Keep it Simple! Who believes in it?

How many of us believe in simplicity?
We shifted couple of months to a nice place, it does not have a brand but yes its wonderful. Its apt for us
Earlier we used to stay in a plush apartments, I never felt home there, I could never accept the place as mine
But this place...I just belong here
Yes there are differences in both places, as the earlier place was crowded with upper middle class, the middle aged segment with one child,who had lived in US and UK for years and were back to India for good!
This place again has upper middle class families, however there is a difference, they are people from the defence sector, who always belonged to India and have come up through hard work. I always wanted my son to be brought up in such an environment.
While growing up, me and hubby have seen our parents struggle and hence understood the value of education and money earlier in life. Do we regret those times?Not at all, as today because of those values, we are able to differentiate between right and wrong, we are able to mingle with people from all classes in an equal manner!

In my earlier apartments, as I interacted with more parents, there was something common about them
All of them said that they never wanted their child to struggle and hence succumbed to their demands. Kids were demanding play-stations at the age of 4, their b'days had themes and parents paid a bomb to fulfil all their wishes. Cant blame them, they had been living in wonderful US and UK and now they had moved so that their children do not imbibe the videshi culture and hence were always feeling guilty about it!

I guess, "To each their own" :)

Me and hubby are weird. We don't believe in fulfilling all wishes of my son. We want little "k" to understand what hard work means not when he grows up, but as he grows. Well we are not bad, whenever he has asked for a toy we have got him one, but when he had asked for an expensive car, we would say that getting him to school took our money, so he will have to wait for atleast a year. He has always agreed to it, which makes me emotional at times. Are we doing something wrong?Are we setting examples of bad parents...no clue
I guess its rightly said, Parenting is a life long commitment!!! :) 
We could have lived in our earlier place, but I kept thinking that little "K" would be influenced as he grows and how long could we make excuses
Isn't it easier to live with like-minded people than making excuses to little ones as they grow!!!
But many of our friends and family members have questioned this decision of ours and that makes me think...well.kya kare in today's world there are very few who believe in keeping it simple :)

To Quit or not?

I have been thinking of switching for sometime and finally have made the decision
I have been working in worlds top MNC, its a brand which is famous across the world and known to almost everyone!
I have been here for two years now, am in a very responsible position, as the numbers which I publish is considered as final market share...its great because even the CEO of such a firm looks forward to my mails
But honestly, I don't enjoy a bit, experience wise, its been great but at the end of the day, I don't have any emotional connect to the firm and mua being an emotional person, feel that any employee should have an emotional connect as that motivates him/her to work better!
Maximum time is spent on meetings as there are number of agencies to work for each project
Anyways coming back...I have been toying with this idea of quitting for sometime
I have been tired of the dialogue-"how can you think of quitting such a firm?
To everyone, they see the rosy pictures like the brand name,the flexibility of working from home,the perks etc
But issue is that my work starts @6AM and ends at 11PM...I am not exaggerating
Even though I am at home, I am always in calls
And I have to go to office when there are meetings, funny part is that there are atleast 3 full day meetings in a week and during those days, when I go to office, I reach office at 9AM and come back by 12 PM
Last one year, I have hardly spent time with my little one...I am on full day meetings even during weekends
I genuinely don't think that for a brand name, one should compromise with life and hence have finally taken the step
I am in state where right now brand name has no value, all I want to do is have a life!
Am I asking for too much? I am a simple person with small wishes..when I die, I just want to be remembered as a wonderful wife, mom,daughter,daughter-in-law,relative,friend and human being!
When I die, no-one will remember me as the person who had made that great presentation hehehe :)
I am so thankful that God brought clarity into my life and I took the decision of quitting!
Thankfully "A" is also fine with my decision but convincing my parents and in-laws was the tough part...but I have been always like this...
I have always made my own decisions in life coz I believe that we just have one life, and we should be responsible for our actions, we should never blame anyone else for the situation we are in :)

Weddings are Wonderful

Wedding season is round the corner and December is the month of marriages in Kerala Nair community.

It was my favourite cousins wedding last week.
All of us, from different corners, reached my grandpa's place three days before the wedding...last six days were filled with so much of fun and so many thoughts...have tried to capture my thoughts in various segments below

ARRANGED MARRIAGE vs. LOVE MARRIAGE
Initially I was confused.....my cousin is very beautiful and had agreed for an arranged marriage...somehow the term arranged marriage give me jitters
I know the concept works very well in India.Throughout the wedding, the grooms family was very very jolly and I knew that my cousin will be looked after well, she was the most beautiful and stood out in the crowd
The groom was smart and hats off to her to take such a matured decision!!!
She will be leaving India in sometime and I was wondering what would be life to her then, she will enjoy the first year going places and then next five years they will understand each other, wow thats magical
During the entire course, my perception started changing towards arranged marriage concept

Me and A courted for almost two years before tying the knot and trust me even today I get to know a new nature of his and vice versa.
I got to know one thing of life and that is, there is no point of having an arranged or love marriage concept coz everything changes once you start living with a person, its from then that life changes
If you are with the right person, your life is beautiful, no matter the wedding was arranged/love
I hope my cousin is with her Mr Right and here's wishing her loads of happiness :)

FUNNY/EMBARRASSING SIDE OF WEDDING
Throughout the wedding, I came across so many different characters, like one of my Aunts who fakes everything, she exaggerates the smallest stuff,its very funny and yes irritating at times!We havent met for years, but when she meets, she invades our life like crazy...I just smile to myself during those times.
Then during the wedding, there are people who come to you and ask, "do you know me?", if we answer no they get offended, so I just say Ofcourse, I know you, how are you doing? and the conversation flows...there is another set who would again question, "If you know me, tell me who am I?
Eeesh, that is such a embarassing situation,I just smile and start looking out for someone who could help me out, thankfully my mom would be somewhere near to rescue me
I dont believe this, we meet once in say 6 years, where we meet and they expect us to remember the way we are connected...in some instances, they would have seen me when I was a toddler, how do they expect me to remember them? :)
Poor cousin of mine, she had a tough time explaining connexions to her hubby :)

EMOTIONAL ATYACHAR
Oh yes, there are times when your eyes are filled with tears, like when, the bride takes blessings from her close family members in the morning
My cousin seeked my blessing and I was completely on tears...whatever said and done she will be part of a new family
When mangalsutra was tied to her, even that brought tears to my eyes...these traditions are wonderful
When she was leaving to her husbands place, after the wedding (even though we were to meet in the evening for reception :)
But the worst was when she came to our place in the third day and while she was leaving, we felt the lump for sure
Not that we meet on a daily basis, we meet once/twice in a year, but still somewhere we felt sad that even that may reduce as she will not be in India

NOSTALGIA
Each instance, during the wedding, reminds each one us, on what happened during their wedding...its so much fun as we become closer to each one

As my Aunts and Mom tell what happened in their case, its like reading a book, I keep imagining those times
And yes even I remembered my beautiful moments throughout my wedding
We even took out old albums and each one had a story of its own
Its wonderful :)
Weddings are definitely wonderful!!!

P.S-Will add more on this :)

New Avatar!!!

So if you see my same posts in a blog named Beautiful Life(http://liveinpeace1209.blogspot.in/) ...don't ever think that I copied them, that was my earlier blog :)...thought of moving into a new Avatar!!!