XNA-NYC-BOS-NYC-BOS-NYC-XNA

A phone call and before I could even think about it, let alone over-think, I had flight tickets, bus tickets and a weekend pass for a seemingly long has always been in the works but never materializes trip to Boston which also included NYC for the Comic Con.

My future self will probably remember this trip for running on pure adrenaline, no sleep for almost 36 straight hours and probably her first ever experience riding the greyhound. I've heard awful stories about the greyhound and the trip into NYC did fit the category but the return trip evened it out and made up for it too, this despite having tickets for 18 hours later and being allowed to board at the time we wanted. I don't want to chronicle too much in here, the 200+ pictures each tell a story of how wonderful a time I had. 

Boston is lovely. To my host, thank you.

Famous Bakery

Ever since we had learnt the nuances of crossing the road on our own, Famous Bakery came into the league of our little extended world. Currency notes in hand we used to practically run to the bakery, Mama always told us how many to bring in total, but the assortment was up to us.


By default I'd pick a minimum of one egg puff for myself, possibly a meat and occasionally the veg puff. We'd count the change, mumble a few words in Kannada in response to the Tulu from the Famous uncle and hurry back to eat the garma garam puffs. And then we just learnt who wanted what.



Since it's been a long time since my teeth had the pleasure of biting into one of those egg marvels, I decided to take matters into my own hand and my stomach thanked me as well after  the little attempt.

The puff pastry sheets truly simplified my work, but it is impossible to achieve the typical layers in this sort of puff coating.

 I hope the pictures speak a thousand words!

He remembered

It's always the little things that make you smile, that make you cry, don't they? 

It's been a week of uncertainty first, then lows and highs. I'm not sure at what level of the cloud or wave or fire I'm on right now, I'll know soon enough but I reckon it doesn't matter ( This is where I go on about how work is work and should not determine your state of well-being, but it's not entirely true so I'll let it be). You know this thing we do, every year with goodbyes and the farewell lunches, that's what it is. If you're lucky you'll do it only once every two years or longer. Yes, change is constant yet it is those moments in goodbyes, that will last forever. This story is not about team goodbyes, it's about forging the unlikeliest of relationships, something that I might have the tendency to do!

It was just before the thanksgiving holiday of last year that our team was moved into the current building they are in. It may seem like a short time to get to know someone or even forge any kind of relationship with, let alone someone who knows in the security team. Every morning he was there, his usual beaming 70 old year old self making sure that no one entered the building without their badges or give us our temporary passes on the days when we thought we lost it but had only misplaced it, and over time we'd just banter during my breaks. 

He had stories for every season, every vacation he took and every single time we talked he would ask me for my name, saying it was a difficult name to remember. I know he loves baloney and cheese and loves going on long drives into the wild open country land from Oregon to the Mt. Rushmore and everywhere else in between in his truck. He asked me if I knew how to dance and then invited me to come up to his farm-house on some weekend, saying I reminded him of his niece who was away in college, he had stories of the now sprawling buildings where we worked to those from the good old days. It was always fascinating to hear those narrations of his family, kids, parents and even his community. As I bid farewell to him yesterday he called me out by my name and asked me why I had to go and if I would come back to the office, he remembered. 

And then it was only the office ...

The silver slipper

The unthinkable happened today, I wore slippers to office.

I mean who wears slippers in a professional work environment? I used to wonder about those women who did even though it was casual Friday's (Okay, before you think bata slippers or bathroom slippers, they're not ... infact I think they didn't seem out of place with the jeans!) And I must say it was like breaking some kind of shackles, roaming free into the open wide world :-)

Just wanted the world to know that, it was my first time.

My new diet

I've decided to go on a diet, that was last week - July 25^th to be exact and so far I haven't faltered. For starters it will last for a month so you'll know how it goes or not but I must say August is a rather tough month to go on such a kind of diet, with back to school and all, but here's to persistence and all the other adjectives you can think of for such an  event, that's if we and my tan survive this week with all those heat wave warnings and three digit plus temperatures that's been forecast!

