It all began a few weeks back (now I don’t recall how many weeks back). I was talking to one of my colleague at her workstation and all of sudden my eyes rested on one small object on the desk of another colleague and without thinking twice I walked upto her desk and picked it with lots of anticipation and satisfaction. I was feeling like a kid only. As I picked it and cracked it open to eat, I was full of feel of my hometown. However, this nostalgia didn’t last long as the moment I ate it, I was back to the reality. It was not what I had expected! I was aghast. But then I am not the one who can be let down so easily so immediately I dialed my another colleague (well, I know there are quite a few colleagues in my team, we are 27 in number, Bangalore and Gurgaon taken together) in Gurgaon office from there only, not even bothering to be back on my desk.

“Hi” (a laugh follows, as usual)

“Hiiiiiiiiii” (another one follows; we both have developed this habit of greeting each other with dangerous laughter. This is until we are not bogged down by monthly billing, then the hi is as meek as a mouse in a trap)

‘Kya kar rahi hai?’

‘Time Pass.’

‘Acchha, usme kya naya hai, heeee heee, achha sun tu mera ek kaam kar degi?’

‘Haan bol?’

‘Jab koi Gurgaon se aayega ya yahan se koi jayega to tu mere liye moongphali bhej dena.’

A loud roar and lots of giggles followed, sorry I can’t put that laughter in words, it is so unusual; I mean females are a funny lot; they can laugh at anything, just anything.

‘Kyun bhai, tujhe yeh achanak moonphali ki yaad kaise aayi?’

‘Yaar, maine abhi ek uble hui moongfali khayi hai and I can’t tell you how sick I am feeling after eating this. Its just spoiled my taste.’

‘Oh! Kyun wahan apne jaisi moongfali nahin milti kya?’

‘Pata nahin? Maine toh dhoondhi but nahin mili.’

‘Chal tu tension na le, main haridwar jaongi, tab le aaongi tere liye bhi’

‘Haan theek hai, mujhe koi jaldi nahin hai par tu mujhe please bhej dena.’

‘Haan Pakka.’ And some more giggles followed. I was back to my desk, mentally making a list what else I could have asked her to pack and parcel.

Yeah! This is all about the Groundnuts or peanuts or whatever moongphalis are called. This is one of the things which I miss about the winters here in Bangalore (there are few others though). Days passed after this conversation, she went to home on diwali i.e to Haridwar and I waited for the day when I will hear the news that someone is coming from Gurgaon. Another billing cycle was over, revenue accruals got over and in the midst of the reconciliations and meetings, our boss said, ‘Please ensure that whatever you people want to finish, do it today, I am not there for another 2 days.’ ‘I am traveling.’

When I heard this I was all ears. Sometimes I enjoy when he wastes time like this. In the middle of reviews and meetings, he will call 10 different people and check things. This was one of the days and I had the first hand information that next day he is traveling to Gurgaon by 10 a.m flight. Happily I was back at my desk and first thing I did was call her (my colleague in Gurgaon!).

‘Oye!, he is coming tomorrow.’

‘Is it? Which flight? How many days?’

‘Hmmm, most probably morning flight, 2 I guess, not sure but will let u know if I can get hold of the information.’

‘Ok.’

‘Tujhe yaad hai na? Meri Moongphali.’

‘Haan yaad hai, or kuch chaiye toh who bhi bata de, isi ke saath bandh doongi.’

‘Nahi kuch aur nahin chaiye, bas yahi.’

‘Arrey sharmaa mat, bata de kuch chaiye toh, chal tu bata dio uske aane tak.’

‘Sure, done, chal ok bye!’

‘Bye.’

I am on the top of the world. I am telling Raj about the moongpahali and he is all confused. I am trying to explain what it is, and then finally I gave up. I told him that he should see when  I get it, after all it is a matter of two days only. So I keep posting my colleague about the departure and dreaming about moongphali. I never knew that it will ever be a luxury for me and I will have to wait like this. I was instructed by her not to tell my boss in advance that something like this is waiting for him.

