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 ?

Why me ?

Whenever annoying things happen, I would often ask ' Why me, Lord, Why me ' [ song by Shaggy].

Exams put me off, I am bored of studying for them. The latest one I had on Monday was like a memory test that we used to have as kids. The prof expected us to memorize a trillion formulae. After coming here, I am used to cheat sheets and open-book tests; so memorizing is a lost art. Needless to say, the test was awful because I forgot most of the formulae. :-( So unfair ! I hope others badly too...

Texas weather changes so often now and this is a big problem for me. I realized I have hyper-sensitive skin which changes with the weather !! As a teenager, I never had problems like pimples and acne. So, it was quite a shock when I started having these problems after coming here ! For one, I thought only teenages have pimple problems ! How mistaken I was !! It seems age has nothing to do with it ! I could have the same problem even at 80 ( but maybe the wrinkles would cover it up then). So, I became a sucker for any remedy, right from home made recipe's to sulfur-products. Anything...As long as the pimples disappear ! I got things under control with Proactive. But, when I go to a new place or there is a drastic change in weather... I have new features on my face :-( Soooo unfair !!

When I went to India this time, the pollution and dirt only made this worse; I don't know what was worse, the problem or the concern/remedies from relatives. Everyone made such a big deal out of it !! Ofcourse, I had one pimple the day before the wedding...Grrr...!

Anyway, the whole point of cribbing now is that I have a new outbreak and its never been this worse. Boo Hoo Hoo. I've tried everything from Proactive to Shehnaz Hussein products - no results !

The only consolation is that almost all my friends have some skin problem right now; so we all just crib to each other and feel better. Recently saw an interview of John Abraham where he mentioned that he had a big pimple problem too. I wonder how he solved the problem.

One more thing to crib about - my research. Turns out one of the assumptions made at the beginning had a sign mistake. So, now I've to re-derive them again ! Before you think what the big fuss is about, let me mention that there are more than 20 pages with derivations that I need to correct. :-((

Seminars and sleep...

If you were forced to attend boring seminars every week; you know what I am talking about.

Its wednesday, which means my Dept would host a colloquium today. The speakers come from all over US and sometimes even from outside. These are famous acadamics. They get one hour to present their research. I suppose they are interesting too; I do not stay awake after the first few introduction slides as it gets too technical and nothing makes sense. Imagine a boring talk, big cold room, dim lights and a long day; what can you do except fall asleep. But, since they force us to attend the seminar, I have no choice but to be there physically. Pah, what a bore ! Its not just the students who doze off, I have seen some professors also napping( easier to detect if they snore).

Many people find different ways to stay awake. Some do their school work, read the paper, read a magazine while some just sit and go to sleep. Then, the organizers started switching off the lights. Unfortunately for them, this meant more people could sleep peacefully without being caught. The strategy has been changed to dim lights now ( can't read nor can you go to sleep without been noticed).

The only good thing about the seminar is the free food before the talk. Most of the people make a disappearing act after eating. But since they take attendence, cannot do this often.

Once in a while, the speaker is interesting. Sometimes, if he is from my field, I actually stay awake and enjoy the talk. Today, a Nobel Laureate is going to speak; so I am quite curious. My afternoon class got cancelled (yay) because the instructor wanted to speak to the Laureate. So, I already like the speaker...may more of them come and may more classes be cancelled....

p.s I guess this applies to "meetings" as well :-)

Choice the correct answer...

Life is so different from an exam; I always wonder, is there a correct answer? Who decides what is correct ? Is there more than one correct answer ? Sometimes, I get into this phase of asking too many questions to myself and end up with no convincing answers. Sometimes, I wish I were back in middle - school; life was so simple then. Those days were always carefree and fun. Why does life complicate as we grow older ?Or is it us who make it complicated ?

This sudden philosophical phase was triggered by the fact that it is my 2nd month wedding anniversary today. I am feeling low. Just one of those days when I feel like leaving everything here and hop into the next plane. If only it was that simple....Sigh :-(

This leads to my point about choices and living with it. I chose to come here for studies. I chose to pursue my second masters. I chose to get married knowing very well that we will have to be away for a while. So, when I made all these choices, why should I feel bad ? I should not be complaining ! This is what I wanted ! And yet...there is something wrong somewhere. I guess, it is not possible to have everything in life.

