A catalog of recommendations

Bought a new home? have too much on your plate to figure out? This blog post is dedicated to all the new home owners who are trying to make their home live-in ready! My home was a brand new construction. We bought lot of the stuff online, saving a lot of time and effort. We didn't have a car when we moved in and we preferred door delivery options. So, without further ado, here is a long list of tips, links and ideas for your new home... enjoy!

First things first,  measure your house, every single inch, height, width, length. Measure your drawers (each one of them), kitchen shelf etc., You will be buying a lot of furniture and organizers and trust me you need to know how tall your closet ceiling is :) and how deep the drawers are.

Kitchen & Pantry

1. Stock up on those OXO containers- trust me your pantry needs them. You can either buy them from Costco, Bed Bath and Beyond or even Amazon. 
2. This heat mat works really well on any kitchen top. I also got this or this to save my gas range from my clumsiness ;)
3. Recommended by another friend, these help seal the gap between your stove and kitchen top. These are perfect to save any food falling on the floor (think ants)
4. Show some love to your sink by organizing the brushes in this
5. Spice it up with these magnetic spice jars! They are cute and are convenient to stack on your fridge.
6. Invest in your kitchen drawers, buy shelf liners (I bought  "Variera" from Ikea). Measure all your drawers and find organizers for your spoons, ladles. Ikea has loads of options! I also like these from Amazon.
7. Water purifier - Both my husband and I have sensitive stomachs and cannot digest tap water as-is. We invested in an under-sink water purifying unit - link. We had no trouble installing this on our own and love the taste of the water. I got special discount for buying directly from the distributors. Ping me if you need a referral.

For your Closet

1. Our closet was provided with 2 pre-installed railings and was not enough. We re-did our entire closet with Ikea's PAX closet solution. These were a little painful to assemble due to the height, but made our closet so much more efficient! 
2. You would want to make your closet look uniform with the same hangers, so throw away those old ones and buy these! No matter how big your closet is, you will need this and this to optimize your closet space! 
3. Oh and if you are a shoe person (Who is not?), you might appreciate this shoe organizer
4. Get these moisture absorbent packs. They help keep your clothes fresh, I also have these in my pantry to keep the moisture away

Bathroom essentials

1. Water Bidet - the best thing for some of us who cannot just make do with toilet paper :)
2. Toilet cleaning kit - This one from Clorox is very easy to use
3. This drain protector is the simple and best solution to blocking hair getting into the drain. works perfectly in bath tub and shower stall
4. Get these diffusers for keeping your bathroom from smelling. I have actually found better ones in Metropolitan Market (Seattle) but you get the idea :)
5. Washable shower curtain - Hate the plastic-y looking inner curtain? I got these from Bed, Bath & beyond and love them!            

Furniture - We bought a lot of furniture online (trust me it was a gamble!). We host a lot of friends and family and were always looking for convertible furniture. These are some of my absolute favorites

1. This tri-fold foam sofa converts into a twin bed.
2. This bean bag  converts into a single bed.
3. This indoor chair does not convert into anything, but is great to just lounge and fall asleep 
   

Blinds - Well, we all know how expensive blinds are. For a new home with large windows and no blinds, we were suddenly having privacy issues! We were too lazy to go through an exhaustive list of options so we went with a friend's recommendation to Budget Blinds! Their prices were great and their installation was close to perfect! Highly recommend them if they are available in your neighborhood. They also had screens/stickers for doors and windows and we loved how our main door looked after the treatment

Miscellaneous things

1. If your home has a lot of hard wood - you definitely need this to mop the floors!
2. I don't know about you, but my house has way too many spiders. Buy this for cleaning cobwebs without getting a back ache!
3. Whether you like it or not, you will find yourself doing a lot of DIY and will need a nice ladder. We got this from Home Depot.
4. Call me obsessed, but this and this is the best investment I have made for my bed. I have always struggled to keep the bed sheet intact on my mattress and these do the job just fine!
5. We found these peg boards from Ikea super convenient - I used them to organize my sewing supplies

              

That's all for now! Hope you found this post useful. Cheers! :)

Thank you!

I want to pause for a second and Thank God, my family, friends and co-workers for the amazing month of September 2018. 

For those of you who are wondering what's going on, September is my birthday month and some awesome things happened this year.  I completed 10 yrs with Amazon, I got promoted to Principal TPM and I also bought a new home in Seattle! All in all I have nothing to complain and everything to be grateful about! September 2018 will always be special in my life (after my wedding day of course!)

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#saythanks #amazon #newhomeseattle #bestbirthdaygift 

To each their own!

Friend1:

 

Friend2:

Profile pic in question:

:-)

 

Observations in the waiting hall

Yet another day at the airport. My ears plugged with Seinheisers and my eyes staring into the HTC. In front of me is the gate to my flight. The waiting area is in the middle of the duty free shopping area. Most of these shops are usually empty with the sales folks close to falling asleep out of boredom. For whatever reason, this airport is busy as a bee. Every shop filled with customers. Every billing counter with a queue.

