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

Circus!

So, Friday last, Sid and I went to see the first circus of my adult life. It was called Totem and was performed by Cirque Du Soleil.

It was by far the most speactular thing I had ever seen. To start with Royal Albert Hall was nothing short of fantastic being so steeped in heritage and culture as a lot of things in London are.



This circus is one of the most famous on the planet. They come up with various shows and travel across the world. Infact The troupe was travelling to Amsterdam when we had visited it last year.

The show ahd not started but the clowns came in and mingled with the crowds, flirted with the women, teased the men and generally set the mood for the whole show. And boy, what a show it was. There were enough times I was taken aback with what the men/ women were doing a few feet away from me!


The skill, timing and perfection. These men and women have spent their life times perfecting their art and I came out of the hall, very very very impressed to say the least.

Most people who work in the circus are ex olympic gymnasts, you had to see the stunts to believe them. You know how you must have seen the ice skating olympics and how you gasp as the girl twirls on her skates at lightning speed...it was all there and more! Very often I would not clap / cheer when an act was over because i was too busy gasping! There were trapese artists, clowns, russian bars and a lot of other stuff...







It was an expensive watch, but one of the best evenings I have had in London. And for those who live in cities where the circus visits, this is just to tell you to go give it a watch. Trust me, it will be worth it!

Love
R

I wish I could look coyly at my nails and say that I found Yamla Pagla Deewana too pedestrian for my sophisticated tastes. I wish I could talk about intelligent cinema and how it never fails to excite me.

I wish.

Only that wish is not coming true anytime soon.

I loved Dabang and as if that was not enough, I went ahead and laughed my head off in Yamla Pagla Deewana enjoying it more than ‘127 hours’ and ‘The King’s Speech’ put together. Okay these are both great movies worthy of a watch but I just enjoyed Yamla Pgala Dewana much more.

Bobby Deol is by far the weakest link in the movie with his excessive face making. People in Benaras do not have twisted faces. As far as I know atleast. And his love interest, I recognized her from a tele serial I used to watch many many years ago on Zee TV. I cannot recall the name of the TV serial but I do remember that she had an imaginary son called Tingu. As expected that name had kinda cracked me up and has stayed with me all these years.

So well, the honest truth is that I enjoy nonsense. The mad cap kind of nonsense.
In sharp contrast there is this other movie lover in me that forgets to eat painstakingly made poha ( yes I cook Indian food!) when she sees Kal ho na ho on the telly. Poha is forgotten, husband is sushed and not replied to when he dares utter a word and tears stream down my face as Shah Rukh lies on his death bed. As Preity zinta runs out of the hospital room, unable to see the man she loves die, I contemplate switching the channel. It is too difficult to see Shah Rukh die.
Talking of Preity Zinta. Well, she is about to get married to Saif Ali Khan. Her mother, grand mother and a lot of other rather fat aunties sing ‘mahi ve’. Jaya Bachchan tries her best to look forlorn at the engagement of her daughter. I cry buckets as my mind goes back to my own wedding and vidaai.

What kind of a Bollywood fan am I? It is against my ethics to say that any (read ANY) movie was crappy. I don’t say that. It cannot be true. I find something nice in every movie. The more the nonsense in the movie, the more I enjoy it. And ofcourse if Shah Rukh dies, I cry non stop.

What kind of a Bollywood fan am I?

And on that noble thought,

Love

R

P.S For those interested I can be reached at ruchita[dot]misra[at]hotmail[dot]co[dot]uk

Travelogue- Marrakech ( December, 2010)

Marrakech Day 4

For those interested in the the previous bits of the Morocco trip
Morocco Day One: http://smilethesmile.blogspot.com/2010/12/morocco-day-one.html
Morocco Day Two: http://smilethesmile.blogspot.com/2010/12/marrakech-morocco-day-two.html


So we set out today at 8 in the morning for which we got out of bed by 7! What kind of a holiday is it if you are up and about by 6:45?

Anywyas, after a hurried breakfast we set out in our rented car, again with the same guide as before, Bougemal. The drive today took us some 4 hours, 4 hours of spectacular rocky terrain as we reached our destination: Kasbah Ait Ben Haddou.

In Arabic, a Kasbah is the between of a village and a fortress. And Kasbah Ben Haddou is one of the most famous ones across Morocco. It has been declared as an UNESCO world heritage sight.

Anyways, here are some of my favourite pics from today. These are few of the clicks from the very beginning of the journey.

The valley!



Another view!



Our Car. I like this lonely car shot.



The best part was that we could stop where ever we wanted and click pics.
Infront of our eyes, the terrain started changing. You can now see a much more harsh terrain. I wish the camera could capture what the eyes can see. This was one of the passes. This was called Tischka Pass. Tischka means Darkness in Arabic. Like Sid said, one can only imagine how scary it would have been 1000 years ago.








This is how the roads looked from the highest accessible bit at the Pass.






And the terrain changes further

And...further! Can you see the snow capped mountain peaks? I just could not enough of them.




This is by far one of my favourite pics. The camels and the brown. The snow and the white. The combination of the two is just too eerie! There are a million pics of the brown and the white! This was one of the stops we took while on our way.




This was the last stop. It provided us with a view of the Kasbah.



Once inside the Kasbah, we spent an hour or so exploring the Kasbah and clicking the pics. Below are a few of them.





Two women in a distance


All in all today was a spectacular day and we loved every bit of it to bits!We reached the Riad by 7 after gifting our guide a packet of delicacies we had got from London, rested for some time ( I finished the book I am reading,’A piece of Cake’ by Cupcake Brown, yes that’s the authors name : Cupcake!), went out again to get some food....and by the time we came back, we were exhausted!
Day four comes to an end......I hope you enjoyed reading the post as much as i enjoyed the day!

Love

R

tired and grumpy.

Yes that is my post. This is all that it intends to tell you. That I am tired and grumpy. How this bit of information will change your life forever, I do not know.

But then I am grumpy and tired.

