Two hours Free? You Kiding Me Right?!!!

  This article is an official entry for the Surf Excel Matic #GetSmart Contest on indiblogger.

Mumbaikars live a life full of hustle and bustle.everyone seems to be in a hurry.Everyone seems to be going somewhere pushing ,shoving and elbowing the others.No time to wait ,no time to think .Everyone seems to be moving on. We live a fast paced life which at times become monotonous(at times?? Rather all the time) . Everyone has got the same complaint “Arey yar time hi nai milta”( which means I just don’t get time). As far as I am concerned, I am the one who always mouths this dialogue frequently almost everywhere. Life at the moment is all about going to the work place and spending 9 hours there and then pushing thousand others (not literally!) to reach home daily!Phew!!Everyone is in need of time. The value of time is realized only when we end up losing the time in hand. To add more meaning to what I want to express , I think these lines would be the best

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person   who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

------------Source  : (Internet )

So when there is such a crunch of time in our daily life and when someone(read Surf Excel Matic ) suddenly tells you ,”dudette I do all your work for two hours.go make the most of it while I do the laundry for you” what would be your reaction? Yeah!! Exactly I would scream on top of my voice .Wow!! the thought of being free for two hours is divine. And such things never happen daily.You don’t get such free time as per your wish daily. So when Surf Excel Matic  gave me this choice virtually, I was actually lost in my thoughts as to what I would do. But now I know what I would do with it because I actually realize the value of time.So without wasting much of my time let me take you too with me in the best 2 hours of my life.

The first Precious 30 min : I have always believed that a child lives the life to the fullest.And I thought why not be a child again.!! Who’s would stop me!! This is your time ,your two hours ! I would hop to the nearby shop and buy me a coloring book and a  box of poster colors.wow !!! It would be almost after 5 months that I would be again trying my hand at painting. But then it was like ,it had to be perfect. Today there would be no one who was going to  grade me ,no marking nothing.I would dip my hand in to the poster colors and do whatever I can with my finger tips.And I have always been a clumsy kid ,so am damn sure I would end up soiling my clothes. But then “daag ache hai “as my dear friend (surf excel) has said I would care a damn about anything.Because when Surf Excel Matic has taken up the responsibility of cleaning up my clothes,I  should indeed be careless.I would bring out my imaginations on to the paper and bring life to it. I  would end up adding colors atleast virtually to everything that’s colorless. everything that I feel is lifeless.Wow!! it would be like me holding a magic brush and then just coloring up my monotonous boring time constrained life.

The next 30 min:

I have this cute nephew of mine who is all naughty.  He has this big garden in his building and the best part is there is a huge sprinkler in the garden. Whenever we catch up ,I become  a kid with him and we go and drench ourselves in the sprinkler and then the mud fight is something that we both love. I mean being a kid all over again is the best way to destress ourselves. And I  actually need to destress myself.I would love to be a kid with him, use his tactics, play his games and be all dirty and soiled and be  a kid once again.Aise daag acche hote hai  because they make your life meaningful. They add sweet memories to your life. The soiled clothes are a reminder of your own childhood.

The last one hour :  I would love to quote the famous lines of W.H Davies

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

And we actually live this life full of care. We miss out on the most important things in life in the chase for power, money and recognition. I don’t remember the last time when I took out some time to see the sun rising, the sun setting , the beauty of the rains, the magical rainbow, the beauty of the stars, the  mysterious night etc. I think we miss out on most of the beautiful things in life.And yes we lead a poor life as W.H Davies has wonderfully quoted in his poem Leisure.I would love to take a stroll on beach in the evening and witness the giant sun melting in the waters of the sea.

 I would love to be mesmerized by the bright orange color that would spread across the sky. Walking with a loved one on the beach is something I am craving for. And ending the day with the yummiest Paw Bhaji, Pani puri and Kulfi ice-cream sold in the local stall is something that one cannot miss out if u r on a  Mumbai beach. And yes buying those colorful balloons and letting them go away high in the sky is something I have loved right from my childhood days. The balloons as they go up makes us really happy for no particular reason and this fact remind me that in life certain things when let go add more happiness In life.                               

