Mars and Venus?

Do Opposites Attract? Yes, I think so!

How else would you explain two almost totally opposite kind of indivuduals (Read S and me) getting hitched and staying together for 2.5 years!

1. S loves Discovery, Animal planet, History and the boring stuff - I am a total sucker for any reality, drama on TV!
2. One of the easiest tasks in this world is to make me cry. A drop of a hat or pin is enough of a tear jerker of me. The only 2 times when I  saw tears in S' eyes was - 1. Tears after laughing his heart out during the numerous re-runs of friends, 2.While watching Beautiful Mind (one of his fav movies).
3. I am a total drama queen - S is the quiet wait and watch types.
4. I over-react and make a hue and cry even if I spot an ant walking across the room. S again waits and watches
5. I love surprises and S hates them. He is brutal enough to tell me right on my face if he doesn't like the gifts that I picked up so lovingly.
6. I love roaming around and traveling, S is the sit-at-home types.
7. I can chatter non-stop with him about anything - even the aforesaid ant walking across! S needs his own space every once in a while.
8. S knows, understands, realizes and works towards his passion! Right now I am clueless and trying to figure out mine.
9.  S is the king of planning (every travel has a list ready) - I am a last minute dump-stuff-in-the-bag type of person.
10. I yell, shout, cry and argue when I am angry - S turns on the silent mode (does not utter a word)!
11. I am over-the-top experssive kind - Hugs, Kisses and clinginess are totally my thing! S is subtle and cryptic.

Seriously, I can go on and on. Needless to say, one comment that we make often is - You did not tell this to me before the wedding! As if that would have changed anything!
As of now, we are still sane and have not lost it yet. Yes, even now my eyes twinkle when I see him!

P.S - I would love to do the reverse of this post - come up with 10 things that we have in common. That would be my anniversary edition.

Of things Red and Bright!

Red was a color which I was never too fond of throughout my life. I always preferred the sky blues and the baby pinks and all the pastels. Also, while I was growing up, there was this notion of red - aggressiveness, the color of blood and a whole range of not-so-positive connotations.

Throughout my growing-up phase and college life(where we got the freedom to wear color-dresses everyday), I do not remember any red color dresses that I owned. Even if there was one, it would be adequately balanced out with shades of white or something like that. I remember an instance where I came out of the gift shop with an unwrapped gift simply because the guy had only a red gift wrap paper.

Therefore, it was a very obvious choice that I made, I will not wear a red Saree for my wedding and I therefore chose the white and gold Kerala Kasavu Saree. If I were to change 1 thing about my wedding day, it would be the color of the Saree - but I am digressing here.

Coming back to Red, the first big joint possession that we got after the wedding was the car - and guess what it is bright RED in color. S mentions that he asked me for a choice of colors while I was asleep and I blabbered RED and that is how we got a red car. ( I am still not convinced about this bit. Needless to say, RED started making a presence in my life after that. Here is to all things RED and Bright!!

Retail Therapy - I am Lovin it!

One of the few things that I miss after getting married are the shopping outings with my friends - where I could just indulge in shopping, take as much time as I wanted to and even come out of a shop after spending almost 2 hours there without buying a single thing. Or, a situation where I have already brought 5 tops, and I have my eyes laid out on a 6th one - of course, my friends would give me gyaan on the merits of 'investing' in one more top. Well, of course - you can never get such lessons on investment from a hubby right!

Things change as shopping outings with hubby have many more clauses attached to it -

1. The mall has to have a good parking space where his precious baby (read our Hyundai i10 ) can be parked safely and securely. (So, no more stops at any shops by the road which have less parking space).

2. Even if there is a parking lot - the actual parking space has to be good (huh??) - from where the car could be taken out with ease and the possiblity of another car ramming into it is less!. After every hour, there is a slight panic alarm with him saying - Would the car be fine? Shall I check and come? Oh Did I tell you hubby has a mild form of OCD?

3. The numerous priceless looks that I get when I go on to check the price tag of each of the things that I want to buy! When asked for a second opinion - pat comes the reply - 'venamengil vangikko' which translates to "if you want you buy?". Of course, I want to buy it - all I want to hear is - Yes, go ahead!

No, its not that I am a avid shopaholic, its just that I love to look around and see every possible thing available in the shop - even though I would have decided to buy what I wanted to in the very first few minutes in the shop. Hubby doesn't get this at all - which ends up in him giving me a look which says - "Okay, why do you want to look around and confuse yourself when you already got what you wanted ". Little does he realize that he behaved the same when we went to buy a laptop for him!!! The car, the time in selection, the price tag - dint seem to matter much then.

So, after all this, it came as a pleasant break for me when G3 - who is my team mate and cube mate - and I decided to venture out on a shopping spree with the objective of getting some gifts for our expat colleagues from the city of pearls.

I must tell you that G3 is our in-house fashion and make-up consultant! Our plan were to get some gifts , additionally, buy a pair of black leggings for myself, get a black kurta for her, get a gift wrapping paper and come off. In the end - this is what I ended up with -

1. Two pearl sets for my mom + a bracelet! - There was a buy 1 get 1 offer - do you think I could resist that?
2. Two skirts, 1 pair of leggings and a lavendar and basil soap(what was I thinking)? from Fab India. I almost brought a good salwar kameez but I did not get a matching dupatta with it - so left it at that.
3. 10 plain DVDs + a set of poster colors + 4 painting brushes + a magazine and the gift wrapping paper. Our set of colors at home have gone dry and I needed to replenish them. By the way, I can't draw or paint to save my life - I paint the pics in nursery kids drawing books for fun. Hubby draws and paints well - so we really needed the colors. All this happened because we 'had to' step into Odyssey to get the wrapping paper! So folks, the gift wrappers are here and no gifts yet.

4. A nice lunch at Chutney's which consisted of Babai Idly, Masala dosa and filter coffee. My mum would murder me if she gets to know how much we shelved out for one dosa !!

5. Finally, the gifts - which we brought in the end and had to rush through it because it was getting late.

I am not writing what G3 brought for the fear of being buried alive - she is still my cubie!. Whatever it is, I still felt very happy at the end of day and was beaming when hubby came to pick me up from the last shopping destination and his stare at the shopping bags has not yet deterred down the spirit. I know I get a high on shopping. Retail therapy works!!!