The Eligible Bachelor and Lotus Root Curry.

Blog Marathon 2
Week 3: Post 1
Guest Post by: Shumaila
Spoiler: Love Story ahead :)

Introduction to Shumaila
Shumaila, or Shumi or Schumi(as I have always spelt it in my head) is my loomie from first year at B school.
Loomie.
Right, you do not know what this weird word means. Here you go:

Roomies share a room. Loomies share not a room but a loo. Interesting, I know ;)

She was one of the hottest girls on campus (please do not be misled by her humble post below!), an amazing team player ( I vividly remember the countless hours she used to spend working on her group assignments) and has turned out to be a fantabulous cook and blogger!

Shumaila currently lives in the US and I hope that one day, she becomes renowned for her cakes and breads and all the other yummy, mouth watering stuff she makes!

She blogs here and I would highly recommend her blog to those of you who cook. I follow it quite closely myself and have lifted off recipes with a mental whoop of joy! Sometimes I find it difficult to believe that one of us can cook so amazingly well!


Enjoy her post and the recipe that follows it!
Needless to add, thanks a ton, Schumi :D

-----------------------------------------------

The Eligible Bachelor, Shumaila's story

Ram Pyaari, or as we friends know her- Ruchita, is the author of the upcoming book, The (In)Eligible Bachelors. Its a fiction novel about what goes on behind the scenes in Indian arranged marriages, through the witty account of a recent MBA graduate, Kasturi Shukla. The tag line says it all for the book:

Arranged marriages are complicated things.
So are relationships.
And so are mothers.

V and I had an arranged marriage last year in March.

But unlike the whole arranged marriage scene in India, I never had to go through the typical arranged marriage routine of parents-of-girl-sending-out-proposals-narrowing-boys-arranging-meetings-dealing-with-rejections-stuff. In fact, my parents weren't even looking for a boy nor was I.

V was the first guy I ever spoke to, in terms of the whole arranged marriage thing. Even five years back when V's proposal came for the first time, his was the first family who had shown the bahu (daughter-in-law) kind of interest in me.

Five years back, I wanted to study MBA and live independently for a while.
Five years back V too had just started his masters in the US and wasn't looking to get married.

So, after a brief interaction (one yahoo-chat-window long conversation) in cyber space, V and I parted ways.

Little did we know that it was temporary.

Fast forward two years.

I joined an MBA college. My parents showed no interest in boy searching, though felt that after MBA, I should get married, but they were not doing anything about it.

Being the only son, V's parents though were looking for suitable matches. So V kept on seeing prospective life partners during his short trips to India.

V, according to his family was a picky one when it came to girls, refusing rishtas (marriage proposals) left, right and centre.

But that all changed when I came into the picture. (tada!)

I really don't know what it was about me that made him tell his parents very covertly- 'what about Chauhan uncle's daughter (aka me)? Is she still available?'

We hardly spoke five years back, just chatted online briefly and honestly I have no idea what we talked about- I assume I must have said something really witty and smart for my memory to have stuck with him. But, knowing me, and the witty and smart lines I have come up in the past (I can probably count them on my two hands), I don't think that was the case.

But then, I was pretty good at picassa-ing photos back in those days- probably it was one of those morphed picture of me that made me look like Angelina Jolie (yes, I think she is very pretty) rather than the Rosie O'Donnel (No, I don't think she is ugly- just more closer to what real people look like) I actually am. That image of a "pretty" girl might have stuck in his mind and that's why he kept a tab on whats happening in my life through orkut. Boy, he must have had a treat if that's what got him interested in me. *Insert evil laugh here*

Anyway, fast forward another two years, and my MBA was done. I was still not interested in getting married. My parents too were not looking for a boy (though getting me married off was on their mind but dare they act on that- my wrath would have seriously injured them!)

I was actually interested in opening a bakery- with no prior experience or interest ever shown in the kitchen one day I decided baking was my true calling- after graduating in economics and doing an MBA in finance- that seemed like the most logical path to carry forward on. (I know what you thinking and I agree- kudos to my parents to bear with my constant erratic behavior and I judge them for not whole-heartedly trying to find a boy who would get me off their hands sooner. Parents I tell you, they love you no matter what!)

Anyway, I digress again.

So, I wasn't looking.

My parents weren't looking. (Though secretly I know they were hoping I get married.)

But V's parents were looking and since V had accomplished what he wanted to before marriage he too had started showing interest. But nothing was working out.

Now, don't get it wrong- V is a find, a keeper, like how they say in India- heera hai ladka, bilkul heera (the boy is as valuable as a diamond). Great job, intelligent, handsome, very cultured, simple- almost like a Sadhu. He was every mother's son-in-law-dream-come-true!

But, like I said, he was picky. No one fit his bill.

Enter me.

Tada!

Well, actually, re-enter me.

Tada!

When his marriage proposal came, I told my dad no. My friend and I had a great business idea and I wanted to work on that. My dad though, plotting some master evil plan of his to get his daughter married did not convey this message to V's dad, thinking 'fickle-minded-me' would change her stance.

Around the same time as our dad's convo, V had mailed me on my Yahoo, an account I rarely used ever since I switched to gmail 2-3 yrs back, but hadn't been deleted out of sheer laziness.

So after two-three weeks of his mail lying in my inbox, and he thinking I was clearly not interested, I don't know what made me open my mail (the last time was probably 4-5 months back). I replied to his 'hey-i-hope-you-remember-me' mail. I directed him to my gmail and thereon our conversations started.

From surety of not being ready for marriage, the conversations that followed convinced me, that he was the perfect guy for me. Till date, I believe, with all my heart, vice-versa does not hold true- he could have done much, much better! Kya karein ladka heera hai heera!

But I guess in life, not everyone can come out as the winner, right?

And for a perfect marriage, don't they say the husband should always let the wife win!

Well, V let me win! :)


The Lotus Root curry

Lotus roots are roots of the lotus water lily. The roots are tuberous, with large air pockets, making them buoyant in the water, and give the lacy pattern when sliced. It has a firm crispy texture. Dishes having lotus roots are pretty common all over Asia. This is a dish from the Northern Part of India, Jammu and Kashmir. Its a fairly simple recipe, and tastes great with Tandoori Roti or Naan. I initially thoughtof pairing it with rice but its a little on the drier side to have with rice. I used frozen lotus roots, which you can find in the frozen section in Asian stores.

Adapted from India: The Cookbook

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 pound lotus roots
1 tbsp ghee, clarified butter
2 black cardamom pods
4 green cardamom pods
5 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks, about 1 inch long
1 tsp ground aniseed
1 tsp ground ginger
250 ml (1 cup) natural plain yogurt
salt, to taste

Directions




Cook the lotus roots in boiling water for 10 minutes, or until half done.
Heat ghee over low heat.
Add the whole spices, aniseed and ginger. Season with salt. Cook for 10 minutes on medium low heat, stirring constantly.
Add lotus roots, and let cook for another 10 minutes.
Add the yogurt and simmer over low heat for 2 minutes. The ghee would separate.



Serve with hot rotis/naans.

Blog Marathon; Week 2 , Post 2

And it begins!

Yes, it has begun! :D The preordering has begun!

Here on Flipkart

Here on infibeam

Is not that super cool! The book is also available on uread and ring-a-book!


So, coming to the post.


When I was younger I wanted to become a detective. I was as serious about my career choice as any 5 year old could possibly be. I spent my afternoons practising skills I was sure would save my life one day.

I have afternoon insomnia. I created that right now and since I created it I will tell you what it means. A person with afternoon insomnia, very predictably, is a person who cannot sleep in the afternoon. In the 1.5 years I have lived in London I have never slept in the afternoon. Never.

Now after having armed you with that life chnaging piece of information, let me come to the point.

So I aways wanted to become a detective. Since I was a child. In the afternoons my Mom would nap with my brother and me on either side. I would pretend to sleep (another great skill to have for a detective, I told my 5 year old self) till Ma and Bhai were fast sleep and then quiety get out of bed (another handy skill) and practice.

In the darkened room with the curtains drawn, I would let my imagination go wild. The room was a mansion of a dangerous man. I was a detective on a very dangerous mission. I had to find the dangerous truth that would save the world from ? Danger, ofcourse!

I had to move as quietly as the mouse I ferverently hoped did not exist in the room. My brother who was mumbling in his sleep was no innocent 4 year old. He was actually a very dangerous killer who should not wake as I searhed the room for important documents. The urgency. The mystery. The suspence as I moved steathily around the bed looking for dangerous papers which I knew I would finally find in my school bag very quickly once i got bored or tired.

Oh Boy!

So well, as you would have figured out I did not grow up to become a detective. I did a boring degree in Engineering and then another in Business Management.

I wanted to become a detective. I did not. I never thought I would become an author. But I did.

Yesterday, my book 'The (In)eligible Bachelors' went up for preordering. And as I sat there staring at this pagee and the 'Author' in brackets next to my name, it hit me.

You do not know what destiny has in store for you. It can be bad, but it can very well be good too. Keep the faith.

Love,
RP.

PS the book can be pre-ordered on flipkart (yes! they are pre-ordering my book!) infibeam at a very cool 40% discount, at uread.com and at ring-a-book.