 

These are the small joys in life which  I guess everyone deserves. I would love to share a message to all via this post i.e stop at times in the long run for power money and fame and analyze what you have lost in this long run. Spending time with family, reading out books to your kids, licking a lollypop at times, playing with your kids, eating a cream biscuit as kids do(I know we all still love eating it like that ),getting drenched in the rain ,jumping into puddles of water and splashing water, saying “I love you “ to your mom, dad, loved ones,that special coffee for your wife/hubby,cooking up dinner for you partner  etc is something in which one must invest time in for. Whats life without these small precious moments!!

Locks And Mane

 This article is the prize winning entry of Dove Indiblogger Contest.

Thanks dove for giving me an opportunity to put in the woes of my hair in front of the world.((what did u guys think..am thanking you for the envious hamper …NAH!!!!)

Having lustrous beautiful hair is a matter of pride among gals,and obviously among men too(who likes to be bald??anyways!!) People have always strived hard to keep their hair beautiful. People have always loved their hair and their hair has loved them in turn too I believe.But then I never had an interest ever to keep it maintained. I never cared whether it was long, short,knotty etc etc…I didn't understand what “bad hair days” meant.  Every day meant the same for me,knotty!!.

I would love to give in details of the journey of my hair which have stood thick and thin all these 24years with me :)

Those pretty curls: I had the best curls ever when I was a child.please have a dekko at the pic below .smooth and cute and curly to the core. I looked cute too then :P. But I dunno what my parents were upto  ;they chopped off those curly locks(which would have made a style statement as of now just like kangana ranaut’s).Sigh!!! Never mind!!   

Those curly wurly kangana ranaut hairstyle ..phew :(

                                

 

After the bald look , which every child has to keep willingly or unwillingly in India as a part of rituals, I could see new shoots popping up.It never mattered to me then as to what was popping on top of my head.But the curls were gone and came the wavy hair.

Those pesky lice:

As a kid,my hair was adorned with those tiny creatures called lice like most of my peers then .Ohhh those days of itching and scratching scalp is something everyone can connect to.Every Sunday it would be a ritual to get up early in the morning and sit next to my mom who would take up the cleaning process.Mom would pour bottles of Medicare- the only shampoo for lice that was available then, and comb out those pesky creatures.

Those Long plaits:

I had long hairs till my hip. My mum loved long hairs on her daughters and yeah she was in 

charge of the maintenance too.Our long hairs were the subject of pride for my
mom atleast.When I was in my school I never knew of any other hairstyles other than 
those plaits.My hair used to be damn Oily all thanks to my mom who had this notion 
and still have,oiling hair regularly would help in the growth of hair.She thinks her
daughters had the best hair though we don’t agree to it. My classmates would call 
me “tel-cut” in hindi(tel= oil in hindi) which meant oil slick .Rest is left to your 
wildest imaginations as to how my hair would look in  those days.

That  unexpected cut:

I was in standard 6 th I believe when we were appearing for our craft exams and I had this naughtiest boy sitting behind me for exam.We were always at logger heads and  he showed up his creativity and chopped off half my plait as a part of his creativity during craft exams.i was so dumb I dint realize.its only when I reached home  that my mom figured it out..We as kids were never allowed to even talk about haircut and this was almost like a sin.What followed this simple innocent creativity by the kid was helluva fights and complaints to the school authorities.

College Days ;

Finally mustered the courage to chop my hair short and I went for the first Deep U cut .Wow!!! that was liberating,I promised to myself I would now take care of my hair.Deep within I knew these were false promises .But then what is wrong in making one.Studies ate up most of my time forget self care.I used to look like that typical geek,with those solid thick glasses and oily hair. Yeah not to forget I used to pamper them with shampoos once in a while and at times use Rasnadi podi   an ayurvedic powder for hair massage.

