My First Blog Award Ever!!!

What a wonderful surprise I had on this New Year Day.Pretty Me awarded Me Versus My Soul with “you touched my heart with your words“ blog award.

This is absolutely awesome, fantabulous and an overwhelming experience for me. I mean every single letter of it. Really!
I haven’t received any nominations or any awards prior to this. And to top it all I got this award of appreciation on December 31, 2008.

What a cool way to embark on the New Year 2009!


Pretty cool wouldn’t you say?

I am grateful and humbled for the acknowledgement and the opportunity for my ramblings to be shared by a larger audience.
Thanks Pretty Me!

A Great Week Start

Generally (read it 'Always') Mondays are painted B L U E for me.

Last Sunday night was no different. I was feeling miserable that the weekend is over and tomorrow I would have to throw myself neck deep into the work; hectic schedule. Man, it is a very bad feeling when the good times are about to end. With a heavy heart I resigned to the bed remarking to my husband -
Dear, the weekend’s gone, Sigh!

I knew I had to get up the next morning at 6.30 AM (if I intend to prepare the breakfast). Sacrificing the breakfast I can push the time by twenty more minutes. Which means that I cannot enjoy the comforts of my bed beyond 6:50 AM. My company bus comes at 7.25 AM to pick me up at a bus-stop which is (not less than) 10 minutes walking distance from my home. So I have to leave the house by 7.15 AM. I cannot afford to lose another minute; otherwise I would have to run all the way to the bus-stop to make it in time. It’s chilly in the morning so that naturally affects the rate at which I get ready for work. Sunday night, I had put on the alarm at 6.30 AM for the next morning.
The alarm obediently shrieked at 6.30 AM in the morning. I snoozed off the alarm several times not wanting to sacrifice the comforts of my warm and cozy bed. Finally when I woke up it was already 7‘O clock.

Oh Man, I need to rush!

I quickly brushed my teeth, had a shower and arranged my purse. Just before leaving I again checked the time. It was 7:17 AM.

Now how am I gonna make for the bus on time.

I nudged my husband and woke him up. He was in a deep slumber. I kept nudging him and constantly told him to drop me to the bus-stop since I was late already. That was pretty uncomfortable for him. I knew it was way too much on my part to expect him to jump out of the bed instantaneously. But I was getting terribly late.
Boy, it took him two precious minutes to finally get out of the bed. Sleepily, he wrapped himself up in his jacket, wore thermocot pants and then his shoes. He tried to hurry up but it was difficult to switch his mode on such a short notice. Watching him get ready seemed to be an eternity; when every second was precious. By the time he started his motor cycle it was already 7.25 AM.

Oh no, my bus would be arriving at the stop any moment.

I called up my bus-mate to make the bus wait for me. My husband whish –whooshed his way to the stop. We made it to the stop in less than a minute. Kudos to him! There I saw my bus waiting for me. I thanked hubby dear for making it just in time and quickly jumped into the bus. When I settled I discovered the pair of steel keys hanging in my fingers.

OMG! I forgot to hand the keys to hubby dear.

I called his mobile to inform him. Alas, in this hotchpotch he didn’t pick his mobile while leaving. Left with no other choice I got down on the next stop. Everybody in the bus was wondering and rolling their eyes. I caught a rick to my place and saw my flustered husband sitting on his bike. I ran up to him with the steel keys still hanging in my fingers. His face lit up and a smile ran across his sleepy face the moment he saw me.
Hubby dear, how can you expect me to run away with the keys leaving you in a misery?

To make to the office I was obviously left with a single option - hubby dear would drop me to my office on his motor cycle. I generally avoid going with him because riding the motor cycle on a chilly wintry morning is quite a daunting task. My hubby dear knew I detest taking a ride on his motor cycle on a winter morning.

Phew! do we have any other choice?

We had one hour in hand before we start for the dreadful journey to the office. So we decided to snatch some sleep. We both are sleep-freaks. Great snuggle bugs ;-) And I have tales to tell you about those forty winks. But let me save them for some other time. The alarm was ringing at 8.30 AM (I had put another alarm to make sure we're on time). I woke him up telling him its time now. He said he wants to sleep a little more. I was happy on hearing the postponement of the discomforting ride for some more time; and I again slept off.

Later he woke me up. I checked the time, it was 10:30 AM. I was shocked. We had over slept. I cursed myself for making him late for the office. But I found him pretty relaxed. I asked him wasn’t he late for the office. He smiled at me and said that he delayed it on purpose. He knew that it would be very chilly in the morning and since I am not used to face the wintry weather he delayed going to office till it was warm and sunny. When we stepped out of our home it was sunny and I found the ride pretty warm and pleasant. OMG I was so happy and ecstatic. He cares for me so much. He made my day. Whoopee!