It all started in the evening. He called me in evening from Gurgaon to finalise of the billing and we were on con call. All of sudden, in the middle of the conversation, he told me that she is sending some thing for me. I told him, yeah I know and I had asked her to send.

He laughed. Bosses are like that, when you don’t expect them to laugh, they will laugh. He asked her to tell me the weight of the packet.

I protested,’No, its not that heavy, it may only 250 gms or at the max 1 kg.’

‘Arrey tere 1 kg mein mera toh na jane kya hoga.’ Another roar, this included the manager in gurgaon, myself, boss and her.

‘Accha, divya let me try to understand, matlab, what it is? Groundnuts, right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘No I mean to understand, what is so special about it?’

“Nahin, I didn’t find it Bangalore, it is roasted in sand and eaten. Yahan par boiled milti hai.’

‘Divya, main tujhe maar doonga! Tu Bangalore mein rahne layak nahin hai.’ All this was happening in the middle of the conference call and we were finalizing the billing that too one of the most problematic one!

‘You should go to Basvangudi and you will find it there. Wahan mela lagta hai iska.’

‘Basvangudi mera ghar se London jaisa hai.’

‘Haan aur Gurgaon bahut pass hai na?’

‘Nahin, I mean who taste nahin milega na!’

‘Haan Divya, isme point hai.’ We all laughed and the billing got finalized.

Another call, and it was all giggles, hooting and some more suppressed laughter.

I asked her what she told the boss that she is sending. She said she told him that she wants to send something for me and he agreed at that time. After some time he seemed to remembered and he asked her if she is sending some eatables, she said yes. Then he was little skeptical because he also needs to carry Dhodha for his home from Om Sweets in Gurgaon. This fellow makes one of the most delicious dhodha I ever had and it is so indulging and awesome.

Next day, he is early to office which was little weird. And he calls me if I am at office. I am like yeah, I am at office. He asks me to come down to Ground Floor. I rush down, why shouldn’t I? After all he had carried my 1 Kg Moongphali all the way from Gurgaon. There I find him struggling with the bags. There were three of them. I was little taken aback. Then I realized that the third one is his laptop and tiffin. So there he was walking with his laptop and I was carrying two bags. In lift he was telling me how he managed to fit in everything. There was a frock which was sent by one of the admin person. In another bag, which was heavy we had 1 Kg dhodha, 1 Kg Besan Laddoo and My 1 Kg Moongphali.

First thing that I did was pulling out the poly bags and treat myself with handful. It was one of the most relishing feelings that I had and I sat smiling at my desk waiting for others to come in. I kept those sweet boxes separate for distribution. After we distributed Dhodha, came the chance of moongphalis. I took one of the packets and distributed. Our finance controller kept the full packet. Soon in the finance bay there were crackling sounds all around and each desk had those peanuts, all the way from Gurgaon. At the end of the day, one entire packet was over. I came back with only half Kg packet. Everyone was laughing and kept eating and giving me their piece of advice, only if I should have told them they would have brought it for me.

What so ever, daily I am eating a few of them, I want them to last as long as possible even though I can ask my local colleagues to find a few for me. It just reminds me of my good old small town.

Life is all about a little dhodha and lots of moongphalis with Gur. Enjoy the winters J

P.S. I was all smiles writing about this, it is a long one and I have cut it short by avoiding as to how my colleague helped my boss in packing and a couple of more conversations between us where we enjoyed at the expense of our boss!

Oh yes! Please go and watch Dostana, it is fresh from Bollywood and dance on the tunes of Desi Girl. It is a mast maja maadi movie. Go and have fun!

The search started as early as 9 in the morning. Search for our dream house which we can call our dream home. So we started early in the day and searched each single street near our area. From outside our area seems to be less developed but when one goes inside then there are alleys and some more alleys. To me it all seemed labyrinth only.

