letter to a friend

Dear Sougata,

I have been planning to write this letter to you since a few days now. Not just to thank you for all you have done, but also to put it up here so that I have the pleasure to read it in the future when these day might not be anymore.

First of all, Rakesh and I want to thank you for the help you have sent for our favourite charity. The money has been utilized to bring a big smile to the faces of the deaf and dumb children. I feel that it is easy to donate a sum of money, but more difficult to give time for these endeavours and convince people to help. Again, knowing your busy schedule, we appreciate the time you have put in to persuade them to assist the school.

On a personal level too, it is my great pleasure to be known as your friend. I have never known anyone as intelligent as you and it is fun to discuss various subjects with you. We will definitely be termed as ‘nerds’ if people know how crazily we discuss books, economics, spirituality, life and psychology. In fact you are worse because you know so much more than me. I wonder how you can retain so much knowledge in that brain of yours. I am surely not joking when I call your brain an encyclopedia.

The way you have led your life has been an inspiration for me. I always set you up as an example when my students need to be encouraged or inspired. You have come a long way in life, Sougata. You have achieved and excelled in most of the things you have set your heart to. Today you are moving a step higher in your professional life. I wish you all the best for the future. I know you are very capable for the kind of job you have been asked to do. We need honest people in your profession and I am so proud of you for being that.

I have learnt a lot of things from you. The most important being how to face the difficulties in life. I can always rely on you as a friend and I don’t always have to tell you what my problems are. Your presence has a very calming effect on me and I know that things will be fine soon.

Thank- you for always being around and being such a nice human being. It is a pleasure to know you.

Neha.

papa's gyan

papa would tell me, "beta never get married to someone whose living depends on the stock market"

snippets i heard yesterday...

the owners of 'cream center' which is a very famous chain of restaurants in mumbai have gone bankrupt..

reason : lost money in the stock market


flash back... a year ago...

flat owner: i will sell this flat for 95 lakhs
uncle: i will pay 90 lakhs
flat owner: i wont even accept 94 lakhs.

result... no deal

2 days ago...

uncle: how much for the flat?
flat owner: 60 lakhs
uncle: i shall pay 55 lakhs
flat owner: ok deal.
uncle: i want to see the flat papers
flat owner: sure

(calls his son)

flat owner to son: we have got a deal for the flat. 55 lakhs. send the papers.
son: err don't you know? the papers are with the bank. we mortgaged the flat to buy shares from the stock market.

game, set over...

papa was right....
and i am glad i stuck to his gyan...

laterzz :p

sisters in action...

a trip to mount abu... and a week with family and cousins... here are a few nautanki pics with my cousin dhara who joined us all the way from dubai... enjoy...

pics taken at the Kesar Vilas Palace Hotel...


so which ones better??? the calvin klein (hiding my eyes) or the fastrack (on my head)??


maharani neha...


maharani dhara kumari...


a la mallika sherawat run...


slow motion.... again...


maaro iskoooo.... masti mood...!

more pics to follow... laterzzzz

when i was 25...

place - manali, beas river

hunger...

Uganda.. 1980..

what was i doing when this child was dying of hunger??... laughing?... crying?... eating?... screaming at my mom for making me eat something i did not want?...

we take a lot of things for granted... never happy with what we have... always wanting things we do not have... its sad...

confused!!!!!

i am learning to drive... and i am throughly confused... clutch, break, gear, right, left, signal.. ouch!!!!!!

doesnt mean i will give up...

laterzzz all

dream...

last night i dreamt i had a 1 year old baby girl... it has shaken me to the core...

more of dubai...

dubai marina... the place i loved the most... thats my cousin dhara... hriday my nephew... my bhabhi deepa.. and my mom...

The Rain

Fiction written for BUF some months ago...

It was the season of Navratri. She was out dancing with her friends. She was wearing a beautiful long green bandhni skirt with a matching blouse. Her dupatta wrapped around her like a mini sari. Her long earrings swishing around her nape like a lover’s kiss. Her dozen bangles playing the tune of love. Her beautiful silver necklace clinging to her neck like a lover’s arms. Her eyes twinkling as she whirled about to the tune of the music. Swirling her skirt enticingly to the rhythm.

She was not alone. She had her friends around. There were hordes of people around her, dancing to the same tune. But her dance was different. She had never danced like this before. She knew he was watching her. She knew he was dancing with her. Moving to the same beats. Flowing with the same rhythm. He was dressed in a long black chudidar kurta. A beige dupatta thrown around his neck. He was handsome with the most beautiful smile she had ever known.