Travelogue

I am trying to put in this blog little bits of the various places I keep travelling to. I have realized that I have forgotten so much about my trips last year. Hence this attempt :)

Brussels, Belgium.
April, 2010.

Sid and I travelled to Brussels for a day last Easter. We went there with another couple from Sid’s B school which added to the fun. We drove in from Paris enjoying every bit of the French and Belgian countryside.




And with that we enter Belgium!




We went out to this authentic Dutch Place for dinner. Okay the only vegetarian bits that Dutch eat is bread, cheese and fries. So well, that is what I had. I remember that even though it was a well known place, none of us really like the food.

After that we all went out for a stroll and walked around the Grand Place. As you can see it was beautiful!







Next day we spent a LOT of time strolling around. It is a small city. Nothing much to see compared to the biggies like Paris and London but it has a charm about itself that is difficult to ignore.



The stock exchange!

We roamed and shopped in the small alleys of the city. There were a multitude of chocolate and toy shops that were a treat to the eye.



Toys!

The Manneken Piss- That is supposed to be one of the most important things to see in Brussles and we walked round and round trying to locate it! I burst out laughing when we actually did find it. First it was so tiny that it was ludicrous. Second, the piss in ‘Manneken piss’ was actually just that! Mannaken Piss is the statue of a small boy peeing!




We dutifully posed infront of Manneken Piss and clicked multiple shots of everyone.
We spent the rest of the evening strolling around the city, we discovered a city square, where we spent a lot of time generally chatting up, soaking in the sun and resting our tired feet. The last thing we did was to check out the Tintin museum. Tintin was created by Herge in Brussels and hence the museum is apparently quite the famous one. Since I am not a Tintin fan, I did not enjoy it too much. The fact that we were the only all adult group did not help matters too much.

Anyways, it was a lovely day and a half spent in Brussels. I don’t think I will go there again because there is not much for the typical tourists we are.

As a parting shot, a pic of Sid and me walking the streets of Brussels. Don’t we look like two school going kids making way to school?




Love,
R

No one killed Jessica- Movie Review

So I have decided I will try puttting in a review for each of the gazillion movies I watch here. Also, that will reduce the I-me-myself that goes on and on on this blog.

1) The story is gripping even though you know most parts of it. This is when I think the credit goes to the writer director Raj Kumar Gupta. And to the leading ladies of the movie.

2) My award for the best performace would go neither to Rani nor to Vidya, it would go to Rajesh Sharma who plays the police officer. I absolutely lonved the scene where he throws the glass frustrated at what was happening

3) Vidya versus Rani. In my honest opinion, Vidya looks like the plain girl next door. The girl no one notices. Vidya who looked amazing in Ishqiya ( you can forgets stuff like 'hey baby' and 'Kismet connection') and manages to look stunning in her latest Saree avatar, has looked so absolutely plain that it is mind blowing.
I found Rani's performance a little put on in bits, maybe because she has cultivated a very refined, sensible image of herself in the minds of the casual cinema goer. The smoking and the expletives seemed a little out of place.
For me while both the ladies were very good, Vidya might walk away with the plaudits. Having said that, I am very happy for Rani. This is a hit and a performace she so badly needed.

4)There is one scene in the movie when Vidya goes to her terrace and screams her lungs out. I was blown away by that scene.

5)There is another scene when Vidya is speaking on TV and sounding really boring. Rani just switches off the TV and asks her maid to get her some pickle. Rani was fantastic in those 2 seconds.

6) In the last scene when Rani comes to Jessica's grave, I got a sense of deja vu. Veer Zara. Rani saves the day :)

7) I remember the time when the candle light march was organised for Jessica and how the some people discarded it as a theatrical antic picked up from a hit movie. It was debated how Rang de Basanti probably played a big role in getting Indians in that mode of not being willing to tolerate any more nonsense. I agree.

All in all, a definite watch. Go watch it , if you have not not just for Jessica Lal but for the other million Jessicas who are not as lucky.

Love
R

One Whole Year

On the 8th of January, 2011 I completed one whole year in London. On 9th of Jan 2010,Sid took me out on my first walk to Canary Wharf. I clicked some pictures then which I have often seen and wondered how I had the courage to leave everything behind and come to an alien land where I hardly knew anyone except my husband. It has been an interesting year with all its ups and downs. A lot has happened in this one year.

I managed to find a job for myself that was much better than I thought I would ever manage. While there are enough days when I wish I could stay in bed a little longer, I am deeply grateful for work. It is part of my identity and I love most of it.

I travelled. Many countries and cities including bits of UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Wales, Amsterdam and Morocco. Add to that 2 trips to India and viola you have my travel itinerary for the year.

I learnt to cook. Before I came to the UK I had NEVER cooked a full meal. Never ever expect for one time when my Mum had taken bro for some med exam. I can now cook easily for a party of 6-8. 8 we have not yet done, but I am sure I can manage it with ease. I can make dosa-sambhar and all kinds of paranthas and pooris.

I am picking up a slight accent. Particularly when speaking to the firangs, yes that has started to happen. I am now rarely asked to repeat myself meaning that they understand my accent as well! I have been very consciously resistant to the idea of picking up the British accent but unknowingly a little bit of change is creeping in the way I speak.

I have learnt to dress better. Yes, I dress better now. It was almost a culture shock to see women dressed better for grocery shopping than I was for my own wedding. People really care about their appearances here ( and spend a lot on it) and appreciate it if others do too. I very rarely see anyone dressed badly in London. So, yes, while I am not crazy about it all, I do manage to pull myself and present myself better. After a year of practice, I have actually started enjoying the process a lot more than I did before.

I have learnt to take rejection. It was a difficult lesson, but like most things difficult, a very important lesson.

Started to paint: I have spent many happy hours painting stuff. Something I never thought I would ever do!

Saw TOO many Movies. Oh boy! Did I watch movies? I watched so many many movies that I have lost count of them! But I just love it and am glad I can do this in London.Also, no matter the count of movies, I am yet to come out of a Bollywood movie and not sigh and think that I should make a movie one day.

