What are your plans

For Valentines day. I have been hearing this question for the last 3-4 days. More so since it’s falling on a Saturday. I don’t know, is my answer. And seriously I have no plans. Two days back I wanted to get a sitter for boo boo and go to NYC, when it came to executing the plan, I backed out. I am not very convinced with the idea of leaving the baby with a sitter and party or for that matter even go see a movie.

I would rather spend some quality time with my boys than leave one and go out with the other.

So that’s about me, what are you doing for this Valentines day. Tell me.

 

 

It’s been a while……………..

 

I wrote and a lot happened since I wrote last post…

 

Thanks Giving—Stayed Pretty much at home we were glued to TV watching the developments in Mumbai.

Terror Attack in Mumbai—Real sad thing to happen.

Orlando Trip—Good change of weather, saw Disneyworld….

Christmas—Were in Orlando had fun

New Year—Stayed home, saw the ball drop at times square on TV

Sankranti—Was during the weekdays so couldn’t do much.

LA Trip—Good trip, sad did not get to see George Clooney L

Very Cold winter—Waiting for spring eagerly

Chaos in wall Street—Enough already, when will this end??

And a very busy schedule at work—Although I must say things are looking better these days.

 

Coming up

 

Valentines day—Nothing planned, will see what happens

Boo Boo’s 3^rd birthday—Everything in planning stage except for the cakes.

 

Wanted to write about it all but somehow was not getting that push to write. Anyways here I am, Will try to write something not sure I will be able to do a good job this time. And once again a hope to try and be regular.

We have a long weekend with Monday off, planning to send invites for the birthday party, decide the menu, undecided whether its gonna be a lunch or dinner, buy return gifts for boo boo’s day care friends plus for the kids who will come home and hopefully husband will be able to help in making these tough decisions. Yes arranging a birthday party is a challenge for me, I am challenged in social skills. Giving a presentation to room full of MD’s is a cake walk in comparison to arranging a three year olds birthday party. I really appreciate all those women who manage to dress up well, decorate the house and throw an amazing party. Talking about three year old, yes booboo is turning three. Can’t believe it’s already three years since he was born, time really flies by when you have children. He is a big boy, talks a lot and sometimes I am amazed who tells him all this. He is 100% daddy’s boy and I am soooo jealous of that and trust me it’s really difficult to accept.

Now coming to me, situation at work is getting better not working long hours really. Also I am making sincere efforts to watch what I eat (infact I am eating a box of blueberries as I speak), watching what I drink, trying to get some excursive. Hopefully I will be able to stick to it and make myself proud once at least once.

Will write more tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tag time!!!!

Swathi Tagged me seeing that there was no post from me even after three weeks of returning from India, but guess what by the time she tagged I already put a post, but since she is such a nice friend I cannot refuse and am doing this tag.

 

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?

Thankfully he has never let me down so far and if ever does that will be the end of the best thing, in his life as well as mine.

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?

See everyone related to me happy.

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?

The list is long but seriously no one is important enough to draw my attention.

4. Why do you blog?

To improve my writing skills, I can speak my mind out very well but no put in words, its your turn to tell me how far I have succeeded.

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?

Yes I fell in love with my best friend long back and till date he is my best friend, husband, father of my child.

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?

Being loved by the special someone whom you love.

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?

I cannot say really, because I do not intend to fall in love again and the first time I fell in love he reciprocated my feelings pretty soon.

8. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?

Respect the every human being as an individual and accept them for what they are.

9. What takes you down the fastest?

I do not get down so easily, tough nut you see.

10. What resurrects you the fastest?

Few loving words from my husband and a cheeky smile from booboo, I love his smile.

11. What’s your strength?

My husband, he compliments me in every sense.

12. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?

Swathi is an amazing person and a very good friend. All the best.

13. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?

Am I allowed to jumble the words, “Married and rich” is the answer.

14. What’s the purpose of such Tags?

Writers block may be.

15. Would you give all in a relationship?

Depends what is being demanded, if its love, understanding, etc, I will give in all.

16. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?

No I cannot. I am revengeful, but not in a harmful way, it just stays in my mind forever.

17. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?

I am definitely a relationship person.

18. How would you see yourself in ten years time?

Happy with my life, happiness is all I seek.

19. What’s your fear?

Loosing something I build with effort.

20. What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?

Check email and start getting ready for work.

I am not going to tag anyone, feel free to pick up the tag people , it’s a nice one.

 

 

 

Hello Everyone!!!!!

Let me first thank everyone who dropped by to find out where I disappeared and also who did not write but think where the hell I am. In my defense, I went to India for three weeks and after coming back been busy in getting my life back to normal.

