Smalltown Round Up- 09

The curtains are coming down for another year.

Hmm.. 2009.

To be honest, i rather hated the whole 2009. Its more dark patches than the sunny ones.

And the sunny rays are the friends i made in this year. :)

They make life happen.

January was when rudra was dumped.

Hours spent on bitching her.

(sorry kd).

Building friendship.

Birthday-not so awesome. Missed college buddies more than anything in life.

Discontinued post grad entrance.

Worst decision in my life.

February was friendship.

(Am telling u, people can fall in friendship.

I have.

Twice.)

One more valentines day.

Single.

I watched TV with a vengeance.

Waste of a month in life.

March was more waste.

Ate my memory stick.

Major fights.

Major makeups too.

April feels hazy.

Like a pot-free wasted zone.

Sony gave birth to Jo. :)

Our four's first baby.

May is blank.

I was supposed to study.

But i didn't.

June i had that godforsaken exam.

Had an awesome time at Di's place.

2 days with her and H.

Old times.

FB addiction.

Started on twitter.

Life was imperfectly perfect.

July was busy.

New Job.

Twitter addiction.

Meeting all those cool people..

And life was getting so much better..

August was cute.

I was getting ahead in blog.

Springwalk.

Farmville. :P

Pallavi and Chetan and Nabeel and Adi.

September is Onam.

Meeting Jo.

Love was seeing a kid for first time and knowing that you will love him forever.

Because you love his mother.

Life is stable.

Durga Puja.

Deception.

October started with determination.

Grim.

Got over Twitter.

And fickle online friends.

Met Di. More Chubby.

Loved her more. If its possible.

H is engaged.

And Love. It was. :)

November was sick.

Fever and Yellow.

Stayed home.

Films.

End of Temporary madness.

Beginning of strong fransheep.

December is happy.

Healthy and working.

New possibilities.

Lots of friends.

Still lonely at times.

The awesome awards.

Christmas cake.

Happiness :)

Bitter sweet year.

And towards the end its been sweet.

I am thankful to all of you for making the sweet memories.

Harsh ones too.

And for being there.

Now, 2010.

Hmm.. I will write about that in coming year :P

And i got a hitch that it is going to be LEGEN....

wait for it..............

:D

Merry Christmas!!

It was FANTABULATIC this year :D (see i discovered a new word for it!)

And all credit goes to aQQui. He was getting restless without much fab food at hotels, so he got out of his tush, cooked an awesome meal which had Fish vattichathu, Beef varutharachathu, and Chicken aQQui style.(We could not kill more animals :|) The first two would sound awesome to you if you were raised in mallu land or tasted usual mallu food.

And I made an awesome cake! As i promised! Yeah, i left the baking tray in oven in mom and aQQui's charge and went to work, but their taste in baking is kinda mediocre and they waited 30 minutes more for the cake to gain the colour of usual plum cake which was totally unnecessary and turned a bit dry, but still awesome :D ! Speaking of plum cakes, you know, in Kerala plum cake does not have plums at all. Its just dry fruits soaked in rum(Yeah baby!). This made a lot of confusion when i was searching for a recipe online. And finally i got really pissed off and did a collaboration work :P And no complaints so far!

And today, i had work(Damn it, hospitals do work on holidays x-( ) so mom packed me lunch and all, but around noon i felt like i am going crazy and on a stoke of brilliance, i left work, returned home, almost ran for a while, then when i got home, the lunch was ready and mom was dialing me to say about it and me and mom announced i am a Christmas miracle :D. i know, crazy :D. So we had a good lunch and i went back to work.

[Me: This is what i call a rich lunch.

Dad: This is what i call a poor me. :P]

Now i am super tired from all these commuting, and super sleepy, but i cant leave you guys without a big wish na? So, Amigos, A Very Merry Christmas to you all, an extra special one for Sony and to Jo, who is celebrating his first Christmas.

So, see you all soon, till then, as Tiny Tim said, God Bless Us Everyone!!

Smalltown Girl's Annual Award Giveaway- 09

Prologue: I decided to do this annually. So i am doing it. This year its going to be usual ones seen in Google search, from next year i will try to be more genuine and the awards will be personalized. Yeah Baby , personalized :D! And this is for those whom i knew this entire year through blogs and who gave me immense support and comradeship and awesome reading material throughout 2009. So anyone who feels missed out, tell me. I will apologize, i will beg for u to forgive and i will feature you in the head liner of my blog. May be not the last one :P.

