Colors of Life

Ten minutes of greenery

2009-07-16T13:45:00.000-04:00

Sikkim has been doing its bit for Mother Earth. Numerous efforts and policies have been undertaken as a part of its ongoing "Green Mission". Plastic bags have been effectively banned for many years now. It practices organic farming and the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, etc is banned.

Such efforts by the Government of Sikkim has earned the CM the title of the Greenest Chief Minister and the state is now often referred to as the Green State, having successfully managed to increase the forest cover in state from 38% to 46% in few years and making "living green" as a way of life for the Sikkimese people.

Sikkim Government recently organized a unique program called "Ten minutes of greenery". This initiative called upon the entire 6 lakh population of Sikkim to plant trees for 10 minutes on July 15th starting at 10.30am anywhere within the state boundaries. A fellow blogger writes that the event was a huge success with over 6 lakh saplings being planted.

You can read more about the event here.

My First Vishu - again!

2009-04-15T23:33:00.003-04:00

Well, I can consider this year's Vishu as my first (again) because this was officially the first Vishu of our wedded life. I had written about this festival a couple of years ago, when I had set up the Vishu kani as a surprise for V.

Below is a picture of our kani for this year. This time it is a little bit more authentic due to the more bounteous presence of yellow color and of course the Vilakku lamp. Hopefully the next time will will have an idol of Guruvayoor Krishna to make it more complete.

On the new year day, I woke up early in the morning when I felt V's hand over my eyes. I remembered it was Vishu, and he guided me downstairs towards the kani. I opened my eyes and V prompted me to look at each and every thing that symbolizes prosperity. It felt lovely! He then gave me some token money known as Vishu Kaineettam which is given by elders to youngsters during this day.

Though a little bit late, I wish you all a very Happy Vishu, Naya Barsha, Vaishakhi, Puthandu, Nabo Borsho and Bihu.

One hour can change the world

2009-03-25T16:30:00.003-04:00

Its that time of the year again. March 28th from 8:30PM till 9:30PM is the Earth Hour. Be sure to turn off the lights!

A one-of-a-kind event

2009-03-16T10:58:00.007-04:00

This piece of information is so interesting, that I had to share with you all. Two books are to be launched in Sikkim soon. What's so special about it? Well, read on and you will know!...

Here's an excerpt from the launch announcement:

It gives us great pride to announce that our two Friends at Rachna are soon to do a worldwide release of their books here at our showroom. While this certainly is the first of its kind event in Sikkim, what will make it doubly extraordinarily special is the fact that two are a father-daughter team.

Dechen P Tenzing is a 9th grader and has been working on her comic book "Wolf's Fang" for a long time. This comic, stylised in the popular manga fashion, is undoubtedly going to be the first manga comic to come out of India. The layout and design for this comic is underway in the able hands of Sokpa Productions, a design studio in Gangtok. The venture is being published by Dechen's father P.G.Tenzing.

Mr Tenzing took voluntary retirement after serving in the Indian Administrative Services for 20 years and went on a 23,000 kilometer motorbike expedition all over India. His experiences and encounters are chronicled in the book "Don't Ask Any Old Bloke For Directions". This book, published by Penguin India, is going to have a worldwide release along with Dechen's "Wolf's Fang" at Rachna Books sometime in mid March.

The launch has been scheduled for 23rd March 2009. So if you happen to be in Gangtok around that time, be sure to be a part of it. You can read more about this event @ rachnabooks.com

Link: Coverage of the event in The Telegraph, India.

Mr. Weatherhog forecasts long winter

2009-02-02T14:13:00.009-05:00

2nd of February which is the Christian holiday of Candlemas, is also popularly known as the Groundhog Day. It is believed that today when a groundhog emerges from its burrow, if it sees its shadow, then winter is going to be long and will continue for 6 more weeks. On the other hand, if it does not see its shadow, the winter will be short and spring is around the corner.

This year's star groundhog is a furry big little thing called Punxsutawney Phil hailing from a small town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania. Today when Phil emerged from his burrow after a long and cozy hibernation, he cast a shadow (since the day is bright today) and forecasted a long dreary winter.

So, as per our tiny little weatherman, I still have chance to wear some of the jackets that have remained untouched this entire winter!

Only in America

2009-01-22T13:45:00.004-05:00

During our Christmas gift shopping spree, we went to this one store and got a couple of items, one for $10 and another for $25. We used a $10 off $25 coupon and with taxes, we got both the items for a total for $26.48.

Turns out, we ended up not gifting the $25 item to anyone. And since we ourselves didn't have any particular use of it, we decided to return it.

So, a few days ago I went back to the store to return it....and guess what, with taxes I got a refund of $26.49. That's 1c more than what we paid for! The $10 item we had got was completely free! The girl at the counter did realize something was wrong, but she couldn't do anything about it.

This can happen only in America!

New girl on the block

2009-01-14T11:08:00.017-05:00

After watching the well deserved sweeping win of Slumdog Millionaire at the Golden Globe, I have been extremely impressed with - not Dev Patel, not Danny Boyle, not even A R Rahman - but with Freida Pinto, the girl who plays the character of adult Latika, the love interest in the movie.

While watching the movie, I was more engrossed in the amazing direction and awesome acting by the child artists - and so failed to notice her as anything more than a "regular" actor. But when I saw her on the stage with Shah Rukh Khan at the Golden Globe awards, I was struck by her confidence and her ability to hold herself alongside SRK.

Since then we have been scouring YouTube to catch what we can about her and the movie. And while at it, we came to know that these two young debutantes, Dev Patel and Freida Pinto - have appeared in a number of television interviews in the US. And as we watched her interviews in various award ceremonies and TV shows, my admiration for her grew. Just see how well she handles herself with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show. Compared to much experienced Aishwarya's appearances on network television in the US and the difference is obvious. Freida is poised and confident, knows how to talk well and her command of the English language shows.

At this point, I would have linked to the You Tube video of Freida's appearance on The Tonight Show. But unfortunately, the video's been removed from YouTube by NBC due to copyright reasons.

No wonder that one of the top agencies in Hollywood, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) that represents the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, to name a few, has signed her up. The girl's gonna go places! Watch this space.

Aamir likes ShamWOW!

2009-01-05T15:07:00.010-05:00

I was reading the recent entries of Aamir Khan's blog....and one post Homeward Bound (Nov,06,2008) interested me. In that post he mentions about US tele-shop products and how they sell unusual stuff and how tempted he is to buy some of them.

One such product that he mentions is this piece of cloth with amazing absorbing power. I am pretty sure Aamir is talking about ShamWOW.

It has one of TV's most irritating salesperson ever featured in its advertisement. But every time the ad comes on TV, I end up watching the entire ad, no matter how many times I have already seen it or how annoying that guy is! I just dont know why! He is even worse than Billy Mays who normally markets a lot of similar products on TV, from Kaboom to Mighty Putty. Do check out the ShamWOW ad, if you haven't already seen it. Maybe you can explain to me why I get transfixed everytime I see it on TV?

Welcome 2009!

2009-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

2008 has been a pretty good year for me. I got married to V, need I say more?

However, I do know overall 2008 has been a rocky year for many, and here's a wish (or rather a prayer) from my side that may 2009 be a better year for all, bringing happiness, cheer and prosperity in our lives and may it fulfill one's deepest desires.

Wish you all a Very Happy 2009!

Sikkim girl in a Bollywood flick

2008-12-29T15:48:00.004-05:00

This morning, as I was browsing through the Internet, trying to get into my regular grind, back from a great 4 day vacation, I was pleasantly surprised to come across this piece of news:

A local Sikkim girl Geetanjali Thapa has been casted opposite Ranvir Shorey for an upcoming movie "Tina ki Chaabi".

Just look at her pic, isn't she gorgeous?

As I did more research on her, I found that she was the same girl who had acted in Myth which is the first English movie made in Sikkim by the local talent. The movie itself had won rave reviews. She was also crowned the Mega Miss North East in 2007.

Way to go Geetanjali! You make us all proud!!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-23T14:38:00.011-05:00

Aaah! Its finally Wednesday! Today we are leaving for Columbus, Indiana ... our "hometown" in US. Its been more than three years since I last went there, when V was still there. I have so many memories related to the place which has been fading over the years and I had been waiting for an occasion to go back and refresh them. Lots of our old friends are still there and those not there are also travelling to Columbus. So it's going to be a reunion of sorts.

Me and V have been spending hectic weeks doing X'mas shopping, finding the perfect gifts for our friends while trying to keep them all within our budget :) We have early release from work today, so we will be leaving right after work....that's like a couple of hours from now. Its a long drive of over 10 hours, but V and our friend S will be driving, so I can lounge in the back seat of the car with the control of the iPod in my hands! Buhahaha!

I shall be back on Sunday, so until then wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Hope you all have a fun and safe, warm and cosy holiday season!

Haunting San Antonio

2008-12-16T15:07:00.006-05:00

During the Thanksgiving weekend, we along with a few friends went for a trip to Texas. We were in Irving, a suburb of Dallas for a few days and had planned to drive to New Orleans, Louisiana from there for a day. However bad weather in New Orleans forced us to change plans and we ended up visiting San Antonio instead.

While in Irving we spent most of the time at our friends place with their kid. Other than that, we visited an ice sculpture exhibition called ICE! and also went for a rodeo show at nearby Fort Worth. Due to time constraints, I was unable to go to a Nepali restaurant there but did manage to have a great lunch at my childhood friend's place. Nepali restaurants are a hard find in US, so I was excited about it. Well, maybe next time.

San Antonio, though a small city, turned out to be very beautiful and well planned. A canal runs through the downtown which is lined with wonderful restaurants and lively pubs. You can walk along the canal, aptly called the River Walk and can even take a guided boat tour. We reached the River-Walk in the evening and spent quite some time walking around, enjoying the view and the people. The great weather also helped. While in Texas, how could we not have an "authentic" Tex-Mex food? Tex-Mex is basically a cuisine from Texas that is highly influenced by Mexican cuisine. After a scrumptious dinner, we went to a pub and spent a good time there.

The next day we went back to the downtown and checked out some tourist attractions like the Alamo where the Battle of Alamo had been fought. I found it very interesting that the battle was fought right where the San Antonio downtown now stands. While we were having our lunch back at the River-Walk, a friend of mine called and when I told him we were in San Antonio, he asked if we had been to the historical haunted site yet! Haunted!! My ears immediately popped up! I did a quick search on my iPhone ;-) and sure enough, there was a haunted place near town where you can experience the "haunting" yourself!

It seems that some time in 1940's and bus of school children were passing through a railway track when all of a sudden the bus stalled right when it was over the tracks and unfortunately an oncoming train hit the bus and six of the kids along with the bus driver died. Now, legend goes that till this date if one takes their vehicle to the railroad crossing and stop right in front of it and put it on neutral, unknown forces move the vehicle until you have safely crossed the tracks to the other side. That happens in spite of the fact that the road just before the tracks is inclined upwards! And to top it all, many people swear that when they spread baby powder over their car's rear bumper and once they were across the tracks when they examined their car, they could see distinct baby palm prints all over the bumper!

After reading about such an interesting place, we had to check it out. So we went to the location and we saw another vehicle in front of us trying the same thing. We stopped our car at a safe distance and watched the vehicle in front of us smoothly crossing the tracks. Of course, from where we stood, we couldn't make out if they drove over the tracks themselves of did little invisible hands actually helped them? We had to find this for ourselves. So we drove towards the tracks (and trust me, the tracks in front of us are at a steep upward inclination), stopped the engine and put in on neutral. Sure enough! We could feel our car smoothly moving towards the tracks, cross the tracks over to the other side! We were flabbergasted! Of course, there has to be some scientific explanation behind all this! We made a quick u-turn and tried it again. And yeah, it happened for the second time too! There were other cars there who were also trying more than once. I even saw some families peering closely at their rear bumpers for tiny hand prints.

It was quite an out-of-body experience for us, but I am sure there must be some valid explanation for this all. Still it was a fun thing to do! Once I got back home, I did more research and found people have posted their experience with videos and pictures and some have even carried out experiments and provided explanations too.

On our way back to Irving from San Antonio, we stopped at Bandera which is supposed to be the cowboy capital of the world. However, we didn't have enough time to spare to explore the town and the ranches there. We did however stop at a saloon where I tried my very first (and second) tequila shot. It was fun!

Life

2008-11-19T15:55:00.007-05:00

When I first read about Google making available the millions of photographs published in the Life magazine over the years, I was quite excited.

Long years ago, our bookshop used to sell the magazine and I remember leafing through them when I was a kid. Later on, when I was in middle school, I too had caught the "autograph" bug. We all wanted to have the "coolest" autograph or memorabilia book where our friends could write nice things about the owner of the book. I wanted to decorate my auto book with collage of pics of good looking people. So, I turned to these magazines. Our bookshop had closed by then and we had plenty of books and mags at our disposal. I cringe now, thinking of how stupid I was to have cut up such rare mags for the sake of my silly book! Brother, if you are reading this, do you think we still have some of them left? Or did I trash them all??

Anyway, like I said, I was quite excited about the latest Google antics. I have been browsing through the beautiful rare pics. And today I came across this picture.

This picture is from a collection of pictures taken in an Air India flight in 1946. I didn't know Air India even existed in the '40s!! And check out the air hostess' uniform. Its so chic! I wonder when did they change their uniform to the printed saris? Of course, I then went to Wikipedia to quench my thirst for knowledge about Air India and was pleasantly surprised to know that the airline was in fact founded in 1932! Who could have guessed? But the Wikipedia article is incomplete - no mention about air hostesses' uniforms!

Find more interesting Life pictures here.

Politics and Technology

2008-11-06T16:24:00.024-05:00

Like many people, we too were glued to the TV on the US Presidential election night. While V actually watched the election coverage the entire time, I went missing for a while to my friend's place to watch an election movie Recount, which focuses on the 2000 election between Bush and Al Gore and the mess that was Florida.

I know CNN has been the frontier in the election coverage since past many months, going on and on, day after day, hour after hour - bringing panel of experts from all fields discussing each and every aspect of the campaign.

But on Election Night, I was bowled over by CNN - not by their extensive coverage or detailed analysis, but by the technology they have used. The "Magic Wall" in the CNN studio is a piece of technology art - a huge multi touch screen on which Wolf Blitzer and the rest where swiping maps just by a flick of a finger. Just by a touch they could pull our charts and numbers. And it was so smooth and slick.

But the best part of it all was when they went all sci-fi and Star War-sy by beaming up a hologram image of a reporter who was located remotely, right into their studio! My! That was impressive to say the least. They even managed to beam in Will.i.am!

Learn more in cnn.com about the Magic Wall and the Hologram.

Miracle on Lakshmi Puja

2008-10-28T16:08:00.005-04:00

If this is not miracle, then what is?

All over the world today, people are celebrating Lakshmi Puja, worshiping Lakshmi - the Goddess of Wealth and look, the market's doing better after a long downward spell.

Happy Diwali to all of you. May the blessings be with you, now and forever!!

My top iPhone Apps

2008-10-08T15:27:00.031-04:00

Its been almost 4 months since I got my favorite toy, the iPhone. V calls me an iPhone addict coz I am always doing something on it. And with the load of applications available, I thought I would list my favorite ones. The best part is that all these applications are free!

AOL Radio: Its an Internet radio. What's cool about this is that I can access not only my local radio stations but local stations of other cities as well. It also has two Indian radio stations (both from NRI radio) but they mostly play Telegu/Tamil songs :(

Facebook: With the recent upgrades, the Facebook iPhone application has certainly gained the spot of being my favorite. It includes a whole lot of features which makes it a good replacement for the full fledged web version. Wish Orkut too comes up with one coz browsing Orkut via the in-built Safari explorer can be a bit tedious.

FlyCast: This is another Internet radio applications with radio stations categorized by genre/hits/era. They too have wide variety of stations including one Bollywood station. Infact I am listening to it right now and they are playing Suraj Hua Maddham from Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham.

Fring and Palringo: Fring is an instant chat client on which I can set up not only my Yahoo, MSN and Gtalk account, but also the Skype account. The most awesomest feature is that I can call my contacts through it - no talk time used! Palringo is a similar client where you can set up your regular chat accounts. You can not talk directly using this, but one cool feature in this is that you can send voice message and pictures to the other person. The picture can be from a saved one or taken directly using the iPhone camera.

Google (Mobile and Maps): The Google iPhone search includes Google Suggest which is very useful and accurate. Now, if there's an argument among my friends, its just a matter of few clicks to in/validate one's claims. The map application has a built-in GPS which has helped us a lot at times when we go exploring and (in)conveniently forgotten the GPS back home.

Midomi and Shazam: I had once written a post on Midomi. Both these applications listens to the song currently playing in your vicinity (you can sing or hum to it too) and it will find that songs in its huge database and tells you which song is playing, who is the artist, etc. It even provides you a link to iTunes store for you to buy the song. I have tried it a few times with Hindi songs, and they have that too in their database!

Now Playing: For a group of movie buffs, this handy application helps us find the show times and reviews of movies running at our nearby theatre. V found this very useful when he was staying in NYC for a few days with a friend and there within a few blocks you can find lotsa small theatres that show movies normally not played everywhere else. He ended watching some nice French movie.

Pandora: This is an iPhone application of the popular Pandora music service. Those of you who are unaware of Pandora should definitely check it out. Once you register (its free!) you choose a song to play and it will automatically create a playlist of similar songs. As you play songs from the playlist, you can mark it as whether you like it or not and it picks up future songs based on your choice. The more you play songs, the songs played will be more to your liking. And you can create multiple playlists.

Save Benjis: This application, as the name suggests, help you save money. (Benji stands for Benjamin Franklin whose picture is on all US$ 100 notes). All you need to do is enter the product name or bar code and it will list stores selling at products and the its price on each of them. We find this tool very useful like recently we was checking out this nice Corelle dinner set in Target and we entered the bar code and lo! found out it was cheaper in Amazon and they had more variety too!

Stanza: Stanza is an e-book reader. Its database includes a wide selection of books. I am currently reading Jane Austen's "Persuasion" which I somehow missed reading earlier. Downloading an e-book takes a few seconds and the font size is easy to read.

You Tube: What more can one ask for when one can watch a video on-the-go? Imagine getting to watch Rock On!! videos in the car on our way back from the theatre right after watching the movie! I have troubled my friends in recent road trips by playing them "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" songs from Disco Dancer and by M.I.A. I think they liked the Bappi Lahri version better :)

Alright...so the above are my favorite useful applications. Now below are few of my favorite games.

Aurora Feint: This is one of the coolest games available for free. Though initially it felt like Tetris and Bejeweled but as I played on I realised its more of a fantasy RPG game with crystals to collect and levels to gain and hidden powers to unleash. Great music and great graphics!

