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Monthly Archives: October 2008

This Diwali….

29 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in personal

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

festivals, personal

inspite of all my cribs about missing Delhi and diwali in Bangalore not being good this diwali was surprisingly brilliant… Bangalore had a lot of festivity in the air too… and that too for three days as there was some major confusion here as in when is Diwali… some said Monday, some Tuesday and some even Wednesday… he he all in all there were three days of fun instead of one… even better isn’t it… my celebrations were almost a week long… so beware of a long post here…

My festivities started on Friday itself when i was dolled up for the celebrations in office… and I had a blast… at the office entrance they had made this lovely flower arrangement….

And then there was this mr nortel and ms nortel contest and it was fun watching it… its good to have events like this in office… everyone was decked up in the best of ethnic wears.. u could see ladies in nice sarees, jewelry and flowers… guys in kurta payjamans and even dhotis… it was all so colorful and festive… gave a new look and the freshness to office…

There was also a cubicle decoration competition and people got very innovative… some of the interesting ones…

simple yet nice and carries of the diwali theme
whatever has diwali to do with animal kingdom, snow world and solar system… but i guess the person put in a lot of effort



isnt the ganesha drawn on the board so pretty

i know this one seems more like dasshera but i still like it

post all these celebrations we had a special lunch in office which was a sad story… there were some dosas… chats and sweets for the lunch and because they were making everything fresh there was a long long queue at all.. I decided to give that a skip and grabbed a sandwich instead

After that I headed to Lakme Beauty Salon for pedicure, manicure and a facial… the pedicure and manicure were a pure bliss.. totally relaxed me… post that I headed for the facial, it started with a nice back massage… then she did a little bit of massage on the face and then applied the molding mask… and now here is where the problem starts… the mask got stuck to my face and refused to come out… I really don’t know what she has done wrong because I had got this facial done before too but this time it was mess.. it took 30 mins, 4 people, lots of oil and water and some of my precious tears too…ya I agree I cried but it was hurting… finally when it came off… I breathed a sigh of relief and so did everyone I guess.. they apologized profusely… gave me a good aloe face massage post that and didnt take the money for anything from me… the owner actually called me the next day to check if i was doing fine… so it was a mistake that happened but their behavior post that made my anger melt away…

The weekend was very busy in Diwali shopping… bought some clothes for Ojas, some gifts for friends and relatives and for the house helps… and then Sunday afternoon we started from the house for the regular weekly vegie shopping and suddenly hubby announced that he is going no shopping woppping and he is taking the car for a drive and because I am sitting in the car I will have to come along 🙂 smart right? So we just started driving whereever the road took us… went on the sarjapur road crossed the sarjapur village and drove on in the wilderness and jungles (we were shocked to see such dense jungle so near to blore) upto a small village called ChikTirupathi and then headed back… it was a nice drive… BTW we came back we had some friends over for sometime… shared a drink with them, some quick snacks… Ojas played with their daughters… and couldn’t stop kissing the younger one (5 months old)… this guy is going to grow up to be a flirt… played some teen patti… all in the diwali spirit

Monday morning i got up and made a nice lunch of rajmah, stuffed brinjal, raita, methi dal, peas pulao and one of my inventions Pappaya Kheer (I will post the recipe soon) as my sil and family were coming for lunch… We all really enjoyed as it was after a long time that we were all spending some leisure time together… myself, hubby and bil had a couple of drinks and the kids played like crazy… Ojas too enjoyed himself and then we burst some crackers…. I am usually against crackers but that my sil’s son called me up and said auntie can we please bring some crackers… they are the ones in which no child labor is involved… it was so sweet that I couldnt say no…. Surprisingly Ojas was not at all scared of the crackers… infact he really loved the sparklers… and would get scared only by that long laadis… and what can he do even we get irritated by those right?

thats my sil’s son Ramy playing with Pja’s dholak

Ojas with my sil and bil

my sil’s daughter Tatwamayi

The same night we were invited for a dinner at a friends place… and more than us it was Ojas who had fun… he kept playing till abt 10:30 in the night when he finally slept…

