Scrap book

Intentions vs Impact

2011-06-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

I just noticed my last post was last summer...and here is summer again :)

Anyway, I attended a management training three days of last week (yeah, it was a 1-day week for me along with the memorial day holiday :)...atleast kind of). It was a good refreshing 3 days of varied perspectives. Honestly, this was probably one of the few trainings that I stayed awake throughout.
Apart from all the "knowledge" that was imparted during the training, there was one phrase which just got stuck in my mind. I spent some of my Sunday time thinking over it and it explains so well some things that I couldn't explain.

" We judge ourselves by our intentions, Others judge us by our impact"

Sounds true, doesn't it?

Summer in Seattle

2010-09-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

TSad that I'm posting this after the summer :) Yeah...summer seems to be gone and Seattle is back with its fresh and contiuous showers! I'm actually loving this too!
I'm happy I enjoyed the summer while it lasted. Camping at Orcas island, Kayaking and picnicing at Lake Kachess, whale watching from a cruise at Anacortes, Zip trekking in Whistler, the sea-fair at Seattle, walking around the waterfront in Vancouver - to name a few.
And yeah, I did attempt my first freeway driving while with Yams. My hands were so wet at the end of it and my legs were shaking....but the good part is I've got rid of a part of the inhibition now. Mukund says the car was trembling due to my shivering hands on the steering :)
To top it all and as an icing to the cake was the Rahman show at Vancouver last week. It's just made the Rahman fan in me more stronger. The man is a genius, his rendition of "Khwaja jee" is still ringing in my ears. With Yams and Harini around, it was like reliving our good old days.....have never enjoyed so much for a long time. :)
Yesterday, I added another new experience to my file - Biking. I biked on the Sammamish river trail with Kat, Chris, Dasha and Yams. It was a beautiful ride and I was feeling fresh and rejuvenated at the end of it. The pain made me toss and turn around in the night, but I was feeling so contented and peaceful!
Last but not the least, things would never have been the same if not for my friends...I take it for granted sometimes but it does take a philosophical moment to realise that I'm lucky to have such great friends, whom I can ask for help without feeling bad about it! Things wouldn't have been this interesting without them!
Thanks a lot guys!

My swimming lessons

2010-08-29T23:28:00.001-07:00

....This Friday I completed 3 laps in the 25 yards pool without stopping in the middle. Felt like a kid taking its first step, quite a milestone for me, as I have been scared of water ever since I drowned in the pool as a kid! :)

Its the usual weekend but...

2010-08-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

...there's something special. Mukund and I completed four years in each other's company! It has been an adventurous and fun-filled journey for us, that started in Bangalore and has landed us in Redmond now. Mukund has been reading my posts for a while now and he was a bit disappointed that I never wrote about him :D I couldn't find a better time to write about him.

I've been through quite a few transformations ever since I met Mukund. I've gotten over my complaining, pessimistic attitude for the most part and have started looking at the brighter side of things. I've probably stopped crying when I feel upset and more so started attacking the person who upset me! All due to Mukund's influence...he's the most cool headed person I've ever met and am thankful that I met him! And yeah...am looking forward to more adventure in the future years and of course life lessons!

Happy anniversary!

Rahman reuse!

2010-07-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

It was a pleasant sunday morning. And I was working while listening to songs on Raaga. I heard this song from 'Yuvraaj' in the new Rahmana CD that I got this time - 'Zindagi zindagi kya kami rah gayi...'. It's a slow and melodious song in the mesmerising voice of Srinivas. I've been listening to this for a lot of times this week and was all the while finding a small bit of music very familiar, reminding me of some other song. Today I reliased which song it was and I couldn't stop admiring the genius Rahman is! I've known and heard from friends before about how he reuses bits of his music in different songs. In the bit that comes in this song, (around 1 minute 45 seconds down the start of the song), I found a stark resemblance to 'En uyir thozhiye' from 'Kangalal kaidhu sei' (Around 3 minutes from start). The tune is very similar with a slightly slower beat.
Anyway, I love both these songs! :)

Monday, the 10th of May, 2010

2010-05-10T23:22:00.000-07:00

I've been neck deep into specs the whole day and I reserved this post for the end of the day, so that I have some incentive to finish my work :) It's been a crazy Monday as usual, but special though- the day when I joined the company I work for, six years ago. Ever since, lot of things have changed - the team, the work, the people I work with and even the country- the only constant being the company.
Lot of things to reminisce about - night outs in the office, home drop anytime in the night, a bad dinner at Windows of the World(yes...what name for a restaurant!) with the rotten coconut chutney, movies in the conference rooms, dance practise for the annual party, the late night customer web chats with less participation but good food from Olive Garden, the unforgettable chai time gossip with the girls gang(god knows how many people were victimized!), the sense of accomplishment on getting your tool working after spending the whole night on it, thank you mails from customers who say their job has been saved, difficult times when you figure in the post mortem when things take a bad turn, the adrenaline rush when you break the build when you really shouldn't have, the innumerable team lunches, coffee treats at Barista, the heated discussions around design and bug decisions etc. etc. (I cant think of more right now!)
Hoping that the years to come are as interesting and eventful as the past ones have been.

Happy birthday Appa!