If it interests you ( and I really hope it does!) please do place your orders. And as always thank you for your support and kind words.

PS Kinder souls could share the link on the facebook page too. As you undoubtedly know, sharing the link gives you a halo and two wings! I need all the help I can get to spread the word!Thanks :)

Blog Marathon
Week : 2 ; Post: 1
Days left for official release of TIB('The (In)eligible Bachelors' for the uninitiated:): 17
Country wise availability : 1st week of Spetember.


Focus on things to do!

I could never do that. If someone said something I would think and think about it till my brain imploded.

Common sense prevailed. But later. Much later. When, sometimes, it was too late.

For the better part, I would just think. And think. And then think some more.

What an absolute waste of time, energy and resources.

Today for the first time in my life, I was able to simply ignore the nonsense and focus my energies on something parctical that needed my attention. I was able to park aside the rubbish. Ignore it and just simply move on.

It was just so simple to do it and so very easy. I know that my head did not ask any questions, there was no curiosity, nothing. My brain just said to me, 'Hey listen, do you have time for this crap? No, right? Then please do your work'

As simple as that.

I consider that a victory. I have always had a very sensible voice inside my head. Only it was much easier to not listen to it. Now, increasingly I find myself dealing with things very rationally. I am learning to deal with that surge of anger that leads me to say things I always regret later. I am learning to ignore what people are saying (if it is not constructive). I am also learning to be open to criticism (good, since my book is coming out soon! :P)

Maybe this is called growing up?


Love
RP


Next post: Tag from Tanvi!

PS: My father was so happy with the reponse you guys gave for his previous post here that he is ready with his next post! That will come later maybe in week 3 :)

Blog Marathon

Week 1, Post 2

Dad's Post:

Dear Readers,

After taking your opinion only, I am putting up Dad's post the way he wrote it. Let's see who breaks the code;) To me it seems pretty straight forward now :)


THIS HAPPENED 411 YEARS AGO


I can give the exact time difference to the people who would like to go into those details(the type 1 personality)As it is said that history repeats itself and there is a good couplet:

येः सच कि तरीखः दोहरति है खुद को ,लेकिन जो अच्हे होते हैं वोह् किस्से नहि -होते -

It means that repetition does not have what was good in it the first time.What actually happened in act 1 SCENE 1 was that shehzada asked Mehrunnisa how the pigeon flew away ,she threw up the next pigeon in the air ,exclaiming this is how!

Only 411 years later in act 1 scene 2the same story was repeated minus the best parts.For this i will have to fill in some details.

One of close family friends had to leave town for a couple of weeks and they were very fond of their pet parrot.They requested me to look after the pet so Mitthu entered our family.This was a amazing pet .while me and my wife(Of (in)eligble Bachelors fame) were discussing somebody and we laughed,immediately Mitthu echoed the laughter perfectly .Then we realized his latent qualities.

There was plenty of cucumbers in the garden for Mitthu to feed and he kept us amazed by his shear ingenuity.

The time passed quickly and it was with heavy heart that we had to return Mitthu to its original owners,there children were missing Mitthu.I went to the pet market brought a parrot,being of very good breed it started learning fast.

Now was the time for act 1 scene 2 minus the frills i.e.the shehzada Sid was missing ,though i can give you the exact lattitude and longitude from Botswana to india where he was at that moment ,so my daughter coolly opened the cage of the parrot to let it fly away.Neighbourhood boys and servants ran around looking at the tree tops,with no result.

We waited for our pet for next few days and as the days passed our hopes dwindled.

How we got a new occupent to this cage will be told to you in my next post.

Comments now ;)

Blog Marathon
Post 1 Of week 1

Singham, Moview Review.

*No Spoilers ahead*

Singham, in sanskrit means Lion. Each time Ajay Devgan did anything that was inkeeping with the meaning of the name, a lion roared a couple of times in the background.

It is this that killed me. In a good way. It is what made me want to stand on my feet in the cinema, whistle a couple of times and clap really hard.

I loved Singham.

I loved Singham for the tight,fast paced script, the mindblowing dialogues, the background score and the action scenes.

I particularly loved Singham's signature action stunt where Devgan would jump in the air in slow motion, and with a not too pretty grimace on his face, would bring his palm on the head of the poor bloke who had made the error of crossing Singham's path. The bloke would then bounce a couple of times like a ball. That did it for me. Really it did.

Ajay Devgan is exellent. He plays the character of a super cop well by ..well..underplaying it. The khakhi uniform, the spotlessly white Baniyaan showing from underneath, the ray ban shades, the stuck on muchchi- it was all absolutely perfect.

Full points to Prakash Raj. He is the perfect villan. Not stealing the actor's thunder but honestly, well....matching upto it for sure. I did not bat an eye lid (literally) when the two men confronted each other in what were some of the best scenes I have seen of late.

The story is simple. It plays on the age old formula of good versus evil. Of courage. Of standing up for what you believe in. Of standing up for what is correct and right.

But the star of the movie in my opinion was the back ground score. It added to each scene. It lifted the movie to another level, it made me sit up, it made me want to clap and whistle.


Singham is Ajay Devgan's Dabangg. Only it is much better. It does not trivialize issues. It lets big issues remain big. The stakes are high here. And there is little tomfoolery. It is serious. It throbs. Yes, it does. Its all muscle and brawn. But with heart.


I therefore, highly recommend it to people who love masala movies. Go watch it. If posisble dont watch it in a multiplex. If I were a guy in India, I would not even buy balcony tickets for this one.



4.5 stars from me. Only because I do not give any movie 5 as a matter of principle.


P.S Bloggers and all you creative people! The Book give away is on fire. Close to 100 entries already but hardly any from the most creative people I know!You guys! Do go to this link and have some fun and give the non-bloggers a run for ...err...my book ?lols!

Dear Readers,

Side note first: I have just started a flash fiction (less than 10 words) contest on the Facebok page of the book. Winner gets pretty much the first copy of the book my publishers post to me :) My way of saying thank you to all of you for your support prior to the release of the book!

Visit here to take part in the competition that is already heating up!

Do take part. It is a LOT of fun. Plus you get my first copy of the book :)

My Dad, a doc by profession, is an exceptionally intelligent man. From what I know of him, I am convinced he has a photographic memory too.

He has written a small, very small piece for the blog. I had to read it some 5 times before it all made sense to me. That too after Mum had explained his post.

Now, I have two options, I can either elaborate his post or put it up the way he has written it.

Suggestions?


Love
RP

PS The Marathon has completed one moth! Yeaaayy! but the posts will continue for some more time. Only I am going to reduce the number of posts to two a week.

Neha's Guest Post

Blog Marathon: Tuesday Post
Reason why the post was not put up on Tuesay: RP dozed off on the sofa

MY / the non author’s STORY: I have often stared at crumpled ATM withdrawl receipts and shoved them back in my pocket. Have even tried looking into a pot full of boiling tea leaves, trying to find the sunset colours in it but I couldn’t.

Sigh, I wanted to write, and the great authors do hunt for these seemingly insignificant things for inspiration, don’t they?

Well, I am a surgery post graduate resident and the most “in my face” and obvious thing in my life right now is my residency. Its obvious I should write about it, but of course my lips are sealed. Though only till the day I pass and run out of my prestigious institute . ( holding close to myself the degree and the pass certificate). Plus there is no time to write.

I multitask like my most fellow comrades : am a doctor. But I don’t just, for eg. , say, order an xray to be done. I tell the ward sister “sister ji, patient ko xray room bhej do”.

She’ll say “theek hai” and go back to her more imp task of checking out the other sister’s nail paint.
I wait.
Then I go find the ward boy. “bhaiya please patient ko chod aao xray me” . He’ll say “ok, ma’am” with a broad grin and go back to whisling a new chartbuster.

Mornings are always beautiful for him. Never suffers morning blues like us lesser mortals.

I wait.

Then I shout.

Then I catch hold of his arm, forgetting I am a doctor, going to be a surgeon and push him a little (with my 5’2” height that is all I can do) “ bhaiya jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaao”

Grrrrrrrrrr. Now u know why the ward boy is humming the new chartbuster and not me. That is because I am in the hospital till late night doing the moron’s or someone else’s work.

Doctors, sigh.

Well, that is my story :)

Non author : who shall someday return as the angry young woman to narrate her story. Adieu till then!

Ram pyari’s / the auhor’s story : Well, Well, she did get inspired by the fading mehndi of her hands. So she is the author.

Lovely, brilliant and adorable Ram Pyari.

Aapki Ram Pyari will soon be “Madame RP of the ineligible bachelor’s fame” (so, we pray, hope and wish)

By the way, I am one of the the lucky two people who have already read the book. (and if some Sherlock Holmes thinks I am Siddharth in written disguise, I’m not ;) ).

Will tell you guys why everyone should read the book!! :-

1) Its about “marriages”!!! Oh c’mon, they are like “the event” in our indian lives. It is not your, mine or sombody’s wedding. Its nani dadi chacha chachi mausa masi, masi’s mom in law, and also the very important and very own aunty from the neighbourhood’s affair as well. Did you ever see this aunty ever bothering to take interet when you were struggling to get into college or deciding what to do with your career when u passed out?? That is the charm of shehnais, marigolds, and the gold ;)

2) Girl power : its about “us”. Independent headstrong bold ( smug smile :)) career women who do fall in love, who do get caught up in the arranged marriage chaos. All of us HATE the idea of our pictures being mailed to total strangers. And to be told that some xyz guy( with a paunch, a bald head and with hundred other imperfections) has rejected us coz our nose is not dead centre or because we area a little fat or a little too thin.

