G - R -A -T-I -T -U -D -E

"The secret to happiness is reflection and gratitude..."

When I had started off on a journey two years ago, I was excited, full of enthusiasm, full of life. A whole new world awaited me when I left my country for the first time. It was a whole new challenge, the time had come to take control of my own life... to become what I had always sought to be... and to break free and feel the pleasures in this world...

But not soon enough, life got back at me. I got sucked into the 'system' - the very 'system' that I was trying to break free from. Yes, I had achieved most of the short term goals I had set for myself, but there was (and still there is) something missing. Patience is one thing that I had always lacked in my life, but I am amazed at how patient I have been in the past few years. But with a lot of patience comes frustration, and frustration eventually leads to sadness. It is very easy for a person to give up, be disheartened and eventually compromise in life when things are not going the way they want them to. I want to avoid this... and I stumbled upon a site which I think would eventually help me with it.

365grateful began as a personal quest, but soon it has thousands of followers. Here is a video for what 365 grateful is all about:

365grateful.com from hailey bartholomew on Vimeo.

It is very easy to complain every time about whats wrong in your life. But why can't we take a moment and look at all the good things in our life? Even small things - Like having a healthy life, getting access to good education, food, having wonderful parents, etc. Thousands of people in this world do not have the little things that we generally take it for granted. My friend had been telling me about this for a long time. Finally, I think she was able to crack open my head and put those thoughts in my brain. And I am realizing that things could be much worse, and seeing things that I am really grateful for.

I really do want to do the 365 grateful project. Its not very difficult, you have to think about one thing that you are grateful for everyday for one year, and maybe write it down in a journal, make a blog, write it on post its, make a scrap-book, take pictures, etc. I haven't thought of my project yet. I was thinking of starting the project on my birthday, but I still haven't started it. Maybe, its time to stop procrastinating and start doing it.

Please visit the website: http://www.365grateful.com/

Another one bites the dust !!

Life and its funny ways...

One moment, it tickles you... makes you laugh your heart out...

And the very next moment, it kicks you so hard in between your legs... and you suffer from so much pain that you forget that you were laughing a few moments ago...

Life is funny... Life is cruel...

....

Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it's very important that you do it 'cause nobody else will. Like when someone comes into your life and half of you says: "You're nowhere near ready". And the other half says: "Make her yours forever"....

...

The question is... How much am I willing to give ?

Only time will tell...

Just a thought...

It all started with the Oscar award winning movie "The slumdog millionaire"....
Mr. Benjamin Franklin was noticed (maybe) for the first time around the world as he was the face on a $100 bill...


and then for me, the Gandhis were replaced by the American presidents in my wallet...

A thought just crossed my mind... what if there was a proposal to have the faces of past Indian Prime ministers on the rupee notes? There would had been another riot on the scale of 1992 for sure, if not more...

Our very own Mr. M.K. Gandhi would have been found on Re. 1 note (as George Washington is found on a $1 bill)... and then the other Gandhis (Mrs. I Gandhi and Mr R Gandhi) would have taken over the Rs. 100 and Rs. 500 notes... BJP/RSS would have stormed the assembly and rioted on the streets of the Indian cities... Congress would have come into negotiations (under the table kinds) and would have agreed to have Mr. Vajpayee be the face on the Rs. 500 note...

Mr. Nehru will get Rs.100, Mr. R Gandhi will get Rs.50, and then Mrs Gandhi would get a promotion to Rs. 1000 (the new note)... Notes of new denominations would be printed out to accomodate the other past PMs...

Ironically, our very own beloved Mahatma Gandhi (on the Re 1 note) will get phased out, along with his principles...

Damn!! The amount of free time that I have :P

Just another weekend...

Wow!! It seems like it has been ages since I have blogged...

A lot has changed in the past few months since I have come to U S of A... everything is big in Texas, as they say... and so here I am dreaming big !!

I started last evening itself, and suddenly was bitten by the camera fever... since 7.30 pm, I was busy ogling at the black beauties on the internet... they had the most confusing of all the names, like D90, D40, 450D, 500D, Rebel XTi, and all... the most awesome camera search I had ever done...

mmm.. I just can't wait to lay my hands on them... I have really fallen in love after a loooooong long time :)

I wanted to cook chicken and I started googling for "Chicken Masala", but then I stumbled across a certain Chicken Marsala... seemed delicious and pretty easy to make too...

