Food, Family and more !!

Sundays were and are pretty special to me. The one day I tend to spend my time mostly at home with my family. Everyone seem to be busy in their own world the rest of the week. But Sunday is our day, family day!! My sis and I usually woke up late on Sunday mornings. By the time we brush our teeth, mom would have prepared hot coffee for my sis and Masala tea for me. Mom's tea and the Hindu's Sunday Magazine. The perfect combination to start my Sunday with. And then there would be Mahabarath playing in DD and Arattai Arangam in Sun TV and a list of other TV programs following. My sis and I would be glued to the TV. By this time dad would have finished his morning walk(a couple of hours before, though) and read the Hindu from the frontpage to the sports column word by word. And mom would be ready with breakfast. Mostly it will be steaming hot Ven pongal, Vada and Sambar or poori masal. These two were the favorite Sunday breakfasts at my home. And the aroma of food would fill the house. And dad would rush to have a quick shower. And he would come back and try to make us have a shower too before we all had our breakfast. But his super lazy daughters wouldnt budge. He will finally give up shouting at us too. And then it was breakfast time. I love Sunday breakfasts. The only day when the whole family has breakfast (and the rest of the meals mostly) together. We'll all have some stories to share and it usually ends up in some fun filled conversations.

Last weekend I suddenly missed being home. Especially the Sundays. Mom's tea, the Sunday magazine, the TV shows, family breakfast, and definitely the conversations!!  But I thought I could still make it work, try to relive those moments again. So I rushed to the kitchen and prepared Ven pongal and Sambar for breakfast. (Which will otherwise be pancake, toast or some sandwich) And sat down with hubby dear, my now family, and enjoyed the Sunday breakfast that I missed while telling him the whole story behind the breakfast that he was having. And then he in turn shared his memories about his Sundays with family and friends. And that was a perfect breakfast with some lovely conversations. 

So I finally had my Sunday memories back and I'm sure to create some more!!
After all, life is what you create. 

Do you guys miss such things?

What was the best family time of your childhood?

Share your stories. I'm listening :)

Image Courtesy: Internet

Hello There !!!

Folks,

Am back again... Yeah, I know that I do this often... Suddenly go missing and one fine day come back with an "I am back" post. But yeah I love coming back. Been busy with a lot of things again which kept me off from blogging. New job, new city, new room mates (Yeah, I had to leave my hubby and relocate for this job. But will move back soon :) ) I missed this space so much. And I missed following up on my fellow bloggers' posts. Im trying to read up all the missed ones. So yah. Back to me and my updates. Im now in the 'lightening capital of North America'. Yup. Tampa, Florida it is. The climate here reminds me so much of India. Perfect weather. Hot and humid most part of the year. I miss my husband so badly though. But that is also compensated by something else - Living on my own. Yeah. I wanted to do this for a long time. I wanted to live alone for sometime. Just to see how it feels to be independent.  Its good. Im liking it. I cook my food. Do all grocery shopping by myself. Take care of all my bills. Have girls' night out whenever we (My roomies+I) feel like. Life is fun. Life is good. Hope life moves smoothly like this forever. Touchwood !!!

So what are you guys upto these days? Hoz it going? 

Update me !!!

Aal izz Well :)

Well well well... I know I've forgotten my space for quite sometime now. Been busy with a lot of stuff and hence totally ignored my blogspace. Though I did not blog much these days, I did enjoy reading my fellow bloggers' posts. But now am back and it feels really good :) I hope everyone is doing as good as I am (or even better :)).

Its been nine whole months since I moved to the US and I cant believe how quickly and smoothly these nine months went off. Time really flies. It has always been like this since college. Those four years in college, then those couple of years at work, and these nine months of marriage. Everything seems like a dream. But I think this was not the case when I was a kid. Things were real slow and I liked it that way. May be not then, but now I really do. And it always puts a smile on my face to think of all the petty things I did as a kid. 

