I am Loving it

Things I love about myself

Monika has tagged me to brag about 5 things I love about myself. That I would have to say would be

1) I love that I am independent & confident.
I love the fact that I am independent and can take my own decisions. I always know what I want and I am pretty sure of myself. I have it in me to get out of difficult situations and start at the beginning if required. I am a born survivor.

2) I am adventurous. If I have good company, I can go any length and indulge in anything. Sky Diving has been one of the most adventurous thing I have done till date. I just can not stop flaunting it ;)

3) I love just being happy. I love to laugh. I can find humor in daily life. I can laugh at myself comfortably and can let others laugh at me as well.

4) I love that I am an eternal optimist. I am just wired that way. My hopes of a win are pinned high untill the last ball. I believe in the phrase " And lived happily ever after", so if its not happy yet, its definitely not the end yet.

5) I am pretty easy-going. I am an absolutely non-fussy person and that might because I am lazy to create a fuss kinds. I can just get along with anybody.

The Fridge magnet tag

I saw this lovely tag at Artnavy's blog and I had to do it

What you need to do: Take a shot of the magnets you possess and list out any fond/ funny anecdotes/ background about them.
I too do not have a huge collection but just a few ones:



The top one is from a recent trip to Canada, then there is one from NY, one from Grand Canyon. The orchid is from Singapore. The babies magnet was gifted by a friend. It reads "RELAX, I've got just one nerve and you are getting on it" and the other one I do not remember when or where but it reads "Search for the truth, look for the good and hope for the best"

Pick it up if you like it.

18000 words and then some more ....

Nobody has tagged me so I decided to flick this one from Agelessbonding & HipHopGrandma

The rules are:
Answer the questions below and do a Google image search on your answer, Pick a picture from the results on the first page, with minimal explanation.

1. The age you will be in your next birthday: 34


2. A place you’d like to travel to



and Austria


3. Your Favorite place : Kerala



4. Your favorite food/drink: An Onam sadhya


5. Your Favorite pet
We have never had any. The only one I remember is a dog at my Dad's place ages back. Blackie.


6. Your favorite color combination : Wine Red and Biege


7. Your favorite piece of clothing: Jeans and Tunics.


8. Your all time favorite song: Katra Katra jeene do...


9. Your favorite TV show: FRIENDS.



10. Full name of your significant other: It's there on the cover.


11. The town in which you live: Pune

Pune University



MG Road



12. Your screen name/nickname: No surprises


13. Your First job: A computer lab faculty


14. Your Dream job: Working with books and kids


15. Bad Habit you have: Can choose to be extremely lazy


16. Your worst fear: Being bedridden


17. The one thing you’ll like to do before you die : Backpack in Asia



18. The first thing you’ll buy if you get $1,000,000: A farm house

150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty (Five)

I have seen this tag on a couple of blogs. Today I just flicked it from mumbaigirl and Monica and so here I go. I love to-do lists because I can keeping ticking them. This was fun. And anyway 95% of the done list was done before I turned 30.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with dolphins

03. Climbed a mountain

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid

06. Held a tarantula

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone

08. Said “I love you” and meant it

09. Hugged a tree

10. Bungee jumped

11. Visited Paris

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise

14. Seen the Northern Lights

15. Gone to a huge sports game

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables

18. Touched an iceberg

19. Slept under the stars

20. Changed a baby’s diaper

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon

22. Watched a meteor shower

23. Gotten drunk on champagne

24. Given more than you can afford to charity

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment

27. Had a food fight (with my sisters)

28. Bet on a winning horse

29. Asked out a stranger

30. Had a snowball fight

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb

33. Seen a total eclipse

34. Ridden a roller coaster

35. Hit a home run

36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment

39. Had two hard drives for your computer

40. Visited all 50 states

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk

42. Had amazing friends

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country

44. Watched whales

45. Stolen a sign ( Dad's in school)

46. Backpacked in Europe

47. Taken a road-trip

48. Gone rock climbing

49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving

51. Visited Ireland

52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow (and was kicked in the stomach)

56. Alphabetized your CDs

57. Pretended to be a superhero

58. Sung karaoke

59. Lounged around in bed all day

60. Played touch football

61. Gone scuba diving

62. Kissed in the rain

63. Played in the mud

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theatre

66. Visited the Great Wall of China

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken

69. Toured ancient sites - Does Stonehenge & Bath in England count? It better count, I payed in pounds to see the place :)

