UBC Day 10 - Coming back - 9

Continued from Part 8 - Wedding

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Priya had gotten back home almost after six months. Given the new conditions of her dad’s paralysis she had resolved to come back more frequently but her own life didn’t allow her to come back. She couldn’t have been a burden on her parents while grieving for her loss while her mother struggled to cope up with the new routine of nursing her father.

However, this was the occasion that she wouldn’t miss for anything. Keeping her problems aside, she had resolved to come back to India, an idea that her shrink excitedly supported. On her last meeting he had told her, “Priya leave your worries behind and go have the best of times. You need to spend time around people who love you.”

She was scared, but finally on the wedding day, she put together all her remaining savings and bought a last moment flight to India and managed to reach the venue just in time without getting a chance to go home.

She asked the driver to park in front of the house and got out. “Oh my god! Look who is here!” shrieked her brother and came running to help her with her bags.

Her mom seemed equally surprised but more because she was supposed to be at Deepti’s wedding. Mildly scolding, she asked “what are you doing here? You should have at least waited for her phera to start”

Priya cried, “Mom, I am home after six long months. And I couldn’t wait to see you. Plus, why didn’t you go? I thought I’ll meet you there. Had I known you won’t go, I would have come home first and then gone for her wedding.”

“Anyway fast, I have just come to drop my bags, say a hello to dad and go back. Yash can drop me. Do you want to come?” She continued towards dad’s room while gesturing Yash to keep her bags in her room and come back.

“No I don’t want to, plus your dad is sleeping, I want to be by his side in case he needs something.” Her mother pleaded.

Quickly changing her killing heels into flats she came out of her room. She wondered how six months ago she could dance all night in those.

When she walked back into the venue a very worried Ritika came rushing to her. She shouted, “Where did you go without meeting Deepti? She has been so worried. She is trying your number, she is in the room right now, went to get some rest while the preparation for phera were over.”

Priya hurried towards the direction Ritika rushed to.

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What has happened with Priya in these six months? What is in the sore for the girls? Read more at Day 11.

UBC Day 9 - Wedding - Part 8

This mail is continued from "Part 7 - Coping up".

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One year ago – Deepti was rushing out of the parlour. She was late. Cursing under her breath she made her way to the car. After all who gets late for her own wedding?

She sat in the car, on her way to the venue, bundled with nervousness and anger at the parlour. It was her big day. Deepti hated the constant ringing phone while Ritika shouted at each and every caller with same answer. “Where is Priya? Where is her best friend?” Deepti wondered.

Calming her nerves down, Shriya asked Deepti to close her eyes and relax. But relaxing was almost impossible. She thought of Harsh’s comment from the function yesterday when he said that her make-up was too much. She absently touched her face and prayed that there was nothing wrong with her make up today.

“Forty minutes late” text from Harsh read as they parked the car and Deepti struggled to get out.

She walked up to the gate where ribbon cutting was in process. She stopped in her tracks when she heard someone cheering and teasing Harsh. Priya?? Her best friend was really there!

Suddenly all her worries disappeared and she took a confident step ahead.

Though it was her wedding she managed to give a quick hug to Priya before going ahead to the stage.

She looked at Harsh. He looked just awesome. She extended her hand to hold his for a minute. He looked at her and gave her a mock glare. She saddened.

Deepti didn’t have to be sad for long. Long queue of relatives from both sides kept coming up, cracking few jokes, livening up things, clicking pictures. 

After a while, she realized that she hadn’t seen Priya ever since the ribbon cutting. She asked one of her friends to ask Priya and Nitin to come up too. She replied, “But last I saw Priya, she was going out to the parking.”

“What is wrong with Priya? Is everything okay? She has to speak to her, but how?” Deepti thoughts were stopped short as some friends dragged the couple to the dance floor.

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Where did Priya go? What's in the store for Deepti? Read more on Day 9.

UBC Day 8 - Coping up - 7

This post is part my story for UBC. Continued from UBC Day 7 - Accident - Part 6

Next ten days went by in trying to cope up with the sudden tragedy. They bought her dad home after five days and hired a nurse to take care. Priya managed to speak to Nitin and he promised to come down at the end of her trip.

Priya had extended her holidays by another ten days. One evening her mother came down to her room to talk to her. She was of opinion that Priya shouldn’t go back. Priya understood that it was coming from a lot of pain nd she just didn’t want any distance. After consoling her, Priya continued with her schedule.

Finally the days of blues were over. Nitin was supposed to arrive. Priya and Deepti decided to meet up for a drink and then go to the airport to pick up.

