Ten things about NaBloPoMo | Post 31

Tags

NaBloPoMo, ten on tuesday

So its time to end NaBloPoMo, 31 posts in 31 days and what better way than talk about 10 things about it 😀

1. It needs a lot of discpline and determination for doing NaBloPoMo…. posting every day is very very very difficult

2. That its actually not what to write but when to write and getting out of my laziness that I find difficult, once I open the editor I always find something to write

3. That NaBloPoMo is absolutely useless for clearing out the drafts in the dashboard. Lets face it the drafts will always be drafts

4. That I still have lot to write about even after doing 31 posts for the last month and I don’t know why I did tags in the month when I had something else more intelligent to write

5. That its lot of fun of doing NaBloPoMo with friends specially in the beginning when all the enthusiasm is up and in the end when we all celebrate 😀

6. That reading other blogs and commenting takes a major back seat during NaBloPoMo for me somehow. I just don’t seem to have enough time

7. That when I have other 8 people doing it with me and the reader exploding I do understand how u all feel when we do this 😛

8. That this is the second time I have done NaBloPoMo in May, did it two years back in May too… hmmm strange

9. That I find Fridays most difficult to manage when it comes to NaBloPoMo, 1 because I am in weekend mood and two because I like to schedule weekend posts on Friday too

10. Last but not the least that I do NaBloPoMo only because of some stupid, mad, excited and very lovable friends I have… yes you know I am talking about u 😀

Cheers to all of us for making it happen… Phew…. finally freedom 😛

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Weekend with Friends | Post 30

Tags

NaBloPoMo, This and that

Aren’t those weekends the best which are spend with friends, last weekend was one such when Imp’s Mom and Imp came visiting like I said in my previous post.

They came on Friday night…. Imp and Ojas bonded like long lost friends after the initial period of shyness they both pretended to have 😛 We went to planetrium, saw Kung Fu Panda 2, fell in love with Po again, eat ice golas, played in the park with the kids, ran after the kids in the mall and later in the night had a drink followed by spicy chicken curry and dosas in a small hole in the wall joint (those are the best meals I tell u) and during all this we chatted and chatted and chatted about everything under the sun… right from discussing blogger and tweeps to shoes and dresses and the kids these days and the some serious heart to heart talks… Its so amazing how relations move from a mere person u read to being such close friends….

We had a nice tweet up for sunday brunch following which they went back and with heavy hearts we said good byes to each other hoping that we would meet again soon :)We loved every minute of the time spend Imp’s Mom and imp 🙂 and yes we loved that anjeer ki barfi that u brought too…. 😛

So tell me how was ur weekend

 

My life in books | Post 29

Tags

books, fun, NaBloPoMo, tag

Once in a while you see a meme which is begging to be picked up (and mostly its something to do with books I tell u 🙂 ) and one such is this at Chandu’s, the girl next door’s and Iya’s

The idea is to answer questions with names of books you’ve read.

So here is my life in book titles 😀

In School I was: Five point someone

People Might be surprised I’m:  Queen of Dreams

I will never be: Little Women

My Fantasy job is: No 1 Ladies Detective Agency

At the end of a long day I need: Love on the rocks

I Hate It When: (people have) Great Expectations

Wish I Had: The Palace of Illusions

My Family Reunions Are: Catch -22

At A Party You’d Find Me: The Pleasure Seekers

I’ve Never Been To: The magic faraway tree

A Happy Day Includes:  Highway on my plate

Motto I Live By:  A Fine Balance

On My Bucket List: Around the world in 80 days

In My Next Life, I Want To: Mistress of Spices

And we miss posting | Post 28

Tags

NaBloPoMo, Ojas, parenting

on the 28th day, right in the last leg of the NaBloPoMo.. sigh but I am not sad. We had a blast of a day yesterday and I forgot all about the post till late in the night and that time I decided that’s its ok I will probably do two tomorrow than get on the laptop at that time…

Imp’s Mom is here along with Imp and we are all bonding here, me and her and Ojas and imp, the house at any point of time feels like a play ground where they both want to jump around and show us look we are jumping everytime they do, I wonder whats with the need of constant appreciation in kids these days. If I recall my growing up, I don’t think I was told very good, well done every so often but here the case is not like that.