Tuesday was when we actually celebrated Diwali… It was working for hubby (actually it was working for me too but then when my boss came to know that for me diwali is on Tuesday only he told me not to come to work, can u have a sweeter boss) so he left early morning saying that he would be back home for lunch… even my sis left saying she would come early… so it was me and the mil so got started with decking up the house… we made rangolis… I cooked some nice lunch with phirni as a dessert which came out really well… My new maid took to the task of making rangoli’s with colors and made some lovely ones…. Ojas was fascinated with all this… in the evening I lighted diyas all over the house…got ready did pooja and then went off to attend one more teen patti party 🙂

the rangoli


lighted up with diyas

the entrance to my house

the window sill

floating candles on my dining table

the staircase landing

my handsome prince

and last but not the least… the happy family

On this diwali was indeed a memorable one… Hope u guys had fun too… Share what all u did on diwali… would love to read the same… I specially waiting for Ritu’s Hallowali update…

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Happy Diwali

27 Monday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

festivals

An early morning sun after a chilly night and a cup of tea with ur hubby… isnt it a nice way to start the diwali day 🙂

Diwali is one of my favorite festivals… back home in Delhi there have always been this festivity… gifts galore… tons of sweets… loads of crackers… brand new clothes… rangolis… diyas and strings of electric lights… jams on the roads one week in advance…markets decked up like brides… the teen patti games and ofcourse the booz… I miss all this as hell… Diwali is a time when I miss Delhi the most… miss my parents… miss my friends… miss my relatives but more than anything I just miss the festivity in the air…

I try to create as much as I can of those here but then its just not the same… My hubby says I have created a mini Delhi around me here in blore 😉 I become like the party hopping person here in these days… hoisting a teen party at home and then two more dinners to attend… decorating my home with loads of diyas… sounds like fun right? Will do a post on the Diwali extended weekend for sure I have lots to talk about but till then Here’s wishing u all the very best time at Diwali… May the festivities around u be there forever and ever and ever….

Happy Diwali to you and ur families…

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Dolled up

24 Friday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in personal

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

festivals, personal

All decked up for diwali Celebrations in offce… its all fun and no work today 🙂

And then in the post lunch session me headed to Lakme for a pampering session….

can it get better than this…

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AIDS Sutra

22 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

AIDS, book, review

I recently read AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories from India… Its basically a collection of short essays by some of the best indian authors on AIDS… Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, Siddhartha Deb, William Dalrymple, Amit Chaudhuri, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Nikita Lalwani, Sonia Faleiro, Aman Sethi, Mukul Kesavan, Jaspreet Singh,Shobhaa De, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, Nalini Jones, and CS Lakshmi

The book presents loads of information… opens up our eyes to an amazing extent… Each essay or a story whatever u want to call it deals with one aspect of AIDS… one group of people which are prone… be it the gransgenders of Mumbai or the sex workers of AP… or be the foster home for HIV+ children (that was the most heart breaking one) or the homosexuals…

Each episode is brilliantly researched and written… I would suggest the book to all and one…

It opened a whole world for me do I have done some some work with AIDS awareness before….

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Humanity on road… is it dead?

20 Monday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

drive

The other day I was coming back from the airport and infront of me I saw a car touching a kinetic and it fell down… and the car guy just drove away without bothering anything about the person who has fell down… I couldn’t get myself to do the same so stopped my car in the side and went to the girl… I asked her if she needs any help… thankfully she wasn’t hurt much atleast no bruises etc… (rest she’ll anyway know next day morning…) when I came back to my car I observed that everyone is giving me dirty looks…I couldn’t understand why so I just shrugged and kept walking towards my car and then one guy shouted at me and said…. Gaadi chalani nahin aati tou mat chalaya karo… accident kar diya na (if u dont know how to drive please dont drive)

Then I understood all the dirty looks are because people think that I did the accident… its not in our DNA to think that someone could have actually stopped the car to help the person who has fallen down… how strange right? One of the most basic thing like humanity has become so distant to us…. Or was it because I was a female driving and they assumed that I would have done the accident…. In both the case it makes me wonder when will the attitude of the people change…

What u do think it was?

