Happy New Dear

Image from the Beverly Wilshire Weddings Pinterest Board

Since love makes the world go round, as a follow up to my previous New Year posts -  Happy New Here, Happy New Seer & Happy New Cheer  - I am dedicating a post to those of you seeking soul mates next year.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Dear.

Hope you find “THE GAL” or “THE GUY” of your dreams in 2015.

The one who is “THE ONE”

I hope all the forces of the universe conspire to make this happen for you.

Whether the forces are match-making sites such as Christianmingle.com, Chemistry.com, Match.com, eHarmony.com, OkCupid.com, or Shaadi.com.

Or whether it's just you and Lady Luck.

Either way, I hope an exciting new connection is just around the corner for you.

And everything falls perfectly into place.

As it has done for so many happy couples.

Prince William and Kate

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel.

When Ms. or Mr. Right comes along, hope you don't do anything to mess it up.

Like getting cold feet at the last minute.

Or sabotaging your chances.

Also, do be careful.

Because there are plenty of scammers and fraudsters out there.

Love has become the latest scam game.

And while you are waiting for Ms or Mr Right to make her/his appearance, you might enjoy this Movies and Music ROMANCE-O-METER quiz.

Here we go...

Romance-O-Meter Question 1:

Here are some famous onscreen pairs. Can you name the movies from their names?

Henry Roth and Lucy Whitmore

Edward and Bella

Jack Dawson & Rose DeWitt Bukater

Noah and Allie 

Raj Nath & Bobby Braganza

Johnny Castle and Baby

Answers: 1) 50 First Dates 2) Twilight series of movies 3) Titanic 4) The Notebook 5) Bobby 6) Dirty Dancing

How many did you get right? What are your favorite romantic movies and which movie holds the record for the number of times you have viewed it?

Romance-O-Meter Question 2:

Can you name the singers/artists of these well-known love songs?

Love Me Tender

I Will Always Love You

When A Man Loves a Woman

My Heart Will Go On

You Are the Sunshine of My Life

Answers: 1) Elvis Presley 2) Whitney Houston 3) Percy Sledge 4) Celine Don 5) Stevie Wonder  

How many did you get right? What are your favorite love songs?  In English.  In Hindi. In the language you love music best? 

Romance-O-Meter Question 3:

Can you name the sweethearts of the following movie characters?

Edward and...... (from Pretty Woman)

Superman and ……(from Superman)

Laila and…….(from Laila Majnu)

Romeo Montague and ....(from Romeo and Juliet)

Maria and…(from Sound of Music)

Answers: 1) Vivian 2) Lois Lane 3) Juliet Capulet 4) Majnun 5) George Von Trapp

How many did you get right?  And who are your favorite onscreen couples? If you like animated films, who are your favorite pairs from animated films?

Romance-O-Meter Question 4:

The following are lines of dialogue from famous romance movies. Can you identify the movies from the lines?

“I’ll have what she is having”

“Listen to me, mister. You’re my knight in shining armor. Don’t forget it.”

“I feel like men are more romantic than women. When we get married we marry, like, one girl, 'cause we're resistant the whole way until we meet one girl and we think I'd be an idiot if I didn't marry this girl she's so great. But it seems like girls get to a place where they just kinda pick the best option;'Oh he's got a good job.' I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who's got a good job and is gonna stick around.”

“Here’s looking at you, kid.”

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

Answers: 1) When Harry Met Sally 2) On Golden Pond 3) Blue Valentine 4) Casablanca 5) Love Story

What are your favorite movie lines?

Romance-O-Meter Question 5:

These hotels have played a starring role in hit romantic movies. Can you identify the movies in which they had a role?

The New York Palace, New York

Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, California

The Roosevelt, Midtown East,New York 

Round Hill, Jamaica

Park Hyatt Tokyo

Answers: 1) 27 Dresses 2) Pretty Woman 3) Maid in Manhattan 4) How Stella Got Her Groove Back 5) Lost in Translation

Which of these hotels would you most like to visit and stay in?  If you said Park Hyatt Tokyo, you can sit in Bill Murray’s chair at the New York Bar and Grill and order yourself a LIT cocktail (a mix of cherry blossom liqueur, cranberry juice, lime juice and sake).

That completes the Romance-O-Meter quiz.

If you enjoy quizzes, you might like to try your hand at The Unsocratic Coffee Quiz.

Many romances begin over a cup of coffee, so it’s quite in the spirit of things.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Dear.

Stay hopeful that you will meet your true love next year, because as Trisha Yearwood put it…."What’s Meant to be Will Always Find a Way."