I used to initially think its just Ojas but as I meet more kids I feel its the same everywhere. These days the kids want to be seen and appreciated every single minute when we are around them. For something as simple as finishing food to something which is actually praise worthy like finishing a puzzle or such. I have a constant expression ready on my face, a mixture of amusement and happiness for such situations 😉 I guess its more to do with the parenting style these days, the time we spend with them. The fact that they are mostly alone around. No 10 cousins running around and playing together and encouraging each other, no grandparents around… what do u think?

But I often wonder whether this is ok for them. Will it make them use to of getting so much appreciation all them time and how will it affect them when they grow up?

PS: Ojas is doing well those concerned ones, thanks for the mails, sms and comments. The doc said its nothing serious and we are both doing fine now.

Tired, exhausted, frustated and depressed | Post 27

Tags

motherhood, NaBloPoMo, Ojas, parenting

If the tittle of the post hasn’t put you off till now please read the commentary down. Today is one of these days when I am Tired, exhausted, frustrated and depressed of being a mother. I love being a mother but come on lets face it – its not a easy job and though the smiles and the hugs and the kisses are good rewards there are days it gets pretty frustrating and lonely. Today is one of those days.

The husband has been travelling and is out, we have been night training Ojas and he has been doing great touchwood, he sleeps some 2 hours before us and when we are going to sleep we just take him once again and later he is mostly dry till the morning. once or twice he has even woken us up when he wanted to pee in  the night but yesterday because I was alone it had to be otherwise right? The boy wet the bed three times 😦 As if that was not enough the boy has been behaving like a demon since morning. Shouting and screaming on everything I tell him and not doing exactly the opposite of what I want him to. I have been trying to be patient since this all after all he is a child I say and they have the days when they are allowed to be nasty….

But look what he did sometime back, inspite of my telling him not to he poked himself with this in his ears…

Its his old plastic brush which is broken, one end is pretty sharp and when he was playing with it, I told him not to, took it and threw it in the dustbin. I went to the loo and next thing I hear are screams and crying. And what I see that he has taken it out of the dustbin and poked his ear with it…the ear seemed all red though there was no blood. He cried for about 15 minutes and complained of a lot of pain and finally slept off. An emergency appointment with he doctor has been taken for 6pm and my heart is currently racing faster than a ferrari. I think I just survived a heart attack. How please dont ask me that 😦

I have said that before and I say that again motherhood is the most difficult job I have ever done in my life. Please pray that all be well

Edited to add : May be i should have done this post on his blog but I wasnt really thinking too much, may be will cross post it there.

Where Femina Steals | Post 25

Tags

blogging, femina, NaBloPoMo

Yesterday I got a call from Ritu saying that Femina has printed one of her stories without her permission. And I was angry and upset.

Go read Ritu’s post for details here.

I wonder why do these publications take bloggers so lightly? Does it really take so much time to send a mail asking for permission? Does giving a little money to the blogger for publishing it really make a difference to their deep pockets? I don’t think so, than what exactly is the issue I wonder?

It has happened to many people before. I was once told that Punjab Kesari has printed my recipe and pics in the paper by a cousin living in Punjab, like a foolish girl I ignored it when they told me its public material but now I have realised that enough is enough. We as bloggers have to take a stand against this. So lets stand together and make femina apologize to Ritu.

Here is the image of the article in print… the story which has not just been printed but modified too… horrible I say.

