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April 28, 2006

I am in the fitness mode right now




Just like the change in seasons, every once in a while I get into the mode of eating healthy, exercising etc. It started of with me stepping on the weighing scale..boy! was I taken aback....
I immediately decided that I have to lose weight and get back to my original weight. I started by browsing a whole lot of diets and then decided against it. Being vegetarian is good enough was the conclusion minus the fried stuff and coconut.
Next I started looking for gyms, coz I am bad at trying to motivate myself. Every gym I entered was another adventure. Nobody tells you upfront what the fees is, they take you on a tour, they like to say hi to the customers who look really fit and by the time you are done, you are so enamoured by what they are doing.Then comes the fun part, the 12 month agreement and the price you have to pay if it is a month on month agreement, and that special offer if you sign up today you get so much off blah blah, you will not get this deal if you come back tomorrow....sigh I was tired.
I then decided that I will drag my husband into this(poor soul has work to last for 18 hoursor more). We have now started walking twice everyday. I have a pedometer on and I track how many steps I do everyday. It is fun, you should try it.
I will keep you posted whether this really lasts.....

April 06, 2006

Those were the best days of my life...Part II

I have to also add that there were a lot of exciting things that happened in that apartment...

We had a room mate , whose friend (Hindu) was in love with a Muslim guy. The groom's family agreed to the wedding, but the brides family was totally against it, so my roommate's friend approaches her and says can we have the wedding in your apartment coz no one would suspect that we will have it here...My roommate consults all of us and we agree.
It was really a very interesting event, the grooms family completely took over the apartment, they had religious paraphernalia and the wedding started. All our neighbor's were curious about what was going on ..There are a flood of people coming to our house. That was an event to remember....

And then, we had one our friends move in with us, whose parents were seriously trying to get her married...So the groom to be and his family came to see my friend. We were all so excited for her and then they got engaged and he met her once in my house and then after that they got married, he moved to Saudi I think, and she stayed with us once again and this time pregnant ! We have felt her baby move and shared happy moments and then also had the vazhakappu (baby Shower)in our house if I remember right.

It was eventful years for all of us, we made mistakes, got hurt and learnt to be stronger......

Those were the best days of my life.


"Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choiceYa - I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life" - Bryan Adam's , "Summer of 69"

For some reason, I always hum these lines when I am very sad or in a contemplative mood. It brings back memories of when I was atlast let to live on my own while in India. I was raised in a conservative family where my parents never let me step out of the house by my self. My elder sisters persuaded my parents to let me move out of Salem after my garduation, find a job and learn to be independent. Boy! Was that fun....

My sister came house hunting with me in Chennai. She made it a point to meet the houseowner's herself and when we found a house atlast, she told the lady that she keep a watch on us. We started of as two, then three and sometimes even five of us stayed in a one bedroom apartment. We learnt house economics, learnt to appreciate our moms more, learnt people skills negotiating with the house maid,dhobi and ofcourse auto walla. We had our ups & downs, but mostly fun. We all become family, crying on each other's shoulders and going for a treat when when we got a raise or if it was someone's birthday.

I think the best time we had was when our friends who were living with family used to just stay with us for a couple of days for the heck of it. Our typical weekends was wake up late and then massage our hair with sesame oil and let it soak for hours listening to music or trying our culinary skills in the kitchen.(we had a one burner stove,no fridge and a small mixie). For the most part it was one pot cooking, but weekends was celebrations day, cooked up a feast and after lunch a long nap until 5:00pm.In the evenings, after a shower, we used to walk or take the bus to beasant nagar beach and loiter around there , have dosa from the stalls there and head back home.

All this was simple pleasures, but gave us the greatest joy....those were the best days of my life......
Ofcourse, I am now enjoying a different kind of life , which you call married bliss.....