Goodbye house

Yes, we're moving to a new apartment in Dubai.

Our new home is going to be radically different from where we currently are. It's on the 16th floor of a 39 floor building, which is one of approximately 79 high rise buildings, of which some are still coming up. So yes, we will finally experience what is the "real Dubai experience", living in a high-rise, living in the New Dubai area, and of course living with on-going construction. But we do get a bit of sea view, hopefully the sun will line up perfectly for us as it dips into the water.

I'm feeling all nostalgic since the past few days and will really miss this house. Change is good, I know, but this house has given us some wonderful times and I'll always hold it close to my heart. On the other hand, I'm really excited about getting to do up the house again, although I have no idea how long it will take, with little E keeping me busy most of the time.

Here are some of my fave shots from our current home!

Goodbye house


goodbye morning walks around my park


goodbye finding a burst of flowers like these


goodbye finding modernity in old villas


goodbye neem leaves from the tree behind the house


goodbye gently blowing curtains and mango trees outside


goodbye everchanging patterns formed by the window grill


goodbye baby mangoes that I used to pick up after my morning walks


goodbye glorious light


goodbye collecting fallen dates from the trees outside


goodbye home

burn upon reading!

Don't you hate it when you start getting unwanted mail from a trusted source? Or rather, from a once trusted source. I think one of my ex-colleagues has sold out my email id to an agency that sends me a ton of mail, usually something to do with health related stuff, but I say that in a very general sense. Sometimes there are cleanse smart reviews and at other times, just quotations about how to live a good life. Those really aren't too bad, although I'm not big on getting unsolicited mail of this variety, especially the kind that you have to forward to 10 people within 5 minutes of reading the mail, else all hell will break lose, like the burn upon reading kind of spy thing. I delete this kind of mail as soon as I see it or as soon as I realize that it is one of those mails. Maybe it's time to change my email id.

photo: zinnia

Something so lovely about finding interesting old books around the house, isn't there? I found a set of these books, one each on flowers, birds, living and a couple of other topics and I was quite intrigued. Printed in the 1960's, they are quite a treasure.

where has patience gone

I've noticed in the past few years that I have been doing research assignments, that younger people are getting more and more impatient these days. No one is willing to wait even a little bit for anything, everything is to be done and had at this very instant. This can be put to every aspect of their lives, weather it's instant weight loss with hgh supplements or instant riches with fly-by-night schemes to get rich quick. Patience seems to be a virtue completely lost on the current generation.

no pain no gain

Ok, there are some crazy things that one does from time to time right? Everyone does that! But would you knowingly jeopardize your health just to look better? No way, right? I think like this, but am surprised at how many people try risky procedures trying to look like celebrities they adore or radical surgeries to lose weight or trying things like human growth hormone even when you don't fit the safe profile and have a history of high blood pressure. Come on people, wake up and smell the sweat for once at least. Do some work and get rewarded.

work on your emotions first

If you ask me, then there are some things that are best left alone, such as acne, volcanoes and testy animals. Why do people bother so much about them when actually they just need a bit of quiet time to solve their own problems. While everyone in the teenage market is searching for acne products that actually work, I think that it's often an emotional issue that causes them in the first place and so that needs to be tackled first. And what works best, is some quiet time, some introspection, some meditation and some thinking about whats really bothering you. I've seen this work so many times that there has to be something to it. Once this is figured out, all products you put on your face will just work better. Weird but true.

adjusting to our new life

Very frankly, I really didn't think I would be able to get back to a somewhat familiar routine this quickly once the baby was here. It has been such a hectic and exhausting time that I really had no interest in doing what I did earlier. All I wanted to do was to take care of her and that's it. But, little by little I started doing a few things like blogging and now it's almost like a get-away from all the baby related stuff for me. Everyone needs a bit of me-time and I always needed it even more than others....remember my morning walks. Well, those still haven't started, although I tell my hubby every second night that the Snugli baby carrier is ready to be strapped on to take little E for a walk the next morning. Unfortunately, the "next" morning always remains "next"!

