Day 1 : Letter to my best Friend

Tags

friends, just me, letters, personal

Dear Best Friend 

Should I start the letter by “Hello, hope you receive this letter in the best of health”. That’s how we were taught to write letters in school , the school both of us went to. 

Dear Best friend, We have grown up together. From the days of my childhood when I remember playing hide and seek with you and the others in the street and you saying “mujhe den banna nahin aata” (I don’t know how to become the den), to the days of teenage and discussing about our first crushes, moving on to the excitement of first boyfriends and kisses. The class stories and the scheming against parents. Those long evenings and nights where we pretended to study together and those 2 am poha and maggi. That spending the whole day together but still standing at the gate for 30 mins to continue talking. 

Listening to “Nothing gonna change my love for you” in endless loop and dreaming of our respective boys, those fights too. And then trying to behave as if it doesn’t matter where actually in the heart all we need is a good talk and then when the fight is solved, going on to talk like we haven’t met for ages irrespective of the fact that the fight never lasted more than a couple of hours. 

As I am writing this letter to you I realise how much I miss you, how much I miss the days of growing up. The days where I had someone always to turn to chatter away, just to be around. As life moved on, we did too and truth be told I have made many more friends. Many friends that I am close to, even friends that I share my secrets and feelings with but there is something about you that I miss. The hanging out, the carelessness, the love 

Just wanted to tell you that you are in my thoughts always, I may not always call you but I miss you and I know that whenever we meet we will just pick from where we left

Yours 

Mona 

 

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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

Day 33 : Friends & Happiness

Tags

friends, nokia x6, photography, project 365

There is little that can give more happiness than a good friends company and if company brings also some good wine and a actual hard copy card that makes it just perfect.

Thanks Pixie for the wonderful time and most importantly for that lovely card, I have received one after ages

Lets Talk about FB Baby

Tags

blogging, FB, friends, personal, This and that, twitter

Dear Readers of the blog & Followers in Twitter,

I love you a lot and appreciate the fact that you take time out to read the crap I write, I really do but I have certain requests to make of you when you send me a FB friend request

• Following me on twitter doesn’t I repeat doesn’t qualify as being a FB friend. Similarly your commenting on my blog once or mine on your blog once doesn’t qualify as being a FB friend
• So you have a pseudo name using which you blog, I get it and I respect it but if you create a FB id using that name and want to add me sorry I won’t. If you are not comfortable revealing your identity its only fair that you don’t peek into mine and my friends life isn’t it? If you want your blog to have a FB identity please create a page for yourself and I promise to like it. I promise
• Again for people using pseudo names would you please please identify yourself when you send me a FB request? I mean I really don’t have any magical powers to deduce that a person who has added me is XYZ in blog world. In the first place the only way I get that you are from blogworld is by the fact that we have bloggers as common friend but please please please be kind to me and identify yourself
• Yes we have 25 common friends (may be more) and yes they are all bloggers but do I know you? Do u know me? Can you just for a second think that before adding me? Please it would do save me and you a lot of embarrassment
• And last but not the least if I have ignored you once please sending me a friend request again will not make me accept it, there was a reason I rejected it in the first place anyways right?

Yours Truly,

Monika

Now people don’t get me wrong and label me as a snob after this post, I do understand that people like us who choose to spend their life online have to make some sacrifices somewhere but at the same time I think we are all mature enough to understand the difference between the three mediums – Blog, Twitter and FB. Blog and Twitter are online presence open to all we chose what we put there, its about sharing ones thoughts and opinions whereas FB gets very personal its about sharing your life, the pictures and the lives of your friends.

So please folks lets understand these differences and respect them

May the warmth live long – Post 21

Tags

blogging, friends, love, NaBloPoMo, warmth

I actually had another post almost written for today but as Uma says every NaBloPoMoite has done a post wishing Swaram… so why shouldn’t I?

Happy Birthday to the most bubbly and cheerful girl in blog samaj….

Lots of hugs and wishes swaram

Our blog samaj is amazing with the love that is passed around isn’t it? the way we are all excited about her birthday and celebrating it shows.. and come to think of it… most of us haven’t met her… I have and I can tell u she is even more nicer and charming in person…. 🙂

A little offtrack but today morning I had the same warmth in my heart about the blog world when I woke up reading this post by Avanti I was totally touched… hugs lady… I also remember that day clearly and will always do… who could say we were meeting for the first time… 🙂

Mom’s Special

Tags

blog meet, Delhi, food, Friday Feast, friends, mom, recipe

So I am back from a wonderful break at home… 15 days spent getting pampered by mom.. enjoying the food, Delhi shopping and Delhi in general… I tell u the city is a boon for shoppers and foodies and considering I am both its actually a heaven for me 😀

I also met some amazing bloggers there and that was the sone pe suhaga… and what an afternoon that was… Met Meira, nm, How do we know, SMM, Neera at the gracious host nm’s house… great talks were had with some awesome pav bhaji , pasta and kachoris and dhoklas which Neera got… this delicious food was followed by some amazing pastries that Meira bought… the kids behaved themselves, played with each other and the mom chit chatted over food as long last friends… Can it get better and then with a heavy heart at around 4:30pm we parted ways…  Yay guys I do too many blogger meets and would be happy to see too many J J comments 😀 👿

