Settling in....

After a lot of travelling this summer, I finally got back to my Grad life this month. As luck would have it, caught a bad cold which just refuses to leave ! I tried self-medication before things got out of hand. I never knew ears could get blocked because of cold ! My cold has improved but my ears are still blocked because of which many of my plans had to be cancelled :-(

Now that I am graduating this semester, there is a ton of research work yet to be done, long reports to be written and presentations as well. So I am basically too busy to blog regularly. On the bright side, I would be finally out of Grad school !

Watched Lage Raho Munna Bhai this week and really liked it ! Arshad Warsi as circuit is simply hilarious. Now I am waiting for Kabul Express to release.

My friend told me about a book sale today in the public library and I decided to tag along...just to see...not to buy. Ha ! The instant I saw the books stacked up in the basement, I went berserk and picked books till I could not carry them because of the weight. I knew it was time to head back. So much for resolutions not to buy ! The books were real cheap and that was my justification !

Day 5 - The Cocktail Party and Dinner

The final event during our wedding was the cocktail party and dinner hosted by Vikram's Grandparents. I wore my favourite saree for this occasion - a deep pink saree with Kundan work. It was so simple and yet so pretty.

Vikram's Grandpa ( a retd coln ) gave a small speech and then we cut a cake. The dinner was yummy too. Everyone was finally relaxed and enjoyed the party.

A lot of planning and hard work went into the planning the wedding. I wanted a lot of things differently. Luckily for me, both my mother and mother-in-law were very supportive and let me have my way. Thanks to them, I had my dream wedding. Our clothes had co-ordinated colours. We bought all our clothes in Bangalore. I bought my jewellery after a lot of window shopping.

I realised that my mother had been planning my wedding since I was born ! I have to thank my parents for giving me such a beautiful wedding. My cousins, Shilpa and Anu helped me a lot throughout. My cousin, Andy, helped me with great ideas and suggestions. My friend, Pushpa, gave me the names of many stores for shopping. My friends, Archana and Prasanna helped me a lot during the wedding days. And ofcourse I had the wishes and support of friends and family. Thank you all !!

The 5 day wedding was finally over and my posts on the wedding series is finally complete :)

Sauna Belt

I was flipping channels when I came across TVC and saw some very funny products. One of them was ' Sauna Belt' ...

LOL !

"Want to lose weight or inches quickly that to without any pills, Lotions & creams ! Seems like a dream! Not anymore. TVC presents Sauna Belt a convenient, comfortable and personalized way of losing that unwanted fat & flab in the confines of your home. An absolutely easy and effective way of reducing body measurement, not in months weeks or days but in one hour. "
The ad was very funny....according to which you can have a flat stomach ( even a six pack) by just using the sauna belt ! The claims were ridiculous. There was free offer with the belt - something called DAANT PARI - what a tacky name ! ROFL !

Then V told me that he actually knew someone who bought this product to lose weight ! I din't know people could be so guillible !!!

Click on the TVC for some really silly products ( some are endorsed by stars of bygone eras).

That is familiar !

On my first day in Dubai, V took me to the desi grocery store in the evening. There were stores everywhere ! The city has stunning buildings and lighting. And it is undoubtedly the Shopping Capital of the World. I will write about the malls and stores in another post.

So, anyway coming back to my story. We came out of Choitram, the grocery store, and my eyes fell on a coffee shop on the opposite side of the road. It was 'Second Cup' ! Imagine my surprise. I had seen this coffee shop chain Canada just a few months ago. I had not even seen it in US and here it was ! I was very curious to see if it was the same chain. So, the next evening, V and I went to have coffee. It was the same ! But they did not have the maple latte. Instead they had more cold beverages ( made sense as it was in Dubai).

Then on subsequent trips to the grocery store, I even found many brands that I use in the US. For example, my breakfast is still Quaker oats ! Ragu pasta sauce is available here. So, are Milano chocolate cookies ! There is so much more variety here for food products. But food products are a lot more expensive compared to US.

Starbucks is a familiar sight everywhere. Here are some more stores that were familiar
( NOT including those that are european and common in India)


* Cold Stone creamery
* McDonalds
* Burger King
* Chilies
* Tony Roma's
* Cinnabon
* Haagen Daz
* Subway

* Gap
* Old Navy
* Banana Republic
* Claires
* Forever 21
* Columbia
* Timberland
* Liz Clairborne

Famous stores like Guess, Nike, DKNY, Levis, Hugo Boss, Polo, MAC, Dockers, Espirit, Diesel, Calvin Klein, Benetton, Elle, etc are there in most of the malls !

Needless to say, I was quite surprised !

Ibn Batuta

V : Lets goto Ibn Batuta.
Me: Duh...whats that ? A restaurant ?
V: No, its a mall.
Me: Oh. What a strange name !

It turned out that the mall was named after a person called 'Ibn Batuta'. Ibn Batuta was a famous Arab traveller from the 14th century. He was born in Morocco in 1304 ( thank you google). He set out to go on the Hajj and toured many countries for more than 25 years before returning home. He wrote a travelogue called 'Rihla' with all his encounters. I was totally fascinated by his travels.

Batuta had visited China, Andalucia ( part of Spain occupied by Muslims), Constantinople, Baghdad, Persia, Tunisia, Mali , Ethiopia, Egypt, India, Sri Lanka and many other places.








India was ruled by Mohammed bin Tughlaq - Sultanate of Delhi ( remember those history chapters? ) when Batuta visited India. Tughlaq was an eccentric King ( he was the one who moved the capital from Delhi to a place in the Deccan and forced the entire population of Delhi to move as well). Batuta was employed by Tughlaq after which they had a misunderstanding and Batuta had to flee the country.





How did I know so much about Ibn Batuta ? Why, the mall ofcourse !
This mall has been designed to reflect Batuta's travels.

It has 6 theme zones inspired by the places visited by Batuta - China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia. So, V and I went about taking pictures and reading about his travels. The mall is beautiful ! There were tons of stores but for a change, I did not visit any and kept myself occupied with the beauty of the mall.


Each court was done very well. I simply loved the ceilings in each court.

They were very creative !











The China court had a huge ship and lots of other decoration. India court had some people riding the elephant, an ancient clock and a band. The Persia court had a stunning dome ! It was the most beautiful among the other courts ! It looked so grand ! The Egypt court had many paintings on the ceiling, walls and pillars. The Tunisia court had blue ceiling which looked awesome and finally the Andalusia court had a big lion fountain. The mall was not only beautiful but also very educational.

If you are visiting Dubai - this place is a must see !!


Ibn Batuta Mall - The world under one roof !

Day 4 - The Reception in the evening

I was back in the Mandap to get ready for the evening. I was to be ready promptly by 7pm. I was so exhausted that I feel asleep for a few minutes while getting ready. I asked for food before going to the reception. Turns out, nothing was ready for evening and nothing was left-over from morning ! Crap ! All that was there was curd-rice; which I happily ate !

I had made a big fuss about the *reception chair*. Normally you would a see hideous red color chair with golden color arm rest. I abhor that chair. I refused to come for the reception if that chair was present. Finally they found one more that was atleast bearable.

