A FoGgY DaY

Early morning wake up
Finish the morning chores
Have a bath and be fresh
Drive for an hour in the cool,foggy morning
Reach office....then feel sleepy....
Feel like cuddling up within a blanket
And have a sound sleep 'zzzz'.....

Far Away From Homeland....

30+ years of life spent in a desert land
Away from loved ones, own country, everything
Now planning to go back and settle in homeland.

What will the thoughts be while going back?
Will things remain the same when they go back -
I wonder!!

This is definitely not your place ...
Whatever you get here are only momentary
It will not last forever

What you miss while you are away is missed forever
Go back....Realize your dreams!!
Life is short; it will not wait for you ....

Chukku Kaapi aka Kerala's herbal coffee

"There is nothing that you cannot get in Dubai" ; one hears this statement a number of times from the Malayalis living here. We, Keralites have got a number a things things which we can claim as only ours - like Vishukani, banana leaves, tulsi .... One another such thing is the 'Chukku kaapi' or Kerala's herbal/medicinal coffee prepared by mixing together chukku (dry ginger), pepper, cumins, tulsi, jaggery and coffee powder.

The other day,due to the changing weather conditions prior to the onset of summer, I got a bad cold and throat infection. I was advised by some of my friends here to have chukku kaapi being the best home remedy.I started searching for chukku in the nearby shops , but in vain .... it was not available anywhere. Finally after much searching I got into a less crowded shop without much expectation. When asked for the much awaited 'chukku' the guy said he din't have it but had ready mix 'chukku kaapi' powder. Wow...now that was a surprise to me. Without the menace of gathering all the ingrediants and mixing them to make the coffee, here there was a ready mix capsule like thing which could be boiled in a cup of water for just 2 minutes to get a cure for the illness!!

That night, I had a cup of this wonder coffee and much to my surprise, the irritating throat infection and cold which usually doesn't leave me for a week or so got cured the next day itself. I really had to thank this wonderful ready mix herbal coffee and not to forget, once again I'm tempted to say " There is nothing (atleast Malayali stuff) that you can't get in Dubai".....-

PickwicK & JokeS...

Pickwick, Jokes!! Remember these names?? It brings me reminiscences of childhood days. These were cream wafers which used to come in different flavours. Everyday after work, my father used to buy these for me and my brother. He used to make it a point that we don't get bored with a single flavour. So each day we had a chance to experience a different flavour - vanilla,strawberry,banana,chocolate.....

Time passed by and I don't remember at which point of life did he stop buying us the wafers. Maybe our interest had then shifted to something else. Pickwick wafers got completely forgotten.

Recently, my mom and me got into a supermarket to buy some stuff as a part of our next day family tour. While searching for some items, a name suddenly struck my eyes .... "PICKWICK". In a split of a second, I went back to my childhood days and an unknown joy filled my mind. The child in me couldn't resist any long and wasting no time I put a packet of it into the bag along with the other items.

The next day when I took it out for snacks, it was a big surprise for my brother too. He too had forgotten it all these times. Thanks to Pickwick, we spent some time speaking about our old times and on the whole it added some more sweetness to our tour...

Excitement :)

Before I used to wait for my annual vacation so that I can get back to my home....sweet home. A perfect getaway - from desert land to green land.I remember how I used to count down the days. But today, I realise its just 10 days left for me to go home and I don't believe I din't even think about it till now. It was only when I told my colleague that I'm going home next month and he responded 'Oh,in April?', I realised and said "No, it's in March, this month, I'm going".

So what is it that has put my spirits down??

This time, I have two important reasons for going home.
(i) Its on a day of this month that we 9 friends (schoolmates) have promised to meet in front of our alma mater. The promise was made 10 years back!! Among nine, its only two (me including) who have decided to make it on this day. Still,I'm happy atleast two of us are going to be there.

(ii) We have an important ceremony going to be held by the end of this month in our family temple. All immediate members of our family will be attending the function. Pretty happy that I can be with all of them but sad that my better half will not be there since he got caught up with some work.

Leave aside the negative part, I have reason enough to be excited....I'm going home....sweet home... :)

Rain in Dubai ...

I have always loved the rains back in India.The earth's smell,raindrops on lush green leaves and flowers,birds dancing in the rain...just the thought of it brings a beautiful feeling inside.

But rain here in Dubai is a sharp contrast to all that.Here,life becomes worse with a day of continuous rainfall.Roads get completely flooded and the worse of all you get completely stuck up in traffic.It takes hours to commute from home to office and back.Here I dont get any fresh earth smell nor do I get any beautiful feelings that once I used to.When another rainy day is here, the first thing that I say is "Oh,please don't rain,please...."

My first attempt in blogging

I have gone through various blogs of people I know and whom I don't know.Its been a favorite pass time of mine..All those times,I never thought I would create a blog for myself.But it happened...now... As the saying goes "Everything happens for a good cause", maybe this must also have happened for something good.

Thoughts....as the name indicates is going to be a platform for my flowing thoughts and I wish to get true and 'from the heart' constructive criticism and feedback from fellow bloggers.