Dholakpur Chutki!

The October weather was warm and soothing. Just a week ago, a storm had passed, ravaging the southern coastal parts of India through which Janaki and her family are going on a road trip. The fallen trees allowed evening Sun rays to peer effortlessly through the window. Janaki's sweet little princess adjusted her eyes to avoid the glare, but couldn't.

"Mom, can you engage her in the back seat?". Janaki's parents have occupied the rear seats of the car. They are returning from an unplanned road trip to South and are on their way back.

Janaki's mom took the princess into her fold, but the princess wouldn't budge. She wants to be with her mom. At this point, her grandma did what grandma's are best at; distraction. "Look there, Chutki's house is somewhere here", she said.

The name Chutki caught her attention immediately. "Does Chutki live here? Where is her house", the kid asked with her innocent voice. Soon, she started to look through the window in a mission to find out. Chotta Bheem and his friends are her favourite cartoon characters. To see Chutki's house is like a dream-come-true  for her. She kept looking outside and every now and then asked her grandma, "show me Chutki's house. I want to see".

"It must be nearby only. She lives in this area", her grandma joined in her mission to find Chutki's house. Pointing out her finger to a random yellow-painted building, she said, "Look there? That is Chutki's house! That is where she lives."

The kid jumped in excitement after spotting Chutki's house. She starred at the house till the car went past ahead. Once the building went out of sight, she became restless again. She tried to engage herself talking to others or by listening to music. Nothing would keep her engaged for over five minutes.

"Wait for a while. You will find many more houses of Chutki on the way. ", the grandma added. "Do not go to mom. Stay with me. Only I can show you all the houses of Chutki. Even your mom does not know them", the kid got her attention hooked. Pointing out at many random buildings on their way, grandma said, "these are Chutki's other houses".

"But grandma, why do Chutki live in these many houses when we have only one?"

"Whenever Chutki gets bored, or if some evil demon come to tease her, she would just pick one house to hide. That way, she can save herself", her grandma reasoned. About fifteen minutes passed by in between. The kid was apparently bored, but she decided to keep the boredom to herself without disturbing others.

Sensing the silence therein, Janaki asked her little princess, "So how many Chutki's houses did you see? Did you also spot Raju or Chotta Bheem playing with Chutki in those houses?"

The kid replied, "These are not Chutki's houses, mom. These are some random buildings. Grandma showed them to keep me engaged! I had seen Chutki's place in that show. These buildings are nowhere near to how her house look like."

Hearing her smart response, we all laughed. She didn't end there. "Chutki lives in Dholakpur, not here", she continued.

"Oh, if you knew Chutki lived in Dholakpur, why did not you say it at the beginning?", Janu questioned her back.

"Mom, don't you know? Chutki, Chotta Bheem, Raju are all cartoon characters. Also, Dholakpur exist only in TV, its not a real place. Moreover, grandma was getting bored, so I engaged her by listening to all her stories".

There was a contemplative silence inside the car. Janaki started thinking how in her own childhood days, she used to think Shaktimaan was real!

Kids these days...!!!

The (Un)Clever Monkey! - A tale by Diya

Once there lived a monkey that was so proud of itself. He would never lose an opportunity to show off how clever he is. One day, the weather was so hot that the monkey felt very thirsty. It searched for water everywhere. But then, the scorching heat had dried up all the lakes and pools.

After a long search, the monkey finally found a mud pot which was half-filled with water. The monkey felt half happy as the water was only half full. But then, didn't I say the monkey was clever? Or so he thought about himself. He had an idea, after all, the clever monkey should have read or heard about the thirsty crow story from the past. He looked for pebbles everywhere, but he could only find a big stone.

Well, the crow can't be more clever than me! Poor creature! The crow is weak and can carry only small pebbles. I can lift and carry a big stone instead and in one go I can bring the water to the brim. Its time to show the world how clever and stronger I am. Thinking so, the monkey dropped the stone into the pot. The monkey was expecting that the water would come to the brim and soon it can quench its thirst. Alas, it was only a mud pot! As soon as the monkey dropped the stone, the pot broke and spilled water everywhere.

