My Musings

Normally I don't drink Coffee/Tea in office, because I am very sensitive to taste and smell. There have been very few coffee machines / vendors who have been lucky to have been as their customer. But today, I simply could not keep my eyes open. So, with great reluctance I dragged myself up to the "Java" coffee shop upstairs and ordered the only coffee type I can ever see on any american coffee shop board - Cappuccino. After sneaking a glance around, I unceremoniously scooped out the cream onto a tissue and dumped it into the bin. Carefully balacing the hot concoction, and murmurring all the god's names (after the coffee has been made, i don't know what is the use of praying - after all god cannot magically go into my coffee and change its taste - like the zee-boom-ba in Pattanathil bootham ), I arrived at my place and tentatively tasted it - and ...... was thrilled to taste the extremely bitter coffee. Nobody else, I am sure, would even come near it - but I loved ...

Last Year when I was in India, suddenly I started hearing a lot about this new writer on the block called Chetan Bhagat and there was a mad rush to buy/read this book called 5 point Someone . I somehow happened to miss my chance to get a copy of the same. Later I heard that the same person had written another book called "One Night @ a Call Centre". Well, finally I managed to lay my hands on both of these. 3 of us at office circulated it among ourselves. And 3 of us had 3 different set of opinions after reading it. Laxmi, who has been in the US for nearly 16 years, was shocked after she read ON@CC, to see the drastic change in lifestyle and morals in the younger generation of Indians. She has been struggling with the confused ideals of Indian kids here in the US. My assurances that things were no good in india probably got cemented more after she read the novel. Ritesh found it quite similar to a hindi movie plot. And I found it absolute trash! I started with "5 point so...

When we started to plan our vegas/smokies trip ; we found that every single information that we wanted was present in the dozen odd books available in the library and zillion web-sites. We could book to the detail of what time we would be doing what activity, which street corner we would find a restaurant, which trek leads to what place and what you can expect on the way, what events are scheduled for those days we stayed there in the nearby towns and so on.... Planning for a trip is so easy and so much fun, here in the States. In India, about 10 years ago, it was just impossible for one to plan a trip on one's own. As a kid, I have travelled to many places in India and it was all via a travel agency - because though my parents were travel enthusiasts; they were handicapped by the lack of information about the places beforehand. Now things have improved, with many travel books - especially the little ones that were published by The Outlook Traveller , but as my father says "De...

Yup! That was where we were for the long weekend - The Smoky mountain National Park. It was a very relaxing and eventful trip that we had. The park and the cities sorrounding it are filled with all kinds of activities for people of all ages and tastes. If you are the adventure kind - it is white water rafting and some head-cum-body turning-cum-twisting rides in Pigeon Forge for you. If you are young - there a multitude of activities and amusement parks on either side of the "Parkway" that connects the three towns Severvile, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg - just 5 miles from each other. If you are old - there are good hotels with relaxed swimming pools and rocking chairs in abundance. Small walks and hikes all over the place. If you are a trek buff - there are a multitude of hike trails ranging from simple to moderate to difficult all over the park. If you love driving - this is the place - curved roads, long drives into the mountains with abundant of vantage stop points. If you...