Okay, until next year then!!! :P

I have been awfully tied down with work, ill health etc this month. I hope its a great 2010 for all of us.

I am pathetically late to post the post I composed for my husband's thirtieth birthday which was on the 28th of December. Well, just got around to publish it now - sorry, Sri.

And yes, a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all.

Those thirty things

Sri, wish you a very happy birthday. I wish you many more to come. May God bless you with a healthy, happy, prosperous and joyous year ahead! Of course, I plan to enjoy the journey along with you.


As you turn 30 this day, here is something for you – a list of things about you, some things I like and love in you, some things you don’t know about yourself or those you refuse to acknowledge

1. You dare to dream and also dare to live your dreams

2. You have such a good gift of the gab. Heck! I fell for that

3. You are the more artsy person of the two of us

4. You love Aditi more than you love me (Aditi loves me more than she loves you, ha-ha!)

5. You are a good sport more often than not

6. You swear a lot

7. You are so effing short tempered (No! It’s not pot calling kettle black)

8. You like to help people genuinely in trouble – no matter how much out of the way you might have to go

9. You love to fight me for Koorkai, but you also love to give up that one extra for me

10. You are a very good people manager

11. You hate to admit that I drive better than you do

12. You are pathetic in managing finance. Isn’t that why you married me?

13. You love to be pampered. All of us do. I agree. But you need to grow up, okay?

14. You don’t know you are a typical man who hates to ask someone for directions to a place

15. You are good at identifying and motivating good talent

16. You fear failure (again, all of us do) – but it doesn’t stop you

17. You are an absolute lazy bum

18. You regret losing your reading and quizzing habit – but don’t do anything about it

19. You still worship Maradona

20. You mean it when you say you don’t care what others think

21. You hate it when you are bound – even by your own promise. That’s why you don’t promise anything at all.

22. You don’t like clearing up any mess, more so if you created it

23. You are such a gadget freak. I am thankful that your fetish for mobile phones has slowly died down. I dread the day it shows its ugly face again.

24. You are penny wise and pound foolish

25. You hate to be sick – even before anti-biotic drugs start acting on your body, you would’ve already started your own mental fight against them bacteria. Amazes me.

26. Pet lover

27. A patient shopper, women would generally love – oh! But do you realize I usually have to stand all those long hours outside men’s trial room when you are trying out your nth pair of jeans for the day? Of course, you deserve a good deal, and the pregnant me so deserves a chair.

28. Okay – this is more like a quirk – because you are as tall as you are – you tend to sleep diagonally even in our six and a half feet by six feet huge bed. I am fat and I really need MORE space. Please, darling!

29. Tactful – and how! How can you be just my opposite!?!

30. I had to say this – you suck at Spanish! Learning sentences by heart won’t help you mister LOL

And I so love you :)

The Bucket List

Tagged by The Print Lover

Who doesn’t have it in their list? – Travel the world. Yes, not just one place or country. The world – on all different possible modes of transport. That would be fun. Needs a lot of money, but there is no rule to a wish list, right? For now, I have a Passport. Thats all.

This one is going to be just me I think. I want to become a ‘subject matter expert’. This needs some explaining. Have you noticed the studs? The geeks? I was thought to be nerdy when I was in school and I had a tough time living up to the reputation and other people’s opinions of me. But I knew within myself that all I was doing was skimming the surface of my reading material or anything – and I just got lucky. I didn’t have to try or work hard. Now, what that has brought me to is, that I seem (to myself) to have a shallow knowledge about many things like art, politics, finance, cooking but no depth. I feel I thrive on mediocrity. I want to develop one area of interest where I can talk like an expert on the matter. I am not old yet and I believe I have a lot of time, but I want to be there. A place where people around me feel that I know the ‘subject’ in and out. I can answer all their questions – solve it for them. What I don’t yet know myself is what ‘that’ subject is.

Just. Stop. Being. Lazy – and some people will hopefully comment on how I have changed. I have no idea who those people will be. But they will speak well of my metamorphosis. I will then strike this off my list.

