And I finally took my painting brushes out...

Those were there on the rack for months, catching dust... I was telling myself, every week-end, i am gonna start painting.... Every week-end comes with something or other... No time to relax... I have unfinished, half-read books in my shelf... where has all the time gone all on a sudden.... Work eating them all...
Being sick last week turned out to be blessing in disguise... Sudden attack of arthritis because of the strong delhi winter.... it was bad, i had to take two days off from work... The week-end following, i cut down all my   trips and, visits, decided to stay in my house only... On friday i came from daryaganj bags full of clay pottery... Saturday and Sunday, i unleashed the artist in my... felt good, throwing colours around... came up with some pretty ones in the end....

Next step is getting back on to the real painting.... i need to get a canvas.... painting is such a stress reliever... why didnt i realise that before!!!

Goodbye 2012... Bring it on 2013....

2012 had been a different year... a difficult one to rate....
Too many ups and down.... lots of laughs and tears...
Made new friends, lost many too...
An year i took many risks in life, went against everybody's wishes.... chose a different career, which angered as well as saddened some people...
The year had been not so easy.... had many challenges, personal and professional.... new place, new work atmosphere, had a tough time adjusting to the ways to people...
I can foresee, 2013 will be even more challenging.... have to make even more tougher decisions... even more heartbreaks and tears will be there... but there will be some space to smile as well... hope!!!
I am ready for the challenges... i am ready to face and fight.... bring it on 2013!!!!

The Baking days!!!

When the season of cakes and cookies were here, all i wanted was to try my hands on baking.... always wanted to jump into this long... But back at home, my mom never let me experiment in her kitchen... when i was in Hyderabad or Chennai, i never got a chance, there was no time... and most of my X-mas time, i spent with my friends...

This time around in Delhi i decided to get the oven, and make my own christmas cake.... I went against the option of microwave oven.... the best cakes are made from the old electric oven.... after a hunt around, i finally found one in an old electric shop in East Delhi...

It looked exactly like my mom's oven and i was 100% confident of getting the cakes right.... 

Now all i wanted was getting a right recipe.... I had modified my mom's fruit and nut cake recipe inspired my some bakers' blogs.... 

To begin with, more to test my oven, started with chocolate cake... it went fine.. though the sugar level was bit low... I had some cake testers in the form of my colleagues... They gave a thumbs up...

The next step was try out the nut cake... Somewhere the sugar level went up and the whole thing came a bit sticky... but as consolation was the flavour was amazing... so thumbs up on flavour from the cake testers... Some lessons learned... pointed noted in my recipe book....

With full spirit and lots of confidence, on Christmas cake i tried on the nuts cake once again... I had a special star-shaped baking tray for that... The flavour in air was all good, and i wont be knowing the taste of it until christmas.... 

I packed my bags for Christmas @ Josephine's... Sigh of relief when the cake was cut... the consistency came right, tasted good, though there was still room for improvement.... Some thumbs up on baker me... 

Thrilled at an amazing christmas time in Delhi... Enjoyed a special christmas cake from Josephine... Have to try out that recipe some day... for now, back to work, finish some pending work before the year ends... 

May be i will start a food blog, on my experiments in kitchen... More to come soon... more recipes will be posted soon....

Trip to wagamon and the end of a great camera....

I was looking forward to this vacation... not that i was excited to meet all my family... i just wanted to get away from the polluted delhi and get some fresh air from the mountains... so when Melissa was joining me to my home vacation, i was excited to put Wagamon as our first stop...

Surprisingly few of my family took leaves to come down to thodupuzha and join to make it a family picnic... it all started great... we packed bottles and bottles of water, appam, banana... and other homemade stuff... we set out in two cars; me and sherry joining mable and johny and Melissa who came together from aluva... Jacob and jerryn with their family in jacob’s car...

