WORST SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION AHEAD

Click here - My Cactus Dress or search for 'mycactusdress' on instagram.

I tried sharing pictures through blog, but that came out as a miserable idea. So I GOT AN INSTAGRAM for the blog too. Please follow to see and share all the goofy pictures I will be posting like of food and crafts and drawings and Christmas trees and Starbucks and birds and bird poop and puppies and lights and socks and water and sunrise and sand, basically everything under the sun. I am also going on a 45 days vacation to India and France in two days and will be sharing a lot of travel pictures.

I am sure we'll have fun. Share your Instagram user ID as well.

Let's talk with pictures!

30 things only Indian girls who grew up in 90s can understand

And by Indian girls, I mean girls who grew up in India.

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1. It doesn't matter if it was you or just your mom who watched the soap operas, you will however, never forget this day.

2. We had long discussions with our friends about which one was cooler between them.

and these

or among them

or weirdly, between these

The one on the right was scented so we know who the winner was

3. Cell phone was a luxury, hence we had an emotional relationship with one of these. 

4. They were our rock-stars. We had their audio cassettes and we definitely danced on one of their songs.

5. But we couldn't stop talking about them either. Which one were you? I was Sporty Spice.

6. We shared this with friends and also recorded our personal playlist.

7. They were ready to sing for us anytime we wanted to go exotic. We listened to 'Quit playing games with my heart' was are "taunting" song.

8. Television time was not just about crying, bitching and plotting.

9. Cartoons were better & funnier than the Disney channel. We knew the title song to each one of them, in English AND in Hindi.

10. And the title song to this one, still make our eyes wet with nostalgia.

11. How about a little embarrassment? Let's talk about fashion. (Embroidery jeans, bell sleeves and velvet bell bottoms - RAD)

 12. Admit it, you too had one of those shiny pants. 

P.S. This was the coolest movie of our times

13. These were our hot wheels

14. Until they showed up.

15. We have all taken our best shoes out and have done this at least once.  And boys, this is how we discovered Ayesha Takia, way before y'all did. If you know what I mean ;-)

16. This was the first English movie we watched, however we refrained from watching it with our family because of the painting and the car sex scene.

We hated the end. Why can't the keep they main actor alive, like Bollywood does!!!

17. While we are at sad endings, her death was the hardest thing to deal with.

Watch the stairs lady!

18. This is what we read the most in our library period.

19. Birthdays were taken way too seriously.

20. And we not just filled, but owned one of these bad boys.

21. Friendships day was bigger than Diwali and we always wanted to be the one with the highest number of friendship bands on hand.

22. But it was always hard to find one of these.

23. Then SHE came in our life and we were always out of our pocket money,

Because we wanted to get one of these.

24. Remember that crazy trend of tattoo Jewelry? How hot were we?!! :-|

25. We hated the moment every time our moms got this devil out.

26. And those five famine days when we couldn't eat anything because we wanted to do this.

27. Talk about food and we get the fanciest things today, but where can we find this?

28. Getting our first email address was the biggest accomplishment. Not to mention the cheesy usernames that we gave. What was yours, sweetangel2000@yahoo.co.in?

29. This festival meant nine days of freedom. 

30. But the best part about growing up was our school.

*sob sob sob*

It doesn't matter what our personal evolution made us today, however these little things will always remain the most important part of our life.

Did I miss anything?

Happy First Anniversary

I must make myself stand in the center of a stage that is placed in the center of all the bloggers and have them throw eggs and tomatoes at me. I am the sinner who got too lazy to put up a one-year anniversary post of her own blog. I know how much it means to the bloggers as I have read their posts.

Although, I made this blog in the July of 2011, I gathered the potency to write my first post exactly one year ago.

To be honest, this blog was not like my diary or like my baby or my friend. For me, it was a medium to channel my views, my amateur writing, my beliefs, my callings towards the society and my urgency in trying to talk about some social issues that were hitch hiking in my head from years.

Now, when I look back and read my past blog posts, I feel surprised by how much I could express and emote, regardless of being an introvert. I am overwhelmed by the response too. I never thought thousands of people would actually take the pain to visit this blog and read my ramblings. Every single comment here was like a reward.

So, I thank every single one of you, who have been a part of My Cactus Dress.

The ones who left inspiring and encouraging words, the ones who agreed with my beliefs, the ones who appreciated my efforts, the ones who left essay-comments (you were my favorite), the ones who giggled with me, the ones who got wrathful along with me, the ones who shared their stories after reading mine, the ones who just Liked my posts, the ones (thousands) who came to get the McVeggie recipe to fill their burger-hungry bellies, the ones who Followed me, the ones who gave those cute awards, the ones who came through Google search, even the one who landed on my blog with the Google search "Madhuri Dixit without clothes". Yes, I am talking to you Mr. Pervy Perverson. You all were a part of it.  Every single one who brought this blog to 30,000 views in just a year without a single hateful comment or an upset reader.

Thank you.

Yeah and that happened in one year too.

It was a beautiful journey. I look forward to more memories.

One love,

Help needed!

It's my request for everyone who comment on my blog through Facebook, to comment on the blog itself, using the options provided below the Facebook comment section. As my blog was made in the USA, I can only read Facebook comments that are posted from the US (URL - "mycactusdress.blogspot.com").

Due to Blogger's new feature, when you open my blog, it automatically opens it under your country's URL. Similarly, when you post a Facebook comment from your country, it is registered under the URL of your country. For example, if you are Facebook-commenting from India, the comment is only visible on "www.mycactusdress.blogspot.in" and not on ".com" which disables me to read your valuable feedback.
I am trying to solve this issue but, till then I would appreciate the above mentioned option.

