Checked my blog......

...... after a looooooooooooong time today. I know it’s been ages since I posted something here.. life’s been quite hectic and busy… I have been just so busy living my life that it doesn’t look like the posts here are ever gonna catch up with it.. especially with Me being the sooper lazy Me that I am… :-) But then who’s complaining… it’s not like I have ppl waiting with baited breaths for updates to my blog.. :-D

Anyways realized I should put atleast something up.. so this post is just to break the ‘No-Posts’ monotony……. Don’t have anything to write about or come to think of it.. I have too many things I want to write about but just don’t know where to start from. I guess I will need some more time to figure it out.. till then I will go back to just…. living… and loving… and pampering… and being pampered.. :-)

PS: Btw have slowly realized M does remember and keep all the small silly declarations that he makes.. I should stop laughing at him when he makes them.. :-) Can’t wait to see him in his new Avataar.

Mrityunjay - Review

Finally I have finished reading ‘Mrityunjay’ – a novel by Shivaji Savant. It’s based on the life of Karna – a great warrior and the ultimate hero or shall I say tragic hero from Mahabharata. (Ashwani had gifted me this book on my birthday.. he actually took the effort of mailing me this all the way from Delhi.. he knew I wanted to read this one after hearing so much about it. Thanks dear.. :-) ) In literal terms, Mrityunjay means a person who has conquered death.

Prior to reading this, my interpretation of Karna, like many of us, was based on the DD serial, Mahabharata. He along with Krishna has always been my favourite character in Mahabharata. Out of the Pandavas, I only like Arjun as he was very focused and had single minded dedication. Though unlike Karna, he was always guided by great teachers/mentors.

After reading this book, my love for the character of Karna has been reaffirmed. I learned about many little known incidents in his life and how each incident guided and shaped his future actions. Although he was a Kshatriya and son of Kunti & Sun God, he was unaware of it and always lived under the shadow of being a Charioteer’s son. All through his life, he strives and yearns to be recognized as a great warrior based on his capability and not be called just a charioteer’s son coz he was born into it. The book has captured Karna’s feelings, his pain & sufferings, his courage & character really well. The book is divided into sections with each section dedicated to an imp character in Karna’s life. Each character is telling things as first person.

Karna was born with a divine set of earrings and shield in his body. Though unaware of being the son of Sun God, he had a strange attraction towards him since his childhood. He was a great devotee of the Sun God and made him his Guru. He found himself different from other members in his community and hence always struggled to adjust in it. He loved his family a lot – his father, his loving mother, Radhamata, or his dedicated younger brother, Shona or his dutiful wife, Vrushali and their kids. Their love and dedication for Karna was also complete. All of them loved and dotted over Karna and were loved unconditionally in return. The love story of Karna and Vrushali is so delicate and endearing. I didn’t even know Karna was married that too a love marriage.. :-). Vrushali was just the perfect partner for a loving and generous person like Karna. She gave with ultimate abandon and love. Then there’s the love that Karna has for his younger brother Shona and the faith with which Shona reveres Karna which are quite touching. It was wonderful reading about many such little known facets of his personality. Made him all the more humane. :-)

When he went to Hastinapur with his father to get training under Guru Drona , he was shunned by everyone except Duryodhana. This acceptance from Duryodhana and recognition of his capability, led to a strong bond and friendship between them even though they had very different temperament. Even though Karna was a better warrior and archer, everyone appreciated Arjun more as he was of royal lineage. Drona and many others were biased towards Arjun and this was a source of great rivalry between the two.

Karna was humiliated time and again by many people like Drona, Draupadi, Pandavas, even once by Bhishma Pitamah – for being a charioteer’s son. These were source of much disquiet and hurt in Karna’s life. Despite all this, Karna was compassionate. He had great character, was a benevolent individual and king, committed to his words, an ideal son, husband, brother and friend. Despite being a great warrior, he was peace loving in nature. He is famous for his benevolent nature. Here’s one incident to attest to it - even though he knew before hand that Lord Indra was coming in disguise to take away his protective shield and earrings from him to save Arjun, he happily gives it to Indra as alms. While on his deathbed, he removed his gold teeth and gave it to a dead solder’s poor father so that it could be used to make funeral arrangements for his son. No wonder he is called ‘Daanveer Karna’.

