So as much as I wish I could mature without actually aging its just not going to happen. AB has a saying which I can’t repeat verbatim but its along the lines of if you can’t avoid an occurrence you should quit stressing and sit back to enjoy it.

The previously dreaded 3-0 is now 25 days away. On the precipice there’s been a thought: How do I celebrate a decade which has brought about so many changes in me..so much so that the person who started off this decade is some 75% different from the person ending it?

Thinking along those lines was not getting me an answer so I decided to shift my focus. I truly think I would not be the person I am without those early experiences to find out what fits me best now. Hence this year for the 10 days before my birthday I am going to do 10 things which marked my early 20s for me, e.g. my adventurure seeking side which bungee jumped, went snow-boarding etc.

I had a lovely dinner and brainstorming session with a good friend on Friday and we settled on 4 of those items…now I just have to figure out the remaining 6..and as I type this post number 5 has just come to me. I will probably catalogue some of these 10 things but some may be just a little too private to share..but stay tuned.

As I spend Monday in recovery mode at home and realise how much more fun work is I hope everyone has a good week

My leg & arm…

The back of my hand and my wrist

My latest and in my opinion best attempt ;p

Work, work and wisdom teeth have kept my blogging stream a dried-up river bed for the past 2 weeks. A nice, lazy Saturday has left me with enough energy to pen this one.

So whats with the diamonds you may ask…well I’m a former diamond lover. For many years I was on a quest to build my own diamond set starting with the solitaire ring my parents bought me for my 21st birthday. I cried endlessly when I lost one of my solitaire earrings and was utterly inconsolable for quite some time. I would dream about the 5 C’s my eventual engagement ring would have and never resisted peaking in at the jewellery display in stores I happened to pass by.

I never gave much thought to why I thought diamonds were so essential to my life other than they were supposed to be a “girls best friend” and how “diamonds are forever”. I must say De Beers had a marketing genius who managed to sucker in generations of women and still do. Its amazing that carbon atoms shaped into a sparkly gemstone can be a testament to love, loyalty and fidelity to the point where they matter more than the actual couple involved!

What changed all this for me was a documentary I happened to watch on a Saturday morning. It was called “blood diamonds”. I had heard of and seen the promos of the similarly titled movie but never watched it. What I saw on my tv screen touched my social conscience. I’m not someone overly concerned with the world at large nor do I have much sympathy for my fellow-man. What does form my moral compass is my principle to never aid the worsening of anyone’s trouble.

In the course of the documentary I watched how the trade of diamonds from war-torn African nations helped fuel civil war within countries where the condition of the common man were already troubled. Renegade soldiers armed with expensive and deadly weapons ran amok among the civilian population whom they were supposed to be representing in their fight to overthrow the establishment. Children were kidnapped, drugged, used as sex slaves, and given weapons and violence teased out of them until they became killing machines. Perceived and actual opposition was tamped down by rape, sexual mutilation and dismemberment.

I’m pretty big on the idea that if we put our mind to it and hands to work we can overcome our troubles and so I was deeply disturbed at watching the many people on screen who had had their hands chopped off in long and short sleeves. That to me speaks of a cruelty that has no excuse and deserves no forgiveness. Many of these renegades were given financial repatriation to bring in their weapons and rehabilitated into society.

Are they the real culprit in this scenario? No. The real culprits are you and I who have over years bought nice sparkly baubles for ourselves. Nice, sparkly baubles that were unearthed in camps run by these renegade armies and staffed by slave labour. Nice, sparkly baubles that even in today’s “fairer” diamond market, which tries to enforce the Kimberley process of verifying a diamonds country of origin, nets the man who bends over muddy waters in the heat and endures back-breaking labour some $20 for each stone. The same stone once routed through Antwerp will be sold at some $1,500.

Whichever way you juggle the scales there is only one way in which you can justify such a purchase .. by admitting that there is no justification and that you are putting yourself above every other concern you may have.

I’m unable to do that. So for me this is my public vow to not purchase any more diamonds. We all hear and I’ve often said change begins with us. Talk is cheap…its actions that back up the words which count.

