Yet Another Award!

Hurrah! Someone thinks my blog is great! And that someone is Ashwini! Thanks so much Ash!

In accordance with the rules of this award, I am supposed to share 7 things about me. Suddenly I seem to sharing toooo much information about me on my blog, no? Also what is this rule with SEVEN facts anyway?! Almost all the tags and awards, state 7 - as though it is a magic number! I am also supposed to pass on this award to other deserving bloggers, and I will do so when the time is right :-) 

For now, here are 7 (more) things about me:

1.       I’ve never stayed in a hostel. The first time that I ever lived away from my home/parents was at 23. 

2.       I hate it when people want to ask/say something serious but are are afraid to ask outright and so end their question/statement with “Haha! Jus  kidding!” or “lol”! If you want to ask/say something then either have the guts to ask it or just shut up!

3.       I also dislike people who endlessly whine and complain about their situation/life/job/family/whatever and yet never do anything about it. Cribbing on and off is fine –everyone does that at times. But If you are constantly unhappy/dissatisfied with something, then please try to find ways to improve the situation. If that is impossible, then you might as well accept your fate, shut up and just deal with it!

4.      The first time I ever went to a disco was when I was 24. I just held a drink in my hand and hung around staring at people dancing on the dance floor!

5.       I don’t see what the big deal is about alcohol. It simply makes me very sleepy. And gives me a headache too.  And tastes bad.

6.       I really wish that girls stop using the Tamil slang word for dude, “macha!” *shudder*

7.       My longest running friendship is with A – we have been friends for more than 24 years! It amazes me at times!

So there we go! Now you know a little bit more about me! Not sure about you but I love all these nice awards. Although I do blog for my own satisfaction, it does feel nice to be appreciated. So if anyone else reading this feels like sending me another one my way, please feel free to do so ;-)

An Award And A Tag

Yayyy :-) Got my second "One Lovely Blog" award from Arpitha Holla of Me-ing! Thanks girl! I am truly flattered :-)

So she has tagged me to answer her 7 questions. Here goes! 

1) Which is your favorite "Lays" flavour?  

Cream and Onion. Yum!

2) Which is the one place you would love to go but have not been there as yet? 

Tooo manyyy! I actually wrote an entire post on this! But if someone is pointing a gun at me and asking me to choose JUST one then it would be Hawaii.

3) Which is the one color you hate?

 Brown 

4) Given an option to rescue a wooden log or a wooden plank which one would you rescue? 

Wooden plank

5) Why did you rescue whichever you rescued? 

Because I would guess that more amount of work and effort has gone into the wooden plank than the log and I wouldn’t want all that be wasted.  

(BTW I found this question puzzling! Could you please explain what made you come up with this one?!)

6) Dogs or cats? 

Dogs.

7) Which is the one gadget which you would like to own which you don't already have? 

Again only ONE!?! Not fair! Hmm okay as long as I am wishing let me wish for... A fully equipped robot to do alll my household chores!

On Teacher's Day...

Image Source: www.sxc.hu

Teacher's Day was always celebrated with great enthusiasm and fan-fare back in school. No classes were held and we students put up plays or shows to entertain our teachers - for which we would have started rehearsing all by ourselves, weeks back! It was a day of fun for both the students and the teachers (hopefully they didn't get bored to death watching our shows!).

I think I got enamored by the field of English, Journalism/Writing simply because I had such fantastic English teachers. Although I was not a topper, generally my performance in studies used to be above-average. I was always interested in English as a subject, but from my 8th standard onwards, I found my ideas, essays and answers being well-appreciated by my English teachers. Seeing those stars and congratulatory stickers stuck on my answer sheets made me glow with happiness. And I guess that it was then that I started believing that I was actually good, if not great, at something.

I get so irritated when, on hearing that English was/is my favourite subject, some people remark, "Oh why because it was easy is it?!". Well, the answer is a big, fat NO. Firstly, in my school, we had quality English teachers - not people who simply made us learn everything by rote, but rather women who cared enough and were passionate enough to take the trouble to explain the intricacies of the language and who helped me realize, recognize and appreciate the beauty and depth of both prose and poetry. They took the time and effort to awaken a genuine interest in us. What can I say? They succeeded! I still remember my high-school English classes, poems and lessons we were taught, with fond memories and today I can confidently say that I have taken up Writing as a career, because of my awesome English teachers. To be more specific, two of the most loved English teachers were Ms.Nandini and Ms.Soans - I'm sure that no one who studied under them will ever forget them!