3) Its cost effective. (am I sounding cheap? NO! JUST THINK AGAIN OF THE END OF MONTH DAYS, YOU HYPOCRITES)

4) We all need a few laughs. We do. And this one is guaranteed to give you more than a few.

5) Its 100% gripping. You will not put it down before you finish it.

6) Its about mums too ;) your typical run of the mill mum. We love them. But, ah well, at times, well, you know what I mean. Please refer the book for details :)

7) Its by your Ram Pyari, and my didi. I haven’t known her for very long. But for some reason I absolutely adore her, can just pour out my heart to her and turn to her for help. Maybe because she is such a sweet heart. ( also she gave me a VERY COOL snake skin belt ;) )

8) Guys! Have you seen her pics??? Have you seen those coats and those high boots? You got to give credit to the fact that she is one classy chic! ;)

9) At the risk of sounding desperate and freaky : c’mon my fellow comrades, doctors, the residents,all the tragic heroes : lets raise a toast to this lovely young lady and her book. Pease find out time to read it. Its fab and it’s a stressbuster. AM KIDDING, I mean to address all you guys, the readers. Am sure you will enjoy the book as you have enjoyed reading RP’s blog

Dearest Ram pyari, am sure with your readers love and support the book is going to rock the bestsellers lists. You totally deserve it. Good things happen to good people. Lots of love from me. All the very best.

Dearest readers, thank you for bearing with me, if you did. Don’t u worry, the next post will be from Ram pyari, should clear this post’s hang over ;).

Love from me

Neharika



Thank you Neha for the lovely post. Yes, you one of the only two people on the planet who have read the entire book (except my publishers/ editors, i hope) and it was lovely to read what you had to say about my book. Love.

RP
HE7FF679B4GZ

I think she is dead

Blog Marathon: Sunday Post

So, I met her first at my own wedding. She was preparing for her MD entrance exams then and while her exams were just round the corner, she had refused to let them stand in the way of her attending my wedding. Needless to say, I was touched.

She came home at about 10:00 am on the day of the wedding and I took an instant like to her. I felt I was meeting someone I have known for a long long time....it was weird in a way.

Anyway, thats not the story. This blog post is about what happened the day after my wedding. Obviously, my 'vidai' had happened and I was not there when this happned, but this is how it went.

So she had been up till late in the night for my vidai, had come back to our place and crashed. You know how it is with the house of the bride the day after the wedding. Ours was no different. Chaos reigned supreme.

The morning after Mum was in the kitchen making tea when she thought she should wake her up.After all, she had a train to catch.

So Mom went to the room she was sleeping in and whispered her name.
No response.

She spoke out her name loudly.
No response.

She again spoke out her name, louder than last time.
Still no response.

Mom literally shouted her name and tried shaking her.
No respose from her but my Masi who had been sleeping next to her was wide awake by then.

Right, now Mom is paranoid. Sample this:

Me: 'Mom, I have a head ache'
Mom: Beta, it might be brain tumour. No, it has to be brain tumor.

Me: Mom, I am tired.
Mom: Thats a common symptom for cancer. Oh my God.

You get the drift. So anyways, coming back to the story. So there was Mum, still recovering from the vidai of her lovely daughter, without any sleep, standing infront of a girl who lay still. The girl was not moving. Neither was she responding. That is when Mom is believed to have said this to no one in particular in a horrified tone:

'I think she is dead'

Masi gasped and in true filmy style brought her hand to her mouth for effect.

'oh My god!', Mom is believed to have panicked.

She then went to Dad's room and conveyed to him the news that she believed that the sweet girl who had come to attend my wedding was dead.

'Please chaliye, dekhiye to kya ho gaya hai usko', she said pulling my Dad out of this bed.

Dad,a doctor by profession, then went to her room and checked her for life.

'She is fine', he said turning to look at her.
'but...' said Mom confused.
'She is just sleeping!' said Dad as he gently shook the poor, tired girl awake.

On that lovely note, let me introduce to the bloggers, Neha, who is going to write the next gues post. She is a beautiful, intelligent and veryy sweet soon to be surgeon from one of the top MD colleges in the country. I have the honour of knowing her and you will have the chance to read her first guest post.

Stay tuned.

Love
RP

Bhai

Blog Marathon: Thursday Post

So my brother called me up again. These days he generally calls me up and speaks to me in a serious baritone about:
1.what I have been doing for the marketing of the book.
2.Scold me a little bit about not doing enough
3.shout at me a little bit about what he things is going wrong
4.give me a few ideas that I have been stupid enough to not think of myself

In all act like the big brother he is not.

My brother, a doctor, is a year younger to me and calls me 'didi'.

So, he called me up yesterday.

'I have booked movie tickets for Mum and Dad' he said.

'Great', I said smiling 'they wanted to watch a movie?' I asked.

'Not really, Mum has not had a chance to go out too much so I just bought the tickets as Dad won't buy them'.

Dad wont buy tickets because unlike the rest of his brood, Dad is not that big a fan of movies. Not a big fan of paying theatre tickets. He frankly finds them over priced. I mean he enjoys movies but he would much rather buy a DVD and watch at home.

'Hmm...ok' I said. When had my brother, the tiny little cheeky boy who could make me laugh and cry like crazy turned into this man who was sensitive enough to know what Mum and Dad might like?

'But I am telling them you bought it', he added casually.

'What? Why?', I said surprised. A few weeks back, I had tried buying surprise movie tickets for Mum and Dad from London, but due to some issue with my India credit card, I had not been able to do it. I had told Bhai about this.

'Generally, they will like it more', he said casually.

I shook my head. Really when had this happened? When had that joker grown up? Right under my nose without me finding out anything?

'Okay', I said slowly very touched.

'Call Mum up and tell her that you have bought the tickets', he ordered.

'I will do that', i said.

'No, do it now. I am waiting'.

So, well... I called up Mum to tell her that I had bought her tickets that cost Rs 300. She was so happy and thanked me many times. She told me that she had hardly gone out in the last week and would love to go out for a movie. And then thanked me again and again.

'Thank you thank you', sang Ma, very happy. I heard Bhai in the background.

'Ma, why dont you say thank you to Bhai too?', i asked.

'Why?', she asked.

'Just like that', i said.


I spoke to Ma today. She told me how she was so touched with my gesture that she had even told Nani about the movie tickets. She had, she told me told Bhai many times since she found about the tickets that she had a fantastic daughter who even though lives thousands of kilometres away is concenrned about every little / big thing.

'What did Bhai say?', I asked Ma.

'Nothing, he just smiled', replied Ma.

May God bless you Bhai. I hope, pray and wish that your wishes come true. You are the most fantastic brother possible on this planet.

Love
Didi

Blog Marathon: Tuesday Post
Reason for delayed Post: Because I forgot on Tuesday that it was Tuesday

So, apparently, on Tuesdays I forget that it is Tuesday and hence I do not put up a post. I generally remember Thursdays and Sundays (for the post) but I forget Tuesdays. Also, I generally remember on Wednesday that it was Tuesday yesterday. Last night(Tuesday Night), I was sitting in my bed at 10:00 pm trying to write something for Thursday not realising that I needed to put up a post right away! I know I need to get my head checked. I will. Soon.

Now coming to Nikhil's post. Like Nikhil said, we were together at work. We (we were a group of 4 Management Trainees) were such a crazy bunch then. I had so much fun being with the gang that I dont think anyone has ever had such a cool gang of office friends. We were all straight out of some of the best B schools of the country, all of us were in awe of how much money we were making and I was in my home town(yipppeee)!

That one year at home after Bschool was the most fantastic! And for reason.
I was at home. I had decided who I was going to marry, and I was the bride to be ( people girls who are married will know what different treatment you get when you are the bride to be)

I was working, studying for GMAT, preparing for the wedding...and had ossumm friends. They were lovely days, full and happy....I miss those days sometimes...

Anyways, coming to the post, I am given to understand that there is immense speculation about which of Nikhil's multiple points are true?


My take on them:

After marriage when she moves to London, RP is going to:

· Develop a British accent, mait!

No, I dont have an accent. Not yet I think. I sometimes have to change my style of speaking just a little bit when I speak to people here, but no, I def do not have an accent.

· Color her hair blonde, and keep a hairbun.

Seriously, come on!For the record, my hair is jet black and I generally leave it open. I will wait for a couple of decades before I start setting it in a bun.

· Sport a overcoat, and goggles, and boots look.

Yes, that is true. I have many over coats now. I have two lovely pairs of boots that look amazing with jeans. I have always had goggles. So yes, true true true!



· Shop the hell out of D&G, LVMH, and Bvlgari. Goodbye Mango. You were too mass market!

*Sigh* I wish this were true.

· Keep a pet, and carry it around everywhere.
I will NEVER EVER do that! Pets freak me out.

· Smoke a cigar. Or rather not. She hates it. Cancel this one specifically for her.

