When Things Don't Make Sense or Do They?

Someday

2012-01-31T14:04:00.000-08:00

Whenever I go on for days or months between blogging, a reader tells me that they miss reading my blog which makes me happy and sad at the same time. And when that happens I try to get my posterior in order and whip up a post. This one is for N.

I am going through a period of restlessness now. I feel like time is slipping away from me and there is so much to be done and I've done so little. Like always I flit between hobbies, one minute wanting to swim like a fish and the other minute looking for ice skating lessons in Madison. I always tell myself that I will accomplish them some day, but I fear I am running out of "days" in my life. The only hobby that I am consitent with has been my French lessons. I've had lessons on and off for almost 2 years now. I will be honest and admit I've not been studying consistently at home. But I enjoy my lessons immensely. I love the language, the way it rolls off my tongue. When I come across something written in French, I try to read it out aloud and when I understand the meaning it makes me immensely happy. Someday (see what I mean when I wrote about "someday" earlier?) I hope to be fluent in French and then I want to learn me some Italiana!

Tomorrow the boy and I complete three years of wedded bliss. I am going to stick my rule of not writing about anything mushy, but I am lucky that I married someone who loves travel as much as I do. We make good traveling partners too. We've been itching to go somewhere because we haven't been anywhere since our Maui trip. Any suggestions? I am planning a vacation to Yellowstone in summer. Where I really want to go is Paris and Venice, but that has been on hold thanks to S' visa issues. Someday...

Holiday Notes

2011-12-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

I am forced to put up a post because I had signed a blog treaty with my buddy. I figured he would never live up to his end, but he has and so I need to post too. Since the treaty never said anything about quality writing, I figured now would be as good a time as any to post a holiday version of my miscellaneous blather.

Tis the season! I love Christmas - the lights, the cookies and the gifts! Especially the gifts. In case people are wondering, I love receiving gifts. Every time I check my mail, I expect someone to have sent me a gift. This expectation amplifies during Christmas, with the only problem being - there is no-one to buy me gifts. For one thing, my family lives far far away and secondly we don't celebrate Christmas. Last year, I told S that we should exchange gifts. He took that to mean that he could buy himself some random camera crap off the internet and call that his gift from me. The day Amazon delivered it home, he realized he didn't have a gift for me and bought me a perfume from Macy's and gave it to me unwrapped, one week before Christmas. To give him credit, he did remember the name of the perfume that I had tried that last time I was at Macy's. But people of the internet, my whole intent in deciding to exchange Christmas gifts was the act of opening a beautifully wrapped gift on Christmas morning! So this year I am mostly done with my Christmas shopping and I am hoping S gets me something good. When I say good, I don't mean diamonds or ipad good (although those items would be appreciated). It means paying attention to small details good. Let me illustrate. This year for my birthday there was the usual spread of expensive gifts. My favorite was a $10 blender bottle from GNC. Every day I drink a smoothie for breakfast. A couple months before my birthday, someone (who is not me) left my bottle at the gym and it was gone forever. When I stopped at GNC a couple days later I was told that my bottle was not sold there anymore. I wasn't heartbroken, but I was pretty bummed because that had a narrow mouth which was easier to drink from. So for my birthday S scoured the internet and managed to snag one for me. This is what makes a great present!

Speaking about ipads, they seem to make great presents. I sent one to my sis and I was pleasantly surprised that my mother has learned to use it and doesn't the computer anymore. I was also shocked when my technology challenged father told me that he would like to learn to use the ipad because it seems easy. Say what you may about me being an Apple fangirl, but other companies would be wise to learn from Apple as far as usability goes. But for all this talk about ipads, we still don't own one. S and I have iphones and we have a Macbook Pro that doesn't take all day to boot and it sits on our couch or bed all the time. So I don't have a need for an ipad. I am just going to will the universe into giving me one. I will let you know how that works out.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Joyeux Noel!

The Thanksgiving Edition

2011-11-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

Since it is always fun to make lists, here is a list of little things that I am thankful fo.r

1) S making breakfast for me everyday. I like to sleep in until the last minute possible. S makes a smoothie for me everyday and I just drink it on the way to and at work. It helps me sleep for 10 more minutes every morning and more thankful I could be not.

2) Going home for lunch everyday. I live 5 mins away from work, even with the parking. I love going home for lunch and having my lunch alone. It's my me time, when I can watch TV or play a game or just sit and stare at the wall. Even where there is nothing to eat at home, I buy a sandwich and take it home just so I can be alone for sometime.

3) My iPhone. I am often accused of drinking Apple's kool-aid, but it's seriously the best phone ever. It helps me keep on top of everything and best of all, when I press a button it immediately does what I want it to do without hanging.

4) Mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups at work. This is my all time favorite candy. I am both thankful and resentful that they stock this at work. But sometimes this salty gooey deliciousness in a cup can turn r mood.

5) My erstwhile DVR and now Hulu Plus - for letting me watch my favorite shows even when I don't know which channels and when they are on. I am mess without my dose of Parks and Rec! :)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

The "I am Back" Post

2011-11-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

Is anyone still waiting for me to post something? :) Please fill up the reason for my blog's sad state with your favorite excuse - work, travel, abducted by aliens.

It's that time of the year where the days become shorter and the air gets chillier. This year I have decided that I have to stop complaining about the weather and try to learn why Wisconsinites look forward to winter. I love summer is because every weekend we are usually out in the sun. Maybe I just need to go out more in the winter to enjoy it. During the winter we usually only step out to go to movies, restaurants, bowling etc. Internet, please hold me responsible this winter.

This is also the time of the year when I miss home terribly. Everyday I talk to my parents and I wonder what I am doing so far away from home. I should just pick up and move back home, but since I am too chicken to do that, I will do the next best thing and talk about how much I miss home. Sometimes you miss the weirdest of things. I miss my mother's cooking. Ok that didn't come out right, let me explain. My mother is a great cook when it comes to typical Tam Bram cooking. I am still not able to recreate her mor kozhambu to perfection. But she was pretty experimental in the kitchen when we were younger and she would try to make north Indian recipes, but somehow Brahminize them. She makes this awesome baby corn masala without using any garam masala or garlic. It tasted like nothing you would ever get at a restaurant and yet it was pretty awesome. (I used to think I inherited her cooking, but while I am a good cook, the results are horrific when I stray from a recipe and add my own substitutions.) I also miss the hustle and bustle of Madras. I am always looking for an excuse to go to State Street, because seeing people walk around me reminds me of T Nagar a teeny bit. Most of all I miss being around people who love me.

Now that the statutory missing-Madras bit is out of the way, let's move on to other things. I am enjoying the Nintendo 3DS very much thank you (you thought there would be a comeback post without any mention of Mario?) To give credit where credit is due, S never skimps on the gifts he gets me. Mind you, he still has trouble picking gifts (does everyone remember the robot incident from 2007?), but anytime I hint that something would be nice, he buys it for me the day after. while this sounds very sweet and romantic, it is very dangerous actually. People who know me in real life know that I have no problem buying expensive stuff for myself. And when I deem something is too expensive or wasteful, I have a husband at home who buys it for me. To add to that, we both like to travel too and never balk at buying flight tickets to somewhere. Coupled with some expensive hobbies and our love for takeout in lieu of actually cooking dinner, I think it is time for us to buckle down for sometime. It's going to be an interesting few months ahead. My plan is to blame S for everything and hope to win the lottery. I will keep you posted on how this works out.

In other depressing news, the number of books I've read in 2011 is shockingly low. Despite the Kindle! I squarely blame Angry Birds for this (see how good I am ) I would go through books in hours when I was younger and now I am reduced to this. I am taking recommendations for new books/authors, so suggest away. Warning: I will judge you, point at you and laugh if you suggest Twilight or anything similar.

So gentle readers, how is life treating everyone?

On Route to Maui

2011-08-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hello Interweb peeps. I love you all so much that I am blogging from my phone at the Denver Airport. S is off to get me a panini from "Pour La France" and I decided to let you all know what's up.

When we finally made it to the airport this morning, I was sure that we were going to miss the flight. But we didn't. However the bag we checked in was overweight and we had to stuff some stuff into our carryin. Which was of course flagged at security and they took everything out to make sure we weren't carrying anything suspicious. So S had to sit on that tiny suitcase and close it twice at the airport. Nothing else interesting happened at the airport, except for the flight desk guy asking if we were going back "home" to Hawaii. :)

Am going to wrap it up now as S is back with my eggplant panini. Expect more updates and pictures the next few days.

The Contact Lens Saga

2011-08-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am back to doing what I do best - ranting. This time you get to read about how to order contact lens that you will not get in time for your vacation

As I wrote in my last post, I am going on vacation next week. About six weeks ago, I realized that I was on my last pair of contact lens. I tried to order them online, but my contact lens prescription was too old. So I tried to setup an appointment to get fitted for contact lens and was told that I need to pay for an eye exam to do that. I was really angry about that because I had had an eye exam just eight months ago and I couldn't understand why I had to pay for one again. But I decided to let things slide and asked to make an appointment. The earliest appointment was a week away. I mentioned my upcoming vacation and said that the reason I am making the appointment was to get contact lenses before that. I was assured that my brand of contact lenses would definitely arrive before that. So I went for my appointment and met the doctor. She was really nice to me and I told her about my need to get contact lenses before my vacation. She gave me a trial lens and said that she would order another trial pair and another pair of the one she gave me so that I would be covered for my vacation and after coming back I could order a year supply of the one I liked best. I was wary about this, but agreed to go along because the trial she gave me was different from the one I used before and I was not sure if I wanted to order a box of them. I have astigmatism, so I know and understand that it takes time to order and get lenses for my prescription. But she assured me time and again that I would definitely get the lenses in time. When I didn't get a call from her office, I called them last week to ask about my trial pairs. The person who picked up my phone told me that she hadn't gotten it yet and had no information about when it would arrive. I was seething with anger, but I didn't want to create a scene and hung up politely. So this afternoon, I called them again to be told just just one pair of trial lenses were ordered for me (though the doctor told me she was ordering two). She said that that particular lens usually takes 2-3 weeks to come in and that I could probably expect them sometime next week! When I told her that there was to be another trial lens for me, she said she would put it in now and I would get that in 2-3 days. When I persisted and told her about my vacation and she said that I do have that one pair of trial lens that the doctor gave me the day of the exam and that will have to do.

Gentle readers who have been following the story so far, am I wrong in being angry at the situation? I feel like I have been blindsided here. When I called 1-800-CONTACTS they told me that if I took an eye exam at Walmart, they would get the prescription from them and I would get my lens in a week or 10 days tops. I wanted to support a local business and order the contact lens from the nice local doctor and this is the kind of thing I deal with. While talking to the doctor, I told her that I would be wearing my lens while snorkeling and I was worried that I would lose them in the water and so I wanted more than one pair to tide me over that week. I realize that the doctor's office is not responsible for the delays in getting the lens (unless they forgot to put the order in rightaway), but a little empathy would be nice. Or atleast not promise me 2 pairs of lenses when only one has been ordered. I am eligible for a free eye exam in a couple of months and I would have just waited instead of paying upwards of $100 for an eye exam and no contact lens. Next time I think I should just go the warehouse route and swallow my feelings about Walmart and just get my eyes tested there.

Updated : I got a call yesterday saying one of the trials had arrived. I was ecstatic. When I went to pick them up this afternoon the other one had come too. So this is what I had planned exactly. The only caveat is that, the lens that had taken longer to arrive (the ones that are supposed to match my prescription better) are expensive and they want it back if I don't decide to buy a box. Which means I can't wear them while snorkeling. I can deal with that :)

Mish Mash Post

2011-08-12T09:14:00.001-07:00

Hello my dear lovelies. I forgot to sign up for the Indie Ink Challenge this week. I went through the archives of past challenges and I picked one - a story of how I fell in love with my husband. But as I started writing it, it was too long and mushy and not very interesting (think Ross and Rachel from Friends). So I thought I could do a general post about what's happening in my life right now.

I am most excited about our trip to Hawaii next week. This is the first trip and S and I are taking together that is longer than 4 days (not much longer, it's just a week) I feel so nice and adultish to tell everyone that we are going away to Maui for a week, especially since our honeymoon never happened. S and I are the kind of people who take their travel booking very very seriously. We stayed up an entire Friday night (till 6am, no kidding) arguing and trying to decide which island to visit. S won that round (I wanted to go to Oahu), so if anything goes wrong in this trip, I can always blame him. When we picked the island, we had the harrowing choice of picking the hotel. Do we pick a resort or a condo? Do we want to cook during the vacation? Will the island have enough vegetarian friendly restaurants so that we aren't eating salads for every meal? Finally my parents came to our rescue and my Dad said that he didn't want his first born princess cook while on vacation (He actually said that since we do so much takeout during regular days, he didn't foresee us turning on the stove while on vacation. He also said Oahu has a lot more historic significance and to go there for our first visit, but we chose to ignore that) Once we figured out that we were going be staying on a resort, I had my heart set on this hotel on Ka'anapali Beach (The reason I liked this hotel was because it has a gigantic kickass pool - I know the beach is just a few meters away and I am weird for fixating on the pool, but humor me). We were pricing the vacation on Priceline and it gave us a number slightly more than our budget if we left on that particular week in August. S okayed it (the man has a problem saying no to me, he would buy me the moon with his credit card if he could) And then Priceline turned on us, it kept telling us that this price was not available though it turned up on the results. We started looking at other, more affordable hotels on the Ka'anapali Beach and me finding faults with all of them and wistfully going back to the website of the one I liked to ooh and aah at the pictures. After two hours of this, S put his foot down and booked this hotel on expedia (Yup I am that spoiled :)) And this is how we came to book our most expensive vacation to date which cost almost 2 months of my paycheck.

So we are off to Hawaii in 2 weeks and I am most excited. I will be taking my laptop with me and I am planning to post a picture everyday. We are planning on snorkeling, snuba diving, taking a rainforest and waterfalls hike, watching the sunrise from Haleakala Crater, driving on the Road to Hana, rafting the sea caves at Kanaio Coast and taking in a luau. So much for a relaxing vacation. But we may end up not doing all of these, especially considering my limited swimming skills. I hope to write a recap when I get back and I guess that will cover what we did do.

In other earth shattering news, we canceled our satellite TV service. I can hear a collective gasp from all cable stations right now! It's not because we want to cut down on our TV watching (honestly, we don't watch a lot of TV) But I would DVR a lot of sitcom reruns and all we were doing was watching Seinfeld, That 70s Show, Will & Grace and Frasier over and over again. We figured getting rid of cable would force us into watching shows that we really want to watch, but we don't because we don't want to hunt for it on Netflix or iTunes - like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Pushing Daisies etc. Also S and I are huge fans of Lost and we are thinking about re-watching the series. And if we save some $$ every month by doing this, why not? We connected one of our old laptops to the TV and bought a nifty little wireless keyboard and mouse the size of a remote and use that to stream what we want to the TV. We plan to get a HD antenna for the TV so that we can watch the local channels. People tell me that it is possible to build your own DVR on your laptop and if the antenna works out well we plan to build one as well. It's been working well so far. I am more motivated to go to the gym in the evenings now since I can watch TV there. There are some things I miss - like Conan on TBS. But they upload the entire episode on teamcoco.com the next day. I will survive. The icing on the cake - no commercials.

If you have been reading so far, congratulations, you are now at the end of the post. The only thing you need to take away from this post is - I am going to Maui in a week and you are not :)

Fool's Gold

2011-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

Another week means another Indie Ink Challenge. This is my first poem for the challenge. The challenge is at the bottom of the poem.

--

I look at his face
Brown eyes, misshapen nose
An unruly crop of hair
As rebellious as his soul.

His eyes meet mine
I melt in the warm embrace
A smile from within
Twisting my under belly.

I lean into his shoulders
Dark sinewy tattooed
A throne for my weary head
I rest like I never do

I take a deeper look
Into his heart no less
I see love buried
Almost as much as in mine

Fingers intertwine in a clumsy knot
My ringless finger feeling naked
I trace an outline in the sand
Of the undefined future

People call him a drunk
A player, a gambler
A fool, they taunt me
Why can't they see what I see?

--

I was challenged by Alison Newton who writes a wonderful blog here.Go check her out. Her challenge was
"You always see things as you want them to be instead of seeing them as they really are."
Alison, hope you like this. I see lot of people fall for someone unworthy of their love. I often wonder what they see in them that the rest of the world doesn't.

I challenged Headant (two weeks in a row now) to write about "magic". Can't wait to to read it.

The Real Victory

2011-07-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

This is my 11th Indie Ink Writing Challenge. The challenge I received is at the end of this post.

Jack threw his notebook down in frustration. Ten years ago if someone had told him he would be a researcher spending his nights and weekends at a lab, he would have laughed it off saying he was not mad scientist material. And yet here he was on a Saturday night, meddling with his numbers and trying to make his Matlab program give him the sinusoid graph he wanted. He banged the keys of the computer in frustration, but no graph yet.

It had been a long rocky road, the way to a PhD. Picking a research topic had proved a lot more difficult than picking a major in college. And the Professor he worked for did not make anything easier. He wouldn't let him defend his thesis and graduate, always wanting more proofs, more publications and more results. Jack had been an A student right from kindergarden and to have someone constantly criticizing did nothing to improve his attitude. He thought about quitting, for the hundredth time in the last few days. There was this symposium coming up in August and his professor expected him to present a paper on his research there. It was quite a prestigious convention, and he realized that making a good impression there would go a long way in improving his academic standing and help with his prospective career. But his Professor laughed it off when he said he wanted to include a section on his findings and had mocked him that he had nothing of value to show as yet. It became imperative to him that he needed to prove that his mettle not just to his advisor but to himself.

"Take a grenade for ya" his phone sang, with his sanity on the other end. Sweet sweet Ally always called every two hours to check on him. He answered the phone and mumbled some expletives in answer to how his research was going. Talking to her always calmed him down and he often discovered that a calm mind accomplished more.

Jack couldn't believe his eyes. The screen showed a perfect sinusoid curve. He leapt off his feet and screamed out in happiness. It worked, it actually worked. His first thought was not to call Ally and celebrate, but to fling that graph on the face of his snooty advisor. Of course he was right, he had been right all along. His near perfect GRE scores and his 4.0 GPA were not flukes like his Professor hinted. He called Ally and told her that they were going out for drinks to celebrate.

He gathered his papers, saved the program to his email and external harddisk before leaving the lab. Ally gave him a hero's welcome and bear hugged him in the driveway. This was another reason why he loved her so much. Ally was far from being an intellectual, she was a kindergarden teacher who loved simple things. But she understood the nature of his work and always encouraged him to talk about it at home.

They came back home at three in the morning and Jack was glad that it wasn't because of a late night at the lab. He kissed Ally goodnight and told her that he would come to bed after typing an email. He went to the tiny nook he called his office and loaded his program into his computer. He wanted to see that sinusoid again. He was absently going through his papers, when he noticed it. The miscalculation that had caused the sinusoid. He couldn't believe his eyes. He furiously scribbled on his notebook, desperately trying to prove that his miscalculation never existed. After an hour, the truth slowly sunk in. He had no results to show. He needed to retrace his steps and move his research in a different direction altogether. Tears threatened to moisten his eyes and a million thoughts crisscrossed in his mind - his two years of wasted effort, his advisor's face, the conference for which he had no paper. He cringed when he thought about the conference. And then a thought struck him.

Ally knew something was wrong when she heard Jack typing furiously. His ashen face was proof enough.

"Ally, I made a mistake, a tiny but fate changing mistake"

"Calm down, it's going to be alright. You will fix it before the symposium, you always do"

"Not this time. But the good thing is, only I know about this. My imbecile advisor will never find this out in a million years."

Ally looked at him, with her head bent and giving him the look she gave one of her kindergarden children when they did something naughty.

The next morning, Jack had an uncomfortable talk with his advisor. Like he expected, there were some jabs and he had to withdraw his paper from the symposium. But it was going to be alright. Wasn't it Albert Camus who said "An intellectual is someone whose mind watches himself" ?

My challenge this week was from Sir.

"An intellectual is someone whose mind watches himself" - Alber Camus. What does this mean to you.

I hope I have answered your question. I think the quote means intelligence without ethics does not make a man an intellectual. A sharp mind should watch itself and prevent it from going down the wrong path

I challenged Headant with "And then there were none" and she has a moving piece up here.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

2011-07-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

This is my entry to this week's Indie Ink Challenge. The challenge I received is at the bottom of the post.

Ashley walked down the path to the church, a million thoughts thrashing around in her head. She was getting married the next day in that church. The caterer hadn't returned her calls and the florist said that the heat wave had killed the orchids that she wanted in her centerpieces. And of course James occupied a good chunk of her mind too.

James couldn't believe the day was so close. He closed his eyes and imagined her soft hands on his cheeks. He remembered the day they met like it was yesterday. He had just finished with grad school and was on a backpacking trip across Asia with his friends. India was the last country on their itinerary. One of his architect friends had refused to leave the country before seeing the famous Brihadeeswarar Temple. The temple was huge and the humongous arch blew him away while he walked in. And then he heard the loudest gong he had ever heard in his life. His hands clapped themselves to his ears instinctively and as he stumbled around in shock, he tripped on a step he didn't know was there, onto the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. It was like the way it happened in the movies, having a beautiful woman fall into his arms, while the bells tolled and in a strange land to boot. James followed her around like a puppy, extending his trip for another two weeks. He called up his mother from India and told her that he had met the woman he was going to marry.

Ashley was relieved to see him that evening. Too many things were going wrong at the venue and she wanted someone to say that it was all going to be alright. "Sweetness, it's all going to be okay tomorrow. We have the bride, the groom and the ring and if you think about it, that's all that matters." She felt the tension melt away from her body and she looked at the face of the man she was going to marry. "You still aren't thinking about James aren't you?" And now the topic of James was out in the open. “Mikey, I was engaged to James once, but you know what happened after that. I want to marry you and NOT James”

James felt like time was slipping away from him. When Ashley broke the engagement after the incident, he thought he would be able to get her back. But he didn’t bank on her meeting Mike. Ashley stopped answering James’ calls. When a friend told him that she was getting married in West Virginia in a day, he nearly ran all the way there. How could Ashley marry someone else? They were fated to be together. He felt that if he could somehow remind her of the good times they had, she would surely be convinced to take him back. But he had to be careful, her family hated him after what had happened and if anyone of her Italian family saw him in that small village, they would be sure to give him the boot. Then he noticed the bell tower in the church. Of course, the bells! He would have a pretty good view of the churchyard from atop the tower and he would just ring the bell at the right time. The bells would flood memories of a good time in her mind. And then he would just have to show himself to her.

Ashley walked up to the church at sunrise. Mike had managed to get some orchids from the nearest city and she wanted to make sure the pews had some orchids in the decorations. She hadn’t been able to sleep through the night anyway, especially after the talk about James. And then she heard it, the toll of the church bells. She felt a strange exhilaration run through her body. It was ominous. The bells were signaling that she was meant to be with Mike after all. How else could you explain the toll of the bells at sunrise in an empty church? She smiled and hummed a tune while carefully placing the orchids. The bells have spoken.

---

I was challenged by the lovely Amanda who writes at myplaidpants. She asked me write about the toll of a bell at sunrise.

I challenged Manju this week - "Loneliness can make people do the strangest things"

A Question of Territory

2011-07-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

This is my entry to this week's Indie Ink Challenge. The challenge I received is at the bottom of the post.

To say Podin was tired when he came back home, was an understatement. Moving time was always tough. You pick a place to call home and get all settled in, and then you get the call. Podin's colony was ruled by a leader, who was quite capricious. She believed in superstition and at the slightest of reasons would want to move the colony of thousands to a new location. She had a band of workers that she called her scout pack. They would have to scour the regions and find a new place to set up home.

You might think that Podin's leader sounded like she thought of herself a queen bee. You are right. Podin was a bee and stayed in a hive ruled by a queen bee. It was not like she was a tyrant, but she had her whims and prejudices. Since Podin was one of the oldest in the pack, she valued his opinion and made him the leader of the scouts. Ever so often, they would set off on these expeditions to find a new place to setup their hive. Bees already have a reputation for being hard workers, but their limits were tested those few weeks, when they would travel mile after mile looking for a place that met all their needs.

It was smack in the middle of scouting time. Podin had had yet another unsuccessful day and was just about to retire, when he heard Rafersky calling out for him. He groaned inwardly. Rafersky was a young recruit who thought no end of himself. He had a good work ethic, but there was nothing else going for him.

"Mr Podin, I have found it, the place."

"Eh?" (Bees are known for their brevity)

"There is this beautiful place, about ten miles from here. It's a small lake in the middle of the woods. It looks so beautiful, you have to see it to believe it. I don't think humans know about this place, which means no disturbance. Shall we go tell the queen?"

"Pipe down boy. That's no good, we can't move there. Maybe you will have better luck tomorrow"

Rafersky bristled with anger. He hated Podin and all the older bees. They were slowing everyone down. There was a new generation of bees who still had to seek permission from these old fogies to live their lives. No, Rafersky was not going to stand for it. No siree! He was going to go straight to the queen. He had to do it, for the colony.

Podin saw Rafersky's eyes move towards the queen's chambers and guessed what was running in Rafersky's mind. So he thinks he can go over his head?

"Well, if you want to go to the queen, let's go. I don't think she will take kindly to being disturbed at this hour for such a silly thing."

The queen was obviously impatient. There were so many things to be done and she could do all of them tomorrow only if she got a good night's sleep today. But her mood lightened up when Rafersky told her he had found the place. In the hot summer, moving by the lake felt wonderful. Also the flowers by the lake were always sturdier than flowers inside the city. Which meant more pollen! And no human disturbance too? She giggled in an unqueenly manner upon hearing it.

"Your Majesty. I don't think we should move there. I am not saying that to spite Rafersky who found the place. It's because I don't think it's a good place for us to move to. Sure, living by a lake sounds heavenly, but have you considered water accidents? About half our population is terrified of water and the other half doesn't know how to swim. If one of our young ones fall into the water, what are we to do? Also, humans may seem like pests, but I think they have their use. Have we learned nothing from watching the Bee movie? There are good humans out there. I think that cutting away from civilization is not the way for us to go at this juncture."

The queen was nearly in tears after hearing Podin. She had never heard Podin speak more than two sentences together. Even Rafersky looked humbled and was nodding to what Podin had said. The queen announced that the search would go on and gave Podin a teary hug.

While walking back to their quarters, Podin smiled to himself. He hated humans and had not even watched the Bee movie. Podin had discovered the cove by the lake years ago. That had been his secret place to retire, when things got crazy around him. The thought of sharing that space with thousand other bees made him shudder. Sometimes a bee's got to do what a bee's got to do!

---

My challenge was from Shiv

You are a worker bee in charge, with 90 other bees, of finding a new hive ...

Somehow I couldn't really get inspired this week. My entry reads like a children's story and I apologize for that.

I challenged Jules- "Do seasons affect you mentally? Why or why not"

The Violin

2011-06-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday means another Indie Ink Challenge. I challenged Amy to write about what makes her madly deliriously happy and she has responded here. Go read it.

Here is my entry.

