Thanu's Humble Abode

I never thought this day will come...

2007-10-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

To all my readers (the 3 people that read my blog), I rarely update this blog so I have decided to discontinue it.

I will still have it up just in case I change my mind in future.

I learned so much from this blog, I was never a writer (not that I claim that I'm a writer now), but I am happy that I was able to write things here and people actually read it.

I made friends from all over the world, and no discontinuing this blog doesn't mean the friendship stops.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog for the past 2 yrs, I'll still be a regular reader at all your blogs

UPDATE: I had couple of people ask me the reason, the reason is just that the whole blog thing is not as appealing now as it was before. I don't look forward to writing anymore.... I just do it because I feel like "Its been more than a month since my last post...lemme write something. "

life on the refrigerator door

2007-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

I love to read, mainly fictions and mysteries (most of you would know this after my crazy series of Harry Potter posts).

I have a list of books I would like to read, and anytime I come across a nice review or something about a book that catches my attention I add it to my list. Before I go to the library I go through my list and Google them and read reviews. If the reviews look appealing only then I get the book (Amazon is great for reviews)

Today I went to the library to return few book and I did not have time to go through my list before I went, so I happened to pick 3 random books.

One of them being Life on the refrigerator door, and I loved this book. It was about a mother and daughter leaving notes on the refrigerator door. The last pages gave me goosebumps and I got teary eyed - this has never happened to me (okay I lied, it happened when I read Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince and you know who died).

I liked this book a lot and I think picking up random books from library is not that bad of a thing.

Comfort(able) Food

2007-09-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

When we were all kids we had a favorite food.

Mine was Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati, it was a dish made with potatoes. Potatoes are cut julian, then cooked in water with salt, pepper, turmeric and chili powder. Once it is 80% cooked, it is then sautéed in oil till crispy. During my childhood years I lived for this. I used to eat it with everything, Chapati, Dosa, Idly (I used to slice the idly horizontally and put this dish in between, and make my own sandwich), rice and a lot more.

I used to always ask my mom I don't want anything to eat with this, just give me this. She never listened to me always served this as a side dish. When I was 10 or 11, I remember telling her that when I get old enough to decide what to make for dinner, I am going to make Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati everyday and eat it by itself.

Well that never happened, till today. For dinner all I had today was Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati and I'm so HAPPY.

So what is your comfort food?

Vaanu Thiruonam

2007-08-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

I have graduated from "I cook so that I do not starve" to "I'm a good cook".

I cooked a huge Ona sadya for few of our friends, they all enjoyed it and had a wonderful time.

Very rarely we invite more than 2 people at a time and my usual menu is Fried Rice/Vegetable Pulao and chicken curry. This is something that you can never go wrong with. Everyone likes it and it is easy to make.

Onam has always been a special time to me, so this Onam I decided to do it on a large scale (cooking for 8 is a large scale according to me) and invited people very close to us.

Me being my usual self had a time line of things to do whole of last week with Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mainly being shopping and cleaning. Thursday was supposed to be the prep day, but something else came up and that did not happen.

Friday since I missed a day, I was little on the "I can not believe I'm behind" stage. Friday evening I started cooking and some last minute cleaning. Woke up around 6.30 AM on Saturday and cooked till around 11.00 AM and I was done. I was so happy because I never knew I had it in me to be able to cook such a elaborate meal.

All our friends came, all the girls were dressed in Set Mundu and the guys in Mundu and Juba. We lit our Nella Vilakku and sat around it and ate our lunch on Vazha ella (banana leaf).

It was such a beautiful experience to celebrate Onam with dear ones.

Happy Onam to all.

Its Finally Here

2007-07-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning scene at home

Wake up at 8.00 am - which is early for me on a Saturday
Go to Amazon.com and track my order
It shows it the package is in my City, so it will be home soon
Its 10.00 AM and the package is still not here
Its 11.00 and ding dong the door bell rings

And Voila.......

I was so happy as I tore open the package, Shekar says what if they shipped you the sixth book instead of the seventh, I gave him the dirtiest stare and told him don't even joke about it.

Grabbed the book and sat on our patio till 2.00 PM and read, ate lunch and then went back to reading. Then around 8.00 PM took break for dinner and then got back to reading at 10.00 PM and stayed up till 2.00 AM and I finished the book. No Spoilers here.... I liked the book, lot of things going on.. but still HBP is my favorite of the series.

So now I'm planning to re-read it very slowly just in case I have missed something. Little sad that the whole Harry phenomenon is over (not really they are 2 more movies and I can always re-read 1-7 ;)...).

My copy of Deathly Hallows..... looks so pristine... and I'm going to pass this on from genration to generation.. just like the Invisible Cloak.

I finally did it

2007-07-15T19:16:00.000-07:00

We all have something about us that we like the most. I love my hair. I have typical mallu hair and what that means is a head full of wavy hair. I wrote this post about how I would never cut my hair.

Earlier this year I decided that I was going to donate my hair. I read about couple of organizations and I decided on an organization called Beautiful Lengths. This organization makes wigs and gives them to women who have lost their hair during cancer treatment.

So finally this weekend, I went ahead and cut 10 inches of my hair and now I have short hair. I'm not liking my short hair yet, it takes a little getting used too.

Here is a picture of my chopped off hair.

Upcoming week

2007-07-14T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is a major week for all Harry Potter fans, the last book in the series is releasing a week from Today.

I'm so excited, I don't think I have ever been this excited for a book. Like I said before I pre-ordered mine on Amazon, so I'll be getting it on Saturday (morning hopefully).

Here is my plan
- Finish all the chores by Friday night
- Attend Release Party on Saturday Midnight
- Come home get some sleep, till the book arrives
- Read, Read and Read...
- Be done by Monday else call in sick, stay home and read.

I'm going to watch Order of Phoenix tonight....

Have a great Harry Potter week.

Lumos

2007-06-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this space for so long.

Main reason being, I have been bitten by the Harry Potter bug. Harry Potter has been around for almost 10 years and I never felt any attraction towards it. Few years ago I went to the library and picked a HP book, read first chapter and decided it wasn't for me.

Other day my colleague, mother of 2 kids, told me "Yes, it is indeed a kids book, but you will enjoy it." Not trusting her enough I emailed my cousin asking about HP.

His reply was "WHAT!! You haven't read any HP? Log off your email, get the first book (beg, borrow or steal) and read it and then reply to this mail."

Wow I read this and I was like it has to be good? So just as my cousin advised I logged off went to the library and picked the first book in the series and I was hooked.

Its been little more than two months now and I have read all the 6 books, pre-ordered the 7th book from Amazon, watched all the 4 movies and am planning to catch the 5th movie in IMAX-3D.

Currently I'm reading "Mugglenet.Com's What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7"; this is a very interesting read. I believe my craziness will finally end when I visit the Harry Potter Theme park in 2009 (maybe 2010).

Card for every occasion

2007-05-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Greeting Cards has been a huge part of my life. As a kid we got a lot of Christmas cards and I was in charge of collecting them after each year and saving them.

Then on rainy days when Veena and I were not allowed to play outside we played this game where we had to guess who sent us this card. I used to always win and I was the person who managed these cards.

As we got older, I used to save money that my parents gave to buy cards for friends and families birthdays. During my teenage years I was all about cards. I would send "Just Hello", "Thinking of you" cards.

Recently the whole card thing has worn out. I really do not care for cards. For me its more like just waste of money. Now when I get a card from someone I save it but have stopped sending cards.

I have started sending hand written letters to all my friends on their Birthdays.....

I have finally grown up

So do you all save the cards you get?

Clearing Misconception

2007-04-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

I just added a label to my last year's B'day post and hence it showed on few subscriber's feeds.

And so I got a few advance Happy B'day wishes. My B'day is towards the end of April.

Thank you all for the wishes...

Spring is here

2007-04-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

These are few pictures I took around our place.

Kattan Kapi

2007-04-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Kattan Kapi is one of the few items that doesn't get the recognition it deserves. There are a lot of ways to make this, it is black coffee with sugar. There are lot of variations to it, few add jaggary, few add karipetti (I'm sorry folks don't know what it is called in English), few add ghee, but the basic is just the same. Coffee powder, water and sweetener.

At my dad's house, the first thing that they made in the morning was a huge pot of kattan with no sugar. It was then poured into a thermos. Who ever woke up would come to kitchen, take a cup, put some sugar and then pour the hot kattan from the thermos into the cup. Then he/she would sit on the ari petti (it is a box found in old homes where things like rice were stored) and drink this hot kattan. If ari petti was already taken, then the person would sit on the katala (door frame). Be it grandkids, daughter in laws of the house, sons of the house, daughters of the house, son in laws of the house - every single person followed the exact same thing. When the thermos would get empty, more kattan would be made. Last thing that ammachi did before going to bed was empty the thermos, clean it and get it all ready for the next day.

Years have gone by the house is Kerala is locked. But even today when dad visits his house the ritual of kattan comes alive.

I drink a lot of kattan. Sometimes the kattan I make tastes exactly like the one I used to drink as a kid in Kerala. And till I finish that cup I become this little girl sitting on the ari petti listening to all the elders speaking and sipping my chood chood kattan (really hot black coffee).

This whole post was inspired by one such kattan that I had few minutes ago.

Gas Station in Reno

2007-03-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

This was taken almost a year ago. The gas price

is higher than this these days .....

Tag marathon - I

2007-03-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

Nehihal tagged be long time ago, so here it goes.

Three things that scare me
1. Drowning
2. I'll get a flat tire when I'm driving alone, plus it is dark and raining
3. Snakes

Three people who make me laugh
1. Shekar does a good job most of the time
2. I can amuse myself most of the time
3. Josh Blue - he was winner of Last Comic Standing, very original and very instant. I can re watch all his shows and laugh my heart out.

Three things I love
1. Waking up and realizing I still have 2 hours before I have to wake up.
2. Saturday Mornings - That is the day I relax, wake up around ten and just walk around not doing anything.
3. A very heavy downpour of my day off. I can just stare out of my window for ever.

Three things I hate
1. Women who depend on guys for EVERYTHING.
2. Sarcastic Remarks
3. A messy Kitchen

Three things I don't understand
1. Why are people late for their appointments?
2. Why do women take abuse from their husbands?
3. Why is it easy for guys to loose weight as opposed to us gals.

Three things on my desk
1. Picture Frame
2. Cell Phone
3. Coffee Mug

Three things I am doing right now
1. Deciding on what to do for dinner
2. Watching TV in the background
3. Thinking - kab katam hoga yeh tag?

Three things I want to do before I die
1. Go on a Cruise
2. Scuba Diving
3. Have kids.

Three things I can do
1. Organize
2. Yap
3. Sleep like a baby regardless of where I'm.

Three things you should listen to
1. News
2. Music
3. People who really care about me.

Three things you should never listen to
1.Heavy Metal Bands - I always get a headache after listening to them
2. People out there who give opinion when I never ask
3. And yeah.. me singing

Three things I'd like to learn
1. Guitar
2. Swimming.
3. Make a good Mutton Biriyani

Three favourite books
1. The Firm - Grisham
2. Memoirs of Geisha - Arthur Golden
3. For Matrimonial purposes - Kavita Daswani.

Three favorite food
1. Anything I don't have to cook
2. Love Chicken tikka Masala
3. Chole Batura.

Three beverages I drink regularly
1. Water
2. Tomatoe Juice
3. Coffee

Three TV shows/books I watched/read when I was kid
1. Mungerilaal ke haseen sapne
2. Wagle ki Duniya
3. Dekh Bhai Bekh

What I see in the morning

2007-03-17T12:57:00.000-07:00

The is the View from our house.

Spring:
And yes, the little black and white spots are cows grazing.

Foggy:

Rainy:

So, Where are you at?

2007-03-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Following takes place at my work:

5.30 PM
I call Shekar: "So what time will you be getting out of work"
Shekar: another 10 minutes.

6.00 PM
Shekar has not come to pick me up yet. (We have started car pooling recently so conserve energy). So I work away getting all mad at Shekar as he still hasn't called to mention he will be late.

6.15 PM
I'm really mad, he still hasn't called or come by.

Following takes place at my home:

6.10 PM
Shekar pulls into the parking, and looks around. This is something we both do. When we park our car, we look if the other person is home. So Shekar sees my car, which means I'm home. He goes home, no lights are turned on, and the bedroom door is closed.

He assumes I'm in the bedroom and he goes turns the TV on, hangs around the living room for a while and still not hearing anything from he, he comes into the bedroom and I'm not there.

There have been instances, where I'll be on my cell phone and since the reception at my home sucks I just stay in the car and talk, so he walks over to my car and I'm not there either.

6.30PM At home
He is really mad because I came home and went somewhere and did not tell him.

6.30PM At work
I'm really mad that Shekar is late and hasn't called to tell me that he is running late My Cell phone rings I see its Shekar and picks up the phone with a furious "hello" Shekar on the other end, replies with more furious "Hello, where are you?"
Me: What do you mean where am I, I'm work, where else can I be?
Shekar: HAHAHAHA... did I drop you off at work today?
Me: You went home with out picking me up?
Shekar: I'll be right there.

Finally got home around 7.00PM.... all this for my need to save energy

Pranks...

2007-03-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

As most of you would know, I have an Older sister, Veena who is very very naughty (even till this day). So she plays pranks on me very frequently and I rarely get to pay her back.

Then there was this day.

We both were sitting on my bed and arguing over something ( I don't even remember what it was now). She wanted something that I had and I wouldn't give it to her. I remember holding it really tight and close towards my body and Veena trying to snatch it.

After few minutes of fighting, we had strict rules about fighting:
- No pulling hair as she had nice long hair and I had short hair, so I had an advantage
- No scratching each other's faces - We girls had to look pretty
- No matter what happened no complaining to parents

So we were fighting by our rules and then finally Veena's nails scratched my eye. I felt this burning sensation and I covered my eye and yelled out "My eye My eye."

Veena stopped what ever she was doing, and made my take my hand off my eye. I told her that it was hurting. She is a very caring sister and she ran to get some cold water to rinse my eye. She came back with some water and I was still sitting with my hand covering my eyes.

She finally made me move my hand and yelled "I can not see, Oh my god I can not see with this eye."

Veena sat there speechless all teary eyed and screaming "Are you sure?". "Wash your eyes again". I couldn't hold my self anymore, I burst out laughing I was kidding, I can see well.

Well, I almost got killed that day.

For all those worried souls, my sclera (the white part of my eye) got scratched and I had a red mark on it for a week. But the joy that little red scratch brought me was just priceless.

Even today I call Veena once in a while and yell over the phone, "I can not see, OMG I can not see"

Movie Update:

Omakara - Was kind of slow, I liked it, even though I had read Othello and seen the Malayalam version.
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead man's Chest- was a nice watch. Towards the end, left so many thing unfinished that you know a sequel is coming soon.
Running scared - Very nice movie, but now for the week hearted, lot of bloodshed, lot of cursing

I know I saw a lot more movies, don't seem to recall them though :(

Another Kitchen Saga

2007-02-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

Other day I was making fried rice. It is very easy so the only help I solicit from Shekar is to chop the onion. So I'm in my happy mood cooking away, and I'm all done other than the frying the chopped onions and garnish my rice.

We have 2 kinds of cutting boards, one plastic bigger and one glass - smaller. Shekar hates the glass cutting board as its very noisy when the knife hits the glass, so he religiously only uses the plastic one. That day for some reason he decides to use the glass one.

Just for reference, this is how our cooking range looks, it is electrical.

So I have this Tava with hot oil, put my onions in it, put the cutting board on the neighboring electric coil. I didn't realize that I was still on.

After this I'm still in merry cooking land cooking away. Shekar is back in the living room. All of a sudden I hear this boom and I see glass pieces everywhere. Shekar comes running and says "What is that explosion". It takes me a minute to realize what just happened, the glass cutting board was placed on the electric coil that was turned on, and this caused the board to break.

I felt so relived that I didn't get hit. Not a single piece of glass hit me, and I was standing right there. Then comes the major part of cleaning this whole mess up. So I start cleaning the counter, every single shelf and finally the floor. It was all done and my kitchen looked back to its usual self. Then I go wait a minute... I had all the onion in the hot oil, which is now completely burnt, because I went after the whole cleaning thing. So I finally decided to serve the rice without the onions.

Then I realized if I had decided this in the beginning I could have escaped the whole ordeal.

On the brighter side of things, Shekar never has to hear the tak tak noise of knife hitting the glass cutting board.

This is just for Taks
Movie Update:

Inside man - About a bank heist. Very well made, very nice. Will recommend to everyone who enjoys thrillers.
Super Man returns - Nice, shows superman as having a very sensitive side.
V for Vendetta - Another nice one. This is one of those movies, even after the movie has ended you will still be talking about it.
Don - Apun ka hindi wala Don. Finally got a chance to see it. I don't care what everyone says I liked it, regardless of the fact that I can not stand SRK.
Changing Lanes - This is a 2002 movie, was just ok.
The Omen 666 - Horror Genre.. but not that scary. Well made and loved the ending.
Failure to Launch - Date movie, with few giggles here and there.
Ice age (meltdown) - Amazing.
The Illusionist - Great movie. In the beginning movie seems kind of slow. Upon further research I found all the magic in this movie was real and not CGI, and that made me respect the movie even more. Read more about on wiki.

