Life at 30s

All of a sudden, it dawned on me that I used to write. I had this thing in me that I could pen down my thoughts and imaginations and there was a place that existed where I could vent out. 

I started searching for that place and finally opened this and noticed it has been 11 years since my last piece of writing. 

11 Years is huge. It is that long enough to describe that my life has changed drastically. Back then, I was a single girl, single independent working, slightly less matured and more easy going kinda girl. 

Coming back to current 11 years later phase, I am now a married, mother of two and quiet a dependent working lady with more matured mindset. 

I know the other girl had a different life, her thoughts, her life style and her routine was so so different. Everything has changed now. That seems like a different life. 30s are so different. You have to face responsibilities. Your actions matter to everyone except you. You have to take decisions as a whole, as in for the family. I am more short-tempered now. Thanks to my children, they ensure that I always am not in a calm mode. 

But looking back. I have grown beyond my capabilities. I can manage an entire family, I rule the kitchen, I can take decisions for everyone including me. I can decide on what is right and what is wrong for my kids. (Back then I was myself figuring out what is right for me :D )

Wow!! This is what 30 is all about. You are way beyond about what you were doing in your 20s. Life teaches you everything. Glad I am still rocking and my mental strength has exponentially expanded and ofcourse my positive vibes has gone stronger than before.

I am yet to figure out if I could come here again once in a while, pen down something and keep it going. I do want to retain this place. This was there with me from my early 20s. I dont want to let it go. 

Lets see how this goes......

Being Alive

It has been more than a month and I have been thinking & trying to find a teeny weeny time to visit my blog. But what so ever, I again get into the lazy mode of not updating it.

Talking about what I have been doing from past few days, it is a mixture of stuffs. I had registered for two treks but then it got cancelled for various reasons. To admit, I dropped out of one because of my very-important-meeting. But the other was not my mistake okey? It was cancelled by the organizer because of some forest-permission issues.

After which I stopped thinking about trek and concentrated on my work. Had got some exciting work for which I had to study, analyse and try out things which I kind of liked it. That's because it kept me busy.

I spent few days searching for houses near by. Yes, yes! I am shifting. Moving to another house which is fairly 5 minutes walk away from my present house. :P :D
I have another 20 days to move out from here and I'm already ready to pack. Ahhh, I love packing and arranging stuffs. I got to do some serious shopping in the coming weekends. And then it would be lots of baggage, carton boxes and packings & packings.

Between, I forgot to mention that I had been to a night trek recently. Had abstained myself not to tell anyone till the last moment considering my past cancellations. :D And it was a bliss. It had been a real long time that I had gone out exploring places, walking in the night under the sky (without traffic & buildings along my way) and making new friends. I truly enjoyed every bit of it.

Hope I can go out again for 2 days trek into some lush forest. That would fill my travelling thirst for a month atleast. :D
Coming back to present time, I am eating raw mangoes with salt. It tastes yumm. The secret here is that these are stolen mangoes. That's why it is tasting sooo gooood.
Now don't ask me from where I stole it.

Passing days

Unexpected happiness do come on your way and by the time you realize and feel it, it would have done its work and moved on. I do value each and very small happiness that makes me smile even for a second. Past few days seem to have moved on very fast. Just last week I was eagerly waiting for my results for one of the exam that I had attended. I experienced the excitement of waiting, felt happy to have scored good marks and it also made me feel proud when people praised me. The week is already over and so are the memories. Times does fly by quickly.

Today had been to the flower show at Lalbagh. Though I've been living in Bangalore from past 5 years, I had not been to the flower show even once. Finally, I get to experience this.

It was indeed worth visiting and see such marvellous collection of various flowers. But yes I did go through the huge crowd pushing and shouting along with the scorching sun rays. The most enjoyed time was the shopping at various stalls at Lalbagh. There were dozens of stalls selling variety of stuffs including bags, accessories, flowers, gardening tools and seeds, hande made ganesha's etc. I bought few hanging plastic pots for my home and I'm sure my dad would defnitely love this one. 

And how lovely it was to be a part of the Republic day celebration at Lalbagh. It was going on when I reached Lalbagh at around 8.30 AM. What a timing! I did miss the laddu though, which was getting distributed. Felt nostalgic as I was remembering my school days.

