kavi ----> Leap and the net will appear.

Ra-one viewed and reviewed

2011-10-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Ra-One viewed and reviewed here.. there are a couple of reasons I wanted to watch Ra-one. I had not seen any Shah Rukh Khan movies in the past so many years on big screen. The last time I saw him on the screen was in Om shanti Om. The other being Rohini was crazy about Chammak Challo!

So here goes my review for the movie.

Remember you are going to watch a super hero movie. Which movie based on a superhero had any logic invested in them? Let the thrills begin and keep going seem to be the motto there.

Also remember that you are going to watch an Indian super hero movie. The movie is made by an Indian.. is in India and is based on a game hero that is an Indian. So why do you cringe, if the droid-hero has a few pixels of H(e)ART in him?

By all standards of super hero movies made in the USA, this movie falls short.. but by all standards of super hero movies made in India, this movie has its own standing.

Chitti took the cake with Robot. G.One takes the pie with Ra.One.

The story line is about average.. a lot of hamming done by SRK as Shekar . He didnt have to be the nerdy tamil geek scientist. At the same time as G.One when he said he would protect you, you do believe it.. there were some attempts at Steve Martin (read pink pantherish) type humor. All these nag a little in the back of your head.. because now the director/story teller is attempting to put some logic where there can be none. Kareena looks good and is surprisingly tolerable. I didn't cringe like I did every time Aishwarya Rai came on screen in Robot. The kid also does not grate on your nerves, unlike the kid "Rehaan aapse bahut pyar karta hain" from Fanaa.
The sidekicks played a minimal role and did what they had to..The special effects are good. The villain Arjun Rampal has exposed another facet of his talents .. This guy can be menacing.The climax was again technology vs human brain ..

The concept of a game hero stepping out of the gaming world into our world to finish off a game is brilliant. Today when you think its cool to have a relationship with your Phone a.k.a Siri, why is it difficult to conceive a world where technology and humans actually can meet.
A.I has proven to be very powerful today with machines being automatically controlled, Surgeries performed by Robots and planes flying on auto pilot. Today we have no problem trusting our lives to these machines.

In one of the reviews on Ra.One I read somewhere that the characters are not 3-D but only 2-D .. If you are watching a movie based on game heroes.. I am surprised you look for 3-D traits in game heroes.
This is not a movie for the person who wants to laugh with P.G wodehouse. This movie is for when you want to step out of your real world into another world and believe its possible.
Go watch it once.. have fun and come back. Don't watch it expecting Shakespeare to fly into space and rewrite star wars and star trek.

Identity Crisis Resolved

2011-06-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

It's not the first time.. and I am sure it will not be the last time. Every party that I attend, where the majority of the attendees speak one common language, have made my origins a source of their jokes.. of course with the disclaimer that they hoped, I didn't feel bad.. which I don't because I don't consider myself as any more of a malayalee, than I would consider myself a maharashtrian. Having grown up in a cosmopolitan environment, I never had to defend my people or my language. It was but natural that all my friends didn't have one region or one language to unite us. There were a variety of topics to keep the conversation up.

The reason I felt enough to blog about it is that now I have a few questions about my identity. I didn't grow up in Kerala, so I don't know what the people there joke about..I didn't grow up as Maharashtrian, so no idea what the jokes there are like. My parents never encouraged talking about other people or grouping them as far as I can remember.

It is only after moving to the US, that I have become very conscious about my identity. I used to introduce myself as a mumbaiite, originating from Kerala. My husband always tried to set me right.. but I never realized how right he was until now.

But just to get the little facts about Malayalees that I know..

a. We do not all have an accent. If we do, its an accent most south indians for whom English was not the primary language share between themselves.
b. We do not all have a chai kadda..Even then, we are the most enterprising lot and educated lot .
c. We are all not non-vegetarians.. there are some of us, that don't eat meat or FISH and I am one among them and proud to be so.
d. We do not generalize and group people based on where they originate from. Everyone is welcomed with open arms.
e. Not everyone knows who or what shakeera is.. so STOP asking.
f. We have some wonderful cinema, that gets overshadowed by the movies made by bigger movie industries. Infact most of the hindi movies now are a remake of their very successful malayalam movies.

Today I sign off being very proud of being a Malayalee..I am a Malayalee, who grew up in Mumbai. I hope my daughter grows up as an Indian who grew up in America.

Adios.

Pineapple Cake recipe

2011-01-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get the recipe for pineapple cake..

this version is eggless.. I am using a product called ener-G egg replacer.

I had found a basic yellow cake recipe that worked for me.. and am making modifications to it, to get pineapple flavors in as well as using egg replacements..

So here is the cake recipe... This will make one 9 inch / 2 6-inches..

2-cups plus 1 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising) (Swan's cake flour)
1-teaspoons baking powder
¾-teaspoons baking soda
1/2-teaspoon salt

3 tsp ener-G egg replacer You should get this in any grocery store.

4-table spoons water

1-cup diced canned pineapple along with the canned juice.
1 stick (1/2- cup) unsalted butter, softened
1-cup sugar
1-teaspoons vanilla extract
1-cup buttermilk

DIRECTIONS :

Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake pan

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In another bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl

Beat in egg replacement ( mix the egg replace with the water )

Beat in vanilla.

Beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture looks curd like).

Stir flour mixture till combined.
Pour batter into a well greased and floured pan.. line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

For Frosting

2 cups heavy cream

2 table spoons icing sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat everything in a chilled bowl and with chilled beaters.

Keep in the fridge for a few hours.

Cut up the cake, layer with frosting and pineapple pieces

Layer the cake slices

Do a last frosting with whipped cream again

Pop it back into the fridge for some time

You can take it out and decorate it as you please…

Walking for a cause..

2010-06-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

Late March, I received an email, "Pledged for a cause" from my friend S.. I ignored it..I was too pressed for time with work, family and home, to think about my friend and her email.

A few days later, I received another email from her "I need your support" .. I shelved it to the back of my mind, promising myself that I would go back look at her cause, later and also fund her.. but time pressures and commitments came in between and that was put on a pending thought.

It took a couple of emails from her to jolt me from inaction to action, and I donated the money to her cause.. which was a walk for breast cancer. My thoughts were she is a little crazy to be doing this.. and why is she doing this?. Putting herself through a 39 mile walk to raise some money. But I didn't get a chance to pursue this thought much further.

Some time last week, we talked for over an hour,which we had never had a chance of doing ever since we left school...she was in training, walking her 5 miles to be ready for the big walk.. and I realized that this girl is commited to this cause and I was amazed..It takes a lot to be commited to a cause that does'nt affect you directly. One has to be selfless and determined to go through with this.. to be focussed on the end goal and the route to take. She was doing this walk, and she had her focus and determination in hand and in place. Distractions and other priorities had no place in this walk... S, you amaze me every single day.. I know I have told this to you before.. but when I think of you walking 39 miles in 2 days, on the 10th of July, I have to put you on a really high pedestal.

I will be thinking of you and suporting you in your walk.. don't think that you are doing this by yourself.. I am with you.. and I will be walking along with you from here.. as much as I can and if you feel the need to stop, I will goad you on..

Love
kavi..

