Attempt at fiction - 2!

After this, here's my second one...let me know what you think?

Thoughts go on a Relay Race!

Bhairavi, is fierce and strong as her name suggests - her personality had an air of regality and her confidence was always mistaken for arrogance by strangers! She made heads turn wherever she went and everyone felt she had it all, to the point of envy...

Today, she was feeling depressed and low and really needed a push, she thought to herself! She smiled to herself, as she drove to work. She was recalling her dream earlier this morning...in her dream, she was having a splendid view of the sea from the top of a hill when two giant birds came along, and swooped down to carry her along with them...and just as she was enjoying the ride, she saw lovely colors everywhere as she looked down...the lush greens, the deep blues and among all the landscape little white dots of buildings everywhere...she saw a distinct red dot of a bindi. The fierce red light brought her back to reality and she screeched just in time to stop at the signal!

 The red dot or bindi was such a hot topic or conversation starters with her Non-Indian colleagues. On her trips abroad or when the westerners visited India, they would often ask a lot of questions about India and Indian customs. The ever-popular question was about the significance of bindi. At first, Bhairavi explained that its a sign of being married but later did a bit of research, and googled, isn’t that what everyone does these days? She found that there was much more to it than just being a symbol of her relationship status, it had a much deeper meaning like many other Hindu customs!

It is believed that the area between the eyebrows, where the bindi is placed, is said to be the 'departure' area for kundalini energy and the bindi helps to retain energy and increase concentration. Her mother explained that it is also a way of warding off bad luck. With her new-found wisdom, Bhairavi felt that it actually made sense to wear a bindi with pride!

Talking of pride, hasn't it gained undue importance recently, especially in a totally misguided sense? Most people she knew seemed to revel in their material accomplishments which was good as long as they didn't gloat and compare with friends and peers. Bhairavi was beyond such pettiness but a victim herself - in a different sense. She did not share her misgivings or disappointments even with people who were close to her. Pride stopped her. She liked to pretend she lived a perfect life!

Perfection! Alas, can it be defined? To seek and attain perfection in anything and everything is like an act of finality. Bhairavi strongly believed that being perfect or perfection is a relative term and it was an illusion, yet akin to hope at the end of the tunnel! Maya…

Maya was her best friend who brought out the best in Bhairavi. She was everything Bhairavi strived to be; compassionate, spontaneous, free-spirited and most importantly, non-judgemental! Bhairavi felt free in the company of her friend, who loved her unconditionally without making any demands of her; Maya made Bhairavi feel pure and sort of ethereal like babies…

Have you ever smelt baby skin? It is reminiscent of purity, innocence and absolute joy; everything that you want to believe exists in this wonderful life…Bhairavi felt invigorated in the presence of babies. It gave her a feeling of utopia as she raced ahead in the car, zooming ahead towards a new world after meandering through her thoughts, what a journey!

Don’t we all know that the journey is more important than the destination? Bhairavi realized it today…

I am the queen of my household!

...and I take my role very seriously! ;) I like to keep changing it up, the decor, rearranging the layout...or updating a part of our home!

 You all know my obsession with cushion covers and a sort-of-fixation on Buddha figurines! So when I saw this one, I *HAD* to buy it! But I love the serene face of Buddha here, and my idea is to get it framed instead of using it decoratively! So he sits there like a King and S or I try not to sit on that seat! ...until I can find a place here that frames cushion covers! But I must admit he does lend a sense of calm to the entire living room...

Plain white walls remind me of a hospital, and who wants to be reminded of one? Considering I spend some time, especially on weekends having a nice bubble bath, I wanted a pleasant ambience...

So i bought these wall stickers and voila! isn't it much better?

Mirrors add an illusion of space to any room and can add beauty without really making an effort! My cousin and his family visited me here in Paris and gifted this cute mirror - the sun and the moon look so cheerful, don't they?

