New Memories

Every time December comes around, we always say “Woah time went so fast” or “2017 is already almost over” and we think back to all the things that made that year memorable.  We start to analyze the good things and bad things and tell ourselves that next year will be even better. We set goals for ourselves and make new years resolutions. As January hits, we start out on new slates with a new chapter in our lives and strive to make this year even better than the last. As the first-week approaches, we try to engage in the “goals” that we set for ourselves- wake up early, go to the gym, diet, read a book and go to bed early. The same old “goals” we make every single year. Surviving the first week is easy, but as the second-week approaches, the “goals” become stressful and we start worrying about keeping in track and lose the one actual thing that should have been your new year’s goal- to be happy and content with life. Life is an unpredictable journey so make each day count. Do something each day that brings a smile on your face. Try something new. Challenge yourself. Cherish small moments. But the most important thing is to be yourself and be happy.

March 13, 2018 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #family, #friends, #games, #memories, #summer, dance, football, la, late newyear, newyear, prom, USC, winter Leave a comment

LA Adventures

It has been a long time since I last posted so I wanted to give a recap of my first college semester! Here are some places in LA that I visited so far

 

1. Last Bookstore 

   

   

   

Hands down the best bookstore (and the most magical) one I have ever been to! From the moment I stepped inside, I felt transported into a whole world altogether. You can find so many books, new and antique as well as even first edition books. This place is decorated in a beautiful manner with flying book, book cutouts, etc. A must visit place in Downtown LA.

 

2. Grand Central Market

Walking into the  Grand Central Market, the air was filled the smell of so many delicacies. I decided to try the Chicken Pad Thai and it was so delicious. The portion was a good sized. Although a little over-priced, it was still worth the buy!

3. Griffith Park

 

“City of stars
Are you shining just for me?

City of stars
There’s so much that I can’t see”

~La La Land

4. LA Coliseum

Game Days at the Coliseum supporting the Trojans are some of my most memorable times this semester!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 4, 2017December 13, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: Food, Stories, TravelTags: bookstores, gameday, LA Downtown, Los Angeles, photography, USC Leave a comment

To ends and new beginnings

Whoever said that college decisions are easier than college applications was wrong. At least for me, this has been one of the most difficult decisions so far. Choosing one place to spend the next four years. And making that school your alma mater for life.

After making the momentous decision of deciding what school to attend I thought my time in the hot seat was over; needless to say I was wrong again. Finding a roommate proved to be another hard process. The transition from having a whole room to myself, to sharing one with someone I hardly know is definitely not easy. How am I expected to decide who to live with based on a short list of trivial favorites? How is someone’s favorite television show supposed to help me define if I want to spend a year with them?

(to be cont.)

June 14, 2017June 15, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #change, #school, college, high school, new chapter, over, university Leave a comment

Heaven on Earth

Heaven, to most,  seems like such a utopian world where they are just waiting to end up in. The perfect place with beautiful surrounding, people, everything in white, just like stories tell us. But, I think differently. I think Heaven exist on Earth and I can gladly saw I have had a moment when everything simply disappeared and I actually believed I was in a world very far away from us.

During my trip to India, one destination I visited was Udaipur, known for its palaces and lakes. But I didn’t know that from a particular location, five different lakes met, right under the clouds covering the sun yet, the sun rays finding its way to reach the water. In the minute, everything seemed perfect, just like in the stories.

Sadly, no picture can do justice to that memorable moment.

This specific picture was taken half-way from a path up to a Mata Temple, to where we took a cable car to reach. Although the ride was long, the view was definitely worth the time.

February 27, 2017April 22, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: TravelTags: #beauty, #india, #of, beautiful, cable car, castles, City, Earth, Heaven, lake, Lakes, mountains, nature, on, photography, royalty, sky, temple, Travel, travelling, trees, true, truebeauty, Udaipur Leave a comment

Location- The District at Tustin Legacy, Tustin

Walking around The District at Tustin Legacy, I noticed the Union Market. I have never been there before and was honestly surprised to see how cute and vintage looking the place was. There were many cafes, clothing stores, and it felt that I had left Irvine/ Tustin area altogether and traveled back in time. The ambiance of the location was definitely a hit for me.

