Bang Bang Bangkok

Now what happens when you are stranded in a place like Bangkok in between 2 flights? Add to it the fact that you are all alone, the Laptop refuses to start, the hotel looks totally uninviting and the head is buzzing with ideas.

So what if you have just landed after a 9 hours flight? So what if you haven’t slept for 3 nights? So what if all your body needs is sleep and rest. So what if the heat and humidity is completely unbearable. When have all these been a deterrent to a “lady on mission”?

That’s exactly what happened last week. On my way back from Melbourne to Bangalore, I had more than a 10 hours halt at Bangkok. Landed, cleared immigration, took a visa, reached the hotel, slept for 1 hour and lo behold, I was all set to undergo the therapy that works like none.

After a quick round of investigation I closed down on 3 shopping destinations. After all there is only as much one can cover in half a day. Well fed and armed with the essentials i.e. lots of Thai Bhat, a cold water of bottle, sun glasses, flat footwear, and focused mind, I was raring to go.

What transpired in between is any girls guess. 8 pair of footwear, 5 Bags, 5 skirts, 30 plus tops, 2 dozen odd accessories, few jackets, some sleepwear, a empty pocket and really heavy bags.

And I am not kiddin’ when I say heavy. Heavy to the extent that my fingers were swollen after a while. I had to remove my rings to give way to the swelling. But when the heart is determined who cares about a bit of pain.

Finally, I had to get back to the airport, not because I thought I had shopped enough but because I didn’t want to miss my flight back home. By now my fingers were as thick at sausages, numb with pain and totally lifeless. So the only way to carry the bags was on my fore arms. Yes, I looked demented, a spectacle worth a laugh. But who cares, behind the layer of pain was a very happy heart.

Writing this today, as fingers took a while to get back to normal. Happy and content and the pain is now gone, but the gain is there to stay!!!

Of Relationship and interests

Cometh the long weekend and off we go to the beautiful forests of Nilgiris. Holi coupled with the weekend is the perfect excuse. Add to it the fact that both Aman and me have been travelling for a while and have not been able to spend as much time together as we would have liked to. So this is the perfect opportunity to escape.

It’s said that couples should cultivate common interests to enhance their relationship. I am really not sure about the cultivating part. As we never had too. We both love travelling and we both are spontaneous with our travels. We love eating out and experimenting with various cuisines. And once in a while we both get down to cooking together. We love the water and swimming is another thing we do together. We love shopping. So we head out together and then go to respective sections only to meet again at the trail rooms. Life looks all set.

We haven’t made efforts to imbibe each others interests, but we have found a way around it. Like in his free time he watches TV and I stick to my laptop. So we sit together but do different things. He is loves playing and my only association with sports is watching it. So I watch when he plays.

We both read, he likes economics, business and strategy, and I stick to fiction. But atleast we go pick books together.

I am sure there are people out there who make a lot of effort to pick up a hobby just for the sake of their partner. We didn’t, coz we didn’t have to. We had our common interests and we had our not so common interests. And we like it that way. For once, I really don’t understand how someone can read all possible business magazines each month and he really doesn’t understand how I can be fixated with Farmville. But so be it.

It might be important for couples to enjoy stuff together. But it’s equally important to have some varied interests as well. Now if 2 people were just the same won’t 1 be wasted?

Long live Twitter!!

Thanks to a bunch of awesome guys I am following on twitter, I could live my moments of history yesterday. Yes, I am talking about the beautiful innings Sachin played. I mean 200 runs in an ODI. This is exceptional and I have a feeling that this record won’t be broken that easily. It was like God himself was thrashing the SA bowlers all over. It was poetry in motion.

All kinds of cricket sites are blocked in office. The popular ones and the vague ones. Everything. There is absolutely no way of knowing the score. I usually call Aman or dad to find out the latest.

But yesterday was different. Although I shall regret not watching this live for a long long time to come, I nevertheless felt the excitement and the tension, sitting right here in office, thanks to twitter.

The countdown started when Sachin was at 185. And then each ball was broadcasted on twitter, in those 140 words. With anti-jinxes, nervous 190’s, slamming Dhoni, it was like seeing everything live.

With hashtags such as #sachinisgod, #sachin, #cricket, it wasn’t difficult to keep track of what was happening in Gwalior.

Thanks to @meIHM @SupriyaMM @confusedsoul @theevilp @manuscrypts @kushanmitra @trailblazr @hitchwriter for making me live those awesome moments!!!

