Summer of 2010

And so here were are, inching slowly towards the end of a few intense summer weeks and months. I finally managed to get rid of the old patio furniture, stain the deck a dark oak and got myself this cheery deck swing. You like?

To say that I have overused it and abused it would be an exaggeration. That would be because it gets real warm very early in the morning and get humid towards midday. The only time I get to enjoy a somewhat cool breeze and lounge on this swing with a book is late in the evening- when the sun has set. Sometimes there is nary a breeze, its warm air stationed heavily in one place like stagnant water.

Bursts of colorful blooms and indulging in that ice-cream sorbet right the container just epitomizes summer like none other. Weekend trips to the trail for hikes, cool fruit juices(watermelon juice rocks btw), salads, ice-cream(I can't have enough of it, as you can tell), shorts and flip-flops, shopping, shopping and more shopping...that's what's been keeping me busy.

Aside of all of that...anyone watched 'Tere Bin Laden' yet? No? Well check it out. I rofl'ed all the way till the end. Also in the movie scene, I am looking forward to 'Eat Pray Love' and 'Peepli Live' and 'Lafangey Parindey'(with my two fave actors-Neil Nitin Mukesh and Deepika Padukone).

Book scene is pretty dismal actually. I haven't read any good/great ones.

So yea, that's about it for now. I'll leave y'all with a song....my current favorite.

Till the cows come home

Literally and figuratively speaking....I could be AWOL for a very long time, cos you see I now have a new responsibility. My mornings begin with milking cows, shearing sheep and collecting fruit off of my pear, cherry and apple trees. Evenings begin and end with harvesting, plowing and planting the next batch of crops.

Yes, you're right.[And if you're one of the denser ones and still haven't got it, obviously you aren't on Facebook or don't hang out there much :)]. I am knee-deep in the trenches with Farmville.

Let me explain, please! Trust me, there's a story and a jolly good reason.

I've been asked to join the sisterhood of Farmville for some months now, by some well meaning friends and the little firecracker called Seren. I have diligently avoided it like the plague, cos you see I have never been a virtual/video game person. *Gasp* I know! Having used computers and software for this long, starting from the times of Tetris and Solitaire to the Wii's and Playstations of the now(and god knows what else that's in right now)- video/online gaming just was never my cup of tea. Hence the pushback.

Then recently a little incident caused me to lose my emotional crutch of many years. I felt severely handicapped and that one day I decided to take the plunge. I fell hook, line and sinker into the Farmville pond! Its funny how a relatively unconnected incident has a ripple effect in another relatively unconnected realm of space.

And thus I have found my calling. There's a lot of financial planning lessons in this venture- what crops to invest in, how much it'll sell for, what to re-invest in, when to splurge(should I buy a tool shed, does a fruit stand make sense-will it do good business?, planting a rice crop definitely warrants a well, the ducks and the swans need a pond...so on and so forth). In between all this, you find a small segment of time to help out your neighbors- you chase raccoons and foxes and mice, rake the leaves off their farm...and in doing so you get to visit their farms while they're away. You take a minute, a breather to admire their layout. Each farm is laid out differently.

Then there are the conversations with your virtual neighbors, in real time. One good friend and neighbor(and probably the one that gets credit for finally luring me into the sisterhood, who shall hitherto remain unnamed :P) asks deep questions about what the final intent of the venture is. Is it about hoarding cash? Is it living for the day, spending all your gains and going to bed satisfied and exhausted- with the gratifying feeling that you have individually created a wonderland? Discussions with your sibling on a good strategy for high yields and profits. Signing up the mother so she can donate animals and trees to the cause(all the while she shakes her head in disbelief and wonders whats to become of her daughters). All that's left is to get North Pole(the dad) an account and setting him up for some post-retirement occupation.

So, my readers, that's really what I've been up-to lately. I include some pictures, for your viewing pleasure, of my little plot of 'virtual' land. If you peer closely, you can see the stone mailbox, my picnic set, a pond with ducks and swans and my sign post which goes :

Life on a farm is a school of patience; you can't hurry the crops or make an ox in two days. ~Henri Alain

Being an earth sign, while I'll write more about this tendency of mine to be deeply grounded in reality in another post altogether- this little virtual venture of mine seems to strongly work in its favor.

Time to harvest some bananas and head to the market! Ciao y'all and I leave you with this quote

“Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors.”
~ Edward Dahlberg

Hot ya Cold?

Ugh! Today's diet menu says I should be having Banana Nut Hot Cereal. Hot cereal is bleah! Makes the cereal go all mushy and gooey and lukewarm. Like porridge. I *heart* cold cereal....specially on sunny warm mornings. Nothing like some cold cereal and kaapi on the deck.

