Bestie Beasts...

Goodbyes have been quite a frequent affair with me - courtesy Dad's job with a nationalized bank. We traveled across the country, relocating every 3 to 4 years, and thus, memories of friends and friendships were literally sweet & smiley pockets of love that I have carried in my heart, all my life.

Though I had done it many a times, bidding adieu that is, it was equally heart wrenching each time.  So much so that I had begun to dread making friends!!!  But then, Friends are not made, They Happen.  Just when I thought I was now brave enough to handle the Sayonaras, my husband wrapped his UK deputation assignment, and I remember weeping uncontrollably as the plane took off (yesssssss... I am a big-time emotional idiot!!!) as memories of numerous wonderful moments spent with buddies and extended families came gushing back; wondering if I shall ever get to meet them ever again or will Life get the better of us.

Thanks to technology today, we get to constantly stay in touch with all our loved ones, no matter which nook and corner of the globe they reside in.  Having said that, no Facebook or FaceTime or Skype or WhatsApp can substitute the warm hugs and smiles and all the emotions and energy that a lively, casual, face-to-face, backslapping chat brings along.

It was one such wonderful moment yesterday as my "Dearie," one of my "Bestest Bestie Beasts" (Babes, you know you are one of them too....yea, I miss you too!!!!  lest you kick me ;) :P) from Bristol, dropped by to "top-up" the warmth and love of our relationship.  Na, not that friendship needs a "top-up," but it definitely feels super awesome to meet a friend so close, especially when you are so unsure as to when your paths will cross again.  Ah...I just can't stop smiling.  It's as though those two hours added loads and loads of happiness to my being.  As she alighted from the auto rickshaw, the heart rates paced up, we hugged and cried silly!!!  It took a good few minutes before the feeling of actually having met could sink in :) .  Well, the feeling is indescribable.  It did make me update my WhatsApp status (oh come on now...stop rolling your eyes :P :P) as Souls Smile When Besties Meet.  It felt just that. 

As I write, I find myself traveling back in time, fondly recollecting moments with two of my Besties, who belonged to my country, who lived in the same city as me for a part of their lives, whom I met in a foreign land (Destiny and it's ways..), and smiling sheepishly to myself.

Nitya...The name sounds so alien to me as I never use it to address her.  Neither does she call me by mine.  We both are each other's "Dearies".  Period.  We literally have been the "Laurel & Hardy" of Bristol...in every way...Haha, I am serious!!!  So very together all the time that our friend's kids would play games pretending to be Nitya & Vidya!!  And just like the classic comedy legends, we have had our share of  "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into!!" and in the process, provided ample entertainment to the rest of our friends :D 

                                     

                                                       Cheers To Life .... Cheers to the Three Musketeers!!!


The other partner in crime (ahh...silly me !!!  I typed "crime in partner" instead :P :D) was my "Babes."  Here too, we are just "Babes" for each other.   True to her name, Alag (Beauty in Tamil) is a gorgeous young lady, full of humor and zest for life, and applauded by each of her guests for being the best hostess in town.   Her energy & dressing sense was such that it inspired all the young mommies around and (shd I confess??!!),  err....me too of course!!!  We were together just for about 6 months, but the bond shaped up so beautifully & strongly, it's there for everyone to see. Sadly, she had to ditch Nitya and Me and leave for India as her spouse winded off his overseas assignment.  She currently resides in the Aussie Land (when she was in India, I was abroad, & she flew away by the time I landed here :-| but then that's life), and yes, she has begun her blogging journey too; you can read her @ http://yourcoffeecompanion.blogspot.in/. 

We - The Three Musketeers, as we call ourselves (hehe), share innumerable hilarious episodes, RoFLing away on the streets of Bristol (ah, to hell with the lady-like manners...how does it matter when the heart still feels like a girl).  From tasting wine to making biryanis, from gossiping to grocery shopping, from laughing at each other over silly stuff to having each other's backs, we have been there, done things - together.

Having met one just yesterday, still feeling the warmth of the hug and a happy-sad smile pasted on my face, (mmm... she will be on her flight back in less than an hour from now!!), and yearning to meet the other, I know for a fact that I shall treasure this relationship with my sisters from other mothers until the end of time.  

With a hope to catch up with them again, re-live old and make new memories, I sign off for now as I wait for the Sun to rise when I shall meet two more of my Besties....ah ha!!...Beasties ;) :D

Ciao & Have a Lovely Lovely Weekend!!!



