Writer's block. No other explanation! Many moons ago, I read an article that said that a person's life is defined by his/her profession. At that point in life I thought that it was all BS and that every person is a mom, a daughter a wife, a sister, a friend, a brother, a dad and so on so forth. But in the last few months I think I am beginning to recant on my statement. All through my college and grad school days I was of the extremely strong opinion that I am absolutely non - technical and am probably not a great engineer. However, for the last ten months I have held a fairly technical job and I would like to think that I am fairly decent at it. More than anything else, i think that I have been trained to think a certain way. I am always amazed that education can do this to a person. It also reinforces my opinion that education is the one of the primary things that will drive a person to survival.
OK.. I promise not to die anymore. I hope. LOL!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Growing Pains!
This week my mind yearned to achieve the impossible. And all it took was phone call to a dear friend. I am not one for homesickness.. I don't spend my days thinking of Saravana Bhavan idlies and Sundal on the beach. Don't get me wrong.. I love Madras and enjoyed every aspect of it but I am not one for craving things that I know are beyond my reach. A few years ago I made a choice and I don't believe in regretting any choices I made. But last week all it took was one email and one phone call and I wished to be instantly transported to next to my friend. To stand with her and help her through her problems. For a few minutes my mind wanted to hug my friend and shield her from all the troubles of the world. We spent some time discussing college friends and the various escapades that we (read Me) orchestrated!!!
During a recent conversation with N we spoke mundane things and re-hashed all old gossip. She filled me in on all the families talk. Its at times like these that I am noticing that though my heart is felt with immense affection for these people I hardly am making an effort to express it.
I am noticing that almost all of my friends are getting married or are getting there. The boys have had kids!!! Its almost impossible for me to think that N was one of the guys that went with me to the A R Rahman concert and screamed and sang with me. He was one of the people responsible for introducing me to Illayaraja music and who can forget his rendition of Illamai Idho Idho during one of the college culturals. I am truly happy for him but at the same time realizing that we are all not teenagers safe in the portals of SVCE, Pennalur.
All this reminds me of a dialog from Rang De Basanti which for some reason stuck in my head.. "College gate ke is par zindagi ko hum nachate hain, College gate ke us par zindagi hum ko nachati hain" Roughly transalated it means " On this side of the college gates we govern our lives and on the other side of the college gates our lives govern us!"
During a recent conversation with N we spoke mundane things and re-hashed all old gossip. She filled me in on all the families talk. Its at times like these that I am noticing that though my heart is felt with immense affection for these people I hardly am making an effort to express it.
I am noticing that almost all of my friends are getting married or are getting there. The boys have had kids!!! Its almost impossible for me to think that N was one of the guys that went with me to the A R Rahman concert and screamed and sang with me. He was one of the people responsible for introducing me to Illayaraja music and who can forget his rendition of Illamai Idho Idho during one of the college culturals. I am truly happy for him but at the same time realizing that we are all not teenagers safe in the portals of SVCE, Pennalur.
All this reminds me of a dialog from Rang De Basanti which for some reason stuck in my head.. "College gate ke is par zindagi ko hum nachate hain, College gate ke us par zindagi hum ko nachati hain" Roughly transalated it means " On this side of the college gates we govern our lives and on the other side of the college gates our lives govern us!"
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Books Tag
As usual, I do any tags on my blog.. This one is to mention 15 books I cannot live without..
1) A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
2) Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
3) Sister of My Heart, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni
4) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
5) Unaccustomed Earth - I won't say its a book I can't live without but I say it made a lot of sense to me., Jhumpa Lahiri
6) Not Without My Daughter - Betty Mahmoody
7) As the Crow Flies, Jeffery Archer
8) Kane and Abel, Jeffery Archer
9) Master of the Game, Sidney Sheldon
10)Adventures of Mr. Pink Whistle, Enid Blyton
11) Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
12) The Toss of a Lemon, Padma Viswanathan
13) The GodFather, Mario Puzo
14)Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
15) Ok this is not a book per se.. But Calvin and Hobbes series..
