Funny thing about birthdays

Hi all


i love monsoons....i love june....its my favorite month of the year....Both husband and i are june born cancerians...ya on full moon night ours is a mad house :)...So i turned 28....closer to thirty than ever before...but its just a number everyone said...ya ofcourse it is...but the funny thing about birthday is that it makes u take stock....look at your life closely and wonder are you where you thought you would be? like annual report card....I dont buy the whole birthday-is-just-another-day theory..... I mean it is a special day...how you choose to celebrate it is upto you....but you cant just ignore it.... (i might be tempted to do that in next 2 years though)

Anywho so as the writer of this post sat in her rustic cottage nestled amongst beautiful hills overlooking a gorgeous lake hearing the raindrops drumming outside (courtesy husband thank you very much dear) she couldnt help but feel grateful....For everything....and decided that this year is going to be about count-your-blessings year and not about things-i-wish-i-had year (husband amazed wondering if this is going to be a nag-free year Nah he decides she can write what she wants to but i know her too well)

So here are my 28 blessings (just a number i promise) in no particular order

1. For health : I am grateful for the general health and well being of me and my loved ones....Apart from the occasional sniffles and head aches and tummy aches we are blessed with good health. and I'm so grateful for that

2. For Arav : For the gorgeous most amazing little boy that you are. For being full of energy forcing me to be innovative and creative challenging me to keep up with you. I am truly blessed to have you in my life

3. For parents : unconditional love support and encouragement from both set of parents. truly lucky to have you.

4. For siblings : two by birth one by marriage....all three by love...

5. For extended families cousins their kids et al

6. For Mumbai : the city i was born in city i grew up in and the city i still live in....and would love to continue living in.....I love this place with all its amazing quirks and inconveniences....i am who i am coz i grew up here....

7. For my gorgeous curls and really long legs (grin)

8. For friends : small in quantity but big in their hearts....and their infinite patience with me

9. For being a woman : How else would i have ever known the joy of being a mother? or flutter my eyes or wear a short dress or paint my nails hot pink .... get my point

10. For food : for all sort of tasty brightful delicious mouth watering food thats there on this earth to devour....and for the food thats on my plate everyday

11. For freedom : for living in a free country and living with open minded people

12. For education : i dont mean the degrees but the process of education....

13. For books : How else would i have spent those countless hours commuting? not just for that i really do love books

14 . For romance : yes in a world full of cynics or practical people I'm just happy to be a sappy a little delusional romantic. it makes me happy vulnerable and also a poet :)

15. For losing most of the baby weight (except on few areas which can easily be camouflaged)

16. For cell phones and internet : mine not his

17. For my stint in New York : I loved to live there....I'm truly lucky to have been a part of that city for a little while...not only did it give me a taste of the big american dream it also opened my eyes to a lot of different cultures of the world....i have met so many amazing people there...

18. For vacations : self explanatory

19. For monsoons : Rains garam chai puddles greenery cool breeze whats not to like?

20. For music : for songs melodies rhythms dance all of that

21. For getting married early : i know i know it doesnt sound too appropriate....i wasnt too happy at 21 when i was asked to "see" guys...but trust me in retrospect it feels like a great idea....get married early enjoy the first years happily....have a kid....wait for few years have another one...and still you will only be 30...haha doesnt sound too bad to me :)

22. For being born a human : no other species are as interesting....

23.For a trained mostly co-operative house-help : Ask any woman who is her best friend at home and she will reply her house-hold help....yes the husband comes second here...if a woman has her maid/nanny/cook in place she can achieve higher levels of greatness....its a proven fact....and i'm happy to have that in my life....and hope that it remains that way for long (fingers crossed)

24. For American tv shows : i love most of them....not the reality ones though....and dont get me wrong i dont have anything against our desi channels but they have yet to produce a decent show that can hold my interest....So if it werent for Star world i dont know who i would be eating my lunch with.

25. For humour : sadistic, sarcastic, clever, witty non vulgar humour....its a big turn-on

26. For people : All of them who were not included in the categories above. teachers colleagues bosses lady i shared a bus ride with...all of them...i love observing people....how they inspire me to be like them or to be completely unlike them.