The hot sun quenched its thirst by drinking the splashed water. The poor monkey was still thinking, "where did I go wrong"? May be I will get another chance to prove myself.

-to be continued with another tale, another time.

Tea Proposal

It took nearly two and a half years for the young couple to get some private time since they got married. A quick recap:

Every single proposal always ended up with the guy saying those three magical romantic words to his girl. In the case of the young couple too, it happened in a more-or-less similar way. "Will you marry me?", that counts to four, the young girl recalled.

"But you used three words when you proposed me, and those three words aren't even remotely romantic. It was blunt", she snubbed him in a teasing way, as always. "Enna kalyanam pannikariya?".

It was time for him to mend his mistake. He did not want to waste this opportunity and put a full stop for never-ending tease by his wife. After all, what is more perfect than to make a romantic proposal by taking her to visit the symbol of love? He made elaborate plans and booked tickets to Agra.

He kept the plan secret, but she guessed it would be something more than just a tour to the romantic spot. Standing in front of the most beautiful monument, she thought he will propose properly this time. 

Time passed, from dawn to dusk, with no hurry. There was no sign of him proposing to her yet. "Will he ever propose to me in a filmy way?", she thought.

"Here, have this my dear", he gave her a cup of chai, having another cup for himself. They had just made their exit. She felt the aroma of freshly brewed masala chai while having a sip when he gave her a rose and made the proposal, just the way she wanted. She could not contain her excitement.

"Why did you chose to propose outside of Taj Mahal with a cup of chai, but not inside like everyone does?", she asked him on their return. 

"If I proposed to you inside the Taj Mahal, you would remember it only whenever you look at the ring or the Taj. But now, you can remember whenever you have a cup of chai, which both of us will have together almost everyday! So, no more mocks and only memories :)", he replied.

They smiled together when they heard, "Chai, Chai..." from the train vendor.

Disheartened

I am feeling very low and disconnected to the existing world. There is no fun in my life right now. No thrill, no excitement. I don't even have a mindset to complain on things. I don't like it this way of me. I just found this somewhere to list down at least 10 good things happened to me in my life. I hope hit helps me whenever I feel low.

#1 I have got a wonderful parents!
   
#2 I have got very good friends and a few well-wishers!

#3 I have the bestest life partner one could ever dream of!

#4 Wonderful Wonderful Daughter!

#5 I have a Degree more than I ever wanted in my life.

#6 I had a pet for myself.

#7 Lived in different timezones.

#8 I think I still have my beautiful nieces in my life ;)

#9 Never ever longed for any gadgets.

#10 Never ending dresses and footwear

#11 Learnt Dancing, Driving, Ice Skating, Photography, little of gardening, Dutch blitz , Badminton and here comes the most recent one "Swimming"

#12 And a few good comments on my beautiful hair. Oh yes!

#13 And finally to end with, a decent Blog ;)

I guess this should be enough for the mood-lifting!

May be, now its time to master any of the hobbies mentioned above or to learn a new one!

I hope this entry will help me when I am in bad mood again!

God helped him!

As all the young couples do, there was a silly quarrel between Sriram and Janaki.

Janaki was very mischievous girl.

It was now over 24 hours after their silent war.

Janaki was now expecting him to convince her, which Sriram failed to do. The house became more silent, starving, just the way opposite to their minds.

Janaki's mind was full of questions: "Why is he not convincing me? Why is he not initiating the talk? Should I initiate the talk? Should I quarrel with him again? I am hungry! What to do? "

Sriram brought a cup of mashed potato. Hungry Janaki wants to grab the cup and empty it in a snap, but the Egoistic Janaki refused it.

