Blog-a-Prompt week - Day 5 Spicy

Spicy, whenever you utter that word, I immediately think of Gossip. The world believes that women are always up to some gossip. I don't believe that at all. Men are equally capable of Gossip, I know men who live to gossip. The biggest example is my husband. He is abreast on office gossip, he knows not only what is going on in his family but keeps me updated on my family as well.

Call him a gossip-monger and he takes offense. He says he doesn't believe in gossip, he believes in 'Passing on the information' the spicier the information the better. :)

I on the other hand used to hate gossip before I met the husband. I didn't find it spicy at all. Now since I've lived with him for a little over 5 years I have realized gossip isn't such a bad thing. A nice well-told gossip can spice up a dull and boring conversation. I still don't believe in spreading gossip, but if you have some nice gossip, I'm all ears.

May Photo A Day - Day 31 - Four Things

If given an opportunity, I would just pack my bags right away and travel. I have not been on a vacation alone for the longest time, and I love vacationing alone. If you ask me right now, I would LOVE to go to these 4 places I have never been before. These have been my dream destination for a long time now.

• Paris
• Sydney
• Venice 
• And Holland primarily to visit Keukenhof, the reason is very simple. As a kid when I saw Rekha and Amitabh sing 'Dekha Ek Khwaab' from Silsila here, it was then I decided I have to visit these beautiful gardens.

Blog-a-Prompt week - Day 4 - Disaster

The only place I face a disaster is with food in my kitchen. And, considering my Husband Faizan is an amazing cook I don't even step in the kitchen. I go in the kitchen whenever its really important (read: when I need to cook for Zoe). The kid loves fruits and I love her for that :-P.

So for me disaster is only food related. And when I tell Faizan 'I can try to make something new today', his answer is 'let's call for food' or 'I'm in the mood to cook' and when I insist... he says 'See, it's OK, we all know what the result will be... bekaar mein itne bartan kharab hongen'

Whoever says 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach' is not totally right... I would beg to differ, I can have a long debate with you. I did win the heart of the man I love being the world's lousiest cook.

Talking of my tryst with Food and the disasters, here are some which I did with things people find very easy to make:

• I have burnt a simple Aloo Zeera Sabzi.
• I always ask mum before making dal (yes, I need recipe for dal as well) and every time I either forget to add salt or haldi or lehsun.
• Faizan loves a mug full of chai and though I make amazing chai, even if I measure I end up making 3/4 cup of chai. Every single time by default.
• I have burnt Maggi - Just once O.K

Enough of bringing myself down, I do make a couple of things which turn out to be AMAZING ALWAYS:

• Brown Chicken with Rice (Yes, I make both rice and chicken )
• Pizza with homemade pizza base
• Pancakes
• Eggs (of any kind, I'm my family's egg expert)
• Chicken and oats Khichdi
• Any kind of cakes, cookies and muffins
• Chinese - (Fried Rice, Chilli Chicken & Noodles)

So next time if you have guests coming over, who you wouldn't want to entertain... call me up, I would give you the perfect Kitchen Disaster recipe.

May Photo A Day - Day 30 - Tool

What would our lives be without them? As it is truly said "We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us"

I could've easily gone for knives or scissors but the tools that I use most often are for watering our plants. And I want to showcase the two masterpieces without which my attempt at going green would have just failed :-)).

Blog-a-Prompt week - Day 3 - MONDAY - Khooni Monday

Image Courtesy - Google

Monday... what does Monday mean to me? Nothing really its just like any other weekday. Actually now with my weekend is flooded with so many sessions and classes, I get a much needed break on Monday.

My relationship with Monday has been a love hate kind of relationship.

• Way back when I was a young school kid, my mom tells me I used to cry, especially on Mondays. And I used to HATE going to school after a break of two days.
• In my teens I just wanted to remain locked up in my room, especially when I had my separate room and both my sisters (an elder and a younger one) used to share a room. Over the weekends, I used to listen to music, write, read and do everything that I wanted to. And then came the deadly Monday and a list of questions/instructions/taunts from Ma. "Did you study for Unit Test?", "Maine toh nahin dekha tumhe padhte hue" ... then why ask, "That's why I tell you to get up early in the morning and eat breakfast properly." The first thing we did when we reached schools on Monday was give our Unit Test and collect the corrected answer sheet for the last week (yes... both on the same day). This happened throughout the year - barring vacations. Though I was a decent student I used to HATE Mondays. 
• Then in college, I started LOVING Mondays. I loved going to college, and when Mondays meant going back to bunking classes, planning which movies to watch, shopping, or just chilling after getting bored for 2 long days on the weekend I loved it. 
• Office of course meant my hatred for Monday was back to where it started. Now I feel how aptly the lyrics of that song from 'Go-Goa-Gone' define my state back then. "Khoon choosne tu aaya khoon choosne....Bloddy khooni monday kyoon aaya khoon choosne" 
• Now as I mentioned, since I work mostly on weekends... Monday brings with it the much needed break and I kind of like them
• With Zoe starting school in about a fortnight, I think I will start HATING Mondays again.

