I am learning the ropes :-)

A salute to Sun !!

Finally, my Mini Sunflower has bloomed :-)
My 150th post :-)

Long Weekend

Met one of my best friends after a year - check
Made umpteen changes to vacation plan and finally chose a nice place nearby - check
Had a mokkai dinner with all friends - check
Realizing how we are still the same old person among our old friends - check
Get stuck in holiday traffic - check
Using the phone like A walkie-talkie with OVER at the end of every sentence while coordinating travel between 2 cars- check
Swimmers swimming at Lake Tahoe - Check
Getting wrong food than ordered at restaurant - Check
Sitting at beach in evening sun continue mokkai - Check
Waiting for salad dinner over an hour at Gar Woods grill (Rachel Ray's favi) - check
Trying to get a glimpse of fireworks and driving into Coast Guard Area unknowingly- check Teaching Poker and Playing until 2 am with mokkais - check
Lying on beach with no sun block lotion and getting sun burns - check
Friends having fun with Kayaks - Check
Window shopping - Check
Having Good food at Local restaurants - check
Teasing a friend who was always hungry - Check
All gals in a car drive- check
Gambling at Reno and making $70 - Check
Late yet surprisingly tasty dinner at Casino - Check
Surprise party with friends at home- Check
Group photos - Check
Group collegians photos- Check
Boring Param with our college stories - Check
Having breakfast at local bagel shop with smoothies on the house- Check
Speed boat ride across the lake - check
Giving titanic poses - Check
An over enthu friend pestering everyone for photos- check
Broken car A/C in sweltering summer & traffic - Check
Trying to pass the snacks to gang in the other car on freeway - Check
Friends fooling us that they were ahead of us and we chasing them while they were actually behind us on freeway- Check
Muniyandi vilas dinner where non vegetarians had their night - Check
SFO tour in 3 hrs - Check
Clicked Lombard street with different cameras- Check
Grabbing to go dinner from Udupi restaurant - Check
Transferring photos and making CD copies in 10 min - Check
Dropping friends at airport and waving sad Good byes- Done
All in all had a nice memorable weekend along
with Losing a thing close to heart - Did not want to check but happened

Books again

I had always wanted to read Biographies and I am glad I chose to read "Its not about the bike: My journey back to life" - A book about Lance Armstrong and his fight with Cancer. Fantastic & Inspiring book, more than review I would like to capture a few lines from the book:

As I rode upward I reflected on my life, back to all points, my childhood, my early races,my illness and how it changed me. Maybe it was the primitive act of climbing that made me confront the issues I'd been evading for weeks. It was time to quit stalling. I realized. Move I told myself. If you can still move,you aren't sick...I was meant for a long,hard climb...

Last Weekend @ SFO

Last weekend at SFO with Param's chittappa and chithi :-)

Life is good..

You go to San Francisco for a business meeting at 6 pm, have a discussion until 8:30 pm, reach office at 9:45 pm and drive back home at 10:15 pm, and see a plate of hot idly with chutney on the table :-)

Tid bits !!

Last week was my birthday. I always like the month of June, with schools reopening and already half a year is over. But also for the fact that it has my birthday :-) My friends and family always make it a special day :-) My sister sent a cute presentation with my old photos from '81 -'08. I was so happy :-) The next day we met a bunch of my college friends. After watching a movie, we had dinner at Banana Leaf (Malaysian restaurant). There I had a surprise b’day cake (from friends & Param). It is a very nice feeling to be loved :-) I am very happy I got to hang out regularly with my college friends at least after a few years. It is good fun and I am sure I will miss them next year.

************

Convertible கனவுகள்

From childhood whenever I see films with open cars, I used to dream about driving them one day. And when I was here, where we can rent any cars, I kept on pestering Param to rent a convertible one day :-)

And at my last job, knowing this, my team lead once gave me a ride in BMW Z4. It was a good experience with 2 girls in convertible, giggling and felt like cinema to me :-)

And today, I got a chance to drive a convertible on a super sunny day....

Glad One of my kutti kutti aasai has come true!!

