Home Sweet Home!!!

“There is no place like home” is an age old saying and you really understand the real meaning of the words when you are away from home for a long time. Yep, I was away for a week donning the pallu of a dutiful daughter-in-law attending a marriage and I was nowhere near the Himalayas it was just a malicious rumor floated by a fellow blogger :D

The marriage went well and I escaped from doing any major work as God had blessed me with a horrible cold but still the act of donning a saree a day that too jazzy one’s can be tiring especially when you add jewellery of all kinds, things can only go worst. Add to that the fact I am one of those rare species whose ear does not agree with wearing gold.

So here I was donning a saree (for 4 continuous days) with jhumka’s hanging on to their life on my ears; trying to act coy-dutiful-lost her voice-hard working (though hardly working) daughter-in-law answering to questions like, when are you giving us the good news, how far is your office form home, do you cook, what are you office timings etc etc. and the act was catching upon me because dutiful I am but acting coy is something which is just not me.

These in brief were the reasons that I was looking forward to be back and to slip into my weathered but soft t-shirt & pajama’s; I can not even describe who good it felt to be in them and to sip my huge cuppa coffee cozily snuggled inside my bean bag. Not that trip was bad but as I said there is no place like home. BTW did I tell you I hate traveling because it means packing & unpacking which I hate but then that is a different post all together.

The trip was successful with no major mishaps besides the incident with my lovely designer saree which is now a lovely designer but torn saree all because I had left the pallu hanging outside the car door. Sigh!

Then there were usual train mishaps which I wouldn’t even want to start talking about. I guess it happens only in India that

• The number of people traveling in the train is always more than the number of people allowed.
• The luggage being ferried around in our trains is always way more than allowed &
• The people occupying a seat are the ones without reservation & the people who have actually paid for the seat are standing for more than 2 hrs & waiting for them to be vacated. Add that, they were exchanging sweet talks with eachother.

My Indian Train tales are endless may be I should write a book on that ;-)

The trip was successful because in a week & a half I have managed to finish quite some books. Here is the list…

• Zero Percentile - Neeraj Chhiba
• Picture Perfect – Jodi Picoult
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s - Truman Capote
• This Is How It Happened - Jo Barrett
• Ford County Stories – John Grisham (collection of short stories)

Luckily all of them turned out to be good reads and let me promise you to come up with the reviews of each in the coming days.

In my absence the blog-o-sphere has been quite active; I guess Murphy’s Law is at play. When I had all the time in the world blogs were hardly updated and when I stay away for sometime everyone wakes up and updates. My Google reader showed some 240+ plus unread posts which I have brought down to 99 (that too without posting even one comment) and I hope to cover up soon :D MAAR zindabad ;-)

Another thing to happen in my absence was the kicking off of The Avant Garde Bloggies Awards Edition for 2009. It was one event that brought the bloggers closer last year and I hope the same happens this time as well. Please visit Poonam’s blog for more information. You can also read Vee’s post and educate yourself. Do Nominate self & posts of other bloggers which you feel fit into the mentioned categories. And Poonam here I am, volunteering myself for all kinds of work :D

That’s it for now, folks!!! Will be blog hopping soon…

BTW How have you been?

Ms. Silly & Mr. Crazy Tell you how to......

Continued from …….

Si : What do we write on ?

Cr : LOL, I don’t know. Why don’t we start with the something very basic like how to brush your teeth ???

Si : Wow, nice idea ! We should do that !!!

Cr: Whaaat ? I was kidding.

Si: But am serious!!! Our joint post would be “How to brush your teeth?’’

 

Once the idea popped in there was nothing that could stop us. We thought of getting a model for the post, searched for the same but were not successful. Both of us didn’t want to exhibit our wonderful mouth to the rest of the world. So we approached quite a few bloggers, one shameless blogger even agreed to model. But he made a huge demand – that this should be the last post for both of us !!! We know how deserted you guys would feel without reading our informative posts, so decided to complete this post without a model.

Read on :

Cr: So you really want to write a post on “How to brush your teeth?’’

Si: Ya!

Cr: you silly billy, think! People would stop coming to our blog’s once this is published.

Si: Na! Na! People are used to our crazy antics (giggles)

Cr: Though this is like crossing the line but ok lets give it a try! Now stop giggling and tell me how do we start?

Si: First we mention the importance of brushing our teeth and then we explain how to do it properly.

Cr: You mean, why do we brush? This is getting crazier!! You are as old as my granny, I am sure you don’t have any of them left in your mouth to brush and you want to teach others?

