Happy Birthday :)

Today is MN's birthday. She is all of three years today. On this occasion, I will dedicate a poem to her (Its not written by me, I got it from somewhere and have modified to suit her, so the copyright is not mine but reflects my feelings :P )

Now listen up, young lady, I'm talkin' to thee
You've reached the age that they call 'Tantrum Three'.
An age that drives many a young mom mad
While helplessly looks on, the err... helpless Dad.

I see you've started on the path
of terrorising your parents already
There's a naughty twinkle in your eye
Your gait's no longer unsteady

Gone are the days when you only knew
how to pee, poo, eat, gurgle and crawl
Now you've discovered the power
Of the prolonged high-pitched bawl

You make so much noise, you drive ‘em neighbours insane
Every now and then they come-a-knocking to complain
But when I plead, "Sing for me, put on a show?"
You toss your tiny little head and say a flat "No".

You’ve spilled, broken, shrieked, and still refused to eat
You have thrown things out the window on to the street!
You’ve taken red crayons and scribbled on the white wall
When you grow up, here are some things for you to recall

Some day when you’re all grown up
And feel that your parents are driving you mad
"Mom doesn’t get me at all!” You'll rant.
“And don't even get me started on Dad!"

I'd like you to come back here
And read all the things you did
At Tantrum Three, you drove ‘em mad abundantly
But they still loved you, you naughty li’l kid.

Tag

I love doing tags :) Here it goes - 

A - Available?  As in Single and Available? No. I am happily married. But as in Available to friends? Oh anytime!

B-Best friend: Myself ;)

C-Cake or Pie? Cake

D-Drink of choice: Water. Any time.

E-Essential thing used everyday: Brains J

F-Favorite color: Blue

G-Gummi bears or worms: Gummi Bears, I guess

H-Hometown: Ahmedabad

I-Indulgence:  Chocolates, Pani Puri

J-January or February: January

K-Kids and names: None as of now ;)

L-Life is incomplete without: Dil, Dosti, etc.

M-Marriage date: Coming soon J

N-Number of siblings: 2

O-Oranges or apples: Oranges

P-Phobias: Insectophobia (if there is such a word)

Q-Quote: "Forgive and Forget"

R-Reason to smile: Family and Friends

S-Season: Monsoon

T-Tag three people: Anyone who has not updated his/her blog in last 1 month

U-Unknown fact about me: If I write it here, it won’t be unknown anymore ;)

V-Vegetable you do not like: Beans

W-Worst habit: Lazy L

X-x-rays you have had: None

Y-Your favourite food: I have not reviewed this in long time now. I pass it!

Z-Zodiac: Aries

The Prodigy

I accidentally came across this video and I realized that apart from the articulation, nothing much has changed in the man.

 More than two decades, innumerable world records and still he carries himself with the same humility. 

Hats Off to YOU 

A lesson learnt

Few days back, we were taking MN (my niece) to her Ma’s music show. Didi has started learning Indian Classical Music (vocal) and their academy had organized a show wherein all the students were supposed to perform solo and group songs. Since Didi was also performing, she left MN with us. We were doing our usual masti on the way to the venue when it started raining heavily.

 All of the a sudden, MN stopped everything and  said :

“Mausi, dekho kitni barish ho rahi hai.

 Achha hua na hum Activa se nahi aaye, nahi to hum pure bheeg jaate.

Thank You God, aapne hume bacha liya! “

My little tapori taught me a valuable lesson that day that we should always count our blessings no matter how small they are.

Thanks MN, YOU are one such blessing in my life J

God's Own Country

As already mentioned, we had a trip to Wayanad some 2 months back. It’s a hill station in Kerela. We were 2 couples and 2 bachelors in all. One of the friends was coming from Pune in a late night flight. So we decided to pick him up from the airport and start the journey directly from there. We gave him a grand embarrassing welcome with garlands and “Bambai se aaya mera dost.. “ playing in background.  While we were discussing our plans of garlanding him, our cab driver asked if we have to go to the International airport. Sheesh.

