Kings and Queens

Played chess yesterday for the first time in many many years :) With S. Actually against S. Lost the first game in under 15 minutes :( Lost the second one too, but it took S nearly 3 hours this time around :) [To be fair, he did agree to a couple of "I want to take back that move" situations] At least my learning curve was pretty good :) And then my bruised ego informed S that I would beat him in 5 more games, wait and watch.
Sigh.
So here I am, googling chess strategies on a rainy Monday afternoon, when there are so many other things I could be doing (or not doing too :) But the net is turning up some interesting info. Like bringing one's queen into the attack right in the beginning might not be a good strategy against good opponents. My games were based on a queen+knights attack, while the bishops and rooks defend. In fact in the first game my rooks didn't budge from their original positions - the second-most powerful pieces on the board!. And I used to think they were the amongst the 'easy target' pieces. Time to do some rethinking, before the next battle :) But best of all, my (and S's) liking for a game that used be a rainy day favourite in childhood has been rekindled :)

Remember Shankarabaranam?

One thing led to another today, and I'm sitting here getting over an unexpected flood of tears now.
Ironically enough, it all started with me feeling super cheerful because it's Friday, the sun is shining bright and I had a good breakfast :). So I decided to do something creative and started ripping music off YouTube to put together a 'happy music' collection. This led to looking for good audio versions of my favourite classical-fusion tracks, which was when I noticed a link called 'Shankarabaram 2' in the corner. That triggered a childhood memory of the song being quite beautiful. And I chose to ignore the faint warning bells about a sad ending, and clicked. Then came the flood of tears :) Not because of the tragic end itself, but more because of the part where the little boy is singing to his teacher. Because the scene is so touching, and the lyrics so beautiful. I understand very little Telugu, but the sentiments in the song transcend the language barrier. Need to find a translation of the lyrics now...

The youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnbNK5662Q

And since I'm addicted to wikipedia-ing everything, this is the wiki link [this led to a few more tears, looks like today is 'mood swings' day]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shankarabaranam

Breakfast Serials :)

Another case of my karma making a full circle :) I have to confess to being completely addicted these days to watching Bidaai and Balika Vadhu, currently the top two competitors for 'India's no. 1 TV Serial' slot. So addicted that my breakfast cereal will not go down unless I'm catching up on the latest episodes of the above on Youtube. And I catch myself thinking about the plot twists too during the day. This has to be karmic retribution for making a face and saying "you watch Kyunki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi!!??, OMG" to Sumanth years ago in BIT :)

Note to Self #1 - Start a blog

I'm always forgetting stuff. 'Stuff' ranges from childhood memories to the occasional brainwave :) [Okay, the once in a blue-moon brainwave ;)] So this blog is more a 'note to self' than anything else. A place to come back to and reminisce. A place to store all those thoughts that I don't want to lose. A place to 'find' things in, that I can smile about years from now. A memory box.