The New Year Pre-Eve Party

She looked pretty in her dress from her S Maama, played a Kohli fisher man selling" Meenu Meenu Goldfish!!" and danced as Jane in the Tarzan song

Nothing went as planned but we all had a lot of fun ! A great way to bid goodbye to 2007.

Whyzag- What air- Araku

As promised, here is a very crisp summary of most of the Vizag( Vishakapatnam/ Waltair)- Araku trip

Day one was a beach visit, modern toy train ride atop a hill with some lovely views, a visit to the aquarium and a night cap of "Taare zameen par"

Day two was all the inviting beaches ( Bhimli, Rishikonda and RK and the more unexplored beaches in between), lovely Buddisht monastery ruins from way back at Thotlakonda and the Simhachalam temple. Rounded it off with a visit INTO a REAL submarine which has been retired from the fleet.

We did Burra caves and Araku Valley on day 3. Highlights were the cool tunnel filled( and people full) train ride from Vizag to Burra and a very scenic and an adventurous drive from Burra to Arraku on really sharp roads on the ghats.

Overall impression of Vizag- a lovely organised and clean town with retail going strong.

Buys- Ettikopa toys , what else.

Eats- All the Dasapalla chain restaurants- Heritage was the best.

Last Christmas and This one

Last year-

This year. The datewise chocolate calender countdown to 25 December. . .

Unlike last year, I was too tied up to take any great snaps on Chirstmas day. We hosted a huge dinner party after returning from our Vizag- Araku trip late afternoon.

More about that trow.

The week that was

Saturday
Anushka's first kutchery( sa re ga ma...) - Sudha Raghunath

Sunday
Anushka's now 24 months. Another kutcheri - Sanjay Subramaniam

Monday
A lovely annual review meet at Kumarakom Taj and my first dip in the private pool in the villa!!

Tuesday
Bollywood theme night in a laaga chunre mein daag get up- danced non stop despite all the extra kgs

Wednesday
A lovely early mornign bird watching trek and boat ride with lilies and of course birds

Thursday
My first Parents Teachers meeting and it was a proud one . I could not stop grinning. And then feeling sheepish about it

Friday
Back to blogging only to take another break for Christmas

Aaja Nachle

Aaja Nachle reminded me of Swadesh- the home coming, the enrollment of the commoner, the need to give back.....Madhuri has aged well and I think I like her in what seems to be her first thinking role. The musical dance drama feel is very and Vaibhavi Merchant's choreography is truly vibrant.

Seeing Akshaye Khanna in it was a surprise and it is nice that a lot of the really talented cast is okay with doing such small roles.

Enjoy it , not necessarily at the theatre.

Thaathu's Fan

Saturday
Went to my father and my uncle's alma mater - MCC- my parents also met for the first time somewhere there....Very romantic campus indeed though the hostels look rather run down now. Anush enjoyed running around the trees! ( the above pic is the only one where she was a little (too) still for me to click)

I was wowed by my Dad's strong sense of direction in a palce he is visiting after about 3 decades.

The college fest - Deerwood - I think it was- gave it more dazzle. When one of the "rock" bands finished their number, Anush began clapping and saying " Sing uncle ! Sing sojaa chanda" her current favoruite lullaby!!

Blew up a lot of money ( my maama's ) at Fab India and got him a silver Ganesha to take back with him.

Realised that Poompuhar is on the same side at VTI on Mount road and I had been mistaking Kairali for Poompuhar all this while, Found that VTI is most economical while Cottage belives is tripling the rates

Got a couple of "fit them in" kind of jigsaws - a rooster and a ship for Anushka

Sunday- Hung out with family and caught up on memories


Bottoms Up- Anush likes to imitate her Thaathu exercising. She tells him" Thaathu- Anushka also wearing jetty ( tamil for undies)- enjoy this. . .

Anushka's Den

Finally this Leo has got her own little space.

My maama , her K Thaathu, has got her a tent with butterflies in a delightful pink and purple combo.

It all goes back into a small back pack when dismantled and comes with a flash light, a water bottle and a hair band!!

She has also got Zolo-go-go which she enjoys and a rainbow maker apart from books and clothes....

Presidents Rule

Tagged by Shobana.

If I were President I would still eat what I usually do. Pref have my mother train the chefs there and the only big DONTs for myself would be no non veg, garlic and excess masala.

BF: A choice each day between
Waffle and Maple syrup
Grilled Bread and a well done omlette
Upma/ Rava Dosa/ Akki Roti
A surprise item
Some fruit juice and masala chai for sure

Snack: A big bowl of boiled INDIAN corn and sukhi bhel - murmura ( porri)

Lunch: Different kind of roti each day (missi/ tandoori/ phulka/ bajra/ thepla/ etc etc), dal ( each day a diff type) and a spinach of some sort and a Subji ( should be a surprise again) and one mixed rice-non spicy

Tea: Ginger lemon tea. Any fried munches from Grand(ma) Sweets or a fresh Subway

Dinner: Same as lunch, but replace the rice with a continental bake/ salad/ mexican snack thrown in, some surprise dessert but once a month Death by chocolate

Shobana- what personality do you think I am now based on the above

Coincidentally Wicked

I have been so busy. My maama from NY who recently had a heart attack is visiting with his son after 8 years. My father and grandma have come down to catch up with him and us. Anush is having a ball with all the gifts and the attention.

Anushka had no problem doing away with diapers for the night- it has been 3 weeks now. I just need to remind her to use the loo soon after she gets up and it is fine!!

When I was falling short of time to write a post and needed a tag- I got two!!

My Wicked Side
This one is really for you itchy- I have recycled a flat cake and projected it as intentional and layered it with ice cream and cream and made a mock tiramisu like dessert which you liked!

I have been viewing a lot of "imported" DVDs though I am staunchly against pirated books.

A couple of occasions, when pregnant, I have eaten half my dinner before guests come in and then had another "light" dinner with them as well. Else they would know I am a glutton.

I have shut the lights and geyser in Navy's bath often to make him come out faster.

As a young teen travelling by train to Chennai from Mumbai , we had unreserved passengers enter our compartment and occupy our seat .When my father tried to reason with them and I saw a fight emerging, I told him to let them. But i stretched out, flipped pages of my newspaper a tad too grandly, generally made it incredibly difficult for the lady to stay on the seat.

Here is the witch-like wicked one- I told Navy's mom about his "bad" habit of adding smoke to the environ - nasty huh? But it worked. So the end mattered more than the means here.

Coincidence
Chocbox being what she is has an interesting tag on offer.

A sweet one- Navy and I inadvertently end up in similar colours/ combos on outings. It still happens and we believe it reinforces our chemistry,

A holy one- I lost my passport a little before our planning our Europe tour in 2002. Just as I gave up hope a neighbour told me to pray to Aurobindo- Mother. The very next day I found it in my suitcase as I was packing to travel to Mumbai on work. Mother knows best !!

A sad one- When I declared I was carrying (the first time), a couple of friends told me it was bad luck to announce before the first trimester. I had a miscarriage that time.

A mad one- Anything significant thing I do on 4th usually flops. So I avoid that date for doing things other than the routine

A crazy one- For a year in college I believed using Ponds DF talc helped me have a good day with my studies and the boys.