Dizzy Bee Free: This is a cute game with cuter graphics. The aim of the game is to help a buzzing bee save his friends from evil monsters. The free version has few levels and we had so much fun playing this game that we are thinking of buying the full version which is modestly priced at just $2.99.

Labyrinth Lite Edition: This game makes most use of the iPhone accelerometer. You tilt the iPhone to guide a steel ball from one end of a maze to the other without dropping it in the many holes along the maze. Slick graphics - the maze looks like its made in a wooden box and when you roll the ball, it makes sounds that actually feel like the real thing! Neato!!

Sol Free Solitaire: Out of the many free solitaire card games available this one's my favorite since it has neat graphics and games like Klondike and Spider. My favorite is its Demon game which is quite tough to break. I play this trying to up my overall score but mostly end up lowering it even more. :(

Space Monkey: Another cute game I recently discovered. According to the info, its free only for a short while. Like Wall-e, this cute monkey is left in space to collect trash. The more trash you collect, the more levels you cross. I have played only a few levels till now and now I have to play a yo-yo with one hand while collecting trash with my other hand and feet. Hours of senseless entertainment! :) This app is free only for a limited time, so get one soon!

Tap Tap Revenge: This is the iPhone version of the famous Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero in which instead of dancing or playing the guitar, you just tap the beats. If you get tired of the default songs provided, you can download more songs and whats more they even have a challenge mode where two players can compete and find out who's the best tapper!

Apart from the above mentioned games, there are many more free classic games like Sudoku, Pegs, Hangman and other board and word games. The list can be endless.

Apple App Store: And last but not the least. The Apple App Store has tons of apps, most of them free and they are adding new ones everyday. Their very own iPhone application is a great way to browse through these apps, and check out their ratings and reviews and download them right there. Their Top 25 list makes it easy to find apps, that are popular and it is by using this feature that I knew about most of the above apps, hence this app itself makes it to my favorite list.

Chatter

2008-09-23T16:32:00.005-04:00

I have always considered my childhood to be blessed. I had lovely dresses to wear, most of them stitched by my mom. She has a wonderful sense of style and was great with her hands. I remember us poring through "foreign" design magazines - me pointing at the prettiest and fluffiest of the dresses, and she trying to figure out if she can replicate them for me.

I had no complaints regarding food. Though like a typical kid, I used to hate most subjis, but provided I had my favorite Nepali tamatar ko achaar (tomato chutney) to dip my index finger and mix it with rice, I used to gobble up everything obediently. Due to tonsillitis, I was not allowed to have ice creams - had them only when we were out of town, like in Siliguri where the weather was warmer. Once, my doctor told me I can have ice-creams provided I heat them up first. I thought that was a great idea!! So what if it was a little bit warm! Silly me!

I had plenty of friends, both in school and home. Most of my "home friends" were my classmates - so I was one of the few lucky kids to have the same kid as my "home best friend" and my "school best friend". I had plenty of toys to share them with too. I feel extremely blessed that my earliest friends, right from the KGs are still in touch and we are still very close friends.

I used to get most of the toys that I wanted - maybe I knew when to limit my demands. Throughout my childhood, I only remember one incidence of me crying over some toy I wanted. We were in Nepal and I saw this toy sewing machine with which you can sew woolen threads over pictures of butterflies and flowers. I fell in love with it but my parents refused to get it for me. They tried to explain to me that it was expensive and how anyway at the Indian customs they would not allow us to take it back home and they will keep it for themselves. I cried and sulked the entire time we were at the mall.

But most of all I feel blessed because my childhood has been full of books. From the time I started to learn to read, I have been surrounded by books - starting right from the colorful nursery rhyme books with pop up cut outs. I remember as a kid I was always hungry for books. Apart from the books I used to get from the school library, I had also joined our local library. But that was not enough, so I used to get books from our bookstore too. At that time our bookstore was closed for business. I have always been a timid child, shy to go anywhere alone - not even to buy bread or milk from the nearby store. But to get those books, I used to gather up all my courage and hike for about half a mile, go to the store, unlock to big heavy locks, open a door panel and enter the room - the musty smell of damp books welcoming me. The books used to immerse me in world of fairies and goblins and robbers and secret passages - thanks mostly to Enid Blyton. From childish stories of Noddy to Famous Five and the Faraway Tree to more "matured" Malory Towers and Nancy Drew. From children classics like Tom Sawer and Moby Dick to Emma and Pride and Prejudice. I used to read them all. Book lovers themselves, by parents used to encourage me to read books. They had me and my brother subscribed to magazines like Wisdom, Reader's Digest and my all time favorite, Target. Target was a teen magazine published by the Times of India group. And then of course there was Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha comics. I don't think you can find many people of our age group who can imagine their childhood without these comic books. They were not only fun to read but each story had a moral.

Recently I came across the Amar Chitra Katha website which took me back to those good old days and hence the chatter. The website's pretty good though I wish they had some more on-line content to read apart from the story of the week.

While we are in the topic of books, there's another interesting website I'd like to share with you. WOWIO has hundreds of e-books which are free provided you read them on-line. You can find many of the favorite classics titles. Explore a bit and who knows, you might just discover some great new writers! Let me know if you come across a good read.

Check out my new license plate!

2008-08-06T14:24:00.005-04:00

Ain't that cool?

Save Diki

2008-07-30T11:43:00.011-04:00

As per my daily routine, I was scouring through the local Sikkim news sites when I came across this article about a girl with kidney failure who needs financial help for her transplant surgery. You can get more details from the article below.

If you are willing to help, please leave a comment and I will give you more details on the hows, or else you contact Pema Doma directly at the phone no. provided in the article below.

Kidney patient needs financial help
Staff Reporter GANGTOK, July 28:

Nobody knows what’s in her fate. But with both of her kidneys damaged, Diki Sherpa still has a will to survive.

The 26-year-old is a resident of 9th Mile in East Sikkim. Her father, Namgyal Sherpa being a simple Buddhist monk cannot afford the expenses for her transplant, though the donor is her own mother.Like all other young girls of her age, Diki had dreams of a productive and purposeful life till the year 2000 when she fell victim to life-threatening condition of kidney failure.

Mr. Biswadeep Dutta, who runs a hotel in SN Banerjee Road in Kolkata, has been her guardian angel. The Samaritan has been her caretaker providing her food and lodging in this unknown city. He runs around to pull all his sources together so he can help this ailing lady.

It was informed that just when all appeared lost and Diki was to be packed off to Sikkim on July 12, a family from Taltala gave her shelter. The Duttas had been frequenting the bodyguard lines to meet Diki ever since they learnt about her from doctors in Sikkim during a trip there in Sikkim in the year 2007.

Presently under treatment at Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata, her final hope is kidney transplantation that costs Rs. 4 -5 lakhs. Despite her mother Pramila Sherpa’s willingness to donate one of her kidneys to Diki, the major factor has been financial constraints. Dialysis has kept her alive which she goes for every Thursday but it is only a temporary reprieve.

To add to her determination to live, the Sikkim Students Association of Kolkata, an association of Sikkimese students studying in Kolkata has come forward to help collect funds for Diki. “When we saw the people of Kolkata helping Diki after her case was reported in one of the newspapers, we too wanted to help her out,” said Pema Doma Sherpa, External Affair Manager of the Association while talking with SIKKIM EXPRESS today.

She further said that the rickshaw pullers, banana sellers, police constables in Kolkata teemed up to assist Diki financially. Back in Diki’s hometown, the student association is leaving no stone unturned to collect maximum funds for the patient’s kidney transplant.

“We want all the people of Sikkim to respond over the matter and chip in few rupees as Diki desperately needs our help. We hope that taking positive points from our initiative, the Sikkimese people will contribute heartily and make sure Diki Sherpa lives, Pema said.

Diki desperately needs more Samaritans to come her way. Only her medicines and dialysis bills amount to Rs 3, 250 a week. A year’s postoperative care will cost another Rs 2 lakhs not to mention the amount need for transplant. So far, the association has managed to collect about five thousand rupees from the students in two days, she told SIKKIM EXPRESS.

Although, the fund collection is unsatisfactory, Pema said that people have started donating some.

Those willing to extend a helping hand to Diki can contact Pema Doma Sherpa, External Affairs Manager of Sikkim Student Association of Kolkata or call her at 98743-50109. The lists of the names of the donors will be published in SIKKIM EXPRESS.

Sikkim Express:TUESDAY, JULY , 29 , 2008

My new iToy

2008-07-14T10:14:00.005-04:00

Months of waiting, 3 stores, 1 Starbucks coffee, 1 free bottle of water (courtesy: Apple) and 5 hours later, I finally own it !!

Air India?? Never again!!

2008-07-01T15:35:00.007-04:00

My flight experience have always been, let's say, somewhat unpleasant. This time, my wedding trip to India was no exception.

Initially, our plan was that I'd fly to India a week before V. I, the bride, would require more time for my bridal shopping than V who had anyway done most of his in US itself. I now thank my lucky stars for making us change our plans and travel together. Else, I don’t know how I would have gone through the ordeal by myself.

Who hasn’t heard bad reviews about Air India? Dirty and old planes, unusable restrooms, rude air hostesses and the fellow passengers even worse and the most common of all, flight delays. The only good thing about Air India that we've heard was the extra luggage allowance (which we didn't need), Indian food (which we didn't care for) and cheap prices. Cheap price...yeah, that's what they got us with! With our plan to stay in Paris for a few days on our way back from India, the stop over charges made our flight tickets very expensive. The cheapest fare was offered by Air India and with a brave heart, we booked our flights.

Having reached Newark hours before the scheduled boarding time, we found that our flight was delayed by 3 hrs. No surprise there. Now we worried what if we go somewhere to spend the time and came back only to realize our plane took off on time?? So me made a quick stop at a friends place and returned back to find out our plane had not even arrived!

As we waited at the gate, we could feel one of the Air India staff eyeing us. He soon approached us and without even touching our hand luggage he said we need to check in our carry on since they were too heavy. I was like What the...!! When we pointed out that he hadn’t even lifted our luggage to weigh it, he tried to cover up by saying our carry-ons are too big. I then pointed to a few of our fellow passenger's luggage which were even bigger! We told him we have important papers with us and there is no way we are gonna check them in. He then asked us to put all important things in one bag and check the other in. When we said that we'll be travelling separately (I was travelling to Calcutta from Mumbai) he finally let it go.

In the wee hours of the morning, our plane arrived. As with most Indian flights, even though they call out the passengers to board as per their seats, everyone jumped in to go ahead. It took a while for the staff to get the passengers to somewhat organize. After a while we finally found ourselves inside this gloomy stuffy plane. The seat covers looked centuries old and in the name of entertainment there was this single screen in front of the plane. I didn’t even bother to try on the headphones to check if they worked. Little did we know that our ordeal has not even started!

Everything we heard about Air India was true. The restrooms were dirty and smelly and nothing functioned properly. The food was bad. In fact the desert (sewai kheer) smelled bad and sour. The entertainment was zero. Luckily our weeks of hectic preparation paid off and we slept through most of the flight. During the flight we met a fellow traveler and his trial was worse than ours. He'd flown in to Newark from Michigan on Wednesday, four days ago. But his flight to Mumbai was cancelled and since then he had been trying to get to the next flight. But since all flights until Saturday were overbooked, he had to wait for four days to get into this one!

Our flight had a layover in Paris where we were not required to get off the plane. We reached Paris "on time" and we waited for it to take off again. After an hour wait in the stuffy flight with no AC, they announced that the flight was delayed due to technical difficulties. We were probably stuffed in for another 2 hours or so when they announced that our flight to Mumbai was cancelled!!! They asked all American citizens to get off first for hotel acco while for the rest of us, they'll try to get transit visas. Luckily for me and V, we already had visas for Paris. So we got off along with the American citizens. I am sure the remainder of the passengers had to go through much more than us.

We were probably stuck in the Paris airport for another 3 hours, standing in the long queue, when we were finally allotted a hotel room. The strangest part of it was that there were no Air India staff at the airport; everything was taken care by Air France staff. And to tell you about the behavior of the "American citizen" Indians there...well, that'll be another post! A rumour floated that they had discovered rats in our plane in Newark itself and the plane had been declared unsafe to fly. But since Air India flights had been behind schedule since Wednesday, they took the chance and let it fly but in Paris, they were not allowed to fly further!! It was past 9pm by the time we reached the hotel. We were too tired to even think of touring Paris then. Next day we left for the airport early, hoping to get good seats. Seems like everyone else had the same idea and there was this long queue at the gate, well before the boarding time. The behavior of the people there too... well, that not only shocked me, but disgusted me till end. But again, that’s another story.

On landing at Mumbai, I said a hurried bye to V and went off to catch my connecting flight to Calcutta. The one day delay had already made me miss my appointment at the US Consulate in Calcutta for my visa stamping, but that was the least of my worries. When I finally reached the domestic terminal, I found that I'd have to deal with more rush and crowd. I finally reached the counter only to find that I was waitlisted!! Those **ing Air India people had not bothered to make reservations for my connecting flight. I soon found out all my co passengers taking connecting flights to elsewhere were in the same situation.

Just 15-20 mins before the Calcutta flight took off, we were confirmed. I have to say though, the Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Calcutta was such a relief after that horrid AI flights. And the food was awesome!

During my stay in India, I had to take a few more flights after the wedding too. And yeah, had to face some or the other situation there too. My return flight to Paris and then to US was quite uneventful, thankfully! But this whole ordeal made us vow....AI - never again!

Can you hear the bells a-tolling?

2008-04-16T16:55:00.008-04:00

On the 7th of May 2008, me and V will be tied in holy matrimony. We are both leaving for India on Saturday, 19th April and will return on 26th May. I am looking forward to the trip with both excitement - owing to the pending marriage and dread - owing to the tight schedule and hot weather there. The wedding is to be held in my hometown in Sikkim followed by a reception in Pune.

The last month has been hectic to say the least. I had to complete all my pending official work before my vacation. A few weeks ago I fell sick and had to skip work for almost a week. This resulted in me putting in extra hours everyday for the next couple of weeks. Every day after work, me and V have been scouring malls and stores trying to find the perfect suit and the perfect shirt to match the suit and the perfect tie to match the shirt and the suit! And thats mentioning only his suit. We had so much of shopping to do that I am sure I will need a month to recover from the fatigue. Mind you, I love to shop! But in the last month we have seen so many stores and mostly the same store so many times, that I have told V that I wont shop for one month after the wedding :)

Sadly though, that's just one part of the shopping for me. Once I reach India, I still have to buy everything, saris and jewelries and shoes and wat nots! Not to mention the travelling I would be doing! One positive outcome that I can hope for (apart from being married, of course) is that I might manage to shed a good few of my extra pounds!! :D

Its already Wednesday and I just have 2 more days to complete my packing, which let me add, I am yet to start. I am in complete panic mode. With some more shopping still pending along with a visit to the hair parlor and attending a farewell party for a friend, I do hope that I manage to get everything done on time.

So friends, until we e-meet again, enjoy and have loads of fun!

Copycat!

2008-04-01T17:46:00.005-04:00

A couple of days ago, I found myself with some free time. Not being able to think of anything else to do, I decided to do a little bit of ego-googling and this is what I came across.

Check out the writing in the post. Sounds familiar? That's an outright copy of my blog's description! Maybe I should take this in the positive sense and feel good about it, the fact that someone copied me. But I just can't help feeling outraged! If I can feel this way for such a small thing, I wonder how these musicians and movie makers feel when their work gets plagiarized.

One hour can change the world

2008-03-28T10:35:00.007-04:00

Tomorrow, Saturday 29th March at 8:00 pm local time, is the Earth Hour which is an international event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Households and businesses around the world are encouraged to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening to promote electricity conservation and thus make a statement about climate change.

Read more about this event here.

The Maine experience

2008-02-28T16:23:00.014-05:00

The Start

We decided to go to Maine for the President's Day weekend. So on Friday after work, we bundled up everyone in two SUVs and off we went for a long 12 hrs drive. By the time we entered Maine, we knew we made the right choice....there was so much snow everywhere! Even in the wee hours in the morning with temperature below 0 degree Fahrenheit, our spirits were soaring high.

Upon our arrival at Rangeley, we finally found the cabin that we had booked after a long search. When we entered the cabin, our excitement level went up. Not only was it better than in pictures it was cosy and clean, kept like a home with the kitchen fully stocked. By then the sun had already risen and we were awarded by the amazing view from the back door....we had a beautiful frozen lake as the back yard!

Day 1

After a good rest of few hours, we headed to the nearby Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort where we headed towards the beginners slope. But the moment we put on the skis, we realized this was going to be way tougher than our last experience. Maybe it was the good quality of the skis, or maybe the skis here were waxed better - maybe because the snow here was natural and not machine blown, or maybe the slope was indeed steeper than in Pennsylvania where we had skied last, but none of us were able to ski here at all! The moment we put on the skis, we were sliding down without any control. Man! That was scary. I finally gave up. The worst part was that there were kids, as young as 3yrs old or even younger, who were zipping and zooming past us!

In the evening we went to a cozy restaurant called The Gingerbread House in a nearby town of Oquossoc. We enjoyed scrumptious food while a couple of deers grazed outside. Back in the cabin we set up a crackling fire in the fireplace and we headed out of the backdoor towards the lake. But the fiendish minds of few of my friends stopped us in a few minutes as they attacked us with snow balls. We were all soon involved in a heavy snow fight until everyone was out of breath.

Day 2

The next day was bright and sunny and much warmer. We headed towards a town called Stratton where we had rented snowmobiles. The guide lead us to a lake nearby which was completely frozen. The snow was soft and fluffy. Initially V drove the snowmobile and it took a little while to get the hang of it. Soon we were zooming across the lake. We were amazed at the size of the lake. On the map the it looks pretty small but when we were there we realized how huge it really was. It felt endless! After a while I wanted to try my hands at it. Having never ridden a bike before, I was initially apprehensive. But soon enough I overcame my anxiety and we were racing against each other. It was so much fun! The ride was fast and bumpy...specially when I was sitting behind V, I could feel the bumpiness of the ride - half the time I was in the air!

Whenever I was sitting behind V, I was taking pictures and videos. We went over big bumps and few times I almost fell down. Many times V scolded me to be careful, put away the camera and to hold on tight. One time as he was scolding me again, a HUGE bump emerged in front of us out of nowhere and we had to fly over it. Later on my friends related how it was almost a perfect stunt from some action flick. As we went over the mound of snow, I felt myself flying in the air and as we came down, instead of landing on the sled, my leg hung out. I felt my leg being dragged and I panicked worried that my leg will go under the wheels. I frantically gestured for V to stop. After examining my leg, we were both relieved to see nothing happened. Having learnt my lesson, I kept away the camera for good and we continued at a much slower space.