Angela placed the pearls round her neck and looked at herself in the mirror. She grimaced and took it off and replaced it with a simple diamond necklace that showed off the plunging neckline of her Versace gown better. Still, the face that looked back at her was not a happy face. Yes, Angela Van Hofsten was not a happy woman. Not as happy as someone who just inherited millions should be.

Angela was the only child of the wealthy Mr and Mrs Van Hosften. She grew up with the best of everything and wanted nothing. Her trust fund kicked in when she was 18, and she was one of the most popular girls at college. Tragedy struck when she was in her senior year and her parents' car met with a fatal accident. She was inconsolable for days afterwards and couldn't bear the thought of life without her only family. Then life dealt her second blow, when she realized there was another relative she didn't know about. She had heard stories about crazy Uncle Matt, but had never met him. Her parents had not been on speaking terms with him throughout her life. But since the wealth was mostly from family investments, as per her great grandfather's will, he got almost everything. She had her trust fund, but it hit hard since she had grown up assuming she would be in millions in her adulthood.

She never got along with Uncle Matt. He looked just like dad and many times she would want to visit him just to see his face. But she soon realized that he was nothing like her dad. For one thing, he didn't believe in any rules. She once got a collection call about turning off electricity at his house. When she asked him about that, he said that he didn't think electricity should cost so much. He drove her insane with his eccentric ways. On the anniversary of her parents' death, she organized a small service at their church for friends and family. He turned up an hour late, in red overalls and drunk to the gills. He refused to donate anything to a charity she founded and said that he would rather throw money on the streets of a poor neighborhood. She gave up all pretense of loving him and after awhile gave up on trying to be in his life too.

One day, her lawyer called her saying he had some bad news. Uncle Matt had gone on an expedition to Africa and had contracted a tropical virus. By the time he was airlifted to a hospital in a city, it was too late. Angela was shocked to hear that. She had her differences with him, but she had never wished him any ill, at least not intentionally. She felt guilty when a corner of her mind burst into jubilation at getting the money back. She brushed those thoughts away and some surprise tears came streaming down her cheeks.

When the dust settled down, it felt good to move back into the house she grew up in. It took a cleaning crew to get the house resemble a home to live in. The grand dining set was broken into pieces and was used to make campfires in the middle of the lawn. The first room that Angela entered the house into was what she had dubbed the "music" room when she was a kid. Her parents loved music and preferred to collect musical instruments instead of art. She loved to go into the room and imagine an orchestra was playing with those old instruments. Her favorite was the 300 year old Stradivarius that her cost her parents more than a million dollars. She had been taking violin lessons since she was six and her parents had promised her the violin after her first performance. Sadly that never came to be. She had been looking forward to playing that violin ever since she got the news.

But try as she may, she couldn't find the violin. All the other instruments were intact, but this one eluded everyone who searched for it. She figured it might have been stolen or maybe Uncle Matt had tried to sell it to buy himself a sandwich. She contacted the police and many art dealers, but no-one had any record of it. She felt like the violin was Uncle Matt's final joke on her. She was sure that he must have known she loved that violin and must have burnt it out of spite.

Her boyfriend Tim walked in while she was putting the last of her makeup on.

"Geez Angie, I told you we are going to a comedy club. Why did you get so dressed up? A jean and a tee would be more appropriate."

Angela stared at him with disguised anger. Yes, Tim would have to go. She knew she was breaking rank by dating him but now the difference seemed more stark than ever. She wanted to be a distinguished socialite and did not care to be seen at such pedestrian places. But she couldn't break up with right away, that would seem too snobbish. She decided two months would be an appropriate time and resolved to send him packing in August.

The comedy club was packed to the gills. The first comedian who came on seemed to go and on in a Seinfeldish way.

"What is the deal with swimming? Don't we have enough bridges to get across water? Flapping your hands and lakes, bobbing up and down for air, that's a poor excuse for fun!"

The proverbial bell rang in Angela's mind. Of course the lake! Their house stood on a lake and the there was a small island in the middle of the lake with a gazebo. She knew that Uncle Matt loved to swim upto the gazebo and stay there for hours just looking at the water. Could he have hidden the violin there?

She left the club rather abruptly and rushed to the gazebo. To her delight, she found the violin case lying on the floor ajar. She hugged it in delight and looked around for the violin. She would have the whole lake dredged if she had to. She could hear the sweet sounds of the violin in her mind. She was going to find it!

---

The sounds of violin filled the air near the lake in central Mexico. Matt played the violin with abandon, the lessons of his youth came rushing back to him. All the money never agreed with him. He liked to run the way the wind took him and all those lawyers were always behind him. He figured Angela liked doing all those things anyway. He took a few things that he wanted that he knew that no-one would miss - like his favorite saucepan from the kitchen, money to tide him over for the next 10 years and an old violin he found in one of the rooms.

My challenge this week was from The Womanist - Make a story around these three - a 300 year old violin, a comedian, a lake. It's not a strong story, but thanks for pushing me into fiction. Hope you like this :)

Father of the Year

2011-06-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

I am back to the Indie Ink Writing Challenge after a two week break - to celebrate the husband's birthday, a visit to New York and to recover from all the celebrations. It feels good to flex my writing muscles again.

I challenged Dafeenah to write about a confrontation at work with her boss. I think she really did a great job with such a boring prompt. Go read it here.

Here is my response. The challenge is at the bottom as always.

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She came home from school and announced that to the household by banging the front door close. She immediately regretted doing that because her mother was probably resting. She threw her bag in her room and came to the kitchen to get herself a snack. And then she saw him. He had the audacity to look her in the eye and ask if she wanted a grilled cheese sandwich. Typical! If he had taken any pain to get to know her, he would know that melted cheese made her feel icky and she would never ever eat that, except on pizza. Didn’t he know about her sweet tooth? Her mom usually made a jelly sandwich or a pop tart after school. She poured herself a glass of milk and settled on the table with cookies and a comic. But someone couldn’t take a hint. He followed her and started asking about her day. She wanted to throw the milk on his face and scream. Yes, he was her father. But does he even know what grade she was in? Or her teacher’s name? He had never displayed interest in her in the eight years of her life. He hadn’t even been present. He would always be on the road and the only father she knew was the one who would be sprawled on the couch, clasping a beer with his calloused hands, sleeping the day off. Even when he was awake he never spoke full sentences to her. Never wanted to play catch with her.

She didn’t always feel this angry towards him. She had made her peace with not having a fulltime father and was glad to see him when he was home. But the past few weeks, it was different. For one thing, he was home all the time. There was a lot of yelling and her mother was crying all day. She felt sorry for her mother. And now he thinks he can just waltz back into her life and start playing her father?

He sighed when he saw her read the comic, ignoring his questions. The feeling of sadness in his heart was peppered with flashes of anger at her mother. Yes, he had been absent for a large part of her life. But that was not because he loved her any less. He was a trucker, he had to be on the road most of the time. When he did land back home after driving through ten states, all he wanted to do was eat and sleep. For a few months after she was born, he had stopped driving trucks and had taken up a job stocking shelves at the Piggly Wiggly. But he soon found that his wife preferred an absent husband who made the big bucks to one making minimum wage in town. She liked buying things and wanted everyone to call her pretty. He remembered the night she came to his room crying, with the letter from the credit card company. He was back behind the wheel the next day.

And there was this whole other thing too. Growing up with six brothers, he had been delighted when she told him they were having a daughter. He called all his family and told them the news. Then his buddy called him aside and told him about some rumors that were flying around. That night, they had the biggest fight ever and she swore she was his. And he stayed, because he couldn’t bear the thought of his daughter being raised by someone else and being neglected. And when she came into the world with her black hair and brown eyes, he knew he would love her for the rest of his life. He wished now that he had been different with her. Loving someone and telling someone you love them are independent and separate actions, where one does not imply the other. He took after his father and always had difficulty with words. Many times, he would want to gather her into his arms and just hug her tight. But held back, because in his mind fathers were stern creatures who did not give butterfly kisses to their daughters, preferring to express emotion with grunts.

They had had many fights before, but he didn’t know if they could stay together any longer. A wife is not something you share with a neighbor. For a minute, he wondered if he could just tell his daughter everything. Judging by the dirty looks she was throwing at him, there was no way she would leave her momma and come with him, no matter what he said. Also the only thing he knew in life was driving trucks and what kind of life was that for a little girl? Maybe it was better that she thinks he is the ultimate villain.

---

My challenge this week was from Laura and it was "the ultimate villain". It feel very Bollywoodish to end my writing with the prompt :) This was a great prompt, thanks Laura.

PS. Please forgive the terrible font/style, blogger has been very bad and does not let me edit the font.

The Ring

2011-05-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

This my entry to this week's Indie Ink Writing Challenge. I am taking a break next week, because I will be partying it up in New York this weekend. Woo hoo!

This week I challenged Blackbird to write about a mind adventure and she has the most beautiful and powerful response here. Go read it.

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Madan was on his knees on the stairs with the ring on his hand. But he was not proposing to Sue, like he wanted to. He was searching for the stone on the ring that had to be somewhere on the stairs.

It had all started a few months ago. He loved Sue and she loved him back and he like Beyonce said, he wanted to put a ring on her. And he knew just the ring to propose with, his grandmother's antique ring, with a diamond as big as a rock. She came to this country fifty years ago and even when they were struggling to make ends meet in the new country, Grandpa wouldn't let her sell or pawn the ring. The ring had been promised to the first grandson who got engaged. Since his brother just broke with his longtime girlfriend and his cousin was a frat boy who couldn't commit to a woman for a week, leave alone for life, he figured the ring was rightfully his. It had been hard convincing his mother though. He figured it was because Sue had lost a wallet and a watch recently and she must be worried that she would absently misplace the ring.

He picked the date to propose, and decided he would do it at their favorite restaurant and place the ring in a glass of champagne. But the night before while flipping through channels, Sue came across a documentary about blood diamonds which ended with her swearing off diamonds for life. Madan couldn't believe his luck, he should have watched the Sex and City rerun like she wanted to. It was back to the drawing board. He turned to his trusted friend Google and searched for other options for engagement rings. He decided that blue sapphire would be a good alternative, considering blue was her favorite color. But now there was the question of the ring. Should he buy a new ring for her? Or should he keep his grandmother's ring and replace the stone? Since he went to so much trouble to get the ring from his mother, he was loathe to give it back. He ordered a blue sapphire to match the diamond on the ring and went to a jeweler to get the diamond off. When Fedex finally delivered the sapphire, he placed it on the ring and was just thinking it looked perfect, when Sue came home and was on her way up the stairs to hug him hello. He did the what at that moment seemed to be the sensible thing to do and just dropped the ring and the stone on the stairs, hoping that the shag carpeting on the stairs would hide them.

When Sue left in a few minutes to have coffee with her best friend Karen, he rushed back to the stairs, but found that the stone was missing.

At the coffee shop, Sue was nervously stirring her latte though she had forgotten to add sugar.

"What do you mean, Madan is going to propose? Are you going to say yes? This is so exciting! Think you will have a summer wedding?"

"Karen, did you hear the other things I am telling you? He was going to use his grandmother's ring. That thing is huge, I am telling you I could blind an entire village with that thing."

"And he is not using that ring now?"

"No, he took the diamond off and is planning to replace it with a blue sapphire"

"What??"

"Yes, it's because I saw this documentary about blood diamonds on TV and I might have cried a bit and told him I am never to wear diamonds again"

"Aww that's sweet of him. You got yourself a listener. Congrats, they are a rare breed."

"Kare, it is his grandmother's ring! His mother will never let me live it down. She hates me enough already, Madan is oblivious to it though. I don't want to be the woman who broke the family heirloom. I will be mocked at all family gatherings."

"So ask him get you another ring. Don't tell me you want that diamond."

"Well, actually I do. I mean what I said about not buying diamonds, but this one is already mined. And it is a beautiful stone and the setting that accentuates the beauty. I like that Madan finagled it from his Mom to give it to me. And that's why I took the sapphire with me when Madan was not looking"

"Are you nuts Sue? Madan loves you and you love him. Go home and fix this!"

When Sue came home, Madan was still on the stairs. When she walked up to him, he got down on his knee and held out a ring from a cereal box. Tears started streaming down her eyes and she gesticulated a resounding yes. Yes, rocks don't matter as much the people do.

----

My challenge was from Lazidaisical

a story that takes place in a stairwell.

My first attempt was about this little boy who pushed his mother down the stairs who dies. But that was very sad and dark and I couldn't take it further after a while. This one was more last minute thing and I just had fun with it. Hope you don't mind that the whole story does not take place on the stairs and the stairs aren't even a focal point of the story. Some day I will complete the other piece too.

A Letter From Me To You

2011-05-18T18:46:00.000-07:00

Another week, another Indie Ink Writing Challenge. I challenged Amy to write about a different kind of courage and she has done an awesome job, go read it now.

Here is my response, the challenge I received is at the bottom of the post

Dearest husband,

Remember when we were kids, we would run and play on the streets all through summer? Remember the day I threw the ball into the crazy lady's house? I was shaking with fear when I saw her come out, red in the face, with my ball in her hand. I started crying, the way little girls do when they know someone was going to yell at them. You pushed me aside and told her that you threw the ball. You held your own for awhile, but soon realized that the only way to get my ball back was if you apologized. You did that and when you gave the ball back to me, you told me you would never let anyone make me cry.

I still remember our wedding like it happened yesterday. All the planning had come to a close, all the flowers were set up, the venue decorated and we felt like there was nothing left to do but get married. Then my cousin walked up to me, the bride, and made a rude remark about my weight. I barged into the groom quarters, with tears in my eyes. You wanted to beat up my cousin. I can still feel your palm in the small of my back and your other hand brushing my tears away. You told me that you would never let anyone make me cry.

In our first year of marriage, your parents visited us. I know your mother never liked me and I was determined to win her affection. I served a dinner that I slaved over for hours in the kitchen. Your father loved it, as did you. That night when I came to the kitchen to get a drink of water, I saw you sitting on the kitchen table, thumbing through a magazine while your mother talked about how you could have done so much better. You nodded absently, breaking my heart into a million pieces in the process. I forgot the water I had come down for and ran into our bedroom. You found me sobbing into the pillow an hour later and you were aghast. You thought you had forgotten an anniversary of some sort. When I told you why I was crying, your first instinct was to laugh at me. You spent the next hour explaining that your mother was just a crazy lady who didn't know the way to her son's heart. You said you never listened to most of what she said. You offered to make your parents leave our house that night but I refused to let you do that. You hugged me close that night and told me that you would never let anyone make me cry.

Two years back, you were out drinking with your buddies. You promised you would be back by ten. The clock struck two and you weren't home or picking up calls. I was worried sick and imagined you lying in a ditch somewhere. I thought maybe you didn't have a ride home and so I came searching for you in your favorite bar. You were fine - drunk to the gills and waiting on another drink. You yelled at me in front of everyone when I asked you to come home with me. Tears were streaming down my face when I drove back home, listening to the classic rock station on the radio. The next morning you brought me breakfast in bed, with a single red rose and said you loved me. I believed you. You told me that you would never let anyone make me cry.

The last two years have not been fun. We both seem to be growing in different directions. You have embraced your inner teenager and you think life is just one big party. Sure, I found your fun loving side an attractive quality when we were dating in college, but real life can can only take so much of that. When I asked you to pay attention to our bank accounts, you blew me a raspberry. When I insisted, you called me nag. That seems to be your favorite word for me, because you know I hate to be called one. I talked you into taking dance lessons with me, but you didn't turn up for even the first class. I have tried to do your thing, tried to come with you on your Friday night pub crawls. That's when I noticed you take off your wedding ring during these events. Seeing your naked finger was very hard for me. You took me aside and told me you loved me. I believe you.

Unfortunately love is not enough to keep a marriage alive. I think we need to separate, at least for sometime. By the time you find this letter, I will be at my parents' place. You will probably be shocked at this point, but honestly didn't you see it coming? You swatted me away whenever I wanted us to talk about our relationship and said counseling is for losers. What was I to do? I struggled with this decision, I really did. I made a promise to you, with God as my witness, to be with you for the rest of my life. But I realized that I had been crying myself to sleep, everyday for the last year. And you have broken your promise to me too. All my life you had been telling me that you would never let anyone make me cry. Don't you count as a person who makes me cry? Never is a promise and you can't afford to lie.

Love,

PS. In case anyone is wondering and for the family who reads my blog - this is a fictional piece.

This week's challenge comes from Seesaw. The challenge was:

Never is a promise and you can't afford to lie

I didn't know this was a song by Fiona Apple. The song is beautiful and I am listening to it on a loop now. Thanks for the challenge.

My Grandfather

2011-05-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

This is my fourth week of participating in the Indie Ink Writing Challenge. I challenged Christina to imagine she was a horse on a carousal and she has done a great job answering it. Go read it here, I am sure you will love it.

This week's challenge is really delightful and comes from Amy who writes at Transplanted Thoughts. The challenge is:
Compare yourself to your grandparents. How are you alike? different? Tell us a special memory you have of your grandparents.

I am very close to all my grandparents. I started writing about all of them, but it became very long and anecdotal. So I am just going to talk about my grandfather. Many thanks to Stef who helped me with this prompt when I was stuck and gave my entry a once-over and made it spiffier.
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My father's parents lived with us when we were growing up. I have just a few memories of my paternal grandfather, like the way his eyes would light up when he talked about his children's accomplishments and the way he would argue with my grandmother about some seemingly trivial things. He died when I was about seven years old. When you lose a grandparent at that age, you have to treasure and safe guard memories of them so that they stay with you for the rest of your life.

I was about three, when my parents enrolled me in this awful pre-school because that was the closest to our home. I used to cry and throw a tantrum because I was a snob (even) then and I didn't want to go a dinky school. I think after a few weeks my parents were sick of my drama and let me quit. Years later, my mother told me that it was my grandfather who didn't let my parents put me in a nicer school that was farther away, because he didn't want his precious granddaughter to go further than a few steps away from home. He loved to gamble and belonged to a club of some sort where he went to play cards. He won a small sum of money once in a lottery (say something around $20) and asked my sister and I what we wanted. I don't remember what I said, but my sister said that she wanted a new car! (I am sure I wasn't half as ambitious and most likely asked for a candy bar). He was half annoyed and half amused and told her he would get her a toy car instead. I have a lot of memories of my father yelling at him, I don't remember why. My father tells me that my grandfather was an honest upright Public Works Department officer who didn't have an enemy in the world. I have seen an old picture of him looking very handsome in his evening jacket and I can imagine how dashing he must have been, driving a jeep to dams and other rocky areas for work. Dad told me that he was very strict and would not bend the rules for anyone. I like to believe that I am a stickler for rules just like him, a pod and we're the peas right? He was an extremely friendly person and would invite a lot of people home for dinner without so much as letting my grandmother know in advance. I wish I had inherited his gregarious nature too. I am gun shy when it comes to talking to people and I have just a few friends whom I hold close to my heart. My father is still in touch with people who gush about what a great person my grandfather was.

A day or two before cancer took my grandfather's life for good, he called me and my sister to his room. I don't remember his exact words, but I do remember him patting us on our head and kissing us. I am ashamed to say that I was in a hurry to get out because his room always smelled funny and I did not hug him or say something personal. This is something I regret to this day. Would it have killed me to have said a few words to him? I can still see his smiling face and his hands reaching to stroke my hair. Why didn't I hug him back?

It Had To Be You

2011-05-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

This is my entry to this week's Indie Ink Writing Challenge. The challenge I received is at the bottom of the post.

She walked out of the class with a heavy step. It was not that this was a particularly boring class. It had been one of her favorite classes until a few months ago. She loved the professor who taught this class, in fact he had been the one who had nudged her into picking her major. But lately nothing seemed interesting or worthy of her enthusiasm. "Hey do you want to come to the party at Mike's place next weekend?", it was her best friend who had caught up with her. She sighed and nodded her head in the affirmative. She didn't feel like going, but she had to. Mike was her ex-boyfriend and if she didn't go it would seem as if she was still not over him. She was the one who had dumped him a few months ago, the victor of the breakup if you will. Which meant that he got all the sympathy and she had to keep being normal and act like it wasn't a big deal.

But it wasn't the breakup that was bringing her down. Something was missing from her life and the worst part was she didn't know what it was. She tried music, partying, self help books but they just made her more weary. It seemed like nothing got her excited anymore. She missed being deliriously happy. She even tried skydiving, hoping that would crank up the systole of her heart and maybe the thrill would shock her back into good cheer. Sadly she was the only nonchalant skydiver that the instructor had ever seen.

That evening, she packed her car to go home for the weekend. Her parents lived four hours away and insisted that she visit them once a month. Considering that they were paying for her tuition, dorm and her car, she figured it was a small price to pay.

It was past dinner time when she pulled into their driveway. Her mother was waiting at the door and smothered her with kisses, while asking about the drive at the same time. She walked in and there she saw it! It was this huge record player, smack in the middle of the living room, looking anachronistic amidst the big screen LED TV and the Bose surround sound system. Her father stood by it proudly, preening like he had invented the gramophone. He said that he had found this at a garage sale two streets down. Her father had been a salesman till he retired, and there was nothing he loved more than a good deal. The guy who was selling this didn't know it's value and had thought that he was foisting it on her dad for $50. Her dad had played along, expressing some reluctance initially, until the guy threw in a bunch of Sinatra vinyl records to seal the deal.

She still felt that her father had got the wrong end of the bargain. She shook her head, part in amusement and mostly "I can't believe you actually bought that". But her father would have none of it. Soon Sinatra's mellifluous voice filled the air of the house singing "It had to be you". Her father took her hand and they started swaying to Sinatra. Her mother cut in for the next dance and before they knew it, they had danced the night away. She went to her room, exhausted and still humming a tune. A smile that had been in hiding the last couple of months, found its way into her mouth and eyes. Sometimes you need Sinatra and a deal crazy Dad to put things into perpective.

My challenge was from lifenbits. It was:

Write a story using these words: anachronic, foist, systole.

At first I thought it was a toughie and I had to look up two of the words for meanings. But once I found the main thread, it just kept going. Thank you for the challenge. I enjoyed writing this.

I challenged Michael Webb with "He ran on the beach, with the waves lapping at his aching legs. What is he running from?" and he responded here beautifully. Please do go and read it, I think he has done a great job.

Rainbows in Real Life

2011-04-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

This is my entry to this week's Indie Ink Writing Challenge. The challenge I received is at the bottom of the post.

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I walked into the building with a skip and a jump. Today I was going to see where my Mommy worked. Our playschool was closed today because it was take your children to work day. She hadn't wanted me to come to work with her, but our babysitter said she couldn't watch me this morning. Also I cried and cried till she caved. I was so excited that I was going to see what Mommy did everyday after she dropped me at the daycare. I imagined that it must be something magical, with rainbows on the walls.

But something seemed amiss. The walls really needed a coat of paint. And the stench of something unpleasant teased my tender senses when I walked through the corridors. "Mommy, what happens when we walk all the way to the end" I asked, filled with curiosity that all five year olds have. "To the rooms", she said and started talking to a woman using some big words I couldn't understand. I spent that time hopping on one leg and trying to guess what those rooms were for.

Soon we reached my mother's office. Like the rest of the building, the room had a dark aura about it. I was glad to see my mother had hung the pictures I had drawn on the wall. I made a mental note to draw her a rainbow soon. I sat on a chair that was too big for me and started working on the lollipop that my mother had given in exchange for good behavior.

The woman who had accosted my mother in the hallway came in with another woman and a boy. The woman looked pale and haggard with some ugly welts on her face. The boy looked about my age, but he didn't respond to my friendly wave. He looked scared and his clothes were too big for him. He hid behind his mother and looked at everyone with his big brown eyes. My mother talked to them and pressed some random keys on her computer. She asked her colleague to lead them to the dining hall and assured them they were safe here.

"Mommy, can I play with that boy later? Please? What's his name? Does he go to play school too?"

My mother turned to me and smiled sadly. "He can't play with you today. He is not well. He hasn't had a meal in two days. After he eats, he is going to visit the doctor."

I felt bad that I hadn't offered him my lollipop. That's why he didn't wave back at me. Maybe his Mommy had made broccoli for dinner the last two days. I really hated broccoli.

"Sweetie, do you realize these people and everyone who is in those rooms are not well. They don't come from happy homes. Most of them don't even have homes. Some of them don't have enough to eat. Sometimes there are parents who don't love each other, nor their children. This is what we do, we try to help them, give them a place to stay, food to eat in the hopes that they get better soon."

Tears welled up in my eyes and I forgot to swallow the bits of the lollipop in my mouth. I couldn't believe that there were children without a home, a Mommy to bake cakes, a Daddy to throw you up in the air and catch you and ice cream every Friday at dinner.

"Mommy, can we empty my piggy bank at home and buy all the kids candy?"

My mother hugged me with tears in her eyes. Many years later, she told me that she had never been more happy and sad at the same time than at that moment.

----

This challenge was very difficult for me. At first, I wanted to write a funny piece about a child who doesn't understand what her parent did at work everyday and the parent struggling to explain it in a way that the child can understand. But it didn't go anywhere, I think pathos is easier than comedy. :) It's been a while since I was a kid and I don't have any children, and so writing about parent-child relationships was hard (my challenge last week was also about the same relationship) But I think this is the beauty of the challenge, it forces you to go outside your comfort zone and actually write.

My challenge was:

4/28 is take your daughter to work day. Imagine this is your first time going to see your mother or father's place of work. What does s/he do? What do you see? Who do you meet?

Thank you Melissa for the challenge. I hope you like what I did with it.

I challenged Wendryn to write about rain and she has a beautiful post up on the topic.

Just a Bunch of Keys

2011-04-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, I drove home for lunch like I usually do (I live 1.5 miles from work and yes I eat lunch at home everyday and sometimes even play on the Wii a little before going back to work) At my door, I looked for my keys in my purse and couldn't find them (My car keys are in a separate key ring. Don't ask why, no reason). No biggie, I figured I had just forgotten to take it in the morning since S had left for work after me. I went to my favorite sandwich place for lunch and didn't worry about it.

Tuesday morning, when I was scrambling to leave for work, I groped around in the little bowl we use for keys and I couldn't find them. I started worrying then. That night, I searched in the usual places that I find my keys, in my coat pocket, my other purse, in my gym bag, in S' coat pocket and so on. No dice! I remembered that I had gone to the gym on Saturday morning and I had my keys then.

On Thursday I went to my apartment office and asked about a temporary key. They gave me one, but said that I would need to change my locks if I had lost my keys which would cost $75. My heart skipped a beat, because I was planning a shopping trip that weekend and my entire budget was around that much. I convinced myself that I had left my keys at the gym and asked the nice lady at the front desk if anyone had turned in a set of keys. She told me that if they key ring contained the gym access card, they would look up the phone number and call. And if I hadn't been called, they didn't have my keys. She also mentioned that replacing that access card would cost $10. I knew that my shopping trip was doomed.