As I continue to wonder, I randomly look around to take a glance at my fellow travelers; everybody drowned into their gadgets. Paati and Tata looking into their iPad and scrolling through pictures of thanksgiving feast their kids had back in the US. The uncle with a football sized paunch looking into his over-sized Samsung phone. The suited gentleman with salt n pepper hair busily typing into his Blackberry. The dude with bright yellow t-shirt and red shoes mildly head banging with his large white iball headphones. To be fair, I am sure there is somebody else noticing me tap away to glory on my phone. To sum it all up - Typical crowd :)

The gate is now filled with indigo employees preparing for boarding. A group of women wearing blue uniforms, a hat and a hard-to-miss blue neck accessory walk-in. All of them were 3" taller than their original height, thanks to their blue heels :). Each of them masked in fat layers of foundation and kajal. And to complete the look, their hair tied up and soaked in hair spray. Don't get me wrong here, I appreciate the effort which went into looking neat and well groomed. I just don't seem to understand the logic behind getting all dressed up for a job which requires a lot of running around. Why couldn't they just show up in a Kurta and leggings or probably a T-shirt and cotton pants matched with crocs? Am sure one can look pretty good in that attire and can do the job in much more comfort. Me as a passenger would not mind it either.

I snap out of that train of thought when the PA indicated that my flight was ready to board. I pick up my stuff and proceed towards the gate. In my head, I still haven't rationalized the reason behind the need to look like you were going to catwalk. However, as with any other random thought, I leave it unresolved and go back to my play list.

All in all - 2 hours of waiting time well spent ;)

A Taboo to bust!

Disclaimer: Thought-provoking, uncomfortable, sensitive, "shiva-shiva" or "haaawww"-kinda-reaction topic 

Early this year, the sanitary napkin brand 'Whisper' launched an initiative to bust the myths of periods - Touch the pickle. First, hats off to the company for thinking out-of-the-box and coming up with something meaningful. I mean seriously, who wants to see a blue color liquid poured into the napkin to indicate that it can 'absorb' heavy flow ! Anyways, I must say that they not only picked a good point, they made sure the point was getting across by strategically adding "old maamis" in the commercial indicating an indirect approval of change from the elderly!  Applause! 

This got me thinking, is touching the pickle jar a worthwhile taboo to bust? To me it is the least of the "taboos" to be worried about, I am so short that I can never reach the pickle bottle on the top shelf and my man always gets it for me! The harder one for me is restricting you from having a formal chat with God!

From the time you come-of-age, you are restricted to touch the Quran or pray namaaz. I am not a big religious person, but I have my way of connecting with God, sometimes it's just closing my eyes and meditate and sometimes it's reading a page from the holy book. Till date, I have never really understood the logic behind this restriction. In fact, of all the days, we feel low and moody during periods, why take away the connection with God? May be if allowed to pray, the pain in the abdomen might just lessen. 

Well, this disconnect is mandated across many religions. Not allowed into the temple/church, Not allowed inside the pooja room, Not allowed to touch/clean the idols, not allowed to participate in prasadam preperation either (Thank God, we can atleast eat it!) If you are born or married into a Brahmin family, you're in for a treat - 5 days of the month chutti from pooja room, kitchen, dining room, hall - basically every place except your own room! I have also seen restrictions like, wash your own clothes, sleep in a secluded room, do not share bed with spouse etc.,

What boggles me is not that these beliefs have been passed on to us, the fact that we are religiously following it - like a habit, like a routine, like an unspoken rule. If this is a rule, I would like to see it broken! Am pretty glad that 'Whisper' has actually taken the first step, but I will not be impressed until I actually see the same set of maami's from the Ad allowing the girl to not only touch the pickle jar but to also walk into the temple and touch the idol or open the book shelf and touch the Quran or even get into the church and take the communion. 

Like my better half just said - "Why wait for a maami? Just do it yourself!" I guess I will! 

Oh BTW- Don't risk your life just to prove a point though ;)

Waiting for Gas!!

Ayega ayega ayega aaane waaala ayegaaa ayegaa

Intehaan ho gayi intezaar ki ..ayi na kuch khabar mere….ki

Jaaaanejaaaa  dhoondhta phir raha hu tumhe raat din mein yaha se waha…tum kahaaaan??

Wondering who I am waiting for?  Read on.

For the past few months, hubby and I have been trying to run the household to make sure that the home my in-laws have taken a break from is in one piece when they eventually come back. Part of that responsibility is for me to cook and for him to eat :D.