Once we got stuck while climbing over a mound of snow. I had to get down so the V can pull out the sled. The snow was deep, it came up till my thighs and a little bit of snow went inside my boots. It was then that I realized that I might have been hurt more than I had thought. Even a slight movement and my ankle hurt. After a while it was time for us to return. By then it was getting dark and we headed back to the cabin where I was pampered by everyone. While some massaged and bandaged my leg, some friends made an awesome feast of fish fry and chicken biryani. Yumm!! We had a nice lazy evening and the next day it was time to head back home. All through the journey I had to lie down. Though by the time we reached home the swelling had reduced, it was still painful to walk, so I had to take the next day off from work. My leg's much better but though its been over 2 weeks since the incident, I am still limping a bit.

Family time

2008-02-21T13:10:00.004-05:00

I recently came across this new networking site, Geni.com and I am hooked!

What's so special about this site is that unlike other networking sites with focuses on friends or colleagues, this one focuses on family.

You can create your family tree and invite your family members who can help expand the tree. It is 'n' dimensional and can really grow! But even though the tree can grow humongously, it is so wonderfully maintained that you will not be overwhelmed by it.

Its not even been a week since I started my family tree and already it has over 300 members. Through the tree I now can easily remember my cousin's wife's name or remember their kids birthdays! Not only that, I got back in touch with a distant cousin whom I knew when I was a kid. Another good use me and V got out of it is that it is now easier to understand each other's family and the new relationships that we will both be getting into.

Well, like I said, I am hooked. Why don't you try it out too?
www.geni.com

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-01-24T16:01:00.000-05:00

I recently finished reading Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. It was a good book and quite un-putdownable.

The story revolves around the lives of two women - Mariam, an illegitimate daughter of a rich man married off to an old abusive husband when she was very young. And Laila - a rebellious and intelligent daughter of an educated progressive father. It is about how their lives intertwine, the sufferings they go through which eventually become the bond that strengthen them. It gives you glimpses of the history of Afghanistan, from the Soviet era to the rise and fall of the Taliban.

It is a sad story and my heart went out for the two women. The horror and pain these two women have to endure, reminded me of Princess, a biography about a Saudi Arabian princess which I had read more than a decade ago.

Even though I found the story gripping, there are times when I felt the story to be dragging along. Other than that, the book is extremely well written, the characters are strong and well defined and the story is heart wrenching. I definitely recommend it!

PS-> Anyone seen the Kite Runner movie yet?

Waiting on the World to Change

2008-01-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

Lets start the new year with this wonderful song.

Good Bye 2007, Welcome 2008

2007-12-31T23:59:00.000-05:00

Time to learn a different A B C...

2007-12-28T15:38:00.001-05:00

Well, since Ricky said he tags anyone who loves him, how could I let this pass? So here it is:

A - Available? - Nope!
B - Best Friend - D - met her at my engg college and she now stays just 1/2 hr away!
C - Cake or pie - Cake for sure! I don't like the sweet n sour taste in pies.
D - Drink of choice - Red Wine/Martinis.
E - Essential thing used everyday - Has to be toothbrush and toothpaste.
F - Favorite Color - As my (nick) name suggests, I love all colors, but if I have to choose one, it has to be Blue.
G - Gummi bears or worms - Bears - I hate any type of worms - even if in the form of candy.
H - Hometown - Gangtok.
I - Indulgence - Tiramisu...yummm.
J - January or February - January, since you have a whole year to look forward to.
K - Kids and names - None.
L - Life is incomplete without - V (you all must have guessed it already :P).
M - Marriage Date - May 2008 (date not fixed yet).
N - Number of siblings - 1 elder n wiser brother.
O - Oranges or apples - Oranges - from my grandma's garden.
P - Phobias or fears - Snakes.
Q - Quote - Where there is love there is life - Mohandas K. Gandhi.
R - Reason to smile - Life and its bright colors.
S - Season - Summer - coz it brings bright and sunny days and lots of trips and travelling.
T - Tag three people - Anyone who is interested - but I would like to read Moonie's take on this.
U - Unknown fact about me - When a small kid, I once flicked a hair pin (which was quite ugly btw) from a store and later showed it proudly to my mom. She scolded me so bad and I had to beg her not to take me back to the store to return the pin to the owner and promise never to steal again.
V - Vegetable you don't like - Had I been doing this tag when I was a kid, the list would have extended for pages. But now, I have become a achaa bachaa, so Pumpkin is the only vegetable I really dont like.
W - Worst habit - Laziness.
X - X-rays you have had - All of my wisdom teeth and a CAT scan.
Y - Your favorite food - Momos.
Z - Zodiac - The bull - Taurus.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

2007-12-23T19:08:00.000-05:00

My blood donation experience

2007-12-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

The company that I work for coordinates Red Cross blood drives five times a year. The last time they had set up a blood drive, I had signed up to give blood only to find out later that I was ineligible since its been less than a year that I had visited India.

This time, I knew I was eligible so I signed up for it again. The only time that I had given blood before was back in college in India. I asked a colleague of mine if he was up to it and he readily agreed. So on Friday we both went to the blood mobile located nearby. Since he hadn't have his dinner the night before, we decided to go after lunch.

All went well and we both gave about a pint of blood each. Mine got over first and I was sipping orange juice and waiting for my friend. Suddenly there was some commotion and I saw the staff hurriedly making ice packs and placing them over my friend's forehead. Only then did I remember that my friend, a devout person, had completed a month long fast just two days ago. I got a little bit worried but they reassured me that this is normal for a first time donor and that he will be alright.

Sure enough, in a few minutes, he was sitting besides me sipping orange juice and munching cookies. To make light of the matter, I related to him my first experience as a donor and how I felt alright and was ridiculing people scaring me off that I'd feel giddy and faint. But the minute I had stood up to attend classes, the whole world spun and I had fallen down - and I had blacked out for a minute. As I was joking about this incident, I saw my friend sway and collapse, right on cue! I hurriedly notified the staff and they shouted his name. His eyes opened but it had a far away look and he was not registering a single word of what we were telling him. We tried on, me calling out to him in Hindi and he gradually regained consciousness. All the while I was bending down over him and I myself started feeling giddy. The nurse took hold of me and made me sit for a while.

After a few minutes, my friend called out to me to ask me to call up friends to drop us back to our office. I stood over him and as I was telling him not to worry, the world started spinning. I almost collapsed but the nurse managed to make me lie down and she placed ice packs on me too....brrr! Later on, my friend told me that it was good I collapsed(!!) coz he was feeling a bit embarrased that being a guy he was lying down and me a girl was feeling perfectly fine! The staff thought that we were husband and wife and she told me how natural it is to feel giddy when you see a loved one collapse and that they have seen many couples do the same. They were so excited to see us collapse - silly first time donor couple - that I didn't have the heart to correct them.

My friend had a good 30 mins rest and he felt rejuvenated and strong enough to drive back to our office which was just a mile away. That one mile drive had never felt so long as I was worried he might pass out again! I had never seen anyone faint right before my eyes so I was feeling a bit worried. Plus he had turned awfully pale and I was feeling guilty all the while that it was me who got him into it in the first place. Luckily we reached back safe. He decided to let a colleague with whom he car-pools to drive back home. I also called V over to pick me up and left my car in the office parking lot for the night.

According to the American Red Cross, I can give blood again in February 08, 2008. I hope they organize a blood drive then too so that I can participate again. I wonder what adventure I'll encounter the next time!

Here I am!

2007-12-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

Sorry friends, for keeping away for so long. Lets just say that I took a "short" break and hopefully I will be more regular. Thanks for coming back regularly and pushing me on to update. So, here I am! In the last few months of my absence, nothing much has happened - I am still enjoying my life with V and doing the things that I always do. Here are some highlights:

Travel:
I made two major trips, one to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. Had a amazing time in both the places, lost quite a fortune in gambling and have made up my mind to revisit Vegas, since there's still so much more to see. I managed to catch the Cirque Du Soleil's "O" which is such an incredible show that I have no words to describe it. I also watched a typical Vegas show-girls show called Jubilee.

My other trip was to Vermont and New Hampshire to catch the fall colors. Both the places are beautiful and we managed to see some picturesque locales during our drive through the country. We are hoping to make another trip there later this winter for a fun ski adventure.

Books:
Since my last update, I have joined my local community library which I infrequently visit. Also, in my office, they have started this "book table" concept where people leave books they don't need at a table and book-hungry people like me can borrow them. This way I have got to read some pretty interesting and not-so-interesting books.

Having heard so much of Ayn Rand, I finally got myself to read We, the Living. I found it to be sad and depressing which was what I had expected. I then ventured on to Atlas Shrugged which I am currently reading. But the book is so huge and slow-paced, I am getting bored to complete it (as it is, I am not much into philosophy). Though not my policy to leave any book/movie unfinished, I think I might have to.

Movies:
As always, I have been watching a lot of movies. The latest one I saw was The Golden Compass this Friday. It is the first of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Found the movie beautifully made and the story interesting, so have decided to read the trilogy before the second part is made.

The worst movie I've seen is no doubt Saawariya. Couldn't have squandered my $10 in a worse way.

Hobbies:
My Wii addiction has died down quite a bit. I had started playing The Legend of Zelda when V was away for almost a month and was I doing pretty good in it. But then I got stuck in finding one clue and its been put away ever since.

V and our friends have found a new way to spend our weekends and my! are we addicted!! A friend introduced us to poker and since then we have spent at least one night every weekend playing poker. We normally start playing after dinner on Friday or Saturday at like 11 o'clock or so and continue till 7 or 8 in the morning. Initially we were a group of 7 and gradually we have introduced the game to more and more friends with the latest addition being last Saturday. We don't play with money though, just with chips. We figured, since we are having so much fun, why play with money?

Etc:
The holiday fever has taken over us too and we've been doing a lot of deal hunting and shopping. We have even put up a Christmas tree in our home. We got an artificial pre-lit tree and decorated it with tree decorations. This is all in preparation for a visit from our dear friends and their darling 3 year old daughter. Decorating the tree was fun and it looks pretty besides our fireplace. Once we have all the gifts wrapped and placed underneath, I'll take a picture and post it here.

Thats it for now. It feels good to be back! Wish you all a very wonderful and happy holidays!

I am among the 8.3 millions!

2007-07-23T00:11:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows :)

Yep, I too was caught on with the hype and had pre-ordered the book from Amazon. They had guaranteed delivery on the day the book would get released...but unfortunately I missed out the fine print that mentioned I need to select "Standard Shipping" while ordering. So instead I selected "Free Shipping". When I was tracking my order, I realised my mistake and realized my book will arrive only on Monday.

But surprise! Come Saturday, I was alone at home playing The Legend of Zelda on my Wii when the door bell rang. I opened the door to see the postman walking away after leaving the parcel at the door. When I saw him wave at me, I realized it was the book! They hadn't packed the book in the regular amazon brown box, but in a white box with a picture of an owl on it and on it was written "Attention Muggles! Do Not Deliver Or Open Before July 21"

Since then I've been with the book. I started at around 3.00pm on Saturday and finished at 11.00pm on Sunday. Well, I wont be writing a review here since I am sure the Internet and any other form of media is all over and about it. And I certainly dont wanna spoil some one's fun by giving away the story. Coz I myself have undergone much trouble and suppressed temptation to know the leaked story just to see whether it was the real one.

But this much I can say. The book is a treat to those to enjoy the Harry Potter series.It is exciting and unputdownable with all the elements of various emotions in it. I do have one small complaint though, that Rowling could have involved Ginny a bit more. But otherwise, the book is enjoyable and the end is as I had kinda hoped how it would be.

More on the ACT hunger strike

2007-07-21T03:29:00.001-04:00

Link to the article here

Colors & V in The Simpsons

2007-07-17T23:48:00.000-04:00

Ta ra ta ta ra ra... remember the familiar The Simpsons music?
Check this out.... Yeah, thats us!!

So, are we really in The Simpsons?? Well...not really. But the movie's website does have this cool feature where you can create your own Simpsons avatar. So, how do we look?

Minus 30

2007-07-11T22:43:00.001-04:00

Folks,

Here's something on my hometown. CNN-IBN does this show called Minus 30 which focuses on the youth of India. Recently they went on a trip to the North East and this video below shows a slice of Gangtok. The piece on Gangtok starts at 56 secs on the video clock. Enjoy!

In case you cannot access the video, here's a direct URL for the same:

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/43822/on-the-other-side-of-northeast.html

...and Sikkim weeps

2007-07-03T14:50:00.000-04:00

Recently the State Government of Sikkim gave the go ahead to over 14 mega hydel power projects in the state. Six of them are planned in the Dzongu area which is the beautiful panoramic home to the indigenous Lepcha people of Sikkim and is a protected area.

As a protest to this, some leading Lepcha citizens, including members of the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), Concerned Lepchas of Sikkim (CLOS) and the Sangha of Dzongu have commenced on an indefinite hunger strike since June 20. Since then, they have been joined by many more people, from young to old, men and women to support their cause to protect the beautiful land from environmental damage. Its been 14 days now with 3 members already admitted to the hospital with deteriorating health conditions.

Please extend your solidarity and support to the satyagrahis by writing to them and spreading the word. You can find more details here.

Mii too??

2007-06-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

Wiiitis — pronounced "wee-eye-tis" is sports-injury (wiinjury) like symptoms caused by extensive playing of Nintendo Wii games.

One of my birthday giifts from V was a Nintendo Wii gaming console. Iit iincluded Wii Sports game that consiists of Tenniis, Baseball, Golf, Bowliing and Boxiing.

And man! Are they addiictiive! Ever siince I have laid my hands on the Wii, I have been playiing everiiday tryiing to better mine and V's score. Wii've been at iit everii iivening. And the riisult.... wii both are now sufferriing from sore shoulders. And beliive iit or faint, but they have actually come up wiith a mediical term to describe the siimptoms - Wiiitis!

The triitment apparently consiists of "ibuprofen for one wiik, as well as complete abstiinence from playiing Wii viideo games". Well, to heck wiith the treatment! As far as I am concerned, Wii iis here to stay (or should I say to play)!!

Quote/Misquote

2007-05-13T18:26:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I saw the movie Provoked. Found the movie pretty good. But more than the movie and the story, something else caught my attention and kept me entertained throughout.

We had the English subtitles on, and that was the best thing we did. If you have seen the movie, you'd know that its based in UK and the movie's mostly in English, that too with UK accent, which many will admit is not one of the easily understood accent. And whoever wrote the subtitles seem to prove it. During the entire length of the movie, he ended up misquoting most of the dialogs. Like in one scene Aishwarya says "I don't like bullies" and the subtitles show "I don't like police". I guess "police" and "bullies" sound similar enough for this blunder to be excused. But check this out. In one scene, Aishwarya's cell mate says "So you were raped" and the subtitles show "Can I hug you?" I mean, how in the world can these two sentences be mistaken with each other??

Those are just two of the many blunders made. Apart from misquoting the dialogs, there were other mistakes too. Throughout the movie, the word "provocation" was spelt as "provokation" with a "k". And most of the time, the subtitle-writer seem to be at loss, so when he couldn't figure out what the Brit actors were saying, he simply didn't provide any subtitles. Blank! And sometimes, he seemed too lazy to type the whole thing, so he just typed the gist of the dialog spoken, instead of typing them word to word. The only time he managed to quote the dialogs without any mistake or without missing any word were when Aishwarya or her mother-in-law spoke in broken English.

I don't understand. When a director/producer make a movie, do they consider their job done once the movie's made? Whose responsibility is it to look after the post production tasks? Such silly mistakes bring a negative impact on the movie. For someone who is depending on the subtitles to understand the movie, they'd be at loss and confused as to whats happening.

Well, what the heck! Who cares? I had a fun time and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. That's what a movie's supposed to do, isn't it? Entertain?! :)

Update

2007-05-02T15:11:00.000-04:00

Yep, its been a while and here I am. Stuff's been happening that kept me away from blogging.

First thing first, V is on a three week trip to India to meet his family. Our parents have talked to each other. It went pretty well so we are glad that atleast things are moving.

V's last day here was a complete chaos. His flight was on 21st from Philly at 7 in the morning. The day before was his last day at his job, last day at his apartment and last day in Stamford. Though we had moved most of the stuff already, he still had to lot of packing and cleaning up to do in his apartment. He finally left Stamford at around 11.30 in the night with my Murano filled to the last niche. As luck would have it, he was stuck in the New York traffic for a good 2 hours. He finally reached at around 3am. After a hurried dinner, we packed his suitcases for his trip. It was soon time to drop him at the airport. My poor V didnt sleep a wink nor did he have even a minute of rest.

After his departure it was time for me and my friend SR to start packing since we were moving to a new apartment, a town house the next weekend. We had been packing most of the week that followed and we moved all our stuff last weekend. We started on Friday eve and finished moving everything late Sunday night. I can't believe we had so much of stuff collected. We did numerous trips on our SUVs fully loaded. On top of that we even had to hire a truck and moving help to move our big stuff. By Sunday night each and every muscle in my body was crying murder. I was just glad to lie down on my bed when the alarm rang and it was time to get ready for work.

Since Monday we've been arranging our new home. Kitchen is done - I've never seen so much of masala in one house. I am sure, if you name any dish, we'll have the masalas to make that dish, from Indian to Chinese to American to Mexican. Now the living room and the bedrooms are left. Boxes are strewn all around...every thing is a big mess. Hopefully we should get done by the end of this week.

Now that the initial excitement of moving to a new place is over, I am just waiting for V's return. 13 more days to go.

My first Vishu

2007-04-16T15:26:00.000-04:00

Saturday, 14th April marked the new year for Nepalese (Naya Barsha - Bikram Sambat 2064), Malayalis (Vishu), Punjabis (Vaishakhi), Tamils (Puthandu), Bengalis (Naba Barsha) and Assamese (Bihu).
I don't remember us doing anything special for the Nepali New Year, but Malayalis all over the world celebrate Vishu in a very special way, regardless of what religion they belong to.

A special arrangement of offerings called the Vishu Kani is set up. This arrangement consists of raw rice, betel leaves (paan leaves), betel nut (supari), silk, fruits like banana, golden cucumber, coconuts, a metal mirror called Aranmula kannadi, yellow flowers konna (Cassia fistula), diyas and coins and gold jewelry denoting signs of prosperity. The Vishu Kani is set up the night before Vishu, usually by the mother of the house. On Vishu, before sunrise, the mother wakes up the members of the house, one by one, and takes them to the puja room with their eyes closed so that the first thing that they see in the beginning of the new year is the Vishu Kani. It is believed that the fortunes of the year depend on the objects one sees first on Vishu.

V often reminisces about the days back home when they used to celebrate Vishu and how his mom used to wake him up early in the morning, close his eyes and take him to the Vishu Kani and how beautiful the kani used to look with the golden colors from the fruits and flowers and the jewelry enhanced by the luminous light from the diyas and reflected on the mirror.