A good weekend to all.

The second day of CommunicAsia has wrapped up and boy are my feet feeling it! Here’s a peek at our 2 booths and the booth boys we have to lure in folks who walk by…move over booth babes and make way for the next generation

Update: Here’s a pic of AB & I taken from his Macboook

Its some 60 days till I hit the big 3-0 and this third decade of my life has been an extremely exciting one. I’ve come into my own in many ways and am still amazed by the many new insights I continually gain into the person whom I have become. Lately what’s caught my fascination are these question:

1. What is my dream, my personal legend, my desire/driving force?
2. The differences within my inner self from my teens, through my early twenties, to the brink of 30.

The first question was prompted by my reading “The Alchemist”. It was a good read and the most important thing I took away from it is the importance to realise your dream, or your personal legend as the book refers to it. The idea essentially refers to having a driving desire to fulfil the one dream that we know will make us complete. Many of us can remember with clarity our childhood dreams but having a dream in your late teens or even twenties? I lost my dreams somewhere along the way. Life intruded, limitations were either self or societally imposed, and compromises were made. My life has still turned out to be a good one and I’m happy but I do feel a restlessness within my soul from time to time which I sometimes write about here on this blog. I’ve always thought introspection would be the cure for it…perhaps its my inner voice, one I stopped listening to a long time ago, reminding me of a greater destiny for me to fulfil. I’m not sure but I like the idea of finding my dream..re-awakening that voice.

I spoke of this to AB as I do loads of things trivial and heavy. His “dream” is his intensity and obsession with so many things that he doesn’t have enough time in each day and perhaps maybe his lifetime to quench his thirst for it all. That’s a theory I like because I’m fascinated by many things as well..not as many and as bizarre as AB..I mean seriously when he starts on quantum physics its all I can do to keep my attention in place so that I can respond semi-intelligently .. LOL! Back to the point..in an age where we have so many options and choices perhaps we are meant for more than one dream. Its the intensity with which we pursue our dreams that should matter.

When I was in primary school I wanted to be an air stewardess or a teacher. As I grew older I realized my parents weren’t going to go for the stewardess thing so teaching stayed..until I actually was at the decisive point. I realized my passion was to have an audience and the only forum I knew where that could be realised and accepted by my parents was a classroom. Fast-forward to today..I’m not a teacher but my lovely and patient friends provide me with many opportunities to sparkle in the limelight. Will I take it to a bigger stage…maybe. I’m still deciding. In my early twenties I wanted to be Asia’s answer to Martha Stewart. I loved and still love many different crafts and making things with my own hands and imagination. That ties back to the attention seeking part of me too. Another option to ponder

I’m not holding myself hostage to a timeline to figure this out. I did set a timeline for myself at my birthday last year and the exact goal I set will probably not be realised but the important lesson I learned along the way was to experiment and open myself to the possibilities. Instead of the goal I set out to achieve I’ve accomplished a different milestone. One I never even dared dream about and I’m just as thrilled if not more..just in a different way. So the point to consider in the forward journey…explore, be adventurous and take a big bite out of life and savour every morsel

As to how am I a different person - let me take a page out of Cosmo and do a “hot and not” type of comparison based on my 20 versus 30.