So For Mondays you can actually say "You can HATE Mondays or You can LOVE them. But you certainly cannot IGNORE Mondays"

May Photo A Day - Day 29 - KISS

Till about half an hour back, I was clueless. I didn't have any idea what to do with a Kiss.

I first thought this...

29th Nov 2010, Zoe was 3 Days old

Then I read the description at FMS "This is our charity prompt. We’re going to kiss MS goodbye. So wear red, or pop on some red lipstick and show us a ‘kiss’!"  and thought of this...

Me and my nephew on my birthday August 2009

Then I wanted to do a bit more... and here is what I did... Special thanks to my Zoe for being so patient. 

So what's your Kiss Story?

Blog-a-Prompt week - Day 2 - Thirst

There are many kinds of thirsts right??? but today I will not talk about anything but the very basic thirst. A thirst that can only be quenched with some nice clean water (add nice clean 'chilled' water for me). I have to have 8-10 glasses of water every day. I guess scientifically everyone should have at least 8 glasses of water... I don't know how true is this but I feel drained out when I do not drink enough water.

For me water has to be had in a particular manner - with 3-4 ice cubes. So our fridge can run out of everything but Ice Cubes and water.  

Trivia - In  the Coke Advts. across the world they show either 2 or 3 ice cubes in a glass of Coke. This is because on an average people have 2.5 ice cubes in a glass of Coke. Guess they didn't consider me. :))

Source - Google

May Photo A Day - Day 28 - What You're Doing Now

Obviously, I'm doing this right now, so I'm sitting in front of the laptop and typing. :))

May Photo A Day - Day 27 - Can't live without

I can't live without my family... I guess most of us can't. Hence I will just overlook the family bit.

I cannot live without dancing, I love to dance... music no music I just LOVE to dance. I do not want to live without dance. This is a picture of a family function back in 2006. This is my best dancing partner my cousin brother. He's a year younger to me and we have been friends for life.

Blog-a-Prompt week - Day 1: Colors

After you become a mum, your world revolves around your child. I promise in 'Blog-a-Prompt week' this is the only Zoe related post.  Zoe has literally filled colors in our lives. I believe in doing something or the other fun thing with Zoe on a daily basis. We love finger painting with Zoe and here is a glimpse in our finger painting episode... this sure fills my life with Colors.

June Photo A Day - Day 2 - A Moment

A moment with myself amidst nature on a vacation... makes me the happiest.

Pictures clicked in Nov'12 in Pondicherry.

May Photo A Day - Day 26 - Fave Thing to Do on a Sunday!

Another Collage...

For most people Sundays are meant to laze around, for us Sunday evenings 99% of the time means Lal Bagh. Thankfully Bangalore weather is good and Lal Bagh is the best place to go when you want to enjoy a nice walk amidst nature. 

Trivia Time - For people who aren't aware of what Lal Bagh is... this is what Wikipedia says: Lal Bagh or Lal Bagh Botanical Gardens, meaning The Red Garden in English, is a well known botanical garden in southern Bangalore, India. The garden was originally commissioned by Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore, and later finished by his son Tipu Sultan.

So here we are enjoying the beautiful Bangalore weather in Lal Bagh

May Photo A Day - Day 25 - US

Us looked like the easiest prompt. I knew what I had to do, but when I sat down at making a collage of pictures, I realized picking a few was a huge problem. So Here I have my family -  Zoe, Fizz, Mom, AJ, both my sisters & my nephew. Besides my 2nd mom, a few cousins and just a few friends.