So, hoping to make this special for him, I decided to set up the kani myself and give him and my friend SR (who also celebrates Vishu) a nice surprise. Unfortunately, there was no way I could buy those stuff without SR knowing, so I had to let him know of my plan. It proved well that I told him, because he gave me guidance on how to set it up properly. So Friday evening we bought the required items before V arrival from Stamford. However, it seems this year, even though the new year fell on the 14th, Vishu was to be celebrated on 15th. So Saturday night, after V went off to sleep, me and SR set up the kani. We didn't have the traditional items like the brass vessel uruli, so we made use of a steel one. Neither did we have a metal mirror, so we replaced it with a regular mirror. Same way we replaced the special yellow konna flower with some other yellow flower we got from the farmer's market. Unfortunately, we didn't get to buy bananas, so we managed with guavas and mangoes. To make up for the lack of other things, we had lots of diyas.

The next day I set up the alarm for 5:00 am. When the alarm set off, I almost dozed back to sleep after switching it off. Luckily I just remembered why I had set the alarm in the first place, and so I got up. I then lit up the diyas. Unfortunately, one of the candle diyas we had got from the desi store made quite a flame and the newspaper under it caught fire. I hurriedly blew it off but not before the carpet got singed :(. I then woke up V, closed his eyes and took him to the kani. My, was he surprised !!! :) He was so happy!! We then woke up SR and did the same. We took a few pics and after a while headed back to sleep since we all had just about 2 hrs of sleep.

Here are some of the pics from our Vishu Kani

Our humble Vishu Kani

Wish you all a very Happy New Year!

क्या बात है!

2007-04-12T16:21:00.000-04:00

आप लोग सोच रहे होंगे कि मैं अचानक हिंदी में कैसे ब्लोग करने लगी।
एक तोह मेरी हिंदी इतनी अच्छी नही है, ऊपर से हिंदी में टाईप करना मेरे लिए तोह almost नामुमकिन है!

But guess again! I typed the above in ENGLISH and Blogger automatically transliterated it to हिंदी script! How cool is that?! I don't even need to know my spellings :)

Read more about this great new feature here.

I should now be able to type in Nepali as well. Lemme try -
म त अब नेपाली मा पनि ब्लोग गर्न सक्छू !! यिप्पी!! :D

- कलर्स

Where the menu is an appetizer

2007-03-30T16:44:00.000-04:00

I had to share this with you guys! I am a big foodie, I might not cook a lot, but I do enjoy trying out new cuisines in different restaurants. I just came across this article on cnet.com and was simply blown away by the chef's unique methods of cooking - creating a whole new technology in food!

Homaro Cantu is a Chicago based chef who uses tools like the ink-jet printer and Class 4 laser (normally found in an operating room or a welding shop) to create delicacies which look too good to be eaten!

Check out this link to see the innovative techniques he uses to cook food.

One of his dream is creating edible ads, where consumers can simply rip off and eat the advertizement in a magazine and get the taste of it!

What really intrigued me about him is that he is one of those few who have actually managed to dethrone chef Masaharu Morimoto in Iron Chef America. Iron Chef America is a popular action packed one hour show in Food Network where chefs from all over US challenge one of the four Iron Chefs. Among them, I consider Masaharu Morimoto to be one of the finest and I have never seen him lose to anyone, expect to one other Iron Chef Bobby Flay in the original Japanese Iron Chef show.

Find out more about Homaro Cantu and his technology here.

Of diets and witches

2007-03-28T10:36:00.000-04:00

The whole of last week I was on the GM diet. I followed it diligently with the hope to shed few of my extra pounds. 5 days into it and to my disappointment, I had lost only about 2 pounds. Now I had done this diet before too, but only for 4 days and that too cheating once in a while and I had lost like 4 pounds then. So I was hoping for better results this time.

Come Friday evening and me and my friend SR left for Stamford to V's place. By the time we reached, all three of us were famished and we decided to meet at a very popular 60's diner style restaurant called Lucky's. V told us about this amazing hot dog you get there. My diet for the 5th day consisted for beef, so I thought, what the heck, why shouldn't I try it. Anyway, my weight didn't show much difference and my interest in the diet was diminishing. So we all dived into the hot dogs. Man! Were they good....seriously the best hot dog I've ever had! Lucky's shot up to My Favorite Restaurant list from my Place I Like to Eat list.

Saturday morning me and V drove to Boston, Massachusetts to meet V's friend who was there for a few weeks. The weather was lovely - sunny, bright and warm. In the eve we went to Boston downtown. Boston downtown is somewhat like NY's financial district, but cleaner and less crowded. Lots of big old time buildings with beautiful architecture. Just as we were thinking of taking a walk to get the feel of the city, it started to rain. Having nothing much to do, we decided to watch a movie. Zodiac was the only movie whose timing suited us and the story interested us. It turned out to be a decently entertaining movie, except that I felt it was a bit too lengthy.

On Sunday we decided to visit the town of Salem which was about 20 mins drive. As many of you might be aware, Salem, MA has always been linked with witches and witchcraft in pop culture. Even Sabrina the teenage witch's cat is named Salem. Ever since I had been to the US, Salem has been in my list of places to visit, so I was quite excited by the prospect of going there.

The reason Salem is synonymous with witchcraft is due to the infamous 1692 Salem Witch Trials where 19 innocent people were accused of being witches and were hanged to death. We went there hoping it to be some kind of a ghost town with freaky stuff. Sadly, it turned out to be an over hyped place. The town itself is beautiful with lovely architecture. Many of the touristy places were closed for the season. However, the Salem Witch Museum was open and we reached there just in time for their rendition of the trails. We bought the tickets and were ushered inside the theatre. The show started eerily enough but we soon realized it was just a bunch of stationary mannequins placed in different sets depicting the 1692 events that lead to the killings with a booming recorded voice over. Once the show was over, expecting more museum stuff, we moved around, but were sorely disappointed to see that they just had a souvenir shop which for some weird reason were selling Rajasthani glass work purses among other equally unrelated things. It was a complete money ripping set up!

After that our interest to see other 'witchy' locations went away and we decided to head back. It made me realize how they say in India, tourists get ripped off their money at the tourists places there. Now I can say we are much better than how its done here. In India people cheat to fill their stomachs, but here its the entire town cheating the tourists. What a sham!

Spartans Rule!

2007-03-22T14:32:00.000-04:00

300. What to say about this movie? I had heard a lot about it, from how good the movie's been made to all the controversy surrounding the Persians portrayal in the movie. On the making of the movie which I had seen on HBO, it seemed like a lot of CGI was in use, coz all the time the actors were in front of a blue or green screen while filming the movie. To me, it seemed to be a mix between Gladiator, Troy and Sin City. So, I went to see the movie with not much expectation.

300 has two releases, the regular release at regular theatres and "The Imax Experience" in the Imax theatres. Of course, when it comes to such a digitally acclaimed movie which had special release just for Imax, then it doesn't make sense going to regular theatre right? We went to the nearest Imax on Saturday to see the 1230am show. However, we had to opt for another movie since it was sold out. Now that really intrigued me! 1230 show in the night all sold out?? If you've ever been to theatres in US, you'll understand my surprise. It's very rare that a movie is sold out and even rarer to see a crowded theatre. So anyway, we went instead for Premonition - its better I say nothing about that movie! We also booked tickets for the next day's 730pm show for 300.

Imax theatres always amazes me - the huge screen does take your breath away. I felt excited to watch the movie even as I sat on my seat. We were an hour early for the show but still we didn't get the back seats. Yeah, it had already become that crowded!

The movie is based on a graphic novel which is based on the famous tale of the Battle of Thermopylae that has been the inspiration of many Hollywood movies. It tells the story of how a Spartan king Leonidas with the help of his strong 300 men stand against the Persian ruler Xerxes and his huge army. The movie turned out to be all what I expected and a bit more. It had all the blood, gore and brutality that I had expected. But it has been made in a way to grasp your attention from start to finish. Leonidas is bold, filled with raw power while Xerxes with all his jewelries and make-up look chillingly cold. The Spartan men look amazingly toned and muscular and their skimpy costumes don't try much to hide it. Of course, as with many other movies, this too has unnecessary nudity to some extent.

The look of the movie is everything. It is a visual masterpiece, grandiose and breathtakingly beautiful. There are a numerous action sequences but each one turns out to be quite refreshing and not a boring repeat of the other - with the introduction of new monsters every time and awesomely cool flicks of the swords and spears to get done with them.

Do not watch the movie looking for story, message or performance. 300 is a visual experience with images meant to embed themselves into your memory from the start to the finish.

Spring is here!!

2007-03-20T13:14:00.000-04:00

Officially, Spring starts today. Yippee!!!

However, I am still confused how they can come up with the exact date and time. I mean, c'mon, did Spring personally make an announcement of her arrival??

But, I can live with that as long as someone promises months of sunshiny bright days :)

Wish you all a very Happy Spring!!

My Haves, Have Nots and Want Tos

2007-03-14T15:02:00.000-04:00

Tagged by Juneli! Those who have been tagged for this and have been putting it off due to the sheer volume of it, lemme give you some tip to work it faster:

Open a Google spreadsheet (ok an MS Excel will work as well). Add 3 more sheets so you have one for the entire list, and each for the haves, have nots and want tos. Copy the list to the first sheet. Now simply work your way down the list and cut-paste each item to appropriate sheet. In the end, consolidate them all! So simple!! (additional tip -> I found it more convenient by sorting out the list alphabetically before starting out)

My Haves:
* Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment : more than just a moment.
* Adopted an accent for an entire day : not for an entire day but maybe for a long part of it...and many times too!
* Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love : yeah! Been there too
* Broken someone’s heart : unfortunately yes. Its such a bad feeling when something like this happens and the worst part is that you just cant help it!
* Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about : mostly V's :D
* Climbed a mountain : does hills and hillocks count?
* Dyed your hair : not only regular colors like auburn and red, but even BRIGHT RED, color of the Ferrari team and BLUE
* Eaten shark : yep! Have done it...I believe in Florida :) Yummm! ;)
* Eaten sushi : one of my all time favorites!
* Fallen in love and not had your heart broken : *cross my fingers*
* Gone back to school : just once. I wanna go back again, but I feel shy meeting teachers. Maybe next time will be when I take V to show him my school.
* Gone sky diving : one of the most amazing experience I have ever had!
* Gone to a huge sports game : thrice to the US Grand Prix and once to the US Open (tennis)
* Got flowers for no reason : something like that just makes my day!
* Gotten a tattoo : just temporary ones
* Had a snowball fight : hehe, its FUN!
* Had amazing friends : *touch wood*
* Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment : oh many embarrassing but funny times! But I think I have better control now...or do I ??
* Had to put someone you love into hospice care : my best friend D, I still shudder when I remember that fateful day! Thank God she came out fit and fine
* Had your picture in the newspaper : a local paper back home in Sikkim
* Hugged a tree : i believe when I was a kid while trying to enact the movies
* Kissed in the rain : :)
* Looked up at the night sky through a telescope : and the view is so wonderful!
* Lounged around in bed all day : oh I love doing that, if not all day then at least till late afternoon
* Made cookies from scratch : i enjoy trying out new recipes....sometimes
* Midnight walk on the beach : it was not romantic though, bunch of friends had gone to Diveagar near Pune. V was also there but those days we just knew each other :) Would love to go back there with him
* Parasailed : and paraglided! Parasailed in Florida Keys overlooking the Atlantic Ocean..the view was breath-taking! And paraglided in Manali...it was fun too!
* Performed on stage : did something when I was in the KGs and later did some group thing in college. Am not a stage person for sure!
* Piloted an airplane : a helicopter to be precise. And not exactly piloted, but I did sit in the copilot's seat and wore the helmet and the headphones etc. So I did get a copiloty feeling :)
* Played in the mud : don't all kids do?
* Played in the rain : again, don't all kids do? Now, don't like getting wet in the rain much, in spite of all the romanticism attached with it.
* Rafted the Snake River : well, not in Snake River but have rafted in Ocoee River which was the host for the 1996 Olympics and we actually rafted through the Olympics trail!
* Ridden a horse : as a kid in Darjeeling while going from Chowrasta to Dara Mandir
* Ridden a roller coaster : my favorite in parks and fairs
* Said 'I love you' and meant it : each and every time
* Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking : i enjoy singing in the car more than singing in the shower
* Screamed as loudly as you possibly can : just so that I can hear the echo. Else I am not the screaming kind :)
* Seen a total eclipse : though not directly as we were told that it will spoil our eyes
* Selected one 'important' author who you missed in school, and read : lots
* Shaved your head : my parents had my head shaved when I was a toddler. They still have the picture and I look so funny!
* Skipped all your school reunions : skipped once purposely and skipped the rest just coz I was never there
* Slept under the stars : in Aurangabad, at my friend's home. It was exciting since I had always wanted to do it. Had seen it only in movies
* Spoken more than one language fluently : every desi knows more than one language. Though I am ashamed that I don't know my own mother language Newari :(
* Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise : many times. That's the only way I can be awake during those hours!
* Sung karaoke : at my cousin's home. Its fun! I was actually planning to buy a set for myself
* Taken a road-trip : Me and V's favorite weekend pastime :)
* Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream : more often since meeting V
* Toured ancient sites : my love for travelling has taken me to many places. Though most ancient sites have been in India, I would love to see the ones in Europe and Africa
* Visited more foreign countries than U.S. : well since I am an Indian, Nepal can be considered as a foreign country. And have visited Bhutan too!
* Won first prize in a costume contest : twice. My class had won during our college fest. We had all dressed up once as clowns and the next day as kids

My Have Nots:
* Asked out a stranger : but have been asked out by a stranger :)
* Been a DJ : not a real DJ, but have played music (read as change CDs) during parties ..same as DJ -ing, right?? :D
* Been elected to public office : who wants to?
* Been in a movie : i guess home videos don't count :)
* Been on television news programs as an "expert" : i stay away from anything related to 'public speaking'
* Bought everyone in the bar a drink : nope, never done that. Like I said, I stay away from anything that brings focus on me
* Broken a bone : mine or someone else's? :P Well, I haven't done either
* Built your own PC from parts : am a software engg, not a hardware :)
* Buried one of your parents : that's a bad question! *I am so lucky*
* Caused a car accident : thankfully no
* Changed a baby’s diaper : Does watching from a distance count? :P
* Crashed a party : hehe, never done that either
* Created and named your own constellation of star : not into astronomy
* Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking : not a dancer either
* Danced with a stranger in a foreign country : nope
* Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild : back home, we often hear stories about how entire families get wiped out due to poisonous mushrooms. So I always make it a point to buy from reliable and safe sources.
* Eaten fried green tomatoes : but I have eaten grilled red tomatoes. Shouldn't that count?
* Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol : how about an air gun while trying to burst balloons at fairs?
* Given more than you can afford to charity : i am not that worldly
* Gone without food for 5 days : while in college, under the influence of a friend, I used to keep navaratri fast twice a year for 9 days. However, we were allowed to eat certain things. So i guess it doesn't count.
* Gotten divorced : have been lucky in love :)
* Grown and eaten your own vegetables : but have eaten the ones grown by my parents. :)
* Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced : i sometimes feel it should be fun to have my belly button pierced. :)
* Had a booth at a street fair : not personally, but my class had booths in college fairs
* Had a snake as a pet : one creature that I despise are snakes!
* Had major surgery : no.. phew!
* Had plastic surgery : i love the way I am. Wouldn't mind being slimmer though
* Had two hard drives for your computer : weird question, but no
* Held a tarantula : eew!
* Held someone while they were having a flashback : huh?
* Helped an animal give birth : no!
* Hit a home run : am not much of a sports person leave alone baseball
* In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them : i'm not that great with strangers
* Killed and prepared an animal for eating : have killed (insects and once a lizard) and have prepared (not insects and lizards!!) but never done both to the same thing
* Lost over 100 pounds : i've been trying so hard to lose 5 pounds and you are talking about 100!! Have mercy on me!
* Milked a cow : am scared of animals having the potential to hurt me
* Petted a cockroach : why in the world would I do that??!!
* Petted a stingray : why in the world would I do that either??!!
* Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight : nope! Never played that though I have played Monopoly and Scrabble for that long
* Pretended to be a superhero : that is a guy stuff, making a cloak out of a towel and wearing their underwear on the outside. *rolling my eyes*
* Recorded music : but been with friends who did....it was a fun thing we did in Crossroads in Mumbai.
* Saved someone’s life : nope, even though I have written a post that I saved someone's life today
* Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours : i guess 12-14hrs is the max for me
* Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you : don't do art
* Started a business : not a business person
* Stolen a sign : hmmm....no! Cant think why in the world would I do that!
* Taken a martial arts class : nope
* Taken care of someone who was drunk : thankfully haven't been in such a situation!
* Written your own computer language : am not that geeky! But I do get amazed at the people who have. What brains they must have!!
* Wrote article for a large publication : just for school mags
*Survived an illness that you shouldn’t have survived : *touch wood*

My Want Tos:
* Backpacked in Europe : well, I'm not a trekker but wouldn't mind if that the way to travel in Europe
* Been inside the Great Pyramid : wow! I would LOVE to be there!
* Been on a cruise ship : hopefully soon :)
* Bet on a winning horse : have never bet on a horse, but wouldn't it be awesome to win!!
* Bought a house : money money money!!
* Bungee jumped : am scared but excited about it at the same time. V says it's scarier than sky diving since you are dangling in mid air.
* Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language : that should be fun! I have actually communicated with people who can't speak, shouldn't that count?
* Eaten kangaroo meat : eating kangaroo meat would mean that I'd be in Australia, so why not? And I enjoy trying out new stuff to eat as long as they are not gross
* Gone rock climbing : to do that I need to be in a fit shape, and if I'm fit, I'm sure I'd enjoy doing it!
* Gone scuba diving : once I get over my fear of water and learn to swim!
* Gone to a drive-in theater : there was one in Columbus, Indiana and we never got a chance to go there. Me and V have been thinking about going to one for quite some time now
* Gone to Thailand : would love to visit the place.
* Gotten drunk on champagne : but I have gotten drunk on beer...once!
* Gotten married : when O when?
* Held a lamb : hmm..never thought about it, but yes, I'd want to!
* Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon : we'll be going to Grand Canyon but not sure if we'll get to hike to the bottom though!
* Raised children : first lemme get married!
* Read The Iliad : should be an interesting read!
* Ridden a gondola in Venice : awww! That's my honeymoon dream :)
* Seen the Northern Lights : after seeing Ricky's post on it, it has been included in my 'to do' list
* Swam with wild dolphins : have seen dolphins and their shows and even petted them! But swimming with them would be something!
* Taken a candlelit bath with someone : hmm!
* Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days : now wouldn't that be something!
* Taken a Ferrari for a test drive : *dreaming*
* Taken a trip in a hot air balloon : missed our chance in Niagara due to windy conditions.
* Touched an iceberg : gosh! would love to go somewhere with ice bergs
* Visited all 7 continents : travel, travel, travel...thats all I wanna do!
* Visited Ireland : and have Irish beer!
* Visited Japan : would love to! I get captivated by their culture and technologies
* Visited Paris : another honeymoon dream!
* Visited the Great Wall of China : will I ever get a chance?
* Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa : Italy's in my 'to visit' list too!
* Watched a lightning storm at sea : judging by the pictures that I have seen, it would be an amazing view
* Watched a meteor shower : but not be showered upon ;)
* Watched wild whales : we are actually thinking of going whale watching this spring/summer!
* Won money on a T.V. game show : would love to get some unexpected cash!