At times, I wonder why he does not do things in ways I want him to do. Ways I feel are better to go with the ones he takes. Doesn’t he care for me?

To all these thoughts and many more, I got my answer on this Monday morning.
Care is not showering gifts on me or planning holidays or doing those lovey-dovey things. Care is not to put too much stock into all that mushy stuff. Care is making late for his office so that my journey is more comfortable. What’s really important is how he treats me in general. A husband who’s supportive and caring is worth a lot more than a surprise trip to Jamaica.
Happiness lies in the small details of life!

Indeed, on a pleasant and comfortable note I had a great start for the week.

Toad Rocks!!!

You can visualize different forms and shapes when you look at clouds. The same thing happens with rock formations. During our visit to Mount Abu, a hill station in Rajasthan (India), we saw a rather unusual form on a hill top when we were roaming around the beautiful nakki lake. Abu abounds in grotesquely shaped rocks which often resemble animals and human beings.

That looks familiar, we thought. We climbed up that hill to explore this unusual form. It was none other than a protrusion of a giant toad. Overhanging the Nakki lake, it is called ‘ Toad Rock‘ because of its resemblance to a gigantic toad about to leap into the water. What do you think?

It may not be the 'Shoegate' (Bush ducking the shoe), but it is pretty cool !

Happy Slob!

I was so caught up with house cleaning and house keeping work that I didn’t have enough time to update about how it all went. So here I am to share a quick update about cleaning task that I had mentioned in my previous post – Let’s Clean Up!

Housecleaning and housekeeping has never been my cup of tea. But keeping up with dirt seemed pretty harder than cleaning it all up ;-) I have been planning to re-organize my kitchen for ages, but never found enough time to do it. The worst past about procrastination is that even though you neglect the job, the job doesn’t leave you. It always used to linger at the back of my mind that there are a few things that I need to work on but I used to shove it. But thankfully the time had finally arrived when I could compel myself to come out of the cocoon and take care of the kitchen. The other items in the TO-DO house cleaning list (mentioned in my previous post Let’s Clean Up! ) have been done and hence marked C R O S S E D.

- clean the living room : X
- clean the dining table : X
- wash the dining table mats : X
- clean the kitchen
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage : X
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust : X
- change the bed-sheets : X
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India) : X
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen : X

Earlier, my kitchen used to be a mess, literally. So many jars and containers were piled up on one another gathering dust. And when I needed something I had to struggle to figure out the right jar. Phew! It was quite a task.
I accomplished this near-to-impossible task on Friday, after I returned home from work. I had read about lot of articles online on how to quick clean and how to spring clean your rooms or kitchen or bathrooms. And after reading them I had an eye for the details and the need of the hour. I could figure out till what level I should delve in to carry out this daunting task. The kitchen sink, tiles, cupboards were all clean. So they didn’t require any work. I fast cleaned up all my shelves, arranged all the containers so that I don’t have problem figuring out the right one when the need is. I also moved oil container, spice jars and mixer apparatus, which always cluttered my kitchen top, to other more appropriate and reachable places.

You know what! My husband was all praises when he saw the kitchen. It looked more neat and organized. The placement of all the kitchen paraphernalia seemed to be in order and made more sense. I am quite ecstatic about all this. I have also decided to keep cleaning my home frequently so that I don’t have a ‘Herculean’ task up my sleeves every time someone has to pay a visit to us. Marking the items left out undone in the TO-DO list as C R O S S E D

- clean the kitchen : X
- rearrange the kitchen shelves : X

And yes, the guests from a faraway land have finally arrived. It is their son’s birthday today. So we have a birthday party up in our agenda today;-)

Let's Clean up !

Yeah, since my guests from a faraway land would be soon dropping in I have to prepare my home to welcome them. As mentioned in my previous post Guests from a land far, far away, focus is on C L E A N I N G & D U S T I N G.

We are living in a rented 3-BHK apartment. Practically we have 2 bedrooms; the other one is converted to host miscellaneous activities. It is partially a store-room and partially a washing room where I have kept my washing machine. It is always cluttered with clothes; both dirty and clean. So I thought of leaving out this room altogether. At least for now I am not going to add this room to my cleaning and dusting chore. So now I am left with the following rooms –
A living room
A kitchen
2 bedrooms
2 toilets

Not losing the focus, I have prepared a list of TO-DO items for the housecleaning task. Earlier I used to mentally prepare and maintain list of items. No pen no paper. But when I read the post about maintaining List I thought even I should pen down the items on a paper (sometimes I can even make soft copies of the list too!). The mere advantage of scribbling it all on paper is that I never waste time recollecting if I have missed out something. Trust me, I waste a lot of time thinking if I have forgotten any item from my mental list. I have never been into this ever before- making lists. This is my initial attempt, perhaps naïve too, to manage house by making lists. I am not good at making lists, at least I think so. I have penned down the items I thought should dot my list. Here is my TO-DO list for preparing my home for the wannabe guests :
- clean the living room
- clean the dining table
- wash the dining table mats
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust
- change the bed-sheets
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India)
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen

I am not sure if it is complete. Anyways I will try to stick to it completely. I will keep adding to this list as and when I find something needs to be pushed onto the itinerary. I will be back again on how all this has been. Till then wish me luck in my cleaning endeavor.

