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 :)

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 ??

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

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.

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 :)

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 :)

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 :) :)

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 :) :)

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 ..

Work, food and long trips ...

My new job in KPMG is taking me to various places around Chennai and im liking it, I am getting to know how different organizations function and their work process .. lots of learning, lots of new people I get to interact with everyday and long trips in and around Chennai almost every other day and I also get to taste food from different organizations that I visit to .. I make it a point to have food from their cafeteria/canteen rather than from the restaurants nearby.

Don't be surprised if I start writing food reviews about food served in the different organizations :)

It is a long weekend for a many of them in Chennai due to Pongal - the harvest festival. However, I am working on friday and will post my pongal updates over the weekend.

My New job :) :)

I moved into a new job couple of weeks ago just before the new year dawned :) I am liking my new job a lot .. the job nature is a lot more interesting, lots of great people around who I enjoy working with, no long work hours, lots of learning and gives me a good amount of work life balance :)

Now it feels like life at work is an extension of college life ! :)

The Puppy story ...

One friday evening my friend D and I were talking about corporate life and how stressful it is sometimes when I suggested to him to spend sometime with the dog that stays two houses away from his home, since pets are a good way of de-stressing .. That was it, D went on this urge to get a labrador puppy for himself and insisted I along with another friend of ours would go get the pup the next day ..

I being so scared of dogs was never for the idea and D's parents were again not very fond of having pets at home .. but D wanted to get a male Labrador pup and name it Dino .. after failed attempts of trying to convince him to not get the puppy, we (D , D's bro , me and another H) finally set on the mission to meet Dino ..

In a days time D found out different sources from where we could get a pup and by saturday afternoon we set on mission getting Dino home .. after traveling to tirumangalam and half the distance towards North Madras all on a heavy rainy day, we met the person who we contacted through phone and finally reached the kennel to find out that the male pup was already given away and D was left with the choice of taking a female labrador pup back home.



She was a cute little thing running between our feet.. she looked totally adorable .. I wanted to take her in my arm but was scared .. D's bro carried the pup and I managed to touch her for the first time.. She was 40 days old then and was behaving herself well... she was happy to be with us, after a few mins of playing around with her my friend D decided to call her Daisy coz she was a female puppy and within a few mins the four of us along with Daisy were getting back home - reminding me of Enid Blyon's Famous Five ...

Daisy has now become the darling of the street right from kids to elders and has befriended the german shepherd (named Josh) that stays two houses away from the home where Daisy stays and they have a fun time playing with each other every evening...


Josh and Daisy are jus' so friendly that Josh climbs on the wall looking out for Daisy until she enters my friend's home...

I'm not all the scared of dogs anymore, for a matter of fact carried her to the veterinarian for her vaccination :) :)

My Graduation

It was a very important day for me in my life - 21 November 2010. My Graduation day in college. I woke up unusually early by around 5:30 am and got ready to start from home by 6:45 am to head to college with my parents.

I would have traveled in that road nearly hundreds of times or may be even thousands in the last five years, but this time it all seemed so new. There are numerous memories of having traveled in the GST road in the last few years .. sometimes with the excitement of having a good time in college, tensed moments during the placement season .. journeys when I have just slept in the college bus .. great times with friends in bus chatting , playing a game or two, teasing .. eating ...

There have been times during exams when I have not taken even a moment to look out of the bus window while I was studying on my way to college (It was studying the few hours before exams that has helped me largely), I have traveled this road early in the morning once for the house warming ceremony of our home and it was in this road I had my first long drive when I learnt to drive a car 2 years ago.

However, this time it was so different, I had a sense of contentment and a feeling of having accomplished something that I wanted to quit mid way, a course of study I thought I just did not belong to during my initial years in college. But, I am jus so glad now that it all turned out to happen in a good way with the guidance and support of my parents, friends and God - that I have finally graduated an engineer with first class :) :)

On a more simple note - After hours of traveling(which includes in train, bus, auto, share auto et all) , hundreds of movies later, with a good amount of money spent on the course and an almost equal amount spent on the food courts in our college, learning 70 academic subjects and hundreds of other non - academic subjects , 100s of tests/ exams and a lot many re-tests later, meeting hundreds of people, being in a numerous situation and experiencing a plethora of emotions later ------ I am proudly a graduate of life .

This place - SRM University gave me friends who would be around for years to come, it made me realize what I am, it thought me lessons that no courses would have, it gave me experience and memories that I would cherish a life time through ...







I love my alma matter and all the people who have enriched my last five years by just being a part of this wonderful journey :)

Raining Memories

It always makes me smile when it rains and brings back fun memories from my childhood associated with this rainy weather in Chennai.

It was I believe when I was in my 9th grade and we were told the subsequent day to be our project sports day (On this day all the preliminary rounds for various events are held to decide on the finalists). My friends and I were super thrilled to go to school in our sports wear representing the different houses we belonged. More than the sports it is the fun of not having to learn in class rooms and chatting around with friends that makes us look forward to the day.

