I'm 23 today!

Hello Buddies....I hope you all are well...
So here comes 22nd September yet again...I am year older. That means my blog too completes one year now, not today exactly though...

So how do I feel? I feel as I always felt...Like an 8 year old child. For me age is just a number.
I am happy as I could be and I can't care any less...Life is rosy as it always was. Roses do have thorns...But its fragrance does make you forget the pain...
Unlike last year, this year I'm home with my family. I'm thankful to Mom and Dad for this wonderful upbringing. I'm thankful to God for this blessed life....
I will be back again with something to tell about...Very soon..
Have a blessed day all! Ciao! :)

Small is beautiful.

Dear Buddies, how are you all doing?

I haven't been writing much on this blog of mine since a long time. However, I do post regularly on my another blog Manju'z Kitchen. But now I'm back here.

So the moment I've been waiting for since past five years has finally arrived! I got in a good college for my MBA...And I'm really so so so happy!

I have this habit of buying little things. Things that don't cost much, but are beautiful in a sort of way. I always keep on looking around for food props, for my food blog mentioned above.

Last week, I went out with my BFF Mehnaz to check out the local stores. I wanted to buy some kitchenware. To my surprise, I found something which I couldn't resist buying.

These small little cute tea glasses!

These tea glasses are generally used by the street-side 'chaiwalas' in India. The pair costed me just INR 10, or around 20 cents in US currency!

My Mom and Dad were kinda upset when I showed them these tea glasses with a delightful grin. They didn't like me buying these, for reasons alien to me. But for me, these glasses reflect humbleness. That's the way I look at it.

I too have had tea in such glasses at the small tea shop outside my office in Mumbai. When one of my office colleagues insisted I go with them to have tea there, that was my first time I've ever had a tea on a roadside stall. It was amazing. It gave me a sense of  liberalization. People from varied walks of life; young and old, rich and poor enjoyed tea at the same place.

And these tiny glasses remind me of  the tea breaks I took with my office buddies...So I bought myself something that will bring a smile on my face every time I look at it. Sometimes, small is beautiful...

Have a great day ahead all my buddies. :)

Way of life- A painting.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, that I would start drawing again....I started it from today! Yes, I know it has been very long since I've been thinking about doing it, but better late than never.

I bought all nice new stuff, poster colors, and paint brushes, drawing sheets and some other stationary. I already had the color pallet, back from my school days, class 5, to be specific. That butterfly shaped thing gives me a nostalgia.

The ruler, sharper and lead box were of no use. :p

So, I held a paint brush in my hand after a decade, plus I don't have steady hands. I was skeptical if I could paint an inch. But to my surprise, I did it! And I was really happy with the results.

I started with a blank mind, but ideas came flowing in, into my head. And I came up with this.

This drawing signifies a way of life. The blue part signifies the sunny sky. The grey part stands for a stormy night. The red flower signifies the state of mind.

A person should smile in good times. But he/she should never be sad in bad times. He/She should have determination and courage to face the difficult situations and overcome the hurdles. A person must never lose hope and look beyond the boundaries. And let the mind bloom like a fresh flower, always.

The Good Times!

The Bad Times.

This is the life.

Tell me what you think about this!

Bundles of joy.

We all have a liking for some special people or things. The people or things that make our day. That lift our spirits, remind us of someone or something, or even give us a nostalgia. I too am fond of a few things that makes me feel good. I don't know why, or how, but they seem to have a very positive effect on my mind and my thoughts. Its like they show me a ray of hope when I feel low.

Rain!

Image by: Edal

I find rain a happy expression from the heavens. Every year I make sure I go out in the first rain of the season and get drenched, no matter what, alone or with friends. I simply love it. Be it just a drizzle or heavy, rains will always make me happy.

I look up to the sky filled with dark clouds, lightning and thunder. The rain drops pouring down on me. I can feel my face wet, and can smell the wet soil beneath my feet. The spread out my arms and surrender myself. I want to be drenched from head to toe and my soul absorbing it all. Rain will wash away my fears, and my cheeks stained by tears. It will kill all my bad memories and my mind will bloom again like a new flower. Its like being in a magical place. The sound of thunder is music to my ears and the lightning is a visual treat.

I look around and feel the freshness. The earth that was parched a few moments ago, from the summer heat, now seems to be satisfied, like my mind.

Kids!

Kids are angels on Earth. Being in their company makes me feel happy. Their innocence and inquisitive mind makes me wonder. Their innocent questions can puzzle an adult. I look at them with awe, how these little creatures bring us joy. Their divine smile and bright starry eyes.... Their angelic laughter are like bells ringing in heaven. A kid's hug makes me feel loved and closer to God. 

Tea!

A hardcore tea lover will always choose a cup of a proper tea over property, anytime. I am one of them. Morning, afternoon, evening, night or midnight...we will never deny tea!

