Try these and let me Know!

Can you try these email signatures and let me know how they worked?
10) Thanks in advance for not screwing this up,
-J
9) Luke Warm Wishes,
-J
8) Highest Available Regards,
-J
7) 97% Lie Free,
-J
6) May or May not be yours,
-J
5) Not expecting a reply,
-J
4) Most non-sarcastically yours,
-J
3) Almost 100% Sincerely,
-J
2) Thank you for reading all the way to the bottom,
-J
1) Getting Lost,
-J

Business lunch etiquette put to best use!

During the initial training program in my first company, I was trained on business dinner etiquette. They tought me why its important to eat everything with a spoon and fork and to keep hands always clean. To be always ready to give a clean handshake to the client anytime during the dinner. They even tought us how to eat rotis with spoon n fork. All these years I never got an opportunity to put those skills to use. I would either first finish off with all handshakes and then start dinner or never bothered about handshakes once dinner was started. Having a peaceful n fulfilling dinner/lunch was always a priority.

Thats past now. Today other things have taken a priority. My little bundle makes sure she gets her attention while am having my lunch.

Day X: I was having my lunch and was almost midway when she started crying for feed. I had to let go of my lunch and feed her. And later didnt feel like going back to the half finished plate.

Day Y: Tried to outsmart my kiddo and fed her before I started my lunch, but this time she did the inevitable and started crying out loud to remove her dirty diaper and clean her. Again I had to leave my lunch unfinished.

Day Z: Similar to Day Y. But I managed to go back to finish my lunch. All days following this have a similar pattern. I either have to break in between or have my lunch in a hurry that she might do something now.

Time to put my business lunch etiquette skills to use. Keeping my hands clean for any sort of emergencies during the lunch :)

Gone are my glorious days of peaceful lunches and marathon sleep..

Am I wrong?

Why does it so happen that when you take a decision, you are so sure of it and when its time to execute it, you wonder why you had taken tht decision and you wish you could change it!!

Today is one such day for me, currently in a confused state of mind wondering if the decision I took 2 months back was correct.

3 Months back when Akshara was born, I was at my mom's place and for some reasons I decided I wanted to come to Bangalore as soon as possible. I was so confident of handling my baby alone and managing everything on my own seemed like an achievable task. I came to Bangalore a week back and my Mom came along to help me settle in. She left today and here I am all alone wondering how on earth did I think I could manage everything alone? I am missing my mom, my support system :( Just having her around was assurance enough that I can manage everything. Am sorry mom, for I messed up on the opportunity to stay with you for another 2 months.

Life these days is just revolving around my baby.. me enjoying my newly acquired motherhood status.. and even now my poppatness has got better of me!
Yesterday was one such day.. I was inspired by my sister who sings her baby to sleep. Her son wouldnt sleep unless she sings to him.. however bad it might be! So I thought I would just try that with my daughter and I picked up a song which I thought I can manage well.
I started singing and she first yawned and turned her head to the other side (which can be very well interpretted as.. Oh No Not again!!). I stopped and tried again later and this time as soon as I started singing to her.. she started crying!!! I got a very angry look from my mom for making the baby cry for no reason!!! Looks like I should look for more receptive audience for my songs!

Future Planning - Plan 1

"Cooking is an art and I can never master it" is a fact that I have accepted and till date I could not see any problems with that given fact. I can manage to gobble down anything I cook because I can appreciate the effort I put behind that dish .. however bad it tastes. And luckily for me my husband too doesn't complain much unless it's really pathetic.But now.. the future is what am worried about. When I was young (Ok.. am still young!!) ..So let me put it this way.. when I was small and school going, I never really liked what my mom cooked. I always thought my friends were lucky because their snack boxes always had yummy stuff and mine always had the boring Idly,dosa and upma type stuff which I hated. Luckily for me, I had a Bengali friend who used to love what my mom cooked and we used to exchange our snack boxes. I just used to love what her mom used to give .. potato mash sandwiches or ghee laden rotis with some yummy sabzee and a Sweet (remember Bengali!) or even better some paranthas. (and I really thought my friend was a fool to exchange all that for my idly's!!). And my mom was always wondering why I was getting plumpier by the day by just eating Idly's and upma and my friend's mom was wondering why she was not getting plumpier in spite of those paranthas and sweets! Now they know!
So coming to the future point, What if my daughter too hates my cooking? What if she is not as lucky as me to get a Bengali friend to exchange her tiffin? What if none of her friends like her tiffin?No..Things can't be that bad..yeh? So I think I have two options now.. one to master my cooking before she starts going to school ( 3 years sounds good enough time for that.. yeh?) Two... to find her a Bengali friend :D
The second option is the one.. anyday!

First month of Motherhood :)

This post is important to me. My memory is very unreliable and I don't want to sit 5 or 10 years down the line trying hard to recollect how exactly did I feel during the biggest transformation of my life.
A month ago, on Sept 5th 2009, 11:34 am IST my bundle of joy arrived in this world. I wanted a big band of music to welcome her, blow trumpets,play violins.. the drums.. but the little one had to settle for her own sweet and rhythmic cries as her welcome music.. well it definitely was music for me! Then my anxiety was at its peak, the sister's wouldn't show me my baby unless they had cleaned her up. Baby girl or baby boy? Baby girl, the sister said. How is she to look at? Beautiful, big eyes, small nose, button lips, long fingers.., sister told me. My agonising wait to see the baby and hold her ended after half and hour. All the past nine months I had been dreaming about this moment and imagining how I would feel.. Just like seeing the Taj Mahal for the first time, or would there be that instant mother baby bonding, would I have tears in my eyes? and when finally it happened, it was nothing like I had imagined. I was scared to hold her as I felt I was dirty enough and also because I felt she was too small for me to hold her safely and then I was trying hard to register that this was my baby and I am the mother :).

