Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Singapore..!!!!! We loved you.. :)

So this month for me was all about Singapore. Yay..!!!! :)

Mum and I went to Singapore on a holiday and had great time. This was the first time we were taking a break together. She deserved it completely. As for me, I was OK travel to any place. Mum decided we should be heading to Singapore. Also November was right time to visit. Christmas deco was awesome. From little candy shops to Malls, everything was decorated for the festival. Weather was perfect too. Bit of rain in the evening. it was for less than an hour. So usually we were having our evening coffee and it used to start raining. We used to sit back relaxed and watch the rain. At one point, we both took out our books and started reading at the coffee shop. She's into books too now 'cos of me.. I like that. Trying to get dad into reading. Not happening at all.

We met wonderful people there. Have become such goof friends in 5 days that mum n I already miss them. we met three couples and one of them stay very close to my place. So hoping to make plans to meet here as well.

Here are few pictures from the trip. :)













Friday, September 4, 2015

Green Tea

I've been drinking a cup of Green Tea everyday for almost 4 years now. How do I know its made a difference to my body? I don't feel any different. I wasn't concerned about weight loss and have never bothered to check. I do work out in the gym for an hour or so during the weekdays to stay fit. Again not because I was asked by my doctor or anything. This is another question that's been running in my mind. So many ask why do I run/walk/cycle in the gym when I am not "fat". I do feel a bit angry when i hear this 'cos 1. So what if I am not size 0? 2. Should we work out only to lose kilos? 



Coming back to my Green Tea question, how exactly would I know that its good/bad for me? Also, Is one cup a day fine? I've heard people say three cups are good. Somehow I haven't drank more than one a day. So what is right and what needs to be changed? Any answers would help.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Travel and Reading

Its been a long time since i wrote anything. Don't remember if i wrote about my Kerala trip. Since that trip, all I have been doing with my work friends is planning other small getaways. We have so many plans that pretty sure 80% of them just stay as plans and nothing more. :) We have a small holiday planned for the first weekend of coming month to Pondicherry. Eagerly waiting for it. Its so much fun with my work friends 'cos we all have similar interests and in spite of few clashes, we patch up soon and go out to celebrate the patch up.

I have also been reading a bit. Right now I'm completely into Penny Vincenzi books. There is something amazing in her books that has me hooked to it. From the cover page till the end, I just cannot say its boring. If you have a look at her books, you will say that the girl in the picture is beautiful and there must be an interesting story behind her. At first to be frank, just the gown worn by the girl in one of her book made me pick it up. I didn't even read a bit about the book at the back. Since then, I have been going to bookstore few times only to find her books. 




Right now reading her "The Best of Times". Actually i started this one yesterday and waiting to go home from work only to continue. 

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Small acts with big results

I am at a stage where it really doesn't matter what the world thinks and talks about me. Only thing that matters to me now is what i think about myself. My actions and words are important to me and I want to make sure it doesn't hurt my family. I don't know what got this change in me, but it has and for good. I can feel myself being happier than used to be few months back. So as long as I'm happy, its fine i guess.

I have read in too many books and articles about this feeling. It tells us to not bother with the rest. It took me a long time to reach here and I am glad that i finally did. I do not worry about anything now. Best example is when few days back i traveled to Kerala with my team and tripped over and broke my new phone. Just few months or a year ago if this had happened, I would just sit and cry for not less than two hours, along with blaming myself, my life, God and what not. :) This time when i fell, it was actually because the train started moving and i had to catch up to it. I just got up, picked my broken phone, ran and got in the train. I kept the phone in my bag and continued with dinner and sleep. I was also pretty badly hurt, bleeding from my elbow and knee. Only thing i had on my mind was it will be fine. My phone might get fixed, if not I'll buy a new one. My wounds will heal. I wasn't crying.

This was a small incident. But this proved that I have changed over the years. Life had made me strong enough face these situations. When a really big life changing incident happens, these small things will be dealt better by us. This is my observation and I am hoping that these make me strong and brave enough to get up every time and continue.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Ishq And Mushq

I read the book "Ishq And Mushq" by Priya Basil over the weekend.


Really enjoyed this one. At times I did feel it could have been shorter in telling us what  it wanted to over many many pages. It was my first time knowing about Sikhs and their culture. Its fascinating to know their cultural preferences and superstitions. It was particularly nice for me to read about Sikhs's habits in the UK and how different they feel with the same habits in India. I kinda wish there was more of food in this one. I actually picked this book thinking there is a lot of food in it and maybe there it plays a huge role in their lives. But it didn't. What i really liked was the way a secret was handled by everyone in the plot even after it being known by all. Don't think I can ever be that way with a secret.

I read that this is Priya Basil's first book. Have to say its really good being the first one. Looking forward to read more from her.

