats the current status, and will be, If i dont choke on OR get poisoned by my very own self-cooked curries. But you see, thats not likely to happen. I now have my very own personal lab mouse at home for such experiments. Yes, yes, he is insured. No, his mom does not read my blogs. Soo... 'alive' it is for now

Logistically speaking, yours truly has been moved from Chennai to singapoor. Hold the joy, let it not overwhelm you. I am only 4 hours away by tiger airways! If you are at all interested, what has actually happened to me is, they wiped away all the lively things and then put signboards in all 18 directions and lo its the same city! same weather. not enough dust though.

Anyway, as I was saying, now I eat with chopsticks and believe I had a chinese forefather somewhere in the family tree back in one of the early centuries. He must have had terrible sense of direction (which i inherited) to have landed up in Kerala which of course faces away from China!

And as long as I am in the orient part of the world, no strings of jasmine flowers in my hair (in the miraculous event of atleast 3 strands of my hair growing to a length of more than 5 centimeters), over to orchid strings.

Like the true deserter, I will soon be over-writing all the chennai blogs with wannabe firangi BS. And like the true new bride, i will soon have blogs on my version of pudina chutney and how it saved mankind from world war 3.

Other than that, its business as usual folks! And for dinner we have sambar noodles. and jal jeera. Anyone?

Nagala

Yes, the sun rises in Chennai. But on that day, I did wonder how many of us would miss it if it did not turn up one morning... Granted, we will miss the light, but who will miss the beauty?

That was just the start of the day. Seen above is the sunrise among koyambedu traffic. But, it was a different sunset for me that day. It felt nice to be there to witness the beauty away from the blaring horns and the dust and smoke.

Good people, Nagalapuram waits, for those who care to explore, roughly 2 hours north of chennai.

Images en route.

First view
Fruits of labour

Fringe benefits ;) - the fishes give me a free pedicure in crystal clear waters

Closing ceremony

A day of pebble paths, unforgiving rocks, cuts and bruises, photography, nature, like minded company, pure air, pristine water and a shy sunset. I rate it first class! :)

The pleasure of nonsense. We are loving it

Temporary brain coma made enjoyable by our Thalaivar.

Rajnikanth starrer Endhiran (the robot) released last friday to unprecedented ticket buy-outs and the usual craziness that is attached to any Rajni release. We all can send zillion jokes about Rajni, but the undeniable truth is that he gives real meaning to the phrase 'larger than life'.

This most expensive project of Indian movie industry had made more than what was spent in its making before it saw the first weekend out. Still going strong, it will probably be the best money maker that tamil/hindi cinema has ever seen.

Getting tickets to watch the spectacle.

Come on brains, lets play dead, it will be fun :D

It must be love...

What other sensible explanation is there?

In all my years of living in this city, I have never experienced this kind of weather. the last time we had a real hot day was in the month of May. Ever since then we have not had two weeks in a row without rains or thunder or at least the drizzles and the clouds.

In fact, maximum days, there were just the light showers - the best kind of rain. Of course, there were also many days when it lashed out all the water that the sky could possibly have collected!

Here is the other thing, the confusing days. The day starts bright and then clouds up and then comes the rain, the night brings lightning. And the days that start all drippy and rainy sometimes brings up the sun soon after! Should we carry our raincoats or dab on the sunscreen? Turns out, the raincoat has had the maximum wins.

Whatever happened to hot-hotter-hottest (the most over-used weather phrase when it comes to describing Chennai). What about those good ol sweltering days with no respite from the sun?

What is really happening to my city? Is Chennai in love? Why else will it have so many drizzles and so many mood swings?

Whatever it is, it is a nice feeling :) I do hope this lasts. (notwithstanding the damage this love affair does to our roads)

The quest tales

People of Chennai! My dear brethren!
As I stand here in front of you, I have only one thing to ask of you.

I have to make a choice, and I need your help. I cannot do this just by myself, armed with so little. In this dark hour of need, all I ask for is, your advice

Show your generosity to mankind and leave your comments.

Where in Chennai in your opinion, do you find the best biryani?

I have a small list. Buhari. Samco. Coronet. Where else? where else??
I hope you see the urgency of this matter. Please, leave a comment and let me know.