Karna also had great love and devotion for Lord Krishna. Just before the war of Mahabharata, Krishna told him the reality of his birth. Both Krishna and Kunti requested him to join Pandavas and rule over being the eldest and best of Pandavas. He however rejected this offer as he could not abandon his friend, Duryodhana who supported him throughout his life. When Kunti asks him to spare life of her 5 sons, he promises to spare all his sons except Arjun . So that at the end of it, Kunti will be left with 5 sons including either Arjun or Karna.

Karna was the ultimate tragic hero of the Mahabharata, and the man who, after Bhishma Pitamah, should have been the real claimant to the throne of Hastinapur. His yearnings and dilemmas have been captured really well by the author. All in all, it is an awesome book which has been very beautifully written. A must read for sure

Political Rants..

Mood: Frustrated. A Ranting post ahead... no solutions, (maybe) biased reasoning... just rants..

The political scenario in our country today is depressing to say the least. The Congress prides in calling itself ‘The party of the Poor’. This is one statement that even Rahul Gandhi keeps on making in each and all of his political rallies’. Some 63 years back, it was understandable but now it sounds pathetic. After ruling India for more than 50 years or so, Congress should actually feel ashamed of this rather than being Proud. They have still not been able to help the poor or make their situation better. Take for example Amethi, I don’t think anyone else apart from Congress has ever won from that seat. Its supposed to be the stronghold of Congress with Priyanka, Rahul and Sonia going on tours frequently. Irony is - it’s still one of the underdeveloped regions in our country. An area which has given us such strong nationwide politicians (but no leader) and PMs, is still an underdeveloped area. It speaks volumes about the real motive of the Gandhi clan. If they really wanted to develop it, I am not sure it would have been that Herculean an effort for them. But then maybe it is.. guess we will never know. (It’s another thing that they still are voted back to power term after term :-( )

I recently read an article in DNA newspaper. It had some interesting view points on how dynastic politics is mainly about protecting ill-gotten wealth. I could not have agreed more. With information about how many Indians are having money in Swiss bank accounts, this UPA govt is displaying an amazing apathy in trying to get the facts and reveal the details. We are not even trying to get the money back. The callousness visible at the highest level of governance is disturbing. Well with the amount of years congress has ruled India and the scams that have unearthed, its pretty easy to guess that 90% of those would be somehow connected with Congress. I won’t be surprised if each of the Gandhis has an account there.

This is the first time (at least to my knowledge) when there have been so many HUGE SCAMs that have come to public notice and the PM of our country has not even bothered to say a word on it. Forget an address to the nation, he has not made even a reassuring statement. This is highly BELITTLING to the nation & people he represents. The Don’t-Care attitude by our nation’s top leadership is Shameful. (Again since we vote them back again and again, guess we are the real culprits)

The way we are treated by our leadership is totally not done. Look at the most recent case involving Indian students in US. Few Indian students at TVU have been tagged like criminals. Even if we agree that from a US law perspective what they did was ok, but its not the US govt. who should worry about Indians. It’s the Indian govt. who should think about us. Our govt. should have made a noise, got the tags removed and got the students back to India. I really don’t know what we are waiting for? Whatever maybe the case; it’s really praiseworthy how US defends and supports its citizens. Look at the way they are pushing Pak to release Raymond Davis even though he committed a crime. (I am not defending US here as the person is actually guilty, I am only commending the fact that US protects its citizens and is accountable to them) Contrast this with the kind of statements our Foreign Minister makes in any situation involving Indians. First time, he says its ‘unacceptable’. Next time u hear him, he bows down and says we need to abide by the law of the host country. Be it Australia or US.

There are N number of cases like this. One thing is for sure Congress has been a lousy opposition party and is even worse when it is in power. At least other parties were better while in power. Maybe coz they were novice and didn't know how to play politics like our oldest and most experienced party does.. Anyways let's hope we will get rid of such politicians sooner than later..