2010-05-08T19:46:00.001-07:00

It's my dad's 60th birthday...yes....time flies so fast! I still remember my 'Daddy strongest' running behind me to ensure I don't crash into the bush, as I wheeled away in my new BSA champ bicycle. It still seems like yesterday when my dad dropped me at the bus stop and when I realised that the bus had just left that I coaxed him to overtake the bus and drop me at the next stop (which obviously he couldn't as my dad never drove faster than 30 kmph :))
I am not near him this year for his birthday, and so I let me thoughts flow along about the wonderful dad he has been. Though I feel this all the time, there are very few times when I would have expressed this to him. So here it goes - this post is dedicated to the only man I trust completely - my dad!
My dad has been with me all throughout - whether it was the speech competition at school, or the state board examination or the extremely stressing campus interviews at college and even during times when I had to make important personal decisions - by my side, helping me understand that life did not end with these situations and there was a lot more in store for me to face, and above all giving me the reassurance that he and my mom will be with me throughout, supporting every decision of mine. When in college, I was tired after campus interviews with 6-7 companies and was almost losing hope, when my dad told me "You should never get dishearteaned. These are all mere companies, real life is different from these. The best is always reserved for the future. When you are successful after 10 years and think back, this moment will sound funny to you, funny in the sense that you attributed so much importance to it."
My dad did everything possible to ensure that I and my brother had a happy childhood. Of course, we didn't realise this then, but do realise now the umpteen sacrifices that he and my mom made to keep us happy, the numerous lucrative jobs offers that he turned off with the worry that it might displace us, the frugal-simple lifestyle that they lived to ensure that we could have the best education and life. Every good habit that I and my brother have cultivated was instilled in us by example.
So coming back to the topic. Appa - Wishing you many many more happy returns of this day! And hoping to be by your side for your coming birthdays. I really miss you a lot, Appa!
You are the best and I love you a lot!

Will there be peace?

2010-03-01T22:56:00.000-08:00

I really am in a state of shock now. I called my mom for the routine evening talk and she told me that they were caught in the Shimoga riots yesterday while coming back from Manipal. They had to stay inside for 6 hours and then return to Bhadravati at 10 PM, to avoid the mobs.
Being thousands of miles away, I was shaken hearing this. Its true that it hits you hard when you experience it and when the people you dearly love are part of it!
Will there ever be peace?

Can music and perfume really bring memories?

2010-02-20T00:50:00.001-08:00

I've always wondered about this and experienced it quite a few times. Have you? Some songs and scents bring back specific memories very strongly, you will remember them wherever you are. I feel the recollection of events so strong that it either makes me ecstatic or extremely depressed. In fact, I stopped using a particular perfume, after I realised that it reminds me of a phase of life that I want to forget about. It would be such a natural process of the memories floating in , deja vus happening, that it seems so normal. I guess I should ask Alex about it the next time I talk to him to see if there is any research going on around this :) probably it makes a good thesis topic for him!

Friday was one such day. I was in my office cabin and it was late in the evening on Friday. The office was relatively empty and I decided to listen to some songs on Raaga. Its been a long time since I listened to good songs. However, I've realised that my playlist doesnt change much. I cannot move beyond a particular period and that is the period of my college days and a little after that. So there it was, one my all time favourites - Dum Dum Dum. As I was listening to 'Ragasiyamai' I felt myself smiling at what I was reminded of. One of my very close friends in college really hates the song. And she used to find this song that I liked, "wicked" - of all things :D Coming to think of it, I think my choice was unique :) Not many people liked that song.
I was grinning listening to the song, thinking about my friend and her desperation when this song would run in a loop, as a sole song in the playlist. Almost naturally, my thought flowed to the fun we had in class around deciding the songs based on the mood of the class. I'm literally laughing to myself thinking of the Maths class in our first semester where the 'strict' mam was teaching about the 'cot' function and the 'tan' function. And she squealed in laughter at the song that I suggested for the class. Hmm...I better not write more as some things are better kept a secret. If X is reading this, I'm pretty sure she'll remember the song and even more sure that she would be laughing to herself. :) :)

BTW, my co-ordinates have changed from 17 deg N and 78 deg E to 47 deg N and 122 deg W :D

Happy new year 2010!

2009-12-31T20:29:00.000-08:00

Wishing all of you a happy new year! May this year bring with it lot of joy, happiness, prosperity and peace above all...
It has been an eventful year that went by as quickly as ever. Lot of ups and downs, joys and sorrows have made this another interesting year for all of us. The new year brings with it a lot of hope, expectation and happiness. May this stay on throughout the year. Happy new year once again!

Lazy musings...

2009-08-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

I need to do this. And now. Yeah, that's my inner thing talking to the lazy self in me...I've been thinking for ages now about starting to write more posts. Anyway I'm happy that the good in me could convince the bad in me :) So here goes, yet another series of musings of the wandering mind...
I watched this movie called 'Kanjivaram' a couple of days back on Vijay. Amazing movie! I've been a great fan of Prakash Raj for quite sometime (more after I watched Abiyum Naanum), probably one of the very few who still make sensible movies. It picturises the life of a poor silk weaver from Kanchipuram, back in the 1940s. Some of the scenes had a striking impact. The scene where he feeds his crippled daughter rat poison is extremely moving. More so, the climax where he covers the body of his dead daughter with the incomplete silk saree that he has been weaving for the past 22 years and his agony when the saree which was being woven for 22 years still doesn't cover his daughter from head to toe is really touching. Kudos to Prakash Raj!
It was the weekend again and that time of the week to do some grocery shopping. I took out the car as it was late and switched on the FM and there it was ...Radio city...91.1 FM...my companion during most of my drives. But it just amazes me that inspite of there being so many Telugu songs, I get to hear the same ones again and again. Its either 'Ninenna nenu chustonsi ninenna...." or "tututu tututu tututu ...hasini hasini..." or the very interesting "Excuse me Mr Mallanna...". I never thought I could learn a Telugu song completely just by listening to it a hundred times. . Do any of you feel the same about the Radio City song listings?

Mixed feelings I have now...I turned 26 a quarter hour back, done with a quarter century of life - thats the good feeling....am getting older and need to get more matured - thats the not so good feeling...anyway...Good night!

Its time for pongal again!!

2008-01-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a happy pongal/sankranthi. This was the first time I was celebrating Pongal all by myself. As always, the net came to my rescue for the recipes. And they did come out pretty well.

