chai.chaat.chitchat on books,movies,music and life

finally He can and He did it...

2008-11-05T16:03:00.002-06:00

Last nite was emotional for me..
finally Obama proved he can and he did it..
when he won PA and Ohio and they showed kenya and people there eagerly waiting for results I cried..
I read both obamas books and his book "Dreams from my father" touched my soul..Having lost my dad, staying away from home for years and years I can understand what obama went through growing up without a dad, living with grandparents, coming from poor family.. Obamas journey is an inspiration and he should be proud of what he became..
wish his grandmother was alive for just one more day to see this great day..
I cannot vote but I campaigned a little bit for obama because his story struck a chord with me..His idealism, his political ideology, his plans on education and healthcare etc., resonate with what I feel..Iam not a democrat or a republican as I think Iam a long way to understanding the US political system but I liked obama..
Iam glad he made history and what an amazing campaign it was. some of my friends campaigned too and just the campaign he put up, the amount of money he raised, how he ran for his presidency, how he handled himself in presidential debates, the story of his life, the way he sees the world tell a lot about the man..Iam sure he will make a good president..
Hope he gets time to rest a lil bit, catch his breath and takes care of his health and gets to spend some goodtime with his two cute young daughters before he starts working hard again..what a battle what a victory..
this economic meltdown worked good for obama..and all the endorsements he got at the right time helped him too..it was his destiny to be the president and all the cards fell in place..he is born to be a great man...
mccain gave avery graceful speech too.. I admire mccain too for fighting for the country but his choice of VP, bad campaign decisions, lack of proper plan for a economically beaten country, age, lack of good campaign strategy cost him big..
whatever it is glad it is over and it ended well.
my days last three months were consumed in following politics and elections..
finally I will have more free time..
whatelse..life is keeping me busy..
work keeps me busy five days a week, volunteering or preparing for a month long India trip is keeping me busy with somuch traveling planned through Italy and India..I still did not find a furnished apartment to stay in India, still so much to do..Iam going home to India but have no home..Irony of life is for people like me living in two countries, loving both countries has made life harder..
I am neither there or here.. when Iam here in US I miss India and family...when Iam there in India I miss US and friends..nostalgic life either way..staying in apartments both places..there is no place called home or I have two temporary homes..thats life..
taxes to do in India and US, business to take care of in India and in US, apartments to take care of in India and US, family in India and US..life is just more richer, more diversified and I have one foot here in this continent in US and other in Asia in India.. I manage to stand on both which is amazing...
so much to do in India too..
I have to learn so much about indian tax system in the next two weeks before I go..
I have to book an apartment for a month in India
I have to book pooja at tirupathi temple which is busy and booked until 2025..
Ihave to plan business trips and meetings in India..
so much to do as usual.
I barely get time to read any books..
Diwali was fun..I volunteered at the temple all day saturday and helped cook food for 250 people which was fun..
finished Aravind adigas booker novel which I thoroughly enjoyed..
reading Junot diazs booker novel on oscar wao life right now..
Also reading chetan bhagats one nite at call center..
3 more weeks of work and then vacation time and trip to India...
little nephews in India waiting, nieces waiting, big extended family to spend time with, elderly aunties and uncles to see..business to take care of , taxes to do in India life goes on..
there is always something to do..
new year is coming with a new president, new life and hopefully some love and soulmate for me...
have to see how fate and life unfolds as the new year arrives..

diwali memories , this and that..

2008-10-28T15:51:00.003-05:00

Finally Diwali is here..
miss the fireworks, authentic indian sweets, rangoli, new clothes, goodtimes with family...
when I was kid diwali was a such a big hangama with granny, mom,dad around. the nite before huge hangama with rangoli with all girls in the neighbourhood..morning granny would apply oil to our hair and wash our hairs, then new clothes, pooja, eloborate five course lunch, then busy early evenings decorating all the house and walls outside with diyas , then bursting fireworks, eating sweets and ending the nite with smiles.
As I grew up a lil bit, it was just mom, dad, me and sis..it was quieter times..no hungama...new clothes, good lunch, pooja, lesss fireworks, sweet and sleep..best part was early evening decorating the house I grew up in with diyas..
Now last few years after dad passed away, we sold our home in small town, it is much quieter...no proper home or walls to decorate diyas...no proper family it is just me and mom hanging out with aunts or cousins at their places celebrating diwali..
ofcourse most of the last 12 years diwali is here in US..sometimes it is just another ordinary day..sometimes like this year it will be a lil bit lively pooja at a friends place, then pooja at temple and fireworks at temple thanks to the temple..Nov1st I am volunteering to cook at temple as a part of diwali celebrations so it is going to be ok diwali..
life goes on..
as we age things change..
but I cannot wait to find a nice traditional boy, get married, start my own family, celebrate diwali with my kids and hubby and family, have a own house..restarting the tradition all over again.. cycles of life.
what else.
I read Aravind adigas novel white tiger..
mighty impressed.. Adigas novel is realistic down to earth simple well told sensitive story of a car driver..very well written, very fine details of everyday existance of poor and rich, corruption and politics in India..great novel to read on modern India, richly deserves a booker..
what else.
Iam busy planning my India trip..got my italian visa too..busy with travel plans, shopping for nephews and nieces.. waiting for much awaitied vacation..
Iam so glad to go home to visit my family after 2years of being away from them..life is hard specially if u are working girl...out of 600 days in two years I get 30 days with family..rest is all waiting for those 30 days...
life has been busy otherwise too..
my dads third death anniversary was last week. so I did the traditional karma pooja at the temple who says girls cannot do it..priest helped me do it north indian punjabi style as he knew only that way and it was good...it was a week of nostalgia, melancholy, philosophical..some people can never be replaced in life..it is a hole in the heart and you just learn to live with it..
week ahead looks busy with work
weekend of volunteering, shopping for india trip..life goes on..
so much to do as usual..

topsyturvy world...

2008-10-15T16:08:00.002-05:00

After a long time, news that excited me was Aravind Adiga winning booker..
kiran Desai writes about globalized modern india and gets a booker
Aravind Adiga writes about todays India of corrupt politics and reality and gets a booker..
so there u go...now u know what gets u a booker...
Iam glad they both won bookers writing about India..
I just started reading Adigas white tiger and can see why it won the coveted prize..like kiran desai he deserves his win...good writing..
what else..
Economy and its downward spiral is just unbelievable. I cannot even figure out why they waited until the 700 billion collapse happened. I cannot even understand why they did not stop and investigate when they lost the first billion..unbelievable times..
Being a girl probably, I was never interested in learning about world economy or investing or money market..it is like not having that much interest in electronic gadjets or sports..it was not a girl thing for some reason for a long time for me..
This month the economy fluctuations changed me..
I kept busy educating myself about stocks, investing, understanding the loss of money last few weeks, I never was interested in economy or stocks or investing or money market before, but now Iam keen on understanding the system, which is going to affect all of us not only now but in the years to come..
how could they give loans to people who cannot afford?
how did they let the housing market drop down so bad?
How did they end up spending so much money on iraq war?
how did they not see this collapse a year ahead with all the intelligence and sources?
all this is a mystery for me..
I used to think that economist and business people here are the smartest in the world , apperently not now..
may be everyone should read future shock and prepare for future..
anticipating tomorrows needs and tomorrow world and economic market is so so important..too bad they waited so long to realise who bad the state of affairs is..
too bad..
Politics was also not my thing..I used to think once upon a time that following politics or politicians is a total waste of time..
Iam also following US politics as never before..this presidential race has been the most interesting political race for me so far...It matters whom we elect though I cannot vote in US right now, for some reason it matters a lot..
tonites debate is going to be interesting..mccain vs obama..now that palin factor faded and is more controversial may be people will get into the reality of the candidates and their philosophies of how they will run the country...who ever wins is going to have a hard time no matter what with this economy..
from health care to economy to education this election and the opinions of both candidates matters a lot..those who can vote should pay attentiont to these candidates and vote..it is probably the most important election in recent times considering how volatile the world and the economy is..
And equally as the presidential debates I am enjoying watching saturday nite live as never before...it is as if within the last two months the things I do, the stuff I watch on tv changed drastically..now Iam hooked on to debates, news, night line, saturday nite live, anything that comes on economy, politics...
cant believe it..
my life changed otherwise too last two months..
been busy working nonstop..did not take any vacation this year so far saving it all for my india trip to go home..so tired and exhausted..
gave up volunteering and all social activities for these last four months of the year as I needed some time for myself..
Iam busy learning about economy, stocks, travel, politics etc.,
Did spend sometime in dussehra festivities...cooking,cleaning, groceries and chores taking away the rest of the time that I have...
my life has been so busy too planning to long trip to India this year end and getting visas to a couple of other countries that I dont have that much time now a days to volunteer or do anything else..
books I read
The brief wondorous life of oscar wao - junot diaz which has been a very interesting read..
movies I saw
mostly travel videos of europe and asia which are fun to watch..one of the interesting movie I watched was himalaya about nepalese old man who travels all the way through mountains and snow with his grandson to sell salt and for just a morsel of food..
travel videos make me realise how different life is in different countries..
life is going on..as usual same routine single working girls life...
God knows when my single life will end and when I get to share this beautiful life with someone special but until then Iam glad to go home for a month, finally forget this topsyturvy world and spend time with nephews , nieces, family, friends in India before I get back to this race again in jan next year..

country concert, good books...this week..

2008-09-15T16:07:00.000-05:00

News that caught my attention..
sad about Delhi blasts...The world is no longer a safe place...and normal innocent people who didnot harm get hurt.. sad state of affairs in the world..
Economy in US another sad state of affairs...stock markets, rising prices, floods, storms...what is happening? Alvin tofflers future shock is right here..things spinning beyond control..
Sarah palin factor in US elections...Her interview with charles Gibson was bad yet people are supporting her...where is the country headed? seems like race is not about presidents or presidential merits anymore..it is VPs who influence..too bad..too sad..
Georgia to Darfur...problems everywhere... Ike to katrina never ending disasters...then man made troubles with blasts in India and everywhere.. the world seems to spin beyond control..power struggles..Iam reminded more often of Alvin Tofflfers war antiwar, towards a new civilization power shift culture..
I have to admit like everyone else Iam also in future shock...unprepared for future, silent resignition towards tomorrows, strangely helpless despite being educated and smart...not knowing how we can change the system and the world..
Gandhism and non voilence will it work?
Or Bushs doctrine will it work?
a combination of both or all..
someone needs to change the system..clean up this world..
is it younger generation or older generation..
who will suffer more..
No social security, no pension, no security no medical insurance elder generation who worked hard left with no solutions.
Or bad economy, high costs, no jobs, no education or opportunities younger generation left in a mess with no solutions..
both suffer their own way..
have to see how this govt. and the coming govt. handles all this..
what else..
went for a country music concert this weekend..Kenny chesney, keith urban, leane rhymes, Gary Allen all sang..
Keith urban was the best , man he knows how to play guitar and sing so well. he sang my fav. songs. whether its raining on sunday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxDuckV7IAY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fy91mHAPpE
kenny chesney was just ok, cant sing really well, though Iam a big fan of his lyrics than singing, has a 2 year old kid on stage until 12 in the nite with beer commercials all nite for 60,000 audience...If he can get that much audience wont u assume he will put up some nice educational messages and guide america in a good direction.. but no nothing of that sort it was all business....it is all commercial..come on kenny make a difference do something good for community, dont advertise beer..do something good man for the community.. Also dont make concerts 8 hour long..it gets tiring man,...
he sang these 3 fav songs of mine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbMoFYtZ6o8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpPJEj8Uj-s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2DSF8KtTso
Gary Allen was ok..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rULQNIEX_6k
leane rimes sang well too. she has a good voice..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UmF3iRrkU4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4QkSa2-oX8
what else..
Iam reading this very interesting novel
"The Brief wondorous life of oscar wao" by Junot Diaz
http://www.amazon.com/Brief-Wondrous-Life-Oscar-Wao/dp/1594489580
thanks to MV for introducing me to yet another new writer.. I have to say Iam thoroughly enjoying reading this novel.. It was amazingly real, touching, unique story of a unique race..Iam amazed that a male writer can write with such sensitivity and raw..it was very real, very human..He richly deserves the pulitizer or booker he won last year..I think after a long long time Iam reading a real good one.. I think Iam adding Junot Diaz to the list of my fav. writers..
Iam also reading
one night at call center by chetan bhagat which is a barely ok read.
The calcutta chromosome by Amitav ghosh which I need to start reading this week.
it feels so good to get back to books and reading...
I love lazy sundays where I can just drink a cup of morning elachi chai and have a parantha or idli for breakfast and keep reading until sunsets..
I can just read all week long if I had time..work keeps me busy 5 days a week..
volunteering and household chores keeps me busy on weekends..
what else..
volunteered at temple and cooked for 50 people this weekend.
went for a country concert
cooked dosakaya tomato daal, dosakaya curry and make even chutney out of dosakaya.. nice home cooked meal with achaar nothing beats that..
next weekend again Iam organizing a walk for a cause...after that finally Iam done with the volunteering for this year.
I quit the indian group and quit being chair of volunteer group and quit as chair of the indian cultural event I was supposed to organize...Iam so so glad I did it..it was a waste of time for me organizing with a group of people with too much politics going on..I prefer volunteering by myself without much fuss.. sometimes people make so much noise and talk but dont do any work..half the people are like that..iam the one who prefers to do less talk and do work..I pray i get a hubby also like that..most people I meet are so self centred they have nothing much to give to anyone, so lost in their self indugent world.I love Aynrand but dont like her virtue of selfishness..I like people who silently do everything in action than talk too much..unfortunately have the indian crowd do too much talk and no work..probably this is pretty common with all countries and all cultures..
less volunteering more reading, writing, and planning for my big year end India trip from now on...
I hope I can find a great guy in US before november and happily get married in december when I go to India..wishful thinking..
miles to go before I sleep..miles to go before I sleep...and too many promises to keep too..

this and that..

