Too less!

I manage a full time job, a house and my first book is getting published soon. So as you can imagine I should have a lot of work. And yes, I am getting busier by the day but I still feel the need to do more.

No, not the need to achieve more but the need to do more. I get very weird when I come home and have a few hours to myself. I just want to be doing something constructive and useful all the time. Is that normal?

I have been working VERY hard the last few years. There were always a couple of balls in the air. Hell! nine days before my wedding I was giving the TOEFL exam and was checking my result at the airport on my way to my Maldives where I went for my Honeymoon.

While I was working in India ( right after B school), I was juggling a new Sales job plus GMAT prep plus TOEFL prep plus my own wedding prep! Trust me that was a handful.

When I was coming to London ( about 1.5 months after my wedding), the night before I was uptill 2-3 in the morning. Doing what? submitting my PHD application to London Business School! I remember submitting it like 3 hours before leaving India for the UK. The new bride in the in laws house spent all her time in front of the lap top working on some weird marketing concept!

Life in London is easier. This is the first time I do not have an exam to write. I have realised how addicted I have been to exams. It just gives purpose to my life, without that I feel rather lost. So much so that some days back I decided that I should give the IAS exams, go back to India and do something constructive for my country. But finally after some thought I decided against it. Most of my family breathed a sigh of relief. They did not want the mad crazy about to give an exam me around them :P

Anyways, so this is how things stand. I am looking for bigger challenges something that gives me the familiar rush of seeing my name at the top of the result page in college.

Maybe I am plain crazy. Yes that should explain things. Crazy, thats what I am :P

*Sigh*

Too less!

I manage a full time job, a house and my first book is getting published soon. So as you can imagine I should have a lot of work. And yes, I am getting busier by the day but I still feel the need to do more.

No, not the need to achieve more but the need to do more. I get very weird when I come home and have a few hours to myself. I just want to be doing something constructive and useful all the time. Is that normal?

I have been working VERY hard the last few years. There were always a couple of balls in the air. Hell! nine days before my wedding I was giving the TOEFL exam and was checking my result at the airport on my way to my Maldives where I went for my Honeymoon.

While I was working in India ( right after B school), I was juggling a new Sales job plus GMAT prep plus TOEFL prep plus my own wedding prep! Trust me that was a handful.

When I was coming to London ( about 1.5 months after my wedding), the night before I was uptill 2-3 in the morning. Doing what? submitting my PHD application to London Business School! I remember submitting it like 3 hours before leaving India for the UK. The new bride in the in laws house spent all her time in front of the lap top working on some weird marketing concept!

Life in London is easier. This is the first time I do not have an exam to write. I have realised how addicted I have been to exams. It just gives purpose to my life, without that I feel rather lost. So much so that some days back I decided that I should give the IAS exams, go back to India and do something constructive for my country. But finally after some thought I decided against it. Most of my family breathed a sigh of relief. They did not want the mad crazy about to give an exam me around them :P

Anyways, so this is how things stand. I am looking for bigger challenges something that gives me the familiar rush of seeing my name at the top of the result page in college.

*Sigh*

Why, in an arranged marriage do we yes to who we say yes to?

I belong to the old school. I wanted it all the to begin and (hopefully) end with the same man. There were enough people who proposed marriage along the way but I never got into anything just for the heck of it or for peer pressure. Even when I was really young I had the sense to understand that this guy in front of me -we will not work out.

Also I was too geeky and busy with tests and grades to really bother ( If you don't believe me, check out my posts till 2009- they are all about grades!)

Now that I have been married for over a year ( and how I love to say that)I wonder what makes a couple tick. Tick for the long term.... that makes you stay together for your life time.

Mine was an arranged match. I was 24 when I met Sid, had seen really little of the world and knew very little about relationships et al (again due to the fact that I was an out right maggu. Sid made sense to me. He used to do cool things like travel to India for the weekend to meet me but I think it was just good luck that Sid is who he is.