What is your choice? Hot ya cold cereal? And if you say hot, pliss to go stand in the dark dinghy corner of the basement- no sunny deck for you!

Footnote : This reminds me of the one-second quiz from a while ago :

Pepsi or Coke?
Scope or Listerine?
Colgate or Crest?
and so on and so forth.

Nearest funny fix

You know, I meant to write about this. That is the reason I came up with the writing prompt- this one!

How shameful that I never took up the prompt myself. More so because I had such an easy subject - you see, I had planned to write about someone who can almost qualify to be run the dial-a-laugh service. Someone who, for as moody as she is, can be just as amusing and entertaining. She can mimic, she can play act, she can keep you in splits with her practical jokes and tongue-in-cheek repartee. Her recent post prompted me to write about this now, albeit late ..its still good enough. Some of her posts- especially the tailor episodes one have me roaring every time I come back and dig up old posts when I am in need of a good laugh .

Whenever we read her matrimony chronicles, Amma and I shake our heads and go 'At this rate, she will never get married', but its hard to not laugh. To some extent, its probably better to look at the humorous side of such events, because as everyone knows, what is the point of being serious about it all? It is all about timing, and while you're waiting, you might as well enjoy the ride.

Oh and don't be under the mistaken impression she is the clown cum joker 24x7x365. No sirree. She is as moody as the moon. She can be crabby one hour and irritable the next...ever mercurial. Such is the price we have to pay for such brilliant comedy acts. So pity us and don't forget to laugh.

While the nitpicky self has pointed out to many a time to fix her punctuations and be more careful with the sentence structure in her posts, she wisely chooses to ignore the sage advice. Perhaps it is what lends a characteristic charm and style to her writing, I suppose.

So I will leave it at that and leave y'all to enjoy a rib-tickling morning with our resident joker.

Air time

Did I ever mention that I am big on writing to-do lists? I have, haven't I? There are plenty of gadgets that I surround myself with...and then some. While I am not a gadget freak per se, I do believe I own enough to last me a lifetime. But in all that, if I had to name one thing that is absolutely precious to me- it would have to be the unassuming kitchen clock cum radio cum CD player, purchased at Walmart for almost the price of peanuts.

See, I have always wanted a kitchen radio. There were many a Hollywood movie I have watched, growing up, where the family gathered around the breakfast nook or the dinner table with the news on air or some chart-buster pop song cooing in the background. There in started the foundations of owning one such.

Now it sits in one corner of my counter, with a pile of CDs stacked in an unkempt manner over it. It gets its usual quota of dusting every week...that would be every Saturday morning. My favorite time of the week. Its a sort of in-between. Its not exactly the start of the weekend, but its nowhere near the end of one. A comfortable time when you can live in the illusion of a weekend stretching into eternity.

Its my time to clean the kitchen, clear the refrigerator of leftovers from the past week, organize the pantry, load laundry, make a list of what needs to be picked up on my weekly trip to do groceries- Indian, American and everything else in between.

In all this, 10 am arrives sooner than later. Time for car talk on NPR! I am neither a car aficionado, nor do I ever care to be one. But car talk's funny. I love the calls people make about their car woes, the funny sounds they make to demonstrate the problems they are having, the car talk puzzler which always makes me want the next weekend to come right away so I get to know of the answer instantly! Leaves me wanting for more....but soon enough its 11am.

Time for 'Wait wait don't tell me'. This might be advertised as the weekly news quiz, being that I am not big on following current events- a riotously funny way to keep abreast of what's going on. For a long time, it has been my wish to be at one of these recordings live in Chicago. I can never tell if this will indeed come true, but for now I am glad I get to listen to it every weekend between 11-noon. Noon comes and its time to step out of the house to round up the chores. What a brilliant way to get going though, with a smile on one's lips having passed the previous 2 hrs in laughter- orchestrated with snorts and giggles and chortles and snickers.

Sunday mornings are reserved for Weekend edition with puzzle master Will Shortz and with that ends my weekend date with NPR. Time to switch to CD player mode and get on with cooking for the week.

This little gadget provides so much entertainment, its unbelievable. There are so many substitutes..from podcasts to rss subscriptions to the telly to online reading and what-not. But nothing beats the luxury of being able to turn the analog dial on this antiquated gadget to the NPR station with a consistency that is hard to come about in these times of instant gratification and action-packed schedules.

What prompted this spiel, you ask? A simple youtube clip that a friend forwarded last weekend. See for yourself..

And here we are

..at the end of the year. Its December already!

What does it bring?
- A trip home
- Birthdays galore(my family is infested with Sagittarians, I tell ya)
- Food - home cooked and otherwise
- Lesser work loads
- Lazy winter afternoons
- Reading, music, movies

A well deserved month long break- before a new year begins.

