One Last Shot

What's for breakfast

2011-03-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

Or why good South Indian girls should not attempt aloo parathas.

Obviously, I was too bugged even to take a proper picture. I had this brilliant idea of grating the boiled potatoes in the mixer which made them gooey starchy sticky mass totally unwieldy to work with. And then it all oozed out when I was rolling them and stuck to the pin and my hands and I tried to seal holes with patches of dough and that didn't help either. Long story short, we shall stick to those nice frozen ones for the near future.

PS: Inspired the very awesome Indexed and others in the same space.

Why I should not be let loose in universities.

2011-03-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Lots of young (ehm, from my pov i.e) handsome purportedly smart men. And I don't mean the students. I mean them super-eager and enthu untenured Profs.

That's why.

Among other news, I might ..might just ..be over Grey's Anatomy. Enough to hold on till I do a Marathon the spring break. Thus speaks the one who finished watching the 4th season yesterday. But we'll see.

2011-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

It is a clear indication of senility that I'm repeating stuff in the thingy posts. Or that I've run out of nice stuff to say about Vin!

2011-02-02T23:31:00.001-08:00

Yup. I've lost count of how many of those posts are pending but here goes some more..

- I was really ill the last week and that made me realize how much I love Vin fussing over me when I'm sick. And being the hypochondriac that he is, he's super-good at that

- I love the rare occasion when he cooks. I must clarify. Vin isn't even a half decent cook. Fact that he's never had to stay outside of his mom's (and later my sporadic and initially hopeless..) catering has turned him out thus. Which is why I appreciate the rare effort all the more. Unlike me, he is super organized when in the kitchen..kind of like in cookery shows and stuff. And he'd big on presentation. Even if he's just serving cut fruit or chocoloate (or cut fruit and chocolate, which he did serve once and I have a pic somewhere in the drafts of..)

- This is new stuff. I love how he's taken to hunting down deals for things I like. And I don't even have to tell him. Now that's a good thing to have in a man don't you think?

More thingies

2011-01-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

I like how Vin gets me stuff (books/water/phone) from across the room or the next room when I'm too lazy to move. What's even sweeter is he is way lazier but he still does it, if I know how to ask :). Also this is a valuable thingie in the context of present sub-zero situation and my propensity towards staying in the snuggie.

I love the rare occasion when he plays cook. He is very elaborate about it and is big on presentation.

Another winter-special is how he wakes up really early (like 7 today..which is like super-duper-early for us) to drop me to class. He does come back and sleep but if the roles were reversed he'd surely be taking public transport.

More thingy catchup..

2011-01-20T16:35:00.001-08:00

- I love how Vin smells of vicks when I snuggle up to him. Yeah, I'd have liked for this to have been something sexier like perfume..But the man doesn't care much for perfumes (there's a single bottle of cool water I gifted him wilting off in the wardrobe...That was before I learned my lesson). Anyway, he has this obsession with vicks and I've ended up liking it (Thank God)

- I love how he's a foodie. I'd have hated to end up with someone who thought food was a survival thing. And there are enough of those, respect to them. We're (happily) the kind for whom food is one of the factors that can make or break an experience.

- I also love that he loves to travel. And while this does sound like a painfully obvious duh thing I've seen enough people in my life who hate travel or aren't very excited about it to be thankful for not ending up marrying one of them.

- Vin is the king of surprises and gifting. That is so out of character for anyone who know's him

and I'm sure he'd like to keep it that way but there wouldn't be a point to my blog if I didn't let the world in on all these secrets right?

And while I'm more of a practical gifter and I only get him stuff I know he 'needs', he totally indulges me. And what's not to like about that?

Overdue and current Thingies

2011-01-16T16:08:00.001-08:00

Dear one_man_readership_of_the_Blog, Yeah so I'm a little lax about this but that's the best I can do, okay. In fact, I think I deserve credit for persisting beyond the first post.

Things I like about Vin, for the past two days and today:

- That he compensates for my lack of ambition. I'm a positively non-ambitious creature. Or let's say mine are in the direction of warm fuzzy dreams rather than worldly milestones of higher degrees and career advancements. Vin is what kind of pushes me on and delights almost parent-like in my achievements. It's crazy. (It is also a conflict sometimes and I have to tell him off and not "father" me since I already have the best father in the whole world and I'm doing just fine.)

- I like how he gives me arbit hugs all the time and everywhere through the day. Even hauls his lazy ass across the room sometimes for a quick snuggle.

- I admire his way with words. He has it in him to add a fun twist even to a stupid post-it reminder. So also with mundane emails and other form of communication. I'd have to put in effort to do stuff like that, sort of comes naturally to him. He has that magic touch to tweak the smallest things and change sentences into beauties..

Meanwhile, I've taken to threatening the protagonist that I'll post nasty things about him, skip posts or turn it into a 'things I dislike about him' tag to get favors out of him. Threats that predictably fall on deaf ears of a man who cares the least, who reviewed them on the first day and came up with the verdict of 'cheesy drool' or some such. Hmph. (Hint: More credit to me for persisting.)

The thingie tag

2011-01-12T22:02:00.000-08:00

Sue started this anniversary series on her blog and by the look of the number of people taking it up it's become something of a tag. Since the DH and I just passed our 5th I'm going to take a shot at it too. So for the next one month I'm going to try really hard to come up with one thingie per day that I like and appreciate about him. As you can see, this is likely going to be largely drool so those of you who aren't game for it should check back after a month when regular programming (meaning none) would resume. On the contrary, I promise there will be enough opportunities for laughs watching me struggle (just as other people who've braved into the tag are wont to do) to come up with kind stuff to say even on days when (read very often) I'm irritated to my wits end with him. I suspect this is going to be a mix of both big ticket lifelong stuff and lot of everyday stuff..

So here's the thing for today:

I like how he's gone from super-possessive boyfriend to mega-trusting spouse, kind of in sync with how I'd have liked him to be at different stages in life.

And here's one for tomo:

I like how he makes tea for me in bed on days after if we made up after a fight the prev night. He likes to serve it in style with biscuit on the side and stuff.

2 down, 28 to go.

2011-01-09T11:20:00.001-08:00

A much too overdue post on the move. It's been quite a while since we set foot and the details are rather hazy right now but here goes.

Those of you who know me also know I didn't quite make this move by active choice. The DH wanted the experience of living abroad..So when he set about putting a check against his bucketlist I packed my bag and followed. The awesome thing that happened in parallel was that I applied to grad-school - in a single university for a single course that I liked to the extent of thinking it was designed for me - and made it. I guess I'd have ended up going to school if I was here and sufficiently bored anyway. But that wasn't quite in the plan. (The plan, on the contrary, had vague provisions for cribs and prams and such..). Who was it that said life is what happens when you're busy making other plans..

Anyway, here we where..with the mandatory 4 suitcases, a preeti mixie and pressure cooker among other things. I remember thinking as I set foot in the airport and in the initial weeks about how the whole experience would have been so different for the last generation (I mean the 1990s lot here) of immigrants, even for those friends of ours who moved soon after graduation. Things are so different back home now. No, I'm not going to make the outrageous and obviously inflated claim that life in India can match standards of the most developed country in the world. Nossir. What I'm stating however is that for the present generation immigrant the lure of life-abroad can be much lesser than for his elder siblings and seniors..Especially if he's had taste of what it is like to earn and live well in India. Now that the disclaimer's out of the way lemme not skimp on words..The whole consumerist experience..the brands and the fancy but small conveniences and contrivances of modern life..are pretty much all present in India now. Another reason for staying on abroad - among the seniors as I understand - was that the wives didn't want to go back home and live in with the husband's family. There again, I knew few people of our generation who're doing that or having to do that. Maybe it's just me, but my list has more misses than hits..I had financial independence (big one that), a car, a job..the bestest gang of friends..and all this just a night train away from home. (And a few miles away from the DH's place). The lifestyles and shopperstops and UB Cities can between the match pretty much anything you'd want to buy in the US. And those who complain about pubs shutting down at 11 in Blore should know that a lot of cities in the US are dead by 9. Yes, the traffic sucks but I recommend a week in LA to anyone who complains of it. It's not all hunky dory back there and its definitely not all sad here..I know..For me, the one biggie reason (other than the fact that life is where the pathidev is etc..) that stands out is the education (see how I neatly wove that in inspite of dissing everything else. smart.). It would have been impossible for me to get this kind of a degree anywhere else..even the thought of going back to school at this age (I'm only 28 yet..not thaat old..) would be ridiculous in India, not to forget the really limited options even for those who are brave enough to do it. I, on the other hand, have 2 classmates with 5 and a few month old kids..And yes, there is money to be made on the exchange rate, but explain that to someone who's transferring funds in from India to meet school fees..I know I'm sounding extremely cynical now so lemme hasten to assure you that's not quite the case. I (we) like it here. It is indeed a super-comfortable life, and an opportunity to explore this huge and fantastic country, one that we want to make the most of. But and pause_for_effect_here, not one I want for keeps. I say this fully aware of the fact that everyone that ever set foot here came as nostalgic as me - for the 'round' and jose theatre and the island express from blore to tcr. I also know that while the nostalgia lingers on, it is no match for the lure of a certain green thingie (is it green btw? like really green in color?) I know this from the enthusiasm with which the stages of processing are discussed. And no, I don't judge people that. To each his own ofcourse. And I admire those who have the larger worldview to think of the the whole world as their home while I put myself in little boxes of state/country/culture..In fact, I think of myself as a lot more Indian now that I'm here. By how I often stand out rather than merge in...

