Toscano

I still feel really nice when I have the home to myself. I hear some people really feel sad or bored to be alone in a home but for me its  luxury I get say once in 2-3 years. With 2 monkeys and a mother in law as full time occupants of my home, me n hubby sometimes even think of checking into some hotel so we can get some peaceful sleep.. And ya may be catch up on  some other stuff as well.


Yesterday was one of those days when the 2 elder Ms are packed off to hometown and it was just the hubby and younger M that I had to manage. I had just  boiled the pasta when hubby dear planned to go out for dinner and the mood was for a place with karaoke /live music.Since I was in the mood for pasta we zeroed in on Toscano Italiano :)

The food was lip-smacking.. The sweet potato croquette was yum. My Lo didn't try it as she thought it is hot dog and kept saying i wont eat the dog .:D  There was no live music as the singer was off it seems. So we had to adjust with just candle light dinner with some recorded music. But it sure was a nice evening and a must visit for foodies kinda place:)

Princess september

After a long time say 4 or 5 years i visited my bog and i say it does feel nice to read how things were then. There is kind of a chilling and calm feeling in your heart when you read - nostalgia.  It made me so happy i penned down these posts.

After a gap of about 5 years - I pen down again this time not as a single women, not as a wife  but as a mother not of only little V but as a mother of two :)
God granted my wish for a beautiful daughter and our princess september is here

GOA again

So off we went to goa again to relive the happy days from last year..
But Sadly for us this time guess all the families/bachelors in india thought of getting happy in Goa and ended up right next to our resort by the calangute beach..
Sigh!!..
But we are clever now arent we...
We took an off on tuesday and had started only on saturday (For once i was thankful that hubby dear has to work now on saturdays too ;))

Kidddo loved the sleeper volvo and from the time we have climbed on two of those huge things, wheels on the bus rhyme has reinforced its grasp on little V.
He was heard singing this particular song even in his sleep last week.
Not only that he has also mastered more than one tune for his favourite nursery rhyme.
So relaxing vacations really do take the stress out of your mind..
Though the tantrums and unreasonable demands from my 2.5 yr old do hype me up sometimes, but on the whole i feel at peace now :)

Now that Goa magic has been consumed to its fullest ,need to seek a better vacation spot may be??
How about maldives guys?? what say?

OOh La La Kerala..

Greeeen is the picture i get when i think of kerala..
And MOnsoons,its just a perfect blend of green and aqua... we need to ignore the brown mesh it creates though ;)
Rains are loved by many and the character it brings out in each city is also soo different.

In Mumbai you have the city rain and in kerala its like the jungle kind of rain.. WIth the thunderstorm and tall trees swaying in the background, its so very different..
Or may be i feel it is so special because i grew up enjoying it..
The entire sky turns pitch black and then the sound of the thunder is like the starting whistle to the voluminous down pour.. And the pelting raindrops are just so fat and delicious... I cannot just describe what it feels like.. And the smell of the sand with the first rains.. I'm sure we all just love that..

Looking forward to spend some time in kerala with the monsoons, after a long long time.. Hope to savour each moment at its virgin best..And not to miss a mention my train journey through the konkan during the monsoons :)

Holi Bash

It is a tad too late to write a post on Holi i know. But this time was the best ever holi i have ever played with atleast 20 buckets of coloured water poured onto me and oodles and oodles of gulaal smeared on all of us. The only concern was my toddler shivering beside me with so much water splash and V had to take him back home .. The ladies were all soo fad in frenzy that the gents had to take the back stage managing the kids ;) With music playing from the car deck and one of my good freinds enjoying herself like mad it was a real mood booster.. I was all the more ecstatic when my sister dropped in with her friends with another load of brighter and cooler colours,just when our supplies had perished.Truely it was a day to remember..And the holi bash ended in a nice party with a couple of friends on the quite breezy balcony.. Quite a night to remember.. I am so thankful that we have so many festivities in India.. It is the best way to connect to people and invite over guests.. Otherwise the much planned getaways and kitties always end up only as plans that never materialise. So three cheers to the festival of colours!!

Once again

Its really inspiring to know that people you know are writing for newspapers and other publishing media.. Two years back i had thoughts on those lines too which well never really materialised. I was in the hurry to get back my lost career in the corporate world and then started juggling between work and a new born baby.. Now i think that life's a little more sturdy and I'm out again looking out for some fun.

The new society complex that we are part of is really a nice one and there are quite a few ladies with whom I've really hit off well with.. Though the concept of making new friends after collage/ your first job still seems a herculean task for me until your really lucky or okay that good, it doesn't really sadden me now.I think finally im mature enugh (Yes i see an important age threshold fast approaching me ) But I still do miss my old friends and gang a lot..

And taking my son in the evenings to the garden is really something i look up to towards of the end of the day.

Though this valentines day again my valentine is not around (as on most important days) i don't feel like cribbing or sulking.. There are positive vibes around.. and i so wnat to make them stay.

I have completed my collage - the pic from where i did it is attached and looking forward to framing it.

