Mundane Musings

You could go to Andaman with myriad plans and still feel like you've done nothing at all. The place can deceive you into feeling just that despite your muscles protesting after all those water activities. Activities  centered around the water, is a serious  occupation for the islanders. Be it deep sea fishing or scuba diving or island hopping or snorkelling/ kayaking or sun bathing or lazing around the beautiful beaches' (oh yeah, that sure is one pleasurable 'water' activity). Port Blair Why we went - This trip was sort of a pending honeymoon for S and I. And since we both love nature and love to laze about, Andaman seemed like a good destination. When we went - We planned our trip for February, which was supposedly the end of the tourist season. The climate was bright and sunny, just right for the snorkeling and kayaking plans we made. How we went - We had booked a Kingfisher flight to Port Blair from Chennai. It was a non-stop flight, with a tired loo...

If like me, you have a spouse who loves home cooked food and if like me you enjoy cooking for him then you will understand the reason behind this post. But before that, if you’ve unsuspectingly believed all that I’ve written above, then S would be happy to nudge you in the right direction. Firstly I don’t really enjoy cooking – not in the boring everyday cooking way. I rather like the oh so cool, ‘cooking when it fancies me’ – kind of way. Yeah there it is…out in the open. Sigh. Secondly, I do enjoy cooking for him…but er… if it agrees with what I’d like to eat myself. Read – chocolate oozing brownies, cupcakes, sweets, roast chicken sandwiches, pasta etc etc. Well, I hide behind ‘my love to cook for him’ excuse every time, but he is no soul mate for nothing. He sees through me…every time. Hmph!  Anyway, it sounds kinda nice on the blog I must say, that I enjoy cooking for him. And I make up to him by tweaking a recipe so that the finished product is something that he will ind...

Happy New Year folks! Now that the anticipation, the waiting, the feeling that something special would happen at the stroke of twelve (and it doesn't) is over, I can start looking at other things related to the years - the one that was and the one that will be. The past year was good. Oh man so good...well, for obvious reasons. And if I can still say that it is good that we've married, then you can deduce that all is well in paradise right now :) Fingers crossed! The future, however, is scary. Just like it had been for 2011. It had been scary when it started, with too many challenges to face. So since my feelings about 2012 are similar, I am hoping this would be a good year too. Last year, S did the unthinkable. He 'rightfully' got permission for me to spend the New Year's eve at P's place (other years I have sneaked out on some pretext or other). I felt liberated all of a sudden. I didn't have to fib or hide anything. And I could enjoy the even...

I’m sorry I haven’t uploaded my blog in a while. You see, I was busy…getting married. I am married! Yay! I love the way the diamonds in my ring catch the light and sparkle brilliantly and that seems to sum up the way I feel right now. Sparkling. For most part of the days, S and I have been asking each other this question – Are we really married? We were so sure we’d be in the “we are dating’ category for so long that when we got hitched, I had to keep telling myself that it wouldn’t be long before the Big day. And then of course the wedding got postponed due to a personal loss and we were stuck in the ‘I’m hitched’ category for some time. And now, I blink and I find myself married. To the man of my er….dreams. Of course, now he is a living breathing entity. Very real. When we were engaged there were so many things that we didn’t expect would change: 1. I was Cinderella. No, I don’t seem to have suddenly got an identity crisis. It’s just that I was nicknamed that because like her, I had...

So as the D-day approaches, I find myself being suitably busy. Clothes, venue, décor, catering etc etc for two occasions, had to be planned. And whew God! It’s over. But then the invite for the party that we are hosting after our marriage, had to be done. Since this is an offbeat marriage and only our select friends were to be invited, I didn’t want the traditional wedding invites printed. I wanted to make the cards myself. Well, it was easy to say….but surprisingly it all just fell into place the way I wanted. I had to first think of the theme of our party. And since it was to be in one of the famous addresses in the city, I didn’t have much to do but to milk the setting for what it’s worth. So, ‘party under the stars’ was born. That meant I needed a ‘star’ theme. Lots of ideas swept over me. At last I settled for a bright starry invite. It was not a dark, mysterious night party card; more so it was a bright, cheery starry card. Yeah…I know you must be shaking your head saying ‘weird’...

Beautiful rain soaked Pondicherry. Sigh. The French quarter is so lovely! The streets are wet but clean. Walking under the green canopy, feeling the fat droplets of rain, telling myself not to think about getting back to Chennai - rather sums up my holiday here. I can never tire of walking here. It seems to be the most natural thing to do. Every time I come here I find something new to do. This time too after driving down the scenic ECR, we checked into Executive Inn, a hotel conveniently placed in the French quarter and close to the promenade and the famous Manakula Vinayagar Temple. We were hungry and we were familiar with the menu at Executive Inn. So after a decent meal of butter parathas and paneer matar, we were ready to walk. I never have any particular destination in mind when in the French quarter of Pondi. I was sure I’d chance upon some charming shop that I’d missed out the previous time. And that’s what happened. We walked about the promenade taking in the co...

I know I’ve been sleeping on my blog. But I’ve been working as a beaver all these months…collecting stuff to fill up these pages in the days to come. So yeah...I ain't a lazy bum after all! I start with one of my first projects. Take a look at my Nikah ensemble. I took pictures with my trusted Sony Ericsson just to record this dress for posterity. I love my dress, I love the jewellery I have tried to match with it and I love the idea of wearing it and posing for pics J The challenge was the colour of my dress. Why? Because being a Mallu my stock of gold jewellery was higher than stone. As a result, I didn’t really have much of what I had that could be worn with this dress. As you can see it’s of an Englsih Rose colour with stones and diamante placed all over the dress. I could not use gold over this predominantly silver and pink background. So I started thinking in the lines of pearl, diamonds, stones etc. And here it is. My maang tika is a chain whic...