How I used to hate to go to my Hindi classes. After every exam, I used to say to myself, "Thats it. I'm done with this and not taking up the next level". But due to my mom's insistence I took up three levels and after that she was tired of convincing me. I never hated my dance and music classes though. In fact I'll be waiting for school to close for the day so that I can run to my dance and music classes. And the drawing competitions that we used to go, not for winning any major prize, but just to have fun. All the kids from the neighborhood will be ready with their painting kits and we'll all walk to the venue, find our halls, collect our drawing sheets, develop our own ideas based on the given theme, try to draw them as we envisioned, but it would have ended up totally different and then laugh our souls out after seeing each others outcome and wait for the results to be announced that evening hoping one of us would at least get a consolation prize. 

Ahh and I loved those occasional trips to T Nagar when I was a kid. We were staying in Adyar and we used to go to T Nagar, Anna Nagar or Mylapore for the birthday shopping, Diwali shopping, pongal shopping and jus-like-that shopping. My dad had a scooter back then which cannot accommodate the four of us. So we used to take the bus. Sometimes we had to wait for hours to get into a bus because my sister and I wouldn't get into a bus that is crowded. We sometimes will let go four or five buses and wait for the less crowded bus. Once my dad was tired of waiting and ended up taking an Auto-Rickshaw. This happened a few times and then on my sister and I would pray that every bus that passed by should be fully packed so that we can enjoy the luxury of travelling in an Auto-Rickshaw. And only on occasions like this we used to eat out and  the other days we never ever bugged our parents to take us to restaurants. We were not exposed much and hence were happy with what we had. Parents always decided the goods and the bads for us and hence we had healthy/safe/worry-less  living. Gone were those days. Given a chance I would definitely go back to my childhood days. 
I'm sure you will to, Won't you??

As we grow up, we tend to see new things, experiment new ideas, set up new goals, change them every now and then, and eventually become too busy to realize the value and presence of time. Hai ki nahi??**

So how is it going for you? Busy as usual?? Aal izz well ??!! :P

**Hai ki nahi?? - Yes or no??

No post in July... Ooops.. Here it is !! :)

Yah yah... I've become all too lazy and certainly no inspiration to blog these days. But then I was just looking at my page and suddenly realized that there were no posts for the month of July. Omigosh !!! How can I let that happen. For July is my most favorite month of the year. I can hear you asking me why. It goes like this. I joined highschool (my dear VV) in the month of July.  One of the best schools I've ever attended. Perfect location for a school (in the midst of a calm and dense forest), lovely teachers, great friends and perfect school timing (7.50 AM to 2.10 PM). I've always enjoyed that 15 min bicycle ride to and from school, with a little chit chat with friends. So thats that. And then I entered college in July and there was no looking back. I have had the most wonderful time of my life there. And it so happened that I joined work, my first job, in July. Met some really lovely people there. Fell in love with technology for the first time of my life. No kidding here !!! Then, I met my guy in July :) Hoz that !! And of course I am July born. So does that tell you why I love this month so much ???!!! :)

So is there a favorite month for you ?? And why ??

Sometimes

Sometimes we have to experience things which we would never thought will happen. Sometimes everything that we see looks weird. Sometimes everyone will be around and still we feel lonely. Sometimes things we were longing for will be just next to us but still not reachable. Sometimes opportunities knocks us at the wrong time. Sometimes in life we end up with a situation where we have to decide certain things right there without further delay. Sometimes we are forced to take up certain decisions which we dont like to take, but have to take because of the roles and responsibilities that we hold and because we need some stability in life. Sometimes all those good buddies in life will be totally unavailable when we really need them. Sometimes things we were promised of never happened. Sometimes the world out there will be bustling with activities but we will be standing still. Sometimes we have so many things lined up to be done, but something that ruined our sleep that night will hold us from all those chores. Sometimes we are afraid of taking the next step ahead. Sometimes we feel like slapping that person right across their face for the not-so-sensible sentence that they uttered when we badly needed some words of wisdom.

