A COLLAGE

A trip or two

2012-01-11T20:56:00.000-08:00

Last month this time, I was so eagerly waiting for my office Xmas-New Year closedown. 10 days of not having to worry about ironing your shirt and yes, not having to work too. We were expecting just a long weekend break for xmas and had planned for a 4 days trip and since we came to know of the 2 weeks closedown too late to book flight tickets (without causing heartburn) , we went ahead with our original plan. And off we went to Coonabarabran – The Astronomy Capital of Australia. I spent 30 minutes trying to learn how to pronounce Coonabarabran because the way I did made it sound like one sleepy little village somewhere in Kerala. Haven’t really learned to roll my tongue the way Aussies do :-)

And as usual I had an excel sheet for it.

Sample entry:
24-Dec 8:00 AM Start drive (450km , approx. 6 hours)
24-Dec 4:00 PM Arrive at Mathew Flinder's Motor Inn , Coona
24-Dec Drive to Coona towncenter and dinner

Is this normal? I am starting to get worried about myself :-) And I am definitely not getting into event management.

The trip didn’t start too well. The weather forecast showed thunderstorms for the whole week, my music player broke down the night before (The Husband (TH)’s song collection doesn’t really suit my driving mood) and I got a weird haircut the day before (fringes on curly hair!!!Seriously Anphy, what were you thinking?).

I had actually been looking forward to the 450km drive, but have to admit that driving on long stretches of a deserted highway is not much fun. And we arrived at Coona to find only a Chinese restaurant open for dinner :-) The Inn we stayed at is owned by a sweet German couple and I would stay there again just for their breakfast and the free wifi.

But Day 2 went better. My music player mysteriously sprang back to life and my collection of songs cheered up TH so much that he took to ‘actually’ listening to the GPS lady giving instructions instead .For the first time in my life , I did absolutely nothing conventional to celebrate Christmas. We went to the Sandstone caves and Sculptures in the Scrub in Pilliga forest. I got very excited about the 30km dirt track we had to drive on; but if I were to do the same in India I would have been more pissed than excited – me and my double standards. Hehe. And came back to find that all restaurants were closed for Lunch on Christmas. So we had Pita Bread and yoghurt followed by a packet of prunes for our wonderful Xmas Lunch :-( The plus - I didn’t have to cook :-)

Next day , we headed to the Warrumbungles. Saw a couple of Emu’s crossing the road- I never thought they even existed!!!The best part was the 12km Grand High Tops walk we did there. Breathtaking- literally and figuratively. We had the place, by which I mean the whole park :-) , to ourselves – not many people crazy enough to go bushwalking the day after Christmas, I reckon. I am not complaining since we had kangaroos for company. It took us around 5 hours and it was raining for the first 1 hour or so but it was so much fun. We had planned for a night time telescope viewing but it got cancelled because it was too cloudy. I was secretly hoping that it would get cancelled since my leg muscles were creaking and groaning after all the walking. By then we were already feeling so bad about the trip coming to an end that we ended up planning our next trip to Canberra right then and there.

And Day3 , we drove to the Siding Spring Observatory and then headed back home .Managed to see 7 planets in the Virtual Solar System Drive .

Would love to post some photos but then I deleted the whole folder by mistake as part of my ,ahem ,weekly laptop de-cluttering. Now I am really starting to get worried about myself :-)

Note : we did make it to Canberra 2 days later , but who wants to read about driving around in crazy roundabouts ? :-D

Of fire alarms and Google

2011-11-16T16:26:00.000-08:00

From here on the husband will be referred to as TH to save me some typing since he is making more than a cameo appearance in this one.

We were in deep slumber when a series of shrill beeps woke us up. We sat up in bed, looked at the clock -3am (That’s when your body needs the most rest or so I have read somewhere – yes, I that was the first thought I had on seeing the clock).
We decided to investigate, that is me sitting in the bed, sleepy eyed, mumbling this and that and poor TH walking around the apartment. The first suspect was my laptop which had been giving strange error messages of late. Maybe it decided to give in finally, we thought – but no, the beeps (increasing in frequency and shrillness by the second) were not from there. TH said it could be the fire alarm and I was too sleepy to put my brain to any exercise and come up with any alternative theories. Though I remember saying something about voltage surges causing it , I am supposed to be an electrical engineer after all.

Once outside the bedroom, TH found the source of the beeps to be a small plastic box mounted above the bathroom door in the hallway .We had seen this box every day for the last 6 months but never gave a second thought to it. To our defence, smoke detectors and alarms are not common objects inside a house in India. The only fire alarms I am familiar with are the ones on office (heard during the routine tests) and they didn’t beep. But we checked all the appliances just to be sure and sniffed around for smoke. And then we started hearing similar beeps from other units around us and we were convinced there was fire in the building but nobody was running out. Poor brain, this level of confusion at 3 am:-D My brain had started functioning by then and I realized that if it indeed was a fire alarm, the fire brigade should have been outside the building by then – we live a few hundred meters from the fire station after all.

Anyway TH pressed some button on the box and the beeping stopped. That is when we decided to call for help aka Google (Dear Google – what would I do without you). I typed in “beeps from fire alarm” and came across a number of discussions on the same. Normally the beeps occur when the battery is weak and needs to be replaced. I even found the operation manual of our alarm online to confirm. But what I found interesting was that more than one person had reported the beeps starting around 3am – a conspiracy or what to catch us off guard when our body is at its weak!!
So TH removed the battery. The chance of a real fire happening when our alarm was down and out against the very depressing thought of losing more sleep in case it started to beep again – we took the risk and went to sleep again.

But we were too excited to sleep. So we ended up talking very serious stuff – for example, how we need to have an emergency response kit with us to take in the event of us running out of the apartment in case of an emergency. If there really was a fire at that moment, TH said he would take the passports and a laptop and his wallet. I said I would take the tablet (to play angry birds which can distract me enough to avoid any panic attacks in emergency situations) and my jewellery (I can sell it in case we run out of money right?) and drifted off to sleep. On second thoughts , my wallet and the car keys as well.

And then we sat bolt upright – 4 or 5 beeps. Or did we just imagine it?

Update : came across this in a site-"Smoke detectors go off between 2am-6am because the ambient temperature drops considerably then. This causes the battery voltage to drop below the smoke detector’s low voltage warning level and bingo, off she goes!!!"

And I am not alone in my conspiracy theories :-)

So fickle

2011-11-08T17:49:00.000-08:00

I look out of my office windows and see clear blue skies, but the weather forecast for today says “thunderstorms developing during the afternoon” . And I have a 3.5 hours drive ahead of me. My colleague is so concerned that he has checked the weather some 3 times already and tells me not to get deceived by the oh-so-pretty skies. The weather outside is hot and humid and that apparently is highly conductive to the development of a thunderstorm. And by 4pm , I might see heavy downpour after all or it might just stay the way it is. And Sydney had heavy rain yesterday evening.

Come on dear weather gods , please make up your minds ,fast.  I tell you, I hate(am scared , to be honest) to drive in the rain 

Update : The rain gods took pity on me. Not a drop on Wednesday :-)

Further update : But it rained the next wednesday and then the next :-(

Vacation - what else could I name it?

2011-10-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

For the first 17 years of my life, the word vacation had only one meaning – the onam ,Christmas and summer vacations from school.

Then came the 4 years in college where vacation meant the rather long and lazy breaks between semesters where I would forget all that I learned during the previous semester and start afresh.

The next 5 years in Delhi , the 2 X two week long breaks every year came in. 2 weeks sounded awfully long to your manager but terribly short to your parents and all I could remember were the excitement before it and the “shall I just resign and go back?” brooding during the return flight .

And there was 2010 when I got married and was forced to be in a long-distance-marriage for a year. Then vacations were the trips to Pondicherry and jaipur and kumarakom and many others we planned over phone and never got to execute, because we had too much stuff to take care of.