Many haircuts followed after that, step cut, step with layer,etc etc.  It was highly liberating for me. The haircuts meant freedom from the bonds of traditional customs.

Experimenting with color:  One Sunday afternoon when there was nothing to be done, I and my sis thought of experimenting with haircolor.And I was the guinea pig. After cutting the sachets and following the directions I finally let her apply the brown color on my hair . and Voila!!! It was superb!!!!

Hair color application was followed by regular oil massages and conditioning.And yes my hair did look wonderful.This was something that happened years ago and yeah the fairy tale ended soon.

Current Scenario:

  Till the last month my hair looked like a body scrubber. Rough, lacked luster and dull. The best part of my hair then, was that it always the resembled the out of bed look or rather the unkempt look that was in or rather the rage of the month. They were dull all thanks to the pollution that I was exposed to during my daily travel to the office.And I being extremely careless let my hair be the way it was. Last week I checked in into my parlor and asked her to cut my hair  the way she wanted .I just had one condition that the length shouldn't decrease and it should look DECENT. The lady put her hand in my hair and found her hands stuck in a maze of knots and I could see in the mirror she was disgusted to the core.But then she tried to be extremely polite and said your hair needs special care. I said ,”OK go ahead , you have half an hour of time do whatever you want to with that time”. Then what she did was a magic.My hair regained all the lustre,shine and I was sitting there amazed. She asked me the list of things that I used for hair which I cant reveal here (DUH!!!because I am writing for dove ). And then she prescribed me Dove Serum and Dove Hair Mask. She said  the application of these products were mandatory for hair like me. And I did hop into buy them and have been using it for a while.My hair has regained its lost lustre and beauty. I felt like kissing my hair.That is when I realized when u use the proper stuff that your hair loves,its going to love you back for pampering it.!!It was wonderful!!!

Here is the proof :)

I Love this Change....

And so when u dropped the envious gift hamper(Thank you so much)!!! home,my joy knew no bounds.I went crazy!! Yay!! Yippee!!! 

Thanks for caring and making me what I deserve to be,to look and to feel.Love u Dove!!!

Being 24

Who said birthdays are special??Ah!!! Every year as my birthday approaches am all nervous about growing old. It’s like Oh my God!!! One more year and am getting married. This birthday was no different. I was rather nervous But then a special bouquet of orchids and roses helped me forget for a moment that am 24. But obviously then the moment didn’t last for long.

I have this strange problem of not agreeing that I am growing old .Last week I almost had an argument with my colleague that its 23 running and not 24.She did all the possible mathematical calculations and was like “Is it that only you stay at 23 forever and we are the ones who always get old?” And then it really sunk in me that I am finally 24 years old. I was like,”Shit I just finished my education 2 years back, damn it!!!And itna jaldi 24???” It took me some time to come to terms with me being 24. I wondered what had changed in the last 23 years(oh sorry 24 years!! :( ) of my life.

When I was a kid ,taking chocolates on my bday to school for being distributed was a matter of pride. I would tag along my best friend to accompany me.I remember my friends being at their best behavior just to get a chance to be with the little celeb of the day. Today when am 24  , I have my friends around but no one is free so that I can tag them all the way to distribute some sweets. I have to do it alone (no friends allowed nothing), buy cakes and distribute among my entire team.

