Another one bites the dust!

Just back from yet another wedding - this one in the distant hills of Uttarakhand, Dehradun! I have realised though that I do the most travelling for my closest friend's weddings! For R, I took 11 hour flights, travelled a day and a half each way to be present at the wedding and in her adopted hometown for a mere 6 days. In this case too, mega travelling involved - taking trains after centuries and here too skipped the bachelorette or in this case, the most fun party with the overflowing alcohol!
I had been having doubts about this wedding and the reasons behind it - thinking that parental pressure and easy options were the motivating factors. However, seeing the 2 in action after a long time, all apprehension has disappeared - I don't know about the chemistry or the grand passion but they are each other's best friends and I believe that is most necessary to make the marriage a surefire success!
So we started on a tuesday evening after working the whole day - caught the 8.30 flight to Delhi, which surprisingly took off on time, caught a cab to a friend's house where 4 of us were congregation to catch the early morning train to D'dun. However, with one's flight delayed and the other's bus breaking down, we weren't all in till around 3 a.m leaving precious little sleep till 6 when we had to catch the train. Once we boarded the train and reached the destination, we needed baths asap having had the brilliant idea of not changing the night before and staying in tuesday's clothes for 24 hours+!! After what seemed like the annual bath, off to the parlour we went where I died of boredom during the blow out of my hair!! then to the cocktail where we slimily kept sending the boys to the bar to get us the booze! The next day we took a drive to see a bit of the place where I really learnt the meaning of small town - the town is 15 mins across with one main road and not much to do! then dressed for the wedding where my ex-flatmate looked gorgeous and talked all through the ceremony including making faces at every oath of which she did not approve! In between the 2 ceremonies, we sneaked off to do a little celebrating of our own which included looking through photies of the wonderful times we had as students in Pune which resulted in nostalgia for the days gone by and regret for the thought that we would never be as young or as carefree again! After the event, we proceeded to 'KaalRaatri' where the bride's sisters/friends keep the groom away from the bride whole night till the bidaai the next day.
Post this last occurence, B and me proceeded to Mussoorie where we rejected hotels, were rejected from hotels, finally found literally a flea bag motel and then proceeded to drown our sorrows through retail therapy! The next day was spent sight seeing, being awestruck by the beautiful valleys and the perennial mist/fog, the fantastic view from Lal Tibba the highest peak of the ' Queen of the Hills' and we discovered this quaint hotel which is actually a residence converted to a hotel with wonderful food and such lovely character! we met the charming owners and wondered how their grandparents were smart enough to buy property and tons of it! and might I add, his grand father and mine had the same profession - law!!
The last day saw tons of travel again - the previous routine reversed - the train followed by a flight both of which were delayed which means I reached home rather late and cranky!
I was a little cribby about the distance travelled but I am feeling rather refreshed and all in all I think the joy I got from seeing D peaceful and calm in her choice of lifemate was worth all the effort - after all that's what marriage is about - a lifetime committment to someone else's happiness!

The end of the world as I know it!

There is this standing joke among my friends, colleagues, aquaintances, family that I can never diet. Dieting requires the giving up of bread, cheese and potatoes which is the food groups I live on. However all this is going to change - the results of the allergy test is back and it turns out I am majorly allergic to yeast - Yeast which is a major component of bread, cheese and god knows how many things I love!! This means eliminating all forms of bread including bagels and pizza bases, mostly cakes and apparently cheese and some forms of milk! Gaaah! Yeast is also the basis for the fermenting of alcohol though the test says I'm not allergic to the booze! I am allergic to grapes tho - making wine unacceptable and oranges as well making a screwdriver off limits too! I'm not so sure it was the wisest thing to do this test.....considering that my resulting life seems to be over!
In related news, my father has always restricted milk and peanuts having a strong conviction I am allergic to them - I'm clear of that! however as predicted, I am allergic to perfumes!! Thank god - there is no allergy to chocolate and cola - there is something to live for!
My (in)significant other is having a gala time making fun of my predicament and practically banning me from eating!!