Movies...

2007-02-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Taks, I have something to post every day.

Movies I saw last week

Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift - Was a nice movie, you will love it if you are into cars. All I wanted to do was try to drift my car after watching this movie.

Chicken Little - It is a feel good animated movies, wait a minute all animated movies are feel good. Was fun to watch.

Rumor Has it - It wa just ok. But made me think, how much do we love our significant others to forgive them when they cheat.

Coming soon....
Ice Age - the meltdown

Weee ...Another Movie?

2007-01-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Its been so long since I have posted here....Its not that the initial joy of blogging has slowed down, its just that I have got a lot busier than I used to be.

It is all Netflix fault. We are so addicted to Netflix these days. When we get a movie in mail, both Shekar and I are so adamant to watch it the same day.

So after a long days work, we come home and all our evening are just the same recently.

Check Mail
Shekar proudly announces"Another movie came"
I joyfully open the envelope to see which movie it is, regardless of the email I got from Netflix earlier that day saying "Little Ms. Sunshine has been shipped"
I open and go "Yeaah...Little Ms. Sunshine"
Cook something for dinner, something simple as I have no time to make a elaborate dish as I have to finish the movie tonight.
Go to Gym.
Come home shower.
Rush through dinner.
Then the time has arrived and we turn on the DVD (its usually 10.00 PM by now).
Watch the movie, and then go to bed.

Hello, I'm Thanu and I'm addicted to Netflix. As a part of getting rid of this addiction we received a movie on Saturday, and we still haven't watched this.

*Thinking to self– which means we have 2 movies to watch tonight, so we can skip gym and watch both tonight. *

Books and Me

2007-01-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

Growing up I was one of those kids who read everything assigned to them and a lot more. Close to our home there was a library walk able distance from our house and Veena and I used to go there once a week and spend an hour there, and bring back few books.

We also subscribed to lot of magazines and lots of memories are associated with them.

Chacha Chaudharay - I remember reading this book too, but do not remember lot of details. I remember how Chacha Chaudhary looks. This was the only book in Hindi I used to read.

Chandamama - I used to love the Vikram and Betal stories.

Gokulam - This was a magazine published in Tamil Nadu. It was monthly magazine and I used to go buy it at a book store. I even to this day remember few of the stories they used to publish. They had a series called 13th window, in this a family moves into the house and a little girl counts total number of windows and she finds that from outside there are 13 windows whereas from inside there are just 12. And the story is about the little girl's quest for the 13th window. Then there was this other series called Undir stories. This was stories about rat, and these rats lived life like humans and each issue had something new about the rats life (sounds lame now, but was very very interesting back then).

MISHA - This is a Russian Magazine, they used to have real thick pages and a distinctive smell. Even tough the book was thin (maybe had 20 pages total) we used to read and re-read till the next issue arrived. I guess they do not publish this anymore. This was during my early childhood days so I barely remember the stories.

Panchathantra Tales - My parents got me this huge collection of panchathantra tales and I read and re-read them all the time. I knew each story word by word and still read it.

Tinkle - We all have read this, this was mainly read when we traveled. We brought this at railway station and read it. Suppandi was my favorite character. When I got to my grandfather's place Veena and I used to act out the whole Suppandi story for him.

Wisdom - This was a book that dad made us read. We were never too excited about reading this, but we still read it. What I remember on each page, at the bottom, a quote was printed. For some reason I used to enjoy reading them and used to make an effort to actually learn that quote (what a dork I used to be).

Readers Digest - This is the only magazine that I still read. As a kid I wouldn't understand most of the jokes, I just read it because Veena read and I wanted to do everything like her. Now I have started to enjoy it, and yeah Veena still subscribes to it.

Now I still read a lot, but mainly novels. I can not get myself to re-read them again. Now I just think re-reading is plain waste of time and lost all the magic a re-reading brings.

No matter now or then books just bring joy to my life

I'm Back I'm Back...

2006-12-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

After my longest vacation ever I am back to my sunny California (which is actually real windy these days).

I had a wonderful time:

spent time with family
travelled a lot.
met old classmates.
saw lots and lots of movies.
ate a lot.
met Shekar's friends.
heard childhood stories of Shekar.
shopped a lot.
attended weddings.
sang Christmas carols
attended early morning Christmas service
took loads of pictures...

Happy New year to all.

India, Baby

2006-11-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

(has to be read with the same energy Joey says London Baby in Friends)

Yes folks, my much awaited India trip is almost here.

The past few weeks I have been very busy shopping and deciding on what to take, as I hate doing things last minute. I still have loads and loads to do so will not be blogging regularly (like if 2 post a month is regular..), and will not be reading blogs too.

On the bright side when I come back I will have loads and loads of things to post about.

So wishing Everyone, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry C'mas and a very very Happy New Year..

INDIA, BABY!!!!

I Wish I Wasn't a Kid Anymore

2006-11-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

So as promised here is my part 2.

Corresponding to the point 1 below, I always used to have bruises. My elbows and knees we always scrapped. I have so many scars even today from all those falls. The reason I hated every time I fell and scrapped my skin I would go home bleeding. Before getting any sympathy from mom I would get yelled at, hten she would wash that wound in Dettol. I call still feel the burn all that feeling comes back when I see a bottle of Dettol.
Hand me downs: This was one thing I hated the most. Having a sister older, who kept her things very neat and clean meant it would be passed down to me. In the earlier days my parents thought it would be so adorable to see both their kids dressed alike, so they would get us the exact same dress. Later we were told this was done to avoid conflict. So which meant when we outgrew our dresses I would get Veena's which was not a bad it, but it ended up being the same dress I wore years ago. Now after so many years, Veena and I are the same size so when we visit each other's we raid each others closets and take what we like.
Competitiveness: I used to be so competitive back when I was a kid. I had to win in everything I took part, be it sports or giving speeches. It has worked to my advantage now that I think of it, but I wish I had taken it slow back then and enjoyed school days than overly cautious about making sure I was the best (or at least tried to be) in everything I did.
Sunday School: My parents took us to church every Sunday, which was okay. But what I disliked was going to Sunday School (Sunday school is classes held at church before or after the service where kids are taught about the religion). Going to classes, learning new songs were all fun, but we used to have exams and competition which I wasn't much of a fan of. The main reason was none of my non-Christian friends had to do this, so every Sunday I remember complaining to my mom so and so doesn’t' have Sunday school why should I. But these days when I got to church I feel so happy that my parents sent me to Sunday school.
Curfew: This was more of a teenager thing. I was supposed to be home before 10.00 PM no matter where I went. When I was in college all friends would hang out till late at night, but my parents would never let me. I have had so many arguments with them regarding this. Now when I come to think of it I would act the same way when my 17 year old would ask me about staying out late at night.
Unable to keep in touch - I had so many great friends back in 3rd grade, 6th grade and most of us moved around so we never kept in touch. 9th grade and 10th grade we started writing letters. I so wish when I was younger I had a way to keep in touch. I'm able to track most of them now on orkut, but still am looking for a dear friend from 3rd grade.
School Uniform: We did not have a fun uniform, navy blue skirts and white shirts. But what I hated about the uniform was that fact we had to wear read ribbons. My younger days I had short hair, so it wasn’t much of a deal, then my hair grew longer and I hated those pig tails I had to wear to school with red ribbons at the end. Who wears ribbons anyways?

I could come up with only seven…(this too I had to think for a week)

If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older - Tom Stoppard

2006-11-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

This is a two part tag, tagged my Silverine.
Rules
Write 10 things you loved about your childhood
Write 10 things you hate about your childhood
Tag other people.

I put together a list of things I loved and I seemed long enough to be a post so the things I hated will be a post by itself.
Things I love about my childhood:

The amount I could play. Everyday after school I came home changed my uniform and played with Veena and other kids outside till our mom called us. No I get back from work and need a huge motivation to even go to the gym. It used to be catch, then skipping, then Badminton. How many of you remember help sister? Even school had designated periods to play.
Friends - It was so much easy to make friends and keep friends. Nothing I said upset his/her feeling. We would be do (Katti) for a while then palam (batti) soon. Its not that I don't have friends now, I do but one has to very cautious what one says as one gets older
Food - The amount of food I ate had no bounds. I was never an obese child but I ate a lot. Not having to worry about carbs and sugar was definitely better times, all I had to do was munch munch munch
Sneaking and Eating - This is something that Veena and I did regularly. We would sneak into the kitchen and steal food. It was not because mom never fed us, but it was mainly for the rush and thrill one feels. Things that we ate were Maltova, Thenga (coconut), sugar and not just limited to these. Above all was the joy when mom woud take the Thega and see bite marks on it and ask who it was, we would both together say it was a mouse.
Sibling - Veena was the best sister one could as for, we are still close, but we both have lives of our own now. As a kid she watched my back, she stood by my side even when she knew I was wrong. In private she would come and tell me what I did was wrong. She played with me everyday, even though I was 3 years younger than her, she would play all my games with me patiently. We still talk everyday but miss chechi a lot.
Energy - Not once I remember getting tired as a kid. I can not even recall complaining to my parents that my feet hurt as opposed these days something or the other is always hurting.
Festivals - Be it Christmas, Easter, Onam my parents always made sure it was celebrated. Dad always took days off for Onam (Christmas and Easter were holidays) every year and he would tell us the same story over and over again. For Vishu our neighbors would come and wake us up take us (with eyes closed of course) to their house to see Vishu Kani.
Ela Podi (rice packed in a banana leaf) - After summer vacations when we travelled back to Tamil Nadu in train mom would make this Ela podi. It had Choru (Rice), Chuttu areche samandi (Coconut chutney), Etheykke mezhukuperrati. We were told we can eat our podi when we get to Ernakulum as that was the mid point of our journery. It is still fresh in my memory how Veena and I used to bug my mother from Kottayam asking is it Ernakulum yet, how far is Ernakulum. I haven't eaten a Ela podi for so long.
Time - As a kid I was never busy. I had time for everything, study, play, read and eat. Now I hardly find time, did the days get shorter as I grew up? I don't study or play these days, still rarely find time to read a book.
Passion - I had loads and loads of hobbies as a kid, stamp collection, currency collection, sticker collection and I used to be so passionate about them. I used to trade them with friends. It was all showcased in a book or album. Thinking about it, I believe it is still in storage somewhere. Now I can not think of one thing that I’m so passionate about, I do have new hobbies now but not the passion I had back then.

Part 2 to continue soon

Clown Feet

2006-10-23T17:27:00.000-07:00

Every time I go to India, I set time (and money) apart for shopping. Shopping is a huge thing for me as I rarely buy Indian clothes here, because I think they are very over priced. Plus I visit India quiet often so I can resist not shopping for Indian clothes till my next visit.

The only thing I do not shop for is footwear. It all started during my India visit in 2003, I wanted to get a pretty pair of sandals to wear with my new gorgeous saris that I got 2 days ago. So I went into this shoe place in Ernakulum, as most of my shopping is done in Ernakulum. I visited 3-4 stores but none of them had my size. I was little disappointed as I saw few patterns that I adored. So gave up the sandal’s hunt and went to Goodwill (Goodwill is a huge accessory shop in Ernakulum and has 4 floor of just accessories. Once can spend more than two grand there in less than 30 minutes). Got me some Jewelry, bindi and I was in much better mood.

Next stop was Thiruvalla, went to couple of store in my quest to find sandals, still no luck. Having no success there Antony chetan (he drove us around during our whole trip there), feels sorry for me and say "Molle there are lot of store in Chaganacherry I'll take u there" So I nodded with all the excitement and went to Chaganacherry.

Unable to find sandals in two stores I was disappointed. Antony chetan again cheers me up by saying there is another store in the corner lets go there and see. We pull up to the store and I saw that they had a huge collection, and that sight made me have faith. So I walked in and they started showing me sandals. After 20 minutes of still not having luck the salesman brings out this not so good looking sandals, and as luck would have it that fits me perfectly. I stare at these sandals as I do not want to get something that I may not wear then it strikes me this is guy's sandals. I ask the salesmen "Ithu anugalude cherupu alle? " (Isn't this guy’s sandal?) For which he replies with out a twitch that "Ithre valiya kaal unda penugallum iganethe aanu idunathu" (Girls with such big feet do wear guy’s sandals). I smiled and dragged my mother out of there and ever since I have never visited a footware place in India.

Now Indian things are so "IN" here that I can walk to any store and pick up nice Indian looking sandals to go with my sari, and yes I can find them in my size.

For all the curious people who are wondering what size I wear, I wear a US size 10. This chart might help to put things in perspective .

This post is inspired by M where she describes her ordeal of finding shoes in America

Its Diwali...Play it safe

2006-10-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Everyone has his or her way to celebrate Diwali.

Ours was entirely different we didn't have any pujas (we being of Christian faith), but my parents did not want us to feel left out so they always bought fire crackers for us.

On the way back from work dad would pick up the crackers that we would like from the store, this happens like a day or two before Diwali. Veena and I would wait for dad to get back from work those days just to see which ones he picked out. In the beginning years he would only bring Chakram, puthiri and kabi thiri (I’m so sorry that I can not translate this, but this should help)

The day of Diwali like everyone who celebrated Diwali, we would take showers in the evening, wear our newest clothes (newest means - among all clothes, clothes we haven't worn that much, we never got new clothes for Diwali) and wait for dad and mom to light the crackers. Finally they would come and all four of us would enjoy spending the evening together lighting things. As we got older dad started getting us things that went boom, rocket and mala padakam.

All our fire cracking session would end with mala padakam, then we would call it a day and go inside and eat all the sweets our Hindu friends brought over to our place.

Years went by and one year Veena says “Do you realize we are just burning money on Diwali”. For which I replied, no not really, we feel happy when we burst fireworks so we are paying for happiness. Some how she convinced me (I was may be 13 years old) that it was better to ask dad for the cash he spends on fire crackers to be evenly divided between her and me. So for Diwali every year from then both Veena and I got cash and we stayed home and ate sweets while the whole neighborhood was outside burning cash. I never felt guilty about not enjoying that day, as I got cash instead.

For me Diwali was not about Ram coming home, or victory of good over evil, but it is about my parents spending time with us and making each Diwali memorable, even though it was something that we did not believe in.

No neighbors to bring sweets over, so I'm making Kesari today.

Happy Diwali to all.

Happy Birthday To My Abode

2006-10-05T12:44:00.000-07:00

My blog turns 1 today (I actually forgot about it, and Jaguu reminded me - Thanks Jagu cheta). I can not even believe that it has been one year, since I started blogging. Even though I have only 68 posts in this one year, I managed to stay alive and kicking.

I have had couple of people tell me that reading my blog makes them happy, that it brings a smile to his/her face. I'm so glad that I have had this effect on all you people.

What better post to mark a year than this, a tag from Alexis

1. Are you happy/satisfied with your blog, with its content and look? Does your family know about your blog?
I'm so happy with my blog. I never considered myself as a writer and I love to have a medium where I can put thing I feel like and have people read it. This blog has introduced me to so many people and so many places. I love the look of this blog, it is so peaceful and serene. The best thing about this template is you do not see the face of the girl, so she can be happy or sad, but you never know. So more attention is given to the environment and it dictates happiness regardless of how the girl feels. No one other than Shekar knows about this blog, and I like to keep it that way.

2. Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog or you just consider it as a private thing?
I consider it a very private thing and I would never send the link to friends or family, because then I would be more cautious of what I write.

3. Did blogs cause positive changes in your thoughts?
Not much really, I'm a very positive person. Regardless of how bad a situation is I can find something about the situation that is good. My blog is mix of my everyday life or my memories nothing much thought provoking. But when ever I write about my memories I feel very happy for rest of the day.

4. Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or you love to go and discover more by yourself?
I do both. I definitely visit people who comment on my blog and I bloghop. Mainly DesiPundit and Kerala Blogroll are my sources. If I'm on someone's blog and I read an interesting comment I definitely click and go visit them .

5. What does visitors counter mean to you? Do you care about putting it in your blog?
I do have a visitors count. I the beginning I used to be so excited when the number went up. I was so happy when it hit hundred (25 was my refresh I confess), then 1000, then 5000. Now it is more like a number, I'm more interested in where people come from, what they read. I have more readers in US then in India. Like when I was creating the new template it helped me by showing what majority of reader's resolution was so I could cater to that. I love the most about my visitor count is to see visit lengths. I just get happy when I see people spend more than an hour here.

6. Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
I've actually seen most of my fellow bloggers who I follow regularly (yes Archana, I have seen yours too). More than look I associate age with my bloggers.

7. Admit. Do you think there is a real benefit for blogging?
Benefit in the sense I have met some nice people. But there other blog like Mumbai Help which benefited lot of people in times of need. I always liked writing but I never got started, this has provided a medium to express myself. I just hope it lasts for a while and after years I can look at this and go wow.

8. Do you think that bloggers society is isolated from real world or interacts with events?
That is a misconception in the real world. They think bloggers have no life, on the contrary I believe bloggers are just regular people who writes in a public forum.

9. Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it's a normal thing?
I rarely get criticized, its not because I have the perfect grammar BUT it is because the people who read it. I have a very few loyal readers who let it slide if I make a mistake. There have been instance I read one of my post after few months and I realize that I have the grammar wrong, this post would have like 15-20 comments, but no one mentioned that mistake. It is because my readers do not really care about these mistakes I make. I do realize that my usage is incorrect, but they do not make it a point to point it out to me. There are few instances, someone has pointed it out and I have corrected it soon.

10. Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
I have an inclination for personal blogs, and those are the once I follow. Political blogs never attracted me, so I avoid them. It is not fear, but it is just not interesting to me.

11. Did you get shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
I think everyone is responsible for what he/she puts out on the web. If the content or the intentions for the content requires an arrest as arrest should be made. A freedom of speech does exist, but according to me that is one freedom that comes with lots of responsibilities.

12. Did you think about what will happen to your blog after you die?
I have thought about this few times. I have decided to give my log in to Shekar so he can put a note up here, so all my readers don't keep wondering. I'm sure Shekar will do no such thing, but hey at least I tried.

13. What do you like to hear? What's the song you might like to put a link to in your blog?
I'm still a sucker for slow melodious Malayalam songs.

Movie Name: Aniyathi Pravu (1997)
Singer: Sujatha, Yesudas K J
Music Director: Ouseppachan
Lyrics: Ramesan Nair
Year: 1997
Director: Fazil

Ennum ninne poojikkam ponnum poovum choodikkam
Vennilavil vaasantha lathike
Ennum ennum en maaril manju peyyum premathin
Kunju maarikkuliray neeyarike
Oru poovinte peril nee izha neytha raagam
Jeevante shalabhangal kaathorthu ninnu
Iniyee nimisham vaachaalam………..

(Ennum ninne poojikkam)

Ezhezhu chirakulla swaramaano nee
Ekaanthayaamathin varamaano
Poojakku nee vannal poovakam
Dhaahichu nee ninnal puzhayaakam
Ee sandhyakal allithenchintukal
Thoraathe thoraathe dhaaha meghamay…pozhiyaam…. (Ennum ninne poojikkam)

Aaakasham nirayunna sukhamo nee
Aathmaavilozhukunna madhuvo nee
Mohichal ninte manavattii
Mothiram maarumbol vazhikaatti
Seemanthini sneha paalazhiyil
Eeyormmathan than lillyppoonthoniyil
Theerangal theerangal thedi oomale…thuzhayam….. (Ennum ninne poojikkam)

And I tag ROS

Tagged again..

2006-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Rules of this tag:

Name the person who tagged you.
8 things about you.
Tag 6 people.

EU has tagged me, she rarely tags me so I had to get on it right away as opposed to my 1 month to do tags. In the beginning these kinds of things were easy. Now to find 8 things that no one (almost no one) knows about me is hard, so here it goes.

This is one thing that will come as a surprise to all, I do not like to cook. I can do all the dishes in the world, fold all the clothes, iron all the clothes. If I did not have to eat I would never cook.
I never gamble with money. I think there is no point in loosing hard earned 5 bucks at the slight prospect of getting 10 bucks.
I hate to loose, be it anything. During school years I had to win in everything that I took part, so I worked very hard and most of the time I did win. This leads to the next point.
I only bet when I know I'm 100% right. I almost never bet money, especially these days most of my bets are with Shekar and I bet chores these days.
I'm very good at giving space. If I even get a slight hint, that the person needs to be left alone, I would not mind leaving them alone.
I'm very good at keeping in touch, be it on phone, emails or personal visits.
I can not sing to save my life, but that doesn't stop me I still sing.
I love to pop bubble wraps.

6 people who I tag

Archana - She reads everything I write.
Deepthi - She is purani reader of my blog, but I have never tagged her.
Jaguu - usi ka line, I do a tag and you don't, yeh kabi nahi ho sakta.
Shilpa - Like to know more about you, that simple.
ROS - If I don't she will jabardasti make me do it.
Wolf - My first tag to him.

Ayyoooo

2006-09-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Growing up I was a very naughty kid, I know it is hard to believe as on my blog I come across as this matured women (I hear Shekar scoffing). I some how landed in trouble. I used to be very curious, not about people, but about things. How does this work, what would happen if I did this? This quest led me to do a lot of stupid things.

During summer vacations trip to Kerala happened every year. These were loads of fun as there were more places to explore. So one fine day I walking by the Erithil (shed for cows), saw an empty bulb holder. And I went wow, let me stick my thumb in it and see how it feels. Gadagadagada - that is how it felt, I ran and told ammachi (grand mother) what had happened because by that age I had figured, you tell mom, you get yelled at, you tell ammachi, you get sympathy. Ammachi knows lot more than my mother, because she brought my mother up. (It didn't take a lot for me to change that view as I got older because I was convinced that I knew more than my mother - Now I'm back to mom knows more). Ammachi explained it to me that I should never touch things that I don't know about, and that was it as opposed to mom which would have been a chutta peda (spanking)

Years passed by and I'm supposed to get wiser, that is a myth. In my earlier teens I used to have short hair and the only hair accessory I had were band like this.

I had dozens of this kind of band, of which my favorite one was the black metal one; hence I wore it a lot. One day I was for some reason I was staring at an outlet (the thing where we plug in stuff), and I went voila, how fun it would be to put both ends in the outlet and saw what happened. As most of you would have assumed I felt the hair band go gadagadgada and I threw the hair band out of my hand, and that was the last I saw of it.

Mom had this huge thing about hair not being clean. Anytime we touched our hair we were supposed to wash our hands. As I grew older (again not wiser) I started wearing my hair long. So hair used fall on my face which very gracefully I used to tuck behind my ear. Then this one day I got this idea to play with my hair using my tongue (kinda gross now that I think of it). I would just go round and round and that kept me entertained (life was so simple those days). Then one day it happened, one single hair got knotted around one taste bud and boy did that hurt. There is no way I could go to mom for the rescue, the first questions I would get was what was hair doing in your mouth. So I quietly went to my room, looked at the mirror and worked on removing the knot. After 15 minutes of struggling I somehow got knot removed (or the hair broke or something). After this experience never ever has my hair got anywhere near my mouth.

These are just a few, I got loads more. But before I put those up, what stupid things have you guys done? Or am I the only one?

Order Order

2006-09-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

I am a huge preacher and follower of order (like I haven't mentioned that a million times). And by order I do not mean Order as in Law and Order, but more like this goes here, that goes there.

Even as a kid my room was always clean. I had a table that had 3 draws and on the bottom were thing I rarely used, middle draw had things I used often and the top one had pens, pencils, glue and miscellaneous stuff like that. My Badminton Racquet was on the wall once I was done playing and with the birdie on the top of that nail. During my early school years books were arranged in my bag based on the order the classes were. If first period was English, English book was on the first one, and after using I would put it all the way in the back so next period's book would be up front.

I would put everything back after I used it. Years have gone by and this need for Orderliness grew with me.

Here is a list of things I do on a regular basis:

I need to fold clothes right after laundry is done.
During folding I have a pile going on by the side called, the ironing pile. Once all the clothes have been put away I iron the clothes in my ironing pile. So when I am in a rush to get to work I can pull out any outfit and it will be ironed.
My closet is L shaped walk-in closet, and in there I have dress clothes on one side and casual clothes on the other. Each side is further divided in to pants and shirts, and a small section for skirts. Indian clothes are tucked away as I rarely get to wear them.
All the kitchen skills (I don't have that much skill, so we can call it kitchen habits) are learnt from my mom. Whenever I helped her in the kitchen, I was supposed to put everything away after use. So it is like, take salt from shelf, use it and put it back. So now when I cook I put back all my masalas, so when I'm done cooking there is less to clean.
I need to pay all bills on time (more like the day they arrive).
My spoon draw (everyone has a spoon draw right?) is compartmentalized and all the spoon heads should face the same direction (it just looks so pretty like that).
Like I mentioned before everyone on my IM list is grouped based on where I met them. I have a group school1, school2, college, work.
I have a list going on for all the books I would like to read, as I blog hop and see something that I like I add that to my list.
I have the same thing (as above) for movies too.
All the books on my shelf are arranged by size, if two books have the same size, then it is alphabetized.
Speaking of Alphabetized I have this major need to alphabetize everything that can be alphabetized, it is so easy to find it.
While listening to CDs (I can put 6 CDs in the dash of my car) I can not just listen to few songs and play another CD, I have to finish all the songs in the currently playing CD.
After I get back from any trip, I need to unpack as soon as I can. I have to put all the toiletries away. I have to download all the pictures from my camera (this is more b/c I really wanna see the pictures).
After shopping when I get home I need to put away all the groceries I bought. They just can not stay in a bag. Not just groceries, be it clothes, shoes everything.

These are just few of the things I could think of, but believe me there are a lot more.

Amma Veshakunnu - Mom I'm hungry

2006-08-18T16:21:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post has a lot of Malayalam in it.

Jaguu and Jiby tagged me this a while back to write about 10 Things I Miss Of Mom's Cooking. When I read his tag, I decided I'm gonna keep a list (me and my obsessions with lists) at work and home and when ever I think of a food I will it down. Today as I sit to compile these two lists together I have more than 20 dishes, so I'm going to put down 10 among those twenty.

Achapam - Mom is the queen of snacks, she would randomly make snacks. Achapam is something she used to make often and she would make loads of it too. Now all her snack making schedule coincides with Veena or my visit. So dad asks us to visit more because he only gets to eat these when we girls go home.
Adda - Adda is again very easy to make but requires bannana leaf that I have not managed to find it close to my place. Mom used to put little extra sugar in Veena's and mine and she would mark the banana leaf so we could spot ours.
Appam - Doesn't matter Pal appam or Velyappam, mom used to make these so regularly on Saturday morning. She used to make mutton or potatoes stew to go with this.
Beef - Don't get me started on mom's beef curry. I make beef curry too, it is no where close to what she makes. My beef curry's gravy is never enough to eat kappa, by pieces are usually bigger. Above all mine has an orange color and hers has a nice dark brown color.
Chakka Kuru mezhukupurrati* (Jack Fruit seeds)- This is something that she used to make it when we were in Kerala, due to abundance of chakka kuru. It takes lots of effort as there are really small and to individually peel them is very time consuming. Veena, mom and I would sit around a heap of chakka kurru and peel. Veena and mine combined heap of peeled chakka kurru would be always less than moms.
Kappa(Yucca/tapioca) - This is a favorite dish of everyone who has ever tasted it. It is not the fact that I don't know how to make kappa (yellow color, not the white one), but it never comes out the way mom makes. Sometimes it is over cooked and sometimes it is not even cooked well.
Koorka mezhukupurrati* (I don’t know the translation for koorka, I googled it and saw some references to Chinese potatoes) - This is also very similar to the above, very time consuming to peel. This was my favorite; even to this day I can just eat this as a meal. Now here in US we get frozen, peeled koorkas that one can buy. So when mom hears that I'm going to visit she gets 2 packets and makes this. 1 packet for me and 1 for rest of the family.
Parupu Vada - This is a snack, Uzhunnu vada is more famous and u get them in all eateries but only few offer parupu vada. It is little hard to make, because we have to get the right texture so that it stays together when it is dropped in oil. I made it last month and as I dropped it in oil and it disintegrated, I served them as mini and micro mini parupu vada.
Puttu and Kadala - (Kalada – Chole) Puttu is very easy to make and back when I used to stay at home I used to make it under mom's guidance. These days breakfast has changed to cereals, waffles and bagels, as I do not have time in the morning to make elaborate dishes. Mom says to make it in the evening, for which I reply who wants to eat puttu for dinner. My Kadala curry is good to be eaten with roti and not puttu
Upperi (Banana Chips – Should be called plantain chips) - This is a mixed effort from both my dad and mom. Dad is the one who slices all the plantain. When we were kids, the weekend before Onam dad and mom would be making upperi. Upperi has become a tradition (detailed post on it later) in our house now. Anytime when we visit or when my parents visit they bring upperi.

Other day I made some rasam and I told mom that it is not as good as hers for which she responded, "I have been cooking for more than 30 years and you for less than 2 years". She also added "when I started cooking my food never tasted as good as yours do now, so don't worry you will be just fine". She then says "Your cake and Ethyekka appam is so much better than mine."

* mezhukupurrati - The vegetable (in my case, both are starch and not vegetable) is Julian cut, then cooked in water (80 %), salt, turmeric, chilli powder. Then tava is heated with oil and the vegetable is sautéed. We cook almost all vegetables like this.

All the above links are just so that my non-mallu readers can get a rough idea about the dishes. These are not my mom recipe's.

Vroom ZZZzzzz

2006-08-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

I have not updated this space for the longest time, so a very sincere apology to everyone who kept checking this for updates. Especially Neihal her comment has prompted this post.

Since the weather is nice we have been riding our bike a lot. Other day we went to Yosemite on our bike. I really wasn't all excited as Yosemite is more than 200 miles from our place. But Shekar was so excited about taking those curves, so I agreed.

It was all nice and fun the first hour then I started feeling sleepy. Falling asleep on a bike that is moving 70 MPH is not a good idea so I made Shekar stop for coffee. After a huge cup of coffee I was little awake and we continued again.

If you guys haven't realized yet, I'm not a quiet person, so being quiet for the whole ride drove me crazy (it is very hard to talk and we both have full face covered helmets and winds are so strong that even when we raise the shade the other person can not hear). We basically communicate with a tap and touches. (Shekar has promised to buy us a pair of helmet headsets so we can chat).

So I can not talk to Shekar, can not listen to music (we have these heavy duty ear plugs to avoid wind noise), can not sleep so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride, I got bored again and thought of things that keep me entertained. So

I played athaksiri with myself
Did some self reflection
Thought about all my friends who I had not called recently, and made a mental list to call then when I get back home.
Thought about topics to blog about - (don’t remember any of those topics though)
Made a mental list of things to do when I get back home
Counted all my teeth with my tongue (did a best of three to get the correct count)
Counted how many male cousins I had compared to female cousins (9 males and 16 females), than calculated the ratio.

After few long hours we finally reached our destination, spent some time there and then rode back again.

On the way back I was so exhausted to do any of the above mentioned, but did manage to stay awake some how.

Turn Right to Tighten

2006-07-13T16:06:00.000-07:00

I used to be dad's little helper around the house. So every Saturday morning, I used to help him wash his scooter. I was small, so he would make me slide under the scooter to clean it. I loved working with him and so he included me in all his projects.

As I grew older, he started giving me bigger responsibilities as hold the ladder as he climbed to clean the roof gutters. Then finally he started giving me projects of my own.

All this changed when I got married, now dad does all his projects by himself, and Shekar has got himself a little helper (not so little anymore, but little because I only help a little).

Working with both of them I realized that they actually love working with me and not another guy mainly because:

After working for a while, I would ask Kudikan vallom veno? (Do you need anything to drink).
I never tell them what to do, only assist in what they do.
I keep them occupied with conversations.
I can never tell if they are doing something wrong.
I will never make a statement "I have done this so many times before and you are doing it all wrong" OR "This is how you do it", OR "Give it to me"
I never boss them around while they working on car/bike/house because that is their turf and I obey.
If they get mad at me, I don't take it personally I know they are just annoyed it is very similar to when I cook and things don't turn as I like them to I get mad at them (especially Shekar and he knows not to take that personally).
I clean up as we go, if they wiped grease off their hands and the paper towel is on the floor I make sure I take it put it in the trash.
Above all I know my tools, I know the difference between flat head, Phillips, TORX screwdrivers. I know my wrenches and a lot more.

The whole last week was spent working on our car and bike and I have graduated from little helper to must have for Shekar (not that he has an option).

A-Z Tag II

2006-07-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

I have already done a A-Z tag , but this is a little different, so here it is.

Tagged by

My Accent: While I'm talking to folks here I have an American accent.

Booze: Not huge on booze, but living in wine country, have wines occasionally.

Chore I Hate: (thought so much about this) There is nothing really I hate. I don't love to do any chore, but I don't mind doing them.

Dog or Cat: Dogs, cats I fear.

Essential Electronics: Microwave

Fragrances: Heaven from Gap, Mambo from Claiborne, Curve from Claiborne.

Gold or Silver: Silver, but I wear gold.

Home: Currently California.

Insomnia: Been blessed with the ability to sleep through anything every time.

Job Title: Blogger

Living Arrangements: With Shekar

Most Admirable Traits: Helpful

Number of times in hospital: Never been admitted *touchwood*

Phobias: Cats and snakes, fear of loosing a loved one.

Quote: "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Religion: Christian

Siblings: I older sister Veena

Time I Wake Up: Weekdays 8.00 AM....Weekends - do I have to wake up?

Unusual Talent or Skill: Can always strike up a conversation with anyone.

Vegetable I Love: I like them all, maybe everything other than Broccoli

Worst Habit: Short Temper

X-Rays, Last time: Dental almost a year ago.

Yummy Food I Make: Fish Curry

Zodiac Sign: Taurus - Now that explains a lot.