The matrimonial bug..

2010-06-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

This is so strange. A few years ago, I was on the other side of the coast, the single eligible and "homely and comely" girl waiting for a suitable alliance from all similar boys. The saga of my groom search started when I was a very naive 21 and looked at life through the romance novels I read hidden from my mother's eagle eyes. My suitable boy was there and he was just around the corner. I like many others before me was ready to get married to the first boy my family showed me, because that was how it was for everyone.

The first alliance that came was from a highly educated fellow who was getting his Phd from a prestigious university in Texas. I spun all the dreams of a naive girl, goaded along by my parents, who didnt know any better. Needless to say that fizzled out due to the constantly changing mind of the groom in question and my better senses that kicked in telling me, I don't need a fickle minded companion. It was only after getting to America, to another university in America, that I learned the truth of the matter being he had a girl friend hidden away. His parents wanted to tie him down to a "nice mallu warrier* girl " , as his brother had also gone the same route.. Well I was better off single and eligible and homely and comely..

Well .. not exactly. Because now my parents kicked into second gear.they were not accustomed to this scenario. usually no one looks beyond the first proposal. hmm, so next they present me with another warrier boy, whom I am supposed to go and meet someplace in Austin. Well I was still listening to my parents back then and I went there with my roomie Rash. The two of us met the boy and his parents at the South indian restaurant. The only memories I came back with is that of the food and how good it was. I put my foot down strongly against this proposal, and my parents put both their foots and hands down in favor. However this was not destined to be

Still in second gear, they managed to find a namboodiri* lad, working for a big firm in California. He seemed like my ticket to a happily married and settled and contented life. My family was ready to write down the marriage date as well. But by now, I was not a very obedient girl and had my transgressions from the laid down rules now and then. So I and the namboodiri lad decided to meet up first. I am glad we did that , for it was a case of oil and water. When we converyed the decision to our parents, it wasn't unlike the Tsunami that hit the coasts later that year.

After this, I was extremely clear that any alliances would follow only after my studies were completed and, I found a job. I was not content being dependent on any individual , emotianally and financially. This was probably the start to a new me. Following my graduation, my dad who was sitting on hot cakes started sending me proposals... one after another.. Since I had already crossed the so called marriageable age and was tainted with the "US ki chori" (girl from US) label, the field narrowed down considerably.. The choices out there were not very appealing.. from a male chauvinist, who expected me to drop everything to be at his beck and call, to the geek in bleechers, who was content looking at the animals in the safari and taking pictures of them, to the player, who was out the scope by talking to multiple girls at a time..

Finally I met my prince charming, and am living my life happily.. I was reminded of the whole situation a few months ago, when it was time to get my brother married. But needless to say, he fell right into the normal scenario.. saw and talked to one girl and she is going to be his life partner.. a very sensible lad and sensible girl! Wishing both of you a very long and prosperous life together :)

* specific castes in Kerala

The cake

2010-06-05T20:21:00.003-07:00

I promised to post pictures of the cake..

ever since i started taking the classes, I would be skimming through the web for perfect ideas for cakes.. after a while, thats all I would be doing while surfing the net.

I knew I wanted a doll on her cake and I found the perfect one at Michaels. and then it was all about figuring out what do I do withe the doll.. well here is the final version

still at it

2010-06-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would say this.. but i am cultivating my gym experience as a religion.. something I follow no matter what.. I remember the days I would make up excuses to get off my behind.. but now no sir no! even if its for 20 min, I ran on the treadmill and came back .. I did a few min of patio cleaning, which is an exercise as well.

Since I am blogging about it, I hope that I will be accountable enough to keep at it.

Summer is here, the main highlight being 1/2 day fridays.. at work.. an incentive that was started last year as compensation for things we had to let go of last year. I have to find ways to get my fridays hours utilized..

on a side note, Rohini is now 14 months old and at the brink of spewing words.. well she has started babbling already.. in baby language.. we understand each other perfectly well.. :)

she enjoys going out for a walk wearing her squeaky shoes.. everyone stops us on the road and wants to know where to get these.. Well these are made only in India :)

Come to think about it, I miss a lot of made in india products... their counterparts here are no match for the original..

My tryst with losing weight

2010-05-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

My weight and my relatives comments about it have been a constant pain in my rear end for a while now.. Well I have decided I am going to do something about it now.. the key to it, is to get my mindset right and I am going to put in the same dedication that I did, when I was learning to decorate cakes , paint or even dance. A will power is required. The goal is to be 10 lbs lighter by the end of this month and keep that pace through the next 2 months, so I'll get in shape for kiran's wedding.

So steps I took
a. I am drinking a lot of water. I begin my day with 2 glasses of water and keep an alarm on my desktop to remind me to get more water every 2 hours.
b. I am taking multivitamins now.. something I stopped for a while.. so yay healthy...
c. trying to get a routine together to go to the gym on a regular basis.. R is helping out by motivating me enough to get there by working out with me.
d. Cutting down on vending machine snacks..
e. Increasing fruits and veggies in my diet

There is also a challenge that's about to start at CB , called live healthy. a few of us have formed a team which i think is eventually going to be called transformers :D . I am hoping to get additional motivation from my colleagues.

in the meanwhile, I tried out a new recipe .. they say Cabbage and moong dal are good for losing weight.. so I made a soup with these two .. will post the recipe soon, once I know its having the effect I would like to see.

my baby doll is growing up so fast, that sometimes, I feel I miss out on her moments.. but thankfully , I have been able to see her do everything the first time around..

Icing the cake

2010-02-10T07:30:00.000-08:00

Rohini will turn one soon.. and i have always been bothered by the fact, that i dont do much of what mothers do.. knitting, sewing, cooking etc.. When Ranjith and i were discussing the plans to celebrate her birthday, we were initially thinking of placing an order for a character cake..Since the outside cost was going to be huge, i decided to take up cake decorating class and see if I could do this myself.

So signed up for Wilton classes at michaels. So far so good.. getting some techniques .. some are flying past.

hopefully will get good enough to decorate her birthday cake myself .

My Baby

2009-10-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

I am blessed, for I have a beautiful babe
her lips are red and her cheeks roses
her head full of curls
and lights dancing in her eyes.

The Jai Shri Krishna Syndrome

2009-10-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

"Jai Shri Krishna".. This is the first thing my nanny tells me every morning.
As soon as she sits in the car , she greets me and Rohini as such. She started this ritual from day one..

One day, I asked her, why do you and other gujrathi's do that?She replied, saying it makes the day go better. So it went on for days,As soon as she sat in the car, I would say good morning "x" aunty and she would reply Jai Shri Krishna.

After a few weeks and feeling more awkward with my anglicized good morning, I started responding to her with the same greeting . Just recently I realized that my day goes so well after I say that.

Glad she made me do that

Bombay people are intimidating

2009-03-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

So many people have told me that, they find people from Bombay intimidating. People from Bombay find other Bombay nivasis intimidating.

why is that ?

I was initially surprised... and then got used to hearing it without thinking consciously about it, even when my husband said it.. I poohed the notion away. I attributed that thought to the whole Bangalore is better than Bombay ideology that some bangaloreans who left banglore in 2000 seemed to carry. This afternoon another friend of mine from Bangalore said the same thing about another bombay resident.

