it's a flaky day

It always snows up there...in the mountains. As the clouds focused their eyes on the valley, snow came trickling down this weekend....it got chill, it got cold...all the leaves left their abode and this is what i recollected....

Not long before…
I remember the days of flip-flops and long beach walks
Of skirts that swiveled around my waistline
And colors that grew on my garden vine.

As I sit down sipping on some hot tea
I look out today, my face frowns to see…
Standing naked in my yard
Fighting the cold, wind & beyond
She looks at me with her arms weak
says,” This is nature and its meant to be.”

I look away from the tree,
trying to ignore the sight
hoping to find a ray of light.

A Strong wind comes gusting at the window
And what comes next fills me with smiles I know
Little flakes, oh snowflakes white
With every wonder, shape and size

As I unlock the door and step outside
falling from the sky they disappear into nowhere
I try and catch one of each
But as they fall into my hand
what's left is just some mist.
So I start walking…. dancing on the bed of snow
Leaving my footprints to know thy way back home!!

- Rush

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it's Official...I'm almost done!!!

After all the arm aching and back wrenching, the paint dries up....and then, it was time to give it a cleaner look. So, the lady of the house alongwith with a bucketful of detergent and wearing gloves got to task. After couple of "days" cleaning, i guess the house looked somewhat ready to move in.

The movers came in with all the big stuff, we followed with all the small cartons and after 3 looong days, the house now is in a decent shape...

the living room

the dining and the open kitchen behind

the guest room....a lil vibrant

a nook for the tulsi plants..they are special and they need a special space all for themselves

loft style...upstairs to the master suite. The walls on either side will be covered with all kinds of frames soon!

the master bedroom

i have my little office nook, from which im working right now!!

So, yeah...exhausted but relieved and satisfied. When we first saw the place, there were just four pillars....its been quite a ride from making these cardboard walls our home. So, i am back into business...pretty official. Oh yeah, i forgot...the frames need to go up on all the walls, the curtains need to be hanged..woow, there's always something left, hmmm!

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trickster or treater??

I received an invite today from Craig Anderson...it reads something like this:

Anil & Rashmi,
The ancient mothers and gods of gold,
their whimpering flames, now stinking mold..
burn, blinding, bright, this one night.
Frozen moments in the past, This we celebrate!
Ghosts and goblins we create.
For All Hallows' Evenin' is the age old Druid New Year rite.
Come after Dark, as you know, Its important we see day's glow
dimmed together.
(disguises encouraged)

We would possibly attend this Halloween party with our painting clothes on and two white painted faces at the end of the day tricking people into believing that we actually creatively made up a costume!!!
But for the past few years, Halloween has been one time of the year , where we have treated...treated wholeheartedly the known and the unknown with all kinds of goodies.

On a typical Halloween evening, parents form large groups and take their kids out together door to door dressed in the best spooky costumes...its one time of the year when kids wanna scare the grownups out of their wits. They sneak up at your door and scream "Trick or Treat" and they end up getting a reaction "awww...thats so cute". But, then a few have been successful in spooking me out...come take a look yourself.

that's me...the Viking treater. So, which character was ur favorite?? Name it!!
have a spooky night y'all...

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the pent needs some paint!!!

After two weeks of rental search, yeah, we finally settled for one. The place was a great bargain hunt, a huge loft (aka “pent”house) it is and before someone else got a chance to peek, we signed the papers and the lease contract. A peaceful nights sleep followed that day, but not for long…

The keys were ours to keep, but the movers give us a date - 7th of Nov. Now that date works best for them and so, it has to for us. But what do we do for the next 2 weeks? The big question popped!!

We tour around the new place, we spend an hour getting familiar…and there lies the answer “a fresh coat of paint”.
“yeah, lets make its shiny” I said. Saying that we also knew, the job had to be done by none other than us. We asked the owner to pay, he agreed.
And the excitement began...I started calling friends and googling “how to paint a house?”. Vidya, who had recently painted her place, gave me the must-have list and there I was in Lowe’s (hardware store) with a piece of paper.

We walked out with 5 gallons of paint, a painting kit, and some good old clothes….
This was our first weekend, painting the new "pent"
Anil and Me start with the guest room, and so began the experiment...

the painting kit and an unopened gallon

the smell of fresh paint

our first roller stroke

and there it goes...

First half hour I struggle with the rollers and the wall…in 15 minutes the place looks like it badly needs some work…light patches of white amid all the dark patches of white, its looks worse than before !!!
“holy crap”…I am almost in tears. Anil pumps in some support “we move on to the next wall…lets have fun!!”, he says with a smile.

We continue the room and maybe an hour or so later, when we finished the opposite wall and turned back - touche’…my hands ached but my heart pounded; the wall had dried out and the final outcome was very pro!!
My eyes weren’t ready to blink, and i wanted to paint some more…
“I knew I could do it” …yaaay, my hands up in the air (...to be continued after the next weekend)

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meethaa ya feekhaa??

In the past few days, the world has been busy celebrating Diwali, when people were getting acquainted with the word Meethaa…. Well, I have to admit, in this corner of the world, for me…the entire atmosphere was pretty Feekhaaa.

Dow Jones hit and crossed the 10,000 mark….the Bombay sensex sky rocketed and both my portfolios were gleaming green than ever. But that still didn’t add any mithaas to my situation.

Or The Hindu Temple here celebrated Diwali will a lot of pomp and fireworks, but the Feekhaa in me was getting more Feekhaaa...

Why?? What were you upto Rush???

Browsing the daily newspapers and making phone calls.

????

Our landlord gave us the unfortunate news (fortunate for him) that our condo was no more ours to rent. The place was SOLD and we had to find a new home. The luxurious comfort rental zone that I was in for the past one year has suddenly become parayaa. The news was no less than a rassi bomb and my diwali diyas still lie packed in cellophane paper.

Today morning as I pick up the newspaper from my mailbox, I turn over to check the Rental section, but what lies beside draws my attention....

I saw my name; I saw my first published article

NowUtah is a weekly print publication covering all things Utah, a venture of the Salt lake Tribune

My face gleamed today morning when it actually struck that people all across Utah would be browsing through the page and reading my story.

Look closely and it says....

To read the entire article or download it, click the below image

and the first thing I do after reading my own article is to take the diya out of the cellophane and light it up...I guess when diwali has ended for most, mine has just begun…

I hope u guys had a fabulous Diwali and the forthcoming year is full of goodie surprises ahead...

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