Anyway, here it is - I've said it out in print. We are indeed going back. Maybe 3 years, maybe 5. Now you all know when to come back and laugh at me if this blog is still alive then. But while I'm here, I'm surely going to live it up the full deal and have a blast. Some worldy details of how we are going about doing that will follow. Meanwhile, lemme just post this.

PS: As always an un-reread and un-edited post. I've learned long back that it's the only way I'll end up writing anything.

Follow up

2010-07-04T02:05:00.000-07:00

And then this happened. While the man hates his life being laid open, I cant help posting the follow-up having said as much. And whatay infinitely deeply poetic flattering line, although I forgive him that, in given context.

Small things

2010-07-04T01:06:00.001-07:00

It sucks being me sometimes. I can worry my head out (and those of people around me) on the smallest things. Conversely, I can be happy about the smallest things too, but today's an unfortunately an example of the former. So what should have been a blissfully pleasant lazy sunday morn has become everything but. And we're not even fighting, not that. The day has just taken a gloomy turn, and all for (almost) nothing. Being me sucks. Only more than being around me, perhaps.

Rajasthan Travelogue - Part 1

2010-03-10T09:40:00.000-08:00

Rajasthan had been on our travel bucket list for a while. Alongside Corbett and Ladakh and such. And since its rarely that we find such perfect harmonious agreement on anything under the sun, we thought we must make haste about execution. So dates were discussed, umpteen links on hotels and locations were sent back and forth, (make that sent by me and duly ignored by the DH) very many phonecalls were made, an itinerary evolved and most bookings made. In fact this was possibly the most meticulously planned trip we've ever made. Sikkim was ad-hoc except for rail tickets back and forth, so also Goa. But Rajasthan was going to be a total touristy deal, with places to see and stuff to do in each city, and what with our ambitious schedule - Delhi-Agra-Jodhpur-Jaisalmer-Udaipur-Jaipur - in 9 days we had to plan inter-city transfers and everything to the last detail.
Anyways, here goes, an unedited, picture-ridden and as_I_recollect event of the trip. Its been nearly 2 months already so details are sketchy but..

Day 1 - Delhi
Delhi was more of a stopover deal. I was all taken by my dream of visiting the capital City and Vin not too keen. The flight ticket being marginally cheaper to Delhi than Jaipur, and that we wanted to visit the Taj swayed things in favor of its inclusion.
Stay: Our stay at Geet Deluxe Delhi was possibly the most drab and disappointing point, possibly of our whole trip. I'd booked ahead in every other place but decided to take my chance with Delhi. There's nothing to complain about the hotel as such, the rooms were okay and there was hot water yada yada. But nothing to write home about. And more pertinently set in the narrowest lane somewhere near CP. Each time we returned to the hotel we had trouble locating it..

Birla Mandir (Whats with the Birlas and building these everywhere?)

Qutab Minar: There was a moment of confusion coz the rick driver left us in a park opposite Qutab Minar and I was left wondering where the Minar is, but this was soon resolved by the steady stream of tourist-traffic to the other side.

Indira Gandhi Museum: Vin got bored while I happily lapped up insights into the first family's lives and deaths, their many triumphs and follies. The museum even has the saree Indira Gandhi was wearing when she was shot, blood stained and all. And what an amazingly beautiful woman that. The museum was my most favorite place in the Delhi circuit.

India Gate: where among others, even an English colonel's horse is commemorated among the list of way martyrs.

Red Fort looked beautiful by night, and we also got to catch the sound and light show. Neither the sound nor the lighting was out of the ordinary but the voiceover by Kabir Bedi and the rest and the content itself was quite interesting. And we got them goosebumps when the national anthem was played at the end of the show. And even the foreigners followed our cue and stood up and it was sort of a nice moment.

Day 2 - Agra
Well, its unfortunate to have to start like this. But Agra is The. single. most. polluted. City. in. India. The India they warned the tourist about..that one. Really, and what an irony that its prolly also the one that attracts the most number of visitors. We even ended up speculating there must be some conspiracy at work to match it up to their expectations. Really, only them snake charmers are missing. Every single road and bylane is so overflowing with waste and stench and general yuckiness. Those pics - now more stereotype than those of the Taj in full focus - of contrast between the Taj and the filth outside don't even tell half the story.
All that being said, nothing, no amount of super-hyped expectation can take away from the beauty of the Taj, especially for a first-timer. Its so fantastic and overwhelming and I was lost for like forever taking it inspite of the milling crowds about.
The fort was also sprawling and majestic (something tells me I'll run out of adjectives to describe forts before I'm halfway through this log..so lemme atleast save them for Meherangarh which is easily more *tic than all else put together). We stopped by at the Juma Masjid as well (we'd given the Delhi one a miss) which was sort of in some neglect but Vin managed to get some nice pictures while the clergy person showed me around.
Food: We had superb Puri + 3 Sabjis + drink combo at Chammanlal puri wale. One of the cheapest and tastiest breakfast meals we had through the trip, all for 70 bucks. whatay steal. Lunch was at a Mughalai place and was decent. Dinner was pretty sad, the rick driver tricked us and took someplace he gets commission. Horribly oil laden stuff trying to pass off as Mughal fare.
Oh, and we spent an eternally long 2 hours in Agra railway station in the company of many mice and many more firangs who were quick at spotting these mice and climbing atop chairs pronto. This in the upper class waiting room btw..
On and those of you who don't know this already, carry a lock and keys if you ever wanna leave your luggage in Indian railway waiting rooms. They dont accept em otherwise. Oh but you already knew that didn't you. You smart person!

Day 3 - Jodhpur
The blue city. After our stay in Delhi (read disappointing) Vin was warning me all along he'd walk out and find another hotel if he didnt like the one I'd booked. And the one minute steep climb up to the Cosy Guest house (can't get shadier than that) didn't help this distrust. But we arrived and really liked the place. It has superb views of the fort and is a quirky nice place. Neat and well furnished rooms, painted the customary blue (oh, and is the blue city blue..you'd be hardpressed to spot a non-blue house and the few there are, stand out like sore thumbs) with a rooftop restaurant that serves all the usual suspects on a tailored-for-firand menu (pancakes, omlettes, crepes, toast..Thanks to going after all the RG suggested accomodation, we had firangs for company in most places. It was amusing to note how they do stuff more Indianly than the Indians themselves. Thanks to expert coaching by Lonely planets and its clones :) like the full blown dance-pose type namaste. Whoever greets each other like that out here. We're prolly making similar fools of ourselves trusting them on the sayanoras and such).. And of course they're a 2 minute walk from the fort. Beat that. Although we were unceremoniously chased on our walk back at night by cows (in heat, I suspect).
Jodhpur, I hear, is usually sidestepped for the more romantic Udaipur or treated as a transit City onto the Thar and Jaisalmer by most tourists. Which is rather unfortunate coz its worth going there for Meherangarh alone. Of all the forts we saw this trip (and boy, have we seen a few!) Meherangarh beats every other one. Its the hugest and most majestic of the lot. Prolly also the best maintained. We spent a whole day in the fort. Went out to the city, visited the famous Omlette shop - He claims he does 1000 eggs a day. And even his simple boiled eggs ( topped with chillie cilantro garnish) was yum. There are quite a few clones around each one claiming to be *original* so here I give you a pic so you can spot the right guy :D.

And went back to the fort for dinner. So we'd booked ahead (as advised by RG again..) at the fort restaurant. We arrived around 8 and had to knock at the HUGE doors (with those spikes to hold off elephants) to have the army officer posted there let us in (there is army presence at every fort. I guess they are still as strategic as they once were being at vantage points and such) Now, Meherangarh, you must know, is not an inhibited fort. And save for the few high lights illuminating the fort as such there wasn't even any light and even we waked past the restaurant before being sent back by another security guard. The whole affair was so eerie. And we get in to realize there's nobody else dining there that night. And there was a very strong wind that kept turning the lantern off (pic attached for evidence). And then it started to rain. And we're inside this huge fort with no one even around and no light and dogs howling in the night. Its super interesting in restrospect but I had some scary moments in there (none of which took away from my single minded devotion to tweet).
Oh, and did I mention the palmist who got some stuff right but said I'd get married at 31. On being told I already am, he hastened to add that a special someone's gonna turn up around 31. Where arst thou, my prince charming

Day 4 & Night & Day 5 - Jodhpur to Jaisalmer & a night in the desert
(to be contd)
We'd decided to splurge and take a cab from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. We got a nice lil Logan and I think it was worth the expense. Its a ride through quintessential country, with all its rustic charm. Ok, now I'm just rambling, but do it okay! Stopped by at a roadside resto for breakfast and got to Jaisalmer post noon.

Had just about time to catch lunch at Little Italy ( you get awesome conti food in Jaisalmer, Little Italy, 4th of July all good bets..even the veggie stuff was sumptuous and yum) and do a quick round about the fort markets before staring off for our 1 night desert safari. We had booked with Moti palace and I thought at 1.5k per person he gave us a pretty decent deal. We were particular about not doing the touristy (how snobbish that :D) swiss tent with "village folk dance around the campfire' for entertainment and we'd made our preference for some solitude and he truly delivered on this promise.

The desert stay was the single most amazing experience of the whole trip and if I had to recommend just one of the Rajasthan 'do's to anyone this would be it. Anyways I digress so lemme begin at the beginning. We were driven to the desert - supplies for the night and mattresses in tow - by jeep. I spent half my time worrying about having chosen peep-toes to wear wondering about the chilling night ahead (it was already pretty cold) and the other half gaping at the huge wind mills. I dont think I've seen windmill farms anywhere..definitely not in Kerala.

