Mellow Yellow Monday - Fall colors

Seasons in USA are totally different compared to India. I could see a lot of variations from Winter to Spring and from Spring to Fall. The act of nature, when leaves change their colors based on the time and season is amazing. I just love mother earth for all its beauty.
I m sharing one such picture here for the Mellow Yellow Monday contest. And making a comeback here to my  favorite place aka blogger space. Its a chilly Monday morning and gotta go to office again :(

Wet - Thursday Theme for this week

Let the rain kiss you. 

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. 

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Happy - Thursday Challenge

We met an Indian family  recently near our apartment. They have 3 year old kid, Arnav who is super-active and loves  watching cartoons and Mahabharat on laptop. He enacts every scene of Sri Krishna from it and entertains us. Here are a few snaps caught while watching him dance.
Now this is one happy kid changing our lives everyday :)

Thursday theme - Happy

Last weekend we went to DC and found a kid happily playing with mud. His father was very happy to see him playing and was continuously taking snaps.
My husband requested him if he can also take some snaps... Here they are :)

At this point of time, I wouldn't be able to write something more happy than this...

Have fun folks... Spring is here and I m having the time of my life looking at all the budding trees around me :)

Things that kept me occupied

Its been almost 3 months I have been here in Amreeka.
I have witnessed extreme cold weather compared to India while I was in Boston.
Saw snow for the first time in my life. It was a great experience though. I have shared few pictures in my previous post. They can be seen here


Because of snow I had to stick to home most of the time. My husband introduced me to anime shows for which he is a great fan.One of it is Avatar-The Last Airbender. He is here :P

 Aang is the protagonist... somehow in all the anime shows.. the hero is dumb and stupid. At the end he is the one who can only defeat the enemy.

 A must watch show for kids and elders as well. I loved Aang throughout the series. Infact I was dreaming about him also.... hehehee

The next anime show that kept me busy is Naruto. The Japanese shows have all the elements embed in it... like love, hate, fights and magic. These stories have unusual creatures with a weird imagination. Thats what I like about these stories.

Naruto is still an ongoing tv series. Staying tuned for more and more of adventure.As usual in this story, the protagonist is dumb and stupid. The amazing part of about him is that he gives on the fly solutions and saves himself and everyone. Isn't it fun to watch such shows. I m loving it.

If you really have some free time and want to have fun... go ahead and watch these two shows.
The negative thing about this show is that its very addictive. One cannot stop watching it at all.
I had to bear fierce looks from my husband when I told him that Naruto was in my dreams.
Heheheee... it happens and cant be helped if something is sooo good.

Have fun folks... I will write later something new.

Finally... its time :)

I have been very sluggish for the past few months. Somehow I couldnt give up lazyness to write interesting things. The most interesting part of my stay in USA is the snow. Its my first ever winter here and had loads of fun... Here are few glimpses of the same :)

 At the time of very bad snow storm in Boston.

 View from our window. The trees...cars... roads.. .everything was covered in just overnight snow fall.

 Finally I could get out of the house and take some snaps. It was freezing and by the time we took these snaps, my hands were numb already.

 Atlast  the final act of playing in snow.

Many more things to come ahead. Like visit to the Boston museum of Fine Arts... Connecticut trip... Temple Visit. Stay tuned folks!!!!

Kollur & Agumbe - Karnataka

After Murudeshwar, our next destination was Kollur - Mookambika temple. Believed to be one of the powerful goddess. We were traveling on the highway 206 and the roads are pretty horrible.
On the way... view of the ocean from highway.

After taking a diversion on the highway, our journey was pleasant with many bends.
Could see clouds passing through the western ghats range...

Finally we reached the temple around noon. Precisely that was the time when temple will be closed. We had to do some timepass till it opens. We went to a nearby water stream and enjoyed there.
Pics of the same here :)

 Temple entrance...

After the darshan, we decided to go to Davangere while covering Agumbe. We were very hungry and went to a small hotel. We ordered for Dosa's and it was damn yummy. Try any hotel on that route and one can enjoy the food over there. Its not at all sweet incase someone is wondering, as coastal area food is sweet compared to other areas.

We reached Agumbe just after sunset and the place was chilling already. There was fog everywhere and we couldnt see anything. We wanted to stay there for a while but we had a train to catch. On the way we had a terrible experience with leeches.
That ends my Karnataka trip. It was wonderful!!!

