My Best of 2011 !! :)

2011 has turned out to be yet another year gone by leaving behind happy memories that bring up a smile on my face as I look back at 2011...

Some of the wonderful times and memories of 2011 that would always remain close to my heart ..

•  I travelled alone from Trivandrum to Chennai to Trivandrum alone .. and yea, I got flight tickets with money I earned :) :)
• I went on a speed boat in Bay of Bengal as part of my friend's Bday surprise and we did that again on my parent's 25th Anniversary
• It was sooo much fun organising my parent's 25th anniversary :) :)
• My best friend from school got married to the love of her life .. 
• Test driving cars almost became a hobby, I would be sillily laughing at myself when I think about the number of cars I would have test driven the entire year .. and I'm sure its to continue for some more time now.. 
• I got the lovely chance to go bullock cart riding with my cousins and family 
• I started making chocolates and the response I get from everyone who has tasted it has only made me want to do more and better :) :)
•  Went to Yercaud with family and friends :) :)

May this New year bring you wonderful opportunities, turning dreams into reality and all your efforts into achievements :) :) Have a happy 2012 !! :)

Its storming in Chennai

I think its the first time I'm gonna experience a storm .. Watta way to bring in NYE and welcome 2012 !! :) :)
Couple of times earlier when it stormed in Chennai, I was not in the city. It has been pouring cats and dogs since morning with heavy winds .. :)

Monday Morning Inspiration # 105

Though its almost gonna be tuesday already .. jut didnt want to miss it this week.. My last week was super hectic, but I loved doing what I did :) :)

It was also a week that made me realise the words in the pic above ... Feel positive and good about your self and everything around you will turn out to be the same :)

Happy Holidays !!!

What are you guys doing this holiday season ??

Monday Morning Inspiration # 104

After a super busy weekend and just before I start my Monday .. here it goes ..

I can't agree more with these lines or thoughts :) :)
Have a great week ahead ! :)

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.

Monday morning Inspiration # 103

A friend of mine shared this pic with me last evening and it totally lifted my spirit !! and I thought why not begin another series of Monday Morning Inspiration :) :)



Pic Courtesy - santabanta.com , thanks to friend D for sharing it with me :)

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration, click here.

It was a chocolicious weekend :)

This weekend was a lot different from my other weekends.. I learnt how to make chocolates at home and went out shopping to buy stuff to make chocolates and did a dozen of them at home today .. something that I wanted to do for a long time now :)

Time is Precious .. !

When I was just checking out Indiblogger site, I came across the Surf Excel Matic's Get smart contest .. Looking at the topic for the contest .. It brought on an instant smile in my face, specially on a Sunday evening when you think of getting extra 2 hours to do what you like to do, it can't get any better ..

While I was thinking about it, there were just too many things that came to my thought and how I missed doing stuff that I love so much ...

It takes two to tango ... but with two hours everday I would opt to go to dance class. It is something that I always loved doing but never got the time to learn it professionally ..

I am also thinking of learning cooking .. 2 more hours a day would certainly help me try out a new dish each day .. even if it is going to mean making a mess of the place or my clothes (Surf Excel Hai na .. ;) )

I would love to blog .. there is just so much of thought and so many experiences that I come across everyday and having got into the habit of blogging about almost anything .. I find the experience to be incomplete when I don't blog about them .. Blogging in the move would be great as well .. !

Two extra hours over the weekend would also mean time for long drives, a little bit of cleaning my room ..

I might also catch up with reading, doing my daily bit of walking, getting in touch with friends from school and college, spend time with family at home and visit friends whom I haven't met for many months now ..


I would really love to hear what you would do, if you had two extra hours ??

Thanks to Indiblogger and Surf Excel Matic to have come up with this competition. It actually made me think of things that I love doing and would make me conciously devote sometime to do them all :) :)

If you like my post, do vote for me here.

Lunch Box !!

I have always associated lunch box with school times .. and thinking about the lunch breaks we had when in school, those really are special memories ..

