During lunch on last Saturday, I saw the horror unfold. The images on TV of my home town, being torn apart, the images of blood on the stairways of Lumbini park, the same area I’ve driven past innumerous times, I just couldn’t swallow the fact that my home is attacked. I know there has always been some communal tension, but to this elevated level didn’t seem real. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing the images of NY WTC, or the subway in London, all I knew is it was a place I call HOME in my heart and soul. Hyderabad, being attacked so horribly, seems unbelievable.
We stand with each and every family affected by these horrifying acts in these difficult times.
The story of a sister, the tears of a father in law, the cries of a mother in Maharastra, the silent moans of an ambitious son’s father, all in Hyderabad, sharing a moment in Lumbini Park / Koti…are united by the love offered by hyd but struck tragically. My eyes swelled with tears……feeling helpless. Feeling anger that someone touched my home.
From the unique blend of cultures, the incomparable accent, to the irrefutable biryani and the laid back attitude, we are like no other and yet we are the same in this moment of truth.
You be a New Yorker, Londoner, Iraqi, or a Hyderabadi, we cant escape, with all the attention and growth we’ve been having, a fumble of human lives wasn’t what I expected. Will my fears be translated in the same way by anyone traveling to hyde, forget people from other countries, what about our own fellow Indians, will they think twice before heading to Hyde.
One Hyderabadi said, this is not about religion or anything else, these people are against humanity, “ek ek ko sadak pey lakey, suli pey chada doh” (bring each one of the convicted and hang them in public), I couldn’t agree more, my sense of anger, fear for my loved ones and friends, definitely makes anyone squirm and go find a peaceful place. But we need to remind ourselves that this search for that special place doesn’t go beyond where we live.
Though the mood of Hyderabadi’s seems somber NOW, I know we’ll bounce back, I know we HAVE to bounce back, locking ourselves in the “so called comfort” of our homes, is not the answer. I know we want to protect our families, our friends, but don’t forget the fear of people we are instilling in them by not going beyond the bounds of our home.
Don’t forget that by doing so, we are giving the terrorist outfits just what they want, fear for them. Don’t let yourself be bullied. Be strong, have faith in yourself.
Questions, our ancestors, our grandparents, our parents, asked themselves are the same ones we are faced to find answers. It is now or never.
In the quite moments, not understanding and judging everyone by their appearance, we ask these questions:
What do we do, what, we are not terrorists, we didn’t die, we have enough money to save our ourselves if this even touches us remotely?
What we can do is stop, just stop blaming the govt, the state, the country. Just stop it.
What we can do is volunteer help at the hospitals, to the cops, to the families of victims.
What we can do is stop spreading rumors. You know I saw this, I saw that…no…just stop it. Don’t spread fear.
What we can do is talk to our kids, talk to people who are confused, talk to people who don’t understand how to deal with this.
Just watching inspirational movies and talking principles doesn’t do a thing to our country.
You might wonder, “But I’m only one person what can I do ?”
You can talk, you can talk to people, spread the word of love, send sms’s, collect money for clean up efforts at these places, you don’t trust govt, hire your own service orgs and give them money to do this. Show your face, show strength. We are no less than a newyorker or a Londoner, we have what it takes to beat it.
You don’t have to be a hero, you have to be yourself.
If not you, who, if not now, when? Just ask yourself this ….
I love you, Hyderabad, and always will.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Ahemm...!
I was at Sub-way for lunch and because of my growling stomach, I finished more than half of my 6 inch sandwich before I even opened the bag of nachos. As I was making peace with my lunch, I saw Bob D. walking in to Subway, I gave him a friendly wave, and he stopped by at my table. This gave us a chance to swap news of here and there. KT is visiting India for 4 months atleast he said, I said nooo… just 2 months, she told me of it. Ohh…oh…JM’s wife delivered a baby girl after a long very long labor, I was like woof ! when did this happen I curiously asked, he said oh just y’day, Scott is trying to do other projects too while still doing some work for VWR, oh u should see MM, she’s cut her hair short and dyed it red ! I was mildly surprised and told him I have to come by to see you all. AK’s wife is finally here and we all went to lunch, she seems nice – he continued. I asked him so how is my replacement working out, he said oh he’s doing alright…he paused as if he wanted to correct himself, he then said, well you know he’s not as terrific as you are, but I think he’s doing ok, I gave him a knowing smile, and said I’m glad you corrected yourself, Bob, and he just shrugged. Just then I mentioned to him about my impending baby. He heartily congratulated me and had the usual preggo talk…when was I due, do I know if it’s a girl or a boy ?, his 10 yr old girl who’s such a drama queen these days, but how he still loves her when she hugs and kisses him. After a bit, he mentioned that he gotta be going. Just b4 leaving my table he asked “so what are you reading”, before I answered, he gently flipped the book 
to see the name of it on the cover – he read it out loud, “Yummy Mummy”, this time he gave me a broad smile and said “Nyyyce”… and he walked away to order his lunch. There wasn’t a chance for me to tell him that it’s not a racy book instead it’s about the blues a woman is experiencing after her baby delivery, how she makes new friends, her inability to decide if she should get back to work, losing weight, issues with her boyfriend….and so far I’ve read she is still getting a handle on the situation. It’s not my fault that the author chose a sassy title for the book! Can I....
to see the name of it on the cover – he read it out loud, “Yummy Mummy”, this time he gave me a broad smile and said “Nyyyce”… and he walked away to order his lunch. There wasn’t a chance for me to tell him that it’s not a racy book instead it’s about the blues a woman is experiencing after her baby delivery, how she makes new friends, her inability to decide if she should get back to work, losing weight, issues with her boyfriend….and so far I’ve read she is still getting a handle on the situation. It’s not my fault that the author chose a sassy title for the book! Can I....
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Can't stop
in dino, dil mera, mujhse hai keh raha
tu khaab saja, tu ji le zara
hai tujhe bhi izaazat, karle tu bhi muhabbat
I've been humming this song for two days straight, first thing in the morning, while driving to work, while heading for lunch.....just smooth beautiful lyrics.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Brave Hearts !
I went to refill water and saw this lady in the pantry. Her hair looked different this time, so I complemented her – how good it looks. She said “oh, jeez…” and revealed her secret of beautiful tresses - Breast Cancer.
Yup, she’s a survivor y’all.
She told me how becoz of chemo, her hair is baby soft and there is nothing she can do with it. So opened a catalogue and ordered her self a great set of hair, which she “weaved” (for the lack of better word) herself. She worked on it for 2 months, she exclaimed. Another friend of hers who also works here, resorted to wearing a scarf after her chemo sessions, which she didn’t want to, I believe. She said, it would be declaring it to the world, “hi look I have cancer and I didn’t….” she paused to look for the right word to fill the void… I prompted “settle down”, she said “yeah, exactly, I didn’t want to settle down with it, I wanted to make it a part of my life and not the other way around, because I know it can come back any time”.
I just beamed at her and said she looks terrific and I meant it. She smiled with no sighs, and went on, “there are days I don’t feel my fingers and bottom part of my legs, there are no senses to them, but if someone asks me, “how was I feeling”, I’d just reply, “great and you ?”. I felt so proud of her, as a person and I told her "you are brave, you really are", she said "I don’t know about that", but I reaffirmed she is that and much more. She smiled again and told it feels good to hear that.
My backaches from new life inside me, just evaporated, that sleepless feeling from last night just …gone. While walking back to my cube, I realized I don’t know her name, but then we didn’t have to know, we touched each others lives in some way. My heart is swollen with pride to all women with great hair or not, with or without breast cancer who face the world with such fierceness. You go girls…
Yup, she’s a survivor y’all.
She told me how becoz of chemo, her hair is baby soft and there is nothing she can do with it. So opened a catalogue and ordered her self a great set of hair, which she “weaved” (for the lack of better word) herself. She worked on it for 2 months, she exclaimed. Another friend of hers who also works here, resorted to wearing a scarf after her chemo sessions, which she didn’t want to, I believe. She said, it would be declaring it to the world, “hi look I have cancer and I didn’t….” she paused to look for the right word to fill the void… I prompted “settle down”, she said “yeah, exactly, I didn’t want to settle down with it, I wanted to make it a part of my life and not the other way around, because I know it can come back any time”.
I just beamed at her and said she looks terrific and I meant it. She smiled with no sighs, and went on, “there are days I don’t feel my fingers and bottom part of my legs, there are no senses to them, but if someone asks me, “how was I feeling”, I’d just reply, “great and you ?”. I felt so proud of her, as a person and I told her "you are brave, you really are", she said "I don’t know about that", but I reaffirmed she is that and much more. She smiled again and told it feels good to hear that.
My backaches from new life inside me, just evaporated, that sleepless feeling from last night just …gone. While walking back to my cube, I realized I don’t know her name, but then we didn’t have to know, we touched each others lives in some way. My heart is swollen with pride to all women with great hair or not, with or without breast cancer who face the world with such fierceness. You go girls…
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Camping with friends
I hadn’t been to a full on REAL camping until that day. I went to picnics and slept under the moon on the terrace humming songs and with flash light pointed towards the dark sky, but never inside a tent nor cooked food at the camp fire. I ate when others cooked, if that counts.
That day I was referring to earlier was in Australia, maybe 3-4 months after I reached there. Some holiday was coming up and Trevor, was making plans for us. He’s a serious bicyclist; he would ride for miles on his bicycle. He was also a friend of the owner of the house we all lived at. So, he’d drop by once in a while to see how the appointed house parents were taking care of us, how the house is being maintained et al. Anyway, the house parents suggested to him why doesn’t he take the bunch of us for camping and he agreed.
On the day of our camping he showed up in a hatchback to our relief, we all pooled to bring food, chips, drinks, cans of food here and there. We were the most colorful in all senses we could be, I for one, I forget the name of my v. good friend from a nearby country of Kenya (he said he was a journalist back home, he told us some of the most exciting stories on quite evenings at home), the gal from Taiwan (she was studying music, I had never met anyone b4 who was studying music for education, only had come across lot of engineering & medical students, people who seemed to have a job by the end of it all. She and I would exchange traditional outfits, take pictures and she’d play piano and I’d listen.), the Canadian guy of course and Trevor.
On route to the camp site, as we slowed down for the other campers to share the road, one of them said there’s a broken branch ahead of us, be careful while we drive. Whilst a halting damp rain, we arrived at our camp area, and started our escapade. Oh I forgot, my Canadian housemate’s friend also came up with his “girl friend” who was in the same class as the Canadian housemate, but he always fancied her and is upset that his friend is dating her, he told us so, that’s how we knew it. Anyway, after setting up the tents, starting a camp fire, we started the grill as well and then Trevor said why don’t we take a walk. It was dark by then, but we were all game for it. Trevor knew his way around, he said to bring the flash lights but not to turn it on unless he says so, this way we can see the wild life in it’s natural state.
We started to walk in the woods, with the crushing sound of dried leaves under our feet, whispering of different sounds in the woods and what they signify, as we went along further Trevor suggested we should enjoy it and just sit in the dark, in quite silences we all found a place to lean on and sit down. At that moment, to somehow capture the time in my heart, I looked up at the sky; it seemed so far away, felt like the trees were floating and the sky was the bed of a sea with stars sprinkled everywhere and shining bright.
We resumed our walk back and finished cooking. As we were eating, my Kenyan housemate suggested we all sing a song, maybe even our national anthems. It was a sweet thought, so we all cheered him on to start first. With his lively eyes sparkling in the light of the fire he sang and we listened as if we were all being connected to Kenya in some way, then we all took turns to sing and dance too. We all united in a strange way at that camp fire. We later retired to our tents to sleep.