The standstill checkout line

It is a well established fact that I have the worst luck when it comes to lines at the checkout counter, no I don’t just end up in a slow moving line, the checkout line almost inevitably comes to a standstill as soon as I join it, it does not matter if it was a self-checkout line or even a line for those *dumped a few items just so that I can make the ‘20 items or less’ line*.

I usually don’t mind the wait, it is fascinating to watch the story of someone’s life unfold ever so slowly right in front of my eyes, okay maybe only the story of their grocery shopping, but it’s interesting nevertheless to learn the shopping habits of my fellow shoppers. The large stock of aerated drinks, the mounds of frozen pizza, macaroni and cheese, the green capped bottles of milk, organic vegetables, all so mesmerizing!

Ever so often I’ve ended up in a line where the line’s delayed for no other reason than the ineptness of the checkout assistant, but that’s rare too, most times I simply always end up in lines wherein folks are paying with cash, counting to 79.11 dollars in change or paying by check which for no apparent reason seems even more tedious and then those other times when the customers themselves cannot recognize the vegetables/fruits they have in their cart and the hassled assistant ends up playing ‘In pin safety pin’ with the grocery chart trying to figure out those veggies!

Onto my latest experience, you can probably visualize the state of any fridge after a vacation and despite needing a vacation to recover from my vacation, I had to head out to stock up, made up a little list (I know it’s sad, but I still occasionally make lists and this trip needed one!). In addition, I am also known for the speed with which I can pick out items from the shopping list, the list is useful on such occasions to prevent mindless meandering.

I should have learnt something from all my checkout situations, or so you’d think but really you can’t beat murphy’s law, ended up in a line with just one other person group ahead of me, two women and two kids and it did seem like they were almost done checking out. Like I always do, got hold of the divider and loaded up all that stuff from my cart onto the conveyor, neatly, there's an order to that, that some just can't understand.

Checkout dude’s brows are all messed up, I can see that’s not a good sign, he is immersed in what looks to be a check, sigh! then he presses the call button, he’s clearly waiting for help. tic, toc, tic ... Surprisingly she doesn’t waste too much time getting there, all authoritative, she goes through the items on the receipt and says no, the milk can’t be checked out! What the ... From what I could hear, the form of payment the women were using did not allow them to buy the whole milk (red cap). 

Dude tries explaining it to the women, they show no sign of understanding (no comprendo!, that’s where espanol would have come in handy), they seem to be grinning away or maybe that’s just the look! Dude says he will return with 2% milk cans (blue cap), thankfully he seemed to have decided that the family could survive on 2% milk!. These assistants are just too kind is the first thought on my mind, bless him. The women were heavily made-up and their clothes ... well they could use some money to buy clothes that were a little less revealing! anyway dude comes back (probably took about 4 mins, with the milk section being in the back and all, it is a brilliant strategy if you must know, more on that some other time), re-scans everything again, presses button, supervisor comes and all’s good. I can hear the sigh of relief from all the people behind me, yes a line has formed now. Quite frustrating it was already, had to resort to doodling, twiddling!

I can sense something though, there’s two more milk cans that's not been scanned yet and you guessed right, those too have red caps on them. They seem to want the receipts to be separate and they're going to use similar checks again, no once bitten twice shy or whatever!. With a urgency I’ve never displayed in a grocery store, I scooped up everything on the conveyor into my cart and hurried out of there, I could see that everyone else had followed me too ... As I was finally all settled into another checkout line, I could see dude go back to swap red cap milk can with blue cap milk again and when I had my receipt, he was still peering away into the receipt and waiting on his supervior to give the green signal!

p.s Were those checks some kind of benefits, then why would whole milk be a restricted item? I can be nosy, but was just not in the mood to ask that day what with all of us already in a beleaguered mood.

Beer Shampoo

I've heard of the joys of rinsing one's hair with beer shampoo and also of bathing in it. I certainly had no intention of trying any of these, what is the use of wasting perfectly good beer on hair, when you can drink it, no?