Got interviewed by the Best Bschool in the world. Okay I did not get through and neither did I go there for an MBA degree but I did get interviewed by the faulty. It was an amazing experience.

Read a lot. Everyone reads a lot here. The tubes in the morning are packed but you can hear a pin drop. Why? Because everyone is busy reading something. The good aprt about this is that there are some really good libraries here and hence a steady supply of books which is something I always sorely missed back in India.

Wrote my first book. Yes. I have written my first book. I have the best publisher I could have hoped for and if all goes well, you will see the book in the market in 6 months time. And this is all that I will say about my book at this stage. I still feel something might go wrong and am rather jittery about the whole thing.

So, as you can see, it has indeed been a busy busy year.

Love
R

Another Painting

Disclaimer: This one is not as pretty as the previous one.

So, today was one day when through out the day, we did not step out. I have had very busy days of late even though we have been on holiday and i got up today extremely exhausted and did not want to go out at all. Hence I had a lot of time to kill. I spent some of it making a painting.

I have only recently discovered the joys of Amazon.com. You just go onlin, pick up the stuff you like, wait a few days and Bingo! It has been delivered! It was this that I used to get myself a set of Frank Clark's DVD set for paintings. And that is what I used to teach myself how to paint this painting.

I took me around an hour to finish the whole thing. Frank does not outline his paintings but I find them very bland without the outlines. Hence you will see most things defined in my paintings.

As promised in the comment section of my last Painting post I have putting pictures of stuff used.


Painting Final version:




Paints used:



Paint brushes:



Paper used:



My painting in the Paint Book:




I know this one is not really as good as the previous one, but as usual, do let me know what you think of it.

Happy New Year!

So I am not the partying sorts. But yet I was part of the biggest party in London that brought in New Years.

Sid and I went to watch the fireworks at London Eye to bring in the New Years Eve. There were 250,000 people there, i came to know later!

We left home ar 6:30, reached at 7 where some of our friends were waiting for us. Then we waited for 12 o clock. Standing for better part of the this time.

Yes, there were so many people that these people made announcements asking people to stand up so that more people could be accomodated.

Around midnight, helicopters started hovering over head and some guy on the BBC radio told us that we will soon be going live, the entire 250,000 of us and that we are supposed to cheer at certain points of time. And we even had a dress rehearsal for that!!!

Mid night came and with that came spectacular fireworks, that lasted 10 minutes by the watch. Finally the journey home that should have taken us 30 minutes, took at approximately 2.5 hours. There were youngsters all over the place, most of them drunk. One woman came up to me asking for a hug. I saw atlaest 3-4 women crying for various reasons ( mainly because they were drunk)....i saw a side of london i have never seen before. Dont get me wrong, it was not like it was not fun....but its just that I have never been in such a crowded place in London before.

So finally, after stanfing for 5 hours, and 2.5 hours spent in communiting, we brought in the new years by watching 10 minutes of fireworks.

Here is a pic from last night. We were standing right across the London Eye.



Source of the pic: dailymail.co.uk



And yes, thought we will not do this again, i think, i have to say that it was a once in a life time experience and probably worth its salt.

Ofcourse my dad checked the BBC coverage of the fireworks to see if he could see either Sid or me on TV.

No, we were not on TV.

So, this is wishing all of you a fantabulous new year. Health. Happiness. Love and peace. In that order:)

Love

R

Blast from the past :) :

Okay so I was looking into the huge number of posts that make this blog. I am generally cleaning up and intend to no longer remain Anonymous by the end of the next 6 months or so.

Hopefully.

Anyways, so while I was sifting through the 300 odd posts, I came across some arbit post about what my ideal husband would be like. It was quite an interesting read to know what almost 5 years younger R thought about all this and to compare it with who I finally did marry, Sid!

(Also I was called Moonwalker then and hence by Mr Moonwalker I refer to my future husband)

First point:
The most important thing for me is the character of the guy. Simple as that. I cannot bear flirts. Okay ,a lot of you would belong to the genre which believes flirting to be as healthy as 3hrs of yoga followed by a gigantic bowl of fresh fruits but i am as far from that group of people as is Pluto from Mummy Earth.So , Mr.MoonWalker has to be someone who doesn’t faint with excitement/get hyper/crack those i-am-sucha-dude jokes each time something in a skirt walks by.

I still think this is the most important thing in the man you seek to marry. And luckily for me, and touchwood, Sid is certainly not a flirt, much to my happiness. I dont know how women tolerate men who flirt outrageously. No, I do not buy the concept of healthy flirting.

Apart form that, times have indeed changed. Pluto is no longer a planet. Sob. Sob.

Second point:
As far as looks are concerned, no modern day Adonis is required.Hmm..just discussed this with Ma, she is real cool okay. So according to her, those,lean guys in thoda baggy white tees, specs, padhai-likhai waala luk are my types..hehe...maybe...the only thing is that Mr.MoonWalker's nose should be presentable..bus! submarine! helicopter!

Lean: No, not really.
Thoda baggy white tees: No, I have never seen Sid in a baggy white tee. In fact his casual clothes also sometimes look formal to me.
Specs: No
Padhai- Likhai wala luk: Hmmm…a lot of my relatives say that he looks really studious. But he was never really the maggu types. But yes, if we go by popular vote, he does look padha likhai wala
nose should be presentable: I love Sid’s nose. And all's good with the nose, all's good with everything!

Third Point:
Well read. Now see, most guys run at a good to very good average speed when brought face to face with a buk. The putative Mr.M should not be one of them. A fellow P.G.Wodehouse fan would be heaven sent. This is classic example of wishful thinking.*deep sigh!*.A bad case of wishful thinking.

Yes, that is what it now seems to be. A bad case of wishful thinking. No, Siddharth is no book lover like me, though he does pick up a book once in a while and there are loads of his books i found below our bed one fine day some 7-8 months after coming to London. He loves his cricket and his formula One. It was no surprise to me that he has just downloaded for 59 pence a game called ‘Need for Speed’ on my Iphone.

