Break!

Its been so longgg that I wrote last time here...

Everytime I started or simply thought to write, I felt.. I don't have anything to say.. Its just 'routine'!!

And this 'routinely' feeling didn't allow me to proceed further making that as 'routine'.. ;)

But yesterday.. while in some conversation I said to dear Husband...."Nirutsaah(Cheerlessness, dullness) is contagious!" .. And this self invention ;) satisfied me for a moment and struck me in another..

I thought.. how frequently we answer to questions like "what else? baki? aur bolo?" with answer "bass nothing..routine!" (At least I use it very often!) And somewhere this statement creates dullness in me..

and may be in party I am talking to.. (?)

soooo... today... here I am..back! :)

You know... my french class ended on friday.. Although to start again for spring season.. but I may not be able to join it back.. But can't believe..Its been 3 months! :):) I felt sooooo badd when I saw my dear teacher ,all my classmates last time on friday. But ..tell you... this class was/is the mosstttt excitinggg and memorable experience of my whole life... Offcourse no? Learning new language, in new country, with foreign teacher, and international students.. wow.. It is unforgettable...

I wonder how my look towards alphabets change when I see anything written or spoken in french..

ch becomes sh, r becomes gh, words are read half way and "rewind-play" mechanism is applied everytime.. ;) I feel like jumping in happiness when I understand what people say and what boards read.. ;) ;) :P

Seriously... thats the power of language! 

Who remembers.. how we learnt our mother tongue or rashtrabhasha or English.. we were too young then...

But this learning experience is justt unique! ;)

Ohh.. I loved going to class.. speaking with actions.. imagining what teacher must be saying(coz she never uttered a word in English!)..and feeling proud when I could comprehend her.. ;) :P

Now that it's ended...I will miss the fun... 

But tell you.. With all this experience,

Today I feel muchhh muchhh respect for all language teachers... You can learn anything and everything only if you know the language, the communication medium... And teaching language is mostt difficult part of this world.. seriously! :)

Today again I feel like thanking all my teachers (with new vision!) :)

Hope with this.. you would also remember all your language teachers... :) :)

And.. yup.. I wish all you learn some or the other new language and yesss hope this post gives you a (at least small) break from routine! ;)

Straight from heart..

"Are beta, ayushyabhar hech karaychay..mag aatapasun kashala suruvaat?" means "Dear child, you have to do it for whole life, then why start early?" such were sentences my Mom used to say when I would enter kitchen and try helping her in a recipe.. And happy me.. used to follow it without hesitation.. :P :)

But as days were passing, I started helping her for secondary tasks of kitchen work..like taking dishes and water before lunch/dinner, cutting vegetables and listening to "how to cook this recipe".. and...what.. I don't remember any... :( that's how I was!!!

BUT....I never ever regretted it!

Oh yes.. forget regretting... I would fear thought of getting married to a guy who doesn't know cooking..and I had strong reason for it... nope.. not that..I was not good at cooking(who cares!) but "I have seen my father contributing to kitchen as equal as my mother..and so I can't imagine someone sitting and ordering me...!

THAT was my justification for my expectation!

How "politically right" I was!! :P:P

Fortunately, my husband is a very good cook..better than me sometimes! (No..I didn't choose him because of this quality.. it just happened you know.. ;) but yes.. I won't deny that I was happy to hear this quality of his..)

But he being a good cook was not enough..I came to know when I came here in Brussels. And then I started feeling (yup regretting) my "who cares" attitude towards cooking... :(

Then on, I started my experiments on cooking.. and guess I started it with "Gulab Jamun"! Such a high class recipe, with all the different material than the usual one in India and with as naive mind as mine... what should have been its result? Offcourse, it was a disaster! The sugar syrup was no more a syrup and turned into rock solid material and the jamun balls were the layerd shapes of multiple colors! :(:(