*****************

Now-a-days , they have quite a few costume days at my office -> Nice dress up day, Hawaii day, and today Shorts day...Cool to come to office in various colors and theme!!

******************

Why do I blog?

Everyday when I go around blog hopping, I find a lot of beautifully written blogs! Be it joy or sad or remembrance or thankfulness or about baking or about cooking or be it travelogues – they express emotions very well. These blogs always inspire me to keep blogging.

I was trying to remember "Why did I start to write?”. It was mainly because I had ample time at home after marriage and I wanted to use it to improve my writing skills. Then I thought I should somewhere log my days. I used to write personal diary @ college but somehow discontinued it after college days. Thus, my blog tend to be more of an open diary. A nice friend of mine even advised me not to write so much in public. He fears it might somehow become my disadvantage one day. But I try to convince him the other way. In retrospect, I feel I chose to record all nice happy memories during these days rather than the sad & angry memories!

Days went on and friends started reading. Ex-colleagues started reading. Old college friends started reading. Then my family folks started reading. I am glad I chose this place only to record happy memories for my small world to read :-)

Does it count for short story?

She was in her office attending 2 hour meeting. The last lindt chocolate was on the table tempting her. She knew she already ate a big share that day. But still she could not concentrate on her meeting.

All her concentration was on the small truffle wrapped in a white foil, smiling at her. She knew she had to work-out & burn 200 calories if she is going to eat it. She knew her friends & families are asking her to loose some weight. The meeting was over. The chocolate was still begging her to eat it. Though she only had salad for lunch, she ate that last chocolate without any further thought!

When will women stop feeling guilty about eating a chocolate?

Birthday time :-)

Every Year on this day, I get on full swing to make cake for You-know-Who :-)

This year, I fast-forwarded his birthday 2 days so that we can celebrate with my amma and sister before they return back to India. With my new cake decorating skills, I grew in confidence to bake a 3D cake...As car is one of his favorite items, I chose a 3D cruiser cake.

I baked the cake day before yesterday. Since the cake was big, it took around 1 hour to bake and more than 5 hours to cool! Yesterday morning, it took 2 hours for me to decorate it with home-made icing...Thats the cake below.


The cream was real yummy and everyone loved it :-) We all had a fun evening yesterday
In retrospect, I should have made a red car for him as he is a Ferrari supporter. Anyway, I tried out my favi color :-)

And I am smiling ear to ear seeing it come out very well :-)
Happy birthday Dear Param :-)

Family Fun trip :-)

Yay! I am back after a great 10 days of vacation!! We had a fantastic time with my mother and sister. My father had to return to India urgently before our road trip and hence couldn't join.

All in all,

• We enjoyed watching Shamu @ Sea world.
• My mother & sis did a lot of thrilling rides.
• We went on safari at Animal park and fed giraffes.
• Everybody had their dream day at Disneyland,LA and an easy day at Universal, LA
• We enjoyed fabulous Vegas- took lots of pics.
• We were amazed by Hoover dam - one of 7 engineering wonders.
• Spell bound by sun rise @ Grand Canyon, thrilled by Helicopter ride over the canyon and mesmerized by the IMAX movie there.
• Enjoyed American/Continental breakfast on all 10 days and I was very happy to see my mother and sis enjoying it as well (Denny's & IHOP were memorable).
• Had a tasty dinner at Woodlands,LA and sumptuous dinner at Tamba, LV.
• We did a lot of chit-chat during our road trip
• Enjoyed ice cream, candy, juices & cotton candy.
• Had a great road trip across lonely hills & desert like terrains of Nevada and Arizona.
• Took tons of lovely family pictures during the trip

On a whole, my mother and sister had their best vacation trying out all sorts of new things. So did we :-)
These days will stay in my diary forever :-)

Super Busy days

My parents have arrived last week and Its kinda of Super-busy from then! They came 8 hours late as they missed a couple of their connection flights due to delay!! We were at the airport 2 hours earlier with WELCOME Balloon and kutti hand made gift for my sis...I was very happy to see them after a year. We told each other how much we have gained/lost weight and had the usual chit-chat all the way to our home. Everyone enjoyed the nice dinner I prepared for them ;-)

The next few days, we did pretty much nothing as they had jet lag... Anyway, after the couple of days, we took them to a Mexican Restaurant and they seem to enjoy the food (to my surprise) as they said Mexican is good :-) My mother has even become a fan of Star bucks! Then came the weekend and we went on a trip to do white-water rafting. The whole gang (9 ppl) drove up to South Fork American river @ Coloma, CA. We had a sumptuous picnic lunch under the shades of trees while chatting/pulling each other's legs...Was great fun (Will post the rafting pictures soon when we get it from the photographer).