Fourth Point:
See, the problem with me is that even though I might have hundreds of things to say when some serious, emotional matter is under discussion, I just end up saying something totally non commital. My closest friends have braved these kinds of situations with admirable strength, valor and determination.*applause* I generally just hurriedly end the discussion as thousands of things scream their lungs out, silently, inside my teeny-weeny head. I can only hope that Mr.MoonWalker somehow understands this. He can also take Ms N's. 'how-to-manage-Ms-MoonWalkeer' classes held on Mondays from 6 in the evening. I hear she is quite good. God bless her.

Hmmm............well I do remain the same person from all those years ago. And this irritates Sid. But he has learnt to live with it, poor soul.

Fifth Point:
I get scared of people very easily. I hope Mr.M is one of those non-scary types. I would not like to be scared of Mr. MoonWalker. A simple guy would make a very nice Mr. MoonWalker

Mr Moonwalker wants things to work with military precision. But I don’t mind it because hopefully that will make me a more alert person.

Sixth Point:

Mr.MoonWalker should not dictate my way of living. If I want my hair streaked red( right now i have honey-brown streaks ,by the way)and Mr MoonWalker happens to have a distinct proclivity towards blonde, he is most welcome to get all his hair coloured blonde. Mine shall be streaked red . Full stop. Period.

No, Sid would never have a problem if I got my hair colored in which ever color I want. He might tell me it looks disgusting if I ask him. But if I cry once he says that, he might even tell me that he was just kidding and my hair looks great :P

Seventh Point:
I live by some rules..I have a pronounced sense of what's right and what's not. You see, I need to respect myself, I need to be able to look myself back in the eye when I look in the mirror( which since is very often...ahem..), I am very bothered about what I think of myself. This has to be understood by Mr.M. I am neither as frivolous as most girls nor as silly (atleast most of the times till I don’t see anything PINK .Then I go crazy).

Okay Living in a place like London where everything is OK this bit of my personality is something I have been thinking about. I do think that Sid likes this in me and appreciates me for who I am. Atleast I hope he does :)

Eighth and last point:
It would be nice if there are some common things that both of us want to do .It would be nice if he likes to travel, it would be nice if he likes mountains, we could plan stuff together and have a nice time doing it. It would be nice if Mr. M is a teeny, just a teeny teeny bit like me.

No, in a marriage you can't look at things at a macro level, all things become micro. And no two people can be similar at that level. We ( by we i mean human beings )are just not made that way. There are many similarities, we both work hard, are not really party people, dont mind plopping infront of the TV.....But yes talking about travelling, he does love to travel in fact he loves it much much more than I do. But I am getting closer to his level....

It is funny how Mr. Moonwalker is now Sid who I know and love. He is not some arbit man who I will meet in the future. When I was younger, on those rare occasions when I was not mugging up stuff, I would wonder what the guy I would marry was doing right then. On a number of occasions I had memorized the date so that I would ask my husband what he was up to that day whenever I met him. Unfortunately, even I do not remember any of dates except one.

It was the 29th of December, 2004. I now know what Sid would have been up to that day. He would have been celebrating as that would have been his 24th birthday. :)

Those of you with a lightning quick mind would have therefore figured out that today is Sid's 30th birthday.

Happy birthday, baby. Have a wonderful year ahead :)

Love
R

P.S. For those interested in the link to the post I am talking about is this: http://smilethesmile.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html

Marrakech, Morocco, Day Two.

So today started with a roof top breakfast with a view of the Atlas Mountains. Cris, our Romanian Riad manager joined us then to give us some more tips for the day and help us plan the rest of the trip.

By the end of the day we have walked for over 8 hours non stop exploring the city by foot.

The first stop of the day was Madrassa. We met a guy who was writing stuff in beautiful Arabic Calligraphy. We got our names written by him! Then we headed towards the Museum and spent some hours there.

We then came back to the main square walking through the souks, and found an Italian place for lunch(!). Then it was back to the hotel to catch a quick nap.
Refreshed after the half an hour nap, we set out again and walked almost upto the walls of the medina. We managed to find the Saadian Tombs and agreed that we have much grander things back home in India. Feeling all superior about it we left the tombs as happy Indians.

We then found a smaller square which had a multitude of cats and sat on the one of the benches there to rest our aching feet. Once we felt like we could walk again, we made our way back to the main square, waked around to the minaret, found some nice gardens there and spent a few minutes absorbing the beauty of them.

The main square today had newer things to offer. There were acrobats, jokers,, fortune tellers in addition to the regular lots. Also today there were a lot more people singing and in general making a lot of noise. There was this new guy there who would burst into bollwood songs each time we would pass him. Also, I noted this rather irritating habit of the younger lot to shout out ‘Indian, Indian’ when we would pass in order to attract our attention. Both Sid and I have mastered the art of ignoring everyone around us because of the rather aggressive way in which these people sell there wares.

Anyways, we had food at one of the stalls (stall no one one seven, will take you to heaven!) and came back to the Riad at 7:30 absolutely tired after SO much of walking.

I will put up the pics for the day once i am back in London and have that amazing
broadband speed back again!

Love

R

Morocco, Day One.

So, I am typing away from the lounge of a Riad in Morocco.(Riads are traditional Moroccan homes). Sid and I are here because 29th of December is Sid’s 30th birthday and since he refused each gift i suggested, including the very convenient Ipad, I finally decided on a 5 day trip to Marrakech, the cultural capital of Morocco.

Anyways, so today was day one the trip. Thankfully our flight did take off (London has been snowed down really bad this time of the year) and we reached Marrakech on time, safe and sound.

A taxi came to pick us up and dropped us off at a point where it could go no further. Once there, a cart came to pick us up! We then walked through labyrinths of this fascinating city to reach out Riad. It certainly is an oasis of calm in the madness of the city.

The mangers of the Riad welcomed us with mint tea and tiny biscuits while explaining the maps and giving us helpful inputs about the city.

We are staying a room called the ‘Berber Room’ named after a native tribe of morocco. Both of us having slept really late night, and awake since 4 in the morning, promptly fell asleep and woke up refreshed at around 5.