May Photo A Day - Day 24 - Go

This is a bus we made for my nephew's fancy dress competition. And he used to run around wearing it saying "Go Go Go Bus... Bus Go Go Go" 

May Photo A Day - Day 23 - PJs

Ahhhh I love today's prompt. PJ's for me don't just mean Pajamas... it means the entire relaxed... do-whatever-I want-to feel that PJs bring along with them. I live in PJs and yoga pants... I like it that way and I don't dress up until I have a meeting, a session, a playdate, a date with my husband, or on weekends. So here in the picture accompanying my favorite PJs, is my cuppa chai & my favorite book Jeffrey Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. 

Trivia Time: This is the only book I picked up from Second hand book store in CP, its the 1st edition of the book printed in 1976.

May Photo A Day - Day 22 - Change

Yesterday's post brought back a lot of things... and made me think, though in a nice way... but I was also feeling pretty bad. So I have decided I will keep the posts nice and sweet, no serious stuff.

Coming to the topic... The change I'd like to see in myself is very clear... unfortunately I'll not be able to capture it on camera just yet. I have been over weight since my childhood and I won the battle with the bulge (as I'd like to call it) when I was in college. For 10 long years I maintained my weight and lived a healthy life... then Zoe happened. I have put on so much weight post pregnancy (thanks to thyroid). Now luckily thyroid levels have lowered considerably and I have started working out for good. :-)

This will take a long time... waise bhi I do not like changes which happen over night (good or bad). I guess the only thing that changes form quick and I like it a lot has to be an egg. Especially a fried egg. :-P, I'm off eggs for the past 12 years (have them very rarely) but Zoe and the husband loves them... especially fried. Zoe is a very picky eater, she can go without food for days... but give her an egg-y and she will gobble it all up... that's my secret weapon. Now that I have told you guys... I hope she doesn't start saying no to an egg as well. **fingers crossed**

So here is the picture I took while making an egg for Zoe...

 

And here is one of her-Zness having that egg like a nice girl.

May Photo A Day - Day 21 - I Care About This...

There are 1000s and 1000s of people who lay homeless on the streets. There are speeding cars which might just run over them. Or even when on chilly winter nights (this picture is of one such night), these very cars send bone-chilling winds. These people hardly have a blanket without holes. 

I did try my bit to help a few of them back in Delhi... guess I should start doing something again in Bangalore.

May Photo A Day - Day 20 - Light

This picture was clicked by my husband. He took this picture on my brother's Manjha ceremony (something like Haldi).

Everyone (mostly) is dressed up in the brightest yellow and we didn't need any extra light that day. Guess the color of our clothes and the smiles brightened that night and lit the room up. :-)). Here you can see my sisters (cousins) besides me and my brother.

May Photo A Day - Day 19 - My Favorite View

It was the first time when a little girl looked at the 2 of them and said "What a View"... well not literally as I didn't know the meaning of that term back then, but I felt like saying it :-).
My all time favorite, my heart still skips a beat when I see 'view' the two of them.

If you haven't guessed already then they are Aamir Khan (my absolute favorite) in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Tom Cruise in Top Gun. :-))

May Photo A Day - Day 18 - Wants

There is no end to one's wants really... a perfect life, perfect body, perfect family the list is endless. I have always paid a lot of attention to my passion, and that is storytelling. I have been wanting to start a small club of sorts at my residence, that would be possible when we buy an apartment here in Bangalore (Insh'Allah Soon). The club would be activity based - majorly focusing on storytelling for young kids.I hate traveling across the city just for a venue :)

So here is a picture of one of our story sessions and the logo of My Little Chatterbox

May Photo A Day - Day 17 - Season

Among all the beautiful Seasons... I love winters the more... I love the way you can stay all nice, cozy and warm in a razaai throughout the day it you like :-P.

This shot was taken when we went to Kashmir in 2010, before Zoe was born.... Far from the scorching heat of Delhi (we were based in Delhi back then). Took this picture from the cable car at Gulmarg.

And here is glacier melting into the river...

May Photo A Day - Day 16 - Mailbox

When I saw the list of topics listed for May Photo A Day, I thought this would be the most difficult one. Then I thought I would take a picture of my email inbox... I hardly get a mail in my letterbox (mailbox). Today when I was getting Zoe back from the park, my eyes went towards our mailbox. I thought as always it'd be empty. Guess I was in for a surprise today... the security guard had kept a packet that came through courier because there was no one at home when the package arrived. So here you go... the image is not clear... thanks to the dim light in the basement. 