I was fortunate to be educated at one of the leading schools in Chennai. But there are so many young children who do not have access to basic education - thereby building their entire future on a rocky and unstable foundation. All teachers are always special for the role they play in shaping the dreams and ideals of future generations, but the teachers who reach out to such disadvantaged children, definitely deserve a special mention. This is a story of one such teacher - Mangal Madam, associated with an NGO called Colors. Head over to Women's Web to read my article on her here.

So who was your favourite teacher? What do you fondly recall about him/her? Please share with me! 

TGIF #5: Capable Of Doing Many Things Competently Makes Me?

 It seems August is my lucky month! Won 2 competitions – one where I work and one about which I wrote here. Not only that, my blog has won 2 awards too! Isn’t that awesome?! I don’t know if Sunil noticed all my bragging when I won my first blog award but he was brave enough to give me the second one! It is great to know that he thinks I am a versatile blogger! So for this 'Thank God Its Friday Feature', my thanks goes to Sunil – am so flattered :-)

Actually Sunil sent this award my way a few days back but unlike my first award this one entitled me to do some work! So lazy me is putting it up only now ;-)

So for the first part of the award, I am supposed to say 7 facts about me. I have already blabbered a whole lot about me on this blog, but still due to popular demand (hehe!) here goes:

(1) I was born prematurely. I was soooo impatient to stay in my mummy’s tummy that I popped out in 7 months flat. So when I was born it seems that the docs gave me only 50% chance of survival. But I guess I decided that there was no getting rid of me so quickly and managed to hold on with my itty-bitty fingers! I am proud of the fighting spirit that I had ;-)

(2) Continuing from the above point- I still am a very impatient person. I can’t bear to wait, I want everything now! And I fight a lot too!

(3) I hate over-possessiveness in any kind of relationship. I find it stifling and restrictive. Some people seem to think that a person is overly possessive of you because they love and care for you a lot. Sorry, but I disagree. I think that it simply means that they are insecure and have an inferiority complex.

(4) I love to write and sometimes it seems as if I just can’t stop writing. Ideas and words keep flowing non-stop that I don’t even have the time to jot everything down. And yet at times, I can think of absolutely nothing to write about. In fact that is why I even wrote about nothing here.

(5) I cook quite well (if I may say so) and I find it mildly annoying that many people are quite surprised about this. I can’t see why people should be surprised about that and I detest lame jokes like “Oh what can you cook well? Hot water?” Seriously? Not funny. Do I look like somebody who can’t cook or what??!

(6) While on the topic of food, my all-time favourite dish is hot and spicy Chicken 65. It sounds totally uncool, I have no idea about its origins and I don’t even know if it is available in other parts of India. In case you want more info, check out this mad video! Laugh but please don’t curse me!

(7) I prefer British English to American English. I try to write in British English but sometimes I muddle up both of them.

Was that some interesting trivia about me? So now moving onto the second part of the award. Although I have been blogging for 3.6 years I joined blogging networks only a couple of months back. So I am relatively new to blog-networking and it looks like most of the people I read have already won gazillion well-deserved awards! So after a lot of research, here are some of the blogs which I feel should be awarded 'The Versatile Blogger' *Drumroll*:

Namrata Mahalingam from Complicated Life. I think her posts are so simply, yet refreshing.
Ashwini from Just The Way I Like: Her posts make me laugh and she is a fellow Chennaite! No no I am not biased-it is just that she writes a lot about things that happen in Chennai and so I can relate so well with it!
Arpitha from Me-ing: I love her "don't give a damn!" attitude. One spunky gal!

I am still discovering more and more interesting blogs and surely this list will keep growing. I also notice that my list has only women. Well, I just can't help it! I like reading women's blogs, sorry guys! So for now, this is it and I hope that all you 3 lovely ladies will accept this award and keep the tradition going :-)

TGIF #4: My First Blog Award!