The alarm went off at 7 AM. I kept snoozing it and finally got up with a start at about 8.15. I rushed to have a quick bath. I had to make the pongal before 9 and I'm pretty slow, so it would was going to be a mad run! I decorated the cooker (its actually supposed to be a "pongal paanai" but i dont have any ;)) with the coconut, turmeric pieces, banana and sugarcane. The milk started boiling. Meanwhile I couldn't wait. So I thought "Why not do a kolam on this auspicious occasion". So I went armed with the rice powder. And this was the net effect of the exercise!!

By this time the milk had boiled, I put the rice-dhal mixture that I had washed and kept aside in the milk. After this would boil well, I would add jaggery and spices and "Sakkarai Pongal" would be ready.

While the sweet pongal was getting ready, I started the preparation for the "Venn Pongal", coconut chutney and sambar. I selected the best looking recipe among all the ones from internet and went ahead with the preparation. It took about an hour and a half to get done with everything. However, finally the dish looked awesome and so tempting!! Want to have a look? Here it goes!!

Happy with my creations, I went on to have a happy breakfast. By this time, Mukund joined me from his deep slumber. I was cent percent sure that my pongal was really good, as Mukund (who usually hates the sight of rice!) took two-three servings of the pongal :D

See you all then. Time for me to go for my dinner!

Anything but a software engineer!!

2008-01-12T07:13:00.000-08:00

The blog title should explain it all. Today is one of those days when I think why did I become a software engineer. (I should admit that there are days when I think 'Thank God, I'm a software engineer').
It's a nice relaxing Saturday and here I am working on my office stuff, the muted TV in front of me. The code is one of those frustrating, seemingly easy, taking the life out of you with the problems it reveals, where none of your 100 solutions work!!

So I thought, I'll take my eyes off the taunting code editor for sometime and blog something. (Of course, there is a parallel thought process at the back of mind thinking about a 101th solution to the problem)
For this post, I thought I will blog all those so-called "ambitions" that I had when I was a kid!! Hmm...so let me start thinking.

1) A singer - There have been many times when a rolled up magazine wouldbecome my mic and I would sing away to glory. Not only that, I would serve as the host too who would introduce "The singer Janani". All until my mom would shout at me to shut up and study!

2) Social worker - There have been innumerable occasions when a group of young children on the streets of the town where I grew, Salem, would bring this thought into me -"When I grow up I would run an organisation to provide these children food,education and health. And I would come again here and take them with me to that place".

3) An engineer - No...not a software engineer! I would see the bright yellow helmet that my dad used to wear during his shopfloor supervisions and would think - "Wow! that looks cool. I should become like him when I grow up!"

4) Doctor - Don't ask me why I wanted to become one! I wouldn't have even managed to cross past half of it with my patience levels!! I used to be fascinated by the stethoscope.

5) Cook - This was purely triggered by the recipes that I used to read in the children's magazine "Gokulam". It used to be the same recipes again and again - Crumbled biscuit pudding (I still remember my brother spitting out the pudding I made!!), Bread balls and so one.

6) Hair stylist/Beautician - This was one of those wishes that lasted for a very long time! I used to style my mom's hair during her afternoon naps. My brother too became the victim of my skill once. I promised him a step cut and at the end his hair was shaved out in patches. He was shocked and cried out loud. But you know what he was blamed for having shown his head to me.

Thats pretty much the list. Can't think of anything more. Time to sign off. My code is beckoning to me and I am going to move to it reluctantly, thinking why I couldn't have become one of the above!!

Visa God features in Wall Street Journal

2008-01-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

Back to work after a long weekend!
I got this mail from a colleague about the Chilkur temple getting a mention in the Wall Street Journal. The link is here for you to read and enjoy too.

http://www.garamchai.com/HyderabadVisaGod.htm

I heard about the Chilkur temple three years ago when I moved to Hyderabad. There were talks about the temple helping you to get through your visa interviews smoothly.

My first visit to the temple was on Durga puja day with my friends. Of course, after that I've been visiting it for 4-5 times now, mostly accompanying people who visit me to the temple.

On my first visit to the temple, I was really dumbstruck by the huge wave of people trying to make their way around the temple with a small piece of paper and a pen in hand. It was a totally different sight from what you get to see in other south indian temples. Curious to know what was in the paper, I peeped and got a glance of one of them. Any guesses? It was a piece of paper with numbers 1 to 108 printed on it in a grid. People were striking off the numbers one by one as and when they finish one round around the temple or a parikrama as they call it. It was an easier way to keep count of the 108 parikramas that they had to do. As much as it was amusing, I was impressed by the simple solution that the temple priests had provided for a problem much more simpler.
Another thing which I feel is good about this temple is that they do not accept any money as offerings. However, if you want to contribute in some way, you are welcome to offer your services at the temple for the short time you are there - like distributing flowers to the devotees, selling the books at the counter etc. If you want to contribute money, then you can buy the books that the temple trust publishes. They are published in English/Telugu and cost Rs.5 each. The temple encourages you to buy them and distribute it to spread the fame of the temple.
Some kind of temple reforms!!

Happy new year!

2008-01-01T03:32:00.000-08:00

Its been a long long time...Its sad to think I couldn't take out time to blog of late. Anyways, let's see if I can atleast do it this year! Let me not make it a new year resolution because they are made to be broken.

Let me take this post as an opportunity to wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year. Let the new year bring with lots of joy and happiness.

Hmm...and its time for a new, more matured look for my blog :)

Orkut fortune...

2007-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've been following the orkut fortune quite closely for sometime and surprisingly I find it right a lot of times!! (though it is even fundamentally wrong many times)

Today's fortune says:

Your winsome smile will be your sure protection

Though it sounds good, I'm now wondering how a smile can protect you...Hmm...

