Recap 2008

This is a quick post as it will not make much sense if I write it tomorrow, for tomorrow will be a new day, a new year, a year of promises and hopes.

I have much to look forward next year, which is if things go as planned. More of that later.

For now, I wanted to write about my biggest achievement and my biggest disappointments for the year. So here are a few highlights -

- I finally learnt driving this year. Yes and not just learnt but learnt it well. Well enough to drive on the highway at the speed of 120 km an hour. Am I being narcissist?? If yes then please excuse me for this one time I truly feel I deserve all the kudos.

- This year too like the last 2 years, I managed to put on some more weight. Not that I tried too hard to loose some :( (hangs head in shame).

- This year saw me making my maiden foreign trip and then some more :)

- Career wise also this year was good with me making some strategic moves. (pun intended for readers from office).

- We ended up spending a lot of money this year too (like always) but this was more due to some unavoidable circumstances so no regrets there.

- And like the last 4 years this year too I fell more in love with my man :)

A very happy new year to one and all. See you on the other side of this break.

Award and The tag of 18

The good times continue, with IHM giving me the “Bloggers for World Peace” award. {unable to paste the award here, will do so later.}


Would like to pass this to some special people but internet is slow and linking people is getting on my nerves. So will do this a little later.


Now, moving to the tag, this is my first ever tag (lol) yeah yeah, frown. I have conveniently escaped taking any before and that can be attributed to lack of interest or time or to sheer laziness. I do this today as its one of those days when I have so much on my plate that I have no clue what to do and what to leave. I do this today because I hate to be back after the fun weekend in Pondicherry. I do this today as none other than the Diva Tagged me.

So ladies and gentleman, here is an attempt to let people know a little more about myself. Rules are simple; I need to Google an image for each of my response and paste the one that appears on first page. Now as I said before Internet is giving me trouble so googling an image won’t work. I will take the convenient route and go without the images


1. The age you will be on your next birthday: on my next birthday I’ll be one year more than what I am now


2. A place you’d like to travel to: the exceptionally romantic city of Venice


3. Your favorite place:Home and Aman’s arms..

4. Your favorite food/drink: that’s a trick question for a foodie like me, but like most Punjabi’s me too will go ahead with
home made Rajma chawal

Drink: non alcoholic
Coffee Coffee and some more Coffee
Drink: Alcoholic – Mojito
The combination of crushed ice, mint and lemon sure makes this my most fav drink.

5. Your favorite pet: Not an animal person at all. I have never had a pet dog. We had 2 rabbits at home as kids but they died and I couldn’t bring myself to ever having any again. More recently I got myself a fish bowl with 2 gold fishes. They too died in a few weeks. People told me that it was normal and goldfishes didn’t have a long life span but I somehow felt responsible. With the death of my second goldfish my pet dream too ended. (Maybe I should do a post on it)


6. Your favorite color combination: there are many I like; most colors with black; black & red, black & white, black & beige.

7. Your favorite piece of clothing: Saree, that surely is my fav piece (???) of clothing…I wish I had it in me to wear it more often. (I hover at 5 times a year run rate)


8. Your all time favorite song: Very difficult to choose 1, I have so many of them.
If I have to pick one it will be “everything I do, I do it for you” by Bryan Adams. Actually I love all his songs.


Another one will be a Punjabi Song – “Nit Khair Manga Sohneya”

9. Your favorite TV show: F.R.I.E.N.D.S
I jus looove iittt !!!!

10. Full name of your significant other: No secret there – Aman Malhotra


11. The town in which you live in: Bangalore, for the past 3 and half years…


12. Your screen name/nickname: My screen name is same as my name – Iya Bhatia Malhotra

13. Your first job: Was in Oracle as a Business Development Consultant after my MBA


14. Your dream job: no jobs, I want to have my own business, a boutique that sells super expensive and super exclusive stuff to super rich people.