The reason I say this is because I am surrounded by women my age who are still looking. For various reasons they are going in for arranged marriages and most of them have met 20-25 boys! Without liking anyone!

Some one is not cool enough, someone is not polite enough, someone is not educated enough, someone is not cheerful enough, some one is not confident enough, someone is not intelligent enough...

My close friends tell me how tough it is meet someone who even meets the basic bare minimum criteria.

And I wonder that is that because as we grow older we become more set in our ways? Do we want more from the person than we had the brains to demand when we were younger?

Sid was the first and ONLY guy I met even though ours was an arranged match. It so happens that he is very well mannered, well educated, cheerful, extremely confident, and very alert and intelligent. But I was not consciously looking for all this. I did not have the brains to figure out that this was all needed! Infact I do not know how many of these characteristics are actually needed.

Met Sid, liked him, he liked me, end of story. It was as simple. The only thing I was looking for in my husband to be was strength of character. That was really all.

But I do wonder, what really makes relationships work. What do you think?


Love
R

P.S. I am getting increasingly busy with office work. Hence the long periods without posts.

PPS Do notice the subscribe box just below the 'About Me' section! I am proud to say that I put that! So please, if you like the blog and would like updates to reach your inbox, enter your email id!

Pati in Poland
Or Rather Getting Pati to Poland!

Yes, so Sid is in Poland today. I am not too sure that I can give you the correct name of the city though. I think the name begins with a P and ends with a Z. However it does not matter as he has completely and point blank refused to get me anything from Poland.

Its been quite hectic these last few days and am I am tempted to take a day off just like that! To give you a snap shot of my very interesting life:

Left home at 8:20am . Was very happy about leaving on time. No, the happiness did not last long as when I reached the DLR station I was told that my train was not running. I almost decided to go back home but then changed my mind. So I walked. Yes bloody walked. In my heels. Carrying the laptop that weighs more than I do. Walked bloody 5 stops.

Aaargh!

So, I reached office late and grumpy and then spent the entire day in meetings, calls and mails. Finally came home at around 6:15pm quite exhausted after 10 hours of work. Got half an hour to myself before I started cooking just a little after Sid came in.

Worked some magic there and cooked amazing hybrid Biryani (My version of Biryani. I never had biryani in India, so I just guess.). I was then given the task of Ironing shirts for Sid- a task both of us HATE and are perpetually trying to trap the other one into doing. I considered myself very smart, I actually got away with ironing by finding him two brand new shirts! Happy and elated at my luck, I helped Sid pack his clothes for the Poland trip when Sid decided that he could not find the tiny toothpaste tube he wanted to take. We then proceeded to lift beds, Pull out suitcases from inbetween clothes etc etc –all in am attempt to find the tooth paste tube. But to no avail. Finally I suggested that he could probably buy one at the airport. Sid agreed but continued to look.

*Sigh*

By this time it was almost 9:30 and I was all exhausted. After some more packing and a little more arranging we sat down to a quiet though nice dinner (where Sid philosophically said, ‘Life both choti hoti hai’ )and were asleep by 10:30.

Only to be woken at 4:30 am. The alarm clock woke us up. Time for Sid to go.

I decided to stay in bed as most of Sid’s work had been done the night before and I felt extremely exhausted. Almost as soon as I thought this to myself, Sid announced that he could not find the nail cutter. Since I had used it last, I had to get out bed to hunt for it. I found it in a few minutes and climbed back into bed straight after.

Not for much long though.

The taxi had come, Sid was not ready and I was trying to stay in bed.
Sid put on his brand new shirt and realised that it was too crumpled to be worn. He had too much to do in the next few minutes so I like the best biwi on the planet jumped in to help. So there I was at 5:30 in the morning ironing the shirt. Bloody.

So much worse than ironing the shirt at 9:00 pm in the night.

