Just me..

How often does one go alone on a weekend and feel happy about spending the day just with the self? We do look forward to having a good company for fun. True..there's nothing like having family/friends/someone together to share weekdays n weekends and the whole life. Yes, we are social animals and meant to be unhappy alone..n bla bla bla...but once in a while it's wonderful to just be with the self n go out with only yourself and do all the chores or some recreational things alone.It's a peaceful n enjoyful experience indeed!!
I did that last Sunday and it was a wonderful time I had with me :). Most of the time we hold our self back from doing a lot of things we plan to do because of not having a good company or no one at all. So if we plan to do something and have a great company...wonderful! excellent! nothing like it and the fun is doubled, but ,if we don't have anybody to accompany then just don't give up. We should just get going all by our self. It's a very peaceful experience, with no clashes of thoughts n dialogues and yeah much better than giving up and feeling bad about not being able to do the stuff. This at least reduces the feeling of one being too 'useless n laid back' :)

A Perfect weekday!

Yesterday felt like a perfect weekday. I don't even remember when I felt that way the last time, it certainly been ages i guess. Left early for office. Well, another thing I would go on writing about is how wonderful it is to live close to office, it can change your life so much!!!On any given day I'd argue/negotiate/fight at least 5-6 auto drivers before I board one n start my day with a grumpy mood. Travelling in auto here will definitely be one of the things to ruin your mood everyday n yes a key factor affecting your life everyday..but today the first auto guy I found agreed to go at normal fare, I was soooo prepared to fight him even before I spoke to him,hahah.
In office, I only came across people who were smiling, helping, very enthusiastic and lively. Way different from my earlier work environment. Thank god for this change!!! It all went so smoothly and work for the day got accomplished. Again while heading back home, for the first time the auto guy readily agreed to charge the fare as per the meter. Both my colleague n me were surprised to see this first time in one year of our travelling experience on our route...anybody who lives in Bangalore would know what I mean here :).
After reaching home, went for swimming for an hour n half. The best way to wash away all your stress and feel totally relaxed. For all those people living a stressful life each day..just jump into the pool if you have one available. You'll definitely feel refreshed n lighter! And I had no reason or work to go on the net, I just went to quickly check mails and to my delight I met my long lost dear sister - cum - friend, who's far far away now. But thanks to the technology advancement that makes the world a smaller place. Finally, getting a web cam has helped indeed, it was nice to see each other and talk like we were in the same room. It's been ages since we met in person and yes emails keep doing rounds but nothing like seeing the person live n talking. Well..I guess we have more to catch up on each other's lives..but it was great!There's nothing better than meeting someone close to heart after a looong period of time and starting from where we left. I didn't realize how time passed and it was late night..but that didn't matter . At the end of the day I was happy!! I know this may not match the standards of "a perfect weekday" for most people, but I experienced this after soooooo long..and yes to me it was a perfect weekday with a balance of professional and personal life in a day!!! I'd hope n look forward to many such days to come :)
- Snow

after a long hiatus!

Back here after a very very looooong time!! Got it revamped with a new look to change the boring old look n feel. Well..am not sure if my 50% partner would like to continue to pour her thoughts here anymore ...although I strongly believe that she's a good writer with great vocabulary, who can tell you things with the minutest details and very well animated. Anyway, I'm hoping that I can keep the spirit high n continue..
Now the real question is how much of creativity, thoughts or just ramblings will I be able to bring here?? :-<
Well..at least I've re-initiated this for now :)

it's not the number of years lived, but how we live that counts..

I once got this greeting card from my aunt, around 8 years back which had these words on it "It's not the number of years lived, it's how we live that counts", and although I was sensible enough even at that age to understand what it would mean, nodding my head "yes..so true" & being touched......

I practically experienced that later. Several such events that happened later proved this time and again, and the ones who helped in making my life more meaningful during these phases cannot be forgotten ever..& those words make so much more sense now looking back...

I experienced doing the same things and living in boredom & just wondering for years "ohh..what am I doing?" ... like living inside a shell and then I also experienced change ...exploring, interacting, learning, doing new things and realizing that there's more to life.. all that in just a year or so....

