The girl with the pimples

My MIL is very worried these days. A wedding in the family is up and coming while my face has become the land of eruptions, yet again. Well, its one of those phases (that comes back every month, almost) where one after the other numerous, ugly, painful, irritating, beauty defying pimples pop up all over my face. It starts with this one nasty boil in a corner and before I realize and get serious about battling it, I have this whole army of resistant reddies stationing themselves at the most impossible places on my face. Between the eyebrows and under the chin and the most embarrassing of them all, right at the tip of the nose (thanks for those "I know how that feels").
And I have been battling with these pain causers for many many years now. All through school and college and job (and even today when I am married and 27), they have been scheming to bring my confidence down every single month. Ofcourse I have tried all means from boroline to clove to sandalwood to doctor prescribed medicines to toothpaste to face washes to scrubs to expensive facials to curd to fruits to water to nothing at all. And all in vain quite obviously. Someone even told me today to rub a clean finger on a pimple for it to go away. If Only.
So, ultimately one needs to build a shield (mental shield) to live with this trauma. To bear the embarrassment of showing up at parties with a pimple for a beauty spot or the disgusting looks from the passerbys (most irritating are the looks of the aunties at family functions). To be not affected when referred to as the girl with pimples on her face. Very early on I decided that I wont let a meager pimple ( or 10) on my face to dampen my spirits and lower my confidence. Even today I put my best face forward in the wake of adversity. But who am I fooling. It hurts to see girls with clear skins and I still buy each product in the market that claims to cure my problem.
But I am fighting on, have not given up and have sworn to see the other side of it. I am still hopeful, there will be a time in my life where there will be no pimples and I will be able to say yes to any outing without thinking twice and I will stop avoiding certain relatives and finally I will be able to use the countless creams that (I buy and not use) are lying in my closet without the worries of another one of the dreaded race popping up. Here's wishing you all a very happy pimple free year ahead!! CIAO!!

The Bungalow of Our Dreams

My MIL wants to live in a bungalow. Well, now that's a pretty minimalist wish some would say but a distant dream for a middle class family. However, in the moment that she said this I felt like fulfilling her wish and an ingenious idea dawned upon me. What if I could be in the Indian Civil Services? Then I can most definitely shift into a fully furnished bungalow with 24*7 helps around (yes..these are the biggest perks here in India for being in government services). Ah..how I wish!!

Now lets see what are the odds - 1) Luckily I have the age on my side 2) There has to be a lot of studying 3) IT's been nearly 5 years since I have studied for an exam 4) There are tens of millions of other contenders 5) Who are more enthusiastic 6) Unmarried 7) Poor and Needy . I think you get the drift.

There's another thing that I was reminded of while my mind was trying to churn out reasons as to why I cannot be taking the Civil Services exams - the essay. So I have heard, that there is an essay that needs to be written as part of the test explaining the purpose of joining the services. Well I cant tell them the real reason (MIL wanting a bungalow) or the cleached one (changing the system from within). I need to build a purpose like one of my friends developed a passion (watching James Bond movies...yes, totally weird) within a month to present it during MBA entrance interviews. But building a purpose is not simple, so I am working on it and will keep you updated.

Sorry MIL, you will have to wait till at least 10 more years when hopefully me and your son will have progressed considerably in our carriers and will be in top executive positions in our work place and probably bungalow will one of the perks. Please don't stress yourself cos I wish to live with you in that bungalow 10 years down the line.

P.S. I do not deserve to own a bunglow. See, I can't even spell it correctly. CIAO!!

And here we start..

I want to make a confession here. Though it may sound obvious to some of you, but I am starting this blog to make money. Ah well, that should not be a surprise. Sorry for being so predictable. But honestly, I recently heard from a friend (rather a relative) how she uses her fashion blog to make lots of passive money. Well, I thought, if she can do it why can't I. After all, I would like to think of myself as a superior writer (pardon the haughtiness) and I am the software engineer (again). Not that being a software engineer has to do anything with literature (not that writing a blog is exactly equivalent to creating literature).Oops, I need to stop this loop.

Anyways, leaving apart the reasons as to why I want to start a blog, here I am. Officially writing my first ever blog post. And presently, the big question looming over me is to decide on a topic for the blog (or at least an underlying theme). During my brief research before starting off this endeavor, I came across quite a few articles which insisted on the importance of a topic for a blog.

So, I thought what could it be. It should be interesting enough for me to write about and for the readers to spend their 5 minutes worth. Again, it has to be a part of my life. How else can I get enough "masala" to put it down. Then it struck me the one thing that has taken an overpowering presence in my life since past year - my MIL. This relationship is singlehandedly responsible for the major part of my mood swings and general behavior.

As a start, I would like to share my experiences and interactions with my MIL for it to bring perspective to all of you out there. To those of you who are married with in-laws, the ones without. To those of you familiar with the Indian culture, the ones not.

BTW, thanks for coming here (I mean to this last para). And did you read earlier that I am writing this blog to make money? well that is the fancy but I would like to give wings to my writing first. See you at the next post. CIAO!!