A belated Diwali Post

Last week, we celebrated Diwali!! Yes , I know this post is coming little very late given that Diwali is more than over – in every time zone now J but hey , I was busy celebrating it last week .

This was my fifth Diwali in a row away from home i.e. India… and third with M.  For just three years, it actually feels wonderful that we have almost a set tradition of ours.  We try our best to emulate the Diwali feel from back home. This year we were even lucky to get a pre-ordered homemade faral just before Diwali which included Chakli and Shev.

The home was all decked up the weekend before Diwali. While M put up the lights , I made the puja arrangements. Wearing our best outfits , we offered our prayers to goddess laxmi and celebrated paadwa the next day.

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe Diwali J

And wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving ….  !!!

National “ Clean out your refrigerator day” !! (Week four post two)

Well, I did not know such day existed until now. Early this month, in our monthly community newsletter, 15^th Nov was marked as “Clean your fridge day”. Reading it I thought, it’s really sweet of them reminding us to clean our Fridge –yes the task most of us either dread of or procrastinate!

Though the origin of this day is quite unclear , some say it was a campaign for whirlpool , others say it comes just in time before the thanksgiving – wherein you would definitely need all the extra room, I personally found the idea quite innovative and decided to go ahead and participate !!

It definitely took me some time, but whatever – I really love cleaning my Fridge!!

PS: Yea, if you have not noticed until now, I have posted two posts every week for these past four weeks. And personally, I had fun doing them

Halloween After effects (week four post one)

When I brought the jar full of candies to work, the week before last, I promised to myself that those were for the kids who come for trick or treat. Well , not many kids turned up ,  so after trying my best to give away as many candies as I could to my co-workers , I am still left with almost half a jar full !!

 I guess I don’t even have to write the rest of the story. Inspite of my very strong resolve, it’s not very difficult to succumb to the sweet cravings all wrapped up beautifully.

And his is how t goes now –

I have an error – and I cannot figure out the reason – I need a candy (for the stress you see)

I have no errors – all clean – I need a candy (I need to treat myself).

The lunch was not good – I need a candy (to make up for it)

The lunch was good – I need a candy (nothing like a good meal followed by a sweet J )

And now, I need to gear up my workouts like never before!!!

Blissful Dilemma (week three post two)

Can’t wait to see my baby that won’t be delivered until end of this week... Meanwhile, ogling at this picture should do I guess #dreamy-eyes !!

Michael Kors Fulton Large Patent Shoulder Bag - Black Python

While I am waiting for this to arrive, I came across this:

Michael Kors Jet Set Medium Saffiano Travel Tote Luggage

Why, oh why, did I hurriedly order the previous one? I know I needed a black bag and no, I did not like the black in the second one!! What a misery: p! Unless I can just go ahead and order this one too – that is, if only my conscience, wallet, hubby and 2 sisters allow me too. Maybe next month during Thanksgiving? #dreamy-eyes again !!

I badly need to close this website and focus on something more important. Shoes maybe?

PS : Can I consider this as a post two of week three ? Well , I am J

San Francisco (Week three post one)

In high school morning assembly, we usually had a small quiz once a week. Out of many other questions, one question that was once asked was “Which is the city of Golden Gate? “ A bunch of guys rushed towards the stage to answer it. SFO, I murmured to myself.

Twelve years later, in the spring of 2008, I was standing on the Golden Gate Bridge flabbergasted by its beauty. Well, to be honest, the first glimpse of the Golden Gate was not that impressive I thought to myself. I felt it was overrated. Overhyped. But I was wrong after all.

After driving through the golden gate bridge and watching it over and over again, one cannot help but notice its beauty. The reddish brown - brick colored bridge not only had a significant contribution to the history of SFO development back in 1937 , but it stands strong even today as a part of the scenic US 101 connecting the SFO city to the Marin County.

