Pained!

For the past 4 days I have been trying to get over thinking about the Mumbai terror, but my mind keeps going back to the senseless terror, the innocent people who lost their lives, their loved ones, their agony and so forth. I feel depressed, sad and extremely sorry for the victims and their family. My prayers are with them. Also hope I will regain my peace of mind soon. For the first time I feel that I should not fear such incidents, instead face whatever comes my way and not let the terrorists win!

Shopping with Dad

My dad and my husband are quite similar in many aspects, yet they have very different personalities. One aspect which my husband and dad are uniquely different are their shopping traits. I used to think my dad was unique when to came to shopping, because he loves shopping, especially with me, but I don't think thats true, because I hear from many of my friends that their dads were great shopping partners, while their husbands are not :-).

My dad used to shop clothes, jewellery and shoes for us whenever he used to travel to new places. I remember the time from childhood to teenage, my dad used to accompany me to all my shopping trips. He would scan the entire shop over and over again and get me clothes to the trial room to try. Dad would then patiently wait for me outside the dressing room to see what fits me best. If a particular outfit fitted and suited me well, we would be so thrilled about it, like we had won a lottery or something. The amazing part of this shopping routine was, my dad's tastes and mine were completely alligned. Many times, we would end up buying more than one set, just because we like it and endure the wrath of my mom at home. My dad is in his mid-sixities now and he is still very particular about clothes. After every shopping trip with him, my mom complains to me over phone about how she was tortured, while my dad took his own sweet time to decide on the clothes :-). I often smile when I hear this and relate to my dad so much. My husband can relate so much with my mom, as he gets really very impatient shopping with me.

My husband is like my mom. Shopping for them is a necessary evil, not a pleasure. There is no excitement in that process. While I eagerly look for clothes to try out, I always can sense my husband's impatience, like a child who wants to break free from the tight grasp of his mom to go play. After I try out and choose something I like, my husband would be happy like he won lottery (now, not because I found a good dress, but because he is free to go now :-( ).

I ofcourse miss my dear shopping partner (my dad), but I do appreciate my husband's tolerance levels. He accompanys me to every shopping trip, even though it is not an enjoyable process for him. :-)

image source: http://www.risingstars-uk.com/uploads/ImageRoot/images/WwbUiROM.j

Our Diwali Celebrations

I thought I will start off the blogging routine with a post about our Diwali celebrations. This Diwali was so much fun because this was the first Diwali I was at home after 7 years of being away from India and we had my husband's dad with us, so it was very special. I definitely missed celebrating Diwali in India, but I have been away from home for Diwali for so many years, that I don't remember the excitement and happiness that festival bought.

The day started off with nalangu, oil bath and wearing new clothes. I cooked the standard diwali cooking - more kulambu, rasam, vadai and payasam. We decorated the house with lamps and candles. We had our husband's cousin join us for dinner in the evening.

I have made medu vada before, but do not remember it turning out so well like yesterday. I got excellent tips from Vah Reh Vah youtube video. Check it out if you making medu vada.

Happy Diwali to all you bloggers!!:-) It is really fun to read other people's diwali celebrations.

Time to update my blog!

Finally I felt the need to update my blog. These past months I had so much I wanted to write about, I would think about new topics while I am getting ready to sleep or driving or in the shower, yet I could not bring myself to write any new posts. I then realized how difficult it is to keep a blog updated. Hats off to all of you who keep others entertained with your blog updates. Probably you deserve an award for this. Let me think of an award and pass to all the people who keep me entertained with their blog posts. As usual I have been reading a lot of blogs, even though I never kept mine updated.

These past few months so many changes have happened to me. Both on the personal and professional front. Luckily all these changes have been really good for me and I am happy about that.

I hope I can manage to write some new posts once in while..we'll see :-)

Olympic Inspirers

While everyone is going ga-ga about Olympic achievers Micheal Phelps, Usian Bolt, Nastia Lukin or Shawn Johnson, personally there are few that have captured my heart, even though they might have not won any medals or broken world records.