Monday, May 11, 2015

In Her Shoes

Right now watching "In Her Shoes". I am so happy to have found this book and movie. Finished reading this one yesterday and I absolutely loved it. Its about two sisters and their cracked relationship. Elder one being the responsible lawyer and the younger being very opposite. I loved it 'cos somewhere I could relate to it. I am not completely different from my sister, but one could say we don't see eye to eye most of the time. Its fine with us though 'cos we give each other lot of space and mind our own business. I'm sure many sisters are this way too. 



I didn't know about this book being made into a movie. Just googled it and found. Cameron Diaz is the perfect choice for the movie. So excited to watch this one. Yay..!! :)

I have started reading "Ishq And Mushq" by Priya Basil and I am already half way into the book. Well written and in detail. Characters are good and you don't feel like keeping the book down. Will write more on this one later.

Monday, May 4, 2015

OK Kanmani

Weekend was so great that waking up to get ready for work was a bit sad thing to me today. 1 May being off due to lobour day, we had whole three days to sleep in, read, watch movies and sleep again. But i couldn't do it all very well this time.

Friday was my nephew's thread ceremony and whole day was spent with cousins. Its so nice to meet them all once in few months. Had lot of fun catching up on their lives. Saturday was shopping day for me with friends from work. One of them is getting married and we all wanted to buy Lehenga. This being my first lehenga, was a bit worried if it would suit me. For all weddings. I have always worn saree or salwar. So this time we all decided to buy similar lehengas and wear them. We went mad with the options we got. Especially me. :( I wanted to buy them all. If only i had enough money. I took one whole day to decide and finally bought one.

On Sunday, woke up late and took mum for a movie. OK Kanmani. It was really nice. Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menon make a great pair. All the songs in the movie are awesome and I have been listening to them nonstop. Movie was a lot like Sathiya to me. The train scene, friend's wedding, songs and clothes. Its a one time watch and songs would be in your playlist for a long time. :)


Wednesday, April 15, 2015

If you could see me now

It was a long weekend for me. :) Sister is traveling on work and I had to stay home to help mum with the kids. Along with coming up with new ideas to keep the kids occupied, I also had a little time to read..!! Yay. So made good use of these four days to read two amazing books. Yes. Two books on a weekend is bliss to me.

I picked "If You Could See Me Now" by Cecelia Ahern. Having been a huge fan of "P.S. I Love you" I always blindly pick up her books. There is something great about her writing. You could say there is magic in her books. I love that. Her books talk about life, love and moving on. Being at a stage in life where moving on is all i want, you could say i might be choosing books based on this. "If You Could See Me Now" is about Elizabeth Egan whose life is filled with work and her nephew who she adopted 'cos of her sister not bothered about the baby and his upbringing. He nephew Luke has a grown-up mysterious friend who falls in love with Elizabeth. After few days, she can see him too but not anyone else. I liked this a lot. God knows if this has ever happened to anyone. But i know a lot of kids who has these invisible kids. I really wonder if any of them can really see.



Another book i read in the past four days is "Airs and Graces" by Erica James. I absolutely loved this one. Its about Ellen whose husband abandoned her to live with another women. She decides that having been hurt for marrying for love, wants to get married now for money. So she plans to get married to her rich lawyer. What isn't planned in Love. Matthew, an artist, godson of Ellen's friend comes to her life. Its a very well written book. Not a moment i felt like keeping it down. I'm gonna buy "Tell it to the Skies" soon 'cos i loved Erica James writing style. :)



Thursday, April 9, 2015

The Normal Heart

I watched the movie "The Normal Heart" by Ryan Murphy today and all i can say is WOW. Why didn't i watch this sooner? This was made in 2014 and I watched it today. But am i glad..!! I came across this today only 'cos i was wondering if Jim Parsons has acted in any movie. I want to watch every movie and series which he is in. I think he is one of the most talented and smart man we have right now in this world.

The Normal Heart is so touching. Every single dialogue, actor, emotion is just perfect. Movie is about a gay activist  who attempts to raise HIV/AIDS awareness during the early 1980s. The casting is so amazing. Mark Ruffalo, Frank De Julio, Julia Roberts, Jim Parsons and many more. All have done a
great job and this is a must watch. Mark Ruffalo's acting so good that I've become a fan already. I cried while watching this one and it made me so angry as well. I like it when i feel anger or happiness or frustration while watching movies. It shows that I feel for these causes. Always love a movie
with a good cause. And this one surely is.

I highly recommend this one to all. For sure will have this one in my laptop forever just so i can watch it again and again to understand every single thing said in the movie.

Monday, March 30, 2015

The Story Of Us

Past two days were spent in just sleeping and reading. I should've loved every minute of it. But what really happened was me just cribbing how broke I am to go out and do something. End of Sunday, i was so bored of staying home that Monday was a good sign to me.

