Austin Trip

Austin, capital of Texas is 160-170 miles from Houston. This place was one of the first trips we took after I came to Houston. We went there with friends. It was a 3 hr drive, we reached there a little beyond lunch time. So we just stopped at a place and had bisibele bhat, sabudana khichidi, pickles and papads.











We then headed towards Lake Travis. The plan was to rent a boat and have some fun time. Since we reached late, we couldnt get the speed boat, but we did get a pontoon boat. We had an hr till we could get this boat. So few of us took ride on the jet ski or wave runners. It was fun. But, it was too hot.




Finally, when we got on to the boat, we sat in the shade for a while, just roaming around the lake... Riding this doesnt need much of training, so all of us tried to ride the boat and it was complete entertainment. We spent nearly an hour in the lake with boat just roaming on the lake...









We then left to Austin Capitol. Well, I wouldnt say it was as good as the one in Washington DC, but it was amazing in its own way. We just did a round of this, took a couple of pictures, then headed for dinner and then back home.








This was a trip to be cherished forever.

Your money, my money, whose money is it anyway??

We were discussing about a new hindi movie, how the guy sees 12 girls in 6 days and decides to marry one of them in 10 days. Its a story very near to what happens these days. The guy comes to India for vacation, sees a couple of girls and then marries.Well, as the discussion went on, we went to to tell a few stories which we had heard. Then came one story, there is a working couple, the girl's family needed some money and the guy asked why she was sending money to her parents. Few months back, when I was with roomies we had a similar discussion.

One girl said, she should have told him that its none of his business. I would have vouched for this, if I wasnt married and dint know what it meant to be married. I am not trying to say what anybody said was wrong. I am just trying to tell that, certain problems dont have clear cut solutions. Also, the way you look at things might change after you are married. Well, if people claim that they know how things change once you are married, or who say "I have lot of married friends and I know how they think". Trust me, you can only see the surface of whats between them. However good or bad the relationship seems, its only the surface. Its obvious the couple dont tell you their best or worst times. Like any thing else in this world, you have to experience this, to know it. There are certain things which we pledge not to change in our lives, but we do later, not due to the pressure, just because the situation is such, and we want to do it for our loved one.

There is a very popular saying in which it seems Girls say to the husband - "Your money is my money, my money is my money". Well whoever said this, I have one question for you. What happened to all that "women are equal to men"? First thing, if ladies want to spend the money on their family, go ahead, there is nothing wrong, but there is nothing wrong in discussing this with your partner. If you feel thats wrong, then stop checking your partner's bank balance Its none of your business too. Isn't it unfair on the guy, that he has to account for everything and ladies shouldn't be questioned. Ofcourse I do agree in our society guys are not questioned for a lot of things, but we are, so ladies also shouldnt have these obstacles or vice versa. I agree to that too. Lets do something, were both can come to agreeable terms.

Ofcourse, all the discussion can happen only if the guy is understanding enough. If, he is being a nut case and denying it, then you can think of different solution. But on the first place, before marraige did both of them discuss on this aspect. These days, be it love or arranged, girl and guy usually get a chance to talk to each other. If not personally, they atleast interact through other media. So, instead of asking which colour they like, or what is the favourite vacation spot, can't both of them discuss topics like these, which matter more. Wont this help you in choosing your life partner than the colour or vacation spot. I agree that you cant start off with such things. But once you reach a comfort zone, cant these be discussed? There are a lot of things which cant be discussed, since we can never anticipate what problems we might face. But whatever comes to your mind at that point of time, which is practical.

Today, most of the girls are financially independent. But when you are getting married, are you not committing yourself to your life partner. We still expect the girl to do the household work, along with careers. We fight for this, saying guys also need to participate. Some guys might claim that its not their part and that in the rules of marraige (if any), girls do this work. We girls, protest and some times get it our way, where there is distribution of work. Inspite of this, why do some of us still think that guys should provide. Is this not hypocrisy? Shouldnt this relationship inspite of financial independence, have the emotional dependency.
G always says there is always a difference between independence and freedom. We need to realize this difference.

Coming back to finance. This is my funda is "Your money is our money and my money is also our money".

Its said that Love is magic. Its also said "Falling in love is very easy. Staying in love is difficult". Getting into the wedlock is easier, staying in the marraiges is a 24*7 occupation. I may not have decades of experience in this, but half a decade of commitment and an year + of marraige has taught me this. And it takes a couple to keep this going. So, its better to sort this financial issue as early as possible. Comeon, dont you have other problems to work on... Like who's gonna ccok today :)

To eat or not to eat

I dont remember a time when I have liked Cauliflower. Sometime when I was young, I associated this vegetable with human brain. I still dont know why, but after that, I hav never ever liked anything made of this vegetable. I would rather eat plain rice, chapati with ketchup instead of Gobi sabzi. My mom tried several tricks so that I could eat this. But the moment I saw this vegetable in any dish, I used to throw a tantrum and never ate it.