Trying to hide and have lunch during the maths class .. when you are asked an answer when your mouth is full with roti and subzi .. I'm still grinning like crazy when I am writing these lines, thinking of the fun times with lunch boxes in school ..

We always happened to have  a multi-cuisine lunch ranging from roti - channa to puttu - kadala curry to thepala with imli chutney to sambar rice with appalam .. the list is endless.

After about six years of missing the fun of taking lunch from home .. Im back to having home cooked food for lunch .. Its yet again time for multi-cuisine lunch times :) :)

I am also thinking of preparing my own lunch, but now really sure how good that would turn out and primarily depends on me getting up early ?!?! to prepare the food :)

Chennai Rains ... !!

The only thing that can keep me indoors for a few hours over the weekend is the rains in Chennai .. I like it when it rains .. but surely not when it pours throughout for over 48 hours ..

I love to be indoors reading a book or browsing or just listening to music when it rains .. For the first time I went test driving a car which a friend is planning to get .. test driving a car in the flooded streets of Chennai wasn't all that bad either .. It was the first time I drove an automatic transmission car :) :)

Revolution 2020 - Book Review

The story starts when Chetan Bhagat visits GangaTech college in Varnasi to deliver a speech, where he meets Gopal (the director of the college) who just wants to have a drink with Chetan Bhagat so he could tell his friends that he had a drink with 'the' Chetan Bhagat. Bhagat finally agrees to the request and as time went by Gopal over drunk and had to be rushed to the hospital

Revolution 2020 is a triangle love story between Gopal, Raghav and Aarthi, three child hood friends from Varnasi. Gopal falls in love with Aarthi, who professes her love for Raghav and vice - versa. Raghav clears his JEE exams to get into the famed Benares Hindu University in Varnasi and Gopal with not so good entrance exam marks tries for another attempt by joining coaching classes in Kota.

Finally unable to make it to any good university and after the death of his father, Gopal finds himself in the company of an MLA and works with him start an Engineering college in his ancestral agricultural land .. which comes along with a lot of corruption.. In the mean time Raghav after his engineering joins as a news reporter in one of the leading news papers in the city from where he was later chucked out for having written about the corrupt practices followed by the MLA of their region. Revolution 2020 happens to be Raghav's News paper which highlights the various corrupt practices happening in the city of Varnasi.

Throughout the story the one thing in Gopal's mind was to prove to Aarthi that he was better than Raghav ..

The book was a good time pass read, however it was not very fast paced and the story line did not get me addicted to finish the book in one go.. I liked reading Chetan's Two States much better,


I loved the way Varnasi was described between the story line, about the boat rides in Ganga .. small pathways around the temple area with no place to move around when you have a cow coming in the same street as you .. it reminded me of my trip to Varnasi almost a decade ago, the same incident happened when we hurriedly got on to the verandahs of the houses on the street when a cow started coming on the same road we were waling in .. I should say the cows in Varnasi are really healthy. It is one of the beautiful historic pilgrim place in India .. I miss not having taken pictures during my Varnasi trip.

The onset of the Diwali season ..

I love the festive season in Chennai and when it is Diwali the fun is a lot more .. You know Diwali is just around the corner when,

• People around you are talking about what they have shopped or where to shop for clothes ..


• When everyone at workplace are planning to go on extended leaves ..


• When the traffic in Chennai grows manifold just the day after Ayudha pooja..


• When super markets start stacking boxes of Haldiram sweets, dry fruits and chocloate boxes ..


• When you are easily able to book tickets for a weekend show in Satyam Cinemas just a day before, most of the janta is shopping anyway ..


• When the smell of sulphur start setting in the air ..


• When kids around the place run around with cape guns ..


• When they take no more orders for stictching in your tailor shop ..


• When all the ads in the newspaper are that of clothes stores and jewellery shop apart from the exclusive supplements we recieve along with the daily news papers ..

Thank god I am no more in school/ college where my diwali holidays were always followed by some exam :) :)

What are you doing this Diwali ??

Engaeyum Epothum

After hearing good reviews about the movie, I decided to see it over the weekend with my parents. I would have been more happy getting a good nights sleep instead of the night show we went to.