It happened like this....

I knew this would happen some day in life :)
Bells would ring...
relatives would join...
friends would enjoy...
parents would be happy...
relationships would be added...
status would change...
And all of this happen just because of one thing... and its Wedding!!!!

it happened on 27th August and I m glad about it :)

I Wanted To...

There are pencils, sketches, crayons, markers, chalk pieces, toys and papers spread all over the floor. Sara was wondering if she accidentally came to any play school. She passed through the main door again and looked across the colony. Finally she looked at the door number and saw her husband's name written above it. It was such a relief to find that she was not dreaming and its actually her house. There was no one in the hall and her mother was not seen around in the kitchen. The walls of the hall,sofa and cushions were completely scribbled with marker. She went to the kids room and saw that grandmother was helping Abhi with drawing homework.

Abhi is her 6 year old son. All of a sudden Dolly came from under the bed, showing a paper to Sara.
Dolly asked,"How are my drawings mamma? Even I wanted to draw pig,dog and cat."
That innocent expression of Dolly, who is just 4 year old brought immense happiness in Sara's face. She kissed Dolly and started cleaning up the mess.
No wonder mothers are so sweet and patient. They forget every misery for their kids.
Happy Mothers Day!!!

simple yet profound

Sometimes its very difficult for us to make right decisions. Though at a single glance any issue may seem trivial but to give right judgement requires quite an understanding of the surroundings, its people and the due course of action. Do we really have to tamper with the decision based on the effects and be biased?? Its completely left to the individual. If the effects of the decision are only limited to a single person and beneficial to others, the responsibility is on decision maker itself. Otherwise if the decision is going to effect other lives, then the decision maker has no right to tamper or be biased on decision making.
Life gives us many opportunities to make quick and valuable decisions. After proper analysis and reasoning one should come to a conclusion. While making a decision one should give value to the ideals and virtues set for oneself. If they are crossed during this process, we are actually fighting and over powering our conscience which always guides us in the right path. One would never be the same after such an action and lose confidence when one has to act next time.
Isn't it true that most of the times our selfish motives drive in decision making? If there has not been such a motive, the world would have been a better place for living for everyone. Here the emphasis is only on the so called selfish - greedy nature of a person which effect the decision making. This greedy nature of a person deprives the right thinking, killing the conscience and corrupting mind for mere material needs.
In order to take a right decision and stand by it one needs courage. Its the courage which sprangs from the heart supported by mind, the intellectual. It gives immense happiness which is beyond measures.

The house of 1000 mirrors

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was place known as the

House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place

and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the

stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway

with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his

great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little

dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great

smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and

friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a

wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as

the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs

and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the

1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them

and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he

left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go

back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do

you see in the faces of the people you meet?

PS: I got this wonderful story from a book. And I just loved it!!! 

ReSOLUTIONs

oh my god!!! 2009 year just went like that...
And yay!!!! I wanted to write to this post just to inaugurate my post for 2010 and see how it looks like :D

And friends I would like to wish you a great year

HAPPY NEW YEAR  2010 FRIENDS!!!!

Well...to think of any reSOLUTION, I should think of what I broke last year... It was fun breaking them.
First one being to PUT on weight!!!(I should be crazy to even think of it as one resolution). Breaking it means it never happened :P
This year I m not gonna take any resolutions and just go with the flow. Then I wouldnt even worry about them.

2009 was great for few things:
1. New company and new friends at office.
2. New blog friends like Vimal,Smita,Silverine and IMH
3. New laptop
4. New house
5. Brothers visit
Those are the few things and I am really thankful to god for blessing me with happiness.

Wish me good year so that I can write good posts and make good friends!!!!

Good luck Friends

 

road,car and bike story

Few days back I was travelling with my dad on bike on the roads of hyderabad. It was around noon and the area through which we were going was full of traffic.The area is Mehadipatnam.

My dad is a very cautious driver unlike me. He was explaning me how the city has changed through years and was showing his favorite places. I was wearing my new goggles which my brother got it from USA(showing off :P) and mind you it was sunny also(so not 100% show off).