Sun Shined Last Night

2006-06-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

When I started blogging it was never my intention to make friends, but was just to write what I felt like. Well, at least that is what I thought. Then one day, while I was on a trip I took few pictures of sunset and when I looked at them, I saw Rays of Sun, not the blog world ROS but regular rays of sun. So I thought I would send it to ROS.

Little did I know back then that this was going to be a start of a brand new friendship? The first emails were exchanged in late October and since then I have talked to her every day till today, other than the weekends and exchanged countless emails.

We are 2 very different people, share very different interest, the only thing we have common is that we both appreciate life. And that is what has held us strong. We know so much about each other's everyday life as to even what is going to be served for dinner.

After all the emails and phone calls later yesterday, ROS came to visit me. We spent a whole evening together like long time friends who haven't seen each other for a while. This was the first time I invited a person who I met online and I'm very glad that I did.

This meeting has only strengthened our friendship and I hope to see her more often as she has fallen in love with my Golden State.

As a tribute to this friendship, I'm adding the pictures here that started all this.

PS: Jagu, Malika, Vikram ,- As promised I served her Masala Dosa and Sambar for dinner.

I Feel Pretty oh so Pretty

2006-06-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'm a strong believer of beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For me a girl to be beautiful, has to have curly hair, should have great calves and biceps. By calves and biceps I don't mean the body builder type, but more like a defined shape.

So I was all into getting biceps myself. So I started lifting weights. Shekar guided me through this whole process. He showed me the correct way to lift them, the way to stand when I lifted and all.

So I would lift weights, started with 8 pounds, moved to 10, then 12 and finally 15. So I started seeing the shape on my arms and I was a very happy person. I would flex my muscles and show them off to Shekar. I did this for almost a month and whola, I was pretty according to me.

Then one day, I was getting ready for an occasion and I decide to wear saree and then the unthinkable happened. The blouse for the saree doesn't fit me anymore, because of my newly existing biceps. Since all my blouses are the same measurement, this meant, none of them are going to fit.

So I have decided that I do not want biceps anymore I just wanna wear my sarees.

Hopefully this happens soon as I love wearing sarees.

Me to Shekar: What should I lift for my biceps to go away?

Travel 101

2006-06-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

I had specified in my one of my previous posts that I am organized and my organization skill comes to life when I'm planning to go on a trip.

I'm flying tonight (just me, no Shekar) to go spend the weekend with Veena and here is a list of things I did to get ready for the trip.

Got the ticket almost a month ago ( I can never be spontaneous)
Both at home and work I have a list of things I need to take with me. If I remember something new I run and jot it down on my list so I don't forget.
Make sure I have books to read on the plane. Went to the library and got two suspense novels. It has to be suspense else I would get bored after the first 20 minutes (flight is almost 6 hrs)
Week prior to leaving I have all the outfits planned. Friday I'm gonna wear Capri pants with white t-shirt and so on.
Check with Veena on are we planning to do anything special. Like Sunday are we going to church? If so I need to take Church clothes.
Week before the actual day my packing starts. No it not packing in actual sense, it more like I make a trip pile and add things to it every day. Actual stuffing into suitcase happens the day of the trip.
Decide what I am gonna bring back from Veena's place (Remember when my mom came I gave her 2 sarees to stitch falls, she left it at Veena's place when she visited her place like 2 weeks ago), and take the suitcase according to that.
Cook, since I'm only gone for 3 days, but still made some food so Shekar has enough to last him till Sunday.
Do the laundry 2 days before the trip so I have good choice available clothes for me to decide what to take, and when I return I do not have to worry about not having clothes to wear.
I hate coming back to a messy house so I start a cleaning spree 2 days prior to the trip.
Day of the trip:

Print Boarding Pass
Get some money from the ATM
Straighten my Hair
Final packing (stuffing into suitcase)
Make sure cell phone is charged to 100%
Check the weather both here and at Veena's place
Skim my lists and make sure I haven't forgotten anything

Yes, folks I'm going to visit Veena today and will be back Sunday night. Till then all you guys take care and have an awesome weekend.

I know I'm going to.

Dad and World Cup

2006-06-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is the first world cup that I am watching without my Dad by my side screaming Goooaaaaaal, Eda Adi eda (hit a goal), Avante Karyam (this can't be translated).

We being a family of two girls, Dad has passed on all his passions to both of us. Football (Soccer) being the first and foremost.

I remember when World cup would come on TV Dad would ask us to join in. When we were kids we didn't care, we got to watch TV and we would sit next to Dad. As we grew older he would explain the game to us. He would say this is Corner Kick and would explain what it meant.

During the match he would quiz us and ask is this a Penalty Kick or a corner kick? Those few days the lingo around the house also changes. If we did something bad, Dad would say you are gonna get a Red Card. Veena and I used to run and hide when we heard this.

Veena and I started liking these matches and we would watch them and keep track of the points and would show off our knowledge to Dad. We used to say this team has 3 points and since that game was a draw that team only got 1 point.

Years have passed by and Veena, Dad and I we live in three different parts of the country, but everyday since June 9th there has been a phone call from me to Dad and from Veena to Dad just to discuss the matches that day.

Dad thank you for sharing your passion with us.

To Dear Dad....

2006-06-07T17:43:00.000-07:00

Father's day is on Sunday the 18th, so this year I decided to send a gift to my father as opposed to the usual Fathers Day card. So after hours of thinking and googling I finally decided to send him a coffee mug with Veena and my picture on it.

I am very particular about people getting gifts on time or earlier because it breaks my heart for fathers day to come and go and my gift is in still in the mail. So by end of May I had decided what I was going to give to dad, then I started looking through my collection of photos to get a good picture of Veena and me. I narrowed it down to three pictures and emailed it to Veena for approval.

Finally we decided on a picture and I placed that order. This was last week Tuesday and I have been waiting and tracking the package till today.

My cell starts ringing and I see its my parents calling. I grab the phone, yeay they got the gift. It was mom on the other line.

Mom: We got your gift.
Me: What gift?
Mom: The cup, with your pictures
Me: That isn't for you, that was for papa put him on the phone
Mom: (calling out for dad)Hold on, I can't seem to find him.
Me - holding and thinking oh dad must be so happy
Mom: Hold on, he is in the kitchen, making coffee in his new cup.
Me: (Excited) Oh really

Then dad comes on the phone

Me: You liked the cup?
Dad: The box the cup came in had a receipt that said this was almost 20 dollars.
Me: hmmmm (I see where this is going, the usual lecture about how I shouldn't spend money.)
Dad: That is an expensive cup.
Me: pakshe (but) you liked it right? Else give it to mom, she will be happy to have it.
Dad: Nooooo... its my cup I'm going to drink coffee in it every morning and every evening.
Me: :) (thinking - oh he loved it)

Happy father's day to a wonderful dad.

PS: Just an update, spoke to mom the other day and she says dad drinks juice, coffee and everything liquid like (oatmeal) in this cup.

Ouch...

2006-06-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Every given day I utter this word quiet a few times and every time it is because I have hurt myself. I'm very accident prone ( that's how I like to put it, as opposed to what Shekar calls me - Careless) .

It starts with waking up in the morning, and on my way to the bathroom, my shoulder hits the corner of the wall - Ouch
Come back from the bathroom to wake Shekar up, my toe hits the bed stand - Ouch
As usual I'm running late, so grab my plate with waffles and walk to the living room to watch news. My eyes are on the TV and bang I have kicked the coffee table again - Ouch
As I open my front door to get out, I forget to move my feet and I open the door, and it come and hits my toe - Ouch
I manage to get to work safe and I'm in a meeting at work. Most of the time I sit with my legs crossed at my knees. So I'm at this meeting listening away and I lift my right leg to cross over my left and thud, my right knee just hit the table - Ouch
After my day at work I return home. On of few things I do immediately after I get home is empty my dishwasher. So my dishwasher is lying open like this and I'm putting the dishes away and walking around the open lid, and as you all would have by guessed now, every evening I hit the part below my knee on this open door - Ouch

These are incidents that happen to me everyday. Then there are incidents that happen to me only once.

Other day at work, we all had a 30 minutes presentation to go to. The organizer did not realize there would be a good turn out, so he booked a small room that had seating capability for 10 people and we were like 20. So I got this nice spot by the door and just stood there. So I was standing there pretending to listen and all of a sudden I scream Ouch. The whole place went quiet and I had 20 pairs of eye staring at me, like what is wrong with you, Did you see a spider?

For a split second even I did not know what happen. It felt like someone had grabbed my hair and pulled it. When I turned around I realized that someone had shut the door and my hair got caught in between the door and its frame.

Then there are other days....

What Else is on TV

2006-05-25T13:43:00.000-07:00

"Men definitely hit the remote more than women...men don't care what's on TV, men only care what else is on TV. Women want to see what the show is before they change the channel, because men hunt and women nest." - Jerry Seinfeld

The first time I saw Jerry saying these lines all he got was a small chuckle out of me. Little did I know back then that it was the whole truth.

Every evening when Shekar and I get home there is a dash towards the remote. So when we are sitting and watching and a commercial break comes, he switches the channel. I on the other hand don't mind the commercial break, for me it is a break to do little chores like go wash the cups that we had coffee, or start prepping (just prepping not cooking) for dinner.

And when Shekar switches he sees something else and then he stops at that channel. By this time I'm back after doing whatever I was and then seeing this new program I also loose interest in the old one we were watching.

So recently I have given up on TV and have started reading a book. Now, I'm so glad that I get to read so much more. In the last month I finished 4-5 novels.

But there are some shows that bring us together to watch TV, before watching I make Shekar promise that he will watch this whole show.

Indeed men only care what else is on TV.

Random

2006-05-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

Have been tagged by Jaguu and Quils

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
I’ll ask you to be on your best behavior. He smiled and looked at the guest.
-The Firm by John Grisham

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
I touched Shekar's nose now he is staring at me like I'm a retard.

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Law and Order, CI

4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
7.30pm

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
7.12pm

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
Music,Thumbi Kinnaram from Malayalam movie Naran

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
An hour ago, went to drop off books at the library.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
Gmail account. I’m addicted to my gmail account.

9. What are you wearing?
White T-shirts and pink pajamas (till like right now I didn’t realize it was pink, I have a strange dislike towards pink)

10. Did you dream last night?
I always dream… I don’t remember it though.

11. When did you last laugh?
While talking to mom 10 minutes ago.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Just a Calendar.

13 Seen anything weird lately?
Nothing weird..

14. What do you think of this quiz?
Interesting

15. What is the last film you saw?
MI- III

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
An island

17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
I’m very accident prone.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Get rid of corrupt people.

19. Do you like to dance?
Who doesn’t?

20. George Bush.
No comments

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Hannah

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Andrew

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Been here for a while, so I guess yes it is

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
You are here already, GO back its not your time yet.

25. 5 people who must also do this meme in their journal.
Everyone I know have done this before.

Birth of Thanu

2006-05-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

As most of you must have figured Thanu is not my real name. Over the past few months I had couple of people ask what kind of name is Thanu (Yeh kya nam hai Thanu? - Nitin). So here is an effort to explain Thanu.

I had been reading blogs for a long time and then one fine day I decided to try my hand on it. But I didn't want to blog with my real name, the main reason that time was I did not want anyone (read prospective employers) googling my name and finding this blog. Other reason was I did not want anyone from my family stumble upon this blog (not because I bad mouth them here) as then I would loose my anonymity.

So I sat with Blogger.com on my Firefox browser and started scratching my head for a good nick name. After few hours of rigorous thinking I came up with names like Susan, Shilpa, Sitara, Preethy (that was my favorite) but they all sounded like very genuine names. I wanted a name that sounded fake, and viola Thanu was born. I don't even know anyone by that name and I googled it and there were almost next to zero results.

Along with Thanu, came Shekar(husband) and then Veena (sister).

After a month of blogging I told Shekar about the site and asked him to read and give me his views. All he came back was with Shekar? Shekar? You couldn't find a better name (No offense to any Shekar's out there) .

Other than Shekar no one who knew me personally (ROS, I see u rolling your eyes) read my blogs. Till one day I made a huge blunder and commented on my friend's blog signed in as Thanu and commented and added my name. That poor soul was so confused, but finally this soul agreed to keep my little secret.

For everyone who feels deceived and thought Thanu was my real name, I'm so sorry. I can not believe you folks thought that mallu parents would name their daughter Thanu instead of a Beena, Lizy, Mini, Siby, Sophie .... The list goes on.

In this world of blogs I'm a Thanu and love being Thanu.

Secret Fives

2006-05-09T18:43:00.000-07:00

Anil, Geo, and Jaguu tagged me to reveal few of my secrets. So here it goes.

5 people who top your shit list:

I did think a lot, but I don't think anyone makes it to this list. I can never hate anyone so much.

5 Close brushes with death/danger

I've never had any of these, thank god. I have had my share or fender bender, rear endings (of my car I mean), but nothing major

5 Preferable modes of suicide

Again, I'm totally against suicides, I think is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. But, then again I have heard arguments that it is a solution. I can never understand what can be so bad that one needs to end his/her life.

5 Guilty pleasures

Desserts Tiramisu, Creme brulee, Flan Just to name a few.
Sleeping in
Crime Dramas - Spike TV has CSI from 7pm till 11pm and I can spend the whole evening in front of the TV.
Banana Chips
Meen Varathathu (Fish fry)

5 things you never want to forget

I have a list of 10 things

5 things I wish to forget

Nothing really, may be I already forgot.

5 really exotic dishes you have tried

Anything from Bahama Breeze
The best seafood from Atlanta Fish Market
Mango Glazed Thai Ribs - Had this at a Thai place. It was so good.
Chicken Scaloppine from Macaroni Grill
Beef Achar - My mom makes the best beef achar. (All you people going ewww at the sound of this, you have to taste it to believe it.)

5 crushes/loves in your life

Shekar
Shekar
Shekar
Shekar
Shekar

(me being married and all)

Strangest dream you ever had

I dreamt that I became disoriented and couldn't understand anything, so woke up Shekar in the middle of the night and asked him to say something. He said go to sleep and I understood that crystal clear, and was so relieved.

5 most valued personal possessions - this is hard so I'm going to stick to Materialistic things

Minnu and Wedding Band
Our Car and bike
Our Wedding Album, it weighs like 15 pounds.
My collection of photos
My music collection

5 favorite superheroes

No favorites, I like them all the same way (I don't know what that statement means, but my mom used to say that when I used to ask her, If she liked me or Veena more?)

Om Kreem Kuttichatha

2006-05-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

Warning: This post has a good amount of Malayalam words used.

If you folks understood that title of this post then you are a great lover of Mayavi.

Growing up every household in Kerala had atleast one copy of Balarama (Children's magazine, published in Malayalam). We grew up in Tamil Nadu and did not know how to read Malayalam so we never got Balarama, but got Tinkle, Amarchitra Katha and as we grew older we got Reader's Digest, and then Competition Success.

But Veena and I used to love Mayavi in Balarama, and when ever we visited Kerala, our cousins used to read them to us. So our mom came to know about it and she got the text book for first grade and every evening she would sit and teach us to read Para pana thara . Veena was 13 and I was 10, and we use to complain that none of our friends had to learn how come we have to. Mom would ask "Do you want to read Mayavi?" We would start reading again.

As we got older, mom used to make us read Malayalam bible. In the beginning we would just turn to Psalms 23 and read Yehova ente idayan akkunu ... or Psalms 91 Athyunathante Maravil Vasikyayum ... as we knew those by heart (These are the two Psalms that every kid is taught during his/her childhood days). Mom figured it out soon and then she used to say which passage to read. Every evening during family prayer Veena and I had to read Malayalam bible after we read our English bibles.

Years went by and both Veena and I started reading Malayalam that was printed (reading Handwritten Malayalam is still hard for me.)

Last year when I went to Shekar's cousin's place I saw a Balarama and I just picked it up, turned to Mayavi and started reading. The whole family there just stared at me, I think they expected to pick up Vanitha (Women's weekly, also published by Manorama) which lay next to Balarama.

Little do they know that is it because of Mayavi I can read Malayalam.

Birthday Weekend

2006-05-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for the Birthday wishes. I had such a great day, actually weekend. That is the awesome thing about having a birthday on a weekend (Saturday 29th), we can celebrate it all over the weekend.

Has ROS had mentioned I got a very beautiful card from her that got me all teary eyed, not because I never get cards, but this was because it was the first time I have a great friend that I have never met, yet she is such a huge part of my life. Thank you ROS for all what you do and all what you say.

Saturday we celebrated with going to a nice restaurant and dinning. I prefer a very quiet evening with Shekar than a huge bash.

Sunday was very special too. In our church everyone who had a birthday/wedding anniversary in the past week, go and kneel before the alter and the priest comes and prays for them. As a kid I always used to look forward for this occasion as birthday was the only occasion we kids could do this. As opposed to the adults who went and knelt there for communion (I didn't take my communion till I was 15), birthday and wedding anniversary.

This particular moment has become so important to me, those 2 minutes that I kneel, I feel so thankful for all the things I have been blessed with in the past year and all of my life. And a huge wave of faith rushes in my heart that the coming year I will be blessed. The whole church is so quiet (we are taking about almost 200 people) when I am having this moment, that makes it all the more real.

