Many consider the monsoon seasons a nuisance and some take that large leap to actually loathe this season. Sure, these seasons come attached with many leaks to be fixed, imprisonment indoors and of course, perpetual boredom. Some people however, fail to appreciate the pure beauty of the monsoons. This is in fact my favorite season that the tropics have to offer. Many prepare for these seasons by packing their bags and getting as far as they can from the wet seasons. I, on the other hand, prepare in a different way. I make sure that my house is as comfortable as it can get so that I can enjoy the daily spectacle nature has to offer and I get front row seats to it. The first unsteady patter of the minute rain drops splashing on my roof is like the curtain unveiling the first act of a play. As soon as the wind picks up and trees begin to sway forth, I get as cozy as possible to watch the climax of the storm.

The only way I can get cozy is by settling into the Oriana Sofa Collection. The all-around arrangement of the chairs allows you to view the Monsoons from any point of view and still remain comfortable. The drum-like rhythm of the rain finally beats down on my roof mercilessly. This is resembles the point in a play where the story whips into full throttle and drags its audience along. The pitch-black banks of clouds are swirling above my house and suddenly I savor the moment I was waiting for; the lightning and thunder. When you see that flash of white along the gloomy dark clouds, a type of beauty that is indescribable is witnessed. As if to top it all off, the booming thunder echoes the danger of the lightning and serves as a climax.

The Zita Sofa Collection will cater to your viewing desires exceptionally. Mimicking a theater-style arrangement, it is perfect for watching movies with your family, entertaining guests or as I would, watching the clouds of the monsoons unleash its power. After the climax of a play, the audience settles into their seats and make themselves comfortable for the end of the play.

Similarly, I need something to settle back into and prepare myself for the last of the raindrops to drop down into the quenched ground. The Letizia Sofa Collection prepares you perfectly to watch the close of the storm. This is the point where the storm dies down, the wind slows down to lull the trees and the last echoes of thunder can be barely heard. This is when the play begins to wrap up everything that has happened so far and introduces it happy or shocking ending.

And finally when it’s all over, you see the stark difference between the play and the storm. When a storm ends, everything becomes eerily quiet and the fresh smell of earth and water raises up to clean the smell of pollutants. After a play, there is a loud applause and rumbling from the garrulous audience discussing how much they like or hated the play. It takes a while for it to become noisy after a storm as birds and creatures venture out from their shelters to see if it is safe enough to go outside. While all this is going on, I am curled up on my sofa clearly enjoying the little freebies of nature.

We all know Vastu involves the arrangement of furniture in order to create a positive flow of energy (or at least if you didn’t know previously then you can by reading the past blogs). Vastu also incorporates colours into our daily lives which can influence your feelings. Colours are the most inexpensive element of Vastu and are one element that is subjective to one’s taste. Colours must be balanced just how flavors are balanced in a meal. In the living room, colours must be vibrant and warm which is perfect for receiving guests and be the amiable host.

Smaller rooms should play with lighter colors in order to create the illusion of the room being more spacious than it really is. The same goes vice-versa for larger rooms where warm colours should be used. To make the ceiling loftier, pale blue should be incorporated. If you are expecting a child soon and are meticulously preparing his or her room then bright colors are necessary as the child will grow up to be more tranquil and peaceful.

Colours have a more significant meaning than most think. I personally adore the color yellow despite the criticism I receive for liking a colour that many despise. Favorite colours display the type of personality you have. Yellow, for example, depicts my personality as happy and optimistic, something which of course I am more than happy to accept. Other colours such as blue signify peace, pink love, purple mystery etc. It is not the meaning that colours portray that is so intriguing. It is how important the colour of something is in our life and how it can play with our emotions or influences them. This shows that we as human beings are easily influenced by our surroundings and that we solely do not create our own emotions.

It is even more interesting that the men of the earlier ages had already discovered the importance of colour and space many years before our time. If you think all this talk about colour is made up, then try for yourself and you will see the difference, I know I already have.

If you happen to walk by a school on its last day, you might hear children counting down, singing and simply going crazy. The last day of school is significant for all ages and grades. In the first grade, children consider themselves a whole year older, ninth graders groan as the infamous boards loom in their sight and of course twelfth graders celebrate as they are about to embark on a journey never explored.