Travelled for the whole night, talked, napped, and sang along the whole way. We covered two National Parks on the way – Nagahole and Rajiv Gandhi National Park, saw a number of deers, elephants and monkeys.

Travelling within Wayanad was fun. Our rooms of the resort had amazing, breath taking views. Had a campfire at the resort at night, there were leeches too.

 Covered a number of tourist points there like Bansura Dam, Pokode Lake, the best one being the Soochipura waterfalls. Watching the tea gardens is a treat to the eyes. Came back via Mysore, since it was Dasshera time, we got to see some cultural activities in a wonderfully lit Mysore Palace.

All in all, had a memorable time. J

Below are some pics : 

                                                 

                                                    Nagarhole National Park

                                                       Animals at Nagarhole

                                                           Splendid, isn’t it?

                                                            Bansura Dam

                                                            Campfire

                                                        Tea gardens

                                                         Nature at its best

                                                        Soochipura Waterfalls

                                                                  

                                              The grand Mysore Palace

Revolution 2020

Kahani puri filmi hai boss...


This is what I thought after reading the book.

I ordered the book last week, got it last week and finished it on Friday last week (took two days though :P )

Its a typical CB novel, difficult to keep it down after starting.. The ending was a bit unexpected though but I found it apt. I know many wont agree but its my blog and I write what I feel :P

Couldn't take the characters out of my mind and so narrated the whole story to J* first thing on Saturday morning as he doesn't have the patience to sit through a complete book anyways.

I have started believing that CB has started writing his books keeping Bollywood in mind, knowing for sure that it will make a perfect Bollywood masala movie!!

My Rating : 4/5

PS - I have a feeling that in the movie(if made), the ending would be changed.

RIP

Another legend passes away within a week :(

I am not a huge fan of Jagjit Singhji, but I know people who were and they must be devastated today.

I just love a few of his gazhals, my favorite one being - 

RIP Sir!!

Tid Bits

***I read somewhere that "Mausam continues to sink..." (Sheesh), well it refers to the movie "Mausam" :)
No matter what  the box office reviews say, personally I liked the concept of the movie, I liked the acting of Shahid Kapoor, he has put a lot of hard work in this movie and it shows. Sonam Kapoor also looked good and does not have many dialogues which is another plus point :P It may be a bit stretched but I still liked it!

***I am nostalgic again. I recently read a blog of my classmate (my ex-classmate). How strange it is that the people and things we take for granted, the people whom we used to see everyday, become blurred with time, but one note about one person brings back all the memories as if ye kal hi ki baat hai..


***We recently had an amazing trip to Wayanad in Kerela with friends. Details/Pics in another post soon.

***RIP Steve Jobs. You continue to be an inspiration to many...

***"God made man and then He said 'I can do better than that' and made women."
This is what I received as an SMS. I got carried away and forwarded it to a few of my gal pals.
Then it struck me Is it true?
I who never believed this. I who believed in the equality of genders. How can I do this??
I dont think either man or woman is superior. They are just different.
Then I thought that it can be taken in fun, but that is just my escape route. When someone cracks a generalized joke on women, I don't appreciate it, so maybe I shouldn't have made/enjoyed/forwarded this statement.!

Food for Thought

Many people who know me would be surprised to see that a food post is coming from me :P

However this is to warn tell you that I make a decent cook! (Superior look)

This is my first food post, so pardon me if I am not making myself clear (You can always write to me for a clarification :P) In fact, when I browse through any cookbook or food website, I realize that I don’t even recognize half the ingredients, let alone have it. So I have finally decided, that these websites are meant just for visual pleasure ;)

Anyways, recently I made gujiyas or karanji as it is called in Maharashtra under the expert guidance of MIL which is a kind of sweet. People have sweet tooth, I claim that my whole dentition is sweet. The mould which we got was very big so we ended up making very big gujiyas, 1 would suffice for a meal :P

It sure takes a lot of time and effort but the end result is worth it!

