Radhe Krishna ...

Meaning

I remember growing up watching Shree Krishna every Sunday morning with the entire family. Tittle track of the serial was so beautiful that you could not stop singing with it... volume so high that all your neighbor and the sabzi wala on street (vegetable vendor) could hear it.

On Janmashtami day(birth of Lord Krishna) spending the whole day making Janmashtami outside the house and decorating with whatever toys all kids had. As the evening approached we lit up the decoration with candles and Diyas (earthen lamps) and wait for people to stop by .... get excited when they liked our decoration and think we did a good job. I wish I still could do it ... since I am not sure I will be able to so I decided to celebrate this festival through my blog ... ...14th August is this holy day and I wish you and your family Happy Janmashtami ...

Rakhi

Rakhi Celebration in India stands for the sacred relation between a brother and a sister. This festival brings in the feeling of strong and divine relationship among siblings. Rakhi celebration strengthen the affectionate relationship and love among brothers and sisters.

Some random Flickr clicks to celebrate this festival ....

calamur's photostream

sahuin's photostream

Mskadu's photostream

Puru2k2's photostream

onlinerakhistore's photostream

Fruit Cream

Made this the other day and it was DIVINE !!!!. Used the fresh peach from the tree outside and mangoes that a colleague of my mine gave ( Mangoes were fresh from Miami .. real good stuff). I would recommend trying this as it is super easy and yummy for the tummy. Manjula Aunty is awesome ..I have learnt so much cooking from her .. Thanks a bunch Manjula Aunty !!!

Delhi Meri Jaan ...

Yesterday I got this email from a family friend and I thought I have to share it ...read for yourself and let me know how much you relate to it ...


You know you are from Delhi when...

When...

1. You have faced power-cuts up to 10hours a day!
And yet, its no big deal for you.

2. Even though the hottest party spot/pub in town says "Admit Over 18, Drinks over 25" You have been inside and have enjoyed a beer, being underage.

3. Living in the most posh colonies, you get to hear, "Aloo, Bhindi Pyaaz, Tamatar le loo"... And you hear women asking the vegetable vendor "Bhaiyaa aapne free dhaniya nehi diya!" [Even with Half a kilo Carrot]

4. You have Driven rash and Broken Signals more times than you can count. Doesnt matter whether you have a license or not. :P

5. Every teenager knows atleast one "ghunda" on whose name he can jump around all day.

6. You have seen your relative or family member bribing a policeman at-least once.

7. You have been to Big Chill at-least once.

8. When a car accident occurs, instead of solving the problem quietly, either one of the drivers would start with.. "B******, meri gadi maar di, ab tu ruk, mein teri marta hoon" or something kinda.

9. In the 90's you have been to India Gate and around 2000-2002 you have been to Ansal Plaza more times than you can count.!

10. Mocha,CCD,Barista,Hookah,24x7 are like your favorite hangouts.

11. You just love socializing.

12. You speak or hear the word "setting" or "jugad" at-least once a day.

13. When you stare at a school bus, you see students talking of the phone, care free OR Chilling out listening songs on the Ipod. :P

14. A meter working in a Auto - Miracle! And hear statements like..
# Gas nahi hai
# Gaadi waapis dene ka time ho gaya
# Wahan se waapis ki sawaari nahi milti
# Wahan jaam (traffic jam) mein kaun fasega

15. All guys have at-least been to Pallika bazar and they all know why. Well, even the girls are starting now.

16. This is the place when you actually feel like slapping the same traffic policeman who caught you yesterday... Because today he's on his bike without a helmet or talking on the phone...

17. Qutub Minar, Red Fort, Lotus Temple are just for tourist. You havnt been to more than two of these.

18. You are bored of looking at the LONG queues at the CNG stations! And yeah. It add's up to the traffic.

19. You have an example of Delhi being unsafe for women after Midnight. And now even for men.

20. You wont be surprised if you find some old lady bargaining at a SALE.

21. Young or Old, You have played street football in the rains and have ended up breaking some glass. :P

22. You first abused real bad when you were around 10 years old.

23. Your Dad's really good friends with at least one Public Figure.

24. Library is virtually non-existent unless you go to British council or American Library or Max Mueller Bhavan

25. Deepavali means every house is illuminated to such an extent that you wonder if its a competition of illlumination and cracker bursting is so continuous that it is diffiult to imagine one moment of silence on Diwali.

