My Musings

Dear Friends and fellow bloggers, Wish you all a wonderful and happy new Year! May all your dreams come true and you be blessed with all the happiness in the world.

Finally the lazy me is publishing the promised photos. Well, there are not exactly as many as I would wish. Especially after the Mr. scared me with "Invasion of privacy" being considered too seriously in the USA , I did not want to get into trouble just for a couple of photos. It was mostly houses that were beautifully decorated, and the Mr. was too lazy to drive down to a couple of the downtowns. After many persuasive talks(by me), 2 heroes(ahem 1 was a heroine) all covered up, braving the cold winds and sub-zero temperature went, on one dark shining night, to take these photographs. So here goes ... This is the house round the corner from our apt complex. It is a beautiful pink house, that the Mr. and me have always liked. This is the place that we jokingly called "Auburn hills downtown" because of its cobbled streets. Well, the sign-post in between is not exactly "beautiful" but I could not avoid it. Now this is an interesting snap. When shot at very lo...

The holidays are almost coming to an end, and so is the year. But none of my plans advanced even so much as a millimeter - Gosh! I do so hate myself. The only good thing about this week was watching old episodes of "Friends". We got the 1st season and the 10th season from the library - and it was probably the bestest thing ever - to sit with the Mr. and laugh till our sides split - watching the spontaneous friends ... Awww... why am I not one of the "Friends"? About the title of the blog, Well I happened to "food-browsing" - when I found that there is going to be a new Jhiva event - and this time it is one of my favorite food ingredients - Coconut. Being born in a palakkad based family, I guess it is really difficult to have grown without having to eat this delicious "fruit"?? every day in some form or the other. In fact it was only after marriage, and due to the stubborn insistent of the "cholestrol" conscious hubby, that I have reduce...

I don’t want to work . Today is the last working day of 2006 for me. For about a week now there has been practically nothing going on in the work front. The holiday season began pretty early here – almost a week before xmas. All around you see beautifully wrapped gifts, tied up with pretty bows made out of shining paper, candies & cakes, people wearing colorful holiday patterned sweatshirts. All of this week I feel I have been only eating and eating in office holiday lunches – some sponsored and some BYOL (buy your own lunch), each colleagues taking turns to bring in Christmas cookies and today to end it all was the biiiig tri-department lunch. The Dessert section was indeed yummy –aleast 5 varieties of cheesecakes, a huge strawberry cake, a monstrous carrot cake and tons of Belgian chocolates. Boy ! I think my new year resolution is staring right at my face – go to the fitness center every day !!! I really like the holiday season here. All around the place you feel cheer . Everybo...

Hmm… Quite some time since I posted anything here. Was Quite caught up with some work – for once in life huh ? And then there was this really stupid exam that was mandatory as per the new rules laid down by the ‘breadgiver’ – so after almost 6 years I did a “One-day” batting again! And was I glad to manage to scrape thru it J(kudos my brave gal – Pat on my back). Wonder how my father ever manages to write all those exams for insurance even at this age. He really is a “superman” I say! I was very upset today morning. Amma’s BP shot up recently and she has been having problems with head heaviness, feverishness and all. So, she decided to get a check-up done with Dr. X , who is the doctor that appa regularly does his check up with. Now this X is a very renowned doctor and his diagnosis is very much respected and appreciated. All is well – but just as everything in nature, he has a very bad aspect to him. He does not talk much, will not respond to your questions, not give you any assurance...

One day in the week that went by was truly blessed – because “I” celebrated my Birthday. GOSH! I am such a humble person hee hee. My birthday was made one special day – all because of the Mr., Amma, Appa and all the loving friends who remembered this day and called me/emailed me/orkutted me & last but not at all the least, Jai & his sister(one of our newer acquaintances). The day before, my boss gave me a beautiful set of beaded jewellery that she herself made. The Mr. was an absolute sweet – took me shopping the weekend before and also on “the day”, decorated the “birthday corner” (it got its name when we decorated this corner of our living room on the Mr’s bday) with loads of balloons and baked(with my supervision of course) a carrot cake for me. Jai & his sister, Bindu, surprised us with a cake that evening when they came home for dinner. He had bought candles also (he got less number, as he was unsure how old I was , I felt sooo nice that he thought I was just that youn...