Again after a long break...

2007-07-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

...How much ever I try, I just cannot put my thinking to action when I want to pen down some thoughts in my blog. Maybe its the tight schedule that I have or maybe its the inherent laziness in me. Whatever, I finally vowed to myself that I would post atleast one post every week from now on. I hope I'll keep up my promise to myself!
Yesterday, we had the 'Spice nite' at the Indian School of Business.[That's where my husband's studying now). It was organised by the "Student's Family Association", mainly the spouses. It is the husbands who are studying management, however the spouses just rocked in the way they organized the function.
I performed a bharatnatyam piece to the song "Thaaye Yashoda" in Thodi raga. Wonderful song it was in Sudha Raghunathan's beautiful voice! My legs ached terribly during the practise sessions, but it was the song that kept me going. I simply loved the song as it gave me ample room for expressions and "bhavas". However, I realised that I needed regular practise...maybe it will help me shed those extra kilos too :) Should definitely think about it!!
And today we had the foreign language classes starting here. After my brief stint with Japanese, I tried to experiment on something with an easy script. And I chose Spanish among them. I enjoyed the first class, learnt a few words too... However, grammatically nothing seems to be as easy as Japanese - no plural, no gender, no future tense!! Though it makes up for the complexity in its script.
So thats it for this week. Hope to post something during the week if I get some time out of my work!!
Hasta pronto.....
[I learnt this today!!! 'See you soon' in Spanish]

Salaam Karne Ki Aarzoo

2006-12-26T13:34:00.001-08:00

An audio post. I did notice I had to improve in a lot of places - with respect to my lyrics as well as singing.

Movie: Umrao Jaan
Song: Salaam Karne Ki Aarzoo

Listen to the song here

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As usual your valuable comments solicited.

Back after a long hiatus...

2006-11-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

Great to be back to the wonderful world of blogging. Hope not to take such long vacations in the future.
Lets see...Anyway, the last few months have been life-changing for me. Well...I entered into matrimony and saw two cities in three months. And finally am back to Hyderabad.

These two months in Bangalore were really good and so different from what I have lived till now. Waking up at 7 (which is really early for my standards),travelling for about an hour to office, that too amidst thiccck traffic and last but not the least , the pleasant-dull-cool (whatever you may call it) weather. It used to be impossible to make up my mind to get out of the cosy quilt, and if I succeeded then it would be another ordeal to bring myself to push off to work.

Apart from these, there were innumerable things that I enjoyed in Bangalore - the 'pani puri' from the boy on the roadside in Jayanagar, Lassi from Cool joint, window shopping at the forum, actual shopping in the small fancy stores, tamil movies in PVR, italian food at fiorano and the most important of all - spending time with my new found best pal for life ;)

After two long months, when I came to Hyderabad, I was kind of worried how its going to be. But the amazing team I have in office here just made sure I didnt feel as if I've been away for two months. So settling back to work in Hyd...and ya do expect some more posts coming...and if time permits some audio posts too :)

Microsoft Photo story

2006-04-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

I came across this tool which is a free download from Microsoft - PhotoStory
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Its a wonderful tool and very easy to use. You supply a list of pictures and this generates a video aka 'photo story' out of it. You can customize it with your narration or a background music.

Here is one such video generated from the pictures taken during a trip to the Nagarjuna Sagar dam in Hyderabad.

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2006-04-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sanakya SanakyaHere is another number from the movie 'Dum'.

Song: Saanakya Saanakya
Movie : Dum

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2006-04-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

The mood was set with the recording of the first song. :D
So I experimented with a few more songs this weekend. Here is one of them.

Song : Chinna Chinna Vanna Kuyil
Movie : Mouna Ragam
Music by : Illayaraja

Feedback solicited as usual :)

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Kanda Naal Mudhal - My "mudhal" song :)

2006-04-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

A dream of long time has come true today.... :D
I finally got the resolve to record my first song - Kanda Naal Mudhal from the movie Kanda Naal Mudhal...a very melodious and close-to-carnatic-music song.

Thanks a lot to Anand for helping me with the mixing and for making this lazy girl do this :D

Do drop in your valuable comments...:)

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Wallpaper philosophies

2006-03-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

Came across some "philosophical" wallpapers from coolbuddy.com. Some of them here...

If you are a vegetarian just to be nice to animals, why are you eating their food?

Good things may come to those who wait, but all the really excellent stuff will be gone by then

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted

If you think your boss is stupid, remember you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter

The sooner you fall behind the more time you will have to catch up

And, my favourite :-)

When women go wrong, men go right after them

Partha Mudhal.....

2006-03-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

Had a hectic day at office and just thought of listening to some music. "Vettaiyaadu vilayaadu" caught my eyes on Raaga's front page. Though I had heard from some of my friends about the songs that was the first time I was seeing the songs on Raaga. I just ran through the singers and Bombay Jayashree's song got my full attention. Expectations raised especially because it was a Harris Jayaraj - Bombay Jayashree venture. I enjoyed the song very much. Jayashree's husky voice is just awesome! Couldn't stop from repeating it over and over again. However this song seems slightly different from her previous hits - Vaseegara and Ondra Renda. It has a comparitively faster beat and not as romantic as them :-) Also it seemed a little bit like a rhyme.
Vaseegara is the still the "most romantic" song I've ever heard.

PS: These are just my opinions on the song. I know that my taste is almost 360 degrees different from many :-D

Subtle mystery in Narnia??