Raj had seen one board yesterday but he couldn’t recall if it was “Tolet” board only so we decided to start from there only. When we reached there, we found it was a no parking board for that particular apartment. Hmmmmmm….not a beginning to which we were looking forward to. Never mind the start. We moved to next apartment. The security guard said “ sale ke liye hai”. Next, “haan khaali hai”, “rent kitna hai?” “11000 hai madam.” And it went on. Yesterday when we had started the search we had realized that even though the house has to be two bedrooms, it has to be big enough in terms of space because we have pretty good quantum of furniture.

Our search took us to one house where one old auntyji was there. From outside the house seemed to be fine but the moment the doors were thrown open to us, we both wanted to run. However, that auntyji will not let us go and she was almost after Raj’s life that he should come pay her the advance. Somehow we managed to give her slip and told her that we will come in noon time. One after another and then one more and it went on. In between, I went for some work and Raj came home. Exactly after half an hour at 10:30 a.m we again started. The area which we had not explored in last 2 years was thrown open to us in just two hours. We had planned to cover the left side area to the main road first, followed by the right side area. Good thing was that our thoughts matched and choices too so whichever house we rejected, we had consensus on that. One thing which we noticed was that in most of the houses, hall was big, I mean pretty big but the bedrooms were not spacious enough. I am not sure if it was the size of our bed or the small sizes of rooms was making us reject the houses one after another. We went through the streets one after another.

Each house had a board!! However, 99% of the time, it was a board saying “No parking in front of the house”. Many of them had constructed the Ist Floor and moved there, leaving there ground portions available for rent. So most of these were traditional houses. Slowly we started realizing the unspoken value of our current home. It’s not big but spacious enough and as newly wed I had quite liked my home. I don’t know but this place went on a long way to make me feel at home. We didn’t want to move from this area because it is near to my office, we get everything down the road, my in laws find it quite easy to move around as it is well connected by bus and last but not the least this area reminds me of Ghaziabad so I was not keen to move out of Ramamurthy Nagar.

With all these thoughts as we were moving around, we were discussing that we may finally have to get in touch with broker only. All of sudden we found one house, newly constructed with a “TO LET” board on it. We decided to check it. It was a pista green color house and the stairs were big too. At first instance, we liked it. We called the owner on the number written on that board. He told us that he is sending his son with the keys. While we waited patiently, I just wandered further down the street and found one more “To Let” board. As I turned around to call out to Raj that there is a one more, I heard Raj clapping to call me. Well, the key holder turned out to be one Patti instead of the son. And she went on and on in rapid tamil about the house. I could not make out a word of what she said and kept following Raj. The house was neat but again we were back to square one as the size of bedrooms was small. The most amusing part was that they had constructed very small size balcony on Ist and IInd Floor with no door access to it. Till now we both are wondering what could be the reason for these balconies. So we checked both ground floor & Ist floor and came out with a forlorn look on our faces.

This circus going on, we had hardly expected anything at our next stop. The caretaker of the apartment was waiting for us in balcony. He had seen me telling Raj that there is some vacant house. It was a newly built apartment. One condition met. The moment we entered the house on second floor, we were like it seems good. The tiles were white and walls were cream color. The rooms had cupboard with doors. The hall was big and even pooja room was big. The kitchen was open with one small balcony to it. One of the bedrooms had balcony. We liked it instantly. We saw one more in the same building. One was east facing and the other one was west facing. When we inquired about rent, it was like a perfect deal. Second Condition met! And mind you it was not a combination of or when it came to conditions, they were all supposed to be met when we finalize the deal. We heaved a sigh of relief and rushed home to tell this news to mummy and papa. It was quite a scene at our terrace, both of us smiling big and showing thumbs up sign to mum as she was coming to open the gate.