2008-09-09T16:13:00.002-05:00

Interesting news Mccain leading obama...may be he made a clever choice choosing sarah palin who seems to draw women and young men alike..Now mccain is copying obamas change slogan..its all politics..
Obama seems to be lost in his own inspiring speeches..may be people need to know what he really achieved last few years..Biden has long political career but I dont think I know all about his achievements..sometimes u need to market urself well..obama and biden need to shake their campaign and step up.. Biden is good choice but if it was Hillary probably he could draw women voters... Iam going to campaign for obama next few weeks if I can..
I thoroughly enjoyed watching democratic convention and republic conventions..
I had high fever for a couple of days but these conventations made me forget about my sickness last two weeks.. moral of the story If you have things that interest u , they make u forget ur pains...
I also enjoyed watching olympics and almost developed a mini crush on micheal phelps..swimming, gymnastics (Raj participating in it and winning a medal finally) interested me..
bookers prize short list has aravind adigas novel and amitav ghoshs novel - good for indians..
Iam glad there are more new good indian writers coming up..the next rushdie generation..good for readers like me..
what else..
went for a nice indian classical dance show which was beautiful and made me all nostalgic
went for circus which was nice with amazing acrobats which made me sad for animals at the circus
went for a ballet and free style dance on dreams with just music and no songs which was interesting
went for indian independence day celebrations in indy which went well
celebrated varalakshmi pooja and Ganesh pooja at home last 3 weeks and made dahi vada,jelebi, dalvada, vada and indian rice pudding at home to offer to god which came out ok..
Most of my weekdays are busy with work. too much stuff to do as usual..
Most of my weekends last 2 months just slipped away , I volunteered almost every weekend last 2 months.. temple, running 5 bone marrow drives, food drives for salvation army I barely have time for myself..
Next two months look busy too I have a huge indian cultural event Iam chairing I need to organize, I have a walk Iam chairing I need to organize..so my weekends are pretty much gone..
books I tried to read:
one night at the call center by chetan bhagat which I started reading
finally finished Salman Rushdie's Enchantress which was a pretty confusing read..not a great novel but a ok time pass read..
Brief wondorous life of oscar wao by Junor Diaz which Iam enjoying reading
Aravind Adigas novel the white tiger
Movies I watched:
Outsourced - About an american who goes to India to train indians, very interesting movie on outsourcing. cultural differences, outlook, experiences very unique view
bachna eh haseenon- ok time pass Ranbir is ok deepika looks alright, rest of the girls look too old for Ranbir.
god tusse great ho - remake of Bruce almighty another mediocre film
kismat konnection - totally boring waste of time
Singh is king- which was mediocre
Jaane to na jaane -which was also mediocre
Mansaara kanavu- with kajol aravind swami - my kinda girl and movie great songs music by ARRahman
Dil se - maniratnam sharukh manisha koirala movie - excellent movie with good songs, story, direction
krishna telugu movie trisha - just time pass
what else
next few weeks more volunteering, busy work schedules, more indian events to organize..
no time for resting, relaxing, no time for guys or friends in life. single busy working girls life who volunteers all the time..my life is becoming like the girl in movie "Amelie" or the girl in movie "Mansara kanavu or priety zintas life in movie kal ho na ho..serious studious girls life..life goes on...
my india trip end of the year is coming soon..
so much to do as usual...no time to rest or relax as usual..

this and that...

2008-08-22T15:55:00.002-05:00

News that interested me
whats up with Mccain paris hilton campaign..presidential race has become so cheap now..who wants a next president who gets into a childish fued with paris hilton?
Shouldnt presidential advertisements be serious specially with a bad economy, troubled war times..
cant even believe they have an add comparing obama with brittany and paris..shows how low they can stoop too.
This VP guess game, via cell phone announcements etc., good marketing move from obama, but doesnt it sound all commercial and jazzy...
whats up with anthrax scare..
a govt. scientist doing that cant even believe it..how can a scientist do this scaring people and putting someone at risk..
whats up with Anderson cooper..commenting on Lohans..
come on anderson you can do better than that..why are u talking about stuff like this..what happened to the anderson I adore who cares about darfur, cango,katrina victims,chimps in africa..
water on Mars finally..60 minutes has interesting news on our space programs..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/04/60minutes/main3994925.shtml
on a easy new cancer cure from a cancer patient
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml
what else..
Life has kept me busy..
too many new screens to develop at work for new diseases, important projects, people to train..work is leaving me exhausted..
busy volunteering every weekend..cant believe..every weekend I volunteer atleast one day...so weekends are also busy..
first salvation army food drive which went so so well, raised 400 dollars and two wagon loads food cans to keep the food bank from closing until christmas which was so good..heping some 500 families feeding them during this sad tough economy times.. I was very happy about this food drive..I donated a lot of my money too for salvation army food drive,least I can do helpthe people of this country who gave me a job and food to eat..
then a bone marrow drive again my third one this year last weekend which went well..hopefully cure for cancer patients..
then volunteering at temple.. even this weekend sunday I have a four hour volunteering at the temple..
Last weekend was vara lakshmi pooja , so i did pooja at home , one peaceful day..it went well.. with flowers, fruits, panchamrut, I did a very traditional lakshmi pooja at home and made jelebi and dahi vada and vada as naivedyam to goddess..One evening of quite prayer...
otherwise rest of the days were superbusy last four weeks..
Iam just a lil down and tired..
too much voluntary work and may be Iam missing having a family, having kids..now I finally feel like it is time for me to get married..all my girlfriends praying for my marriage are already coming up with middle names for my future kids since they are praying for my marriage , I have to give my kids middle names of my friends...too bad I dont even know how to find a guy for myself..Iam sure God is having a tough time
what else..
went to BOdies exhibition in Indy..
Bodies exhibition is not that scary, yes these are real deadbodies without skin and everything else, but they dont smell and they are not that scary..
Dont miss this exhibition, it is pretty good..
I thought I will freakout but strangely I did not freakout ..I didnot get scared..
may be it is scientist in me was looking at everything dazed and curious..learning about myself, my own body...
It was an education for me..
strangely though Iam a girl I am not conscious of my body at all, never dream of my wedding or anything that much..I dont think I ever understood my own body or beauty that much....
Iam like a little girl or a child sometimes...it is as if Iam in this extended phase of childhood for a long time and I liked being free, not being romantically involved, liked the adventerous and carefree life until recently..and then suddenly matured too much to become kind of prematurely senile after seeing so much pain specially my dads leukemia and all that..it is as if youth, romance, motherhood, dream of looking beautiful,marriage ,dreams slipped away somewhere...I dont think I ever understood my own body...
Iam kind of boy as most of my friends put it , I take 5 minutes to dress up, just wash my face with soap and Iam ready..I am not a typical girl..never been to beauty parlors and dont look at myself in mirror that long either, though have long hair I take 2 minutes to comb my hair like guys..only time I feel girlish is when I like chik flicks, soft romances, babies, cooking etc.,Iam very shy too like any other girl..
like all other girls strangely life has taught me not to dream...
so I kinda of never dreamed much about marriage, or having children or anything..I do miss not having a soulmate and not having children but never saw myself as a woman or bride or mother dont even know why..so never imagined myself with a big belly carrying a baby..
Until I saw bodies exhibition with small tiny babies who are 3 weeks to 8 months old, I didnot even realise that someday I will be carrying a baby in my womb too..the whole thing is just amazing. it makes u understand urself..it makes u understand what all ur body is capable of doing.
Bodies exhibition left me wondering what all amazing things our bodies can do..
I saw a lot of movies at home:
sarkar raj this weekend:
It was an interesting movie..kinda realistic in present day India..
Amitabh reminded me of my dad many times..
I remember growing up in a very tensed surroundings...my dad was stabbed because he stood for his ideals when I was barely 5 years old..then it would be the people who hated my dad for running single handedly his schools and colleges who tried to destroy his institutions by provoking students to go against my dad..me , grandma would hug when students through stones at our house for no issues, my dad struggled through out to keep up with his ideals with people trying to break him down allthe time until they could no longer stop his success..
I saw that in sarkar raj, everywhere struggles , life like a chess game people playing games all the time.
I kinda liked sarkar raj though it is sad..
just the story direction and amitabhs acting.. it was mumbai, saketu mehtas mumbai...u are reminded of political groups in mumbai..ram gopal verma seems to be a very fine director..I like movies sometimes with no romance..no song..no dance..just realistic ones with powerful dialogues which are contemporary..that youthful idealism that struggles with gundagiri,powerful political games...idealism dying in the hands of corrupt people..
good movie worth watching dont miss it..
then watched Singh is the king.
Singh is the king is just another masala movie, like the small town world innocence but it is just too loud..not a bad movie but it is just another movie..nothing special..katrina cannot act and is a beautiful glamour doll.. I think Akshay is ok as singh with turban...nothing memorable..just barely time pass.
I also saw bachna eh haseenon..
Ranbir kapoor movie who is ok ok actor, story is realistic and good..men finally repenting for dumping girls and saying sorry, I like that..all the girls except deepika look too old for Ranbir like elder sisters...too bad..deepika stands out and is cute..nice locations and shots..story is interesting..so a ok realistic movie to watch about todays romances..Iam like that deepikas character career oriented straight forward girl...Deepikas character reminded me so much of myself..
anyways..
Iam reading Salman Rushdies enchantress of florence..Iam at probably 280th page.
It has been an interesting ride unlike any rushdie novel I read before.
first 50 pages was good, then it became a history lesson next 50 pages that I almost could not even find the stamp of rushdies writing in those pages, pages 100 to 200 I could find rushdie again in those characters which are pretty unique and interesting, then again pages 200 onwards he lost me, in the same repetition , it gets confusing at the end where u tend to forget ur characters with so many new names that towards ending it leaves u bored to finish, leaves u confused.
None of rushdies earlier novels are like this, this is the worst of all but, probably he might land up with a booker for his historic attempt and unique imagination and story line connecting two continents.
what else..
I got a lot of new novels from library chetan bhagats hit indian novel "one night at call center"..some amitav ghosh, some this years bookers novels..so long list of books to read.
lots of books to read., ofcourse volunteering every weekend leaves me exhausted..so when I get time I read these days..so much to catch up..
life is superbusy workholic life and rest of time goes away in social service helping community..so there goes my life..less blogging, less internet,less socializing until may be soulmate comes sweeps me off my feet and just takes me to a different world which is more relaxing ..until then..woods are lovely dark and deep, I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep..

this and that this week..

2008-08-01T16:29:00.001-05:00

News this week
sad about blasts in India..innocent people dying. I prayed for India and US safety last weekend..
mccains negative attacks on obama comparing him to paris hilton and brittany too cheesy..why negative campaigning. focus on yourself and your positives, thats my motto...sell urself and ur positives..if they are good enough u will win..
Abc news says studies show women are happy until their 40s and men are happy after 40s until old age.. too bad..next decades are going to be sad for women like me..older men happier than older women
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080801/sc_livescience/oldermenhappierthanolderwomen;_ylt=Ag6TS8QPCuJGq7BW6k3YtYus0NUE
lovely pictures of solar eclipse
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Total-eclipse-sun/ss/events/sc/080108solareclipse#photoViewer=/080801/481/1042d0bde5384f97864380cca569eb9f
books Iam reading :
salman rushdies enchantress- gets better after 100 pages, not as good as other rushdie books, feels like a history lesson but not too bad either, very creative
harikunzrus my revolutions - good through out, interesting story, characters, well written
I am reading a book on school system is US for our schools and colleges in India that my family runs..it is some personal business reading..
I am enjoying doing cross words puzzles too these days.. learning new words..
Dont have anyone to play scrabble with but whomever I marry Iam sure we will play lot of scrabble and do cross words puzzles and do word games together..and have lots of discussions on books we read..
movies I saw
love story 2050 - lovely picturization, scenic beauty, ok story, bad acting, bad music but romantic enough
jaane tu na jaane hum- very good acting, ok picturization, boring story, ok music, not romantic at all.
saw odd telugu movies nothing interesting just time pass ones..
I am looking forward to seeing sarkar raj this weekend..
music I listened to this week..shammi kapoor janwar songs total turn on for me, so so romantic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo1IGrPPrd8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhcACgr41AQ&feature=related
food I ate and cooked:
made upma, telugu kadi, alu+tindora+tomato sabji..had haldirams ready to go bhelpuri twice this week with evening tea..it is pretty good..
Ate punjabi restaurant khana..I have to admit I like punjabi food as much as I like telugu food..
weekend menu for me to cook - dosa, home made punjabi alugobi sabji and home made roti
what else
thought almost every weekend Iam volunteering I should take a break..
But then fox ran this story of a local food pantry having to close it because of lack of food donations and food pantry supports 800 families..so there goes me..
Next minute I knew I am talking to people, mobilising my volunteers and friends and running a massive food drive to keep this food pantry from closing.so there I go..next two weekends booked running the food drive..it ends august 9th.
August 16th is another bone marow drive. so there goes mylife...
Sometimes we want life to go one way, but life takes us the other way..
I know as all my relatives remind me its time to marry, settle, have kids, my life just seems to take me other way..
Most of my old school mates and college mates would be surprised if they hear about me as a scientist living in US and seeing me as a working girl last 13years in US.
One of my seniors met me in my company cafe some 3 years back and was shocked to see me. She was a big city girl. I was a small town/village girl. She naturally assumed I would marry by 20,have a whole bunch of kids settled in a remote village in India. I dont blame her. Because I was this silent girl wearing lungavoni with oiled hair and two plaits who rarely spoke and was so shy and so family oriented that you could bet on me to settle in marraige as soon as I finished degree.
No one knew I was college magazine editor twice before I turned 17, no one knew I wrote a mini novel before I turned 18, no one knew I wrote poetry in english when I was 19, no one knew by the time I turned 20 I read Aynrand and atlas shrugged became my bible and ramayana...and no one knew who I was at home either..
when I was 18 if you asked me what I wanted to with my life, I would have said I will be journalist or a IAS officer. All my teachers who knew me very well thought though I was good at science I would end up as an IAS or a IFS officer as I was so all rounded knowing everything about whats going on in the world..
But I ended up majoring in genetic engineering, became a scientist, now I dont do any more of genetic engineering or cloning, barely 10% of my job is biology, 30% is robotics and remaining 60% is computer data analysis..
I never thought I will be in US..here Iam now very americanized and very indianish too..and cant live without either countries and love both equally..
Here Iam a career woman, scientist by day time, event organizer and volunteer event chair by weekends and trying to be a writer if I have any more spare time to write, fighting on immigration causes sometimes, sometimes chairing odd events like picnics for 100people for free..
sometimes life takes u somewhere else..
13 long years with no boyfriends, no marriage, no soulmate living in US working and working..I know relatives tell me what is this life? I agree what a monastic life right...it is as if my youth just ran away and Iam still a child waiting for real love..
friends and family remind me to settle down often...
yap I want to get married, settle with a cute guy, have children which I cannot wait to have but kya kareen god seems to have other plans..may be girls like me need to have a guy come and sweep me off my feet from somewhere and take me away with him...until then volunteering will keep me busy I guess..
weekend activities:
brunch with girlfriends saturday morning
this lovely exhibition called bodies. scary but dont miss it, Iam scared to go but still will go..
http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/
http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/bodies.html
saturday afternoon bodies exhibition
glad Iam not a doctor, I dont like seeing bodies and I have made up my mind to never marry a doctor.
saturday evening is an art exhibition of a friend
sunday morning at the temple
then sunday evening biking and boating at the canal with a whole bunch of girlfriends.
for tonite, doesnot even feel like a friday with busy week at work and so much data to look at.. I just want an elachi chai, some haldiram ready to eat bhelpuri, a nice dinner

hugs and proposals from the oddest places...this and that..