I happened to reach this web page by Yahoo news and seriously, was amazed to see the retro photos of India. It did put me a big smile on my face when I checked the photos. From man-drawing rikshaws & bicycle rikshaws to the steam engine of railway, it is totally awesome to imagine the life in 1950s. Do check out the photos here: Retrospective India 

Happy Sankranti !!

It's Makara Sankranti festival..! Rangoli, Flowers, Sugarcane, Pongal, Sweet Potatoes, Avare beans and what not. The best part of it all is the yellu bella. That's my favorite. Every year I  make sure of adding all the ingredients in the right quantity so as to get the exact taste what I prefer.

Since it was a holiday, I had enough time for myself the whole day. In the evening, we went to a temple near by. All in all a peaceful day.

Happened to read this article written by a Floh Member: Of-course-we-care-about-looks-but-we-care-about-a-lot more too! He has shared his thoughts of how single men really think about the ladies. If you are asking what if Floh, well, Floh is a group of Singles precisely Singles Only Network. I pretty much had liked the concept of the group but had no intentions to join it. However, I have been following them on Facebook page and that's how I happened to read this article.

So sit back and enjoy reading it. It is going to be worth a read if you are a lady..! (wink)

Done with the weekend

Had a peaceful weekend. With two days of hols, I could spend a quality time at my room. Watched few movies, cleaned the kitchen, washed my clothes, went out for shopping and had lots of sleep. :) :)

I do love shopping and I take my own time to decide and choose stuffs. That's me! :P Or well, that's just any typical girl of my age. I was accompanying a friend of mine for shopping and I ended up buying two kurtas for myself. Now don't scold me for that. It just happened! :D

Between, I had this all time interest to buy Pictionary but kept postponing it for some or other obvious reasons. Finally, yes yes finally, I bought it today..!! And I'm so glad I did.

One of my friend introduced me to this game more than 2 years ago. It was so much of fun playing this. The basic requirement is that you need more people to play as it is played with teams. I so love this board game! If you want to know more about this game, then do jump here .

Thus ends the day and a new week awaits!! Have a fabulous week ahead... :)

And the network follows

I'm a happy customer of Vodafone. For 6 Years!! Infact, I happened to be a Hutch customer. Time changed and then the name changed. Thankfully, the pug dog didn't change. :)

Have had variety of experiences interacting with the customer care. Once, when I was put on hold by the agent I started humming a song to realize later that the agent was able to hear me. I came to know when he said I sang well before ending the call. That turned out to be quite a surprise and an embarrasing situation.

I did experience irritating incidents when some promotional offers got activated by mistake. I was to spend my time calling the agents again and again to make sure it is de-activated. I call it frustrating times with Vodafone.

End of it all, Vodafone was always there - closest to me, following me wherever I go. It helped me connect to people whenever I wanted to. And today, I have activated another number with the same Vodafone network.

Did you know? Vodafone had promoted the advertisement characters called ZooZoo. The ZooZoo idea was conceived by Rajiv Rao and the ads were shot by Nirvana Films which is a Bangalore based company. Here is one of the cute ZooZoo image:

Is this called mood disorder?

I have heard a lot of guys saying that it is quite difficult to understand girls mind and thoughts. Hmmm, never really wondered whether it is true or not. But may be these days I am feeling this as more or less correct. To be frank, I am unable to understand my own mind. 

From quite sometime, I am noticing that my mind keeps singing and dancing whenever I am in good mood. I have no idea what people think about me when I am in that mood. Interestingly, it even changes to a bad or angry mood within minutes. There could be silly reason for it or so but still people around me may not really know whats running in my mind. All they see is a complete transformation from a good and sweet face to a frowning or storming face. Is this called 'Mood Disorder'?!?!?

Keeping this transformation story aside, I am craving for some heavy rain in Bangalore but to my vain all I find is a hot sun when I peep through the window. I am presently hearing to this song of Britney Spears 'Criminal' and sipping hot coffee. The only factor that is making me feel good now is the song. Neither the coffee nor the sun can make me feel better from the swirling mood of mine.

Life is going on just normal. You heard me? JUST NORMAL. I suppose there is nothing that can bring any change to my regular routine life for sometime? Mornings are pretty slow and lazy, whole day seems to be occupied by something called WORK. Evenings seem to be quite tiresome with my long walk back to home from office. Hungry stomach makes me cook something instantly and I swallow it quickly before even realizing the taste of it. I don't how the time passes by that I will be back on bed setting up the alarm for the next day. *Sigh* 

I am waiting for September to arrive soon. I do have some pretty good plans for travelling to different places. The September plans are kind of energy boosters. It is cheering me up whenever I check the calendar for something exciting. 

