MEINE CORNER IN THE BLOG WORLD!

 To be fair, 2020 could have been documented much earlier in this year with more details fresh in my head as the year was passing by. But honestly, I am writing this piece to prove that even in one of the toughest and oddest year, there have been blessings - a lot more family time, time of looking inward, getting in touch with friends and growth indeed both individually and for my family.  The year kicked off with my MBA core classes at Baylor, since I had chosen the online program there was no worry about additional driving/commute time but it was certainly challenging to adjust to studying on top of juggling all the other aspects of life including work and dance classes as my side hustle. Once I made it through the first term (Jan - Feb), March was when the whole pandemic impact began in the USA. Closer to mid-March, I was panicking about COVID-19 with the rest of the world and since we have family back in India we had already been kept abreast about new actions being taken by the In

Here's a quick list of observations from a recent trip to Chennai and Kerala. 1) First time noticed more posters of Karthik Sivakumar than Surya. He was all over the place - posters on local trains, bus stops and hoardings. Definitely looks much better now. 2) Hubby and me did the 5-second testing on the roads; no, not the bacteria, it's the honking. You're guaranteed a honk in atleast every 5 seconds, if not sooner. And it really didn't matter which part of Chennai we were in. 3) More metro construction mess all over the city, many areas still without real roads-- enough to give you a feeling you're riding a horse. 4) No shortage of mini Ganapathy temples in every nook and corner. 5) More malls in the city, checked out the City center one by the beach, had a beach view for food court area which was pretty cool. 6) As seen since the early 2000s, people are still spending a lot on foreign gadgets, foreign-branded food and cosmetics. Not to mention, no c

Sometimes I am amazed. How does India and the people that live there tend to be so left behind...rather seem to be okay with things that aren't okay? I was in India during the Chennai floods that crippled the city , post the December 1 2015 rains. I was lucky to get a rescue boat and leave the apartment complex in Velachery the next day. I moved to Alwarpet as I had family there, apparently a posh area of the city where some shops were open and there wasn't crazy floods as Velachery. I was already planning on how to exit the city in a couple of days as per my itinerary, however I had to find a transportation as airports and train stations were shut down. I understand for most people leaving the city is not an option. The day after on the 3rd of December the rains stopped and we finally got the much needed sunshine which dried up the rain overtime. There was finally a cab that we could take to exit the city that day. Yes, I was lucky in spite of the situation and the whole in

This post is a long time coming... I don't need to give any excuses though, I am a new mommy after all! After all that baking, my munchkin arrived on 20th September 2013...yes very much on time baby! The first 5 days were extremely stressful as my precious one was under monitoring in NICU, which meant I didn't have the luck of holding him close to me in the first few hours and also a lot of separation due to us being in different rooms...it was certainly difficult. But as far as I recall I didn't cry at all since he was doing great and was perfectly healthy. He confused the doctors with his heart pattern in the first 2 hours of his life and then came back to normal on his own. I strongly believe he didn't take labor process well and certainly not the pushing part... poor little baby. After we got clearance from all his tests (God is great!) ; we were allowed to take him home. It was a feeling beyond words, a realization of how lucky we all were as a family and with

Day 1 Relaxing flight onto Lihue, we kinda liked the Alaska Airlines overall with the service, seating and happy staff. Lihue airport is tiny, very simple, hardly any shops on exit and here's the best part - no crowd! We easily rented our car and were out and about in no time! On our way to the Hotel, we were happy to find a Pizza Hut for lunch, because we didn't know what to expect in the Hotel area and the location of our stay (which actually turned out great). Our Hotel was right by coconut grove off the highway , nestled between other resorts and hotels, had a market place in a 2 minute walking distance with a ton of local cafes, shops and restaurants lined by the highway with a view of the Sleeping giant mountain. It was pretty close from the airport. We expected a garden view per our booking, but luckily had a good view of the ocean by the patio.The first order after we checked in and unloaded our stuff in the room was to walk by the beach. Ah! it was so easy to unwind l

Mom has been sending pics of her lovely flower decors in the past week, so here's a collage to share! Hope you have a great Onam! I made some Semiya payasam....and along with is is a humble flower decor, with artificial petals.