Thursday, December 29, 2011

A sense of freedom -- Bus Vs Scooter

For the past around one month, I have been pushed into a sort-of-cruel act (???) of going in a public bus. Anybody who is a regular traveller in a bus would definitely agree with me. All the pushing, a few angry moments with the driver and the conductor, watchful eyes on who boards and descends the bus, an ultimate search and wait to get a seat, and the list goes on...All this is accompanied with the bus travel...But, when you get a seat and get to hear songs on your headphones, or read your favourite novel, then the bus travel is one to be really cherished. The human mind is very partial, right?

Ok, let me come to the point...I got a chance to come to my workplace in my dad's two-wheeler today..And whoa!! what a relief...Took me just around half hour (yes, half hour in a bus and half hour in a scooter differ ocean levels)...More than the time and more than the traffic issues, the sense of independence and freedom that you get when you come by your own means is amazing...Its as if raising up your collar and saying, "Wow...I did it"...Though there is no big achievement in coming in a two-wheeler, still, as I said before, one who has been doing bus travelling will definitely appreciate this point-to-point travel done by their own means.

And I really wish to have more of these independent moments in the future, when I can avoid the fatigue and a sense of ooooph's of coming by a bus...

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Ribbon cut of my Project 365

After an year of waiting, finally during the end of December 2011, I decided I will try out the Photo Project 365. I was quick enough to create an account and my hands were restless to do something on the "Upload" option in the website...But then, wait, another week to go, and I decided I will start when 2012 dawns. As a prelude, I googled for tips on project 365s, photography tips and others' Project 365s. Then I found the best tip of all..."If you are not able to do a Project 365, do a Project 52"...Yes, a-photo-a-week instead of a-photo-a-day. Of course, that has to be possible. Will I not get atleast one shot worth of photography per week? So, putting on my pessimistic hat (yes, I have to be optimistic, I know...But, quite difficult to control our mind sometimes), I thought that I will continue Project 52 if my Project 365 goes to a toss. But I am quite optimistic and energetic in starting this project...And just make sure that I open up my eyeballs in a creative and a watchful way to make this project of mine a success...Let me hope that my thumbnail section in the Project 365 site is filled with some good pictures, which I can look upto in the future to have a glimpse of my past days.........
And this is my project here:
http://365project.org/reks/365

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas bells are ringing

A certain bell rings in your ears on the mention of the name Christmas.

And well, ya, a lot of bells do rang me in my ears this year (or probably, I let my ears hear them this year)

A beautiful, thin, tall Christmas tree in-the-making in the Forum Mall at Bengaluru...

Shades of white and red in many places that my eyes caught sight...

My kid's white-and-red Santa cap, that looks good not only on Santa, but even more beautiful on my kid (yes, I know, mothers feel their kids are the most beautiful ;-))...

A mailer from our Fun group at our company, saying that we need to come in red and/or white attire on 23rd which happens to be last working day before Christmas...

"Secret Santa" game organized by one of my friends at office, and people starting to get excited at the prospects of getting some good gifts through the game...

And one guy from office asking, "What is the fun in this game"?...Which makes us say, "Come on...Its Christmas, and you are asking what the fun is"...

A little disappointment wavering among every office-goer that Christmas is going to be on a Sunday and they don't get a holiday on a weekday...

Christmas-related activities for kids in Apple-of-my-i baby store...

And that's what Christmas is all about -- Fun, frolic and Santity-clausy feelings :-)

Merry Christmas everyone, and a happy 2012 !!!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The Honeymoon period

Well, the marital honeymoon is four-and-half years old for me. So, that is not what I am talking about. This is about the honeymoon period in a company after you take up your new job there. Its just one day less than a month that I joined my new organisation. Everything is new - starting from your work, your cubicle-mates, company policies, your manager, everything, just like your spouse after an arranged marriage.

I am realising this honeymoon period more than my previous places of work. And there are newcomers around me to keep reminding me about their company-honeymoon period. This is the major area of discussion during all the munch breaks. I should say I am in my partial honeymoon period here, because I got some work assigned. My friends are in a total honeymoon, just like a total eclipse covering off the moon or the sun -- except that the enjoyable eclipse here is that they get full cover from their future to-be-work :-)

Nevertheless, this period is going on good, browsing the Intranet sites, reading policy after policy, keeping up-to-date (or atleast try to) on current affairs by browsing all news sites, (No facebooking/orkutting, mind you, all those are banned, even mail sites) etc. etc.