If I weigh both these phases I think I lived more in the shorter period. Well then age just
becomes a number, some people do so much in lesser time that they know more then those who live to grow old, living like a frog in the well...
It's easier said than done!! It's scary to realize that this phase again feels like the dead phase...like time is slipping through my hand and am not keeping pace with it, standing still, watching and letting days pass. Just adding to my age & work experience but in the real sense ...it's all so stagnant. I'm sure Mermy would agree on this...when you compare past couple of years vs. some years before that..isn't it?

I'm beginning to realize that while craving for a change in the monotonous life...we're actually getting so used to the monotony that it becomes an inertia which is quite hard to overcome.This state of inertia prevents us from initiating things we aspire to do, things that make life more meaningful and make us live more each day...

Sometimes I wish I could just go five years back and start over again to make it better then what these five years have turned out to be, but on the other hand, I feel, whatever has happened in these years have certainly made me better and given me some better opportunities to learn from experiences and from interesting n nice people whom I have as friends today, I might not realize that so much today but hoping that looking back some years later...I'd certainly feel that it was all important...

D-Day..

Yesss...finally the D-Day arrived for my 50% shareholder in this blog...
How could I miss announcing loundly n wishing Mermy hereeee...
My dearest friend, I pray and wish you both the best of life today and in the days to come..
Happy married life!!
I hope you are the ones from the story that says - "Happily Ever After" :)
Loads of love, good wishes n tons of blessings.......

- Snow

The Paradox of our age

Recently, we had been to Himachal and the trip was no doubt greeeaaat....wish I had the time to write about it. During our visit to Dharamshala, while strolling on the streets and shops around this hilly market, we came across a shop which had cards & wall hangings with words of wisdom and kindness from H.H. The Dalai Lama.. good insights on the ways to look at human emotions & various aspects of life...putting just one of them here.
We can certainly relate to the following thoughts , just apt to describe the kind of life we're living now..

The Paradox of our age -

"We have bigger houses but smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense;
more knowledge but less judgement;
more medicines but less healthiness.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,but have trouble in crossing the street to meet the new neighbours.
We have built more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever,but we have less communication;
We have become long on quantity,but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;
Tall man but short character;
Steep profits but shallow relationships.
It is a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room."
- H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

- Snow

When your neighbour loses his job, it's recession...but when it's yours, it's depression !!!
read this somewhere today and felt like putting it up...

Happy Women's Day!!

Happy Women's Day to all the Phenomenally Phenomenal Women in the world - tall, short, fat, thin, plump, slim, pretty, smart, beautiful, cheerful, gloomy, ambitious, content, happy, sad, gay, tough, powerful, vulnerable, confident, strong, soft, proud, humble, funny, serious, sassy, naughty , caring, loving and much more!!

"God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met." - Farrah Fawcett

Good Samaritans - may their tribe increase!

I had to write this because I was taken aback by the kindness and generosity of some unknown, never-met-before, will-never-meet-again people - all of whom I came across today.

Went to Church with Mom in the morning. On our way back we decided to go grocery shopping. We were just about entering the store, I was ahead of Mom, and I heard a loud thud. I turned around to see that Mom was on the ground.  I was shocked and before I could react, a young girl came over and helped Mom sit up. She even ran into the store and got some water for her. Then there was a man who came over and offered to help Mom stand up and helped her sit on the stairs. 

(I know this is very much expected - I might have done the same if I had seen someone fall down in front of me, but at that moment, they were definitely our "good Samaritans")

I was all upset and confused and anxious, and trying to find out from Mom if she was OK. Just then a lady came over. She washed her hands with the water the girl had got, and then used it to clean Mom's bruise. I later noticed that she was a sweeper, someone you generally don't even notice when you pass her by. That was very touching... I was amazed at how she made it a point to wash her hands before she nursed mom...

Later in the evening, we went out to get some vegetables. We picked up some from a street hawker and I was digging in my wallet so I could give him exact change. He said "don't worry ma'am. You can give me 2 bucks tomorrow. I won't mind". Again, I found this very touching. For all you know, this 2 bucks could well be what he makes when he sells veggies worth 20 bucks. And I'm sure he knew he might never see us again...