So far, so good. However, the problem starts when this simple life starts depending on agencies and people who have no flexibility what-so-ever! One such is the insane… sorry Indane gas agency. These guys expect every household to have folks available at any time they feel appropriate to deliver the LPG cylinder. If not, they simply cancel your booking and leave a slip at the door. A slip at the door!? Wow, they actually left a note!? How kind. As if all this kindness was not enough, they also go ahead and cancel the order! (sarcasm alert). We tried to explain to the agency that both of us are working and cannot be at home during the day. The guy just said "sorry" and hung up. Customer service score = -100!

So,  now that we are at the mercy of our agent, hubby and I are taking turns to stay at home and wait for his highness, the cylinder delivery guy to show up! Well, all of you already know how I love working from home (more sarcasm)! It is not just inconvenient, it is annoying at levels I cannot describe.

So to kill this annoyance, I have a playlist full of intezaar (waiting) songs! Here's hoping that this playlist will last till the royalty deigns to put in an appearance! 

The essentials of a bohri house

Lists are so popular these days that half of my news feed on facebook is links to lists about various topics. Since then my mind has been itching to write a list. More importantly a unique one. 

What can be more unique than writing about my own household :). As some of you know,  I belong to bohra community (yes my faith was written when I was born)

Here is a list of things you will absolutely find in any bohri house and is considered to handicap our house in their absence 

1. The universal oil. The healer. The king of balms and pain relief oils. The axe brand oil aka Abu faas. The Axe effect in this case works!

 

2. The wall filled with pillows. We call them 'khaba na takiya'. The most comfortable back support ever!

3. Tiny boxes of saffron in the egg tray of the fridge. There will be one from every possible country :)

4. The famous freshener and cleanser (also acts as a mosquito repellent sometimes). It is our very own 'bukhur'. These days the bukhur sticks are very in.

5. Jhatakwani pinchi. Beats every highend duster or cleaner. Very economical and easy to customize.

Have more to add to this list ? Add them in the comments section :)

Wake up call!

Its that time of the year when every muslim wakes up every morning (I would rather call it midnight) to gobble some food with the hopes of surviving yet another fasting day. Don't get me wrong, I am  not against fasting, I just find the early morning waking up a little too disturbing as I am not a morning person.
Anyways, back to the point I was trying to make - It's 3:30 am when my phone starts buzzing (alarm!). My eyes still fighting to open and my body still trying to convince me that this wake up call is worth it and its only 25 more days to do this and I am being a good girl by being the best daughter and what not when this massive blood sucking horrendous living being bites me! I wake up in a flash and slap my arm to find a dead mosquito on my palm. Rest of my sehri (suhoor) went singing "Khoon choosne tu aaya khoon choosne
Bloody khooni Monday Macchar kyun aaya khoon choosne" 

What a start to my day! Wonder what was yours?

Work Home - Home Work

As some of you at work might have noticed, I am not seen in office, occasionally offline on communicator, sending emails from my phone, online at ungodly hours and continuously setting up conference calls to catch up. In short - I am Working from home :)

Many of us have the privilege  to keep an office laptop providing the so called flexibility to work-when-you-like at any convenient place. The added benefit to this is the option to Work from Home (WFH). Even though hubby and I are in the same field (IT), employed with quiet good companies (let's just assume this for now) and have similar privileges,  our typical day is vastly different -

My day - Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, drive (traffic  these days is more stressful than watching a soap on TV) and then get started with work! Numerous breaks (don’t judge me!), drive back, cook, eat and continue with more work until midnight!

His day - Wake up, eat breakfast(not forgetting the gazing at the newspaper), get back to his room and get started with his work! A lunch  and a dinner break and he is back to his spot until I signal my end of day!

Personally, I have never understood how anyone could be productive working from home.  One reason could be that when I am at home, I forget about work from home and instead indulge into working at home.  In addition, my nature of job is to collaborate with people; working from home is simply counterproductive.

Well, that’s just me! The better half however, is the complete opposite. He has utilized the option to WFH to the fullest. Sometimes days, weeks and even months pass by and he would happily sit at home and go click clacking on the laptop!  At one point, I started to doubt if he was still employed ;). Of course the paycheck at the end of the month was very re-assuring :).

No matter what I think about WFH, this option now has come handy when I absolutely need it and whether I enjoy it or not, I do appreciate the importance of this benefit :)