Children may be the ones preparing for summer, but it is parents who prepare for the “back to school” day. Furiously buying notebooks, pencils and erasers, parents meticulously prepare even before summer has started. In order to make your child not hate you for back to school shopping, why not clear out their muddled bedroom? The bedroom is an integral part of a child’s life and the Marina Kids Bedroom is an easy way to make your child not complain about ephemeral summers.

Especially if you have a little girl whose obsession with Barbies and the color pink, you make sure as a parent that you buy all stationary to match. A pink bedroom may blind your eyes but will be your little girl’s fantasy. The Anna Kids Bedroom Collection is the answer to all of your child’s wishes. As a child, I remember how important my room was to me. This is where you keep all your toys, books and prized possessions that no one else can have. A decorated bedroom is the key to fostering a healthy child’s mind. Though a child must learn how to share, some sort of privacy is essential. Imagination is sparked and this is where the creative stick figure drawings are thought of.

Speaking of creativity, it is a wonder the accomplishments children achieve. There was one young child who with a mental disorder had an amazing memory. For example he could just glance at any intricate drawing and draw it with accurate details and proportions from memory. This shows that no matter what, size or disabilities, you can touch the stars with a little of confidence to boost you up. Your child may even discover his or her talent while resting in the Dino Kid’s Bedroom Collection. It is colorful yet minimalist and who knows, maybe your child may want to be an architect?

I bet all of us have bared those never-ending physics classes. And I’m also pretty sure we’ve all have some distant memory of learning about energy. Who knew that energy would play such a big part in today’s modern world? Energy is actually the foundation for the ancient art of Feng Shui and Vastu. And ancient is no understatement, in fact it has been in practice ever since the rise of the Vedic times.

Vastu is basically the arrangement of furniture according to the five elements (fire, water, earth, wind and space) and the four cardinal directions. The name makes sense as well at least in Sanskrit, vas means to live and tu means you. The arrangement, however, is not as easy as it sounds. The use of a Lo Pan or a compass that tells the direction and the energy in each direction is a necessity. When using the compass, watches, jewelry and metal objects are out of sight. Everything has a correct arrangement, such as the bathroom, the bedroom, the gas stove, windows and even the staircase.

This is no folly. Homes are more secure, shops see more customers, and factories are more efficient and even offices feel less confined. For example a living room made under Vastu would be in the eastern or northern direction, the door in the east or northern direction as well, windows facing east and north and white, yellow, blue or green walls. All of this meticulous arranging can make all the difference.

SUMMER. The six letter word all children, parents and employees look forward to all year. I remember a while ago when I went to Spain for a summer. This was a holiday-holiday not a business-holiday so I was definitely a little impatient on that grueling 11 hour plane ride. Maybe a little too impatient. I was trying to catch some sleep so that I wasn’t a total zombie when I got off the plane. But since I was so excited to finally be able to explore such a beautiful country, I would wake up so often to see that only 5 minutes have passed since the last time I woke up. Just imagine how ELEVEN hours passed by. After a while you get tired watching the action movie being played in Spanish. I was waiting until I could hear real people speaking Spanish and feel the Mediterranean ocean breeze.

Finally this epic flight touched Spanish soil and I’ve never felt so happy. Ok, it’s not like I went down on my knees and kissed the ground, I wasn’t that tortured but I did suppress a yell of joy. My first stop was of course Barcelona, famous for the Barcelona chair. There’s even a museum for the first Barcelona chair ever made. But you don’t need a museum to see the wonderful furniture in this modern city.

Just go to a hotel and you’ll see something like the Le Corbusier Sofa Collection making a room symmetrical. Spain is also famous for its tapas or appetizers which Spaniards eat at around 9 p.m not uncommon to Indians. While bar hopping, you can see a similar chair which is also apart of Le Corbusier Sofa Collection that can be seen. While snacking on those tapas, you’ll notice how comfortable it is and that it gives a sense of privacy.

