Hong Kong. Macau!

This is month old post lying in drafts. :| Totally unfair for it to be there. All I had to was edit , add and hit publish.

Pre-trip , I would have ideally exaggerated ( atleast NOW I will use this word ) about how this trip could be something I would trade anything in the world for.
And then when it happened..when it really did..despite all of my nightmares - it doesn't feel complete.  Like you know that feeling of euphoria or post-travel post-good-times zeal. That's missing.Its just not there.
Ok there were some fights involved. Arguments. But eventually we had fun. We enjoyed. And I was with the best people of my life. And yet..it was incomplete..?

I guess this is a different kind of travel hangover. :|  If I would be saying this to my friends  , they'd probably say " Han han Different toh rahega hi..tu apne desh se jo wapas aayi hai " :D

Confused ? Well.. In all the planning and packing , I forgot to scribble a post about all these Chini jokes made on me before we took off to Hong Kong.
China is considered to be my motherland by one and all.
My friends asked me to make sure that I find my real parents :D Because my Indian parents are so Indian and am soooo Chinese :D
I always disagree about looking Chinese which people claim only due to the fact that  I have small eyes ( how unfair! ) But I certainly have doubts about the possibility of being adopted for some family genes are just not running into me! :P
Some others jokes went about ..
" Tu apne purvajo k desh ja rahi hai "
" Don't get lost ok. Your parents will probabaly bring someone else back thinking its you!!"
" Click pictures with Chinese people. Then we'll play find 6 differences" 
lol this one's  a personal favorite :D


Post-trip post. The travelogue :

Macau

If you ever plan to go to Macau. You HAVE to stay at the Venetian Macau Hotel. Its so huge and beautiful comprising of the hotel , a mall and ofcouse-  the biggest casino! All suite rooms with king size beds and huge bathrooms fully adorned with mirrors.

Magnificent Hotel Lobby!

The hotel is so huge ..it actually took us two days to learn to move about it.

The casino was awesome. We lost everything we put in :D :| except dad who won 36 times on roulette ;)

The entire Venice theme is  alluring. ( This is the shopping zone ! )

The hotel has an Indian restaurant named Golden Peacock which serves Indian VEG food at affordable price. So thankfully we didn't face much issue with food. Moreover if you stay at the hotel - you get vouchers which you can redeem & make use of at the restaurant , buy goodies and some listed stuff , go for the Gondola ride which otherwise costs more than 100 Hk $ per person. :\
Mac D is a waste for veggies. It smells awful :| Plus its expensive.

The Italian Gondola Ride.

Our Gondolier was Lia from Italy who  impressed us with her Hindi speaking skills. Greeting us with Namaste and calling us all 'sundari' :D .She knocked us off when she sang 'Chin ta ta' while also doing its signature step ! In return we sang Senorita for her :D Lia made the Gondola ride a lot more fun and there is no doubt about the fact that Indians are loud - so yeah we got a lot of audience :D

Macau Tower.

A view of Macau from the tower.

 You can experience one of the highest bungee jumps in the world from the Macau Tower. ( 233 meters!)  We watched 4 people bungee jump. It hardly takes few seconds for the fall and its quite thrilling to watch let alone do it. ( Of course I couldn't convince my parents enough :P ) 

It costs around 3000 HK $ ; approx 24000 INR. 

Macau is a small place and a 2 day stay is more than sufficient. 

Hong Kong :

It takes about 45 mins to reach HK from Macau after you board a ferry.
We stayed for 4 days. Hong Kong is like an extension of Mumbai with wider and clean roads. Old HK looks exactly like Mumbai except for the Chinese signs and billboard. 

Day 1 : We strolled around TST ( Tsim Tsa Tsui )  which is in Kowloon ( old HK). If you wanna book a hotel , this is the ideal place to lodge at. The subway is close. And the entire shopping area in in TST. It has a lot of major brands. 
There are a couple of Indian restaurants as well. 
Note : Finding vegetarian food in HK is a tough task. There are top end Indian restaurants which are of-course expensive. The Woodland Hotel at TST is a very good option.

Ocean Park

Day 2 : Ocean Park!  I found this one hyped. I mean , yes it must have been pretty famous 2 decades back. Dolphin show must be quite a thing that time.But essentially its a place for kids to enjoy seeing penguins , polar bears and sea lion. Thankfully some of the adventure rides came as a respite for us adults. The weather sucked. It was blazing hot!! 
The light show at night was a beautiful thing to watch.
 
Day 3  : We took a day off which was a very wise decision as the entire day at ocean park combined with the scorching sun had us totally drained out. 
We went to Mong Kow which is close to TST and famous for shopping. I couldn't get what the entire hyper around it is for! We did bargain but eventually  had to pay a high price for clothes and bags. So no! HK isn't a shopping destination ( with ref to bragain-shopping) unless you want to splurge on expensive branded stuff.

Took the metro ride to Central HK. All the stunning corporate buildings welcome you to the main HK. We were too late to catch the tram ride , hence missed going to Victoria Peak! :(
The Times Square and Stanley Street are in main HK ( for extravagent shopping :D )

Day 4  : Disneyland! 
I would rate out visiting Disneyland as the 10/10 sole reason to visit HK :P Who on earth wouldn't enjoy this beguiling place! Every damn thing about this place shouts richness. The park has been so nicely designed , you feel like you've entered an  entirely different world! Each and every ride & restaurant is chockablock with fairytale elements. 
The cartoon characters take you back to your childhood. How we miss Misckey , Uncle Scrooge , Aladdin & Mermaid !
The Lion King Show ( Live by theater artists) is spectacular. 
And the best ride was Mystic Manor. Its just superb!

