June Photo A Day : Day 30: Handwriting

Handwriting, in old letters and cards. My Best Friend's. 

I haven't thought about her for a while but she had been an important person in my life. In fact, my life changed after I met her. I started loving myself after that.

She was my room-mate during Graduation. She was a Science student while I had opted for Commerce, but we clicked from day 1. Before her, I never knew what best friend really meant. I had close friends but till then I did not have the good fortune in my life where I could just be myself, without the fear of being judged. I guess, that happens when you move out from the guarded life at home. You tend to bond more on things once you are on your own. 

We shared so much about each others' lives. We would talk for hours, till the wee hours in the morning. She was funny, intelligent and yet very simple, almost vulnerable. But sharing things were like a therapy for us. She is the one who gave me tremendous amount of confidence in myself, the way she loved me unconditionally, justifying my actions even more convincingly than myself.

We reached out to each other through long letters after we left college. Now both of us are married and busy in our own lives. I haven't talked to her for a while, and even when we do, it sounds quite formal.

But she will always remain a very special person in my life, and I will cherish those times forever. I hope I will connect with her some day and catch up on whatever we left behind. I wrote about here long time back here and here.

To friendship!

June Photo A Day : Day 29: In My Bag

In my Bag is the book I am reading, of course. Always. No matter where I go. I always carry a book. Because every time I don't, I find myself in situations where I have to while away time doing nothing. Besides, these days that is the only way I can read.

This book is The Greatest Show On Earth, edited by Jerry Pinto. I love movies and I also love reading about them. This book is a collection of write-ups on various aspects of films and film stars compiled from several sources. 

June Photo A Day : Day 28: Red

I had mentioned about this place called MAPRO at Panchgani here. This picture is from that place. MAPRO is synonymous with strawberries in a way. There are strawberry jam, crush, syrup, squash and what not!  

June Photo A Day : Day 27: Into The Sun

We went to Ganpatipule last year, which is supposed to be close to Pune. We thought, it would take about 6 hours to reach by car.         Well, we were in for a surprise. It took us 9 hours to reach there, and 10 hours to drive back. And guess what, we had a 16-month old toddler with us! Thankfully, we went there for 2 Nights 3 Days. 

In retrospect, we did not have much trouble, during the journey. The little one and Momma occupied the backseat while Papa drove at stretch in peace. In fact, he slept also for quite sometime (I mean the little one, not his dad thank god, who was driving!). 

This picture was clicked while on our way back when we stopped to feed the little one. If you will look at the road, you would wonder whether anybody goes that way. There weren't any streetlights too on the roads we took. It is a kachcha road for quite a stretch. We took help from the GPS every once in a while and such roads made us wonder if the GPS was really going to throw us off some cliff. But we just kept the faith and finally reached Pune at 8 pm. 

Though I must also tell you that the GPS put us off the track once during this same trip when we reached a dead end and the lady (GPS) was insisting we take right and go into someone's rocky fields. 

June Photo A Day : Day 26: Empty

After almost 2 months of erratically posting photos in what was supposed to be daily challenges, I have got my senses back. What am I doing taking up photo challenges! I fancy myself as a writer. Let us put it this way, I love writing. I love taking pictures but they feature somewhere lower in things-I-am-passionate-about list.

Frankly, the intention was to get over the mind block of posting here. I hadn't posted here for ages and wanted to get this blog up and rolling, which I have achieved more-or-less. So, no more photo-related challenges from next month!

Anyways, for today's prompt, I post this picture from our trip to Mahabaleshwar on our Anniversary in 2010. Empty pool. Empty chairs. General emptiness of space.

June Photo A Day : Day 24: Negative Space

I love this picture. I wanted to post this one for "Centre" but changed my mind at the last moment.

I love the way the surrounding white space accentuates the two people in this picture. The two people, who matter the most in this world for me!

