Diwali - The Festival of Lights

Diwali's definition for me had always been cleaning the house, decorating it with lights, colorful rangolis, preparing sweets and savories at home and bursting crackers. And every year I would eagerly wait for this festival and start planning months before about how will i work towards achieving all the above and when Diwali is over i really feel sad on why it has ended :)

This year is no different and Diwali is now just around the corner. With my usual ways I have been waiting for the festival season since a couple weeks. A midst all this I happened to attend a Diwali party last weekend which was held in a lavish farm house located on MG Road in New Delhi. I love parties help in open grounds, though i get to attend very few and since this was one of my kinds I was excited to attend it. I was pre informed about a performance by one of a leading pop artist during the coarse of the party.

I reached there with my husband and one of his colleague and his wife at around 6' o clock in the evening, people had started to gather and some performances were on. But this was not the pop star but kids performing on the tunes of Illa Arun's "Aa ra ra Aa ra ra aayo re maro dholna". Dressed in pink ghagra's and Blue gota patti chunris, these little girls looked really beautiful. Nice dance steps and wonderful co-ordination kept me mesmerized and I did not move or spoke a word till they finished their performance. That was when my husband told me those girls were from an NGO. A sudden sense of proud feeling rush through my mind and I really started feeling so privileged to be part of this show where i get to applaud these wonderful kids.

Soon the next performance was announced and a group of 10 boys and girls were on the stage now taking positions. These kids did not follow a dress code but wore the best clothes they had and belonged to another NGO that supported their studies. The music started lights were now dim and the song was Shankar Mahadevan's "Mai kabhi batlata nahi andhere se darta hu mai ma". Immediately my mood changed, this song has always touched me emotionally and this time i saw these kids perform, who i thought were orphans and I could not control my emotions at all. The kids were all excited and were performing well. But I could not just keep my eyes on them due to this strong emotional feeling going across my mind. The song ended and when my husband told me they were actually not orphans but underprivileged children who were studying via these NGO's that support them was when I could gather some strength. We managed to talk to a couple kids on the snack counter, and I felt really happy to see them all very excited and happy believing it was their show today. We congratulated them and felt proud for them.

At the same time, an announcement was made for the NGO stalls that were arranged in the backyard amd we decided to visit the NGO stalls for sure to buy some goodies and help the kids in our own little way.
Post dinner we visited the stalls and witnessed all Diwali goodies that the kids had made with their imagination. We really appreciated all the creativity and hard work these kids have put into those goodies and went on to see every variety they had. We finally bought candles, diya's and Ganesha Lakshmi idol from some of the stalls. One of the stalls sold hampers which had 1 hand made Diwali greeting, 1 designer diya and 1 colored diya. We bought that too. That greeting card is the best diwali gift we got this year. Returning home from the event, we went on to decided that from now on, every Diwali we will purchase these goodies from the underprivileged people only and with all the diwali electric lights in our house we will also lit diyas more to support them. This way we might end up making at least a couple more poor families celebrate diwali with cheer.

Thus my definition of Diwali now has 1 more parameter to it and we will try to adhere to this gesture every year.

Happy Diwali !!
 

The Ant and the Grasshopper

"I heard this story from a friend and loved it, publishing the same, since i feel it will be a good read."

One fine autumn evening n the hills an ant was busy finding food and carrying it in her mouth to her ant hole slowly and steadily. While she was walking towards the ant hole, a grasshopper who was hopping, dancing and chirping and having a gala time saw her tiered and doing all that hard work.

He asked the ant, why are you struggling that much dear ant, come sing, dance and play with me, it will be fun.

The ant nodded and said no dear grasshopper, this work is important for me and I need to complete it, you please carry on... and the ant moved towards her destination.

Days passed and the chilling winters came in. All the land was covered with snow and there was no sign of grass anywhere. The grasshopper started becoming sick since he could not find food for himself due to the weather conditions. He went to the ant and told her, I did not realize that the winter will be here soon and did not work towards arranging my food for winters and today i am very sick can you help me.

The ant shook her head and shut the door on the grasshopper.

