Sun Shined Last Night

When I started blogging it was never my intention to make friends, but was just to write what I felt like. Well, at least that is what I thought. Then one day, while I was on a trip I took few pictures of sunset and when I looked at them, I saw Rays of Sun, not the blog world ROS but regular rays of sun. So I thought I would send it to ROS.

Little did I know back then that this was going to be a start of a brand new friendship? The first emails were exchanged in late October and since then I have talked to her every day till today, other than the weekends and exchanged countless emails.

We are 2 very different people, share very different interest, the only thing we have common is that we both appreciate life. And that is what has held us strong. We know so much about each other's everyday life as to even what is going to be served for dinner.

After all the emails and phone calls later yesterday, ROS came to visit me. We spent a whole evening together like long time friends who haven't seen each other for a while. This was the first time I invited a person who I met online and I'm very glad that I did.

This meeting has only strengthened our friendship and I hope to see her more often as she has fallen in love with my Golden State.

As a tribute to this friendship, I'm adding the pictures here that started all this.






PS: Jagu, Malika, Vikram ,- As promised I served her Masala Dosa and Sambar for dinner.

I Feel Pretty oh so Pretty

I'm a strong believer of beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For me a girl to be beautiful, has to have curly hair, should have great calves and biceps. By calves and biceps I don't mean the body builder type, but more like a defined shape.

So I was all into getting biceps myself. So I started lifting weights. Shekar guided me through this whole process. He showed me the correct way to lift them, the way to stand when I lifted and all.

So I would lift weights, started with 8 pounds, moved to 10, then 12 and finally 15. So I started seeing the shape on my arms and I was a very happy person. I would flex my muscles and show them off to Shekar. I did this for almost a month and whola, I was pretty according to me.

Then one day, I was getting ready for an occasion and I decide to wear saree and then the unthinkable happened. The blouse for the saree doesn't fit me anymore, because of my newly existing biceps. Since all my blouses are the same measurement, this meant, none of them are going to fit.

So I have decided that I do not want biceps anymore I just wanna wear my sarees.

Hopefully this happens soon as I love wearing sarees.

Me to Shekar: What should I lift for my biceps to go away?

Travel 101

I had specified in my one of my previous posts that I am organized and my organization skill comes to life when I'm planning to go on a trip.

I'm flying tonight (just me, no Shekar) to go spend the weekend with Veena and here is a list of things I did to get ready for the trip.

• Got the ticket almost a month ago ( I can never be spontaneous)
• Both at home and work I have a list of things I need to take with me. If I remember something new I run and jot it down on my list so I don't forget.
• Make sure I have books to read on the plane. Went to the library and got two suspense novels. It has to be suspense else I would get bored after the first 20 minutes (flight is almost 6 hrs)
• Week prior to leaving I have all the outfits planned. Friday I'm gonna wear Capri pants with white t-shirt and so on.
• Check with Veena on are we planning to do anything special. Like Sunday are we going to church? If so I need to take Church clothes.
• Week before the actual day my packing starts. No it not packing in actual sense, it more like I make a trip pile and add things to it every day. Actual stuffing into suitcase happens the day of the trip.
• Decide what I am gonna bring back from Veena's place (Remember when my mom came I gave her 2 sarees to stitch falls, she left it at Veena's place when she visited her place like 2 weeks ago), and take the suitcase according to that.
• Cook, since I'm only gone for 3 days, but still made some food so Shekar has enough to last him till Sunday.
• Do the laundry 2 days before the trip so I have good choice available clothes for me to decide what to take, and when I return I do not have to worry about not having clothes to wear.
• I hate coming back to a messy house so I start a cleaning spree 2 days prior to the trip.
• Day of the trip:
• Print Boarding Pass
• Get some money from the ATM
• Straighten my Hair
• Final packing (stuffing into suitcase)
• Make sure cell phone is charged to 100%
• Check the weather both here and at Veena's place
• Skim my lists and make sure I haven't forgotten anything

Yes, folks I'm going to visit Veena today and will be back Sunday night. Till then all you guys take care and have an awesome weekend.

I know I'm going to.

Dad and World Cup

This is the first world cup that I am watching without my Dad by my side screaming Goooaaaaaal, Eda Adi eda (hit a goal), Avante Karyam (this can't be translated).

We being a family of two girls, Dad has passed on all his passions to both of us. Football (Soccer) being the first and foremost.

