~~ Happy New Year !! ~~

The last post of the blogathon (of course 2 posts short), the last post of this year and the decade as well ( Its a decade of blogging for me).. Hmmm...Though I wanted to write a long post highlighting quite a few things.. I finally decided to keep it short and simple. 

I'd like to thank Rixi, Sukalp, Jayalakshmi, Meenakshi, Rohini, Poorani, Balaiah, Vandhana, Hema, Madhangi, Dinesh, Jairam, Prabha, Bhagwath for being a constant support by reading and leaving comments on my posts whole of this month - Few of you almost on every single post. Your comments meant a lot to me in this month long journey.  Thank you so much :-) Also, Thank you all so much for speedy recovery wishes as well for my little one!!

The year has been a busy blur and the decade has been a mixed bag with lot of learnings. I am sure, all of you would have had your share of ups and downs. As we step into a new year in few hours, I wish for lots of peace and happiness for all of us in the upcoming year!! May all of us grow stronger and kinder in the coming years.  Wish you and your family a very wonderful prosperous year ahead. 

~~ Another Update ~~

I know. I haven't updated the space for the past two days.

As I had mentioned in this post - We had a road trip planned in the last week of this December. Nothing fancy as we knew every other place would be crowded due to Christmas and New year holidays. Our trip began last Tuesday (24th) and was supposed to end today.  All went well, until 28th evening - when in a crowd, my little one's foot got stuck under a barricade and resulted in her toenail getting chipped off completely. There was so much blood - and the little one was wailing so loudly - that I just felt helpless - it took few seconds to register that something had happened as everyone around had started screaming suggestions. There was a lady guard who offered her hand kerchief, with which we bound the wound to stop the blood flow and she guided us to first aid center in the premises - which unfortunately turned out to be closed. She asked us to wait there and rushed to get a first aid kit - we, by then, had assessed that it definitely needed a doctor, not just first aid.  The lady guard got us a cleaning spirit and gauze roll bandage to tie the wound. I cleaned the wound and wrapped it up as soon and based on her recommendation of a nearby hospital, we rushed there. After the on-duty doctors had a look, they advised for an x-ray to ensure there was no bone damage - before any further handling - and then once x-ray was clean, they cleaned the wound and tied it up again to stop blood oozing. They also asked us to wait for a pediatric surgeon's opinion to know if we can better remove the nail then leave it hanging there for it to fall off all by itself. After much deliberation, we finally agreed for a minor procedure to remove the complete nail under local anesthesia - the nail was anyways completed chipped off and cleaning & dressing it everyday in that state would be difficult and much painful.  The whole of it was quite a horrifying experience - especially for the little one. We spent almost the whole evening in the hospital running pillar to post to get things set for the minor procedure and amidst the little ones wails :( We reached the hotel room late night -  I did remember that I still had the post for the day pending - but, I was in no state to gather my thoughts to jot down anything :(

Yesterday we took her again to hospital for re-dressing the areas and to ensure there was no blood seeping out. Her wound is healing as expected and the sight of it looked much better than the day before.  There were a few wails and screams during re-dressing, but I must say, she was quite brave, honestly, much much braver than me through the whole ordeal. And in the past two days, apart from the event that hurt her till the actual procedure and apart from the re-dressing yesterday - she didn't fuss much. She was back to her old self - trying to make the most of what she could from the vacation as soon as she could. Something I should definitely learn from her as I was sulking for her, more than she was sulking for herself, yesterday.

Anyways, we are back home today - we need to be careful not to let any water seep in to the wound until its healed - and we are to go for a re-dressing tomorrow.

Do wish her toe a speedy recovery, please.

~~ Four Books ~~

For whatever reasons - looks like the alert for yesterday's post never went out.  So if you missed reading that one, do click on the hyperlink and let me know your thoughts.

