The Groom Hunt V

Now THIS is the one which worked as the final nail in the coffin.

As I was given to believe, THIS alliance was kept on hold for almost 4 years...i.e. even when I hadn't finished my education. My parents kept avoiding them since they believed I was not ready for marraige, and when they did get interested, the guy was in the US.
I had already met his parents, younger brother, Mamaji, Mamiiji, Nanaji and Naniji. And now that he was back in India, our parents wanted us to meet. Despite of the fact that he was in Bangalore for a couple of days to meet his younger brother who worked here, he didn't come to see me. This was because his parents wanted us to meet in the presence of his family. Weird as it sounds, I had to agree since my parents were quite keen on this alliance.
I had a war of words with my manager to get my leaves approved, so as to make it to Rourkela to meet him.

And finally he came to meet me, again with his parents, younger brother, Mamaji, Mamiiji, Nanaji and Naniji. But the meeting was not half as weird as I had anticipated.

My Father was strictly against the idea of me wearing a saree and carrying a snacks tray to the guy's family. So I was in my room sitting on my computer playinh PCMan when S enterted to meet me accompanied by his Mamiiji (I wondered why they couldn't leave us alone, as if I would bite him). S was smiling and was quite pleasant, he asked me to finish my game, he was not in a hurry...I paused the game nevertheless.
But he was more pleasant than I had thought.
Suddenly all my anger for being called to Rourkela to just meet a guy whom I could have easily met in Bangalore, for which I even had to fight with my manager, was fast vanishing. Looked like it was worth it. I liked the interest he showed in my job and discussed about his own. He was joking on how people think he had a lot of savings since he frequently visits the US, but in reality he spent more abroad and had hardly anything to be remotely called as savings. We spoke about Mumbai, Bangalore, US, his job, mine, our weekend activities, java and business. Not a bit of arrogance, not a bit of ego...or so I thought.

I was impressed to say the least. But as they say, people have many faces.

We kept waiting for their reply for almost a week. And finally when my father called, S's Mum said that they were fine with the alliance but he wanted to meet a few more girls since it seems I was the first girl he had met. I thought that was fair enough though, but I believe his parents were kinda forcing him into it. But eventually they agreed and set up a date for the engagement. I kept waiting for S to call me or mail me but it didn't happen. I was told that his family had also started shopping for the engagement, buying me jwelleries and stuff. But I couldn't get married to him just like that. I had a break up a couple of months ago and I would want my would be husband to know about it, there were a a lot of things we need to discuss which would couldn't have in our first meeting and while his Mamiiji was around...but he never called.
I raised a concern to my parents, but my Father believed that its the sign of a no-nonsense kinda guy...what the hell !!! Nobodody spoke to me...not him, not his parents.

With more updates being fed to me about the arrangements being made for the engagement day, I was getting desperate with each passing day. Its like marrying a complete stranger...I couldn't do that. I asked my Mum to get his number from his parents...but she thought it would be outrageous. There was nothing that i could do.
Bhai came yo my rescue when he said that he hadn't met the guy to whom his sister is getting engaged to, so he wanted to speak to S over the phone. My Mum called up S's Mom to get his number, to which his Mum said that S is not willing to speak to us. It seems he had mentioned that he didn't wish to speak to anybody in my family before the wedding. Since my Mum insisted, she said she would check with her son and let us know.
I could now smell a terribly smelling fish...and so did my Mum.

When she gave the no. of S and a suitable time to call him (as if he were Shahrukh Khan), my Mum took it on her to call him before Bhai does. S spoke to my Mum in his usual pleasant way, but soon after they hung up, his Mum called up accusing us of tricking them to get S's no. and warned us never to call S again. My Mum was agast but decided to stay calm till my Dad returns home. When Dad got to know, he was furious. He immediately called off the engagement making it clear to their family that he doesn't wish to push his only daughter into a well.
They later came back to make amends but my Dad found it difficult to trust them again.

I had had enough by then and asked Mum to leave me alone for a while. Meeting another guy was the last I could ask for.

Hopelessness continues...

The Pizza delivery boy is at the door

Db : Please get the Pizza
Me : Ok
Db : And Pay him too.
Me : **Stares** Okay.

We finish the pizza.

Db: Feel like having an icecream
Me : So get it
Db : You get it na plzzz. Its just around the corner. Take the bike.
Me : Don't you think such requests are normally made by kids to their fathers or by a wife to her husband. Thoda ulta nahin hai!!!
Db : That's okay...but you are my smart, independent 20th century wife.
Me : But who wears the pants in the house???
Db : **Starting at my shorts** Your pants are shorter than mine.
Me : Whatever!!!
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Sipping a fresh lime soda outside Lifestyle in the Oasis mall, after buying 3 trousers in the SALE...

