The Year 2009 - An Year of Events

So, we are already 24 hours into the new year and nothing spectecular has happenned so far.. But some very important events happened in the year 2009.. So I thought I'll pen them down.. No great reasons for doing this.. But who knows if we make it our family tradition and the generations to come would follow this..
So, I'll list some important events of the last year.. and they are not listed in the order of importance, all are equally important afterall... But I would try to list them in the order of occurance..

• We celebrated the New Year's eve 2008 with our "bestest" friends in Seattle.. Raised the toast to 2008 and welcomed 2009 with some family potraits.

• Gaurav decided that he wants to study at Fuqua School of business.. And I thought he would become a consultant but he said investment banking.. Whatever, anything was equally bad as he would be married to his job after completing his MBA..


• Gaurav decided to resign from his job and take a break in India for three months.. with me ofcourse.. :D
  
• We attended two most important weddings for our lives.. I thank weather Gods for their co-operation on all important dates.. Otheriwise you know what it is like attending an Indian wedding with heavily embroidered lehangas and 5Kgs jewellery on hot sultry afternoon.. The temperature usually touches 45C.
• Neha weds Pankur.. Guddu made me crazy on all shopping sprees.. She would spend hours giving specifications on how she wants her jewllery and dresses to look like..

• After the wedding Pops(in-law) proudly announced me as a wonderful daughter who took care of everything during the festivites.. I gained 10 pounds that day :D


• Piyush weds Nidhi... we brought our beautiful bhabhi home.. My makeup artist did the most weird makeup on my face.. So this is the answer to all the questions about my pics during my bhai's wedding..
  
• We covered all the Devi's in himachal Pradesh in just two days with our family.. Had a totally fun and "run" filled trip..


• We came back to united states of america again to set up our home for the nth time..
  
• I wished to buy a volkswagen passat since we possesed it when we were in Seattle and this was the first car I drove in USA and totally adored it.. God listened to my wishes.. yoohoo.. but then I regretted that I could have wished for a BMW, GOD was listening to my wishes afterall :D
  
• Made three "Bestest" friends of my life.. Arch, Nive and Jaya.. Arch is most energetic, enthusiastic.. Nive has the best sense of humour.. and Jaya, I love your hindi girl.. Sometimes I try to talk like you :D
  


• The college crowd belives in studying hard and partying harder.. And the partners, well we just party..
  
• Took a dream vacation to Smokie Mountains.. But I wanted to see a wild bear face to face.. Hope to catch up with you, Mr. Bear, sometday..
  
• Met Nikita after... let me calculate..i think 2-2.5 years.. She hasn't changed a bit.. same dressing sense, saving every penny, and she still noticed what all jewellery I was wearing and if it was artifical/gold/diamond/who got it etc etc.. Lol.. Love you motu :D
  


• Went for a trip to SFO...
  
• Attended the first Prom night of my life.. and it changed my defination of a Prom Night...I first got dressed according to my old defination and then reached there, and when I got the shock treatment, came back home and got dressed again.. Unfortunately I didn't have a dress according to my new defination and had to go in my casual clothes.. But I had the fun of a lifetime :)
  
• Celebrated the New Year eve 2009 with a bunch of good friends minus Archana (Arch).. but got the good news that she is coming back soon.. yoohooo
  

I hope I haven't missed anything significant.. Let me know if you think so..

When going gets tough, tough gets going

Excess of everything is bad. I would have used and realized this proverb for countless times in my life. But I have recently realized that deficit of "something" is not good either and especially then when you had that "something" in excess sometime back. The craving for that "something" really hurts when you know you cant get more of it now. But the sooner you realise that this is all you have, the better it is. Then the best you can do is, go back the memory lane, cherish the good old times and sometimes wish that had you understood the importance of your "something" sooner.

Two and half months into his MBA program, I dont get to see Gaurav much often now. To be more precise, yes I see him after a lapse of 15-16 hours everyday but I dont get to talk to him so much now. Other than the five minute dinner break, our home wears a pin drop silence. Just like the one it has now. All I can hear is the clock. Tired of not talking him for days, I asked him to give me 10 minutes everyday. Talk to only me during that time without his laptop or i-Phone around. You wont believe but the bliss I find in those ten minutes is beyond explanation. Now we talk about what we both did during our day and about those minor details that we had never discussed in our last 2 years of married life. Sometimes when we dont have anything to say, I just lay my head in his lap and we just savour each other's existance. And if sometimes, I dont get my 10 minutes, they get stacked up and get a bonus of 5 minutes over 30 minutes.