The story revolves around a bus accident, and the moral of the story is to not drive while talking over the phone or when you are drunk or when you are feeling sleepy or the likes. Period.

At the end of the movie I somehow felt like having seen a documentary film. The cast were good, there was appropriate humour and the movie was shot in a really nice manner. However, there was this feeling that the movie is still not over even when it actually was.

There are other good movies running in the theatres, I surely wouldn't suggest this one.

All that I do when I am by myself ..

I just realised I am totally bad at leading a disciplined life .. like trying to sleep early, bring in some exercise into my daily routine etc .. However, I also just realised when I am living all by myself away from home, away from friends I kind of tend to do a lot more stuff that I happen to do when I am at home in Chennai.

Two days away in Trivandrum, and I am happy to do a lot of things that I love doing, but haven't been able to do for months together now.

• Trying to blog almost everyday


• Watching travel and living all evening along and into the night as I fall asleep


• Read half of lonely planet magazine during my flight journey


• Go to sleep early and surprising get up early as well


• My window looks into a carpet of green, with acres of banana and coconut grooves


• The sun set along the west coast is beautiful, from the cafeteria at my client's place it is so refreshing to enjoy an evening tea watching the sunset in the orange sky amidst the stretch of cocnut agrooves and banana plantations as the waves hit the shore in the Shangumugam beach.. truly beautiful !

Lot more nice stuffs to be enjoyed during my another week long stay at the Godd's own place :) :)

P.S. Since I am here on work, this is all I could do over the evenings, apart from visiting Dhabbas around the place for Dinner.

10 Day you challenge - Day 6 of 10, Five Foods

I'm sure all of you who have been regular readers of this blog space would sure know my love for good food, now having to select just five food stuff makes me feel I'm not doing enough justic to all the good food I have tasted.

However, to go with the theme of the meme I will stick on to listing out five of my favourite food stuff.

1. The thokkus made by my grandmom (Tomato and Mango)
2. The Dal Tadka made by my mom
3. The Veg Galouti kebab from the Great Kebab factory
4. Veg. Biriyani with Onion Raitha
5. Thin crust wood fired Pizaas

I am yet to talk about spinach, corn and mushroom baked pasta, a list of desserts, mocktails et all. It is so much fun when we live to eat !!

The best thing about food and eating is, whatever we are doing in life we need to stop it all to come and savour the delicacies each time .. everyday ! :)

P.S. Sadly I just realised I have no good picture of my favourite food stuffs. Giving me another opportunity to go have these items all over again and clicks pictures of them ;) *slurp*

10 Day you challenge - Day 5 of 10 , 6 places

The thought that I had a blog and I miss writing in it continued for over couple of weeks until I saw my aunt's comment asking if I was still satisfying my wants .. Seeing the 5th challenge was to list 6 places nothing could really stop me from getting to do this right away ..

Places to visit has been one of the hottest topic for discussion right from folks at home to friends to colleagues to clients. It looks like six places is a little too less, however I will group the places I would love to visit and the ones I have loved being in as well.

1. Europe (Rome, Italy, UK, Scotland, Venice, Switzerland etc ... )
2. USA
3. The Whole of India
4. Carribean
5. South Africa
6. Australia

Now that is just a big picture :) I would love to hear your favorite places as well !!

10 Day you challenge - Day 4 of 10, 7 Wants

This is part of the 10 Day you challenge that I started here.

There are so many things that I want and my wants keep changing with time. But, here are my 7 wants that has remained my wants for quite sometime now ...

1. A vacation lasting for 2 weeks every 3 months :)
2. A happy, peaceful, healthy and fun filled life with family and friends like the way it has always been *touch wood*
3. A day for myself once every month
4. Time to sit out and blog every time I feel like
5. To own a restaurant chain, I wouldn't mind owning a hotel or resort either ;) ;)
6. To be in touch with friends and family always ....
7. To go Shopping !! :D

The last wants sums it all up :) :)

10 Day you challenge - Day 3 of 10

Eight fears on Day 3 has taken me a long time to come up with .. But I never thought I would be doing it from Yelagiri hills .. I'm right now on a weekend getaway in Yelagiri hills with my parents, thinking about getting back to work on Monday seems to me my biggest fear now ..