The easiest solution would be to ditch my studies; what is the point in doing astronomy when I know I may never work in this field ? Yes, I love the subject enough to come this far; sadly I may not get the jobs that I have in mind with just a Masters degree. So, I've to go back to telecom for a job. I like being a telecom engineer too. But, I have to choose one field now. Maybe later in life, I will continue my pursuit in astronomy. Does it give me enough reason to quit ? I know this is just a moment and tomorrow I will be ready to fight my battles again. I can never quit having come this far. And although I may be happy initially if I quit, deep inside it would drive me nuts. Better sustain for a few more months and get done with it.

I know its just a matter of time and everything will be better. But till then, I will have these sudden urges to hop onto a plane and fly to Vikram. Everything has its good side; so this is good side of having long complicated procedures for visas and the fact that students are mostly too broke to afford tickets at the drop of a hat.

So, the answer is, I choose to finish what I started.

Oops...I did it again !

I wasted time again ! Funny how time flies esp during a break ! I kept thinking that I have lots of time to do my homework and assignment. Ha ! It just struck me that its thursday evening and my vacation is almost over. Sigh ! I have to start my school work today and atleast finish some by tomorrow evening. Going to Austin tomorrow evening and will be there for the weekend. Party time !!

I decided to get a hair-cut today. I was very tempted to chop it and make it short again ( I had a boy cut before my mom forced me to grow it out for the wedding). The hair-dresser asked me how short she should cut it; finally I decided to maintain the length and just got layers.

And while at it, I decided to color my hair too. How about the purple as suggested long back? That would surely add color to my life. Or maybe I will get one bang in shocking pink. Finally I chose a boring brown. I think I will get highlights done later.

While I was there, I realised no one is happy with their hair. The ones who have it straight, want it curled. The ones who have it curly, want it straight. I don't like mine either; its wavy - neither straight nor curly ! Grrr...

And I am always amazed to see very old ladies come there for a hair cut/style/perm. There was an old lady today who could not even walk without help. What enthu even at this age ! I can never imagine my Grandmom going to style her hair at the parlor !! It is nice to see that some folks don't let age be a factor is getting what they want.

Jaani Dushman - A review

I saw one of the funniest movies ever yesterday night. I have to thank my cousin, Anusha from Mumbai for suggesting this movie. She told me that it would surely make me laugh and it did. I was ROFL most of the time.

This movie was released in 2002 and has a big star cast ( Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Aftab, Arshad Warsi, Manisha Koirala, Rambha, Raj Babbar, Sunny Deol and many others). It is a super-natural horror story. The director/producer cast his son as the ichadari nag ( snake that assumes any shape). I wonder how Bollywood churns such movies !

Oh well, it sure provides entertainment for bored Graduate Students :-)

I've written the complete review in my other blog. You can find it here.

Has anyone else seen this movie ?

Spring Break

The best thing about Spring semester is undoubtedly the Spring Break. I wonder why we don't have summer break and fall break.

On Friday night, K, B and I went to a very interesting club called Lizard Lounge. Thankfully it had nothing to do with Lizards ( I am terrified of them). There were two dance floors; one had techno music (yipee) and the other had many kinds but mostly hip-hop and new songs. The techno music was very good and I was very happy. They even had a DJ competition and it was interesting. Many people on the dance floor danced with small lights; they were small tubes filled with some liquid that would glow when switched on. I wonder what they are. The light trail was very hynotizing and looked really cool. Then I had to be dragged off the floor as it was time to head home. The thing I hate about going to a club is that the cigarette smoke filled rooms linger on the clothes with a nasty smell.

Then on Saturday I went to the public library and got half-a-dozen novels; mostly PG Wodehouse, re-reading Kane and Abel and a new author called Iris Jonansen. I finished 2 of wodehouse by yesterday evening and both of them were very funny.

Woke up late today. It feels great to sleep-in late on a Monday. Came up with a new name for my blog. Three cheers to haddockisms. I came across this website with all his curses and they were very funny.

Part 2 of Uncleji 's antics

Most of us had a good time LOL over the PO Uncle's antics yesterday. Amazingly the story did NOT end with the encounter at the PO.