  
Disneyland bewitches you at night - specially with the fire-show. 

I made this trip with my family AND my two most loving sisters.So this was the first trip of its kind. I had nightmares about its success since two such planned trips previously never happened!

And even as Prats gave a goodbye speech when we departed for India about how our fights didn't matter and lets just enjoy this moment because its the first and could be the last trip together..

I whined silentely.. Why last? Why the hell it should be the last ?! Just because I was stupid and annoying ? How could you do this to me? Why last?!!

To say she read my mind and replied - "who knows what happens in the coming days and where life takes us all."

Damn. That pinches!

She made me feel so guilty about being such a jackass. 

I wanted her to scream at me. 

To scold me for being immature and whatever the hell I was being :/

But the time's gone.

And all am left with are memories..  A LOT of them..about this amazing vacation to cherish about.

Things I'd never like to forget. Things that bring instant happiness to me :)

Those Chinese conversations. 

Public embarrassment missions.

Emptying our pockets out at casino!

 Photograph-obsession.

 The day wen we missed to go to Victoria Peak & all the jokes about the same :D 

Disneyland !! 

We've resolved to go back to Macau to jump off the Tower :D

* All pictures posted here have been clicked by me :P There is some jinx attached with me and cameras. My (new) camera started acting weird.Add to it - I lost the charger!! So had to save the battery for disneyland .Sadly it was so hot even on the day we visited disneyland - that none of us had much energy or enthusiasm to click ! Talk about obsessing for clicking pictures :P

I don't say bye.

You know I hate that part. The goodbyes. It really kills me.
Whether its me leaving the people I've spend time with which always seems like a dream.. or it is these people leaving me all alone at home after a week full of fun.

I didn't enter my room last night. I was dreading I'll end up crying. And when I cry.. I cry like a baby.  Yeah it feels bad..but aren't we too old to cry for such things ?

I handled it well though. Its a feeling. It'll pass.
My heart isn't heavy and sobbing.
 Its like am sedated.

I would have patted myself for being a little emotionally stronger . Its a good thing. It is something thats coming to me after a long long time. *smugs*

Last year ? Flew by , as usual.
Friends and fights. New friends. Wedding. Cousins.
Family politics and crap.
Usual except for the feud.

New year resolution : Just one.
Work out . Work out. Work out.
 Thrice more than before. Specially because I didn't stick to it for most of the year.

The post-Diwali post.

Jab tak hai Jaan literally took our jaan ! What a pathetic movie! :O
The first half is ultra boring. The story spins around a couple of dialogues that hardly make any sense..songs squeezed into the movie with no head and tail whatsoever. ZERO chemistry.

And yes..srk is old. So there's hardly any charm left to our love hero.

Katrina - whether she can act or not  - looks like a goddess. The outfits she has worn in the movie is the ONLY thing worth seeing.
SRK rocks in the army look. Rugged & rustic. That suits him much better than the happy-go-lucky-poor chap- look who tries so hard to seduce !!
With the army look - he needn't do anything.
Black t-shirt with black glares.Killer!

The only reason why I could survive through the first half was due to the ridiculous  comments we made :P Like how Anushka Sharma resembled a frog :D

The second half is tolerable. I was expecting something sad towards the climax. Turned out to be an absolutely DUMB end. Lets not even get into the story!

--- Skyfall : Ok I have no idea why people hated it. There were stream of comments on how the movie was the worst Bond film ever.The movie being more about M than our Agent 007 , so many loopholes etc etc.
But I liked it. Vulnerable Bond. Weaker. Kept me on hook till the end.
It may not fit the James Bond league..but as an action flick - it is worth a watch.
'Entertaining.'


* Diwali *
It has been a week long celebration for us. Just about the usual..dinner or lunch at some or the other cousin's place. But super fun as always.

I made this King size Rangoli.  The biggest I have attempted till date.
Took me a good 4-5 hours.  And since I haven't been exercising at all these days..the squatting gave me a good muscle pain for the next two days.

I haven't been writing much. Rarely. Just don't feel like it.

This happens to be my 350th post. Finally! :P

Yaaaaa dude!

All I needed was a vacation!

How about with free food , free dj party , free accommodation and a bunch of funny crazy people ?!
Add to it - the venue being GOA!
Perfect!!

I don't have the right words..I have no words infact to write about the most awesome wedding I've been to. Maybe I'm not very sure how I feel about the whole thing. Its weird that I don't feel weird.
 ( About being back home after having an amazing time and not crying over for missing everything*)

