My cell phone died!!!!

Couple of weeks back I received an email from hubby with subject line – My cell phone died ; informing me that his dearest darling phone is no more. I breathed sigh of relief that as finally hubby will be buying a new phone and let his good old phone rest in peace.

However later that evening when hubby came home – engineer in me came back from grave and I decided to try and infuse some life in the phone and Eureka!! His phone was back from the dead post my awesome life saving techniques.

The flip side to this entire drama was that hubby decided against buying a new phone, much to the dismay of my MIL cause some how she has a notion that its problem with the phone and not hubby when all her calls go unanswered. Believe it or not she even asked me to break his phone considering I have a PHD in breaking phones –( which I already did)  hubby’s darling phone has a broken screen all thanks to me!!!

Nevertheless, this whole episode made me reflect on one thing; how much we love our gadgets and devices, so much so that we do not like to part with them.

For example our beat baby is almost 6 years old now she already had a major surgery (post an accident) so much so that couple of her parts had to be changed.  She is also susceptible to frequent mouse attacks who like to feed off her seats!! Our family thinks it’s high time we retire her and get a new car.

But I simply cannot do so, Firstly she was our first car and we bought her up with a lot of love and care, in fact I take pride in the fact that she actually listens to me (no kidding!!). I like to talk to our beat baby and I strongly believe that it does sooth her nerves when roads are rough (trust me it works every time). No wonder with these antics hubby thinks that some screw of my brain is completely lost now.

Secondly I have yet not laid my hands on her and don’t know when it happens - but whenever I re-learn how to drive, its my beat baby I want to take her for a ride!!.

Thirdly, we hardly have any parking space that can permit us a bigger car than her.

So coming back to the love of old, I believe that we humans don’t like to retire stuff we tend to grow attached to them and tend to forget their materialistic value, forget that these things are machine, mechanical by nature and would not have any emotion in them when we discard them.

So let me resolve that thou shall not have luuuv for these materialistic things (except my beat baby – cause she is precious…my precious)

Nevertheless!! I guess that’s enough for the time being!! Ciyazz

A year to remember part 2

PS - I know i have been late by just couple (read 6 months) to write this blog ..but then better late then never so here it goes!!

Jubilant June :
We welcomed the youngest and most cutest member of our family right after jijoos birthday. I have nick named him gappodi for he loves talking (especially when his mom and dad want to sleep). I am sometimes amazed to see my lil laddu acting like a grownup elder sis and teaching him stuff, taking care of him. My guchi baby has now turned one so this occasion commands a separate blog dedicate to him and his antics.

Boring July & Viral August :

July was definitely the most boring month of the year. It passed away without any noteworthy episode. However August for me started with a sick note - had planned Jaipur trip so that I can spend some ‘quality’ time with Ma. Since I was going to meet her after almost 7 months I was quite excited and was completely going gaga about my upcoming trip. But as my luck or should I say bad luck would have been I suffered worst bout of cold and viral at the same time my trip was planned. Ma-papa being ma-papa asked me not to travel at all, which resulted in much to my dismay cancellation trip - never mind coming month definitely bought me some cheer to my already dampened spirits

Trip(py) September :

This month was full of exciting stuff. We started with a delightful trip to indore and met Buaji and naniji . Little did we know that this would be the last time we would meet Buaji in person and naniji in good health.  Looking back now I am soo glad that we were able to plan this trip.

Since the day I met naniji, I’d jsut adore her, she was the last grandparent me and hubby had so meeting her and spending time with her always has been very special.  I have always been mesmerized by the tales that their generation had to tell. Their lifestyle (So different from ours) , there struggle (so unlike ours) their expectations from life (poles apart from ours). When I hear her tell tales of her childhood and married life I kept thinking of the huge difference in approach they had towards life compared to ours. They had simple life with simple expectations – meaning life without much complication.