After a couple of minutes hunger pinched Janaki's empty stomach, So she changed her strategy to quarrel by eating the entire food without leaving any for him. Slowly she peeped into the hall to check on Sriram. A little happiness in her face to see that Sriram also didn't eat the mashed potatoes.

Janaki banged into the kitchen, stole the entire bowl of creamy mashed potatoes topped with pepper and cilantro. 

She was unable to finish them all, but her new strategy made her complete the bowl. She went to Sriram to make him jealous by telling how yummy the lunch was!

She joyously told him that she eat all the potatoes and how tasty it was and without leaving him a bit. 

He was very happy to see his angry wife's happy and victorious smile in her face. After admiring it for a while, to her shock, Sriram silently pointed his fingers towards the pooja shelf where a left a major part of it as a offering to God.

There was sudden burst of laughter between the two.

So, God helped him!

Hashtag SaveOviya

Hashtag SaveOviya! 

How does it involves me?

Well, The show BiggBoss Tamil started on June 25th, 2017.
I tried watching the first episode, me to myself "I am sorry", could not watch it for more than 5 minutes!

After a long time I happened to sit with my mom, Alas! That was the most interesting episode #JulieBackstabsOviyaEpisode. Curiosity in me made watching all the episodes from the beginning.

In the beginning I didn't understand why Oviya was rescued right from the beginning. But weeks after weeks, I, unknowingly started admiring her patience. When everyone in the house ignored her, even without knowing any reasons she stayed calm. She was even pleading Julie to ask for apology to her from her heart(less). After 3 or 4 pleading sessions as a normal human being she started showing her hatred towards Julie. Which was 100% right from my view.

 ~Secondly, When she came to know about her support and popularity never took it to her heads. I liked that one too!

 ~Thirdly,  I liked her Boldness when Mr.Trigger raised his hands.

 ~Fourthly, She gave her utmost importance to her self respect, during the red carpet task.

 ~Fifthly, Its  human tendency to make mistake. The same mistake by Oviya was to mistake Aarav's OVER-FRIENDLY behaviour as love. And this one-sided love made her behave this way with him.
Which I guess, she is out of her mistake by now.

PS:( on my fifth comment) I would have accepted Aarav's argument if it was his own decision. He himself accepted that Gayathri's advice changed him. I seriously hate people being puppet of other's views.

And this one mistake does not over take all the good qualities of her!

Contemplation

Hi Blog! long time.. no see.. Was busy with nothing, Just wanted to say you 'hi' and ask how you being?

Also to share a thought!!

Like everyone else in the world, I missed my child hood days. Days when at least a few around me admired my daydream's'(of-course, not really).

Time when nobody found mistakes in my fantasy world.

To my surprise, I knew, time changes; people grow faster than I thought; but expectations: grew even faster than I expected!

I used to day dream to have highly luxurious house filled ONLY with happiness everywhere(impossible right!! now I know), super dooper car, only friends and lovable ones' existence, blah.. blah.. blah.. (which I  believe most of us does)

And here comes the fate in action.

And I used to share this super fantasy story with a FEW of my kith and kins.

Unknowing of the fact, that my fantasy story would cause some reason for their jealousy, I shared this with my close relative who was supposed to witness this almost 20years back 'onwards'. But that person was not very friendly with me or that person didn't have much time previously to listen to them, but now unfortunately happened to hear them.

Expectations are more like practically achievable wish, and these should not be shared with every one around us (lesson learnt). Our wishes can create jealousy or at least their stomach burn. If they share the same  thing with us it is our boon to listen to them, and if the vice versa happens it would be the world's worst sin that could ever happen.

 Day dream is more self centred, I bet no one day dream for others ;) Only we knows what we expect. Its I.

And if this is the situation of my expectation (day dream), what in the world would happen if this dream come true!

Once again I wish the cause (person behind) of this article would read it!

Nuakhai Milan

Nuakhai is an agricultural festival observed in Odisha, a state from eastern part of India. Nua means new and khai means food. This function is similar to Pongal being celebrated in southern part of India during January.

