Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers!!

So I lost my phone. Yes the same phone that I kept bragging about here. Looks like someone up there thought I was into it a little too much! So there you go! I lost it!

There I was returning from a well-played hour of badminton, super-happy in my winning 3 games out of 4 (looks like I never learn about bragging! Hmm!), and I left the phone in the cab. Funny how these things happen, eh! And usually, I am not a careless person. I take care of my things with a maniac like precision! Serious! The cab driver hurried me into getting out of the cab, I had like a pile of stuff in my hand and thus the phone that was almost-always a part of my arm got left behind! And of all the days that I get a receipt for the cab ride, that day I did not! Mr.Murphy was right with me!! And the worst part!! I noticed that I did not have my phone the minute the cab revved up and left… I looked it like I was looking at my best friend speed away! And then I sprinted like Usian Bolt up to my friends place and started pulling out stuff out of my bag in a bid to see if my phone was there somewhere. See in my mind’s eye, I still could not believe that I had left it in the cab. 

Anyways, what followed after that was a couple of hours of calling my phone, filing reports with the police, the cab company, calling up the bank to see if we can trace the cab through my payment transaction id, changing required passwords, etc etc. Nothing helped, of course! Now I am back to using my old phone, the same old Sony Ericsson… Sigh! My contact list on the phone has exactly 10 numbers, close friends and family! I do have a backup of my old numbers, but I am much too lazy right now to enter all those into my new sim card. I feel handicapped sometimes without the 3g. I was addicted to it, to say the least. I am back to using my 1 GB mp3 player.  The one that I got with my first ever salary!! Sure, using the old phone and the player brings back a lot of memories. :-)

The next day after I lost my phone, I was searching for it on my side table the first thing in the morning. Yes!! It was my alarm clock, my music player, my connection to the world, all rolled into one! Right! I know it is just a phone, I know I can replace it with something else; I know there are always alternatives to staying connected! But I also know that I miss my phone and I miss it in my hand! It felt right there! Go ahead; call me a loony-bin! I don’t care! So much for the melodrama eh! :-P

Well, until the search for a new phone ends… the rock-solid (literally!) Sony Ericsson and the sturdy old Philips player it is!

The end of the 10 day challenge. Last 4 days in one post! Phew!

Oh my god!

This has to be the longest anyone ever took to complete a 10-day challenge! Damn! And I thought it was going to be easy, and good for me, because it’s talking about myself for 10 days! I mean who would not have liked that! Turns out it’s not as much fun as I thought it would be. For one, it’s unbelievably boring! Talking about myself I mean! I simply have to rack my brains to think up of stuff to write and at the end of it, I feel like I am back in school, filling up a slam book. Maybe it’s just not for me. Kudos to all you others who took it up and finished it on time too!

So here I am completing the challenge all in one go! In one post! And may that be the end of it!

Day 7 - Four Books

Book 1: The Godfather! I can go on and on about why I love this book and how dreamy I find Michael Corleone. Actually Michael Corleone. Enough said.

Book 2: Books on hindu mythology. The latest in the pack being – the Immortals of Meluha! And add a whole lot of other books like  - the Palace of Illusions, The Pregnant King, Ashok Banker’s Ramayana Series, The Mahabharata etc to it!

Book 3: I have said this before and I will say it again. The Harry Potter Series. You gotta give it to that woman for the imagination that she has! I know a lot of my friends criticize the book, but its one of the best things that has happened to the literary world! Whats the world without a bit of fun, fantasy, magic and villains?

Book 4: “There is a song for every dance – Mridula Martis”. The book is about a lady who quits her high-paying job and goes to learn dance! And then starts a dance school! Need I say more?? And she gets a dancer tattoo too!! :-)

Day 8 – Three Films

Ok! This is HARD!

Random choices off the top of my head!

1 – Memento.

2 – Social Network. 

3 – Manichithrathazhu. Love the movie. Can watch it n-number of times. But only the original.

Day 9 – Two Songs

Ok! Again randomly

1.     It’s the time of my life – Dirty Dancing

2.     Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji – Ishqiya. (Haunting song and lyrics!)

Day 10 – One picture.

