St Dips
There was once known a town for its peace
Named after a Saint, a Guru from the East
St Dips, the people called her oft
And named it the Town of St Dips

There ruled in it a Baron grim
Strong, heartless widower prim
His son it was who envied him
Wanted the town for his own writ

The Baron's house was the envy of town
With patches of grass and horses around
And secret pathways one or two
To keep the mysteries within it too

The son who was a handsome lad
Spent many an evening alone alas!
He wondered what his fate would be
When would the Baron be feeble? thought he.

When will I rule this township eh?
When I am old and bent and Grey?
Thus wondering on the roof stayed he
Looking around to live his helpless dream

There was a lady of strong might
And strong emotions and cunning slight
She was a traveller, a foe, a friend
She robbed the rich and bought her jewels

She saw the son at the Lake of St Dips
And could not but note his riches on his rings
And so the Tryst at lakeside was born
The Lady met the Son oft there, after sundown.

Sweet Lady of Lake, help me said he
My Father is strong, he will reign till death
We will be under his thumb till late
When then will we ever be free?

Worry not, my Lord, for I have a plan
I am also a plunderer, a helping hand
To your castle, the beauty, shall I come
Rob you, your father and then we shall scram

Where too? said the son
Feeble in mind
To leave St Dips was not in his might

Worry not said the lady,
Come I will
To rob, to look or to stay within

And so it was that on the following night
As Son stood on the roof in his castle now bright
He heard a scratching, nay knocking below
He looked down to see the lady below
And whispered, Hey! That's my Father's Window!

Lady Bandit! thou hast come for me!
Exclaimed the Son with ecstacy
But nay! I shall stay here in St Dips
Its my life, my love, it is the town for me.

Hush my Lord, stay here we will
For the seamstress here makes the most wondrous veil
Your father is strong but I like your house.
Enough of Jewellery plundered on horse!

So she said and vanished from sight
Telling the son to wait till next night.

The son went down thinking in glee
The lady is good, the lady is bold
The lady is hot
And wore a black catsuit!

Meanwhile the alarm bells were rung
Someone saw a stranger on the roof
They thought it was the pantry boy
Mingling with bandits and whatnot thereof

They could not shoot that poor soul
But by mistake ran a spear through the cook

Now the Baron was hungry
He liked his truffles for sure
He missed his cook
And knew not where to look.

When one day on his rounds about town
From his horseback he saw a maiden sweet
Laying on the road
In a simple white chemise

Canst thou cook Truffles, my sweet?
She nodded at the prospect of food it seemed
He brought her home
And she became the Chef soon

But little did the Baron know
She was a Bandit, a rogue, through and through.
And though she robbed not the Treasury vast
She did conquer the Sons heart.

And one day when the truffles were ripe
The Baron sat to relish them with might
Yet after that meal he ate no more
For what do you know?
He had died of a stroke!

The son held a funeral great
Yet soon after, he got wed
The blushing bride revealed to be
The Bandit, the Cook, the poisoner sweet.

Of one thing the new Baron ensured
His wife never did cook anymore!

And thus the town of Merry St. Dips
Lived on, in Peace, with its Bandits!

--------------

The town design was made using City Creator, a fun site. On sharing with Sash he wanted to know who it was on the roof of the biggest building. Enough for fertile minds, we started a story, which before I knew it I made into a rhyme, and thence, a Ballad. So I shared it.
Hope you visit Peaceful St Dips soon! ^_^

So last night was a little cold - what do you know? Today morning reports mention yesterday was the coldest in Mumbai at 12 Degrees! and I slept without a fan.

if you read that report, you will see that is colder than the apparently very cold Ahmedabad.

So much for cold weather. I still havent taken out my blanket(s) or winter clothing.

Check out the Custom Search option within my page. On the left, right under the page summary, you can type in anything you want to dig out from the past pages (of DippyBlogs only) and view it at one go.

This is something that I've wanted for me own personal use (much easier than looking up tags - which is especially difficult if the particular item you want to specify or correlate was written at a time when the tags option was not available) when I want to reference a prior post. Since by the time the tag option was introduced I had already written quite a few articles, I just couldnt bring myself to sit and tag everything.

But this nifty tool should help me, and maybe you, now.

Another kudos to Google. This simple tool asks you to specify which pages you want to search (using wildcards help you go upto any pages in past) and then just use the script on the required page (even though eljay doesnt allow it in my style off page), and Voila! you can search all you want.

Am rather pleased at the moment ^^

To quote, today: "A long-term bad mood isn't necessarily a sign of maladjustment. Sometimes, it's just called adolescence."
And the other times, it is onset by a lack of sugar sweets.