After eating at three restaurants in one night, I headed over to a friend’s house overlooking the Mediterranean to have…more food. It’s a wonder how Spaniards eat so much and yet stay so fit. Anyways, the lofty (as in tall not snooty) house had interior designing that reflected the nature of what summer is supposed to be about: relaxing. That means I saw a lot of lounge chairs but the one I liked the most was the Le Corbusier Chaise Lounge. There is nothing like it and it fits so well with the feeling of summer. I had to be pried from this chair because I felt so relaxed in it. Since my friend wouldn’t let me stay in that chair, I immediately bought it and now whenever I look at it, the wonderful experiences of Spain wash over me.

Besides mothers taking over the world for one day, May was also the month in which Siddhartha Gautama was enlightened by the full moon of May. He also finally answered his troubling question of why there is suffering and became Buddha or “the one who is awake”. Whether or not you follow Buddhism, it is amazing to read about the philosophical mysteries that Buddha unearthed in that moment. It is also remarkable that a prince threw everything away to find out the meaning of life and broke the barrier between superficiality and materialism.

Speaking of barriers, I had recently seen a show that totally broke the language barrier. The Midsummer’s Night Dream is a renowned classic written by Shakespeare and has been performed many times. However, I have never seen it been performed the way I saw it a few nights ago. Set in India, the director adapted the play to the location and the actors in total speak about seven languages in the duration of the play. This means that I heard Hindi (the first one I understand), Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Sanskrit and English. With all these languages, I say it’s hard enough understand the English (or Shakespearean as some say). However, being very popular, this company toured India, England, Australia and now America. This shows that despite the difference in languages, a play can still bring people together.

In my travels, I have been through many hotels (so many that I can’t even remember the last one I stayed at). However, there is one hotel that I can’t forget. In every vacation, along with my sunglasses, sunscreen and sandals, I pack a laptop. The place I went to was beautiful and the ocean breeze instantly cleared my mind. The hues of blue everywhere and the sun dancing in the ocean’s waves soothed my eyes. And then my phone rang. Obviously it was someone affiliated with work and I immediately reached for my laptop.

After a few minutes, I got off the phone and I urged to go to the beach and feel the white grainy sand between my toes with the calm ocean lapping at my feet. Dazed by that thought, I left the room quickly. When I came back refreshed, something in the room made me feel nervous. When I saw that the laptop was gone, my stress level reached an all time high. So to make this long story short, I spent my whole vacation with the police. But if this nonsense had never happened, I would have had the opportunity to enjoy the furnishings of my room. The furniture was white and blue to match the ocean scenery.

And the bed…the bed was amazing because it was so comfortable that it almost made me forget about the whole laptop thing. In fact it was the Ludlow Modern Bed with the needed padded headboard (perfect for voracious readers like me) was what it was called. If I wasn’t wasting my time talking to the police all night and day, I could seriously have spent all my time lying on the bed and getting the rest that is much needed. And now I spend my time hating my forever gone laptop.

The wonderful year of 2007 has come and gone in a flash and brought forth the on come of 2008. January 1 of 2008 meant the full thrust of the rigorous presidential elections in America and more importantly, the Beijing Olympics. The Olympics, which occurs every four years is an event that the host country prepares for years before the dawn of the Olympics. To mark the beginning of the Olympics is the infamous torch relay race. The ever-burning flame is to symbolize the torch of the king of all gods in Greek mythology, Zeus. Many interesting ways have been used to keep this tradition aflame. In Athens, the flame was transmitted into a radio signal where it was transported to Canada where the signal was received by a laser beam that lighted the torch up. This April, the prestigious Olympic torch passed through India in Mumbai and Delhi where athletes such as Anju Bobby George and even actors like Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan participated.

This event would not exactly, well, suit me. Running to me is not something that is invigorating. In fact, it is just tiring to me. But running through the architectural richness of Delhi would ease my burning pain a little bit. Delhi is like a live history text book. Everywhere you turn, you see a piece of history that battled all these thousands of years to stand firmly on the grounds of the 21 century. The Quitab Minar and the Humayun Tomb are by far my favorites. Once you enter the tomb, you instantly feel this unusual aura of peace that it doesn’t feel like you have just entered a burial site. And the romantic Quitab Minar has the most intricate patterns that won’t be seen on other monument. After thinking of the magic of Delhi, I am almost tempted to start running through the streets of Delhi with the torch (even despite the looks I would be getting).