Here you go! I am putting up two pics here. Yes, I am vain like that! I love both these two pics! Both clicked by friends at various times! I normally am not very happy with the way I look in pics but these two I love!

Thank you Dileep and Manu! :-)

Pic 1 - Clicked by Dileep

 Pic 2 - Clicked by Manu

Ah it’s done! The 10 day Challenge is over! 

Phew! 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 6 - Five Foods!!

Day 6 - FIVE FOODS

Yes! When you look at me, it will look as though I don’t eat much! Actually I don’t.. But whatever I like I eat quite well!! 

This is gonna be a short post… here goes!

1.     Idichakka Poduthuval – ‘Idichakka’ is tender jackfruit. Idichakka thoran / poduthuval as we call it at home, is a mouthwatering dish when it is prepared well. It’s quite a tedious and messy job cleaning up the jackfruit but the taste compensates for it all.  

2.     Fried rice and Gobi Manchurian – An all time favorite. It’s a standard order when we go to Indian restaurants.

3.     Grandmom’s Potato curry – I have no idea how a simple dish like this can be turned awesome. And I still can’t get it right even when I try my level best. All she does is fry up the potatoes till its golden brown and I can never quite manage to get the same taste how many ever times I try! She makes it all the time when I visit her in Coimbatore and serves it simple rice and ghee. Tastes divine!

4.     Mom’s Vegetable Pulao – Love this! Of course this one I never tried making. Too much effort and I am as lazy as they come!

5.     Curd Rice and Egg Omelets - :-) This combo rocks! :-) 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 5 - Six Places!!

And now its day 5 – Six places!

Ok! Frankly I don’t know what this refers to! Whether its places that I love to be in always, or places that I loved going to, getaway places, or just ones that capture my fancy!

I am going to put here 6 random places from my list because I have a lot of places that I love going to depending on my mood and they all won’t fit here on the list!!

Here we go!

1.     Meenakshi Gardens – Rajagrha! :-) Also easily referred to as ‘kalam’ or the ‘farmhouse’!! It’s the place that I spent a bit of my childhood in and I love this place! It makes me feel all good and nice and warm whenever I visit there… lots of trees, and some amazing memories!

2.     Home @ Sumukham. There’s a place that I never get bored these days at! Probably because I don’t get to visit and stay there as much as I would like! Yes! I miss home!! Don’t rub it in!

3.     Hyderabad! I love that place for a whole lot of reasons. :-) The first flat that we all stayed in, the subsequent move to a PG, the office anecdotes …..

4.     The best place for a getaway for me is a place where there is a lot of quiet around, lots of calmness, lots of trees etc… Ashwin’s home at Kerala is one such place. It is very calm, lots of greenery with a river running along the backside of the home and when it rains, you feel like you are in a hillstation! :-)

5.     Singapore. If I ever had to leave this place, I would miss it sorely. There are so many memories associated with this place, good bad and ugly. But the good outweighs the bad so there’s that! All thanks to a great bunch of awesome friends! :D

6.     If there’s one place that I would be in, given a choice, it would have to be INDIA. Any place in India works as long as it’s India. No I am not saying this because I am fiercely patriotic or anything like that. But I love being in India. I love everything about it. I will crib and complain and be disgusted at a lot of things about it but it’s still home in a larger sense and it’s the place that I want to go back to after my “around the world in a few years”  :P :P 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 4 - Seven Wants!!

This one I am going to enjoy writing. :P

The wants are in no specific order and just ones that popped into my head RIGHT NOW. I have a lot more desires that are just waiting to be fulfilled. :-) Anyone listening up there??  

SEVEN WANTS

1.     Go back to India for a vacation. Like RIGHT NOW if I could! For a looooonnnnnnggg vacation! I miss my home! :( It’s been AGES since I went home!

2.     To learn dance from Shobhana. I have heard that she is a tough teacher but I love her style of dancing. Also to keep learning dancing!

3.     All the books in my wishlist. (And that is one long list I tell you!)

4.     A room in my future house which is big enough to hold all my books, have enough space to dance, and is done entirely in shades of colors that I love and lots of windows and is on the topmost floor.