My next post will be from my home town- Bengaluru.

See y'all on the other side of the globe!

Edited to add : Well my next post will probably be about how I got back in the groove with my reading habit. And THEN, subsequent posts will be from apna desh.

New and improved

Did you guys check out the new look on gmail? Have you picked your favorite theme yet? Mine, by far has got to be 'Zoo Zimps'. I just love love love love these characters. Makes me want to check gmail all the time, yo!

Here's how it looks, for those that havent had the pleasure yet.

















See that character peeping into the chat window? He's the cutest. I also love the character that shows up when you look at the spam/trash folder. There's this zoozimp with a spanner in its hand when you go into settings. Uff! Too cute.

So which one is your favorite theme?

In the spirit of the season

You know how you get the urge to watch some mindless TV. You arent really looking to catch the latest news or political satire or a reality show or a soap or any such. You just want mindless TV.

What is its equivalent in the blog world? Blog things, of course.

So, in the spirit of the season, here's one.

Your Halloween Costume Should Be

A Girl Scout

What Should You Be For Halloween?

Go on, tell me what you're going as.[Ya, a girl Scout???? Really? Hm Oh well. Let me go put this one together now]

Happy Halloween everyone.

Chaat, movie and everything in between

Another weekend has come and gone. As we move closer and closer to the end of summer, I feel this urge to hang on to it more tightly, to fit in a lot more things to do, to be outdoors, to walk longer...cos these warm days will soon be gone.

* Watched 'Rock On'. If its one thing Farhan Akhtar excels at, it is superior dialogues coupled with contemporary storylines. As like Dil Chahta Hai, the characters in this movie are modern, contemporary, young and hep. FA can act reasonably well. This story, as have most reviews mentioned, has shades of DCH in it. If you're in your 20s or 30s, you will definitely relate to the emotions and sentiments. And thats probably why this movie is such a hit. Apart from of course, girls raving over FA's looks(I choose to not dwell on it, good looks are relative and debatable). It doesnt have to be about being in a rock band when you're in college, it could be any group activity that you have participated in while growing up- such interactions, such misunderstandings, such relationship angst is bound to happen. Friends part, a group breaks up- a band gets disbanded. You move on, grow up, life's focus changes, responsibilities grow. Before long, you realize there's a void in your life, that can only be filled by those very people...the ones you grew up with, the ones that were your co-passengers along a very important journey in a slice of life. Some get the opportunity to reunite and relive those memories, some part forever learning to live the lives they have made for themselves, while dipping into the vast reserve of memories for some sepia toned preserves of growing-up.

Watch Rock On, for a feel good trip into the land of nostalgia, if nothing else. I wont call it the greatest movie of the year, I wont say its out-of-the-world awesome, I wont say its the greatest of the greatest... all I'd say is watch it for some interesting characterizations, the start contrast of personalities and the depcitions which are real and mostly relatable.

* Had a chaat party this weekend. The menu included pani puri, sev puri, masala puri(a Bangalore speciality), bhel puri, pav bhaaji, mango lassi, rasmalai and curd rice for those finicky southie types. Pics, you ask? Well it went by so fast that the thought didnt even occur to me till after the fact. Take my word, it was good. Finger licking good! Just the type of spread Rads would've loved- I mentioned bhel and rasmalai right? Errrr...of course I did invite her. But she(not surprisingly) was oober booked. And then ended up copping out and eating dibba roti, she claims!

* Tried and tested Google chrome. Did you see the webcomic for Chrome? Hm, its got some memory issues that need to be taken care, its not fully there yet- me thinks. The one good thing I did notice was it fully blocked all of rediff's popups very effectively, without needing an external pop-up blocker that even Mozilla seems to need to overcome rediff's annoying pop-ups.

* I finished reading 'The other Boleyn girl' by Philippa Gregory. That's what my next post is gonna be about.

* Yesterday(Sept 15th) I hear is now officially called 'Black Monday'. World markets plunged, real estate market here in the US has been on a decline, food shortage crisis happened earlier this year, commodity prices have skyrocketed, gas prices neednt be mentioned- so whats that word that defines any period of time in world financial markets where there's sustained high rates of unemployment, interest rates, inflation and other such declines?

Trail Mix 4

* So did you cuil?

* Apparently we are all CPA-ic at different levels. No, not the person you go to for your taxes. I am referring to this CPA.
An excerpt :

Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today. It is different from multi-tasking. The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We're often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing. We give the same priority to much of what we do when we multi-task -- we file and copy papers, talk on the phone, eat lunch -- we get as many things done at one time as we possibly can in order to make more time for ourselves and in order to be more efficient and more productive.

To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention -- CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.