I was talking to my cousin, K on my cell a little after 9pm yesterday night ( the incident occured in the afternoon). Then, my roommate came and gave me the land-line saying I had a call. ?? No one called me on the landline other than credit-card folks and tele-marketers; and so I never picked the land-line. She said it sounded like some desi uncle ( what ?). I said hello and lo it was good ol uncleji from the PO. I was stunned. These are one of those few rare occasions when I am completely speechless.

He was like how are you. I told him that I was on another call to India. He assumed I was talking to my parents and said ' please tell them about this matter'. Grrrr. I said ok and was ready to hang-up when his wife came over the line. She said 'please take down our number and call us' ( like I was going to do that). She hung up leaving me surprised again.

How on earth did they get my number ? Uncleji could have taken down my address from the packages that I mailed and could have asked for my number ( can this be considered identity theft? ). Or a simpler solution would be to find my number in the student pages of my school. Either way, it was a lot of trouble to get my number !!! How desperate are they ?

How am I going to wiggle out of this situation ? How do I get rid of them ? What story should I fabricate now ? I did not want to avoid their calls as then they might keep persisting and annoy me more. A better idea would be to tell them something so that they do not call back. I was thinking of various ideas and here are some of them

a) Tell them that I was engaged and clearly planned to marry that person. Perhaps I should explain this to auntyji as the uncle clearly overlooked the same statement and seemed to think his son was great enough for me to 're-consider'. Grrr.

b) Next time they called, I could clearly shock them. Maybe I should say that I am an alcoholic, smoke, live in the clubs, cannot cook and a lot of other awful things.
( But what if they say their son was the same ?)

c) I could ask one of my American friends to 'act' for a while and take them to the PO.
I could introduce him and say I was living-in with him. Watching Uncleji's expression might be worthwhile....but again...what if he says ' no problem beta, my son was also living in with someone'.

d) I could goto the PO dressed in Kallu style and say ' wassup dawwg'

I was having fun thinking of ideas and laughing over it when I got a call again. Oh No !!!! It was around 10:15pm ( isn't that a wee bit too late to call) and it was Auntyji. They must be really desperate to pursue like this !!!

Aunty: Beta, I thought I would call you instead of waiting for your call you may hesitate to talk about this subject.
Me: ( what the heck, how can they assume something like that, me even more annoyed)
Aunty, I am not sure what you have on your mind; and I think uncle did NOT understand what I said ( My tone was rude and irritated). I am already engaged and plan to get married to him this summer ( There, I said it hehehe).

Aunty: (Surprised) Oh; Uncle did not understand it !! Anyway beta congratulations.
Me: ( relieved) Thank you

Aunty: You know, we are looking for a match for our eldest son. If you come across anyone, please let me know...
Me: ok. Good Night.

Hung up. Phew. I hope that is the last of it !!!

Any takers for this rather interesting proposal ? ;-)

P.S. I am also curious to see if 'uncleji' has tampered with my mails; I would not be surprised if he inserted a letter to my friend and ask them to recommend his son..maybe he might have put a photograph as well...hmm...curious...very curious....
Archu, Rahul and Prasanna...only you guys can answer the question as the mails were for u :-)

50th post....

I can't believe I've written so much already. Anyway, I've managed to reach my 50 th post. I wanted to change the name of my blog...still messing around with the idea. Want to change the template too...but been too busy this week. Oh well, its spring break next week. Yippe !

A very strange incident occured today afternoon. I had a lot of things to mail; But I've been in lazy mood since morning and did not want to walk to the PO in school. So I drove to the main USPS Office a few blocks away.

I was looking for the right size boxes when somebody from the counter asked if I needed help. I looked up to see an old desi uncle. He was smiling and said he would help me with the supplies. He gave me what I needed and the labels, customs form etc. I filled out everything while he kept talking about his family. I was nodding politely ( I was barely awake). Then, while he was giving me the stamps, he started asking about me (family, native place, major in school etc). I told him that I had no relatives here and that I was living with friends. The conversation continued like this

Uncle: So, when will you graduate ?
Me : Maybe next semester

Uncle: Are you married ?
(I felt there was no necessity to tell him about my marriage, explain why we are away, listen to his sympathy and advise; I could save a lot of trouble by saying....).
Me: No
( Thanks to my jacket, my mangalsutra was not seen too)

Uncle does more talking ( my mind is blank, yawn).

