Mind of an orchid

There are several things I miss about India and one that is almost there at the top is Mangoes!! I am making a trip back home pretty soon and I am delighted that it is timed right with the mango season in India. An email in the inbox is often the mother of an idea for a blog post for many and today I am going for an email-inspired post, as well. This email was titled “Alphonso Mangoes-Door Delivered” and the huge mango buff that I am, could not resist but open the email. It was from this mango farm in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra which was pitching to door-deliver “best of the harvest” Alphonsos in wooden petis (crates) to select Indian cities. The internet is clearly taking entrepreneurship in India to a whole new level! However, I guess for those of us in the U.S, craving for these heavenly delights, we may have to wait and see how the Bush government is going to follow-through on their promise to lift the 17 year ban on mango imports from India. Strategic bilateral co-operation, indeed! But I for one can’t wait to order a “peti” this summer.

Here is a find! I went perfume shopping yesterday. Spent a few hours in the evening sniffing bottle after bottle and by the end, my nose and the entire nasal passage was completely seized by scents; some fruity, some floral, some woody and of course the strong scent of coffee from the beans. I was looking for something wearable and adequately pleasant but wanted to avoid scents that tend to dominate the entire room or give people around me a headache. I am really not a huge fan of overly fruity or floral scents. I can tolerate a woody scent and prefer a subdued musky scent the most. So, yes, I am quite picky when it comes to fragrances. I had a few in mind even before I tested them. I have always been a huge fan of Estee Lauder, so I definitely gave Intuition a try. I also tried a few perfumes that I have already used at different times in my life, just to see if they would still interest me. Surprisingly, none of them did. I moved on to sniff Lovely. I knew SJP had launched Lovely last year so it is not really the newest perfume on the block. One sniff and I knew I was going to get it. Not just because SJP plugged it on Oprah, but because I think SJP has paid a lot of attention to detail. It is fresh, not at all synthetic and more importantly very well blended. Now I am not really a perfume connoisseur, so I couldn’t really trace notes of rosewood, white amber or even the ORCHID that it supposedly contains but it definitely has the potential to make you feel good with its understated fragrance. So, ladies or even gentlemen who want to buy a perfume for their ladies, definitely give Lovely a sniff. Whiff! Whiff!

Smile-it's worth it!

I felt a li'l guilty after my last post about about "being ready for 30". It was loaded and didn't want to send anyone anywhere unhappy. So, here is a big smiley face that we all love and hopefully it will bring some cheer!

I am going to turn “Three-0” this summer and even as I keep telling myself that it is just a number, I cannot help but feel that in many ways life is going to be different. For some reason, I seem to have started the soul-searching 6 months ahead of the big day. This was not the case with the other “so-called significant b’days” like 16 or 20 and I guess that is the big difference between me then and me now. Thirty makes a lot of people reflect on their life, discover a few things about themselves and maybe even let some realities sink in. That is all good. However, what I don’t like is this feeling of dread. Surely by now life is supposed to be in cruise control, right? Why do I feel like I need to take a “30s- 101 course” People seem to have figured it all out by this time and I have not. In many ways, I have to start all over again. I have to admit that I have made some really bad choices but what disturbs me most is that I don’t feel ready for what lies ahead. I still don’t feel like I know what to do with the cards I have right now. Just when a wave of panic hits me, I tell myself it’s all right. My husband, who in many ways is my sanity, keeps reminding me of the cliché “When life gives you lemons-make lemonade” Now, I want to. Surely, not everyone is where they want to be at 30 or 40 but they keep trying and I guess at the end of the day that’s what matters. I admit I don’t have all the answers, not yet, but Thirty, I am going to be ready for you!

SM delivered on 25th. A baby girl it is!
Hey SM,
Congrats! Welcome to mommyville!

My friend SM is very pregnant and I am thinking about the time when I was “extremely” pregnant myself. Extremely referring to “anytime now” It is that phase when you are making endless trips to the rest room, when a recliner is your best friend, when you can’t see your own feet anymore, when you continue to grow bigger and bigger that even your mirror starts to sympathize with you. In short, it is a phase that you cannot wait to get it over with. Of course, there is all the excitement of not being able to wait to hold your bundle of joy and all the anxiety about whether you are truly prepared to be a mom but honestly, this phase is sheer misery. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but having been there once, I understand and truly sympathize with SM and all other “almost due” women. I may have to do it again, eventually, but for now I am taking a well deserved break after my last one, 21/2 years ago. Looks like I may need an entire decade to recover from it!