Thanks for reading and see you next week….M.

Happy New Cheer

Cheers to a New Year.

Cheers to New Cheer.

To finding new ways to enjoy the moment, appreciate your blessings, to live and to laugh, and to celebrate being alive in 2015.

To increasing the stock of happiness in the world by reducing the stock of sadness.

Starting with your very own.

How will you stay cheerful next year?

Let me ask you this – what makes you laugh, what makes you smile, what lightens you up?

Is it a good story?

Are you, like me, always up for a good story? “Tell the story of the Russell Market doctor” someone says to my brother-in-law AKB. And we are rolling over with laughter for the next 5-10 minutes. "Tell the story of the guy you met in the BART" I say to Rosie and David. Ditto. There’s the the call from the Chinese take-out man story, the Bozo the clown story told to me by April, the aunt on the 3-D ride at Marine World Vallejo story, the Eva wants to know about Africa story…. we just can’t seem to get enough of our favorite stories. We can hear them again and again.

What’s a favorite story you never tire of hearing?

Good stories have an eternal life and the capacity to make us laugh anytime we hear them.

Perhaps you remember this story I shared with you, or this assortment of stories from the MAA days told by the inimitable Ajay Sachdev, the crowning piece of which is surely the Vellupillai Pottu story.

Do you like music?

Get ye to your favorite concerts then.

Or if you are like Tanita, to your favorite I-pod playlist. Or if you are like me, to your favorite radio station.

Cheers to more music in 2013.

Music you listen to, music you play.

Here’s to more bathroom singing, more pick up the guitar and jam after dinner singing.

Maybe you can even take it up a notch and show those musical skills of yours some love -  the ones that have never been tapped, or the ones that were in full bloom once, but have been gathering dust.

With so many internet sources to help you, and musical instruments being well within reach, you could be up and running in your garage, or bedroom by this evening, yes this evening, why not.

Music is a family tradition and I shared some of our favorite family songs in this post.

How about dancing?

Have you thought about that?

Yes, I know the story about your two-left feet, blah, blah, blah!

Get ye out to salsa classes or Bollywood dancing, or to what Alberto Beto Perez has 14 million people all over the world doing.

Funny movies or tv serials?

All those Steve Martins.

Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther or The Party.

Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory - celebrated in a 6 part series of posts on my blog last year.

Steven Colbert or Jon Stewart skewering some hapless politician or media pundit.

Or the movie that gave us the line “I’ll have what she is having” (any guesses?).

Ok, your taste runs to The Matrix and The Hobbit. Or maybe Fox News. Blah, blah, blah.

I say, if it puts you in a cheerful mood, go for it. 

Sports and creative play

What would we do without our Giants games, or our Forty Niners games or our Sharks games; home teams to root for, the Olympics, Friday Night Football?

What would we do without bowling alleys and a place to shoot hoops, ski slopes and pool tables and poker tournaments and swimming pools?

What would we do without World of Warcraft and Tetris and Call of Duty and Halo 2?

And the X Box, the Wii and the PlayStation?

My tastes run to scrabble and caroms, but I totally get that you love what you love.

So cheers to more of all of that. 

Being part of a fun group 

So maybe you can’t be a member of Bangalore Club, or of San Francisco’s Super Exclusive only-Presidents-and-Bechtels, Basses and Rockerfellers Bohemian Club (and get to watch the Cremation of Care ceremony).

But there are umpteen other groups you might enjoy being a part of.

Adventure groups, hiking groups, scrap-booking groups.

And groups you may have never heard of.

Such as National Nameless Luminaries – which consists of people who teach kids how to build model cars and hold exhibitions every year in different parts of the country. Or Hash House Harriers - which bills itself as Runners with a Drinking problem - and hosts unique events such as the Red Dress run.

Why you can even start your own group. Get thinking.

Parties, celebrations and get-togethers

The word “party” has a magic to it.  Special celebrations like showers, birthdays, weddings and anniversaries even more.  And I know Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year make people go crazy happy too.  Parties create lifelong memories.   You can probably remember and re-tell incidents from parties that happened eons ago. Whether it’s the party when the 3 of you danced like the Supremes. Or the party where everyone dressed in lungis. If I had to nominate a person for an MPM Award (Memorable Party Moments) - it would have to be Chetan Shah. And my runner-up nomination would be Ranjan Ghoshal.

What incidents are evergreen in your mind from some of the parties you have attended? And who would get your nomination for MPM? 

Also, would you care to write a piece on one of the memorable parties in your life? It could even be your own wedding. Or some interesting event that you attended. I would love to publish it on the blog.