Me : **getting so romantic** Shopping to heart's content, having a refreshing lime soda in such an amazing weather and having you beside me. Aur kya chaiye life mein!!! (What else do you need in life)
Db : Salt...more salt
Me : What???
Db : I need more salt in my drink.
Me : @$@#%#%#%
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The Groom Hunt Part IV

And you thought the series was over !!!
Well...continuing....

If all this makes you feel that I had a very stringent criteria for the men, that ain't true. All I wanted is somebody who is sensible and would have no problems with me continuing with my job. But I had no idea that it was such a difficult combination to find.

With the kind of values I was brought up with, the fact that my father brought me up at par with my brother and I have always been treated equally with men was not helping much. Also my paycheck being heavier than that of most men that I met was also not helping, a convent educated Oriya girl who wants to work post marriage was a no-no for most Oriya men. Also my ever increasing weight...these things matter in the arranged market dukaan you see. Though I hold no malice for people who rejected me for being overweight, good for them because ever since the graph has only gone upwards...so anybody who would have married me hoping I could turn slimmer would have been terribly disappointed.
And the irony is, despite of the fact that most guys I met seemed samples to me, I rejected none of them. All of them either rejected me or had me as a backup plan.

I met K through a college friend, K was his lead in his project. K was interested in me when he saw my picture in my friend's album, but initially I wasn't too interested since he was absolutely bald. Later, after a few months, after getting to know a few more things about him, I approached my friend saying I was interested. We chatted a couple of times, and I found him pretty interersting. He was coming down to Bangalore to meet his friends, and we thought we could meet up as well...it was going somewhere. But the very day he was flying to Bangalore, I found out that he was the classmate of my ex, and actually they were pretty good friends.
Complications was the last thing I wanted in my relationship, so I had to call this off. Guilty as charged, I will forever be under the guilt of the wrongdoing. Worse, I couldn't even tell him the reason why I was calling this off...for a stupid ego trip that I didn't want him to know I was earlier dumped by his friend and nor did I wanted my ex to know I was contemplating marraige with his friend.
Anyhow, the loss was mine...he was a great guy.

I met another guy at the Bhubaneswar airport; his father was way smarter than the guy in question. His father was also pretty keen on the alliance.
After the meeting, his father called up mine to say he kinda liked me a lot but it seems his son finds me too smart for his taste...because I turned up in jeans to meet him and not saree or a salwaar kameez at least. Though I like his honesty, at least he didn't site petty excuses like she isn't fair or tall enough or overweight.

But certainly this arranged marriage business was getting more difficult and humiliating.

Mera TV kharab ho gaya

My TV isn't working. This is the same TV that I had got 4 years back with my hard earned money, giving my blood, sweat and tears. How proud I felt when I could buy one with my own money. But the same souvenir of my independence and self sufficiency has finally dumped me.

The initial signs were showing up when Db was in Australia last month. It would suddenly go all dumb, and showed only pictures and played no sound...but then, like a mischevious kid I would hit it once hard on its head and it would come to its senses. The symptoms went serious when even the slap on the head stopped working and you needed to reboot the TV to get its audio working.

But since last night that has stopped working too.

Db is a happy man now since he hates TV and the small and old portable TV in the bedroom or youtube easily provides him the news and stock updates.

I can manage for a while with the portable TV or by playing the sound on the portable TV and watching the pictures in the drawing room TV (The TV in the bedroom is smaller and of not that great picture quality...and yes I am that desperate), but I need a replacement for the drawing room TV ASAP.

The trip to Goa Part II - Terra Paraiso

Terra Paraiso is the name of the resort we were put up with in North Goa.

Though staying there was more of an impulsive and desperate measure. Our stay at the holiday in was planned for only three days, the original plan was to move to the North and find a good resort near the Calungute beach. But since I could hardly enjoy the Holiday inn due to the complexities that feminism brings in, we were actually contemplating to extend our stay here. Finally, almost as an impulsive decision we decided to move out, and with no access to internet, we made a few calls to makemytrip, who promptly arranged the above mentioned resort for us.

But the decision was not so bad after all.




The Terra Paraiso is situated at the heart of north Goa, hardly 2 kms from the Calungute beach, and 6-7 kms from the Aguda fort and similar distance from a few more happening beaches around. The pool was amazing and ours again was a pool facing room which worked in a lot of ways. The rooms were way more spacious than ones in the Holiday Inn and Ah!! they had a jacuzzi too, but didn't find the jacuzzi effect anything out of the world. But the service was quite okayish and food was bad. Contrary to Holiday Inn, here we seemed to be one of the oldest couples. There were a few honeymoon couples around, who used to sit in the corner with candlelights during dinner time.