Alicia Sacramone:



Gymnast Alicia Sacramone faltered on the balance beam before she even started her routine. You could hear the audience's shock and the commentator saying what a disaster this was for US gymnastic team. Alicia herself realized at the moment she lost balance that she stripped her team of any Gold medal dreams. However, she went on to completing the rest of her routine perfectly. Many people in her position would have given up, because after years of working for something so dear to you, losing it because of bad luck feels really awful. In her interview later she said that it was rare for her to have lost balance like that. But it happened and she moved on. What I liked about her was that she had the courage, determination and sportsmanship to continue and do what she needed to do. She accepted responsibility for her mistakes even though according to experts even if Alicia had given a perfect routine, they would be still lagging behind China has they performed routines with more difficulty. I really feel that she was unfairly scored in the vault competition which she competed for later and lost the chance of winning the bronze, but I knew this girl will get through it. :-)

Milorad Cavic (the guy who "almost" won Phelps)

Cavic would have changed history by defeating the world's greatest swimming champ. But he apparently came second place to Phelps by 1/100th of a second. This just seems like bad luck or plain unfairness. Even when one watches the clip by clip images of Phelps and Cavic, it is not crystal clear that Phelps finished the race earlier. However I am really impressed with how Cavic has taken this in his stride and moved on. Read his interview here. I guess thats life. It may not be fair, you might not get what you worked for. You might have played all the cards right and still might have not reaped its benefits. What can one do in these circumstances? I guess we have to just move on and as hard and difficult it might seem, we just need to maintain a positive attitude that our day will come.

Lolo Jones



I saw sprinter Lolo Jones do very well in the heats and in the semi-finals. I was shocked to see that she came 5th place in the finals. Unfortunately it was not her day. She was leading the race until she hit the 8th hurdle and lost her speed. According to her this rarely happens and happened during the most important day of her life. Jones had faced several difficulties in life and she managed to come this far, just because of her sheer determination and her love for the sport. It is really a very inspiring story. Read more here. Really an example of what life can throw at you in the most unexpected time and fashion. Like Jones says, what can you do in these circumstances other than to try again? Well easy to say, but really very difficult to follow. Time is the healer of all wounds.

I am sure there are many, many more Olympic heroes like these people who have captured our hearts in displaying mental strength in the face of adverse circumstances. Apart from sports there are many people in life who have shown greatness in spirit despite difficulties. My three cheers to them. I did read that you need not be a medal winner to be an Olympic champion. So true!

Financially Smart?

Yesterday my dad was talking to me about his life before I was born. My dad had a dream to do this his M.E and work part-time. But when my parents realized they had me coming on the way, he had to ditch his plans and work full-time to support his family. I got emotional hearing this, because I did not know about this so long and I suddenly realized what my parents had gone through to give me the life I have today. This made me really think about how easy things have been for me and whether I was really managing the hard-earned money smartly.

I don't know if I will ever be financially smart, since I never manage my finances actively. It has always been somebody else's responsibility. The only time I managed my finances was when I was doing my Masters and I had convinced myself that my finances were not the priority at that time and focussed my energy on studying. Whenever I needed cash, I would ask family and things would be solved.

Today I work full-time and manage a home, but I still feel I am financially challenged. For example, when somebody asks me "how much is that stuff at Indian store?, I have absolutely no idea what the price is. I know how much our weekly grocery bill comes up to, but I have never bothered to remember the prices of individual items. For the longest time, I did not know how much a gallon of milk costs. While I trust my husband to take care of our finances and I feel very guilty for being this way. I think my ignorance and disinterest in learning and actively managing finances has got to something with how I was raised. Though I come from a middle-class family background, my parents have never made any issues about money when it came to me. Being the only daughter, my dad would buy me anything I fancied. Even when money was tight, my parents never really made a big deal and did not explain the situation to me. I think this sort of spoiled me. Even after years of living away from my parents, I still have not learnt to manage my finances actively. I cannot blame my parents for this, because I think their lives were about fulfilling their kid's desires. But, I think it is going to be different with my kids. I will teach my kids early on to be financially accountable (after I learn to be one) :-)

Earliest Memory

I cannot believe that it has been more than a month and half since I blogged. I have been preoccupied with so many things, that I have not had the time to blog. But, I have started to read many blogs quite frequently.

My good old buddy Sachita tagged me to write about my earliest memory. This is really an interesting and good tag.

My earliest memory is of course an incident that happened in my childhood. I think I was a toddler and I was sitting in the living room, when my dad was sitting on the sofa and reading the newspaper and drinking his morning coffee. I don't remember if I was wearing a plastic bangle that I removed or I found one on the floor, but I took it and put it in my mouth and was trying to swallow it. My dad who was just next to me, though engrossed in reading the paper, suddenly realized that something was wrong and looked at me. He saw me trying to push the bangle down my throat and his face turned blue. I clearly remember him screaming for my mother, while he put this fingers inside my mouth and pulled the bangle out which was really close to my throat. Apparently I was really young when this happened, but I am surprised how vividly I remember this incident, the living room, my dad reading the paper and all. :-)

My dad remembers his incident very well and how it scared the hell out of him :-)