Any HTML experts or fellow bloggers here who can help with this issue? I am also starting to lose a lot of my FB likes from my posts. My post "An open letter to a rapist" had more than 180 likes however, it shows 15 likes on my computer. I am able to see correct number of likes from my phone though. Not that it matters much but, I would be glad if it would stop acting crazy.

I am also opening a sort of blog-post series called "Semblance". It would reflect a similar pattern like that of "Happy Ganesh Visarjan" post. With just the title and contradictory pictures. I would list all such articles in one tab which you would find above ^ under the tab "Semblance"

That's it for now.

Love and rockets,

Random things every Indian mother tell their daughters

1. Why do you keep a cell phone when you don't want to answer it?
2. Get off that phone. NOW!
3. Get off the laptop. NOW!
4. Shaadi hone de, tab pata chalega. (You'll come to senses, once you get married)
5. Prakash mama was talking about a boy, he is 25, Engineer, good looking.
6. Why don't you want to get married?
7. Ladka dekhne me kya harz hai. (What is the big deal in looking guys for marriage)
8. Social functions ma jaai toh 2-4 manas sathe odkhan thai. (Gujarati for- People would only identify you if you are social) (loosely translated as, "you'll start getting marriage proposals only if you attend social functions!)
9. Ashok uncle's daughter is already married and she is only 20. You are 21! Kuwari rehna hai kya? (You want to stay un-married your whole life?)
10. I was a mother of two at your age
11. Why don't you ever cook?
    
12. At least wash the dishes
13. Don't make me get up. Don't make me come up there.
14. Why don't you ever clean your room?
15. I am not the maid of this house.
16. Ek baj gaye. Why can't you sleep early? Saat baj gaye. Why cant you wake up early?
17. Don't use that tone with me
18. Aane de papa ko! (Let your dad come home)
19. Don't you have anything else to wear?
20. Those pants are too tight. That t-shirt is so loose.
21. If you don't oil your hair, they'll turn white soon.
    
22. You have a million friends.
23. (on the phone) Call me when you reach. (10 minutes later placing a call) have you reached?
24. Facebook ki exam deni hai kya? (you want to appear for a Facebook exam?)
25. Teach me Facebook. What is YouTube?
26. Look at abc. How smart she is. Learn something from her. Look at xyz, why can't you be like her?
27. Learn something from your sister. (To my sister) Learn something from your sister.
28. It wasn't easy in our times.
29. In our times we worked really hard.
30. In our times we didn't have so much luxury
31. In our times girls didn't have so much freedom
32. Wait for five minutes until my serial ends. Wait for just 30 minutes, my favorite one just started.
33. An extra roti wont hurt you.
34. Why don't you walk enough. You are starting to put on weight.
35. One day you'll understand me.

Huhhh? Huhhhhhh? Have I missed any?      

      I don't think I even have to mention how all of these gave me more happiness than any kiss or hug on earth could've given me. Regardless of what I mentioned above, you are one of the coolest, liberal-est and swag-iest  mom on earth.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I Love You

I was two and a half years old when she entered my life without dropping a statutory warning. I hated her. With all the attention and the love that she was getting, I just wanted to get rid of her. I often use to ask my parents if they could dispose her in the bushes. It's only when I see the old photographs right now, that I realize how much of a cute kitten she was with marble eyes and a cub face.

She grew up and the pool of trouble widened. I had to catch her hand and take her to school with me. She used to bawl like a crazy, stubborn brat and wouldn't walk a foot from the school gate. And hence, I was always late to class.The real issue started when she grew up and turned in to my size. Every morning I felt like Santa, trying to hide presents. The only difference was that I didn't want her to find them and that they weren't presents and they were mine. She was a master in finding them and in silently exiting outside the house like a feather..

Man.. I hated her.

I wanted to shoot her for every punches, kicks and scratches she gave me.
I wanted to shoot her for every burglary that happened in my closet.
I wanted to shoot her for every meal fight.
I wanted to shoot her every time she wanted to drive.
I wanted to shoot her for calling me names.
I wanted to shoot her for making me get up and switch off the lights at night, even when I was half asleep .
I wanted to shoot her when she rejected all my feet massage requests.
I wanted to shoot her when she gave me long shopping lists.
I wanted to shoot her every time she asked for Apple products!!

Yeah just like that! (2009)

But, I would take a bullet. I would take a bullet,
for every time she cooked for me,
for every time she read my face,
for every time she tried to cheer me up without making me realize,
for every time she would shop for me and I would sit in a corner like a boss,
for every time she wouldn't let anyone speak against me,
for every time she would fight for me,
for every time she was there for the family, more than me,
for every time she supported my biggest decisions,
for every time she helped me take those decisions,
for every time she made me forget I was the elder and she was the younger sister,

You are someone I'll never have to lose regardless of any consequences. Having you on the parallel bed and talking until we dozed off, was my biggest comfort at the end of the day.

Happy Birthday Notorious.
I wish I was with you on this special day.

I love you to death.

Happy Ganesh Visarjan

This post is a part of my Semblance series. ^

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GANPATI BAPPA MORIYA!

Ohhh! Oooh..Check out these silly ideas some people used.

How boring!

Immersing clay Ganpati in the water so that it melts and mixes with the soil...Psssttt... Noob!

In a Bucket? So lame.

Haaa! What is so enjoyable about this, huh?