I like to see the "cheerful mirror" when I wake up, so the best place is our bedroom! If you look closely, you can see a bunch of "cherries" hanging on the curtain rod! They add a subtle pop of color and liven up the space too! :)

Indian Fashion, this time!

I have been away for quite some time, for good reason! I was in India celebrating my brother's wedding. I did most of my shopping and research for the clothes, jewellery and such like online so that we could focus on my brother's shopping when we got to India! While most of my friends and my folks were not very confident of my choices online, I totally was! I am often very clear about what I like and never have regrets or doubts.

Though I could actually see the actual product only when I got home to my folks in India, thankfully, all of them turned out really great and I loved it. This is not a plug for any of the websites, but the idea is to help others find things easily if they are away from home, or prefer doing things online, like me to save time and effort.

Sarees:
I picked up two contemporary Georgette sarees from www.cbazaar.com . They have a huge variety of sarees and you need a lot of patience to browse through their collections. I had about 4 months to decide since my brother's engagement to the wedding. I found that they drape really well and most importantly, are unique and one-of-a-kind! :) Here are the sarees I picked!
( P.S - The women in the pictures are not ME! ;))

 Saree for the Engagement - from the same website!

For the rest of the various events in the wedding, I wore my own wedding sarees, for the second time since the wedding! I love wearing sarees and feel it really suits me. However, as I live away from home, there aren't too many opportunities. I wore the traditional 9-yards for the muhurtham ( the important ceremony where the groom ties the mangalsutra on the bride!) which made so many of my folks really happy! :)

Blouses:
I don't like ornate decorations or elaborate embroidery on my blouses. But I love stuff that looks different from the usual styles and very well-fitting blouses. Most people wear the same-border blouses that come with the saree. Though I had the same ones, I decided to buy brocade-like materials for my wedding sarees. It turned out to be really expensive or too blingy for my liking! Finally, I bought materials used to stitch salwar kameez in Kumaran Silks in T.Nagar, who had exactly what I wanted, and at a reasonable price.

The salesman looked at me strangely when I said I am stitching blouses from these materials. Common sense tells me it can work, coz a blouse is just one-fourth of a kameez and it can work! It did!! I gave Amma a lot of grief over the tailor, but he really did a good job of all the blouses. Amma heaved a sigh of relief! :)

It was silk-cotton and let me breathe in the sweltering heat!!  As for my hair, its a different story altogether, the humidity made it a disaster and looked like cotton-candy!


Jewellery:

I loved this style of the necklace (as seen above), its a gift from my brother for Rakshabandhan. Its my choice, but he paid for it! :)
 
I have a wide variety of jhimkis, thanks to Amma, my wedding and I can open a shop! Yet, I added another one to my collection - these are the kashmiri style jhimkis! :) Actually, it is a set of 3 - another longer jhimki hangs to this! I wore only two, as I thought all three together would look over-the-top! :)

If you like the jewellery I am wearing, I bought them from Chaahat Hyderabad - look for them on Facebook. I have bought quite a lot of stuff from them and the jewellery is really pretty, prompt delivery and their customer service is pretty good too. They ship worldwide.

I also bought these bangles from www.99labels.com 

I won the second prize for this entry and I used that credit to buy a saree and these bangles. They also gave me a gift voucher for my birthday! ;)

Mehendi:

I love mehendi or as they say in Tamizh, marudaani! :)  Apart from the fact that it looks beautiful on your hands, it cools down your body temperature. and boy! I am HOT! ;)
I got this done on the streets of T.Nagar, and I must say they did a great job. There are a group of boys and men from the North, who sit there on the road with umbrellas and you can sit there and get it done! :) They also come home and do it for a group of people. There weren't too many girls at home, people were directly coming to the wedding venue mostly. So I decided to get it done there - quick and easy.

Pretty, isn't it?

P.S - I am not being paid to write to this post by any of these vendors or websites. It is just my way of helping people looking for information or as a point of reference.

My Kitchen Garden, very spicy now!