I just realized that there is very little that I fear .. And after thinking for quiet sometime I have failed to come up with as manty as eight of them .. But here are a few that I could think of at the moment ..

1. I'm super scared of snakes, I kind of hate to even think about the creepy crawlers ..
2. I fear watching horror movies ...

That is all I could think .. Could you think of anything else that would scare me .. What's is that you fear the most about ??

A fun family get together at The Farm

I have heard from my parents that vacation to them meant getting together with cousins in our hometown and catching up with them from where they left during the previous vacation ..

Their favorite hang outs where the back yard, the never ending gard
ens, bullock cart rides and movies ..

It was one of those unusual fun filled days, when three generations got together at a farm and enjoying a day out with lots of chatting, food, fun and a bullock cart ride.

We don't usually get to have this kind of fun, with everyone busy with their own lives and when most of us are at different parts of the world. But, this kind of a get together only showed that it was all possible with everyone enthusiastically planning to meet up and people suggesting interesting places to have fun in a different way.

It was about noon when around 20 of us met up at The farm, a restaurant (hang out) along the OMR .. after a bit of walking around the place and catching up with each other we settled down for lunch. The seating they had for lunch was quite different, it is not in many places we see cots around the place we dine, but what better way to ease after a good meal on a weekend :) :)


The food was good, I specially loved the Gulab jamun they served .. It was totally yumm !! After lunch, we went on a bullock cart ride around the place. It was my first ride on a bullock cart, like it was for most of my cousins and the whole bunch of us had a lovely time :) :)

Two of my uncles also tried their hand at riding the bullock cart and with the others making the ride a lot more livelier with their comments and actions.
It was a totally fun filled experience :)




And I believe it is only a start for much more fun filled get together s to follow :D

10 Day you Challege - Day 2 of 10

Making this meme had been at the back of my mind for few days now .. Now that I am home from the exciting and tiring Pondy trip (about which I will post shortly), here we go with my 9 loves ..

1. All the lovely people who make me smile with their act of kindness, love and affection - Family, friends and just about anyone who has brought about that smile in me :) :)

2. Driving ..!! As a kid I wanted to drive the bumper car , as a teen I wanted to go ko-karting and now that I have learnt how to drive .. I am enjoying my never ending love for cars and drives ..

3. FOOD .. not that I eat a lot, it is jus' the love for good food :) :) that also talks about my love for restaurant hopping :D .. Not to forget my favourite food stuffs ..

4. My favourite Food stuffs .. Pani puri from the chat shop near Rangoli, Strawberry Colada from Zara's , Jaelebi from Ajnabee chats, Aapam made at home, Gulab jamuns, sandwiches in my college (near the back gate), starters at barbeque nation ... and the list can go on for many posts together ..

5. Travel ... It is an anywhere anytime love ;)

6. I can never have enough of clothes and bags .. right from stuffs that we get from street shops to designer stuff I can never say no to them :) :)

7. Blogging .. The relationship started five years ago and the thought of making a blog post makes me happy until today and I'm sure would continue for a long long time to go .. It has been a total stress buster :)

8. Dance ... I have always loved performing and watching dance performances..

9. Last but not the least .. I love to read .. tight from the news paper to magazines .. to blogs to autobiographies ... Sad that I don't take enough time to read off late ..

There goes my nine loves .. would love to here yours as well .. In case you are taking up this 10 Day you challenge meme .. please drop by your blog address in my comment's space .. Would love to know about you :) :)


It was easier to come up with nine loves than the 10 secrets .. !

It is fun to sit and blog on a Monday when you didn't have to go to work .. (Thanks to Lord Krishna .. Many Krishna Jayanthi wishes to all :) )

I'm up for the 10 Day You Challenge - Day 1 of 10

I had come across this 10 Day you challenge Meme a couple of times when I was blog hopping, now when my friend Karthik suggested I take it up I thought it was no better time to be blogging about this and also a better way to keep my blogging spirits up.