Still remember, how bad it was to see so much waste created by me! :( 

But that was another time, I 'seriously' regretted and started working towards cooking.. I started with many small, simple recipes and then the big ones.. With every day, I gave the try on something new.. and that try was shared in the get together parties of friends (although with * marked ;) )... But the feedback from all the friends had been really good(hope it was not part of their formality ;) ) and this encouraged me for my "under development" skills... :)

Yesterday, when I, again with all risk, jumped into making Gulab Jamun...I purposefully recollected all the better reactions received and prayed God every single minute I was preparing sugar syrup and frying jamun balls.. and there was twist! and twist was... I had completed the recipe without any problem! and Gulab Jamun looked perfect! and yes.. they tasted nice too... :):)

Whoooo... I am happy since then! yes.. till this time...  :):)

As they say... "Failure is a first step towards success!".. I actually am experiencing it!

I thank my husband and all our friends here (Soniya,Sandeep,dada, Binni, Moumi, Babul, Manish, Poonam) for encouraging me...and dear Div and Annu for "nothing" :P:P (my best friends, who every now and then would tease my husband saying..your wife only knows how to prepare chapati! so be prepared! :P:P ) and yes.. the important ones... how can I forget the people who taught me all..

Madhura, Bhavna, VahChef, Anuja, Hetal... my youtube buddies!!! :)

Thank a ton! :):)

First and Foremost...

I had decided, long before I imagined, that I would write the blog-posts every Wednesday. But just in 2 posts I was short of stories..It didn't mind me on first "off" Wednesday, I guess.. not on second one too..

But the time when third also turned into past, I asked myself.. "Am I soooo "used to" the changes(of being in new country, new people, with new experiences) ??" ... And.. answer came, quick.. No.. Nahhh.. How can I.. nopes.. I am not!! 

Yeah.. The experiences here still astonish me.. they make me happy.. Especially the 'first ones'!

Yup... "First Ones".. I saw the snowfall.. sometimes just flurries.. and sometimes weightless white flakes falling effortlessly from the wide above..covering every inch of the ground... and still the fall is so silent that in a closed house, you might find far later, when everything outside is white, that snowfall is happening! Its such an amazing experience..to walk on the snow.. to take the chilled ice on naked hands and suddenly throwing it away because of numbness felt in palms..to see the trees and leaves carrying a bit of snow on themselves and flaunting the different look than what we always have seen or learnt in books from childhood(The Green)! :) :)

I traveled in "Double Decker TRAIN" :):).. Yeah.. to my knowledge, I only had seen Double-Decker buses that too only in Mumbai..and traveled in it just once... and here.. it was train(the most comfortable form of transport for mosstttt Indians) It took me to a different city, with such a ease that I didn't hear even a pinch of noise of outside..not of wind as well..and the speed.. ? oops.. it was so fast that the front view from window goes to back of it in seconds..! and off course  it was clean, spacious, giving the details of next city on display, locking the doors automatically with defined time gap on its stops! N number of features u know! :)

hey.. and my french classes!!!!...  Yes.. its 3 weeks passed.. :):) nah nah.. I cant yet write all this in french! oh.. yes.. I speak a little(very little!) :P  That also is suchh a fabulous experience .. That you go the classroom.. and you have people across countries..(I remember how I used to feel excited about the friends/colleagues from diff states of India and here ..its different countries.. :) ) .. you try to speak to them.. and they don't reply to you .. coz.. you all don't have any common language! Its always a "multiple choice questionnaire" when you have a conversation.. as the answer expected from other end might not match the question predicted from you!! :P:P And still you are learning a common thing.. and laughing together.. That's so wonderful!! :):)

Lookkk.. these "First Ones" mean a lot to me.. they are unforgettable.. and they are not something I can get "used to" so early.. ahhh... rather, ever! :):)

Delightful Encounters

Watched a documentary yesterday named "Build it Bigger" on restructuring of Mumbai Airport and felt wowwww.. and suddenly recollected the face of my husband when I had said to him within first few days of my arrival that "I feel Brussels is just analogous to Mumbai!!" :) 

Oops....He had felt that his whole reasons of showing me new areas of this world have gone wasted.. :P But how could I react better??.. I love my country... ;)

But no.. rather yes.. I was little wrong.. 