The month after that D Day just flew.. taking each day as it came, I went through a whale of emotions, mammoth learning, building patience, fighting mood swings, sharing happiness, recovering from pain, hating the weighing machine, flood of visitors, some wanted some unwanted, sleep deprived, exhausted, delighted, worried, tensed, confused, and every other emotion one can think of. I felt I was lost in time and space. I had no idea what date and which day of the week it was. Every day was another day with lot of activity packed in.

Recalling week wise:
The first week was incredibly tough. I wanted to cry at the end of each day. I felt tired, in extreme pain and exhaustion all the time, yet there was so much to do. The baby wouldn't sleep at night as she was sleeping all day and everybody would advice sleep when the baby sleeps.. easier said than done. There was constant inflow of guests, and just when I felt asleep , the baby would wake up for feed or a diaper change. There was advice pouring in from all directions. Filtering good advice from the useless ones was the most difficult part. I now feel guilty that there were a few times in that week, when I wanted to run away from everything, everyone.. rewind everything and go back to my old life. I lost interest in everything, everyone. I don't even want to now recollect the most horrible week of my life till date. Quite different from what I expected. The week my baby arrived, by my expectations I should've been the happiest, on cloud 9 but I was fighting depression, sulking most of the time when the breakthrough came on day 5 of the week. My baby's first smile!! I couldn't believe she did that! The most beautiful smile I ever saw and life started looking brighter!
Week 2 was lot lot better. I felt better health wise, and started slowly bouncing back to normal. By now I had gained some experience in feeding, cleaning and changing diapers and rocking the baby to sleep. The awkwardness while holding the baby slowly disappeared and I was lot more confident in holding her.
Week 3.. I got used to the late nights and looked forward to playing with the baby at 2:30 am :).
Week 4 was the best. My husband finally managed to get leave from work and we finally got together. All 3 of us. One happy family. The happiness I would cherish forever.
This one is for all the mother's.. God created Mothers coz he felt he couldn't be present everywhere! So True!

These are the best days of my life

Thanks to my baby and the good old traditions, I have been reliving my childhood again. Thanks to whoever made the rule that the first delivery has to happen at the mother's maternal home, I have got a chance to get pampered and get treated like a kid all over again.
A typical day in my childhood included extreme chase by my mom to make me drink milk, eat fruits, sleep and wake up on time, do some physical exercise, scoldings for watching tv for extra long hours and a lot more.. and am happy all this is happening again. It's almost like I've been living someone else's life for the last 6 years and have now come back to where I belong.
What inspired me to publish this is two events that happened today in particular.
During my school days, dad used to oil my hair everyday and comb it neatly before I left for school. I used to hate the ritual as I never wanted to go to school with such oiled hair. All my friends flaunted their wavy shampooed hair and mine was always oiled and sticky and never wavy no matter how I swayed my head while I walked. Gradually, sometime when I was in high school, dad finally gave up on me and asked me to maintain my hair the way I wanted. It was a day I celebrated by going to school with shampooed hair, beaming when my hair flew when the wind blew.. I felt like a star, "Sridevi" in particular :). Today when dad came back from office, he saw me sitting idly watching tv with my hair let open and he commented, your hair has become so dry.. go get some oil. I was a little suprised at his suggestion but then felt extremely happy to relive those olden days. Only difference being, today's oiling session made me happy beyond words. It feels good that am still the lil girl for my dad even when am just about to have a lil baby in another 2 days may be :).I had not even come out of this nostalgic moment that another one struck at me.
Dad always used to get some sweetmeat for me whenever he went to the market. Either a chocolate or a sweet from the milk parlour. Today mom sent him to the market to get some milk and he did that again.. he got me my small single pack of milk Kova sweet as my market bonus. I just loved his gesture!! And I just loved today.. yeah all the days in the past 2 months.
P.S:- Dear hubby, If you are reading this, Please dont feel left out, I am definitely missing you a lot :-*

Some tp..

There was a live standup comedy act show that happened at the community center here. As I didn't have anything better to do, I attended it. The actors doing the act were genuinely trying to be natural, trying to make everyone laugh and yes, there were people laughing. I too found myself having a good time there and now probably I can remember only one of the jokes to share. It goes like this.
Once a famous pshychotherapist opens a new clinic branch and has his clinic banner painted by a famous banner painter in the city. The doc is all set in his new clinic but finds that no patient is coming to him. He waits for days for the patients to come in but in vain. He then tries to find out why this is happening and finally finds this:
Ram's Clinic
Dr. RAM, M.B.B.S,
PSYCHO THE RAPIST

Poor Fair lady

Been a long long time since I've read nursery rhymes. Thanks to my nephew, I got a chance to listen to those rhymes again today. But one of the rhymes really took me by surprise.
London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,My fair Lady.
Build it up with iron bars,
iron bars, iron bars,
Build it up with iron bars,My fair Lady.

