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...

Darjeeling

A simple story between two sisters and an opportunist and how the two sisters make the best of themselves and their environment.

My most favorite character in this book was Aloka- the elder sis who is always generous to forgive the shortcoming of everyone around her, but doesn’t get the best she deserves. The way she transforms herself from a “beautiful daughter” to the “newspaper columnist” is what made me to finish reading this story.I have never visited Darjeeling but it is simply beautiful in the words of the author.

The book had a lots of tit bits about brewing a good cup of tea.I make myself a cup of tea every morning though I suck in making tea :(

Lessons from people around

Param told me a real life story he heard recently from an old man. Here it is.

The old man and his wife had been to their son's place for 3 week Christmas holiday. They had real good time and it was surprisingly one nice holiday with least arguments between them. But before they could return back home, one early morning, his wife passed away

And to quote the old man, "I thought I'll be the first one to go as I thought she has better chance of taking care of herself .But things did not happen that way. On that fateful day when she was taken to hospital, I made a promise to her in my heart that I'll take care of myself as she would have and I will not let my health go bad".

I believe telling something like above to a group of people is setting a good example of how one would love his wife from the bottom of heart. I was moved by what happened and it made me think a lot about marriage & expressing our love to our loved ones when they are still with us. A husband and wife will always have arguments no matter how long they have been together. But letting the anger from these quarrels and arguments stay in our hearts at the end of the day doesn't make sense.

Also before I came to Uncle Sam's land, I did not have much idea about westerners and and their values for family & relationships. But these last two years have influenced my opinion on their values a lot. Their sense of togetherness and respect in family system seems a little different from what we have back in our place, but still commendable in its own way.

In families back home, it’s not common for husband/wife to express their affection to each in words that would set an example for kids/others to emulate (just my opinion).Isn't it good to express your affection to your loved ones in front of your kids (words/action) once in a while and set a good example for kids to emulate?

Life on the refrigerator door

I recently read this book " Life on the refrigerator door"



This is a book about the notes exchanged between a mother and a daughter...on the refrigerator door !

I thought I'll read few pages before going to sleep, but as I read a few pages, the book got into me and I had to finish it ..

A simple story, yet so touchy at the end. Though I could not appreciate some of the subjects discussed as notes between the mother and daughter in the story, this is one of the good stories I have read in recent times...:)

Check it out when you go to library next time.

Holidays at Keys

So Its been a month since I blogged and I am regularly irregular ;-) I was too lazy to write and I wasn't doing anything interesting ...I was just looking forward for holidays so that I can have fun time ...Param and his friends planned a trip to Florida Keys and I know it will be nice time together.

The resort (tranquilitybay.com) we stayed was one of the highlights...It was pretty good I would recommend it to all. It is in Marathon, 40 miles north of Key west and we had reserved 3 bedroom beach house with all facilities and a nice private beach in the resort... Param's gang is a big lazy group that won't rush to do anything..So we had a nice relaxing and lazy vacation...

Day 1: We checked out the resort/beach/tiki bar and couple of our folks went on Jet skiing ! The guys did it with all enthu and had real fun..Evening we manage to get ready on time for a 2 hr glass bottom boat to the keys coral reef in the sea south of Key West. We snacked our way through the cruise and the sunset was very beautiful on this cruise :)

Day 2: We decided to go on a Do-it-all day-long cruise ..The cruise boat took us a couple of miles into the sea . It was 10-15 feet deep with a near by coral reef which was shallow. Except Param and one of his Friends, none of the others in our group could swim. We para-sailed, hopped on a banana boat, jet skied and simply drifted in water whie trying to swim. Banana boat was fun with we on top of a balloon (in shape of banana) that was dragged by another boat into sea and we get tossed into sea at high speed ;-) It was the most adventurous thing I have done till date in my life.. Thank god for the life jacket ;-) When the waves in water toppled our banana boat, we had to climb on it again ourselves which was quite a challenge.. We actually fell off the banana boat when we least expected !! Out of 6 folks on the banana boat, we were a gang of 4 and a couple who had joined us on it were absolutely enthusiastic for the adventure!! We were all exhausted when the cruise ship brought us back to shore at 5pm.