* This past weekend, a few friends stopped by for lunch. A simple meal of roti, mattar paneer, pulav , raitha, veggie crisps and badam halwa. And then they sprawled in the sun room, we popped a dvd in and settled in. We watched Dil Chahta Hai. What a brilliant movie, always a delight to watch.

* An update on the dead tree- Well, its been removed, finally! And I didnt have to write off my first born, thank God. A new one has also been planted- a beautiful Japanese maple.

* August is just around the corner, can you believe it? Time for all the lions to be born :D.

Alright, thats it for this edition.

So long, farewell, good bye, khuda hafiz and such other pleasantries.

Elbow room and such other minor points to ponder

* On international flights, I usually opt for a window seat. Thats because 1. Except for occassional walk breaks I stay put in my seat. Which means I am not a bothersome passenger. 2. I prefer to not get bothered by sitting in the aisle seat and having to get up every time the window/middle seaters wish to step out. 3. Aisle seats mean you get poked in your elbow and shoulder by the carts, people and everyone that passes by rudely jolting you out of stupor. Now, I am not a big built person- I am short, slightly overweight and try to keep my elbows off the armrest so as to not inconvenience the neighbor. I've always had this question- how do you share armrests? Is there a undocumented rule on how long you can use the shared armrest before letting the neighbor use it? Any insights?

So this time around I was sitting next to a person from Ghana. Before I launch into this snippet, allow me to mention that I am a bad sleeper on international flights. I hardly get about 1-2 hrs of shut-eye if at all, since I have a huge sleep problem right in my own bed. In an economy class seat, its a miracle I even get this much. After initial pleasantries had been exchanged, the drinks cart had come and gone, special and regular meals served and it was time for some forceful shut-eye. I woke up an hour later with a sore neck to see my neighbour asleep with this head against the seat in front of me. You get the picture. He was diagonally positioned with a lot more than just his elbows against the armrest we shared, his head rested on the back of the seat in front of me, which means I had 1/3 less space and locked in my cramped position. I let out a small yelp, not wanting to wake up the rest of the junta who apparently had no issues drifting into slumber. For the next 15 mins, I tried varying decibels of a yelp. My right leg had decided to take a nap by then and was killing me. I needed a walk. No luck. Then some 30 mins later a stewardess passed by. I flailed my arms at her and requested she help me out by waking Mr Ghana up. She obliged, she patted him on his back hard enough and lo and behold he was awake. I made a hurried exit and hung out as a restroom door guard for considerable amount of time. When I did head back and was comfortably seated, he says "You could've woken me up yourself, you know?". "I did try, you were in deep sleep(I didnt mention the minor fact that he was sprawled all the way into my space, of course)". Any pointers on this elbow room issue? Anyone? Anyone at all?

* So, early in spring of this year I realised I had a dead tree in my front yard. The person that had come to mulch my garden pointed it out to me and kindly offered to have it removed, if I wanted. Well I did want to, but I had to check with the higher powers(aka the Home Owner Association, who have given me some grief when I wished to install a storm door. Now, I was ok getting permission from them for this, but what I didnt understand was why they needed for me to send pictures of how the storm door looks. Well anyway they've got the rules, who am I to question? So I let it be). When I called the officer assigned for this, she insisted she had to come down to "inspect" said tree. Since I was going to be out of the country, she agreed to send an email once she'd inspected to let me know what had to be done. When I got back, and I still hadnt seen any email from her, I called her up. As always she wasnt around and I had to leave a voicemail. 2 days later I received the promised email. It tells me she had come, she had seen and she had measured(there are different rules for tree with varying dimensions, btw, if you care enough to know). She says the tree trunk is more than 4 inches in diameter, the height is bla and bla inches bla bla and bla and I referred to our covenants guide and it says you need to submit an application for approval to get it removed.

"Please print this form out(a 5 page document), get approvals from the inhabitants of all the houses in your row, send us a copy of your house plan, send us pictures of the tree in question, tell us what you plan to plant in place of said dead tree, send us pics of the same, write off your first and second born and promise us you will stand on your head for 3 months till this approval comes through!"

* Why is it that your schoolmates are delighted to be in touch with you after all these years, are so keen on playing catch up on whats been happening in all the years you've been AWOL, check on you ever so often, care and concern pours out of every pore, but your collegemates make no attempts be in touch and what's worse, when you do have some chance encounters, pretend they dont know you and dont even bother to exchange contact information, and even if they do, never bother to call/email? The cherry on the icing is pretending they dont know you, or not divulging they met you. In short, they prefer to think the chance encounter never even happened! Weird, that!

Of this, that and the advent of TV

* Spent a wonderful afternoon at Blossoms. By far, one of the best things to have happened to Bengaluru. Multiple storeys of used books- from Daphne Du Maurier, to AJCronin, to RKNarayan to Digital Photography guides. And the prices, are so enticing- yes I was almost tempted to stay back overnight, if they'd have me. If you're in this area, please to check this place out. Its not the swankiest of locations, but for book-lovers this is Ritz-Carlton for sure.