I remember when World cup would come on TV Dad would ask us to join in. When we were kids we didn't care, we got to watch TV and we would sit next to Dad. As we grew older he would explain the game to us. He would say this is Corner Kick and would explain what it meant.

During the match he would quiz us and ask is this a Penalty Kick or a corner kick? Those few days the lingo around the house also changes. If we did something bad, Dad would say you are gonna get a Red Card. Veena and I used to run and hide when we heard this.

Veena and I started liking these matches and we would watch them and keep track of the points and would show off our knowledge to Dad. We used to say this team has 3 points and since that game was a draw that team only got 1 point.

Years have passed by and Veena, Dad and I we live in three different parts of the country, but everyday since June 9th there has been a phone call from me to Dad and from Veena to Dad just to discuss the matches that day.

Dad thank you for sharing your passion with us.

To Dear Dad....

Father's day is on Sunday the 18th, so this year I decided to send a gift to my father as opposed to the usual Fathers Day card. So after hours of thinking and googling I finally decided to send him a coffee mug with Veena and my picture on it.

I am very particular about people getting gifts on time or earlier because it breaks my heart for fathers day to come and go and my gift is in still in the mail. So by end of May I had decided what I was going to give to dad, then I started looking through my collection of photos to get a good picture of Veena and me. I narrowed it down to three pictures and emailed it to Veena for approval.

Finally we decided on a picture and I placed that order. This was last week Tuesday and I have been waiting and tracking the package till today.

My cell starts ringing and I see its my parents calling. I grab the phone, yeay they got the gift. It was mom on the other line.

Mom: We got your gift.
Me: What gift?
Mom: The cup, with your pictures
Me: That isn't for you, that was for papa put him on the phone
Mom: (calling out for dad)Hold on, I can't seem to find him.
Me - holding and thinking oh dad must be so happy
Mom: Hold on, he is in the kitchen, making coffee in his new cup.
Me: (Excited) Oh really

Then dad comes on the phone

Me: You liked the cup?
Dad: The box the cup came in had a receipt that said this was almost 20 dollars.
Me: hmmmm (I see where this is going, the usual lecture about how I shouldn't spend money.)
Dad: That is an expensive cup.
Me: pakshe (but) you liked it right? Else give it to mom, she will be happy to have it.
Dad: Nooooo... its my cup I'm going to drink coffee in it every morning and every evening.
Me: :) (thinking - oh he loved it)

Happy father's day to a wonderful dad.

PS: Just an update, spoke to mom the other day and she says dad drinks juice, coffee and everything liquid like (oatmeal) in this cup.

Ouch...

Every given day I utter this word quiet a few times and every time it is because I have hurt myself. I'm very accident prone ( that's how I like to put it, as opposed to what Shekar calls me - Careless) .

• It starts with waking up in the morning, and on my way to the bathroom, my shoulder hits the corner of the wall - Ouch
• Come back from the bathroom to wake Shekar up, my toe hits the bed stand - Ouch
• As usual I'm running late, so grab my plate with waffles and walk to the living room to watch news. My eyes are on the TV and bang I have kicked the coffee table again - Ouch
• As I open my front door to get out, I forget to move my feet and I open the door, and it come and hits my toe - Ouch
• I manage to get to work safe and I'm in a meeting at work. Most of the time I sit with my legs crossed at my knees. So I'm at this meeting listening away and I lift my right leg to cross over my left and thud, my right knee just hit the table - Ouch
• After my day at work I return home. On of few things I do immediately after I get home is empty my dishwasher. So my dishwasher is lying open like this and I'm putting the dishes away and walking around the open lid, and as you all would have by guessed now, every evening I hit the part below my knee on this open door - Ouch
  

These are incidents that happen to me everyday. Then there are incidents that happen to me only once.

Other day at work, we all had a 30 minutes presentation to go to. The organizer did not realize there would be a good turn out, so he booked a small room that had seating capability for 10 people and we were like 20. So I got this nice spot by the door and just stood there. So I was standing there pretending to listen and all of a sudden I scream Ouch. The whole place went quiet and I had 20 pairs of eye staring at me, like what is wrong with you, Did you see a spider?

For a split second even I did not know what happen. It felt like someone had grabbed my hair and pulled it. When I turned around I realized that someone had shut the door and my hair got caught in between the door and its frame.

Then there are other days....