3 years up!

Dear Chintu,
Ahem. Yes you heard me right. That is what I call you these days.. Unlike Year 1 or Year 2 where I just referred to you as plain vanilla "Karthik". Does this imply that we have come closer as a couple? Hmmm. Frankly I don't know. And I haven't thought that far.All I know is that you are Chintu to me and will be life long!
This past year has been all about work and career, for both of us. You had a big project at work which you headed, I got my long awaited break last July and there has been no looking back ever since. Chintu, you are a funny guy. While I wouldn't term you as one of those men who overly encourages me to give my all at work, you are also not one of those chauvinistic types. You lie somewhere in between - where you "quietly" push me to do my best wherever it may be - be it at work, home or otherwise. Keep on pushin' I say!
As I look back to how this year has been, I feel that it has been somewhat peaceful. At least compared to the last 2 years. We know each other's taste, we know what pisses each other off(not that we don't manage to do it, but still, knowing it is at least a start!)
I've thoroughly enjoyed all the travel too - doing the Angkor Wat temples, standing at Victoria Peak, waiting for you to patiently capture that "windswept look" of mine, gorging on yummy street food at Siem Reap and "partying all night" at Mumbai. That epic night where a very "not so sober you" ran up and down in the lobby of ITC Grand Central at 2 am still flashes across my face and I cannot stop laughing at that image! You are truly crazyyy! Such fun times!
Chintu, this is one of those few moments in our life where I let you know how much you mean to me. I know I am not expressive and that does annoy the hell outta you but then this is how I am! I may continue to annoy you, I will continue being irresponsible in a lot of ways, I will still fight with you but always remember that I love you to bits and I am nothing without you!

I just get the feeling that the best is yet to come ;) Leaving you with one of our best pics taken this year. Pic courtsey: APPA! :D
Happy 3rd anniversary Chintu!

Love,
Aishu 

The Gujju tam bram mish mash!

I am just back from a 4 day trip to Bombay. We had gone to be a part of my cousin, Meghna and Chitrang's big wedding celebrations. Boy. Big is an understatement. There were about 5 different events, each grander than the other. Not that I am complaining 'coz I absolutely love weddings. Believe it or not but the preparation for this wedding began way back in February 2013. We had booked flight tickets back then and were looking forward to it since. Lol! Hopeless we are!! But this was a great way for the rest of the family to catch up with each other, to relax and to generally have a good time. Not to mention a perfect excuse to get a few things done - lets see I cut and smoothened my hair(Studio Profile again!), bought 2 sets of anarkalis, bought a ton of makeup and just generally went crazy. Before you get judgemental on me, let me tell you my mom and aunts were no better. They also went to the parlor, got their hair done, bought anarkalis and dyed their hair, painted their nails etc. Even a sober person like Geetha got her hair straightened.. so that is the kind of pre departure preparation that happened for Meghna's wedding. Lol! My cousins and I also created this group chat on Whatsapp and kept buzzing each other on what we were going to wear, what we were going to do and were just so excited. I wish I could relive those moments, so much fun!!

Day 1 - We reached around 5 pm in the evening and checked into ITC Grand Central at Parel. Yup. You heard me right. I told you it was called the "wedding of the year". We were right up in the 15th floor with a fabulous view. The first event was the Sangeet cum Cocktails evening at Blue Sea, in Worli. A lovely venue and a super fun evening with a live DJ. First up there were family dances which were too cute to be true. Uma aunty and Vinay uncle were such live wires on stage it was so cute to watch them. Then of course the dance floor opened up and we all generally went a little crazy! Pics from night 1 - 

Day 2 was the Tamil style engagement and mehendi ceremony. We all woke up bright and early, hogged a sumptuous breakfast at ITC and got ready to leave to the engagement ceremony. The dress code was Kanjeevaram Sarees, so we all wore our bright and colorful best!

The decor was super pretty and there were lots of stuff happening at the event - first off, we started with some heavy duty dancing to welcome the boy into the mandapam, then we had mehendi, bangle making, bead making, pottery, astrology etc all going on simultaneously plus of course the actual event - the engagement! The couple happily posed for the shutterbugs. Chitrang was a real sport - he wore a veshti, he danced, he sang and was really friendly.

Below is a picture with Lokesh Kapoor - he is the chief wedding planner and was the butt of most of our jokes - some of his nicknames included gundu, radio gundan(coz he was seen walking with the walkie talkie 24/7!) etc. Lol! He was a really nice chap and did a good job with all the organizing. Kudos!