Then the gang set out for the river rafting while I gave company to my parents. My sis was all excited to try it and so was Param. I am sure they had super fun in the water, while we 3 gossiped family stories sitting on a bench and had the whole park for ourselves.. After rafting we headed back and had a good dinner at Krung Thai restaurant (2 hours) ;-) My parents seemed to be able to try it as well (surprise, surprise!!).The whole trip was quite memorable for me , with great company and Saturday ended with most of us tired/sore for different reasons...:-)

We had planned to go for 17-mile drive on Sunday, but everybody was so tired that we dropped the idea and instead went to Kuruvi -Kuppai padam....I had made vegetable puff for evening Tiffin and we had it in theater - just like old times.. And so the Whole week finished so fast :-) Now I am waiting for this Friday when we will be on vacation for 10 days - on a Road trip to LA, San Diego, Las Vegas & Grand Canyon. More updates soon.

Tag from NY girl :-)

Last Movie Seen In A Theatre?
Billa..did not like it so much.

What Book Are You Reading?
Pastries.

A Favourite Board Game?
Trade while in school days and now Scrabble and Chess .

Favourite Magazine?
I don't read anything regularly..I need to work on this soon.

Favourite Smells?
Smell of Rasam on the stove, Jasmine flower, Ripen mango, jackfruit smell.

Favourite Sound?
Mouna Raagam BGM.

Worst Feeling In The World?
When I could not do what I had promised earlier.

What Is The First Thing You Think Of When You Wake?
I need a coffee.

Favourite Fast Food Place?
Adyar Ananda Bhavan for me.

Future Child’s Name?
I haven't decided yet.

Finish This Statement: If I Had A Lot of Money, I’d…
Celebrate first and then decide

Do You Drive Fast?
Only when I am late to office meetings at 8 am

Do You Sleep With A Stuffed Animal?
NO..

Storms– cool or scary?
Cool, A nice blanket around, Cup of tea and bajji, few good friends and card game.
Scary If I am driving.

Do You Eat The Stems on Broccoli?
Why not?

If You Could Dye Your Hair Any Colour, What Would Be Your Choice?
Brown may be, actually I do not like to dye my hair.

Name All The Different Cities/Towns You’ve Lived In.
Bombay,Tiruchi,Tirunelveli,Sivakasi,Chennai,New Jersey, Cupertino.

Favourite Sports To Watch:
Nothing as of now

One Nice Thing About The Person Who Sent This To You:
I love her passion for good film making.

What’s Under Your Bed?
Nothing.

Would You Like To Be Born As Yourself Again?
Sure...Yes

Morning Person or Night Owl?
Night Owl.

Over Easy or Sunny Side Up?
I don't know.

Favourite Place To Relax?
Home.

Favourite Pie?
Cakes please.

Favourite Ice-Cream Flavour?
Dulce-di-liche and Arun Pistachio,Tutty fruity.

You Pass This Tag To–
Any one who wants to write a tag.

Of All The People You Tagged, Who’s Most Likely To Respond First?
I don't know!!

They will be here next week !!!

All my friends around me would have already known my excitement, but writing it in my blog is always a special thing to me....

Last year around this time, I had returned from my India trip and this time , my parents are visiting us :-). It's been a year since we saw each other and so we are excited!

