My Musings

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...