June Photo A Day : Day 23: Last

I think I cracked a good one for this. Didn't I :-)

If you have kids of your own or at home or observed them, you would know, they like to play more with the everyday items over their toys. Toys are the least preferred playthings. So, when we think of buying some new stuff for our son, we don't go to the toy store, we head to the supermarket or plastic variety stores or novelty store and the likes. 

Paper cups are very easily available and quite fun to play with. Earlier, I used to make tower and he would love bumping it off. Now both of us make it together or he would do on his own. It is great for their motor skills because they need to control their movements in putting the cups properly. 

In the picture, is the last cup remaining to complete the tower.

June Photo A Day : Day 22: Enjoying Life

Vacations are certainly the best form of enjoying life, when you can just let the world go by, when you can relax for a while without needing to go anywhere. Our trips are like that. We never plan the itinerary. We just do what we feel like. 

This picture is from our trip to Udaipur at the beautiful Hotel Rampratap Palace. It has been one of our best trips, and an amazing heritage hotel experience. Udaipur was a quaint little city, just perfect for a 2-day trip on our 2nd Anniversary.  

June Photo A Day : Day 21: Lunchtime

I am not a thhali person. When I eat out, I would rather try other items on Menu over thhali. I like chatar-matar, and not the good old daal-chawal / roti.

But I love thhalis in places like Rajdhani where you get a variety of delicacies one after another, garam garam.

This picture is from our trip to Ramsukh Resorts in Mahabaleshwar. This thhali was lip-smacking.

June Photo A Day : Day 20: Cute

I find this picture extremely cute. The door sign that he is pulling says "Do Not Disturb"!

June Photo A Day : Day 19: Currently Reading

I am currently reading 'Wedding Night' by Sophie Kinsella.

I have a huge pile of to-be-reviewed books and also several from my own shelf. Too many books, too less time to read. Moreover, I am doing very badly on this challenge too!

Of late, even the books have not been too good. They are all OK but not out-of-the-world. I think I need to pick one from my own collection now since I buy them after much research and deliberation.

June Photo A Day : Day 18: Street

We love Black and White pictures. I, personally, feel B&W pictures camouflage the imperfections beautifully. Even my profile picture is in B&W.

This picture is of a village street, and it was clicked on our visit to the Morgaon Ganpati near Pune. More details about the place here. 

June Photo A Day : Day 17: Centred

This picture is from my little one's first birthday. I was very clear, I wanted no party. At one year, a child does not enjoy a party and in fact, there is pressure of getting ready at a particular time and look after the guests. I wanted no such thing.

My son had to be the centre of all our attention and affection. So, the day was spent leisurely - a visit to the temple, lots of balloons all over the house, home made cakes, and dinner at a village-themed restaurant. I am going to stick to it more or less on his second birthday too. Birthday Parties may be evaluated when his friends (he needs to make friends first) can come without their parents.

June Photo A Day : Day 16: Family

This is Us. My family. This is where I belong. These are the people I want to go back to, no matter where I am. 

This picture is from our memorable trip to Kashid beach. We went there only for 1 day and 1 night, and stayed at Prakruti Resorts. This was also the first time we traveled with our son to a non-family location. 

I had posted another picture from this trip last month for Us.

June Photo A Day : Day 15: From Above

This picture was taken from above (the balcony) during Ganesh visarjan last year. The lazy bum that I am; I was trying to catch the procession from my balcony, not wanting to get ready as per the dress code (yellow colour) and go all the way down. 

And the view from top is sometimes much better. Don't you think?

June Photo A Day : Day 14: Texture

The idea came to me while looking at so many bag pictures for today's prompt. I wanted to click the jute one, but looking at all of them, I thought it would be better to capture all of them since they have different textures.

And they are all gifts from hubby and brother. I have not bought a single bag yet!

June Photo A Day : Day 13: Kitchen

For the first time ever, I post here the picture of my Kitchen. 