My dear friends, this story teaches us a lesson that hard work and savings pay in the end. But the story does not end here.... Out of several grasshoppers that died in the winters, one grasshopper survived and he reproduced an offspring who was not just another grasshopper believe me, he was no less than a 21st century human being. He was a king of good times. had all interests of a 21st century teenager and loved partying to continue with the family lineage. He was the charm of the surroundings and lived as if there was no tomorrow. He met high society people and had connections with the media giants. On the other hand the successors of the ant family still lived their life almost similarly, by collecting food for the bad times.

Chilling winters came in again and covered the hills with snow and made the grasshopper, dehydrated, mal nourished and sick. Bu this time my dear fellow toastmasters history did not repeat itself. Instead poverty made the grasshopper a celebrity. The huge media giants surrounded the grasshopper from all side and presented an ultimate showcase of his conditions. Suddenly the Breaking news popped up on all channels comparing the poverty struck grasshopper with the ant. On one side was the picture of the grasshopper sick, weary and malnutritioned and on the other hand the ant in a silk gown. Live footage was shown for this ant in a silk gown looking down from her balcony. The footage also covered the ants daily lifestyle where she had a king size breakfast with Spanish omelets and French toast and sandwiches accompanied with juices and fruits. Her lunch was Mexican and Thai cuisine.   

The impact became so much that the entire country got involved in the rights of rich and the poor. Social networking sites were all jammed with likes for the grasshopper and dislikes for the ant. Opinion polls started on the news channels and sms’s were exchanged. Finally the finance minister came out with a proposal for the ant and a grasshopper.

With all this going on the ant was really taken aback and suffered a setback. Even in the hospital she was not able to relax due to the agitations and fight for the rights of rich and poor going outside the hospital. With all this going on and being a calm and thoughtful person the ant declared to give half of her wealth to the grasshopper.

This story is a true reflection of our times..... Hard work and savings do not pay but smart play and networking pays off. Pulling the string will make you grow ahead off your peers. Leave the ant and leave the grasshopper, and analyze yourselves. Think and act.

An encounter with "Richard Parker"

As a child I loved watching cartoon films and serials. Jungle book was a favourite entertainer on weekends and I was always astonished to watch "Sher Khan" roar. His persona and his attitude was always an attraction to me as a kid. Lately I saw a feature film with my old favorite Sher Khan in a lead role and this time he was called "Richard Parker". What a name isn’t it? :)

Not going much into the details of the name here, my friends, I am going to take you today with me on my so called adventure trip to meet Richard Parker in person this time.

On a bright sunny winter morning of an extended weekend we decided to spend time a bit differently. After a long research and discussion, we decided to go out on an excursion and explore wild life photography. I had a hidden intension to find Mr. Parker there as well, but i did not disclose my intension to anyone. We packed our lunch packets, picked the camera and left for the excursion to a wild Life Sanctuary.

Reached early by 10 AM and decided to take the jeep that would guide us through the sanctuary and keep us safe from wild animals too. As we started moving into the so called jungle, we saw a small pond with a few white and beautiful ducks that we captured and moved on, a bit more into the jungle and we found migratory birds, although they were not many but those few that we saw were just beautiful and we had not seen such birds earlier. We kept clicking pictures and moved on. One very obvious observation that we all had was the scarcity of trees in that area. We could really see plains often instead of a green jungle that we had expected. Suddenly we saw a jackal strolling near a tree finding shelter to sleep. I had always learnt that a jackal was a clever animal and he finds his prey with all his brains. But this poor jackal looked slim and malnutrition. We moved on and in some time reached a place where we saw variety of deers and Neelgai, our guide told us they are called so as the male ones have a little blue blemish near their nose area. This was a beautiful site as they were running and playing around although as our jeep approached they tried to run into the jungle. These beautiful animals were spending their day together playing although we did notice them being malnutrition as well. Half the day was over but my desire was still a desire. Richard Parker was still no where. We had our lunch in a shade and discussed the living condition of these animals. Although they are in a jungle but still, it seems they do not manage to get good diet and the main reason we could derive was deforestation.

Anyhow we moved on a bit more into the jungle to find Parker but although we saw few other animals we did not find him. We decided to start returning back and I was really sad of not meeting my childhood fascination. Suddenly the guide made us look towards our left and about half a kilometer away we saw him, Yes Richard Parker, and although I was happy to have found him i was scared too. The image i carried of him in my sub conscience was of a self confident animal with great attitude who can kill anyone for his prey and rules the jungle.