Are we asking the fair lady to build up the broken london bridge with iron bars? I never realised this my fair lady might be a civil engineer repairing the broken bridges! :)

p.s: Ignore the sheer stupidity of this post.. but the idle brain couldnt think of anything else to post!

Independence.. what it really means?

Happy Independence day people! Welcome to an independent year of swine flu, drought, price hikes, worse weather and dirty politics! or may be August 15th today just means a public holiday, with channels telecasting special movies.. some new patriotic music albums with rakhi sawant dancing to the tunes...
I read the worst political statement in the paper yesterday.. the Andhra CM taking swine flu as easy as he can commenting that people suffering from swine flu can apply amrutanjan or zinda talisman and stop worrying else go to Tirupati to pray to God! We elected him as CM for the next 5 years! :(
It irks to even think what the future holds for us.. for our next generation.. Everyday I wake up praying that it rains today and it would help eradicate the drought and help the farmers.. but then if it rains more it would give more ground for swine flu spread! So what do I really pray for?
I just hope someone waves the magic wand and everything becomes alright!

All the best Harika...

Today was my first day at my new job. I was very tensed to start with. All my previous jobs did put a huge responsibility on me but this ones different. If I fail in this job, I would fail someone else's trust on me.
From today, I have started tutoring Harika, a second grade student. She is from a family which is categorized as lower middle class financially but with a strong desire to do well in life and provide her good education. I wanted to contribute in some way.
From the day I have started my leave, I haven't been doing much. Literally nothing other than eating, sleeping and whiling away time playing with my nephew. But today was good. Satisfying. I always thought teaching a second grader is a cake walk. How tough can it be to teach them some hard english words like "grade","request" and "wait" and lessons like "Sheetal", "pussy and parrot"? I got my answer today!It's important to establish the connect first and then get the perspective of a second grader and see how tough it can be to learn a 6 letter word spelling. Patience is the key. That's my learning for the day. Harika has her english exam tomorrow and I hope she does well.. which will only mean I did well..

God's favorite child

These days am killing my time answering only 3 questions..
1) How are you doing.. moving around freely?
2) When is the expected due date?
3) Do you know yet if its a baby boy or girl?
There are some more questions depending on how I answer the above three.. If I answer the above questions in mono syllables, there are no more questions.. else there will be more.. like have you thought of names, which doctor are you consulting, what is the weight gain, how are the baby movements and on n on n on.One questions that has been a complete googly for me is this.. " Whats the baby saying..?" I really go dumb thinking what am I supposed to answer for that.. I cant tell them that the baby cant speak yet( too dumb!) neither can I tell them its none of their business.. its a private matter between me n the baby (too rude.. one more thing that I've learnt .. preggies are not supposed to be rude, not supposed to be impatient, not supposed to use bad words or think bad or feel deppressed)! Ok.. back to the question.. it sometimes invokes some serious doubts within me about my motherly instinct.. pushes me to think that may be other women do know what their baby is trying to convey from inside and Ive just not paid enough attention to see what mine is trying to say!
That's the questionnaire part.. then comes the worse part.. everyone has a piece of advice to share and a piece of their own experience to scare! I want to shout on top of my voice.. STOP! STOP! STOP!! Did I really ask you for an advice.. why are you giving me your piece of $h!T !! (again.. the rudeness rule applies here to stop me from doing that)
Now even worse part.. All my mom n dad's friends, relatives.. close and far(I must admit.. I still don't know how exactly we are related) keep coming home to see me.. literally! They come home to see me and they do just that.. Urghhh can somebody just tell them its not good manners to stare at someone!The only good thing about these visits is that they bring some nice sweets and fruits! I sometimes feel like a Goddess creating a life inside me and then everybody coming to see me and offering me sweets and fruits! :) But this Goddess feel good feeling doesn't last for long as the stares are followed by the above questions and then the advices.. and its just a vicious cycle( a very tough one to break)!
Today one of my aunt (I think my dad's second cousin) visited us and it was all fun while she was there. But she said something while leaving that left me fuming. She said that she is hoping I will deliver a baby boy and she would definitely visit me in the hospital if its a baby boy and if its a baby girl, she asked me not to bother to even call her, that she would liesurely pay a visit once am back from the hospital. I really wanted to say.. $%^& off!! My baby really doesn't need a visit from someone like you! But then who all will I say this to.. there are loads of them around me wishing that I deliver only a baby boy.. I don't know how that's going to make even a penny of a difference to their lives! Ive decided to stop bothering about what others say or do.. I have started looking at the humorous side of the whole thing.. some humour thats definitely worth sharing..1) Someone said, if I put tattoos(mehendi) on my palms, its going to be a baby girl. The tattoos going to change the already formed baby's genitel part is it? Really?2) Someone also said that if I have swollen feet, its going to be a baby girl. Excuse me? That's called Edema and 95% pregnant women have it!3) If I become dark and ugly during pregnancy, its going to be a baby boy. Boys dont like beautiful moms is it?4) Beat this.. my sister had a baby boy 2 years back and now my granny wants me to do everything that she did.. exactly same way so that even I will have a baby boy!! like.. sleeping in the morning after breakfast, eating some particular dish that my sis ate the most during her pregnancy.. and so on!! Granny... take a break and gimme one!!
Cmon people.. cant you see.. a girl child is God's favorite child, thats why he gives every girl child a power to create another life.. a power only next to God's power! No matter what guys do, they can never experience the sheer joy of the first baby kick that you feel inside you, never feel the overwhelming joy of the first glimpse of the baby, never feel the satisfaction of feeding the baby! God has really been unfair to guys.. he has not given them so much...