I just heard on American Morning that business-related strip club visits are a tax-deductible IRS benefit!

While I am still struggling with this whole blog thing and how to get people to read it, I have one loyal friend who reads it and this one is for her. The one thing that tells me that I am getting older is that it has been increasingly harder to make friends lately. Gone are those days when I was just good at it. It used to be so easy, everyone had their own circle of friends and I must have been a part of two circles if not three or four. College years in India were the best (I know it sounds like I am talking about the ancient past, but no I am not that old). In a land of a billion people what else can you expect? Life was nothing but fun and friends were a big part of it. I guess that’s really what I miss the most about India- people. They were there everywhere - at home, in school, on the streets, just about everywhere, whether you needed them or not. I have lived here long enough that I can safely say that I have a long list of acquaintances, people I know, people I hang out with and a few good friends too but sadly, I don’t know a lot of people I used to be friends with, a decade ago, anymore. I simply don’t know where they are and what they do. Times change, people change, life simply takes over. Even in this day and age, with the entire world being just a mouse-click away it is still not easy to keep in touch. I hate it when people give me the “I have been so busy lately” excuse. To me it is nothing more than an excuse. C’mon, how busy can one be? It’s another thing that you probably don’t want to know such people anyway. Sorry, I digress, this is about a friend and the next time she reads my blog, I want her to know how much I appreciate knowing and having her in my life. I talk to her almost everyday (in fact she is with me on im right now :0) but I never tell her this and I just want her to know that I cherish our friendship. She is one of the few people that I still know from my past and I didn’t know her for a while in between but we reconnected , yes, by chance, and it feels good. And for all those who did not bother to keep in touch over the years, if you ever happen to read this blog, yes, I am alive and kickin! And I want to add something like “it’s your loss, not mine” but you probably know it by now, so I’ll leave it at that.

......Finally and what a way to start the season! It rained and rained and rained. Sure, I still love rainy afternoons but when it is followed by a rainy evening, a rainy night, a rainy next day and another one the following day, well, you get the picture. And how can I not talk about my “Cruciatus curse” after it did not let me talk for the whole weekend? It’s the worst ever case of laryngitis. Excruciating! However, I have to say that one person in particular seemed to particularly love the weekend. With good reason too. Wife + laryngitis, go figure! I could almost read his mind, it was singing “Silence is blissful” I guess after all a wife’s pain is indeed a husband’s bliss. So between the pain, the rain and a gloating hubby, I made it to Monday and here I am. A new week, a new season and hopefully some sunshine!
Before I go, I have to write about the most hilarious thing I heard over the weekend. Apparently Bihar (for those you not familiar with this Indian state, my only advise is Google Laloo and Bihar and maybe this story will make sense) has come up with this new policy for crime reduction. Bihar now wants criminals to register and pays them to do so, something like Rs. 3000 on a monthly basis. Definitely a good way to keep thugs off the streets, right? Yeah, if only you could weed out the true thugs from the rest of the population that signed up as well. It’s a no-brainer to not be a criminal if you are a Bihari. Talk about policy-making!

Yes, I am having a block, a blogger's block if you will. I have nothing to blog about, brag about, feel good about, complain about, woo hoo about, bitch about, gossip about, have an intelligent conversation about, have a dialogue about, have a debate about.....so there you have it "An absolute block!"

Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Country of Origin: France
Price: Euros 1,000,000($1,192,057)!!!!!
yep, it is indeed the world's most expensive car

Source:
http://biz.yahoo.com/special/supercar06_article1.html

This was some time back. I was surfing channels and had to stop when I heard this word “SHOEGASM” ON TV. I believe it was this girl, I don’t remember her name, on Beauty and the Geek, who said it. No, I don’t watch Beauty and the Geek!! But I had to pause when I heard the word “SHOEGASM”. She used the word SHOEGASM to describe her penchant for shoes.I know, I know I already said "SHOEGASM" three times, well four times, but c’mon, you have to admit at least some of you can relate to “SHOEGASM” I love shoes, I simply do and now I love the word “SHOEGASM” too. O.k., I’ll stop now but before I go, here it is , one last time “SHOOOOGASM”!

The oldest democracy in the world has never had a woman President and the oldest monarchy in the world may never let a woman rule!