It was after coming here that I actually started taking vacations, not that we would take days off from work to travel but we make sure that we make maximum use of the weekends and holidays. Of course, the ultimate vacation would remain the whirlwind trips to India. Yet to take one , but already there seems to be a hundred items on the to-do list.
You see people around you taking vacations – my colleague went on a 5 week vacation, people go camping, the lady at the motel I stay on-site went on a 3 week trip to Thailand etc. And being in a new country means that you have lots to explore. And Australians in general seem to love being outdoors. It all rubs off on you I guess.So much that I spend quite a lot of time searching for places/events to go. And the anti-socials that we are (I don’t really make friends that easily, at least not the let-us-spend-weekend-together kind of friendship; neither does the husband), we need to pass time after all :-D

This and That

2011-10-10T23:58:00.001-07:00

Don’t have any subject worth a whole post, so jotting down a few random stuff

 Had the first encounter with the Australian medical system. Thanks to my wisdom tooth which decided to do a cameo for two days, spoiling my birthday plans.
 Oct 3 was a holiday here. Didn’t make any plans coz of the toothache but come Friday evening I was perfectly alright and spending 3 days inside didn’t sound like a very good idea. Even though it was predicted to be a rainy weekend , we made some last minute plans for Kiama & Jervis Bay. All motels were booked out and we finally managed a place 1 hour away from Jervis Bay. It was in the middle of nowhere , difficult to spot even though it is situated right on the highway but turned out to be a rather lucky find. They had private access to a beach which was quite nice.The room was all wooden panelled giving it a vinatge feel.
 Not having a car and having to rent one for trips has its advantages. You feel like being in a cheaper version of Top Gear :-) Not that we possess enough knowledge about cars to come up with the verdicts that we deliver.
 Junior Masterchef – Are these kids for real? They are just 10 or 12 ,but act and speak with so much maturity. Its unnerving at times. As to the cooking, each episode gives me a serious “Am I really cooking in my kitchen?” feeling.
 I am still uncomfortable with the fact that everyone –from the salesperson in the store to the bus driver to everyone I see in the office- greets me with a “How are you?” or “How is it going?”. A “good morning” or a simple “hi” would be easier to handle than a question which requires me to give an answer and then ask about the well being of the other person and then wait for his answer. Hmm. Maybe I am lacking in the social etiquette department :-)
 Another Aussie thing- Maccas for McDonalds. Isn’t McD cool enough? :-P
Though I quite like “Brekkie” for Breakfast
 Saw an ad for a car insurance that gives 15% discount for those drivers who don't claim. Makes sense rt?

Pokolbin

2011-09-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading food blogs, more for the restaurant reviews than for recipes. There are quite a few Sydney food blogs around and I follow grabyourfork , awifescharmedlife,chocolatesuze regularly. Though I tried writing a few restaurant reviews for zomato.com when back in Delhi, I know I don’t really have it in me to be a food blogger. Read and salivate I can .Write, I better stay away. Same with travelogues. Even I find it hard to read through my travel stories :-X

So this post which I started with the intention of being either a review or a travelogue will instead be just a random recollection of facts from our second trip to Hunter Valley. After a drive around the Upper Hunter Wine Valley, we decided on Pokolbin in Lower Hunter this time. It is rather ambitiously named as the “Wine country”. A look at the map showed vineyards all around. Pointless though, since I was driving and husband doesn’t drink (I used to think that ‘mallu Christian men who don’t drink’ were an extinct species until he came along to refute my theory). And the organizer of the trip aka me, who was very meticulous when it came to the train timings, car pickups, driving distances and lunch and dinner options (obviously), overlooked the fact that wine/cheese factory tours happened only at certain times. So we had to satisfy ourselves with visiting just the tasting rooms. And the sculpture garden at Misletoe wines – but the kangaroo sculpture which looked huge in the brochure turned out to be rather tiny and most of the sculptures are in a pretty bad shape anyway. And then there was the Hunter valley garden, which is huge but since we reached just 30 minutes before closing time, we skipped that too. We would have skipped it anyway considering the 24 dollar entry fee –I am not a huge fan of plants and flowers and feel that all gardens are more or less the same.

The kangaroo sculpure at Misletoe Wines

The day before we left, I had gone through the websites of all restaurants listed in the Pokolbin tourist brochure checking out their menus online (and prices-Pokolbin is not easy on the wallet when it comes to fine dining). We finally decided on the Verandah for lunch. The view is really nice, a dinner with that view would be an unforgettable experience .We went for their Australian Tapas Tower which was very good value for money and gave the chance to taste quite a few of their dishes. It was followed by the dessert tasting plate, which was not that impressive. We also had a taste of kangaroo meat for the first time – I found it similar to lamb, but softer.

The Tapas Tower

The Dessert Tasting Plate@ Verandah

The highlight of the trip was the dinner :-D

I was in no mood for anything after the Tapas which was heavy enough but we went for dinner at Maneeya Thai restaurant, which was just opposite to where we were staying. I don’t even remember what I ordered .And husband,who loves everything spicy, ordered Jungle Curry , ignoring the ‘very hot” warning on the menu. “It’s really hot” warning from the waitress was dismissed with “make it extra hot” .And boy, hot it was. Hot enough to make your eyes water and your lips go red. More Hot than spicy, because of all the chilli flakes that we could see floating in the curry. We seriously suspect that the waitress dumped a few spoons of chilli just to prove her point.

A very hot ending to an otherwise nice trip:-D

And then... she drove.....

2011-08-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

My first driving lesson was at the age of 17. With a couple of months to go for the start of college, my dad thought it was a nice (a feeling that was short lived) idea to let me behind the wheels. My first driving instructor was a rough old chap (a friend of my grandfather and driving guru of my father) and he made me “take the H” on the very first day. Thanks to the parallel set of brakes he had, I passed it with flying colours and came back very confident. A few lessons later, I started driving the family car on quiet roads. All was well till I went and rammed the car onto the compound wall at my uncle’s place. The car suffered minor scratches but my confidence went on a long vacation. Then came college and since I was too lazy to practice my driving when I was home for holidays, chapter 1 of my driving came to a rather abrupt and uneventful ending.

9 years later, chapter 2 took place in Chennai. This time I had to go for classes at 6am and the rains never helped (rains in Chennai in August? – nature was definitely not on my side). Rain was the perfect excuse to miss my classes – or rather the so called classes where 4 of us were bundled into a rickety old car and each of us was allowed to drive for 20 minutes and watch the other 3 drive for the rest of the time. But I got my license to show for it;-P

After moving to Sydney and starting my job, driving became a necessity. I have to travel to a site that lies on a highway, 20km from the nearest town. I have to either take a cab or get a lift , both of which are extremely irritating prospects – cab because of the money involved(I feel guilty even if it is the company’s money) and lifts because of the daily ritual of asking “can you drop me on your way back if it is not a problem for you ? And it would be great if you can pick me up tomorrow morning as well”. And so began chapter 3.

Back in India, I found driving to be somewhat like playing a complicated videogame - like getting things thrown at you from random directions at random intervals? And although I can sit for hours playing videogames, driving didn’t hold the same thrill for me. In my family, driving is considered to be “a skill that can only be mastered by a few” and guess that kind of put a lot of pressure on me and took the enjoyment out of it. But here, everyone drives and it is a part of life and is taken for granted and it changed the way I looked at it. The fact that there are rules and that everyone (ok, almost everyone) follows them helps. And oh, yes, automatic transmission – that just makes life easier ;-)

And for the first time ever, I really enjoy driving – that’s all the 15 hours of driving with an instructor on the side and around 300km ,with an equally instructive husband on the side ,along deserted country roads where most of the time we were the only ones in sight(but to my credit I managed to create a long procession of cars behind me because I couldn't bring myself to go beyond 90kmph though the speed limit was 100kmph .I am sure that when they finally got a lane to overtake and saw me behind the wheels,they went "A woman? That too an Asian? God help us" So much for stereotyping ) but yes ,I am getting there. As my instructor tells me , I just need some more guts :-D

Technically I am on a temporary visa for some time and I can drive with my Indian license – yes, when my husband told me that for the first time I asked him “are you insane?” and refused to believe him but true it is. So looks like this chapter could go on happily for a while. And I absolutely love the opening lines of this one - a day of driving around in the Upper Hunter Wine growing area in NSW dotted with olive farms ,vineyards ,horse studs and farms and picturesque views on either sides.