But now after so many years, living away from bombay, I have caught on to the fact, that yes bombay ppl can be intimidating. After all , living in a city that forces you to be rich,poor, elusive, available, panting, sweating, happy, sad , cunning and simple ..can kind of make you intimidating.

Democracy = hypocrisy

2009-02-03T18:48:00.000-08:00

This morning while I was surfing through my daily web routine, I came across this headline

'Democracy strengthened, says CEC'

right below that headline, there was another one.

'We will not allow Valentine's Day celebrations'

No mistake, we are talking about the largest democracy in the world --India . I had a nice chuckle reading these articles.. The second announcement is a direct result of Ram Sena's activities in Mangalore. A group of political wannabe's beat up/molested women who dared to bare some in an absolutely "safe place" a pub.

To the so called moral police of the nation, I have two questions.. what were these men doing in a pub ? did they go there to attend a rally ? What were they doing in a pub at night ? Did they have a couple of drinks while waiting for their leader to announce a toast ? ( drinking is so not against Indian culture when MEN do it) . Did they make passes at some of the girls who were there ( this is also not against indian culture... where men don't respect women) , who in their right minds refused their advances . Did they get enraged in their intoxicated state by the refusal of the girls.. and took it upon themselves to teach all of them a lesson, (not for stepping out into a club...but for actually refusing the next leader of the country)

Then they have the audacity to say that their activities were to protect the Indian culture..

The six fundamental rights of an Indian as defined by the constitution:

Right to equality

Right to freedom

Right against exploitation

Right to freedom of religion

Cultural and educational rights

Right to constitutional remedies

I would like to know which right of ours was Ram Sena protecting? And I would be mistaken in isolating just Ram Sena...I would like to pose this question to every political party that changes it agenda at its whim and fancy. Shiv Sena, BJP , Samajwadi, UPA and every party in India.
What rights of ours are they protecting by banning valentine's day? I don't hear anybody opposing Mother's day or Women's day or Father's day... aren't these western concepts as well ?
What rights of ours are being protected by Shiv Sena, when they are ready to stone shops run by immigrants to Maharashtra ?

Why should we give the control of our nation and state and people to parties , to whom all this means nothing but power and money ?

What will it take for us Indians to come up with an honest party which has integrity and honor as its base values and the welfare of the citizens as its main agenda..

If we want to be the largest and the best democracy, we should not fight for differentiating people based on religion, sex,caste,language,origin ...but for the equality of all despite this variation.

---"Today I am waiting for a new dawn"

Adios
Kavita

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-22T18:10:00.001-08:00

Every one I know who blogs has blogged about this movie.. and I don't know why I waited so long. I saw this movie about 3 weeks back. This is not in response to the golden globes the movie won or the Oscar nominations that the movie won..

Whats got me riled is INDIA and the frog syndrome.. A couple of days back, I saw a news article on rediff.com which says that the slum dwellers association in mumbai has sued Anil Kapoor and A.R Rehman. Anil Kapoor because not he.. but the character he portrays in the movie calls the boy a slum dog... where is the line between reality and cinema? Why pull down the one frog that managed to climb out of the well ?

Another thing that bothers me.. yes the movie is shot in India and yes its made in Mumbai and yes its got indian actors... how does that make the movie Indian? It could have been a story set anywhere..Not a single filmmaker in India would have dreamt in their wildest dreams that they could make a movie on life and innocent love and win the globes or the hearts of a million people.. because whats a movie without SRK or a few girls in skimpy clothes and a few dances?

I loved the fact that Danny Boyle gave 3 dimensions to his characters.In traditional Indian movies the good guy is always good.. the bad guy is the epitome of evil and demon...but in this movie..there is no good or bad guy essentially..the host is arrogant and bewildered by the success of the "slumdog"a s he calls the boy. The brother is practical and led astray by the glitter of wealth but still rejoices in his brother's success.. the slum dog is naive and remains so.. the beautiful girl is beautiful and good but still practical enough to know that life as she knows it cannot get better evn if she dreams of another life...

The music is another aspect of the movie I love.. its vibrant and its colorful.. No one else could have done justice to the music as Rahman did..

here is wishing Danny Boyle success at the Oscars for movie that belongs truly to him and his vision

Planet Earth

2009-01-06T06:26:00.001-08:00

I stumbled across this series thanks to A and I fell in love with the series. The cinematography is so beautiful only because our earth is that beautiful. Discovery is planning to broadcast this series next weekend and I don't intend to miss much of it..

Time to write something

2009-01-04T19:18:00.001-08:00

Allright, so I have been very reticent about writing on my blog this long and its high time I did ..

So here are the few highlights of the last year..

March 2008 we had a long vacation in India

April 2008 , I did some major circus and lost my front two teeth (thankfully got them replaced) else it was hands down Halloween costume winner as early as April.

July 2008: Took that long awaited trip to New York New York..It was the best so far.

Aug 2008: We found out that as eventful as our lives were so far, it was going to be to more so.. as we were going to be blessed soon with our own baby to spoil and raise as we choose too.

Sept 2008 : We heard our baby's tiny heart pumping blood as quickly as possible.. and got the first glimpse of the baby.. just 2 circles one for the head and the other for the body.. and one tiny limb poking out.

Oct 2008 : I determined that its a low maintenance baby.. gave me no nausea..only reduced my appetite considerably. I started feeling my baby move.. and the best I can do to describe it " I tiny flutter, like a small butterfly moving under my belly" . I also started giving the baby a personal concert to my favorites.. And noticed a pattern where the baby moved for Asha Bhosle's voice a lot more than it did for Lata Mangeshkar..

Nov 2008 : 5 months.. and we got a full anatomy scan done..saw the baby resist the nurse's prodding to give a full profile of the face.. and when it did.. it was wonderful... :) We moved to a new place to make room for the new addition...

Dec 2008 : I got the first taste of knowing what it is to love someone so much that it hurts. I thought I knew love.. but I threw the idea right out of the window.. Early December, I realized that my baby had not made any noticeable movements for almost 2 days. Experienced mothers told me to drink cold apple juice and that would set the baby moving again. Tried cold and hot...nothing worked. So I called the doctor's office.. The nurse said, nothing doing go directly
to the hospital. Now being the pessimistic that I am, the worst that can happen at a doctor's is an injection .. so the worst at the hospital was much much much more.. So called Ranjith and in between my sobs he heard something that probably made sense to him and asked me to meet him at home. We both drove from our respective work places to home and then from home to the hospital.. all the while I was raising the water levels in Atlanta . When we reached the hospital, I must admit the receptionist there was much more comforting than anybody I have ever met in a hospital and after some paper work, had us go upto the examination room . There I was hooked onto the baby monitor...which failed to detect any heart beat. As the doctor left the room I had a sinking feeling in my stomach that all was lost...

She returned though with a Doppler m/c.. and placed it all over the belly and finally after much searching found that tiny heart beat again. To us it was the most joyous sound that we heard...

Being a first time mother, I realized that maybe the movements change and I just didnt know what to expect and no one was around to tell me any different..