2006-03-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

The last week was really good. First of all, I had a training for three days and so did not have to do much work :-D. And then, the training was truly interesting and I didnt fall asleep(surprisingly!) As one of my friends said "It was right from the horse's mouth". It was a Windows Internals training by David Solomon....I was reminded very much of the architecture classes by Shantha mam and RP mam at college :-) although all other details of the subject are vague :-p
Another reason for my spirits remaining high was the extremely pleasant weather at Hyderabad (That too in March!?!).It is now about 2 years since I've been in Hyderabad and I already have so many things about it to cherish. I love the city as I somehow feel it sways according to my mood - calm when I want it to be and bubbly when I'm so.
So just two days in the week and it went away in the bat of a eyelid. Thanks to Yamini we decided to go to "Chronicles of Narnia" on Sunday. On Sunday, we left to PVR for the movie at about three. We were late and so couldnt get the "Panju mittai" :-( The movie was good and really above my expectations. It had slight resemblances to Harry potter right from the first scene where the kids depart in a train through the valleys and hills. However, there was one subtle thing in the movie which I don't know if it really was! In the scenes where the fawn (or whatever!) and Lucy(the little girl) appear, there were hints of romantic sparks between the two :-D The look in the eyes of the fawn was unmistakable.(Or maybe it is a god-given gift :-D) Anyways, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly.
After the movie, we went to the "Ohri's Metro" - the train restaurant that features in 'E-20 U-18'. We decided to order something differently and decided to have starters as the main dish and the main course just as starters. I ordered a mocktail which I swear will never even touch again :-(( We took some snaps in the restaurant and then came home. We then remembered we had "Madagascar" waiting at home for us. Another nice movie for that weekend!

At the "Ohri's Metro"

Shika and Yams posing while the great photographer is in action :-)

Just outside the train....Me and Yams

BTW, meet my virtual pet 'Leo' :-) Saw this in someone's blog and liked it.

Ham teacher-student khelenge...

2006-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Its been about a month since I wrote a post. So here goes one....

I've been trying to write about something for long but just didnt get the time for it. Today, even though being a sunday, I came to office as I had some pending work to complete. As usual, didnt get to work much...Was chatting with my juniors in hostel catching up on college gossips, reading blogs from near and far and so on.

I finished all this and just started to work when my colleague Puja came to office with her kid, Abhika. She's such an adorable kid...but really shy and doesnt talk much.
But surprisingly she came to my desk today and started talking to me...I couldn't make out most of what she was telling :-D but really enjoyed it. She then arranged all the dolls from my cubicle and other nearby cubicles under my table. She too went and sat under the table and beckoned to me "Ham teacher-student khelenge..".I joined her :-D
We then played teacher-student and she was telling me stories like her teacher. I forgot all my work,worries and started playing...It was such a good stress reliever...She then taught me the steps for 'Kajra Re'..It was really great to learn from her :-)We then made drawings of 'monkeys' on the whiteboards...Everyone in our row is going to have a shock on Monday. There'll be a monkey on everybody's whiteboard, courtesy me and Abhika :-D
I realised it was a long time since I enjoyed myself. :-D

A treat after a long time

2006-02-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went for a dinner treat after a really long time :-) The host was Yams and the occasion was her birthday (It was in December but the treat had been postponed till I came back to Hyderabad :->) We decided to go to Ohri's midnight biriyani as Angeethi was ruled out [:-(] as Yams and Ayesha had gone there just the day before and Deeptha was dead against Angeethi...We reached there at 10.30 to find that the midnight biriyani started only at 11.30 on all days other than Friday and Saturday...We definitely couldn't wait for an hour...most of us had skipped lunch due to the treat :-D So we went to Ohri's Tadka. Right from the time Yamini told she was giving a treat I was telling I wanted to eat biriyani...and so I didnt take much time to order. My biggest disappointment was when the biriyani came :-( It was just white rice with vegetables here and there as if they had fallen in by mistake...I decided to compensate for this in the dessert. So we headed to Havmor below after dinner to get the "Toblerone" shake....I really enjoyed it inspite of Harini's taunting about the amount of calories it had :-D..after all I had lost some calories after my trip and I had to compensate for them..:-)It was a wonderful time we had especially all of us together after a long time...

BTW, an interesting series of posts that I came across...really good :-D
http://prabhukrish.net/category/he-she/

Skiing at Crystal Mountain

2006-01-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks in Redmond was pretty good for me...I learnt something new. Ironically, this matched with the new year resolution for me on the gift scratch card that I got in Subway :-) It was "Learn something new this year" and I'm happy I fulfilled it too early in the year ;-) Anyway,this doesnt mean I won't learn anything more this year, just that the learning spirit has been instilled in me with full vigor...[hope my manager reads this ;-)]
Want to know what I learnt? I learnt to ski :-).....I never thought I would ever enjoy some sport at all, me being the lazy kind of person. The main driving factors were the wide expanse of soft white snow in front of me and the feeling that I will never get to try this once I'm back to India. I joined Chetan and his friends, Prasanna and Jigar to the Crystal mountain skiing resort.
I opted for the 3- day lesson scheme which amounted to 125$. My first day lesson was on Jan 7th. The drive was also a really enjoyable one. The road was lined up with tall and dense pine trees towering up to great heights and blocking the rays of the sun. At a particular point it looked like we were going through a tunnel...see below for yourself...

The second day we also stopped in the middle to chain the tyres. The landscape was totally white draped in snow and it was snowing lightly. It was wonderful.