I love its aroma, the taste and colors. Let it be green tea, jasmine tea or black tea, its like a holy drink to us!

Tea reminds me of my school days when I had started drinking it out of necessity to pull off my nights studying. Now its more than a necessity...Its more than a habit...Its an addiction and I'm loving it!

It fills me with breaths of life with little sips.....

Beaches!

Image by: KingKurt22

Till now I've taken 5-6 trips to different beaches in India and wish to visit more. I prefer a quiet place. An untouched beach would be a delight! No one around. Just me and my loneliness. Blue waters, white sands, beautiful coconut trees around. A small hut by the beach.

I love walking by the sea, leaving my footprints on the sand as a souvenir. But the waves wash them away every time. I love that feeling when the waves caress my feet time and again.....endlessly. I love the sound of waves every time it reaches my ears....endlessly. I love the view of the horizon where the sparkling blue waters meet the clear blue sky. The cool breeze caressing my face. The noise of the seagulls, and watching the sun set down.

Lying down on the sand by the fire and staring at the starry sky above on a dark night. Wondering how the sun rise would be... Anticipations....They keep you going!

We all have our own reasons to be happy. People or things...or events...that define us, our lives, and our state of mind. What is it in your case?

Road trip to Amalner.

Hello my dear Readers! I'm writing about my last weeks's 2 days road trip to  Amalner. Amalner is a small town in Jalgaon District in Maharashtra (India). We went to Amalner to visit a famous temple of Mangal Graha (Planet Mars). There are only 2 such temples in the entire world, one being in Amalner, another one in Kolkata. So it was a really good opportunity to visit one of these temples.

Chain of mountains on throughout the way.

According to Vedic astrology, Mangal (Planet Mars) signifies strength, anger, energy, impulsiveness; and it is considered malefic in nature. Mars is the ruler of blood, marrow and muscles.

As I said, Mangal is considered malefic by nature, it is one of the concept in astrology and is a subject of worry.  If a person who has Mangal Dosh in his/her birth-chart, marries someone who is not a mangali, may cause strife, lack of prosperity and other troubles, including death of the spouse. These are the assertions by the Vedic astrology.

The town of Amalner was not very big, not very clean, but the visit to this temple made our trip memorable. My mind was at peace. The temple atmosphere was very holy, spiritual with the priests chanting shlokas in Sanskrit. There were many devotees who had come to offer prayers, that went on for an hour. They performed rituals so that the Mars God would calm down and prosperity will come their way, and they will get relief from the troubles that they face due to the mangal dosh.

We offered our prayers and red lentils to the Lord Mars. We got a whole coconut as a prasaad (holy offering from the temple), that we  are supposed to eat. We then spent some time in the garden listening to the holy shlokas.

The temple had a beautiful garden, with idols of Lord Krishna and Lord Shiva. I took some pictures to share with you all. However, nobody is allowed to take pictures of the main temple and the idol of Lord Mars. So this is a picture of Lord Mars that I took from a holy scripture called as Mangal Strotra.

The holy scriptures for the pilgrims given by the priest.

An idol of Lord Krishna.

Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva.

The garden in the temple.

Outside the temple there were various stalls selling things required for prayers, like flowers, garlands, incense, coconuts, red lentils, etc. Other items like framed pictures of various deities, brass idols of gods, holy scriptures, finger-rings, key-chains, pendants with a picture of gods on it, etc. were being sold.

Brass idols of God.

Threads to tie on the wrist.

Key-chains!

This was the best part of the trip!

Now talking about the not-so-good part. Its really difficult to find a decent place for the stay. Hotels don't exist there! There are guest houses that have super-dirty rooms at a high price. It was so dirty that I wouldn't stay there even for free. We were then planning to go to Jalgaon city, 65 km from Amalner. But fortunately a guy told us about a lodging. We got an air-conditioned room at just 800 INR! That is about 12 Euros or 15 USD.

Hell cheap. But again it was not very posh, but way better than those guest houses.

How to reach Amalner?

I stay in Nasik city. Its around 190 km from Dhule. And the temple is 40 km from Dhule. So it was our first time, we didn't know anything about the town. Hence, now that you all know, I would suggest, if you ever plan a trip to Amalner, go to Jalgaon city by train and book a room there. Jalgaon city is 65 km from Amalner. So you can take a cab or a bus to Amalner. That would be more convenient.

Do not miss these!

1. This is a Gurudwara in Dhule. Do pay a visit!

2. This Lassi (A preparation of curd, served chilled) in Amalner. It was simply awesome just 20 INR per glass! Shop name- Saibaba Ice-creams!

During this time of the year, when summer heat is at its peak, Amalner, Jalgoan and Dhule are really hot. The temperature goes beyond 40 degrees Celsius! In fact it was unbearable. There is load-shedding for 5-6 hours a day in Amalner, which adds to the trouble. I would say its better to go there during winters.

