The beauty of festivals...

I always get very excited for festivals. I recon, as a child, we used to celebrate all the festivals at home and my energy level used to be somewhere close to the threshold if not less. Well! Since I have stepped out of my motherland, things have changed. I don’t get a holiday on Indian festivals anymore. I don’t see the fun and festivity outside my window. I don’t see the shopping streets filled with colourful decorations. My mobile doesn’t get filled with smses. There are no special programmes on the television. However , one thing has not changed. And that’s my excitement :) I still feel equally excited as I used to feel as a child.

19th Sept 2012 : Ganesh Chaturthi – Sadly a weekday!
I went to office as usual and then- you obviously don’t want to hear details of my boring routine :P So let me just fast forward … I reached home at around 6pm. Cleaned the house , prepared chhole ,poori and some kheer and Abhay helped me add a burnt flavour to it ;) (Well! Yes, we burnt the kheer :( …how? Phew! Don’t ask :( )
...cleaned the Pooja place , decorated in the most simplistic way thatI could , filled the diyas with ghee … had a quick shower and then did the pooja … and finally had the dinner at midnight.  And I still wasn’t feeling tired. Infact I must not have felt so refreshed for many weeks.

And that’s the beauty of festivals. It doesn’t matter where you are. If you feel the excitement , and if you feel it from within , that’s the essence of the festivals. A simple pooja or a small celebration is also suffice if the feeling is inside :)

Hope you are enjoying the season of festivity :)

Farm-Ville!

Abhay has recently passed one of the toughest certification in the tool that he works in and as a proud wife I wanted to Congratulate him from the core of my heart and thus,came up with an idea to do that in a unique way :)

I called one one of the local bakery shops of worcester and asked them to make 4 cupcakes of different flavours and deliver it to his office :) Since Abhay works for the Animal Health Dept of UK , we thought to designing different farm based animals on top of the cupcakes and I chose the 4 : Sheep , Cow , Rabbit and Duck :D

Tuesday 9th October , 3 PM and I held on to my mobile phone at work. I knew he must be recieving it any minute. 4 PM and my mobile was happily silent. 4:15 and I thought of calling the bakery shop to check if everything is in control . Went on Voice Mail. Wow! So, I thought of writing to Abhay's good friend and colleague Nirant to go and check if there is any parcel lying at the reception for Abhay. Nirant informed me that he already has received it... HUH? No reaction?? Hows that ever possible? I immediately mailed abhay and asked to open the parcel and this was Abhay's response :

'Oh yes , there was some parcel for me at the reception. Apparently , a visitor happened to sit on it and was apologizing a lot. What's in there? Have you bought anything?'

And that's it. I had tears in my eyes. :(

I responded the way as you would think I should have responded and Abhay had to reveal that he has recieved the cakes and they are adorable :) As usual , he couldn't resist to surprise me in return. However , since the cakes were so adorable , he couldn't eat them and brought them home :)

Wanna see ?

Now you tell me , who can eat them? EVER!!!! :)
Aren't they just adorable :) <3

Cinema-Vinema !

What happens when you visit Cine World with two movie buffs ? You end up watching two movies back to back :D If you personally know me , then you must be aware how impossible a task it is for me to sit and watch a movie till the end. It’s nearly impossible to accomplish this at home! That’s why people drag me to movie theatres.

This saturday I watched two hindi movies in continuation and to my good luck, I enjoyed watching both of them which is truly a ‘Miracle’. I still can't believe my fate! 2 GOOD hindi movies? Really?? :D Ok ! Alright :) Enough of exxageration. I watched Sridevi's much awaited come back 'English Vinglish' and 'Oh my God' starring Akshay Kumar as none other than the GOD :D

Talking about the former, English Vinglish is a very simple , heart-warming movie that you can happily watch with your entire family. It’s a good come back for Sridevi and I am glad she has played an age appropriate role. It has plentiful lovely moments that truly touched my heart. The cotton sarees so badly reminded me of my mother. I have grown up watching my Mom wearing 'Cotton Sarees' and I can't recon any clothing which bring this much grace and dignity as a simple cotton saree does. The MJ dance moves and Sridevi's typical style of talking took me back to my childhood days , Uttarkashi's officer's Mess and watching Mr India in the TV with my sister endless times :) I know I can never bring that beautiful moments back in my life but I am thankful to God for at least bestowing me with a life that I feel like re-living time and again.

I absolutely loved the songs and no points for guessing that they are running on my mobile in a Repeat Mode since then ;) Another thumbs up is for the fact that the wedding in the movie is neither Punjabi , nor South Indian :D Haha , I am not a racist trust me :D I just want to see different things in life and it’s good to see different cultures apart from Punjab and South India. I know I am in serious trouble ! B-)

This movie has sent some simple yet very important messages which is worth thinking over :

- One must feel proud of one's native language. Talking in english should never be the aim of life! There is no denying of the fact that in today's world the knowledge of English Language has become quintessential need to globalize oneself. But , nonetheless, still a need! Never a status symbol!

