Don't we all fall in love with something at some point of time and simply go crazy about it!

Not people, but things, like shoes, dresses, bags, bangles... anything you can think of. It becomes one of those things you can't live without during that "obsessed" period. Yeah... call that obsession actually and not love!

I have these phases all the time. Sometime, it's a bag or could be a new watch or may be the kohl pencil I bought! Once it was also the Subway Salad and at another time it was Mother Dairy Chocochips ice cream!! I'd behave as if I'd not live another moment without these. Phew!!!

Thankfully, these never lasted for more than a few days. Imagine the kilos I'd pile on gorging on a cup of ice cream every day for even a couple weeks!!

And now, the obsession is back. Those guessing it to be my husband.... well not really. He is the love of my life :))

Anyways, this time it is something I never really liked in particular. I admired other women wearing it, but was convinced that it will never go well on me. And I never tried it ever. Pity I never did :(

What is it?

Bindis!!!

Those pretty little patterns that adorn your face and go perfectly with every Indian outfit.

Ohh... call me obsessed. For what else is it but obsession that makes me buy these even when I am out for grocery shopping! I get attracted to those little shops that display strips of these hanging in the open. I am drawn to them like ants to sugar and end up buying at least a couple packs.

Of course, I have my preferences. They have to be medium sized and round. I bought so many tiny patterns before marriage, of which most I have given to friends. I have been told by none other than Mom (MIL) and my doc (husband) that the bigger round ones suit me best.

Crazy, isn't it? While getting ready as a bride, the beautician tried many patterns on me and each of those made me look like a Page 3 socialite! No kidding. Finally, we settled in for basic red round studded bindi and there...the look was perfect!

It was only the next day for my bidaai (departure to the groom's place), I put on a bindi on my own and there started my tryst with bindis.

And now whenever I wear Indian attire, my look seems incomplete without a bindi! They make you different and so nice... wouldn't you agree? Ohhh wait, I am not obsessed. I am in love!!!

What's your current obsession, blogdosts? Tell me....

Till next time, take care and stay precious!

I am back after my hiatus! How have you all been?

What seemed like a month long holiday simply flew by and here I am... back to square one. Of course there are changes :)

Here are some pics from the wedding.

When I first came to Delhi from my hometown, I was this dreamy-eyed, ambitious girl, full of confidence and enthusiasm. I'd say that I am still that way, just that the dreams have become more pragmatic now. Guess that's what is called experience and exposure.

There was this wish list I had. Something that I never wrote down in black and white, but which was always there. And as time passed, I, silently, ticked off things/tasks accomplished.

Till now, it was all about me - goals set for myself, things to be done etc etc. And in some days, it's going to be different. From me, it will soon become 'us'.

Before that happens for real, I need to get things out of my mind and see for myself where do I stand from where I was eight years ago.

You might find some of them funny or ridiculous, but then, not everything need to be serious or material, right?

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Blogdosts, I am scared, excited and nervous!!! Few days to the D-day and now it seems it's coming too soon. You know that feeling you have in the stomach just before a 100 mtr dash? Yes, you got it. It's just that! Tips on staying calm and composed, anyone?

Will be back soon with more. Till then, take care and stay precious. And yes, send me tips too :)

So, yes, the gifts are on their way to their rightful receivers. And not going by the initial count (10), all those who sent me their addresses will receive a little something from me :)

I have been on Blogger for almost 4 years now. Now, that is a long enough time to have a huge list of followers and ensure scores of comments. But then, I am a lazy blogger. Soon after registering on Blogger, I forgot all about it. And it was only 2 years later in 2009 that I started taking this space seriously.

Since then, this has become a part of me. I am equally restless when I don't post for a long time. And to hear from you makes my day. For me, this is a world which has those of us who share one love - the love for writing! One can write here without any fear or inhibition and rest assured that he/she has listeners somewhere out there!

