Bidding Adieu

Dear friends,
 
Today is my last working day in XXX. Bidding adieu to all, looking back from now, last three years was a wonderful journey though, both personal  and professional, moulding me as a better individual. Let me thank each and every one of you.
 
Goodbye is just a farewell remark until we meet again. I wish XXX continued success, and I want to thank you once again for allowing me to be a part of your coveted team. I will be available in my personal email.
 
Stay in touch
Thanks again
Z
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My heart sank as I finished the mail and depressed the send button. This time it is not just about switching company. It is about leaving Chennai and settling abroad. This time, next week I would saying good-bye to this city.
 
Parting is painful, but presently, it’s a blend of joy and sorrow – I am leaving here to make it bigger as per my aspirations of myself and my loved family, and I leave the city who accepted me as one of their heartiest member this rends a part of my spirit .
 
Chennai was never a stranger for that matter. 7 yrs back when I landed in this city with just 2 bags and a couple of friends, I never knew this big city would witness a lot of major events of my life. All ups and downs, career, work, friendships, love, marriage,.. and has accepted me for whatever I am. Looking back, I can see how much I have grown up for the better and for all those reasons I am sure to miss Chennai,esp. the beaches that drives me real nostalgic.
 
Let me thank all those of you has been with me and walked in and out of my life, throughout my stay here..Thank you for your helping hands, for those words of appreciation, the smile of simple acknowledgement, for the small delights of being there for reasons big or small…Thanks again for the support during my 7 yrs stint with Chennai.
 
In search of pastures new , I would like to call it a day with Chennai.
 
I treasure the relationship which we built during my stay here. Would definitely be back sometime, but for now am gonna miss you,…
 
Life is but a long journey,
A privilege to have spent some time here at Chennai,
One that seems a lifetime, In all, a knowledge gathering trip,
But it’s time for me to alight, And say good-bye…

 
Courtesy: Ravi Kiran and Sandheep Nath (Ex Syntellites) for letting me steal a few lines from their good-bye mails :0)

My second love

My second love. All time, all weather favorite. Chocolates!!

After the health benefits of dark chocolates were established, I have incorporated them as a part of my diet Yeah, skipping the chocolaty dessert is now considered a sin

Cant take my already wide eyes off those tempting truffles at Cake Walk. They only get wider with the Intense dark chocolate pastries at Café Coffee day. Simply irresistible!! I always wonder how would I reject someone, if at all they propose me with a box of Lindt Dark Chocolate with Intense orange. I cant figure out who would I choose between My husband or Dark Chocolate with mint. Being a voracious feeder on this family, enjoying every bit of it melting down my throat cannot be repressed, so I just thought of trying to make one. Some effort added onto those scrumptious heavenly delights will be a definite  add-on to the taste.

Jan 9^th was my birthday. But it would have just been like any other day if I had not received my gift from him and not tried on this cake recipe. A few colleagues had planned to drop by and so I decided to tryout making one. And it turned out to be an incredibly rich moist dark chocolate cake, enough to make a beginner proud. Happy birthday Z. What a wonderful start to the New Year. This was my first trial on one.

The preparation time is not even 30 minutes, and so much of a no bother, no messy, no sweat task and you don’t even requite an electronic beater.

Ingredients:

Set1

250 gm Saltless butter

250 gm Dark Chocolate/Cooking chocolate

Set2

¾ cup boiling water

1½  cup sugar . Can be 1 cup if you would not prefer it to be very sweet or like the bitterness of dark chocolate.

¾ tbsp Instant coffee powder

Set3

2 cups of all purpose flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp (level) soda powder. Try not to use baking soda as it may reduce the rich chocolate color.

Set4

Eggs – 3

Steps involved

1. Melt the butter in low flame, add the grated chocolate to it and stir until the chocolate is well dissolved – Set1.

2. Add the sugar and coffee powder to the boiling water and stir until no residue remains – Set2.

3. Mix all the ingredients in set3 into a bowl and sieve the same. Add the chocolate mix (Set1) and stir the batter using a thick spoon in slow circular motion until no lumps. Add Set2 and do the same.

