Home #AtoZChallenge Hooked to Life and Loving It. Because Life is Good.

Hooked to Life and Loving It. Because Life is Good.

by Vidya Sury February 3, 2014 17 comments
life is good vidya sury

I am truly hooked to life! So much happened last week that my head is spinning. Let me share some fragments with you.

Life is good

April is just around the corner and that means the April AtoZ Challenge, for which sign ups opened. Yes, I signed up. You can, too. Sign up here.  If you are already signed up, buddy up with us at our A to Z 2014 Facebook group. More info here about what happens at the AtoZChallenge.

I got so excited I decided to participate via two blogs this time. This one and Your Medical Guide, my health blog. Oh, last year was such fun. I was traveling for most of April and ended up writing most of my posts at midnight and scheduling them before I slept. It is an experience I thoroughly enjoyed, thanks to my friend who made sure I didn’t slip up.

I remember how we viewed everything as a prospective post for the AtoZ Challenge. This year I intend to be more organized and have already started planning for it. My excel sheet is brimming with ideas. I know the folks at the AtoZ blog recommend a theme – and of course they are right, but I prefer to go with a mixed bag as usual. While I’ll stick to the rules, I promise you variety, as usual. And also, this year, I am on co-host Damyanti’s team. Yay!

My earliest memory

A couple of Sundays back I had the ‘flu. To amuse myself, I asked my Facebook group members to cheer me up with their favorite photos of themselves.

And the conversation turned into a fun day. So much fun that we turned it into a prompt and wrote a post about it on our blogs. We asked who was interested. Turned out everyone was – and we decided a date – Feb 1. Twenty women came together to share their earliest memory on their blogs on the same day. Shilpa Garg, the super-organized one, made a list – taking into account our geographical locations so that we could schedule our posts at least half an hour apart. The first post went live at 3:00 am IST and the last post was published at 1:30 pm IST .

To me, it was a shining example of cooperation, commitment and support. I was overwhelmed with the loving! My own post is at Coffee With Mi.

28 days of connection: Joy Holland

I am honored to be a contributor to my dear friend Joy of Facets of Joy’s 28 Days of Connection: A Celebration of Love, a complimentary series. Register anytime during the month of February and receive one message of love daily via email at 3a (PDT) from February 1- February 28th. Here is the link to register.

Something fun!

Two days back, Vaisakh Venugopal (my friend who burned the midnight oil with me on the even of the Write Tribe Anthology book launch) buzzed me and said he was up to no good. bored. He said,”I was getting bored.. so did something.. without your permission.. hope u wont mind.” So I asked “eh?” and he cheekily replied, “you’ll see.. just don’t cuss me”. Wondering what he did? Here:

lifeDoes it look like anyone you know? This is a digital painting by Vaisakh. What do you think?  Pretty good? What?

Moving along…

Life is good Vidya Sury

I saw a couple of sad sights last week. On Monday morning, as I stepped out of my building, I was shocked to see two trees being felled. These trees had to be removed as the compound wall had to be built. Even if it had to be done, It was saddening.

And in another place, I saw this.

life is good

Although there was a policeman and the area was cordoned off to keep the public away, I was a little scared to see them sawing away at the base of the tree, and to see the tree perched on the ever-reducing trunk like that. The next day, of course, there was nothing there.

I definitely needed some visual relief and I looked up at the sky. Cool sight.

life is good

Know what I love about these pictures? When I see them, I think of afternoon sunshine, the sound of children’s conversations and chatter,both guaranteed to give me a warm warm feeling. And I know that soon, my little scoop of joy will run up to me for an hug.

life is good

And because they chopped off those trees in our building compound, I was suddenly surprised to find we could see everything across the road as we walked on our terrace. All we could see earlier when we looked down was a carpet of beautiful green branches. Sigh. (Julie Langdon Barrett – I am looking at you! A Clear Sign, I believe!) The brightly lit place is the bakery.

life is good

I’ve been feeling sleepy a lot – and I’ve been cooking a lot to counter the lethargy. You know what they say about creating. Also, I have a teenager who’s fond of variety in his food and so, it was pretty much fun. Here is something we really love at our place – bhel puri – a savoury Indian snack made out of puffed rice, crisp puris, roasted peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, dates chutney and a tangy tamarind sauce that are sweet, spicy and tangy at once…and garnished with coriander and lemon juice. During the mango season, we chop up raw mango and add. Drool!

life is good

Ready to serve Bhel Puri. Just realized it rhymes with my name.

And…

life is good

Served and ready to indulge

And that’s how I enjoyed my week! Life is good!

Ah, just one more thing!

My friend, Dr.Chandra Senan published a new book titled “Oxygen”  – the story of a primal fluid of vital importance to all life forms on the planet and our intimate relationship with this extraordinary gas.

What were you up to?