After seeing the Golden gate in different seasons ,in different times of the day and night and through different vista points , I just fell in love with it and the city of San Francisco. A city that’s situated on the pacific coastal line which witnessed a rapid growth during the California Golden Rush in 1849 later to be destroyed by the big earthquake and fire in 1906. But the city’s spirit was unscathed and it managed to rapidly rebuild itself.

There are a lot of tourist attractions depending on the time you have at hand, you can plan your trip here. It is well known for obviously Golden gate bridge , the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz ,the fisherman’s wharf at the famous pier 39 which is also quite famous for its amazing seafood, Muir Woods , Sausalito (is a drive away) ,the crooked street, central square , Palace of fine arts, treasure Island. While you are in the city you should definitely take a ride in the cable cars which are one of its kinds. And if you have a sweet tooth, you should most certainly take a stop at the famous Ghirardelli square. What more , you will be welcomed with open arms in the city that’s known for its cool summers , foggy days and steep uphill streets , a city that has an assorted mix of people and cultures !!

Golden Gate Bridge from a vista point on a sunny day

Lombard Street / Crookedest Street

Bay Bridge on a cloudy day

Palace of fine Arts

Alcatraz Prison

Keepsake - Week two post two

I have always felt that a place is as beautiful as the time you have spent there...

Along with just the beauty of the place what makes some places more special are the wonderful memories we create while being there.

But this post is not about any place in particular. It’s about how you treasure the memories associated with different places?  Before, I always thought that the photographs are the best memoirs of a place and I never cared to collect any memorabilia of any place I visited. Of course I took hundreds of snaps.

But seeing M collect a souvenir of almost every place he is been to (coffee mugs with a picture of the city on it), I started collecting magnets. And in no time I kind of got hooked to it.

Yes, photographs are still the best way to relive a nice time. But then for that , I really need to open a particular folder on my HD which I don’t unless I am copying some new data etc in there ..You know what I mean right?

Whereas these magnets, they are there on my refrigerator...all the time. So I can just look at a magnet and smile to myself... right there.

Over the time, unknowingly it has now become more like a hobby – collecting the souvenirs I mean. How about you?  

But yes saying that, I do want to add that nothing can take away from the experience that eventually enriches you in a small or big way. Like the parasailing we did in Catalina Islands , or the chopper ride in the Grand Canyon , or the Insanity ride on the 102^nd floor of stratosphere in Vegas , or be it experiencing the night life in Vegas while walking on the strip street with a Margarita, or catching that first glimpse of Mount Rainier after a series of cloudy days in Seattle ,or walking besides the frozen Charles river on a snow laden Boston morning ,or welcoming your birthday on the golden gate or cutting the birthday cake on a sunset at the lake Michigan or catching the rainbow in Niagara …or walking by the river Isar in the suburbs of Munich or taking that gondola ride in the Alps or walking aimlessly in the fog with a bunch of friends and a cup of tea in Matheran  !! I bet no picture or memento can ever capture that  !!

 No doubt, these experiences are by far the best keepsakes …!!

How difficult is it to take things easy? (Week two - post one)

Friday has always been a mystery to me. Every week, I decide to do most of my weekend chores on the Friday evening itself before going to bed. Like doing the laundry, the dishes, grocery shopping for the week, cleaning etc. You think it’s impossible? But we hardly party Friday evenings so in my world that’s very much possible. But no matter how hard my resolve is, it just blows out of the window – like every Friday. Because, with it, Friday brings the mysterious energy to enjoy and relax at the same time. And before I know it, Saturday morning welcomes me with a sink full of dishes.   

But this Saturday, I chose to ignore it – just procrastinate it. With a book at hand, some “That’s 70s show “episodes running on the TV, I tried my best to relax in my recliner.

But I just couldn’t. I had to get up and clean all the mess before I could focus back on my book. The immaculate kitchen makes me feel better.

And this is, trust me, a very relaxed me. Yes, the summer break I talked about in my previous posts – was also about “taking things easy”!!