(Read what Meira wrote about the meet here 🙂 )

And now that I am back from home, let me put a Friday Feast recipe (coming on a Sunday… but just couldn’t manage to post it before even when the post was almost complete) which is my mom’s special…Bread Rolls…  I am sure a lot of people make it but this somehow remains mom’s specialty for us specially for N… When mom came to our house first time after my wedding she made it for breakfast and N instantly loved it… and now when everyone mom is visiting here or we are gone home that has become a must make breakfast… and the funny thing is that N calls it bread pakora and the first time he asked us to make bread pakora we were like really surprised because I didnt know he likes them but nonetheless we made it and when it reached the table…N was what have u made and then we realised that he is actually asking for brad roll 🙂

So here is the recpie of Mom’s Special Bread Roll

Ingredients

for the filling

• 1 big potato boiled and mashed
• 1/2 cup peas boiled and mashed lightly
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1-2 green chillies chopped
• handful of corrainder leaves chopped
• 1 tsp dhaniya powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/2 tsp aamchur powder (dry mango)
• salt and chilli powder to taste

For the rolls

• Bread slices 6
• Oil to fry
• Some water

Method

• Mix all filling ingredients and divide it into 6 equal parts
• Take a slice of bread, dip it in cold water and then squeeze out the water
• Take a ball of the filling, place it in the bread and the fold the bread to make it look like a roll
• Repeat for all slices
• Deep fry in oil

Serve hot absolute sinful but delicious bread rolls with green chutney or sauce

I also make a little healthier variation of this which I stuff with mix veggies and mozzarella, bake it instead of frying… that turns out yum too… will post that soon after I make it next time, I need a pic to upload

till then enjoy the sinful treat

PS: I haven’t been able to come and read your blogs and reply to the comments… from past some time its happening so often that I am feeling bad saying sorry too now… but I promise to be more regular now… promise promise promise dont leave me and go haan 😀

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

A Season of Blog Meets

Tags

blog meet, blogging, friends

First I met Iya and then Pixie and then the mini blog meet happened with Swati, Iya, Puja, Pixie and now courtesy Swaram it happened again 😀 😀 😀

Rhicha of happyfeetnme, Abha, Iya, myself and the guest of honor Swaram (though she was complaining we didnt treat her like one 😉 ) met for the most sinful lunches I have had in the recent past at Rajdhani, UB City

It was really awesome meeting all these folks and we talked like crazy for 3 hours, even teased (well almost) a hot looking server in CCD and also briefly pondered over whether men find the unwanted (???) attention and the eve teasing bad too ;-), so u guys out there… what do u think about it?

Every time I meet a blogger my belief in the whole thing just keep getting stronger and I am left wondering…. am I really meeting these people for the first time?

Love u girls!!!! I had a rocking time today and hope all u did too 🙂

and ya how can I forget, I made some yummy peanut butter, choco chip cookies… here drool :D… they were really yummy though forgive me lame attempt at shaping them he he

And yes Swaram, I did a post to add to ur reader lol 😀

School Time?

Tags

blog meet, blogging, friends, montessori, Ojas, school

Its that time of the year when one has to run helter selkter to get your kid into school… Me and N have both been discussing it for sometime now and thankfully we have finally come to conclusion that we are sending Ojas to a Montessori till he is 6 and then with 1st he will be going to a school.

This way we also push the discussion between conventional schools/the new age schools some more time… I know its a risk but its a risk we are ready to take after reading up about the Montessori system.

According me the formative years i.e 2-6 are the most important years and its extremely important to be in a good place at this time.

So for us the hunt to a good Montessori has begun, the only -ve point here is that I am not able to find a good one near our house…

So all you guys any suggestions for good Montessori near Marthahalli/ORR/brookefields area? Please mail me or let me know in the comment section…

Even if you know anything is Kormangala/Indira Nagar would be fine because that is our second preference

PS: I met up with lovely girls on Friday…. Iya, Swati, Puja and Pixie… and what a blast was had…

Go read here, here and here about the meet… And anyone who laughs on my pic in Swati’s post… u are banned here 😀 Girls I love u…. we bloggers rock

Apple Coconut Kheer

Tags

apple, blogging, cocunut, condesed milk, dessert, Friday Feast, friends, milk, recipe

I had another recipe in my for today but we surely need to have some sweets to celebrate Hitchy’s interview at Blogadda…. what say guys?

Hitchy you rock and u know that… So here’s Apple-Cocunut Kheer for u 😉

Apple Coconut Kheer

Ingredients

• 1 apple peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup coconut grated
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup condensed milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• some cashew nuts and raisins
• 1 tsp ghee

Method

• Put ghee ,nuts and coconut in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 2 mins
• Add warmed milk and the rest of the ingredients and microwave on high for 6 mins

bingo its ready…  and take my word it was yummy… so heres to hitchy!!!! I provided the drinks yesterday and here are the sweets today!!!

Dude keep entertaining us… U rock… hugs and cheers to the blog samaj….

PS: some tips

1. keep stirring in between to prevent overflow
2. Use a big bowl to prevent the milk from overflowing