This time in points -

• Made new friends. Absolutely fantastic people!
• Danced ( ofcourse) thrice! :  Sufi night. Sangeet night  and pool party
• Sangeet or DJ night was 'Desi Sunburn' as brat put it. Have never danced so much with live singers. 3 Indian Idol finalist. They sang amazing and the tracks they choose made us all unstopabble. Every time we'd think this is so tiring and now must get off the stage..another kickass track would be played! Freaking awesome.
• Pool party in a madu wedding is very modern I must say. Lol ..quite questionable. But it was again so much fun! They arranged for rain dance as well. Sexy!
• The bride was my cousin.Someone I was very close to. But then things change no ? There's still something special about old friendships. All it needs is unison.And I have no opinions what so ever.  Just enjoyed being there. It was her wedding afterall !!
• The last night of the 3 day wedding..we stayed awake the whole freaking night! Hukah and daru party. One of her friends got so high..she danced alone for an hour. Lol but she is definitely the best dancer I've seen. Totally enjoying to the core and god knows where on earth does she come up with so many different steps!
• I was the only person who did not cry during vidaaai. I didn't cry even on bubble's wedding. I still don't know why. I mean the whole thing is freaking sentimental plus there was background music to it with dhol and vidaai song. It still didn't hit me. All her friends were sobbing. I was blank.
• All of us cousins are very cool. And by cool I mean shameless. There's no limit set to cracking non veg jokes. And then since there were also her 'friends' ..there was absolutely no limit. With all the flirting and link ups there were added double meaning comments. Holy shit! Cheesy allright. But funny at the same time.Ridiculous I'd rather say.
• Before the wedding we all indulged in rigorous dance practice for sangeet. That was another 3 days of full on masti!  With hukah sessions every now and then ;)  
• Everybody vouches on Brat's chammak challo steps ! :D 
• K  played my cousin and she is a damn good dancer herself. G as usual was the lead guy.I was the side dancer. I don't like that. lol but I held onto my grumblings. *pats self*
• Food : 5-star hotels have their own receipes. You generally don't end up liking the usual dishes. But for the continental specially mexican and thai food - it was deliciously delectable along with dulcet desserts!
• To sum up it was one hell of a  heavenly week! :D Mind blowing fun! Too many memories and jokes to rest upon.

* Now the usual custom is that whenever I spend time with my maternal cousins which is like once in a year and come back to my homeplace - I sob like a kid. I start feeling the vacuum much before I'm to bid goodbye to everyone.
This time it was different. Strange. I didn't get the jitters. I was hardly over -conscious of the fact that I was leaving and that its probably going to be another year before I see everyone.
That odd sick moment hit me only for a second when brat  left a night before we all departed. And thats that.
I surprised myself. How much can I empty myself out , afterall ? :)

I've spent a very very good time that I'll always cherish. I have my own grudges for certain things. But it allright. Its like a peck of dust I'm flicking away. Doesn't stand anywhere against the glitterati.

Btw how could I not mention some of our own 'phrases'
Two of my cousins - Ak and Brat have this habit of saying 'Ya dude' all the time. The 'ya' is pronounced with a jolt. lol
And then Ok is Oooooookaaayyy.
We tease brat - ' wtf man wtf!'  He uses the F word like an article.
Ak cracks the most silliest jokes ever. Whatever it may be..the fact is everybody giggles. So I guess it works. :D

I'm the usual photographer. I make sure I click as much I can. But this time with three SLRs there wasn't much scope left for me :D
I'm waiting for the pictures!
Its killing to be dependent man!
'Man' another word used like a phrase. lol :)


I'd been to bengaluru as well. Superb weather!

Water splashing.

There was a time , say almost an year or two back when I used to dread festivals.
It would only mean being stuck up in home , and doing just  about nothing.
Physically present in a pretense of a happy environment.
 And yet mentally fighting with the loneliness.

Festivals are meant to be 'celebrated' together.

Not when one of your parents prefers watching the TV or say is least interested in forming a little social circle.

When another one of your parents is busy doing the household chores.And is upset to be holding onto the routine even on this day.

So what do you do ? Deck up and sit quietly. Or watch TV.
So much for the chores that you are not good at anyway.

I don't think that's anybody's idea of celebration or festival.

I don't feel you can celebrate alone.

So what's changed now ?

The relations with the extended family.  A little much to  do rather than just watching tv.

I wouldn't pretend I'm happy. But then I'm GLAD to be occupied , on festivals.

Else my heart would shrink the tiniest on knowing I'm the only one not 'celebrating'.

Lets also say..I've conditioned myself to be indifferent.
 I'm so saturated , it hardly matters to me.

I look forward to spend time with cousins. Laugh along..share old stories et al.

But deep deep deep inside my heart , I'm hurting every bit.

Holi was no different. Flower holi like last year :D
Singing bhajans.
And some 15 mins of water splashing.
Thats about it. Something's better than nothing. Thank god for that.
And well , yeah...that's it :)

Cash & Calorie rich.

Heavy weekend , yet again.
Of course making me both cash & calorie rich.

Its almost becoming a family tradition now. When all the cousins are downtown - all we do is EAT.
Lunch at someone's place..dinner's at someone else's place ..so on & so forth. And in between all the time left - we talk , crack nonsense jokes , laugh on the same , click pictures & play cards!!
But most of all what I reckon is the fact that we EAT a lot :P

So apart from food ..what was special this time was our two hour session of Dumb Charades!
From movies like 'Aah' ( yeah thats a movie name..I found it in Google search results - after we were not left with many choices ) to 'Unns'  ;  the game was one hell of a laugh riot!

The best was when my sister was trying to explain ' Farishtey'.
She did everything to make her team get the 'Fur' part . She even enacted as an animal or something like that ?! lol :D
And despite all of the hints reaching to a 'material' - her awesome team members talked of silk , cotton etc etc - except Fur :D 
Atlast..all she did was enact an angel ; circling her hand above her head :P
*Tubelight!!*

Oh and then..the most hilarious one was a movie name ending with Raat ; Mr. A blurting out all the words in haste  ---- Untill he also said 'Suhagraat'
ROFL.

I mean , seriously...why on earth would we give that as a movie name for dumb charads ?? :P

And then we ran out of movie names as I mentioned earlier. Someone suggested to play Home Production i.e to create your own movie names! :D
Big B refused...citing example of how someone would explain a home produced movie name like :
"Is cheez ka tatparya kya hai "
Tatparya. LOL.