P.S.:

Dearie:  Hope you have a safe flight ... and you better miss me !!!  *wicked grin*
Babes:  I know you are missing me too...You gotta treat me for marketing your blog (I know you'll only snap back: Babes, who's even reading your blog??") ... Lolz ... 
To all my other Besties:  Miss you all & love you all too!!!!   These two bribed me into writing about them.  What are you buying me??  ;) :D  (hope you don't realise...why will they have to bribe me into writing about them when no one reads my blog!!!  O_o  ... RoFL ).
Loadsa Love, Everyone!!!

The English & The Me's ;)

Hey!!!

You know what happens when you stop reading & conversing in a particular language?  Correct!!!  And what if that happens to be the most common language used worldwide?  Exactly!!!  And that's what happened to me.

I quit working post marriage and moved abroad with my husband.  Having worked for 8 plus years, I was only happy to be home.  It only meant I had surplus time to get to know my brand-new husband ;), have some "me" time, enjoy the new country, learn cooking (initial days were so horrendously disastrous that I would cook, taste, and dump it all right away into the bin a countless number of times :-| ...that my spouse was quite good at cooking saved us from dying of hunger in the cold wintry start-up days of our joint venture of marriage...ah...I can just sway off the topic like....mmm...like whatever!!! and now I can't remember what I was actually telling you...Oh yes!!), enjoy the freedom of waking up and sleeping at your own will and wish, and loads of other good things that came with it.

While all the "new" things in this phase of life kept me engaged, little did I realize that I was losing out on one of my most favorite things to do - Reading.  Forget finishing a book in a go, I wasn't even looking at one.  I was so much into this homemaker role that I would spend hours at the Tescos and PoundLands, grocery shopping & picking up those tiny-miny things to do up my home and admire the artsy side of me.  Am sure all the women out there (at least those whose lives traveled along the same path as mine) can relate to what am saying. I mean it all is just so fascinating that you don't even realize that you have given up things that you love doing.

And while abroad, meeting a fellow Indian would only mean chattering away in our native languages. Even if it wasn't my native language, it was typical of me to try and speak the other's.  I loved learning them (I still burst out into peels of laughter watching the videos my friends shot of me giving the Tamil Tirukurals a try ;-) ) , and somehow that made me feel closer to the person & I must say it does feel like I traveled overseas just to meet some really wonderful people, who today are my extended family, whom I shall stay connected for the rest of my life (Man, what was that!!! sentence or great wall of China O_o).  So there I was, unknowingly losing my command over the language, both spoken and written, over just a period of about 2 years!!! 

I happened to actually learn about what was going on when I began to pause trying to recollect the spelling of very simple words (you'll laugh your ass off if I tell you what words).  Good Lord!!!  The spoken language was going hazy too.  I recollected how my mom had gradually lost her language skills & then got home a copy of the well-known Rapidex English Speaking Course.  And there I was, going her way (maybe I would land up in an English-Vinglish scenario some day)!!! 

Good Lord!!!  It wasn't that bad actually, but somehow it all felt like a nightmare, giving a sudden jolt to my confidence.

When I shared what I was going through with a few of my friends who were travelling in the same boat as mine, they all echoed my experience.  Alas!!!  What a heartbreaking fact.  No doubt each one of us were happy in our own lives, but then we had lost ourselves in the humdrum (becoming drums in the process, as well) of life.

Well, the solution to regaining language skills was quite simple (well, I didn't want to invest in another copy of the latest edition - if any- of the English tutorial :P :P ) and something that I had always loved to do.  Reading.  Work is still in progress through blogging too ;). 

So I shall keep blogging and keep eating your brains.  Who knows, I might win a Nobel laureate for Literature some day ;-) !!!  Haha...

Keep Smiling until I catch up with you again...
TaTa !!!! 

Garden City....T(err)raffic City

Hola People!!!

Blogging definitely is on my to-do priorities of getting back to Being Myself, but after having had no time to look into how messy the house had gotten (honestly, amidst all the tension, the idea of tidying up didn't cross my mind even for a fraction of a second), it's a nice feeling to get back on to re-arranging and do all the feel-good things.

And while at it, Dad returned home and grumbled about how miserable the traffic had gotten.  As I sat down to scribble a few lines, images of "those" days began to flash across my mind.

Bengaluru ... My Bangalore...Just the name brings a wide grin on my face.

Though having spent just about half my lifetime here, I have real fond memories of the city.  The earliest ones being that of travelling to my grandparents' place in Malleshwaram.  Back then, Malleshwaram meant Greenery with those huge trees providing a thick green cover right from KC General Hospital to Margosa and Sampige Road.  Na, actually, the whole of Bangalore screamed Greenery.  Cut to today, it's just so different...so so very concrete everywhere.  I mean, of course we are proud of architecture going so "wowwy & world classy," but it just can't match up to the grand simplicity of 80s or probably even the 90s (Oh come on, I am not ancient o_O ...remember I was a kid with two pigtails back then..haha ;-P ....and with this, I am tempted to write a post about it...tch tch, not pigtails, about my childhood :P).