This is what I think I am best at writing – reviews of movies that I have watched. After coming to the US of A, this has been “THE Thing” that we had been doing most of the time. Read up about old movies on the imdb website and place holds for those movies in the public library and spend all free tea-times, lunch/dinner times and weekends watching these movies. One movie that I accidentally placed hold for was “12 Angry Men”. We were in a comedy spree watching Jack Lemmon’s movies and somehow I misread that this movie featured Jack Lemmon. But, after watching this movie I felt that I was so lucky to have made a “mistake” else we would never have watched this absolutely superb and gripping classic tale. The whole 1 and 34 minutes of the movie, except for about 3 minutes, has been short in a small, dingy and closed room. The tale begins on a hot and sultry summer evening with the judge requesting the 12 jurors to come up with a unanimous decision based on the proceedings that they had be...

It is nearly a month since I blogged. We had been to a “Dream” vacation to the happiest place on Earth – Walt Disney World – Orlando & SeaWorld for about a week (3 weeks ago). After coming back from the vacation, instead of feeling rejuvenated, I started feeling depressed, home-sick, dull and whole lot of other negative things. I guess it was as one of my friends rightly put it – “A Person who is back from vacation is the one who needs a vacation the most”. I went into some kind of a stupid shell and hibernation. There were scores of emails to reply to, dozens of calls to return to, zillions of photos to organize and upload for those eagerly waiting loving friends – but the heart was not set in doing any of these. Then finally I gave into the persistent inquires of my lovely friends as to why I was not blogging! Thanks dear ones – your inquiries made me feel so much wanted. I felt so happy that here are these darling friends who visit this URL often and want to know more of my thou...

He drives the big machine in the corridors of the place where I sit and never fails to give me a broad grin and call out “Happy Monday/Tuesday…” (based on which day of the week it is). I don’t know his name; just know that he is a mechanic working in the same area where I sit. He might be an American, Mexican or some other race – I don’t know. There is another “he”, who waves or slightly nods in acknowledgement when he crosses my place and catches my eye. On Days when I am sad / blue / thinking of something bothersome when one of these two smile/wish me – for a moment there I feel so cheerful. I have heard often and got many forwards that say “A Smile can change the course of day / A Smile is a curved line that sets things straight” – it is in these moments of cheer that I feel all that is so true. And that sets me thinking – there are zillions of Indians working in this place (in fact at lunch you see such a crowd that you wonder if Americans are at a tourist spot in India) – and atle...

Usha has written a very beautiful article here about a Time Capsule that has been created by Yahoo. It is a memory Engine kind of thing , where you can post almost anything – photos, scraps, blogs – anything at all about anything and everything you think/feel/know – This Time Capsule will close itself in a couple of days and be lost in the sands of time – to be reopened maybe a decade or so later. The assumption is that things might be changed so much by that time, that the artifacts you are going to store in it now will become relics. And I definitely thing it might be absolutely the truth. The rate at which life in general is growing, some event/custom/ritual that happened 10 years ago is no longer a part of our lives now. Usha asks – if there were to be a time capsule that would open say 100 years later what would you want to put in the time capsule. Here are some of the things that I would like to write down about for generations a century later to be reading about. I would give a...

This is on Usha's request! Some photos of my puja room, with our new idols - Saraswathi and Radha-Krishna.

The winds of Change are blowing. The trees are shedding all their apparels (leaves). Fall is “falling” off and winter is slowly creeping in. The first thing I loved about the US of A when I arrived here for my first visit was – Seasons. If you have ever lived in Chennai, you would know of only one season – Summer, though you would read in your text books that there are 5 seasons. It is in this country that I could see the varied differences in these 5 seasons – spring, summer, Monsoon, Fall/Autumn and winter. The two seasons I love most are Spring and Fall. This Fall Season we decided to put our big $$ investment to some use – our Nikon digital camera (for which we spent quite a buck). When I researched on the best places to visit in USA for Fall colors, I found that almost all of them were very far off from where we stayed, and we could not afford to “fly” at this time. So, we decided to drive to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan state to visit the Tahquamenon Falls. After some rounds o...