A small army is waiting for adventure. Kindly...do not deprive us of what we deserve. btw, u r welcome to join the quest too.

"At one point in life you either have the thing you want or the reasons why you dont"

T shirt quote in Chennai Times today :)

A date tonight... with Paws

I need to catch a train tonight, but then, that can wait. I have a date with Paws, its going to be a very important evening. I am really excited about it :) I am going to pop the question!

Well, someone has to do it. For obvious reasons, he is not going to. So.. I might as well do it. So here goes..

"Who is taking home the FIFA world cup?"

For that matter why stop with Paws? I am going to have serious conversations with all the dogs, cats, parakeets and possibly any octopuses that I can find on the way to Nandanam. By the way, Paws is the pet cat of the aunty who i am staying with. (What are the chances of having a boy friend named Paws anyway)

Well, if I wanted to know who would win the FIFA world cup, you would think I have to actually watch the match for that. How technologically backward are you!? Dont you know how these matches are decided? O dear ignorant soul, read this-

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/now-a-parakeet-tips-holland-to-win-wc-2010/126284-5-21.html?from=tn

and this-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/09/psychic-octopus-paul-picks-spain

Here is the best bit: After FIFA, Nepal wants Paul the octopus to predict its political future. If you were one of those who went to cast the vote on polling day in Nepal, you must be feeling absolutely wasted, now that Paul the octopus is around
;)

Should I forget this?

I have not been able to get this image out of my head. I have been trying to forget this... but tell me, should I really forget it?

8 maoists had been killed in a police encounter on 16 June in West Bengal, Midnapore. Seen in the image - security personnel carrying the dead body of one rebel. a maoist. a woman. a human being. Did I give you enough key words? were you able to understand what the image is about?

Yes. you have to read the words to believe that its a human dead body that is being taken away by two other human beings.

I thought we are Indians. we treat animals better than that, dont we?

Though only 8 bodies were recovered, the officials suspect more were killed. The maoists are said to have carried away atleast 4 more bodies while fleeing. Yes, they are believed to have carried 4 dead human beings while they were fighting for their own lives.

Maoist rebels hardly ever leave behind their dead comrades, reports a website.

To me, they do not sound like the people who are capable of killing hundreds of civilians. A person carrying away a dead person risking his own life - in my dictionary, is 'sensitive'. What makes these people who have so much respect even for their dead to kill and slaughter other people?

Killing is bad. I have been taught. I am not capable of killing. But then, I have never been pushed off the brink of my existence. How can I even talk about understanding this sect of people. Would I ever turn to be capable of killing if I get oppressed the way this class of people are oppressed? Would you? Do I know the answer to this question? Do you?

lets start seeing other people

I don’t know how to start. (pause)

In any relationship, when we get to a point when we feel that its not worth it, we should start to move on and that’s what happened with us.

Its really nothing personal, we just grew apart.









There is someone else in my life...

I am sorry.



Uff… thank god I do not have to do this, as newspaper readerships are not exclusive.

When Times of India came to Chennai, I was one of those skeptical maamis holding tight to my copy of the Hindu and whispering ‘No one will ever take your place’.

But 2 years down the line, I have to admit, Times of India won me over. It had me, heart and soul, with its ‘upper crest’, edition 1.

TOI just did what Deccan chronicle never could. Tamilians consider DC a mere tabloid, the other English news papers as non-existent and the Hindu as the bible. When TOI stepped in, it was clear that it does not belong to the ‘non-existent’ class, but more in the DC class. Slowly but surely, I noticed Tamil households switching over to TOI from TH, initially for budget reasons. ‘But its cheap’ and stayed on as TOI subscribers even though ‘but its not cheap anymore!’.

Mine was a total different case. I still look at TOI news as masala coated and stir fried. Started of by placing it in between the Indian express and the Hindu. I lost my heart more recently when I laid my hands on TOI’s Saturday additional paper ‘the upper crest’. Priced at Rs.6, its not the regular news paper, but a treasure trove of articles that touch on global current affairs, moods, issues etc. Its good enough that I am willing to ignore the masala coating and the unreasonable outbursts of the TOI journalists.