The next morning woke up smack in the middle of the woods, with the pale sky, the dampness of the ground, and the remains of the camp fire. The next two days were spent trekking, swimming in the water springs, sharing jokes, later our house parents joined us in their RV.
The morning we were supposed to leave are the few hours that’ll always stay tucked deep in my heart. I got up early, sensed that Canadian housemate’s Friend and his Girl friend (Sheila was her name, no she wasn’t a desi), were coo chi-cooing : ) I looked around, there were few people from nearby camp grounds were up, I saw a board pointing to a “Bird’s eye view Point Trek”. I heard Trevor talking about it before, so I challenged myself to take the walk, the nite b4 Trevor said we’ll start our way back by 7.30am, so I knew I had to be back by 7.30. To trek alone, what would happen if I’d get lost, if I was hurt, such adversities crossed my mind. But determined I was.
The path was very welcoming, u could hear distant waterfalls, the voices of awoken few, birds chirping, I was walking briskly. The terrain was naturally paved, there were wild flowers just about everywhere, there were dense shadows of the towering trees, amongst them I walked following the directions for the “Bird’s eye view Point”, sometimes it would be so sharply steep, you’d have to be so cautious. Then I reached the point they called Bird’s eye view, the view from there was astounding. Everything looked so minuscule, acres and acres of land till the end of your sight, trees at different levels, the way the landscape danced at unusual stratums, and I was there alone but remembered all I love, wind gushing from both sides, I felt like I accomplished something, don’t know what, but I did. I thought if I could do this alone, I could do anything.
In a daze I trekked back and realized they were all about to leave in 5mts if they hadn’t found me, yeah right! It’s only like…8.15 ! oops. Sorry guys, but really, would they do that? Naah…cherishing many memories, we sat silently and Trevor drove us back.
That day I was referring to earlier was in Australia, maybe 3-4 months after I reached there. Some holiday was coming up and Trevor, was making plans for us. He’s a serious bicyclist; he would ride for miles on his bicycle. He was also a friend of the owner of the house we all lived at. So, he’d drop by once in a while to see how the appointed house parents were taking care of us, how the house is being maintained et al. Anyway, the house parents suggested to him why doesn’t he take the bunch of us for camping and he agreed.
On the day of our camping he showed up in a hatchback to our relief, we all pooled to bring food, chips, drinks, cans of food here and there. We were the most colorful in all senses we could be, I for one, I forget the name of my v. good friend from a nearby country of Kenya (he said he was a journalist back home, he told us some of the most exciting stories on quite evenings at home), the gal from Taiwan (she was studying music, I had never met anyone b4 who was studying music for education, only had come across lot of engineering & medical students, people who seemed to have a job by the end of it all. She and I would exchange traditional outfits, take pictures and she’d play piano and I’d listen.), the Canadian guy of course and Trevor.
On route to the camp site, as we slowed down for the other campers to share the road, one of them said there’s a broken branch ahead of us, be careful while we drive. Whilst a halting damp rain, we arrived at our camp area, and started our escapade. Oh I forgot, my Canadian housemate’s friend also came up with his “girl friend” who was in the same class as the Canadian housemate, but he always fancied her and is upset that his friend is dating her, he told us so, that’s how we knew it. Anyway, after setting up the tents, starting a camp fire, we started the grill as well and then Trevor said why don’t we take a walk. It was dark by then, but we were all game for it. Trevor knew his way around, he said to bring the flash lights but not to turn it on unless he says so, this way we can see the wild life in it’s natural state.
We started to walk in the woods, with the crushing sound of dried leaves under our feet, whispering of different sounds in the woods and what they signify, as we went along further Trevor suggested we should enjoy it and just sit in the dark, in quite silences we all found a place to lean on and sit down. At that moment, to somehow capture the time in my heart, I looked up at the sky; it seemed so far away, felt like the trees were floating and the sky was the bed of a sea with stars sprinkled everywhere and shining bright.
We resumed our walk back and finished cooking. As we were eating, my Kenyan housemate suggested we all sing a song, maybe even our national anthems. It was a sweet thought, so we all cheered him on to start first. With his lively eyes sparkling in the light of the fire he sang and we listened as if we were all being connected to Kenya in some way, then we all took turns to sing and dance too. We all united in a strange way at that camp fire. We later retired to our tents to sleep.
The next morning woke up smack in the middle of the woods, with the pale sky, the dampness of the ground, and the remains of the camp fire. The next two days were spent trekking, swimming in the water springs, sharing jokes, later our house parents joined us in their RV.
The morning we were supposed to leave are the few hours that’ll always stay tucked deep in my heart. I got up early, sensed that Canadian housemate’s Friend and his Girl friend (Sheila was her name, no she wasn’t a desi), were coo chi-cooing : ) I looked around, there were few people from nearby camp grounds were up, I saw a board pointing to a “Bird’s eye view Point Trek”. I heard Trevor talking about it before, so I challenged myself to take the walk, the nite b4 Trevor said we’ll start our way back by 7.30am, so I knew I had to be back by 7.30. To trek alone, what would happen if I’d get lost, if I was hurt, such adversities crossed my mind. But determined I was.
The path was very welcoming, u could hear distant waterfalls, the voices of awoken few, birds chirping, I was walking briskly. The terrain was naturally paved, there were wild flowers just about everywhere, there were dense shadows of the towering trees, amongst them I walked following the directions for the “Bird’s eye view Point”, sometimes it would be so sharply steep, you’d have to be so cautious. Then I reached the point they called Bird’s eye view, the view from there was astounding. Everything looked so minuscule, acres and acres of land till the end of your sight, trees at different levels, the way the landscape danced at unusual stratums, and I was there alone but remembered all I love, wind gushing from both sides, I felt like I accomplished something, don’t know what, but I did. I thought if I could do this alone, I could do anything.
In a daze I trekked back and realized they were all about to leave in 5mts if they hadn’t found me, yeah right! It’s only like…8.15 ! oops. Sorry guys, but really, would they do that? Naah…cherishing many memories, we sat silently and Trevor drove us back.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Lunchroom view
Looked out of the car, the leaves with dark green lines showed off its silhoutte with sun shinig right thru them, just like when you hold water in your hands and can see the sun shine transparently. I was trying to finish my lunch while readin gthe newspaper, which btw i borrowed form Harriet. It's a lasting concidence that her husbands name is Harry : )
Thursday, June 07, 2007
My dad(s) rules
I was talking to a friend few days ago and was reminded of a sweet memory that I couldn’t help but blog about.
After lot of coaxing and pleading, from me and my brother, telling stories of bus rides et al, my dad agreed to get me a Kinetic Honda. When we were in the Patny showroom, bringing that bike out, my joy knew no boundaries. Then the irony started to roll by the time we reached home. My dad made a deal with me that he’d show me how to drive and until my driving satisfies his standards, I wasn’t getting full control of it. I thought well, that shouldn’t be hard, I had driven 2 wheelers before so how hard would it be to please him…..yaaa… he proved me wrong there. First, he made me sit behind him, then he’d drive me until my school, constantly training me the right way to accelerate the bike, how you have to anticipate the oncoming traffic at turns, how to gently apply brakes, the right way to drive over the speed breaker and the wrong way, what a bad habit it is to drive without the shades (or goggles or whatever u call them), how to keep the gas at least half full, there was no end to the checklist. I finally got them all down and he agreed to let me drive. Almost after a week, I was like finally dad wont be there to police me so I can do some slants and all, and go over speed if there is less traffic, and of course the idea of shades was all the more fashion related than functional to me.
So I step out, thanking god that at least dad didn’t force me to wear my head gear. Just then he stops me to ask where was I going, I said to school, of course. But he said he’s not ready yet, I was like but it’s me who’s going nah, baba, why should you be ready. He smiled and made me wait for him.
Apparently, he was planning on following right behind my kinetic in his jeep, “policing me”, to see if I was doing as he preached. I was dumbfounded at this suggestion. By the time we reached near school, I pulled my bike to the side and said “baba, PLEASE, go now, don’t embarrass me in front of my friends”, oh just as well, he agreed and turned back to his office.
This saga continued for a week before he “graduated” me on his terms to drive on my own. Yipee…no matter how much I cribbed then, I just can’t help laughing when I think of that story.
Folks can be real funny sometimes.
After lot of coaxing and pleading, from me and my brother, telling stories of bus rides et al, my dad agreed to get me a Kinetic Honda. When we were in the Patny showroom, bringing that bike out, my joy knew no boundaries. Then the irony started to roll by the time we reached home. My dad made a deal with me that he’d show me how to drive and until my driving satisfies his standards, I wasn’t getting full control of it. I thought well, that shouldn’t be hard, I had driven 2 wheelers before so how hard would it be to please him…..yaaa… he proved me wrong there. First, he made me sit behind him, then he’d drive me until my school, constantly training me the right way to accelerate the bike, how you have to anticipate the oncoming traffic at turns, how to gently apply brakes, the right way to drive over the speed breaker and the wrong way, what a bad habit it is to drive without the shades (or goggles or whatever u call them), how to keep the gas at least half full, there was no end to the checklist. I finally got them all down and he agreed to let me drive. Almost after a week, I was like finally dad wont be there to police me so I can do some slants and all, and go over speed if there is less traffic, and of course the idea of shades was all the more fashion related than functional to me.
So I step out, thanking god that at least dad didn’t force me to wear my head gear. Just then he stops me to ask where was I going, I said to school, of course. But he said he’s not ready yet, I was like but it’s me who’s going nah, baba, why should you be ready. He smiled and made me wait for him.
Apparently, he was planning on following right behind my kinetic in his jeep, “policing me”, to see if I was doing as he preached. I was dumbfounded at this suggestion. By the time we reached near school, I pulled my bike to the side and said “baba, PLEASE, go now, don’t embarrass me in front of my friends”, oh just as well, he agreed and turned back to his office.
This saga continued for a week before he “graduated” me on his terms to drive on my own. Yipee…no matter how much I cribbed then, I just can’t help laughing when I think of that story.
Folks can be real funny sometimes.
Friday, June 01, 2007
The Memorial day went something like this
Tuesday after the long weekend is a killer. I almost fell asleep at my desk, went to “some” meeting, and drank decaf tea but in vain. The gal next to me, KV, I like her, she’s a newly wed, she met her husband from match.com. Isn’t that something, he’s a craftsman, does wood work and this and that, yeah she also drives a Jaguar to work, umm humm…Any way, she was at Key West, FL for her honeymoon and she asked me how was my long weekend, and my story went something like this -- It started on Sat late afternoon as we reached Point Pleasant beach and met up with our friends. The weather was just terrific. The sun wasn’t too hot, there was slightest hint of breeze in the air. The crowds were not too “crowdy”, there was a definite air of holiday spirit everywhere. After waiting for ten minutes for the 3 bikers to leave, who were taking their own time to go, we finally got the parking spot. We then strolled to the beach, relaxed in the sun for a while, took a walk along the beach, we realized for some reason the water was freezing cold, and very deep too. So we lounged, played little ball, and ate a colossal portion of strawberry waffle ice cream. People in the line loved our’s and asked what it was so that they could order too. We shared 2 of those and headed back to R’s place for a yummy take out Hyderabadi biryani. Uff…what can beat that. We all chatted in leisure. V, IN and R were too busy swapping their silly stories over their scotch and with smirks on their face wondered if I (me) and P could drive back home. They were meeting after a long time, but they talk to each other practically every evening, so I don’t know what else there is left for them to talk. So I and P started our drive back.