I was craving something to drink, so decided to stop at Milk Box. It was a great experience. The service was great! The workers greeted us, gave us a description about the different drinks they had present as well as nutritive facts and origins about their ingredients. They said that they did not use any syrup or preservatives for the drinks. They even let us try samples of the various drinks- we tried Peach Iced Tea, Mango Iced Tea, and Jasmine Milk Tea. They all tasted a little on the sweeter side. I ended by getting the Jasmine Milk Tea with boba and told them to make it less sweet (drink on the right) and my friend ended up getting Mango Iced Tea with boba and told them to make it less sweet as well (drink on the left). We were surprised by how fast they made our drinks.

My drink tasted a little bland at first but it slowly started to taste better. I think as the boba started mixing in, the drink became better and made me want to gulp it down fast but at the same time drink slowly and for a longer time.

I would recommend visiting this place and enjoying the drink along with the beautiful ambiance of its location!

 

My Rating:

Price of Drink: ($5)

Service: 5/5

Taste:4/5

 

February 20, 2017February 20, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: FoodTags: #taste, boba, box, District, drinks, Food, Irvine, milk, Milk Box, milkbox, Service, Tustin, Union Market, Vintage Leave a comment

Conversation avoiders

At every family gathering, I know I will be asked “Where do you like living better?” all the way to “Where would you want to live?”

Despite knowing that these questions will come up, I have the hardest time answering them. If you know me, you know I am an expert at listening to half the things and pretending to go along in a conversation. And that’s exactly what I have to do in these situations. Pretend I’m thinking and trying to answer, but honestly, I’m just trying to figure out a way to avoid answering them.

I don’t think by simply saying one country, I’m doing justice to any. Of course, no place is perfect in itself. I think it is the experience gained in living in different conditions, adapting to new customs and learning about their traditions and culture makes each and every country stand out. While in India, I enjoyed family life, in Saudi Arabia, I had exposure to a whole new set of culture and finally, in America, I was able to experience freedom and the excitement of trying new things.

And all these experiences made me who I am today, and I wouldn’t want to change that for anything.

February 19, 2017February 19, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #avoiders, #conversation, #life, #school, avoid, children, diversity, llife, muti-cultural, photography, problems, Travel Leave a comment

A little bit of happiness

Find beauty and happiness in small things in life.  Whether I am outside facing the droplets land on me or inside listening to them from my window, the rain never fails to bring a smile on my face.

 

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”

~ Roger Miller

January 21, 2017 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #beauty, #dream, #happiness, #happy, rain Leave a comment

Dreamland in hope

Life is like moving from one dream to another, till it wakes you up💤

December 24, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #dream, #hope, #life, #love, #smile, dreamland, living Leave a comment

Winter Delight

Christmas carols, hot chocolate, lights and candy canes are some things that make this time of the year special. One thing that would make this season even more special is snow. I have always pictured a white Christmas, snowmen and snowball fights, but sadly I have never had an opportunity to be in snow or experience it firsthand.

The closest I have been to snow was on a mountain in Switzerland, but that was more ice than snow, and I don’t even know if that counts.

But every winter themed movie has it’s different twist on snow, sometime it appears to be soft and gentle, with each snowflake beautifully created, no less than a professional masterpiece. And other time, its just white balls falling from the sky, hitting people in their faces.

With the changing and unconstant Socal weather, true winter is hard to fully experience. But, winter has a different meaning to us. We remember it as a season with hope, and it never fails to still bring a smile on my face.

 

Merry winter!

Ashna Paul

December 19, 2016December 19, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: StoriesTags: #dream, #hope, #smile, #white, candy, canes, carols, chocolate, christmas, coco, hot, lights, snow, snowball, snowmen, socal, special, switzerland, winter, wonders Leave a comment

Natural Beauty

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?

~Rose Kennedy

December 3, 2016December 3, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #storiesTags: #beauty, #birds, #india, #people, #stories, bird, delight, freedom, freee, kennedy, natural, nature, rose, santuary, storm, sunglight Leave a comment

Mosaics of life

Beautiful patterns made of hundreds of different natural colors on the doorstep welcome you into every household. Yeah, that’s what a ‘Rangoli’ is. It is a lovely mosaic made during the Indian Festival of Lights – Diwali which was celebrated last weekend.

My mind is exactly that as well. A thousand different ideas keep jostling with each other for my mind-space. And very often, many of those disappear before seeing the light of day.

I often find myself making to-do lists on sticky notes and index-cards. From school homework to events reminders, you can find notes throughout my study table and on random pages of my notebooks. Another colorful mosaic.

If we open our eyes, we see colorful mosaics all around us, in the randomness of nature – the flowers, the clouds, rain and snow, the flurry of cars rushing by, children playing in the park. Well, life’s a wonderful mosaic, isn’t it ?

