The Year That It Was- 2014

2014 as been a fantastic year even though I had started the year with a pain (fracture in my knee and couldn’t walk for a month) and ended with a pain (foot sprain and homebound for full month of December.

But then that’s life. Pain is the part of my life, otherwise this has been a very eventful year.

January witnessed a family reunion at Jaipur during the family wedding. Even though I was in pain, and the cold was unbearable for me but spending time with my cousins was rewarding.

During the first three months of the year clicked pictures for #100HappyDays with my FB virtual friends celebrating life in pictures

A trip to Krabi and Bangkok during the month of June was very eventful. Attended a family wedding that was quite different from the other weddings in the sense it was very informal and very exciting.

June was also the month of the release of my cookbook #SindhiCusine, that I launched in Krabi at the beach party and it has been a great success.

September was the special month, much excitement over the redevelopment of my 50years old building. I have moved to a rented place for two years and looking forward to going back to a brand new house after two years

This year also saw the graduation in medicine of my niece, of whom I am very proud.

There have been many poetry and literature events that I have attended during this year but the online story contest was fun where I grouped with 10 more bloggers and created a story during the month of August to celebrate Blogging.

This year made 20 new friends during my trip to Lonavala, same age, same taste, a group of friends I hope to hold on for life.

On the creative front, have made three paintings in acrylics, all given away in gifts (for house warming and wedding gifts)

Most of my reading has been done online, reading stories on Flipboard, ISSU and friend’s blogs but offline, I have managed to read only six books during this year.

Greatest happiness was that my school completed 25 years of service and there was a great celebration this year.

Unfortunately, I lost one close friend Monika pant who succumbed to Cancer. A good writer and a friend.

Have been very active on my food blog this year, visiting different restaurants and reviewing products and hotels. Have made overall around 193 blog posts this year.

Have no plans for the next year, don't know what improvement I need, what went wrong, but I hope 2015 will be equally good, I will enjoy each day as it comes, savoring each moment, for the better or for the worse….and yes..I will now learn to walk more carefully on Mumbai roads in future….

Christmas Celebration 2014

The party had started two weeks before the real event. Since I was recovering from my illness, most of my time was spent at home. But thanks to the technology, I was not really alone. WatsApp was my contact with outside world. Messages kept pouring all day long from the different groups keeping me entertained throughout the day.

And so the planning for the Christmas party began with my friends at ‘Elbow Room’ a group of friends who have lived at 36^th road, Bandra in the past and now are scattered to different parts of the Mumbai and some out of Mumbai too.

First discussion is always about food. 

The menu was sorted out assigning different food and drinks to all members. Two friends (one from Australia and other from Pune) promised their presence spiritually while one friend (from Bangalore) decided to send a Christmas cake. Over fifteen days, we discussed about the party, of what we plan to eat, (we wanted only home-cooked food made by each member, Red was the theme, so we asked everybody to dress in red, and we ordered Red-velvet cake) Watsapp messages were mainly chatting and joking, the celebration growing its momentum as the day approached.

 Since most of our planning was done on Watsapp, our cake was unique with smiley that we normally use during our chat.

On Christmas day, two friends arrived at 11am to help me with party preparations such as packing of gifts and sorting things for the party (balloon, party caps). The greatest charm of any party is the gifts, no matter what value the gift may be; it’s the wrapped surprise that brings joy. I had wrapped lots of gifts to give aways during games

By one o’clock most of the friends had arrived, (we were nine of us) after greeting and chit-chat, we sat for lunch. We had wanted everything home-cooked, therefore everybody had spend the morning cooking (someone complained that she was late because chopping took too much time) We had potato and cauliflower Parathas,  Channa Masala, Dhoklas and patras with spicy green chutney, mung salad, Bhoondi raita, berry juice, and one sweet dish.

Passing the parcel was the interesting game that had the most creative ‘punishments’, which was not actually a punishment but a creatively told story on the topic given, with mime and action. The winner was the one who expressively discouraged a friend from coming to Mumbai.

This was followed with the game of Bingo, no money exchanged for buying the ticket, but three surprise gifts allotted for full house.

The next game was the hilarious one that has us in splits. The person had to be blindfolded and was given a basket of cotton balls on her lap. One hand held the plate above her head, while the other hand held a spoon. In the fixed time of one minute, she had to pick the cotton ball with a spoon and place it on the plate above her head. The person with maximum number of cotton balls was the winner.

The final session was on karaoke and we spend most of the evening singing.

By 6pm, goodbyes began, everybody leaving in small groups, the last group left at around 9pm.