Smurfsome!!!

Smurflet would have squeaked it too if she would have been to our day trip @ Awesome Farms!

I think anybody can guess the tone of the post which is to follow from here. I was amazed when I was googling about Awesome Farms in blogs section and found none. Through there were reviews in some travel site but reviews can be suspected to be little rigged. We all were apprehensive about the farm as the pictures were too glossy and in India, we have got into a habit of suspecting more when it is glittery!!

Journey started with the usual routine when aim to embark journey at designated is never met and gets delayed by an hour with continuous calls to the person who is the culprit for all waiting,meanwhile sipping on some hot tea and biscuits. Few minutes are all that requires everybody to get settled with chips in hand and a song on their lips. If this is how I explain a rigorous battle of antakshari,I am not giving the correct version. :D So, we all sang and sang and sang all the songs which we can remember while fighting over the incorrect start of song or repeating some, till our throats were sore and water for throat was as precious as diamonds.

Last stretch of 500 meters on the rickety road was a shock for us as our apprehensions for the resort grew(There were some old and decayed farms on the road).As we reached, the colleague who organized the trip ran out to get the first look and when he got back ,we knew by the look of his face,that is was in accorandance to the site pics. :)

Welcome drinks along with sandwiches were waiting for us as we made ourselves comfortable.A quick bit and we were all out in the green strech of the farm,each looking for his/her type of activities laid out.In a quick glance, we could see ones for volleyball,tennis,golf,cricket and found badminton,table tennis, pool and children's swings as we looked further.It was enough for a big group of 31 people like us,all of us could find a initial sports to start with.But sooner or later,people left their comfort zone and tried all the other sports(most of them for the first time).Children swings may sound boring for biggies but we had a riot of laughter in the little merry-go-round one where all were made to sit one-by-one.

High spritied,but now tired bunch were made to remind of lunch by our stomachs.A buffet(veg/non-veg) was laid out for us and we made them to arrange seats in a looooong row so that we can have lunch with whole team which is so rare.It was a fine affair ending with a desert.With filled tummies,everybody was in relaxed mood , decided to move outdoors and then followed a good round of dumb charades.When all master-minds ran out of movies,focus shifted to cricket with on-the-spot-made rules(there were some biased for girls too).

All the time,there were three shutterbugs shifting hands and clicking pics of all the chirpy people.There was tractor ride available too.Then the evening tea came with bread pakora and again we were all siting in a big circle chit chating.It was perfect setting for tambola and two rounds followed amid the cries of nooooos and yeeeeees!!

It was time for memorable group pictures to be clicked before moving in to have last round of eating for the day(juices with veg/non veg kababs) and another round of pics.

Finally it was time for all to get into bus.Though we could have easily chosen to stay quite after a hectic day but we mischifs came out with the 'Hot Seat' concept.It led to some startling secrets open followed with lots of oooooohs and aaahhhhhs!! :)

With this the awesome day out our trip came to an end with everybody smiling from ear to ear. :)

Season Greetings!!!

is the most formal and boring way of referring the week started from the jovial spirit of Christmas and ending with pompous celebrations on New Year!! This phrase gives me the same feeling of greeting as there is warmth in 'With warm wishes' and dearness in 'Dear X'. :)

All through this week, there is a hint of smile in everybody's face(even the most serious nerd/geek will be caught smiling-may be for him/her executing a awesome piece of code at New Year midnight is the high point).There are plans to be made for everything nice ranging from office snack-time party...noisy Christmas and glittering new year parties to weekend getaways. Nobody seems to be remotely in mood for doing any work. People comprising school kids, college kids, people working in American/European companies are already on official weeklong holiday(Believe me, I have noticed a decrease in traffic jams this week and yes, I am jealous of those fortunate people).The other half working population(brooding over the above fact),are caught doing permutation and combinations for their trips such that minimum leaves results in maximum holidays as well as meticulous planning and discussing the various aspects of trip budget. At this time, nobody complains of being weak in Math’s! We all are deft when the right time comes is the conclusion drawn ;)

In my kid times, I (like many kiddos) used to believe in the Santa (I still want to believe though I know now my Santa is my lovable big sister).Finding gifts kept below the pillow and quickly unwrapping it to find a cute one was the high point of my year. There used to be  an element of surprise in it which makes it so special. Later in the years, I started being  a Santa myself  and used to wake up at around 3-4am to hide gifts under sibling's pillow! Fun it was!! :)

Now, also I make it a point to keep the spirit of Christmas alive. But this time I was clueless on what to do on a day before Christmas, then my little brain conjured up some ideas,I got up from the cosy blanket(hardest part) which kept luring me to stay there, got ready and decided to get my maiden tiny Christmas tree and some decorations. Back home, decorated it and when decorations refused to cover all the tree branches, I had to sprinkle some cotton so that my decorations don't get all the attention and develop an attitude! Baked some chocolate cake and prepared sumptuous white sauce pasta!! I was in Christmas mood!! :)

In this festive week, people are seen huddled up or on phone to plan some or other thing spread across different friend/colleagues groups. Some plans materialize while some get washed down but the such chirping does instill in people to get out of their routine and think about themselves.