15. Bad habit you have: Spider Solitaire. I am so hooked to it. Wrote about it earlier too


16. Your worst fear: to lose a loved one


17. The one thing you’ll like to do before you die: Travel, explore the world obviously with Aman


18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000:
Will invest half and from the rest I will indulge in a mansion with a huge garden, 100 pairs of shoes, a BMW, diamonds, and then open tickets to travel the world… I am not that mean so all this I’ll share with Aman, Neha and a few more special people.

Now that was fun, and I would love to know more about Mampi, Pinku, Monika and Aarti. So ladies please pick up this tag.

Some more awards....

have come my way over past week and I feel miserable for not accepting them earlier.

These awards are special for 2 reasons. Firstly that all 3 have come from 3 different bloggers and secondly the fact that I don’t know any of them personally.

The first one is this ultra cool Brillante Weblog award which I received from Mampi. She thinks “Iya deserves this award because of the sweet and the unassuming stuff she writes on her blog.”
Thanks Mampi, you know how much this means to me.

I would like to pass this to my best friend Anu for inspiring me to start my own blog. She is too good with words; I only wish she would write more frequently

The second is Proximidade award that has been bestowed on me by none other than the great Indian Home Maker. And according to her this is why I deserve this - “Iya for initiative in Jago Re campaigns and for her strong conscience” This award is special because it came from IHM and also because I love the reason she quoted.

“This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Now the first person I would have given this award would be Pinku but she has already got this from Mampi.
The second person that so much deserves this one is MumbaiDiva for the kind of warmth she eludes.
There are a few more whom I would have given this award like Mampi, Monika but these babes already have it. So for now I’ll hold on and give it to bloggers later on.

Little Hungry Gods

A poor child working to have a meal twice a day is surely child labor and none here will have an opinion otherwise.

But isn’t this Child Labor too?? Only because these children are well fed for and belong to affluent families, doesn’t their working to earn money qualify as child labor??

Agreed that the second set is doing this more out of choice rather than out of compulsion but does that make things any different.

Why do I talk about this today – because it hurts me no end when this young boy barely 10 comes to my home every Sunday morning and asks me if I want something to be cleaned. He insists I make him do anything, just anything. He knows very well I won’t, but he still tries. He knows the pattern, he asks for work and we give him food. This has been a ritual for the past one year.

I tried asking him where he stays and where his parents were, but he doesn’t understand either Hindi or English. He doesn’t go to school and does these random errands to earn some money.
I see him take the food and happily walk to the next house. I see him either washing cars or cutting grass. Yes this pains me no end.

Of all the vices we have as a society nothing precedes this, nothing at all.
Here we have such a huge problem in hand, and people are busy talking about religion and fighting for God we aren’t even sure exists when these little gods are sleeping hungry each day.

My giving food to a boy will not change anything. We need a social awakening, imagine if all the money that is being spent on strengthening the security, in weapons and on arms could be utilized in creating a robust system which would ensure that each and every child is well fed, healthy and gets education, won’t our world be a better place?

Of Vada Pav and Chai

Love doesn’t need fancy restaurants and exotic places to flourish. It will if it has too.
Case in point as always is your’s truly – Aman and me spent most of our pre dating time on this small tapri right outside the college campus.
Our College (it was a residential one) was far from the city; add to that the hectic schedule of a B – School. That left us with no time and little energy to venture into the so called cool hangouts that Pune specializes in.
Most evenings were spent hanging in and around the college campus.

On a typical evening, right after the last lecture finished and there would be exactly 30 minutes before the group sat down and brain stormed on the upcoming presentation, half the college would rush to the Tapri outside. For the uninitiated a tapri is a small, dingy looking eating joint. There is usually no place to sit and eat in these tapris. Tapri’s are also makeshift and will relocate with much ease. The tapri outside my college didn’t believe in variety. The menu was limited to “The great Maharashtrian Vada Pav and the equally great Indian Chai”. But like any other roadside eatery the best part of this tapri was that the stuff was absolutely mouth watering.

It was the lethal combination of Vada Pav and Chai, combined with the lovely Pune evenings that did the trick. Aman and I spent most evenings at this tapri, talking about everything possible while we devoured the Vada Pav and enjoyed the tea. The lady who manned the shop charged Rs3 for the Vada Pav and Rs2.50 for the tea. Rs5.50 wasn’t a bad deal at all and this kept us going till dinner time.