I tag Swat Cat..
1) A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
2) Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
3) Sister of My Heart, Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni
4) Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
5) Unaccustomed Earth - I won't say its a book I can't live without but I say it made a lot of sense to me., Jhumpa Lahiri
6) Not Without My Daughter - Betty Mahmoody
7) As the Crow Flies, Jeffery Archer
8) Kane and Abel, Jeffery Archer
9) Master of the Game, Sidney Sheldon
10)Adventures of Mr. Pink Whistle, Enid Blyton
11) Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
12) The Toss of a Lemon, Padma Viswanathan
13) The GodFather, Mario Puzo
14)Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
15) Ok this is not a book per se.. But Calvin and Hobbes series..
I tag Swat Cat..
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Rite of Passage Weekend or Plain Growing Older
One knows one is growing old when the idea of a fun weekend is pottering around the house. This weekend was the first time in about 2 months that I put brakes on the other wise hectic life. It began with dropping D and the in-laws off at the station for their trip to NYC. I got home and cleaned my kitchen with a vengeance!! I took a walk around noon to the Subway on Route 9 and brought home some food. I polished it off watching some random stuff on TV and took a brief nap. Afternoon I was elated to discover that I had two 20% of Bed Bath and Beyond coupons so off I went to buy some stuff. I hit the mall later and did a brief bit of shopping.(You know you are really getting old when shopping is brief) and headed home with food from Gourmet India.I decided to do a detour to Toys R Us to buy some stuff for the extended family. You know the store intimidates me. My childhood toy stores were initially Five Star on Radhakrishnan Salai which had a entire floor dedicated to kids games and later the basement in Landmark. But never anything the scale of Toys R Us!! Headed home and cleaned out some more.
Sunday began with more cleaning and some office work. Come evening I began slacking off catching up with family members and checking out friends blogs. Which brings me to the answer Rite of Passage? Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that if I had a free weekend I would spend it cleaning!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday began with more cleaning and some office work. Come evening I began slacking off catching up with family members and checking out friends blogs. Which brings me to the answer Rite of Passage? Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that if I had a free weekend I would spend it cleaning!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Conversations
Frnd to Me: Trains don't live in houses.
Me: Your right, trains live in stations.
Frnd to Me:(After a few seconds thought) No, trains live on tracks.
I am sooooooo amazed by this conversation that I thought I will share it with you.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
25 Random Things About Me
Mugs tagged me on FB. I decided to do it here instead to save a dying blog.. This is in random order and I don't know if I will hit 25.
1) I am shit scared of cutting vegetables. I will do anything to avoid cutting vegetables. Buy frozen, cook them whole or get someone else to cut them.
2) I sleep with my mouth wide open. And by wide I mean WIDE!!!!
3) I cannot sleep in Jeans. So I never travel on trains in Jeans. I will wear a salwar.
4) I am shit scared of flying. Earlier I used to throw up the entire duration of the flight. Now I force myself to go to sleep the moment my butt hits the seat and I wake up when the wheels hit the tarmac.
5) Babies scare me. I can deal with older kids. Ooohing and aaahing over babies isn't my thing.
6) I need to read to perform some bodily functions. Hence I know the back of shampoo bottles and lotions etc.
7) I can accost people and scare them. I can also not talk to people if I have nothing to say to them. And if its the first day of college then I will not make polite conversation with random people who end up becoming my best friends!!! he he he he
8) I surprised my husband by enjoying Fight Club and Thambi!
9) I say the randomest things some times. The recent one being - "Dasaratha had three wives - Kausalya, Supraja and Ramapurva!!" And one of my all time hits being " Oh! Shit Where Do I live?"
10)I worked my butt off to become the House Captain in school and the Secretary in College. I love to do such stuff.
11)I will read any book with an Indian author.
12)I claim not to be a fan of chick lit, but if I get my hands on one I will not put it down till I finish it.
