My Birthday

Saturday, 25th August , was my birthday. I had expected my husband to do something nice, because even if he forgets his own birthday, he is sure to remember mine. I wasn't disappointed.

I got up pretty early( i am never able to sleep late on my birthday!!!:)}did the "punar puja" for varalakshmi vritam, then had my cup of tea. In the meantime, my husband got up, I made breakfast, and it was ten by the time we had our breakfast. Around 12:30, our friends arrived, holding my birthday cake, a huge vanilla cream-chocolate mousse cake, with balloons, and happy birhtday written on it. In between conversation, Madhu pulled out the two cans of party streamers that we had bought long back. And just as i bent down to blow off my 24 birhtday candles( i was let off by a couple of years:) :) ) he sprayed me with the streamer can...And boy!!! did i blow all my candles out--- with a "huff, n puff, and blow ur house away " type long whoosh!!!!

So, after having cake, we went to eat bread!!!( to re-phrase Marie Antoinette)...i.e. we went to a tandoori restaurant, and had a lovely, hearty, filling meal, of veggie pakoras for starters, naan, vegetable biryani, malai koftas, mutter paneer, dal makhni,and channa masala. With our stomachs full, we went out to get our share of exercise....yup, u guessed it..SHOPPING!!!!!

went to a big mall, bought some shoes and home slippers for Madhu, and one pair for myself...saw a movie, and got back home by 11:00 p.m. So we had a nice, long day out...just as weekends are supposed to be.

I wish my next birthday be as swell, and memorable!!!

Thanks to all my friends who remembered me,and called, mailed, or scrapped.

Kudos to my husband

My husband is very supportive...he wants me to do my very best in everything,and thats why, he decided to help me , in his own way, in my plan of cleaning the fridge today.

He made chicken yesterday night, and while keeping it in the fridge, he toppled over the glass of Complan (that he hadn't finished yesterday morning. n kept in the fridge)...i discovered it this morning, while moving his chicken dish to take out the milk can.
So now i have added incentive to get down to cleaning the fridge today...no wriggling out of it today, no sir!!!!!!

So that's why i say, my husband is very supportive of my efforts, and looks to find ways to make his contribution apparent!!!!! :)

visual feast

I get a daily dose of visually appealing pictures...thanks to my friend shree, who has her own blog now, and has conceptualised it as a photo gallery...Amazing pictures...she really has some pics taht i wud love to see those places with my own eyes.

check these links out for two abstracts

hi all,

i recently read two stories, and have written their abstracts here. Check these links. And dont frgt to rate them at the end of the page.

thanks

http://www.shvoong.com/books/play/1651640-Pygmalion

http://www.shvoong.com/books/detective-story/1651627-Murder at the Vicarage

CAT-HO GAYA RAMJI KO PYAARA

unfortunately this time I have another sad incident to put on my blog. I had already mentioned the black cat that had been our visitor. On Monday evening, i.e 13th August, I came out at 6:30 p.m., just checking to see if i could see Madhu's car . However, as i opend the door, what caught my attention was the plaintive mewing that seemed to come from very near, but I couldn't see where. It seemed like the at,a nd i searched around. At one point, I thought it was madhu playing tricks on me. However, something made me look under our patio chairs,a dn sure enough , there was the black cat, mewing its throat out,and its whole body shaking. I was a bit concerned, and went near it. It was shaking, n mewing every 2 seconds, as if telling me, Dont chase me away. I mean, this was afirst of its kind. I was so close to the cat,a n it didnt move,adn it was flopped on its side in an eerie manner. I thought it was thirsty/ hungry, n came back ith some water,a nd biscuits. But still no reaction. I was anxious, but still scared to go too near, cos i was afraid that it might dart out at me. So i took the precaution of calling up Madhu, n telling him the cat is back, n its mewing every second. So he came,a dn with him watching, I slightly lifted the cat to its feet to direct its face towards the water dish. However, it mewed again, and flopped back. It was then I realised there was a trickle of blood from one of its hind legs. I alerted Madhu,a dn we phoned around to get to the emergency services of the Humane Society. In the meantime, we kept stroking it, talking to it,a dn it also became silent after a while. This was again new for us. The cat trusted us so much that when it got hurt, it came straight to our patio, and let us touch it. And didnt show any signs of being scared/ running away. However, the minute the officer from the Humane society came, out darted the cat on its 3 good legs,a dn disappeard into the night.It got scared on seeing him come with hsi uniform, a huge net,a dna plastic box. It smelled an unfamiliar scent, and scooted. By then, it was dark. Madhu, and the officer took flashlights,and looked around the areas where they saw the cat run, but it had vanished into the inky blackness of the night. Again, who said searching for a black cat was easy in the night?

