Republic day!

It's Republic Day today. Seems like just another Holiday! I didn’t even bother to go for the flag hoisting which happened in my apartment premises - feeling bad about it. However, when the National anthem started playing on TV I left all the work I was doing and stood there in front of the TV and started singing along! Felt so good! There is something in that anthem - Something which makes me happy, or may be proud?  Or maybe just so patriotic!
Well, this is not the way I used to celebrate this day always! During school it was mandatory to join the flag hoisting ceremony, and I never felt lazy to do that :) It was in Dec 1997 when my PT (Physical Trainer) Teacher at school randomly came to me and said "Sakina, would you go for Republic Day Parade?" and I replied "Miss, why now? Republic Day is in January only". She didn’t bother to answer and enrolled me for it.
For the next 1 month I was instructed to be at the Traffic Police headquarters (near Dasprakash, Chennai) at 5:30 am for a 1 hour March-Past Training. Initially, I was like, what have I got myself into? I should just back off! But my parents felt I should go ahead with this and my dad religiously dropped me at the headquarters every morning! As the days went by, the practice sessions became less painful and more fun. I had couple of friends from my school and met many more from other schools too.
As the big day neared, we started having rehearsals at the Marina Beach! The first day they took us there, they made us March from the Light house to Madras University (which is 2-3 KMs in distance). Our hands ached and our legs felt numb. The daily practice would hardly cover 500 meters of distance and this rehearsal really killed us! We had 2 more rehearsals to go before Jan 26th and in the 3rd rehearsal we were experts! We felt the distance to be shorter and the marching didn’t pain at all!
On Jan 26th, the beach was beautifully decorated; the Dias was setup near Gandhi Statue (It is not held there anymore I guess). That day we were at the venue by 4:30 am and kept waiting for the Chief Minister to arrive for the Parade to start. It was 10:30 when we finally saw signs of the Minister and we finished our parade by 12 in the afternoon. I was marching in the row facing the audience and when we turned to salute at the VIP's on the Dias I felt PROUD! Really PROUD! This was my best Republic Day Celebration I have ever had and I ever would have!
See, I told you, I have stories for everything! Btw, Happy Republic day to all in India and abroad!

It's self-daba time!

Its mid-year review time at work!! The time of the year when you are officially asked to spend time on what my friend calls it - “self-dabba”. This opportunity comes twice a year in my work place and all of us put as much hours as possible to make our self dabba look perfect! Well I wish it just ended with just a self-dabba process :( They make us write good and not-so-good things for everybody else on the floor too. If you did not know already, it’s easy to write good things about yourself and much easier to write not-so-good things about others!! :) - It's human nature yaar! But, during this time all of us go against this natural behavior and are asked to write the exact opposite in detail!! Hmph!
So, for the past week, I have been writing a lot about my co-workers. It took me lots of time and effort to actually dig all my mails and come up with "fair" reviews. A lot of us think "kuch bhi likh de yaar, ye thodi na self review hain" – That’s the exact problem!!! Because it's not about me, I cannot take the liberty to just blabber what I believe I did over the past 6 months. The person for whom I am writing is probably much better than me and I would have to kill-my-ego, kill-my-attitude, kill-my-fears, kill-my-straight-forwardness and write a diplomatic, logical, crisp, justifiable, reliable review. What a huge responsibility it is...!!
Well, after finishing my co-worker review, there was another bomb dropped in my mailbox; A request from my manager to give feedback about him. I think it’s a good thing to give "Upward feedback", but it is equally bad too. This is not my first time I am giving the upward feedback but when it was, I thought, "arey wah, yaha pe toh manager ki bhi waat laga sakte hain", then my brains replied saying "yeh toh locha hain re, yeh toh mere big boss ke paas jayega" - I have to kill all those things I mentioned above 3 times more to come up with a small paragraph about my manager! Luckily, I didn’t have to struggle this time, I am pretty new to my new manager and vice-versa, so very less to write and lots more to avoid :)
Phew! Now I can finally sit and do what I love to do the most - self-dabba!! I wish it would come as easily  as blabbering in this space! Wish me luck!! :)

Out of words?

This is my 4th attempt in this week to write a blog post. And am hoping I won’t Ctrl+A+Del this one as I did it for the previous 3! Wonder what is wrong, I have forgotten to write? (Did I know at the first place?), I don’t have a good topic to talk about? Well, I don't think so. For most of you know that I can talk forever and about everything which is linked to me! In fact, my pervious attempts were about mehendi, office, work, zoo zoo and what not! So, that's not the case either. I have lost interest? - Hmmm, I hope NO! This blog is set out to become big this year; I don’t think I would lose interest so fast! So, what is it? Just too busy to even think and write a good post? May be, May be not! I don’t take hours to write a small Para!
I guess I am out of words; Just Out of words! I have no proper words to express what I want to in the right sense and in an understandable form. That's why I find myself writing and deleting every single line I try to post! How did I write this one then???