We took mom and dad there to have a look at the house before finalizing the deal. Meanwhile, I had a quick consultation with my father whether to have east facing or west facing house. We did some quick checks as to how is the construction, how are the flats are facing each other and reached to the conclusion that we should take the west facing one for the simple reason that at least we will get some sun light in the morning. My mother in law was quite satisfied by the fact that it is a new house and when she looked around, she was quite happy with the result.

It was a quite a day….the locality is silent there; I think we will miss our next door neighbor’s dog bark. They have four of them. We will miss the laughter of the next door neighbor who resides on First Floor. It’s just a different laughter the one which one will hear even though there is cotton buds stuffed in your ears. The last but not the least, we will miss our sweet chechi opposite to our house. You can hear her voice from far off distance; she is the oldest resident in our street.

I am glad that our search for the dream house is over as of now………….hopefully soon our search for our dream home will be over too.

Yipee! Tomorrow no office, well as such Saturdays are off but being in accounts we end up working on most of the Saturdays, huh! But then tomorrow is off and guess why am I so glad? I can catch up a little more sleep which I should not. Rather I should be exercising religiously because of my ever green weighty issues. I had made some breakthrough in this by doing yoga for almost one & half months and I was quite impressed with the results and then I became lazy (as usual, what is so new about it) and so I am back to square one.

This Indian Idol is kind of pain because my hubby gets full control of the remote. And then he will not budge from this funny show! I mean I have nothing against it but then it doesn’t hold my attention. Never mind the fact nothing on TV holds my attention as such. However, quite a few ones are quite good. Like radha ki betiyaan, thank God there is no more that rona dhona and all those scheming plots. Then that Baalika Vadhu on colors is pretty fine. I mean it holds you on seat.The old granny is really mind blowing in her performance. I also watch Nach Baliye as well. Well, I like dancing though I am not much a dancer myself, however, I shake my leg whenever given the choice. Mil gaya remote mujhe! I have settled for NDTV Imagine. Some talk show on the movie Dostana. It seems to be a good movie but then u may never know the surprises which movies hold. But the promos are cool and Abhishek and John are looking fantastic. And I love the song Desi Girl! The beats are ek dum mast. Its makes a quite a dancing song. Ok enough of stupid TV and movie talks.

Today we had a kind of debate in office – whether kurti is a formal dress?  Well, it was more of it in our team. Now there are varieties of them available in market! The boss was in fix! “I don’t even understand what a kurti is?” “Is it this long? Or is it upto this lenghth?” His hands were moving in action with his words. I am not sure how one reacts to this. I mean it doesn’t happen daily that all of sudden your

Boss comes and asks what on earth a kurti is? I had this confused reaction on my face and I wanted to burst out in laughter. But then I didn’t do any of these and in turn told him that even I wear a few of them and that too on weekdays. This confused him all the more and imagine all this was happening in whispers (quite audible to my manager though) so finally he diverted us to HR! After all the hulla boo we found that we can wear kurtis on weekdays but yes we should maintain the decency and all that stuff. Answers are welcome J. Quite a day for all of us and in the middle of this confusion we had our deadlines to be met which I guess we did meet. I am not sure though but the achievement of the day is “we can wear kurtis with formal pants to office”.  Thank God, else, it would have burnt a hole in my pocket ‘cos I don’t have those many shirts but kurtis heeee heeee……..

Tomorrow’s agenda – we have to locate a house for us which we can call home because our owner has sold the 1^st floor which we used to occupy. We still occupy though we have to move out in 3 months. Hopefully, the next post will be on our search! Till then take care, God Bless!

P.S. The title to this blog is from one of the comments I got. Random Thoughts, thanks to Smriti J

Its been long that I visited the Iland and posted something......i keep telling Vicky aka Raj that I am suffering from Writer's Block. I drilled this into him to an extent that he had to google search this term!!!!! Never mind, hopefully I will be active once again on the Iland......

