Its that time of the year again

When we do the round up. Top 10 songs, top 10 movies, top 10 wardrobe malfunctions and all other important things that moved and shook the world. Its just 3 more days to a brand new year, but there have been none of the 'traditional' emails doing the rounds. More so, there have been no posts on bloggerville either. Except for the Furobiker  of course, who can never ever fail :) So thank you for the cue, now Cherrie shall follow suit. I did whet my own writing cells with old posts by your truly :) over the last three years.

The year has been one with so many phases,that I could easily bookmark them mentally. It started on a bad note  on the job front. It was like Whack! on the head, and a pretty bad one. As I was recuperating from it, there came the stint of K overseas, cos of which I was left in murky waters for a long time (In short things went from bad to worse). It was a long drawn separation with things going crazy at work and home. Ever chiming 'for this too shall pass', and posting sad senti stuff like this I dragged on. Things were so bad, that I cried my eyes dry for 3 days straight that too at my parents place! Now I shed a tear only when I am leaving my parent's house, never ever when I am there. This year saw my mom seeing me cry, yea I wanted to stop all the time, but then when the faucet is open, its on autocontrol then on. ( Thats when I went from the frying pot to the fire)

Seeing no end in sight, I changed projects, kept moving back and forth between Chennai and Bbsr, hung around with strange people (no, I wasnt smoking pot, just random people, whom maybe on a good day, I would'nt go beyond casual banter. I was so down, I actually went to the extent of sharing cell phone numbers! Urgggh!!)

But then that was the very time, I found some amazing 'friends' in my colleagues. Friends is a protected term (look at the developer talking people!) for me, which I use VERY sparingly. But then, Rumi, Divya, Soukarya (with Ameya, Anita and Sworen in supporting cast) - you have no idea, how much you did unknowingly of course to keep me pepped up. The spontaneous rides in the car,the scooting for the tea, the impromptu plans, those were the stuffs I looked forward to. Not to forget the movie and the amazing time I had when you guys dropped by at my home. Roomie dear, Ashu, goes without saying how hard you worked, so much so, I mainly wrote a post to thank you!( I was still in the fire and some divine cook was waiting for me to turn a nice golden brown). Thats when I was like, its about time whoever is cooking me. Get done with it will you?

Things started churning real slowly and I ended up being a housewife .(See the cooked becomes the cook in this phase) It was an altogether different experience. The kitchen had never been a place where I escape from rather a place I escape to (Thank you BBC for saying the lines I always wished I said) , and it has become more of haven each passing day. I have been able to master the art of some typical Tamil delicacies apart from sambar and rasam  and slowly graduated to being able to make pongal, ada dosa, beans usili (Tamilians would know what I am talking about here) . I have dug my way deeper into K's heart, than he could have asked for. Not only that, my gajar ka halwa, achaari paneer, pudina rice and stuffed puris have become the talk of 'our' stomachs. Food was not the only thing I chewed upon (though the waist begs to differ and screams that thats precisely what I have been doing all the time),I have also devoured some of the choicest books. Till now its been eleven down:-

1. The Family Man 2. How to be good (Must read) 3. The art of racing in the rain (which had a doggy talking!Ulti cute book) 4. Coma (Just to savor some American writer) 5. Moths (Must read) 6. Julie and Julia 7. Juliet, Naked 8. A Mercy (Must must read) 9. Departure Lounge 10. Choker Baali 11. He's just not that into you............... and still counting. (Speed reading has never been my forte :( no wonder I sucked in my CAT exams  )

Yes yes, I heard it, enough with the crib-athon. K did get promoted (This was also long due), we moved into a new style of life just the 2 of us and our raves and rants (a totally different but seriously temporary set up). Apart from them, I cannot think of anything sparkling or happening on the 12 month long horizon, so much so that blogosphere was pretty damp with Satish, Shylu, Ashu, Piper, Shalom being gayaab. Ya even I was  lousy in being upto date and was without a single post in April and June, but folks, you are missed in my space. 

Enough of drama now, ab aanso ponch leti hoon.  Here's wishing everyone wandering, stomping, grazing by - a truly happening New Year. (Read it somewhere, may you live in exciting times!) Yes wish you all exciting times and times where your heart cherishes whatever you do. Spread the new year fever- sneeze around. Errr... I meant, put up some posts, send some emails, go crazy on FB, lets usher in the brand new year with a lot of hope. 

Hum do humare do

Yessssss gaonwalon,mithaiyan baaton. 

And you all guessed it right, what better timing than Christmas. Its the time The King of Angels came to earth, a time when there  is festivity all around. The three wise men brought gold, frankincense & myrrh for baby Jesus, which led to tradition of gifting during Christmas. And I could not have had a better timing to give my bebe something he had been really really looking forward to. 

We were initially two minds with whether we should go ahead with such a big decision. There would be additional expense, we would need to manage time better, we would need to be more judicious. There was also a bit of logistic issue to make room for additional stuff. When we saw others going ahead with their decisions, we used to look longingly at each other and think if we are ready yet? Should we go ahead right now or wait for some more time. But then, one fine day, when K's colleague told he was going for it, K was firm, that it was high time we stopped dilly dallying. Since K was convinced, I was also convinced. We decided, no matter what, we would still make time for each other and not let the new one  take over our lives as a couple. We would even take extra measures and to ensure that we spend quality time with each other.

And though its nearly a month early, I told K, he could keep it as his anniversary gift. He could NOT have wished for a better anniversary gift.

Today finally, with great joy in our hearts and a jump in our steps, we welcomed the new Nintendo Wii. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy.

PS. Ab hum do humare do, I got the lappie and he is getting beaten black and blue in an arena. *Evil Smile*. It is such a JOY to see him take the hit. Mwahahahaha

I missed my birthday

I am like the character of Lily Aldrin from How I Met Your Mother. I love my birthday. Love it.