Despite me being such a thankless and lazy blogger, I have made quite a few friends here. And you all, blogdosts, have made my blogging world so beautiful. Whatever else may others say, I have always needed the motivation to go on here... and my motivation is you. To hear from you, to speak to you, to connect with you - blogging for me is about me and you :)

Are you all wondering, what is making me write what I am?

It's because I want to tell you all how wonderful you all are and how beautiful you've made blogging for me.

And blogdosts, I have some news, happiness, to share with you :)

Last month I got engaged to my best friend and soul-mate, the one I laugh with, live for and love!

(Ohh, yes!! This was the news I wanted to share with you all!!!)!

The rings!!! :))

Happy "Us" :))

It's been incredible together so far and as we embark on a new journey, my happiness will not be complete without your wishes, blogdosts :)

Thank you once again, blogdosts, for being there :).

Stay precious and take care :)

Valentine's fever!! Seriously.

It's every where. Markets. Restaurants. Malls. Colleges. Radio. Television. The Earth. The Waters. The Air!!!

It amazes me. Just everything about it and more so, the euphoria and madness around it. Come on, don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the idea of being in love, with oneself and others! It sure is one of the most fantastic purpose to living.

But the focus on just one day to celebrate it; and that too with almost everyone vying for your attention, selling anything and everything in the name of Valentine's Day!!!

The other day, I crossed an Archie's store and saw this really huge teddy bear holding a heart shaped cushion that said 'Happy Valentine's Day'. It left me wondering - Who gifts such things??? Then there were offers all around the market in the name of the big day - Gift your valentine a free holiday or a free dress (after you buy one for yourself) or a free gym membership. I mean every one wants to give some else's valentine something for free! Now that gets interesting.

At my boarding, this day didn't mean much to any of us. Okay, so we were in the age when every thing and day and feeling was not all that commercialized. We had a three-months long winter vacation (Dec-Feb) and Valentine's day fell during that time. I think that made us obviously oblivious about this day.

It was during the last few years in school (a day school in my hometown) when the Valentine fever caught on. One of the things you will never miss to see at girls' schools is the traffic at the time of girls leaving for home. More than parents and guardians, there are boys from adjoining schools racing, lingering around or simply pining for the attention of their love interest(s).

As school captains, we conducted impromptu schoolbag raids a couple days before the D-days (read Friendship and Valentine's days). Wicked...weren't we ;)!!! And the kinds of gifts, cards and letters we found never failed to surprise/shock us! Then, while going home, a red rose (one too many) would fall in/on our conveyance (an auto rickshaw or car) and that happened with almost every girl in high school.

If you were observant enough, you could also see couples exchanging love notes/gifts, all away from the prying eyes of seniors, classmates, teachers and parents. The skills they displayed were awesome. I mean you just cannot catch them!!!

There was this one note from a love-lorn boy that accidentally (okay, I'm lying) fell in my hands and it was written in blood!!! The kinds of inspirations you get from Bollywood!!! The girl it was meant for started crying when she read it while I had a serious question - How do you ascertain it IS the guy's blood??? (I mean it could be from the mutton/chicken his Mom cooked the previous night. For how else will you explain blood that wrote like ink?! What an anti-romantic I am or a sadist maybe!!! Uh-oh, that's okay :)

And of course, there were (still are!!) these protesters (Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal apparently) who would not spare any couple they found together on these days. Didn't matter if the couple was married or actually brother and sister. They would bash up the boy, abuse the girl, make them do sit-ups and God knows what else!!! All in the name of our culture and how westernization is ruining it! Never mind that they wore Levis and Rayban and drunk only 'foreign' brands!!!

Then Delhi, where Valentine's Day has been nothing more than over-crowded markets, malls and restaurants. Last year, my siblings were visiting me and on the 14th, we happened to be shopping (all because it was a Sunday). My younger sister clutched my brother's hand and said, smiling sweetly - You are my Valentine. My 19 something brother shook her hand away saying he is so very single and doesn't want to send a wrong message to his prospective Valentine(s)!!! I looked around in the busy and very crowded market to see if there was a probability of this kind of prospect there. My brother is surely not one to lose hope!