We stopped at the village closest to the desert and spent some time here. Being chased by school children all of whom wanted their photos clicked and wanted money for pens (if you plan to go take pens or pencils for them..we had to give money and i dont think its the right thing to do) and drinking tea at the cabbie's house and then at the camel drivers. Well, the village is like all of 10 houses with the most basic of infrastructure. We walked till the end of this village - it is considered disrespectful to ride the camel thru the village - and climbed atop our camels (Michael - named after MJ..by a foreign tourist who visited and saw him hop and dance around as a kid, and a more conventionally named Chingari) from here on.

Our camel driver - Prem Singh - was such an interesting and fine human being that meeting and spending time with him was as much fun as the whole high of being in the desert at night. Its quite humbling to meet people who have been through so much and still be hopeful and happy. Living in the desert is a constant struggle to cope with nature, and its amazing that people can retain so much cheer and optimism in spite of it..After we woke in the morning Prem Singh showed us several acres of land beside our dune that belonged to him..they haven't had rain in the last 2 years and this land is lying waste..only consequence being the Govt wont give him the more cultivable land beside the irrigation canal that they're distributing..He had no bitterness towards anyone, be it nature, his employer (he doesn't even get any regular income for tending to the 'maharaj''s camels, just supplies left over from what is sent for the guests..and tips perhaps) the Govt or life itself. And he carries around this deadbody of his mobile phone, which had died a horrible death falling into a fire when making rotis. Will talk about him in another post, can't do justice here.
The food was amazing, the rotis were coated in sand on either side but the dal and sabji were so awesome. In fact veggie food was good everywhere in Rajasthan. Its nearly always the same 2 to 3 vegetables. The villages are thankfully still used to eating the season's food. But everything was so fresh and crisp. Its a pleasure to eat. Prem Singh carries around his hookah and the country liqour (made of ?) and the DH tried both. I stayed away but ate like a hog (Prem Singh kept urging saying I gotto put on weight so I can give 'manoj ko bacha'. For the life of him he couldnt get Vin's name right. In spite of my telling him my giving arbit manjoj a bacha aint a good idea). And then we went off to sleep under the starlit desert night. I know it sounds cliched but there really isn't another way to say this. We were woken up to Prem Singh's singing in the morn ( he keeps singing while he's working, all the time) and cups of salty tea (why so?), caught the sunrise and rode back to the desert and then into Jaisalmer.
In the fort I went shopping for harem pants which were later later employed to address the clothes shortage issue.

Night 5 - Bus to Udaipur
This night gets an entry by itself only so I can tell you this:
- It gets very very cold in the desert. In the bus. Carry jackets. or Scarfs. or Blankets. If you don't have any of these don't be too lazy to ask the staff. And no it doesn't help that there are two of you. Or that its a sleeper bus. Nothing. It gets very very cold.

To be contd (If and when the author works up enough motivation to type another endless monologue..)

Another Vinsome year

2009-11-20T11:45:00.000-08:00

I would have put off this post till eternity for want of doing it right and never gotten around to doing it. So here goes, unedited and as it comes..It'd be passe to say the man did another surprise act. I can see you guys go all yawn, tell us something new, on me.
But me, m a sucker for surprises and for sweet things in life. First up tonight was a chocolate treatment. And as I lay wrapped in layers and layers of yum(didnt get around to tasting it, coz that would have been so teenage girlish of me, and I was strutting around till then as if I did chocolate treatments all the time!..but hey it smelled awesome and m sure it was yum) chocolate, I felt so lucky and so happy. Call me vain, call me a woman! The middle class girl from smalltime Kerala popped up at regular intervals and asked the inevitable ..how much dyu think his costs! Some of your relations can survive a month on this..What would your parents think of such splurge ..sort of badly timed questions. But she was promptly silenced by another slather of chocolate and two deft pairs of hands doing their job..Ofcourse I'd never have paid and gotten this done myself, but what are men for after all :)
Next we went to dinner at Oberoi and they did this whole cake and bouquet and 6 course dinner anniversary do..And got home to a bunch of yellow roses from two of our guy friends. Is it with me or is the world generally getting all sweet and thoughtful these days?

Just my luck :)

2009-10-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

So the DH has been upto some weird stuff lately. Like the other day I came home to find a bournville chocolate on top of which he'd put this.

And today I walked in to see this. It says, 'Always keep' and has a helpful arrow pointing up to smiley in case you're lost.

The kind of stuff he wouldn't admit to, even to save his life.
Which makes me think its gotto be either:
- One, he's got himself a mistress, you know the guilt-driven stuff..
- Two, I must have accumulated some incredible good karma in my past life to land this chap!
For the benefit of both parties concerned, we'll go with two, shall we..?

Viva La Goa (Means some exotic thing in some exotic language)

2009-08-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

PS 1: If you're here looking for useful information, like places to stay or stuff to do in Goa, now's as good a time as any to turn back. There are any number of smart useful websites for that as a cursory google will tell you.
Why would a bunch of sensible (presumably ie, take it as true for want of evidence to the contrary) levelheaded 28 yr olds go on a beach holiday when there's news of torrential rainfall and the coast itself is washed out. Why would they not do the prudent thing of hitting the hills perhaps or wherever else is the right place to go in Monsoon (Kerala tourisms monsoon ads notwithstanding.). Bcoz they were drunk thats y. There's no other logical explanation to how we ended up booking ourselves - 12 of us - on a trip to Goa in what is apparently the 'peak of offseason' on a hazy sunday morning a few months back.
Once we decided to go, we were all very organized about it, thanks to the entrepreneur in our midst. Committees were promptly formed, food&wine, watersports, travel, shopping, beachilpaatumpaadinakkal etc etc..there were about as many committees as there were of us. Several parallel mail chains were triggered, and gmail storage limits were, for the first time in recorded history: exceeded. Ofcourse not that a lot of good came out of all the planning, save for keeping the Scroogej entertained through many lonely days at work..when he would otherwise have wallowed deeper into self pity on account of hitting Goa with 5 couples and a fellow stag.
And thus the day dawned(as is said in narratives..), and armed with enough booze within (thanks to strategically located standing bars close to the station) and without (in sprite bottles..yawn ..what an old collegeboy trick that is..) we boarded the train. After giving some elementary gyan on the functioning of Indian rail to the newbie in our midst (no, they dont distribute blankets in sleeper class, and no trains dont run on coal thats only in the movies, and the water for the loo? ofcourse they recycle..) and irritating the hell out of the poor old lady who happened to be stuck in our compartment we went to sleep. Woke up to the cheerful news of a railway bridge having been washed off and how our train would go only till Hubli. At this point, most of us resigned ourself to 3 yucky wet days of being cooped up drunk in hotel rooms playing cards and pictionary. And the rest set about bargaining with taxi drivers and setting them upon each other to vie for the noble task of taking us across to Goa.
However the cynics - self included - were in for a pleasant surprise. The weather was just short of awesome with showers only in the evening. Most of the time it was that perfect cool climate perfect for biking. Ofcourse the sea was rather rough and those among us that had hoped to come back with parasailing pics and banana boat tales were sorely disappointed. That would have to be another trip. That apart though we rarely ever missed the crowd, and definitely not when we got nice offseason discounts on everything from hotel rooms to trinkets at the flea market. Its the kind of place that grows on you, is Goa. Nice little package, and something in it for everyone. I got off the train and went yawn this is soo like Kerala, but revised that opinion rather quickly. Well, there are parts of Kerala to substitute for almost very part of Goa, but all of it packed together in a few couple of square KMs, now that is something. And ofcourse thanks to the Portuguese stopping by a couple of centuries back their architecture and food and everything has a nice firang touch. Oh and the food, by my own estimate I consumed a whole poultry farm worth of eggs for breakfast over those 4 days..
The first night we hit the Casino. Spend the night alternately gambling (to me as also for most of us this amounted to deciding where on the roulette table to keep those chips to maximize gain, but the more serious among us tried to apply what they had learned in the blackjack books ..hangover style..) and making up for the 1500 INR cover charge in the form of as many cocktails as can be downed in the course of a night. The place was rather crowded actually, I hate to think what it must be like in season. Self was designated driver (yet again, so will skip the rant).
Most of the remaining days were spent checking out one beach after the other -Baga, Arambol, Anjuna etc. The ride to Arambol is what I loved most in the whole trip. We had bikes and had a ride that took us through verdant paddy fields, hills, the sea, and riversides all in some 50 kms. There was a spot of beach football, thus arranged only so that the footballer could entertain himself at the expense of the rest of us running after him and the ball. Oh, and we did go to the titos and mambos of the world. In fact the best food in Goa was had at Titos, and at 8.4k for 12 people (with wine) it was surely a steal (anything looks like a steal, compared to bleddy blore prizes.) We stayed well off the touristy circtuit though and gave a miss to the Dona Paulas and the Cathedrals. DH & I even missed the Fort Agoda coz we got there just about closing time, and I sulked for the rest of the evening about it..Oh well, we have enough reason to go back..

While you were away..

2009-07-03T23:15:00.000-07:00

So we went to the Rahman concert. If I made a bucket list, if the 17 year old me - the one that bought his cassettes on the first day, and listened only to his songs on endless loops, and was always ready to pick a fight with critics and discuss favorites with the fans - made one, I'm sure she'd have put that in, listening to the real life Rahman. And it was indeed a fitting fulfillment. The packed stadium, the galleries singing along, thousands of cellphone lights flickering against the dark, and then the man himself, walking in, and in his ever-so-cheerful voice few precious words, and then the music, and hariharan making a music class of a football stadium..There were the technical glitches the sound wasn't loud enough and being Kerala, the function was a huge mockery of people "ponnada anikyikkaling"(decorating each other with those gold scarf like thingies is the closest translation). But who cares, for me nothing could take away from the magic of that night. And wonder of wonders we entered Thrissur back in the wee hours of the morning, just in time for the pooram fireworks (The pooram is another close to the heart cause, handed down from Achan this time. Another post...). Who said you couldn't have the cake and eat it too?