Whom do I tag?? I guess everyone's already tagged. If you aren't, consider yourself tagged and complete the task!

Now that's what I call innovation!

2007-03-08T16:59:00.000-05:00

Startup company Emotiv Systems have developed a unique and very innovative technology that can connect human brain signals to computer hardware and software.

They have come up with something called as the Emotiv Development Kit which is basically comprised of three detection toolkits as explained below. These toolkits interact with their neuro technology based headset called Project Epoc to capture various brain signals and transfer them as electric signals that can be interpreted as different activities.

Expressiv: The first toolkit Expressiv identifies facial expressions, such as blink, smile, wink etc that will provide for more realistic virtual chatting.
Affectiv: The second toolkit Affectiv detects a user's emotional state such as frustration, anger, excitement etc which would be great for role-playing games. Another interesting use would be to unconsciously rate music in iTunes or videos in YouTube or likes.
Cognitiv: The third toolkit Cognitiv which sounds the most interesting of all, will allow users to manipulate virtual objects using mind control. It supports actions, such as lift, drop, rotate, push, pull, etc.

These kits are currently in alpha phase, so it still has a long way to go before it is ready for consumers like us. But it has certainly brought out an innovation that has a bright future.

You can get some more information here

Some of my recent readings and viewings

2007-02-28T16:34:00.000-05:00

One Night at the Call Center: After having heard not too good reviews about the book, I was quite ready to a day or two of boring reading. But once I started the book, I found it engrossing enough. The story had a good start and I kept on reading to find out 'so what will happen at the end of the day, or rather the night'. But then God enters and my interest in the story exits. I don't know, the book started realistically enough and then all of a sudden God intervenes and makes it completely unbelievable. Seemed to me that the author had no clue how to end the story and came up with this weird idea. A disappointment.

The Hungry Tide: This is my first book by Amitav Ghosh. My brother recommended this to me saying that he is considered to be the best among Indian writers. The story is set in the tide country of the Sundarbans and is told from the perspective of the two main characters, Kanai Ghosh and Piyali Roy. Even though the book does not have constant action, thrill and suspense, it is still fast paced enough. Amitav Ghosh keeps the pages turning taking us through the history of the Sundarbans, the perilous ecology of the endangered cetaceans and the conservation projects surrounding the great Bengal Tiger, the stories of the local deities along with the stories for each character. He also reveals the shocking incident of the Morichjhapi where thousands of refugees trying to settle down are violently evicted by the government in the name of conservation. However, I have to admit that at times I got bored by the lengthy descriptions and skipped few paragraphs here and there.

Guru: What was the hype all about? Guru, to my opinion was quite a boring film. I had entered the theatre with a lot of expectations, but was very disappointed. Agreed that Abhishek did a good job, but that's not enough for a movie to be interesting, is it? The story was flat, about a poor guy who makes it big by bending the law. Even though the law manages to catch him, he is sent free after he makes an impassioned speech to the commission, which by the way he manages to speak in a strong voice in spite of having suffered a paralytic attack that weakened him! What was the movie trying to tell? That its okay to bend the law and get you thing done? Or was it trying to give a message that India needs to have less restrictions on entrepreneurs and business starters? Somehow, the message didn't come through clear. Aishwarya has acted her part good enough. Vidya Balan and Madhavan are pleasing to the eye while it was nice to see Mithun in a good role (seen Chingari? You'll know what I mean!). A passable movie, see if you must.

Eklavya: After quite a while did I get to see a movie that kept me fully entertained. The missing song and dance sequences was quite a relief and not missed. I felt the movie was made splendid. The direction and cinematography was arresting and the acting superb. No one, not even the Big B, did I feel overacted. Jackie Shroff - whom I always felt went too overboard with his roles, specially in the few movies that he has appeared in the last few years - even he seemed have acted 'just enough'. Saif is once again brilliant and looking awesomely good while Vidya Balan, my favorite these days, looks beautiful. Boman Irani has portrayed his role of a jealous king very well and Sharmila, still looks gorgeous even to this day. Sanjay Dutt gives a comic relief to this dark story about jealousy, faithfulness, betrayal, ambition, love and revenge revolving around a royal family during present times. A must see!

The Science of Sleep: This is a French movie which I saw at a friend's place. I have always been fond of French movies, their story-line is always simple and involves around regular believable people and I love the sound of their language, so soft and polite! The Science of Sleep is in French and English with bits of Spanish thrown in. This is a story of a talented illustrator Stephane who returns to his childhood home for a job which he soon finds out to be pretty shitty. He meets his equally creative neighbor Stephanie and soon falls in love with her. But that's just a part of the bigger story - Stephane often has trouble differentiating dreams from reality and he finds himself slipping back and forth between them causing havoc on his waking life which starts to take it's toll on his sanity. The movie is created by the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The surrealism you see in Eternal Sunshine is evident here as well. The movie is beautiful and artfully done interspersed with comedy, inventiveness and quirkiness. Watch it if you like out of the box movies!

V-Day and V-weekend

2007-02-23T16:01:00.000-05:00

After the eventful Sunday mentioned in my previous post, my next weekend was very normal. Even my Valentine's Day was quite normal. Since V is about 160 miles away and V-day fell in the middle of the week, we didn't have much option but to talk on the phone as often as possible. It snowed a lot that day, our highest snowfall of the season. The roads were empty and even my office had a low turnout. When me and my fren SR reached home in the evening, we realised everyone else had cleaned up their parking spot and dumped snow on ours. There was no other spot empty so we had no other choice but to spend a good 2 hrs shovelling the snow! Wat a way to spend Valentine's Day evening. Whatever happened to candlelight dinner and walk in the beach?

V had sent me a bouquet of flowers, which is still nice a fresh besides my bed. I start my day with the view of the fresh beautiful roses that just brighten up my day. I, on the other hand, after much contemplation, decided to give him a nice gourmet chocolate treat. The website showed lovely looking chocolate shells filled with mousse and other yummy treats. Seemed perfect for V. I paid more than the value of the chocolate for delivery on the 14th. When he received the gift, V called me. He was like the gift looks great....but the tone of his voice made me realize that I made a mistake. Even as I had placed the order, I had a strange feeling that something was not right. And guess what, the gift included just the shells, no mousse nor custard to fill the shells! The gift was pointless :( This weekend I have asked V to get along the shells when he comes visiting and we'll make some mousse at home and try it out.

The last weekend was a long weekend for us due to President's Day. We decided to go skiing. Our friend/my flatmate SR had other plans so there was just me, V and one of V's friend. Saturday was spent making rounds of malls looking for a decent deals on ski pants. In the eve, we went to a friend's place in New Jersey to see a very interesting French movie. But that's another post. By the time we returned to Stamford, it was almost 3 am. We had planned to leave early next morning for the ski resort so that we reach by 10 am when the lessons start.

Sunday morning we woke up bright and fresh, in spite of the late night. The resort, Mountain Creek Resort, is located in Vernon, New Jersey which is about 1.5 hrs drive from Stamford. As we walked up to the resort from the parking lot, we got an inkling of what we were getting ourselves into. Just walking up to the resort sapped up almost all our energy! Damn! I so needed to exercise! After getting ourselves registered for the beginners class, we stopped for a quick breakfast. The place was very crowded and we had to stand in long queues to get our skiing gear - ski boots, skis and poles. Me and V's friend had to buy woollen caps since mine was not appropriate for the purpose and V's friend had none. We were patting ourselves for thinking ahead and getting the ski pants from outside. The resort stores were so damn expensive. A simple woolen cap cost me 26 bucks!

By the time we got all our gear, it was past 12 o'clock. We had missed our lesson and so had to wait for the next one which started at 2 pm. We decided to pass the time by starting on our own. We copied others who were taking lessons and learnt how to put on the skis. We started with one ski and soon all three were sliding along a gradient slope in both skis. Woo! It felt great and the experience was so much better than my ice-skating experience.

At around 2 the next lesson started. There were 10 learners in each group. The instructor started with basic techniques and we were soon whizzing downhill (OK it wasn't exactly whizzing...more like whizzing in slow motion :P ) Once or twice I fell down while trying more advanced techniques like turning and shuffling etc. After few practices on gradient slope, the instructor took us to a higher slope. V was ahead of me and he glided down the slope with ease. Next was my turn and I let myself go. It felt awesome! But soon I gained a whole lot of speed and I felt myself go zoom! I could see V at the end of the slope and I was approaching him real fast. I heard him shout to brake. I willed my feet to move so that I can make a V, the technique we had learned for braking. But my feet just didn't move soon enough. I realized I was soon gonna crash on V and another guy standing besides him. To avoid it, I let myself fall down and then I felt a huge thud on my head. I now know what it means to see stars in broad daylight :) I felt my head had split into two. I tried to look around and I didn't see a hint of panic in V's eyes or people nearby. So I realized my head was still in one piece and that I was alright.

The instructor helped me up. My head was still aching, so I decided to give myself a break. The others went up for two more rounds. As I stood waiting my headache went away. It started to snow and everything looked even more beautiful. The lessons we done and we decided we have had enough. We got out the cameras and clicked a few pics. By then we were famished with hunger so had a hearty meal at the cafeteria. On our drive back to Stamford, I felt so tired, I just couldn't keep my eyes open. By the time we reached, not only was my head aching again, but the rest of my body too was hurting here and there.

The next morning I tried to lift myself out of the bed when I felt shooting pain in my neck. I had to hold my head by my hands so as not to strain my neck, as I got out of bed. Now, almost a week later, my neck is still hurting a bit, but the pain is less intense. At least I can lift myself up from my bed or couch without having to hold my head with my hands :)

So that was my first ever skiing experience. The fall hasn't put me off skiing and I'm looking forward to doing it again - the skiing that is, not falling down :)

What a (Sun) day!!

2007-02-07T15:24:00.001-05:00

Sunday was Superbowl day. Though not a big fan of the American football, I was still enthu to see the game since my 'hometown' team the Indianapolis Colts were in the final.

We and a couple of friends had decided to watch the game in V's apartment in Stamford with proper game party style food and snacks like chicken wings and hot dogs and pizzas.

However, come Sunday morning, from the moment I woke up, I started vomiting and having diarrhea. Within a couple of hours, I was completely drained out. Even the medicine I took, took no time to exit from my system. I was in a bad shape and soon V started worrying. A quick search in the internet and we couldn't find a prompt medical center where you can visit a doc without any appointment. A few phone calls to friends and we decided the best way would be to go to the emergency room of a local hospital.

Our kind neighbor suggested we go to another town, Greenwich's hospital since the one in Stamford would be too crowded. He had us follow him all the way to the hospital which was 30 mins away! So nice of him! In the hospital, he made me sit in the wheelchair and the hospital guy wheeled me in. Gosh! It was so embarrassing. I admit, I felt weak and all, but not that weak that I couldn't walk! And so I had to fake my condition a bit, moaning now and then, holding my head, so that at least I looked genuine enough to be sitting in the wheelchair!

The doc/nurse who did my stats was so cute..his name was Nicholas. Yeah, even in my condition, I noticed his name :D After my stats were taken, I had to wait for them to call me. As the wait grew longer, I was glad to be sitting in the wheelchair, coz my uneasiness was increasing, I got cramps all over my body and all I wanted to do was to lie down. After a while, I was wheeled into the room where the nurse asked me to change to the hospital gown. That piece of clothing is quite embarrassing, but luckily it was not as bad as the ones I had seen on TV and movies. Once I was 'settled in', in and out came a series of nurses and docs (after 9 I lost count) poking and tapping me here and there and asking all kinda questions. As my luck would have it, my doctor was not handsome Nick, but a roundly kind faced chubby bearded fellow. I was then given a saline drip to re-hydrate my body. My very first saline drip!

After spending 4-5hrs in the hospital, I was convinced I felt better and ready to go home. I was feeling cold since the bedsheet they gave to cover was not enough. Just then the doc reappeared saying that I seem to have some infection and that they need to do a cat-scan. I was like, what!!??! I appeared calm outwardly, but my mind was racing within. Cat-scan? Wasn't that something that they do to someone who's seriously ill? Am I that sick??!!! What's wrong with me?!! The doc left to get me some drink which I was to take for the cat scan. I let go of my self control and jumped on V. I asked me to please take me home, that I was alright, that I just need some rest. Poor guy, he tried his best to sooth me. A nurse entered with 2 glass of Gatorade type of drink for me to finish in 10 mins. I gulped it down in 2! It seems, you have to wait 45 mins after you take the drink to be able to do the cat-scan. By then the Superbowl pre game show had already started. Fidgety and restless, I tried to watch the TV and soon dosed off to sleep.

I got up when another cute male nurse came to wheel me to the cat-scan room. I noticed, the game was just about to begin. The doc there took a few pics of me and gave me some injection for the final picture. The thing in the injection made me warm all over till the tip of my fingers and left a funny taste in my mouth. In no time it was all over and I was wheeled back into the room. And the first thing I noticed was that within this few minutes that we were out, the Chicago Bears had already scored a touchdown and they were 7 points ahead of the Colts!! Damn!

We spent the time watching the game while waiting for the results of the tests. I was drowsing on and off to sleep. After almost an hour, the doc came back and tada! I was free to go home! I was alright! Seems I had got Gastroenteritis or Stomach Flu, common in the area since last few weeks. I just had to take care of what I was eating till I felt better.

V watched the remaining game at home while I again went on and off to sleep. I still vaguely remember hearing that the Colts did win after all! I didn't go to work on Monday and neither did V. He drove me back to Pennsylvania in the eve when I felt fit to travel. Due to his and my flatmate S's care and strict diet, I am now back to normal.

Though our game party was ruined, it was still an exciting day. But I would NOT want it to repeat again. I had quite an experience and I am glad its over. It gave V quite a scare and my stomach a much needed rest.

Five Point Someone

2007-02-03T20:17:00.000-05:00

So I finished reading Five Point Someone. It took me 2 sittings (or rather lying downs since I read it during my bed time) to complete the book, so you can imagine its quite a page turner.

The book is fast paced and quite funny and dark at the same time. I enjoyed it immensely. Reminded me a lot about my engineering days back in Pune. I was never overworked like these guys were, but their attitude towards the institute (or insti as they call it) is quite similar to my feelings towards my college.

The story is about three guys from completely different backgrounds who come together after undergoing ragging on their first day in IIT. Their bonding become stronger when end up with 5 point something GPAs in their first term. The story is about their friendship,adventure and confusion as they continue to fight the system trying to find out easy/better way out of 'mugging up' and getting better GPAs.

The narration has an easy flow and the characters are well sketched and very imaginable. I specially enjoyed the witty comments/one liners - pretty funny!

Go ahead...read it. As for me, I'm off to read One Night @ the Call Center !!!

Which Vista is right for you?

2007-01-29T20:58:00.000-05:00

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-01-27T18:31:00.000-05:00

A day before New Years Eve, a friend called up V and asked us to join him and his friends in Times Square for a movie. As we had nothing better to do, and as we normally just need an excuse to visit New York City, we agreed. He mentioned some name of the movie, which I had never heard of before or had the slightest clue what it was about. But knowing this friend, I knew that the movie's gonna be out of the ordinary and could be very interesting.

New year's traffic held us up and we all arrived late. Reaching the theater, I caught a glimpse of the movie poster. The name was "Pan's Labyrinth" and it depicted some fairy tale/fantasy kinda place. We postponed the tickets for the next show and went for dinner at the nearby desi restaurant Kashmir. I had eaten at this place earlier, way back in 2003 when I had visited NY as a tourist. Those days, having stayed in remote Indiana, Indian food was always a treat. But this time around, I realized that the restaurant was not as great as I had initially thought and the food was pathetic and a taste spoiler. Guys, my advice - if you are in Times Square area, unless you have to eat desi food, please don't eat at Kashmir!!

The service at the restaurant was slow and so we missed the show again and we had to re-postpone the tickets. Luckily even though the lady at the counter realized we had postponed the tickets before, she still gave us tickets for the next show.

The movie started and then it struck us all...the movie was not in English! It was in Spanish with English subtitles. It is a story about a young girl who believes in fairies while having to deal with harsh reality of her real life. But don't get fooled by the words "young girl" and "fairies". This story is a fancy Gothic fairy tale set against a chilling post war era with its share of violence, gruesomeness and horror

The story is about a young girl, Ofelia who moves with her pregnant mother to live with her step father. They live in a remote area where her sadist and fascist step father and his army are trying to supress the local insurgents. Ofelia is very fond of books on ancient fairy tales and one day finds herself entering an old labyrinth (maze) near her home. These she meets a faun who tells her that she is the long lost daughter of the King of the Underworld and that she needs to carry out three tasks successfully in order to re-enter the magical world. The remainder of the movie shows how she goes about carrying out the tasks and as a result meets terrifying creatures.

Story apart, the movie itself is a pure work of art. The brilliant imagination displayed by the director is en-captivating. The childlike innocence of the young girl's imagination is intricately woven with the horror of the real world as well as that of the fantasy world. The acting is superb and the sets and make-up is amazing. No wonder this movie got 6 Oscar nominations including the Best Foreign Film, a strong contender for Water.

If you are of a strong heart and you like out of ordinary movies, I suggest you don't miss Pan's Labyrinth.

What's my song?

2007-01-26T14:49:00.000-05:00

How many times have you found yourself humming a tune or singing a song but to your frsutration dont remember the title of the song? How often I have tried to google the lyrics trying to search for the song but with not such a great result.

Well, we now have Midomi to rescue. This innovative search site allows you to sing/hum a tune and it will search for the song for you! How cool is that!!!

Can't wait to get home and try it out!!

Update: I tried this out and it works pretty good. It did return songs to the tunes (or mis-tunes :P) that I hummed. And yeah, when I sang a Hindi song (which I knew was 'based' on an English tune), it did return the English song. Now you can how which songs inspires our Bollywood songs!

A surprise

2007-01-24T23:36:00.000-05:00

Yesterday evening I got a call from V. Ok, I know I always get calls from him. Nothing special to blog about that, you'll say. But this one was different! He told me I had received a parcel from Oklahoma. Since I just moved, I still haven't changed my postal address officially, so I'm still get my mails in his address. I was completely zapped by his announcement. Even though I have loads of relatives spread all over US, I couldn't recollect my folks mentioning Oklahoma at all. So I hurried V to open up the parcel. I have to admit one thing though, the parcel was packed damn well! It took him quite a while to get it open! Inside the parcel was two things that I had wanted for a long time. Five Point Someone and One Night @ the Call Center by Chetan Bhagat. Immediately I knew who had sent me the lovely gift. It had to be none other than my dear friend Juneli! Juneli, thank you so much for the thoughtful gift. I'll get my hands on it this weekend. And I'm looking forward to reading your letter too :). I have been waiting to lie my hands on some book and now I got two! That too the ones I had been waiting to read for a long time! Whee!!