Coming back to The Hindu, I still like the news, love the metro plus, still shake my head knowing/lovingly when I see the editor's apology for missing an 'r' in the previous edition page number '..' under news item '...', Still love the language, the prose and I still read it whenever I see it lying around in the office. It really touched me when I saw the declaration that Hindu would plant one tree for every copy of newspaper it prints! Thats something I will respect the Hindu forever for. But.....but I wish, it would move faster with the times. oops, pun un-intended

Well.. if Shakira says so

Waka waka.. sings Shakira
This time for Africa!

Well, I am not very convinced, but if she says so... I guess its gonna be so..

Its the song, not the game I am talking about.

Friend showed me the official video of waka waka. I have to say, though I liked the song, I am definitely definitely disappointed with the video.

I would think this is THE event, millions and millions of viewership. For the song thats so attached to it, someone could have put in a little more money, get a better location for shooting Shakira than just a grey walled studio throughout the song...In the same front angle. What were the directors thinking? Why wouldnt they get a little more imaginative? At least, a whirl around of the camera please?

I knew something was really missing in the video, only after watching it repeatedly could I put a finger on it. Okay, so you get Shakira to move in front of the camera, alright. But... You have the audacity to make her completely cover her hips!?! That is almost criminal for Pete's sake!
What was her costume designer thinking. Was he/she thinking at all?

Call me picky, but I am not crazy about the way the frames have been mixed either. ( It starts well though)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0&feature=fvst

:) thats enough complaining for the next 2 months! Anyway, its out of the system and me feeling better ;)

One for today, one for tomorrow

Hot sun !
Month of may !!
Chennai !!!
Humidity that could melt u into a pool of boiling sweat !!!!

the only allowance - bright orange and yellow, plump, sweet, juicy..

MANGOS (5!) - the sole reason why summers were ever made!

So off I went to the spencers daily to buy some for the weekend. I didnt wait to look at the snack bar, didnt wait to gawk at the cosmetics shelf. for once, hopped happily to the fruits counter.

The place was not crowded, had just one other customer, about fiftyish person looking thoughtfully at the pomegranates. He also moved to the mango section as I neared it. I bent down examined some fruits and picked one up that looked neither shiny nor matt thinking 'this would do'. Fiftyish hunk straightened his back, looked at my fruit, took it out of my hand and put it back on the counter. did i see him shake his head as well??

'WHAT?!?'

I dont want violence. I am all for world peace. But then hey, do not grab the fruit that i picked out!

Anyway, with me being an ahimsak (!) i did not resort to any violence, I just moved a little away from the fruit grabber and threw my best nasty look at him (which went unnoticed). I continued to choose and picked out another one. 'hmm, perfect!'

but then, he grabbed that too from my hand shaking his head! The mere audacity!!

For reasons beyond reasoning, i felt like laughing! Not able to comprehend the actions of a seemingly normal person, i just stopped and stared, not knowing what to do next.

He put back my glossy mango, still looking at the counter in deep thought, picked out 2 ugly but healthy looking fruits and handed them to me, one by one, saying
'idhu innikku'
'idhu naalaiku'

this one for today
this one for tomorrow

I was speechless for a moment.
'wow! how do you know which ones to pick?'
'fruit grower' he said by way of explanation. Man of few words.

I thanked him and smiled at him, but then mr.fruit grower ignored me in totality after he knew that I did not want any more fruits picked out.

I heeded his advice and had one yesterday and one today and must say, they were really perfect. the best ones I have had this summer.

I dont know if the fruit grower was simply a friendly person, or was someone who could not leave his job behind. I would like to think of him as a nice friendly person, whose ways are different, but sincere :)

He made my day. twice actually. once yesterday, once today :)

I will change the world

Sleeping unusually on time, getting up pretty early in the morning, going for a walk whose status has been promoted from 'routine' to 'special' (reserved for unusual days like the one in discussion), having a big power breakfast, singing along with the radio on the way to office, reaching on time without jumping a single red light, the spirits are so high, I would change the world today ;)

Take this serious or take it as a pun. Please yourself.

But this much is true - it mostly takes unbelivably simple things to lead a good life (on the condition that you are not responsible for anyone else or no one else is acutely responsible for your daily routine). In such cases, it would take a litle more complicated but still highly do-able things. Once you start well, the ball pretty much takes care of the rolling by itself.

Btw, its only 10 in the morning, i got plenty of time before sun down. You dont know...

Technically speaking