Behind every successful...

..man, there is a woman. No.

Behind every successful facebook status of mine, there is a blog post coming up on www.pragatha.com . Lame huh? How can a facebook status be successful. Padhu and I decided that a status message that has at least 10 thumps-up is a successful one.

My most latest successful status is "If the movie Arunachalam was dubbed in English, Rajnikanth would be singing 'that only, this only Arunachalam me only'."

If you have heard the Tamil song, you may understand the lyrics. If you don't understand Tamil, then read the English lyrics and that's exactly what it means. Yes lyricists in Tamil Nadu write songs that mean 'That is that, this is this, my name is Arunachalam'. Die hard Rajinikanth fans (ok, i'm one too) - don't take it the wrong way but ain't he a little too old to come back to acting now? Or is he gonna make a super comeback like Amitabh Bachan and say 'Buddhah ho gaya tera baap'?

No I DID NOT SAY THAT - Rajinikanth, please come back. I definitely need to see you act with Deepika Padukone and we hear Aishwarya Rai is pregnant. What if its a girl, how can you not act with that kid!

Don't you just love those tiny hearts!!

That's the product of Day 5 of the cupcake week. Did I not mention cupcake week before? Ok, long thing short - there was a cupcake week. It was more a week at mum's place so I baked goodies for my grandparents and parents every evening. I've already posted most of the pictures on Facebook cause I like the instant attention. The pretty cupcake you see up there is a Vanilla cupcake.

Since I hadn't posted any pictures recently I decided to post this one. Not a winner, I know.

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

You can judge by post by its title - All permission granted, but please don't judge me. Yes, I have used a Karan Johar film's title but somehow - I wanted to.

A little ladybug bit me yesterday. A very cute little ladybug. 3.5 years old. My second cousin's daughter and of course my little niece. I think I met her once at my cousin's wedding and this one was the second. The little ladybug's name is Aneesha. Little Ladybug Aneesha has been on my mind for the past two days. I had gone to visit my uncle (Aneesha's granddad) as he had a surgery. Aneesha baby had come down to India from New York before two months along with her mom. She had taken off from playschool and come to be with grandpa and family.

The thing about Aneesha that caught my eye immediately was the volley of questions she asked her mom. She is a keen listener. Every time someone says something she would listen carefully and her next question would be based on that. When Padhu and I entered the house, Aneesha was totally different. She had had this love for long hair so she was wearing a wig plaited down to her feet and a saree that her mum and aunt put on for her. She was wearing make-up and looked like the perfect American baby who was learning Bharatnatyam. We entered and she instantly shied away. She hid for almost 15 minutes and then peeked after she had removed her make up and hairdo. With her summer floral dress and the bindiless face - she was the perfect little kid! She ran from person to person in the room but came to her mum with her questions.

Aneesha did a lot of talking and smiling. She invited me over to Ishu's Home which is her New York residence. I was truly amazed by the beauty in this little child's manners. She was the cute,cuddly type - like every kid. But the special part is - she was conversational. Cute cuddly and conversational - who's gonna say no to this kid!I could have packed her in a little bag lined with flowers to suit her clothes and brought her home with me!

Not enough that I fell in love with this child already - she said the most beautiful thing when we were about to leave. Padhu and I left the house and came downstairs to leave and we said our byes to everyone. I said 'bye Aneesha, we will come to Ishu's home in New York'. Aneesha replied saying 'Don't say bye. I don't like saying byes'. My heart sank. It was instant, open and outright honest. She loved to have people over and never wanted to let go. I replied saying 'We will meet again in New York' and left. All the way back home and till this minute I have wondered if anyone I know or knew have ever uttered such beautiful words - 'I don't like saying byes'. Innocence, honesty and love. Also, the fact that she met me only twice made my heart sink.

I woke up this morning how this beautiful little baby said her bye to her daddy dearest 2 months ago. However the dad and daughter are dealing with it - I saw the sacrifice my brother-in-law was making so his wife could come to India to be with her dad. I saw the sacrifice my brother-in-law was making so that his daughter to be with her mother. I saw the love in that much sacrifice and realized Father's day could never get better than June 20, 2011.

