The Gals Meet ...

Saturday was a great day.. I woke up in the morning and the first thought was Hey Its our Gals Meet today...

 

the gals meant all of us friends from the BOFA days. we were 6 in all.  Each of us different yet all bonded together in a single thread of friendship..

 

Saraswati, the cool PM. Chitra, the serious  yet a very down to earth PM, Shruthi, the talented bird, Geena, the poetic writer, Rini, the pretty gal with brains and poor ol me...

  

The day went off in a flurry of activities, I had my dress picked. And my hubby has also decided on what cool gear he would wear. I spent much of my morning deciding what to attire my baby in. Nothing too showy, yet very classy and also very cozy and AHEM comfortable ....

GOLLY!! If pratham were a girl I think I would have spent even more time deciding whether It would be a frock or a more casual outfit... Thankfully, boys have not much options..  eventually I zeroed down to a wee cargo and a V neck TShirt. It was a good combination, one from Liliput and the other from Children's Place.

 

And yes, the Baby Bag had two other sets, one Cat and Moss and another a coudroy and T shirt.

 

Come 3:30, both me and Krishna were ready but Pratham dear chose to throw his tantrums... The power cut being on, we could turn on the computer to play his favourite Zhuk Zhuk Gaadi.. My singing didnt help

 and eventually by the time he was all powdered and diapered and attired, it was 4:30!! (and we were meeting up at 5)

 

Somewhere in the meantime, the rain god decided to show up and Rini called up asking whether the meet was still on and I was like... Hey man!!! lets not allow varsharani mess up our plans!!!

 

SO all Aboard the car at 4: 35, we were off to CUbbon Park, the venue of our rendezuous. Of course Rini Beat us to it and we finished second. Geena and Chitra were already on way and with the big Jam in Bannerghatta, looked like they would be some time. Sooo Rini and her Hubby Dhanesh and Me and my boys decided to board the Toy train. One round on it and Pratham was very much elated. Just as we alighted, Geena reached and she came laden with presents - yeah Big Packs of Kit Kats for the kids and Pratham's Birthday Gift.

 

While the boys got busy in the park trying to entertain Pratham, we gals did a lot of catching up..

 

In some time Chitra and her family joined us.. GOlly her kids has also grown up quite a bit. Little Ananya all of 4 years was a wee mite of 2 when I last saw her. I still remember this fairy with a little Bald head (they has the toinsuring ceremony then) and cute chubby cheeks, all concentrated  on finishing her Pongal and not a drop down my friends.. Siddharth, the Bhaiya had grown taller and quieter but still cheerful as before.

 

The Little ones played in the park. The hubbys kept vigil on them and we gals talked. O How we chatted and reminsced! Saraswati and Shruti couldnt make it and we missed them.

 

The next action in our agenda was going to good Ol' CORNER HOUSE.  Actually it is just around the corner from Cubbon park(the one next to Arlines hotel on Lavele road?) But then bangalore with its multitude of one ways, forced us to drive some 5 kms to reach it. Now.. this drive too was eventful.. We missed the turning at Minks Square and ended up going all the way via GPO and indian Express and then infantry road and Cubbon road and then Crossed the MG Road and phew.. reached lavelle Road . But Rini and company(ie Dhanesh and Geena) who were supposed to follow us, ended up following the wrong car and well, missed the turning and ended up going to Mallya hospital, Corporation and the works!!!! Thank god, Krishna with his deep knowledge of Bangalore Roads could help them with directions and eventually they reached.. Hurrah!!

 

Of course in the mean time, the tiny tots happily played in the mini playarea that Corner house has.

 

Once we were all together, we ordered huge servings of ice creams and sundaes and the gals gang spoke on every topic possible in this worlds.

 

It was a Gala time that we had, Meeting up after so many years, catching up on each other's lives, dissecting future plans But more so being together. This wonderful junboree brole up at 8:30.

 

By the time we reached home ,  it was 9:30. Both me and Krishna agreed that it was a very relaxing day.

 

BTW here is the invitation mail I sent out for this meet

 

Gals,

 

Its long time and no see

So lets meet, shall we?

 

The place in the park Cubbon,

The time being with the evening sun

 

With Family and Kids, we shall gambol

It Will be lotsaa fun that's all….

 

Gotta decide more, but lemme hear your ayes..

A weekend thts it, with sweet Hi's and Byes'

 

What is wrong with today?

Well, firstly I hoped to find my mobile that I forgot yesterday near my workplace. And well those hopes were dashed.

None of my teammates who worked late found it. L The Lost and Found didn't have it!!! The shiftlead who was supposed to gi through the CCTV

footage let me know that it would be difficult to find out since they don't monitor inside work bays!!