I heard that someone was honking from behind our vehicle for long time. Actually I was focusing on what my father was saying. I looked behind and saw that a swift car fellow was honking continously. Actually there was no free space on road to give side to him. There were two fellows in the car. The one sitting beside the driver seat rolled down his glass and was saying something.

And then I shouted back in telugu..."aagatleda??"(which means "cant you control"??)
I know the usage is very bad.. but that car fellow was damn irritating and creating enough noise pollution.
He replied,"what the heck did u say??".
I said," didnt you hear?? And can you see if there is enough space for us to drive and give you side. No right?? then why did u honk unnecessarily??"
He gave a confused and shocking expression.
Then I said quietly," next time use bathroom and go for drive!!!!". At that moment I remembered Vimmuuu saying stories about bathroom incidents.

I had to cut down my laughs and imaginations.

The next moment my dad was saying something. I realized at that moment that I was thinking deep inside my mind saying all those things to that car fellow. And I came back to the real world.

I gave a nasty look at that car fellow and were on our own. Next time I will definitely teach such fellows a good lesson :)

process of untagging myself - part2

Sometime back I wrote a post regarding my childhood memories. I am going to continue writing rest of the stories. They might not be so interesting but I guess for timepass one can just read them :P

4. stories stretched
Being the eldest one in my family, my brother and sister used to listen whatever I said till 5th standard(later they realized how stupid they were :P). We were living for rent in a very big house which had lot of open place with a big neem tree in front of the house. During power cuts and summer, we used to have fultoo masti. We used to have one wired chair in which 3 kids can easily fit... we used to sit in that and my sister used to request me to say one story... the main action now starts... I used to actually start a fairy tale kinda story and never end it... add all fictional characters and say this and that and king and kid and villain and nothing else... I used to give lots of twists and turns and mean while my bro and sis would have long back forgotten the actual context. After some time my brother who would have actually got bored would say STOP PLEASE!!!!! And my mom would shout from inside the house to come and sleep :)
(now i cant even think of creating a cock and bull story)

5. Nail polish and noise
Every year there used to be a mela at our village and my grandpa used to buy me whatever I want. One such time he didnt come and sent grandmom along with me to the mela. I dont remember exactly, but i think my cousins have also accompanied me to have fun. My grandpa gave me Rs.3 to buy something at mela and I didnt spend. I went to a near by shop in my village and got nail polish which has the yuck dark pink color(i hate that color now). I applied nail polish to all my cousins and the next day I took it to my school :)
I think I was in 2nd class at that time, and shown it to my frens during a free period and the smell of nail polish was evident in my class. We girls were making hell lot of noise and that too talking on top of our voices. Next moment one sister(ours was a missionary school...we had only sisters) came to our class and shouted at everyone and caught me red handed with nail polish. She took it with her and made me stand up on the last bench :(
It was so damn embarrassing...She gave me back that nail polish after school hours. That was the last stupid thing I did at school.

6. Greeting cards
Being 3 kids in a family, we used to share pencils,pens and sketch pencils. When I was in 3rd standard, I loved using sketch pencils for whatever things. The habit continued and I learnt how to make good designs with pencil and apply colors with sketch pencils. At that time I got an idea of making hand made greeting cards with those designs and giving it to classmates on their birthdays. My brother and sister always used to ran out of sketch pencils and fight with me. Doesnt matter :) I was selfish enough to keep the best designs with  me and give stupid ones to frens as cards. One day I lost the book in which I kept all those designs. And I stopped making designs. Now I cant even make a good mehandi design for my hand... I wish I had practiced more and enhanced my skills :(

7. Dictation
When I was in 5th class we used to have dictation in different subjects. Those marks used to be added in the mid term results. At that time there was tough competition between me and another girl(Sheela Reddy) in our class. Most of the time she used to beat me in mid term exams. And I used to beat her in the finals :P
One day there was science subject dictation. 20 words were told by the teacher. I was happy that I would get  20/20. But somewhere I had a doubt in one word. That word was RECEIVE, whether the 'e' would follow 'i' or 'i' would follow 'e'. We both girls were discussing and realized that I made a mistake in that word. I wrote 'i' followed by 'e'. She got 20/20 and I got 19/20.
And by god, after that exam and till now I never forgot the spelling of that word. Even now when I write that word, I remember this incident and thats how I remember the spelling of that word :(
hmm... pretty girlish!!!!

