Walking for a cause..

Late March, I received an email, "Pledged for a cause" from my friend S.. I ignored it..I was too pressed for time with work, family and home, to think about my friend and her email.

A few days later, I received another email from her "I need your support" .. I shelved it to the back of my mind, promising myself that I would go back look at her cause, later and also fund her.. but time pressures and commitments came in between and that was put on a pending thought.

It took a couple of emails from her to jolt me from inaction to action, and I donated the money to her cause.. which was a walk for breast cancer. My thoughts were she is a little crazy to be doing this.. and why is she doing this?. Putting herself through a 39 mile walk to raise some money. But I didn't get a chance to pursue this thought much further.

Some time last week, we talked for over an hour,which we had never had a chance of doing ever since we left school...she was in training, walking her 5 miles to be ready for the big walk.. and I realized that this girl is commited to this cause and I was amazed..It takes a lot to be commited to a cause that does'nt affect you directly. One has to be selfless and determined to go through with this.. to be focussed on the end goal and the route to take. She was doing this walk, and she had her focus and determination in hand and in place. Distractions and other priorities had no place in this walk... S, you amaze me every single day.. I know I have told this to you before.. but when I think of you walking 39 miles in 2 days, on the 10th of July, I have to put you on a really high pedestal.

I will be thinking of you and suporting you in your walk.. don't think that you are doing this by yourself.. I am with you.. and I will be walking along with you from here.. as much as I can and if you feel the need to stop, I will goad you on..

Love
kavi..

The matrimonial bug..

This is so strange. A few years ago, I was on the other side of the coast, the single eligible and "homely and comely" girl waiting for a suitable alliance from all similar boys. The saga of my groom search started when I was a very naive 21 and looked at life through the romance novels I read hidden from my mother's eagle eyes. My suitable boy was there and he was just around the corner. I like many others before me was ready to get married to the first boy my family showed me, because that was how it was for everyone.

The first alliance that came was from a highly educated fellow who was getting his Phd from a prestigious university in Texas. I spun all the dreams of a naive girl, goaded along by my parents, who didnt know any better. Needless to say that fizzled out due to the constantly changing mind of the groom in question and my better senses that kicked in telling me, I don't need a fickle minded companion. It was only after getting to America, to another university in America, that I learned the truth of the matter being he had a girl friend hidden away. His parents wanted to tie him down to a "nice mallu warrier* girl " , as his brother had also gone the same route.. Well I was better off single and eligible and homely and comely..

Well .. not exactly. Because now my parents kicked into second gear.they were not accustomed to this scenario. usually no one looks beyond the first proposal. hmm, so next they present me with another warrier boy, whom I am supposed to go and meet someplace in Austin. Well I was still listening to my parents back then and I went there with my roomie Rash. The two of us met the boy and his parents at the South indian restaurant. The only memories I came back with is that of the food and how good it was. I put my foot down strongly against this proposal, and my parents put both their foots and hands down in favor. However this was not destined to be

Still in second gear, they managed to find a namboodiri* lad, working for a big firm in California. He seemed like my ticket to a happily married and settled and contented life. My family was ready to write down the marriage date as well. But by now, I was not a very obedient girl and had my transgressions from the laid down rules now and then. So I and the namboodiri lad decided to meet up first. I am glad we did that , for it was a case of oil and water. When we converyed the decision to our parents, it wasn't unlike the Tsunami that hit the coasts later that year.

After this, I was extremely clear that any alliances would follow only after my studies were completed and, I found a job. I was not content being dependent on any individual , emotianally and financially. This was probably the start to a new me. Following my graduation, my dad who was sitting on hot cakes started sending me proposals... one after another.. Since I had already crossed the so called marriageable age and was tainted with the "US ki chori" (girl from US) label, the field narrowed down considerably.. The choices out there were not very appealing.. from a male chauvinist, who expected me to drop everything to be at his beck and call, to the geek in bleechers, who was content looking at the animals in the safari and taking pictures of them, to the player, who was out the scope by talking to multiple girls at a time..

Finally I met my prince charming, and am living my life happily.. I was reminded of the whole situation a few months ago, when it was time to get my brother married. But needless to say, he fell right into the normal scenario.. saw and talked to one girl and she is going to be his life partner.. a very sensible lad and sensible girl! Wishing both of you a very long and prosperous life together :)

* specific castes in Kerala

The cake

I promised to post pictures of the cake..

ever since i started taking the classes, I would be skimming through the web for perfect ideas for cakes.. after a while, thats all I would be doing while surfing the net.

I knew I wanted a doll on her cake and I found the perfect one at Michaels. and then it was all about figuring out what do I do withe the doll.. well here is the final version

still at it

I never thought I would say this.. but i am cultivating my gym experience as a religion.. something I follow no matter what.. I remember the days I would make up excuses to get off my behind.. but now no sir no! even if its for 20 min, I ran on the treadmill and came back .. I did a few min of patio cleaning, which is an exercise as well.

Since I am blogging about it, I hope that I will be accountable enough to keep at it.

Summer is here, the main highlight being 1/2 day fridays.. at work.. an incentive that was started last year as compensation for things we had to let go of last year. I have to find ways to get my fridays hours utilized..

on a side note, Rohini is now 14 months old and at the brink of spewing words.. well she has started babbling already.. in baby language.. we understand each other perfectly well.. :)

she enjoys going out for a walk wearing her squeaky shoes.. everyone stops us on the road and wants to know where to get these.. Well these are made only in India :)

Come to think about it, I miss a lot of made in india products... their counterparts here are no match for the original..

My tryst with losing weight

My weight and my relatives comments about it have been a constant pain in my rear end for a while now.. Well I have decided I am going to do something about it now.. the key to it, is to get my mindset right and I am going to put in the same dedication that I did, when I was learning to decorate cakes , paint or even dance. A will power is required. The goal is to be 10 lbs lighter by the end of this month and keep that pace through the next 2 months, so I'll get in shape for kiran's wedding.

So steps I took
a. I am drinking a lot of water. I begin my day with 2 glasses of water and keep an alarm on my desktop to remind me to get more water every 2 hours.
b. I am taking multivitamins now.. something I stopped for a while.. so yay healthy...
c. trying to get a routine together to go to the gym on a regular basis.. R is helping out by motivating me enough to get there by working out with me.
d. Cutting down on vending machine snacks..
e. Increasing fruits and veggies in my diet

There is also a challenge that's about to start at CB , called live healthy. a few of us have formed a team which i think is eventually going to be called transformers :D . I am hoping to get additional motivation from my colleagues.

in the meanwhile, I tried out a new recipe .. they say Cabbage and moong dal are good for losing weight.. so I made a soup with these two .. will post the recipe soon, once I know its having the effect I would like to see.

my baby doll is growing up so fast, that sometimes, I feel I miss out on her moments.. but thankfully , I have been able to see her do everything the first time around..

Icing the cake

Rohini will turn one soon.. and i have always been bothered by the fact, that i dont do much of what mothers do.. knitting, sewing, cooking etc.. When Ranjith and i were discussing the plans to celebrate her birthday, we were initially thinking of placing an order for a character cake..Since the outside cost was going to be huge, i decided to take up cake decorating class and see if I could do this myself.

So signed up for Wilton classes at michaels. So far so good.. getting some techniques .. some are flying past.

hopefully will get good enough to decorate her birthday cake myself .