I am beside myself!!!! I am wracking my brains trying to remember what is stored in the mobile!! Apart from the telephone numbers, I had some

data in it!!! Some passwords, some stuff!!! GODDDDDDD. But thanks heavens that I don't have fotos there!! Thank god, This is a primitive mobile

that I had!!

Yet , I m not to lose hope. the lost and found will get back tomorrow.

And then what else happened?

Coming back from the cafeteria after lunch, my sandal broke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now today being 'Orange' Day, I had worn sortaa orange-sortaa beige sandals. These were in the store for the past 4 years, I got them out specially

for the dress I wore today!!! Gosh I couldn't wear these and walk neither could I walk barefeet!!!

Thankfully, Manu and Devika offered to help. I wore Devika's sandals and both Manu and I went to her PG to pick up a spare pair of footwear and came back with a very miserly set.

The only bright point here is that I discovered a new shortcut from office to Brookefield!!! Golly a good 4 km will be saved , if I take this route regularly!! But as all shortcuts are, this is pothole ridden and also otherwise a shock absorber damaging road!!!!

Tears...

Yesterday something happened, and that brought tears to my eyes - tears of joy.



I washed some clothes and meant to dry them in the balcony. So I brought the bucket out. Pratham, was waiting for me and he immediately caught hold of the handle saying ' prathamaak, maka jay, thay vharta' ( This is For Pratham. I want this!! I am taking this there(Kitchen)) Now , I was in a hurry and hence was a bit irritated at this. But my trying to get him to leave the bucket was in vain. He put his hand through the handle and half dragged it away from me as I watched exasperated. I decided to give no more thought and tried closing the balcony door and in this attempt closed the door on my toes. Unable to bear the pain I gave a painful exclamation some thing like 'Aai Aii'



My dear son left the bucket wherever it was and came running to me!!! All the time saying ' Mummy kite zaale? Bubu zaalo? Mummy mummy!!' (Mummy, what happened? Got hurt?) There was soo much concern in his voice. I was touched.

I said - nothing dear, this door hit me.



In response, my puttu stroked my toes and gave the door a slap!!!!



I watched feeling soooooo surprised !! My Son , all of two years had come to apply salve on my wounds. It felt soooo nice..



Later in the evening when I told this to Krishna , his eyes became misty.



To realize that even at this small an age , your offspring has feelings and compassion... What else do we as parents want?

Commenting on Blogs..

Yup , I think every blog writer like comments..

I like them too. good comments with appreciation , comments (notice the missing good) with criticism (hey man constructive) are welcome..

But beware you anonymous commentor who likes to post anti religious, gender biased  and unwholesome comments.

Now you will ask me.  Shraddha Do you comment on others blogs...  hmm  food for thought .. Practice what you preach.. I havent much in the past, but hence forth i will. Promise with a big P.

I love to read Food Blogs..

For a 'Cook-only-becoz-you-have-to-person' , combined with a non foodie character , isnt it weird? After all what in the goodness of this earth pushes me to read these blogs!!

Well the answer is simple, I read them so that I can visualise what I could have conjured if I had the interest in the delicacies for the palate.

I have come across some really good blogs.. I love the way some people dont just write recipes but tell a real life incident behind that particular recipe entry.

http://saffronhut.blogspot.com/ is a hot favourite. It saddens me to see that she is not blogging anymore. Saffron!! where are you pal!! Did you disappear in the equatorial jungles of Africa? Please Pretty Please be back.
  
One Blog leads to another and I reached this one http://saffrontrail.blogspot..com/ through Saffron Hut. Here the main cast is Nandita and today i have spotted a recipe for 'The Great Indian Biryani' . Suddenly the cook in me has awakened and I am all eager to cook this wonderful dish. I see that the  recipe is elaborate  but with my enthusiasm as of now (and wonder for how long) I will surely finish this.
  
Nandita's Blog led me to the Home Sick texan's Food blog. Now my prejudice on American food is that all they eat is meat and burger.. But Going through this blog helped me widen my horizons(or whatever its called) Here is the link . http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/

http://indosungod.blogspot.com/  -> i dont remember how I found this blog ,but surely though someone else's blogroll. She is awesome too. And this blog is alive. I love to read personal thoughts which culminate into food... Indo , you rock.

http://www.bongcookbook.com  -> Sandeepa is the Bong Mom. Her Language is  so eloquent , I love each of her posts. She too doesn't just post recipes , but writes a whole witty write-up . I delight in reading her Bengali recipes with Bengali words thrown in like the seasoning in the curry..

http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/ -> Here is an Indian who blogs non Indian recipes. God! I just love her site, Her writeup is immaculate, her recipes are yummy but her photos are Lip smacking!!!!  Hats off to you Meeta, your aesthetic sense is breathtaking. Here is one follower you have.

Gollly I am getting enthused to pick up cooking......

lemme collect that printout of Biryani...

( Will Add more)

Engine Thushhhhhh Kartaa...