Driver took the jeep a bit towards Parker and with all my nervousness on I pulled out my camera to get some good shots of my dream friend/idol ?? When I zoomed the lens and saw him in my camera, I could not believe my eyes. He looked gloomy, very tired..., deprived of food and clumsy.

After clicking a few pics we decided to go back. But on our way home, instead of being excited of a successful excursion that day. We had several thoughts rushing through our minds.

*In such a big jungle, we could find just 1 tiger that also was not in best of his spirits.

*All other animals looked malnutrition and less in numbers.

*Lack of trees and habitation around to keep the wild life conserved.

I will leave you all with this thought and would urge all of you to do your bit to save our forests thus saving wild life and also nature. Let's plant trees and respect animals and not kill them.

Judgement

A young boy in his early 20's seeing out from the trains window shouted...

Dad look the trees are going behind... Dad smiled and me and my husband sitting nearby looked at the boy's childish behavior with pity, suddenly he again exclaimed... "Dad, look the clouds are running with us!" I could not resist and said to the old man... "Why don't you take your son to a good doctor" .. The old man smiled and said... "I did and we are just coming from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, he just got his eyes today..." Every single entity on this planet has a story. Don't apply judgment until you have the facts clear. The truth might be very different than what you anticipated....."

Let's now put this story into our real lives and take our work life first...

I remember when I was in a junior role in the beginning of my career, I really felt that everything required for a project was something we were doing ... all the testing, setup, meetings etc. and the senior’s were just aligning and realigning tasks. But now today when I have stepped into a lead's role is when I realize that a lead has so much responsibility and ownership attached to him that he plays a key role to the project.

On a lighter note, one of my school friend told his manager he loves India from the bottom of his heart as a consequence he was never considered for an onsite opportunity. :)

These days online shopping is very prevalent, and a major sector of our society i.e. we IT professionals, who are so busy in their daily lives that we don't find time to go out shopping with our families and we rely on online shopping. Believe me my experience on this front has been really bad. All the bed sheets, dresses and wall pieces that i had ordered from these portals looking at the pictures came out to be really not worth the cost. However the pictures were really eye catching. All the meal deals offered on these portals in reality made us pay more than what we could have paid if we went to the restaurants on our own. 

Cricket, our favorite sport, and we sit with our family to watch our Indian team play a match and applaud them, but at the same time we even criticize the players for a bad shot or a misfield... but then we should first realize what it takes to be there on the pitch and play with pressure in your head that the entire country is looking up to you.

Another example is KBC... few days back I saw a participant who came down to 80,000 from 25 lakhs for a wrong answer. We all called it over confidence, but do you really feel it was that? Or good sportsmanship that the boy displayed ? I now leave it to you to decide.

Your parents might not be using ATM cards and online portals to pay their bills, pension and manage household today and that would really irritate you too but isn’t this just a generation gap, where they are not used to the new techniques and technologies. Believe me, if given an opportunity they will manage the household better than you can do...do you remember those picnics, trips and birthday parties they organized for us in our childhood... when we do that now, we realize the efforts that go in that. Don't forget to put that extra bit to prove you love them and care for them and also strive to respect their independence.

We crib when we hear of hikes on Petrol, Diesel, Railway tickets, but did you ever think that they were done to benefit us? See for example:

Estimated earning for coming year is : 1000 crore

Estimated necessary expense is: 700 crore

So our Government has surplus of 300 crores for subsidy and other welfare schemes

Lets assume it spends 500 crores on subsidy and welfare schemes

Now government will cover this loss by publishing more currency worth 200 crores.

Articles are limited in the country, people will have more money to buy them, and prices will rise. Riches buy them at any cost but poor will suffer.

But if our government spends 300 crores  only and cuts down on subsidy. Now government will not publish currency. Thus no one suffers that much and no Inflation.

I will leave you all with you thinking hats on and would pass this message saying, please do not apply judgement until you have your facts clear.

Eid Mubarak!

Tried preparing Qimami sewaaiyaan this morning and celebrate Eid festival today. My mother cooks it better but still sharing the recepie for all of you, if you want to try.