Saraswati Puja

2007-01-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrate Saraswati Puja back home. I remember as a child this meant an easy way to appease the Goddess to get you good grades in school. Then, this time of the year, we would be enjoying our 2 months winter vacation with school far away from our minds. This day served as a nice reminder of carefree days soon getting over. As you all must be knowing, Goddess Saraswati is considered to be the Goddess of knowledge. We used to do puja of text books. Since we'd have a little less than a month before a new school year started, most of us didnt have school books (for the next year) with us. Lucky me always had my brother's hand me downs. Yellow is considered Godess Saraswati's colour, so we all try to wear yellow that day.

All these years away from home and after having stayed in Pune for 7 years, I had almost forgotton about this day. I had been suprised when during my 1st year in Pune, I realised they celebrate do the puja during Dushera. Even now my non-Sikkim friends find it strange that we celebrate the puja in Jan-Feb.

This year today is special for me and my family in a different way. We are all closely related to books, not only because all of us are very fond of reading, but we also own a bookshop which is lovingly taken care of by my brother. My Dad enjoys writing in his spare time. We have in the past organised book fairs/contests every year on this day. But more than that, today happens to be my late Grandfather's 90th birthday. Apart from the puja, we had a small gathering of relatives for murti staphna of my Grandad's newly sculpted marble bust. Late yesterday evening I came to know that today is also my parents marriage anniversary! Since we follow Nepali calendar, I never know when their anniversary is :(. On top of that, when I called up home I came to know that today is also my nani's eigth month death anniversary.

Lots of mixed emotions. All my relatives and family were together today back home. I always feel sad knowing I have missed so many such occasions. I know I should consider myself lucky than many people to have been home twice in a year and I do too. But these emotions are hard to check.

I wish you all Happy Saraswati Puja, whether you celebrate it today or some other day or not at all. I hope Ma Saraswati's blessings are always with you. May your knowledge grow by two folds and you use it wisely :)

Clothes with a secret

2007-01-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

I was watching one episode of CSI:NY when I came to know about this website www.edoclaundry.com.

The whole concept of edoclaundry is pretty cool. This guy designs a series of t-shirts which has code hidden in the graphic. (scramble the letters 'edoc' and you get 'code' - hence the name). Once you have figured out the hidden code, you need to go to the website and enter the code. There's a series of t-shirts and you need to figure out the codes in all and eventually in the end, u apparantly get to know the deep dark secret behind edoclaundry.

Pretty innovative way to sell t-shirts, dont you think? And quite a pricey way to entertain one self!

News!

2006-12-27T14:12:00.000-05:00

I have 2 good news to share with y'all

One, I got a new job....my stint with the UN got over and now I am moving to Pennsylvania. My new job is taking me to Malvern which is a small town outside of Philadelphia. I guess this moving business is one thing you got to live with when you work as a consultant. I have a friend who is already working in the same co. so I am glad I have someone there.

Infact I am so used to this place since the last 2 months me and V have been visiting this friend each and every weekend. Since my return to India, my weekends have been full of travel...we'd go to Pennsylvania (about 2.5 hrs drive) on Friday eve, then on Saturday we either go to NYC (which is like 2 hrs from there) or to the desi ilaka in New Jersey (which about an hr away). While in NY, we'd go to see the holiday lights and eat yummy food. While in NJ, we'd hog desi favourites like wada pav and chats or desi chinese food and watch hindi movies in the theater. Sunday night we'd be back in Stamford. The states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have earned a lot of money from our toll fee.

My other news is that I got a new car! Well, its not actually brand new per se..its a pre-owned '05 Nissan Murano SL. During the previous weekends when we've been driving around, it was also with a mission...that is to search for a good car for me. After looking high and low we finally found a great one which fit my budget. So this Friday I drove home my *new* AWD SUV. Here are some pics:

A little bit more about me

2006-12-20T04:03:00.000-05:00

Okay Juneli...finally got to complete this tag :)

1. I am an insomniac. Why else am I writing this post at 3am when I had all the time in the world? Since the past God knows how many days, I've never slept before 4am. What do I do? I do things which does NOTHING to help me sleep. I read, browse or play senseless games like Zuma on Yahoo! games or Ka-Glom on my blackberry.

2. I never used to cry in movies, however emotional the movie might be. Never dropped a tear even during Titanic. But something changed since I met V. Now, even a slightest hint of mushiness and my eyes get filled up. Pyar ke side effects?

3. I love to celebrate my birthday. I enjoy the attention and of course the gifts and surprises. I expect other feel the same too, so I try to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries and make sure I wish them even if its just online.

4. I am a rice lover. Maybe its a part of my Nepalese heritage (we can eat rice 4 times a day), but give me rice, dal and chutney/achar and I'll be happy. In fact, after discovering South Indian cuisine, I've become a huge fan of simple lemon rice, tamarind rice or any rice and podi (powder).

5. I always keep in touch with my old friends. Therefore I am still close with my friends from KG as well as college and my first job. However, when it comes to relatives, I am loath to call them. Many of my relatives here in US are pissed off just coz of that but I just cant help it!

6. I love reading books. My interest lies in fiction. I also enjoy reading not only personal blogs but technical blogs and news. But if I have to read anything technical to help me upgrade my skills, I suddenly lose all interest.

7. I dream weird dreams, most of them are nightmarish dealing with ghosts, zombies and more frequently snakes. I often have recurring dream of a snake or someone chasing me. Some of my dreams are like movies. I still remember one particularly weird dream where I saw Dimple Kapadia as a ghost and no, I had not been thinking about Bees Saal Baad.

8. I cannot sit with my hands idle. I either have to doodle, fiddle with anything within reach or use my laptop. I simply can't resist playing with a burning candle. I remember once I was discussing something with my manager and I was fiddling with some hook in his cubicle and I got my finger stuck in it. He soon realized my mind was somewhere else...it was so embarrassing and he just couldn't stop laughing when he saw what I was upto. Thank God he was nice enough not to feel offended!

Some deal, huh?

2006-12-19T00:33:00.000-05:00

Back!!

2006-12-18T16:35:00.000-05:00

:)
Due to public demand, I kicked out my new template and got back my old one. I too feel more homely with this one. The change was the result of one sleepless night. Thanks for your comments :)

New Look

2006-12-15T06:03:00.001-05:00

What say?

On books

2006-11-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been reading quite a number of books. Even during my trip to India, I managed to finish four books, Tuesdays with Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven both by Mitch Albom, The Innocent Man by John Grisham and How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got A Life by Kaavya Viswanathan.

The highly acclaimed Tuesdays with Morrie is a true story about Mitch Albom and his dying professor, how the professor, the young man's mentor remains to be his coach on life even till his last breath. It is a touching story and I highly recommend it.

After Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom came up with Five People You Meet in Heaven. This too is a lovely read highlighted by the author's simple writing style. The story is about a man who upon his death goes to heaven and meets five people who have had been unsuspectingly pivotal influence in his life.

My third read is the first non fiction by John Grisham. You've got to admit, Grisham's talent makes even a true story seem like a thriller and make the book so unputdownable. It is the story of a man who had been unjustly sentenced for murder.

I read the controversial Opal Mehta just coz my dad had a copy of it and for some reason kept it by my bedside for me to read. It is a typical story of a nerdy teenager who changes her lifestyle just so be 'cool' and fit with the hep girls in her high school. Even though the main plot is a common one specially in high school movies, but it has been written in an interesting and funny manner.

I have just completed A Life Less Ordinary by Baby Halder. Many of you might have heard or read about the inspiring story of Baby Halder. She is an icon of courage and determination who in spite of being a domestic worker has managed to write a book on her life which definitely is no less ordinary. I have a special admiration for her since I have met her personally. She is the housemaid of my brother's friend and I have stayed at their place a couple of times. In fact, my brother is also in the book. My brother first showed me the book when it was published in Bengali and Hindi. Even though it is a huge task for me to read in Hindi, I was ready to read it. But then he informed me that the English translation would be soon available. So I decided to wait coz I knew I would get the full impact of the story in English rather than in Hindi.

I am now reading The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. As you all must be knowing, Kiran Desai is the daughter of the famous writer Anita Desai, whose story I remember was part of my ICSE curriculum. This book begins in Kalimpong, West Bengal which is very close to my hometown and is set during the Indian-Nepalese movement during the 80s in Kalimpong and Darjeeling area. I was then a child and still remember the horror stories we used to hear about young guys with guns looting and killing people. Every other day we used to hear about people being killed and heads being hung at gates, infusing strikes which left Sikkim crippled and cut off from the rest of India. I have finished about 1/4th of the book and though I like the story and all, I am not sure if I am enjoying her style.

Four things....

2006-11-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

As I was soaring through the valleys of Manali, absorbing the beautiful sceneries of Nainital, paying homage to the abode of HH The Dalai Lama in Mcloedganj and comparing the similarities between Shimla and Darjeeling, little was I to know that I would have a small task to do when I get back to reality. Yes I have been tagged, after a long time I agree, by who else but Princess. So well, here it goes:

Four things....

Four things you may not know about me.

A) 4 places I have lived:
1. Pune
2. Columbus and Indianapolis, Indiana
3. New Jersey
4. Stamford, Connecticut

B) 4 TV shows I love to watch:
1 House
2 Seinfeld
3 Sex and the City
4 Unwrapped on Food Network

C) 4 places I have vacationed:
1 Yellowstone National Park, US
2 Shravanabelagola, Karnataka
3 Bhimtal, UP
4 Dive Agar, Maharashtra

D) 4 hobbies I like to spend time on:
1 Travel
2 Reading
3 Finding and keeping in touch with old friends on the net
4 Movies

E) 4 of my favorite foods:
1 Momos
2 Veg chowmien made by Mom
3 Spicy Tom Yum soup
4 Choela - roasted & marinated meat delicacy of Nepal

F) 4 places I would rather be right now:
1 Home
2 New Zealand
3 Victoria, BC, Canada
4 Europe

One Web Day!

2006-09-22T16:14:00.000-04:00

Today is the very first OneWebDay! Celebrate your online life by marking this special day. If you need some guidelines on how to celebrate this day, click here

Map My India!

2006-09-19T12:37:00.000-04:00

Many of you might already be using it, but I just came across this site: http://beta.mapmyindia.com/

Do check it out...it's pretty neat! I hadn't thought this could be possible in India with its so many ambiguously named streets and addresses.

I tried out a few features....I guess it works better for bigger cities, for those are the ones where the data is most extensive. But I did find out that the road way from Pune to Gangtok is 2263.76 Km! They seem to be planning to add more cool features like mobile etc. Good going!

Ramayana 3392 A.D.

2006-09-14T13:37:00.000-04:00

Virgin Comics is soon launching a whole range of new comic book series.. many of them based on our Hindu mythological figures. Here's a small preview of whats in store for us

Courtesy: Sikkim Midweek Vol1 No2

Find out more at http://www.virgincomics.com

Banned Books

2006-09-13T16:05:00.000-04:00

After a long time I found something which I felt was worth the effort of writing a new post :-)

Here's something which I am sure will interest all book lovers
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/banned/

Virginia Trip - III

2006-06-20T23:47:00.000-04:00

This has been long pending.

Busch Gardens is an amusement park. I believe there are two of them in US. I had been to the first one in Tampa, Florida in Dec 2004. That had African theme and V had won a huge cute gorrila (soft toy ofcourse) for me. This one in VA had a European theme. Its smaller than the African one but cuter with different sections setup as different countries of Europe.

After a long wait to get inside the gates (it was crowded), we were so hot that we headed straight for the water rides. From there we moved on to roller coasters. The weather was hot and getting drenched in the rides was what we enjoyed the most. Their biggest roller coaster was quite scary, specially the first plunging drop. However much I tried, I just couldnt keep my eyes open during that drop!

Towards the end of the day, we went towards the games section. Like before, I wanted V to win something. He did win a small dolphin and a big flamingo, but my eyes were in this huge cute monkey (yes, again!). The game to win the monkey was to pass a small hoop through a twisted wire without letting it touch the wire. V tried twice without sucess. Then I thought of giving it a try. I was doing pretty good when just as I was abt to reach the end, it touched the wire and the alarm beeped. V and Dee were excited abt my progress so asked me to try again. By then a little crowd had gathered around me and I could feel a million eyes on me. I fared badly on my second try and was out in no time, maybe coz of the peer pressure :P.

We went around a while, encouraging friends who were winning some stuff or the other. V still seemed impressed with my performance at the wire game and asked me to try again. So we went back to the game stall to try for the third time. And guess what? I won!! I was so happy! For the first time I won something and didnt have V to win for me :). The monkey is huge, I was of course unable to carry it. Its bigger than me! Unfortunately, due to its size, I couldn't take it with me to NJ. Instead my frens took it with them in their car. Next trip to their house, I'll have to get it back :)

The next day we started off early as me and Dee had to catch the bus from D.C. We waited in the bus stop for more than an hour and the bus never showed up! This was not the first that Greyhound had ditched me. V got so mad that he rented a car and me, V and Dee drove to NJ in the car instead. I drove till NJ and after dinner droppping us, V drove to Pitts from there. Poor guy, he reached home at 4 in the morning and had to be at work at 8am!

So that was our Virginia trip. Though we didn't do much, it was nice and relaxing. Next trip? Who knows.. we haven't planned it yet!

Virginia Trip - II

2006-06-06T17:00:00.000-04:00

Virginia is a beautiful state, clean and green. The highways are in great condition and driving is a pleasure. Unlike NY where the roads are lined on both the sides with tall buildings and Indiana where roads are lined with miles and miles of plain boring fields...here you will lush green trees....such a soothing view!

Roughly after about 3hrs or so we reached our first destination, the CBBT or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. As the name suggests, it is a long bridge cum tunnel that extends to about 18 miles. It is considered to be a modern engineering wonder and the view on either side of the bridge is breath taking. About halfway through, the bridge passes through a tiny man made island, where you can stop and park your car. The island also holds a restaurant and a souvenir shop. Its a nice stop to stretch your legs and that we did along with taking many pictures. It seems some chase + crash scene in Mission Impossible III has been shot on the bridge.

At the end of the bridge, we stopped again for a few clicks and then headed back to Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is like any other beach town - small, lively and invitingly relaxing. By then we were famished with hunger. We drove for quite a while and finally found the perfect beach side. It was quite crowded but not too overbearing. We quickly changed to our beachwear and headed out towards the beach with all our beach-ware - chairs, mats, towels et all. Just by the beach there was this lovely posh-looking restaurant Catch 31. My vegetarian friends moved on to find their food while me and my non-vegetarian friends enjoyed delicious Catch 31 sea food.

The rest of the day passed in the beach. While I spent most of the time relaxing and sunbathing, my daring friends were more into playing in the water.

After everyone had their full, we moved towards town, which was just the matter of crossing the beach. We noticed people dressed nicely and soon realised we were about to witness a wedding! They were having a wedding at the beach! The funny thing was, the bride and the bridesmaids were wearing lovely gowns, but were barefooted while the bridegroom and his friends (what do you call them?) were wearing black suits and tux but were wearing slippers! It was indeed a quaint scene!

As a part of the Memorial Day celebrations, the town had organised a rock show. The band playing has flown in from Texas and they were pretty good. We passed the remaining of the evening lazing on the lawn listening to rock songs. Later we once again split into veg-non veg group for dinner. This time we had to walk quite a bit in search for the right place to eat. Our efforts were well paid coz the restaurant/bar that we ended up in served us yummy scrumptious sea food. I was so tired that as soon as I sat in the car, I dozed off. It seems on our way back to the hotel, we were stuck in the traffic for a good 1hr or so. By the time we hit the bed it was almost 2am!

Next The Busch Gardens

Virginia Trip - I

2006-05-31T16:48:00.000-04:00

My weekend trip kick started on Friday. We were given an early release from work. My best friend Dee arrived at Port Authority bus terminal from NJ.

I then took her to see places in NYC. We had 4hrs in hand before our train to Washington DC. We went to Times Square, sat for some time in Bryant Park (I remember some scenes of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was shot here. Any idea when its getting released?). From there I took her to see the Grand Central Terminal and then to the UN. I was basically showing her my daily route to work. By then we were totally exhausted, walking so long that too with the luggage. We came back to the Penn Station from where we boarded the train to DC.

We reached DC at around 1.30am. A couple of our friends had come to pick us up. From there we were to go to one's home in Virginia. The Union Station in DC is amongst the most wonderful stations I have ever seen. Its grand and huge like a big hotels lobby. It has a shopping mall and restaurants. Even though the Grand Central Terminal in NY is also quite grand, I like Union Station better...maybe since it has lesser people comparatively?

As we exited the station, we missed an exit and soon we were lost. Guys as always try hard not to ask for directions, so we kept on going and ended pretty messed up. We soon had to call the wife of one friend to tell us the direction. The guy driving was talking to his wife on the phone figuring out the way to the interstate when a cop saw us and pulled us up. I know in many states it is against the law to use the cell phone while driving, and I guess we were close to the White House area, so there were extra security. Thankfully the cop just gave a warning and waived us the fine of $100.00. He even directed us to the correct way to the interstate.

We had moved not more than 3 blocks when we saw another set of blinking lights behind us. There was however a car between our car and the cop car so we were assured that the cops were not behind us again. All of a sudden, the car behind sped up and tried to overtake us from the right. However unluckily for that guy, the right lane ended, and since our car was on his left side blocking his way, he could not make a dash for it and was forced to make a right turn, where another cop car was waiting for him! Though it was a bit scary for a fraction of a second when I thought he is going to dash into us, we felt good later on thinking that we helped the cops nab a runaway!

By the time we reached home, it was 3am. V and a couple of friends were already on their way from Pittsburgh to Virginia. I slept for a couple of hours. By then they had arrived and after breakfast we all started for our vacation.

Next CBBT and Virginia Beach

On Cloud Nine

2006-05-25T13:27:00.000-04:00

I am overwhelmed, I am happy, I feel great and I feel grateful!
In spite of my disappearing act from the blog scene (that too without any notice), you guys took time to wish me on my birthday. Thank you all so much for your wishes and thank you, Silky Moon and Ricky, for writing such lovely things about me. Thanks to all the wonderful friends I have, in real life and in the virtual life, my birthday went really, really well. I cannot even count the number of people who have wished me from all over the world. Many went out of their way to make me feel special. This birthday was also special because my best friend who recently came from India, was with me. We are back together after three years... its great staying together again....just like old times.

