At times I feel all this is a pleasant dream come true,

Is it really true that i found somebody whom I've always wanted ?

Oh God please give me a nod, that will make me happy forever....

Hand in hand we walk, and the whole world looks at us,

But I look into those eyes which have looked at me the most beautiful way,

Those eyes which made me feel naughty, funny, beautiful and what not...

Its hard to look into somebody's eyes and it takes me all courage in the world to look into his eyes,

His eyes give me the hope of living my life the way i have always wanted to...

Sitting by the window side looking at the raindrops flowing down,

All i can think of is cuddling next to him and holding him tight...

Sometimes in life you wonder how good/different it would be if you were born elsewhere. Say a different country… About being born in a different family I would not comment as it’s one’s personal view… But why do you get such thoughts? What makes you feel so?

Of course, then come into picture our very own cousins who are born here and brought up abroad… Ah god, you tend to go into depression if you spend just an hour with them… Same blood, same family but so much of a difference… That too in a larger magnitude I would say… What makes them so different? I wondered at nights to find a plausible solution… I may be right or wrong but I’m sure there are a lot of people who would want to strongly agree with my views…

A major reason would be the parental upbringing based on where you’re located… The next reason would be your friends or the American counterparts and also your neighbors… Parents who have settled there for a couple of years are already accustomed to the society and the upbringing there… They don’t want to force their kids over anything… It’s the kid’s choice all the time… They do suggest the good and bad but the kid wins ultimately… I wonder if it ever happens here… Let’s take a simple e.g. here… The other day my cousin and uncle were down in India on their spring break. My uncle works as a professor in a reputed University and my cousin is 15yrs old… What she eats, what she wears is all her choice… Since they have come down after a gap of 8yrs everybody in the family is excited including me… Lunchtime is when all of us are seated and anxious to have the really amazing food my mom prepared… My mom and I go around serving everybody… I come to serve my cousin and she immediately says No to the non vegetarian dishes… Apparently she’s a volunteer for the environment club in her school and has quit non veg food to avoid cruelty against animals… My grandma and mom try to reason it with her and make her eat but she’s steadfast with her decision… From then on what she needs on her plate is her choice... She refuses to be served and wants to help herself… And I forgot to mention her excellent table manners and courtesy… The way she says thank you with a smile on being served just swipes you off your feet… A sorry for saying No to your dishes… In India, even if people step on your feet accidently they just give you a rude stare as if you intentionally put your foot under their legs, forget the sorry and thank yous’ here!!! You don’t even get a polite smile back… People think you’re crazy if you try to be polite… When will people change I never know…

The kids abroad are encouraged to take cross country trips there just to meet up friends during their vacation… Here for a college trip you need to go on and on to convince your parents to say a Yes… And that doesn’t happen so easily… You undergo a series of question and answer sessions… Who are the gals coming with you? Are their parents ok with their daughters going for the trip? How many guys are there in your class? How good are they? Now I can’t give them a scorecard of all the guys in my class can I? Why cant parents just say a yes… I definitely accept they care for us and that they are worried about our safety… But aren’t we grown up enough to take care of ourselves… When will our parents give us that freedom or trust us with it? All through your life you are directed on what to do, how to do it and what not to do… Parents please give us a break… What you study, where you study, what you do during your vacation – everything is decided by them… Doesn’t our choice ever matter to them? Don’t they want to know if we are really happy doing what they want us to do… They just assume we are happy… If we try to reason out or show our displeasure then we are considered to be rude, arrogant, and selfish and a person who doesn’t respect elders… We are even forced to eat… Take a cup of juice, my cousin says No to it and my dad tells my mom, go ahead just give it to her, she’ll drink it eventually… That’s when my uncle says no don’t do that… If she says no then she will not drink it… So just leave it… I was wondering what would have happened if I was in her place… In spite of my repeated No’s I would have been forced till I ultimately said yes and finished the juice… God what life, you can’t even refuse a juice…

The way they speak English is something I would not forget… The accent is unavoidable, but the no – grammatical – mistake - statements are just too good… Nobody makes an issue if they don’t speak in their mother tongue… I don’t know why our uncles and aunts don’t make it mandatory… It’s really important that children know to speak in their native language… But they go ahead to learn international languages like French, German, Spanish etc… This would be the only point where I would disagree with their lifestyle/upbringing…

Its high time parents learn something from their siblings in US and UK… A drastic change needs to be brought in the way our children are being bought up… Some basic freedom needs to be given. If not in the upbringing, at least they should be given the freedom to choose their own career and the life ahead… I know someday it would happen when we will be proud to stand next to our American cousins without any regrets in our hearts… I am gonna make my kid feel proud for sure :)

When I woke up yesterday morning little did I realize that it was gonna be one of the worst days of my life.