And this year I  missed it - as in the usual hullabaloo that surrounds the day, as per me. First up, I missed the customary mid night calls, which I so love to wake up to! Cos of  the time difference, it was an unearthly hour in India, when the clock struck 0000 hours here, there was not a single call/missed call on my mobile. I did however call folks who matter the most at midnight (India time) woke them up and made them wish me :).

K did plan out a trip to London on my birthday weekend(something totally unintentional, as usual this year too - the fourth time- he forgot my birthday. As in not the real day, but the run up to it. The countdown to it. I never let any one who is important to me forget my birthday! ). So there we were strolling on the streets of London, and he did to his very best  to let all the choices be made by the newborn. I adored him for the effort he was making, but then he was a one man army. (Such a sweetu) Another thing that is sacrilegious to be missing but was -  was my new dress!! I have always (ALWAYS) had something new to wear on a birthday since I had a mind to remember. But this time, due to the God forsaken snows, I was not able to grab anything new for the day! Though I decked my self in the choicest of fancy clothes - none of them were new! (Boo hoo) So there was I, with something amiss. Just like Murphy predicts, if something can go wrong it surely will, I ended up breaking the camera. Yea me now Mrs Butterfingers (normally) was trying to maneuver the camera with gloves on (which made me Mrs. Extra Butter-y Fingers) and whooosh it fell down, breaking the battery cabinet. We can still take clicks with a cello-tape stuck on the battery compartment, but then the thing is broken right. The  angel in K who would normally have flown into a Blistering Barnacles tirade patted me, (I am sure some foul words must have played in his head) and took me to the nearest Starbucks so that I became ok. 

Let me not be too pessimistic too, there was nothing like having well cooked Indian food for 4 days in London. Here the rigors of cooking, cleaning, shopping, setting the house straight, etc etc, and doing all of them alone do tire me and bore me. (I miss how mil just like that takes over the house some days back in Chennai. ) So it was an absolute delight to have food served. I threw all guards off and gorged on the heavenly dishes. And there was this one whole day we dedicated to K savoring South Indian food. We went absolutely crazy over vadas, dosas, idlies and the like. Apart from that the folks who just did not and cannot disappoint me ( Sam and the Dino!) They called me across the distance, and a pleasant surprise was another friend of K's who has been stellar in supporting us in recent times. When I returned home, it was absolute D-E-L-I-G-H-T to see the emails from friends. And yes not to forget the scraps and the wall postings (The joys of social networking sites :D ) 

To think about it, last year the same time I was recuperating from typhoid, and it had been my birthday when I shunned the diet restrictions. I had kept my date and had taken all the calls and had an ultimately special birthday with 2 chocolate cakes! And this year had been so different - with something missing, but the very special person being there who was missing last year. 

Why am I being so senti about something which happened a week back? Huh! Silly me. This weekend has been the one stuffed with stimulating conversations with Ashu and Sam, a random movie which had K and I rotfl and of course the crowning glory good fooooooddddd! 

Will leave with the pic of the dosa we ordered at London and in spite of being tremendously gluttonous, were not able to finish :)

The bone of contention

Recently K and I have been fighting a lot. Its been 5 times and we have had a row about the same thing. I don't want to wash dirty linen in public, but then I had to get it out of my system. I feel maybe my readers can help me ascertain, whether I am being over demanding or he is being under sensitive ( "Under sensitive" sounds so yieeeeksss but wanted "under" in the same sentence as "over" :D )

Ok now the issue is, I feel K is with the laptop alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the time. Yes this "all" is just a fraction of the "all" that I mean. Remember the post about idyllic days, when there was just K and I and books, books, books. Well, now we are internet enabled and laptop-ed too. Now we are officially on the dark-side. 

I never got the point of having a laptop of my own. Since I used to spend a good 12 hours with a laptop cos of work, I never got the idea  of sitting hooked to the same machine once I got back home. So it had always been K's lappie which was the only one at home. With television and various other avenues, K had near exclusive rights over the laptop, while I sneaked in for my regular  usage of emailing, blogging, chatting, booking tickets and the like. It was never a problem. 

But out here, without a television, without immediate family and without so much of a social circle, its the laptop which  is  the window to the world. Once K is back home, around 1900, he obviously has the need to use the lappie. But imagine me, I have the urge to talk to another human being too. I want to know what happened during his day, what did he have for lunch? Whats the latest thing in office. And I want him to hear what are the updates from back home (since I do most of the calling) , I want to share any good thing I read or simply generally what did I do. But then he prefers to unwind by blankly plowing his farm or feeding his chickens (Yes you read it, hes on Farmville!)

There were times,when I took this as the stuff guys do. Being addicted to games etc. But then I started loosing it one day. So whenever I heard his tractor or his animals bray (or for that matter the sound of any of the many annoying games that he plays), I would get into a rant. K's defence would be he needs to unwind, and it was not fair to keep tab of how much he was using the laptop. He was like when I used it, it was to connect with my family/friends or for my interests (blogging) but when he logged on, he was being an internet hog and not communicating enough and being ignorant of my feelings. He charged at me for wanting to make him like me, as in it was ok if he talked to family/friends, chatted with people. But when he played I got irked. This was not done, cos he could not be like me, he was not much of a conversation-ist ,(this coming from a guy who fell in love and got married mostly cos of email conversations!!) he was'nt into blog-world, he needed his dose of games. That made him - him.

I never wanted to be a typical restraining wife, never thought I am one, but does it sound like I am being one? :S I know he is not wrong, and I am not sure if I am right- and so the argument continues (Remember the good ol ad? Coffee?Toffee? And the argument continues :D ).