I wore a maroon color gagra for the reception while Vikram wore a Sherwani. I was ready on time. But I was so exhausted that I did not have the energy to smile. So, I smiled in the first few pictures; slowly that progressed to no smile; then stare blankly; then scowl and finally closing the eyes and sleep ! Needless to say The pictures are awful ! LOL when I think back now. To top it off, the photographer took awful pictures. I got so depressed when I saw how terrible I looked in the reception pictures ! Everyone convinced me that I looked different in person. Hmmm.

I was suggesting to everyone that from next time, the couple getting married should just make a cut-out of themselves for the pictures. That way, they would look good, have a nice smile and not get tired ! Those who are getting married in future - please consider my idea and save yourself a lot of trouble!

Our reception started promptly at 7pm. Archana and Prasanna were the first to come and pose with us. Then P went back to Chennai and A went to her friend's house after dinner. I had to stand and pose for eternity. No respite. I wore high heels and so my feet were killing me too ! After standing close to three hours, we were finally let go !

Dinner was good. Its strange that the couple getting married eat in the end. The chaat was over. We had different varieties of food that night; south indian starters like dosa, north indian chaat, chinease food, north indian and south indian food. Desserts ofcourse. I got a sample of most of it; but I was so tired that I din't care what I was eating !

4 days of the 5 day wedding were successfully over !

Day 4 - Jan 20 - The Wedding - Morning

My earlier posts on my wedding description were Day 1, Day 2 morning, Day 2 evening-mehandi, Day 3 early morning , Day 3 morning-engagement and Day 3 evening - sangeet. Wow, looks like I've written a lot already !

It was finally D-day. I woke up early and then left to the Mandap by 6am. I had decided to get ready in the Mandap. We hired a lady to do the the bridal make-up. I was very worried that she would put too much make-up and make me look like a ghost. My deadline to get ready was 8am. I had refused to wear pure gold and instead chose to wear fashion jewellery with stones. I was almost ready and looked at myself in the mirror and the reaction was - ' OMG who is this girl' . I could not recognize myself !!!
I looked like a bride indeed !! I hoped Vikram would recognize me !!

By then my friends, Archana, Prasanna and my cousins, Anu and others came to see me. They could not recognize me either. By then the clock was ticking and I was a nervous wreak. I don't know why. I was so nervous, I even forgot how hungry I was ( you guessed it - no breakfast for the bride Grrrr). I hoped I would not faint with hunger in front of everyone.


Vikram and I come from different backgrounds and so choosing the style of marriage was not an easy task. My mother suggested a 'Arya Samaj' style after she attended one such marriage. The popular notion is that Hindu couples who elope have this style of marriage. I guess there are many variants of its style too. When I heard about its style, I knew it was the wedding that I wanted. I was NOT keen in having a wedding where the 'Pandits' just chant Sanskrit slokas that make no sense to the couple getting married. I feel it is a trauma to sit in the smoke for hours and not understand what is going on.

Our marriage was conducted in Hindu Vedic Style by Mrs. Sharma ( yes a lady ) and a Pandit. We had all the elements of the usual weddings. We had mantras too. The only difference was that Mrs. Sharma explained the meaning and significance of all the Sanskrit mantras in English as we chanted them. She has conducted more than 1000 marriages all over India and was a very learned person. Before she started the wedding, she asked everyone in the mandap to maintain silence to give respect to the ceremony. She also said that for the mantras to have their effect, it was vital to have silence and not disturbances from other people chatting. Believe it or not, people maintained silence for the complete wedding !

The wedding lasted for slightly more than an hour. It was perfect ! I finally understood the meaning of the rituals and all the promises made while chanting the mantras. I was overwhelmed with an urge to cry ! I had told Vikram that I would not make a scene and so controlled myself. When, I looked at my friends and family, almost everyone was so touched by the wedding that they all seemed to be crying !


And finally, Vikram and I got married. We were blessed by all . We went to the Guruvayoor temple attached to the Mandap and took blessings.


After that, everyone came to wish us. I was tired of standing and smiling. My head and back was aching thanks to the hairstyle. I was hungry. By the time I ate lunch, it was past 1 in the afternoon ! Then, we went to Vikram's house for my 'grehapravesh'. After that, we went to take blessings from our Swamiji at Dayanand Ashram. It was past 3 pm when I came back to my house. I was so exhausted that all I wanted to do was chop my hair and goto sleep. I took more than 3 people to help me get rid of the 'jadai' ( the long traditional plait). By the time I was out of the bridal clothes, it was time to go back to the Mandap and get ready for the reception !!!

Recent Flight Journeys

When it comes to flying, I have a certain luck. You can find my previous posts here.

I flew Lufthansa from TX to Bangalore this June. This was my quickest flight to Blore till date. I had heard that the food was not so-great and so carried a few snack bars in case I need them. The flight was full. The service was good. But the food was as I feared. I don't remember what they gave - but it was the same thing meal after meal ! Still, some food is better than no food and I was happy. For the first time, I had no great adventures either ! With my luck, I usually almost miss connecting flights, or baggage would be lost or I would be lost. Anyway I reached home.

The Dubai flight was a different story. I flew Air-India as it was the only flight going directly from Blore to Dubai. My flight was at around 8:30am. I checked-in my bags and waited for immigration. Compared to my Canadian immigration, this was a cake-walk ! I then waited in the lounge. And waited and waited. It was past 8:30am and no sign of the plane or any announcements ! I began to panic. I worried that maybe I was in the wrong terminal ( quite silly as there is only ONE terminal). After what seemed an eternity ( around 9 am), there was some activity indicating that the plane was ready to be boarding. What was the indication ? Well, everyone seemed to run and stand in the queue near the gate. Then there was an announcement for passengers with children. Chaos ruled for a while. Then everyone else were asked to board.

The plane was huge ! And empty ! The seat next to me was empty. I waited for take-off. I dozed off for a few minutes and when I woke up - the plane was still in Blore. Looks like there was some delay. Damn ! A movie was playing and it looked interesting. The only glitch, no ear-phones. I wondered how people were watching a movie without audio ! I guess they were really bored. The seats were really old, the volume and other controls were ancient ! The socket for the ear-phones were priceless ! I was LOL when I saw 2 holes grilled into the seats. I wondered what sort of ear-phones would fit into these. Then, the air-hostess gave us some PVC cables. Oh o. Turns out, those weird cables were the head-phones ! They were the weirdest and the most uncomfortable ear-phones I had ever used in my life ! It was so bad, that I decided to forego the movie than torturing myself.

By now, the plane had taken off and I was looking forward to the food. Did I mention that the air-hostess was really old ? I have nothing against senior citizens working in planes. But this lady was really mean and lazy. She had a bored expression all the time. And was so snooty ! No one came to even offer water/beverage for a long time. Then this lady made her grand appearance with the food trolley. Pushing it was quite difficult for her as even the trolley was old ( paint had come off and it looked very dirty). She was basically throwing the food trays on the people without even a smile. She gave me a food tray and I asked her if it was veggie. Imagine ! She did not even ask the choice of meal. She then started rummaging her trolley for veg food and finally found one. The food was average. I was disappointed. The old lady made her appearance again with tea/coffee and then she took away the trays.

We finally reached Dubai safely. The airport was huge. I had a marhaba lady help me with the immigration formalities and then I finally saw Vikram.

How hot is too hot ?

Well that depends on which side of the building you are !

