Shifting and the never ending settling

Tags

foodpanda, just like that, online food ordering, personal, random thoughts, This and that

So we moved back to our old house (we know like to call it the new old house) about 1.5 months ago. From some basic interior and painting work starting about 2.5 months, life has been absolutely crazy. From doing a trip to the other part of the city everyday and sometimes even twice a day along with work that was at its peak, I had a crazy crazy time. Initially at the way the work was going, we were in big doubts on how will we ever move back this way but somehow we managed to move back. Painters and Carpenters still working and we moved it. Let me tell you DON’T EVER DO THAT 😉

Phew we came from one disaster to another, the dust, the stress of managing so many people in the house. It was something. Finally those people have moved out of the house too (or so I think since there was a carpenter working in the house yesterday as well and I think a painter coming in today) but if you think my life would be easier now, my dear friends don’t be under an illusion.

Since we have moved back to the house, its been one disaster after another. The UPS stop working, the water motor gave up, the RO system got stuck, the gas hob wouldn’t light, the AC remote got lost and the latest and the biggest “The Water Mystery”

So since past 5 days, we are getting water tankers, pumping it from the sump to the overhand tanker and within about half an hour the tank is empty. Yes we get it indicates leakage somewhere but the issue. We can’t find the F&%*ing leakage. All the taps, bathrooms and other water outlets have been checked. We have even got a plumber who came and checked and said he is as clueless as us on what is happening. There is no seepage anywhere in the house to indicate an internal pipe leakage. Yes it’s a mystery yet to be solved, I just wish I had Cumberbatch to come and solve it for me

And in the midst of all this nonsense, food and cooking is the one which is taking the backseat. If we are getting food on table, I have two people to thank for. One my lovely househelp Sunita who is experimenting with recipes and cooking for us when we are in the middle of all nonsense and second is foodpanda, the online food ordering portal which has made my life easier. Quick and easy ordering which I have tried multiple times only to happy each time. They even have a android and iPhone app which makes the task of ordering even easier. God bless the people who think and come up which such ventures 🙂

So people wish me luck in solving the mystery and send me Cumberbatch if you can 😉

 

 

Where the Kay Woman meets the M Woman

Tags

blogging, book, friends, kiran manral, the reluctant detective

Yeah Yeah we are talking about the latest book of most loved Kiran Manral‘s The Reluctant Detective.

I have been a long time reader of Kiran’s blog and love the way she writes. Be it humour or the social causes she takes up. She has her own distinct way of describing everything, a way that keeps you hooked to reading from the starting of the post till the end…  The way she changes hat between the loving mumma to the brat, the dedicated person running India Helps, being the fashionista at her yet another blog and ofcourse making us smile and laugh at ThirtySix Forty and counting is amazing. Super Woman Kiran Manral 😉

I finally had a chance to meet her last year sometime during Feb when we went for the Lavasa trip and one of the biggest highlight of the trip was meeting her and chatting away to glory as long last friends naa make that soul sisters 🙂 We chatted about everything under the sun from handbags to men (wink wink), to mils to kids, from bloggers to twitter folks, it seemed that full 2 days weren’t enough for the things we needed to speak about

And somewhere during these chats, came up the topic of child sexual abuse which eventually turned into a month long initiative to spread awareness and break the taboo that we carry around CSA. If I may say so myself it was very well received and the feedback we got from the readers, the support we got from organisations like blogadda and many NGO’s and also the media mentions had us totally humbled us. The month will always be in my heart and mind as one of the milestone months of my life and CSA wasn’t the only that will make it memorable, it was also working so closely with the woman I came to admire even more, a woman who became much more than a blog buddy and moved on to become more like a sister.