Time taken: 20 mins

Ingredients
----------------
Sewaiyaan: 1/2 kg
Sugar: 1/2 kg
Desi Ghee: 2 table spoon
Cloves: 2 pods
Cardamom: 2 whole pods
Saffron: 6-7 threads soaked in warm milk.
Badam: 8- 10 finely sliced
kishmish: 10 grms
Milk: 1/2 kg
water: 2 cup.

Recipe
Crush the sewaiyaan a little. On a slow flame put a pan or a kadhai and add ghee. Once it is a slight warm add the cloves and cardamom, toss for a sec and add the sewaiyaaan and gentley keep stirring them till they become golden brown. Now add sugar, toss for once and add water. Once the water comes to a boil start adding milk. You do not have to add the entire milk at once instead add some stir, once it evaporates add more and keep adding and stiring. Add saffron milk in the end with the dry fruits. After 10 mins of this process, check if the sewaiyaan are soft, if not add more milk and keep stirring. Once all the water and milk evaporates. Sewaiyaan is ready for you to taste. Chill and serve cold.

Let's be the change that we want to see in the world

Mr. M.K. Gandhi once said "There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

MR. TOASTMASTER, FELLOW TOASTMASTERS AND GUESTS,

Yes, Today I would like to spend the next couple of minutes in bringing some awareness and speak about those countless children who are starving in the streets near us whose cries go unheard. Just over this weekend, while I was wating on a traffic signal, i met this very innocent child not more than 8 years of age selling flowers and asking me to buy some as he did not have his meal for ther day. I did purchase those flowers and On asking him about his aspirations, he told me he wishes to grow up to become a rich man, and if he were, he will give the street children food, medicine, shelter, love anf affection to the street children, so that no one is poor in the country. If a child in the streets who has nothing is willing to give away so much why are we not willing to share and have become so greedy ? In our country we have so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away and still we will not share with the needy even when we have more than enough we are afraid to share, we are afraid to let go some of our wealth. DUe to poverty in India, we have these countless young children who have been working as bounded labours, just to find bread for themselves and at times for their families.

Although the Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 to 14 and prohibits employment of children younger than 14 in 18 hazardous occupations and 65 hazardous processes, child labour is prevalent in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy. As a consequence you find children working in the following areas too:

1 Diamond industry
2 Fireworks manufacture
3 Silk manufacture
4 Domestic labour
5 Construction
6 Brick kilns

Although, Indian Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it.Based on the reports from Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986.  The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act. In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987.

However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.


Children are our most valuable resources so lets come forward and pledge to help them learn, study and grow to become better human beings. Let us give hope to at least one child and be the change that we want to see in the world.  Let us fund just 1 child's entire education and help to lead India to become a 100% literate nation.

Navratri

One of my maths teacher during college once said that these 9 days of Navratri are the most auspicious and powerful days of the entire year. So i thought of sharing a beautiful shloka that I learned while I was doing my internship. This is a shloka that was sung before Saraswati Vandana in any organisation level events held there and I loved these lines.

Ya kundendu tushar har dhavala
ya shubhra vastravrita
Ya vina vardand mandita kara
ya shvetapadmasana
Ya brahma achyuta shankara prabhritibhir
devaih sada vandita
Sa mam patu sarasvati bhagavati
nihshesha jadyapaha.

This means

She shines like a full moon in a clear sky;
She is as pure as morning dew on a green leaf.
She wears a white sari (free from contamination),
She holds Veena in her two hands (a symbol of music),
and Veda (original Hindu scriptures) in other hand (A symbol of knowledge).
She sits on a white lotus and is worshiped by Brahma (her husband), Vishnu, Mahesh, and all other gods of the universe.
She is full of knowledge and we pray to her for all these things.

Jai Mata Di !!

Samosa-e-dilbahar

This is a favorite snack in my family and I prefer cooking it at home instead of getting it from the market. Here goes the recipe and the ingredients.