Turn heads at least in my thirties – I have always been this ‘gundu/ motu/ fatso’ girl so bleddy far in my life. My husband and I were really good buddies before things took a turn. So looks were not the first things we liked in each other foremost. After Aditi, I put on so much of weight that I morphed from a fat lady to an obese one. Thanks to a friend, who also was out of pregnancy then and who was more physique conscious, I started going to the gym and exercising with her. I lost a good amount of weight to start fitting into L sizes (you have no idea how big an achievement it is for me)! Now, I guess Sri was so attracted – he knocked me up, again! LOL. If all is well, I want to get back to working on myself again – I have 3 more years to officially turn thirty (I am so young and I have to rub it in). This time around, I want to look really slim and glam. Sigh!

Will I be able to learn to swim now? Okay, at least after I turn glam, I will have some confidence to change into a swimwear and learn this life skill. I really have to learn this.

Get drunk. Smashed. I have only gotten to the point of just slightly tipsy – so damn slightly that I remember what I said or did to not reveal my state. I want to break that jinx (I just need to have another drink) and spill a lot of beans. Or just sing with Sri. That will be amazing.

Read non-fiction. Actually just get back to reading. If possible turn into a voracious reader that I’ve always aspired to be. I don’t know why I haven’t had it in me to appreciate non-fiction. I just want to give it a shot and see if I really know why I like or dislike them. I think I have formed this 'non-fiction is not for me' opinion, without giving the genre any chance. However, I still have this big no for self help books. I may never change my opinion on that.

Take baking classes and be a star ‘baker’ in the family. Even if I just take classes also, I will be the only star baker in my family as of now. The others are only learning the art now. I am a slightly advanced learner. LOL. I have had an eye on this place for a long time now (over 2.5 years).  I would like to be baking like her.

I want to make my own vadAm and just not stop at only appreciating age old skills of making crisps (vadAm) at home. There are so many more traditional and contemporary dishes which I have to learn, some from my grandma, ma, and some from my mother-in-law. My sis-in-law swears by Mallika Badrinath. Maybe I can check her recipes out too. I am a foodie and I read somewhere that only a foodie can also cook well. So far I’ve pleased a good bunch ( 2 or 3 is a good bunch) with my culinary skills. I want to do better. I want to learn to manage time well enough to host a party with everything cooked by me. To me, the best appreciation will come when my kids bring friends home and all their friends polish off the food/snacks I prepare. I’d love to implement new ideas and also love praises. No, I am not going to make this a good enough subject for point no.2. I may change my mind later if I fear that I am getting really old but am nowhere close enough to even identifying any ‘subject matter’.

 

Dance. Freak out. Again this is possible, IMO, only after I turn glam. Turning slim is not a criterion, because I have the enthusiasm I need to get dancing. But I don’t want to dance in a traditional outfit. I have a feeling http://www.highheelconfidential.com/ has spoilt me rotten. It’s gotten me thinking that a) I can get glam if I want – some fat women dare to dress the way they do and b) I may someday afford the Choos and Birkins. A BIG Sigh here! Getting back to the dancing thingy – my husband and I thought we’ll go learn Salsa, after Aditi turned two. Because we thought we were stuck in a rut. Sri opined that to enjoy the music, we should also appreciate the language. No regrets – we enrolled for Spanish classes and had a great time learning together – interspersed with some steamy moments, of course. Spanish + together – you should make the connection. Then we applied the brakes. We wanted some free weekends in between before we joined dance classes. What we do with the free time? Major fun – the result of which is for all to see in March 2010. This is one vicious cycle. You have moments of fun and there is this stuck again in the rut feeling.

I have to thank TPL immensely. I had some good fun doing this tag. So here it is – my official bucket list. All of the above are only for ME. I wanted this to be my bucket list – one I really wanted to prepare after I saw the movie. I am not doing anything with anybody or for anybody. I would die alone, for all you know. And the other person does the stuff without me anyway. So, everyone makes his/her own list and if we happen to do something together, we can strike it off together too. 