In his busy schedule, going for shopping is out of question. Now I am so used to going out alone that I dont even expect him to show up even if its about his dress shirts or oxford shoes. On last to last friday, I called him up to check what time would he come back. Macy's had some sale going on and I intended to spend my friday evening getting some good stuff. But instead he asked me to pick him up from college so that we could go out for some shopping. Voila!!!.. I got dressed up quickly with the prettiest smile on my face. The next day when my friend asked me what did I do over the weekend, I proudly said "I went out on a date with my husband".

It was our second Karwachuth together and like any other Indian female I wanted him to come home early. Quiet sure of the answer I would get, I still asked him for this favour. "I am sorry baby, but it would be very difficult. I have this this and this. I cant come before 6". Did I hear a 6?? I couldnt help smiling as I had not expected him come sooner than 8-9. I just wanted him to be back home before moon comes up. Gaurav surprised me by coming home at 5. He made my day.

Now that I understand that we cant spend so much time together like our good old days, I cherish those little time slots even more. When I know we cant go out for a movie, watcing it at home with his arms around my waist is so much more fun. When I know we dont have time to go out for dinner, going out and taking a quick ice-cream bite is so relaxing. Showing up at his college for even 10 minutes seems like a lifetime now. Its unbelivable when my friends cancel their program of coming along so that we can have a time just for ourselves. Yes, I have started taking pleasure in the little joys of life and I am Loving it :)

p.s. but jaya I really wanted you to come along that day

Luck By Chance

Friday, around 3:00pm, my inbox got an email titled “Movie tonight?”. In less than an hour, the number of replies to that mail were more than 15. Perhaps, by that time, everyone is working in the weekend mode. I read only two key-words in that email, “Luck by chance” and “Farhan Akhtar”. I felt secluded as I was familiar with only Farhan Akhtar. Nevertheless, that was enough for me to reply “count us IN for it”.

Farhan Akhtar has been able to impress me so far. By now, I have seen two of his excellent contributions to the Indian Film Industry (I prefer not to call it Bollywood as that might offend the legendry actress Dimple Kapadia). Apart from his voice and curly-hair, I like everything about this multi-talented artist.

The movie starts with Konkana Sen, who is a struggling actress, being indirectly and indecently propositioned by a sleazy film producer. The camera stays on Konkana’s face for a while, focusing her discomforted expression and unwillingness and helplessness to accept the opportunity thrown at her that might earn her second-lead in an upcoming movie. I am ready to believe that there would be many other like her in real life, aspiring to be star icons one day and choosing the short-cut and the only path(in some cases) to fulfill their dreams.

Isha Shervani plays the role of a beautiful, dumb, un-talented daughter of Dimple Kapadia who lives in a cake, calls her puppy with some funny name. She shows off her acrobatic skills quiet well in the circus theme song opposite Hrithik Roshan. Hrithik has once again danced well in his typical style while rocking every single bone of his body.

Rishi Kapoor and Juhi chawla, owners of “Romy Rolly Productions” and fancied by number “Five” have given an appearance after a long break and charmed the audience quiet well again. Finally, we got to see Juhi in something other than the “Kurkure Ad”. Dimple Kapadia has also given an elegant screen appearance.

Zoya Akhtar, has done a good job as a director. My two thumbs-up for the movie. And my two important learnings from this movie go like this:

1. Never forget your friends who know you before your stardom knew you.

2. The easiest way to get something done from a woman is to talk about how beautiful and dignified she looks. After that everything falls in place.

Life is not a bed of roses.. but it definitely is a bed of thorns for some

I have known Mumbai since my childhood. I was ten when I first saw the marvelous architecture of Gateway of India, when I first ate bhelpuri at chaupati, when I first witnessed a rain that seemed like it would never stop, when I first saw a city that slept at 2 am and woke up at 4am. What I didn’t see at that time were the slums that existed somewhere among huge tall buildings.