Then giving parties to my friends would be my mum’s home made pav bhaji with all the neighbouring kids around. Today, parties means lavish restaurant and bars. Then buying a birthday dress would be something my parents would bring in for me and I would wear it with lot of pride. Today the shopping starts weeks ahead right from accessories to nailpaints ,everything gets ready before the D-day. Then I had no worries except for my maths exams. Today I need to worry about my project, my work, my company, recession, marriages, kids etc etc etc. Then going out means going for the show of circus held in our town holding my parents (Oh boy!! I simply miss the concept of circus now!)Today going out, going around and every word with “going” as a prefix has a meaning. The best chocolates that would ever be distributed during my childhood days would be the ravalgaon candies, today none of my friends would settle for any thing less than a big diary milk bar(they create a big hole in ma pocket:P) Those black berries and apples that I knew were the cheap fruits and now they are the pioneers of mobile phones and ipods respectively…Years have passed by , my friends have grown into responsible adults , they are no longer the gals with piggy tails and the guys with those tacky half pants;they are getting married and may be would get to meet their kids by my next bday. They are again a constant reminder that am getting old. The birthdays of my childhood were carefree and happier ones. The recent ones come up with loads of responsibility.

But there are certain things that haven’t changed in all these years ( do I sound like an oldie?), I mean in the last 24 years; getting my parents blessings every year, my craze for balloons,my love for those ravalgaon candies, love for my silly frocks which my mum would get for me( now I don’t fit into them obviously),those lovely ribbons tied to both my pony tails,my love for yummy home made cake, the memories of my nose getting burnt on smelling the hot yummy cake, the craze of collecting all the greeting cards sent to me till date by my distant friends etc etc etc… Ah!! Guess these are some things  money cant buy…

This is me!!!

Life's a crazy mess with too many things to do and too little time left to spare for the ones we care. Share a piece of you with those who matter the most. Tag them to fill out the distances between you.


This is seriously going to get personal, you ready?




1. If you were caught cheating, would you fess up?


I would never cheat in the first place :)


2. When was the last time you felt honestly broken?


When someone rejected my proposal


3. Are you craving something?


A taste of Freedom


4. If you could have one thing right now what would it be?


Anything that's spicy


5. Would you rather have ten kids, or none?


TEN ?:O OMG!! insan hu machine nahi....




6. Are you there for your friends?


Atleast i believe so!!(open for my friends to comment)


 7. Last person to see you cry?


 My Colleagues


8. What do you do when you get nervous?


Bite nails and i don't leave a single chance to act stupid


9. Be honest, do you like people in general?


i love to be a part of the crowd...


10. How old do you think you will be when you finally have kids?


28 for sure!!!


11. Does anyone completely understand you?


hmmmm.......


12. Have you ever made out in a bathroom?


We have betta places dont we?? ;)


13. Do you think the last person you kissed is nice?


hmm that's a secret ;)


14. Who was the last person to call you?


Suneal Nambiar


15. What is the last non-alcoholic beverage you had?


 H2O
16. Last person you drove with in a car?


 Suneal Nambiar


17. Are you afraid of the dark?


No!!but rather people may get scared seeing me in the dark


18. Is there anyone you wish was still in your life?


No i am happy with the ones i have in my life right now!!!


19. Do you flirt a lot?


  A bit of it doesn't hurt .no???:P


20. Would you live with someone without marrying them?


NO


21. Do you believe in Love At First Sight?


yes !! but then  a second or a third look wouldn't hurt much :P

Nanhi Kali

What do you think about your mother? your girlfriend?,your sister?,your grandmum?,your first crush,your teacher on whom you had a secret crush????What is the first word that comes to your mind when you have been asked to describe them? I have asked many people the same question and everyone would say “Gorgeous, Beautiful!!! Attractive and they would go on and on…. You love all these ladies in your life and so the overflow of praise and flattery!! Right??? All these ladies in your life were also small angels at a point of time, don’t you think so? But then when it comes to the preference of a child, why is it that people  still crave for a boy child? I have had this friend (girl) of mine who promised me a party if one of her aunt’s gave birth to a baby boy. Only if it was a baby boy!!! That left me a bit  disappointed and left me wondering as to why there is still a big hue and cry about a baby gal being born even now when we have reached the 21st century.We have reached the 21st century, gals have surpassed men in every field, in every thing but still the ratio of women as compared to men keeps dipping every year. Don’t you love your mum, aren’t you proud of the fact that she made you what you are today. What if she was never allowed to live? What if she was killed within 3-4 months when she was just  about to learn how to breathe? Killing an unborn child is inhuman but then killing it after knowing that it’s a girl child is nothing less than a cold blooded murder.