This post should have definitely proved that I still do exist in the blogging world. If something strikes my mind, may be I will come back to write something again! :) :) 

That special someone

"Your msgs were so important that waiting for it was an excitement. You made me feel so special. I have started thinking about someone, dreaming about wonderful things and looking forward to be with you.

My eyes are talking, heart is expressing, mind is jumping and now I'm smiling for nothing."

This is what happens when you meet somebody special in your life. The above lines are dedicated to one of my good friend who is finally tying knots with her special someone.

Cheers!

Ganapathi Bappa Moreya

This day used to be always a busy day at my house! Cleaning the house, making a place for ganesha, decorating and keeping everything set for the next day festival.

Not to forget all the fights I used to have with my dad and sister. It used to be fun filled.

End of the day mom used to get tired making us all calm.

We used to be awake till late night keeping everything ready for the wonderful welcome for Mr ganesha the next day.

We never celebrated Gowri as my mom said that families who celebrate Varamahalakshmi don't celebrate Gowri festival. So in our house we had the custom of celebrating Varamahalakshmi which is usually celebrated few weeks before Ganesha Chathurthi.

The next day always seemed to be very tiring. Dad used to wake us up very early. He wanted us to put Rangoli and get ready for the Pooja. But we, being the lazy sisters always used to ask him for extra 5 to 10 minutes to sleep and would doze of for a long time. Then my mom would come screaming and asking for us to get up and start the work.

Rangoli is a must for us. Though I can never do it like my mom, I used to do it somehow. My sister was always a helper here. By the time we finish the rangoli stuff, we would hear our dad calling for us. But unless we hear a praise of word from our dad & mom, we would never leave the place. That certainly means my mom would give us some nice words that would make us feel proud of our efforts.

By the time Pooja starts we would be so tired and hungry. Though we would be able to smell yummy food getting prepared in the kitchen we are not allowed to touch it unless it is served to god first. But here even God is made to wait. He has to wait until my dad keeps all things ready, reads some stories and sings some bhajans etc etc. Then my mom too does so many types of Poojas where we kids were only supposed to sit and watch them do things. Also, we had to help them wherever they need our help.

I being the eldest used to transfer all my work to my sister. :P It used to be fun to hear my sister screaming at me for everything. :)

Festival means late lunch at our house. At times, it could extend till 3 or 4 PM. My stomach would always be well prepared for the late lunch.

Mom would prepare yummy kadabu, kosambri and chitranna along with the regular meal.

We would have guests and neighbours coming to see Ganesha in the evening. I used to visit my neighbour houses where they keep Ganesha's. Mom would always stay at home and would never leave Ganesha alone :) She used to say that we should not leave him alone and lock the door.

By around 8 PM, we would set things ready to bid Bye to our Ganesha. Dad would do one last Pooja and Mom used to make us ask one last thing from Ganesha at that time i.e. to ask him to come to our house happily every year the same way. Then I and my dad would go to a lake that we had near our house. I still remember the scary lake that used to be almost full due to heavy rains. We would go to a safe place where we could finish all the remaining customs. I used to watch the big lake that stood silently in the night without making any noise. At last, my dad would dip Ganesha three times and finally drop him in the lake. After the visarjane, we would sit for sometime and then leave back to home.

Every year Ganesha comes to our house. Most of the times we would make him stay for a day due to our busy schedules. If possible, we would keep him for 3 days.

For the first time in 2010, I had to miss the festival because of working far from my home. I will never forget that sad feeling of missing home because of my work. I did pray to god to make it possible the next year.

Unfortunately, this year too the same continues. My parents are feeling really bad for my absence at home. We celebrate so many festivals, but Ganesha Chaturthi used to be something more exciting. I would not count Deepavali here, because thats full of enjoyment and missing deepavali means missing all the fun and happiness.

But still I know I will have good plans to celebrate Ganesha Chathurthi wherever I'm. So I'm all set to welcome Ganesha in Bengaluru this time. Wishing you too a very happy festival..

Ganapathi Bappa Moreya ! ! ! :)

the red roses

Some of the pictures that I happened to click on my friends anniversary. I always love flowers. Though roses are not in my highest liking list, I do like it at times. The photos are taken from my digital camera. I feel sorry for not having SLR camera. :) Anyways, liked these pics and thought of uploading it here.