As of now nothing much, just a food for thought.......

This email I received from one of colleagues and it is a sweet one so thought of sharing with Friends on Iland.....Hope you guys enjoy it, rather than enjoying I am sure the words given in the end will linger on ur mind....happy reading....

This is a story from Buddha's life….
 
Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers.  This was in the initial days.  While they were travelling, they happened to pass a lake.  They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, "I am thirsty.  Do get me some water from that lake there."
 
The disciple walked up to the lake.  When he reached it, he noticed that some people were washing clothes in the water, and right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake.  As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid.  The disciple thought, "How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!"  So he came back and told Buddha, "The water in there is very muddy.  I don't think it is fit to drink."  After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink.  The disciple obediently went back to the lake.  This time he found that the lake had absolutely clear water in it.  The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be consumed.  So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha.  Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said,
 
"See what you did to make the water clean.  You let it be…. and the mud settled down on its own – and you got clear water.  Your mind is also like that!  When it is disturbed, just let it be.  Give it a little time.  It will settle down on its own.  You don't have to put in any effort to calm it down.  It will happen.  It is effortless."
 
What did Buddha emphasize here?
 
He said, "It is effortless."  Having 'Peace of Mind' is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!
 
When there is peace inside you, that peace permeates to the outside.  It spreads around you and in the environment, such that people around start feeling that peace and grace.
 
Also remember that you could be in very peaceful surroundings, where everything is wonderfully beautiful, but if your inside is disturbed, then that beauty is of no use to you. It does not mean anything to you.  For you to be peaceful, peace has to be generated from deep within you  - from your being to the mind, and from the mind to the environment.

Just thought of dropping in a line for myself to myself on the blog! It’s been really a long period of time that I penned down something.

Just to begin with, I have got a new job! I wasn’t jobless on the last day of the year and I had a ‘chutti’ on New Year to begin with. What a beginning? The organization is one of the big ones, I mean it’s a dream one something which I wanted atleast once in my lifetime. The brand name counts!! There are few more good things which I got with this job.

My office is just 15 minutes away from my home! Hey, I heard some gasps….I know it sure makes one gasp for breath when the office is just 15 minutes away from home in Bangalore. It’s sure is a miracle. I have always believed in miracles and sometimes it always comes true for me. This time it came in this form. The space is awesome, well, yes for the one who has never seen this kind of work culture, this is just awesome. And Saturday is off too! Though yesterday was one of the Saturdays that I was at home But then I am not complaining as I am getting paid for putting those extra hours J.

My bosses are good. And I am so very comfortable with them. For the time being I am the only female member in the team but then no issues as such. I am just too fine in office. Time and all is not a problem. So I guess or rather feel that I am too chilled out on my job front which I am sure is good for me.

And the beshtesht (I know this is wrong but then this is how we always describe the best things!!!! J)……my hubby has an absolute fantastic place to sit and wait for me if I am late. The office premise is located in a great place. They have a food court and a good open lounge to sit. It’s good, good and good all the way.

We celebrated our Ist Marriage Anniversary and Raj’s birthday on the same day for the one simple reason that they fall on the same day, heeee heeee!!!!! I got the some cool dresses from him, yeah yeah he gifted me cool kurtas to me. I can combine them with my whites and blacks and make a chic appearanceJ.

This blog is taking a pretty long time to finish because I am watching 2-3 flicks in between. Oh yes! Today I got a new haircut, and I feel it’s cool. Even my in-law’s say that it’s super! Well, I hope so but then my hubby is falling in love with me all over again due to this haircut, this is what he says although he is down with fever. Finally, I have been able to use my gift card as well, it was given to me in October’2007 from my old office people. I guess I would have made a lot of impact on them that they gifted me this (heee heeee achha sochne ke paise thode hi lagte hain! Kabhi kabhi insaan ko galatfahmi mein bhi jeena chaiye, it makes u feel good about urself!!!!!)

