Random Randomness #26/2009

June 28, 2009 at 3:54 pm · Filed under Personal, Randomness, Realité, Thoughts, thoughts to think

Random Comebacks:
Its been almost 3 months since I pursued something pure, this weekend pure pursuits has made a comeback guys, check out my insecurities.

Random Pleasures:
There are simple things which can bring you greatest of the pleasures. It had been a long long time, since I had two things to the side of my rice, not that I cannot cook them, just have not been doing that. Sunday afternoon, for some reason I decided to cook two things apart from the curds, so it was like a proper lunch at home. Three servings of rice, with two sides and curds, such a simple path to an afternoon of bliss. lo

Random Wonders:
I have never believed in telepathy, just one of those things which keeps puzzling scientists around the world, and to you it just means one of fancy miracles not meant for common people. Put strangely I have had almost three situations where I am forced to think otherwise. I am almost sure its just a coincidence, but if you just go by definitions, It would be hard for me to not to categorize them as telepathy, well one good thing has been all three have made things better and  not worse, so am not complaining :)

Random Movies:
I had read good reviews of the movie ‘hangover” at more than one place, so caught it online on friday night. Unfortunately, I did not like it even for a bit, not my brand of humor at all. May be its one of those movies which impressed almost everyone but me, just like the Titanic.

Random Vacation:
Guys its vacation time once again, Independence day has brought some freedom to me,  I am off to New york and from there to Niagara falls for two days, the other two days is not yet planned, and might be spent in some beach town along the Atlantic coast. I would have just sprung in joy normally at a thought of such a vacation, let me just say it hasn’t happened so far this time around.

Random Weather:
The weekend has been HOT, with temperatures reaching 107/8 on Saturday, it makes me realize how shielded we are in Bangalore with extremities when it comes to weather. The humidity was horrible, I got a headache when I walked in the sun for about 3 blocks on friday evening, and I dont think I can wear jeans and walk in this heat anymore, shorts are a must I guess.

Random Realization:
Words can be so harsh, even a simple comment can really hurt others, so guys I request please watch what you say, however close the friend is, even if you do not mean what you are saying, please be careful with the words you choose, people can be hurt real bad with them. Just do not make careless statements, specially when you don’t know how much the topic you are speaking about means to that person.

Random Yearnings:
You remember the game show, KBC? or for non Indians, “Who wants to be a millionaire”, you remember one of the lifelines “Phone A Friend’?. Well I really wanted to use that option this weekend.

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How could I miss the obvious

June 25, 2009 at 8:17 pm · Filed under "Theory of pursuit", Thoughts, thoughts to think

At 27 you cannot really say one is naive. I can say, I have seen world, a little, if not the whole. Its good enough amount of time to develop perceptions and thoughts over various subjects, develop views and establish priorities. Over time we focus so much on our views and our line of thought, we tend to ignore the other obvious things. Just because we dont see it as a possibility, or people around us do not think in those lines, we tend to forget the alternate lines. Some times most obvious ones end up being snubbed, just because we havent seen things that way.

Recently I was having a casual discussion on various topics with a friend, and suddenly a topic of concern to her came up. This topic has been a social concern for ages now, and for some reason I had never thought of it as a major concern because it never happens around us. Just consider something like preventing a widow remarriage, female infanticide, pressure for a male child etc.. To be honest, these are the most alien things to me, because I have never seen or heard of cases such as these in my immediate family or in my social circle. So I am kind of blinded to such issues, I do not think much about them, nor think they are serious issues. But honestly we all know they do exist in our society. When someone comes up to you and asks, “would you insist on a male child?”, you would say a big NO, and think is this a real concern?, but when you think about it from the others perspective it probably is a big concern, because every day we see so many cases reported in newspapers about such problems.

At the end the concern makes more sense than my view, or rather lack of it towards the concern, and leaves me wondering how could I miss such an obvious one.

