Twas my birthday

A woman never divulges her age they say, but I completely fail to understand why. Infact I love to throw around my age, coz that just invites compliments (picture me blushing and flattered). The minute I reveal my age, the immediate reaction I get is "Really!!!!!! You don't look that old. You are amazing!" And I bask in my 1-minute glory gleeing with joy.

 

Feb 9th happens to be my birth-day. I turned 29 last Friday. Oops!! So close to 30. Now this really scares me. 30 is the age they start using vanishing creams, and age-defying lotions, etc.  I perhaps need to start collecting info on this product line. I am turning old. I know, I know, age is material, you have to feel young at heart. I do feel young at heart. In fact, I feel like 20, or I should rather say, I want to be 20. The older you grow, the more the responsibilities, more the troubles, more the stress, more the complications. What's the fun in growing old? Perhaps I can console myself with the fact that as I grow old, so do my friends. I don't get left behind...hehehe. And as we all grow wiser together, the blogs keep getting better and better.

My Lord Buddha

I am talking about my little girl. We got her head shaved yday. Although its not customary in our community to get a baby girl's head shaved, but I chose to do it for more practical (read "volumizing") reasons. I call her Lord Buddha and she laughs when I do that. Some customs we Indians have, don't we? Its said that you are supposed to get the head shaved of the baby and offer the hair to God as a gift. But I don't understand why is it mandatory for boys, and not for girls.

 

Anyways, talking about traditions, there are quite a few that have more scientific or medical reasons to support. And those that just don't seem right to me, I would rather not obey. Now am I being too rebellious out here. One of my cousins just had a baby. When I asked him, have you decided on a name, he said he just looked up at the rashi and wants to follow it. Fine, its good to follow the rashi, but what if you don't like any name on the letter that comes up. I feel a name is a very important gift you give your baby. When my girl grows up, I want her to be proud of her name, and not ashamed. Whether she'll be in US or India, I don't know. But when I am here, I do want to make sure she gets a name that is not twisted or butchered by these goras. That doesn't mean I am gonna give her a name like Nancy or Michelle. I do make sure I give her an Indian name, but just which is a little easy for the people here to pronounce. Now am I being "unindian" here?

 

 This doesn't mean I don't follow our customs at all. I do. And some, yes, blindly. But some, I choose not to and I do stand the chance of being branded "too modern," but well, who am I fighting?

Love and hate my GPS

I have this Garmin GPS navigation system in my car. Loved it when I first got it. Took me exactly where I wanted to. Can really be dumb while driving and just follow the voice. But on our last trip to NJ, it took us at roads we have never been to. It took us 5 and 1/2 hours to reach, when according to Mapquest, its just a 3 and 1/2 hour drive. I was so mad. It was so frustrating. Lesson learnt: Never trust the GPS when you are going long.

Two good weekend trips

Trip #1: Fayetteville, NC to attend a baby shower. The only cousins I have in this country is this big family in NC. The baby shower was huge. Around 250 people which is the largest crowd for me in US in any particular family event. Had fun. Just had a teary adieu when I left.

 

Trip #2: Edison, NJ to attend a bday party. My friend Riddhi's daughter Dia turned 3. She is one cutiepie. The amount of bakbak she does. This was a decent small party, around 20 people, like the ones I am used to ;). That went well too. Its always so good to meet up with friends.

 

See, this is the reason I want to stick around in the East coast. Atleast I have friends/family that I can drive down to. Kansas was so depressing. Let me not even start with that.Post Options

Sick start of 2007

2007 didn't start on a good note for us. All three of us are sick. I am better now but I had the most severe cold this new year eve. I was barely audible.  Jignesh caught a ear infection and is still not completely out of it. And my poor little baby is coughing the first time in her life and that too so bad. We adults still manage to cope up; how do these little babies handle sickness? Well, they cling, and cling and cling and cling.

 

Anyways, of lately, I have developed a thing for pretzels. Each time I go to the mall, I want myself an Aunt Annie's pretzel with hot salsa cheese dip. Actually, the first time I ever had a pretzel was at a New York subway station and it was so hard; I never touched it after that. And now, when I had these ones, i can't resist it. They are ever so soft. That reminds me of doughnuts. Nothing can beat the Krispy Kreme's.

 

Leaving this here.....must hurry.

Does time really fly?

2006 is ready to bid adieu. 2007, just around the corner. Perfect time to say "oh, the year flew by so quickly!!" But did it really?

 

I think magical moments, happy moments, blissful moments always come with wings. They go by so quickly...that's bcoz they are short-lived. But a normal routine day drudges along. Time has its own pace, doesn't it? Then unless you are super busy, super occupied, you can't say Gosh, time flew. Or can you? Or am I saying this bcoz I am not working and choose to be a fulltime stay-at-home mom for a while.  

 

I am watching my girl as she grows up. She'll be almost 18 months. When she was a baby, I was so impatient to see her start responding to me. Respond to smiles, respond to laughter. Then I wanted her to crawl, and then walk, and then talk. She is doing everything, except for the talking (still babbling, she is taking her own sweet time) but I remember waiting for everything. None of it was an overnite miracle. I can say the same thing about the time when I was pregnant. Or when it was the exam time of the year when you had to just study study and study.

 

Yes, when you retrospect, when things are over, when the year is over, you do feel like it was a breeze; but the present, the now, has the same pace as time....and its definitely not as quick as we say it is. Things happen, people grow, attitudes change, but all of it happens gradually. And as you walk, run, skip or hop thru your life, you keep filling your chest of memories to be cherished forever.  

Bhagambhaag

The true picture of Mumbai. One look at Churchgate Station or VT/CST.....and there you have, movement. Not one still moment. Everyone just running toward their destinations. Anyways, this was not wat i wanted to talk abt.

 

I actually wanted to refer to the title song in the movie "Bhaagambhag." I am hooked to it. Fast-paced, excellent beats, makes me dance each time I listen to it. I love such songs when driving. Exudes some kinda mysterious power in me. I feel I am the queen. In charge of the wheel and swaying to my tunes. The more subtler songs, romantic melodies, etc I prefer to listen at home, at night time, or when its raining. Rain gives a whole different atmosphere to truly enjoy these songs. I loved the Mumbai rains. I lived on the 9th floor, had an amazing view, could even see the water of the sea and just loved sitting on my balcony seat all the time, especially during rain. Infact, all my friends loved it. They would all be perched up the balcony seat whenever they are home.

 

I listened to this song like 30 times today. Just couldn't stop. That's wat i normally do. If I like a song, I listen to it like a million times, till my ears are sore. In the car, at home, while cooking, all the time.