* Thursday morning found me with some extra dose of vigour and enthu. I went on a 7am vegetable shopping trip. I scurried around smelling the fresh scent of vegetables and fruits and flowers in the market and in tune with the rest of the early risers. I had showered early, made some temple stops along the way, I was so in sync with the early morning bustle thats characteristic of apna desh. While I was thus engaged I passed two cows grazing lazily as is wont in our bazaars. No wonder foreigners ask us if elephants roam our streets, even to this day! I hurried along to the "greens" vendor to buy some spinach. A scooter passed next to me, the rider stopped and a muffled voice spoke from behind a helmet. I looked at the apparition enquiringly. "Be careful, wearing red around these cows, they could attack". I was in a red salwar. I smiled weakly, thanked him and walked on. Errr, red goads bulls no? And I am a bull myself, I should know! Well perhaps that was his good deed for the day. Nonetheless he did make my day.

* Our first TV-black and white had been a Dyanora. We almost put it on a pedestal the day it arrived. We tiptoed around it and even watched Krishi Darshan faithfully just for the fact that it was being aired and it was our duty to watch it. Then some years later, color television launched. We found a good reason to own a color TV. Olympics and World Cup, of course. Those deserved to be watched in their true colors. Hence arrived a BPL brand wonder. We celebrated, we did our welcome jig, we cooked a spread, we pulled out our best silver, we served ourselves, sat down and watched the 9pm news on Doordarshan! Who cares about final exams the next day? Color TV was here to stay. This has really served us well, we had it for the longest time. What came next? Cable TV of course. I still remember the day we walked up to the start-up cable company in our neighbourhood. It was started by two newly minted graduates, Kiran and Shashi. They looked dapper seated in their dingy room that they had rented. The next day Shashi landed at our doorstep with complicated looking contraptions to fit our place with 1000s of channels. Little did we realise we were submitting to become slaves of the remote, soon. After about 45 mins, he was done. We turned our TV on and we were in channel utopia, in bright colors. "Yayyyyyyyyy" danced Seren and I. Amma emerged out of the kitchen with a plate of kaju kathli and offered it to Shashi. Appa had a Colgate-ad-ish grin and hugged and shook hands with him and paid him the advance and saw him off in royal style. Little did Shashi know of our celebratory methods! After all these years, I think I understand the quizzical expression that was plastered on his face all his way back to his office.
Today, it is the age of HDTV's and Plasma TV's, wide screens and advanced entertainment centers. But the joys of watching Bournivata Quiz shows with Siddharth Basu on Sundays on our old BPL TV comes with no price tag and lots of sweet memories. I say it again, the sweet smell thats in the air these days, is surely nostalgia.
I'm sure each of us has a tale to tell about our experiences as we turned the corner to the advent of TV in India. Do tell, what was YOUR first TV?

Apna desh, in this age

Then, now and forever
- Friendly neighborhood doodhwala first thing in the am.
- Fresh veggies on wheels right outside the front gate, first thing in the am.
- Long walk at Lalbagh. Then stop at a darshini, anytime in the morning, for some steaming hot idlis dunked in spicy chutney, topped with a tumbler/dabara of frothy filter kaapi. Throw in a crisp vada, if you're specially ravenous after a longer walk!
- A welcome smile of recognition from the florist in the market who affectionately adds an extra handful of your favorite flower(s) at no charge.

Dad's day special- It was Seren's idea that we should go to South Indies for a South Indian lunch buffet. Breakfast had been light and early, in eager anticipation. Chores were done in good time, and we all got ready and left. We reached there around 1:30. The restaurant, while full, was not overcrowded. We headed towards the buffet right away. And thus read the menu :

Pepper rasam, Mixed rice, Plain rice, drum stick sambar, Mixed greens sabji, Stuffed brinjal sabji, mixed vegetable kurma, olan, kosambri, raitha, papad and pickle. Hot appams and parathas get delivered to the table. Dessert was a pink colored(seemingly strawberry) icecream, fresh fruits and appi payasam. The cherry on top of the icing was a strong dose of frothy filter coffee at the end.

Verdict : The pepper rasam was totally worth the visit! The entire spread was tasty(and not overly spicy, so amma adds), the staff was courteous and the only item missing was paan at the end. Well, I mentioned that in their feedback form. Mukhwaas werent bad, but some vethilai/paaku would've completed the picture!
Here, feast your eyes while I digest the feast!

Post-lunch stop-over...at FabIndia. Picked up some dhurries and kurtis

In this age
We stopped a "foreigner" asking for directions and he was spot on! It was cute to watch him direct us in earnest, with a distinct accent.