2008-07-28T18:10:00.000-05:00

unique day today..
I got hugs and proposals from the oddest places..
I was walking down town indy to fedex ofice to mail bone marrow drive completed applications with kits..a cute blonde american teenager comes to me with a huge board " hugs for free, Hugs for free"...I give him a shy smile as he comes closer to me and says "common hug me"...I didnot want to make him feel that this indian girl with the longest hair is strange..so I give him my obama fist and hand hug..he smiles and understands my shyness..I converse with him to make up for not giving him a hug telling him it is great he is doing this and spreading love and told him todays world needs a lot of love and hugs..he beams and smiles happily..
then I walk to tacobell to get my 7 layer vegetarian burrito and pick up fire sauce packets and each of those small fire sauce packets have messages on them..some saying "please marry me"..so I got proposed by a tacobell fire sauce packet..
I have to admit this proposal was way better than the proposal I got from a good looking indian man last october with roses , cards which I could not accept as the guy was so full of lies, was so so dishonest and was probably after money or photos and was superficial...my fire taco sauce had more honesty and fire than those guys who proposed to me before...
oddest places where I get hugs and proposals..
My weekend was great..
saturday was all fun and relaxing..
sunday was all volunteering running a bone marrow drive, which went so so well..we got almost 30 people registered. Considering that it takes almost 20 minutes with each person and I had only 3hrs or so to run the drive and I had just one volunteer helping me I have to say instead of doing 3-4 people for hour we did 10 people perhour which was amazing. My volunteer was newly trained volunteer but he did an excellent job..we had at every point 5-6 people to handle but we made no mistakes and got all registered on time .Finally this evening I fedexed all the completed forms.Finally this year second bone marrow drive I chaired went well. I have one more coming August 16th and one more sep 8th...hopefully leukemia patients find matches and get cured..
what else..
I saw Love story 2050 and Jaane tu na jaane hum this weekend.
I have to say I liked love story 2050 better than Jaane tu.. Probably love story 2050 is my kinda love story..the guy acted like hrithik roshan but my kinda guy would be like that outgoing who expresses love easily than the quiet ones who dont talk much..
genelia is definetely better than priyanka..
Imran khan is better than herman..
but love story 2050 is a better story than Jaane tu..in terms of rating them as love stories...2050 was more romantic than jaane tu..
I also read Rushdies enchantress a lil bit..
long week at work..business as usual..back to my scientist job..
Iam glad I do something totally different on weekends so that I forget Iam a scientist..temple, volunteering,cooking, hanging out with friends, reading,biking etc., takes me to different worlds, I forget my day job and my scientist life..
I cooked too this weekend..
felt like eating upma, dont know why I was craving for upma..
recipe: Heat oil, add chana, urad, mustard seeds, green chillies, karipatta, carrots, green peas, cut beans etc., fry for sometime, then add water, let water boil, then add fried suji, ghee,a lil bit of ginger powder..ginger and karipatta make upma get that special flovor..
what else..
week looks busy..
have no plans for weekend as yet..
may be just reading and writing finally and a movie or two..
for tonite just a simple elachi chai, a good book like rushdies enchantress or kunzrus my revolutions , TV serials two and half men and adventures of old christine will do , a couple of cross word puzzles will do..

A near perfect day....

2008-07-26T20:56:00.000-05:00

Indianapolis canal and cornfields at the temple...
I had a near perfect day today...only thing I missed was having cute soulmate around holding my hands..
After weeks and weeks of volunteering and getting involved in organizing picnic this and that, I finally had a day..a whole day for myself..
A near perfect day..
A beautiful spiritual morning at the temple, then a nice indian homely lunch at the temple, then shopping with a girlfriend and buying lots of indian movies and spicy grocery, then watching this movie "Jaane tum Jaane ne" which I wanted to watch for sometime, then biking around the canal which I was wanting to do for sometime, biking so refreshing for body and soul, biking watching canal waters dance to setting sun, then sitting under sunny skies with a caramel macchiono at starbucks and reading Salman Rushdies "Enchantress"...
near perfect day..
I just wished a cute guy was there with me and I could put my arms around his shoulder and chat chat chat about books..that would have made this day perfect..
hopefully someday..
what else..
tomorrow whole day from 9am to 3pm I will be busy running a bone marrow drive for south asians..so sunday is gone in volunteering as usual..
Books Iam reading right now..
Salman Rushdies " Enchantress"..not as good as other Rushdies novels..first 100 pages were history lecture with no magical realism..finally middle 100 pages , u can feel Rushdies unique characters and magical realism and Rushdies signature which makes me happy but still the novel is not that great..characters just float in history lessons..there is no sequence , story has so many breaks, it gets confusing..I admit though characters are unique as usual typical Rushdies style and very interesting..on the whole I have to read every Rushdies novel so I am going to finish it gracefully..
Iam also reading
Harikunzrus " My revolutions". I like his novels. Iam glad there is a next generation of writers like kunzru, zadie smith who can replace naipaul and rushdie..I like his my revolutions better than transmission and not as good as his first novel the impressionist..on the whole another good novel from this writer..he is consistanly good, comes up with unique stories with little romance..and I love that..I like manly novels with little romance..
saw movie Jaane tu na Janee..it was ok..not great..Aamirkhan produced it, it is good like timepass romance movie but nothing unique or great..If u watched telugu movie "Nuvve kavali" which is about 2 best friends who fight all the time and dont realise they love each other , u wont like Jaane tu na tu Janee..nuvve kavali is so so better..so aamir did not come with a novel story..admitted... Genelia and Irfan khan or Imran khan are ok..but Genelia did not look that great in this movie..she acted better and was more natural in telugu movies, she seems inhibited in this movie..but ok time pass cute movie...not memorable like quayamat se quayamat thak or maine pyar kiya or kaho na pyar hi..all these three movies are movies I want to watch with the man I fall in love with just for cute puppy romance..but definetely not jaane tu..
Understanding love is hard, recognising love is hard too..Iam a fool too that way..I dont know what true love is as yet..I hope I can recognise love when he comes to me or I hope he guy realises he is in love with me and makes me realise that...falling in love is hard..And finding true love is even harder I think..I pray I find my true love or recognise my true love soon..
what else..
Indian blasts made me very sad..I prayed for India and US safety too at the temple..I hope people stop fighting and make it a safe place for little kids..
Obama 200,000 crowd and speech in Germany impressed me..the man has charisma and he is moving the world too..good for him..
what else..
bone marrow drive tomorrow..busy weekend..
nite is still young..so hope to read, write, do crosswords..

Americanidol live concert, shammi kapoor movie janwar..

2008-07-23T17:37:00.000-05:00

Photos of American idol live concert I attended yesterday...it was terrible sound system..instrumental music was so so loud that I could not hear David archeleta or cooks voice..sayesha was good.. on the whole I walked out of the concert with a headache..

Interesting live concert experience..

Last few days have been so crazy for me..

I probably saw 150,000 or 200,000 numbers in the last 4 days..so many drug screens data to look at , I felt like puking and felt like not wanting to see any more data...every cmpd could be a potential cure for disease so you need to look at every number carefully..on top of that this new drug screen I am developing has no proper software to analyse data..so I ended by analysing data twice with old software and after I got the new software...so much so much that I kept reading blogs and any words I could get hand on while looking at data..I needed a break every 2hrs..man crazy days...

On top of all that yesterday I had a formal company dinner with an amazing lady, who is one of the top50 most influential women in USA. It was an amazing experience having intimate dinner with her...we talked so much about India and culture..it was wonderful...and after that I went for american idol concert..so u can imagine how long my day was..I slept with a headache last nite..

man what a week..

I cant wait for friday to come..

what else interested me..

obamas foreign trip.

Good job with Afghanistan..and his statement that we should have concentrated on afghanistan instead of iraq

Iraq- Ok Job,not so sure if his troop withdrawal will work.

Isreal- His statements on keeping jeruselum as capital no matter what doesnot help palestinians..His abc interview was kind of not too clear and a lil confusing and vague...have to wait and see.

what else..

books Iam reading...Rushdie's novel Enchantress is slowly getting into me..strangely Iam liking it a lil bit after the first 100 pages...but its not as good as any of his previous novels for sure..

what else.. Movies I watched...

shammi kapoors Janwar- so so cute..rajashree shammi kapoor , Iam all phida for this song of shammi kapoor tumse acha kaun hi, mere mohabbat jawan rahegi..so so super cute..man, my heart is so so phida for shammi kapoor...he makes me all romantic..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p43FcbI1O-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo1IGrPPrd8

what else, I have a bonemarrow drive to run this sunday..

saturday afternoon lunch and shopping with girlfriends..

Rushdies enchantress to read..

may be make some idli, dosa, dal makhani, batura at home..Iam all booked and relaxed..life is all about simple pleasures..

Is Rushdies enchantress enchanting? genocide in sudan , new cancer cure, movie sangam..

2008-07-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

Last few weekends were busy with volunteer work organizing picnics , running bone marrow drive etc.,
I was missing my best friends...books and reading..
so this weekend I made a decision not to do much this weekend and just spend the entire weekend reading the book I was waiting to read for sometime now..
I decided not to do anything saturday evening and sunday whole day, just read read and read...
One of my fav. writer Rushdies novel " Enchantress of Florence"
Was Rushdies enchantres enchanting?
so far 85 pages read, I didnot find enchantress that enchanting. I kept sleeping every 2hrs for atleast 15 minutes before I would wake up and start reading again..I dont know why I was sleeping ( may be my cramps or tiredness)..was enchantress that boring or is it my tired body whatever it is enchantress did not keep me that excited or active..It was like a history lesson I was getting from Rushdie in this new novel..I was loosing track of this characters and story in these history lessons. Cant figure out whether his character are real historical characters or did Rushdie imagine and create his characters..
surprisingly in those 85 pages I found 5 -10 pages having unique Rushdies style, that unique creativity, sly wit, creativity, some kinda magical realism..rest 70 pages dont even carry any of Rushdies style of writing.
Story based in florence and India...Akbar, this birbal and his team ( some familiar stories I read in amar chitra kahani), the whores of that generation, the imaginative queen jodha (cant even believe how can one believe in an imaginative wife), palaces etc., it was a unique assembly yet not that charming..
Iam bent upon finishing his novel, so Iam going to try hard to finish it, but I have to admit I was disappointed.. I keep waiting for Rushdies new arrivals but readings MVs review at ultrabrown I postponed reading this novel and may be I did it a good thing not buying it and postponing it till today..
I liked Rushdies last book "shalimar the clown" a lot. I liked most other Rushdies novels than his new one..
what else interested me..
abc news had a dialogue on why american cars are not coming up with solutions to oil price increase, they are but electric battery operated cars cost 100,000 dollars too bad and will release in 2010 or 4 years from now..too bad..thats why they all need to read alvin tofflers books and prepare for future way ahead..
Obama is in afghanistan, he says we should have focused on afghanistan and iraq at all..he is right..he is visiting iraq this week, Iam looking forward to what he will say about pulling out troups..without visiting the place his withdrawal plans always made me wonder..now that he is visiting for the first time, it would be interesting to see iraq through obamas eyes..
60 minutes had a very sad program on genocide in darfur,sudan..so so sad..happenign still in todays generation..US foreign policy so dual here, they need sudan govt support to track extremists and so are alleys yet cant support the govts. genocide and voilence and want to fight against it..delicate balance..tough foreign policy..see here for more on this..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909.shtml
Also on 60 minutes new way to cure for cancer by a cancer patient..amazing story..
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/60minutes/main4006951.shtml
Thats why I like watching 60 minute, I always learn a lot..
what else..
Iam a lil tired..so Iam resting most of the weekend..
I went to temple yesterday to thank God..my family got 10 years visitors visa to come to US, I sponsored and prepared all paper work..it is so so hard to be away from family last 13yrs living in US, so atleast now they have an option to visit me whenever they can...Being a scientist and contributing good to the community here in Indianapolis is one thing, but the cost I pay for it is also priceless..13years of lonely working girls life with no family, no hubby, no children,empty personal life being so far away from home India I wonder sometimes if it is all worth it..good for science, good for community but may be not that good for me..Hopefully I will find a soulmate soon here in US and fill that gap...wishful thinking..
what else..
next weekend Iam running bone marrow drive again for south asians saturday 10am to 3pm..
I am running two more bone marrow drives august 16th and sep8th...
then august volunteer event at temple etc.,
october I have this 10,000 dollar cultural event I have to organize..I need to organize the event fromvenue to food to cultural show and entertainment to seminars so much to organize..
so rest of the year and weekends look busy..Hopefully an India trip inbetween all this in August end..
life goes on...busy single working girls life...no time to even search or runafter a soulmate or do other things in life..
wish life was simpler... a perfect soulmate comes before me without having to search for him, settle soon in a simple marriage and then adopt a whole bunch of orphan children and live happily ever after..
Tonite I saw this old hindi movie "sangam"..Raj kapoor, vaijayanthimala and Rajendra kumar...
man I have to say the movie freaked me out a lil bit..it was intense..2 people in love with the same girl..Most new movies also have the same story..but sangam was more intense than the new movies..Reasons it is not only the acting but also may the old world morals of that generation..friends sacrificing love for each other, girls just adjusting and compromising and shifting love, one person dies at the end..man I pray Iam never in such a love story experience ever in my life..I hope I fall in love with a guy who loves me only sincerely and hope I get married to a guy where we two love each other only and no one else...that is why when I dont like someone I dont delay, I just tell them Iam not their type...Iam glad I broke my engagement because I didnot feel like I could love that man who demanded dowry...Dont marry unless u are 100% sure u love ur man or woman 100%...otherwise it is dangerous..marriages wont work..
sangam movie freaked me out..I like to see happy endings, just two love birds...cheating husbands, wives, 3-4 people involved in love, cassanovas, flirts freak me out..
people who dont write email replies or express what they think freely, who dont call or have emotional depth but still want to marry looking at just photos, people who dont express feelings and hide their feelings freak me out..
some of my friends are always in and out of relationships because they cannot stay single..they break their hearts and someone elses hearts too..Iam glad Iam not in love and single for a long time , it is better to be away from everything than break someones heart. I would rather wait years for the right person than fall for wrong person or keep breaking peoples heart..lessons learnt..
nite is still young..
back to Rushdies enchantress tonite again..

this and that..

2008-07-17T19:10:00.000-05:00

Everyone loved my dress at the picnic and jewellary...here it is the famous green dress..and the lovely necklace..i got 2 orders of the necklace already...

I got a nice south indian silk saree mom gifted me , asked the tailor here to stitch the pallu as front part of a chudidaar and got a punjabi dress made out of saree..I wore no make up..just a nice dress and good jewallary..all u need is that..everything very real..no artificial stuff to make u look good...

here are more picnic fun pictures.

women bet men in tug of rope

3 year old kids in trash bags racing

50 year olds participating in water baloon tossing or baloon balancing game..

memorable picnic and its pictures..

what else..

week so far has been extremely busy..

lots of new drug screens, training people with new drug screen Iam developing at work, busy with writing proposals for the big 10,000 dollar event Iam organizing for the indian group, working on planning all that. venue, type of event, food, huge cultural show, business part, name of event, price of tickets, making it a charity fun event helping causes I believe in..all by october end..

inviting american and indian employees...

Iam going to have my friends choreograph dances for it..Iam going to choreograph and dance in one..so I spent sometime watching songs I want employees to dance..some are from 45 years old to 25 years old most of us with no dance skills..

so I nailed on..

devdas song of aiswarya first song with lamps....all female dance..

bombay song kehna hi kya..all female dance

morini bagame song from lamhe movie I think - a desert rajasthani song with chudi..

and a mixed song of ballet and indian dance to this hariharan lewis colonial cousins song with english words "krishna, come back as jesus, come back as rama" which is a perfect unity song for all the american employees coming for the event to understand the message..

so here Iam doing the impossible, attempting the impossible..that is me..hope me and my friends can pull it off...here is the song..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG9Sbg_gkxA

so I will be busy next two months until october with all that..

