Wake Up & Look Around...

By Blog

Every news on atrocity against women causes the most violent reactions in our families. Unlike our family's the so called gentlemanliness, abuses are thrown. Every man and woman in the family reacts as if the culprit is some big alien, specially brought up to disrespect women.

But, it is an irony how they conveniently forget the way women in our families are disrespected. No offense to anyone, but when a girl becomes a daughter in law, immediately she is being preached on how to live. But when a guy becomes a son in law it is some kind of anointment.

Why on earth suddenly at 25 or something a girl is expected to change every little habit of hers and start practicing what she is instructed? Why is it when a son in law gets angry he is treated with respect as an angry young man, but when a daughter in law becomes angry she is an arrogant proud lady?

Why is it when you are getting your daughter married you praise her cooking and housekeeping abilities. But when you are getting your son married you talk about his education and his employment.

Even in our so called gender equivalent corporate offices women are not spared. I remember someone in my office denying, hiring a woman for a particular position stating that the office rules don't permit women to stay after 8pm!!! (It was not for a shift or any kind of night work. The fella was just worried about the one odd day that might require stretching after 8). On one hand the company frames rules stating to safeguard women's rights, while on the other it becomes a reason for denying opportunities to women!!! 

If a car is driven badly then the driver must be a woman. Harassment to women at work is an article in itself.

So please my so called educated society(men and women) before telling that women need to be respected please see how much we respect the women around us.

I remember the popular bible verse, 'First take the plank out of your eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your friend's eye'.

 

Happily Ever After?!!

By "Blog"

'And so she was married to the prince and they lived happily ever after', I was reading out Cinderella to my 2.5 year old daughter.

It took me back to my childhood days and how I have always dreamed, that once the prince comes into my life, I could just settle down and live happily ever after. That was what my young brain could interpret after all.

Not only me all through her youth, a girl is led to believe that her life is complete once she marries the right man and a man is led to believe, that his primary objective is to take the responsibility of his lady.

But every time I think I am contended with my life, I find myself searching for more, trying to explore different things.

But why? Haven't I been taught that it is all about getting married and then I am promised a happily ever after life right away? The objective of my life is to get married after all isn't it?

Today when reading out Cinderella for the nth time (it happens when u have a 2 year old) I realized  how all of us have misinterpreted it all these days. Because happily ever after is not a settlement but it is a search, not a destination but a journey. And it is not a gift that a man gives a woman (as both are led to believe), but it is a gift of nature that both are supposed to enjoy together. And the happily ever after days actually lie, in each supporting the other.

When we start teaching our next generation, no wonder our fairy tales should be rephrased as ' And, so they married each other and started the journey of happily ever after life, complementing each other in the journey.'

Soulitude By Himalayas- Far From The Best

By "Blog"

After thinking and rethinking, writing and rewriting, I finally decided to write my first serious blog on my travel.

By now you would have guessed I am not someone who starts doing things without serious deliberations.So when the big question of going on our first major vacation with our little one(to be referred as DD hereon) came, I searched many destinations which could fit all my requirements.

My primary requirement was a place suitable for my DD then 18 months old.
She was toothless (believe me at 18 mths she hadn't cut even a single tooth !!!). So she was majorly eating only baby food. She couldn't even eat rotis leave alone parathas. So we were looking for a place that would provide us customized food options.
Second thing was keeping her occupied .
Thirdly to travel as little as possible.
Then my husband(referred as DH henceforth) needed a quiet vacation with not much noise, at the same time rejuvenating .

It was after having searched lots and lots of places and having almost given up on the idea,when I came across soulitude by Himalayas as a suggested post on my FB page.Super excited I started looking for its website and tripadvisor. It had bagged travelers' choice award for consecutive years in trip advisor, Also it turned out to be just the place I was looking for from what they promised.

So we did our bookings in the resort for a three day package which was very simple and easy and neatly organized in their website.