My mother has been preparing a long list of snacks to bring, and my sister is busy shopping clothes and already started her packing ;-).My father wraping up his work before the vacation, and I am cleaning our home one area everyday to make it more presentable ;-)

You can definitely expect a few travelogues in my blog in coming weeks :-)

Image source: cartoonstock.com

Dec 2006 ->July 2007->January 2008->Now

Running->Tennis ->Poker-> Chess

We have started playing chess now. Few weeks back we got a chess board and now playing one game of chess is the last thing we do before we sleep. I have to say Its very refreshing. All I do now is trying to learn all tactics of the game and beat Param. That's the goal of the month :-)

My new stash box

Personalised by me :-)

To us

For 1 more reason :-)

I say

our

Images Courtesy: Google Image search

Cake class - Finale

This weekend was hectic! With our last cake deco class on Sunday, I wanted to bake & take a 2-layer cake for the finale and so started baking on Friday night. The first cake I baked crumbled :-( So I had to bake all-over again and this time I decided to bake additional cake layers for back-up. Thus, finally I ended-up with a 3-layer cake after buring couple of extra hours on bake sessions :-) This time I did the cake leveling well. Then I did a joint frosting session with my friend on Saturay. Sunday's cake class went well as we learnt to do stems, leaves etc. At last we were left to decorate our cake the way we liked I am happy with the way mine came out :-).

I even got a course completion certificate!

Its a memorable experience which will stay in my diary bringing back sweet memories whenever I see it later. I am happy I tried this class.

Subha, now as I have little confidence,I promise to male a cake for you when you visit me :-)

B&W memories :-)

I wanted to do this tag long back, but I had to wait until I could get Param’s childhood pics from my SIL.

Aren't we cute when we are kids? :-)
Now coming to tag, all that comes to my mind are:
We both are Gemini.
Our names match with Hindu God and Goddess pair, coincidentally.
We both studied at Trichi.
Anyway as destined to meet, we met and got married in Sep 2005 A.D.
Whoever is reading this tag, please do it as well and post both you and your better half's childhood pics....It is interesting to play :-)

Another fun sunday with cakes!

To a great friend...

இருவரும் வேறு வேறு இடத்தில் பிறந்தோம்
கலாச்சாரம் வேறு குடும்பம் வேறு
ஆசைகள் வேறு குணங்கள் வேறு
எங்கேயோ பிறந்து எங்கேயோ சந்தித்தோம்
வார்த்தை பரிமாறுதலில் ஆரம்பித்த நட்பு
வாழ்கையை பற்றி பேசும் வரை நீண்டுது
கற்று கொண்டது பல பல
வார்த்தையில் எழுத தெரியவில்லை
இன்றும் நீங்கள் என்னிடம் பேசியதும்
நான் உங்களிடும் பேசியதும்
நமக்கு மட்டுமே தெரிந்த ரகசியங்கள்
இப்பொழுது பிரிந்தாலும்
மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்
சில வருடங்களில் :-)

The above are straight from my heart to a friend who is returning back home.She is a great inspiration for me and We had good time together at NYC.

Dedicated to our good friendship and Probably she cannot read Tamil :-)

My killer cake !

Few days back, I came to know about Wilton Cake Decorating classes in Michales and decided to try my hands with it...(ஆசை யாரை விட்டுச்சு). On my first day, when the teacher wanted to know why I joined the class, I told I wanted to make a decent cake :-) There are only 4 persons in our class and all of them are Indians! Out teacher asked us to prepare and bring a frosted cake for our 2nd class this Sunday! I did a joint cake making session with my friend on Saturday ;-) Just like the group study at college, we baked our cake together, prepared and frosted it as we liked. But our cake didn't get a good shape. To add more trouble, we prepared a thick frosting while our teacher had actually instructed to make it thin!! I learnt about these mistakes when I showed my cake to the teacher..I am glad alteast I learnt how not to make a cake & frosting till now !! Anyhow learning basic cake decorating techniques was interesting. See my class 2 cake decorating attempt in below picture !

My favourite vegetable manchurian

Yesterday when I came from office, I was craving for something spicy. So I quickly checked out few blogs and One of my favourite blogger had a recipe that exactly suited my taste buds

http://premascookbook.blogspot.com/2007/05/vegetable-manchurian.html

So My version of Vegetable manchurian (It was 100% tasty)

What do I want to become?

