Having the "Me" time

Sometimes life becomes so full of activity that you completely forget when your day starts, ends including what meal of the day you are about to have, such was 2012 for me. Looking back, it makes me feel sad despite having a lot of good times and wonderful memories last year there were hardly any pics that I clicked that I could connect with the various happenings of last year except may be the times when I went on a vacation.

Irony has it that I fell sick just after pongal and having a slow yet steady start to 2013 ! For almost a week now I am having the much needed "Me" time as I am trying to rest and get well soon.

It is so much fun talking to and catching up with  friends with whom you haven't spoke to for ages (that's what I did during the pongal holidays), visited a book exhibition, as I rest to get well soon I have all the time in the world to catch up with reading all the articles I missed out in my huge collection of Lonely planet magazines :)

This year I promise to take more pics and share them all with you !

My Best of 2012 !

I am late in doing this post, been thinking about not having to miss posting about my 2012 here for over 2 weeks now.

I thought I was the only one thinking feeling bad about not writing much in my blog like I used to, but thanks to each of you who remember to ask me and letting me know that all enjoyed reading it ! - Thanks for bringing me out of my hibernation mode and on to here :)

Thanks a Lot Kg Kumar (For the first time in my life, you have actually told me something that I will feel good about) and Neha :)

Here we go to the year that has given me many firsts, unfolded many dreams and given me memories that I will cherish for my whole life through !!

Big things first - Star of 2012 has to be Brown Station

What started in a small way during the end of 2011 turns out to be the biggest event in my life. It was a passion of two friends who enjoyed good food, bonded over dreams of wanting to start restaurants finally took the plunge to start Brown Station - a Gourmet Chocolate and Dessert boutique.

In between all the chocolates , truffles, cupcakes et all , my family decided on making a short family trip to the US. It was my first time to the US and I totally enjoyed visiting cousins, aunt , uncle and all the fun times we had together !! That just reminds me that I have a travel blog where I am yet to write my travel adventures in the US.  It was lots of fun to holiday together :)) We missed being able to meet our other friends and family in the US, but we sure will the next time we are there.

I met my cousin and her family who I haven't met in almost a decade.

Couple of our best friends from college got married in Kolkatta - which led to the short fun filled trip to the land of Gol gappas with mom and friends. It was a re-union of sorts and gladly had a mini get together when few friends visited Chennai later part of the year.

We (Brown Station) got featured in 3 leading Newspapers !! and we also got an opportunity to be part of the Breakfast show in Chennai Live's Radio program during the Christmas week.

I test drove almost every car that was introduced in the first half of the year :D  Silly, but it was fun and I still have a whole list of them to do when I find time.

I learnt to bake and do chocolate art! My creativity has not stopped since then :))

2012 was a year of wonderful people - who stood by me to help me live my dreams despite their apprehensions , my bunch of friends from work at KPMG who turned out to be well wishers and brought about the belief in me that you could still meet wonderful people and make friends even when you grow up , all the helping hands and hearts who came out to help us while we were drenched with orders at Brown Station when 24 hours a day and 7 days a week were just not sufficient to meet our client requirements, my friends who taught me patience, and all my friends, family and well - wishers who took time to create memories and make 2012 a very special year for me :)

Wishing you all a very Happy 2013 !! May the year be filled with good times, happy memories, good health, great people, safe and peaceful for each of us :)

To the man who continues to inspire millions around the world

It is Ratan Tata's 75th birthday today and also the day when he will be retiring as the Chairman from the Tata   Group. 

I don't remember since when but it was during my late teens that I got a chance to read about him and everything that I came to know about him only inspired me more and it still continues :)

To the man who has inspired me to pursue my passion, Wish you wonderful 75th birthday and many more to come !!

Nostalgia

I missed writing in this space so much and didn't want to hold myself back any longer.

Each day is turning out to become busier and I don't really want to miss out on the small things that I enjoy doing and the little things that add so much fun to each day :)

So, here I am back after a relaxing , lovely weekend.

For the last few months, I literally didn't know whether it was a weekday or a weekend. All that I knew was that we had work to do.. After a long long time had a relaxed happy weekend :)

It was a fun weekend  - outing with college friends and catching up with college bus juniors over lunch.

I sooo miss the good times from College.

Meet the Bakers !

I love to write as much as I love good food, so when I get an opportunity to write about food there is no better reason that gets me back to blogsville :)

If somebody asked me what's news in the Chennai front , the first thing I usually come up with is there is this new place that has opened so we might go there for may be lunch or dinner over the weekend. But, to anybody whom I spoke to over the last few months there haven't been any conversation that ended without discussing about the amazing stuff the home bakers in Chennai create.

I honestly don't remember the last time I ordered cake from a cake shop, I'm sure it's been more than a year.  

When the best of Home Bakers from Chennai get together for a mega event to show case all their lovely creations under one roof, this can't get any sweeter or better !

The Home Baker's Guild(founded by KP Balakumar and Nanditha Sashidharan) in association with Crimson Chakra (Thanks to Nikhil Moturi) along with the 14 lovely bakers who will be baking for the event .... presents ... "Meet The Bakers, a mega baker showcase in Chennai".  From cookies totarts to pies to cakes to cup cakes to muffins to puddings to what not, they are all going to be available for sale made by our very own home bakers. A great way to get to meet and chat with them as we munch on their freshly baked goodies :)

To get to know more details on the Home Bakers Guild or the bakers who will be showcasing their products on the big day, you can also follow Deepa's blog who is doing interviews with the Bakers :)

There will also be a lot more details about the event and the bakers in the coming days :) watch this space for more !

P.S. : I have also started baking in the last month or so .. if your wondering, no I'm not baking for this event :D

Galgalapu - Movie experience

Happened to watch this movie on Friday evening and it turned out to be a full time laughing session, what more can we expect when we have RJ Shiva and Santhanam. 

Its not a bit serious movie with a decent story line and loads of comedy, happened to be a super time pass film worth a watch :) 

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 :)