Vegemite? Seriously??

2011-07-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

That would top my “list of questions you would like to ask the Aussies”. I did ask the question to an Aussie and he laughed and said “I have it for breakfast everyday”.Yes , ofcourse.

I had read quite a few moving-to-Australia blogs before coming here (mostly US/UK citizens who had moved here, couldn’t find even one by an Indian and I had decided that I will start one telling the story of how we tumbled down under, but 3 months later I don’t even have a blog post to show for it ) and all of them mentioned vegemite and no one seemed to like it. I thought I would be an exception ;-) the theory of acquired tastes you know. I bought a jar , the very first weekend after coming here , took one lick and the jar has stayed at the back of the cupboard ever since. Come on , seriously ?? Why not peanut butter or nutella or just plain butter?

Another thing all these bloggers found perplexing was the 4WD shopping trolleys (which you can conveniently take home and just leave at the roadside; they will come and pick it up). I find it equally taxing; I would rather carry a 10kg rice bag than push and heave a 4 WD trolley that moves as if it has a mind of its own.

With three months sneak preview of married life and 9 months of long distance marriage and a rather bumpy ride down the migration lane to mark our first year of married life , I had gone through the whole thing with a “Sydney , you better be good “ attitude ;-) The truckloads of paper work that we had to go through to prove that our relationship was “genuine and continuing” -relationship statements and chat history and what else – and the rather long visa process are enough to put any “non genuine” ones out of the race , I believe. hehe.

And yes Sydney has been a nice experience. Australia is my first experience of a developed country and maybe my views are biased. But Sydney is beautiful, even by Kerala standards, and the views from the cliffs on the coast are breathtaking. I am still getting used to the fact that vehicles stop for you at zebra crossings while you can walk as if you own the road (no, not really) and not get honked at. The public transportation system is excellent. I love that you can see people from all different countries around you and hear all those languages and try all those cuisines. And I have started to like the Aussie accent (I even watch Master Chef Australia at the pretext of “getting to know the Aussie accent”). I went to a country town here as part of work and my colleague did a typical Aussie “How ya doing mate” for my benefit. Of course, he had to “translate” it for me :-D

And yes, I saw kangaroos :-D

Well ...

2011-02-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

Enough water has flown under the bridge that calling 2011 a “new” year seems a little odd. Anyway we, I and my husband that is, had decided to postpone our new year till we are finally together and settled down ;-)
What fun is there in celebrating the New Year when you life is going to be the same old one?

Realized long distance relationships are not that easy to deal with. The bright side of it is that I am back to my a-book-per-week reading routine thanks to an online library facility available at office and enough free time in hand. I had once started making a list of books I read, but gave it up soon enough. But my online library does it for me these days

Read Eat Pray Love byElizabeth Gilbert (Eat part was very nice, Pray was boring and Love was not that bad)

Secrets and lies by Jaishree Misra (Found it engaging enough to try another book of hers – Ancient Promises , just started it yesterday)

Ladies Coupe by Anita Nair (was a tad too slow paced)

Memories of my Melancholy Whores and Of Love And Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (his writing is in a different realm all together, charming neverthe less)

Amen! The Autobiography of a Nun by Sister Jesme (I can’t comment on the authenticity of whatever is stated there, she was the principal of the college right next to my school between and the fact that she has the courage to stand up against such a huge establishment as the church is commendable)

Desert Royal by Jean Sasson (Having read the other two books of the trilogy, I had to read this one)

I am very curious to read The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Realized that compared to the bling and noise and drama of a North Indian wedding, South Indian weddings are pretty sober affairs. Not so big , not so fat in comparison , but still too big and too fat than what is called for.
Still remember how my Swiss colleague gasped in surprise (or was it horror) on hearing about the number of guests at my wedding. Used to 50-100 guests lists , he found it amusing that my Dad found it necessary to invite even our fish monger and house painter for my wedding. He would have fainted if he had come to a Punjabi wedding I am sure.

Realized that time moves ever so slowly when you want it to fly ;-)
Every day I wake up and think – “ 16 more hours before I can sleep again “.
It all boils down to killing time I believe ;-)

Self Tagged

2010-11-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

Picked up this tag.Being a book lover, could not resist it.

1. Favorite childhood book? – Misha , the magazine. I even used to love its smell. I think they stopped publishing it following the disintegration of USSR.And I lost all my copies while shifting places.

2. What are you reading right now – An Equal Music by Vikram Seth. Too much of music jargon , doubtful about me finishing it.

3. Bad book habit? – If I like a book, I prefer finishing it in one go. When I was reading Gone With The Wind, I practically did nothing else for 3 days and that was just a week before I was moving to Delhi and I was supposed to be packing; drove my mom mad.

4. Do you have an e-reader? – No

5. Do you prefer to read one book at a time or several at once? – One book at a time, I am scared of mixing up characters.I once even listed down the characters in a Ludlum Novel to keep track of the plot.Multi tasking while reading is definitely not my forte.

6. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? – Nope.But ever since I started reading blogs, yes, my reading has broadened a little.

7. Least favorite book you read this year (so far)? – An Equal Music is a strong suspect

8. Favorite book you’ve read this year? – Didn’t really read anything worth remembering this year , so far.

9. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? – Very rarely.

10. What is your reading comfort zone? – Fiction, but generally averse to classics.

11. Can you read on the bus – used to, when I was a kid.My astigmatism stemmed from it.But nowadays ,it makes me nauseous.

12. Favorite place to read? – Bed , curled up.

13. What is your policy on book lending? – Lend only if you are sure that you would get it back.

14. Do you ever dog-ear books? – Used to , but making an effort not to.

15. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? – No

16. Not even with text books? – I don’t think so.

17. What is your favorite language to read in? – English. Read a lot of Malayalam while in school, completely lost touch since then.

18. What makes you love a book? – The characters. Can read a book with a crappy plot just for a single character in it.

19. What will inspire you to recommend a book? – Whether I like it or not.

20. Favorite genre? – Spy Fiction

21. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?) - Classics

22. Favorite biography? – Oh ho, I don’t think I have ever read a biography.

23. Have you ever read a self-help book? – I don’t think so. Even if I started, I wouldn’t go beyond the first few pages.

24. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)? – Completely blank!!!

25. Favorite reading snack? - Lays

26. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience – The Godfather.

27. How often do you agree with critics about a book? – Hardly read book reviews.

28. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews – If I don’t like it, I don’t. Period.

29. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose? – Latin.Don’t ask me why.I don’t even know if there are anything other than biblical texta available in Latin.

30. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? – Disgrace by J.M.Coetzee.

31. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? – The Lord of the Rings

32. Favorite Poet? – Poems ? No, Thanks.

33. Favorite fictional character? – Howard Roark ,Rhett Butler comes a close second.

34. Favorite fictional villain? – Elseworth Toohey , I feel disgust and rage at him every time I read Fountainhead, I think that makes him a “favorite” villain.

35. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? – Lonely Planet edition of that place ;-)

36. The longest I’ve gone without reading – A couple of months, maybe.

37. Name a book that you could/would not finish- The Monk Who sold his Ferrari

38. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? – Music, only if something I love is on.

39. Favorite film adaptation of a novel? - Namesake

40. Most disappointing film adaptation? – The Bourne Series

41. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? – That would be buying GMAT prep books, otherwise I hardly buy more than 2 or 3 at a time.

42. How often do you skim a book before reading it? – Never ,unless I find it too boring.

43. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through?. – If I have been reading a book for more than a week, it means I am never going to finish it.Better call it quits then.

44. Do you like to keep your books organized? – Oh yes, I remember I had a very well arranged and labeled book collection during my school days. Now all lie in a trolley case sumwhere under my bed.- lack of space L But once I have my own place, I would definitely have a room for books or so I hope.

45. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them – I keep them.

46. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding? – Emma and Pride and Prejudice.Bought them more than a year back , still looks brand new .

47. Name a book that made you angry – The Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man.

48. A book you didn’t expect to like but did? – Gone With The Wind, took me a couple of years and some strong recommendations to even start it.

49. A book that you expected to like but didn’t? - Midnight’s children.

50. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading? – Ludlum Novels, back-to-back. But I have exhausted them all sadly.

Delhi-Chennai-Delhi

2010-09-13T04:04:00.001-07:00

Was using up all my pending leaves(and some more) in the last two months - with me working in Delhi and husband in Chennai ,
that was the only way out.The foodie that I am , it was only natural that I ended up googling for some good eating out options there.
Could only try out a handful, Casa Piccola and La Boulangerie disappointed , Ecstasy was okie-dokie and Fuego was great.

Went to Casa Piccola after reading some great reviews , but the place was crowded even at 3pm - mostly college kids - which we took as a sign of great food , but it was not to be. it tuk us quite a while to even get hold of the menu , The service was slow (maybe beacuse of the crowd) ,and when the food finally arrived , it was not worth the wait.Ecstasy in Satyam Cinemas is good, but their desserts are not as great as their photographs (which caught my attention on my very first visit to satyam) ;-)

The best among our trials was Fuego - recently opened in Ampa skywalk mall , they had a 20% inaugral disocunt offer then.The ambience was nice , the food was great (sadly , we were not in a mood for desserts after having a not-so-mouthwatering stint at the La Boulangerie outlet right next to it earlier ) , what I liked best are the portions -perfect : not more, not less. Wouldnt mind going back :-)

Back to Delhi now , can't believe Delhi is ready to host an international sporting event will be conducted here in less than 3 weeks time. atleast the DTC buses are a real eye sore - thats the first thing i noticed on landing here.
Bagels at The bagel factory in Lajpat Nagar and Tiramisu from The coffee bean and tea leaf at Citywalk - I am hooked again :-)

If I were mushy

2010-06-08T23:41:00.000-07:00

Almost half an year has passed since my last post.Spent around 6 months in the arabian desert , sometimes working insane hours but still enjoying it.
Nowadays, sitting in office with nothing much to do and impatiently waiting for the clock to strike 5.30 , I would gladly go bak to 14 hours a day , 5 1/2 days a week routine at site .

Was just checking out all the blogs listed in mine , except for one all are dead ; most of them stopped writing n 2007/2008.After 3 yrs of on and off blogging , I cant say that I have done much justice either.Just a passing fad it was(for me )I guess.
Those people who take to blogging with the same zeal even after years - they really need to be appreciated.

And as to the title of the post - If I were mushy I should be writing a post dedicated to my husband I guess (Got married on 9th May ) , but then that wouldnt be me ;-)
Around 2 weeks of wear saree - wear all the ornaments - then remove them routine , I am back to being myself now ;-)

Feeling the Pangs of Separation ;-)

2009-12-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

After professing my love for Delhi in the second last post , when I was all set to feel the giddiness you are supposed to have when you are in love (isnt that how it happens in bollywood movies?), came the twist in the story - i was deported to a sleepy little emirate in UAE for some project work.

Foggy winter mornings gave way to the desert sun and then to dark rainy mornings now . I am infact lucky to be here at this time when the climate is pleasant.But the fact that I have to be in office at 7am (I dont know which insomniac set the working hours) , 6 days a week dampens things.

Aloo paranthas are replaced by shawarmas .Most of the restaurants here are run by mallus and I seem to be eating mallu food (the normal, not-so-gud,not-so-bad variety) with an alarming regularity.

The one and only one Lulu substitutes TGIP , I make religious trips to Lulu every week .(I suffer from the lack of regular doses of retail therapy.Not many places to shop here,my last unsuccessful shopping attempt took a quite a few pieces of chocolates to get over)The shoppers paradise is just 130 kms away anyway.

I miss Delhi winter , the stuffed paranthas my friend used to bring me for breakfast (7am and breakfast dont really get along well u see , so as I tweeted once "breakfast is like sunday mass now, happens once in a week and runs for an hour"), dessert from barista (I have not found anything that comes anywhere near to their "dark temptation" ) and most of all waking up at 8am on weekdays :-(

This is where I get my chocolate doses from :-)

But life seems to be moving fast , I cant really believe that I have been here for 3 months now!!! Maybe coz of all the chaos that comes with a site life :-)

Wishlist

2009-10-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

How I wish

Conversation was just about speaking what’s in your mind

A man was just an individual rather than a Hindu/Muslim/Christian/Mallu/Indian/French blah blah

The choices I make were guided by what I wanted and not what I was supposed to want

Achieving your dreams was only about putting in the effort

Life was an equation with fewer variables

The world was ideal

Howard Roarks existed

I were just me

........

This is wht a bus with a broken down AC cruising at 100kmph in a desert can do to me ;-)

A bollywood love story – the first half

2009-08-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

When I set foot in Delhi almost 3 years ago (July 2006 to be precise) , I hated the city.
A few weeks after I came here a friend of mine asked me how I was finding the capital city; I remember my reply “shallow and hollow”. I was being honest in my opinion.

The streets were dirty, the buses were crowded and filthy, everything was overpriced (atleast by kerala stds), u always had the “south Indian” tag attached, the heat was unbearable (July is not really the best time to make your debut in Delhi), I seemed to be eating aloo or paneer for every single meal and I was staying so far away from home (knowing I cant just pick up my bag n go like I used to do in college was not very comforting) and the flight tickets were not cheap either – I despised Delhi, and was more than eager to get out(Bangalore was where I wanted to be since all my college friends were there).Used to the “save, save and save some more” (so that you can splurge on a grand house or a big wedding) attitude in kerala, I used to watch the “spend as much as you can” attitude of people here with a smirk. ”I don’t belong here” – I decided.

I did attempt a few times to shift my job n 2007, but nothing worked out and 2008 was a hectic year and I didn’t get much time to fret.But now, after a little more than 3 years spent here, I have realized that the city has slowly grown on me (Though I shifted to noida in Dec 2008 and is technically in UP). If Mumbai was love at first sight, Delhi was the slower version.

Buses are still as bad – but the metro will soon come up, the summers are equally horrible. But...
The crowded streets of chandni chowk with all those yummy street food, the cold winter mornings (i need a motivational speech playing at full volume to just get me out of the rajai), the smell of baking when you walk in front of Wengers in CP (I have done that only once, but it still lingers on), getting lost every time I visit Lajpat Nagar market, all those flyovers (especially the one near aiims where you find curious looking sculptures), the relief you feel when it rains after weeks of the hot summer sun , the labyrinth of roads in the Janpath area(i have not yet understood how people find their way there) , the musical fountain at akshardham temple, the silence inside lotus temple, the golgappes,aloo chats,ram ladoos , paranthes in the paranthe wali gali(how can I forget food)– all these and more
And a stroll along rajpath on a winter evening (attempting that in summer is suicide) followed by a spicy dinner at andhra bhavan – bliss!!!!

And I have made a quite a few friends; a very diverse group indeed - I have the luxury of sitting on my lunch table with 10 people –from 8 different states of India.

And I have relaized that I do love the city now and that Bangalore really doesnt cut it except for the weather maybe ;-) Just like those intermissions in bollywood movies when the hero and heroine realizes ;) the second half lies ahead, I guess it ought to have a happy ending ;D
I regret the fact that I have not seen much of Delhi even after all these years, but I intend to catch up once the metro is up and running (I have a metro station a few minutes walk from my pg, that should help )

I had this post in mind for so long , but what finally pushed me to post it? Maybe “The white tiger” I read last week or “The city of Djinns” I am reading currently.

And my roomie of 3 years finally decided to leave me in peace and migrate to greener pastures (Read a phd in US) and I do miss my partner in crime.
My waistline stands proof to it (i would have liked to add my bank balance too reflects it, but it shows no sign of improving whatsoever)

Long time....