Those of you who would like to try it, below is the recepie:

INGREDIENTS :

For filling:

·        Suji or Rava or Semolina

·        Khuskhus or Poppy Seeds

·        Grated Coconut

·        Cut dry fruits which may include almonds, cashews, pistachios, kishmish/raisin, black kishmish, etc.

·        Ghee

·        Powdered Sugar

For Cover:

·        Maida

·        Oil for frying

METHOD

·        First roast suji in ghee for around 15-20 minutes on low flame until it   turns pinkish brown, then add khuskhus and grated coconut and continue roasting

·        Now add cocnut and dry fruits

·        Finally add sugar and mix thoroughly, the filling is ready
Tip : You can add more ghee or milk for binding. If you add milk, make sure that you finish it quickly! If added ghee, you can keep it for a month and fry as and when to crave for it.

·        Add some ghee in maida and prepare a dough

·        Spread it with the rolling pin and add the filling with the help of the     mould

·        Fry it until golden brown

And here is the final product...

Do try it and let me know how it was. Happy Cooking!!! J

Feeling Good..

I went to Freedom Park yesterday. Its where the protests are going on and people are supporting Mr. Anna Hazare in Bangalore. Its such a nice feeling to be a part of a revolution!!!

I really hope this fast and protests bring some fruits!

Jai Hind!!!

For old times' sake...

I saw this video somewhere and my mind was drifted to old times.

Recently, I was reading a report, in which the researchers have wasted spent their time and resources in proving a thing which we already know, that women speak more than men. In contrast to the average 20,000 words spoken by women per day, men speak a mere 13,000 words!

Now for me, I may not speak those many words, but I cover it up by chatting. I have a friend, I will call her AJ, with whom I chat daily for around 3-4 hours. She was my roommate for 6 years and so we have spent the maximum hours of graduation days with each other. We may not chat continuously, but just the fact that she is at the other end is enough. Many people ask me that what is that you chat about every day. Well, we chat about anything and everything under the sun. I can bug her anytime of the day and I know that she would be listening. We may not always agree with each other, nor do we always approve everything other has done, but that hardly makes a difference in our bond.

So coming back to the video, I have seen Hum-Tum ‘n’ number of times along with AJ.

 During our graduation days, we had rented a house and stayed there. There was no TV at that place (come on, we were students!) We had a desktop though which was our source of entertainment. We rented DVDs of all the latest movies and copied them to the system ;) We had also stored all our favourite movies in a similar way. So there are a couple of movies which we had seen together hundreds of times and no, I am not exaggerating!

And when I saw this clip I relived those days, hence this definitely deserves to be video of the month. 

Since this is friendship week, I dedicate it to AJ and our friendship J 

Cheers!

Caught You!!

Me : Am I looking FAT in this dress?

J* : You are NOT fat.

Me : That means I am looking fat!!  :-/

Poor guys! There is no correct answer to this question! ;-)

So that I remember…

28^th July, 2011

5:55PM

This is for my personal record, so you can skip this post.

I am writing this from Hyderabad Airport, waiting for my flight which is 1.5 hours from now and desperately trying to connect to Wi-Fi. Sadly, I have not succeeded in connecting so far. I am here for some official work. The reason why I want to remember this is because this is for the first time I am on a completely paid trip from office and also this is my first official trip, although I hoped and wished that my first official trip would be abroad, only if wishes were horses!

I used to think that it must be great fun to be on a fully paid trip, but now my thinking has definitely changed. Of course, it was a great learning experience, but it was hectic and tiring. I am here along with my manager. We started yesterday at 6:15 in the morning from my place for an 8:30 flight, went directly to the client office from the airport which by the way is a good 70kms from the airport. Had a long, long day, could touch the guest house only by 8:30pm. The room was a very spacious one with all the facilities, I was tired, but was not able to sleep, I don’t know maybe because of the anxiety. I have never seen a hotel room all for myself and I had forgotten when did I sleep alone in a room, was watching mindless television soaps till 11 pm, I think I slept by midnight. In the morning, again after ages, I woke up before my alarm buzzed! I was amazed at myself, as I love sleeping and I always snooze my alarm at least thrice before I get up. I got up at 6 and did nothing for another one and a half hours which is again very unlike me :O

