"The month of july"

 YOSEMITE TRIP

Ok the month of July was filled with nice memories , we started the month in Yosemite (the  july4th long weekend) . we were 12 of us and we atayed in a cottage all the girls together and the guys together it .I had fun chit chatting , we did complain about our husbands as well lol:) Its such a beautiful park filled with mules and bears ,you can actually see them running around after which we went to lake Tahoe. It was such a beautiful lake i love it ,  but then Ashok kinda had sea sickness so we enjoyed watching the others do water tubing . I so wanted to do get on to the tube but then i didnt want to leave Ashok alone , He told me that he was feeling a lot better and then both of us did water tubing as well :) After all the water sports we were super hungry so went to a Thai restaurant and hogged . On the way back we saw the fire show and reached this beautiful home stay kinda place , there were like 7 bed rooms ,a jacuzzi , fire place, fully furnished kitchen etc etc . Since we were the only people who were recently married , everybody decided to give the master bed room to us.(both of us found it really sweet ) I should tell u it was the most beautiful bedroom i ve ever seen there were so many colours in my bed room :) . LEmme explain it to you , one one side of the room we had this really big transparent window with a beautiful scenic view of the mountains and on the other side there were big mirrors all around the room , a very beautiful painting and a superb bathroom.

picture tym :)

JULY16TH - KUTU'S BIRTHDAY

I was so  excited even b4 the 16th coz i knew for sure that my bubu would definitely have something in store for me :) Just as i thought bubu asked his friend to get me the cake which he bought for my birthday at around 11 30 in the night and then i woke and was pretty awed by the cake . I ve never seen a cake like that b4 , I totally loved the way it looked  

 I love the expression on both our faces it was very spontaneous pic :)

Ok coming to the gifts i got gifts at every part of the day starting with a "diamond ring" in the morning what more can a woman ask for ??? :)

A beautiful bouquet in the afternoon

 Finally a super cute soft toy in the night :) it did have small tag on its neck but then shooo... secret:)

I loved my first birthday with my bubu and will treasure it for the rest of life .Thank you bubu

"THE HONEYMOONPERIOD"

We took a cab to our place I really loved our apartment the moment I saw it. Everything was clean and in place the house was empty coz there was absolutely nothing at home except for a king size bed and a fully furnished kitchen  It did explain Ashok’s life as a bachelor “eat and sleep “ btw I got to tell you Ashok is a very good cook  he expertise’s in making rasam , sambar  and some non-veg dishes .wok (ok with a tamil ascent ) I think its high tym I tell u guys this I am a pure veg and Ashok is a pure non veg I should say coz  he’s had almost all the edible meat . we were dead tired and the moment we entered home we took a shower and went out to have dinner in his BMW (he calls his car – his first wife) I know :P

Weekend was fun doing grocery shopping in Wal-Mart I must tell u I was pretty awed looking at all the fruits and vegetables , the size of it , the colour of it, the varieties  etc. etc.  . We watched a couple of movies the first movie we watched in the US was “Prince of Persia” As I mentioned in my previous post that a prince from some faraway land exchanged rings with me and then left may be he was from Persia  ;) It was the first tym I am spending almost 24 hours a day and 7 days a week with one person I don’t regret it at all in fact I loved it but at tyms we did have small misunderstandings but then both of us did make it a point to end the fight before we sleep:)

we would also gift each other some cute lil things to make up for the fight , during one of our fights Ashok gave me this really cute apron :)

and i made this card for him

POST WEDDING ACTIVITIES

These were the best days of my life :) we had loads of fun attending small functions , travelling around for my H4 dependent visa and things like that . I agree it was too short a tym to finish off with the packing saying bye to my friends and spending some quality time together with my family members
.This was a pic clicked on one of the functions we attended wearing a traditional attire . ( we slowly sneaked out of the function and went for really long drive shooohhhhhhhhhhh.....)