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight

72. Gotten married

73. Been in a movie

74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced

76. Gone without food for 5 days

77. Made cookies from scratch (What’s R1 there for?)

78. Won first prize in a costume contest (Dressed as a witch)

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice

80. Gotten a tattoo

81. Rafted the Snake River

82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”

83. Gotten flowers for no reason

84. Performed on stage

85. Been to Las Vegas

86. Recorded music

87. Eaten shark

88. Kissed on the first date

89. Gone to Thailand

90. Bought a house

91. Been in a combat zone

92. Buried one/both of your parents

93. Been on a cruise ship

94. Spoken more than one language fluently

95. Performed in Rocky Horror

96. Raised children

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Passed out cold

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open

103. Had plastic surgery

104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived

105. Wrote articles for a large publication

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Touched a stingray

110. Broken someone’s heart

111. Helped an animal give birth (have watched a cow give birth)

112. Won money on a TV game show

113. Broken a bone

114. Gone on an African photo safari

115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild

118. Ridden a horse

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (almost)

122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period

123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States

124. Visited all 7 continents

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days

126. Eaten kangaroo meat

127. Eaten sushi

128. Had your picture in the newspaper

129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school

131. Parasailed

132. Touched a cockroach

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey

135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

137. Skipped all your school reunions (wasn't deliberate, just did not work out)

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts (that’s what A does, not me)

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146. Dyed your hair

147. Been a DJ

148. Shaved your head

149. Caused a car accident

150. Saved someone’s life

The middle name tag

I have been tagged by Moppet's mom, Sue and Usha.

Getting straight to the point, the three rules to be followed are:
a) The rules must be mentioned in the beginning of the tag.

b) You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

c) At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog. - I am going to ignore this one. Please.

Middle name, yes I have one.

S - Susan, thatz my middle name. 4 out of 6 girls in the family have the same middle name. Just like Moppet's Mom said its not available in a single record except for the baptism certificate but I love it. Only my granny called me/us by that name. By the pattern of it and by some unwritten rule in the mid seventies all 'Chinnamma' and 'Shoshamma' and 'Achamma' could be 'Susan', so out of the 6 girls in the family, 4 of us were Susan. When we used to visit granny during summer holidays, she used to call us by our christened names as those were easy for her(she often wondered loud who would name their kids like my father did). She could shout Susan and 1 of the 4 would atleast respond.

U - Upma. I have hated upma ever since I can remember. Many people have tried tricking me into eating it telling me they make the best upma and I have only been polite to swallow 2 spoon fulls(anything more means I must love you too much). P loves Upma, ofcourse the caveat is "like my mom makes it". An absolute lazy bone when it comes to cooking, I realized Upma can be the quickest & simplest breakfast or evening snack. Ever since the enlightenment, I have tried making Upma for breakfast & evening snacks, only for the tables to turn. He hates it and I eat it telling myself "It isn't bad at all, afterall its the quickest thing to make".

S - sixth standard - That is when Dad bought me my first and only bicycle. I learnt it by myself, in the scorching heat after school. So I probably took the longest too, almost 6-8 months. For the next 4 years the cycle was an integral part of my life. Many school time memories revolve around 7 friends cycling around the small town in Gujarat where I spent my childhood.

A - Anniversary Gift. This is not about mine but mom and dad's.The first gift we ever bought them. I think I must be 10 and my sisters 8 years old. The house used to be a riot most days, most times, between the three of us or my mom and my sisters. It was absolutely given that we were to be treated well with the rod for our mis-behaviour almost everyday. Finally totally exhausted mom came up with a bright plan. 10 paise per well-behaved day. We were given a collection box and we managed to collect Rs 2 or 3 in about 6 months time. As a anniversary gift we bought them a Mother Mary's poster for that money. The excitement of secretly exchanging the 'chillar' for a crisp note, buying a gift and keeping it a secret and gift wrapping it at night was all new and lots of fun.

N - Nana - My maternal grandfather. If anybody were to ask me, what is your earliest memory, the one that comes to my mind is me and my grandfather fishing in the pond near my mom's place. I holding the fishing net at one end of the pond and he at the other end. I was something between 2.5 - 3 years. When I narrated it, I wasn't sure if it was a dream, my fantasy or if it was for real. Many people at my mom's place are amazed at my memory. Though there is a lot more to that sketchy image that I do not remember, it seems we caught a fish and then I and a cousin fought over having the whole thing all alone. I have an elephant's memory yet I forget a lot of small things & huge ones my sisters remember. Such memory leakage!!!