Sighting

A "newly wed" car- its been a while since I've sighted these. You know, the ones where the car is all decked with solitary roses taped all over, with a heart sign with the couple's names and the very obvious "just married" thermocol logo? Couldnt pull out my camera in time for a quick pic. Well, my question is- whats the point? The car seemed packed with a lot of people, I cant believe it was just the couple. So...errr what's the point?

Of cookers and make-shift labs

The Prestige showroom that sprung in our vicinity some years ago has turned out to be a Godsend. I was in town, coincidentally around the time it opened. We pounced on it and before long, a cooker set was packed in my mega suitcases that usually accompany me on my trips across the seas. Amma usually insists on packing enough spares for every part of every kitchen gadget that I take back. Over a period of time, the spares supply dwindles and I bring back all or parts of the said item for replenishments. Its also the time we gather all the related repair work long pending and off we go..with bag filled with a motley assortment of items in varying stages of repair.

Such was a trip 2 days ago. Some valves needed to be replaced, some gaskets replenished, some handles needed fixing etc etc till we came to one item.

Amma : "I bought this cooker last year and it has never worked since I took it out of the packing case. You've sold me a lemon........err a bad un!"

Salesguy : "Amma, whistle hodiyatta?(Does it whistle?)"

Amma : "No, it does nothing, it hasnt worked ever!"

Salesguy : "We have to test it ma'am. Can you wait for a few mins?"

Amma : "Sure"

Some 15 mins were spent waiting.(Well we were actually trying to figure out where and how exactly this "test" would happen.) Then,

Salesguy : "Ma'am, you can come see for yourself, it was a bad valve. Please follow me..."

Amma and I excitedly followed said individual in eager anticipation. He walked us through an alley beside the showroom to a shed. Erm, makeshift lab attached to the restroom! It had various cooker bottoms and lids and all and sundry items related to pressure cookers stacked randomly. And then there was a counter with a gas stove, with a cooker in action.

A cooker merrily whistled away....

Amma : "Did you use a new valve?"

Me : (sotto voce) "Ask him if dinner is done..."

Salesguy : "Yes ma'am, see, its working now, you had a bad valve."

Me : (sotto voce) "Does he follow the 3 whistle policy for rice as well? Do you know?"

Amma : (with a glare pointed in my direction) "I am sure you gave me a faulty valve to begin with. Please dont charge me for this replacement and draw up the bill?"

Me : (sotto voce) "You think he used the water from the rest room?(bleh)"

Amma : (gritting teeth) " Alright, lets head back to the showroom"

We now have a veritable spares collection. Enough to chug along for the next 4 yrs.

And they have a "lab".

Woh kaagaz ki kashti...

Yeh daulat bhi le lo
Yeh shohrat bhi le lo
Bhale cheen lo mujhse meri javaani
Magar mujhko lauta do bachpan ka saavan,
Woh kaagaz ki kashti, woh baarish ka paani.

Did you hear about the doodle for G-o-o-g-l-e competition?

Kids from K-12 were asked to participate in re-designing the Google homepage logo. While you are at the website check out a video of the original Google logo designer at work. Did you see the art work submitted by finalists? Isnt it just marvellous? Their write-up is even more impressive.
While it was hard to pick favorites, I couldnt help but be amazed by the beauty and simplicity of this one. This from a 10 yr old!


Lending a Helping Hand
What if the whole world lent a helping hand? There wouldn't be homeless people. Also, we'd all have equal rights. There would be angels, no devils, and only heroes. There would be peace on earth. That's what would happen if the whole world lent a helping hand.
Name: Hanna Goldstein
School: Deerfield Elementary School, New Jersey

Its these kinds of things that make me want to go back to school in these times when opportunities are endless, avenues are infinite and the passion to create is unfettered. Art is and will always remain my favorite retreat- whether it be art admiration or art in itself.

Another website I ran into recently that makes me want to be a kid all over again is http://yocee.in/. A website for the young in Chennai. Take a look at the articles written by school children all over the city. Such interesting topics, so much to do, so much to learn, such abundant scope for creativity.

Sigh!

Footnote : Thanks to a certain special someone :), I am currently listening to Koi baat chale, sung by JS, written by Ustad Gulzar and my favorite right now goes...

Yeh dil bhi dost zameen ki tarah
Ho jaata hai *damadol kabhi
Khushbu ki zubaan mein bol kabhi...........

Phoolon ki tarah lab khol kabhi
Khushbu ki zubaan mein bol kabhi.

*damadol=fluctuates

Listen to it here.

Chai and chitchat-ii

Over some date cake and chai, time for some gupshup.

* Last in the series of spring flowers from my garden are these irises.

