No, I dont live here anymore,

If you are a friend..interactive one... you already know where to find me.:)

or , just leave a note, a hi will do..

and I ll get back to you. :)

tata!!

Just a thought..

Thanks for all your prayers and wishes, It really helped.
He is doing much better now and health is improving!

Have you ever had situations where you feel so helpless and lost, that you just decide nature will take its course and time will heal things to the best!
Cause I have experienced that in a number of instances.
Simple ones like not joining a job i got in campus interview because my parents did not want me to move to delhi, I was angry, sad and disappointed as 3 of my friends did go.
However,I got a job in Bangalore, joined the job and now if I turn back and look, Life could not have been better for a fresh graduate with all the work exposure, wonderful team mates and some of them now friends for life.
It s been 4 years since I joined that place and almost 3 since I left, But I still feel, with the turn of events...
All that happened was /is for some good.
It is for us to find what to relish / to learn from the bitter parts if any.

Secret Tag

I am not sure I am have too many secrets about me.
Even If I do, They are a BIG SECRET!! (Ha,ha Kidding)
1) During my School days, after say std 5, I have never written notes( you know the ones with Q & A) for any subject except Mathematics of course.
I believed that one needs to know more than what s in those questions and answers,So i used to study just from the text books and every answer coming on the answer sheets would be well, On -the -spot.
Helped the creative juices flow ;) but sometimes would be quite a disaster. :)

2) Regarding the same one, I think most of my teachers knew about me not writing any notes, But well, I think they would ignore this trait as I was not doing all that bad in Exams anyway and I could answer any twisted question from the text book, so why complain ?

3) Though I haven't given any formal exam, I have learnt Carnatic music for 8 years. Me along with my mum who used to learn it with me, have sung in quite a few programs and cultural functions. Sad thing is I am out of touch and as I told , Have not formal certificate for this.

4) Even though, I literally quiver like an arrow while facing a crowd or audience, I somehow overcame the stage -fear factor with real efforts and I am quite proud of it!! (now-a days people like me have no modesty- are you saying? well, What to do... sigh!! ;) )

5) I plan every single thing like I have a mental diary. It s another thing whether I follow it word by word, But my mind constantly churns out time table for me!

6) Inspite of being a very talkative person with a very active social life all my life, Still I am known to be a very reserved, silent and a quite person in my work place. I open my mouth only in front of certain people and never speak unless really necessary.
(I shall soon know if by any chance someone reads this from office. )

That s all folks!
Good night and I wont tag anyone , but you are most welcome to take the tag. But do let me know if you have any secrets to go public .Write atleast one in the comment box, will you???

see the sea and you shall see!

After successive hot days, today was no different. Here, everyone hits the beach during these heat waves and after all our weekend chores , we went down to Aj's favourite beach just before sunset.

The sea always have the same effect on me - calm and serene even amidst all that chaos. Back home,my parents house is just a stone s throw from the beach and luckily for me, We live in the Island country and in a city with beautiful beaches. Still, Every time I walk on the sand, It is a different experience. And I can never finish without soaking my foot in the warm and cold salty spray from the sea waves.The never tiring waves, the vast stretch of water and the ever lasting sand always , for me -seems to last forever .

I want it too :)

I know this is going to be hard, Atleast for me.
It is going to include a lot of patience and care, But I am up for it.
I have always adored you, looking at you - stealthily in hands of others,

mejealous of friends who have you.
Now the time s come for me to get you.

There may be breaks and tears, But I am willing to take the risk -

Of pouring my love and care, Only to see you grow taller and stronger by the day.

Until.......





........



Holiday season and parties are done and I can chop you[in relief ?!!] to go back to my No maintenance, No fuss small and short NAILS :)

-Written in frustration caused by slowing down of doing dishes and typing ,but in anticipation of having beautiful ,slender long and well done nails :)
P.S: no, these aren't my hands.its a googled image. But I am hoping for similar results ;)

gotch me!!

As I dug into banana Halwa, my mum had sent this time from home, I felt a wave of nostalgia sweeping through me. Moreover, reading through the childhood (read as not- so -childlike) episodes from avi's blog made me go back to my childhood too.