So when she announced her book (seems like ages ago though 😉 ) the excited wait began and when I received it two days ago, my excitement was beyond control.. the book I was reading already was ditched and to N’s horror surprise a baking order was ignored because I couldn’t put the book down 😛 Eventually N put some sense into my head (read screamed at me to get baking he he) and hence I haven’t been able to finish the book as of yet. But soon I will be back with a review but till now it feels exciting, gripping and funny as I thought it will be…

After all any book which starts with a struggle of what to wear to a party and how its a struggle to keep the nail polish from not smudging has to be interesting anyways 😉 and yeah did I mention some handsome men and two murders

I will be back with my review till such time here is how u can grab your copy from any of the below links depending of whether you have a favorite or you want to go for the cheapest which BTW is infibeam 😉

Flipkart 

Signed Copies at Dialabook

Crossword

IndiaPlaza

InfiBeam

And for more information on the book follow the book blog and LIKE the FB Page

NaBloPoMo with a difference

Tags

musings, ten on tuesday

Yes a month of everyday blogging but not NaBloPoMo. Some days back both me and Sups were cribbing on twitter that how we need another month long challenge to start writing again and later she tweeted to me saying that a bunch of bloggers have come together to blog through the month of October, some days on topic of choice and on Mondays and Thursdays of every week on a selected topic. It seemed like an exciting challenge and I said yes, the word got around and 8 bloggers came together to form Bloggers united

However this month the challenge I am taking is to write a post eveyday and I am going to spread it across my blogs depending on the topic I chose that day.

Today we do a ten on Tuesday, so here are ten random things I have been upto

1. I am starting a little late on the challenge but damn I was traveling u see and yes travel has been good to me to this year, just came back from a short break at Coonoor yesterday and had a blast of time at the small quaint town (more on this soon)
2. I am missing Delhi again, come festival season and I start missing delhi so much. Its been 10 years but the feeling doesn’t go away at all
3. I am missing my mom even more than I am missing Delhi, the last I met was in Feb and its been what, no please don’t calculate and tell me.
4. Ojas has vacations and is driving me up the wall. God how they need entertainment every waking second of their life is amazing. God grant me more patience for next ten days
5. On the line of CSA, we have started Women against Violence month and the stories have began to come, heart breaking but yet the ones which require and need to be brought to the forefront
6. I am missing most of MasterChef Australia this season because when it comes in the night mil wants to see serials and when it comes in the morning ojas wants to see cartoons and afternoon at 2pm we are having the damn power cut.. imagine? I think its high time I bought tata sky plus so that I can record it and watch.
7. Life of a mother is never dull as I said on twitter/FB last week. Ojas on the first day of his holiday decided to jump from the staircase, had a bad fall and gave us the scare of life as we had to rush him to emergency for a CT scan. Thankfully all is well and he is fine now. These kids I tell *rolls eyes*
8. I am also slowly realising that I am turning into my mother when it comes to ojas, oh the horror. God help me and God help ojas
9. Tomorrow I am doing Kanjak at home, the joy… will be making halwa, poori, chole yumm yumm yummm
10. I so want the iPhone5, iWANT iWANT iWANT

so tell me what have u guys been upto?