Though I found those candlelight dinners very chirkoot...but considering that they were just babies compared to us, may be they couldn't afford a grand one. Okay now...who am I kidding!!! Forget grand or chirkoot, I never got to have a candle light dinner myself, and before you starting poking your finger on to Db saying 'how mean!!!', it isn't his fault...I find all this too cheesy and mushy and Db already knows that a die-hard romantic is the last thing I am.

And there were a two such couples who were here for some fun...you know, college kids who are going around and want to catch some fun together without telling their parents. How did I identify them !!!???Come'on...these are the couples who you can find everywhere in the resort, trying to get close and cosy, since this after all is their chance they spent the money for...while they address each other as 'tu', clap and hug at the drop of a hat.


Here there were many people who were as underdressed as me, but we still have a problem here. Most of the girls had a wonderful figure to show off and were at least 3-5 years younger, and 2-3 sizes down to me, so I looked like an Auntie jiski jaawni dhalti hi nahin. Okay now, Db is tired...I'll stop cribbing.

Once we hired a bike there, life became simpler and far more enjoyable thereon. We visited many of the famous beaches in the days ahead and had really great time. All the beaches were
amazingly picturesque...more on them coming up in the next post. But I am still looking for the person who said Goa is a cheap shopping place...Bangalore is far more cheaper. or may be they sell things costlier during the off season. I have just got myself a few stolls and one bag.

Trip to Goa Part I - The Holiday Inn

A trip to Goa during the off season is not a really bad idea after all.
My vacation could be called a mixed bag. Considering that me and d Db are so different on our views on how a holiday ought to be, this holiday had something for both of us. We got ample of time without office and cool our heels while the last few days of the vacation we also managed to go around the place and visit a few places.

As we reached the Madgaon station, I was starting to feel terribly disappointed. It was raining badly and also because, for a place known to be a
major tourist attraction not just in India but worldwide, the Madgaon station was smelly like an armpit. It was also Bharat Bandh on the same day, and the idea of spending 12 hours in that smelly railway station was giving me goosebumps. But thankfully Holiday Inn decided to send us the pick up cab to the resort which they had initially denied because of the bandh. As we started cutting through the narrow roads towards the resort, my disappointment level was increasing by many folds. For a place which attracts many foreign tourists through out the year, I was expecting a more commercialized place. There were no rickshaws, no petrol pumps in the radius of 20 kms around, the roads were so narrow that it would make it difficult for two buses to cross each other, the town buses looked ancient...my Grandfather's village looked so much plush compared to this. Even Db's hometown Jeypore is also much more scenic than this, if marketed properly, it would do much better than Goa.

Such an over hyped place I thought...

The first three days of our vacation was pre booked at the Holiday Inn Resort in South Goa. It was raining cats and dogs when we reached there. The resort was nice, they had an amazing pool and a private beach. Our room was very cozy and comfortable and also pool facing...it was amazing to just sit in the balcony sipping your tea and watch the pool or the sea. The food was amazing, we had the buffet b'fast, lunch and dinner included in our package and we had a great time with the food that was served to us. With the food at the resort, I found my long lost taste of homemade curd...so much so that I am actually in the process of making it at home now.

I was earlier told by my friends that I would probably look terribly overdressed in Goa, since there would be many who would hardly be wearing anything at all. But we seemed to be the youngest couple in the resort (most of them were with one or two kids, or middle aged couples or corporates who had come for conferences) and with my shorts, I looked like the most under-dressed person there. I had got hardly anything from Bangalore that could remotely match up to the sarees and salwaar kameez or the full length jeans with long kurtas that other aunties were wearing there so I remained the most under-dressed person around.
Also, I was not keeping well (the regular women stuff)...and I was not expected to keep well for the next 3 days as well...so all I could do is watch people having fun from my balcony. Though it was not as bad as it sounds, but I could still do better by jumping into the pool or the beach. Though Db got his chance to have a quiet and relaxing holiday away from office, the fact that I was not enjoying didn't give him any pleasure.

So, on the second day of our vacation, we decided to hire a bike and check out the Palolem beach. I am still looking for the person who told us that the beach is just 20 kms away, since it was almost or more than 35 kms from our resort. And as luck would have it, the seemingly bright sunny day turned into a ghastly rainy one and we drenched ourselves on the way to the beach. Worse, the beach was lonely as a desert with only filthy dogs to give us some unwanted company. Disappointed to the core, we left the place in a few minutes. But the worse was yet to be...as we were returning back in the rainy afternoon, we lost our way and got a lot more wet and frustrated than we otherwise would have been. We reached our room by evening, and eventually decided to forget the beaches and enjoy our stay in the resort by using the internal facilities given here.