Years later, once when mom tried Gobi Paratha, I liked this vegetable a little bit. Ofcourse, this was because, the vegetable was kinda mashed and I couldnt see the florets. Then one day we went to one of the fast food joints (The shanti sagar types). We had gobi manchurian as an appetizer. I tasted one, with reluctance and then there is no looking back. Gobi manchurian is my favorite appetizer ever.

It seems strange that I still hate anything else made of this vegetable, unless it very finely chopped and I cant see the florets. But Gobi manchurian, I can have it any time of the day. Its very sad that, most of the Indian restaurants in US, dont serve this. In India, we categorize this in chinese dishes. But I have never seen it in Chinese menu either. May be it completely Indian and just because we have Soy Sauce, we call it Indo-Chinese. Anyway, for all I care, I love this and was missing it a lot in US.

Since I am on the cooking spree, I tried this at home. And I must say, it was awesome, it was 99% like the ones we get in India...

Here's a pic of what we ate. G loved it. We finished the whole plate in a few minutes.

Poori

Pooris were our favourite when we were kids. We could gobble up the hot pooris anytime of the day. Those were the days, when people were not obsessed with fat-nonfat, oooo will I become fat sort of things.

Mom used to make excellent round and fluffy pooris. I used to love bursting the those. We would have it with Chole, Rajma, Sagu,Aaloo sabji. There were times when we had it with cabbage, beetroot sabjis too. Mom realized that she could get us to eat vegetables which we dint like with pooris. She then started making palak and beetroot, green pooris, red pooris so yummy and healthy too.

Well, it had been days since we ate pooris. I was trying out some new curry for chapatis. And then thought, why not make pooris instead. So this became our lunch for the day.

Poori and Pitla.



Pitla it seems is a Maharashtrian dish. Its made of Chickplea flour,onion, tomatoes and spices. Seems, its usually eaten with Bhakri.

Well I just made a poori-pitla combination and it tastes yummy :)

Hooked.. booked.. cooked

I happened to see a programe "First Ladies". Its all about the wives of famous people. Anyway, in this show, there is a section "HOOKED BOOKED and COOKED".

Now I can understand what HOOKED means, probably who proposed whom... I didnt understand what BOOKED means...
Finally, whos' getting COOKED. Well, I think in any marraige, it takes both of them as to how the life goes on... So both of them get cooked. And I must say, as time goes, and cooking is on, there is a fanatastic aroma and an awesome taste. The same way, once the couple are cooked with spices of life, the relationship just gets better and better.

Well, it takes both the partners for a successful marraige. HOOKED, BOOKED or COOKED, as long as both of them work on it, that is all matters.

Cooking expeditions...

When I first came to US all I knew was to cook some basic stuff. There was lot of work pressure those days. So cooking time was like relaxing time. I used to call Mom and ask for new reciepes. Slowly I learnt more about cooking. There were times when the food used to be a little messed up. The saviour would again be mom. I would tell her the problem, and she would give me a solution. This way, I learnt some tricks and tips too.

Recently, I developed this interest of trying new reciepes again. So, I tried to make some Khandvi 2-3 weeks back. It was pretty simple to make, but only problem I had was to flatten it. I succeded to some extent, and it was tasty. To add in my touch, I sprinked some sprouted green moong. We enjoyed a nice evening snack :)

Krishna nee Begane Baaro

Krishna Janamashtmi has always been my favorite festival since the time I have known myself. This is one day in the whole year, where I can sacrifice food and even water until dinner time. Last year we were in India for this festival. At G's place its not celebrated at a grand scale. The previous night G dropped me to mom's house and the next day, it was celebrated at the usual grand scale.

At home its usually celebrated like this. This pic was taken in 2005, the first year I missed the celebrations.

This year, I wanted to celebrate it with as much resources available here. And it was not bad at all. We set up the mantapa, decorated with flowers and fruits.


I made doodh peda, coconut burfi and kachoris for the pooja.


We did the panchamrutha abhisheka and then the pooja.


On the whole we had a nice pooja, and I was very happy.




At first, we thought of inviting friends that day for dinner. Since I was busy in the morning, preparing the sweets and making the other decorations, we thought it would be better to invite the next day.
The next day we had friends for dinner. It was complete fun. I had made vegetable puff, paneer-cucumber-tomato salad, bisibelebhat, veg-tofu fried rice, puliogre. And, I hope all of them enjoyed the dinner.We played UNO (card game). After dinner, we played Dumb Charades. All of us had nice fun. After the tiresome, Friday and Saturday, we had quite a relaxing Sunday, and we ended our weekend with a movie.