The Auto Saga

Tags

autos, bangalore, rants and more

In a ten on Tuesday form on a Wednesday 🙂 abhi thoda belated tou chalta hai na

1. Bangalore auto drivers are amazing and impartial people they don’t like to hurt anyone so they continuously refuse to go everywhere. After all if they go to place A and not place B, it won’t be fair right? And no I am kidding, ask anyone. I have once asked an auto driver “where will you go, I will go to that place” in as many words because he said no to atleast 10 people in front of me
2. They also don’t want you to waste too much of your time and hence any distance above 15kms is really not done, but wait lets be fair to them and not go too near too, so there is a minimum distance limit of 5kms. So kindly chose your travels to be anywhere between 5-15km. Anything not falling in this bracket is strictly a passenger’s fault and an oversight in planning the city
3. Meter, whats that? Its just an evil device forced on them you see and its mandatory to add atleast Rs 25-50 to the amount which comes on it (if at all its used that is) else they will be in such a loss, poor auto drivers
4. Another thing you must remember about these guys is they don’t believe in keeping change with them, it’s an insult you see so if your bill is not a round figure (note Rs 50 or Rs 100) its your responsibility to give him change and please if you don’t have change, don’t insult the poor man by asking it back so what that it sometimes might even be Rs34 (I have myself been forced to leave this amount once) forget about single digit numbers
5. They also love bangalore as it used to be u know, the small city comprising or malleshwaram and MG road and frazer town and around. So all new places are really out of the city and hence demand a double meter and this includes areas like outer indira nagar and if u live in Martahahalli or hosur road, god help you. All I can say is “Good Luck”
6. Somehow in Bangalore I see another huge problem, the poor auto wallas never ever find a savari back you see, whether its a drop in the middle of kormangala or whitefield or even sometime MG road, I think we people of Bangalore must have a sensor which detects that this auto just dropped someone here and hence we shouldn’t take him
7. There are so many phone applications that these days provide you with shortest distance and some even with the fastest route to a destination, but have you ever seen an application which provides you with the longest possible route,Bangalore has many such walkie talkie applications yes our dear auto driver who else. He knows the longest route from every A to B possible in the city
8. What its 8 o clock? and what u still are on the roads? its your fault obviously and the poor auto walla has to pay for it now to drop you to your house I say. U better give him atleast the double of what is the meter, even if the rule actually is 1.5 times after 10:00 pm. Auto drivers of Bangalore believe in following nature and not the man made clocks and the natural cycle says 8pm is dark and is night
9. All auto drivers in Bangalore are slowly getting impressed by their Chennai counterparts and turn promptly to Kannada if there is any confusion while  interacting. So inspite of living in this city without Kannada for 10 yrs now I feel the need for it. May be they are acting as government agents and helping the govt implement the learn Kannada rule
10. And last but not the least inspite of everything if you have gone lucky and got an auto, I have only one thing to say “good luck” for two reasons – one you should reach where you have to safely as they really are the most rash drivers on the road and two I pray for your mental peace because they really are an expert in every single thing in Bangalore
11. And this bonus point for people who are on the other side of auto drivers (including me most of the times). They are also the best friends of car drivers and even better than police in keeping accidents at bay, what confused? Ask any car driver in Bangalore and they will tell you how extra alert they become when they see an auto near their car, after all if an auto is driving in the middle of the lane and going either side every two minutes, you really can’t be anything but alert and I have always been taught “being alert is the best way to avoid an accident” 😛

This post actually started in my mind after I tweeted saying this because the Mumbai folks were cribbing about their auto drivers and the response I got was am I sure 🙂

Dear Mumbai people I know strike is bad but if u hate ur auto wallahas so much please pass them to #Bangalore we’ll gladly take them

so tell me now folks u think the same 🙂 Trust me having an experience in auto drivers in four major cities in India I think Bombay really has the best auto drivers (it might seem like a case of andhon main kana raja but nonetheless) followed by Delhi (right now) and the only city which probably beats Bangalore is Chenai… so my sympathies with them, may be we can split the mumbai auto wallahs chennai if u promise to share the murugan idlies with me 😛

A Mish Mash Birthday

Tags

birthday, happiness, life, RIP, sadness, tejaswee Rao

So It was my birthday yesterday…. and the whole day the thing that was running on my mind was how is that you wish yourself a Happy Birthday when all that is running in your mind is a the fact that a  lovely girl so full of promise and a life and girl who wanted to live long and enjoy life 😦  was taken away by God… May her soul rest in peace and May God give IHM and family the strength required to go through this, though right now I am in no mood to trust God. If there was someone like him would this have happened? Life is so f^&king unfair sometimes.

But as the super strong IHM says life has to go on, I also went through my day with the usual celebrations with N and my mom and sis pushing me a little for it. I made a cake for myself (which I forgot to click picture of)… mixed fruit flavour and it came out super… Even I was surprised with the softness of the cake 😉 certainly one of the best I have made. It was polished off when some friends came for lunch today.