Well I cannot really say life is back to normal keeping in mind the chaos in the financial market and the world economy as a whole. I wish and pray that all the big economic gurus sitting out there get everything back on track.

Going back to my India trip, I went back after almost four years and was taken aback by the inflation there. Everything has become very expensive. I am still scratching my head to figure out how a common man is surviving whose son / daughter is not working in a high paying job. Since I went there in September, weather was not bad and it did not rain that much. Oh wait a minute, I totally forgot to mention about the domestic airline system. The cost of tickets is touching the sky and the service level is going down and an amazing speed in the opposite direction. Yeah you got it right, the service level sucks. Best example, I asked the airhostess in one of the flights to refill booboo’s milk bottle and she came back after 45 minutes with boiling milk in it. I thought its common sense and she will bring at least luke warm milk, well apparently common sense is not so common or is it ” I don’t care about you” attitude.

Booboo was at his best behavior, he amazed me yet again. He adjusted very well to the new surroundings and made friends everywhere he went including the STD PCO booth owner in Mumbai domestic terminal. He blew him a kiss and said “I la (read love) you”. The only area of concern was his diet. He went on a complete hunger strike and gave me a tough time.

I have so much to write but am running short of time. Will filling you all as and when I get time. Till then all of you be good.

 

 

Thank you Swathi :-)

Last weekend we visited Swathi. It was not a planned trip, wanted to get out of Jersey and proposed to visit Boston and the same day Swathi asked me If we wanted to visit her this weekend. I grabbed the opportunity and we decided to drive to Boston a Friday evening and come back on Sunday afternoon. As I have discussed before also, plans never work out and we ended up driving there on Saturday afternoon and reached there late in the afternoon. I feel so comfortable in her house, we washed and changed. She made an awesome snack for us along with tea. We ate to our hearts content and went to see Harvard University and to be specific MIT. Now I come from a Management background and M comes from a Technical background. We had our regular little talk about management tops every other discipline and he protested…..We had a small encounter with the MIT campus police there, well we called the police to two away a car which was obstructing our way and we could not get out of the parking spot. We drove through the Harvard square and I fell in love with that place. I even asked M if fancies the idea of sending me to the B-School there. Well weather I manage to get admission in the course or not is debatable but what’s the harm in knowing M’s opinion, and turns out he is too confident that my application will find its way to the nearest shredding machine in the shortest possible time.

We came back home, and ate dinner and called it a day. Sunday morning we all woke up after 8 and ate a relaxed breakfast followed by yummy cake which you can see here . OMG, how could I miss out talking about the cake. In a long time I ate such yummy cake. You can find the picture here. M kept on saying no for the cake and he wont stop eating once I gave him one bite. That man is full of contradictions I tell you. After we stuffed our faces it was time to explore Boston. We agreed on going to White Horse beach, where you could enjoy some water sports like Jet Skiing, mini vice, boating etc…The moment we reached the parking spot it stared raining. We decided to eat lunch and then come back. So we once again headed to the only Indian restaurant there to stuff our faces. God these Buffets. Swathi’s husband Kishore was surprised to see that I started my meal with the desert. After lunch we browsed through the antiques shop and then went to the water front. After a lot of thinking we took a mini vice and swathi & kishore rented a Jet Ski. M got all excited the moment we stepped into the mini vice and he started speeding. I had a tough time controlling. I was totally freaked out and he got an earful. Booboo did not cry but he did not enjoy it either. The moment we came back a cop was waiting for us and he gave us a speeding ticket. I was a little irritated with the whole thing and gave the cops little small talk.

We drove back home, drank some good warm coffee and one more round of cake, fed booboo dinner and started our drive back home.

There is a teddy bear in Swathi’s house which is really huge and booboo fell in love with it and wanted to carry it all over the house. After he came back he wanted to know where baby (the teddy bear) went. I need to get him one. All together it was a fun trip. Swathi and her husband are friendly and warm people, it feels good to be in their company. Thanks swathi for having us and letting us eat all your cake. I am already looking forward to your trip (which is still not decided when). Come here soon.

 

 

 

 

Soul mate Tag!!!!

This is a welcome back post for Keerthi, even though she is not going to share all the goodies she brought back from India I am writing this post in anticipation of all the posts she is going to write about her trip, about the wedding, parents, friends, shopping so on and so forth.

Now this tag is about listing the changes that are evident in me after I met my soul mate. I have changed as a person from the day I met M which is almost eight years back, some good and some not so good.