Thought.

2009-04-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

If I don't argue with you it means I consider you too dumb or stubborn to be on the other side of one.

Life, the universe and a birthday..

2009-04-07T12:50:00.001-07:00

There is so much that went unchronicled, so this an attempted snapshot.
The bday was awesome, Barney style awesome :). Sis and DH, among others, threw a surprise gig on the eve. The gang turned up from various corners of the city to on a midweek evening. Self felt suitably flattered. Ofcourse, once the cat was out of the bag, self was herself calling up the invitees and threatening them with "come to my surprise party or else" :) We left there at about 11.30, wishes and all done. On the way back, DH suggested we drop in at the Leela Barista for a coffee. (We go there about once a fortnight, sometimes more often). And dumb as I am, I was taken aback when we got there and saw the same gang, popping out one at a time from behind the huge Leela Pillars :) The cake was brought in, cut and shared, and I must say I was almost disappointed when I got home and didnt find anyone else hiding underneath the cots or sofas..I felt truly special, senti-mush-special.
I did land a job. Is ok, great in fact, given recession and all. But work aint much to write home about. One cant have the cake and eat it too.
I got my laptop. Its a super looker Dell studio XPS 13. Will review it sometime, gotto sign off now, before I crash on this beautiful backlit keyboard and destroy it.

Shallow/Sweet/Yuck?

2009-03-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

She was bugged with him. With his having spent the whole day glued alternatively to the laptop and the PC. With another weekend of installs and configuration (this time upgrade to the new ubuntu?, but we digress). With the prospect of another day at home being spent intermittently trying to get his time. (Often succeding as well, she knows what works, 3 years :)) Was by his side for another round of cribbing, when she spied the machine name. Pepe! His name for her. And broke into a smile. And that took him off the m/c for longer than both of them bargained for..

In favour of discretion

2009-02-18T22:37:00.000-08:00

Godin's latest post touched a raw nerve, so thought I should rant some. I can recall at least two instances in the recent past when I was at the receiving end of this playing_by_the_rule_book problem. And while I appreciate the fact that, as he rightly points out, exceptions are costly and complicated to make, I'm sure some intelligence behind_the_counter could have left me - the customer - feeling less bugged.
Take the first one. Bunch of us had dropped in at a highway coffee day on a big football game night. (It can be argued that we should have stayed home and watched the game in the comfort of bean bags beer and flatscreens, but there's a story to that..) They were playing MTV - and here's the best part - on mute, and we wanted them to switch to ESPN. And the guy behind the counter just wouldn't budge. Quoting the rule book and telling us CCD has an agreement with MTV to play music channels alone. (on mute? now that makes for some entertainment! Turns out they have another agreement with Worldspace to play their music. AARGH!) This in spite of the fact that every other table joined our cause, they had all in fact asked for the same and been turned down. This isn't even so hard a case as renting out a DVD to a foreigner. The TV wasn't hacked to only play MTV. Every group hanging out there wanted to watch the game. What good is it having men behind the counter if they cant/arent allowed to use their brains? We might as well have coffee vending machines. Of course we put up a fight and walked out, and found the nearest bread-omlette and tea dhaba where we watched the game on a 17 inch screen with no remote.
I'm too tired to go into the next one right now. Just wanted to make the point that enabling and educating the frontend guys with the power to make exceptions can only help the cause of the business. And like Godin says in his post, it doesn't always have to be by yielding to the customer's demand. As long as we feel we're talking to a human and not a bot on the other end we're cool, so talk common sense not rules!

Amberina, lest I forget

2009-02-16T20:43:00.000-08:00

Was a textbook holiday, the one that the doctor prescribed for a work-weary, burned out couple :) ehm, might as well drop the act and stop pretending self is work-weary anymore, but when we went there I was still fresh off the job-loss. So..
We went midweek and were the only guests, it felt like owning the place, the palatial tea estate with its fireplaced rooms and cook-gardner-butler on call. Days were spend lazying around, book in hand or watching movies/ Poirot (this gave me the creeps, the place is a perfect setting for one of those Agatha Christie murder mysteries :)). Come dusk, they play lovey music and we curl up by the fireplace and read some more or play a game or two. Food was yum, lover even wanted to hijack the cook and bring him back. Very enterprising we are :). Morning/Evening walks through the estate, tea served in the garden yadayada..
All said, lovely place for frayed nerves. But hardly anything to "do", so don't even consider it if you're in a gang and want to go there, trek here and the like.
They have another place called the wild stay, which might cater to such needs. They're priced a little higher than I'd like and charging extra for food where there isn't even any question of eating anywhere doesn't make for a nice touch.

Pondy log

2009-01-05T05:24:00.001-08:00

Oh well, just reposting to say we did this.

Over the last weekend. Drove there. Stayed in a beach shack. With sis and her significant other. The drive was nice and the food great. The service sucks, outlook calls it leisurely, but
1) leisurely != non existent
2) there is no excuse for sad cold cheese omlette at the most recommended place, after a wait of 45 mins!
Beach shack for 4 (with breakast) @ 350 bucks is damn neat anyday.
We caught the sunrise, but no cliche'd pics of people holding the sun. Go elsewhere for those.
Auroville is bloody expensive but I bought some namesake glazed pottery which the place is famous for. I also bought a sarong so a beach trip is now in order so I can sport it.
Recommended:
- Coffee on the way from roadside stalls in TN
- Gingee fort, we climbed one of the hills, on man's insistance (so why should anyone else be spared the heave-pant-climb experience!)
- Food at rendezvous, satsanga was not impressive. Also Le Cafe, run by the Govt. by the beach has a nice view.
- Stay at a shack. The trick lies in finding a tidy lil one. This is a must.

One in which she is, quite literally, jobless!

2009-01-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

Its been a year and some more since the last post, and to even attempt to pick up where we left off is utterly foolish. So lets just start, here and now.
I'm writing this in the happy comfort that it wont be read. Coz this blog is dead and buried for all who cared. Which is just as well. For now.
Its been a couple of weeks since I got laid off, pink slipped or whatever fancy term you want to use. Much has been said of it already. Puns and play on words have been explored and exhausted as well, leaving me with nothing remotely funny for the title of the post.
Its a strange thing, losing your job. One of those things you thought you read of in papers and happened in the US of A not quite in India. And definitely not to you. For me in particular its a 'be careful what you wish for' deal. Coz lets admit it. While its been fun moving out, staying with Vin alone (been more than a year now). But its also a hell lot of work. And between the hour and a half commute and managing the kitchen (man has been insisting we get a cook, but how can I pretend_kitchen_queen concede that my fare can leave him wanting more/better! its almost as bad as him wanting a mistress. well, not quite. but we digress..) and deadlines and my own issues abt what I was doing (requires a whole post by itself) there have been times when I've wished for a slower pace. And here I am, my first day entirely at home - coz thanks to the holiday season and parites at home and outside every other day(where by the way, i was quite the celebrity-the first one around to get laid off- and much light was made of it. oh what, but, are a friends for!), and a couple of trips (new car is super and fun to drive. oh wait. make that, be driven in coz the man cant get his hands off the wheel on long drives) i havent really had the time to sit at home, and get acquinted with my joblessness and generally fret. so, half an hr of channel flipping and m bored to death. Ofcourse I have in the meanwhile taken care of so many random chores around the house, like curtains for the living room, a hob and chimney and the kitchen and such other exciting stuff. I have also been quite the homemaker packing food for Vin, dusting the figurines on show and all that. Finished books pending reading: check, movies to watch: check, travel stuff: some done some more in the pipeline. Ne'rtheless end of it all I think what we're seriously lacking around here is purpose in life. Thats what comes of deriving your sense of identity entirely from a 9to5(and some more hrs, a lot more) job.
Interview calls have been few and far between. And none, save one maybe, that Id want to get. Oh yes, we are still riding very pricey and very high on self worth. In spite of being turned down at a couple of places if I may say so..
Anyways, such is life and all that. Lot more to write, but I'm posting this now, just to please myself with seeing it out there.

One in which she's penny-wise.

2007-08-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

They were in the department store, doing the weekly round of groceries. He walked in, a small bouquetish thing in hand. She smiled, took it from him and said "How much did it cost"!!
Talk of romance dying a slow and painful death :P

2007-05-22T09:56:00.001-07:00

Wisdom nuggets and diet tips on sanitary napkin peeloffs? Now I know just what was missing in my life.

Admittedly jobless :)

2007-05-03T23:53:00.000-07:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Loserdom is the new Hep!!

2007-04-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Don't take my word for it. All the proof you need is here. And women not allowed to boot :)

2007-02-05T08:29:00.000-08:00

When you're lazy and you know it and you really want to shake it..blah blah..
is when you try to get away with posting pictures..and hoping that the obligatory lines thrown in at the side, qualify for writing, and that there are other freaks out there in the world who'd be interested in pictures of (nothing dashing about it) you and similar others in random places..And then you get a little greedier and hope that the said wanderer would also leave a comment, so you're sufficiently inspired to churn out more of such mediocre writing.
That said, here goes.
This one, from Manali is one of my favourites.