I read "The Story of Us" by Dani Atkins and kinda liked it to be frank. Her first book "Fractured" I hear was one of the best books of 2013 and I still haven't read it. Will pick it up this month. The Story of Us was about friendship, forgiveness, confusion, love and happiness. What i really liked was the
way friendship between three girls were shown. I don't believe when few people or books say you can never hate your best friend. That's not true. At some point in some horrible situation, we do hate them. Maybe for few days, months or even years. Of course just like Love, If your friendship is meant to be. Nothing or nobody can break it. So i really liked how this book spoke about hating your friend for cheating and taking time to forgive.

Also what i liked about this book was, nothing was over the top. Complications were shown in everyone's life just like how it is for all of us in our lives. It showed how to deal with them and make the right choices taking lot of time. I am definitely going to read "Fractured". As per the reviews, its great.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

To move on

Its been so nice to have all the time possible to read as much as i love to. This is something I've always wanted and i have it now. Buying books has been my habit for the past ten or more years and this is one thing for sure will never stop. Sometimes i choose them randomly looking at the cover or
sometimes I go through Good reads recommendations.

I picked the book "The Love Verb" by Jane Green and have to say this one made me cry even more than "PS I Love you". God. I had to keep tissues ready for every single page. Half of the book is all happy happy but its the kinda happy where you know something's gonna happen and its not gonna
be good. Its about losing your loved one to cancer. So this particular topic breaks me down all the time. I have lost my aunt to Breast Cancer and I know how it feels to see our loved one become weak day by day and losing them to it. This aunt of mine was more of a mother to me as she took care
of me a lot while my mum was a working women. Even today my mum n I miss my aunt a lot and i can't even try to imagine how it was for my mum to lose her sister. This book was picked by me randomly 'cos i really liked the cover picture. But i made the right choice. When my aunt passed away, I didn't cry much. Infact i cried only for an hour or two. Back then that was my coping mechanism. This book is healing me now of that. I know it. I'm so glad for Jane Green to have written this wonderful book and thank her for helping me moving on. 


I have been doing a strange thing this month. For the first time, I started reading two books at a time. Along with "The Love Verb" I have been reading "Gospel of the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi" by Her Devotee-children, S. Nikhilananda. I have to say this is so not my type. If you have read my previous post on the type of books i read, you will know that mostly its about love, friendship, family and stuff. But this one is something I made up my mind to read it. I am not in a mind frame to finish it. More importantly, I want to take as much as possible from this book. My grandmother who is a regular at RamaKrishna Math suggested this one for me. I have been going through bad time for the past six months and I am not ready yet to write about it here. Someday maybe end of this year or next I hope i am ready to express a bit of it here in my blog 'cos writing here is again something that's been very close to my heart and it won't change forever i hope.

So to help me come out of my emotional mess, my grandmother suggested that i read this book and I downloaded the Kindle version and started. As said earlier, only motive with this one for me to learn and take as much knowledge as possible and nothing else. I am not religious and will never be. Any
number of books and movies could not change my opinion on religion. I have only one opinion on religion. To me, it doesn't exist. To me, there is only Good and Bad. I don not wish to give it any other name.

Wow. I wrote a pretty long post after a long time. I'm glad. :)

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Can't wait for the weekend

I have found this amazing book center in Malleshwaram which has so many wonderful books on sale. Sad that i haven't even checked what its called.  They are second hand books and are sold at 50 Rupees. Oh my god.!! I love it. Been buying as many as possible. Most of the weekends, you can find me there picking up four to five books at a time. I read only English. But there are other language ones as well. Its a very small center usually not many people are in the that place buying books. This has made me kinda forget about Kindle. But I'll get back to it for sure. :) Although i prefer books in hand any day to e-book.

I finished reading "A Minor Indiscretion" by Carole Matthews which wasn't all that great. But pretty OK. I've been reading "Bleed for Me" by Michael Robotham  and will finish tonight. I really liked it. Waiting for the day to end just so i could go back home and find out what happens in the end. :) Will write more about this one in the coming posts. 




Last whole week was wonderful. Had very little work to be done at office. So few of us made it a point to visit a eatery everyday. If not for lunch/Dinner, at least for a snack. :) My whole team's too much into food. We had lunch at Sea Shell as it was Arabian night's special. Didn't make a difference to me as I am a vegetarian. So there I was having Aloo and Paneer as usual. Another day we were in Jayanagar Cool Joint for their famous sandwiches and ice creams. I had Mango milk shake which was just perfect. Then we did a little bit of shopping in Commercial Street another day along with Gola and Cotton candy. Many from the team had not been to VV Puram food street. So we had to go no matter what. I ate awesome Dosa and Puliyogre. Anything and everything tastes good in this food street. My favorite is the Bele Holige/Obbattu. Just perfect.