Post the engagement we went back to the room and wanted to crash! We had a grand plan for the evening - My cousins and I - Sne, D, Ashwin, Preeti, K & I were heading to Marine Drive and later to Leopold's for drinks and dinner. It was a real fun evening!! All of us were in "high spirits" and had the time of our lives! Good times. We came back late that night and just crashed.







The next morning we had a late start to the day - We were visiting Chitrang's house for Gujrati lunch and were super excited. K opted out(hence no pics) as he had woken up early in the morning to capture Mumbai. Sample this -

So beautiful!! I wish I had gotten out of bed when K woke me up at 5 am. But it felt like it was sacrilege to wake up that early on a holiday - it is not often that I get to snuggle in the ITC bed. Rotfl! Ok pj.

That evening, we had an event called the "Suron Ki Shaam" which was a nice, musical evening. It got off to a nice start with kids dancing to the "Shree Ganesha deva" song from Agneepath. It was followed by
lilting melodies of the 70's and 80's. Very well sung by all the singers. When we finished dinner and got back to the hotel, it was about 11:30 pm. According to us the night was still young. D, Sne & Ashwin came by our room and we sat there chatting and laughing - Now is perhaps the right time to tell you some fantastic news about Ashwin - he is getting engaged in Feb 2014 and the wedding is in July 2014! We are all majorly excited about the upcoming wedding and to meet his lady love, Mythreyi. More on that later. Anyway coming back to our "after party", Ashwin had bought "stuff" for us which we promptly opened and got into high spirits(yet again!). Conversation flowed freely and around 12:30 we got a call from none other than the bride herself - Ms. Meghna! She wanted to come by our room and have a drink. We all welcomed her and what followed was an hour of good conversation, lots of jokes, family gossip, the couple's story of how they met etc etc etc. It was good fun. After some time, Meghna & Ashwin left the group. The 4 of us went a little mad - We played a song called "Party All night" and danced, giggled, yelled etc etc. My hubby was the nuttiest of them all! Gosh. That night still makes me laugh and laugh. One of the bestest after parties ever! Yes it ended with the 4 of us having ice cream at the coffee shop in ITC(1000 bucks if I'm not wrong) - who cares. It's not everyday that we get to do silly things like this!

Party all night! 

The next morning we woke up quite groggily. It was the wedding day and we had to dress in sarees yet again. Which meant eating an early breakfast. Shucks. We finally got up, dressed and headed out to receive the baarat. Full on dancing in front of ITC. Fun times! Glimpses from their wedding -

The wedding was followed by a super grand reception at night. It was a large open ground with so many different counters of food. My god. My head spins when I think of it! We ate and ate and ate :D The best part of the trip was getting together with my family and especially all my cousins. We were waiting and waiting and waiting for the Bombay trip but finally it was all coming to an end. Boo Hoo.
Did I shop? Don't fall off your chair but no, not really. I bought one pair of chappal at Linking Road, that's about it. Mr. K on the other hand, bought a nice pair of jeans(finally got one which he liked!) and was really happy.

I could go on writing but I shall stop my verbal diarrhea here. Enjoy the pictures. And congratulations again Meghna & Chitrang. God bless!
 I doubt I shall be blogging before the new year.. . I really wanted to wrap my year up properly but no time. Sigh. So on that note, here's wishing you & yours a fabulous 2014 - Party hard on the 31st night and live it up! See you next year, Tada.

Girls just wanna have fun!

The summer heat is merciless. Chennai has no respite whatsoever from the heat. What better way to beat the heat than a getaway with best friends to a farmhouse filled with greenery, a swimming pool, 2 great kids and some bitchy times? That's right. This past weekend I had a fun day out with my besties, Shan and Mosh at Shan's farmhouse on the outskirts of Chennai. The 3 of us had been going back and forth on a date that would be convenient for the 3 of us. Believe me, it was tough. We had to pick a day when our respective hubbies wouldn't fuss(as if?!) or a day when Shan's kid didn't have a class which he couldn't miss or a day when we hadn't promised the in laws we would come see them or a day when we didn't have to worry about maids, carpenters or electricians coming to fix something at home. Sigh. Fortunately, that day did arrive. Wohoo! We decided to leave home as early as possible so that we can spend maximum time together. We reached her farmhouse around 10:30. Here is a picture of the house gleaming in the sunlight.

The pretty house 

Can you spot Rayyan amidst all the greenery?