* # of books in the reading cart, waiting to be indulged in = 5

* After a long spell of wet weather(the plants almost groaned and complained about rotting), the temperatures have risen, the sun is out and looks like summer is about ready to officially break out.

* Got to restart my diet and exercise regimen. With a lot of other commitments and priorities, this has been pathetically set aside on the back burner. That only means the layers of fat are all back to haunt me.

* Voice of reason horoscope of the month :

Taurus - Paying-off troublemakers, especially, but not exclusively, blackmailers threatening to go to the press with grainy pictures, is prominent in your charts, however the solution doesn't appear until well into May so is outside the scope of this month-long reading. Best advice is to make it all up as you go along and read next month's predictions when we get round to writing them. Dogs will provide moments of egg-balancing-on-nose gravity-defying levity during the month.
You feel that you are going nowhere in life. You are probably right. Milwaukee is full of Taureans. They make little dioramas of their homes, complete with tiny effigies of the people they know, and act out scenarios of the way things would be if they were God.

* SK, a long time ago, gave me this award, my first in blogdom. The reason I have taken this long to accept it is not denial. I couldnt figure out how these awards work . It appears to be like tags, which kinda defeats the purpose imo. But heck, who am I to contest the rules that have been set forth in this hallowed blog world where I am but a newbie. So, here it is, my brag badge of honor. I will update this post once I decide to pass this along to someone worthy :D. Till then, its ALL mine! It sure feels nice. And thank you SK for thinking about me, much appreciated.

Here is what the award is for.

“Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”

Greek, Latin and everything in between

"Jennings was delighted with her gratitude, and only wondered that after hearing such a sentence, the Colonel should be able to take leave of them, as he immediately did, with the utmost sang-froid, and go away without making her any reply...."
Excerpt from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I love the humour in the Asterix comics. Their language, while oh-so-literary has a brand of humour thats hard to find elsewhere. Asterix comics is where I was exposed to a lot of Latin phrases like "quid pro quo" or "quo vadis" and since, at that time, the internet was not as prolific as it is now, wiki and google not bedside companions as it is now, the only way to figure out the meaning of these phrases was to use the dictionary, the hardbound book of phrases and quotations or the walking dictionary cum thesaurus otherwise known as Amma.

Reading classics like Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer exposed one words like bourgeois or maitre' d and other such french derivatives. Perry Mason novels had a decent smattering of legalese such as pro bono, rigor mortis and haebius corpus. So where am I headed with all this? Well just to the point that I have a strange nervousness around these words. To this day, when I hear such Latin or French derivative phrases a strange process kicks off at the back of my mind that wonders if I've understood it right or have hopelessly jumbled them up.

Ever heard of Miss Malaprop or malapropisms? Yes, thats one of my fears. I dread using one of these phrases at the risk of turning into Miss Malaprop. The ones that throw me in a tizzy are these scholarly ones such as magna/summa cum laude or sang-froid, avant-garde, carte-blanche,fait accompli............so on and so forth.

So if you're around me and throw one of these or some other such in a conversation, that'll be one way to get my head spinning. Now alright alright, dont tell me "You have a latin domain, what IS your problem?". The reason I found myself one of these is because by chance I was on the wiki for Latin phrases and picked this one because it fit the description well. Happy? Doesnt mean I am a Latin pundit. And the reason I've been shirking from planning that trip to France is the same fear. I need to be in a French class, and soon!

Freeze! and a hi

Statement of no purpose : This is one of those times I've felt like posting 'some' thing, but have had no clue what. And this is one of those posts when I am not sure if I am sounding silly(so whats new, you ask?). This is also one of those posts in which I dont know what to write about. I dont have any intersting book reviews or movie reviews or pictures or anything brilliant to say. But I just feel like posting, so I will.

. I am a member of the Improv here. I love stand up comedy shows. Now, Improv Everywhere is based out of NYC and this recent experiment kinda caught my eye.

http://improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Excerpt : "On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them. Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos."

Awesomely interesting, isnt it? What a weird, whacky thing to happen in all the hustle-bustle of Grand Central Station, NYC. I've been through here quite a few times and I'd have been tickled pink to watch this happen.

.While bloghopping recently I also read about this : www.311pm.com

This in Chennai, where bloggers and others took a picture of what they saw, where they were, what they were doing exactly at 3:11pm on 3rd Nov 2007. A freeze moment in time.

Excerpt from the website :
-WHAT

On the 3rd of November 2007, we invite every Chennaiite to for one second, at exactly 03:11 PM, stop whatever it is that they are doing, and click, shoot, snap, capture or photograph that moment, just hold that one instant frozen in a picture and send it to us. This is not for any great worthy cause, this is not a competition, it may or may not help charity, it will not prevent global warming, you will gain no medals, no certificates but it is most definitely not a waste.


