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

The 'moral' drama

I always get irritated seeing this drama that our politicians (I won’t call them leaders as we don’t have any) carry on everyday. Especially when they offer to resign on grounds of so called taking ‘moral responsibility’. The latest in the line being our honorable aviation minister - Mr. Praful Patel. In a crisis situation, he should actually be taking control and investigating the matter. However instead of assuring the Public, he chooses to offer to quit. And especially since he knows he is not the direct culprit and obviously our PM will not accept his resignation. I would love to see him make the same offer if for example he is caught in a bribery case or if there’s a criminal case against him. But you won’t find a minister taking ‘moral responsibility’ when their morals have been compromised. What a shameless lot!!

PS: Btw on a separate note, I do think our Home minister should take some ‘moral responsibility’ and quit before more people die. When I learnt about the Naxal attack last year, I thought he needs time to work. But what has he been doing?? Not sure if he is just not interested coz none of the states suffering from Naxalism are congress-ruled (I hope I am wrong).

Another Tag by Amu

Have logged into e-blogger after a long time.. was busy with some professional as well as personal chores.... I guess its more than a month now when Amu had tagged me.. Finally I am now able to take it up. Here are my answers.. :)

1. What is your current obsession?

Our home or more specifically the home loan.. ;-). We have just bought a flat here and have been busy with getting home loan quotes from various banks and breaking our heads together in order to finalize one.

2. What are you wearing today?

Right now, a T-shirt and a 3/4th.

3. What’s for dinner?

Stuffed veg parantha, pickle, tea and some fruits (pineapple, water melon & banana)

4. What’s the last thing you bought?

Registered our flat. :-)

5. What are you listening to right now?

With or without you – heard this yesterday on TV and got hooked to it all over again.. :-D

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?

She is my best friend with whom I have shared and continue to share all the eventful and uneventful moments of my life. Someone who provides me guidance & support whenever I need it. Love you tones dearie & thank you so much for being such a wonderful & beautiful friend. Muaaaah.

7. If you could have a house totally paid for, fully furnished anywhere in the world, where would you like it to be?

Hmm.. practically speaking I would want it in Bhubaneswar but as long as I am dreaming why not get a beautiful bungalow in a hill station furnished with state of the art things inside and beautiful trees and plants outside. ;-)

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?

Cotton clothes..

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Go to meet my youngest sis, Twinkle. Her board exams are going on.. would like to be with her.

10. Which language do you want to learn?

I am very poor in learning languages.. but if I can, I would like to improve on my Oriya and learn Marathi – it would be very helpful here :-).

11. What’s your favourite quote?

Hmmm.. I have many fav quotes.. :-) But for sake of putting one, here’s something that I have in my signature: "Carpe Diem”

12. Who do you want to meet right now?

M – Waiting for him to come home. :-)

13. What is your favourite colour?

Red

14. Give us 3 styling tips that work for you.

Hmm.. Difficult question.. let me list something down..
- Have all kinds of color in your wardrobe: vibrant as well as sober.
- When it comes to Suits, cotton clothes look graceful. In Saris, I think georgette looks elegant.
- Always have a smiling face. It adds warmth to your persona.

15. What is your dream job?

The one which pays me a little more than the norm and make me work a little less than the norm. At the moment I have exactly opposite job. But I still like it…. Go figure!! :-)

16. What’s your favorite magazine?

Used to love comics as a kid (I still do.. :-D) My dad had got us subscription of many different magazines.. Now a days I don’t read many magazines. The only one I regularly buy is Reader's Digest.

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?

Go out to a restaurant, shop for clothes.

18. What do you consider a fashion faux pas?

I have no idea what ‘Fashion’ is so can’t really comment here. I can differentiate only between what looks good and what doesn’t. To each his/her own; just wear something that suits your body style and is not indecent.

19. Who according to you is the most over-rated style icon?

Right now the only over-rated person I can think of is AB and his family. I think we are seeing just a tad too much of each of them. I find them all utterly irritating.

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?

A Step cut with frizzles – I only wish I had jet straight hair.

21. What are you going to do after this?

Cut the fruits.

22. What are your favourite movies?

Mannnny…. Here are a few: Andaz Apna Apna, QSQT, LOTR series, Life is beautiful, Roman Holiday, etc, etc, etc.. :-)

23. What inspires you?

Anything & everything. Any good act inspires me.

24. What do your friends call you most commonly?

Mostly Ashma only.. just a rare few call me Ash. Some friends call me Ashu too..

25. Would you prefer coffee or tea?

Depends on my mood and time of the day. Love to have tea in morning and evening.. But if it’s after dinner, I like to have coffee. .. especially if its raining and I get to share it with M. :-)

26. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?

Hmmm…. Call up and speak to my friends (Amu, Ashwani, Vivek or Rachana). Talk to M Or talk to my sis and aunt. Don’t generally tell Mom till it’s under control as she tends to worry about it even more.