Koi roko na

This song was playing in the background, and I was telling this story to G, the nth time.

Its still so fresh in my mind...

Golden days :)

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai.. hosake to isme...

This is a very famous song from Golmaal (1979)


The movie itself is awesome. Its entertaining till the end, and I have watched this multiple times
This is the title song and I used to love this song Golmaal hai


12 years back, I knew the screenplay of this movie. But at that time, I hadnt noticed the aane waala song much, until somebody sang this.

We had been to a Himachal trek when in school. Our camp leader was a very good singer. One evening when all of us were enjoying the camp fire, we all requested him to sing. He announced that he is gonna sing a song from Golmaal, I thought it would be the title song, since it suited the situation etc etc. But then he started singing this. It was awesome listening to the song.

Aane waala pal

The next time I saw the movie, I waited for this song. I realized that somehow i had never noticed this song in the movie.

Sometimes in life there are certain things we never notice, but when someone else recognizes it, thats when we realize, it was there all the while. We just failed to notice it.

Ganesha banda kaayi kadabu tinda.. chikka kereli bidda dodda kereli yedda

Usually Gowri and Ganesha festival come on consecutive days but this time it was on the same day. The best part was it was on a Sunday. The whole of Saturday went in cleaning the house. In the evening, we went for the festival shopping. We even got the water immersible Ganesha idol. I was extremely happy after this.


Sunday morning, I woke up around 7. After last minute cleaning and a nice wash I started off with cooking. I was juggling with cutting vegetables and cooker and rice and coconut. I can say that I was in a mess and totally confused. I was just thinking how mom did all these things at home, and I never even realized it all these years. Anyway I was nearly done by 10.30, so got ready for the pooja and by 11 AM we started the Gowri Pooja.


This went on for an hour. After this G did the Ganesha pooja. After both, it was lunch time. I had made sambar, mango rice, channa daal kheer (kadle bele payasa), kosambari (carrot, cucumber salad)and Modakas.


G's friend had got sajjige (rava ksheera). We had our lunch and then headed for the temple. Since the temple was a bit far, we took a small nap on the way. In the evening we did the visergane and went to friend's place for dinner. On the whole we had a wonderful festival. An extremely hectic day had come to an end.


A few years back, the festival meant only fun. Previous day we would go with a basket to the nearby shops. They would have so many colourful Ganapathi and Gowri idols made of mud. We would spend time to check the idols and selecting the idol was one major task. Then, the basket would be filled with hay and very carefully both the idols would be placed in the basket.
The next day, early morning we would be woken up and shooed into the bathroom for a long oil bath (this was one thing I used to hate during festivals). Once this is done, our new dresses would be ready and we would be completely ready for the pooja. It was always me, who did the Gowri pooje and bro who did the Ganesha pooja. And when the time came to offer prasada to God, all the items would appear from kitchen magically. We would never know when mom prepared all this. After the yummy food, we would either play or watch TV. In the early evening, we would go to our uncles and aunt's houses for Ganesha Darshana. Then visit the temple. Finally late in the evening we would do the visarjane.

On the whole, the festival was fun back then, its been fun this time too. Just that, the roles have changed in life...

Concerts on the go

Since I am writing about concerts, I thought its a good time to mention about another concert. A week after this one, we were to attend the concert from Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan.

At first we thought it was on a Saturday. So on Friday at 5, G called up asking me to get ready. Thanks to G's friend (she helped us in the getting the ticket), she reminded him about it. So we had a very early dinner and reached the venue around 8.00.It was the basket ball stadium. There werent much people when we reached. But by 9.00, it was packed. I was so excited that I would hear Sonu and Sunidhi LIVE.

In the beginning, the show started off with some guy, Ayub Khan, singing a couple of songs. He was a terrible singer, but I must appreciate his guts to come and sing in front of a stadium full of people.
After this, there were a couple of dance performances. After half an hour of all this extra stuff, we finally got Sunidhi Chauhan on stage. It was amazing to see her perform. The energy she had was awesome. She sang continuously for more than an hour. Off she went on a break, and came in the host to introduce Sonu Nigam to the crowd. And then came the smart guy on stage with the magical voice. It was a wonderful listening to voice which made people stand on their feet and start dancing.

The energy with which both of them performed do show why they are in the position they are today. The concert ended around 1.30 AM and I must say it is a concert I would remember for a long time now.

Dont push!!!