On one such project sports day, fortunately or unfortunately it started to rain at around 8:30 in the morning when most of us were assembled in our sports wear. The rain brought with it a sigh of gloom. Rain meaning no outdoor activity - so everyone into the class rooms listening to Math and Science lessons.

And since we were all completely drenched, we had asked permission to go home change and get back within a couple of hours.. that's when the fun started ..

We were four of us - Garima, Sindhu, Ramya and myself .. We initially decided on heading to my friend Garima's home which was the closest from school. The rain had subsidised and we decided to walk and half way through there was a sudden cloud burst and it started pouring and the closest place where we could get to hide ourselves from the rain was a small rickshaw, that took kids to school and that very moment all of us rushed to get into the rickshaw and that too all on the same side and the rickshaw collapsed .. All that we did was get up and laugh out loud ...

When we were almost near Garima's house her brother was on his way back and told us the house was locked and their mom had gone out.. After a bit of pondering over we headed to Ramya's place, had a fun time and got back to school by noon.

Every time it rains this incident pops up in my head and and so does the smile on my face thinking of the fun times we always had :)

Sweets, crackers fun and more ...

Diwali mood set in almost a week before the actual Deepavali day, when we had a pre diwali celebration in my flats with all of them getting together with lots of food, music, dance, fireworks and more ... This was the time I actually got to see many of my neighbours whom I haven't seen for months together ..

The Diwali celebration was later followed by distributions of sweets to family and friends - meaning we had to go sweet shopping a day or two and this had to happen a few days well before Diwali else you don't get anything except may be some mysore pak and laddu such was the demand for it in Chennai..

I along with mom and dad went sweet shopping at 11 pm around three to four days before Diwali to find sweet shops buzzling with activity and thankfully we also purchased crackers a few days in advance to avoid disappointment. The last year we went cracker shopping the day before Diwali to sadly find anything at all in racks.

The day before Diwali also happened to be my mom's bday and I gifted her a watch of her choice.. and my parents gave me a new Nokia E5 and I am in total love with it(review about it on a later post).

My Diwali day started on a slow pace.. After getting ready for the day had some delicious breakfast of melusu Dosai with onion and ginger chutney along with coconut chutney . This happens to be a Diwlai special item and I love it :) followed by lighting of some crackers and then off to distribute sweets to my friends and also had friends and relatives visiting home..

Evening couple of my friends came home and we bursted crackers for a while, just when we finished bursting our load of crackers I felt slight drizzles, which within few minutes turned to be a heavy down pour..

My weekend turned out to be fun as well..On Saturday evening, I had a lovely long walk around Anna nagar with friends and discovered a new place called The Soup and Salad Cafe which I am toally in love with. Great place and good food :). During this lovely long walk I actually came across a whole lot of new places in Anna nagar that I've never come across in my so many years of stay in the very place.

Sunday was lazy and the very thought of the long weekend coming to an end, made me do some useful work to avoid such thoughts hitting my head and evening had a fun time shopping in Express Avenue with parents ..

This long weekend also saw a couple of interesting activities happening in Chennai, one was the Beatles show and the other was the Extra Terrestrial show which more looked to be like a gymnastics/circus type of show I believe which I wanted to go to, but my weekend was already over packed.

Talking about the Beatles show, I remember my colleague at work Shyam who happens to be a die hard fan of the Beatlemania who was in total awe of the show. So, Shyam Adithya you've been mentioned in my blog :)

Two days into the week I am already looking forward to my weekend or rather Friday evening .. Have a happy week and a merrier weekend :)

Frozen Memories ...

I love pictures :) .. I love being in them as much as I love taking them, as for years to come they stand still and let you re live the moments. I loved posing for pics right from the time I was a kid but pics started becoming a part of my everyday life in the last few years from the time I got a camera phone. Digital photography is truly changed one's perception to photography and even more when it came in handy within a mobile phone - phono graphy !!

Pictures speak a million words - With the GBs of pics that I have, I can write a series of story books for years to come, such is the amount of memories each pic brings to me and I am so glad I was able to capture all the moments - happy, sad, funny serious .. all with the super cool cam in my phone :)

Re - living the times..


My first outing with my college friends to Queens land

At the engagement function of my child hood friend ...


View from my hostel window - Sunset above the SRM lake

Festival time with family ...

Heights of joblessness in class .. this is what we did most of the times .. posing for pics



That is the mat they specially made for my parent's wedding with their names in it.. found it when I went to my home in my native place ..

Cheering for Chennai Super Kings during the IPL 2010 at Chepauk stadium...

The day we all got placed - taken in front fo our college auditorium ..

Fun time in GOA ..

And my love for food photography goes with saying .. that now my family and friends know it so well that they cannot lay their hands on any dish without me clicking a pic of it ...

Thanks to the camera in my phone, had it not been for it I wonder if would be able to relive as many moments again :) :)


I made this post to go with the theme Phonography - one of the topics in the
Tata DOCOMO One Touch Net Phone's Share life blogger contest at Indiblogger.

Do please vote for me, if you've enjoyed this post :) Thank you !!

My other posts for this contest are:

My Friends. My Life. My Phone

The features I wish my smart phone had :)