Hmmmm…or kya? Yeah yeah, how can I not tell about my culinary skills as well? I am making some good gajar ka halwa and til ke ladoos. Necessity is the mother of all inventions, someone had said and in my case it is true. I can’t say its invention. But yes, I am gaining expertise slowly in cooking as I miss home and when I need to experience some taste like back home, I have no choice but to learn and cook. And trust me you all females out there, stomach is the way to a man’s heart! If you have to impress your guy then do try some good recipe, he sure will get flattened, heeee heeee. I have impressed him a lot with gajar ka halwa. I know some people are smiling away at this but then it is sure a feat to make some one eat Gajar ka halwa who never liked it earlier and now ask him if he likes it then there is a big smile on his face.

My office people already had the taste and I even made aaloo paranthas for one of the colleague and he enjoyed it. My team is fun to be with, we smile and laugh daily unlike my last one.

Then yes I watched Taare Zameen Par and Welcome as well……we sit at home and connect the laptop to radio speakers and enjoy the movies at home at no cost. Late night shows on weekends back to back.

It will go and on….this is what happens if one is away for long from the blogging scene! I hope to be regular going on.

A big ‘Hi’ to all the guys out there on Iland, hoping to catch up on regular basis.

WISHING ALL THE FRIENDS' ON ILAND A VERY VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR...............

HAVE A GREAT YEAR AHEAD.............

TAKE CARE

MAY GOD BLESS ALL.......

Regards divya n vicky :)

It is something i received in my mail from a friend and I am putting it here as it is.I guess whatever is there holds true to almost to every one, may be less may be more but its touching and so very sweet :).....reading it one almost gets drifted to those old times which were just so good that u don't want to forget them............

Read, ponder and keep going........thats the way it is I guess......

Good Old Days………….

When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket ..

When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy),chhepan-chhepai
and pitthoo, antakshari anytime .

When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi' ..

When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so
fulfilling .

When there was just one tv in every five houses.

When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas
will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down
at stations to fill up the water bottle ..

When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai
jindagi' day ..
When in winters after school we used to be on roof enjoying moongfalee,
santara, ganna with chatting neighbour friends.

When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and
moms seeking our help while preparing them .

When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while
slapping/beating us ..

When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and
billus were our heroes ...

When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and
plucking and eating unripe mangoes.

When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked
for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us .

When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...

When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough
work or even fair work .

When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and
family' ..

When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud
and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis' ...

When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their
homes at six in the evening .

When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5
paise machhli wale stamps at home.

When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and
papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing ..

When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air
and noise polluting or allergic agents ...

the list can be endless ..

on the serious note I would like to summarise with .

When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for
scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding' .

When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more
sincerily .

When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future .
When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak .

When sharing worries and happinesses didnt mean getting vulnerable to
the listener .

When blacks and whites were the favourite colors instead of greys .

When journeys also were important and not just the destinations .

When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity
to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows
instead of some superfast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark
windows ...

I really miss . do u?, if u do then please send this to all your
friends and loved ones.

I just smiled after reading it.............it said that I should send it further, so far I have not but I do plan to send it across and I just felt that putting here on blog will also be good..............

Yawn....aaaa....and some more yawn and this time it is a big one, huh! Well well....this is what i do the whole day, i mean most of the day when I am not out with friends or doing window shopping.There are some serious side effects of the long break one takes specially if they are at mom's place and one of them is sitting idle, literally idle!

After I quit the office and came to Ghaziabad on long vacation, my mind has actually stopped working or rather I don't even bother to push my mind to an extent where I can do some wishful thinking.Some more Yawning while putting this piece together.Arrey koi mujhe batayega ki yahan se smiley kahan chale gaye? Ab mera blog colorful kaise hoga huh!Yaar Waise this is not fair with me, if I was absent from the blogs that doesn't mean that smileys hi gayab ho jayenage, hadd ho gayi ab toh.......kahan dhoodho main, any ways chaddo pare!! Coming back to the vacations, yes I am on long vacation, ok not that long, I mean I will be back to Bangalore on 24th November but then yes I landed here on 14th October.