27. For hugs and cuddles and kisses and back rubs and foot rubs and stuff that it leads to (keeping it PG guys)

28. Saved the best one for the last The Husband. Yes I am grateful for thee. Thank you for being similar enough that i feel comfortable and secured with you and unpredictable enough to keep me on my toes. So that there is never a dull moment. Also the fact that you are hot doesnt hurt either (PG PG remember?)

So there.....phew it was difficult than i thought....somewhere around 20 i was really dragging it out.....but it is a habit worth adopting. Thank you for reading this through.....And write your own list today....

The school bus

its here everyday at nine
initially u clung to me tightly and i assured u its fine
u will have fun i said make new friends
u looked at me terrified not willing this to end
let me be with you mommy please u seem to say
with so much innocence in your eyes my resolve began to sway
it will be fine i said to myself rather than to you
it is new and terrifying for me too
and then it was eleven and time for you to come
i waited by the gate and then some
your eyes lit when you spotted me
come to me baby i said with glee
i took you in my strong embrace
you looked at me with playful rage
how could you do this mommy?
how could you leave me?
I missed you but i had fun
The bus is here gotta run
Sigh they grow up too fast
wonder how long will this last
Even though Im happy when it strikes nine
At eleven i'm the happiest coz once again you are all mine.

Curls galore

Last night while going through my stash of sex and city episodes i came across the one where Mr.Big has got engaged with Natasha leaving Carrie high and dry....it was a delight watching that episode again especially the part where Carrie has an epiphany about curly haired girls....."There are simple girls and there are Katie girls....I'm a Katie girl" she says quoting from "The way we were".....I totally relate to this as I'm a Katie girl too through and through....

People have bad hair days I have had an entire bad hair adolescence....before that i couldn't care much so i don't know....but i do know my mum used to get my hair cut every time they would grow longer than my ear lobes coz she hated the fact that they curled and became a mess....someone told her if she keep getting them cut my hair would become straight.....i hated my hair growing up coz no matter what i did to them they would just look messy (this was when the messy look was not in)..... and if you are growing up with a sister who had the picture perfect thick long straight black hair you can imagine the nightmare....she could roll out of the bed and still looked completely poised and i would spend hours doing my hair and still have someone say " its time to leave why don't u go brush your hair" Grrrr

Even when i was in college i would wait for dry weather days (very rare in bombay) just so they would not frizz up....My friends always joked about how my hair can tell the weather....Generally not a beauty conscious person i would spend a lot of time putting hair packs and what not on my hair....If you have seen the episode of friends where Monica goes to Barbados and faces hair nightmare you would know what i am talking about.....Our honeymoon was in Bali and i came back with what looked like an Afro on my head.....But after few years something wonderful happened....While living in New york i decided to go to this upscale place on 5th Avenue....The Italian guy who was my stylist that day gave me an advice i will never forget....

I was cribbing about how i hate my hair and i wouldn't mind getting them permanently straightened...when he said in his wonderful accent Are you kidding? I have women spending hundreds of dollars in here to make their hair look like yours. You have gorgeous curls..What?? they are anything but gorgeous I said running my fingers through my hair .... Phat he slapped my hand....stop it....you are not supposed to touch your hair....you are ruining your curls....no brushing them no running your fingers through them....none of that...

And voila....from being a frizzy bushy mess my hair transitioned into perfect bouncing curls....that is a point of envy for everyone including the sister....i have so many people asking me have you got something done to your hair....and i go no they were always like this its just that i didn't know....All i had to do was not brush my hair....so simple and yet it took me 20 odd years to understand.....got me thinking about life...and how sometimes whatever we do doesn't seem enough.....doesn't seem to set things straight (or curled)....sometimes its not what we are not doing....sometimes its what we are doing wrong....what we are doing as a habit and never questioning because it has been done all the time....sometimes we have to step back and analyse our every move.....sometimes we have to be brave enough to change the very foundation of our beliefs.....and then we shall witness the magic....how the very thing we were chasing was always with us....All we had to do was not brush....

the day i got million$ advice with a 100$ haircut.

My curls define me....I'm so glad i never got them straightened....my dad used to say you are as twisted as your hair.....hes right.... I'm complicated and wild and unruly.....But if you just let me be i can be your crowning glory :)

I know I'm being very vain in this post.....what the heck I'm going to go ahead and post a pic too.....