I was blog hopping and realised many people are complaining about the Summer. It was really hot in Texas when I was there in June. I thought, coming to Dubai would not be such a big deal as the temperature here was only slightly higher. How wrong I was.

My first day in Dubai was really hot. I came out of the air-conditioned airport to get a cab and felt as though I was standing in an oven. Within seconds, I was feeling so sticky thanks to the humidity. I was thankful to get into the cab. That evening, I ventured out and it was bearable.

Then V took me to his work place in the weekend. As I am a shutter-bug, I wanted to take pictures near an artificial lake in that area. I was trying to focus the scene when everything looked really foggy. I din't understand. I

panicked thinking my camera had some problem because it was a really clear day with no sight of fog anywhere. Then I saw that the lens was fogged. What the hell !! I wiped it and took another picture, which was a little better. But within a few seconds, the lens was fogged again ! It was so hot and humid there that it was not possible to even take pictures ! Here are the two pictures with fogging effect and slightly less fogging effect.


Cameras are not the only thing affected - even sunglasses have the same problem ! I wore my glasses for a few minutes after which I could not see anything clearly ! It reminded me of the glasses fogging up during winters...I did not know that it can happen in Summer too !

Its more than 42 C here with very high humidity. Its so hot that even though the house has air-conditioning, the walls radiate heat ! Yesterday night, we went to the nearby store and I thought that my flip-flops would melt !! Well, if you are in a concrete jungle inside a desert, this is something expected i suppose. The locals tell me that it would only get hotter here and peaks in August. I seem to have come at the perfect time !

Blogging from Dubai

Well folks, after having lived without internet for well over a month now, I finally got the internet connection today morning !

Some sites like orkut is banned here ! Google comes in Arabic and I am trying to change the settings...but since everything comes in arabic...I can't even make out what the options are !

So, from now on, I will be blogging regularly. Life here is awesome ( esp since its with V).
My bday was fun. V bought me a very cute looking cake from Baskin and Robins. He took the day off. In the evening, we went out for dinner to an awesome Indian restaurant called 'Ashas' . It is owned by Asha Bhosle. The place was superb. The ambience was great. Food and service was excellent. Location and music was great too. The restaurant is in a mall which is built like the pyramids. I was simply bowled over. My digi-cam takes awful night time pics, so I'm planning to go there in
the day and take more pics sometime.

Bangalore Times

My flight to Bangalore was uneventful. No adventures for a change. The weather was perfect. My cousins visited me for a few days, so it was party time everyday. I ate awesome food, visited all the new shops on Commercial Street. Watched ' Krrish' in the theatre near my house. I liked the movie; it was total masala. Before I could realise how time was flying, I got my Dubai visa. Yipee. The long wait was finally over.

The visa confused me. My name was really long - it read Mrs. Shilpa S-- P--- N--- S-- . Turns out they 'append' Fathers name to the applicant's name ! So this name of mine had more than 50 characters !! LOL.

One more strange thing about the visa, there was a category called occupation and it was entered 'housewife' by default !!! It got me hopping mad for sometime. Till I realised that is what I was here for another month.

Flew to Dubai on July 1st.

Out of the blues...

After the sudden decision I made last week, my mood is back to normal ( almost). I got calls from many friends who read the blog - Thank you ! And all the encouraging words from fellow-bloggers helped me feel a lot better ! Thank you !!!

So, after I bought the ticket, I began to shop ( I just needed an excuse). Now, I've so much stuff for everyone that I hope they would fit into the suitcases !!

On Friday, I picked up my tickets and planned to meet my friends in Dallas. I told K that I would meet her in Valley View Mall. The only problem was that we din't know where it was. So, I decided to pull into another small mall and instructed her to do the same. I thought we could ask someone as we were close to it. I got out of my car and then realised that I had locked myself out !! My keys were on the passenger seat ! How could I be so stupid ? ! ? I wanted to kick myself. I calmed down and called AAA ( ha..I was paying for it and here was a chance to finally use it). The AAA guy came in 40mts while K and I waited and he unlocked the car in a few minutes. It was so easy to open the passenger window and insert that rod to open the door ! I was stunned realising how easy it was to steal a car or break-in !!

Then Saturday was spent in shopping too. On Sunday, I did something interesting - went to a musical drama called 'Bombay Dreams'. Yes, the same one for which the music was composed by AR Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This was the first time I was watching a play in the US and I was very excited. We got balcony seats and I hoped that I would be able to see atleast a little bit. I was reminded of the 'opera' scene in ' Dil Chahtha Hai'. Many people were dressed in formals and gowns. My friend S and I were suddenly conscious of our ' casual clothes'. It was nice to see so many Americans attend an Indian play; some were even dressed in salwar-kameez and kurtis. The theatre was huge and crowded.

The play began and it was superb. The songs were awesome. The costumes were so colourful ! The dances were good. The lights and background added to its brilliance. It was like watching a movie except that it was live. The show lasted for a little over two hours and it was a success. That was the last day it was playing in Dallas. So, if this play is coming to your city - watch it ( unless you hate songs because it is a musical).

Monday was the day of errands and now I am left with packing before leaving to India on Wednesday. This time, I am flying directly to Bangalore and so I'm very thrilled. Everyone back home is also excited. Weekend should be fun.

I will be blogging with India stories soon !

Is this my threshold ?

I was standing in the queue for security check when I last saw him. I turned around and saw him smiling and waving at me. My family was there and they were all waving me good bye. I could feel the tears swelling up as I tried to muster some courage to give them a smile. I looked back one last time and went inside the terminal. I headed towards the line for check-in with tears flowing down my cheeks. It did not stop even after the plane took off. I must have been a sight. After my usual set of misadventures, I was finally back to my life here, so far away from my loved ones.

I was soon looking forward to my spring break to be with V. School kept me busy. Very busy. I started blogging about the wedding. Soon, I realised that it made me miss V even more. So I stopped thinking and writing about it. Long distance relationships teaches a lot of lessons in many aspects. As V traveled a lot, it was difficult to even call each other ( my phone bills have never been less than 3 digits in a long time). Somehow hearing his voice even if it was just less than a minute made my day. I was strong girl according to many....But how long can I hold up ?

Soon, I realised that meeting V for just spring break was not going to work out. I was very depressed. I feel sick. Lost interest in school and research work. The girl who could not-stop-smiling suddenly looked like a tragedy queen. Then I bounced back to almost-normal after a while. It was always about distraction - I started planning my Canada trip.

Then sometime in the end of April, my professor gave me permission to take a break in summer and visit my husband ( I guess he could not bear looking at my sad face anymore). So, I told V to apply for a visa. There were many hurdles and confusion...But I told myself that I would be with him in May. I realised soon that I was mistaken as there was further delay. So, I decided to take a long break in Canada.

Now I am back, there is still no sign of the visa. My moods have become worse as I seem to get more depressed. I have kept in touch with fewer friends. I seem to be talking lesser to everyone. As I look back, I realised how much more silent I have become for a person who cannot stop chattering. I seemed to have a lot of enthu, which is so unlike me. How did I become like this ? Have I reached my threshold ?

You've waited for so many years, just manage for a few more weeks.
This logic does not work. I think its harder to be fine for just a few weeks; its like standing in a queue - when you start by standing at the back, you feel fresh and energetic; as you inch towards the end at by moving forward, you only feel more frustated and annoyed.