This is a tag, I am guessing, am doing really late and all of the guys I know have done it already. So I tag Sri (hubby), Nithya (sister) and Souji (friend). I don’t know if they will take it up, though. But I love the way all of them write, so I hope they do.

*Drumroll*

Here, here!

Its my Happy Budday tomorrow

Wish me now, won't you?

Not play time yet

So far Aditi has been very considerate about the other baby in mama's tummy. She keeps asking whens, hows, wheres and whats about the baby.

Last night, she declared to me "I not give baby my toys". I asked her why and she didnt answer but just repeated her statement. So I said I will buy you both toys and that you have to play with each other. She said "No mamma, I not give". I said "Okay, let the baby come out, ask you for toys and then let us decide". She seemed comfortable with that and left it there.

How am I supposed to handle this? She is okay to share only a select few toys of hers with other kids. I keep insisting that if she wants others' toys, she should share hers first. Maybe she's too young (3 years is not old enough, no?). I am going to just let her be for now.

No, I am not a Grammar Nazi

Far from it, in fact! I feel my English and vocabulary went to the dogs some time when I left school and have stayed there ever since.

But, that shouldnt stop me from hating

1. the usage of "n number of times" - Guys, its "n times" - remember the Maths equations we solved with n as a number by itself?
2. loose in place of lose - nuff said
3. Off course for 'Of course!' - what are you thinking? Just because we stress the 'of' while we talk does not give it an extra F, puhleez

These seem to be the first ones that come to my mind now. If I decide to keep updating this, I think this will be one post updated most times. I just may not stop updating it.

While on this topic, I would like to throw open a question - aren't we Indians very judgemental about a person, the yardstick of measurement being his/her capability or otherwise to speak proper English? Snobs, huh!

Happy Anniversary

Wish you a very happy wedding anniversary, appa amma :)

All set to fly away eh!

There is this new Tam – Gujju family that has moved in to the apartment below ours and they have a son who is a year older than Aditi. You know, where this post is heading already, don’t you?

The boy, Preet has become this great pal of Aditi’s and she really loves spending time with him – either at our place or at his.

So, this guy comes home last evening and plays with her and after sometime tells me that he wants to go home. So, I offer to escort him downstairs. He says no he doesn’t want me, he will take Aditi instead.

I tell Preet’s mom that I will pick my kid up in 15-20 minutes and let them go. As promised, I go back to pick her up – and succeed after a lot of tantrums and hue and cry.

My progeny comes home sulking and in a fit of rage she shouts “NO, NO, enakku indha veetla irukka vendaam. Enakku Preet kooda avan veetla dhaan irukkanum” (meaning - I don’t want to be in this house. I want to be with Preet in his house)

I need to get ready, I guess!

Strange Inferences – II

Disclaimer – Not intended to hurt anyone

See Strange Inferences – I here.

Now, where have we heard this ’72 virgins waiting for you’ phrase? Okay you can all Google it. I am not revealing more. But my idea is that – I am sure no God is as resourceful to provide 72 for everyone just for one act worthy of heaven. Ahem, and my other idea is that – dude, after you are dead and gone, its only your soul there – what use will that be to the 72 virgins.

Final question – what if the 72 are destined to stay that way! Man, don’t do something to get there fast – God definitely has some hidden agenda in this plan and your heaven is going to be as good as hell.

Something I realized

I never really touched the iPod in the last year it has graced our household. My sister gave it to Sri and from the first day it has been his. I like music but I used to drive down and listen to FM in our car and Sri got to rough the city traffic with his bike and iPod was a welcome companion. The guy even took some Spanish lessons in it, when I thought we were working on it together! Cheater!

