We got our house painted recently...after little more than a year of having shifted in this place....It is a good feeling to see the place full of colours as opposed to how it was earlier- plain white. I'm posting a few pics of the newly done house ~ mainly to highlight the colours of the wall and also to make a collection of some of the corners that I adore in here...

This is the main view of the dining passage which lead to kitchen on one side and the other rooms on the other.

This is a close view of the passage...I like it as it shows little bits of colour of the other rooms..

This is one corner that I particularly like. We had picked up the green lamp from Nainital on an instinct and the clay models were picked up from a handicraft exhibiton.

This painting has been made by my mom. It is made from coloured sand. This is something that my mom specializes in besides making yummy food :)

This is a corner that I particularly like from my mom and dad's bedroom...

This table piece was gifted by me and my sister to my mom on mother's day some 3-4 years ago. She has still kept it by her bedside...while cleaning the place up, for taking the photograph, i happened to read it after years....and it wet my eyes....some things are so precious in life...

This is one little corner of my room...(the cleanest that i could find..!) I had fallen in loive with the violet when I had seen it in the shade card book...glad that it turned out as expected...

And this is the area dining passage leading to the kitchen...

Thinking of the colours to choose from, deciding on some, short listing a few then cancelling the whole scheme and thinking of another set of colours...finalizing on them and then again rethinking the whole thing ~ whew..! the last few days did see a lot of brain storming and peeping into others houses :) to zero in on the colours to put on the walls...

But i guess after everything done ~ and on feeling harmonious with the colours you see when you wake up, makes the whole effort worth.... :)

"My weekend out" ~ In Mumbai

Sometimes unplanned and unthought out events turn out be the much better than ones where we have done a lot of advance thinking and planning. This is what happened in this recent trip I made to Mumbai. On an instinct I had decided that I would go to Mumbai and see a performance that a dear friend of mine was participating in. I didnt have any idea or plans about what I would be doing in the rest of the one and a half days there. Not that I dont know anyone in Mumbai, I have a lot of friends there but "meri jaan, yeh hai mumbai..!" With its fast paced life, everyone has some or the other plan worked out for the weekends. And not having chceked with anyone in advance I ran the risk of having to spent the time alone in the city. But in my case that was not much of a problem as I am quite friends with the city. In the time that I was staying in mumbai, I had developed quite a close relationship with the city, it's people, its local trains, its vada pavs and its fast paced life style. So I guess I was not much worried by the thought of whom I would be able to meet or where I would be spending the time. I had the city and it's magic which I could re-explore, and I had my camera with me. I couldnt have cared less!

And so as it would turn out, I had a great time there. Roamed around in the areas i love in mumbai ~ Churchgate, Bandra- Hill Road, caught up with friends, and spent some relaxing and rejuvenating time with myself. On one of the local train stations came across a book I had been wanting to read since long~ Shantaram by Gregory Davit Roberts. Picked it up and spent the saturday afternoon in the colourful ambiance of Churchgate Mocha with this book, a black currant ice tea, and great music in the background.

I was alone with my thoughts and my book but there were people around with chatting, laughing, chilling out, talking about their own stories. There was something very relaxed and positive in the atmosphere. There was hope and dreams and ambition and style and charisma. All of this along with the memory of the times I used to hang out so much in this place earlier did something very positive to me. It somehow charged me up from inside.

The evening was spent in Bandra at my friend's program, which turned out be a wonderful experience. A musical drama based on the stories from the Bible, replete with angles and demons. The dances were beautiful, the music peppy, the acting of the cast perfect and the light effects were amazing..! And off-course the whole thought behind the play with it's script was touching. So, all and all it was a wonderful experience!

Some glimpses of the show ~

The next day morning was spent in a shopping spree at Alpha- the duty free custom shops, which are quite poplular in mumbai, though i had remained unknown to them when I was staying in mumbai. Actually I had gone there with Nishu's mom, who had a lot of things to buy. I had just accomapnied her. She had a huge of things to buy from toys, to watches, to footware, to chochlates, to toiletteries to dry fruits to...the list goes on and on....! Though I didnt have to buy anything, I had a super time ! Well, I am a girl, and so am genetically inclined to love shopping! And in the process I did buy a couple of things for myself too ~
Soft comfy, cushiony bathroom slippers, a Nike deo and a Garnier lotion...
I guess, the cushiony slippers were my best buy..!