Ingredients
----------------
Time taken: 30 mins

All purpose flour: 1/2 kg
Ajwain: 1/4 teaspoon
pinch of salt
Oil for moein: 200 grms

For stuffing:
Potatoes: 6 medium sized, chopped finely with skin
Green Peas: Half bowl
Green Chillis: 5 finely chopped
Ginger: A small piece, finely chopped.
Corriander: A handfull
Cottage Cheese: 50 grms, finely chopped.
Cashewnuts: 7-8, finely chopped
Raisins - 10-12
Fennel Seeds: 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin Powder: 1 teaspoon
Chilli Powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Corriander powder: 1/2 teaspoon
Amchur: 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala: 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Recipe
Take flour and add salt and ajwain. Now add half the oil in flour and mix, add more and keep mixing for a min. Now take the floor in your fist and try to make a ball and leave, the flour should be able to stick togather. Now add a bit of water to knead and make a dough. Keep aside covering with a muslin cloth.

Put on the gas and place a Kadai/pan. Add 2 tablespoon oil, once the oil is warm add the cheese and fry for a min till they have a light golden colour. Take them out. Now fry the cheshewnuts and keep them aside.

In the same oil now add cumin and fennel, as they start to crackle add finely chopped ginger and green chillies, stir for a min and then add corriander powder stir and add the potatoes and peas. Now add jeera powder, chilli poder and salt, cover with a lid and let it cook for 5 mins. Now uncover and check if the potatoes are cooked, if they are not, cover again, else add amchur and garam masala. Stir for a sec, bring down from the flame and add fried cheshewnuts, cottage cheese, raisins and corrider leaves. Keep aside.

Now take another pan, and heat oil for frying. Divide the dough into 8 equal portions. Now roll each portion into balls and keep aside. Take a roller pin and a rolling plate and roll these balls into long oval rotis. Cut the roti's into half, take 1 roti and make a cone out of it, using the straight edges and keeping the round edge on top. Seal the cone applying some water on the side. now fill in the stuffing and seal from the top as well, putting a pleate in between. Similarly make all the samosa's and keep in the plate.

In the mean time the oil should be hot. Make sure the oil is not sizzling hot, we need to cook them on low flame and medium hot oil. If the oil is too hot switch off the gas for a min and then restart on low flame and now fry the samosa's. Keep stiring so that you get a nice even colour.

Samosa's are now ready. Serve with green chutey and Tea.  

Hope all of you will try this at home and cherrish the recipe. Chao !!

Pisces - The Fishes

Some exerpts that I gathered about my sunsign from several places:


Imaginative and sensitive
Compassionate and kind
Selfless and unworldly
Intuitive and sympathetic

On the dark side....
Escapist and idealistic
Secretive and vague
Weak-willed and easily led


They will dwell in the holy places of religious divine and social importance.

They are very intuitive, selfless, spiritual and focused on their inner journey, but at times, they also have difficulty distinguishing fact from fantasy - they tend to get caught up in their dreams and illusions of how things should be.

They are always torn between choices whether to seek the light or sink into the darkness. They are compassionate unless pushed to the wall, when they can be very caustic. However the sarcasm is not always direct and so generally it passes unnoticed. They however are happiest keeping these qualities under wraps.

They are liked for their kind and sympathetic nature, their charm and carefree approach. They find the going tough once they have to follow rules or to cope with discipline. When it really means business, they will flee and hide and the more weak-willed are likely to indulge in alcohol and drugs to escape. Some pour out their emotions in creative arts, or in poetry or short verse, but seldom open up to those around them on a personal basis. Although brave and prefer a lot of independence, they are impractical and somewhat uneasy with the real world. They delve in spiritual matters and are fascinated by the occult. They are unselfish, empathic but can easily be confused and hardly get much done.

They will do well in performing arts, especially in theatre. In science, they tend to work in the fields of either physics or medicine and also do well in ocean-based occupations or working with animals. They normally have talents, which get them money and fame. Their obstinate independent streak rarely allows them to be dependent on others. They are ever ready to help the needy, without being much concerned for reciprocation. They hate to chase for the owed money as they expect that it will be returned voluntarily. They are often distracted when bored and need to be more focused and inspired to give their best.

They are spiritual, charitable, compassionate, empathetic and love to help others in the most imaginative of ways. They also tend to lapse into melancholy if not heard, or into a kind of pessimism that can lead to procrastination and lethargy.

They can be very romantic, dreaming up delicious treats for their lover in relationships. They are generally gentle and relaxed people and modest to the point of impracticality, In the game of love, they are caring and romantic and extremely creative. They crave for fairytale endings, being more in love with the idea of love than being in love itself. Though strongly attracted to good looks, their attention span waivers at unintelligent partners, or at times simply because they "secure" the object of their desire. Vrischika ( Scorpio ), Karka ( Cancer ), and Meen ( Pisces ) make ideal partners for them.