So what have I been up to??

Primarily work which kept me super busy. Then some travelling, first to Delhi and Punjab and then to Ranchi. A wedding in between and then some more trips to Singapore and Thailand.

And in between all this there were some brave decisions taken as well. Some doors were knowingly closed with the hope that there will be opportunities in the future as well. At the same time knowing very well that such things don’t happen too often in life.

But for love, everything seems worth while. Such moments make the bond all the more stronger.

I am visiting my blog after ages today. Thanks to all those who checked on me while I was gone. While I didn’t write anything for the past so many months, I also gave reading my favorite blogs a skip. And yes I missed it.

So when is the right time baby

I am confused.

Do bells ring? Or is it the voice inside? Or is it the bank statement? Or is it those relatives? Or will I dream of it one fine night?

Now you are confused too, right? Well I am talking about the right time. The right time to become a parent? How will I know?

Having been married for more than 3 and half years doesn’t serve the occasion too well either. Polite questionings have long been replaced by direct and often rude enquiries from all sorts of relatives. From ducking the questions, to giving polite replies to being rude, I have been there and done that.We were never the ones to base our decisions on what some vague aunty suggested so these inquisitive relatives could very well be kept aside.

But again, how do we know we are mentally ready to for a baby? Living the kind of lives we do, where there is no time for sleep, where careers rule our lives, where we pack our bags and leave for a trip impromptu, where everything happens without a plan. So how will we know if we are ready for the change? The only way to know it is to experience it. And what if we don’t like it then?

Could my feeling very happy when a friend’s 3 years old son decides to sit on my lap be taken as an indication? Does it mean anything when I beam at seeing those little ones smile at me? Or the fact that these days I invariable end up picking up and baby talk to some little one at the mall? This is all a very new phenomenon. I was not the types who run after children.

But again, I don’t think this new change can be taken as a cue. So then how will I ever know?

When we got married we thought we would be ready to have a child in 2 years time. After all 2 years seemed enough to settle down. It’s been 3 and half years and we are still as naive about the whole thing.

Looks like I am waiting for some divine intervention. Maybe I should consult a palmist or an astrologer. So all you parents out there, how did you know that the time indeed was right? Do any of you have regrets?

Virtual meets the Real

And so it happened. Without too much planning. Without going to and fro. One ping, followed by one suggestion on place and time. And lo behold, we met.

Who you may ask – our very own Monika, I say. And what a meeting it was. It was a weekday so I rushed straight from office. And was there dot on time, only to see the Red Cedia parked already. I obviously had no issues in spotting her in the crowded coffee shop. We hugged as if we were some long lost friends catching up over cup of coffee. And conversation just flew. Not even for a second there was an uncomfortable silence. Not even for a second were we stuck on what to say next. Least to say, it was delightful. The first peek at the watch shocked me no end. 2 hours had gone by and we hadn’t realized.

After meeting her yesterday, I am still wondering why it took so long. I should have met her ages back.

This was the first time I had met someone from the Blog World. I had major plans of meeting Mampi and Pinku when I had ventured to Delhi and Punjab earlier this year and unfortunately no plans materialized, thanks to the exhaustive wedding preparations from which I couldn’t pull myself away even for a few hours. I even planned meeting Mumbai Diva when I was in Bombay in May but even that didn’t work due to last minute flight changes.

Thinking about 10 years back, I would have been so closed on interacting with strangers. I would have died before following someone I didn’t know (reference to twitter). Chat and emails to people I haven’t met or didn’t know would be out of question. But now I see myself so open to these things. When I started blogging I hardly did interact with anyone. I used to sms Aman and my friend Anu and would tell them that the blog has been updated and that they should go read it. Then, almost a year back things changed, not sure how, but yeah I started opening up as a blogger. And now there are these real people most of whom I didn’t know before they left that comment or before I stumbled into their spaces. This is a world in itself and it’s a delightful place.

I was a Fish in my last birth

Let me introduce you to my latest love of the purely self indulgent nature. This new found love has overtaken my life completely. You might have noticed the absence from the blog. Reading as well as writing. This time though I am not complaining.

So yes coming back to my latest fascination – its swimming. Yeah, bring it on. But first a bit of history.

Now, yours truly has never been scared of water, being a Cancerian, I guess, has nothing to do with it.

