Happy Earth Day !

Nature is beautiful and most the time I get to realize this when we are out on a hill holiday or a beach destination, but I am sure every place has a beauty and charm of its own..

It's always good to use resources wisely and to the need, I just got this into me because of the frequent power shortages in the city and the almost day long power cuts across various towns in Tamil Nadu which I came to realise when I visited Trichy and Mayiladuthurai last month.

My little bit to our beautiful Earth ..

1. I am going to take my own shopping bag, else carry stuff I buy in hand. Its no to plastic covers!!
2. I am getting a non-plastic water bottle to carry water every day and stop buying Aquafina and Bisleri bottles as much as I can 
3. Car pool, I have been very successfully doing this as much as I can and would continue doing it :)
4. Switch off unused lights and fans 

Small contribution by each of us, would surely make a big difference :) 

Happy Earth day ! 

Honda Brio - Test Drive

When my friends decided on buying new cars few months ago, one of the better ways we spent our weekends were by test driving every car we came across right from a Maruthi Alto to a BMW :) :)

Among the series of Test drives over the month, the latest that got ticked off in our been there, drove that list is the Honda Brio.

Brio has always been the cute little car that has been zipping across the city for couple of months now. To me, its one of the best option if you are looking to buy a small hatch back petrol variant along with I10 and the new Maruthi swift.

However, I would rate Brio higher when it comes to maneuverability, the look and feel of the car and the interior space for a car of its size.

The only draw back that I found of the car during the time we spent driving it was the rough gear shifting, else the car was a dream on wheels :) totally enjoyed the drive !!

Summer Time !

End of March .. early April .. I always get excited when summer approaches. It is not approaching anymore, its already there !

Couple of years back, summer meant holidays, friends, family, outing and all the nice things in life. It was a big break from books and doing the routine of going to school / college. It was the time of the year that was most awaited :)

I still cannot contain the excitement when I come to hear of summer vacation, though it significantly doesn't change much to my routine. Today was one such day, when one of my colleague was discussing about summer camp activities for his 5 year old son. I with all my excitement suggested skating, swimming etc.. making me realize how much I miss summer as a kid.

Over the years, I have always made a list of things of what summer meant to me !! So, here it is for Summer of 2012 !

• MANGO, I wish I get to savor some Pathuri mangoes this year as well
• Birthdays ... including mine ;)
• IPL
• Garnished curd rice with pickle .. nothing can taste better in summer, this is turning out to be my staple morning meal
• series of 3 day weekends for almost a month
• Lots of new ice cream parlors  in the city that I am waiting to visit 
• PANI PURI, I get pani puri craving during summer. And thankfully the most famous pani puri walla of Chennai is very close to my work place :) . Its already 3 continuous days that I have been visiting the pani puri shop *slurrrp*
• Loads of chocolate making !!
• Learn something new
• And the never ending power cuts and this is only getting worse every year

Now, did that list just contain things that I am planning to eat for the next couple of months :D 

What are you doing this SUMMER ??

Kaustav weds Ritu

For almost couple of months a huge bunch of us were waiting for February to arrive, as couple of our friends from college were getting married to each other and it was in Kolkata :) what better reason to visit Kolkata ? And it was also my first visit to the land of Golgappa.

Kolkatta happened to be a 19th century city with 21st century cars. I strongly believe it is the people who make the place, in that sense we had a nightmare getting to reach out hotel from the airport. With recommendations from people to take a cab from airport, we booked one and were told we would reach our hotel in about 45 mins and it took us close to 3 ours to reach the place (the cab driver was very unfriendly, he decided to drop us off midway telling us the hotel was at walking distance and the road to the hotel has been made one way ) . With amma's broken Hindi we kinda managed to find the route and reached the hotel room with a layer of dust and pollution covered face :) :)

Sigh! but, that was about the bad part of our Kolkata trip.

This trip to me meant relaxing in the hotel with mom, attending the wedding and visit my cousin if her place is not too far away from where we were ! I was too tired with work that I just wanted to relax and even shopping didnt seem to interest me.

Day 1: 

After the horrible ride from airport to the hotel, Amma and I settled for lunch with Roti, aloo subzi, vegetable coins (this tasted yummy) and lassi *Slurrp*.

Did I say "even shopping didn't interest me" ?? Well, ya that was only until I reached the hotel, after lunch we headed to a nearby mall, just to see how malls looked like in Kolkatta ;) ;) and I came across an interesting shop - Chocolates by Manju sethiya which made us get couple of boxes of gourmet chocolates. They were really good, but not great. I loved the clothes stores in Kolkatta !!

By evening, we were at our room and were getting ready for the late night wedding. This was the first time I was attending a north Indian wedding. Friends from Hyderabad, banagalore, Kolkatta, Chennai meeting after almost a year .. need we say more, we missed a lot of others who couldn't make it to the wedding. But, I am glad I was able to make it. Thanks to amma who accompanied me, else I wouldn't have been able to be part of the wedding pics of 2 of my good friends :) :)

The wedding rituals extended into the early hours of the following day, I could control my sleep until about 2 am post which we decided to get back to the hotel.

Day 2:

We had our flight back to Chennai at 6 in the evening. And also thinking about the traffic snail in Kolkatta we decided on making it to the airport by 4:30pm. However, I was also looking to meet my cousin who I haven't met for a decade now and thankfully her place was not too far from where we stayed. We were there for a very brief time as Kolkatta traffic was very un predictable, but that little sometime made so much difference to all of us.

I should say it is so good meeting family and friends, because I feel after a point we don't really make as much friends we made while in school or college :) :)

I was a happy girl with loads of beautiful memories that I carried back with me from Kolkatta :)