And the only part of the day which I was actually looking forward to was “Peepli Live”. N and my sis had booked tickets for the movie for me and N saying she will take care of Ojas while we enjoy the movie and damn just before we were ready to go he started crying and did a huge vomit and with that were drowned my hopes of watching the movie too 😦 He is fine now… slept exactly 20 mins after we were supposed to go and kept on sleeping for the next 3 hrs… life isn’t fair I think is the key take away from this birthday

Night was the family dinner that got planned with my mom, sis, my sister in laws family and also a N’s cousin who was here was US. It was a nice dinner where we all chatted away for glory ( BTW on that note “Taste of Rampur” which is listed as of the best North Indian in Times Food guide of last year sucks… might do a detailed review later but as of now my word is dont waste ur money there).

So all in all it was a decent birthday but somehow it just wasnt the same. It was as if there is a air of sadness all around me. Even if I was laughing it was a laughter from the heart, Tejaswee you will live in our hearts forever. And the next year of my life will be dedicated to u 🙂 Of staying strong and positive just as you were. Isnt it strange that the person who you havent even met once leaves such a lasting impression on you and your life sometimes.

Ok lets end the post in a happy and postive note just how she would have liked… by dedicating a song to myself…. Pari Hoon Main 😉

My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes – Blue Jeans Pink Shirts

Tags

adventures, cricket, driving, fearless, gender stereotypes, para sailing, rafting, tag

Oh IHM we love you for this brilliant tag…. and it was passed to me by IHM as well as Ritu

She says If you are woman

Have you ever wanted something that is considered ‘manly’ ? Like a basketball, a cell phone, a dog, a camera or a new laptop? A new car or motor bike? Ever wanted to be a pilot? A doctor or not a nurse? And the manliest want of them all – The remote!

As a kid did you enjoy playing with a bat and a ball?

There was a time when books were considered ‘manly’, women authors had to pretend to be men – would you say books are still rather manly – women should want to embroider and crochet?

So here is the list of my sins which have done

• As a school girl I used to play cricket… yes to all who know me now this will be a shocker as I hate the game now (that is actually due to the fact I think its over hyped in India). I along with the help of our PT teacher in school had actually formed a cricket team and I was the captain 😀 played for about 2 yrs
• I have been driving for 14 years now and I love driving. Speed gives me thrills, I love racing.. I love my long drives when I am the one on the steering wheel… I even drive a SUV (Tata Safari) with ease…  I have done a Delhi-Blore drive with N and Delhi-Leh is on soon to be accomplished list… My top speeed in India is is 180kmph and for a long time between N and me I had the record of the highest speed of 170kmph , he has it now for 185kmph… must beat him to it soon 🙂 While we are on driving, I love go carting a sport… There was a time when me and N regular on the go-carting track racing against each other 🙂
• I love love love love my books, always will have a book in my handbag, my car, at my bedside table and I never understand why are books considered manly?
• I have done white water rafting, para-sailing, bungee jumping, water skiing, snorkelling and diving 🙂 and rest of the adventure sports are in my bucket list too
• Moved to a new city and lived all by myself renting a flat and totally enjoyed it
• I share and enjoy all kinds of humour specially dirty humour 😉
• I enjoy drinking and have a policy of never say no to beer, so cheers 😉
• Technology like cameras, cell phones, laptops and yeah internet are my area of expertise in the household… anything needs to be done on this is my duty by default
• I have travelled without any male companion and even alone fearlessly at all times of the night…1 am coming back from office to heading back home after partying till 3 in the morning 😉
• Did the eternal sin of speaking my mind out  specially being a girl, if I dont like something I voice it

And I still love my chocolates and roses…..

I still can shop at any time of the day for anything and for however long…

I still love cooking and baking

I still love my jewellery

and yes I cry at the drop of a hat and want my man to pamper me 😉

And while we are at it I have to share this something I have wanted to do at one point of time… (though I am glad I didnt do it 😉 )

Remember all those hindi movies in which hero and herione will have an argument with each other saying that they are equal and they would come up with a series of thing that could be done by both and finally always it would boil down to the guy being able to remove his clothes and the girl cant… So there was a time I would wish to be able to do that but guys if u think thats the only thing u can do which we can’t go ahead we dont mind 😉

And though I love my blue jeans I wont want to be stuck to them for next 12 yrs… so here are the 12 bloggers I tag

• Swaram
• Iya
• Masood
• Prateek
• Hitchy
• Kiran
• Suma
• Sraikh
• Dee
• Chandu
• Munchkin’s Mom
• The Mad Momma

The men in the list this is what u have to do

Have you ever wanted something that only women are supposed to want – like bags, shoes, clothes, creams, perfumes, babies, flowers? A peaceful home and a happy family? Have you ever been afraid of the dark or of insects?

