Nidhi Srivastava's Blog, page 10

Hold the power

People who are regular readers of this blog would be aware that I am also a single woman in the crowd. I fell out of love, and I am no longer waiting for my prince charming. That boat sailed a long time ago. Every time I posted emotional content on social media, people wanted to reason that I had a sad life. Pre-covid times I did enjoy with my friends, went on solo trips, and even had uncountable date nights with myself. I live in the most happening part of Bangalore. I worked in the UB City, where the party never halted. I don’t know why people assume that single women should be sad. Why should parents of a single woman feel sorry? Single women don’t have the right to remain happy in their world! I have come to terms with the fact that people never stop judging you. So, why should you stop being yourself!
A few months back, there was a marriage prospect from a guy working in Cognizant. On the wedding apps, you have to upload photographs and a resume, quite similar to LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn’t allow bragging about your ancestors working in the government sector. After checking my profile on the App, his father asked for additional pictures. They never responded to those messages; maybe they didn’t like my complexion or face. Two days ago, my father approached them again unknowingly. My father couldn’t recall if he was the same person. The cyle was repetitive when they asked to share more pictures. I don’t have a problem with sharing my photographs, but they shared the college days pictures of a 34-year man. Later in the evening, his father wrote about astrology complications in my profile. That was the nail in the coffin. I replied to his message stating, “I appreciate your suggestion, but we don’t like your son’s profile.” An arranged marriage is the biggest scam. You can never convince a few people with the girl’s picture in saree or traditional wear. They pester sharing photos on WhatsApp. I am not sure if there are looking out for modeling portfolios. I don’t get motivated every day to be ridiculed by some stranger on the internet. They want brides to be Katrina Kaif, but their sons don’t merely makeup to be Rajpal Yadav. I am done with all this bullshit every day. I cannot take this harassment every day till the day I get married. A woman should never settle for a spineless man.

Lies we tell for Love

I hope everyone had a blast on Monday after the festivals. In India, we have entered into the winter season with the mild cold breeze folding our nights. I cannot say I hate winters as I was born during the peak of the winter season. I love the season when it is not a bone-chilling experience. I hate when it rains in December. I hate when I suffer from cold and cough. The worst kind of wintery problem would be a blocked nose for sure. I look hideous during winters, with a blocked nose, chapped lips, and layers of clothing. I remember my trek to Kheerganga, which was a dreading experience. Even after wearing layers, I was shivering the whole night in the tents. I won’t ever think of going back to that trek as it was a spine-chilling experience. Women have associated hygiene issues during trekking to cold places. I don’t want to talk about that experience for sure in this blog.
Have you watched the recent movie released on Netflix – ‘Love Hard’? This movie touched upon the dating life of a column writer (Natalie). You would meet weird people on the dating website. Women should be cautious about their dating profiles and swipes. Every woman would have experienced a creepy date or stalked a hotter man on social media. At a juncture of life, you might hit the pause button on dating. The writer in the movie had a disastrous dating life. Her boss wishes to gain publicity from the writer’s dating life. It might sound funny to the readers, but the writer was looking for the love of her life. The movie projected that we run behind the looks of a person and actor-like traits. However, in the real-life, we need someone who would be happy to celebrate the New Year eating donuts. I loved the movie for not pulling up a clichéd climax. It is not necessary if your life partner is Darren Barnet (Tag). Your life partner must agree to support your decisions.

Do let me know if you loved the movie or even hated it in the comments. Check out if Natalie settles for Tag or Josh.

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Prepping for the Season

I wish there could be an award ceremony for people who create memes daily. October, November, and December are the Saturday-Sunday of the year. I saw this line in one of the memes on Instagram, and I have started to believe it. We are close to December, and Netflix has started releasing holiday spirit movies. Now, I have two American nephews, and I want to celebrate every American holiday with them. Last month, my nephew was born, and another one got promoted to big brother. We sent across a similar theme romper and sweatshirt for both my nephews. This weekend we had a video call when both my nephews were awake and active. I cannot express in words the blissful feeling at that joyful sight. My brother always teases me that I am more American compared to him. I blame it on Netflix to have turned me into that. But still, my nephews are American, and they would grow to have an American accent. After watching two Christmas movies this weekend, I have started planning Christmas theme gifts for my nephews. On Instagram, I have started following a few artists from Amsterdam and Paris. Trust me when I say this, the Christmas season makes me feel underprivileged as the West has various mesmerizing gifting options and cute tree ornaments. There is a woman illustrator from Amsterdam who is currently prepping her Advent Calendar Challenge. I am excited to see her work, as her pictures are stunning from last Christmas. I watch all the Christmas movies posted by Netflix in November and December. These movies bring unannounced joy to life. After following a few Christmas-related Instagram accounts, I think I would be broke by sending a zillion cute items to my family in the USA. Please suggest your thoughts in the comments for any gifting options. I would appreciate all your help this holiday season.