Lunch was with Sonali's (the friend whose program I had come to attend) family. Yummy hot puris, palak sabzi, some mix dal, mango pickle and cool kheer! It was delicious, and I couldnt have asked for more. Since I was meeting her parents for the first time, out of hesitation I missed out on taking a snap of the food. Though the hot round puris completely deserved and demanded to get captured in the cam, but I dont think Sonali's parents would have agreed with me! They would have thought I was nuts, and you see the first impression matters ! So, i would leave it to the imagination of whoever's reading this. Her parents and brother were very nice to me. Very simple and loving people.
Here's the snap I took of them for remembrance ~



Spend the whole afternoon with Sonali. Lying on the cool bed, sipping tea and chatting about everything from guys to God ! This is generally the range of our discussions. Needless to say we both had a great time. While talking on something suddenly out of the blue she remembered about a book that she had begun to read. And she had liked it so much that she wanted me to read it to. So, she insisted that I take this book with me, read it and then send it back to her. The book is "The mind is a battlefield". I have a theory that for myself that a book enters my life only when I actually need to read it, or when I am prepared to read it. So, I took this as a sign that maybe it was destined that I read this book at this point of my life.

The evening and the subsequent dinner was with another close friend- Asha, who stays in Borivelli (W), near the station (thankfully!). She used to work with me at Astron and we shared a good bond. This is was the first time I was meeting her after her marriage and after she left Ahmedabad. So it was a treat to catch up with her ~ to fill her up with the latest office gossip and to listen to her new life. We ordered pizza for dinner and had it in the comfort of her house. My return train was at 10.50 pm from Borivelli station, so finally I picked up up bags and headed for the return journey.

And oh yes, before I forget, I also bought these lovely colourful bangles, while travelling in the local trains ~






So this trip did bring lots of colours in my life ~ some old , some new.

.......

Companions for Life...

I have always maintained that I am very strong and I I dont need anyone. To quite an extent this is true too. As long as I am in the right frame of mind I dont generally feel bored or lonely. I can and have travelled alone, done things on my own and do manage the general issues of life by myself. But at times certain sights touch me in such a way that they stir the notion that I carry about myself. This sight of my parents while waiting for the train on a cold wintery morning suddely stirred me up. The companionship, the journey which they had begun together years ago still continues. Since then my dad's shoulder has always been there for my mom's head to rest upon. The relationship which they begun years ago, has seen its ebbs and tides and has become mellow like the golden hue of the sunset. It has become a relationship that can be counted upon ~ A relationship of a dependable companionship. Looking at them I saw myself thinking what a beautiful feeling it must be to have seen the world together, travelled together, done things together, to grow old together...........for a moment my independency seemed shallow and I saw myself wishing for a shoulder too, on which I could lay my head and forget all my troubles.......

Journey or destination...?

Parallel tracks of the train ~
Moving together,
What do they gain..?
Talking to them without a mask,"Do you ever meet" I had to ask.
"Does it matter?" the return question
"Do you believe in journey or destination?
Together so much in every terrain,
We shine in the same sun,
And gleam in the same rain;
Still alone in our own way
Never coming in each other's way,
Far in the horizon we may seem to be nearer,
But here in the now we are together;
Any dream is alive till it shatters,
Ours is living, isn't that all that matters?"
I nod in agreement with them and with me,
Yes, it's not the destination, its always the journey...

Rusted

A bright blue once fresh and promising turning into a rusted, fading brown. Why did this happen? Was the blue not taken care of? Was the weather too unfavourable? Did the blue not wish to remain so? But who would want to get rusted and faded? Actually nobody. But then why do you and me let the spark inside us get extinguished? Why do we let the circumstances get the better of us and let the fire in us die off? Why do we let our weaker side get the better of us and let our individual assets fade away? Why do we not take good care of the fresh and bright blue, fight against the weather to retain its colour and take efforts to prevent it from rusting......?

Waking up on a lake...

One of the most beautiful and peaceful experiences one can have on this earth is waking up on a tranquil, blue lake. And what makes it better is that you have spent the night in a tent by the lake, and you awake with the crooning of birds to soak your eyes with the blue of the sky and the lake. This is what we experienced on our trip to a quiet, lesser-known hill station called Bhandardhara ~ a small, uncommercialized place some 3 hours on road from Nasik. The lake rests peacefully surrounded by the Sahayadari hills and indulges in its own subtle games with the changing light since sunrise till sunset. We watched mesmerized as the sun rose from somewhere behind the hills and a golden hue spread over the blue of the clean waters of the lake. With mugs of hot tea in our hands we sat quietly looking in awe as the soft golden rays tickled the lake and then moved on to the trees and eventually us too. How were we feeling..?? Bliss is the word...! :)

This is the tent that we stayed in....

India in the heart- Spirit of Independent India

Taking India in the heart, today's Indian youth is going places.

The spirit of India today is the confidence of the youth in themselves and their determination to do something and make a difference. Free from the age old superstitions India is today a happy blend of eastern values and western practicality. Adopting the best of the western world, but at the same time feeling immense pride in our Indian roots ~ That's the spirit of Independent India today.