Si: Oye! Behave yourself.

Cr: yeah, yeah, look who’s talking about behavior! Tell me, why do you brush your teeth?

Si: Well because, I was taught to do so!

Cr: You mean to say you wouldn’t have bothered to brush them if you weren’t taught to?

Si: Yes!! Aren’t we wasting our time brushing our teeth? I postpone it until it is very necessary :D

Cr: Ewwww…that’s why you smell?

Si: How would you know?

Cr: I could get the stink here, silly ! But you know what, I hate to admit it, I agree with you. I fail to understand why people brush their teeth. The ones around us might have a problem, but why should we be bother much about them. The same people smoke, spit and urinate publicly.

Si: ROFL!!! True. You know, there are so many books I have read where people don’t even brush & start having breakfast, served in bed by their loved one’s :D

Cr: Ewwww again, what kind of books do you read !! Tchh Tchh.

Si: Ha! At least better than reading Tinkle at your age, you crazy idiot !

Cr: huh! As far as I am concerned, brushing teeth is a waste of time, effort and of course money ! Animals don’t brush their teeth, they live happily! Most of us don’t brush our pets teeth, but still call them cute and what not !

Si: Arey, arent we questioning the basic premises of our post?

Cr: LOL !! yeah, silly woman ! Speak sense for a change and focus on the subject even if you don’t believe in it.

Si: Look who is talking now!

Cr: Bahhh !

Si: Bahhh to you too !

Si continues : 

Steps to brushing your teeth!

Switch the alarm off, curse it 10 times & go back to sleep! Wake up 10 mins later; realizing that you are already late so rush, hurry & scamper!!!!

Turn on the lights in front of the washbasin and look into the mirror. Wash your face & scrub your eyes clean! Cleaning your eyes is necessary because you should see what you’re picking up. Otherwise you’ll end up doing what my friend did; she had used Mrs. Marino for 2 days instead of toothpaste!!! :D

Cr: Your friends are dumb, just like you? And who is Mrs. Marino? Is she cute?

Si decides to ignore the crazy bugger & continues

Si : Or you could also suffer like my bro, whose toothbrush I had used for cleaning my sleepers & kept it back as it is :D poor fellow doesn’t know even now!!!

Cr: Eeeeks! You are a pest; so devilish and dirty!

Si : So hold the brush in an horizontal position with the Brussels on your right side, keep the brush 1800 & apply the tooth paste from left to right side. When you are squeezing the toothpaste tube you should remember to go from bottom to top otherwise the tubes looks like a battered housewife.

Cr (interrupts) : you mean, battered homemaker.

Si : Oh god, will you please let me complete?

Cr : I have no issues. IHM would write a post on this and you would have to answer that.

Si : IHM is sensible enough to know what I mean, huh!!. Now Please, O please shut your mouth!! Now, where was I? Ok..Once paste is applied cork the tube & keep it safely. Now open your mouth and put the brush on left side of your mouth.

Cr: mmmmm..mmmm…mmmm…mmmm ..mmm..mmmmmm ????

Si: Not again. What is it now? And yes, you can open your mouth.

Cr: Don’t tell me! Are you really describing all your bathroom stories in detail?

Si: You have a better idea?

Cr: Obviously yes! Let me enlighten you ! First, throw away all those tooth brush. Early men never used any of those.

Si : Ha! Next you will say throw away your teeth as well!

Cr: Blah Blah Blah Blah !! Why do you need a brush when we have the power in our fingers?

Si : Ewww!!!!

Cr: So apply paste on your index finger, and place it strategically in your mouth……

Si (interrupts) : so early men had tooth paste, huh ???

Cr : Yeah, they had. You are from that era. You must be knowing it better na?

Si : Oh shut up ! You know what? This idea sucks!

Cr: whaaat? The finger idea?? But why? I follow it daily!

Si : No re! I mean the idea of writing on how to brush your teeth; it sucks !

Cr: Now you are speaking !! Well, It was your idea in the first place.

Si : No it wasn’t.

Cr: Yes, it was. I just made a casual statement & it was you who wanted to do it!

Si : So? Now I don’t want to!!

Cr: What? Why ??? Now, I want to !!!

Si: No! Am a lady and I have the liberty to change my mind whenever I want to!

Cr: You are what and you have the whaaat to change your whaaaaaat ? …and the post ? do you not want to finish it in the right way?

Si : which post ?

Cr : grrrr….electric post ! This post you doofus !!

Si : heyy, don’t call me names, ok. Learn to respect a woman !