Speaking of which, though I am his cousin.. I was known to be errrr...calm (* people who know me from the later years, please refrain yourself from falling off your chairs and laughing aloud like lunatics in office. Stay calm..) , yes I said CALM, sensible, ideal kid who dint indulge in devilish acts like her famous cousins.(I swear, Ask my parents, poor souls! little did they know the devil behind the angelic child, Anyway.)So I have a handful of my mischief bhare karname( mischievous stories) which I or anyone can recall from the golden times.

It so happened that one fine day my Mum and my grandma decided to make this yummy halwa. After boiling it to the right cosistency, they poured it into a plate for cooling off and left it on the table. Mum later left for work while granny went about her other chores. It was all during our summer holidays, so my neighbor cum assistant(ahem!) cum friend cum cousin Ms.R ( a reputed mischief maker of the area) and A-again our cousin cum friend cum visitor and finally, yours truly were already having a post breakfast,pre-bath playing time on the swing and riding cycles all along the road. We kept walking into the house to have a drink of water and continued playing till we heard “Can we have all of you here?"

That was my grandmother, standing at the doorway with raised eyebrows which in other words meant “we are in trouble".

Anyway, we walked to her and assembled decently. After all, our experience had taught us "atleast pretend to be innocent till proven guilty ";)

Granny (with unusually calm voice) - 'who touched the halwa?"

Us (shaking our heads) - "not me"

G:" are you sure?"

Us: "yes"

G (pointing to me) - “how about you? "

Me ( looking down) - *silent…. then... softly "yes"

Rest of them with eyes wide open" how did you know granny?"

Granny (with a tiny smile) just walked in and I could hear her laughing over the phone talking to mum.

Are you curious to know what happened?

Well... me - the smart person -had walked in, seen the halwa which was almost cooled, so tried to cut it like a cake but with a blunt butter knife, hence could not. So I started itching out shapes and doodles onto the halwa and satisfied also wrote "S" before running out..: P : P

Of-course, I got caught! :)

quick bite

A quick bite is a kind of kick I have decided to give myself to keep blog spirit live .Something, short, quick and spontaneous.First one of them:

10.30PM:

After all the random kitchen chores post dinner,I decided it was time to call it a day(rather night) and get some sleep. Going towards the bedroom,my thought bubble at this instance "oh, it is weekend ,tomorrow - colour dress!***" :)

While the actual thought bubble should have been "Oh, it is weekend, it is CASUAL WEAR tomorrow"!!! :P

*** While in school,we used to be allowed to wear any dress we want on the last working day of the week which was called colour dress as it was not the normal uniform.haha!

I wondered how this phrase came to my mind after so many years,smiled and went off to sleep.

P.S: Picture: I clicked this at HongKong during our stopover. Nothing Spectacular but it seemed to me that the man made concrete jungle was trying its level best at competing with the natural set out.

High on Life!!

And I am again back from The Nth hibernation mood! :)

Just kidding!

and before I write more, Thanks to Swaram,reflections,Bhai and all others who commented on my previous post reminding me that my little blog baby is waiting for me :)

Actually we were on a secret mission ,which is not so secret any more.It started off with Aj getting bugged with work,missing home,hating winter etc etc that one fine morning as I was looking at my watch, computer clock and wall clock in the office for HUNDREDth time *sigh and he rang me to say the golden words "LET s GO HOME! "

I dint think for a split second and said "SURE, WHEN"?

and thus it all began.

We decided we would be going off for Ganesh Chaturti and with such a short notice we managed 2 weeks of leave. And then the mad scampering began for shopping , packing this and that and we went!

Boy! We had a royal time back home surprising family and spent around 5 days at Aj's native place with my new family during ganesh chaturti.Though it was such a short trip,I am sure it was so much more worth than the minuscule of time we spent in India that the 'hangover' s still there.

3 weeks since we are back and not 1 night goes by when either of us don't dream of a scene back home,So much is the intensity of our trip.

This being the background and the foreground story of the "secret mission" in short .

Hope all of you had a great festive season! and to all my friends especially S and Avin(2 of my closest friends), whom we dint meet or dint even manage to call,I am sure you understand.

Sorry about it!

Till the next post,

See you all...Cheers!!