So a few dollars of shopping with Sid and we were ready on sunday morning cooking, in what turned out to be, the most delicious dish we had cooked since we had come to USA... mmmmm... the most juiciest of chicken breasts in marsala-mushroom sauce along with sausages in barbeque sauce... what was missing was a few cans of beer and pasta... but there is always the next time...

And here the weekend came and went away... and we have an exam coming up in a couple of days... just paid a little "hello" to my page as I had nothing else to do anyways ;)

ciao!!

A second chance...

I wanted to express a plethora of emotions over the past couple of months... But I just could'nt...

It had been a long past couple of years or so... The long years in which I really found myself, or at least thats what I think... As what my friend said, it was the rebuilding phase of my life... to try and get my life back from the shambles of failed relationship and a career that had promised so much and had doomed... I had let myself down, and I have no one else but myself to blame for it...

But I moved on, or at least I have made genuine attempts to move on and I am happy I am fairly successful in it... The quarter life crisis, as they say, is not so easy to get over... The moment you begin to question your own ability, the alarm bells should start ringing... But now that phase I feel is behind me... my life is all sorted out... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, as they say it...

But...

The one hurdle remains...

It all comes down to what I converse in those few seconds with the person from across the glass screen... all these months of hardship, patience and frustration and moments of hopelessness and depression that I have faced for that elusive second chance to redeem my life have come down to a few seconds...

I have full faith in Him... everybody deserves a second chance in life... and I know I will get mine... I have to...

Failure is not an option...

Drooling over Kolhapuri Mutton...

Its been months since I am drooling over Kolhapuri Mutton and pandhra rassa (white curry).
I remember the first and the only time I had tasted the pandhra rassa was when I was at Kharghar, working at ACTREC. The dabba-waali maushi was supposed to go back to her native place, and before she left, she made some super spicy Kolhapuri mutton sukka and pandhra rassa... That was more than a year ago, and ever since I have been searching each and every maharashtrian restaurants I visit for this pandhra rassa...
Finally, I had made up my mind to go to Kolhapur itself and stay there for a few days and have this rassa day in and out... But decided to search a bit on the internet before leaving...
So an intensive search over the internet and I finally found the recipe i was looking for...
So the next Sunday I am home, I am definitely going to try and cook this delicacy and satiate my taste buds that are lusting for some Kolhapuri mutton... yummmmmmmm !!! :D

(The above photograph is taken from the link below)

Here are the links:

http://khaugiri.blogspot.com/2009/03/tambda-rassa-red-mutton-curry.html

http://khaugiri.blogspot.com/2009/03/pandhra-rassa-white-mutton-curry.html

Actually, this entire blog is full of delicious Maharashtrian recipes, some sort of a boon for beginners like me... Thank you buddy for your wonderful blogs...

The disappearance of a friend..

It was 9 am... I am out of my bed; another lazy Sunday lay ahead of me...
I made myself some tea, and I stood at the window... the April morning Sun shone straight on my face, the rays finding their way through the dense foliage in front of me... I was lucky today that I felt the morning rays, as the trees that have grown taller than my building usually end up cutting off the Sun...

Oh.. and then comes my feathered buddy... he hops from one branch to another, as he cannot fly, and lands on my window sill... I can't tell how glad I am to see him everyday... but this time, I am really missing someone a lot... someone whom I eagerly await, through the whole of monsoon and the Winter seasons... Come March and he used to arrive, with a shrill call... and me as a child used to jump out of bed and run towards the window and try and search for him... to catch just one elusive glimpse of him...

He had never failed in showing up through all these years.. I tried hard, and over the years I managed to learn his language, not literally, but phonetically... And I loved to play with him, tease him, frustrate him with my replies... till he was fed up and he conveyed the same to me with the tone that I could never match... But this time its different... Like a fool, I let out a call out of my window... or when I am walking on the street... people look at me in amusement, sometimes they think its his call... But I think I have mad him angry... sometimes I go too far ahead in teasing someone, but I swear I will stop it, if only you show up this one last time before I fly away across the oceans...
And I hope you will miss me then, this human letting out the cuckoo call....

O blithe newcomer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice:
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near.

Though babbling only to the vale
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen!

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed birth! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An unsubstantial, fairy place,
That is fit home for Thee!

-- William Wordsworth