Everyone, including me, are waiting for the transition phase where we actually work to give respect to our bulk bank accounts that smile during the end of the month. At that time, I am sure, we all will have nostalgic feelings regarding our ex-honeymoon period...Till then, we will enjoy this :-)

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Navarathri Golu 2011

Wow...Today is the 8th day of 2011's Navarathri and all the dolls there in our living room, in a couple of days, are going to go back to sleep for another 1 year.
Navarathri, I felt, brings about a sense of energy flowing in you and your surroundings. May be it might be because of the ritual you follow every morning - do the pooja before having your breakfast and other daily Navarathri special rituals - or it might be because of those miniature people sitting in the Golu steps, constantly seeing you, or might be because of  the people coming in to your house to get Thamboolam and say, "Wow, your golu is very nice", this and that...Or, it might be because of the constant watch you have on the kids of your house and those of the relatives so that they don't disturb the main Golu :-)...Or, might be because of the regularity of making either "sundal" or a dessert for "Prasaadam"...Or, personally for me, it might have been because of making my kid ready every morning by making her wear new dresses, paavadais and matching jewels.


The exact reason might be any one of the above, or out of the above, or a combination of both. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this year's Golu and I am looking forward to the next one. May be, it might turn out to be a better one than this year's...Let us always hope for the best (Usual saying by everyone, but unusually very much true)


Here are some snaps of our Golu this year...






 The above park is actually a mode of distraction for the kids (there are a total of 4 kids in our apartment, including my daughter -- all of them of age lesser than 2.5 years) so that they play with the animals, the grass and other items in the park and do not touch the main idols...
Idea Courtesy: My Sis-In-law... And indeed, this idea worked superb. 95% of the time, the kids were contended with this park, and the remaining 5%, we were able to manage and there were no casualties for the main idols  :-)



Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The Friday Special

Living in the UAE, its not a rare thing to see people doing Namaaz even in the scorching sun. And there comes Friday afternoon...Everyone is out near the nearest mosque with their prayer mats and filling themselves with the rays of the Sun and the Almighty... A nice sight of devotion added with the colorful array of the prayer mats :-)


The people in the above photo are actually sitting on the road in front of the mosque (To be more precise, its near the parking lot but where there is a lot of vehicle movement)


And above is only a part of the swarm of people leaving the mosque after the Namaaz...

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Whole Wheat Pizza

After a long search for the exact Pizza recipe which turns out to be really good, I got one from here: http://www.rakskitchen.net/2010/03/home-made-pizza.html

The pizza made was really good. But, there was a constant guilt factor that kept pestering me that it was full of all-purpose flour which is notorious for its not-so-good-for-health status. So, there I was, hitting the "Enter" key on Google Search for a whole wheat based pizza, but could not get my hands on such a good thing. (Or rather, I wanted to try out something on my own).

Then, I thought I will modify the recipe from the above given link, so that it was 2 parts whole wheat flour and 1 part all purpose flour. And, there I was in the kitchen, making the healthier pizza.

To tell you the truth, it was not entirely like the pizza made from all-purpose flour. The wheat flavour was apparent, but nevertheless, it was good and more than the taste, it was 60% "I am eating healthy" feeling :-) It made our stomachs a bit heavy also, and we had to reduce our dinner intake that day by almost 75% (I did the pizza at around 6 pm)

So, now I have a good recipe on my hands which I can readily share with others. And below is the final product...


Yes, you are right...Those are mango pieces on the right half of the pizza...I should never forget that my husband is a huge mango fan and he wanted those pieces...I was not so adventurous like him and the left half is me and my kid's half :-)


And this is the yeast-milk etc mixture made in the beginning of the process. This bowl has a base that is heart-shaped and the mixture took that shape. Giving you a chance to see not a bleeding heart, but an yellow heart :-)

Sunday, May 29, 2011

May29 Resolution

Who said there has to be only a new year or a birthday resolution? There can be a resolution on any day of the year and here is mine, on the 29th of May, Two thousand and eleven :-)


Reading many blogs, I feel like I should regularly update my blog as well. But, laziness kicks in and I, of course, succumb to it. Whom has laziness spared? (Or, is that an excuse I give myself?)


Anyway, coming to the point, a sudden spark of thought in my head told me that I should update my blog regularly (remember the resolution I talked about earlier?) and here I am writing it (hoping there would be someone in the cyber world to read it...Else, I will visit my blog myself and increase the "No. of times visited" count.. LOL)...


Anyway, coming to the point AGAIN, I have decided to update my blog with not only paragraphs, but also with photographs and recipegraphs...Interesting ones that happen in my day-to-day life...So, one day, sometime in, may be, the year 2020, when me and my daughter browse the web together, we can see at my blog and have a giggle together...No wonder she will pull my leg asking me, "What amma...You were so out of technology, writing blogs and all?"...May be, during her time, many more unumaginable things would happen...What say?


Ok.... Here you go...