The other things one is allergic to is:

• House dust (Duh!!)
• House Dust mites (what are these?)
• Cockroach dust (Ewwww)
• Parthenium - some kind of fast growing weed which is all over the country

Live Life King Size

I just had this very animated discussion with The Bride on how I think people take themselves too seriously and create high drama out of their lives which I think means losing out on all the fun life has to offer! We read a lot of blogs and when I see the age at which these 'women' write about life and serious issues, it makes me wonder where did the youth go? With today's advances in medicine and technology, we live much longer lives and if you are jaded at the ripe age of 22, talking about life taking it out of you and how you've seen it all, it makes me wonder where will you find the joy for the remaining 40 years? All a person needs is a little perspective - this is when you start, shit happens and look for the good. If you wallow in the bad, it will be always be depressing and you start with admitting that life is fun - one setback does not mean it's over! The Bride says it's a sense of drama that creates this but is a sense of drama enough to think that you are the next Sylvia Plath? People have tried explaining to me that a person's bad behaviour is because he is extremely intelligent - and I'm like unless you have an IQ of 323 like Einstein, there is no excuse to be socially retarded - with an IQ of 156, you're effing Sharon Stone. Keep it in perspective, Dude! and I believe the same thing applies to drama as well, it's how much you want to be at the centre of it that makes a difference, people snap out of it and clinical depression is a real problem but just to be dramatic because you think you are highly strung and have mega sensibility, I find it amusing and after a point, annoying! To me, because I enjoy life thoroughly, I find it contemptible to waste it being miserable without a credible reason just because you think you have been hard done by! and eventually, I think and this is really my personal opinion, its a pretension and an aspiration to be the love ravaged, manic depressive, aged and jaded person at the age of 21!!

Childhood anecdotes

My uncle is in town so as usual all the kiddie stories came out - who said what to whom at what age? and basically how their children embarassed them no end. I just thought I would record them for posterity since over time, I'm certain they will be forgotten!

One of the family favourites is when my cousin/Godmother was asked what she would like to drink at the tender age of 21/2 expecting a cola answer, 'cousint' dearest pipes with 'I'll have a cointreau'!! The reason for the quotes is when she was coming to visit us in Wellington, my maid was exhorting me to clean my room for the'guest' to which I retorted - " She is not a guest, she's a cousint!''. You could never argue with my logic - classic example being at a time when I was distributing invitation cards for my happy budday day and someone remarked that being born in May, I was a Taurus which Iimmediately clarified her misapprehension - ' I'm not a taurus, I'm a Soares!'
Speaking of my cousint again,she spent her formative years in the Punjab [reason being her father was in the Army] so the first language she learnt was Punjabi [in fact the only language she knew for the longest time] which did not bode well for her communication with the family which speaks only the Queen's English! They used to think the girl was speaking gibberish when she came down for holidays until the Sardar neighbours upstairs explained she was speaking perfect punjabi and holding a conversation with them!! which also explained why during a bath, she used to scream 'Thatti Thatti' and my imaginative family put her on the pot ASAP not knowing the punjabi word for 'hot' was Thatti!!
Back in the AF, it was customary to invite the new person for lunch/dinner to your house to make them feel welcome, so my parents told the new joinee A for dinner with all the various people necessary - apparently when he arrived, I took this little walk around him and examined him from all angles before finally remarking [apparently I never used the term aunty or uncle as a child], " A, you shave on top also" - in my defence, it was my first encounter with a bald man - I was 31/2!! Not that I improved dramatically, at age 7, I met a lady who was growing out her dyed hair or colored hair, I apparently counted and informed her that she had 7 different colors present on her head!
I don't think I have changed much - people keep telling me I have no tact and I always end up saying the wrong thing! I just hope that the same way these stories seem entertaining now, the bloopers I make now seem funny later!

To do list

I got this idea from here and decided I should also make a list of things I would like to accomplish by the time I'm 30 actually no age just I would like to accomplish these things till a time it's still relevant!- I don't think it will be 30 things and I already wrote the more mundane things in the previous post that I want to accomplish this year.

