Category: Random Thoughts

Posted in Random Thoughts

Rules are meant to be broken!

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification from Olympics for being 100 gms overweight, that too after making weight every single round until the match for gold, was inhuman. The dismissal of her plea for a joint silver is cruel! Twice this had happened to her–last time being 400 gms. She announced her retirement because she was in so much pain–to work so hard for so long, to be so close to gold and then lose to your own body and the rules?

While staying within weight category is essential for a fair wrestling round, do 100 gms give a player any advantage over the other. She lost 2.4 kgs overnight–not eating, not drinking, sweating it out in sauna, even cutting her hair and shortening her clothes. What else did they expect? She was so dehydrated after the weigh in and disqualification that she had to get a drip!

Should she have come to the game nude to make weight?

It is one thing to have rules and another to have them so tight that there is no breathing space for humanity. The bigger problem is that there are only 6 weight categories for women wrestling–men have 10. Since only one person per category is allowed, you have squeeze in somehow, even if it means going hungry all night long to make place in a lesser-weight category.

Olympics talks about health and wellbeing of players but if 100 gm can get you disqualified in the final round, imagine an athlete’s mental condition, worrying about weight every day all night until they collapse of hunger and thirst!

Shouldn’t there be some room for extra weight so athletes can eat?

Posted in Random Thoughts

The Itch

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Scritch…

Scratch, scratch, scratch…

I try to scratch the idea out of my head.

It is stuck too deep inside

Where it itches

But doesn’t show itself.

Scratch, scratch, scratch…

Waiting for the tease to fall out

Where I can see it…

Urgh! Can’t reach it right!

Fine, I’ll just ignore it

And write something else…

…

…

…

Scritch…

Scratch, scratch, scratch…

Posted in Nature stories, Random Thoughts

Recycled memories

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

In my family, I am famous for recycling. No cardboard box that ever passed my path and lived to tell the tale. Since furniture is so pricey now a days that you need to sell the house to buy a wardrobe, my family doesn’t complain when I steal their cardboard boxes to build racks and other storage areas.

I started when my child was two by building a Playhouse out of the cardboard box that once covered our new fridge.

Next year, I repapered it in bright pink and it became the famous Playschool where my daughter scribbled her famous first word–ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA–several times over. She had also created her first fish (without fins), first caterpillar, first cat with two legs and her brood of kittens lacking in limbs at various degrees, playing with a limbless monkey. You can see them on my previous post about minimalistic approach to painting.

Later the building was used as a stable where her rocking horse was housed.

After that I created a couple of shoe racks (that are not worth seeing anymore because they couldn’t take the weight of the shoes).

A couple of years back I created what you can loosely call as the dresser cabinet (top). And last year when my daughter started school and her books were everywhere, I built her a bookshelf (bottom).

Initially it was sky blue, but my daughter took it in her hands to bring more colour to it and the result was…well, I should have just taken the picture and shared it with you. Let’s just say she went a little overboard with the sketch pens. She wouldn’t let me change the paper for how attached she was to that scribble. So, I had to wait an entire year until the paper was a little torn in the corners to get her permission to ‘take down her masterpiece’. Now, it is a sunny yellow, and I added lace, so she is satisfied that it is nice enough to be hers for now.

However, she has been threatening me with colours ever since. I have requested her to wait until I have acquired Acrylics so the painting is “even nicer with all the shiny shades”. It will give the poor thing another month or so before it becomes her next victim and I have to find another excuse to repaper it.

Since we are moving house soon and buying loads of new things, there will be loads of cardboard to go by. So, I am planning more recycled stuff–paintings, wall hangings, shelfs, one privacy wall for my office work and other tidbits to add to our living space while avoiding cutting down any trees.

Wish me luck!

Posted in My life, Published, Random Thoughts

Not A Lore | Short Stories Collection | Published

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

As most of you would know, lately I had been working on my second short stories collection, Not a Lore: The Imperfect Tales. It is now published and available on Amazon as an eBook and a paperback (I recommend eBook since it is ecofriendly).

The cover page is designed by Manpreet Kaur who is a professional artist (@ammpryt on Instagram). Nishant Agrawal, Instructional Designer and short-stories aficionado like me, is the editor.

Not a Lore contains twelve quirky stories about curses that kill (or worse, make you to fall in love), monsters who aren’t all that bad and damsels that are better left alone with their distress. A mix of fresh tales and retelling, the compilation is all magic. Written from the point of view of one of the central characters, it is a celebration of my skewed perspective regarding all things magical and mundane.

Here is a short description of the stories in the collection.