But I wasn’t always like this. If you saw me in most of my 20s, I was probably the laziest person you could have met – in a way. I could sit in a pile of clothes and study for my exam the next day, or not take shower for 2-3 days in a row – so that I get those extra 10 minutes of studies. In fact even during my Masters, it was no different. And the Chicago winters and a student life in the US did not help either. I mean you really don’t want to know how we survived. With always some or the other assignments to submit or midterms to study for, we hardly cooked, or did our dishes...or our laundry for that matter. You can just forget about how clean our comforters and the sleeping bags were.

I wonder where I got this “now” irritating habit of keeping things clean all the time – irritating because, I just CANNOT do anything else before cleaning the mess. I mean this is a transition from being Rachel to yes being Monica L !

In hindsight, I have stayed with so many roomies.. (I know, I have already mentioned it before in my posts  ...) and I have picked something or the other – good and bad - from all of them. I know though this must be a “good” habit in your dictionary, it’s really coming in my way of “taking things easy... “!

As a digression, I came across an article about the law of averages which said that we are actually the average of five people we most spend our time with. Do you think it’s possible? Are you? I think I am – to a great extent.

But then I believe we all spend different phases of our lives with different sets of people – so that means , at a given phase in life , we are an average of the five people we are most hanging out with then – at that particular time ! So at a different age, we could be an average of a whole lot of varied people. So when we say we are growing up or changing, is it actually because of the people around us – who are a different set now?

But then shouldn’t we also be the average of our own personality over the years? Ahh .. Maybe some fodder to chew on...

Just Another Day (Week one Post Two)

Just sometimes, on those rare mornings,I get up with a “not so good” feeling – for no rhyme or reason. And today’s wasone such morning… a very gloomy one at that. And I knew it wasn’t going to be avery good day either.

I had overslept through all the alarms and the snoozes.  Spilled almost half of the tea when I was away just for a split second - talk about that! Other small things like these piled on which added more to the irritation - for the lack of a better word.

Preoccupied with the thoughts associated to that unsettling feeling, while driving, I almost skipped a pedestrian signal – only to realize that an elderly woman gave me a scornful look while crossing the road on her electric wheelchair giving me a sting of guilt.

Reminding myself to focus, I reached office with a disheartened spirit.

If “not feeling good or happy”was a good enough reason to call a day off, today would have been mine.

Alas, that’s not possible in thereal world!!

Early morning hours are sometimes unusually quiet at my workplace. Usually that haunts me, but today it felt calming.As I settled myself at my desk, in no time work took charge of me. Lots of emails suggesting a lot more work at hand. And as I started working, focusing on each transistor that I was placing, I could not help but listen to the rhythmic clicking of mouse and the tapping of my own keyboard. And to my surprise, the more I focused on the work at hand, the more peaceful and cathartic I felt.

It worked like pranayam on me.Strange but true!!

And now when I look back, it dawns upon me that in all the trying times and the insanity around, it was this work in some or the other form that kept me sane.

 I wish we all could always get to do the work that we really enjoy doing!!!

  

Week one - post one !!

Ever since I got Iphone over 2 years back now, the one thing that I religiously checked every 10 minutes was – tada – Facebook, no prize for guessing that!I checked the news feed from friends, commented on their photos and status messages or posted some pics myself and commented on the comments that I got – so basically I was on FB – all.the.time!! So this summer, when I took my blog break, I also tried to stay away from facebook as much as I could. To my surprise, it was such a big relief. I started getting so much time to do other things than checking my FB page every 10 minutes. Obviously - it’s simple Math right?? But staying away from FB was not that simple.These are some of the things that I did instead :  
1. Learnt how to swim: Yes, at the ripe age of 30. Nope. I did not know how to swim until now. It’s such a shame to not know it for where I live. As a kid, I failed to learn every time I tried to.

In summer of 2010, M’s cousin’s wife gave me some introductory lessons on how to float. And I guess that was a huge learning step.