Day 3: Its a lazy day and this time we played beach volleyball and monkey (game with someone hopping to catch the ball from other players ) for quite some time and then I wanted to try jet ski - which I shouldn't have done at all..Actually after driving the ski for sometime from shore with param on passenger seat, he jumped into water to remove the seaweed caught in the ski intake..When Param tried to climb back on the ski, from the sides of the jet ski (which he should not have done), the ski almost toppled and I got scared and started screaming which made param abort his climb back ..... Finally another person on jet ski gave tips to param to climb back on ski from behind maintaining the balance. Once param was back on ski, I was all scared of water and made him drop me back on the shore ..One of my night mares as I do not know swimming and sea was quite scary ! Param then picked up one of his friends from shore who was jet skiing the previous day and took a hour long lesson ;-).We stay at our beach house for dinner..Param Grilled some salmon indian style which all his friends claimed was mouth watering..Hope he starts making some vegge dishes as well soon ..We had a wonderful-family-kind-of-dinner.

All 3 days was spent playing cards, talking college stories- Always never ending and interesting :)

By the way, I am looking forward for 2008 for a lots of reasons...We are going back to India by end of 2008 and am looking forward to set up our home at Chennai..So 2008 has been in diary from a lot long ago...Wish you all have a happy and eventful new year 2008 !

My little snow man

What did I do this long weekend?

Went on a long trip? - > Did not do much, Jus did a beach drive.
Went on a shopping spree? -> No Not at all
Had nice food? -> Yes, a hell lot of dishes from Saravana bhavan, muniyandi vilas, american restaurants, home made food, sea food
Had fun? -> A lot with friends visiting us and we played a lot of playing cards
Threw a party? -> Yes, had a big fun with Param and his friends.
Took photos? -> Shot a bunch of pics at SFO & beach drive and some sneak shots of P & his friends as well ;-)

So Its 95/100 and No complaints :-)..Another best weekend :-)

Priceless Sunday evening

Doing puri and omapodi - 2 hrs
Nagging P to get pori and dates- 2 hrs
Preparing Date chutney -0.5 hr
Searching for Easy-recipe cake- 1 hr
Getting the sponge cake ready -1 hr
Preparing Bhel Puri 0.5 hr
Enjoying the snack and Coffee On Sunday evening, with absolutely everything turning out to be tasty- Priceless

And by the way, Guess what is this?

Still blogging....

I know you have been checking for my post which I have been procrastinating for so long....

Yes, I have finally settled down ! Last 1 month was quite hectic with vacating apt., cleaning and celebrating our anniversary on an empty home, then dragging my days at hotel, searching for a new apt. for 2 full days, having infinite discussion about the localities and amenities, finally decided to rent this nice apt that felt like a home (though bit expensive for us), searching for job, getting irritated when there was no job offers/ calls from any company ... and finally getting an that unexpected call from another consultant leading to my new job where I am yet to join. Am just sitting at home right now - spending time browsing,reading, cool and meeting my old friends on weekends (I was very much anxious or should say crazy to meet them after 4 years), still finding the old stories interesting...and that's how my life has been for past 1 month.

One thing I am really excited about the new place is that there are lot of activities going on in the neighborhood :-)

Most important, My loving friend Baru has started blogging..Please visit hers too
http://barukarthi.blogspot.com/

Moving Again

I have always had good friends and well wishers and really happy to have them at every stage of life.

When it was my last day at my previous job, my friend completely surprised me by decorating my work place like this and throwing a nice party.



And this time, Param had a change of location and we are moving to California and hence I resigned my job again. Thats one of the reasons that kept me busy and away from blogging. But again my last day was really unforgettable with my colleagues presenting me a "Mini Cooper" replica ( I tested this car at work and was part of the "Mini" team). I was all happy to get it as a memorabilia.

And then we went out for team lunch where my team completely surprised me with a scrap book ful of pics from last year. Very thoughtful of them. One of the photos from scrap book had all the phones I was testing with our car.

I am so happy I had been part of such a very nice team. My memories from here will always be in my heart and I will take them with me to India.

Now that we are moving to California wish me luck to get a nice job soon :-)