After church, we came home and that is when Shekar said he had a trip planned for us and we are going to Bodega Bay and we were going on our bike there. We had such a great time getting there. As I promised last time, I did take my camera with me this time and here are some pictures.

PS: Anil, Geo, Jaguu, and Quils - I'll get to the tags soon.

Dus

2006-04-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Jaggu The tag is to write about 10 things that I miss the most

Childhood: I had one of the best childhoods. I would come back from school and eat and then play and then do my home work and study. Veena and I were allowed to play till it got dark. Then mom would come out and call us. Having an older sister meant I always had someone to play with. I am blessed with the greatest parents who were supportive in everything I did. The most I miss is I can not get back from work and go out and play and come home and all I have to do is study. I miss me not having to worry about things as they were always provided to me. Miss my summer vacations when mom used to take us to Kerala and we would spend two months in visiting friends and families.
Grandfather: My mom's dad passed away when I was nine. He was one of the best people I have met so far. That was the first death I saw and I always wished that he would come back to life once. Veena and I were his first grand kids and so he always told us that we were very special. The sad thing is, only Veena and I remember him among all our cousins.
Dhvani - She was the first real friend I had. She is married and settled in Chennai and is busy and we rarely get to talk. I haven't seen her since 97, but not a days goes by when I don't think of her.
Sally I - My first Car
Short Hair - Life was so easy with short hair, shower and get out of the house, now it more like blow dry, straighten and by that time I'm late. People ask me why do I just chop it off and I just smile.
Mom cooked food - No food tastes as good as one's mom. I miss the way how everything she makes tastes just perfect and I know I'll never get there.
Following Cricket - I used be a huge cricket fan, during the days when Sachin had started and Azar was the captain. I used to always have a tummy ache and stay at home when Indian played. After I moved to US I rarely watched a game (should I call it a match) and now I have lost complete interest in the game.
Being Engaged - That is the best period in one person's life. I was engaged for almost half a year, and Shekar used to come visit me once a month (he lived in west coast and me in east coast) and we used to have a great time. Even now I tell Shekar, I like engaged Shekar more than married Shekar.
Riding a cycle - I used to love cycling to places, I used to go to school on a cycle everyday and it used to be so much fun. Now when we go visiting new cities, we try to rent cycles and ride them around. This summer we are planning to buy cycles and go ridding over the weekend.
India - I miss being India and everything about India.

Thank you so much Jaggu for bring back these beautiful memories

People I tag
ROS - I have too nahi tho she gets upset, Just kidding re I know you will love doing this.
Nina - She is all about memories, and has a great way of putting them in words.

Visit from our folks

2006-04-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

My parents visited last weekend and since both of them work, their longest stay at our place would be like 4-5 days. Last weekend it was Easter and my parents came over to celebrate Easter with us.

A week before their arrival

Plan what to do when they are in town
Plan out the whole menu for their visit
Go grocery shopping, so I have all the things needed for the above menu

Day before the arrival

Cleaning - By cleaning I do not mean the usual when guest comes to house cleaning, but major cleaning as they are parents and are entitled to every room, every closet, every shelf. They are also allowed to make statements like "There is so much dust here."
Prep for cooking the next day

Day of arrival

Cook, cook and cook some more
Final cleaning touch ups

Day 1 of parent's trip

Parents very impressed about all the food I made
I told mom that she was on vacation and she needn't do anything around the house
Mom tries to help me with chores and asks me where every dish is

Day 2 of parent's trip (and every day from then)

I wake up and go to kitchen, mom offers me coffee
Then she has already made breakfast and planned out what is for lunch and starts prepping
She has figured out where all dishes are

Day of departure

Mom Cooks all day so that I have food when she leaves.
Parents enquire when Shekar and I are going to visit them again.
Give them couple of stuff to take it with them like 2 of my sarees that need saree falls stitched
Talk more and say that your this visit was short make sure next time you come for more than 4 days

Day after their departure

Me calling them at their place, "Mom I can not find my spatula, do you know where you kept it."
Me calling again, "There is a cup in the fridge with white stuff what is it". Mom replies "Its Thenga pal (coconut milk), that came extra. Use it when you make apam"

Week after their departure

Me to Shekar - "I need to start cooking now, alle"

Wake up

2006-04-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

I’m one of the selected few who can fall asleep right after I lay down and once I’m asleep nothing wakes me up. This was something ingrained in my system. My mom used to say that I was the perfect baby I always slept and only woke up when I was hungry (life used to be so simple back then).

Back when I was in college, I used to pull a lot of all-nighters and since I used to work during the weekend I was always sleep deprived. Then it happened one Friday evening I got home around 2.00 pm and I went to my room and changed and went to sleep. My family was very understanding and they only woke me up when I have to be woken up. So I’m in this deep sleep and Veena (older sister) comes and wakes me up saying “Jolikku Pogande?” (Don’t u have to go to work). For which I sleepishly reply Samayam Enthu aayi (What time is it?). Veena says 6.30. I jump up from bed, as I have to be at work at 7.00 AM, and my work place was almost 30 minutes away. I grab the phone to call and let people at my work know that I’m running late, then Veena says I’ll call you get dressed. (such a great sister). So I dash to the bathroom and start brushing my teeth and then I get ready to take shower, Veena runs into the bathroom screaming and laughing and she says “Oh my god I can not believe you actually fell for this, it is 6.30 PM on Friday and not 6.30 AM on Saturday”

I got out of the bathroom and chased her around the house and I saw my parents just staring at us, there were probably thinking, wasn’t Thanu sleeping and now how come she is chasing Veena around or Do 21 and 24 year old siblings still chase each other.

Now when Veena visits me or vice versa, or we both go home, I make sure I wake up early and wake her up, but every single time she wakes up before I do, be it my place, her place or our home. But, one day I'm going to get her.

Flop Week

2006-03-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

I'm not a great cook but I can cook, decent. Or at least that is what I used to think, till last week.

It all started this Monday, Shekar had a small cold and I volunteered to make Rasam. I've never made Rasam so I googled, read couple of recipes, but wasn't satisfied and I finally called one of my aunts, (my mom - who I usually call, is in east coast and it was like 11.00pm there) and she gave me the recipe.

So I go and start cooking. Aunt told me to put fresh pepper instead of ground pepper. So I made rasam and tasted it, it was not hot enough, so I added more pepper... still not hot enough so added more pepper, so I kept on adding pepper till it reached my expectation. Then my rasam had now become a think paste of pepper. I added some more water to dilute it, so it looked all good. Little did I know the hotness of the pepper increases as it stays longer. So when we started to eat, the Rasam was so hot that we could barely eat. On the bright side, the overdose of pepper cleared all the congestion Shekar had.

Couple of days after that I made Moru Curry (for all non-mallus, this is a curry made with yogurt- something like kadi, and is a very common curry in every mallu household) and this is the first curry I learned how to make. We add jeera powder to it and I accidentally added Garam Masala to it. It was too late before I noticed it. So we had Morru Curry with Garam Masala.

Then last night around 9.00 pm I was making Double ka Meeta, thank you ROS for the Recipe. I rarely make desserts other than cake and cookies. So I start warming up half and half and then I'm supposed to add sugar to it. So I put 2 huge scoops and then I realize, damn this is salt (My salt and sugar are in 2 entirely different looking containers, and they are placed on different levels of the cabinet). Nothing can be done to undo this, so without disturbing the mixture I tried to slowly drain my entire half and half. Then I tasted the half and half and it was so salty. So around 9.30 I go confess to Shekar and beg him to go to the grocery store. Not having another choice he went and got me a new quart of half and half (I also bribed him with couple of extra pieces of double ka meeta).

As I was stirring the half and half, I started thinking how come I messed up so many times this week? May be I've become more confident that I do not pay attention as before. Or maybe I just am not a decent cook.

Jo bi hai, my Double ka meeta turned out very well and makes me happy and brings my confident back (a little).

Vroom Vroom

2006-03-21T14:51:00.000-08:00

I have always had a fascination with two wheelers. The only two wheeler I know how to ride is a cycle and when ever we are traveling, we make sure to rent bicycles and ride them around the city. I love driving a car but I never feel so close to things outside as on a two wheeler. I moved to US during my mid teens so never got a chance to learn or drive Scooty/Sunny/Kinetic Honda (these were the two wheelers that were there in India back then).

Back when I was in college I wanted to own a motorcycle and my dad would never let me so I used to drive around in my car envying all the biker that went Vroom Vroom right by me. As I grew older my dream to own and ride on a bike seemed to vanish. Not because I did not want it anymore but, I did not have the guts to go out and take lessons anymore. But, I wanted it so badly.

Now I'm married and Shekar has this avid love towards bikes and we finally got one last year. Over the weekend was my maiden journey on a bike and it was just great, we rode for 3 hours. One of the great benefits on living in California is that the weather is so great that one can go biking in early months.

So Sunday afternoon Shekar and I geared up and drove by the mountains and the sea. It was so beautiful and any words I use will never do justice to that sight. Since we were on a bike we did not take a camera with us else I would have posted pictures. The road by the mountains we so curvy and steep, but it was thrilling to ride. After riding for almost two hours we stopped on the side of the mountain and pacific sea was at the bottom of that mountain.

This was my first ride on a bike and I can not wait for more. But, for some weird reason it seems like it rains every weekend. We are expecting rain again this Saturday and Sunday. On the bright side, spring is just starting and I'll have lot more riding days. Hopefully I'll find a way to take my camera with me the next time.

Awesome Memory - Or is it Awful?

2006-03-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Of all the thing I take pride in, memory tops the list.

I have great memory for all sorts of thing. I just started realizing that in the last few years.

Bhavya called me the other day and she asked if I knew the name of our TA (Teacher's Assistant) for our math 3012 class. I replied back Austin? For which Bhavya replied, "Oh Yeah, Austin"

I took this math class at least 3-4 years ago, and that is the kind of memory I have.

Other day I met one of my friends after a while and told him an incident that happened like 3-4 years ago. This was our conversation:
Friend: Wow u remember that
Me: yeah..I have great memory
F: (Sarcastically) Oh yeah what was I wearing
Me: A white shirt with black trims on sleeves and neck
F: What kind of neck
Me: V-neck
F: (Jaws dropped, eyes popped out)You are crazy.

That is the reaction I get from all my friends. I also remember lot of things from my childhood, and I tell mom and she goes, "You remember that, you were a little kid". I also have great memory for faces and names. I remember street names, and so I’m known for giving the best directions ever. Now that I have started reading blogs I remember almost all my blog pals, every post.

But then there are also days when I forget to bring my purse to work or can never find my keys. And that my friends, makes me Normal

Small but Scary

2006-03-03T16:51:00.000-08:00

Other day Shekar and I were watching TV and this ad of a cat comes up. I immediately turn my face away from the TV, Yes that is how much I dread cats.

In my younger days I used to be scared of cats. We have never had a cat, but my grandparents always had a cat. Every summer when I used to visit I used to be very scared. My grandmother would always shoo the cat away when it came close to me. I remember one episode where all of us were dinning together. I usually sit with my feet on the chair (because of the cat), but that day for some reason my feet was set on the floor. The cat came and rubbed against my feet and I jumped on to the dinning table yelling cat. I was probably 6 back then, and even to this day my cousins remind me of that incident.

Like everyone says the way to get rid of one's fear is to face it and so Veena thought the best thing to do is to get a cat and chase me with it till I give up. So she grabbed our neighbor's cat and ran after me, through the house, around the house and finally throughout our street. All this while I just kept running. I had more stamina than Veena so she finally quit after she got tired.

Last year when I went to India that was the first time I was meeting Shekar's family. So we were visiting one of his uncles and aunts. The new bride that I was and not knowing his uncle and aunt I was very quiet for most of the evening till I saw a cat in their house. I jumped out of my seat and ran into their other room yelling "CAT! CAT!". All this while everyone in the house is shocked and Shekar tells them she is scared of cats. Hearing that, they were shocked more. "People are scared of cats?" I actually heard someone say that. I was so embarrassed for the way I acted that evening.

The place we live now, our neighbors have cats and we see them walking around all the time. When I get home and get out of my car I see a cat, I just stay in the car for few minutes for them to go away. If they still don't move I get out, say a prayer and take a different way to walk to my house. If Shekar is with me I send him first to drive away the cat.

I do know that cats are harmless and they do not attack people, but there is something about cats that I'm not only scared of, but hate and consider it gross. Its not just cats kittens too... Please don't tell me they are so adorable and/or cute.

I think I need help...

Attack of the 4s

2006-02-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

I have been tagged with High 5 which is somewhat similar, so all the items here are things other than what I have specified before. Been tagged my new reader Kusum and here it goes...

4 Jobs that I have had :

Cashier at a coffee place
Cashier at a grocery store
Front desk staff at a hotel
Customer service

These were all jobs I held when I was in high school and college, but these jobs are more fun to specify that my recent jobs.

Jobs that left me:
None as of now.

4 Movies I can recommend to anyone:

Italian Job
Finding Nemo
Ice Age
Kilukam - great Malayalam movie

4 Places I've lived or linger in my memory:

Spent a summer (3 months) Europe
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
California

4 TV shows I will remember: Remember being the keyword

Malgudi Days
Chitrahaar
Wagle ki Duniya
Mungerilal ke Haseen Sapne
Dek bhai Dek
Gul Gulshan Gulfaam
Nupur

I know the list said 4, but I couldn't narrrow it down any further.

4.Vacations I will always remember:

All Vacations to India
Again Europe
Singapore
Skiing in Tahoe

4. Foods I love:

Banana Chips - It is not a snack, I eat it like it is food
Fish Curry
Pani Puri
Anything Mom makes.

4.Places I'd rather be:

Venice
In Tahoe Skiing
Hawaii
Houseboats in Kerala

Tagging - ROS

Are we there yet?

2006-02-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

When we are going on trips this is one dreaded question.

In our childhood, during summer vacations we used to go visit our grandparents. Mom, Veena and I would spend all summer with them and Dad would join us during the last 1 week or so. We used to travel a lot with our mom, and we used to keep asking her "Are we there yet?" She used to get annoyed when we kept on asking so we girls used to split and ask. Veena would ask after 30 minutes she would signal me to ask. As we got older we got smarter and we rephrased our questions to "how many more hours?" and other different ones. After a while mom would cheerfully respond "We will get there, when we get there." Veena and I knew this was our que to shut up and look out of the window.

Years went by, I am in late teens and Veena in early 20s, and we go on road trips as a family. We used to take 1 road trip every year. So Veena and I would drive, dad would be in his own world and Mom would ask "Are we there yet?" Veena and I used to get so annoyed when she kept asking "How many more hours to go?" And finally Veena would just burst out with the response "We will get there when we get there." She would casually turn her face and look outside.

Veena and I would always say, see the tables have turned and we are in control. We were so happy to be the grown up now.

Years passed, I am married now. So when we go places Shekar drives and I sit in the passenger side changing CDs and I realize I am back to square one asking "Are we there yet?"

Seek and Ye Shall Find

2006-02-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Don't we all end up finding something when we are looking for something else?

Other day Shekar was looking for something and he found my clip that I thought I has lost long time ago. I was planning to go out and get me another new one, but never got around to actually getting a new one. I was so overjoyed when Shekar showed me the clip. It is not one of those expensive one, but the regular Walgreens one.

That is when I realized this is what happens to most of us. When we don't see our dear ones around we assume we have lost them as friends. All we have to do is look harder and they will be right there. But, we do not want to look; we would rather go out and make new friends because it is easier to get something new than to seek something that is lost.

But seldom do we realize that what we seek is right in plain sight and find it is so much better than getting something brand new.

Sharing

2006-01-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

When I did my schooling in India I used to love the day when it was someone's Birthday. He/She would be dressed in a color outfit while the whole school wore Navy blue and white. Both (Veena - my sister and me) our birthdays were during the summer months, so we never got to do this. (Now I think of it, imagine the amount of money our dad saved by not buying candy for 24 years - 12 for Veena and 12 for me for 60 some people).

When ever I got candy for someone's b'day, if they were real close to me I would ask them for another candy and would take both home so Veena and I could share. Veena did the same thing. I do not remember when we started doing this, but we did it since our primary school days. One day something special happened to somebody and they distributed cake to whole of primary section (By cake I mean the small cubed shape that is made for one person. I think it is called pastry cake). I was in 5th grade and Veena in 8th. So I got cake and Veena didn't. I washed my luch box, put the cake in there and brought it home to share it with Veena.

I came home and showed the cake to my sister and we both for so happy. Mom told us to go wash us so we can eat it. Veena and I went to clean up and mom stepped out for something. Then the most depressing thing happened, our neighbor's cat came and ate that cake. I was so sad that I started crying and I told mom "I was doing the right thing by bringing it home, but I didn't get to eat it. All my friends who ate by themselves got to eat it, but not me." Veena tried to tell me that it was okay and it was just a cake.

I was upset the whole evening till dad came home with a whole cake. And that was one of the happiest days in my childhood. And it is not because I got a whole cake (almost, shared it with Veena), but if that day my dad wouldn't have brought that cake home I would not believe in sharing anymore.