We have been getting newspapers everyday for quite some days. We haven't subscribed for it and yet there is a bundle on the front door everyday. We even tried to nore it and hence dint pick up the paper for a week, but it just kept bundling up. The guy comes early in the morning, so we can't tell him directly. Its so irritating, that when you dont want certain things, they are just forced upon you.

Some people just DON'T get the message. We are ignoring you, means we dont need you. So, please stop forcing yourself on us. We hate it, but can't tell it :(

Tak dina dhin

Music is something which most of us like. I am not a very big fan of classical music. Neither am I a fan of western music. Its just the mood I am in, and any kind of music can interest me anytime. And I don't care much for instrumental music too.

When G told me there is a concert by Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ustad Zakir Hussain, I was not totally thrilled, but I did want to go to the concert. So off we went in the traditional attire to the first ever classical concert of my life. We reached a few minutes late, but that was ok, since the show had just started. The first performance was just the flute and I was just trying to get into the groove. After a while I had quit trying, I was getting into the groove.

The real entertainment started when the tablas started, it was just superb. There were moments where I did have goose bumps. The part I loved the most was the jugalbandi, how the flute and tabla were competing with each other. The whole auditorium was just deafened with the applause, so many times. And most of the time it was not coz of the crowd, I did that on my own. I never thought I could like instrumental music this much.

I must say, it was one of the curious evenings and it just turned out pretty interesting.

Bikey bikes!!

G loves bikes. So much that he always wishes we had a bike instead of a car. I am all supportive of that idea, just that car is a necessity here and we have to have it. The other day somebody offered the Hayabusa 2000 as a trade for our car. G was so tempted, but then he realized that currently its not possible.

When he told me this, I was happy that he was being so responsible. But felt very sad too. Its like a dream bike and this is "so near yet so far" situation. I just hope someday we get to own anything G dreams of.

Raksha Bandhan

Courtsey: Google

I have always loved this festival. Although being a south Indian this is not in the tradition. I think I was in 7th when we started this at home. Mom had got the rakhi, I had no clue what it was, that's when mom explained this to me. I was thrilled, if not anything else but by the gift part. My bro was super excited coz he could show off in class. Well this was what we both felt the first time we celebrated the festival. But as we grew, this became more important. Ofcourse a thread wasnt required to stregthen our bond, but it would just be like re-emphasizing on the bond we share.

When in school there was one year, where I tied Rakhi to a few guys in my class too. But after that never ever did I tie Rakhi to any guy other than my brothers (including cousins). I always feel that, when we cant just give the place of parents and spouse to any random person, even brothers and sisters cant be made just by tying a rakhi. Once a friend of mine wanted me to tie the rakhi his sis had sent. I told him my reasons of why I wouldnt tie it to him. Thats when he said "You are my sis here rite?" Somehow that felt very genuine and I tied him Rakhi. Today we are not in constant touch, but we do know whats happening with each other... and yes every Rakhi I do wish him and ask for a gift :)

Well back to my bro, I am very lucky to have A as my bro. He has been my friend ever since we know each other. We have fought with each other like we would kill each other. We have pulled each other's hair. We have covered up for each other in front of mom. Ofcourse me being the elder one was more protective of him. Most of the time I would protect him from mom's scoldings. My theory was "I am the only person who can scold or beat my bro". As we grew older the age difference between us is reducing. I can have a conversation with him, which I can with my friends now. He is a pretty cool headed guy, I have hardly seen him getting angry. Sometimes I feel he is more mature now than I was at his age.

He is also very protective about me. He will make sure that I dont go through any trouble. There was once incident which made me realize that my bro is now protecting me. We used to go for Yoga classes probably when I was in 11th. It was a long walk from home. That particular day me and bro were walking holding our hands. There was nobody else on road. I always walked toward the roadside and he was on the innerside. We saw a cyclist coming in our direction. Me and bro were talking about something. When the cyclist was nearing us, bro very smoothly left my hand and came to the roadside and held my handside so that the cyclist wouldnt even get an opportunity to go past me. I was so touched by this incident. Even now he is still the same. Ofcourse he's lost the smoothness and tells me to come aside or move aside (as if I dont know). But sometimes its nice to be bossed around by him.

He is my younger bro, but at times behaves like a elder one. Till date I have never heard him call him by name. Its always Akka. Even if he has to scold me. A few cousins of mine still tease him, but that doesnt bother him. May be after so many years I am so used to it that I wont be able to digest if he calls me something else.
I miss him a lot. Both of us know its no longer possible to be together, but we know we will always be there for each other in any circumstances. That's my promise to him. I thank God for giving me such a wonderful brother

Plastic meltdown

I was preparing tea today, and suddenly remembered an incident.