Should I get some award or what?

So well, finally we managed to get Sid ready for Poland. I jumped right back into my warm comfortable yellow bed knowing that I had to get up at 7 and leave home by 8

I got up at 8.

And that too only because my Mum in law fortuitously called me up.

And then started the cycle again!

*Sigh*

P.S Anyways, I now have the evening to myself and am looking forward to ordering my favourite mushroom rice from a Bangladeshi restaurant that pretends to sell Indian Food. I have a lovely PG Wodehouse that I am going to read! Maybe I wont miss Sid?

I wish. :)

The story of my Teeth

So each year till I finished engineering I would go to a new dentist. My mother would force me into going to one.

My Mom was convinced that there was something wrong with my teeth, something that she could not quite lay her hands on but definitely something wrong. The smile was not quite nice, the way I closed my mouth was not the way it should have been etc etc

But unfortunately no dentist seemed to agree. Year after year, the different dentist we went to said that nothing was wrong with my teeth. Okay, so we nodded our heads and mom ticked off another dentist from her list. The perfect dentist was still at large. If only Mum kept trying hard enough, we would find him one day. The dentist who would agree that there was something wrong with my teeth.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

There sure is.

One fine day, Mum found him. That was last year of engineering. I had gotten through Bschool and was generally very happy with life. I should have known that happiness does not last too long.

I went to him with my Dad after Mum made the appointment.

He gave my teeth one look and said ‘ All gadbad’

I gasped.

‘We need to take out 2 teeth’, the dentist said flatly.

‘No!’, I said sitting up in protest.

‘Yes’, said the dentist pushing me back again.

‘When can we do this?’, asked my Dad.

‘Today’, said the dentist pulling out something that resembled a screw driver.

‘No!’, I said sitting up in protest yet again.

‘Yes’, said the dentist pushing me back yet again.

‘Let me call Mummy’, said Dad intelligently. When in doubt, call the wife. I wish
Sid would realize that as well. Anyways, coming back to the story.

‘Yes, lets call Mummy’, I said hopefully.

So Dad called Mummy and told her that the dentist wanted to pull out my teeth and give me braces for 5 months. Well in time for B school. The conversation took 3 seconds. I gather mum leaped with joy, pumped her fists in the air and screamed a ‘Just do it!’.

Well so the teeth were taken out. Two from the lower jaw. The dentist told me to eat loads of ice cream. The only thing he said that I approved of. Happy with that atleast I went home with cotton stuffed where my teeth had been.

Mum gave me the Royal treatment for the next two days. She had not been so happy even when I had converted B school. Some 2 days later when I could open my mouth easily, Mum and I were discussing things and life.

She said something and I smiled.

‘WHATTT!’, shrieked Mum.

‘Huh?’, said I.

‘Whats happened to your lower dentures?’

‘He took out 2teeth, that’s what’s happened!’, I said now confused.

‘Two from the lower?’, gasped my Mum.

‘Yes, Daddy asked you also’, I said

‘No, but Lower was absolutely fine! I wanted to set the upper denture right!!’

Wow. So because of that I spent the first 1 year of Bschool with white ceramic
braces. Only thing was they coloured yellow when I ate something that had turmeric in it. So many people thought I had perpetually yellow teeth and suggested that I should brush more regularly.

Such is the unfairness of life

Cooking shooking

The first meal I made was one day after coming to London. I made rice, and then stirred fried it with some veggies. I served it with curd and I was surprised that it was edible.

That seems like a long time back. A long journey has been travelled since then.
In the beginning I hated to cook. I just completely hated spending any time in the kitchen. There was a reason behind that though. There I was fresh out of B school, had just resigned from one of the best jobs that the campus had to offer, was living in a country far away from my own –doing little the whole day apart from receiving negative replies from recruiters and cooking.

So, I started resenting it quite a bit. I felt I had turned into one of those people whose purpose in life is o just cook. I know now that that was extremely stupid. I wish I had not thought that way. But well that was how it was.