Correct. I will never smoke.

· Cook a dish, burn it, and make Sid eat it. (The burn is accidental, the making him eat is not)

For those who have doubts. I cam back from work at 7:15 pm yesterday. Was dead tired but made Tarka daal, rice, vegetables and 10 rotis from scratch in one hour flat. Also for those interested, I am inviting some 6 people over for Sunday Lunch where I will be doing all the cooking. *Superior look*

· Haggle with the shopkeepers and vegetable vendors (if they exist there) to give her a discount, in pounds :) This out of the innate Indian within her.

I actually dont like haggling. But I dont like paying the price the shopkeeper asks for. So I haggle, though I dont enjoy it at all. Here in London no one haggles with anyone. I leave the haggling for India. Its one of the things I miss most about India. :)

· Join a kitty club or whatever you call that, play cards with her gang, and crib about her daughter in law as she grows old.

I come home from work dead tired, still do what is required for the book on the blog, the Facebook page, send emails, cook dinner and by the time I get into bed I am so so tired that I could cry of tiredness. And you talk about Kitty parties?


· Watch daily soaps like 'Balika Vadhu', 'Na aana is des laado', 'Yahan main ghar ghar kheli', 'Sabki laadli bebo', and of course, 'Chajje chajje ka pyaar' whenever she is home. Gosh! Why is television content going backward?

*Sigh* Right, so after the work, the book stuff, the cooking when I get into bed my lap top comes with me. There is a lovely website that streams Indian TV and I spend an happy 15-30 minutes watching my favourite shows. I feel connected to India that way. Currently I watch X factor very regularly. So yes, this is absolutely correct :)

· Call her family at least 5 times a day.

I call them atleast 10 times a day.:) Correct.

So in total 3 points are correct :) well done!


Now you guys know me better. Thanks a ton for the guest post, Nikhil :)

Love,
RP


PS The Facebook like page ( top right for the widget that will take you there) for 'The (In)eligible Bachelors' is sitting at a tantalizing 592. Pitch in folks ;)

Blog Marathon: Sunday Post
Guest Post by Nikhil
More about Nikhil here.

Raam Pyari

A big Hi to all RP fans! (Who might as well choose to unsubscribe from the fan list after seeing this sudden drop in blog quality).


As you would have noticed, RP is totally living up to her promise of posting three posts a week. And for those few occasions when she does not feel like writing at all, she has asked for some fillers from some near and dear ones. That's what she calls Plan B. Sid, of course, is one of such persons. Poor Sid, I wonder the multiple threats he would be facing these days. I remember his brave attempt at writing (dictating) 'Jack and Jill went up the hill'. Way to go, buddy. I am on your side.


By now you would have guessed that I am under similar pressure to write a blog post for the lady. After giving it a deep, serious thought for almost 23 days, 19 hours, 41 minutes and 3 seconds, I thought why not give you some snippets about your author's life, the quintessential RP. After all, I have had the luxury of knowing and observing her at our previous workplace. Note that I will be restricting myself to only the fun part here, as RP hasn't yet wire transferred the full amount she promised to pay me to write good things about her. Of course, I don't need to comment on her writing skills and the passion behind it :)


If you have followed her posts well you would not disagree even slightly over the fact that she is the biggest drama queen to have been born on this earth. If the words that come out of her are melodramatic, try imagining about the ones that do not and remain only thoughts in her shaitan mind. She has a reaction on almost everything! She has always been like this, and was the same when we used to work together on some high priority problems and discuss the same in the company's conference rooms. Problems like who's dating who, which boss is the most sadu, etc etc. Work was taking a toll on our lives. After all, we were the youngest future leaders of the firm!


Interesting story this. One fine day we got to know that RP is getting married. Hona kya tha, the office was abuzz with speculations, some said out aloud and some only grapevine. From the boss to the peon, everyone was talking about her. Miss popular. What follows is a not-so-comprehensive, whatever-I-could-recall list for you guys.


After marriage when she moves to London, RP is going to:

· Develop a British accent, mait!

· Color her hair blonde, and keep a hairbun.

· Sport a overcoat, and goggles, and boots look.

· Shop the hell out of D&G, LVMH, and Bvlgari. Goodbye Mango. You were too mass market!

· Keep a pet, and carry it around everywhere.

· Smoke a cigar. Or rather not. She hates it. Cancel this one specifically for her.

· Cook a dish, burn it, and make Sid eat it. (The burn is accidental, the making him eat is not)

· Haggle with the shopkeepers and vegetable vendors (if they exist there) to give her a discount, in pounds :) This out of the innate Indian within her.

· Join a kitty club or whatever you call that, play cards with her gang, and crib about her daughter in law as she grows old.

· Watch daily soaps like 'Balika Vadhu', 'Na aana is des laado', 'Yahan main ghar ghar kheli', 'Sabki laadli bebo', and of course, 'Chajje chajje ka pyaar' whenever she is home. Gosh! Why is television content going backward?

· Call her family at least 5 times a day.

· Ask for hardship allowance if her company makes her stay beyond 1800 hours.

Thankfully, in my cognizance, only two and a half of these things have actually happened, yet. Which ones, you are free to make your own guesses! RP, did I miss anything major?


Having said that, hats off to her, for moving to an unknown land, managing office, home, and a future bestseller in an excellent fashion. Brave girl! And for being a special, special friend. With whom you can connect right where you left, whether it is after days, or months!


So that was for you, RP. Keep writing and entertaining. And wish you all the luck for your book :)

Blog Marathon : Thursday Post
What's in a name?

Naming anything, however insignificant, is difficult. I had trouble naming my favourite pencil when I was in class 3.

The little chicken I had as a pet ( who incidentally died the day after it came to us, *adequately sad Sigh*)...well...let me not even go there. I was awake the whole night thinking of a name for him/ her ( I never really found out the gender and I am not sure how you do that in the case of chickens). I finally decided that 'Chooza' would be an appropriate name and dozed off in the early hours. Only unfortunately Chooza was dead by the time I got up.

When I was in class 6, we got a not so small puppy. A girl puppy. I recall that we, as a family debated for days and days without being able to decide the name of the girl-puppy. It is a different matter all together that the puppy refused to respond to any name except the one it was used to. And it is again a completely different matter all together that the name the dog used to respond to was, of all names possible, 'Shweta'.

And it is again a completely different matter that at that point in time we knew 3 human being shwetas including a very dignified Shweta Aunty who incidentally stopped visiting us as regularly after we got Shweta.

Shweta Aunty. Poor Shweta Aunty. She came to meet us soon after we got Shweta. During her stay I had to (and I repeat, had to) say things like:

'Heel, Shweta'
'Stay Shweta'
'Sit Shweta'
'Stupid Idiot Shweta'

Trust me I had to say all of this. The situation demanded that. Shweta Aunty gave us a superior condescending glance and walked away not to return for a long long time.

You wonder what happened to Shweta? Did Shweta and I form a lasting bond that we humans can form only with dogs? Did Shweta live for 15 glorious years bringing us much joy, love and laughter? Did I feel that a part of me was gone forever when Shweta was put to sleep?

No.

None of this happened.

She ran away. She ran away with a mongoose. And no, I am not making this up. 2 months after we got her she ran away with a Mongoose. Our neighbour saw her elope and alerted us. We searched and searched in the near by slums:

'Bhai Sahab, aapne ek oodbilaw aur ek kutte koh saath dekha hai?'

Yes, we asked this question to the slum dwellers who looked at us as if we were mad. A little naked boy running in the mud was the only one who said he had seen the pair and took us to the sewage pit.

'There?' my Mum asked.
'Yes' he said. And laughed. And ran away.


Anyways, so the girl puppy ran away.
Eloped.

Anyways, I digress.

So the point is that naming anything is quite difficult.

Naming your first book is Oh-My-Gawd difficult!

So many many many months back when I had hardly even started Chapter Number Two of my book, I went to watch a movie here in London. As the credits rolled I literally jumped off my seat.

Because somewhere on the screen was written 'Happily Ever After'.

It was music to my ears. It was magic to my eyes.

That had to be the name of my book. Happily Ever After.

Happily.
Ever.
After.


So that is what I named my book straight away. Right there, unfinished bottle of pepsi in my hand, no idea where the story would go, but the book was named.

Happily Ever After by Ram Pyaari. How lovely!

A couple of months passed. Wonders of wonders, with a full time job also, I managed to finish the book. The lovely people at Rupa & Co. agreed to publish it (God Bless those kind souls).

And then it happened.

They did not like the title of the book.

In the meanwhile I asked around. As it turned out a LOT of people did not like the name. Some said it was too girly, others said it was plain boring. Some even said that they would not pick up a book called 'Happily Ever After'. (Apologies to authors who actually have a book called 'Happily Ever after')

Hmmm.

So I had to agree with my publishers. Maybe, I thought ruefully, it was not a great name after all.

So I brain stormed and came up with new names. That list included potential disasters like 'Marry who?' (Yes, I thought of that name as well. I shudder now.)

I sent the names I thought of to Sid, my brother and Nikhil. Nikhil rubbished most of the names I had suggested and came up with a list of names he could think of.

Sitting on number 2 on the list sent to me in an email was a name with which everyone now knows my book by- The(In)eligible Bachelors.