Bro loved to drink his Complan in the Complan cup (which we got with a bottle of complan). Mom had kept milk in the cup and it had been a while, so she just asked me to heat it up. I was in 7th std at that time. I promptly went to the kitchen, switched on the stove and very neatly kept the plastic cup right above the flame. In a minute, I could see milking dropping out of the cup. I got tensed and called mom.

Mom got a shock at this. She asked me why I dint pour that in a steel container. The cup had melted and gotten into a weird shape. I was in the verge of crying, I forgot that plastic melts. How could I? But I learnt my lesson after that. I can never forget that plastic metls on heat :)

Ofcourse with all this going on, bro was a little upset that his favorite cup was gone. But then the next month a different nice looking cup mafe its way into our house and this whole incident was just wrapped up.

Journey!!!

Relationships are so complicated sometimes. We try to focus on one and lose out on the rest. Multi tasking is surely important sometimes. Ofcourse this is more important in case of all the close relationships which are important to us. Life is similar to a journey, and as in life, we make so many relationships here too. But what about those which just come on your way in this journey? How much importance do we give this?
The new relation is just a couple of months old, and its actually not directly affecting your journey in any way. But if you feel, this is disturbing the journey, isnt is better to clear the air off so that it doesnt came in your journey later on? But in this process if we end up hurting our near and dear ones, thats wrong too, isnt it? How can we decide what needs to be given importance, and what can be ignored?
Probably growing with life gives us this clarity. Maybe having the right life partner helps you see all this in a different light. Whatever it is the factor which is outside your brain sometimes helps you take the right decision.
Howmuch ever importance is given to momentary problems/solutions will just fade away in life, but the ones you give importance will stay with you till the end of the journey and remind you what you did all your journey.
Open up your heart and your brain, think before you decide, prioritize whats important in life, and finally go ahead with the decision the heart and brain mutually agree...

Yeh Chai Mastani

Pic courtsey : Google

I have always loved Tea over coffee... So many people have wondered why I dont like coffee being a south Indian... Well, I dont know what thats got to do with my liking... But anyways tea has always been my favorite.

At home, mom prefers to have tea which I make, after I left home, she prefers the one which bro makes. But making tea just for self is boring, so I dont make it unless I have company or I really want to drink some tea.

The other day I was teasing G, that he could make tea for me. He agreed and went to the kitchen. Then started his array of questions, where is the vessel, where is tea powder etc etc... He dint allow me to help him. Then I just went to see how things were on, and I saw nearly 10 spoons of tea powder for 2 cups of water. I was quite shocked. He said that's his special tea. And when I got my cup of tea, I was quite skeptical, when I tasted the tea, it was too sweet so he took it back added some more tea and milk then gave it to me. This time I dint taste, I was still waiting so that he could get his cup. He was planning to have lemon tea, so he just poured his tea in a glass and some lemon into it... We both sat to have the wonderful tea... And I still dont know how I managed to drink the cup of tea. G just had a sip of it and said I would rather have you make the tea :)

Well after days, he offered to make tea again, but this time with my instructions and tea is not bad afterall :)

Dinner party

We had invited G's friends for dinner last thursday, I wanted to make Thair vada (Dahi vada) for a long time... So called mom and got the recipe

2 cups of Urad dal
1-2 tablespoon of rice (I put a fist of rice)
Salt
Black pepper (whole or powder)
Oil for frying
Curd/ Yogurt

Soak the urad dal and rice together for 1-2 hrs

Then grind it to a thick paste (more the water content, more oil its soaks while frying)



Heat the oil in a pan/kadhai (anything which can be used for deep frying)
once the oil is sufficiently hot, put small portions of the batter in the oil



Once the vadas are golden brown take them out of the oil into a tissue to soak out excess oil.



Keep a vessel of hot water ready, put these fried vadas into hot water. Let it soak for a few mins



Now take these out of water, squeeze out the water, and soak these vadas into thick curd. Leave it for sometime, now the vadas are ready to be served



Of course, use grated carrots, coriander leaves for garnishing.

Once these were done, made some raitha (cucumber, onion and tomatoes), then pulav (with cauliflower, beans carrots, lima beans and peas), fruit salad, cucumber salad, curd rice and then finally ice cream....











The dinner time was fun. I hope eveybody liked the food... I thoroughly enjoyed myself... Maybe we should do this more often :)

Just Thinking!!!

I just saw Swades.. ya ya I know its not a new one and is one of the movies which shouldnt be missed. But then, it so happens that I couldnt watch it earlier... I must say. SRK's not overacted and he is good in this movie :)

There is a scene where Mohan (SRK's character) and the villagers are discussing about how India is and how America is, and then one of them says India is the best country coz of the sanskar & parampara. This is when Mohan disagress and says that people in the US too have their own traditions and just coz Indians dont know. it doesnt mean they dont have any. I kind of agree with that.