This year, we got an invite to join the celebration of this function at our apartment complex. The following are the pictures that I took covering the event from preparation till the end.

Slideshow of other pictures

Making of Nuakhai Milan

The Wait

Guest Lectures

Cultural Entertainment

Kid's art exhibit

Dutch Blitz: A year around

"Let us play Dutch Blitz", Bianca announced to the crowd. We had gathered at her parents place after attending the Christmas eve function at the church.

"What's Dutch Blitz? How to play?", almost everyone asked in unison.

Bianca sat in the middle with the cards on her hand and explained the rules of the game. "Sounds fun! Let's play", we all replied.

16 of us formed a circle, and the rest were watching how we play from a greater circle. "I did not understand the rules, but I think I will as the game progresses", I said to myself.

"Can 16 people play?", someone from the crowd asked.

"I have 2 sets of cards. 8 of us can play. So the remaining 8 will make teams", Bianca said. Since no one but Bianca knows how to play, many teams were formed with 3 or 4 members that my husband and myself get chance to play as an individual.

I shuffled my pack of cards, placed three cards in three columns, then counted the next ten cards placing it closed and only the top card was revealed. "For the cards that you have in your hand, you should flip three cards at a time and use your third card to play", Bianca continued explaining.

"Start", she said. As if there was an emergency, everybody was trying to place their card on the Dutch pile, some succeeded, but most were disappointed and amazed at the speed of others play.

"Dutch Blitz", Bianca declared that the game ended. Even though I did not finish early, I was happy that I had played more cards.

"Negative 10", the scorer pronounced my score. "Negative? Are you kidding me?", I asked the scorer.

"Know what? You played well, but you should try to play more cards from your blitz pile as each blitz card is counted twice against your score", my husband explained.

We started playing next round. As soon as the game started, someone from the crowd shouted "Blitz!". "If I don't have a card on my blitz pile, will I have negative score then?", I asked Bianca.

"No!!! It means you won that round! Next time when you finish all your cards from the blitz pile, don't forget to say Blitz! That way, others will know that you had won and would stop the game", she explained.

I evened out my negative score in that round and started pushing my overall score positive.

I could not believe that in my next round I am done with my blitz pile few minutes after the game began. "Blitz", I shouted in joy. I went on to win a few more rounds then.

"I like this game! Its too fast, but I am winning", I told my husband during a break between two rounds. "How much did you score?", I asked him.

"Negative 24", he replied.

"You taught me the secret of winning. How come you are not scoring in positive?", I asked him.

"Its true that I taught you the secret to win. But it seems you learnt it better than me!", he replied with smile.

"You are natural at winning this game", he complimented.

One year went by as if God had hit the fast forwarded button of life. I met some new people at the church this year during Christmas eve. "Are you coming to our home for Christmas eve party?", my friend asked.

"Yes!!!", I replied ecstatically, looking forward to play another rounds of Dutch Blitz game. In the meanwhile, I had browsed through websites and read game manual to learn about different ways to play the game. I am happy to say that till now, I am a natural champion at playing this game.

Weekly Photo Challenge: One

This plant to me is very special. A friend of mine gifted me this plant when one day she came to know that I love gardening. When I brought this plant home on a winter day, I was 2 months pregnant! Both the plant and my baby grew together that sometimes I felt like the plant acted as a growth indicator of my baby inside!

During summer, I kept this plant outside of my apartment near to the entrance, just as my baby kept her first steps in this world. The color of the leaves was so attractive that once my neighbor asked me for its name, which I did not know. (If you know its name, please let me know through your comment to this post).

As if it served its purpose as a growth indicator, it soon fell into the taste buds of a few chipmunks during fall. This picture was taken a few days before it became a snack to the chipmunks.

This is my entry to this week's Weekly Challenge by dailypost.