From the daughter's heart

It is exactly 3 weeks since he opened his eyes to the angels of heaven. His last moment is still fresh in my mind. Just about the same time 3 weeks back, all the family members were sitting around him and praying the Quran. His eyes were half open staring at the wall in front of him. I lovingly called him "Papli" and got not response from him. The only indication that he was alive was the movement of his diaphragm. Time was ticking towards the night, and as much tired I was, there was no sleep in my eyes. I didn't want to lose sight of him. I just didn't want to! Suddenly, his eyes opened wide and he started breathing heavily, it felt like he was watching somebody up above. "The time has come" my cousin brother said.
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I had seen him deteriorate inch by inch in the past week. The last hug he gave me was on my anniversary day. He was already a little weak and was coping with a lot of pain. My sister and I had made plans for alternative treatment to give his body strength and immunity. We were planning a trip just after my anniversary to an Ayurveda place as well. But God had something different in mind. Like they say - Man proposes, God disposes!
The next day after my anniversary, he seemed completely zoned out. He had drifted into a sub-conscious mode and had completely stopped talking. His only response was through blinking his eyes. Mom looked strong on the outside, but I could see the turmoil in her eyes. The doctor visited us and after examining him said "Please inform everybody possible". Her estimate was that he would stretch it for a week max! Honestly, I do not have the words nor the courage to explain how the days have passed after that. All i knew was, my parents need me to be the strongest daughter ever; I was and I am! That one week we saw him cripple into a skeleton. From blinking eyes, to half open eyes staring into space. From frequent anxiety attacks to a motionless body. The Doc was right, he survived exactly a week after that.
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All through that week I was only praying to God to stop the torture and grant him relief and peace. But when my cousin uttered those words, I was not sure if I was prepared to handle that moment. For sometime, I moved away from the room. I made a list of people I had to immediately call once anything happened and gathered the courage by saying to myself "I need to see this through". I went back to his room and sat next to him. My elder aunt had taken him in her lap and had her palm on his chest. He kept breathing heavily and tears rolled down his eyes. I closed my eyes for a minute in prayer and when I opened, aunt said "I cant feel the heart beat".The entire room stood still. I looked at mom and saw here eyes fill up. I tried to see if his diaphragm was moving, no sign. Looked at his face, frozen. I shakingly held his wrist to feel the pulse, just one pulse and nothing. I stared at mom and said "No ma, nothing, I cant feel a thing". He was no more! He was my Dad.

Name Calling

There I was at the Seattle Tacoma international airport waiting at the gate for my ride to come and take me home. I settled down in one of the comfy spots and started looking around me. Out of 7 rows of chairs filled with passengers, I spotted way too many Desis and probably 5 Firangs. Thinking about it, The Desis are the Firangs in this country(US) and the so-called Firangs are Desis here. Applying that logic, that place was actually filled with way too many Firangs ;) Never mind.

Ahem! Moving on with my story - I was sitting there making my last few 'Good bye' calls to my friends and suddenly the Emirates announcement starts which went (something like this) - "Hello Emirates blah blah paging Naraaayaanaa, Ramaaaswaaaram".. and a lot more other people. She just killed all the Indian names in the best way possible! I was on the phone with my jiju and both of us just couldn't stop laughing! What started next was a situation story which I had to tell and show off :P So here it goes...

This was my first time ever to the States. I was travelling to NJ via Air France. We were just landing at Paris and my connecting flight to NJ was an hour away. The air hostess on the flight started to announce all the names who had to take the next flight as they had a separate bus arranged to take us to the flight directly. If you don’t know, my full name is SAKINA KHUZEMA ADEEB. Though my first and last names are pretty straight forward, the middle name is complicated.

The air hostess announced a series of random names and amidst those I heard "Kujima Aaadib".  "Damn! it sounds so familiar" I thought. She probably repeated it 5 times before I realized it was me!!  I hastily walked towards her and said "I think that is Khuzema?".  Her face literally glowed in happiness. She smiled at me and said "Finally! Somebody came!". I thought, "Yeah right, if you screw up names nobody will show up". Actually, cant blame her. She was French and English was not even her second language. Her calling out a list of Indian names is like me riding a CBR! Not gonna happen without disastrous results.

I was standing next to her watching her break into a sweat and  read out names in a way I have never ever heard. I took the list from her hand and saw names like "Venkataraman", "Srinivasan", "Ananthamurthy".  I felt sorry for her and offered to help. Without any hesitation she handed over the Mic to me and there I was calling out names as if I knew these guys from childhood. All of them started coming in front and boarded the bus waiting for us. The air hostess was so relieved that she gave me a hug and said "Thank you!!!" (in her French accent of course).  Proud is what I felt!

Ok story vover - now get back to whatever you were doing :P

Cousin Connection

Recently one of my cousin sisters sent this message which read -

This message just struck me like a lightning bolt! "So true!" I exclaimed. I have grown up with my cousin sisters around me (especially mom's side family). We used to stay in close vicinity and would spend an entire weekend at each other's place doing nothing! Back then, we (luckily) fitted into each other’s clothes and would shamelessly dig into each other's closet. There have been numerous occasions where we have confused our parents as we would look identical in each other’s clothes. Well, we don’t do this anymore; we neither stay in close vicinity nor do we fit into each other’s clothes ;)