Cr: why do you keep reminding me of your gender ?

Si : Bugger !

Cr : Buggerina !

Ms. Silly cut’s the call abruptly.

We knew it. We knew we wouldn’t be able to do a joint post. But in a way, we are better off in the fighting mode. And I hope it continues this way. He is too crazy to be nice and I am too silly to be sweet.

Time to Justify the Name of my Blog!!!

Last few days have seen me reading & finishing books like crazy. Have read so many of them but not been able to review largely because of lack of time but am here to remedy that. So here I go with quick reviews of the books that I have read lately.


Her fearful Symmetry 

Audrey Niffenegger

Scribner (Publisher)

Rs. 570/-

This the author’s 2^nd book after the much acclaimed “The Time Traveler’s wife “ released in early September and when I first laid my hands on it I knew I wanted it but the price shocked me. The book store manager told me that the paperback would come out soon and I decided to wait. However during every visit I would pick this book & pick it back and that’s when I decided to read 30 pages daily during my lunch hour. It took me 15 days to finish the book and was it worth the time?

Her Fearful Symmetry is the story of 2 set of twins. Elspeth Noblin leaves her London apartment (borders Highgate Cemetery) to her twin nieces Julia and Valentina. There is a condition attached to the will, the twins would have to stay in the apartment for a year before they could sell it.

The girls move in & to their utter disbelief they realise that Elspeth still exists albeit as a ghost but that’s not the only thing they have to tackle. They still don’t know that what had gone wrong in the past that Eddie, their mother had chosen not to talk about her twin sister Elspeth. Then there was Robert, the grieving husband of Elspeth & Martin who was had not gone out of his home for years & is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The story unravels at its own sweet pace but makes the reader turn to the next page because you know there is a dark secret lurking somewhere and when it hits you it leaves you stumped. Like ‘TTW’ this book too has so many things that are totally unbelievable but the narration of the book is such that you would just want to read on. It is when the book ends that you realise that you have been told a story which is never possible but what remains with you is the story was told well.

There are many things which I would love to disclose here but then that would take away the magic of discovering it the way I did. So go read on this book, it has mystery, it has sisterly bonding, jealousy, possessiveness & it is a story well told.

My rating 3.5/5

The Great Indian Love Story

Ira Trivedi,

Penguin Books,

Rs. 199/-

Based in Delhi this is the story of Serena Sharma. She leads a roller coaster life where drinks, night clubs, pubs, drugs etc are a regular feature. She has a disturbing past which keeps coming back to her. Her mother had chosen to leave her husband for a younger man & Serena believes that the betrayal lead to her father’s death, but is that the truth?

The story unfolds between past & present ending at a disturbing note. The book will somehow remind you of one of the stories of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3.

For me it was a time pass read which gives a peek into the disturbing & shallow life that today’s youth lead. What I strongly felt was that the book lacked soul & could have been more detailed.

My rating 2.5

Six Suspects

Vikas Swarup

Black Swan Books

Rs. 325/-

The book was advertised “based on Jessica Lal murder case” but it turns out that the protagonist’s character has done it all i.e. Jessica Lal Murder case, killing of black buck, the BMW case etc. In fact when I had read the 1^st chapter I was roaring with laughter!

To be quick & precise, the book trace’s the journey of a journalist who is trying to unravel the mystery behind the murder of Vicky Rai & what follows is a string of unbelievable incidents & characters. Though a page turner to some extent but a bad one! I kept turning the page to see how more imaginative & absurd the author could be. The only thing which I could relate with in this book was the way politicians were shown using power!

I wouldn’t recommend this book until you are my enemy.

Eat Pray Love

Elizabeth Gilbert

Bloomsbury Publications

350/-

One of the most recommended, fashionable to read book of the season & last but not the least my 1^st Non-Fiction book in recent times.

It is an autobiographical tale of the author who is trying to come out of a bitter divorce & a now gone sour affair. She decides to spend 2 year traveling and zeroes in spend 4 months each in

Italy to Eat

India to Pray &

Bali to fall in love.

The book traces her journey to each of this place and slowly but steadily we see her gaining back her confidence. To be honest I found the book good but boring when in the Indian portions. I couldn’t stand the spirituality & am guilty of skipping 70% of the 4 months that she had spent in India.