Now, things are much different. I love to cook. After spending the whole day punching in the keyboard, I love to spend time in the kitchen. Also, it is honestly easier and more fun to cook here. Most vegetables are fresh and clean and you can get chopped veggies as well if you want. If you want to make pasta, you get 100 different types of sauces you can choose from. Boil the pasta, add the sauce and voila! The food is ready.

I don’t really enjoy food too much but I have developed a liking for cooking. Very often, I find myself looking for recipes online and trying them out after work or over the weekends.

It helps that Sid loves what I cook. He is generally the only person eating my food (except for myself) and manages to complement me when I know for sure that the food is bad.

We often invite people over for elaborate (by UK standards ) Indian meals and I quite enjoy that process as well. Sid handles the cleaning of the house and I do the cooking. I love the spread that I end up with.

The growth trajectory in terms of what I cook, has been decent. I started with rice and daal and some veggies, moved on to parathas, then to rotis, then to stuffed parathas, then to pooris and then to bhatoores. My highest point has been the samosas I made last to last week. I felt, I had, momentarily atleast arrived in life.

The next thing I am very keen to try my hand at is baking. I am dying to make muffins and bake bread. And I sound so domesticated now.

*Sigh*
This is what a year of marriage does to you.
Love
R

Birthday :)

So 2nd of Feb, I turned another year older. *Sigh* While the lead up to the birthday was not too good (Sid informed me that he would be travelling to Paris that day), the day itself turned out to be really lovely.

Sid woke me at mid night with a lovely cake (okay, not a full cake but 4 slices of chocolate cake with a gazillion candles on it! But hey, things not perfect are generally things charming!)

Here is a pic of the cake! And no,I have not cut it yet. Thats the whole cake!




He also gifted me a moon pig card which had some million pics of me on the outside and some lovely lines inside. Ofcourse I alter found that the lovely lines had been lifted from the internet but again, I found that cute too!


Anyways, now coming to the day itself.So many lovely things happened. A colleague of mine, who is actually 10 years older to me and has been working for 14 years now, took me out for lunch. We just went to Pret to get a work lunch but then we were like, lets make it exciting! Lets have a sit in lunch. So we sat in Pret and talked and ate. It was just so lovely and I was truly touched by her thoughtfulness.

Then there is this other office friend whom I had helped sometime back. He had promised to get me chocolates for that ( since I dont drink and he could not think of any other way of saying thank you . When I went in office, he was there standing with a box of chocolates for me.

I was like, 'oh my God, its my birthday today!'. He hugged me and wished me a happy birthday and we had a good laugh about the co incidence.

My sister in law sent me lovely flowers at work.

And once I came back home and got a few quiet minutes to myself, I was just so happy. Just genuinely happy for no apparent reason.

Sid came back at around 8:15 pm. Since we were not together the whole day ( and he is taking me birthday shopping tomorrow) he wanted to get me something, even if it was really small. He took the last bit quite seriously and got me ear rings from Paris that cost him 3.75 euros!

But I love those ear rings! Never mind the price!

But that was not all. So by that time I was exhausted and I did not feel like going for the dinner Sid and I had planned. I was dreaming about an ordered take away but Sid kept insisting that we should go out. While we were discussing that, the bell rang.

I opened the door to see my best friend, N standing there with this HUGE cake in her hands. She and her BF had come to surprise me! And surprise me they did. We cut the cake, N's Bf smeared it on my face ( how can we complete the day without that ritual!)and we all hogged on the absolutely LOVELY cake! (Red Velvet, a semi favourite, as nothing can take the place of chocolate)

So then we all went out to have dinner. And that was lovely too.It was bang in the middle of the week and everyone had come back from work. There were all tired but had taken out time to make my day special.....I was so touched.

It was a lovely birthday :) Now you know why.
Love
R