I also remember how my cousin tried explaining our team 'Ghatotkach'
Thats an animated movie.
He first gave us an object hint : Ghada
Then teeth > tooth :P
And from the combination of Gha ( from ghada ) & tooth - my smart team member yelled ' Ghatotkach' :D :D

I can't recollect more. There were soo many of them! And each of them made us laugh crazy.

That's my sweet little brother's gift to me :P I'm yet to receive a material gift , lol
But anyhow..this is obviously Priceless. :)

Off color. Balloon vigour.

Holi = Water Balloon fight!
A ritual started last year which I believe was fun - the kind of fun you have to pay for in the form of pain.

The balloon shots hit hard.I couldn't lift my hands yesterday. My arms were paining so much. :O
And I don't know why I was targeted so much by our very well accomplished balloon hitter.

I think last year's balloon fight was more fun. I really wanted to play more with colors this time. But somehow that didn't materialize.

This year's Holi was unique though. Because we not just played water holi but also flower holi! :D

-- I've lost my appetite for blogging. Felt mandatory to make a 'festival entry' since I almost always do that.
And that's that. Nothing more to say write.

Damage Control :P

I hosted the party thrown to celebrate my sister's recent achievement - She cleared her CA final exam =)
This was the first time I got the chance to be at the center stage. And I'm proud to have managed pretty well :D

To make the party interesting and more fun...we decided to dedicate songs to our family members.

To my grandmom..
'Hum sath sath hai...' :P

The couples..my uncles and aunts..and my mom dad were dedicated old love songs.

'Ae meri zoharzabi..tujhe maloon nahi '

' Kya khoob lagti ho..badi sundar dkihti ho'

' Tera mujhse hai pehle ka naata koi...yuhin dil lubhata nahi'

' Aankhon mein teri ajab si ajab si aadyein hai'

For my aunts ( dad's sisters ) -

Phoolon ka tarron ka..sab kehna hai...ek hazar mein meri behna hai

Cousins :
Just married  - ' Tere mast mast do nain'  and  'Tum jo aaye zindagi mein..' :P

For my brother ( first cousin)
"To the most eligible bachelor...."

Bachna aee haseeno .. ;)

"To our fashion sensation.."

Fashion ka hai ye jalwa.. :P

For my darling sister.. [ The one who is a Chartered Accountant now ;) ]
Few days back she told me how she always wanted to be a choreographer to which I was like :O what ?!!
And then we thought why not reveal this secret desire of hers to everyone ? :P
So I announced and let the cat out of the bag :D
But..there was a problem. The song didn't play.
..to which I was like " Ok..looks like the song skipped.. now thats quite a secret"
And before I knew it...I sang for her :D :D  
Damage control :D

Dance pe chance mar le..

Then she dedicated a song to us sisters.

Tere jaisa yar kahan...kahan aisa yaarana :)

Next..the best dedication :P --- to this cousin of mine who talks with such etiquette & all that jazz...that his usage of hindi words can absolutely stump you :|
" Agar aap inse baat karenge ..toh lagega ki aap kisi shehenshai duniya mein pohoch gaye.... when you talk to him the background music would be something like this.."

Aazim-o-shaan shehensha :D

lol..he was darn embarrassed :D
 ( And the idea was mine ahem :P )

To the Wikipedia ( this guy can talk about anything!! and you cannot beat him with his knowledge update!)
 ' I'm the best..I'm the best :P'

Last  to our youngest lil brat

'Bum bum bole..masti mein dole' :D

So much fun!! :D
Oh yea..the food was awesome!
This was one of the best family get-together :)

Kite Flying Trial and Error

And I still haven't learned to fly kites!

I did try though and thankfully got 'sufficient' number of chances unlike otherwise.

My 'idiot' cousin who was flying right next to me..cut off my kite...TWICE ! tsk tsk :|

--- Best way to have fun on birthdays is to attack everyone through snow spray :P

Surviving 'our' party!

I'm back from a sexy party which was at my uncle's farmhouse.
Sexy as in not 'sexy'.
Sexy for the awesomeness and the fun :D
Ok you do get it..I just wanted to fit that word somewhere in my write up , lol

It was just  a family affair . . . full of surprises and warm wishes.
So it was the 25th wedding anniversary of my maternal uncle and aunt. Their two sons and fastest friend took the initiative to make a video of about one hour ; recording clips from most of the family members and close friends without the couple ever getting any hint of it.
There was a chain of admiration , love , praises & a pinch of humor  for the wonderful couple in that small film titled ' 1985 , A Love Story'
The video editing was fantastic!

And just like in movies..some of the rough unedited clips were rolled out during credits. :D It was hilarious!!
Worth mentioning - the first credit

Make up

By themselves

lol :D

I wonder when we would learn to click a lot of snaps!  I'm usually the most devoted shutterbug :P
But nobody listens to me..and the clicking is delayed for no good , the end result being sulking over an almost empty folder.

That night we stayed awake till 6 in morning. Uptil 2.30 -3 - the elders were along with us too. Then they made a wise decision of moving out so we could have our hookah session :P

These mini slumber parties that we cousins have are  funnier than barrels of monkeys.
Ocean of madness.Limitless insults.Filthiest jokes , lol and of course harmless ( so far ) Hangover.
I survived the last party :D That's how I'm now a member of this coveted club. *smugs*

How does festival and guilt taste ?

I really loathe it when discussions at home within extended family turn to studies and careers.
 I mean , of course that's bound to happen since the most talked about topics are - the stock market and other business related stuff - But I seriously dislike it.

Its like my guilt syrup.