13)I wanted to become a play back singer, a food critic, a cardiac surgeon, a Nobel Prize winner and a film director. I am an Information Technology professional.
14)I always amaze myself when I code. That could also be because I set very low expectations :p
15)I hate sweets made of coconut.
16)My ardent wish is to completely confuse any kids that I might have.
17)I wish to own a house with a swimming pool in the middle of it. I am not a great swimmer.
18)I love ACGs though I currently don't own any.
19)I make up lyrics if I don't know them. I don't understand 50% of the songs I enjoy.
20)I know the Nagila Nagila song from Alaipayuthey in all the three languages it came out in and I like all three versions.
21) I can watch DDLJ any number of times.
22)I am not one for small talk
23) OK I ran out of ideas
Dandilsa do if you want to
1) I am shit scared of cutting vegetables. I will do anything to avoid cutting vegetables. Buy frozen, cook them whole or get someone else to cut them.
2) I sleep with my mouth wide open. And by wide I mean WIDE!!!!
3) I cannot sleep in Jeans. So I never travel on trains in Jeans. I will wear a salwar.
4) I am shit scared of flying. Earlier I used to throw up the entire duration of the flight. Now I force myself to go to sleep the moment my butt hits the seat and I wake up when the wheels hit the tarmac.
5) Babies scare me. I can deal with older kids. Ooohing and aaahing over babies isn't my thing.
6) I need to read to perform some bodily functions. Hence I know the back of shampoo bottles and lotions etc.
7) I can accost people and scare them. I can also not talk to people if I have nothing to say to them. And if its the first day of college then I will not make polite conversation with random people who end up becoming my best friends!!! he he he he
8) I surprised my husband by enjoying Fight Club and Thambi!
9) I say the randomest things some times. The recent one being - "Dasaratha had three wives - Kausalya, Supraja and Ramapurva!!" And one of my all time hits being " Oh! Shit Where Do I live?"
10)I worked my butt off to become the House Captain in school and the Secretary in College. I love to do such stuff.
11)I will read any book with an Indian author.
12)I claim not to be a fan of chick lit, but if I get my hands on one I will not put it down till I finish it.
13)I wanted to become a play back singer, a food critic, a cardiac surgeon, a Nobel Prize winner and a film director. I am an Information Technology professional.
14)I always amaze myself when I code. That could also be because I set very low expectations :p
15)I hate sweets made of coconut.
16)My ardent wish is to completely confuse any kids that I might have.
17)I wish to own a house with a swimming pool in the middle of it. I am not a great swimmer.
18)I love ACGs though I currently don't own any.
19)I make up lyrics if I don't know them. I don't understand 50% of the songs I enjoy.
20)I know the Nagila Nagila song from Alaipayuthey in all the three languages it came out in and I like all three versions.
21) I can watch DDLJ any number of times.
22)I am not one for small talk
23) OK I ran out of ideas
Dandilsa do if you want to
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Idle Sunday Afternoon
Alert***
I have spent the last two hours reading BigB's blog and hence this post is going to a rambling "what's happening in my life kinda entry"..
The last four months have been the craziest by far in my life.. I don't even know what exactly I was doing except that I have been multi - tasking at levels I have never done before. The year started off fine with D and me spending it at R and S's place. Then I went to visit my bro and sis - in - law down south.. To save on money I chose to fly from Manchester and hence spent around 8 hours using various modes of transportation from train to cab to walking to bus to plane.. Somewhere between the new years and eight days later when I flew to OKC I attended a job interview.. Wonders of Wonders they actually liked me.. So after I was back I started working and juggling school at the same time.. Travel to work entailed three different modes of transport and around 20 dollars a day!! Finally I got over my fear of driving through snow and started driving to work regularly.. Between scaling up at work and attempting to maintain my grades at school, the spouse and I decided to go on a domestic hunt.. So if I wasn't studying on weekends, we went hunting along with someone who was adept at doing it.. Compass in hand D and I set off looking at some as old 200 years old!! If I couldn't go because of work D would go by himself.. IF you thought this wasn't confusing in itself, I contracted the flu somewhere around the end of Feb - beginning of March time frame and promptly gave it to D as well.. From then on my husband and I have been continuously in and out of doctors' clinics till as late as yesterday!!