I spent the first day roaming around the city and I must say it is such a colourfully vibrant city. We walked the souks and the roamed the main square. There is such an eclectic mix of things happening there! So there are snake charmers, story tellers, water sellers, food stalls, spice merchants, henna girls, men with mokeys, men with tortoises from the atlas mountains, men with dead hedgehogs, men selling stuffed faces of dead goats, men singing traditional music....the list just goes on and on.

The souks (or traditional markets) sell everything from spices to key chains to scarfs to figurines to food. The colour in some of them is just fascinating for someone like me who loves colors!

The spice merchants





However, there are somethings that hit me as well.



People are desparate for money. Some guy in fancy dress needs to see you look at him with a camera in hand and he will be on top of your head asking for money the very next instant. People, I don’t know why, have often in the first day asked us our religion. It goes like this:

Q: Pakistani?

We: No, Indians.

Q: Muslims?

We: No.

Q: Indians?

We: Yes.

Q: Shahrukh Khan! Amitabh Bachchan!

We then just laugh indulgently. It is also a fascinating study to see how Indian is equal to Bollywood here! And this is the local Moroccan I am talking about.

We met another man who kept on saying that Amitabh Bachchan is his brother. Also, we kind of lost our way when returning (it is impossible to remember the way! It is
just so very confusing!) and then this hoard of Moroccans descended on us to help out but obviously in return for money. And as the boy led us to our Riad, I felt really scared because i had no idea where we were going and if we were going in the right direction.

Anyways, we came in time for our dinner at 8 that the Riad had arranged for us tonight and we had a lovely time eating a Moroccan meal. Every possible shelf in the Riad has books on it. I can have a great time just sitting in and flipping through the books!

With that meal, a little more conversation, we decided to call it a day.

It has been an interesting day so far. I just hope Sid likes his gift 

Love

Ruchita

Family Legend

So, I was in class 8 I think when I met him first. In his mid 50s, semi bald and an easy grin on his rather sweet looking face, he was the third maths tutor Mum and Dad found for me. He was also a patient of my Dad and the two had known each other for a long time.

At that point in time when we first met Khan Sir, he had been suspended from his job for sometime and was looking at teaching kids to make some money. He had been caught taking a bribe. Of Rupess 500.

No, I am not kidding. He told that to us himself with endearing frankness that brought out a rather inconvenient giggle from me.

Anyways, that is not the point. There is this one particular incident I want to talk about.

So, my house is the last house on the road. Beyond that is a wall that separates our colony from the rest of world and the ‘naala’. ‘Nalaa’ is a big drain, for the benefit of my friends who do not know Hindi. Now those days for some other work, that wall had been brought down temporarily. So basically we were spending days whiffing in the delicious smell emanating from the Nalaa.

Just to put things in perspective, the Nalaa did a noble job. It carried the bodily wastes of the entire colony to I don’t know where. I really don’t even want to know where. It was always flowing and once the wall was down I could once in a while hear it make gurgling noises like any small delicate rivulet. Only one could not ignore what the Nalaa carried. We waited with bated breath (literally) for the wall to be put up again.

So one fine day Khan Sir was expected to come at 6 in the evening. 6 came and went but no Khan Sir. But there was nothing new about this, he was often late, and hence this was no cause for worry.

At 6:30 our door bell rang like a hundred times in a frantic mad manner. Alarmed, we hurriedly opened the door to see the local milkman standing outside the door with a scared look on his face.

‘Sa’ab, come quickly’ he told my dad.

‘Why What happened?’, asked my Dad.

‘Khan Sir’, said milkman as if that explained everything.

‘What about him?’, asked my dad.

‘He fell in the Nalaa’

‘WHAT?’ said my dad as he hurriedly made his way to the nalaa. Solely for entertainment purposes I went along with my Dad to ‘rescue’ Khan Sir. In a file, with Dad leading, followed by my brother, the milkman, and another neighbour, the rescue party marched to the Nalaa. I brought the rear end of the rather perfect file sometimes tripping over stones and gravel because of my dainty white heels.

Once we reached the Nala, and it was quite dark by the time we reached, I could hear Khan Sir’s voice coming from somewhere down below. Using my thumb and index finger delicately to close my nose, I gingerly bent forward to peep into the darkness of the nalaa. With my nose shut also, I could smell the strong, pungent odour of ‘bodily wastes’. Our colony is rather big, I thought to myself judging by the amount of substance I could see in the nalaa, happily flowing along.

‘ABC aunty had an upset stomach and had come today morning asking for some medicine’, my brother whispered in my ear before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. He had never really liked Khan Sir.

Khan Sir was sitting cross legged on the floor of the Nalaa looking rather comfortable and waiting patiently for us to do something. He looked up from the Nala as I looked down and are eyes met. Well, that was my tutor sitting in the middle of shit. But it was my tutor nevertheless and one could not really forget the formalities.

‘Hello Sir’, I said my usual greeting.

‘Hello R’, said Khan Sir from down below.

A moment’s silence as Dad, Bhai and the milkman stepped aside to discuss their plan of action.

‘How are you sir?’, I shouted at him. This was my usual second sentence to him. Even in the moment of adversity, we stuck to protocol.

‘Chal raha hai’, he said causally from down below.

After that I really did not know what I could say by way of small talk so I kept shut. The men had in the mean while figured out a way to pull him out. The neighbour and the milkman went to our house and got a ladder which was then put inside the nalaa.

Slowly, after some 15 minutes, Khan sir climbed out of the Nalaa with shit dripping out of every bit of him. Needless to say he stank.

‘Kaise, bhai sa’ab, yeh hua kaise?’ asked my Dad seemingly very interested in how one could end up inside a nalaa. Dad looked like one of those news correspondents who want to ask the man who has come out of the gutter how he is feeling. I giggled. Dad looked at me sternly which made me swallow the rest of the giggle and disguise it into a cough.

Khan Sir grinned sheepishly. And delicately raised his pinkie. Thereby meaning that he had gone there to pee, tripped over a stone and had landed elbow first inside the nalaa. He had spent some 20 minutes inside shouting for help when the Milkman heard him and somehow recognised him.