Concrete apart, there's something that we all dread about Bangalore today.  Yes, the same thing that dad was grumbling about!!!! Traffic!!!  Ah!!!  I can see you cringe at the mention of it :-|.  Going out on a weekend becomes a big No-No.  Oh come on, who would want to wander out after facing the monster every single day.  Convincing my family to drive on a weekend is as good as convincing a toddler to share her toy, or sometimes worse.  Getting to work on time is almost like aiming for Gold in a marathon.  And if we are driving ourselves (that most of us do), then Lord save us!!!   Not to forget the physical and mental stress that come along.  Well, now that Bengaluru traffic has become a butt of jokes, it does provide us with some stress-busting comic relief :P.  Am sure you have had a good laugh at some too like I did with these and many many more.

Lol.

In a scenario like this, private taxi services have come as ... mmm... a savior...or a spoiler??  For me, it's both.  Savior - for reasons more than one (they have been of great help to me).  Sadly, Bangalore falls short on the public transport sector, in terms of connectivity, numbers, and time management.  I remember a 10-km bus ride to college would take an average time of 1-1/2 hours (Oh yes, most of our domestic flights are almost of the same duration o_O).  Our good old Metro is yet to reach all parts of the city.  Spoiler - they just spiked up the number of vehicles on the streets overnight.

And now with Bangalore thinking of going the Delhi way and introducing the odd and even number rule, wonder if it would be efficient in reducing the congestion.  Most of the households have two or more four wheelers and can positively use one of them on any given day..errr..date.  Or, more conveniently opt for a Taxi (like I would...& yes, I must confess I did think of a fake number plate too...Oopsy!!).  Which then would mean an increase in the number of public transport vehicles, and that in turn would only nullify any result brought in by the odd-even rule (hu na, scholar??!! ;) :P).

Ufff...As for me, I do wish to go back to the hassle-free, honk-free, bumper-to-bumper-traffic-free Garden City of Bengaluru.  And for that to happen anytime soon, I need to hit the sack and dream ;) Haha.. But before that I need to lay the table for dinner, and I can hear mum call out for me as I pretend to ignore her (we all do this to our mommies, don't we!!) and try and wind up my post.

I shall hopefully see you all soon with my next post.  Do let me know what you think as to whether the daily chore of driving will get any better with the odd-even number rule?  Or will we be left humming

                                            Dukki pe Dukki ho...ya Satte pe Satta
                                            Gaur se dekha jaye toh bus hai patte pe patta!!!
                                            Koi farq nahi albatta...Koi farq nahi albatta  ;-)

An All New Beginning...

Woah !!!

Haha.  Does that sound a familiar start-off pattern from me?  

This time around, that's exactly what I felt as I finally found time to peep into my own blog.  Few incomplete write-ups and a few that I just didn't want to showcase on my blog any longer, ended up retaining just the very first post of mine.

It feels like time has taken a huge leap before I could feel any close to being "Normal."

The last time I remember chirpily sitting up, sharing my thoughts was as a happy-go-lucky, newly-wedded bride, sitting by my window side, enjoying the starry snowflake shower in some corner of the United Kingdom; and that was almost over 2 years ago.  Did you just go "What!!??!"  Well, Yes!!!  That's true, and that's exactly what I felt like it's been - Ages!!!

Having just completed 3 years of wedded life and with the husband recovering after a renal transplant, I must confess, what a ride it has been!!  Well whatever it was, it changed my way of looking at life, strengthened the bond with my partner, multiplied the love and respect for my family by leaps and bounds, and taught me that when there is no option but to be strong, then the meekest of the homo sapiens can turn out to be tougher than a rock.

Today as I sit by and rumble out my thoughts, it gives me a sense of being myself.  Someone who was lost all this while, someone whom am glad to have found again.

What got me back to my blog today was the realization of life being so uncertain.  Uncertainty of time.  Uncertainty of whereabouts.  Uncertainty of mind.  There probably is so little time to do so much of whatevers and wherevers and whenevers.   So here's to a new beginning with getting back to Living, getting back to doing what I love to, and most importantly, getting back to Being Myself :)

Life is a journey of ups and downs,
Filled with uncertainties, smiles, and frowns.

Had enjoyed many a Roller-Coaster rides,
But this one was difficult to take into stride.

Now that it does seem to have come to an end,
I do want some time with self to spend.

To relax, to unwind, to sing, and to breathe,
In a cosy, comfortable, enjoyable sheath.

With a hope to find loads of reasons to cheer,
The heart beckons to start afresh in an all new gear.