At the end of three days we had the option to either stretch our stay in the same resort for the next three days or move to North Goa. We chose the second option and booked another hotel from makemytrip for another resort in North Goa, near the Calungute beach. Then was the fear for the unknown when we checked out of the Holiday Inn and booked a cab to the north.

Luggage...I hate it !!!

When I was single, travelling home was not a teary affair for me unlike my other friends.

They would start preparing a month earlier by buying stuff for their family, piling them on the bed and not bothering to pack them into suitcases until the day of the journey comes...and the final result would be two pregnant looking suitcases for which hiring one coolie would look inhuman. On the contrary, I has something which looked like a schoolbag which I carried home. For a one week vaccation, It would have 3-4 T-shirts, my lens kit and may be a facewash, and some snack if I am being too generous. My roomies would look shocked each time(probably carrying more luggage than you need is a girly thing) and made sure they ask their parents to add to my luggage. So most of the time, my return trips were over burdened, my own luggage being just one fourth of the total luggage I'd be carrying.My worst ever experience was when one of my friend's Dad wanted me to carry a Rajai for his daughter to Bangalore. I showed him the size of my bag and he gave me this strange expression and offered me to give a bag too. But somehow I managed to wriggle out of carrying the Rajai.

The bottom line is I have always hated to carry luggage, I feel a huge luggage spoils the journey, half with the effort it takes to carry them and other half by worrying about it on the way.

But post marriage, the tables turned. Now each time I go to my in-laws place, I need on suitcase only for myself while Db has to make his own arrangements in another bag. For a one week vaccation, I need to carry five salwaar kammezes, a couple of sarees, bangles, gifts for the family and a teeny weeny makeup kit. Though my luggage is still far from looking like the pregnant bags of my friends, but they are still enough to irritate me.

Now this is a very novel feeling to me.
We are going for a week long holiday to Goa this week (yipeeeeeee!!!!). Thats one place I have always wanted to go. Also this is our first vaccation in 2.5 years of our marraige, I wouldn't call the Delhi trip as a holiday. I started my packing yesterday, and I have already packed eight Tees, two shorts,two slacks and two skirts and the bag is already half full while I still have a plenty of things to pack the essentials, the toileteries, my swim wear, my jeans, camera and need to leave some space for the shopping in Goa too.
Never felt so full.

BTW, we are staying in Goa for a whole 5 days and would be staying at the Holiday Inn. Howzzat!!!

Truth is stranger than fiction

The wake of the news of many models comitting suicides, provoked the thought of this blog post.
I know a lot of people who would die for the money and fame that these ladies were enjoying. Then why, a person who supposedly has everything in life would be drawn to an edge where they want to end their life. Agreed, showbiz comes with its set of challenges and pressures, but every profession has its set of challenges, each life its own set of problems.
I read somewhere where a fellow model has comented that, the fashion industry takes a lot of compromises, casting couches to reach at the top, and when you are not able to sustain it at the top that results to depression and eventually such drastic steps. My question is if something is so important for you to achieve that you are willing to tread the path full of nasty compromises, then you have no right to complain whatsoever...and aren't you a fool to believe that the fame and sucess will last a lifetime for you. So, you got to have a Plan B...right!!!
And why trouble his boyfriend for this. She chose to end her life after a fight, or breakup or whatever, why should he be blamed for that...makes no sense.

As I was given to believe, it seems films influence peope and the societe, everything starting from fashion, smoking, extra marital affairs...everything influences people. But reading more about the film and fashion industry, I feel their lifes is way more filmy than the movies they are a part of.

Did you know:

Hema Malini chose to marry the very married Dharmendra, but Dharmendra's wife was not willing to divoce her husband. hence they managed to escape through a small gap in the Indian Legal system, by converting into Islam.

Sanjeev Kumar never married because he was in love with Hema Malini who in turn chose to marry the married and father of two kids, Dharmendra. The then Actress Sulakshana Pandit wanted to marry Sanjeev Kumar but he kept refusing her proposal since he could never get over Hema Malini. Sulaksha Pandit in turn never married too.

MadhuBala died of a hole in her heart, the most common disease shown in movies during those times. She hid her ailment for a long time from people until she succumbed to her illness. She had an affair with Dilip Kumar and both wanted to settle down, but they had a rift over a court case where Dilip kumar chose to testify against MadhuBala's father, hence standing by what he thought was right. But this caused a drift between the two and she chose to become the second wife of Kishore Kumar instead.