New phase of life..

You go to an amusement park which has this huge roller coaster ride, which you have to take to go out of the park. You see others going through it, screaming, throwing up, some laughing, some sitting all tensed through out but you have no choice but to take it.Thats pregnancy for you! A huge roller coaster ride.. 9 months of exhilarating joy, little tension, little pain, lot of fat,big belly, lots of food and yeah some throwing up too!There is no other joy compared to the first glimpse of the baby on the scan monitor, a 9 cm little one with tiny hands, legs and a heart that beats at 140bpm!
The baby bump that keeps growing assuring you that the lil one inside you is doing all fine. The first baby kick followed by more kicks which will always bring a smile to your face and make you look beautiful!
9 more weeks to go for me to get promoted to MOM! yayyyyyyyy

Painful transformation!

I think it was not very long ago when I used to say "Amma pakkinti aunty vacharu (Mom, neighbour aunty has come for you) " whenever Mom's friend's used to visit us.
Today when I tried out a new dish and thought that my experiment was a success, I wanted my friend who lives next door to also approve of my new experiment. Their calling bell was answered by my friend's 6 year old daughter. Before I could spot where my friend was, this lil one caled out for her mom. "Amma pakkinti aunty vacharu". It hit me so hard.. it was like all those sudden shock scenes in the movies.. everything coming to standstill, going black and white from colour, ocean waves crashing on to the shore, temple bells ringing vehemently.. and then I slowly came in to the present.. the reality!
There was absolutely nothing wrong in the lil one calling me aunty but may be I was not prepared for it or rather not expecting the same line that I used to say for someone else.. someone much more older :)
Now when am writing this post, I truly feel like an aunty.. I am doing everything that "Aunties" are supposed to do . Gossipping and talking for hours with friends was always there, but now the topics which we discuss have changed. Now its all about new dishes, TV serial stories, kids, home making, husbands, money, Maid servant.. .. movies .may be, TV Serials dfinitely! Exchanging dishes, lending maid servant, lending and borrowing veggies or last minute groceries, potluck lunches .. everything so so so auntyish!
I never realised when I successfully transformed in to this "aunty" phase of life from a girl who always discussed the new shade of nail polish, new restaurant down the lane, new movie that's yet to be released, hunks, other's boyfriends, shopping , fashion, new rage songs, Hrithik, Mihir virani and yeah much treasured pocket money!
But may be the best part it I loved and enjoyed my life thoroughly then and am loving it even now (Except for the aunty word) ! So how does it matter.. just till I get used to being called "Jyo Aunty" .

Beach Road delicacy

The other day when I was casually browsing through the grocery store racks (seems like my fave pass time option these days), I came across the puffed rice packet and good old beach road delicacy "Muree Mixture" flashed on my mind. Its been a long long time since I have been to beach road along with friends, whiling time away with muree mixture, cool breeze and simply sitting watching the waves come and go. Nothing can beat that!
I promptly picked that packet and also picked up other stuff that I could think of which goes in it .. groundnuts.. lemon, tomatoes, onions.. what else???
This time around I didn't google for the recipe but preferred to go by my memory.. tried to recollect what that old man had on his lil stall while he mixed that tangy tasty dish.
I mixed everything, sliced onions, diced tomatoes, squeezed lemon, pinch of salt, tossed chilly powder and added corriander bunch and puffed rice! It was tangy, tasty, yummy.. it was everything but it lacked something.. may be the sand from the beach :)

Disorganized organizer!

Organized, Planned, ordered, structured .. All seem such good traits to have in oneself but so tough to achieve! These have ben an illusion for me since my childhood how much ever hard I try. I still cant comprehend why was it so tough to follow the everyday timetable and neatly stack my schoolbag! I used to feel good when I saw other friends school bags, textbok all neatly stacked one after other, and then the long note books and then the short ones all with short names written on the sides so that its easy to pick the notebook they want instead of emptying all its contents and searching frantically for the one you want! Mine was a mess with all books in bag everyday and most of the times out of the class because i got every other book but the one on timetable that day.
Now am managing a home, no better at it though! My mom got her shock of her life when she visited us last time and it took her an entire 2 days to bring just the kitchen in order! Am awaiting her next visit already :)
Cloth shelves are another mystery! If one day I take the pain of stacking everything and put the related stuff together, somehow magically the next day it would be the bottom most pair that I would want to wear and once I pull that off everything else falls over me and I just somehow stuff the clothes back and close the doors ASAP! done! So now a days Ive stopped taking the pain of ordering the shelves (only mine.. my husband doesnt let me touch his shelves)
Handbags... can't live without them, neither with them!
Multi compartment handbag.. you will always find the thing you were searching for in the very last compartment!
Single compartment handbag.. no chance for organization and you will be always searching for everything! Last time I decided to give up on a single compartment handbag was when I had put a ripe banana in the bag and forgot about it till the banana mash was on every damn thing.. Mobile, ipod, wallet, comb(yuck)...
God bless me with talent to bring in more structure to my life, now that I will need it all the more!! Amen!

My idea of an ideal day of my life...