I am very touchy about it. It may not be the world's most glamorous one but it is the labour of our (my husband's and mine) love. We work as a team. I ideate and he executes. We have done several small and big changes around the house, where I have thrown in an idea and he has executed it better than my imagination.

Well, the story behind this Kitchen goes like this. When we moved into our current abode, we had not done up our kitchen. And once we moved in, since both of us were working, there was never any time or opportunity to get it done. So, when I finally resigned and came to know about my pregnancy (in that order), we decided that we had to get it done before the little one arrives. So, during my seventh month of pregnancy, we hired someone to do the job. He took one month to just finish the tiling work and changing the slab, that too after rigorous follow-ups. We had moved the entire stuff from the kitchen into our spare bedroom. Every day, my husband would shift the gas from the bedroom to the kitchen in the evening after coming back from office, and shift it back before leaving for office in the morning. 

After one month of hardly getting anything done, (when I had also entered my eighth month) we scouted for another vendor. The second vendor finished the work in one month and it turned out wonderfully, as we had imagined. We had also hunted for the matching tiles and platform ourselves. But at the end we were delighted to get the kitchen of our dreams. At that time we learnt to calculate to the extent of small expenses in a kitchen project. So, it was a truly a learning experience.

I love to keep my kitchen (as also the house) neat and clean, with everything at its place. Well, but as you know, life with a toddler is another ball game. On good days, for 1-2 hours, my kitchen looks like this. But most of the time, all the utensils are spread all over the kitchen (on the floor, on the platform, wherever)! We have also removed almost all the handles because our son used to open them very easily. But let me tell you, now he is able to pull out the drawers without the handles. It is much more difficult for us. But still we plan to keep it like this because he attempts to put his foot on the handle and try getting onto the platform. Such is the life with a toddler.

When he sleeps in the afternoon, the first thing I always do is organize the entire house (also the kitchen). My hubby says why do you even bother to do it, when it will all be the same once he wakes up. Really! Somethings he never truly gets!

June Photo A Day : Day 12: 11o'clock

This is the watch I gifted to my husband on his last birthday (this year). It is  called the Timex Expedition Analog-Digital Watch, and it can be worn both by men as well as women. 

Now a little history. My husband is not an easy person to buy gifts for. He appreciates and values my photo-gifts but when it comes to 'things', he is unabashed about his desire to exchange it (if need be). So, I have had experiences of shirts, mobile phones, TT bats exchanged. So, I was skeptical about this watch. I absolutely fell in love with it, and thought he would love it too but with him you never know! He is a gadget freak but he does not believe in obnoxiously priced ones. He wants his value. This watch was very reasonable.

I got this delivered to his office on his birthday and he absolutely loved it. Even I have worn it once while going out with a friend for a movie since it matched my outfit so well :)

June Photo A Day : Day 11: Something Funny

I was badly stuck on this. I kept looking for something funny, then one thing led to another and suddenly I thought of this really hilarious book I had read: Why Men Can Only Do One Thing At A Time And Women Never Stop Talking by Allan and Barbara Pease. And if you have not read this book, trust me, these are not the only funny illustrations. There are so many others. Highly recommended for a good laugh on men and women stereotypes. 

Pages 26-27 | Book: Why Men Can Only Do One Thing
At A Time And Women Never Stop Talking

June Photo A Day : Day 10: You!

Yes, that's me!

This picture was clicked in my seventh month of pregnancy. We had just bought our D5100 and the hubby was trying out different settings. He's quite good at clicking pictures.

But you know how it is during pregnancy. You keep ballooning. Atleast I did! [By the way, that also reminds me of that Parachute Hair Oil ad "badhti hoon roz thhoda thhoda". I would get quite amused by that ad during those times for the altogether different meaning it implied for me.]
The clear instruction given to hubby for clicking my picture was - I must not look fat. You can see how he has clicked, accommodating my instructions and considering the state I was in.
But jokes apart, I love this picture. The angle is quite refreshing!