Vacation of 2009

Ahhh....the thought of a vacation instantly brings that SMILE to my face.
Why, you ask?? Well, I'm sure gonna tell you....but you'll have to take some time to read the next few blog posts to get a hint as to WHY?...

I faintly remember my last...ACTUAL vacation. It was way back in the 7th grade. Haven't really managed to have a well-deserved holiday eversince. Not sure why, but just haven't! And after long years of lazy summer breaks, slothful weekends , ...finally came THE vacation - the one that I was looking forward to more than anything else (perhaps more exciting than receiving my pay cheque every month!)

I remember the plans started some time around April 2009. My cousin came up with the draft of the itinerary. He loves traveling and I must admit,...thanks to him my family and I have understood the essence behind traveling to places that gripped our attention so much that we felt on top-of-the-world!!

A lot of work had gone into preparing the final plan. We exchanged phone calls, emails, spent evenings at each other's place to educate ourselves on what the plan was about. As for me, it had more to do with curiousity...and a constant urge to understand every single detail of every place that we planned to visit in those 11 days.

I've never felt this excited ever. I've read so much on these places like never before. Suddenly, geography became so interesting that every day I'd log in to Google maps!
And by the time we realized it, the morning of 30th October,2009 finally dawned!

It is rightly said that "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder" ...and I can't agree more after my maiden trip to the HIMALAYAS!

Thanks Subbu for making it happen! :-)


P.S: More blog posts to follow!

Networking sites - a pain sometimes!

I found this friend request on FB early this week:

Wow mashallah really ur 2 cute nice nice pose so sweet .........................really ur looking grgs ...................me iam zaid frm ksa saudi arabia,,,,,,,,,,i lke chat with u .my mail id funky_sh2@yahoo.com pls add me uhave yahoo idso swet ur smile.


Heaven HELP ME!!

Compulsive and Impulsive Shopping

Shopping is a fact of life - something that none of us can do without! Though how much we shop is entirely up to us.
You go to the mall, department store, grocery store, or a retail store. Before leaving the house, had you made out a plan for what you were going to shop for? Did you already have an amount of money planned and set aside for purchases, an amount not to go past? Was your mind already made up not to buy anything but exactly what you planned upon?
Well for those of you who don't step out of the house keeping the above points in mind, you're just about to burn your pockets completely!!

There are two different shopping mindsets that would define what kind of a shopper you actually are.
These are my inferences based on all that I have read...

Compulsive Shopping:
A compulsive shopper and a shopaholic are synonymous with one another.
Shopping for this category of people would bring happiness, content, satisfaction and relief! ...It removes distress and eradicates the feeling of having nothing. However, this state of mind is transient.
People obsessed with shopping only tend to alleviate their compulsion for that moment. Its only a matter of time when they would get back into the compulsive shopping-spree once again.

Traits
Get your monthly pay cheque - GO SHOP,
Saved up some cash in the last 10 days - GO SHOP
Haven't shopped in the last 24 hrs - Reward yourself - GO SHOP
You're bored of your furniture- GO ShOP!
Had a dream last night that you were shopping - Well, make it true - GO SHOP
Whoops, its raining - run to the nearest store, which means - GO SHOP!
Havent done your laundry, having nothing in your wardrobe - GO SHOP! :-s
Your BRAND NEW brown shoes don't go too well with your pink dress - GO SHOP!
You're reading this blog...feeling tempted - GO SHOP! :-p

Impulsive Shopping:
An impulsive shopper is one who shops without any specific idea of what to buy. Its more to do with an impetus - a forceful need to shop,...But for what? There's no answer to that.
Traits
Say, you're an impulsive shopper who plans to visit a departmental store. On the way, you stop by at the mall just to do some "window" shopping. Every dress on the mannequins catches your eye instantly, and there starts the temptation. Off you walk into the store,.... and land up picking stuff which you thinks might be of some use, though at that point of time you really can manage without it. In about 2 hrs, you walk out just to find yourself down 4000bucks.
And yes, back to the plan of buying groceries. No real list in place, you get to the departmental store. Excitedly you walk down the isle...along the crockery section. Whoops....and your're down another 2000bucks...after looking at all the fancy and colorful dinner sets.
Now you're hungry, having been gone hours longer than you anticipated. So you go to a food court to buy yourself some SIMPLE stuff to munch on. And there it is...you're down by another 350 bucks.

Not sure if its just me, but don't you think a compulsive shopper could also be an impulsive shopper....and not vice versa.
Tell me what you think....and yes, what kind of category do you think you fall under?