Long distance is not new to me. I've managed to sail through more turbulent times. But, I was probably stronger then. I've learnt to avoid and not think about V when I go out, when I shop, when I eat out, when I am at home, when I am watching a sad/happy movie...And then there are times when I just cannot bear it...And out comes a torrid of tears. V is always strong and would console me.

We will see each other soon, he says. How soon, I would wail.

And now...I wait, as always, just to be with him. Tried to distract myself with a lot of other things...Yet I cannot get over it this time. Every conversation I have with him, ends up with me bursting into tears. I know the wait will be over soon and I will be with him. I've been crying for the last couple of hours. V called to console me but I had no control over my tears. I hang up and continue crying.

I feel so empty inside....Oh God...Give me strength.

p.s. wrote this post at 3am. did not publish it. woke up today morning feeling a little better and made a decision to get away from here.

The colour of money

On a recent visit to Canada, I came across the Canadian Dollar and I was happy to see that different denominations had a different colours. The Indian rupee is always easy to handle, you know just by the size if it is a Rs.5 note or Rs. 500. The colour difference is an added bonus.

When I came to US, I thought it would be similar here too. I was quite surprised to learn that all notes had the same colour and size. So, one has to be careful all the time while dealing with money. Ofcourse as students, we are always broke and use credit-cards more frequently. Nowadays, I carry only small denominations, mostly for parking or other such reasons. Life revolves around a quarter here hehehehe.

I have always been fascinated with currencies. These days, thanks to the widespread acceptance of credit cards and ATMs, it is not such a hassel to get currency in another country. So, I can eat in an european city during a transit without worrying about euros or other money. Turns out that even euros have different colours for different denominations.

I wonder who makes these decisions about currencies - their colour, size and photographs. That would be a cool job indeed.

Incidents on 6 - 6 - 6

I was woken up in the wee hours of the morning on June 6th by my aunt. C-12 had fallen sick and had to be rushed to the hospital. My uncle took her while I went back to sleep. I was leaving back to US that day and had a lot of errands to do; I figured that since my flight was in the evening, I had plenty of time.

One of the first things I do as soon as I wake up is check mails. I opened my yahoo account and for some reason my password did not work. This was my primary id. I decided to open my secondary id to see if this was a problem in all ids. I could login into this account. Now, I began to panic. I tried a few more times before the word verification started. Then, I tried to retreive my password, as expected it said data mismatch. Someone had hacked into my account and changed all the information !!! I was wondering what to do when my aunt told me all of us were going to the hospital and that I had to pack and be ready in an hour. I mailed yahoo and told them the situation, got ready, packed in a rush and was ready to leave.
C-12 was doing fine but had to wait for a really long time to see the doctors. So, my uncle could not drop me off to the airport and I told them I would just take a cab. I told them I would leave early as the security had been beefed up after some terrorists were caught in Toronto. The cab ride was uneventful.

I got my boarding pass and was informed that the immigration for USA would be done in Canada itself. There was a long line for the immigration and I stood wondering how bad this was going to be. The instant I started talking to the officer, I calmed down. It was good to do small talk after 2 weeks (no one did any small talk in canada) and he even helped me fill out some forms.

I was a little early for my flight but din't mind it at all. After getting something to eat, I settled down with my ipod and was almost dozing off when they announced that my flight was delayed ! I was annoyed. Just then, I realised someone was staring at me. She was the cutest kid I had ever seen ! Elizabeth was 2 years old; she had blonde hair and blue eyes; wore a frock, stockings and cute shoes. She was so adorable with chubby cheeks and a cute smile. She soon started playing with me and my mood was completely cheered up and I forgot all about the delayed plane.

I finally reached Texas, K came to pick me up. I was so happy to be back home ! We went to IHOP and chatted for sometime. I came home and checked my email again. No luck. My account had surely been hacked. Now, comes the painful process of collecting as many ids as possible and letting everyone know about my change of address too. Sigh !

All this was on 6th, then to cheer myself I went to the bath and body works semi-annual sale yesterday. Ahh paradise ! I went crazy and bought quite a few things. Tried some new flavors and looks like I've to go back and get some more. Hehehehe.

The Scotia Bank incident

Both A and I did not have Canadian currency and were looking out for a place to convert currency. After walking for a while on Queens Rd, we finally spotted Scotia Bank. It had ATM too. So, A decided to draw some money while I decided to convert US Dollars.


I was just getting the money when I heard a loud noise. It came from the ATM machine. Oh o...now what ! Both A and C-8 gave me a sheepish grin. I saw a big spill of orange juice.C-8 had spilt the bottle of Orange juice that she was drinking. C-8 said ' sorry, I don't know what happened'. I saw a lady go and talk to them. In the meantime, I got the money and told the guy at the counter about the spill. He was very sweet and said ' Don't worry about it, I'll clean it up'.

Then A and C-8 came to where I was standing. A looked very annoyed. She then told me that the lady had asked them to clean up the mess. I told A that the guy at the counter said it was ok and that he would clean it up. Just then the mean lady walked up to us and gave us paper towels to clean up the mess !! She came with a trash can too !!!

I was hopping mad and wanted to tell something real nasty to her. But I din't. We cleaned up the mess while C-8 stood with a sad face. I cooled down thinking that Scotia Bank was probably too poor to employ Janitors. I guess that is why they don't train their employees on customer service or even politeness !

One thing is for sure...I would never go inside that Bank again !

The Beaches in Toronto - 2

Here is the continuation of our adventures.

We walked a couple of blocks and then boarded a street car on Queens Road. The driver told us when we reached our destination - the beaches. Contrary to what the name suggests, the beaches is actually a district in Toronto. The road is filled with shops selling all kinds of items. Some looked so similar to the shops in India. There were lots of tourists. It seemed to be the tulip season and so we saw lots of pretty flowers everywhere. We walked for sometime, did window shopping, had coffee at Second Cup, went to the library and finally headed towards the board walk.

There were lots of pretty houses, pretty gardens and parks. The shores of Lake Ontario looked very beautiful. There was a long walking stretch with wooden boards. The banks had pebbles and sand. The lake was huge and almost looked like a sea. We sat on the pebbles and just enjoyed the wind and the sound of water splashing. There were many people walking their dogs and I saw all kinds of breeds. C8 and I finally played with one cute dog while A was busy clicking pictures. How I wish I had a dog. Sigh !

It was evening and we headed back home. This time there were no adventures.

I would strongly recommend seeing 'the beaches' for anyone visiting Toronto.

The Beaches in Toronto - 1

' The bus-stop is just across Mavis. Catch bus number 61 ; the bus would stop for a long time in a Mall on the way. Don't get off there. Continue and get down in the last stop called Cooksville GO. From there get another bus to UNION STN. That is Toronto downtown. '

My uncle gave us these instructions for getting to Toronto downtown last Friday. By the time we woke up and got ready it was already around 11am. Archana, my cousin C8 and I finally got out of the house armed with umbrellas ( yes it had to rain ofcourse). C8 carried her own cute umbrella while A and I decided to share one - which meant A would actually hold it as she was taller (hahahah).