New Year @ Home

It’s said “well begun is half done”!! This year has started with all the right notes. We had bought a flat last year and on the 1st day of this very new year.. we moved into it. Our own brand new home.. :-)

There were a few minor hiccups at the beginning .. with our families saying just 10 days before the ‘Griha Pravesh' to wait for 15 more days and go after ‘Maker Sakranti’.. but we had given notice to our owner that we would be vacating our rented house on 1st.. he had even finalized the new renter.. this made it really impossible to delay it further.. And then both our dads came to our rescue.. Being the sweethearts that they are both my father and father in law said to go ahead on 1st itself; this being the 1st day of the new year and a Saturday on that.. nothing could be better.. Since we had already done a puja last year, even M and I felt good to move in and had no reservations about the date. M believes that if something good is happening on a day, it must surely be a good day. If it wasn't, that good thing would not be happening in the first place!! I totally agree with him!! (this is a rare case.. as in me agreeing with M.. :D)

So finally we shifted on 1st.. it was a nice sunny day (it is very very cold this time around in Pune and even a small glimpse of sun is most welcome). When the movers & packers guy came and started packing, I realized we have hell lot of stuff at our home. Removing all the non-essentials out of this was my first To-Do task in the new home. By the time we shifted all our stuff to the new place, it was 7pm. While this was going on, the electrician had also come and had set up fans, tubelights, etc. With all the basic things done, we were Set!! (for the time being.. ;-))

As luck would have it, there was a person with the Movers & Packers guys who turned out to be well qualified Brahmin shashtri; he even has a degree in it. He told that this 1st was a really auspicious occasion to shift in and he has already performed few ‘Griha pravesh pujas’ in the morning. He agreed to do a havan at our home too.. So M went with him and got all the Puja samagrees.. by the time we did the Puja, bhoomi pujan, havan and sat for dinner, it was already well past midnight.. :-) We had to wake up early the next day as we were going on a trip; so we dragged our tired bodies to bed and dozed off. Thus ended our first day at home.

Even with all the running around we did, we were pretty much set on the first day itself. It was an amazing feeling.. being at our own home. :-) I still can’t believe we bought a flat here. It’s been 1.5 years since we moved to Pune.. With no plans whatsoever of settling here; we now have a home here.. Go figure!! :-D Life really has very different plans for you!! They may not be same as yours.. but many times they are even better than yours. :-)

Wish you all a wonderful year ahead!! Have fun!!

If I were..

Another tag from Amu.. :) If it wasn't for Amu and her tags I guess I would not have even half of the posts in my blog.. :D

If I were a month - April: A little of this is because I was born in April :) but mostly coz I feel my most active (or shall I say least lazy) in April. I do not suffer from cold during this season due to the warm temp. I can eat as many ice creams, mangoes and cold drinks that I like without worrying about falling sick. And how can I forget chilled water melons!! :)

If I were a day of the week - Saturday: I just love the way Saturday starts.. lazily lying on the bed.. dragging myself out and preparing some nice brunch. Reading paper in my sweet time.. just relaxing. The morning sets the tone for the entire day.. :D Even on the days that we plan to go for a trip or smthg on a saturday, its more of a relaxed and lazy getaway!!

If I were a time of day - Night: I feel my most active self during the night time.. maybe coz I was born after mid-night..;-). My mind just gets filled up with so many ideas (most of them crazy) during the night.. and everything that I am supposed to do and should do, I remember during the night time only.

If I were a season - Rains: I love the rainy season. Its one of my favourites. Everything gets washed in the rain water and looks all fresh and full of life. Even though i get sick pretty often in rains, i love getting drenched in it. You can savour the real taste of hot tea and pakoras only when its raining. :D

If I were a planet - Saturn it is for me too. As Amu mentioned, its feared in the Hindu pantheon, however He is my rashi God and I have always found him generous and kind.

If I were a sea animal - No idea..I think I prefer being a human being. :D

If I were a direction - East

If I were a piece of furniture - Bed: A lazy person like me can not like anything more than a Bed. :D

If I were a liquid - Water: The elixir of life. To be more specific, fresh lime water or roohafzah. I just love both of them.

If I were a tree - Neem tree: When I was a kid, we used to go to my maternal uncle's home during summer vacation. There were 3 really big neem trees in our front garden and I used to love it. It used to provide really nice cool shade during the summer and the breeze u feel while sitting beneath the tree was really fresh and rejuvenating.

If I were a tool - Scissors: Again I will agree with Amu, it has to be scissors. This is one tool I use pretty often.