Happy Father's Day Guna anna - Among all husbands/fathers/brothers/grandfathers - somehow miles away I wanted to wish you more than anyone!

4 years before, today - My blog was 4 days old.

Well, happy forgotten birthday dear blog! :D

This afternoon I did some random searches on torrents and suddenly thought it would be quite cool to start listening to western music. Honestly, I haven't had any English song play on my comp or ipod (actually, I don't own one). I loved 'Summer of 69' the first time I heard it in school. A college friend once performed 'I'm a punk rocker' and I was hooked. She performed 'zombie' and I loved it! Another day my good friend Jay sang 'Yellow Submarine' and I loved it instantly! That was it till this afternoon.

Somehow Mr.Mind was reminded of the Lady Gaga interview with Google and decided to tell Mr.Hand to type 'Lady Gaga' on youtube. I watched Judas, Born this way and then I was downloading.

Any suggestions? - uh, based on the first few that I mentioned and not judging me by Lady Gaga. (I prefer subtle music)

Belief

Being in the choir and learning table manners was probably the top 2 on the things that I learnt at Nazareth Convent. I was the only one from my class to be in the choir and the youngest choir member. Of course, after that I left the school :(

There was a particular hymn I loved. A few lines from the hymn..

'I believe in every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.
I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.
Every time I hear a new born baby cry, or touch a leaf, or see the sky...
Then I know why - I believe!'

I was the kinda child who wanted to sleep a lot. I'm still. I was a frequent visitor to the infirmary (sick room) in Nazareth. But on those days when I truly fell ill, I would hug my doll and sleep. While awake, I would stare up at the antique ceilings of my British built Alma Mater and sing this song softly. '...or touch a leaf, or see the sky'

Honestly, I never believed in anything. Anybody, yes - anything, no. But this song always stayed with me to tell me that I DID believe.

I was humming this song throughout last week. Made me wonder how all these years this one particular song stuck with me more than the other hymns.

Most people still believe there is a pot of gold under the two ends of a rainbow. With the rising prices of gold, I wonder if talking about this is gonna be chargeable!

My past week :)

The gone week had so much, I couldn't even keep up with time. I was awake so early and when I was hitting the bed it was already midnight. The whole family was busy with my niece's ... uh.. how should I put it.. Head Tonsuring Ceremony and Ear piercing ceremony.

So, tonsuring a baby's head is a part of tradition with most people down south. The hair is apparently a sacrifice made to the lords. Along with that the baby's ears are pierced too. I don't really know why this is done.. but personally its just a way of welcoming the kid into the fashion world. All this happened and baby Nethra was oh-so-pretty and huggable with her bald head and chubby smile.

With all this, I lost focus of my weakness - falling ill during changing seasons. I had a terrible viral infection in my throat that led on to fever, cold and now cough. A good friend got married when I was recovering.. and I missed the wedding. Sorry Karthick, I hope the guys made you do mad stuff at your bachelors!

I did do something to cheer me up though - shopping. Yeah, I'm officially someone who feels better when she shops. "you are so materialistic" would have been my reaction a year back but I just realized being materialistic is overrated and in the wrong way. So what if someone is materialistic? I'll get to that in my next post.

I have been fuming about Baba Ramdev the past week. I cannot believe he got more attention than my FB statuses. pah, that guy. I haven't cooked, I haven't baked. All I have done is slept, whined, sneezed, coughed and been a good aunt for baby Nethra.

My new laptop is here to cheer me up on a Monday though! Now I can get on with my work and not stop :) Looking forward to something very exciting... I will shush it for now! Have a super week!

Welcoming my new friend!

That's the newest addition to my bedroom! Back to blogging and writing :) For those committed 3 readers I know - I'm back!

Daddy and his Docterate

Daddy receiving the Honorary Doctorate of Fashion Designing and Textile technology from the Universita Popolare degli Studi di Milano.

Im oh-so-proud of Daddy bear! :D

Gives me the Mauritius feel :)

This picture seems to be a hot favorite among my friends on facebook. Here it is! Lotus and lily leaves having their own version on sun bath in the little pond!