When I came home I started thinking about my key ring. It had a MVP card from Food Lion, a grocery store chain in Raleigh, NC which was where I landed in the US in 2007. I didn't understand why they would give discounts only to people with cards, but if that meant a little lower in food costs, as a poor grad student I would take it. I didn't know that this was how most grocery stores worked. I also had a NC State Wolfpack Rules key tag (is it what it is called?). I have not attended any game in college ever, but I felt so proud to get that. It meant that I was a part of NC State. After that Food Lion incident, I went a little card crazy and I had a nice little bunch from a myriad of stores. One time when S had a stopover in Minneapolis, he found this keychain at an airport store that looked like a small licence plate and said "Jan". That gift meant a lot to me because after a two hour flight and with a three hour flight ahead of him, if he can stop to buy something because it had my name, it means he loves me right?

When you think about it, a key ring is so much more than just keys. At first I felt bad because I didn't want to spend the money to replace my keys. But then I started feeling sad about losing all of this. And just as I was typing the last sentence, S threw a bunch of keys at me. He found it, gentle readers! I think he is a keeper. I have never been happier to hold keys in my hand. Isn't this a beautiful sight?

All Things Considered

2011-04-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is my entry for the Indie Ink Writing Challenge. This is my first time and I feel a little nervous because the other writers are just awesome (for the lack of a better superlative). The challenge I received is at the bottom of the post. Here goes

-----

Her heart was beating faster with every step she took to her son's room. She had made that trip a million times and yet had never realized there were so many steps from the living room to his bedroom.

He was lying on his bed with a sullen look on his face.

Hi sweetie, how was school today?

Don't "how was school today" me!

She felt a little cheered up. At least it was not the silent treatment. She thought about asking about homework, but wisely decided not to.

I want to talk to you about something. I know I should have checked with you before doing anything. It's not like I am the only person who is affected by this.

Well duh!

She could see his mind churn furiously, searching for a better response.

I know, I know! I screwed up this time. But you should think about this from my perpective too. It's hard for a woman like me to get out there.

The minute she became a little defensive, the anger came back flushing into his hot cheeks.

No no, that is not a reason! If I trash the house tomorrow because I feel upset, would you consider that from MY perspective? Or the next time I fail an English class and tell you it's because I hate reading, would you let me off without bringing the roof down with your high pitched shrieks? So to answer your question, no, I refuse to consider anything from your perspective. If anything, you should have thought about me. I don't know how I am going to face my friends tomorrow. How about thinking about that for a change?

She blinked back her tears after the eloquent tirade. She agreed with everything he said. What was she thinking!

I am sorry.

She said the words she came to say and said it again.

I am sorry. I really am. I know this is a difficult transition for you. Your father left less than six months ago and I know it must feel awful to see your mother out on a date with your classmate's father. But it has been hard after your father left and it's been a while since anyone made me feel pretty. But obviously it is too soon and at any rate I should have talked to you before I did anything. I didn't mean for you to find out this way, when you spotted us at the restaurant yesterday. I will call him tonight and tell him that I can't see him again. You are the most important person in my life.

She felt a wave of relief washing over her entire being the minute the words were out. She had really struggled with alternating feelings of guilt and romance pulsing through her mind the entire time on the date. She wondered how her ex husband had managed to cheat on her for more than a year and claimed to have enjoyed it.

Oh you wanted to feel pretty! Is that why you bust out my Halo:Reach out of the XBox without saving my campaign and put in your stupid Biggest Loser Kinect game? You know I was playing that campaign with my friends on Live. How many times do I have to tell you that you do not just pop out a game from the Xbox without hitting save? Do you know how long it's going to take for me to get to where I was? Why couldn't you have used the Wii Fit instead?

She stared him, hearing but not comprehending what he was saying.

Did you even hear what I said?

Oh that, yeah whatever. I mean, don't make me be nice to his kid or anything. Or let me see anything that will make me throw up.

She looked at him trying to hold back a different kind of tears this time. He had been a Daddy's boy ever since he was a baby and this could not be as easy as he made it out to be. She remembered the look of surprise on his face when he had seen her yesterday and it had broken her heart into a million pieces. She knew that he had done a lot of soul searching, after all the light in his room had been on until after midnight yesterday. She was being let off easy only because he wanted to and she was grateful for that. Sometimes, wise men take refuge under video games.

So let's make it a rule. The XBox is off limits to you. Or if you want to use it, send me a text asking if it is ok. You know we should just move the big TV and the XBox into my room. The Wii does not do HD, so you can make do with my TV.

She gathered him, despite his protests and gave him a big hug and after a few seconds he hugged her back too. Sometimes, the best conversations happen when people don't say out loud exactly what they are thinking.

She skipped down the stairs, humming a tune. They were going to be alright.

-----

My prompt:

Dialogue between a parent and child over a serious mistake the parent has made.

My prompt was from Joelyn. Thank you for this prompt. It was hard to do dialogue only and I hope you don't mind the narratives I sneaked in between.

What's Up With This Blog?

2011-04-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about this blog lately. I started this blog back in the days of yore, when I broke up with S. We all know where that ended, don't we? But even back then, I started a blog because I loved to write. I tell everyone I meet that when I grow up I want to write a book. Sadly this blog does not look like something that a writer owns. And apart from owning a Moleskin notebook and claiming ownership to S' Macbook Pro, I don't bear any semblance to a writer too. Any (imagined) creativity in me has dried up like a creek in Madras during summer.

That needs to change, pronto! And it begins with changes to my blog. I ashamed to read the past posts, where I talk about the Kinect. Jeez! And I have 2 unpublished posts that also talk about the Kinect. When I am not writing about the Kinect, it is Super Mario. Though I have been reading some wonderful books lately, there is no talk of them. This blatant reduction in the quality of my writing has not resulted in more quantity too. I feel sad that the first page of my blog has posts back from September. And look at the blogs on my blogroll, with the exception of one, all others have not been updated in months.

One of my favorite blogs in the whole wide web is widelawns. She has some extraordinary tales and she writes the regular stories in an extraordinary way too. If I could write half as well as she does, I would consider quitting my job and start writing a book. In her last post, she had talked about the Indie Ink Writing Challenge. Since I am the kind of person who jumps into things without thinking about anything, I registered for next week's challenge. And then I started reading the past challenges and reading the incredible writing by the amazing writers. I feel quite intimidated and honestly would not have signed up had I read more of the writing before. But I did sign up and I have decided to try my best. I have sent my prompt and got my challenge. I will post my response by Thursday.

Gentle readers, this means that I want to grow up. I like writing almost as much as I like reading. I want to take this business of writing more seriously. That is not say that I will only be writing about art and other such serious matters. I will still be writing silly stories, things that happen to me and rant about people I don't like. But I want to write more and not in 140 characters or less. It seems presumptuous to write a post saying I want to write more, when I can just go ahead and write more without making so much of an ado. But they say that if you want something bad enough, you need to tell the universe what you want to make things happen. And I am doing just that. Just hope the universe reads blogs.

How to Beat the Blues

2011-03-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

The more I talk to people, the more I discover that very few people seem happy with their life. Every one gives me a different story, but at the end they all seem to mean the same thing. There is a serious case of the blues going around, we all would feel better without it. I figured I would write something that would give us all something to think about if not change lives entirely.

Let me begin with some lengthy disclaimers. I am not a psychiatrist and if you are hurting about something like abuse or loss of a dear one, you need something bigger and if possible to talk to a professional. This post is aimed at people who outwardly seem to have it all, but are not able to feel truly happy.

Again, this is not a "Look at me, I am sooo happee, nyah-nyah" post. I am human, I have bouts of depression too. I sometimes cry for no real reason and I am a pessimist. This post talks about some small things that have helped me overcome my bouts of self pity. And I hope this can help others too. If I sound patronizing, please be forgiving and know that that was not my intention.

1. Organize your living space
It is really surprising how something as insignificant as this and can cause such a great impact on how we feel. Start with just your desk for instance. First take inventory of all your possessions. You would be surprised at the number of things your find hidden in the corners. Have a trash bag handy to throw away everything you don't need. For the things that you do want to keep, make sure that you find a place for it. Don't lump all pens to the bottom drawer, find a pen stand so that the next time you need a pen you don't have to hunt. This is seriously the most important part of the process. Many times when we clean, we have the tendency to clean the surface and dump everything into an unseen closet. Take the time to find a place for it. So that the next time you clean, it's just returning things to their places.

And when you are done, it will feel good. Even people who don't find the act of cleaning to be therapeutic will find the after effect very satisfying. Every time we see a messy space, our mind cringes. For some it cringes really loudly (think Martha Stewart) and they are the kind of people who have a spotless home. But for everyone, I am sure have atleast a small negative reaction when we see the mess. If we get rid of this, this is one less time we feel bad on a daily basis. And it doesn't take that much time at all. A journey to a million stars begins with a tiny step. So take that step and you will realize that the stars are not so far off after all.

2. Have a To Do list
I have always believed in the power of the written word over the read word. You get an email about a bill that needs to be paid. Sure, you trust your memory and file it into your trusty mental file cabinet and decide to pay that bill when you get paid in a few days. Time rolls on and you get another email about the late fee that is now tacked onto your now delinquent account. Sound familiar?

Sometimes I think about all the things that need to be done and I feel overwhelmed that the chores will never end. But most of the tasks that need to be done require just a small amount of time. You just need to remember to do them. I find writing these down to be more effective than just thinking about getting them done. Also I find it therapeutic to cross items off the list. When I write things down in my planner, I try to make it so that each line item is something that can be accomplished in 15 minutes. For example, a year ago we decided to refinance our car loan. While writing that down, my to do did not say "Refinance car loan". It was
1) Call credit union to check eligibility
2) Collect required documents
3) Register car in Wisconsin
4) Make appointment with credit union to refinance.
Each of these are specific goals which take a definite amount of time. Even though it took a long time to register our car in Wisconsin, I was able to cross off 2 items in the process before that. This way I know that I am making progress in my plans and each small step is recognized. I know that the concept of a todo book or a planner does not appeal to everyone, but I really urge you to try it. And it doesn't have to be paper and pen, there are iPhone apps to do this. Or it could just be an unsent email in your drafts.

3. Get a hobby
I can see you rolling your eyes. I am sure every self help book out there talks about this. But trust me folks, it does really help. There are two parts to "get a hobby". First we need to find something that we want to do and more importantly we need to find sometime every week to actually do that. For this purpose, it helps if we pick something that involves going to a class. It seems too much of a commitment to set apart a few hours of the weekend every week for this, but after awhile you will start to appreciate the schedule. When it comes to choosing something, I am partial to learning a new language, because I find it fun. It can be anything - dancing, yoga, art, roller skating, swimming. The possibilities are endless. You need to pick something and commit to spending time on that for atleast a month. This is important because only after a period of time will you realize if that hobby is for you. For example, I joined a drawing class an year ago with a local artist. I visualized myself spending hours in front of an easel and producing magnificent works of art. But after 4 classes I realized that while I seemed to love the idea of drawing something beautiful, I didn't enjoy the actual drawing process. I found the process of perfecting strokes to be very tedious and resented the time spent on it. No harm done, I just stopped going to those classes and picked up swimming. And I cannot stress this enough, but once you find something you remotely like, start devoting a fixed chunk of time to that regularly. Something like Saturday mornings are for swimming.

Once you start spending more time on you activity you can see yourself getting better at it. And once you create that piece or art or the instant when you realize that you can string together complete sentences in that language is amazing to say the least. You don't have control over other parts of you life, but this tiny part that you control and nuture can give you the happiness that will spill over the other distasteful parts of it.

4. Eliminate/Reduce your time sink
Everyone has one of those. That thing you do mindlessly, all the while knowing that there are 100 other more useful things that you could be doing right now. For me it is playing Angry Birds while some sitcom rerun is running on TV. For S it is browsing through youtube videos. I am sure Facebook is a time sink for many. Make a conscious decision to cut that off for a week or if you are worried about quitting cold turkey, atleast impose a time restriction. The time you recover from this can be spent on the item I discussed above or the item I am going to discuss below

5. Meet new people
This is something I struggle with and trying my best to improve. As we become older, we become more set in our ways and I find that it is no longer easy to just go and talk to someone and make them my new best friend. We seem to subject friendships to higher standards and the fact that they are the same age as us doesn't count for so much anymore. But all this makes it more important to go out and meet new people. So many times my couch seems more comfortable and the TV seems to offer more familiar entertainment than going out to meet someone or invite someone we don't know very well for dinner. But we always build these things up in our head and make it seem like a super awkward fest where everyone ignores you. But that's not always the case. Most times the other person is also looking forward to meet people. I am not going to lie and say that it will be absolutely fantastic each time. But what do you lose? A few hours of your time maybe, and you get a story out of it too. :-) So join a book club, go to happy hour, go to a class, talk to the person sitting next to you in the airplane. Everything need not conclude in long lasting friendships.

6. Stop feeling sorry for yourself
Oh how we love doing this! In my mind I am the unluckiest girl on the planet and nothing good happens to me. But that's not true and it's not true for anyone. I am not asking you to beat yourself up for everything that happens, but give the universe a break and do not blame the stars for misfortunes. Just move on. There is nothing you can do to change the past. When it stops hurting so much, you can look back and see if you can learn some lessons from it.

This last step is easier said than done. I think that following the first five steps will help you with this one. You have a fancy to-do list with the half the items accomplished - there is no reason for you to feel sorry for yourself. It is also difficult to pity someone who is at a kick-ass party and is surrounded by people.

I am sorry for anyone who started reading, looking for an instant pick-me-up. I have said nothing new and this is something that any person on the road would tell you if you told them you were unhappy with your life. We have a tendency to ignore the obvious and use that as an excuse to not do anything. The cliche works, but only if you choose to do something about it. You can read about 1000 ways to improve your life, but it will not amount to anything if you don't do anything. So get off that chair now and go do something. Trust me, you will feel happier.

So We Meet Again

2011-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

Let's fast forward through the apologies and reasons for not blogging. I have not been doing anything special and this time round, I don't feel particularly sorry too. :-) I do have about 5-6 drafts, waiting to be concluded and polished. I think I will make that my March resolution - to publish my drafts.

I have begun French lessons again. The current teacher switches completely to French during the lesson and expects me to answer all her questions in French too. It has been interesting to say the least. But her methods seem to be very effective. My previous tutors were French exchange students studying at UW. While they were nice and sincere, my current tutor is a teacher and it shows. I would really benefit from 4 hours of studying for every class, but sadly I just flip through her notes the day before her class.

There seems to be so much I want to do with my life lately that I don't seem to have the time for. These include, but are not limited to - completing Super Mario Galaxy 2, finishing Donkey Kong Country Returns, getting 3 stars on all levels in Angry Birds, reread Lord of the Rings, reread all Harry Potter books before the last movie, reread "A Room With a View", watch something from Netflix, steam vacuum the apartment, vacuum the car and so on. I don't know if I can ever get all this done. When I was young, I would dream of having a huge library filled with all my favorite books. Now I realize that even if I do have a huge collection of books, I would most likely never read any of them again. This realization made me more accepting of the Kindle. I have been reading a lot more since getting it. And the instance gratification of just buying another book when I finish one has been awesome. When I was really young and believed in genies and granting wishes, my wish was that whenever I finished a book, a new one should magically appear (new books then, meant changing 2 buses to get to Eashwari Lending Library in Gopalapuram). Kindle has made that wish come true and so we are uneasy friends now.

Speaking about books, the Borders in Madison is closing. I really feel upset about this. I realize that Borders drove out all the independent booksellers out, but I really liked Borders. The staff there actually read books and could always pick out any book I wanted without looking it up in the computer. They also had a staff picks section and I've discovered some gems that way. The Kindle felt very heavy in my bag when I walked into Borders one last time for their closing day sale. We didn't buy anything though, the checkout line was a mile long. Barnes and Noble will get all our book sales now.

Moving onto cheerier things, the weather here is positively unpleasant. We have this thaw-freeze cycle which coupled with fresh snow makes driving an absolute nightmare. I swapped my Sonata for S' Yaris today, since the man drives farther for work. The roads were not kind to the tiny car. I literally skated and skidded my way to work. I have endured this long winter and the last stretch is trying my patience. I can't wait for Spring and then glorious summer. I can't wait to do some more traveling. Definitely Door County and Upper Michigan again. Visiting New York in summer would also be nice, I am itching to watch the new Spiderman musical before they close it for good. If only the snow would melt and the sun would come out soon!

So what have you all been doing?

The One with the Xbox Kinect

2010-11-19T14:41:00.000-08:00

We ordered the Xbox Console with Kinect yesterday. After writing the last post, I did a quick check on Amazon and found that it was sold out and I was told that was the case in other stores. I also read that Microsoft was asking people to order one this week if they wanted to get one for Christmas, I was really down on reading it and I was all set to start blaming S for it (I like to blame him for all my problems in life, isn't that what all wives do?) Then someone told me that Best Buy had got some and I checked the site and viola! I quickly ordered one and we picked it up yesterday.

And the verdict - WOW! It really is amazing. It does a good job of recognizing arm and leg movements and as far as voice commands go, it doesn't seem to have a problem my accent. We didn't buy any game for the Kinect and we just played with the Kinect Adventures game that it came with. The game is very light and is just intended to let people know what the Kinect can do. The games are in 3D and I did face a little problem with mapping co-ordinates, but it's not overly sensitive and I managed to get the hang of it soon. The surprising thing was, I worked up a sweat in the 45 mins I spent playing this game. I am yet to check out the other games on Kinect - I want to buy Dance Central and Joy Ride. I hope the games live upto their hype, because unless there are good games there is precious little that one can do with the console. It was bit of a gamble to buy this new piece of technology so soon (I usually never buy any first generation product) But since the Xbox 360 is something that we can use without the Kinect, I am not very worried. And at the rate at which Kinect seems to be flying off the shelves, I think we will have more games on it soon.

In other news, I got a new pair of glasses and I spent the day thinking that I looked like Tina Fey. Then last evening we were watching The Big Bang Theory and S said "Look, Leonard's glasses look so similar to your new ones" and my bubble burst. However a couple of people at work said my new glasses look really good though. I have a 90 day period to decide if I like the glasses, so we'll see. What I really want is to get Lasik done so that I can be done with glasses, contacts and prescription sunglasses forever! Wonder how much it costs.

A Serious Case of the Gimmes

2010-11-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

Like I discussed at length in my previous post, sometimes when I want something, I want it really bad. A few years ago, it was the iPod (you can read about it here and here) Now, everyone knows that I am a music ignoramus. And I hardly never listen to music. Even when I am at the gym, I watch TV while working out. If there's ever a person who should not get a 30GB ipod, it's me. And I knew all that and yet I wanted it. I imagined myself listening to music all the time and filling my ipod with new age music. Cut to 2010, I have less than 3GB of music in my ipod. The newest album on it is Vettaiyadu Vilayadu. I use for 30 mins each night to listen to Crazy Mohan/S.VE Shekar dramas.

My newest craze is the Kinect. For the uninitiated, Kinect is a sort of add on for the XBox 360 which lets you play games without a controller. In their own words, you are the controller. So they have a camera to track your actions, so that in a dancing game, it tracks your dance moves and you can see it on the screen. I really think Microsoft is marketing it really well. When I see the Kinect ad where people are having fun dancing, driving imaginary cars with imaginary wheels, I want one too. Again like the ipod, I don't doubt that the Kinect is an awesome game platform. It's just that S and I are one of the laziest people to roam the earth. We like our couch and enjoy the time we spend sitting on it. The only games we play on the Wii are the ones that we can sit and play. When we feel the need to exercise, we haul our rear ends to the gym and we both believe that exercise games on the Wii or Kinect are not very effective. So buying the Kinect is not really a good move for us at all. I am sure we will be all excited and play with it for a week and then let it gather dust till someone visits us and wants to try it (that's what happened with the Wii Motion Plus!) However since both of us are moderately interested in regular video games, I am sure that we would enjoy playing games like Halo on the XBox. The XBox 360 costs $199 and with the Kinect bundle it costs $299. Despite everything I've written here I am sure that we will end up buying the Kinect bundle (if we decide to buy the Xbox 360 that is).

While I am very free with my money when it comes to day to day things, ("Let's buy the more expensive laundry detergent", "Let's go out to eat, I don't care that we went out for dinner yesterday", "Tip the waitress 30%, she was really good to us") I am usually wise (or so I think) when it comes to big purchases. I still use the same laptop that I used in grad school and I have no plans to replace it anytime soon - even after watching the numerous MacBook Air ads on TV. Our TVs at home are really old and despite my initial love of the iPad, I don't plan to buy one ever. I know that I am not the most careful with money (like my father likes to point out every time I tell him we went out for dinner for 2 days in a row) but since I don't spend on these big things, I used to think that it cancels out. But the Kinect seems to prove otherwise. Since S is worse than me, I am sure that we are never going to leave our children houses, wealth and money. However we both have a zest for life and a desire to live our life to the fullest, travel widely, do crazy things just because we want to and this kind of people are never expected to have money in the bank, are they? :-)

PS People don't give me grief about people who save money and yet manage to live a full life. A girl is allowed to have her delusions right?

Junoon

2010-10-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

When you talk to people who know me really well, they will tell you that I can be a very stubborn person. When I was young I was really known for my "pidivadam" - I am not able to find a good English translation for that. I have been told that when I was 1 or 2, I would start crying in the middle of the night for no reason and would not stop crying till my aunt (who was 12 or 13 years old at that time) would dance for me. I have never displayed any propensity towards any form of dancing, and I think I just wanted to get what I wanted.

Growing up, I remember throwing tantrums for a lot of silly things. Once when I was about 10, Kwality Walls ice creams had just been introduced in India. I bought an ice cream on a stick which had 3 flavors, so that it looked a rainbow. I was really excited about the ice-cream and all through school I thought about eating that at home. When I came home, I noticed that my mother had forgotten to keep the ice-cream in the freezer and had kept in the regular portion of the fridge. So all the 3 flavors had melted and fused into one. Instead of realizing that this is spilled milk and asking for a new ice-cream, I threw a big tantrum about it and refused to talk to anyone or eat. I think my biggest grouse was that my mother had not admitted that she had kept it there by mistake and insisted that she didn't know the ice-cream would melt if kept in the refrigerator outside of the freezer. (Many people tell me I inherited the stubborn gene from my father, but I really think it's from my mother! :-)) I doubt if my parents or sister remember this (btw, her ice-cream was safe in the freezer for some reason, which made me angrier at that time), but I wonder why I didn't attempt to resolve the issue and asking my mother for a new icecream rather than be upset about the other one.

I think the reason is, I tend to plan a lot of things in my head and when things don't go exactly according to the plan I freak out since I don't have a Plan B all mapped out. And many times, my plans would go awry when my father was involved. My father does not remember things and almost never reaches any place in time. I remember telling him the PTA meeting at school is at 3pm when it would actually be at 4pm so that he would get there in time. And my father hates saying no to anything that my sister and I ask for. So he would promise us whatever we asked for. And he would always mean to follow through with the promise, but sometimes he would forget. Like once he promised to buy us bicycles. For a 10 year old, that's a huge deal. Me being me, expected to get the bicycle the day after he promised it. I did not get it. After waiting a couple of days, I took matters into my own hands and started my usual tantrum "I want to get the bicycle today!" and refused to talk to anyone and locked myself in my room. I remember my father coming up to try and talk to me, but I refused to relent. I did not get the cycle that day (coz those days, buying a cycle meant going to Parrys and it simply was not possible to do that in the evening). But that weekend we did go and get the Street Hawk cycle I wanted.

Though my father forgot a lot of things, he was far more understanding of my "Must do it NOW" attitude than my mother. She would just say "No" and go about her merry way. My father would really try to do or get what I wanted, but most of the things I wanted would involve going back in time to satisfy me. My sister threw tantrums too, but those would be doable, like she would ask for a huge bar of chocolate when we are out and though that was less from ideal, it was something that my parents could actually do. I know Karma will make sure when I have a kid, she/he would be just like me and ask for impossible things. I hope that I am able to have the same patience that my father had, towards my kids. (People who know my father personally would find it funny that I attribute a virtue like patience to him, but he has always been a different man when it came to his girls!)

I have read that girls subconsciously try to marry a man who is just like their father and I think I have completely succeeded in doing that. S could actually be my father's son. He has the same short fuse, the same generosity, the same attitude towards everything in life as my father. Sometimes when I talk to my mother about S, she is amazed at how much alike he is to my father. Like my father, he lacks in the "getting things done right-away" department. In the initial years of my relationship, we used to have a lot of arguments and fights about his lackadaisical attitude. I think my mother might have had the same arguments 25 years back with my father. We have now reached a implicit agreement, I try to add a buffer zone to my plans and he tries to actually do something rather than just wanting to do it at some point in time.

I guess there is no point to this post. It doesn't really go with the tone of my blog and seems more personal than my past posts and I might decide to pull this down later. But then like my sister says, it's just a few people who read my blog so I might just keep it. :-)

PS. The way I've written this post, my sister comes off as an angel. But believe me when I say I am the good one. :-) Her shenanigans will fill ten such posts. While I had just my father indulging me, she had my grandmother, aunt and uncle (who lived with us) twisted around her little finger.

Outsourced

2010-10-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 weeks, my DVR has been dutifully recording episodes of "Outsourced" and I have been skipping watching these episodes even when I have absolutely nothing to watch. My first grouse against this show was that it was replacing my favorite "Parks and Recreation". The second and most important reason is that I am extremely sensitive to criticism (perceived or real) by people who know nothing about it. A year ago, a friend had suggested I read "Two States" by Chetan Bhagat and had insisted that I would enjoy. But about halfway through the book, I was seething with rage. I felt like Bhagat was making a lot of assumptions about Tam Brams and I found it impossible to finish the book. I didn't watch "Outsourced" since I figured it would make me angry and unpleasant and so I let those 3 episodes sit in my DVR and taunt me.

Last weekend, S & I spent the entire weekend rooted to the couch watching endless hours of TV. And then it happened, S refused to watch an old episode of Frasier that we've watched a a million times before and he wanted to watch some new episodes of Outsourced. I braced myself and started watching. And nothing. No anger, no wanting to throw a vase at the TV and I didn't even want to hunt down the phone number of the producers and yell at them on the phone! And I was even able to laugh at the jokes. Which is not to say that they have been kind or factual in portraying India. Which call center in India is located in a building in the midst of a market (with cows roaming around)? Hell the call center buildings in India are much nicer than the building that I currently work out of. And on the subject of cows roaming around, couldn't they have gotten a nice Indian cow rather than showing some fuzzy American cows? And when they want to show that we drink tender coconut water, we do not drill a hole into the coconut and sip out of a straw, we actually slice the top off. My biggest grouse have to be the way the actors talk though. They make the Indian actors say such American phrases in an Indian accent. As though the fake accent somehow makes it sound authentic. Why not just make the Indians use Indian phrases and slang instead? Or actually have an Indian writer, someone who has lived in India for at least a few years? I feel that someone like me could really help straighten things up in Outsourced, since the show has a lot of potential. So are you listening NBC? :-)

In other sitcom news, Running Wilde is in the danger of getting canceled! I am really really disappointed. I really liked the show and Will Arnett is terrific! I really thought that this could be a good replacement for Arrested Development (which is really the best show on TV ever!) Come everyone, we need good shows to stay on TV and which means y'all have to actually watch them.

Mishmash

2010-09-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

As I begin to wet my feet in the waters of blogging once again, I find it easier to write posts that are just a bunch of unrelated thoughts. I don't know if it's a side effect of Twitter, but for now this will have to do. But fear not loyal readers, I will start writing posts dedicated to specific topics.