Before you think me to be an anti-social person, let me tell you, I too have always gone with the flow.

Thankfully, I never gifted or received stuff toys. There was this period (and I call it period as it went on for a few years) when the doorbell would ring and someone would leave a bunch of roses at the doorstep. I could never find out who it was.

Then there was this incident when a guy threw a rose at me while I was riding pillion with my father on his scooter. The rose hit my dad on his eye and my dad stopped and scolded the poor boy left, right and center!

On another occasion, I tried to set up a date for a close friend and her guy. Every thing was planned out by me in complete detail - the roses, the gifts et all; only to find out that the couple broke off! The advance payment never returned to me :(

Ohh and yes!! I have also spent a couple Valentine's days while in college hanging around near the ghats (riverbanks of Ganga or Yamuna). Not that we wanted to, but it was all to help a friend meet her guy on the D-day! (We did the same on their respective birthdays and other "important" days.)

Now, this day brings in a lot more nostalgia. Hanging out with friends, deciding/buying gifts or helping someone prepare a proposal speech, feeding all sorts of lies to friends' parents (to help them meet their date!).... the list can go on.

With school and college a thing of the past, the excitement of these days does fade away. For me, I know I will have a 12-hour eye-to-eye date with the computer monitor in office this Valentine's day. I am still helping friends get nice gifts for their partners (I can be a great gift consultant, a friend said today).

While I spend my day in office, I hope we get to celebrate such days all year through. And why only partners, this time surprise yourself and gift yourself that new shirt or jewelery you've been eying. You can even get a bunch of roses delivered to your parents or better still take them out for dinner. You can even take your grand father/ grand mother to a park and spend some time chatting with them.

Whatever you may/will do for people you love, don't wait for this one day to express it. Celebrate each day with them. Life is very short and love, most precious!

Happy Valentine's Day, Blogdosts!

Of course, I remember promising that I will share more of the changes that I am bringing (or at least trying to) in and around myself. Remember the anger management part. Ironically enough, I happened to lose my cool the same day I wrote the post! But I was against exhibiting it and ended up with a bad migraine. What they say is true - it's hard (and painful) to give up on old habits!

Okay, so the next on my list was my health. For the records, I was in the hospital in the first half of January 1, 2011! Oh yes, I managed to fall sick close to New Year's eve and while everyone was busy planning their 31st evening, I was trying to get an appointment with my doctor. So January 1 it was!

Meeting a doctor is always scary. They sure prepare you for the worst that your respective ailment has to offer. My doctor was no different and she told me in no fancy words that I need to "actually" take care of myself unless I want a surgery happening!

The message was straight and clear. And I did not want to take a chance. In fact, I'd never want to. My next step was getting all the information I could to eating right and staying healthy. Starting January 4, I was on my way. It's said it takes at least 21 days to make a habit. So I waited over 21 days to post/blog about this [clever me! :)].

Here are few of the things I am doing. And they have worked great for me till now!

I have been doing fine on it till now and plan to stick to it for as long as I can/am able to. Blogdosts, please hope and pray that I am abide by it for as long as possible!

P.S - Anyone willing to try the healthier way, feel free to drop me an email and I will send you some charts and samples.

Till then, take care and stay precious :)

24 Days to be exact. Yes, that's how long I have been away. Not so much from this space as I read others' blogs pretty regularly, but just that I don't write too often.

A blogdost wrote saying that blogging happens in phases. I can agree on this for myself, but when I see others writing so regularly, it sort of makes me feel guilty for not doing so myself. And then, I just received a few emails asking if all was well as I hadn't updated my blog for sometime.

Ohh, yes. All is well. And if anything doesn't tend to be, I make it so :). Yes, that's the new me now. Those of you who read the last few posts would know what this is all about.

And so even before the new year, I had ushered in the new 'me'.

No New Year resolutions for me.