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Beauty and the geek

June 23, 2009 at 6:57 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

She likes the moon.

She’s began to thrown in nice hints, once in a while.

If I had a list, she would strike most of the lines.

What next?

Comments off

Destined homes

June 22, 2009 at 3:46 pm · Filed under "Theory of pursuit", Thoughts, thoughts to think

Have you ever seen a person, who after years living at a place moves to a different place, extremely alien to his/her habitat, and just gels with it. Its as though he was born to be in that place, and finally he has reached his destination, rather, his home.

I am definitely not talking about myself here.

I have seen couple of people who have changed so drastically with new places, and got in terms with the changes so well that, you look at them, after a gap of years, and mentally compare them with the person you know, and you kind of have a feeling, what was this person doing back then, he is so much more of a personality he was cut out to be, in this new place.

I have also seen people who cannot buy the fact, the other person is happy. I mean so what if he or she does not remain the same person, so what if he/she is no longer what you consider is best for him. Its finally his/her life and they are enjoying it in a way, probably they wanted to all their life, and just weren’t at the right place for it.

Thinking of  the subject, reminds me of this song “home” by Foo Fighters.

P.S People I have finally done it, I have gone back to where I began from. Only people who seem to be reading me these days are the ones who land up here looking for something via the search engines, just the way it was when virtual ramblings began. I seem to have driven all my readers away.

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converse-ation

June 20, 2009 at 9:21 pm · Filed under Thoughts, thoughts to think

Happiness cannot be measured in terms of how big the accomplishment was, which caused it.

here I was, all the while thinking the converse was true

The bigness of accomplishment cannot be measured in terms of how much happiness it caused.

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Random Randomness #0609

June 14, 2009 at 1:13 pm · Filed under Moi, Randomness, Realité, Thoughts, thoughts to think

Random Randomness is back guys..

Random Creativity:
Sheer talent and creativity in this poem amuses me, people can be so talented, and considering that they are still so young in terms of age, and yet to have so many new experiences, makes it even more amusing. But currently I am just bowled over by this poem by a fellow blogger Felicity titled “Escape Velocity“

Random Announcements:
Its official, I can no longer fit into my old pants. I have dropped down more than 2 inches, and pants of my old size now can slide down my hips, I dont know if it is good or bad, but I can tell you I am not complaining. The beer belly shows up occasionally but as long as I can keep it under check I think I should be fine. The new waist size is kind of a dilemma when I go clothes shopping as I doubt if I will stay at this size so am confused to buy the old size which I no longer fit into, or go for the new one which I may not stay in for a long time.

Random Realization:
I am always quick to note changes in me, and this time as well I wasn’t late. I always wondered about American food habits, the idea of a breakfast bar never appealed to me, corn flakes always felt like an after breakfast snack, never enough, and 6:30pm always a snack time to me rather than dinner. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not judging anyone, just that I could never see myself having a bar for breakfast. Yesterday, I realized, I kind of had a 11:30 lunch, a 2 O clock grande shake for a snack, and dinner at 6pm. Just surprising how we change/adopt to our surroundings even without realizing. As far as breakfast goes, for a man who has grown up on big heavy breakfast, the idea of a breakfast bar still appears alien, however I seem to have accepted the idea of considering a tall milk shake as a filling item of food, and not just a side as it used to be.

Random Book-ies:
I am having a little off time when it comes to books, not getting hold of good ones. I finished reading the “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir” by Bill Bryson. It was an okey sort of book, did not enjoy reading it much. I followed that with an impulsive pick at the library titled “Dancing naked” by Mary Rogers. This was some localized literature, a collection of memoirs from texans, and I thought it would be good to know more about local people, unfortunately it turned out to be too repetitive and found it boring to read, I ended up giving up after half the book, I could not keep myself going.