This week, we are back to working 9 hours. :( Arggghhhh. Its just Tuesday and I'm already waiting for the weekend.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Dreamy

Last night in my dream I had taken my mum out for shopping. We were in a very crowded mall. I asked my mum to stay out of the mall for a minute and I went in for some reason. I spent the whole day shopping, walking around all alone having forgotten all about mum. It was only late night when I got out of the mall to find my mum waiting for me. I don't know what this dream means. I woke up from my dreams the moment I saw mum waiting for me. Right that second I woke up from dreams and had tears rolling down my cheeks. Was I crying in my dreams that I left my mum all alone? Or was I crying that she was there for me even when I wasn't?

When i woke up from my dreams, I saw her deep in her sleep right next to me. I couldn't stop crying. Something was strangely good in me. I felt so good to see her. I felt so good that it was a dream and not for real. Are dreams for this particular reason? To make us learn a small lesson. Just so we don't make these silly mistakes in real life. I don't know what dreams signify. But I like to believe that there is a very good reason for us to dream. Especially me. Its very very rare of me to have dreams and nightmares.But when I do, usually it teaches me something or the other. Like the one i had today.

This weekend, mum is taking me out. So I'm not gonna leave her alone even for a single minute. Hope she doesn't get irritated with me. :)

Friday, February 6, 2015

Food and Movies

This whole week was spent in watching movies, reading and waiting for the weekend. Oh yes, along with working here and there. :)At work, we are always ordering food from different places to try new food. Had something called Shaptra from Momo hut and it was great. My workmates are so into food that they actually order starters, main course and dessert from different places. I wonder how anyone has patience to go through all the calling, placing order and going out of office to pick it up. I hardly do any of this. I let the others do all this for me. I just enjoy the food.

I decided to watch few movies this week with food in them. Had so many options and so very less time. But managed to watch few of them and loved it.

1. No Reservations - Catherine Zeta-Jones and  Aaron Eckhart. I love this movie 'cos its got the right amount of food stuff, romance and message. Ive always loved Catherine Zeta-Jones and would watch anything if she's a part of it. Abigail Breslin has done a great job.




2. The Hundred-Foot Journey -  Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal. Whos is this Manish Dayal? This movie made me feel like i was a part of it. Not a minute i felt it was a movie. Story, Acting, cast and food was all just amazing. Music? My goodness. Only A.R. Rahman could do this. I was going through movies in pinterest and came across this one. Glad i did. Highly recommend this one to all.




3. The Mistress of Spices -   Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.  I remember watching this one long back. Although the story didn't really impress me, was good to see Aishwarya Rai in this role. She looks beautiful in every scene. I plan to read the book just to know what's been missed in the movie. 




4. Julie & Julia -   Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Need i say more? Its Meryl Streep. I love this woman. Period. She can play Wonderwoman and I'll love it. Have watched this one so many times and would continue to rest of my life.




Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Pinterest Quotes

I am so addicted to Pinterest. Been more than a year and I still go there everyday just so i can read few amazing quotes and pull myself up. I wanted to post few really good ones here. 






Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Goa

I have started to realize that traveling actually takes your mind off everything else happening in your life. New place, people, food and weather puts you in a whole different world and brings a certain confidence in you that what's going on in your life is not the end of the world. There are lot more things to do, places to visit and meet amazing people who make you think a lot. As i always say and believe, thinking is the best quality given to us. So why not use it at its best?

I was in Goa for three days with colleagues and it was one of the best trip I have had till now with workmates. We did not visit too many places as most of us had been to Goa several times before. All we did was sit at the shack and enjoy the sunrise and Sunset. We hired bikes to roam around Goa and it was just great. We were on our bikes for more than 6 hours everyday just roaming here and there without any plan whatsoever. This way we actually got to see amazing hidden places in Goa. We didn't even have to ask our way around with people as we had no place to go or be. :) 


Also i really recommend Tivai Beach Cottage to stay in 'cos its so close to Calangute beach. I had to just walk for three minutes to get to the beach. Amazing experience. 


Sunset

Monday, January 5, 2015

Voice of Shillong..!!

One song can lift your mood and you wake up from the sadness and sorrow to complete calmness. I just experienced this few minutes back. Coming back from a long weekend to work do pull you down a bit. But when you come across a great team who work wonders with their voice and amazing songs. All you need is to listen to them. I did exactly this. Few days back one of my colleague told me about this team called "Shillong chamber choir" and asked me to listen to all their tracks. I remembered this today and their songs have changed my day.

I absolutely love the song "Manwa Laage" and hearing this team singing this one adds to the joy.