City City Bang Bang!*

Finally, it's out! Pardon the delay, I was just not in the right mood to write. This one is gonna be long, so, pardon that too!Anyway, let's start off with the basics trip details:

Locations: Ernakulam -> Munnar -> Thekkady -> Kumarakom
Total distance to be covered: Close to 600 kms
Time available: 5 days to be exact.
Mode of transport: Chennai -> Ernakulam => Train, To everywhere else => Qualis
Company: 2 couples and 1 stag. Total fun material.

After a 12-hour train journey to Ernakulam (11 hours of which we slept) our white Qualis met us, along with Raju- our guide cum driver. I, keeping up with tradition, was the back-seater. Which in this case was so not cool. Which meant having American Tourister trolleys for company and being the official supply cabin of the vehicle. Which also meant that it really didn't matter if I had motion sickness, I just had to hand over whatever was required whenever required. More fun material!

Destination I: Munnar
Temperature: For a Chennaiite, just the right temperature to be turned into a human popsicle.
Ok, embarassment time. I have to confess my ignorance. I don't know why or how, I always thought Munnar was one of those beachy places with an abundance of sunshine. Somehow 'Munnar' just doesn't have a hill-station-ish ring to it, like say, Kodaikanal or Ooty. Thankfully, when I was just about packing my bags, Pp 'reminded' me to carry warm clothing. And the closest to 'warm clothing' I carried along was a couple of shrugs (For those uninitiated into women's-clothing, these are those small jacket-ish things that are meant not to cover anything but just be worn anyway. And oh, both of mine had holes all over).

The trip, though, helped me to discover another of my hidden facets - getting up a mountain makes me as sick as, uhm, someone sick (I should stop trying to use similies). I've heard a lotta people tell me earlier that they tend to feel nauseous when going up and blah, but I always thought I was that 'steel-body' kinds and nothing could affect me. And so through the entire trip, the only position I could be found in, in the car, would be curled- hugging the seat with my eyes tightly shut and that weirdly pukey, groggy expression on my face. But I guess the rest of the world in that car were oblivious to my discomfort. Every now and then I would hear someone go, "Preeti? What are you doing? Why so silent? And oh yea, pass me the water". And I would mumble something incoherently and they would go, "Always sleeping. Wonder why you came for the trip!" They should be thanking their stars I wasn't well enough right then.

To top it all, our 'resort' was located somewhere close to the tip of the mountain and the only other thing we could hear at night other than our own echoes, was the slow but constant zzzhhhhhhhh of the wind through the trees. And it was LOUD! Like each tree had it's own amplifier and 3-D surround speakers or whatever. I slept in between my parents (Fine, I'm a killjoy, but in my defense, those noises were pretty eerie!) Dad fell sick and Dolz was puking through the night. So much for a 'relaxing' vacation.

We did do our share of 'sight-seeing' and 'photo-taking'. We even climbed some real high peak to spot a couple of 'wild-goats'! C'mon, they are goats!!! Incidentally, when I was passing on this 'just goats up there' information to the rest of the family, one of the officials out there happened to eavesdrop on our conversation and he immediately burst out, "It is naat justa goatsa madam! These goatsa are seen wonly here! Nowhere else in the entaayree warld you will see this, ok???So don't say 'just goats' ok??? Too bad for him I was just recuperating from the journey uphill. (My motion sickness seems to have been a blessing in disguise for a lotta people, huh?)

The rest was the usual valley, waterfall, echo point thing. I mean, what else could a mountain offer!? Yea, yea it was beautiful, picteresque and all that. Yea, every crappy picture of mine looked frame-worthy because the place was just so-damn-beautiful, but even excessive beauty could cause sore eyes! We were really glad when 2 nights after, it was time to head to Destination 2. I must say, you see one mountain, you've seen 'em all!

Destination 2: Thekkady
Temperature: Uhm, sunny but cold. Not too bad
We found Thekkady a lot better than Munnar. We reached around 12.30 pm, had lunch and wanted to check-in. But we were told by our driver that once we check in, we couldn't get out after 6 pm. We were intrigued and assumed it was because wild animals would be on their rampage or something equally exciting, but he confirmed it was nothing of the sort and had to do with political crap.

We were in a 'Tiger Reserve' with supposedly 45 tigers inside and we spotted anything but. Infact, I think all we saw (apart from killer insects) were 'Wild' Domestic animals. Like wild pig, wild buffalo, wild goats etc etc.