 In India they are obsessed with having a baby boy , since a baby boy would carry their lineage. Women are tortured, burnt, forced to abort just because they want to carry on their lineage for years. I wonder what is it that they want to pass through their lineage??? Ways how to torture your mum, your sister, kill a girl child.. Is it what they  want to carry forward??U Have some wonderful moments of love, u make your wife pregnant, 9months of carrying the baby amidst the bouts of vomiting ,nausea,cramps in the stomach, enduring 12-13 hours of labour pain,taking every step carefully so that your love child(sorry !! your lineage) is not affected..after all this hardships and when the baby is finally delivered,one day someone gets up from somewhere and just decides that they don't want to have this baby just because it is a gal. Who gives them this right? You make love to your wife but leave her exposed for the entire world to give their useless opinion.

 Only the mother i.e your wife has the right or should have the right to talk about her baby. It takes a woman to give life to someone. Its only if a gal is born ,would the generation move forward.

Those lovely pink ribbons, those lovely bottles of nail paint and lipsticks, those lovely curly locks of hair, those artistic eyes and beautiful eyelashes, that million dollar smile,those non stop talks and chitchatting ,her moves ,as you say in hindi uske nakhre,adayein,thousand expressions that run across her face…lovely isn’t it?? Yes beautiful is the apt word. The name Nanhi Kali (small little flower bud) because I find it synonymous with a baby gal.Gals are as beautiful as the petals of a flower.This is something that comes to my mind when I think of a baby girl. You are deprived of this beauty given by God if you don’t allow it to come to this world.

I have been lucky to be born in a family where the numbers of daughters are more than the number of sons. No one worries about any damn lineage..Today no one knows whether they would return home back safe when they leave early mornings for work, forget carrying their lineage. My parents have been proud of both me and my sister and they have never felt the need of any guy even when my dad underwent a bypass surgery(something that was relatively new to us, and was the first in the family), we have managed it well just like so many other such beautiful angels today.

The govt should ban all the sex determination centers and debar all the doctors from their medical degrees who are game to such heinous acts. The women should themselves stand up for themselves in case they are being tortured for sake of a baby boy. The women should never go in for a child when she knows that the family she is married to would never accept a baby gal.Stand up for yourself first and then the world would stand with you,for you.I think fighting against your in laws for your rights would be less painful than the long hours of labor pain.

Next time your wife gets pregnant, be happy that you could actually get her pregnant. Be happy that she could bear a child. And do remember it’s not a lottery system, you just cannot keep trying till you get lucky. And if u have a mindset , that your wife can  has to give a baby boy, all I can say is BE A MAN FIRST!!!!!!

Colorful Childhood Days

On the eve of independence   day, we were busy decorating our Office   ODC (offshore development centre) this weekend and in the process we shopped for lot of things right from balloons to poster colors. After a long time I got an opportunity to play with colors or rather try my hand at painting. We were trying to paint the map of India in tri color and there I tried my hand at coloring. Wow  !! it was indeed a great feeling.

All my childhood I always craved for those stylish boxes of poster colors. But then my parents would always tell me that it’s too costly and I always had to settle down with the not-so-stylish water colors. I was never good at painting and am still not, which my parents understood long back I guess  ; but then there was always this craze for Camel’s poster colors. Having them was a matter of pride in those days.I remember one of my friends Dipti nair (dunno where she is now!!) always flaunted her big box of water colors. We used to envy her for the same. We would always look at her box of colors with eager eyes wishing to have the same one day.

Today as I painted the tricolor I checked the cost of the poster colors and it was just Rs.125; an amount which was too big 10 years back. I was like poster colors are so cheap?? Only to realize that it was really costly 10- 12 years back.

