Thursday Challenge : Lights

Tags

diwali, diya, festivals, lights, thursday photo challenge

The theme this week is

LIGHTS (Holiday Lights, Candles, Street Lights, Fireplace, Fireworks,…)

 

WW23

Tags

guess what?, loved it, taj kuteeram, wordless wednesday

Dilli Ki Sardi

Tags

bangalore, Delhi, dilli ki sardi, memories, personal, winter food, winters

Some memories are just deep encrusted in ones minds and hearts and one of those memories or a set of memories for me is Delhi Winter. Though its been a little more than 9 years I have moved to Bangalore and started calling it home and slowly loving the city too I sorely miss the Delhi Winters, every December I go into a sad mode when I hear about the winters in Delhi from friends and family.

It reminds me of those early school morning where we would just not be able to get up and dad would be shouting and we just murmring 2 more mins from the warmth of the rajai (quilt)

It reminds me of those lazy lazy afternoons we would spend a dari (rug) spread on the terrace soaking in sun, pretending to study with a book in hand sometimes alone and sometimes chatting with a friend

It reminds me of those times in the winter vacations and sometimes otherwise in the early evenings too when all the aunties of the street will sit together in a corner on a charpai (cot) knitting and exchanging colony gossip and we kids will get a chance to do whatever we wanted to 😉

It reminds me of those lovely evenings and nights when we will all get inside the biggest rajai in the house and eat moongfali (peanuts) endlessly and than we would push each other to get out if anything is needed

It reminds me of those fights we would have when we get into a rajai which has been already warmed by someone else 😉

It reminds of those morning paranthas and pickle breakfasts and steaming hot besan ka seera to end the day with

It reminds me of that yummy gajar ka halwa and the yummier sarsoon ka saag and the pinni made by mom, those gajaks and gur after every meal

It reminds of my of those morning where you would get up on the terrace to see nothing yeah the fog would have created the zero visibility and it reminds me of that hot cup of boost that dad used to make for us on those days

So last week when we in Bangalore woke up to see a fog similar to what used to be DilliKiSardi… ofcourse we were very happy 😀

And seeing Ojas as excited about the fog and enjoying his cup of boost watching it, made me even more nostalgic… I guess its true… memories are for a lifetime

Santa Are U Listening

Tags

festivals, santa, wishlist 2011

Santa Santa this is my list… I am late, naah…. I know u know it 😀

1. A good maid… please I think this one tops my list, please give me one… one whom I can trust and would stay for sometime atleast one year…

2. A job on my terms… a company which agrees to let me do work as I want to now that I am thinking of going back to work 😉

3. A good pair of golden slippers to wear on weddings ahead which are not tacky but still dressy

4. Holidays lots of them, I would do with 6 weekend trips and one 10-day longish vacation

5. That Delhi-Leh drive it has to has to has to happen this year

6. Some one who makes music like Flyod again (dreaming are we?)

7. Patience loads of it

8. To lay my hands on fresh blueberries…. Blueberries they seem like my new obsession

9. A stable BP through the year, its damn irritating to keep fainting now and then because of the low BP

10. A pair of good solid wash non torn mid-rise jeans, gosh I never felt buying jeans so tough before, I must be getting old 🙂

Wishing u all a merry Xmas

Ads I loved

Tags

2010 recap, 2010 review, ads

Typically you would normally find me talking about the ads I hate in fact that is how I started writing this post but than I though let me do something different instead 😀 So here are the ads I loved in 2010

This is my latest love and whats not there to love, what creativity

Some shadow play some more happiness and there is Imran Khan too 😉

Teenagers who look like u and me would have once upon a time… phew a relief 😀

This is what is needed isn’t it?

Brilliant Brilliant concept and brilliant execution… this one will truly make u say “What an idea sirji 😉 “

How cute is this one

Come on tell me what are urs?

Edited to Add : stupid of me to forget the most fav ad of the year… the blackberry boys

http://www.youtube.com/v/pgUK0VmcXA4?fs=1&hl=en_US

PS: Like an idiot I had thought I had scheduled this post but turns out I hadnt

Thursday Challenge : Toys

Tags

car, Ojas, thrusday photo challenge, toys

With a child in the house, it surely is not too tough to find a picture for a challenge whose theme is

TOYS (Dolls, Games, Stuffed Animals, Athletic Equipment, Construction Toys, Art Supplies,…)

I was wondering which toy of Ojas to post here and I realised it has to be this one…

Its a race track on which the car keeps running till pulled out much like the train one, but the most intersting thing for me in this toy is that white building kind of structure one sees… its a lift… yeah a lift… So the car comes and enters from the right hand side and when the wheels of the car moving there is a wire just works as a pulley and pulls the platform on which the car is standing and once is reaches the top the car runs on the track and the platform keeps going back down and by the time the car is back at the lift entrance the platform is back at the bottom again…