  1. Not a Lore: A handsome prince sets upon a journey with his Squire to kiss a sleeping princess awake. But how will he get past the dragon? And would it be better to become dragon fodder instead?
  2. Ugly: A prince stuck as a toad forces a princess to help him lift the curse, but she would rather fry him alive. His only hope is a maid who doesn’t shriek at his sight.
  3. Captivated: A girl stuck on the top of the tower meets a handsome prince. He brings a fresh perspective while she persuades him that there is no need to run from the ‘witch’.
  4. The Doors: When a Fighter tooth fairy goes to explore the worlds behind the mysterious doors, her Spellman partner of 93 years decides to find her somehow.
  5. Barred: When the severed bull’s head guarding the door of a famous potion-bar stops a love‑struck wizard from entering and staring at the barmaid, they discuss the issue with surgical accuracy.
  6. Vivid: While restoring a cursed bracelet at a museum, the museum assistant shares the awe, love and agony of the first owner, as she finally realises why the bracelet was cursed.
  7. Muddled: A man wakes up in his bed groggy and confused and finds that someone else is now also living in his house. He is searching his memory as he walks down the steps.
  8. Late: On a full moon night, a young man stumbles upon a horrible secret in a dark alley and runs for his life. Unsure if it is a hallucination, he would rather not stop and confirm.
  9. Broken: A hunter recounts the tale of when he goes looking for a trophy head of a tiger and ends up falling in love completely beyond repair.
  10. The Far Door: A single woman moves into a new building to leave her past behind. Therein, she finds a door without a lock that she is forbidden to open. The story captures her fascination and fear wrapped around the unknown entity in the room behind the far door.
  11. A Matter of Chance: A new-age non-witch cooks a dumb cake on All-Hallows eve to see her future husband in the mirror. But now, she must wait for him to find her. If only he would acknowledge that she exists!
  12. The Scoop: When a famous news anchor decides to cover Cinderella’s ‘fairy connections’ with vengeance on mind, Cinderella didn’t stand a chance.

The e-book is now available on Amazon. To preview:

  1. Select this link: Not a Lore: The Imperfect Tales
  2. Select the Read Sample button.
  3. Scroll down to read the sample.

If you wish to buy the ebook, know that Amazon Kindle app can be installed on any device and not just Kindle Readers. (I had it on my Android phone. But my daughter forced me to delete it because it is addictive!)

Wish me luck. I will need loads of it. I have two requests.

  • If you think it is worth it, please share the link with others as well.
  • If you choose to buy, please leave reviews, good or bad. I am happy to learn from you.
  • Let me know what you think of the sample in the comments and if it needs improvement.

Thanks a lot! Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Posted in Random Thoughts

Where I have been, What I have been doing

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Egg-tray daffodils and butterfly and the falling-stars-night background coloured by my 7-year-old “Artist-e-Azam” wonder girl. My role was limited to cutting the flowers and flower arrangement.

Lately, my inner child and actual child have taken over my life.

My daughter turned seven last week. She also worked very hard for her exams last month. Hence, I and my husband have been giving her loads of little treats to make her feel special.

So, we have bought her what she loves the most: toys and colours of different kinds. And then let her colour everything around her to her heart’s content. I have throwing random ideas at her, and she is more than happy to oblige.

This egg-tray daffodils and butterfly is just the tip of the iceberg.

There is a toy dragon cut out of an egg-tray and coloured, and ready to be tied together, while another egg tray shivers awaiting execution. :)

I also created a reusable frame for her constant flow of amazing paintings.

That is why I haven’t been posting as much. I have let life take over…and its fun!

Posted in Random Thoughts

What all goes into a rainbow cake

Posted on by Shaily Agrawal

Do you know what all goes into cooking a rainbow cake 🎂?

My daughter is turning seven this month. Also, for the first time, she was dealing with exhausting end-of-year exams (Children her age have been going to school since they were 3 but we homeschooled her due to COVID.) I wanted her to remember these days with fondness rather than dread. So, I built her a 4-inch oven the out of a cardboard box.

She was so excited upon seeing the gift that she decided she will begin using it immediately. That is when it all snow-balled.

It started with a small paper pizza 🍕, complete with mushrooms 🍄, onions 🌰, tomatoes 🍅 and capsicums.

The next day, a 3D cake 🎂 the diameter of my smallest finger and the half the height appeared. It was cute with rainbow colours and seven candles on the top, ready for the big doll party–apparently, my daughter’s doll is ready to celebrate her seventh birthday too.

But of course, it wasn’t enough because it didn’t really have any ingredients, just paper. So, my daughter took it upon herself to create them. You see, the quickest way to get a toy is to build it. So, on the next day, a paper flour bag 🌾appeared, along with a paper milk jug 🥛, a couple of eggs 🥚🥚and a bowl of sugar. Not sure where she found the recipe–I don’t bake. I don’t even have an oven. The items are a little rough around the edges since she is not allowed to use scissors yet. But that never managed to curb her enthusiasm.

The next day, paper icing cones started appearing. Soon, we had strawberry 🍓, orange 🍊, mango 🥭, kiwi 🥝, blue berry, black berry and black grapes 🍇 flavours. I thought it should be enough for the cake, so after a lot of ministrations from our little chef, the cake went inside the oven.

And then she realised that it is a party, and she can’t offer just a piece of the rainbow cake to the guests. So, over the next few days, paper cupcakes 🧁, burger 🍔, four varieties of shakes 🥤, a whole lot of other food stuff of unidentifiable variety 🥗🧆🍥 started appearing. It was, of course, done using the milk-jug 🥛, eggs 🥚🥚, icing and flour 🌾 prepared previously.

And then came a whole set of paper fruits 🍓🍒🍎🍑🍊🥭🍍🍋🍌🍇 and serving trays. I reminded her that she had plastic fruits and trays as well, but the suggestion was declined on the premise that everything has to look similar.

Yesterday, after her exams ended, my daughter had the big doll birthday party 🥳 with her friend. Four guest dolls along with four soft toys–a deer, a monkey, a dog and a penguine–were in attendance. The party was a huge hit and everyone nose-dived into the rainbow cake 🎂 since they didn’t have the patience to cut it neatly into pieces (which would have destroyed a real piece of art).

I am glad my daughter’s knowledge of baked items is limited, or else the party would have to be delayed until my daughter had the complete range of baked goods. I hope now the party is over, the bake frenzy would end, or else slow down to one piece a day.

Well, one can hope!