Me and Dolz were certain we spotted quite a large no. of UFIs here -Unidentified Flying Insects. And by large no., I mean LARGE. If in Munnar it was the noise that kept me awake, here it was the lack of it and the fear of waking up to an insect-infested body! (inspite of sleeping in between my parents!) Thankfully, we spent just one night and a couple of hours before that here.

Other stuff we did there was: Go on an early morning boat-ride (we saw a lone elephant somewhere in the distance, or so I think), watch a Kalaripayattu show (which was AWESOME really. Will try and post the videos), go to a wax museum (which had wax dolls of Mohanlal and Mammooty, which we got to know from the sign-post below. They also had aquariums and really ugly paintings on display), do a bit of shopping (for nothing really) AND do an elephant ride. This was good. Me, Dolz and Harsh atop Sankarankutty (who was anything but kutti, ie, small). A 30-minute ass-fracturing ride. But who am I to complain when I'm not the one with 200 kilos on top huh? Oh, there was also this absolutely adorableeeee 1-year old ele baby named Kannan. He was just soooooooo cute and naughty! He even caught my mum's saree with his trunk and almost did a mini Draupadi-sequence there, if not for his care-taker's rebuke. It left my mum giggling and blushing while my Dad was FURIOUS! Time now for Destination 3.

Destination 3: Kumarakom
Temperature: Hot, humid, sweaty
This is the Kerala I thought I knew. And also what I wanted to see. Coconut trees et al! We stayed on one of 'em house-boats (corrected thanks to xh). Pretty good actually. Even the food. We were really in for a surprise when the boys on the deck turned out to be really good cooks! And they made alllllll of our favorite mallu food - puttu and kadalai, pazham pori, Pomfret fry for Daddy - all of it.

I know I sound like I really liked it. I did, but not for more than a day. (Part of my liking was because I was thankful as ever to be on levelled roads and no hair-pin bends!) The initial ride across the back-waters was really nice. It even rained. But how long can you stare at a huge expanse of water!?? After a point, I was just yearningly looking at the land across. It was the thought that there was just another day to go that kept me going. But I must say, the best food and sleep that we had through the entire trip was here. (Ignoring the million mosquitoes and lizards)

Finally, it was time to get back. We pit-stopped at 2 beautiful temples - Chottanikara and Vaikom Sivan temple on the way to Ernakulam. There we met up with a couple of our realllyyyy close family friends from Bahrain and it was time for a lotta nostaligia. That done, we were all set for Chennai.

I realized that I'm a total city person. None of this wildlife, greenery stuff for me. It's all fine to a limit, but not more. I just love the noise and bustle of a city, the fast-life, the luxury- everything! I need to see people move around, not just still-life. I can get my dose of the nature stuff from Discovery& NatGeo, paintings and google and I'm totally fine with that! I'll put up photos shortly. Left them at home and didn't wanna put off posting this because of that. And oh, thank you for your patient reading. You asked for it!

Update! P.S: 1. *- The title IS a popular show on Radio City (as Scribblers Inc. pointed out) It isn't a coincidence, I used the name to express my love for the 'city' but I guess I should've included this attribution before :P
2. I've also come to the conclusion that most of you thought I had a good time. Well, I had an O.K time which definitely is not the same as good. This post was meant to be sarcastic but I guess a lot of it wasn't received. Anyway, maybe I should accept that (it sounds like) I had a good time!

Happy Birthday!

Before I put out my trip-log, I just have to post this wish for one of my BESTEST friends- Janie Wanie! There are like a million names that I've called her through our 7-year friendship (Can you believe it has been 7 whole fucking years..!??) Janie, Johnny Bravo, Panni etc etc, basically anything but her real name Jane!

Through 4 years of engineering and another 2 years of MBA, we've been through every-single-shit of ours together. There were some crazy times when we stopped talking to each other for totally pointless reasons but I always knew deep down that together we were meant to be! Ok, being senti is sooo not us, so I'm cutting this down totally :D

Whether or not I express it (it just wouldn't come out right, however I try), I know for sure that you know what you mean to me. The both of us somehow have that weird connection - we just know it, accept it and don't care to express it. And to me, that's what keeps us going. Love you always and forever - so, so very much di. You truly mean the world to me. And we're gonna make it through tough times ahead together :) Here's wishing you a super Happy Birthday and an awesomely, absofuckinglutely (quoting you!) kick-ass life ahead. Muahhhh!!!