Some days back I blogged about Pratham's fetish for planes. But from the past 2 weeks, the interest has shifted to guess what? - Yeah easy. Trains. Only he calls them engine.

It all started when my parents left for home by the train. Krishna took Pratham to the Engine and described it. Once Back to the compartment you should have seen Pratham's delight. He narrated in his baby language how the engine went 'THUSHHHHHHHHH' - it let out steam and the poor dear was sooooooo scared that he held his papa tightly and wouldn't let go even after coming to the compartment in some 15 mins. But once he warmed up to the description, so cleverly asked by my mom, there was no stopping it.


It was then a non stop looping of these sentences spoken in various permutations of the words

' Engine Thushhhhhh Kartaa ' ( -> The Engine goes THUSHHHHHHHH)

Kitlee Hod Ashillee ( -> How big was the engine ?)

Mast Hod Ashillee ( -> It was huge)

Pratham Basun wata tatut ( -> Pratham will sit in this and go to grandparents' place)

Red Color engine.


And then I have downloaded a whole lot of Marathi Baalgeete(Children's Songs) with animations. He just loves them . His particular favourite nowadays is 'Mamachya Gavala Jauyaa' (ie. Lets go to Uncles' Village) . This Animation shows a very live looking Train which totters on the line with a couple of kids dancing and singing this song.

So he spends his time seeing and singing this song.


And then Last week when we went to GOA, we went by the train and that week was anyways spent on trains going from Goa to Kumta and then Kumta to Goa and then Back to Bangalore. SO well.. Pratham's 'Engine' mania reached its peak. The entire day was spent in 'THUSHHHHHH' and 'KOOOOOOOOOOOOO' to top that my parents and my SIL bought him two different train sets and well.. the reat is history...

Back to adult life, this enginomanio, reminds me of KUSUMAGRAZ's famous poem 'AAG GADI'. If you get a chance to read this you will realize that the poem reads like the chugging of the train. I tried googling for it but am yet to find a site which hosts even a part of the poem. Do let me know if anyone of you gets a hint.

Self Praise...

Today one of my junior colleagues told me that he and many of them like my management style. Seems a group of them are going to approach the leadership team to have me lead the team instead of the other person who is being slated to take up the responsibility once our current manager leaves!!



Friends whether I get that role or not!! I am happy that people around find me competent!!



I am a straight person. I am a fair person. I believe that whatever task is to be done should be done diligently and thoroughly. I drive towards that. Many people see me as aggressive. I, on the contrary think that I am not as belligerent as needed. I still need to hone my management skills. I need to also learn some Chanakya Neeti !! Yes , now once I do that , I wont be able to call myself straight, fair and all that. But If I am to survive this tough corporate world..

Pratham says...

A Chudi Pant of Slacks Material is the in thing nowadays. I see many girls wearing that in office and I softly scold myself for making the "No Shopping For Myself Resolution" this year. So when Mom gave me the slacks chudi which she and Raksha bought for me, I was soooooooo elated. Another thing to note is that these slacks are skin colored.



I wore it for the first time today and donned a nice kurta on it. At the first glance, it looked like I had only worn the top and forgotten to wear the pant!!! Hubby dear said that the shocking effect was soon overcome.



But what amuses me is my 2 year ol one's reaction



"Mummy Shame Shame Asaaa!" (in english->Mummy is shame shame)



He came to me and felt my legs, my ankles, my knees and I actually saw a relief on his face when I assured him that I was wearing pants!!!



Boy!! I am amused!!!!

Whither Biblio Mania...

Where do u guys buy your books from?
I go to  book fairs, used book shops and yes roadside vendors.

Now, I love books... but still I cant bring myself to buy books which end up being some hundreds of rupees. I am not crazy after original publications. I do not hanker after brand New copies of latest editions or first editions.

Dear Simple me, i am content with a locally printed copy decently bound on a good quality paper with non smudged print.

And my collection of thousand books thus has an assortment  - new, old and locally printed.

Crossword on the Residency road is a favourite shop (for browsing). I was pleasantly surprised when on my recent visit(a few months ago) I found tht it no longer touted imported editions. Instead it had most books published by an(not the) Indian Book House (eg Shree Publications) .

Yup, i agree, the polish was not there. I mean, when i buy a book on the roadside, I am not too critical on the polish(i hope u get my drift), But in a Book Store of repute, i expect the books to be properly bound, the prints to be readable, the cuts to be parallel to the paragraphs.  I surely am not going to pay 3 times the amount for a book I can get outside(read roadside) in exactly the same condition.

Hey, I see a few of you frowning at my ..., what should i say, meanness.., middle class thinking.. tht is more like it!!

I dont mind saving a few hundreds, friends,  and about piracy?  well.. i do not condone it of course, but then i surely do not agree on the hyped up prices of these huge set of items (not just books). Just because you earn the money(yes earn) doesn't mean you should spend it unnecessarily.