Right, question.
Who is Nikhil? Nikhil and I worked together for about 3 months, both left the company but the friendship stayed on :) And this post was actually an introduction to Nikhil who will be writing the next post!

Here is the link to Nikhil's blog :http://solitaryduel.blogspot.com
If you like this, please do come back on Sunday as he will be posting his first guest on my blog :) Come back and encourage him with your comments!

I need to say just one more thing about the title now. Three words. Heartfelt and genuine.

Thank You, Nikhil.

RP

Blog Marathon: Tuesday Post

I am exhausted. There is so much happening that I am just trying to keep breathing and doing what is required.

(Try to) Keep Calm and carry on. That is the mantra

Today I was just thinking that at this rate I will have a heart attack soon enough. You know what was the next thought that crossed my mind? God, please, not before the book comes out.

I almost burst out laughing when I realised how my brain is working these days.

None of the things happening are bad. I am travelling, I am working long hours, I am finalizing details about the book, I am trying to market the book, I am cooking dinner, I am going out with my husband to watch movies, I am calling up my Mum ten times a day to give her some detail that would mean nothing to anyone but her...but it is all adding up to a lot.

There are always pending emails to answer, pending work to be done, laundry to be done, utensils to wash, room to tidy, office to go to, calls to make.....*sigh*


Anyways, there are a few pending guest posts lined up. I am trying to goad those people into writing it. Lets see if i can succeed (see! more work! chasing these people. People who have promised a post, please thoda sharm karo!)

Right, my day is done now. I need to eat, watch X factor on the Internet and sleep.

Good night!

Sunday Post

Ramdom Post

After many many many years, I am putting up a random post. As always in bullet points :

1. I went to the Wimbledon (Yeaaaayyyy)

2. I saw Mahesh Bhupati.

3. I saw Leander Paes play. Yeaaay. He lost. Not Yeaaaaay

4. I snooped around and soon figured out that the girl sitting in front of me was Rhea Pillai, Leander's wife

5. To encourage Leander Paes, Rhea would shout 'Chal Lee, Chal'.

6. Some of the Indian supporters also picked up the 'Chal Lee Chal' chant

7.Straweberries and cream is over rated.

8. I saw Delhi Belly and was shocked

9. I saw 'Buddha Hoga Tera Baap' and left mid way

10. I also saw Transformers and almost fell asleep

11. I am horribly excited about the book. When will Mid august come?

12. The FB page ( http://www.facebook.com/#!/theinEligiblebachelors) has 486 likes. Yeaaaay.
12.5. 14 remain for the magic number of 500. *Hint* *Hint*

13. Believe it or no, some Bollywood actors, TV actors, boxers, authors, reality stars, script writers, theatre personalities have commented / liked the page

14. How they landed on my page- I do not know. I just know that I am very grateful for their kind words.

15. Shirish Kunder, Editor/ Director has even shared the link of my book page on his FB page with a message that reads 'check out the new talent'. I know it is crazy. And no I do not have contacts in Bollywood. And I am the 'talent'. Yeaaaayyy.
15.5 Like I said, it has been crazy on that Facebook Page.

16. I LOVE X Factor India. I think I have a crush on Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He is uber cool.

17. I want to read this book called 'Even Silence has an end'.

18. I promise I will go for the skating class this weekend. Good.

19. I promised the same thing last weekend. Not Good.

20. And the weekend before. *Sigh*

21. I dread Monday mornings. From today onwards, I wont :)

And enither should you. Have a nice week. Enjoy your work. We are all lucky to be employed.


Raam Pyaari.

Post 8: Thursday

Prague

The city of a hundred Spires.
The land of the Franz Kafka.
Beautiful, beautiful Prague.




For all those of you who are not married and would like to honeymoon in Europe, Prague is my recommendation. Venice comes a close second.

Anyways what a day Friday was when I was leaving for Prague. I just had TONS of work and it was only 20 minutes before leaving the house that I stopped working, threw in a first set of clothes I could find and voila I was ready to go abroad!

The flight itself was uneventful and I spent most of the time reading my book.

As we sat in the taxi,at about 9 o' clock in the night, I eagerly looked around. Not much. What was the hype about, I wondered. We drove a little further. Still nothing. Looked like a big barren European city to me. And a little further and the city opened itself like a flower.

The cemented roads in the outskirts of the city gave way to charming cobbled streets, the white street lights were replaced with the warm yellow of the street lamps. Prague had me captivated from the word Go!

Our hotel was on a quaint cobbled street leading to a hill, lit pretty in yellow, small dainty shops on either side-closed but their colorful wares on display even at the late hour. Only later did I find out that it was actually wonderful location as it was about 5 minutes from both the Castle and Charles Bridge (both are major tourist destinations). The hotel was called 'The Golden Wheel' was a very interesting mix of the old and the new. On our arrival we found a note from the hotel staff welcoming my husband to the hotel. Right, they did not welcome me. But never mind, they made up for it with the lovely views from outside the window.




As Sid settled to sleep, it hit me. I had missed breakfast, I had not had lunch and now I was skipping dinner too! And so I proclaimed to the already sleepy Sid that I wanted to find something for myself to eat. And I set out alone. I walked uphill. And I walked. And I walked. All shops that were open only sold alcohol. I glanced at my watch- 10:35 pm. Not bad, I said to myself only to immediately realise that due to time difference it was actually 11:35pm local time! That freaked me out. Alone, in an unknown country at almost midnight!

Oh My God!

Being the drama queen that I am (and totally ignoring the fact that I had a functional phone in my pocket with the lovely google map and Sid's number should that be required) I decided that I was in mortal danger. The old touristy uncles and auntys passed by with their silver hair and walking sticks, but I was convinced that my life was at stake.

The theatrical bollywood fan in me toyed with the possibility that i was already lost. But well, I could still see my hotel down the road, so that did not really work. Anyways, I turned around and decided to make my way back to the hotel without any food, lest I did get lost. Bhooka Bharat.

And as soon as I decided that there was no food in the whole of Czech Republic for me at that hour lo and behold! I saw a little place, almost hidden that I had missed. Almost right infront of the hotel. So much like me to not see the shop in front of my hotel and walk hundreds of kilometres. Uphill. Lovely.

Smacking my head, I walked in. An angry looking girl was sweeping the floor. My heart jumped with joy. No, not because I had just seen a grumpy Czech girl sweeping the floor but because my eyes found food! As I played with the sandwiches, I tried to figure out what was vegetarian and what was not. Unable to understand Czech (ofcourse! Duh), I turned to the grumpy girl to ask her if the sandwich in my hand was veg.

'I dont speak English!', she said angrily in perfect english.

I almost laughed out loud in her face right then. She gave me a queer look and continued with her work.

I hastily paid for the most vegetarian looking sandwich that I could find and hurried out. Walked across the road and entered the safe heaven of 'Hotel Golden Wheel'.

A little later, exhausted, I slumped into my lovely white huge bed. Exhausted but very content. I had in one hand a sandwich which Sid confirmed was only bread and cheese and cucumber. And in the other I had my book. I flipped the page, took a bite and read the words and I mentally itched for dawn to break so that I could see how the city looked like in the morning...

To be continued....

Post 7:


Has it ever happened to you?

that you went up to a lady and in conversation asked her if she were pregnant and she said no?

that someasked you if you were pregnant and you had to say no because you bloody hell are not pregnant?


I can say ' No, it has not happened to me' for the former. I wish I could say that for the latter.

On that note, bye bye. I am travelling today and cannot post. Will post in detail on Tuesday.

For those interested I am 5'2 in height but have never weighed more than 50kgs in my life so far.

Post 6

So we went to Morocco in December last year. It was Sid's 30th birthday, we had just returned from India, it was Christmas time and we had nothing better to do in London. It was also my gift for Sid's birthday. In Morocco, we decided to spend all our time in this small place called Marrakesh which is a hotspot for European tourists. Pretty and exotic. And also tiny. Sid said it was going to be a relaxed holiday. I thought wistfully of a 'relaxed' holiday and readily agreed. So far so good.

We read and read about the city before we went there. Not much to see or do, we booked ourselves in a pretty Riad (traditional Moroccan house turned into a hotel). Sid reiterated that this was going to be a relaxed holiday. Again so far so good.

We created an itinerary for ourselves which consisted of things we wanted to see in Marrakesh. The half a centimeter long list had some 5-6 items on it. Very gallantly Sid said that we will visit all those 5-6 places at a leisurely pace...spread them across 4 days...do one thing a day... because...yes, you guessed it right, it was to be a relaxed holiday. So far so good.

We reached Marrakesh at about 10 in the morning. Left immediately. Walked straight for 9 hours. Saw some 7-8 things overachieveing straight away our target of 5-6 things. I came back D.E.A.D tired. And the next day, Sid ready at 8:30 in the morning to go out and explore has the cheek to ask me what kind of a place I have brought him to as there is nothing to do/see.

Th next day we walked for 11 hours. The two days after that were spent entirely in the Atlas Mountains during the days and in the main square at nights. Needless to add, each day I came back to our Riad and crashed in like half a micro second.

Anyways, we leave for Prague tomorrow.

'Excite about Prague?', Sid asked me yesterday.

