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Ok, I made it to Twitter now....@hailmogambo,
Fun name alva...lol
It's exclusively for my desi friends to stay in touch with my closest buddies, give them a dose of my life here, keeping promises of everlasting friendship and remind myself I have so much to cherish :-)

An ode to B'wood

Have you ever observed there are 2 types of people ( ok, ok I'll do it the right way AB )

"Is duniya mein do tarah ke log hote hai"

1. Ones who adore/love/drool/like/whatever  "Shah Rukh khan"(SRK)

2. Ones who  adore/love/drool/like/whatever "Amir Khan"(AK)

I know there are more khans, but to me "Liking" any of the above two  have very much described the type of person I am with!

I was an SRK person. As an awkward teen, I had his postcards (no posters, mom was never to know) 

And I have to say why!

Mom strongly believed that infatuation with stars brought trouble with everything. 

Apparently, she was a Rajesh Khanna person, and was distraught seeing young girls (her friends?) tattoo his name on their hands, commit suicide when he got married and the whole nine yards!! she believed I'd end up in some kind of trouble having SRK posters/magazines cut outs or anything with me for a very long time!

which was until I got caught.

Getting back to the topic, yes his super cute postcards were always in my backpack, admired by co SRK fans in high school. The same thing was parallel with AK fans (how dare they?) and they never understood why we liked SRK, we didn't even bother asking them anything further!

Something like this was happening in our room at home ( shared the room with sis until I moved to Hassan :-P)

She was an AK fan....oh yeah she was, and she loved blue while I was the pink maniac! such opposites under the same roof, so much tension in a 150 sft room??

Well if you ask me how you ever manage? Oh, life was hard...she broke my tooth, I almost cracked her skull, 

But you know what, we are ok now, sometimes we even manage to put the past behind and talk like grownups; Deepika Padukone vs Sonam Kapoor you know, the normal things!

 What kind are you readers??

Graduated :-)

Yes I am the new graduate in town :-) had my sister, BIL and Niece over to celebrate and did we have fun or what?
Destinations in 2 weeks; Vegasssss, loads of malls, Park City, Bear Lake and the famous Salt Flats.
The time we had driving, fighting (Inevitable btw sisters), hogging (unmentionable pounds) and goofing around with the little one....sigh, totally precious.
With B at work, I now end up avoiding our living room, our beautiful sunny patio just because they remind me of the last 2 weeks of fun. I do miss them all terribly but now wonder why we do this to ourselves, move away from the most important things in life like family and friends?
I still call Bangalore my home, speak in any Indian dialect I manage at the drop of a hat, fell super satisfied after a hot Indian meal and miss my friends and family at home like CRAZY!!
I also like the fresh air here, the beautiful valley I live in, to bike w/o being run over, the school I got my Master's from, new friends I've made and the cozy apartment B and I live in.
I cannot, atleast at this point decide what I want for the future, all I know is we have to find a way to feel contented wherever we are.
As for my niece, I get to spend a couple more days with her this weekend before she crosses oceans, if I take a 4 hour, very expensive flight (courtesy B)
.....will I do it?

Oh yes I will, cant wait to hear her yell "Shillu" :-D

I was on a class tour to CA last week and got to befriend quite a few nice people, who thankfully will be my classmates. As you know, to become a good friend, you need to get a little personal, talk about family, origins and as for us desis, have to answer a few curious questions too...you know the drill!

Anyway, during one such dinner talk, I was asked how I met Bala. For a moment, I was tempted to lie like many I have seen do;

'Oh, we met at a party' or 'It was love at first sight at a friend's wedding' etc...

Instead, I braved the consequences and the need to explain something unexplainable and said....we had an 'Arranged marriage'

Suddenly.....
'Boom,pow, stars, eyebrows, Oh's, wow's and many other hard to perceive expressions'

I decided to cool the scene, bring down the air and said it was more like a dating service that paired us ( hard to say that B's dad was a colleague of my dad's brother or we found him on 'The Hindu' where unsuspecting B's parents put his name up....lol)

It was only when I said that we spoke for 6 months, met personally, decided patiently & carefully agreed upon each other
that they realized the arrangement wasn't all that 'Arranged' after all!

I swear I heard heaves of relief when I answered 'yes' to their final question
"So you could have said 'NO'"

I went on to make my stand clear by proclaiming 'I did say 'NO' to a couple of guys I so called dated for a couple of months' and vice versa....