The next day after a lazy morning, we ate heartily, shopped a bit and went to see “Cheeni Kum”, (turn the vol. up), what can I say, Amitabh still got the charm to create romance on screen and Tabu looked terrific, they seemed so compatible. I’d love to give the story away, but in a way it is so self explanatory. It has elements of fierce individualities, compassion, love and humility that would make you want to be happy for them, for people who just are trying to live their lives. The best part of watching movies in Nj is u get steamign masala chai and other chaat's in the theatre, I know can u beleive it.
We drove back the next morning, but in my friends neighborhood looked like there was going to be some parade, the fire dept had their trucks decorated, we saw old men in Scottish outfits, we just picked our coffee at dunkin donuts and headed back, surprisingly there was no traffic.
That was my weekend, I could have just said --- I got a chance to relax, spend time with friends and catch a movie but I thought little detail wont hurt.
The next day after a lazy morning, we ate heartily, shopped a bit and went to see “Cheeni Kum”, (turn the vol. up), what can I say, Amitabh still got the charm to create romance on screen and Tabu looked terrific, they seemed so compatible. I’d love to give the story away, but in a way it is so self explanatory. It has elements of fierce individualities, compassion, love and humility that would make you want to be happy for them, for people who just are trying to live their lives. The best part of watching movies in Nj is u get steamign masala chai and other chaat's in the theatre, I know can u beleive it.
We drove back the next morning, but in my friends neighborhood looked like there was going to be some parade, the fire dept had their trucks decorated, we saw old men in Scottish outfits, we just picked our coffee at dunkin donuts and headed back, surprisingly there was no traffic.
That was my weekend, I could have just said --- I got a chance to relax, spend time with friends and catch a movie but I thought little detail wont hurt.
Friday, May 25, 2007
A window to this week
After my appt with Richard, I felt desolate for him, his dog died, and he’s got no family around, he had a fall at the mall entrance that he’s trying to get covered for, but was denied and now is looking for a lawyer. He seemed so lonely. He emulates this bitterness that makes u wanna not be there. So I tipped him well and walked out of the salon with a cool hair cut. V says it looks the same length, grr….but me totally likey !
Moving on, I want to work on my “Time” issues, really. I have a habit of rushing at the nick of the time, and take the gamble and totally trust the elements of other forces, translated as traffic, weather etc to contribute to my success in reaching on time – this is especially true in case of work. If I had to catch a plane to head to a vacation, u bet I’m on time. For my time issues, I partly blame my mum. See when we were kids, we (I and mom) were always in a rush to get to school, get to the train station, get to somewhere or the other. There was an element of adrenaline rush that I never realized at that time. Also there wasn’t traffic, no worries to fill up gas, no worries of packing lunch or snack by yourself, someone else always did that for you, making the bed, not to forget to take flat shoes / sandals incase I decide to take a walk later after work, all the normal life thingies. Since my new job started, I’ve noticed people were stickler of being ON time, really like it’s sickening to me. C’mon don’t u expect things to be late, traffic, packing lunch, filling up gas -- well u should plan for all those, they say. So I’ve decided to give this a try – to be at work by 8.45, I need to be in the garage inside my car, at 8.20 SHARP. I’ve started this since last 2 weeks and so far it seems to work, but there is an element of predictability (aka being responsible) comes with it. I can’t say if I like it, but it seems to work for my cred. I’ve taken away the pleasure of thinking in leisure what I’ll be wearing to work, I think once and that’s it. It better be pressed already otherwise, I need to plan extra few mts for that. I don’t think of things here and there while I brush now, I actually tried counting my brush strokes, but seemed futile, of course. I drive with a purpose these days, and I don’t yield as much : (
I had my training yesterday; it’s called an Experience day. I met the mail man whom I run across all the time in my bldg. I, him and another 2 went out for lunch at Boston market, after that everyone went their ways, which was good, I took a slow stroll in that part of the town, Paoli. The sun was gently hot and the walkways in that strip mall was playing cheerful music and I window shopped at Ann Taylor’s, Pier 1 imports, the cute part was the fountain in front of Chico’s. My book would have been great company to sit in front of that fountain and see the people pass by and read. After lunch, the lady in orange jacket from SUSA dept was explaining some of the products and how they work and what r they used for and such, it was too technical for me, so my mind wandered and I looked at the huge windows behind her, the trees waltzing to the slight wind, the sun sieving through the leaves on the dark road, the parked cars bursting with energy to get out, the rocks at the dip of the landscape, it was lovely, at that moment I felt I’m –like we are such intricate parts of the society. This bldg is where it all started – they claim. Being a part of that, standing there and looking out of the window, from which many would have had passed by, so many conversations might have been had and will continue to. It felt eerily symbolical of being a part of something larger than my own life. The rest of the day, I paid attention to people and things around me. I treated myself with Rita’s Ice, on my way back.
Did I say, my darling sis had sent me tons of terrific looking clothes from Malay. I totally love them, they would have been the kind I’d have picked myself. Pretty cottons, lovely colors, I cant start wearing them, in fact I have one on today. Thank you, sweetheart. When I told my mum about how much I love those clothes, she said well if you liked it, they must be really good. I thought to myself, boy I must be hard to please : ) which I agree to, I can be a bitch about what suits me, I don’t wear bcoz they are in fashion, they need to suit me right.
The highlight of the week is my book and my new clothes. My book bcoz I’m in love with each and everyone of these characters, in their simple very normal lives they all have a certain zing. I’ve learnt and taken away so much from them. I traveled to Rome with them and the way they plan and do things together seem like what I’d do or be a part of. Thank you, dear book. I’ve taken away a bit of Italian too, if anything, mi chiamo Linku : ) The Evening Class is a total hit.
A friend of ours is selling their house and buying a bigger one, they have an offer and the house is scheduled for inspection today. They have a new born, so they wanted to find out if they can come by our house for those few hours of inspection, since they didn’t want to take the week old baby girl anywhere out, so we were like, there’s nothing to ask, do come by. I left cookies in a nice jar on the island, with clean glasses for juice. Incase they decide to drink tea, I left tea bags, and sugar out for them, with cups. Aren’t I a terrific host? So whenever people come over our house, I have this charade of things that I need to do – make sure the counters are free of any clutter, the floor is clean, the coffee table is dusted, the chadar on my divan is neatly tucked around, and the throws on the sofa are neatly folded, and home fragrant. While V was on the phone with friends, I was going through this checklist. So V thinks that I’m really silly, he’s used to my style of things but still finds it acutely funny, so I laugh with him at me and continue on.
Moving on, I want to work on my “Time” issues, really. I have a habit of rushing at the nick of the time, and take the gamble and totally trust the elements of other forces, translated as traffic, weather etc to contribute to my success in reaching on time – this is especially true in case of work. If I had to catch a plane to head to a vacation, u bet I’m on time. For my time issues, I partly blame my mum. See when we were kids, we (I and mom) were always in a rush to get to school, get to the train station, get to somewhere or the other. There was an element of adrenaline rush that I never realized at that time. Also there wasn’t traffic, no worries to fill up gas, no worries of packing lunch or snack by yourself, someone else always did that for you, making the bed, not to forget to take flat shoes / sandals incase I decide to take a walk later after work, all the normal life thingies. Since my new job started, I’ve noticed people were stickler of being ON time, really like it’s sickening to me. C’mon don’t u expect things to be late, traffic, packing lunch, filling up gas -- well u should plan for all those, they say. So I’ve decided to give this a try – to be at work by 8.45, I need to be in the garage inside my car, at 8.20 SHARP. I’ve started this since last 2 weeks and so far it seems to work, but there is an element of predictability (aka being responsible) comes with it. I can’t say if I like it, but it seems to work for my cred. I’ve taken away the pleasure of thinking in leisure what I’ll be wearing to work, I think once and that’s it. It better be pressed already otherwise, I need to plan extra few mts for that. I don’t think of things here and there while I brush now, I actually tried counting my brush strokes, but seemed futile, of course. I drive with a purpose these days, and I don’t yield as much : (
I had my training yesterday; it’s called an Experience day. I met the mail man whom I run across all the time in my bldg. I, him and another 2 went out for lunch at Boston market, after that everyone went their ways, which was good, I took a slow stroll in that part of the town, Paoli. The sun was gently hot and the walkways in that strip mall was playing cheerful music and I window shopped at Ann Taylor’s, Pier 1 imports, the cute part was the fountain in front of Chico’s. My book would have been great company to sit in front of that fountain and see the people pass by and read. After lunch, the lady in orange jacket from SUSA dept was explaining some of the products and how they work and what r they used for and such, it was too technical for me, so my mind wandered and I looked at the huge windows behind her, the trees waltzing to the slight wind, the sun sieving through the leaves on the dark road, the parked cars bursting with energy to get out, the rocks at the dip of the landscape, it was lovely, at that moment I felt I’m –like we are such intricate parts of the society. This bldg is where it all started – they claim. Being a part of that, standing there and looking out of the window, from which many would have had passed by, so many conversations might have been had and will continue to. It felt eerily symbolical of being a part of something larger than my own life. The rest of the day, I paid attention to people and things around me. I treated myself with Rita’s Ice, on my way back.
Did I say, my darling sis had sent me tons of terrific looking clothes from Malay. I totally love them, they would have been the kind I’d have picked myself. Pretty cottons, lovely colors, I cant start wearing them, in fact I have one on today. Thank you, sweetheart. When I told my mum about how much I love those clothes, she said well if you liked it, they must be really good. I thought to myself, boy I must be hard to please : ) which I agree to, I can be a bitch about what suits me, I don’t wear bcoz they are in fashion, they need to suit me right.
The highlight of the week is my book and my new clothes. My book bcoz I’m in love with each and everyone of these characters, in their simple very normal lives they all have a certain zing. I’ve learnt and taken away so much from them. I traveled to Rome with them and the way they plan and do things together seem like what I’d do or be a part of. Thank you, dear book. I’ve taken away a bit of Italian too, if anything, mi chiamo Linku : ) The Evening Class is a total hit.
A friend of ours is selling their house and buying a bigger one, they have an offer and the house is scheduled for inspection today. They have a new born, so they wanted to find out if they can come by our house for those few hours of inspection, since they didn’t want to take the week old baby girl anywhere out, so we were like, there’s nothing to ask, do come by. I left cookies in a nice jar on the island, with clean glasses for juice. Incase they decide to drink tea, I left tea bags, and sugar out for them, with cups. Aren’t I a terrific host? So whenever people come over our house, I have this charade of things that I need to do – make sure the counters are free of any clutter, the floor is clean, the coffee table is dusted, the chadar on my divan is neatly tucked around, and the throws on the sofa are neatly folded, and home fragrant. While V was on the phone with friends, I was going through this checklist. So V thinks that I’m really silly, he’s used to my style of things but still finds it acutely funny, so I laugh with him at me and continue on.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Breaking barriers
After muffled familiar sounds in chorus of clsoing the cabinet door, then opening and closing of the microwave, the sound of spoon in the sink, I knew V is up making his coffee. After lazing for few more minutes, I decided to start my Saturday, lazily I stretched my feet to the floor and noticed something in pink on my toes glaring back at me. it almost jolted me outta sleep and I wondered how did I ever agree to this color on my toe nails.