Then got ready, left for the client office at 8:30, spent another day in trainings, etc. and left it at 4 and now I am here. This week had been insanely hectic for me. We had gone to J*’s native last Friday and returned on Monday late in the night, left for office on Tuesday on the usual time, that is, 7:30 AM, I have already written my schedule for yesterday and today with elaborate details and since I have got a lot of inputs from the customer, I am sure, I will be immensely busy tomorrow. Its good that MIL came along with us this time, and J* is not alone at home, he is not feeling well today.  I have never waited for a weekend so desperately as I am doing now!

Why am I writing about it in such a detailed manner, because now if I see someone on an official trip, I will come back and read this and would know that its not fun always.  :P

Double Standards? Not Really!!

Recently, I was talking to someone who commented that “Women are too easily impressed by chivalry”

He further accused us for double standards and went on to say that on one hand we talk about gender equality and on the other hand we expect the little favours to come our way due to our genders.

Now I would beg to differ. I don’t want to get into the debate on gender equality, because women are superior anyways! :) I will save the proofs probably for some another post.

Anyways, I will be able to prove my point better with some examples. Just ponder over the below scenarios:

Situation 1 – When I am a little late for a meeting/training and all the chairs are occupied, I don’t expect anyone to get up and offer me their seat, but when I am struggling to bring a chair through a self closing door, I just want someone to help me do this and not just sit there like statues watching me struggle!

Situation 2 – When I get into an over crowded bus, I don’t expect someone to get up and offer me their seat, but I do want them to leave their seats when they see an elderly person or a pregnant lady who is finding it difficult to manage!

Situation 3 – I don’t expect someone to hold the door for me every time, I have hands, I can do it myself,  but when I am right behind someone who just passed by the self closing door, I expect him to pause and hold the door a few seconds longer so that it won’t bang right into my face! I do the same for men/women behind me.

Now its basic courtesy and etiquettes that everyone should follow regardless of their genders without a second thought, but sadly, very few practice it.

So in today’s world which is so intolerant, these little signs of kindness always feel good and we are drawn towards that thoughtful person, and if this is what you call double standards, its time for a vocabulary check! 

I was scolded

by a 2 year old... :-O

Now it happened one day me and J* went to didi's place. I was as usual playing with MN(my niece) while J* had some meetings and calls to attend from home so he was in another room busy on his laptop.

I asked MN : Mausaji kaha hai? (Where is your Mausaji?)

MN: Wo andar kaam kar rahe hai (He is working in another room)

Then we got busy with our masti, reciting her rhymes. She was telling teaching me the new rhymes she had learnt, about her teacher and what all she did in school that day.

Now being the epitome of impatience, I asked again : Mausaji kaha hai?  (Where is your Mausaji?)
I dont know why I asked it as I already knew, but I did.

MN (in a stern voice) : Maine aapko ek baar bola na wo kaam kar rahe hai! (Haven't I told you once that he is working)

:-/

People share some amazing stuff on face book...

Random Things..

About the world at large…

DISCLAIMER : The views mentioned in this post are solely my own and are not intended to hurt anyone’s sentiments

*** Around 98 Kg gold, 306 kg silver and Rs 12 crore cash found in the personal chamber of the God(as he claimed himself to be) or spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba. Gosh!! What wealth!!! Now if he was God, why had he kept these materialistic things in his personal chamber? And the sad part is people still believe him to be God. Sigh. In fact, my best friend and her family are staunch devotees of Baba and now as I am writing this, they are at Putuparthi doing “seva” there!

I mean, I don’t say doing seva is wrong, in fact it’s a great thing that even in today’s times people take time from their busy schedules for it, and maybe he did and taught and preached some great things, but his death proved that ultimately he was human. God cant die, right?

*** On the other hand, there is Swami Ramdev ji, who for the benefit of people was on fast until death and had a great support of masses, but we all know what happened to him. I strongly CONDEMN what happened with Swami Ramdev ji.