The bus stop was very close to home according to my uncle. We reached Mavis. There was a funny looking bus stop. It was completely transparent ( how would this provide shelter against the sun?). There were 2 tiny chairs. We were not sure if this was the correct bus stop. After some investigation ( looking for any boards, signs) we found 6119 written on a tiny pole. Did this mean bus number 6 - 11 - 9 or was it 61 -19 ? There were more combinations too but we decided that this was probably the one. The bus came soon. We bought our tickets and sat down.

Finally a big mall came. Aha. We were told not to get off. I had asked the driver to let us know when to get off. So he looked at me and told me ' this is your stop'. I looked at A and gave the driver a puzzled look. I told him ' no we will get down in the last stop'. The driver nodded his head and said ' no this is your last stop to union stn'. The argument continued as I explained to him that I was told not to get off. The driver got extremely annoyed. He started explaining about some train and some bus. Huh. No one told me about a train !! The driver looked like he wanted to kick all of us out of the bus. A kept telling me that we should continue on the same bus. I was going crazy listening to the two tell me opposite things. What do I do ? The driver finally got fed up and closed the doors. We seemed to make a U-turn. Oh o. Was this the last stop after all ? Suddenly I saw another bus standing on the opposite side with ' union station' written on it. And finally it flashed to me that this was what the driver wanted us to catch. I asked him to stop and we got off and ran to catch that bus. Phew. Made it in time.

We reached Union Station. We looked for maps and directions of any kind. We found none. I told A that maybe it was up the stairs; I found upstairs to be a railway station and there were no maps ofcourse. This was very strange. We went to another ticket counter and still found no maps ! What sort of tourist place was this ? No maps and no time-tables to pick up ? Finally we went to a Budget rental in the station and told him we were lost. The guy at the counter was very sweet and gave us a map. Yipee !

All this running around made us very hungry. We hurried towards Le Papillion for a superb French meal. A and I had 'crepe' which was just like dosa only a little sweet. I had crepe Jean-Pierre ( yummy) , A had crepe aux Champignons and C8 had pasta. The waiter was very nice to us and suggested that we see the beaches on such a dull rainy day.

The rest of the story will be continued in the next post. But if you are in a hurry you can read it in A's post.

Canada - my impressions so far

After my freaky encounter @ the airport, my uncle gave me a tour of the Pearson Intl Airport (huh), actually we got lost and had to walk a bit to find the car. My uncle has a poor sense of direction and it was funny to be guided by my cousin. I've two girl cousins, one aged 12 and the other aged 8. Lets call the older one C-12 and the younger one C -8 ( no they are not carbon isotopes). I was very excited to see my uncle and his family. I was meeting my cousins after three years. Both are so cute and adorable.

The highways looked very similar to the ones in US. The only difference - everything was in 'km' as opposed to 'miles'. The directions were in both English and French. For example, a freeway will be ' 403 South /Sud'. The shops looked more similar to the shops in India strangely. I liked the buildings and architecture in this city. Most communities in suburban USA have houses that look very similar. Here on the other hand, the houses are very different. The buildings are also more creative and different. I also found many high-rise condos in the suburbs. This confused me a little bit and I mistook them to be some sort of 'downtown'.

The traffic is quite terrible like any other big city. But, I found very few traffic cops on the road. Coming from texas, I am used to strict driving and it was strange to see hardly any cop cars. People drive recklessly here. Not many observe the traffic rules ! Pedestrians don't really get any importance ! More than once , I thought I would be run over !!

The public transport quality is very good. The buses and trains are very comfortable and nice. But I found that there is not too much information/help. Having got used to free maps and time-tables available in US, I was surprised to find that they were a little hard to find here. As a tourist, I would surely appreciate more information and maps !!

There are lots of restaurants here. All types of cuisines are found. Coffee shops like starbucks, Tim Hortons, Second Cup are common. But somehow, food stores are not as common as US. I mean, you will have to really hunt to find these stores. There are fewer restrooms too !! For example, while waiting in CN Towers for hours, we had to struggle just to get coffee !! My cousin C-8 was hungry and the poor kid got nothing to eat ! Nothing was open for her to eat ! In Niagara, only certain places had restrooms !

Toronto is a beautiful city. I love the downtown. Its so refreshing to see water everywhere.

Like any other city, it has many pros and cons. I was surprised to find so many differences in both the countries despite the proximity and similarity.

And I did come across many Canadians who ended all their sentences with an 'aye'.
:-)

Passage to Canada

I decided to take a 2 week break and visit my uncle's family in Toronto after my semester ended. I flew to Canada last week on Wednesday. It was rather eventful. This is what happened.

The 3 hour flight to Toronto was rather uneventful, partly because I just slept. The flight was early in the morning. Air Canada has comfortable seats; the plane was rather empty. I was hungry and was waiting for the pretzels - but these cheepos din't even give that. All that was offered was a beverage ! Sheesh !!

I reached Toronto around 10:30 am. I could see CN Towers while the plane was landing. The city looked very green and pretty. I got off and walked towards the immigration. The lady at the counter asked me the routine questions - purpose of visit, duration of stay, details of relatives etc. Here is where things goofed up. While applying for the visa, I did not write the address of my uncle. So, I thought if I mention an 'uncle' now, it would look fishy. So, I decided to just say that I had a 'family friend' who was hosting me.

The first lady directed me to another immigration line. Oh o. I see trouble.

The next immigration officer was a middle-aged lady. Let me call her X. She looked like a typical strict school headmistress.

X: How long is your stay ?
Me: 2 weeks. I showed her the ticket reservation.

X: Do you have any relatives in Canada ?
Me: No. I am staying with a family friend. He is coming to pick me up.

X: When did you see this friend ?
Me: Last year. We are very close.

I give my uncle's name and other details. She asks me some more questions about school.

X: Who pays for your school ?
Me: I do. I've funding from school.

She asks me more weird questions like ' do you have a credit card', ' who pays your bills' , ' what will you do when you go back to USA' . I was getting extremely annoyed now.
Her questions seemed silly and stupid. Her questions seemed to imply that she feared I was going to stay in Canada ( so what even if i did ? I had a 1 year visa afterall !! ). I think because I was hungry, I was in a bad mood and gave her snappy answers.
Anyway, she wrote down all the info I gave her.

X asked for my uncle's cell number. I promptly told her that I had only the land line number and gave it to her. When I switched on my phone to get the number, I seemed to be 'in roaming' and had full signal. I did not even have my uncle's address. Damn ! I wish I knew they were going to ask me all these questions, I would have discussed it with my uncle atleast. Somehow, going to Canada always seemed like going to some place in US and hence my complacency.

Then X tells me she is going to page my uncle in the airport. I could hear the announcement. Oops. She asked me take a seat. I decided to call my uncle and warn him about the situation. When my uncle picked up the phone, I quickly spoke in Tamil and told him to tell that we're 'family friends' and are very close. By then X tells me ' sorry no cell phones here'. I gave her an innocent look and hung up. Sometimes its good to know non-english languages !!

I could see her talking to my uncle. She called me after a few minutes. I had a bad feeling about the whole situation. She gives me an annoyed look and said ' your uncle says he is your biological uncle and you said you were family friends'. Oh o. I said ' ofcourse he is my biological uncle'. X looked confused. I then began to explain ' you see in India, after we get married, we belong to another family. So my maternal uncle is no longer my relative. That is why I said he was a family friend.' ( what the heck was i blabbering). I don't know if X bought the story; she said ' but you have been living in the United States for so long, you must know what we mean by relatives ! '. I give her a puzzled look. She gives up. And gives me the stamp needed to stay for 2 weeks. Yaay !

