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November 29, 2016

Chaitime Chitchat #5

Be ready with your cup of tea. Pull that chair. Lets talk! 

  • I'm an official West Side fan. More than clothes (which I feel does justice to the price in terms of quality and style) I like the feel of the store. Ahmedabad and now, Bombay. Cotton and linen Kurtas are just too classy. I am a chudidar fan and now you get with an elastic waist! Come on, things can not be more comfortable. I love their limited collection of sheesham furniture. Oof, If I had money to buy atleast one of them! I love their furnishing stuff. Crockery, Cushions, bedsheets, baskets and what not. Forgot to mention amazing grocery section where you, for awhile enter in a foreign country. West side, you have earn some brownie points. Make Tatas proud. (Ignore current affairs for a while please!)
  • I'm looking forward to December for a couple of reasons. 
  • Office work has become so so hectic last month that I took an off just for the sake of it. We hardly have a minute to pause and take a deep breath. The best part is this work pumps endorphin sort of a feel in us. It is all good then! 
  • People management is the most important aspect in any one's professional life and one who wants to grow has to learn it. I've realized how complex it is to manage people-mentor juniors or subordinates now when I head operations. Suddenly your friend-like-juniors need to be taken care of with a pinch of salt. You need to push them without making them feel bad about it. You need to motivate them. And you need to protect them from seniors! Haha! Seriously.
  • I watched three movies this weekend. Black Book, Wartime in Winter and A Beautiful Mind. Fourth movie I do not want to count as I consider it to be nothing more than a ridiculously directed movie- One Day. What a waste of talent.
  • I've got two plants of pinkish flowers as gifts and after showering us with flower-love for a week suddenly they have turned pale. I have been consulting my friend-cum-botanist-turned-Gardner every morning with daily updates. I pray they survive the shock. We suspect they got hurt during the bumpy ride to the party venue. 
  • Thanks to the renovation going on in our bedroom, I have been keeping distance from my DIY drive. I also need to spend all of my quality time in office to finish this year's goal and the most important project we are working on. Hence no heart burns- DIYs shall come back in my life soon!
Whats up with you?? Check out how beautiful my new Chai Mug looks! 



November 17, 2016

U turn

It happens with me many times. I float with current ongoing events in life and succumb to the change they bring. Don't get me wrong, I am all in for accustoming in life but I tend to loose myself in that wave and when it gets on to my head- I've to apply the break and take a U turn to my normal self.

It happened with me due to current affairs again. In reality. I am not into US of A, but all going gaga over Hillary and all abusing Trump made me little curious- of course then the storm of articles on Whatsapp and other social media compelled me to at least get into the subject. (I swear, I still don't know about states and coasts in US of A even today!)

 Just when I thought now when elections are over and discussions would stay there for only a couple of more days and then we, the people might forget about everything - Indian Government took the bold step of demonetization. I have opinions about this step which is largely positive looking at the difference it has made in J&K  (Benefits of having Kashmiri friends) if nothing else - but more than that I wasted my days in reading about all possible articles and kept myself updated.

Then last morning, suddenly I realized what happened to my old self, who was very much into DIY, reading books and work outs? Of course, I've disturbed my schedule for important reasons and I can not get up before 7.30 am thanks to fatigue. Renovation in our bedroom has kept me busy as well. But then those are excuses. I realized how much I miss doing DIY stuff when a friend called me for a gardening workshop this weekend. Another friend called me for a hand loom event this Saturday. I realized what all things were missing among those articles and opinions I keep on reading online.

Hence, time for a U turn.

I need to paint. I need to create something. I need to organize things in the new classy side table we have bought. I need to again read about different weaves of sarees India has developed so far. I need to go to the hand loom event and get inspired by new Indian style of classic formals (I can go on and on about this,even when I do not really have such clothes. Formals for Indian weather,You cant go wrong!) I need to buy that yoga mat and re-start. I need to drink more water. I need to run again. I need to get up a bit early.

I need to take that U turn again. Yes.


November 4, 2016

Words' worth

Declaimer: I know I'm in the process of doing that horrible crime of giving THIS title to the post which highlights lyrical pleasure of life but hey, words are words. Worth blogging.