It is said that Archimedes got a brilliant brainwave, while stepping into his bath and promptly went running around the streets, shouting ‘Eureka!” to one and all. I know that some people get their bright ideas while sitting on the potty. I get mine (ideas, not potty) when I am drifting in a semi-conscious state, wavering between sleep and wakefulness. Now, this of course means that by the next morning when I wake up, I would have forgotten half of the ideas that I had thought up, thus depriving this world of potentially huge and path-breaking intellectual insights. (Ahem! Ahem!)

Anyway so last night, there I was, snuggled up in my cozy bed, listening to my husband’s snores, thinking about what to write today for the TGIF feature. I could envision a couple of nice ideas and so fell into a deep and satisfied slumber. Today, I sharpened my pencils (Ok Ok! Can’t I just use a figure of speech?! )and when I opened up my blog to write a post, what do I see? A comment from Sujatha. Ta-Da! Abstract Admissions has won it’s very first blog award folks!

Now if I don’t thank God and Sujatha and the wonderful blogging community out here, wouldn’t that just be an unforgivable crime?! So thanks a bunch Sujatha for your generosity in giving me this award as well as for your fantastic blog, which makes for some very interesting reading!

Also, give yourself a small pat on the back, dear readers and followers, coz now you have solid (well actually virtual)proof that you have not wasted your time, but have rather been reading one lovely blog indeed!

Image Courtesy: Dreamstime

Dream Come True!

Yeah! So I finally finished my Diploma in Freelance Journalism. It is official. I am a certified and published Journo now! Pop the cork! Yippeeee!

A healthy treat for the child in you!

I remember, once when my nephew was around 1 year old, there was a fancy dress show happening in our residential colony. My sis-in-law thought that it would be a good idea to take him there and so got him a tiny doctor's coat and a stethoscope. Since he hadn't started talking yet, I went along too as his mouth-piece! So when his name was announced, my sis-in-law led him onto the stage; he happily walked on and seeing so many people down there, got excited and started waving his stethoscope wildly, while I gave him a voice-over.
I said "An apple a day keeps the doctor away; but if the doctor is as smart as me-you better keep the apple away!"
But coming to the point of this long-winded story, no matter how ugly the doctor is, I actually prefer them to apples.
I just do not understand how sooooo many people seem to enjoy them. I have tried many, many times to eat one but I never could complete even a single apple. They look pretty enough, staring at me from the grocery stands-startling reds, golden yellows and fresh greens. But I am not tempted.
In fact, I think that if I had been in Eve's place, Original Sin would never have occurred-no one, evil or angelic could have possibly made me eat that apple!

Having said alllll this, sometimes I try to make my husband eat healthy and so bought some apples a few weeks back. But my husband,strangely,never likes to eat, let alone eat healthy. So there they were-unhappily awaiting their path to their destiny, namely the dust bin.
But in one of my rare moments of rationality, I decided today to turn them into something much more attractive to my palate. I searched online for all kinds of recipes and finally chose one, did some modifications and customizations and ta da-delicious Apple Oatmeal Muffins!

So lets trace the journey from here...

From Apple Muffins

to here!

From Apple Muffins

You will need:

3/4 cup all purpose flour (I used the self-raising variety so that I needn't
add any baking soda)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter
Handful of chopped mixed nuts
1 apple

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Core and grate the apple. I left the skin on, figuring it would give more fiber.
(And also because I am lazy ;-))If you want, you could peel them.

Mix all the dry ingredients together. So sift and add together both the flours, oats, cinnamon and salt.

Beat the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and whisk well.

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture along with the vanilla essence.

Stir till everything is incorporated well-maybe 3 minutes.

Either grease your muffin pan or line them with paper cups. I used paper liners.

Drop the dough into the muffin mould using a tablespoon and teaspoon. Level the surface of the muffins as otherwise you as the muffins rise up, cracks may form on the uneven surface and though the taste is not affected, the aesthetic appeal is!

Place the muffin tray in the oven and bake for 30-35 mins depending on your oven.
Start eyeballing from around 25 mins. The muffins may look a little under-done but they should be springy to the touch.

Remove from tray and cool.

Dig in!!!