And not to anyone’s surprise Aman popped the crucial question at the same Tapri. There couldn’t have been a better place. After all our friendship had started, grew and had flourished at this very Tapri.

The Butterfly Effect

Thanks to Mumbai Diva, I have the butterfly on my page. It feels absolutely great.

About Diva – the best thing about her writing is the fact that she does it with sincerity. Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog a few months back. That helped me discover yours.

I started blogging last year and am now completely hooked to it. Not just writing but also reading. Blogging has given me a whole new perspective to things. I have met people so different from me and so similar to me that it’s amazing.

It now my turn to spread the cheer. These are the people who so deserve this award. I so hope you will accept it.

Pinku - for the sheer honesty with which she writes
Mampi - for the way her posts touch my heart
Masood - for he was the first one to blog roll me J
IHM - for the fact that she really believes in what she says, no pretence there.
Cynic in the Wonderland - Humour at its best !!!

Its time for me to cherish my first award !!! Corner House it is then..

The least we expect our sick, dirty politicians to do is to respect the Martyrs. This is utterly disgusting, the comment that Achuthanandan, the Kerela CM has made. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kerala_CM_insults_slain_Major_Sandeeps_family/articleshow/3781262.cms

And this is because the grieved father didnt want to meet him –
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Major_Unnikrishnans_father_refuses_to_meet_Kerala_CM/articleshow/3777042.cms

This is beyond me. What I am feeling is beyond anger and rage.

NSG Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan - I salute you!!! Each and every Indian is very very proud of you.

At the Changi Airport – Part II

Stranger and his attempts were not the only thing that happened at the Changi airport. There is more to it. I was traveling light, with just my laptop bag and a small suitcase. I happily took the boarding pass and went off without getting any luggage checked in. Cleared the emigration and went shopping at the duty free for the customary stuff.
I walked towards the boarding gate when there were some 45 minutes for my flight. As luck had it mine was the farthermost one.
At the security clearance the guard asked me to open my suitcase. This has never happened with me before and I did quick recall of what all I had stuffed in. There is a limit of carrying only 100 ml of liquid content and that is when it struck me that my suitcase contained my brand new perfume bottle. An Elizabeth Arden, 125 ml.

The security guard told me I had to dispose it off. No. How could I do that?? I had paid a fortune for it. No no no. I am a sucker for perfumes. Let alone a full bottle I don’t even throw empty ones. I couldn’t believe what was happening. And in a la Indian style I started pleading and getting all emotional. But that lady was made of steel. My innocent requests had no impact on her. She said I could either throw the perfume or miss my flight. I was completely heart broken and then I conceded. There didn’t seem any other option.

That’s when the guard picked my perfume and moved towards the bin in slow motion. She pushed the lid but it didn’t open, she tried again and it still didn’t open and then once again and it still didn’t open. That was it. That was the signal of the divine forces. Even God didn’t want my perfume to be wasted. Instantly I screamed asking her to stop. I realized that there were some 50 more people staring at me at this point of time.

I told her I wanted my perfume back. I was going to go back and get my luggage checked in. She gave an incredulous laugh and said that I couldn’t go out as I had already cleared the immigration. I insisted that I wanted to try. With a shrug of the shoulder she handed my perfume back to me. I stuffed it in my suitcase and ran towards the immigration. There was some 40 minutes before my flight’s departure and the immigration was at quite a distance.

At the immigration counter I had to come up with a heart wrenching story of how important this perfume bottle was for me. A story of how this was the last gift from my now non existent dead Aunt. Finally the immigration officer gave in to my requests and let me out. I ran to the ticket counter and got my baggage checked in.
But the ordeal was not yet over. There was quite a distance that I had to run to get back to my departure gate. There were some 20 minutes left. With all the energy I sprinted towards the gate. The same security guard was there and she almost fainted when she saw me without my baggage.

Ah, and did I mention that this perfume smells even better now??

There is more to what happen when I landed, but that’s another post.