8. knocked out with chalk piece
Our school is a typical girls high school with only teachers who are women. No boys are allowed in school. When I was in 10th class we had an exception. We had a male teacher who taught physics. He was 6ft tall and pretty handsome and nothing less than a hero. Most of the girls used to go ga-ga after him at school. His class used to be around 3:10pm and many girls used to eagerly wait for his class(teenage girls you see). He used to hate talking in class and not even whispers were allowed. As I was an average studying girl at school, I used to sit in the last but one bench in class. One day it so happened that one stupid girl in my class had a doubt and she used to sit in front of me.
She turned back and asked me the doubt. The next second a chalk piece hit my head. I was shocked as it was a direct hit. And realized that it was hit by sir for talking. I didnt even open my mouth to clear that girls answer. No words exchanged after that. The most funny part is no one even thinks of talking in his class(obviously most of them were staring at him instead of listening to him). I still remember him as one of the best physics teacher ever!!!
Thats how my school life ended :)

And now my memories also end here!!!!

process of untagging myself - part1

Recently I have been tagged by Smita which was started by Vimal.
Let me start it...

1. Locking up myself
               When I was young, I grew up with my grandmom for most of the time. My grandmom tells me now that I used to tie her pallu to my wrist very hard so that I never get separated from her. And one day I went to one marriage with her. At that time I was just 4 years old. When all my relatives were busy in marriage preparations, some kids started playing some games and I joined them. I donno exactly what happened but I got locked myself in a room. I mean I literally put the latch and I couldnt open it for long time. All of my relatives started looking for me and found me locked in a room which I couldnt open. So they used a long stick and put it through the window and managed to pull the latch. Thats how I got out. My grandmom tells this story and laughs for sometime. Even my relatives remember this incident and say that I had created a mess at that time :)
A nice memory for me!!!

2. Hiding out from home
               My brother and myself studied in the same class from UKG to 10th class. Only difference was that he studied in a boys high school and I studied in a girls high school. It was in 2nd class that my brother took a group photo with his classmates and teacher. My brother was kinda looking very cute in that picture sitting beside his teacher. I took that snap to my school to show to my frens and I lost it. I was really scared to go home and tell mom that thing. I searched all my books and bag hundreds of times only to not find it in my bag. So I went to most of my frens house to find out if my mistake the picture was with them... but alas!!! my bad luck... i didnt find out... i was crying and I sat under a tree back in my school again. Aaya's(working ladies) at my school were trying to find out what happened with me. I didnt open my mouth. I finally decided to search my bag once again. Hurrey!!!! I found it... It was right in my bag...
I jumped with joy for a while....and happily went home. That photo is still at my home. I laugh at the incident sometimes for my silliness. Even now my mom doesn't know about this incident.

3. Fun with frens at my village
          Let me tell you guys, I was the most active and restless kid when I was young. Never used to stay at house for a minute. Always I used to freak out with friends and one incident turned out to be horrible. Let me explain... For some festival, our family went to my village. My dad was not at home. I am really really afraid of my father in those days and if he is at home, I am the most silent kid :P else i am the queen of my life :P
For the same festival, one of my frens family were planning a big puja in the near by village. We should go to that village walking through the fields and farms. I was ready for that in an instant. I went to that place along with my frens. Imagine walking with frens in a line on the edges of fields enjoying and singing songs... Absolute delight :D And I walked for about 3kms and reached that village.
I actually thought that the festival process would end in 2 hours and then come back by afternoon. But that was not so... it was actually 6pm and I was tensed and scared. I was forcing their parents to drop me home as soon as possible. But it didnt happen and I was imagining the worst things in place for me back at home. Atlast I came home at 8pm and realized that most of the village people were looking out for me and they even sent some persons to find out in the neighboring village. I got good shuntings from my mother, my grandmom and my uncles. I never did like that again.

So those are my sweet memories. I still have to write more... but i will write them later as I dont remember most of the stuff now :)

Have a nice weekend folks!!!

PS: we have a long weekend in hyderabad as monday is a holiday here :D

september masti....