Never mind!

Kulfi Kulfi Kulfiiiiiaaaaaaaaa!

As I hogged the very famous "Rajasthani Kulfi" today, I started narrating this story to my soul mate. I couldn’t stop myself from blogging this small and short story of my connection with "Rajasthan" and "Kulfi".
First, let’s deal with Rajasthan - As per my dad, his dad was from Rajasthan who stayed in Madhya Pradesh for most part of his life and then settled in Maharashtra. So, even though i am born and brought up in Singara Chennai - i still have traits of Rajasthan, Madhya pradesh and Mumbai in me! - Wat a mixture!
Second, KULFI! - I used to stay in Parrys corner locality when i was doing my studies. At that point, Parrys corner was supposedly the "heart" of the city and was the most happening place too (in terms of business). It hasn't changed much w.r.t business and crowd but yeah the heart seems to have been misplaced. Anyways, back to kulfi...every evening after dinner, my sister and I would impatiently wait for a cycle wala. In those days, there were many Kulfi walas in the small galis of Parrys area who used to sell the kulfis on a cycle. This specific cycle wala had a unique style of ringing his bell and shouting "kulfi kulfi kulfiiiiiaaaa" The moment we heard that chant, my sister and I would run to the small balcony and start jumping with joy and shouting back "kulfi kulfi kulfi" (yes in the exact same way I do "see see see" also :P ). The cycle wala became so used to us, that sometimes if we wouldn’t go to the balcony, he would come to our home and check if we were doing ok and a kulfi would help :). How sweet!
Gone are those days of yummy kulfi offered in Rs.5 with a caring hand. I must say his kulfis were the best from the rest of the kulfi walas in the area. Until one day, he probably became greedy and stopped making yummy kulfis for us and made the ones which would sell for less price..:(
After narrating this story my hubby said - you have a story for everything!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW, today is my Mom's birthday. Now you may think, what’s the connection with Rajasthan, Kulfi and Mom? Of course there is! Rajasthan connection is for the same reason as above :) The kulfi and Mom connection is the yummiest ever. Why? Because mom makes the best kulfis in the world! My friends would be specially invited home when there was stock of kulfi in the Freezer :) - The so called "Kulfi Party" :)

Mom may you live longer and make yummier kulfi's for me :)
Oh, forgot to mention - the Rajasthani Kulfi at Ascendas Phase 2 was pretty good ;) 

Wish List For me, To me, By Me!

It’s finally 2010!! Another big year went passed and another big year to come. Almost everybody seems to be making "New year Resolutions" or "2009 flashback list" or "Best of 2009" or "Worst of 2009" lists. Well, I tried my luck too, but didn’t get anywhere. I don’t believe in waiting for a New Year to make a resolution. I neither like to see the past only when the year is over (I see my tumblr blog from the most recent to the first post every other month!) Coming to Best and Worst of 2009 - A lot of it are there - I rather write a novel than spend time posting it here (I can probably get some royalty out of the book ;-)..)

 I am just hoping for a great 2010 and hoping to have some things fine tuned in me. These are no way “resolutions” (I don’t want to get caught guilty by the end of the year for not fulfilling them). All I can promise myself is that I would try as much to get these things done! It has no end date, no priorities and no dependencies. It's a long due Wish list, a Wish list for me, to me, by me!

#I wish for a brighter day each day.
#A routine of my own, no alarm clocks waking me up, no emergency calls making me stay awake.
#I want to get back to the sakina I was couple of years back, in size ofcourse!
#I want to stop looking at that packed treadmil daily but put it to good use!
#I wish I can prioritize better - Its not important if its not for your good. Period!.
#I want to learn to say "NO" - I am capable of doing everything, but i am not capable of doing everything at the same time!
#I want to become more practical and less sentimental.
#I want to stop explaining myself to people who are just not open to understand me. No Point making a Point when there is no Point in making a point…did I make sense?
#I want to get my Dad out of his financial problems and allow him to retire and relax.
#I want to travel more and more! My travelogue cannot survive otherwise
#I want to get back to my dance classes and brush up my skills :)
#I want to spend more time with my old friends (I just seem to be ping them when its their Birthday..or sometimes even forget that - But I Miss them :(...)
#I want to write more, I want to improve my vocabulary and become a better writer. I want more followers to my blog and more stories to write :)
#I want to make the 365 project a success - I have lot of my friends who started with me and left me behind!
#I want to probably start singing too - I am a good singer (at least in the bathroom :P)
#I want to facebook less and orkut more  -- sheesh bad one, I totally dont want that..lol
#I want to get a hike, probably get promoted and help Vishnu retire so that he can read books on the Kindle forever and always stay lazy! :))
OK except for the few funny ones in the end, I have a serious list of things I wish/want to do! I am gonna keep this list of things in front of me and check it whenever I think I have achieved it!

All the Best to ME!