I love this pic a lot :) i know what you thinking " made for each other " ya we know :)
Finally it was tym for me to say bye to my parents , sis, grandmom and my cousins :( I did cry a lot so did my mom :( I did cheer up after a while coz i knew i can always see my parents, sisters and friends through the web cam. We traveled by Cathay Pacific airways and our transit was in Hong-Kong-(my first foreign country). I have this very strong liking for idlis and my mom packed some yummy idlis and my fav chutney so we opened up the box of idlis and had it in the airport .
Throughout my journey all i thought of was this song

(Aladdin) I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me princess, now when did you last
Let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming

(Jasmine) A whole new world
A dazzling place i never knew
But when I'm way up here
It's crystal clear
That now I'm in a whole new world
With you

(Aladdin) Now I'm in a whole new world with you

(Jasmine) Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, free-wheeling
Through an endless diamond sky
A whole new world
(Aladdin) Don't you dare close your eyes
A hundred thousand things to see
(Aladdin) Hold your breath it gets better
I'm like a shooting star
I've come so far
I can't go back to where I used to be

(Aladdin) A whole new world
Every turn a surprise
With new horizons to pursue
Every moment red letter
(Together) I'll chase them everywhere
There's time to spare
Let me share this
Whole new world with you

(Aladdin)A whole new world
(Jasmine)A whole new world
(Aladdin)That's where we'll be
(Jasmine)That's where we'll be
(Aladdin)A thrilling chase
(Jasmine)A wondrous place
(Together)For you and me

I guess we must have been the only people who would have had idlis in Hong-Kong airport. After a very long journey we reached Los-Angeles airport. (I had my visa stamping over there ) It was my first visit to the US- and i was pretty awed by people's weird haircuts, stylish clothes and moreover i got to see different races of people. Finally we reached Phoenix at around 4 in the evening ( was the hottest place i ve ever been to )

Will see ya in bubu and kutu's home tadah..

MY BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!

 The wedding ceremony is the actual function when the bride is given away by her parents to her new family. The traditional Tamil wedding is a beautiful and complex process and involves several hours of Pooja (prayer) involving beautiful, traditional rituals.While the wedding itself starts by 6:00 am in the morning, the most auspicious time and the main wedding-The Muhurtham will be between 7:30 and 9:00 am.

Wedding Rituals...

Kashi Yatra (kaa-shee yaa-tra)

This is Ashok's favourite part of the wedding. This a dramatic enactment by the groom- the idea is that the young bachelor – is on his way to Kasi (Varanasi) to become an ascetic. He is intercepted by the bride's father – who extols the virtues of married life, and offers his daughter to him as a companion, to face  the challenges of life. (It's a different issue that he wouldn't have got to this point if he hadn't already agreed.)  He carries certain standard paraphernalia - the umbrella is held for him, but he also has a fan and a little vessel for water.

Maalai maathal (maa-ley maath-al)

. Wearing flowers worn by another is forbidden in the Sastras, but here the exchange symbolises their unification – one soul in two bodies. We tend to make a game out of this though with each trying to hook the other first - apparently the person who does so first will be the boss in the relationship! and he was the one who did it first the one and only reason being his height ,there is like  one foot difference between the both of us:)

Kanya danam (kan-yaa daa-num)

The bride accepts her change of status from an unmarried woman to a wife by spreading turmeric powder on her hands.Kanya Danam is performed by the father (or uncle of guardian) of the bride in presence of a large gathering that is invited to witness the wedding. The father pours out a libation of sacred water symbolizing the giving away of the daughter to the bride groom.  The groom recites Vedic hymns to Kama, the God of love, for pure love and blessings.

As a condition for offering his daughter for marriage, the father of the bride requests a promise from the groom for assisting the bride in realizing the three ends : dharma, artha, and kama.  The groom makes the promise by repeating three times that he will not fail the bride in realizing dharma, artha and kama.

This was pretty emotional for me to handle coz my mom was crying as she was  giving me away in front of agni 

Mangalya dharanam (man-gal-ya dhaa-ra-num)

The bride traditionally wears a yellow cotton 9 yard sari The groom’s sister is supposed to drape this saree as a way of welcoming the bride into the family. I did practice  before, so if you are not comfortable weraing practice it b4 hand otherwise its going be really difficult on the big day

Anyway, so the bride and the groom sit facing each other and the groom ties the mangalsutra around  her neck. He ties the first knot, and his sister (or co-opted cousin!), ties the other two knots (called 'mudichu' in Tamil) to the accompaniment of the Naadaswaram and Mridangam. This bit is called the 'getti melam', and this is the crescendo-ing music I told you about earlier.