I am sure I am gonna love doing this meme, since its gonna give me time for a lot of self realization.. Starting with the biggest challenge - 10 secrets about myself.

1. I am super addicted to Internet and Social Media and have no regrets about it.

2. I hate air conditioners .. I don't mind sweating it out rather than being frozen with cold air.

3. I'm more of a summer person than winter person (thou' Chennai doesn't really have winters)

4. I am totally bad at remembering movie stories .. I can not remember even the entire cast of the movie in many cases .. Sigh my memory ! :p

5. I love to cook, it is just that I have not tried my hands at it yet

6. I can spend my entire day and night blogging or reading

7. I have ended up crying watching dance performances, with the thought of not being able to continue dancing

8. I can stay without mobile and Internet connectivity for weeks together

9. I can never hear an alarm ring when I'm sleeping .. So, if I say I will for sure get up early .. I am just setting my alarm .. You know what to expect ;)

10. Each time when the flight I travel in takes off or lands I wish I was a pilot too, but my wish ends there coz of the severe ear pain I get when the flight nears landing !

Phew .. It took me two long days to come up with this list .. Only making me realize that there aren't many secrets I hold :) :D

I am totally enjoying doing this meme .. watch out for this space in the coming days to know me better :) :)

My study desk

As I sit to complete my remaining office work in my study desk, I just realise it has been more than a year since I used my study desk.

How things have changed in the few years. Until when I was in school my study desk happened to be one of the most dreaded place at home. The various scriblings in my desk reminds me of how well I whiled away time pretending to study .. ;)

W.E.E.K.E.N.D

Weekends have truly become a luxury and having time for ones own self is becoming a lot more precious .. Looking back couple of years ago, when I was still in college everyday seemed like a weekend if not a celebration ...

The weather in Chennai this weekend has been really very pleasant, making me feel like wanting to go to the beach or long drive ..

Gladly will be going on a long drive to OMR to meet up with relatives for lunch at "The Farm" .. Lots of chatting, fun , good food and good times :) :)

The weekend I would remember forever - Celebrating the festival of hearts

The theme for the weekend was Celebrating the festival of hearts - Two beautiful days, two wonderful occasions !

The first one on July 9 was my parents 25th wedding anniversary, after a quick visit to the temple in the morning, it was lunch with family and friends which was supposed to be a surprise planned for them which never happened to be one at the end .. My dad saw me entering the hotel in which the plan was made, couple of days before their anniversary and sensed some planning happening .. ! Spl. thanks to my wonderful friends who showered me with ideas ..




On Sunday (July 10th) was my best friend Nishi's wedding, for almost a year now I have been talking to every other person about her upcoming wedding .. I am so glad she is married to the love of her life and such beautiful couple they make *touch wood*

I still remember the first time I met her in school when she came to India, she eventually happened to be my neighbour as well .. that was the start to all the beautiful memories to follow in school and beyond. We were class mates for just a year in school but that didn't stop us from catching up with each other ..




We ve been friends from secondary school to high school to college to adulthood and continue to be so as well ..
Ten years had gone by so fast making me feel completely nostalgic in her wedding. Getting up early in the morning is a task by itself and getting ready to attend a wedding is yet another, but I was jus so eager to not miss going for her wedding especially to especially see her getting married and it so happened that the minute I entered the marriage hall I saw in the big screen Vetri tying the thali to Nishi, this couldn't have got any better :) :)

Congrats and many anniversary wishes to the two couples who gave me a super eventful weekend :) :)

The 5th century - 500

My 500 th post in this blog space .. I can't be more happier .. :) :)
Four years + loads of beautiful moments + series of inspiring stories + wonderful blog friends + a great way to share my life's happenings with friends and family around the globe .. I'm so glad I started blogging ..