He had a couple of scratches on his hand and Dad scared of some infection decided to take him to the hospital. The car was brought out, a million news papers spread and Khan Sir made to sit in the front seat as Dad took him away.

It made a great story for years afterwards, and has since been told and retold and re retold a million times. It is now part of the family legend and I thought of sharing it with you guys.

Love
R

P.S. Dad politely asked Khan Sir to freely use our house toilet whenever he felt the need. And each time he took a loo break after that to use our home toilet, my brother and I would look at each other and burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Stupid Girl

Okay so there was a stupid girl who worked in a company. She worked very closesly with the Vice President of Sales for Europe Region who was known to be a hard task master and many people were afraid of him in a weird way because the VP never even raised his voice.( And I dont know why I sound like I am telling a bed time story to five year old, that is not my intention)

Anways, this one day, the VP left office with all his bags at around mid day but stupid girl ofcourse went on working. As the day went on Stupid girl kept on working as people started leaving office for home. So much so that around 6 in the evening it was just Stupid girl and 2-3 other people who were left in the rather large office floor.

Now, once done with work, Stupid Girl had some personal calls to make, one to Morocco and the other to India. But she did not want to do that in the open office space where she did not want to disturb the few people who were still working. Also mobile phones have a very bad reception in office hence the only way out is to make use of the IP phones in office. The VP's office was all empty, so she decided to get in there to make the calls as often people would go in to make calls or do their own work quietly.

So, there she was in the VP's cabin, the whole office quiet. She shut the door and started making the calls....once done she thought she would make a quick call to her mother since her phone had no charge and if she callled by the time she left office her mum would have gone to bed.

So with that noble thought, Stupid Girl dialled another number, and started a quick chat with her Mum.

Mum: What number is this?
SG: Office, but I am not at my desk, i am in the VPs room
Mum: Ohh say my hi to him!
SG: Mum!!! why would the VP be here, he is gone, thats why I am in his cabin. As if he would be here.

And with that Stupig Girl looked up. Looked up only to see, through the glass doors, the VP standing outside the closed door smiling... no almost laughing. at how stupid girl was soo comfortably sitting in his cabin, in his chair, using his IP.

Why he had come back to office at such an unearthly hour, no one will ever know. But there he was. He had even kept his stuff outside and was patienly waiting for Stupid Girl to finish her conversation.

Ofcourse, needless to add, Stupid Girl hurriedly ended the call, apologized profusely to the VP who seemed very very very amused even offering the services of his cabin and phone anytime Stupid Girl would wish to use either. Stupid Girl, however, spent the next hour feeling extremely red in the face!

Sheesh!

And no, I will not tell you who stupid Girl is.

And no there are no prizes for guessing that.

And no, don't guess. DON'T!

Hmmmmppfff!

Love
R

Like the millions.

Like the millions of women/ girls across the world to me also Prince William seems perfect never mind his thinning hair.

So he is the future King of England, has a tragic past where his parents separated when he was just an absolutely gorgeous looking youngster and he lost his mom later in an accident that still stirs something in my heart. And he is going to be king of England one day. And while he is not yet king, he spends his time flying that big hus helicopter of his saving lives of the people of his nation.

Oh well enough about William. This post is not about him. It is about them. Infact it is about a picture of them together that I saw today. I just absolutely adore this picture of William and Kate. It warms the coockles of my heart to see the pair look so happy.

Is not this lovely?

My latest painting. Do let me know what you think if you have a minute.





Love
R

An Ode to London

So Christmas is fast approaching. The festive season is almost here and I can feel it in the air.

Talking about the air, I must say that it is extremely cold now. It is almost pitch dark by 4 in the afternoon and you feel very over worked sitting in the office at 4:30 when it is all dark outside.

The temperatures are steadily falling so much so that snow is expected this weekend. And I cannot tell you how horribly excited I am about it! When I had come to London, it was all white. And I had loved it! While Sid would grumble about the snow and how inconvenient it made everything I was busy staring at the flakes that came out of nowhere.

I absolutely love how London looks now. I have always maintained that while I like London, it is my home city that I love and miss. While the latter remains the same, I have to say that now is the first time that London as a city is starting to win my heart. True, it is very fast paced, people are lonely, people are in a perpetual rush and are often rude, I have started liking this place. In fact I remember when we were about to leave London for our India trip which was to last about 18 days. I felt a weird thing. I felt bad about leaving London. And I was astonished. Because I have spent enough hors groaning and moaning about why London is so far from India, why we could not stay in India only, why we live here, so far from everyone who is important to us.

I find London so much better than in summers when everyone is going gaga over the sun. True, you get to wear skirts, shorts and shades, but nothing really beats how stunning London is right now.

Central London (particularly Oxford and Regent’s Streets) are decked up so beautifully for Christmas. The bigger buildings have lights, there are Christmas trees visible from windows, lights outlining presents, christmas trees, stars hang mid air giving the whole place such an extra ordinary feel.

If you have a good pair of shoes, London should be explored on feet. I just feel like walking over the whole of London. Often, of late, when we are walking to the grocery store or the cinema, I have to pause. Pause and admire how beautiful everything looks. Just simply take it in.

So, yes. While I can never love you as much as I love the city I was born and brought up in, you are turning out to be a place I might, just might, end up falling in love with.

The Royal Wedding

Yes, so the newspapers have gone berserk.

Afterall the heart throb of millions had finally picked his bride. I think there would be few girs across the world who have not fancied what would happen if by chance royalty fell for them. Royaly for many would have often meant the hadnsome Prince William.

Memorabilia like plates, mugs and tea pots with the pictures of Kate and William were in the market the very next day, newspapers brought our souvenier editions to mark the news of the engagement ( mind, you not even the engagement, just the news which is 3 weeks late).....if someone who is as ditached from the royal family of England as unfortunately can be, I feel so affected by the whole thing, I can not even imagine how different things would have become for Kate because of that one announcements.

