Notes from back home- Dec 2009-1

Its time for some notes- notes about the small things that one does in one's hometown which can never be praised enough but undoubtedly are the prime things that one misses when one isn't here. I do have to write about our next trip which was to Nagarhole National Park along the Kabini river, but that's a later post.

* Day 0 and Day 1 of my trip found us at Bengaluru habba, shopping and enjoying the visual arts and crafts at the fair.

* Week 1- Visited and indulged in masala dosa at UD, idli/vada at Brahmin's cafe, masala dosa at Vidyarthi Bhavan(ran into a Trigonometry lecturer from PU college and had a warm and wonderful chat while digging into afore mentioned masala dosa delight), lunch at Barbeque Nation, chaat at Sukh Sagar(Jayanagar). Phew!

* Watched and enjoyed Julie and Julia and Paa. Paa is undoubtedly a great movie. The characters are warm and wonderful, the dialogues are just about right and there's none of the sentiment/emotion overload that Hindi films are known to overdo. AB Sr and Jr do justice to their roles and once in a while Vidya Balan does come through. Enough said- go watch it and see for yourself.

* Shopping, eating, napping in the afternoons, some movies, some books, visiting friends and family all make for the perfect December break!

Its a pleasant surprise when...

....out of the blue, the gym instructor plays a Bollywood track as accompaniment to the workout.

The treasure hunt

Sigh! No, this isn't the pirate's treasure we're talking about. I wasn't influenced by the movie 'Blue', trust me.

It all began when I got this innocent coupon for Macy's. 10$ off for a purchase of 25$ or more it declared- in red! The Christmas season sale is on, earlier than usual this time. Well, considering the fact Macy's is temptingly located right across from my subdivision could be viewed as a boon, at times. I drive past the place every day to get to work, to shop, to get chores done- well you get the point. It would be hard to not pass Macy's.

So the coupon said it was an early bird special. Valid only between 7am to noon on two working days- Tuesday and Wednesday. Now my long time readers should know by now, if ever the word early bird was to be coined, it'd have to be cos of moi. I mean no one else exemplifies the term better. So that part is pretty set. The master plan was to stop by on the way to work. Refer to the line about having to pass by Macy's everyday. Oh, btw, the coupon also said- 'Doesn't apply for preview sale on Tuesday'. Great!- Wednesday it would have to be.

Now we get to the way the mind plays games. 10$ off it screamed. If you find something for 25$ at minimum, you'll land yourself a steal at 15$. Worth it, it convinced the rest of the self.

Thus convinced, I landed at Macy's at around 7:15am on a Wednesday- I felt like a shopaholic. But nonetheless- I had already decided what I wanted badly. A pair of corduroy jeans. I found the Levi's aisle, tried a pair on and within 10 minutes I was set. As the saleslady at the counter scanned the item and the coupon, she goes 'Ma'am, I am sorry. This coupon isn't valid on Levi's'. She also generously pointed to the long list of excluded brands which I had conveniently dismissed on initial glance. 'What brands can I get then' I asked innocently. 'Ma'am, we've found it easier to just scan and determine if it qualifies or not rather than memorize what brands to not buy' she beamed.

Sigh! On to Round 2. I went back and spent the next 20 mins finding a pair in a brand that wasn't listed in the coupon. Fitting done, I went back to the counter. Same cycle of scanning item and coupon. This salesday declared 'Ma'am I am sorry this coupon doesn't apply. If the sales price ends in .98, those items don't qualify. Watch out for them!'.[I later determined half the store was full of brands that didn't qualify, the other half were prices ending in .98!!!]

Round 3, we're nearing 8am now and I am getting frustrated. Rinse, lather, repeat. I find another brand[which isn't on the list], the price doesn't end in .98[see where the treasure hunt part comes in?], it fits me somewhat and I believe we're good to go. This time at checkout, after scanning item and coupon- salesday goes 'Ma'am, I'm sorry but this was a preview item. The coupon doesn't qualify on those.'. As you can tell, I had had it. 'Ma'am is there a particular aisle I can go to and pick up items for which the coupon would qualify?' I ask in my politest voice.

'Oh, but Ma'am, we don't have those in one place. There are strategically placed all around the store, in various racks and aisles and brands. That's why we open the store at 7am. So people can spend time looking for deals.'

Thud![head hitting the sales desk]

Footnote : What did I do eventually? I went to the gloves and socks aisle and bought myself a pair of gloves and socks[which I probably didn't need, but I'm told you can never have too many of them, once winter sets].

Yup! I found my treasure.

Of this and that- 1

Alright, alright...I am still around. The sun has finally emerged in our very-Seattle-ish part of the country and all is well with the world now.

The only way to begin a comeback is with a serving of this and that, which officially will now be converted into a series...and counting.