Even after our roles reversed and I had to take the company shuttle as driving or car-pooling wasn’t a great option (more so when I am pregnant), Sri even offered the iPod, but I turned it down as I dozed off in the shuttle and didn’t quite feel the necessity. After the long time of neglecting the iPod I put on the music for the first time last night. The entire stuff was Sri’s – his music, his Spanish lessons. And that’s what I got a glimpse of. A bit more of Sri – something which I knew existed, I loved but had ignored long enough to admit and appreciate. I wondered where I had missed seeing the big picture and started looking at only the daily mundane things like… put this here, do something this way, put that there – why won’t you ever listen, grow up – you get the drift. I mean, I see so many other blogs and I know the same things happen between many couples. The wife appears to be the one nagging. As I sat there listening to the music, the fights we’ve had flashed across – I’ve and still fight for some ‘more’ time with him, fight against the priority his guy friends get on many occasions, silly fights, ego blasts – what not. I look like a (lovesick?) bitch when I say I can’t get enough of him, but sometimes just don’t want him around at all so I can get some sanity.

The music was a lot like the Sri I knew before we married. There was ‘Lajjavathiye’ , followed by ‘Aaj jaane ki zid na karo’ and then came a lot of Ilaiyaraja numbers – for the true Tam he is – and there were some of my favorites too. I remembered GILU – the music collection he had created for us to waltz around. It was like reading a page of Sri all over again. I rolled over and saw him sleep peacefully with my daughter’s cute little arms around his neck. Much of this guy was still the same. And he was still the romantic and I was still not-so-there. But I love him – for what he was and what he is. For all that he dares to do and has done. I presume he knows this. Just so he knows, all over again. Sri, I love you.

Aditi would say, I love you, kanna!

Happy Diwali

Festivals in the second half of the year also usher in a whole lot of birthdays and anniversaries at our household. Come July, we begin planning for gifts or shopping for us and rest of the family.

A week after Diwali is our wedding anniversary, a week later followed by my parents' anniversary, my s-i-l's anniversary, and a couple of weeks breather and bang! my birthday, then some religious festival, my m-i-l's birthday and before we know its end of the year. Christmas Eve is my daughter's b'day just days ahead of my husband's b'day and then we step into the New Year.

My second one on the way should give us some good respite between the New Year and March. But then that's almost the time when there are two other birthdays in the household :)

Life is good, with some madness of course. Some one from above there should just say "Thathasthu" (So be it)

Wish you all - A VERY HAPPY & SAFE DEEPAVALI

Me

When I see some contacts of mine in the Office messenger with a 'Do not disturb' status on them, I have this strange urge to ping them and just ask "Why?"

Is it just me?

Job loss? Recession? I did what best I could do...

....I created a job for myself............

I procreated....and the fruit (confirmed - there is just one in there!) of my labour, I hope *fingers crossed*, is due for arrival at the end of March or early April 2010.

I am going to become a mom, all over again :)

The routine weekend trip…..

It is Wednesday already!

In my current job, unlike my previous one to which I used to drive to, I take the company shuttle. What it translates to, is that I get to relax and watch the people, shops, signs and boards. I do not have to concentrate on my drive, my car, the road, the traffic, signals, police, autos, two-wheelers and pedestrians.

When I am sign and shop watching, I mentally note down the stores that have a sale on, those which have something interesting on display, some place that I want to dine in, some salon which has opened up, some new boutiques that have sprung up and yeah, you get the idea. I also wonder if the family store that I saw would have stocked up XLs or of I would be able to fit in their Ls, because they are an international brand….I actually think so much more. I have this new found time to think, to dream and to imagine so many things. When I am home, I tell Sri what the coming weekend we would have to do, our chores left undone, bills to be paid and other ‘duties’ and also add to the list these new stores, places that I want to go to. Of course, we will do them all, he says.

I have been in this job for about 3 months now, and the last one month has been the lesser hectic month of them all - which is four weekends. Most Wednesdays I’d mentally chart out a plan and by Friday morning, we have it ready – our ‘to do’ list for the weekend. And all these weekends none of them have happened….yes, n.o.n.e.