Random Foodie:
The weekend has been good so far food wise. Have you ever felt drunk on cheese?, I got to experience this on Friday night. A visit to a local Italian restaurant meant that I got to try something new, baked ziti, made vegetarian by order. This was something people recommended online, and hence  I tried. It was good and in right quantity, but it had so much of cheeze, at the end of the meal, I kind of had a cheeze hangover of sorts. Saturday was time for some hispanic food, and it didnt disappoint either.

Random Realities:
This weekend for the first time in almost 5 months here, I felt lonely. I am not sure why this weekend, but I kind of felt a need for company, I wanted someone to talk to, someone whom I could hang out with. I wasn’t desperate, but definitely the want was there. I had my usual set of  books and movies, but the mood wasn’t there, infact I did not want to call up anyone either, just missed people around, may be a good coffee,  or a laughter with people would have helped.

Random Entertainment.
I have been having a good streak when it comes to movies, a number of old hindi movies which I have been wanting to watch for a long time now, or have watched so long back and have forgotten, It began with Teesri manzil, followed it up with “Woh Kaun thi’, ‘Kaalapani”, “Chasme Baddur”, “Katha”. even though none of them were extra ordinary enough to force me to watch them again, but it was fun to watch them and enjoyed the music as well.

Random Humor:
Watching movies reminds me of some late night humor, the other night I was watching the movie “kaalapani” lying on living room floor. Of course I had a stack of pringles and a bottle of beer by my side for my share of refreshments, As i began watching the movie, sipping beer once in a while, the movie did grow on me, but there was one more thing which grew on me quicker, that was my sleep. Suddenly I was startled by a splash of something on my face, it turns out that I had dozed off watching the movie, and its been over 45 minutes, and suddenly the open bottle of beer in my hand had splashed onto my face. Poor me, had to wash the blanket and pillow case to get rid of the smell.

Random Wonders;
I have always wondered whats the USP of twitter, I have never understood why people would be interested in what I  got to say like N times a day, more importantly does anyone in this world care to read and follow me so often?, I dont know the twitter has never caught onto me. Knowing how late I am to adopt to the new  “in’ things, its not a surprise that twitter is not a big hit in rambler world, so far.

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My vacation in parts – 2

June 11, 2009 at 8:08 pm · Filed under Moi, Personal, Taking a break

Continued from here.

The beer sampler did the trick, for the first time on my vacation I slept until 8am PST, that was a big change considering its 10am my time, and finally I was able to get rid of the red eyes, which everybody were making fun of.

Third day was when we were supposed to drive upto Seattle, since most of my cousins are late raisers, the plan got pushed from 8 am to 10:30 am departure. My aunt had made interestingly pongal out of sevai, which apparently they prepare a lot, and I had never tasted it before. Considering its a south Indian dish, I found it odd that I had never tried it before.

My niece T gave me a good hour of  “Yo! Gabba Gabba” and “wow wow Wubzy”, it was fun with her explaining what she sees on tv, as we spent time on the couch as others were getting ready.

Drive to Seattle was fun filled with lot of kodbale’s [snack] to be munched and most importantly a discussion I had with one of my cousin as my aunt slept on the back seat, the discussion went beyond an hour and a half, and we spoke a lot of things about his experiences and changes to lifestyle of an Indian who has settled in America for about more than 15 years, and also his point of view of the boom we are seeing in Bangalore, and the attitude. We spoke about investments, education, and also finances. It was by far the most productive discussion in the trip, enjoyed it totally though very much different from the other conversations I had during the vacation.

As we entered Seattle downtown, we began seeing some really cool looking buildings, and we ended up in the downtown to see the “space needle”, the first stop for the day. Apparently there was a fair near that place celebrating memorial day, so it was fun waiting in the queue  listening to native American music. As it was the first sunny weekend in Seattle, I could see lot of women interestingly dressed, or should I say undressed ;) . Was fun all in all.

The Space Needle

The Space Needle

The view from there was superb, and I liked the idea of having a bar up at such heights, unfortunately I could not taste any of the wine because my aunt and uncle were  present. We spent quite some time looking around the place, and also it was pretty crowded.