At the risk of sounding m&boony..before a kiss(though its more of a survival thing when ur freezing at -5 on Rohtang pass)..Its quite funny though, coz we were hardly the typical honeymooning couple. I mean I'm sure there was some bit of that romantic whiff..and there was some freshness about being in a strange place with vin alone..but its not like he was new to me, or me to him..and we'd sometimes share the jeep with this other couple who could barely stay apart, and we were charitable with agreeing to sit apart on the ride so they could sit together and all..but all said, it was the best of all the trips we've had..i can still feel the awe of wakin up in the morning in the bus and seein my first glance of a snow laden peak..maybe coz I was the typical southie and been bred on the usual Ooty Mysore Kodai Coorg Munnar circuit..which is all very fine and nice..but this was the Himalayas!! Another memory from the trip is the midnight stop at a Dabha and the paratha and chai we had..
This is from Achankoil..

the place merits a post in itself..its my mother's native village, though she herself spent only less than 2 years of her life growing up there before she was sent off, with siblings, to my grandma's house, growing up in a joint family with about 12 kids, for education sake..Ofcourse my grandparents still live there, amidst the rubber plantations and the perpetual power cuts and the elephant herd stopped the bus uncertanities and the river and the waterfalls and the floods and the granite wall'd house (necessity more than a novelty where friends from the wild often came knocking on ur door at nite) My growing up memories are dotted with the sights and smells of Achankoil, the venue of many a school vacation. For us city/town dwellers it was the quentessential escape. The baths in the river, the chilly mornings, the majestic western ghats so close up, you feel you could reach out and touch em..the food, anything that came off ammommaz kitchen was magical..the december vacations when all the 3 families would come down and the house would be abuzz with activity..the slow slow life..and the nights spent in the garden with the customary kattan(black coffee) warming our hands and throats.and then the men with the round of drinks before dinner, and my uncles respectfully offering my appoppan and my valyappooppan(105 notout, enjoys the occasional peg :P) their quota..And more than all else, 2 souls who had so much love to give, I dont even know whats a right metaphor here :)..And then came the teen years..and the realization that one has to, and sometimes the want, to get back to the all familiar world with school and friends and crushes and whatnot took precedence. Not that there was less love or anything. But you know how, sometimes, you outgrow all your childish things are none of those is as fascinating anymore..I'm only glad I've got em back and am once again the wonder eyed child..And I'm happier I'm married to a man who fits so much into the picture, I'm surprised how we did without him all these years..And when I showed him the trick of the disappearing mountains (yes stupid lil kids can be fooled by how the mist curtain seemed to make mountains go and come back again the next noon) life had somehow come half circle..
That's again from Akoil..

The overexposed posted everywhere pic. Well, every district has one such stone's throw from the city tourist place. With the typical crowd. Atleast so is the case if you're part of God's own country national geographic destination of the century or whatever. And Athirampilly is Thrissur's such..

From TCR Trip, 20/...

Hyderabad..chakki tying a rakhi on her Jeej..Nothing unusual about it. Unless you knew how the two had got off to a terrific start, sometimes to the extent of making me feel left out, and then over certain things, stopped seeing eye to eye drifting off to painful politeness for what seemed, to the stuckinbetween me, an eternity. But like true brother and sister, they made up in style and in good time, making a mockery of my concerns and fears and whatnot..touchwood.

From ChakBday06

Banyan tree, not a fab place if you ask me, but that was the least we could do for pri, after lugging her all the way here from Mumbai with promises of an exciting holiday. I'm just kidding here, coz she went back smiling from ear to ear, and in awe of newfound jeej, yet again leaving me in the lurch as to who came first.

From BanyanTree

Chennai, Kannamaman, who I'm told, has cuddled and petted me more than either of my parents, and propably more than he has either of his daughters :) I dont have a pic of my Ajimaman, the khadi clad politician. Suffice to say I cant chose between the two

The latest from wayanad.

From Wayanad

The most sloppy shot from the lot, shaken and vague. But this was the place I liked best. A temple rumoured to be build by a jain princess for love's sake, right in the middle of a forest..We were lucky to have the most unusual hostess sherly aunty, whose life again merits a separate post. So we had the most unusual time and went to niche and unknown places, staying well off the beaten track. I was the thankless skeptic to start with, worrying about how much we'll miss and whether leaving our time in her hands was the right thing to do. The least I can do by way of making up is to say it was a lot fuller an experience than it could ever have been. So no, we didnt go to the pookote lake, or the blah waterfall. But we did go this huge sanctuary which even the world outside doesnt know exists
and the said temple..We spent an evening at kanavu with the kids there..we went for walks and drove through such terrain as would have suited an suv..
this is me and shirly aunty trying to find erotica in the ruins of another jain temple :)

From Wayanad

anyways I'm sleepy and dragging like a superelastic rubberband and vin is getting restless in PClessness..Which means I'm adding more color to the 'pink vaio a necessity not an indulgence' placard!! which btw reminds me its my bday soon, only its 2 months away, but if anybodyz thinking of what to buy me..hint hint!!
Well, thats the story of my trips so far, and entwined in there is also the story of our life too, look hard and you might see..(just trying to be poetic and vague about here :))
That apart, I've been rather disturbed lately. In a nice sort of way, or so I convince myself. I'm forever plotting one of these
a) Alternate career. I've even found the place I wanna go, as long as they'll take me. I'm just not sure when. But I'll give it a shot, now or in 20 years..
b) I'm wholly madly deeply obsessively in love with the thought of motherhood. I've been telling myself its a passing obsession, and how it is absolutely not yet time, in the planned scheme of things et al. I've been telling myself its stupid and given how lazy the 2 of us are even the thought is so lousy right now. But no good, I've been reading sleeping dreaming babies. And doesn't help that the whole world seems to be either pregnant or having babies all around me.
Another scary and bad consequence is that I'm giving Vin the jeepers ( heebiejeebies as wodehouse would have it) big time. He's like so scared I'm gonna go over the top and demand the all important sperm rite now and make life more of a mess than it appears to be. I'm scared I'm killing the babylover in him, prematurely at that, and at my own peril.

Candid confesion

2007-01-25T01:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, I’m the one. That’s me. Thank you very much. I stink of dettol!!

Thanks to lover’s over the top care and bathing me in it. This to counter 2 teeny tiny nicks, one on my knuckles (yeah fellow women, tough stop) and the other on the elbow. (of course, its unnecessary detail that I was cribbing my lungs hoarse on the length I have to go for looking good purportedly for his sake and how its all his fault as is everything that goes wrong in my life) Only thing we’re big picture people so he dettol’d my whole left arm, why waste precious time on spot application.

And the men at work are still trying to figure out who it could be since they’re all still nicely stubbled.

I was waiting for an excuse to post..

2007-01-08T03:46:00.000-08:00

while at the same time watching millions of such excuses whoosh past ;) And then this happened, and today happens to be a bright and sunny day. So I thought I might tell you how our good deed for the month viz. blood donation, is done.

The pic is grossly misleading, as to our respective BMIs, and I wanted to take one that gave a truer picture but lover was mouthing highly tangential stuff like "such stuff should be spontaneous" and blah, so I thought I'll humour him this one.
Btw, lover who was initially all "will they use the right syringe" (paranoia is his middle name) when they called (asking if I would donate) jumped in and said he'd volunteer as well when we got there.
And then asked if he could get a different colored stress ball when they gave him an yellow one at the end of it :) ("But I already have yellow!") I wish we'd said my kid already has an yellow one or something, would have saved me considerable embarassment.
Anyway, leave you guys at that for now. A customary new year post is on the cards, sometime..
For now, let me just say that I'm feeling very happy and loved and lucky, and wish you guys all that would make you the feel the same.

On how Caeser screwed my life

2006-11-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

No, thats not some post modern title, it accurately describes the state of affairs that is my present life. Lover, after past (saner) addictions like Python(thelangaugeThankGod) - TerryPratchet - RandomCarRaceGame - ajax - and the like, has finally been consumed by what is by far the most dangerous of all, viz Caeser 4. I'm sure a hyperlink for it is in order out here, but I desist from doing that for fear of sparing fellow women the same fate. But I'll go so far as to say its yet another evil computer game so that those hell bent on destroying themselves can seek it out. Anyway the gist of the thing is to play Caesar and make sure the Romans are happy-content-fat-literate-healthy-drunk and generally prosperous in life. And at this task you're ably assisted by entire hoard of duppatta wearing advisers. (I'm sure Vin will think this description highly irreverent)
Anyways, as you can imagine, this is affecting my prosperity-happiness-etc more than a bit and I'm tempted to make a Husband 4, except ofcourse that the tags on which the player will be judged will go something like 'shopping trip meter', 'carat count' and ofcourse..and the like..

ps: can we have patents for baby names, no no babies in the pipeline, just that by the time me and lover come around to it, I think all the good names will have gone. I'm just wondering if I can chose one boy and girl name each and patent 'em so that nobody can use it w/o askin me first ;P

pps: Nearly all my posts classify as rant, but in pursuit of creativity/variety and other 'ity's I shall be tagging them as I please, as life, personal etc..

Are you a googlomaniac?

2006-10-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Do you use more than one of orkut/gmail/picassa/blogger/gtalk on a daily basis?
Do you swear by the google desktop search?
Do you think google earth is the coolest thing since the wheel?
Do you have a personalized google home?
Do you think its impossible to work without google search?

4/5: Basket case: Yours is an acute form of addiction, you need to see the shrink like asap.
3/2: Almost there
0: Saint: Are you for real or did you cheat?

People, As you can see I'm extremely bored and am stopping to make sense. Among other things, I've moved projects and hence locations. Once again back in the city. Reminiscentof HP times. Except that back then we were fresh kids off the block sotospeak and completely jobless and had all the time in the world to celebrate..Now its a case of so much to do and so little time..