As the year drew to an end, I realized the importance of having family and friends close to me.
I grew a year older as well.. and it was the best birthday any girl could have asked for.. and for that I have to thank my husband , my brother, my friends Ashka and Satlaj.. for making it the best.

Some people are moving out of our lives while others are moving in as well..
so a lot of big changes happened... 2008 has been eventful and very eye opening for me..

Adios!

Everyone condemns

2008-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

but what happens.. Bombay gets her legs broken.. she limps back to normalcy and then her legs are broken again!

and everyone just condemns .. over and over again!

Review:Fashion

2008-11-23T06:41:00.000-08:00

It's been a while that a movie had made me want to write about it. The last one being Rang De Basanti. This time it's Fashion.. and I know that the movie has been panned by many critics as being a superficial look at the fashion world. The movie takes one through the journey of a small time model who makes it big in the fashion world and becomes a super model.
Now the premise of the movie itself doesn't excite me as much as the journey itself.

Bhandarkar could have taken any premise apart from fashion , such as the world of cinemas, cricket, politics etc...
But he being the intelligent film maker knew that his movie would then be lost amidst the million attempts by other bollywood film makers who have ventured into de mystifying these super glamorous worlds . Ramp walking and modelling clothes is a glamorous profession, that makes to page 3 of the society columns. So I can see where he got his premise from and why. It will surely draw people in.

now the reason why I liked the movie is because of the journey portrayed .. of a small town girl who moves to the big city away from the protective roof she knew all along. She makes it through the ardous path set before her towards her success. On the way she meets people who believe in her and finds friends who shares with her the same dream for her, people who genuinely want her to succeed. At the same time she meets people who tempt her for more . She decides her journey and on that path she succumbs to arrogance and derisiveness towards everyone around her. The rest is for people to watch and enjoy..

adios

Disconnected and disillusioned

2008-10-11T18:52:00.000-07:00

For the first time in almost 6 years, that I have been in America, I felt homesick. It's quite strange , because I didn't feel homesick ( not to this degree ) when i first came here. I was in awe of the country, of the Indian community I met at school , of the friends that became a part of every day life.

This evening we went for Garba and dandiya raas organized by Maharashtra mandal of Atlanta. We came away without even dancing a step. Not a familiar face.. everyone had a small smile that danced on their lips..but never reached their eyes.. Curious eyes that followed us and people talking in a strange tongue, even though marathi was no strange language to me,

Back in Mumbai, when we went for dandiya.. we would know people we were dancing around with.. they were part of a community, be it school , colony or work that we belonged too. They would know you and genuinely acknowledge your presence as some one who had a right to be there. Even at UTA, the feeling of belonging still remained.

Back home, the malayalees from the colony would get together a month in advance. The festivities of Onam would set in then as practiced for various programs would start in full swing. At the end of the feast..we would all go back knowing that Onam couldn't have been better. This year we decided to attend an Onam program at the temple here. Malayalees from Kerala who had settled in Atlanta were the organizers. It felt strange to celebrate Onam with strangers , eat lunch next to person you had never met before. i am hoping that next year it would be better.

Now in Atlanta, when we dont belong to any community , we feel out of place at most Indian gatherings..I am still trying to find a community here that I could belong to here..despite efforts to find some comfortable common ground to be on..its a slow and deliberate process albeit a very slippery one ...

Adios.

My mother's doll

2008-06-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

My mother never played with dolls..( she told me this) .. Her free time as a kid was spent ensuring that the younger kids fell in line. I love hearing the stories of how she got my uncles to sing .. a radio and a safety pin played a big role in the whole thing...

She grew up being the best at everything she did, was one of nine women who enrolled for engineering in REC ( her bacth) and graduated with a job in her kitty from a very male dominated industry.. she then got married to my father.. and had me .. and thats when she got her first doll..( so I say) .

This time when i went back to india, i was looking through some old albums and i began to notice a trend which i didnt recognize till now.
my mother stitched my birthday dresses.. and she would not leave it at that.. she made matching accesseries as well. All this while ensuring me and my brother did our best in school, in all the activites she enrolled us in and working. I dont remember where all the material came from, but i think dad got some from kuwait and amma would promptly make me a dress.

there was a yellow frock with black flower print on it. It had these capped sleeves and it stood out at my waist . I had a matching bow to wear on my head. It was the most beautiful dress ever.

i then grew up and she could no longer make me dresses.. instead.. somehow all the pictures had us color coordinanted.
if she wore black there was no way i was wearing anything but black... ( ma looks gorgeous in black)

So thats why i say I am her doll and she loves to dress me up ...

The long and short of it

2008-06-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

I just realized that it has been a little over a year since i moved out of dallas to Atlanta.. It was a huge move for me, considering that I spent a big part of my adult and single life there. It was here that I got doctrined in the general unfairness of life, in the unhinging belief of long standing support of friends who till a few days back were strangers... in the fun times that i had watching movies, playing games ( who thought board games could be played after 21) , taking road trips, sipping coffee at 2:00 a.m outside the computer lab, hitching rides to get groceries... , going to the temple to eat free food.. and so much more..

i miss dallas a lot .. but i am enjoying my new role and new life just a little more... :)

Books,Dance and Pedicures

2007-11-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

The past four or five months that I spent in hibernation was a rediscovering period for me.

First I rediscovered my long forgotten passion of reading.. My long commute to work and back was now converted to reading time as I discovered the joys of audio books.

For those of you looking to read something that was as insightful as Agatha Christie or as whimsical as PG Wodehouse, you might want to try AlexanderMcCall Smith.. his character Mma Ramotze can give Miss Marple a run for her money.

So while I went back to reading (read listening to) books , I started wondering which was the other activity that I was missing so much. Dance..I had left BharatNatyam over 7 years ago and then even though i had countless opportunities to start again, I never did.. So finally I googled for a teacher and went back to re discovering bharatnatyam.. in the process I also discovered countless muscles in my body that I didn't know ever existed. The first class completed.. and i am all agog for the next one.

With these aching muscles.. I went for a pedicure and discovered the pleasures of strong arms massaging my tired legs , applying a masque that made those aches go away..All my toes look pretty now , Red and shiny and I love showing them off in my peep toes. I vowed since then to pamper myself with a pedicure every month.. even if it left a tiny hole in my pocket.

If you were wondering where I had been and why I hadn't been writing.. now you know..

Adios...

Yippeeee

2007-06-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

Let's all just raise our hands and shout yippeee..... the world can now breathe in peace... we need not worry about "our dear one" for she is safe.... Yayyyy Paris Hilton is out of jail and she is OK!!

I could'nt beleive the number of channels that covered the 50 baby steps that she took and pranced to her mommy dearest... smiling and pouting her way through the cameras...

It's Raining.

2007-06-26T06:51:00.001-07:00

The recent downpour in mumbai took m down memory lane, back to the time when rains didnt mean stalled cars or losing deadlines, buildings falling down and walls crashing...when it meant, no school , no homework turn ins.... cold wet shoes... the lovely plasticy smell of the raincoat, the rising aroma of the wet mud, trees shaking of droplets of water, stepping unknowingly into a muddy pit... hot chai, hot samosas, a very warm and cozy blanket , I dream of Jeannie... , nights without electricity and light, evenings in the balconies, watching life go about you in a whirl , playing carrom with mom and dad and kiran , trying to catch a few words in the dim light of the candle wick...

welll memory lane it is!!