I havent danced in ages, learnt bharatnatyam long time back so have to see how it goes..

my american friends are all so excited to learn indian dance and create a fusion..where there is a will I believe there is a way...

what else..

I loved this video on obama, mccain..supercute funny video on jibjab..

http://sendables.jibjab.com/

VP buzz on two Indiana senators for obama..interesting, good for indiana...

so you think u can dance great performance from one excellent padida routine by katee again..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q3MZxARZbE

books Iam reading..nothing much..I dont get time to read any more..so it is a totally dry spell..except doing cross words or a page here and there..

so I decided to make up for it..

this weekend Iam going to get Rushdie enchantress and do nothing but read and finish his novel..just Rushdies book and me..and lot of spicy indian food..

I might go for a concert and a movie too if I can this weekend..

tomorrow it is bowling time with 7 girlfriends which I am organizing as I realised last few weeks I was working too hard and I needed bowling to unwind..

so it is the enchantress, bowling and spicy indian food for me this weekend..

picnic pictures

2008-07-13T19:38:00.000-05:00

Picnic I organanized was a great success. 100 people or so came..here are some of the photos..

u know ur picnic went well when kids come and tell you..one 8 year old cutie boy told me this is the best picnic he ever had in his life..one more five year old asked me my name and asked me where I live, she wants to come for all fun events I organize..

A friend of mine had a bet with me saying that organized schedule will not work in picnic and adults wont participate in the games including he and his wife..He admitted at the end that he had great one and he and his friends and all the women jumped on for every game I organized saying I want to participate, I want to participate..it was so much fun to see adults behaving like kids and playing games..

A sardarji who must be 60 also played games and was sucha sporty uncle , he sang a punjabi song and his son also sang a bhagra song and moved his hands..everyone who came told me it was so much fun..
They said food was great..I did not even get time to eat as I was organizing everything..

too bad..

my bone marrow drive went ok..

best part is girls bet men in tug of war rope..I mean women bet men in two tug of rope games..men just fell like pack of cards..women power..

Iam exhausted by so happy my first big picnic event was fun..

In october Iam going to organize a 10,000 dollar event..hope it will be fun too..

cant believe me a serious scientist organizing events..

it was fun..

all the ladies loved my chudidar and jewellary that they wanted me to get them something like that from India..

Everyone showered so much praise and said they had a blast at picnic that Iam happy..wish I had a soulmate, he was there too to see that..today I missed having a soulmate around me and my parents around to see and have fun..

what else..

sunday sixty minutes was interesting..

week looks busy with drug screeens and scientist job..

I cant wait to crash on my bed soon today..

picnic organizing experience.this and that..

2008-07-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow Iam organizing a picnic for 125 people...
Every year 25 people turn up, my luck 125 people are turning up..It is like organizing a big party but you have to entertain 125 strangers...
It was fun organizing a picnic...yesterday I went and bought 125 plates, bowls, 125 glasses..and I was finding myself all confused foam plates or recycled plates, plates with partition or plates without partition, foam glasses or plastic glasses , will 125 glasses do or people need more, will they want to eat with fork or spoon, how many paper towels each person would need..endless questions for a libran girl like who takes time to make decisions..there are too many choices in US for everything..
then what games..
finally I zereoed on trashbag race, water baloon race, baloon balancing race, tug of rope, antyakhshari, cricket,bingo, chits with funny messages which people have to do.. now what funny things can I make people do with the chits..so I thought and thought and came up with this list..
Do your happy dance, you sad dance, your funny face, say yerralorry 10 times fast,fav. film dialogue,sing an indian song, define India in one word, some filmi dialogue, your fav.joke,makeup a funny name ..
hope this will be funny when people try to do it..
there will be face painting for kids...
with so many people organizing events is hard..so divide them into groups, let them race, winners get prizes as groups..
I even got 2 first aid kids incase someone gets hurt.
ordered food from restaurant, pitch in is also there..
food, entertainment, keeping them busy making sure they are having fun is the key..
Iam so glad my whole team is helping me out...everyone is doing a lil bit of everything..assigning people responsibilities is key..
Iam also running a bone marrow drive, so I had to train my volunteers, get kits and everything..
two goals in one event..funpicnic and bone marrow drive...
I am looking forward to playing cricket myself tomorrow, hope the guys let me play cricket...
I have to see how it goes tomorrow.. Iam gone from 9am to 5pm to make arrangements , get the picnic going and clean up after picnic..the whole day is gone..
but on the whole it was a wonderful experience though it took some of my spare time away and Iam a lil exhausted..
cant wait to get it done..
what else
went to temple this morning with friend..they made spicy telugu khana at the temple..I met a lot of friends at temple, so caught up with everyone. sometimes temple makes me feel less home sick..it feels like home at the temple..
nite looks relaxing..I have to make yogurt rice for the picnic as my pitch in...but after I should be free.
so looking forward to reading, writing, crosswords, may be watch an odd movie and have fun..

this and that...

2008-07-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

me in Indian skirts,my summer wardrobe..everyone says my skirts are very unique..they all are indian skirts..I think if u want colorful skirts, odd colors, great unique designs buy indian skirts they cost 3 to 4 dollars in india and they look lovely...

I get lot of compliments for my jewellary too..Indian jewellary is lovely..

I dont put any makeup not even kajal or powder or cream..just wash my face with soap and thats it.. today the lady in the cafetaria who is blonde american lady told me looking at my coconut water can said " I wish I had skin like u, u glow all the time, is coconut water ur secret". I was shocked..specially hearing from an american woman with pinkish white skin telling me my yellowish brown or my fair skin is pretty was kind of what..then I told her no not coconut water, zero makeup is my secret, not going to beauty parlors or applying any creams is my secret.

I realised over years u can look great without beauty parlors keeping ur skin naturally glowing by not applying anything..simplicity is the best. Just good clothes and nice jewellary will make up for all artificial stuff ..

what else..

Life is busy as usual..

work keeps me so busy so many projects in hand, it has been almost like 2 new projects every month..

Iam busy with other stuff too..every year when other people organized picnic 20 people showed up...so this year when Iam organizing it everyone told me dont expect more than 30 people or so..so I was cool..planned with less budget, booked a shelter , games for a small group, food for a small group, events for a small group..picnic is sunday..today when I looked at how many people RSVPed, it turned out to be 90 people..cant believe this..everything I organize always is a success and I pull more crowd than normal but this time it is a lot more..Now I needed more budget, more food, better games..so u can imagine Iam so busy changing my strategy and replanning again..Now everyone is scared that 50 or 100 more people will sign up now that madhavis name is on board..so more work for me..Hope it goes well..This evening talked to a local restaurant and arranged for more food, tomorrow more new games, more new volunteers and newer assignments for them..so much to do..And Iam running a bone marrow drive at the picnic too, so so much to do..

I still have to plan and do four more events for this day..looks like this year is going to be one of the busiest years of my life..that means no time for looking for a guy, no time for marriage, no time for personal stuff unless I work less..my boss is not ready to let me work for 30hrs a week..he says he needs me to work 40 hrs a day and cannot afford to letme go even for an hour..so there goes my life..India trip postponed..life goes on..

Hope my family can visit me again from India, hope my dream guy will look for me and come to me as I have no time to look, hope things fall in place while I slog hard at work and spend the rest of days this year volunteering and helping community..

what else..

last nite I spend some time reading Kabul beauty school about a UN peace keeper who lands up in kabul with no skills , ends up opening a beauty parlor, helps make people lives bright..it is about afghan culture, their arranged marriages and lives of their women pretty interesting novel

Iam also reading Punjabi century as a part of research for my novel Iam writing and trying to finish

obama audacity of hope occasional reading..Did anyone see obamas kids talking to access hollywood..now obama says he regrets letting his kids talk..its ok man, it shows u are a nice family man with small cute kids who like ice cream its ok..

movies I watched..

boys- siddarth genelia movie pretty cute movie.

music I listened to maine hava ke parron pe likha hi and jaane hi...from mere baap pahle aap which has beautiful kerala scenaries and dances..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqqsoAuCNu4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWRHA_jU46g&feature=related

things that interested me

G8 climateplan with no solutions , india china refusing to comply..no one really cares about pollution or global warming until it is too late..world never agrees on even important issues..so so sad..

what else..

weekend looks busy with picnic

next week looks busy with volunteer activity I need to organize after I get done with picnic stuff.

A week after it will be huge multicultural event for 200 to 300 people including CEOs of the company I need to organize.

someone told me I have excellent organization skills why dont I become a manager. I told them I love science a lot and like my job as a scientist..finding cures for leukemia and diseases like that means a lot to me as much all other interests in life..

what can I say..management skills is just a part of me..my responsibilities to my family, my dads schools and colleges as vicepresident in India, my volunteer organization activities, my writing group, my own novel to finish, and my scientist job..so many places I need to be there..everything demands attention..multitasking is a way of life for me...cant even imagine when I marry how it will be..hubby, inlaws, kids will add to this list too..hope I get a hubby who is also up for all these..sharing jobs, sharing responsibilities and making a difference evrywhere is what I want to do..

life is a gods gift , we need to use it productively..

weekend wisdom...

2008-07-07T20:39:00.000-05:00

I learnt a lot this long weekend...
yesterday I went bowling for the first time in my life...First 4 times I just couldnt bowl at all..my ball was going sideways if I threw it with one hand, the ball was too heavy for my delicate hands..Then I tried bowling just using both my hands without holding the ball with my fingers..and then it started working...
it was wonderful to play games..
I grew up in a small village/town with no opportunities, I studied under trees or in huts, that is where our classrooms were..we never played any games..I kinda got into debating, quiz, essay writing competitions all intellectual stuff and did nothing physical to challenge my body..last few years here in US Iwas too busy working that never played any games much but for an occasional baseball game with folks at work which was a thrilling adventure for me..I realised that it is so so important and so much fun to play sports, games..I want my children to play sports, games..
cant even believe I got up this morning with my hands aching from my yesterdays bowling..that is how delicate I am..too bad..
I want to play cricket, basketball, tennis and hope I can do all that in this life..
playing sports is fun and is important..weekend wisdom..
what else
Most girlfriends I met this weekend all talked about their boyfriends or boys they are meeting except me..They all ask my advice and they all say I give great despite despite my lack of inexperience of having never dated a guy or never had any boyfriends ever in my life..
Some complained about mamas boys, some about irresponsible guys, some about guys who dont talk or are emotionally incapable of opening or talking..since some of my friends are american and some are indian, I realised one big thing this weekend after all those conversations on relationships..
Doesnot matter if the boy is american or indian problems are kinda the same..They all have same problems..
My advice to my girlfriend If ur boyfriend is a mamas boy, dont worry that much..if he loves his parents he will love u too, that shows he is capable of loving someone dearly...but make sure he respects and gives u importance too and listens to you. Guys dont realise the girl is leaving her family and comes into ur life to spend the rest of her life with you..so you need to give her importance as much or more than your mom or dad because she will do the same for you and will give you more importance than her mom or dad..
To me our parents are very important, I would give up my life for them..but I would also give up my life for the man I love..so it is like two eyes both are important, you cannot function without either..
our moms and dads are very important and we all need to take care of them and do our duties as good sons and daughters but it is also important that we need to fulfill our duties are husband or wife and built a new life together..moms and dads lived their life and their dreams, they need to give space for kids to live their life and their dreams..To all those interfering in laws, remember if u love ur daughter in law like ur daughter, she will give u ten times that love and take care of you..spread love..
my weekend wisdom to my friends..
One more friend talked about how guys dont call , they dont write emails, they dont respond emotionally..I think I experienced that too..I had guys who barely talked to me , barely wrote emails but wanted to marry me...I understand why my indian girlfriends are frustrated with indian guys..are they emotionally not that intelligent though most of them are very smart professionally..probably...
But I think we girls go with the intention that we want to marry, have kids ( yap like all my friends even I want that, cant wait to have kids) while I think boys dont want the same..I dont looking at my experiences I feel like indian boys look for chemistry and they think if they find a good looking girl or girl that is attractive to them, has a nice job and is a nice girl whom they feel will cook and take care of them they want to marry but they dont care to emotionally connect to them, they dont care to talk or build a relationship or write emails or make calls..
My advice to my friend if a guy has no time to write emails or call, dont give him that much importance, my philosophy is if u dont have time to spare or even write an email to me you wont have time for me even after marriage..If u dont call or make time to know me before marriage, u will never do that after marriage and u are only looking at superficial things about me. May be we girls should also learn to be cool like boys..be unattached, not return calls, not write emails back until the boys write I dont know there are no true solutions to that I guess.. I can never marry a guy with whom I dont have emotional connection, can never marry a guy who doesnot write emails to me often or cal me, can never marry a guy who does not have an emotional depth to him and does not open out to me and tell me all his problems or feelings the way I do..no way..so I couldnot tell my friend to ignore all that marry a guy who says yes even though he doesnot call or write..
Also since I went through two men who wanted dowry or money, it is hard to figure out what the true intentions of guys..I hope it is more than horoscopes, dowry,money, job or looking at me as a girl who has takes care of parents and would cook and clean for me too..yap I had that, the first guy I came close to marrying when my dad was dying told me he fell in love withme because he never a met a girl who does so much for her family unselfishly like me..but ofcourse in addition to that he wanted diamonds, rolex watches and money..
When I was young I thought marriages are so easy looking at all my elder cousins marry meeting guy for ten minutes..all arranged marriages..Living in america and having come close to marriage twice through arranged marriages and not choosing either to marry now I dont think todays marriages are easy specially for girls specially for indian girls living in US for a long time..
I dont what the solutions are..but all I pray I meet someone who is a nice never married person my age or a lil younger to me is also ok and reads crazily books like me and is a strict vegetarian and lived in US for a long long time and can laugh at seinfeld jokes and gets them..someone whom I cannot live without, as simple as that someone without whom I cannot live anymore..and I hope the man I marry also feels the same way..
anyways...
weekend wisdom, I get to know so much about relationships without really experiencing them..having girlfriends who are in and out of relationships helps understand boys and their ways better.
what else..
Iam busy with new projects at work.more new drug screens for more diseases...more and more work..
Iam busy being chair of lot of other stuff..like chairing picnic Iam planning for all Indians at work this sunday which Iam looking forward to,Iam running a bone marrow drive too there so hopefully it will go good... Iam also busy with other stuff...like chairing volunteer activities and organizing them.. going to be busy with a diwali event we are planning for ceos and all indians at work,big big event organization which is such a unlikely job for a scientist but since everyone thinks I have great organization skills Iam chairing it again...I think seeing my dad manage 500 employees somewhere down the way me and my sis picked up a lot of leadership skills...we both can manage 500 employees, we can address big crowds, inspire people, spread energy around..thanks to my dads genes and moms down to earth realistic outlook we both sisters got great ideals, values and skills...Iam glad my parents were very strict..
so my life looks all busy with my scientist job and all the other event organizing stuff..
as usual my personal life ofcourse suffers..no love..no marriage..no kids or boyfriends..life goes on..hopefully it will change someday..I guess the guy has to come looking for me, cant look anymore, god seems to be keeping me too busy with other stuff.
my personal life and love ,my novel to finish, my writing group work everything waits for some good inspired lucky day...God knows when that day will come..
I listened to this fav. kishore da after so long..probably the song carries some of my spirit..
yeh shaam mastani madhosh kiye jaa..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sZg4EUB3IM
what else..
I watched a cute vijay genelia tamil movie sachen..
I like genelia, she is an excellent actress with a fresh face..she is so much like me in this movie bommarillu..her character is so much like me super talkitive girl..
iam looking forward to seeing jaane tuna...imrankhan and genelia aamir khan movie, cant wait to see it..
books Iam reading..rather barely getting to read
punjabi century, audacity of hope,my revolutions..
news that interested ..
nothing in specific..sometimes I need more excting news to interest me..most of the news I read these days is expected.
week looks hectic with work...weekend looks hectic with picnic and all that jazz I need to organize and do..life goes on...