We stopped by many points on our way up... clicking pictures, posing... the other day mable was commented so much about how my camera stayed on for so long; 6 and half years without any problem... just so happened that after i clicked her picture, next point my camera just stopped functioning... i tried all; switching it off, cleaning the lens... nothing worked... the trip was going great, the first one in our vacation, i feeling so terrible...

i loved that camera, and i was proud of the way i kept that, how many pictures in took in that... the camera i bought with the first honorarium i ever got in my life; from FIAS for the talk i gave there... it’s no more... all i could do that moment was to console myself, forget about it and join others in the fun...

The rest of the trip was no less than fun... we drove straight to a resort near the pine valley for lunch... reaching there i realised i was bitten by some blood sucking leeches... my feet was all bloody and i didn’t even realise that... it turned out i was not the only one affected....

After lunch we moved to pine valley... valley looked spooky... had a feel of the setup of a scary movie... clicked lots of pics there as well.. everyone was eager to be at the meadows... we drove over there, because the clouds were gathering and there was a change of rain... as soon as we reached there, instead of relaxing, we opened our boxes and started attacking mom’s appam and beef... well, it looked like the whole trip was for the fooding... but it was a nice picnic over there...

We spent some time there till it started raining... we, meli and mable did some gangnam style over there for the photographer... J it was fun...

Thick clouds started gathering and we had to leave.... me and meli were filling our lungs with all those fresh air.... we knew the moment we r back in delhi, its all those polluted air we will be getting...

By the time we decided to visit St. Alphonsa’s church and turned to that road, hell broke loose and it started raining heavily... we somehow managed to reach the church... There were lots of people visiting the church even in heavy rain... we stayed there for sometime, prayed at St. Alphonsa’s tomb...

The journey back to thodupuzha was hard as well... it was dark and it was raining... we reached home safely and all we wanted was to crash and sleep... because next day was awaiting us with a long trip to Trivandrum... 

RIP Vini... you will be missed...

How bad a friend you be if you would come to know that your friend is no more from the web telecast of her funeral...

Sunday morning facebook gave me the shock of a lifetime when i saw my friend vinitha being tagged in a funeral album ‘vinitha aleyas – her last rites’... i hoped and wished that’s another vinitha... but the face of the person the coffin was just her... and i didn’t know how to react... it’s been few weeks since i have heard from facebook or twitter... and i was busy for weeks and weeks... I still have no clue how and why....

Vinitha was one of those people who will be around online when you need... got to know her from yahoo 360... a non-stop blogger... some of her blogs those days sounded silly then, but it was all her... frank person, who will be there for everyone else... Met her once in person, 2 years back, when she came to thodupuzha for some shopping... she was the same person i used to know via her blogs... bubbly and talkative...

It’s hard to believe what has happened... i cannot speculate on how and why it happened... all i know is one of my good friends will no longer be around... i am going to miss you Vini... RIP....

Professionals need to be professionals

Ever since i joined my office, i have seen people talking so much about the company’s professionalism and all... the managers, they never stop talking about what the company expects from you... initially i felt i wont be able to keep up with them... but slowly i realised, its all just the talk or their level of high standard is infact on the lower side...

All confirmed in the annual conference for sales organised by the company... my manager said, ‘formal dressing’... well, ok... i thought... first corporate conference, lets go all professional... i got myself dressed up in a formal suit.... but it turned out, i was the only formally dressed editor there... it was quite embarrassing considering the way my group showed up... even for the party... editors there are considered just a bunch of nerds, i surprised everyone breaking that rule...

I had a long chat with others who worked there before and my cousin... everyone agreed people this part of the world are so miserly... wont spend much for parties or dressing up.... i consoled myself, atleast i acted like a professional.... 

well, next time, my manager says anything about the company’s legacy, i know how to weigh that and take that....

A break from work, pollution... a break from delhi....

Finally a break from Delhi....
Things were getting bit crazy in office... work piling up, me getting frustrated with everything around it.... I need to get out of it before i decide to give up on anything... Moreover the weather in delhi is changing a lot, and usually the change of weather makes me fall it...
So it is the right time to take a break from this dusty city... yes, the pollution was almost getting on to my nerves...
Now its time for some time in beach, hills... boating... enjoying some nice fish... cant wait.....
Kerala here i come.... plz don' rain.... and no hartal....