View from up there

View from up there

As we began to leave the place, we got hooked onto the gift shop and the family portrait they had shot of us, it had come out really good, and we all wanted a copy of that, so this meant my cube at work has a small frame sitting reminding me of every the good times.

For the first time I rode mono rail in Seattle, to get to pike’s market. It was fun and a new experience, even though it was nothing different than a bus, just in shape of a train, the view from it was good.

Pike’s market in Seattle is so much like our avenue road in Bangalore, but slightly less congested and right in front of the ocean. We had fun walking around the place, even though it stinks like hell in there with all kinds of meat being sold. We walked around, goofed around, sat in the park chatting and finally by evening we started our way back to Portland, after a stop for dinner at a joint which serves Indian version of the American pizza. Even though I don’t prefer it, it was fun in group.

I spent the whole trip back sleeping on the back seat, I did not realize 4 hours of drive, when we reached home, we all were tired and just slept like log.

The last day of vacation was supposed to be just home. We had a feast ala a festival which my aunt had prepared, including all south Indian festival food. A perfect send off meal. We did go out to do some memorial day shopping, and I did buy few shirts but we did not have much time so we hurried up.

Finally we had reached the toughest part, saying goodbyes, its horrible to see your vacation end, specially when you have loved it. I did not want it to end at all. Considering that I had to return to he cubeland to horrible queue of meetings the next day.T fell asleep and was totally out of mood, so it was sad we could not have a cheerful goodbye from her, however we just hung at the airport talking for sometime, finally it was time to pass through security.

I had an interesting lady sitting next to me in flight to Denver, she was an old African American lady, who carried a novel with a very sleazy cover. We spoke a lot over next few hours, discussing books, and also family, India, and her work, and my work. She even offered me a drink which she had carried along with her, unfortunately I don’t like the scotch, so had to turn her down.

I had a layover at Denver for a night, the sleep there was horrible, I have never seen an airport which has chairs in such a bad shape, however you try, you could not rest your head. I did try to sleep on the floor for a bit, but carpet cleaners woke me up periodically. Finally I gave up and just woke up.

Reached Texas after a awkward flight from Denver to Dallas. There was a nursing mother sitting next to me, and its really uncomfortable with her feeding her baby now and then, and me being totally embarrassed and trying to look the other way, anyways that forms another big topic for discussion later.

So until next vacation, adios.

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Does Media think?

June 9, 2009 at 4:18 pm · Filed under "Theory of pursuit", Request, Thoughts, thoughts to think

I read about this great child participant in one of the talent shows over “here“, Me being a big fan of new voices, had to check out this new girl who was supposed to be amazing. I started googling for an online place where I can watch the show and the singer.Yep the girl Shalini is very talented, it would be interesting to know how she can adopt to other genres of songs.

As I was watching the show, which began with a cheap imitation of the hum – tum type of animation, but with a kiddo touch to it, for few minutes I was annoyed at the plagiarism, and lack of original ideas in the media these days, but the worst was to follow.

The format of the show did not require virtual compere’s, but to attract kids probably they threw in some animation. They needed a story plot to keep the narration going right, so what did they choose, boys vs girls. I don’t understand one thing, why do they want to make everything battle of the sexes, atleast please leave the kids out of this.

For the Nth time,  its not a boy or a girl who won or win these talent shows, it is the talent and their musical ability. If you can’t see this simple fact, you should not be creating a musical show. I have seen this being used in every single talent show being shown on TV, last 3 seasons its a boy who is winning, so this time we want it to be a girl. I generally don’t use swear words, but these lines on TV makes me wanna say WTF is wrong with you people, don’t you want a good singer to win, who cares whats dangling or absent down there,  on that person.