My viewpoint took a 360° turn when I realized I'd left a bottle of beer open all through the night and day allowing it to be contaminated and spoilt? I couldn't possibly drink that now, could I? That's when the beer shampoo plan was conceived.

Step 1: Heat the beer in a saucepan and bring it to boil (The recipe asked for reducing the content to 1/4, but I figure no harm in letting it be runny!)

Step 2: Pour in a few spoons of shampoo ( I used garnier fructis, this is probably only so that it will lather a bit)

Step 3: That's it, done. Use the beer shampoo.

I must admit, my hair felt good after using this beer shampoo although the smell from heating the beer did make my apartment seem like it was recovering from a bad beer hangover!

P.S Just a reminder, please read the disclaimer before attempting anything I write on this blog and the disclaimer's not updated either, so you're pretty much on your own here.

52 weeks

 I just crossed 52 weeks off my make-shift calendar, 52 weeks out of which some days just went by like a blur and other days which seemed frozen in some perverse time-experiment. This is also now my longest ever stretch without having made a trip back home.

It was a journey of a 62 hours undertaken with hope mainly for the future, for the unknown, for change (as much as it terrifies me) If my travel woes to getting here were any indication of things to come, then I should have simply taken the next flight back home :-) The hope still remains, though the words have had to be re-arranged through a tumultuous journey, although it may be for something different. It's not about getting priorities right, that's one thing that's been straight in my head for as long as I can remember, it's probably about taking comfort and solace in those small little nice things (something about counting your blessings?) as difficult as it may be to find them when your eyes are all blurry. It is about not letting it get to you if other people think you are not good enough and when you are judged for all that's not in your control and trust me I can sit here now all high and mighty and write this, but it's not easy to implement, everything in life is a work in progress.

The hardest part about moving to a new city is the settling in, the first few weeks when you wonder what you are doing thousands of miles away from your loved ones and you don't really know anyone around, but I've found it's not the case. The initial months are always the best, everyone is very enthusiastic in getting to know and just forming friendships. In the kind of circumstances we live in, there's always people moving out, getting married and then it's harder to keep up the social setting. This is also my first time in a multi-vendor team, more on that after I move out of the team :) Okay, this is sounding very Oprah-esque now. Must Stop.

'One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand'

12:57

The cooking range clock and the microwave clock were blinking 12:57, it couldn't have been AM since I could see the sun streaming in through the window shades and on my groggy eyes. My first thought was that I had somehow turned off the main switches for both the microwave and the range.

I turn off the mains for the heater as sometimes it gets uncontrollably hot and the heater knob seems to be mal-functioning, I hear ya ... I need to put in a maintenance request for that like I've been meaning to for the past two weeks, one of these days for sure!

Anyway, so I go check the mains and despite my still slightly dazed state of mind, I can see that all the switches are in the 'ON' position like the way they are supposed to be. I then fiddle with microwave and can see that it works fine and the range too. Finally it strikes me! I check the time on that little travel clock and its blinking 12:58 in not so much glory and likewise on the range and microwave too!

For the life of me, I honestly believed it to be closer to 3 PM or so! maybe it had to do with my successful attempts at making panpole (finally) and consuming them non-stop with that tomato chutney and copious amounts of chai or it had something to do with that mid-noon dream, I remember nothing of! In any case, 12:57 it was!

Snow footprints

I absolutely enjoy putting in my footprints on fresh pristine snow. There's so many emotions attached to that simple act, I can't begin to explain it. It probably stems from my slightly obsessive attitude towards order, I haven't figured it out yet!

I can sit hours looking at the snow fall on the side-walks, on the grass, on what was once the road and not bother doing anything else. The act of looking back and seeing your footprints or rather I must say shoe-prints is exhilarating, uplifting, simple as it may be.

Try it, it sure will give you a good feeling.

Here's a slightly skewed measurement of the snow we got this past weekend.

C'est La Vie

And as long as it does not hit the fan, it’s all good and even if it does hit the fan, as long as it does not hit you, it’s all good and even if it does hit you as long as you can clean up good, then it’s all good, maybe it was even worth it, maybe you’ve learned something, maybe it will enrich you!