P.S. The picture shows the Ganapati at our native place (Honnavar).
P.P.S: this is the quickest post I ve ever written, Straight 10 minutes including pic load! :D

weird facts - A fact

When a good friend wrote a tag about 7 weird facts,I was quite alarmed..
Not because she had 7 weird traits, but because I am a total weird specimen and How could I possibly choose the best 7?
isn't it totally unjust to the rest of my dearest weird habits?
'well..darlings..much as you are all a part of me..best ones are the best ones..
so just hang around there..u ll get another chance..'

Which brings me to my first WH[weird habit](haven't you realised yet?)
~TALKER:"psst....I talk to myself " yes!! you read it right.Mostly when I am alone or thinking of some situation,I add possible conversations!!interesting eh?
I guess this has eliminated a lot of "sane people" from reading further..Cause this is CRAZY!! and the sane guys wont risk this.. :D

Well.. next one s not too bad actually and I think [atleast hope] many others nod their heads reading this..
~MOVIE MAKER:When I read a book,I see all the characters, the scene exactly like a movie in my head.It s not something I have to try to do.Its just automatic.Read the first line of the first chapter and bang!!the movie in my head begins. Recently have found this to work whenever people tell me incidents,stories,anecdote..just anything..
So now you know,just remember :don't tell me,I repeat "Do- not -tell -me" anything cheesy which you would not want me to imagine cause it happens by itself! ;)
** swathy hears more people disowning her/or anything to do with her at this point.

Hey wait,
I promise next one s not too bad, please.. trust me..
ok..
~HARRY POTTER :I have read each "Harry potter" book atleast 15times completely till date and I know I will read it again and again and again....

That was not too bad right? see, i told you so.
I hope I wont jinx myself writing about this,*fingers crossed!
~GOLD HUNTER :I have till date found lost and found my gold earrings,studs,loops basically all "GOLD" in the weirdest ways possible.
Like when I was 8,I was standing on the swing as usual(yes, I never sat decently on it till I grew up) out in the garden,leaning my face on to the swing chain(* those 4 iron chains which support the wooden swing)absent minded rubbing my ear to it when I saw my sister and cousin racing to reach the swing and whoosh!!Swathy,the swing heroine decides to save her swing from the monsters attacking and decide to swing herself with a big push and thud!! lands on the ground with a bleeding ear and a lost god ring!!
After a nice scolding and ears bleeding[literally] Everyone decided to hunt for the ring, after all it must be right there.
NO one find it and the next evening, the One-ear ringed Swing girl goes to her swing and there it is..
lying on the ground..oh.. as though it dropped from the mango tree that very instant!!

And this happened,just a few months ago when I was playing with my 3rd stud of my left year **yes,I have got 3 on each ear lobe ;)watching Tv,I dropped a stud and again to cut the story short, in-laws and Aj hunted for it day and night while I sat panicking.
Never found.. Next evening I go, sit on the chair and place my hand on the cushion and lo!! there is the culprit!! :P :P
Well.. Just lucky in this matter I guess and hope I will continue to be so for the careless,silly person I am as it is. ..:)

The last one I am going to write is something I told my friend about.. But I am going to repeat it:
~RHYTHM FREAK:I cannot listen to any piece of music/song without tapping my leg/or atleast patting one hand to the rhythm.Even if it is the National Anthem,I have to move atleast a finger to the beat..

**hey wait... where s everyone going?
come back ..please...
No more weird stuff I promise..
:)
And at last I tag you
Swethz
Avi
Ujwal
If you havent done this tag earlier or you have discovered new wierd facts.. go on.. tell me..

What s in a name did you say? 'A Whole Post' I'd say!!

My blog friend Swaram complimented on my blog name *thanks once again for that and then I told her it is in "ಕನ್ನಡ " (Kannada) which many would not have realised.For which she said that she did,In fact she was confused about Swathy(me) writing about "Anu's World".

Fair enough reason to write a post on,I thought, to tell you a little more about how I got to having a blog.The reason has been quite simple.