I know I haven't been posting the each day post of "Ten day you challenge" in a continuous flow - I myself needed a break from posting that every day and so skipped a few days in between and posted something else for a change :P  

So the next one on the challenge was to post about four books - now, how can I ever pick just four from the huge favorite list I have - its absolutely impossible.. So I am gonna tweak it to list the genres that I enjoy the most and then list my favorite authors/books from those genres... Too much of tweaking, I know, but, its definitely not possible for me to list just one book even if I narrow it down to a genre :P

Favorite Genre 1 - Thrillers: I absolutely love reading thrillers. I need to read a thriller to get me back into reading mode when I have tried a book from any other genres. The anticipation of the ending, the process of deduction as I read, figuring out the climax, and then waiting to see if I was right, the legal intricacies and exciting twists and turns, the nail biting reads that doesn't let me sleep a wink sometimes - thrills me. My favorite authors of this genre are John Grisham(legal thrillers), Dan brown, Jeffrey Archer, Robin Cook(Medical thrillers), Mary Higgins Clark,  Agatha Christie, Lee Child and Stephen King. I cannot list just one book of any author as my favorite book - every single book I have read of these authors are my favorites for its own reason.

Favorite Genre 2 - Romance:  This was not my initial favorite of genres. I read one "Mills and Boons" novel and I was forever done with this genre. All of it changed when I read " The Bridges of Madison County" by Robert James Waller - Thanks to a friend who loaned it to me for a weekend. I didn't read it until Monday morning breakfast time and I then bunked office that day for completing it (I have not even bunked in college, forget bunking work, so that's something very huge in my life). For such a dry title, the book is not at all that. The myth was broken and I finally understood romance genre doesn't mean only Mills and Boons. I moved on to "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and this is my all-time favorite.  The other worthy mention that made me not ditch this genre is "P.S. I Love You" by Cecelia Ahern. 

Favorite Genre 3 - Fantasy: This is a recent addition to my favorite genres. I must admit, I haven't tried a lot in this genre and the one that I can really boast of is the Harry Potter series. Oh, I hated these books and movies initially for all the hype it had created - and it didn't help that I watched one of the movies (probably the third one in the series) before I read or watched it in sequence, and I couldn't get head or tail of whatever was happening on big screen. It didn't pique any interest in me for these reasons - But being the curious one, I bought the box set just to see for myself the reason of hype around this. It was on my book shelf for a quite a few years, before I braved to read it. I couldn't stop once I began, and I now cannot stop feeling silly for ignoring it for so long. A definite potter head now.  "A Song of Ice and Fire" is something I haven't been able to generate any interest similar to Harry Potter series - but since having this experience with Harry potter series - I have now marked this series to read next in fantasy genre (If you want to gift me, "A Song of Ice and Fire" box set should be your  first choice :P) .

Favorite Genre 4 - Fiction that doesn't fit in any of the above three genres: I really don't know which genres I should fit these books in as they are quite diverse and am constrained here to list only 4 - so I titled this point broadly so :P Following are my absolute favorites apart from whatever I have mentioned in the previous three points:

The help by Kathryn Stockett,  To kill a mocking bird by Harper Lee, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger , The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Erich Segal 's Novels, Khaled  Hosseini's novels - Oh, I think I will go on to list everything I have read at this pace :P  So, I am going to stop here. 

If you want to know what I have read till now - my humble list is available here.

Do you have any favorite books? Can you try to list just four :roll:

Well, I don't mind if its more, you know? I will definitely make sure to add it to my never ending to-read list if its not already there :P :)

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20 for 20 - Others

Twenty for Twenty - And here goes the rest of the 12 Goals

Travel/Vacation :

• Take a break per month to unwind – even if for a day (0/12)
• Explore local weekend getaways – try visiting at least 5 new places close by (0/5)
• Plan proper vacations – Try to cover at least 2 from my bucket list (0/2)

Health :

• Meditate: Meditation can be intimidating for me as my mind is always buzzing with thoughts.  I am planning to use the first 10 minutes out of my travel time to just close my eyes and think about nothing - difficult, I know - Lets see how it goes.
• Walk at least for half hour every day (0/366)
• Squeeze in 10 mins of yoga every day (0/366)
• Drink more water

General:

• Stay strictly offline after 10pm - Go to bed at a reasonable time (0/366)
• Declutter - Let go of unwanted stuff
• Watch a movie per week (0/53)
• Go to a stand-up comedy show (0/1)
• Resume dance classes

I have a journal (a sort of bullet journal) where I track a lot of stuff - but then, even there, I felt, it was not tracked diligently this year. The main reason I wanted to post these goals out here was to have some kind of accountability - which I hope to maintain this time. 