Thus, they met earlier than usual. Taking a sip of her wine, Priya sighed. Last few days had taken a toll. She couldn't believe it was just two weeks ago, when two girls sat and discussed their lives. Recalling her conversation from the last time, Priya nudged Deepti out of her thoughts.

“What happened to the proposal?” Priya asked.

Coming out of her thoughts, she took a deep breath. “I have said yes”

“Priya jumped out of her seat. “Are you serious? Wow. This is great news.” Sobering down at visibly lack of excitement on Deepti’s part, she continued in a smaller voice, “But are you happy?”

“I don’t know Priya. I think you were right. I am just stuck. I don’t know him yet, but I guess it will be okay.” Deepti replied.

“Don’t worry.” Priya consoled, sounding surer than she felt.

After a few minutes of silence that had spread between them, Deepti slowly spoke “I’ll miss you. I wish you stayed back. You know your parents get so lonely in absence of both of you. Your brother at his ship, he doesn’t even know about all that happened here.” Priya didn’t reply. She knew that Deepti’s words had some reality. She thought of her mother’s words.

Concluding their evening at the pub, the girls left for the airport to pick up Nitin.

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What will be next? Will Priya ever fully cope up? Read more on part 8.

Friends are forever

I am participating in Ultimate Blog Challenge and writing a story as part of daily post. Having written the post for the day, I was more or less done for the day.

However, then I came across the prompt from Indibloggeshwaris and couldn’t resist.

Rightly said, friends are the family we choose. And my family that I have chosen to live with for past two years is my roommate.

There are so many moments that I can think of when I think of this girl. One of the most hilarious ones is when a friend hopelessly tries to pit us against someone as a joke and we rather bash him up.

Friends, whom we live with, become more like our sisters and our family. As much as we do appreciate our space, we miss them when they aren’t around.

Good music, good food, good wine and good times. What else does one need when you have a good friend as a roommate?

Love you girl.

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Well, my post on friends won’t be complete without posting anything for my two lovely ladies who are now happily married and are busy with their lives.

No matter how far our childhood friends maybe, there is never a distance between hearts. No matter how seldom we speak, there is never any communication missed.

These are the girls whom I have grown up with and against all evens and odds our friendship has lasted.

They know my secrets, my embarrassing tales. We have been with each other through crushes, love, breakups and patch ups. We have driven each other crazy and cried over silly fights. There are countless memories that we together smile at.

Friends who are there forever.

UBC Day 5 - Catching up - 5

Continuing from Acquaintances - 4

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One and half year ago – “Where are you lost? And will you tell something more about your smile?” Deepti prompted, shaking Priya out of her trance.

Priya sighed. She had completely forgotten about Deepti. She politely denied.

But Deepti had now sensed something and she insisted. How could Priya deny her best friend?

She gave her a full account of her relationship. She told how she met Nitin at a party through a common friend. They were dating for about a year now and she had recently moved in with him. He was coming to India at the end of her twenty days breaks to speak to her parents.

“So will you permanently live in Singapore now?” Deepti sadly said, forgetting her own problems.

Priya solemnly nodded. Deepti continued, “But what about Sushant? I thought you guys had something? Why didn’t you tell me anything about Nitin?”

“Sushant is just a friend! Deepti. I am sorry dear but I didn’t tell anyone about it till I wasn’t sure.” Priya explained back.

Suddenly guilty, Priya changed the topic. She continued, “We are here to discuss Harsh and not my boyfriend. Will you please tell me more or shall I finish my mojito and call for check?”

“There is nothing much to discuss about Harsh. My aunt told my mother about him and she met his parents. She liked him and wants me to marry him. I have told her that I am not interested but she just doesn’t understand.” Deepti explained it all in one go.

“Why aren’t you interested Deepti? Is it Harsh or you are still stuck upon your ex?” Priya asked.

“Harsh is somewhat different. He has some ego it seems. I might be somewhat stuck but I am not discounting Harsh for nothing. I know how to put my past behind but Harsh just doesn’t seem the right choice.”

“Who does then?” Priya asked. “You haven’t met or gone out with anyone in last six months. Aunty was telling that Harsh is the third proposal. Deepti let me tell you, you might be just looking for excuse.” She continued.

“Let it be. I don’t want to talk about” Deepti said and got up.

They paid the bill and left. Somewhere on the way back, they agreed that it was a good evening and they should do it next week too.

They were just blocks away from their homes when Priya’s phone started ringing.

“Hello Dad! Yes. Yes. What? I will be right there…”Priya answered to the voice in the phone, tears rolling down her cheeks.”

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What happened? What was the reason behind Priya's tears? Want to know more about girls? Coming up on Day 6.