2009-04-23T02:45:00.001-07:00

Work load at office was at its peak for the past few months .I was under a lot of stress, even got 2 or 3 grey hairs as proof (and for my mother to cry about). I guess that is a good enough excuse for keeping away from blogging, J

I was just experimenting with google reader (I am kind of new to this though it has been around for quite a while I know) and came across my blog posts – 23 in total (the number did surprise me a little, I mean did I really write 23 posts!!!) and yes, looks like my first post was on April 26th 2007 and that makes it almost 2 years. I missed out d first anniversary but am on time for the second. I will surely treat myself to a good dinner today (Ever since me n my roomie shifted to Noida we have been splurging on food-all those calorie loaded weekends explain my reduced bank balance and an extra 10kgs, I think I look malnourished in my college photos - though we complain regularly that Noida lacks good restaurants compared to Delhi. I dare not imagine the consequences if it was otherwise)

So what has been happening? I was never a movie buff to start with, but have been watching a lot of movies these days thanks to friends who have got internet connection with “unlimited downloads” ;) But even now I would prefer curling up in bed with a book anytime, though I have cum a long way from 3-books-in-a-week college days.
I hardly read 2 in a month now

Two movies, which impressed me a lot – Before Sunrise and Before Sunset (I know they are pretty old, but dts y I had taken the anticipatory bail). To keep ppl hooked for 1.5 hours with nothing but 2 ppl talking with each other (of course you have Vienna and Paris as backdrops) isn’t dt easy. I would recommend the 2 to anyone anytime. But 2 of my pg mates found ‘Before Sunrise’ boring. Their review: “bolte ja rahe hain bolte ja rahe “ :O – I consoled them by sayng that they need to grow up a lil more (they are in their final year of engg, not toddlers anyway) to enjoy the beauty of those movies ;)

Maybe I might start blogging more frequently since I have got around 100 movies left to watch and hopefully a bunch of them will cause sudden bouts of creativity(I mean if you count the last few paras dt)

Back

2008-11-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

Sneezed quite a few times clearing out all the cobwebs ;)
The reason for the absence(as if it matters) is that blogspot has been banned in office.Cant understand how blocking blogs can help the antivirus campaign running srongly n office of late!!!
Anway since I have got net at home now, I "can" blog, whether I "will" is a totally irrelevant issue :)

It should be fun!!!

2008-08-28T03:05:00.000-07:00

With very few channels available n English, I end up watching NatGeo (or Eurosport - the commentaries are in Bulgarain, but who cares?Do people listen to commentaries unless the commentator is either really good or really bad ?)most of the time.

Yesterday there was a show on alien sightings on earth.Though there is no concrete evidence to support the existence of extra-terrestrial life at the moment , one scientist on the show is confident that we will make some contact with aliens by 2020 -2025 AD.

Scientific curiosity apart,just imagine what a frenzy religious leaders around the world will be in,if and when we confirm the existence of ET life?How will different religions explain ET life? That should be fun.
I agree most scriptures do have d concept of diff worlds etc to bail out still it will be a mad rush.

Happened to see an article which says aliens are the fallen angels n bible and goes on to explain how they should be redeemed.LOL!!!

I hope I am alive to see that day but die before the aliens decide to annihilate us :D I am terribly excited :D

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in.
However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by
infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero.
From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination" HHGTTG

Zdravei!!!

2008-08-08T03:14:00.000-07:00

In the list of countries I thought I might visit one day,Bulgaria was not dr, not even n d waiting list.But here I am n my project site-its just for a month- (why noone builds power plants in exotic locales?beats me!!!! :P) in a place where the welcome board at the border reads
"Welcome to Stara Zagora - Center of the Universe." :O and mineral water brands have very inspriring names

and it is guaranteed that you will get second looks wherever you go- havnt seen any indians outside of site office though there is an indian restaurant n Sofia where u have food wth 3 levels of spiciness- 1st degree,2nd degree and 3rd degree :)

havnt seen much of the place except for a stroll along "pedestrian street"(no vehicles allowed dr!!!).

But its a nice country with lots of sidewalk cafes and sunflower fields- though bulgaria is called as "the land of roses".I am not complaining, i prefer sunflowers to roses anytime :)

k dn.gtg.Have to download sum virus.The IT guy here is really handsome :D

And yes "Zdravei" means hello in Bulgarain.

The easy way out

2008-07-19T00:38:00.000-07:00

Not that tags are cakewalk, but its much more easier than coming up with a post from thin air
I don’t know wht is wth the no: 8, but so many tags seem to revolve around it!!!!

8 things I am passionate about:

Cant say I am passionate about anything, its more like I am passive abut evrythng :)
Here is a list of things I love
·Trying out new cuisines /eating out – I can eat out daily (financial constraints apart) n still not get bored. And I love reading those detailed menus
·Traveling or flying to be precise –When d HR guy n our office was complaining that he already made sum 40 flights this year, I was green with envy
·Details, more so when I am day dreaming/building castles n air. I want everything to be laid out clearly – date, day, time etc even if I am thinking of something that might or might not happen sum 10/20 years from now
·Reading
·Discussions /arguments – be it on the concept of god or on why good looking guys are such a rarity in our office
·Sleeping or so says my mother

8 things I want to do before I die

·Go for a backpacking trip around d world – all alone, and try out all diff cuisines
·Read all those books n see all those movies I missed
·Get a job where I can travel a lot n literally live out of my suitcase. People who do exactly that assure me its not as “wow” as I imagine it to be. But I want to learn it the hard way
·Learn to play violin. Ever seen the blenders pride ad??
·Learn to speak lots of diff languages- u know like those spies n Ludlum novels
·Buy an apt n Mumbai’s Malbar hills area :D (When I was n Mumbai I stayed at my company guest house dr n loved d place. Unaware of d fact dt it is one of Mumbai’s costliest areas I was thinking how nice it wud be to get a job n Mumbai n live n Malbar hills n all.But my friend waved d red flag by telling me that I will need to get one hell of a job to afford living there)
·Take my whole family (including aunts, uncles, cousins, grand parents) for trip to sum exotic location
·Construct my own house n Thrissur n furnish it in style
For our house, my father did everything – drawing up d plan, supervising the work n what not!!! Seems he lost a few kgs n went a few shades darker by the time our house was finished :) I wud love to do dt for my house

8 things I say often:

·I mean
·Actually
·Seriously
·Ente daivamme (gossip conversations are laced with it)
·Eeshwara
·Aiyoo / ayyada
·karthave
·Yeah sure (office conversations mostly)

8 books I last read

·Inscrutable Americans
·Thousand Splendid Suns
·Shantaram
·Kite Runner
·Lajja
·Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
·Scarlett(sequel to Gone With the Wind)
·Sum 4 novels in one back – there was a Ludlum novel n it. Cant remember d rest – that was sum 6 months ago
When I was n college I used to read at least a book per week thnx to our LH library. Now I feel ashamed of saying reading is my hobby :(

8 songs I could listen to over and over again

Dts a tough one, I happen to go all crazy over a song for sumtime n dn totally forget about it once I get a new one. so I will go with the currently running list :
·Raagangale mohangle(Tharattu) - d music at d beginning is a lil noisy but it gets heavenly afterwards
·Oru chembaneer pooviruthu(Sthithi)
·But it rained (Parikrama)
·Aferglow (INXS)
·Aye udi udi – I like d laidback tone of dt
·Lamha lamha doori (Gangster)– discovered it a few weeks back
·Oru murayil vanthu paathaya
·Ennavale adi ennavale – loves it for the violin

Not tagging anyone.Its open for all

A forgotten b'day and a debt

2008-06-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

3 birthdays and 2 anniversaries – dts all I forgot in the last few weeks and one of the birthdays was dt of my blog!!!!How could I?
Anyway sumthng I started just for the novelty of it, went on for 1 year.And the blog world became very much a part of my daily life.My regular day at office starts wth a cup of coffee n my set of blogs :D
And me n my friends discuss bloggers as if they are just boys and girls next door :D