That’s 2009 for me.

Spending the first four months of the year in my hometown sparked some much needed realization, re-thinking and resolutions. In retrospect, I think the initial charm of working in Mangalore had just started wearing off. It was an almost annihilation vs acclimatization scenario at work too.

Then the assignment, having heard of the single street, desi dominated culture, I was kinda prepared for what I was getting into. However I really got off the wrong foot on the start of the trip itself with trying to postpone the trip by a week so that I could cast my vote in the Loksabha elections (missed polling day by 3 days). I think it was disappointing with my enthusiasm for administration and politics at their zenith during the time especially considering the efforts to oust ‘anti-secular’ candidates, not that it was successful in the end and not that my vote would have made a difference to the result!

I did not particularly enjoy playing the lead role that was forcefully thrust on me in the movie that was titled with a literal definition of being taking for a ride in Mumbai and then having to deal with the most arrogant staff at the ATL airport was just over the top! Thanks to them, I missed my connecting flight and was subsequently on stand-by for 3 more and then had to spend a day in Atlanta, all this after a painful 17 hr journey plus the 15 hours in transit!

From the Pacific Northwest to Northwest Arkansas, the differences are stark. Of course, it’s not the geographies of a place that make or break you, it is the people. Nothing much changes at the workplace and even if it does, I don’t want to dwell on it here. Slightly averse to workplace friendships, looking back, it’s been a good year with friendships and despite all the long distance friends I have, I can count at least one good friend here.

Where would I be without my long distance friends? Be it the innumerable travel tales or the little pieces of advice on health-care, the constant cribbing about your ex employer or ex girlfriend, the countless pictures from every single occasion back home, the process of learning to climb trees while rediscovering myself in the most surreal ways, smiling more and being a part of me while I made sure my glass is always half full (be it with wine or vodka or more recently whisky!) . You’ve stood by me through the rain and snow, you are very much appreciated. And to my sister, you are beautiful in every single way, you are loved.

If you blame me for the decisions you made in life, fine. Get on with it, move on, I still love you, there’s no two ways about it.

To my two best friends who are expecting babies on the very same day and coincidentally on my ma’s birthday, I wish you the very best and to my friend who’s facebook status can no longer say ‘single and complicated!’ you’ll be okay, you have a beautiful future ahead of you and don't forget the enlightenment you still owe us ;’). To all that’s been amiss in 2009 may it find its right path, to each of you, to all that you do in this year, may it make you happy, may you have no regrets and at the end of the day, take the time to wait for the smile that the eyes began and keep smiling.

And now this sounds like a speech! Happy New Year 2010.

Feliz Natal

Merry Christmas to you all.

May this season serve as a reminder that the old has passed, there’s a new beginning.
It's a time for rejoicing in all that we see
A time for living, a time for believing
A time for trusting, not deceiving
A time for giving, a time for getting
A time for forgiving and for forgetting
A time for hating and fighting to cease.

Gulping down Beaver Lake!

I think the weather of the past few days was the tipping point and the fact that most folks here seemed all set to resign themselves to a life indoors at the first signs of the fall season! Of course, we will not be joining their ranks anytime soon and are taking a few shots at the highly famed outdoor life here. This post will only talk about a few realizations from yesterday, I admit August is usually the month for realizations, but we'll get back to August and all of its life pondering questions at a later point!

This was my first shot at jetskiing, not counting the kinda jetskiing from years ago at the Calangute beach. The brave ones, me included signed up to jet ski while the others rented a very uncomfortable looking fishing boat! (well, for the only reason that no other boat was available to rent)

A few of my realizations!
1. I can't ride a Harley-Davidson nor a jet ski, my good ole' scooty is perfect (although she doesn't belong to me anymore!)
2. The water in Beaver Lake does not taste any different from the tap water in my apartment.
3. It took me precious seconds, maybe about 10-15 to realize that I could actually float with the life jacket on.
4. Rafting actually seems like a lot more fun and safer option (the life-vests were more snug too).
5. I can still talk coherently when I think I am going to drown!
6. Speed thrills until the realization of being surrounded by vast expanses of water on a speeding water motor bike with cranky waves cranks up the nerves!
7. Knowing how to swim, it would do wonders for my slight water paranoia.
8. A fishing boat with a steam engine can notch up a good speed too, but it's no good for your back!
9. I can narrate the Cinderella story to a bunch of grown-ups with ease!