Man, all this is making me want to go shopping.....it's almost past 21:00hrs! ARGHHH! :-p

Uncivilized ......UGH!

Written about 2 months back...I just missed out publishing it! :-s

I've come to accept the fact that Bangalore has a LOOOONNNGG way to go in terms of CIVIC SENSE! I used to think there were SOME sane people out here....but I've been forced to do some rethinking!
What made me think so......Read the incident:

This happened a few days back; one evening on my way back home from work.
I ride back home every evening; and trust me..it's painful. Especially during summer, its awful! There are a zillion vehicles on the road and I always have the gifted spot of getting stuck right behind a huge bus at every d@mn signal. So with all that smoke and dust hovering all over my face, I raced through the crazy roads of B'lore!
At one of the junctions, I had to wait for about a minute before the signal turned green! Once it did; there was not just one but two morons; one in a Swaraj Mazda Van and the other on a bike who overtook me without a clear signal. Well, this is something which happens all the time.
Anyways;...the fun starts here! ...
There's a median in the center of the road. The driver of the Mazda zoomed towards it by manoeuvering the vehicle to the right while the guy on the bike had no option but to speed up and try and overtake the van. However, the highly intelligent driver of the Mazda accelerated further and once he got close to the median; SPAT an entire sack full of PAAN (supari...UGHHH!) ....little did he know that in less than a second all that $hit would be on the biker's face!!! YUCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKkk.....
And the blessed person that I am (GOSH!), I got to witness the entire series of events which lasted for less than a minute....EEks!!!
Probably the yuckiest minute of my life!!

The question here is not about WHY people out here SPIT while driving....(Well, in India people use the roads for anything...and I mean ANYTHING!!) Its more about why the HELL don't they look at the godd@mn rear-view mirror before spitting!! That's the LEAST they can do!!

Even this morning on my way to work, another guy in a Santro performs his early morning ritual by spitting on the road. I mean, I'm talking about EDUCATED, supposedly well-bred people, with classy jobs and hefty salaries....However, in terms of Civic Sense they have no idea about how irresponsible they are! ...ZILCH!

I guess, its about time that the leading fashion designers in the country came up with this ultra-trendy SPIT-PROOF outfit - that you can wear for all seasons! And yes, ..definately at a reasonable price! :-p...

Board Games

I mentioned about board games in my previous post; so thought I should share my favorite board games till date:

1) Monopoly (the best ever!!)
2) Cluedo (amazing and exciting!)
3) Pictionary (Simply love this when I travel! Its fun to play this with a big group)
4) Carroms (hate it when I lose :-p )
5) Life (Time pass, monopoly is nicer!)
6) Scotland Yard (Fun to be the thief!)
7) Ludo :-) (when i'm really bored!)
8) Snakes and ladders
9) Chess (Only when the person I play with isn't as good as I am :-p...Unfortunately that's never the case)

Oh and this is for all the Tamil folks....I was amazed when I went to this Toy shop last week and actually saw Pallanguli in the entire stack of board games...Reminded me of the days when I just got introduced to the game. Used to play it with my paati (grandmom)...and loved it!! What's impressing is the very idea of the game and the fact that we used to play it with shells!! :-)
So it's out there in the market...go get one for yourself!! :-)

Happy GAMING!! :-)

Monotony.... (SIGH!)

What does it take to break the monotony of your daily routine?

...I have no idea??!!...I feel like I'm 60 without having the thought of what to do next :-s

Man, thoughts like this at my age is not such a great sign, is it? :-s
For the whole of last week (actually almost 3 weeks - I feel guilty for saying that) I've been trying to do something productive (Well, that's what I'm paid for you see). But somehow just haven't managed to get my mind tuned to WORK efficiently.
Just a few weeks back, I was so involved with work that I used to be glued to my monitor for hours together. I used to avoid going for tea breaks too; and now I keep looking at my watch every 15 min. I come every morning to work, and start talking about lunch :-s....Yeah, what a depressing life!! SIGH!

I've been playing a lot of Sudoku and also solving a lot of web puzzles...
For some reason, my colleagues and I were talking about the different kinds of board games we've played...And eversince I've been reading about them on wikipedia... :-s
Infact I'm thinking if I should bring some of them to work...to break the monotony!! But, not sure if I'll be the only one playing it eventually...SOB!!

I think I would have logged in to Facebook, linkedin, gmail about 10 times during the day....realise that its about time I started work, then decide to push it by another 10 min....and by the time I realise its 5pm and I'm done for the day! :-p ...

