Awesome threesome!

Super excited today. My sister and her family visiting us today. Just can't wait to see our 2 little ones, Arush and Ishaan and so looking forward to the chaos the threesome(A,I,A) are going to create. I don't care if they break a thing or two.

Arush has always been special for me, he was the first baby I held and felt the joy. First baby whose poop and peep didn't seem all that bad afterall :) . Our entire family went crazy with his arrival. Whatever he did was special! Inspite of all of us being sleep deprived zombies, we revelled in all his baby activities.

After Akshara's arrival, the bonding got even stronger. Their cousin chemistry is plain awesome. They fight, jump, dance, play together and thats a sight to see!

Ishaan, the latest naughty arrival in to the family , is a joy. Everything he does, looks cute. The way he walks, they way he climbs, the way he breaks things!

Looking forward to the picnic (read Chaos) the 3 kids are going to create in the next 1 week!

Race 4 continues

Am on a high! Basking in my little moment of glory I had only dreamt of. I cleared the certification exam with a modest score of 83%, one more question and a 90 would've sounded so much more better! But nonetheless, I am happy!

With one hurdle crossed, there are so many more to be handled. Akshara's caretaker cum domestic help has given us a big shock. Some reality checks and she failed us big time. Time to look for alternatives , alternatives that neither I am sure of, nor is Akshara.

With Akshara's bday coming up and lots of people in the family visiting us, its going to be one hectic time managing work schedule and the guests and also planning for the party. The house is in a mess and needs big time cleanup.

Mission Cleaning up begins 3:00 PM today sharp.

Race - 4

Starring - Akshara, N and Me
(Un)Supporting cast - Ratna, Boss, Cabbie, etc etc

Last year, I was wishing that life had become too routine and if only it was a little more eventful. Someone up there heard me hard and decided to give what I wished for and more! Am sure he is having fun now watching me huff n puff, trying to catch up with everything that's happening around.

Since January, I have been living life per day basis, each day throwing up a new challenge. I take on the challenge and head in one direction and before I make any progress, the basic premise for my direction changes and I find myself totally back to square one.

I am badly waiting for my exam to get over tomorrow, I've had enough! Seriously. Too many hurdles for just preparing and giving the exam.

I will complete this story tomorrow with full details. Tension surmounting.

August 26, 5:30 PM IST.

Ramzan special - Chicken keema Kabab

Its awesome to have muslim friends. They are friendly , generous and super talented. Thanks to my daughter, her bestie Manha's mom is my friend too. This being the Ramzan month, Akki and me qualified as poor and needy who should be given the iftaari(I think thats the word, not sure) , the food they eat to break the day long fast. Its a feast. Entire table spread of specialities, day after day.
All this left my N sulking that he is not getting to eat any of those. So in order to satisfy his foodie soul, I picked up a recipe from Shabanaji and did it for him. Big hit in the house and hence this share. Try it and you will not regret.
All you need:
1) Chicken mince 250 grms
2) 3 bread slices- sids cut
3) 1 large /2 medium onions finely chopped
4) Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
5) 4 greenchilly - finely chopped
6) Curry leaves and corriander leaves - finely chopped
7) Vinegar - 2 tbsp
8) Salt, chilly powder, dhaniya jeera powder, garam masala - as per your taste.
9) 1 egg beaten
10) bread crumbs
11) Oil - 4 tbsp

Method:
Add vinegar to the mince and mix properly. Leave it aside for 10 minutes.
Now add all the rest of the ingredients to the mince. Crumble the bread to small pieces and add to the mince.
Leave this mixture to marinate for an hour. Bread will help bind everything.

Now heat a pan, add 2 tbsp oil for shallow fry.
Take small portions of the marinated mince, flatten then on your palm, shape them, roll them in the beaten egg, then coat them in the bread cumbs and shallow fry them on low flame on the pan.

Keep the patties thin to ensure complete cooking on mince, since this is shallow fry and not deep. it takes about 10 to 15 minutes for these kababs to cook on the low flame.
Serve them hot with green chutney. Heavenly!

Thank you Shabanaji!

Miss you RJ!

I have been lying low on motivation at work for the last couple of weeks. The enthu has died down. On introspection, I found the reason for this sudden low is my teammate RJ. She had been my arch Rival. Yes, you read that right! Right from the day 1 in the project, I hated her, every day, every minute. She is bitchy, over smart, clever and everything else that I am not :) (I take the privilege to say that since this is my blog! If you beg to differ, say it somewhere else :) )
We were both in the same shift, the competition rife, constant struggle to outdo her kept me on my toes and I enjoyed it. It was more like a mind game, trying to predict what she would do next and what she actually meant when she said what she said. We constantly did stuff to outsmart each other and somewhere in between, there might have been a remote possibility of budding friendship which we didn't choose to explore.
She left our team 2 weeks ago due to personal constraints, and here I am missing her terribly. My biggest motivation is gone!