Now talking about changes after marriage (I know it’s a little different from changes after meeting your soul mate. Every husband cannot become his wife’s soul mate, but since in my case I believe that my husband is my soul mate I will have to refer to the changes after I met M). Now even as a little girl I was never happy with the thought that a girl has to change after her marriage, be it her eating habits, what she wears, her religious beliefs (in case of an inter religious marriage), her maiden name so on and so forth. I strongly opposed to such ideas and ended up having an argument with whoever mentioned this topic. It always bothered me when I was told that the girl has to change her mannerisms to suit the requirements of her in-laws family and her husbands requirements and I also heard instances when the girl was cursed and labeled as a home breaker if she was instrumental in changing her husband’s mannerisms. Double standards you see. Anyways coming to me I think I did not change much. My basic approach and my beliefs are pretty much the same as before. But here are some changes I came up with after racking my brain.

1. I never knew how to say “NO” till I met M. He told me the importance of talking my mind and avoiding future problems. Since then I speak my mind out most of the times, still there is some scope for improvement.

2. I was always an aggressive person but the levels have gone up after meeting M, he encouraged me to stand up for my beliefs.

3. This one is really important. I was a workaholic before I met M. By saying so I mean someone who worked 14-16 hours a day 7 days a week, without a break for two years. This was the time when we were dating and our relation saw some real bad days. The worst thing was that I was not only working had I was literally working on my Boss’s tasks. He explained me the implications of such approach and how to deal with it. At the end of the two year period everything happened they way he told and I realized my mistake. I started taking it easy, now I am satisfied in my personal life as well as professional life.

4. He also taught me to resolve any issue between me and him. You might wonder why he had to teach me that. Reason is simple, if I don’t like something, I cut myself off from that person or situation and eventually that relationship dies. I confessed my weakness to M during the 2nd or 3rd date and he took care of that and made me talk about what was bothering me and we would never go to sleep without resolving it.

This is all I can think of now. I am not tagging anyone, feel free to take it up.

 

I am glad

Manmohan Singh won the vote of confidence.

 

The secret is out!!!!

Rads tagged me to “list 10 secrets about yourself” and she also wanted me to make it interesting. I sure can do that but it depends on how much I want my readers to know about me. I have been a real wild girl in my days (and the old me comes back every now and then), and I will try my best to share the secrets as long as they wont come back and bite me.

1. I once bullied this guy on the phone (now this is secret is something similar to RADS secret). So this was from the time I was doing my summer internship (part of MBA course) and one of my classmates P (Intern) was also with me. She was a free spirited girl and believed in having fun and living life to the fullest. And in this company where we were working as interns, there happened to be an employee S. So our P fell in love with him at the first sight over lunch, of course we were eating in our table and he sat in the opposite table. This guy was good looking but not really mirror cracking material. So she wanted to start a conversation with him but she was not sure how to start it and guess what she thought of calling him on his hostel phone and break the ice of course without revealing her true identity. But there is a catch to this, her voice was a little coarse and she wanted me to call him and speak with him. Well was not really busy those days and I started chatting up with him pretending as P. One fine day we were in the campus and he called out my name, I was with P at that time, for a moment I was startled. P convinced me to speak with him and it seems Mr.S fell in love with me and he was aware of our little prank. I was really embarrassed and told him the whole story and ran from there and never spoke with him for the rest of my stay there.

2. In 7th standard I ratted about my classmate who was cheating in the exam. In the later this whenever I remembered this incident it made me feel very silly

3. Myself, my sister and two close buddies tried to steal bhutta (sweet corn) from our school security guard’s backyard. So this guy used to live just outside our school and he planted corn in his backyard. So all four of us would eye the corn plants every day in the morning and afternoon and one fine day we plotted to steal a few in the evening. As planned we were strolling around his house till it got a little dark and we tried pulling the corn and in the process we uprooted a few plants and the watchman heard and came chasing us with a stick. It was dark and he could not recognize us but one of our friend who was around 6 feet at that time was spotted and he complained to our principal the next day. This happened when I was in the 8th standard.

4. This one time I broke my leg while riding a scooter without my dad’s knowledge. He and my mom were out of town. I went to the doctor and got a cast around my ankle and pretended as if everything is ok and when parents returned all three of us sisters told them that I slipped from the stairs and broke my leg. I think they don’t know about it till now.

5. Now this secret is from those days when I was dating M. I was in Chennai on a business trip and was supposed to return the same day evening but I told my parents that it is a two day trip. After returning from Chennai the same evening I spent the night at M’s place.

