Eating out ....

Here's the comment I read in one site… "I have been eating like its going out of fashion for the past week.”
Thought it to be funny… sharing it :)

Today at office we had been to a collegues send off lunch today... Lunch was a buffet at new place called Red Bean near office...

The way I was piling up stuff on my plate, I was thinking how correct the above statement seems from my perspective... Dunno what my collegues thought but they too were piling up the same way.. :D

For more survival tips on how to eat in a buffet check out here. :)

"Friends"

Sometimes friends are rude… Sometimes friends really want to show that they are the smart ones..Sometimes they are caustic..
Or maybe there is problem with me who always homes in such so called “friends”….

If they are so..then are they friends?

What brought this post…

For a few days, I have had some free time…either waiting for a late running train.. waiting for someone or some work to be done…
During this idle period, I have always thought of ringing up someone whom I have not rung up in some time and maybe just talk…
No, I am not talking about immediate family, spouse, etc…. They will be more than willing to talk to me ..
However just to chat up on topics with and put rather than only hear thoughts, opinions, viewpoints..

Then I got thinking that for a person with HUGE contact list and even more friends/acquaintances on orkut … I don’t seem to having that many friends..
What I seem to be having are more or less acquaintances… Hmm Not so good I guess.

It does not matter that I don’t have any friends to fall back on ..I have family for that …
However it does feel bad that there is no extensive network where one can share stuff , judge and be judged … and be a sort of support which is bi-directional..
i.e I am not the only one providing support or motivating but also receiving some support or pep talk when required.
Be in touch irrespective of the geographical location… and work commitments.
And no I don’t mean sending email or calling everyday by staying in touch… Just in general be in touch..Even once a month , six months or a year.
But when we talk, write the conversations or thoughts should just flow.
Comfort and support can be shared, propagated and plus provide a listening ear to one and all…

I am tired of always being the listening ear, motivator, sane one and trying to make others think positively about their situation .
So much so that sometimes all this negativity just remains with me and manifests when I am with my close family and people end up thinking I am so critical.

Today spoke with two of them and I guess if I continue getting irritated then better not to have “friends”
Categories of friends I have had :

People who chat up after a long time and generally want to show that they are doing better than you in a way belittling you…(Ok..But I don’t need your approval to lead my life)
People who will only remember you when something is going bad in their life and want you as an emotional anchor..(Don’t mind putting things in perspective but remember me in ur good times too)
People who are out right rude to you but will never apologize or break off friendship.. (Ok.. I can understand you are having a bad day but not every day your interacting with me)
People who will remember you at their time of need but forget you when good things happen to you…( Fine but then don’t pretend that it is me who has forgotten.)
People who will act like a wise owl and always tell that they are the only ones facing that situation or they are the only one having some knowledge.. (I agree with your points but give a benefit of doubt that my points might also be valid)


Nowadays I have realized that I really cannot put up with people like this and probably won’t hesitate to say so if need be.. Better to keep myself away from potential feeling bad.
But it still hurts me too…
This is just a vent I guess .. but that leaves me with very few good people whom I can converse with but who for some logistical, geographical or personal reasons cannot contact all the time..
I guess I am not so good at attracting the right kind of friends..

Hmm…. Need to think more and do more on this :)
i.e Not put up with unnecessary “friends”.

Take care,
Tina :)

Fortune for Today...

Today's fortune: Try and fail, but don't fail to try

Nice to read but difficult to implement.... I so need to prep up my trying esp in professional and yes also personal front...

Key here is : Don't fail to try...
Have to remember that..
:)

Smile to light up ur life

Today, I realised how profound the statement is ..
" A smile can light up the face "..
After a long time met up someone and smile perked up everything she said to me ...
Atleast brought out the positives in life and allowed me to refocuss on
"God's in his Heaven n All's right with the world!"
Things will work out.....i.e eventually ..

A wonderful day... :)

Its a wonderful day... Just something that you keep it save in your memories..
And a nice one to look back on ...
Just remembering a good time and chill out on best times ahead...
Awoke to get ready to go church ... Sleepy wishes were passed..
Got the coffee ready and sipped in the wonderful morning tranquility..
Spent time draping saree..(wearing it after couple of months hence the time factor)
Just finished 5 mins before the start time of the mass.
Warm wishes from the near and dear ones ... And yea we raced to be in time for the morning mass.
Breakfast followed in 'Taj Mahal restaurant' ... a place we hadn't visited in a while..
After which went to supermarket ..You bought milk and I did not want to spoil any surprise (not that i needed to worry about it) so was attending the wishes on phone...
After which on reaching home ...came the flowers :)
Nice to receive flowers ...though I guess I first worried about the expense... :)
But sometimes should give a miss to trivial issues of cost when the thought behind it is comforting :)
Got some more calls with some more warm wishes and some thoughtful messages.. Nice to be remembered.
Black forest cake followed ...after which there was not much appetite for lunch...
So cancelled plan of going out for lunch.

