Good movie, great food and an awesome weekend!

        A's sister and her husband had come to Bangalore to visit us. Oh! By the way, A stays in Bangalore while I work and stay in Hyderabad. More about this later. So, we had gone to the movie " Ek tha Tiger". I am a huge fan of Bollywood movies and almost like all the movies. This movie was too good. It had all the ingredients for success mixed in the right proportion. Music was great. Katrina Kaif looked pretty. She had some action sequences to her credit too. Salman Khan was at his best. The humor was nice. Locations were scenic. So all in all, highly recommended. Go and watch it, if you haven't already.
       After the movie we went for lunch to a place called Ruh. It is situated within stone throw from Central at Bellandur. A and I had been there a couple of times earlier. We go there for the ambience. It looks straight out of Arabian nights. We can sit cross legged on plush seating, with candles lit around. There is water surrounding. It really is an oasis of calm and beauty. I am generally not very particular about food. Give me a bowl of curd rice and I will lap it up in five minutes. I am non-fussy like that. But if someone asked me to try a new dish, I am totally against it. Even if a hundred people vouch for it's taste, I would rather prefer to remain hungry. I am kind of fussy like that. So, A and I have mutton shorba and share a plate of chicken biryani. As I said, we don't go there for food. This time on the SIL and BIL's insistence, we tried the Mediterranean cuisine. I was still apprehensive, but I thought I shouldn't be so rigid. I can always order the chicken biryani. We ordered a platter for starters. It had pita bread, some cutlet kind of thing, some sticks ( like the ones they serve on Rajdhani, with soup; only they were much yummier) and some other thing which I don't remember. I should have registered the names. They came with three dips. I liked the dips more than the starters. We liked them so much that we even asked the waiter about the ingredients each contained. Basic everyday stuff cooked in olive oil. It tasted out of the world. For the main course, we ordered two kinds of rice. Some sun-kissed something. Yeah, I know I am being very vague. But it has been my first time and I didn't pay much attention while the food was being ordered.I just thought whatever! One looked like upma and the other like poha. The poha thing was so rich and delicious. Amazing meal!! I want to recommend it to everyone. You can miss the movie, but don't miss the restaurant.
         By the time we finished lunch it was already 4pm. We rushed home. There was a reason for that too. My SIL had a ten month old baby. Oh boy! He was so adorable. So the rest of the evening was spent playing with him. He looks so cute when he is smiling. He looks cute when he yawns too. Actually he looks cute even if he is not doing anything. You get the drift.... I just spent the rest of the evening  looking at him. Watched a good movie, had great food and spent an awesome weekend.
        

The 'Just Married, Please Excuse' Contest

    I have been following Y's blog for quite some time. When the contest was announced I already knew what I was going to write about.

Here is my entry!!

After our wedding, there was some puja at my husband’s place. All his relatives swarmed around me. Each one was asking, “Do you understand Hindi? Can you speak Hindi?”  I am a south Indian and my husband is a north Indian. North Indians still find it impossible to believe that South Indians can speak fluent Hindi. My language skills vastly improved due to my friends’ circle and also due to my husband’s never ending effort. I answered all their questions in Hindi using English words only when absolutely necessary. They broke into fits of laughter whenever I pronounced something wrong or used a wrong word. I was providing them free entertainment. Then came a new challenge, I had to go and speak to my husband’s dadi. She was a little hard at hearing and didn’t speak very clearly either. I sat next to her and strained my ears hard. I almost felt like a dog, with ears cocked up. She also spoke in a slightly different dialect. So, using my natural common sense I was steering the conversation forward. She asked something on the lines of working. I said that I was working. Then she said something like when are you leaving, or it was something that I presumed she asked. Promptly, I replied, “baarah dadi”. Everyone around me started laughing very loud. I didn’t have a clue as to what was wrong with the answer. I asked a cousin as to why she was laughing; she controlled her laughter with great effort and said, “Dadi asked you how many kids you wanted”. Apparently, she said “Kitne bacche?” and I thought she was asking “Kitne baje?” Our flight was at two in the afternoon and we were leaving at 12. So I had replied    ”baarah”. I also joined in the mirth. The incident acted as an icebreaker and helped me forge stronger bond with the family. Needless to say,  I am dadi’s favourite now, since I wanted to give her more than the desired number of great grandchildren.

Everyone must marry!!

Courtesy: Google Images

Yet another friend of mine got hitched. The divide now is almost fifty-fifty. Nearly half of my college friends are married, and the other half is slowly coming onto our side. The conversations haven't changed much. I talk about the same things to both the married and the unmarried girls. There is a difference of just one question though. I end up asking the unmarried ones, "So, when is your turn? You might be the next one in line." And to the married ones I politely ask, "How is the husband doing?" This has become a routine of sorts.