There have been so many of these "Sometimes" in my life  and all I said to myself was:
"Be Calm. This too shall pass."

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 ??? :)

Was a happy good 2009 !!!

It’s good to be back on the blogosphere :) After a real big hiatus, I should say. Almost after 6 months. I am back now and good to start all over again !!! There’s so much I wanted to write about which I eventually dint do. So here’s a sum up of all that happened in 2009, all that I would like to recollect, rewind, look back and cherish.

My year started in the blogosphere. Yes, I launched this blog page in Jan 2009, with a hope of posting as many blogs as possible. But I din do justice to my page, which am hoping to balance out this year with more blogs and updates :) U can always hope for better things u know, never gonna cost much :)

I was conferred with the ACE award (this was in the month of Feb) at my workplace which is supposed to be an excellence award, to recognize and reward outstanding contribution to the project every quarter. But reward and recognition was never a term known to my project management, as far as I know. It was usually done like a roll call and this month seemed to be my turn and there it was all mine. There were so many times I remember contributing some quality work to the project earlier but the awards for those quarters were given to someone else who were sitting atop the list for many years without the ACE, so it had to be theirs according to the law !!! Some things never change and can’t be changed and so was this reward system. Anyways so that’s an important event of the year ladies and gentlemen. The ACEd month of the year !!!!

The one thing that I always loved about my work place was that it was really close to my house. I want you guys to get a picture of how close it was. My apartment was right behind my office building. No kidding here. The only thing that was separating my apartment from my office was that huge compound wall. They were adjacent buildings. There were so many times when I had waved Hi to my mom (who will be in the kitchen) from my office parking lot. I used to have my morning coffee at my balcony waving at Raji and Soundariya (the early birds of our team) seeing them park their bikes :) It was jus a minute’s walk from home to office. What more do you want in life. While I was enjoying this luxury, I got the saddest news in the last 3 yrs. My office was shifted from the busy GN chetty road to the deserted SEZ in Siruseri. There was no more walking to office, there was no more afternoon naps at home when there is literally no work, there was no more sneaking out of office for a just-like-that shopping in pondy bazaar, there was no more going back to home to get the Swipe card/Mobile/Wallet that I had forgotten to take, most of all, there was no more going home for that nice hot mommy’s lunch !!! My team mates were so very happy, not because the office is being shifted to some far off-out the city location but because I had to TRAVEL(Give the word a little more stress) to office like all of them!!! I was blessed with such lovely team mates, after all :)

Waking up at 6 o clock in the morning to catch the office bus at 7 became an adventure sport to me. But thank god for giving me two responsible friends Alex and Govind. They were always there to hold the bus for me whenever I was late. And it’s a record that I hadn’t missed my bus even once. Things became really hectic and monotonous. I hadn’t had a proper vacation in years then. Suddenly the idea of taking the family to an overseas holiday trip struck my dad. He always wanted to take his girls on a foreign trip before he handed them over to someone :) And so we were headed for a week’s trip to Singapore and Malaysia. Ahhhh... It was such a welcome break from work. Lovely trip it was Which added another memorable page to the book of my memories.

2009 seemed to be the year of the knots. Yes I am talking about the nupital wedding knot. Many of my friends got engaged or married in 2009. So it sorta increased my parents’ blood pressure too. My horoscope took trips through so many astrologers and so-called Nice boys’ families. Fortunately or unfortunately Mr Guru was favoring me then it seems and so my dad was so ambitious in getting me married by 2009. He was a focused man, I know. I was a lucky girl, you know!!! So yes, I got married to this lovely person called Raj in November 2009. To more about how it all started and how we got connected to each other please visit http://www.mywedding.com/sukanyaandbakiaraj/ :)

After my wedding I had to relocate to the US of A, where my husband works. So I had to quit my dear first job. My workplace was like my second home. I have had so many memorable moments there. Late night slogging, Coffee break gossips, Friday lunch outs, first onsite trip, pointless team meetings, even pointless appraisal meetings, what-are-they-talking-about CEO open houses, the intra-DC Anthakshari/Rangoli competitions, the inter-corporate throwball matches, the Chennai Marathon run, the 2 month German training and the list is endless. I had made some real friends for life. It was naturally tough and difficult to leave all of them but I was even more excited to step into the next phase of my life. So there I was, giving a pause to my career and moving ahead to step into my wedded life.