Instead had a light lunch ( if you could call it light) ...phulkas, egg roast, onion tomato raita plus pickle and yesterday's mango dal..

Wore the new salwar kurta for which we searched quite a bit for matching aqua marine duppata..
Finally found that in "Fab India" when we went to shop yesterday as ur treat...

Then you humoured me by taking me to "Walden".....Checked out books and bought some..
Took part in a lucky dip..
Bought some plum cakes for taking to office tomorrow to distribute it to team..

Then we were doing time pass browsing "Home Town" wondering how to redeem the Rs 25 parking ticket..
But got the news that dad's wallet was picked in his ride on the local train to catch the passenger.
However no major harm as no debit or credit cards though caused some anxious moments both here and back home.

Then when all was fine browsed through "LOFT"... just to check out and in search of the elusive pair of shoes... However nothing worth the price.
Left for " Our Place "..but we lost or rather did not remember the turns and gave up going there for dinner..

Instead went to "Uttupura" and had parotta and kadala and chicken curry ...:) I know cheap and modest treat but what to do since we could not find "Our Place".. Maybe that will be for some other time ..

Came back.. perused the books..got a call regarding the dip and saw the new serial "Custom Made for Vir Sanghvi"....
Nothing exceptional but a wonderful day...
Thanks for humouring me to go to all the shops esp on a Sunday evening ..

Wonderful yet simple though tiring way to spend a birthday :)

P.S(8th Aug 2009) : We won the Rs 1000 gift coupon at Walden ..Splurged today on books again :)

Best Things Done..... :)

Drawing inspiration from Kiran's post here ... I too thought of penning the best things dear husband has done for me (till now )...

Dear Husband…….

The Five Best Things Dear Husband has done for me

1) Married Me :D….Taken the load of my father ‘s chest …. :)
2) He really show small gestures which bring out the greatest love he has ..though he won’t verbalize the love part… it is implied :)..Waking me up at 2.00 in the night so that I can take the fever medicine for the sudden fever I have developed. In addition rubbing my back when back is hurting on account of fever…Plus some random day night when I groggily awoke crying disoriented with a muscle pull, massaged the leg back by the time I realized what the problem was.
3) Patiently listening with a zen like calm to my ranting, grumblings and verbalizing of stuff which has caused irritation , anger etc and which has churned itself into a major melting pot of venting out. Of course sometimes I mis-understand this calm as not able to empathize with my point of view.
4) Does some of the stuff un asked. … If the maid has taken an impromptu off and there is a bucket full of clothes majorly mine which has been already soaked, then will not hesitate to wash them. Broom the cobwebs away at corners of the room where my bulk and height will never reach. Of course sometimes I have to ask to wipe the microwave..( I leave it with more stains)
5) Doesn’t mind the old hag look I take when I am at home in “maxi”…Reminds me to put cream and take medicines if any.. It is another issue that I don’t do it if I am too tired.

In addition to these , these are some other best things to be added …. :)

6) Taken me to lovely places and different places for shopping or for eating .. :) Be it finding out about where FabIndia exists (which earlier with friends was not able to go to) or trying Barbecue Nation or Yoko’s… Or searching for a CASIO battery replacement shop in ABIDs area. Although some more exists in the To Do List…like going to Golconda, visiting the main office campus along with me(before it is closed down), visiting Bawarchi, buying pearls and hyderabadi kundan work sarees, etc etc
7) Likes to humour my suggestions and whims especially like going out to a Thali place which is not that great or taking my suggestion of Dhola ri dhani which we went with friends which turned out ok..
8) Tolerates my shopping especially grocery shopping whims especially when not feeling well and accompanying me to shop random grocery…
9) Takes care of House Owner interface , Gas booking and follow up with Fridge repair where I would have seriously sucked..
10) Brings out the humane perspective especially in dealing with maid,etc. :)
11) Really gets thoughtful gifts i.e be it splurge on Crossword or a wonderful and tasteful ring.

For future references, watch the space :D…

Warm regards,
Wife :)

Wonderful Thought on Togetherness

I was checking a wonderful post here.
Here’s wishing Art and Navy more wonderful years ahead.

But wanted to post the thought mentioned in this post.