May Photo A Day - Day 15 - 7 O'clock

My life revolves around my family (where my daughter is the most important person) and my work. I work from home and try to wind up work before 7 O'clock, or at least take a break of an hour or two to spend some quality time with Zoe. Zoe, like both her parents loves books. Her favorite authors are Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss and Julia Donaldson... well what else do you expect a 2.5 year old to like. She watches an hour of TV each day (30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening). So between 7-7:30 pm I watch her favorite videos with her. She has been hooked on to BBC's video of Julia Donaldson's Grufallo and Grufallo's Child. Once she has watched the video with mommy, we read the book together over din-din (dinner).

So here you go... a glimpse of Gruffalo's Child, that's what we were watching today. 

May Photo A Day - Day 14 - Need

I guess this is the most tricky topic in all the May Photo A Day topics. We need a lot of things besides the obvious Roti Kapda Aur Makaan... Yeah call me filmy, but its true. Amongst all the other things I need... books, faith, friends, health, good times the list goes on and on and on... The one thing that I really need is the people I love around me. I can't thank God enough for some of the people I have been blessed in my life. The picture has 2 most important people (besides me) Fizz and Zoe, who I need around me. This picture was taken last year in November when we went there to celebrate my daughter's 2nd Birthday. I feel blessed... :)

 

May Photo A Day - Day 13 - Sunrise/Sunset

This was clicked in March this year when we were in Jim Corbett. This is how River Kosi looks during Sunset. The water was FREEZING.

May Photo A Day - Day 12 - Mother

From one Mom to another. Happy Mother's Day mom & Thanks Zoe. Love you both.

May Photo A Day - Day 11 - A Smile

This smile can make my worst days turn into the best days of my life in a second. Love you my sweetheart. 

May Photo A Day - Day 10 - Stars

No star can be brighter (and prettier) than the twinkle in the eyes of my little Star. The picture is blur but you can easily see the stars in her eyes. Love you my munchkin.

May Photo A Day - Day 9 - Snack

Ahhh... Smoked Chicken Multigrain Sandwich from CCD. Not just as a snack... I can even have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

May Photo A Day - Day 8 - Shape

My daughter's favorite rhyme is about a Star, and she makes me go Twinkle Twinkle Little Star at least 100 times a day... No kidding. So there can't be another shape I can think of.

Image Courtesy - Google

May Photo A Day - Day 7 - Something beginning with 'F'

No points for guessing, when it comes to the letter F, it means Falak & Faizan. Two friends who decided to get married and became best friends over the years. For me F stands for Falak & Faizan and nothing else.

Here is one picture of us which I love, this was a year after our marriage.

May Photo A Day - Day 6 - Broken

That is what I find in my dresser's drawer most of the time. A few pieces of broken bangles, bangles meant a lot when I was in college. Yeah, that was back then.

May Photo A Day - Day 5 - Paper

Thanks to me being a storyteller (I love reading to kids), I have 2 lot of kid's books in my house, one for My Little Chatterbox and other for my little reader Zoe. Paper for me always meant books and right now the way I spend on children's book, I can't think of anything else but these when I think of PAPER. Here are 'some' of the book my little 2 year old possess. These are here possessions in the true sense of the word and I'm a proud mommy.

May Photo A Day - Day 4 - In My Cup!

You can't keep me away from my Chai like any North Indian, besides my dad was into Tea Export... so I have literally grown amidst Chai Wallahs :-P. I like coffee as much, and never take sides... today it was Chai for me. And I always have Chai in a big mug half filled. I hate it when someone gives me Chai in a small cup.... its funny, but that's my relationship with Chai.

May Photo A Day - Day 3 - This is Good

We as a family aren't huge cupcakes/cakes fans, but last year on our 5th wedding anniversary we did get cupcakes customized. And were they delicious or what? We ordered these from Simply mmmm Cupcakes and we LOVED every bite. They were lovely to look at, just how I wanted and they were super yum in your mouth.If in Bangalore do get your cuppies customized here. 

May Photo A Day - Day 2 - Morning Ritual

I missed all the fun on Marathon Bloggers in the month of April, don't ask me why... so I didn't want to miss May Photo a Day

 

I missed day one ... and starting a day late. 

 

My mornings are full of doing a lot of things besides working out. This is something I never miss out on. That's how hubby and dotty bond over gardening every morning... :) and I love watching them.