It's simply Udaipur!!!

"This used to be my playground (used to be)

This used to be my childhood dream

This used to be the place I ran to

Whenever I was in need

Of a friend

Why did it have to end!"

These were the exact sentiments that I felt when I  revisited all the places in Udaipur where I used to play and go to during school days!

I wonder why is it that we change as we grow up but do not like to accept changes around us! 

I'm sure most of my friends and infact anybody who has gone through this would agree with me when I say this that no matter where in the world we go, we want the place where we grew up...be it our home or the city we grew up in to be unchanged!

Seeing the ever-changing transient world, I knew about the changes happening in Udaipur...but wooah!! It's a whole new city!! Living in this city for almost 14years I knew every possible place but my stay this time in Udaipur made me rethink about my knowledge of this beautiful city!

Known as the city of lakes and the Venice of India, Udaipur has always been a tourist attraction, I remember growing up here was fun, not many vehicles on the road, I used to cycle around with my friends, we could practise learning our two-wheelers on the road with ease not bothering about accidents, now Udaipur is full of tourists from all over the world but the sad part is that nobody cares about it as a city anymore!

With shopping malls and buildings taking over the small shops and cute lil houses, this city is like any other place in India, nothing beautiful or admirable anymore! The roads are full of vehicles and impatient people, all ready to fight at the drop of a needle. With the help of a friend I went to the city area where my school is and a few more areas where my friends used to live(now all married and gone to different cities), the roads are the same but buildings cropping all over the place, made my heart sink!!

I thought this commercialisation has eaten up a beautiful small city like Udaipur too, but I was wrong! Some things haven't changed like Sukhadia Circle...the paani puri guys still have their lil stalls('Thela' as we call them), near some garbage heaps and made with every possible unhygienic possibility one can think of, but amazingly tasty to the core!! The famous Red Thela Sandwich guy at Fatehsagar, so many years have passed but the taste and quality of the sandwich and the green chutney remains the same...TASTY! Rani road still has the guava guy and still has cars parked on the sides of the road( people I hope u know what I mean) Then there is The Palace Road...the shopkeepers still recognise me and still have that bargaining touch to them( though they all say I do not look like a 'Local' anymore)!!

So I guess u can change everything possible about this place but we still would manage to find our Good ol' Udaipur somewhere in all this!

Aaj Kuch toofani kartein hain!!

"Aaj Kuch toofani kartein hain" I guess this is what must be going on in the minds of the organisers of SUV junction!!! With the summers taking its toll, Times Of India and  Atul Enterprises jointly organised an off-roading event( SUV Junction)for all the adventure enthusiasts in Pune...people who love that adrenaline rush!!

With the track set up in Western-Hills(an Atul enterprises project) and the dates decided..my husband(Alok) and his friends were all geared up for the event!! Not to forget...my son(Naman)too was equally geared up for this event( having this love for off-roading, racing in his genes)!

Alok told me that me and the kids were also going along with him for the race, and me (being the smartass that I am), very confidently asked him with whom would the kids stay with over there since I was going to Navigate him!

He laughed his head off and I knew instantly that it was a dumb question to ask since his navigator has been only one guy for years now....Soham Shah!

The 1st day we reached the venue and it was full with teams from all over Maharashtra with maximum Jeeps and Gypsies apart from a few other SUVs like Lexus, Land cruiser Toyota fj pajero etc.

It was a Relay event on day1, where tag-teams were made of 3 cars each and winners were decided on the basis of the cumulative time taken by the team! My son all excited, full of energy and a twinkle in his eyes, was busy running from one point to the other on order to see the vehicles complete their tasks.

He even took an extra walkie talkie from Alok to hear what he and his navigator would talk! Sitting in the tent put up for their team, getting tanned in the hot blazing sun and surrounded by men covered in sweat and mud, I told my son I wanted to go home. He was shocked to hear it and assuming that maybe I am not following what's happening around, he sat next to me and started explaining me the works! Seeing his interest it was decided that I would stay till it got over.