As a kid did you ever want to play ‘teacher-teacher’, cooking or did you like playing with a doll? Have you ever enjoyed cooking? Bought something in pink? Loved chocolates?

The most important years really

Tags

kids, montessori, NaBloPoMo, parenting, robert fulghum

I went to an observation session at the Montessori that I have applied for Ojas today and I was really impressed by the whole place, the process they follow, the happiness floating around, the teachers etc etc… guys pray for that Ojas gets through it… but one thing that really stayed with me till now is something that I read on the notice board today… how very simple and how very true…. read on to believe

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school. These are the things I learned:

Share everything

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die.

So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.

The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

[Source: “ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN” by Robert Fulghum.]

WishList 2010

Tags

2010, NaBloPoMo, new year, wishlist

So we have taken 2009 stock, we have had the resolutions for 2010 ready but what about the wishes 🙂 they make the go ahead isnt it…

so here is mine…

The drive to Leh and back… From Delhi to Leh via Manali and back via Gulmarg… a drive we have been dreaming and I am hoping the dream will come true this year

My plain white dinner set or tableware… I have lots of crockery but this one I WANT I WANT I WANT

A good camera, my current camera is like 5 years old and I need to change it… so a camera is a must buy this year… and if it becomes a SLR then sone pe suhaga

The all girls vacation we have been planning forever

so here is my short and sweet wishlist… and I am open to receiving gifts :d

PS: all images courtesy google

And I am back

Tags

blogging, break, festivals, friends, love

The break that was just intended to be for a short vacation became so long courtesy my laptop’s adapter that gave up and took soooo long to be replaced that I started having withdraw symptoms 😀 😉

But this break yet again proved that what a loving place this blogworld is…. the comments, sms’s, mails and calls asking me that why I am missing and is everything all right…. guys I love u 🙂 hugs

But now I am back to bug u again… and my reader has a scary 1000+ unread items… I will get to it slowly and finish it hopefully sooon but with the festive season around and then a Delhi trip planned immediately after that not too sure

So what are ur plans for the festive season…… I am hoisting my teen patii party on Friday

What does it take to stand up?

Tags

fame cinemas, india, jan gan man, national anthem

If you have seen a movie in Fame Cinemas, you would be very familiar with the fact that they play National Athem before starting the movie… I simply love this gesture of theirs… small thing but speaks volume isnt it?

Me for one simply love it… It fills me with pride, a feeling of patriotism takes me over the two minutes that it runs…. the way it is started with the queen of indian singing Lata Mangashekar… the tharkan in the voice of hariharan… the sweetness of S P Balasubrmaniam… the old mature voice of that old lady (bad but I am not sure who she is, someone can help me with this)….the huskiness of Jagjit Singh….the rajasthani singer brining melody in his own accent…Pandit Jasraj’s hands and eyes and ofcourse the singing…. the assuring smile exchanged between the mangashekar sisters…. the deep soul stirring voice of bhupen hazarika….  the passion of Rahman…. for me it brings different facets of music together to represent India… and it sitrs my soul…

The first few times I saw this I had my eyes wet… ya call me a foolish or proud Indian… I am that…

But oflate I have started to observe the people around me when the athem comes up… and the reaction varies from almost what I feel to also some people who make faces and some which go far enough to say that oh my God… we will have to stand again…

Is standing for nation and that means only literally for 2 mins so difficult???

It surprises me beyond imagination…

I think we just might be the only country in this world which apart from having such a beautiful athem doesnt have the engery or willingness to respect it….

If we cant even do this then what can we do for our country? me is really surprised…

Is it to so difficult to stand up? What will it take for our generation to stand up reall, what???