         I was having one of the usual conversation with a very dear friend S. After the gossip was exchanged, I asked ,"Why don't you get married?" "And do what?"Not really the reply that I had expected. I mean, she could have said "Let's see" or" I will keep you updated if there is something." To say the least, I was taken aback. When I further inquired, she replied, "i don't want to give up everything I have and move to a new place with a new person." What she said made sense. Two of my friends resigned their perfect jobs to follow husbands who were chasing their own dreams. One moved a continent apart, while the other moved a state away. Even I felt bitter that girls are expected to sacrifice. I often feel blessed that A doesn't expect stuff like that from me.
         Ok, I am digressing from what I wanted to say. I told S, "You are not aware of the advantages that marriage brings along. You are seeing just one side of the coin. Not everyone has to sacrifice a career."
"Oh okay, so do enlighten me," she said cynically.
I began enumerating the benefits.

• You can go to a late night movie, without your parents asking you what time will you be back.
• You have someone who buys you a sexy dress and says that you look great, even  though your love handles are bulging.
• You can go to exotic foreign places for honeymoon and holidaying  thereafter.
• You don't have to carry your bags wile travelling.
• You can have hour long conversations on the phone and no one throws you dirty looks.
• You have a chauffeur at your beck and call.
• You can have wild sex and not worry about the condom ripping.
• Your parents will themselves encourage to go out more often.

 I was about to give her more reasons. But she stopped me midway. "Yeah, but you have to do all that with the same guy".
"Yeah, that's true" I added wistfully. Maybe, to be single is more fun. Nonetheless marriage life currently is more fun. Notwithstanding S's argument against it.
To have the last word, I said, "You will know when you marry, even if it is just one person."

A New Beginning

Courtesy: Google Images

It's been a couple of weeks since I celebrated my birthday. I decided to start blogging. This is in sync with the new phase of my life. I recently got married and what best than to share the travails of being a newly married wife. Coming back to my birthday, A ( my hubby) was under a ot of pressure to do something special for me. After all it was my first birthday after marriage. Beginning June I was pestering him everyday to come up with something unique. " It's a one time occasion," I said. " It will come again next year" he replied, unaffected. Being stubborn, I persisted. I even asked a well meaning friend to give him a call and ask for his plans. I thought he was keeping it a surprise. I was shocked when he answered " The first birthday should be a low key affair so that it doesn't set any precedent for future  celebration."
       Disappointed. That was an understatement. How could A act so casual?I started a sermon on how it was his duty to be a good husband. I wasn't his girlfriend any more. The cake and flowers wouldn't be enough this year. A was quiet and said he would see about that. Ironically, the week before my birthday, A had a release coming up at office and was extremely busy. Taking my wifely duties seriously, I didn't nag him. A nagging girlfriend is supposedly cute, but when it comes to a nagging wife, it is a strict no-no. I was left with no choice but to wait for a miracle. On the day before the D-day, A came back early from office. He bought a bouquet of flowers and a chocolate cake. Ok, so nothing surprising or special. At ten, we sat down to watch a movie. We were trying to stay awake till midnight, cut the cake and sleep. The cake lay in fridge while I lazed on the couch. I was struggling to stay awake. I usually sleep by ten. Just the cake didn't seem to justify my staying awake, but I didnt want to hurt A. Finally it was ten minutes to twelve. A suddenly got up and instead of going towards the fridge, he asked me to stand up. Feeling drowsy and lazy, I refused to budge from the couch. He dragged me up and led me towards one of the bedrooms.
    Let me digress a little. We had a three bedroom place, but two of the bedrooms remain unused. We even kept them locked, to save ourselves the effort of cleaning them everyday. The place was taken to accommodate both sets of parents, if by negligible chance decide to visit us together.
So A led me to one of the unused bedrooms. He pushed the door open. I was still confused. Why can't we cut the cake in the living room? Surprise!! A said. The room had a newly made bed complete with mattress ,quilt and matching cushions. I had seen that at a furniture store some time ago. We didn't really need a bed so we let it go. It was exactly as I pictured, if it were in our house. The whole room was filled with balloons. On one wall was written " Happy Birthday R." I was pleasantly surprised.More than that. Totally unexpected. So, A did plan a surprise for me. The best part being he managed to keep it a surprise. He set a very high precedent and I can't wait for my next birthday.
   You might wonder what had I done for A's birthday. Well, his birthday was just a week after the wedding. We were on our honeymoon. It was a new place and I didn't even know where to get a cake. So, needless to say, I did nothing.
  Anyways I am loving being a wife and this is the best journey ever.