Uncle: So, do you have a friend with whom my wife can talk ?
Me: Huh ( Was I that sleepy ? I could not understand what he was asking... me with blank expression).

Uncle: repeats the same question
Me: same blank expression

Uncle ( gives up) : I have a son who will turn 30 soon...
Me: ( so ? ) Oh (...the tube light finally lit up)

( LOL I could not believe what he was saying, people seem to be ready to catch prospective brides anywhere).

Uncle: Well ?
Me: Uncle, my parents have already found someone back in India.

Uncle: Well, consider even this..ok ?
Me : ( with a straight face; controlling my laughter) OK

Uncle then goes on about his son; his job; his intelligence; blah blah...By now I am really irritated...then I give him a ' will you hurry up look'...I told him I have a class in 10 minutes.
Finally he lets me off and gives me the receipt. I am ready to run from there, when he calls me out and says

' you can always find me here; come -by if you change your mind'.

I come out ... ROFL....

Next time...better walk to the University PO.

Day 3 - Sangeet in the evening

We came to the mandap and noticed that everyone was patiently waiting for something to happen. I learnt that my cousin, Andy, who was supposed to conduct the Sangeet was stuck in the notorious Bangalore traffic. As most of us had never even seen a sangeet ( except for the ones that come in movies), we're quite unsure about the course of action. In the meantime, the crowd was getting restless and we quickly sent my cousin, Shreya, to sing a invocation prayer. Then, what ? My cousin, Shilpa ( yes we share the same name; she is referred to as local shilpa and I am US shilpa), suggested that we call on volunteers to sing and kill time.

A lady in front put her hand up at once; she then took out a sheet of paper from her purse. Huh...do people move around with lyrics ? She took the mike and started singing. I stood stunned when I heard her. Everyone around her were speechless. My friends and cousins stood dumbstruck. Had the character Cacofonix become a reality ? Her singing was unbearable. The kind that would make you want to burrow a hole through the ground and escape. I panicked and wanted to snatch the mike from her before everyone ran away. We could not do it as it would not look nice and had to bear the torture. Watching this scene on dvd is very funny; I can almost see the people around her cringe with each note. LOL.

Then Prasanna, suggested Antakshiri. We quickly made two teams; boys and girls. The girls team was full and there were hardly any folks in the boys team. I had to convince most of my uncles and others to join them. In the end, it was total fun. We all kept singing to our hearts content. Vikram kept singing many shaadi songs and got a lot of crowd support. Still, no sign of Andy.

Then, we decided to boogie. I had burnt a cd with fast hindi songs. All the girls started dancing. Vikram, his brother Vinayak and my cousin Karthik were the only boys on the dancefloor. Vikram's grandparents joined in between for kajre re and looked very cute. My parents also shook a leg and many aunts joined too. It was a blast. Andy, Anu and my cousin Shilpa took a lead and gave us ideas for steps. Other cousins who joined us were the other Anu, Shreya, Sushma, Poornima, Samyukta, Kritika, Andy, Ria, Kaveri, Asha and a whole bunch of small kids. This went on for a while till the elders decided it was time for dinner. We then took a few pictures.

The audience (mostly relatives) basically looked on. I wish dancing becomes a part of South Indian weddings. Its the apt thing to do in such a joyous occasion.

A few of my relatives were worried that I would be tired after so much of dancing and look exhausted the next day for the wedding. That din't happen ofcourse; this is where all the late-night clubbing helps. :-) I looked fresh and happy the next day.

Day 3 - afternoon and later

The morning activities finally came to an end. I decided to change from saree into a more comfortable salwar-kameez so that I can eat lunch with fewer tensions. My favourite colour is black and so I bought a very pretty georgette dress. I decided to change into this; as soon as I came out, all hell broke loose. Relatives from every direction literally pounced on me and yelled at me for having worn black color ! They were like 'whose permission did you take for wearing this'; and I was like,' excuse me, who's permission do I need'; this argument went on and I refused to change. After all, it was just to have lunch and then go home. It was a matter of less than an hour ! But no one understood my point !! And when I asked for a reason why I should not wear black, there were no concrete answers. Tradition was not a very satisfactory answer. My mother and mother-in-law did not care about this and so I could get away with it.