The Snooze Button

2007-04-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

For the past few days, I have been resorting to the good ol' Alarm clock to wake me. My dad used to do this effectively earlier on. Sadly, due to the distance between Dallas and Mumbai, waking me up everyday turned out to be an expensive deal for my dad. Hence walked in my new alarm clock to give company to my old cell phone and my new cellphone and between them 5 alarms to wake me up.

Everyday, I have trouble opening my eyes, until the sun is shining brightly and almost blinding my closed shutters. The alarms that I keep do not help me in anyway , because all I do is snooze them. Today when I snoozed my alarm at 7:30 and then was woken by the next ring at 7:39, I realized that there was something aberrant from the usual. Why did my alarm go of at 7:39 and not at 7:40 ? ( I am gald, that gave me an extra one minute more to get ready and catch my 8:16 train.)

I got to work and was yawning away , when I remembered the point that had bugged me in the morning. This prompted me to get online and do some research on why alarm clocks had a 9 minute snooze interval. I came up with some captivating answers.

Engineers believe their bosses come to check on them every ten minutes. Ho ho! ---I am one!!

Physiologists have found that a sleeper who doesn't want to get up will fall back into a deep sleep if left for longer than nine minutes. ----------------Very True...

Wiki said: "Well, I have researched this topic and yielded some theories. If the snooze button is 9 minutes then the digital clock would only have to keep track of the last digit, because the last digit would go down by 1."

So thats the digital clock. What about the analog one?

"Clock experts say when snooze alarms were invented, the gears in alarm clocks were standardized. The snooze gear was introduced into the existing mix and its teeth had to mesh with the other gears' teeth. The engineers had to choose between a gear that made the snooze period nine-plus minutes or 10-plus minutes. Because of the gear configuration, 10 minutes on the nose was not an option.

According to these clock historians, engineers chose the shorter snooze, figuring "less than 10 minutes" seemed more punctual and marketable than sending people back to dreamland for "more than 10 minutes." "

Have you realized how that has messed us up.. I get these amazing dreams in those snooze periods.. and just when I am about to get to the most interesting part of the dream .. RINGGGGG RINGGGGG.

And now I have to snooze my outlook calendar every 5 min, that reminds me to update my time sheet. I think the problem is not snoozing..it's just me PROCRASTINATING.

Well anyway thought for the day...

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. - Edgar Bergen "

Waking up one morning

2007-04-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

One morning I woke up with this question in my head. It kept haunting me.. What is fate? I asked myself. Can we explain all events in our life to fate and destiny, or is it that, the events and the consequences that follow are a direct result of the choices we make, or let others make or us, consciously or sub consciously.

Other than life and death, don't we control everything that happens to us and around us?The force we call god, i believe exists within us. We get the strength from within us to face situations that we never thought we would be able to. Hence I find it very difficult to understand that an external force affects our lives.

Isn't it strange that none of us have problems more than we can deal with. Ultimately we as human beings rise to the occasion and are quiet capable of dealing with the issues that bother us, without breaking down.

So if someone can tell me what fate and destiny are... and convince me.. I'd be grateful, then I can blame my choices and consequences to fate, and not to myself.

another one

2007-04-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

In the hours of darkness many, the sky wept and cried loud
Defying her in her angst, my little home, stood too

The wind bellowed through, the Oak trees standing tall
Branches wilted from most all, flying fast at my window

The churning storm it turned, the gentle ripples of the brook,
Into the big swirl of water, that spilt onto the brick lane

My white fence, built around, she didn’t spare that as well,
It broke in places, leaving me open, more to her grief

In her anger, ruin she did, everything that stood put,
Plunging the world around, into a sinister vacancy

And then she cried, till she could no more
Deep sighs filled the silence, left by the wind behind

Waketh I the next morning fine, to see my world as it should
The bright sun had come by, and wiped her tears away

-Kavita

Apr 02 2007

India's Backdoor Entry

2007-03-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

After the recent worldcup debacle( India's) the entire blogging population in this cricket loving nation hopped onto the bandwagon of discussing why? Why we failed? So since I follow the pack and never lead it... I did too and thats why this post.

Since the world cup was not too far away this time, the fervor reached me ..and i had retired from active cricket viewing long back..Rediff and its live score cards kept me hooked for the matches... India lost to Bangladesh... sad.. we can do it...provided Pakistan loses to Ireland we still have a chance.. so Pakistan did... and we won Bermuda..Woolmer died and then we lost to Srilanka.. Thats the world cup recap for what it matters.

Then came the office coffee talk.. The importance of the worldcup didnt escape my American colleagues. They knew how we felt, every week of the year they have a football, a baseball and a basketball team to support.

Now that India lost, our converstaions turned to fine tuning what exactly was the problem.. Dravid..no way he is the best.. tendulkar hmm maybe yeah we have seen him throw that wicket away one too many times.

Now the latest buzz word is MSD and though i never understood how he became the captain and the mysterious circumstances of Dravid stepping down.. I dont mind ..Dhoni is bringing cricket back to its fans and we are eager to watch him lead the side for more games to come..

If Life gives you a Lemon...

2007-02-26T21:33:00.000-08:00

The old adage never seemed truer.."if life gives you a lemon, make some lemonade..." but the chances of knowing how to make the right lemonade is very small..

Bein optimistic has never been a trait in me... every situation , that arises in front of me, I pose a dozen questions to it. So how do you make that lemonade ?

Sometimes situations crop up, and I pose questions to it. I end up playing scene by scene what could happen. My thoughts flow in a manner of a flow chart. And in doing so, I have allready created my responses and reactions to situtations that are a result of the above lemon. Now this is what gets to me at the end, because then in my little world, I want that flow chart executed. I dont stop to think, what if the flow chart I executed was just one side of the whole problem. Where do I get the sweet juice from ? In the process of putting myself in front of all these decision boxes, what would happen if I just let go and let things work out for themselves. Then probably it might work out for the better

A very close friend of mine told me when I said "I will try to be more positive from now" , "When you use the word try, you are not very close to being positive" .

Maybe I should practise my " Leaping "and Hoping that the net will appear..

I wonder if anyone else had a chance to make that lemonade?

People amuse me.. no they surprise me!

2006-10-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

People always surprise and amuse me. I was reading the 7 habits of higly effective people. Stephen Covey gives a very humane incident that occurred while he was on train . A co passenger seemed unaware of his children’s boisterous and unruly behavior. The other passengers were shooting dirty looks at him and were exclaiming at his nonchalant attitude. This went on till the author drew his attention to his kids. The man apologized and went on to explain that his wife had just passed away and he was just not sure what to do with the kids. At once, the same people who were getting annoyed by the behavior of the kids now sympathized with the man.

The other day, I was traveling back home on the train. Being a peak hour, it was late and the train was crowded. We barely found places to sit. A couple of minutes after we started off , the train conductor came by to make sure everyone had place to sit and no one was standing unless absolutely necessary.

