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