Dilli Dilli Dilli

Okay people, we finally made the move! Now we live in New Delhi! Considering that up to a few months ago all that I knew about Delhi was the railway station and the airport, I am much more seasoned with what the city is all about now. Even if its only the Dwarka part of it.

The truck was unloaded with help from the Army and for that I am eternally thankful. There were all kinds of scenarios running through my head when I left with Rehaan from Gorakhpur. Thankfully things could not have gone smoother and must share my heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped me.

I reached on 19th, the truck reached on 20th and my hubby reached on 21st. By which time I had hung up the curtains, unpacked the kitchen, made up the bedrooms and had the hired furniture cleaned and placed. I must also say that the location of the house is great because I could walk down to the local market and pick up WHAT EVER I needed.

The icing on the cake was my parents who are on a trip of north India and had essentially come for the Bhuj Fatehpur day celebrations to the regiment. Still they reached within two weeks of our reaching and both of them took over many of the settling down aspects. Dad turning handy man and Mom turning cook.

The boys are also more or less set in the routine now, although poor Rehaan has tons of making up syllabus as the books here are different from the ones he had in Gorakhpur. Still he’s made enough friends in the colony for one of them to come ring the bell and ask for him to come down and play one evening, so I’m happy.

He is also learning to skate. Can you imagine the school has skating and abacus as a part of its curriculum. Its such a welcome change from his last school. The class teacher is nice and the co-ordinator is really efficient. Plus there is the added advantage of having a friend there as a teacher.

Jamshed is learning to deal with the long drive, the long hours are not new to him. On my own front, I am happy with all the restaurants that provide home delivery in the area. I have baked precisely two cakes here since the time I have come, because I really don’t need to.

I have ventured into main Delhi just once when we went with Jamshed to do a route checking for his way to office, but like I have come to discover, you really do not need to move out of Dwarka at all. Every thing is available here!

 

We hit 10

On the occasion of our 10th wedding anniversary, we were true to form and did nothing! The day coincided with Diwali this year, unlike the year when we got married when it coincided with Dusherra. It was a quiet and relaxed day.
I made a cake
Chocolate with chocolate  walnut icing. Recipes for both can be found at the Party Food and Games blog.

Now I am gearing up for the move next month and may not be blogging for a while.

Bye Bye Gorakhpur

Bye bye frogies,

Bye bye termites,

Bye bye monkeys,

Bye bye seepage,

Bye bye kitchen taps,

Bye bye birdies

I promise I won’t miss you,

As I sing bye bye Gorakhpur

* My sincerest apologies to the original lyrics writer, but hey, I needed to get that out of my system.

We finally got our posting out of here and yes, my heart sings with joy to leave the borderlands of UP and Bihar to head for more civilized climes. It may be a tough deal to get the house at the other end, it may be more expensive a city to live in, it may be a whole lot worse for getting local help, but I’ll take it all the same.

I know when I signed up to be a fauji biwi that its never all the same in every station. Being a fauji baccha I was no stranger to the situation. And yet when its time to pack up and move with your bags, this is one place I leave with no regret. It may have been good in some ways, but it was equally bad in others.

They always balance out in the end, but for now I hear the beat of that distant drum to which I must march. The sound of the drum that calls to me as I pack trunk after trunk. It tells me its time to move on. The past is long gone. Its time to build things anew. So I move with a slight bounce in my step as I pack my curios in bubble wrap.

I don’t know when I’ll have time to update the blog next. The next couple of months are going to bring a mess. In more ways than one if you get what I mean! I’ll see you when I see you, and until then I’ll still be singing Bye Bye Gorakhpur.

 