26. You have had the most RANDOM plans. Like reaching for a movie show which starts at 1pm, at 12:55pm and just hoping that gods left some tickets for you and your friends.

27. You have been warned by your parents at-least once that going at public places like Malls, isnt safe, Cuz there might just a BOMB in that place.

28. You've had a ride on the cycle rickshaw - have haggled over the price but pity the rickshaw wallas' condition.

29. You glare at people who call Gol-Guppa's- Pani Puri!
And you always ask the vendor "Bhaiya yeh Gol-Guppe Aate ki hai ya Sooji ke?"

30. If in school, Your conti got busted by cops, teachers or a combination of both.

31. You've had school cancelled due to cold, summer vacations preponed due to heat and have atleast thrice evacuated your school building after tremors.

32. You've hit 120 kmph at Nelson Mandela Marg.
And after crossing it, you might end up saying " FEEL AA GAYE". OR, You have raced up the DND and taken the U turn back.

33. You have been to a wedding in a Mehrauli farmhouse and have hit Nasha later on.

34. You have taken the 10 rupee Call Center cab/ Qualis from anywhere to Gurgaon/Noida.

35. You have seen a child with crutches begging on the Red Light RUN fast when the light turns green!

36. Almost every Delhi-ite understands Punjabi to an extent. May he belong to any region. PUNJABI unites everyone :P


37. You call the waiter in the restaurant "boss" & tack on "yaar"/ "bhai" to almost every sentence.

38. Rajender Da Dhaba's got better chicken than Taj. :P You've atleast tried it once! And you just might see a BMW, a Porsche OR a Peugeot parked outside it!

39. You have surely heard of "Chor Bazar" but never been there.

40. You use the word and have described practically every other person on the planet as "Vella".

41. 'KAROBAR' = 'Car-O-Bar' i.e. drinking in the car....Hell yeah! thats what we live for! :P

42. You often see Middle Aged Aunties wearing Gucci shades and holding LV bags having Gol-Gappas in GK (Near Prince Pan) or Bhelpuri in South Ex along with Diet Coke !

43. Miranda house and CJM are two places where u'll see people from different school/colleges hang out.

44. In the 90s, movie at Chankaya, momos at Yashwant Place and Hot Choc Fudge at Nirula's = ULTIMATE Fun.

45. School students here, have gone to school, soo early in the morning, it being Dark!..REAL Dark And you've attended those 3am GROUP tuition's during your boards!
Haha.. Spookky! Lol.

46. Almost every Delhite has witnessed a DTC bus brawl turning into street fight.. Yet fun! OR the DTC bus overspeeding/breaking traffic rules/ or disc breaking.

47. You have probably been to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib @ 4 in the morning. Or even at 6 'cuz you were out on a day-bunk!

48. When everyone from the Auto Driver, Vegetable Vendor, Grocery Store guy, Watch-man, Salesperson to just any 'guy' is referred to here as 'Bhaiya'

49. You refer to East Delhi as Jamuna ke Us Paar.

50. You refer to AIIMS as Medical.

51. You dont buy tickets for a music concert or cricket match, but try to take the help of your friend's Dad, who happens to be the PA to the under secretary of the deputy secretary of the chief secretary of the Minister of State for Khadi.

52. You overtake everyone from the wrong side and stare into his/her eyes while doing so.

53. You call Gurgaon & NOIDA as illegitimate cousins of Delhi!

54. Most of you have at least two cars; your drivers have scooters and mobiles.

55. As soon someone tells you abut an important political development, you whip out your mobile and whisper into it as if you have access to the Prime Minister's OFFICE!

56. You know that a famhouse has nothing to do with cattle or farming.

57. You used "contacts" for everything, from getting movie tickets to restaurant bookings to playschool admissions.

58. You didn't find 'Monsoon Wedding' funny. And Laughed your ass off when you watched 'Dilli 6'

59. You've probably used the word 'Tota' to describe ANY Random-Hot-Chick that just passed by! 'Phew!

60. You have had Anda parantha outside Vikram hotel and Bun Omelet at Dhaula Kuan at least once!

61. When Aunties go to drop their kids to the Bus-Stop in a Night Gown with a Duppatta.

62. When you think EVERY South Indian comes from 'Madras'. No Offense.

63. When you have an uncle in every SARKARI department!

64. When If your side of the road has a traffic jam, then you start driving on the wrong side of the road.

65. You think If there is a queue of many people, no one will notice me sneaking into the front as long as I am looking the other way.