On the flip side, they can also be unnecessarily suspicious and jealous, and this might cause a lot of heartache. Although the unpredictable moods are the reason for some tension at times, the gentle, sensitive, and romantic nature establishes a loving relationship. They value fidelity in a marriage and will be kind and affectionate to the spouse and let the partner take on a dominant role in public, but at home, it's they, who rules the roost.

Memories on the CWG...

CWG is over now, but to be frank I could not follow the games well this time and I really regret that. Day to day hussles and then the shifting to a new apartment did not allow me too. Any how we are settled at this new apartment and have cathed up with the daily routines. Today relaxing on the couch, I am dreaming of the childhood days when any disturbances never touched us at all. You would know what I mean here. Parents are always so protective and caring that they will not allow any changes to affect us. I remember the days when the 1st floor construction was going on, with evryday loading and unloading of construction material and day in and day out of the workers at home. But i do not remember a single day, if our study time, sleeping time, eating time or even play time was changed or modified. We were enjoying our lovely routine as usual.

In that year too "CWG" was also being held in "Victoria, British Columbia, Canada". We were so excited then to follow the games that we would find reasons to skip school to see the games. Although Mummy didn't allow us ever :( We had created small flags of all the participating nations using crayons and had put them on small sticks. And we cheered the teams with those flags sitting in front of the TV. At that time, we did not have cable TV connection at home, so there was no one switching channels too and thus it was more fun. :) I would say, these were the games that motivated us to participate in the track and field events organized at our school every alternate year. My mother being an athlete herself in school also pushed us to participate, and we sisters came out with flying colors receiving medals every year the games were organized. I became the 'Long Jump' champ at school .. and my youngest sister a sprinter, and to top it all my third sister was a all rounder and the basketball champion of our college. She later on represented state level games and is now representing her company.. All the best to her !

Anyhow going back to the days when we were watching CWG always on TV and finding excuses from studies. One day while watching games in the evening we heard noises from outside the house

To be continued...

Thoughts vs Reality

I am not a big fan of ghazals.. to be true I like songs based on the tunes and not the lyrics maybe because I do not try to listen too and understand the lyrics much and thus if the tune is catchy, I would like a song. I am poor at urdu and pure hindi, and even pure english for that matter.. what I know is HINGLISH. My husband is totally opposite..he is an ardent lover of Ghazals and admires reading, writing and listening to good shayari's and ghazals and has a huge collection of ghazal CD's of various artists. It was him who told me the meaning of GHAZAL... "A talk with your beloved". DUring our courtship while we used to chat on phone he translated ghazals for me to make me understand the hidden thoughts there.. that was when I realized what an art writing shayari's was, started admiring them and soon developed a taste for ghazals. My husband is still translating ghazals for me is a different story although. I have high hopes that i will learn soon. :)

Early last month I received an sms saying... "Thanks for booking your show at "bookmyshow.com. Your ticket id is BST209822 for 21st Sept 2010 at Siri Fort Auditorium. Enjoy your show "Jazzbat".

The only thought that ran through my mind was "Hurray, Live Concert tickets must be a ghazal program for sure". Instantly I called up my husband to enquire and got it confirmed that it will be Jagjit Singh Live. I was excited and a flash of thoughts ran through my mind...

"Its a weekend show that too in Delhi, will leave early in the morning and will cover shopping in Delhi's local market too."
"What should i wear, Saari?? No but shopping will become fussy, Suit will look traditional and good, shopping will be comfortable too in suit and then Jagjit Singh might like it too."

"How about the jwellery? Will keep it light so that its easy in market and does not look gordy even, but then Jagjit should also appretiate it."

The vaguest thought that came to my mind was...
"Hey what if the show is cancelled ?"