See, on last Friday, I took an appointment for my pedicure at Salon 7 on Boot Rd, because, I know the girl there – Lizzie. She likes to chat, you can tell, well, who doesn’t in a salon. After pampering my feet, and telling me of her mom’s wedding, and her estranged boy friend, it was time to decide on a color, I was picking all my safe colors that would just blend or not too loud as I should put it. But she was nodding her head each time in denial, she said na, noooo, not this----here let me pick one for you. She chose all the colors that I wouldn’t have picked…ever. We tried an orangish color, then a bright red color, I was like god…this is not me, but something made me think that I should stretch my borders maybe a little and step up a notch. It wont hurt me to try a new color, hell it’s only a color on my nails. I could go home and redo it if I hate it that much. So with will power bigger than my toe nail, I agreed to a pink color. The first brush of it, I liked it, the second of it, I was doubtful, the third of it I knew I was going home and redoing it, but she convinced me it’ll look good for my skin color. I tell ya, in a salon, it’s so acceptable to talk about skin color, really. Lizzie was so excited about the color, that she wanted to know the name of it – it’s called – didgeridoyournails. She couldn’t figure it out to read it, I laughed at the name of it and read it aloud for her. We laughed at the same time and she said she’ll never be able to find this color if I wanted it the second time. It’s been four days and I like it. No really, it has a summer feel to it. Now when I wake up, or wear sandals, or sport bare feet, I’m not surprised, I’m actually proud that I tried something new. Thank u geri and Lizzie : )
See, on last Friday, I took an appointment for my pedicure at Salon 7 on Boot Rd, because, I know the girl there – Lizzie. She likes to chat, you can tell, well, who doesn’t in a salon. After pampering my feet, and telling me of her mom’s wedding, and her estranged boy friend, it was time to decide on a color, I was picking all my safe colors that would just blend or not too loud as I should put it. But she was nodding her head each time in denial, she said na, noooo, not this----here let me pick one for you. She chose all the colors that I wouldn’t have picked…ever. We tried an orangish color, then a bright red color, I was like god…this is not me, but something made me think that I should stretch my borders maybe a little and step up a notch. It wont hurt me to try a new color, hell it’s only a color on my nails. I could go home and redo it if I hate it that much. So with will power bigger than my toe nail, I agreed to a pink color. The first brush of it, I liked it, the second of it, I was doubtful, the third of it I knew I was going home and redoing it, but she convinced me it’ll look good for my skin color. I tell ya, in a salon, it’s so acceptable to talk about skin color, really. Lizzie was so excited about the color, that she wanted to know the name of it – it’s called – didgeridoyournails. She couldn’t figure it out to read it, I laughed at the name of it and read it aloud for her. We laughed at the same time and she said she’ll never be able to find this color if I wanted it the second time. It’s been four days and I like it. No really, it has a summer feel to it. Now when I wake up, or wear sandals, or sport bare feet, I’m not surprised, I’m actually proud that I tried something new. Thank u geri and Lizzie : )
Monday, May 14, 2007
During lunch
I was quarter of an hour into my lunch time, just got off the phone with my mom thousands and thousands of miles away, quickly ran to the bank and headed to my fave pizza place. Except as I was walking in, the name of the place seemed different, it didn’t say “Pizza Peddler”, it said something to do with “Tommy’s” whatever. I was like, darn it, now I have another decision to make, if I would like this place or not. So I as entered that place, there was a small mob of office crowd at the cash counter, so I realized that this was a --- order, pay and then sit kinda place. As I was still processing the thoughts, I saw a very familiar face that I haven’t seen in 4 – 5 years I think or maybe more. I was like wow ! not in million years had I ever thought that I would run into him again. From that distance he looked at me, and gave me the most familiar smile, and he said I know you, and I said I know you too, and the registration of the memory just flowed into conversation.
He owned “Carmine’s” a small, neatest, working class kinda pizzeria in a very small protected town called “Eagle”, it’s not the same anymore, neither the town nor the pizza place. Anyway, it was so old, it had antique lights, the doors were before my time I’d say, and the people coming there are people who worked around there and lot of locals. You couldn’t miss a beat of a local gossip there, it was that happening. The place was almost crumbling, no literally, there was no parking place, it was located right off the street, so we’d just pull in wherever there was room to. Eventually, some big shot builder bought that land and bulldozed that small joint that must have been older than 80-100 years. Everyone felt sad, there was a sense of loss, something familiar won’t be there anymore. So with that I had lost memory of him. I use to work near by there, and use to frequent that pizza place. Sometimes, his employees would give us a free slice of pizza too : ) Of course this was all before my swanky haircut, so I was all the more surprised that he remembered me. Anyway, to see the same guy, I forget if his name is Tom, Tim or Mike, but he is as Italian as a Pizzeria can be.
I’ve noticed that these days it’s happening more than ever before. I run into people here and there, and have small talks, exchange stories of our live’s and go on, and then I bump into another one. Just few days ago, K called me over for a yoga class her father had been hosting, then the next day I ran into M at Home Depot, she was there to pick up gloves and I was there to pick up hardwood floor cleaner : ( she suggested a brand and I blindly took that home. I gave her a msg for K that I cant make it to K’s yoga class. Last Friday, I ran into A at Subway, I remembered he went with his family to South of France, so I asked him details of it. I believe his camera was pick pocketed while they were in Paris, I was like what. I felt bad for him, his wife and boy took French language classes together preparing for the trip. But life goes on.
Anyway, Tom waved me good bye and asked me come back again, as a business man he is, he asked me to take some menu’s with me so that we can order for pizza delivery, I smiled and stepped out to realize that one of the a branches of the bank he use to frequent then is right opposite to his new pizzeria. Darn, the world IS small.
He owned “Carmine’s” a small, neatest, working class kinda pizzeria in a very small protected town called “Eagle”, it’s not the same anymore, neither the town nor the pizza place. Anyway, it was so old, it had antique lights, the doors were before my time I’d say, and the people coming there are people who worked around there and lot of locals. You couldn’t miss a beat of a local gossip there, it was that happening. The place was almost crumbling, no literally, there was no parking place, it was located right off the street, so we’d just pull in wherever there was room to. Eventually, some big shot builder bought that land and bulldozed that small joint that must have been older than 80-100 years. Everyone felt sad, there was a sense of loss, something familiar won’t be there anymore. So with that I had lost memory of him. I use to work near by there, and use to frequent that pizza place. Sometimes, his employees would give us a free slice of pizza too : ) Of course this was all before my swanky haircut, so I was all the more surprised that he remembered me. Anyway, to see the same guy, I forget if his name is Tom, Tim or Mike, but he is as Italian as a Pizzeria can be.
I’ve noticed that these days it’s happening more than ever before. I run into people here and there, and have small talks, exchange stories of our live’s and go on, and then I bump into another one. Just few days ago, K called me over for a yoga class her father had been hosting, then the next day I ran into M at Home Depot, she was there to pick up gloves and I was there to pick up hardwood floor cleaner : ( she suggested a brand and I blindly took that home. I gave her a msg for K that I cant make it to K’s yoga class. Last Friday, I ran into A at Subway, I remembered he went with his family to South of France, so I asked him details of it. I believe his camera was pick pocketed while they were in Paris, I was like what. I felt bad for him, his wife and boy took French language classes together preparing for the trip. But life goes on.
Anyway, Tom waved me good bye and asked me come back again, as a business man he is, he asked me to take some menu’s with me so that we can order for pizza delivery, I smiled and stepped out to realize that one of the a branches of the bank he use to frequent then is right opposite to his new pizzeria. Darn, the world IS small.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
So what if we lost...
On a popular, SAP Forums, I came across a thread about "World Cup Cricket", I was surprised, to see the no. of posts on that thread, people are talking passionately about world cup, their utter disbelief of India and Pakistan not being in the WC anymore, I mean these are not just desi fans talking about cricket, there are aussies, brits, the few "cric literate" americans, so I was following it very closely every day, until yesterday, this question by Mr. O, irked me, I was relectant to reply, just becoz…but then after two days of following the thread, which got more than 2000 views since WC started, I couldn't resist and I replied to him. This is how it went on... (ofcourse this is only part of the huge thread)
Posted on: Apr 25, 2007 8:29 AM
As you can imagine, in an SAP-related forum you have all these german folks watching the thread who have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. So I would like to ask for a quick explanation of the game of cricket. I will see whether I will be allowed to award points (YES !) for the coolest and shortest explanation.
Just so you know what I know so far about the game: Two teams in white outfit (both teams wearing the same outfit ?) throw balls at each other. They must not bow their arm and have to hit a little thingy (wicket ?). After they throw they run back and forth. There is no offsite. Games take 5 days with tea-time at 3pm. The english invented the game but normally loose against the West Indies, Australia, NZ, India and Madagascar. The americans took the game, americanized it and now call it baseball.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Looking forward to learn something and also looking forward to next UEFA European Football Championships 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.
One Reply to this posted on Apr 25, 2007 3:13 PM
O,
No offence intended, but this description of cricket is among the most cheeky ones I have ever seen :-)
Makes me realise that Cricket still is a game limited to a few countties and not as universal as even SAP is...
I wish I could explain the game of cricket to you, but I just realised that the game aint as simple as it seems..
Regards
B
Another reply posted on Apr 26, 2007 1:13 AM
Hi O,
I read somewhere that cricket is a game where two teams toss a coin to see who goes out first. The toss-winning team sends two batsman in and they stay in until they are out. Then a replacement comes out and the team stays in until ten players have been in and out. Then the first team is OUT so they go in and the other team is sent out.
Then the first team attempts to get the team who is in out, and the opposing side tries to stay out and not get out. All pretty simple - but sometimes a team is sent in before the other team is out.
Regards
G
Finally i responded on Apr 26, 2007 5:31 PM
Hi O,
To add to Gareth, which ever team wins the toss, decides if they or the opposite team will either bat or field.
Usually, they play one day international aka ODI, where they play for 50 overs for each team, each Over has 6 balls, and 11 players in each team.
Which ever team plays first, tries to score as much as they can in those fifty overs, by this they set a target, and then the opposing team has to score that target to win. If someone gets out like they hit the ball and if the ball doesnt touch the ground and the fielder from the other team cathces the ball, then the batsman is out. this is just one way of being 'Out'. When someone is out, it is referred as a wicket down. Usually, the strategy by the fielding team is to take as many wickets down as they can, and the batting team is to score as much as they can while saving the wickets. So if a teams score is 320 / 9 in 50 overs. Yup, i hope you know by now what that means.
The match you were referring to that goes on for 5 days is called a test cricket, where the teams dont have any overs to play, they play as long as thier wickets are not lost. In my opinion i find this a little too long and if i may say....boring.
Cricket is pride for many countries that play, so when they hear such responses ike yours about cricket, they feel sad for people who dont take time to understand it. So the next time, someone tells you they dont know what Cricket is and people just throw balls at each other, please feel free to explain them.
Thank you !
Posted on: Apr 25, 2007 8:29 AM
As you can imagine, in an SAP-related forum you have all these german folks watching the thread who have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. So I would like to ask for a quick explanation of the game of cricket. I will see whether I will be allowed to award points (YES !) for the coolest and shortest explanation.
Just so you know what I know so far about the game: Two teams in white outfit (both teams wearing the same outfit ?) throw balls at each other. They must not bow their arm and have to hit a little thingy (wicket ?). After they throw they run back and forth. There is no offsite. Games take 5 days with tea-time at 3pm. The english invented the game but normally loose against the West Indies, Australia, NZ, India and Madagascar. The americans took the game, americanized it and now call it baseball.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Looking forward to learn something and also looking forward to next UEFA European Football Championships 2008 in Austria and Switzerland.
One Reply to this posted on Apr 25, 2007 3:13 PM
O,
No offence intended, but this description of cricket is among the most cheeky ones I have ever seen :-)
Makes me realise that Cricket still is a game limited to a few countties and not as universal as even SAP is...