The movie “Slum dog Millionaire” has brought me face to face with some very bitter realities of my own home country. Danny Boyle, the director, has shown the true story of an impoverished teen from aamche Mumbai called Jamal Malik. The illiterate chaiwala is mocked about by the host of the most famous TV show, Kaun Baneyga Crorepati, for making it to the show. When he wins $1Million, they cant believe him and think of him as a cheat. They torture him before the next episode just to find out that his twenty years of life in slums has given him all the answers.

But I perceive the story a little differently. I think it is the story of those millions of Jamal Maliks, who wake up every day not to hurriedly pack up their bag packs, but those who can be seen begging on streets every morning. Some of them don’t have hands, some don’t have feet, and some of them don’t even have eyes. If I had not seen this movie, I would have, perhaps, taken them for victims of road accidents. Since two days ago, I didn’t know that there existed a world where such young, lovable, delicate, innocent living beings are taken hostages by organizations posing as orphanages and turned into beggars. A few even more unfortunate ones, who can sing well, are blinded so that they can get more money. Young girls are sold to pimps and rechristened as cherry, rosy and chameli .

I have seen so many destitute kids in my hometown Chandigarh also. Every time I was approached by any such child, I had hushed him away. I recall an incident when we were coming from a friend’s party and we had joked around a kid telling him “Aunty se mangoo, aaj unke party hai”. In another incident I was almost on the verge of hitting a child hard when I was discussing something with a friend and he said “bhagwaan aap dono ki jode salamat rakhey”. I never strained my nerves to understand that they are not doing this by choice. Rather, they are taught to do this. Lest they don’t do this, they’ll be beaten to death.

As a child, my mom had always asked me to be kind to such people and give them something to eat and to never give them money. I wish I had taken another step ahead and done something extra not only to help such kids but also to help our society at large.

Life is certainly full of SuRpRiSeS

Its been close to 1 month since I asked you to keep visting my blog to check about the real story of the child soldier, Ismeal Beah. My readers might have lost the hope of reading it here as the time elapsed undermines the zest I showed in my previous post. Please excuse me for some more days because I don’t want the same to happen to a recent event which I want to share with you all at the earliest.

It was a beautiful day. Surprisingly, I woke up with the first alarm. I browsed through my wardrobe and without much struggle picked up just anything. I made tea while Gaurav got ready. I was very happy and nervous at the same time. Finally the day had arrived for which I had worked hard for last 1.5 months. It was my First Ever Candle exhibition.

I had never thought that I would get such an opportunity in my lifetime. If you say life is full of surprises, I would say this is the biggest and most pleasant surprise life has given me. Well, I had never made candles, and here I was, exhibiting my candles in a country that I had known only for last seven months, for an organization that I had known only for last two months and for a cause that I had known for last 25 years but had not done anything about it. It was an Artisan Fair organized to support cancer affected patients and their families.

We reached there on time. Gaurav helped me to set-up the table. Surprisingly, Gaurav was giving me better ideas that day. We decorated the table to the best of our abilities. He then went out to get me some change. I waited very anxiously for him for ten minutes and prayed that no customer comes before he comes back. I was feeling butterflies in my stomach. Gaurav then came back with my breakfast. He quickly finished his own and asked me to finish mine. But the butterflies were not letting me eat anything.

“Oh, that’s pretty” said the first person who came to me. She liked the floating roses and asked me how much they were for. We had decided that we’ll sell those for $6 for a pair but I don’t know why I asked $5 for the pair. “Is that all? You have must put in a lot of effort for that”. I was a little discouraged with the fact that I had under-estimated the prices but at that point I desperately wanted her to buy those. She purchased a few. Next one hour brought the maximum number of admirers and customers. I had also developed some confidence till then and didn’t feel nervous when Gaurav told me that he has to go for nature’s call. To any person who came, I offered candies, told them about the specialty of each candle and gave them my business card that had some candle burning tips. “ Ehh!! We didn’t know this” many of them responded after reading those tips.