It has to be a friday and salary day when the bank account shows am so much more richer!
Wake up on my own after good night's sleep(Maid has somehow entered the house and finished all her work)
Bathroom scale shows 1 or 2 kgs lesser!!
Have a new dress to wear to office. Look slimmer and beautiful in it. No new grey hairs spotted.
Steaming hot white idly with peanut chutney and sambhar , peeled and cut mango pieces with chocolate milk ready on table.
Not much traffic on road and I reach office in 25 mins! (WOW!)
Not many work mails to be cleared. A big appreciation Mail from my manager and a reward bonus of 10K (more doesnt hurt) as shopping vouchers valid at any shop in Bangalore.
Medium load work and I somehow know how to do the assigned work(No blank stares at reqmnt doc)!!The code I write executes without any hitch in the first run! Easy Peasy, I finish my work before lunch.
I get a call from reception desk saying I have a courier. I go and see it's lunch sent by Mom :)
5 box stacked lunch box. I open the first box and find hot crispy Vada in it, second has mutton curry with cashews gravy, third has muddha pappu neyya avakay annam (Dal, ghee and mango pickle rice), fourth has umm.. ok white rice for the mutton curry, fifth has creamy ras malai, and another compartment in it has gulab jamuns.
After the nice yummy lunch, I go back to my desk and see some loads of gossip mails from all old friends. Then after an hour, Manager informs govt has declared half day holiday for some reason and all companies have to follow it. So I leave office , yes no traffic again, pick up my husband at his office (remember all companies got half day holiday), then we go to PVR and get 2 gold class tickets free in some lucky draw for a Chiru/Pawan Kalyan/ shah rukh's latest movie). We finally decide on Shah Rukh's movie and the movie would obviously be awssum as it would have Shah rukh in it, plus watching it in Lazboy recliner cushioned seats with pepsi and popcorn ahaa. heaven on earth!
Then after the movie, some shopping(yeah my reward bonus vouchers) and then dinner at Afghani restaurant which serves reshmi malai kababs, paneer tikki, yummy biryani and kubhani ka meetha with vanilla icecream and cherry topping :)
Go home (of course no traffic) and .. ok not home already.. no traffic, about to rain kind of romantic weather and a long drive on smooth roads with nice music.. walk by the moonlit lake side, cool breeze (seashore wouldve been better, but Bangalore is not on coast).
Finally time to go home(Bangalore has a night life deadline). and sleep on a freshly made bed with crisp white bedsheets, plush cushions, spring mattresses, ac on a 23 deg...
and then....
A calling bell ringing somewhere distant and I wake up and come tumbling down the stairs to find its the maid servant at 6:30 am on a Monday morning....... Ohh my dream shattered!!!!

Do you like being a girl?

I want all the girls out there to honestly answer if they are really happy being a girl! I dont want to sound outrageous or hurt anyone's sentiments.. just a simple question to be taken just that way!
Till date I've never really taken pride or enjoyed being a girl. I always felt life would've been so much more fun if I was a boy! Boys have these subtle natual advantages over girls.. the way they enjoy their time at beach, bike drives with frens, late nights and to put it in one word.. a much more independent secure life! With the natural disadvantages physically girls as I see can never be that independent and given the society we live in (yeah they say its changing.. but when?) they make it all the more difficult. There are this outrageous expectations that are forced on girls not to forget the restrictions too!
One of my friends father was looking for an alliance for her. They came across this guy's profile and like all details and decided to set up a family meet and the boy meet girl drama.
The whole thing went fairly smoothly and the guy's family left. My friends father asked her if she liked the guy and she said am ok with it, but am not sure they will come back. And as she expectd, the guy's family came back saying, the guy found the girl too fast and they would not go ahead with the proposal. Her dad was obviously not very happy and came back and asked her what she spoke with the guy that he felt she was fast. Then she told this.. "The guy had said that he drinks occassionally.. not vey often. only during office parties. And I said same with me.. "
It's just not about that particular guys family.. its with every other family.. they want a girl who is beautiful (read fair) , highly educated, earning well, rich by default, has no brothers, good family background, well mannered, soft spoken, homely, being a cook and a good home maker come by default and yeah mingle completely with guy's family.. what all bull shit! Another outrageous addition to this list.. should continue working even after having a baby!!
and a girl who has all these qualities should'nt mind even if the guy is dark, short, baldy, drinks/ smokes occassionally and god knows from which Goddamn college he got his degree certificate!
When will people actually practise the equality between boys and girls. Why does a guy's family suddenly get all horns on their heads by the time they start looking for a girl for him? Why dont they understand that marriage is a mutual understanding and guy needs girl as much as the girl needs the guy for support and companionship for life.
I think the guys and girls of this generation should try and bring in the much required attitude and change in the way of thinking of our previous generation. As long as we are ready to become the bakras and witness the melodrama happening around us.. God save this country!

Ammamma nerpina koora :)

Ok here comes the recipe of the Andhra traditional curry cooked the traditional way.
Prawn Tamarind leaves curry ( Royyalu chintha chiguru iguru)
Ingredients :
Prawns 500 gms( de-shelled and de-viened)
Fresh tamarind leaves - a bunch
onions- 2 medium (sliced big)
4 green chillies
salt and chilly powder to taste
lil tamarind pulp

Procedure:
Clean the prawns and marinate in salt and red chilly powder for 2 hours.
Cleaning the tamarind leaves has a technique, you have to dry them first and rub those tiny stems between palms so that you have just the leaves separated. Throw that lil stem away.