She found a woman prostrate, occupying two seats. She said “Ma’m, we need you to sit up”. The woman who was bundled in an old parka coat mumbled, “I’m not feeling too good. I am cold”. We were all watching the proceedings and were very surprised with the tone taken by the conductor. All our sympathies went to this poor lady who just didn’t seem too well. The train conductor refused to let go. In a polite but distant voice she said, “Ok ma’m I shall call the ambulance. They will meet us at the next station”. When we arrived at the next station, the ambulance was not there. We didn’t mind waiting as it was only humane to understand and sympathize with the sick woman. The ambulance got there a good 5 minutes after the train. The paramedics came in to check on the woman. That was the last the woman was going to get any sympathy. As she moved out, she left behind her a terrible stink that was most definitely due to at least 6 or more hours of constant alcohol consumption. She could barely stand straight let alone walk out. As soon as she left, the compartment was in an uproar. Everyone suddenly found the 5 min they lost waiting at the station too valuable. The shows they were going to miss, the start of the game that was going on that night etc.

No wonder people amuse me and surprise me. I’m not sure in which order though

Smile For a Cause

2006-09-28T22:15:00.000-07:00

https://www.active.com/donate/vibhawalk2006/smileforacause

Please visit and help me reach my target!

My Fav-- among the Calvin n Hobbes...

2006-08-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

My stories can get pointless too...

When my mom starts with how things were in the good ol' days, I would wonder, did the years just slip past her...But today i realized that, poor thing must have felt a little overwhelmed at how fast life moves.Do we all get stuck in the same rut and refuse to move on with life.

Today I am very comfortable using a laptop... an ordinary one.. but put an Ipod in front of me...yeah I had an Ipod for approximately 30 days.

On the day it arrived, I was at work and all my colleagues called me the techie freak, and the gadget queen...I had just managed to figure out my digital camera. They all came over and ooohed and aahhhed over my video Ipod.. It was a proud me standing in front of my desk on which i had gingerely placed the black Ipod, so as to avoid getting it scratched. come 5:00 p.m , i was ready to go home ipod and all...so we reach home where I started my experimenting on it..
the first step was to install itunes..ahhh see that was not difficult because it was as simple as 1 2 3 : inserting the CD in my laptop--which i knew to work and install the software.

Once I got that done.. I felt very geeky... I was one step closer to listening to my songs on the go . Step 2 : port the songs to the ipod. I figured it should be as easy as plug and play...so that's what I did.. plugged in the Ipod and dragged and dropped the songs from my folder to the hard drive..(I was good to go...and I kept the ipod to charge) and got to bed with dreams of rocking like the cool punk kid who sat on the train next to me, with earphones stuck in his head and rock blasting at a volume that would have woken the dead. My dreams were all about how I got to show off my latest and funkiest ,maximum memory sized BLACK IPOD.

Next day morning, I got into the train and reached for my Ipod as I sat next to this kid... I could feel the kid's awwwww at the side of my neck as he craned to check my Ipod out. With a nonchalant attitude, I plugged my earphones in and the catastrophe striked... my menu didntshow any songs.. I turned the wheel right and I turned the wheel left.. then i turned it up and down again...and I pushed it...no use. The kid's awww turned to a smirk...

I resolved to go and figure out how to work my ipod. So I googled the google on the subject "Ipod for dummies" . Finally i got a document that lists out what I must do. So started working on that.. and tried creating albums. as soon as one album was created, the one i had created previously would mysteriously dissappear. the songs from one album would get into the new album. Finally i got the albums right.. now came creating playlist...i was ready to tear my hair out.. but was resisting the impulse, considering that the damage was going to be inflicted naturally anyway.

Finally I called Pratman and asked him how he did it... I guess even he had not figured it out (he got his ages before i got mine), since he gave me some vague answer... basically told me to do something that I allready knew. Realizing that he could hardly be of any help, I decided to hit the" Ipod for dummies "again.
I finally got my ipod configured 4 days after I got it. and then a month later of competing with the punk kid, as to the loudness of our respective pods, much to the disdain of the other passengers on the train, I gave my ipod up to my brother.
I was ready to smirk at how he was going to configure it ...he was at the computer faster than lightning and he had his own personal Itunes , playlist, albums and had also ported songs from mine in no time on the Ipod.....

So I guess we all have pointless stories at one point of life... it's when we find the right audience to tell these stories too, that we stop realizing how pointless they actually are...(to us not to our audience) and to some of us, who havent been blessed with that audience yet... we choose to force our readers to go through the pointless story..

Adios...

Today morning I was having dysania

2006-08-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

My vocab has been on a deteriorating run ever since I reached the USA. I figured that abbreviations and chat lingo pretty much conveyed what I wanted to say. My conversations and writings would be amply scattered with words like 'urw', 'btw', 'gtg' ,'ttyl' ,'nm' or replaced sometimes by 'nvm' , 'np' ,'tc' .
For those who think I am rambling on... please start chatting immediately and you will be using these within no time.

This serious impairment to my vocabulary( rest assured people... I am referring to a dictionary while writing this) took its toll on me, when I found it difficult to write a simple office mail, without resorting to these abbreviations. My conversations were sprinkled with "seriously..." or "are you kidding me ?" These were used quite frequently over the day , to express all the nine rasas/emotions.

I realized that something needs to be done about this disorder. I need to use words that are more than three letters and if they were more than three letters not to abbreviate them. Everyday on my ride up to the 22nd floor of my office building, I have a exercise. The building management, provides news bulletins in the elevator, somewhat like a flicker and if i am lucky they show me the word of the day, and a sentence to use that word in. My exercise is to use this word in my day.. sometimes it leads to funny consequences.. but I keep at it....

So my word of the day is " dysania ". It means "having a hard time waking up"'
If i was left to my devices I would use the word lazy... but the motive here is to use good vocabulary.

So here goes my first sentence . "Today morning I was having dysania".

almost sounds like a disease. I like lazy!!!

Death is near

2006-08-14T11:52:00.000-07:00


Death is behind U, just here as U see ;)

Lol.. today's headlines

2006-08-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

I love to read newspapers... anything that i can get my hands on ... and i was amused at the stories that get into these papers...

Today morning as I was sipping my coffee and munching on my cereal bar and surfing throough my usual Gmail , orkut, and then news in no particular order...I come across something funny on rediff

Now, Aamir caught in chinkara case ...

and since anything to do with bollywood will catch my eye trained to look for tiniest piece of gossip from so far away..I read on..

"The department sent a notice on August 7 to his production team for filming the chinkara without its permission, forest officials said today."

from rediff so from this I inferred that Amir should have taken permission from the Chinkara to film it.

This puts all the zoo lovers in a quandry coz everytime you pick that camera up and train it on one of those animals.. you better have permission from it..

If Bollywood does that to me, I am waiting to pick up every string of news from the other end Hollywood

So while breaking my head over sudoku, i flipped the pages of my local newspaper and found the BranjelinaBrat..

Apparently a ringtone company is selling a ringtone that is (little gift from heaven's) Siloh's first fart...

So while the world is busy reading and judging the little kiddo... she coos in pleasure after having passed the first step to ladyhood...being quiet indiscreet about it!!

Adios...
will post more

Wisdom at Last!!