And coming to the debt part of it, it is a bunch of flowers (ok, just 2 , d last ones she had I guess)a lil flower girl gifted me n mumbai.She left it n my cab window at the traffic signal and left.She didn’t evn wait for d payment n I ddint particularly make an effort to since I was expecting her to cum n take them bak.That small act left me wth such a great feeling!She wont know how to read n write English, maybe not evn hindi or marathi,so I will be spared the humility of a “lost dollar”, but…
It was my first time n mumbai.It seems “u either fall in love wth mumbai or hate it”I definitely don’t hate it.Wherever u go, u feel d presence of sea.wonderful.
I was pretty much on my own dr and loved d single female traveler(courtesy NDTV gud times) experience. I was reading Shantaram n went to Colaba 3 times just for the heck of it,sumthng i wudnt hav done had i been travelling in a group

Dt foto cud vey well describe my 2 weeks n mumbai :)

And yes, 34 and counting :D

From quite an unexpected corner…

2008-04-22T01:28:00.000-07:00

Came a tag!!! I do check out her blog(her sisters too) regularly but a tag all the way from Holland(rt?) was a pleasant surprise :)

The tag has been doing the rounds for quite sumtime now. 1 or 2 weeks back, all I used to come across in my daily blog-hopping was this tag.And now my take on it (whatever u r going to read is going to sound like an avial of all the previous ones u have read and i don’t like avial much)

1)LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: Race,but that brings back some nightmares. I(rather the melodramatic in me) thought that I was going to die that day.The movie has got nothing to wth dt, I didn’t evn “see” the movie.i was just waiting for the movie to end so that I can get home n start scratching my face(see me n my roomie need a regular dose of culinary disasters to keep us going and had a ceremonious dinner at ruby Tuesday dt evng and i ended up with rashes all over my face ,sum food allergy it was)

2)WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?: Lajja by taslima nasreen,15 years late.

3)FAVORITE BOARD GAME? : snake&ladder and ludo (and the local version of it-kavadi) are the only ones I remember.
my friend was just askng me wedr amnesia is contagious.is it?dn poor her :(

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? : my childhood favourite was misha.i even loved the smell of it. Now I don’t read magazines regularaly though an issue of RD or The Week is always welcome.

5. FAVORITE SMELLS? : coffee, be it the vending m/c one in office or the rich aroma u get in Barista(though my love affair with barista started with their desserts)

6. FAVORITE SOUND? : “Welcome to cochin international airport.The outside temp is…”waiting for my next trip home , which is still 2 months away :(
And ofcourse the “koottaporichil” at the end of the “vedikettu” at the “palli perunaal” at my fathers place.To hell with noise pollution :)

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? : u do sumthng n dn u realize that u cud have done it better but there is no turning back now.I simply dread dt feeling

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?:Has she come out of the bathroom?(we r 4 in a house n 1 bathroom and the bus comes at 7.30am.i guess dt explains it?)

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? : no favourites as such.But while staying at my previous apt,” gopal sweets” nearby was a regular haunt - if I am eating pani puris,its coz of them

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? : irunnittu kaalu neetiyaal pore? :P
Maybe I shud leave it to my father(I simply adore my name even if I have to spell it every time I introduce myself and even if its quite often mistaken for a guys name. once my name was announced in sunday school as “pulikkottil francis makan anphy” and every1 was looking towards the boys section when I stood up)
But there is one name which i am really fond of(not necessarily as the future child's name)-Daniel :)

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D...? : go for a trip around d world n buy whatever book/movie cd I feel like buyng :)
and yes, dessert from Barista everyday :)

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? : When I drive,(dts only when I go home and my father is in an adventourous mood) I do,or so says my father but my cousin says I drive at snails pace.I dont know who is lying.

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? : cant even think of it

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY? – hmm??.i don’t know.i love the rumbling sound of thunder but.

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? – never owned one.

16. FAVORITE DRINK? : Iced tea at McDonalds

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD..” – simply get bored to death

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? : I am not particularly fond of green leafy vegetables

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? : I will stick with black. y give the hair dresser's arm a sprain?if u have seen my hair in its true form, u will know d reason.

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN : Thrissur,Calicut,Delhi

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? : Almost everything.watching is not where the problem is.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU : the only thing I know about her is dt she writes a blog which is quite nice :D

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? : my suitcase,rajais and whatever odr stuff our pg owner has stored dr.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? : no, thanks.

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? : night owl though of late the TV puts me to sleep pretty early

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP? :sunny side up, coz it takes lesser time.Quite a few hours I am savng dr ;)

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? : home and evenings at the the terrace of my pg

28. FAVORITE PIE?: have tasted only a few ,cant call anything favourite

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? : anything goes

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? : whos most likely to respond wud be the more appropriate question ;)

and who do I tag? The girl who must not be linked and rohit(if he decides to postpone his procastination for a while) and raghav(if he is not too busy eatng bacon n eggs ) and aslam(what goes around comes around) and Miss Bubbly(her boss is on leave today i guess)

The difference

2008-04-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

btw me n my father........

I have never seen him fretting about his income, he always worries about the expenditures
and me?? I am always worried about my income but not my expenditures (ok, i do get a lil feeling of guilt after the splurge but my "there is no use crying over spilt milk" avatar takes over pretty fast)

But I do have a reputation as a miser(i have self confessed it a few times too) :D
Its just a matter of perspectives I will say :P

adithi devo bhava

2008-02-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

My friend was bored.
E-blogger was blocked.
The ever generous soul that I am, I offered her my blog space.
And she(she wants her identity to be kept a secret.dont know y.maybe she runs sum clandestine operation of sorts like u see in every ludlum novel) came up with this:

I have this friend. Rather weird person, I’ll say – unlike me :D In no way related to the owner of this blog, btw – Well, I’m lying big time! :P One of the very few things we share in common (friends after all!) : Without fail and without reminders we send mails to each other from office – 9.6667 on the average(rounded off to 4 decimal places, some calculation that needed :P) – every working day; unless otherwise, either of us is at home. And the subjects of these mails? Very occasionally ‘hello’, ‘hey...’, ‘gm’, ‘GM’, ‘bye’, ‘??’, ‘???’, ‘:)’ ‘:D’, ‘wassup”, ‘what’s new?’., ‘LOL’ and has never ever been ‘hi’ (note the point!)

Here are some of the subjects of the mails we’ve sent each other over the past 6-7 months:

Promised. I was obliged to fulfill :D
Did the lightning strike any aero plane?
Where our cables will run
I am being robbed :(
Out
Ms. X
See
I'm bored...
I’ve got a much huger collection of one-liners : P
Got a bouquet :-)
Only 4/5 privileged ppl have read them so far...Another of my "masterpieces"
The masterpiece..... The sad reality :-(
Come to cochin for the weekend....
Why not!!
no probs!
Knock ,knock!
Knock ,knock! - present ma'am
I'm here :-)
Hehehe
enuf of hehehe.... change the subject of the mail
yup, i did
Welcome to our office!
the updated list
TS
blowing my own trumpet!!!
Entha paripaadi?
my weeknd
Kyaa haal hain?
angane vittaal pattillallo
SILENCE??
Hrd?
good(my lead on leave) morng
IT RAINED AGAIN
May I ask?
May I ask? - yeah sure :D
Every * has a day
running out of colors
running out of colors - make some :P
What is hypocracy?
got this one?
If interested...
lol again
kaalathu thanne veno??
4.4 it was
try this one
Saw :-)
Pokaam?
Nammal enthu thettu cheythu?
u asked for it, ok
Today's special :-)
here they come
WTH
an awesome day
444 n counting
Message for u
118 n counting...
HOT NEWS
i thought so
Back?
:P
:P :P
Hurray
baaki pathram of nostalgia :P
16600
Quite odd!
Funny
y funny?
njaan entho cheyyum
kya hua beti?
one more bit
50-50
U WONT BELIEVE IT
back with a bang?
on a cold foggy winter morng
kya ho raha hain?
thoughts n exaggeration
send me a nice song
i didnt like it :-(
life's little surprises
u wanted songs, i am sending u a video
what plans for V-day?
News updates!
I'm a happy soul!
kingfisher!
A bug a day, keeps ur boredom away! :))
Here i am...
Almost no details!
from google
bug, i guess!
bug fixed!
I know her, not personally (as recent as today…. We weren’t gossiping in case u thought so!)

