Looking back !!!

It was April 2008. I was in Germany for a short term project assignment. I was staying in a nice cozy hotel in Friedrichsdorf. There were couple of more colleagues with me there because of whom I dint miss home much. We all worked for different projects. So we dint know each other before. Got introduced to each other there and became the best of friends in those few months. After work, we all used to gather in one of our studio type rooms, cook together, have dinner together, then sit and talk for hours together, sometimes have coffee in the middle of the night, watch movies next to next or just sit and listen to nice music. The whole hotel will be in deep slumber while we roam in the common balcony for a little walk. We will be totally jobless that we used to put on some nice skin refreshing facial mask at those odd hours. Those were the best days of my life. Those were the days I worked so much and those were the days I enjoyed thoroughly. That was my first international trip. Everything was foreign to me. But only for the initial few days. Then as days went by I started liking every bit of it. The beautiful German houses, the very comfortable Deutsch Bahn trains, the lush green mountains, the lovely old castle of Cochem, the Audi and Volkswagens, the Saturday trips to Frankfurt, their no-honking traffic system, my very first croissant, my first snow, the tulip gardens of Holland, Madam Tussuad Wax Museum in Amsterdam, my memorable trip to Paris, the very happy Disney Land of Paris, the cute dogs that always accompany their masters anywhere and everywhere they go, the neatly dressed up men and women, and the list goes on. I came back home with loads of memories to cherish. Here are few clicks from my trip !!



So why did I suddenly write about this incredible trip of mine?? 
I was reading Zuzana's post about The easter bunny, which took me back to my days in Germany. It was easter time and where ever we turned we saw easter trees and dyes eggs. So we decided to try our hand at making an easter tree. And we ended up making the one seen in the picture below. Though it was not as good as the others, we had so much fun making it. It still was the best for us :) And that was my first easter bunny chocolate, which I dint break for a long long time, since it was just too cute !!!

Flirty Fingers !!!

Nail art is the practice of painting and designing fingernails and toenails. This creative art form requires wild imagination and creativity. It has indeed become a fashion statement today. Some sources say that nail art trace back to 3000 BC. The first nail polish of this age was originated in China. Various products like gum Arabic, gelatin and bee waxes were used to create Nail polishes and nail lacquers. Now with improvement in science and technology fashion freaks have come out with variety of nail coloring and designing ideas. Nail lacquering, nail painting, nail decoration and nail piercing are some different nail art ideas, which are popular all over the world. We all need a break from the always neat and clean nails. Dont we?? 

The first time I came to know about nail painting was in Chennai Citi center some three years ago. There were so many stalls put up for celebrating women's day. And one of them was a stall for Nail painting. I was totally amazed by the artist's work and immediately offered my fingernails for her to show her creativity. It was not that difficult actually. She had different acrylic paints with her, used a tooth pick for painting her designs (she painted a beautiful pink flower on my nails that day). Allowed them to dry for few minutes and then applied a transparent nail lacquer on top of the dried nail design. Thats it. In just a few minutes, my finger nails had a totally new and beautiful look. From then on, I started trying my own designs, now and then and they have come out pretty well. Even you can try this at home. We have lot of designs available in the internet too. If you want professionals to do your nails, there are dedicated nail parlors available everywhere. They offer different types of nail painting like acrylic, 3D, glitter, crystal stone and hand painting. 

So What are you waiting for ??  Go ahead and give your fingers that pretty & flirty look :D

Image Courtesy : NailAsILove, LibertyNailDesign, NailArtGallery

A Desi Neighbor Atlast !!

The day was dull and moody, with the sun almost deeply buried under the fast moving clouds. I was just lazying around for almost the whole day. As I was wandering in the house, pile of clothes lying in the laundry bag caught my attention. I was happy that I finally found something to do. I took the bag and went to the laundry room. As I was unloading the clothes into the washer, someone entered the room. I turned to look who it was and there was standing a lady with her cute little son. She wore a bright smile on her face and introduced herself and her son. We exchanged our history and geography. She's from Kerala, one of my favorite places, and seems quiet easy to move with. I was so happy that I finally found someone to talk to. She seemed more than happy to have met me, coz she has been here for more than a year without any friends. All she knew here was her husband and her two kids with some occasional visits from her husband's office colleagues, may be. Thats Sad. Pretty Sad. But never late. Here we are for each other. Its not even one whole day since we met. We already had lunch together, went to the gym together, went to drop her kid in school, went to the library together and had a long chat over a cup of coffee. Now doesn't that seem like a wonderful bond ?? It is, at least to me. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I finally started to come out of my cocoon and mingle with people. Good going. 

Here's to me and my lovely neighbor.
Cheers !!! :)

Rendevous with Terry !!!

