Dusk & Scotch

First few days, and the hooman photographers have driven themselves nuts, trying to capture these little posers! :) :)

 Scotch examining the ceiling..

 .. while Dusk checks out my cam.. :D

Adopt A Stray

After months of contemplating to do this one, I can now finally cross off the very first thing on my list of 25 before 25. Adopt a stray. Check. (actually make that two strays!)

Meet Dusk & Scotch! Aren't they the cutest kittens ever??? :) :) :) :) :)

They were found dumped in the bag in the garbage, along with 4 other siblings, with their mother crying for help. I want to punch the asshole who did that to them. I hope he/she trips like right now and breaks some bones. :| 

An NGO called World For All rescued them, unfortunately one passed away, while the others were put  up for adoption. While going through pictures on their Facebook page, I fell in love. If you stay in Mumbai, and want to adopt a stray, please look through their Facebook page. And a sincere request for anyone who wants to get themselves a pet, please DO NOT buy them. The animals are kept in a deplorable condition, and once they cannot mate anymore, are discarded onto the streets like broken toys. Please consider adoption instead. :)

Spread some love people!

Annie.

P.S: My crazy friends decided to rename them both.. Suggestions ranged from Jack and Daniels to Rum and Whiskey.. to Butter and Scotch... and Sheesha & Scotch :P :P

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Now Playing: nothing... they are sleeping! SHHH! :)  

Three Letters

(This has been weighing heavy on my mind all along so this comes first)

To All Those Beautiful People Who Sent Me Their Addresses In The Last Post,

I AM SO SORRY! :( I PROMISE I WILL SEND OUT ALL MY RETURN GIFTS IN THIS NEXT WEEK! I AM SO SO SORRY! :( :( :( :(

ALL my weekends after that post have been so occupied! :( First, some friends visited, then Vishu happened out of town, and then I fell super duper even-the-doc-going-OMGWTF-happened-to-you sick. :| Then when I finally got little better, I got TONS of work because May was supposed to be relatively easy. The only *good* thing that happened, I got hired to do a wedding at a very short notice, which BTW, is a LOT more difficult than I expected it to be. Here are some sneak peeks I posted on FB recently.. :) 

So yes, be assured you will get something pretty sometime very soon! Cross my heart, promise!!  

* * * * * *

To All Those Giving Marriage Advice,

Yaar Auntyji aapko expert banaya kisne??!?!?!? :| 

It is very simple. Whether you have a rocking 25 year old marriage, or whether you left within a year with a bitter taste, or whether you lead very simple, "fight-free", disjoint sets of lives, or whether you fight all the freaking time. Please understand that EVERY marriage is different, EVERY person has a very different equation with their spouse, and hell, it is an intensely personal equation. What worked for you, may not work for someone else, and what did NOT work for you will work for someone else. Period.

Now that being said, if you expect to tell someone not to adjust, or not to supposedly "lose their individuality", you are an idiot. Sorry but you fail to see that EVERYONE has to adjust to make ANY relationship work. It takes bloody effort to keep a marriage going, and please do not consider yourself an expert on marriage (or even men for that matter). Auntyji, please K serials dekhna band karo! Get your facts about real men right, they are not dumbfucks, you know. And for the LOVE OF GOD WHO IS PROBABLY CRINGING RIGHT NOW, this is not a Bollywood movie, love DOES NOT happen with a orchestra playing in the background!! :| :| My very own sister's arranged marriage is proof for this one - my sister is a VERY pretty singer/dancer aspiring to be a super chef, and adored by elders and youngsters alike. She, according to me (sorry but I swear by Linda Goodman), is a typical lioness. She can spend hours on herself, totally unconcerned what is happening around her, and I am not kidding you. Now, she is married to a man who is a complete opposite of her - my jeejs is a very quiet unassuming, shy man, who cannot sing or dance to save his own life :P and he is most definitely NOT a fashionable guy with a romantic charm. Think Aish and Ajay in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (they get that comment a LOT! :P :P)

And, there was none of that stupid "chemistry" or whatever the fuck Bollywood calls it - in fact, she whined about being stuck in a different city with a totally non romantic husband and made me come over to her place in the very next month after marriage. Now after a year of some considerable friction, I see the two of them so very much in love, because surprise surprise, they adjusted to each others differences and decided to play on their similarities. Please do not tell people to run after the illusion of a Bollywood match, that only happens in the movies. And everyone can make things work, if they are willing to. :)