What an Fing start for a day!!

2006-10-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe I should be a truck driver my next life. That way I get to pretend kutti maruthis dont exist, and run them over, and have husbands in like 3 different states.

New 'blogger'

2006-10-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

I guess you have all known this all along, and I'm late getting here but you can now have tags in the new blogger. So we're (atleast) one step closer to wp lj and stuff.

m back

2006-10-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Its been so long I've forgotten what I'm supposed to do here. And this one is just a note to myself, to remind me I've got a blog and I owe it some. So many things..that I almost blogged, or didn't, whichever way you look at it.
Like the time I got stuck in the lift, one with no brake, no phone and w/o my own cell. And how I had to bang and bawl my lungs out for help. How in the short 5 minute? span I imagned thats how I'd die(how stupid!! but I thought I'd suffocate in there..)..And how the broom and a maid's feet from the lil peephole seemed like the best thing I'd seen in life ..
Or the day one darned auto driver challenged my braking skills, and as is fashionable in cases of me-driven maruti on collision course with onthewrongside rick, I managed to hit him..and he picked up a fight with me, and I argued (long and hard) my way out in broken hindi and more broken kannada, and still managed to get away with paying just a 20 buck(that too coz I was sorry he'd lost a passenger)..
ricky: tumhe brake maarna thaa naa?
me: (pretenda m going to jump in front of a car) haa mein bhi jaake khadi rahtin hun kiske samne..to test his brake!!
ricky: (now visibly perturbed at the prospect of a suicide case in his hands!!)
.......................
ricky: kyon gadi jalathi hein? ghar mein baitna tha naa
me: tumaara kam bhi yahee hein, r phir bhi chalaane nahin aatha?
To the uninitiated, this might seem like a natural conversation in such a context, to appreciate it better, you need to know how my hindi is limited to two word sentences, typically sandwiched in english..
Or about Emil's visit and two whole days of pure uninhibited fun and how absolutely nothing had changed, the people, the equations, the conversation, the roles..
On how me and lover are having the sweetest time in our lives by far..and not coz of any reason I can place..just is so...m scared talking more of it might break the jinx..
I saw Nikhil Chinappa, just saw not met, and was disappointed with my own lack of enthu I did oohaah and all dat jazz, but I'd have done it more fully a couple of years back..
Anyways m bored now and as always I'm being lured by interesting blogs and thats the end of my comeback post
Maybe I should post more regularly
Or maybe I shouldn't write at all, if I can only do mediocre :(

On unsolicited calls..

2006-06-23T02:44:00.000-07:00

Enough has been said about this. In keeping with my 'don't try and act wise on subjects which have been discussed till the all the sap has been like wrung out of em' policy..I just wanna mention two such I got today morn.
- Payal, ohwhatasweetname, called me up, not once not twice thrice..on my workphone dat too, to offer me opportunities in half a dozen other companies.
- And then there was this Mahindra Club lady who I almost turned off before she started but she got all marketingy and said I've won a stay at any 5 star(yeah) Mahindra resort in Munnar..Manali..blah blah blah. And apparently all I've gotto do is attend a 90 minute presentation. I'm still trying to find out the catch here.
Anyways lover's not around until sunday, so shez gonna call me again on monday.

What does it mean when your blog is becoming one fat listed bulleted indexed place?

Randomness.

2006-06-23T02:43:00.000-07:00

Random stupid collections of thoughts(I'm sure there's a word for it)
- I feel funnily apologetic to the biker guy on the street who turned back..you know..and diappointed himself? Is that cheap? My self esteem isn't at its best today.
And whats more, what with a huge sty on my right eye, I look like a vamp. Lover thinks oru paavam pole indu(dont care to translate gooey stuff) but thats why he is.
I myself, look at the mirror and see somebody who looks like those bad women in hindi movies. eeks.
- I soo know what Kiron says of the precious afternoon siesta :D..
- Have you ever been on the vereg of getting drunk, but not gone all the way. Its strange, like you're feeling all happily lightheaded and you want to stay that way longer, but you can kind of sense you're conscience return. its like dammit just lemme be here some more.
- Did you know white elephants are real? And the thai king rides on em!!
- Is barefootedness or minimalistic footwear a sign of programmer enlightenment? Out here in ur comapny it does seem like thats the case. The sage(who quite humbly calls himself a sala programmer) and all the "good" senior ones seem to belong to one of aforesaid school of footwear fashion.

Alternate careers

2006-06-23T02:13:00.000-07:00

Alternate professions are all the rage now, and in like a week's time I've seen articles on career switch and dual careers in n magazines. Which is why I'll put a disclaimer upfront and say I'd started typing this post really long back, before it became such a hot topic overnight. While at it, I must also admit that my dreams, immaterial of how likely they turn real, have been inspired by people around me..
Like every other ---- s/w engineer (apologies for generalising, I'm sure there are a whole lot of you who are here for good), I too have these occasional dreams of leaving the industry and doing fancy stuff. What those are, I'll tell you in a while, post digression. I'm not unhappy with work, on the contrary I've never before been as happy as I'm right now. But there are times when the romantic in me gets a hold on the complacent other half and starts dictating stuff to her.
Now is one of those times
These are a few options that are already on my list: Can you guys think of anything better or more fun?
1) Start a restaurant: This a very recent addition, thanks to discovering the celebrity techie turned chef and his blog. A speciality upmarket restaurant perhaps, continental cuisine coz thats what I like best save mallu food(the bit about having to like what you do), and the kerala cuisine has suffered enough at the hands of the various wannabe restaurants in the city.
Pros: Its the fanciest stuff on my list. It appeals to vin.
Cons: and also the most expensive, perhaps.
Come to think of it, I could actually start one in my hometown though am not too sure the place is ready for it.
2)Join theatre or some performing arts group. This is fascinating, and I might actually go for it, given a chance.
3) Start a montessori school. Its not coz I'm fond of kids, I sure am, but this is more like a nice business proposition, given all the young rich parents in blore.

2006-05-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Vin sent me this thing. Its funny alright but I'm sure he's just doing it to protest agains my embarassing him in public. Bout the haircut and all :D
Ok, point taken, Mr. Kettiyon.

Retrospect: Talk of loopholes ..!!!

Vanity Returns ..

2006-05-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

..the hit counterz back on..I'd toyed with the idea a long time back, and then decided against it coz..Well.. I knew how often *I* checked this space..
Today, on a spur of confidence(and certain stupid logic that puportedly ratifies it), I've gone ahead and installed one.
Lets see how we fare :D
Alrite, but this damn thingz gone and stayed put in some bottom corner. And I've enough on my hands already to worry about editing html(learnin to more like)..
Talkin of vanity, how vain is havin a self clicked pic of urs for the phonez wallpaper?

[extremely cheesy stuff alert]
i miss vin, like.. to the toenails.
[/extremely cheesy stuff alert]

On how the man got a haircut or Why specialization is an excellent idea :D

2006-04-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

ps: Hey you....you there..yeah, snoopin around?..I soo totally don't get why you're here reading *my* blog. Of all the places..well..unless you know me, but then again, nothings new here..Well, dont say you werent warned..
Alright, without a preface(unless this counts as one) here goes..

* My appraisal just happened..usual stuff..mostly

* I'm hardly one of the husband praiser school(the kind that two minutes into any conversation go into the oh!howcuteismyman kinda speech), and I'd hate to be seen as belonging to one .. So, know that what follows is an exception, and humour me this once ;)
Vinz laziness is legendary(wait, I get to the praise bit soon..) and thus it was that he came about to skip overdue barber visits for more than a month and consequently have shoulderlengthish hair..All along, while doing the good-wifely prodding and reminders and stuff..I was also heard to have been making remarks on how its anybodyz job(ethu policukaranum pattum..in mal..that actually means "even a cop can do it"..I think thats pretty smart of mals, a proverb that mocks the police force's iq ) and how so many women i know do that..Strangely, lover inspite of his definitive knowledge of my capabilities and lack thereof, was tricked into believing I was serious. And once he'd gotten the idea into his stubborn head, I started believing as well(me who cant hold a scissors straight, or cut a marked out striaght line on paper)..And the night saw me weilding momz milk-carton cutting scissors and having a field day on vinz hair.Whats worse, I wasnt even wise enough to stop when I knew I was screwing it up like nobodyz business..To make it worse I didnt let l look at a mirror until way too late..It feels all funny now, but then I was soo sorry bout how it had gone..
But vin was unimaginably cute about it all..we closed shop, cleaned up the mess, had a bath and went to bed..he was also stupid enough to think people @ home wouldnt notice unless he told em..
at the breakfast table, dad jumped up saying vinz got some sort of eczema and is losing hair in patches, and the cat was out of the bag..or whatever they call it..
Vin had to attribute it to visiting cousins' handiwork at the barbers'(he went rightaway)..And has since then been sporting a weird sort of cut(he calls it the runaway from millitary cut) that makes people gape when they see him. I've told this story umpteen times already, to souls who've been bold enough to ask after the gentlemanz erstwhile nice long mane..as well as proactively to those who shy away coz of 'decency' factors..
I wish I could put up before and after pic here..but m not sure how much lover will appreciate the publicity..

We just about bought a house, and have been busy running around raising the initial depost dough as well as takin care of the bank loan and all that..
Lot more to say, but this postz been in the edit tray long enough waitin to see the light of the day :D

ps: thanks to Karthik for the C&H strip ..Now should I add copyright info et al?..This was sooo sooo like the real thing, I just had to put it up.

