A pen and a piece of paper

In a life full of train journeys , nothing can replace the importance of a pen and a piece of paper.....

That's all it takes to rescue oneself from boredom !

During 2.5 hrs journey to Worcester from London !

And the winner is 'ME' :)

Smiley competition !
(The crazy ones belong to Abhay)

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The moment you feel you can win .....is the moment when you become a winner !!! -- chetna pattanayak (@chetna_pats)

Bollywood Calling...

It was a beautiful sunny day in London and as we stepped out , we saw that there was a movie shooting going on very near to our house. It started with a glimpse of Yash Chopra and soon enough there was a brigade of famous people walking in ..... Aditya Chopra , Vaidehi Merchant, some contestant of Just Dance(Dont know his name :P) and finally Sharukh Khan and Katrina Kaif :)

I never knew there are so many Indians in London. The place(Canary Wharf) was full of Indian Crowd.

Yes it was good fun to watch SRK playing around with a dummy guitar and Katrina cat walking from here to there :D Finally, I had my first experience of watching a bollywood movie shooting.

Yash Chopra supervising

Vaidehi Merchant choreographing...

A sick bollywood fan :D Abhay wasn't feeling well but he still stayed back for me ..... How sweet .... Thanks Sweetheart :)

Lol! I made it easier for you to spot them :P The security guys were not letting the watchers stand too close. So! Thats the best shot I could get for you guys :P

Just when we thought of leaving :)

Yes, I shot it :P

And then we left. They were taking ages to shoot a piece of 5 seconds of a song and I ran out of patience :)

What a fun day !! :)

Its all about food :)

Since we have been eating out so much, this post was inevitable :) My phone's memory card is full with pictures taken in the restaurants and I thought its about time I post few of them here as a remembrance of these wonderful and yummy days of my life I am witnessing now! :)

Mediterranean Salad
Mixed leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, celery & olives. Topped with feta cheese & splashed with olive oil, garlic & lemon juice


I was skeptical to try this but I was so glad I did. One of the freshest meal of my life....

Baba Ganoush
Just in case you haven't heard of it , it is a Levantine dish of aubergine

I usually finish this within 5 minutes of its arrival.... So much in love with it ^.^

Ebi Gyoza Deep-fried prawn and vegetable dumplings. served with a spicy citrus ponzu dipping sauce

Oh here comes my love of the month. Peppermint Tea. Its such a delightful drink!
My morning doesn't start without it.

Yummmm is the word for this : 'Chicken Curry Dumplings'. I tasted it 2 months back and since then I must have visited the restaurant not less than 10 times. Luvvvv that curry!

Here comes our very own 'Idli' :)
Sarvana Bhawan, London zindabad!!

Had a cup of Jasmine tea on the way to Worcester.
(Waiting for the train @Paddington Station)

Chicken katsu curry
Chicken breast deep-fried in panko breadcrumbs or grilled, served with a curry sauce and sticky white rice. garnished with dressed mixed leaves and red pickles (Whatever all that means, its tastes just great! ;) )

Ebi raisukaree
Prawns stir-fried in a coconut and lime curry sauce with mangetout, peppers, red and spring onions. served on sticky white rice and garnished with red chillies, coriander and lime

Finally got to taste Authentic Italian Cappuccino @ London. Btw, it was Valentine's day :)

Time for some dessert! Some Gelato Ice Cream perhaps?




Bon appetit! :)

Namesake!

Being in Worcester, I always had the complaint that I don't get to watch bollywood movies in the theater. So after moving to London, how could I miss this experience ? :) I watched 'Kahaani' at Cineworld,London and what a brilliant movie to start with ! I am not going to talk about the movie or its story etc because I don't want to kill the suspense for you but I would definitely recommend it to you. Watch it before someone else reveals everything out :D..... I wasn't very happy with the ending of the movie but 'woh chal jayega' :) And of course , Vidya Balan is at her best!!