Fast forward about 1.5 months. Finals over, hunt successful. On the cusp of graduation and signing around 100 pages when both husband and I are down sick!!! I have been gone through around 3 boxes of Cleenex and mysteriously D is also down with some mysterious illness! So my first free weekend in 1.5 years and we are both in two different bedrooms trying to pass time which caused me to spend around 2 hours reading BigB..
Just moping and complaining.. Nothing much..
I have spent the last two hours reading BigB's blog and hence this post is going to a rambling "what's happening in my life kinda entry"..
The last four months have been the craziest by far in my life.. I don't even know what exactly I was doing except that I have been multi - tasking at levels I have never done before. The year started off fine with D and me spending it at R and S's place. Then I went to visit my bro and sis - in - law down south.. To save on money I chose to fly from Manchester and hence spent around 8 hours using various modes of transportation from train to cab to walking to bus to plane.. Somewhere between the new years and eight days later when I flew to OKC I attended a job interview.. Wonders of Wonders they actually liked me.. So after I was back I started working and juggling school at the same time.. Travel to work entailed three different modes of transport and around 20 dollars a day!! Finally I got over my fear of driving through snow and started driving to work regularly.. Between scaling up at work and attempting to maintain my grades at school, the spouse and I decided to go on a domestic hunt.. So if I wasn't studying on weekends, we went hunting along with someone who was adept at doing it.. Compass in hand D and I set off looking at some as old 200 years old!! If I couldn't go because of work D would go by himself.. IF you thought this wasn't confusing in itself, I contracted the flu somewhere around the end of Feb - beginning of March time frame and promptly gave it to D as well.. From then on my husband and I have been continuously in and out of doctors' clinics till as late as yesterday!!
Fast forward about 1.5 months. Finals over, hunt successful. On the cusp of graduation and signing around 100 pages when both husband and I are down sick!!! I have been gone through around 3 boxes of Cleenex and mysteriously D is also down with some mysterious illness! So my first free weekend in 1.5 years and we are both in two different bedrooms trying to pass time which caused me to spend around 2 hours reading BigB..
Just moping and complaining.. Nothing much..
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Pssst.. Did you know..
haar haar haar.. My reaction on reading this
But Angelina Jolie as Dagny!!!!! Yuck!! Dagny in my head is strong and upright. Maybe Meryl Streep when she was younger. Actually I don't think its a good idea to make a movie out of this book because no one can do justice to the writing that is open to such different interpretations.
But Angelina Jolie as Dagny!!!!! Yuck!! Dagny in my head is strong and upright. Maybe Meryl Streep when she was younger. Actually I don't think its a good idea to make a movie out of this book because no one can do justice to the writing that is open to such different interpretations.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
TV Musings (Spoiler Alert For Those Who Didn't watch 6th April episode of House)
Pardon me for the long gap between posts.. What am I doing right now?? I am currently Jack of all trades.. I don't know if its a good thing to be doing multiple things at the same time all with different levels of concentration or if its better to concentrate on one task and move on the next.. Multi tasking is the name of the game!! And I also just segwayed into a post that I never intended to write..
Lets start again.. There are some crushes we are allowed to have. Matt Lauer, Dr. House, Anderson Cooper etc.. And hence I watch House!! Yesterday in a horrific turn of events Kutner dies!!!!!!!!!! He kills himself. For days before they went on about how its an episode like no other etc. I was a tad surprised and curious as to why they bumped Kal Penn off the show. Turns out that he is going to be working in the White House. Where did I pick up this random piece of information. I am only going to hint at it as I am not sure of copyright issues.. Its one of the three networks that has the above mentioned follks.. So I am happy for him and also discovered that there are others besides a certain Mr. Jindall to fly the Indian flag in American politics..
