Ripples of my Reflections

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Tag: happy (Page 1 of 2)

Back with a new beginning

August 9, 2015 / / 16 Comments

Yes, I am back! Don’t ask me where I was or what I was doing the entire July. No, don’t even start thinking of asking me. Because, though I am familiar with Murphy’s law and his infamous life tricks, what I didn’t realize was that he has a patented right to rule over your life when you are planning something big. Yes, I finally shifted to my own place and kinda slowly winding down like that toy car which is on the last turn of the key. I had wound up myself pretty much to the breaking point before I started this entire shifting houses thing and that and only that helped me last this long. Only that helped me face the pretty things that Murphy dropped along my way.

1. You can be a perfectionist planning everything to the last detail. You can write down literally everything to the minute that you are going to do. You can be the God of check-lists. Still you will be left with a hoard of stuff to do, glaring at your face.

2. When you are shifting houses, especially to a new place which has to be set up from the scratch, you better start the de-cluttering process months before. Otherwise, you will be neck-deep in the junk vs usable filtering process and at the same time running around to set up the new place.

3. Once you move in to your new place, don’t expect things to settle down. Everyday some or the other thing will come up to greet you in the morning and to make the day a lousy one.

4. The best of all learning, moving into a new house of your own only means more work. The cleaning, dusting, arranging, rearranging will just eat your time up. There will be nothing else.

5. And hence anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In all aspects of life.

Despite all this, this entire moving to a new house has been a huge learning experience for me. The retrospective view that I got during this experience was indeed an eye opening one. I learnt to differentiate between people who genuinely help and those who just give sound advice. I learnt that being posted to Hyderabad for my first job was not as bad after all. The Telugu I learnt there has helped in ways I never thought it would. My broken Hindi was repaired to some extent, thanks to my carpenter who bore all my lingual mistakes and still understood what I was trying to tell him.

Amidst all the chaos, we finally moved into our new place and set it up. I know that this feeling of achievement will soon be replaced by one of a long sigh that signals exasperation. But I also know this signals another milestone in our life, a new life, a new beginning… Here’s to a new place and a new start. Cheers!

New-Beginning-Pictures-5Image Source: quotesfans.com

Until later 🙂

P.S: My reader is overflowing with unread posts, give me sometime to be back in action, will ya? 🙂

The hobbies that I never thought I’d have

June 28, 2015 / / 8 Comments

There are certain hobbies of mine which I considered to be not-my-cup-of-tea when I was back in college. I considered them to be too docile for my tom-boy nature. But as I grew up, I realized that there are better reasons to do them than to shrug them off. Kolam* is one such thing. I was absolutely disinterested in this art when I was growing up and was thinking I’d paint a permanent kolam in front of my house and be done with it, like many people in Bangalore. But things changed when there was a sudden interest in trying a few simple kolams which led my house owner to appreciate it and ask for my help during the Pongal* season. That was when I realized that my kolam was good enough for people to give a second look.

From then on, I started taking more interest. I am still no pro, the main reason being my shaky hands. I cannot draw a straight line without a scale and that has been the case ever since I remember. And the uneven ground in front of our house does not help either. So doing this is kind of out of my comfort zone but I am trying. Here are some kolams that I felt came out rather well for my attempts.

This is the Pongal kolam that started off the whole thing:

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A very amateur attempt

These are some of the daily designs I try out:

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Deepam designs always catch my eye

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One of my favorites

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Curved lines are still not my forte

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A bigger challenge I took on a Sunday and I was rather pleased with the result

There are many more better works but I couldn’t capture them as I was rushing to office in the morning after spending a good deal of time in their making. Anyway, this is one hobby that I thought I’d never take up but it made me eat my words. Now I am cribbing that once I move into our flat next month, I wouldn’t have enough space to experiment bigger designs as there is only so much lobby space in front of the flat. 🙁

A couple more unconvincing hobbies are making their way up my ladder but slowly – Cooking and Crafts. Cooking is something I try to enjoy but end up not sustaining the interest. It’s like an on and off relationship. But what I do sustain is making interesting by-products out of ordinary and sometimes boring dishes. Like Dosa and Sambar is very common for us, but I make a Dosa Lasangna out of it by layering them and adding the Sambar like a sauce and then adding some toppings like coriander, nuts or tomatoes. Here’s a click, it is not very clear that it is a lasagna because the dosas were very thin and were only 3 layers. Needless to mention, my photography skills are still scraping the bottom of the pan.