2006-03-18T01:40:00.000-08:00

Long long time, and its become such a regular thing out here that I myself dont like the sound of it. But we'll simply retain it(coz its an easy start, and for completeness, say)
A quick update on life as it has been over the past few weeks..
- lover has changed jobs, joined symbian(now, is dat like politically incorrect? not dat give a damn..or like he would put it, a tiny rats ass :D)..and is findin it generally good. They've given him a phone and will foot bills upto 1.4k which I think is mighty sweet of symiab save for the fact dat we're married now and it really doesnt matter .
- I saw two movies RDB(ofcourse) and Taxi No: 9211..RDB..I came off suitably shaken(this has been debated at large in the blogworld and otherwise and I knw nobodyz dying to hear my take..yeah i think m too much "writing for audience"), and swooning over Kunal(they really shouldnt make 'em so handsome.. :( ).. John Abraham is nice too..but therez something still very model-like bout him..i mean dnt you think his expression is way too stiff..like whateverz the male equivalent of ice maiden!!
- Well..I'm not sure I qualify to do this..but wth..People, welcome kiron to the blogworld...its the kind of stuff I like to read..and wots more, he's said nice things bout me in his latest post :D ..and..Like a wise person, hez chosen wordpress..
- I saw Theft at RS.with dad and mom..twas fun, and they enjoyed it too.
- I'm carefully evading writing bout life..Its been ok I guess..but not quite the way I'd imagined or want..hardly, in fact..maybe m being stubborn and thankless..whatever..Its not sad or miserable or anything....Its actually an ok existence..but thats not the point is it?..I dunno, I'm not sure whats right or wrong anymore, I just hope I dont have to make a choice. The people are nice and there is love as well..more than anybody would imagine.. But again, that doesnt seem to be bloody enough.
I've already said too much.
And now I'ms feeling too depressed to write.
- I want to link Chakki and Kiron on the sidebar..Someday when I'm feelin less lazy.
- The bday was so..so..We'd shorlisted a couple of possible lunch places, but both of us fell ill and the plan stands postponed for now..I need to make a tally of gifts..but that will be later.
Dats it for now. M off to sleep.

God damn Murphy.

2006-01-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

People of the world, please join me in the noble act of hanging Murphy. Or his last living descendant.
coz hez been giving me a bad headache lately.
m sure g, pronounced gee(g is our operations manager..or some such fancy title, and he sits like right behind me..g is also the best *higher up* ive had the fortune of meeting all my career..and is rather huge but has a smile to die for)..but g too has his temper i guess..and someday, thanks to the aforesaid dude, m going to be at the wrong end of it..coz invariably m upto anything but work when he turns up at our place..
Ofcourse g, being the professional he is, doesnt so much as glance at my screen. But it still isn't a nice thing to happen. And one too many times at that.

Its tough to be good

2006-01-02T02:51:00.000-08:00

Its difficult to be and do right all the time. Especially when it excludes being human.
Thats such a lousy excuse!! 'human' is a word invented by man to ratify his frailities.
And its some kind of elixir. Its only the first step that matters, convincing yourself its ok(human) to be bad/wrong/indifferent/selfish....Its easier then on!!
I'm such a bitch. And I've been hurting L a lot these days. I'm not sure how much longer he(Or I) will stand this. All I know is we dont need this kind of endurance test.
Can you adjust/realign your dreams for the sake of love? How much should you love somebody to be able to do that?

Weddings and (not entirely related)dreams

2005-12-30T04:18:00.000-08:00

Two months and quite a lot has happened. But surprisingly little has changed. So far(and thats hardly a month) so good. Its weird how people keep asking you how it feels to be married. As if I'd tell, either ways!!...............
One of my closest friends got married to a once senior at college. I've known both of them for close to 6 years now and they make a charming(touchwood) couple. . Love and Godspeed, you two.
We're shifting homes this weekend(to a 3 bhk) and am trying to convince lover we can afford a packers and movers service. And lover, inspite of the splurgethrift(that deserves another post on its own..i'll put it up soon, and see if the threat of public defamation makes him wiser) that
he is, is convinced they come exorbitantly priced. Not like we/I'll be doing most of the work. With his dad and mom around, its most likely they'll end up doing most of the packing and stuff and they are(like parents come) even more staunchly against the whole idea...Broz on vacation as well(shutdown.. ah..for hp times ..sniff sniff :( )....on second thots, i hardly miss hp)..

I got inspired by the tagging fever , and decided to give a shot at the latest one thatz doing the rounds. And thankfully this doesnt require me to write 55 word stories or dig up titles of my previous(non existent) posts to form a sequence.

Things i want to do
------------------------
1)Travel a lot, yeah this is cliche but wtf there's a reason cliches are. All kinds of places too, Noth India, especially the villages. Gujarat/Rajasthan/Calcutta(yeah, ive not even got that far yet...) Europe(..but onez entitled to dreams, rite) the countryside. Closer home, I wanna go to wayanad, pondi, Bekal ..this is an unrealised childhood dream, or lets say teenage..eeks, even teenage seems like so loong ago now...are my wrinkles visible yet?..(i actually reached out for a wrinkle lift kinda cream last time in h&g and l was aghast to say the least, and he actually got all so caring and soft, as if i'd gone mental and he had to handle me right..and i got put off and put the thing right back..he bought me a fab moistouriser from dove instead, but i gave it to grandma on my last visit hu coz of a medical condition needs it mire than i do)
2)Make love on a moving train :D
3)Be an awesome cook, make truly exotic stuff..this dream is stalled until m in charge of my own kitchen, whenever that is..but m confident ill be up to it then...(and to think i havent even got my basics right!!)
4)Stay a night in a tent on a riverside
5)Be a passionate lover, a fun companion and a good wife..(nah, no catch here, just one man involved)
6)Be the best mom ever.
7)Read (more)
8)Now that I'm in my (almost - no dream can be translated to absolute reality) dream job..try and do a good job of it.
9)Retire early and live in kerala..in one of those Sathyan Anthikad kindavillages where therez still a nice mix of tradition and connectivity (its retired LIFE you see, not vacation, i dont want to be lonely and banished..get the drift?) kids, they better be able to luk after themselves by then..i think lover will accompany me, though for now i'll leave it to him..this one dream is like the most important..i guess am looking to it to be a compensation of a life not so wholly lived..isnt that what all of us want of retirements?
10)Be a good daughter, a good daughter-in-law(the latter's obviously a lil tougher, but not impossible).., the best sis(to the best sis in the whole world) and the best bhabhi(the last two ive almost achieved.. m sure the concerned parties will vouch for me :D)
11)volunteer time, regularly(this is one of my new year resolutions)
12)Own a house
13)Learn belly dancing :D..(hubby butts in, says no to belly dance, says i dnt have a nice belly and should go for bharatnatyam instead..just not my cuppa tea..mohiniyattam maybe..true mal stuff..and m likely to have grace rather than speed, though i seriously doubt either...)
14)Go to a temple more often(this is another resolution for '06)

Things I can do
---------------
I've been just sitting here staring at the screen realising how this list will hardly even match up to the first, and am feeling all low about it and have decided not to put anything here

Things I cannot do
------------------------
1)Keep my own secrets, especially nice ones..there have been countless times when I've bought stuff, made stuff, ordered stuff for lover/chakki/friends..only to be too excited bout the whole idea myself and either telling them rightaway or doing it sooner than m supposed to..In all the three years i've known l, i've never given him a gift in time!!
2)Pretend (to myself or the world) that things are ok...this is no saintly stuff..and not a virtue either..and not even bout being honest..just plain loser talk.
3)Keep my voice low..especially when m excited/angry...thanks to being born to a *lecturing* couple!!..the general decibel level in our house is a few points higher(yeah i knw thats not hw decibels work..its logarithmic..but please, poetic license sake) than any average household. And hubby is such a stickler for public manners its one sore point between us.
4)Work for more than an hour at a stretch without being distracted(this is a rather new development thanks to the month long break from wrk..looks like i have some form of coderz block)
5)Stop daydreaming
6)Blog regularly..

this is getting boring, anyways Happy New Year one and all.

Footnote : lover and hubby refer to the same person. lover is for times when hez being addressed/referred to lovingly(duh!!)..and hubby is for mundane and not-so-loving references

I'm NOT an atheist..

2005-09-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

..and not all quizzes are purrfect.

Haymaker

You are one of life’s enjoyers, determined to get the most you can out of your brief spell on Earth. Probably what first attracted you to atheism was the prospect of liberation from the Ten Commandments, few of which are compatible with a life of pleasure. You play hard and work quite hard, have a strong sense of loyalty and a relaxed but consistent approach to your philosophy.

You can’t see the point of abstract principles and probably wouldn’t lay down your life for a concept though you might for a friend. Something of a champagne humanist, you admire George Bernard Shaw for his cheerful agnosticism and pursuit of sensual rewards and your Hollywood hero is Marlon Brando, who was beautiful, irascible and aimed for goodness in his own tortured way.

Sometimes you might be tempted to allow your own pleasures to take precedence over your ethics. But everyone is striving for that elusive balance between the good and the happy life. You’d probably open another bottle and say there’s no contest.

What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.

ON@TCC

2005-09-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

This is the website for Chetab Bhagatz new blog. Though the overhyped launch sure makes room for scepticism..what with a passworded site(463 ) and a month long run up at his blog.

Question

2005-09-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

how does one manage to tear herself away from all those wonderful blogs onilne to chronicle her drab and boring life..

Waxing Lore..