After several thousands of times of listening to people Blaming it on Alchohol I just switched radio stations on my car stereo and hit upon Imus in the Morning.. After some more days of listening to it figured out that its a right wing radio station. Not that I have anything against being Right Wing(in fact I am in the process of figuring out where I belong - Not that it will make any difference) but certain other shows that I listened to are bordering on being dumb. Its evident the extent of research that they have put into the show borders on negligable!! They criticize without substantiation, they criticize people's spouses and they criticize physical appearances!!!
Anyhoo.. I am a fan of Imus in the morning and it anydays beats Blame it on the Alcohol!!!!!!!!!
Also noticing that N hasn't blogged in a while.. Wondering what is up with her..
Lets start again.. There are some crushes we are allowed to have. Matt Lauer, Dr. House, Anderson Cooper etc.. And hence I watch House!! Yesterday in a horrific turn of events Kutner dies!!!!!!!!!! He kills himself. For days before they went on about how its an episode like no other etc. I was a tad surprised and curious as to why they bumped Kal Penn off the show. Turns out that he is going to be working in the White House. Where did I pick up this random piece of information. I am only going to hint at it as I am not sure of copyright issues.. Its one of the three networks that has the above mentioned follks.. So I am happy for him and also discovered that there are others besides a certain Mr. Jindall to fly the Indian flag in American politics..
After several thousands of times of listening to people Blaming it on Alchohol I just switched radio stations on my car stereo and hit upon Imus in the Morning.. After some more days of listening to it figured out that its a right wing radio station. Not that I have anything against being Right Wing(in fact I am in the process of figuring out where I belong - Not that it will make any difference) but certain other shows that I listened to are bordering on being dumb. Its evident the extent of research that they have put into the show borders on negligable!! They criticize without substantiation, they criticize people's spouses and they criticize physical appearances!!!
Anyhoo.. I am a fan of Imus in the morning and it anydays beats Blame it on the Alcohol!!!!!!!!!
Also noticing that N hasn't blogged in a while.. Wondering what is up with her..
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Unaccustomed Thoughts
My vision faltered and my hand reached for the light switch. A concerned voice's concerns rang in my ears. "Switch on the light.. Don't read in the dark." At times like this my mind yearns for familiar people and familiar surroundings. My unborn child will never know the feeling of putting her head into a softened cotton sareed lap. I might never chat up with the istree or relish the taste of a foreign chocolate. Or even the anticipation of the foreign chocolate. It saddens me that my husband and I don't share any memories in India - of familiar roads and outings spent. Our wedding passed in a daze with a thousand people and to this day this is our significant together memory of the country we call home.
Moments pass in one's life when one recounts one's blessings. I pray for those who have to go through those who make the difficult decisions instead of us. I would like to think that they have the strength to make those decisions that mere mortals don't. I pray for them.
Moments pass in one's life when one recounts one's blessings. I pray for those who have to go through those who make the difficult decisions instead of us. I would like to think that they have the strength to make those decisions that mere mortals don't. I pray for them.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sodapitan.
Watched Delhi 6 this weekend with DD and her husband. Felt that the movie was a little confused.My title indicates my opinion. Many moons ago, I had reviewed RDB and I wasn't too impressed by it. But, honestly watching Delhi 6 made me feel that RDB was an outlier. Coz Aks and Delhi 6 sure aren't. Anyhooo.. I felt a sense of Deja vu while watching the movie. The Ram - Leela and riots scene reminded me a lot of the similar scene from A Suitable Boy (Yeah I know, I am obsessed with that book). Also, another scene gave me a book Deja - Vu (am not sure if that is even a word). The end where Roshan almost dies and goes to heaven to his Dadaji (haar haar - Do you think that they will play like brothers in a few years!!) It reminded me a lot of the final part of the Deathly Hallows book where Harry goes to heaven or Kings Cross station and meets Dumbledore who sorts out some priorities before he decides that he isn't dead. I mean both of these could just be co-incidental!