I started blogging during my second year of college .. It was one place where I could be my happiest best when things were not really going great for me .. My blog was a world on it's own for me where I chose to share only my good times and things that I felt happy about .. These were conscious decisions that I stood by time to time when ever I felt like cribbing or complaining ..( there are enough and more problems all around and I didn't want to treat my readers to mine)

Its the love from all my all my blog buddies, family and friends that's has kept my blogging spirits alive :) :) . I can hear a lot of you saying that my blogging spirits high in the recent past ... With work, blogging has taken a back seat ..however, with the IPad I am kicked at the thought of making a blog post rather than the age old method of starting the lap top and waiting for it to boot ;)

With this and much more to come .. I am so glad I started blogging and would love to continue to do so :) :)

Weddings .. Eating out and more ..

The last couple of weeks had been busy attending weddings .. Eating out ( with family, colleagues, friends) during different occasions, visiting relatives .. A short trip to my native .. Meeting up with cousins, whom I haven't met in more than two decades ..

Lots to share with very little energy .. Will take time to kick back to regular blogging .. Also catch up on my food tales at Shalini's Food tales.

Mango Mania

Come summer and its time for mangoes to adorn the shelves at home and market. My favourite of the lot has always been "pathuri" , a variety that is specially available only at my native place Mayiladuthurai which has invariably made us trip to my native every summer for the last few years.


I love dining at home during mango season, for the variety of dishes my grand mom makes from mangoes .. mangai pachadi, manga thokku, Mango sambar, Raw Mango, Mango pickle , Manga sadham(mango rice) .. my favourite of them is mango pachadi and mango thokku .. sweet sour and tangy !

Whats your favourite dish made of Mango ??

My Bday Fun :)

Friends dropped by home in the mid night for a surprise wish .. visited temples in the morning that I ve been wanting to go for sometime now .. got a cycle (been wanting to get one again ) .. Nikon Cam ... went on a BMW ride planned by my friends .. lunched out .. foot reflexology at the fish spa .. dinner with family and friends ... And loads of bday wishes from near and dear ones .. An awesome bday !! :)

Thanks for all the love and wishes guys .. I really couldn't have felt any special than this :)

Ko - Movie Review * No spoiler*

I would say "Ko" is one of the best movies I have seen in recent times - Right from the cast, to performance by each actor, to the cinematography, to the story line, to the beautiful locations where songs were shot, all complemented each other so well that I yet again feel like wanting to watch the movie all over again in the theatre and been recommending everyone whom I come across to watch it as well :)

I have allways been a fan of Jeeva's and after watching this movie I'm only in more appreciation of Jeeva's , Ajmal's and Pia's ... However, I thought Karthika (the lead lady in the movie) could have performed a lot better or thought did not live up to the character she was portrayed. The make up used on Karthika has also been flawed and looks like her face has been un evenly painted .. sans this, every aspect of the movie is applaudable !

If you have some time in hand, or rather take sometime off your routine to catch up this movie in the theatre .. It truly is worth it all !!

Its Summer time

Summer as a kid had always been exciting and this is the first time I am not going to have holidays for summer, thanks to the corporate world.

I have always been more of a summer person than a winter person, even though we don't really have a winter in Chennai .. probably I liked the sun a lot more better than I did of the rains except for the first shower that hits every year.

Summer to me has always meant:

• Long holidays
  
• Birthday
  
• Shopping for summer wear
• Mango, tender cocnut, water melon
  
• Ice creams
  
• Lots of time with family and friends
• Time to learn a new art
• Relatives visiting home
• Family trips
  
• Going for swimming classes as a kid
• Fun in the beach
  

I wish my summers still continued that way .. would probably plan it out better the next time :)

A Book A Week # 1 - Wise and Otherwise

The first thing that got me into reading the book is its title " Wise and Otherwise" , the second is its author Sudha Murthy. Only when I saw this book in the stands of one of Chennai's popular bookstore few years ago did I know Sudha Murthy is the wife of the founder of Infosys (Mr.Narayana Murthy) and also that she is a writer and had authored half a dozen of books in the past years.