I loved the easy way in which the book has been narrated it doesn’t sound preachy but shows how the lady crawls out of dumps to reclaim her life. There is a portion in the book which I would put in here…

“Depression & loneliness track me down after about 10 days in Italy. They come upon me all silent & menacing & they flank me – Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They need not show me their badges. I know these guys very well. We’ve been playing a cat-and-mouse game for years now…

It’s not fair for you to come here, I tell depression. I paid you off already. I served my time back in New York.

But he just gives me that dark smile, settles into my favorite chair, puts his feet on my table…..Loneliness watches & sighs, then climbs into my bed & pulls the cover over himself. He’s going to male me sleep with him again tonight, I just know it.’

Read the book if you have taste for Non Fiction, the book is an enjoyable read especially once it enters the Bali phase.

My rating 3 stars.

Last but not the least

My Best Friends life

Shari Low

225/-

Ginny & Roxy are best friends since childhood, poles apart but always been together. A nasty break up brings Roxy back to the sleepy town where Ginny has been living a sleepy existence. A crisis demands a quick solution & they decide to swap their lifes for a month.

The ultra chic & city girl Roxy is forced to stay back & to take Ginny’s job of a librarian while Ginny leave for London to take up Roxy’s job of a receptionist at a high class brothel.

What follows next is a hilarious tale! The story keeps moving between Roxy & Ginny describing their changed lives. The book is full of hilarious & smart one liner’s. A chic lit worth every penny.

Do read it, a light frothy read!

Sorry for the over dose of book reviews but they had to come out :-)

The misadventures of Ms. Silly and Mr. Crazy – Verbal Diarrhoea

It was a normal conversation, we were fighting when we had a 'Eureka Moment'. We wanted to write a joint post.

Me & Vimmuuu that is!!

Wait wait!!! Don't faint!!!

We have managed to write the Part 1 & are still fighting over Part 2 which; by the way is the actual post :D
Please hop on here to read our misadventures!!!

Comments disabled as the real adventure is happening here

In the Process of UnTagging Myself!!!

I hate tags and am lucky enough to have a friend like Vimmuuu who never forgets the fact. I have lost the count of number of times he has tagged me, what I haven’t forgotten is that I am yet to do any of his tags, a fact that he doesn’t forget to remind me of on numerous occasions. However this time I had decided that I will not let him down and here I am in the process of untagging myself and doing a tag which I have already done last year. You can read the earlier version out here (as per me one of my good posts). So here I go with some more memories.

You are plotting against me!!

Bachpan se hi I have loved to be driven around & having an elder bro who would ferry me back from school helped my cause. However my parents had other ideas in their mind. They wanted me to learn cycling & my brother was given the responsibility to teach me ride one. Daily evening we would go out with this cycle, he would hold the carrier of the cycle & ask me to ride it. I would shout “don’t leave the cycle” & he would promise that he won’t only to break the promise within few minutes. He would leave the carrier & dhadam! Se I would always fall. Needless to say I shouted & fought with him.

Bro would say, “If I don’t leave the cycle how would you learn to balance it?” and I would say, “no you do it because you want me to fall.”

The fighting would have continued & I would have never learned to ride had I not put my foot down against him teaching me. Ultimately it was my Mom who taught me how to ride a cycle: D I know I was stubborn & foolish but me & bro have always fought like cats n dogs & always distrusted each other’s motives :D

One big hole!!

I have always been fond of cooking but as a kid I was not allowed to use gas unsupervised & not until it was very important. So one day when my Mom was out I decided to test my cooking skills. Armed with a recipe (one of my Mom’s magazine) I started the preparation (I don’t remember what I was trying to cook). Everything was going OK and I was following the instructions to ‘T’.

The recipe said, “Once the tadka cools down pour it through a chalni.” In my excitement & impatience I poured down the tadka into the chalni as soon as it was down from gas stove. As I poured the thing through I realised that hot oil took every bit of the plastic chalni with it. I was scared & threw everything into the dustbin.

I don’t remember what happened after that, i.e. how I got away etc. but it couldn’t have been anything drastic otherwise I would remember it :D

Stolen!

We were in Gorakhpur where Durga Puja was celebrated with loads of fanfare; functions & lottery was organized on a large scale. It was during one of those days when I went with my friend to play lottery. My mom gave a 10 rupee note for a lottery ticket. My luck didn’t support me back then & I didn’t win anything but I was tempted to play more and my friend very willingly offered to lend 5 Rs to me for a new ticket & I promised her to return the same very soon.

Once I reached home I was scared to ask money from my Mom because I knew I shouldn’t have borrowed money. I kept dillydallying my friend for few days. However the burden of borrowing was heavy & thus one day I took out 5 bucks from my Mom’s purse & gave it back to the girl. But I was scared shit for 10 days that Mom will know that the money is missing from her bag. Till date I have never told her about this incident but I can not tell you how guilty I have always felt.