I don't know what's happening.Where life is moving.What's going to happen. Of course nobody knows that...but the point is I'm tired of all my questions. Not a single one is being answered. Not a single road is unblocked. Not a single step has been made. Either I backtrack or I simply don't turn up. Either I'm a coward or I'm pushing away the opportunities  ( that's a big word for whatever came knocking at my door )
Or I'm just a loser.


Whatever it is...all I know is 'waiting' for something good to happen won't happen at all , after- all.
Worse is I don't even have wild ideas. Crazy I mean.Something I'd just take up for a revolution and do it , come rain or shine.As for the routine non-crazy ideas ...I don't have enough conviction.

Basically I feel the part of my brain which is supposed to generate ideas is rusted.

What the hell! :O

-*-*-* Diwali *-*-*

Food food food! That's all I can say of this Diwali. Ate a lot!
Please note :  all mouth watering dishes eaten at one meal never count. Its so unfair! You cannot decide which one you should invest more on :P

Diwali night was fun.Feeded my bro's  mind [ 5.5 yrs old ] with all the pollution and 'you are destroying our planet' lecture. He wanted to give up firing crackers! He was so moved :P
" I won't fire crackers on Diwali "
Then whats the point if you plan to fire them later ? :S
" No on diwali..the entire world must be firing crackers nooo! So I won't add to the pollution. I'll fire crackers the next day. "
Very smart , lol :)
The tactic kinda worked though.He doesn't want to buy too many crackers next year :D

I'm not much into crackers myself. Not that I'm scared. I'm just not into it. And yeah the amount of pollution a handful of crackers can bring about - is definitely a turn off.
This year however a lot of crackers were burnt in my colony unlike last year.Made up for the 'festival' feel. Then lots of sweets!! And also lot of neighbours came down to wish unlike before.I didn't step into the house of single one though. There were too many things that kept me occupied. Plus , I don't even have to mention how much fun my cousins are to be with =)

Summing up : enjoyable! Time flied ~~~~~~ which it does , when you are having a good time!

'Heavy' weekend.

We folks work upon a different calender. Our Rakshabandhan is always celebrated a day after Ganesh Chaturthi. So we happened to bask in the celebration  for the second time ( had already conducted the ceremony during the mathura trip )

It was an awesome weekend I've had .. we all have had.
Ate like a glutton .Felt like my stomach would explode about at any moment!
So it started off Friday night when we all went for the movie Dabang with my family. Got to spend more time with bhabhi! ( bhaiya got married just about 2 months back & came down hometown only now after the wedding )

Saturday we sisters got our much due party from my 2nd elder brother! He switched his job from the Bank to Reliance obviously getting a higher package! So we were not going to let it go just like that.We were hellbent on not doing away with his excuses. And finally..we got our dinner treat!

Went to Ten Downing Street & had mouth watering pasta along with the dinner.
Since all our pestering was for dinner treat along with cad-b , my bro wouldn't let it go away either.So despite the heavy dinner..and all of us already nagging about the fact that we won't able to eat anything more - we were taken to cad-b for the chocolate milkshake!! I mean at this point I would have ideally puked but then it was chocolate & no matter what - 'I' always have sufficient space & appetite for chocolate ice cream / milkshake.Had cad -b.And it was yum! I felt like I must have put on half a kg by then.
I wonder what it was like with my younger sister whom I often call 'Sugar Free' because she abhors eating sweets , ice reams etc! lol Poor her :P

Sunday was the day to get richer :P And maybe for that matter - even healthier! ( not the fit healthy..the fat healthy ) Ate a lot again.. lunch with special marwari dishes that are heavy enough to be equivalent to eating food for 2 days! But that was just the main course. Sweets are an indispensable part of any fest - whether you happen to be into the category of my sugar free sister or the rest of us :P And so it began. With rasgulla and laddu! This is the first time I didn't quite enjoy sweets. Too much of sweet just leaves you sour :O  And again , I must mention I feel bad for my sugar free sis :P  She was so badly forced to eat the laddu :D lol

Coming to the part where we got richer...my bro & bhabhi gifted us snazzy tees.It didn't fit me.I knew it wouldn't.Not after all that food & sweets we had in 2 days. ( Ok how lame..it didn't fit me because I'm on the healthier side since like a couple of months :P )
My other cousin brothers gave us money. And my younger bro has promised to gift me a Blackberry phone. And if I tell anyone that I already have plans not to get it - all of them are going to kill me! Its been like 2 months I'm trying to figure out which cell to buy. My Nokia has already gone through what I call "plastic surgery" because I've had to use ticso tapes to put the backside cover firm.Currently even the keypad is paralyzed. And yet I wouldn't buy a cell phone because I'm CONFUSED.

I wonder if I'll ever decide what to get .I'm in so much dilemma that I prefer my old distraught battered cell which is lame. Avadh remarked that I wasn't getting married to think so much :P lol
I've been pointing out at least one flaw with each & every option I've been given so far. What to do..there's no prefect phone out there ! And if there is one - its out of my budget , by default!
Ok before any of them rushes out to kill me..I'd better just go & get something!
Hopefully. Wish me luck!

Parikrama.

Made a pilgrim trip which now seems like an yearly affair . This time I went to Mathura Vrindavan - The birthplace of Lord Krishna , also known for a lot of other famous related tales.

We gave a 21 km Parikrama around the 'Govardhan Parvat' / hill - barefeet in 8 hrs. I don't know the significance of this Parikrama and nobody had the answer when I asked for it. The parvat or hill was lifted by Lord Krishna to protect  brijvasi ( people of Mathura ) from sloshing rains.