Years before, much before I came to US, I also had the same thinking like many of us Indians about the country America and the people who stay here. I wouldnt say Americans coz people who stay here include so many other nationals too. Most of it, derived from the Hindi movies and also the very few English movies I had seen. The most important thing I had thought was, there was no family concept in Us, people dint respect each other, people dint care for other people and also that Indians who come to US forget their family back in India and all those things which were shown on our Silver screen.

When I landed in US, I dint know what to expect. Slowly, I started observing people. One by one all the inhibitions just broke... I met people who cared for family so much... met moms who cared for kids, as my mom would do. Saw wives who cared for their husbands, saw daughters/sons who cared for their parents. I got to know about a lot of traditions too. And yes, if you respected them, you would get that back too. And ofcourse, the Indians here dont forget their family or the traditions or anything of that sort. There are all kinds of people in this world, so if somebody changes its not the country, its just that the situation was such that people changes. Are people in India not changing?? So why do we have this hesitance to accept that US also is a good country.

Somehow I have been lucky to stay in both the countries, I think I can see most of the things in both the countries and also realize whats good and bad.
Its time all of us realize that we might be good rather great, but that doesnt mean the rest of them are horrible!!!

PAst..Present..Future

Yesterday I went to meet my cousin. As we were talking, the most popular topic – RECESSION came up in our discussion.

Then I just said College days were so much better, where we only had to worry about studies and not worry about other responsibilities. And when we were studying we always thought once we land up in a job we don’t have to study anymore, and we will have so much independence.

Isn’t it always like this, the past always has nice memories. It’s not that we dint have bad times then, but cherish our good times of the past so much, that we start comparing the good times of past with bad times of present.

Then we realized, it’s not that we never had fun after joining a job. We have had new found independence. We have had fun with friends when we joined the company. Ofcourse our batch dint have the usual training fun, coz it was a little different for us, which probably would be a different post. It’s been a few years in company and every year has its share of good and bad experiences. We have had the best of times and the worst of times.

So whenever we think, life was great in the past, we should realize that some time in future we will remember the good times of today, so let’s enjoy the TODAY instead of comparing it with the golden PAST and make new memories for our FUTURE.

Whats in a name

I remember most of my husband’s friends names. Atleast after listening to their names twice, I know from when they know each etc. Of course once in a while I forget.

From the time I have introduced my friends, unless he has interacted with them personally more than 5-6 times, or if they attended our wedding (they are the same people he has interacted with), he’s always confused with the names.

A month back, this was the converstation (we were in 2 different places, so conversation on phone)

Monday
ME : I am going to Priya’s house this weekend
HIM : Oh! Cool

Tuesday

ME : We are planning to do so n so over the weekend
HIM : Who all??
ME : Told you na, going to Priya’s house
HIM : Oh ya…

Wednesday

HIM : I am planning to go to beach during weekend.
ME : Wow… That’s good.. You are also going out
HIM : Also?? Where are you going?
ME : (hmph!!) Friend’s place
HIM : Oh Cool.. Lavanya’s house?
ME : Naah.. Priya
HIM : Great Enjoy maadu

Thursday

ME : (Not even nearing weekend discussions) So what’s for dinner?
HIM : Rice and Sambar… So you are going tomorrow directly from office?
ME : (Wow!!! He remembers) Hoon.. Am packing now
HIM : Great!!! Say Hi to Pallavi from my side.
ME : (confused) But Pallavi is in NY, and I am not going to meet her.
HIM : Oh then what’s your friend’s name.
ME : (Tired) Priya.

Friday evening

HIM : So, did you reach Pallavi’s house
ME : (Completely frustrated with this name confusion). Its not Pallavi, Its Priya.
HIM : Oh ya!! I forgot
ME : Is it so difficult to remember my friend’s name, that too after listening to it for a week now
HIM : Hey Come on!!! How can I remember your friend’s names??
ME : Fine… Forget it
HIM : That’s what I did :)

Traffic o traffic

At lunch time today, we were just discussing about the traffic conditions.. D(my friend) just shared her experiences when she was on a 2 wheeler.

Incident 1: D was on a signal waiting for it to turn green. It was taking a long time. A guy was honking for a long time, so she just gave way to him. He then did the same to the guy in front. The other guy got so frustrated that it seems he gave a gesture which meant fly and go.... The way D showed it to us, it was so hilarious.

Seriously, when you are on a red signal, whats the point in honking? The person in front of you is also equally frustrated with all this traffic. Most of them are on the way to attend to something important. Everybody wants to get out of the traffic as soon as possible. If all of us have a little patience and understand that, only if we work together will this problem be in a situation where we atleast can tolerate it.

