What is a good lifestyle?

I have worked on a Sunday for 16 hrs no-stop on conference calls, emails and break out meetings. Sometimes I wonder, why do we work so hard, give our time, our energy, our commitment, almost our soul to our jobs.....is to survive? or for a great lifestyle? Who defines what a good lifestyle is? I have a a beautiful home, 2 expensive cars, a great husband but we spent more than 10 hrs at our jobs, a few hrs with oursleves, 6 hrs of sleep, and what is remaining we spend with our loved ones....is this fair? People we love most, we spend the least amount of time with them on a daily basis....and the higher you climb the corporate ladder, the more the job owns you....so what really means by good lifestyle? Loads of money in the bank, a fancy CXX title, expensive clothes and jewellery.....etc etc....I dont know I dont have an answer for that question...but yes one thing is clear in my mind...a good lifestyle should definitely include peace of mind and time....
My curiosity to understand what this heavily used words means....made me do some reserach on the internet and google being my best friend...here is what some people have to say -
"Lifestyle is expression of life"
"Lifestyle is a way of life a person has chosen"
"An individual’s typical way of life, including diet, kinds of recreation, job, home environment, location, temperament, and smoking, drinking ..."
and so on so forth...
But what is a society's norm of a good lifestyle? After talking to some people, I realised nobody really knows and mostly people associate it with loads of materialistic things...a person may have the best home, car, clothes, etc..but we never know what the state of their bank balance is...so i think for me all the good money is for sure very vital but with it there should be a secure future, lots of time to invest in my loved ones and the freedom to control my time and money.....
I know I will achieve my idea of a good lifestyle someday....but sometimes wonder if at that time my definition or expectation from it will change to some other things....Question, Question!!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

At Girls get together at my place last Thursday 23rd Aug., I made lots of new friends & caught up with good old ones. It was indeed an evening of laughter, chit - chat, food, games and beauty tips.....

The evening started with Vainy and me trying to fix the soggy crackers :). Had made them in the morning and wrapped it with thin film, but they became soggy by evening!! Thanks to Vainy and Kets, they baked it and fixed it otherwise we would have landed up with soggy creamy crackers!
Vainy also baked a scrumptious coffee cake for us, thank you Vainy! Nikhil is still drooling over it!

By 6:30Pm, most of the gang had arrived and we started with a quick intro game, in which I paired everyone into pairs and the girls had to introduce each other & say one beautiful thing about the other. Got to know great things about all of them in just a few mins! Shruti and Nivedita won the prizes for the best introductions!!!

After this I did skin analysis for all girls one by one , I wish I had the luxury to spend some more time with them.Kets, Shubha and Nivi won prizes for best skin texture as per SAM!!

Next was all chit-chat , food and getting to know each other. I missed Madhu's stories though!!! :)
Lots of gettos and fun activities to come along, window shopping, girls nite out, etc.....

If you are reading this blog and attended the party, thankkkkkkkkkssssss for being there!! You gals ROCK!!! :)

Farfalle Salad

Made the Farfalle Salad last week for a party and the girls loved it so here goes one of my original recipes - ( takes 30 mins to make, incl preparation time)

Ingredients -
Farfalle ( 1/2 packet)
Red Onions (1/4 cut in long stems)
Artichoke (marinated)
Black Olives (sliced)
Spinach (3 - 4 medium sized leaves finely cut)
Olive Oil (I use the Italiano Benissimo)
Canned Corn
Cheery Tomatoes (slice into 2)
Sun dried tomatoes (for garnish)
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Balsammic Basil Vinaigrette
Feta Cheese for garnish as desired
Parmesean Cheese as desired
Salt to taste

Method -
Boil farfalle in warm water with one tsp salt and one tsp olive oil
Strain water once the farfalle are boiled and run cold water to avoid sticking (oil also prevents sticking)
Mix sliced onions , artichoke, cherry tomatoes, spinach, black olives, corn with 1 tsp olive oil in a bowl.
Add boiled Farfalle into the mix. Add 1 tbsp of vinaigrette into this mix.
Add parmesean cheese. Add salt & cayennne pepper to taste. Garnish with sum dried tomatoes.Mix thoroughly and at the end add feta cheese.

Note : You can experiement with some other italian spices as well.

Hope you enjoy!

My First Post - Life is Short

Finally, here I am....writing my first post...
It's been a long time since I have wanted to create my own blog and finally I succeed, Kudos to me ;)
Life has been so busy (in a good way) and though I complain about not finding time for myself, I have enjoyed every single moment of being busy! Being productive is like my red cells, I just cannot sit idle, I think its in my genes ;). When I was a kid, I remember telling my Mom , "why are you always doing something? Why can't you just sit somewhere and do nothing?" and Mom used to always have one reply "Life is too short to waste doing nothing" "As you grow older, you'll find the only things you regret are the things you didn't do". I never understood those words then but Igrowing up made me realise the depth in those words. Life is short, enjoy to the fullest. Life is short, complain to the least.
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.