This Memorial weekend me, V and our friends are going to Williamsburg, Va. As always, I will be (hopefully) posting my travelogue once I return.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

The Quest

2006-04-20T23:47:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has read Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has been enthralled and captivated by the endless mind-games involved in the quest of the Da Vinci Code.

I am now eagerly awaiting the release of the movie which incidentally falls on my birthday. What more can I ask as a birthday gift?? Well, actually, I can ask for a lot more, but that's out of the context here :P

Anyway, as a promotion for the movie, Google and Sony Pictures have come up with this awesome idea. They have created a series of mind games for DVC enthusiast like us to participate. The games are to be solved one a day for 24 days. The final winner will win a hoard of prizes. I have already participated and solved the games and they are fascinating to say the least! As you try solve the puzzles, you will (not necessarily) need to go to the movie's official website. As you browse, you will understand how amazingly they have put up the site. Each and every part of the site hides some secret...it is truly remarkable.

I seriously urge all you DVC fans to participate in the games, if you haven't done so yet! For those who haven't read the book yet, please do so before you watch the movie...though by looking at the website and the promotional videos, I believe the movie will do full justice to the book.

For further details on the contest, click here

Chal Chaiya Chaiya

2006-03-30T15:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, me and my friends had made plans to get together in Pittsburgh. 8 of them were driving over from Columbus and I would be going there from NY. We had many reasons to get together and celebrate, one friend got a great new job, one's getting married next month, two of them got new cars and one's birthday falls tomorrow. So, come Friday and I went to work with my overnight bag, all set to go. Unfortunately their plan got cancelled as two of them had some office work to be done during the weekend. So I set off after work, feeling bad that my friends won’t be coming, but all the same looking forward to be with V ;-)

Saw The Inside Man on Saturday. It’s a nice movie, worth seeing once. The highlight of the movie was... nope, not the incredible bank robbery scheme, neither was it the power broker role played by Judy Foster nor was it the handsome Clive Owen and no, it wasn't Denzel Washington's performance. It was our very own Bollywood song Chaiya Chaiya!!!! Yes! As the titles started rolling in at the start of the movie, we were taken aback by the song playing in full blast. They played almost the entire song and even during the credits roll in the end. But I really missed Shah Rukh Khan!

I colored my hair. I had it highlighted with red color. I have done this before, once in India and once after I came here. And both the times I had thought I would never do it again since it spoils the hair so! I had to wait almost a year before by bad/faded hair grew out...and after having 'normal' hair for a few months I got bored! Plus, spring is in the air and I wanted some change! The color looked lovely for a few days. I was supposed to wash it less as possible...but I wash my hair every alternate day....cant leave it for one day more else I look like I have poured a bottle of oil on my head! So now, my hair is back to looking normal. Just three days and the color's almost gone!! *sob sob* To think that I even bought salon special shampoo and conditioner for colored hair! Only one person in my office noticed it! How tragic is that!!!

India Trip pics

2006-03-28T01:00:00.000-05:00

I was finally able to upload some of the pics from my India trip. Click on the two pics below to view the entire sets (India Trip January 2006 and Nepal Trip January 2006). I hope you enjoy them....dont forget to leave your comments!

Sikkim Pics

Nepal Pics

The last week

2006-03-23T15:21:00.001-05:00

My last week in Gangtok is now a blur. The week was crammed with shopping, visits to the tailor, meeting relatives and friends and of course the dentist.

My trip to Calcutta and Kathmandu was so much fun that I had actually forgotten all about my dentist and the impending tasks. So the very next day of my return, I was back at her clinic with a heavy heart. I had to visit her almost everyday for the final touches to my RCT and capping. During the little time that I could squeeze in between the visits, I would go for shopping either with my friend or with my mom. Once we hosted a dinner party and for all close relatives. The next day the same group of people met at one of the relatives house for dinner. The third day the third relative invited the same group for dinner. It was funny coz the only difference between these parties were the venue and the menu.

During this time, I came to know from one of my cousin that she has befriended an old friend of mine. Incidentally, this friend's name also starts with V. We used to be friends since KGs or maybe even before that. We used to stay in the same building and were in the same class till 12th. In fact when we were kids, we used to be best of friends. I still remember that he used to say he'll marry me when we grow up! LOL... After we left school, we had lost contact until now. Through my cousin, I called and spoke to him. It was really good talking to him after all these years. The next day one of my uncle gave me, my brother and cousins a lunch treat. This guy called up at that time and he said he would like to meet me...so I invited him over to the restaurant. When we met, we both were surprised seeing each other. After all it had been 8 yrs since we met. He was so shocked seeing me that he just couldn't get over it. All the time he was constantly telling me how much I have changed and all that....hehe it was fun but embarrassing in front of my uncle and brother.

Soon it was my last day in Sikkim. I went for lunch with two of my closest friends. My poor mom was more busy that me, packing edibles, doing last minute stitches and alterations and packing my bags along with theirs as they too were coming with me to Delhi. The next day with a very heavy heart I bid my brother goodbye. My brother along with a few of his friends had just come up with a magazine and that evening was the launch of the same. I was sorry to miss the function by just a day. He had tried hard to get it pre-poned so that I could also attend, but it didn't work out.

My flight to Delhi was uneventful. After reaching Sikkim House early afternoon, I contacted a friend located in Noida hoping to meet her. Unfortunately both our schedule was such that we couldn't meet. Two of my cousins studying in Delhi came by to meet us. I was meeting one of them after probably 6-7 years. My kid cousin had grown up to be dashing young man and it was fun spending time with them. That evening we went to Sarojini Market, which was pretty close, for some more shopping :)

The next day we went towards Noida for my dad's check-up. I tried once again to meet up with my friend, but again was disappointed. After that we went to Karol Bagh where we did some shopping. In the evening we went back to Sarojini Market for some last minute shopping *grin*. Soon it was time for us to leave for the airport. I hated the airport for not allowing visitors inside. I had to bid my parents goodbye right at the gates. Parting is the most difficult thing ever. I felt wretched for leaving my parents like that...wondering was this all worth? My poor parents were still standing outside in the cold while I was checking in, which took a long time. Finally my check-in was over and I went back to the gate to wave them good bye.

The flight was a bit delayed but I was least bothered as my thoughts were constantly with my parents. We must have flew for and hour or so when they announced that we have to turn back to Delhi as one of the passengers was not feeling well. Once we landed in Delhi, we were stranded in the airport for a good 4hrs waiting for a takeoff slot. I was feeling so wretched that time since I was so close to my parents and yet could not contact them. I was cursing the damn T-Mobile service people for not activating my international roaming in spite of me requesting them. By the time I reached Paris, I had missed my connecting flight. After another long and tiring wait, I was booked in another flight to New York. By the time I reached NY, I was dazed and tired. On landing I came to know that my hand-luggage, which they had asked me to check-in had not yet arrived. I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. On my onward journey, I had my hand luggage with me but got my two suitcases only after 4 days. On my return journey, I had my two suitcase, but my cabin luggage was missing!!! Thankfully, it arrived home the very next morning without further delay. My dear landlord and landlady came to the airport to pick me up and I reached home safe and sound.

So that was my entire trip. Writing about this trip took me longer than the trip itself! LOL! I was once again plagued by jet-lag which took me a whole week to get over

Books read during this period...Journey to the Self by Luna Shrestha Thakur and City of Glass by Paul Auster

Cat-man-do!

2006-03-15T01:01:00.000-05:00

The flight to Ktm was uneventful. It was fun sitting with my brother making fun of how people in Nepal/Sikkim were more "American" then people in US ;-) Weather in Ktm was pleasant and as soon as we landed, I had this nice and warm feeling of being home. We hired a taxi - looking at which made me think, does this even have an engine? How does a box of tin more around by itself? We were soon "cruising" through the gallis terrifyingly close to other vehicles and pedestrians. Thankfully we made it safely to my mama's house. We received a warm welcome from my nani, mama, mami and cousins and other relatives. I'd met them after about 5yrs and it felt great.

How the week in Ktm went by, is still like a dream. As always, whenever we arrive in Ktm, we were overwhelmed by the no. of visitors and invites for dinners and lunches. Sometimes our schedule is so tight, we have to accommodate and accept invitations for even breakfasts and evening snacks! I had a great time visiting relatives and eating yummy nepali/newari cuisine. Initially, I was apprehensive about the relatives being nosy and asking about when I would get married and all that. Luckily for me, my poor brother was the brunt of all the questions and I was safe behind his misery :)

On the 2nd day of our arrival, we went to a nearby town of Patan. Patan is the oldest and probably the most beautiful cities of Nepal with roads laid with bricks and the town dotted with numerous temples and statues. One of my aunts had an exhibition going on in the famous Patan Museum to showcase her methods/adaptations of the traditional custom of Newari baby massage to the modern European life style. She is a resident of Switzerland and has opened classes there to teach pregnant parents the wonders of baby massage to keep them fit and healthy. Though we all knew about her works and how her methods have become famous there, the exhibition made us realize how our own custom is gradually disappearing in Nepali homes.

Durbar Square in Patan

While we were not visiting relatives, me and my parents were out shopping. My nani is mostly bedridden

and complained a lot of us not staying home. So this time we avoided dinner invitations and made a point to spend atleast evenings at home. I always thought Kathmandu is a heaven for shopping clothes and shoes as most of the stuffs are from Hong Kong. We get similar stuffs in Gangtok too but the choices are limited and prices are high. However, this time I was in for a big disappointment. For one, Ktm has become overtly populated. There were too many people and cars. The choices in clothes too seem to have degraded. I must have scourged so many shops and mall, even went to the brand new Kathmandu Mall during the opening, but had difficulty finding stuffs of my liking. I ended up buying more traditional stuffs like Pashmina shawls and semi-precious stone jewelries/curios. However, I loved shopping in Thamel. Thamel has stuffs which appeal more to "foreign" tourists, but I loved some of the stuffs they had. I went to one shop called "Wild Fibre". They made clothes out of sishnu or nettle. I am not sure if you are aware of Nettle. It is a wild grass found in the Himalayan region. It has its own defense mechanism and is covered with prickly thorns. If you accidentally happen to touch it, it stings like a bee sting. In old times, teachers used to whack naughty kids with sishnu to straighten them up. Some people also cook and eat sishnu like any other saag. So anyway, I was amazed to see clothes made out of it and happily bought a shirt.

While I was there, we got to celebrate Maghe Sankranti. This was the first time I was in Ktm during this festival. Normally on this day we cook (mostly boil) different types of tarul (roots - 9 or more varieties) and eat them. Due to the death of a relative, my mama and family were not celebrating it. So, we were invited to an aunts house to eat tarul. Another custom we follow is the lady of the house puts oil on the head of the other family members - just a drop of mustard oil as aashirwad. I was unaware of this custom as we don't follow it in Sikkim.

Another interesting thing we got to see this time was a procession of a different kind. It seems, on this day, the jyapu people get together and forms procession and goes around visiting temples in Kathmandu. Early in the morning at around 3am, I heard people from our tol or locality playing dholak/maadal waking and calling people. Soon groups of men and women, all wearing their traditional clothes gathered around. When everyone had gathered, they started moving on to the nearest temple which is right there at the chowk. They then move on to the next tol to visit the temple there and so on. They do this the entire day covering more than 300 temples in Kathmandu. And that's not all, they have to visit each temple 3 times.

Makar Sankranti processions

One day before I left for Ktm, me and my parents went to visit Pashupatinath temple. Now, we always make it a point to visit the temple within a few days of our visit, if not the very first day. But this time we just managed to make it on the last day. I love visiting the temple and this time I was pleasantly surprised by the changes in it. The area outside the temple was minus those thali vendors and biggest of all minus the beggars. The place looked so much spacious and clean and even the monkeys seemed much tamed! And we were not allowed to wear slippers! Until the last time I visited, people normally kept their shoes with the thali vendors and they instead gave you plastic slippers which you could wear and go inside the temple compound. This was no longer allowed which, in my opinion was just fine! One funny incident happened there. After the darshan, we approached the man distributing the holi water and when we moved away from him, he asked my dad in hindi bhaisaab kuch di jiye or something of that sort. Now, in many people's opinion, both my parents don't have the typical Nepali look and many think my dad looks like a North Indian. So my dad turned to this guy and asked in newari "and how much do you want?" You should have seen the man's face. Me and my mom were laughing so much. Poor guy was shocked to hear a madisey talk in newari leave alone nepali!

All these days, I had been trying to escape from my parents for a while and go visit Silky Moon. As you all know by now I had gone to visit her. Well, she had given me her phone no. long time ago and it was in my email. I had planned to pen it down from home in Sikkim before I left for Ktm. Unfortunately, my internet was not working and I was unable to visit any internet cafe. Same thing happened in Ktm too. Luckily I knew her workplace and my brother often does business with them so he knew where the place was. So I was hoping that someday I will just be able to get away with my brother and have him drop me there. Twice we managed to "escape" but unluckily were called back home for some or the other reason. My parents knew I wanted to visit this friend of mine, so having no option left, that day on the way back from the temple, I went to visit SM, taking along my parents. Yeah yeah Ricky, I can hear you snickering, but it wasn't so bad :P

I approached her workplace and asked the guard if I can meet Ms...... He asked me who I was, I was tempted to give my name as Colors, but then he looked serious kinds, so I told him I am .... from Sikkim. He called up SM ma'am and asked us to wait in the lounge. As we were browsing around the place, I was excited as ever....will she be surprised to see me, how will we react to each other, will she scold me for not contacting her earlier...all these thoughts were running in my mind, when I suddenly felt someone rush up to me and give me a huge hug. I was taken aback with surprise at such a warm welcome! How the next hour or so went by, is kinda hazy. I was so excited to meet her...this being my first time meeting a blog friend. It was also awkward coz we could only speak generally due to my parents presence. I had so much to ask and tell. I was feeling bad that it had to be like this but at the same time excited abt the whole aspect of meeting her. She remembered my love for momos and fed me with yummy paneer momos. I could feel that she wanted to offer me with her hospitality, had planned loads of stuff to do when we met, but due to my lack of time, I had to disappoint her. So many times she called me badmaash for not having met her earlier or atleast called her :P She truly is as genuine as reflected by her blog and posts. Warm and caring, that's the first thing you will notice about her. Even though we met for a very short time, I could feel very comfortable with her...as if this was not our first meeting, that we have known each other for a long time. Soon it was time for us to leave. She rushed off to somewhere and came back with a gift for me - a book, Journey to the Self by a Nepali author Luna Shrestha Thakur. I was touched by this gesture and we parted with a huge hug once again. As I left the place, I had a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart. Thats the way SM makes you feel by her sincerity and affection.

During the last days of my stay in Ktm, the Maoists had lifted the cease fire and a curfew was declared in the city on my last day from 11pm onwards. That evening, we went to the famous Nanglo restaurant for dinner. As we were walking in front of the restaurant, I saw a well dressed stylish young man and felt he looked familiar. Suddenly it struck me, it was Nima Rumba, Nepal's famous pop sensation! He was walking along with his friend and some young kids were calling his name and teasing him. Funny thing was that I hardly recognize any of the Nepali celebs. The only reason I recognized him was that one of my friend in Gangtok had shown me her picture with him when he had come to Gangtok recently. Due to the curfew, we were carrying just our wallets and had left our camera and cell phones at home. I wonder even if we did have a camera, would we have done anything, since we just looked at him and walked pass him without giving him any bhav. My brush with Nepali celebrity.

The next day we reached the airport well ahead of time. Like many flights that day, our flight to Bhadrapur (nearest Nepali airport from Sikkim) was delayed, but luckily it wasn't cancelled like many other domestic flights. Had that happened, we would have been left in the lurch with the all day curfew starting next day onwards. The aircraft was so tiny, it wasn't even funny. One seat on either side of the aisle and just a flimsy curtain separating the cockpit. The flight was not that scary or maybe I was so engrossed in the view outside that I didn't notice. The view was amazing as you can see Mt Everest and surrounding mountains.

From Bhadrapur, we took a taxi till Kakarbhitta which is the bordering town between Nepal and India. There our driver was waiting for us with the car. After some grocery shopping in Siliguri, we moved on and reached Gangtok in the evening.

Book read during this period...The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble

Next...my last week in India

Update time!

2006-03-08T17:16:00.000-05:00

I know this is too late a post..considering that its been over a month since I came back from my trip back home. I know you are waiting for my Kathmandu trip post, but before I continue with my travelogue, let me update you with whats been happening at my end.

- Out of the five weekends since I came back, for two weekends, V came to meet me.

- For the first weekend, we saw Rang De Basanti and I loved the movie. Wanna see it again, but haven't yet got a chance.

- The next weekend he was here, we went to see Fight Club. The movie was pathetic. Since me and V are both fans of the Hollywood Fight Club, so we were expecting something nice (ya ya, even though it is a Bollywood remake). However, the highlight of the event was that the same evening, the theatre had premier show of the movie. We were completely unaware of the event and were wondering why they had displayed huge posters of the movie all over the theatre. We were standing on one of the posters stuck on the floor and I was commenting to V on how I don't like any of the men acting in the movie. Suddenly we heard some commotion near the entrance and I saw Sohail Khan and Ritesh Dekhmukh in person! They had come to attend the premier show! I was excited considering that it was my first Bollywood celebrity sighting! Since there was a some more time for our show to start, we decided to hang around and catch them when they come out. There were many more desis who apparently had the same thought. Me and V didn't wanna appear to be too obvious so we hung close by with a "don't care" attitude. However, I had asked V to be prepared to take out his cell phone and take pictures as soon as they exit (my hands were full with coke and nacho chips). After quite a long wait, the movie got over and the audience started pouring out....but there was no signs of the stars. There were people from local desi TV show interviewing people's reaction to the movie....and still no Sohail Khan! Soon a huge hefty bodyguard approached a group of excited teenage desi girls and told them no use waiting for them as they left long time ago through the back door! Poor girls were so disappointed. Whereas me and V went to our theatre, since the show was about to start. Now because of those actors coming here all the way and since we overheard few of the interviews, we were looking forward to a good movie...but unfortunately, like I said before, the movie turned out to be pathetic.

- One of the weekends I went to Washington DC to visit my aunt taking along all the "koseyli" (gift items) for her from my family back home. I was stuck there during the heavy snowstorm we had. DC saw about a foot of snow fall while some parts of NYC had more than 18". Anyway, since all the trains back to NYC were cancelled in the morning, I missed my work that Monday. I, however had a great time with my aunt and kid cousin snow tubing. We realised that with all three of us sitting in the tube together, makes it go much faster and hence much much more fun!

- The fourth weekend, I stayed back in NJ since my consulting firm was giving a party on their anniversary. It was a chance for me to wear one of my Indian dresses which I had shopped back home. The party was not as bad as I had expected plus the food was from my fav restaurant, so I had a good time.