I don't know what makes me feel so touched by these simple acts of kindness that these strangers showed. Hmmm.. Don't know if this is because the world we live in today has become so unkind and cruel that such little acts of kindness stood out... or that I'm generally in a mood of gratitude and see-the-good-side today... Whatever that is, I'd still say "thank you" to these good samaritans I may never see again, and pray - "may their tribe increase"...

- Mermy

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everybody, wish you good luck & hope 2009 turns out to be better than the past. Oh we're already into the New Year 2009.

The last year went by so fast and I'm sure this year also time will just fly..

Anyway, so lemme quickly summarize some of the new things I did in my life in the last year.

2008 - Some New things I did in my life! 

1. Firstly, after lot of hesitation and should i? or shouldn't i? we started blogging :)

2. Participated in a public Marathon and after a long gap of over 10 years :)

3. Went for rafting - One of the brave (according to me,for my level), risky adventure I successfully completed. Incredible experience! :)

4. Went for a great trek - I've trekked before but this one turned out to be a long trek  and more adventurous. We trekked more than we had thought of, trekked each day for around 6 days and stayed at different places everyday. Met different relatives/people everyday.We had a great group consisting of my bros n sis and a wonderful, entertaining, energetic guide brother -  Hmaong Dorje. Turned out all wonderful b'coz of him, thanks Bro!  :)

5. Spent more time than ever with my younger sister and we went out for a  trip together for the FIRST time in our life :)

6. Learnt how to apply kajal and still learning , some girly stuff  you see :)

7. Played badminton at night or any kind of sports after around 5 years, not so consistently though.

8. Went for a trip with Mermy for the first time in five years of our friendship :)

9. Tried doing yoga several times but not been consistent on making it a habit. Hope i get better at it this year...

10. Attended a Christmas Carol for the first time after school (Thanks to Mermy for talking me along)

And there are things that I wanted to do but couldn't accomplish them. :( Now I don't wanna crib about those things here but hopefully I'll have more things accomplished this year!! Well...2008 hasn't been a great year for me, but I thank god for keeping me in good health, for everyday that I wake up alive and thank god for I have my job.

I really hope for some goooooood surprises in this year, Oh God Please!!

I pray for PEACE in the world and though 2009 is anticipated to be a tough year, I pray the economy improves, I pray that people don't get laid off and those who've lost the job this year get one back soon. And may God be with everyone.

- Snow

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Hmm... 2008 has been a year of a lot of ups and downs for me - how cliche this line is!!

Anyway, a very Happy New Year to everybody and may this year be better than the past...

I did a number of new things in 2008. And it amazes me to see myself having done all these things:

1. Got pretty consistent with going to Church every Sunday with Mom. 

2. I cannot boast about blogging since everyone knows how much I do. Even then, I started is good enough... I think. And I have Snow to thank for that! Thanks Snow!

3. Went for a marathon for the VERY FIRST time in my life. Again, thanks to Snow!

4. Went rafting for the VERY FIRST time. And AGAIN, thanks to Snow! 

5. Started playing badminton and throw-ball. I was terrible at both but AGAIN (yes!) thanks to Snow, I am a li'l better than terrible now. 

6. Though this was never for a stretch of more than a week, I started exercising for the FIRST time in my life. I hope that gets better this year!

7. Went on a couple of trips with Snow... ( We were talking about going on another one this morning. Hope that materializes soon)

8. Wore a saree for the first time on Christmas day! I have worn sarees before, but never on a Christmas day. So that's a first! 

9.  Streaked (colored) my hair for the first time in my life.

10. And the bestest part, became an Aunty in 2008! My cute li'l adorable darling nephew Neil, I miss u soooo much baby! 

Wow! Looking back, 2008 has been a year of firsts for me!! So that makes me happy! There are many, many more things that I'd like to achieve and accomplish this year, and pray to God that I should be able to get there... Also, I think this is very important - praying for peace in this world. - Amen!

- Mermy

I don't know what to write now, though I signed in thinking I'd write something..hmmm

anyway... it's Saturday. Thank god it's Saturday!!!