There you go, seems simple enough goals to me.. but will have to wait and see what the new year brings :)

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20 for 20 - Reading and Writing goals

Twenty for Twenty - Reading/Writing goals: 

Blog at least once a month (0/12):

Now, this depends on you :) The more you leave comments, the more I feel encouraged to write.

One Blogathon per year (0/1):

Blogathon as such is hard. One who takes it up, knows the effort that goes into it. Writing every day takes a lot of determination and of course, effort.  Irrespective of other commitments and responsibilities in life, you need to resolve to write daily during a blogathon. Since this is something I want to do each day of my life - a blogathon helps me with the discipline aspect of it. I don’t plan the content beforehand. Sometimes I don’t even proof read. So when I do a blogathon, the content I post is straight from the heart, those raw emotions, those pent up thoughts, the real me -  it is such an interesting experience when these emotions get flushed out every day. And to top it all, the pure joy that every single comment on each post of blogathon brings is something I look forward to – Now, who doesn’t want to experience a month of smiles, right?

Finish the draft of novel:

For those of you don’t know – I have already self-published a set of short stories. I have been meaning to publish a proper novel from so long. Have written mere ~5000 words. I need to commit to finish at least the draft of this one in 2020. If I haven't completed the draft by start of November 2020, I will need to attempt nanowrimo.

Reading challenge(0/20):

Goal would be to read 20 books this year. I’d want to finally pick the ignored books that beckon me from my bookshelf. I also ought to charge and sync my Kindle regularly, and of course read a few short stories there.

Sync the external blog space with all the posts:

From a few years now, I have made it a point to post there first before I even post here. That way I don't have to worry about syncing later on. Syncing is hard. I am yet to sync a few very old posts and ensure I add all the relevant blog links in my newer posts to link these old posts. I plan to dedicate some time for this work, this year. I also want to jazz up my external blog space a bit - so yeah, that too.

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So these are my resolutions in reading/writing category! How about you?
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And before I forget, a very merry Christmas to you all :-) Hope big ol' Santa delivered all your gifts :-)

20 for 20 - Career goals

Twenty for Twenty- Career Goals

Work life balance:

My morning is chaos. The first proper breathing minute I get for myself is when I board the bus to office around 7:45am. The first thing I do after I buy a ticket is check my mails/chats (Its already noon in Australia, so there's already lot out there waiting for us to come online). This helps me prepare mentally for the day ahead. Yep, not good. I was worse earlier, I used to check emails/chats as soon as I’d wake up. I have now somehow managed to restrain myself until I board the bus. At times, I just start responding immediately and then, there's no stopping after that. Same cycle repeats when I start home in the evening as well and this time with my teams here. I am not proud of this. I want to be able to let things be and deal work stuff only in working hours. I am in awe of people who know how to draw this line. I also appreciate people who do not have this urge to check and respond to emails or chats on a holiday - you are on a holiday after all. I currently don’t draw a line. I want to do that. A small step at a time to practice the much needed detachment and balance.

Get certified:

I started learning something new this year. I hope to get certified in that area of expertise in 2020. Wish me luck  :)

Appreciate often:

Refer my last point of this post.

~~ Five foods ~~

Ah! The post about food.

But, wait, no, its so unfair,  am supposed to list only five - now, that's going to be very very difficult!!

I thought for quite a few hours about my favorites - but I figured, I just can't list top 5 foods. So finally, here I am, with five favorite cuisines - now, that's better, isn't it :P :P :P 

1. South Indian - Of course! I love everything about South Indian food - the aromatic spicy spices, the ghee laden curries, the fried bajjis and pakoras, filter coffee, the crunchy vadams and pappadums, the typical home made comfort food of idlis, dosas, vadas, sambhar and rasams, bisibelebath, vangi baath, tomato baath, puliogarai, those occasion and location specific snacks and sweets and last but not the least, the pickles - Oh, I can go on and on. 

2. North Indian - The paneer curries, the samosas, the finger-licking-yummy chaats and the plethora of sweets, the aloo parathas with the pickle/curd combo - oh - what's not to like!  