Once we reached there, we got ourselves registered and proceeded to the first time skiers zone. There we met our trainer for that day - Nicole. She was a sweet friendly person and I was really astonished when she remembered me by name the next week because she sees so many people everyday :-) Maybe she remembered me as the most difficult student to teach :-D Teachers usually remember slow learners ;-)

There were about 6 people in my group and the first lesson was to teach how to wear the skis. The shoes were damn heavy...about 8-9 kgs and they were almost biting my toes. And wearing the skis was a bigger problem than I had thought it to be :-) I kept falling down the slope and really had a difficult time...Then started the lessons on how to ski. I was told to make an 'A' wih my skiis. This shape was supposed to reduce the speed of skiing and so for the first timers this was to be maintained throughout. My shoes were a bit oversize and it was making it even more difficult to push the skiis apart. I could not count the number of times that I fell down that day :-(. After a lunch of veg pizza, we again went to the ski grounds. I was determined to ski atleast once without falling before leaving that day :-p. We realised that there was no class for the afternoon session. So we proceeded to the lowest slope - 'The Discovery'. Getting on into the wench was a nightmare, the wench kept moving and we had to get on to it at the right time. But once on it, the journey to the top sitting on it was fun :-) The slope was 4580 feet tall. Again, getting off the wench was really tough and I kept falling down :-( I was almost beginning to think this was not for me, when Chetan agreed to coach me. I should say he was a really good teacher and by the end of the day I was able to make 2 zero-fall skiing attempts down the slope :-D

The second day, I got longer skiis and getting up was even more difficult.During the lesson, we were taught how to turn. We had an exercise after that - the trainer fixed poles at about an yard's distance from each other in a straight line. We had to go through them without knocking out the poles. I was the last to go through. I went through the poles without knocking them off but I was skiing sideways. Until people told me after I reached down I never realised it looked so funny :-( After the lessons, I didnt want to venture bigger slopes with the others and stuck to the 'Discovery'. However I enjoyed it much more as I didnt have many falls. It was a much more colder day and was snowing throughout. I was enjoying every moment of the snow fall. I met a girl from Florida on the lift up to the slope. When I told her I was from India, she asked me "Oh! So you would have seen live elephants right?" I was surprised...why elephants of all the things in India? But then when she asked what else was famous in India, I couldnt think of anything specific :-(

At the end of the day I was really glad to remove the skiing shoes. My toes were hurting really bad. After dinner at subway and a hot water bath at home my head hit the bed. After the second day, I didnt have much pain too like the first day. For about a week after the first day I couldnt even move a muscle. But truly as a whole it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Below - me in the skiing gear

Process...Process...huh?

2006-01-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

I saw a poster today in the hallway of one of the buildings here in my office. It instantly swiped me off my feet. What was depicted there was exactly what used to run in my mind often when I used to be frustrated with my work :-) I couldn't stop myself from capturing it in my camera. Here's it for you to peek into [With some editing done to trim off things which might land me into trouble :-)]

The poster had a huge block diagram depicting the flow for a particular process. It was mostly hidden by white paper on which there were just two steps to get it done...short and sweet.[I don't have any idea about the above process, maybe it needed the detail...however it just reminded me of the mundane processes that I see]

A process for every small thing...Maybe it is a necessity sometimes, but most often it complicates things than to ease them. :-)

Retrospective in Redmond

2006-01-01T17:27:00.000-08:00

The title is inspired by the movie I saw on New year's eve...'Sleepless in Seattle':-)

Well it was the weekend...and I had a enjoyable and tiring day, shopping. But as the night progressed, I realised it was one of those new years which I would never want to have again :-( - Alone inside a quiet apartment(of course I had the TV to my company).I thought I'll call up some people and wish them and to my horror none of the calling cards had balance :-(

Someone had asked me earlier that day about what I usually do for New year and I too had read some blogs too about the different new year experiences...This started my mind off on the long trails of thinking...about what was New year to me all these years...
I should say even though there was not much partying or celebrations in my New years, it sure was not 'yet another day'. Most of my new years were spent with my parents in Salem (It is a small town in the state on TamilNadu famous for mangoes and steel :-D)We usually had a company get-together followed by dinner, orchestra and the much-awaited fireworks. After moving to Chennai for my college, this day also meant seeing my school friends after a long time. It used to be so much fun meeting up with old friends and catching up on gossips. At the stroke of twelve we would be at my favourite local temple praying to get the new year started off peacefully.
And some of the other great times I've had during new year were at the Anna university hostel. The best thing about hostel was that I never remember a time when I had to be alone there :-D ...Those times will remain evergreen in my mind...
Well...that's past...so what did I do this year...Though not anything as much interesting I did watch a lot of movies on TV...lots of them which I've wanted to see but hadn't got a chance to - Miss Congeniality, You've got mail, Legally Blonde, Sleepless in Seattle...
And yes, I got my new camera and was exploring it...This was one of the first snaps that I took :-D

Wishing you all a very happy new year!!

A scene from my living room...

Never watch news when u r alone :-(

2005-12-25T18:54:00.000-08:00

Yes...Take this as an advice. Never ever watch NEWS when you are alone expecially in a big, quiet house.
Last week, I came home late from office at about 10.30. I finished cooking at about 11 and was having my food. I switched on the TV. I was too tired to change channels. I just wanted to have some sound in the house. The local news was being broadcasted. It was the weather report...So the news was going to end. Suddenly there was a warning news at the end of the news report. It said there was a man on the loose in the area near mine and they were warning people to be careful. I was scared to the core seeing that news. I was cursing the TV channel - who was going to see the news at 11.30 in the night, why did they want to warn that time of the night. I quicky ate my food, dropped the vessels in the sink and fled to my bedroom. I locked it and went to sleep. A small noise upstairs or the wind blowing outside - I was wide awake. Finally, I managed to go to sleep. But after that I made it a point to never watch news channels especially in the night :-)

Trip to Mt.Rainier

2005-12-25T15:16:00.000-08:00

This post has been pending for long and I got to pen this down only now. Anyways, better late than never :-)
It was my second weekend in Redmond. I joined Arun and Raghuram in their plans of going to St.Helens ,a volcanic mountain about 100 miles south of Seattle. We started at 8 in the morning as it was a 5 hours drive. The drive offered some real breathtaking scenes - snow capped houses, lands covered with snow looked as if they had a blanket of white over them. We were about 55 miles from St.Helens when the roads started becoming tough.