Incident 2: One of the roads had a 'no left turn' signal. And seems it was covered by the tree, so people couldnt see the same, and started going in that road. The policeman was sending people away from there, later caught one person. Seems this guy told the policeman "Sir, you are doing a great job by enforcing the law. I am ready to pay the fine, but can you please make sure that people can see the board". The policeman was so embarassed, that he let him go and dint stop anybody for fines, but started to redirect.

Some of us do want to follow rules, but when the rules are not laid out fine, how can we even follow that?? I really wish, that traffic becomes much better, atleast for the sake of people who want to follow the rules and live in a better place.

Food.. love

There have been very few times, when I have got to go to work from home. Most of the times I have stayed out of my place for work. So it’s a great feeling when I get to go to work from home. Since its Bangalore and that my house is very far from office, I had to leave pretty early. And the first thing moms think about when you are home with them is good food. And yes, I had that priviledge.

Everyday I used to have a mini breakfast around 6.30 AM, just before I had to rush for the bus. Then around 9.00 AM I used to take my breakfast to the canteen and have it with my friend. Around 12.30, we used to go and have the lunch, ofcourse something yummy packed for lunch. I even had some snacks in my bag. Not mention 2 apples and freshly squeezed lemon juice from home. My bag was always full of these things. My brother always teased me, if I was going for work or picnic. Amazingly though, I must say mom still knows how much her daughter needs to eat and in what intervals. After all this as soon as I was back home, there used to be a hot cup of tea ready for me and after some time dinner would be served.

Its been ages since I have had that luxury. I have always valued this motherly love and the luxury of having all this in life. But you remember these things more when its no longer there.

Season fever

Its raining so much these days, and if I were to use any of those comparisons... like cats and dogs and stuff like that… I would say it’s raining elephants and hippos. But rain is not the only thing, its getting cold too. I have started detesting my jacket. I am really bored of that. Now add to that I have to carry an umbrella all around. And with all this come fever and cold and cough. Luckily my cough and cold are not much. But fever is really tiring; it also comes with body pain. I wish G and me were together. That would have really helped.

When we were in Bangalore, at school/college times, anytime I got fever, 100% attention used to be on me. Even otherwise I used to gobble up 90% of it, but 100 is something different. Mom always had to have me in sight. So I wake up in the morning, and depending on the condition it would be decided if I could have a bath or no. I would be given something hot to drink (milk... yuk), then something to eat. It used to be bread since nothing else would actually go past the throat. Then all day mom would sit with me… checking temperatures, getting things to eat and drink. Then slowly I moved out and due to work, weekend were the only time I could be home, so fever on weekdays meant, take care of yourself (of course roommates helped a lot, they were the family then).

We went to Mysore after the wedding. So I fell ill again with fever. I dint take an off, but as soon as we came home I just crashed into the bed. I told G to wake me up in an hour so that I could cook dinner for us. When I actually got up, it had already been 3 hours, and when I got out of the room, it was such a delightful sight, G was cooking something for dinner. He said that I needed rest and ordered me to go back to sleep by the time he finishes his cooking. I just did as he said. He then woke me up and we had a tasty meal which I could relish completely. There were days when I told him, I wish I could fall ill and he could take care of me like this. He takes care of me the best after mom. I sometimes behave very unreasonably with him, but then again if I don’t…who else can?

Little Tea party

I just happened to see a photo of a small girl playing with a teapot and a cup. This just triggered my memory and my childhood just flashed in front of me.

As a part of our childhood, we had so many dolls but the main thing was to have a kitchen set. We had these made of steel, clay, plastic. They were replicas of what mom had in her “real” kitchen, and this was so exciting. Mom would lend grains to put in these teeny weeny containers. And yeah!!! Before we had a actual fridge at home, I already had a beautiful plastic one which was as big as my dad’s palm… But hey this was one thing mom dint have and I had… and being the nice daughter I was, I had even offered mom she could use mine… That time I dint know why she never used it (ofcourse much later when we had a real one, I knew why she had refused).

If there were no children to actually play with me, mom would volunteer. She would be my guest, me being the perfect hostess, would offer her tea, juice and lot many things to drink (all of which would be water in a thumb sized glass. Then we would have lunch in our play plates, so peanuts were to be assumed as rice and sambar. Of course we would use up the snacks and take bigger plates and eat those.