3. Konkani cuisine - Now, this is my favorite comfort food. If you need to make me happy - just offer me a plate of ghee & coconut laden Konkani comfort food and I'd be super happy woman. Nothing beats this. A funny aspect of this is that I have noticed that you need to be a born Konkani to share this love for Konkani cuisine - no offense, no one loves Konkani cuisine as natives do :P  

4. Italian - Pizza's and Pasta's :P  Awwww....... my favorites are Indianized Pizza's (the ones with the Paneer masala etc) and White Sauce Pasta's ... I also love their mushroom dishes, especially the Funghi Trifolati -  easy to prepare and just yummy... am droooling already... The funniest thing is that the bestest Pizza's and Pasta's I have had so far was in India and US -  not Italy :P 

5. Mexican -  Its very difficult when you are a vegetarian and you step outside India. There are times when I have survived only on chips, French fries and Hashbrowns. The only thing that came very close to the feeling of having Indian food was having Mexican food - In US, Chipotle was like home away from home.  Their Mexican Burrittos and Quesadillas though quite different, atleast felt close to Chapathi and Rice from home :P 

There you go - my five favorites - how about yours? 

~~ Six Places ~~

So, here comes the fifth post of the ten day you challenge! It's to write about six places... 

Here goes my six favourites...

1. The first place that comes to my mind, is, of course, my hometown, Udupi. A place where we used to come for summer vacation every single time and never wanted to be anywhere else  :-p 

2. Initial years of my childhood had been in Mysore. I love the city for its calm and peaceful atmosphere. It still is how Bangalore used to be ages ago. I have beautiful memories of this city. One of which is going to Mysore Palace on Sunday evenings -  find some space to sit in the palace garden and munch on roasted peanuts savoring the sight of the well lit palace - that was like a family tradition of sorts. 

3. Most of my teenage years were spent in Tamilnadu. I absolutely have great memories of growing up here. I dont feel much nostalgic as such when I visit Mysore. But I sure feel a lot nostalgic when I visit the places I have lived or travelled in Tamilnadu. I also know that the person I am now, the core of my personality, is strongly and mainly influenced by the most empathetic and "giving" environment in which I grew up when here. My best friend is from this place and we still are in touch. Miss it. 

4. Even before I could properly explore India, (Thanks to the standard summer vacation destination during  childhood and later of course our own financial conditions) - I went to US of A. Absolutely a time I cherish. It helped me grow financially, of course, but it also helped me grow as a person. I know, I changed heaps during my stay here. I pushed myself out of my comfort zones and the stay brought in a lot many changes in my way of thinking. If I am open minded about a lot of things now, somewhere, this 2 year onsite stint would be the major contributor to it.  I travelled and covered all the coasts in that 2 year stint and even managed to win a jackpot in Las Vegas :-p.. but if I have to pick a place that I absolutely loved, it'd be New York, just for the fact that it reminded me so much of home. I must say, I am very glad that I travelled and stayed in USA before marriage. I know now that my husband is not much of an "exploring new places" kinda person :-p  ...The only regret I have is that I couldn't make my parents agree to visit USA during my stint there. They did not agree. I begged them to come and stay with me, but it never materialized :-(.. Like any middle class families of those years, the first priority for them, was to ensure that I saved that expense for my future and never be dependent on any one. It's to that and many more such sacrifices that I owe that house I managed to buy even before I got married.  

5. Europe: My brother is in Europe and we visited him recently. The trip to his place and rest of Europe is one of the most memorable family trips. Every single place that we covered in that month long trip is still fresh in my memory and it's difficult to pick just one place. I would strongly recommend exploring Europe on your own than opting  for package trips, especially if you can plan the whole thing and dont have fussy eaters with you.  Believe me, the experience of exploring on your own is worth it (Of course,  you just need to be wary of limited food options if you are vegetarian)

6. Australia: My most recent visit was to Australia. It was a short time assignment and as luck might have it, it was during my daughter's summer vacation. I have never lived without her and though company wouldn't sponsor her or family expenses due to short term assignment(which is fair), I still wanted to take her for the odd 3 months - I couldn't  imagine staying away from her for so long. I also forced my parents to join me this time. My parents again sang me the saving for future song, but I didnt budge, nor did I care. I had to travel first, but had applied for their visas through a travel agent before leaving. Booked their tickets online after their visitor visas were processed and finally they arrived.  The whole process till they arrived was quite nerve wracking as tracking progress of Australian visitor visas is nothing less than a nightmare. The void of not being able to get my parents to come visit and stay with me when I was in USA was finally filled this time. Of all the places we managed to visit when we were in Australia, our absolute favorite was the Great Ocean Road stretch. If you ever go to Australia, make sure you have this on your itinerary. You'll not regret it. 