With 2 young kids around(Rayyan is almost 4 and Rafa is 2) you cannot expect too much silence. Heck, you can't even expect a minute of peace and quiet! They were so excited to be there and wanted to go around and play with the farm animals. Lets see..I saw ducks and fishes in the pond, hens, cocks, chicks, turkeys and  some emus! Yes. No wonder then that the kids wanted to go out and play with the caretaker's kids and the animals. Next on the agenda was "pool time"! I know I know. I cannot swim to save my life but I liked the idea of relaxing in the cool water. That was fun. Rayyan thoroughly enjoyed himself in the kids pool. Look at him

 Rafa is also a complete water baby like her mom! She loved being in the pool. I carried her for the most part while Shan and Mosh had a swimming race! Was good fun cheering them on. We were playing in the pool for more than 2 hours. 

Post pool time, all of us showered, fed the kids, ate and felt really refreshed. We then plonked on her bed and just kept talking and talking while the kids played with each other. Rafa, of course kept us fully entertained. Mosh and I did the "Jumping Jhapak" song with her which I've taped. Here's a glimpse of the madness that ensued 

Before we knew it was around 4 and then we started talking serious stuff. We talked of life in general - school memories, college fun, work, marriage, in laws, husbands(mostly about what a pain they could be!) and the future.. It felt so good to just sit there and share our innermost fears and wildest dreams. Funniest part is it didn't feel like its been forever since we had done this. It was almost as if we were always together and just began where we left off. Makes sense? We laughed to our hearts content, we made fun of each other, we took crazy pics and of course missed a few other girls who couldn't be there that day.. Basically, we just let go of ourselves completely. Highly recommended girls!! Especially if you're married :D 

Ash, Mosh, Shan

Leaving you with a few words and a picture that describes the 3 of us so beautifully!

BFFs!


In Mosh's lovely words : There's nothing more joyful than knowing that your besties still live just around the corner and that you can meet them whenever... And even the life's worst of situations cant change the madness, laughter and happinesss we bring in eachother's lives. From random chit chat sessions with dominos pizza or jack and jill fried rice at ash's place.. doing whackiest of stuff and gyaan sessions at shahin's place and soulful rambling at my place.. 10 years hence... nothing has changed... freeze.

Our lovely getaway to Kodai!

As a kid I would visit Kodaikanal at least once every 2 years I think. My memories of that place are so vivid. This time I visited with the better half to celebrate one year of putting up with each other! ;-) 

We stayed at the Villa Retreat which was a perfect choice(pat myself on the back). Do check out my review of the place in Trip Advisor. This was the first time we traveled together by train and that was quite fun. We went by 1st AC and had an entire coupe to ourselves, we were good kids I promise! ;-) 

We reached on Saturday morning and boy the weather was fantastic!! We freshened up, relaxed, gorged on hot rotis and dal, read and slept. When we woke up, our room offered a lovely valley view and we took in the beauty of the place....

We then headed for a stroll to "Coakers Walk" which was right next door and then took a nice long walk to the famous "lake". Boy. It felt as if the entire South India converged there. Kodaikanal is of course one of the most popular "honeymoon" destinations in India. With its great weather, summer time always pulls in crowds from all parts of the country!! Hence it was so crowded and needless to say, K freaked out. We were lucky to find a nice quiet spot and he started clicking away.. And finally got some pics as pretty as this.... 

Next morning the dude at our resort suggested a trip to "Manavanoor Lake". Like I said, I've seen it all in Kodai. At least that is what I thought. Until I discovered this beauty!  Manavanoor is about 45 km away from Kodaikanal and wow.. we thoroughly enjoyed the drive. It takes about an hour, but we took almost 2.5 hours to reach.. that is because we kept stopping on our way to take in the beauty of the place... 

Enroute.. a scenic view overlooking the Palani Hill... 

Pine Forests with a small stream on our way to Manavanoor... 

Don't miss the "Poomparai" village on your way. It is completely green, surrounded by mist sometimes and has lovely terraced grass fields. Apparently vegetables like potatoes, cauliflower and even garlic are grown here... 

We then reached closer to the lake and were told we could "horse ride" close to the actual lake. And of course I didn't miss this opportunity! And once we reached this is what we saw... 

Needless to say, this is said to be a popular spot for directors to shoot movies... our guide said movies like Adhavan, Tenali, Manmadhan Ambu etc have been shot here. But what was lovely is that there was not a single person in sight. It was just the two of us, surrounded by a lovely still water lake, lush greenery around us and birds chirping.... So pristine it was! We finally decided to head back and thanked our driver who was extremely courteous and informative - he even pointed out a flying squirrel on our way back, which unfortunately we couldn't click. 