So here it goes.........

1.Rudra Mishra- Rudra, apart from being one of the closest friend of mine, is one of the first person i knew who blogs. He always makes it a point to read my posts, comment to me personally mostly(not cool dude!) and says my blog is great :D. He initiated some of my posts which were just recollections of mine he forced me to pen.He is also a published bengali poet though i cant understand his poems i know that they are awesome. So being the closest friend and the support he has shown me gets him a....

2. Disha Pandey-DQ and I met in one of our insomniac hours. And we commented back to back in one of my post. Her blog is beautiful, like her. Baahar se naughty, Andar se good. She is crazy, emotes a lot and writes all these into her blog :D. Later we became friends through FB. she joined college and stopped blogging and i believe my pestering can revive her :P So here is to a...

3. Aditya Sanyal- Adi is net junkie and his blog dates back to the invasion of Genghis Khan. Kidding, but still you got the point na? The guy used to blog in 2004. (WTF was i doing in 2004? :|) And till today he blogs in regular intervals. I mean, i hope i remember i have a blog in 2014. Amen. So checkout his posts because his humor is quirky and he replies to you. Always. Give it up for one awesome blog :)

4.Rajlakshmi- Just writes awesome, her short stories are good and they won prices!! And she was always there with comments and support for me. I am yet to know her personally, and we are working on her blog template. I think. So this goes out for an elegant blog.

5. Nikita- Nikita was my blogger buddy since the beginning of my blog i think. She has been a bubbly funny girl, who has a cute style statement and in one year she is this career oriented, studying in Leuven, in lovel, still stylish and still comments in my blog :) . Yo stylish blogger!

6. Arun Chembilath- Aka chembu, is my brother's classmate and he is one of the most different guys i have met in my life. Different in a good sense, in thoughts. He is a good listener and a good follower. He has immense talent in writing and still, he is the laziest person ever. So i believe this is a kick in right direction :P

So thats it for now!! Thanks to all these guys and all the best for everything you people are into. And thanks again. And signing off! Ciao! Everyone have an awesome Christmas! Me going to bake that plum cake now. Something tells me its a disaster waiting to happen. All about it later, bye!!

Award Shaward

I was always curious about blogger awards. I used to see those in random blogs and think about those. Mainly i thought why i never got any :P. They are cute, they show you appreciate and care, and they are absolutely free. :D

So i, your very own smalltown_girl, who never got any award, decided that i will give away blogger awards for people whom i appreciate. Every year. People whom i came to know through blog and whom i appreciate as bloggers. And this wont be given to awesome bloggers who doesn't know i exist. They don't need my award na? So, literally, t

his is for my Blog buddies!! Yay!

I thought December is the time for that, as an year is ending and we count our blessings then. And as it is the giveaway season and all. :)

So wait for it...* drum roll*...

"Smalltown_Girl's Annual Award Giveaway!!!"

Mmm, you think Christmas Eve is a good day to declare? OK, thats it. See you then.

A tradition begins :)

Its going to be LEGENDARY!!!

Birthday Babes

Today is the birthday of 2 awesome blossom girls in my life. My one and only best friend Di, and Mom's. (actually Mom's is on Dec 8th, but according to mallu calender birthday falls on 14th. Its complicated.)

So, they both got my gifts prior to the day, both complained a bit, both liked it.. yeah i do love them, even though there are days when i wonder why. :)

So, a BIG SHOUT OUT!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! :)

Picture Perfect! (One can always hope na :P)

My brother aQQui has recently taken to photography. Well, he was always into it, and Mama, who is inhumanly besotted with him(yeah, poor me!) recently gifted him with an SLR cam. Now a days he might forget one of his kidney at home, but never leaves for anywhere without the cam and the puma bag which holds it.

In our family, i inherited all the artistically challenged genes from dad. So i have no idea about the angle or the exposure, but i am generously endowed in the curiosity department. So sometimes, on a whim, i pick up the camera(along with it a thousand instructions on how not to destroy it and occasional shouts like 'careful!' and 'watch where

you are going!') and go around the house. Then i hide whatever i took, so that aQQui wont see it and start making fun of me.(Well, as i do admit i am a loser in photography, he doesn't try so much.)