-I watched 'Blue' and 'Ajab Prem ki ghazab kahani' this weekend. Watched 'Wake up Sid' some weeks ago. Loved the music of Blue, thanks to ARR. I am now a big fan of Ranbir Kapoor- the boy's got oodles of potential and talent. Wake up Sid was simple, cute and relatable- specially Konkona's character. APKGK(which would be ajab prem etc etc) was another simple movie, much like Welcome to Sajjanpur. Simple, quirky, funny- no great and complicated story line here. A simple love story. [I have noted the number of times I've used the word simple- that's exactly 5, counting the last one]

- On the reading scene, there hasn't been a lot of traction. I am now deeply entrenched in painting(yes, the art kind) and of course farming.

- Leaves have now been shed in the yard and I have officially turned into the leaf-packer of my adda. I can speak intelligently about raking leaves and using an electric blower. Hallelujah!

- Can you believe it's Thanksgiving already? Where did the year go? On the bright side, I'll be home for Christmas.

- Have you listened to the music of Paa yet? No? You should- its awesome! Listen to it here for now, then go grab a CD on Dec 6.

Enough about me, now y'all tell me what you've been upto. What's the plan for Thanksgiving? Doing anything fun?

Talk to me!

My next to-do is to change the blog header. Something fall-ish me's thinking. Sound good? Catch y'all in a bit. Till then take care and shabba khair.

The Etihad connection

For those that don't know what Etihad is all about, here is where to look.

Have I told you about how I've been in the 'loop' about the cargo shipments of the afore-mentioned company? I have been cc'ed on emails about shipments, tracking, status updates and the like. There is a long list of recipients and then there is me. I have tried to respond many times to this distribution pointing out the error, to no avail. I continue to get emails that make absolutely no sense to me. Ever heard of 'When life gives you a rainy day...find a puddle to splash in'? Hence I decided to slip into a comfortable mute spectator, reading every email I get.

I also found out Etihad means 'united' and this is an Abu Dhabi based airline company. Oh well, one can never tell- perhaps at some time I might just be flying this airline.

For now, I have made my peace about the situation. I'll update this post at some point of time with a sample.

You got any experiences of mistaken identities you want to share?

An evening of explosion

The hare and the tortoise(retold)

Lets set the stage now, shall we? Well for starters, we're not exactly talking about a hare here, its a rabbit. And the tortoise happens to be me. But the title still applies, because...well.. its my story and I get to say so!

While I was at the trail recently, over the weekend, I started off with a light jog just to get the juices flowing. It was rather early in the am...that time of dawn when the sun has just declared it a new day. All beings, big and small, awaken to accept the declaration...cardinals, sparrows, bluebirds, deer, plants, trees, shrubs...one and all. With my ipod on, I almost felt like the skies were singing, the sun was shining and the quiet of the dawn hours was soothing.

A few minutes later a little rabbit bounded out of the bushes. It waited till I was closer to where it stood and then frisked along in a dash a few yards ahead and over to the other side of the path. It again waited for me to catch up. Once I got closer, it made a dash this time over to the right side, again a few yards ahead and turned around expectantly. This went on for about 7-8 times with this little chit zigzagging across the path. I could almost see a smirk on its face and a tinge of mischief in its eyes. It was a game and I was roped in for good.

This went on till we reached an intersection with some heavy foot traffic. Off the rabbit went into the bushes again, looking back at me bidding a rabbit-y goodbye.

Nothing like a good game to make a run fun. And while we're on the topic of walks, trails, runs, hares, tortoises and I guess life as a whole...here's a fun quote I 'ran' into recently.


'A line is a dot that went for a walk' ~ Paul Klee(whoever he is/was, he sure had a sense of humor)

How do you test the range of a cordless phone?

...you take it out for a spin in your car, of course!

Erm, serendipitous discovery, I must say!

I was talking to my mom one morning and trying to get ready to head to work. So I figured I could talk to her enroute, I mean- we live in a cordless, wireless world now, don't we?.

So I slip on my sandals, pick up the car keys, laptop bag, lunch bag, hand bag(sigh, ALL the bags), cell phone and get into the car, pull out of the driveway and make the first turn to exit out of the subdivision. All along I am having a conversation. When I reach the next stop sign, suddenly I realise that the phone had died. Hm! The calling card couldn't have been drained, so why could it be?

A few seconds later I realize I'd been on the cordless phone. And boy! I was impressed. The signal strength was significantly long-range.

QED.

Lights, Sound....Action!

...as we begin the first few days of the onset of the month of Shravan, we here in Virginia are being treated to some entertaining shows that have arrived in the form of thunderstorms.

After a busy work day- filled with presentations, meetings and a random brownbag tech discussion thrown in here and there- summer months are busy at work. Once that is done, I have my date evenings with Jessica, my spin class instructor. She keeps me straight, she keeps me sane and she is the only person that can make me do what I should. When that's done with, its time to move on to chores.

Have all the bills been paid? Are there any stray renewals that need to be done? So many little things that all add up to one giant headache! Then its dinner time. With the dishes cleared away, one gets a chance to indulge in front of the idiot box, the sun room sofa seems like lying in the lap of luxury.