After the show her friends decided to go for a drive. She refused to join them, as it was too late. He offered to drop her home. She jumped at the opportunity. She wanted to be alone with him. They left the others and decided to walk home. It wasn’t too far. It was just a 20-minute walk home.

As soon as they were out of sight, he held her hand playing with her fingers tantalizingly. Her heart jumped a beat, but didn’t do anything about it. They walked in silence for a while. As they turned to a relatively lonely lane (moving towards her house) it started raining. They had to rush for shelter. There was nothing much around that could help shelter them. So they ran towards the gate of a building and stood at the entrance there. It was late at night and no one was around. Darkness surrounded them. They stood - hand in hand - waiting for the rain to stop. But it started pouring harder. It was cold. He felt her shiver. He held her close to him, hugging her with his left arm. She trembled again. And this time it was not because of the cold.

It just happened. It wasn’t planned. He knew he had to do this. He wanted it so much. He held her close to him, as he bent his head towards her face. His arms wove around her nape spinning threads of desire in her core. He held her softly and pulled her towards him. She moved forward without any resistance. And then their lips touched. It was a kiss in the rain. The most beautiful kiss of her life. Their lips played with each other. Moving to the rhythm and the beat of the rain. Her heart beating to the music of the raindrops falling around them. He pushed her to the wall unconsciously, as their kiss deepened. She was glad for the support of the wall. She kissed him back fervently. He pressed close to her. They were totally unaware of their surroundings. Their eyes closed, lost in desire. Their senses alert to the touch of each other. Passion brewing steadily. The rain drenching them. The fire of his kisses sizzling the water drops that were playing enticingly around them. His lips trailing the kisses to her nape. Moving further to her ears. Softly. Smoothly. She embraced him. Knowing she loved him. She hid her face in his arms, smiling softly. The rain had slowed down. It was time to go. She moved away from him. Reluctantly. Knowing the magic was over. He didn’t want her to go. She knew she had to go. She took his hand and pulled him towards her house. Walking away in the darkness. Hand in hand. With dreams of something more than just kisses.

band baaja...

today 10 am...
loud music...
theres a wedding in the next building...
a band of musicians playing...

jag saara jag saara nigad gaya..... (jab we met)

i run to the window... its fun watching the band play...

my eyes rove around the scene...
no ones dancing...
people are moving at their own pace... going to work... going to the bank... moving to the bus stop...

suddenly my eyes hold on to a window at a computer education centre on the opposite side of the road...

theres a guy at the window... can't actually see his face... but he's swaying to the music... not swaying... dancing... right at the window...

and i smile... theres someone who has time to do what he wants.. at his own pace... how many of us do that?

at 10.00 am on a working day?!

dubai masti...

other pics will follow... ciaooo..

pimple breakout... ouch!

mount abu trip

ek behen paanch bhai... (one sis 5 bros)

next generation same issue... 1 sis 4 bros!

classy me... with the kings pic in the background

mirror at the palace hotel where we were put up..

the conference room at the hotel...

princess messy at the fireplace??? .... naah :p


aatish... thats my bro... (as khadus as he looks).. but thats the way i love him... hugsss...

thats prisha again...

a few pics of prisha... everyone says i used to look the same when i was a kid... cute wasn't i?

next... pics of my trip to mt. abu...

off blogging

its been very busy these last few weeks... and is going to be worse the coming days... i wont be blogging anymore... atleast not for a few months... thank you everyone for your support and love... will keep commenting as and when i can... till then.. laterzzzz

will miss you all...

z00nie and pizza hut

Thats me and mala....




abhi, mala (tring tring... who's on phone?) and me...

naturally curly...

lunch 'break'

so it was sunday... my maid was on a holiday... my family members were out for the day... a perfect setting for a nice time to relax with my husband... so heres what i cooked that day... theres salad, paneer bhurji, soup, corn - paneer parathas, monaco munchings with cheese and toppings, cucumber raita, juice and jeera rice...




finished cooking till 1...
waited till 2...
had my lunch alone at 2.30....
he came home at 3....
i was angry....
wasnt his fault though...
something urgent had come up...
but i was still pissed....
i decided never to plan a meal like this again!!!!

things never do happen as we plan them... right?

lothal

since i was a kid i have loved visiting historical sites... i have loved my visits to the taj mahal and the ancient city of emperor akbar called fatehpur sikri and the red fort and many more such places... this love started when i was in my 5th grade... every summer out school would plan a trip to a historical or geographical place of importance... and my dad would insist that i go for all of them...

so a month back when i went to gujarat i jumped at the opportunity to visit this old historical site called lothal... and i didnt regret the visit (even though 2 days earlier i was lying sick in the hospital)... for the first time i was in gujarat during the monsoons... and i never knew that my land could be so beautiful.. because in the other seasons it is always brown and has a barren look... this time it was green... as if someone had strewn the land with emerald diamonds... and the soft rains made it look even more beautiful...

heres there history of lothal from wikipedia...