Independence day, shopping, recipes, this and that..

2008-07-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

independence day celebrations at the canal..some soft jazz some fast songs it was fun to watch adults and kids dance to the songs at the canal. then watched lovely fireworks with friends..

And then Independence day sales and shopping.. I generally dont like shopping unlike most girls..But today I did find some cool trendy clothes and bought clothes which are not my usual style..

green top with puffy hands

A puffy red top( which reminded me of seinfelds puffy T shirt)..but me and my best friend A both bought the same red color same design top so that we can wear them together..thats what happens when two girls and best friends shop together..

And surprise of all is I bought a cute body hugging salsa dress short slightly low neck silky smooth dress..not my style but my best friend who is an all american girl insisted every girl should have one such a short cute salsa dress , so I bought and wore it..and it was on sale I got it for less than 15 dollars..good sale right..

My Independence day weekend did not go as expected..

No boston, No maimi beach nothing..

Just staying in Indy and hung out with girlfriends..

went for a concert and watched fireworks on friday with girlfriends.

went for a nice indian lunch with a girlfriend and went shopping with another girlfriend after that..

tomorrow bowling and games with a whole bunch of girlfriends and a nice dinner..

Books Iam reading:

"Punjabi century" by Tandon which is an amazing account of punjabi culture life in 1850s , a unique learning experience for me. Iam thoroughly enjoying reading this historical book. It is so much fun to learn abut how our ancestors lived..unique family values..such a vibrant culture.

Iam also reading " My revolutions" by Hari Kunzru..this novel is not as good as The Impressionist but it is better than his second novel...Its about a man who hides his past and how his past comes back to him..Its about struggles of idealistic youth..Iam enjoying reading it.

Iam also reading slowly obamas "audacity of hope". It is another good obamas book. The man knows how to write, no wonder he is powerful speaker..How he sees america, his thoughts on various issues, his experiences volunteering at poor neighbourhood, his family life..It is amazing how honest this man is,how much he respects his wife, his struggles as a father..on the whole a honest book worth reading for those of you who can vote, but I liked his first book better "Dreams from my father"

Movies I watched

Some tamil movie of surya and trisha

and lot of TV, so you think u can dance..I love that show..If u are a fan of dancing, specially creative dancing mixing styles you need to watch this show so u think u can dance on fox.

Good food I ate

Bombay thali...my fav. paneer masala..

And home made dosa which I made at home with spicy groundnut chutney I made and idli chutney

Recipe :

dosa: soak two cups of rice and one cup of urad daal and half cup of flattened rice..grind them. add a lil bit of milk before making dosa..take oil and mix it with a lil bit of ghee..add it to the heated pan and then just make dosa..tastes like dosa at udipi or dosa in a indian restaurant in india.

Chutneys:

groundnut chutney: fry onions and lil bit of green chillies to light brown, fry groundnuts a lil bit and remove the peel. I would put equal amount of onions and groundnut 1:1 ratio...Then grind them together with green chillies, a pinch of tamarind, a lil bit of salt..this makes the chutney one spicy chutney..key is to add lil salt, a lil bit of tamarind..

Idli chutney: take chana daal, take deep frozen fresh grated coconut, a lil bit of dahi and green chillies and salt , grin them..then add kari patta, mustardseed choka..sour and spicy chutney..

what else..

news that interested me

obamas political campaigning..looks like he is touring republican states..may be he will turn them democratic..interesting campaigning strategy..he is also trying to support religious faith based people by giving more religious talks..he wants to win and he wants to pull everyone together it shows..

music I listened to on you tube

ke sara sara madhuri dixit song which carries my essential romantic outlook, sensual beta madhuri dixit song, atifs race song pahle nazar which is a haunting song..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svYvqgViXXE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEI2QAFE7rE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-yk-xXo6pY&feature=related

nite looks young..

all I want to do is watch a nice hindi movie and read a book, sleep late, wake up late and laze around...Iam so looking forward to bowling with a whole bunch of my girlfriends tomorrow evening..my kinda perfect vacation...

finally long weekend...

2008-07-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

best fire works I saw..orlando florida..I love watching fire works july 4th weekend too.

Me in trendy Jeans with Anderson cooper (yap named my big teddy bear my friends parents gifted me as Anderson cooper)..today as soon as I went for work all the girls were complimenting on how cute I looked today..I had oiled my hair, zero makeup as usual not even kajal, so there was no way I would look that cute but for these cute trendy blue Jeans and a pink top on it..so here they are Jeans that make u look all cute..

Iam so so glad finally weekend is here..

what a week...busy week at work with lots of drug screens and me training someone on a drug screen I developed..

In addition to that I had to organize a picnic for our indian group which is July 12th weekend, I plan to run a bone marrow drive too then..Specially when you work with people with no management skills it is so much work.. I also chair the volunteer activity group in addition to being picnic chair..there is always so much to, so much to organize..Everyone tells me I am a high energy person but what they dont realise is physically Iam not that strong, I think it is my will power to do good that pushes me..probably Iam the weakest and most busiest of all people..my health and my personal life suffers..no wonder I dont have time for boyfriends or to look for marriage for myself..

life goes on..

so much to do as usual...

I was supposed to go to boston or Maimi beach this weekend..but not going to either places..Instead Iam campaigning for obama tomorrow morning, then lunch with one of my friends parents, dinner and fireworks at canal with a couple of girlfriends, then driving with girlfriends to indiana dunes on saturday and then to indiana/michigan beaches..and spend sunday bowling with girlfriends if everything goes as planned..

Iam all homesick and I cry often...

But my India trip is getting postponed as I cannot get business deals in place.. 2weeks and so many business deals to work on when I go to India..I will be basically working on my vacation as usual..trying to get done and catch up with my india responsibilities I miss all through out the year..relatives ask me when Iam going to find a groom and get married..man that thought itself scares me..finding a groom, fixing my own marriage, making arrangements for my own marriage by myself since dad is no more seems like so much work I have no energy..

life goes on...

books Iam reading right now

these days Iam crazily doing cross words, I spend an hour every evening trying cross words..

same books..punjabi century, audacity of hope, my revolutions...

movies I saw
salman khans marigold..I find salman khan attractive , have a mini crush like I have on anderson cooper but marigold was bad though it has a american actress in the movie..wonder why they make such films..

saw Abhishek bachchans run with bhoomika..I like bhoomika chawlas movies..but abhishek was bad in this movie..both abhishek and aiswarya cannot act...made for each other couple..

I saw Mahesh babus telugu cowboy movie Takkari Donga with Lisa ray..it was cute movie..Mahesh babu can act..yap I have a small crush on him too...

good food I ate

Punjabi khana a lady makes and sells near work...kya khana hi..I love her food..

craving for dosa so might make dosa this weekend

made bhelpuri as snack..my fav. evening snack spicy bhelpuri with elachi chai...

what else

news that interested me

obama softening to evangelicals and talking about God , faith...Obama seems to soften his approach..is he changing sides about iraq war? his VP search with kennedys..interesting..

economy news really sad...

liked the story of cambodia where they fooled the captors who were captured five years back and released american prisoners ,gave them freedom right on independence day...how cool is that..

Music I listened to jodha akbar hrithik song, mahesh babu song,shammi kapoor junglee song yahoo,this soft nagarjuna song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TwGQ7qfbvc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNHCFTC-nN0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piKXrYaHZFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2G0SYhVxNQ&feature=related

what else..

finally long weekend is here

cant wait to sleep until late tomorrow morning..sometimes all I want to do is read a book until late in the nite, sleeep until late under a comforter, wake up to a nice MS subbalakshmi suprabhatam and a nice cup of elachi chai or coffee..

simple pleasures in life...

some hindu philosophy, sambar salsa , some recipes..

2008-06-29T20:52:00.000-05:00

When Iam down and sad I keep myself so busy that I dont have time to feel sad..vinays death definetely made me realise how transient life is..it brought back my dads leukemia struggles, sad memories..and most people dont realise but once u have a close relative or close friend go through cancer and you see their pain, it changes ur life forever..u cannot escape from a lot of those memories..Iam sure vinays wife Rashmi and sameers wife Reena are going through the same pain I went through for my dad..my heart goes for these two young brides..My only advice for them would be to keep themselves so busy that they dont have time to remember the pain because how much ever u try to forget those memories they never go away...
So I decided today to go for a discussion on hindu philosophy and Gita..
Iam not deeply religious but I like to call myself spiritual human being who likes peace, hates arguing and may be being a libran like all october born libran I like simplicity and serenity in life..
I compromise, understand my limitations and simplify my life whereever I can..last few years Iam trying to lead a life of minimum expectations and it is helping me a lot..I prefer simplified hindu philosophy and I read Herman Hesses siddartha many times, that book makes me take it easy in life..
Todays talk and discussion was nice..The speaker was very good , knew what he was talking about, recited sanskrit verses with a perfect clarity that you felt peace in his voice.. he had simplified philosophy and gave lovely examples like these
-surya helps us see the world by shining his light on all creatures alike.Our eyes are little suryas so we need to shine light on all creatures and love them.
-God is like fire, you go closer to fire you feel the warmth, if u choose not to go closer to fire or God, you are away from warmth or gods love..god shines equally on everyone..only thing is those who stand closer to him might benefit the warmth of him more just by the choice of being in his proximity.
-we need to give our children spiritual education continously in every day living. It could come out as stories that grannys tell us or it could be early on religious or spiritual education to inculcate good values in them. It is like a school curriculum..kids need to go through a spiritual curriculum too at home, otherwise u cannot teach them suddenly to be religious (I agree to that, I hope I can give my children some spiritual education if not religious education).
-rebirth happens until ignorance is gone.Ignorance will only go away when you have jnana of how to be a better human being. bhakti, karma , jnana are all important. when a spirit or human soul becomes pure it merges with the universal spirit.
- A man or woman with spiritual education can never do bad or say anything bad..
- Like in christainity ,the speaker said hindu couples also should be given or should attend a course on marriage, essential duties of man and woman in a marriage (I would definetely take the speakers course when I find my guy and get married, I strongly believe in this education as most of us who dont have time to think about marriage or understand the intricacies of what keeps marriages surviving should attend a course. I also believe that in real marriages u dont have to work hard on a marriage, if compatible people marry they dont have to work hard at a marriage).
that is the summary of todays talk and discussion I attended. I hope I can attend more talks like this one.. sometimes we all forget in this race and todays materialistic world that there is something more to life than work, partying, dressing up and those artificial conversations...
what else..
I saw this interesting movie called sambar salsa tonite..
A punjabi man and a south indian brahmin woman married together..their london son wanting to marry a spanish girl..all culture clashes..very interesting ....rishi kapoor is in this movie...mother becoming possessive of losing her son...very interesting..I dont know why there is culture clash as I have friends from all cultures and I get along great with everyone..most of my clashes are bec. people are out of my league or bec. nature is different from mine but I never had problems because someone is south indian or north indian..
My own cousin who is ofcourse a southindian brahmin like me married a punjabi girl from london and they are happily married for 5years now..my mama and mami love their punjabi daughter in law a lot...I never met her as Iam always here in US when they come for vacation to India but all my relatives adore her and all her relatives and adore my cousin..
so sambar salsa for me was an interesting movie..I dont if all that was due to culture clash or because of insecurities of women... I feel like in any relationship if each person keeps their own world independent of their wives, husbands, sons, daughters probably there wont be that much clash..I wouldnt want my hubby to give up his life or friends or hobbies for me..because that would keep him happy..same here too I dont think i would give up reading books or things I do to keep me happy and smiling..a little freedom and independence and space people give for each other goes a long way and avoids clashing and being too possessive.. on a whole an interesting movie about cross culture relationships..
today I made a sweet dish for the discussion I went to as everyone is supposed to get a snack..
my sweet dish is fruit salad : one can of fat free cream cheese, one can of condensed sweetened milk- mix them in a mixer. then add grated pinnapple, tropical fruits, raisins, canned peeled oranges and sliced almonds..this makes one delicious fat free fruit salad . everyone loved it.
An aunty made a salad which was yummy .I asked her the recipe..she grated lettuce, carrots,cabbage,carrots, green pepper, added lemon and salt to it..it was yummy and spicy..
what else..
this week I had dinner with my friends 70 year old mom and her 80 year old friend all americans..it was very interesting to converse with them..such independent women who have a hard time just getting up from a chair yet drive and keep fighting with life..sometimes independence of american women is amazing and inspiring...
I have a headache tonite...Iam tired after a long drive..
I want to do some crosswords for fun, read some vikram seths poems or some novel, have a glass of warm milk and sleep like a baby..
so much to do from tomorrow as usual tiring busy week at work..glad it is going to be a long weekend..

last two weeks...