Let me give you a small example during our trip to Catalina Islands last year . Along with its lovely beaches, it’s also quite famous for the water sports activities. It was then, when I and M voluntarily decided to go snorkeling with a guided tour. We paid the fee, changed into the snorkeling gear after which I posed happily for the pictures and then – swoosh – everybody was in the waters exploring the marine life except me. I sun burnt myself waiting on the shores for M who came back but only with a rich experience. Not only did I repent wasting my bucks to see nothing but later it took almost 2 months for all that uneven tan to recede.

I tried my luck again this summer. But this time I was determined. Under M and Dad’s supervision, I took that first plunge, and only after few sessions was able to progress from floating to a few strokes holding my breath with my head inside the waters. And now I can swim the entire breadth (width) of the pool.  I know I have a long way to go , and I am not at my gracious best , but who cares , I can “officially” swim now *wink !!

2.      Beaches and more beaches: I hated going to beaches until this summer. I mean I liked to go and see the sunsets or take a stroll in the sand but that was about it. I never liked jumping with excitement with every wave in the sea and getting drenched. Last year, when we visited Laguna Beach, M was having a ball of time in the deep waters, while I stayed far away (again), on the other side of waters, clicking his pictures trying to read a book.

And by the way why wasn’t I in the waters? I hated getting wet, changing, and all the sand that sticks to your feet and wouldn’t go away.

So basically, I was left with no choice but watch the people around me having fun.

But this summer changed things. With my parents and sister here, we hit the beaches like crazy. And this time all prepared. The beach umbrella for the shade, the tarpaulin, the folding chairs the non-comodegenic sunscreen, big hats and itsy-bitsy clothing! With the swimming lessons on full swing, I have also started enjoying getting swamped by the waves. Malibu, Laguna, Newport, Aliso Veijo were just some of the beaches / waters we tested!!!!

We are officially the beach people now!! On a sunny day in California what more do you really need?

3.      Food :

For the past entire year and a half now, I have been watching out what I eat. With the help of running, zhumba and yoga and with strict portion control, I had finally lost all the weight that I wanted to. But after following this regimen quite religiously, this summer I finally gave in –for what you ask?

For the pure bliss that’s called “ma ke haath ka khana” (home made Mom cooked food). And for once, I did not think twice before gobbling down that extra puranpoli with a spoonful of homemade ghee.

Well, as much as I enjoyed hogging all the food, I have begun to regret it. Yes, all the food is showing up on me and I begin my workout routine again from today J

With coming back to blogging, I will be back to FB too and I will try my best not to check it every 10 min … ;)

Let's wait and watch !!

After bidding a teary eyed adieu to my parents at the airport last night, we drove back home.  Usually, I don’t cry that easy but last night, I sobbed heavily until a little over midnight. M put up with me quite patiently. He probably heaved a sigh of relief when I was finally asleep. 
So yes, that was that. My parents visited us this summer and for me, yesterday was officially the last day of summer obviously marking the onset of winter starting today. No, we don’t have fall in this part of the world L !
 This summer, I was consciously away from this space. When I first started blogging about four years ago, I was in a very different mind space. Struggling through the climatic extremes, geographical barriers and equally complex coursework (ha-ha! Even though I can laugh at it now, but then it was the most significant aspect of my life)   , I took this place to vent out everything that I went through at that point in time.
This blog took a back seat when I had to find an internship or a job later, when I got married and had to commute every weekend to see M. Through changing jobs and places and struggling through the hectic schedules, I am guilty of ignoring this space. 
After posting intermittently for some time now, and then feeling bad over not posting regular enough, this time, I decided to stay away, on purpose, asking myself what is it now  that I really want to write about. 
Because, there’s going to be something, good or bad - always, that will keep us busy. Question is how much of this do I want to write and share about? I know I have tried keeping this a personal blog – sharing it with only a few readers.  
But moving on , if I choose to keep this blog alive , I want to grow it , post as often as I can , at least twice a week and if I cannot commit this much , then probably the best thing is to quit.
That being said, it’s not easy for me to just go ahead and delete this blog, so what I am going to do is give it a fair chance.
So let’s see how well I behave for the next four weeks – in terms of posting.  All I am aiming for is at least 2 posts a week. 
Let the trial run begin!!