We saw 'Aye Dil Hai Mushkil' last Saturday,on Diwali. Only if I could have ignored the weak story line and Anushka's lips, I would have given four stars to the movie. KJo really needs to reinvent himself now. Of course the Johar style of showing extravagant life style and locations always wins him some accolades but this time he could have done much much better with the story line. Anushka's cancer was a totally unnecessary twist which hammered hell out of me. Being a Ranbir fan, I could tolerate the movie some how. The way he shows Ayan's baby Avtar when he meets Alizeh and the matured self when he meets Shayara (?) was brilliant. Even, Aishwarya acted well. Costumes were classy. Only if Shahrukh could have been avoided for those ten minutes of torutre. Gone are the Chak De days, I guess.

Oh, the above paragraph was as useless as the movie it self in totality and hence, coming back to the topic. The best part of the movie was not even Ranbir. It was songs. It is songs. More than songs, lyrics. Below are some of my favorite lines from three major hit songs of this film.

***

"Tujhko main kitni
Shiddat se chaahun
Chaahe toh rehna tu be-khabar
Mohtaaj manzil ka toh nahi hai
Ye ek tarfa mera safar,
safar, khoobsurat hai manzil se bhi
Meri har kami ko hai tu laazmi"

***
Tere rukh se apna raasta
Mod ke chalaa
Chandan hoon main
Apni khushboo chhod ke chala

Mann ki maaya rakh ke
Tere takiye tale
Bairagi, bairagi ka sooti (handloom) chaula
Odh ke chalaa

***

Jis din se aashna (friends) se do ajnabi huve hain
Tanhaiyon ke lamhe sab multavi huve hain
Kyun aaj main mohabbat
Phir ek baar karna chahun

Ye dil toh dhoondhta hai inkaar ke bahane
Lekin ye jism koi pabandiyan na maane
Milke tujhe, bagaawat khud se hi yaar karna chahun

Mujhme agan hai baaki aazma le
Le kar rahi hoon khud ko main tere hawale.. Ve Ranjhana....

***






November 1, 2016

Diwali 2016

I was not sure this morning, if I would like to type all those tiny happy sad bits of Diwali but anyway, before thoughts subside and become memory- I had to blog about all of them.

Diwali was the only thing I was looking forward to, with such intensity that when I saw it passing by this sudden pang of pain was felt and I am still recovering from it. Diwali without Mr.ISB meant, a lot of home decor stuff and self pampering stuff for the festival, so that I wont be seen with sympathy by relatives (And labelled as the one whose husband is not there with her in auspicious days! I so wanted to prove all of them wrong subconsciously, never denied it.)

I of course, started with cushion covers from silk scarp of my MIL and the chor bazar visit. It continued with makeovers of a couple of empty wine bottles from which one was converted into a small table lamp post and another three are waiting for plants to grow inside them. We also purchased a babylon floor shelf - the thinnest possible in depth, on Urban Ladder and oh boy, how beautiful and rustic it looks. My week just flew decorating the same.










The Diwali kicked off with a Dhanteras Puja at the office which was 'happily' celebrated thanks to different threats given to some of the team members who finally gave in and flaunted ethnic clothes. I made Kalakand (which was okayish in texture this time) and monsters ate all of it in just one hour! Talk about being the only self proclaimed cook in the office team. This time I also grabbed the opportunity to wear a classy cotton silk Amdavadi saree which was appreciated with comments like 'Abey tu ladaki lag rahi hai' on my face! Hihihi.

Apart from other decor stuff, came the most exciting part of my Diwali times. Rangolis!! This time, I decided to try an abstract Rangoli which turned out to be very very okayish but the main Rangoli satisfied my expectations. This time my SIL also helped me out in filling up a few colors here and there. My grandmother would be smiling from wherever she is, looking at me creating her favourite Ganpati.


My last couple of days of Diwali were/are no more fun, thanks to migraine attacks with intensity I can not tolerate. Drowsy eyes, vomiting sensations and hectic office work- are making things more difficult. Crackers ,even when this time buy out has reduced a lot- are creating thunderstorms in my mind. Hopefully, I would get over it soon and start planning next exciting times I am waiting for.