We saw people doing the Parikrama by completely bowing down on the road - one of them bowing down 108 times at one place!! So our barefeet parikrama didn't seem like much of a deal except when the last 5 kms got really painful with every muscle in the leg crying for rest. But we made it.Like a thousand others.

There were more than a hundred thousand or maybe 1 crore people [ don't remem the figure] who gave Parikrama in the last week. I always wonder about the religious beliefs. Nobody asks WHY ? Everyone just makes a move.And so did I.

Despite my unanswered questions - I gave the parikrama with full faith.
There wasn't anything electric or divine about this place unlike how usually pilgrim places make you feel.The roads were littered with garbage & cow dung. And yes , we walked through all of that. After our first one or two km of walk , we were immune to the cowdung and the dirty roads.

Its an annoying and disturbing fact that a pilgrim place like Mathura which is given so much importance and  has such a strong religious association - isn't taken care of the way it should be. Dunno why the UP Government is sleeping! With a swarm of devotees visiting Mathura Vrindavan every year , something should have been done ; atleast by now! 2010!!. The complete infrastructure is a mess. Its not about making an 'easy' parikrama route , its about keeping the sanctity of that place in its right form.

> We gave the Parikrama the second day. The first day we went to Vrindavan to visit temples. The ISKCON temple was absolutely beautiful and ELECTRIC - that spark of spirituality and closeness to divinity that I was longing for.Stunning.
Saw a couple of foreigners singing bhajans and dancing in their own world.


> The third day we visited Neemgav. Now this place definitely stirred me inside out.I always thought my roots are from Rajasthan.But we basically  hail from the 'Neembarak Sampradaya' or clan which is Five thousand years old. My forefathers had lived in Rajasthan.We have some people out there keeping a record of our family chain which is how we are aware of the names & place of birth of our last 9 or 10 forefathers!
So we still come from Rajasthan but we BELONG to Mathura - that's what I concluded.

 Lord 'Neembarak' is an avatar of Lord Vishnu after whom the place got its name - Neemgav.
 We also visited the spot where 'Lord Neembarak ' supposedly  meditated for years.

The Neem tree under which he meditated is said to be 5000 years old. I had a funny stupid yet sensible thought that maybe they should conduct carbon dating on the tree to truly know if the tree is 5000 yrs old :|


Evening was reserved for a trip to AGRA to visit the Taj mahal - a monument I have been dying to see.I'm NOT exaggerating. I badly wanted to see it. All my other cousins were quite indifferent to the idea of going Agra - one because it would have been a total of 5 hrs of car run ( and all of us were already quite tired ) & secondly because nobody was so particularly interested in seeing Taj Mahal - at least not as much as I was!
The other option they had was to visit more temples. It was but natural they chose Agra :P
BUT we got stuck in major traffic on half our way. It was 4.30 and we had 55 kms more to go. The driver suggested not to go any further as the gate closes down by 5.30. We still feel he made us a fool and that we could have made it to the Taj Mahal :((
---  And since I was the MOST excited one to see Taj ..my cousins constantly teased me as the plan went kaput!!  It was funny - the way they teased me.

I gave one short statement - that the world will conspire to make my wish come true :P lol Ok this one was a bit too much ..so I promised that I will specially visit Agra sometime to see the Taj :)) to which they gave invisible pats and inaudible applaud :D


Fooled that we were - we had to deviate our way to a nearby temple and this place called 'Akshay Patra' . Ok now this was one GOOD thing to see . Its a kind of a factory where about 40,000 chapatis are made in ONE hour by machines - right from the kneading of the flour. A complete meal is prepared  by the machines and this mid-day meal is served to school going kids.Its very well controlled and organized.Sophisticated.And obviously a non-profit initiative. Awesome , ain't it ??
The temple right next to this was that of ISKCON again. And the Darshan we had here were the MOST beautiful I've ever had in my life. It was DIVINE. The idol of Radha Krishna was decorated in a way as to make it look like they are dancing.


> The fourth & last day we flocked to the Ghaat of Yamuna river - the 'vishram sthal' [ = relaxtion place ] of Lord Krishna.We were at the ghaat in Mathura. Right across the river is Gokul - the place where Krishna was raised by Yashoda - and this path across the river was crossed by Krishna's father to save him from being killed by Kans.
[ I know I know I'm giving extra information but I feel its necessary to mention since I revised a lot of things  about the epic tale during this trip ]



============================================================


We boarded our train in the evening.
Coming to the more significant details - I had LOT of fun with my family & cousins! We were altogether a bunch of 26 people. I'm very happy to have made this trip. During our train journey to Mathura : 18 of us sang bhajans together for about an hour.( Thankfully nobody in the train complained!!)

I wish somebody takes the initiative to make Mathura a cleaner neater and beautiful place.
And I wish my wish to see Taj is fulfilled soon. Quite strangely I wasn't turned off that we couldn't make it to Agra. I have become indifferent to my unfulfilled exciting wishes :|


I loved spending time with my cousins. They were fantastically funny & fun as always :D
We played cards which  seems like an established compulsory  ritual at all our outings.
Mathura will remain one my most memorable journey.

Just be there.

I am one of the most short tempered person I know of !
My sisters - who happen to be my most favorite people on earth - are way opposite to me.

I've never seen any of them whine , crib or cry .I've never seen them turn pesky over little things.They get along with whatever there is , with whoever there is to deal with.
And they always manage to have that big smile on their face.

It made me really think about myself. Why can't I learn to be calm  ?
Am pretty sure I'll live a 'smiling life' myself if I adopt their qualities.

