prameena's musings...

Family friendly vacationing at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Pre-departure planning Having lived in India all my life, I have always dreamt of watching New Year fireworks in close proximity ever since I was a kiddo. But I never could realize my wish until I had a baby of my own. One reason – such grandiose displays of light, colors and sound almost always happens in distant foreign land. And my teeny weeny wallet never permitted such expensive pursuits. My parents are simple folks (read Indian middle class folks) who preferred saving and spending money for our education rather than on such silly wasteful interests like travelling (meh!). But the gen Y people as we are, had other aspirations in life. With more stable jobs and better paychecks, we like to believe, the future will take care of itself as long as you acquire enough life experiences – even if it meant zero savings at the end of year. And so it was decided. An international destination for this year’s New Year vacati...

I couldn’t have asked for a better reason to celebrate (which translates to burning some hard earned money). My three year old relationship was finally entering the next stage. I was to marry my boyfriend. Apart from the usual wedding planning stuffs like fixing mandap, inviting folks, finding the right caterers and blah blah blah, a very important question lingered on top of our minds. Where to go for honeymoon? The thought of an international honeymoon never failed to catch my interest. What with my FB friends posting pics of their newlywed spouses with the alps as the backdrop or posing in front of the Petronas twin towers. But as a humble salaried employee, I stumbled upon the inevitable teeny-weeny issue of monetary capability. That’s when a friend of my then fiancé’s dad suggested that after my wedding we should visit him at his place. And what place was it? Its Srilanka – the land of beaches, mountains, tropical forests and what not. After duly discussing this with each ot...

 I am a true Indian who just cant get a good night's sleep if i dont bargain and get something for atleast 25% lesser cost than what was mentioned. I should actually pat myself for putting this extraordinary skill to the best use possible. So my shopping spree at T nagar actually was a test of my shear talent. I got down from the over-crowded bus that just spills out people like a miniature anaconda. Thankfully I was alive enough to get on my feet and enter the ever happening Ranganathan street. I wade in through the crowd of people to find the shops that sell the wares I need. My eyes fell on a peanut seller, the delicious aroma of his peanuts waft through the air and reach my nostrills which were wrigling under the combined effect of vehicular and cigarette smoke. For a brief moment i forgot my mission (of bargain hunting) and decided to indulge for a while (i mean in peanuts). I asked the peanut seller for a cup of peanuts. He asked my preferen...