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!

The 10-day Challenge: Day 1 - Ten Secrets!

I came across this on Preeti’s blog.

The 10-day challenge post! To write 10 secrets, 9 loves, 8 fears, 7 wants, 6 places, 5 foods, 4 books, 3 films, 2 songs, and 1 picture of yourself! 

Need I say more? It’s going to make sure I blog regularly for 10 days, albeit about myself (but then who doesn’t like talking about themselves ;-) )… win-win situation for me if you look at it! ;-)

So without much further ado…

TEN SECRETS ABOUT MYSELF

Well... not so much secrets as random facts! But what the heck! Any reason to blog… especially now that blog rank has taken a huge dive!! Here we go!

1.     I don’t like the skin that forms on the top of milk. Or any beverage that uses milk. I loathe it. It makes me want to puke.

2.     I hate lizards. I am petrified if they are anywhere in the room. I am constantly on alert if I catch sight of them anywhere and I will not be at peace until the lizard leaves the room or I do. In most cases, the lizard wins and I leave the room! Bah!

3.     I used to be a big crybaby when I was a kid. Actually well into my teens. I used to cry at the drop of a hat for the slightest of things. I remember when I was about 8 or so, I went crying to my grand mom saying that the uncle in the opposite flat kept on looking at me. Yes! You can feel sorry for the sissy I was!

4.     I read the same books over and again. Yes! More than twice actually. I have read all the books that I own including the Twilight and the Harry Potter series at least 5-6 times. I have lost count of how many times I have read the Godfather. I also read some blogs over and again! Even Archie comics!

5.     I sometimes have crushes on literary characters. For the longest time ever, I had a huge crush on Michael Corleone. I absolutely adored him! The cold, calculating personality and that bad-ass attitude made me go weak in the knees every time I read Godfather! Also Sirius Black, from Harry Potter! The rebellious nature, no doubt!

6.     I used to write diaries when I was a teenager. About my take on life, crushes, people who annoyed me, curses, everything that I wanted to! And I was highly secretive about it. I kept them in a locked suitcase and I hid the key in a different hiding place every time. Until I forgot where I hid it. And then I had to break open the lock! Sigh!

7.     I have a fixed routine in the way I do things! Anything for that matter! I think I get that from my dad! And I always try to do it the same way possible if the first time proved lucky in some way. Like wear the same earrings, use the same route, etc! Superstitious or Super Predictable. Take your pick!

8.     I am a creature of habit. And I find it hard to change. I order the same hot chocolate from the same café in office, hot chocolate in the mornings, and cappuccino in the afternoons with strawberry cheesecake. So much so that whenever I go to the café, they now know my order by heart. I have been having that for the past 4 months now. Every single weekday! And the same combination for lunch on most days! Yes! I should get a life! I know!

9.     I read in the bathroom. I HAVE TO have something to read in the loo. If by chance I don’t have anything to read then I end up reading the instructions, ingredients etc on the back of the shampoos and soaps.

10.   I cannot eat or drink when I am sleepy. I lose interest in food and drink when I feel sleepy. Weird I know! But I just can’t eat when that happens. Probably sleep takes a higher priority over food. :P

There you go! 10 secrets / random facts about me!

Coming up tomorrow – day 2 – NINE LOVES!!