Even to this day I can share anything with my friends and families wholeheartedly.

The Perfect Tag

2006-01-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

Have been tagged by Divya and Silverine

Rules:

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

So here it goes.

The Humsafar/Lover tag has been going around for a while and I wasn't tagged by ROS as I already have found my humsafar, but finally got tagged. As most of you guys are aware that I'm married to Shekar. So instead of listing qualities of how I want my humsafar to be, I'm gonna lists characters of Shekar that I admire.

Love for cars - I love cars and take utmost care of my Sally II. Shekar is also very particular about keeping the cars clean and driving cars that make the experience memorable. So most of our money and time is spent on our cars and we never argue about it. By default he knows a lot about cars than me and he explains to me how things work internally and I love learning about it too. He tells me what engine oil we use and what those numbers mean.
Patience - Be it with teaching me how to ski to listening to the millionth time about an incident that happened to me, when was a kid. I can tell the same story over and over and he will never say "You have told me this before" because he thinks I have so much fun telling the story.
Maturity - He is way more mature than I am. So I can be irresponsible at times (I'm usually responsible). I don’t have to be all like “Did you do this?” , “Did u finish that?” I never have to baby sit him and I can be a baby in this relationship.
Faith – Faith in God is another great thing about him. It is so important for me to have faith in God and also practicing the religion. I need to go to church every Sunday and it is wonderful when my partner has similar needs.
Family – I’m a believer of “Marriage is between two families and not just 2 people”. I love the way he treats my parents and vice versa. Our families get along so well and I so at ease with his parents too.
Resourceful – All I need to tell him is that I need a new phone, Tada and he will get me the best phone available in the market for the best deal. He has tremendous patience to read reviews and then make a purchase. Not just phones, be it Camera, Guitar or anything.
Helpful – We don’t have a 50-50 relationship where I cook and he eats, I vacuum and he lifts up his feet, but we have a 50-50 relationship where he actually does chores around the house.
Looks – Last but definitely not the least, he looks great (It is not a biased opinion – he is very handsome).

I could go on and on, but the tag says 8, so here I stop.

Everyone I know has already done this tag other than Jaguu, so hence I tag Jaguu.

Songs are Memories

2006-01-18T19:59:00.000-08:00

Few days ago, few of our friends we coming back from a road trip and the person in the passenger seat changed the CD to a collection of old songs. The whole car went quite, and the songs came to life.

That is when I realized that each song has a memory attached to it. When we listen to a song that we used to listen, when we were kids, we become that age. Each of us had different memories associated to these songs, but we all had memories.

The whole while that CD was playing all six of us were in our own world and the SUV was so quiet.

10-15 years from now if we hear Silsila hai Chahat ka from Devdas are we going to have the same feeling that we felt that day? I think NO, maybe the songs are not as great as they used to make them years ago, OR we may have grown up and we do not associate songs to feelings anymore.

I think the latter is true.

Thou shall not steal

2006-01-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

I usually try not to take things that do not belong to me. May it be a small eraser or something huge. If I see money on the street I pick it up and make sure I put it as offering in the church the coming Sunday. If a cashier gives me extra change, I return it to them. If a cashier forgets to charge me for something, I remind them about that too. That is just the way I'm.

The reason I do this is because I firmly believe that things I do not earn, do not stay with me.

One of our family friends, he gets paid by the hour, and one day he got paid for few hours that he didn't work. He decided to keep mum about the whole thing and dashed home. He got home and opened his car garage and the chain broke and it cost him the almost the same amount as he got over paid. When we were kids, dad used to tell us this story all the time, when we brought something home that didn't belong to us. No matter how insignificant, he made us return it. He once made me apologize for bringing a paper clip from neighbor's home (I was 5 and was fascinated by it).

Last weekend, Shekar and I went out of town and we stayed at a hotel. When we checked out, it wasn't that cold, so I decided not to wear my jacket. So I grabbed a hanger from the hotel closet, put my jacket on it and took it to my car and hung it by the back seat of the car.

Yesterday I got home after work and I was putting away my clothes. I was putting away the turtle neck (opening to put the hanger is too small) I wore during the day, and as I try to put the sweater on the hanger, the hanger snapped.

That is when I realized that my dad's story still stands true and I vow not to take anymore things (no matter how small or insignificant) from anywhere.

Attached

2006-01-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

When it comes to girls we are all (at least most of us) very attached and passionate about our hair.

When I was a kid, mom used to cut my hair till I was 6, then we used to make a trip to a nice beauty parlor where a very nice girl, Vidya, used to cut my hair. We used to go there very frequently and became very close with her. She was 25 or 26, so I used to think, Vidya is so much cooler than my parents. I used to enjoy her company. I used to have real short hair, with a very guyish hair style.

Reminds me of an incident, when I was in Tamil Nadu (I was 12), I was taking a bus to go somewhere. I got on the steps and the conductor, he was standing above all the steps, told be Tampi, pinnadi poy eeru translates to little boy, go climb through the back. I raised my head and he smiled apologetically.

That is how short my hair used to be. All my friends by this time started having nice long hair, or girlish short hair. Still I loved my hair and planned to wear it like that all the time. Then something unthinkable happened when I was 14, Vidya now in early 30s got involved in an accident and was killed. That is when I decided that I'm going to start growing my hair.

To this day I have not got my hair cut short because I feel that it is something special that only Vidya and I shared. I do get occasional trims but that is it.

Now my hair is nice and long (little below shoulder), I often wonder what Vidya would say. In the deepest of my heart I hear her voice, "You look a lot prettier with short hair."

Answer Now - Interpretation

2006-01-09T12:29:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read the previous post Answer Now read that to have this post make sense.

Since all of you were kind enough to put up your answers, I'll post my answers too

Color - Black
-Strong
-Stands out
-I don't remember what the 3rd reason is

Animal - Tiger
-Looks very Majestic
-Strong animal in the family of felines
-Very muscular

Waterfall

Now the Interpretations

Reasons for one's favorite color:
Are the traits one is looking for in a significant other.

Reasons for favorite animal:
Are our very own traits

Water body signifies the relationship with this significant other
Lake - Very Faithful
Waterfall - Will look around, but still faithful
Ocean - Hard to be faithful

Have fun interpreting your answers.

Answer Now

2006-01-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone

This being the first post of the year, I wanted to make it a little different than my other posts. This is more of an interactive post. Please post your answers as comments.

1. What is your favorite color and list three reasons for this.

2. What is your favorite animal and list three reasons for this.

3. Which of the three do you prefer?

Lake
Waterfall
Ocean

I am not the author of this, and am not aware who is.

PS: The interpretation of these answers might get a little personal. And if you know what the interpretation is please do not spoil it for others. I will post the interpretation next week.

Dinner Tag

2005-12-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

Have been tagged my Jaguu. I have to list 6 people who I would like to take out for dinner and why.

Malika - She can order wine for all of us. And I have this slight discoloration on my wrist and I would like her to take a look at that for me.
ROS - She is my blog friend turned friend. I would love to meet and actually I would love to cook Aviyal for her.
Sayesha - She is just a fun person to be around. Plus she can hang around the cold weather here.
Silverine - She has such great sense of humor and I feel everyone at the table will love her company
Virdi - Just because if I don't invite him, he will be calling Sayesha and ROS every 10-15 minutes. So how is it going? What are u girls taking about? Plus he can increase his Girl Gyan.
Vikram - So that our poor Virdi will have company.

PS: Jaguu, since I already met you for dinner at Rumbling, I'm not inviting you here.

People I would like to tag
ROS
Virdi
Vikram

A Journey to Remember

2005-12-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

I'm a very careful person, unless I'm with someone older than me. If I'm traveling with Shekar, parents or Veena (Didi) I tend not to pay attention to anything. One such trip was my India trip few years ago where Veena and I traveled together. Veena being the older was in charge of everything and all I did was tag along.

We had our all trip planned out. First visit family/friends in Trivandrum, stay there for 2 days and then take train to Tamil Nadu. So we come to Trivandrum, check all our bag (other than the ones we need for our Trivandrum stay) into the clock room (its a place in train stations where luggage gets stored) and go one our merry way to visit folks in Trivandrum.

After our stay in Trivandrum, we were ready to go board the train and go to Tamil Nadu. So we come and board the Island Express all happy as this was the first time our parents let us come to India alone. Veena and I are sitting in the train, I get the window seat and we brag about how responsible we are and all. The train leaves the station and that is when Veena says "Our luggage is still in the Clock room." We both panic (I panic more – me being younger and all), Veena goes, "O K you go get the TT and I'll pull the chain to stop the train." I run around the compartment looking for the TT (I saw him pass by earlier, so I know he is somewhere around us).

I find him and I tell him what is going on. He comes over, and my sister is still pulling the chain. TT goes, "Chain doesn't stop the train, as people keep pulling it so we have applied brakes to the chain." Veena and I stare at him with open mouths. He tells us that there is another crossing coming up in the next station (For those who are similar with Trivandrum, it was Kochu Velli station), and the train is stopping you can get out there.

The train comes to a halt and Veena and I get out and we make sure we take all our luggage with us. Take an auto rickshaw back to the station we boarded the train from (Thambanoor).

We get there, get our luggage and then take the next train (K K Express) to Tamil Nadu. It is during our wait for this train we met Rajat.

Over the Christmas weekend Veena and I met and we were talking about all the things we had done when we were younger and this incident brought smile to our face.

A - Z

2005-12-22T14:44:00.000-08:00

Tagged by ROS

A- Age you got your first kiss:
Have got a lot of pecks on the cheek. First kiss - too private of a moment for a web blog.

B - Band listening to right now:
Nada

C - Crush:
1 - back when I was in 11th grade.

D- Drink of Choice:
No particular drink, Huge water drinker though

E - Easiest person [people]
My didi

F - Favorite band at the moment:
Don't have a favorite

G - Gummy worms or gummy bears?
Bears...

H – Holiday:
Spent a summer in Europe mainly Spain.

I - Instruments:
Can't play anything, but love guitar and drums. And Violin too..

J - Juice:
Like Mango juice, but drink more of the Vegetable juice v8. It doesn't taste all that great, but a good substitution when I skip a meal.

K-Kids:
Love them as long as I can return them to their parents when they are crying.

L - Longest car ride ever:
Took a week long road trip with friends. Covered 2200 miles in 4 days or may be 5.

M - Major:
Comp Sci

N - Nicknames:
Podi means little one in Malayalam. My parents still call me this, they are the only ones who call me this.

O - One wish:
All my family to have a long sickness free life.

P - Phobia[s]:
Cats

Q - Quote:
"All generalizations are false, including this one." Mark Twain

R - Reason to smile:
Having people to love you not regardless of all my flaws, but people who love me for my flaws.

S - Song you sang last:
kannukku mai azhagu
kavidhaikku poi azhagu Beautiful tamil song. Google it and read the translation, it is a very beautiful song.

T - Time you woke up [today]:
6:30 AM after like 10 snoozes finally woke up at 7.40

U - Unknown fact about me:
I can never climb/get down the stairs with out actually looking down at them.

V - Vegetable you hate:
Broccoli

X-rays you've had:
Dental were the recent ones

Y - Yummy food:
Love Dosa and Sambar.

Z - Zodiac sign:
Taurus.

PS: Folks, I'll be out of town for few days and will be back on Dec 27th.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

I know this guy

2005-12-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

There are lot of perks about being married, but my favorite one is I do not have people (more like people I hardly know) coming to me and telling about this great guy that would be a good match to me.

I was 20 and an uncle (anyone older than me that I can not address by name), comes over and tells me about a guy.
Uncle: There is a Doctor in my family and we are looking for a girl for him.
me: (shocked this was my first proposal, I'm 20 for crying out loud) I don't wanna get married yet.
Uncle: That is the good thing, by the time it takes him to get to this country, you will be all ready
me: Then I'll marry him when he gets here.
uncle (smiles and walks away).

Never again has he approached me with any guy.

I was 22, there was this guy Binu who used to work with me and then he moved to Boston. One day he calls me from Boston.
Binu: How are you?
Me: (All surprised, its been six months after he left and now he calls me out of the blue): Good, what a nice surprise. It must be so cold in Boston (We were not that great of friends so I didn't know what else to say).
Binu: One of my colleagues, Shiju, is a nice Malayali guy and he is looking to get married.
Me: (Rolling my eyes..not again)This is so strange, I know a guy named Shiju too, who is looking to get married. I think they should meet.
Binu: Oh Come on..
Me: Hey I don't really wanna get married now.
Binu: At least talk to him and you might change your mind.
Me: That's ok Binu I really do not want to. ( I was 2 years older from the previous incident, so was more mature and hence the courteous reply)

Never has Binu called me after that, and what a relief.

I don't know when people see a single girl working, why they think "Oh, she is ready to get married and I know the perfect guy for her". What used to annoy me the most was that my parents never said anything about "we met this guy the other day", then why others.

So these days when I go anywhere, I flaunt my wedding band and Minnu and my beloved Shekar and no one comes to me with "I know this guy...."

I already have my guy and he is the BEST.

It's OK to talk to strangers

2005-12-14T16:25:00.000-08:00

It was one evening when Didi received an email from a Rajat Thomas, who was currently working in LA. It was some random guy who got her email id from somewhere and emailed her. The courteous person that she is, she responded and they became email friends. They used to email like once a week and he emailed her a link to his personal website where she saw a picture of him. Like most sisters we shared everything so I knew who Rajat was, what he looked like and all.

2 years go by

Didi and I take a trip to India. We are standing in a train station to board a train to go to Tamil Nadu. Didi says "Don't look now, but the guy over there looks like Rajat". After few seconds I casually turn and look and I confirm that hunch. So I tell Didi, lets go ask if he is Rajat. Didi gives me the stare like I am crazy.

Between Didi and me I was the gutsy one, so I try to rationalize it for her.
Me: Let me go ask.
Didi: You are crazy, shut up. I knew I shouldn't have told you.
Me: What do we have to loose, if it's not him I'll tell I'm sorry.
Didi: I will not let you talk to random guys in train stations

While she is saying these words I walk over to that guy. Didi turns around acting like she is not related to me.

Me to Guy: Excuse me
Guy (looking all shocked):Yes
Me: Are u Rajat Thomas.
Guy (jaw drops, eyes pop out, he stands up): Yes and you are?

I beckon my sister to come over, she comes over.
Me (to Guy): This is my sister Veena who emails you.
Didi: Hi I'm Veena
Guy: Oh my god, I can't believe it.
…….. (they both start talking like long lost friends)

We ended up taking the same train and traveled half way together.

It is such a small world. When 2 people who meet here in US to be in India at the same train station at the same time I believe it is more than a coincidence.

Exams

2005-12-12T12:11:00.000-08:00

I am not usually big into posting forwards on this blog.

This was an exception. It is just too funny not to share.

Have any of you done something similar on an exam?

Traffic Violations Anonymous

2005-12-09T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hello I'm Thanu and I am a Traffic Violation addict. Well at least that is how it seems. Driving for almost 10 years I have accumulated almost 7 traffic violations.

Like how it is said the first kiss is the most memorable, same way the first violation is very memorable. I was going to college and was driving at 38 MPH in a 25MPH zone. Above that it was a school zone, so speeding is condemned. Got a ticket for speeding $70.00
I was stopped at a traffic light, light turned green and I took my car, only thing was the lady in front of me was still stopped. So I hit her car. Got a ticket for following too close $90.00.
One evening (April ard 7 PM), driving and a cop pulled me over. This time I didn't even know why he was pulling me over. Then he came over and told me that I was driving without headlights. And my response was "Its not dark yet." Got a ticket for driving without headlights $30.00.
I was coming back from work (used to work 3pm-11pm) around 11.30 at night, light turned yellow and I sped by. Got pulled over for running RED light. (The cop wouldn’t believe me that it was yellow). Then I couldn't find insurance card in the glove compartment. Got two tickets running a red light, no proof of insurance. I went to the court and showed that I did have insurance during that period , just couldn’t find the card. Fine $70.00.
Coming back from work one Sunday afternoon, switched lanes without signaling. Lo and behold another ticket, Improper Lane Changing - $60.00

That is when I decided to reform and drive very carefully and obey all rules. Plus had turned like 20 and I was becoming more mature. Four years went by and I was traffic ticket sober for all that while. Until one day:

Few months ago, it was my last day at my previous job, and I was going to work. My car was already moved to west coast, so I was driving my dad’s car and got pulled over for speeding. This was my most expensive ticket. Speeding $200 +

Last few months I’ve been pretty good, but then again I rarely drive other than total on 10 miles to and fro to work. May be this is the reason Shekar drives me around, he is just scared to let me go by myself or to be in the passenger seat while I’m driving.

PS: This post is inspired by Parth and hopefully after reading this parth, you are feeling a lot better.

Running Low

2005-12-05T12:19:00.000-08:00

I am one of those people whose car always has gas (petrol - I dunno why they call it gas here). When ever my fuel gauge shows quarter tank, I pull into a gas station and fill her up. This has been my habit for the longest time I remember.