'Very', I say politely.

'You...know..', says Sid thinking a little bit, ' lets make this a relaxed holiday'


Love,
RP


Next Post: Sunday!

Post No: 5
Day: Tuesday
Confidence about completing the Marathon at the beginning of the marathon: Very High
Confidence about completing the Marathon now: Medium-low



How many medicines should you carry when travelling?

So as the regulars here know, Sid and I went to beautiful Italy for the Easter weekend. I generally do not carry medicines. My Mum-in-law called me up and as we discussed my preparations for the upcoming Italy trip and she warned me to take all possible medicines. After all, it was going to be a 10 day trip and it is best to be cautious.

I agreed. And then promptly forgot all about it. Then on the day we were leaving and I was reluctantly packing, when I saw my medicine box. Mum-in-law's voice rang in my ears, i reasoned that I had so far never ever needed ANY medicine on any trip so why carry extra things, but MIL's voice rang louder and I succumbed.

In fact I overdid it. I packed medicines for fever, stomach upset, head ache, nausea, cramps, multivitamins, antibiotics, anti allergic, pain killers. I even picked up medicine for a minor medical condition that I had had some 3 years ago.

I think I packed more medicines than clothes.

Anyways, what I also did was that I spoke to Italians in Office who told me of the glorious sunny weather that awaited me in Italy. Impressed I took out all my shorts, skirts, dresses and threw them gleefully in the suitcase. Nothing below the knee - that was the mantra. However just as I was leaving, at the insistence of Sid, I hurriedly picked up my fawn coloured Zara jacket. For London only basically. Once the plane would take off it would be sunny, bright Italy.

Fair enough.

Or Maybe not.

As I stepped out of the plane and looked around it was drizzling, bleak and grey. Seemed a lot like London to me.

And that is how it remained pretty much all through out the ten days and across Italy. All throughout the 10 days I was in Italy, it was grey, bleak and raining. Of course, needless to add, weather back in London was gorgeously sunny. Two things happened because of this unfortunate weather condition:


1. In each and every photograph taken in Italy, you will see me in the same jacket. The same jacket. And jeans. While I was carrying two they were both blue so I was perpetually in my Italy uniform. Zara jacket and blue jeans.

It could have been ONE day's pictures. All the pictures in the same jacket. All. A-L-L. Do you even know what a disaster that is? NO wonder there were no pics on FB, none were shared via picasa with friends and relatives. *Sigh*

2. I fell sick- Yes, i fell sick. For the first time since I came to London. I caught a cold. Took decold for that. Then had a head ache. Took the medicine for head ache. Then felt nauseous. Took that medicine. Then Dad who is a doctor called to say I should immediately get on a antibiotic course. Took that medicine. Mum, who thinks she is a doctor called to say that I should immediately start on a course of multivitamins. Did that.
Bro who is a doctor in the making called to say that I should start a course of Vitamin C as it helps fight infection. Mum, who like i said thinks she is a doctor, called again to tell me to take an anti allergic as sometimes fever is because of an allergy. Did that.

By the end of 3 days, I had used ALL the medicines I had got except for the one for the medical condition I had had 3 years ago.

'Who knows by the end of the trip I might need that', I said to Sid in the midst of sneezing and coughing.

'Come on!', said Sid chiding me.

And guess what? By nightfall I had to take the first dosage for the medical condition from 3 years ago which had, out of the blue resurfaced.


Love
RP


Question for Readers:
For the upcoming trip to Prague, do I be cautious and take all the medicines again? And then end up using them all *Shudder*

Or not take anything like on previous trips and nothing will happen because there are no medicines to treat it if it does?

Pause, think and then answer. You answer can decide whether Sid has a good trip or no. *Serious, meaningful look*

Post:4

A day Early

I am a day early (Oh my God, the dedication I have for this blog marathon!) I know. But I have reasons for the impatience.

Its about the book, I have been super secretive about on the blog. It is also about my identity I have been super secretive about on the blog.

This impatiently written post will deal with both the issues.

Dear, dear readers, my biggest supporters, my unknown friends. It is towards you that I feel a weird sense of attachment, a very marked sense of loyalty. I announced my book on Facebook on late friday night, India time. Since then there has been an outpouring of support that has touched me and amazed me.

But I have been thinking about my readers who still dont even know the name of the book! The follwoing few lines will change that!

Please go to the following link. 'Like' the page so that you can get regualr updates apart from the ones I will def put up on the blog :)

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/theinEligiblebachelors
Here is how the book will look like. Copyright applies, ofcourse :)






Very simply, you have encouraged me to write and have knowingly/ unknowingly played a big role in this.

Thank you.

Getting a post out of Sid.

So before I decided to start the blog marathon I asked Sid if he would be willing to
write a blog post. Sid readily agreed. Biwi happy.I even made nice Biryani for Sid after a gruelling day at work.

Anyways, so today after dinner Sid and I sat down. With 'Rattan ka Rajkumar' on on the telly in the background, my iphone in his hand, Sid seemed to be in a good mood.

Seizing the opportunity with both hands, I batted my eye lids and reminded Sid that he had to write a post.

Sid nodded his head, not looking up from the iphone. Batting of eye lids wasted. Anyways.

'You have to write a post, you should better start writing, it will take some time', I warned.

'I will dictate. You write', came the royal response.

Amused, I agreed. He will dictate and I will write! Would I get a post out of Sid so soon? I was amazed at my good luck.

I hastily opened up blogger. All set to type.

'Yes, please?', I said delicately after 3 minutes during which Sid had not even looked up from the iphone.

'Hmmm...', said Sid, 'write now'

'OK', I said.

'Dear Readers,hope you are doing well. I am good' came the first bit.

This was followed by a pause of 20 minutes which involved heavy thinking, playing angry birds, watching TV. I prodded further and this is what came out

'Jack and Jill went up the hill'

Then Sid said that he had 'written' enough for the day.


*Sigh*

Again, why exactly did I say yes to marrying Sid?


Love
R


PS: Next Post-Sunday! You have been very good with your encouragement. Thank you and please keep it coming. I am trying my best by keeping one post ready in advance. *Pat on my back*

Added later: Bloggers, worry natt! This post in no way means that we will not get a post form him. It just means it will be difficult to get one out of him. Muhahahahahaha.

Tuesday, Post 2

Office Story

So, we have only recently shifted to a new office closer to central London. I met a colleague (who works very closely with the President of the company)in the kitchen post a very heavy lunch.

The conversation that ensued was as follows:

Colleague A: Hi.
Me: Hi

A: How are you?
Me: Very good, Thank you. You like the new office?

A: Oh yes, it is lovely, isnt it?
Me: Yes, isnt it?

Me: I just wish we had an XYZ room
A: We will!
Me : really ? (very amazed that the company was actually thinking of it)

A: yes!
Me: Wow! I mean really Wow!
*I shake my head, very impressed*

A: It is going to be amazing.
Me: I have no doubt!

A: Really!
Me: Really!

Me (wondering if i should actually say this): I think I will be in it all the time.
A: I think the President is going to be in it all the time!
Me( shocked but still polite): Really! How nice.

*I start to think somehting is not right about the conversation*

A: Yeah, she is going to be in it ALL THE TIME
Me: Are you sure?

A: Ofcourse!
Me: Hmmm..

A: OK then, see you around.
Me: Yes, sure, see you around.

I strikes me as I make my way back to my desk. What A was talking about was a TP room (telepresence room, which is a lot like Teleconfrencing).

What I was talking about was a sleeping room.

:\


Next post: Thursday!

Blog Marathon Attempt 3:
Post 1

This is actually pathetic. Really it is. I have tried marathons twice before and failed both times.

Like most people who have failed to do something, I have excuses. But I am too smart to tell you about the excuses in this post.

Muhahahaha. I will make an entire post out of those excuses. See, I am getting smarter now.

Anyways, I am going to attempt another blog Marathon now. But I am going to take it easier. Not promise anything grand that I cannot deliver. So following are the rules:

1. I will put up posts on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays only. Post One done! Ha. Ha.
2. The marathon should last for a month.
3. There will be guest posts (including the first one ever from Sid who for the uninitiated, is my beloved husband)
4. There are some interesting posts lined up
5. There are going to be some interesting revealations (hopefully, they will be interesting)
6. Sad posts are not going to be allowed. We will all be happy and jolly but not gay. Ha ha. Okay, that was a really lame joke. Ignore it if you found it too repulsive.

What do you have to do?

The following:
1. If you have not subscribed to the RSS feeds, please do. It encourages the writer in me.
2. You lurkers who do not comment, yes you, comment. It encourages the writer in me.
3. You regular commentor, yes you. Please continue commenting. It encourages the writer in me.
4.In general, encourage me with words. It is my job to start and yours to ensure that I finish. Muahahahhahahha. I have really become very smart! See I tricked you all into taking the blame if I fail to finish this Marathon. *Superior Smirk*

And with the rules set, with your blessings, I seek to embark on this journey again. May the force be with me.

Love
R

Next Post: Tuesday!