May be that's all I've got to say now...

- Snow

until then...

In feb, I went to kathmandu to meet my folks and then ofcourse to the mountains :). I was away from this busy n complicatedly advanced city life. Being in the green world of nature, mountain, fresh air, pure water and beautiful people who live simple life ..their smiling faces, warm n hospitable culture and a happy attitude. Sometimes I feel lil sad coz I just can't go up there whenever i feel like. It's always a long wait. Whenever i get there i ask myself "when possibly will i get to live this kind of simple, content, peaceful life in the arms of the mountains and close to the beauty of nature?"..and the answers obviously is .."Not before I retire". Well.. we land up where we find our means of making a living and that shapes up this whole thing called our life.

About three months back mermaid, me and my family had gone to my bro's Monastery. It's a pretty lovely place. My bro took me and mermy to his place and we went up on the terrace. It was a lovely evening, we could see the sun setting slowly, it was breezy, we got a 360 degree view of the place with small hills around and corn farms spread across surrounding the monastery. Mermy said ' I wish we could live in such a place', and I said the same. And then finally both of sort of said together...we can do that probably only after we retire, so lets work hard now to get to retirement.This place is just 4-5 hrs away from our city and yet we felt that it's beyond our reach to think of living in such a place for now , it might take another 15-20 yrs or so...

So yes..I'm waiting for my retirement [from the corporate job ]. Well, the moment people hear this, many might just label me as being lazy or unambitious to think like that right now when i'm still at the initial phase of my career. And our elders would react saying ' You are still young and have a long way to go , this is the time for you to work hard.. during our times we did this & that ..the typical way of elders reacting & advising :)... but it's not so pessimistic to think like that, because the harder I work now and save the sooner i can retire from job. So it also means that I'd like to work hard & save enough. And the fact that i'm saying I'm waiting for my retirement & look forward to it also means that i'd like to work for it. We can't retire if we don't work at all.

My sis in law's parents were here and her dad got sweets - he retired from his work and got his first pension. He's on the other side of it .I thought it's a long way for me to reach that phase - to retire and start getting pension:). Until then keep working...

- snow

Yes, retirement is something we need to work really hard for. That's become our ambition in life now - to retire peacefully in a peaceful and quiet and beautiful place. I too come across a number of people who think that not wanting to achieve "success", not wanting to get on the top most rung of the corporate ladder - is being lazy, unambitious, uncompetitive.. but the truth is it is up to us how we'd like to define being "ambitious"...

I'd like to retire in a green beautiful place, have access to the beach, have a li'l house with red-oxide flooring (yes, that's a must)... have lovely green trees in the backyard.. have li'l grand kids come n visit me and me cooking for them (yes, that's unbelievable, but what's the harm imagining?)... have hot tea sitting amidst the beautiful green trees in the evening... such a lovely life... wish i could get there right away... but i guess the beauty of retiring lies in getting old, having seen life, and being "on the other side" like snow says. i'd still like to think that i'm young, so will have to wait for many many years to get there :)

hope the wait is worth it.... until then, keep working...

- mermaid

PS: Retirement here means retiring from the corporate rat race and going on to do something of our interests and being where we would like to be....ofcourse work will continue till the end :)

thought cloud

This is a thought cloud of our blog. Thanks to Navoch for coming out with this thing, but it's still not working as expected I guess... it hasn't scanned the whole blog n hasn't really picked all the words obviously...
It is supposed to pick all the words from the blog and then put them in the form of cloud ...so the words that appear bigger are the words used most number of times and in that order to the smallest ones being the least mentioned...
:( how unfair it has been to me.... It shows Mermy's name sooo big and mine is not seen...So i thought it was being unfair to me coz i'm the one who has written more so far...
then I realized that since i'm the one who writes more I always mention mention mermy here n there and myself as me or I..thats why it doesn't show snow as big!
So next time i'll just write Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow Snow :) so that it's visible and big..

first day...