Then I got married.

One of privileges that come with marriage is Shekar takes complete care of my car. He fills her up, takes her to all her services and washes her - the whole deal. The only time I drive these days are to work. I am liking this luxury too.

Shekar is the more logical one between us. He doesn't get panicky when the gas tank is 1/4 full. He can drive around with peace of mind.

So the other day I had to go somewhere and I turned the car on and the warning light turned on. Warning light - it goes on when the gas is low, but for some reason I brain sees the warning light and goes "Oh Oh the empty light is ON".

(Notice the warning light by the E on the Left hand side. )

My car actually has a trip computer that tells me how many miles it will go, it said 27 miles or something. But, I do not trust these things, I know strange but true.

The place I had to go was hardly 10 miles but still I'm little nervous driving there. To add to all this plight it was raining. I hate driving in the rain. First thing I did was pull into a gas station and get out in the rain and fill the tank, that is when I realized, "I haven't filled gas in my car for the so long"

I love you Sally

2005-11-30T20:31:00.000-08:00

We all have immense love to something materialistic. For some it is their purse, shoes, or computer or anything. For me it is my car Sally-I. All through out my childhood I have never been in love with anything like this before.

I was 17 when I got the keys to Sally. It was a brand new car, but not an expensive one. I used to call her my baby. I would wash her every week and take utmost care of her. Even a small scratch on her would hurt me like crazy.

Sally has seen through the high times and low times. She took me to jobs where I made minimum wage to my real job years later. She took me to college everyday. All together after 6 years of driving I put almost 100,000 miles on her and she still ran well. Not once was I stranded anywhere because Sally gave up.

Then one evening, we were driving and one lady was changing lanes and she rammed into my car. The whole passenger side was dented, both the doors and panels. The cost to fix the car was more than the value of the car, hence the car was declared salvaged (car will never be repaired, but the Insurance company will give us the value of the car and take the car). This sounds like a deal to most of the people but I was not ready to give Sally up.

Finally I had no choice and I ended up with a check and the insurance company had Sally. I used this check as a down payment towards my new car, so I think a piece of Sally is still with me.

I miss you Sally.

The day I Won

2005-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have the worst luck when it comes to drawings. And by drawings I do not mean the one with pencil and paper but the one where a winner is selected out of pile of people. This has never stopped me from buying these tickets or entering any contests.

At my previous job our group (60 people) had a company meeting. In this meeting they bring all of us together and our CEO briefs us on what is going on and all. Usually they have a drawing and the winner gets $500. This time they did it a little different. They passed around envelopes to every one, and they said the winner will get the one with cash. One guys jumps up saying he got a 100 dollar bill. Then I open mine I see a 100 dollar bill and jump up saying (actually screaming)"I won I won". I was so excited because this was the first time in my life I had actually won something because of luck. So finally lady luck did smile at me. Then I look around and I see that everyone got a 100 dollar bill in his/her envelope. According to HR everyone was a winner this time.

I just stood their blushing, and waiting for lady luck to smile at me again.

I left this job 6 months after this incident and there wasn't a single day in those 6 months that someone didn't remind me of this incident.

High Five

2005-11-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Tagged by Div

Movies I like the Most

The Shawshank Redemption
The Score
Ek Haseena Thi
Jewel Thief
Rush Hour (I & II)

Five things I can never live without

Family
Sally II - My Car
Laptop
Friends
Rice

Five celebrity crush..

Shashi Kapoor - I do not recall the movie name, but where Rakhi is playing as twins, Kanch and Kamini. Sashi Kapoor is an Army officer. That is when I started a liking towards uniforms too.
Dev Ananad – In Jewel Thief and lot more.
Jeff Goldblum – Right from Jurassic Park.
Matt LeBlanc – Joey from Friends. How u doin'?
Aamir Khan (only in QSQT)

Five things I miss now

Parents, they are in another state
College days
Lack of Responsibility
Mom's food
Sally I - My first Car

Five things I plan to do in near future.

Go back to college to do Masters
Travel to Europe (Italy)
Bungee Jumping
Learn how to swim
Go on a Mission trip

Last movie I borrowed to watch & still not given back.
Paycheck

Five books I love

Any thing by Mary Higgins Clark (Have read all her books)
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Sons of Fortune - Jeffery Archer
The 11th Commandment - Jeffery Archer
Sue Grafton Books (A is for Alibi ... till N is for Noose)

Five people I pass this HIGH FIVES to
- Like to end the tag here.

PS: Folks,

I'll be out of town till after Thanksgiving. Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

Fy Phenomenon

2005-11-11T17:19:00.000-08:00

Growing up in India, one definitely has the benefit of learning few languages. Average Indian at least knows 2-3 languages (just my observation). But it gets tricky when we speak, we combine these languages with one another.

We used to do Englishize everything in Tamil and Malayalam by suffixing "fy" to the end of the respective word. Here are few examples

Thukku - Means hang in Tamil.

You can Thukkufy the picture here - This is a complete English Sentence.

Oddu - Means run in Malayalam

I had to Oddufy to get the bus - This is also a complete English Sentence.

The past tense for "fy" is "fied". The usage is as follows for the past tense

Who Thukkufied the picture here? - Who hung the picture here?

I Oddufied all the way to school - I ran all the way to school.

Unlike "fy", "fied" is commonly used in Hindi too.

She was so rootified with him. - She was mad at him.

Are you all familiar with Fy Phenomenon or you guys are thinking that I just made this up?

PS: Thanks ROS for the email you sent asking what rootified meant.

First Paycheck

2005-11-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

Tagged by Jaguu

I have been working since I was sixteen. I have held various kinds of job (this is another blog topic) and at all these jobs the first paycheck is always special.

I remember my first paycheck of my first job, my parents got a good percent and I gave some to church. Years went by got more jobs, but still the first paycheck always went to my parents and church. After college graduation I got my first real job. This time again, after parents and church I used some to get me a digital camera.

I got my first job after marriage recently and this time the first paycheck went to my parents, Shekar's parents and church. My dad was so surprised and happy that I sent him a part of my first paycheck. It not like he needed the money, it’s more like a token of love. No matter how many jobs I change, I hope I can keep this tradition on.

Will you love me, if I told you the truth?

2005-11-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend Shekar and I were driving to one of our friend’s house. Songs from Aaiyutha Ezhuthu (Tamil version of Yuva) were playing over our sound system. Shekar doesn't understand Tamil, but he still listens to them. So most of the time I translate the songs for him. Not that he has ever asked, or cared or even remembers the meaning the next time we listen to the same song. I feel bad and that is why I translate the songs for him.

We were driving and having conversation that is when this song started playing

uNmai sonnaal naesippaaya
manjathin mael mannippaaya

Loosely translates to "If I tell you the truth, will you love me. Will you forgive me in bed?"

I just stop talking and uttered the above translation.

Shekar turns red; his eyes get big and they stare at me. All this while I'm shocked and surprised by his reaction. Then it hit me, he thought I was going to tell him some secret that I was hiding all this while. I told him with my most innocent smile "I was just translating the song".

He just burst out laughing when he heard that (he was relived...).

Falls are Funny

2005-11-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was at work, working my way. Whenever I sit comfortably I curl my leg on the chair and then sit on it. I do this all the time regardless of home and work. But yesterday when I got up, my leg fell asleep. When this happens I usually put my feet flat on the ground and I bend it at my ankle and I'm back to normal. Yesterday I was wearing 2 inch heels and when I bent my ankle I lost balance and THUD I feel on the floor.

All my colleagues came over to see if I was doing okay. I was just lying on the floor laughing. Finally I got up and they were all like what happened. Half of them giggling, the other half trying to suppress their giggles. I was laughing out loud. I told them my leg fell asleep. One guy from the corner asks "Huh what?, You fell asleep?"

Had to correct him, Izat ka saval hain, so I explained it to him again that my LEG fell asleep.

Above all while I was lying on the floor I was thinking, "Aah aah, I can blog about this"

Survival Kit

2005-11-01T21:14:00.000-08:00

Most of the girls walk around with a purse, and guys with a wallet and it serves the same purpose. But we have a lot more stuff in our purse than in a guy’s wallet. When a guy can survive with a wallet why do we need a purse and all the things in that purse?

Most of the guys will have a wallet that has some cash, few credit cards, few receipts. But, in their pockets they also have cell phones (some wear it on their belt -- uggh), keys, Chap Stick and some more receipts.

But a girls’ purse is more like a survival kit. Here are all the things in my purse and the reason why I carry it.
Wallet - Mainly has cash, credit cards.
Hair Brush - I have long hair and as I leave it open, needs to be brushed frequently.
Lip gloss/chap stick - Lips get really dry here regardless of the season.
Powder-Cover girl powder.
Pocket tissue - Small pack of pocket tissue, just in case I get a runny nose or cry for some reason.
Dental Floss - Hate food getting stuck in my teeth after eating out.
Gum - A pack of Extra sugar free gum.
Lotion - Small tube of Nivea lotion. Hands get dry a lot.
Pen - Have like 2-3 pens and don't know why but I have a pencil too
Check book - I carry this all the time just in case I'm at a place that only takes check. These kinds of places are getting extinct these days.
Cell phone - Don't we all have this
Keys - Another thing that we all have
Medicine - I have Ibuprofen and Benadryl with me always just in case a headache or allergy hits me.

So a purse for us girls is a survival kit. If we get stranded anywhere we will have things to last us for a day.

Like most girls even I get teased about carrying my purse with all these things everywhere. But when Shekar sneezes turns over to me and ask do you have a tissue? And I gladly open my purse give him a tissue and ask “Is it the allergies I have Benadryl?”

Story tree...

2005-10-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Tagged by j'adore

A Journey Begins...

He thought it would be an ordinary journey. Standing behind the pillar he watched the train snort arrogantly into the station. With each snort he was reminded of his grandfather's words "You will fail in the city and return penniless"; with every heavenward whistle, he heard his cousin, "Don't worry. Come here and I will get you a job at the construction site." Now he had a 34-hour journey to prove one of them wrong, and he expected the excitement at the end of the journey. He looked at his ticket once again: compartment S9 berth 23.

He would preserve this ticket. When he would succeed, he would frame and hang it for all to see, as a reminder of the fact that greatness had humble origins, of the day when he set out to seize his destiny. His lips quivered with emotion as he carefully counted the money in his wallet, yet again. Four crisp hundreds and two crumpled fifties. At seventeen, it seemed like a fortune to him. He would carefully plan his expenses. He felt as energetic as the strong breeze that hit his face. He stumbled backward, as the wallet slipped from his hands.

Turag watched it fall, with the fingers of both his hands curled—one gripping the steel bar and the other gripping nothing but air. The wallet settled, the second time it touched the greased stones. It was diminishing in size and moving away from him like an open-mouthed balloon propelled by the gushing air. He knew, well enough, the events that would follow if he pulls the stop-chain. In fact it was a stop-chain that brought a wind of change in his life. Getting off from the thought-train that the stop-chain had evoked, he rushed towards it, with uncurled fingers."

Don't do that." said a voice from behind him. The command in the voice, more than his curiosity, made him stop and turn around. The first thing he noticed was her eyes which also held the finality her voice seemed to convey. He was still staring deep into the depths of her beautiful eyes when he realized that he had been stopped. He closed his eyes for a second, shook his head to clear out the image -as if wiping the slate clean- and reopened them."I drop my wallet.", he said.

Despite shaking his head, he couldn’t free himself from her gaze. She looked straight at him as if worried. He saw strength in her dark eyes, but he also saw sadness in their depths. Furthermore, the dark shadows under her eyes betrayed fatigue. Her face was classically beautiful, betraying little of her age. Guessing the lady’s sari alone cost several times the amount his wallet had contained, his childlike naiveté made him wonder why she seemed so troubled. He thought, ‘Here I am without a penny to my name, and more concerned about the woes of a stranger!’

It was always in his nature to help the needy so he couldn’t walk out from the sadness he saw in her eyes. He stretched forth his hand and said “I’m Hari”. She smiled and replied, Sheila. Hari was not ready to let go of Sheila, he wanted to help her, he wanted to wipe away the sadness and bring a smile back to her face. He stood there helpless, with out a penny to spare but a heart full of feelings. Feelings that even he had never felt before or even knew existed.

==============================================

(Everything below the dashed line above should be copied and pasted with every accepted tag)
This is a Story Tree and is best nurtured as follows:
1. A blogger can add only 90-100 words (not more or less) at a time.
2. All previous snippets of 90-100 words need to be copied before the new set of 90-100 words are appended.
3. Each entire snippet should be linked to the respective author (and not just the first sentence or so)
4. Characters, scenes, etc. can be introduced by an author
5. Bizarre twists, sci-fi, fantasy sequences are best avoided.
6. A tag must be accepted within 7 days else the branch is a dead branch
7. After appending 90-100, the Story Tree can be passed on to at most 3 bloggers.
8. If more than 1 branch leads to a blogger, s/he is free to choose any one of them but cannot mix the snippets of the individual branches.
9. The Story Tree is best left to grow than concluded
10. Please attach the image of the Story Tree below with each accepted tag (the link address can be copied and used).

Sorry guys, I hate to do this, but I tag Jaguu, Parthy and ROS

Talking ...

2005-10-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

As a kid I was a huge fan of Enid Blyton books. I read all the books our local library had back then. One of my favorite characters was Amelia Jane. Amelia Jane was this doll that came to life after dark (or when so one was around - something to that effect). So I used to believe that when I went to sleep everything in my house would come to life, like table, chair, books and what not. So I started talking to these things like they had life. My parents found it amusing may be they never stopped me. This went on for a while.

As I grew older, I continued talking to inanimate objects. Since everyone started looking at me funny, I only talked to these things when I was alone.

Years went by and I forgot about this habit. I don't know if I stopped doing this or I just did it so often that it had become common to me. Yesterday, Shekar and I car pooled to work and when I got back I asked my car, "How are you today? I missed you." Shekar just stared at me, that is when I realized, I still talk to things.

Friend in a Stranger

2005-10-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Recently I read a post of ROS's blog about meeting a stranger. That is when I realized I have a very similar story. Thanks ROS for the inspiration.

It was the summer and I was coming back from my India. I had to get to college so I left India before my whole family did. Flying by itself is bad, flying for 20 hours is worse, but nothing defeats flying for 20 hours alone. So that is what I was in for. So I boarded Kuwait airlines from Cochin airport. The flight to Kuwait from Cochin was maybe 4 hours, so I had my Jeffery Archer book and I was all set. I was in the Aisle seat (I like aisle seat better, as it has more room) and the window seat next to me was empty.

That is when I saw a guy dressed in suit, by suit I just don't mean the regular blazer and dress pant, but vest and tie the whole nine yards. My first thought was why someone would want to fly dressed in a suit. My flying wardrobe is always jeans, full sleeves shirts, sneakers, and a light material jacket, just incase I feel cold - in other words something very comfortable. As luck would have it he sat right next to me.

Before the plane took off we started talking and I found that he was an MBA student and was going home (some where middle east) after completing his degree. We got talking and he said that when he was done packing that is when he saw his suit. He didn’t have enough room to pack his suit so he chose to wear it (Note to self: don't pass judgment on people at the second they pass by). That short flight we shared our life stories. In Kuwait I had 4 hours lay over to go to London and he had 6 hours. We spent the other 4 hours at the airport talking. We exchanged email ids and I left for London.

This happened 3 years ago and even now we email each others regularly and received an email form him today, hence this blog.

As someone has said, "There Are No Strangers Here, Only Friends Who Have Never Met".

Kal bi Aaj bi - Yesterday and even Today

2005-10-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after I got out of work, I went to grocery store to buy some garlic to make Fish curry. When I got out of my car I realized I left my purse at work. Work was hardly a mile away, so I went back and got my purse. Then I finished my shopping and went home.

This morning I came to work and after like 30 mins I needed something from my purse. I looked for it and it was not on my desk. I figured I must have left it in the car. I walked over to my car and still no purse. Hopefully it is still at home. Strangely I had my cell phone and keys (these items are usually in my purse).

So today I'm penny less and driving around with out a license.

Sleeping Place

2005-10-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I couldn't fall asleep right when I hit bed (may be all the self reflecting I did earlier - read my previous post). That is when I went to my sleeping place.

Sleeping Place - is a mental image of a place that I picture myself in. I used to do this since I was a little kid. My sleeping place is still the same as it was back then. My sleeping place doesn't have a name but for blog sake lets call it "Aven". Aven is a completely made up place and I have never been there physically. Aven has huge mountains, full of lush green trees and grass. I'm the only one in whole of Aven. There is a small house in the valley of the mountains. There is a tree in front of the house and I have a hammock tied on it. There are waterfalls near by. I have never seen them but I can hear them all the time from the house. Sometimes I lie in the hammock swinging, or under the tree reading a book, or inside the house painting thing I see around me. And most of the time I'm asleep after this.

Aven works like magic for me every single time. I used to think Aven was my little secret that only I am allowed to go to. Till the other day I was watching Friends and Monica is having a hard time sleeping, and Phoebe tells Monica about Phoebe's sleeping place and it sounded a lot like my Aven.