No promises that I won't be able to keep.

No goals that seem too high and far from reachable.

No targets that beat me down instead.

And no aims that may eventually aim to get me into self-pity mode!

Well, I definitely am not forsaking the world or becoming a recluse. I am simply trying to make things better for myself.

My first step - anger management. Oh yes! I have a real bad temper. It takes some time to make me angry but when I do, I am bad! Basically then, I don't care!!!

I haven't had this forever! It just became a more dominant part of me off late. There was a time when Dadaji said that I am too patient and I need to take things more aggressively. Guess all that built up over time. For a few years by myself in Delhi and I had become this angry young woman! Of course, I have suffered enough due to this.

So when I began my backward journey, this was on top of my mind.

On retrospection, I am happy. I am not there yet...but on my way for sure.

Rest assured there are no tips I can share or any book I'd recommend. I have none! I am only trying to know myself better, trying to understand myself and what triggers that kind of behavior.

Trust me, making yourself see logic is far difficult than trying to make someone else do it. For me to do it, I need to get away from the situation/person, and give myself time. And it seems to be working.

How do I know?

'Well, just day before yesterday someone said to me, "Yes, you have not lost your temper that way for some time now."

That sure was a compliment!

So it seems like a new beginning from here. Things are looking up and I am keen to make them only better from here.

Blogdosts, I do intend to making some good changes here too, which includes the design. If you have any suggestions, do send those to me. This design bores even me now :(. So come on, help me to bring about some more positive change around me :)

Waiting to hear from you.

Take care and stay precious :)

Yes, I have been away for a long long time now. The last I wrote was some time in October and it's already December! Time flies, I tell you.

And no, I haven't been away due to bloggers' block or something. All this while, I was working on something I wish I had done long long ago.

Something that will remain a dream even after its realization.

Something that will remain incomplete even after completion.

A week from now, it will be a year since Dadaji (grandfather) left us. Or better put, left the mortal world; For he is still there, somewhere; For I can still feel his presence around me.

All this year, I have questioned myself about life, about death. Suddenly everything seemed so hollow, so inconsequential. The day it all happened and the days following it seem a blur. Our bodies worked mechanically. And each day since then, I tell myself - He was with us this time last year. This fact deepens the loss, makes it more unbearable to think of all those lost moments/occasions I could have spent with him.

But then, isn't life always so beautiful in retrospection!? It's only at times like these when you realize that time does not wait nor does life.

This one year, we cried, we laughed, we worked, we lived. Life did not stop then and it still goes on. Life still gave its fair share of happiness, surprises, disappointment, sorrow.

The vacuum remained. There was and is always something amiss. And I know that at many moments of this past year, I have not been how he would have wanted/expected me to be. At times, I reacted impulsively and at others, I lost my cool too quickly. I knew he would scold me, had he been around.

To say that I have regrets, is true.

I regret for not being what he taught me to be.

I regret not acting how he always wanted me to.

I regret for crying out my helplessness and not counting my strengths.

I regret for letting my sorrows take over me.

I regret for turning a blind eye towards all the blessings he left behind for me.

How much of this I can restore, I know not. All I know is, wherever he may be watching me from, he will not be very happy.

To say that his absence made me do what I did would be more hurting to him. For he made a strong person of me, a person who withstood all troubles and sorrows without a frown. And he was proud of me.

My backward journey begins now - to make amends, to restore peace, to bring back the lost happiness.

A year later, I have let people and circumstances affect me and that brought out the worst in me. It is now that I need to tread back, for it is now or it will never be.

Dadaji, a week from now, I will complete a task that you left half done. And that will be my tribute to you. And all that I do now towards accomplishing the dreams you saw through my eyes are my goals. I went astray, I fell weak and lost my way without you. Now no more. I can feel you close to me and I can see the disappointment in your eyes. Now, no more.

For now, I will be what you always wanted, I will do what you always said and I will act how you taught me to. And I know you know all that I did, you understand why I did that and you will forgive me.