Guests from a land far, far away

This December we are expecting guests from a land far, far away from ours. My husband’s Uncle and Aunt and their two lovely children- a son and a daughter, are coming from Australia to visit us here in Delhi (India). His aunt is his Mother's sister. And my husband quite enjoys her company.

Uncle and Aunt are Indians by origin but they chose to make Australia their home land to spend the rest of their lives, or rather to begin a new journey of their life. Uncle had been with merchant navy and had sailed through almost entire world. And when he married her, they chose Sydney to start their new quest. Since then, they have been visiting their family here in India once in three to four years. Last time they were here in Delhi our engagement was being planned. Because their next visit would not have been at least 3 years thence, they pressed my husband’s mom hard to get both of us engaged before they leave. They knew, otherwise, making for our engagement and wedding couldn’t have been possible. So I thank both of them for getting both of us engaged earlier than expected.

There is a vast difference in the climate and culture of India and Australia. Well, culture wise their family is an Indian by heart. So there isn’t any appreciable culture GAP. Though their children were born and brought up in Australia but they, as parents, have deliberated a lot of hard work in inculcating Indian values in their children. So culture isn’t a problem at all. But climate certainly is a BIG problem. Unfortunately, apart from boasting a rich cultural heritage, India also abounds in pollution and dust. On the contrary Sydney has far better and cleaner environment. It’s quite hard for their children to put up with dust and pollution, esp. for the youngest one who is very sensitive to dust. All our family members here in Delhi are busy nowadays to prepare their homes for the guests. We all are specifically focusing on the cleaning part. Unfortunately, there is so much dust around everywhere that if we don’t dust clean our homes regularly our homes will look as if they have been deserted for months. All the siblings of my husband’s aunt, accompanied with their children, will be spending time with her. So we need to prepare our home for at least 10 more guests milling about my house.

So what am I waiting for? Even I need to prepare a checklist of what all things I must do to prepare myself and my house to welcome them. They will be visiting us for the first time. So it’s time to get my home in order, from the perspective of a “happy slob” ;-)

Mumbai's 49 Hours Tryst With Terror

(Pictures courtsey Mumbai Mirror)

It was the black night of November 26, 2008 that painted the Indian city of Mumbai red with blood. 10 terrorists struck Mumbai on that fateful night with massive arms and ammunition. Multiple sites in the Mumbai were attacked with bombs and gunfire in a coordinated terror attack. Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Trident Hotel, Nariman House and CST were amongst the main sites that were brutally hit by the terrorists. Besides these sites, terrorists openly fired on the innocent people on the Mumbai streets. The attacks killed 179 people, including at least 22 foreigners. Over 300 injuries were reported. It was nothing less than a WAR.

The attackers entered Mumbai via the waterfront near the two hotels. The first attack occurred about 9:30 pm at the Cafe Leopold on November 26, 2008. A man was seen firing an AK-47 in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel lobby before fleeing into the kitchen. Another series of injuries was reported when a gunman opened fire at a central train station. As the rampage progressed, gunmen opened fire at several locations throughout the city, including a crowded train station, a popular restaurant and several luxury hotels.

In the wee hours of November 29, 2008 the tryst with terror in Mumbai ended after battling continuously for 49 hours with the terrorists. The last gunmen were cleared out of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on Saturday morning, November 29, as firefighters continued work putting out blazes on the first few stories. The terror strike finally got over as the sun dawned. A previously unknown group called the Deccan Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack via email. The terrorists apparently sought victims with British or American passports.

The bloody show that was put up for almost 3 days has angered the citizens of India. According to intelligence reports Delhi Airport is next on their hit list.
Today I received an e-mail on ‘Travel Advisory’ from my company stating that there is high security alert for the coming week on Delhi Airport and that the employees should travel only if it is essential.

Though, the terrorists might have been cleared out of Mumbai by the heroic efforts of NSG commandos, the ATS and the Mumbai police force. But the BIG question still dangles unanswered - ARE WE SAFE. Is our tryst with the terror not yet over?