* For all the grief I give H about living in UK, I think a little part of me is obsessed with Britain. Most of my favorite authors have been British right from my childhood. And the I think there is a lovely ring to the English accent. I would love to tour through Europe, making sure to spend some time in the English countryside. All in good time. :-)

* In a lovely gesture, S got me a Coach handbag for my birthday. While the bag is very nice, I have come to realize a lot many things. My ratty wallet looks even rattier when ensconced inside the Coach bag. I need a new wallet pronto. Also I am now terrified of having a pen in my bag for the fear that I might get some ink in the lovely velvet interiors. Also, I don't have a zillion bags that switch in and out of circulation, I usually buy one bag, run it to the ground and when it starts looking nasty I get the next one and so on. I am terrified that this might happen to a bag that costs as much a laptop. I am now in a constant state of worry, I actually wiped the desk with a wipe before placing my bag on it. I think I am only cut out to carry unknown brand bags with a zillion pockets!

* In other news, S has finally taken the plunge and ordered a Nikon D90 DSLR camera. Which means that he will take longer than ever to take pictures. I kid you not, I stood in front of the Statue of Liberty for 10 whole minutes with the same plastic smile on my face while S fiddled with the various modes in his humongous point and shoot. So I foresee hours of posing for pictures in my future. Why can't the man be happy those small cute cameras that can fit into my pocket and have no buttons except the click button?

* We watched The Town yesterday. It was a good one. **SPOILER ALERT** But it was so obvious in the beginning of the movie that Coughlin was going to die. I kept bracing myself for that and tada as predicted at the end of the movie, he dies. **END SPOILERS** At the beginning of the movie, we saw a trailer for "Jack Goes Boating" and I immediately told S that we are going to watch this movie. I loved Little Miss Sunshine and Sunshine Cleaning and I am not about to miss the next movie from the same makers.

* Endhiran is being screened in Madison this weekend. When Padayappa was released, I remember my friends inviting me to watch that movie. But I simply had zero interest and refused to go. But I admit to watching Sivaji and will definitely watch Endhiran this weekend. I think Shankar is doing a good job of marketing the movies and creating a buzz or I guess my threshold for masala movies has decreased over the years. :-)

That's all for today folks.

On My Mind

2010-09-21T13:17:00.000-07:00

A friend and fellow blogger recently emailed me and asked me update my blog. In true Indian style, I bargained with him that I would update mine if he updated his. I didn't expect that he would actually go ahead and write and now I am 2 days late on my end of the deal. :-(

So what's a better quickie blog than spewing what's on my mind onto electronic pen and paper? Without much ado, I present to you - thoughts that are running muck in my ADD brain right now.

I have this sudden hankering for the books I read as a child. I can almost smell the musty bookshelves of Eashwari Lending Library. Would love a pile of Enid Blytons.

The older I get, the more difficulty I have in justifying large purchases for myself. Whenever I spend money I literally hear huge alarm bells that remind me of my student loans and pitifully small Savings account. And after I bite the bullet and actually make the purchase, I tend to dissect it in my mind a thousand times and I make S return it. People who know me in real life will be greatly surprised, since I am somewhat known as the family spend-thrift! Though this new habit of mine is helping to reduce the clutter at home, it's still not helping in saving any money. This is because these alarm bells I talk about, seem to take a break when it comes to intangible things like planning a trip or going out to eat.

Having said so much about not speding money, I really have my heart set on buying another game console. I was sold solid on the PS3 and we even ordered one. But the day after we got our new PS3, they announced the new one with more memory for the same price. I immediatly returned the one we have. Now Sony has come up with a motion controller called Move and Microsoft has announced the Kinect for controller free gaming. Now I am all confused about which one to buy. Practically it makes more sense to go with Sony, as the PS3 would also be a Blue Ray player. But Microsoft has really captured my interest with the Kinect. Time to wait and watch before buying.

This weekend S & I caught this movie called Devil. It was pretty ok - had a good pace and a nice twist ending. We both really like supernatural movies, but I have one rule - no maggots or insects coming out of anyone's ears or mouth and no disgusting creatures. I remember this movie called Drag Me to Hell which had all of these and we left the theater about 10 mins in. I almost never do that, since I usually want to get my money's worth even if the movie stinks. I recently sat through the entire movie for Khatta Meeta - so go figure. :-) I am really waiting for Paranormal Activity 2 and this time I want to watch it in the theater.

When you get married or start living with another person, it's really surprising how much of the other person's personality rubs on you. The other day, I said something to S that was sort of a semi swearword in Thamizh and was surprised at how easily it rolled off my tongue. A few years ago I would have cringed if someone had said that in front of me. I think this just means that we have to go out more and talk to other people, lest we just become clones of each other. But on the good side, S is now familiar with all S.Ve. Sekar and Crazy Mohan dramas and fares really well in the Identify-which-drama-this-dialogue-is-from game.

There Srini, I kept my promise! :-)

Facebook

2010-07-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

To People Who Ask Me Why I am Not Active on FB

1) I don't care about what's on your mind right now

2) I have already seen the cheesy youtube videos that you post

3) It's practically a punishment for me to look at 100 pics of your last vacation.

4) I don't want to look at pictures of your baby doing all sorts of things (unless it is my nephew A - seriously he is the cutest baby I've ever seen) If I thought babies were cute, I would have one of my own.

5) I have no interest in Mafia Wars, Farmvile or any other Loserville games

6) In the same vein, I don't care about any quiz you take and have no interest in know which Friends character I am like, or how well I know Vinnaithandi Varuvaya.

7) If I don't care enough to email you/ call you/IM you, it means I have no interest in your life whatsoever. And similarly if you had any interest at all in me, you would contact me in some way apart from liking my comments

8) On a more specific note, husband liking their wife's mindless FB update (and vice versa) is puke inducing. If S ever likes my comment of "Happy diwali/Karthigai/Pongal/.." I will kill him and then kill myself.

9) And what's with using a picture of you with your wife/gf as a profile pic. I know you are proud that you finally found some woman and managed to convince her to marry you. Are you so lame that you want to brag to the whole world that you finally got a woman?

10) If you are busy and post that on FB, I really wonder how busy you really are.

11) Most importantly, I have a life and have more important uses of my time. To quote Betty White in SNL "I would never say the people on it (FaceBook) are losers. But that’s only because I’m polite."

PS. Take this with a grain of salt everyone, I don't want a mob of torch wielding villagers picketing outside my apartment. This is just my pathetic attempt at humor - so humor me and get along with your lives . Also, I am just a little bit jealous that a hundred people comment on some guy's post about how he went out for coffee, but no-one reads or comments on the lovely, quality writing on my blog! :-)

PPS. To any family reading this blog, will send the West Virginia pics and video soon. If anyone is else is wondering about the WV post, oh who am I kidding! :-)

Whitewater Rafting and Crazy Mohan

2010-06-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the trend of writing nonsense posts about nothing (a la Seinfeld) here's another one for your reading pleasure. Nothing new really to report on the home front. We finally bit the bullet and booked the West Virginia whitewater rafting trip. We are rafting on the Lower New River which is supposed to be more adventurous than the Upper New River. And while we are at it, we are also doing a zip line canopy tour. And because we spent too much time thinking if we should do the trip, all the cabins were sold out by the time we booked and we are going to be camping. Joy! Despite my love for adventure trips, I have never been enthusiastic about camping. I mean, I need a nice soft bed to lie on at night with no possibility of bugs and also set the temperature to what I want, precise to the degree. Is that too much to ask for? And thus, I have been avoiding camping successfully for the three years that I have been in the United States. I guess all good things must come to an end and S put his foot down at staying in a motel one hour away and driving in for all the activities. If I survive to tell the tale, you can be assured that I will put up a post with pics like I did for our Vegas trip.

Plans are underway to buy a PS3 Slim. But I am wondering if I should hold out till the Move comes out. Any thoughts here? Also I am pretty sure we will be buying an XBox after the Kinect releases, so Microsoft fanboys don't need to send me any brickbats. :-) Considering all I have played till now are Mario variants, some game suggestions would be nice. I am really interested in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - does anyone know if I can just pick it up and start playing, having never played any game in the Call of Duty franchise? Sometimes I have a feeling that even if I own every possible gaming console available, I would still end of playing Super Mario Galaxy! :-)

Talking about recent purchases, I have placed an order for "Marriage Made in Saloon" DVD at Kalakendra. I am a crazy fan of Crazy Mohan (notice my clever word pun here!) and I own all his available DVDs. But unfortunately, I have never even once seen his drama live on stage. All my family members, who are not fans, leave alone fanatics of Crazy Mohan, have gone his plays multiple times. In fact, H who openly claims that she likes S. Ve Shekar better and my cousins have had Crazy Mohan and Maadhu Balaji come upto them and talk while they were waiting for the car after the show! When I spent 3.5 years of my life in the desert that is Pilani, Crazy and his troupe put up a show there in the 6 months that I was doing a "project" in Bangalore. When I went to India last November, I was determined to watch one of his plays. But in perfect timing, they had just one show the day I arrived and another the day after I leave with nothing in between. You have no idea how incredibly jealous I am of this guy. He casually mentions that he is Crazy Mohan's relative. He then goes on to say that he asked Maadhu Balaji to introduce him to "Saloon Muthu". I would have been deliriously happy to have someone introduce me to Crazy Mohan and Maadhu Balaji just so that I can take a picture with them and show it off to everyone I know. Life is very unfair sometimes! But "Saloon Muthu" is one of my favorite characters too. The way he says "Rrramsamiiiii" is just plain awesome. But my favorite character in the one who plays "Munnusamy" in this play. He has a distinct voice and modulates it really well. "Mythili purushanama ni? Ipo ellam purinjurthu, Janaki oda amma saar oda mootha samsaram." Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

Since this post is pretty disjointed anyway, let me talk about the movie we saw yesterday "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". I have been heaping a lot of praise about this book, so much that even S picked it up and managed to finish it. So when I saw that the movie was playing in Sundance Theater, we both wanted to watch that. It was everything that you would expect from a book made into a movie. It was well made and mostly faithful to the book. The movie matched the dark tones of the book. But why did they have to pick awful looking people to star in it? Blomkvist was supposed to be a handsome man in his forties (with a boyish charm if I remember right) Nyquist (who plays Blomkvist) looked alright (in parts) but definitely not boyishly handsome. And Salander was alright, but she somehow didn't look lean or young enough. And while she did a good job in most parts, I never saw her do the "lopsided smile" described in the book. Worst of the lot was Erica Berger - the classy, distinguished Erica was reducing to being a 50 year old bimbo wannabe with unfortunate blond hair. Why why why? But all said and done, it was a good movie and I am glad we watched it.

Vegas, Baby!

2010-06-07T20:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the promised Vegas post just one week late.

So I am back from Vegas with the accompanying buzz. To say the trip was amazing is an understatement. For one thing, this is the first trip that we are taking after getting married, where we both travelled together. Usually, we get to the destination alone and meet up there. And of course Vegas is a fabulous destination, which ensured that the trip itself was fabulous. But lastly, we stayed at Bellagio. Best decision ever! While booking the hotel rooms, I was leaning towards some cheaper options, but S had insisted that we stay at a really nice place and for once I am glad that I had listened to him.

We were overwhelmed right from the time we walked into the hotel. I think Bellagio has some sort of deal with a glass company, because the whole place seemed to be done in glass. It is a big deal to me, because I always love works of art with glass. While in Hyderabad, I took a glass painting class and the painting I did still hangs at home. During my last vacation in Door County, I made it a point to go to an art gallery that dealt primarily with glass. I promptly fell in love with the whole place and bought this for the end table at my apartment.

So you can imagine my delight when I looked up from the registration desk and saw the ceiling.

After collecting the room keys, we walked down towards the room and saw a freaking glass flower garden.

Despite the fact that we had just landed after a 7 hour journey and lugging 2 bags, we stopped right then and spent some time looking at them in awe.

We went up to the room and were in for another surprise. We hadn’t asked for a room with a view at the registration since the hotel was really full. But we still got a room that overlooked the dancing fountains.

I know that this looks like a commercial for Bellagio and I swear I have not been paid to say all this, but this is the best place to stay in Vegas. The only negative thing that I can think of is that, all the restaurants inside were super expensive. We dined there about 2.5 times during the stay and two of them were breakfasts. The half meal was ingested on the night we landed when we were too hungry to venture out. We found this place and had a savory crepe that tasted just like masala dosa. It was just what we needed after a long journey.

We found cheaper dining options in the other hotels like the Ventian. Being vegetarians, I had figured we would have trouble finding good places to eat, but surprisingly every place we went to had vegetarian options or were happy to substitute.

We spent most of our time in Vegas gambling. And predictably we lost all the money we had budgeted for gambling and then some. We gambled the cash we had kept aside for cabs and lost those too. Initially I had planned to play the slot machines and only that. But then S had downloaded this blackjack game on my iPhone and I had spent the whole of April and May playing that and started thinking of myself as a blackjack pro. So we won some, lost some, won some and lost everything. Like S. Ve. Sekar says in Kaatle Mazhai, "Uttada pidikaren nu pidichidayum uttiye ba". Finally when we had just a couple of dollar bills left, I put them in some slot machines and won $15. Losing all that money gave me a really nasty feeling at the bottom of stomach and I was bad company to S for awhile.

After losing all our money, we discovered that there are other things to do in Vegas and went to a night club and danced our worries away. We also took the NY Roller Coaster ride at the NY NY Hotel and I think it's one of the best roller coasters I've ever been on.

We also went to the Stratosphere Hotel and waited in line for more than an hour to go on the ride called Insanity. We were so irritated that we didn't even think to take a picture of the ride.

Oh yes and how could we forget the show, considering that leaving Vegas without catching a show amounts to sacrilege. We did some research about a lot of shows. I wanted to watch The Lion King, but S vetoed it right away. We considered the Blue Man Group, but people told us it was very low brow and more of a family thing than a couples’ show. We zeroed in on Cirque du Soleil just because it was a very Vegas thing to do and got tickets for Zumanity at the NY Hotel. It started out alright and we were ready for some classy and sensual fun. But it turned to be very burlesque and not at all what we imagined. If all we wanted to see were topless women, we would have gone to some of the other infamous shows. The banter was very unfunny and middle school. I thanked my stars that we had just Balcony seats so that we wouldn’t have been pulled into the inane audience participation skits. To be fair, we enjoyed some parts of it. But S and I are not the type of people who enjoy watching people twist themselves into impossible postures. I remember last year when we accompanied our friends and their son to a Ringling Bros Circus show and I was bored out of my mind and couldn’t wait to leave. So the next time I think we will skip all this and catch a comedy show instead.

When Monday dawned, we were in no mood to come back home. In fact S called the airlines and tried to get us onto a later flight, but of no avail. We came back home tired and partied out and I can't wait to go back there again.

PS - All photos are courtesy of S. If you like what you see in this post, do visit his flickr page

Filler post

2010-06-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have nice post written about my Vegas trip - complete with pictures and all. So till I get that one ready, here is a filler post for my faithful reader(s).

* Friday afternoons are the longest of all afternoons!

* The reason that this afternoon seems really long is because I was up half the night reading "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" It's one the best books I've ever read. Stieg Larrson knows how to tell a tale. I encourage all my readers to pick up the first book in the series "The Girl with the Dragan Tattoo" Even S is reading it, which is saying something! :-)

* I had a very private confession typed out here, but then I realized I don't want y'all to judge me. :-) Maybe another post another time

* I am trying to plan out my trip to West Virginia. The flight tickets are so insanely expensive. Ironic that I never had the urge to go WV while in Raleigh, 'coz that was so close. Now it's too far to drive, too expensive to fly.

* When I was young and in school, I was really into public speaking. I used to sign up for every debate and such. Something happened since then and that girl seems to be missing. I had to give a demo to some customers today and when I learned of that in the meeting room, I froze for a minute. In the end, I think I did well, but it was not something I enjoyed. In a similar vein, I used to be an introvert right from the time I was kid, but I seem to have gotten worse now. To the point that I have stopped going to team lunches and parties because I am so incredibly bored. Don't get me wrong here, the people at work are really nice, but I feel I have very little in common with them, since I am much younger and at a different stage in life. I have been in Madison for more than a year and I don't have a single friend. I would like to remedy this, but I am at a loss about how to go about this process. I have started going out with the people at work for lunches and parties - so that's a start. Any suggestions would be welcome

Don't have the enthusiasm for writing more today. But check back again folks, the Vegas post will be up soon

2010-05-25T07:14:00.001-07:00

The next time I write a sappy post like the one just below, just slap me hard ok. S and I have been arguing and fighting the whole weekend after I wrote that one. So never again am I chronicling any lovey dovey stuff on the blog! Never!

No Point to it Post

2010-05-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

My initial idea for a post was along the lines of "Love is driving 7 miles to lunch at Chipotle with the husband, while there is a Chipotle a couple of blocks from my work" But after writing a couple such lines, it made me gag. I mean we had been going out for 5 years before we got married and this makes it our 6th year of togetherness. And even in the first year, we never did coupley things because we knew each other since we were kids. It's really hard to flutter your eyebrows and nod shyly at the guy with whom you played in the mud as a child. So why flaunt the love now I say.

However Project Move In Together has been going along well, thank you for asking. There is something to be said about having another living soul in the house to share conversation and food with. Though the cooking has increased significantly, I am not complaining (yet) since I am getting some help (sort of) in that department. S really does a great job cleaning up after I finish cooking. He gets into action the minute we finish dinner (and some days I am too lazy to even drop the dinner plates into the sink. And also if anyone in my family is reading this, no I do not mix yechai plates with the other utensils. We wash them in the special faucet outside the kitchen.) He is a mean cleaning machine, armed with his Windex and trusty sponge. In a whirlwind, he transfers all dirty dishes into the dishwasher and cleans the kitchen surface area before coming to bed. But he almost always forgets to turn the dishwasher on and I am subjected to a nasty surprise in the moning while hunting for a bowl for my cereal. But still the man tries and I and confident that I can train him to my system of cleaning pretty soon.

I know that I have been writing a lot about not living with my husband and now living with my husband. I think that's because that thought seemed to consume my entire being. And everyone who talked to us would end the conversation with "You guys should start living together soon." That comment used to drive me insane. Like we weren't trying! If all they wanted to do was sympathize, I would have welcomed something like "I know you guys are trying to get together in the same city, I hope it happens soon for you." The result of so many frustrations and yearning was that, we sort of built a pedestal of living together. We would prefix a lot of things with "When we start living together" - to buy a PS3, eating better, going somewhere etc. To the point where we felt we couldn't be happy living apart and that life would be heaven once we start living together. Again, living together has been awesome. But it has been a different kind of awesome, more of a being there for small moments awesome. We haven't done most of the things we planned to do when we move in together. But it has been nice to just lay on the couch and talk before going to bed. Going to the grocery store together. To be home when S gets home from work. I could go on and on.

I know this post is winding and pointless. But seeing as this blog is becoming my diary, I just want to record my feelings for posterity

This and That

2010-05-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

Greetings, gentle readers of the blog. I would like to bring it to your attention that this blog has been complaint-free (well relatively atleast) for quite some time now. Since this blog has been painstaking built on a solid foundation of whine, cribs and unadulterated vitriol, I want to assure you that I am not straying away from my ideals. It's just that, in an effort to make this blog seems as well read, I have been self promoting my blog to everyone I know and thus I am out of people to complain about. I have often wondered why I didn't start this blog anonymously. I think I loved seeing my name on the screen too much and I am now paying the price. And there was this certain person, whose blog I idolized and since he didn't blog anonymously, I guess I inherently assumed that the "cool kids" signed their name to their blogs. Sadly the said idol has given up on his blog now, and I am now left with this.

Now that I have managed to fill an entire paragraph complaining about my inability to complain, lets move on. In other non-complaining news, my husband S has now moved lock, stock and barrel to Madison, WI (for the next 2 months, keeping fingers crossed that it gets extended beyond that) and you all can stop calling me the sad ol lady of Wisconsin. You know, I can actually go to movie on a week night now. Or go to a fancy dinner on week night. Or even go bowling on a week night. Or play Monopoly on a week night. The possibilities are endless. And I am hoping this move will end the huge DVR fights that plague us on weekends - the I-will-not-watch-The-Office-Again, You-should-have-seen-Modern-Family-on-Hulu-if-you-care-so-much etc. But on the other hand, he must start watching Desperate Housewives with me and I must learn to endure 24. Talking about 24, does anyone else think that Jack Bauer has been heavily influenzed by our own Gaptain Vijayakanth? When I am feeling a little more inspired, I swear I am going to dig out youtube videos where they both do the same thing. And I wish I knew what sort of batteries Bauer's cell phone runs on. I never see him charging it and yet people page stuff after stuff onto that phone. I do nothing with my iPhone except talk, check my email and play the occasional solitaire, but come 8pm, it's begging to be recharged.

Yet another blathering post brought to you by yours truly. Read, enjoy and comment!

Snippets

2010-05-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

* Let's talk sitcoms first. I know I have raved about many sitcoms before, but I don't think I have mentioned "Rules of Engagement" before. The show was kinda B+ or borderline C the first couple of seasons, but the writing has really picked up. I started watching the show because of David Spade and Patrick Warburton, but now that Adhir Kalyan has joined the cast, I am loving the whole ensemble. I wish this would get picked up for a full season. And talking about shows that do get picked up for a full season, what's the deal with Community? I watch the show because, well Joel Mchale is so hot. And the show is ok, but I can't stand Danny Pudi. There are people who can pull off deadpan and Danny Pudi is not one of them. Wish they would lose him or atleast tone him down a bit.

* Talking about people I don't like, here's one more - Sarah Jessica Parker. Hate her hate her hate her. But I watched Sex And The City through all the seasons and watched the first movie and I know I will be dragging S to the next one. What can I say, I am a girl :)

* This weekend was spent alone in Madison, hopefully for the last time. Next week, S and I will be driving back and it will be a mini road trip. So yay! I have always loved road trips - motel stays, gas station restrooms not withstanding. I really love diner food and cheap pizza that you get by the slice. I know, I am rather weird this way.

Oru Chinna Romance*

2010-04-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

She clutched her books in one hand and caught the railing of the bus with the other. The bus jolted along the many bumps of the uneven road and she had trouble maintaining her balance. Yet she couldn't help returning the looks from the guy in the red shirt hanging on the foot-board. She told herself that she wasn't . Yet she wished she had one hand free to smooth down her frizzy hair. She tried to keep an austere face while inwardly giggling to herself, as she caught him steal a look at her one more time.

He didn't usually travel on the foot-board of buses, much less oogle at college girls inside the bus. But he saw something in her eyes and he couldn't help himself. And then he realized that she was looking at him too and that was all the elixir he needed. He decided to hang around on the foot-board for some more time and added a sly smile to his glances. He caught her eyes once and when she blushed and turned her face away, his heart raced a little.

She walked up the stairs of her apartment giddily, still on a high. She was greeting by her husband carrying their wailing baby. He heaved a sigh of relief and promised her that the next time she wanted to go to the library, he would gladly drive her there as long as she didn't leave him alone with the baby. She bounced and cuddled the baby and saw that her husband hadn't cleaned the house like he promised. But today she didn't mind.

He walked into his son's school and his wife met him at the gate and admonished him about being late for the PTA meeting. He would have usually flared up right then and the situation had "Big Argument in a Public Place" written all over it. But today he surprised her with an apology and a hug.

* - A Tiny Romance

Public Service Announcement

2010-04-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I have been recently informed that my recent tweet "My cup of happiness overfloweth! :) Sunshine and smiles all around" has caused some unnecessary excitement and people have been assuming a lot of things.

That was a premature message I posted on learning that my darling husband S is now moving to Madison for good (or so we thought). However since then we have come to learn that it might be temporary thing. However it's been all celebrations here, coz you know now I don't have to be alone and all that. Can you believe that I am actually excited to be packing lunch for S, ironing his T shirts and doing other wifey things :) It feels like we are getting married all over again.

Love Letters

2010-04-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

1990

She was busy clearing out her late mother's house. She was going through her mother's things to see if there was anything important or valuable and donating the rest to charity. In the attic, she came across a small box of carved wood. She opened it gingerly and came across a bunch of letters tied in a satin ribbon. She broke into a smile and realized that these were the letters that her father had written her mother when they courting. She was amazed that her mother had kept them safely as they moved across multiple cities and houses. She carefully set the box among the things that she was taking back to her home.

2060

She was busy clearing out her late mother's laptop. She was going through her mother's files to see if there was anything important to be saved or deleted and was donating the laptop to a charity. In her D drive, she came across a small folder marked "Personal". She gingerly clicked it open and found a bunch of emails in a zip file. She broke into a smile and realized that these were the emails that her father had written to her mother when they were dating. She was amazed that her mother had saved the mails as she moved to different mail servers and laptops. She carefully copied the folder into her memory stick among the other files she was taking.

Commercials - Does Anyone Love Them?

2010-04-05T12:24:00.000-07:00

I often think about what I miss most about India/Madras. Obviously, I miss my immediate family. I also miss my extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins and most recently my darling nephew. And I miss Thamizh - hearing it all around me and seeing it on billboards. I would be amiss if I didn't mention the food - the wholesome goodness filled homemade food and the various restaurants that serve a wide variety of Indian food. I am officially sick of the crap that is served at most Indian restaurants (and yet I keep going back, because sometimes the heart wants what it wants) The movies - there seems to be a slew of good Thamizh/Hindi movies these days and I hate having to drive over 100 miles to see it in a theater.

The above paragraph should not come as a surprise to anyone, coz God knows I have written about this several times in this blog. Lately I have come to realize that I miss something that I never thought I would miss - I miss the ads on TV. I always believe that however long I live in the United States, I would never fit in completely, because a lot of cultural references from their childhood would just go right off my head. And I think advertisements are big part of that. Though I had given up on Indian programming while in India and lived entirely on sitcoms, it feels like I have severed all my ties with Madras. I spend a lot of time hunting for new ads on Youtube. I feel that it might help to have some Tam channels at home. But again, I have no interest in watching any serials, I am not a music lover, I hate star interviews of any kind (except when Kamal Hassan is interviewed) and the lesser said about Indian reality TV the better. So S (rightly) feels that it is not a good idea to pay double of what we pay to Dish Tv to have Sun TV and Vijay TV! Besides S dislikes these channels more than I could ever do and I don't forsee him budging from his stance, unless my parents or V Athai visits. Hmm, maybe it is time for someone to visit. :-)

I know that I always give an impression about missing India and absolutely hating it here. While I do miss India, it's not that I am having a bad time here. I guess it's a case of the grass being greener the other side. I am sure I will have plenty to complain when I do eventually move back. So till that time, lay back and listen to my gentle rants about this topic :-)

Also I would love to hear about your favorite ads. Drop in a comment (with a YouTube link if possible) Thanks everyone - you guys are the best!

The Girl - Part II

2010-04-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

Read Part I here.

Rukku’s heart stopped and the proverbial thunder and lightning went off in her head. She started having visions about Vatsan bringing home a White American girl clad in skimpy clothes. She cursed the day that she had allowed her darling son to go to the big bad USA and wished that he could have stayed home with her. She screamed for Ananthu and started babbling incoherently on the phone, with tears streaming down her face.