P.S: This post hasn't done even 1% justice to what you mean to me, Jane. There are way too many things to mention if details are to be given. I could go on (pretty much) forever on this!

Happy Birthday!

It's Prathiboo's Birthday! The Day of the Pink Lady has finally arrived! As always, I'm excited, but here is one girl who probably shares the sameeee amount of excitement for Birthdays as me! The ensemble shopping, the hype and allllll that jazz!

For all that she's going through right now, I'm hoping and praying with ALL my (big) heart that the year ahead is gonna be allll full of smiles for her and she gets exactly everything that she's wished for! I'm kinda more than certain that this is going to happen! You just wait and see di!

A part of the veritable Sexcee Six, Princess Cinderella from the Elegant Group of Princesses, this girl is one person I totally totally love. I know you know this but lemme say it again today I do love you so Prathi! :) Muah!!! And Happy Happy Birthday to you!

And it Continues :)

The Happy-Happy phase continues. I guess all that tension from last week is slowly fizzing out thanks to the all-pervading happiness :)

The babe is fine. He's shifted outta the ICU now. Pretty soon you think? Well, apparently inspite of the sedatives, he was sooo hyper inside that they decided it was OK to let him out :) And now that he's out, he's all raring to go. Though he does complain of pain intermittently (like obviously!), he's doing fine and blabbering non-stop! :) These are moments when I guess Ignorance is really Bliss. He doesn't know what's happening to him and all he cares about is being done with whatever's happening to him, whatever's holding him down from getting on that cycle and romping around my grandmum's place scaring those kittens away! And he'd do anything to get out of his present state (of misery).

But imagine on the other side, someone like my Mum. Paranoid about dying in her sleep. Paranoid about waking up, sitting down, walking etc etc. According to the Doc, she had one block and after her angioplasty her heart is probably in a better condition than most normal people and her chances of having another attack would be the same as any other normal person! And yet she's scared. Why? Because she 'knows' (or so she thinks), she hears, she reads, she's supposedly 'aware' and that is just about a big pain in the...wherever!

Anyway, this was meant to be about me being happy, so continuing on that note, Pp is back from Singapore :) :) :) And he got me a Tommy girl perfume. I'm super-super-happy for that. And he also got me (Ok, fine it's for Dolly) stickers - like LOADS of stickers. Disney stickers, shiney stickers, awesome stickers. WOW! Any wonder why I'm happy? :)

Next, I did some stuff to my hair again and I really like it. There's more to be done though. All this is for my Big Day!Yup, the countdown for my Birthday has begun [There is just about a month left ;)] I'm gonna be sooo busy from now on planning for my Birthday - Clothes, hair, shoes etc etc etc. Damn, I'm gonna get busy! :)

Next, the family is gonna be off on a trip! We are going to Munnar this week for 4 days. It's been ages since we went on a proper family 'vacation' => Not a temple visit. From Bahrain to Singapore to Kodaikanal, we finally settled down on Munnar. I'm pretty worried about the train journey though, because almost everytime, I come back with some skin allergy or the other and that is positively the worst thing ever! But it's ok, we are going and I'm happy because Mum and Dad need this break :)

My Boss is off for the week and there's nothing more :) than that!

P.S: 1. Okie Dokie, don't I sound a lot like you? Not the way of writing, but the extreme levels of 'everything-is-oh-so-perfect'- ness...??? Hehe...
2. I kinda find all those smileys and that over-happiness a lil gag-worthy right now. I think I just sounded too weirdly bimbo-ey up there, but I just don't know how else to express how happy I am!!!!

Euphoric, Ecstasic, Elated, Exhilarated

Cheery, Glad, Sunny, Fortunate, Bright, Upbeat, Jubilant, Merry, Joyous, Delighted, Pleased, Blessed, Beaming, Gleeful, Light-hearted, High, Jolly, Buoyant, Exuberant, Perky, Glowing, Laughing, In 7th Heaven, On Cloud 9......Add alllll those synonyms you know for the simple word "HAPPY"!

The operation on the lil baby was a Success!!! His heart is Fine and the babe is Fit as a Fiddle. Maybe a lil too early to say that yet, considering the operation got over just an hour back, but of this I am certain. He is fine and he is going to be fine! And Everything is A-OK!