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Post Holiday

In India, the festivals begin with pomp and end with winter chills. We celebrated three festivals back to back last week. Our refrigerator is overflowing with sweets and other chocolates. For the past few days, I have hogged on food like there’s no tomorrow. We have a couple of festivals lined up for this week. This month holds importance for us and is financially challenging. We are working on getting our home ready for a housewarming. I am hoping to scale through the winter season without damage to my injured leg. I am also looking forward to my airport shenanigans in December. I try to be positive even during rough patches of our life. Every time I scroll on Instagram, I miss my travel days.
To overcome my holiday mood, I watched movies. Meenakshi Sundareshwar is one of the new releases on Netflix. I liked the essence of this movie. It is a simple movie shot in Madurai and Bangalore with a minimum budget. This movie has captured the essence of arranged marriage. I am not confident about the arranged marriage setup. The writer tried to portray the positives and negatives of a long-distance relationship. In the movie, no one acknowledged that a married woman could be lonely in a joint family. A woman leaves her home behind and walks into a new house oblivious to people living in that house. Arranged marriage is a strange concept which prevails in India. But I believe many people have adjusted their lives around it now. The gist of Meenakshi Sundareshwar is the movie starts from a misunderstanding and ends up in a union. I would come up with another movie discussion from the new releases of Netflix tomorrow. I am enjoying my holidays with Netflix. I hope everyone is feeling Christmasy already.

Diwali

Happy Diwali to you and your family!
I am tired of all the household chores, and every inch of my body is demanding sleep. I am introducing the concept of a photoblog today. Thank you for being supportive.

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Live from the battleground

This year I took the initiative of working in the kitchen to prepare delicacies. My mother is one of the best cooks in our family. My grandmother still holds the best cook title in our family. She did send homemade delicacies to the USA when my brother first moved to the States. Diwali would be Sanjeev Kapoor’s kitchen style in our household when my grandmother was amidst us. While preparing snacks in the kitchen, I realized that every woman showers her love in making every meal. On the other hand, working in the kitchen is a tiresome task. Yet, every meal in the household holds uniformity. In my early days, I had rolled chapatis of all shapes and sizes. Today, I can proudly say – “I make perfect round chapatis.”
I will share my pictures from the kitchen tomorrow. I have prepared two snacks inspired by every Indian household. I am a tad bit proud of myself for taking up the Diwali snacks task. I hope you all are enjoying this festival season. Today, my writer’s mind is feeling sleepy. I will continue tomorrow with loads of pictures from Diwali at my house. We start preparing for the rituals in the morning, and we might get some time to pose for the camera. Till then, do snooze your alarms and celebrate Diwali with loved ones.

Do you care!

I have a couple of stuff to rant about today. Since the pandemic, we have started living with parents and getting used to their way of life. If I fought with my parents over something, that’s our concern. I love my parents, even though we might disagree on a few issues. Who gives people the right to insult my parents? I hope the universe is watching everyone for behaving like an ass. In the past few years, I have cut ties with my friends. I couldn’t compromise on my self-respect. So, what might people think when they behave like a complete ass insulting my parents? I hope karma bites them in the ass this time for sure.
I have another rant from today for everyone. Well, hello! People stopped caring out the environment. I remember lockdown days looking out of my window; I saw clear blue sky. Oh! The air smelt so fresh. The air quality index was the talk of the town for all the news channels for a while. In India, it is so difficult to educate grown-ups compared to kids. It’s not even Diwali, and people have been bursting crackers all over the place. There is an adjoining house to our society complex. They are the shittest people on the earth. Today evening, they burnt a pile of garbage on their terrace. We were gasping for fresh air now. No one can explain to them the importance of the environment. They are stubborn in their practices. They don’t care about drinking alcohol and creating nuisance at night. My mother scolded them once for screaming on top of their voice in the middle of the afternoon. I have had my share of troubles living in my house and these asshole neighbors. Men in their families create this nuisance, but not one educated person can help them mend their ways. I can’t imagine what crazy cracker-bursting season is lined-up for Diwali. I am still choking. God, I hate it. Just my rant for a shitty day.