Kate Midleton is the future Queen Catherine of England. The daughter of an ex air hostess, Kate Midleton is now soon to be a royal. I have no doubt that millions of women, no matter their age would have felt a pang of jealousy as Kate flaunted her sappphire ring.

There have been multiple comparisons to Diana. Different newspapers have managed to hunt pictures where Kate and Princess Diana have been indetically dressed. There is also immense concern that Kate should not suffer the same fate as her mother in law.

I have been following the media frenzy around Kate and Prince William very closely and my heart goes out to Kate. True, she is marrying Prince William, the Prince William, the young boy who resembles his mother , the royal who goes on his kness to clean public toilets in Africa and the prince with a shy smile and easy likeable personality.

Yet, I can only imagine how Kate must be feeling. The sudden media glare, the impossible amount of attention that is now going to paid to every piece of clothing she is going to wear, every public appearance she is going to make....

It must be rather interesting to be in her shoes. For me at the moment, the royal wedding means one bank holiday. And means quite a lot!

One Year

This day last year I got married. At the expense of sounding very cliched, i have to say that time has truly flown. As I sit down today, I cannot believe that it has been one whole year since that day.

A lot of water has flown under the bridge since. A lot has changed and many things have been achieved. I live in a different country now, have spent a lot of time last year travelling around Europe, work in a good role with some nice people.

The best abour last year has been Sid ( as it should be also) He puts up with a lot of drama that i do, makes up when we fight, makes sure all my paper work is done, helps me with cleaning and is in most cases a sweet heart :)

Most importantly, last year on 17th of November, we became man and wife. Today we are not only that but also, more importantly, better friends.

So, here it is to my husband of one year.

Happy Wedding Anniversary, Sid

R

Email exchange in office today

I sent the following email to a collegue

Hi X,

As per our discussion, if you could start sending me invoices for accounts that you need verified, I will initiate the verification process.

Regards,
R

The reply I got:

Thanks as always for your proactive support R.

I have already started working on this by asking Y to start work on this.

I simply craked up when I read the last line. I could not help but laugh out loud when I read this. I think I am going to save this email.

Love
R

I am trying to do something i never thought i would ever do at this age and stage. In all probability it should happen but i am just being very superstitious about it which is why I am not talking openly.

The regulars, do pray for me that this works out. Trust me, you guys are going to be amongst the first to know if it does happen.

Wish me luck:)

R

I love being in India

Because it is where Mum, Dad and Bhai are
Because it is where I dont have to go to work
Because it is where you can get real Chinese food
Because it is where you can break a queue and get away with it
Because it is where men stare at you when you look good ( or mebbe else wise also :P)
Because it is where you get to bargain in Hindi
Because it is where the young guy in the store will move heaven and earth to get that red dress for you in XS size
Because it is where you are in the same time zone as that of a lot of very important people
Because it is where people clap when Akshay Kumar gets Aishwarya Rai in Action Replay
Because it is the land of paani puris
Because it where you get to see serials with more beeps than actual words
Because it is where you come across people from school and college in a mall
Because it is where you get really cheap shoes
Because it is where you get to sleep with Ma
Because it is where you get to gossip like crazy with Ma and Dad without thinking too much about the phone bill
Because it is where Yo China and its absolutely amazing Honey Chilly Potatoes are
Because it is where you can even cuddle a cute 3 year old you find in a store and will not be sued
Because it is.................home.........

Love
R

Post 11

Two of Sid’s friends came over for lunch this Saturday with their respective wives. So once the lunch was over three of us girls sat down to talk. Now I have met both girls before a couple of times. One of them came to London only recently and since I came to London only in Jan, I have known the other one also for a very short period of time.

The men, however are batch mates from IIM. So they have spent 2 years living together on the same campus and obviously know a lot of common people.

So after lunch the men were thinking of going back to their respective homes by when we girls started talking. It started harmlessly enough with who (between each couple) does the cooking. But very soon we were happily cribbing about everything under the sun. How we have too much work, how we have no family here, how we sometimes felt like just leaving our jobs etc etc. The men kept shut and mostly simply listened to us speak.

Later the men moved out into the balcony. Us girls then started the more interesting discussion. We discussed babies, in laws, doctor appointments, the changes we feel since getting married, problems we were facing. We giggled and laughed and patted each others shoulders when needed.

We also managed to catch some snippets of the discussions between the boys. They seemed to be mainly discussing iphone, internet and property prices in London

If Men are from Mars, women certainly are from Venus!

Love
R

Post 10

Engagement

I am putting up my engagement pic. I was going through the engagement album after months today and as i looked at the pic, i suddenly remembered how my heart as if it were in the wind all through out the ceremony.

It took me back to that day...*sigh*

It is funny how very soon i will be married for a year. Time sure flies.

Post 9

Lisbeth Salander is the heroine of the Millenium triology by Stieg Larsson. The triology is touted to be the best crime fiction of recent years.

And having just finished the three books back to back, I decidedly agree.

What is with a tiny girl who can smash a 100 feet guy who cannot feel pain. She has a photgraphic memory and belongs to an elite group of hackers.She can outsmart even the smartest people and spends a lot of time solving fermat's theorem. And oh by the way, she has a mysterious past, she has spent years in a mental hospital, is labelled as socially incapable and the likes.

Though it sounds far fetched, and is certainly the result of someone's very fertile imagination, you cannot help but root for Salander as she goes around mercilessly killing people.

That is what I find fascinating. A perfectly negative character who you kinda end up really liking. That is where the skill of the author lies.

Another remarkable thing about this series is the author's almost complete discard to tone things down a couple of notches. Rapes, murders are both spoken of very casually and described in a monotonic drab that funnily enough makes it all the more interesting.

The only problem i had with the trioogy is the excessive attention to detail. You end up reading paragraphs about a character who will never really do much in the book. So, yes, once you figure out the author, you will find your self skimming details about the police inspector who handcuffs the protagonist. Even if 3k workds are being spent on describing his career, you know he will not play a major role!

Anyways, having said that , I must say that I am not really a crime fiction girl, really no, but this one had me hooked. I have spent many content lunch hours in the office kitchen with this book.