At an early age, all I dreamt was to become a teacher (may be a dance teacher)...I love to teach, even now.....Even while we were in college, I liked to explain subjects to my friends and help them with assignments. I have lots of good memories of those sessions ...I'll save that for another post. Even my FIL (who is a Retired Physics Professor) once commented that I am a better teacher than Param ... When somebody asks me to explain something I know, I explain it with full enthu and Param envies me for that ;-) But yes, I did not become a teacher...

When I came to US, I started using CNET and liked their reveiws...I even thought about applying for a job to become a phone reviewer ... Something in me told me to give it a shot...I still haven't figured out my first steps for applying or what they look for (in qualifications/experience). Yes, I didn't apply at all.

Nowadays I am impressed by HR dept colleagues :-) I like their busy schedule arranging travel, arranging facilities, arranging business cards, making hotel reservations and helping others.

So my career interest has changed from teacher->reviewer->HR while I am an Engineer ;-) How does that sound? I am still trying to figure out what I want to become!

Life in fact has free lunches :-)

Today was one of those days when I overslept (by weekday standards ;-). As I was already late, I packed a quick lunch and started to office in a hurry.

Once I reached my office, I realized I had left my lunch bag at home! I was totally irritated as we don't have a cafeteria at our office. Now if I have to eat lunch, I have to go out which I don’t like as restaurants are not very near.

But I was surprised to see an email from one my colleagues that he had won a free lunch at a Mexican restaurant (after having our team name on the raffle) and so our entire team get a free lunch!! I was happy to see veggie burritos in his order ;-) So I got my veggie burrito lunch with coke & dessert.

Sometimes, there are free lunches in life !

From seeds to flowers

Getting seeds from Walmart -> 2 hours & $1
Transferring them to India through In-laws -> 24 hours
Planting seeds and waiting for flowers to bloom-> 3 months
Clicking Photos and Sharing them over Internet-> 1 hour
Feeling happy that it bloomed and seeing the whole family excited about it - Priceless.

Tagged by a friend :-)

Daisy, Its for you... will do your other tag soon :-)

A - Available?: Just for a good talk :-)
B-Best friend: With few friends, I am really who I am, Don't want to list it here :-)
C-Cake or Pie?: Always Plum cake
Drink of choice: Hot coffee, but lately Frappucino
E- Essential thing used everyday: My Sony VAIO
F- Favourite colour: Blue and Black
G- Gummy bears or worms: Definitely Gummy bears all the time
H- Hometown: Halwakku famous Tirunelveli
Indulgence: Earrings and Chocolate Truffles
J-January or February: January for a fresh start
K-Kids and names: None, I haven't really thought about the names, but surely it will be a Tamil name.
L-Life: Life gives you an interesting twist always
M-Marriage date: September 5, 2005
N-Number of siblings:Younger naughty sis
Oranges or apples:Tangerine Oranges Please
P-Phobias: Sea/Swimming
Quote:Nothing is constant except change.
R-Reason to smile: Nice gestures from Param
S-Season: July-August in Tirunelveli due to Courtalam season..Ah,I love it :-)
T-Tag two people: Baru and Mohan
U-Unknown fact about me:I can get really quirky sometimes
V-Vegetable you do not like:Bitter gourd
W-Worst habit:Getting Angry for small reasons
X-x-rays you have had:Tooth
Y-Your favorite food:Always amma's idli and chutney, maggi noodles,panju mittai

Z-Zodiac:Gemini

Compliments

How do I accept compliments? I am fairly awkward in this department :-( When somebody compliments me, I really don't know how to react. I just freeze or change topic...I don't say a quick "Thanks" like other folks. It will be usually an awkward silence at my end with a blank expression in my face when someone pass a compliment. I sometimes even say something irrelevant to change topic and take attention off me. I feel embarrassed when somebody points this out (about me not accepting a compliment gracefully). Everybody likes compliments and so do I.