Yesterday was International Women’s Day and here’s my two cents. I was browsing and “happened” to find that quote on women by Clare Boothe Luce and then I stopped to think about women. I thought of all the women I have known- the happy ones, the sad ones, the big ones, the petite ones, the chirpy ones, the ambitious ones, the smart ones, the bitchy ones, the not-so-mean ones, the oh-so-helpful ones, the no-nonsense kinds, the “see I told you” kinds, the oh-no!! kinds and I tell you ladies the list is endless. We come in all shapes, colors, sizes and did I forget moods? So, what about women? Oh, where can I start? I dearly love the four men in life (my hubby, my son, my dad and my brother) but guys; there are days when I wished I could really use a break from all things men! How true was Joseph Conrad when he said, “Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men” Well, haven’t we all had times when we could use a little input when you go shopping for shoes or maybe some advise picking out a dress to wear to “his” office party. How about that time when you had to stand gazing at a million plasma TVs because he “may” want to get one some day. Should we even talk about the endless “conversations”, mostly one- sided of course; you’ve had about all the cool cars on this earth. You ask a man, especially an Indian, anything about cricket and I mean any statistic and it doesn’t have to be about the Indian team, mind you; you’ll get an answer at lightning speed, now we can’t say the same about his memory when it comes to other things, can we? Well, over the years, husband dear has made significant progress with the traditional birthdays and anniversaries. He has figured out it is a lot easier just to remember a couple of dates but still has a lot of trouble with the newer ones like “Mother’s day”, “love your wife day” (no that one does not exist, I just made that up, but don’t we all wish that there was actually one, so then we could at least have them memorize it ?). And ladies let me warn you, a 2 yr old is as much man as you can get. My son would rather watch soccer or basketball with his dad than spend some “quality time” with his Mommy. Have you ever seen those eyebrows shoot up instantly when you try to hug him or plant a little kiss when you drop him off at school and yes I am still talking about the two year old. The look he gives me says “Kissing is an absolute no-no. Not in front of the girls mom!” Moving on to brothers, aren’t they a phenomena? I hear myself chuckle every time he calls me for a recipe, thinking of the impending disaster his kitchen awaits. The bachelor that he is, has no choice but to make his own bread and it was only not so long ago that mom would wait on him hand and foot to make sure that his every gluttonous wish was adequately met. Cooking and men! It sounds disastrous to even use the two words together in a same sentence. I want to talk about Dad too, but there’s something about Dads that makes you almost not want to put them in the same category as the other men. So, maybe I’ll just leave them alone for now. Going back to what I started to write about, women, all I can say is thank you for being who you are. To Asha, Asha, (not a typo, I know 2 Asha’s actually), Divya, Rupa, Champa, Sangeetha, Poonam, Shilpa, Mrudula, Kavitha, Kacki, Louisa, Jennifer,Darlene, Tiwi, Mythri, Savitha (mom), Meera (Aunt), women of the blogoshpere and of course Oprah-cheers and thank you! It is comforting to know that there is a feminine shoulder, close by. And men (for now I leave the gentle part out), I am sure I can think of a few nice things to say, maybe on a day when hubby and the toddler have been little extra thoughtful, how about that guys?

" Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes"; they will say, "Women don't have what it takes"-Clare Boothe Luce, American Diplomat and Playwright (1903-1987)

Finding a purpose to life is a struggle that many of us go through almost everyday, but for Dana, standing by her husband and living a life that some of us might even call unfair became a purpose in itself. I am truly saddened that a life so remarkable as Dana’s was shortchanged and my heart goes out to their only son who at the tender age of thirteen had to face the loss of not one but two parents, all in a span of seventeen months. It’s sad but true that moments like these, strengthen one’s sense of appreciation for the little things in life that we so often take for granted. Dana reminds us of two people who lived life with strength, hope and optimism in the face of extreme adversity. I guess, its all about never giving up.

Purple Orchid

Every two year old's mom knows that when their child learns a new word they like to use it and boy do they use it! My son has been hearing the word "beautiful" a lot lately. He has these really long eyelashes which are to die for, truly and there is not a day when someone does not comment on his lashes. So, he knows they are beautiful. What does beautiful really mean to him ? He was definitely not associating the word with a svelte, lissome, blue-eyed blonde when he said "Mommy, you are beautiful" the other afternoon. I teared up instantly because at that minute I was anything but remotely beautiful. I was tired and sweaty from giving him a bath and getting him ready for his afternoon nap. But he said it anyway and I thought maybe Keats was right when he said "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Apparently my son had a good time during his bath. Those unstoppable giggles every time he splashed water on poor ole me were clearly a sign of a joyous time and it was then that he decided that his mommy was " Beautiful"