Meena Kumari was abandoned by her parents when she was born but later brought back by her father. She died due to liver failure because of excessive drinking, post her divorce with Kamal Amrohi. It is said that she was as pennyless on her death as during her birth, there was no money to pay for her hospital bills.

Parveen Babi is supposed to be schizophenic, before she met her tragic end, another common subject choosen by many masala movies till date. read more...

Nargis was born to a courtesean but was kept away from music and dance to prevent her from landing into the same profession. She fell for Sunil Dutt when he saved her life in an accident (a common practice in Bollywood movies to woo a girl) during the making of Mother India and soon they married.

Guru Dutt chose to end his life after a failed relationship with his wife Geeta Dutt and Waheeda Rehman. The had also made two failed attempts earlier.

His wife Geeta Dutt died soon after suffering a serious nervous breakdown, she ran into financial problems and started performing at lower platforms like Durga pujas and other stage performances. She died of liver failure due to excessive drinking.

Asha Parekh never married because of a failed relationship, and because she believed her unapproachable personna repelled people to ask her for marraige.

I was unknown to most of them before I dug into it...and certainly I realize that all that glitters is not gold. The glittering glamorous world of fashion is cinema is probably dark and hollow within...and certainly what we see recreated on celluloid, happy pretty faces...dancing and cheering might be going back to a dark lonely life as soon as the lights are turned off.

Truth is certainly stranger than fiction.

Hopeless !!!

Me : Do you believe in mushy love stories?
Db : (makes a dismissive gesture while still looking at his laptop, which means 'No' for an answer)
Me : So do you think I was a fool to believe that I would some day have a magical love story to call my own?
Db : No not really. Hota hai!!! (happens)
Me : You know I always thought I would some day have cindrella kinda love story. I saw in some movie, the guy leaves the girl in the station, and while he is walking out he realizes how much he loves her. He turns back and starts running to stop the girl. But the train has already started moving, so he runs after the train with all his worth...but misses it. Frustrated, as he returns back, he finds the girl waiting on the platform. She didn't board the train because she believed he'd return to get her back.
Db : (Still looking at his laptop) Okay.
Me : You know, I always wished it happened to me.
Db : Hmm
Me : Would you run after the train to stop me?
Db : No, I know you would be waiting in the platform, so I'll walk.
Me : Hmph!!! Okay, say we had a fight and I went to my Mom's place...phir???
Db : I'll send a return ticket to your Dad and ask him to put you on the next train back.
Me : He wont do that.
Db : (Smiling) He will. Trust me
Me : (now irritated) he wont, he wont, he wont!!!
Db : Okay then, in addition to the return ticket, I'd insist that your Mom also comes to the station to recieve you.
Me : And how does that help?
Db : She'll anyway pakaofy you so much on the station that you would snatch the return ticket from your Dad and jump into the next return train.
Me : Whatever !!! **Hopeless guy**
Db : **Evil Grin**

The day I thought Jesus smiled at me.

It was a dull rainy evening when I started from office.

But I love the rain and unlike normal people who'd like to stay back for the rain to ebb, I like to drive in the rain. Also, Db was in Australia then and there was nobody waiting for me back home...I'd never get this chance again once he's back, he wont let me drench in rain. I must take this opportunity, but the only problem was the day being a Thursday and I am supposed to visit the Church. So if it starts raining more heavily on the way, I'll be stuck.

Anyhow, I decided to go for it.

While I had hardly crossed the Old Madras Road, it started raining cats and dogs. People stared parking their bikes at one corner of the road and taking shelter in nearby bus stops. The road was almost empty now, with only a few four wheelers here and there. I got down to wear my raincoat, the one that I lovingly call 'Master Deenanath's Raincoat'. I remember the day I started driving, Db had given me this raincoat and I went 'eeks!!! its so tacky, looks like straight out of some museum. I'll look like an grumpy Aunty wearing this.' . But when has he ever listened to me!!! The very day I was carrying the raincoat in my bike's storage and in a few days wearing the same in the rain. But God bless him, 'Master Deenanath's Raincoat' works like wonder in the rains.

I decided to continue driving, because the sight of the crowd waiting at the road side gave me a huge scare...'imagine the jam when all of them will hit the street when the rain stops'.

It was raining all the time, the rain drops whipping me across my face. My trousers are all wet now, so are my shoes, so is my bag. But I still continued, the empty road was a huge encouragement. I reached the ejipura signal, by then the rain had ebbed. I contemplated for a while...shall I go home, change, freshen up and start afresh, or do I go to church, finish up there and go back home and chill for the rest of the evening.
Since the traffic was pretty less and the rain has slowed down, I decided to take up the second option and took the right turn towards VivekNagar.