I feel that genuinely complimenting others is a great thing. But to add to my misery, I usually mess it up when I try to pass a compliment to someone else. I don't put it right words and end up saying something embarrassing again ;-( Even Wikihow has something to say abt this: http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Compliments

How good are you in this department?

Today.....

Today I went for driver training at a raceway with my team as arranged by our office. I was little bit anxious and eager to do it as they would expect me to do stuff which I would normally not do in my driving (like braking hard, accelerating quick etc). But I think I did pretty OK. We were asked to accelerate quickly and change lane without braking, accelerate and brake hard, avoiding skidding and drive in a S-curve etc. It was all fun and exciting. Moreover rain added spice to the outing. Another day to note in my personal diary :-)

Here and There

[Sunday]
Spontaneous road trips are always interesting. Without much planning, we did a 1 day ski trip this weekend to Alpine meadows with my friends. It was really enjoyable though I did not ski ;-) Param was in full enthusiasm to learn ski. Since we went late to ski lessons, we could not join the class. We searched for instructor for more than an hour and so i did not want to ski until I get full lesson . Somehow Param & co caught an instructor for 10 minutes to learn the basics and even managed to use the lift once. Maybe I'll also do it next time...Talking old stories with college friends is always fun. We had good brunch and nice dinner and Talk, Talk, Talk.... What more could I ask for?

image source: cartoonstock.com
And to top it off, my best friend from college has come to US and I was happily surprised when she called me…Hurray! There are few friends with whom you don't have to explain things but they still understand each and every bit and byte of you. She is always such a friend of mine :-)

[Saturday]
I think every gal has complaints about her hair and secret wishes for the same. I had mine too and decided to do a hair make-over. My hair was little curly and I did not like it that way. Anyhow I was not good at doing-stuff-you-need-to-do-to-have-good-hair….
When I read that there is a chance to straighten your hair permanently, I wanted to try it soon. So finally I tried it this weekend. I spent 4 hours patiently while my hair dresser applied chemicals and straighted my hair in this eloborate process. They also promised me it will be straight for long time and I only need to retouch new hair growth when needed. When I saw the final outcome, I was happy and no more curly hair. Let's see how long it stays :-)
image source: cartoonstock.com

Life -2

Previous moment here

Time is 5:00 pm..No cold weather, jus bright and warm....Driving the car with moon roof open...Nice Breeze on the face..Ilayaraja's 80's songs playing...No red signal through out the drive back home...Enjoying thanimai...Life is beautiful

Would like to hear your beautiful moments again..Has it changed?

Monsoon Diary

If you had steaming Idli with fresh filter Coffee everyday you went to school, read this book.

If you have memories of your grandmother laying vadams and kuzhvathals, you'll enjoy reading the book.

If you had seen your great grandmother grinding the batter with her hand, add it to your "books to read " list.

If you have interesting memories of travelling in sleeper class train with idly and chutney packed, reminisce it by reading this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which reminded me many of my fond memories, especially with food :-)

P.S: Subha, I strongly recommend this book to you.

In marriage

Few days back, I saw a discussion in Vijay TV on whether folks are happy before or after marriage. People who claimed they are happy before marriage justified they had time for themselves- things like getting up late, do things they like etc., Those who are happily married argued they are leading a disciplined life etc., I got curious and asked Param on his opinon knowing what his answer would be ;-)

For me , I would say without any hesitation that life after marriage is more adventurous and knowing-myself thing. I started realizing my likes & dislike, tried new things I never knew about. Also my partner changes his mind so spontaneosuly that my life is like a roller coaster- but I enjoy my ride. As my friend said "tirunelveliyil kadalai mittai sappitutu iruntha ponna ippadi pesuthu?" when I chatted with him recently. Anyway I believe "God is a perfect match maker" :-)

Flash back ...

When I was in primary school, when I first heard this word, I was the one with almost nothing to tell in a class full of stamp, coin collectors.... and one friend enquired "Why not collect stamps?". I had absolutely no idea whether I wanted to do it. But she lended me few stamps for me to start. Then I traded with girls from other classes and my collection grew. In a month, I was happy with my collection. I wanted a stamp album for my collection and started pestering my father. When he got me one, I stored all my stamps in my precious album and showed it off to everyone who visited our home. And to my surpise, even my father had a good collection of stamps and he did not even show it to me until he believed I am really into my new hobby :-). He had quite a few "First Day" stamps thats hard to get. But I guess he was not ready to part with his precious collection! I don't even remember now when I stopped enjoying this hobby.