I wish I could explain the game of cricket to you, but I just realised that the game aint as simple as it seems..
Regards
B
Another reply posted on Apr 26, 2007 1:13 AM
Hi O,
I read somewhere that cricket is a game where two teams toss a coin to see who goes out first. The toss-winning team sends two batsman in and they stay in until they are out. Then a replacement comes out and the team stays in until ten players have been in and out. Then the first team is OUT so they go in and the other team is sent out.
Then the first team attempts to get the team who is in out, and the opposing side tries to stay out and not get out. All pretty simple - but sometimes a team is sent in before the other team is out.
Regards
G
Finally i responded on Apr 26, 2007 5:31 PM
Hi O,
To add to Gareth, which ever team wins the toss, decides if they or the opposite team will either bat or field.
Usually, they play one day international aka ODI, where they play for 50 overs for each team, each Over has 6 balls, and 11 players in each team.
Which ever team plays first, tries to score as much as they can in those fifty overs, by this they set a target, and then the opposing team has to score that target to win. If someone gets out like they hit the ball and if the ball doesnt touch the ground and the fielder from the other team cathces the ball, then the batsman is out. this is just one way of being 'Out'. When someone is out, it is referred as a wicket down. Usually, the strategy by the fielding team is to take as many wickets down as they can, and the batting team is to score as much as they can while saving the wickets. So if a teams score is 320 / 9 in 50 overs. Yup, i hope you know by now what that means.
The match you were referring to that goes on for 5 days is called a test cricket, where the teams dont have any overs to play, they play as long as thier wickets are not lost. In my opinion i find this a little too long and if i may say....boring.
Cricket is pride for many countries that play, so when they hear such responses ike yours about cricket, they feel sad for people who dont take time to understand it. So the next time, someone tells you they dont know what Cricket is and people just throw balls at each other, please feel free to explain them.
Thank you !
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Two homes in our hEarTs
It was during our stop over flight at .... i dont remember the name of the city but we were heading to Las Vegas to go to Zion's national Park with the same bunch of friends. While waiting i walked into the news paper stand and looked around, i spotted a familiar author's book, Jhumpa Lahari's Name Sake. I had already read her Interpreter of Maladies and absolutely fell in love with it. Her characters were bouncing off the book into real life. This was her first book and she had won Pulitzer award for that, awesome. Just after finishing that book i said to myself that i'll get her second book too. So when i saw Namesake, besides many other books, i couldnt resist myself, this must be atleast 3 or 4 years ago. All through my vacation, the time i got between our treks, camp fires, horse riding, star gazing, falling in love with the country side, i was flipping pages of this book.
Reading the book, brought a lot of memories back of home, it's about living in two homes at the same time, it's an experience we learn to live with, cajoling ourselves and our loved dear ones that each celebration, life events are just another day in our lives. The shell of our loneliness bridges only to our home in our hearts, though we live under a different roof.
Few weeks ago, i wasnt happy, when V and I arrived late to the watch NameSake movie, but as the movie rolled on and we were sitting in the front seats b'coz it was packed, and not by desi's, all americans - the true immigrants. Skeptically, i watiched hte movie and came out applauding Mira Nair for doing justice to the book.
If you get a chance please see this movie, it's a tribute to every one who moved away from home, even if it's within india or outside of it. There was one shot when Tabu is dropping off Irphan at the airport, while he's standing in te line to get to checkin she waits to wave good bye to him, at that second, irphan nods, blinks his eyes gently....that was so real. Tabu and Irphan - excellent job !
Reading the book, brought a lot of memories back of home, it's about living in two homes at the same time, it's an experience we learn to live with, cajoling ourselves and our loved dear ones that each celebration, life events are just another day in our lives. The shell of our loneliness bridges only to our home in our hearts, though we live under a different roof.
Few weeks ago, i wasnt happy, when V and I arrived late to the watch NameSake movie, but as the movie rolled on and we were sitting in the front seats b'coz it was packed, and not by desi's, all americans - the true immigrants. Skeptically, i watiched hte movie and came out applauding Mira Nair for doing justice to the book.
If you get a chance please see this movie, it's a tribute to every one who moved away from home, even if it's within india or outside of it. There was one shot when Tabu is dropping off Irphan at the airport, while he's standing in te line to get to checkin she waits to wave good bye to him, at that second, irphan nods, blinks his eyes gently....that was so real. Tabu and Irphan - excellent job !
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Tears in dark
The gloomy grey clouds, thunder storm and heavy gusty winds of last sat and sunday, brought in very bad news, an asian guy identified as a student of Virginia Tech went into the classrooms and started shooting randomly. It’s such a tragedy and horrible news. Things like this are beyond being fathomable.
It kind of struck a close chord for us. My cousin graduated from thie very university last year and also this afternoon we got an email sent at work today stating that one of the Plant Manager’s son who was a senior at Virginia Tech was amongst the 32 who were killed. I felt so bad…this is so unfortunate, young people losing their lives, their parents losing their hopes, their children, god so many memories just cant be brought back to life, the life of so many just so simply wiped off, just b’coz of a depressed guy who was trigger happy. Ofcourse, the media, the cops, the psychiatrist’s go into deeper lengths to find out what makes “us” behave the way we do. Gun control laws will now be discussed at length, but....
Professor GV Loganathan, Reema, Minal are the Indians among the people who lost thier lives.
As I was walking to my car, I noticed that all the 3 flags in front of my building, the US, Switzerland and Canadian flags are at half staff for the solidarity and respect to the people who lost their lives and to the people who live to remember them.
At the end of the day only a “WHY ?”, will be the question to many, because there wont be any justice for such acts of random violence.
It kind of struck a close chord for us. My cousin graduated from thie very university last year and also this afternoon we got an email sent at work today stating that one of the Plant Manager’s son who was a senior at Virginia Tech was amongst the 32 who were killed. I felt so bad…this is so unfortunate, young people losing their lives, their parents losing their hopes, their children, god so many memories just cant be brought back to life, the life of so many just so simply wiped off, just b’coz of a depressed guy who was trigger happy. Ofcourse, the media, the cops, the psychiatrist’s go into deeper lengths to find out what makes “us” behave the way we do. Gun control laws will now be discussed at length, but....
Professor GV Loganathan, Reema, Minal are the Indians among the people who lost thier lives.
As I was walking to my car, I noticed that all the 3 flags in front of my building, the US, Switzerland and Canadian flags are at half staff for the solidarity and respect to the people who lost their lives and to the people who live to remember them.
At the end of the day only a “WHY ?”, will be the question to many, because there wont be any justice for such acts of random violence.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Serious ranting !!!!!!!
So many things have happened since last blog, and as much as I really want to I’m at loss of words to share. I’m seriously not sure of why I accepted the offer for my new job. Though I don’t miss the people in my old one, I miss the challenges that I rose up to. I admit that things are going to be much different here, but the change in pace, the newness of it is numbing.
BTW, did you ever eat those chocolates with mint layer in it, I don’t mean for flavor, but there is a layer of mint chocolate in between the dark chocolate. I hate them, no really, it’s like eating chocolate with your mouth full of strong “mouth wash”.
So last nite, on NDTV, there was this discussion about how hyper sensitive are Indians about the national flag and anthem. Apparently, a roar broke loose from all sides when Narayan Murthy had played the instrumental version of the anthem at some function. After a big hallah, he felt the need to explain why, in poor choice of words for a man of his stature, he said he didn’t want to “embarass” his foreign dignitaries who wouldn’t obviously know the song, but then all the Indian nationals would stand and sing along, while these firangs woundnt be able to. Makes sense to me…the panel of other contributors (some journalists, govt officials and so on) gave valuable insights of why that might be right and one lady dresses in a pink sari took her stand to say no it’s not acceptable.
Then they continued to discuss the idea of how Sachin Tendulkar cut the cake in SA which was a replica of the Indian flag, ok, I personally don’t see a problem with this either. We cut cakes in “celebration of life”, so most of the audience didn’t seem to mind except one lady who said she felt that in some way it symbolizes mutilating the country, wow ! that’s deep.
From the panel, one guy said, we’ve always cut cakes for various reasons, if I’m cutting a b’day cake with my child’s name on it, that doesn’t mean that I’m mutilating him. WELL SAID ! The mithai-wala’s sell tiranga burfi during the independence and republic day occasions, so why is cake cutting a big deal—good very good. They all agreed that as long as the intention of such occasions are well placed that shouldn’t be constitutional insult!
aah hah…from where I’m sitting (in my darling couch), I’m digressed to another topic, in sexual harassment, it all depends on the perception of the victim. How do you define these perceptions, there is no hard lined rule to say, this might not be perceived as offensive. But it depends on the perception of the other party.
Ok now comes the interesting part, flag burning. How many of you agree to it, well none did ! I was like huh, my spouse of eight years, also agrees, no way to that. I was like why not. The host of the show, mentioned the democracy of other countries allows their citizens to do this, no matter how condemned that is.
For the sake of conversation, I wanted to tip the scales and see the pulse, I said yes to V, if tomorrow, some god forsaken politician, announces, I now give away Kashmir to China and Pakistan, then while I’m at it, I’ll also let Assam have their say to be another country. Ofcourse, V gave me “ok where r u going with this” kinda look, I said I want to protest such things, I’ll be enraged, maybe in that state of mind if I burn the flag, it is to say how disgraceful it is for India, to tolerate such things. I think we should still burn the flag for the judicial system we have in place, but that’s another story. If we are the largest democratic country out there, why cant we practice a little bit of it. By this time, the panel of judges on the show said, burn effigy’s of the PM or the politician, put some banners out, why burn the flag! One of them said, how come nobody says anything, when you give out the plastic Indian flag which are used as hand fan, during some celebrations that are thrown away after the party and somebody eventually brooms them to a corner and maybe even burn them ! Hmm…there u go.
I have immense love for my country, I’ll take a stand if someone is blatantly talking rubbish about her, I have done this during a meeting, where another desi guy was generally ranting off about cows on the street, the weather etc etc, I fought him back, no way.
But I also think, that things like what I said above are of mild importance when we have more pressing matters at hand.
BTW, did you ever eat those chocolates with mint layer in it, I don’t mean for flavor, but there is a layer of mint chocolate in between the dark chocolate. I hate them, no really, it’s like eating chocolate with your mouth full of strong “mouth wash”.
So last nite, on NDTV, there was this discussion about how hyper sensitive are Indians about the national flag and anthem. Apparently, a roar broke loose from all sides when Narayan Murthy had played the instrumental version of the anthem at some function. After a big hallah, he felt the need to explain why, in poor choice of words for a man of his stature, he said he didn’t want to “embarass” his foreign dignitaries who wouldn’t obviously know the song, but then all the Indian nationals would stand and sing along, while these firangs woundnt be able to. Makes sense to me…the panel of other contributors (some journalists, govt officials and so on) gave valuable insights of why that might be right and one lady dresses in a pink sari took her stand to say no it’s not acceptable.
Then they continued to discuss the idea of how Sachin Tendulkar cut the cake in SA which was a replica of the Indian flag, ok, I personally don’t see a problem with this either. We cut cakes in “celebration of life”, so most of the audience didn’t seem to mind except one lady who said she felt that in some way it symbolizes mutilating the country, wow ! that’s deep.