The assembled gathering shower 'akshadai' or turmeric-ed and saffron-ed rice & flowers which is symbolic of their blessings being showered on the couple.

 

 This was the moment which took my breath away :) i will always treasure this for the rest of my lyf :)

Sapta padi (sap-ta pa-di)

   Literally meaning seven steps, this is what the couple do while holding hands.

If you take seven steps together, around the fire worshipped as divinity of agni you become friends for life.

At each step, the following vows are meant to be chanted:

We take the 1^st step to provide for a happy & healthy life.

We take the 2^nd step to acquire physical & mental strength.

We take the 3^rd step to increase our wealth by diligence & righteousness.

We take the 4^th step to acquire knowledge, happiness & harmony by mutual love & trust.

We take the 5^th step so that we are blessed with strong, virtuous and loving children.

We take the 6^th step to promise to care for each other for a long life together.

We take the 7^th step to be true companions and remain partners for life.    

   

 

Ammi midhikal (am-mee mi-dhi-kyal)

Literally, stepping on the grindstone, which the groom helps the bride do whill holding her left toe. It's symbolic of the solid foundation of the marriage. The prayers say:

"Step on this rock

Be firm like this rock

Bear with all trials & tribulations" 

 Some kodak moments

late night talks:)

We exchanged rings and then he gave me a call two days later before he left to Phoenix. I thought it was really sweet of him to give me a call , we were so shy that we didn't have much to talk. Then our conversations got more and more interesting and we did get to know a lot about each other .Ashok was in the US and i was in India so every time he gives me call in the morning I'll spring up from my bed to say good morning but then he'll be like its night over here ,so we had this cute thing which we used to say " good morning to me and good night to you". It was jus 2 weeks and i came up with up with a name for him " heeman" coz i used to like the super hero heeman a lot :) Months passed by and then i realised its February 10th so i wanted to give him something really really special so i decided that i ll make something for him coz i feel personalised gifts mean a lot so i made this really cute card and mailed it to him.

The sad part is that he dint receive it on valentine's day and he received the card only on the 17th of Feb. U know what?? he sent me a  bouquet of flowers and chocolates and a very sweet card which said " Oru sweet stall a sweet sapdukirathe" Ok let me translate it for you it says a whole sweet stall ( which is supposed to be me) is having sweets ( as in the chocolate). So that was our first valentine's day :P (blush blush) So the month of Feb was fab ( fabulous)
It was the month of march and we realized that its high tym we start thinking about wedding cards and ecards for our friends so we came up this very cute card

 Our friends were all awed by the card ,we put them inside small plastic boxes and tied them up with a very cute bow (Ashok was very insistant that i dont use pink ribbons but then eventually I did use it lol :). Then i got really busy doing wedding shopping, let me tell u something i shopped even the day b4 my wedding lol:) so thats pretty much what i can put on a blog ;) that would summarize our pre wedding activities

our first meeting!!!

Before I start my blog let me introduce bubu and kutu , " bubu" is what i call my husband and "kutu" is what he calls me. Don't ask me what it means, i have no idea :) Ok that's it with the intro let me start the whole bubu and kutu's story

 Our marriage is a very good example of how an arranged marriage happens. Like any other arranged marriage couple we found each other on some matrimony site and then Ashok's parents came and spoke to my parents and then Ashok was asked to fly all the way from the US. I was kinda excited about the whole meeting;. If you ask Ashok he would say it was love at first sight and then we exchanged rings on the same day (Jan 21st 2010). Before i even realized it was all over. I felt this totally fairy tale thingy that some prince came from a faraway land exchanged rings and then left . My parents were really happy for me so was my sis and my grandmother. I kinda missed my grandfather a lot that day coz he expired 2 years back and i really really wished he was there on that day. So ya  my sis kept teasing me the whole tym.

 So here is the pic when Ashok and I exchanged rings  to informally signify our engagement. We were joined by both our families who were there to share in our joy

Two happy lovers make one bread,
a single moon drop in the grass.
Of all the possible truths, they chose the day;
they held it, not with ropes but with an aroma.
They did not shred the peace; they did not shatter words;
their happiness is a transparent tower.

The air and wine accompany the lovers.
The night delights them with its joyous petals.
They have a right to all the carnations.
Two happy lovers, without an ending

-
(Pablo neruda's love poem - my fav)