Tag is open to anyone to pick if you haven't done it already.

After the peapod

Tagged by Just like that.

Most days we are dead tired, the remaining days are unevenly divided between trying to put the peapod to sleep, mud slinging at each other, giving each other the silent treatment or one dozing off just waiting. So finally when the jackpot is hit, it calls for a long toast. The twinkling eyes, the shhhhh, and light music just creates the right symphony.

My Fetishes tag

HHGM tagged me and so here goes my fetishes.

1) I can not throw food away. This does not mean I do not have waste or left overs but wherever possible leave the honors for my mom. I have some kind of a heavy guilt trips after I dump food in the dustbin so I just avoid doing it. Now, while I have to do the honors myself, I make sure I eat little or force myself to eat it all. I even try not to cook in excess, because ultimately most land in the bin and I just can't bring myself to throw it away.

2) I have to clean my house just when I am leaving or before retiring to bed. All beds neat and spread well, kitchen clean, sink clear, toys off the floor, clothes either dumped into the closet or the washing machine but out of sight. I hate coming back or getting up to a untidy house.

I tag Risha & Pushpa, lets see your list girls.

The 'I admire' tag

Its been long due so will get straight to the point.

I Admire..

1) Self-made men and women. I just love autobiographies of people who talk about hardships, struggles, who risk it all to follow their heart, who have faith & hope and success arriving slowly and steady. I love these stories and I love these people all the more.
2) Patience and Calmness. I admire people who in crisis can think through and remain calm and tell you "this will pass but this is what we need to do".
3) People who live with difficult in-laws to take care of them and maintain a cordial atmosphere. It takes immense patience and courage to deal with 50/60plus tantrums when you are just 20/30 plus.
4) People who have spick and span and orderly homes. I am at your feet for that effort you put in. I was once visiting P's cousin in our home town. The cousin's wife opened her almirah and the sight of neatly stacked towels, sheets and clothes absolutely bowled me over. I just loved her for that.
5) Genuine people. They say & do what they think they should inspite of knowing others might not approve.
6) People who can introspect and accept a fault.
7) People who can go out of their way to help and not show an ounce of arrogance.
8) People who can cook well.
9) People who take special care of kids and oldies on the road or other places. People who stop for a child to cross or let that uncle overtake you, since he seems to be in so much hurry.
10) People who stand up for a cause and stand by it till the end.
11) Parents who can put their kid's happiness before society norms and patterns.
12) People who are keen to learn new things.

I love doing such tags, atleast makes me think and pen it down explicitly.

I am Judgemental about

Today I came in for half-a-day to work and also today is our last day in this place. Its absolute chaos with everybody clearing desks and packing, marking boxes and so on. we moved in here just 3 weeks back. Some kind of re-location trying to get each department into a single premise. Quite an excercise. So with this final move I need not get into the hitch a rick or walk a mile after P drops me off in front of his office. I can now simply get down in the parking and just walk to our respective firms.

So with all this happening around, I am in no mood to work. So I think I will just do the Judgemental tag passed on by Swati which I had anyway decided to pick from Usha & HHGM. So here I go ....

I am judgemental about ..

1. People who make a great deal about looks and color and make comparisions like my daughter is fairer than yours. Makes me think you are all Shallow.

2. People who crib a lot. Makes me feel you love being in that sorry state. "Dukh mein hi Sukh hai" category.

3. People who are very rich. Makes me think you got too much black money.

4. People who pass sarcastic comments during normal conversations. makes me think "You are too cheap".

5. People who praise others unnecessarily or go about cho-chweeting others. Makes me think they are dumb.

6. People who praise their spouse or in-laws endlessly in public, makes me feel "something is wrong there" and if you crib about them I feel you are just a cribmaster :).

7. People of houses that are not moderately neat & clean. Makes me think, you are confused. Yeah, I kind of associate a cluttered house to a confused state of mind.


I will pass the tag to Risha. Anybody can pick it come from here, seems like I am one of the last to do it.

Me, myself & mine

I picked up this tag from ArtNavy. I enjoyed doing it.
Here is my DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I tag Risha & Biju. Anyone else interested can pick it up and let me know.