P.S. Nieces and nephews, I have fond memories of all your weddings; I even got a post out of one of them. And Tanita, I still treasure all those memories of all those birthday parties we had for you at Bamboola and Hands on the Arts.

Good food

Mmm…..isn’t good food da bomb?  And doesn’t it have the capacity to put you in a super happy mood? So thanks to all the cooks of the world. Do I think it’s great to have so many of them right in the family? Totally.

Everything about food is amazing, eaten in moderation, of course.

So cheers to more biryani, dosas, appams and stew, cheers to Malaysian food and Indonesian food and Thai food and all the other food that floats my boat and all the interesting food that floats your boat.

P.S.  If you want to read a light-hearted piece about cooking and our family, you can do so here.

Travel

Hope you go on a magical journey in 2013.  A journey that’s everything you wanted it to be and more.

P.S. Books and tv are a great way to travel too. Confession:  I am quite happy exploring the world from in front of a book, computer or a tv.

Pets

How can I forget pets?  They have a capacity to bring us cheer even if nothing else does.  I see SPCA bumper stickers which read “My Pet Rescued Me”. I totally get it.

Hope your pets – your Kyaras, your Oscars, your Bellas, your Deweys continue to bring you lots of cheer in 2013. And if you are planning to get a pet in 2013 – let’s call it Huggy, I know it’s going to be a source of great joy.

If everything about pets delights you, you may like reading this post by Anita Saran, or this TMZ style scoop by moi.

The Lamenters Club and the Say Cheese Club

I could go on and on.  If you like meditating or gardening, or taking pictures and writing poetry like my friend Cindy does, or painting, or wine-making, or looking after your grandkids, hope that brings you cheer in 2013.

Lots of it.

Whatever puts a smile on your face, I wish you more of that.

See there are 2 clubs – the Lamenters Club (LC) and the Say Cheese Club (SC).

I hope you will spend most of your time at the SC next year.

Happy New Year

Happy New Cheer.

Or as Steve Maraboli put it…“This life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. I choose to live life this way. I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, 'aw shit, he's up!”

Thanks for reading and see you next week….M

Happy New Seer

Taken from Divya Silbermann's Adventures in My Kitchen Pinterest board

Happy New Year.

Happy New Seer.

By seer, I meant the advisers, role models, mentors, coaches and advice you will invite into your life next year.

What will you learn next year and from whom?

And what new trajectory might it set you on?

In your career, in your personal life?

I wonder.

Cheers to finding the right diet and fitness solution – hope you get lucky like I did.  

Here are a spr – ink – ling of other ideas to get you exploring.

Cheers to taking your cooking ability to the next level – The Food Channel, Cake Boss and Pinterest are a flick of a tv or computer switch away.

And your favorite family cooks are just a phone call away.

Cheers to thinking outside the education box – with help from Academic Earth, Khan Academy, TED, Wikipedia, your local library’s website, and everything else the web has to offer.

This piece of advice comes straight from the heart - here’s the scoop.

Cheers to getting your finances under control - the Suze Orman way, the Dave Ramsey Way, the David Bach way, the Bogleheads way, or the whole Personal Finance section in Barnes & Nobles way. 

And cheers to not making any of the mistakes I have made, to adopting the right approach; and knowing all the pitfalls and traps, all the pitfalls and traps.

Cheers to using smart shopping tools whether you are buying a car, shopping for health insurance, or going out to eat.

P.S. If you are going a Pho place, try their green papaya salad (a salad I have gushed about before in this here post)

Cheers to listening to Tony Robbins, Joel Osteen or Wayne Dyer if you need to reignite your passion, motivation and determination.

Or reading stories of people who have done incredible things.

Cheers to launching your own business the Naveen Selvadurai way, the Sean Belnick way, the Susan Gregg Koger way.

Cheers to having the courage to doing it even if you have to change course.

Cheers to being able to step up to a podium confidently with the help of Toastmasters.

And cheers to thinking of ways to spice up every speech.

Cheers to learning the art of conversation from Socrates and becoming a critical thinker and free spirit like Diogenes.

And not missing out on the nuggets of wisdom passed to you by family and friends.

Cheers to learning how to live from the wisest of all seers – our family pets - I quote John Grogan (author of Marley and Me):

“A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”

I hope 2015 brings you all this and more.

Happy New Seer.

Hope you find teachers wherever you go and whatever you do.

Or, as Sarah Caldwell put it….. “Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can, there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.” 

Thanks for reading and see you next week....M