As soon as I took the right, it started raining cats and dogs again.
Ouch !!!...
I am already too wet to care for the rain anymore...but at least my bike is getting the much needed wash in the rain. I could see the smile coming on my face.

Damn I was skin wet when I reached the church. I reached the church parking, the security handed me a parking slip, which immediately turned into crumbled powder as soon as I took it my wet hands. Quite a lot of people waiting inside for the rain to come down including one couple who were waiting right where I parked my bike. I remember them because the lady smiled at me when I was making up my mind where to keep the crumpled parking coupon to prevent it from further damage.

I stepped out of the parking to a surprised crowd and proceeded to buy candles. The vendor was herself hiding from the rain when I came to her stall and said '4 candles'. She gave me the candles and a sympathetic smile, I gave her an enthusiastic one.

I proceeded towards the church main door to almost a hundred spectators who were waiting at rain secure places and were visibly amused to see a round shaped woman (no girl) in tacky Raincoat waking lazily in one of the heaviest rain that Bangalore had seen in a while, and at the top of all that smiling too. I reached inside and lit my candles and stood there still smiling at Jesus and eventually took the same path back to the parking to find the same couple still waiting right where I left them. The lady smiled at me as my bike's engine roared to life.
At the parking exit I handed over the crumpled remains of the coupon to the security with a two rupees coin and crossing the rest of the waiting crowd, I drove away to glory in the still heavy rain while I thought Jesus must also be smiling at me.

Finally, I reached home...drenched from head to toe in ice cold rain water and my clothes sticking to me like second skin but somehow still amused.
As I changed I helped myself to a cup of coffee, I thought to myself, if this doesn't please Jesus what will.

A Thought

A bug a day, keeps the build away.

:(

A Lazy Post

I haven't been blogging for a while now.
Its been busy all the while...the new job with new responsibilities.
There are quite a few updates though. Life's been moving, moving at a decent pace.

1. Db is back from Australia. Its been 3 months that we met. He's back with too many gifts...he's got me sooooooo many awesome dresses, but the sad part is they do not fit me well. I need to lose a lot of kgs to get into them gracefully.

2. Bhai has landed himself up in a descent job, in fact the job is good and I am very happy for him. But I would like to believe that I am not to happy, until he gets his first payslip.

3. My parents are quite happy and relieved with what Bhai has got himself...and the fact that they are happy, makes me more happy.

4. We are planning (well yes still planning) for our first holiday in the 2.5 years that we have been married. There has been no time all this while, and if we had the time there were other things that needed our attention. So finally we (rather I, Db is always in for a holiday) decided to live my life, stop thinking about others and give myself a break from everything else. While I have been punishing myself on the pretext of the responsibilities that came on me, others have obviously taken a chill pill. Its time I took one too.

5. We are planning to pay off the last installment for the plot in a few months. Then the plot is all ours to build our dream home.

There are more updates but all in good time.
Right now I am just waiting for the tester, as and when she raises more bugs...I need to push it to others in the team and (**yawn**) chill out myself. Seniority brings in a few good things too, and this is one of them.

Plus one

Its my b'day again.

**Grins**

Rajneeti...the kyuns???

I have a few questions to the Rajneeti makers.

1. What was the significance of having Ajay Devgan to play the illegitimate son. He could as well have been the Master Deenanath who had nothing to do with the politically influencial family, and the story would yet have the same. And the Kunti-meets-Karna scene...' tum mere jyestha putra ho' (still cringing). This could surely have been a modern take on Mahabharata, but the actress must have been possessed by the Kunti atma to speak those saskrit words...so lame.

2. The significance of women in the movie is just to say 'Mein Maa banein waali hoon'. How come all the women get pregnant by just making out just once?...so convinient !!!

3. Why did we need a accented Katrina to play the character Indu who aspires to be a part of politics. She seems to be very much been in India to have an accent, while the America returned Ranbir speaks pure hindi as well as Sanskrit words at times with ease. So much to create the hype of being a Sonia Gandhi inspired character !!!

4. Katrina plays a sports car driving, chewing gum munching girl who needs no license to kiss (license gaadi chalanein ke liye ya tumhe kiss karnein ke liye? cringing again!!!). Yet she agrees to get married to the elder brother of the love of her life and being thrown around like a commodity.

5. If Nana Patekar drops his idea of killing Ajay Devgan after knowing that he is the Kunti's Karna, how come he encourages Ranbir to kill him.

6. I am yet to find a politician who looks remotely half as good looking as Arjun Rampal??? Even while he is doing the Maa-Behen of the poilice commisioner, he looks hardly believable.

7. Can you really get away with killing your Chacha and cousins so easily, not as much as setting up an inquiry commission on it.