* * * * * *

To You,
Otherwise known as The Girl Who No Longer Speaks To Me

I do not know what could I have possibly done to antagonize you, and the reason that you did not want to talk to me when I was going through a happy phase while you were going through your sad phase, is plain stupid. I do not know what is it that has created so much distance between us, that we are back to what we were years ago, just mere strangers on each others Facebook feeds. I am sorry, but you have truly let me down. Because according to me, no reason is good enough for just cutting ties without an explanation, without a final talk. Sorry, but you did NOT let me down when you did not show up for my wedding (yes it hurt, but it is OK, I have forgiven much worse things in my life to hold on to this one), NOR even when you promised to make up for it for coming down here (though I definitely expected a reply back to my last email), but you let me down when you simply stopped talking to me all together. I am not angry, hardly anything makes me very angry these days, but I am deeply disappointed. And I am sorry if I did do something that unforgivable. Take care.

~ Annie

P.S: I am tired of being over worked and underpaid! :(

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Now Playing: All Good Things | The Weepies

Happy Birthday! :)

I cannot believe I have been blogging for FOUR years! 

My baby is big! Yayie! Have a cupcake y'all! 

Since I am in a great mood (though I do not know how many comments I will actually receive on this one :D) I feel like giving away return gifts for all the birthday wishes on my blogs behalf! :) I have made the comment section private, added anonymous users, will not be publishing any of the comments - anyone who wants a return gift handmade by me, please leave your address (you may or may not write your real name, its ok to be She/He/Ms. A/Mr. Z AND you can be from ANY continent. yes Dallas even you can wish me to expect a gift! :P) and I will courier it to you NOW! Goes without saying, all information will be completely confidential, and really I swear, I am very harmless, my handwriting is readable, and I wont send you crap! :) 

Love,

Annie.

P.S: YAYMYBLOGISFOUR! :D

UPDATE
Thank you sooooo much guys for the comments!  :D :D I will now make the comments public again, and everyone who gave me your addresses, you lovely people - Your gifts will be on the way soon! :D :)
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P.S: Hakuna Matata | Lion King :)

Sachin. Enough Said. \m/

Song for the occasion undoubtedly

Did you know Sachin featured in my wedding invitation? :D 

[yes, we are THAT crazy about Sachin Tendulkar]

Which reminds me I haven't shared my wedding invite on my blog yet! :D [Parents did the traditional invite, but I knew I was going to design my own wedding invite someday, with everyone asking us HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! just adding to the need to have a personalized invite!] I designed the invite and Nutties took all the pictures used. He also made a KICKASS video version of the invite which got like a gazillion likes! :D So here - sharing some pictures.. :)

I wanted to add a "How convenient." below but Nutties thought it was kind of stupid! :P

 (I still think it would have been cute!)

It says at the bottom that I am in love with Roger Federer 

while he is a die hard Rafael Nadal fan :)

 Our list of common likes.. Isn't that a great pic? :)

 That is another really nice pic he took! 

And that book is open on the Taurus-Sagittarius page.. :D

 Haha! This was his idea! *rolls eyes*

Again a picture he took ..

One of my fav movie quotes :) 

Picture credits for the couple picture above the text 

go to my bestie and Madgaon railway station :P 

Couple of pages for the Kerala and Mumbai receptions..

Pretty awesome, I know! :D I was all crazy-bitch-mode when I was getting all this done, I think at one point I spent the whole day at the printers obsessing over whether he was cutting it right. :P I was also shouting myself hoarse at Nutties about the video that wasnt happening, and I think he almost dumped me, and then I was shouting over THAT, because it would then defeat the purpose of the invite! :D :) The night before we handed out the invites, I even dhapped Nutties ka lighter to make sure the ribbon that I used to tie the booklet doesn't fray. Yes, I get THAT obsessive about something that I create! :P

Annie.

P.S: We did a timelapse for the little book flipping the pages by itself in the video. Its awesome! :D 

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Now Playing: The Last Day On Earth | Kate Miller-Heidke 

EPIC WTF Moment In The Life Of Me!

Something so incredible happened on Holi, that I have been meaning to write about it, to spread the awareness more than anything else, but somehow just haven't found the time to do so! 

So, as some of you may know, I used to volunteer for Teach For India at a local municipal school. I used to go on Saturdays, and generally help out the wonderful TFI Fellow teachers Ritika and Namita with the second grade class full of incredibly AWESOME children! :) My third week there, I took Nutties along, and we ended up taking some REALLY great pictures there. I think we started dating the following week! :) 

In particular two pictures kinda made it big - one of a girl called Zahraa, taken by Nutties

 [It was one of the photographs selected for 

the Akanksha Foundation - Kodak 2011 calendar contest] 

and one of a girl called Sameera, taken by me 

[It was one of the pictures selected by PictoryMag 

for a showcase called 'Platonic Love Stories']. 