4. Now add the eggs one by one until all of it is mixed well and all you have is a lump-less chocolaty batter. Tastes awesome in this stage itself

Now preheat the oven at 170-175C. Once preheating finished bake for about 50-60 mins at 175C. Here is the result.

This delicate piece of love should be cut or demolded only after it is cool, for it is too brittle. If you are impatient like me to have the first bite, then you are likely to get a heavy dent like I have on my cake above :0)

This was a major hit when served hot with vanilla ice cream and some chocolate sauce.

Good luck!! Have chocolaty year ahead!!

Recipe courtesy: Magic oven (Kairali TV) hosted by Lakshmi Nair.

STAY IN TOUCH

FRIENDS!! All of us are blessed with abundance of friends.We love to remember everything about them. The time we met, to the time we fought, to the time we discovered each other, to the time we shared everything from sandwich to secrets, to the time we became cozy, to the time we became lovers and a lot other times…. In fact most of the fond memories of life are fastened to friends, who become an integral ingredient of our lives in no time. Just one question. Are all of you in touch with all of them?
 
As the unpredictable life detours the track to our inevitable destinations, we get dropped by a few others and drop a few on the way, get carried by a few and carry a few others along with, in the sincere hope of keeping in touch with them forever. Later we become conscious that most of them would have vanished, only those memories linger within…
 
We joined school as an innocent set of children and watched ourselves growing into mischievous but sweet, adorable little girls.We lived nearby, ate together, played together, reserved seats for each other in the school bus and remained together for that whole span of 11 yrs, until we parted in 10th, long back in ’97. 5 of us, are now scattered in different parts of the globe.We do not meet anymore, what’s even worse, we barely know what happens in each others lives until the school reunion 3 yrs back. Thanks to the organisers!!
 
11th,12th and then graduation, earned me a good amount of friends, most of whom I deeply adored and thought the relation would never end. Today after 7 yrs of graduation, I can count the ones meld with me in just one hand.There are few people at work too, but as soon as I switch companies or quit job, the same is likely to happen.
 
One of my old friend’s mentioned recently.”It takes a lot of time and effort to be in touch with friends. I would prefer to be happy with the people whom you have around”. Perhaps this is the right attitude to live in this world.
 
To me keeping in touch is not a chore.I value corresponding and do not like to send “hello.how are you?” one liners. Possibly, my circle of friends is too huge to be within my reach, or may be I should start believing that good things do not always stay forever,…
 
Some get married, fly abroad, after which there would not be any news. Some go on site for work or higher studies and evaporate in style Some of them may sincerely want to keep in touch, but procrastinate. Some may have starting troubles. They do not avoid me, I know for sure. But I just get dwindled in their busy lives.
 
Thanks to the social networking sites – orkut and Facebook, under the mercy of whom, I am informed that some of them are married and some have children. Some who travel abroad, post a few pics in the initial enthusiasm which fades again with time.  At the least, orkut birthday announcement makes me happy that they too are getting as old as I do
 
If any of my friends happens to read this, let me tell that this post is dedicated to you, esp. this line, “WE CAN NEVER BE FAR APART FROM THOSE WHO ARE SO CLOSE AT HEART”….. I would still love to rekindle the flame of friendship and keep them alive,…

The Opti-Pessi-mist

Sayf wants me to be optimistic about everything in life. I am, but not always. Am not a pessimist either. “If you think we can’t buy a Safari(SUV), it is never going to happen. It is the fire in your belly that keeps the craving for your desire”,I agree to the later part. “The feeling is beyond words when your long yearn comes true”. I agree again, but what about the blissful feeling when suddenly things fall in place and you become the proud owner of Safari? The happiness that comes unexpected can make me the happiest, I believe. He calls this pessimism, which I do not totally agree with. My present is not disturbed that I can’t own what I want to. There is some happiness clinging onto the end of my story. How would I be a pessimist then?