Following, this month also bought along with a roller coaster change in our lifestyles i.e. hubby moved back to his old company which meant that henceforth our schedules would be completely different - he would start late for office and come back late in evening which would leave only few hours every day that we could have with each other - leaving me with a lot of time for myself. 

In the last 6 years that we have been married it was for the first time I was happy to have some time for myself.

So I decided to utilize all this time by improving my health especially considering the few layers of fat that I had accumulated over time.  I was always active in sports till marriage so never really need to exercise. I started my vajan gatao programme by going for walks – this  I did for some months but was not able to loose few grams from my weight (good thing was that I had stopped pilling on also)  it was then I decided to start gyming and  hubby decided to help me out as I had never lifted weights and was not sure of which exercise to  do.  Initially it was very difficult to make myself go to gym but then I started enjoying it, even my family was amazed to see my commitment to gym (though I did not lose much weight but yes I started feeling fit and fresh) – so I concluded that its not just about losing the kilos – its about feeling good about yourself and your body – which I certainly did

The next highlight of the month was ma papa’s epic trip to Thailand. Why epic because it was for the first time that they had explicitly planned a trip which did not included their kids and it was masi’s first international trip.

Clean(ing) October :

October was the most hectic month of the year,  We were renovating our kitchen – which meant that entire house had to be in mess , My younger sis was getting engaged and just after that hubby was travelling to US.  We had also planned to celebrate Diwali in this house instead going back home to kota, which meant that our house needed to be rinsed inside out, which was a mammoth task considering that I was going to be all by myself.  

However I was able to survive the month without much problem J

Banglored - November:

I have always been fascinated with Bangalore – one city that I had never set my foot on, in fact hubby and me were thinking about moving to Bangalore sometime back.

Finally I got the opportunity to visit this city of gardens in the pretext of attending a conference. So me all excited lands in Bangalore straight from office and by the time we reached hotel it was almost 10, being the typical Mumbai vali I thought to venture out in the night to find some decent place to eat – but to my dismay most of the places get closed in Bangalore pretty early and the deserted roads did not look encouraging enough for me to venture all by myself - with heavy heart I decided to eat whatever hotel kitchen had to offer, not to dampen my spirits I decided that next day would be much better.

So with hope in my heart I slept blissfully for next 8 hrs . Since we had to register for the conference we decided to leave early so that we could avoid traffic. However our bad luck continued and we were stuck in the worst traffic so much so that we were late for our conference.

Hence I decided to abandon all my plans about moving with lock stock barrel to this city. Amchi Mumbai sabse aacha hai!!

Epic December:

Two of my husband’s friends were getting married in Varanasi & Lucknow and attending these weddings would give me opportunity to visit these two historically significant cities – so me was all excited about the upcoming trips

I must admit I was quite surprised with lucknow – the wide and clean roads were far cry from the typical UP city I thought it to be (no bias here guys I am half UP wali myself thanks to the genes inherited from ma) .

Our trip started with a bang – moment we reached hotel – I realized that I could not find my phone, frantic search started in my purse a.k.a black hole in hubby’s language, not finding it there I started calling my no. hoping some good soul would see my phone lying somewhere and will have the courtesy to answer it and get me out of my misery (expecting too much of goodness!!!) but to my surprise someone did answer and told me I had left my phone in airport loo and some kind lady had passed it to the airport authority office. We started again for airport and I was happy to have my tuta-phuta micromax back !!

We spent one complete day looking at the monuments in old Lucknow enjoying UP ki chat and off course shopping famous lucknowi kurta’s for everyone.

Next we started off for Varanasi – the most epic (sarcastic undertone) trip of the year!!

Varanasi holds a special place in hubby’s heart and why would it not – its the city of his alma mater; the famous IIT BHU.

Since we had got married he always wanted to come back to the ghats of Varanasi with his beloved biwi  i.e. yours truly me. So post attending the wedding we kept one complete day to visit ghats , vishwnath temple and his college.

 Varanasi turned out to be the exactly like the UP city of my imagination!!! Dirty roads or should I say no roads at all. People without civic and traffic sense. Despite being the oldest cities not just in India but across world and considering its lineage and heritage it is so poorly kept.

