Won a copy of Preeti Shenoy's book

Preeti Shenoy the very famous author and blogger at http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com - Just a Mother of Two

had recently launched her 4th book and as a result she was hosting a competition on her website.
A prompt would be put up on her site every Wednesday till the end of January and one lucky winner(chosen from a panel) would get a copy of her book.

Her prompts are very interesting and it always gives me and my unused brain cells the required motivation.So I took part and guess what I WON(Dancing with joy). You can read the results at the link below.
http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com/2013/02/wishlist-wednesdays-results-and-special.html.

My posts also got special mentions and that really means a lot to me.
It was my dear friend Vincy who blogs here :- http://scramblesofamaverick.blogspot.com
 posted  a comment congratulating me. I could not believe and hence had to go to Preeti's site to confirm and yes I did win for Wishlist Wednesdays 6 http://myendeavours.blogspot.com/2013/01/wishlist-wednesdays-6.html
Overjoyed, I was immediately going to post as my status on FB but then realized that seeing the word "Won" everyone in my friend's list would like without even realizing what it means to win a book of a person whom I highly lookup to or even what I wrote, hence refrained form doing that, instead I will just post it on my blog so that bloggers like you can read and appreciate.

P.S: I did receive the book in India, wondering when I can get it here (US)

Wishlist Wednesdays --Last One

THis is the last in series for the Wishlist Wednesdays. More details can be seen at Preeti's blog here

Today's prompt is I wish I could be like_____________________ (name of person). This person is special because.............

I wish I could be like my Mother. This person is special because she is the most beautiful, selfless, energetic, enthusiastic person I have seen till date.
She is the eldest of all siblings and she has always made it a point to give back to her parents, brothers, sisters and thier kids. Whether it is monetary benefits that they required or new dresses,she would always provide it for them.

When my dad had his first heart-attack(20 yrs back, I don't even remember the incident clearly) she stood strongly by his side nurturing him back to health and being by his side even today. At that time she had 2 young girls to take care of (I was in the 4th std and my sister in the 8th). She would get us ready to go to school in the morning and then take dad's lunch to the hospital(which was 10 kms away and she had to travel by local train), return in the evening for us and again go back to give dinner and return at night.

She loves celebrating the little things in life and no matter what occassion it is we all celeberate it by going out for dinner or being together. This is done mostly by seeing her enthusiasm and to see the smile on her face. She also makes it a point to take lots of pictures to capture these moments.

In her little subtle ways she has taught me that it does nto matter what others think of us as long as we are true to oneself.
With her by my side I can face the entire world. Luv you mumma.


 

Wishlist Wednesdays 6

This is the 6th installment to the Wishlist Wednesdays. The details can be found

The prompt for this week is I wish I could touch...........

I wish I could touch the silence between us
Wrap it all in a box
And store it never to come out.

I wish I could touch the clouds
Make a fluffy bed of them
And rest myself there.

I wish I could touch the rainbow
Gather all the colors
To wrap myself in them.

I wish I could touch my son's laugh
Gulp it down
And laugh unashamedly like him.

Wishlist Wednesdays 5

Here is the 5th installment of Wishlist Wednesdays. For more details go here

Topic today is
I wish I had one more chance to ...................

I am a person who basically does not like to look in the past. I firmly believe that whatever has to happen will happen to you and it happens for the best.
Having said this and the post forced me to look back at life and here is my say:-

I wish I had one more chance to ...................
1) Give a tight slap to the guy who groped my butt on a bus in Kerala. This was in my 10th std. we had gone to kerala for vacations and was boarding a bus. In kerala women/girls always climb from the front but me being a city girl did not feel the need to adhere to this and got in from behind. (The bus was at the bus depo, so it was empty with us being the first ones to get in). This guy got in behind me and cheekily grabbed my butt. I was shocked and turned round and glared at him. That did not stop him, he just removed his hand when he wanted to after a minute or two.
Given the chance now , I would have definitely turned round and given him a hard slap across his face.