Wrong turn

Life is indeed unpredictable. You never know when you will face life's blows. Sometimes this blow may hurt us so deep that it can remain for a long time.

We grow up with lots of hope and with interest to achieve our dreams. Every individual has his or her own dreams. Some people may actually reach their goals within little time or after a long time.

But what when you are actually going against your dreams? What when you are actually doing something which you never thought of and never wanted to?

Probably you may continue with this phase of life if everything is good and if it is not going good, then you may try to change the happenings as much as possible.
But there are times when you cannot change anything, when you plan to stay silent with this phase of life and wait for things to change by itself.

Going through difficulty needs to be experienced so as to understand the life's ups and downs. But when it is taking a wrong turn, we have to take a right step to win this game or ateast wait for the right step.

Today, life took me towards a wrong turn. I am quite upset with it but then I don't want to loose hopes. I am not in a position to take a right step but I will wait for it. If things were in my hand, I could have done as my heart says. But no, I am helpless. I may have to support the people who depend on me. So just ignoring the wrong turn and moving ahead to come across the right path.

I guess this is a hard time which is going through, But I'm trying to live my day to the fullest.
The tears that rolled from my eyes today dried up when a close friend of mine comforted me. I'm glad to have such friends in my life.
End of it all, I'm smiling now as I'm writing this.

Ignoring the so-called-worst-experience-of-today!

Signing off with a smile! :)

P.S: The photo above is taken by a good friend of mine. The photo itself can tell many stories.

Hard Fact

The worst thing that can happen is you reach office early in the morning and find out that you are at a wrong place.
Hmm.. well, that doesn't mean that you are physically present at a wrong place but it can mean that virtually you feel that you do not belong to this office or you should have not been here!

It does feel so especially when you don't have the passion or interest to work at that office. Many may say that they feel this every single day. But I don't feel it often. I just look forward to work at my office and spend the entire day at office working or doing something which can be effective either to the company or me.
But past few days, there has been a cloud moving above me which keeps pouring in thoughts. It keeps asking me whether I'm happy over here or not? Whether I am enjoying my work, passionate about the tasks that I do or interested to even look for more possible actions during work.
Rather than answering these questions, I shutdown these thoughts and ask the cloud to stop following me.

What does a happy career mind ask for? A decent job with interesting assignments on the work desk, stable income with friendly colleagues to work on & challenging tasks. That's all I am looking for.

*Sigh. Just not happy with the happenings at my work place!

She and her world

Picture taken at Cubbon Park, Bangalore.

A cute child who was accompanied by her mother to the park was happily waiting to get into the toy train ride. She didn't even knew that it was only a toy train and not the real one. She was enjoying each and every moment. She was smiling at every person who was playing with her. She doesn't recognize any of those faces but she could realize that they too are moving ahead with her in the train. She loved the dress she wore, she loved the balloons which her brother was holding in his hand, she loved the people who were smiling at her. It was all like a different world. The world which looks very nice and beautiful. Colorful people, bright day, twinkling nights, happy children, struggling old grannies, wonderful flowers etc etc.,

She wants the world to remain as it is with all these lovely things always near to her.. She cannot express it as of now but she knows about it and enjoys every bit of it.

This is her world. Her beautiful world and she loves it!! :)

Times-up

Its been quite tough these days.. May be I have lost the patience to adjust for slightest things too. Not to reveal much but I am planning to shift my home from North to South of Bangalore. I know shifting involves hell lot of work and I'm feeling the pain in doing it.

Checking out so many places is a tiresome job too. I have been looking out for a comfy rented house but moving alone is not safe. Hence, I am checking for ladies hostels too.
But let me tell you one thing, Bangalore is loaded with lot many PG (Paying Guest) Accommodations. But I have not come across even one hostel until now. If you ask what is the difference, students who are studying in engineering or medical colleges can tell you. I always wanted to stay in one. *sigh*

Coming back to my search. Oh Gawwwdd! I have been staying in a 2 bhk house until now and I was so so happy staying there. I don't think I may get such a kind of house again.

A tip to share for the people who stay in rented house or flats: If you are all alone, you are blessed! If you are sharing your space with roomies, then you guyz gotta stay smart. Its always a fight at the end. Getting the advance money which was deposited first is like finishing a virgin trek! Trust me, I have experienced this "staying in a rented house with so called roomies" twice already.