I was so shocked because I thought I was the only one that had a sleeping place. But now I see Phoebe has a sleeping place, that too very similar to Aven. Nevertheless, Aven is still my sleeping place and it can put me to sleep even to this day.

Am I weird or do you guys have your Aven?

20 Things about ME

2005-10-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

Jaguu has tagged me to write 20 things about me. So here they go.

I can not sing, but am a huge bathroom singer and love songs.
I am a huge fan of Friends, seen each episode like million times, and still when I'm flipping through channels and I see Friends I watch the whole episode. I know everyone's lines. Can I BE more crazy (Chandler is my favorite) .
I make really good fish curry (don't we mallus all do).
I love learning languages. Can fluently speak Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and English. Can understand Telgu and Gujrathi.
I have been working since I was 16
I love cars – In future I wanna own a Corvette.
I make an extra effort to keep in touch with friends.
I’m a bull headed taurean.
I hate to shop - I know it is quiet shocking, but I can never spend time at a mall. I only go shopping when I need something. I go to the mall, get what I want, maximum 40 mins.
Used to be a tomboy (I used to defeat guys in arm wrestling back when I used to be in school). Shed my tomboyishness after I started working (I dunno why)
I don’t like the color pink and hate people associating girls with pink.
I’m very aggressive, goes back to No. 8.
I don’t have stage fright.
I can not play any musical instrument. I always wanted to play the guitar. (Jithu are you planning on selling yours)
The Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie.
Have a very short temper – I’m working on this.
I’m a people pleaser.
I can’t stand when girls use their girliness (cry, flutter eyelashes, smile ...and not restricted to only these) to get things done.
I am very organized; my buddy list is organized as school, college, work, family in my Instant Messengers.
I can not be mad at anyone for a long while.

Phew.. I'm done. But was a nice way to spend my Sunday afternoon self-reflecting.

Yeh Kya Haal Bana Rakha Hain?

2005-10-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I was watching TV and I saw Aishwarya Rai in L'Oreal ad. Even tough this as has been out for a while this was the first time I was seeing. This led me to think about the first ad I saw her, it was a Pepsi ad. This got me thinking about all the ads in India. Here are the few ads I remember from when I used to live there

Bororlin - They had this great ad that showed grandmother and grand daughter and played a nice a song, I just remember the ending "Borolin antiseptic cream, Borolin.

Bajaj - Aaj bi, kal bi, kal bi aaj bi. Inn yaadon ka safar ruke na kahin. Hamara Bajaj

Coldarin - Yeh kya haal bana rakha hain? kuch lete kyon nahin? Colderin li?

Dabur amala hair oil - Gane mulayam kale baal, kille kille mathvale baal, Dabur amala kesh thel……….. Cherra kitna kaaz lage

Eggs - Meri jaan meri jaan murgi ke aande, Meri jaan meri jaan murgi ke aande
Sunday ho ya Monday, roz kaaye murgi ke aande.

Glycodin - Naya nau din purana sau din, kaasi ke liye baz glycodin

Hajmola - A little boy is jumping over dirt and an old lady passes by. He gives her hajmola and she jumps with him. Hajmola Candy, jo bi kaaye dost ban jaaye

Hawkins - Hawkins ki seeti baji khushboo hi khusbu phaili mazedaar lazzatdaar khaana hai tayar aji khaana hai tayar... (Neena Gupta stars in this)

Lifebuoy - Tandurusti ki rakshaaa... karta hai Lifebuoy, Lifebuoy hai jahaan...... tandurusti hai wahaan..Lifebuoy

Milk - Doodh doodh doodh doodh, doodh hai wonderful, pi sakthe hain roz glass full.
Doodh mai dalo ice, doodh ban gaya very nice
Piyo daily once or twice, mil jaayega tasty surprise

Nirma - Nirma Nirma, Washing Powder Nirma, Doodh si safedi Nirma se aaye
rangeen kapda bhi khil-khil jaaye, Sabki Pasand Nirmaaaa,
Washing Powder Nirma, NIRMAAAAA!!!! ( a little girl twirls... then she becomes the image on the cover of the washing powder)

Pan Parag - Pan Parag, pan Masala, pan ka swad pan ka Masala, Pan parag. (Shami kappor used to be in this ad)

Pan Pasad -
Girl (angrily): Shaadi!! Aur tumse?? Hmph! Kabhi nahin!!
(eats pan pasand)
Narrator: Pan pasand ghazab ka swaad, ghazab ki mithaas!
Girl (sweetly): Shaadi, aur tumse? Kabhi naeee...

Santoor -
Guy:Excuse me, App kaun se college main padthe hon?
Lady: College aur main, heheh
Kid comes out running "Mommyy"

Vicks - Vicks ki goli lo kech kech door karo

Vicco - Vicco turmeric, nahin cosemetice, vicco turmeric ayurvedic cream.
Jadi buttiyon ko aapna kar, Vicco ne banaya vicco Paste (ting ting - music in background) Vicco powder

And my all time favorite.
This ad came out when the movie Jurassic Park was running.
BPL - Little kid is home and animated dinosaur comes, they make popcorn in microwave, watch TV, popcorn falls on the floor, they vacuum it with vacuum cleaner. All these products are BPL products. The main reason i liked the ad was because it showed all BPL products in one ad. Very creative.

PS: All these ads have been reproduced from memory (from 10 years ago) so they may be incorrect. Please feel free to correct them or even add new ones.

Innu Onam annu - Today is Onam

2005-10-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

We live a good part of our life based on our memories that we have gathered in yester years. How old should a child be to remember things in his/her adulthood?

My first memory was when was 3 or 4 years old. I was in Kindergarten, and Didi was in 3rd or 4th grade. It was a Monday and I was wearing this white frock that had red strings to tie it over the shoulder. Dad had taken the day off and Didi was off from school. We went to different schools so I had no chutti. As never before dad came during lunch and asked my teacher and took me home. I still today remember standing in front of this scooter excited about getting out of school.

We got home and mom had Vayzha ella (bananna leaves) laid out on the table and lots of dishes. She said monne, Innu Onam annu and we all had a sumptuous Ona sadhya.

After 22 years now, when Onam comes, this memory is still fresh. Since then Onam is not just about Maveli coming, but to me it is about family. Being with loved ones, letting loved ones know you are there for each other.

After all these years, this Onam was the first time I was away from my parents but was with Shekar. I made the Ona sadhya this time and Shekar and I had our first Onam together and that is when I realized that we do have great memories from our past, but we are just moments away from creating new great memories.

Leggo of Ego

2005-10-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

There are few people in our lives who we know and can not stand them. May be because he/she talks too much, hard to get along with,has to comment on everything or something else. But we have all met these kind of people. Or we may be this kind of people to someone else.

One such guy I know is Aamir. I met him during my college years. He was one of my friend's (Priya's) friend. Priya and I used to hang out a lot together which meant I had to be around Aamir.

Then one day I lost my college ID card and to get it replaced it was 20 bucks. ID cards were quite important in our campus, swiped them to get in our parking deck, used them as Debit cards all around the campus and lots of other reasons.

So Priya tells me, Aamir works in the college ID card office, tell him, he will get you a new one for free. I usually do not prefer asking other people for favor, especially Aamir, someone who I dislike. So I went to the ID card office, made me a new card, paid my 20 bucks and promised myself that I will be very careful from now on.

Couple of days later I run into Aamir. He tells me "See what I found?" and hands me my old ID card. I asked him where he got it. He said one of his friends Ravi found it in the parking deck and since Ravi has seen Aamir talking to me, Ravi just gave it to Aamir to give it to me.

I said "Thank You" and I walked away with the thought, "My ego, I just couldn't ask Aamir for a favor. If I had asked him, I would be 20 bucks richer and still had my old ID active". But all said and done I like the picture in my new ID much better than the old ID, so that is a 20 dollar well spent.

Prints in my Heart - Conclusion

2005-10-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Bhavya - I strongly believe that friends we make in college last our lifetime. That is where I met Bhavya. We happened to take the same class a semester and then started studying together and became very good friends. Bhavya was 5 years older than me, as she was pursuing her second degree. So more than a friend she was like an older sister. After the first semester we met we would register for the same classes every time. While we were in school we would spend the whole day together. She introduced me to lot of things I have never done in my life. She was gujju, so she taught me garbha, took me to garbhas, made me realize that there are vegetarian dishes that tastes well, taught me gujurati (not that she taught me, but all gujjus speak gujurati regardless of who is around, so I picked up the language just to feel included in their conversations. Now I can understand gujurati quiet well). We used to pull all nighters together working on assignments, studying for exams. I survived college because of her. We did disagree and have our parts of arguments but we always patched things up. This was the first time I had an older friend, and it was great. I used to go her house all the time, knew her family pretty well. Our parents became real good friends. Now both of us have moved to different states, but my parents are still close to Bhavya's parents. Bhavya has a daughter year and a half old and I can not wait hold her. I haven't seen Bhavya since April, but every Saturday a 30 min conversation with her makes me feel she is right here.

These prints in my heart are going to stay for ever. Years go by, people go by but memories stay alive. These few lines from Yaadein are the best conclusion I can give to this series.

Duniya mein hum saare
Yaadon ke hai maare
Kuch kushiyaan, thode gham
Yeh humse, inse hum
Yaadein, o meethi meethi yaadein
.
.
Baatein bhool jaati hain
Yaadein yaad aati hain

Prints in my Hearts - II

2005-10-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

Poornima - She was one of those girls that I used to love to hate. We were never friends more like rivals. All the girls in the class were divided into two groups; they were either friends of Thanu or friends of Poorni. This started when I was in 6th grade (so I was around 11 years old) and continued on till I left that school. We would compete against each other for everything. I remember this incident where we had to color the map of Africa and my main reason to do that real well was because I wanted to be better than Poorni. (sounds silly now, but that was my main drive in school years). She was mainly book smart, so I took part in all kinds of competition speech, skit, sports to be just better than Poorni. She always got better grades than me, but I comforted my self saying, that all she does, but I do so much more like sports and extra curricular stuff. Now that I look back at all these sounds so silly, but I guess if it wasn't for Poorni I would just be a book smart kid. Thanks to her even now when I am amidst a huge crowd I don't feel intimidated. I can MC a whole show for 3 hours in front of 500+ plus people and not get a ounce of stage fright. I guess what I am trying to say here is THANKS Poorni for making me aim higher and reach those goals. If it wasn't for her I would have turned out very different.

Sushil - After 9th grade I moved to a new school. Sushil was the first person to talk to me in that school. So he was always special to me. Whole of 9th grade and 10th grade we were friends. In 11th grade we became very close friends. We would talk about anything and everything. He would come to me with girl troubles and I used to help him resolve these. Then again, I switched schools but we kept in touch. He is working somewhere is Banglore these days. All my India trips, we make a point to meet up with each others and share our stories. Recently I told him that he was the first person to talk to me in our school and that is why he was so special to me and that is when he knew about it. We do something simple and for the other person it means the world. Sushil - Thank you so much for being there when I need a friend the most.

To be Continued...

Prints in my Heart - I

2005-10-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

We meet a lot of people in our life, but only a few holds special place in our heart. Years can go by, but still our memory of these special ones always stay alive. These are the people who left prints in my heart

Dheeraj - I must have met him in first grade but my earliest Memory of him was somewhere in 3rd grade. We were not great friends, but we were friends. He was great in academics and I guess he was the drive for me to do well in school. I admired him so much, I was 8 and all I wanted was to do better than Dheeraj in everything. It was such a healthy competition. But to my memory I never did better than Dheeraj, he was always class 1st and me 2nd. His dad got transferred and he moved to .. I don’t know where. I missed him a lot after he left. Then 2 years ago I got an email from him, and I was the happiest person on earth that day. We still email each others, both of us are 25 and we went different ways when we were 10 years old and after 15 years we both are fresh in each others memory. Just that thought makes me happy

Dhvani - First real close friend I had. I met her in 5th grade, I don't recall how we became friends, but we were very close. As we got older, we got closer. We would do sit together in class, have lunch together. Our Birthdays were 10 days apart and we felt that was such a special thing. When she was sick and missed school I would go over to her place and write my notes again for her and vice versa. Even to this day I have not shared that kind of friendship with anyone. She was a great dancer and I remember staying after school while she practiced so we could walk home together. I changed school after 9th grade (due to my dad's transfer), and I still remember how we hugged each others and wept. We shared letters back then, and now we share emails. Things so special happens once in your life time and I am so happy it happened to me with Dhvani.

To be Continued...

Why do we take so long?

2005-10-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Shekar (my husband) and I were invited for a friend Seema's wedding, as I was getting ready for the Saturday evening wedding, Shekar was all ready and watching football on ESPN and waiting on me and that is when I realized, why do we girls take so long to get ready and why do guys fail to understand this.

So I decided to put this blog up to explain it to all guys "Why do we take so long?"
Here is why I take so long, most of the girls could probably agree to this.

One month before the event date (ED) I talk to mom/sister/friend about what I should wear for this day. Should I wear a saree or salwar or Lehanga/lacha - what ever the long skirt outfit is called? Once decided what kind of outfit I should wear(in my case saree as I love sarees), then choice is given to the above mentioned characters and mom says "wear the nice yellow saree, it looks very rich". Didi says "please don't wear yellow, you will look like egg's yolk, wear the maroon one". Friends says "Arre yaar, pink is so in these days, you should wear your pink one, but few months ago for Suman's baby shower you wore pink na, phir you wear maroon then". As always didis rule so I decide on maroon.
Week before the ED, I try on the blouse to make sure that it still fits, and drape the saree casually and parade it for by Shekar. He says "Its nice." Me all happy now
Day before the ED, wash my hair, blow dry it and straighten it (I have hair below shoulder length) so this take almost 60 – 90 minutes. Then I pick out a nail color that matches my saree and paint my nails. Iron my saree, have to be very careful as the saree has lot of bead work.
On ED, we have to leave home at 5.00 as we have an hour long to the wedding place. So I start getting ready around 3.30 (1.30 hrs sounds pretty good). I start with draping the saree - came out well in the first try. First thing I do is pull all my hair back in a clip so it doesn't interrupt the makeup process on my face. Put moisturizer, then foundation, then powder, curl my eyelashes, then eye shadow(I have to make sure the eye shadow is a shade of my saree's color), then eyeliner, then mascara. Apply tad bit of Vaseline on my lips and then lipstick (this also should be the shade of my saree's color). Face DONE. Next hair. I usually like to wear my hair down, and pull back little hair in a clip, so I brush my hair down and put a clip and now I'm 90% done.
Next is jewelry, have to pick something to go with the work of the saree. So pick a small necklace, few bangles. Finally footwear. This can make or break the whole outfit. So I carefully select a sandal that has a small gold flower in the corner. My favorite perfume and I am all DONE

The above was my timeline now a list of what Shekar did to get ready.

At 4.30 of the ED, comes over to me and ask "Do you think I should wear a suit or a dress shirt and pants?" For which I respond "Suit pehana". Next question "Blue, black, grey"? I say blue and he nods his head and walks away.
Shekar shaves, puts moisturizer on his face, gel in his hair, combs his hair, takes him a minute to decide what shirt to wear with the suit, wears the shirt, wears his suit(dry cleaned already, so doesn't have to iron). Then a pair of black shoes. Viola he is done and time is 4.50, 10 minutes to spare.

Now with both of us dressed Shekar pulls out the car and I get in and he looks at me and says "Why are you so decked up teri shaadi nahi ho rahi (you are not getting married), why didn't you wear the cream salwar you wore at mama's house for dinner". I roll my eye and bite my tongue so I do not burst out on him.

Blogger’s world is a singles world

2005-10-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

Recently I have become an avid blog reader. Especially after Google launched blogsearch. I have noticed that most of the blogger’s are single. Don’t get me wrong there are few married ones, but majority are single.

Is it because married people do not have anything blog worthy happening to them, or they just want to share things/feelings/questions/.. to the significant other and not to rest of the world. Or is it that a majority of married people blog as single people to increase the hits to their site due to the universally accepted truth that married people are boring.

This leads to the next question – why do single people blog?

Is it because they are lonely and want to share their feeling with rest of the world? Or is it just a way to keep in touch with friends far away, to keep them posted about what is going on. Or is it just a way to make new friends or even find a life partner.

Just wondering

College or Work...

2005-10-05T11:13:00.000-07:00

I recently had a conversation with my cousin, who had just graduated college. She was so excited about starting the working world. That is when I thought is Work all that exciting?

I graduated college 3 years ago and have been working since then. But has work been all that fun? Or is work expected to be fun? This led me to make a list.

Things I miss about college...

Vacations - Number of days I did not have to go (choose not to go) to college

Friends – Closeness with friends and meeting them for lunch/breakfast/late night dinners. Staying up with them till wee hours of the morning talking, watching movies.

Schedule – The flexible schedule, like having your first class after noon, or having classes just few days of the week.

Structure – I know what I am doing, where I am going when I am in college.

Food Joints – Favorite little food place that served the best food and was always open when you had a craving for them.

Don’t get be wrong. I also love working. I have been working since I was 16, but real jobs after I graduated. I love what I do, BUT it is not college.