Also looking forward to writing at least once in a while on this less trodden path called " dreamgalz nest" :) I hope i get enough motivation.. Till then.. CIAO

Reality Bites

After a gap of about 5 months i thought of resuming my blog.. With the big miracle of creation going on inside me and the hormones running haywire, thinking straight has been a luxury..But what the hell.. i write not for entertainment, not for acknowledgment but for myself..
So to all the people who seem to conveniently ignore my DISCLAIMER, i suggest you read it all over again before giving me a piece of your thick head.. :)

So in my post on reality bites, the first and foremost bit was when we left US for good and came back to India.. Man how can a country change so much in less than 2 years.. Its been 3 months and i still keep pondering..

With the mumbai terror attacks and all and with us living in Pune, the next closest city to Mumbai, i feel literally scared to bring a baby into this world.. What safety do i assure this teeny weeny being?? I wanted a baby so i could cuddle it and play with it and what not.. (ya ya silly i know!!) But now protecting it from what not seems to be the going to be the only list on my agenda..

Anyways happy thoughts is all is supposed to be in my mind now so i thought i would lure myself into shopping.. My neighbour who just delivered her second kid seemed to be my perfect shopping guru. She was more than enthusiastic to help me and as her list poured in my head started spinning again.. So blissfully i decided to stick on tothe age old tradition of buying stuff only after the baby is born and buy only whats the most essential now.. :) So much help for my husband ha ha..

The prenatal classes i attended every Saturday for the past 2 months and where my husband dutifully took me seem to have embedded the labour and delivery scene well into my brain.. In the end i always end up looking enviously at my hubby who seems to be getting the best out of the deal. And I totally understand moms who wish to have a baby boy.. At least spare your child all that pain..

But on second thoughts having a baby girl would be so much more fun. And i think i have made so many plans that my hubby dreads he would have to spend the rest of his life in a pink house surrounded by teddy bears and chocolates and is praying hard he gets a baby boy :D

When we turned down the option to know the sex of the baby 3 times during the ultrasound in US, i never thought waiting in anticipation would be soooo difficult. So much for the sake of heeding to my husbands wishes of keeping it a big surprise.. After all it is me who keeps pondering a hundred times a day how life will be a month form now on.. But guess im happy theres just 1 more month to go.. :)

well i think if i pen down more on the reality bites i may end up giving myself one big fat bite.. So in the end retreating back into dreamgalz dream world works best for me :)

100

Can't believe my 100th post is coming so late.. But better late than never right? So here i go..

Been a busy month march.. with visa processing and loads of paper work.. But now i am off from work.. ha ha don't i deserve a break after just 1.5 months of hectic work?? ;)
well yes had the pay been stupendous, i would gladly call this my dream job!! But anyways 1.5 months of vacation after 1.5 months of work is amazing isn't it..
So India here i come!! After 1.5 years.. lots of 1.5 's here uh?? whats it about the half??
As heard the other night on sex & the city, according to carrie (one of the main characters) a girl sometimes need halfves.. (ya like her better half he he..) Now don't judge me by the type of sitcoms i watch, the tv here is very boring u see..
I can't express how excited i am about my vacation.. So here i am off on my big tour.. will mostly be absent form blogsville again for 1.5 months ;) unless I get the cravings to blog.. ha ha
So till then play safe u all.. And make merry!!

Love,
Diya

the parade

The independence day celebrations in Dallas was too gud.. The event took place at lone star park,grand prairie(in pic) and the first few minutes of being there was pure ecstasy.. So many fellow Indians, clad in colourful costumes and speaking the familiar languages..

All the many stalls selling kurtis, chaat, and masala dosas.. woohoo.. for i moment it felt i was in India.. Never expected so many Indians there.. Sure, Dallas has the most number of Indians in US.. But witnessing it was truly a pleasure... but after a while i cud hear the Hindi music coming from the stage, which was not up to the mark.. The singers weren't very lively and so the crowd wasn't with them..

But soon the parade started and we marched off in that direction.. i have made a few friends here so we all were there as one big gang.. we kept hogging and the food kept all of us so busy the entire evening :) I had chikku kulfi after such a long time.. it brought back memories of the days when me n cousins used to pluck out chikku's directly from the tree at my granny's place.. sigh good old childhood..

Anyways, after that the fireworks started and we spread out sheets n mats on the ground and had a spectacular show in the sky lying down cosily thru the night.. It truly felt special celebrating independence day cos never had it seemed so important..Always it was the skits that we presented in school on the day or the patriotic songs we sang or the laddu which we got that used to hold the central attention in my mind.. But this one time, may be being away from my country made it all the more important for me and hence we made a concious effort to celebrate it..

On a different note i finished reading the Kite runner by Khaled Houssaini..The story is very much gripping and i did enjoy reading every page of it.. I had never wondered how life in Afghanistan would be and it was amazing to find it so vastly different that ours.. surely deserves the appreciation the author received, especially this one being his debut book.But at some point i did feel that the book has been a little over-hyped about..Or may be his second book is really too gud.. well i shud read that one too soon.. but surely "the kite runner" is a worth read for every human being..

A Terrific AD

A great ad - Ironically from a non Indian company!!
And nonetheless this ad won the EPICA awards for best ad..

A tribute to Gandhiji- truely inspiring.. (To view click here)

Republic day special..

A small tribute to my nation.. My Mother India..

Mr. Amitabh Bachan left me speechless.. Truely inspiring.. what do u say??