Fry the big sliced onions and greenchillies and keep aside.
Now fry the marinated prawn and keep aside.
Now take the leaves and put the 2 tsp tamarind pulp, lil water and lil salt and chilly powder and boil the leaves till they become soft and well boilt.
Now mix everything, fried onions, prawns and boiled leaves, add ample water and keep on low flame and close the lid. after 5 minutes, add salt and chilly powder to taste and let the curry cook on low flame. Then after 10 minutes, the curry starts giving a delicious aroma.. your mouth starts dripping .. open the lid and stir gently wihtout hurting the prawns and let the remaining water evaporate.
Your dish is ready to gorge on!!! Go on.. Be a tiger!

Ammamma Day

Till date, I've never had anybody standing by me and formally teaching me how to cook step by step. I never bothered to venture in to the kitchen till the time I was with mom and even she didnt bother to drag and drop me there. And once I was on my own, it was always those last minute instructions on phone by mom, "do this.. then do that. ohh you've already done something else.. then god help your curry Bye"! Most of the recipe sharing conversations end that way!
All thanks to google, now a days if someone asks me if I know how to cook a particular dish xxx, I always say Yes even if I've no idea how to even start with it.
But today's experience was different and something I enjoyed thoroughly. May be the first time I enjoyed cooking and also the end result. You may ask What made the difference? and the answer would be "Ammamma" .. umm actually ammamma in law.. but how does it matter?
She tought me how to cook the traditional dish, prawns with fresh green tamarind leaves curry. (Recipe to be posted separately). Stood by me and explained the significance of following a procedure in cooking anything. I never gave much importance to the order of putting the ingredients but today I understood how it really really matters! She also made me thoroughly enjoy the whole process by telling old stories of her learning to cook days.
Being a mom and giving unconditional love to their children is a thing in itself but grannies are completly on a different level. They are cute, adorable, loving, and always huggable!
It's my ammamma day today!!

Learnings for life.

Some incidents of past stay with you forever. Learnings for life.
Just happened to recollect one of them and thought it was worth to pen it.
20 years back, my dad's job required him to do a lot of touring all across India. And everytime he came back from a trip, it was fun time for us, as he would definitely get some goodies for us, even if they were those free chocs given on the flight.
This particular trip of his was to Delhi which was initially scheduled for 2 weeks. We gave him a small shopping list before he left and I had asked for a digital dislay "Disco watch". I was eagerly waiting for him to come back with my watch , dreaming day and night about it. And the trip kept getting prolonged to a month and a half. Delhi to chandigarh to Jaipur to God knows where else he travelled back then in that one trip. He came back home after a 36 hr long tiring train journey. I was not at home when he arrived and later when I came back from play, mom announced Dad is back and he is taking rest. I went running to him , woke him up and he was ready to hug me, when the most insensitive me ignored his stretched hands and just asked "Dad, where's my watch? "!!! He was disappointed for sure, but he did his best to conceal it. He unpacked and gave me my watch and other goodies he got for me. I was too happy about the new stuff and went to show them off to my friends. Later, mom called me aside and asked me "Did you ask dad how his trip was? Did you tell him how much you missed him in the past month and a half and did you just sit and talk to him? He was waiting to meet you and all you asked for was the watch". It then hit me that dad was waiting to meet me and I just completely ignored him. I had never felt more guilty. I then went to dad , asked him how his trip was, told him about my school unit tests but no matter what I did, I dont know if it healed his hurt, it never healed mine. It was such a big learning for life, that till date am still making up for it. I make sure that no matter how anxious I am about the gift am going to receive from anyone, the people are far more important, and the precious moments need to be treasured and not the gifts!

But the goodies never actually hurt much ;-)

Go Away!

Did you ever feel disconnected from the world around you? Wanted to be left alone with your thoughts but still felt lonely? Confused state of mind.
One of the rare phases of life am going through for no solid reason. May be just a mood swing lingering around longer. Whatever it is, it is not helping me at all. Lot of frustration, lot of unknowns, lot of questions with no answers. It's just taking too much to have a clear thought process and convince myself that what am thinking or doing is the right thing.
My own thoughts are taking me by surprise, in retrospection. Something that I thought for someone, did to someone making me feel extremely guilty now. So bad that am not even able to get myself admit it.
Any easy way of getting rid of guilt and cheer up?

Cought Behind!

Just how tough can it be to behave like a thorough professinal, work-a-holic in office atleast during the performance review times? I just somehow end up making the most easy tasks seem like next to impossible.
The other day at office, I was getting extremely bored going through a mandatoy training audio. Please note that our managers have been kind enough not to provide us with internet, so that at work, its supposed to be only work. But we always find our ways to keep us entertained. My friend and me have this new found interest.. Pictionary! Brings the best creative talents out of people who play! So with the training audio on, my friend and me started playing pictionary and she drew some animal and asked me to guess what it was! I started guessing it as a Rat, Lizard, crocodile with a bouncy tail, dog, donkey and .. Horse! A voice said from behind! We turned back in horror to find who it was! We were so engrossed in guessing and giggling that we never realised when our big boss came and stood right behind us watching all our buffoonery!
We gave him back a sheepish grin, trying to hide our drawing pad but it was just too too late! He just remarked "Looks like there is not much work to keep you guys busy...Haffun" and till date I have not returned home before 8 PM :(

P.S: His guess was right by the way.. She wanted to depict Trojan Horse!

