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 :)

Go Green!!!

How many of you like the color green ?? My hands are up already :) 

Green is the color of nature, the color of growth and has come to symbolize prosperity. The color has this magical power of soothing the perceiver mentally and physically. Medical research tell us that Green helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety. And this is why most hospitals use green. It also offers a sense of renewal, self control and harmony. It is also the color of hope. So use as much green as possible in your daily life. You'll eventually see the difference in yourself. You'll be more confident and vibrant.

The color green immediately draws the picture of leaves and trees in our mind.

Here are some interesting flickr finds of GREEN :)

I dont always tell You

I dont always tell You..
How happy I am to have met You in my life

I dont always tell You..
How much joy Your smile brings to me

I dont always tell You..
How Your love brightens every second of my life

I dont always tell You..
I know that You are always there for me

I dont always thank You..
for anything and everything You do for me

I dont always tell You..
How special You are to me

I dont always tell You..
How lucky I am to have You

Happy birthday Sweetheart !!! 

I Love You :)

Combine Studies.. Anybody game ???

Gosh... I miss my college days terribly. Especially the exam season. Haaa.... Gone were those days when we used to run around collecting study materials, taking photo copies of class notes, collecting the professor's notes from the class representative, discussing the test portions standing outside our dept, assembling in the study hall to discuss who will study what unit and after a couple of hours gather back in the same place to discuss and share whatever we learnt in those 2 hours. All this will happen the day before the exam.

Combine studies were fun. Total fun. In spite of all that exam tension, loads of study materials piled up in front of you and just few hours to click away before the exam, the motivation,support and confidence that you get from combine studies keeps you going. At least, it worked for me.

I still remember that day before the exam of one of the management subjects in my 7th semester. I'd been to Divya's place for the so-called "Combine studies". We did everything other than studying. We were listening to music for sometime ("You should relax your mind before you start studying" was our theory you see :) !!! ). By this time, Divya's mom had prepared hot hot chapathis with chicken curry for dinner. Both of us attacked the food the moment we laid sight on it. After the dinner we were having a casual talk and Divs said she had recently watched the movie 'VasoolRaja MBBS' and had like it so much and insisted i should watch it too. So we instantly downloaded the movie and watched it. Divs' mom had also prepared tea for us and had kept them in a thermos flask so that the studying kids could have a sip when they are sleepy. But we finished it while we were watching the movie :) Just when the movie was about to get over, Bee had called to inquire about our progress. She said she was about to finish two units already. Only then did we realize that we were gathered in her place for the sole reason of studying for the exam the next day. Then we quickly designed a study plan. Divs will do the first two units and I'll do the next two and the last one we'll rush up together. And we will teach each other with whatever we've learnt. So this was the plan. It was 1.30 AM by the time we actually started studying. I was in the drawing hall and Divs was studying in her bedroom. After an hour I went to Divs' room to check how she was doing. She was nicely wrapped in two layers of bedsheets and was happily sleeping. I tried waking her up, but in vain. So I left her sleeping and continued my part sincerely. It was a half-an-hour's drive from Divs' place to college. She was driving and i was sitting in her pillion. Before we reached college we successfully discussed the units that we've learnt the previous night. (I can hear you scream WHATTTT ???!!!)

Yes....6 hours of study and 30 mins discussion is all it takes for us to write an exam :) And both of us cleared the paper with decent grades :)

How cool is that !!! :)

The Amateurish attempt !!!

Both myself and my husband are from families who do not eat non-veg. They are very particular about us being strict vegetarians. But my dad is an exception to it and he is okay with his kids having non-veg in spite of my mom discouraging it. I started having non-veg after joining college. I still remember that Wednesday night when I was sitting in my hostel Mess for dinner. It was Chapathi and dhall in the menu and chicken will be served additionally for Non-veg students. I was so bored of eating that same old bland dhall and was instantly attracted to that spicy-looking chicken gravy that was in my friend's plate. So I tasted it that night and yes, you guess it right. From then on I became a fanatic chicken lover. And so is my husband. He loves chicken too.

So one day he bought chicken tenders and asked me to cook it for him. But i have never ever tried cooking non-veg at all. So this would be my first time and so i thought of making Chicken Kurma in a way my mom taught me to make Mushroom Kurma. I just replaced mushrooms by the chicken. Fortunately it turned out to be pretty good for a first timer !! :)

Then the next week, when i totally had nothing to do, i was googling out for some chicken recipes. And I found this - http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.com/

This is a blog page where Mrs.Solai Chidambaram has put up some amazing recipes in a very simple and easy to follow manner. This page not only has chettinad style non-veg recipes, but also has lotsa recipes for the veggies. I had already tried two of her recipes (Chettinad chicken and Vegetable Pulav) in two days and they were a hit !! :) So i couldn't simply resist adding this link to the 'Pages I visit'.

So if you guys want to cook some authentic chettinad food, please do visit this page and you are sure to get the original recipes from Solai Aachi !! :)