From scratch

From 9 months in a place to a totally new place
From leaving behind a vibrant bunch of friends to forming a new set of friends
From the comfort set up of home to slowly setting up another one
From everything in order to starting from scratch....

We are packing our bags and moving coast to coast!As if life isn't spiced up already, we wanted to add a little more to it.Things are being sorted out and tracked, goods being packed, lease cancelled, flight tickets purchased, temporary accomodation arranged...but goodbyes alone will not be said.

Diwali Time

Sweets, savouries, crackers, new dresses, socialising, making merry...its that time of the year again.DIWALI!!!And a diwali celebrated far away from the very happening place for the festival- Chennai. What's diwali without new dress or noise bursting the crackers anyway?How has diwali celebration changed over the years and how could it be over a few years from now? ( with some due imagination)

5 years ago---
Get up as early as 4 in the morning, take bath, wish relatives who get together for diwali,wear the new dress ( read ready to show off to friends and others),rush out of home to start bursting crackers.There used to be "healthy fights" amongst friends as to who started bursting crackers first. After a while, eat all the savouries ( bhakshanams) made at home and watch tv till the next session of bursting crackers.Visit temple.

Now---
Get up around 7 or 8 in the morning, take bath, wear a new dress if interested.Call up parents and all relatives wishing them a happy diwali.Eat some self made savouries. Crackers?- no mood for them. Watch tv , sleep. Visit temple.


5 years from now---
May be folks would do a video conferencing on the diwali day and we could virtually celebrate diwali, burst crackers,eat all the savouries.

Anyways, diwali at my home is being celebrated with some home made sweets and savouries, new dress, a visit to the temple.Happy diwali and have a safe one.

To our nine months

Love, life, lust, laughter, fights ....thats what these nine months of married life has constituted.Truly priceless.One of my friend told me " you guys argue a lot". I met TH 6 years ago.From blindly listening to him to screaming a shut up if he happens to talk while watching tv, we have come a long way.

Many times, seeing our married friends, I tell TH" oh they look so perfect together". They are so much in sync with each other, if one starts a sentence, the other completes the sentence.If one looks at the other,the other nods in perfect understanding.

But we are two different people.He loves watching movies, while I just wriggle through any movie.He is easy going, while I am rigid.There are more like these,but inspite of these differences, we live in the same room. And, I still feel at home.He is my home.

Here's to our 9 months of married life. However cliched it may sound, I can't put it any better. I love you.

2 in 1

SHE: Hey, I have invited "M & his wife" home for lunch on Sunday.

HE: Why did you choose a Sunday? Sunday mornings are meant for cleaning and evenings are meant for relaxing

SHE: Ya precisely, you vaccuum the house, clear the trash, clean the bathroom only on Sunday mornings.I call someone for lunch and the house is also clean.Orey kallula rendu maanga

HE: %^^$$##@@@??!!!

The Best Part of

returning home after a good 50 days is

- vaccummed and a neatly maintained home by TH
- lunch cooked by TH and kept in a casserole ready to be eaten

and





and

Packages...of love

I have always loved packages from home.They take me to a different world. I start looking at the cover/ bag in which the things are brought. Sometimes a Pothys , or a sweet shop cover ...or even something wrapped in a tamil/ malayalam newspaper.I kind of start mentally visiting the very same place which the cover mentions.My parents brought a few things for me when they came over here.Goodies from in laws, friends, grandmother and that wee moment, I felt the distance of 1000s of miles melting away.It was like seeing them through the goodies they sent for me.

Opening the bag is a whole different experience. Its not for the pleasure of getting some goodies..the pleasure comes from fondly picturing how they thought of what we would want and shopped for them.The phone calls that follow will be filled with conversation like " did you like whatever I sent?" " did you taste the sweet"? " does the shorts fit him?".I cleared everything from the bag and stored the bag carefully.Everytime I wish to travel to Kerala/ Chennai mentally, I would simply pull out the bag, touch it and picture myself going to all those shops.

I just came back home after a good 50 days of stay with my parents and sister's family.I dont have any package as such, but some home made snacks by amma, a top that my sister gave, an IPOD travel kit that my BIL got. For now, I am feeling a little more...little less homesick