More posts on my new life coming soon... :)
Overall, it was a lovely year for me !!! Was a happy good 2009 !!! :) :)

Guilty Me !!!!!

A few days back I was off to Karur to attend a friend’s wedding. I was not new to Karur as I’d been there to spend so many vacations at my aunt’s place. This time it was just a weekend trip. But I somehow felt nothing much has changed except for a few newly built shopping complexes and renovated cinema halls. Jiji (my soul mate at office) also came along to attend the wedding. You can always spot us together at office. In fact one of our Managers calls us the Siamese twins :). If in case anyone spots us alone outside our work station, one can be sure that the missing person is out of office. We often take long coffee breaks and we’ll have so much to discuss every other day. More about Jiji later. Now back to the Karur episode.

My aunt was more than happy to receive us to her place. The moment I stepped into her house, all the beautiful memories of my previous holidays came flashing in front of me. The snake & ladder-Lock & Key-Raja/Rani games, the little fights with my cousins, the moon light dinners that we had, eavesdropping to all the late night gossips that my mom, aunt and grandma had, all the little gifts that my aunt gives me every time I went there, and so on. I suddenly missed all those happy times. Life was much happier and less complex back then. I don’t get my annual holidays now; never get the time to spend time with cousins who are not in my city. But yes, that’s how life is. And it has to go on. Occasions like this make me relive those days.

After our unwinding session, Jiji and I started discussing our work and about the people we work with. Given a pair of ears, Jiji will go on and on about anything she starts talking. And my aunt was so interested to hear all this, for nobody ever has discussed with her about issues with office colleagues and the pathetic politics at work place. It was already late for bed by the time Jiji and I completed session. The wedding next day was at 5.00 AM at a temple located 16 Kms from Karur. So we had to be ready by 4:00 AM, for which we had to wake up by 3:00 AM. And we got ready as planned and reached the temple well in time for the Muhurtham. After the Muhurtham, the reception went on till 12:00 PM. By 1:00 PM we reached home.

Both of us were so tired, that if allowed we would have slept the whole day. But we had to leave to Salem to catch our train to Chennai. Before leaving we had another chit chat session with aunt and then finally said good-bye to them and headed to the bus stand.

There was some festival in a town nearby and hence every other bus that left and arrived was fully loaded and people rushed to get a seat when a bus comes to the stand. Jiji and I hesitated to rush through the crowd to get us both a place to sit, but we dint want to go standing either, as both of us were dead tired. We missed around four buses waiting like this. There came another bus and the people rushed through again. This time we dint want to miss this bus and hence Jiji tried her best to get into it. But couldn’t manage to. The bus conductor watched us struggling to make it through the crowd. An elderly woman, who looked like a daily-wage labour, managed to get into the bus and sat on a two-seater. I could see how happy she was to, finally, get a place to sit. And when she was just about to sit, the conductor shooed her off and offered those seats to us. A surge of guilt brushed me as we sat there. The lady seemed very disappointed and she cursed her own fate and sat on the bus engine and contented herself.

On the one hand, I was so happy about this weekend trip to Karur as I had a chance to meet my aunt and cousins after a long time. And on the other hand this whole bus episode made me feel bad about people like that lady who gave us her seat, who couldn’t speak up for their own rights and they accept it to be their fate. I wonder how many such women are still unaware of their rights in the society. The worst part is that I became a reason for their ill fated day. And I still have a sense of guilt and shame for this.

All I could do that day was to feel sorry for that lady !!!