2) After completing my Graduation, I wanted to do my Master's in Computers(only reason being, I knew a job in IT would lead me to US(onsite)). Dad wanted me to do M.A. I did get admission from a well known institute for Mass Communication. I would have loved to do the course in M.C. (the course curriculum sounded interesting )  and it would have taken me into the world of Journalism/Advertising creativity. If I had one more chance I would have definitely chosen to do Mass Communication.

3) The ability to say 'No' and not put up with things ever.
 I never wanted to get into a committed relationship till I got married. I did have my flings and crushes. One thing I realized is that I care a lot about other's feelings, even more than mine. Even though I hurt I did not want others to hurt.
 For two months of my life I befriended a guy. We were not in love nor were we having an affair. Initially it was good when we were getting to know  each other but after that he became this whiny, demanding sort of guy, being nice at one moment, fighting at the other. After 2 months I completely stopped talking to him but I do wish , I never met the guy at all. I just pacify myself with
 "Bad guys have to happen to realize who a good one is"

Wishlist Wednesdays 4

This is part of a series of prompts happening at Preeti's blog < a href="http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com/2013/01/wish-list-wednesday-no4.html">here

Today's prompt is
I wish everyone loved.........the child within themselves. Each of us had a child residing within ourselves and it is important for us at times to bring out those child like qualities.
I am not saying we should give up our responsiblilites but at times it is good to incorporate these child-like qualities in our day to day life style. Few points are:-

1) Living in the moment. Forget about past fights, abandon egos,forget about meetings and deadlines and just be what you want to be.

2)Don't care about what others will think. Go ahead and do what you want to do. Break all restraints, for ex: if you wanted to swing on the kids slide but were holding back go ahead and indulge yourselves.

3)Be curious like a child: There is no limits to their imagination. Look at things with a child's eye and ask endless questions.

4) See the world with new eyes: Like is a miracle and there is always something fascinating happening all the time. It is for us to see and enjoy the sun's rays or the buds blooming and to realize that we ourselves are a miracle and every moment we have is a gift to be cherished forever.

5) Laugh out loud: Laugh out loud on anything you find silly and believe me it's a great feeling.

Wishlist Wednesdays 3

Here we are with the 3rd post for Wishlist Wednesdays. For more details visit Preeti's blog here

The writing prompt for today is
The one thing that I wish everyone would learn is................. 

And my answer is The Patience To Listen.

We always interact with people and we always talk, no one cares for listening. I have seen so many instances in a group of friends that when one person is addressing the whole group--2 or 3 ppl will start talking among themselves. Even when 2 friends are talking and if the other person is distracted for some reason (like pacify a crying child or attend a phone call), they just forget what they were talking about and do not bother to pick the conversation from there, maybe the other person was telling something that was bothering him/her.

Basically we as individuals do not have the patience to let the other person to complete talking, we want to butt in and contradict or point our views immediately.

So the one thing I wish that everyone would listen, understand and talk after the other person completes.

"Only when you lisen will you be heard"

Wishlist Wednesdays -2

This week's prompt is
My one wish that came true and gave me immense joy....


For more details hop to Preeti's blog here

Banner of her new book placed below

Before I go into my wish I have to give some background information.
Back in those days when we were kids and travelling in a plane was not as frequent or accessible as it is today my mom would always tell us(me and my sister) , "When you grow up and get a job I want you to take me in a flight just one time, even if it is for a short  distance from Pune to Mumbai."
My parents are also great travel freaks. Every alternate summer vacations we visited different states in India.
When I first  visited US (a short duration of 6 weeks) they told me , do not even think of saving any money just go and visit all the places that you want to see. I was so thrilled to have visited US that I decided that the next time I am here I will definitely get my parents.