Day 2 we decided to head to another unknown spot called the Berijam Lake.This is actually a forested area and hence we had to get prior permission to visit. And we got lucky again :) 

En route to the lake, we stopped at various "points"... and wow. Breathtakingly beautiful views!!! 

Unfortunately, it started pouring and we couldn't get as many pics as we would have loved to-- sample this.. 

Err.. yes that is me.. posing like an idiot thinking my husband is shooting my picture... Oh well! 

We then enter the actual forest area, the cute little houses are actually places where travelers can stay.. Would love to stay there someday! 

Then we keep walking and keep on walking until we reach Berijam Lake... Unlike Manavanoor, this seemed to be quite a popular spot and there were tourists thronging the place... and with that comes litter, rubbish, garbage, plastic and lots of noise!! However, I was mesmerized by this lovely lake.... 

Another view from a different angle... 

After spending about half an hour taking in the beauty of the place, we decide to take a short walk and went through what looked like a nature trail.... thankfully there wasn't a soul around and it was back to being quiet again..just how we like it... 

We then head back coz by now the clouds are looming and we know it is going to pour!! On our way back out of Berijam, we see this... Apparently called "Caps Valley" because the story is that if you throw a cap, it will come back to you!! Wished I could have tried it...

The next day we did the usual "touristy" spots which were nothing compared to these two places... I am for once glad that the Tamil Nadu Government isn't actually promoting any of these places aggressively... because I realize the more exposed they are to humans, the sooner they lose their charm. However, the next time you head to Kodai, please visit these without fail! And Do Not Litter for heavens sake! ;-) 

You can certainly give the likes of Guna Caves a miss! 

A lovely surprise was eating at "Tava".. I've eaten here with my parents and the rest of my family years ago.. It is still the same small eatery that serves delicious parathas, dal makhani and the likes... K and I treated ourselves to a yummy meal after completing a full round of 7kms in our bicycles around the lake! Missed my family so much.... reminded me of our Sterling Resort days... I really want to do a trip with them soon!! 

Leaving you guys with a few more pics that tell us how wonderfully blessed Mother Earth is...... Nature at its absolute best! 

PS I almost forgot.... thanks a ton, Karthik for these lovely lovely pictures!! Keep on clickin' :-) 

2 months and couldn't be happier :)

Going to Bella Ciao tonight - just me and my hubby dearest!! <3
Told him we'll dig into some yummy ice cream post dinner - he's agreed! I really look forward to times when it's just the 2 of us going out -its kinda hard when you're recently married coz you get so many invites to people's houses, dinners, parties and what not -  so when it actually is happening, I'm so excited and outta control!
Tomorrow night we're going out with our good friend(the one who made this all happen!). He's leaving to go to Chinky land aka China for 3 whole years!! That's too long na? Will miss him! But I'm also super excited for him and I've told him to make the most of this opportunity. Let's see - hope he makes me proud :)
So for old times sake, I told him we should go to Bessie, drink out of Pepsi bottles(my scheming hubby's idea), chill out there and then head someplace for dinner. Really looking forward to hanging out with him.
Then there's the usual meeting up with the parents happening this weekend - basically its packed! Just the way I like it! Happy weekend folks! Enjoy and make the most of it!

Ode to "buddiness" :-)

I've been wanting to do this for a while now and what better month than August(you know friendship month and all :P) This post is dedicated to the new "buddy" in my life! Lets call him "S". Wondering why he gets a special post in my blog?! Well, he "demanded" that he be mentioned in here. Sigh. I know. But on a more serious note, "S" has been a pillar of support for me these few months. For starters, he got Facebook to work on my iPhone. Hehe. Thats reason enough for him to get space in here coz as you know I'm totally addicted to FB! He has put up with some serious tantrums of mine, always stayed quiet when I kept bashing him up(not literally, silly but you know - I've given him some pretty harsh nicknames such as Blabbermouth, loser and the likes!), been a real awesome colleague at work, given me the "ash, be serious" pep talks when needed and been a lot of fun to hang out with. Its so strange how you become close to some people in such a short period of time. Sometimes, I feel like I've known this person forever and I've only known him for the last three months. "S" is not just an awesome buddy but he's an amazing hubby(I can vouch for it because he goes religously to Bangalore ever single weekend to be with his wife), a fun papa(I've heard him talk endlessly about his darling baby boy) and he's simple and nice at heart! Anyway, it was his birthday last week and I was supposed to have completed this post back then, but couldn't do it for a lot of lame reasons. So, here's wishing you a very very happy birthday month(hey, it counts alright?!) and thanks for looking out for me. Buddies for life! =)

Let the craziness begin!

