Hmm

If I moved, would you follow? Seriously?

yupdate

 

(This post has not been proofread and was typed in outlook, so you know what to do!)

 

I'm supposed to be studying regulations in the derivatives market right now. But I'm not, as is quite obvious. I am chatting with the hoozband on office IM and just closed a former classmate's blog webpage. I miss blogging – or I miss journaling – my blog was more of a journal when I had started. BTW, all my blog contemporaries are celebrating six years of blogging. Well mine is long gone too, sometime in April, an old post buried in limbo… ;)

 

Feeling happy for some reason – I think the hoozband just made me laugh by making a joke about me hugging Anshumati. Anshumati (not her real name but what I thought mistakenly was her real name) is a lady I and hoozband's former flatmate and good friend, SN, commute with. What else? I'm going to make this journalistic so don't expect too much!

 

I got distracted by 'Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye' online and it really had me hooked. After that I went down memory lane thanks to the internet and realized how much things have changed, I have changed… and I'm so glad Alhamdulillah.

 

After the horrid amounts of hair I've been losing, maybe because I got my hair styled twice, the salt water and stress, I went and got a haircut. I don't know how much good that's going to do, but it felt good to do something. Also I didn't know tying your hair back tightly leads to hairfall, and that you're not supposed to tug at your hair when you brush them (I did that when I had amazing hair in tenth class – why didn't someone tell me then?), that you should not pile up your hair on the top of your head when you shampoo them, it tangles them, that egg is amazing for your hair (applying it) and that dry hair is extremely fragile and must be moisturized intensively.

 

After the haircut, we went to the beach, the weather was unbelievably good at 2 in the afternoon (yes, in Chennai that's nothing short of a miracle!) and there was much fun had. I convinced myself to have the fish fry and it wasn't that bad! HB went on to have some kairi, we had a plate of alu bajji and then kwality walls icecream… went back howm J We watched Inception (now that's a long and eventful story) and it was amazing.

 

I'm trying to cook more often but it's usually only alternate days. Today morning, I tried my hands at dosa (using dosa mix) but they didn't turn out that great. I think using a homemade batter plus being more careful while pouring is required. After a long time, HB and I finally got a chance to hear Ammaarah… she won't come to the phone but we heard her nanu teaching her rhymes. HB will always pick up some sentence of hers and reuse it in  conversations later and it makes me horribly miss that little imp.

 

Some of the things he uses are:

 

"Hammaarre Peemmi hain…" (this was when the two families had gone out for dinner and Ammaarah was mad that I would be leaving her again. According to HB, she wrapped her arms around my legs and said, "Hammaarre Peemmi hain…", yeah I had a lump in my throat that day.)

 

"Juice hona" (When we were leaving Hyd. Ammaarah categorically stated this and to her luck, there was a carton lying right there)

 

"Logaan hain" (This was in reference to HB who was making her feel shy and uncomfortable. She was refusing to go somewhere because there were 'logaan' there)

 

And the latest: "…could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. Yeh could not kya hai?"

 

She calls Cadbury Shots 'black balls' and chocolate icecream is 'black icecream' and my chacha who lives next door to us and whose house has a black gate is called 'black chacha' and the other chacha who has a white door is called 'white chacha'. :D

 

Oh and one more incident: I was talking to Ammaarah on the phone and I said, 'Kya karrein Ammaarah aap?'

 

She said 'Hum juice peerien', so I said, 'Hum ko do na please' and she said 'Lo'

 

So I made gulping noises and said 'Thank you Ammaarah!' and she said, 'Finish kar diye aap?' and I said 'Haan, finish kar diye' to which she said in a victorious tone, 'Yahan pe glass mein hain! Aap ghalat bole!'

 

She apparently hates my dad doing any kind of laad with her when she's going to sleep and on one day when my dad was trying to put her to bed, she said 'Aisssa zor se chubatiyoon, khoon nikalna'! My dad apparently didn't even understand but my mom was stunned, to say the least… KIDS!

 

Sigh. I miss her.

Choices

Sometimes you wish you didn't have to choose and things were just thrust upon you. So you could pass on the blame. I have this urge to type my dilemma into google. I don't know what to do about my istikhara.

A start

(Written yesterday, posted today)

I woke up this morning at 5 and finally got to the task I'd been
postponing for so long – setting up the kitchen. We bought the
stainless steel and plastic storage jars almost a week ago but I
hadn't got around to filling them up and stacking them on the shelves
of our lovely kitchen. Seriously, modular kitchens are so awesome. I
wish we had one like this at home. See, before you fill the jars there
are a number of things that need to be done – first you have to empty
out all the trash that was already there in those shelves, then you
have to buy the things you need for your kitchen, wash all the jars
before you use them and then, THEN, when they're all dry you can fill
them up and stack them in. Oh, I forgot a very important step – decide
how you're going to organize them and all your dishes, utensils. Which
reminds me, I haven't labeled the jars yet. Must.

Have you fallen asleep yet?

I wish I could. I'm having the kind of sleep-induced headache that you
only have when you're in office, staring at the computer screen right
after lunch and the AC, is of course, on. There is so much I have to
fill in but I don't have the time. The wedding prep, the wedding, the
Sikkim trip, the moving, the not-leaving, the settling, the shopping,
the new job. Saigh. Someday soon. For now I say hello and boodgye.

