What Else is on TV

"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

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

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

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

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

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.