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 !!!