5.     Small holidays every year, 2-3 times at least visiting new destinations and not always beaches!

6.     To learn swimming so that I can get over my fear of water above nose level. Easier said than done! I know!

7.     To have a slumber party with my girls. :-) like old times! 

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 3 - Eight Fears!

Onto day 3 of the challenge (Okie! Its day 5!! I know! You don’t have to point it out again saying I missed 2 days! Hmmppff!!)

Anyways day 3 of the ten day challenge is to write about EIGHT FEARS

You know, I wish I could be all brave and mighty and say that I fear nothing. But unfortunately that’s not the case. I would love for it to be, but never mind!

Fear 1: Losing my family or something happening to any of them! I constantly am scared of this, but I tend to keep a low profile about it.

Fear 2: I will say this yet again. FEAR OF LIZARDS. Also add irritation and annoyance and exasperation at seeing one of those slimy creatures. BLEH!! Scoliodentosaurophobia – that’s what it is called. I just found out. And the very word sounds bad-ass scary! And I am not even sure if it’s true! Closest that I came to was Herpetaphobia which is fear of reptiles. Mine is only lizards so well… Enough on this, really!

Fear 3: Water above my head! No I don’t have a name for this. It’s not exactly fear of water but just water going above my nose level, to be very specific. I tend to get a little disoriented in water. Even less steady than I am on ground.

Fear 4: I am highly terrified about not being able to dance anymore at any point in my life. How or why and all that I don’t know! It’s an irrational fear, alright!

Fear 5: Losing friendships / relationships. I don’t think anybody likes this. But seriously, I have lost a lot of friends, people I thought were on my same wavelength and then something happens that ends up in breaking off… I have written about this here.

Fear 6: No money! Yep! I am always scared that I will become bankrupt. Financially insecure. Not that I am doing a lot to make myself secure now! But it’s a fear!

Tomorrow – Day 4 – Seven wants!

The Ten Day Challenge: Day 2 - Nine Loves!

So the 10-day challenge turned out to be a downer eh! I am sure that’s what you all are thinking! She just says these things and never gets around to doing it. Ha! Here’s where you guys are mistaken! This time I have a valid excuse! No internet at home. And I can’t type blogs like these on my phone however smart it is! It’s a big pain!

We painted our house over the weekend. And that’s a story for a separate post. Suffice to say, house looks like a tambrahm wedding card!

So getting on with the ten-day challenge!

To make up for the lost time... Lets get started shall we…

Day 2 – Ten day challenge – NINE LOVES

1.     My Family – of course this goes without saying.

2.     Friends – Some of them are absolute gems! Some know exactly what to say to bring a smile on my face. Some know when to stop talking and when just to let me rant and rave. Some are the ones that I call on at any given point of day and night and they would still be there for me. And yes! These lists overlap.. much like the Venn Diagrams! :P

3.     Dance – This is something that I can’t imagine my life without. It’s my passion, it’s my way of expressing feelings, it’s my way of communicating, and it’s always a part of me…

4.     Books – Another thing that I cannot live without! Give me a book; you have a happy me!

5.     Holidays – especially ones that are to back home! I love visiting my home after a while, going to each nook and corner, seeing what has changed and whether my stuff is still in the same place etc… yes much like a dog you could say! New destinations, forest treks, adventure sports, bring it on!

6.     Massages and spa treatments – Ah! Bliss! Who doesn’t love a bit of pampering…!!! I wouldn’t say no to a spa package!! The luxury!!

7.     Me-time! – I love having some ‘me-time’ once in a while too. Doing my own thing. At my own pace. Indulging in whatever I feel like. I sometimes like to be alone and by myself. And I love that time that I get! Just for me! All mine!

8.     I love having a job! I have already written about my sentiments on that here and here. So well… no more on that eh! I also love the smell of books, petrol, fresh paint, turpentine, kerosene, the fog that lingers after bursting crackers, the smell of the earth when it rains… yes, I know! It’s a long list, but I had to say it!

9.     I love learning new things, be it dance, or some tool at work, or even a new hobby! Something that interests me, I love getting to know a lot more about it! Call it curiosity or pigheadedness.

That sums up day 2. Onto day 3 – Eight fears!