Remember I mentioned that we had moved to this fantastic new place earlier this year? So the same place along with being the incredible place it is also boasts of this awesome swimming pool. First look and I was rearing to go, there was only a slight hitch – I didn’t know how to swim. I did some frantic running around the apartment to find out if they have any plans of getting a coach but I was told no such thing was happening for quite some time. Subsequently one fine evening, when the pool looked way too inviting I decided to jump. I was of course accompanied by a friend who knew how to swim, quite well. Some emotional atyachar later she agreed to teach me. 2 days of coaching is what I got from her. And then as always work overtook my life and swimming was forgotten.

Then about 3 weeks back, the urge to jump into the pool came back. This time I had dear friend, who now also happens to be my neighbor, for company. Since then I have gone for a swim each day (ok, I did miss twice) irrespective of what time I get back home and in-spite of how cold and windy the weather is. I don’t remember when was the last time I got so crazy about doing something. I am rather proud of myself as 2 days of coaching and another 2 days of splash splash, and lo behold, I know how to swim.

Yes I picked up the trick, and I am able to swim rather well now. Freestyle and backward both. And yes I am able to finish vertical laps as well, about 10 – 15 of them.

The way I feel when in water is nothing less than euphoric. Floating backwards, staring at the stars with cool breeze on my face. Ecstasy!! There is this constant chlorine smell in my nose. As evening approaches I start getting restless, itching to get away from everything and go to the pool. Usually the earliest I land up there is like 9ish. And once in I am the happiest. It’s magical. I wonder how I stayed away from water for so long!! It’s a blessing that I have K for company who if not more is at least as passionate about swimming. Aman too joins in but mostly only on weekends.

So right now it’s going great. For a change I am shutting my laptop and heading to the pool each day. That will explain the lack of new posts. This new obsession has earned me quite a few new nicknames as well which I will not divulge for obvious reasons.

So that was about my latest crush, do you too have one?

Of Birthday, Books and the time went by:

Last week was such a glorious one for the mighty me had her birthday on the 14th and since it was a weekday, the better half went all that way to ensure that festivities weren’t any less.

He started bestowing me with gifts much in advance. Shopping for Books and Footwear followed. Sunday breakfast at Koshy’s. Another round of shopping at Fab India. Mid night cake cutting in a candle lit balcony. Another round of cake cutting in office, followed by a sumptuous lunch treat in La Casa. Evening was spent partying at home. A small group of good friends, music, food, bubbly - you know the essentials. Aman took an off while I had to slog it out at work. His premise – “it’s my wife’s birthday and I want to have fun”. Although most part of his day too was spent in preparations for evening.
And life did look quite rosy. The week was made even more beautiful with some added shopping escapades with some fabulous dinners. Thanks Aman for making it so lovely.

I have been procrastinating about writing for way to long now. And thanks to this new addiction called twitter, blog has taken a back seat. So for all those who have been missing me, follow me here on twitter.

Coming to Books:
Among finishing other books I also managed to read Bringing up Vasu, by Parul Sharma. I usually don’t do reviews but this one time I do want to write a bit about this one solely because Parul is the first person I know who has a book to her name :). I have been reading her blog for a few months now and I feel I owe this to her.

Bringing up Vasu is a very good first time effort. The blurb of the book does full justice in telling the reader what to expect.
Let’s first talk about what I didn’t like and then move to what I loved about the book. It’s nice to end at positive note you see.

Firstly for a non mum like me there is just too much poop in the first half of the book. While I am sure that, the poop is the reality of life and sooner or later even I will have to face it, somehow reading about it didn’t excite me all that much.
Secondly, at some and I insist only at some instances the humor was a tad bit forced.

Leaving these 2 things aside the book is a very nice light read, for mums as well as non mums who might some day decide to become one. The book is funny and energetic. It has its share of moments that tug at your heart, like when the protagonist decides to take up a assignment and leave her new born in the hands of maid. Her dilemma, her confusion and her paranoia, I am quite sure all working mothers go through it. The book is about her aspirations to be this cool super mom which again, I think, a lot of women would want to be. The book is about how she wants the best and only the best for her son.
This book is also a must read for men who have these splendid notions that children are all hunky dorky and fun to be with. I do plan to force Aman to read it as well.

There are these letters that the mum has written to her son on completion of each quarter and they are an absolute delight to read. Parul ends the book in a manner which tells me that a sequel is in the offering. This genre of Indian writing is new, as I haven’t come across a book on similar lines.
Parul – kudos to you for pulling this off. I am sure we can wait for more.

http://orangeicecandy.blogspot.com/2009/07/bloggings-better-thannot.html