National highway was awesome. It was a smooth ride, except for some unnecessary super-bumpy speed breakers. The petrol started leaking. A guy on a bike came speeding from behind and told us to stop. God bless him. I thought we had our petrol-tank damaged in the middle of nowhere. There was a two-wheeler garage nearby and the man came to our rescue. He checked and the leak stopped. A pipe had come out and the tank wasn't damaged! We heaved a sigh of relief....Stupid speed-breaker, you can now imagine how bumpy it could get.

I got some nice pics of the country side. Some pics I took from the moving car itself. We came back home the next day at midnight!

National Highway 3.

So that was around a 40 hours long trip. Well it was a good trip over all. Something I would fondly remember.

Movie Review- The Avengers (2012)

Movie: The Avengers (2012) aka Avengers Assemble- Ireland (English title). USA title- "Marvel's The Avengers"


IMDB Rating- 8.9/ 10.

Watch the teaser trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkoKBJ7rgEs&feature=related

P.S.- If you have an option between 2D and 3D, I would suggest you to go for 2D. The graphics are awesome. I was disappointed watching 3D because I personally don't like 3D. Glasses make the movie look dark and clumsy.

Finally, today the much awaited movie 'The Avengers' is released all over India. I being one of those desperate fans of superheroes rushed to watch the 1st day 1st show of 'The Avengers'. I had went in there to watch the movie with extremely high expectations, and I'm glad to say that I am overwhelmingly delighted and satisfied with the movie. Well, I like all the super heroes in this movie. But, being a Robert Downey Jr. fan,  I had planed to watch this movie just for Iron Man. But now it had made me fall in love with all of them, all over again.

Its indeed, every fan's dream come true...The fans of the iconic comic characters Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye!

Its a unique concept to unite our favorite superheroes and form a team to fight evil and save the Earth. The movie was a power-packed combination of action, intensity and humor. The movie has a run-time of +2 hours and it just keeps you gripped to the edge of your seats as time flies by. The brilliant performances by the cast, the incredible script and the action sequences will make you wonder! Director Joss Whedon did an excellent job bringing together all our superheroes, and balancing their star egos and handling this multi-million project so diligently.

Let me tell you about the characters and cast in the movie.

Our 6 Superheroes

Iron Man/ Tony Stark- Robert Downey Jr.

The Incredible Hulk/ Bruce Banner- Mark Ruffalo.

Thor- Chris Hemsworth.

Captain America/ Steve Rogers- Chris Evans.

Black Widow/ Natasha Romanoff- Scarlett Johansson.

Hawkeye/ Clint Barton- Jeremy Renner.

The Villain! 

Loki- Tom Hindleston. 

And the rest...

Nick Fury- Samuel L. Jackson.

Agent Phil Coulson- Clark Gregg.

Agent Maria Hill- Cobie Smulders.

Selvig- Stellan Skarsgard.

Pepper Potts- Gwyneth Paltrow.

The Iron Man didn't just waltz through the movie in his suit rolling over the other characters. No other characters were overshadowed by the 'larger than life' image of Tony Stark. Everybody owned the movie and did their best. Hulk adds to the humor and actually steals the show when he 'hulks out'. It looks amazingly real, more real than in the Hulk movies. The witty remarks and sarcasm of Tony Stark towards Thor and Captain America only spices up the humor part, literally wanting you to laugh out loud. The conversations between Loki and Iron Man, "We have an army"......."We have a Hulk" makes you feel the wit and razor-sharp sarcasm of Tony Stark.

Every superhero has a different personality and set of rules and way to work which leads to the unexpected rivalry among them, when Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D brings them together to form a team, his programme called as 'The Avengers initiative' to fight with our villain Loki and his army. Tony Stark, Thor and Bruce Banner do not follow the command structure, while Black Widow, Captain America and Hawkeye are used to following orders. The bitterness and discord between the superheroes, the fight scenes are spectacular.

The view of Iron Man and Thor battling it out was something you don't want to miss. The action sequences and the special effects, the dialogues are superb! The music and soundtracks only did good. It alleviats the action sequences and makes you completely lost in the movie making you a part of it. 

The Black Widow is good at her moves to pull down the enemies and she looks just so stunning. She also had a love interest in none other than our very own the bad-ass Hawkeye! Captain America gives, the first Avenger, was perfectly solidified by Chris Evans, with his acting more natural and dialogue delivery more spontaneous. And Thor- OMG! His make up and attire made him look like a God who has just sprung out of some comic book. He interacted with the other heroes organically (obviously that was after the battling with Stark!) and looked so natural!

Loki's character too was extremely interesting. Tom Hindleston delivered it with such a sharpness and charisma that at one point of time I felt like he was really casting a spell on me too. I was watching him with my mouth open! Excellent job! The attire, make up, his hair styling suited him and his character of Loki so well, OMG! I never thought I would fall in love with a character like him, the bad guy...Sigh!