When I went to see him yesterday, he was a tad bit cranky thanks to those sedatives they injected into him to take the scan. He was crying and complaining that his hand was paining. But then slowly, as the effect wore away he was back to riding his cycle with one hand within the confines of the hospital room (which looked more like a 5-star hotel room!) And was busy reciting rhymes from his Smart Cookie DVD! And we were all mellow thinking of what was in store for him today. But now it's all over. He's fine!!!!!

Prayers can work miracles really. Because a miracle of sorts this was. From the scans, the docs were pretty skeptical and kept saying there were a number of follow-up procedures and surgeries that would be required even after this one. But itseems today, when they opened it up, everything seemed to be OK and he may not need the other surgery after all!

I really really wanna thank ALLLLLL of you for your wonderful, heart-felt prayers. It really really means soooooo much. I truly believe it all worked out fine because he had the blessings and prayers of all of you out there. Thanks, thanks, thanks and more thanks! (Don't think I can EVER thank everyone enough!)

Love you allllllll! Hugs by the dozen, all FREE! :)

HipHopper!

Update: Taken off the snaps, just incase :)

Moving away from the gloom of the previous post, lemme share one of my happiest, proud-est moments with all of you :)

I passed the Hip Hop Intro-2 examination conducted by the United Kingdom Alliance and received the highest grade for our level- Highly Commended!!!I'm officially, professionally, properly, truly a "Highly Commended" Hip hop dancer!!!! YEA!! WOOHOO!! :) Ok, so is the rest of the group from dance class, but that includes MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Rewind:
I've alwayz loved dancing. When I was a kid, I mostly stuck to swaying my body because I was really conscious of not getting the right moves. And most of my friends were classically trained dancers. Even in college, initially I used to help others choreograph but never had it in me to actually dance on stage. Till, on my 2nd yr "College-day", one of the girls suddenly fell sick on the day of the event and she couldn't get on. Since I had helped them and knew all the steps, I was asked to take her place. My knees were doing their own little jig outta total petrification there (noun form of petrified, don't care if it isn't a word). I've done a lotta stage dramas and shows and stuff as a kid, but this was infront of the entireee college. And you know how guys in college are, especially the kinds in Sathyabama who behave like they have never seen a girl in their life, let alone a girl dancing! But I did it and it was sooo much of fun that the dancer in me was awaken :D

After that there was no looking back. There was the usual dancing at parties and at 'discs' and blah and I realized I realllyyyyy enjoyed dancing. Talks of joining dance classes have been in the air from when I joined MBA, which is like almost 3 years back, but we (Ruby, Janie and I) finally got around to doing it just now at "The Academy of Modern Danse".

Why Hip-hop? Actually, it was the only one with convenient weekend timings. And also, we assumed it was slightly a laid-back form of dance and would be a good choice to start off with. Oh man, were we wrong or were we wrong! Out of a 1 hr class, we basically do 30 min of gruelling, back-killing, muscle-tearing stretches! Even aerobics felt like heaven in comparison. This, combined with the revelation that we have an 'exam' with 'syllabus' for it, made me decide to leave it half-way, keeping up with my excellent track record of hobby-jumping (tennis, gym, music class etc etc). After a lot of convincing by Jane and Ruby, I stayed. And it was worth every-fucking-injury!

Oh and I must add we have like THE BESTEST of instructors. The dude -Balaji, is one of THE best dancers I've ever seen. He is like the embodiment of energy, attitude and style. In the remaining half an hour of effective class, we girls ogle at him for 29.5 min.

The Exam and the run towards it:
Now, the Exam in itself was to be a mere 3 min affair on the 1st of May. We were divided into 3 groups of 4. Ours was the only group that had 3 - me, Jane and Ruby were fucking happy to be together. We were taught 4 steps that had 8 counts, ie, 4 sets of 8 steps. The song was 'Bebot' by Black Eyed Peas. We had to dance it out infront of our 'firang' judges, who flew down from the UK for this.

We actually bunked office the previous day and spent 4 hours rummaging through Spencer's for the right 'hiphop' clothes. We decided on black and pink as the colour-theme and settled on something simple and comfortable, yet cool.