So that i remember


It is almost one in the night. Inspite of the sultry weather outside, thanks to the AC the room is cool and pleasant. There are 4 people in the room , 3 fast asleep and the 4th trying to capture this moment. Me, ma, dad and bhai. I am sleeping next to mum, holding her hand like i used to when i was a little girl. Coarse but beautiful and for me the greatest comfort in the world- her hands. I feel such a sense of peace each time this thought crosses my head.

Knowing that you are surrounded by people who love you, whom you love - such an amazing, warm, fuzzy feeling. Everyone has been sleeping together since i came. And these time of the night is fast becoming my favourite. The quiet comfort of being in the midst of love.

Sleep tight.

Love

Ruch

A night at the Airport.

How many of you have spent an entire night at the airport?

I have!

Back to Jet Airways, yet again!
So I was flying from Delhi to my city. Flight time was 1 hour and the flight was supposed to take off at 7:55 reaching my city at 8:55.

I reached the boarding gate at 7:20. We were told at 7:40 pm that the flight was delayed by 2:30 hours. A couple of groans. yes, yes but we all got back to our books or our phones.

10:30 and still no sign of boarding. Soon the passengers went and surrounded the lone Jet Airways guy sitting at the boarding gate. What ensued was nothing short of drama. The airlines came up with the following bits of 'information':
1. The pilot is sick and is being treated
2. The pilot is in another plane that is hovering at the moment
3. When asked at 10:53 pm when the boarding will start, '11:00 pm' pat came the reply. No boarding announcement had been made by then. No, we did not fly at 11:00 pm!
The crowd started getting very angry as officials contradicted one another making it apparent that they were lying. One gentleman in particular went ballistic. There were abuses, there were threats to the staff, police was asked for, docyors were called. Yet the airlines would not give us a concrete answer. They kept beating around the bush which made the crowd all the more angry.

Finally at around mid night we were told that the flight had been cancelled. We had been expecting that. The criwd really did not know what to do. We did not trust the airlines at all. Hence even though the airlines offered to put us in an hotel we collectuvely decided to stay back so that we could ensure that these people got us on the earliest flight the next day.

We demanded fresh boarding passes as the original ones had been cancelled and refuse to budge unless that was given to us. After hours of confusion, at 3:30 am, i got mine for a flight at 6:05 in the morning.

There was a sense of friendship that developed amogst the passengers. The girls got quite friendly and spent the night yapping away. Sat on the floor, discussed life, charged laptops and phones while waiting for dawn. So that i could go home.

Finally, 12 hours after scheduled departure, i reached my city. Jet lagged from the international flight abd deprived of any sleep. Yet happy, supremely happy to be back home :)

Needless to say, i do not recommend the airlines ;)

Why?

I landed in India today morning and had to go the the Jet Airways Customer services centre to get my departure date changed. I came back with a better understanding of why we suck.

With the 'yes please's and 'If could be kind enough's of London I put forward my request. The young girl about 3 feet away from me had this to say in a loud clear and sarcastic voice, 'Badi jaldi yaad aa gaya hai isko ticket change karwana'.

She then paused and repeated the same line knowing fully when that i was right there. What exactly she was trying to do i could not understand and why would anyone speak like that was beyond me. No, really. Why would you speak like that to someone you know nothing about? who is customer? and has and is paying for the services?

I asked them for the fare for a particular date. After 15 minutes, got my reply. Then I asked for an alternate date to see which price was lower. The women exchanged looks and sighed and rolled their eyes.

The next bit came when we were deciding which date to pick. I don't quite recall what exactly happened there i soon found my voice raised. Irritated and defensive at the Jet Airways lot.

This was uncalled for and left a bitter taste in my mouth. Maybe I should have shouted more, and put them back in their place. I did retort but like always the best replies come to you after 2 hours.

In London, this has NEVER happened. I can imagine this conversation happening with lots of thank yous and pleases. ( Right so, I did not thank the Jet Airways people for their help, my big revenge :P) Back at work, I keep telling people how much of heart there is in Indian and this incident has made me wonder about so many things.


It was a simple bit of work really. May be this is the delhi way of speaking but really why? why would you speak like that? You had a fight with someone? you think you are very smart? you think this is cool?

This has to change, right? It was just a rude reminder of what actually happens in India. I never thought I would say this, but this really made me miss London!

Random

So I know I have been ignoring the blog. I know i know. I know my posts have become very irregular. I know my posts are smaller now. I know they are hurriedly written.
I know and I cant help but feel apologetic.

Well, a lot of something is happening. And that something is called work. Yes, am busy at work. It has been quite crazy of late and I will be very glad when it is all done and dusted. In the mean while I am a cranky girl.

Most of the times I am irritaed, cranky and angry. No, not the type you would want to hang out with..but I am trying to cut this out of my life. so for starters let me talk of some things nice.

okay so the book is progressing at its own sweet pace. These things just take time, nothing can be done about it. But sometimes i sit back and think about how it has come this far. I cannot wait for the day when i will hold a copy in my hands. Just cannot wait!! and yes, you ALL will need to buy a copy ;)

We are discussing/ arguing about the title and cover at the moment :) It is such good fun infact I will miss this phase of the book once it is all done and dusted. We are hoping for a publication date of July and the first few copies should be out in June, though these dates might get pushed around.

So I am VERY VERY excited about the book. And simply cannot wait for it to be out now!

India trip. Enough cannot be said about it. Really not possible, Also this will be the longest i will be staying at my place since my wedding, and i am really looking forward to that. This Friday morning and I will be in India. Importantly, I need to get work out of my head and just enjoy my time back in India.

India! Yeaaaaayyyyy!

Magical

So I am now waiting. At a bus station. Only thing is that the bus station is on water and is swaying gently. The water bus should here soon to take us to the railway station. And off from Venice we shall be.

My thoughts on Venice? Well it is the most unique city I have ever set my eyes on. There is some thing so magical about this place that I have been swept off my feet. The last this happened was with the taj mahal.

So picture broad narrow roads. On either side are houses/ palaces from the 15-16th century. Most houses have a car park and a car. Now replace the road with the gently swelling blue green waters of the canal, the cars with beautiful gandolas or boats and the car parks with boat parks. Add quaint bridges every where. Add tinybeautiful restaurants with green canopies and a multitude of flowers. Add gorgeously dressed women. Add men with long hair. Add dogs better turned out than the women. Add those gorgeous colourful Venetian masks. Add charm, grace and immense beauty. And voila! You have Venice.

It's a flowing, swelling, ebbing city.

And yes we did take the gondola ride. We were taken through the narrow lanes of water in a beautiful black gondola as the sun set. Our gondolier, Alex, told us bits about the city and layer as the chatter died down broke into an Italian ballad. I don't know what it meant, he was not even singing too well but it just added to the atmosphere.

We had taken the water bus passes and hence explored the grand canal well into the nights. And how beautiful the warm yellow glow of the lights looked reflected in the waters of the canal.

The only sour bit about the city were some of the locals who were quite rude but then well maybe coming from London India where people are generally very polite, we probably had high standards when it came to the spoken word.:p

To all the people who have asked for pics , they will come once I am back in London.:)

Now off to Florence and then home to London. Bye bye magical Venice, you are beautiful.

Italy-first impressions

So I am sick.since I came to London in jan 2010 I have never been sick. So much like me to fall sick on the first day of our 10 day trip to Italy. Anyways

Gorgeous.that's the right word. I am down and out with fever and am coughing like an old woman but I am intrigued and amazed by the beauty of Rome.

Every turn you take in the older parts of the city and you come across something that atleast looks very historic and important. There are painters and musicians. Desi/Bangladeshi men selling silly toys you would consider outdated for our local melas, Italians ones playing musical instruments or singing. Artists sit on the side of the road and with a cigarette tucked between their lips spend hours painting.

The pebbled streets, the cafes, the food, the music , the art, the beauty...

It is a must visit for all the history enthusiasts!

I know what the critics say about Rome. It's dirty, unsafe and third world-ish. I agree. I crinkled up my very London nose as I surveyed the Rome metro. Sid added that Delhi metro has to be ten times better. We felt very superior but then there is the spirit of the city. The sheer beauty and history.

We had lunch at a cafe right opposite the pantheon today . Pony tailed men sang, pigeons strutted around, old aunties with dogs with red bows smoked cigarettes and drank wine. Life seemed so lazy and relaxed. That is probably what Rome is. Too beautiful to be bothered by harsh things, too steeped in history to be affected adversely by the modernity that surrounds it and too free spirited to be bound....that for me sums up the spirit of Rome.

Hi again! So I am sitting in the dlr on my way to the airport.we are off to Italy for the next 10 days! People tell me that it is very easy to fall in live with Italy..let's see how it goes!

It has been extremely busy and very stressful at work of late and j will be glad when this phase of work is done with...will post more stuff when I get back from Italy :)

Take care and love
R

Nice, France

Day 1

So we went to Nice last Friday for a quick 3 day break. And what a lovely trip that was.

We boarded an early morning (8:00 am ) flight from London to Nice and arrived in this lovely city by the Meditteranean Sea by 10:30 am their time.

Reached out hotel and after putting our stuff their set out for a tiny little town called Antibe. The plan was to do day trips and spend Sunday in Nice. And trust me, Nice is a lovely base for some excellent day trips.

The train/bus/tram system in Nice and around it is extremely cheap. One pound in London is useless,but you get a proper train ticket in one euro in Nice. Works well with me!