2008-06-29T10:54:00.000-05:00

sometimes there are some weeks which change your life, make you stop doing what u are doing and think..
last two weeks were such weeks for me..
jan 3rd 2005 a morning call from brother in law from India telling me my dad was diagnosed with leukemia on dec 31st 2004 and that he is in hospital..until then I never thought of cancers that much though routinely at work I worked on a lot of cancer drug screens..I was shocked for a couple of hrs trying to read on leukemia, then the next couple of hrs was crying, then as my friends were packing my bags for my india trip the following day I walked around work trying to wind up things like a zombie, lost and tired and did not eat anything as I got on the plane..I kept crying and praying through out my trip..It was gut wrenching, so painful I cannot put it in words..next 10 months I slept in cancer hospitals every day living in the fear of losing my dad, every nite fearing that that will be the last conversation I will have with my dad..
more than all that it was terrible pain to see the man you loved the most in this world suffer , with needles poked in his body all the time it was so painful I could not eat, sleep for the next ten months..And we got him treated at 3 best hospitals in India and nothing was helping him get cured..And me and my sis decided not to tell my dad that he relapsed and told him that he is almost cured. so it was also eight months of hiding this information from my parents, smiling bravely and laughing with him and coming out of his hospital room and crying like hell..I realised it is just so hard to hide the truth, but we did not have courage to tell my optimistic dad that the disease is not going away from him..Doctors told us that my dad will not live for more than 2 weeks and he survived ten months after that because he was in good spirits thinking that he was cured of the disease..it was a miracle he survived that long..
In those ten months too since doctors told us he had 2 weeks to live, he wanted to see my marriage so I got engaged to my dads doctor in US who was an oncologist, who fell in love with me it seems who told me he never saw a girl who is so dedicated to her family and never met anyone as nice as me. I didnot know the man but that moment I was in too much pain of losing my dad , the man I loved the most in my life that I decided to do anything to cheer him up including marrying a stranger..thank God I broke the engagement later as the guys family greedily asked us for dowry and to split property even before my dad passed away which was so uncultured of them..they wanted diamonds and gifts and a jazzy wedding while I was sleeping in hospitals and my dad was dying..I just could not take that anymore and canceled the wedding and Iam so glad in that sadness I was sensible not to marry that man and his family who were so greedy and insensitive...but I did make a mistake of getting engaged which I should not have but I was not in my senses that time and just the fear of losing my dad in two weeks was hitting me so hard that I would do anything to make my dad smile in those 2 weeks..
but in those ten months I and saw so much pain that till today I still have nightmares and I wake up thinking that my dad is bleeding to death and he needs platelets..
since my dad passed away from leukemia and stories of people with leukemia hits me hard and makes me cry...
when I heard about sameer and vinay I thought that they will make it as they are young and not old like my dad..I ran 3 bone marrow drives in indianapolis for them..I was so glad when they found matches..
when sameer passed away I mourned for him though I didnot know him at all for a sad young death..
Last week I learnt from a leukemia blog that another prof. relapsed after bonemarrow transplant..
this week vinay passed away of leukemia..I cried..my hope lost..I just started feeling that may be there is no hope for leukemia patients..I cried for a couple of days..
then It changed my life. I just decided instead of running bone marrow drives, as a scientist why am I not working on leukemia..so I talked to my boss, though right now we have lot of projects in hand , iam trying to see if we can work on leukemia, help develop a high throughput screen for it and help screen thousands of cmpds..who knows may be a cure will come...
I keep thinking of quitting science often as I see myself getting tired and having less and less stamina but then it is people like vinay and sameer who keep inspiring me..there are some weeks which truly change the way you think about life..
I also realise that my dad, sameer, vinay were all overworking individuals and I think sometimes we have no right to overwork and stress our bodies beyond redemption...Life is not all about being very successful or going up the ladder...
may be not postpone other things in life too...marriage , kids, family life etc., life is so full of uncertainities...may be we need to learn lessons from those people and make time for other things in life, slow down, take care of our health and bodies, enjoy little things in life, settle down..
my dads leukemia changed my life..vinay and sameers lives are changing others lives too...
what else..
I spent the week going slogging, working hard as usual on drug screens for various diseases..did go to a baseball game as a part of work team building activity..saturday I volunteered at the temple at the kitchen...went for a picnic for an hour, walked around broad ripple cute shopping area for an hour with a girlfriend talking about obama..came home exhausted , did a couple of cross word puzzles, read a lil bit and crashed..
sunday phone calls to home, then a three hour discussion on hindu philosophy and Gita I want to go this evening ( yap Iam trying to get into some spirituality these days)..then laundry , chores, cooking to do..
weekend is gone...
books Iam reading right now..same as last time..
punjabi century, audacity of hope, revolutionary wealth, my revolutions..
movies I saw
mangal pandey (aamir khan 1850s movie very interesting)
music I listened to
talaash songs, phir bhi dil hi hindustani movie songs
good food I ate
punjabi khana, south indian food.
news that interested me
obama hillary make up...a new cure for migraines with a instrument that desparks the brain electric impulses...a new invention that lets u device ur own cloud..no Iam not kidding about this one..it is in yahoo headlines today..
week looks hectic too..but glad it is a long weekend..
After two sad weeks Iam looking forward to some much needed good news..some optimistic news hopefully..

scientists world..

2008-06-23T20:22:00.000-05:00

One of my writer brother D is writing a novel which is a science fiction..
D wrote to me today..."Madhavi, One thing I have been curious to ask you about is what kind of scientist projects you work on on a daily or monthly basis at work. I would be interested to know. Also, I am going to include some short chapters in my novel from scientist point of view. And how do scientists think and what do they think most of the time. this would help me write my novel"
hmm..
Last year I recommended a friend of mine to come to our group to work and said it is exciting productive scientific job where u get to work with cool hitech robots, u get a design high throughput drug screens and get a chance to figure out which is the right drug for a disease which ultimately goes to animal and human trials based on screens we design and do..so my friend who worked in our company for 15years and way senior to me came to my group, got a job in my group and accepted the job. I was happy for him..within two weeks one day he comes to my cubicle area and tells me he cannot deal with the job, pressure is too much and he wants to quit..I freaked out and felt bad that I recommended him to come and take this job and he left his old job for this one...I felt terrible..I told him to give it another month and told him that it is overwhelming the first few weeks but once u get used to the job it is exciting and productive fun..
After two months my friend told me he loves his job..it just took him time to get used to the pressure..I heard a lot of girlfriends tell me that my job is such a high pressure job that they can never do it..
so reality is my job is a high pressure schedule driven job..some 5o people wait for data for every project I work on..And if u are 15 minutes late in sending data people keep on calling...they all are waiting for the data until I analyse,summarise and send it to them..so u understand..even if Iam sick I have to go, if I dont go the job piles up and it is nonstop..And u have to multitask working on multiple projects at one time..sometimes I had ten projects I was working on at one time..and since fda inspections happen , u get audited for ur work, u need to be very very careful...thousands of numbers and yet every number is important..
It takes 10-15 years to find a drug for a disease, so the stakes are high..and there are patients hundreds of them waiting desperately for a cure..so u never know among thousands of cmpds u test which one is the miracle one..so u need to look at everyone of those thousands carefully...and if u look at 50,000 cmpds u might find one miracle drug..so u know the chances..so if u find that right one, that is the most rewarding experience, helping 150-200 million patients for each disease...
one great thing about my job is I get to work on all kinds of diseases and not limited to one..cancers, neurological disorders, musculoskeletal disorders,pain, infections...so many of them...personally after my dad had leukemia and passed away working on diseases started meaning a lot more to me..because I know how desperately I wanted a drug that would cure and save my dad..so my job that is very productive very rewarding despite lot of hard work and high pressure..
scientist job is also rational, discovering truths, discovering ur own body and its working...it is fascinating..
best part about my job are the robots, I love working with hitech gadjets and enjoy it thoroughly...and the new technologies I use costing millions of dollars is an amazing opportunity my job gives me...
my goal in my life is to lead to discovery of 2-3 breakthrough drugs and I will quit science then..some of my projects on cancer, musculoskeletal disorders are in human trials so Iam close to fulfilling my dream of finding cure for 100 million patients and quitting science for good..
then I want to write, read, have a big family with whole bunch of kids, cook ,settle as a proper wife and spend a lot of time with family...who knows it might happen in a year or two...
so how did my job change me..
In my personal life Iam opposite to what my job is..I am not schedule driven at all in my personal life, I take it easy most of the time, I relax a lot...while when Iam at work Iam totally schedule driven, always on time for everything, very strict so strict that my boss tells me Iam sometimes a perfectionist.. Iam more responsible at work than Iam at home though in general I am a responsible person even at home but at work since there are millions of patients involved...Iam more social in my job than Iam in real life I talk to guys at work a lot more in my personal life I barely talk to guys, may be because people at work are like brothers to me and it is easy to talk science than personal stuff with guys....Iam more open and more argumentative in my job than in real life where I hate arguing, at work if I see a scientific point I dont care and I argue but in real life I compromise and dont like to fight or argue..And at work Iam very rational, answer to the point,analytical but in my personal life Iam irrational,go with my heart whatever it tells me to do, Iam very romantic, soft and cry so often seing anything sad and so idealistic and not at all practical...so being a scientist makes me think differently definetely...and my real self is like that girl in movie bommarillu or santosh sivanandan, totally bubbly, non stop talker , effusive and all shy and all emotional but at work Iam so so different , Iam more balanced, more matured, so rational...I dont know how and why I change but all my scientist life I was always like that when Iam at work , but when Iam home I am a slightly different person...
I love art literature creativity so much that my scientist job doesnot give me an opportunity for all that...there is no art, creativity or linguistic beauty in science...I miss that..science is truth, brutal honest rational and Iam that too when Iam at work...so my scientific language is not floral, it is answer to the point, more analytical , so rational..though personally when Iam writing or blogging Iam all verbose, nonstop talker liking long sentences and long conversations...
so being a scientist makes me think differently making me use different part of my brain when Iam at work..
And what do scientist think all the time..I dont know about others..but when iam at work i think science when iam home I dont think of work..I used to work 7 day weeks before now I dont ..I just do a 9-5 fiveday week job...and when iam not working I dont think of science at all.. family, friends , hobbies, cooking, books and reading, movies, music, travel,volunteering take my thoughts..I like to give myself a break, go into other worlds and cannot be madame curie...Iam like any other ordinary girl once I come home, I forget Iam a scientist after 6pm in the evening until 8am next morning..thats me...
so that sums my scientific and nonscientific life..
I did not write to my friend a reply as yet..
but I doubt my scientist story would make it interesting for my friend to shape his novel character around me...
its just monday but i feel like the week is already long dont know why..may be it is me all nostalgic, missing home,family, soulmate, kids etc.,
weather makes it easy on me..Iam all wearing all my lovely spring skirts which make me feel so lighthearted...sunny warm weather is my kinda weather...
Iam going to a baseball game as a part of team building effort day after tomorrow so should be interesting..
weekend looks good with a picnic, discussions on bhagawad gita, some writing, reading, lots of indian and english movies to see..
And hopefully lots of sleep and some great food to eat...and hopefully some sweet dreams of special somene god knows where he is who he is...

madame curie...this and that..

2008-06-22T21:08:00.000-05:00

more from the arts festival..very unique work.. the first two pieces of art work are made by women artists and the last piece is by a male artist scott...

u can see the difference between male and female artists..

what else..

I was asked to campaign for obama by a friend but had no energy to go...I didnot ...may be the next couple of weeks..

this years election is very interesting one..Iam still waiting for obama vp..I dont mind hillary...

what else interested me..

I saw this lovely movie this weekend " Madame Curie"

It was the most interesting movie I saw in a long long time..It was a cute love story too..the way piere curie proposed to Madame curie..a total scientist way..love in those days when only men were smart and women were not considered to do science...And it was amazing how hard they worked to isolate radium..their discoveries..amazing couple..sadly curie died young leaving madame curie alone..both one noble prize..even their daughter won noble prize..till today their children and great grandchildren all are professors, researchers in physics etc., whole generation of curie population all scientists and intellectuals..amazing family tree..

on the whole madame curie was a very well made movie...

I can never be like madame curie though.. I dont want to ever marry a scientist....when I come home I dont want to talk science..I prefer an engineer..someone who does something different from me..variety makes life more interesting..

but an inspiring movie..

I also saw travelogues..one of them was a cruise video of all sea cruises all over the world..americas, europe etc., alaska was breathtaking, europe was beautiful..seas scare me but I love to watch travel videos..I also saw travel videos of europe, asia, middle east...rome, istanbul impressed me the most..france too..I like reading james michenors novels..they are like travelogues but novels well researched about new places and cultures..my dad loved reading james michenors books so much that I burnt my dads body with james michenors book under his head...we both love reading..I never understood why my dad loved michener, history..older I get now I understand very well why he loved, he loved traveling but never could so he probably was happy reading travelogues..Iam becoming like my dad too though iam a lil luckier than him..I had an opportunity to travel a lot..wish my dad did..wish he lived longer and wish I had an opportunity to take him all over the world..

what else..

I did a lot of crosswords this week..I am not good at it..but I love word games, scrabble...my ideal date would be to watch some nice intellectual movie at home eating spicy indian food and play scrabble while we eat dessert..

what else..

my weekend didnot go as planned..I skipped both the parties I was supposed to go...

I had terrible stomach cramps so decided to give my tired body rest ..sometimes I dont even realise how tired my body is most of the days I forget Iam a woman too...13 years of working nonstop has its effects..weekdays I tell myself I need to find cure for diseases affecting so many people, I saw my dad desperately waiting for a right leukemia drug and I see so many more faces with different diseases suffering and I feel that as a scientist I need to work to find cures for atleast some diseases having the fortune of working in top ten pharma in US....weekends I tell myself I need to do something for the community and not work hard all for myself and I volunteer and help...and then weekend slips away the rest of the time as I need to do chores from grocery to cooking to laundry..and when I go to India for vacation I feel guilty that I didnot do my responsibilities to my family or our schools and I try to make up for all that I missed in those twenty days I stay in India..so when Iam on vacation in India I barely have time for meals, sleep 4hrs a day, travel, always rushing from one business deal to another..I come back from my vacation to India exhausted....There goes my life trying to balance life in two countries last 13 years..a typical working girls life..

this weekend I spent sometime thinking how fast life goes by..13 years in US..it almost seems like it was yesterday I came..I was in my early 20's when I came here to US..I dont even know how time passed, I was too busy surviving and working to think that much about soulmate, marriage ,kids and other things in life..the world was racing, I was racing with it without even realising where I was racing..may be it is time to slow down this race..

so I stayed home saturday with my stomach cramps and slept most of the day taking tylenol for cramps..And made the best by watching movies and documentaries..today when I had energy I went to Indian store and rented some 40 movies..yes 40 indian movies..the guy rents me movies for a dollar and lets me keep for 3 -4 months..so 40 indian movies for the next 3 months..old raj kapoor classics to 1980s movies to 1990s and 2008 movies..enough to make me feel less homesick and diverted..

sometimes I hear people saying they dont want to see any more Indian movies in US and they came to escape from Indianness here in US..but to me it is the opposite..when I am here in US I watch all indian movies and love indian things..when Iam in India I listen to tons of country music, english songs, seinfeld and english movies..I cannot live without both countries India and US..I love both equally...cannot part with both..I neither belong there in India completely nor belong here in US completely but it is the incompletes in both countries that completes me I guess..

Iam all nostalgic and home sick...may be Iam missing my soulmate and family..God knows where he is..dont I wish he appears like a allaudin genei from nowhere and sweeps me off my feet.. wishful thinking..

I heard this movie song from talaash which was haunting..but when I saw the song I have to say it was the most sensual song with so much longing in emotion..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2RGRK_IVZo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2RGRK_IVZo

finally friday is here..