Thanks RJ for bringing out the best in me, You are being missed. I will look forward to working with you again, whenever that is!

Thoda hai, thode ki zaroorat hai

Yet another independence day celebration in India, all it means is more vendors at traffic signals selling Indian flags, bands and other accessories. Its pathetic to see kids being made to sell that stuff. Ironically enough, the dream India our freedom fighters envisioned!


The struggle and meaning of Independence is now a mere chapter in history books for kids today. All they know about our Independence day is that its a holiday and a celebration at school where they perform.

If only the schools took some extra effort to organise better activities for Independence day to create awareness amongst the children about their responsibility to build a better India for a better future. Just making children practise and dance/sing/march past is not helping anyone.

Why not spend the money they collect for the costumes or for organising the show on providing clothes to the underprivileged children on that day? Why not let senior students teach the junior underprivileged children that one day? Why not distribute fruits to govt hospital under privileged patients than distribute sweets amongst the school children?

Unless this awareness is created, there is no way a child is going to realise the value of whats being provided to him/her and what so many other children of their age are deprived of.



There are so many people around me who have money and who have an intention to give back to the society but do not know how! Giving back to society or serving the underprivileged needs more thought and effort than money. Some ideas which are pretty much doable and will value add:

1) If you are living in an apartment, start a collection drive, one per month. One month you could collect just a fistful of grains(rice, lentils, pulses anything) from each flat in your complex and donate this collection to a charity organisation/NGO in your locality.

2)You could start a stationary drive, notebooks, pencils, slates , collect just 10 ruppees from each flat and buy stationary and provide to under privileged children.

3)If you know of any old age homes/orphanages in your locality which are in dire state, you alone donating a lumsum one month is not going to solve their problem. Create more publicity for the orphanage, create a facebook page for them, register them via paypal and enable online donations. Ask your friends abroad to donate just 1$ every month.

4) Sometimes more than money or anything materialistic, all the orphan children need is your time. Spend one day of your weekend at one of those orphanages, trust me it will do a whole lot of good to them and to you too.


We have celebrated our independencr enough and its time to move ahead towards becoming a developed country. Instead of blaming the govt about how corrupt it is and how useless, lets do our bit ..

Rocking week of August '12

This week has been a mixed bag, travel, work, celebration, happy, stressful and everything else!

It started off with a long drive to Hyd, with our usual fave stop over at kurnool for some yummy super hot dinner. That restau is something else I say! Right by the side of highway, no great ambience, but the food he serves, addictive! Drive was awesome, with some drizzles and music and lil disturbance from the daughty.

Another 4 hr drive to Basar and the purpose of the trip was met. Akshara thoroughly enjoyed writing on slate. Mom got her a pattu langa and she looked super cute in it.

Its a different high to meet your parents and spend some quality time. Monday being my weekly off from work, I got a chance to go with mom n dad to Yadagirigutta and Surendrapuri. It was good to be the center of their attention for those couple of hours( privilege I got as hub and akshara were at home, else I feature last in the list). Surprisingly dad let me pay the bill for lunch, I was happy. I left around 40 bucks as tip and dad was a lil furious, usual round of class for me, that I dont value money, why I left so much as tip :-D 20 bucks wouldve been enough and all that. Dad, you are real cute! Keep doing that! How much I miss those everyday class peekuds :)

Then it was N's Bday. This year, I struggled to decide what I should gift him. Its usually tough to get gift ideas for guys, and with so many occassions every year , its all the more tough to keep the surprise element going. What money cant buy, time and effort can. I decided to make it special for him this year and surprise him by gathering all his old friends who are still in hyd and bring in his bday. It took some effort to get their numbers and coordinate, but it was worth it. We went for a midnight biryani buffet and the party rocked with the gang of friends.

Work wise, it has been a lil turbulent with new changes being introduced to schedule , I am really not sure how I will cope up. Fingers crossed as of now. Cheese keeps moving, change is the only constant.. all these are good to read and state to someone else but not so good to experience it first hand! Cheese Buggers!

For the rest of the week, am looking forward to meeting some of my friends who are in Hyd and shopping of course!!!