My Childhood friend...

I don't know why I started thinking about this friend of mine. It has been ages since I have spoken to her.

I remember our childhood days. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I always wanted to look like her(though I knew I could not). She used to come to our house to talk to me and we would talk about anything and everything under the sun. She was older than I, but it never was a problem. I would try to understand when she spoke about marriage/kids and she would bear with my school stories.

I have the bits and pieces of memory from those days..

We used to watch tv endlessly at my place/hers (That explains why I was never into any sports).
We used to enact this stupid song every time it played on tv.
We had a favorite recipe i.e Top Ramen noodle. (That was all we knew to cook)
We used to study together(ya!!true)
We were crazy about cricket. South Africa was her favorite and I struggled to find a team other than India .
I used to get jealous when she went to meet another friend of hers in our neighborhood.
We used to do many stupid things and laugh about it
We had promised about meeting back after 10 years and still be the same
We talked of marrying the same guy!;) so we could be together.

Things changed once I started my college and she got married and moved. Though she used to come to her place once in a while, we started having trouble finding a common topic for us. Sadly, cell phone was not an option those days and I was too lazy to write to her. I was too young to understand the value of friendship.

Now after may be 10 years, we are so apart but memories still make me smile. I realize now, she was my first best friend.

Sister of my heart- Review

In the Library, this novel caught my eye. I did not think twice before picking it up when I saw that it is from an Indian Author. I was hooked on to it from the moment I started reading it.

Story is about two cousins born on the same day, Sudha and Anju. Along with the birth date, they also shared a misfortune of losing their father on same day. Raised by their mothers and an aunt, they had to lead a life fearing the society and trying to live up to the expectation of well known family in Calcutta. Their childhood passes by being inseparable from each other, sharing everything they had until Sudha comes to know about the secret of their birth. From this time on, Sudha makes sure Anju gets all the happiness so much so that she even sacrifices her love for it. Story takes a turn when they get married and separate. How the circumstances divide their loyalty between friendship and their new families, how they survive the difficult times of their life and love each other unconditionally just the way when they were kids is the backbone of the story.

I loved the narration by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This novel makes you feel the love Sudha and Anju share in each and every page. I read many pages with tears in my eye, when Sudha was forced to get married/abort a baby, Anju has a miscarriage because she works too hard to support Sudha with her struggle to fight against the world to keep her baby alive.

The novel talks about all the hardship women go through,yet how they manage to survive for their loved ones. Book is all about Love,Sacrifice friendship and Loyalty. A must read.

My Lust list

I liked the idea of Shilpa's post. But, limiting my lust list to only five was not an easy task:-)Here goes the list,

1. I am crazy about diamonds,especially the blue ones. Diamond ring below made me go gaga over it:-)

Caution- Before falling in love with it , it is priced at $16.26 million $.

2. Is there any girl in the world who doesn't dream of riding in a harley with her guy?



3 . What can be more exciting than seeing the world in a cruise especially if it is the most luxurious cruise in the world? This cruise has every luxury you can ever wish for!




4 . How I wish I had a personal designer! I would love to have dresses designed for me by Manish Malhotra.

5. Last but not at all the least, This mansion by the sea side stole my heart! I would not mind a smaller version of this with the same view.

New Year's eve

We didn't plan for it, but I loved every minute of it. We didn't party/go to a fancy restaurant or for that matter stayed up late. Yet, I enjoyed it more than any of previous years. If you ask me, this time there was no pressure of "having to do something fun", there was not much worries of whom to spend the evening with or planning endlessly for which party to attend/what dress to wear.

Sudhir was here and we spent the day being with each other midst the nature. I was with my husband in a place which almost looked like heaven. What more could I ask for!

Review of my blog

After Nilu, it was my turn to submit my blog for review here . I like reading their review
because they do not talk about "goody-goody" thing of your blog. Though, I do not particularly like the so called "cool" language they use, I do love to read some honest review of the blogs.

After reading many reviews he has written, my blog did not get so much of bashing as others. Looks like the reviewer din't want to go too harsh on a newbie like me or as he says he was too exhausted to comment.

I agree to few things he said and disagree with some.

- He says , I started blogging because other people I know have them -This is not exactly true,
I started blogging first, then started knowing people who have blogs. None of my friends have blogs (at least not now) nor do they read mine.

-He says, My blog doesn't show the excitement I have- I totally agree. Somehow, when I write things down, things seems less exciting. I am improving on that. It's not problem with my attitude/lack of interest, but has more to do with my writing style.

-He says, I love reading other's blog- yes, I agree. That's how I get to know other's views. I don't think one should have a blog only if he has to say something.

I got a zero star. But , since he says it is a new rank invented just for me, I can not compare my rank with others. But ,I do get the message -There is nothing exciting to return back to my blog. Let's see what others have to say about it...

Am I addicted to Blogging?

Can someone get addicted to blog or to be specific reading blogs? Not so long ago, My day used to start with - Check official mail, Check personal mail, Check my Orkut/Facebook then start my work (No Blog!)

Now, my day starts with Check official mail(thankfully, this has not changed), Open my blog -see my blog list , see if the people I follow have posted something interesting (If they have,go and read/comment!). Then, check the time and get psyched about the work to be done. Hurriedly finish reading the personal mail and start my work.

Thanks to all the blogger I follow - Nilu, Shilpa, Preeti,Iya,Monika,Deepika, Swaram, Anu(who is not as regular as others - I started my blog journey reading her blogs , so do miss her blogs).

I love the addiction :-)

How to be diplomatic

How I wish there was some self help book on being diplomatic. I am either straight forward to the point where the other person gets offended or I keep things to myself. There sure is a way in between these two. Just that, I am lost in my attempt to find it.

There has been many instances in my life where keeping quiet would have helped me and equal number of instances where I should have spoken up( That would have saved me from taking all the suffering/blame)

I was as straight forward as one could get .It did hurt many around me. So, I started trying to notch it down a little. Sadly, now I am at another extreme where even if I want to say something on someone's face I cant do it:-(

Thankfully, I am married to a person who is good at being diplomatic. He doesn't do injustice to anyone and he doesn't let someone else treat him with less respect. I really adore that quality in him.

I remember an incident when we had been to smoky mountains, we were watching fireworks. A couple were standing in front of us and we were sitting. Everything was fine, until the girl decides to move , thus blocking our view. My husband went and asked the guy to move a bit so that we all can watch the show comfortably. He responded rudely to say that we should stand up to watch the show. Now, I asked my hubby to keep quiet and we got up. But, later he did explain to me why it was not right and we should not let others have their say if we are right. It was a small incident but I do remember it whenever I keep quiet in spite of being right.

I hope I will find the courage to stand up when I am right, apologize when I am wrong and treat others just the way I want them to treat me.