Little (long) note of goals, achievements and awards

A new Ultimate Blogging Challenge begins today. 31 days, 31 post, one post each day… it took me quite a self-motivation to sign up for it. I remembered July and the nightmare of searching through topics, words and many times time and battery in my phone to do so. However, a round of conversation with my blogger friend Richa and I managed to sign up.

For last couple of days of September, I have been thinking about writing little achievements and goals.

For starters, somewhere in August I challenged myself to write 30 book reviews in 30 days. Though, the 30 days turned out to be 50 but with help of many fellow bloggers, I completed my last post yesterday.

September also bought me two little awards from my blogger friends.

First was Liebster Award shared by Meera of A Rat’s nibble. While sharing her award she asked certain questions…the answers to which go here –

1. What is the best word to describe you?

Talkative

2. Tell me your wildest fantasy.

To sit at northpole

3. What scares you the most?

Lizards

4. What is the best trick you think you have done to impress your crush but turned the other way?

I tried to draw attention by dropping the pen, but the teacher caught thinking I was cheating. It was a mess.

5. One ingredient for happiness.

Smile and let go.

Second award came from Ashish of My umpteen thoughts which was a Creative Blogger Award. I am frankly humbled to be sharing this, because if I ever have to describe my blog, creative will be the last word out of my vocab.

However, I’d love to share these awards with a few blogger friends.

Liebster Award – Preethi of A bit of this and that

Creative blogger Award – Richa Vikas Agrawal of The philospher’s stone and Nabanita of Random Thoughts

Moving on… I am sort of happy that I achieved my target of writing 30 post a month in September and reaching out to a target number of audience. Also, my first ever attempt on poem was appreciated, which made me really happy. Moreover, I resolved to start blogging for cause and encouraging others to do so. I hope I will get to read more posts on the same soon.

I am taking a little more pledge and moving on to explore the fiction writer in me. Starting today, I will write a story (how long I still don’t know) as part of UBC. I will need all the support for this story, and I hope you like it.

For my friends who share my awards… please take out time to answer my little questionnaire.

1. Describe why you blog in one sentence?

2. One place that you want to visit the most?

3. Which color defines you the best?

4. What is one thing that can cheer you up on a blue day?

P.S. This isn't my UBC post. It is just a mark of another begining. More like talking to myself and my friends here. Do come back to read the first post of UBC later today.

Friends and Italy- my happy traveller wishlist

I have always been an elaborate planner. Especially when it comes to travelling, one of my favorite pas-time is to plan holidays. I sit for hours in front of my laptop, searching for fare prices, reading travelogues, contemplating over finances and making a list of dream destinations.

I recently listed seven places I really want to go to. But when for Indiblogger competition "Creating Happy Travellers" by http://www.yatra.com I had to pick one that will be happiest – I’ll pick Italy.

Few years ago, with release of Eat Pray Love, Rome became a famous destination. But if you are as big a Mario Puzo fan as I am, your love for Italy is as much as your own nation.

Seven blogs bookmarked on my internet browser

Now that I have established that my attention span is very small, I guess it also gives me right to establish that my mood to write changes… therefore, I am not writing about one of promised topics but today I am celebrating my favorite blogs.

I have a practice. If I like a blog, I follow. And when I really like a blog, I bookmark it. I suddenly realized yesterday that I have full seven blogs on my favorites bar.

Seven super - teachers in my life

My original post planned for the day was seven people I love the most. But keeping in mind that today is teacher’s day celebrated in India; I change my post to seven teachers of high importance in my life.

Since everyone we meet, knowingly or unknowingly, whether we like or not, teaches us something, my post is categorized into groups who taught me a certain thing. This isn’t a first or second list, it is in the order of when I met them in my life.

Seven things that I hate in myself

Or I’ll put it like this…seven things I am trying to change in me.

More than once, I blame my nature and behavior to my zodiac sign. I am a Leo and being one I have certain good and bad issues with my personality. There are a few without which my life would be happier. Probably listing them down and getting to read will help.

Letters unsent - letter to my best friend/s

Dear Best Friend,

Or should I say best friends? It has always been a challenge for me to describe best friend as singular. In my journey called life I have shifted many places and each new place has given me a new set of friends. Amongst this each new set of friend, I have somehow many to always find at least one best friend which has left me with a list of best friends rather than one particular best friend.

One of you best friends always questioned and criticized me on this point and did not understand how “Best” which is superlative can be plural. I have wanted to explain you that as many people I meet in every new space, I leave behind a trail of familiar faces, happy memories and friends who have set out to different journey than mine.

To the girls I love the most...

Some of my posts in July have revolved around my best friend’s wedding and this friendship day (otherwise I find the concept a bit over-hyped) I get a bit nostalgic over the years spent with the friends who have been with me through most of my life.