November 6, 2016November 6, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #flower, #india, #of, #school, cars, children, clouds, colors, diwali, festival, hindu, hinduism, holiday, indian, lights, mosaic, mosaics, nature, Patterns, rain, Rangoli, snow, special, to-do-lists Leave a comment

Festival of Lights

I am always pumped up and excited at this time of the year. Not only is this season full of holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it also is a time when many Indian festivals are celebrated.

Diwali is one of the biggest and most celebrated festivals in India and is also my favorite. It is also known as the Indian New Year.

Every year, I wait impatiently for this to come, and as it comes closer and closer, an excitement sparks inside me.

But after having lived in India for most of my childhood and celebrating all the Indian festivals there, it feels quite different celebrating them here in the United States. Celebrating it over there was totally different and lots of fun with family and friends.

On Diwali, we dressed up with new and colorful Indian dresses, decorated our house with diyas (lights) and rangolis (decorative colorful patterns) and ate many Indian sweets. At night, fireworks filled the sky, and even though I always used to be scared of them, I also enjoyed them a lot.

Here in the United States, it’s still my favorite festival, but I can’t celebrate it to that extent. I still try to follow as many traditions as I can, but it is really difficult to go all out, especially during school.

So every time this season comes around, I feel nostalgic and always end up missing those days a lot.

Happy celebrations!

October 21, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: UncategorizedTags: #childhood, #family, #friends, #hope, #india, #life, #love, #sweets, celebrations, christmas, diwali, dreams, dresses, excited, festival, firecrackers, fireworks, god, lights, live, newyear, ram, seaon, thanksgiving Leave a comment

Dreams

Once a dreamer, always a dreamer because once stop dreaming, we stop living.

So keep dreaming!

October 16, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #beauty, #dreaming, #enjoy, #hope, #india, #life, #love, #smile, #stories, #tajmahal, always, beautiful, dreamer, dreamland, dreams, focus, leafs, live, living, nature, never, photography, stop, story, tower Leave a comment

Summer fav

Summer has always been my favorite time of the year and this summer I was able to visit India and reunite with my family and friends. During my trip, I visited  beautiful landmarks of India such as the Taj Mahal, India Gate and Qutub Minar.

Although I had fun doing that, my favorite thing was actually the food. The flavors and taste of authentic Indian food are mainly due to their not-so-secret ingredients- butter and cream. As unhealthy as it may sound, the taste cannot be replicated outside of India. And despite being aware of  the impact of the food, I still ate it every single day and enjoyed every bite of their spicy, tangy flavors.

I mean how many times am I going to eat another meal that will capture the essence of India is one bite. Actually, I’m not even sure if that’s true or it’s just my defense for eating.

Happy Eating!

 

 

 

October 6, 2016October 7, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #break, #brownie, #delhi, #eating, #essence of india, #excuse, #flavors, #gulabjamun, #icecream, #india, #IndiaGate, #june, #kulfi, #QuatabMinar, #summer, #sweets, #tajmahal, #taste, #unhealthy, Food, Travel, Udaipur Leave a comment

Time Travel

It seems like just yesterday when I was playing on the swings, playing pretend, dress up and other such games with my friend. Where did all the time go? I still can’t believe that day by day, I’m just getting older and leaving my childhood behind.

Every time I think about those days, stress-free children playing around, tears fall out of my eyes. Can’t I go back? Can’t I go return to those days and re-elicit the memories?
While talking to a few childhood friends recently, whom I had lost contact with over the years, made me extremely nostalgic. The long lost forgotten memories stored deep inside my heart were elicited again, but this time surrounding a loving memory to them.
I want to meet those people again, my friends who made me laugh, my classmates, my school and all the little things that compiled my childhood and were a step leading to who I am today.

September 28, 2016September 28, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: StoriesTags: #childhood, #classmates, #delhi, #dream, #dressup, #friends, #games, #hope, #india, #laugh, #little, #memories, #nostalgic, #people, #playing, #sadness, #school, #smile, #things, #today, #yesterday, time, Travel Leave a comment

Such a Wonder

 

The Taj Mahal captured from a side angle which displays the details present in it’s architecture.

The fort and river line with the Taj Mahal, presenting a beautiful array of display.

One of the four pillars surrounding the tomb.

The interior of the fort next to Taj Mahal.