What do you feel when smitten by a particular brand of Muesli you go ahead and buy a mega jar of it. I.e., a 1000gm jar of it, only to realise that while replacing the dented jar, you had been given the 'Sugar Free' variety with none of the things that makes Muesli so special to me! - No honey, no almonds, no raisins, no sugar.
Why would I have Muesli then?! At least Diwali is coming and the huge dry fruit supply Im sure to get from home should help. Honey I can add myself.
Bah. No wonder I dint like it that last time I had it, and wondered whats wrong (Since I loved the rich taste of this brand). The last month was spent in my effort to finish the new Muesli I had tried. Interesting cover - if only it tasted as good. Sigh. (Even the website is sluggish :/) Only to realise later that even the 'Classic' variety was sugar free. Why?
Seems to be bad Muesli time for me for some time in the future ;) Whats more, I generally steer clear of sugar free stuff - they never ever have tasted good.

If you are diabetic or recommended by the doctor to have sugar free stuff, I can understand. If you want to lose weight. Control your eating habits! Dont stuff lots of sugar free stuff down your throat. Dont give all those companies out there to make you pay more for stuff in which they add less. Because when you do, you make me do it too :( Unwittingly.
And whats worse are the sugar substitutes - not only are they sweeter, but pack no nutrition, and leave me with a not-so-nice taste in my mouth.
Sigh.
So many times, me, the simple, unwitting, trusting consumer has bought chewing gum, cola, chocolate, heck! even Bengali Sweets without noticing the small 'Sugar Free' logo on the side - inconspicuous to my innocent and naive eyes. And thence have cursed my lack of eyesight of patience while buying the product. Why not a different shelf for them I say!

Ah well, at least for the coming few weeks I will be a little more careful ;)

Its been a slow kind of day - meaning I have work pending which Im not doing. Finally the long days and short nights of the past week are catching up. With a weekend of activity ahead with Mom, I dont see much respite till Monday.
So, as I sit on my seat with empty cups of cappuccino beside me, I wonder - modern day people have become too mindless to think; they mostly just follow. Else, what once developed art form, now revered / ridiculed as forecasting tool has no new versions.

What am I talking about? Tea leaf reading of course! Something so innovative, new and so darned weird, has no modern day equivalents! I mean, reading the dregs of tea is definitely a European thing. Yet tea itself is such an old concoction in Asia (China to be precise). It went to Europe only more than a century ago. People were imaginative enough then, to have tea and wonder about ones future depending upon the shape of the broken tea leaves at the bottom of the cup.

Why then, has todays wo/man left innovating? Why not something new about the way and shape of coffee rings left on the cup? What about the foam on the opposite wall of the empty cup? Wont someone please step up and analyse that and tell me my future?
Considering so many coffee drinkers around the world are interested in the occult, how is it that they dont do a little bit of innovation and extrapolation to develop new techniques for todays beverage - coffee? With the internet and the 'world being small' and all that, Im sure they will have enough takers, if not earn a few pennies in the bargain.

Hmm... perhaps this was left for me to create. I now know my true calling...my future (i read it from my 3 empty cups).
It is to drink coffee and predict the future on the basis of the foam marks on the cup! Thus I shall foretell what the future holds for you. Only condition - it has to be cappuccino with lots of foam.

Come to me! The initial 10 readings are free.

So J K Rowling has officially gone mad, or, has had too much se* since her new marriage.

Or, her makeover seems to have effected more than just her face and hair.

First sign which we poor Indians first noticed, of course, was her illogical attempt at suing a Puja Pandal in Calcutta this festive season, instead of feeling happy that she had managed to rise to such esteem. Enough has been said about this, but you can read some humorous posts here and here. Thankfully reason ruled somewhere.

Second sign now, is this Dumbledore being gay business. Who cares? He was Headmaster. That should be enough to a reader of a book. Enough of us have been convent educated and have unmarried uncles and aunts not to think twice about why a certain fictional headmaster did not have a witch by his side. Cant a boy admire a friend, or share ideas of World Dominance with another boy without fantasising about each other?

Since Rowling is so keen to think up the post-evening lives of her characters, whom she obviously wont let RIP in their fictional graves, I thought of something a little more stimulating for her 'heroes' than just being gay!

So heres something I thought up -

Snape, was bise*ual, He liked Lily, but also fell for Dumbledore, who of course reciprocated, being gay. So Snape listened to Dumbledore - afterall he was spurned by Voldemort, who was having an orgy with all the Death Eaters (chief among them was Bellatrix).  When Harry came into the picture and Dumbledore became attached to the boy, Snape was afraid that attentions may shift. So he hated Harry.
(All this is of course, considering the ripe ages of wizards and witches and less meaning of age differences.)

If Rowling can go ahead and create prior lives and political histories for her characters, I, being just a reader am definitely allowed more freedom to create my own pasts for them, arent I? And, to top it, she will probably earn from it. I will not.

Perhaps I should read some fan fiction to get more ideas...or even better, write some to give her more ideas. As it is, the 7th book almost was a fan fiction. And I almost thought the Harry Potter saga had neared the end with book 7.