Now that winter is almost done with its job, I am obsessed to get out on my own and explore. As a first step, I planned to visit my college senior, Terry, who lives in Alexandria, which is like 15 mins from my place. So I called up Terry and noted down her address. Then looked up on the net for the Metro bus time schedule and headed to the bus stop, which is right in front of my apartment, and voila, there was the bus, just on time as scheduled for the stop. I was amazed at the punctuality of these city buses. Back in India, I sometimes used to wait hours together for buses. I really dont know if we even had a site to check out the bus schedules. All we could do is to go to the bus stop or bus stand and check with the information booth there. But later, I started calling JustDial and ask them for the bus depot's telephone number and check for the bus schedule. How I wish we had a well updated website to look up for any bus' schedule and how I wish they were on time at every stop. Hmm... 


Coming back to my story. My bus came exactly as mentioned in the time schedule and I hopped on happily. I spotted a little coin machine just next to the driver and asked him for the fare. He said it was 1.45 USD. So I took out a 2 dollar bill and inserted in that machine's mouth and was waiting for it to give me back my balance 55 cents. I waited for a couple of minutes and inquired the driver about it. He coolly replied it wont give me back my change and that I had to insert the exact amount. I "Aahh"ed to myself and thought I learnt something and headed to a seat as close to the stop strings as possible. So after around 10 to 12 mins my stop arrived and there was Terry waiting for me in the bus stop. 


Aahhh... It was so good to see her after such a long time. The last time I saw her was in my college hostel four years back. I remembered her as this short-thin-bespectacled senior with cropped hair who is always spotted with a couple of books. But now, look at her. Gained some weight, well grown hair, and for the first time in my life I saw her without her books. But she is still sweet :). We exchanged hugs and the usual "How are you?", "How is life?" pleasantries and started talking which went on for hours together. We had four long years of stories to be exchanged. A couple of hours are definitely not enough. So we've decided to meet again and this time in my place. Waiting to meet her soon to continue our chat. Of course we both have phones, but nothing like meeting in person. Right ??

Yet another New look !!!

Georgia guy sent me an article regarding the launch of the Blogger Template Designer on Blogger in Draft. I quickly read it up and it seemed interesting. Looks like Google doesn't want us to go in search of nice backgrounds for our blogs anymore. With this new template designer, we can customize our own templates. And I was just waiting for something like this. I've always wanted columns on either side of my page, to put my gadgets, wanted to change just the background image without changing the other layout settings. And this new template designer allowed me to do exactly that. I'm happy.. I'm happy :) 

So after exploring all the available images and layout themes I finally came up with this. 

How is my new look ??!! :)

So finally...

So its become three months since I moved to the US after marriage. I thought moving to a new country, getting used to a new culture and taking a break from work for sometime (Yes I quit my job to relocate. But this is only for sometime. Will be back in action soon :) or so, hopefully) will be a good change. Yes, it is good in its own ways, but I'm missing something somewhere. Connecting with people. Yes, I miss talking to people, interacting with them on a daily basis. Winter played a major spoil sport for me in this aspect. But this is not going to continue. The climate is getting better day by day and Mr.Winter is all set to leave way for the beautiful lady Miss.Spring. 

Yesterday, the major part of the day was sunny. I wanted to feel the warmth of the sun and so stepped out to the balcony of my fourth floor apartment. And it was a lovely sight. Mommies bringing their little ones back from school, couple of boys were skating in the parking area, an elderly lady (should be in her sixties) who had just finished her grocery shopping was unloading her things to a trolley, a lady was taking her baby for a little walk in the park, a teenage girl wearing a mini-skirt (yeah, a good sign of winter end :D) was going out with her mom somewhere. And finally I noticed the that the remaining snow on the street ends were melting down erasing all signs of winter :)

So where am I getting to. Ahh...Yes. So this means I can go to the park from now on, may be with my book, and start interacting with people who are finally showing their existence. Its always nice to meet and know new people. And I'm looking forward to connecting to the jantha in my building. Will update more on this soon.

Have a great day all of You !!!

Kim Yu-Na bags Gold !!!

I very badly wanted to see the finals of the Ladies Figure skating event in the winter Olympics 2010. There was so much hype and support for Kim Yu-Na, the 19 year old from South Korea. There were blogs, support mails, fan clubs in facebook-twitter-orkut, opinion polling and what not. So i thought i should see her performance definitely. I looked up for the channels and event schedule and had even set a reminder for the program so that i wont miss it. And then finally the event started. Kim Yu-Na was to perform third in the finals. And man...She was just awesome. So confident, so flexible, so graceful, so full of spirit and she just breezed through the arena magically. She delighted all her fans and new-fans-to-be (like me :)) with her sexy James bond medley. Finally it was all worth it, after her whole year-long practice and hard work that she had put in. She got what she wanted from Vancouver. She was the most beautiful dancer on ice I've ever seen. And this new fan of hers bows down for her fantastic performance which won her the Gold :)

Japan's Mao Asada, a long term rival of Kim Yu-na, finished second and the grieving Joannie Rochette from Canada, who performed after two days of the sudden demise of her mother, won the bronze.

For those who missed it, watch Kim Yu-Na's Golden performance from here.

Happy Women's Day !!!