The snow hadn't been cleared properly and there was a huge lump of snow all along the middle of the road. Ours being a short car, it was really difficult to progress.

On the way we saw this lake which was totally frozen that one could walk over it. It was truly a wonderful sight!!

We went a little farther and then owing to the roads,decided that it was just impossible to go furthur. It was already noon and suddenly someone suggested the idea of going to Mt.Rainier instead. Still disappointed that we couldn't make it to St.Helens , we started driving back. All of a sudden at a particular point, the car started skidding even on applying the brakes. It was skidding over the ice and the steering wheel was turned to the left just in time. The car stopped just short of the cliff below. One look below, I was feeling nauseating. Oh my god! Then we chained the tires to prevent any more catastrophies and proceeded furthur.
The road to Mt.Rainier was much better and well cleaned. We proceeded to the Paradise point in Rainier. Once I reached there, I knew why it got its name. It truly looked like Paradise!!

The wonderful hue of the sun over the snow covered mountain and the pine trees all over made it look so beautiful.

We proceeded to scale the mountain. Initially, the snow was not fresh and was hard. It was difficult to climb. But as we proceeded towards the top, the snow was soft and fresh and was so inviting.

Especially near the trees, the snow was about hip-deep. It was fun to sink into the snow and later come out with great difficulty :-)

We spent a lot of time there in the snow and then decided to go to the Jackson observatory before leaving. The observatory was also good. They had telescopes with maps beside which described the name of every peak in the range.

The observatory also had other general information about the mountain. It seems it takes a person two days to scale the entire mountain.

It was 5 PM already and it was beginning to get dark.We started back as it would be dangerous to drive back in the dark. I reached home at about 8.30. At about 9.15, I was fast asleep :-)

BTW, today is Christmas... Merry Christmas everyone!

Apartment at Redmond

2005-12-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Some photos of my scary :-( cum cosy :-) apartment

Beyond the boundaries: My first travel abroad

2005-12-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hi all...back after a short pause. Was busy preparing for my travel. Now that I'm here in my warm office, I'm going to pen down my experiences during my first travel abroad [I've got some comments about me being very verbose and so will try to make this post crisp :-)]. Read on...
After the initial hassles in my visa interview, I finally got my visa approved. I want to take a moment here to thank whole heartedly the good samaritan (I dont even know her name) who helped me outside the consulate when none came forward. I had a empty bag and the security outside wanted me to hand it to someone else before stepping in. They even didnt allow me to drop it in the litter outside. I was looking for someone who could hold it for me till I came out [I did not have even 5 minutes for my scheduled time] and none offered to help me. This good samaritan appeared from somewhere and took the bag from me and told me not to worry and to go in. When I came out I did not even thank her properly due to issues I had in my visa processing. Hey, if at all you come across this post, thanks a lot!!
Things were being done at full speed - booking tickets, arranging for my accomodation, packing - and Amma and Appa also arrived at Hyderabad to give me a send-off. Frankly, I was feeling really nervous...so many different things - immigration, customs blah blah. How was I going to go through all this?
My flight from Hyderabad was on December 3rd at 3 AM. After bidding goodbye to my parents, Yams and Shika I proceeded to get the formalities done. I was relieved to find someone else from my office also there. The KLM flight to Amsterdam was the most tedious part of the journey. First, the timing was very odd and second itwas really cramped. I was just more than happy to alight at Amsterdam. The view of Amsterdam from above was just awesome, the waterfront and the greenery looked so neatly arranged just like out of a building set :-). I did not have time to go around the Schipol airport as my first flight was delayed :-( At the Amsterdam airport I realised there were 5 people who were taking the flight to Seattle that day from my office. The connecting NWA flight was much better. It seemed more comfortable or maybe just because it had a personal entertaiment system it appeared so ;-) I finally landed at Seattle at 3 PM on 3rd. [My watch was still tuned to IST and the time was 4.30 - I couldn't believe that I had travelled for 24 hours continuously]. Only when my head hit the bed in my apartment did I realise how tired I was but I was told to resist sleeping till 9 to overcome the jetlag.
So its been a week now and all jet lag gone. It gets pretty cold in the nights but my apartment is so cosy and so I don't know about it much :-)

[I guess I didnt keep up my word of making this short ;-)]