So there you go, my six favourites. How about you?

~~ A to Z ~~

Have been reading too much about CAA and NRC from yesterday.. So to distract myself, I thought I'd better do some random meme today.. so here goes.. found it in my meme folder from years ago...  do try it out .. :-)

A- Age - Huh, Like am going to reveal that.

B- Biggest fear - Losing people I love.

C- Current time: 11:41pm

D- Drink you last had: A warm glass of turmeric milk

E- Every day starts with: Snoozing the alarm!

F- Favourite Song: There's just too many. But since Linkin park is on loop from yesterday, any song by that band.

G- Ghosts, are they real? I guess :evil:

H- Hometown:Udupi

I -In love with: People I love :-)

J- Jealous of? Nothing, really. 

K- Killed someone?: Do Mosquitoes and Cockroaches count?

L- Last time you cried?: Today, while trying out a new nose pin which was stuck and refused to let me go. Painful. 

M- Middle name: Alevoor

N- Number of siblings: One

O- One wish: Happiness

P- Person you last called? Mom

Q- Question you’re always asked: Are you a Bengali?

R- Reason to smile: Many

S- Sounds that annoy you: People talking loudly on phone in public.

T- Time you woke up: 6am to snooze alarm and then 7am :-p...Hey, its Saturday!

U- Umbrella colour : Light blue

V- Vacation destination:  Just too many to list 

W- Worst habit: Procrastination

X- X-Rays you’ve had: The ones during company sponsored yearly medical checkups 

Y- Your favourite food: Just too many to choose

Z- Zodiac sign: Aquarius

~~ Numb ~~

Yesterday was a nightmare. I stay about 60kms away from office, so it was a bit scary when I got to know that buses were not plying and that curfew was imposed. I do have relatives near my workplace, so there was an alternate, of course, but then, home is home, right? More importantly, at these times.  On the way back home, I saw kids as young as maybe 7 or 8 years old, marching in the protest - I couldn't believe my eyes. I just went numb.  I vented it out in a group where I can vent out without hopefully getting branded as pro or anti any political party and hopefully not offending anyone. I was exhausted after all the vent as it went on and on about how few things were right and some things were not and all that related blah - I didn't want to write more here yesterday. What's happening is quite numbing and to me, a bit confusing too.

Things have been pretty okay at my place today - office was closed for safety reasons, but a few of us who could, connected from home.  

The whole day - only two lines were running in loop in my mind - 

"I've become so numb, I can't feel you there, Become so tired, so much more aware" 

In these trying times, I hope and pray for peace. Lets all do. 

Trivia that's not required, but I thought I will give out anyways: The above mentioned lines are from a song - not related to any context of whatever is happening currently - the actual complete song deals with some other emotion altogether - but these two lines just kept coming back to me today. Listen to it if you haven't yet (Numb by Linkin park - one of my utmost favorites). The first time you hear it, you may not like it. I didn't, honestly. And then, you hear it a few times (why? Because your brother forces you to) and then it slowly grows on you and ends up being your utmost favorite song. And then you hear some more songs from the band (again, because your brother thinks all that screaming is so meaningful :P) and after a few forced listening sessions, it ends up becoming your favorite band and you end up liking all that meaningful screaming too! Yep, happens. Now that I think about all this screaming even more with a context - the song "In the end" by the band replaces the "Numb" song running-in-loop-since-so-many-hours and "In the end" is now stuck in an infinite loop!  Sigh :(

This is what is running in my mind now - "In the end, It doesn't even matter"  So true, isn't it? 

Peace!