And I was out of my Dreamland instantly. I consoled my mind that this cannot happen, since so many tickets were booked online. Anyhow went back to work. Just an sms for a Live ghazal show had made me a totally different person. Back home in the evning I was listening to ghazals, and not watching those daily soaps on Television. Suddenly my ipod was updated to have Jagjit Singh ghazal's and to top it all my personal desktop wall paper was now Jagjit Singh. Evrything was ok except the coaching session which my husband had to start for me..Yes, those ghazal transalations. First day he was ok but the very next day he realized explaining me those meanings was not that irritating ever.... BUt i was in all my moods. I had bought maching bangles for the suit I would wear on the D day. My passion remained the same throughout the week with my husband doing a good job tolerating all my word meaning questions and answering them patiently... although somehow I fealt he lost all his enthusiasm for the show down the line.

20th Aug night, I could not sleep due to the butterflies flying all through my stomach, with some stupid thoughts like, what if he asks for audiences wish on ghazals and he picks up mine and then asks me to come up on stage and sing 1 line with him OR if I become the lucky person in the audience who can ask him a
question, what should my question be then? and so on... i don't remember when i went to sleep that day.

Woke up at 7 in the morning, with as usual chunki ringing a non stop bell. But today I was not eager to sleep more. I had to plan the hosehold and then get ready sicne we decided to first go shopping in Delhi. Spent 3 hours in the Lajpat Nagar market but was not exausted. An finally reached the auditorium at 6:30 in the evening, where we were informed parking was in a mall nearby and a coach was ready there to bring us to the auditorium and take us back to the mall once the concert is over. We drove back 4 km to the mall, yelling on people who were blocking traffic, and not allowing us to move ahead as if We were
the best driver's in the world and rest all were new bee's. :) Finally we got our car parked and sat in the coach to reach the auditorim back. The whole trip had taken 35 mins and it was already 7 o' clock.

We rushed towards the main gate and found a big queue, we decided that one of us will stay in the queue and other will get the tickets from the counter. That was a wise decision, By the time our chance came we had the tickets too. We got an entry amidst black commando's.  We puchased a burger, pop corn and Pepsi
and entered the auditorium hall from the rear entry door. Black stage decorated with Bouquets.. and a huge audience.. suddnley some one asked us for our tickets to guide us towards our seat and oopss that was crazzzyyy.. He took us towards the rear rows, i thought may be we will lead to the front from the
side corridor, but no, he made us sit in the 5th row from the back...I asked the man, "We choose the 2nd row from front while we booked our tickets early this month, i think you are mistaken".

And a reply came, "Mam, the seating plan was changed recently and we had to make adjustments." This was disgusting. We then noticed, some chairs were kept in the path in front of our row and they were reserved for families of local police officials,  that blocked our view too, since it was not on the steps but just in front of us. I was seeeing all my dreams fading off 1 by 1. But then all the gntlemen in our row protested for the extra chairs in front of us and we were adjusted in different rows.

And finally the show started and we forgot all the trobles we had just witnessed and were all into Jagjit Singh's ghazal's... It was a fantastic and an unforgetable evening.

Challenges

Travelling back to Delhi from my hometown, I was gazing outside my AC conpartment window lying on the lower birth that had luckily been alloted this time. It was 6:30 in the morning and we had crossed Ghaziabad. Pale blue sky with shinning white clouds like huge cotton bundles, scattered all over and a very small white rocket somewhere in betweeen slowly moving on...leaving behind a array of smoke fumes forming an arch, houses were passing by with people starting their daily routies, some people were out on roads for a morning walk and some cleaning their houses and I was deep down in my thoughts of the beautiful vaccation that I had spent at my hometown and making plans for my next trip.

Suddenly the cell phone rang and I came out of my thoughts, picking up the phone I found my husband on the other end. He told me he was on his way and will reach railway station in time, if at all he is late I needed to wait near the main exit. He was sounding a bit disturbed for the past few days while we were talinkg on hone and i could sense the same today, on inquiring he said there is something he will tell me when we meet and hung up the phone. A flash of thoughts went through my mind, but I was unable to guess. I got up and started settling my luggage coz the train had now almost reached the railway station.