On a happy note I finally found a baby sitter for my son and I am going back to work full time tmrw… my son likes her and currently I guess that was the most important thing 🙂 now just hoping she stays…..

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Addicted

17 Friday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

blogging

U know u are addicted to blogging when u get up at 4:30 in the morning take bath make ur sargi and then when u sit down to eat it the first thing u do is open ur blog to check comments and then the Google Reader to check new posts 🙂

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Blog Action Day & Global Handwash Day

15 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

blog action day, world handwashing day

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic this year is Poverty…. Got to know of this at itchingtowrite and then read brilliant posts at other blogs like phoenixritu, ihm and manpreet…

So here is my bit to it… As long as I have remembered I have been wanting to adopt a child… a child who has been abandoned due to poverty may be and is growing up in a foster home… The current situations dont allow me to do that unfortunately… may be I will do it one day but till then I sponsor a child in Sos Village and also try and go and visit them once in a while and spend some time their…

Before Ojas happened I was also going regularly to one of the Govt Schools in blore every Saturday to teach them English and Computers… I know all this is like a spec in what is needed… but then boond boond se hi ghadha bartha hai…

Also today is Global Handwashing Day owing to my madness on washing hands I had to do a post today right 🙂 basically this a effort to promote hand hygiene… This is what it is in their words…

The practice of handwashing with soap tops the international hygiene agenda this year with the first-ever Global Handwashing Day, slated for Wednesday 15 October 2008. With 2008 as the UN International Year of Sanitation, the Global Handwashing Day will echo and reinforce its call for improved hygiene practices.

The agencies leading the Global Handwashing Day efforts are part of the Global PPPHW and include (but are not limited to) the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP/World Bank), UNICEF, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USAID through the Hygiene Improvement Project (HIP), Procter and Gamble and Unilever.

The guiding vision of Global Handwashing Day is a local and global culture of handwashing with soap. Although people around the world wash their hands with water, very few wash their hands with soap at the critical occasions.

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15 Wednesday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

bangalore, police

the day on the road was jinxed today I guess… I was driving blisfully some half a km away from my house on the outer ring road when one truck driving in my side suddenly wanted to overtake the vehicle in the front and turned right without any indication whatsoever and I had to sudden break kssssssshhhhhhhhhhh and thaaaaaaaaaak there is a biker who hits me from behind… I got down and saw the biker, examined my car… thankfully not much damage was done to either but the smarty truck driver drove away merrily… after exchanging a few words we both also started pur journey back….

And after some time near the Agara Lake road… a policeman stopped me… I promptly stopped my car.. anyways its a rarity in blore for policemen to stop cars.. they usually fulfill their challan qouta by bikers only…. Tell me dont u agree with me on this? How many times have u seen the policemen in blore stopping cars?

Anyways going further I got down from the car and he said wait for 2 mins and then came another policeman with a paper in his hand… the paper looked something like this….

Ya its a speeding ticket and the car on the right hand side is mine… sob sob… so the day was meant to be bad on the road… just praying for a eventless return journey to home…

That apart actually I was mazed at the technology the police were using today…. starting from the above pic which they have taken from a radar enabled camera… after that the policeman was carrying a blackberry and he entered the various details like car no, DL no etc in that and then he had a seperate machine with which he communicated via the blackberry bluetooth and thak came my ticket print… and as informed by him the machine would have also updated the ticket details in the control server impressive isnt it? and then he had a credit card swiping machine too 🙂 Great gizmos…

the blore police is going hitech these days but then all this make me wonder if they can do all this why cant they invest in some good alcohol breath detectors…. why do they have come close I mean really close to u to check whether u are smelling of beer or whisky to know u are drunk… Anyone driving in blore on a saturday night would know what I mean… I wonder

PS: Please forgive the quality of the pic… this is scanned by the office copier because the camera of my Nokia N82 is not working since ages but then thats an another post

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Taking my mind off

13 Monday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in tag

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

tag

The frantic search for a maid is still on… All the agencies that I know of in banglore have failed to help me as of yet 😦 as a result of which I was working from home since 3rd Oct…. and today after a long gap have asked hubby to do the babysitting and came to office… though my mind is still there…

So take my mind off and give it a break just doing a pending tag… But ya before going further… all u people in blore if u know of some good agency please send me the no in a email… and please ask ur maids if they know someone who is willing to work as a live in maid in the marthahalli area… the person should know hindi… My email id is available in the profile

Monika,ansh had tagged me on this long back…

hese are the rules:

1.Link the person(s) who tagged you.