Weekend off - Springfield--catching up with my old roomies--girly times--showing off each other's clothes--modeling--shopping at Gordman's for last minute bling, shoes et al--Cashew Chicken at Dragon Inn--Banana-Strawberry-Avacado-Oatmeal facials by Ms. E--hair straightening,curling n blah--picking eye shadows, gloss for the night--arguments over color choices--yelling across from one room to the other--feels like a wedding house! Could it get any crazier? =)

ATL-STL update!

Hellooooo... Im back in good ol' Springfield!! My break was simply awesommeeee!!
ATL: My first destination was Atlanta, GA. Even though I've been there a couple of times before, I was really excited going back.. Somehow it reminds me of home.. Not to mention the delicious Tam-Brahm food I stuffed my face with! SIGH! My aunt is such a great cook.. Each day she prepared a dish of my choice such as Avial, Molagootal, kootu etc etc etc.. I realized how tasty vegetarian home made food can taste! Seriously, once I get a job and move into my own apartment, I'm calling her and asking her recipes! Anyway, Day 2 my uncles arrived!! It was sooo great to see them! I have the greatest uncles in the world... They are so fun loving, carefree and hilarious!! We went a little sight seeing such as the CNN Center, Coke Factory etc.. Of course, they are such shoppers so a stop at Kohl's, Wal Mart, Target was mandatory. I now know where I get this passion to shop.. runs in my family.. We also went to one of my favorite stores "ToysRUs" :) I bought a BenTon toy for my cousin whose birthday was coming up!!

The rest of the days just flew by.. we did a lot of walking, riverwalks, eating, shopping, eating, watching movies and more eating!! lol.. I watched a horror movie called 13B starring Madhavan(he's still eye candy!).. Was spooky to me.. you know me.. I get scared for the slightest of things.. but seriously, this movie scared the crap outta me. I couldn't sleep for two nights!! :(

Before we knew it, it was time for them to leave...They were flying to Baltimore and I was leaving to come back to St. Louis..

STL: I love STL!! I don't know why.. There is something about this place that makes me feel good!! There's always things to do.. its gives a big city feel yet there are places that make you feel at peace.. I met with all my friends there and most importantly was good to spend time with my significant other! ;) I had another friend from school who was home for the summer.. So we went together to Grant's Farm on Day 1.. It was a huge expanse of land filled with greenery all around.. Breathtakingly beautiful! I fed the goats, clicked pics, ate Dippin Dots(yummy!), and watched an elephant show.. The next day she and her friend were going to the STL Zoo and I said I would tag along..That night we met a couple of friends for dinner at an Indian Restaurant(but of course, any trip to STL is not complete without eating at a desi place!)..

Day 2: Zoo STL is a heavenly place... loved seeing all the animals lazing around in the sun.. The reptile place was awesome.. They had so many different species that it was unbelievable.. unfortunately a lot of animals were lazy because of the heat and they were just sitting in their dens without much activity!! So I barely got some interesting pics.. Nevertheless, a visit to that place keeps me happy!! That night a bunch of my Monsanto friends showed up at home and we ate dinner and watched "Andaaz Apna Apna".. What a riot that movie is! Some of them even knew the dialogues by heart!! And of course for old times sake, we played some Taboo, made a lot of noise much to the annoyance of our neighbors..!

Day 3: I had promised a couple of guys I would meet them for lunch that afternoon at one of my most favorite restaurants in STL called Stir Crazy!! Its a novel place.. you get to pick rice/noodles, meat of your choice and mix n match your own veggies(even things like ginger, chillies etc), sauces(teriyaki+schezwan being my fave!) and then the chef prepares it right there.. Whether it tastes "out of the world" or "god-awful" depends on your creativity! Fortunately for me though whatever I tried till now has tasted excellent!! After lunch I went back home and watched a movie called "Provoked" starring Aishwarya Rai. I was soo disturbed after watching it particularly because its a true story based on a Punjabi woman.. I was shocked to learn that it is widely prevalent abroad.. A lot of parents back in India think that it is ultra cool to marry off their daughters to NRI guys who earn in dollars/pounds.. Little do they realize that more than 60% of these guys have no respect for women, treat them like slaves and have illicit relationships with "goris"..The movie disturbed me a lot since Im the type that gets involved in it too much..

Anyway that was the last day of my vacay.. Couldn't believe that a whole week had gone by so quickly.. I had a fun fun break and I was fully charged up!! It felt great to be back in good ol' SGF.. I've missed this place :)