Christmas time

Christmas season to me means having homemade plum cakes, christmas carols in the city, counting the number of christmas stars in my neighbourhood  and most importantly playing chris mom-chris child. 

The first time I encountered with this game "Chris mom-Chris child" was during my schooldays, though we were not allowed to play this inside the school.

About the game: For those who are not aware of this:

We write all the participants name in small pieces of paper, shuffle them and put them in the pouch or a huge bowl. Everyone is asked to take their piece of paper. Open the chit and you find the name of your Chris child, and you become their Chris mom/paa (depending on your gender). The Chris mom doesn’t reveal the identity until the eve of Christmas, sends gifts and chocolates, and makes some orders/requests to be fulfilled by the child. The child should accept the gift and obey the orders. The day before the Christmas, the identities are revealed, mom/paa and child exchange gifts with eachother.

Only a few times I’ve played this game, but they were the best remembered ones, especially the one we played during my graduation.  None of my classmates can forget the troubles I gave for my Chris child in the name of game.

It was the first and last time I got my best friend as my Chris child. So, I took it completely for granted. Devika is her name, and she must revenge me anytime for this. I made her run, roam, do the most embarrassing things, the most funniest ones just being so close to her. I made her hunt through the class to look for my orders and presents. Have made her bray like a donkey, made her wear stupid combination of colour clothes (the Ramarajan ishyle ones), to run through the whole corridor, to ask stupid silly questions during the class lecture.

She comes and complains to me about her Chris Mom, and she had not even a single clue that it could be me. On the last day of the game, I asked her to wear a light green dress, and told her that her Chris Mom is also wearing the same shade in a darker version. So, I was wearing a dark bottle green outfit. She searched every single classmate who was wearing dark green dress, but it completely skipped off her mind that I was also wearing the same colour dress. And finally, when she realised that I was her Chris mom, her expressions were just priceless. I got hauled over the coals by her for few minutes, and then she embraced me. 

I've been a good mom too except the above case, sending my child as many gifts and chocolates as possible.  Same way, I've got the best mom most of the time and she used to send me roses, chocolates, cute dolls, pretty anklets, earrings, bracelets, candle stands, flower vase, etc. Good 'ol days.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Wedding, marriage, nuptual knots, cupid play, unconditional love and what else???

One of my friend is not interested in the nuptual knots and marriage. After reading his post, I started questioning myself about the pre and post married life. I interviewed S for his thoughts too. And we came up with good advantages, and with no delay, here they are. 

1. First thing that strikes my mind when I think about marriage is COMPANIONSHIP. You always have someone accompanying you to talk to, to listen to you, to laugh with you, to console you, to motivate you and to what not. The camaraderie you share with your partner is just the best thing about marriage.

2. You have someone waiting for you at home at the end of the workday. Isn't it a nice feeling to see this someone at home welcoming you with a big smile everyday.

3. You have someone preparing delicious, mouthwatery dishes (though they are not trained. They try to learn a lot from WWW and manage to serve a edible food).

4. You have a 24/7 maid service- unlimited offer- absolutely for free!! So that simplifies your work in cleaning, cooking, house keeping et al.

5. I am sure travelling alone is no fun. Same with partying and pub-hopping (if you are a party animal). So to lead a happy social life, you need a partner (preferably one of the opposite sex!!).

6. There is someone to pamper you so much-”please have the breakfast”, “here is the milk for you”, “you have to take more fruits”. They are glad to replace the role of your mother.

7. You don’t need to worry about your “self image promotion”. There is this someone who always promotes the goodness of you within their friends and family circle. “My husband did this”, “he is a nice person", "very understanding..bla bla” (even though you are not like this!). You are their "Prince Charming" and "Hero". Where else can you get this cheap means of advertising campaign?

8. There is a readily available pleasure partner 24/7 you-know-for-what.

9. If you are really looking for a challenge in life, you have to get married to manage the CHO – Chief Home Officer, their nagging and cribbing.

10. And in return, of course, you have to meet the expectations of your partner, you have to pet them, cajole them, compliment them, praise them, admire them, surprise them, present them, understand them, and most importantly listen to them.

Here are my answers for his questions:

- The confusion with unconditional love: When there is a word "love", there always exist the word "unconditional". I am equally confused with this complicated concept. May be just ignore it, and give a new phrase for it.
- Just find a person like you by yourself. Or convey your nomadism theories to her.  Not every women are interested in a secured, normal life.  They are equally interested in exploring unknown roads.
- "Freedom is lost after marriage" is the most wrongly interpreted myth.  It may hold true only for women. 
- Quite a natural instinct. You are always free to get attracted towards another person, but with your mind and body in control position.
- Someone is spreading wrong impressions/rumours about marriage. Change is the rule of nature and marriages are no exception. Every single women who is ready for marriage understands it.  When they can change their family, lifestyle and priorities after marriage, they can also manage "changing characteristics of their husband".

Every single person (irrespective of the gender) on earth has such inhibitions about marriage and its woes. Especially in horoscopic, society fearing  country like India. Not that I am a feminist, but women have more inhibitions and fear about mariage than men do.  Give all these thoughts and interests in finding the right person of your choice.

Create a checklist of skillsets you are looking in the partner.

Cooking skills?

Housekeeping?

Is he/she talkative?

Is that an advantage or disadvantage in a given situation?

Career oriented?

Egoistic?

Any extra curricular hobbies? (ofcourse to entertain you)

What is their perspective of life?

Are they responsible?

Impulsive shopper? (if yes, its a great risk for you )

Loves jewellery, gold, diamonds etc (again a risk for you)

Any other specific skills you are looking at?