And to top it all, can you imagine getting pecked by these ugly looking fish? (luckily I was not) and I don't think it would have felt like getting a pedicure!
p.s: Most important, I will be forever grateful to the person who saved my life.

Peter man no more!

He named his mansion 'Neverland' and he apparently used an anti-aging chamber (if such a thing exists!) the man who refused to grow up is no more.

My tryst with Michael Jackson began with the 'thriller' and how could anyone not be amazed by the brilliant performer that he was (he had darker skin then!). My mom sure was. The opening sequence of 'Black or White' with Macaulay Culkin was played over and over when it was released. The head shaking and the disobeying parents part I guess was just so fascinating to us kids! I even picked the picture of his 'Dangerous' album cover from my bro's t-shirt as the project for my fabric painting class! Heal the World and 'We are the World' were the most popular songs for any kind of group singing in school.

The dichotomy of MJ is hard to understand but then why would normal people want to? Who is a celebrity without their crazy share of eccentricities but somehow in this case it was harmful to others too. Dangling a baby, child molestation (I know it was alleged but why settle? and his statements where he talks about 'Sharing the love' seem damning)are inexcusable. And then are the not so nice Urban Dictionary words that seem to have spawned out of the whole situation, face masks, bleaching, prescription use and bankruptcy all in the same breath.

When the news broke I had an inkling and then TMZ reported his death almost immediately without any confirmation & the rest is history created by twitter along with the buzz on the celebrity death in 3's phenomenon!, the news channels and all of us.

Despite all, he was one of the greatest performers of our time and one of the most well known persons in the world today.

A painter for a day

Amidst production support and warranty support activities, the Community Service day was something to look forward to but who would have anticipated the hoops that employees of *certain* companies had to go through to be a part of such an enriching activity! I did get though the hoops and later realized that I was the only one representing my company, good for me and it’s really a shame that no one else from my organization wanted to be a part of this!

Community Service day is a yearly event with a number of options/groups that one could register for including Habitat for Humanity, Horses for Healing, Youth Bridge. I had initially opted for the Food Bank of NWA which involved shelving and packaging of food but then as my luck would have it, they were overloaded with volunteers and I got a chance to move to the ‘Rebuilding Together’ team.

All I knew of the event was that we had to gather by 7:30 AM at a local lady’s house with specific instructions on what not to wear. The bottom-line wear something you are ready to discard! After completing the formalities of signing up, sticking up name tags on the front & back of our shirts (so that someone can holler out your name when you are about to fall off a ladder!) we were all set for a make-over. Our project was to rebuild Linda's house, a modest two bedroom house which had seen its fair share of wear and tear. The officials from Rebuilding Together explained the process of selection and eligibility criteria for such projects including low income, county boundaries etc.

The group was divided into two, one with the hammers for the exterior work and the rest with the brushes for the interior painting. I was generously drowned in sunscreen so thought I’d pick up the hammer but the paint brush seemed to be calling my name. I did think painting was a relatively easy job but changed my view after an enormous amount of taping, roller painting (this was the best part), intricate edge painting, ceiling painting (no fun when you have to stand on a ladder and paint right above your head!) and a little bit of exterior painting too.

The painters were mainly responsible for three rooms, walkways & some bit of exterior, two coats of paint later and it was a beautiful sight to see. The exterior group had a hard time mainly due to the sun and humid conditions; they did a brilliant job of siding, fixing up the windows, doors and replacing a bit of the roof too. Of course the amateurs could not be compared to Nate but the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures were proof of the phenomenal work we did.

The day ended with an after party to celebrate and learn about the accomplishments of all teams with food and games.

Yes, I did get paint all over me and in my hair. I ruined a pair of pants, shoes and shirt but I could not have been more content.