I hope and pray that I get a good place to stay somewhere close to my office! *fingers crossed for all the future mishaps* hehehe

the attachment

She sat there at the reception desk working on her computer. She didn't have much work that day. She started watching the main door and the people who were walking elsewhere.

He stayed in a small rented penthouse which was located in the same building as hers. He used to often move up and down from the stair case but never noticed this lady sitting there. But that day he just caught her eyes looking at him. He could sense the electric beat which went through his nerves. She created an affection towards him and gazed at him. No smiles either side.

Its been a month now and they still look at each other whenever he passes through the staircase. No talks and no smiles. But things are happening in the air. Both of them feel a strange bond of looking at each other but never did they express it. They liked it, they loved that intense feeling of happiness, lust and the crave to see each other everyday.

The fond attachment still continues..

Lost heart

He stood there smiling at me,
I glared at him like a bee!

He was sweet, lovable and innocent,
I was sporty, talkative and exultant!

He loved me to the core,
Which I never got from anyone before!

But time tells a different story,
Where I was filled with gory!

We had to be keep ourselves apart,
and finally it broke, my heart!

Me and My love

Not all are blessed with luck. But when people are blessed with good luck, do they realize it?

I dont know about you, but I certainly keep realizing it often. Its sometimes crazy when I keep thinking and thinking endlessly. I feel happy for what I'm. I feel good to have made so many good friends. I feel great exploring new things. I feel nice when people praize me. I feel yipppee when I'm enjoying. I feel adventurous when I do something crazy.

Going back to those years, when I was a tiny little baby fond of my mother always crying and laughing, to those days when I used to fight with those friends of mine just for a chocalate, and when I used to jump and happily return home from school, when I used to get scoldings from my teacher for not completing my homework, to the days when I was afraid to step into college and ofcourse to the days when we used to bunk the classes just because it was boring, chit chat in canteens and those birthday treats and to all those interviews that took place and the trainings in new workplace... ahhh!!
Finally, working now! Its been a long journey from baby (to) school going kid (to) teenager (to) college girl and now a working professional.. (Feeling Nostalgic now.. :-))

Life has drastically changed or I should say I have drastically changed myself so much. Happy that I am standing on my legs now, i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t-l-y!

Thanks to my parents who made me stand up for what I'm today. Thanks to my little sister who was a great companion till now. Thanks to all those wonderful friends with whom life indeed became happier. I have to tell thanks to each and everybody that I know as they have played a role too in my life journey.

And today i'm expressing my love to myself. If I had not loved myself, I would have not reached till here. So so glad that I'm me, myself and Swetha! Frankly, I love my name, my every step, my every thinking, my smartness.. well everything about me!!
I'm sure each of you would have loved yourself. But we only to know to express love to other and may not have expressed it among ourselves.

Its nice to wear my own shoes rather anybody else's. I dont want to be Obama or Kajol or Shah rukh Khan. I want to be what I'm. And I proudly say that I love myself.. Hugggzzzz and kisses to me.. :) :P ;)

HaPpY VaLeNtInEs DaY!

Jingle Bells!!

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh yeah

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Loads of memories!!

Feels like its a new life,
After leaving the people with whom I lived these many years,
After leaving the place where I worked for these many years,
After leaving the talks that I had with all these many years.

Feels like its a new life,
When I wake up in the morning to find that I'm not going to that place any more,
When I talk to people and say about what I'm doing now,
When I sleep in the night thinking about the next day schedule which is different now.

Feels like its a new life,
When I call my friends just to ask how are they now,
When I hear from them that they miss me,
When I tell them that I'm doing great when I'm not.

Its a new life altogether!
Thank you to the people who made me so special. Thank you for missing me when i'm not there with you all. Thank you for creating wonderful memories with me. Lastly, thank you for being with me!! Missing each one of you.. my team.. my co-workers everybody!!

This is to the people whom I call friends more than my colleagues!! :)

Life without you

Unknown thoughts bound together to form an indifferent puzzle,
To the shadow of dark from the light of rays,
You left me behind without telling me,
Never could give the respect you deserved,
Pity the time when I didn't give you the love,
You are not here now, to give what u need
I am left alone with anger, cries and pain,
Oh god, forgive me and take me to him!


P.S: Dedicated to my friend who lost someone special..