Not without a reason though, I have to admit. One weekend, I was unwell and we also had guests at home. We had our daughter’s vaccination to do. We had to visit a new member in our family, a cute little baby girl in our cousins’ family. Weekend well spent, it was. The next weekend, my husband was unwell, so bad a diarrhea, poor guy. Couple that with my maid’s sudden absence from office – my in-laws and I had so much work to do, that I wished we never had some weekend like that at all, ever. Another weekend, we had so overworked ourselves during the week, that we spent most of the weekend just sleeping through. But I wouldn’t complain, because I was much happy and satisfied with my kitchen stint. Good food and good sleep was all that seemed to matter then. Last weekend, my parents came down from Chennai, while my in-laws left for Coimbatore. My dad is just recovering from his by-pass surgery and has come down to our place for a much needed change and of course, the prime attraction being the time he could spend with Aditi. Saturday was sad, as the old man was tired from the journey, but Sunday we had some good time, showed my mother around the locality and all.

When we were doing beginner’s Spanish, we would crib on some weekends that the classes were taking all our time with none left for some indulgence and all. We’d imagined that with the classes out of the way, we would be able to spend some more quality time with each other and Aditi. Now, we find that we are nowhere close to achieving what we thought we could. We are lazy bums. But there have been some amazing weekends. Our plan, albeit minimalistic, would have been all done.

Here I am, on another Wednesday already. I have begun charting out lists in my mind – like I could never stop. I am like that. But lately, I am adding some prayers, and at the same time sighing, as if I already know what’s in store this weekend as well.

I had so much to say

Harder as I may try, I am not getting enough time to blog….or is it enough dough? Bit of both actually. But I have been reading blogs, discovering new ones and all that. The thing with me is that I am not creative enough like many out there to make an interesting post out of mundane daily things. Not that anyone wants me to, but I feel what I write should be interesting to me at least. Don’t you agree?

I have also vowed to myself that I will blog more regularly. This year so far has been pretty busy for me. Jan started off pretty decently and the going was good until mid-Feb. That was when I was told that I may no longer be required in my then company and that all they have is a temporary one month project for me and they will take a fresh look at things after one month. I was over three years old in the company, settled in the system and was not looking to move elsewhere either. That shook me and my family up a bit. And what followed was a maniacal job search – I was ready to take up something, anything, interested, uninterested – it was like I didn’t have the power to choose. That was the time we realized how much our home loan weighed on us. If it weren’t for that I needn’t have scurried that way desperate to land myself a job. And I did find a job to my liking as well in about three weeks at no hikes that usually come with jumps. I mean, I knew I was desperate and they knew it too. For now, it doesn’t bother me. I am happy to be under the same roof which we have bought for us.

So, by then we were in mid-March when I got a job, in which I had to join by mid-April. My ex-boss (the new one for the temp project) made a huge fuss about letting me go easily. Having given me a no-guarantee chit for my stay there, I had a great deal of difficulties in getting away. While I hate to admit it, I broke down at a meeting with my boss (I know, I am embarrassed to bits now!), but such was my mental state then.

End of April, I got to know that my dad has to get operated for multiple blocks in his heart, then mid-May to end of the month was hectic with all that. I had gotten away to Chennai without my daughter for about 10 days and returned to find her down with fever. The entire family –my husband (Sri), my daughter (Aditi), my in-laws were all down with viral attacks, one after the other. I got it last. Aditi had run fever at 103 and I was there in Chennai crying and praying for her. My tense mom wanted me to get back right away, but thanks to my sister-in-law and Sri, I managed to stay back to take care of my dad in the hospital. Dad is fine now.

My daughter started school even with fever, for she had wanted to for as long as the entire last year. Our neighbor’s daughters go to the same school by bus, even if the school is just 10 minutes away. Aditi had longed to go by bus to school. She is doing well - learning new stuff; picking up vocabulary like mad, that I wonder how kids’ minds absorb things so fast; brining home friends to play. She is, in her own words – ‘a big girl’ now.

Here it is, July – more than half of 2009 is also done. I had wanted to blog like crazy. Things at home swung like the Indian Sensex, but all is well. I hope and pray that even if nothing gets better, nothing for no one should get worse – for the rest of 2009.