The thing with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but must live with a character.
Having quoted that ,
Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness ( sometimes delayed) blow the rest away

I especially liked the one below.
And hope someday we will never measure nor weigh the thoughts or words instead pour them out.

Pattiwalii chai .......

From: Tina

Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:18 PM

Subject: Pattiwalii chai .......

Yippppeeee …. !!!!!!

Pattiwalii chai has come to our cafeteria……almost after a year ….
Which means we are free of vending machine ‘chai’…

Which also means that for that mandatory cuppa in afternoons we don’t have to trudge down to roadside tapri at 40 degrees from a 25 degrees temp in office AC and trudge back.
Hope fully we won’t fall ill :)

Plus flavors bhi hai … elaichi aur ginger toh dekha aaj….

It is a different thing kii kab tak yeh karishma rehega and chai kitna aur dilute hoga…… :)

But for now ……chai is just at crawling distance woh bhi patti waaliii :):)

Njoiiing the afternoon cuppa..
~Tina.

Wats a Carrier ?

What does the word “carrier” indicate ?
I used to think that I had a fairly good idea of English Language. But nothing prepared me for the different meanings a simple word can construe.
A colleague and me were walking from an evening dose of ‘chai’.
That was a time period when people of another company were leaving from their morning shift.
As we were walking, my colleague mentioned “ So many carriers in this building?”
For a split second I did not really get it as to what was the main subject.
For me, carrier implied a vessel or more like the ‘dabba’ you get as your lunch box.
Or somebody sitting on the pillion carrier of a two wheeler. But as far as I could see there were just lots of people walking down to the gate.
I know that wiki has lots of meanings for carrier.
But I was seriously stumped that what could possibly be this ‘carrier’.
Then realization dawned and what she was referring was that there are lots of pregnant ladies or rather expectant mothers among the lot who had left for the day.
Too much I say …
Ciao,
Tina :)

Pongal Holiday :)

From: Tina

Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:02 PM

Subject: Pongal Holiday :)

Hey Guys,
Happy Pongal , Makar Sankrant and Lodhi to all… Hope you all had a good time.

Yesterday was a holiday, so we made a late plan to go for lunch at a resort type place little bit off city limits.
So me being the person supposedly being staying in HYD for a long time was asked to give some directions :) (I know …not a good suggestion)
Somehow we got to the main road and then I knew it was straight down..
As we neared the destination, friend asked “Is it real far cause we do not have much petrol and we might need to fill the tank”
I was like not sure , I know it is straight down this road but not sure how far. Thinking to myself what if we had to turn at the previous junction.
Then as we crossed the junction I slowly mentioned that maybe it would be a good idea to stop and ask as I am not sure how far or till where we should go.
Then I proceeded to call and ask my colleague who had been to this place.
V got down to ask the auto waala. “Bhaiyya ____ yeh jagah kaha hai, kitnee door hai pata hai”
Auto waala looking as if he has come from Mars… “ Just do about turn and look at the other side of the road..Thats the place.”
Eureka. We were right in front of the place and looking for it :)


When I called my colleague for the directions to this place.
The phone rang for quite a while and then finally when I had almost thought he is not going to pick up, my colleague picked up..
Then very softly, “ Hi Tina, aaj office hai kya”
Me very exuberantly replied, “ Happy Pongal, You thought I called to come for office” ( Generally I am the one to pass on any sad news like that to my team.)
“Nahi… You know this place _____ . I just wanted to know where this particular place is?”
Then he replied in his normal voice with a gusto explained to me where the place. Fortunately we were right in front of it on the other side of the road.


After a holiday we all came to work today with quick wishes to everyone and went ahead to check emails and continue with project work.
For some reason I guess there are very less people around and time slowly dragged till it was time for lunch.
At Lunch, we were discussing how everyone spend the single holiday as out station candidates could not go home.
One by one every one mentioning that ‘I did this’ and ‘I went there’ etc.
That had C(guy) going with friends for a get together.
Su(guy) going through the after effects of a hospital visit but had his mom here for festivities.
Su1(second guy) njoiiing hostel special foods with a movie in theatre.
Sr(another guy) say that he too went for a movie but spend quite a while in the morning flying kites. Also noting that this time quite a few kites doting the SECUNDERABAD skyline till late evening.
That’s when S(Gal) bragged that ‘Yea we too went to the terrace and flew some kites with roomies. It was nice. We were able to even cut a couple of kites”
Sr replied “Cut with what..Blade kya”
The whole table erupted with laughter :)
With S(Gal) replying “ Nahi with another kite ”
Hope you all had a good time and yea ‘Til gud ghya gog god bola’
Cya,

Tina.