As the train stopped, a queue of passegers formed on the passage and then those coolies also had to get on the train to earn their wages. I decided to wait til the mess clears up a bit.. within a few mins i found him walking fast on the platform towards my boggie and now i was relaxed. We shared picking up the luggage coz 1 was carrying 3 bags, I picked up the smallest one is a seperate thing. :) We got into the car and and my
first question was

"Hey... what's up? You seem to be a bit disturbed "

He answered slowly, we need to vaccate the house this month end, landlords relatives are shifting to NCR and they would live in the apartment. My mouth was open for a while. He consoled me and said he didn'want to spoil my vaccation by telling this news earlier and stopped the car at CP for a tea break at our favorite joint. I did not understand what to say as this was least expected, since our landlords had promised us last year that we could stay in this house for another 4-5 years and they have now changed. We ordered a tea and a coffee(because I do not drink tea) and cookies and started towards our house. After about a 10 mins silence, I broke out.... so the HUNT starts now and both of us started laughing.

14 days have passed now and we are still looking for our home sweet home, the HUNT goes on... We need to fix something by this weekend. Will keep you all posted...

One fine morning....

The door bell rang and woops i jumped out of my bed....the clock had struck 7:00 AM and I realized it was Monday a working day. I didn't want to get up that early coz my 8 hours sleep quota was not complete yet as i was playing facebook games late till 1:30 AM, beleive me they are good Baking life, Frontier ville, farm ville, treasure island and then those funny little applications...the funniest was " What were you in your past life".. and guess what were the results for me... i was 'Bhola idli wala' in my past life.. hahaha that was hillarious.. you really do not realize the time flying by while you are going through these.

It was Chunki at the door, Chunki my ‘kaam waali bai’…. When I had hired her(I would be sounding like an employer…. But I love to feel that ways :) ) I had given her strict instructions to be in early by 7, as I was told by my friends these bai’s are very fussy on time, but to my surprise this lady is always in at 7… and I do not like it.. :( I really want to sleep more everyday, but man she will not allow me ever. She handed over the news paper to me which she had picked up from the door step and went into the kitchen for her routine job… washing dishes and cleaning the floors. I sat on the sofa, yawning and half sleepy and telling myself…. its already morning and you cannot sleep more darling. Get up now! To overcome my sleep, in a jiffy I picked up the newspaper and as usual started looking for DT first to read my daily horoscope… yeah horoscope, this has been my practice for the past couple of years now but the best part is that I read and forget and do not keep things in mind, so no grudges at all. Most of the times horoscope is all that I read in the newspaper.. :P.

While I was opening up the newspaper, on Page 3 something caught my eyes and suddenly I was charged up, my half open sleepy eyes had now opened up wide…. I was going crazy looking at the pictures on that editorial and rushed towards the bedroom to have my husband take a look too and share his thoughts with me.. but then Chunki can never keep shut and wrap up her routine, she has to complain or find loopholes in something or the other, Didi… she screamed, but this time her tone was soft.. hmm I knew something was cooking in her mind… I went in the kitchen and here she was ready with an excuse for a day off from work… you cannot do anything when it comes up to these leave demands from servants, i knew there was no use arguing and also I had something much more interesting to share with my husband on the newspaper. I allowed her leave but in turn asked her to wash kitchen tiles today… Clever me.. thought should take some extra work from her, since she would be out for a day…;)

Picking up the newspaper from the dining table I went into the bedroom and switched off the AC…, that is the only way to wake my husband up, he cannot sleep if he is feeling hot :) I told him it was a power cut, so he will need to bear with it but there was something in the newspaper which was interesting… rubbing his eyes he asked me for tea but then I wanted him to see the editorial first, he saw that but did not notice what I had noticed, I asked him to see closely but he could not figure out. I wanted him to notice on his own but he was unable to, I ran into the kitchen and prepared a cup of tea and here I was back in 5 mins, offering him tea and found he had kept the DT aside and was reading through the editorials on the sports page of the TOI. He took his first sip and I placed the DT with Page 3 open on top of his newspaper and asked him to now see the page again and asked did u notice something now? And quick came the answer… ‘Yeah Aish still looks gorgeous and so elegant’. I said ‘Yeah, you are right’ and took the DT back from him. I was disappointed and all my excitement was over now. I kept the newspaper on the side stool and was moving out of the room to carry on with my daily routine, that was when he said…

Hey, I would say, you looked much more beautiful in the saree that Aish is wearing in the picture. It is similar to that you wore at our engagement. Right”

Oh yeah, its the same.. I was recharged and blushing... the day had started on a beautiful note for me.. Aish wearing the same saree that I had with me and then compliments from my husband right in the morning. ;)