From the panel, one guy said, we’ve always cut cakes for various reasons, if I’m cutting a b’day cake with my child’s name on it, that doesn’t mean that I’m mutilating him. WELL SAID ! The mithai-wala’s sell tiranga burfi during the independence and republic day occasions, so why is cake cutting a big deal—good very good. They all agreed that as long as the intention of such occasions are well placed that shouldn’t be constitutional insult!
aah hah…from where I’m sitting (in my darling couch), I’m digressed to another topic, in sexual harassment, it all depends on the perception of the victim. How do you define these perceptions, there is no hard lined rule to say, this might not be perceived as offensive. But it depends on the perception of the other party.
Ok now comes the interesting part, flag burning. How many of you agree to it, well none did ! I was like huh, my spouse of eight years, also agrees, no way to that. I was like why not. The host of the show, mentioned the democracy of other countries allows their citizens to do this, no matter how condemned that is.
For the sake of conversation, I wanted to tip the scales and see the pulse, I said yes to V, if tomorrow, some god forsaken politician, announces, I now give away Kashmir to China and Pakistan, then while I’m at it, I’ll also let Assam have their say to be another country. Ofcourse, V gave me “ok where r u going with this” kinda look, I said I want to protest such things, I’ll be enraged, maybe in that state of mind if I burn the flag, it is to say how disgraceful it is for India, to tolerate such things. I think we should still burn the flag for the judicial system we have in place, but that’s another story. If we are the largest democratic country out there, why cant we practice a little bit of it. By this time, the panel of judges on the show said, burn effigy’s of the PM or the politician, put some banners out, why burn the flag! One of them said, how come nobody says anything, when you give out the plastic Indian flag which are used as hand fan, during some celebrations that are thrown away after the party and somebody eventually brooms them to a corner and maybe even burn them ! Hmm…there u go.
I have immense love for my country, I’ll take a stand if someone is blatantly talking rubbish about her, I have done this during a meeting, where another desi guy was generally ranting off about cows on the street, the weather etc etc, I fought him back, no way.
But I also think, that things like what I said above are of mild importance when we have more pressing matters at hand.
Friday, March 30, 2007
6 women, 4 stories
I noticed that Friday afternoon's most of hte BI and FM team go out for lunch, last week we went to Panera's and this week to Gramm's - gramm's is all about comfort food, Gramm's means Grand Ma, they say. We were 6 of us and when you put 6 women together, some stories are bound to come out, you like it or not, women share and talk.
Anyway, on our way to Gramm's I found out that K met her spouse on Match.com, hello! That is so .....(I don't know hte word for it), she is a petite, feeble, sweet, pretty girl with an Italian last name but who's been married for 2 years. Then once we reached there, sat on a round table and the smell of comfort food was enticing, someone started talking about Anchorage, Alaska, K then mentioned that her sister lives in Fair Banks, Alaska, wait ! That's not all there in no water and electricity. Right now, she's “baby-sitting” 30, yes, 30 sled dogs, she brings water to them in buckets, and feeds them meat and stuff. Her (K's sister's) bf builds cabins there, ok, it's only like -3 degrees there, and it's dark most often, so go figure. This is more interesting, since they don't have showers in the houses, the Laundromat and the Video Store has two showers each….OOOOkkkkaaay. Yeah, imagine that! You go to do laundry and decide you might as well take shower since u r there, the shower is yours for 20 minutes, people! I find this so adventurous, this is hardly scratching the surface, I believe she even lived in Nepal for a year and somewhere in a town near a pretty beach in Puerto Rico, c'mon, it takes so much to be so gutsy, I so wish I could do that. I believe K's folks are also bitten by travel bugs long long time ago, so they think that K's life is so dull and boring since she hardly travels and she only thinks that she's “Normal”. Ha ha ha…what is normal ? Normal couldn't be normal if it wanted to….
So, then C starts talking about this wedding she has to go to of her first cousin's, which is scheduled after a month. She's amazed at how someone could have a wedding on Sunday, that too “around 3 pm” as it says on the invite. She thought that though it's none of her business, she thinks that couple is very immature to get married. Apparently, they don't want to live together nor get engaged and instead get married right away, and they feel that this way it'll be more exciting. Okkkkaay. Marriages are anything but….She also mentioned how that neither of them have a job yet, and that the groom is not welcome in her other cousins home because he stuck a play dough kinda thingie in the kid's hair and that poor child had to cut her hair to get it out, and he (the groom, u need to concentrate) thought they were joking about him not being welcome at their home. She then said they are only like 20 something.
So ofcourse, I replied “20's too early to get married”, well, C would agree but apparently she got married at 18, she's my PM, people, so I had foot in my mouth. Next time, just remember to politely nod without any stupid comments. Since we were on topic of weddings, I recollected an incident of a “Halloween” theme wedding party that was taking place in the lower deck of this dinner cruise I went to last year. The bride was a dressed totally like a slut, and the groom like a dirt biker and the entire party members were drunk and loud. Top that u all !
Oh by the way H was offered a vacation to disney by her folks, no she's not 8, she must be 20 something. Anyway, she refused bcoz she sensed that the reason they invited her was to babysit the nephews that they are taking along....ha ha ha. good one.
Meanwhile, somewhere at the Alaska story, the food arrived and the fries were yumm….
( P.S: Later when we were in a meeting, I had a mild panic attack that I'm not as involved in configuration of BI stuff as much as I was in my last job, and was trying very hard to concentrate. )
Anyway, on our way to Gramm's I found out that K met her spouse on Match.com, hello! That is so .....(I don't know hte word for it), she is a petite, feeble, sweet, pretty girl with an Italian last name but who's been married for 2 years. Then once we reached there, sat on a round table and the smell of comfort food was enticing, someone started talking about Anchorage, Alaska, K then mentioned that her sister lives in Fair Banks, Alaska, wait ! That's not all there in no water and electricity. Right now, she's “baby-sitting” 30, yes, 30 sled dogs, she brings water to them in buckets, and feeds them meat and stuff. Her (K's sister's) bf builds cabins there, ok, it's only like -3 degrees there, and it's dark most often, so go figure. This is more interesting, since they don't have showers in the houses, the Laundromat and the Video Store has two showers each….OOOOkkkkaaay. Yeah, imagine that! You go to do laundry and decide you might as well take shower since u r there, the shower is yours for 20 minutes, people! I find this so adventurous, this is hardly scratching the surface, I believe she even lived in Nepal for a year and somewhere in a town near a pretty beach in Puerto Rico, c'mon, it takes so much to be so gutsy, I so wish I could do that. I believe K's folks are also bitten by travel bugs long long time ago, so they think that K's life is so dull and boring since she hardly travels and she only thinks that she's “Normal”. Ha ha ha…what is normal ? Normal couldn't be normal if it wanted to….
So, then C starts talking about this wedding she has to go to of her first cousin's, which is scheduled after a month. She's amazed at how someone could have a wedding on Sunday, that too “around 3 pm” as it says on the invite. She thought that though it's none of her business, she thinks that couple is very immature to get married. Apparently, they don't want to live together nor get engaged and instead get married right away, and they feel that this way it'll be more exciting. Okkkkaay. Marriages are anything but….She also mentioned how that neither of them have a job yet, and that the groom is not welcome in her other cousins home because he stuck a play dough kinda thingie in the kid's hair and that poor child had to cut her hair to get it out, and he (the groom, u need to concentrate) thought they were joking about him not being welcome at their home. She then said they are only like 20 something.
So ofcourse, I replied “20's too early to get married”, well, C would agree but apparently she got married at 18, she's my PM, people, so I had foot in my mouth. Next time, just remember to politely nod without any stupid comments. Since we were on topic of weddings, I recollected an incident of a “Halloween” theme wedding party that was taking place in the lower deck of this dinner cruise I went to last year. The bride was a dressed totally like a slut, and the groom like a dirt biker and the entire party members were drunk and loud. Top that u all !
Oh by the way H was offered a vacation to disney by her folks, no she's not 8, she must be 20 something. Anyway, she refused bcoz she sensed that the reason they invited her was to babysit the nephews that they are taking along....ha ha ha. good one.
Meanwhile, somewhere at the Alaska story, the food arrived and the fries were yumm….
( P.S: Later when we were in a meeting, I had a mild panic attack that I'm not as involved in configuration of BI stuff as much as I was in my last job, and was trying very hard to concentrate. )
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Ex vs. Current
Let me see what I miss from my old work place:
o Internet connection
o Sharing popcorn
o Wearing jeans on Friday
o Long lunches
o Coming in late
o K and M
o Other friends
o Can leave the desk area haphazardly, which I never did in the beginning
but eventually caught on to randomly placing documents here and there.
o Close to home
o Business Casual (more on the casual side)
o Genaurdi’s & Eckerds was on the way to and back from work
What I don’t miss from my old work place:
o E.N and D.H
o My out of control work load
o My aggressive deadlines
o The nightmares I’d get sometimes : (
o Old technology
o Being on call for Prod support (yeah I don’t have to do that anymore)
o Micro-management
What I like in the new work place:
o New building
o Cafeteria in my bldg
o Good b’fast
o I’ll be mentoring
o And training
o Close to home
o New technology
o Has a dish washer
o May or may not travel
What I don’t like in the new work place
o No Internet access allowed
o Didn’t locate a closest microwave, until then no popcorn
o Cant wear jeans let alone on Friday’s
o Cant do 1 and half hour lunches, try to back in 55 mts.
o Try my best to come in early by 8.45am
o K and M
o Have to keep my desk area organized, it's a big wig area, so the
probability of a big wigs walking across and to spot ur desk in chaos
will apparently reflect bad on my mgr. I dont know how that big wig
will find out.
o Business Casual (scale tipping more on the business side)
o I have to turn a right to go to Genaurdi’s & Eckerd’s.
o Internet connection
o Sharing popcorn
o Wearing jeans on Friday
o Long lunches
o Coming in late
o K and M
o Other friends
o Can leave the desk area haphazardly, which I never did in the beginning
but eventually caught on to randomly placing documents here and there.
o Close to home
o Business Casual (more on the casual side)
o Genaurdi’s & Eckerds was on the way to and back from work
What I don’t miss from my old work place:
o E.N and D.H
o My out of control work load
o My aggressive deadlines
o The nightmares I’d get sometimes : (
o Old technology
o Being on call for Prod support (yeah I don’t have to do that anymore)
o Micro-management
What I like in the new work place:
o New building
o Cafeteria in my bldg
o Good b’fast
o I’ll be mentoring
o And training
o Close to home
o New technology
o Has a dish washer
o May or may not travel
What I don’t like in the new work place
o No Internet access allowed
o Didn’t locate a closest microwave, until then no popcorn
o Cant wear jeans let alone on Friday’s
o Cant do 1 and half hour lunches, try to back in 55 mts.
o Try my best to come in early by 8.45am
o K and M
o Have to keep my desk area organized, it's a big wig area, so the
probability of a big wigs walking across and to spot ur desk in chaos
will apparently reflect bad on my mgr. I dont know how that big wig
will find out.
o Business Casual (scale tipping more on the business side)
o I have to turn a right to go to Genaurdi’s & Eckerd’s.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
what reaaaly happened 1+1
Booker’s got me confused now, today he said that the problem had been pre-existing and he still loves her and on and on…so now I’m leaning towards the thought that she’s an alcoholic. Well, whatever really, I dont think his life defining moments deserve a spot on my blog let alone my busy head, so, I’ll just file that thought away, until I feel like gossiping again, which by the way my sister HATES to do, so she wouldn’t approve of me doing it if she’s reading this, so for her sake I’ll move on to something else.