Oh I'm coming here after many days :), feels good..
Monday was the first day at the play school for my little nephew. Poor tiny toddler of just two and a half has to start going to school. He just came into the world and before understanding too much of it, he's already in school.
I remember how excited he was for the past few days and everyday he carried his little bag, wore his tiny shoes and wanted to go to school. He loves going out..so guess he interpreted the word "school" as some fun place he can go and come back with family...
I couldn't go to school with him to drop him on his first day of his life in school coz I had to come to office, but i heard his mom and dad went to drop him..and they have taken his picture before going to school [which is all excited and happy] and after coming out of it [Crying...crying n crying..]. He cried throughout those 1.5 hrs he was there. Each day after returning from school when people asked him about his experiences in school he would just not speak about it - "No comments!!". I came back from office and was curious to know about his experience at school...
So as soon as I returned home I started asking questions...
How was your school??
He asked.. "Anee what is mummy doing?"
I said cooking..now tell me did you like school?
And he said..what is mummy cooking?
Then I asked "Did you play at school?
And he asked "what is this? [pointing at a painting hanging on the wall, he never bothered about it before]
And then to avoid my school related questions he kept asking me what is this and that to all the random things he saw around...non stop!!!
I was quite amazed to see the tiny one avoiding the topic he dislikes so diplomatically. He never argued or cried like most kids would do when they hear 'school', he didn't even show any frustrations over those many questions about school by everybody...but he would would either stay quiet or change the topic immediately...like he didn't even wanna think of it or didn't want any of us to think and talk about it..


That was the first day when he was kept with strangers with nobody from family around. and I just imagined how he must have felt during those hrs at school. As he cried all the time,,it must have been a very difficult time for him.. Now i don't remember my first day at school, but I remember how I used to be so damn scared even if I was left alone for 1 min among strangers. It used to be frightening!!


So on one hand it's lil sad that the kiddo has to start going to school at just two so that he gets smarter by then time he goes to pre - school and then to Jr. & Sr. KG classes. I hear people talking about their 2 - 3 yr old kids are going to be interviewed ..parents being all tensed about how they will fare...funny and sad coz the toddlers don't know what an 'interview' means..but they are gonna be judged based on what they say in that half an hour.
It's a very competitive world and so parents will worry about and push their kids even before they know what 'competition' means..
On the other hand, the world is moving faster and becoming much more competitive. So we have to prepare the new ones to be smart, independent, strong and stay ahead, so it makes sense to let them start early..
So the kiddo is still taking time to get used to school, he still cries everyday...
All I can say is "Welcome to the world of "school" kiddo....u r gonna be attending classrooms at least for the next 18 yrs or so...it's unavoidable!!!"


Well I just hope he builds on good memories of his school life and uses the wonderful tool called "education and good values" to become a good guy when he's out of school...
Good luck boy!!!


- Snow

bored.....

Am on a boring conference call and the best thing to do at this time i thought was, well, to write something... its been 2 hrs on this call, and the day before, i was on a call for 5 hrs... Wish I could walk out of these meaningless calls when people try to say the same thing over and over and over in 100 different ways... wish i could say "shut up, i dont want to listen to u!!" oh great, now 1 guy who's also on the call pings me on our communicator and says "lets talk about this other thing. can we have an alternate call??" yeah right!! join a conf call, plug in the ear phones, listen to people rattle about something which doesn't interest you in the remotest way, and then get on an "alternate call" with another disinterested soul to discuss the "other" thing... God!! i wish i took take a loooooong break. hmmmm... on second thoughts, not really. like snow said, thank God we have a job. there are so many people who've lost their jobs because of this economic slowdown. there's so much drama going on everywhere... an airline sacks 1000s of people one day and re-inducts them the next saying they're family. then there are 2 bigwigs claiming responsibility for the re-induction... may everything settle down quickly, i pray...