Hello November

We stepped into November today, heading one month closer to the new year. I want you to pause a bit and reflect on the past month. How do you feel about it? I have achieved a milestone view of 441 in October on my blog. The traffic on my blog has been overwhelming. In 2018, I grabbed around 1.3K views on a blog written on the hospitality industry. I have written about my experiences and daily routine during the last month. I missed a total of five days in October MIA from my blog. I blame the festival season ongoing in India that I missed writing blogs. Diwali, the festival of lights, is around the corner. All Indian households go nuts concerning cleaning the house during this time of the year. Well, I was the victim of the same. Every nook and corner of the house gets cleaned, the soft toys go in the washing machine, cabinet covers get ironed. I am glad my parents did not throw me in the washing machine. I can still smell acid from the floor scrubs on my hand. But I am lesser cleanliness frantic in front of my family. Everyone suffers from OCD in my family, but they won’t admit theirs.
I am glad I had some time off from work and would be looking forward to enjoying festivals. My nephew stays in the States, and yesterday he was all prepped up for Halloween. I cannot post his picture as he is growing up now and would be concerned with social media appearance. Well, I must say he looked adorable in his Captain America costume. Oh well, he also has the Captain’s Shield as a part of the costume. Last year, he got dressed as Superman. I am guessing next year I must get him an Iron Man costume. I can only imagine him growing up in pictures.
In the other news, I watched an incredible movie, ‘A Simple Favour‘ on Netflix (2018 release). Netflix turns out to be a good entertainer and ruins all my plans to read. I blame Netflix for a giant-ass TBR. I won’t talk about the movie, but I recommend it as a must-watch if you are bored.

Buffering slowly

People say it is tough to find the right life partner. I started to believe this notion. Every day, I witness my parents extract data from matrimonial websites. They are chasing families like credit card salespeople. Every day, my father calls at least three families. Out of which, few ask for pictures on Whatsapp and then don’t even bother to reply. Few families have issues with my height. My friends make fun of my short girl personality. Previously, it was a mere joke. For the last two years, it has haunted me even in my sleep. There are a few days when I feel proud of myself for being successful. However, even in this century, success is weighed down by a woman’s marital status.
Last week, I didn’t publish the blog for two days. The reason was I fought with my parents. I fought with them as some random person triggered an inferiority complex. From school to college, I heard many comments on my complexion, hairstyle, and so on. I drowned myself in books to escape reality. Yes, it is the truth. I fought my boyfriend’s comments during my college days. The worst torture I subjected my heart was falling in love with a man who didn’t respect me. I would say a teenager trapped in a man’s body. When we broke up, I couldn’t believe I wasted the precious three years of my life loving someone unconditionally.
At times, my thoughts return to my dating days. My collegemates looked upon us. Today, I am the single person who happens to click likes on social media for all my collegemates. Almost everyone in my batch is married. There are four love marriages that I remember currently. I haven’t had the chance to meet my friends, so sometimes I talk to myself. It’s heartbreaking to believe that there is no soulmate for me. Or is there something so unloveable about me? I am trying to find a few answers in life, just like my parents.
Quoting from one of my friend’s poems – “Yes, we are difficult to love. We indeed are, but sometimes broken souls do find a home in each other”

Do read his poem and vote for him – https://hashtagkalakar.net/evolve/#page-content

F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

Yesterday, there was a poll on Instagram about a background running the show. The answer was simple for me. I can work, take a bath, play a game, or be in a cab and still hear the sound of the popular TV show – FRIENDS. I have the talent of writing my manuscript listening to the FRIENDS podcast on Spotify. When I started living in Delhi, I made Netflix my partner in crime. My workplace sucked, I hated the place, but I couldn’t do much about it. I fell in love with someone who would never fall for me. My mood was sour all day. FRIENDS was the only show which brought back a smile to my face. I have watched the shows on repeat. Any day, any episode would bring peace to my effed-up mind. The show has made me happy and sad at the same time. I missed my friends a lot every time while I watched the show.
Recently, I have reached the episode where Chandler proposes to Monica. I just realized that there would never be a Chandler in my life. There won’t be a person who would go down on his knees and make that epic proposal. There won’t be a person who would fear losing me. Do you know why there are no cult shows like FRIENDS? In the real world, people have stopped caring about each other. Love has lost its definition in the generation of Tinder and Hinge. You fall in love with the character in the show. Trust me; I have never loved any character more than Chandler. I don’t want to know if Matthew Perry was addicted to drugs during the filming of FRIENDS. I want to believe that back in the 90’s when Chandler was proposing to Monica everyone was sobbing.