Trust thy student...

In my Spanish class .....yeah, how else will you know about it?! My husband and I are taking up classes just to drive out some boredom of our otherwise mundane weekend...and we are almost through our beginner's classes.

Our teacher has begun another beginners' crash course and our class timings have been moved an hour to accomodate that. Out of sheer habit, though we remembered our timings, we reached the class earlier than our scheduled time.

Now people who know Spanish, know the 29 alphabets the language has. The 'las' and 'los' of the language, why no object has a gender but only the word does. Why you may ask. But why do you ask why? Thats exactly what one bugger was doing in the class. He was questioning why the language was like this, why did it evolve like this at all?

Now the teacher told him that she did not form the language, nor does she governs the rules of grammar or the sounds of letters and combinations. She teaches them, as they are. Fair enough you'd think.

Our smart ass tells the class then...."in some ten to fifteen years, even these rules are going to change. Trust me"

WTF? Trust you that the basic rules of a language that has stood the test of time and evolved with new words and such from the Middle Ages accomodates your views in some years?

Why does anyone want to learn a language at all? Why do you expect the language to accomodate you? Is it so difficult for a 20-30 year old guy to 'learn' or be 'open to learn'? I seriously want to shove something down his throat.

He thinks.....

....he is

a despot

in reality though, he is

a 'gas'pot......

My first tag, ever

I have been tagged by Shilpa to do this picture tag.

First, the rules of this do:

Pick the 6th picture of your 6th photo folder.
Tell a story around it.
Pass it on to six other people you like.

Well, I don’t have folders in my picture album at all. Yes, I am that organized and I don’t call the computer we have at home, ‘mine’. My husband and father-in-law exercise complete rights over the piece. So, of whatever I have on my comp at the office, I am trying to string in a couple of them together and make a story.

I am going to post about the Varalakshmi Nombu at my place. It is called ‘Varamahalakshmi’ here in Bangalore, Karnataka. My in-laws do not observe this function, mostly because they are from Palakkad, Kerala. We celebrate this at my parents place even as we are basically Tamils (guess many sects of Tambrams do). So a year after we got married, I asked my m-i-l if I could take this up in our home. Of course, she said. And this function apparently requires a lot of preparation, commitment and devotion. You just are not allowed to skip a year in between for whatever reasons. The fast as well as the festivities are observed in the coming week or at some one else’s place who celebrates the same.

The first year of this puja, my parents and sister came down from Chennai and it was so much fun, donning the nine yards saree and chanting the mantras and all. The last year, in 2008, I had arranged for a purohit to come home to help me perform the puja and because my in-laws do not have an idea what to do, I had to get all instructions from my mom and do all the prep here myself. My father-in-law came out shopping with me for fruits and flowers and my mother-in-law fully did all the bakshanam (prasadam and other eats). I just helped her in parts and left the scene as the purohit came home. I love this function for some unknown reason, perhaps it’s the aura in the house, the smells of so many flowers, the ‘bagyada lakshmi baramma’ song, the mantras, the sense of satisfaction – something or all of it…..I love it.

I am otherwise not a religious person, but there are some rituals, functions and festivals that we follow that I feel binds us together and I love the feeling that I have Aditi as a witness to all that I do, she understands bits and pieces of it, wears the ‘pattu pavadai’ (silk skirt and blouse) and all of us at home prepare for it – so much peace.

And that is all I want!

Btw, I don't know whom to tag, so please feel free to take this up if it interests you.

Will you be my Valentine?

Ad on radio:

Random male voice says :Year 2007 – Chocolates
Girl says: Rahul! I am on a diet!

RMV: Year 2008 – Pendant
Girl says: Rahul! I hate it!

RMW: Year 2009 – iPod Nano 8GB
Girl says: Rahul! I love you!

Duh! Duh! and more Duh!

