An enchanting date..

...with sunset,

so close, so warm

a little more thought of it and i might just start poetry.

which i know would not be good enough, so leave you with some views.

@ around 5:30'ish, friday evening

near Dubai customs building,

@ jumeira open beach

a close look will show the moon and the evening star, so well positioned.

That tall thing on the right end is Burj Dubai (another unique attraction here)

I would not have called it quits had amit not given me his i-am-bugged & i-feel-neglected looks!!

5 past half century!

Its Dad's 55th birthday today. First wish that comes to my mind for him is of his recovery. Its been 4 months since he was hit by this spine-nerve attack and got operated. He is walking with the help of walker and feeling much better now. Best thing is his positive mental strength to get back to normal. Doctors say full recovery may take as long as 2 years but a good attitude and exercise can reduce the time to 6 months too. So I am hopeful.

I was planning to send him flowers and cake today but since he is in hospital for review n physiotherapy, mom insisted I dont do that. He doesn't quite appreciate such gestures, calling it a waste of money; if I would have been in Mumbai today, I would have surely been there in front of him with the jazz of flowers and all that. But since its only mom there with him, and I know that even if he would love to recieve them but not show it at all, instead he would get upset more than being happy and mom would have to lend the listening ear, so I dropped the idea. Whats the use when it doesnt lead to what you ultimately want, isnt it? 

Yes, I was sad for a moment but never mind. I called him early in the morning today, heard the cheerful voice confirming completion of 55 years with a smile and I felt nice. I hope I was the first among the sibings to wish him :D (just like that). Mom has taken the typical home made bday sweet "gajar ka halwa" for him. And I know they are much more happy celebrating the occassion in a simple way.

So, PaPa! hErE's wIshIng yOu mAnY hAppY rEtUrnS oF tHe dAy!

AnD oN yOuR sPeCiAl DaY.. I wIsH fOr YoU, mAnY jOyS aNd HaPpInEsS..!HoPe YoU hAvE a wOnDeRfUl DaY..!HaPpY BiRtHdAy PaPa..!

Law of Attraction

is what I will be thinking about today, trying to make sense of it in my life, thoughts-actions.. 

Just yday did i watch the first 20 minutes of 'The Secret' and therefore..

if any of you have thoughts around it, do please help me by putting some in the comments space.

dont be lazy please!

fun quiz - poor result :D

34 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

Take the test!

Tag of 25!

When in Rome, do as Romans do!

So here I am, doing this TAG where I have to pen down 25 things about myself randomly. My first ever tag in the blogosphere and I Thanks Nancy for putting me to this task :o I think I was happier reading other's Tags but as they say 'when in rome do as romans do', I will give it an honest try.