Feel honoured to be a part of this blog, thanks mate :P (yeah right!)

U know what?I was thinking about a post on the same topic, but she beat me to it :D

A new kingfisher fan

2008-02-11T02:20:00.000-08:00

Yes I am a self declared kingfisher fan (Not of the liquid variety, for clarification).

Till last year my image of Vijay Mallya was that of a playboy-liquor baron. Then I happened to read an interview of his in The Week and he came across as an interesting person. And now the channel – NDTV Good Times – a breath of fresh air!

This is one channel which I can sit and watch the whole day, save a few programs like "Heavy petting" (never found dogs and cats "soooo cute",cant help it,runs n my genes)

Maybe coz it has got a lot of shows on cooking and eating :D

Nothing of the usual 'the hero turns his head three times or the heroine blinks her eyes 5 times accompanied by the sound of thunder or breaking glass if he/she is surprised/shocked/happy/sad' kind of serials or the meaningless 'all hype and no content' type of news reporting.

It’s a lifestyle channel , a tag which under normal circumstances would elicit a yawn from me . But this one has got interesting programs and they have real professionals to do it. Be it “Cooking isn’t rocket science” or “Around the world in 85 plates” or “The big fat Indian wedding”.
I have to admit that the channel doesnt help in increasing my knowledge of the current affairs by any standards, but still.

I think I ought to go and practice my "o-la-lala-leelaayo!!"

Books

2008-01-22T00:04:00.000-08:00

It hit me on my way back from office – I need to write a post on the books in my life, the ones that changed the way I look at the world.
A post which wont make much sense to anyone except me :)

My passion for books started with Enid Blyton – the famous fives n secret sevens we used to exchange in classrooms. And there were those evenings when I used to go along with my friend to the Thrissur park library –the St.Clares and the Malory Towers and Nancy Drews. We used to start reading the books right on the way back n d bus.
I guess I owe my astigmatism to those reading sessions :D
The library is not there any longer, but I still have the membership card with me. One debt due.

Crichton n Grisham n Mario Puzo came in next.
And Robert Ludlum – the craze started with Bourne Identity. The fast pace at which the novels are set - loved his writing style. Even now I can read Ludlum novels back to back.

And one book I read too late was Gone with the wind. Thanks to my aversion towards classics, I continued to ignore it.
And finally I started reading it n fell in love with the character Rhett Butler 
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." is classic indeed!!!

The list is long coz I can read anything that is remotely interesting, and once I start I have to finish it.One notable exception being “The monk who sold his Ferrari” .Cudnt digest it at all

But one book that got me hooked was Fountainhead. It was a new world opened up to me – a world which I fell in love with even though I knew that it was too ideal to be real.
Fountainhead, atlas shrugged n anthem were books I read again n again again.
Fountainhead coz I could live n dream that world for those few hours,
Atlas shrugged coz of its powerful theme,
And anthem for its brilliant concept, that too in just 32 pages.

And the book that inspired me to write this one : "The confessions of an economic hit man". The ‘economics’ in the title did scare me a bit, but its an eye-opener. Read it for the truths it exposes if not for the language/writing style.

My world this week..

2007-12-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

There was “The world this week” in DD National a few years back; it was Pronoy Roy’s presentation skills that drew me to it rather than any interest in the worldly affairs.

So had a happening (debatable,ofcourse) week so far:

The week started with a ‘bad news’ (that’s how my aunt described it, though the news in itself was good).

And came Monday, the fuel surcharge went up by 300 Rs; I was shocked (Those who didn’t feel the tremors, plz read this). Considering that I was just about to book my flights for my trip home n Jan (my second one within a span of one month ;will relieve my wallet of some burden), the reason behind it being the most happening thing in my life right now (My best friends wedding, with a rewritten script :P).

And Tuesday, I fell flat (that too with not even a single good looking guy anywhere in sight).One moment I was walking along with my shopping bag and the next moment I was lying on the footpath.
Rather,” My verticality turned to horizontality and my occipital bone kissed the earth“– got it from my English teacher in Xth. He used to cite it as an example for the usage of bombastic language.

Nothing happened on Wednesday :(
And on Thursday too (so far that is; but doesn’t matter)
And Friday doesn’t look promising either :D

And the weekend is predictable (sleeping, washing and the Sunday sermon don’t count).

So decided to wrap up my week early :P (fri,sat n sun will be written off as "miscellaneous")

And yes, my hour’s countdown has started again. It’s 382 and counting!!!
Thought of reposting my 444 and counting , but then posting at 3 am is not an interesting prospect :D

THEN N NOW

2007-11-14T03:01:00.000-08:00

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN

The 13RS masala dosa (that too self service) from the college canteen qualified as a treat.

Talking for even 10 min on the phone was an ordeal for me (and those “long” conversations usually happened when one of my friends missed a class and had to get the updates :D)

My hindi vocabulory started and ended with "kya"

Each and every run scored by Sourav Ganguly was regarded as a matter of great personal pride.

AND NOW

The 50 RS masala dosa served by waiters in traditional south Indian attire with carnatic music n d background and an extra 12% vat added onto the bill makes me yawn.

My blabber can extend up to 1 hour, I know I am still a gross underachiever but 10 min to 1 hour is a really long way to come, that too in just 7 years.

I do understand "a few" of Gulzar's(I hope my colleague's answer to "who writes the toughest lyrics in hindi?" is right)lyrics

Ganguly being in the playing eleven itself is such a pleasant surprise for me :D

The times for sure are changing :P
Or maybe I am just growing up

PS: my friend says the canteen masala dosa was only RS 9.one more sign that i am growing "up".

My world

2007-10-19T00:42:00.000-07:00

I live in a black and white world; but I am allowed shades of gray!!!
The hypocrite that I am :)

Just getting the cobwebs out :)

2007-10-01T01:02:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I blogged. I do have a list of lame excuses. But why bother :P

And today sitting in office after a bad lunch (incidentally I happen to be a member of the ‘committee for improving the quality of canteen food’, which like any other committee went into hibernation after a few meetings) fighting off the Monday morning blues(For the record, I am pretty flexible; be it about the ‘Monday’ part or the ‘morning’ part) , I thought of posting a few one-liners (I am not sure that they belong to that category, but it doesn’t matter), which was coined mainly during conversations with my friends:

I came, I saw, I shrugged.

I know what I don’t want/like, but not what I want/like.

I am not an atheist, I am not an agnostic; I am just plain lazy. (But the inertia of 23 years drags me to church pretty often. Now that reminds me of the Apache ad, cool one)

Marriage is a process in which a person who is a stranger for the first one-third of your life becomes the center of the rest two-third of your life.

Don’t walk in front of me, I wont follow you; don’t walk behind me, I wont lead you anywhere; just get the hell out of my life. (This one has already made its debut in a previous post)

Love is blind, said someone.
Its deaf and dumb too, says me.
So all those who are in love, please do not forget to avail the pension for the disabled.
Self assessment: sick sense of humor: D

Aag

2007-09-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Saw Ram Gopal Verma ki aag.
Its a very funny movie. Listen to Mohanlal's hindi accent (Its only as worse as mine.Atleast I dont go around crackng dialogues that are 1km long.)

It should have been named "Nisha Kothari ki legs";wud have justified the film more

Thought

2007-08-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

When all you are left with are the memories of the memories you missed...........
what will you call it?

rAnDoM

2007-07-27T02:53:00.000-07:00

There are times, (I think I have another post starting with the same words) usually evenings (more usually those highly-philosophically-oriented evenings) when I will be all set to write a blog(Microsoft Word 2003 is showing spelling error for ‘blog’. Talk about being behind the times) on some topic. I would even have the sentences framed in my mind. But by next day morning (when I would have a keyboard in front of me) I would have lost the entire urge to post. So many a posts have gone that way and never came back. (What smiley should I put here a :) or a :( ???)