We usually go out for a walk every evening and most days it's been miserable, simply miserable to be out of the AC, but since yesterday, something is different. The breeze has picked up, the air is cooler, the moisture in the air has reduced and inside the house the AC is more effective. I think the weather is finally changing for the better. I can't wait to take Elisha for her first walk in the park, and see her reactions. What fun to see everything for the first time!

as the body changes

Am I cribbing too much about having a tough time losing the last bit of baby weight? It's almost 5 months now and it hasn't magically disappeared as many people say it does. Oh it just melted away, I never even did a thing about it and when I checked my weight I weighed even less than before and so on. Well, I can't say any such dialogue since it hasn't happened to me. It's still there, hanging on, loving my body and not budging. Ok, maybe I'm making too big a deal of it, after all it's just a couple of kilos we're taking about. But no, it isn't, the whole body changes with just that much extra and it's really not as if I'm reaching for the thermogenic fat burners to get it off, it's just that I feel really funny sometimes. I notice that I walk differently now, my balance is different and I just want to feel like the old me again. I know, it's never the same thing, and I'm not that much into looks that I will go overboard. I haven't even joined a gym after all. I really did want it all to melt away, so I could say that line. What fun that would have been!

a cure all for all!

Now that I'm back to blogging somewhat regularly, I'm often asked by my family why I'm in a rush to get back to things so quickly. Well, for one it's nice to have something of my old routine and secondly, it's just blogging after all. I'm not announcing that I've found a cures for herpes or some such momentous feat am I? Actually, herpes already has a cure, so no worries about that, let me find something more fantastic to do :-)

photo: getting ready for the weekend

There is something so magical about an upcoming weekend, isn't there! We love planning our weekends, especially since ours are on Friday and Saturday, so the planning starts on Thursday morning itself and we are already in a weekendy mood by the time it actually starts. This is a shot of our coffee cups one afternoon at home while we browsed the newspapers.

do you still have your prom dress?

Did you have a prom? Wasn't it the biggest deal ever at the time? We never called them proms, and instead called them Socials, since that was what we did, socialize. Getting the clothes right was a big deal for them as well. The importance of the prom dress is understood if you were to enter the words in google and see just how many results turn up. It's amazing how much of the teenage clothing industry is attuned to them, especially since like a wedding dress, they're only worn once.

yay to home offices

We've been planing to set up a home office for both of us, since he does a good amount of work on the weekends and evenings and I, well, I kind of work from home all the time. I've always loved looking at office furniture stores since everything seems so tempting, but I definitely don't want to make our space look too office like. For me, it has to be a creative space, with a place for a changeable art wall, where I can put up my artwork and keep changing it without too much of a hassle. For him, the space must be functional and have a space for every single thing, else it ends up a mess. Obviously, we want to have our own spaces, so it cannot be a lavish set up for either one of us, but must fit into our home quite naturally.

monsoon magic

There's something special about seeing rain drops isn't there? I love to watch them as they drip of leaves and flowers, and to be able to capture them with my new (well, bought in March this year) camera has been a lot of fun. I wouldn't have even tried to take pics like some of these with the old one.

I took these shots one rainy morning when I was in Delhi. It had been a damp squib of a monsoon till then, barely one rainy day per week so weather like this was highly anticipated by me.



Of course, now days the monsoon has gone into over drive and it's pouring cats and dogs everyday, causing all the roads to flood and most of them to disintegrate in the process as well.



I love the view we have from the balcony. It's unusual for Delhi and it's a great treat during the monsoons.


Even the reflections of the plants looks so interesting thanks to the rain.


I love that I caught the imprint of my slipper on the rain splattered floor.


A fallen bougainvillea bloom caught in the branches.



Something so earthy and simple about these blooms. I don't think I could ever get tired of them.


More rain splattered shots.

just ok isn't good enough anymore

Nothing changes your priorities more than having a baby. You see everything in a new light, in a new and different way. I was never too bothered by things like insurance earlier, but now realize the importance of getting some coverage. At some point of one's life getting any kind of cheap life insurance is an OK thing, but not so any more. I want a good plan, I want a logical plan, I want a plan that suits my needs. Besides seeing my little girl change and learn new things everyday, I am enjoying discovering these new aspects to my personality as well.

trend: health care jobs on the rise

What is this I'm hearing about a rising number of jobs available in some sectors? It seems that the end of the tunnel is appearing for some industries, since there has been a revived interest in healthcare jobs in the past few months. In fact, healthcare was one of the stable industries to begin with, although salaries did not rise, but by and large jobs were safe, but now there has been a surge in available positions that are showing a positive trend in other related sectors as well.