I was really, really, really nervous. We had tons of practice and I was sure of my steps but I guess just the word 'exam' is enough to give me cold feet. We managed to pull it off pretty neat, though and the result is our grade and certificate.

It's supposed to come in the papers and stuff, if and when it does, I shall put it up here for all of you.

Bouquets, Brick-bats, Claps, Stones, Praise...

*Drum-rolls, pa-pa-ra-pa-pa-pa, confetti, balloons, crackers, the works*

*Me clearing throat*

I hereby take this solemn opportunity to thank each one of you wonderful readers for taking the time out to come, read and leave your esteemed opinion on my silliness-personified-posts. It really means oh-so-very-much to me that here are people, known and unknown, offering me reassurance when I need it, and even better, just listening to me when I rant on and on. *sniff*

I started writing here merely (like everyone else) to make this my-rant-hole. But I didn't realize that there would be takers (not too many, but yet). I wouldn't be here continuing if it wasn't for each one of you. Just gonna mention a few:

1. My Beshtu friendsu: For all the love you guys have alwayz given me. And for reading my blogs whenever I tell you to. *sniff*

2. Dolly- You read ONLY when I beg you too, but yet, you ARE my sister and I do love you. *sniff*

3. Pp - You are the only one who checks my page veryyyy often even when I don't tell you to. Whether you like what I write or not, you still ask me why I haven't written if I haven't written in a while. Loveeeee you! *sniff*

4. Close buddy bloggers- Mayth (you belong in Category 1 too), Xh, Drenched, OK, Gradwolf, Uncle S, Busygurl, Keshi, Anna, Mustang: I may have not expressed it, we may constanly bicker over blogs and I may take sides with whoever is available just for the sake of a fight, but I still do love you. *sniff* (Incase you guys are having a stroke or heart-attack, do take care)

5. Not-so-close but yet buddy bloggers- You guys are super sweet to read my stuff. Love you all too. *sniff*

Now that I have reiterated that 'melodrama' is my second middle name (after Happy), lemme give you the reason behind this *sniff* speech- This is my 50th post!!!!!

*Crazy tribal dance* Uhm, I know it doesn't go with the entire ball-gowned-Oscarish speech and all, but hell, I'm as happy as a...I don't know I'm just happy! I know it isn't anything at all. Not a figure to reckon with (I just noticed a few days back that OK had 192 blogs for 2007 alone) but this is my tiny lil figure of I-me-myself thoughts and I'm HAPPY! (I've said it too many times huh?)

Another thing all of you must have noticed is the NEW-look of my page. (If you haven't, please quit blogging) It has been 'released' today to commemmorate this auspicious occassion (Ahem!) and was given to me as a SURPRISE by XH, aka, Anoop!!! Ok, the sniffs are coming back again. He actually took a LOT of time and effort to make this for me, just because I had asked him a long while ago to help me out with my template. When I recently mentioned my upcoming 50th post, I guess my excitement was evident, and he put 2 and 2 together and decided to make it! I'm all like super-touched right now! Thanxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a million, billion, trillion, gazillion Anooooo!!!

The End

P.S: I had to edit the names on the Best Friends cuz you guyz know who you are, and all of you are worth a million bucks. Just incaseeee I leave anyone out!

Ok, I'm tagged!

Tagged by OK , Gradwolf, Drenched (And I didn't have to threaten them to do this. Honest). I'm putting another post on hold for this tag ONLY cuz OK said I would respond first! ;)

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?

A. Considering people in Chennai seem to have nothing else to do and all the theatres are 'House Full' all the time (and so are all the restaurants, coffee shops, pubs etc etc), the last movie I saw was "Velli thirai" - a Tam movie by Prakash Raj and Prithivi Raj. Decent movie. Pretty interesting.

2. What book are you reading?

A. "The name is Rajnikanth"- By Dr.Gayathri. His Biography. And I'm extremely honoured to be reading it. I'm gonna do a post on Thalaivar soon.

3. Favorite board game?

A. Monopoly & Scrabble. Monolpoly because it's probably the only time I'd have enough money to buy hotels and stuff. And scrabble because I alwayz win ;)

4. Favorite magazine?

A. Hmm, I don't know. Used to read Young Times as a kid. Read Reader's Digest for a while. But it's too sob these days. Read Cosmos once in a while, when my sis asks me to check out some latest shade of blush-on or the likes, but not otherwise, too much of sex for me to handle.