Femina Shame… Please apologise

Ten things that make my dil go mmmmm | Post 24

Tags

NaBloPoMo, personal, small joys of life, ten on tuesday, This and that

I absolutely love that song my dil goes mmmmmm mmmm , there is something about that mmmmm that lingers on 🙂

and when Swaram did that post yesterday on Small joys of life thats the song that came to my mind… and also its time to do a ten on tuesday and hence I combined them both 😀

1.  Seeing a flower bloom in small balcony garden early in the morning

2. When you invite someone on lunch and they come armed with a perfect bunch of white and pink lilies

3. When you think you are struggling to swim and the coach comes and tells you madam well done. Your hand work is just perfect and smooth

4. When you come back after spending the day outside for some work and your child runs to you hugs you tight not bothering about the fact that you are really sweaty and smelly. All he cares is for the fact that his mumma is back home

5. When you wake up on a saturday morning with tea and rusks served in bed by your favorite boy yeah the husband 🙂

6. When you think you are missing your mom too much and feel like just hugging her,  just that evening from a faraway land of Singapore your sister uploads snaps of mom

7. When you come home after an hour of swimming and knowing that you will be hungry your maid has kept your favorite poha ready for you

8. When you call a friend only to hear one of your favorite songs as caller tunes and hence you want to keep calling them over and over again

9. When a friend comes back from the US and like an early santa bring these lovely things for you

10. And last but not the least something that happened just now, when you are thinking of making chai and not happy about having it alone. The husband suddenly comes back early with a packet of samosas to relish with the evening tea…

see ya later folks 😀

Books I have been reading | Post 23

Tags

books, NaBloPoMo, review

Its been long I have updated the page I keep for the books I read, reviews have been slow on the blog too for reasons I dont seem to understand. So I thought may be listing the books I have read in the past month or so with short reviews might be a good idea. Will do detailed reviews for some of them soon but as of now here is the list

Jaane bhi Do Yaroon By Jai Arjun Singh : I love love love the movie Jaane bhi do yaroon, its right up in my most favourite Hindi movies, have watched it N number of times and I think its cult work of Hindi Cinema so when I first heard of this book I knew I had to read it and to top it all Jai’s blog is one of the few first blogs I started reading ever. The book brings back to the satirical comedy that Jaane bhi do yaaron was. In his own signature style and imagination that can only be Jai’s, he takes us through the making of the book, what was the thoughts of the legendary Kundan Shah when he thought of the movie and what brilliant actors like Naseer and Ravi Vaswani bring to the film. It makes you aware of what Jaane Bhi Do yaroon wanted to achieve even if one has missed the dark humour in the movie which frankly the initial few times I did. If you like the movie I would highly recommend the book. It made me want to see the movie all over again with the perspective Jai showed.

Rating – 3.5/5

The F-Word – I have already done a review here

Women and the weight loss tamasha by Rujuta Diwekar – I have read the first book by Rujuta when it came and I loved it for the simple and sensible advice to weight loss and the effort towards the size 0 figure. And I felt the same way when it came to this book, she makes it feel so logical so common sense business that you one wonders why is that we follow such simple things in life? drink enough water, dont give up on anything completely, understand your body all this and much more. In this book she deals with weight loss as well as other problems we women have and how to be healthy through them, PMS, pregnancy, menopause. And everything she says makes sense. My only wish with her books is that she gets someone with a better command over language write it for her because God knows she is terrible in that department 😛

Rating 5/5 for the tips 1/5 for the language and editing

Highway on my Plate by Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma – Now I don’t there is anyone who would have not seen the show HOMP, I love the show and I love the way Rocky and Mayur bring balance to the show, one vegetarian the other cringes his nose when it comes to eating veg food, I love the energy they bring to the show. I love the fact that they do try and find lesser know eatries and showcase them and they love traveling too, what is their not to love though I know purists will cringe at my choice and the fact that I love them but somehow they remind me of me, the foodie in true sense. They love to eat not just eat gourmet. In this book they take you through the country and the highway eateries. Thought typically all of them are not really on highways. It takes you the through the lesser known cuisines of the east, takes the south indian food beyond idly dosa and the punjabi food beyond beyond tandoori chicken. I loved the book though I hate to admit that book lacked the punch of the show, the book has its own mistakes but I would still say its a book to read and to keep forever in your traveling back if u like to explore the city you are visiting.