2008-06-20T20:02:00.000-05:00

lovely sunset from my 12th floor apartment balcony...lil lil crazy things I collected for my living room..stones with words written on them "humility, love, integrity, courage", then four marble chinese scribblings a friend of mine gifted me which have words "tranquility,wisdom, love and harmony" written on them and this sculpture I bought at the art festival that reads" A memory within" a palm holding a beautiful face...reminding me everyday to be all these things...

finally spring is here..me in an bright orange indian skirt with such lovely work on it..and me in a chinese gown my friend bought me from china which has literally no neck lining..not one single thread or stitch, it is so so light silk weightless, beautifully fits around the body and it is such a lovely english color with spring flowers and a nice cut to it..great tailoring and design to this dress, makes me feel summerish..

and finally it felt like friday nite after I made hot onion pakoda and elachi chai..nothing beats that...I was so so exhausted and had a rough week at work with robots crashing on me that I just wanted to take a long leave and take a break..it was exhausting all day seeing thousands of numbers trying to look at drug screens and making sense of them..but simple things like pakoda and chai made my day..

my life and needs are as simple as that..

pakoda, chai , abc world news with charles gibson ,watching sunset is my perfect quiet evening though I do wish my soulmate was around to give me a hug..god knows where he is..who he is..sacha pyar ko kaise pehchane e bhi is kambakth dil to nahin maloon...ye pyar akhir kya cheez hi..kaisa dikhta hi..aur jo dikhte hi unmese apna kaun hi..probably love and recognising love and feeling love is the hardest thing in my life..

weekend looks hectic

cooking party of a girlfriend..

graduation party of a girlfriends daughter..

5 loads of laundry to do..

cooking,cleaning ahead..

and need to write two new chapters of my novel to submit it to my writing group before 22nd sunday nite..

lots to do.

books Iam reading right now..

punjabi century, continous life, revolutionary wealth, my revolutions and audacity of hope...

movies for this weekend I rented from library

madame curie,goodnight and goodluck, Rome a travelogue,passport to europe a travel dvd..

music I listened to this week

shammi kapoors isharon isharon from kashmir ki kali..shammi kapoor makes me all romantic..

mahesh babu song from murari movie,my all time fav. telugu movie..

other news that interested me

water in mars..so so cool..potential life in another planet

google sergie signing up for space flight

obama and hillary campaigning together and obama saying no to federal election fund, wise move man..

salman rushdies interviews on his book enchantress..

glad it is a friday today..

never waited for weekend this bad..

all I want to do is cuddle in my bed , read, do crossword puzzles or play scrabble and sleep like a baby..

Arts festival...

2008-06-17T19:58:00.000-05:00

Dosas I made this weekend at home with chutneys...and arts festival in Indy this weekend with great art work....

check out more art work at

http://www.seancorner.com/

the guy makes sculptures and had such creative titles to each one of them, I had to buy a small piece of his art..we talked a lil bit and told him he should try to go to paris..I hope the artist gets to go to paris and his art work becomes world famous..

such immense talent and such beautiful pieces of art..art is long , life is short..art lives for ever and makes the world so so beautiful...I bought a small wall hanging also with lovely flowers and another art piece called burrealism which has planets and space theme , makes me want to be there somewhere in a world of bright oranges, bright pinks, lovely yellows, voilets, blues, reds ...

weekend was busy and lovely..

I volunteered at the temple and help cook for 40-50 people..huge utensils never saw anything that big, never cooked and washed such big utensils, it was a wonderful experience..

went to art festival..

went to watch this cool priyadarshan movie " mere baap pahle aap"..genelia was supercute..it was ok ok movie...akshay khanna overacted, paresh rawal was good..one song was good..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffyz5NPnxtI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvEBMvb9qf0

watched "x in the city"movie it was lousy..horribly bad and grose...did not like the endings..guys get away with cheating and women still accept them..not right right...except for lovely clothes it was not a good movie..

I went to library and got "passage to India" movie..it moved me to tears..it was such a classy movie on british India..

what else..

books Iam reading..

finished poems of mark strand "man and camel"...so metaphysical and philosophical and layers and layers underlying meaning..I could not understand half of the poems..yet it is something about those abstract verses that moves me and wants to read reread and ponder..magic of poetry..

Iam also reading

punjabi century by Tandon

obamas audacity of hope

alvin tofflers revolutionary wealth..

work is keeping me busy yet bored strangely..

weekend looks busy with two parties of friends..

hopefully some reading, writing, catching up with chores at home, some soulmate searching finally as everyone is telling me I should look for a boy, a nice well educated never married boy made in India and living in america....so much to do as always..

chinese dances..this and that...

2008-06-10T19:01:00.000-05:00

My first spring/summer new dress for this season..everytime I wear that dress with all those whites, peaches, pinks I feel so happy and sunny...

photos of chinese show for raising funds for quake victims..it was so so good,it moved me to tears...I never knew chinese music has such softness and melancholy in it..the lotus dance with those beautiful whites,greens and peachypink was so heavenly felt as if I was somewhere else..

then the final photo of a local road with sculptures playing music in Indy street..thought it was cute and creative stick figures..

I feel spring summer all around despite floods in Indy...two weeks from now Iam organising a fund raiser/drive for flood victims and hope we can help them..my thoughts are with all those families affected my floods...

tomorrow Iam organising a habitat for humanity event where we will help build two homes for homeless..hope it goes well..I will be painting and siding homes along with a whole bunch my volunteers..glad we can help...

interesting news..

obama looking for ex army officers for vp post..very Interesting choice..Iam ok with Hillary too as vp, a woman in me supports that thought though I wonder if the combination will be any good..

books Iam reading.

punjabi century, obamas audacity of hope, Tofflers revolutionary wealth, Hari kunzrus my revolutions..

too many books right..

but that is me..I need variety all the time..otherwise I get bored...

hopefully I get a hubby who is also colorful and lively and interesting..

what else ..

life is going on single busy working girls life as usual..feel so homesick sometimes..cant wait to go to India...without a family it is hard to live in US sometimes...hopefully will find a hubby soon and start a cute family here in US with a whole bunch of adopted kids..wishful thinking.....

other news that interested me this week...

Rushdies new novel and the buzz around it..some reviews are good, some reviews are bad..cant wait to read it..

Iam waiting for Rana Dasgupta novel solo too..

Iam looking forward to reading some poetry too...I read mark strands continous life poems last week I realised however abstract a poem is there is something about that abstractness and musical words that soothe the heart as nothing else..poems makes my soul so so happy..continous life narrative poetry and mark strands magical verses with deep layers and layers of philosophy hidden behind words and possibility of multiple interpretations fascinates me..

week looks busy with lot of new projects at work..

weekend looks hectic..

friday nite party at a collegues house

saturday volunteering to cook at the temple, saturday evening sex in the city movie with girlfriends, sunday talbot arts festival, sunday nite hindi movie mere baap with Genelia and Akshay khanna , priya darshan movie...sure to make this weekend interesting, less boring and fun..

this and that...

2008-06-07T21:27:00.000-05:00

c rying woman a sculpture at the arts museum, sunsets and

2200... me with my number...I walked 5 k for a cancer walk today..my first walk for a cause..I walked with two girlfriends and a girlfriends sis and mother..so five of us walked together as a team it was fun..

Photographs of sunset yesterday from my apartment in 12th floor in downtown Indy..lovely sunset which makes me want to melt into sunset...

what else..

books Iam reading:

punjabi century by prakash tandon..a book on history of punjabis in india in 1850s very interesting..

Hari Kunzrus my revolutions about disillusioned youth..very interestingbook.

movies I watched:

santosh subrahmanyam - tamil movie , made from telugu movie bommarillu..Iam so much like the girl in these two movies.

I also travel videos of europe , Middleast and asia.. lovely..I liked Istanbul , turkey and Rome, Italy...It is so much fun to watch travel videos..

Also listened to tape of Jhumpa lahiris "unaccustomed earth"..yet another story of an indian man married to an american lady..story moves slowly, rather there is no story but only emotions..totally emotional narration of how the confused indian man feels..Jhumpa carved a niche for herself, iam glad she is successful, she manages to tell stories with just emotions and no story, some of those emotions are good, touchy , nostalgic.

what else..

obama clinches nomination, Hillary concedes..so more campaigning for me for obama in the next few months...

saturday is gone...cleaning, grocery shopping, and the walk

sunday looks busy- temple, then chinese acrobats show to raise money for earthquake victims..

some reading, movies, writing, cooking still to do..

life goes on...

gogh and picasso...this and that...

2008-06-03T19:20:00.000-05:00

van goghs and picasso's paintings from MOMA NY...they are beyond me..modern art is not for me...

Museums in NY are very interesting and have unique collections...some highfi paintings and modern art ..good for the manhattan highfi people...

For ordinary small town folks like me Mademe Tussad is more appealing..

rest all are overrated like Monolisa in paris..

I was so excited to see Monolisa but when I went to louvre to see Monolisa , I realised it was so small, so overrated...I feel the same way about Goghs and picassos paintings..I feel they are overrated...may be Iam wrong..

what else..

obama is almost there ..just 2 delegates short of getting democratic nomination...finally...a man who was no where in news or political arena one year back and look at where he is in five months..that is what is all about charisma, careful planning, great campaigning and above all great judgement and maturity despite his younger age..Impressive...Iam glad the nominee I believed in and campaigned for is winning..I admire Hillary too being a woman making it so far in a mans world..great candidates..may the best win..

what else..

After a week of poor health, tired long days finally Iam feeling spring and summer..

Iam not getting to read that much..I watched a lot of silly movies,travel videos,tv shows, news...

books Iam reading : Hari kunzru, Alvin Toffler, obamas books still reading them..Iam also reading punjabi century written by prakash Tandon...

Salman Rushdie's new novel is out..cant wait to read it...

movies I watched : Nanny diaries ( chik flick),Egypt travel videos (on mummies,pyramids), bujjugadu ( telugu prabhas new movie in theatre with too many fights)..

I volunteered, went to museum to see Ansel adams and yosemite exhibition ( which was disappointing with not many photographs of Ansel adams and that too super small prints of Ansel adams), hung out with girlfriends, heard girlfriends problems in long phone conversations, totally wasted my week in trivial things..

week looks busy with new projects and work.

weekend looks busy...wedding of a friends friend, 5k walk for melanoma which Iam walking with 2 girlfriends which should be very interesting, sex in the city movie plan with girlfriends, lots of books to read, chinese show to raise money for quake victims..as usual lots of do..

same usual boring single life with no romance but lots of work and things to do..as usual..

last 2 weeks..

2008-05-24T23:22:00.000-05:00

Madame Tussad wax museum NY...They look so so real...but made of wax..

All the above pictures are from Wax museum..unbelievably real...

finally spring is here..summer is almost around the corner...sunny skies finally..

Been to NY last weekend to see off my cousin sis who came from India...NY was an interesting trip..It was cold and raining but we did manage to see quite a bit..

museums, empire state building, times square, central park etc.,

ran through subways, NY traffic, train stations and saw racing NY people..

Thanks to MVs blog..ate at kati roll which was a pretty good place to eat..

my weeks are busy with lot of new drug screens to develop , lot of work...

weekends are busy volunteering or traveling , catching up with household chores or hanging out with friends..

books Iam reading right now
Hari Kunzru's - " My Revolutions" which is an interesting novel about a man who hides his past settles in married life and then runs away from family as his past resurfaces..interesting well written novel..

Alvin Tofflers - "Revolutionary wealth" book on todays world, what is real power and real wealth in todays fast paced racing world.

Obamas - "Audacity of hope" about his political journey and his opinions on various issues. very interesting book.

I listened to Jhumpa lahiris unaccustomed earth as a novel on tape read by saritha and it was just ok ok for me, same repetitive themes, same simple language, too much emotions and nostalgia..

Movies I saw..

Saw a cool chik flick "what happens in vegas" with two girlfriends in open air drive in theater, sleeping in the back of my friends car which had a nice back space for three of us to lie down and watch the movie in open air. memorable experience for this memorial day weekend..cameron diaz, aston kutchers movie..such fun..

I attended religious talk on bhakti this memorable day weekend saturday and it was memorable..The sadhuji/monk was good giving us practical examples..

he used a styrofoam cup to demonstrate what atman is and how it cannot be destroyed.

he used the analogy of trees and forest to tell us how they are all the same like aham brahmosmi..He talked about what love is too..knowledge of a person or thing helps us fall in love and true form of love is seva..very interesting talk.

I asked him about purpose of creation, higher dimensions, end of the universe etc.,

week was interesting politics with obama and hillary still racing, mccain trying to get an edge, bad economy, news of china and burma and American idol...

so you think u can dance season started on TV...great dancers this time again...

American idol and so u think u can dance my fav. reality TV shows..

memorial day weekend already started and time is running away.

saturday is gone with religious lectures at the temple, then dinner with girlfriends at thai spice, a good thai place and then this chik flick what happens in vegas..

sunday morning will be gone volunteering at the temple..

may be campaigning for obama sunday evening..

some bowling and biking monday..

and hopefully will manage to do 4 loads of laundry, cleaning, cooking and reading..

so much to do as always..

jazz of this week..

2008-05-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

Earthquakes, floods, attacks in jaipur everywhere human suffering..mostly man made...environmental pollution, bad weathers, men attacking fellow men like jaipur attacks...what a week..

Interesting week politically too obama gains more superdelegates, john edwards nod..Hillary still fighting hard.. interesting times..

A lot of new interesting books released and waiting to be read..

I got audio cassette of Jhumpa lahiris novel "Unaccostumed earth" and was listening to it tonite, it was read by sarita who did a pretty good job..sentimental stories, unique first and second generation indian/bengali experience but not that great..I felt they are not that unique, same stories in the line of her first book Interpreter of maladies...ok to read but nothing great for me..melancholic over sentimental stories..

Iam reading Obamas "Audacity of hope"..so far an interesting read..not as interesting as his first book "Dreams from my father" but not bad either..It helps me understand american political system better..Obama is still an impressive powerful writer as well as an orator..

Iam reading Alvin Tofflers" Revolutionary wealth" which is another amazing novel in the lines of future shock about tomorrows world..very interesting and reading Toffler is always an education for me..very well researched book.

Iam also reading Hari Kunzru's " My revolutions"..very interesting book to read, unique story, well written..Hari Kunzrus is becoming one of my fav. writers..I enjoyed reading his two earlier novels..his stories are unique...

so many books to read as always..

This week was an interesting week..

I organised a meeting on outsourcing to India inviting a lot of americans interacting with indian companies in India..It was interesting to hear their pov ..and how work cultures are so different between two countries..so many places where I realised we can help being americanised indians..

I also participated in a walk raising money for India and south Africa and walked 2 miles today..it was fun...I was proud of myself , next time hopefully I will do a 5 mile walk to raise money for cancer patients..

I got a nice letter from one of the Indiana senators as a reply to letters I wrote on immigration green card issues..I had no faith on politicians before but after receiving responses from 2 senators and 1 Governor I have to say my faith is restored..God bless those 2 senators who are doing good job and trying to help people..Hopefully I can write more to them on other issues affecting american people and Indians and hope we can bring in change and can help unfortunate people..

so much to do..so many places where we can make a difference..

I didnot watch any movies this week..

songs I heard this week.. my life is so busy and so unromantic...nice shammi kapoor and mahesh babu songs totally make me romantic and happy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PuGjQtcFBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqRu20HezCc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpVxjpmqx0

weekend looks busy..traveling and all that...

week ahead looks busy too..

and miles to go before I sleep...

life this week...

2008-05-10T18:20:00.000-05:00

obama rally in Indy...

