Smiley :) :D ;)

I always use Smiley faces in every sms I send and in most of the mails I send. My husband has made it a trademark to sign his name on any greeting cards with a smiley. But does everyone know the origin of this  this popular yellow color smiley face with 2 eyes and a wide smile?  Read on for more information about it.
The Smiley Face was created by Harvey Richard Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts in 1963 for a friendship campaign undertaken to ease the acrimony between the workers of two insurance companies following their merger. It was used in buttons, desk cards and posters and became a big hit. But Harvey Ball never applied for trademark or copyright of his work and earned just 45$ for his work!

You can read more about it here and here.

Harvey Ball posing with his creation. Photographer: Michael Carroll

Harvey Ball: “Never in the history of mankind or art has any single piece of art gotten such widespread favor, pleasure, enjoyment, and nothing has ever been so simply done and so easily understood in art.”

In 1999, he started the World Smile Day  :). Since then it is celebrated on the 1st Friday of every October  in his hometown Worcester and all over the world. The idea is that for atleast one day each year, everyone should forget politics, geography and religion and devote their day to smiles and acts of kindness.

"Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile"!

After his death in 2001, the "Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation" was created to honour his name and memory. The slogan of the Smile Foundation is "improving this world, one smile at a time." The Foundation continues as the official sponsor of World Smile Day each year.

Wish I lived here..

Source: xenianova.wordpress.com

Alas I don't and its not even a real house! It's actually part of a Hobbiton movie set that was created for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

It is built on the Alexander farm in Matamata, NZ in the year 1999 and a great deal of hard work, capital, time (almost 10 months) and mindblowing imagination went into converting this traditional sheep and beef farm into director Peter Jackson's vision of the Hobbiton Town. Once the filming was over, the set was not maintained by the farm owners, their grazing cattle took over and it became a total mess. However when Peter Jackson returned to film the prequel to the movie, his company entered into a joint venture arrangement with the owners of the Alexander farm to allow movie fans to visit the newly constructed film set of The Hobbit :) Thanks to this initiative, public is open to this set property and can experience the magic of this enchanting place!!!

I am not even a 'LoTR' fan but this place is high on my list of 'places to see'. I can even imagine little dwarfs , pixies and tiny fairies coming alive in the night and living their secret life while we sleep :) WOW!

Visit this to get more information on this place.

Gudde da bhoota undu

In our childhood, every year during summer vacation, we would look forward to Bhoota Kola at my grandparents' house in Mangalore. Dancers in makeup and costumes made of coconut leaves, flowers and other paraphernalia would dance to traditional music in front of our house which would be lit up in bright lights. The whole village would be present for this event.
This is an annual ritual where the two bhootas or 'guardian spirits' of our house 'Kallurti' and 'Kalkuda' are worshipped in this unique manner; dancers get 'possessed' and communicate with the members of our family while in 'trance'.
As 'city' kids, our reactions varied from 'mesmerized to questioning to unbelieving' and now its of 'acceptance' that some things are beyond our understanding.
This video was shot by my brother. It tries to demystify the myth around this ancient 'worship ritual' and ponders over its future.

For more information on Bhoota Kola, go here.

So how many do you know??

We see them everywhere! We see through them most of da time! But if you are from Mumbai and you read the papers.. you should be able to identify all of these!

Popular logos and not so popular ones! Let me test you :)

First the EASY ones!!

Now some NOT SO EASY ones..

These are NOT SO HARD either! Can you identify them?

Now some HARD ones!!!

Got all?? For answers you can mail me!



Why I run...



                                              So simple it is..      Source: http://pinterest.com/