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Without the toppings

I have just started taking clicks of such things I do, so I don’t have more, But I have tried this Greek Yoghurt Sandwich and I also make a variety of sandwiches with common items like mint leaves chutney and tomato chutney. I make an Indian Pulav with Carrot, Coriander, Peas and so on. I am planning to do more of this.

Again, Crafts was something I never thought I’d venture into. In fact, I thought I didn’t have a single crafty bone in my body for so long. But after seeing GB’s artworks, I was overwhelmed with desire to make something that beautiful. She also cooks so many awesome recipes that she posts on her blog and her food blog. Some dishes have made me crave that I had an ounce of her talent and interest in cooking. Anyway, on seeing her art works, I started researching on some easy to do craft works and stumbled upon paper quilling. It is relatively easy for a beginner to try and so I did. I made a couple of cards for my friends  for their birthdays and it turned out that I did have some craft sense in me.

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The first birthday card I made with quilling

As I am trying out these new hobbies, the only thing I am running short of is time. And I don’t know how I am gonna indulge in gardening too when I move to our flat. I am planning to have a few plants in the balcony for sure.  But I must say, amidst all the crafts, cooking, blogging, work, attempting new kolams and packing and planning to move into our own place, life is pretty awesome 🙂

Until later 🙂

*Kolam– It is the rangoli that we make with dots. Some call this as Rangoli, but I was taught that free hand designs and coloring was rangoli.

*Pongal- It is the festival that we celebrate for the harvest season by offering it to the Sun god.

A memorable day together keeps you going forever

March 14, 2015 / / 8 Comments

Today I am in a good place, but this was not the case a couple of years back. I had finally relocated to Bangalore and was in the same city as Adit but all the problems were not laid to rest. We were struggling to make things happen on the marriage front and get any progress in convincing our parents. There were days on which we had the toughest of times managing our parents, discussing what next and maintaining the relationship as such. It was taking a huge toll on us, ironical how working to make the marriage happen can actually work to exhaust us and in turn turning ourselves against each other. We were just passing days by working out things when that wonderful day came by.

It was my birthday time and I was in no mood to celebrate it with all that was going on. To top it all, I was unhappy about work too and was changing companies. Since it was the last month and I had to do a lot at office to transition my knowledge to the others before I leave, I was always cranky and a birthday celebration was the last thing on my mind. This was when Adit decided a trip to Mysore would be a good break for me and him as well. We had another friend who was also interested in accompanying us and we decided we would go on my birthday.

The three of us decided to make it a one day trip by a car. As the day approached, I felt guilty about not appreciating what Adit was trying to pull here and wanted to make it up to him. So on a sudden impulse, I decided to wear a sari since he liked seeing me in one. I dressed up in a cream colored sari with a dark green border with stone work and left to meet him as early as 5 AM. He was pleasantly surprised in seeing me dressed up and we had a romantic morning coffee together while we waited for our friend to join us. The morning breeze soothed our worries away and the feeling of being there, in the moment, together made us forget all worries. Soon after, our friend came with the car and we started out.

It took 3 hours to reach there. We visited the Chamundeeswari temple first. There was a heavy rush since it was close to Dussehra and by the time we came out of the temple it was afternoon. Time does fly, I thought. After a quick lunch, we visited the Mysore wild life reserve. We had a fun time looking at the animals and teasing each other with analogies 😉 Also that was my first time seeing a white tiger and the beast was magnificent.Actually, it’s not fair to call it a beast, it was that beautiful. We had reserved the Mysore palace for the evening because that’s when it looks best with all the lights. So the next stop was the palace and I came face to face with the personification of royal look. The palace was vast and glittered with the history that adorned it. I was still reeling over the history and beauty of it when we were on our way back. The drive back to Bangalore was so pleasant that we became drowsy but we didn’t want to miss the time together. So we chatted about everything under the sun and enjoyed the drizzle that was slowly making its way through.