September 14, 2016September 14, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: TravelTags: #1, #agra, #architecture, #beautiul, #beauty, #delhi, #dream, #hope, #india, #king, #kingdom, #life, #Mahal, #of, #old, #shahjahan, #Taj, #tajmahal, #tomb, #Unique, #white, #wonder, #wonderland, #world Leave a comment

Mayawati Elephant Park

August 25, 2016August 25, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: TravelTags: #delhi, #dream, #elepahants, #gandhi, #india, #nehru, #noida, #stories, dreamland, Travel Leave a comment

Present or Future?

Recently I was talking to someone who only had a short time to live, and I asked her “What are some things that you would like to do?”

She looked at me and smiled and in a small little voice told me that she had done everything she wanted in her lifetime and achieved the goals she had planned to. She told me that despite her struggles, she was very happy with her life.

Her response puzzled me and made me realize that every day is a gift, and living it to its fullest is important.

It made me remember an anonymous quote my mom once showed me.

“First I was dying to finish high school and start college… And now, I am dying – and suddenly I realize that I forgot to live.”

While we are running for something better, an achievement and goal, we forget about right now. I often find myself saying “Oh, if I do this and achieve just this one thing once, my life will change.” Maybe my life will change at the cost of my present.

So instead of rushing through everything now to have a better future, make your present better and live off that satisfaction.

Good luck!

Ashna

August 14, 2016August 14, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #stories, StoriesTags: #change, #good, #india, #life, #sadness, acomplishments, anonymous, better, boat, citypalace, college, Death, dreams, Future, gift, goals, goodluck, happniess, high school, lake, lifetime, luck, photography, picture, Present, puzzle, quote, satisfaction, short, struggles, time, Udaipur Leave a comment

Restaurant- The Project by Park Balluchi

Where- Delhi, India

This restaurant was nothing like I had seen before. Leading up to the restaurant is a rustic path and I couldn’t help notice the beautiful surroundings it encompassed. The location for this restaurant is its key. It is in the middle of a Deer Park and the from the restaurant itself, many deer can be seen. In addition, the sound of birds and peacocks add up the delight of being close to nature.

The food itself was good as well. As an appetizer, the ‘Vegetarian platter’ contained a variety of delicious items- paneer Tikka (or barbecued cottage cheese cubes), cheese rolls, and paneer filled fried potatoes. All of them had very nice and tangy flavors and simulated our senses asking for more. The presentation of the platter also made the food more delightful to eat.

For the main course, there is a  variety of different cuisines. Our selection from the Indian menu was the classic Dal Makhani ( black lentils ) and Shahi Paneer (Cottage cheese in spicy  tomato gravy) with a variety of Indian breads baked in a clay oven (Butter Naan, Tandoori Roti etc). From the Chinese menu, our pick was Vegetarian Hakka noodles and finally from the Italian menu, a Chicken and Shrimp Fettuccine pasta. All the dishes were finger licking good and having them in the splendid ambience of this restaurant made them doubly appealing.

The customer service was also nice and we found the place hygienic. Overall, in my opinion, this restaurant is worthy of being recommended as one of the delightful food destinations in Delhi.

July 26, 2016July 26, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: FoodTags: #appertizer, #birds, #cheese, #chicken, #deers, #delhi, #good, #india, #noodles, #paneer, #parkballuchi, #pasta, #peacocks, #potato, #restaurant, #review, #shrimp, #tasty, #theproject, Food 1 Comment

Happily ever after

A “miracle” might seem like fairy tale material or just plain luck to many, but I do believe that miracles happen. They are not always life changing but make life better and brighter.
They might make us smile temporarily or provide perpetual happiness, but in the end they happen and make our days better.

Albert Einstein once said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I’m sure many of us face them frequently, but even if you don’t, keep on believing.
If you believe in them, miracles can be found all around us, in life itself and in nature. It may not be apparent at first, but when it has unfolded and you look back, its scintillating memory will capture you.

We can either think every day and everything is a miracle and enjoy every moment or dwell upon small things in life.

Miracles might seem to only appear in fairytales but our lives are like fairytales, we might not be Cinderella or Prince Charming, but we all have our own stories.

So just like them, our stories can also end in the clichéd term “happily ever after”
So even if today is difficult, keep believing, because miracles do happen.

July 24, 2016July 26, 2016 by ashnapaul Categories: #storiesTags: #after, #albert, #believe, #beliving, #change, #cinderella, #dream, #dreaming, #einstein, #enjoy, #ever, #fairytale, #happily, #happiness, #happy, #happyending, #hopes, #miracles, #princecharming, #smile, #wishes Leave a comment