Pictures of Mizoram again

Because I'm still homesick and I can't get enough of these pictures yet and it's a lazy Sunday evening and I have nothing to do.

Here's one of the beautiful Tlawng river -
Water, water everywhere...
My two greatest loves who make missing home more intense than ever -
Jonathan on his little throne :)
The chillies I planted when I was home in March had full grown chillies this time when I went home, and they produced such weird-looking chillies!
I love geraniums too. Funnily enough, Bozo seems to like them too. To eat. He would chomp the leaves off every morning so we had to move all the pots where he couldn't reach them.
Of course, not all's fair and lovely. There are buildings coming up every freaking corner now :(
But still, to have your own micro kitchen garden! Who knew celeries could grow so well in pots! And out here, they're so expensive. There a few pots yield more than you can eat.
The neighbor's plants are thriving too. Especially the marijuana plants :)
The day I was supposed to fly to Kolkata. Needless to say, the flight was canceled because of dangerously low visibility.
But when the fog clears, the mountains are gorgeous as always.
And there was such an abundance of rainbows, practically everyday.
And last - something to teach you that you must never fall asleep while there are troops of excited football-watching youngsters around :)

Tagged - 10 things about a guy that makes my heart skip a beat

Following up on Aduhi's tag with gusto. Here's my list of the ten things I love about men and if you know of a guy where all of these ten qualities come together in divine splendor, please get me his number :)

1. Nice hands with clean nails (Aduh, I swear I'm not copying from you!). I want his hands to look like an intellectual's even if he's a monkey wrench by profession.

2. I don't like it when a man yaps more than a woman. Which is really unfair of me I guess, being such a talker myself. Maybe when it's just the two of us it's fine, but if we're in a group and I look across the table at a yakkity-yakking man, that's not something that's going to make me burn for him.

3. I'd love it if he loves animals as much as I do so we can happily watch Animal Planet together :) And if he could share my passion for dogs, he'd be God in my eyes but even if he doesn't, I don't want him to put 'food' and 'dogs' in the same category.

4. Funny is a must. Not just in the 'make me laugh' way, but I want to see him doubling up with laughter at my little inane jokes.

5. Hearty appetite's important too. There is something uber sexy about a man eating food, lots of it. (And you also know all that food's going to be converted into energy ;-))

6. A man obsessed with fashion and excessive personal grooming is very off-putting for me. I don't want my man to smell more feminine than I do, or his hair has more highlights than mine, or more mousse, you know, the works. I'm including this here because there's so many of these types these days, damn those beauty mags madly promoting the metrosexual male!@

7. A certain degree of intelligence. Doesn't necessarily have to be 'educated' with fancy degrees but just possesses some natural smarts. Dumb is not sexy.

8. I think I've fallen in love with men just for the beauty of the words that come out of their mouths so yeah, I don't like it but I'm an absolute sucker for clever little wordsmiths.

9. Harworking. It's not like I expect him to do the laundry or cook or anything, but I want him to walk into his office and put everyone to shame. Lazy men who can just sleep all day and night - a very big NO!

10. Middle eastern accents :D There. I said it. You can stone me now.

Love and poetry

You remember when you first read that beautiful poetry that touched you in such a special way? It made you feel dizzy, tears came to your eyes for no reason, every word left deep imprints on your soul, and your heart felt so full with its beauty it could burst with the immensity of it all. You keep reading it, wallowing in the warm feelings, the heart wrenching profundity of the poet's every line...

Then time passes by, and in the complexity of life you lose touch with it. And you can't read your poem as often as you used to. Then suddenly you read it again and you just can't see anymore what about it made you love it so much. Because nothing about it touches your heart anymore. The words are still beautiful, you still see the cleverness with which the writer crafted the words to make them rhyme... But what about it really made your soul cry? You search the poem, and within yourself, but you don't find it.

And you read it again. And again. But you just don't get it anymore. You're just reading a really beautifully written poem but that's all. The magic is lost. Nothing triggers any special emotion in you.

Well I think being in love is just like that. It's just hopeless once the magic wears off. Sometimes you can't find the magic in the object of your adoration, and sometimes I guess the subject of your adoration can't find it in you. I don't really know. I'm not an expert. But I know falling in and out of love is just like poetry. It's really sad and beautiful. All at the same time.

Check out my new blog, pretty please with sugar on top :)

This is an invitation to all the ladies to please visit my (co-owned with others) new site Shaolin Monkee's Blog. Don't judge it by the name, it just pulled that from my username which is a username I use across my favorite sites like eBay :) and I haven't bothered to change it.