I am always a day late in wishing :) , but then I write the post after the day has passed! Wish you and your family a very happy deepawali. May the year be filled with good news, cheer, good health and hope. Diwali (or deepawali as it is called at home) for me was always associated with 2 things - the "nalla ennai" bath early in the morning and distrubuting sweets (wearing new clothes) to all neighbours. I am not much of a cracker person - been always scared of even the tiniest vedi and after sometime the smoke starts to bother me much. For Diwali this was the routine - we would wake up early, at about 4 or so, amma would apply the "nalla ennai" (gningely oil) on appa's and my head, take an aarthi of us and shoo us into the bathroom for a nice "head bath". After the bath, appa would hand over the new clothes to amma and me (i always love getting new clothes hee hee) and then we would go down to burst the crackers. In Andhra diwali is celeberated in the...

We bought a new 2007 model Toyota Camry yesterday – fulfilling one of our dreams ever – a long black car!( it all started when I saw the ad of Chevrolet Optra – the karva chauth ad) The Mr. remarked – there is so much pleasure in materialistic things also :D… Definitely yes! We both were grinning ear to ear all the 13 miles back home from the dealership – for no reason. The Mr. drove in the new car and I followed him in our old Corolla – smiling at the way the bright shade of the Fall colors reflected off the shining black hood. It was a thought was there in our minds since a long time to own a new car. In India, I would have never even given this wish a thought – because of all that I have seen in India – owning a car is a pain – and that too a shiny black one – it is a crime to own one! Within days of buying it, there will a couple of scratches, blotches of mud everywhere and the car would rattle badly within months (unless you lived in those suburb areas where they have laid road fo...

The past two weekends and the week between have been really hectic, so did not find time to pen down anything. The weekend of Oct 6th we had been for a “Fall Tour” to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan(more on this in next post). The week between Oct 7th and Oct 14th was strangely busy (considering the fact that I am “Vetti” most of the time at work). This weekend was also satisfactorily busy – Saturday was spent at a friend’s house and yesterday we had a couple over at our place ( this was nice because 1) we like the couple a lot and they are good fun to be with 2) I got a chance to experiment on my culinary skills). So, Friday night Reliance India earned a lot of revenue, when I was on phone with amma trying to get some recipes for “quick” sweets that I could make. I wanted to move away from the “comfort zone” that the easy-to-make MTR Gulab Jamun pack gave. So, I decided to make this very simple-yet-very-tasty sweet that amma would concoct at the shortest notice – this 7-cup cake. I wo...

I wanted to write about this about 3 weeks ago, when I actually saw the movie, but never got to doing it. Now it is a bit of stale news, but then no harming in jotting what I wanted to say. In a movie-world that has lost the meaning of comedy, amidst the hotchpotch sex-based comedies that the bollywood industry churns out every two months – comes a breath of fresh air – a neat “family” comedy called “Lage Raho Munnabhai”. Right from the first scene where the unsuspecting no-name character gets trapped in the parking lot, the giggles started in the theatre. The crescendo reached peak when Arshad Warsi so casually remarks – “Abbe Tu andhar aa raha hai ki bahar jaa raha hai”. I felt that the movie outrightly belonged to Arshad Warsi – his dialogue delivery, timing and facial expressions. Not a single line of his missed the laughter-applause that the audience had to offer. I found his devotion to this “Bhaaai” so endearing. Wish I had a friend like that, who would do anything for me. Sanja...

Happy Vijayadashami to all of you and your family ! This year’s Navarathri was pretty much inconspicuous – more so because I really have never celebrated one entirely on my own. But it still had some of its special things – like the beginning of the 10day festival – with Kalpana’s Kolu. My boss at office, Kalpana, sets up Kolu every year (or so I am told – for this is the first time I went to see it), so she invited us home on the 1st day of Navarathri. The Mr. was all excited after seeing the Kolu and extracted a promise from me, that we will do something next year. I caught up with a colleague who recently quit our workplace and two-three other ladies also. It was nice seeing all sarees, beautiful bangles, jewellery – took me back home for a second . Kalpana’s home itself was so beautiful – it made the Mr. and me want to set up a house of our own soon – wonder when at all that will be. Well, in order that we don’t disappoint ourselves, we decorate our rented apt quite beautifully. Ye...