On a tangential sodapal I have a problem with people who fib on their profiles. I mean some of those "I want to make friendship" types are obvious enough for us. However, the ones who read "Rowling", "Paul Colo", "Perry Mason!!!" so on so forth..
On a tangential sodapal I have a problem with people who fib on their profiles. I mean some of those "I want to make friendship" types are obvious enough for us. However, the ones who read "Rowling", "Paul Colo", "Perry Mason!!!" so on so forth..
Monday, February 09, 2009
Sam tagged me. The thing about this tag is that I don't store any pictures on my system. All fotos are stored on D's computer. This is one picture that I took. I took this picture myself from a moving vehicle. It was taken on our way to NYC. It was one of the last outings before the winter set in!!!
There was a lot going on in my head coz I had a job interview as soon as I came back. It was a fairly big company and they had layed off about 4500 people the week before. D and I stopped at a BK for lunch and had yummo Onion Rings and dipping sauce. I was excited cause I was going to meet my cousins. D was excited coz he was going to meet his frnds N and S.
Ah well long enough story I think!!!
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Unbelievable
Many moons ago I had written a blog post about how in the course of my conversations with certain people I got a little irritated. Actually, I have written many posts about that but anyways, there was one where some people thought I was doing my Masters to pass my time!!!! Yeah know you remember!! Well recently I was in a conversation with someone who asked me what I was doing.I told her that I was working while going to school part time. Guess what she told me???????????
GOOD.. YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO PASS YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to use this forum to set the record straight. I wasn't doing my masters to pass my time. And now I am not working to pass my time. I studied to get a job and I am working to make money. Right now, I don't have time to pass.
On a tangential note, I do a weird combo of driving to work and taking the commuter rail to my work which is about 30 odd miles one way. I finally figured out a system where I need to drive to work two days a week. But each time I take my car to work it snows copious amounts!! Every single freaking time.. And the new driver in me freaks out every single time. When I have to stand in the cold and shovel snow of my car!!!!!!!!!!
GOOD.. YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO PASS YOUR TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am going to use this forum to set the record straight. I wasn't doing my masters to pass my time. And now I am not working to pass my time. I studied to get a job and I am working to make money. Right now, I don't have time to pass.
On a tangential note, I do a weird combo of driving to work and taking the commuter rail to my work which is about 30 odd miles one way. I finally figured out a system where I need to drive to work two days a week. But each time I take my car to work it snows copious amounts!! Every single freaking time.. And the new driver in me freaks out every single time. When I have to stand in the cold and shovel snow of my car!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
For the Rest there is BOA
Old Navy
Interesting looking Blue and White Stripes TShirt - 2 dollars
Multicolored Turtleneck Sweater - 10 dollars
H and M
Floral Print Work Wear - 5 dollars
Clip - 1 dollar
Woolen Hat - Free
Second Clip - Free
Express Men
Sweater Vest for D - 18 dollars
Body Shop
Vitamin E day Cream - 16 dollars
Ann Taylor Loft
Peasant Blouse - 9 dollars
Three hours later - One Happy Cogito
Gift from D
Mid Rise Felt Boots from D PRICELESS!!!
Added Later: I don't wear leather.
Interesting looking Blue and White Stripes TShirt - 2 dollars
Multicolored Turtleneck Sweater - 10 dollars
H and M
Floral Print Work Wear - 5 dollars
Clip - 1 dollar
Woolen Hat - Free
Second Clip - Free
Express Men
Sweater Vest for D - 18 dollars
Body Shop
Vitamin E day Cream - 16 dollars
Ann Taylor Loft
Peasant Blouse - 9 dollars
Three hours later - One Happy Cogito
Gift from D
Mid Rise Felt Boots from D PRICELESS!!!
Added Later: I don't wear leather.
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