So the officer left, asking us to call back if the cat turned up. And madhu n i kepta regular vigil- to see if the cat felt comfortable enough to return to our patio. Till wse went to sleep, it hadnt come back. Tuesday again we checked in the morning, and i kept an eye out for it in the complex. I waited and prayed for the cat to come back to our patio alive, like the way I used tp pray for it not to kill birds on my patio again. I checked for signs of its return, like the way i used to shoo it away. I even informed some of the management staff of the complex to keep an eye out for an injured, limping black cat.

Wednesday morning. I hope the cat is alive, safe some where, and has teneded to its wound by licking itself etc etc. This was the chain of my thoughts as i set out to go to the gym this morning. Howevewr, at the entrance of the gym, one of the staff memebers told me they had found the black cat yesterday under one of the bushes towards the back of the whole complex. It was dead. And they had the Humane Sciety come and take it away. It was then I felt close to tears. I mean, for all the incidents that we had with the cat, I didnt want it to have bled to death. Probably, if we had ourselves tended to its wounds,with our first aid kit, it would have been alive.

Well, anyway, may its soul rest in peace.

Madhu and Pooja

On Sunday, 12th August, Madhu and Pooja had a rendezvous.


On Sunday, I had to do the Aadi Amavasya pooja. Pooja for the well being of the husband. Got up at 5:15 a.m., went out n picked flowers, n then set abt preparing for the pooja. In the meantime, my husband, Madhu, got up, and said he would help me out by cleaning up the home. And he did. What's more? He actually took a bath, and then performed the Aarti after i finished the pooja.

Why is it so special, and worthy of mention? Sunday is "No Bath" day for Madhu, and he sincerely believes that if he took a bath on Sunday, then God would be displeased...:) :) ..So this was a big thing for him, and i truly, really appreciate it.!!!

As neiveidhyam, I had made venn pongal, sambar, and rava kesari. So, we had a nice lunch, and Madhu liked the kesari so much, that he took most of it, and i got a little for lunch, and then dinner. HE claimed ownership, and complete rights over the dish of kesari. It was like dictatorship..."Its my kesari. I decide who will get how much to eat". And I am like, Hello!! I made it. ...:) :)

But still its a nice feeling to know that ur preparations are being gobbled up, rather than rejected for not being good. So all's well that ends well.

INDIANS still charming snakes

recently i went for the volunteer orientation of an NGO. they deal in a lot of things, including helping ppl whose homes have burnt down...in Arizona, the heat induces fires to spread quickly, n since all homes here are made of wood , n linoleum, its like houses can be razed to the ground in minutes. So anyway, there was this lady describing to us one of their recent cases, where they had to rush to a house. the lady occupant had 6 kids, n 23 snakes. She was a snake lover. And she seemed more worried abt what wud happen to the snakes rather than her kids. So this lady conducting the class said, usually while dealing with pets stranded in homes, we get people who know how to deal with them. So in this case, I would probably call.....( and her she looks straight at me across the room, and says) Nithya, to come and charm the snakes.