We had a dinner stop on the way and by the time we came back, we were dead tired. So we dropped off at our respective places and hit the bed straight. Only the next day did I realize that that was the first night in months when I had slept peacefully and without disturbing dreams. Maybe it was the physical tiredness or the mental content of spending a day forgetting about every worry I had, I am not sure. But one thing was crystal clear for me. All it took to break a monotony, to give a recharge for yourself when things are going bad was a day with your loved ones. A simple day forgetting about everything else. If you had the open mind and time for that, nothing else mattered. Often, we don’t give that chance. We just keep cribbing and going about what we are already doing.

That day is still etched in my mind as one of the most refreshing and positive days of my life. The simplicity of what we had that day left a great impact on me and gave me the strength to face and sort out my troubles. From then on, if I am in a restless and disturbed phase, I just hit the pause button of my busy life and take a recharge. A day with my loved ones – it makes me look up to life and love with renewed energy and optimism.

Until later 🙂

This post is written as a part of #together campaign by housing.com

Alone or Lonely?

March 12, 2015 / / 7 Comments

I have heard people saying being alone doesn’t equate to loneliness. And I fully agree. There’s actually a not-so-thin line between the two which we often overlook. Don’t get it? Here’s an example.

Your parents/husband/roommate is out of town for a couple of days. You are pretty comfortable staying alone and hence you go about your work as usual. You use the time @ hand to do some reading that you’ve been meaning to do, watch re-runs of your favorite TV show, sing at the top of your voice without bothering anyone, sleep right on the couch without bothering about the next meal and talk to yourself just for the sake of it. That’s being alone!

You feel like there’s none to talk to or understand you. Not one of your acquaintances turn into friendships. You feel there is no one who matches your frequency of thinking. You miss your best friend who is unfortunately living in a different city or worse a different country. You miss your mom and dad and wish you could just leave everything and head back home. You have everything and everyone around you but all you feel is the sad feeling that no one’s around. That’s lonely!

The second case of being lonely can happen even when you are surrounded by people. People whom you don’t relate with or who don’t relate with you. Why am I now writing about this? Let me tell you. I am a person who is very comfortable with some alone time. I enjoy it. As much as I love my husband and parents, I have always carved out that personal space where I do things which I like without anyone’s interference. I don’t go in search of such time. It comes to me. Be it 10 minutes of a day or an entire weekend when hubby is out of town, I enjoy the time at the same level. I drown in a good book, watch re-runs of movies and shows, roam around the house cleaning and singing along with my favorite song which I can play on endless repeat.

My problem comes when people around me think I will get lonely because I am alone at home and start inviting me over. My MIL and grandma get concerned when hubby has to go out of town and start suggesting people whom I can visit so that I don’t have to stay alone. I appreciate their concern and at the same time politely tell them that I am very very looking forward to some ‘me’ time. After a few attempts, they understood. My mom calls twice a day to see how am doing. I tell her I am so enjoying it. My hubby still feels restless of leaving me alone at home while I am constantly assuring him that I am actually having a party all by myself 🙂 Of course, I will miss being with him but that’s natural. I will deal with it and get on with my work.

So next time you are saying that you are lonely, think twice. Are you alone or are you lonely? My mantra is “If you are not fully comfortable being alone with yourself, then you can’t be so with anyone else.”

Until later 🙂

December : The kick-back month

February 8, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Here goes the month of December 2014 in our anniversary year, number 11 on the list 🙂

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Dear Adit,

The month was a refreshing break for both of us. We were already enjoying what would be our short stint together in the same company. It was very comfortable to have you ping over the IM and have lunch together. Even though we had a very interesting year together, it went by fast and by December, we were wondering where all the days went by.

Remember how with days passing by, I missed my nephew so much and consoled myself seeing him attempt the adorable air-kicks that he was practicing on Skype? We also had our annual shut down at the end of the month. It was my first kind, I had been working in companies where there was no shut-down. we enjoyed the vacation at Trichy and got all the relaxation we wanted. We also got your health check-up and bless our stars, everything was okay. How glad were we!

The biggest surprise of the month was you getting a Kindle for me, preponing the anniversary gift by a leaping 2 months, just because I was pouting for a gift during Christmas. Finally, the kindle search materialized for us! Anyway, without much ado, our December passed by and we have stepped into the new year with high hopes – moving into our new flat, career achievements and stuff like that!

And did I tell you? I love you 😉

Love,

Wifey

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Until later 🙂

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