So I read these two interesting pieces of experiment, and as I was walking along the lake in a park nearby, I decided to freeze through my lens, what I was upto at that particular point of time. Kinda like my own freeze frame. Hence here I present to you, my dear readers, a capture of where I was, what I was doing at 7:15 AM EST on the 25th of March 2008.








The forecast calls for rain, rain, rain and rain for the next 4 days. Such is spring in our part of the world. I remember one year when we hit a record low- we had a total of 4 dry days all through spring. But we need the rains, considering we hit near drought conditions last summer. So here's to canned sunshine. This is one of my favorite places to be. Come rain or snow, sun or wind- I go here to capture some simple special moments. I have taken pictures of all 4 seasons at exactly the same spot- a bend along the road leading to this serene lake and the greenery that surrounds it.

As you might have all deduced by now, this post really has no set purpose. Please dont go yet. I've saved the best for the last. Since I've rambled on enough without coming to any point, let me conclude with this.

Time for a frozen Hi : Sitemeter is that web site visitor statistics gathering tool that all of us in the 'blogging' community use. While it helps us track the hits and misses, views and page counts, it also serves as an ego booster. Especially the record high stats. No, I dont obsess about the stats, but once in a while I do check the visitors log to see who's on and who's not. Recently the visitor count has shot up. There's been a visitor from NY who has spent a total of 65 mins on my blog, with extra time on the archives. And another visitor from Belgium thats a regular ;). Ooh, and then there's one from San Diego, another regular, through Google reader. And then there's my friend L from the bay area thats a regular but she never makes herself heard. Plenty more- some that I know, some that are just passersby, some that google on khara biscuit recipe(ever popular, I say), or any such random word for which a post of mine shows up.

So a big Hi to all of you- whether you land here from someone else's blog, or googled for something and found your way here, whether you're a regular, whether you're one of those silent ones, whether you're one of those passers-by(ones that stray here once and never come back)- THIS is your chance people. I have plenty of time on hand, I can lend my ear(its been cleaned, too!) so if you happen to land on this post or on this blog, do take a minute to say 'Hi'. Yup, 'Hi' is all it takes. Well, if you wish, you can tell me how you landed here, where you're from, what interests you, what bores you, what you like, what you dislike- you can EVEN tell me if you were googling for something important but happened to get mislead here- to my completely useless blog- yes you can say that, no issues. Or you can tell me that its a complete waste of your precious time. If you've been a lurker, do de-lurk to say Hi. Trust me, I bloghopped for a while before I could muster the courage to comment. So I'd like to hear from all of you in a chorus Hi. A freeze comment in time, what say? And I dont like getting disappointed.

Call me Umori Noos...

Because...

If You Were Born in 2893...

Your Name Would Be: Umori Noos And You Would Be: A Space Pirate

If You Were Born in 2893

And if I were to be put under a microscope, here's what would be revealed!

You Are Eggs

Traditional and totally grown up, you truly believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You don't skimp on nutrition or quality. You're likely to take the time to make yourself a decent meal each morning. You're a great cook, even if you aren't a showy one. You can make a feast out of simple ingredients. The food you eat may be basic, but you prefer to think of it as classic.

What Kind of Breakfast Are You?

Your True Sign Is Pisces

Kind Dreamy Gentle Psychic Idealist Vulnerable Empathetic Introverted

What Sign Woman Are You, Really?

You Are 64% Tortured Genius

You are smart. Brilliant in fact. And while it's a blessing, it's also a curse. Your head is filled with everything - grand ideas, insufferable worries, and a good deal of angst.

Are You a Tortured Genius?

Fleeting fall

Each year, I usually make plans to go see fall colors. Sometimes its a flight out to New England, sometimes its a couple of hours drive to another state, sometimes its a local state park, sometimes its a fall picnic to the nearest lake shore. This year, December seems just around the corner and fall seems to have come and gone. I hear Christmas songs in malls already, the stores are decked up and its not even Thanksgiving yet.

I dont know if its the weather or the short stint of fall, I dont have one picture to show, nor one memory of fall colors to prove that we had fall this year. And for the first time in this many years that I have lived in the north-eastern coast of US, that I havent noticed the wonderful hues of glorious autumn. Very soon, I will come back to cold, dreary winters and get ready to don the boots and scarves, gloves and layers to face the snow. It will be 3 months before one can step out to the warmth of the sun in a tee and jeans. And I miss the transition time, a short bridge to cold days- that which we all have come to know as fall.

Next year, there will definitely be big plans, plans to go watch the splendour of fall at some place special.

Till then, bye bye fall and welcome winter!

Footnote : My soup recipe bookmarks are growing. No better time to indulge in loads of warm, colorful soup.