6. I had a huge crush on my 10th grade science teacher. This whole crush thing proved out to be quiet helpful to me as I used to study really hard to impress this teacher he was just out of collage) and as a result of this I scored 97/100 in the board exams. He left the school after my 10th exams, I was left heart broke. I think he knew about it because one time when he came to our school in the 11th grade he met me and gave me a big lecture on how studies are important and how I should not get carried away by this whole “love and relationship” thing. It had a huge impact on me, it was like I understood the whole thing so easily. Later I found out that he cleared the IAS exams and is posted Bhopal, M.P

7. I tried smoking pot onetime when I was in Cyprus but chickened out at the last moment and never tried it again.

8. I did lots of naughty stuff while in Cyprus, which I really cannot write here, so they are going to my grave with me.

9. I go shopping for clothes on the day my salary is credited. Nothing like retail therapy.

10. I lost my engagement ring and M doesn’t know about it so far.

Wow, that was pretty exhausting I must say. I am not going to tag anyone. Whoever wants to tell their secrets, take it up.

 

 

Look Where I am!!!!

So yesterday evening i was walking from Grand Central to the port authority to catch the bus to get home and somewhere near Bryant park i see this homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk and he had a placard which read like this “I used to date Hillary Clinton and look where I am today, get a hint America.”

I could not stop laughing for a whie.

 

Weekend @ Atlantic City

M has been making plans to the Atlantic city for the last 3-4 weeks but something or the other was coming up and plans were getting cancelled. He was on call this weekend so it was kind of sure that we are not going  to Atlantic city , but on Friday after events took  a  turn and M swapped his weekend support with a collegue and once again he stared to plan the trip. We could return back the same day as the drive is only two hours.

So Saturday morning after the routine breakfast and lunch drill we were supposed to leave. Once again I was not really excited about going there so kind of dropped the idea at the last minute and started watching TV and within minutes M started complaing about how we are postponing it for weeks.  So I pulled myself together and started getting ready. The reason why I was not so enthusiastic about the Atlantic city trip is my stay in Cyprus. I was living on the sea front there and every evening we would take long walks on the sea front. Weekends meant shopping at the farmers market for fresh fruits & vegetables and head towards the beach. There was a small rocky island within a small distance, so M and myself would carry a beer each and swim to that island, sit on those rocks soak up some sun, drink our beer and catch up with the stuff happened on the weekend. This was very unwinding and very romantic. So now if I have to drive two hours to get to a beach, it doesn’t motivate me that much.

Anyways lets come back to the present, so on Saturday afternoon around four we started from home for Atlantic city. We totally forgot about the traffic part and it took us three and a half hours to reach Atlantic city. We parked our car in Bally Casino and came towards the shopping area to find a whole bunch of brand names like Banana Republic, GAP, Ralph Lauren…..Well no points for guessing, I totally forgot about the beach and the boardwalk and entered into Banana Republic. Found a cute pair of white sandals and really cute almost grey metallic hand bag. Bought them without a second thought while husband was sulking for that I was wasting time shopping instead of going to the beach. Within minutes we headed towards the beach and it was almost dark. I was almost sure these guys will not get into water but booboo never fails to surprise me. The moment he saw water he ran towards he waves trying to catch them and I ran behind him. A big wave washed the shore and I could feel cold water on my legs and I immediately grabbed booboo and ran away from the water. Booboo was very disappointed and freed himself from my clutches and went to his dad and begged him to go towards the water. And that was the beginning of a wonderful experience. He enjoyed playing in the water immensely. What surprises me is that neither he was afraid of the darkness nor the cold water. Within minutes he was a all wet and rolling on the sand. And then he spots another older boy, almost 5 year old and both of them start laughing at each others jokes. Booboo never gets intimidated by anyone, its so difficult to embarrass him or scare him. After sometime the older boys mother came and he went away and booboo turned to his dad for companionship. This whole thing was so much fun.

I had to literally drag father and son from water and they took shower and got dressed. By the way did I mention anywhere that I did not pack any change of clothes or even towels because M said he wont get into water and I had to run and buy towels and clothes for father and sun while they were having fun in the water. Now all three of us were real hungry and ate a nice big pizza slice. Whenever we come Atlantic city its kind of a custom to eat funnel cake (American version of jalebi) and the curly fries. This time I did not like either and had to eat something good to take of the bad taste and what else can be better than fried ice cream with topped with fresh cream. Now this was awesome and I can suggest you guys to try it at least once. Booboo slept in the stroller after dinner and then we took a long walk on the board walk and I won a few soft toys in some of the arcade games and the M & I went go karting, of course separately because on of had to be with booboo.

After the games and go karting it was casino time. Once again children are not allowed inside so we took turns, blew a hundred bucks and came back empty handed.

We headed back home an hour past midnight and it was a two hours drive. So the conclusion of the trip is that booboo is not scared of the sea and we need take him to Coney island this weekend. But no funnel cakes or curly fries this time.