Am I rambling?  neways let me know your thoughts.

Pratham says...

Yes thats my son Pratham. And he has this fascination for airplanes. We stay near the Airforce Base. SO we have a  multitude of airplanes swooshing by..

My baby, the moment he hears the plane, however much occupied he maybe in whetever antics he is upto, always makes it a point to point out to us that a plane has passed by.

So today morning when one passed by and he didn't comment,

Krishna : Hey Puttu, an aeroplane swooshed by.

Pratham (scoldingly): Papa, Aeroplane Nay, Elicopter Asshille!!! (that was konkani, translation -> Papa, That was not an aeroplane , it was a Helicopter!!)

We didnt get what he said since he was actually drinking his bournvita then. But when he repeated that again (we didnt prompt him ) both of us looked at each other in awe..

GOLLY, this fellow has clearly distinguished between an aeroplane and a helicopter!! 

WOW!

Bad GIRLS....

i m currently watching BaD Girls on OXYGEN. SO this is a reality show with a mansion full of some half a dozen girls,All Pretty, All Mean,All with a huge attitude with a BIG H.

Gosh these gurls are O migosh!!! They have really pranky team ups, AND... THEY are real BITCHES!!!


BUt then friends, between girls.. arent we ordinary girls very picky generally? OK we girls are ready to make friends but get very wild when spurned. We are ready to make place but get equally scandalised if trampled.

We are ready to be a bit forgiving if its the opposite sex that errs but the same mistake by other females.. well are mostly never forgiving.

ok .. we could blame it on insecurity, on emotional quotient and heck... HORMONES... looks like we girls are PMSing all the time !!!

Why am i saying all this? ok i m currently staying with roommates, and although i wouldnt say i am always a saint, i can see how we, even at such elavated professional levels, behave like haha B-----s (hey puppy bi____)

Hey I wanna write more.. But Suddenly Inspiration has gone Kaput.

Watch this space... I wil update more someday.

Ah, Olive Garden ...

OK I have always been seeing Olive Garden Ads, I Especially remembered one dish 'Shrimp Scampi' and always thot that well.. this place must be having only non veg stuff , ok good non veg stuff.. well I was proved wrong...

OK before you get this wrong, Let me rephrase ...It was proved that Olive Garden has good Veggie stuff toooooo.

ok now how?

See a few of us are leaving for INdia. And so we had a whole Team lunch thing in this place.

So we ordered a whole lot of stuff... I ordered Soup,Salad and Breadsticks and a Pizza. Slurp Slurp. The Soup was Minestrone and it was GREAT. I had once taken ths same soup in India and well.. i had written it off. Today i took it only because I had no other option. But Boy Am I glad? I indeed am. It was Great. The SAlad was too.. Yes I am taking a liking to salads here. Back in INdia i wasnt much of a salad fan and ate it only because of the nutrition value. But here I am liking them coz of the sauces used i guess. and the Bread Sticks .. well i wouldn't call them sticks at all. They were nice and crisp and i loved them.

Roshny took Stuffed mushrooms and tht was good. Her Chicken and Gnocchi Soup was good too(she said . U know i m a veggie) . Kevin's Chicken Scmapi was tasty it seems. All in All, everyone was happy with what they had. I surely was.

Ah ... that was fun..

We had an assessment today..

Yeah this was just like college days.. when all of us studied and compared notes. There was a mad rush to photocopy those pages from reference books we didnt have. Then we spent time going through previous questions papers. All amidst people predicting who will do well and who will top and stuff....

Those were the days

After having worked in the IT industry for so long, I had forgotten how Exhilarating this entire exercise was.

Of course I gave my Masters in between and both me and my hubby did a joint study. I remember feeling the same excitement towards the exams.

After that, this spate of assessments that me and colleagues are having is Heady. yes, all of us felt like collegians all huddling together in this maddening set of marathon sessions that we are currently having and not exactly cramming the details of the so called KT.

Its fun, once the test is over.

BUt before that its the "Butterflies in the stomach" mode.

Thats precisely what I am feeling currently.

There are two assessments slated for tomorrow and Ahem... Am not to crazy about them at the moment.

Wish me luck pals.....

Height of coincidence!!

O what a coincidence!!!


I am sooo elated!!!


I just randomly typed www.facebook.com

then Since i had nothing better to do, i searched for myself .

Of course it listed a whole lot of Shraddhas

And The very first person on the list was a Shraddha who had uploaded a pic of hers.

GOLLY !!!! The Sweater that she was wearing was the same as MINE!!! I mean the one I wore today!!!!

I am soooo amused.

Wish I coudl take a snapshot of this ... but no, i wont take a snapshot of a person i dont even know. I know i wouldnt like this done to me. So there...


I am still chuckling to myself!!!!