I get my baggage and meet my uncle and cousin outside. Turns out we gave her two different stories. My uncle told her that he has never seen me in years; he is not close and has no idea about what I am studying. Some more details were also complete opposites. I don't know how X bought the story ! Anyway we had a good laugh over it.

I mailed A and told her the set of questions to expect. I told her to stick to the family story and gave her some other details. I hoped X would not be there for her too cos then she may conclude that my uncle may be smuggling many nieces.

Guess where we are !

Can you guess where Archana and I are in these pictures ?

ROTFL !!

Just another weekend...

Had just another busy weekend.

On Friday, I did a little shopping. Then went to the Shirdi Sai Baba Temple in Plano, which was simply superb. Although it was very small, the vibrations were very good and it felt good just to be there. We stayed till the last aarthi for the day. After that, we headed to Chettinad Palace for a late dinner. Food was good but the salt was very less for some reason. This was followed by a bad rush back home and more importantly to the AMC theater to watch Da Vinci Code. As Murphy's law would have it, we were delayed and reached the place at 11:10pm ( the show was at 11). A few more friends were waiting for me as I had the tickets. I quickly exchanged the tickets for the next show. We got good seats and settled in for a long night.

I liked the movie. It was good. Not superb. I felt is slowed down in the middle as they were trying to explain the story to those who have not read the book. I was thrilled to finally look at the places mentioned in the book.

On Saturday, I woke up late and was just lazing. My friend V came with the cryptex ( its identical to the one they hold in the movie - heavy for its size and superb). Then while V sat and solved the final quest, R, K and I did some time pass. The final round was just like the earlier puzzles; more complicated and no other questions were asked. Just complicated puzzles. For example, the sudoku had 9 symbols ! There was no observation round. The final jigsaw was most intriguing - the pictures changed every second ! So, it was very distractive ! After he solved it, we decided to go for dinner. As it was late, we had limited options - finally chose chilies.

I decided to experiment and got a quesidilla explosion modified for a vegetarian. I din't quite expect what I got. There were 4 slices of quessidilas in the side ( very small). In the center, was a big heap. It looked more like a nest. I was trying to figure out what it was when the waiter asked me, ' how is your salad'. End of mystery. The nest like heap had mostly tortilla chips shredded in various colours; had a few corn pieces; some beans; some lettuce. Sigh ! What a sad dinner. After a hour, the nest still looked the same as I was just picking off the corn pieces. Then I gave up and left it.

On Sunday, we went to the mall and did loads of shopping. After that we went to Taj Chaat house in Irving. The chaat was ok, not too great. But I had the most amazing masala dosa. It was the best I had ever eaten in the US ! The guy made is with a little ghee and gave sambar, chutney, molagapodi etc. It was simply superb.

It looks like pretty much all I did was eat in different places during the weekend.

And finally, here is a quiz question ( sorry no prizes )

Can you identify the two bollywood stars in this picture ?

For more info, click here

Ride sharing - desi style

I was reminded of this while watching a hindi movie yesterday. The concept of ride-sharing in India is not only for cars but also 2 wheelers. And sometimes there are more than 2 people riding a 2 wheeler. We used to call it 'tribs'; don't know if it has any other name.

My friend T taught me to ride a 2 wheeler way back in engg first year. She had a Scooty. We had a lot of fun with her scooty. My friend S had a luna that would never work half the time. That is when it started, most times it would never start.

Once the same thing happened. We were all at S's house in RT Nagar. As usual, her luna did not start. I think we had a lab or something in the afternoon for which the 3 of us had to go back to college. There were 3 of us and 1 vehicle. Only one solution - 'tribs' !!! LOL. It was quite an experience.

So, we started journey. We were scared of being 'caught' by cops. The route to college was through many main roads and even a small stretch of a NH. So, we took a risk and went ahead. We stopped a couple of times because all of us would be laughing uncontrollably. One of the times, we stooped and made S walk a little as there was a cop standing a few feet away. We reached college safely. The trip was a lot of fun and we repeated it quite a few times after that ' just for kicks'.

Aftermath of the semester

After endless cribbing about how long and hectic spring semester was; it finally ended. I finished my last exam on Thursday afternoon. Had some other things to turn in by Friday and then I was free. Free finally ! ! Phew.

So, on Friday night, I met up R and K, we went to a Mediterranean restaurant called Fadi's, for dinner. Strangely I found a lot of food to eat inspite of being a vegetarian. The food was good. We then decided to go clubbing and finally decided upon Lizard Lounge simply because we wanted to listen to Trance/Techno. LL was having a special treat that day. A group called Above and Beyond were performing live. The DJ was spinning his superb music. The music was simply out of the world for trance lovers. There was some performance by dancers too. The 3 of us danced ( or rather jumped) a lot till our legs pleaded mercy. We headed back home in a happy note. I liked the music so much, that I bought one of their albums on i-tunes the next day and listen to it religiously.

I could not wake up early on Saturday. My friend P was graduating in the morning. The poor guy tried calling me but I seemed to be in a 'trance', hehehe. But I woke up in time for lunch. Went to Madras Pavilion for their delicious lunch buffet. Hogged. Then went to drop S in his house. It was so hot outside that we decided to stay in his house and watch a movie. We saw ' Harold and Kumar go to new castle'. LOL. Found it very funny.

After that, everything just falls into the category of time pass - wake up late, have tea, start watching movies, chit-chat, kill time.

Finished the Da Vinci quest. No I was not a finalist. :-( But my friend V is. Yaay ! I will get to see the cryptex. And yeah I cut my hair to a 'short' style to suit the Texas summer. Ahhh. Blissful break.

I've forgotten all about research, which I've to continue again tomorrow. But I am recharged and refreshed.

p.s I din't have any blogging ideas and so din't put any new post. Got an ear-full from Archu and so decided to write :-P

Sivananda Camp

I was up late last night studying for a test today; but the test was cancelled and will be on Monday instead. Sigh. Time to blog. hehehhe.

This post is a trip down memory lane. My parents visited my in-laws last week and one of the topics was about my childhood. My dad told them stories of a camp that I had attended when I was a little over 5 years old. I simply loved the place. Here is my recollection of the same.

This was the first time I was going to a Summer Camp. It was a month-long program held in Neyyar Dam, near Trivandrum, Kerala. It was organized by Sivananda Yoga Kendra ( HO Canada). My cousins V and K ( a year older than me) were also sent to the camp. I should speak to them and see what they remember about this trip.

Anyway, like most memories, I only remember certain details. The place was beautiful. It was beside a lake. There were cottages for different groups. There was a main prayer hall where yoga was taught. There was a fixed schedule daily. I think the day began early with prayers, yoga, breakfast, some classes, lunch, resting time, bath in the lake, reading time, etc. I started reading comics from here. I got pretty good at yoga asanas but sadly did not pursue it and forgot them soon. My first exposure to spirituality and related topics was also here.