Notes to myself

Yesterday was a good day. Left office at 6, just after the manager sadly asked me if I were leaving the firm soon. Heeh. I am! YesIAM! Went off to do wedding dress shopping. After having seen multiple red dresses, mother said only this particular one fit all my constraints - so we told them to keep it aside and decided to call it a night. However, not far away Simra and Shahzadi stood, displaying their wares. Turns out oonchi dukaan, pheeka pakwan. Zey were terrible, I tell you. Father, who by then was feeling extremely hungry and getting testy, decided to go in search of food and by the time we were done with S & S (which didn't take very long btw), we saw Fawda happily drinking some fruit juice. We decided to wait in the car while the fowda got us SHAWARMAS. Yayy, and they were pretty good too - not too Indianized. Fawda also got mango juice - which was thick and heavenly. While we ate, we decided that the dress we had asked to keep aside was pretty good and I should get it, so we did. Also got one saree and two dresses, one that shall be the rasam dress. Eeh. I decided to hold the sharara against myself to measure the height and was trying to take it from the mother's hands while she was handing it to me - and it wouldn't budge! So I was like, Mummy, I think you're stepping on it, could you please move? And what did I realize then? NOBODY was stepping on it at all - the dress is THAT HEAVY. Ohmigod. Like I was telling the Immu, maybe they make it so heavy so the bride doesn't think of running away. A pretty way of handcuffing her to the stage and making the vidai all the more dififcult. Now all that remains is to boohoo like Blister ;) :D Hee hee hee Blister! :P

As you can see, I have a lot of time on my hands. Nobody gives me too much work these days and neither am I inclined to take on much of it myself. I have slaved enough for this company, I tell you! ;) These days, the hardest thing to do (after the awfully sultry ride to the office) is to shut down those Facebook and blogger tabs and get to work. Really tough man. I'm wondering what I'll do at home for so menny menny days since mother does not approve of facebooking and bloahging. But then, there's Mother who will surely find something for me to do. 

To all those who cook Indian food - try this blog: http://www.sailusfood.com/. She's really good - I tried some of her recipes and they came out awesome. Okbye.

OHMYGOD

Someone please get me to stop reading this: http://thepioneerwoman.com/blog/category/black_heelstractor_wheels/the_night_i_met_marlboro_man/ !!

And someone please tell me I can be an argentyne-ey version of the pioneer woman - the great multi-tasker - the -i-rock-at-everything-er even though I'm having trouble helping out the mother even a bit every morning! 

OKAY, BACK TO WORK, WOMAN!

Notes to myself

There is SO much happening in my life right now - and I feel like I'm slowly climbing up that roller coaster and then, and then... hopefully there'll be a WHEEEEEEEEEE insha allah. As of today, (not counting today) there are... 59 days to go! Alhamdulillah and insha allah. Man, can't believe i'm here. Lots of stuff happened the last two weeks - curfew got me back to the grandparents' house, made it feel like a vacation and a gift. Was glad to be with Immu again - also when Aroush and her mommy arrived, the PAX went out again though they were PAAX. Jokes were cracked about the 'uncles' being a PAX of their own. :D Just the thought is hilarious. 

Quit the job finally. Last day at work is May 5th. Immu found it hard to believe that I felt the tiniest pang of sadness at leaving. Well, I did! I was also told I 'handled it very badly'. What IT is, I canna tell. X( Anyway, all's well that ends well insha allah. 

Went with M&D and finalized the wedding card today... a little expensive, but elegant methought. Yes, ladaas and ladies, the wedding's on the 6th of June, insha allah. Have to start putting together the invites and everything. Everytime I think 'marriage' it makes me shudder a leetle bit. Man, why do we have to grow up? :<

Gtg now, gotta get howm. Sayonaras.

jaded

And today in the cab (before we dozed off), we wondered what happened to all the drive, by which I mean, of course, all the passion and the competitive spirit. When did we stop being the girls who raced with each other to answer the teacher first, the ones who fought over every quarter of a mark and who exulted in the title 'first in class'. When did it all fizzle out? I know people who still have that urge to win, to race and no, they don't do it to put it in their resume. They do it because they're passionate about winning and enjoy competing! Where did it all go? Apart from a temporary resurfacing during competitive exams, where has that zeal gone? Why are we now stuck in the mediocrity rut? And more importantly, why has it stopped mattering? Why are we now content to run at the same pace?

Plachack

So I made:

Khubuli (amazing rice)

Kheema

Mutton Khorma

Do pyaaza 

They were all edible and while I wouldn't say they were spectacular, there was nothing wrong with them! Yayy :D 

Was also listening to self-image psychology by Yassir Fazaga. Man, he is so awesome, masha allah. And totally made up for my bunking the personality-development classes that I was supposed to attend on weekends. Here's the link if anyone's interested.

Had a looong conversation with Appydoo. Twas good. 

Rev is quitting. Bossman is terrible person, really. After talking to Appy, I realized that cribbing levels in our team are very high. I think I need to tune them out. Today I kept telling myself to becool, becool. Worked.

Oh and Ammaarah thinks her parents are 'dangerous' for not letting her come to India. :D

And most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, we're now at <100 days insha allah.... from 454 once upon a time! 

Whee-hoo!

 

Miaow

A lo-hooong weekend of four, yes - FOUR - days has come to an end. Yeah, I was on leave on Friday - or what our office calls 'PTO  - Personal Time Off'. Twas good - I'm now cooking and cooked some four dishes over the past four days. And nobody died! :D

I be back.

Some days...

...are just sad days. Stupid quarrels, someone's marriage is breaking, someone lost a family friend... inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. Ya Allah, send peace on us please.