Coming to think of it, my cousin sisters and I share many similarities. Some of them are because these traits are running in the veins and arteries of the family tree
>We are totally self-obsessed; we get ready and stare at the mirror until we impress ourselves!
> We love posing for pictures and clicking millions of self-photos (in the 5 star hotel loo of course)
> We love food - one likes to cook, the other likes to take a pic of it and the other likes to eat. Well the love for food from different angles! (HEHE..keep guessing who is who ;)..)
> We LOVE HANDBAGS - I don’t think we have realized this as a group of cousins, but each of us separately drool over handbags and long for having a cupboard full of it!
> If you haven’t guessed this one already, we can oscillate between being "Gaandi" (Mad) to "dhai deekri" (obedient/silent/calm gal)
> We love giving "dhamki" - well not in the serious way of course, this is a bi-product of our nautanki character ;)

This list goes on-and-on. So, while I sit and figure out this list, why don’t you go ahead and probably send the same message to your long lost cousin :)

Flashback!

Merry Christmas peepals! 

6 more days for 2013 and I am still wondering what to do for the New year's. I guess I will eventually land up in some random place either dancing or eating or just wandering!  Right now, I sit here in front of the laptop (on a holiday), listening to a song which annoys my hubby the most, trying to write a plan for a project starting in 2013 and in the midst of all that, trying to write this ;)

BTW this is my 3rd attempt at a blog post this week. I don’t know why (may be I know why) I have just not been able to either turn my thoughts into words, or found time to write, or found the words and the time, but just didn't get enough "meat" to put into a post. Lets just hope I manage to finish this one successfully ;)

For all the "end-of-the-world" hype this year had, we seem to have passed by the "Doomsday" smoother than anticipated. Wonder if the whole 2012 prediction was just another way of getting a new topic to frighten people  or make money! Anyways, for me, I believe this year went really well! "How do you say that?" You may ask. Let me try to answer that as convincingly as I can :)

January - Started the year in a rather boring way (sitting at home). However, managed to reach my 100th blog post on the Newyears'. So proud of me on that one ;). Made my maiden visit to Kolkata and attended Amit n Ruchika's wedding. Enjoyed every moment of their hospitality and made some real witty friends :-))

February - Vishnu and I got famous on our 3rd anniversary :) Our story was featured in Femina February edition.  Haven't read it? See here. We celebrated the "D" day at Masinagudi along with love birds Hussain and Rash. We also signed papers for our new House which is currently under construction :)

March and April: Well, nothing much, first wedding in the team. Padma got into wedlock :) and I managed to save myself from getting fooled :P

May: By far the best-est month of the year :) My first trip to Seattle, loads of re-union, some major bonding with sister. Sky dived from 12,500 feet above sea level (I have a Certificate to prove that ;) ..)  Road trip to 3 states in 2 days - From LA to Grand Canyon to Vegas!  :) Also did a cycle gap visit to Dubai (you know why ;) )

June: Back home and continued normal life ;) Akka and kids visited us :) Urvi found a new baby sitter to cling and climb on :) and Rashi found a new partner in crime ;) In-laws started for their 2.5 months vacation to US.

Team outings, dinners, lunches, treats at its best :) Stephen's first visit to Chennai.

July:  Met Rosy and Mallika after ages! Super surprise planned by both of them :) Spent some very "embracing" moments with Kishen, Ambika and Mariya ;)

August: Best friend Suni got married to her forever friend Kiruba :) Back at work, launched India Kindle Store on Amazon.com

September: Trip to Bangalore, met Phaphda. Took complete pleasure of bugging Prathi :) Streaked my hair Red :) and and and ….Celebrated my Birthday with awesome surprises, loving wishes and cake cutting! Completed 4 years at Amazon :D

October: One day trek to Tada, fun time with team and hubby. Mr. Awesome moved to Bangalore (sad and happy for him). Gangnam style outing at Raddison Blu (Mahabs). Found new girls gumbal at work to jabber with :) We also bid farewell to Zenab, she left Chennai to pursue her PhD, may God bless you and the phD ;)

November: First road trip as a couple from Chennai to Kodai. Adventure time at Elephant Valley on the Tree house ;) A good eco-friendly birthday for hubby;)

December: Numerous project launches at work (team is super proud of their work). In the midst of all that attended half a dozen weddings, practically every close friend of mine got married this month. Laughter filled trip to Dharmapuri and Hoganakkel.

So, "Bhaisaab aap convince ho gaye ya mein aur bolu??" - Hope you had an awesome 2012 too. Looking forward to New year party (wherever that is) and 2013 :)

Trip to the Petrol bunk

Driving back from work today, all my mind could think of was how eventful, hectic and tiring this week was (if you were following my Facebook posts you would know why ;) ). It suddenly struck me that I hadn't blogged for a very long time and feared that I had lost touch! So, just to let go of that fear, here I am with yet another set of thoughts penned down for you.