~~ Just an update ~~

Its not been a fun day today. We were in a meeting in the noon when we were informed that it would be better to leave for home asap. When I called the state transport bus that I usually take to commute, I was told that there were no buses plying anymore and the depot was not sure when buses would begin plying again. Luckily a colleague and her husband were driving to my town and they offered me a lift. On the way back, I saw a protest rally. I was very upset about something in the rally - I did vent about it in a group - so I will let it go for now.  We are not sure about how the day is going to fare tomorrow or the day after.  

More tomorrow... 

~~ Let Go ~~

Thank you all for your kind wishes yesterday.

Every time, I remember, I have hit the goal of 200 posts this year – I grin ear to ear  

I hope I do justice to all the love I receive and write more in the coming year 

So, today I had to do a hard thing. I had to let go. Let go of a companion who was with me most part of this year.  A companion who gave me so many laughs, a few tears, a few smiles and a few learnings too. A companion who I so wanted to hold on to – despite my realization about the compromise it needed of the personal space that I usually dedicate for a dear old loyal friend. I had to choose. This was new and exciting –  but the other companion had been dear too. I so wanted to hold on to this new friend and did not want to let go of the old friend too. I figured that I should find ways to be able to split time between both. But then, deep inside, I knew, I had tried to do so this year, and had ended up ignoring the old dear loyal friend.  Sometimes letting go proves more tough than holding on. And in any case, I am very bad at letting go of anything. But I had to do it. Cut ties. Cut the cord.  I read this somewhere that anything that we cannot control teaches us actually to go the path of letting go. And it’s probably true.  After about a month long thought provoking thinking and quiet deliberation, I finally took the big step today.

I finally cancelled my Amazon prime subscription which was my constant companion(prime video) this year during travel to and from office (taking over that time I usually spend with my dear old loyal friend: books). It was hard to click the unsubscribe button which screamed to give it one more chance, give it another year. Every teeny tiny cell in me tried to persuade me to try reading on my way to office and watch series/movies/stand-ups on the way back. Find a way to manage both. But I knew, I would end up staring at the mobile screen to and fro – like I did this year. So with a very heavy heart, I cancelled my subscription just a few moments ago.

I’ll miss you, Dear Amazon Prime.. I’ll   Promise 

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As a prompt – let me know of anything very very dear that you had to let go of or if you do not want to reveal anything personal – weave a story around  a character who finds it difficult to let go(of maybe a relationship or a habit or even a thing), but eventually does.

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~~ Double Century ~~

Note: I am yet to sync a lot of old posts in this space. The stats are from my original blog space where I did reach a 200 count today. I will update hyperlinks of other milestone posts listed here once my syncing is complete :-)

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Yes! As I publish this post, my “Total number of posts so far” would get updated to 200   I am super elated today. I have been looking forward to this milestone for quite some time now.

When I started writing in December, and then stuck to writing daily, with a little nagging voice within asking me not to call it a blog marathon until I successfully complete it – I had thought I had a long way to go, to reach 200. I didn’t know the goal was this nearer. And now, that I have reached it, it all just seems a bit surreal. 

Though I had a blog space before I started blogging here – it is here that I started to write seriously (if I may call my passion for writing serious enough).  It is here that I found a lot many like minded souls. It is with this super positive network that I still hope for a warm welcome when I come back after a long hiatus and never get disappointed.

I remember celebrating the first few milestones and also moving past a few without realizing. It took me 10 years to publish 200 posts   I wish I had reached this milestone a bit earlier, but then better late than never, right? 

Also, this is my continuous 17th post for the month. That’s surreal and unbelievable too  I think I do deserve some praise and claps.

Here are some statistics :

Total number of posts so far	199
Total number of Comments so far	4350
Total number of Subscribers	267
Highest number of comments	In the year 2010 – 1330 comments
Comments in the year so far	233 comments

Here are my previous celebration posts (including where I realized I had missed the milestones) 

25th – Too excited to have even written 25 posts 

50th  – On time 

75th – On time 

100th – Did not realize until I published my 103rd post 

125th  – Did not realize until I hit 150 

150th – Realized after hitting the publish button 

175th  – I did not even realize it until today 

200th – The one you are reading 

Somehow the trend seems like I am married to my blog   I was so particular about celebrating the first few milestones and then suddenly, the celebrations happened late and I am back now trying to patch things up by remembering to celebrate on time    

Jokes apart – I have to admit, this space has been the most patient sounding board for all my rants, musings and ramblings all these years. And you, of all, have been most patient with me and have found my posts worthy enough to leave beautiful comments – A very huge THANK YOU to each one of you 

I wanted to do something different – so I have updated my blog header and background with a THANK YOU image – I know it’s a bit messy, but that’s what I could manage – it will remain so for a few days so it can reflect how thankful I am for this space and your comments. 