The food...hmm...I don't really remember much about it. All I remember are the fat dosas. I have never seen such thick dosas in my life. Yuck. We were allowed to buy one item from the market every week. I don't recall having money to buy anything except chocolates. I remember asking V and K to buy me biscuits. The girls and boys did not interact much and so I did not really get a chance to speak a lot to them during the stay. I remember V hiding biscuit packets and smuggling them to me. As I was the kid sister, I think they took it as a responsibility to take care of me.

The girls slept in a big cottage. We all had one steel cot each with mattress. We could see the lake from the window. There was greenery everywhere. We could not use footwear. We had to walk on pebbles and it hurt a lot. But I got used to it after a while. The restroom was nothing but a hole dug in the ground with a hut around it !! Eeeks. Every evening, we would go down to the lake and swim. I din't know swimming, so I think, I just stayed close to the banks. It was fun to just be in the water.

We had classes everyday. We were taught by Canadian monks and Indian monks as well. I was one of the youngest in the camp and got pampered by the teachers. There was a dog who used to keep running around and I used to play with him. I think I even tried to feed him the dosas (hehehehe). There was an old lady who used to just sit and look at the children. She looked weird and used to keep muttering. I was terrified with her ears. She had one of those big ear lobes. Thinking back, its so funny.

We used to have a lot of fun and games. I remember playing treausre hunt. We also had camp-fires on the river bank. All the kids used to gather around the fire and sing. We had firecrackers one night. Also remember going on a hike to rubber plantations. I also took part in some dance on the last day. I had to dance with some doll for a malayalam song. The camp ended quickly and it was time to go back home.

I asked my parents to send me again next summer. But somehow that never happened.

I did a google search today and found the website for the Org. It turns out to be a real big organization. They have ashrams all over the world ! I felt so happy looking at it. Maybe I can finally visit Sivananda Camp again ( Maybe the one in the Himalayas this time - which is in a cave). Click the link for more info.

A few weeks as an instructor :-)

I heard many tips from other Professors before I began my teaching assignment.

' Be stern and strict.'

' Don't smile too much - they would not take you seriously.'

' Establish whos the boss.'

' Ask them to call you by last name.'

I tried to implement these tips but found it difficult. It is very hard for me to be strict. I cannot help smiling. I don't like to boss around. I don't even have a loud voice ! So how was I going to control a large class ? Teaching labs were so easy compared to this !

This was my toughest problem. Just when I turn to one side and talk, the other side would start talking. There were days when I would get angry (but that was rare). This was not like India where I can throw someone out of class. I cannot even scold anyone ! There were some students who would try to annoy me on purpose. But...I somehow managed to surive.

It was hard to prepare for the class; it took me approximately 4 hours to prepare for each class. I used a lot of ppt slides and pictures. I made notes in a book and would look into it as I taught.
Soon, I realised that I would run out of material to teach even before the class ended. And since I was not a pro in the subject, I could not even ramble my head off. So, the class always ended sooner (the students din't complain though).

My students were non-science majors - so teaching them science was quite a challenge.

Spring ended peacefully. I was offered the same position in fall again. This time the enrollment increased to 160 !!! ( Does it mean I was good, heheheh). I asked them to call me by first name. I could manage the class more easily. I loved this class. I was more confident. I already had my notes, all I had to do was glance through them before class. And I learnt the art of rambling...I would chit chat in most classes and complain to my students about my own exams and other topics like black holes, elections, clubs, movies, music, books etc. Most classes ended up in interesting discussions.

The only glitch in the whole experience was that teaching was very time consuming. It was hard to manage my own courses and research. This semester, I got a research position. But, I sure miss teaching !

I do bump into my ex-students in the city occasionally and I feel good when they tell me that they enjoyed my class.

My first day as a .....

I had just returned from India the previous evening after a 3 week vacation. I was a week late in school and had lots to catch up. I rushed towards Rm 101 in Science Hall. It was already 9:30am. I opened the door and entered a full class, 120 students to be precise. My prof, Dr.M was standing and talking to the students. He gave me a quick smile and turned towards the students and introduced me as the instructor for the class. Many were surprised/shocked/amused. They were not expecting Ms.Subramaniam to be so young. Dr.M left the room.

I stood rooted at that spot. Stunned. Nervous ( was I showing it ?)

120 pairs of eyes looking at me with curiosity. Judging me. Listening to me. Writing down what I was saying.

What was I thinking when I accepted the job ? Oh crap...Where is my voice ! Focus Shilpa..Focus ! Say something.

I was suddenly very conscious of what I wore (thankfully dressed properly). I can only imagine all the comments that would be passed by the students ( what goes around, comes around eh). I looked for any familiar face in the crowd. None. Good. No one would ever know that I was so nervous. I saw one desi in the class. The rest were Americans. Oh Gosh, I better do something about my accent or no one would understand what I was saying.

I don't remember what I said. I did get my voice back. I think I introduced myself. Generally started rambling. I was a little calm after a few minutes. I managed to teach Astronomy for the undergraduate class for an hour that day. By the end of it, I was exhausted. Teaching was NOT easy at all !

More stories....next post !

Still surviving...

Last week I thought things would cool down in school after a week. It did not. Looks like the chaos will continue for not only next week...but even the week after that !!
:-((

More exams...more homeworks to turn in...and more equations in my research work !

I am going to need a big break after this semester !

Da Vinci Quest is still going strong - the level of complexity is rising in it too ( just like school) !!

What Ho !

Well, its Tuesday and I am still surviving Grad School.

On Friday, I went to the mall in the afternoon and did some guilt-free shopping. We then watched 2 movies - taxi no 9-2-11 ( It was good) and Hawas ( crap). Will review in detail after exams. For dinner, K suggested a Mexican appetizer. She got the recipe from a Hispanic lady and we were very excited to try it. Take a plate of round nachos; top it with fresh salsa; add some guacamole if you have it; top that with melted cheese dip ( the one you get with nachos in Mexican restaurants - queso dip); then you top that with some shredded cheese. Now you microwave the whole thing till the shredded cheese just melts. Very fattening. Very tasty. Yum.

K, B and I dived into the nachos without any guilt. As we were watching a movie, we did not realise how much we had over-eaten. My stomach finally sent a distress signal and I could not eat any more. I reached the stage where the mere sight of food would make me puke. After a couple of hours we had the vanilla cake that I made with a secret ingredient to make it really soft.

Then on Saturday afternoon, we watched 15th Park Avenue - a brilliant movie. Very arty and abstract. I was very fascinated with the end. More details next time. Then after all the fun, it was back to slogging. The rest of the weekend was spent with books. Have a take home exam tomorrow and a in-class exam on Friday.

The Da Vinci google quest started yesterday. Yeah I am playing it ( how could I miss it ?). It seems far more interesting than my course work :-P

Happy Vishu

Happy New Year ! Today is Tamil New Year and also Vishu for keralites. I miss home and all the goodies for New Year. Most of all, I miss the Vishu kani.

Vishu is always my favorite festival simply because it is so beautiful. I would always look forward to it each year. It is believed that the first day of the new year is auspicious and so the first thing that is seen on the new year should be good. Then, the rest of the year would be good too. My dad would set up the 'kani' the previous night. It is a decoration of flowers, fruits, rice, lamps and many other things. The kani is always beautiful to look at, the oil lamps would be the only light and the puja room would be decorated.