Hubby and I headed out today for a short drive to the petrol bunk and just as luck would have it we got stuck in very bad traffic. On a road which hardly qualifies as 2 lane, we had an auto rickshaw, a bus and a car all in parallel fighting to get ahead of the other without giving space to onward traffic. Where were we? We were sitting in the car behind the bus with a SWIFT Dezire on a 45 degrees angle between me and the bus. Not to mention, all the bikes in different colors and sizes occupying every spot between the vehicles.

Suddenly, the bus moves forward and the Dezire cuts in. I shout "What an ass?!!" and my hubby humbly answered "Comes with the car, Swift with an ass". "Well said" I thought. As if one was not enough, another Swift with an ass followed him and did the exact same thing! And I was like "Is it just a coincidences or everybody who owns this car is the same??!!:-S" Nevermind!

I continued to drive (inch by inch) until another "villain" showed up! A big Fortuner behind us on high beam killing my eyesight. I suddenly felt like being part of the Transformers movie where the Decepticon (SUV) is fighting against the Autobot (me) to destroy the Earth! If you have been driving, you would totally understand this description! Every such SUV thinks they rule the road and can honk and intimidate every vehicle passing by. I chose not to get affected and ignored the monster behind me!

We finally made it to the petrol bunk and spent a fortune. On the way back, just when we thought that we found a free road, we were surrounded by a bunch of bees buzzing in different directions! Didn't get it? These bees are the most annoying 2 wheel motor cycles! These bikers were as random as they could get, a guy with left indicator going right, a guy with no headlight overtaking a bus on the opposite side and the best of the lot, a  guy showing signal with his hands which I could hardly see in the dark background. I guess Size does not matter when it comes to being an annoyance to others.

Oh BTW, I almost forgot to mention the brilliant black and yellow auto 3 wheelers! They come from a different world altogether! From the time Rajni acted as an Auto-kaaran, all of them on the road think they are super stars (literally). They can fly, they can swing, they can twist and they can take their passengers any where any time in no time! Rascalas :P

Now that I am done scolding swearing and venting at every vehicle which came my way, I must confess that in spite of all that, I enjoyed this not-so-long drive. Just for the sheer entertainment and the small but good distraction from work it gave me ;)

Gujju Randomness

I was randomly listening to this song and without my knowledge started singing the words in Gujurati. My hubby couldn't stop laughing and then suggested I actually post the Gujju version on my blog.
So here it is, my attempt at so called "Patel Rap". You're welcome to all the hearty laughs ;)

aa su thai gayu che,aa su thai gayu che
aa su thai gayu che,aa su thai gayu che

Hooooooo
avi ja mara bahon ma avijaaaa

Mari hungg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che
Mari hungg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che

o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija
o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija

Mari hungg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che

Mhane aas thayi gayi che, thane paas me kari levu
Tari har adaa ne samjhi ane chahat ma bhari levu
Mhane aas thayi gayi che, thane paas me kari levu
Tari har adaa ne samjhi ane chahat ma bhari levu
ek ajnabee see jaanu tu mhari khaas thayi gayi che
tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che

o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija
o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija
Mari hungg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che
Mari hunngg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che

Tari nematon na khatir mari khushi thane aapi devu
Tu ek isharo kari dayi toh mari zindagi tane aapi devu
Tari nematon na khatir mari khushi thane aapi devu
Tu ek isharo kari dayi toh mari zindagi tane aapi devu
Tu ajh mari zindagi che mane vishwas thayi gayo che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che

o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija
o Yaara, Avija mara bahon ma avija
Mari hungg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che
Mari hunngg udi gayi che
Maru chen khovai gayu che
Tara pyaar ma mari jaan aa su thayi gayu che
aa su thai gayu che,
aa su thai gayu che
Mari hunnggggg

Raksha bandhan Special

Today is Raksha bandhan/Rakhi which is a celebration of the unique relationship between brother and sister :) I do have 2 rakhi brothers whom i wish without fail on this day but haven't met for ages :(. Today, however, I started my day thinking, why rakhi was a celebration of a sis-bro relationship?? why can't it be between the same sex? I have an elder sister who is caring as hell and takes care of me and my parents, why can't i tie a rakhi to her? Good question, with no good answer!

As i am known for being a revolt and doing things my way (which is usually not what the society recommends) I choose to write this post today and dedicate it to my sister :) I surely don't praise her too often and a public display of my love in a forum like this is something I have never ever done :) So, here's my dedication to my darling sister who is miles away from me, but very close to my heart. 

A word of caution: this might get too senti to digest, so please read at your own risk :)

Dear Sister,

When I was born, I had no idea I had an elder sister who i had to match with. You gave me mixed feelings about being the "younger one". You were one hell of a competition to beat when it came to studies, and I had to always be OK with our school teachers calling me "Maryam"! Oh BTW, Mom still calls me Maryam when she is missing u too much :P 

You were the Tom and I was the Jerry! I do not remember a single day during my childhood where both of us have not fought. Our conversations would start and end in a fight, and we made no excuses for being as blunt to each other as possible. Thank God we didn't get physical! Nevertheless, I cherish every single fight cos that made us stronger ;) and then the unfortunate (read fortunate) happened - you left us to meet Uncle Sam!