66. You feel, If I indicate which way I am going to turn my vehicle, it is an information security leak.

67. When the only time you went to the Chidiya Ghar (Zoo) was on a school picnic.

68. One of your favorite yummiest ice-creams was "ORANGE - BAR"

69. You have been stuck in 'Nariana' due to the traffic for over 4 hours! 'Phew!

70. When you feel lucky enough to have around 10 LOCAL FM STATIONS! Woho.!

71. When you wonder... 'Ki Delhi Mein passes chapwane ki kya zarurat hai? Yahan Sab to VVIP hai!'

73. DESPITE of all the goods and bads.
You still Love Delhi. =]


And you want more.

Sunday Hindi Class

On Sunday I teach my niece Hindi ......and she is doing a very good and picking up really quick. We learn, play and spend time together and we both look forward to the Hindi Class now. This week learnt about birds,animals, fruits and body parts. I took some snaps of her when she was was learning ... she also learnt how to respond to how are you in Hindi hehe .. I asked her how she was atleast 15 times as it was so cute when she replied " Mein Teek Hu " :)

Laundry Room decor in progress

its still in progess but I thought I would share ... I think the lampshade gives this room a nice look .. and the oil can with flower just looks cute .. we also found this laundry rack to store detergent and all sorts of laundry stuff. Once I am done I will show you the complete look. I hope you like it do give me feedback :)

Bathroom Decor

Checkout the new look of my bathroom .. color scheme this time is Green/Yellow/Brown

Candles - Wrapped scrapbooking paper around the green cadles that I found in garage sale

Mirror/ Ceramic bowl- Saturday Garage sale find

Let me know if you like it .. I will upload more pics soon

Peach ..

I recently found out that we have a peach tree in the front yard ...this time of the year its loaded with fruit and it looks so colorful ..and the squirrel are having a good time with so much food ..it was funnt in evening when me and my husband were going for a walk we saw a squirrel rolling the peach to the side of the yard where she can eat it ... since it was too heavy for her to carry :)

Things we forget ...

Found this cute website about Post-it notes and liked every single one of it ...it brought a smile to my face and I am sure it will do that same for you ..

http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/

Apron

I bought this wrap around skirt way back and realized that its not the right size for me ...it was short and my waist line is not that skinny as I think it is ;) but since I loved the print so never returned it .. while looking at the other day that I thought it will work prefect as an apron. Look at that isn't that cute ...

4th July Weekend

Bags were packed and we were ready to go ... first stop Sai Temple ... took Baba's blessing and headed to Tampa. Enjoyed the architectural details at Henry Plant museum and took lots of inspiration for decorating the house. Next was Big Cat Rescue .. it was a guided tour for 90 minutes and they take you around showing all the Cat family ( Tiger, Lion, Bob cat, Ligar and lot more) that have been resuced and are now been take care by this nonprofit organization. I really enjoyed the tour and I thought money was well spent as it is going to a non profit org and they need this money to take care of the Big Cats. Ybour city is the next place we enjoyed, its a hipee kinds area lots of Hukaa Bars and hand rolled cigar ... night clubs ..people suggested getting out of that place before 10 so thats what we did. Next day we started with Heritage Village which was collection of houses,school,grocery store from 1800's all together in home place. The most interesting was a csh register which still works .. no electricty nothing all mechanical and still works.

Botanical garden was next but since it was no hot we decided to spend not more than 20 minutes and head to Aquarium. The best part tickets were 1/2 off. Enjoyed the sea creatures and nature for a while. We then found a good place to sit to enjoy the fireworks. On the Tampa water side we enjoyed the 4th Juky evening I think they did a good job.. check out for yourself

Third day started will walk on the beach and St Pete Pier. Took some pictures and enjoyed the morning and then we headed to Hindu Temple ..it is huge and very nicely done. Thne Indian grocery store since its cheaper than our's and then of course Indian buffet .. after your tummy is full what do you do ...sleep :) thats exactly what I did while my husband drove us back home. I hope you had a geart time with family and a Happy 4th July.