Rating 3.5/5

Chankaya’s Chant – here is my review. Read the book now if u haven’t already 🙂

The 4 hour body by Timothy Ferris- this is a book about fitness, life and food. very interesting read detailed review coming up soon

To be continued in the next post………..

Going Plum with Wella | Post 22

Tags

color, hair, hair color, NaBloPoMo, review, wella

Now who doesn’t want hair like Dimple, I have always been in awe of her specially her hair… and I have always experimented with my hair a lot, so when I saw the Wella Program at Blogadda I was like why not. After much thinking and twittering around I decided to chose the color options ad Plum and Mahongy Brown partly convinced in my mind that I will go for Mahongy and becuase there was a problem in the availability of the color I wanted the package arrived a little late than expected. Though once the packet arrived the confusion in my head started again. Plum or Mahogny and this time N solved it by asking me to go for Plum 😉 so it was

I applied the color and I like how it doesn’t stand out too much inside the house but dazzles when I am out in the sun 😀

The color packaging contain

1. pre color almond treatment

2. color

3. post color conditioner

So as instructed by the leaflet included I applied the pre color treatment and after that applied the mixed color, waited for 45 minutes and applied the conditioner after rinsing. I love the conditioner is the first thing I have to say, makes my hair so smooth and manageable and for my short hair there is enough to use for the next 5 or some times atleast

On the whole my hair feel great after the color application if not gorgeous like Dimple’s…. what I would have loved additionally would be cape in the box to prevent the color stains on my dress… else it was perfect resulting in a plumed hair me 😀

Chennai Chronicles 2 | Post 20

Tags

chennai chronicles, food, highway travels, memories, NaBloPoMo

Continued from here

So after we reached to aunt’s place after battling with the Chennai traffic we indulged in some delicious home cooked lunch, I wish I had pictures to show you how yummy it was but really we were so hungry that we attacked the food without giving much thought to anything else… there was veg briyani, sambhar, rasam, papadam, pickle and rice and yes the most important part of meal in chennai thayir sadam…. After pigging out totally we decided to take a small nap and what a bliss it was in a AC room on a summer afternoon after a good and filling rice meal.

Unfortunately I had to get up in the middle of the nap and it was a torture specially because N and ojas were still sleeping as I had promised to meet some lovely ladies around 4 at The Zha Cafe, I entered the place around 4:10 or so thinking as usual I will the first one going By Namma Bengaluru standards but I was super shocked to see everyone already present…. hugs and hello’s were exchanged with the lovely blogging pals – Meera, Lavs and Laks…. and when all that was done I observed what a pretty place we sat in…  Our table was designed on the snakes and ladder theme, the cafe is basically an old house converted, each room done up with a different theme, there was one based on bollywood and had cute chairs marked as director, actor etc, the walls line with posters and film reels.  There was one which was based on Kerala and the table was modelled on the kerala boat, all in all a lovely place where we had loads of fun talking over bhajis and bondas, sandwiches and garlic toasts and sukku coffee the best thing on the menu there.

Post this lovely time I was picked up by N along with P and Ojas and we headed out to meet N’s aunt in the other part of the city. The drive was about an hour long and me drained out from Chennai heat though the weather was actually pleasant and raining now and then u see I had finally managed to get the rains of Bangalore to Chennai too along with me and I took a nice nap in the car atleast as much I could with Ojas fresh from his long afternoon nap would allow me too

The plan was to finish meeting the aunt quickly and head to Fisherman’s Cove for dinner about which we had heard so much but unfortunately when we finished meeting the aunt it was pretty late and it was raining they had closed the outside sitting we were told and had no table for that day Sulking a little and after discussing many options cousin P suggested to us a place where u get good sizzlers, since sizzlers are one of the most favourite foods of N it was promptly approved. We ordered chicken and prawn sizzlers and prawn fried for the child and the child totally proved that he is my son as polished off the plate of prawns all by himself

After a hearty meal and a seeing good chennai rains we decided to have an early night and wake up at 5am in the morning and visit the beach before the sun rises and it becomes unbearably hot to enjoy the beach….

TO BE CONTINUED…