They say experience is the best teacher and the one who says that should have seen a lot in their life. Wise and Otherwise is a complimation of 51 short stories or real life experiences of Sudha's that are thought provoking in ways small and big. We all love listening to stories and experiences of others, reading through this book reminded me of listening to stories during my moral instruction or value education classes in school.

The reading is simple and light, each story is no longer the 4 - 5 pages. A must read and one of my favourite of Sudha Murthy's writing.

A book a week series

For many months now I have been thinking about introducing a new weekly column like the Monday Morning Inspiration, from there was born the idea of A Book a Week series :) what better time to start this series than during the week in which we celebrate the world book day(on 23rd April) ...



Keep your views coming in, and watch this space out for reviews of interesting reads .. Going Readaholic !

Birthday by the Sea

First and foremost இனிய தமிழ் புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துகள் (wishing you a very happy tamil New year).

My tamil New year day happened to be super busy just like the wat it has been the last 4 years, as the day also happens to be the birthday of my friend D. This time over, we decided to surprise D by cutting cake in the sea and this is what followed ...



We started off from the Chennai harbour .. and went on a fun ride into the sea for an hour and D cut the cake in the back drop of a huge carrier ship, was one of a kind experience. Anybody who loves the sea (or even otherwise) should really try this out, a memory I would remember my whole life through .. I am not a great fan of venturing out into the sea but this experience makes me want to do more such stuff . This activity has been done as a part of the Royal Madras yatch club and you can also do fishing, which means more time in the sea .. will probably try out fishing the next time I am there :) :)

The IPL 4 Inaugration

After the much celebrated world cup series and the well deserved victory for the Indian team , the excitement in air cheering for your favourite player in the IPL was so much fun ..

One evening .. one location M.A.C stadium that hosted stage to the Badshah of Bollywood (Sharukh khan) dancing to not only Vijay songs, but also entertained the audience setting the stage on fire with Shriya Saran for a Vijay Antony number.. , to the God of Cricket Sachin Tendulkar , to the captain of the Indian cricket team (M.S.Dhoni) and to the many other cricketers without whom the world cup would have still been a dream ..





It was a fun evening with friends and colleagues :) :)

Cricket HIGH FEVER !!!

Cricket fever would just be an under statement to make having an India Vs Pakistan world cup semi final few hours from now ..

After sensing the low productivity during the India Vs Australia quarter final match, in which India eventually made it to the finals, this got our organization's management thinking and we finally have an off for the second half of the day tomorrow ... What better reason to make merry, folks at work have decided to catch up the drama live tomorrow in the big screen at GRT ..

What gets me all the more exciting is when India wins the world cup, followed by IPL 4 - inauguration match in Chennai (which I am planning to go to), I can already sense the amount of excitement and the fun !

Bring it on INDIA !!!

Weekend fun with family

Pictures speak more than words .. :)

Fun with Family :)

My home which seems so very quite now (considering the fact everyone is sleeping) is soon gonna be filled with talking, playing and all other stuff that happens when relatives get to gether and more so when you have a six year old at home. This makes me think how mischievously cute my cousin was when she was here couple of years ago .. Welcome back Nithila, chitappa and chithi :) :)

3 idots - Movie review

3 idiots I would say is one of the best movies I have seen in the coming times and this is gonna happen to be one of the ever green movies that I am going to love every time I see it. I saw the movie with my mom for the second time last week and both of us loved it to the hilt, it was a movie with such brilliance so much so that I wanted to get back to doing engineering all over again.

Amir's acting was brilliant and so was everyone else .. News is that 3 idiots is being remade in tamil and wonder who the cast would be .. now I really cannot imagine Vijay playing the role of Amir khan ?!!?!? God save 3 idiots !

A Morning in the Marina

Today amma, appa and I went to the Marina beach at around 7 in the morning. We have always wanted to visit the beach early in the morning to get a glimpse of the sunrise along the sea .. But, being the lazy bum that I am this has never happened until now.


During our today's visit to the beach we had carried with us our frisbee to spend some time getting fit the fun way.. I have always found Marina / Bessy beaches to be my favourite place to people watch and today morning happened to be one such occassion, it is one of a kind place where in the same place people are doing different things at the same time.