When you take kids below 10 and make a show, I am sure the target audience is mainly kids as well. When kids are watching, and every now and then someone comes up to them and says, girls need to win this time, or the boys are much better, what message are we sending?. In the era where we speak of gender bias, isn’t this a biggest example of it?. when will we grow up and start accepting responsibilities to tell the right things to people, and not focus on this mindless sexist propaganda which for some reason media thinks motivates people.

There have been really famous people who have come in these shows and made these remarks, and everytime I have heard about that, I have lost the respect for that person.

I am not sure when the media realizes, its not a war of the sexes out there. I was and am still am, one of those extremely competitive people. I may not win in all of them, but I always sulk and wine and try to compete in every possible thing, but it has always been competition with a person and has never been with the gender. I don’t think that is a big deal, because I have never met anyone who says, man I got to beat someone because I dont want women winning it. Be honest guys how many of you have spoken to or even felt this one. Lets assume some of us are not up to the mark and do feel this way, but do we want our next generation to be on the same lines?.

Now having said all this, I do admit that I am nothing but just a whiner, I do continue to watch those shows and be furious when they continue to do such idotic mistakes.

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Saturday night fever

June 7, 2009 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Foodie

I have to admit, only women who don’t know men well, will agree with Konkana Sen’s grandmother from the movie omkara. If you have watched the movie, you would remember the cheesy dialogue ‘aadmi ke dil ka rasta uske pet se nahi neeche se khulta hai” [The path to man's heart is not through his stomach, but some place down below]. If you know foodie’s like me, not just man’s heart but all path’s to eternal bliss goes through people’s stomach.

I always wonder, what would I have done without a tongue, I can leave without any part of my body but my tongue.

After a long relaxing day I realized, cravings are not something pregnant women can claim the ownership for, as I discovered an unsupressable urge for a post dinner snack, specially the mirchi bhujia, or what I would say mansinkai bonda. [This is a snack made out of hot green peppers].

Even though I could not find the simla mirchi, and was too chicken to try the hari mirch which I have tried before and had a horrible day to follow it with. I settled for some capsicum as a good substitute.

Scene of Crime

Scene of Crime

People look at the time, for a self claimed lazy fellow, doing this at 10:30 on Saturday night was even more surprising, and no you cannot comment on how messy the cooktop looks.

In the making

In the making

There were moments when I could not wait for it to finish.

Ultimate satisfaction

Ultimate satisfaction

And not forget to mention the bottle of cold beer which went amazingly well completing a foodie Saturday night.

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Why do we do this?

June 3, 2009 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Realité, Thoughts

I had the opportunity to visit an Indian restaurant for the first time on this visit, this weekend. Like my all previous experiences, this too was bad. I hate Indian food in the US, if you ever want to cite an example how Indian food should not taste, the food here in Indian restaurants would automatically qualify.

Anyways the point of the post is something else, I  went to that place with an Indian family. The family had middle aged couple, and a 11 year old son. We finished our buffet, and all through it the boy was complaining about the cup sizes, he genuinely felt the restaurant should have had bigger bowls, making it easier for us to dip our dosas nan and idli’s.

When the time came to pay the bill and go out, the boy spotted a suggestion box, and with all enthusiasm wanted to write in a complaint/suggestion asking them to keep bigger bowls. As we had already come out of the restaurant he ran out to inform us to wait for him when he fills it.

Immediately the parents response to the boy was something like this, “hey baro saku, [hey come, its enough], do you really think they are going to read your suggestion?.”

I am sure the boy would have thought, why the hell do they have suggestion box, if they don’t read it.

Why do we, elders do this?, demotivate the younger ones, don’t you think we need to make him feel positive, and let me really tell people what he has to say.? so what if they don’t read it, atleast he can feel that he has done his side of the job.

Is it the problem with all of us Indians?, the boy was born and bought up here in America, and I have seen most of the people here really care about these things, if they have some suggestions they do give it, not like us whiners.

Why do we do this to our younger ones.

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