What is with this Rahul peeps? Someone please to stand up and fight for men’s rights. I am just being a ‘humanist’ here okay? My mental calculation (for anything more complicated, I need to use a calculator) says the guy had this girl as a Valentine in 2007, so he probably has dated her for sometime even before that and now that makes them an item for over 3 years now. Or even if they were married, I want to ask, isn’t he divorced yet?

The ads on FM radio are increasingly WTF-ish. I yearn for the good old days with AIR (Akaashavani) for those lovely sing-along jingles and Saroj Narayanswami. Sigh.

Record of sorts....

Yaaay! (cheer first, will tell reason later - done clap clap for me?)

Yeah, now....I have never seen my 'comments' number cross 5.....including my replies, yes. And for the last post, yaaay, I have 8 comments to show......

Pretty childish you think? As if I care. I am so full of myself.....mez going to celebrate. Yippeee :)

How fair is that?

When, in a narrow lane, I overtake a car which is, in my opinion, being driven so slowly that I could get down and walk up to the driver of that car and ask him to move it, I am being only fair to the rules of the road.

And, when I am enjoying the drive or I know I am going to reach my destination on time or earlier and am ‘aaram-se’ driving and someone honks and I refuse to budge just to annoy him/her further, it is my right as a fellow human to do so.

*****************************************************

When, in a narrow lane, I overtake a car and actually end up just ahead of it in a long line of cars in a traffic jam and the driver of the other smirks, I am right to exclaim (to myself),”so what, at least I am not behind the moron who badly needs driving lessons”

When, in a narrow lane, a car overtakes me and ends up just ahead of me in a long line of cars in a traffic jam, I am again right to exclaim (to myself, with a smirk),”now what loser, where have you ended up after speeding past me. You shouldn’t have done that you moron and you badly need driving lessons anyway”

*****************************************************
When searching for a parking lot in Manipal Hospital, if a car-driver guides me to reverse my car out of a space and goes beep*beep*beep thinking I am going to ram into the nearby car, I am right in explaining (professing?) to him that I have judged the space correctly and he need not think lady drivers can’t drive properly.

When another lady driver in a narrow lane tries to overtake me in a not-so-blind curve, but comes face to face with a tempo traveler, in turn having to reverse her car to let the other vehicle pass, I am right in snickering and saying “Serves you right, lady!” and I am only more right when I follow that up with a prayer “God, please teach these women how to drive”.

*****************************************************

But I think I am being fair enough!

I plead guilty

I forgot my New Year Resolution. Yes, I did.

There was just one thing I wanted to do this year and I forgot what it was. I don’t have the ‘resolution-taking’ habit. They don’t motivate me. I have never done the New Year Resolution thing in my life yet. Perhaps, every time some one asks me what I resolved to do that year, it must’ve felt good to say “nothing”. The first thing I do after I set the resolutions is to break them.

After reading a lot of to-do lists in blogs, I thought maybe I have a list after-all, nothing particularly to complete in this year, but something like “to-do before you turn xx”. But I am too lazy for that. So, I gave that a pass and just continued reading more lists, the best I can do to get ideas. And then, it came to me - in a flash. That something I thought was not in the lists of many, maybe because, the list-makers have all done it, or just because it wasn’t worth any mention anyway. But I hadn’t thought about it till then and the idea of doing it excited me. It wasn’t a trek or a hitch-hike trip or any such random thing. It was something very objective and the minute it crossed my mind, I knew it could be my ‘resolution’ for the year and that it is also do-able. My bad, I didn’t note it down on paper. I actually thought about writing it down, but thought to myself that it was so not on the other peoples’ lists and I can just not forget it just for the uniqueness of it. And, see here I am after resolving to do something this year, just about a couple of days back and wondering what it actually was.

I have thought out almost all options (learning salsa, baking more, losing more weight, which couldn’t have been an exciting option, a good holiday, bungee jumping, hhmmph) in my mind and nothing is as exciting as the idea that flashed across that day! Sadly, I don’t even know what it type/genre of activity it was. Laugh at me.

And dear people, this is my 5oth post in this blog, yaaay!