My first LIVE cricket match

2005-11-17T09:16:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests yesterday I watched my first Live match, 'Live' in the real sense :-) It was the first match of the India-South Africa series and the venue was the 'Rajiv Gandhi Stadium' at Uppal in Hyderabad. It was pretty tiring and that too for a person like me who detests cricket[The sole cause for this is my brother who never used to switch channels when a cricket match was on :-(] it was truly a difficult experience.
It was a team outing and we started from our places at 6 in the morning [Its still a surprise to me as to how I made it]. Our Qualis was the first of the three to reach the stadium at nearly 7.30. As we neared the stadium, the traffic bloated and the Qualis was nearly crawling its way through it. We got down a little ahead of the stadium and started walking towards the stadium. Just then, the bus with the Indian cricket team passed by. It was the sight of a lifetime!!! Sachin was sitting in the front row calmness writ on his face. Beside him was Greg Chapel and two seats behind him was Harbhajan. We were surprised and also overjoyed.[Whatever you say, you forget for an instant that they too are ordianry indviduals like you :-)]. We waved vehemently to Sachin and he responded with a small gesture of lifting his hand.
We then proceeded towards Gate 5 and just as we were about to enter the stadium our attention was caught by a lady's voice - "We are from NDTV. Can you pose for a shot". Apparently,she was enthused seeing 20 of us in yellow shirts and black blazers who would make good and bright background for her news :-) We posed for the camera as she started off saying "Lagthaa hai kee saaraa hyderabad yahaan hai...". Believe me there were not more than 100 people around at that time. And then she handed over the mike to some people who were also posing for the camera and they started off -"Hum India ko jithayenge...aur phir hee chalenge...". I was smiling to myself hoping how these people were going to make India win when the 11-some were determinant in losing the match :-)
We entered the stadium and occupied some seats on the first floor. The stadium was still only half constructed and put up a sorry sight. It was too dirty and with cement and sand suspended in the air it was dusty too. After sitting for a while we began to realise that it was not going to that easy a job. The sun was shining brightly at its best and soon it was becoming difficult to sit. The players came to the ground for their warm up. We started preparing some of our banners. The one I liked best was "Team India - Your potential, our passion - Microsoft". P thought for a lot of time for a good slogan and came up with "We love Sachin". I couldn't control my laughter at the inventiveness ;-). At 9 sharply the match started, and much to our relief India was batting first.
It was fun for sometime but when the batsmen started leaving the ground as soon as they came in it started becoming a bit boring. After sometime it was impossible to sit in the sun and I came out to stand in the shade. It was too inviting that I didnt feel like going back again. The game was going on at a really slow pace. We went around to see if we could get some coffee when we discovered a really good place in the Ground floor. It was shady and the view was really good. In the final overs of Indian innings, the game became interesting. Harbhajan's unexpected yet awesome sixers were great. We moved to the front though it was sunny because we knew this spell wouldn't anyway last for long ;-)
Once the cricketers dispersed for lunch, we realised that we were also hungry. I had munched almost 3-4 packets of chips but still gelt hungry :-( I got some biriyani from the stadium. Nobody would believe that it was biriyani that toO Hyderabadi biriyani.Leave alone spice it didnt even have salt. I had to get a packet of 'KurKure' to complement it. And I got some appreciations for the great combination...even planning to patent it :-)
The south africans started their batting and the game returned to its slow pace again. We went in front in the hope of seeing something interesting. I and Pu went in front and started shouting Dhoni's name. At a particular point he almost turned to see who it was but then resited himself. It was fun As the game started to progress in favour of South Africa, the audience started taunting the Indians. This was the most irritating part of all. People praise their favourite and shout their names when they play well and if India starts losing they turn hostile. Gautam Ghambir was the unlucky one standing near our edge of the boundary and he too received many taunts. The mexican wave formed by the audience deserves special mention. It was very co-ordinated and looked awesome!!
Finally the match ended and we returned back home. I was so tired that I feel asleep as soon as my head hit the bed. However tiring it was, it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Yet another uneventful week

2005-11-13T06:32:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests this was yet another uneventful week. Mostly it was the 'home to office back home' mundane routine. Apart from this there was a marriage of one of my colleagues which I attended on Thursday. As all other marriages in Andhra it was at night. Though we stayed only for a while it was a break from the monotony of life and I enjoyed it. [The food deserves mention here].
Also, this week deserves a special mention in bringing back my reading interests. I got to read two books - 'One night @ the call centre' by Chetan Bhagat and 'Harmful Intent' by Robin Cook [I've been unable to finish this book for the past one month]. 'One night..' was OK types and nowhere near to 'Five point someone'. Too much fantasy. The second book was really boring till half the book but was interesting thereafter.
The weekend was a bit better. On saturday, I got up at 11 (early for my standards and that too on a weekend:-)). Yamini had just returned from Pune and we had to catch up on the gossips for that week ;-). We then rummaged through her shopping from Pune and even had a mini catwalk with the models Ayesha and Shika ;-).Then we decided to go out for lunch and thanks to Yamini's grumbling stomach we made it much earlier than we expected. Went to Cook's touch...the food was really bad. So we decided to revive our spirits with desserts at 'Temptations'. However I resisted my 'temptation' in an effort to curtail the addition of a few kilos and was successful :-))
We then started our shopping with Hyd Central. After successfully covering every floor in Central I forced everyone to go to the food court. I wanted to have something the name of which I still dont know :-( [It resembles the 'pepsi' which used to be available in my school days. Just flavoured ice...but really yummy..slurp]. I searched through their menu and the display counters too but couldn't find it. So settled for a Cafe Latte. (I'm not mentioning the scornful looks I got from Yamini when she saw what I got). Not satisfied with the number of covers in hand we decided to go to Cherma's next.
Again we scanned all the floors of Cherma's and by the time we finished our shopping we were damn tired. The person at the counter in Cherma's told us that there was some scratch card gift concept and made me fill 6 coupons :-( We then came home and started deciding where to go for dinner. We decided to go to 'Aunty's house' [Its an awesome mess in our area and I dunno if thats the real name....I guess it is Yamini's name for it..anyway...sounds good]. Unfortunately it was closed. We then had dinner at 'Punjab kee Rasoi'. Was pretty decent.
On Sunday, I watched Ghajini [I've been waiting long to see this movie]. I liked it a lot...Surya was really smart!! and Asin too was at her best(lucky girl :-( )
So thats how this week ended....and its time for me to leave.

Mistaken Identity

2005-11-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

At last...into the world of blogging!! Mistaken identity - This is the force which led me to start blogging [something which I couldn't do for six months even when I wanted to :-)...]

A month back I received a mail from one of the managers in my company about my blog. He was very appreciative about my blog and quoted that it was really interesting. I was at first confused but then later realised that it was the blog of one of my name-likes and she was in the same city as me! And to add to the confusion we had a common friend with whom she had attended our company's annual party. She had written about the party in her blog and her sister had commented on it...and her sister was a name-like of another of my friends[Confused ?? :-) ] which added to the confusion. Even I was deceived into believing that maybe I had a split personality who wrote that :-D...It was too coincidental....

Anyways, alls well that ends well...this episode inspired me to start blogging and here I am writing my first blog...
PS : The blog which inspired me (my mistaken identity) : http://jananisays.blogspot.com