This place is far better in terms of its developments.. (yeah I know that you know it! But ultimately living the read/heard/watched life is always different!) 

You get down your apartment, and you will see hardly few people on street unless its a shopping street :P  You walk a small distance and see either a bus stop or a tram station or a metro station or taxis ready to take wherever you want (and yess very easily without "dhakkabukki"!) You wanna cross the road, just follow the lights(red/green) and if you don't follow them the drivers will follow their senses for sure! There are no ticket windows for anything.. You have a card(prepaid card) and you just have to punch it..so no queues no quarrels.. You enter metro station and can see a board of which metro is where and in how minutes she will come for you..(and the next one is within max 5 minutes(and they are always 60*5 seconds)).. :) You enter the metro and will be pushed backward with a frictional force as she runs(speed!!). and you wont get to your actual position until the next station is reached.. :P  

This all really makes the place relaxing as you have no worries(outside your home!!;P) like reaching safe, driving carefully, attain things on time..etc.. :)

I wonder.. a control on population can make miracles!! isn't it?

But I must tell you.. people and their emotions and behaviors is something which is very much same everywhere.. I saw school going children with same innocence on their face, Mom n Dads with their babies with same affection, a group of friends with same fun and teasing attitudes! Few following fashions, few looking at them and gossiping.. :P, Few looking at us as out-comers and few trying to make us comfortable by talking different language yet smiling face. And that's human nature.. :)

This whole set of mixed feelings and new culture is forcing me to enjoy this place... and I surely will...

Guess.. I am going for my french classes from tomorrow.. so doesn't that mean that I have already started enjoying ?? :)

Yeahh.. looking forward for this new venture.. ;)

Wish me luck...

and keep reading... :)

Curiosity to Nostalgia..

A day came.. I was waiting for long time... not because I wanted it to come.. but because I knew that there was no turning back... and it had to come...

I was going to travel abroad.. for the first time in my life.. 

Not really the 'utmost' exciting thing as I can realize it now when I look back..

But definitely, a very happy moment(for inner side in us) and a proud moment(for outer side "around" us.. :P)

After many rounds of packing and unpacking and re-packing sessions, I decided to continue with my fate for the probable rejection on weight limit....(I had almost imagined that I would either cry and beg the authorities on airport to let me continue with all the baggage, or else I would sit, open my bags, and then remove the "not really extra" material and then cry and beg again to authorities to let me continue with all the baggage.. :P) Ultimately.. I wanted to carry all the things I had packed with so much efforts.. :( :P

But.. as you see.. the more we think on anything.. lesser are the chances of things happening.. I didn't even had a chance to think and fear..forget begging.. :P and my baggage was accepted although it exceeded the limit by 3 Kgs... Sometimes.. yessss...lucky me.. :P (still remember the smile on Security Personnel whom I asked twice after minutes time gap that.. "is this 'check-in' really done?.. and the bags which went inside from a conveyor belt wont come back??and I can tell my parents to start their journey back??") :P I was really scared of unnecessary thoughts you know..

Anyways..my  first exam was clear.. and then I started waiting for my husband's frnd who was supposed to join me after his arrival from connecting domestic flight.. This was again a tough time.. as I had never seen him in person.. and ..and... I was carrying another bag of 5-6 Kgs to put into his bag and that was apart from my cabin bag.. :P .. so if he would not come.. I had to..leave(donate) my bag and stuff inside .. :(

But then.. after a fearful 1 hour.. he came.. and my another tension was relieved..:) 

Then on.. it was really a fun..

I saw the most gorgeous, intelligent and newly wedded actress Vidya Balan on same immigration queue.. That made my night.. ;) And then.. the beautiful, classy, full of lights ambiance of  Sahara International Airport which made my upcoming day.. :P 

After a 2 hours time.. I entered the flight.. and sat on the chair full of equipment s and accessories.. and realized.. that all my curiosities of my first travel to abroad had come to an end and have now turned into nostalgia as I write this.. :)