Jo and hunger wait for none!

Just how many times does your boss think you are worthy of solving his work related problems? Last wednesday, I dont know why, My boss called me to fix some problem he was facing in setting up his workspace. This time of the year esp when the performance reviews are on full heat, ths opportunity seemed golden! I had to by hook or crook solve his problem..(Whatever made him think I coudl!) !
Unfortunately it was my evening snacking time when he called me. It wouldve been mighty stupid to tell him "Wait.. let me first save myself from hunger death then I will look in to your issues!".Snacks can wait for the boss!
I went to his cubicle and was seriously trouble shooting the issue and then just after ten minutes, my first hunger warning bell vroom. I ignored it and continued doing what I was supposed to do. Then after ten more minutes the warning bell was a little stronger, and I fidgeted a little uncomfortably in my chair. and then... the inevitable.. a grumbling sound came out loud and clear!! I was hoping against hope that only I could hear it and not my boss. As usual, there was neve a saving grace for me.. Boss confirmed my doubts by saying this " Do you want to take a break.. we can look in to this later!!" Ughhhhhhhhhhhh!! Thanks so much for your kindnes boss!!! Jo's hunger waits for none.. not even her boss!

Money hai tho dosa hai!

Long weekend just went by.. literally just went by without we doing much. Saturday evening, we decided it was just too much to be at home from thursday night and it was time we went out and saw what world was doing over the weekend. We went to a near by mall, and landed up at my husbands favorite book store. He got instantly lost in his science fiction and physics books and I was on my own. Books and me dont really go well together so I started watching people around me, all engrossed in some book or the other and most of them with glasses! Not a very eyeful watch... My eyes wanted more!! :) And then I thought I was hungry( May be it was just boredom, but eveything ends up in me feeling hungry). I went to my husband and asked if he was, and got a very "How can you be hungry already.. we just had lunch" kind of cheap look from him! May be it was also added with " you always try to pull me out of this store " look also. So I decided it was better to be nice to him, take money from him and go to the eat out place all alone. I asked him money and he was about to generously give me a hundred ruppee note when my dumb mind started working and I said " They might not have change, gimme just 30 bucks, I just want to eat a frankie". (Frankie in our ofc is sold for just 20, and I thought I was safe by taking those ten bucks extra.) Hubby happily obliged and gave me just that, three ten buck notes.
I was dreaming about the frankie and went la la la to the eatout place to find to my utter disappointment that no frankie was less than 40 bucks!!! My inner self stopped my from going back to my hubby to ask for extra money. I wanted to act smart and check out in the line up of food stalls. There should be something that I can get for 30 bucks!! I went from one stall to other, my full concentration on the price side of each one's menu. To my sheer disappointment, all I could find for 30 bucks was Extra cheese and curd :( . I went to the last and final stall with least hope and my eyes sparkled on seeing this SET DOSA ............................ 30/-
wow! This was something, I could finally get something for 30 afterall! My happines really knew no bounds. I went to the bill counter and ordered confidently, One Set dosa pls and gave him the exact change, 30 rs. I really wish it ended there but there was one more twist in tale, that guy said 33/- madam including Tax. #$%$#%$^%$^$%&^%&%$#%#$%

I had no choice but to call my husband and tell him what happened. And then he came with that triumphant look( urhggggg) and that final kill dialogue " I was giving you 100 bucks".

Why on earth did I think that on a saturday evening, Mall's eatout place wouldnt have change for just 100 and why on earth would someone gimme a frankie for 30 bucks!!!

Tinnama.. Padukunnama.. tellarindha

I think Ive got my answer and a very apprioriate one to my previous post! Now am sitting here wondering what I was really cribbing about last time! I was cribbin that I didnt have time for anything and life was going too fast. Now I realise that it was so good that life was going on like that.
Last week there was a medical (Not mental) problem with me and doc advised me to take 1 week off and take some proper rest at home. I was elated thinking about the unplanned vacation that fell in to my lap. I thought it would be so much fun to sleep till late and do whatever I wanted to all day. I was so wrong! so so so wrong! I sit all day at home doing absolutely nothin!! I mean there is nothing to do actually. Watch Tv.. browse thru the net.. all fine but for how long? Not all day!! I feel like life has come to a standstill and am just wasting it doing nothing. I cant wait to get back to my routine!!
I mean there are lot of things to do like all the pending house repair works, carpenter work and the boring chores like dusting, tidying the house etc etc! But I dont want to do them! Yuck! And I get so irritated when they say.. anyway you are at home all day.. do this do that complete that ! Uhhhhhhhhh! I salute all the successful homemakers but fr me when am at home all day.. Am Lazyness personified.. lethargy at its best (my mom gave me a new title .. "Salugu")!
Oh God.. Please save me from myself.. When will I actually get to know what I really want! And looks like you grant all my typically incorrect wishes!! I was cribbing when I was busy, I am cribbing now also when I have the all the time in the world but doing nothing ( reading books, sleeping, watching tv not counted) .. so what Do I really want??

What's your life like?