It took a minute for Ananthu to understand what his wife was telling him. All he could make out was words like “church”, “grandkids”, “America”, “Janaki Maami”, interspersed with chants of the Lord’s name and try as he might, he could find nothing in common between all those words. He grabbed the phone from his hysterical wife and tried to find out what had actually happened.

Vatsan repeated the sentence to his father and Ananthu’s heart did a double leap as well. But before his father could react, Vatsan started talking again. “Her name is Sandhya, Sandhya Krishnamachary. She had come to the US to study and is now working in the same place I work.” Ananthu’s face relaxed. And then Vatsan said the golden words “She is also an Iyengar Vadakalai.” Ananthu couldn’t contain his glee and beamed happily at his wife. Rukku stared at Ananthu with dagger eyes, but as Ananthu explained, she heaved a sigh of relief. She started seeing everything in color again and said a silent thanks to Venkatachalapathy.

When the initial rush died down, Rukku diverted her attention to the Krishnamacharis. She pried their phone number out of Vatsan and made plans to contact them immediately. The initial phone call was made and she invited them home.

Rukku liked Mr & Mrs Chary. They had seemed genuinely happy at the alliance. They were impressed with Ananthu’s modest home and said the right things about Rukku’s filter coffee. They even agreed with Rukku that the marriage must be held as soon as possible. When Mrs Chary showed a photo of Sandhya to Rukku, she decided that Sandhya was much prettier than Janaki’s daughter. She reasoned to herself that even though she hadn’t arranged the alliance herself, Sandhya was a very good match for Vatsan. She was also working, which means that Vatsan could buy a flat in T.Nagar in no time. Also Mrs Chary had told her that Sandhya was tall, 5’ 7” to be precise. Since Vatsan was over 6’ tall, they would look good standing on the reception pandal. Rukku decided that she would become modern and accept the love marriage without any fuss. Anyway, since Sandhya was Iyengar too, she could always tell everyone that it was a “love-cum-arranged” marriage.

Saturday finally rolled around, Vatsan informed Rukku that he was planning a vacation to Madras in a couple of weeks and that Sandhya was coming with him. Rukku’s joy knew no bounds.

The days after that passed in a whirlwind with Rukku being busy prepping the house. Dust, cobwebs and dirt were hunted down and cleaned. The bathroom tiles were scrubbed till they started to look like once white. She made visits to various electronics stores and decided on a spilt AC that had to be installed in Vatsan’ room. The big TV that had adorned their drawing for more than a decade was replaced with a thin LCD TV. This was Vatsan’s first visit home and she wanted everything to be perfect. Also she wanted Sandhya to see that they lived in relative luxury and she would face no trouble as the daughter-in-law of the house. They had decided to have a formal engagement ceremony in the next week, and Rukku got out her jewels from the bank locker. She picked out a beautiful diamond necklace that her mother in law had given her during her wedding and decided she would give this to Sandhya during the engagement.

The day dawned bright and clear. Vatsan’s flight was supposed to land at ten in the morning. Rukku was bright and ready at eight and nagged Ananthu to get to the airport in time. They met with Mr and Mrs Chary at the airport and waited with them. After what seemed like an endless wait, it was announced that their flight had landed. Rukku squinted at the crowds and tried to spot Vatsan. Slowly people collected their bags and trickled out to meet with their waiting families. Rukku carefully scanned them and finally saw Vatsan pushing a trolley. And then Rukku she saw Sandhya.

Rukku and Ananthu looked at each other in confusion. The Charys shrugged their shoulders and nodded apologetically at them. If words like “gothic”, “punk” or “emo” had been a part of Rukku’s vocabulary, she would have used them to describe Sandhya. She was wearing tattered jean and a “well fitted” tank top. Her hair was as straight as sticks and was streaked with pink highlights. Her eyes had dark makeup around them and she was leaning on Vatsan casually.

To say that Rukku was taken aback was an understatement. In all her 55 years of existence, Rukku had never seen someone like Sandhya from close quarters. Before meeting Sandhya, Rukku had invited the Chary family home for a quick coffee and brunch and they had accepted. And now they were on their way home.

Rukku felt that she could think better with caffeine streaming through her body and brought out her famous filter coffee. Sandhya refused and said she was vegan. Rukku was perplexed until Vatsan explained that she did not drink milk and as of Jan 2010, neither did him. He went to the kitchen and brewed some watery tea sans milk and they both seemed to enjoy it. Conversation was minimal at the table and Rukku wanted them to pack up and leave.

No sooner than they stepped out of her home, she turned to Vatsan and begged him to reconsider. He was adamant and tried to convince Rukku that Sandhya was a “nice” girl. He refused to listen to any argument and Rukku knew she had lost the battle.

Things didn't go well between Rukku and Sandhya. She did not want to have any engagement ceremony and said that she had already accepted Vatsan’s proposal and was hence engaged. She refused Rukku’s gift of the diamond necklace and said that she didn’t want any “blood” diamonds. She was against silk sarees and gave a spiel about silk worms that Rukku didn’t understand a word of. She told Rukku quite emphatically that she hated all religious ceremonies and had planned to get married by the beach. When Rukku gasped, Sandhya was kind enough to say that they would definitely be invited.

Rukku remembered a wedding that she had attended an year ago. One of Ananthu’s friends' sons had married an American girl. She fell in love with Indian culture and had insisted that they have a traditional Indian wedding and had even worn an Aandal kondai. Rukku stared wistfully at Vatsan and wished he had brought home a nice American girl.

Concluded

The Girl

2010-03-31T17:52:00.000-07:00

Rukmani was busy in kitchen, making the usual lunch-for-two. She minced and sautéed in silence today, so that she wouldn't miss the phone ringing. You see, today was Saturday and this was when Vatsan called home usually.

Srivatsan was Rukku's youngest son and the constant cause for concern for Rukku and her husband Ananthapadmanabhan. Their eldest daughter Vaidehi had done her Bachelors in IIT, Madras and her PhD in IISC Bangalore and now worked as a Associate Professor there, alongside her husband, also a Professor in IISc. They had 2 kids, who seemed to take after their parents' academic genes and were forever winning something at school. They called their Paati every other day and told her about their exploits at school, which Rukku promptly broadcast to the entire neighborhood. The middle child, Rangan (named Rangaswamy after her father) had decided to go the commerce route. After passing the SBI clerical exam, he had gone on to write all possible promotion exams and was now a Manager of the Siruthozhil Branch in Nungambakkam at the young age of 32. He lived with his wife and son in a 2 bedroom flat and visited home frequently.

Vatsan was a whole other story. He had always been a problem child at school. When Vatsan started school, Rukku and Ananthu had been shocked that teachers were actually complaining about a child of theirs, rather than heap accolades. He got into fights frequently, talked too much in class and wasn't the brightest bulb in the room. While Vaidehi was an accomplished Veena player and Rangan an avid quizzer, Vatsan had not shown any interest towards extracurricular activities. Ananthu tried to drag a screaming and kicking Vatsan to Mrudangam class for a few months, but gave up when he realized Vatsan had neither the attitude nor the aptidue. Vatsan finished his schooling with less than stellar grades and thanks to Ananthu's friend, who knew someone, who in turn knew someone at Akilandaparameshwari Engineering College, Vatsan got admitted for Bachelors of Engineering, Computer Science, aided by a sizeable dent in Ananthu's retirement savings. Rukku and Ananthu heaved a sigh of relief, thinking they had 4 years until they had to worry about Vatsan again. But Fate got other plans and in his first year, they got a call from the college saying that Vatsan had been caught drinking. Rukku gave a wail that put ambulance sirens to shame and promptly fainted. Ananthu prayed to Venkatachalapathy in anguish. They pulled Vatsan out of college for 2 weeks and took him to Tirupati, Srirangam and Kumbakonam, hoping that the Gods would knock some sense into the head of their prodigal son. It seemed to have some effect, because they never received another complaint about his drinking again. After graduating (with 3 arrears), Vatsan roamed the streets looking for a job and finally found one, after 6 long months, in one of the bigger IT companies in Chennai. Rukku liked to think that her prayers had something to do with it. A couple of years passed in relative peace and it seemed as though Vatsan had mellowed with age.

As with most companies, Vatsan was asked to go to the US for a yearlong project. Ananthu liked the idea, and felt that staying away from home would give Vatsan a sense of responsibility. Rukku had initially protested, but later gave in when she realized she would now have something to say to the NRI Maamis who gathered at the temple to regale stories about celebrating Diwali in Fall. After a tearful farewell at the Anna International Airport, Vatsan began his sojourn to the United States.

Life ambled along and Rukku realized that she missed her trouble making son. He called frequently the first couple of months. And then Rukku started talking about suitable girls and the call frequency dropped to once a week. Rukku tried in vain to convince him that he needed a nice Iyengar girl to take care him, to make filter coffee in the mornings, to wash his good shirts by hand, making sure the collar is squeaky clean. She didn’t like it that Vatsan always tried to evade the topic and was non committal about the whole thing.

Rukku decided that today she would convince Vatsan to talk to Janaki’s daughter. Janaki was one of Rukku’s oldest temple acquaintances. On the occasions that she had gone to Janaki’s house, her daughter Priya had been hospitable and chatty. She remembered the chocolate, eggless cake that Janaki had proudly served, saying Priya had baked them. Chocolate cake was no badushah or mysore pak, but she was sure that Priya would learn. And Janaki had been receptive to this idea as well. A girl like Priya was just the woman Vatsan needed! Rukku waited for the phone call, practicing what she would say to convince Vatsan.

Tring, tring. Rukku ran to the living room to pick the phone, yelling at Ananthu to turn off the gas after the cooker had given 2 more whistles. Ananthu looked up from his newspaper with a small smile and continued reading. He was used to the weekly drama, and he didn’t think today would be any different.

After the initial formalities of asking about his health, his cooking and satisfied with his answers about if he was eating well, Rukku jumped into the topic. “Vatsa kanna, I really think you should get married soon.” To her surprise, Vatsan didn’t try to cut her off and agreed with her. And then he said the fateful sentence “I like a girl here and I would like to marry her”

to be contd...

PS1 - Will post Part 2 if all of you comment

PS2 - Just kidding! (Sort of!)

General Rambles (aka I am Offically Out of Sensible Titles)

2010-02-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

I love visiting used book stores. I have written about this in the past as well. I love the smell of freshly minted books as anyone else, but I think that old books have more character. Also the smell of old books take me back to Easwari Lending Library, where I spent many happy hours as a child. Yesterday, I went to Frugal Muse, a new used book store that I had been meaning to check out for a couple of months now. And it was really different than the second hand book sellers that I had been used to in India. All books were in very very good condition. Everything was neatly categorized and sorted alphabetically (which makes me think that more than half the cost of the book is the cost of identifying it and placing it at the right spot) But I missed digging through the piles of books and finding a hidden gem. Or just picking books that looked interesting. I remember when S and I were kids, we went to the platform book sellers near ESI Hospital in KK Nagar (this was back when my husband actually used to read for pleasure!) We spent nearly an hour and I was so happy to dig through piles with S. Once, during my final semester at Pilani, I went to Rungta House to sell the textbooks I couldn't carry home. And digging through the ginormous book stacks filled with textbooks in all editions, I came across a Wodehouse! I was thrilled beyond measure and incredulous that someone would actually sell "Righto Jeeves!" Long story short, that book cost more money than I got from selling my texts, but I still have that book (that is if my mom hasn't thrown it away or donated it very generously).

You all know best that I love watching sitcoms. Back in Hyd, my sitcom watching was whatever was on Zee English and Star World and the DVDs from the US sent by S to me and by K's brother to her. When I landed in the US, Grad living did not permit the time and cash for TV and satellite/cable. So I caught up most of the shows on hulu and other sites on my trusty laptop. Going to Florida to visit S would equate to a TV wonderland for me and I would be loathe to stir out of the sofa to actually go out somewhere in Tampa. Naturally when I got a job and my own apartment, the first thing I did was to buy a decent TV and a get it hooked to Dish. You would think that all is for best and that the reason I don't blog is because I am too busy watching TV. Well you are almost there, except I am watching the same shows over and over and over. I have 15-20 shows that are set to record on the DVR and barring the the current ones which have new episodes almost every week, I always end up watching staples like Seinfeld, King of Queens, Frasier, Will & Grace etc. And I have watched every episode there is of these shows and I am too lazy to try and find reruns of some interesting old shows. This wasn't a problem when I was using my laptop as my primary entertainment device. Since there was no schedule of any sorts, I would dig and find a lot of new things to watch. So gentle readers, do you see my dilema? Since I pay an obscene amount of money to Dish each month, I feel a moral obligation to watch my money's worth of shows on TV. But digging through hundred channels trying to find something new is not easy. This is where you, the readers of this blog who have excellent taste in TV viewing, come in. Suggest shows for me to watch. Doesn't have to very good - these are shows that I would see while cooking or have in the background while getting dressed for work (I know I watch too much TV) etc. So it has to be new content and at least slightly interesting and funny. So suggest away!

Traveling J

2010-01-20T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hello my lovelies! How is the new year treating you so far?

I would like to announce that after 2.5 years of stepping foot into this country, I am finalllly going to visit the other coast! (I know I live in the Midwest and not the East Coast, but then the West Coast is still the other coast, no?) I leave tomorrow afternoon and have stuff to do on Friday. But on Saturday, I will be in LA, living it up Hollywood style. R has told me that I wouldn't really spot any celebrities, which does leave me a little upset. But I do get to go to Universal Studios though! I know people usually complain about going to theme parks, but me I just love them! Love love love. And R has very graciously decided to drive down 7 hours, just to meet moi and S. Is he a friend or what! So this weekend is going to be all about fun.

The next weekend will find me in Toledo, Ohio, where I intend to stay until Tuesday, assuming my manager lets me work from home for 2 days. Keeping fingers crossed! So we are planning to go to Detroit, eat at a "good" Indian restaurant and then watch Aayirathil Oruvan - the good Desis we are :-)

Also we are planning an anniversary trip in March (since Feb will not work for S due to work related reasons) Right now sunny Florida is on our radar. When I visited Daytona Beach a year or 2 ago, I remember seeing this hotel that was right on the beach. Too bad I didn't make note of the name of that place. Anyhoo I would like to stay at someplace where we would get a view of the water from our room and would have to just walk out to step into the water. Hopefully we will find someplace soon.

I guess I have rambled enough about my upcoming travel plans. If you are going to take just one thought away from this post, it should be this - this weekend I am going to be in Sunny California and you aren't! Maybe if you guys behave well enough, I might post some pictures. Keep watching this space.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T08:55:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all my reader(s)! I hope 2010 brings all your dreams to life.

Personally, 2009 has been hands down the worst year of my life so far! With the the exception of getting married, there has been a dearth of good significant events in my life. And even for the wedding, the days leading to it were horrendous, with everyday being a marathon scream session with my parents. All because of one single person! And that said single person is yet to call/mail or even know if we are still alive after the wedding. But I digress. Now that 2009 is behind me, I would like to think that 2010 has begun on a better note. It is not that, I don't want to face any problems in 2010, but I would like to have some normal problems in 2010. You know, the kinds I see my friends and others complain about!

And yes, I have some resolutions for this year too. The usual ones - a healthier lifestyle and pay down debt. And I would like to have a more positive outlook towards life. People who know me in real life, know that I am pessimist. And S is even more so! My parents feel that this sort negativity might add to our misery and maybe if we wished good things for ourselves instead of wallowing in our self pity, something good might actually happen. So I've decided to be thankful what I actually have and start believing in myself. In that note, I am thankful that we can afford for S to fly down every weekend and I believe that we will be together soon. :-)

So gentle readers, what are you looking forward to the most in 2010?

One of Those Days

2009-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of things to rant about. Like about how my manager asks a co-worker to go home early coz she's just back from India, but I wasn't even asked how I felt when I came back from India. Or about watched phones never ringing. Or even about about how I spent all my paycheck in just 3 days. But S is here with me and everything is alright with the world. :-)

Happy Festivus, to the rest of us! :-)

Yet Another Sleepy Friday Afternoon

2009-12-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

Since this blog has long lost its credibility and well written pieces, I thought I might as well make a bullet list of things on my mind right now.

People who complain about bad roads in India, should drive in Madison in winter! Seriously, they can now give stiff competition to the mud roads back there. The slush and ice are driving me nuts and I feel like I am traveling on a maatu vandi. Atleast back home, your brakes don't stop working.

In the same vein, could someone just take all the snow away? I am sick of it already and it's just December. There's about 3 feet of snow sitting pretty on my patio right now. My body is built for Madras - wearing even one sweater is a big deal for me. Oh I wish I lived in Florida.

I've realized that I wear yellow gold earrings, a white gold diamond ring (thanks S), a platinum ring that somewhat resembles a wedding band (thanks Viji Athai) and a sterling silver chain. Nothing matches! I think I would do well to get a new set of everyday wear jewelery - preferably from Tiffany. Wow this is far cry from the girl I used to be - who hated jewelery of any kind.

A watched phone never rings. You can add this nugget to the treasure chest of wisdom that I have bestowed upon all readers over the years. And also a constantly refreshed mailbox, never gets new mail.

Despite not being a Christian, I love Christmas (Disclaimer To Appa : Except the Jesus part of it. I still firmly believe in Venkachalapathy) Well decorated trees, beautiful ornaments and gifts! What's not to love about it? I really wanted a tree at home this year, but then no-one visits me. And it would be pretty sad to throw a Christmas party by myself for myself. But I have been playing Secret Santa at work though. It's been a fun week, finding small gifts at my desk each day. And all so beautifully wrapped. All my gifts have been going in store bought gift bags.

I wanted to write something about Super Mario Galaxy, but people are telling me that there' are too many obscure references to Mario in th blog. So I will refrain from talking about it. Except to say I only have 18 stars left to capture before I finish the game in entirety.

That's all folks. Have a rocking weekend!

Of Rambles and Such

2009-12-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

So I am back to the US after an awesome 3 weeks in Madras. Trips going back home are always nice, but when you have to leave it is such a gut wrenching feeling that leaves (or atleast me) questioning why I left in the first place. It was no fun that I had to come back alone, which led to a lot of sobbing on the flight while watching movies that were even a wee bit emotional. Again, my resolve is strengthened about moving back to India in another 4-5 years, when I can finish paying off my education loan.

Madison seems more desolate now than when I left it. Probably due to the sun disappearing at 4pm. Just coming back from India, coupled with winter blues has made for a very depressed Janani. (Yeah go figure, I have even started referring to myself in the third person) And it doesn't help at all that it started snowing today - enough to cover the grass.

What's the point of this post you ask? Just to inform kind, gentle readers that the author of this blog is depressed, restless and lonely. My mother is of the opinion that I should make more friends at the Indian store, temple and so on. So if you see a crazy female at these aforementioned places handing out a flier with name, age, occupation, orkut profile, facebook profile, twitter page etc you know that it's your truly.

Since this whole post it a rambling mess, why don't I just write more to make a huge rambling mess. Like I tweeted (or twittered whichever the right word is) the only thing that was holding my interest was Super Mario Galaxy. But since then I have defeated Bowser and rescued the princess, I am not liking the Purple Coin comets! I want to buy Super Mario Bros, but S has become kanjoos lately and is refusing to buy it for me, nor is he buying it for me (unless it's a secret gift that he is bringing along with him when he coming home tomorrow) S's bro B, has greatly insulted me by laughing outright when I said I like Mario games, but he assuaged my ego by telling me that no-one's Manni plays games on the Wii and so I am redeemed and elevated to starry heights in Mannydom. I told B that maybe if I owned a PS3, I would play games of worthier mention, but like I said before S has become kanjoos and it's become more and more difficult to pry money from him. I suspect his recent konjoosness has stemmed from knowing only now, how much I actually owe in education loans to the bank, my father, Viji Athai, K and the pakkathu veetu nai kutti. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he heard the total figure I owe and I quickly reminded him that since we were married and half my debt is rightfully his. Add to that 2 car loans and the amount we owe is quite staggering. Hmm, maybe it is time to cut down on the Starbucks lattes and the Wii games I buy and then immediately dislike.

In other news, I have started positively disliking tv since coming back. I do not attribute this to Adithya TV and Sirippoli TV in Madras. All I am saying is that I am bored of watching rererererererereruns of sitcoms. This is also why I need a PS3, so that I could watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia from hulu on TV. Also I am now taking sitcom suggestions from commoners (that you!) If you do recommend a show and I start watching it and like it, you could go down in history as the person who actually recommended something to the sitcom queen (or sitcom junkie, I prefer queen) So suggest away you lesser folk!

Madras Ahoy

2009-10-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Well I started this post as a Toys R Us/toys for kids in general rant. But then I figured I might as well make it a what's-up-in-my-life-now kinda post. I know it's very charitable of me, but I have since learned that I have a few more uncommenting readers and a couple more interested in the joining the Janani-blog-reader bandwagon, provided I get them a laptop from the US, bookmark my blog clearly as "Janani's Blog" in all browsers and leave a prominent link on the desktop. The lengths I go to make people read my blog! Whew!

As you all know, a trip to India is in the offing, and one of the highlights of the trip is that I get to meet my cute nephew/cousin A (Yeah our family relationships are pretty weird) From what I see in the pics, A is the cutest, sweetest, most good looking baby in the world (despite resembling his father! :-)) So I wanted to buy something for him and I headed into Toys R Us. After stopping for awhile in the Wii/Playstation aisle, I figured I would head into the preschool/infant section and be spoiled for choice. Boy was I wrong! What's with the toys for kids these days? Why do all of them have 1000 small loose parts that are definitely going to get lost 5 minutes after opening the toy. And why do all the toys make some sort of noise? My expectations were simple - I wanted to get something for A to play with, something that endures for atleast a month in entirety. There were a lot of walker kind of toys, but I didn't want to get those since his parents might have some definite ideas about that and buy that themselves. And for the same reason, I didn't want to buy any DVDs since his parents may have some rules about the kind of DVDs they want for their child. (Though I was sorely tempted to buy Blues Clues seeing the kind of publicity it gets on TV shows) Ultimately I chose to buy a Leap Frog product that makes a noise, but seems to be reasonable (atleast as per my standards). And also I like the ads on TV for Leap Frog and really think they are edutaining. And while I am at it, what's with all the pink and glitter for girl babies? I dream of having a daughter someday, whom I can dress in a pink frock and a bow, but isn't there something as too much pink? And I was also buying a baby doll for one of my aunt's friends. Most of them were cute and lifelike and said Mama, Papa and giggled to a good effect. And then I saw them. Pooping baby dolls. Ewwwww! Really, do kids like them? And more importantly do you want your kid to play with doll poop? Ewww!

And I was sorely disappointed with the service at Toys R Us. I walked to an employee and asked her for suggestions to get something for a 6 month old boy. Her only remark was to comment that I was in the right aisle before politely walking away. Contrast this with Barnes and Noble where I have been thrice to get books for babies and toddlers. The staff there were very helpful, walking with me across all the aisle and pointing the different kinds of books and what babies might like. And to top all these, I realize that the Leap Frog toy that I bought in Toys R Us is almost $8 cheaper online and in Walmart. Makes me feel silly now, taking the pains to go to Toys R Us. I have half a mind to return the stuff in Toys R Us and buy it from Walmart!!!

Talking about shopping for India, buying something for Appa has been an epic fail! :-( My parents never ask anything for themselves. Don't get me wrong here, they make me buy plenty from here, but everything is for someone else. When it comes them, they don't want me to buy anything that costs more than $1. So I was pleasantly surprised when my Dad, for the first time in his life, asked for something without my begging and cajoling. He said that he wanted a couple of good quality T shirts, which are collared and had a front pocket (for the times when he is in a veshti). So the next time I am in the mall, I figured I would check the out the T shirts and to my horror I found that none of the T shirts had a pocket on them. I became desperate and yesterday when I was in Kohls, I saw collared T shirts with a pocket on them. I called S in glee and discussed which size would fit Appa and then I noticed that they were full arm T shirts! I sorrowfully called home and told him I would buy shirts instead, which he didn't want. To cheer me up, he asked me to get a 2010 diary for him, the only stipulation being each day had 1 page dedicated to it (My father is an avid diary writing for decades now and he needs a lot of space for the kind of details he maintains in his diary) Again, after scouring Barnes & Noble, Borders and the likes I failed to find him one. So finally he asks for the DVD of a movie called "Seven Times Seven" that came in the 60s or for Laurel and Hardy DVDs with some specific episodes. Again, unable to find the movie DVD and the required episodes are spead over multiple DVDs which cost $45 apiece if at all they are available!

On the subject of buying things for India, I am really at a loss for what to get for everyone. I think people who lived in the US a decade ago had it easy, coz these days anything I mention has people going "Oh we get these in India now." Well, I am giving up on buying anything for anyone this time, due to the lack of time and monies. It makes me feel a little sad because I used to love getting stuff from V Mama when I was a kid. But then, you people get everything in India now right? :-)

Ok I have to sign off. Gotta go and buy random crap to take home :-)

My Life is a Set of Bullet Points

2009-10-05T09:42:00.001-07:00

Yeah it's easier to write longer version tweets than writing stories and then thinking of appropriate endings :-)

I have become so much more lazier in the last few weeks! Seriously. All I seem to want to do is sit/lie on the couch and read/watch TV/play on the Wii. The apartment cleaning has dropped to half of what I used to and I haven't stepped foot into a grocery store the last 3 weeks. I think it had a lot to do with S staying home. Either his laziness is rubbing onto me or he is spoiling me to bits :-) And the gym that I was so regular in going to - I haven't set foot in it for the last 2 weeks. Since S is now off to Ohio, I have decided it's time for a change and I started cleaning the apartment yesterday. I have also packed my gym stuff in the car so that I can drive right upto the gym after work. Now that it's all written in black and white, I am now accountable to the blog (and the few readers stringing along for the ride)

In contrary to the above point, my hobbies and activities has increased tremendously. I take French lessons every week and I can feel my French improving considerably. I am able to make up simple sentences and starting to grasp the complex grammar. I need to ramp up on the studying at home though. Apart from that, S & I are taking swimming lessons every Saturday. I had a sort of breakthrough this weekend and I was able to swim 1 whole lap. I am really really pleased with that. My endurance is pretty bad though and I am exhausted after the 1 hour lesson. Anyhow, the fact that I can now swim for however long my hands and legs keep up and tread water shows that I am making good progress. Again need to get into the pool more often. Usually S and I just stay longer after every class and practice, but I think I need to go in once more each week. If this weren't enough, I decided to take art lessons from a local artist. I don't know why, but I have always had the itch to sketch, but I never do anything about it! I have just had one lesson, but I am enjoying working on my homework. Time will tell if I continue with this or just quit. (S nearly had a heart attack when he saw how expensive sketch books and the umpteen pencils that I bought cost. So he might force me to continue lessons till he sees some return from the investment. And S, FYI I am buying an easel too. :-))

Appa is mighty skeptical about all these and feels that the money spent on all these would be better off sitting in the bank. Well I don't blame him, I have always quit on everything that I begin. The tennis classes in my 3rd and 4th standard, carnatic music lessons that I took for more than 5 years, multiple crafts and embroidery classes during the summer holidays, glass painting that I took up in Hyderabad, the tennis classes that I took last summer in Madison and so on. So I really need to not quit and show him. (I know I really have a great attitude :-))

You know the JC Penney Salon that I used to heart? Well I am over them now. On Saturday I decided that I absolutely needed to get my eyebrows waxed and called them to get an appointment. I usually get my pedicure at this small place nails place in the mall. They are really good, but I was getting grossed out by the napkins they used. So I thought I would try JCP and took an appointment for a pedicure too. When my eyebrows were done, the pedicure person was guiding me to her station, when this rude person at the billing told me I would have to pay now for both services. I agreed and I was whipping out my card when she told me the amount due. I staggered visibly because it was way more than what I had expected. I berated myself for not checking the cost of a pedicure before making the appointment and swiped the card. And then she asked me if I wanted to leave a tip, in front of the person who was going to do my pedicure! Tell me if I am wrong gentle readers, but isn't a tip something we leave after the service is done depending on how well it is done? I had no choice but to give her a good tip and hope she was worth it. To break any suspense, she was worth the tip, but the pedicure very blah for the price I was paying. So all woman readers of my blog, avoid pedicures at JCP like the plague.