2005-09-01T04:14:00.000-07:00

i sneaked out in the afternoon to go to the parlour to get my arms and legs done. Now dont think m so jobless, just that I have really nice employers who're more worried about getting the work done and not about the hours I spend in office. Which means you can find time for your personal stuff as well if you're smart enough :)
It was bout lunchtime so the ma'm(typical smalltime parlour owner .."oh gudiya u have so many pimples ..y dont u come for a cleanup" .."ur co-sister had come here the other day..ur husbands are faeeting with each other?" ..the usual ..on second thoughts shez not really small time coz she even holds classes and all that..) deployed 4 girls to the job..yeah, imagine being pulled in 4 different directions at once..for bout an hr odd..pure bliss :D
..and with the pot of wax very precariously placed between my feet..i couldnt help wondering wht would happen if soembody spilt it..so scandalous!!..Imagine "Girl scalded while being waxed(during office hours to boot)"..yikes!!
But eod they did a good job of it..and i plan to go back there next time.

Article

2005-08-30T03:57:00.000-07:00

This is the article.
Quite a flame war is happening out there. And m too tired to explain how the interpretation is way off what I really meant.
Anyways ull propably get it if you know Kerala.

Lost..

2005-08-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

You've totally lost it if you have to make up with someone(no matter how bad u still feel) coz life just can't go on without him/her.

Books..

2005-08-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

HP6 is disappointing. And Disappointing in big bold red letters. Guess I can't say it enough. 600 odd pages and nothing happens, just classes and teenage infactuations and the like. Voldemort doesn't even appear either. In fact somebody said book 5 could be summarized as 'Black dies'. On the same lines, book 6 is 'Dumbledore dies'. Then again, the next books ought to be interesting, given how many horcuxes Harry's got to collect and destroy and also coz they'll no longer be in Hogwarts. But I guess we'll miss Hogwarts as well. The Wizarding school has kind of grown on the fans, with each book.
I read FPS too. And this is one fun book. Total page-turner. I'd be lost if I had to sell it coz there is little else you can say apart from that its about three guys and how they scrape throuh IIT and their mistakes blah blah..And how it is nostalgic..and the kind that you easily identify with..Yeah all the cliche'd stuff...But well, for a change the cliche holds true.

Rambling on..

2005-08-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

Pramode Sir has, once again, put up a very thought provoking post on the pathetic state of our higher education system. I have little to add to it, though I remember how hard it was to adapt. Given, I'd come a schooling system where credit was given for conciseness(?) in expression, not for length. Even for english for that matter. Anybody who wrote the AISSE/AISSCE exams would know how hard it is to fit all you want to say into that measly question-cum-answer paper. And once you've mastered that, how it is even tougher to go back to writing tonnes of rubbish bout anything and everything in the world.
The release is done. Now sit tight, fingers crossed and pray. Or rather, blog.
A list of movies I wanna c:
1)The HHGTG movie. I dont even know what its called, and I've been warned its hardly worth the effort, but it would be a shame to have missed it.
2)Raincoat.
3)Akale, this onez supposedly won a lot of awards. But the reason I wanna c it is coz
a)It has Prithviraj. And he still makes me swoon.
b)The only other Shyamaprasad movie I've seen touched me a lot. And hez way better than certain other young generation mal directors who think art is shooting things in dim light.
4)MounaRagam. No explanation required.

Ikka Special

2005-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

Somebody visited my blog :D
Yipee..clap clap clap..bring out the glasses..Let the champagne flow..:D
Herez to you anonymous visitor, choose you may to remain in the shadows, but you've made my day, night more like. Many thanks :)
Tomoz Zerinkkaz bday. Its been more than a year since dude went over to Lucknow. Ever since, its been the one phone call in a month kind of a thing. Not that I feel any less close to him. It would even be wrong even to say I miss him, not on a day to day basis. But lets just say it would have been nice if he were in the same city. Forget keeping in touch, B School seems to have ridden his life of all sense of normalsy. We go back a long way, Zerin and I. Class 9 to be precise. I still remember the day he walked in, oh if looks could kill it should have been him, back then. He had the whole female population ogling at him in like seconds, but idiot that he was he ogled right back. Now ..m sure his B school education has made him wiser on the subject of the market value of brands that woo the market a mite too hard.(OMG m gonne b killed for all this, but m banking on 1) Hardly anybody knows the blog exists..so..2) Time has this great value as a lightner of sorts..i mean it was soo long back..how much would he care now)
Anyways by the end of the term, he had like impressed the staff(centums in math, science and ss? or some such feat) and sutdents alike, he was like the star striker in the football team, and all that it takes to be the highschool hearthrob. Some of that wore off after a while(the acads mostly, I guess high school was the last place he consistently did well in acads..though he did manage to get into NIT and IIM) but I'm sure he was easily the target of the max crushes and the reason for quite a few heartbreaks back then.
Oh yeah, whats that I hear? Yes, me too:D geeee. We started as friends, but then somewhere on..you know, the usual..And again, more of the usual..common friends who try to help and mess it up..and then not talking to each other ..and then 'resolving to be friends again'..(Except that the cliche totally worked in our case..look at us 10 years later..and in spite of the distance the reducing frequency of phone calls, as thick as it gets.)
And somewhere along the line, he found his girl too. Though I can't really talk bout it out here, lets just say shez one terrific person. And that they make a lovely pair.
I've gotto run now, so lets leave Zerinkka bio incomplete. And wish him a Totally cool Bday.

Rambings..

2005-08-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

I bought vanilla lipbalm, from gargy(never heard of them before)
And its oh sooo yummy.
Its monday morn, and we have an *important* release due on friday.
And the last thing I ought to be doing is blogging bout lipbalms.
Had an uneventful weekend. Counting days to september, when I'm going home. Need to write about onam, not the 10 liner composition type gyan, just how it feels, used to feel more like. Sometime..

My first publication ;)

2005-08-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

For more than a month hez been after me, coaxing me to write a piece for NF. And predictably, we've had endless arguments, me stating how I'm not upto such 'writing' anymore and how his confidence is a bit over-the-top. And finally, just so I could shut him up I managed to put together a rough drafts of sorts, kind of closing an issue, afai was concerned. And today, I get a mail from some Lee at NF saying my submission has been accepted and I could send in an invoice for 100$..Now isnt that cool I say? But vin, knowing how I cant stop spilling to save my life, has forbidden me to tell ppl until it actulally appears online..Well, nobody knows the blog exists so its still safe..But hats off to Vin ..really, sometimes(most..for that matter) hez so damn patient and loving and nice I cant stop thanking my stars..For one I wouldnt have put my pen to paper if not for his pushing me, and given how lax I was any sane person would have given up after a weekz effort..And m sure dude Lee wouldnt have found it so appealing had it not been for his magic touches on my thoughtless bragging..Alrite, m sure I've already said too much..enough to embarass both of us :)..

Joblessness

2005-08-10T06:22:00.000-07:00

is fun the first day, tolerable the next, and miserable then on. Especially for the non-self motivated types like me. I wont dwell on that too much, my legendary quaities deserve a post in its entireity..
I've finally found a credible_to_self excuse for not being an interesting blogger. Pretty basic, I dont have an intersting life. Not half as happening of all those I love to read, no roomies(anymore) and hence none of the highs of living with friends, no heart-wrenching breakups to mop about in public, no ex's to abuse(yeah redundant, just adding for effect), cant even recall when last I went to a movie. Now tell me how much you wanna read bout the average joe(or joanne ..teehee bad joke). But happened to stumble upon my old blog and thought that one was decent. And that, together with said joblessness made fertile grounds for a blogging urge.
Life has changed quite a lot in the past few months. And as goes with all change, this has been both good and bad, and promises to get better. But most of all, its seen me grow, atleast within. Not sure I wanna follow that thread. Lets just let it hang.
Among other stuff, we went on a trip from office last weekend. Most of the junta turned up, and with family too. And quite a lot of kids. In fact the majority of our colleagues(pronounced as if itz got just one 'l', koleeges..this should make vin happy) are at that stage of life they're married and have really small kids, like 2-3 years old. I'm sure that says something significant bout the company, but dunno what. Maybe the sociologists would know. Anyways, we went to Shivasamudra and Ranganthittu, stayed at a nice comfy resort by the banks of cauvery. Hardly the rafting-trekking adventure it once aspired to be, but end of the day, a decent fun trip. Alistair has more on it.
Vin has been spending a fair amount of his lifetime making and remaking his site. He just keeps making super-subtle changes ( hey I changed the comment text background to a lighter shade of light grey... Ya, so I notice ..Now howz this one..m staring blankly at the screen..Idiot cant you see I reduced the gap between the links by half a micron..) Perfectionism is one thing, but getting stuck coz of it is quite something else. Its ended up looking nice, in fact I've been asking him if he would lease it out to me. Coz he isnt doing anything with it either ways.
You know what people do when they have zilch to write bout. They just sneak in links, to other people's blogs, to interesting stuff on the web and the like. Well, just saying..
Just back from watching a play at Rangashankara. Nice experience. And thankfully, not quite the overurhead kind of theatre. Its called eclipse. And is about a bunch of kids going to a beach to watch a solar eclipse. And yet another, called Lucy, who emerges and disappears off and on as they wait for the eclipse to happen. Through games and conversations Lucy takes each of them through a soulsearching trip. The girl who played Lucy was very pretty, and m sure Vin just couldn't take his eyes off her. And to make it worse(for yours truly) he could do it *legally*.
Chakki descends on Bangalore tomo. And how I miss her.

4 days to go

2005-05-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

before we say 'i do' to a lifetime worth of each other.

2005-05-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

whats with the cars in blore and dogs sticking their head out of bumpers?..not like we dont have enough on the streets.

2005-05-23T02:06:00.000-07:00

Just one more attempt..