The good part is that - they adjust with what I am.They have always been extremely supportive and one of the reasons for a smile on my face :)
I'm able to express my opinion to them without any inhibitions , without any fear.
They NEVER judge me.And that's what makes everything much more simpler.
I love them. And I want us to have that same relation and rapport that we share for the rest of our lives.
We are more like friends , after all.

I'm closer to them than mom.

In fact , I do not remember the last time I hugged mom or the last time mom hugged me.

Whereas ,  we just hugged last week.
Tugs my heart. Thanks for being there.

Can't bottle it up...

Getting back to old routine is tough after spending an amazing time that stretched over for two weeks.
To contain all the excitement is even more tough...because it all got over within minutes.And now it all feels like a long long dream.
So yet again..there isn't much that remains for me to jot down.
And even as am angry that I'm unable to convert sundry photographic moments into words , what bothers me more is that - Old life is going to bite me crazy. :x

Summarizing the last few days : I've had a BLAST - dancing , eating , laughing , traveling , and putting on some of my best glad rags.

Its been a roller of a fortnight.None of us aware of time or week day ..and all of us soaked in crazy celebration ;)

It was the best wedding I've attended so far.And the best of best time I've had with all of my family.
A special mention : Sumptuous lip smacking tongue crackling  food.

We put in a lot of effort in making our Sangeet a success and thankfully it paid off ;)

Its indescribable..of how much I have enjoyed.
Letting the tiredness wear off.
Will be back with a bang.

I'll probably know all the ceremonies by heart

 My brother ( first cousin ) got engaged! Everyone's extremely happy :) We all have been excitingly looking forward for his marriage since he is the eldest in our generation.
The wedding's only a month away.We all are busy deciding songs & theme for the Sangeet and desperately finding a good choreographer.

Yesterday I went over to my sisters' place to finalize all of these things.Instead we ended up putting on random songs and danced like maniacs (monkeys).Hopping , laughing , teasing - we happened to keep a dance competetion & made the younger sister - the judge.I won the monkey dancing competetion :P

Another cousin of mine from maternal family got engaged today!! And I might attend her wedding if I don't have any of my exams clashing.Actually I really do wish to go for her wedding whenever it'll be.Its a nice excuse to spend super fun time with cousins :D

Oh and did I mention that this relative of mine..who basically belongs to my grand mom's family is going to get married in November :P His wedding would be in Jaipur and I want to go there as well :D I have met the one who's getting married...so its not like I would end up attending weddings just for the heck of it :P
My grand mom's family is huge.I haven't met half of them and haven't seen the other half since ages.It would be nice to get to know all.

Wow.Its going to be a full on wedding year.My plate's full :)

We marwaris have a number of functions and ceremonies.
I think by the end of the year I'll be well versed with each of those :P

Things have changed...

Because we all have grown up.

The last time I had spent such a vacation with these bunch of funny idiots was when brat , Nik and Ankit were of my height.Now all three of them are at least 5 feet 8 inch tall.And I'm still 5'1 :|
That's the most basic difference with which I can relate to the two phases.

A lot of things have changed during these few years.I'm having trouble absorbing it.
To begin with  - Bubble is married.It still hasn't sunk in.

The wedding was superb but the food wasn't.That minimizes the length of this post as I cannot stick to the description of one of the most important elements of wedding ( the food - in case you don't get it ).I feel bad that I couldn't come online and write to my heart's content about the  excitement and mention the scandalous episodes.As of now , most of it has evaporated from my head.So , I'm not left with much to talk about , which is really sad :(

What is worth mentioning is the DJ party we had two nights before the marriage.It was the most awesome dj night I've had.Amazing tracks played over not making us stand still even for a second.
 I absolutely loved the way Brat danced! :)
The guys in our family were hitting on the girls from the groom's side :D Its funny given that few of them are already dating. ;)

My stomach dropped during the vidaai ceremony.I didn't cry because I was groggy and also because this particular ritual never makes sense to me.But to be there when every else is crying and the bride is so red-eyed...kind of makes you feel sick.

After the wedding , I extended my stay for more than a week.
We had in- house parties..which was crazy.
We went go carting after ages.
I went shopping -  after ages.
Worth mentioning - the Oreo shake at mochas.Its one of the best things of my trip.
We had silly discussions on nonsense topics which were hilarious.
The guys danced like maniacs.
It seems I wore the best sari.Got compliments for my outfit from EVERY ONE.I'm not exaggerating.
got a tan :( went swimming in scorching sun at uncle's farmhouse just 2 days before the wedding.The tan spoiled my mood for the rest of the days.I hate the pictures.Mine.

Away from the may madness...I spent a supercool time with my maternal family.
When everyone left , I cried.Felt like a fool for doing the same because nobody else was crying :|
That's exactly how sentimental  I am despite strongly resisting any display of my vulnerable side.

I had wished to scribble about all those things that have changed amongst us only to get it all out of my system but I'm already over it.I didn't even think much about it.That's majorly because I didn't have the time to think.I managed to live each moment instead of interpreting and analyzing.

Bitter sweet juggle of emotions.
Folds of difference.
Varied opinions.
Things may have changed.
The magic remains.

Short Surprise

Just when I was calculating the rate of surprises in my life (  being surprised to be specific ) and the calculation showing a negative figure with me sulking over the same ---- just then , I was  surprised. Couldn't get better!