Man was I uncomfortable the whole time!
But then, I at least feel true to the beautiful bond I share with B and more importantly, don't have to worry about stories that do not match!

Now that Ive seen many fans of Bailey's proclaiming their love for this Irish liqueur, many advertisements asking you to try/drink Baileys, I take this opportunity (a little late an attempt)in saying that being a teetotaler was a beautiful thing until I had had a taste of that dammed Irish coffee.
OK, I am forced to talk about coffee again, but that is the sole reason I started drinking even! I only consume a limited dosage of Baileys on a not so regular basis. Personally, I liked the concept of saying 'Sorry I dont take anything alcoholic', kind of made me feel special :-) not for long, I hated it when people related this to Hinduism!
Anyway, long story short, Baileys is fun, Baileys is sweet unlike other stinky alcoholic beverages. I'd recommend it to anyone who is not pregnant, is over 21 and appreciates coffee.

ps: The coffee part at the end is not to be taken seriously, please consume it in moderation and DO NOT absolutely not drink and drive.

Do I like making fun of myself or what?

Its a Saturday afternoon, B feels lazy even after 10 hours of solid sleep. ( I have to add my part to his laziness; massaged warm oil onto his head )
Anyway, he continues to bask in this lethargy, aimless as to how want the day to go by at least till 6 when we have a dinner appointment to keep :-)
The only solace to me is he refuses to watch TV or browse the net!well, that was news itself.
So I end up listening to stories of his childhood yet again, when he sees my mind drifting off and welcomes me to the little couch which is so uncomfortable even for one person. Anyway, I am too sweet to turn down this invitation and snuggle up to my oily hubby.

That is it, we now realize that there could be no other place we'd want to be but that super uncomfortable couch with both our legs hanging way out, cozying up, talking about crap and laughing at each others misgivings and miseries.
This is one hour of comfort we wont forget for a long time to come!

Babies galore

Such a beautiful time for so many of my friends! Ive had this nice chain of mails with healthy babies, beautiful names and happy moms and all my very good friends.
So far Ive had 2 nephews and 5 nieces!
I guess its like 3 or 4 years ago, when the same bunch of girls announced their engagement and I got to attend some of their weddings too!
I wish the very best for them, wish them many happy, gurgle filled, stinky diaper days ahead!

Names so far Ive remembered and loved;
Neil, Nishka, Vibhavari
More being added...Pranet, Ojas, Manasvi.
A whole new generation...

Its the 3rd of April and Samhita aka Lola aka Lolsie and many many more akas.....who is also my niece, turns "1" (please read it as an excited Oneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee).
I have always wanted to write about her and the very reason I havent seen her yet (sigh) has caused this delay!Every aunt has her day and so will I, so will I.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART...HAVE A WONDERFUL, FUNFILLED FUTURE.

Post bridal blues

Exactly 1 year ago...I was the so called 'blushing' bride! well, today when I see the wedding snaps, how I wish I'd smiled more...how I wish I hadnt had that stupid migraine....

The snaps dont have much to say, though the fact that it was definitely an elaborate, traditional and extravagant wedding is well potrayed!

All I want to do now is attend a wedding again and sit through the whole thing, feast on the spread, wear all my wedding sarees which apparently is gathering dust!

I'd love to meet all my relatives (distant agony aunts) who were once (For God knows what reason) always waiting for my wedding feast! I'll ask them if it was worth the wait!

I secretly miss the buzz that was around me, but now the whole holiday season means a lot more than cookies and vacations...its time for anniversaries, birthdays and hence...gifts and surprises!

ps: Almost forgot...HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY to my beloved hubby,
Bala/Balu/Pondy/Skandy

Between siblings

Everytime my sister calls,we discuss almost everything under the earth that happened the last 3 days (we speak atleast twice a week)and a lot of the conversation revolves around our respective culinary experiments,precedence to baking.
It so happens that neither of us inherited my mom's skills when it comes to baking,Id rather say we like to get away from the banal recipes and sneak in our own ingredients even though they are uncalled for...like adding in chocolate chips into a banana walnut cake or coffee into all cookies!unlike mom who is a conventionalist. No doubt our cakes and other bakes arent worth praises. Nevertheless,we enjoy our experiments and always manage to surprise our hubbies ;-)

Madonna....A Diva

I remember I was so hung up on this song,kept singing it all through my pre-wedding days!My cousin Deepika was so bugged that she decided she would hate this song,all because of my relentless humming.......Time goes by so slowly.
Deepi heres to you, please listen to this again and hope for a comment that you consider listening to this sometime again.May be I'll hum it while doing your wedding shopping?