The fact about the movie that brought a real big smile on my face was that it was based in Calcutta! No offence but honestly I am just so bored of watching movies running around Delhi , Mumbai , Punjabi weddings :) It was a pleasant change and being from the eastern part of India , it reminded me of so many wonderful things that is such an integral part of who I am. The traditional Oriya hulhuli (sacred ululation), Bishthu (Asking for forgiveness when you you touch someone with your foot), the Durga Puja celebration to name a few :)

Now lets talk about pronunciation and spellings. We(The people from the eastern side of India) are the pioneers in spoiling the pronunciation/spelling of the names :) Vidya becomes 'Bidya' and Abhay become 'Abhoy' and as they said in the movie- 'yahan Bidya , Vidya sab ek hi hai'. Lol! But for your surprise, it happens around the world. I have spent almost more than half of my life in North India and since my name is a hindi name 'Chetna' , I never had any issues with that one. But none ever got the spelling of my surname right! :) i.e 'Pattanayak' became 'Patnaik' , 'Patnayak' and what not!

(A new school , first class)

Teacher : What's you name new girl.
(Every student in the class staring at me)
Myself : Chetna Pattanayak
Teacher : Oh, Pattanayak!
(My surname always stole the show)
Myself : Yes Ma'am/Sir!
Teacher : Are you a relative of Biju Patnaik!(Trust me , everyone asked me this question :D)
And the teacher happily notes down my name :Chetna Patnaik! And the students think I am a South Indian.


With the start of every new year,our letter box used to be full of greeting cards and I used to be extremely excited to open them and see who it is from. And I never used to be surprised to see various spellings for my name.Never mind! I still enjoyed them :)

Moving south ..... Post my graduation, I moved to the Southern part of the country and spent some fair enough time over there! And the situation was no different!
(First day in Office)
Mr x : Hi,I am X and you are?
Myself : Chetna
(I stopped introducing myself with my full name as I wanted my first name to get some importance now :P).................................
.....Converstaion continues......
.................................
Mr X : Whats your full name? I need to look into the address book to send you an email.
Myself : Chetna Pattanayak
Mr X : I still can't find you!
Myself : Let me take a look...... Oh! you typed my name as 'Chethana', its 'Chetna' :)
(And then the argument follows that I should spell my name as 'Chethana' instead of 'Chetna' :D)

And then I landed on the land of the Queen and this name thing went into the whole new different level.

(I make call to someone)
Speaker : Hi, May I know who is calling?
Myself : This is Chetna.
Speaker : Could you spell that for me please.
(When in doubt, just ask! Best Policy)
Myself : (That's fine but please don't ask my surname later as its really long !;))
C for Charlie
H for hectar
E for echo
T for Tango
N for november
A for Alpha
Speaker : And your last name please?
Myself: (There you go !!!!!)

That's why I often ask Abhay to make a call :P

So, when I watched the movie and saw Vidya who struggles to remain Vidya, I couldn't stop myself to write down my experience with names and places. Where some people accept this change, I for one like to be called with the name I was born with. Yes! My first name has a 'T' and no 'H' following it. My surname has double T and Biju Patnaik is not my relative! :)

Disclaimer : The examples I have given are based on the experiences I have had in the past! :)

A bowl of colours!

Friday evening and I have no plans to cook tonight (Do I hear an 'As usual' from somewhere? ;)) and even worse I don't even want to step out of the home to go out and eat. This is the best situation when one heads towards something like this and if asked by anyone , simply calls it the part of the detox diet routine ;) However , I am just so absolutely loving it. When was the last time you survived for the whole night on a bowl of fruits? :)

P.S (Time - 23:13 on Sunday) : What an irony! The entire weekend went in cooking :D I was just craving for home food and I was ready to do anything for it , even cooking ! :D Loved the weekend ! Relaxation at home , simple food, wonderful times with friends and my first hindi movie in a theatre of London and lots and lots of peppermint tea :D ..... will talk about all these soon :) Hope you have a great week ahead ......

Celebrate!

A woman plays so many different roles in her life and the problem with her is that she aims to be perfect in all of them. Its so very important to remind her how special she is and allow her to pamper herself for just a day.

Ladies, forget about the roles you play everyday and just 'Be the woman you want to be'!

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY !!

The Circle of Life!

When we talk about animation , we often think of crazy,funny fictional characters doing non-sensical, hilarious things and making us laugh. However, there is something so different about the movie 'The Lion King'. It touches your heart so deep within! I have grown up listening to its songs and this particular song ,'The circle of life' has always been my all time favourite but I understand it so much better now than yesterday.