One of my fav cousin.( although I think ALL of them belong to the same category ) - came down here for 3 days w/o letting me know of his arrival in advance.
Two of them.Needless to mention - I had a blast =)

> We saw three movies back to back in 3 days.
Maut ke Farishtey :P [ Legion ] which I found scary :|
Road , Movie  - Disaster! When the movie ended , I wondered if they still have few prints to roll.Or that there was some kind of technical issue.But that was the end.And there was nothing more to watch which didn't make much sense to me.
Alice In Wonderland - which made for a good watch.
Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is wonderful.Although I never get what he speaks :P
The Red Queen's "Off with her Head" dialogue makes you grin.Fantastic character to watch.Helena Bonham Carter was simply excellent !
Also loved this dialogue by the Hatter which went something like -
If you dream of me being half mad , then you must be half mad!   Correction , anyone ? 

> I don't think I'll be eating popcorn anytime soon.I've had SO much of it.

> Mom cooked the best meal till date.It was just so perfect and the fact that I wasn't even a 0.001% help to her - made it difficult for me to eat but I couldn't hold onto such penance for a simple reason that scrumptious food isn't meant for sacrifice !

> G is as adorable as always.The more time I spend with him..the more I admire him.Ankit was more easily adjustable to , since the last time.

> I took these hookah crazy guys to Mr Beans which is the only hookah joint we have here.They found it nice.I found it strange that they found it nice :| But then they explained how the sitting arrangement was cool and different unlike those innumerable places in Pune.
"Success trip" , I said :P

> Of course , I had a drag or two which made me dizzy.
Like G says it - Kick lagi gayi :D

> G got his hard drive :D And I copy pasted all the movies he had. Been waiting forever to get movies from someone.
Therefore , honestly , this was the best part :D apart from the fact that I watched movies at a stretch in a long long long time =)

Surprises are one of the best shortest elements in life to experience.Maybe that's the reason it happens only once in a while.

Commemorate!

The animated talk.I Like.

Chaat stall
P2 : Raj-kachori ?
me : Yeah!!
P2 : meetha chahiye ? ( knows  that I want 'meetha' )
me : umm thik hai..dekh le  -sounding disinterested-
P2 : Bhaiya meetha kum karna
me :  -looking around-
P2 : chalta na kum meetha ??
me : umm han..
P2 : bhaiya thoda aur kum karna meetha
me : -still looking around-
P2 : pakka ..chalta na ?
me : han jaisa bhi tujhe chahiye
P2 : Accha toh bhaiya meetha dalna hee mat
me : *alarmed* abey oyeee..NAHI...meetha chahiye!

Lol! That cracked me up.

me : Yaar..where did P1 go ?
P2 : Phone kar na
me : 360 degree look around
P2 : call call
me : Han..woh rahi...wahan - pointing aimlessley somewhere-
P2 : Accha phone nahi karna tha isliye mil gayi woh...
       kanjoos!
:D


P2 : Enjoyed so much today
me : All because of my presence.
P2 : oh yeah..- giving a go fly a kite look-
me : We didn't eat that stuff
P2 : I never eat so much in weddings.
me : Weddings mein aake khana nahi khaya toh phir kya kiya ?? :D
P2 : Right.Lets attack.
:D

P1 the slow eater , the dieting babe.Strictly-no-sweets.
P1 : You all done with dinner ?
me : of course..two times over! 
P1 : Giving me the oh-I-know-you look.
me : Come on..you guys go eat! I have to leave in 10 mins
P1 : Ok
me : 30 mins for you right ?  -chuckling -
P1 : giving me the kill you looks. No!

me : hey you..( to  p1's friend ) the sweets section is right there..diagonal..Go take her there first! :P
P1 : giving me the  -I'll fry a jalebi out of you , so you better shut up-

love to tease P1 each and every time it comes to food. :D
In fact .. love to tease just anyone that I can :D
Honestly am good at it - At least with those ..jinki mai rag rag se wakhif hoon :D 

Yeah am flashing my teeth far too much.Can't help it..Really happy :D
Spending time with my two most lovable sisters makes me go on a roll.
And thankfully my birthday wasn't a disaster either.
And ..of course ..more weddings coming up.Great food basically :D

How we compare cell phones.

So  miss-looking-for-the-best-cell-phone-since-4-months once again pops up the question as to which cell should she buy ?

Her confusion is LG cookie Vs samsung star.Most of us are against LG.She's supporting LG.

The point discussed apart from  music , touch sensitivity and wi-fi was this  -

The point raised : look...the samsung's got this dice playing thing.Just shake the cell.

 Miss cell confused : So what ??...LG'S got snake and ladder too.Can you beat that ?

LOL

So this is what we have come to.Deciding which cell to buy on the basis of a snake and ladder game :P

I , by bad luck had the fevicol cake again .Kinda ruined the evening! + this time bb said it smelled like benadryl.And I had to agree - it really did.Yuck!

+

We watched the dance video of my relative's cousin where I danced which was the basis of my entire I-dance-bad  whining . I had the courage to watch myself dancing  and I reached to a conclusion that I'm not so bad :P It was just the way I looked that bothered me and still does.Less sleep had my cheeks swollen.My body system is in a bloody mess ! It happens often and it was making me look fat.I kept asking everyone if I look just the same even now ?! Thankfully..I don't  ( they said.. maybe to keep my heart )..respite gaining half the weight I had lost.

I bloody need to work out again.Nothing turns me off more than knowing I'm not fit to wear my fav clothes : or even the normal casual ones!

And yes..I'm getting all looks obsessed , yet again! Crap.
I find myself better off in the mirror than in the pics.
So I keep avoiding looking at my pictures.
But Mirror too is a cheater sometimes.
Crap crap crap!

Anyway , cutting all the crap apart..I spent a great evening yesterday.
Cell phone , dance , humor , my bro , cousins and of course the delicious food (minus the disaster cake)
All smiles I am :-)