Book Review : Room

Room – by Emma Donoghue
I wanted to read this book for a while now. I am glad I could.The story is innocent and dark at the same time. A five year old boy Jack stays with his Mom in a small dark room that has a small tub, kitchen, bed, wardrobe and a TV. This is their world. They never go out and see the world outside. For Jack, the outside world doesn’t even exist. 
Even for nothing else to do, they have a routine that they both follow religiously. In that confined room, Jack’s mother teaches him all that she could to help him blossom. She teaches him discipline, good habits, how to pray, do math; improve his creativity to mention a few - all this without letting him know that there is a world outside this room. Their only connection with the outside world is Old Nick, who comes in every night to see his Mom, takes the trash out next morning and brings them the basics for a living as part of Sunday treats. But Jack has never met Old Nick – all he has done is try seeing him through the slits of the wardrobe he usually hides in when Old Nick comes.
The book opens with Jack’s fifth birthday and how his world begins to expand after that. How he gradually finds out the story of his Mom , the Old Nick , why they are where they are , that the room that they live in is not a real life , that there’s a real world  where they ideally belong to outside of the room and it’s for real.
His Mom suspects that their life is in danger and they need to escape before it’s too late. But it’s not easy. She has already tried all the things she could think of even before Jack was born and had failed. But this time since Jack was a big boy already it was his responsibility to save them both.
I personally liked that the way the entire story is narrated by Jack – they way he sees things, perceives them. How for him, Ma and the room are his entire world. The way his Mom is trying to bring him up. The bond between the two is depicted beautifully. How Jack truly believes that he is a part of her and knows no other way of living, the way he carries her broken decayed tooth all the time. At no point does it get boring, not even when the boy describes the everyday routine in much detail.
What happens to the boy and his Mom? Who is Old Nick? I don’t want to give away the story for those who are keen to read.All I would say is that it’s a story of courage and survival!
Go ahead and give it a try. 

Movie Review : Teri Meri Kahaani

This is the first time I am trying to review a movie on this blog. I wanted something to break the big blog break.

So why did I even dare to go and watch this movie.  I wanted to give one last chance to Kunal kohli .. Who made one of my all time favorite Hindi movie –Hum Tum.

The movie narrates 3 love stories from different eras. The director probably wanted to convey the message that in love  where , how , when doesn’t really matter , what matters is the all encompassing feeling of love .

The movie starts with the 1960 love story between Govind , an aspiring musician from Poona and a famous actress Ruksar from Lucknow who meet in Mumbai. Though lot of efforts were put in creating the details of the 1960 era , it lacked the depth , emotions between the main characters and fails to justify why would Ruksar fall for a guy like Govind , mainly because of the poor script and a very comical direction which infact fails to tickle the audience spoiling the emotions at the same time.

The contemporary 2012 story between Radha and Krish comes later which has nothing different to offer. There’s hardly any chemistry between Priyanka and Shahid in this story. Two unknown people bump onto each other in Stratford and end up hanging out over a couple of beers only to realize that they have a deeper connect somewhere. If only it was that easy to find true love !

The third and last thread of this braid is a love story between Javed and Aaradhana from the pre independence era 1910. Though the characters and story sound very unreal , I kind of liked this one. At least you feel the love between the two characters. And besides , loved watching our very own  Daulatabad fort near Auranagabad in the Allah Jaane song.

There was an age and phase when I would have loved such movies , but thankfully that’s over now. 

Though the story boasts of good actors and above average music, what it lacks is a strong convincing script. I would give it 2.5 stars. (The extra half star is purely for how lovely Priyanka looks).

Alas this movie has nothing interesting or different to offer.