The Nice Railway Station:



Arrived in antibe half an hour later. And what a delightfull little town it turned out to be. We walked around quite a bit. The sparkling blue meditteranean Sea, the white yatchs, the bright Sun. Lovely!



Walked to the Pablo Picasso Museum. Looked at some of the paintings made by him andothers. It was here that Pablo spent some painting because he felt inspired by the beauty around him. Looking at the view around the museum. I was not surprised!

View from the Museum





Once we had trekked up the museum and spent an hour going through the paintings, we walked down to the Antibe beach. I spent 2-3 hours there. There were young people, some children some oldies relaxing on the beach. It was just such a spectacularly beautiful beach. Also, importantly it was one of the few sand beaches around.

Once done, we came back to the city and loitered around, looking at shops and walking through quiet lanes. It was a charming little place. Here are some random pictures:



Had something to eat and came back to Nice by 7 pm, quite exhausted. Took a shower and went out to hunt for food.

Nice is lovely by the night. There were many tourists and all the places were so well lit up and welcoming. We just walked around, tired and exhausted but loving the whole experience of exploring an unknown city.

Is not this spectacular?



We walked into the old city known for its charming alleys and lovely food stalls. Had dinner, explored some more and came back absolutely, totally exhausted.

Day 2: Later :)

The beautiful bride.

So I mailed a friend inviting her for my wedding last year. No she could not come but she said she had only one piece of advice. No matter what else happens, you HAVE to look absolutely gorgeous on your big day, she said!

Okay. Right. Ofcourse, I have to.

So far so good. I had chosen my lehenga with care, booked an appointment at the best saloon in the city. I was set to be the pretty bride.

Now I am okay looking. Sometimes when Sid is a little high he goes as far as to tell me that I the most gorgeously beautiful girl on the planet. Mommy says I have the loveliest eyes on the planet. Okay I can ignore Mommy. All mums think their child is good looking. I should also ignore Sid because he says such things only when he is happy high. Okay. Not good. See, I know I am decent looking, never mind if i dont get the compliments.

So that point clarified, let me move forward with my story.

On wedding day, when I was all done at the salon, and the salon ladies had gushed how absolutely gorgeous I was looking and the cleaning lady there said that i was the prettiest bride ever (and asked for a bakshish in the same breath) I was happy and content. Then came mommy. And she stared at me. And stared.

Then she cleared her throat delicately.

'Cant we loosen her hair a little bit?', she asked the parlour lady a tad bit too politely.

'No Aunty, the whole duppata is in the right place because of the hairstyle only!'

'Hmmmm...can we change the color of the lipstick',asked Mum looking at me.

'No Aunty, it matches the lehenga'

'Okay, can we wash her face?'

'Mom!' I said.

Dad called at that very moment.

'Ohh, have they left?' Mom said into the phone.

'The barat will be there in 20 minutes?' she said again after a minute's pause.

'Okay....I have to welcome them, i know'

'Yes I am around an hour from the venue...will come in in a bit'

'Oh ok, dont distrub me I will be there' said Mom, she shut her phone with a bang and barged out to welcome the barat that was 20 minutes away from the venue that itself was an hour drive away.

So there I was standing in my bridal lehenga, dressed in all the finery but not really sure of Mom's reaction.

Was I the beautiful bride?
It was one of the few things that both the sides of the family unanimously agreed. They agreed that I was NOT the beautiful bride.

Some people even told me to go and get back my money from the beauty parlor. And then things started snow balling. Those who probably thought that I was looking good, decided to go with the mass opinion and declared that they would not send their own daughters to the salon where I had gone.
And so on and so forth.

I therefore did not look forward to the wedding video, cringed when it came and hid behind the door when the rest of the family watched it.

I also did not do one more thing.

I never really saw the wedding pictures.

Untill a few days back. Bt when I did do you know what struck me the most? Okay I certainly did not look as great (if i might be aloowed to use that phrase) as i normally do, but you know what? I looked absolutely, blissfully happy :)

Right.
So I still exist.

I have been absent from blogging because I have been working too much :(

Things have been very busy of late the blog has been very neglected...Apologies.

I was just thinking how lonely life is here in London. Once the shine of it all wears off its just the loneliest place. I sometimes long so much for my home back in India. My Mum was one of the most ambitious people and still grudges the fact that she had to give up her career. And when I sit here...all alone with just work for company, longing for the familiar banter I always shared with Mum, I think to myself that she did give up a lot but in return I and my brother got SO much.

The comfort of knowing that someone is always there to talk to...some one is always there...just there..

Indiah!

Yo!

So it is that gorious time of the year when I get to start gloating about an upcoming India trip. And trust me there are few pleasures greater than this.

I am travelling alone to India in May and will be spending time with both sets of parents. I am already thinking of the nice absolutely yummy things I can eat....aah..well...

Anyways, so I am going to be in India for a glorious 10 days. Of which I might work for a few days as well....but thats fine, till I can be in India and be around people who matter such trivial issues do not matter. The sad part however is the main purpose behind the India visit. The dentist. How I shudder at the thought...

March is dragging on. Yesterday I started work at 8:00 am and finshed it at 8:15 in the night. Days are getting longer, more stressfull and with the year end just around the corner, the tempers are running woefully short...Sid is keeping very busy as well. For those interested, he is again travelling to Germany today for work. Poor fellow, he had to get up at 3:00 am today and he wont be back before 2 in the night- its going to be a long long day. I however plan to leave work on time today, go home dosome work on the book and then have dinner with N who has agreed to come over! I am planning to order food and wont have to cook!

Once March is out (and we are already done with the first week),April should bring some nice things. Primarily, there is going to be a lot of travelling. Sid and I are planning to travel to Nice and Monaco and across Italy in two separate trips in April. I am particularly looking forward to my Nice trip. I spend a lot of time just googling for Nice pics...it seems lovely *Sigh* If only the weather holds up.*Fingers Crossed!!!*

Italy should be good too but its a 9 day trip and each of those days will involve a lot of walking which I am dreading. We are planning to cover Rome, Venice, Florence and Pisa this time. I am really excited about Venice! I originally wanted to explore the south of Italy but then Sid and I decided that it would be best to do the main cities in our first trip.

And once April is out of the door, in comes May!

Yoooohoooooooooooooooo!!! And with May comes the trip to India! India! India! India! India! India! India!!!!!!

On being Indian.

'You guys don't drink', said a colleague accusingly one day. He was thinking of ways in which he could thank me for an extra bit of work I had done for him.

By you guys, he meant Indians as a whole. Rather bizarre because I am the only Indian I know in London who does not drink. And trust me I know a lot of Indians.

Anyways, so that was what he said. Just one example of how nationality sometimes explains a million things for a lot of people.

I have realised that there are some assumptions that the western world has made about us Indians. Some are good some while others are certainly not so good. Let me list a few of them:

* We get the scores- When I was interviewing for LBS, one thing was quite clear my 740 GMAT score was not really as great as it would have been for a non Indian. Indians are expected to score above 700! Be damned if you are Indian with a score less than 700!

*We know all about Excel and Powerpoint- So any gora in office has an excel issue, he turns around and shouts for an Indian, the issue gets solved in a jiffy. (Example of Excel complications: The text is exceeding the size of the cell, what do I do? Ans: Thwack your head with a news paper *Aloud* -Use Wrap text *angelic smile*)

*We are Tiny- And being as vertically challenged as I am does not help the cause of people of my nation. What I have started doing is wearing really high heels. All for the love of my country. That has led to back pain. But I can do that much atleast for people of my mother land.

*We do not reply to emails- And that I have to agree to, inspite of all the love for the motherland sloshing inside me. In the one year I have worked in an international organization, I have not come across any non Indian who has not replied to emails. People in India, believe in face to face conversation. Replying to emails does not figure high on their ways to communicate list.

*Saturday and Sunday are working in India- Yes. I am not kidding. This IS what we have done to ourselves. People get so many replies on Saturdays and Sundays ( which of course, the Whites here check only on Mondays) that they think Sat and Sunday are working days in India. Can you bloody beat that? I mean like comon?

*We do not like being handed stuff by the giver's left hand: So apparently there is this book on '120 ways of not offending Indians'. It is, rather disturbingly selling quite a few copies. This piece of exquisite literature spells what a Westerner should do or not do in India if he does not want to offend Indians. One of the things is NEVER to use your left hand while giving an Indian something. Apparently we find it very offending. My colleague came up to me one day and (out of the blue)apologized for having given me things with her left hand in the past. She is after all a leftie and could not do much about it but she will def try not to repeat this in future, she said looking incosolate. I was stunned into silence when she told me why she was apologising for something I had not even noticed!

The book also, FYI says that when you are in a meeting with a couple of Indians, do not speak if one of the Indians is senior to you. Apparently, during the meetings a strict protocol is followed regarding who will speak when. The senior most person sepaks first, then the second in the heirarchy and then the third etc etc. My colleague was concerned. I was VERY concerned.


*Indians cant make it to a meeting on time- Okay. I cannot make it to a meeting on time :(

Let me know if you know more of these! Will be fun!

As for the colleague who complained that Indians do not drink, I told him that while we might not drink, we do eat chocolates ;)

Love
R