5. Favorite smells?

A. Mummy's cooking. And food in general.

6. Favorite sounds?

A. Daddy's voice. He sings like a dream and I can never, ever get enough of him singing. Yes, Im a total Daddy's girl!

7. Worst feeling in the world?

A. Self-pity

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?

A. On a weekday, I'd wish I was in college. MBA to be specific, because I never went to college at all during those days

On a weekend, it'd be,"What's for lunch?" Because I'd pretty much wake up around that time.

9. Favorite fast food place?

A. None of those fast food places really serve anything 'fast', so I don't know.

10. Future child’s name?

A. I don't trust the people in the Blog World and hence to prevent name-theft from occuring I'm not gonna mention them (though my friends know of this). Maybe when the lil one is born I'll let you all know.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?”

A. I don't believe in hypothetical statements.

12. Do you drive fast?

A. Yea, in my dreams.

13. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

A. If that's what you'd call my Dad, then yea ;)

14. Storms - cool or scary?

A. Scary. I'm scared of the dark. Storms are dark, gloomy and hence scary.

15. What was your first car?

A. Considering Q.11 is hypothetical, you should be knowing that I don't have a lotta money. Infact, I don't have any money. Not even to buy one of those miniature play cars. And so this Q is baseless and doesn't deserve an answer.

16. Favorite drink?

A. Water. And Tequila. And Vodka.

17. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?

A. Another 'if'. I don't have the time for this!

18. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?

A. I'll eat anything on anything. Uhm, not really ;)

19. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?

A. Black. Because right now it's (a nice) brown.

20. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?

A. Bahrain, Chennai.

21. Favorite sports to watch?

A. Cricket, soccer, tennis & basket ball.

22. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?

A. There are 3 people who sent this to me. So here's one nice thing about each:

1. OK: He thinks I'm cool. Ahem.

2. Drenched: She called me the Don of the Blog World [However she meant it, I'll take it the good way]

3. Gradwolf: He tagged me. And he said sorry for not tagging me the last time.

23. What’s under your bed?

A. Dust. Time to change the maid.

24. Would you like to be born as yourself again?

A. Oh, most definitely! Just maybe in a different place, with a different name. Also, maybe a different nose, thicker lips and bigger eyes. And oh, silky hair and a petite stature and a bit shorter and......

25. Morning person, or night owl?

A. I'm sleepy either ways so that would make me...?

26. Over easy, or sunny side up?

A. I don't know what Over easy is but sunny side up isn't my style.

27. Favorite place to relax?

A. My green sofa.

28. Favorite pie?

A. Apple pie, with vanilla ice-cream

29. Favorite ice cream flavor?

A. Baskin Robbins Rainbow Sherbert

30. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?

A. Haven't tagged anyone yet. But I'd say either Satti or xh. The others just don't do requests!

Anywayz, I tag xh, Satti, Prathiboo, Janie, Mayth aunty and Busy Writer.

P.S: 1. I read Drenched's tag completely now and realize she also felt I'd respond first. And so, this tag is for you too, lil gurl ;)

2. I also realize I'm not the first one to do it cuz Shenoy (from OK's list of Tagged) beat me to it. But I still am the first from Drenched's list (of 2).

Happy Birthday again!

Spate of birthdays this month. And all of them are extra special people!Today is Andu san's birthday. Andu san aka Anand Johnson-of the Johnson brothers' fame.

As I alwayz say, the Johnson brothers (Aj and Andu & co.) are the reason the Ramachandran sisters smile. Really. They brought happiness into our life. And I just don't mean happiness, I mean belly aching, rolling on the floor, heart stopping, breath choking Laughter with a capital 'L'. From the time we met till now, I guess we've been laughing all the way. Literally!

Andu san- ur a laugh riot! With your smart alec jokes and whacky expressions, you crack us up allll the time. And ofcourse, ur super sweet, "Love you P3 san" messages that make me smile the instant I get them. Somehow you alwayz know when I'm low and that message of yours comes right on time! Didn't I say you were Godsent?

Wishing you a Happy Happy Birthday. You rock, we rock and we'll keep rocking! Loooooooooveeeeeeee to itsy witsy teeny weeny bits. Hugz! Muah!

P.S: Yet to load a snap of yours cuz I don't have one at work right now. Will do it asap. Pardon!

Happy Birthday!