Right now...I'm listening to Rehna Tu - Delhi 6 and looking at some lovely pics on Facebook...
That reminds me ...isn't it time for my evening Chaii...
Got to run!! :-)
Ciao!

Back....after a long break!

I'm back.........after a long break....not exactly a well-deserved break, ..but a period of stress, long hours at work, sleepless nights, worries, tensions....blah, blah, blah...
And these rough yet exciting days will be back soon....even before I could realise it.. SIGH!!
So thought I'd make the most of my time (at work) by getting back to what I used to enjoy doing most...BLOGGING! This is how I reward myself for all those SINCERE hours of productive work that I've put in (Ok, I know I have a depressing life...DUH!)

Hmmm....now when you tend to break from the routine WRITING cycle (in my case that works both on the personal and professional front), there's always a tough task ahead of you - and that is to think of WHAT to write! :-)

I'm going to sum up all the events of the last few weeks....
(in no particular order)

1) Hmmm....Ahhhh...the OSCARS...!! I remember watching the event LIVE on TV...and it was time for me to head off to work...With much of disgust, I decided to leave...Arghh!!
Soon as I got to work, I got an SMS from my mom saying "Rahman won the Oscar for best musical score" ...
I felt on top of the world!! I was so happy and thrilled that he won it!! All that hard work had finally paid off!!
(However, I feel if Slumdog could fetch him an Oscar, what about the rest of the movies for which he's directed? ....I'll put down my thoughts on this in another post!)

2) My house renovation - I have stopped thinking about it...Things out here are way too hard to plan and I have no idea when I'm going shift. This is has taken the life out of me and my family. Our weekends have been highly exciting - Cemented walls, saw dust, paint-shopping, bathroom-accessories-shopping, lights, curtains, ...oh and a hell a lot of yelling at everyone who decides to do the work! Only if they DID, it would have saved us a lot of energy!!

3) Recession - This has been a tough month! Things have changed a lot at home and at work. And its getting awfully tough to accept the reality.....
I hate everything about the recession - there is just too much of change in every single thing that you do - and life isnt all that hunky-dory as it used to be!

4) Life at work - Hmmm....been tough for the last 2 months! Got to witness and experience a whole lot of things...but certainly worth the effort! Completed my first official release ...YAY!! ... but this was with a lot of compromise...fewer hrs spent with family, keeping in touch with friends was almost forgotten, stress levels were much higher, mood swings, late hrs at work and having to ride back home late (This place isnt all that safe!) ....anyways...!! I guess I'll be back to a similar routine in a few weeks...Sheesh!

5) A friend of mine got engaged! -- YAYYY...!!! Can't wait for her wedding!! :-)
A friend of mine is going to have a baby - YAYYYY again!! I think its a girl!! :-)

6) My trip to Kushalnagar - It was the best trip till date!! The most relaxing and fun-filled weekend in a long time! I had a great time!
Hogged like a pig, put on a few extra kilos (I don't feel bad about it!), went swimming (got tanned big time!...that's bothering me a bit!), played badminton, cricket, pampered the doggies there, played cards, carrom, chess, ...oh gosh! I did a whole lot of stuff!! It was amazing!! Next destination - thinking about OOty!! :-)

7) My summer cut - Got a hair cut....and really short...Its not that I look my age...but this certainly got me looking like a kid all over again....well, its to beat the heat!! ;-)

8) Talking about the heat - Oh man! What on earth is up with the weather? Its soaring out here...I hate it! And I hate riding to work in this heat! YUCK!!
Oh GOD, I can't wait to feel the rains! I don't even remember what its like when it RAINS!! Wahhhhhh!!! :-(

9) Shopping - I remember I had some gift coupons which I had to use within a week before the validity could expire. I thought I'd buy myself something upto what the coupons amounted to (considering the recession..blah blah)...and yes, I did..but slightly went overboard...I landed up shelling out an additional 4000 bucks! ...Well, you can say it was the stress and the fact that I hadnt shopped in a long time that I landed up doing this! DUH!

10) Miss my fiance way too much these days! Its killing! Nothing I could about it...SIGH!! :-(

11) Hmmm....banged my head on a garden seat while trying to rest my head...and eversince I've been having these awful headaches....OH GOD!! What's next???

There are a whole lot of other things that I want to write down...but beginning to feel hungry! I need to grab a quick bite...which would mean I need to leave work NOW - which would take me 45min - 1 hr to reach home....getting awfully sick in the traffic....Hmmphh!!
Signing off, Ciao!