I was AMAZED...60 yrs on Independence, giant strides in industry, software, IT, and some ppl here still think we go around charming snakes!!!!!! N then we were told how to be impartial towards ppl of different natioanlities, religions etc, !!! comic, isnt it?????

Weight and weightless-ness

Hey people,

Lets discuss about ways to reduce weight...I have put on almost 7 kgs after marriage. And my hubby is equally growing in proportions...Once he decided to go off non veg, and in 10 days, he came back with claims that he Had reduced almost 2 kgs...i was totally shocked,n didn't believe it...I mean, just by going off non veg for a period of 10 days cant make someone reduce so much...n here, i wa eating Weight Watchers cereal every morning, using just right amount of oil in veggies, and completely off butter, cheese, and ice cream for two months.combine that with one hour exercise at the gym, every morning..And i don't seem to be reducing weight at all.!!!!

The forces seem to be against me!! i am telling you, it's so weird..that ppl back home actually began to ask if we were still teh Laurel-Hardy pair( that we were when we got married), or were we both vying to be called the perfect couple????? I was told that they didn't recognise me in the recent photos we had sent...Aaaah. I mean, come on, I am not that fat to be unrecognisable.
Now my hubby decided he couldn't be away from non veg for more than two weeks, n again began on his fav food, using lotsa oil, eggs, etc, he has increased 2 kgs again. yippeee!!!!

Wait n watch the updates on the weight game.

Thank you

They say, little things in life matter a lot...like what happened this morning, when my husband was leaving for work..While saying goodbye, he added ."keep writing on ur blog...I read it when i get time"... I felt that was so sweet..i know the kind of work schedule he has, and still, he finds time to read what i write on my blog... I didnt expect it, but just knowing that he is interested enough to read it, makes me feel nice.

A big Thank you to all those who have taken time to go through my blog, and post comments.

sad incident

Since we are on the topic of birds still, let me tell you of a rather sad incident today. A couple of dasy back, we had adopted a bird. A small pigeion variety, i guess, all brown, n with blackish tinges on feathers, n neck. It wasnt able toi move, or fly, n just hopped around in our patio, even with all our moving around. We managed to get hold of it, n lkept it ina amkeshift box, with food( bird seed) n water. Repeated checks at regular intervals showed that some water had been drunk, n bird seed scattered around. The bird nestled in my husbands palms ashe caressed its head, n wings, trying to find out wjhat had prevented it from flying. If we had left it in the open, either the cat wud have pounced on it, n finished it off, or the other adult, stronger pigeons, wud have sat on it, one top of the other, n pecked it to death...while pecking away at the bird feeder. So, well, it came into is makeshift cardboard box, n just fluffed up its featers like it was cold, n slept off. It also had a tendency to roll over to the right side, as f it couldnt bear to stand on its feet. A casual examination of teh feet didnt reveal anything mysterious. It was able to grasp our fingers, n stand up, but put it in the box, n it promptly rolled to its right.

However, this afternoon, my husband fed it a few drops of water, through straw...since it hadnt eaten anything at all. It actually drank, sipped, i shud say, three straw fuls of water. And in the evening, after we came back from shoppin confrmed that the bird was no more. Really sad. no apparent injuries, heart beat was steady, no injured feet, n it died.

We found the bird had breeathed its last. we were saddened by the loss.

c

CAT-O-RAMA

This morning, my husband was playing with his newly acquired remote conrol ATV. just going out in the lawn, n moving it all around. I paid no attention, till i saw the bl;ack cat, that had fallen off my favs list long time ago, dart through my patio, then the next home's patio, and out into the parking lot, cross over a wall( wud have given any self respecting olympic athlete a run for their money), n disappear. Prob it was crouching behind some bushes, when the toy gt too close to it for comfort. I dont know. I got some sort of evil happiness, seeing the cat, that had killed 2 birds in my patio, scamper away from a remote control toy.. n the way it ran...it was like it was running for its life!!!, darted like a bolt of lighting, before u cud blink.