Life Instagram-ed #12

November 1, 2014November 2, 2014 / Srishty / 20 Comments

Hi everyone 🙂

I have nothing to say right now, so I’ll just directly move to life snippets that I managed to capture since the past two months:

1. I tried this recipe from The PinkTrends here and I have one thing to say to you all: try it. 🙂

2. This is from a restaurant, Abbey Road in Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. I liked the fun vibe at this place, extremely good ambiance. However, I reached late here for someone’s farewell so I did not eat anything. Oh, by the way, they give you cupcakes when you leave. 🙂

3. Eating maggi with a sprinkling of Amul Mozarella cheese and Ching’s Secret Schezwan chutney. My dreamy and unhealthy life. :’) Just kidding, you should totally avoid maggi! I am trying too.

4. The Navratri festivities in our society. This is the ‘prasad’ after the kirtan. For non-Indians, Navratri is a Hindu festival of nine days where we worship Goddesses. Some people hold events in which they sing hymns called Kirtan and prasad is like sweet little things given as gifts/favours after the event. Like, candies on Halloween? (Oh my God! this was difficult 😛 )

5. The Goddess idol from the same Kirtan in my society.

6. I spotted these beautiful earthen wares at a roadside seller’s stall.

7. Then, I tried this recipe from Suraksha di’s blog.

8. I went to Monkey Bar in Vasant Kunj, Delhi. Frankly, from the newspaper coverage when it inaugrated, I expected it to be a huge place. I was a little disappointed. I liked the food and I’ll definitely go again because there are many things on the menu that I want to try. It’s not exactly a value for money place but let’s just say it is not as pricey either as Delhi’s food scene overall is. Overall, I had a great time (because I got to play foosball for the first time).

I don’t know if I have mentioned, but I am not good at any sports (except running?) so I am embarrassed to try games anywhere because I feel like a loser. As I was with people in front of whom I am never embarrassed, I finally went ahead. 😀 Now I’ll probably start using the foosball table in my office finally. By the way, this not being good at sports is one of the very few things that make me different from Monica of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. 😛 Why I am writing so much random stuff is beyond me as well. 😛

9. The book that I was reading. I know that you know which one it is. 🙂 (If you don’t and are curious, feel free to ask in comments).

10. Sam’ cafe in Paharganj.

Now, most people find this place overrated. I quite enjoyed my meal. I am definitely going here again. I tried the Lasagna (not in picture) which was very good, these fries and chocolate milkshake. These fries were a little bland for my taste but nothing a little salt on top can’t fix. The milkshake was super yummy. Plus, they have a rooftop seating as well. Paharganj is anyway one of the places I love going to, I am definitely heading here again. Did I mention this place is quite easy on the pocket? MUST TRY.

11. Rangoli colors on Diwali.

12. Rangoli part-1

13. Rangoli part-2

14. Ching’s Secret new soups that we tried. I liked it but maybe most people won’t. There was nothing exceptional to it but I enjoy all kinds of soups. I try to consume less of these instant ones though. However, they are easy to have and tasty too.

That’s all! Tell me what all you liked or hated. 🙂

What Ghar Wali Diwali means to me

October 19, 2014October 19, 2014 / Srishty / 24 Comments

Do you remember this post from 2013? I keep telling people how Diwali isn’t the same for me any more. For the first 20-21 years of my life, I have seen the Diwali of only one city. All of us cousins live in different parts of India but on Diwali, we all used to gather at our grandfather’s house to do the Puja together. It used to be the highlight of my entire year. We looked forward to meeting each other on Diwali every year. This tradition is slowly fading away. Although the bond among us cousins is as strong as ever (touchwood!), it is not a mandate now that we meet every year on Diwali. I am not even exaggerating if I say that each one of us wants to meet on Diwali still. However, now we are ‘mature adults’ or in the process of becoming so. 😀 We understand how we have our own houses now where it should be taken care of that we light earthen lamps and worship Goddess Lakshmi on Diwali.

For me, Diwali would always mean that. What we had in those years. I am so lucky to have experienced that. I really, really thank God that he gave us the chance to experience those wonderful Diwali years. My grandfather’s house is in Churu, a place in Rajasthan. Trust my words on this, the commercialized Diwali of the metro cities doesn’t even compare to the beauty of the Diwali of these small cities. Especially when we are talking Rajasthan where the people are so, so innocent. Although I am a Punjabi, due to the interactions with my neighbors from my grandfather’s place, I have learnt that the people are very innocent and nice. I would always miss my beautiful Diwali years and they will be written in my mind forever. This is what Ghar Wali Diwali means to me. This would always remain my favorite, close-knit Diwali. 🙂

I would always remember the laughter we shared, the lipsticks we put on as kids to seem dressed-up, the chants we sung together during the Puja as one big family, the toy guns we played with, the judgement we passed on other people’s Rangoli and clothes and most importantly, I will always remember when at the end of the Puja, my grandfather used to light one fire-stick (phooljhadi) in front of the Gods and we all held his arm and sang Diwali-Diwali till it burned. This memory is one of my most cherished treasures. 🙂