For next couple of minutes we were wondering why isn’t anyone coming in. I realized how difficult it is to sell. Then, many of my friends came and bought a lot of stuff. The day was full of excitement and at four we packed up the things that were not sold. Me and Gaurav then went out to celebrate our success.

Today, I feel proud of myself to have successfully made through this. But more than that, I feel more proud of Gaurav, my brother, my sister, my parents and my friends who encouraged me and showed complete confidence in me. I wish and hope I get many more such opportunities where I can give back to society while utilizing my free time.

P.S. – I got a call today morning from a lady who met me in the exhibition and wanted to buy some more candles from me :)

Life is full of SuRpRiSeS

Oct 1, 2008. On board our flight from Philadelphia to Durham. Gaurav was engrossed reading some book, I don’t know which. After all this is one of those few things that I hate the most. I constantly stared into his eyes to catch his attention and not to mention to bug him. But OMG, he was enjoying it like a boy reading playboy. He is deep into his thoughts or is at least good at showing that off. This is one of the MANY things that set me apart from him. He is an avid reader and I am an avid bugger for such readers. I sank back into my seat and started rolling through the pages of American Airlines magazine. Oh!! I just recalled that I am an avid shopper too. Lets scroll through those jewelry pages, I said to myself. Ehhh, poor stuff and I started staring Gaurav in his eyes again. Fortunately, he looked back this time and in a worried tone he suggested that I should read good books. Yawn yawn, I’ll utilize my time in sleeping rather than killing it in knowing about someone whom I don’t even know. Immediately he took out two books from his laptop bag and asked me to pick one. “For a seven day trip, he is carrying three books, isn’t that too much” I questioned to myself. Confident that either of the two choices given to me would be equally bad, I picked one. 240 pages, that would take years for me to finish. I giggled and started reading. Hold on, did I mention that I didn’t even care about the name and the author of the book. The flight attendants have a good timing. Just in the nick of time, they started serving drinks. It’s the decision time. Coke Diet/ Coke zero/ Ginger ale/ tomato juice/orange juice. I had been on high diet for last three days now, so I chose to stick to orange juice. Taking small sips from my plastic glass, I started enjoying my book. Oops, I mean, I started pretending enjoying my book. Sixty minutes later, I heard a sound in the back ground. It was Gaurav. “Get up baby, the plane has landed”. I closed my book that lied on my chest and with all the due respect, handed it back to its owner.

Oct 3, 2008. On board our flight from Durham to Seattle. The flight attendant announced that it would take us 6 hours to reach Seattle. Before keeping his laptop bag on the shelf, Gaurav took out his book. I tried to escape his eye. Six hours and I’ll sleep in peace, I thought. Hey, but why did he took out two books? I recalled the green cover of the book I held in my hands 2 days back. Ouch, and I started pretending again. “A long way gone” it said on the title page. Unable to sleep due to 2.5 hours time lag, I started anxiously waiting for the drinks. “They must be running short of the drinks” I thought as I couldn’t find another reason for this delay. Unable to do anything else, I started searching if the book has some pictures. Books are so much easy to decipher with animations, I thought. But then why would Gaurav possess such a book. Finally, I decided to read the prologue of the book. After two minutes of concentration, I finally made out it was a story of a child soldier. Caught by the sensitivity of the issue, I decided to go on until I doze off in my dreams. “Would you like to have something to drink madam” asked me the flight attendant. I checked my watch. It was already 45 minutes since we were air-borne and I was still awake. This time it wasn’t difficult for me to decide that I wanted to have a diet coke. After next 15 mins, Gaurav tapped me and asked if I don’t want to have my coke. Man, what has happened to me. I was so taken off my the true story of this young child soldier called Ishmael Beah that I kept going on until Gaurav told me that he has finished his other two books and wanted to read this one now. He encouraged me to go to sleep this time. Errrrr, but I wanted to read. We tossed a coin to decide who gets the book. God was punishing me for not reading for so long. Gaurav won.

It had been three days already since he started this book and I was getting anxious about what was taking him so long to finish it. He reads 200 pages in 20 mins, so is he tricking me, I thought. At the end of 5^th day, finally I got my book.

It must be a no-brainer to guess the topic of my next blog. So keep coming back friends, kyonki picture abhi baaki hai mere dost J