As I grew a little older, I grew out of these smaller vessels and containers and actually started making something in the kitchen (say: Tea). I was always fascinated with the whole tea sets which were shown in movies. So sometimes my parents used to play along with me. We had 2 tea sets at home, and they were to be used only on special occasions. Well, mom used to carefully take it out for me and I used to prepare the tea decoction (tea without milk – water a tea powder boiled well together) put it in the big tea pot, then hot milk in the smaller pot, then sugar in the sugar container. I used to take the whole tray in front of them. Then pour all these one by one in the cup. In the end, you are supposed to ask the quantity of sugar. Once all this is done, I used to serve them the tea with some biscuits. This whole thing used to take much more time than the usual, but the fun and the time we used to spend on this was totally awesome.

How I wish I can be that little girl again!!!

Lake Tahoe

This was a long pending trip. I always wanted to go with G, but the plan din’t seem to materialize. So I thought I would go along with friends. After much confusion, hotel rooms were booked; cars were booked for a 2 day trip for 10 people.

Day 1: The plan was to start at 8.30 AM on Saturday (31-Jan). We started only at 10 after picking up the car at airport. Initial part of the journey I was asleep as I had a terrible headache. We had stopped for lunch. It wasn’t yummy, but it did fill up our hungry stomach.We still had some 90 mi to travel and I took over the steering wheel. Initially, there was nothing interesting, so it was quite a normal drive. Then started the glimpse of snow capped mountains. This was not the first time, but ofcourse it was the first time in a new place, we were excited that we would be there anytime soon. The rest of the drive was a beauty, with snow either sides of the road.



We checked in the hotel and freshened up for the evening. At first we had no plans, and since its winter, it gets dark quickly. We thought of going to the lake first and then see what we wanted to do.



The lake was beautiful. The tip was frozen but we could still see the lake in between. I prefer it this way... Whats the point in having the whole lake frozen... We would never know the lake existed (I know thats stupid of me).We were just gazing at the people there having so much fun in the snow. They had sledges with them and were sliding with so much fun. We rushed to a nearby store and got a few sledges for rent.



As soon as we came back to the lake, 2 guys started and went on a bumpy ride... All of us learned from their mistake not to take the steep side and went on a less bumpy and less steep side of the slope. It was sheer fun for an hour after this. We took videos of people sliding down. D was about to go into the lake if someone had not caught her...



The view was just awesome



And the wonderful colours on the sky was great



After this we were very hungry and rushed to the Indian Restaurant near our Hotel. We had our early dinner and then folks decided to go to the casinos nearby. Nevada(famous for gambling) was just a mile away. I am not much interested in Gambling. Moreover I had a severe headache since morning, so I skipped this. I went into the cosy room, watched TV and called it a day.

Day 2(Sunday):
We woke up pretty early and after breakfast, headed out to the Heavenly Village Skiing Area.



I had already done skiing long back, so dint want to do it this time.



First we had to buy gloves (spent nearly half an hr on this). I hate it when people start shopping for stuff when we have so little time. Anyway, after this there was a discussion on who would ski. The total cost would be $120, and some were not ready to spend so much. Out of 10, only 2 people were ready. So after much discussion we left on the Gandola tour.


This is the Gandola

The tour was too good. We went in it for 3-4 miles and it was supposed to take a total of 17 mins.We were to have 2 stops.

From the Gandola


The first stop was the observation tower. We got down from the Gandola and walked around. It was a spectacular view from the top. The snow capped mountains, the lake, the tahoe valley all these looked so beautiful. It felt like heaven.











After clicking multiple pics in the place, we moved to the next stop. This was the beginners skiing area. We found our 2 friends trying to ski there.. We had a nice time making fun of them everytime they feel. I took some nice videos of them too. In the meanwhile we played in snow, throwing snow at each other, taking a lot of pics.



We even posed with the ski. After a while we went back down to the lake, spent a few hours there. All this made us very hungry and off we went to the same restaurant as the previous day. We stuffed ourselves with food, and soon it was time to say our bye to the beautiful lake.

I dint feel sad the trip was over. Infact in a way I felt nice. I was all set to go to the office next day and share our fun with all my friends there.

PS: Have been wanting to write this for a long time... Somehow there was just no motivation

Moody Mood

My mood swings are at its peak today...I am not in a very good one today.. but at office.. I am the usual happy go lucky kinda person. I am having a tough time to keep that smile on my face.. A little bit of frowning and I have most of them questioning whats wrong with me...
God!!! please set things right... Please

Weird!!!

Today Morning when I started walking to office, I started thinking… and I realized I don’t want to be the last person to leave the house. Is that the reason, I try to get up before my roomies and get ready and leave?

This thought kind of freaked me out… Why would I think like that? What’s the big deal if I leave last? I have no idea… But all I remember is I have always been like this. I am always in a hurry when I have to leave and if it so happens that I am the last person to leave, I just lose interest and take my own sweet time and more and leave really late.