1. God gave one of those bright stars from the sky to my parents as gift so they decided on my name as 'Tara', I was told this story by mom-dad and I happily believe them and think I am that star. :P
2. I have an elder sister and younger brother but i wanted the other way round. An elder brother to pamper me and a younger sister who i could bully. And strangely enough, when all my friends in school used to dream of Amir Khan romantically, I wished he was my elder brother :)
3. I have generally been a shy person. An introvert, always avoiding functions be at school or home. Just a day prior to any picnic I coincidently managed to get fever or some ailment thus escaping the events happily.
4. Inspite of that I was my teachers favourite, almost! but that was no fun for they would put our names for all extra-curricular acts where no one else participated & we couldnt dis-please them.
5. I am a girl of very few words when it comes to talking. Still, at work I am okay and confident of holding discussions or calls with colleagues from any level of hierarchy.
6. I can be real pain with my long long long writings. so while i talk less, I am just the opposite when it comes to writing. & like Goofy mom said (who tagged the one who tagged me), I prefer writing to talking as a mode of conversation for clarifications/justifications etc. And like her, I too have my email sgn ending with ...Smiles
7. I love to live in memories. Call it clicking photographs or going back to browsing them, every now and then..
8. I love my parents (both set of them, after being married) & strongly believe that at this stage of their life we should give them more than we can just like they did to us all their lives, including the most healthy & prime time of their lives. Something as simple as a phone call means a lot to them..they dont ask for more.
9. At home I was the bai. while chores were being divided, i would not get anything better than sweeping, washing dishes, folding the clothes or kneading the dough. all the indoor jazz stuff was being taken care by didi n mom & outdoor by manu, m bro :( maybe thats y pt no 2
10. I have this feeling that I have inherited all odd things from my parents in terms of looks. like my mom has perfect teeth but i hv like my dads. Dad is tall but i hv gone on my moms hgt. and stuff like this u see..
11. But having said that, I have conveniently accepted the superstition that people who have gap between the front two upper tooth, are lucky. I have reasons to believe that way. 
12. I am infact lucky. Be it studies, job or marriage (what else is considered imp in our society?) I had almost no struggle through all this. I even got an easy, smooth break from work(that is now!) after wishing it for sometime, having worked for 7 years.
13. Marriage is such a gamble. While arranged marriages of our parents are working well(touch wood), I hv heard of even love marriages with tough time nowadays. So, having found a nice person with a family with whom (Insha'Allah) these 2 years have gone by so smoothly, I must once again touch wood and consider myself lucky!
14. I met Amit through matrimonial site. Till then I had no idea that a thing like finding ur soulmate thru d net could work for me. I enjoyed the whole phase of groom hunting, making some good friends in the process.
15. Havn't I yet mentioned that I love gardening. I love water, I love nature in general.
16. I have a painful eye for detail. Ask my boss or my husband to explain you what it could mean. hehe. Its a positive but could be a twinge as well.
17. I am a cleanliness freak of the same greatness. And have a passion for being super organised. Even in the mid of an operational risk review meeting at work If I get a call from home I could tell the caller that the particular CD is lying in the left corner of the 2nd drawer of the middle almira in the master bedroom, without even blinking an eye for thinking.
18. So Masood should not worry that i wont return him his John Grisham books all in order only once he gives them to me :o .. No No, I am not reminding you my dear! I am only completing this task of telling 25 things abt myself & this one says I want to read some of his courtroom dramas.
19. I am a very low maintenance girl. I mean no makeup, accessories, visits to parlour for manicure kind of stuff etc etc. But when I go to my fav parlour & ask for a facial, I love to sleep for almost 2 hours while she does her job very professionally with the motherly warmth of her hands
20. My Idea of romance is lying on a hammock on the beach and listening to some nice gup shups or if I am alone then reading, enjoying music or simply gazing out at the sky or the waves. ah! I am already into that world as I write this.
21. I was till some years back, very apprehensive about going to foreign lands. The people, language, culture, ways of life, food, getting lost on the roads - had all that kind of silly fears.
22. I can survive on fruits and salads for long enough.
23. Adventures thrill me. I want to get done with all possible adventurous activities as early as possible in life. Heights, edges of cliffs, depths of water .. nothing scares me but a sight of lizard or a mouse is all it takes to make me jump n scream like hell has fallen on me. I guess the later applies to most of the girls.
24. O' I simply love snakes! I see colored snakes in my dream. I love their gait. Their tail passes from the same point as their head and in between they travel all zigzag and its amazing to me. I love discovery guys for making so many snake stories and showing them repeatedly.
25. Recently I had a minor problem with cervical spine, maybe due to excessive working on the comp and wrong posture. I have become cautious about my health after that & really want to get into regular exercise habits. After all I need to be healthy to be able to do all that i mentioned in 23rd pt.

BIG Breath! in and out! I am done! but hey, I could go on for some more(refer pt 6). There is lot more to me than just these little titbits. For now, lets follow the rules and stop here, tagging someone else to do this. hmmm, well...I know not many bloggers to ask them to do it, most of them have already done it by now. So I tag only one person hoping he does it for sure. Masood! I tag you - please do whenever u have time. ok? :)

adopt an animal - hows d idea?

While browsing through some news articles randomly, I landed here finding it interesting.

Its a WWF site that offers 7 selected endangered animals for monthly adoption at a nominal cost. Before atually reading the details I assumed that I can get an animal adopted for as short a period as a month for a particular price and then either continue having it as a pet or return it back to the authorities. But when I saw the list of animals, it struck me that Rhino, Elephant, Dolphin, Panda, Tiger, Polar Bear & Monkeys are not the usual pets :(

The site turned out to be offering animal adoption which they say is a popular way of providing consistent funding to wildlife charities whilst also providing a tangible gift to the recipient who gets a goodie bag with picture of ur pet, a soft toy, certificate and some more things.

I think there will be more takers if they offer the regular popular pets which they actually let us take home for the period we want to have them. We pay the cost with a condition that we get part of it back if we care them well and return them healthy after a period of time. In that case I would love to have this-

The lovely picture has been picked from "www.toptenz.net/10-dangerous-exotic-pets.php"

I love this self customized idea! will lookup on the net if something like this is possible...else I will start such services post retirement. watsay?