These both pictures were pretty much the starting point of us both taking our photography seriously. [Yes new followers, we take awesome pictures of awesome people. Like as a weekend profession. I don't even know what that means... but well you get the point.]

Now here is what happened -

At first I went - OMGWTFNOSERIOUSLYWHATTHEFCK?!?!?!?!? Then I calmed down a little bit.

We are still trying to figure out how in the world did THAT happen. What saddens me, is that the school is a complete state of disarray, Ritika has been running around trying to get some help to repair the school (The roof actually fell. While a class was on. Little children. The school is located next to a drain that always overflows. And the children still come by, to study. Doesn't that make you, even the gentle folk, really really angry?) And here is this... advertisement(?) which speaks for itself. 

Here is what you can do to help me. PLEASE spread the word. If you Facebook (its ok if you are not really active), please share this blogpost. Please tweet about this. Please blog about it, linking back to this post. All in the hopes that if someone, anyone, could tell me what I can do about this.

~ Annie.
P.S: You can reach me on icemaiden.87@gmail.com
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Now Playing: Name (acoustic version) | Goo Goo Dolls

Notes To Self

I recently read a really great letter written by Tangled Up In Blue to her younger self here. I even commented on it saying, this is probably what I would have written to my younger self too! 

But yesterday evening, as I was cooking in my kitchen (I am really not very good at it, but advantage Annie - I find cooking interesting so I am eager to perfect it!), it was my first proper dinner making and I burnt the bhindi :P and Nutties came in and propped himself next to me, crowding me in our little kitchen. I told him to get out of my kitchen in a very irritated voice and to that.. well lets just say, my bhindi burned even more. :) 

So if I had to write a letter to my younger self I would be -

Dear 15-year old Annie,

I have nothing much to tell you, except that keep doing the things you are doing right now. 

You are going to make a truck load of mistakes and seriously screw up sometimes. But you know what? You are doing it all right. You will manage to land yourself into spectacularly disastrous situations but, please, keep doing that. You have so much to learn, and there is no way in hell you will be as awesome as you are right now if you didn't make all those mistakes. So yes, keep screwing up. :) They are just important lessons. And when you have had all those lessons, you will meet Mr. Right and it will be the best thing that ever happened to you. Things will work out just fine, kid. :)

Oh and a little heads up, for the love of God, learn how to cook! :P

Love,

Annie.

P.S: You already know which of the friends are going to stick it out with you, and you are right. They will share the bed with you and gossip all night long before your wedding day. It will be AWESOME! :)

So, if you had to write a letter to your younger self, what would it say? 

~ Annie.

P.S: My house looks like a hostel right now, living with a guy is annoying sometimes! :/

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Now Playing - In Loving Memory (cover) - Lena Woods

First Impressions!

Just landed at Cochin, after a grueling, LONG and weirdly jerky flight. Spicejet, you suck.

Observations.
EVERYONE seems to be wearing the lungi / mundu (whatever it is called)!!!
I think I cant wait to wear the white gold saree tomorrow - it looks so pretty! <3
There is a gajra hanging in every car! :P

And Oh. My. God. That is a LOT of coconut trees! :O :D

- Annie.
P.S: Would love to roam here with my cam, thats for sure! :)
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Now Playing: Kootil Ninnum | Thalavattam

A wedding happens only once, you know.

Annie.

P.S: Having put up with the suckiest of birthdays and the suckiest of new years and the suckiest of whatever other days, I never imagined that I will have to deal with it again. On my wedding. Thank you all... But really, no girl deserves this however loserly she might be.

Farewell

Dear Dallas, 

This is not easy - saying bye to you, because possibly unknown to you, you have become one of the most integral parts of my life. I know you will be back soon, but from the moment we all were shouting over the phone - you in your balcony and me in a Marks and Spencers changing room, about your acceptance letter - I have been all too aware of the fact that you will also be gone, for a good long time. I know people change over the years, distances makes cracks in relationships that sometimes no amount of love can heal, and I am scared that we will too, drift apart like all those other people. I am scared that when you come back, you will be a changed man, with other priorities, other people and other dreams than catching a 9.00PM R-City movie show or mushroom garlic sandwich at Aromas with hot chocolate. Maybe it is selfish of me, but I wish to keep you for myself and our little group. *sad smile*