On other note, my love affair with McCafe Iced Latte is ending since I have found out iced Filter Kaapi tastes much better. Of all the pots and pans that I dragged all the way from India, I am most thankful to the filter. Now if only I could get Coffee Day coffee podi in Madison.

While I am at it, what's it with people who describe themselves with their sun signs? "I am a typical Scorpio" blah blah. So now apart from listening to their rambles, I need to look up Scorpio or Taurus or whatever too? Or do they think I am as jobless as them to know Linda Goodman from cover to cover. (You didn't think I would have a post without a single judgy, condescending sentence did you? :-))

Now I am done :-)

Jab They Met

2009-09-28T18:13:00.000-07:00

He sat at his desk, looking at his computer and muttering to himself. Doing the same work day after day for years now, was not fun. Especially not if he got blamed by almost everyone for just doing his work.

Hope came floating down the clouds to his desk. "Yo Fate, Wassup dude?"

"Hope, nobody speaks like that anymore. I wish you would stop watching old teen movies from the 80s and then talking like them!"

"Oh come on Fate! Don't be such sour puss."

"You are one to talk Hope! You got it so easy. All you have to do is go to people when they are depressed and just promise them good things in the future! I am the one that has to make things happen according to this big fat book of rules! You think that's easy?"

"Take a chill pill dude" said Hope before floating away to find someone cheerier to talk with.

Fate rolled his eyes and opened the huge book. "14th September, 14 September", he hummed trying to get to that page, flipping furiously. He put on his bifocal glasses and peered down at the first entry.

"Make Sandhya Krishnamoorthy meet Mark Danial Raj so that they can fall in love and get married." His first reaction was one of relief. It was no fun starting the day with making someone fall in the bathroom and break their leg and hearing the entire household curse him the entire day. Making people meet was much more pleasant.

He quickly looked up their stats on his computer. He sighed with relief on knowing that they both lived in Chennai. At least he didn't have to hijack planes and cause train breakdowns to make them meet. Yeah Fate liked this sort of work better. Unfortunately, he wasn't a romantic, so he made soul-mates meet at the line to the restroom, at the auto stand where he was haggling with the auto driver for 5 rupees, or in the early morning when she didn't have her makeup on. So when people tell you that they met when they were reaching out for the same program guide at a concert or when they were both enjoying an early morning swim, you know they are lying sometimes.

Fate's first instinct was to make them meet at a temple before they left to work, but then he remembered that Mark wouldn't want to do that. He then looked up more details about both of them. Sandhya worked as a software engineer in one of the big MNCs in Sholinganallur and he was into sales and moved all over the city. This is easy peasy, Fate thought. He would just make Mark go to Sholinganallur on work and he could bump into Sandhya when they both go to the same restaurant for lunch. Maybe he could spill some coffee on her or something. He started tapping on his computer to set that event into motion.

To say Mark was irritated was an understatement. He had been with his company for a longish time and he had a set of fixed clients. Today his boss had been adamant that he go to this company in Sholinganallur and give a sales pitch. He had been to that company many times before and they had expressed no interest whatsoever in buying anything. He didn't understand what had changed for him to go and try again. His boss must be getting senile, he decided. To top his misery, his bike had been with the mechanic for the past 2 days and he had to use a call taxi to make his rounds.

"Pradeepakanth Down Down" Mark was jolted out of his reverie. He noticed that the taxi had stopped and there seemed to be a huge crowd with pickets and signs blocking the road. He got down from the taxi trying to see what was happening. Pradeepakanth was a leading star of Thamizh cinema who couldn't act to save his life. His movies always had heroines who were half his age and most of them were Bollywood rejects. And for his latest venture, which was to be a huge budget colossal one, he had managed to convince a leading Bollywood actress (after whom he had been lusting for almost 7 years) to act with him. Now these people were protesting that he doesn't encourage Thamizh actresses and were blocking the road until he changes his heroine.

"Saar, these people will not let us pass. Let us take a U Turn when we can and get back into the city. Otherwise we will be stuck here forever." Mark agreed with the cab driver and they turned back into the city.

Fate's face crumpled. He hadn’t accounted for dharnas and for Indians' talent of protesting anything and everything. He had wasted half a day because of this. Maybe he could have them both eat some roadside pani puris and then have diarrhea and meet at the hospital. (Like I said, practical but hardly romantic) But then, if one is writhing in stomach pain, one would hardly be disposed to conversation with strangers. Then a (figurative) light bulb light up over Fate's head and he started typing furiously on his computer.

Sandhya received a call from reception "Ma'am there is a flower bouquet for you." She was surprised; no-one she knew would ever send her flowers. When she went to the Reception desk, there was a glorious bunch of flowers - lilies, carnations, gerberas, roses all arranged beautifully. She took it to her desk and examined it. It came with a card that said "From your admirer M" and a cell number following it. Sandhya smiled and picked up her phone.

"Dei* Mahesh, I know it's you who sent me flowers!" Mahesh was her cousin who was 2 years younger and was one of her best friends. He had a misguided sense of humor and had tried to pull her leg on various occasions. Once he had his friend call her cell and pretend to be her boyfriend. Unfortunately she got scared and gave the phone to her father and much confusion had ensued. She found it hard to believe that a third year engineering college student had so much money to blow on a prank, but who else could it be? She smiled at the thought that, she hadn't fallen for his prank this time. She crumpled the card and threw it away, convinced that the number belonged to one of his friends.

Fate threw his hands up in despair. He was angry with all the Maheshs of the world whose sole purpose of existence was to thwart his plans. He mentally made a note to submit a written request (in triplicate no less!) requesting that Cupid take care of such matters in the future. Most people credit such things to Cupid anyway and only take Fate's name when something bad happens.

He chewed on the back of his pencil, thinking of some sure shot plan for them to meet. Then it dawned on

This was a Friday and that they both might seek some form of entertainment that night. He dug into both their Orkut profiles and learned that they were both kamal Hassan fans. A quick check of the Satyam Cinemas website showed that there was a new Kamal Hassan movie that they both hadn't seen. Fate smiled gleefully and tapped out some instructions.

Mark's cell phone rang cheerily and even vibrated for an added effect. "Machan**, do you want to catch Unnaipol Oruvan tonight at Satyam?" Mark gave his assent almost immediately, he was always ready to watch Thalaivar's movies!

Sandhya got a text message from her best friend "i m bukin tics 4 unaipol oruvan, u in?" and she replied in the affirmative too.

Fate was happy with what he had done so far. Now all he had to do is make sure Mark's friend bought 2 extra tickets and Sandhya's friend be unable to get tickets. This way she could buy the extra tickets from Mark and they could sit next to each other.

Mark's friend got off from work early and surprisingly his boss didn't have anything snarky to say. Thanking Luck (and not Fate), he zipped off to Satyam to book tickets. But when he went there he saw a huge red "Houseful" board for Unnaipol Oruvan. Fate was surprised. He didn't know that Kamal Hassan's movie was a big hit (considering that in the past, Thamizh people never had good taste and preferred no-brainer masala movies over intelligent meaningful cinema) All was not lost though, he remembered Luck owed him bigtime and thought this was a good time to spend his favor chips. He went to find Luck and persuaded him to get Mark's friend some good tickets for the movie.

Sandhya's friend Preeta stormed into Satyam in an auto one hour before the movie was supposed to begin. She surveyed the "Houseful" sign and thought about what to do. She had spent her first twelve years in Delhi and fancied herself to be half-Hindi (much to the amusement of many people whose real mother-tongue was Hindi) She had a propensity towards "Indhi" movies and looked longingly at the poster of "What's Your Rashee?" She resolutely stood in line to get tickets for that movie and assumed Sandhya would understand.

Fate was trembling in his seat now. Not only did he have just 4 hours to make them meet, he had also wasted the favor that Luck had owed him by getting tickets for Mark. As he was contemplating his options, Preeta had an inkling of doubt. She knew Sandhya loved Kamal Hassan and might not be pleasantly surprised when she got here and found she was watching a different movie. She whipped out her phone and called Sandhya. "Hey tickets for UPO is sold out, want to catch a Hindi movie instead?" She was greeted by loud vociferous expletives from the other end and she discreetly moved out of the line to get tickets. Mark's friend saw her and finding a way to flirt legally, approached her and said he had some extra tickets to UPO. (Although he didn't have 2 extra tickets technically, as 2 other friends were now on their way to Satyam after he called and invited them saying he had 2 extra tickets. Yeah he had never heard of "Bros before hos") Preeta fluttered her eyelashes and happily accepted.

Soon the curtain fell and everyone was seated. Sandhya smiled at the clean cut young man sitting next to her and Mark was thrilled that the pretty girl sitting next to him was smiling at him. Fate heaved a big sigh of relief!

After a year, the wedding reception of sandhya and Mark was happening at the Grand Ballroom of GRT Grand Days. They both stood at the dias, greeting their guests and smiling for pictures. A friend who had come upto to the dias to give them his gift, asked "So how did you guys meet?" to make small talk. Sandhya gushed and said "Oh it was just a simple twist of Fate actually!"

Far above the earth, Fate started laughing hysterically at the irony!

* - Sorta translates to "Hey you guy"

** - When translated, it means brother in law. But for unknown reasons, it's a term of endearment among Thamizh males

The Stranger

2009-09-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Part 2

"I am Mythili Raghavan" she said again, keeping her last name intact. If someone pointed a gun to her head and asked why she faked her name, she would have no answer. Except perhaps wanting a change, a chance for change. She wasn't ready to go home, be transformed and marry one the several clean cut young men her parents had picked out for her. But she didn't want to carry the burden of the her life on the flight. It was easier to pretend, to fit in.

She smiled at Akash and spoke first.

"So do you work in the US?"

"No no, I am a musician, though technically I am lawyer."

"Puriyaliye¹"

Akash chuckled at his own wit. "Well I have studied law and technically working in my Appa's law firm as a Junior lawyer. Appa is a very famous lawyer in Chennai. You must have heard of him too - the famous Rangaswamy Thiruvengadam. But my interest is mainly in music. So I have told Appa strictly that I will work in office only from 9 to 5. After 5 I want to devote myself to music."

Shruthi was amused at his act of rebellion. She hadn't even finished smiling, when the next question was shot at her.
"So what do you do?"

In her panic, Shruthi said the most safest thing she could think of.

"Umm I am a software engineer. I was sent onsite by my company for 6 months and now I am going back home. So what kind of music are you interested in?"

The minute the conversation turned to music, Akash's whole frame seemed to exude some sort of exuberance. He talked about Carnatic music, Hindustani, fusion and even rock and heavy metal. He went on to discus music theory and casually mentioned the many many books he had read on that topic.

Shruthi gaped as her amusement was replaced with amazement. She listened intently, as Akash put various things in perspective and tried to teach her to understand Carnatic music.

The conversation flowed like water and she found herself talking, discussing, arguing. Whenever the topic became personal, she developed her fake personna further, garnished with many fine details. She talked about her 2 brothers and how they doted on her. She talked about Hinduism and her faith in Ranganatha Perumal. She ranted about working with computers all the time and how sometimes she felt the need to connect with other people. Her obsession with orkut and now facebook. And when he vehemently slammed smoking, she nodded in assent and added a bit about how she particularly she hated women smoking.

Shruthi was surprised at how easily she had fit into being Mythili. She wondered if she would have been Mythili if she had made a few different choices in the past. And judging by Akash's smiles and adoring glances, it was obvious that Mythili was a big hit. Akash and Mythili had the same upbringing and they lives were wound around the same things - Madras, filter coffee, Kapaleeshwar Temple, T Nagar. They had lofty aspirations, but they were mostly vertical.

Soon the flight landed in Chennai and they were at the baggage carousal. She got her suitcases first and turned to him to say her goodbye. He looked at her with an awkward grin. He wanted to get her phone number, email address or something, but he wasn't the kind of guy who did that often and he wasn't sure that Mythili would appreciate that sort of forwardness.

Shruthi sensed the gamut of emotions that was running through his head, as if his forehead had some sort of ticker display. What could have been is always magical, seemingly perfect; and reality can never come even close to taht. That was the gift that Shruthi planned to give Akash. He would always remember Mythili and the journey and he would think that if it had worked out to be more, it would have been perfect.

Shruthi smiled at Akash and walked away without a backward glance.

Edited to Add:
Concluded

1 - I don't understand

Readers, I am in a quandry here. Initially I had wanted a Part 3 to conclude this story. But this ending really seems to finish the thought. So do you guys want this to be continued or do you want me to stop here? If enough people want another part, I will put up Part 3 next Tuesday

P.S I have another story lined up after this. So keep checking my blog :-)

The Stranger

2009-09-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

"Flight JW149 TO Brussels is delayed by 2 hours."

Shruthi glanced up and looked at the display board with a blank stare. Disheveled hair, dirty torn jeans, a huge backpack on her shoulders that weighed more than she did - she looked like any other Indian going home for a vacation. But she didn't react to this announcement with groans or any visible dismay like everyone else. Lately, things had a way of not working out for her and this just fit the sequence. She lugged her huge bag and walked towards the counter.

"Amma, my flight is postponed. I will be in Madras..."

She glanced at the young man on the phone. His chaste thamizh with a definite Iyengar twinge seemed to take her home instantly. She closed her eyes and stopped for a moment. She felt like a smoke - the simple act of bringing the light to the cylindrical smoothness of a cigarette would take her places that are universes away from Madras, Amma, Appa and the realm. She often used smoking to rid herself of the Brahmin guilt that she had been brought up on - touching an egg, looking a plate of chicken, drinking, a Bindi less forehead. The guilt that racked her thousands of miles away, and years after she left the cocooned home she was born in.

The woman at the counter told her that she wouldn't miss her connection in Brussels to Chennai. Shruthi walked back to the seat in a trance. Resting her forehead on pillar, she mused on her life. It wasn't so much misery as it was disillusionment. She was tired of life at the ripe old age of 26.

"Shruthi, I have packed some of the rettai-appalam¹ that you like. I have put it inside the cooker so that it won't break, remember to take that out when you reach. Apram, I have given a Tussar silk salwar material to the tailor to be stiched. Can you go and get that from him? Remember to wear that for Diwali. Enna da kannu², I feel so bad that you won't be here with us for Diwali. Appa and I are going to feel so bored. Can't you do your B.E somewhere in Madras, or atleast India? Do you have to go to the US for that?"

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?". She motioned that it was free and took the laptop that had been previously sitting on that seat. She opened it and absently started looking through some old pictures. She opened the folder marked "Freshman year"

"Shroooti, what do you mean you've never had a beer before. Wow!! Ok, you've got to do this atleast now."

She flicked through the album, a picture of her chilling in Miami, with friends at the sleazy bar near the university, skiing in the Poconos. Then she saw picture of Jason hugging her. She smiled when she thought of Jason - her first love, her first kiss. The first guy to notice her and reached out to her breaking the wall she had built, the one who ignored her awkward accent, the one she thought she would love forever.

"Shru doll, we must absolutely do the France thing this summer. Imagine us biking through France for the whole summer. You gotta come with me"

"Hello Appa, this is Shruthi. I don't think I can come home this summer appa. My Professor wants me to do this summer project. It would really be a good opportunity for me to do research. Ille amma, not everyone gets an opportunity like this. I will be come home next year though, I promise"

The break up with Jason was ugly. She couldn't believe that he had cheated on her in the 2 months that she had been to India. She had mourned the loss for an entire year before moving on.

"Passengers of Flight JW149 to Brussels are requested to get ready for boarding."
Shruthi looked up with a start, she hadn't realized that 2 hours had gone by. She gathered her things and her thoughts got onto the line to board the flight.

She squeezed her huge bag onto the overhead bin and plonked herself onto her seat. Her mind picked up the thread from before and she started thinking about about Mike. She had been dating Michael for more than 3 years, and had been living with him for more than a year. She loved his blond hair, blue green eyes, his easy way of talking and the way he made her laugh. They had had an amazing time together in the sunny apartment they were living in. They shared an love for the outdoors and went out almost every weekend. Her happiest day was a few months back, when he had proposed to her on top the mountain they had just hiked on her birthday. She said yes almost immediately and had loved wearing the huge diamond ring.

"Excuse me, I think you are in my seat", it was the thamizh speaking young man she had seen earlier in the terminal. She muttered her her apologies and started to get up. "Oh that's ok, I am not very keen on the window seat, I can take the aisle seat if you want" Shruthi smiled her thanks, and settled back into her seat.

She glanced at her bare left hand and sighed inwardly.

"Shruthi kutti³, you are 26 now. Appa and I are worried about your future. You know you are our only child, we want someone to take care of you after we are gone. Why don't you talk to this boy Sridhar? He has done his BE from BITS, Pilani and his MS from Stanford. He is working for Google in California. It seems California is a nice place with lots of Indians. Appa and I can visit you after your marriage. Just talk to him once no?"

"Hi Shruthi, this is Sridhar here. Your parents gave me your number ..."

"Shruthi, Appa pesaren⁴. Why did you tell Sridhar that you are not interested? Amma is in a shock ever since his parents called us. You know about Amma's heart, why do you do this ma? The doctor says her condition has worsened and he can't perform the surgery unless her palpitations reduce. "

"This is insane!! How do you expect me to "understand" that random guys call my fiancee with an intent to marry her? I understand that your mother is unwell and I agree that we need to postpone the wedding till when she is better, but only if your family knows that you are engaged. You can't expect me to just lay low and not make any noise in my own home when you are talking to your parents or one of the "guys". I am sorry, When I said I would marry you, I meant it, but this sort of baggage is not a part of the deal. This is over"

"Are you alright? Shall I get you some water to drink?" Shruthi realized that her eyes had welled up even without her knowledge. She wiped her tears off and smiled at him. "I am Akash" he said, extending his hand. She took his hand and said "I am Mythili."

To be continued..

1 - A kind of papad
2, 3 - Terms of endearment
4 - Speaking

FAQ

2009-08-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Research shows that about 47% of all conversation comprises of questions. Ok, I just made that up. It seemed nice to open the post with a statistic! But of late people do seem to ask me a lot of questions and sometimes I am not able to answer them the way I actually want to either because I don't want to hurt their feelings or cause I want to be polite. So I thought it would be interesting to list those questions here and then answer them here honestly, almost.

Why do you spend $300 more each month to stay in DC Apartments, while GB apartments are cheaper and also all Indians live there?

If I have not made it clear in my blog before, I love my apartment. The whole complex is new, well maintained and though it is a really huge complex, everyone at the apartment office knows my name. Like I have only said a 1000 times before, I have an awesome view from my patio.

I don't really care to live among Indians since we are not a herd. To the contrary, I have noticed that apartments dominated by desis are dirty and stink due to the scant disregard we have for cleanliness and "What would others think?". I lived in GB during my internship and it was awful to say the least. The hallways always stank of curry and one time I saw/smelt puke on the elavator. People walk on the grass all the time and I have seen people get into the pool right after working out, without taking a shower. Also even though Madison gets pretty hot during the summer, GB doesn't have air conditioning.

To be honest, when we were apartment hunting, though we steered clear of GB, we did consider a lot of apartments that were cheaper than DC, but a whole lot nicer than GB. Maybe I would have taken one of them if I hadn't seen DC. It may not make a lot of sense financially to spend so much on an one bedroom apartment, considering my paltry salary and that S is away for months on his job and has to rent an apartment of his own there. But this apartment makes me happy. Period!

Wow, this is a longg answer.

How come you didn't get any scholarship or any tuition waiver for Grad School? You know, my chitappa paiyyan's onu vitta mama oda thambi did not have to pay any tuition fees when he did a PhD on Bollywood heroines in 1968.

Seriously! People fail to realize that it is impossible to get any form of funding for a Masters' program. And certainly not if you aren't doing a thesis and graduating in 3 semesters. Also, when I tell you that I paid for all 3 sems of grad school (the way all my friends did), do not ask me what percentage of them my dad paid for, what percentage are loans etc. I am not going to tell you that and even if I do, it would be very unwillingly and I will judge you for that.

How come you & S don't stay together all the time?

Warning: Asking this question would lead to a very very very long rant about the economy, education loans, USA, the Masters program in general, so on and so forth

Oh you still want an answer? Well, here's the short version - the economy sucks, I had to do my Masters, education loans, can't sit at home and be a housewife and be happy, hate USA, want to go back to India.

Why do you buy fresh flowers for your home?

Again, coz flowers make me happy. I find paper/plastic flowers tacky. (Yeah I noticed you have those in your house and I was polite enough not to mention them) Silk flowers ok for other people's homes, meaning you won't find them in mine, but I won't judge you if you have those in your home.

Why do you go to the Aveda salon to get a haircut when CostCutters is 70% cheaper?

I used CostCutters when I was a student and I had bad haircuts when I was a student - go figure! But seriously, my hairdresser at the Aveda Salon is super awesome. She recommends good products that suit my hair and she teaches me how to style my hair in hurry, so that I don't come in to work looking like something the cat dragged in. However, since I am not made of money, I go to cheaper places like JC Penney salon for pedicures, eyebrow waxing etc. Which leads us to the next question ...

Why do you wax your eyebrows when all other Indian women get them threaded?

Because waxing is better! Duh! But seriously, this is quicker, cleaner and virtually painless. And no, I am not worried that my whole eyebrow would just get waxed away!

Why don't you like shopping, like all other normal women do?

I guess it's in my blood. I hate shopping for myself and even more I hate accompanying others on shopping trips. Atleast when I am shopping for myself I know I will be done soon. But most of the other women I know (H: Yes, I am talking about you here) take hours choosing clothes, trying them on and then decide they don't like anything in the store and I die inside multiple times when this happens. Many times when S & I are talking to another couple, the guy begins to complain about the wife/gf's shopping habits and she turns to me for support assuming I heart shopping too. And halfheartedly I start supporting her even though I am secretly rooting for the guy. SO the next time you invite me for a shopping trip and I make up a ridiculous fake excuse to get out of it, it's not you, it's me!

Why are you always talking about wierd shows like Arrested Development, Parks & Recreation, when the only show that all Indians like is Friends?

Yeah my bad. I should have known better! When someone starts talking about how Seinfeld is sooo unfunny, I should not bring up Arrested Development, which by the way is the best comedy on TV ever! There I go again. Ok, how about I don't bring up any of these until you mention that you love The Office?

Why don't I ever see you and S at the Indian fest/local temple events/Hindi movie?

If you didn't get it earlier, S and I are not exactly fond of herding it with Indians. Most of our friends and acquantainces are desi, but we don't want to make friends with anyone just coz they are desi. Particularly the kind of Indians that attend these events. Yeah, we look down on most Indians who live here ("NRI"). They wear magic goggles when they go shopping that automatically converts USD to INR. Again, I don't have a problem with being frugal and saving money. I have noticed many people trying to cheat others in order to save money - like asking for a cup for water and then filling with soda, wearing a garment for more than a day and then try to return it etc etc. I have talked more about this in some previous post that you are welcome to dig out.

You know, all of you that know me in person, or could possibly know me in the future, should have a printout of this FAQ in your wallet!

Nostalgia

2009-08-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

She hated spinach when she was a child,
Didn't like food which was spiced too mild.
Her mother forced her to eat beans, okra and peas,
While all she wanted was cakes, pies and brownies.

She hated her school that forced her to read,
When she got out at 4 she truly felt freed.
Her teachers had nothing but complaints about her,
She would amount to nothing was her parents' biggest fear.

She had no time to play, run or climb trees,
She was forced to study despite her pleas,
Weekeneds were spent on classes - swimming and dance,
There was no time to be free, to frolick and prance.

Then she grew up and got herself a job,
And met a man who made her heart throb,
They bought themselves a house with many a tree,
They truly were happy, as happy can be.

One day on your youtube, she saw an old song,
"It's from the 80s" she exclaimed with a sigh, long!
"I had so much fun when I was a kid" she said with a tear,
Forgetting school, vegetables and despair.

I guess it is true, what they say,
Black and white days seem better than today,
We wear rose tinted glasses looking back at yesterday,
Today is never enough, try as hard as it may.

Random Thoughts

2009-08-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

aka The Few Thoughts Rattling in My Head Now

My house is squeaky clean - right from the anjala potti to under the bed and couch. I even went around the house picking scraps and dust (since someone "accidentally" broke the vacuum cleaner the last time I asked them to vacuum the house). There are fresh flowers in the vases and the house smells great! And yet there is no-one here but me - not even visitors :-( As S keeps commenting (a la Vivek) "Yaarume illada kadai la yaaruku tea aathara", I keep cleaning the apartment

These days I seem to hate watching chick flicks - I even prefer watching movies like Terminator. I was getting worried that romance was dying in me. Then I came across this video and it made all gooey inside :-)

I feel like I am neglecting the fine art of poetry. I want to keep a book of poems on my nightstand and read one each day so that I can get beautiful poetic dreams :-). Any suggestions? (Yes, you and you, the only 2 readers of my blog)

Is it me or do new sitcoms really suck? I mean I caught a few episodes of The Bill Engvall Show and New Adventures of Old Christine - and they both were bad. And even sad. Of course Parks & Recreation rocks. And I am guessing Shut Up Sit Down will be equally awesome it's created by the makers of Arrested Development. For the uninitiated "Arrested Development" is the BEST show on tv ever! If you haven't seen it, go to hulu and watch it NOW

Like I said, go watch Arrested Development now, I am going to do the same

The Memory Remains!

2009-07-31T08:46:00.000-07:00

I was sitting at my desk, seething mad at the code that compiles but refuses to run and generally angry at the whole world. Then the guy sitting next to me, opened a book that was on his shelf for ages. The old book smell. I was immediately transported back to Easwari Lending Library - looking for Enid Blyton books. Especially the last book in the Malory Towers series that I never seemed to find. Trying to finish some small book before Amma had picked out hers! Secretly trying to sneak in a couple more books than my allotted limit. Where did that little girl go? I miss Chennai. The fastest cars in the world and the tastiest Italian food cannot fill the void in my heart that yearns for Madras!