I was terrible at painting then ,as am now. But then getting ma hands all soiled with colors was a pleasure.I could never agree more with surf excel fellas who said “dag acche hai” .I loved those colors on ma hand, my face but my drawing still ugly.But I was proud of them because then they were my paintings. I remember we had our drawing books with images on them and we just had to replicate them. There was a drawing of a lion and we had to replicate it.I put my heart and soul while drawing, but then my lion looked as meek as a lamb and I had got the beating of my life for that disastrous painting. These are some of the sweet and sour memories of my childhood. But then they were the best. And I have vowed to buy poster colors and try ma hand at painting no matter how meek my lion looks or how courageous my cow looks!!! It is just a matter of recreating the magic of childhood days and being a child again.

You can never be a child again but then who’s stopping you from getting your clothes soiled in mud, getting those colors on your hand ,dress and face, relishing a lollypop, jumping in the puddle of mud water , making paper boats and then putting them in a puddle of water…guess that was life…!!!

Let’s live those days of innocence again !!!

My Take On Relationships :

This post has been chosen by Blog Adda for their Tuesday Tangy Picks. Thank you Blogadda.

Recently read in the newspaper, a 73 year old couple battling for divorce. They have their kids who are well settled, have their grand kids too… but still they have been battling it out in the court because they just can’t stand each other. The court tried to make peace but then both the sides refused to live in together again. This may not be the first case or something new but then it really made me think hard, what is that you want in a relationship.

After 40-50 years of staying together and bringing up kids together, finally what would have happened that made them grew apart. I wondered does it take 40-50 years to know your partner?I wondered as to what could be the actual reason for the same. Either the problem would have been right from the start but then they would have compromised for their kids or their family(typical Indian mentality!!!) or they have lost the mutual understanding which is an important ingredient of every relation.

I have had a friend who would always say “When I’m willing to cook her chicken tikkas for dinner and chocolate mousse for breakfast-in-bed, she should atleast be beautiful” I would try explaining things to him that beauty would fade away but then no use. Is it beauty that would make the relation grow stronger.? What if she is beautiful and suspicious of every activity of yours?? Does it even sound good?? Forget staying with her then!!!!!I feel in a relationship the person appears beautiful in the first two years of courtship or may be 3years of marriage and sexual intimacy but then in the long run what makes the couple  beautiful or your partner beautiful is how the person has been a strength throughout the journey. Fights are common in every relation but then the way you fought over small things guides you throughout the journey. If in the first fight you end up breaking vessels and jars ,the time is not far when you end up breaking your  hearts.

I believe at the age of 73 what I would want is peace, an understanding partner(doesn’t matter if he looks the worst then) and it wouldn’t even matter if he doesn’t cook  chicken tikkas for me.I would rather reminisce about my wonderful moments with him. For me spending time more together would be the best option rather than moving court. I believe the couple lacked the basic understanding and that is the reason they wanted a divorce. If it would have been the society that they bothered about then even now they wouldn’t have taken such a step.

The basic thing that is missing in most of the relationships these days is trust and understanding. Something that I believe in very strongly, be with someone who understands you, who accepts you the way you are. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks about your decision. They are no one to decide anyways .Don’t get into a marriage because someone wants you to. And don’t stay in an abusive relation just because someone wants you to. I may sound selfish but then nothing hurts more mentally and physically than being in an abusive relation. Be in a relationship with someone who has got the basic understanding of what you want. 

Trust me!!! If your partner has the required compassion, understanding he would appear to be the most beautiful human in the world even in his sixties and seventies. His/her wrinkles would make them appear even more beautiful. After all life Is not measured by the number of times you slept together but the little sweet moments like the first salary after marriage, first movie,first bouquet of flowers,first fight and then being all sorry about it, first financial crunch,forgetting your anniversary and then making up for it ,your first experiment with cooking to impress your partner,the first long drive , your first baby…etc. What is life without all these?