Day 2 started with a Bang, with most of the vehicles broken or out of the league due to the previous day event. It was an Individual race event! Navigators were compulsory for all participants, with vehicles going over the obstacles and in the water it was an amazing event, very nicely organised and equally well executed! 

Alok and Soham came second in the Individual event, with a difference of three seconds from the person on the first position and their team came First in the Relay event! 

A lovely dinner, lots of chitter-chatter and an extremely tired set of people enjoying it, was the perfect end to two extremely power packed toofani days!!!

Haily Rain!!!!!!

Not one single day in your life is an ordinary day, no matter how boring or mundane it may seem. It does not matter where you are or what the setting is....the point is that you are there because YOU are meant to be there, whether on a holiday, at home or a picnic!! 

That is exactly how I got another interesting day worth cherishing in my life!

It is true that the first drops of rain get tears in our eyes and a smile on our face, The smell of wet soil, the different shades of green spread around with wet plants, wet grass and trees, the slosh of puddles under our feet make us want to dance!!

Well I did all of this yesterday after a long time all thanx to our kids and my husband!

We enjoyed the rains!! Enjoyed getting wet, enjoyed eating the hailstones, enjoyed making each other wet! In short enjoyed being together

The day started off with the sun shining brightly and since we had heard about the hailstorm in Baramati and Nasik, it was taken for granted that Pune would also receive rains soon.  Post lunch while seeing off my husband outside the house it started drizzling and being the lady of the house, my first reaction was getting the clothes inside the house. Once done with that, I told the kids to see the drizzle, that's when we had a hailstorm in Pune. 

The kids were thrilled to see the hailstones and tried catching them too!! My husband pulled us out to get wet in the rain, pop a few hailstones in our mouth and splash some water too! This has been the first time that our kids have seen hailstones. 

This got me thinking when was the last time we did something for the first time??? Thanks to our kids we really did something for the first time in ages we went back to our childhood with our children and we made memories!! 

A truly amazing birthday!!

Yes, so the people who know me know how excited I get about my birthday. I behave like a 4 year old all jumpy and crazy!!

Anyways so unlike every year the countdown for my birthday began rather late...a week before( usually it starts frm December, after my husband's birthday gets over!!), I tried my best to not show my excitement,  but I couldn't stop myself from becoming that 4 year old!!

Since February is a month with loads of celebrations,the entire month is full of surprises! Me (I become a detective in February), trying to know what planning is going on in my husband's head for our anniversary and my birthday. With the help of a few common friends, we scheme together to try finding out!!

Yes! We fail every year to know his plans but keep trying new tricks every year, with the hope of succeeding some day!!

My husband knows how much I love our anniversary and my birthday and makes it a point to make them special every year!! On the eve of our anniversary after dinner we went off to bed only to be woken up by MY darling husband holding a cake and flowers in his hand!! Being gifted a  customised   car for our anniversary, my husband took his surprising me to a whole new level!! Not only him but our kids went around telling all their friends' parents to wish us for our "anninersary"( that's how they pronounce it), the entire day we had people meeting us and congratulating us!!

With the month approaching my birthday and noticing how busy and occupied my husband had been with his office, work and travelling; I had decided not to pester him into anything...but he being the sweetheart that he is, ensured that he made it on the eve of my b'day back to pune to ring in my birthday with me! 

 He got my favourite cake baked by my favourite bakery(which is not in pune) specially for me with a new phone placed on the cake!!

That's not all! Our kids and my husband  ganged up and booked movie tickets for me, my kids and my very good friend along with her kids for a movie. I was sent with the kids out and was told the driver would know where to go! I was sooo surprised to reach the movie hall!! 

I guess these lil things that are done to show how much you mean to your family and how much they love you means a Lott. At the end of the day no money and no diamonds can replace the pleasure and happiness we get in simple things....for me his coming all the way just to be with me on my special day  and my kids arranging an outing for me to have some fun with them says a lot about
their love for me!!