Oh am I happy or am I happy!!??! It's Pp's Birthday! Finally, the day is here :) I've been waitingggg for this day to go on to tell him how super special he is! Though he should be knowing, but yet :)

Check out this lil hunk:

[All you 18 year old girls out there, behold! He's a perfect catch. Certified by ISI, ISO et all ;)]

No matter what I say right now, it wouldn't be enough to let you know what you mean to me. But I'm just gonna wish you an extremely Happy Birthday. This is the millionth time I'm wishing you, but hey, it's your birthday and you can never get enough wishes now, can you?

Just know that you are loved loadz n loadz by this crazy sis of yours. Wanna see you smiling, smiling alllll the time. (With me around, how else would you be huh??) God Bless! Muahhhhh!

Minna-san, Okurimono ga suki desuka?*

Japanese to English Translation: All of you, do you like gifts?* (That, btw, is a dual purpose title. One, to show off my Japanese proficiency and Two, to increase curiosity in the post. Smart, I know)

*I know I do. I LOVE gifts - both giving and getting. I know it's the thought that matters and all. I totallllllllyy agree. I don't get sad if I don't get a gift. But I'm super happy/ elated/ jubilant/ springy/upbeat....(you get the drift) when I do get a gift. And I truly consider myself blessed in that respect. Cuz I have some of the BESTEST people in the Whole Wide World around me!
See, it goes like this. During my engineering, my parents were abroad => cash inflow was pretty good. That was probably the time when I gave the most. After that, I went on to do my MBA. At that time, most of my engg friends had gotten into TCS/CTS/Infosys/some IT Company. And Dolz was also earning top-notch. So, I was the pampered friend/baby-sister. Birthdays meant a million gifts. I'd get every single thing I wanted. Mum was absolutely disgusted at the way I used to squeal with delight at the gifts and she used to remind me that I have to also give in return. But my friends never let me. "You're not earning yet", they'd say.

And then after MBA, I waited 4 months to get a job. By then the engg set was well settled and the MBA ones started working. So I was pampered again. Then when I did get a job, I got one which paid me peanuts. I couldn't even meet my own auto needs from Mylapore to Adyar and again they'd say, "C'mon, you don't have to spend. When you get a better job, you can get us something". I've received gifts ranging from: Clothes to Cellphones to Ipods to Customized-Calendars-with-my-Pics-all-over to Bags to Shoes to Watches to Books to Flowers to Cakes to Chocolates to Make-overs to Jewellery to.....!!! And now, finally, I have a good, decent paying job. And it's time I start giving! Trust me , it isn't easy. It requires sooooo much of thought!

I cherish each and every one of those gifts. I even save the wrappers and the tiny 'Best Wishes' cards that come along with them. I've got every single card I've received since I was a kid. But one of my most recentest gifts is definitely one of my most bestest gifts. Totallyyyyy unexpected. It was given by my Pp. My lil bro baby, the sweetest, cutest, nuttiest person I've met. Whom I love oh-so-much and whose smile is just to-die for! All of 18 years and full of fun and spunk!I simply cannot imagine an hour without this lil hunk, forget a day. When I opened the gift he handed me, I just sat there, not saying a word cuz, for once, I didn't have anything to say!I was speechless. Stunned into silence! (For those of you who know me personally, that is a pretty impossible task) Din't know whether to laugh or cry, to jump in joy or run outta there and show it to everyone I know!He designed a CD for me. Like, put in a few of my ultimate fav songs, designed the front and back AND got it printed on the CD. My FIRST Customized CD. And he addressed it to -"The Best Sis in the Whole World!"And he did it for ME. *sniff* While I get down to some crying and nose-blowing, you guyz can check it out:



Beautiful huh? Pp, Muah! Love you alwayz kiddoooooo!!!!

Next is by Ruby. Ok, to get into the history behind this, I must tell you I'm totally not a gadget person. Cellphones are solely for 'communication' purposes and I find absolutely no joy in wasting money on a new phone. My friends have tried over and over again to get me to change my phone. I had a 3310 till a year back when a friend gifted me another. That stopped working and I've been using my sisz throw away 6600 ever since, which was in a deplorable condition when I received it and I've managed to damage it even further. It was silver earlier. Now black. It didn't have the keys 'enter' and 'a,b,c' and so i had to use my nails to get inside and type it out. I didn't even find it necessary to change the panel! And so, Ruby dearest decided to do the honours. Gifted me a whole new panel, with a new keypad, a new battery AND a memory card (which is from Satti too). My folks actually thought I got myself a new phone! And me, being the bitch I am, have been cribbing that the 'new-look' for the phone isn't me. And that the phone isn't quite the same now! I know I'm a pain! Rubyyyy, I LOVE it. And I LOVE you! Thanks really, really, reallyyyyy!!! Don't have a snap of it. But it looks super sexy. Totally new.