Hot	20	30
Colours	Blue - All shades	Jewel tones in reds and greens. I still have a wardrobe dominated by black though
Style	California “blonde” - attention grabbing and figure hugging clothes	Bohemian - Comfort and making a statement about my mood for the day and not my bust size
Men : Looks	Hrithik Roshan - his first movie Kaho na pyar hai was released the summer before my 20th birthday	K.K. Menon - a character actor who has an intensity that fires his eyes and even in the role of a villain in the first movie of his I ever watched I was mesmerised. His many different roles and interviews have me lusting after his very sexy mind and intensity. Also tied for this position is Shah Rukh Khan whose intelligent and quick depreciating wit makes me think he’s a far sexier individual than any of the roles he has ever played. A flawed, honest and very intensely driven man. I sense a new theme
Men: Personality	Tall Bad Boys (anyone who knows me well is rolling off their chairs laughing in agreement with this one!)	Intelligence, ability to make great conversation, imagination to go beyond his own experiences and judge my opinions outside of his comfort zone. A sensible, mature man.
Music	Hip-hop and rap with lots of swearing. Something to listen to really loud so that when I stopped at a light heads would turn to see where the music was coming from.	Still have hip-hop and rap in there. Lots of Hindi and Punjabi music and some ghazals even thrown in there. Who knew?
Food	Meat, meat, meat	Meat, veg, meat, veg, meat … a balanced diet whilst giving my stomach a vegetarian break half the week. Given up seafood and slowly trying to phase out other meats..its really s-l-o-w going. Chilllies in everything and buckets and buckets of it.
Hair	I lived most of my 20s blonde..the blonder the better	A much darker and more natural shade of brown/black/some burgundy thrown in.
Books	Discounting the reading requirements of my courses it was fashion magazines and romance novels	All over the map. Award winning fiction, non-fiction, chick lit, loads of blogs which are fed directly to my RSS reader … and enjoying it evolving with every book.
My motto	Everything now!	Enjoy the phase I am in and explore its options.

I’m not one given to regrets and what I’m about to express isn’t strictly a regret either. As a teenager I didn’t think enough of myself. As a young adult I focused more on the outside than the inside. Now as I realise there’s so much more to me than I thought - the limitless potential I thought confined to my developing years is still within me and now I have the wisdom and insight to make the most of it. So my “regret” … I wish I had taken myself more seriously when i was younger. I would have conquered so much more of the world

Here’s to each dawning day and the sheer possibilities it brings with it!

A bit of this…

On my ankle and right arm

And that…

My fully lace embellished and lined with silk “Silk Blanket”. This entire blanket and all the wonderfully bright and intricate lace trim were hand knit by me. I also hand-sewed the silk backing. I amaze myself with my crafty-ness

Its been a while since my last post. Work has been keeping me super busy as we are taking part at CommunicAsia 2008 as exhibitors with not one but 2 whole booths (2L2-10 and 2L2-11)  so anyone who might want to pay me a visit you know where to find me all of next week

Have a good week!

I was doing a cleaning up of my pictures and stumbled across these pics of mehendi i did for my aunt and cousin while i visited my grandma in J.B. Enjoy!

My cousin, Nerin, patiently sat through both hands

My Aunt did not want to be left out either

I couldn’t resist as well

This restaurant is one of my weekly favourites and with good cause. Moi Lum has been around for decades and their food is a testament to why.

This dish, Roasted Chicken Noodles, doesn’t make an exciting picture but as far as taste goes it is a techni-colour masterpiece. I won’t pretend to wax eloquent about the noodles..they are nice but the star of this is the chicken, something i do know a little something about. It is wonderfully crisp on the skin and still tender and juicy close to the bone. The marinade they use on this gives this a lovely flavour that bursts and coats your entire mouth.

This next dish, Black Pepper Venison, is AB’s go-to dish whenever we eat here. To avoid taste-bud fatigue he tries a few different combos to this and the combo pictured is a testament to my limited Mandarin and the wonderful understanding of the nice waitresses who use their limited English to best efforts.

The dish is traditionally served with plain rice as part of the lunch set but i somehow managed to convey, in Mandarin too i might add, the request that the plain rice be substituted with fried rice

Want some awesome chinese food…head to Moi Lum at 38 Maxwell Road.

In light of my having to learn how to do bridal menhdi its a good thing i had begun to experiment some more on my own

Enjoy the pics and your weekend ahead.

Ok it took me almost 30 years but I’ve finally broken the tradition and travelled beyond the Delhi-Punjab sector. To further spice things up my travel companions and I booked our flight and the hotel for the first night only..figuring we would find our way around as we went. Was it an easy trip..so-so..but its an experience I’m eager to repeat again. It helped that back in February when I went on this trip I had the immense need to break out of my comfort shell and push my boundaries again

At the airport in Singapore we indulged in an ages old tradition to take a parting picture at the various bits of decor at the terminal.