This post is written as a part of Indiblogger’s happy hours campaign of #GharWaliDiwali. You can check out further details at https://www.gharwalidiwali.com/. Here’s a video of PepsiCo #GharWaliDiwali film:

PS: Although I wrote this post when I got to know about this campaign, this is one post I wanted to write since forever. It is a very heartfelt post and I am so glad that I finally managed to write it. 🙂

Holi-day hai! :D

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 / Srishty / 17 Comments

So March 17 was Holi in India. Holi is one of the biggest festivals in India, maybe not as big as Diwali in terms of pomp and splendor, but close enough. Like I told you in my Diwali post that Diwali is a festival of lights, Holi is a festival of colors 😀 where we put all sorts of colors, both dry and wet on each other and sometimes people put all sort of dirty stuff (including grease, mud etc) on each other too. To a foreigner, this is one whole day of exaggerated paintball :D. If you want to know the history of Holi’s celebrations, Google will give you a lot of articles, maybe I’ll discuss it sometime, but my knowledge is through these articles only. 🙂

I loved Know-All’s Holi post here, such beautiful pictures of people playing Holi! If you live in India, you will know how painfully difficult it is to click people while they are playing holi. Not just because everyone is so excited and moving here and there but also because you have to protect your camera from all the colors and water. Know-all’s pictures are just divinely beautiful, aren’t they? 🙂

Coming back to the usual Holi pictures which come out super funny and the ones in which everyone looks like a clown :D, I am sharing a collage of all of us cousins on Holi this year when we all got together in our hometown after a LOT of years, my brother couldn’t join because of his board exams.

Yeah, I am the funniest looking one, because I couldn’t wear contact lenses. 😛

Take care,

Srish 🙂

Diwali 2013

February 1, 2014April 10, 2014 / Srishty / 11 Comments

Ok, you must be like, why is she posting about Diwali after 2 months! I am sorry, for a post that clearly belongs to a different time slot. However, I wanted to share my Diwali clicks anyway. 😀

For the uninitiated, Diwali is one of the biggest festivals in India. It was primarily a festival celebrated by Hindus to celebrate the return of Lord Ram with his wife and brother from exile of 14 years and to celebrate his victory over evil, as per our Holy book, Ramayana. It is also believed among us that on this auspicious day, our Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth enters our houses if they are clean and well-maintained. So, we clean and prep-up our houses for her welcome. 🙂 These days, Diwali has become such a huge festival in India that it is celebrated by people of almost all religions. People clean their houses, beautify them, light them up, gobble up amazing food and burn crackers (not a huge fan of them, they cause so much pollution)! Anyway, I wanted to share my clicks from this year’s Diwali on the blog, better late than never. 😀 Have a look!

Look how the city is decked up in Lights! 🙂

Earthen Lamps

And we are ready for the Pooja (prayers)

Rangoli – an art that we do on floors using colors, colored rice or flowers etc

Rangoli Colors

This candle was the bomb! It kept on burning for more than 24 hours. Phew!

Candles!

This Diwali was quite different for me and my brother. I am 22 and for the first 20 years of my life, I have celebrated Diwali in only one way, being at my grandparents’ house in our hometown. The whole family used to gather there and we cousins used to have a blast. Diwali used to be my one of my favorite days of the year. With my grand dad passing away, things started to change a bit. Now our elders feel that it is ok to celebrate Diwali in our respective homes. However, last year, all my cousins visited us on Diwali as per my mum’s request. She told them that year that they should come to our new house to initiate the tradition of Diwali at this new house too. So, although, last year’s Diwali in a different house after all these years was a big change, it did not feel all that bad because the people who made that day awesome for me were still with me. However, this year, we all celebrated Diwali at our respective homes. Wow! What a change! It doesn’t mean the same to me. Probably, that is why I clicked a lot to divert my attention from this fact. Well, Diwali isn’t going to be the same anymore.

Happy New Year!!

December 31, 2013April 10, 2014 / Srishty / 2 Comments

Happy New Year people! 🙂 Hope this New Year brings lots of happiness for all of us. 🙂

Image Source

I really wanted to do one of those ‘favorites of 2013’ kind of posts, or a flashback kind of post. The reason I never got around to doing the flashback one was that flashback posts are scary unless you had a year with zero lows.

But just to remember 2013, I am penning this as a flashback: My year was generally good, except one huge low which is one of the most important things in my life. I am currently going through it, I sincerely hope things get better. 🙂

As for the favorites, I did not do one because I couldn’t do one for a single category, like, say, makeup/skin care? (I don’t use that many products to have a favorites post out of it :D). I was too lazy to do a miscellaneous favorites post. I might do one in a few days. Better late than never. 😛

Bidding adieu to 2013, Here’s to hopes and happiness! Welcome 2014! 🙂