Once you find your life partner and you start loving them truely, madly, deeply, life becomes more easier than you imagine. Stop building wrong inhibitions, and just try your hands on marriage. Mind you, its worth a try. To sum up - there is a challenge, puzzle, enigma, fun, love, cribbing, emotions, pleasure, and all such related synonyms. So why not get married??

In Amor with Amaryllis

Last week, our neighbours visited us for a dinner.  They gave us some Dutch biscuits and a beautiful Amaryllis flower bouquet.  Beauty is not the word to describe it.  Day one I witnessed it to be so much like a bulb.  Four days later, she has beautified the whole home.  I am completely in love with her today. 

This was on day 2

Day 3

And finally this was on day 4

A visit to Volandam

Volendam (pronounced as Folendham), is a beautiful fishing village in the district of Noord Holland. It was an awful windy + rainy day, when we decided to spend some time here. We took a bus service from Amsterdam Centraal and reached our destination in 25 minutes passing through some of the stunning country side of Netherlands. I saw gorgeous floating houses alongside the canal, a single windmill with cattle gazing on the lush green grasses.

We reached Volendam central and took a long stroll through the numerous souvenir shops, photo shops and lots of seafood restaurants on the way.  The streets finally led us to a beautiful shoreline, not a big stretch of beach though.  The shore was completely deserted during the you-know-what-climate-right?

Typical dutch houses just along the shoreline adds more color to it.  It's said that people living here still wear those traditional dutch clothes.

And one cannot forget to take a memorable picture with the family in a traditional dutch costume in those numerous photoshops.

On Summer, Volendam is flooded with tourism. The boat cruises are open, and one can opt to take a cruise to Marken, another village near by.

One of the souvenir shops where I found this cute dolls dressed in Dutch costume.

Directions to Volendam from Amsterdam Central: Take bus # 110, 116 & 118.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag zu mir!

On the eve of my Birthday, I had a wonderful romantic candlelight dinner cruise.  And series of surprises that followed my way......

Come on...Wish me friends....

Chronicles of Boredom

A movie a day keeps the boredom away!! True for lazy ducks like me! Past week kept me really busy with so many activities, watching movies being the top priority. After all I found a way to kill my extra time and boredom. Something is better than nothing…right ? I am not writing lenghty movie reviews here, but just my thoughts and ratings on them.

Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru: Konjam sothapal, konjam kalakkal, konjam mokka, konjam humour. For a debutant director, this is a good work. Rating 5/10

The Twilight Saga - New Moon: A lengthy, slow movie. Can be seen once. Not necessarily in a theatre with digital effects! Earlier sequel was better. Kristen Stewert looks awesome on screen, but shows only expression-less expressions!! Just hope Eclipse and Breaking Dawn gives a better visual treat. Rating 7/10

Wat’s your Rashee: I saw this movie just for Harman Baweja. No comments about ondra kannu chopra. Rating: 6/10

Modhi Vilayadu: Run and chase, fast paced storyline. The movie fulfils the requirements of a masala tamil movie. Of all Saran’s movie, I rate this one as his best piece. Rating: 8/10

Kanden Kadhalai: If you've already seen Jab We Met, you don't find this movie fascinating.  When the director can plagiarize Kareena's constumes, hairstyle , mannerisms, facial expressions, body language and lot more, why cant they plagiarize the whole movie scene-to-scene and character-to-character.  Sandhanam is wasted in the movie, and his role is unnecessary too. 

Rating: 7/10

Dil Bole Hadippa: This is the second time I watched this movie. You can’t expect Rani to play like Sachin Bauji, lekin Veer Prathap Singh is surely a show stopper. Out and out entertainment movie. Rating: 8/10

Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani: These days bollywood heroines are bypassing the induction program while they enter into the industry. Ms.Kat Khan is one such culprit, who neither acts well, nor speaks hindi well. Yeh hindi ko murder karthi hai lekin Sallu se jollu nicely karthi hai! This apart, the movie is a decent-no vulgar-romantic comedy with a fresh pair sharing good onscreen chemistry and good music score. Rating: 6/10

Main aur Mrs Khanna: Suffers with a week script, but compensates the loss with music, cinematography and ofcourse the performances by khans and Kapoor. Rating: 5/10

Wake Up Sid: A decent movie with no complicated plot. No. There is no plot. But still the movie immerses you into the sweet, subtle love story. Konkana Sen rocks as usual. Ranbir you need to grow up kid! Rating: 9/10

However, I don’t need to write anything about Gods must be Crazy 1 and 2. It's one of my all time favourite movies.  N!xau rocks with the coke bottle series and his little kids. This is like nth number of time I am watching the movie. Needless to say, the rating is 10/10

Karthigai Deepam 2009

Karthigai Deepam - The festival of lights is one among my list of favourite festivals.  Just as Diwali celebrated in North India, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated in Tamilnadu with lots of diyas(lights). 

The smell of Agal vilaku (oil lamps) mounting up through the air mixed with the aroma of jaggery sweets waiting to be consumed at the pooja room is the typical scenario of this festival. This day beautifies my apartment and whole of Chennai with as much of oil diyas as possible.  We even used to burst some crackers (actually the remaining crackers from Diwali).  The ultimate reason I love this festival is Aval Pori urundai(Jaggery mixed with puffed Rice) and Kadalai Urundai (Peanuts with Jaggery).  A sweet-hater like me craving for these jaggery filled sweets will make you understand the unbeatable taste it has got. 

In the absence of my favourite sweets, we celebrated a silent Karthigai deepam this year.