However I was able to overcome my disappointment when I sat on the ghats with hubby and watched the soothing water of ganges!! Yes there is something tranquil about that city in spite of all its misgivings.

But this is not what made this trip epic! Our adventure started on our journey back - right from the moment when we had to reach airport to catch our flights. It so happened that we got stuck in the famous Chakka jam of Varanasi so much so that auto wala took us from god knows which route but helped us to reach hotel in time to pack.  So we packed our bags and started for airport. As soon as we were out of city the visibility on road was almost nil.

Kudos to our auto wala who drove in that fog and ensured that we reached airport safe and sound.

However our misery was just about to start!!

As soon as we entered, announcement was made that all flights to Varanasi were cancelled due to excessive fog and the airline guys were not ready to commit when where the next flights will be available. We then realized that among our co-passengers there were many who had rescheduled the flight previous day also due to fog and were desperate to travel. Non-response and non-corporation from airline official was making them very impatient. Looking at them made me worried since we had to be back in Mumbai in time.

Now usually in such situations my flaring temper catches wings and is ready to burst but somehow I decided to keep out of the whole conversation and let hubby his friends and other co-passengers deal with airline official.

Hours passed and we came to a situation where there was almost a mini riot on verge happening inside airport with most of our co-passengers deciding that villain of whole situation was not the weather but the airline staff (they had almost decided to beat the airline guys) .

So after hours of patiently siting outside the whole conversation something snapped inside me and there I was on the top of my voice shouting rather blabbering at the airline officials.  I don’t even remember what I was shouting about but faintly it was about them not being courteous enough of offer us water and food while we were starving at midnight because of their inaction on the whole situation.

My shouting did bore some fruits and we were promptly served juice and some biscuits. Finally airline officials relented and gave us tickets for the next flight scheduled in afternoon.

Anyways after some mis-adventure we landed safe back at home – bringing end to the epic trip.

SO that was about it ciao - Happy weekend

Decade in city of dreams

Mumbai is a city of contradictions. It’s not meant for fainthearted …. Nor many acknowledge and appreciate this city for what it is .

It’s a crazy city with little houses, cost of living is high enough to dent your pocket no matter how much you earn.  Roads are bad , pavements are worse and potholes are in abundance, traffic can be at most unexpected times of day (not that it isn’t the whole day).

Yet in spite of all the misgivings…. this city has been my home for last 10 years

It was here that I finally found sense of belonging too, the nomad in me found a place to call home. People, who know me well, know how crazily I love this city (so much so that hubby had to move here instead of me moving to Delhi post marriage).

I came here fresh out of college….living in a very sheltered life till that time, Mumbai steeled me up in last decade. I have become a different person than what I was (hopefully for better)

it was here that I found my freedom …courage and confidence  to be what I am

It was here that I realized it’s safe to for a girl to live all by herself without any support.

It was here that started to learn from mistakes made (plentiful learning i must say)

 It was here that I met some wonderful people who taught me a thing or two about life

It was here that I learned to trust sometimes without being too skeptical

Yet last year I started to question my love for this city all over again. Don’t get me wrong, Mumbai is still the same city it used to be 10 yrs ago but I have changed or should I say grownup as a person.

Earlier standing in crowd was peaceful for me …….it use to make me feel safe and now i long for peaceful ….quite walks by the road………….sipping my cuppa by the window, hearing blissful silence (yeah you got me right………..me getting old ……….spot on!!)

Couple of months ago I was seriously contemplating moving to someplace where me and hubby could actually have a quality life

After a lot of deliberation we zeroed down to Bangalore. Luckily around the same time I got to visit Bangalore for the first time and though I did like the city very much, but the sense of unfamiliarity made me cringe and so here I am back to the same city.