Since then what have I done, nothing literally nothing except fighting with mummy or hubby, no in both the cases they only fight with me. I am a peaceloving girl, ok ok woman.....i don't fight.Or suno fight kis baat ki hai..........saree pahno.........nahin pls nahin.How it goes? The first day when I entered the home, ma was pleasantly surprised and the first thing I was told to change, phew! Boy, I was coming non stop from bangalore to give them surprise and what happens to me - instruction to change clothes.I was in Jeans and Kurta, no bindi at all (thank God sindoor thaa, gold bangles bhi pehne the.....).

As I was changing, this started - "Sun, choori bhi pahan lena."

'Kya?'

'Haan, achha nahin lagta aise khali haath.'

'Par mummy, khaali kahan hai, yeh sone ki choodi hai na haath mein.'

'Nahin Beta, kaanch ki toh honi hi chaiye or bindi laga lena jo dikhe or haan main kal payal bhi nikaal doongi pahan lena.'

"Mummy main dadi ke teherwi mein aayi hoon naki fashion show mein, mujhe dekhne nahin aayenge log, sab shok vykat karne aayenege! Please aap aisa nahin toh kar sakti na"

"Arrey nahin aisa nahin hota beta, sab dekhte hain or tu pehli baar aayi hai maayeke mein shaadi ke baad, sab aise dekhenge toh kya sochenge?"

By this time i was drained and had given up and all decked up I sat there. The first thing that I messaged Raj was I am coming back, this is jail! He started pacifying me. Poor Chap! Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 & 5 I was all dressed up in the saree for the whole day which meant 9 to 9 ki duty in saree and on top of that, I was running upstairs and downstairs....It was too much and in so less a time.I don't know but MIL wud have been thinking how did I manage to do all this, even I don't know.Hats off to those who wear saree daily without panic and do wonders with the pallu and pleats, kudos to them......no laughing matter!!!!!!!

I thought it will end here.The best part is coming now. My mum wanted to buy slippers for herself, and she told me to come to her school.I said yes without thinking what lay ahead of me! Morning 7 a.m., scene set - ma in kitchen and i am lazing around, brushing and all. "Tu school aa jana, wahan se chalenege"

"Theek hai, kitne baje?"

"1:30 baje" I thought the end but the worse was coming my way.

"Saree pahan lena"

"Mummy, hum ghar se chalenge, aap aa jana phir chalenege"

"Nahin tu saree pahan ke hi aa jana"

"Mummy main nahin aaongi aapke school"

"Nahin beta, sab milenege toh kya sochenge?"(Yaar pata nahin log itna kyun sochte hai, huh! or sab mere hi baare mnein kyun sochenge woh bhi ek saath, ek hi time par, kya timing hai?)

"Mummy, plsssssssssssssssssssssssssss"

"Tu aaj saaree, kal suit or parson jeans mein aa jana"

"Hum teen din tak chappal lene jayenge?"(Funny!)

"Arrey nahin, kal tu dekh lena kaisi taiyari chal rahi hai diwali mele ki or parson tu meri jagah stall mein duty de aana!(Why I came on chutti? I know to give duty on stall or woh bhi chaat ka!)

"Nahin mummy hum ghar se chalenge, manin nahin aa rahi aapke school, jis auntyji ne mujhe dekhna hai bolo ghar aayengi ticket laga hai tabhi milloongi main"

"Tu meri payri beti hai"(Emotions, uff yeh emotions!)

"Papa" -  he is nowhere to be found, on such occassions he is always in toilet(I donno why so don't ask)

"Acchha chal suit mein aa jana"(Note the tone in her voice)

"Pehle nahin kah sakti thee aap yeh, theek hai suit pahan kar aaongi main", papa is back too! Truce finally.