Tiny Story: The Modern Woman

2009-07-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

She looked at her husband seemingly flirt with her friend and sighed. She wished she could expose her traditional, small town values without losing the trendy society woman image she had carefully built over the years. Maybe "traditional yet modern" made sense outside of matrimonial ads too.

Why Is It?

2009-07-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Why is it that people are so proud of buying something for cheap. "I bought the same GPS that you have for $30 lesser" I bought my GPS when I needed it (for a long road trip from NY to Raleigh), you waited until Thanksgiving to buy this refurbished one! And I hate it when people play those guessing games, "Guess how much I paid for this?". I always respond with such a ridiculously low figure, that they become embarrassed and flustered and admit that they paid more than that.

Tiny Story: The Fancy Meal

2009-07-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

She was taking notes furiously, while trying to absorb everything that the cook was saying on TV. Her husband sighed with the knowledge that he was going to go to bed hungry that night. He cheered up a little when he realized that the next day he could brag to his co-workers about the gourmet Thai dish (with an unpronounceable name) that his wife had made for him the night before.

Why I Will Miss the US of A

2009-07-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

In the past I've written a lot about how I hate NRIs. And even after coming here, I haven't always been kind to the USA. But after living here for 2 years, (both as a student with no money and as a software engineer with some money) I've come to realize that when I move back to Chennai, I will miss a lot of things here. I decided to put them on black and white here, so that I can come back and read it when I feel particularly homesick.

1) I will miss the food here definitely. Even for a vegetarian, there is so much of delicious food available and not just American. Will miss pancakes and waffles (the ones at IHOP, Perkins n Waffle House as well as the ones I make), cheap Chinese restaurants, Chipotle and other such Mexican places, McCafe, Burger King, P.F Chang, the awesome sandwiches at Subway, Potbelly, Milios etc, the awesome deep dish pizza at Old Chicago, Olive Garden (the bread there is heavenly) and other similar Italian places - these are just a few.

2) My car. Owning and driving a sedan as opposed the hatchbacks in India (I know there are nice big cars in India too, but I can most certainly afford only a Santro or Swift when I move back)

3) Driving at 80-100 mph on a deserted highway in the night, with just the radio for company. I love driving through the night on road trips with S. Stopping at the McD at 2 in the night for dinner, watching the sun rise across the horizon. Again, I love road trips!

4) A lovely apartment that overlooks the woods. The view from my patio is sooo amazing. I love sitting on my patio with a book and a nice tall cold drink.

5) My awesome French tutor. I have been learning French for a couple of months now from this French girl who is studying at UW. I like learning a language better when I am not in a class and when there is no fixed syllabus. The lesson just flows based on what I want to do that day.

6) Ok this is a bit frivolous, but people here laugh at my jokes! Really they do. The most inane comments and sarcasm cracks them up :-)

7) Fast internet, Wii and other such things unavailable in India.

8) The fact that I am able to return something if I am not happy with it. And actually getting money back and not store credit. Sometimes, reading all the reviews in the world does not guarantee that you will like that product.

9) I like that most people on the street have a smile for me and take time to say Hello and Good Morning. The world is certainly a more beautiful place with more smiles.

10) The feeling of being independent and confident that you can do whatever you set your mind to. I see people in their 60s doing a Masters after retirement and people building their own patios and fixing their car. Even after just living alone in my apartment, I feel more self reliant. I know women in India who live with their husbands or roommates and sometimes in laws, have servants to help them clean (house, clothes, dishes) and still complain that they do so much work. I love the fact that I live alone (on and off with my husband), and still I manage to cook and clean and keep my home neater and prettier than most of my friends' in India. I have lived alone for extended periods both in India and in the US and life in the US is tougher hands down and I feel I am a better person for it. I have to thank America for making me believe more in myself and for showing me that I can do it!

I am not giving up my Indian passport, nor am I losing the tingle when I hear our national anthem, but I do have something to say. I love America!

Door County - A little Slice of Heaven

2009-07-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

So I am now back to the real world after a fabulous 3.5 days in Door County, WI. S and I haven't had a vacation since our wedding - nopes not even a honeymoon. After a lot of planning, poring over brochures, checking flights and hotels, we zeroed in on Door County, which is about a 3 hour drive from here. (I ruled out all destinations on the West saying that's too far to fly, and S vetoed nice places on the East like West Virginia saying they are more beautiful in the Fall. I really hope, for his sake, that he is planning an awesome WV/Virginia vacation in September as promised)

If you search for accomodations in Door County, you get like zillion options right from tiny motels, Bed AND Breakfasts, vacation home rentals, Resorts and so on. My first choice was a Bed and Breakfast, since the room was soooo pretty and everything seemed so quaint. But most of the ones that had rooms available didn't have any water view and we finally picked Westwood Shores Resort which was one of my last choices. But I am so glad that the other places were sold out - because Westwood Shores was amazing!

As soon as we arrived, we were told that we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite. And the first thing we noticed when we entered the room was the amazing view.

The suite itself was clean and had a lot of (tasteful) nautical themed pictures and knick knacks all over. So after loading all out stuff into the smaller bedroom, S and I head out to the private beach in the resort. We spent most of our time in the chairs on the pier, taking in the water or lounging in their indoor pool. We made ambitious plans to take the ferry to Washinton Island and to do a cavepoint kayak tour - but as I said earlier we spent all our time by the water. The best realxing unwind trip ever!

While I am at it, I would like to announce that the Inn at Cedar Crossing has the best pancake ever! When I came home I wanted to throw away the pancake mix that I usually use to make pancakes. S adds that he vouches for the French Toast there.

So if anyone is planning a vacation anytime soon, pick Door County - you won't be disappointed!

P.S I have postponed posting the story since I don't feel it is good enough. To make up, here is a post I wrote about a trip that I took 3 weeks back and forgot to post.

Tiny Story: The Mother-In-Law

2009-07-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

Pankajam peered through her thick bifocal lens and waited anxiously for her son in law and his friends to finish dinner, her stomach growling louder by the minute. At least with a daughter in law, she could have had a vocal fight.

I know, that I had promised another feature on Thursdays and I missed the deadline last Thursday. To break the suspense (if any), the Thursday's feature is Extra Long Story - a story that would be broken into atleast 3 parts. But here's the deal, I have started writing a story and I have some idea about how I want it to end, but it's not written in black and white yet. So do I start the feature and let the story take its course as the weeks progress or do I wait for to finish before publishing it? Ideas will be appreciated, criticism will be tolerated and references to mega serials will be obliterated! :-)

Monday Feature - Tiny Stories

2009-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

I have decided to have a feature that will run every Monday. I am calling it a Tiny Story, because it's much much shorter than a short story. I am not calling it a 55 word story, because I don't want to be restricted by any word count. It could be as small as a tweet or sometimes a paragraph. I am not hoping to make a big impact with these - I just hope you will like them enough to check them out every Monday. As as I was telling a fellow blogger, the audience is a huge part of a (my) blog and I have driven mine away by extended periods of silence. Am hoping this might bring a few of them back. :-) Keep reading!

** Watch this space on Thursday for a new feature **

The New Bride

The ends of her nails have an orange tinge on them, the vestiges of wedding mehendi. She wiped the sweat off her forehead without a glance at her unmanicured nails and continued cooking for the large family she had married into.

Growing up in Madras

2009-06-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

1) Cartoon Network, which would turn to TNT in the nights - Speed Racer, Johnny Quest, Precious Pup, Johnny Bravo ...

2) Johnny Sokko and the Giant Robot

3) Small Wonder, The Wonder Years - best shows ever

4) Shrimati Ma'am and Shrinivasan Sir tuitions

5) Pizza was an exquisite, gourmet dish

6) Shopping in Bata for new school bag, shoes and socks before school reopenings

7) Hershey's Kisses were one of the best chocolates ever since it came from America.

8) Tv Video games - Super Mario, Duck Hunt

9) Bourbon, Jim Jam and other "cream" biscuits

10) Watching movies on VCR (deck)

11) Going to the library to get story books
(Side note: I know many parents now who complain that their kids don't read. But I remember almost everyone in my class loved reading books. The problem was you were allowed only one book per week from the school library and that would be read in 2 days.)

12) Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Archies, Tintin, Asterix, Enid Blyton, Chacha Chouwdry

13) Birthday parties which usually had cake baked at home, chips and Rasna. And most gifts received were pen sets and sketch pens

13) Bournvita Quiz contest was one of the coolest shows

14) WWF card obsession

15) Playing Trade(Monopoly), Life, Scotland Yard, UNO

16) Hero pens, Bril ink vs Chelpark ink

17) Running and catching, Lock and Key, Ice Boy, Four Corners, King

18) Saravana Bhavan sambar vadai

19) Big Babool and Boomer gum

20) Contessa and Premier Padmini were the cool cars.

Can the gentle readers add more?

Spring

2009-06-11T06:57:00.001-07:00

She took a shower
Threw on a green shawl
And leaned further onto her fiery lover.

My Life Is

2009-05-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

a string of sitcom reruns! You that's what my life is reduced to now. H feels that being married means I should go from one adventure to the next. My biggest adventure these days is meal planing - "Should I make pasta for dinner? But the bag of beans has been sitting in the fridge for a week now. Maybe I should cut it and freeze it. That way I can cook it another day. Well, if I am going to cut it, might as well cook it. Ok then sambar and beans karamadu tonight"

But I don't want this to be a rant post - summer is finally here! Paying an extra $15 a month for a woods view from my apartment is finally paying off. I wake up to seeing lush green tree tops against the bright blue sky. The view from the patio is awesome and it feels like I am living in a forest. I want to have some pretty flowers in the patio - so if one of the few people reading my blog is a gardner, can you tell me which ones would do well? Husband dear wants to grow tomatoes. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated too

I have also bought a Sega Genesis and a Nintendo NES and I finally have a vintage game system put together. The guy who sold the Genesis gave me his entire set of games - about 20. So far I've played just Sonic the Hedgehog though. The NES takes me back ages. H and I used to spend hours playing Super Mario, Dr Mario and the such. And I used to read Archies comics a lot then. I used to see ads for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sega systems and somehow I used to burn with a desire to play them. So it feels oddly satisfying to play them now :-) Also I now can kick anyone's ass in Mario Kart Wii woo hoo! :-)

I was waiting for everything to be perfect before being happy. But life never is perfect. So I have started enjoying all the simple pleasures - one sitcom at a time :-)

Sooo

2009-04-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

I am back in Madison. Where do I start? After a rocky semester at NC State, I had been to India and gotten married to my longtime bf S. People were starting to worry if we would ever be married. Also given the Thamizh panbadu of the younger sister waiting for the elder one to get married - my parents, relatives, friends, their friends and their naikutties wanted us to get married. And being the samathu kids we are - we did! I can never check "Single, never married" ever on any form now. That sucks! Also I keep introducing S as my husband to some, my fiance to some others and even my boyfriend to some. Much to S' consternation, I never correct myself. So if any of you who know me in real life are reading my blog, yes he really is my husband. Here's a nice pic from my wedding to prove that!

Coming to the wedding itself, which was held on Feb 1 in Chennai (to those who are wondering) - it was fun. Sorta! All my cousins (yup all of them!) and most of my friends in India (totally 3) made it. There was a lot of good food supposedly. But people kept forgetting that the bride was in her room (including the groom who was allegedly in love with the bride for the past 5 years) and I missed half the meals. Also there was a lot of drama and tears. But that's another story for another day. Since it was my wedding and all, I had a lot of ideas about the venue, menu and what not. Of course no-one listened to me. But I got to have one of these brass vases with flowers though. My mom assured me that I could have my dream wedding as soon as my daughter is old enough to get married.

We had just a week in India after the wedding, since my darling husband had just 2 weeks off for the wedding. We spent that week at home, enjoying Amma and Viji athai's cooking. S' bro B was also at my place during that time and we all bonded. Oh and there was that embarrassing confession session where everyone spilt their secrets and we were not even drunk. So now everyone has something to hold over the other's head.

The first coupla weeks in the US were a whirlwind. I was in St Louis, Madison and Raleigh. We moved our car and other stuff from Raleigh and plonked myself into an amazing apartment (if I may say so myself) in Madison. The best part is, it's just a mile away from work and I get to go home for lunch everyday and watch TV.

Well since I have gotten married and all that, one would assume that I must be busy being taken of by the doting husband and have company to watch all the movies I want and try all the restaurants in town. But nooo, my husband being who he is, has to get himself a job in St Louis and is home only during the weekends. So I come home from work everyday. Watch Friends and Seinfeld. And then I catch up on the shows on DVR. And then I get to play Super Mario or Tennis on my new Wii (graduation gift from S). So safe to say that I absolutely don't get any reading done these days. Ahh lying on a Papasan chair near the fireplace and watching TV while it's snowing outside - priceless!

Little Things of Life

2008-10-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

that makes me feel happy

1) Getting the green light at 4 intersections in a row

2) The tiny speaker that S bought me so that I can listen to songs on my ipod without headphones

3) Frozen custard at Goodberry's. Mmmmm

4) Catching the comedy show on Aahaa FM at nights

5) Discovering the new address of one my favorite bloggers whom I had lost track of and reading all her posts that I had missed in one go

6) Watching Ramany vs Ramany on rajshri.com

In difficult times, it always nice to make such a list! I recommend this exercise to everyone who is even mildly depressed or not in love with life

Kannamma

2008-10-21T20:49:00.001-07:00

“Yeah honey, I am on my way home from the bank. The lines were more than a mile long. Can't wait to get back home babes.” Smrithi frowned and raised her voice on the phone, “Abhi, how many times have I told you not to call while driving? I am worried about you da.” She mellowed on receipt of the ensuing silence “No da chellam, it's just that I keep reading about these accidents, especially on the freeway. You know I love you don't you?. Sweetie pie, I am sorry I screamed at you.” It was Abhishek's turn now “Baby, I am sorry too. I know that you said that because you care.” They disconnected the phone with mutual I-love-you-s.

Smrithi went back to her Google Reader and continued reading comments on her new blog post. Another tab was open simultaneously where she was googling for tips on switching to Wordpress.

“Vasu, have you kept the dhoti and towel aside to wear to the temple tomorrow?”, Ramanujam intoned. “Eduthu vechuten naa*, I have washed and have let them dry separately on the terrace. And Geetha had come by today, it seems her brother's daughter has given birth to a son. We should go and see the baby next week. Also we should book tickets to Kancheepuram for the Utsavam. We should ask if your sister and her aathukarar** want to come with us. We don't want them to complain like last year.” Vasu droned on, all the while cutting vegetables for the night's dinner. “Ayyoo, I forgot totally about tickets. I have to book soon, else we have to travel in the General Compartment. You think of everything di.” Ramanujam smiled, and then added softly as an after thought, “Kannamma.”

Vasudha smiled and hummed all the time while making kootu***. Some how the pressure cooker's refusal to give a whistle didn't bother her as much today. She decided to serve curd tonight instead of buttermilk and didn't worry about having enough for tomorrow. After all some days are more special than others.

* - I have kept it aside

** - Husband

*** - A vegetable and lentil preparation

A New Post

2008-08-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

OMG! I just remembered I have not updated this since last month... You would not believe how insane my life has become. But I'm sorry you'll just have to take my word for it..

I am overwhelmed with finding Jesus (after someone told me he was lost), waiting for the onshore winds, just generally being a nuisance to my local police, my day goes from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to I see my darling's 10000 text messages. I am not complaining though. life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get.

I won't promise anything to you but I will try to remember my blog password more often in future. Until I need your shoulder to cry on, this is for my ever faithful, devoted public..

From here

The Ethics of Frugality - My Take

2008-07-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

Since the last post didn't gather enough votes for survey, I am not going to derive any results from your comments. However this is how I feel about them.

>> 1) Printing personal stuff on the office printer

Well this is a moral grey area. But I do tend to print out air tickets, maps etc. But using it for anything more than 10 pages is cheap.

>> 2) Taking office stationery or pens home

Again cheap. But I am guilty of having some office pens, post it notes etc in my bag. This in itself is cheap, but taking thinks like staplers is really super cheap.

>> 3) Buying clothes at Walmart or thrift/second hand clothing stores

No. I could never do this. Walmart clothes are cheap, but they look and feel cheap too. I have heard horror stories of people returning clothes after wearing them and I really don't know if Walmart just places them back on the shelves.

>> 4) Driving without the ac on on a hot day to save gas

Well, this isn't ethically wrong and in fact anything to save gas is a good thing. But again, I don't think I could do this, coz I am a brat and I love my comforts :-)

>> 5) Taking home sugar or ketchup packets, tissues, plastic cutlery etc home from a fast food joint.

Cheap! But I have been guilty of this a couple of times. Sometimes when I am on a long road trip, I do take tissues to the car. And once when we ran out of sugar at home, I took some sugar packets from the campus coffee shop. (In my defense I don't have a car and the nearest supermarket is 2 miles away)

>> 6) Tipping less than 15% or even not tipping

Super duper cheap. But I have noticed a lot of desis doing this. 15% is the minimum tip to leave. It is not a generous tip, but it's a decent one. 20% is righteous. I tip between 15-20% on all times. As should you all. Waiters really depend on the tip for survival, they are paid minimum wage or even lesser in most establishments.

>> 7) Sharing a refill drink

Ewww again. This is so not cool.

>> 8) Sneaking soda and snacks into the movie theatre

Well this isn't very cool either, but I have been guilty of this a couple of times and would really like to do more of this. But these people charge $4 for a small glass of soda. $4 can buy a 12 can pack at the grocery store. I mean I pay $6 for my movie ticket! Move theatre popcorn is of course sacrosanct. Everyone knows a movie is not a movie without popcorn!

>> 9) Insist on separate checks when going out on a group

Well, I guess there is nothing wrong in doing this. I have borne the brunt of this many times (being the vegtarian, non drinker of the group). But I never feel like asking for separate checks. Of course I will happily take advantage if someone else suggests them :-)

>> 10) Cutting coupons and shopping at 3 different stores for monthly groceries

A smart, wise move! I don't do this right now, but I certainly hope to do this once I am married and have my own home. (Imagine me wearing an apron and cutting aprons. I feel all housewife-y :-) )

So there you go gentle readers. I've done my part. You guys go and have a fun weekend.

Money Money Money

2008-07-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I was researching about the good savings accounts to save all the loose change I have and as I was doing that, I came across a lot of good personal finance blogs. I noticed a lot of tips and practices that were being discussed and I would like to know how it applies to Indians. I like to save money as much as the other man, but I want to be smart not cheap and I don't realise where frugal fits in.

I have a list of situations below and I have three possible responses to each.

1) This is lousy. It's wrong immorally/legally - Skank
2) Well, I don't think it's wrong, but it's borderline - Cheap
3) Yup, that's a good one. I do it/like to do this - Smart

It would be great if you can classify each situation as Skank, Cheap or Smart. Because I want to be neutral, I am going to reserve my comments until I get good response.

1) Printing personal stuff on the office printer

2) Taking office stationery or pens home

3) Buying clothes at Walmart or thrift/second hand clothing stores

4) Driving without the ac on on a hot day to save gas

5) Taking home sugar or ketchup packets, tissues, plastic cutlery etc home from a fast food joint.

6) Tipping less than 15% or even not tipping

7) Sharing a refill drink

8) Sneaking soda and snacks into the movie theatre

9) Insist on separate checks when going out on a group

10) Cutting coupons and shopping at 3 different stores for monthly groceries

Here you are, 10 easy questions. And I would really appreciate a response guys. Please do ask these questions to your friends and it would be great to get more responses. I am not going to do a study or thesis with these results, but I think it would be fun to know what majority people like.

So answer away people!!

When life gives you lemons, make Lemon Oorkai*

2008-07-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

Greetings my gentle readers. How are you all doing? Yes, you, you and you. After ranting in the last post, I am going to make this one a nice breezy what's-up-with-my-life kinda post.

So I started my Tennis lessons yesterday. It was fun. It's a group class and has 5 other girls. Minutes before class, when we were warming up and so, memories of tennis classes at school came hurtling across and for a minute I was very very scared. Wehn I was 8 years old, Appa enrolled me in Tennis classes thinking I would grow up to be another Steffi Graf. And I was pretty enthused about the classes too especially 'coz my parents bought me a new racquet, tennis skirt, T shirt, wrist band and such. The classes beagan innocently enough. And I was the only girl in class. Also the only one who couldn't hit the ball over the net. Who was teased incessantly. I started sleeping in late hoping Appa would let me skip class. But he was still nursing Steffi dreams and so he would bundle me up for class every single day no matter how late it was. But that was a blessing in disguise since I would be made to jog around the grounds to warm up before starting which meant missing more class time. This went on for 2 years until I had a small health problem (totally not due to tennis) and the doctor said that it mighhtt be better to skip classes for a month. I grabbed onto those words and didn't go another class. And we used the 2 tennis racquets to play cricket at home.

There have been a lot of things that I have been wanting to do lately. I really want to take art lessons. I am not very good at it, but I am not bad too. I took glass painting classes in Hyderabad (it was just one class and that female charged 1000 for that!!) and Amma tells me that people have been complimenting my work. I want to work on my swimming and atleast get back to where I was when I was in school. I told everyone that I am renting a bike and biking around Lake Monona. But very embarassingly I slept in. I should do this sometime soon to redeem my pride. :-) I also want to learn a new language and I am auditing Beginning Spanish next sem. But considering I have a couple of tough courses next sem, I might have to drop this course. I also want to write more. Ever since S got me a journal I have been trying to write more and I wrote 2 poems in the first couple of weeks. But I seem to be dry once again. Want to write more short stories too, but unable to get beyond the starting sentences. As I was looking back on old posts I find that I used to write much better than now. Perhaps it had something to do with more readership back then :-) This is all for my personal todo list.

I have taken up a netflix membership recently and I want to rave about how good it is. Netflix rules. I am currently on a 2 DVD at a time membership and they are very quick to ship the next set. I usually get the new ones the day after they receive my old ones. Which is pretty cool. And also they have the "Watch Instantly" feature that lets me watch selected movies and sitcoms on ~~an awesome~~ the best online video player ever. The site is minimalistic and has everything you ever need. I recently took a Blockbuster trial membership since I pass by a Blockbuster store everyday and I thought store returns may get me movies faster. But I have been very disappointed with them. Their site is too cluttered and it took me a moment to find my queue. They don't offer any online viewing. And their DVDs take twice as much time as Netflix to reach me though both have centres in Milawaukee. So its Netflix all the way (atleast till I get back to school) for me.

*Pickle

HSBC Direct Sucks

2008-07-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

It all started innocently. Since I was earning a few bucks during my internship, I thought it would help if I saved a couple of dollars (especially since I won't have an on campus job to support me next sem). I suppose I could have transferred it to my Bank of America Savings acoount, but we all know money in the same account as the direct deposit one would be spent soon. So I started looking for a good savings account and found that online banks offer better interest rate. Since I didn't have a car to get by, I assumed that it would be easier to open an account online. Right? WRONG!

when I started looking for online banks, I had 2 options - HSBC Direct and ING. Since HSBC was offering 3.5% as opposed to the 3% offered by ING. Also HSBC allowed me to link how many ever accounts I wanted to the Savings account. Naturally I tried to open an account. It seemed easy enough - fill out basic details and then the trial deposits. But even after confirming my trial deposits, my account was pending - awaiting documentation. They said that they needed some form of address proof (bank statement, utility bill) and so on. Since I am now in Wisconsin, I ask my roommates to send over some utility bills. And I fax them and wait for the prescribed 48 hours, which then becomes 72 hours. So I call the Customer Service. After waiting for nearly 15 minutes (while listening to "exxccitng" new from HSBC) I reach a human. She tells me that they didn't receive the fax and ask me to resend it. By this time I am a little impatient and so I resend the fax and wait another 3 days. I get am email reminding me to send it again. I was raving mad when I picked the phone and called them. They tell me that they did receive the document, but the bill was older then 60 days (it was 63 days old) and so they cannot use it. This seems reasonable enough, but nobody told me this while opening the account. And would it have killed them to send me an email rather than wait for me to call them?? So I fax over another document that's pretty recent and send it out on the same day (last Wednesday morning). On Friday I give them a call to hear them say that they didn't receive the fax and that a specialist would call me on Monday morning 8:00 a.m. It's 10:00 a.m and no call. So I give them a call and after waiting for an eternity I am told that they didn't receive my fax. And when I complain about how it's 3 weeks now since I started to open my account, the customer rep tells me "You are not the only applicant you know"!!!

I have cancelled my application with them and opened one with ING. The experience has been pleasant and hassle free till now. I talked to a Customer Service agent before opening the account (and I got a human within 2 minutes). She was polite and assured me that they needed no documentation from me. Plus I was referred by someone and so I get a $25 referral bonus. Sweeet! And since I am not going to be saving millions, a 0.5% doesn't matter much, in fact it might be lesser than the $25 I earned. And if I things go well with my Savings account, I will open a Checking account with them and you can link as many accounts you want with that. Plus you can write checks. So it's win win win for me.

HSBC just lost themselves a loyal customer (hopefully the business of the people reading this blog too). I am not a person who chases after interest and I would have stuck to them for years.

So the moral of the story is : HSBC Stinks. And it pays to have a good Customer Support and Admin system.

P.S Wanted to write a post on something else, but HSBC irritated me so much that I had to put this up. I am usually patient with such things 'coz once you get the system rolling, you don't have to worry about other things. But they really got my goat.

Who Am I?

2008-07-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Of late my life seems to be changing. I am discovering a lot of new things about myself that is bang opposite to how things were earlier.

For instance chocolate. I was a chocolate lover and I used to say that out. Loudly. To everyone I met. I even had a theory that I would not go out with a guy if he didn't get me chocolate frequently. But since I came to the US, I have started moving towards peanut covered chocolates. The place I am doing my internship has an awesome pantry with hot chocolate (with marshmellows) and a well stocked candy jar. The only candy I take from there are Reese Peanut Butter Cups. And I sometimes scrap the chocolate off the top and eat just the chunky peanut butter. If I ever feel like buying chocolates outside, I buy peanut M&Ms. And I have taken to eating Vanilla ice cream, after eating ONLY chocolate ice cream (sometimes chocolate ice cream dipped in chocolate sauce) for the past 24 years. I don't seem to like chocolate so much any more. This is very distressing for me to say the least. Asking a guy to get chocolate on a date is romantic. But asking for a jar of peanut butter or Reese Peanut Butter Cups, and him watching me scrap the chocolate off and gobble the rest, is surely going to crimp my style.

It's not just chocolate. I seem to started to love shopping, even window shopping. All these years in India, I've never had an urge to shop. H had to literally drag me to shops. And even when I did go shopping, it would all be in one shop, and finished in 15 minutes - doesn't matter if I am buying a silk saree or night pajamas. In fact that used to be in USP to attract guys, that they would never have to wait outside a fitting room, carrying 15 bags, knowing there would be no dinner until shopping is done. And I used to hate jewellery of any kind. Amma had to drag me to the jewellers under false pretexes to make me buy gold. But things seem to have changed now. I seem to be shopping with a vengence now, as if to make up for all the lost years. Just yesterday I spent about $200 on clothes, accessories and other associated items. It doesn't help that I have to walk through the mall everyday to get home from the bus stop. Coming to jewelery, though I still hate yellow gold, I've discovered something wonerful called white gold - just as expensive as the yellow one,, but much prettier. And now I know why diamonds are a girl's best friend. I have about 25 new best friends now. It doesn't stop with just these. I seem to be addicted to grocery shopping as well. What used to be a chore once upon a time seems to be a magical time. I spend almost an hour on just the cereal aisle.