I often feel depressed....umm, 'depressed' would a wrong word ..... I often feel 'low' when I think of myself as a young girl. I was so bright and vivacious, I had unlimited dreams and immense energy and zeal to achieve it. I wondered why elders behaved the way they did and I always thought I would be different and I will do things differently('Not getting married ever' was also a part of it :D). Then what happened? Did I fail to fulfill my dreams? Did I fail to lead my life the way I thought I would? .........No, Not at all! Its so easy to dream and every kid must do so. Its a part of being a child and rightly so. What I have done so far is the best that I could have done. It feels so great to write this -'I don't want to undo anything I have done in my life'. It was part of growing up and it was requisite in all aspects. Moreover, I am astonished to see how blessed I am, to have a family like mine and opportunities I have had so far. These are the things you don't choose. Life chooses it for you and as a matured person , you need to get over the imaginary expectations that you created for yourself and make the best out of what you have got! Now that I look back (not that I am too old :) but old enough to give it a thought :)) , I feel amazed to see how far I have come!

On 6th September 2009, I came to know that I am going to be an Aunt and that my sister and my bro-in-law are going to have a baby and honestly, I was taken aback with this news. I couldn't think of my sister as a mother and I have never been good with kids :D And then on 16th May 2010, we had a new member in our family. I received a call from my Mom that 'Kashvi' has finally arrived and I was thrilled. What followed surprised me too!

My Sweetheart 'Kashvi'
(Yes, Its her first appearance on a public blog ever!)

 I used to travel from Bangalore to Chennai every friday to be with her and back to work on Monday morning in Bangalore(Trust me spending two nights in a bus every week wasn't easy). Just a wish to be with my darling gave me the energy and courage to do all of that. What she brings out of me is immensely beautiful and often surprises me. She is indeed our bundle of joy! The energy Kashvi has brought into the whole family is magical. I never knew I could be what I am today. Its so beautifully written :

It's The Circle of Life
And it moves us all

'Its definitely worth being a part of this circle' :) It makes you do things that ,may be, you wouldn't choose to do but its worth experiencing.

Leaving you all with these lovely lines.... Take care and have a great life!

From the day we arrive on the planet

And, blinking, step into the sun

There's more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

There's far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life

And it moves us all

Through despair and hope

Through faith and love

Till we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the Circle

The Circle of Life

It's The Circle of Life

And it moves us all

Worst job of the world!!

Its quiz time!! what's the worst job of the world? Once Abhay had mentioned this to me. One of the world's worst job according to some research is 'killing rats in Mumbai'(Watch DHOBI GHAAT to get the clue). Today I will reveal another one to you. It's RELOCATING YOUR HOME. Packing till the last ounce of energy in your body has been used and then reaching the new destination and instead of rejoicing the beauty of the place,unpacking all that stuff that you had just packed a few days ago and not just dump it but instead arrange it in an order. Phew! It is full of so many challenges. If you have had a life like mine, I am sure you will end up knodding your head in affirmation till the last word of this article.

The biggest problem in this process is distractions and dilemma. You start packing in a good rhythm until you come across a section of the house which you didn't even bother to check for ages and then you see things you had bought centuries ago and never bothered to use it and you wonder why did you ever buy it at the first place? And then you plan to throw or give it away but your emotional attachment won't let you do so. And between all this dilemma and confusion, you must have wasted almost an hour of your precious time.

Spending the last night at your old place is a nightmare. When you want basic necessity to remain unpacked but at the same time you want to finish up packing and not to keep things for the last minute. Another challenging task is brushing up your memory when you spend the first day in the new place. Its a disaster. 'I can't find tooth paste!', 'Where have you kept my shoes?','Where is the towel?' It is full of all that. You open a box to get something and you see a bottle of oil has spilled all over and you completely forget why the box was being opened and instead you end up cleaning up the mess.... lol. I can give inumerous examples of this kind :)
BUT! despite of all this madness, there is a great feeling. The excitement of exploring a new place, starting things from the scratch and creating your home :) Its not easy but its worth it :)
I am tired. I am exhausted. and I can feel pain in every tiny little part of my body. Phew!! Yes, we have moved to london :)

A view from my new house :) So Gorgeous !