Now why did I write this? ZimBly, (can’t help poking fun at my mother tongue). Speaking of that, one of my colleagues had some very interesting observations about Kerala (other than the boringly common ones about coconut oil and bananas):
1. Kerala is the only land where people drink hot water (wow! I never knew that bit of trivia)
2. In Kerala men don’t work, it seems females earn the livelihood (no comments)

Thankfully he was sitting in the front seat of the car and me in the backseat, so I was spared the effort of replying. And the others in the car were too awed by these tidbits of info to see whether I was sleeping or watching the dull green fields pass by.

Now onto stereotyping, I am not too bothered about this mallu stuff. But stereotyping girls- that bother me at times (I mean those times when I am not my usual ‘passive-nonchalant-why bother’ self)
The way women are portrayed in movies and books-those irritatingly frail characters who don’t understand a thing about football and snort at bikes, who cooes “so sweet” 5 times a day, who take hours in front of the mirror, who cry seeing a senti scene and faint seeing a war movie, who consider shopping as the only form of entertainment etc. Real life versions are different I feel. Maybe a certain percent fall into this category, but u do have a variety of characters among the female population. It is really unfair when people assume things about u just because u happen to be a girl.
Common, not every girl would appreciate a teddy bear as a birthday gift : D

My first tag

2007-06-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

Getting tagged is not as interesting as seeing other ppl getting tagged.
Got this one from Aslam (Cant blame him.He had to find 8 people to pass on the tag)
I m supposed to write 8 random facts about me and pass on the tag to 8 people, well here we go

- I get philosophical when I m on a low(And I dont mean a low calorie diet)

- I cant stand self-help books. Advice is something I find hard to digest

- I love airports. The place radiates power.

- I admire people who are lost in their own world - the "dont walk behind me i wont lead you anywhere,dont walk infront of me i wont follow you.Just get the hell out of my life" kinda people.
(The last part is my own addition , with due apologies to Albert Camus)

- I hate sorrys and thank-yous ; leave it for the airhostess "Those who mind dont matter and those who matter dont mind"

- I can be passive about anything and everything , sometimes to an extent that can be highly irritating(to the people around me ofcourse)

- I dont believe in secrets. If you have told it to one person, its no longer a secret- as per my rule book.

- At home I drink only tea and outside home, I drink only coffee.

And I dont think there is anyone left for me to tag.I am new to the blog world , just 2 months old. Rohit and Arjun u can pick this up if you feel like it.

desperate times

2007-06-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

There are moments when I desperately wish I had my digicam with me.

Like yesterday…..

I was so busy chatting when reality bit me- the pleasant smell of something burning. I had kept the milk to boil and forgot about it. And there lay my masterpiece – an intricate design in black and white rendered on a stainless steel background. Davinci would have turned green with envy. Now, if I had my camera?? You would be staring at my masterpiece here, Dan Brown would be writing his next best seller and I would be on the phone with Sotheby’s ;)
Letting your imagination run wild is not a crime.

I, an established miser, in an attempt to save a few thousand bucks, asked my relative in Saudi to get me a digicam. The digicam duly arrived at home, but I haven’t. 246 more hours to go :D

I did save some money. But of course with due respect to the law of conservation of savings, I squandered it on my innumerable culinary adventures .Me and my roommate make a rather lethal combo when it comes to trying out new cuisines and restaurants. “Choodu vellathil veena poocha thanutha vellam kandaalum pedikum”, but we don’t get demotivated that easily. We have enough experiences to write a “Restaurants in Delhi-where not to go” guide. The high lights would be:

The Mexican disaster: The posters on the wall looked tempting enough. The food, in my roomies words “tasted like vomit”. She gave a far more “juicy” description, which I would rather not write down here. I don’t want people puking on my blog. It would look pretty dirty rt?

Japanese Hara-kiri: When I ordered the dish, ignoring the price and the deplorable state of my wallet, I never knew that plain boiled chicken could me made so tempting. A very sophisticated name on the menu and a very sophisticated waiter to pronounce it is all it took!!!

And the most recent one put a semicolon (the full stop will need a lot more coaxing) to my love for Bengali food. The place was supposedly the best Bengali restaurant in Delhi. The ambience and service were definitely good, but the food let us down. We should have stuck to our regular Bengali sweet house; we would have got 12 mudkas of mishti doi(a Bengali dessert) instead of 2 for the same money. The price for being disloyal …… Sigh

And this weekend we have a Russian adventure planned.haha

444 and counting

2007-06-18T00:00:00.001-07:00

444 more hours and i m home.

My mother tells me not to count hours like this. "Dont look fwd to sumthng so much. u may be in for a big disppointment " is what she says.

But I have been doing ds for the past 5 years ; before every sessionals, before each endsem (ask my friends who have seen the "--- hours to go" piece of paper in my room before each exam and poor me sitting infront of it fighting off the exam-induced-drowsiness and the"i desperately need to read some book-and yes- before the exam too " syndrome ), before my each flight home- dts a hell lot of counting involved.Not to mention the number of times i recount.
And nowadays i even volunteer to count the hours for my roommate who is going home soon.
pretty desperate eh? or can i boast of being crazy? :)

Why am i so obssessed with counting?(And of late i have come to the realization that i ask way too many questions while talking - why? what? how come? really? why not?.....Its now creeping into my blogs too. A few days back i even thought of putting up a post with just questions-questions i have often asked myself)

Maybe because i hate waiting.But then everyone hates to wait and though i have seen people who count the number of days, i am yet to meet someone who count the hours.

I am unique , like everyone else :)

Nanotales!!!

2007-05-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

A story in 6 words- that is what a nanotale is.
The classic example given is Hemmingway's "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Well, didn make any sense to me.My favourite is Margret Atwood's "Longed for him. Got him. Shit."

There was a time when i was totally smitten by nanotales. Whatever i thought i wud try to cram it up in 6 words ; articles and propositions often ended up as martyrs. A few more from the human species wont hurt ; )

"I dont want to be understood"

"Different people. Different dreams. Different nightmares"

"I tried hard, but it rained"

"I doubted myself, I embraced solitude"

"Emotional blackmail-backbone of a relationship"

"Solitude replaced lonliness,I learned to live" (I can count alright)

"Life - an interesting game of probabilities"

Well the "nanotale phase" didn last long, much to my relief(frankly speaking). Its not much fun when you start counting the number of words everytime you think or speak.

But brevity has its own charms (wow! one more to my collection) .

World of words

2007-05-07T05:04:00.001-07:00

My friend had to buy a book. And that took me to a few bookshops yesterday. And that same old feeling..So many books out there waiting to be read.I wish i had all the time and money in the world.

And seeing the long and impressive list of books in blogger and orkut profiles dont help at all.

Well the only solution i see is marry a bookstore owner :)

Ok..me too

2007-04-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

A post finally!!!
After a week of wandering around in search of a blog title( well, not much.delhi heat and my sheer laziness made it sure that i dont wander around too much. all i have done is google different combinations of very "intelligent" sounding words or simply lie on my bed staring at the ceiling waiting for a sudden flash of inspiration ) .
Finally got bored of it all n settled upon this one. By this time i had already bored a handful of people with my talk about "i want a blog title with a feel u know ", whatever that means. Even i dont understand myself at times.

And on a boring saturday afternoon in office with bangla songs in the background(got a bengali sitting in my cubicle) , I typed my first post.I know its not a moment to be etched in history or anything, but maybe i will remember it , atleast the fact about bangla songs. simply.

I am still very apprehensive about blogging. Its as if I am throwing my ideas in the wind, it might get picked up by someone, strangers at times or it might just wander around forever. Not knowing what will happen to it - i hate uncertainities.
But i was fascinated by the idea of having a page of my own n all,and i created one.And here i am.

Plus you need something to blog on. My literary skills have never impressed me much, so that is ruled out. And nothing very interesting happens in my life (oh yeah, i am going home in july and thats the only event i have got to look forward to , so you know how interesting my life gets ! ) . Add my laziness to that.
And this might end up being my first and last post .