Once again, a zillion thanks to all of you who made this possible! I hope you keep reading this space as I tread on towards newer milestones 

~~ Seven wants ~~

This is my fourth post for this challenge – to post seven wants. Let me see where I go with this one 

So here goes –

1. I want to be happy – just plain happy. Not that I am not now. I am in a happy place, but still. Again, this doesn’t mean I want to be super rich or super smart or super whatever. No, I am ok with each day of the rest of my life to be as mundane or boring it can be – but yet be peaceful and happy 

2. I want all my near and dear ones also to have a peaceful and happy life.  I have seen a lot many people who cannot tolerate someone progressing well in life, a lot many people who feel very happy when someone falls down and struggles to climb up in life, a few who do not feel happy for other’s achievements or happiness, and a few more who will go to any extent to pull a person down with negative comments especially when that person is happy – and all I feel for such kind is pity.  The insecurity amuses me to no end. Anyone feeling happy for someone else’s misery is beyond my comprehension. I cannot do that. I don’t feel sad when others are happy. I don’t feel jealous of other’s achievements. I can only be happy for someone’s happiness or achievements(of course, if it's by fair means, otherwise I just roll my eyes for faking it and silently wish them better stuff). I want to stay the same – to be able to feel happy for others.

3. I want to be the best mom that I can be for my daughter – not perfect, I am still learning, but I still want to just as best as she needs me to be. As she grows up, I want her to know that I have always wanted her best. I want her to know that I have braved the world for her in ways I never had imagined I could before she came into my life and that I will always be there for her. I want her to know that I have tried my level best to create as many happy memories for her as possible.

4. I want to be a successful writer, someday. Miles to go, I know.

5. I love teaching. I used to give tuition to school kids during my school days and engineering days. The most satisfying part was to see my students getting interested in learning and then improving by leaps and bounds. Someday, I want to be able to resume teaching, if I can.

6. I want my house to have this cozy space –  just a couch, a foot rest, an easy chair, a swing – numerous books and a coffee table. Large windows would be an additional bonus.

7. I want to travel and be able to understand the historical significance of the places I visit – see the world as much as I can before I kick the bucket.

There you go, my seven wants – how about you?

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~~ Eight Fears ~~

Well, to be very very very honest, I am quite a scared being. More so, after I became a mom. I fear a lot of things so to narrow it down to eight might be a tad difficult. But I'll try.

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1) I fear losing people who are close to me - Family, Friends. I cannot imagine a world without them.

2) I fear disease, disabilities, the thought of being dependent on someone creeps me out.

3) I fear animals - Domestic/Wildlife - I am not partial here :P  I know dogs are faithful and cats are adorable - but I can love them or "ooh" or "aah" at their cuteness only from a distance. 

4) I am scared of what the world is turning into - so much hatred, so much violence, no humanity, so much drama, so many lies, so many cheaters - scares me to bits. I am scared for the future of my next generations to come -  so much pollution, no water, drastic weather conditions, plastic wastes, things going extinct, prices for everything skyrocketing - oh, I can go on. 

5) I am scared of driving - especially two wheeler. Driving two wheeler creeps me out. 

6) I always thought I'd die during child birth - thanks to melodramatic movies which always used to show this as the only possibility at times. This fear is no more now, but if someday, if only, I ever plan for another kid, I am sure this fear will re-surface.

7) I fear natural disasters. Tsunami, Earthquakes, Floods, Volcanoes - There are quite a few trips I didn't want to take to a few places because there have been Tsunamis, Earthquakes or Floods in the past there :(

8) Last but not the least, I fear my ever increasing weight.  I fear I will always stay like this and will never go back to my original weight :( 

There you go - my eight fears.  How about yours - Let me know :) 

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