If I were an element - Fire - from the five elements.

If I were a gemstone - Ruby

If I were a musical instrument - A violin: Love the soulful and melancholy notes which come out of it. Touches my heart.

If I were a color - Red. :D

If I were an emotion - Love.

If I were a fruit - Mangoes for me too.. :)

If I were a sound - I like the faint sound of a ringing bell (temple sort of)… also the splattering sound that rain makes, etc

If I were a car - Ford Mustang: A red colored convertible one, to be more specific. :D

If I were food - Rice: I love all the rice preparations.

If I were a taste - Salty & Tangy: Both of them together are my favourite tastes.

If I were a scent - Scent of fresh lime: I love all citrus smell.

If I were a pair of shoes - Sneakers for me too..

If I were a bird - A cute little sparrow. :)

October reading..

After a long long time, I am once again soaking myself in another ‘elixir’ of life: - Books and I am just quenching my thirst a little too fast.. :) In the last 1 week, I have finished 3 novels. All 3 are love stories – a co-incidence let me add.. :)

PS. I love you – Cecelia Ahern: I had already seen the movie and loved it. Had heard about the book, but don’t know why I did not try to find the book or read it. Anyways I bought it during my last visit to landmark and I was very surprised to find that the book and movie are quite different. The main plot is same - a young widow tries to start living again with the help of letters that her husband wrote before dying. There are many incidents in the book which is also in the movie however I found the treatment of the movie very different. The book is more subtle and the emotions more real. The movie was a little larger than life. (I still like the movie though.. Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank rock!!) The book is easier to believe; the movie is more ‘romantic-romantic’. I guess most people like larger than life romances.. preferring it to the more subtle ‘love’. The movie score there. As the norm is the book is better than the movie. Though I have liked them both. I wish I had read the book first.

Anything for you, Ma’am – Tushar Raheja: This is a light read; you can make that out from the punch line ‘The love story of an IITian’.. :-D.. The author writes well, being humorous at times, however the problem with the book is that it has too many great co-incidences making it way too filmy to be true. The author has tried to acknowledge it by calling it the work of ‘Mr. Fate’; however it’s still all too much. Overall it’s a book you can read (only if you must) in between some heavy reading. You would not be missing anything if you skip it altogether.

At first sight – Nicholas Sparks: This is the first time I am reading a Nicholas Sparks novel. Have already seen 3 movies based on his work – The Notebook, Message in a bottle & A walk to remember; each a beautiful love story. :) As the name suggests, ‘At first sight’ is also a love story. I started reading it expecting another warm love story, however the detail on how exactly Jeremy & Lexie (the lead couple) fall in love is sadly missing (I learnt later that this novel is a sequel to ‘True Believer’, where they actually meet and fall in love). As I continued reading, this one seemed more and more like a suspense novel. Halfway through it, I started doubting the choice of the book title - ‘At first sight’ did not seem appropriate at all. I personally do not believe in love at first sight. Its more of attraction at first sight and not love.. As two people interact with each other this attraction may eventually turn into love. Here both Jeremy and Lexie fall in love at first sight and decide to marry soon after. Later on all the doubts surface -maybe they have rushed into things without knowing much about each other, there were trust issues, adjustment issues, et all.. There was a mystery also which made me curious. The novel had started with some crisis that Jeremy was facing and I was interested in learning what it exactly was. As the story unfolded, I was hooked into it and by the time I finished the book, I was literally crying. The ending is tragic and I felt so sad for everyone; for what each of them missed. It is a beautifully written book. The dilemma that a couple can face, the ups and downs of a relationship and the effort that is taken to make it work has all been described well. I guess if I had read the ‘True Believer’ first, I would have better understood their bonding. To sum it up, it is a well told story and worth a read.

I am back..with a Tag

Its been ages since I posted anything on my blog. This time around it’s not just my laziness… have been falling sick on and off since last month and a half.. it turned out to be a pretty serious matter.. had to be admitted into a hospital for about a week.. my first stay in hospital and my brush with IV salines, needless to say it wasn’t an enjoyable one.. :-( It’s something I hope to be a once in a lifetime experience only.. (Btw I have had an eye-opening experience with government hospitals.. maybe I will write about it some day..) Today let me get this blog alive again with a post. Amu tagged me once again and thus saved me the effort of searching for a topic.. :-) Let me focus on it today; this one is a gender tag. “You gotta spill 10 facts about you which do not fit the stereotype of your gender.”