So, methinks, I, your friendly neighborhood smalltown_girl, will occasionally expose you to the horrors of my other life as a lazy and lame shutterbug. :D

Cheer up na.. I said OCCASIONALLY!! And trust me, i am not into it. :)

so here goes the first 3.. Go easy on me!

And the next would be our dog, Rocky, as he gazes at me with love and a little bit of apprehension.

I will see you wonderful people soon.. till then, enjoy the season, smile a lot and god bless!!

Adios!

Rudra, Chetan Bhagat and a Parcel full of Love~ :)

The parcel came yesterday evening. It was not a surprise or anything. I had pestered him to death to send it to me. Still i was so happy when the courier people called me. Then on the way from work i collected it and smiled throughout my journey home. I couldn't wait and i opened it during the walk from the bus stop to my home(2 mins), even though i knew exactly what it had.

The book and the DVD.

The book i got him to send me with methods ranging from begging to threatening serious body harm. (True story)

The DVD, which had films of The Heath Ledger, our favorite actor.

And then the cover, where he had written my address in good handwriting. (It is good, don't argue!). I was seeing his writing for the first time other than in YM doodles. :)

And also, as he put it, loads and loads of love. :)

And he signed it Nemo. :)

What more would Dory want?

:)

PS: I am still smiling

PPS: I am going to love this book even if this turns out to be the biggest bore since huge vegetarian dinosaurs.

Oh, Did i mentioned that Rudra Mishra is awe-quite a bit-some?

And if i talked once more about this, he is going fly down here and throttle me to silence.

Still :)

PS3- My 2 states review is here. Check out.

Anthropology in Twitter- Gossiping.

Being in twitter is like being part any living community. Like a college. Or a colony. There are geeks, jocks, damsels, friendly ones, girls whom everyone likes, goodfornothings, observers, psychos, funny ones, weirdos.. just about everyone. So like every community, there are stories, gossips, random meetings, fallout's, crushes, love, hitting on girls, and guys, avoiding, friendships, new and old, sisterhood and brotherhoods, ogling, stalking... Just like any community.

I always thought twitter gossips were about celeb-tweeps . Well, i didn't knew any better. So Indian twitters mostly have gangs and cults which are interconnected. So you are friends with many, who knows other people, who knows someone else... well, no explaining needed. Exactly like how the story of Mr.Mishra's son and Mr.Yadav's daughter spotted in ice cream shop spreads.

I don't know how much of an apt candidate i am. I tweet less than normal, my twitter friendships are very less, but those i have are strong and not easily swayed. They keep me in the loop.

So, my experiments in gossips in twitter-

Example-1

Me(in IM)- This ma***ne guy in twitter is spamming my pages!

AS- Mine too.

Me-Why is he spamming the timeline!! :O And with absolutely pointless stuff!

AS- Yup. True.

Me- I am unfollowing him. U do too

AS- na. I want to observe him. He tweets so much and revealing so less. I am curious.

Me- Besto with that. I am done with him.

*after some days*

Me-Whats with that psycho you were following? Any clues?

AS- Today i asked him what he is up to. Didn't went well.

Me-I saw. thats why i asked.

Example2

Me- So you and i follow only @SK mutually.

RK- Yeah.

Me- You know @SZ?

RK- I know, but i dont follow him.

Me- @PL? She is my best pal.

RK- Na. i used to, not now.

Me-CB?

RK-No, not good tweets!

Me-Dont say that! I am very close to him!!

RK-OK, You know @M from chennai?

Me- Na. Tell me. Should i know?

Example 3

Me- Whats with @*** and @* ??

FK- They are dating.

Me-Oooh! in twitter? thats so cute!

FK- Yeah.. we get to read all the PDA!!

Example 4-

GH- @SZ and @SD have known each other for long. I think they are going to meet in person

Me- Ah,happy endings!

*2 months later*

Me to @SZ- What happened to you and @SD?

SZ- It wasnt working out. We broke up.

Me- What happened?

Example 5

Me- These negative gossips are turning my head!

PL- Dont mind it babes.

Me- But so much is going on.. whom to believe.

PL- Stay cool love :)

Sounds familiar? Yup, the same stuff Auntyjee's talk over tea party. We talk it with a coffee and a computer. And we say "ewww" to gossips. :P

Add your own gossips if you want to. Or mail them to me!