1. Visit Leh-Ladakh
2. Study Fashion History - the subject can change but the thought is to study further.
3. Live in London/New York/Paris - preferably while I'm studying
4. Go deep sea diving/snorkelling
5. Get a tan on a white beach [Maldives/Bali/Krabi/Samui]
6. Be thin enough to wear a 2 piece string bikini once [preferably while doing pt.5]
7. Go for a calligraphy course
8. Be more technology friendly - learn how to operate DVD players, iPod's, fancy phones
9. Do the heritage walk at Fort
10. Visit a sanctuary in India - Bandipur, Jim Corbett, any any!!
11. Practice my french in Pondicherry
12. Run a marathon
13. Learn to cook 4 awesome dishes and make 3 fantastic cocktails and create 2 delicious deserts
14. Print out digital photos to put memories of a life
15. Create a signature look - either with a color or style
16. Honeymoon in Greece - the wedding thing gets taken care of in this one
17. Own a property
18. Vipassana/Art of living
19. Stop smoking
20. Manage my own money

I don't know how many of these I will achieve but the point is listing them creates a goal!

Stronger!

It's very silly but I'm feeling a glow of accomplishment these days - it's just that I've been feeling that my life was out of control in a lot of ways last year - I was constantly broke - I was gaining weight and just generally a feeling of apathy. The apathy is still existing and I have to find the courage to break it - this feeling of lethargy. But in other ways, I seem to have seen an improvement. In terms of health, the yoga makes me feel good - I am definitely not losing any weight - in fact seem to have gained some but that's due to the mega weekend bingeing which includes chips, chocolates and deserts. Financially also, tho I have the major holiday coming up, I'm not broke by the 10th of the month anymore. I have decided to liquidate some money to make me debt free. I just wish I had moved my arse when the stock market was rising to sell the single stock that I own and really gained a return on investment!! but still, one can't have it all!

We've started a diet blog - which I enter quite religiously - my drinking has decreased [tho last friday does not prove that!!] and yay! yay! drumroll!! my reading has vastly increased. I can quite proudly say that in the last 2 months, I have read at least 8-10 books! ok maybe all contemporary fictiona and not any major great literature, it's still better than the dry spell I went through for a couple of years when I ws reading possibly a book a month! The movie watching seems to have gone down tho and we all know whom to blame for that!!

So I just thought I would make a list of what all I need to accomplish in the coming months

• Lose 4 kilos
• Think of career options
• Make or break
• Start a Fixed deposit [recurring]
• Do an allergy test
• Start going to a dermatologist
• Find a good homeopath
• Go to a gynaecologist
• Rearrange room - buy bed!

Princess Diary - 66

So I've finally discovered the joy of reading books online - I found this site on the compulsive confessor - pimping this week where as she rightly said all the Baby sitter's club and Princess Diaries are available online. So I can now officially say I have read Princess Diaries - all 7 of them - yes I kid you not - it took me 10 days but I have done it! I can now enter a game show on Mia Thermopolis Renaldo Grimaldi - oh maybe I wont win the show since I'm certain I got the order of names wrong but still... I knew them!
I have also started reading some other Meg Cabot books - I actually own 'She went all the way' - don't worry - it's much more decent than what it sounds. I have read 'Queen of Babble', reading 'How to be popular' - ok ok! I can do 2 things at one time!
I have also gotten the sequel and the triquel to the Thursday Next series and hopefully they will be as much fun as the first - 'Eyre Affair' which I reread over this weekend - in the 6 hours I was awake out of the 48. So far the week seems good - did a girls night out last night - with less alcohol and more fun and lots of screaming - all in all good times!
This week, my existential issues seems much further in the distance but as speaking to R today pointed out to me, the decisions other people are making at this point are decisions I will not face till I move through the decisions at this stage. It seems strange that when we started out at the same place, how we can be in two completely different spheres of life now?