Hmmm.. you know before my wedding I always thought I am a little ‘non-girly’ (borrowed from Amu. :D ) however now I realize I am a little more girly than I thought. For example, I used to think of myself as a very logical person which I am, most of the times, but there are many a times when I think more from my heart than my head i.e. a classic case of emotions driving logic. Anyways there are still few things about me that may not fit into the ‘traditional’ gender stereotype but then these stereotypes are changing everyday and I am sure I am not the only one with such aberrations..

1. I am excellent with numbers.. Maths was one of my most favorite subjects along with physics. Don’t get to apply all that school maths now however I have managing the financial aspect of my project since long and am proud of the fact that they have been impeccable. Even my seniors highlight it as one of my key strengths.
2. I love adventure and traveling.. any new place that you want to explore, I am always ready with my bags packed. I still remember the time when in our friend circle, I would be the only girl who would say yes to a trip but then had to back out in the end since no other girl would be willing to join us. :-( On one such occasion, my friend H convinced his friend P who was at Mysore to join us in Bangalore. Together we started for our holiday destination. It turned out to be a blessing as it gave me a chance to make friendship with a wonderful girl P.. we even went for girls only trips together..Anyways those were the times, I realized marriage has its positives too.. u get a companion for life..:-D
3. I don’t understand hints and don’t know how to give them too well either.. if you want me to do something, better tell it directly. I am too much into myself to understand subtle and not so subtle hints. Same is the other way round; I tell directly what I want.
4. I am not into make up at all!! It’s not because I don’t like it; it’s more to do with my lack of knowledge about it. I don’t know how to apply make up; the most I can do is apply moisturizer and lipstick. After combing my hair, I am done.
5. Same with accessories and jewelry. **I love collecting earrings, jewelry sets and other such stuff, however when it comes to actually wearing matching/contrast stuff, changing into new ones, I am very very lazy. There was a time some 3 years back or so, when coaxed by my roomies, I started wearing matching accessories with my office wear. Used to go to office, a little decked up. And you know what, few of my colleagues, actually thought I had gotten engaged and started even congratulating me. :-O Anyways I still love collecting beautiful jewelry sets especially gold ones. I consider gold a very good investment. Got many awesome ones in my wedding.
   Hey.. there’s one accessory that I love wearing and that’s ‘Bangles’. I always get matching ones for my saree and wear ‘hands-full’ of them. (**PS: Not sure if this one will still fit into a female stereotype as I love collecting jewelry)
6. Like Amu, I never used to like flower bouquets. I used to find them waste of a gift. However I have loved receiving them from my fiancée since our engagement and continue to like it. M still gets me a lot of flowers. If not more, at least once a month. I still like flowers more on plants but till I get a flower garden for myself, I am not complaining about the bouquets. :-D
7. I also function more in a Do-It-Yourself mode. If there’s something that I can do myself, I go ahead and do it instead of assigning it to someone else.
8. I have a loud voice.. :-( .. I don’t have the sweet feminine voice that girls usually have. When I am excited, I talk really fast and a wee bit loud. There are times when even I cringe hearing my voice.
9. Although I might not be as logical as a guy, however I still am more logical than a typical girl. Most of the time, I go by logical reasoning. However I have found out that for a few things for example my family, I can even compromise on logic. Hmm.. for example.. my belief in God is unquestionable and way beyond logic. Same is the case with my adoration for Sachin. :-D
10. I am very forgetful. Even when I have a fight and I will be angry at someone, it’s more a case for forget and forgive. After sometime, I will totally forget that I had a fight with that person and will go and talk to him/her. Even if I get angry, I cool down really fast. My anger is gone in a few minutes. Both I and M take equal turns (almost equal :-D) to manaaofy each other.

Phew!!!! Finally I am done.. both with the tag and a post after long time.

You know what M said and I am quoting him verbatim.. “All my positives (caring, loving nature, positive attitude, good cooking, etc) are feminine and all my negatives (loud voice, laziness, etc) are masculine in nature.” :-D