- Mermy

Back to business

It was an eventful week long off from work. Though I couldn't go to Himachal or even Ooty, it was still good [Although i understand I'd still like to blame mermy a bit for this]. On the other hand I did get frustrated for like 5 mins everyday for not being able to utilise the longest set of holidays available in the year to go long distance. Anyway...spent time in cooking like i used to once upon a time, cleaning my cupboard, sorting all the bills n documents, going to banks, playing badminton with mermy n neelu, went to garden, lil bit of shopping, giving good..valuable n sensible suggestions to my bros and quarrelling with them when they don't pay any heed, missing my little nephew a lot and everyday hoping that he'll talk to me more than just saying .."bbye, take kya, mizz u" on phone. It's just soooo wonderful listening to the baby's voice and the new rhyme he's learnt "watermelon,watermelon, payaya..payapa...chickoo..chickoo..chickoooo chickooo..." . But I couldn't finish all the work i had listed down:(. Also, attended the first full fledged interview after 2.5 yrs which gave me good insights , was an eye opener and got to know my market value :)...made me think n think a lot. But good learning experience!!
Mermy didn't take any leaves from work, she was working on each day but she also did most of the things I did each day ....how is that?? I won't say :P. Now being back to office does give a lil boring feeling, and i can feel my expression change to the default one :| when am at work ..but then it's good.. I atleast have work to do, unlike many people who are suffering from the economic meltdown now...may god help everyone!
- Snow

to the secret[thief] blog reader..

This post is dedicated to the secret blog reader who seems to be a regular reader of our blog [we discovered that today], and has struggled a lot to be able to read our blog. We would like to thank her for considering it worthy enough to struggle and read [very few people are aware of our blog, and even the ones who have it..don't really read it, coz we don't write great stuff and a lot of stuff]..So thanks stranger ;)
Well...actually this post is dedicated to our friend who frequently goes in hiding and loses touch n sometimes after a long long time..in the odd hours ..suddenly calls up n says "hey can u find the travel agents no. in trichur and msg me?" and cuts the phone... and very likely that she would not to show up or msg or call for next 6-7 months unless something comes up for which we are the most suitable candidates for information... :) . Mermy and she always fight about this one thing.....she never says "hi,,how r u?" when she msgs or calls...coz she thinks it's too formal and awkward, shouldn't be used with friends...so we really wonder when to use "hi n how r u?"and mermy and she are still fighting since she still thinks it's odd to use "hi" with friends and mermy counter attacks saying - never say hi to me..just sms what u want, when u want..save ur "hi..how r u" for strangers. Now every time if at all we have this little conversation with her...we both try to act like we are angry with her.. but i guess we have a deep sense of understanding that we are nice to her despite all this long "no show" behavior and her uniqueness and weirdness in her reasoning. :)
Anyway...so this time we realized that though she doesn't really keep in touch n if asked tells us she was in bangalore after leaving bangalore..so that even by mistake we don't bump into her or force her to meet us...she reads our blog regularly!!!!! Oh..we're honoured!!!
She told us that she really struggled to get access to our blog. It's blocked in her office, so then she tried to find some loop holes to find a way to be able to access it...she's quite a techy n intelligent. She still had issues accessing it..after trying several things here n there..she also registered our blog with google and by god's grace she's able to access it n read it. And this morning she said 'U girls should really thank me n dedicate a post for me"..so dedicating this post to you sweetheart...even if you don't care to keep in touch n respond to us really, u do manage to read our blog :)

- Snow
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Great Snow!! Love u for that!! You said thanks but making sure that you let the stranger-friend know how she hurts us each time by not saying hi (sob, sob) ;-)

Dear stranger-friend,

(Have to call u this coz we can never forget that u r a friend, but u r also a virtual stranger by ur own choice)

First of all, thanks for secretly reading our blog and adding to the readership value though u don't post any comments - and we completely understand that you are not able to do that and you only see the blog in read-only mode. So thanks a ton. Specially considering that u don't have the time to stay in touch or bother to find out how we are doing - and we get to know from 3rd party resources about ur whereabouts, thanks a hundred tons!!

That apart, saying Hi to friends is never formal - refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi (If you have trouble accessing this from office, here's what it says - "HI or Hi may refer to: An informal way to say hello" ). I know what u r thinking - I know wikipedia cannot be considered like a bible for anything because it depends on what people put in there. All arguments aside, let's settle for this - u can call/message/mail once in a decade and say Hi and we'll surely reply to ur Hi.

Now comes the genuine - bottom of my heart - thanks. To God. For the wonderful friendship we share, that we can keep nagging and quarrelling - and yet maintain this friendship. Love you, stranger-friend!!