Ps:Clicking on the title will navigate you to my recommended website

Pink Monday!

A very unfortunate event on a would have been wonderful week!

Realised the importance of not being stingy or resourceful when it comes to WHITE clothes!After a wonderful dinner at a friend's place I bore traces of paneer and halwa on my favourite white capri.Balu did repeatedly remind me to wash it carefully!I did try my best at being careful and decided to try the setting 'Extra small load' on the machine.Well, but a teeny little more white additions would still make the load small right so went in and added a few more white delicates and a white cotton pajama which had some red frills to it!
Come on, Im not that bad, I smelt that red frill so fishy that I tried washing it in the sink to see if it would run, it didnt! so with all worries aside, I started the machine, added soap meant for delicate clothes and went on with my chores!
Little did I expect that red frill to play mean and turn my WHITE clothes to PINK!!!!


Lesson learnt-Please dont be stingy with white clothes pleaaase ,well unless you want a pink version of the same!

First ever!

Never knew I'd end up blogging,wouldnt say 'End up' especially given the fact that none of my projects have seen a long life.All my life Ive managed to atleast get a taste of everything Ive fancied...be it dance class to singing to guitar and even swimming!the last one was a total disaster!My engineering college ( Malnad Collg of enginnering) did have a facilitated pool, with a fairly facilitated coach (who managed to have a few nasty drinks just before the girls session began) and needless to say,my first year did see a lot of evenings spent trying to swim.Just to add intrest, I believe this is a routine amongst all the beginners or freshers to try almost everything provided,including this little pool (badminton and a stadium for running being the others).Sadly this little endeavor had a short life and ended no sooner than it started,for no specific reasons.
Within two years of finishing college,I realised that I was not the only one who had chances of drowning in a ship/boat or any water related accidents and once again decided to hit the water,only this time determined to come out swimming like a fish!Let me remind you that this was way after my college days and I had not only earned myself a bachelor's degree, but also a full fledged membership into the "Aunty's getting me a groom" club!So when I mentioned swimming to my aunts(any bride/groom hunter), they freaked out, literally eyes popping out and yelling...'Are you nuts? U'll tan,grow dark and who will marry you?' come on God, dont let this get to my mom...But litle does it go as per ur wishes and especially when uve given the responsibility of getting yourself a guy to everybody else!so within three weeks of my really refreshing lessons, within which I had managed to dive a couple of times, float easily and almost perfected the strokes...I was dragged out, talked out of it and thought to myself that its an after marriage thing!!
Well, if you feel that wasnt bad...listen to this one! when I got back to Bangalore after 5 years in Hassan ( yes its a B.Arch) I looked around for a guitar coaching class ( Guitar for dummies) and was initially asked to wait;apparently...I was of age and if I were to get married soon, Id have to move from my parents place and then again would have to find another place to learn guitar right! so ok I waited ...for two whole years!!That was when I decided that may be I was destined to remain a spinster ,playing guitar to her dogs!and if I could start learning now, may be in a couple of years my dog would sit beside and listen, may be sing along!!(I know cats sound better but I hate them) and believe it or not,I did find a guitar coach...he had a bunch of kids and a few college kids for his students,I bought my own guitar,started off and went on fine for a year!that was when my boredom got on me...I refused to practise and eventually lost intrest and dropped out of class!My poor guitar lies in my room, collecting dust.
Everytime my mom enters my room and looks at it, she gives me that 'I told you so' look...she had had warned me about my capacity or the lack of it to complete any task I take up...Now Im trying to get my non swimming husband to get the hang of swimming....thankfully for me, he doesnt take up anything if he thinks he cant commit to...so, though he doesnt blantly refuse, he's been postponing our joint swimming expeditions.....By the way,Ive been eyeing the piano shop which is just a few blocks away from our apartment.Should talk to Balu about it!Fancy having a nice black piano in the living room....
Grand arent we?