Don't you think I really am blessed to have these people?

*sniff* There I go again! *sniff*

P.S-Update: It is NOT my birthday. I'm a Cancerian and hence, my birthday is in July! And if my Birthday was coming, the countdown would've started 2 months in advance! :D These are just chumma gifts, which is what makes them a lot more special-er :)

Happy Birthday!

This is gonna be a new feature on my blog. There are these extra special people in my life whom I love to itsy-witsy, teeny-weeny bits. And I decided it'd be a super cool idea to honour them on their birthdays with a small post. And the lucky one to kick-start this feature is my Handsome Hunk of a bro-in-law- Harsh, whose Birthday is on the 16th of March.

It is a wonder how things change with time. It's been a year and a half since he's entered our lil family and I actually feel like he's been around forever! I may have not said it in as many words, Harsh, but I really do love you. For the way you make my sis smile, for the way you take care of her, for the respect you give my parents and for the person you are. You are everything and more than what I could ever ask for Dolz.

Thanks for alwayz, alwayz being there. Wishing you an Awesome Birthday. God Bless You! Hugz!

I NEED to know now...Does it really hurt...?

Not love. Not breaking up. Not tattoos or peircings. What I wanna know is - Does it really hurt...to SMILE...?

My parents have taught me to be pleasant and polite. And being all full of manners as I am (atleast I try!), I smile at people I know. Not necessarily a buddy or the one-who-sits-beside me. I mean, could be someone on the same floor. There is this one girl at work, whom I see pretty often. I smile at her when I see her and what does she do...? Pass me by like I don't even exist! (This has happened,like, thrice)I mean, it's technically impossible to miss me, you know, thanks to my 'towering personality' (= huge). Besides, I was looking straight at her and smiling. And so, she cannot even use the pathetic excuse that I was probably smiling at the person behind her (or maybe she thought it was the cupboard...?or the wall perhaps...?) Doesn't anyone reciprocate niceties anymore?

She's not the only one. Me and Ruby joint aerobics recently. We were late (as usual) for our first class and the instructor told us to join the crowd and follow suit. We were all left feet and tripping and I looked at the girl in front and smiled sheepishly. She, inturn, threw me this disinterested, 'I'm-too-busy-to-waste-time-smiling' expression! (Adding insult to injury is the fact that she's as thin as a stick of asparagus while I'm that huffing, puffing plump tomato) Thankfully, there was another nice lady who just asked us to hang in there till the end.

With medical reports (eg: Smiling involves just 17 facial muscles and...), poems (eg: Smiling is a merry thing, blah blah blah"), songs (Remember Boyzone's biggest hit: Words, which began with-Smile, an everlasting smile.......??") and the likes of Hallmark/Archies coming up with the 'Smiley' (that cute, yellow thing on cards/keychains/anything & everything) , the entire 'Smile' concept is pretty much in your face. And so, I'm gonna assume the non-smiling kinds are extremely ignorant people with no life. Living in an igloo without a window and no humans around => Zilch people skills.

Or maybe I'm just ancient. Maybe being grumpy is in and I never realized. Well, the lean, mean men have always been considered hot. You know, the 'bad boy' image and all. Maybe that works for women as well.....? Maybe it's better. Would save guys the effort of saying those corny lines like "Your smile just killed me" or "I love the way your eyes light up when you smile" etc. Or maybe, they'd just change them and go, "Your frown just scared the shit outta me" or "Your dead pan eyes and frigid expression just turn me on".

Whatever maybe, a smile works for me. Lifts me up to smile and be smiled at. What do you think?

Million $ quote: "To Smile or not to Smile. That is the question" (by Will.I.A'int Shakespreeti)

P.S: Update: Ever since I've written this post (like 30 min ago), I've seen Girl#1 twice and I couldn't help but smile so hard, I looked sillier than the Cheshire Cat in 'Alice in Wonderland'!