(Any arguments, you can always call us. You can rest assured that we WILL answer your call).

- Mermy

Unsolicited Advice, Uninvited Comments

One unique thing about India, or probably Asia, is that you get a lot of unsolicited advice and uninvited comments- from people u know, u don't know or haven't seen/met ever before in your life. Snow and I get a lot of them these days. So many that we thought we should dedicate a post to all those advisors.
Mermaid: Some of the advices/ comments that I got to hear in the past month:
From a concerned colleague - "Use this special pink cream - very effective. My wife used it and her skin infection disappeared in a week... No, no, no, no.... Those r not pimples on ur face. That's skin infection."
From a girl in the apartment building - "Apply tulsi everyday - will surely help. Don't mind me saying this ok??"
From a lady at a shop - "Use this Malaysian cream that my sister sells. Its EXCLUSIVE - and will surely work. Your pimples will go away in 3 months. Look at me. I am using it for the past 3 years!! Here, take my number and my sister's too. U can call us anytime, OK?"
From another colleague - "Oh, you've got clear skin". Mermaid - "Clear skin? Where can u see clear skin on my face?" C - "No, except for the pimples yaaa" OKAY!!!
The funny thing is, it's not just my skin that bothers me but also my weight. And although I always think people notice that I've put on so much weight in the past 2-3 years, it seems as if the whole world is conspiring to make me fatter! Nobody gives me any advice - useful or useless - about losing weight. I feel they're all strategizing to make me fatter so they can all look thin...

Snow: My turn to share how the whole world seems to be concerned about me, my weight, my wedding. Since the level of concern has been showing a steep rise over past few months....it's been fun listening to all of them. Following their advices is secondary but listening to them has been fun..so I welcome all the comments n advices.
On weight:
Some people who have seen me straight after 2.5 yrs react real bad. their comments are hard hitting n come out real quick in surprise.
A shocked n highly concerned guest:A relative whom I met before but spoke for the first time immediately saw me n said "what happened to you? U were so good earlier???" a statement like tht from a new person was surprising. What he meant was "Oh u've become so fat" and then when I was going to have tea, he immediately suggested me to go and exercise and told me to play badminton and he was so concerned that he said he'd come with me to play if I need. lol
From Eye Doc: I went for my eye check up and the doc who otherwise talks only business and doesn't talk of anything except for 'eye' said "U've put on lil weight ....i mean not much but lil bit"
From a shopkeeper: Even after gaining weight, I thought I'd find something of my size at this place I'd shop frequently before (when I was thin). The man politely said "These tops are for lil bit thin people". In other words, he was politely saying "fat girl, get out of this place! there's nothing for u here"..hahaha
On marriage:
Some people think that I MUST get married now, some people with their conventional mindset might think i'm even crossing my marriageable age now. So am bombarded with a lot of gyan on the benefits of getting married , why one should marry...what kind of life partner to look for etc etc.. and sometimes i think what irritates few of them is that i just keep listening and i don't reciprocate at all. Atleast am being a good listener :)
A friend at office: Everyday while travelling to n from office, she starts off trying to explain to me about the benefits of marriage, its the right time now etc, and finally ends her gyaan session something like this - " u r pathetic, Can't u make a bf, u don't want to get married, u r not interested in the guys around u...what's wrong with u". she looks out for guys for me, finds out details about them, and even rejects them on my behalf without even bringing me in the picture. she suddenly announces that she rejected somebody for me!! the reason for rejection would be even that the guy's name isn't good enough!! hahahaha. she spots guys at traffic signals or on the road and tries to show me that they're good candidates for me. at the traffic signal???
A very sweet colleague: We never discuss our personal lives with each other, but this sweet guy tells me one day "if u r ever interested in South Indian guys, please let me know. I'll find someone for u" :-D N then he says "but why don't u keep a bindi on ur forehead?" lol
Another colleague: She's in the HR team and so has easy access to people's information. She too tries looking for potential candidates at office..how much they ear, designation n whenever i bump into her..she says 'Hey i saw somebody good for u' ...oh c'mon!
I think people outside keep pestering more than my family... but sometimes when family advices come out, they are quite serious, so don't want to discuss them. This is like a never ending discussion - constant advices from elder bro, suggestions and offers from friends will continue until i decide to get married. Mermy doesn't have to go thru these advices because she's already made the announcement ;)
Apart from people pointing out our "Scope for Improvement", both of us still manage to get some compliments but we are too humble to write about them ;) heeeeeeee