My father would wake me up early in the morning and lead me to the Puja room. My eyes are supposed to be closed all the while and I would open them to look at the ' kani'. It somehow always looked magical to me in the wee hours of the morning.Then after praying for a good year ahead, I would be rewarded with some money (the fun part). Then, my mom would cook yummy food.

Today morning, instead of the kani, the first thing I saw was the alarm. I over-slept again. I had to rush to class. Heheheh. Maybe a trend for the coming year....!

Boo Hoo Hoo

This is just a post to crib about work overload at school. Oh God how am I going to survive the next three weeks ? Both my courses are filled with homeworks. I turned in one homework on monday and prompty got 2 more.

14 (this friday) - plasma hw due
19 (wed) - math hw due(24 problems - got it today). take hw exam will be given.
21 (next fri) - plasma hw due; plamsa exam
26 (wed) - plamsa hw due ; take home exam due.
may 1 (mon) - plasma hw due.
that week - math hw due again and some old hws to be turned in as well.
following week - plasma exam and math exam.

Boo Hoo Hoo...I am just living in homeworks. Adding to my woes are research work.

School Reunion

It has been a real busy week for me; so busy that I did not even check any blog updates over the last 2-3 days ( real unusual eh ;-)). I had a lot of work in school, lots of errands to complete and general things to take care of.

Amidst all this, the strangest thing happened yesterday. I got an email from my long-lost friend, Sheethal.

I saw her last just after we got the 10th std results; I was moving to Bangalore and told her good-bye. I had written a post about friends when I started blogging last year and mentioned her name. S happened to put her name in google and lo - my post appears. She then found my email id through my website and sent me an email yesterday. I jumped with joy when I saw her email. Three cheers to blogging and the Internet ! So, we chatted today and swapped info about various classmates and she gave me the number of another friend, P who is now in California.

I called P a few minutes back. It was quite hilarious to introduce myself.

Me: Hello P, this is S
P: Huh..
Me: I am from AV...remember me?
P: Ur name is ringing bells...
Me: I was in the skit with u in 5th std.
P: Oh ... which character were u
Me: I was -- and you were--. We also went to see the movie ' magalir mattam' in high school.
P: I can almost place you ! But I am busy with guests right now; can I call you back in the evening ?
Me: Sure...sure...

A few months back, Archana and I came across a girl who seemed just like one of our school friends. After a lot of contemplation, we tried to get in touch with her and it was indeed her. We were all so excited for having found each other.

Last month, another friend contacted me after coming across my website. I had lost touch with her after Engg. Those days, e-mails were not so popular and so people just tend to drift away.

Internet is indeed gr8 ! There are many others I would like to find too...but since I am bad with names, its not easy to find them. Maybe I should just make a post with all my lost friends and hope they would use google to search for their names just like S...

Hilton as Mother Teresa ?

I was shocked when I saw this headline a few minutes ago. Indian Director Rajeevnath wants to cast Paris Hilton as Mother Teresa !!!

What was the director thinking ?

To read more click here.

Weekend

My friend P had his thesis defense on friday. It was in the same room where I had my EE defense two years earlier. Two of the committee members were the same as mine. His defense was in the same room where I had mine. So, it brought back memories. And made me realise that I need to hasten with my present research work.

We went to coffee haus in the evening. This is a cosy coffee place near school and features live bands in the evenings. As soon as we entered, I saw that the person at the counter was my ex-student. He was surprised to see me and even remembered my name ( whats the big deal in remembering names ? Well Shilpa is a difficult name for Americans). While chit-chatting I asked him what grade I had given him ( I din't want anyone spitting in my coffee ;-) ); after confirming that I had given him a good grade, I got my haus coffee ( his recommendation -turned out to be real good too). P got the same coffee and K did not get anything. We sat on the comfy couches and started talking. After a few hours, it was time to leave. P left to his relative's house. K and I decided to go restuarant-hopping. We went to Corner House bakery and had a cup of soup. Then, we went to Thai house and ordered appetizers. The plan was to go to a third restaurant for either entree or snack. But, I was full after eating the spring rolls. So, we ditched the idea. K ate something else in the same restaurant. We left to AMC after that to watch Ice Age. We did not get the tickets and ended up watching BI 2. It was boring, confusing and a drag.

Then on Saturday, we decided to try a new restaurant called Temptations in Irving. This is a Indo-Chinese cusine. The style was lunch buffet. So, the four of us went around 2pm and ate to our heart's content. The food was good. The service was excellent too. But, since this is a new restaurant, I will not be hasty in giving my review. Most places detoriate in standard within weeks. After a heavy lunch, we went to watch Ice Age. This time we got the tickets. The theatre was filled with kids. The movie was superb. It was so cute to watch the kids get excited about the movie. They even started clapping after the movie ended.

We then went to the mall; the guys got bored and sat down. K and I happily looked at most stores. I bought 2 pairs of flip-flops. I need to start my summer collection. We then dropped S to his apt and got back. End of fun-time.

I had tons of school-work that had piled up. Spent saturday night and the whole of sunday with my research work and homework. I even woke up early today to finish the homework. Then when I turned it in, the prof gives me a surprised look and says, 'Shilpa this was not due today, I did not complete the relevant materials and so announced an extension in class!' I was stunned. I had bunked the class last week. Damn !

Anyway this week is also filled with homeworks and exams. Actually its the same every week now as the semester would end in a month. Yawn. I've to head back to Gamma functions.

Here is a link with the Spring Break Austin pictures.

Car, car, car....

What does a car mean to you ? Does a car define your personality ? Why do cars mean more to men than women ?

It always amuses me when my male friends start talking about cars; they are so passionate about it; and my complete lack-of-knowledge sure does annoy some of them. For me, a car is mode to transport to get from one place to another. Thats it. I don't really care about the tyre size, the bhp, the cylinder capacity or the other details!!

This does not mean that I don't like driving. I simply love to drive. I like sleek and fast cars. I like coupes and convertibles. Like most women, I judge the car by its cost, looks etc. Some of the fun times I have had were driving the sleek mustang on I-75 and the monstrous Suburban on Pikes Peak. A good car can make a big difference in the journey ! After O bought his recent BMW 3-series, I got to know why people love BMWs. It was fun to go in his car to Austin. Its an amazing car. I also love R's Merc too.

Coming back to the point about cars and personality. Not everyone can afford to buy a car that matches their personality. So, I think it is hard to judge a person by the car. Its funny how most desis would have either Honda, Nissan or Toyota. I guess we are a practical bunch. :-)

My first car was an old Toyota Corolla. It was a good car but always had problems. So, thanks to it, I learnt a lot about the different car parts (something or the other would go wrong with it every month). I had a flat-tyre many times, so managed to learn how to change a flat too. Finally, I had to sell it last year because I suspected that it would just stop on the road. Then, came the boring part of looking for a new car. I decided to indulge and buy a coupe. Many people told me that coupes are too small. But since I don't have a family, I din't really care. The car was for my driving pleasure after all. So, I bought another 2nd hand car, this time a Nissan Coupe (200sx). Its a decent car. But I do wish it had more power. So, my next car would be a V-6 for sure.

So, what is my dream car? Well, if I get a jackpot and pots of money, I may go for a Lexus Coupe. Or maybe an Acura. Or maybe a BMW. If...wishes were horses indeed....!!

So, what do you drive ?