My clean iPod :-)

This Monday, in a hurry I washed my jeans with my new iPod nano in it. (After reading this,I can hear my mother telling me "how many times did I tell you to check clothes before putting it in washing machine?").But It was too late when I realised it as the washing was over :-(

I was quite upset about it as I knew I was going to get the "You-break-everything-I-gift-you" look from Param. After googling, we came to know a lot of folks have been through the same ordeal.In most cases just letting the ipod dry/blow dry will do the trick. Hoping to revive it, he left the ipod in front of our a/c in heat mode for 3 full days while I was still fearing the worst. After getting the royal-dry sevice for 3 days, my iPod did come back to life when he connected it to my laptop. I am so happy and worry free :-) The new iPod Nano design is quite amazing :-)

In case your iPod is soaked,here's what I can tell you

Please do not panic
Please do not turn it ON or connect it to desktop immediately.
Allow to dry (preferably blow dry) for almost a week and then try to Power it up :-)

Soup of the day

My version of Sweet corn soup :-)

What's your romantic movie?

When I was driving to work today, I was so bored to hear my CD again and again, I switched to a random FM channel. This was a talk show about "All time Romantic movies" as February 14 is right around the corner. I didn't know anything about each and every movie that was discussed except the last one.....

• Somewhere in the time
• Casablanca
• Wuthering heights
• The notebook
• Pretty woman

Have you seen any of the above and What's your thought?

Anyhow when it comes to "All time Romantic movies" for me, Its always

• Roja
• Rhythm (I liked this movie a lot)
• Mouna Ragam
• Maine Pyar Kiya
• DDLJ
• Dil To Pagal Hai
• Thullatha manamum thullum (for few songs)

What's yours?

Thoughts about Audio books

I wanted to try out audio books when I saw a lot of them in the local library. I thought it would be more interesting than reading a book. Also I was also greedy enough to cover two stories in a week. So the last time I went to library, I borrowed the book "Life of Pi" just for these lines which I read somewhere.

I am a Hindu because of sculptured cones of red kumkum powder and baskets of yellow turmeric nuggets,because of garlands of flowers and pieces of broken coconut, because of the clanging of bells to announce one's arrival to God, because of the whine of the reedy nadaswaram and the beating of drums, because of the patter of bare feet against stone floors down dark corridors pierced by shafts of sunlight, becauseof the fragrance of incense, because of flames of arati lamps circling in the darkness, because of bhajans being sweetly sung, because of elephants standing around to bless, because of colorful murals telling colorful stories, because offoreheads carrying variously signified, the same word - faith. Source: Life of Pi

I started listening to the audio book in my car on the way to work. I finished the story in a week, but I was not able to get the finer points in the story. Rather I could only grasp the big picture of the story. The experience did not give me a chance to learn new words, improve my style of writing or improve my imagination just like a book. Maybe If I listen to it at home rather than while driving, I might able to do more but Nevertheless, Audio books are good ways to kill the boredom during everyday commute.

As for the story (Life of Pi), it is about an Indian guy who gets stranded in Pacific ocean along with a tiger,Zebra and a hyena in a life boat while he and his family were immigrating to Canada. Thats one crazy base to write a novel. Lots of Zoological and Botanical explanations throughout the book :-)

The Devil wears Prada

I liked the film "The Devil wears Prada", especially Miranda Priestley (the boss character) for her self esteem though she is not the protagonist in the movie. So thought I should read this book this weekend ...

After the book I didn't like Miranda much! What kind of a person makes a call from Paris to NY and asks the assistant to connect her to somebody in Paris?

Do add it to your book list :-)

Apart from that, this weekend we had a suprise get together at my friend's home. We had nice dinner and me/param played poker for the first time. We liked it :-) May be we would get our own poker set soon...