Everybody desires not to be caught sleeping or watching TV alone at home when clock will strike 12 o clock at new-year midnight. I am sure if spirit of joy (the ghostly spirit) actually existed, then it would have been a happy soul to see the beings around looking forward to merriment. :)

Long live the spirit of joy.. the spirit of festivity :)

Open letter to Santa from Rudolph!

Dear Santa,

Hello! How are you?

The most hectic time in the whole year is here again and am sure you would miss me this time.But don't worry I have given a good KT to my backup reindeer Pinky. As already conveyed, I am on sick leave for this season as the supposed-to-be cute red nose (my signature~Rudolph,The red nosed Reindeer~) has actually turned red as I am suffering from cold and cough and my mommy has forbidden me to roam around in this chilly weather. I tried to sneak out but you know mommies, they come to know about everything by some magic power so I couldn't. :o(

Since all through these years, I was beside you for all activities planned ,from collecting hand written notes, sorting them according to areas and type of gifts, going for shopping and choosing the beautiful gifts to delivering all the goodies to the nice kids all over world singing merrily 'Jingle bells..'.I never got the time to make myself a Christmas wish list. Now I am bed ridden and sick, so I have made a little wishlist.But when I thought of posting it, I was clueless about where should I post as I have never contacted you on your address before, You always came to my place and then only we used to go around.So,I am writing a open letter as I am very sure that people who would read this must be knowing where to contact you as thousands of letters are received every year.

As you know, I have been a nice and friendly reindeer all through these years with minimum leaves and did my work meticulously with dedication, sincerity and honesty as I love the job you have given me(job satisfaction is very rare these days and I am lucky one who is blessed with such job).Seeing the decorated trees and goodies that little kids all round the world has laid for us while you stuff the desired gifts in their stockings makes me happy(bells around my horns jingle merrily that time).Thinking of the big smiles that children' face would have when they will open our gifts is the bonus. Please refer the recent goal sheet, I have mentioned rest of the good deeds in it.

My wishlist:

~A warm soft red mufflor which will keep me cosy as I roam around.

~A cute little calender for the next year.

~Few Santa special candies which I will share with neighbors.

My mommy has prepared a special chocolate Christmas cake along with cookies and has set the most beautiful tree I have seen.

I have put my stocking at the fireplace and am waiting for you.

With lots of love and warm wishes,

Rudolph

The Red-nosed Reindeer :o)

Bubble burst..

Pop .. Pop .. Pop.. squeaks my bubble wrap as I mercilessly deflated it with a big satisfying smile on my face!  :D 

The bubbly term 'bubble' leads the brain to a flash of too many different things..fragile soap bubbles struck first in mine followed by universal favorite activity of bursting tiny bubbles of the bubble wrap and if you are the one with a sullen face looking with beady eyes the ups and downs of stock market, bubble burst can only refer to 'crashing of once soaring-high-stock market with a bang'(oh ya,I am rubbing salt on somebody's wounds :P).

Here, this bubble refers to a fad!! We all have seen fads come and go, some too quickly to take notice while presence of others is felt for a longer period of time. Admit it or not, we all have been part of some or the other fad be it at any stage, though most people don't like to believe that they do actually follow crowd.

When somebody is developing the thing which later becomes viral, they have got no idea (when they do give thought on making it an instant success, it’s when instant success seldom comes).Nor is the fad thing is with high technicalities, mostly it is a simple fun thing wrapped in lucrative packaging .Take the example of 'Why this Kolaveri Di' song,nobody knows the exact reason for it to become viral ,nobody expected it to get such phenomenal number of online  hits and praise for actually mind-less lyrics sung by not-a-professional singer.

Let’s take a walk down the memory lane about such awesome fads (most of them were senseless ;) ) we have seen and been a part of. In kidhood, possessing a collection of WWE,pokemon cards,tazoos was a cool quotient and such was the intensity that people used to have more and more chips just for the glittering tazoos inside or trade the cards and be awesome. Bubble only grew for some particular thing till there is a new lucrative thing to snatch attention .As we grew older and much more conscious of our styling sense, there were regular fads of some new type of jeans, scarfs, belts which became an instant must-have in wardrobes and all the tweenies and teenies were seen in kind of same attire in different shapes and sizes to be in the cool-crowd (though such fads burst as rapidly as they formed and trends used to became outdated in next season).Don't we all are aware of the television serials fad or I say obsession about first saas-bahu types ,then poor village kinds followed by now bursting and irritating reality shows!!!