Speaking about familiarity, it is so that we all like our comfort zones…..we all want to get into that zone as soon as we start something new…be it a new job , relationship , moving to a new city – home..its our basic nature…..and soon that comfort zone tangles you so much so that we don’t want anything outside it……when you are young and gung-ho it is easier to switch between zones…but with age it becomes more and more difficult.  

I envy people who have the persistence to move out of their zones at their will. It is something I wish to learn.

Nevertheless that’s about it. Adios my friend. Will try and meet you very soon :) 

A year to remember (Part 1)

I have decided to do a quick rewind of 2015 and be thankful to the year that it has been and the memories that it has given. So here it goes

   January Joys : Hum-tum for 5 years – Yes!!! this year marks 5 years of being married  to the most most …………………… guy in the world (hubby darling i leave on to you to fill in the blank (wink wink). I would have to come back to this and write a dedicated blog for this occasion commands one!!! :) 

Our Ghumna phirna of the year started with the awesome Goa trip, had great time with SIL & BIL. Highlight of the trip was reaching out to the venue of the ‘headphone party’. We started after 10 in the night driving through ‘sunsan goa ki galiya, in the middle of an absolute dark road sitting inside an open jeep’. It took us almost 45 minutes to figure out where the venue was before almost giving up the hope to reach there.. The ‘venue’ by the way was in middle of a mini island and god knows how much I was cursing hubby and BIL for their flair for unwanted adventure. So we stood outside the gates to be stamped by friangs who looked nothing less than Russian mafia. However in the end I would say that memory of this entire expedition is worth for keeps and deserves a mention in the blog!!

It was the first time I was in goa during the ‘so called season’ but surprisingly it was still empty with due to the Russian rouble crisis. We guys got to stay in an awesome (almost) beach side place from where the view was awesome. As usual we stuck to our dear south goa – the lovely beaches of Palolem and Agonda. The side effects of the trip have been bad; hubby has now decided to that we have had enough of goa trips and it’s time to explore the other places as well.

  February Fun: Weddings are fun especially as you get to meet your gang of cousins in your favourite city. Luckily for my nephew’s wedding almost all our khan-daan (except Didu and jiju ) got together in the city of my childhood …JODHPUR. We made merry and had good fun. It was good to be back to the city, though I don’t remember it much from gone years. But one thing I remember is the majestic Umaid Bhavan, I saw that place as a child and was mystified with the grand architecture. In this trip, I and hubby had full plans to see the city but due to paucity of time we could go anywhere, that gives us another reason to be back there, hopefully in coming year we can go to Jodhpur together once again and explore the blue city from scratch.

  Merry Making  in March: The great USA trip – This off course was the second highlight of the year. Finally we were together in US with a sista's-jijajs and all the bachaas. This was my first trip to the US of A. I am not going write much about this one as have already covered it  here & here

Sweating it out in May : For quite some time me and hubby were trying to go on a trip via this company which organizes offbeat holidays , weekend gateways etc. So in the month of may , hubby long with his couple of friends planned this camping trip in Murud. We started our day with a ferry till Alibag and then took a bus till Murud. So here goes our experience of this trip in my own very original words ;)

Sun was at its peak, there was too much heat,

Nevertheless our enthusiasm was not weak,

Group of campers reached the venue,

Evening was full with lot of items in menu,

We start off by running behind the ball,

Soon it was time for the night to fall,

As the moon showered its light,

The band started singing much to our delight,

Soon music and drinks were done,

It was time to take a break from all the fun,

Then started the difficult struggle,

Managing mosquitoes with heat was a difficult juggle

But as we closed our eyes,

Beneath the moon, stars in open skies,

Out mind was at rest in blissful peace,

It was then I realized this memory is for keeps.

Jubilant June : We welcomed the youngest and most cutest member of our family right after jijoos birthday. I have nick named him gappodi for his love for talking all the time especially at odd hours of day, when his mom and dad want to sleep. I am sometimes amazed to see my lil laddu acting like a grownup elder sis and teaching him stuff, taking care of him. So I am looking forward to another US trip very very soon.