Isn't it wonderful being in this part of the world where people are so genuine in their comments...good or bad ..they just tell us things and continue giving those unsolicited advices and uninvited comments about our lives...
Thanks to all for being kind enough to spare their precious time to discuss our problems and for their kind/ serious/ nasty/funny comments n advices.We dont guarantee we'll take all ur advices ..but we still welcome ur UNSOLICITED advices and comments..it's fun listening to others talking about our life...

The coconut tree & the leafy tree..

My office space in the corner is a nice place comparatively as there are only two windows on my floor and majority of the people do not sit beside the windows. For most of us here the weather remains the same whole day. Once we enter office and hit our floor, it's the same whether day or night. So I'm privileged to have this cubicle that is right next to the window, the only way to look at the outside world from this confined place. Sometimes...people ask me from a distant what's the weather like? is it gonna rain? etc.. and i give the weather updates :)Right outside the window I see a tall coconut tree & another leafy tree [I don't know which tree this is but it has lots of leaves on it]. And the two act as a stress buster for my eyes during those long days at office, when everything inside seem to look stale ...the computer, people, work, Internet ..everything!!! It is during such times when I go through restless, monotonous and suffocated feelings that I just look outside at these two dear friends...who really help me calm down. I glare & stare for sometime at the trees , every swinging branch, and the leaves on them. When it's windy they all swing and make it look so lively. It feels like all the leaves and branches are swaying at me, singing loudly for me to cheer me up. Now am not so fond of coconut and a lot of things to do with coconuts, but I kind of feel very attached to this tree outside my window. I feel like we communicate without words many times.. the two lovely trees are always standing there to watch me. When am bored, stressed and feeling low they just wait for me to look at them. And when I look at them they say "Hey girl..cheer up" and dance like the pompom girls/cheerleaders when it's breezy...and when it's not windy they just send out those calm soothing energy to me.If someday I don't see them here, I'll surely miss them. I can see them standing outside right now. If someday I leave this place...I better thank them for making life easier for me here and for their unconditional support :)
-Snow

laugh till u can cry!!!!

god!!!! this was after centuries! i haven't laughed so hard in ages, n m pretty sure snow hasn't either. i was browsing through my system n found this really funny pic of ours - snow and mine - both of us have this wierdo expression... it so funny!!!! i sent it to snow as a stress buster and boy, did it work!! she called me and she's like "what is it exactly that u were trying to do that made u make such a face?" God! i wish i could post the pic here - no i don't actually, because if it were worth posting, it wouldn't have been so funny!!! snow said - "keep this pic for urself, when u want to have a laugh, but keep it confidential". i will, snow :-)

God, it's so refreshing to laugh until u have tears in ur eyes!!!!

- mermaid

Lemme say my reaction when you sent this to me in office tday...

I was busy n bit confused n serious after my colleague came n told me we need to give an update to our boss ..so get this done for the review. Then i saw this mail from mermaid in my inbox, opened it and uff i laughed so loud ..it was out of control....btw I wasn't laughing at my pic, i was laughing at mermy's pic. finally I closed the pic..stopped laughing...got tempted again..opened it and then laaaaaughed...closed it...opened it and laaaaaughed...everytime I challenged myself I won't laugh this time...it didn't work. I finally called her n shouted at her why did she send this pic to me?...and both of us went on this Hahahahahah..hahahahha...hahahaha...we had to hang up the phone to stop laughing. Couple of ppl around me must have thought i've gone insane tday.

I remember both of us laughing endlessly uncontrollably just like today a year back. So am thinking we can keep this pic confidential [Confidential b'coz it's too funny to show anybody...and a master piece weird expression of mermaid] and probably look at it every year or later when we become old women ...every time we need a very high dose of laughter!!!!

- Snow