27. What makes you go wild?

No comments.. ;-)

28. Which other blogs do you love visiting?

There are a few I regularly read. Among my friends, there’s amu’s & ashwani’s blogs. There are some bloggers like sayesha, sunshine, etc whose blogs I happened to read and got hooked.. I read them pretty regularly now.

29. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?

Gulab Jamun, Gazar ka halwa, Jalebi & motichur ke laddu. And of course Icecream.

30. How many tabs are turned on in ur browser right now?

3

31. Favorite Season?

Rains :-)

32. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?

Palak Paneer, Kofta (if you don’t like Paneer), Veg Pulav and Parantha. Accompanied with curd, salad and papad. I just made Gazar ka halwa all by myself for the first time a few days back and it was awesome… so maybe I will make that too in case I have time.. So when are you coming? ;-)

33. What is the right way to avoid people who purposefully hurt you?

Ignore them. If you know they are purposefully hurting you, why get hurt!

34. What are you afraid of the most?

At the moment, whenever I think of child birth.. :-D I can not bear pain and the thought of all that pain scares the hell out of me.. :(

35. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?

Same as I did yesterday – I am putting on weight. :-(

36. What brings a smile on your face instantly??

M and a “Smile” from anyone.. :-)

37. A word that you say a lot?

That’s ok

38. What would you do if you were made President of India for one day?

Make littering a punishable offence and enforce it strictly.

39. What is that one thing that keeps you going?

Not one but the following do: God, My family and friends

40. What’s one thing that you used to love that you left

Nothing.. frequency of few things that I love to do have reduced but its all still there..

A year to remember

The year 2009 has been a memorable year for me.. It started with a high and even ended with one - and everything in between was mostly on a high too.. :-). During Jan time, I was a newly married bride at my in-laws place soaking in all the attention. And come December, I was in the company of my in-laws again (brother-in-law, bhabhi and the kids) enjoying the love being showered on the ‘choti bahu’ and ‘chachi’... :-) (Of course, it goes with out saying that during this time the lovely wife was also basking in the love of her loving husband ;-) )

I had welcomed 2009 with M.. at that time we were working in different cities and our plans were not yet concrete. When we parted in mid Jan to report back at our respective offices, we weren’t sure about how much time it would take till we set up a home together. M was planning to move to Bangalore, however with the recession in IT industry being at its peak at that time, there were not many opportunities to look forward to. Meanwhile both of us initiated internal transfers in our company to move to Pune (luckily both his and my company has a branch here).Initially the chances of transfer getting approved also looked slim owing to dearth of project work in the new location and N number of internal constraints. However by God’s grace, all the pieces fell into place and by mid April we were together - in time to celebrate my birthday with M (a perfect gift for me.. :-))

Setting up a home together has been fun and a little exhausting. :-D The time and effort that went in setting it up and all the stuff that we have added to our home, moving in to a different place is going to be LOT of work. While doing all this, we have had our share of differences, fights, ruthana-manana, rona-dhona et all... but most importantly there has been lot of love. Even the fights have helped bring in more love into our marriage. (Fights between married couples is a must I say.. ;-) ) We also bought a car.. A lovely bright Red beauty.. I am still to start driving it but I am immensely enjoying lounging on the front seat listening to music and giving instructions while M drives. ;-p

2009 had a lot of ‘with-family’ time in it. :-) While I was in Bangalore, first my in-laws and then my bua aka elder sister visited me. Then during Holi, my Mom came with my kid bro to celebrate Gangaur Pooja. By April, I was in Pune with M. Post this, every month we have had someone or other from my parents or in-laws place visiting us. My sister was with us till mid of the year and then went to Noida to join her new company and begin her professional life. Anyways with so much time spent with family members, the time just flew by and before I realized, the year was over. 2009 ended on a perfect note, with bhaiya & bhabhi being here with us to bid adieu to the year gone by and welcome the New Year. They were here during the kids Christmas holidays. We were really looking forward to their trip and with 2 long weekends falling in between and a few leaves that we took; we had ample time to catch up on things. Their stay here was simply awesome and it just strengthened our plan to settle near home in Orissa.

Overall the year has been extremely good!!!! After being apart for a good 3 months, M & I are together and would you believe it since then we have not been apart even for one single day!!! :-D We also celebrated our first wedding anniversary in December. And even though we have our differences, M is just perfect for me. (M, In case you are reading this.. I am just too perfect and good for you.. ok!! ;-) ) Icing on the cake - we won the best couple contest held in our society for the New Year celebrations. Hehehehe… Touchwood!! :-D

I somehow don’t think anything can be better than the year gone by but then all I want is everything.. so here’s hoping for an even better 2010. Wishing everyone, a beautiful year ahead!!

PS: I know I have written we have been together, we are together, M & I, etc.. 'N’ number of times in this post…. so as of you can see it has been the highlight of the year for me.. :-)