End of background information.
May 2005, I visited US again and I immediately asked my parents to get thier passports and visas stamped. They got their visa work done on Aug 29th 2005 and I booked their tickets for travel to JFK airport on Sept11th 2005.
And as you must have guessed it was my mom & dad's(M&D)  first flight journey. Their flight was from Mumbai-->Heathrow -->JFK.

While their flight was landing at Heathrow airport it got hit by a bird and after landing it was stalled. All passengers were accomodated in another flight to Chicago. M&D had some trouble finding the new gate and they were the last ones to reach.

The flight attendent said they did not have place for two passengers, my dad argued that they had to travel by this flight (as it is they were delayed and his daughter i.e me would be waiting at the airport with no news etc etc, how I spent tense moments  time at JFK is a different post altogether), and so they were accomodated in Business Class. It was a real luxury flight for them to Chicago and then they had to take a domestic flight to JFK, so my mom had a really really long first flight journey and they reached JFK after midnight(the correct time is 3 pm).

At this late hour there was no buses or trains to get us to Stamford CT, but fortunately at that time of the night there were  lot of limo riders who would take you to your destination at a nominal price. I paid that fare and my parents were taken to my apartment in a real limousine. We had the luxury of sitting in cushioned seats with our own bar(which we apparently did not use).

During their trip to US, one of the days we decided to visit New York. We took a train to Grand Central, as we were leaving we saw a huge crowd and realized there was a shooting going on. On looking closer it turned out to be a Bollywood film "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna". My mom was overjoyed to see SRK and Karan Johar at so close quarters. Rani Mukherjee was like 5 steps away from where she was standing. I doubt we could get so close to them if we went for a show in India.

On the same trip to NY, my dad wanted to visit the UN headquarters in NY, ppl visited NY to visit the Statue of Liberty, Times Square but my dad wanted to also see this. I had no clue the UN Headquarters was  in NY, anyway I noted the address and we went in search of it by Streets & Avenue(that is how everything is arranged in NY). We were getting no-where and as it was getting late, we decided to try for 5 more minutes before departing, as we turned another corner we saw a building with all the nation's flag flying. My dad was beyond pleased, and after clicking pictures we all happily returned home.

Mom is a Hindi movie bluff and in movies they always showed the flight landing in the runaway, steps would be bought up to the flight and all passengers got down and walked till the airport. It happens for domestic planes but as theirs was an international flight and they always took off and landed directly at the gates, she felt she missed out on that part.
Luckily for us when we visited Orlando, we landed at a small domestic airport and they did exactly what they do there, stop the flight in the runaway  get the steps and we walked till the airport, her that wish too coming true.

They left for India after a super vacation of 2 months.

So my wish was for my mom to fly and both my parents to visit US and Yes, that came true and gave me immense joy.

The (Secret) Wishlist Wednesdays Writing Prompt

My favorite person in the blog world has started this writing prompt 'Wishlist Wednesdays' for her fourth book release 'The Secret WishList' (banner attached below).

Go to her blog here to know more.

The creative prompt for today is


The three things I badly wish I could have are..................................

1) The patience to take things to completion. The willpower to complete things. Basically my problem is that I am very enthusiastic to start things , I have many ideas in my mind and I even start them with confidence but as time passes I loose the enthusiasm to work on them. So I badly want the willpower to take things to a logical conclusion.

2) To be happy for others from the start. So basically when someone gets a new home(Something that I could afford but did not think about) then my initial reaction is Why,not me? but later on I accept it and am happy for them. Or else if a neighbour did not invite me for their babyshower/birthday, again Why, not me? but later I can accept that it's okay. I wish badly that I do not get those thoughtas initially itself but be happy for others.

3) To show love and affection unashamedly to all my near , dear ones and friends.
Again , I want to do so much which is all in my mind but do not come out in a timely manner and then that moment passes and they never know how much I truly care.

I think I am getting old, no materialistic things at all but I believe this is what will make me happy.