Quite interesting and innovative isnt it? Ojas loves it, its a different matter all together that we both this on Diwali and the lift is already broken because he wanted to know how it works and sent the car into the lift in all possible ways 😉

For more pictures of toys go here

WW22 : Merry Xmas

Tags

cake, festivals, home, Ojas, pictures, santa, wordless wednesday, xmas

Urban Shots : A Review

Tags

book, book review, paritosh uttam, Prateek gupta, short stories, urban shots

Couple of days back Prats made a flying visit to my house to drop the review copies of Urban Shots and Another Chance, it was really sweet of him considering I would have bought Urban Shots 100% anyways as his story was published in it and this much atleast we can do for a friend right 😛 So after he went, N grabbed the book from my hand and reached to Prats story titled “Of Apple Pies and Grey Sweaters” and when he finished it just came and said wow this guy has talent, its a lovely story and this coming from a man who shies away from all things mushy… I was smiling in my head ready to grab the book and enjoy the stories. Next morning when I read Prats story along with my morning cup of coffee I knew this was the book which will probably change my outlook towards short stories a little… Prats take a bow that was such a warm story…

Urban Shots is a compilation of 29 short stories by 13 writers which edited by Paritosh Uttam, who has also 10 stories of his own in the collection. The stories are about love, friendship and relationships in Urban Metro life, the life that we all lead… The stories talk about love, friendship, the friendship that turns to love, infidelity, hope, they talk about liberation, anger and longing…  I think in a nutshell they talk about the life around us

The book starts with a story from Kainaz Motival (yeah the one of Wake up Sid) fame. The story “Hope comes in small packages” is nothing extraordinary but is cute that it doesnt fail to put a smile on one’s face….  and moving on with stories the writers cover a wide range of subjects from Malathi Jaikumar’s story “Liberation” which deals with how a woman finds her liberation from domestic abuse to Bishwanath Gosh’s dealing with infidelity in “Morning Showers” to Sahil Khan’s story “The Untouched Guitar” which feels like just another youngster tale till you reach the climax and bear a huge grin to Vrinda Baliga’s “Stick Figures” and “Dialects of Silence” which touch ones heart with a view of a womans life…

All of them are lovely but if I have to pick a favorite I must say I love the Paritosh writes I loved all his stories, they are crisp short and when I read them I somehow always start visualizing and imagining the characters. I start to feel like them 😀 I loved his stories so much so that I had a huge smile on my face each time I would see his name in the authors 🙂 I liked his debut book Dreams in Prussian Blue too but with this Paritosh you have a new fan… and having met him his stories are so different than the person he comes across as…

Last Words : Lovely lovely heartwarming tales of young urban India

Rating 4/5

Book Urban Shots

Authors edited by Paritosh Uttam

Price Rs 145/-

Resolutions 2010 – A Review

Tags

2010, 2010 recap, 2010 review, resolutions 2010

Its time to do the most important review of the year, the resolutions review 🙂

• First one was lose weight and I have failed miserably there, I think out of the 15kg that I wanted to lose I have gone down just a mere 3 kgs… I can give many reasons, the neck, the knee, the BP etc etc but the fact is that I havent been able to make it 😦
• Read Read and Read: I had set myself a target of 35 books and I am proud that I read 62 books this year 🙂 make me happy
• Start something of my own or get back to job : I did try and start something on my own and realised that I am not made for it, I did start freelancing too so I guess this would be a tick too 🙂
• Manage Finances : yes we both made ourselves very proud here, only loan left is the home loan and we are managing everything else very well too 😀 I guess it took beating last year because of the single income and now with a little freelancing money its beginning to look better and I hoping to get back to work soon too
• Learn to deal more patiently with Ojas : I would say partly succeed, I am much more patient with him than I was before… much more… I still lose my temper sometime but I guess one cant be a saint right
• Get my messy house in order : haa I think I will give up on this one…. I cant keep a house in order thats just not me, its one activity I give least priority to somehow in my list of things to do… Dont know why but I guess I am like that

so in total of 4/6 not bad I would say though the biggest and the most important point 1 should have been met 😦 but this year for sure

Music which I loved

Tags

2010, 2010 recap, 2010 review, music, songs

Music makes life sweeter isnt it? So lets talk about your favorite music of 2010… for me like in movies Ishqiya rocked in music too… I love all the tracks or the movie and many many days they have been playing on loop in this part of the town 🙂

Love love all of them whether its the softness and the love in Dil tou bacha hai ji

or the very folky very peppy Ibn-E-Batuta

or the one that displays the sheer magic of rekha bhardwaj… Badi Dheere Jali

Every song of ishiqya is a masterpiece

The other song that I loved in this year was Gal Mitthi Mithie Bol from the movie I hated Aisha, I cant wait for my cousin’s wedding in Feb where I will be dancing away to it 🙂

I can remember many more but I will leave it to you come on lest make the page musical, go on add your favourite songs of 2010 in comments… tell me which ones make you go hmmmm, which ones made you dance and which ones touched your heart 🙂