Anyway, the sun fairies has been blessing us some today; there was this warm and cool breeze to add to it, so a walk was warranted. After lunch at Wave Noodles with L, we strolled in West Chester downtown and stopped by at this quaint little antique store, which had this prettiest bed spread with this intricate embroidery and a lovely price tag of about $350 I think, maybe someother time. We didnt have enough time to check “The Lily pad” a stationary store, it was all pink with polka dots and what not…
Anyway, the sun fairies has been blessing us some today; there was this warm and cool breeze to add to it, so a walk was warranted. After lunch at Wave Noodles with L, we strolled in West Chester downtown and stopped by at this quaint little antique store, which had this prettiest bed spread with this intricate embroidery and a lovely price tag of about $350 I think, maybe someother time. We didnt have enough time to check “The Lily pad” a stationary store, it was all pink with polka dots and what not…
Monday, March 26, 2007
what really...really happened
So, this morning when I turned to radio for my dose of Philly gossip and good tunes, right after Fergie's “Glamorous”, Booker the host announced that him and his GF are no more, he so eloquently put it, they broke up except he didn’t say those exact words, and he said she’s not at a place she likes to be and because what she did, he’s hurt. In translation I think she cheated on him, and he caught her red handed. He went on to say how he cried and called her this and that, in translation he cursed her to be a slut and still wants people who know her to respect her and…...beep….engine turned off.
Half way thru his story I reached my office and wanted to listen to rest of his story. But Diego started talking and I was running out of time, so I resorted to cooking up stories of his turbulent love life in my head and stepped into work. Mental note: look up his website once u get home, to get he full scoop. I know I'm so vain but I cant help it, he started it : )
Half way thru his story I reached my office and wanted to listen to rest of his story. But Diego started talking and I was running out of time, so I resorted to cooking up stories of his turbulent love life in my head and stepped into work. Mental note: look up his website once u get home, to get he full scoop. I know I'm so vain but I cant help it, he started it : )
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Wish me later !
Today, someone at work with yummy candy at her desk asked me to update the departments "happy birthday" list, just then i was reminded of a bitter-sweet moment.
I’m one of those few people who have two birthdays. And the moment i was talking about goes like this......
One day, many many years ago, as we were walking towards the principal nun’s office at St. Theresa’s school, my dad suddenly halted to ask me something. He said “if they ask you when is your birthday, what’ll you tell them?”
Well, I know when my b’day is so that should be easy and I’d get admission in the same school my sister goes too, and since she is a SPL (Special Privileged Leader) I thought I could get away with most of the stuff. So I said “abba, I’ll tell them it’s sep 15th, na!”, to that he replied “Would you instead tell them it’s aug 15th. “
I was like what, no I wouldn’t, I cant change my b’day, I love that day, and was almost in tears, He must have thought that I need more cajoling and we stopped under the big neem tree and he explained how I was born a month later the cut off date for school and so if I have to get into this school for this year, I’d have to just say it this once but we can still celebrate my birthday the same day I was born, infact he raised the stakes and said we’ll celebrate my b’day twice. Once on aug 15th and the second time on September 15th.
Remember, aug 15th is Indian independence day, so you can have lots of friends over for the party, he bribed me. I was hooked in split of a second. I wiped my running tears and walked into that nun’s office, while ignoring the sound of the ceiling fan blade slicing the still air, I started answering the questions needed for school admission.
My father was asked to stay outside the room, so towards the end of my admission questionnaire, she asked me when my date of birth was, I quickly smiled and said 15th august. She nodded heavily and asked me to fetch my abbu. They spoke in restricted enthusiasm and my abba rushed to me with glee and said I was in, I was in ! So, that’s my birthday story.
Now everytime I give date for informal b’day lists at work, so that people can wish or bring a cake or get a card kinda ritual, I habitually just write aug 15th, but go home and celebrate on sep 15th. So there is a thin line how my excitement is divided by exactly 30 days of inconsistency.
I’m one of those few people who have two birthdays. And the moment i was talking about goes like this......
One day, many many years ago, as we were walking towards the principal nun’s office at St. Theresa’s school, my dad suddenly halted to ask me something. He said “if they ask you when is your birthday, what’ll you tell them?”
Well, I know when my b’day is so that should be easy and I’d get admission in the same school my sister goes too, and since she is a SPL (Special Privileged Leader) I thought I could get away with most of the stuff. So I said “abba, I’ll tell them it’s sep 15th, na!”, to that he replied “Would you instead tell them it’s aug 15th. “
I was like what, no I wouldn’t, I cant change my b’day, I love that day, and was almost in tears, He must have thought that I need more cajoling and we stopped under the big neem tree and he explained how I was born a month later the cut off date for school and so if I have to get into this school for this year, I’d have to just say it this once but we can still celebrate my birthday the same day I was born, infact he raised the stakes and said we’ll celebrate my b’day twice. Once on aug 15th and the second time on September 15th.
Remember, aug 15th is Indian independence day, so you can have lots of friends over for the party, he bribed me. I was hooked in split of a second. I wiped my running tears and walked into that nun’s office, while ignoring the sound of the ceiling fan blade slicing the still air, I started answering the questions needed for school admission.
My father was asked to stay outside the room, so towards the end of my admission questionnaire, she asked me when my date of birth was, I quickly smiled and said 15th august. She nodded heavily and asked me to fetch my abbu. They spoke in restricted enthusiasm and my abba rushed to me with glee and said I was in, I was in ! So, that’s my birthday story.
Now everytime I give date for informal b’day lists at work, so that people can wish or bring a cake or get a card kinda ritual, I habitually just write aug 15th, but go home and celebrate on sep 15th. So there is a thin line how my excitement is divided by exactly 30 days of inconsistency.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
What a week, dude ?
After many premonitions, I QUIT, i quit my job (for another one, ofcourse) with such vigor that I decided to take a week off. During this past week, I absolutely did NOTHING. Watched endless hours of mindless tv shows, until late in the nite and woke up at absolutely ghastly hours, except for one day, had the cleaners come on Monday, Tuesday the GE guy finally came to install our refrigerator doors (don’t ask, I’ll tell u later about this), Wednesday went to a spa, Thursday to the doc, Friday I was supposed to go to mall and library but my will was up against nothing to do. So I chose latter. Meanwhile, during the mid week, V ordered the Cricket World Cup on cable.
My week of silent bliss came to an end with few surprising shocks, India lost to Bangladesh, Pakistan is out of the World Cup competition after losing to Ireland on St. Patrick’s day and Bob Woolmer passed away just the morning after, it feels like an unfolding drama, just a day after their lost game, to find the team’s coach unconscious in the hotel room, all this seems like a secret CIA plot. I feel so sorry for the team.
I wish I had another week off and could see the game between India vs Bermuda and India vs Sri Lanka, but for now, my first “Monday” at my new employer starts tomorrow at 8.45am.
My week of silent bliss came to an end with few surprising shocks, India lost to Bangladesh, Pakistan is out of the World Cup competition after losing to Ireland on St. Patrick’s day and Bob Woolmer passed away just the morning after, it feels like an unfolding drama, just a day after their lost game, to find the team’s coach unconscious in the hotel room, all this seems like a secret CIA plot. I feel so sorry for the team.
I wish I had another week off and could see the game between India vs Bermuda and India vs Sri Lanka, but for now, my first “Monday” at my new employer starts tomorrow at 8.45am.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Do you want to trade in
Are there times you wonder and feel like you could live somebody’s life. Well, don’t think no more, Nicael Holt, infact has done just that on Ebay. He SOLD his life ! Yes, you read it right, he sold his life. Everything, his name, his surf borad, his lifestyle as a package, even his friends and ex-girl friends come with deal. By now he must have trained his bidder to be him.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Not just flowers...
Every office has their own quirky things, memos posted around everywhere in the office, in the lunchrooms, restrooms, Dilbert clippings on desks etc. Among many such we use to receive an email every Friday morning to give your names if you’d like to win the floral arrangement, which is on display during the week in our 1310 building. This email stopped I’d say hmm…8 months ago.
But this afternoon, M hangs up the phone and beamingly announced that she won the vase of flowers. We are like “what flowers?”. She then reminds us of the email and we all are pleasantly surprised and cheer her for getting something for which she gave her name last year.
This is not the first time she’s won something; she’s the kind of person, who wins the strangest darn things. Like for e.g., on our annual day picnic, her name was randomly chosen for a 20$ gift certificate to her choice of restaurant AND also a full paid day off. Now, c’mon, winning 2 things in one day….I’m not a statistician, if I was I know it would be one in millions.
I continued to tell her, “Maybe you should go quickly and buy a Pennsylvania lottery ticket, with the same streak of luck u might win lots of money”.
Then she dwells us into this interesting story about how she, her husband and her 1 yr old won the Green Card lottery in December of 2004. Now, what is that …..I personally don’t believe in “luck”, but this colleague of mine seems to defy all odds of it.
After a decade and few more, her husband works as an artist and holds gallery shows and sells his paintings for thougsands of dollars and her son loves to play soccer. They are living the “American dream” if there is any such thing. Get this guys, he refuses to learn English, and doesn’t talk it, only their native language. So any mail, any phone, any break down in the house, my colleague is there in a heart beat to take care of it.
But I was totally bummed to know that her husband saw a tiny ad in a Belrous newspaper and responded by just sending in their names with education details on a paper ripped from a notebook to US and bingo, they got the invitation, 6 months later.
I'll just have to wait and see if there anything else turns with all the quirky memo's and emails streaming into my inbox.
But this afternoon, M hangs up the phone and beamingly announced that she won the vase of flowers. We are like “what flowers?”. She then reminds us of the email and we all are pleasantly surprised and cheer her for getting something for which she gave her name last year.
This is not the first time she’s won something; she’s the kind of person, who wins the strangest darn things. Like for e.g., on our annual day picnic, her name was randomly chosen for a 20$ gift certificate to her choice of restaurant AND also a full paid day off. Now, c’mon, winning 2 things in one day….I’m not a statistician, if I was I know it would be one in millions.
I continued to tell her, “Maybe you should go quickly and buy a Pennsylvania lottery ticket, with the same streak of luck u might win lots of money”.
Then she dwells us into this interesting story about how she, her husband and her 1 yr old won the Green Card lottery in December of 2004. Now, what is that …..I personally don’t believe in “luck”, but this colleague of mine seems to defy all odds of it.
After a decade and few more, her husband works as an artist and holds gallery shows and sells his paintings for thougsands of dollars and her son loves to play soccer. They are living the “American dream” if there is any such thing. Get this guys, he refuses to learn English, and doesn’t talk it, only their native language. So any mail, any phone, any break down in the house, my colleague is there in a heart beat to take care of it.
But I was totally bummed to know that her husband saw a tiny ad in a Belrous newspaper and responded by just sending in their names with education details on a paper ripped from a notebook to US and bingo, they got the invitation, 6 months later.
I'll just have to wait and see if there anything else turns with all the quirky memo's and emails streaming into my inbox.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
At Viceroy
It was a weekday, late afternoon, I decided to head to Viceroy’s coffee shop by myself for a cuppa tea over a novel. The coffee shop was quite and deserted, as predicted for that time of the day. Braced with my thoughts and my novel, I got seated by the lake view. As my tea arrived, I was sipping it and enjoying every bit of it. Then the waiter, shyly walks over to me and excuses himself for interrupting me, but he had a question that he wanted to ask me. I said go ahead.
He asked me if I was a columnist or restaurant critic for any news paper.
I constrained my elated alter ego with great struggle and asked him why did he think I was a columnist or restaurant critic.
He continued to say “you are by yourself, reading a book and carefully noting something down, so I had to ask”. I went along with it and replied “even if I was one, I cant tell you that”. He then apologized for his brief interruption and excused back to his world. But there I was sipping my tea and felt like a renowned under cover journalist, giving a review to that coffee shop.