This post is “OnDemand” for one of my very dearest and long-term-been-always-there-for-me-friend – Sowmya. Happy Anniversary to you dear – Sorry for goofing up on the date every single year! This is to make up for that! We – the Mr. and I got our new “Chell” Phones on Thursday last – Moto Razr the talk of the town(I hope it is still the “TOT” – with electronics items you never know how soon one thing gets outdated). My fascination of owning a flip phone goes back very long. When we got our chance to come to the US of A, I had told the Mr. that one day I would get the 0$ (or money return) deal on a good Flip phone. Till date there was absolutely no need for a Cell phone for me, so my dream just lay there in a corner of my heart – till I started driving. Driving in the USA without a cell phone is sorta dangerous. So, one day we decided and ordered ours-after much debating my the Mr. on whether he wanted a Sony Erricson/Blackberry and so on… I was the loyal one – stuck to my black Moto si...

I have been depressed about this “issue” for quite some time now, intermittently sometime, and sometimes for a longer period. The “issue” is my job. Ever since I joined my present organization which is about 5 years ago, I have not been satisfied. I know that 5 years is just too much time to put with up with a lot of heartburn, but at every stage I had some personal issue which prevented me from changing my job. Sometimes I begin to wonder if I have become so dormant that I no longer have the urge to even change my “sick condition”. Slowly, very slowly I can feel my self-confidence slip off, my enthusiasm towards anything new wane. I wallow in self pity almost all the time, which saps all positive energy out of me. I don’t look forward to any of the things that I love to do anymore – books don’t interest me, songs seem toneless, everything seems so bland. I am so sick of my situation. At times I really wonder if I have a mental problem, and that I should get myself treated. I wish I co...

I am not by nature a very superstitious person. But sometimes when things are going really bad, to get a hold onto something – I can start believing in some stupid things – anything to tide over the bad phase in life I feel. The Mr. does not believe in anything that cannot be scientifically explained. He believes in God and has faith in the fact that if you do well, you will always be taken care of. But what happened on Sunday, make him really smile and think for a second if there was something called superstition which was true. It was one of those days when I was having a miserable Migraine attack and nothing I did seem to assuage the pain. So, in the evening we decided to go out for a drive for a whiff of fresh air. Just as we were about to leave the apartment complex, a gorgeously black cat ran across the road. I was a bit scared and told that we would better go back. The Mr. consoled me and said a Cat is just another animal – we don’t get scared if a squirrel/beaver/groundhog cros...

There is a saying in Hindi – Bhagwaan jab kuch deta hai Chappad phaad ke deta hai – When god gives something, he gives in enormous quantities! Remember my “Socialization” – a month prior to that I was complaining almost every alternate day to the Mr. that we don’t have any friends here at all, we are a lonesome twosome and that he did not care and blah and blah …. And now, we are not free a single day! Gone are those glorious days when we basked in the soft blue light of the TV for ages in the evenings, sipping tea and drinking in all the dialogues from the zillion movies that we saw. Aaj yeh halat hai ki we hardly see the movies that we get from the library – and the funniest part is all those movies that I placed “Holds” for about 4 months ago are all getting “Available for pick up” now! No – I am not at all complaining. I am loving this action packed life we are having. After all, getting to see other humans is always something nice – is it not why we all live in societies? And “tou...

... they never seem to end. Just when I sit back and let out a big "Phew", even before my back reaches for the back-rest of my chair - another problem pops his head out of the ugly hole in the road of life. Problems definitely make you stronger and each time you solve a problem and look back the previous one, you feel "Poof! that was so much simpler to handle". When I talk of this to somebody about 10 years elder to me, she says similingly - "You just wait baby - you ain't seen nuthing!" ... Oh! is there more ??? Well, all that thing about problems making your character strong, preparing you to fight the worst, blah blah is all fine - but for the sweet lord's sake - can I get a small popcorn break atleast??

