Here I am..

...after 2 months yet again. Ain't I punctual? :)

There have been soooo many firsts in the last 2 months - the most special one being our first Wedding Anniversary. We survived each other for a year!! I know it might sound very VERY clichéd, but time does fly.Wasn't it just yesterday-when we were scouting for that perfect trousseau?

A week before the anniversary, the brother and I had this loooooonnng conversation digging up every little thing we could recollect during the hectic week of the wedding ; the same-time-last-year waale incidents .We quarreled nonstop for close to 2 hours on the phone trying to make up for the lack of physical proximity required for a good clawing and scourging out of eyes. This is our way of showing how much we love and miss each other - weird but thats how it is.

He was the official scape goat during the wedding- anything and everything that had a remote possibilty of going wrong was promptly blamed on him. Ours is a nuclear family living in the south for a good 20 years.Our well meaning relatives couldnt do too much during the wedding since they did not understand a word of Tamil. So, this meant the parents, younger bro and sis handling the entire event management-with the icing on the cake being papa not speaking decent Tamil either! Every time I tried to intervene/help out, I was given this ' Scoot! You are the bride!' line and I watched my lovely family stretching themselves trying to make my wedding as special as they could.

A wedding with >2000 guests, between a Maharashtrian and a Telegu family held in Tamil/Kannada speaking place is no joke. It is a multilingual chaos with most people communicating in weird sign languages. English/Hindi did help quite a bit, but not enough when it came to ground management.

I had wanted a quiet wedding with close family/friends in my favorite temple up the hill overlooking lush green fields and a river below. If you live in Bangalore and feel like a nice weekend drive, do take the NH7 towards Chennai and abt 7 kms past Hosur, you will see this temple up on a hill about 500 metres to your right. Its not the diety nor any religious preferences, its just the serene tranquility of the place. SIGH! Ok, no digression-Yeah, the wedding. Considering K's entire family base for upto 3 generation upwards lives in the Bangalore area,there was no chance of a small wedding. It had to be BIG and how!!

So we had this groom in his traditional attire all complete with a turban and sash, a Maharashtrian bride with 'nath' and the likes and THREE bleddy wedding ceremonies. An Aryasamaji one (which K and I so badly wanted) followed by Maharashtrian and Telegu rituals. By the end of which K and I were so exhausted that I forgot to do all the filmy drama which I had intended to do when the knot was tied. Before I knew, the priest got hyper , some aunties got excited, hands came in between K and I and flurry flurry and people were congratulating us. I saw some fav friends of mine smiling at me and mouthing some affectionate words from somewhere down the aisle and I suddenly wanted to sit with them and indulge in some bird watching and comment-e-baazi.And I suddenly felt verrrryyyyy sleepy and hungry. Starting with the Mehendi waala naach gaana 2 days ago, I had hardly slept and in my case less sleep=infinite grumpiness. And infinite grumpiness + smiling non-stop for snaps and the like = pent up irritation to be showered on my privileged brother or K (lucky buggers).

So what started with super-duper fun at the Mehendi ( with older maushis dancing with SO much passion that the younger girls' matke jhatkes were abs no competition ) and the excitement of the reception with SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many gifts (yes, I am shallow) , It was full blown physical exhaustion at the wedding. I wanted to be a glowing happy bride- but I was this grumpy sleepy woman ready to bark at anyone who would take it. I was told it was a pleasure to see such a nice conglomeration of traditions- yeah right! its always nice to sit and to watch and to be able to go pee whenever you want to.

In all this drama, the brother and I completely forgot to 'settle scores' with each other. That the poor chap single handedly managed most of the events , slept for a quarter of what I did and also ended up wearing the wrong tie for his suit will not convince me into shutting up. After all thats what brothers are for, hain na - to settle scores whenever you get the chance and emotionally blackmail them into a good Rakhi gift to make up for. I remember MM telling me how her brother was always the official event manager of the family weddings that during his own wedding someone- by force of habit told him to arrange cars for the brides party DURING the wedding :)

Well, it's been a year now and I am still trying to figure out what exactly is marraige all about. Right now,its living together with my best friend of 11 years (and BF of 3 years) with our love and respect for each other growing multi-fold with every passing day.

We celebrated our first Anniversary for almost 34 hours (to accommodate both IST and Pacific timings’ :D). A lovely gift shipped by the parents, bro and sis got me all teary eyed and emotional - especially since the fedex ka outer brown box had only K's name with the address! ARRGGGGHHHHHH!! And I know the brother would do this deliberately to bring my green-eyed, attention-seeking monster out (Which is not too difficult anyways).

We also had a lovely romantic dinner atop the revolving restaurant on the Seattle needle.And I am itching to write more about the resto as well as the needle.But, I shall keep that for another post :)

Lettttt itttt snowwwwwwww!!

And while I am it, let me tell you ki I waded through snow half my height ( about 7 inches) to click these snaps of my front and back yard- alllll whitened out.. And considering this sort of a winter is not going to last too long in the north-west, we shall soon be back to the cold, wet , non-snowy winter-SIGH :(


The backyard...

..and the front yard..

I yaaam louuing it!

And some nice music to go with the pictures :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8BH4M9V1N8

..but if you'd like some eye candy with a compromise on music..here you go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MEWfYPt-NQ&feature=related

Enough is ENOUGH - I say!

..and snap out of this lazy mumbly self you are slowly transforming into- RIGHT AWAY!From one blog a day to one in 2 months- this is quite an improvement..pat pat! :(

One the brighter side:its officially winter here in the north west.From the wet chilly winds, we have now graduated to snoooooooooowwwwwyyyyy days and nights. Its by far been one of the most magical sights ever. While I have been a part of snowy winters as a visitor , this is first time I am getting to see the 'residental' perspective to it. This is the first time I have to think abt logistical stuff like raking out snow from the stairway and planning grocery shopping after refering to interactive weather maps.

Its been snowing non stop since yesterday afternoon and the heroine that I am, I braved the snow and drove to the gym!I am surprised at my insanity- someone doesnt go to the gym on the brightest of days but one fine day rushes to the gym amidst bhayankar aandhi toofhan...and then gets back to eat half a packet of yummmmmyyyyy benaana chips...ahhhh!K and I took a walk at 12 AM when it first snowed last week and awwwwww :) I plan to go jogging sometime once the sidewalks are cleared.(Ive done this a couple of years ago and its quite a nice thing to do - as long as your careful not to jog on those slippery thin sheets and break your bateesis). I am a big fitness freak-yeaaah! :D

Hellos and such

I am back. And this time hopefully I'll be a li'l more consistent.

As my dear frnds SK ,AG and MM (it makes you guys sound so cool- all secretive initials and all :D)pointed out- it makes a lot more sense for me to maintain a blog rather than save long emails in drafts and send them after months or worse not send them at all since its too late to send. Or even worse not even bother to draft 'em when so muchs been happening and then sheepishly mumble excuses.

So, here I start with my incessant ramblings and again I get to write and write and write abt my super duper intellectual views -anytime, allll the time!A ठेंगा to all those who keep telling me I talk too much - pppbbhhhttthhhh!! :)

Rusting in peace.....

ah!! all old posts deleted. Fresh new dope henceforth!!