I completely forgot about this enchanting memory from couple of years ago, until this morning over our hot chai, V brought up something about “Taj Banjara”.
He asked me if I was a columnist or restaurant critic for any news paper.
I constrained my elated alter ego with great struggle and asked him why did he think I was a columnist or restaurant critic.
He continued to say “you are by yourself, reading a book and carefully noting something down, so I had to ask”. I went along with it and replied “even if I was one, I cant tell you that”. He then apologized for his brief interruption and excused back to his world. But there I was sipping my tea and felt like a renowned under cover journalist, giving a review to that coffee shop.
I completely forgot about this enchanting memory from couple of years ago, until this morning over our hot chai, V brought up something about “Taj Banjara”.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Colbert Celebrity Feuds
| Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report on the celebrity feud between Amitabh Bacchan and Shahrukh Khan. It's a kick just to hear him pronounce Preity Zinta's name. Ok, now, bollywood is fiercely catching on to hollywood, aieh ? Full of s*** gossip, making it to comedy central and all. C'mon shahrukh, rest the case, u aint no Amitabh. | |
Saturday, January 20, 2007
At DMV with manners
Few days after my run in with the cop, while waiting at the DMV, I came across few interesting people. There was this lady who wanted to renew her license, because it was going to expire few days after her b’day or something like that. She was of petite built, with an oversized pale blue sweater on, curly blonde hair, a very homely face, with bare make up. She’s the kind of a woman, who you’d think is married (maybe happily), has 2 boys, is over worked at home or at work.
We got talking and she admitted she doesn’t look forward to her b’days anymore, and the mordant part was it’s her b’day the next day. I felt a pang of sadness for her at that thought. When would someone STOP liking their birthdays and why.
While that thought bubble was in the air, a young mother and her young toddler were walking out, and I heard her say to him “Please wait, dear, let the ladies come first” and from the other side of the door a little girl trots in with a princessly aura. That did it, in the room full of bored faces, few of us cracked up laughing….
We got talking and she admitted she doesn’t look forward to her b’days anymore, and the mordant part was it’s her b’day the next day. I felt a pang of sadness for her at that thought. When would someone STOP liking their birthdays and why.
While that thought bubble was in the air, a young mother and her young toddler were walking out, and I heard her say to him “Please wait, dear, let the ladies come first” and from the other side of the door a little girl trots in with a princessly aura. That did it, in the room full of bored faces, few of us cracked up laughing….
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Oh, by the way
Few days in the past, in a hurry I quickly hopped into my SUV and started to pace fast to get to work, for my 1 o’clock, but the cop behind me had other plans and pulled me over.
Actually I saw him just while I was entering the school zone and put on my seat belt reluctantly. Nodding my head in denial, I pulled over to the curb side.
Anyway, I had zillion things on my mind so i didnt have any energy left to "act" cautious, and so I was left with my natural charm.
Cop: “Do u know why u were pulled over.”
I was almost about to say: “Was I speeding?”
Cop: “Your registration sticker is from last year, please give me your insurance, DL and registration papers”.
I grabbed my over sized bag from back seat and looked for my wallet, grrh…I couldn’t find it, shoot, not today! I looked again, no luck, and so without choice I sheepishly told him i changed my purse this morning and looks like I forgot my wallet at home : (
I guess as any man with a lady in his life would know this situation, he nodded, and said well, dont worry, just give me ur DOB, Name and last 4 digits of ur social and I did. I was sure he was going to give me a ticket in the next few minutes.
Tapping fingers on the steering wheel and cursing V, for putting my registration sticker on his car, then in an attempt to take it off, he ruined it, and shamelessly put his reg sticker on.
Anyway, the cop comes back and as if he was reading my mind he said you are good I wont give u a ticket this time, BUT, tell your husband his DL expired 16 days ago, if he gets caught his license will be suspended. Score !
Actually I saw him just while I was entering the school zone and put on my seat belt reluctantly. Nodding my head in denial, I pulled over to the curb side.
Anyway, I had zillion things on my mind so i didnt have any energy left to "act" cautious, and so I was left with my natural charm.
Cop: “Do u know why u were pulled over.”
I was almost about to say: “Was I speeding?”
Cop: “Your registration sticker is from last year, please give me your insurance, DL and registration papers”.
I grabbed my over sized bag from back seat and looked for my wallet, grrh…I couldn’t find it, shoot, not today! I looked again, no luck, and so without choice I sheepishly told him i changed my purse this morning and looks like I forgot my wallet at home : (
I guess as any man with a lady in his life would know this situation, he nodded, and said well, dont worry, just give me ur DOB, Name and last 4 digits of ur social and I did. I was sure he was going to give me a ticket in the next few minutes.
Tapping fingers on the steering wheel and cursing V, for putting my registration sticker on his car, then in an attempt to take it off, he ruined it, and shamelessly put his reg sticker on.
Anyway, the cop comes back and as if he was reading my mind he said you are good I wont give u a ticket this time, BUT, tell your husband his DL expired 16 days ago, if he gets caught his license will be suspended. Score !
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
CozY BasH !
As my friend puts it, it doesn’t cost money to have fun, just time which you’ll remember later. This also reminds me of a new year I’ll never forget, that I celebrated with bunch of friends in our 2 bedroom apt in Southport, Gold coast. I forget the year, but all of us dressed to kill, rented a sports car, to go downtown and do some clubbing. It was little chilly so we closed the car top or whatever the right lingo for that is. On our way to downtown, we had a to make a quick stop at McD’s to grab a bite. We thought why waste the time and packed our food to eat in the car. Just as we got there, Jasbir, didn’t look too good, we asked him if everything was alright. Doubtfully he replied, I cant find the keys. We were like WHAT ! In frantic, we rushed back to McD’s to see if we left the keys there, everyone checked their pockets, purses etc etc and no sign of it, and suddenly jasbir yells, the keys are in the car, unfortunately due to some high tech alarm system, we couldn’t open it though the keys are in. It’s about 11.30pm on dec 31st, we called the rental car guy, he said he cant help us until next morning, we called cabs to get us to downtown, they said it’s little bit way off the route and they didn’t wanna come, the buses were only after an hour, in all we were stuck under the warm star lit sky in Gold Coast with no means to get anywhere except home, so all five of us walked back home, swore at each other for being careless, but with no means we thought we’ll make the best of what we could do. So, we made cocktails, dimmed the room, to loud music we played truth or dare, shared secrets, danced and partied till the crack of dawn. Will never forget that night…wherever you are Happy New year to friends to all of us who shared sweet times together.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Few days b4 New Years
(The next few following blogs will be all that i've been planning to blog since the last 2 weeks, so, bear with me and step back in time )
On 12/19/06
Bah Humbug:
I’ve a list….well the word list brings a lot to mind but I’ll try to stick to what I’ve on my mind. It’s Christmas and new year time of the year and I’ve cards all addressed but still not posted, becoz of my compulsive feeling that I should give them my touch of festitvity, which I didn’t get to yet, and it’s already the 19th. And I’m expecting a large crowd to mob my home, so I need to revamp my living room, for which I’m not sure if I have enough time to go shop, let alone the energy. So in my mind I’m buzzing in and out of the stores and I’ve accomplished what I’ve on my to do list. But I’m not even close. This year I thought I’ll get a tree and do all the works but with heavy work schedules I didn’t get around that. So apart from what I’ve on my list, I’ve tons of reasons of why I couldn’t get them done. I’ve had a office luncheon on last Friday, dinner at my manager’s home last night, tonite I’ve a appointment in KOP and a happy hour at Maddies, tomorrow I’ve a Polyanna party at work and bingo, I don’t have any time to do what I need to. We have no vegetables at home either. Can use a helping hand badly? But most of all I miss my family and friends.
On 12/24/06
Great Guns !
Over the holiday weekend, I saw “Thank you for smoking”, this is a movie about the devil at its best. It’s a dry-satirical-walk-tall kinda movie. The guy has a - what you’d call the most hated job in the world. He’s a spokes person for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. Translation, he’ll tell you that smoking is good for you. There is a beautiful show of mind and words playing together. People who love to talk or are taken by the people who have the power of gab to convince that bad is good for you, need to see this movie. The brilliance in the razor sharp conversation is not to miss.
On 12/26/06
Rocky rocked !
On Tuesday nite, I wasn’t doing all too well, so after dinner, while trying to doze on the couch, I saw “Rocky” for the first time. I know I never saw the movie, not even the first, second, third I lost count how many sequels it has, but loved Sylvester’s acting in it. The moral of the movie, never judge a book by it’s cover. The best shot I liked is just after Rocky gets the invitation by Apollo Creed to fight him in the heavy weight championship, Mick (rocky’s old time coach who throws him out of league) comes back to Rocky.
The heated conversation between those two, with Mick’s head leaning on the door and tells rocky “this is the moment I’d been waiting for, I’m 73 years old, Rocky”.
All u hear from inside is the sound of a flush from the bathroom.
At that second the drain of energy you see on the coach’s face that he lost what he yearned for is lovely.
Then rocky running in the dark alley to get hold of him to patch up was so neat.
On 12/19/06
Bah Humbug:
I’ve a list….well the word list brings a lot to mind but I’ll try to stick to what I’ve on my mind. It’s Christmas and new year time of the year and I’ve cards all addressed but still not posted, becoz of my compulsive feeling that I should give them my touch of festitvity, which I didn’t get to yet, and it’s already the 19th. And I’m expecting a large crowd to mob my home, so I need to revamp my living room, for which I’m not sure if I have enough time to go shop, let alone the energy. So in my mind I’m buzzing in and out of the stores and I’ve accomplished what I’ve on my to do list. But I’m not even close. This year I thought I’ll get a tree and do all the works but with heavy work schedules I didn’t get around that. So apart from what I’ve on my list, I’ve tons of reasons of why I couldn’t get them done. I’ve had a office luncheon on last Friday, dinner at my manager’s home last night, tonite I’ve a appointment in KOP and a happy hour at Maddies, tomorrow I’ve a Polyanna party at work and bingo, I don’t have any time to do what I need to. We have no vegetables at home either. Can use a helping hand badly? But most of all I miss my family and friends.
On 12/24/06
Great Guns !
Over the holiday weekend, I saw “Thank you for smoking”, this is a movie about the devil at its best. It’s a dry-satirical-walk-tall kinda movie. The guy has a - what you’d call the most hated job in the world. He’s a spokes person for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. Translation, he’ll tell you that smoking is good for you. There is a beautiful show of mind and words playing together. People who love to talk or are taken by the people who have the power of gab to convince that bad is good for you, need to see this movie. The brilliance in the razor sharp conversation is not to miss.
On 12/26/06
Rocky rocked !
On Tuesday nite, I wasn’t doing all too well, so after dinner, while trying to doze on the couch, I saw “Rocky” for the first time. I know I never saw the movie, not even the first, second, third I lost count how many sequels it has, but loved Sylvester’s acting in it. The moral of the movie, never judge a book by it’s cover. The best shot I liked is just after Rocky gets the invitation by Apollo Creed to fight him in the heavy weight championship, Mick (rocky’s old time coach who throws him out of league) comes back to Rocky.
The heated conversation between those two, with Mick’s head leaning on the door and tells rocky “this is the moment I’d been waiting for, I’m 73 years old, Rocky”.
All u hear from inside is the sound of a flush from the bathroom.
At that second the drain of energy you see on the coach’s face that he lost what he yearned for is lovely.
Then rocky running in the dark alley to get hold of him to patch up was so neat.
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