I guess the overdose of the thing about which the fad revolves mar its very purpose of possessing a unique cool quality which makes it a fad. In such a age of volatility, the key to succeed is to keep changing. It is always best time when you are the fad creator and worst when you are the last one to join the crowd.

These bubbles surely give a new color to the banal life but as we all know bubble is one which is supposed to be popped out soon!!

I hate you (like I love u..)

love you .. love you winters of Delhi!

Delhi toggles between extremities in terms of weather thereby giving a unsolicited option of having opinion on whether one likes summers or winters @Delhi.

From what I have heard (I, myself agree too) ,is people have a soft corner for Delhi@winters and they feel nostalgia about it when they move away from the city. Perhaps a dislike for encroaching sunrays in summers makes people love winters more and moreover, Delhi is chilly at this time but still it doesn’t forestall anybody's life (Ya,school kids are granted extra holidays every year because of that)

Being Foggy or I should say Smoggy is how Delhi welcomes all who visit from outside and never fails to surprise even localities as they are heard discussing how foggy was today's morning(or may be people's cache gets refreshed every year).I sometimes wonder that why early morning flights are scheduled in supposed-to-be foggy days of Late December-mid January when they are bound to get cancelled nevertheless. I recently went somewhere in the wee hours of morning ,I was totally depended on my GPS on phone for navigating through and partial cloverleaf interchange posed a big problem in between :(,such was the visibility!!!

But winters here gives more reason to be chirpy about than crib away. Hot water bath(hot to the point, it seems like taking a sauna ;) ) to start the day with, followed by travelling fully packed with polar-bear type jacket,muffler,pretty gloves in windy outdoors while the face(specially, the nose tip) turning a hint of red. The office heater does provide some solace so that we can get rid of difficult-to-work-with jacket but a step outside the building to have some hot tea or Maggie does require a shawl. Shivering and an attempt to garner all possible heat from the small paper tea cup placed between the palms can be seen in any road-side tea shop. A small area where by rare chance sunshine can be found glittering never looks barren as people of all sizes manage to make its full use and get some vitamin D produced.

A laugh or two (with more possibility of turning it into a laugh riot) while sipping ginger infused tea and hot Maggie is one experience which is trademark of this beautiful weather. ‘Beauty' of winters can be seen in the bright colored flowers laden leafless deciduous trees lined on the sideways.

Day ends well with gushing into the thick blanket and having a bowl of soup and one by one cracking of roasted peanuts followed by popping them in with great relish and finally dozing off wrapped in the cozy sheets to wake up fresh in morning but still in want of more sleep time.

I still remember while in school we as kids waited for winters to come so that we can wear our smart blazer over full sleeved graceful shirt and a short dark grey skirt with tinniest possible ankle socks (no, not knee length :P) and roam around with hands in warmth of blazer pockets(I can never think of wearing this ensemble now in winters)!

Such is the chilly winters of Delhi that it shivers u up but at the same time makes you gorge on the gastronomic delights and have a blissful sleep snuggled in blankets. :)

So, chill and enjoy it till the season lasts :)

Let the pink flower bloom..

Mind automatically maps image of 'Pink flower' with feminine:-fragile, beautiful and pure. But do society actually see women with such purity in eyes? If answer would have been a 'Yes’, then I guess there was no point in raising the issue even.  I guess, the rift between the girls and boys is going from its inception and creates the biggest division among humankind. But is it necessary that one has to rule on other?

Being a Delhite,I can surely say that there is nothing called harmony between two or even equality in terms of freedom is non-existent. In 21st century and in metro city, something like this is hard to believe but yes, it is true. As the darkness looms over the city every evening, all the girls trot away to their homes, not because they have lots of pending chores to finish, but city becomes too unsafe to wander around. Even a simple act of walking on street becomes a nightmare.Not that city is too safe in the broad daylight but as it darkens, bikes on the road are automatically attracted to the girls walking in the sidest of the side lines, speed gets reduced and lewd comments float in the air before whizzing past with a zoom leaving behind a shaken girl. Even a person like me who doesn't abuse, will want to hurl some at this moment. Please consider that I am not accusing every single guy here but when majority does it, generalized statements are made.

Much more than I can write here has already been said about such harassment of girls.Here,I will throw some light not on harassment but discrimination against women.