Lothal was one of the most prominent cities of the ancient Indus valley civilization. Located in the modern state of Gujarāt and dating from 2400 BCE, it is one of India's most important archaeological site that dates from that era. Discovered in 1954, Lothal was excavated from February 13, 1955 to May 19, 1960 by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Lothal's dock—the world's earliest—connected the city to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the surrounding Kutch desert of today was a part of the Arabian Sea. It was a vital and thriving trade centre in ancient times, with its trade of beads, gems and valuable ornaments reaching the far corners of West Asia and Africa. Lothal's people were responsible for the earliest-known portrayals of realism in art and sculpture, telling some of the most well-known fables of today. Its scientists used a shell compass and divided the horizon and sky into 8–12 whole parts, possibly pioneering the study of stars and advanced navigation—2000 years before the Greeks. The techniques and tools they pioneered for bead-making and in metallurgy have stood the test of time for over 4000 years.
Lothal is situated near the village of Saragwala in the Dholka taluka of Ahmedabad district. It is at a distance of six kilometres (south-east) from the Lothal-Bhurkhi railway station on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar railway line. It is also connected by all-weather roads to the cities of Ahmedabad (85 km/53 mi), Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Dholka. Nearest cities are Dholka and Bagodara. Resuming excavation in 1961, archaeologists unearthed trenches sunk on the northern, eastern and western flanks of the mound, bringing to light the inlet channels and nullah ("ravine", or "gully") connecting the dock with the river. The findings consist of a mound, a township, a marketplace and the dock. Adjacent to the excavated areas stands the Archaeological Museum, where some of the most prominent collections of Indus-era antiquities in modern India are displayed.

more information here

the minute i stepped onto the site it felt like i was thrown in another era... as if i was looking at how they lived some 5000 years ago... imagine what you would feel when you step onto some place where you know that people have walked and lived at the same place so many many years back...

and the best part was that i found so many artefacts still buried under the top soil.. since the rains had eroded the top soil the artefacts were lying right on the feet, for us to pick and look at... (the museum there didnt allow us to click pictures).. therefore i was excited to get you some pictures of the artefacts... (i actually held them in my hands... it was so thrilling!)

the place where the ship were docked 5000 years back... the worlds earliest dock...

workplace.. maybe where the beads were made...

a pot.. maybe it was used to fill up fresh drinking water...

a water canal...



workplace again...

parts of jars and pots i found there... (the one with holes is a part of a big vase kind of a jar... a similar one was put up at the museum there)

a shell... terra cotta pieces of bangles... and a toy (the big white thing)...

next place i would like to visit is dholavira, which is in kutch - gujarat... another ancient site of the indus valley civilization and estimated to be older than lothal too...

laterzzz all... hope you like the pictures...

the bizarre guys birthday

(the scary z00nie with me)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Z00NIE...

its been 2 years since i know u... and the memories are carved in my mind forever...

from the birthday cake 2 years back...
to the dominoes and pizza hut pizzaz...
from ur dirty (make that yuckky too) woodland shoes...
to out earliest club called the 000nies...
from our fights to be the first one to comment (on your blog)...
to being proud of screaming our lungs out (whenever all of us met)...
from the way we celebrated your birthday last year (again)...
to the (awful) way the guys at pizza hut sang for u...
from the way id try to make u get me rochers...
to the way i saw u eat pizzas...

(the seedha z00nie with me again... err dont be misled)

on the day we went for puneets wedding...
and the day u came back to mumbai last year...
from the day we met mala at mcdonalds...
to the day we had that crazy photo session at mochas...

i remember it all z00nie...
thanx for being such a lovely friend... and be back soon... we are all missing u...

(and the GANG! with z00nie trying to get his head chopped out of the pic)


HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN....

the wedding

the bride and the groom....

my mehendi....

dressed for one of the pre-wedding puja...

at the bunglow where we were put up... the day before i got sick and was hospitalized for food poisoning... (im fine now... but had a bad time for 2 days)...

went to an old harappan site called lothal... will put up those pics next...

laterzzz