Cheers to the Earth

Where the trees blossom in vibrant colours and the sun shines in all its splendour.
Where the grass is always green & the streams bubble cheerfully throughout the year.

Long Live the Earth!!!

Save trees.....don't print unneccesarily...if you do.....use the print on both sides & two pages per sheet option. Be pro back to back photo copying

Conserve water....don't brush,shave with the water running.......don't take a shower.............use a bucket instead.

Plzzz plz plzzzz..switch off those lights when you leave the room.....not to forget your monitor when you shut down your PC too

Urge your society to try the option of installing solar panels so we can use solar energy for heating.

Plant trees, plants, shrubs whatever........every little leaf can help create more oxygen

Recycle.....use cloth bags......Just think..........If malls offered a discount of 1% on every purchase if you brought your own carry Bag!

Doable???......great...let's get started!

Cheers to the Earth..........Let's give this planet a face lift!

Collage's

A collage is a random collection of pictures but what follows below is a colection of priceless moments which Ive gathered bit by bit. These are some of the glimpses of some beautiful moments, some to capture specific dates and others just because they were too beautiful not to capture :-)

This collage here is just the three of us. The pic was taken on X-mas Day 2007. Manish & I were unaware of the baby we were expecting.....& what followed is our beautiful daughter Aisha (centre).

These collage on the right are dates & a few cute pics (from left to right: Aisha's very happy to be clicked right after her bath, Aisha immediately after shaving her head on 2nd October'2009, Aisha enjoying the evening breeze, Aisha showing off her first two teeth, Baby Beautiful Hair (best natural curls ever), Aisha shows off her climbing skills, Aisha's set for Bandra Fair, and then after Bandra Fair refreshed after her juice & bananas :-) yeah...bring them on....aisha loves bananas.

To the left is another of my favorites; (don't mind my snap in the left corner...i always find some space to put a lil of me in there :-))
The one where Manish is combing his lil girl's locks with the new hair brush(Right, second row.........Aisha was a month old then) The pic to me is beautiful......dont you think so????
The ones taken while she's asleep where she looks angelic and the last one to the extreme right below is the best...... I call it "Dada's Little Wonder", it was taken in dim lighting but brings out the moment very well. There's nothing like having your baby wrap her tiny fingers onto your finger. That's the only bit of security they need....even when they take those first baby steps.

NEXT is Brand new mum with her brand new baby.....Me & Aisha at 23 days :-)

Makar Sankranti at home & Pongal at Paati's

14th January is celebrated as Makar Sankranti in Maharashtra & as Pongal down south.The best part of Makar Sankranti & Pongal are the sweets that are prepared for the ocassion.

Pongal is a popular harvest festival in Tamil Nadu & is celebrated for over four days. visit this link for more on Pongal http://www.pongalfestival.org/. Makar Sankrant is what is celebrated in Maharashtra.
My in-laws are Shetty's from Udipi but by virtue of spending most of their lives in Maharashtra they have taken to many customs & traditions of the Maharashtrians including a love for the language :-) As amma says,"Woh naveen sadi pehenna" :-) (naveen is 'new' in Marathi)
So, as tradition would have it tilgul (a mixture of white sesame seeds and jaggery rolled into small round balls, laddoos) was prepared at home. Ladoos or small balls........Aisha made sure she had a BALL of a time right during the preparations itself. All I did was help with the rolling & while we were at that Aisha was almost ready to sit in the big plate (paraat) and juggle the yaadoos (read laddoos)

Sadly I couldn't take pics then but I did manage to click a few where Aisha & her Dad are relishing the Sankrant delicacy.

It was a holiday so after lazing the whole day it finally dawned on me that my friend Anusha had invited us over for Pongal which also fell on the same day.

WOW.............to be honest Anush, Div, Padh, Vinush & me have been friends since school. Except for Vinush all are Tam's (Tamilians) , Vinush is a mallu :-). Well, getting back to the real thing; though all my friends were Tam's I can't recollect going over to their place O_N_C_E for Pongal :-/ can't seem to remember why.

Well, Anush is back in India after a very long stint in the USA & we actually look for any opportunity to get together for some time. So Pongal it was!!!
Aisha & me trotted along ......4 floors down & ting tong :-) (Yeah Anush is also a 1st floor neighbour)

Aisha looked so pretty in a polka dotted black & white dress with a matching hair band & a shocking pink shrug (which is Aarushi's). The actuals pongal festivity of rangoli & other things were done by the time we went over but the best part was not over........delicious pongal was still doing it's rounds :-)

Paati was at home.........(Anush was out shopping with Aunty) Paati as always greeted me with the same warmth as she welcomed me when I went to Divya's place after tuitions. I still remember the flavour of the maggi noodles & the bournvita she served after we got back home from tuition. :-) Love you always paati :-* mmuuaaah

As Aisha got comfy on the couch Paati went on to serve some of the delicious pongal. I will always remember the taste of the first spoonful of pongal which I relished for quite some time because that bowl never made it's round back to me :-) It just enjoyed Aisha's company :-)

Aisha loved every bit of the Pongal & happily went on with the second helping too.

First Pongal, First one with Aisha, First one with Paati..........and it's a memory I will cherish.

The pic with Paati & Aisha is chhooooo chweeeet :-)

Pappa Dearest!

I must admit that as a kid I always frowned when people commented on how much I looked like my dad. Infact my Dad always called me his chocolate (yummmmmmmmm) sounds cute no??? No!!!! Not to me as I wanted him to call me his diamond!!! because i always associated chocolate to my dark complexion and frowned when he called me that. I also got grumpy if he called the actor Kajol, "Kaali Maina" & thought he did that to tease me. (alright, i've hit a shoe on my head already)
Dad poked fun at me once saying he won't walk my kids around if they are brown hehehehheeeee (it tickles me now) But, back then I hit back saying I'd never let him walk my kids if they were fair!!!!
Wait a minute............why am I writing all this??? Well this is for my Dada who is pappa to my daughter Aisha. He jumps like a little child every time he sees Aisha after like...... two days!!!!.......Whatever work he may have at hand, he will set it aside to fry his "Potli Girls" favorite fisssshhhhhhhhhh. Yes he does walk her around the colony even though she is brown ;-) (I love the choclate tone more when i see how good it looks on Aisha and think i was a fool to crave for a fair complexion....ahuh........ahem......OK....i am lying a bit. I always did want to be fair) He carries her in his arms.........even if it means bearing immense pain in his arm which was recently operated upon. He does bend down to wash her if she's pooped even if it means struggling to stand up right back because of his sore back (believe me my dad never carried my brother or me because of his bad back......it was always mamma.........yes yes....Nana dearest is to follow soon)

As a matter of fact Aisha does have her pappa's features & that makes me proud :-) (which means she has mine too and i'd be lying again if I said I wanted her to look like me) LOL:-) (ok that's another knuckle punch on my head)

Yeah!!! Pappa is the best!!!