8. After the scene on the airport where Katrina tells Ranbir that she would get him back from New York, I was waiting for the twist when it would be revealed that the deaths were actually planned by her. But instead when Ranbir finds out the murderer, he turns out to be the oh-so-predictable Ajay Devgan. A very amazing twist missied to the story.

9. Why exaggerate so much ??? Do political families really go around on a killing spree, targeting their own family???

10. Why make the mokery of a veteran actor like Nasseruddin Shah? All he does is donate his sperm to the script .

Top 10 lessons learnt from staying alone in my house

1. Stay online as much as you can...and bless people who ping you. It reassures you that you are not an crotchety old lady who is sitting alone in a house.

2. Get addicted to facebook or orkut. Comment on everyone's status and like everything that anybody says or does. This way you make a good chance that when you start a thread, there are people replying to it and that starts a neverending thread and kills time.

3. Order in food. Since you can't finish it all by yourself because of the limited size of our stomach and your mental calculation to check your weight...the food easily lasts for two days.

4. Write on your kitchen whiteboard 'WATCH YOUR WEIGHT...DONT ORDER FOOD' and ignore it on the weekends.

5. Do a lot of shoppping on the weekend and bill it on the credit card your husband gave you. Watch your kurta collection soar while your bank balance remains unchanged. **

6. Check your weight regularly. Notice that despite what people expected that you lose weight sulking for your husband, you have actually put on a significant no. of kilos. Blame it on the weather.

7. If you don't find the remote, find it under the pile of clothes on your bed, or the pile of unread newspaper, under the laptop, in the fridge or bathroom.

8. Get a new hair cut in some expensive beauty salon and bill it on the credit card your husband gave you. **

9. At office, keep a visible expression of being sulky and sad for being lonely at home...so that they feel guilty to give you more (any) work.

10. Ask in a friend to come and stay over on the pretext of helping her in distress, and curse yourself every single day after thinking when the hell will she leave.

(** Sport a 440 watt smile on the webcam the next day, to make your husband feel better )

Bhage re mann kahin...

I feel happy and light today...why???...I donno.
I just feel like it.
May be because I managed to catch up with a old friend last night.
May be because I see things moving now...moving for good.
May be because Db will be back in a couple of weeks now...he wont be here on his birthday but will make it for mine.
May be because I feel I have lost some weight, an old trouser fit me today.
May be because I have finally succeeded in keeping away my blog from my teemies. **Victory Grin**
May be because I have resolved all the bugs assigned to me today.
May be because I finally managed my Sizzlers.
May be because I am listening to this lovely song after a long time...and it made my day.
Bhage re mann kahin...aage re mann chala...jaane kidhar jaanu naa.

As this old friend of mine said last night...
' You and tensions, come'on you are the koolest girl I have ever met!!! I can't believe you are telling me you have problems.'

I do babes...I do. Too many to handle. Each time I think I have reached the end of the rope, I am pushed one more time.
But I am happy happy today and it actually makes me feel KOOL like you mentioned.

How I wish it rains today !!!

Hangover

I am too sleepy today, could be the wine that I had last night.

And that was some experience.
I met Db's friends SSS and M around 10 in the morning. We started making plans for the day, the scope being from watching a movie to visiting the nearest pub for a glass of wine. But Db vetoed the idea of getting drunk since he didn't want me to drive in that case.
Finally we decided to go out for lunch, then go for the evening sow for Iron Man 2...and eventually we take a call on what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening.
So we started around eleven and went to Garuda Mall. Had lunch, and then killed time doing window shopping till 3. By the time we went for the movie, we were dog tired.
Now, despite of the fact that the movie was horrible, terrible and head ache inducing, what added to make the experience worse was, due to some technical fault they delayed the show by some 15 minutes while we were already sitting in the theater. Since I was too tired and the AC was heaven, I dozed off. And even 15 minutes after the movie started, I couldn't bring myself to keep my eyes open. And when finally I managed to open my eyes, the movie wanted me to close them again.
Well, we had dinner at Indijoe's in MG Road (Sizzler finally!!!). But I really wanted to have a glass of wine but I had to drive back, so it wasn't really a good idea. So I decided to buy a bottle of red wine on my way back home.
But by the time I reached Kormangala, it was already 9.45. It was already late, but there was quite some crowd on the road, so I decided to grab my wine from Spencers after all.