Linking up with the lovely UnknownMami for Sundays in my City  – where I get to travel the world from my keyboard!

life is good

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17 comments

Corinne Rodrigues February 3, 2014 at 4:54 pm

Oh yes, this week has been wonderful for so many reasons and not in the least for the ‘memorable’ thread you started. It was truly an honour to be a part of this lovely exercise.

Sad to see the trees go – but glad they didn’t cause any accidents. There have been deaths in Mumbai because of the negligence of the authorities to do that. So I’m guessing they know what they are about when they chop them.

That bhelpuri is very tempting – I’m going to make some soon! 🙂

Another happy post – packed with goodness, Vidya.
Corinne Rodrigues recently posted…Balancing Self-Acceptance and Fitness

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Rainbow Hues February 3, 2014 at 5:51 pm

What an eventful week you’ve had..

Oh yes, the memory activity was one of the best we had on Write Tribe. It was an amazing thing we got ourselves into.

Love the colorful pictures of the food here 🙂

Just today I was talking about how cutting trees has been a nuisance…and I read this..sad!

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Guilie February 3, 2014 at 7:04 pm

Another of Damyanti’s minions stopping by to say hi 🙂 Love your blog, Vidya. I’ve actually been to Bengaluru; I spent two months there back in 2008 for work. Loved it, would go back in a heartbeat. Too bad it’s half the globe away for me. Looking forward to working with you during A-Z!
Guilie recently posted…Writing “The Other” — Daniel José Older @ BuzzFeed

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Vidya Sury February 3, 2014 at 7:17 pm

Welcome, Guilie! Wow, how wonderful to hear you spent two months in our city! 🙂 I do hope you visit again…this time you’ll have a friend here!

I am looking forward to teaming up with you during A-Z too! 🙂

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richmiraclefiles February 3, 2014 at 7:38 pm

Hi Vidya
The splash of colour across your post,through your telling photos,says it all.You do love life a lot.
Smile
Thanks
Mona
richmiraclefiles recently posted…Question Your Vulnerability

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Ruchira February 3, 2014 at 10:56 pm

glad it was a time for you to pause cause of the flu and you got the better out of it 🙂

hope you are back to your routine, vidya.
Ruchira recently posted…Silly Sunday

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Elle February 4, 2014 at 1:18 am

You are like an energizer bunny Vidya. Your projects must be your passion because you are so filled with vibrancy and love of life AND manage to fit so much into your days. Love that about you.
Elle recently posted…40 Encouraging Quotes To Make Your Life A Little Better

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LindySez February 4, 2014 at 5:11 am

India seems a very busy country to me, I can now see why. It’s people are busy.
LindySez recently posted…Easy Tamale Pie

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Cher February 4, 2014 at 5:45 am

You are busy, busy, Vidya! I really enjoyed seeing the photo of your neighborhood and your cooking… Especially the food!! I love food! Hugs!
Cher recently posted…Build an Upholstered Table

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Psych Babbler February 4, 2014 at 3:32 pm

Wow! You have had a full on week! And yes, life certainly does sound good! I didn’t know you had a health blog too…you are a super-woman!

Oh…and now I’m craving bhel puri….

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Obsessivemom February 4, 2014 at 4:51 pm

There’s something about your posts that always makes me smile. I need to include this is my 100 happy days list now – Read Vidya’s blog!!

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Jessica February 4, 2014 at 6:07 pm

It sounds like you had an amazing week! I can’t wait to check out the A to Z challenge! Thanks for sharing!
Jessica recently posted…Nickelodeon’s NickMom: Do You or Don’t You?

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Nabanita February 5, 2014 at 2:59 pm

here I’m reading this post and smiling in this boring cubicle of mine 🙂 I loved the write tribe challenge, and got to read some awesome memories of my blogger friends… I’ve also signed up for April A to Z Challenge but not planned anything yet…Looking forward to your posts…
Nabanita recently posted…Let Me Go

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Julie Barrett February 5, 2014 at 4:53 pm

Oh my gosh, Vidya!! The tree and green are gone! I will send you some more from here 🙂 I do think that is a clear sign, but for what hmmm…a small mystery? I have noticed that I will think something in passing, just casually, and BOOM there it pops up in my reality, but in often unexpected and sometimes unusual forms. I just asked my husband if he would like to go with me to India since I am gathering doubts for my other friend going, and he said sure, which city, because there is a steam engine company over there he wants to visit 🙂
Julie Barrett recently posted…A Shamanic Journey

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Rajlakshmi February 6, 2014 at 4:24 am

life looks indeed great 😀 such a warm and inspiring post. The sketch looks awesome too.
Rajlakshmi recently posted…The Saas-Bahu Explosion

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Dorothy February 6, 2014 at 7:20 am

I wasn’t hungry until I read this post!!
Dorothy recently posted…If You Love Me, Come – Sundays in My City

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Meltblogs November 25, 2020 at 11:17 am

Just came across your this post and your post always amaze me.
Meltblogs recently posted…PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT TIPS.

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