Miss Pepper Potts...She looked amazing, she didn't wear her usual formal outfits,  but something casual and maintained that charm of hers. She pairs so perfectly with Tony Stark!

And Agent Coulson or lets just call him Phil, he too was pretty good, subtle yet brave...Too bad...He died in the movie :(

I loved the movie and its worth watching, not just once! I will surely get a copy of 'The Avengers' and celebrate and cherish it as one of my all time movies for the rest of my life...

Thank you Marvel for giving us this wonder to marvel at! Great job by the entire team. The best Marvel movie till date. Joss Whedon is the king of comic book movies! Hats-off to him.

Globe-trekking with my Soul-mate.

I have always had these dreams...strange ones...I had a similar dream last night too. Just that this time it was Udaipur.  Udaipur, a city in the northern state of Rajasthan, India. I have never been there. But in my dreams I have been out there, walking down the busy lanes, looking at the shops with awe. They had beautiful things, colorful. Turbans, sarees, folk toys, jewelry, handicrafts. I bought a few things too.

I didn't realize until I woke up to the alarm at 10 am. Yes I dream...I dream about people I have never met...I dream about places I have never visited, like the USA, UK, ..the list is endless. I have even had a dream about my kids. Strange but true. It is said that our dreams are have a connection with the state of our mind, our desires, and our life. They are not just dreams...They come from our sub-conscious mind.

I want to go Globe-trekking the Ian Wright way- Backpacking! Living cheap and going dirty, the way Ian likes, but with a taste of luxury sometimes. Go on crazy adventurous trips! Visit the weirdest and the loveliest places around the world. meet different people, go sight-seeing, learn about their culture, customs and traditions, fashion, history, way of life...and yes, about their food! Food fascinates me the most. Visit the museums and building of historic importance. And then share my experiences with all. 

The people on TLC, and Fox History & Travel inspire me. They take me one step closer to my dream every time I turn these channels on!

I want to go around the world with him....the love of my life. I don't know where is he...What he looks like. But I still await him. The one who is like me, thinks like me, shares common interests. For it takes two to Tango!

I have read in magazines about the couples who go honey-mooning to various countries on bicycles. How adventurous is that! And I would love to try it out...

Other than the adventurous stuff mentioned above, I have always had a dream of visiting Switzerland after I watched the movie 'Dilwaale dulhaniya le jaenge' when I was around 7 years old. We want to see how they make Swiss cheese. I want to walk down those green grassy hills holding his hand as they show in movies, and taking pictures with lovely cows grazing on the hills...And sitting on the banks of a river with our feet immersed in the water...and talking.

Italy...for I am Pizza lover, so would be he..I want to go to Venice for a ride in Gondola. And then Florence...And yes..Milan, the fashion capital, I need to make his pocket lighter!

A month long trip to France. I know one month is too long...But I want to get the feel, how would it be walking down the streets of France like a native French person does? As if I had known that place since ever. Paris is said to be the most romantic city in the world. How it would be holding hands and looking down from the Eiffel tower.

The cities and countryside of Greece, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Spain, Japan, Thailand...And the entire South American continent too. The list is endless.

I know I am talking a lot about Europe...I'm in love with a place I have never seen...Like I have a connection..Ever time I read about or watch these places on TV, I feel they are calling me...

Now I got America fever! How would life be there...Fair and lovely??? Fair in context of government policies, rules and regulations..law enforcement, discipline, cleanliness. The Statue of Liberty has always fascinated me...The night-life in Las Vegas...Hollywood...And yes the snow fall and the storms in USA. Going on a safari, bird watching..visiting a zoo, getting a tattoo and every possible freaky activity.

Walking along the beaches of Miami Florida...White sand blue waters. Writing our names on the sand in a heart! Having a candle-light dinner on the beach under the starry sky with the candles placed in the empty coconut shells! So romantic....Sigh! Not to forget the adventure part..sky-diving and water skiing.

Ice skiing in north Carolina and mountain climbing New Jersey...

Scuba diving in the waters of Hawaii...Falling in love with nature. Trying our hands at surfing. 

We want to to Egypt...Pyramids! Morocco...It seemed to be awesome on Discovery Channel.

And yes! Singapore, Malaysia, Hong kong and Bangkok...Dad says its awesome! Dubai too....for Burj Khalifa and Dubai is a shoppers' paradise...So yet another occasion to splurge!

How can I forget Australia. It as the Opera house and the Bondi Beach. And if we go to Australia we can't miss New Zealand!  And I want to visit the thousand s of cities I didn't mention here.

Will we be able to make it in just one life-time? Travelling around the world and living the way all the people live? Living like a thousands of them...Well if Ian can...So can we! So much to do i life..isn't it?