Wow... september... i enjoyed a lot during these 20 days. Had enough of masti that I haven't had in few months :)
Everyday I went to Lotus pond after work and enjoyed the mother natures creation.
Last weekend I went to Srisailam trip... which was nothing but awesome.
Also I visited few temples which I haven't seen in Hyderabad. One of them is the Skandagiri temple near PadmaRao Nagar,Secunderabad. Its the most beautiful temple of Subramanya Swamy and Durga devi.
Today I went to Barbeque nation restaurant and had fulto gala time :D

I want to say few things about Srisailam. Its a pilgrimage place where Lord Shiva resides. Its situated in between a dense forest and Krishna river. Actually at that place, Krishna river takes multiple turns and apears very beautiful. People say that Krishna river goddess is the most  proud and arrogant female in the purana's. Thats why I guess its so beautiful with different landscapes it has created during its journey. One should never miss the 80kms ghat road through the jungle. Its complete greenary and there are cotteges in forest as well. Btw the forest is called "Nallamalla forest". Recently our Chief Minister had died there in a helicopter crash.
I am attaching some of the snaps here.

this is the forest... we crossed all those mountains which you see in the snap... its a 80kms stretch... imagine... the largest forest terrain to be crossed... after 8pm vehicles are not allowed on that road...

I caught this beautiful sunset over there in my camera :)

 

This is the Srisailam dam over Krishna river where power generation happens

this is the view before the dam... with beautiful landscape.
One can plan for this trip over the weekend and enjoy the mother natures creation.

And not least my barbeque nation photograph... Our gang is having lots of fun in my new office. This is one such example for that :)

There was this African festival celebrations. We took part in that. The best part is that they were focusing on that theme completely and kept the mood all through the time. Also they took snaps of each and every table. They presented the copy of that photograph to us. Isnt it great!!! Thats why some of the restaurants are very popular..for their good hospitality :) Clockwise... me, Bindu, Rolee, Ravi and Ratnakar :)

Have a nice time folks!!!

Happy teachers day

Oh my god!!! I completely forgot... today is teachers day and the birthday of a great president.
He is Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great philosopher. Every year 5th September is celebrated as Teachers Day.


I have couple of favorite teachers from my school.
One of them is Mrs.Daivaleela teacher. She is my favorite. She has encouraged me in all aspects when i was at school. She used to teach us Science subject. I remember the lab experiments she made us do... One of them was showing a frog heart and seeing some bacteria under microscope. I came out with flying colors with her blessings. I used to be the class leader and I had real fun. I had the privilege to sneak into all other mark sheets and find out who got the highest score :P

On teachers day we used to give our teachers off. We used to decorate the staff room with different color papers and flowers. And also write thanking note on the classroom board. They used to be very happy. Also we organized funny games for them. Once I even remember we had a fashion show...like walking on the ramp. It was amazing to watch our strict teachers wear funny attire.
BTW... my school was a girls high school. So it was lot more fun as it was only girls and girls.

After the entire program, secondary high school girls were allowed to monitor the primary school kids. Couple of frens in my class decided to go to 3rd class and play around with them and also act teachers :D
This all happened when I was in 8th class. We asked the kids to dance, sing, recite poems, act funny and enjoy. That day was lovely. We used to monitor every class for only one hour and exchange classes. In that way we gave our teachers complete rest on that day.
It was fun and I cherish all those moments.

Once again Happy Teachers Day!!!!

what makes you happy???

The question looks really dumb...
do you really ask it to yourself??
If someone would ask me, what makes me really happy??
I have a thousand reasons to name... so aint i reasonably lucky??
I guess sometimes we have to ask this and do those that makes us happy

What makes me happy??

• shopping ( its quite obvious)
• watching a movie and eating pop corn
• driving my scooty
• playing with kids
• watching a cute baby's innocent smile
• reading my favorite novel again and again
  
• chatting with my best frens
• watching my rose plants grow
• watching the sunset while sitting on the terrace and sipping hot chai
• catching sight of peacocks in the KBR park from my office building( its a good refreshment)
• Listening to Ilayaraja's songs from my iPod(his music is awesome)
• watching National Geographic channel(somehow i stick to TV watching this channel for hours)

From my previous post someone suggested me to do things that makes me happy... I realized its more important to make my facial muscles move by just smiling all the time :)
Of course being happy is very important for our day to go good and it would be a perfect beginning.

soooo... what makes you happy????