2.Mention the rules on your blog

3.Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours…

4.Tag 3 following bloggers by linking them.

5.Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

So here it goes:

1.I think I have an OCD on washing hands… I wash my hands everytime I touch something new or different and I always carry a hand sanitizer in my purse cause I feel the soaps outside might be dirty too…

2.I just cant get around remembering names… there are times when I meet someone in a mall or departmental store… chat with the person and dont introduce hubby standing next to me and as soon as they go hubby asks me u forgot their name right 🙂

3.I am a complusive shopper… cannot survive a week without shopping… I absolutely have to buy something even if its as small as a bindi packet, a pair of junk earing or even a rubber band

4.There are a lot of times I go into this messed up speaking mode… Like I’ll join two consecutive words and make them one… or change the pronunciation of two words and wierd things like that and these attacks usually last a day or so

5.I cant sleep without reading in the night… I have to read a book and when at books I am always reading two books at one time… usually its like one fiction and one seriuos non fiction kinds

6. Cooking is a therapy to me for everything… and when I cook I usually never make something exactly the same way twice… I atleast alter the recipe a little… I am known to come up with good dishes with strange combination of ingredients

I pass on the tag to:

Indian Home Maker
Life Begins
Hip Hop Grandmom

And as usual anyone else who wants to take it up is welcome….

Actually after finishing this tag I realised I had done a similar one long time back… check it here

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Happy Dushhera

09 Thursday Oct 2008

Posted by monikamanchanda in recipe

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

festivals, recipe

Wishing u all a very very happy dushhera… Dusshera has traditionally been a day where all thru my childhood I have got up late… just chilled out thru the day and then towards the evening get ready to go see the Ravan burning and eat yummy channa dal rice and jalebi made my mom… somehow I am missing all this today…

Here in my inlaws this a time for Ayudh Pooja… something which is same as the Vishkarma day we celebrate so the pooja of all cars, bikes etc has happened since morning and I also made some Channa Dal rice that my mom makes… Why do all these things taste better when mom’s make it 🙂 🙂

I also did a small pooja in the house on Durga-Astami… ideally this is done by making Channa, Halwa and Poori and then calling lots of girls home and making them feed this.. memories from my childhood where we would go hoping one house to another the whole day and then in the evening be delighted on the money that has got collected are still fresh… these days kids are missing all these small pleasures of life I tell u… we dont get the girls here anyways so I did the pooja and then send the food to my maids house and some construction workers around…



I have always wanted to celebrate Ojas’s all first festivals properly but somehow my mind has not been in it due to my cousin being so serious the mood is just not upto it

Here’s the recipe of the yummy channa dal rice…

Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice washed and soaked for 30 mins
1/2 cup channa dal washed and soaked for 2 hours
3 medium onions sliced
2 medium tomatoes chopped
3 dry red chillies
2 green chillies
1/2 tsp biryani pulao masala
1/2 lemon
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp oil
2 cups water
salt to taste

Method
1. Heat oil in cooker
2. Add cumin seeds wait till they turn brown
3. Add dry red chillies, green chillies and fry for 1 min
4. Add onions and roast till they turn golden brown
5. Add tomatoes fry for anothe 3 minutes
6. Add salt and biryani pulao masala and the water
7. Add dal, rice and the lemon juice
8. Close the cooker and let the pressure build… switch off on one whistle…
9. open after some time and enjoy 🙂

Happy ViajyDashmi once again

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Me, Myself and me

bundle of contradictions, a working independent woman, a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a traveler and ya a blogger :)

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