Divyaji school pahunch gayi hain or bygod wahan toh diwali mele se pehle mela lag raha hai.Aayeeeeeeeeeeee Bittooooooooooo aayi hai........(I am bittoo, heeeheeee) but I am still looking and searching for this voice......and soon I am surrounded, I am made to sit in the staff room and all work stops.Why? Arrey they are looking at me. What is my fault? Nothing......I guess I married an alien, huh! I looked around, almost everyone is looking at me including the kids who were there helping teachers in preparation.I use my usual tool,smile :) always ready with auntyji namaste. And then it started altogether,what else? Flurry of questions!!!!!!!!!

1)Mann lag gaya tera wahan par? - I am blank, kuch samajh nahin aa raha and then the reply - haan auntyji mann toh lagana padega(koi maine roj updown ke liye toh shaadi nahin kee thee, huh! and a smile)

2)Ghar mein sab kaise hain? - Ojee monkey jaise hain, I was about to say -but at the last moment i said- acchey hain auntyji sab badhiya hain one more smile.

3)Acchha tum kya roz idli sambhar khate ho? - I am still interpreting this one but i replied,"nahin auntyji roti bhi khate hain." She was not convinced so pat came the reply,"par main khana toh yahi hai na?"; there was only one reply to this so that its all over -"Haan auntyji." Auntyji was happy shappy.

4)Job toh karti hogi? - Haan auntyji and a smile.

5)paani acchha nahin hai wahan ka! - it was more of a statement.

We were ready to leave and came another exclamation from behind - 'Haye yeh hi bitiya hai aapki?' -(Nahin padosi ki hai ji). Actually woh shaadimein dekha tha na isiliye pehchaan nahin payi main, kaise ho beta?? The bestest - bitiya patli ho gayi(She is the best aunty in school and I love her for this!)...........some more of these kinds are there with the relatives which I will post in this series. I am also planning to post some ways to time pass (actually time pass) in vacation............total vellagardi!

Abhi meri chai shai ka time ho gaya hai hence I will put a full stop here only.......hey guys whats the mystery behind the vanishing smileys, well it may be in my case only, please let me know.........till the next post, happy reading and writing..........take care.

After a long long time I am back....I am back to Ghaziabad to my hometown.

It's just the things changed and the purpose was different than a normal homecoming.It was expected but then humans always have this habit of not accepting the truth.....we also did the same thing.We knew she will leave and we wanted that she should go but then somehow somewhere we were hopeful that she will hang till atleast Diwali...........however, she finally breathed her last on 9th October.My dadi left us.She was old and she was somewhere 85.She died a natural death in my father's arms.The only thing which I regret is my last minute presence. Papa and myself were really hopeful that she will leave only when i reach there but then somethings are destined! It is strange that when people leave we always remember the good.

I wept, I don't know why but on hearing the news I did weep and somehow it was consoling. Adi wept too but he did this in the evening......loneliness kills.Mom called me to tell him that its ok, not to weep.I called and told him the oppposite. Somehow it is good to cry out your heart sometimes.May be this is the natural way to overcome your grief without sharing with everyone. I came down on 14th to Ghaziabad. All the rituals were over on 19th.

So here I am writing the blog after a very long time............been really long. I have quit. Yes, I am a free bird now till the time I join a new office - some 80 thousand salary I should get..........don't get shocked, this is the rumour in my old office that I am quitting because I have an offer of 80K......I have never seen 80K in my life, I wish I could get this kind of Job! Anyways.....The farewell was sweet, something unexpected - a lunch and a gift voucher too! Some cute videos and funny pics! I have yet to get my final dues though! What else? Hmmmm.....yes yes my Ele's new project is up and we hope that soon it picks up.....Please you guys check this link and give your feedback www.clickneeds.com

Well....a