Chat Shorthand

If you chat as much as I do online this is the kind of dictionary that you need to make sense of what your friends are telling you.
AFAIK =» As Far As I Know
AFK =» Away From Keyboard
ASAP =» As Soon As Possible
BAS =» Big A$$ Smile
BBL =» Be Back Later
BBN =» Bye Bye Now
BBS =» Be Back Soon
BEG =» Big Evil Grin
BF =» Boyfriend
BIBO =» Beer In, Beer Out
BRB =» Be Right Back
BTW =» By The Way
BWL =» Bursting With Laughter
C&G =» Chuckle and Grin
CICO =» Coffee In, Coffee Out
CID =» Crying In Disgrace
CNP =» Continued (in my) Next Post
CP =» Chat Post(a chat message)
CRBT =» Crying Real Big Tears
CSG =» Chuckle Snicker Grin
CYA =» See You (Seeya)
CYAL8R =» See You Later (Seeyalata)
DLTBBB =» Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite
EG =» Evil Grin
EMSG =» Email Message
FC =» Fingers Crossed
FTBOMH =» From The Bottom Of My Heart
FYI =» For Your Information
FWIW =» For What It’s Worth
GAL =» Get A Life
GF =» Girlfriend
GFN =» Gone For Now
GMBA =» Giggling My Butt Off
GMTA =» Great Minds Think Alike
GTSY =» Glad To See You
H&K =» Hug and Kiss
HABU =» Have A Better ‘Un
HAGN =» Have A Good Night
HAGU =» Have A Good ‘Un
HHIS =» Hanging Head in Shame
HUB =» Head Up Butt
IAE =» In Any Event
IC =» I See
IGP =» I Gotta Pee
IMNSHO =» In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO =» In My Opinion
IMCO =» In My Considered Opinion
IMHO =» In My Humble Opinion
IOW =» In Other Words
IRL =» In Real Life
IWALU =» I Will Always Love You
JMO =» Just My Opinion
JTLYK =» Just To Let You Know
KIT =» Keep In Touch
KOC =» Kiss On Cheek
KOL =» Kiss On Lips
L8R =» Later
L8R G8R =» Later ‘Gater
LHM =» Lord Help Me
LHO =» Laughing Head Off
LHU =» Lord Help Us
LMAO =» Laughing My A$$ Off
LMSO =» Laughing My Socks Off
LOL =» Laugh Out Loud
LSHMBB =» Laughing So Hard My Belly is Bouncing
LSHMBH =» Laughing So Hard My Belly Hurts
LSHTTARDML =» Laughing So Hard The Tears Are Running Down My Leg
LTNS =» Long Time No See
LTS =» Laughing To Self
LUWAMH =» Love You With All My Heart
LY =» Love Ya
MTF =» More To Follow
NRN =» No Reply Necessary
NADT =» Not A Darn Thing
OIC =» Oh, I See
OL =» Old Lady (significant other)
OM =» Old Man (significant other)
OTOH =» On The Other Hand
OTTOMH =» Off The Top of My Head
PDS =» Please Don’t Shoot
PITA =» Pain In The A$$
PM =» Private Message
PMFJI =» Pardon Me For Jumping In
PMP =» Peed My Pants
POAHF =» Put On A Happy Face
QSL =» Reply
QSO =» Conversation
QT =» Cutie
ROFL =» Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLAPMP =» ROFL And Peeing My Pants
ROFLMAO =» ROFL My A$$ Off
ROFLMAOAY =» ROFLMAO At You
ROFLMAOWTIME =» ROFLMAO With Tears In My Eyes
ROFLUTSROFL =» Unable to Speak
RTFM =» Read The F****** Manual!
SETE =» Smiling Ear To Ear
SHID =» Slaps Head In Disgust
SNERT =» Snot-Nosed Egotistical Rude Teenager
SO =» Significant Other
SOT =» Short Of Time
SOTMG =» Short Of Time Must Go
SWAK =» Sealed With A Kiss
SWAS =» Scientific Wild A$$ Guess
SWL =» Screaming with Laughter
SYS =» See You Soon
TA =» Thanks Again
TGIF =» Thank God It’s Friday
TCOY =» Take Care Of Yourself
TILII =» Tell It Like It Is
TNT =» Till Next Time
TOY =» Thinking Of You
TTFN =» Ta Ta For Now
TTYL =» Talk To You Later
WAS =» Wild A$$ Guess
WB =» Welcome Back
WTH =» What/Who The Heck (or sub an ‘F’ for the ‘H’)
YBS =» You’ll Be Sorry
YG =» Young Gentleman
YL =» Young Lady
YM =» Young Man

Useful resources for Working Online

Many of you know that I work as a freelancer and most of this work involves working online for different projects. Given here is a collection of some very useful resources that I have learnt from over the years. I have to tell you that the internet is a very fluid place and I don’t know how long the sites will be available. So it would be in your interest to copy down whatever data that you find useful onto your own hard disk if you wish to study it at your own pace.

Yaro Starak is a professional blogger who teaches people to run successful online businesses in the blogging business model. He has recently compiled an amazing resource culled from his different new letters that he used to mail his followers once a week. Now you can access the entire lot in one place. Click here.

If you are looking for a job online it would be a good idea to set up a profile on a freelancer market place. These are the sites from which prospective employers pick up freelancers. Needless to say the better your profile and portfolio the more likely you are to be picked up to do a job. Here is a list of freelancer marketplaces that I have vetted. I have personally done assignments on the first five on the list and have hear of good ratings of the remaining five from friends in the field.

To get a good online portfolio going it is a good idea to set up displays of your work on different revenue sharing websites. You can use Google Adsense to earn on some of them and others will just send over your share through their own payment programs. Here is a list of sites that you would find useful. Click here for revenue sharing sites list.