***Government agreed to Anna Hazareji’s demand for a Lokpal Bill, but we still have to see how much of it is in place.

***M F Hussain expired outside India. A pity again! I don’t really support his paintings that raised furore amongst the Hindus, but a person who is awarded Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, at least had a right to stay in this country.

*** Journalist J Dey was shot bt 4 men on bikes in broad daylight. He was alive when he was taken to the hospital. The irony is, the hospital refused to admit him as it was a police case. By the time he was taken to another hospital, he was declared brought dead!!! I mean, if the hospital authorities had taken their jobs a little more seriously, probably, J Dey would have been alive today..

***Its coming from an optimist like me that if the things continue to be the way they are, there is little hope for our country! L

Otherwise…

***Facebook has become boring these days! Still I login to it 2 to 3 times a day :P

***These days, a lot of facebook statuses say that rains have arrived. Now, since I live in Bangalore, rains were never away J Still every time it pours, Bangalore rain is a treat to eyes! Everything becomes so fresh and pure.

***I LOVE RAINS! J

*** I lost in Scrabble against J* for the first time. Generally its J* who makes 3 lettered words, this time it was the opposite :-/

***MN (my neice) has started going to play school since the 1^st of this month and hasn’t settled there yet L

***Since my sister-in-law, her husband and their kid were here, we made a trip to Ooty, Conoor and Mysore. The places were overcrowded due to summers and vacation time, we had a nice family outing with only FIL missing and we missed him.

*** I attended the first wedding after mine and since it was in J* family, got to know a lot of people. I was seeing many of them for the first time after my wedding. I remembered most of them and they were really happy as I seemed to recognize them by their names and relations J

***The marriage was in Pune and I was visiting Pune after a gap of around 1.5 years and I so loved it. I didn’t visit the places I used to frequent, nor did I meet any of my friends (because we were there only for 20 hours), still it felt so nice, just to be there

***I have a soft corner for Pune J

***I am missing home!

*** Me and J* made a trip to Goa for few days. This was my 2^nd trip there, the first time I went there, I was in 9^th standard. My memories about Goa did not match with this time, maybe because we went there in off season this time, and it had just started raining there. It was beautiful. The water sports were closed due to rains and I had went there with the sole intention of parasailing L So looking forward to the next trip there J

***Maybe, the world is not that bad after all!!

Reading

I am an avid reader. I can read anytime, anywhere. I read anything and everything which is readable, be it the hoardings on the road or the piece of paper in which the thelewala gives moongfalli :P. Sometimes, I so wish that I could read Kannada, as in Bangalore, there is so much Kannada everywhere. There has never been a time in my life when I have not read anything (except when I didn't know how to read :P) Exam time, holiday time, night, day. I was never a night person. I prefer getting up early in the morning, but I remember, once I stayed up till very late in the night, just because I HAD TO finish a novel. In fact, apart from sleeping, I must have spent more hours of my life in reading rather than any other activity.

I have never read a self help or a non-fiction book. I tried but I couldn’t. It’s just that I don’t enjoy them. And for me, reading is my happy thing to do. I look forward to reading everyday. So I just can’t read anything, which might be good for me, but do not interest me. So I end up reading fiction. And reading fiction has changed my life in so many ways. I have come to know about people whom I may never meet, the places I may never visit, the emotions I may never experience­­ and just tiny, tiny things which I would never even know about. If I had all the money and all the time in the world, I would do nothing but READ. I can forget anything when I am reading.

The credit for my love of reading goes to my parents, who are ardent readers themselves. When we were kids, Papa had subscribed to a number of weekly, fortnightly and monthly magazines for us which we looked forward to. We used to finish them in one and wait for more.. Some of them included Champak, Chandamama, Children’s Digest, Children’s Magazine, India Today, Outlook, Traveller, even Filmfare (this explains my love for Bollywood J ) and a lot more. My mother being a school teacher would get a number of books and magazines for us from her school library. I was lucky that I got such teachers in my formative years in school who always encouraged me to read.