We then booked our train(Anand vihar- Kathgodam SBT), as we thought that would be a better option with DD than to drive. Our train was from Anand vihar station Delhi at 6.15 in the morning to Kathgodam. So we had to leave home by 4.15 in the morning. On the way the manager Mr.Prithvi was kind enough to inquire on our arrival through sms.

Our train journey was majorly smooth and we reached Kathgodam by 12 in the afternoon. For such a big resort they don't have pick up drop service instead they gave us a contact who we hired for the entire trip. He demanded more money from us on the return than on pick up was a different story altogether. From Kathgodam we had to go to Ramgarh where the resort is actually located and we reached there by 1.30.

On reaching the place we noticed it was very quiet, scenic and soulful.We checked into our room The Secret garden. Again, we chose this room as it was in the ground floor and very close to the dining area.The room was neat and good and had a brilliant view.When you read brilliant stress every syllable and read it as B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T because on a bright and clear day it was like seeing heaven directly from your room, nothing less.

But otherwise for the amount we paid the room was very simple and basic(it costed around 7500 per night!!!)There was an electric bed heater, though I am not sure how it will be sufficient on a snowy day. We went from march 9 to march 12 so we dint face big problems. The fire place in the room was charged separately apart from the exuberant charges we were already paying for the room. But the fire place at the living room was complimentary. The room dint have a tv on policy, though there was one in the common living, which we were fine with. After warm up we had a filling lunch and for DD they had prepared a simple kichdi on our request. I had not recorded our each meal because I dint have ideas of a blog then(which I'll ensure to do from now on). But all through we had simple edible meal. Given that there were not other options around and they were charging as much as 600 for lunch and 700 for dinner per person(albeit breakfast and kids' meal(under 5 years)) , also given the fact that the point of the vacation is going to be majorly eating and resting,neither the spread had lots of varieties nor the food was delicious.It was majorly edible nothing more. In fact we remember the amazingly delicious roti with kadhi  we had for lunch the next day by the lake. Infact, the idlis served on one of those days for breakfast was nearly tasteless. I am someone who has a strong feeling for the taste of food and can't compromise on it. It should either be you do it the right way or don't do it at all when it comes to food , that too at a resort as pricey as this.

The next day we left for sight seeing at 10 in the morning.We visited a temple(The name i dont remember-pardon my memory)which had more monkeys than gods or humans or both put together,which the manager hadn't warned us of. Probably it dint matter to him if there are about 100 monkeys at a place. But it did matter to me, one I am not fond of animals particularly monkeys (no offense to anyone just that I am scared of them I don't want to go and disturb them in their dwelling place) second I was travelling with my DD. Unfortunately I dint notice the monkeys' population till I reached the top and had to literally run back to our car with our DD.

Then we went to a lake. Our manager Prithvi asked us to visit a smaller lake which was on the way which was more silent than the commercialized one but our driver advised us against it saying it might not be safe for girls. So we visited the commercialized lake. No complaints here except that it was a regular one. But at least here our DD played and had fun with the ducks. And also this was where we had the delicious kadhi roti for a very minimal price. Then we reached our room at around 4.  After playing in the small lawns for an hour it got too cold for her to play outside and we had to retire back to our rooms. She started becoming cranky as she had nothing to do for major part of the evening. At least it was boring for a 18 month old. I think she would have coped better if we had taken her now. Otherwise for adults there were a good number of board games,cds and books so it must be interesting. Even for kids they had a small kitchen set puzzles and the like, but it wasn't much for DD. 

The next day again after breakfast we went to a tea estate and mukteshwar temple which was nice and we came back at around 4 in the evening. This night for dinner they served us kumaoni food which by far was the best food we had here during our stay. I also heard they arrange BBQ if the weather permits not in our case though. We had our return train on Friday morning around 8 so they packed us free breakfast which was in our package. In the train we saw that our aloo paratha was good but the bread we got packed for DD was all stale. In the rush and tension I dint take pics and so couldn't complain. Anyways on our request they had packed us bananas which was a rarity there. So we managed with cerelac and bananas.