From Apple Muffins

These muffins are easy, quick and tasty as well as nutritious since they contain whole wheat flour, oats, apples and nuts (I used walnuts and almonds.)
So here is a treat for all of you grown-up kids on Children's Day!
Happy Children's Day! Enjoy and Keep Smiling :-)

From Apple Muffins

Hey Gurl! This ones for ya!!

Friendship Day.
My greetings and gratitude to all my dear friends who have put up with me so far! But this year I would like to especially remember all my girl friends. Generally speaking, due to some reason (I am guessing its coz guys don’t get offended as easily as girls?) I get along much better with guys than girls – surprising actually when you think about it coz I struck up my first friendship with a guy only when I was about 18 (which was my dear friend Pravin). Till then I didn’t know any guy whom I could call as a friend-there were brothers and cousins and acquaintances of course, but no friend as such.

The very first friend I can ever remember is Aruna. I met her at school but I cannot recollect exactly how. I suspect we were probably sitting next to each other in class. Aruna is my longest running friend-its been 23 yrs! The latest close girl friend I made was Sivagami – my petite, curly-haired ex-colleague. People who know me should be well aware of the fact that I am hardly an outgoing or social person. I keep to myself mostly and do not make friends as easily as one would wish. I do not, by any extent of imagination have a large gregarious group to hang out with. But between Aruna and Shiva, I have made a few really great chums, who I hold close to my heart. Some friends I have known for years and some just for a short time. With some, we caught on like a house on fire. And some were indeed totally unexpected – like you, Anu! (U knw tht :-))

I do like hanging out with all my guy friends-it is fun and enjoyable. But I cannot imagine calling up ANY of the guys and asking them something like this “Hey do you think I should wear the pink dress for today’s party? You know the one I wore for Swetha’s wedding?” Can you imagine the response I might get?
Possible reply No.1: Uh huh….
Possible reply No.2: Nope. Don’t remember.
Possible reply No.3: Which Swetha? That hot girl with Angelina-Jolie lips??
Possible Reply No.4: Swetha got married??!! When did that happen?!!!

But instead if it was one of my girl friends “No d! That pink dress has been done to death. The theme for today’s party is Sunshine. So try something in shades of yellow/orange na… Hey I remember you have that gorgeous lemon yellow, off-shoulder top right? The one we got when we went shopping last month. And you can borrow my chunky earrings-they’ll be perfect!”
Now that is what I call a Life Saver ;-))

I agree, of course that practically speaking I cannot possibly call up a girl friend and ask her to pick me up if suppose I get stranded somewhere in the middle of the night. Nor can I ask her to help me carry the couch up the stairs. But for other things of grave concern and utmost priority like
‘Have ABC & XYZ broken up for good this time?’,
‘How do I make coffee?’,
'What is the latest style of jean called?’,
'Why did Surya have to go and act in such pathetic movies like Aadhavan?’,
'Where did Rakhi Sawant do her plastic surgery?’,
’Shall I go for a layer cut or a feather cut this time?’,
‘Why are boyfriends/husbands the way they are?’,
‘Should I wear my dupatta like this or like that?’, ‘Does this black nail polish look hideous?’,
‘Should I get a second ear piercing?’,
‘Am I looking sloshed in this photo or can I send it to mom?’ etc etc etc – nothing can beat gal pals!!
Despite the fact that I do have many guy friends and that I am blessed enough to have a loving family, gurl friends play a very special and important part in my life.

As R.L. Stevenson rightly said “No Man is useless while he has a friend” (I take the liberty here to apply this to Women as well). So here's to the gals – for all the never-ending talks and chats, for the long shopping sprees, for all the good and bad advice, for being with me thru good times and not-so-good ones, for helping me cope when I was down in the dumps and for rejoicing with me when I made it, for joining in the laughter as well as the tears, for tolerating my weaknesses and accepting my short-comings, never judging and for listening patiently to all my woeful tales of misery-imagined or otherwise. A zillion cheers!! May you always find Love and Laughter wherever you are and whatever you do! Muaahhhh!!

Image Courtesy: www.dreamstime.com

Happy B'Day!

Due to inconsistent internet connection over here I forgot to post something.
Happy first birthday to my dear blog :-)

BTW should I say birthday or anniversary?!

Yippeee!!

3 cheers for ARR!
Hip Hip Hurray!
Hip Hip Hurray!
Hip Hip Hurrayyyyy!