And reading is what differentiates me from the rest. I don’t have any talent to speak of – can’t dance, sing, draw, paint or write. Nor do I have any particular interest in any kind of sports. What I can do is – read. And honestly speaking, personally, I don’t know anyone who reads more than me. There are people who read a wider variety of books and are more knowledgeable, but when you talk about quantity or the number of books, you can’t beat me J Also, there is the speed at which I read. Again, I don’t know anyone who reads faster than me. Reading faster has many advantages and disadvantages for me. Advantage is I can read so much more in a limited period of time. Disadvantage being often I am left with nothing to read. Also, I don’t completely enjoy the book as I am in so much of a rush to know what happened next, that I many a times miss the subtleties which makes a book a classic. One bright thing of this is that I can re-read the book multiple times. Also, in the subsequent reads I am more relaxed and pay more attention to the minute details which I missed earlier because I already know what is coming up.

 I have been reading a lot lately. The reason being, my office has shifted and it’s a good one hour ride from my place, so I have ample time to read. In fact, I have finished five novels in the month of May alone J  So don’t be surprised, if you get a series of book reviews from me :P

If there is one thing that I seriously and truly want to pass on to my future generation, it would be books.

Here’s to a lifetime of reading, learning and enjoying!

Rant

Now there is a guy at my workplace and I have a BIG problem with him.

The problem is – he talks on phone.

I know, you would be telling me that what’s the problem in that. We all talk on phone. Yeah, even I do, but not on your face, even after you tell me that you are getting disturbed by my phone calls! And not just that, all this while he romances with his girlfriend. I know his girlfriend’s name, what time she sleeps and even her roommate’s name. Mind you, I am not sneaking into this conversation but my ears are compelled to listen to all this.

Why are people so keen to publicise their private lives is just beyond my understanding!

I mean, how difficult it is for him to tell her that he would call later or if you are so keen to chat with her, just lock your system and go to the corridor and talk all you want without disturbing me?!

Does he think he is cool since he has a girlfriend to flirt with? Someone please tell him to GROW UP

Haa.. NOW I am feeling better as I have poured it all out!

Food Tales!

Life can never be dull if there are not one but two kids around! These days J*’s Niece, let’s call her JN, is also here and we never cease to get entertained. J JN is 7 years old and she came some 20 days back alone from J*’s native place to Bangalore and has gained popularity as a brave kid J My sister in law joined us recently.

Oh, I digressed.  Anyways, below are the few excerpts from the dining table :

************

Didi-Jiju(My elder sister and BIL) being staunch vegetarians, were telling My Niece, will refer her as MN(She is 2 years old btw), about it for the fear that she might eat some non-veg stuff at her friend’s place. Jiju went one step ahead and made her learn one sentence :

“Maans khana paap hota hai”

(It’s a sin to eat meat)

After one day, when we were having food, MN thought something and suddenly asks her mother

MN : Ma, paneer paap hota hai? (she just loves paneer)

Didi : Nai, paneer paap nai hota hai

MN : Haan, paneer to paneer hota hai na

We : ROFL

************

JN is a foodie. She loves food to an extent that she wants her plate full always even after she is done!

So we were having dinner where didi (sister in law) was serving hot puris to her. Now JN said she wanted more.

Didi : You finish this first.

JN : I will

Didi : Pehle finish kar do, fir aapki ichha hogi to aur lena

Literal meaning : If you wish, then you take more

Supposed meaning : If you need, then you take more

JN : Ichha to hai na meri

We : ROFL

************

MN has been taught to recite a shloka before having a meal. Now even if we forget, she reminds. After the recitation didi has told her to greet everyone with “OM”

So while having her meal few days back, the following conversation happened:

MN recites the shloka.

MN  : OM Ma

Didi : OM MN

MN : OM Mausi

Me : OM MN

MN  : OM dahi.. OM khichi

We : ROFL

************

And these are just a few incidents. We get to experience some, every single day these days.

No doubt my blood is increasing and I am gaining weight :P