What’s in there!!!

Birthdays were a highlight in my life for one simple reason, GIFTS!

Patience was not one of my virtues so be it my birthday or my bro’s I would always take friends to a corner & would nudge them with “what gift have you brought?” questions.

Eventually when my Mom came to know about this I was given a huge hiding but I didn’t pay a heed to her. Ultimately somebody from family would always keep an eye on me and as soon as I would be seen taking someone to a corner I was dragged away.

Huh! I still can not understand why I was stopped from knowing what would eventually be mine ;-)

Gift Again

That reminds me of another incident. We have a record of sorts at our home. A family friend of ours has gifted me & my brother the same game on every birthday of ours. Apparently somebody used to give those to them and they were recycled to us time & again. No body believes that this can really happen but trust me, for 4 consecutive years, twice a year we got the same gift!

Cake Woes!!

Another birthday memory, I was in class 10^th and used to go for my math’s tuition. Unfortunately I had a class on my birthday and my Mom insisted that I shouldn’t miss it. So I went to the class armed with a cake & offered a piece to my friends before we entered in but they insisted that I should give it first to our sir. Before the class could began I offered the box of cake to my sir, he wished me and called his wife. She wished me & took the box inside with her. Few minutes later my sir’s son came back and handed the empty box to me.

They had assumed that the whole box of cake (which was one full cake) was for them & had emptied the contents.  I was shocked & my face fell. My friends in the class could see how bad I had felt as I literally had tears in my eyes.

It was one of my worst birthdays.

Maid for the holiday

We were at my maternal grand parent’s place for summer vacation. That vacation was special because all the 6 siblings of my Mom had come there with their families and it was one grand party.

Being the youngest girl I was the most pampered kid but that didn’t stop my relatives from giving me this special duty.

My Naniji had those very slim glasses which were difficult to wash as none of the people could really clean them and that’s where my ultra slim wrists came of use. I was on special duty to clean those glasses & though I hated it at that time but now I would give anything to be as slim as I was then! 

It was also during those holiday’s that I got my first major injury i.e. on my chin. It was so bad that it had to be stitched.

But I was happy, you know why? I love bandages and I hardly used get a mauka to show it off :D and the stitch gave me that mauka. BTW till date you can see my applying band aid to the smallest cut.

Dark Secret! (Very few people in my life know about this)

We were in class Xth and decided to be a part of the teacher’s day celebration by presenting a skit. The skit that we had chosen was Modern Ramayana in a form of parody! All the parts were taken and the only one no body wanted to take was that of ‘Shurpanakha’ and I decided to take on what nobody wanted to. Here I must tell you that though I have always been a talk marathon but I have always been scared of stage so taking on that role was a major leap for me. I played a Modern Shurpanakha though I don’t remember what song was played for me but am sure am the only Shurpanakha who walked down with a her glasses on as I had refused to part with it and I think that added to the comedy element & my part was a major was a hit!

Later we went on to do another play where again the part played by me was so popular that a teacher even stopped me and asked me to try dramatics seriously!

I guess all my nautankey’s at home came handy ;-)

Pampered like crazy!!!

As kids whenever we (Me n bro that is) used to go for a blood test or vaccination the lab technician used to give us a chewing gum after the test to divert our mind. It was a habit which I could never get rid of. I grew up but was still bribed my way through by my brother or Dad after a blood test or injections or even at the end of an exam. The ritual was simple once out of the hospital I was taken to the market & I would choose a movie of my choice and ta-da-da happy days!!!

Falling in love

Maine Pyar Kiya is one of the most vital parts of my growing up days and all my childhood stories would be incomplete without a mention of it. As you all know I fell in love with movie & Salman Khan to be precise. Such was the craze of the movie that whenever I had to choose a movie (as in above) I would always come back with MPK’s cassette. In a way even my Mom fueled my obsession by making a complete replica of this dress which Bhagyashree had worn in the song “tum ladki ho”. The only thing she missed doing was embroidering “S” as in the original dress.

That’s it!!! One of my longest post ever!!! Phew!!!

And before I end the post I tag following people

Tarun

Prateek

Sweeliee

Pysch Babbler

Sands

Aparna

Indy

Priya

Brocasarea

Saima & anyone who is interested to take on the tag!!


P.S. This is a record sorts, I finished a tag within 2 days of being tagged!!!