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 :-)