I got the wine and put it in the freezer to chill. Around 11 in the night, I pulled it out to have a glass of it. Okay, looks like it has a cork, but I think I have a cork screw at home. I try to use the corkscrew to pull the cork out, but the screw wouldn't penetrate the cork at all. I pull out Db's tool box, I try each tool to pull the cork out, but no help. I could see the hole created inside the cork, which had the other end of the cork, but I wasn't able to pull it out. Already 12 by then
Now, the only option I had was to query google devta. But he didn't help too. 12.30 now.
I was getting desperate, I checked my Google talk list to see who is online and could probably help, but no body seemed helpful.
Finally I tried to figure the cork screw closely. Its a pretty complicated one, but finally I managed to crack it and to pop the cork out. It was 1 PM by the time the wine was available to drink. Firstly it had turned warm by then, and I had no patience to pu it in the fridge and wait for it to chill. Secondly, as soon as I poured a glass for me, I could see the remains of the cork in the wine, which had come off and dropped into the bottle when I was experimenting with Db's tool box.
I used the filter which is meant to filter tea, to filter the cork remains out of the wine. (Jai ho Indian Jugaad!!!)

And finally I managed to have a glass of wine with some ice cubes. I struggled a lot for the sips till almost middle of the night, and with that effort, I am happy I still have the hangover.

Bachaoooo!!!!

Yes, I always wanted more readers on my blog, but never ever wanted to share it with my team at office.
I dont wanna change the title of my blog since I love it, nor do I want to hide it.
Hmm...Kya karron????

Gotta think of a new title fast, before people at office manage to catch up here.

Confused

My team had a plan to order in some food to office and then sit for a team lunch together in the cafeteria.
My manager wants me to take the responsibilty to order in the food and make sure it reaches on time. As the BA in my team put it across to me 'He believed you were the only one who would make sure it comes on time'.

Now there are two implications, the good one and the bad one.

The good one is, he belives I am a responsible person, and he can bank on me.
The bad one is, he thinks I am the most wella person in the team, so at least he'd give me something to work on...or, going by my size, he believes I would take food seriously and that would give me the push to make sure treat happens on time.

Aiyo!!! which one is the case???

The journey...

Last saturday at the wonderla, one of my collegues mentioned that he believed girls fights is far more serious than the guys fight. Well I do agree to that, the intensity of fight for girls might be a multiple degrees less than that of men nor do most of us indulge in the maa-behen walli galian, but while the guys can be friends again the next day, women can never do that. The remnants of the fight always remains in their memory. It takes a lot of time to heal up and they might or might not be friends ever again.

I have a guest at home since last friday...this is the a girl from my engineering college, who was from another hostel. But strangely she is the same girl who apparently hated me then. She would never let go of a chance to put me down, she had snapped on me on several occasions for no reason. Most of my friends also hated her since she had as reputation of taking panga with me. I maintained a safe distance from her since I am quite incapable of getting into a word fights with people.
Hate is a very strong word, but I think I was almost there. I almost hated her too.

We were different in more ways than one. She was the topper of our branch and knew only one thing to do...study and study harder. And I was a free spirit, I had lot of friends, I took part active participation in the fest each year and also in intercollege dance competitions and mostly won them too...while I also managed to score a percentage which was only 3-4% less than her. I believe she hated me because she actually wanted to be me but couldn't, since she couldn't get her books outta her head.
But at the end of the final year, she had a job and I didn't.
While I was terribly frustrated, she surprised me by coming to me, and for the first time in last 4 years she was kind to me...for reasons I couldn't fathom excatly the same way I couldn't understand her hatred for me. She encouraged me and said I would certainly land up a better job than others, since she believed I deserved it.
"Are you alright !!!" is all I could say then.
She smiled and left.
I smiled at her too...and that's the last memory I have of her.

I met her a few months back in ITPL. Being grown ups and professionals now, we spoke gracefully and also exchanged numbers. Last week she called me, she was going through some crisis and wanted a temporary accomodation for a couple of weeks. She asked me and I readily agreed since I was also put up alone...and here we are staying under the same roof since last 3 days.
Last evening we went for a short shopping, halted at the coffee day for a hot cup, went for a late night drive and muched on a road side chicken roll...later I clicked a few matrimony pics of her and we spent the rest of the evening trying to make necessary corrections and highlighting the pics on picasa. We shared a lot of experiences, cooked and laughed together.
I wonder if she is the same girl who I thought hated me so much, the same girl I wouldn't look eye to eye.

Lastly, last night she mentioned.
'I wasted 4 years of college only studying yaa'r. The marks don't really matter, nor do we need what you studied during engineering anywhere in the kind of job that we do. I wish I'd have enjoyed a bit of my life at college. I must say, you made the most of your time at college'
Me : Sigh !!!...' No, I hope I had studied a little more !!!'
And we laughed over it.

Its strange how women behave, oh-so-unpredictable, oh-so-complicated. May be this how God made women, we probably at times don't even understand ourselves.