It is a common site to see a bunch of kids practicing karate, morning walkers taking a brisk walk along the stretch, youngsters playing volley ball, groups of people practicing yoga, fishermen jus' coming out from the sea with their day's catch, couples taking a stroll along the shores, kids collecting shells, building castles and lots more ... ( This is jus' what happens in the earlier part of the day and the place looks entirely different in the evenings with bajji stalls and shops selling different curios, more like a flea market).



It was a refreshing start to the weekend ahead ! :)

Weekend gala !

The last two weekends have been busy with most shops in the Chennai city having a discounted sale, especially the ones selling clothes and accessories.. Now, what could stop a bunch of newly started earning youngster from visiting the malls and enjoying the sale ..

It was also my friend's cousin's wedding on the weekend before last, our shopping started right for that occasion and continued from there on .. the wedding weekend was a lot of fun.. meeting and greeting people had an entire bunch of friends from college, had a good time!!!

A day off during the middle of the week makes the entire week a lot more enjoyable, so was it this week with the republic day being celebrated on Jan 26 (Wednesday). Thou' it was a holiday usually it is my weekends and holidays that are packed with more activities than the working days in a week.

Like every other republic day, I accompanied my mom to her office for the flag hoisting ceremony. I wonder for how many years I have been doing this, but I have still not grown out of celebrating the day this way. More so, because I usually look forward to the cultural performances by school kids and end up getting nostalgic thinking about my performances as a part of my school dance group in the very place almost a decade ago.

I spent the later part of my day with family .. Made a short visit to Express Avenue mall and eventually every time I enter this space I end up bumping into some one whom I know, looks like the entire city is here .. but only until we visited the trade fair in Chennai .. the entire parking space in Island ground was full and so was the complete road stretch on either side of the venue.

Finally, decided to go to Bessi beach - bumped into a junior from college - after a bit of walking around the beach and doing a bit of people watching we finally settled to munch on some sundal, the beach delicacy and later some bajji, adai and kuzhi paniyaram from a newly opened chetinnad restaurant along the shore.

At the end of the day, all that I wanted say was Chennai is growing !!!! Phew ! to a level that every place in the city is crowded ..

Monday Morning Inspiration # 102

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

We are all made to fly - to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling. So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight.

By Bijal Dave

To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.

Movie Review - Siruthai & Aadukalam

Come Diwali or Pongal and there are a series of movies lined up for release and this time over it was Siruthai, Aadukalam, Kaavalan and Ilanignyan

*No spoilers*

Having watched two of the four movies released, I liked Aadukalam over Siruthai and don't really intend watching the other two movies .. May be kaavalan when it is on TV.

Aadukalam

I liked the first half of the movie better than the second, nevertheless the movie was a complete package .. good acting by Dhanush and others .. nice songs too, I in particular like yathe yathe and otha solale more when I saw the song as a part of the movie. I am not a great fan of Dhanush but in this case I doubt if any other actor could have played this role so well.

My rating: 7.5/10

Siruthai

Rocket Raja (Karthi) and Pattu poochi (santhanam) get the audience into splits with their witty one - liners that I think was the only good thing about the movie .. Not a very appealing show by Tamanna. Good story line and is a tinge heavy on violence.

My rating: 7/10

How did you like the pongal movie releases ???

Monday Morning Inspiration # 101

If a dog were your teacher
These are some of the lessons you might learn...

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face
to be pure ecstasy

When it's in your best interest
practice obedience
Let others know when they've invaded your territory
Take naps and stretch before rising
Run romp and play daily

Thrive on attention and let people touch you
Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do
On warm days stop to lie on your back on the grass
On hot days drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree
When you're happy dance around and wag your entire body

No matter how often you're scolded
don't buy into the guilt thing and pout
run right back and make friends

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm
Stop when you have had enough
Be loyal
Never pretend to be something you're not

If what you want lies buried
dig until you find it
When someone is having a bad day
be silent .....
...sit close by.

...and nuzzle them gently.


To read other Monday Morning Inspiration click here.