We are Gorgeous,

We are Ambitious,

We are Courageous,

We are Adventurous,

We are Fastidious,

We are Mischievous,

We are Outrageous and definitely

We are Precious.

This is a day just for us.

A day to respect, appreciate and celebrate all the achievements of women. 

A day dedicated to the all wonderful women out there who have somewhere, somehow been a reason for someone's success and for shaping up someone to be person they are today. 

A day to simply celebrate the glory of a Woman.

Here's to the care of a mother, love of a wife, obedience of a daughter, warmth of a sister and support of a friend

Here's to the gurlie gossips, shopping and fun..

Here's to all the lovely ladies out there..

Happy Women's Day !!!

I am proud and happy to be a Woman :)

Cheers !!!

America, Bless God !!!

I saw this bumper sticker on a car recently. As soon as I saw this, my jaws dropped and it seemed rude. I quiet din't understand what the owner wanted to convey and dint want to jump into conclusions. So I quickly googled as usual to check what this actually meant. And I ended up here. Looks like a Christian movement and the founders of this movement believe that if we honor God, God will honor us and hence the Slogan "America, Bless God".

Did you know ???

Things that make me happy!!!

I was randomly reading the blogs that i follow and one of them had written a blog that listed the things that made them happy. And i took the lead from there. 

Here are the little things that had made me happy and will make me happy, and i have listed them in no particular order :)

1. Dark chocolates in all forms
2. Dresses in BLUE
3. Eiffel Tower
4. Disney's "Just like we dreamed" parade song and of course the parade
5. Mango pulp and Litchi juice
6. Movie with friends
7. A Walk in the college campus with room-mates after dinner
8. Ceramic miniature dolls
9. Throwball tournaments
10. Talking to mom for hours together
11. Waiting for dad to be back from work on Saturdays for the Samosas from Shree Mithai
12. To write and receive long emails
13. Pondy bazaar Shopping with sis
14. Sitting in the beach, gazing at the sea
15. Listening to my sister's exciting stories about my niece
16. A hug from my niece
17. Coffee break gossips with Suja
18. My Govind-Alex-Suja-Sukku Coffee mug
19. Sneaking out from office with Suja on her Scooty for a Pani Puri from Gangotree
20. Kleio G-A-S-S meetings
21. A call from Nivi when I'm really sick of being bored
22. Comments in my blogs
23. Long weekends and Extended Vacations
24. Surprises in all forms
25. A good comment on my cooking from my hubby
26. Long drives
27. Singing aloud when Im alone
28. A nice-hot-long shower
29. Video chat with parents and In-Laws
30. A nice hug from hubby and listening to a quick summary of his day at work
31. Working out in the gym while watching my favorite shows on TV
32. Watching a snow fall from my living room
33. Visiting Old friends
34. Making new friends
35. That cute-innocent-sweet-happy smile of a baby
36. My room/house after its all cleaned up, of course by me.
37. Peeking into others photo albums in FB/Orkut
38. Wedding news from dear ones

I just realized that the list is endless and I will stop here.

So what are the little thing that make you happy ?? 

Use the comment space :) 

Remember, comments in my blogs make me happy ??? :)

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya !!!

The Storyline is a very realistic and happening one as we can see day-to-day examples of Karthik and Jessie in our own lives. Karthik (Simbhu), an engineering graduate who aspires to become a film-maker falls in love (at first sight) with his house owner's daughter Jessie (Trisha) who is an IT professional. Jessie, who is from an orthodox Christian family, refuses to accept Karthik's proposal. But Karthik, an ardent lover as he is, continuously makes attempts to convince her. Jessie who is unable to make a choice is confused in choosing between her family and love. Will Jessie convince her family, or will she leave her family back for her love, or will she sacrifice her love for her family? We'll get to know at the climax of the movie.

Simbhu, has definitely improved his acting skills and looks a little matured in this movie. But his dialogue delivery is not up to the mark in some scenes though. His overacting and over-reacting hinders his performance as always. But he is far better in this movie compared to his previous ones.

Trisha, gets a very chamthu-ponnu role in this movie and has done justice to her role. She was awesomely good looking throughout the movie, especially in most of the scenes that she comes in Sari.

A R Rahman's music as always is a great plus to the movie. The title song 'Hosannah' and very emotional 'Aromale' were truly striking.

Gautham Menon is known for his own style of narrating the story. At the end of the first half of the movie the director makes the audience wonder how the next half of the story would be. In the second half, when the audience sigh in relief for what seems to be the climax, he brings a twist in the tale and starts all over again to give an altogether ending. Though  it seemed to be a totally new approach of expressing how there could have been two different climax for the movie, the very lengthy and slow paced second half tests your patience way too much.

Manoj, the cinematographer of the movie has done an excellent job. He has beautifully shot every scene and has wonderfully captured the loveliness and magnificence of various spots like Kerala, New York and our very own Chennai.

In my perception,Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya is not worth the wait !!! Though the movie had its own flaws, it can be watched once in theaters for its various pluses as well :)