You leaving to US was a big change for all of us at home, it was silence in the house for weeks. Mom, dad and me would look at each other and just have tears in our eyes cos we were missing u so much! I never knew i would miss you cos I initially thought "Happa! good riddance". But I was so wrong! After the realisation had struck i jumped at every occasion to talk to u on the phone and guess what, FIGHT! I didn't know the feeling was mutual until i came to the US and spent time with you. It was the best time i ever had with you and from then on, we bonded like best friends! 

I must say you have flaws (lol)!You are stubborn, You are impossible, You are bossy and you are impatient. You are short tempered and you irritate me (sometimes)! But!!!  You are the best sister one can ever have! The most caring, protective, unconditionally loving and super fun sister I could have ever hoped for! 

So to wrap it all up without sounding like I am writing a Love letter on the Internet - Happy Raksha Bandhan dear Sis. i accept gifts in Cash (USD) and kind! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D

You and me!

I was bored, so was he. I wanted to chill out, so did he. I made the plan, he happily accompanied. This is a norm between me and Vishnu. It was quiet long since we went for a night show movie together and I started to think if we were really growing old (besides the age) to get thrilled about a movie plan! To get rid of that thought, I decided to just go ahead and make a movie plan and when i got on to my favorite theatre website I found the perfect movie! (I will educate you on why i call it perfect little later on this post)

Ek main aur Ekk tu - released just in time for valentine's day! From the trailers of the movie, it looked like a rip off of the English Rom-Com "What happens in Vegas". Ashton Kutcher did a real good job troubling the so-called wife and i was hoping Imran will have a similar role as well. But, I was wrong, the only part which is copied from the movie is the part where the 2 of them get drunk in Vegas and get married by mistake! The movie turned out to be more mushy than expected and Imran was the girl with a broken heart :P. Kareena on the other hand had a role which she is completely comfortable with - the bold, the beautiful and the bubbly. I am not yet sure whether I liked the movie completely but overall I guess it was a nice light hearted, no nonsense movie. I was just glad that the director and story writer did not add any unnecessary masala to it :) I specifically appreciated the ending :). One movie which begun with "The End" and ended with "The Beginning".
So, as far as the movie goes, I think its a decent flick to spend a few hours on and enjoy the songs for few days :) Now finally getting to the point: Why I thought I chose the perfect movie! Vishnu started watching Hindi movies in theatres only after i entered his life. Since then, I take the sadistic pleasure of torturing him with the bollywood dramas on a large screen for 3 to 4 hours :) Most of the times, I am successful with the torture and sometimes I fail (that is when there is a good movie like 3 idiots or ZNMD or something like that). So when I picked this movie, i knew that it will have a bollywood twist to the English movie and assumed that it will be a good plot to bug him. When the movie got over, I immediately turned to him and asked "Waste of time?" and he replied "Not really" - I disappointed :-| ..lol :P

Nevertheless, I re-discovered that we are still thrilled at a movie plan and can go for a night show anytime :)

The 1

Now this one is the most hyped blog post of the year. I finally got myself to complete the 6 day marathon of blogging ...Excited, thrilled and what not. Now this elated feeling doesn’t seem to be helping me at all. I have no idea what to write, how to write and how much to write! :(

So today there is no list. Obvious, 1 item on a list is actually not a list, or may be it is? But what the hell, the point is I am not really planning to write a list at all. But I would complete this countdown with the most craziest thing I have ever done in my life.

The craziest thing I did is probably not new to many of you. But I take a lot of pride in it because I managed to pull this off and show the world that sometimes just following your heart and doing something crazy is all you need to do! This crazy thing took me 5 long years of consistent persuasion and commitment. This crazy thing helped me become stronger and bolder. This crazy thing made me half mad and completely insane ;) This crazy thing is not really a thing :)

The craziest and the best thing I ever did in my life is marry Vishnu :-) hehehe.

Happy New year Guys :) Have a great 2012. And its not the end of the world yet :)

10

It was nice to see all the good responses I have gotten so far on my new year countdown blogs. Thanks guys for keeping me motivated :). Today I have numerous ideas on the 2 list. Some are mine, some are from my friends and some from the universe ;). So right now, the "dharm sankat" is, what the hell do I write about? Zimble. Everything!?! :P . So on popular demand, this list of 2 is actually a collection of 2 lists. Don’t worry about the math, just read on! :)

