A Gift of Humour

I gifted a friend this poem. It's something that can be also shared with the world as well - so people can take it away with them and keep it on the tip of their tongue or at the back of their mind or in some dark corner of their soul, to be recalled, when they need it the most. Laughter revives me.

A gift is not asked for, but it is understood. A gift is not hoped for, but receiving one still feels good. A gift can be wishes, a souvenir or bling, a poem, a song or a blessing. I've chosen to give you the gift of laughter, for this moment and ever after.

Cherish and add to this gift. Use it every time you need a lift.

There is nothing that laughter can't cure, making you happy, restored and feeling pure. A free gift with no peer and none that equals, the power of humour and a few good chuckles.

Life comes alive with laughter. It sees you through illness, pain and disaster. Now and ever after.

Restyling old furniture - Indian or French style!

There are a lot of home furnishing, interior decor and furniture brands sprouting up every day and it can become quite a chore to choose from amongst them all, especially when you secretly prefer your comfortable old-world furniture from your parents or grandparents home.

It's partly because if it is hand-carved wooden furniture, that kind of craftsmanship is hard to find within a reasonable budget. You have to only check out some of these new stores to see the price tags on some of the items, and you know how much you are getting fleeced.


So do the next best thing - in my view this should be option one - offer to buy hand-me-downs in good condition from friends and family, if that is exactly what you are looking for. Even with a little wear and tear, there is still many years of life in these used items of furniture.

See how this old bench was given a vibrant new look with designs stencilled into the wood and then painted over in blue, green, white and red.

There is a French art form called decoupage, which means 'cutting out and decorating with paper', and this was something that could be done as a art-craft project at home, to restore old wooden furniture and give it a fresh new look. I've done a tray using this art form. And I know someone whose done over an entire wardrobe in this way. It goes without saying that it looks unique and mind-blowing.

Picture source - India Today Home

Trump is a self-made failure & not a success story

The book 'Too Much and Never Enough' was greatly anticipated and since the Trump family was hoping it would never be published, it stoked people's expectations about what Mary Trump was revealing about her dysfunctional family, even more. She's certainly revealed the President's parents (non)parenting techniques. Her grandfather's business ethics weren't any better but it certainly made them extremely wealthy. I loved how she explains that her grandfather built a debt-free realty business with taxpayer's money. Donald used that money, his father's contacts and none of that business acumen and went ahead and built casinos or hotels and was forever being bailed out by his bankers and/or his father. So far from being a self-made successful business tycoon, Donald Trump is neither self made or really successful. Not after five bankruptcies!

She has court documents and numbers to prove her case and no wonder, Trump has already tweeted and called her "a mess". Really, what is he then anyway? After, reading this book, you realise that the only one who was the diamond-in-the-rough and who could have been groomed to take over the Trump empire, which no longer exists because Donald Trump sold it for $705.6 million, was her father Fred Trump Jr. He was really badly treated and as a daughter, I can understand she wants the world to know about his lost potential. What is laughable is for a family that is this greedy that they left her and her brother out of the family wealth is that the $700 million property was valued by banks to be worth a billion dollars! So the man with the 'killer' non-existent business acumen left 300 million on the table. But he and his three siblings still got around $170 million, and even that was not enough to pay off Donald's debts.

The fact that his properties have not been making money has been exposed by even the Washington Post, which is why he takes visiting heads of other countries there and bills taxpayers for it. If American taxpayers think, enriching your own pocket constantly through tax evasion and at their expense is having good business sense, then they definitely need Mary to write another book about how business is really done, if it's done in the right way. By people with brains, ethics, inspiration, and vision. Her grandfather had the brains and possibly some vision but no ethics whatsoever. Donald Trump was just that - a showy inspiration and smooth-talker that his father wasn't, so he projected his unfulfilled dreams on to this son. But Donald turned out to be a just that - a trumped up businessman - who beyond glad-handing and schmoozing, had no understanding of numbers and the complexity of business deals. Why would he? After all, his father used to do the math, while he did the showmanship.

I felt the loss of her father keenly, as if he was my dad. He was bound to be lost in a family with no sensitivity to anything apart from money, and no appreciation for genuine talent even if it's staring in their face. He was given no encouragement when he proved he was a good pilot. They broke him in so many ways, that his spirit stopped soaring out of the mundane existence his father had planned for him - managing his 40+ properties and collecting rent. How well Donald did that is the meat of this book. The US president is a spectacular failure as a businessman but he made huge amounts of money even while failing. Is that the concept of bankruptcy in America? No wonder so many of your banks failed too. Well, they keep promoting failures!

The Trump family may be the story of many other families in some way, but in this case, a high functioning but severely sociopathic and narcissistic member of that family, has made it to the White House. He's making a mockery of the Presidency and he's failing there too. Mary is right - he stood by and watched while she and her brother got nothing of their father's share of the vast Trump fortune. This is also the man who tried to stab his own father in the back by taking away all his money for himself, and leaving the other three siblings with nothing. He was caught at the right time, or today, they would all have been in Mary and her brother's situation. Donald Trump will just not stop taking from everyone, and she's warning everyone in this book. Pay heed.

Creativity Unleashed!

 

As a child, have you ever used walls to give a free rein to your imagination? Then why not do the equivalent as adults? I mean why not use everyday items in more innovative ways. Try shopping for one thing…but using it as another! Here is my quirky, fun and at the same time practical list.

1. I did this when I was in college. I wrapped my text books with those gorgeous wall calendar sheets. I know most people may not be using such wall calendars anymore but if you are, then don’t waste those fantastic photographs printed on good paper and just throw it away.

2. Remember the funnies section of the Sunday newspaper supplement? It used to be printed on this glossy-finish paper (the Times of India one) and it was an entire page of ‘Hagar the Horrible’ and ‘Beetle Bailey’ etc. They used to make for great gift wrapping paper. You could try this with the Hindustan Times’ cartoon supplement because though it’s a matt-finish paper, the quality of the printing is good and not as bad as the Asian Age!

3. Use leftover scraps of good gift wrapping paper to make envelopes for gifting cash or gift vouchers at weddings. It adds that personal touch. For this, I always use the classy, thick sheets you get at Hallmark Galleries (mostly) with lovely prints of flowers on them. This paper is just right to do this kind of craft project. Those common glittery ones look tacky and obviously, you won’t be able to make them into envelopes without them ripping up.

4. You can use hair bands as bracelets if they are pretty enough and also do the opposite - use bracelets as hair bands. For eg: I bought a pretty coloured pebbles bracelet from Goa and I frequently tied my hair with it and got compliments for it!

5. A salon owner who worked at Franck Provost told me that the Kaya protein gel, which is a hair root strengthening gel can be easily used as a styling gel as well. Since it looks and smells good, you should take his advice.