2006-07-29T16:26:00.001-07:00

Nature is plaing havoc with me... thats coz.. whatever I do... the signs of maturity and wisdom just failed to show on me till today.

everyone looses their baby teeth... get their primary teeth and then their permanent ones.....Not me .. My primary tooth refused to go till i was 20..and the secondary tooth refused to come.. and now i am a toothless crony .

At work the other day some one asked me if I was interning..lol... was i still in school? ... no I am not...dont i look like someone who can go to work.. Now most women would take this as a compliment, and I am sure would be wishing that they were in my boots. Trust me it can get quite annoying when everytime you swipe a card, they ask for age identification.

Finally today I saw something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. My first grey hair..My passport to supposed wisdom, my license to tell kids.. i have experienced life.. and its not all that great...

oooohhhhhh goddd why in the world did I get my grey hair... Im getting old!!!

2006-01-31T08:52:00.000-08:00

RANG DE BASANTI...

Oh I sawthis movie a couple of days back.. and it is so different from the movies that we see regularly these days. It brings a new brand of patriotism to the screen. Lately we have seen movies that have been inspired by independence and freedon fighters and especially the post independence wars. But none have brought home the feeling as much as this movie did.

I really loved the movie because its main theme ( apart from chronicling the lives of 4 freedom fighters) really touched me. I know that if I had to reenact a role of a freedom fighter.. I would probably start empathizing with the character and want to do something with my life that would make difference to atleast 1 other human being. There were so many parts in the movie that were great. The warmth the energy the joy in just being together...was brougt across so beautifully...The pain the escape the documentary...was shown very well... and i really wished that such a documentary was made. The MIG air crash and the scenes that followed it are very integral to the indian defence government.

My only complaint is with the climax and I just thought at the end of it... their efforts were in vain.

And let me be very frank. I wasnt impressed by the so called patriotic feelings that were aroused in the 4 boys of a university in delhi that prompted them to go and kill of a minister in the cabinet. That just shows how impulsive they got because at the end of the killings the tables turned and they were no longer heroes.

This is the way I would have liked to see the movie. By re enacting the four freedom fighters roles in Sue Mc kinney's movie, the four of them start introspecting about their role in India today and how they can make a differenc to the country and how they can change it...instead they dont see the importance of the contributions of these leaders till the death of their buddy. Ajay Rathore's sacrifice and death serves as an inspiration to change things and confront the government .

I have a lot of issues with the way the climax was handled because I lost track of what the director wanted to convey. When The MIG 21 scene came on... I was really ashamed and I started telling myself that there is no way that things are going to change in India. I agree that to change things you need to take action by yourself and running from pillar to post is not going to help at all. But to change a country .. you cannot do so by killing one fellow.. A thousand will stand up in his place. Though I dont agree much with the Gandhian principles, I found his strategy the most effective because the British were forced to succumb and bend to accomodate his wishes for the country and we got our freedom because of his and amny other people's sacrifices. They knew the power he commanded over people and the mass disapproval they would be met with if he was harmed.

if I could but rewrite the climax of this movie....

It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance."

2006-01-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

Our ego will not let us admit to this ... we are all self made people and therfore it is very difficult to admit to someone that we are wrong. We find reasons for other people to be wrong . Our mistakes are always because of what went wrong and not what we did wrong.

I wonder how long we can keep up with this pretentious attitude where we are always right no matter what .

Most top level CEO's recognized this to be their biggest blunder and have rectified it to follow "what is right" and not who is right....

I have heard from a lot of friends who come to me and tell me how they were criticized and not respected enough for what they did. How the fact that their abilities and work were being critiqued by people who were not so qualified. It takes a lot of will power to stop myself from correcting them. When the ego comes into play it becomes so difficult to point out the facts..

Recognizing what is right is a very difficult process. We have to put ourselves on the judgement seat and it's not easy to laugh or criticize anymore. We have to ask our conscience whether what we did was wrong... it is very easy to say that whatever we do is right but to truly recognize our mistakes we have to be ready to take a hard beating.

Adios...

just wrote this piece because I came across the quote in my web clip on google mail ... you people should pay more attention to those clips... they contain a lot of valuable information...

English Grammar

2006-01-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

Some English idiosyncrasies

Missing Words …

The female equivalent for brethren and fraternal used to exist.. and now are no longer used.

Brethren is known as brotherhood..So what about the good ol' sisterhood,

Well fear not there is a word sistren and Don’t bother looking it up in Microsoft word, you wont find it ( psst.. that’s because it’s English;)

How about fraternal love…Heard about sororal love

Have you noticed ?

3 consecutive letters are repeated? Try to think of another one!! Bookkeeper

Flammable and inflammable

Both mean the same.

Facetious. All the vowels follow each other in the same order

Now forming a word with the letter Q. Well in pure English there is just one word that does not have a “u” following a “Q”. the word is qwerty- the standard layout of typewriters and keyboards

Know what a contranym is?

I’m sure our study of antonyms and synonyms would not have thrown this one at us.A contranym is a word that has opposing meanings.

E.g.: Cleave: separate or cut with a tool “cleave the bone"

Cleave also means come or be in close contact with; stick or hold together and resist separation; cleave to one's principles

how about some punctuation?

Grammar school taught us that a comma before and was not acceptable, and we lapped it up. However we did use it and made huge mistakes in our tests. Here is good news and maybe you want to go back to school to get some well deserved marks from your grammar teacher.

Oxford comma: This optional comma/punctuation was introduced by oxford, the comma can used before and to clarify the sentence.

e.g

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

Well thats some food for thought... Post me some comments if you find some more

adios!

DC movies!

2006-01-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today's post is going to be abt Dumb charades...I love to play this game and share this passion with a lot of my friends.

so today i did some research on the movies that can be every player's nightmare... you are welcome to suggest some movies and I shall maintain this list :)

Nightmares :
On the Edge: A Joyride Through Sex, Love and Other Activities
Crimes and misdemeanors
Curse of the Jade Scorpion
House of Sand and Fog
Mighty Aphrodite
Everything You always wanted to ask about sex but were afraid to ask.
Young Frankenstein
Ten Little Indians Theme
Sink the Bismarck
Harold and Kumar go to White Castle,
Weekend at Bernies
Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

from Pratik
Posideon Adventure
Sex,Lies and Videotape
Omar Mukhtar
Von Ryan's express
Good Morning Vietnam
Terms of Endearment
They call me Trinity
I'm for the Hippopotamus
Taking of Pelham 1,2,3
Honey i Shrunk the Kids Again

Ill keep posting more as and when i think of some!

Miracles...