These are baby times. Either about babies that I have never met, or babies that are to be born! Of course I am talking of babies of my friends. Recently one of my very close friend, Vindhya, sent me the snap of her nearly 2 year old – Tharun , and in the same week another close friend of mine, Meens – as I call her – sent the latest updates on her daughter Praks. Looking at them, I felt as if I was missing something big in life. These two girls were very much a part of my adult life- sharing daily happenings, consoling me in the darkest times of my pre-marriage life, laughing aloud with me over a funny incident, sharing my indignation about some politics at work, reveling in my happiness when I was getting married – and today each one of us is at a different physical location, busy with our own lives. This is Tharun. Oh! How much I would have loved to see the rotund belly of the reed-thin Vindhya when she was carrying Tharun – how much I would have loved to be with her and force her to...

Sometimes you know that a particular weekend is going to be good on Friday itself. The one that swept past yesterday was one such for me. Friday was pretty cheerful because it had only 3 working hours :D. We had our department picnic that afternoon – and to our utter happiness, the boss sent a mail in the morn stating that folks can go home after the picnic and need not come back to ensure the 8-hour working time. After an ice-breaking game of finding a person in the group who “Owned a rabbit” or one who “wore toe rings” or one who “did polka” and so on; we had a lunch of Pizza and Salad. One of committees in our department is called “Morale” – the responsibility of this team being – survey the morale of the department, take inputs from all the employees and come up with suggestions on how to improve the morale of the team. It was the responsibility of this team to conduct some games/team building activity on that day. They did come up with some good activities and we all went back hom...

My Second class of Swimming yesterday was much better than the first one. We arrived a bit early, so that I could mentally prepare myself. I was able to get inside the water and go in completely without fear and able to float holding the wall/ the instructor's hands/the Mr.'s hands :)... There is one elderly lady who is one of the instructors. She is such a dear (I need to ask her name next time around). She gives me so much encouragement and if I just do a small thing fine - she praises me, gives a good smile and urges me on to try more. Oh! Thanks to god for sending such wonderful people on earth. Many of you blogger friends and other friends have sent me so many encouraging mails/comments on my post. Thanks to all of you for the support - it makes a world of difference to me to receive those words of support from you. I would like to write a note of apology - maybe I was a bit harsh on commenting about Ms J in my last post - but then I was miffed by the way she commented on ...

After much thought and debating and convincing from the Mr., I finally decided to get over my inhibition of the swim-wear and decided to join swimming lessons. So, with great enthu I went to shop for a swim wear on Monday (classes were to begin on Tue) and was so disappointed to find just a couple of itsy-bitsy bikins. With much great effort(and patience from the Mr.) and spending close to an hour at two shops, I managed to find something that decently covers me up – why in the world can’t they have swim shorts for women also ???? Beats me! Of all the days, it was only on Tuesday that the Mr. had to come late. After a hurried bite of the Pori that I made, we rushed off to the class at 8:30 PM. Driving in pitch black darkness and in pelting rain, we managed to find the Community center. While the Mr. filled out the forms, I stumbled around trying to find the changing room and was flustered not knowing where to put my stuff and landed near the pool –a towel wrapped around my waist, my wi...

I hate living in the United States for this one particular reason - dependency on somebody for transportation! You cannot go to any place without your own car. We have been managing so far with one car, inspite of people warning that you will sooner or later need one each. Guess it is for these kinds of situations that you definitely need one of your own - when your own work is done, and you have browsed all the possible internet sites and are desperate to go home to cook for the evening or do some house work; and are stuck in the office waiting for the MR. It is all the more tough for me, one who does not have any friends in the area where we live - despite the fact that all of them work in the same firm as mine (just my bad nature that nobody wants to be pals with me - I guess!) - and you have to ping each one and ask if he/she can give you a ride! I hate these situations and I detest them when they keep coming again and again in my life! Why ME!!! I am going to get the car to work f...