I woke up hearing to my mom and dad yelling at each other. After a few minutes of careful hearing I realized that the cause was my stupid sister. Dad was yelling at her saying she spends more time in front of the mirror than with her books… With all this yelling how can one sleep peacefully, so I finally decided to get up… I was still sitting on my bed, my legs refusing to get down when my dad peeped into my room and had a sarcastic comment for me – “Our baby has finally got up”!!! Grrrrrrrrrrr… Nothing can ever stop these people I tell you. I finished my morning chores, had an early breakfast and got ready. Mom wanted me to take her to bank and for some other work. She assured me all that will get over in max 15mins and I can get back home by 11 so that I can start to office in bus. But as I was getting ready my perfume bottle slipped from my hand and broke into pieces. I was literally in tears… It was a good perfume and a gift from my uncle in London. :( Didn’t have time to clean the mess… Had to leave.

Here comes the bank story. All I had to do in the bank was give them the fixed deposit forms, tell them that it’s matured and hence I need the cheques today. There was this nice, kinda pretty looking gal at one of the counters. She’s the kind guys would call ‘Adaka Odukamana Ponnu’… The whole process would hardly take her 15mins, but by the time it was done I had waited 45mins in the bank. Though I was really mad I just dint have the heart to blame her. 1. Cos she seemed sweet and soft gal to me and 2. It wasn’t her fault that it got late. Nobody let her do any work… Her own colleagues had 101 doubts every second and any visitor who came in went straight to her. Guys hardly noticed the ‘May I Help You’ counter at the entrance. In they walked and straight to her seat as if they were destined to meet her… Stupid guys… Amidst all this she kept looking at me and kept nodding to say it will get over soon. Finally after a wait of 45mins I got the cheques and I left immediately. Dropped my mom half way back and headed to office…

The whole bike driving process was such a pain. I waited in the Koyambedu main signal for damn 15mins… I practically saw the signal change from red to green almost 4 times but surprisingly I was still stuck in the same signal... This bad luck didn’t end just here… It followed me to all the signals till I reached office… The only good thing was that it wasn’t hot yesterday. There was no trace of sun and it was cloudy so I was saved from sun burns and getting tanned…

At office day wasn’t very great either... There was this long pending issue of mine that got back to our queue. There is nothing my team has to do in that ticket but after making rounds with all the other teams it is back in our queue… I have to escalate this and it’s a big process :( The events went well and I guess people had fun. They all participated in all the games and Utsav ended on a good note. The culturals are still pending. Not sure when we will be having them. I was super hungry after the events. Pulled along Jannu to cafeteria to have chikku milkshake. But it didn’t taste good. Left a sour taste in my mouth... Couldn’t take it anymore after finishing 3/4^th of the glass… Jannu thought having orbit would make me feel better. In a hurry to get rid of that sour taste I popped in two pellets of orbit… Later realized it was clove flavor… It was super strong and made me feel worse… God can things get any worse??? Came back to seat, finished my pending work and started browsing for gifts for a 3yr old…

I was actually surprised with the collection of gifts each site offered. I mean kids these days have almost anything and everything they can ask for… Some toys were too cute and adorable… I ended up wishing I had those toys with me :( Uhhh no I rather wish I become a kid… No worries, no work. All you get to do is just eat, play and sleep… Wonderful life….

I was very tired and super sleepy by the end of the day… All the running around in heels for the events got me really really tired so I wasn’t in a mood to drive back home and decided to take the cab. My bad stint with traffic continued in the night too… There was super traffic and I reached home only 10.30… I was literally starving and gulped dinner in exactly 15mins… The quickest I have ever finished food… Crashed early and had a good undisturbed sleep for 6hrs… Guess this was the other best thing that happened in the whole day… (The first being cake shopping :))