May be I have done this blah blahing before but today I had to write this down again.
My life these days has settled in to a routine which sounds and looks ok but is very boring in detail. To summarize my any day, I spend 12 hours out of home( 10 hrs office +2 hours travel time 7:30 am to 7:30 pm) , 9 hours of sleep (9:30 pm to 6:30 am .. Something I cannot sacrifice or reduce for whatever the reasons be) and 1 hr of cooking(7:30 pm to 8:30 pm) 1 hr of tv(8:30 pm to 9:30 pm) . So except for the calender date there wouldnt be any difference between yesterday and today. But there are some days , for someone else's last minute planning, my routine goes for a toss. And am like so obsessed with my routine that the very minute I see a possibility of someone disturbing my routine , I get frustrated and today was one such days. A conf call was scheduled from 6:30 to 8 pm at office and I was supposed to attend it. It meant, I would reach home at 9:30 and lose out on 2 precious home hours. I just made some lame excuse and skipped it. But then there is this guilt also that I shouldnt have done that, I shouldve attended that meeting, it was important! I think its every working woman's dillemma.. neither get a 100% job satisfaction nor the 100% home maker satisfaction.
But to put it in the other angle, I have started hating this routine also. I mean, this is not what I want to do in my life. Do I sound confused? At this point I really am.. I can't quit the job because I got used to it and have also got used to the financial independence and dependence on the good sum that gets deposited every month in my account. Its just too addictive! But its not really the case that am really happy spending 12 hours of my day for this leaving everything else haphazard. It's only when we have those friends for lunch or dinner during weekends I realise how much the home needs my attention and time. When I see other women who are happy home makers, I feel jealous, I also want to quit my job, but when I really think of it, am not sure if I can be happy sitting at home all day doing just that!!
May be its really time I seriously think of the other options I can be happy with... do something which gives me satisfaction and a control over my life and my time.

-A confused frustrated soul

What would you wish for?

I think God(If you believe in God) has this special way of designing peoples lives. Just when a person thinks he is the happiest person in this world, everything in his life is under his control, and even if someone grants him a wish, there would be nothing more he could ask for God plays his move and shows people, there can never be a day when everything can be under control :) .
This is the pattern I observed with so many people so many times that someone or the other always keeps cribbing about some problem in life, helpless, frustrated and very little under their control. I think along with change, worry is also a Constant.
In my case, I have this constant worry of not being able to eat what I want to eat in the fear that it immediately shows. A situation where my fave food is right in front of my eyes, I have the money to buy it, I dont have to ask anybody's permission to have it, but still something stops me. and that is my worry of becoming more fat. So anyday if someone grants me a wish for lifetime, I would say I should be able to eat anything in any quantity but still shouldnt become fat :) . There is one more angle to this situation, I can just care a damn and go ahead and have what I want and be so happy. But the underlying truth is that I hate when people comment on me saying I have put on weight! I just so so so HATE it! so to avoid that, I have t avoid eating and again the vicious cycle! This is my constant worry for my entire life, any day any time.
And I know I am not the only one having this problem, there are many more. So I think I should wish for a more idealistic world where people stop commenting on someone's physical appearance and accept people by their chaacter, what they actually are.
And the irony of the situation is, there are people who are thin and hate being thin and want to become fat but cannot become fat no matter how much they eat, fat people who hate being fat and want to become thin but that doesnt happen no matter what they do and there are few exceptions who are happy with what they are.
Apart from that, looking at some other issues, People who are working are either not happy with the kind of work they have or their bosses or their feedbacks and have this constant thought of "Heck.. what the hell am I doing here" and there are thos epeople who are struggling for a job and are ready to take up any damn job. Its a different thing that once they join a job, may be they would also start facing usual job problems.
There are people in my office who do not want to work on Onsite assignments due to some personal reasons and they are forced to go and they go work there cribbing all the time, and there are so many other people who are like waiting for that one opportunity to go Onsite but it never comes to them when they want it.
People who have money want more money, people who own houses want to own more houses, and the list goes on.
I think this is all a pert of God's game plan and nothing else. Never let anybody be too happy with themselves.
Share your thoughts...

poppat e mazza

Today I realised it so much fun when others around you become poppat.
I was getting extremely bored in office today, with not much work to do. Suddenly I heard some wierd blah blah blah from the CPU in the next cubicle. I turned back and saw that the guy was having his headphones put on but still the sound was loud enough for me to hear. I was just about to ping him and ask, why he was hearing to the recording with such a loud volume that even I was able to hear it clearly. Then tish tish tish.. I turned back again and saw what I saw and I was so thrilled! So many others like me. He didnt plug in the headphones to the CPU and the recording was playing out of CPU speakers. and he was actually thinking he was listening to the recording from his headphones! wah wah wah! Shabaash mere bhai.
I told him tat he had not plugged on the headphones and sound was coming from CPU, I could exactly feel what he mustve felt!! experience helps sometimes ;-)

Keep Wondering...

These days.. Ive gotten this new bug of guessing if the lady I saw was fat or was she pregnant. And yes as usual most of the times my guesses have always turned out to be wrong.
I know that as soon as I open my mouth, I land myself in trouble, but still cant help it.
Last week at the grocery store, I saw my neighbour( afte a long time) and my thought process began.. Was she preggy.. or just fat. I decided on the first option and just because I cannot keep my mouth shut and had to talk to her , I said this " Hey how are you.. Congratulations! Which month??" She gave me a pretty confused look and then to hit me on my head, she said this.. "Oh am fine.. and now I realised I am more healthier than ever that people think am carrying".
Why.. why cant I keep my mouth shut!!! God.. Gimme some control on myself!