The lunch was very nice; it was a typical Kerala style cuisine; avvial, kalan, payasam, vadai, appalam, rasam, sambar, moorkozambu, beans and some other things which I cannot remember. Then after food, we ( Archu, Prasanna, Anu and I ) left for home, which was nearby thankfully. We all went off to sleep immediately.

After a nap, it was time to get ready for the sangeet. I wore a sleeve-less gagra choli made of italian crepe. I simply loved this dress. It had a very pretty colour too. We had a short photo session while waiting for the driver to pick us up. We reached the mandap at around 7pm.

So dark the con of man ... The quest !

No, this is not about my wedding.

I simply loved reading Dan Brown's Da Vinci code and its prequel, Angels and Demons. After reading the book, I wanted to go to Louvre and trace all other places mentioned in the book. I am looking forward to the movie which will release this May. I wanted to watch the trailer yesterday and while looking for it on google, I came across something very interesting, the webquest.

Did you know that the book cover holds a puzzle ? I was amazed when I learned this and ofcourse jumped right into the quest. The clues lead you to the title of Dan's next novel. I was in the middle of the solving the clues when my friend K came to see me and I convinced her to join me in the quest. So, instead of doing my school work, I was busy solving the clues till late last night. We were dancing with joy after solving it. Then I cracked the second puzzle today morning as well.

a) Quest 1 - Uncover the code
This is what you need to have before attempting:

1. The hard-bound book and the cover ( the paperback editions or desi versions will not have it)
2. Internet
3. Pen and paper to write down and solve clues

Beg, borrow or buy the book !!!

To uncover the code and play the game, go here

b) Quest 2 - Web quest

This does not require the book cover. What you do need are

1. The book ( any version or you can even manage if you have read the book)
2. Internet
3. Pen and paper
4. Telephone

Ready ?
To solve the quest, go here

The clues spiral you into a hunt just like the book and is very exciting. Solving the codes are frustating as well ( maybe reading his book digital fortress helps - but I could manage without it). There are many discussion forums , so looking for the solutions on google will deprive you of the joy of solving the puzzle. I want to discuss the clues and other facts about the quest. But I will do it next week, giving everybody the weekend to work on the quest (if you haven't done so already).

Solve riddles...crack codes...have fun !!!

p.s 13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian devil!
Oh, lame saint!

Day 3 - Morning - The Puja and Engagement

We reached the Mandap on time. I did not want to be one of those brides who are always late. Vikram and his family reached a few minutes earlier and we saw that many aunts and relatives had come to greet him with garland etc. The cameraman started his annoying job. Everyone finally went inside. Then, it was my turn to go inside and mandap and there was no one to greet me. Grrr. Why does the groom get so much attention anyway ?

I was asked to wait and not enter; I had a welcome party too...yipee. I was instructed not to walk fast. I waited in the dressing room while everyone went to eat breakfast. The vadiyar (purohit/pandit) was stuck in traffic and hence late. Prasanna also called saying she was stuck in traffic. The Bangalore traffic was creating havoc. Vikram called me on my cell and asked me to join him for breakfast; I explained to him that I was supposed to be fasting. He laughed and said he would eat my share too. :-( Finally, after a lot of cribbing, my mother gave up and asked me to eat. :-)

The Puja started; the vadiyar was chanting something; I was bored and sleepy. Whenever I would yawn, the cameraman would be capturing the moment; I guess he had a lot of editing to do. People took pity on me and would come and talk to me; I was so happy when that happened as I was really bored. Puja went on for an hour; Prasanna finally reached. Then, I was given a saree to change into before the engagement.

I simply loved this saree. It was the ONLY kancheepuram silk saree that I bought. It was blue with orange border and had embriodary. I wore fashion jewellery with it. Seetha mami and Prasanna helped me in wearing the saree; we asked the rest not to interfere.

We were asked to hurry up as the groom was ready. The groom had to just wear normal clothes, it hardly takes time !! Wearing a saree on the other hand is a whole new story. I think they should allocate a lot of time for that and not just hurry the bride.

Then, we exchanged rings. Time for some pictures. Then came the namaskarams. It is hard to do it in a saree. It was past lunch time by the time all this ended.