2006-01-09T07:55:00.000-08:00

lets see... last week was dull, everyone was just getting done with the holiday cheer and instead of being rejuvenated they all had looks that could kill. Today I am all ready for the week, completely recharged and recouped from last week and the week before last and last year..woooosh. This energy level is probably going to last for just 1 day.

yesterday I happened to watch a Nicholas Cage, Bridget Fonda movie "It could happen to you".
now from what I saw yesterday i realized that probably i had become a cynic. The movie ran on the theme "Miracles can happen" . The story was about a new york cop who wins 4 million dollars in lottery and because he promised to tip a waitress half of it, if he won shares the money with her. Now obviously this didnt go well with the wife.. not because she suspected something,..but becasue she wanted all the money to herself.. I am not going to write the entire story here you can read it or watch the movie, but you get the idea. Well I was watching the movie with some friends and their reactions surprised me. They empathized with the lead characters and were ready to be dissapointed if the movie didnt have a happy ending, wheras I particularly didnt care much about it.

i think this attitued has come after being in the US for nearly 4 years. i used to have a very optimist outlook. I was sunny and bright and looked at life from rose tinted glasses.. where everything was happy. Now the rose tinted glasses dont have much appeal for me. I wonder if it happens as you grow up that your cynicsm levels increase or do personal experiences do it ?

I am also waiting for a miracle to happen!!!

Adios

What affected me today!!

2006-01-06T13:33:00.000-08:00

As I write this today, I find myself at loss for words... for I don’t know how to put into words the sadness I feel. The first thing that I read today was how the 12 miners wrote letters for their family and loved ones... before the carbon monoxide lulled them to sleep. When I read the contents of the letters I imagined writing a letter to my family when i know that death is approaching fast... And there is nothing I can do to avert it... The thoughts that would run through mine... The ones that ran through their minds... so much to say. .. I would want to relive every single moment of my life all over again because I haven’t had enough...I would like to say bye to everyone I met and haven’t had a chance to know properly... patch things up with my best friend...and I cant write all that on one piece of paper. But they did!

In the midst of all that, there were reports that said the 12 miners gave their oxygen to the youngest amongst them so that he could survive... And that he did. Let us hope that he lives to tell their story, because I want to hear it, i know everybody wants to know what went on through them during the last moments. Their chief who carried the fountain pen that they all used must have been an amazing guy, for he wanted them to write their letters to their families. He must have had a hard job , to keep his and the morale of the others high...

What about the families who celebrated joyously when the heard that 12 of them survived...and then to hear the devastating news that their joy was in vain...

The other news that I read today was about the Prime minister of Israel...Mr. Sharon and how he is in a very critical state after nearly 3 surgeries to stop his bleeding. Though I haven’t followed the politics in Israel to a very large extent, i know that Israel was depending on Mr. Sharon to bring peace in that region. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, though once was an adversary for Sharon, is now his closest ally and that speaks volumes for a person... a friend can turn foe, but turning a foe to a friend who respects you is the trait of some of the greatest leaders of the world.

The third piece of news that struck a chord in me is the review of the movie 15 Park Avenue by Aparna Sen. the review and the cast speaks volumes about the movie itself which deals with sensitive issues of schizophrenia. When someone you know is affected by a neurological disorder, though they lose their sense of reality, the people who suffer are the ones closest to them. They are daily in touch with the deterioration of the person in front of them. To see someone you love go through this decay, not able to recognize you, not able to function without you , yet push you away as a stranger , you have to be really strong....but you cannot identify with these issues if you haven't seen someone so.. or maybe the movie will help you to bring that reality closer... I hope it does.
Adios!

A LIFE!

2005-12-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

Oh! Don't you see yonder,
A pretty girl on that shore..
Sitting there by her self,
Lost, Alone, Sad, Beautiful.

Her wet lashes look up now and then
Seeking out onto the sea,
Searching beyond the horizon far
For when her sailor come back for her

Upon the rock she sat
As the waves beat across that
A wild beat that only the sea knew
Her sad heart swayed to the beat

Tears trickled down her face
Tiny salty drops fell into the water
Her hopes, her dreams, her life
Washed away with the huge waves

She knew he wouldn't come back
Back from the world so far
So far behind he left her
She couldn't follow him there

Oh! There she sits by herself
On that rock waiting
For her beloved to return
Form the world unknown...

Diwali

2005-11-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today is Diwali, and today I know how it is to miss home, more than home being in India. No matter how much I try, I don’t think I can recreate the ambience and mood that came with Diwali.

If you have been to a typical road in Chembur, Mumbai, you would know what I am talking about. Chembur has a very high population of the south Indians, who celebrate deepawali and the other festivals with such splendor. The festivities bring neighbors, friends and relatives home to sample and help in the preparation of sweets and snacks which are partaken with no guilt conscience by the weight watchers. Everyone swings into a cleaning spree…

My mother used to employ a maid just to do Diwali cleaning, though for her Diwali is an excuse to get into many of the unreachable places during the year. woe betide me and my brother if we don’t have exams hovering on us during Diwali or else we are dragged into the cleaning foray too…We got lucky during our college days, since exams used to be around the corner, however when at school there was no escaping the closet upheavals and the cleaning of the bookshelf. We were more interested in pilfering the sweets and arriving unannounced at our friends place with a very hungry appearance and pretty much hog there too. And of course evening would have fireworks and these would last for an entire week. My dad had the chore to supply us with the fire works and supervise it too. He tired of it pretty quick…though thoroughly enjoyed the bursting of these with us. The week before Diwali we used to drag him out with us, mom with coupon clippings in her hands for washing machines, or couches or utensils. We used to be hunting for clothes and literally throwing tantrums to get into the wrong shops… I can imagine his plight now, when I think of the expenses we notched up for Diwali… There was one year when we didn’t celebrate Diwali, due to many demises in the family, and we were feeling the lack of festivities at home. my brother more than me. And my grandfather walked to the Chembur camp (not less than 30 min) and brought back 5 kgs of sweets so that we had some semblance to Diwali

So coming back to the point; in the fortnight leading upto Diwali, the market streets are filled with people and everyone is busy shopping for new clothes, utensils, furniture and food…and the whole family enjoys spending time together. Kids go looking for the loudest fireworks and the ones that are most different from others. My favorite used to be phuljhadi (known as flower pots). They came in different sizes and colors and some had explosive sounds at the end, some used to go really high…Then there was the mala, a long string of more than 150-to 200 patakas that would go off in a line, the longer the mala, the louder the noise, more the fun..we used to leave this for the end to have a long blasting and resonating sound.

I remember getting all dressed up in new clothes, my mom and the other ladies dressed in beautiful saris in what were auspicious colors like Mango yellow, green, red, blue etc… It was not an uncommon sight to see groups of girls and their mothers going to the temple, they are all dressed in their new clothes and a very spiritual mood prevails in the whole area. Early mornings the streets in Chembur resonated with the chants of the Suprabhatam and Sahasranaman from the nearby temples.

All night, the houses were lit up with tiny diyas and lanterns and electric bulbs, making the entire street look so bright. There was laughter and joy coming from everywhere and most definitely you would get sucked into the fray of activities that have been planned.

The religious annotation of the festival added a quaint charm and antiquity to the already fun filled days. Though on any other getting up at 5:00 a.m was not just literally impossible, but also tedious, getting up so early on Diwali was the best part of the festival. The oil bath followed by getting new clothes, bursting firecrackers and going to the temple can leave anyone exhausted for a day. The enthusiasm and energy does not decrease during the day at any point of time but just multiplies to higher levels.

Today when I am so far from home and working, it hit me how much I miss being at home for Diwali …and no matter how many gulab jamun’s I prepare, its still is not going to compare to my memories of Diwalis I spent at home with my parents and brother.