Landing in Mumbai we encountered familiarity..stepping out the sights, smells, and sounds let you know you are in India. As we got into our taxi to make our way to Colaba however we encountered the charming architecture and a much higher level of cleanliness than we had seen on our trips to Delhi. Mumbai has a vibrant pulse thats noticeable from the get-go and we enjoyed the obvious differences.

Once we got to the hotel I decided to get to the nearest travel desk to sort out the next leg of our trip. One of the best things about India…the fact that it sees such a diaspora of tourists it has travel agencies to cater to all travel budgets and i emerged with tickets and hotel booked for Goa.

Before I had left for the travel desk though I’d realised that packing your bags at the last moment isn’t the smartest thing..I’d left the keys to the lock that was on my luggage at home. After the travel desk I took a walk down Colaba to the landmark Regal theatre where a good friend of mine was to meet me for dinner. My first night in Mumbai I had wonderful conversation, great company and a memorable drive to watch the twinkling lights of Mumbai…that is until jet-lag and exhaustion caused my light-bulb to dim considerably. Thanks you JPPP!

Goa:

Goa was lush, green, scenic, laid-back and a nice break from the city scenes of both Mumbai and Singapore. The days were hot….massively hot and I even had to get myself a hat to keep from passing out from the heat.

We visited North and South Goa and had a good time with the day tours. I would definitely recommend a visit to Goa if you are going to be in the area. Some of the highlights for me were:

~Seeing dolphins in the wild

~These poor cluckers were on their way to the market: Ingenious transportation

~This mobile toy store caught my eye as our tour bus was stopped for cashew nuts, wine and fenny, the local home-brewed alcohol

~Only in India!

~the changing landscape of the Goan countryside

~The sunset as our boat cruised down the Mandovi river

~This store’s signage begged to be photographed

From Goa we headed back to Mumbai where we were met by my sister for the second phase of our trip…Nanded and the Gurdwara Sachkhand Shri Hazur Sahib which is a significant historical and spiritual venue for Sikhs. The landscape from Mumbai, through Pune and farther into Maharashtra toward Hyderabad changed considerably and these windmill dotted plains caught my fancy.

Upon our arrival at the Gurdwara, after a really loong 15 hours drive, we found wonderful accommodations within the premises for a measly INR200. The room we got was comparable to any 3 star hotel with its own sitting toilet and water heater along with 2 double beds with nice thick blankets!

The weather in Nanded was much cooler than we had expected and due to the massive construction in preparation for its 300th anniversary, there were many large mosquitoes. I’m rarely bitten by mosquitoes as I have a rather low body temperature but even I was not spared. The next morning we went in for the morning services and enjoyed the beauty of the temple as the day broke before heading back into our 4WD for the ride back to Mumbai.

~The exterior of the Gurdwara

~The gorgeous interiors

~The massive kitchen where food is prepared and served to all who come

Back in Mumbai we spent our remaining 2 days shopping and seeing the sights, which included a drive-by tour of the homes of Bollywood celebrities. The driver who took us to Nanded remained with us for the rest of our trip and was an excellent guide and a companionable tour-guide. The highlights for Mumbai….

~My sis and I at the Gateway of India

~And next to us were these guys sneaking in a quick bath

~At the hanging gardens

~Posing against the backdrop of Mumbai’s famed Marine Drive

~A trip to Hajji Ali

~My family blending in with the locals at Juhu Beach

~The carnival atmosphere at Juhu Beach

~The sun setting on the last day of my vacation

~The beaches in India are very animal friendly. Here the bull and dog enjoy their Sunday at the beach too

I would love to return to Mumbai again and visit places I now know and the many other nooks and crannies I’d love to visit again..all the wonderful street markets, the strip at Colaba where I went crazy buying books as its cheaper than book shopping in Singapore, eating paani puri and pao bhajji (yummy!!), and finding little treasures to bring home like this buy.

Mumbai, Goa and the rest…worth the visit in my books!