A few minutes into mindless entertainment and the DISH receiver goes into 'Downloading software...' mode. There's brilliant sound and light effects from the outside and before long a thunderstorm has decided to be the master entertainer.

I drag my feet to turn off the lights and get ready to hit snooze. There's more of the magnificent lightning effects that illuminate the trees and the houses around. Thunder chimes in with background music to make a complete package for an orchestra. Watching this live show sure is a good way to drift into the land of nod, me thinks.

This incomplete state

...Huh?

There are these states of incompleteness. Let me explain...you know..like an unfinished/unsent email(sitting in the drafts folder) or unread email pileup in the inbox or unopened postal mail or unfinished posts/drafts sitting in the blog...ya those items that haven't completed their destined cycle.

Those bother me. Whenever Seren visits me and logs into my laptop/PC with her credentials, I get a peek into her inbox. And instinctively I feel like cleaning it up for her. When I see a popup that says Inbox(1029) the obsessive-compulsive personality in me kicks into overdrive. When I have to login to Amma's email account, I clean it up for her- without fail.

And thus there are two drafts in blogger right now...not ONE..TWO of them. I decided I'd write a post on that and include these incomplete posts. At least this way, I have provided them a channel to complete their cycle. Very rarely do I start something and lose my train of thought. To me, a post languishing in drafts, it means I haven't given it my full. And that would cause me many sleepless nights(sigh!). So for what they were worth, here they go.

Statutory disclaimer : Please don't be asking me where I was headed with either one of them. Actually the first one is pretty obvious, the second...hmmm I really can't tell. I suppose I was recording a dialogue between the mind and the body. Surreal, huh?

1. Titled 'Guess who's coming to dinner?'
Some time ago, after reading some online reviews, I decided to sign up for Plinky. You know, for those times when you're at a loss for topics to write about. I signed up for a weekly digest of prompts to be delivered to my inbox which I promptly delete right after- because I usually already have fodder to write about and/or I am just not in the mood to write to begin with.

But these have been prompt(pun intended) and have been at it without complaint.

Just this morning I received a batch right at that crossroad where I was beginning to wonder about what to write. This one caught my eye and I figured I'd give it a shot.

If you could invite any three people in history to a dinner party, who would you pick?

Hmmm, here's my guest list then.

Daphne Du Maurier , the author and playwright. She intrigues me, she must had an interesting life and/or a very fertile imagination. Either way, she'll have tales to tell at the dinner table.

2. Titled 'In the calm of dawn'
5:30am : My body alarm went off and I was up. I am one of those that can't be in bed if the senses are fully awake. Its like an on-off switch, no idling in neutral. Usually within the next 15 mins or so, I am out in the trail for a good jog/walk and then back home to get ready to head to work. But this am, before the body could get to its schedule, the mind had decided to play a game(the coffee must've played tricks).

Mind - 'Do you really need to get out there this morning? Why can't today be a slack day? You know, just lounge in the sofa and finish the book?'

Body - 'Hmmmm'(its a 'thing' of few words, apparently)

Mind - 'Its alright dude, seriously. How does it matter if you didn't follow the schedule for one day?'

Body - 'Yes, there's gym class in the evening regardless'

Mind - 'Exactly!

From Juverna Guinness

Happy St.Patricks Day!

Your Irish Name Is: Juverna Guinness

"What butter or whiskey does not cure cannot be cured."

What's Your Irish Name?

Notes for 2009-1

* Watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' recently. See, I have this problem- when books are made into movies, I take it in the literal sense. I expect every detail covered in the book to make its way to the movie. Especially if its a book I enjoyed. I have had this experience with many such...like 'Kite Runner' or something as simple as 'Devil wears Prada'...I expect one-to-one matches. Also, the advantage with books and words is the freedom it gives the reader to conjure up images and settings and backgrounds and characters that's hard to match with movies. In that sense, movies take away the fun of imagination by spelling everything out. There's no work for the mind.

Anyway, as always I was expecting Slumdog to be just like Vikas Swarup's book Q&A which I read back in December of 2007. I had loved the book and the plot and the theme. Slumdog, while the framework is somewhat like the book, the actual storyline differs. And honestly, I prefer the book.

The movie is great, don't get me wrong. It was typical Bollywood masala, woven into a Mumbai slum setting with liberal doses of intrigue and romance with a backdrop of the squalor and depravity we have come to know exists in the 'heart' of 21st century India. Anil Kapoor has definitely done a great job, considering I came away despising his character. My favorite song is 'Jai Ho'. The two young adult actors Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are impressive.

That's all I've got to say. Go watch for yourself, for sure. Its worth it!

* Read John Grisham's Appeal. A typical case of class-action on chemical poisoning in small-town US. Reminded me somewhat of King of Torts.

* And so in other news, being that I am a big fan of the 'Shopaholic series', I am actually looking forward to the movie. Oh, remind me to tell y'all about this book I am currently reading, once I am done.