And there's more. Where I've sworn to never let my hair loose, I am now refusing to tie them up (thanks to a wonderful hair stylist who has convinced me I have great hair and taught me style it well. Here's a tip for all (or any) Madison woman reading my blog. Rejuvenation Spa on Mineral Point rocks, especially Jeanna for hair) I am wearing my contact lens to work on most days a week (This is an improvement, considering I used to wear them like once in 2 months when I was in India) I am hunting for a pink T shirt, where I've once laughed at H's pink salwar kameez. In fact when I was buying a tennis racquet yesterday (I am starting tennis classes next week you suckers!), when the salesman suggested a pink racquet, I almost considered it. Oh and before I forget, my bargaining and deal sniffing skills seems to have increased substancially (i.e move up from the zero that I used to be, to say 20%)

I don't know what to make of these changes. S seems to be convinced that aliens have abducted the real me and substituted it with a zestier fake. Amma is alarmed at the amount of money that I am spending (which they are sending from India for my "education") and feels that I am doing all this shopping just 'coz it isn't my money. And she want's me to lay off both chocolates and peanuts and start eating fruits instead. Appa either doesn't notice anything or if he did, is too scared to say anything. I am sure Paati will say this is the corrupting influence the West is having on me.

But I feel that I am turning into a woman. I used to be this distracted soul when it came to such matters like shopping or dressing up. So after a quarter century, my mind has grasped that I am a girl and should act and behave as one. What about the chocolate/peanut butter you ask? Well I think that's just to throw off my bf/husband and start an argument "You don't care about me" or "You've changed". Suppose he comes walking in on Valentine's day with a box of dark chocolate, I can just throw it on his face. Yeah, that sounds good.

This really is exciting news. Maybe I will soon start going "Awwwwww" when I see kids and not feel that they are a nuisance. Maybe I will even *gasp* smile indulgently when they start throwing a tantrum in the movie theatre. Well, maybe not that.

So the million people who read my blog, what's your diagnosis?

P.S1 Wanted to title this post "I am Woman, Hear Me Roar", but I was worried that I would scare away readers who think this is a real feminist post.

P.S2 Want to majorly uphaul the blog template. Any suggestions?

People We Hate in the Sitcoms We Love

2008-07-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

As promised (albeit late), here is a list of people I absolutely in detest from popular sitoms (read sitcoms that I watch or watched)

Friends - This was the sitcom that had the most influence on me, the one that made me realize that I am hooked to sitcoms. Popular vote says that the most irritating person in this is Janice. But since this is my blog and all that, I say that Phoebe is the worst of the lost. She is the least unattractive, flaky and high maintenance too on top of that. I can't believe that Mike married her. So repeat after me here, "We hate Phoebe"

Everybody Loves Raymond - One of my most favoritesht sitcoms ever - I am just 3 seasons short of owning the whole series on DVD. I think I have to go with Marie on this. I know she is integral to the story and all that, but hate her. (Sometimes hate Ray too for being a wuss, but my final vote is for Marie)

Will and Grace - I had to think a bit for this one. H hates Karen Walker, but somehow I can never bring myself to hate her. The person I hate is a tie between Bobbi Adler (Grace's mother) and Tina (Will's father's mistress).

Frasier - Yet another "comfort" sitcom. Frasier never fails to cheer me up when I am down. In fact I am reading "So Far", Kelsey Grammer's autubiography right now. Ironically this is the one sitcom of which I don't own a single DVD (Hint hint ;-)). I can't think of any particular person to hate, so I am going to go with Aswin and give the title to Lilith.

Cheers - I started watching this mainly to understand the "Cheers" comments in Frasier. Ted Danson is brilliant (which is why I started watching Becker) But I am not able to choose between Diane, Carla and Cliff. All the 3 aer irritating in their own right. Since I hate permed hair, I think I am voting off Carla for having the ugliest kind of hair on top of being nasty.

Drew Cary Show - Mimi for obvious reasons. No more discussion

That 70s Show - Another hilarious show. I spent a lot of time watching this show when I should have been doing my homework. I guess that explains my GPA :-) And I like both Jackie and Eric. But I do hate Michael's brother, the Kelso who dates Donna. (I think Donna is pretty overrated, especially when she leaves Eric. But nah, don't hate her)

Three's Company - I hate Chrissy! I know all you guys like dumb but hot blondes and thats the premise for a lot of humor. But I've always felt that Chrissy was taking it too far. In fact I liked the seasons in which she was replaced with Cindy.

30 Rock - One of the best comedies that's on air right now. So it's kinda tough to find someone to hate, but I think I do hate Frank. The dumb caps, lazy drawl and slobby looks don't get any love from me.

Just Shoot Me - Another sitcom I started watching 'coz I liked one of the stars. I love David Spade and I kept watching 10 Simple Rules even after Ritter's passing just for him. But this sitcom totally failed me. I like office humor and all that, but this one was too silly to click for me. Spade was brilliant though! I think I hate the main character Maya Gallow the most. I can't stand her too thick eyebrows, hair that's not dyed from the roots and her holier-than-thou attitude. I tried for 2 seasons, but still hate her.

We are talking about sitcoms and things we hate - my two favorite topics. So I cold go on and on and on. So having my readers' well being in mind, I stop with these.

So gentle readers, I now leave you with lots of people to hate. So hate away and send me a little blog love (read comments)

Ashok Banker's Ramanaya - Well Worth a Miss

2008-06-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

After writing about something I loved in my last post, I think I am back to what I like most - cribbing :-)

First if this book, Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok Banker. It is supposed to be a retelling of the Ramayana. It had some very good reviews and had a bunch of people raving about it in the comments too. I should have known that every well read blog has its own bunch of Yes-men. I went through a lot of trouble to get this book, since it wasn't available in US and all that and S had to literally beg his colleague to bring this back when he went back to India. I was ecstatic when I finally got it and was devising means to smuggling the other parts from India. Now, I think I will pass. The book is just short of a trivialization of the Ramayana. It's a sort of Harry Potter meets India kinda book, the sort of one that will make good selling.

Given the rise of popularity of fantasy books these days, he has just made use of a good story and written in a racy manner. If it is one thing I hate, it is written Hinglish or Tanglish. Why Banker chose to intersperse dialogues with colloquial Hindi is something I don't understand. It isn't as if all dialogues are in Hindi, why choose to write just a few in Hindi? I can understand use of some sanskrit words like brahman, but why Hindi?? And he's added a lot of cheese to his book. For example, Lakshmanan is called Luck and Shatrugnan is called Shot! These reminded me of those Danish Prophet cartoons. I wonder if anyone in the Shiv Sena has read this book. Another thing that rankled me was the use of the phrase "brahman sorcery" very freely. What does Banker want to convey with this? I have not read the original Ramayana by Valmiki or Kamban and my source is mainly grandma stories and the TV. I don't want him to conceal facts about Dasaratha's wives or Lord Rama's follies. I just wish he would choose a language to write in (Hindi/English/Assamese or whatever) and stick to it.

If you think of it as just another book, leaving the religious part aside, I would say the book is well written. The narration is fast and descriptive. But another irritating thing that Banker does is to switch between scenes in the same chapter without warning. It is misleading and quite annoying especially towards the end. I suggest he read The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud to see how it should be handled. Also the review I read, gave an impression that Banker's works contained soft porn - it talked of orgasms and fondling of breasts. I've read the whole book and there is no mention of those anywhere! You can buy these books for kids - the ones who loved Harry Potter would love these too.

Final verdict: Read if you want to reread the Ramayana and don't have the patience to read lengthy Sanskrit translations

P.S. Coming up next post, a list of characters I absolutely hate from famous sitcoms. Any ideas?

Dasavatharam

2008-06-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

First day first show! Even earlier than that - 8:00 p.m CST on 12th June. :-) And did I love the movie!

The reviews have not been too kind. But the best one was the one by Hindu. This is not a Hey Ram. It's director's movie through and through and it has to be taken with a grain of salt. People's stupidity on saying that the Afghan character is silly makes me laugh. Do they mean to say that they've never met anyone like that? And honestly I loved the comedy scenes. Its an out and out action entertainer. People watch Indiana Jones and rave about it and yet can't seem to like Dasavatharam which I feel is much much better. Maybe its acceptable for Speilberg to churn out masala but not Kamal Hasan. Or perhaps they had already made up their mind to hate the movie even before it was released. But then I am just another Kamal fan with a blog that no-one reads :-) Please do go to the theatre and watch this movie. Or don't watch it all but do NOT watch it on a pirated CD/DVD.

I am not going to do a review 'coz I don't want to give away spoilers. I loved the movie through and through. It had me laughing in some parts, crying in others and spellbound in most parts. I think Appa can now be a little relieved that his girl has some amount of Iyengar ness in her, 'coz the scenes of Govindarajar moved me to tears that my Lord had faced all this in the past. I am thankful to this movie for a near perfect portrayal of brahmins, especially Iyengars after the mockery that was Anniyan. The diction, pronunciation, costume was authentic.

The few people who still read my blog, do go and watch the movie as soon as you can!

Back

2008-06-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

With another tag, thanks to Sasi. So let me start the tag (without the usual cracks about how I am back and the usual promises of being regular)

The tag asks us to state 5 previously unknown quirks/facts about yourself

1) I love watching movies in theatres, but can't stand watching them on TV/laptop. I guess I am a movie theater buff rather than a movie buff. I can watch the worst of movies onscreen and come back with the satisfaction of a $8 well spent. And you could show me the best movie on the laptop and I would still walk away after a half hour. I think my brain is wired to have an attention span of just 30 mins (which would explain why my netflix queue is full of sitcoms)

2) I've had my 30GB ipod for 2 years now, but it still has just 2GB of songs and videos on them. And the only ones I listen to are about 500MB (S.Ve Shekar and Crazy Mohan dramas every night before sleeping) And to think I was soo pumped about getting an ipod. Now I am all gung ho about iphone 3G. But I think I will hold back this time :-)

3) I hate wearing my hair down. It has to up in a pony tail. I mean I have nice hair that would look good if I take some effort every morning (blow drying it upside down etc) (And to all you people waiting to take a crack at my hair, I was told that I had beautiful hair by my hair stylist and she refused to let me straighten it or perm since "it looks so good naturally". So there!:-) ) But somehow I never let it down unless it is dripping wet in which case I had something to tie it back in when it dries.

4) This might come as a shocker to typical Indian mindsets, but I hate yellow gold jewelery. Yup hate it. But since I am girl and all that, and my husband needs to have something to buy me when he wants to make up after a fight, I love thin white gold chains and bracelets (preferably with diamonds on them :-)) I know this is nothing strange by American standards, but if you attend an Indian wedding you would know.

5) This might sound hypocritical, but I don't like many of the Indians in the US. People tell me that they usually feel good to see a familiar brown face in a black and white sea, but not for me. I don't speak for all of them, but a lot behave in a disgraceful manner. Like stealing a bunch of paper bags from bakery aisle of the grocery store (which is meant for taking a donut or a muffin if you are buying one), tipping badly (or not tipping at all), bringing loud and noisy kids to a movie and so on. I understand that most of you are here to make money and I don't mind if you want to skimp and save, but that doesn't give you the right to leave a dollar bill as a tip for a $30 dinner. If you don't want to pay for a babysitter or are squeamish about hiring one, then please take a netflix or blockbuster membership and don't set foot into the theatre. And the America bashers, I really have no words for you all. I miss home too and I've written about it too. But I don't go around saying "Americans don't have family values like Indians" and so forth. Though they might leave home at 18, they are not the ones to leave their family behind and travel half way across the sea to make a few bucks. There is so much more that I can talk about, but I think I will stop with this for now. The usual disclaimer stands - I know I am not talking about ALL the desis in the US. There are sizable exceptions (I like to think myself as one too). And I am not saying that all Americans should be kept on a pedestal too.

So after 4 strange facts and one mini rant, I think I am done with the tag. And since no-one reads this blog I don't feel the need to pass this on.

The Movie of the Year

2008-04-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

Tagged

2008-04-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

A shiny new post, sponsored by Fathima.I don't really understand the tag very well, but I am just going to talk about the various things she has.

Family

Where do I start and where do I end? I don't want to sound cliched, but they really are the most important people in the whole wide world. I had this long post written where I talked about each person and how much they mean to me. But I chickened out and didn't publish it. I don't want to expose my raw emotions in a public blog. I just have this to say - you people are the best and I love you more than anything in the world.

Friends

I have always been blessed with good friends wherever I go. They have been there and supported me and have really given me some good times. Mwah! Couldn't imagine life without friends :-)

Love

Oh no no no no, not going to talk about my love in a public blog too :-)

Things I Like

This is a toughie. I have so many things I hate (see last post) and I need to think to come up with something I like now.

Ok here goes, I am saying it out loud - I love my teddy bears. I really do. Hugsy and Subbu (short for Subramani) are the bestest teddies ever. Can't sleep without hugging them.

*Tries to run away and hide, with face red*

Books

I love my books! My favorite author is Wodehouse and he has given me many many hours of laughter. Those of you who haven't read him, stop reading this blog and go pick up a book of his right now. I also loved Hitchiker Guide to the Galaxy in the same vein.

I love fantasy and magic, I immensely enjoyed the Harry Potter series. And of course, who could forget The Lord of the Rings. But more than these I liked this trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand, the Golem's Eye and Ptolemy's Gate). I found them brilliant and I recommend this to anyone who likes magic and humor. I also liked the Eragon books of Pauloni and am waiting for the third book.

Indian/Asian writing interests me a lot. Loved Jhumpa Lahiri's Namesake. It made me reach into myself and discover. I have just started with Unaccustomed Earth by her, and this one seems promising too. And how could we forget R.K.Naranyan while talking about Indian writing. Swami and Friends is a special book. Made me get back into time, a world I had never seen and yet made me feel a part of it. I also would like to read more of Salman Rushdie. Ooh and the Ramayan series by Ashok Banker. (They aren't available in the US and I kinda feel guilty for asking those coming from India to bring me novels, seems frivolous.

The one regret that I have is that I haven't read anything in Thamizh. Would love to read Ponniyin Selvan and some of Sujatha's novels. Again not available in US!

Still have lot more to talk about, but I guess I better make it a separate post.

Movies

I am going to talk about my favorite actor here, since I his movies make a large part of my favorite movies. Kamal Hassan is the best actor ever period. The man just lives for his art. He is good at whatever he does - comedy, drama, action. My favorites among his movies are Salangai Oli, Hey Ram, Anbe Sivam, Vettayadu Vilayadu, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Kadala Kadala.

I also love animated movies. Unfortunately I don't seem to get company to watch these. I still haven't seen Horton Hears a Who for the same reason. Talking about animation, I also like Jim Carrey - the man is so elastic.

Myself

Well, what do I write here. How about I open this to discussion in the comments section? So folks, who am I?

Recent Plans
There are lots of these, coz I am the best planner and the worst implementor. Some of my recent plans are
* Volunteer at a community theatre
* Learn Spanish (I am already registered for Elementary Spanish for Fall 08 Woohoo! )
* I would like to go for some art classes. But I feel so intimidated since I have had no formal training after my school days.
* I would really really really like to learn to play tennis! But again, the intimidation factor. Maybe I should join a class in Madison.
* Go to the gym regularly (This has been on my list for many many years)
* Read some non-fiction

Activities
Well I guess I covered all of them in the above category

Dreams
Well, I am a big dreamer and half the time I kind of zone out and forget where I am. I used to do a lot of role playing when I was younger and even drew maps of imaginary islands (I drew them in detail right down to cities, states, rivers, their tributaries and so on)

But I seem to have grown out those and now my dreams are more practical (atleast I think so). I would really like to own a restaurant down the line. I would like it to be a little upscale and classy. Of course it would serve Indian food - thats my most favorite food and I know a lot about it. I would want it to be a dim-lit, date restaurant and NOT kid friendly (can't stand wailing kids). Another thing is that I want two versions of every dish, mild and spicy and people can order the one they want. I can imagine the menus right now, it would be all Indiany and glossy, and would have some small story or something for each dish. And my chef is will most certainly be straight from India. And I would really have a lot of variety for vegetarians. All this only if I earn enough money to sink into this :-)

I would also like to take a year off from work and spend it on trying to write a book. I don't fancy myself to be an awesome writer, but still it would feel great to have a book. Even if it doesn't get published, the very idea of writing one appeals to me. But then, I don't deal very well with self-imposed deadlines (I should be studying for my Wireless Networks finals right now). So I guess the year might just be spent more on TV and other things than writing :-) )

So that is it, tag is done! Thanks Fathi for tagging me. Writing this has been cathartic.

Peeved

2008-04-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

Anndddd I am back! I know, I just did a post and all that. But I realized the first page has entries from 2006 and I wanna fill the whole page with 2008 entries. So you - the reader from Wisconsin, the one from Bangalore and the one from California. So all of you keep coming back and keep bringing your friends, alright?

So as I was sitting here, wondering what to write, I realized that it is easiest to write about things I don't like. After all I do have a lot of them.

So what's it with these companies who interview and then don't get back? The least you can do is to send a line saying you are not interested. I don't expect a response from every company I send my resume to. But if you are going to set up an interview and have people talk to me, the least you can do is to send me an email saying you found some "stronger" candidate or some other corporate balderdash.

And while I am at it, what's up with these catty mommy bloggers anyway? I mean they go around bitching about anyone and everyone and when someone disagrees, they pounce on them say that its their blog and they can write what they want. But God forbid, if someone actually disses mommy blogs, they get their claws out, head out to that blog and actually try to tear the blogger in question apart. So its one rule for you and one for them?? Grow up first so that you can raise your kids right. (Since exactly three people read this blog, I can say what I want without having the mommy brigade behind me :-))

Oh I almost forgot the "Hi how are you" group on gtalk, who ping thus when they want something done. I know you don't ping me unless you want something. So cut the crap. I don't wanna talk niceties with you for 15 minutes. Just tell me what you want and if I can do it and want to do it I will. Don't start asking about my parents, sister and teddy bears in India.

Thats a lot of vitriol for you guys. I feel so much better, this is cheaper than therapy! :-) So long!

I Shouldn't Be

2008-03-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

I have a project to turn in on Sunday and I am not even done with the code yet. I got a pile of clothes to wash and another pile to fold and put away. I need to cut my nails and maybe color them and feel pretty. I need to start work on Wireless homework. I need to sleep so that I can get up early tomorrow and start doing things I ought to.

And yet, here I am blogging. Slaving away for you all, my kind readers. (Thanks will be accepted in the Comments box. Thanks in cash will be appreciatively accepted)

So how are you all doing? Yes you, you and you. Tell me what's happening. As for me, I am just turning into a sitcom fairy. I am hooked to abc.com, cwtv.com, hulu.com and all the other magic sites that just keep dishing out new episodes of my favourites - like How I Met Your Mother. I mean, I absolutely love that show. Esp Barney and his suits. Even as I am typing it, I have a window with the latest episode with Britney on. (PS I think Britney looks adorable in that episode). And it doesn't stop with just that. I have just sobbed through half a season of "8 Simple Rules". I also watch "Aliens in America" and trying to find Dharma and Greg online. And LOST! Where do I start?

So if any of you have any idea about how to kick off this addiction, comments box please. Rest of you, just grab some popcorn and visit hulu.com

PS1 - I am soo pschyed, I totally wrote this post in 10 minutes. It usually takes hours!

PS2 - So, I write this deep come-back post that just pours my heart open and NO COMMENTS?? C'mon guys, someone notices that I've come back right?

RIP Raghuvaran

2008-03-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

Actor Raghuvaran passed away this morning at Chennai.

http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14625366

Raghuvaran has always been one of my favorite actors who commanded respect in all his roles. Right from his first movie (Ezhavadu Manidhan), to a villain, to a gentle father (Anjali). I have always felt that he was capable of much more. In fact in the mid-late 90s there were some rumours that Shankar was going to use Raghuvaran as the hero in his next movie and I kept waiting for that to happen. Still remember seeing him, Rohini and his son at the Devasthanam temple in T.Nagar when I was still in school. RIP!

There are some people that I've never met, but I feel some sort of connection with them. Feels like the end of an era when they die, and it affects me deeply. For instance, when writer Sujatha paased away sometime back. I've never read any of his books, but K has regaled many Ganesh Vasanth stories to 4 wide eyed kids, sitting on a mat on the terrace.

And John Ritter. I was just watching some episodes of "8 Simple Rules" and I couldn't stop tearing up during the episode where they write in his death. During the days of Pilani and Zee English, I would wake up at 7:00 a.m to catch reruns of Three's Company when I came to Chennai for holidays. It was impossible not to like Jack Tripper. I was awesomely pleased when Zee Cafe started showing his new "8 Simple Rules" and though he looked older and puffed up, watching him seemed to be a thread of connection to my careless days as a college student.

Death is the most irrevocable change I can think of and every time something like this happens, I wonder about my own moratality and if I will truly start existing after I die. I know the brain controls my thoughts, but I always think of my mind as being right behind my forehead and not in the middle of my head. So what happens to my thoughts, my feelings when I die. I have trouble believing eveything vanishes when blood stops going to the brain. But there are cases of amnesia, where damage to some parts of the brain, causes people to forget things. So is this all there is to an individual, some pieces of wrinkled tissue bathed in blood?

Updated: Was talking to my dad about this and he said that I was named Sujatha (which is what my family calls me) 'coz my dad was a big fan of his work.

My many voices

2007-11-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

* (Insert whining voice) Grad school is hard!! Really. I am neck deep into assignments and projects and extra credit homeworks that I need to absolutely do to get a passing grade. And you know I love the internet - blogs, youtube and all. But sometimes when I am working on the Internet Protocols project, a part of me wishes the internet was dead! (Quit whining)

* (Insert happy voice) I am going to Disneyyyyyy in December!! So yaaay! I love toons and I love theme parks, so Disney is like fairy land to me. A New York trip is also in the offing, with skiiing and all (keeping fingers crossed) (That's all the happy I can muster right now)

* (Insert this date that year voice) Today someone was talking about Hyderabad and I really miss it. It was the best 3 years of my life. Friends, money, movies, food .... Happy times (Stop reminiscing)

* (Insert heady voice) Love the remix song from Polladavan. I like the original song better though! (Song over)

*(Insert Eureka voice) The reason I listened to the above song is aahaafm I like listening to Chennai FM, makes me feel as if I am back in Chennai. But ironically, I never listened to FM when I was in India. (Wishing for more Eureka moments in projects and homeworks)

* (Insert angry voice) I hate the female at the Student Health Services who keeps insisting that I have TB though I have shown her the clear X-Ray!!! (Darn paranoid nurses who hate me)

* (Insert sleepy voice) I need a nap. I don''t know if I am getting senile or going back to babyhood, but I do need a nap. NOW (Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz)

And I am backkk!

2007-11-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

Dusting the cobwebs away from my blog for the umpteenth time after numerous writer blocks. And grad school isn't helping either. Yup this blog is now brought to you from Raleigh, North Carolina and I now join the bandwagon of the American Desis at whom I directed many blog attacks.

So all ye erstwhile readers and commentors, come back and lounge in here again. (S are you listening)

I will now start off with how beautiful Raleigh is and here is a pic of fall color at a lake in our campus.
And since that is out of the way now, I can talk about what I don't like about the US of A. I hate it that we don't have autos here. I hate having to walk 25 mins or take a bus to get milk. I hate that it is nearly impossible to get good Indian food outside of home. I hate the options or the lack of it that vegetarians have in all restaurants. I hate having to talk in a fake accent to make people understand me. I hate to pay Rs 100 for a good cup of coffee. I hate to wear heavy coats thats difficult for me to lift. I wanna go back to Mummmyyy!

People who take the above paragraph seriously and accuse me of being a hypocrite can go to hell

On a totally unrelated note, what is it with these mommy bloggers who post innumerable pictures of their kids, but guard their identity with their life? If I have a kid, I would be more concerned with protecting her identity than mine. Just one word for you mommies - pedophiles!
So kind readers what's up in your lives right now? Leave me a comment and we can talk about it :-)

The Plumber

2007-04-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

Plop …. Plop…. Plop

The drops clung to the sides of the tap and dropped down grudgingly. The old man deftly removed the dysfunctional tap and his myopic eyes peered into the darkness of the rusted iron tube.

“There seems to be some blockage, memsahib. I need to break down part of the wall, try and figure out where the block is and put in new tubes.”

A wave of anger swept across Reshma’s face. Things always seemed to go wrong at the wrong times, she thought to herself, while smoothing down her designer silk saree. Prerna was throwing a back-to-India party and the kids were conveniently enjoying their summer vacation at their grandparents’ place. She didn’t have any time for plumbing problems now.

“How long will this take?”

“I can do this in 1 hour, memsahib”, he intoned in as eager a tone he could muster. “My shop is just a kilometer away, I can go on my cycle and get the tools in 15 minutes. I will get cement and do the finishing so that everything is pucca. You will never have another problem with the tap”

“And how much do you want for this?”

“It will take Rs 500 roughly, if it isn’t an air block”

“500 is too much. Whom are you trying to cheat here?”

“No, memsahib. I will have to get a pump to blow out the block which I have to rent from outside. And I need to buy new tubes also.”

“Reshma, are you ready? I have my car waiting outside to drop us at Prerna’s place” Asha walked into the kitchen.

“Asha, come right in. Your new earrings are lovely and you look positively resplendent.” Reshma gushed. “Just give me a few minutes to finish talking to the plumber here.”

Asha looked at the tiny, thin old man whose torn clothes flapped around him and the rickety old bicycle that was leaned against the kitchen wall.

“I can’t pay 500. I will give 250, you do it if you want, else we will get another plumber.”

Asha looked at him as he was peering through his thick spectacles, trying to convince Reshma to give him his rightful wage and her heart went out to him. She had been very close to her grandfather in her village and had been devastated when they lost him to cancer. This old man reminded her of him, in a vague way. He looked like he was lifted straight out of a poster for HelpAge India and the thought that he still had to work hard to earn his three square meals, brought a rush of tears into her eyes. “Reshma, I think he deserves Rs. 500. We had something similar done at our house recently and our plumber charged even more. So give the poor man his due.” she admonished.

Reshma stared at the man, who seemed looked at her like a five year old would eye a cookie jar. It was getting late for the party and she had no desire to argue with Asha who was ride back from the party as well. She convinced herself that he looked honest and reluctantly agreed. “Ok then, 500 it is. You can start the work right now.”

A small smile twisted the corner of his lips and his face seemed to somewhat melt. Asha danced a happy jig in her mind and even Reshma was glad that Asha came when she did and said what she said.

He started singing as he worked. He was right, there was a blockage somewhere down the pipe and soon water was gushing out of the tap. He cleaned up meticulously after he finished and took the money, making a tidy profit. He bent his head in reverence at the huge picture of Lord Balaji in the living room and cycled out of the mansion.

Then he got home drunk to the gills and beat his wife.