Day 3

Day 3 of our honeymoon trip. That day was still vividly clear to me. Indeed! How can I forget such a trip to Kufri peak in Shimla?

Excited on what we are going to experience, we woke up early, got ready and rode to the entrance to Kufri peak. "One can reach the peak only through a horse ride", we heard a guide offering his service to us.

We booked a ride, rented two rain coats as the guide warned us about the impending weather at the peak and were waiting for the horse owner to bring the horses from their stable (which is nothing but the edge of the road).

"Black horse looks good. I always wanted to ride a black horse", my husband was telling me. While we were waiting, a small boy, who must be sitting in Class Six or Seven, was walking two donkeys towards us.

"See how thoughtful they are? To have a carefree ride, they are providing donkey service to carry our luggages to the peak!", I exclaimed.

"But we don't have any luggage to carry", my husband replied.

As the boy and his donkeys approached us, I told him that we have kept our luggages in our car. Confused, he said, "Ok, now please climb on my horses!"

I was worried if we could still make the trip as it already started drizzling all of a sudden, which is not uncommon at this part of the world. Nevertheless, we started our trip eagerly to have a view from the peak.

The path to the peak was completely muddy, which together with rain made it inaccessible by walk. With no footpath along, one has to trust their horse for a safe onward and return journey.

Trust, we did. Did we have a choice?

When you expect something not to happen, Murphy always conspires to make it happen! The donkey (oops! its a horse!) that was carrying me must have been really hungry for it never walked on the path, but instead took me to the edge where it slops downhill, whenever it spots anything that appears green to it.

Add to it the fact that my horse was in competition with my hubby's! When my horse (see? I'm not calling it a donkey any more!) moves to the edge, my hubby's horse takes advantage to go past mine. This is enough to infuriate my horse to go back on track.

At one point, my horse climbed a boulder as it spotted a lone grass. One slip, my horse would have taken me to an "upward" journey! Thanks to Jam's horse which was trying to take advantage of the situation, my horse gave up on its mission to pluck the lone grass and focussed on getting back on track. But it was already on the boulder and did not want to waste time retracing its step!

Knowing what's going to happen, I firmly gripped my horse rope and hugged it tightly. Thud, it jumped down pushing me forward. It was a miracle that I did not fall down on that muddy path!

"Hoooooooo", I heard the horse boy shouting to tease me how I yelled at his horse in fear. "Come to my state. I will tie you up in our auto rickshaw and repeat the same thing", I muttered under my breath.

"Do you want to go for another ride?", he asked us after our return.

"Not on your donkey", we replied in unison.

Hrdaya: 6 months baby!

Our little girl is 6 months old now! 6 months of time has gone just like a flashing lightening! There were so many extremely happy and exciting moments in this six months. She is a hyperactive baby reaching all her milestones with so much of hard work and confidence. I pray we should nurture her interest in exploring things and the way she communicate to us! Expecting so many in future.

 

The moment she was born

Sleeping beauty!

Smiling doll!

Good traveller!

Crawling baby!

Laughing angel!

Family outing!

Determined walker!

Chasing sunlight!

"I love you mom!"

Safe with father's love!

With Grandma!

Happy with friend!

Picking and dropping (first game!)

Grabbing her toy!

Halloween costumes!

Big yawn from small mouth!

The way she eats!

Enough of prunes!!!

Her first devotional service (Govardhan Puja at Denver Iskcon)!

Posing model!

Elegantly sitting!

Balancing little feet!

Reach!

A Picnic

Horsetooth Reservoir, beach in Colorado, (which is usually known as just a dam back in India) was fun, especially with a little hike. It is very usual of me to get wet in water if some water body is found around. This water, which was so clean and clear did not give any chance because I do not want to get shivered so much in the icy cold water. My feet became so numb as it got wet in the wavy waters. Playing cards with our friends over there made our trip even more awesome! (though I lose the game). Of course, pictures are the most important one (at least, nowadays!).