2 best films I saw in 2011: Out of the very few movies I saw this year, it is a difficult job to pick the best 2. Especially when you are a big Bollywood Fan and when Bollywood is hell bent on producing mind-blowingly awful movies. So, after a lot of scrutiny and deep thought, here are the 2 best movies I saw in 2011 - Kungfu Panda 2 - "Po" the Dragon warrior is simply the cutest, funniest, naughtiest, wittiest kung-Fu master I have ever seen in the movies :) he is totally adorable and all thanks to Po, the movie is on my top2 list ;). Second in line is Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Kabir, Arjun and Imran set out for a trip of a lifetime and discover themselves in the process. The movie has great locations, dialogues and songs. My favorite character in the movie- Imran Habib aka majnu  aka Farhan Akhtar:)

2 worst films I saw in 2011: Now that the best ones are out of the way, I think its far easier for me to pick the worst ones.  The movie which wins this gold medal is Dum Maaro Dum - I mean, why cant somebody please give Aby baby some shaving foam? And what exactly is Bipasha trying? Oh and why is Deepika even dancing on that song? Sorry, the most relevant question comes now - What is the movie about? This movie was such a Maar and no Dum!! The one with the Silver medal is Pirates of the Caribbean 4 actually I was going to say Transformers 3, but I think Penelope did a better job showing her pouted lips than  Rosie :) (pun intended). Can somebody please tell me why the pirates who are good at battling in the sea and conquering other ships go behind a goddam fountain of youth?? Seriously this movie was such a failure!

2 best reunions I had in 2011: I have had some very good reunions this year with some old friends, some of my cousins and some of my old colleagues. So the 2 get together' s I totally cherish are "The cousins day out" in Feb2011 - I think this was the best outing I have had with my cousins  Rashida and Mariya :). The second one is actually a small meet up with Rohini and Nivy :) We spent like 2 hours in Baskin Robins but had a great time playing around. Ro - please send me pictures :P

2 top achievements in 2011: This is slightly tough. You know how difficult it is for me to boast about myself right? That too publicly on the internet :P hehe. So getting rid of all my sharm and haya, these are the top 2 things I achieved this year. First, this is a joint achievement between my sister and me. Yep, you guessed it right - Mom and Dad's HAJ! We (Maryam and I) had a sense of satisfaction once they returned from Haj, a feeling of comfort that we could finally make this happen :).  The second one is on the lighter side. I did my first ever snorkeling in sea  during my trip to Andaman's. It was seriously an achievement as I was a little worried that I might drown and kill some fishes in the sea ;)

This is my 2's list for this year, and since I am running short of time, I will end my blabbering right here and welcome the last day of the year with this blog post :)

P.S. There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't

Thireeeee

So far, you have read the "Six" places I want to visit, the "Five" things I wish to do and the "Four" movies I like the most. Today the countdown is sitting at number 3 (oh man, I am so brilliant to figure that out, right? :P ).  When hubby and I decided on the "Three" list, it sounded crazy. We decided to make a list of "alternate profession" we would have been in if not IT.  This list does not qualify as a wish list or most wanted list but It is plainly a list contemplating how our life would have been, if not the way it is!

Now, the question is, If not an IT professional, then what would have been my profession? or what I would have done for a living? As a matter of fact, a part of this list has already been covered in one of my earlier blog posts. And just incase you feel that you have heard this story before, you have probably been following my blog for the past 3 years and still haven't given up on me :-)  Ok, so back to what I set out to write, here is my list of 3 professions I would have landed up in if not IT/Software/Testing/Whatever!

The profession which wins hands down is "Fashion Designing". I had very well explained on my blog "if <> QAE then" that the one and only passion I ever had during my school days was fashion designing. Looking at all the glamorous models walking on the ramp wearing a designer's creation completely excites me. This is one profession which needs loads of creativity and attitude to design something out of the world daily!  I still design my own clothes and mom thinks I am good at it :-)

Ok, after the gaga about the love I have for fashion designing, I would like to introduce you to my second passion.  This one is close to my heart. Hubby and me met because of this. May be that's why I can probably see myself being in this profession. Yes, I am talking about Dancing! I have been dancing from I don’t know when. In school, in college, at work (not my current work place), I have danced solo and group and won some competitions too :). Dancing is more like a hobby to me, but who knows, if I had been a little serious I would have been a pro!

2 down and 1 more to go, this profession is a little of the serious types. Imagine a lady walking in Saree with big soda glasses and a pile of textbooks in her hands. Now imagine her walking into a huge room and everybody stands up to greet her "Good Morning Miss' :-) Get it? - I would have probably become a teacher and spent my time teaching kindergarten students :-)

There you go! The 3 alternate professions I would have gone for :-) I actually had a fourth one but its not something which can be tagged as a profession. If I had the guts or the inclination I would have probably joined the Indian Army. But I clearly don't qualify for it, so I am going to leave that thought aside and end this list with a small note. This list is not a "WANT" list and I am no way indicating that I don’t like what I do right now :). And btw, "Thireee" is actually my grand mom version of three :P 

Ciao! :)