A friend of ours is happily engaged in her thirty something. But for the last 8 yrs, she and her family were going through hell. She knew exactly about how the man of her dreams should be, and stubbornly fought for her rights to find out the one. Everyone who was found by her parents were rejected for her own reasons, some of which her parents could never agree with. Sayf says her fight is fruitful and she is the happiest now. I know she is in the seventh heaven and may god bless them both. To me it was not a fight, but a war.  The mental trauma that prevailed at her home for all these years had put everyone in depression. I too had my share of this life, but I never passed it onto my parents. I believe that marriage happens at the right time to the right person, whom god has already chosen for us. So why worry? Take your life lightly, be happy and peaceful. Let your present be happier. So incase your future is all dried up, you can at least have some fond memories of the present. Not a pessimism. Not worried to be happy either. Am just conditioning my mind for an unseen future.

Of late, career is an issue that causes trouble in families. When a better opportunity came for Sayf in Dubai, it was me who pushed him for that. I love to work, and my whole 7 yrs of career is in a technology which has 0% chances in Dubai. I still wanted him to go forward with the plan. Am confident that I would manage to get into something if not my own technology. What if I do not get a job? Am sure I would just calm down for a better tomorrow and start some home-preneur stuff. So I am optimistic too.

My in-laws are planning to stay with us once we shift to Dubai. Am not sure how well this would work, but I can’t deny their rights to be with their son and grand-daughter. They being the reason for Sayf, am bound to respect and take care of them. This may happen, may not and we have had our discussions on the same. But why should I make this an issue again and again and disturb our present? Who knows? I may not go to Dubai? I may even die before the elders. So why spoil my present with a plan that is likely or unlikely to happen in future?

I try my best to avoid asking people for help. Their denial can make me sad depending on the gravity of the help that was needed. A few say that it is not bad to keep expectations about friends. But I would say that this attitude is what actually helps me to be independent. Just tuning myself that in case I badly needed something and got rejected, I could be a little less sad.

So what am I? Optimist? Pessimist? And Why is there only optimism and pessimism? Why isn’t there anything in between both of them? Why can’t we take life as it comes and be contended with what we have now?

Am an opti-pessi-mist. I only long for peace of mind. I believe that I can’t take complete control over my life, and do not want my life to go out of control either.

The Economy Baby

”I always wanted a girl, but after I walked into a baby shop am relieved that I have a boy. The price tags were so shocking”, a friend joked when she called to convey her love for Pari. Yeah!! She is so right.Fashion has crept so much into all kinds of baby accessories, making them highly expensive. Baby dresses, toys, dolls, feeding bottles, knee pads have all grown beyond budget.

A decent salwar for me would be around 700+. One for Pari would fall in the same range with less than half the amount of cloth. So do I stop buying? No!!They are just too tempting that I can hardly walk out of a shop without a pair of dresses and a matching socks for my darling daughter She is going to be an year old on the coming Feb, and I have even plans on what kind of birthday cake we should have. This is no flaunting. Its only a way to celebrate my happiness.I am no big spender, but there are times I cant help buying for Pari. Someone inside keeps telling that my daughter should not miss anything. And then I just get lost in the stunning world of baby toys. I want her the one that sings her favorite rhyme, one that is the most colorful, one that could drive her attention, one that is handy for her, one that does not hurt her, one that she could use later etc etc.. And this ‘one’ would turn out to be expensive. After all our children should get the best!!Not sure if that’s an excuse also?!?!?

But Pari seems to be a lot concerned about the expenses on her and her mother’s attitude So she has started to unearth a completely new set of toys, all on her own. My chappals are the favorite of all. When I shoo her off from that vicinity, she grabs her powder tin and bangs it on the floor as a protest. Now that she has started crawling, the dust bin has mesmerized her with its variety. The waste bin is two times Pari, but I once caught her picking and licking a chocolate cover from inside. Any time she cries badly, the rattling of a plastic cover makes her happy. She is often discovered from under  a pile of news papers or curled inside our French window curtain. Everyday she would explore a new tooth paste cover or diaper rash cream tube and play with it for hrs. This innocent lady was once seen following an ant trail and beating the ants that came last… Baby joys sprouting from baby observations!!

Bhavia and Snoopy were home this weekend with cute petite laptop for Fareiba. Am a major fan of her laptop now but Pari seems to fancy the hard board cover in which the laptop came.

Finding something to make her smile has become a lot easier for me. But she smiles too sweet that my friends can’t resist buying her a gift. But when they inquire, I wonder what would she be interested in? May be I should ask them for a salwar to use when she gets bigger