When I moved here to this island continent [post wedding] I like every-other- bird- leaving-its -nest was emotionally,socially and to certain extent even economically thrown apart.We had to first find accommodation , then find jobs[ as my husband was a student with a part time job earlier ] and basically settle ( as everyone says).
Well, luckily by god s grace (in this case it was like a miracle for us in every instance than a natural event,hence we always mention 'god s grace' ) we managed to get a accommodation, found small time jobs[not what we are meant to do as per our qualifications,but still] and started our married life.We still had some loans,had to hunt for proper jobs and more than all that I missed my home,my country. And even to this day,I hate ranting about all this as it brings a chill down my spine,but I have braved it now because "this was why I took the solace of blog world."
I wanted to spill out, write about my weird, scary, funny, new experiences I was having every new day of my life.but did I?
I did not dare write because I was scared people will ridicule me or worst ignore me , hence I would quietly visit blogs, read and log off unnoticed.I slowly got into the flow of time as months rolled by and I had found a "field job" in an architecture firm and felt I was "back in action".


I forgot all about blogs I was reading earlier for a while and it was only when one of my close friends mentioned about blogs.I logged in again to see my blog with no posts, just the heading " Anu'la Samsara" staring back at me.



Then the rest is history.


Though its true,I can go missing for months together [ a lazy bum I am as it is ]without a single post, Now I can dare writing thanks to a lot of encouragement from all my blog friends and polite reminders from few and of course my dear hubby who does not read but definitely gave me some topic to write like here and here and here :P . I guess this is the small story behind





"ANU'LA SAMSARA" .


p.s.: oh,yes regarding who is Anu?
As many might know,we have a tradition in G.S.B community weddings,where a new bride is given a new name and accepted into her husband s house hold.The new name represents a new identity as a wife and a daughter in law for the bride but it also means she is like a new-born child into the family.So she adorns a new name given by her new family.
Hence Swathy also became Anumita :) or you very own "ANU"
Mystery solved!


P.P.S: Again I ve thrown in some random pictures.[just for you shwetz]First one was clicked by me on my first chopper ride along the "great ocean road". Find me in the second doing "peek-a-boo" !! :D

Just a thought..

P.S: I dont intend to hurt or doubt anyone s intentions by this post.But its just a thought..my thought..No particular event or incident made me think this.

In today s world, when we speak and believe of human equality and rights,I wish we could just eliminate the words "servant" or "maid".

I know the whole "dignity of labour" and related issues would say " what s the big deal , a job is a job is a job",and though I have never been closely associated with anyone in this line of work..I am sure no one would love to say "Oh,My mum s a maid" or " we have been servants for 3 generation"

cant we substitute this with the word "helper" or "house help"?

Now this starts another question saying"so even if you call a helper [lets keep this word from henceforth] a helper or president..it is not going to change their status or duties or responsibilities ,isn't it? then what s the fuss about?"

well.. Have you tried referring a person in such a position as a helper?It does make a lot of difference,I have seen it.

May not be by money or any other way, but just morally.

It will definitely boost self-esteem. I rest my case.

P.P.S: Now I am not an expert in this issue, as I said this was just the quickest,without second thought,boldest ever post I have made.

P.P.S: I clicked this picture.. Nothing great..But its one of my best ones..

is it just me?? :O

Scene 1:
As a kid, when I used to often visit my maternal uncle's place in Kerala.Having a farming background meant lots of people of work in the fields and in the farm.This scene which I am going to mention used to get repeated very often till..er... I grew out of it.. :P
I would be standing in the veranda,my mouth filled with some sweet/goodies my aunt s would have made till a lot of the women [working on the farm] would see me and come to say hello to me! :P
Thus a conversation would be typically like this:
W1: swadi kuttiyallo?[hey,isint this swathy kiddo??] **pinching my cheeks..
me: nan kutti yalla..big girl!!**rubbing my cheeks[u see,I used to speak Malayalam quite okaish as a kid, now its just past glory..hence I remember only these words..shame on me!! :(]
W1 and others would be a bit surprised at this snobbish remark coming from a 4- 6 year old that too mouth full ''eeks and would continue chatting to me anyway..carefull not to mention the "kutti" word!
The point then was I am not a kid..
I am a girl..A [big]GIRL!! :O

Scene 2 :
A 20 s something me go to a kids birthday party[Hey, don't think I am gate crashing,its just the kids parents are friends]
As always..Photo session time when someone announces OK.. All ladies photo!!
A tiny voice in my head: "ladies?" huh... just call us girls OK.. :O
The point now still remains the same:
I am a Girl..A big GIRl!!

Ahem!!
and we say boys will be boys!! :P (which is of course true...)

or...................is it just me???