It's just a place for the chicas to swap ideas and tips on where and how to shop etc etc. It's fun. Check it out. Anyone can be a contributor as well so that's an added bonus. And because I'm lazy, for more details, I'll just copy paste the blog's 'About' section -

I’m making this blog so the ‘real’ average Indian women can talk about affordable and cheap women things because beauty magazines insist on making us believe that the average Indian woman earn 4 lakhs a month or all have money-laden generous daddies or millionaire boyfriends and they make me angry because they write about affordable shoes for the real Indian women while listing out Rs 20,000 shoes and ugly dresses that cost Rs 35,000 and Rs 7500 bras and Rs 5000 compacts but we the real average Indian women know that they are just being ditzy because in reality it’s just dumb and for a single really average clothes-and-shoes-and-cosmetics-loving Indian chick the things they say you must own would only lead to us sleeping out on the streets. Whew. Yep. Real life. And this is a really average Indian girl speaking.

Any men who might want to hop and skip over, you're also welcome :-)

The real life in pictures

Hello! I'm back in Hyderabad. Again. I'm tired, I'm a spotted freak, I feel sick, I am officially a pauper, and I have nothing I feel like writing about so just for the sake of being undead I will post some pictures - also as is running tradition. And also because we all can never get enough of pictures of life in Mizoram.

First, my adorable nephew :) I'll forever be grateful to my sister for having him because even though he's only been on this earth for 9 months, I can't understand how we were ever happy without him before he came along.

And of course, it's only fair that I share pictures of where I spent the most time which was the Sih Tuikhur. Lovely isn't it?

I couldn't get enough of the lushness and greenness and the organic-ness of the place. And all the warm memories it awakens. I'd go there to wash clothes (well...to be very frank, I only helped others with the laundry) but I went mostly to wash my hair and soak my feet in the pure unprocessed spring water and to just be free and happy. There were Himalayan Balsams (ram nuaithang) blooming everywhere - pretty and natural like the water.The clear (albeit algae infested) water -
I remember many nights when we were kids sleeping over at a friend's who lived very close to this tuikhur (watering hole). After her parents were asleep, we'd steal out of the house, quietly tiptoe down to the tuikhur, trembling - half with excitement, and half with fright (it was always supposed to have many resident spirits after all), take off our clothes to commit the forbidden act......of jumping into the tuikhur :) We'd sit there, shivering in the icy water, in utter darkness with only the sound of the wind in the trees and crickets chirping and frogs croaking and swap schoolgirl secrets. Then we'd creep back to her room and jump under warm blankets and fall into peaceful sleep. And in the morning the water would be clear and undisturbed and no one would know that three little girls had 'swam' in the water in the night.

The area used to be thicker with trees and bamboos when we were kids but I was glad to see some bamboos still standing despite the fact that there was now a big school where there used to be plum trees to steal big juicy plums from, chestnut trees, wild berry bushes where we'd hog till our stomachs gave up and we'd all end up with the runs.

And for Bozo too, my city apartment dog, this place was paradise. He'd trot off chasing butterflies and green and blue and red dragonflies, and looking at him romp about I swear he could tell this was fresh air he was breathing, different from the polluted air he's used to. It made me very happy to see him so..happy.

In any case, for all of us who never get to spend enough time at home, I want to remind you all of how beautiful it is out there. When the sun is setting and the earth is still damp from rain and the cool mountain breeze is blowing in your face, and you're standing on top of a hill looking down at Aizawl knowing you're looking at home, there is no other place in this world more special than this. Or prettier. Maybe it's the kind of pretty you feel, not see. Which is even better because I would hate it if it looked as pretty to a person who's seeing it for the first time as it does in my eyes. That's right. No joke. I'm a jealous possessive bitch.

And don't forget the sky people! Folks out here don't get treats like this that we so often take for granted out there. I think even the clouds love us better because they never bother to dress up when they come out here :P In fact, they're rather drab and dull always, people don't even bother looking at them. And there you can just stare at the clouds for hours on end...

So don't forget to salute the land and the setting sun for such a spectacular display of beauty. And do it with your friends because you get a few laughs out of it as well, and that's good for your hearts :)

Well for someone who said she doesn't have a lot to say, I've said a lot. And I'm only stopping now because stupid Picasa is acting up. Well, I'll be working from home for the next few days and I'm going to be bored out of my wits so I'll be posting regularly anyway so let Picasa sulk. I'm going to borrow a burqa from the lady next door and go out for dinner.