- Last weekend, I decided to go to Pittsburgh to visit V. The same weekend, one of my friends wife and daughter were returning after having spent 4 months in India. So me and V decided to go to good old Columbus to meet them and the gang. I left early from work and took Greyhound bus to Pittsburgh. The journey must be less than 7hrs if you drive, but the bus schedule says it takes 8hrs but in reality it takes more than 9hrs. I reached Pitts at around 1am in the night. From there, we left for Columbus at around 2.30am in V's car. We reached Columbus at 8am Saturday morning. I was tired to death but had slept almost throughout the drive to Columbus. Now, in Columbus we know a lot of people since they are mostly colleagues from our old workplace. Strange thing is that in the last 2-3 months, the desi population grew considerably with more that 15 babies born and all of them being girls except maybe 2 or 3. So Saturday was spent on house calls to see some of the newborn babies. Saturday night my friends wife and daughter arrived and we spent a long time playing with her. She is not yet 2yrs old and the favourite among us all. Me and V were delighted to find out that she hadn't forgotten us and amazed to hear her talking. Having been in India for so long, she seemed to have picked up a lot of words..and even an aarti and a lori !! Come Sunday and after a late lunch me and V left for Pitts. We reached at around 9pm and my bus back to NY was at 11pm. I reached NY at 8am the next morning and came straight to work

Well, that was the weekends. Weekdays are as usual. Wake up in the morning, catch the bus, work whole day, catch the return bus, get home, have dinner, go to sleep. The only change was that last week I was on training the whole week. The only change was that I had to wake up still earlier to catch the earlier bus so that I reach work on time.....sigh!

Well guys....I hope this will be my last "late" post and that I shall improve in a few weeks :D Next post will be on my trip to Ktm. Sorry to disappoint you all, but I just couldn't write. So thought, maybe if I write something else, I'll get over the "don't feel like writing" feeling. I think its working ;-)

City of Joy

2006-02-21T16:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry guys for the delay in posting this. With my daily 4hrs commute and weekends with V, I hardly get time to do much.

Anyway, during the second week of my stay in India, I had to go to Calcutta for my Visa work. I went with my parents, my brother and a cousin. My brother, having studied there, loves the city. For me, I never had a great impression about the place. But this time, I have to admit, I loved it! I had fun shopping, enjoyed the crowd, the road conditions had improved considerably but of course the traffic experience was as harrowing as ever! While travelling around Sikkim, most of the times I had my heart in my mouth. I still shudder to think the way the drivers speed through narrow winding roads. Traffic in Calcutta was no less. I had been warned by many people who 'returned' to India on how they had reacted to the traffic there. However, in spite of being mentally prepared, the moment I was on the roads, I forgot everything and each time another car used to come close to our car, I had to take a sharp breath!

After the cold of Sikkim, the warm weather in Calcutta was a welcome break. I did loads of shopping from New Market to West Side to Shoppers Stop. I was delighted to see how the malls have evolved when I visited the City Centre Mall. But then again was disappointed with my once favorite Sriram Arcade. The ambience and quality of clothes had gegraded horribly! The Swabhumi Heritage Park, which demonstrates arts and crafts of various regions of India, was a treat. The way it had been setup is truly wonderful and I urge everyone in the city to visit it once. It reminded me of the American Native Indian's Cliff Dwellings that I had visited in Colarado. Another wonderful shop that I went to is Sasha. As they have aptly mentioned, it is a shop that offers craft for contemporary living. Though a bit steeply priced, the items they have are truly worth browsing as they have handicrafts from all over the world including India.

Foodwise too I had great time...from Bengali machli to tandoori chicken pizza at Pizza Hut...I had great food all the way with my brother acting as the guide to various authentic bengali food. We spent two days in Calcutta and from there we flew to Kathmandu.

Book read during this period...John Grisham's The Testament
Next...Kathmandu

Happy V-Day!

2006-02-14T16:09:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends,

Wish you all a very
HaPpY VaLeNtInE's DaY !!!

May all your days be filled with love of loved ones.

Love,
Colors :)

Home sweet, beautiful, peaceful Home

2006-02-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

The initial week of my vacation went in a kinda daze. I suffered heavily from jetlag and used to wake up early and feel drowsy all day even though I slept quite late in the night.

I remember the 1st day at home, I woke up a bit after 3am. However much I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep. Finally about 4am or so I heard my Dad stirring. Soon he was in his office room fiddling with papers as usual. It was too cold to get out of the bed but too boring to lie down with eyes wide open. Finally I went to chitchat my Dad and when it was almost sunrise time, we went to the terrace to catch the early morning rays over the Kanchendzonga range.

Now, I must tell you, this must have been the first time that I ever watched the sunrise from my terrace. Normally I would have been fast asleep around this time. Maybe I did watch it once or so when a kid, but was too young to remember or to appreciate the beautiful experience.

The dark morning sky was clouded but luckily the mountain range was clear. Soon the sky turned brighter and we could see the orange haze touching the Kanchendzonga peak and gradually spreading downwards towards lower peaks until the entire range (i.e. whatever could be seen from my terrace) and the sky above it were flooded with bright golden orange color. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I felt ashamed to think that all these years I had never taken the effort to get up early and catch this splendid sight where as my dad does it almost every day.

The rest of the week was spent visiting relatives and doing a bit of shopping. I had forgotten how cold it gets in Sikkim. Even though the temperature was much higher than in New York, because the buildings are made of concrete with no central heating, I used to feel very cold. Most of the evenings when I was at home, I would be either in front of the heater and could not sleep without a hot water bag.

My brother had recently made a trip to West Sikkim on bike with his friends. He brought back with him memories of a place more beautiful than East Sikkim and had lots of amazing pictures to prove it. Me and my parents were enthused to make a 2-3 days trip to West Sikkim...but sadly due to lack of time we had to chuck the idea. One morning all of us went for a morning drive to the higher points in Gangtok...the 'view-points'. They are typical tourist spots providing beautiful view of Gangtok as well as the mountain range. I hadn't been there for quite a while and enjoyed doing the touristy thing, taking pictures with the lovely backdrop and all.

I had decided that while I am there, I would do my dental check-up. One fine day I took an appointment, but didn't go. Finally after New Year's day I went grudgingly. The dentist, as soon as she did my check-up started scolding me for taking so long to visit her. It seems three of my wisdom teeth were gonna trouble me and one had to be taken care urgently. I was called back the next day and off came my wisdom tooth. Wish it was a easy as it sounds here, but just to take out that single piece, it took her almost 4 hours. My entire day was spent there and in the end not only me but even she had to take some pain-killers before going to bed! After that I had to visit her almost everyday to have root canal treatment done to another tooth. I often joke that I spent more time with her than with my family.

Book read during this period... Memoirs of a Geisha
Next....The City of Joy

Homewards Bound

2006-02-03T13:08:00.000-05:00

My trip back home was fun and eventful to say the least. Excited as I was to be going back home, my flight to India did manage to dampen my spirit a bit.

Me and V started for the airport with a good 4hrs buffer. But, proving Murphy's Law to be true, we got stuck in an awful jam. Thankfully with the help of friends we managed to find an alternate route but still managed to miss my flight. I was put in a later flight and I was worried I might miss the connecting flight from Paris. Of course the flight got further delayed and when I landed in Paris I was whisked off to another terminal only to be made standing in the queue for more than 1.5hrs. Luckily(?) my connecting flight was also delayed and I managed to catch it just in time. All my dreams of shopping for liquor chocolates in Paris airport duty free shops were smashed to pieces.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I landed in Delhi, but that too was cut short when I saw my name displayed asking if I could kindly see the Air France officials. No surprise, my baggage didn't make it to the connecting flight from Paris even if I did. They said my baggage would arrive the next evening. But I was leaving for Sikkim early morning next day so I had to arrange for them to send them directly to the Bagdogra airport. In a way I was relieved of not having to deal with customs any more. So off I went with my small carry-on luggage. As soon as I saw my parents all the woes and tiredness was forgotten. It was a happy Kodak moment. My parents were surprised to see me empty handed. Then another interesting incident happened. We went out to the parking looking for the taxi my parents had hired that day. As luck would have it, we couldn't find the car or the driver. We went around the parking lot for a good 1hr or so. Finally my dad found him waiting for us in the arrivals. Poor guy, cant blame him. There he was looking for 3 people loaded with huge bags and baggage and we passed by him with just a small suitcase! He couldn't recognize us!

The next day morning we were back at the airport for our flight to Bagdogra (West Bengal, closest airport to Sikkim) . The flight went uneventful and I got to enjoy the flight food complete with a little packet of pickle. When we landed we came to know the whole of West Bengal was on strike. As is normal, in such a situation Sikkim is completely cut off from the rest of the world. This posed a problem as my dad had to go to his office that day. He then booked us on a helicopter ride to Gangtok. Yippee! 3.5hrs of drive through twisting and turning mountain roads would be covered in just 20mins of flight time!

It was a small coptor with a capacity of 6+1 passengers. My parents made the 5th and 6th passenger and I happily sat besides the pilot to occupy the 7th seat. Wheee! I was the copilot!!! The pilot was a friendly Sardarji and I immediately started remembering Ricky :P

If I have been raving about the beauty of the nature of Sikkim, the view from the top tops it all! This was the first time I had viewed the area from that angle and I was awe-struck! The view was breathtaking! The pilot took us along the course of Teesta river. While near the Siliguri area, we got a glimpse of the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary. I craned my neck in hopes of seeing some wildlife but I guess they were all taking a nap.

Soon we approached the hilly regions. I was filled with sensation of wonder as I looked on towards the marvelous view. Sadly the Kanchendzonga range was covered with clouds, else the view would have been more spectacular. We were flying over the green Teesta river with Darjeeling hill on one side and Kalimpong on the other. The Teesta-Rangeet meet below us looked distinct with their characteristic difference in color, one being shades darker than the other.

We then entered Sikkim as we flew over the border town on Rangpo which is unique in itself as it lies half in Sikkim and half in West Bengal. It was delighting to fly over well known towns. I was surprised to know that Pakyong is so close by to Gangtok. I must have passed through Pakyong n no. of times during our trips to my grandparents. I remember it takes us almost 1.5hrs to reach from Gangtok but looking from above, it was just on the other side of Gangtok!

As we approached Gangtok, the first thing I saw was the prominent 'TV Tower' and below it my school. It wasn't difficult to locate my home as it is directly below my school.With glee I spotted other major landmarks in the town. We landed on the helipad and I thanked the pilot for the memorable trip. We made our way through the narrow winding roads towards our home where I was welcomed by a colorful poster with a huge sign saying "Welcome Home!"

I AM BACK!!!

2006-01-31T15:11:00.000-05:00

Yes!!! I am back from the most wonderful trip ever!!! 1 month is too short a time to visit your hometown! Anyway....had the most lovely time! I am still jet-lagged, so until I get my groove back, take a chill pill in this crazily warm winter weather and enjoy!!

Cya all soon!

P.S.-> Thanks for your constant visits and comments and wishes. They have not been wasted, unnoticed and unappreciated :-)

Yipppeeeeeee!!!!!

2005-12-22T09:35:00.000-05:00

Yippppeeeeeeeee!!!!! I am sooooooooooo veryyyyyy excitedddddddddd!!!!! Just 2 more days !!! Tomorrow's my last working day and I have Saturday to spend with V and then I will be gone for 5 weeks!!!!!!! The last few weeks have been hectic.....shopping has been a tiresome continuous process, work's been trying too as I had to complete assignments and wrap up. However, this week has been okay.... with the MTA strike on, most of my colleagues could not make it to work and neither could my manager. So things are quite cool with everyone in the holiday spirit!

A week before, we had organised an International Lunch at work. People were to bring food representing their country. Since most of my colleagues are from different parts of the world, the variety of food we had that day was awesome! I got to taste many new superb dishes and even learnt a few new country names. To add more fun to the event, we had a "Fear Factor" section where food that is common to a certain country but might not be too appealing to one's eyes or mind were included. People got stuffs like Octopus, Chicken Feet and some really yucky looking stuffs. We even had a prize (bottle of stomach medicine) for the one who tried most of the fear factor food :-)

Well guys, thats the update for now. Thank you all for checking in regularly even though I was not responding to your comments. Not sure when I will post again but will try from home anyway. I am flying on 25th eve from JFK airport and land in New Delhi on 26th night. My parents are already in Delhi waiting for my arrival. The next morning we have our flight to Bagdogra airport and then another 3hrs drive and I will be home! Yeah..its a long journey but after Delhi I'd be with my parents so it wont be bad at all. As always, on the way from Bagdogra airport to Gangtok, I shall be stopping to gorge on a plate load of Momos!!! Slurrrpppp!

So, wish you all HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a very HAPPY & PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!
Hope you all have a blast!!

Watsup?

2005-12-04T19:04:00.000-05:00

Well well well...time just flies doesnt it? And as the technologies of the world keep improving, seems like so is Time's method of travelling. Time seems to be travelling faster and faster. Can you believe its already December?!!! Where did the rest of the months go? I have been so caught up with 'non blog' stuffs that I even missed my Blog Birthday! No need to mention how utterly wonderful the past year has been...getting to know and make friends with you wonderful guys. It has been a great blog year and I hope it will continue to be...

Now the time for my update.
Well, since my plans to go home was fixed, I have been keeping busy with shopping for friends, family and relatives. This is indeed a big chore. Nowadays you get everything in India and its becoming extremely difficult to decide what to get for whom. I have been making rounds of stores and malls, buying gifts ...reflecting over them once I bring them home and then going back to the stores to return and get something else.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I went to Pittsburgh. When I arrived there, it was freaking cold and was snowing. It was like a reminder of how the winter is actually gonna be. 9 of my friends drove from Columbus, so by Thursday morning, we were a happy group of 11 crammed in V's one bedroom appt.That day we decided to go to a temple. Pittsburgh is famous for the Balaji temple there. After their long drive, my friends were famished with hunger. The choice of temple to visit was greatly favored by the kind of food we would get there. Eventually when we did set off in the cold, we somehow ended up deciding on a Krishna temple in Wisconsin. The brochure also showed this lovely picture of something they call Palace of Gold which also helped in making us decide to go there. Some wise guy in our group said its just 20 miles away and we set off! We drove on and on and on and finally we reached the place almost 2 hrs later!!!! It was coldd and we were hungry! The Palace of Gold was pretty impressive. It is basically a beautiful monument set up as a shrine to one of the gurus ISKCON. After a guuided tour of the palace where the guide informed us of how the palace was made with marbles from 17 countries and other stuffs. We then proceeded on to the temple....the temple too was lovely. Then came the part we were most interested at....FOOD!! We went to the cafeteria and had the yummiest thali of poori, sabji, rice and dal with samosa and tea.

The next day was Black Friday. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday and during this day stores offer huge discounts and they open up early in the morning. We had decided to go to the stores when they open at 5am, but then came to know one of them would open at 12am itself. So it just happened that we were shopping from 12am till 8am!! Though standing in the checkout queues for hours was tiring, but overall it was fun.

The rest of the weekend went by quickly and soon it was time to return. Only 20 more days for me to leave for India. As much as I am excited to be back with my family, I am feeling sad at the same time to be away from V for an entire month.

Update

2005-11-16T17:34:00.000-05:00

Few of you might be wondering, but my life has NOT been hectic. Its just that I am not getting a chance to blog and fool around. However, certains things HAS been happening which I would like to share with you all.

V got a new job in a new city. He has now moved to Pittsburgh, PA. So no more trips to Indiana for me. I'll miss the small town Columbus. It had become a home for me in the US. Every time I went back there, I used to have the nice warm feeling that you get when you return home after a long vacation. I will miss that.

So, my next trip will be to Pittsburgh. V's got an appt with a fireplace and I cant wait to warm my feet there. Since V had to give up his official laptop, I gave mine to him. He was in a new place all alone, he needs it more than I. So I made this huge sacrifice. Hence, dear friends, I was unable to blog for so long. Blogging from office was out of question (though I m posting this post from work :D). Plus at home I wasn't comfortable using my landlady's computer.

The next big tragedy that completely cut me off from the rest of the world was that I left my cell phone in Columbus. The weekend of 3rd Nov I was in Columbus since it was a long weekend for me (Eid). It was a good time to go since I could attend the Diwali celbrations there and also it was V's last day in the old co. Gradually my contact with my very first co. is diminishing. I still have a few of my old friends working there, but I am sure it wont be long before they too find somewhere else to go.
That Sunday an ex-manager of ours took me and V out for dinner to a fondue restaurant, The Melting Pot, in Indianapolis. This was my first ever experience in fondue and I loved it. The food was awesome, but mostly it was the 'cooking' part that was fun! The chocolate fondue that we had for dessert was too good. Yummmmm...... I was so intoxicated by the yummy chocolate that I forgot my cell phone there. Realised it only when the affect started to wear off as we approached Columbus which is a good 1 hr away. I had no option but to return to New York the next morning with no cell phone.

The absence of my laptop and more importantly my cell phone left me feeling almost handicapped. Thank God my landlady has an unlimited long distance calls phone plan, so I could call V whenever I wanted. Else I would have gone mad! Now half the ordeal is over since I received my phone yesterday. The nice people at the restaurant sent it to me without charging a cent!

The next big news is that I am going to India!!! Yes!!!! After a long 2 years, 7 months and 20 days I would be meeting my parents! I am sooo excited. My tickets are already booked. Shall be leaving on the 25th Dec and will be gone for a good long 5 weeks. Since the day my plan got fixed, I have been day dreaming about my trip. Have been shopping like crazy and I just cant wait for these days to pass :-)

Well, thats all for now. Thanks everyone for your messages. I know I have been terrible in responding but I will try to blog more often from work ;-)

Its a Hap Hap Happy Birthday!

2005-10-25T01:01:00.000-04:00

Happpyyyyyyyyy Birthdayyyyyyyyy

Ricky!!!!

Many Happy Returns of the Day!!
May all your weirdest wishes be fulfilled and the wildest dreams come true!!

Ricky, we all know you always come up with the best birthday surprise posts for everyone. Infact, had there been a Best Birthday Post category in the Blogerratti, I am sure you would won hands down. How can I ever forget the special and lovely post you wrote on my birthday. Well, for me, its a task impossible to write something that comes even close to yours...

So, just wanted to wish you on your day. You have been the most wonderful friend one can have. Thanks for always being there for me, not only to patiently listen to my inane blabbering and bearing my PJs, but also to always give a listen whenever I am low...for cheering me up and giving me suggestions when I needed them the most. And of course, how can I forget the numerous surprises you have thrown in from time to time to show you care. I sure consider myself very lucky to have you as a friend. You are a gem of a person and I am sure there will be many who will fully agree with me.

Okay...now enough of compliments for the year :P Since its your day, I will let you bask in these compliments. Hope you have the most awesome birthday ever!! By the way....if you are wondering whats in the box....its a surprise :P Keep guessing, you will come to know soon enough!

Alright then....get going and enjoy your day!