 

-Feel proud of your family , no matter who/what/how they are. Because they are the ones who love you as well irrespective of who/what/how YOU are :)

 

-You don't need to have a common language to be friends. Differences in speaking language becomes a reason when two are not meant to be friends. If you want to know someone , you will know him/her. This reminds me of my initial days as a newly wed. Abhay’s nephew Vivaan was almost 3 years old then and used to only converse in Konkani and I, on the contrary, didn't know even a single word of Konkani. But since the kid was so fond me and vice verse he learnt hindi and I almost picked up konkani just to make sure that we can interact with one another. That’s pure love :) It drives you to show the talents you yourself aren't aware of :)

 

-Never take anyone for granted. Anything can change in a jiffy. Make sure when that happens , you are not in a very uncomfortable situation to face it :)

This movie also gave me a strong flashback of the sitcom 'Mind Your Language'. No complaints! it’s better to be inspired from good things than not getting inspired at all!

The movie is still running in the theatres...So , if you are in a mood to watch a light hearted simple movie on a cold evening with hot popcorn tub in your hands then this is it. And to all the distributors out there, please contact me soon to talk about the money. My number is : 0779... :D

Its my birthday today!!!!

Well , its not my b'day today :P I never got time to post this :D

 

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03rd October 2012

 

 

 

Birthdays ... I don't know how would you react to this term ... but I , for one, go frantic in a good way :P Why? Because I feel special in everyway :) This day reminds how beautiful my life is and how blessed I truly am ! And a day when all my near and dear ones do remember me. The day when I can tell people 'It's my birthday today' and that solves everything ;) But this delirious behavior doesn't stop here. I am so obessessed with birthdays that I start shopping for my birthday dress almost months before the BIG DAY and start reminding my Sister , Brother in law and Abhay about the things I want as birthday presents :D Oh yes , I always give them plenty of options to choose from and make their life much easier.

However , this year I had kept my expectations very low. The reason being that my birthday fell on a Wednesday! A WEEK-DAY :( Well my heart would always wish for my brithday to be on the weekend, I would have still managed to make it special had it been on a Monday Or a Tuesday Or a Thursday Or a Friday. But Why God Why?? Why a wednesday :'(

12:00 , Midnight : My birthday started with a surprise cupcake with customized paper candle lit from Abhay :D yes! this guy can't do things in a normal way. Ever!

Start of the day ,I did a small pooja and then headed to work! I called Mom and Papa who were desparately waiting for my call. Remember? My Morning is already their Afternoon ! :D It was sooo delightful to hear their voices :) A big muuaaaaahhhhh to you both !! Then I got calls and wishes from my college sweethearts : Nidhi , Amneet , Neha and Sumedha and I just felt brighter :) I bought a big box of celebrations chocolates on the way and my day followed with full of good wishes from all the colleagues at the work place. I kept emailing Abhay every now and then and he seemed to be quite busy. No surprises! He is always busy on special occassions. So, when the clock hit 5 in the evening , I headed home, hoping to see Kashvu and talk to my Mom and my Sister which is what I usually do everyday.

I reached home and there were some big boxes lying in my letter box.... GIFTSSSSS!!!! Yay! :) I got the feeling back 'Yippee! Its my birthday today!' :D I rushed home to open it and see who it is from. I got the keys out of my bag and opened the door. I went in and after taking few steps- What do I see? The BIG surprise waiting for me :) Abhay was at home , the house was clean (Thats the biggest surprise actually ;)) and my whole family was online :) waiting to see that first reaction on my face ... AWWWW, I so badly feel like hugging you all ! And thats not all , this stunning looking cake was right in the center of the table - not to forget - "it was made by Abhay"!! Thank you sweetheart :)

 

 

Its amazing to see how technology has changed our lives. I literally had all my dear ones right there being a part of the celebrations. They all had cakes ready and we all did cut the cake together :) Kashvi was all smiles after eating a BIG chunk of cake and I am sure she must be wishing that everyday must be someone's birthday! Yeah! She has got my genes afterall :) We all love CAKES :) Vivaan started to play a birthday tune for me and I just simply felt like dragging him out of the laptop and giving him lots of kisses :)

Abhay - thank you so much for this beautiful surprise :) Honestly , I can't celebrate my birthday better than this :) I opened the presents , got dressed up and then we left for dinner...We had a lovely stroll in the BroadStreet@Birmigham and an amazing dinner before I bid farewell to this lovely day :)

After feeling so loved and pampered, who wouldn't wait desparately for birthdays to come :)

 

Btw , these are few of the gifts I received :)

 

Nidhi Batra! You are a darling

This is from my tiny little angel- Kashvi :)

 

Thank you sweethearts for always putting in efforts to make me feel so special :) A Big Thank You!