PS-The conversations are real. Though the names have been changed to protect privacy. And my life. :P

Boo!!

This is what is written on the incognito window of google chrome.

You've gone incognito.

Pages you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history,

and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Any files you

download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however.
Going incognito doesn't affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software.

Be wary of:

• Websites that collect or share information about you
• Internet service providers or employers that track the pages you visit
• Malicious software that tracks your keystrokes in exchange for free smileys
• Surveillance by secret agents
• People standing behind you

The last one simply cracked me up =))

Disclaimer-This does not in any case goes on to prove that i use incognito window for terrorist activities. Or any other activities. I am just observant, thats all :) This also does not mean i hate chrome. Infact i only use chrome. And to point out, its not because of the incognito.

~*~December Mist~*~

December is here. Its my second favorite month of the year. January only beats it because of having the privilege of being my birthday month. Still December is so divine naa. Why?

In Kerala December-January is the winter. And as much as i love my place, i miss the cold and the dew and to be very silly, the snow flakes. The winter temperature here is around 20-22 'C, so no hope of anything remotely winter-y. Still its cold and somehow serene. And romantic. I feel winters are the most romantic season. People go on and on about spring and autumn, but i am in love with winter. And monsoon. But lets go with winter now, as December is here.

In my childhood days Dad got a transfer to a hill station. First we all were very sad as he had to stay away from us, and i was already at boarding and this left mom alone with Aqui. Then during the Christmas vacation, as we all were free and Dad wasn't, we went to stay with him. And those days are more alive in my mind than the last Christmas. It was foggy, and there was slight snowing, cold beyond bearable, i slept under a heap of blankets hugging mom, and there were sweaters and heaters and campfires and books and card games by campfires... It was like i slept and lived in a dream. I used to go walking in the morning(and i never walk usually) to feel the mist and the chill on my face, the dewdrops on my hands, the uncertainty of not knowing what lies before 3 steps and the sudden happiness when someone i know just mysteriously steps out in front of me through snow.. it was my best holiday ever. And i love December for it.


Speaking of holidays, December holidays are a favorite of mine. Though onam is awesome and all, i love Christmas too. Even though mom is religious, we were brought up to accept and celebrate Christmas. And it was a break of 10 days from my god-awful boarding school and it was in my favorite season and there are cakes!! I absolutely love cakes :D ! I can write a blog post about cakes.. Hmmm.. pieces of heaven i call them :) So every Christmas, there are so many many of them. We buy a lot, we gift a lot, we get a lot, we eat a lot... and i gain a lot (of weight). :P This years Christmas is going to be extra special as i am making the cake! And remove that frown from your face guys, i bake awesome cakes :) And i will post a pic for you all!!


Then there are the cards. Ah.. I really miss Christmas card craze!! Is it me or the cards are like totally out now?? During my college days, i used to make a list on December first week-(I am not an orderly person, so a list is like my ultimate devotion) -of people i want to send card to, of people i have to, of people i should, and i used to spend all my pocket money on those. Then i would get an unexpected card from someone and i would go "damn,what will i do for money now" and grudgingly shop for them.. And there were these cute little cards our girl gang used to distribute amongst us. They were so small and so cute, with little cute messages.. i miss those girls and the cute cards. I have a huge box of cards i received during college time and many many of those are Christmas-new year ones :) This is one thing i don't like about the virtual world creeping upon us. Even with songs and animation and all, e-cards don't make me feel anything. Its not personal. It doesn't have little PS and a funny comment. It doesn't have scrawled price tag. And it doesn't have that feeling of your heart jumping when you open it. [And is it again me or did card prices like shot up in recent years? Now a days i walk in to a hallmark shop and freeze seeing the prices.] Send me card!! Its like angels in little covers!

Then December holds the birthday of the two important girls in my life. Mom and Di. So this month really breaks my bank. But i love dispensing joy, so, i don't really care. Those two evil, devilish and incomparably awesome girls gets the best. I don't really care.

The point is... through life's rushes and races, stop a moment to look at the world around you and me. And appreciate little gifts of life. Sometimes you will be amazed by the kindness nature shows us.

Adopting two lines from Lenka's The show..

It’s a joke nobody knows
They've got a ticket to that show..