I have this weird thing. When I finish a book i really like, I feel as if I am letting go of a good friend. Bidding him a good bye. I know, thats neurotic, but hey this is being typed by a girl who cannot sleep without reading and when sleeping she is more often than not hugging a big fat book

Day 8-post 8

Exhausted.

I am exhausted. Yesterday was particularly bad. I was working till 5:30 in the evening which is when I went to meet N.

I cam back at 9:00 and worked again till almost midnight.

I woke up today with absolutely no energy. The weekend is round the corner but I have to make lunch for 6 people tomorrow, so it will not exactly be a relaxing day anyways.

I feel half dead.

And its been so long since I felt as tired as that.

Bloody quarter end.

Love
R

Day 7-post 7

So today I almost got into an argument with a lady in the office lift.

I had pressed the button for the lift and was talking on the phone waiting for the lift to come. As soon as it came, I cancelled my call and stepped in the lift.

In the mean while, a lady started to press the button that close the lift doors just as I managed to squeeze in. While that was not rude enough, she muttered something about how the lift would not wait for hours for some one hovering around the lift.

I was quite taken aback by the unexpected tirade and felt a very familiar anger rush inside me. I had seen the lady before also as we work in the same office complex.

I think I said something back but it did not in any way reflect the anger I was feeling simply because no one has the right to be rude to a stranger for no reason. I caught my reflection as I started at her bewildered at her behavior. I seemed exceptionally disgusted.

Too pissed at how the woman had spoken to me, I quickly finished my work downstairs and as I walked in a few minutes later as a lady came and said hi to me.

She told me she was in the same lift as I had been. She told me that the lady had been very rude to me and she also apologized because she felt she should have come to my defense.

Yeah, she actually came and said sorry to me for not standing up for me.

Interesting how it takes different types to make this world, isn’t it?

Love

R

Day 6 – post 6
Dream

It was such a weird dream. It was almost real.I saw myself checking mail on my iphone. I flicked it to come to the mail I had been waiting for.

I checked what the mail said. The news was unexpected but it was great. I was not ready to believe it and I put aside my phone. After some time I picked it up again and yet again flicked through the mail on my phone. No mistaking the email was there. I relaxed, it was no dream.

The alarm in my phone rang and my husband turned over and passed me my iphone to put it on snooze. I woke sleepily with the phone in my hand that my husband had just given to me. I shut the alarm when I remembered my dream. Barely able to open my eyes, I flicked open my mail.

And there it was. The mail I had just dreamt of, sitting there.

Weird!

And yes, this happened to me today.

Love
R

Day 5 Post 5

Time for a bit of good news.

My job is now confirmed. I am no longer a temporary employee with my company!!!
Yeaaaaaayyyyyy.

There are two things about this news that need note.

First, is the fact that I was supposed to be on temp contract till end of November. They shortened it by two months.

Second, along with this news, I was also informed of my first ever salary hike.

And as I walked out of the HR’s room I could not help but recall how desperately I had job hunted from Jan to end of April which is when I got this job. There were times which were so bleak that I did not think it would be possible.

I enjoy my work, I like the people I work with, working hours are decent.

I just hope I can go on doing the kind of work I have been able to do so far.

Love
R

DAY 4- Post 4

Not looking up

Things are not looking up on a lot of fronts. Of importance is something I have been working on for almost the whole of this year. I have done my bit and now the ball is in someone else’s court. And that someone is certainly not responding.

In all fairness, it is a big project. In fact the biggest I have ever taken up in my life. I had thought the first part was the difficult one but now I realise that it was not.

I feel strained and stressed.

And I hate the hope that is there in my mind and soul even as I type this.

I so wish it could happen, I so wish it would happen…..I do not want to give up.

May be I should enjoy the process more, maybe then it will happen.

In other things, I have started missing home a lot. I am so far away from my family that I feel distanced simply because of the actual distance and time difference.

Maybe that is why people have kids. Some one who is your very own, till he/ she does not become a teenager atleast!

Anyways, am just a little depressed and sad. Hopefully I will come back with a more cheerful post tomorrow.

Love
R

Day 3- post 3

Due to the quarter end and the fact that I just some 20 rotis, some 10 Hare bhare kebabs and kaali daal, todays post is just going to be a pic :)

This is Mount Schilthorn, Switzerland.

Take in the beauty

Post-2, Day 2

Des bulaye

Yes, so des is calling. Yet again. It always calls only thing is I should be able to justify the visit in my head.

I was in India in Jan, then in May, my folks were here in August and I am again going home in end of October.

Once you live outside your country, one of the most common questions you face is the inevitable, “So? When will you go back to India? For good”

Well..a. few months earlier the answer would have been a prompt, ‘Tomorrow!’ but now I see myself thinking differently.

That weird longing that was almost a physical pain has subsided and also I have realised that for my own sanity trips to India are essential.

My work is here, day to day life is much simpler, you are not expected to work on weekends, travelling across the continent is easier, travelling within the country/ city is very comfortable, people are polite and generally life is more relaxed.

But India is where family is. It is just one thing, but it is the one thing that makes all the difference!

While I do not know when we will shift back to India, I am just desparately counting down days to the India trip which is when I wont be working, wont be cooking and cleaning and will just be eating, sleeping, shopping and catching up…..…….

Ahh….The pleasures of a trip to India

Will 28th of Oct please hurry up and come!

Love
R

Blog Marathon -2

Post 1

Revenge Time: Ok. This is my second blog Marathon. The first one was hopeless. I hardly wrote 15-17 posts which was a little over half the number that should have been put up.

In my defence, that was just the start of work, plus I was doing a lot of writing myself at that time, so it was I guess a bad decision. Hopefully I will be able to redeem myself this time.

What I will do ?

So, I will write one new post each day.

What you will do ?

And you, you who visit my blog so often and never even let me know, have the task of leaving a comment for me. You can tell me my post was rubbish, you can tell me it was good. But you should say something! That will be what will keep me going and I desparately want to finish at least one marathon properly.

Let the marathon begin :)


Love
RP