Overall I would say its beautiful place with average service and lots of areas of improvements.

Location -5/5
Food -2/5
Service -2/5 (they are trying hard but they have a long way to go)
Value for money -2/5 highly overpriced for the facilities.

To summarize it was a home stay where I felt everything but at home.

PS: There are a few treks around the place but we couldn't take them.
They also have another property soulitude by riverside nearby which you can plan to visit if time permits.

Begginers' dilemma

By "Shlog"

So we decided to start a blog and then after our endless brain storming sessions ( mostly chai and gup shup) we realized sometimes things are easier said than done. We read lots of blogs, some very popular and some not so popular, to zero down on some probable topics. Should we write women oriented blogs or should we go into momie tales ? Fashion excites everyone so why not add some fashion commentaries or maybe we should go into niche blogging !

 Endless days were spent to finalize our first entry blog. Then we realized 'hey what the hell???'. It is not like our opening blog is the most anticipated event of the year, nobody is hoping for an Aamir Khan's style blockbluster from us. Let's write about anything and everything under the sun, whatever excites us, makes us smile, inspires us through our tears. 

Years ago when I started blogging, I was writing entries in my notebook first and then copied them to my laptop. I had conceived and owing to my recent resignation had all the time in the world. This time around with a 4 year old toddler only thing I didn't have was time . So I was writing and in between running to finish off my household chores ! But my job was rendered much easier with the use of my smart phone and the most user friendly app Google keep. It allows me to make notes at my dispense and accordingly edit entries.

P.S. - A special note of thanks to the guys at shoutmeloud.com & bloggerspassion.com. Though I didn't follow their advice to the T, but what I like about them is whenever you read them they sound so inspiring and hopeful. They know their job and make it look so easy.

How It all started!!!

By "Blog"

One pleasant morning when I was taking my early morning walk in the everlasting attempt to reduce my extra pounds, I saw two young ladies walking briskly, at the same time immersed in deep conversation. Kindled by my human curiosity I increased my pace  '1 2 3 4' and I overheard- 'kya hai aaj breakfast pe'? (ye ladies bhi na!!! - must be roomies)

After a couple of hours, when rushing to office, I saw one of those ladies leaving our society in a car(must be working women).

At evening 6.30 when I was coming back from work , I happened to see the same ladies, now looking a little annoyed but still actively conversing, again I sharpen my ears and I hear,'jaake kapde karna hai yaar'.'Are they married??? 'I wonder, when one of them calls out ‘shlo dhyan se’, I turn to see two little girls running a little ahead of them.(oh now I understand 'Stay at home moms!!!')

The other day when I was taking the stairs to my apartment, I hear a roar of laughter, from one of the houses. Again my friend mr.curiosity asks me to peep in a little. I see the two of them sitting in a group. Now I could hear 'fatafat khana  khatam karo phir khelo' ( oh stay at home moms enjoying their play group session).

Now the scene changes, PVR cinemas, the same group, but no kids around, this time it was ' nikhalke rakh diya they'll manage' (stay at home moms having their 'my time hmmm’).

So now what??? if you are the' I' in the above write up then ‘we’ are the two ladies.Don't worry you did not get it all wrong. Good things first- you are right.we are stay at home moms worried about our food , annoyed with our children, frustrated with our errands and amused for silly things.  What you dint know was we are those stay at home moms who have given up our hard earned career to stand by our choices. what you dint know was there are a lot of other things we discuss as well. One such example.

Blog: Shlog  I ve got an idea why don't we start blogging our chit chats
Shlog : sounds interesting but will we have enough to keep it going???
Blog : If not we'll research and come up with enough. 
And booom our first blog together. Here you will get to read what you failed to hear.we are planning to add value  when trying to pursue our passion.