'We can do it this way’, explained I trying to elaborate my idea which I have just thought. Seeing no reaction I re-analyzed my thought for any cons and raised my voice, putting the idea again enough to get attention, but maximum I got was a shrug of shoulder from my best friend (who was kind enough to acknowledge that I spoke) while that bunch of guys kept discussing more impractical ideas. Before I could make any noise,some one raised the similar idea as mine and in a swish, they all agreed. I could not help being flustered red about this whole situation that I was ignored just because in some discussions which requires brains and logic, girls are just side-lined and they are made to realize that as no sane idea is expected from them. This has happened many a times in school,college,office.. everywhere and no, I am not in a company of greatest minds of India who are hot-shots in all topics of discussions, I am with normal people like me but they are boys and I am a girl who is not expected to utter any intelligent sounding idea even though she has more brains than most of them. But to acknowledge that, somebody has to consider girls equal. Girls have come all way up studying and working shoulder to shoulder with men, still there is such discrimination. I have seen that people so casually disregard all the success a women has achieved by saying that 'Afterall, she is women, everybody tends to be biased for them’. No regard to a girl’s merit, no mention to hard work she has put in, just a casual remark is all they can pass accompanied with a smirk. But has someone considered that who is the one doing so-called-biasness, one of their own species, so if one has problem stop doing it, simple!!Oh ya, even this idea won't be listened, after all it has come from a girl! :P

Oh yes, I can see the raised voices on line about equality ,which shout  'Girls cry about equality, but they forget that 'equality' when special privilege is granted to them in terms of quota, ladies seats etc etc'. I am no extreme feminist and is all in favor for equality and mutual respect. Men and women are entirely two different species within a species, they tend to think differently, act differently and you can not judge them that this approach is right and other is wrong. If God has created two genders, I am sure He wanted both to complement each other and be complete and not belittle the other one and feel superior.

This Blog is part of the Men Say No Blogathon, encouraging men to take up action against the violence faced by women. More entries to the Blogathon can be read at www.mustbol.in/blogathon.Join further conversation on facebook.com/delhiyouth & twitter.com/mustbol.

A date with myself!!

Having lived my entire life in the same city and with lots of wonderful friends around, I have never actually got the chance to roam around much alone .Spending quality time with myself just meant having a cup of tea(Yes, I am a tea person) in dim light in my cozy room, listening to melodic songs and thinking about something or other. But last weekend I just forced myself to do a bit more than that. Since it is difficult to drag myself out from home just to go somewhere and roam around alone(enthusiasm to meet a friend and chit chat on the sidelines(or the main line) is missing here),I planned the self-hangout while returning after doing some important work.

I chose some places where I have been to (though it’s been years since I last went there) and like going there as well. But going alone was a different experience I would say. That day I was in mood to go on  long walks and sideline all the other transport options(Ya,in the end I did get bus to go back home :D ),so on the warm winter Sunday afternoon, I trotted down on the beautiful laid out  Lutyens' Delhi (where there are lots of roundabouts :D) and reached Bangla sahib Gurudwara(I have been here before twice in my college days).The word chanting in background always leave me peaceful while I am on parikrama around the sarovar or sitting inside the gurudwara.Its beauty always compelled us to take pictures with it as backdrop(bad of us!! ) but this time it was nothing like that, it was serene and peacefully calm and I was able to sit there alone for quite a time.

Next, my feet (and my phone GPS J )took me to the nearby Sacred Heart cathedral Church, another place to satiate my troubled soul. Kneeling there at prayer desk and saying your heart out silently is a different experience in itself followed by sitting there in pin drop silence while your mind is at peace. After lighting candles and saying another set of prayers, I ventured out on the long road (with sun now directly shining up above the sky )which ended at Hanuman Mandir.With a round of ritualistic parikrama around the deity and offering prasad,I sat down for a while to let the spirituality all around to sink in.

Now, it was time for my stomach to let me know about its existence and thus, guided me single-purposely through the by-lanes of Connaught Place to reach a series of food joints..my mind was up for catching up a quick Mac burger(that's what people do when they are alone-> have a quick bite and leave) but my heart  was all set for a proper meal even if that meant standing for full 20 minutes waiting to get a shared table in the end. I listened to my heart and as I thought, found myself waiting in front of Sarvan Bhawan but in the end relished a satiating meal of a onion masala dosai and glass full of butter milk(yes, I did finish it all :D).Ended the date with myself with a shopping treat. :)

One thing which I liked most was that there was no adjustment by anybody in terms of where to go ,how to go,where to eat and what to eat because it was only my opnion which governed everything  :)(this discussion actually eats up a big fat chunk of time in the entire conversation which I have with people whom I meet).Though I would always love to hop around with people whose company I like and catch up with them, I have decided to give myself some chance to spend some good time with myself too.

Good luck to me!! :)

~I know I am deviating too much posts from ‘The Dillemists’ series, but I will soon get back to it for sure :) ~