Asian festival photos...
Last week I stood in line for 4hrs and finally attended obama rally, saw him and heard his speech..it was wonderful and exhausting too...his speech made sense..
campaigning for obama was also fun..It is wonderful to see young students come from california, chicago and all over US to campaign for obama staying in supporters houses..I campaigned with a friend of mine and we both enjoyed it. Glad it was a close finish..I admire Hillary too, she also worked so hard to be where she is, being a woman making this far in a mans world is commendable..
today I went for Asian festival..
Asian festival..it was fun to watch dances from different countries.. Iam glad they organized it, they had a booth selling lovely Indian clothes too and there was some good indian food too..
I went to volunteer after the asian festival today..
Volunteering activity organised by temple was also good today..though I have to admit my shoulders and body got exhausted , hopefully tomorrow morning I wont get up with body pains...
Finally after I got home today and checked my mail I had a sweet surprise.. today after 12 years in US and 8 years of waiting I got my green card..
It was such a long journey..
thanks to Indiana senators who helped me track my application which I thought was almost lost..
I waited for my green card for so so long..thought will celebrate big time when I get green card...
but Iam so exhausted after volunteering today that I dont even have energy to celebrate. anyway my family is not around, dad passed away..people I wanted to celebrate with are either far away and gone from this universe for good..may be if I had a soulmate I could have celebrated with him...having no one I really love around it doesnot make much sense to celebrate either...that is how my life goes...
books Iam reading right now
Obamas - Audacity of hope which is another good one from obama about his political life and political opinions.
Hari Kunzrus - My revolutions which Iam thoroughly enjoying reading...Hari kunzrus novels keep me interested always...
Alvin Tofflers - Revolutionary wealth..which is another great book on future from Alvin and Heidi Toffler , the power intellectual couple who write together..
Dont I wish I get a hubby who is a writer too...two people writing together is fun..
I didnot watch any movies except for a couple of songs here and there.
Life has been so busy working and if it is not work it is organizing volunteer activities and volunteering...
A friend of mine recently asked me if Iam looking for a hubby, I said I hardly have time or energy, friend adviced me to stop doing lok kalyan with my volunteering and think about myself and my life..
may be I should do that..
I barely manage to cook, clean, catch up with household chores these days..
when I get time I read or write..
hopefully next few weeks would be more relaxing..next weekend I am volunteering again..so there goes my life...

spring, obama campaigning, this and that..

2008-05-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

lovely spring in indianapolis in suburbs of Indy..

Obama campaign office in Indy...

yes yes..I started campaigning for obama..I know I cannot vote..but I felt like doing it..so I went and did door to door canvasing this weekend and I have to say it was a memorable experience..me and one of my girlfriends went to obamas campaign office today, picked up fliers and campaigned..I have to say it was such a well organised campaign young men and women working so so hard, it was wonderful to watch and it was fun to campaign...so Iam finally becoming politically active..

what else..

life has been so so busy..so much work until my body is exhausted..

when I have time Iam either volunteering or busy planning volunteer activities for a group at work as Iam the team leader for that group to do community service...

rest of time I cook, I read, I am working on my novel...

and rest of the time Iam complaining after overworking with my sick body with such less stamina and energy..being a girl doesnot help either...born weak..

books Iam reading

Hari Kunzru's "My revolutions" which is very very interesting read so far..I enjoyed reading his two earlier novels Impressionist and transmission and I have to say my revolutions is equally interesting.

Alvin Tofflers " Revolutionary wealth" which is a must read. Another great book from Alvin And Heidi Toffler about future..great writer of this century..

I finished reading "Golden afternoon" MMkaye biography which was very boring and a autobiography..

what else..

movies I watched..

Darjeling limited - fun movie about 3 brothers trying to reconnect in India..I thought it was a cute sentimental movie..well made and touching and interesting.

Made of Honor- patrick demsay movie in the lines of my best friends wedding, totally cool chik flick

22 dresses- katherines movie as a perpetual brides maid, totally cool sentimental perfect chik flick, I cried watching this movie..those girl tears I get once in a while when I watch senti chik flicks..

songs I heard..cute songs..

reminds me of home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT3Ba9P5RAk&feature=related

cute hrithik roshan song ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C295VW7zmFQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq6GbeMBwDQ&feature=related

week looks busy..

tomorrow Iam attending obamas rally..so much work and drug screens left to do..plus volunteer event I need to organise for 25 people for habitat for humanity coming up..so much to do as usual.. my body is so so exhausted..may be it is time for vacation or India trip..

some recipes, photos, this and that...

2008-04-26T12:09:00.000-05:00

Photos of holi event with bhangra and indian dances...photos of ramanavami at the temple procession...

both were wonderful..

cant even believe it is almost end of april..

time is racing and Iam racing with time...

work and volunteering has kept me busy....

I come home exhausted from work...lots of drug screens to develop as usual...interesting but busy tiring days at work.

Other than work being team leader for community service for a big group at work, working on immigration related problems with another, then volunteer activities at temple or here and there keeps me tired and busy..

specially with this economy, we all need to do good and do as much as we can for our communities..

People often tell me I have so much energy that it is inspiring..they say I have honest passion, great organization skills and can influence anyone with just my straight talk.. but reality is most people dont realise my body is not that strong, reality is Iam weak and half the days I have some body complaint or the other, have very little energy, being a girl with girls troubles doesnot help but I think it is the enthu and desire to do something good to community and may be my dads genes that keeps pushing me..

It is in my family, my dad did so much good for the society that if I can achieve even 1/4th of what my dad did to community I will be happy...I hope I get a hubby too who feels the same way about doing good to the world..I hope I can adopt 5-6 orphan children and hope I will energy enough to keep doing this..

I realised this week it is so hard to inspire and get volunteer from Indian community, it made me think as to how many of us indians really spend time to volunteer, most of us live such self centred lives..I hope it changes and I can change people to spare time for something other than for themselves or their families.

finally today I got done with a big volunteer event I organised to cleanup a local park..it went really well today after lot of effort..thanks to all my indian volunteers...2 girls and 13 guys volunteered and did an amazing job.God bless them all who volunteered. specially people with families and small children who still spared time to volunteer..Being single helps, though I wonder sometimes if I had a hubby and children how much of volunteering I can do..

These days I barely have time to cook, clean and catch up at home. I gave up socialising otherwise totally, as I dont get that much time for friends or partying lately.. this year I have given up on a lot of friendships which are artificial, friends who just like to party , gossip and have fun and dont want to do anything else. And I am making time for
I cook at home and eat at home most of the days and hardly eat out, dont have energy or time to eat out..when I get time I read, write, catch up with chores at home and watch movies at home or listen to music at home..

my body is exhausted but I cannot take vacation though I have a lot of vacation...lots of other personal busines stuff to take care of too...barely have time for anything these days...

writing group activities are also keeping me busy..every week I have a collegues novel to critique..Iam also actively working on finishing my first novel and writing my second novel..

finally finished mailing letters to senators, Governor, first ladyand got responses back from some regarding problems with green card issues..so many causes to fight..thanks to the senators who responded , god bless them too..

books Iam reading right now..

Almost finished Golden afternoon by Kaye which was one boring biography.

Reading Obamas book Audacity of Hope which is another interesting obamas book to read..

Also reading Alvin Tofflers " The revolutionary wealth"

books I have to pick up from the library tomorrow and books I will be reading next week..

Hari kunzrus my revolutions.

Jhumpa lahiris new collection of short stories

book on how schools are run in US -

the last book about schools will hopefully help me to do my vicepresident of our educational organisation in India better, I almost forget about that job of mine often..there is so much to do..

when people ask me why Iam not looking for guys actively I tell them I just have no energy for that...If a guy is ready to walk with me in the path I choose to walk and joins me in all the activities I do it is ok, otherwise I have no energy or time to just walk on a unknown path or fall in love....

I realise now a days more often I can never be this prettily dressed barbie doll pleasing guys.. when some guys family asked me if my family can contact them , I had to tell them honestly that Iam not from a typical indian girls family...I look for matches for myself, I have to fix and make arrangements for my wedding all by myself, I have responsiblity of taking care of my family like a boy, Iam this girl who takes 5 minutes to dress up always fighting for one cause or another and that is me...

anyways...

movies I watched..

yuva- madhavan,surya,siddarth maniratnam movie..excellent.

u me and hum - watched first 30 minutes of the movie , got bored and walked out..

Dhamaal- Arsad warsi, sanjay dutt, rishikesh mukherjee fun movie, first indian movie I watched with no herione, no songs..fun and good despite that.

some good food I made at home last few days

1.Indian spicy pizza - recipe - pillsberry pizza dough- make it into a flat roti, heat oven to 400 and bake it for 10min, then add pizza sauce + priya tomato pickle+ priya mango pickle+ maggi hot and spice sauce+ taco spicy sauce. then add grated pinapple,bell pepper, onion, tomatoes, cilantro then add a layer of shredded cheese, bake for 15 minutes or so.

makes one tasty indian pizza, cilantro adds a unique flavor.

2. Mango daal - Take yellow daal+ cut fresh green mango+ hari mirchi. cook them in pressure cooker. take a vessel heat oil, add jeera, mustard seeds, hing a lot of hing, karipatta, tumeric, lal mirch powder . after they fry add pressure cooked daal with mashed green mango and mashed hari mirchi. cook for 5 minutes.

makes one spicy mango daal.

3. Tomato daal

4 Idli - Gits idli, and home made chutneys.

what else..

elections are keeping me interested. Indiana is gaining importance..lets see who wins..may the best unselfish candidate win this race..

Hardly listened to any good music online..Iam so so non-romantic and moody these days, life is dull and boring with too much work , volunteering and meetings or worries..so not much music for me...

Cant even believe may is almost here..

so much to do...so may be less blogging..

In memory of Grandma..

2008-04-07T20:53:00.000-05:00

This evening my best friend A called me to tell me her grandma passed away..
I lost my own grandparents on both sides when I was very young..my dads father passed away when I was 2 yrs old..my moms mother passed away when I was 4yrs old..my moms father passed away when I was 7yrs old..
I lost my dads mom nani/mamma as we used to call her when I was 13 yrs old. .I missed her for a year a lot..I could not eat or sleep well..she was the only grandparent I knew..she was kind, would listen to my childish stories, I would sleep in her with her all the time and she was my best friend in my school days..my sister used to beat me up a lot and grandma always came up to protect me..she had a soft corner for me as I was thin, weak and soft spoken..wherever she went she took me with her..it was so much fun..when she passed away it took me a long time to forget her and get over her loss..
Iam glad I grew up with grandparents living with us in the same house..I hope my kids will also grow up grandparents living in the same house with us..I already lost my dad and my kids would never see their grandpa and it makes me very very sad..my dad would have been a super grandpa..he was a supergrandpa for my sisters kids..I like big families, kids growing up with grandparents, everyone living together..that way Iam old fashioned..I love big families..I miss that here living by myself in US..
In my adult life I had no one to call grandma..
so when A became my friend she knew that and she was kind enough to share her grandma with me..A is blond all american girl and her grandma was also an all american lady and was ninety years old..I was so amazed to see her the first time I met her..she was elegant, fashionable in a nice short skirt, blondish white hair well combed, elegant jewellary driving her own car, so independent, so smart, so soft spoken and so patient for her age..
She tried to understand my accent, hugged me and we became friends..I asked her if I can call her granny and she said she is very happy to have a indian grandchild..
Everytime I met her she was always dressed well like a lady in these old world movies of audrey hepburn, slim, tall elegant, well dressed, independent 90 year old granny who lived by herself until today..she will always inspire me to be independent even when I would grow old like her..
I used to call her granny and loved calling someone granny..it was so special for me to use that word granny again in my life..
A, her mom and her granny..three generation of women and me used to go for movies once in a while. A and me would think a lot and pick up the right movie for granny..she had a hard time watching new movies..she was all old world lady and reminded me of conservative polite grandmas and old aunts in India..so me and A would pick up really conservative old world movies for her or cartoon movies which were all PG and neat..she loved ratouville a lot..we took her to this will farrell movie Blades of glory and granny was shocked seeing the movie..I would meet for christmas and thanksgiving dinners at A 's parents place and last time I met granny was for her birthday...
I gave granny a small cake, flowers and a card..the cake had a smiley face on it with just one candle and granny said she loved the smiley face and kept on smiling the whole evening..it was wonderful to see her smile..
A and me were waiting for winter to get over as granny cannot take cold and were planning to take granny for a movie and dinner in summer...I wanted to invite granny home or take her to an Indian restaurant once but since granny never tried indian food I was scared and so was A.
I lit a candle for granny tonite..hope the candle lights her way to heaven..
I would miss calling her granny..now I dont have anyone to call granny and I will miss that and miss her a lot..
I cannot thank A enough for sharing her granny with me and giving me memories of an american grandma I would never would have had..
thanks to my american grandma for giving me sweet memories ...
god bless her soul..

ugadi...Movie "Happy Days'..Books: obama dreams from my father..

2008-04-06T20:20:00.000-05:00

phoola huva ajwain poori me cooking in my kitchen...every poori that I made this ugadi weekend poora phul gaya tha..I was ghee happy...never thought I will be smiling one day totally happy just looking at poori..probably its the career woman in me feeling totally content and happy having cooked a good meal..its funny but cooking totally relaxes me...after a long way at work, coming home and cooking my evening meal totally relaxes me dont even know why..playing with recipes, masalas probably...

recipe for a good ajwain poori

mix roti ata with milk, ajwain seeds and a lil bit of oil.

then fry them in oil..

with milk there I think poori are soft and poora phul jate hi..

eat poori with daal makani, alu besan sabji ( oil, jeera, mustard seeds, tumeric, fry onions, add boiled alu, then basan in liquid cook) and yogurt ( with salt and achar mixed with yogurt) or yogurt cucumber raita..

anyways..finally ugadi, telugu new year was here..here in US this time temple celebrated new year on sunday while in India it is monday...so confusing..

It was nice ugadi at the temple..

they did panchang sravan..it was interesting..they tell u what the year will be like.. based on ur birthstar and raasi u can know how good the year will be, if there will be profit or loss, which planet should u worship that year...interesting..

they had supergood food too at the temple..I met some people I knew from work..one of them said my speech the other day at work was excellent..so strange people seem to still remember only that about me..

it was a nice morning today on the whole..nothing beats a peaceful morning at the temple surrounded by prayers and god...

I finally finished reading obama book " Dreams of my father" some 450 pages book..it was a fantastic read..I never saw anyone have such a unique diverse life..white mother, white grandparents, african father who met him just once when he was 10 yrs old leaving him with lots of step brothers and sisters in africa, Indonesian step father, Indonesian step sister..that is obamas family..the whole book is about discovering his family, figuring out his own identity..confusing youth trying to decide between black and white heritage..trying out drugs to everything..living with grandparents most of his life away from parents with no proper mentors and inspiration , yet the man obama turns his life around..graduates from harvard, works for downtrodden in chicago..best part about the book is how he is open to races and tries to find a family for himself making his step sisters, step brothers, everyone come into his fold..it is amazing..

he finally learns about his mystery father through all his distant family relations in US and kenya and puts all of them together finally into one story..it was obamas journey to discover his father who left him when he was 2 yrs old..at the end u will see obama has no bitterness but tears for his father when he truly discovers his fathers hard journey..this is a book so full of experiences and life that is hard to believe that this is the story of just one man spreading through different continents and countries..what a amazing man obama is just by the nature of his birth..

The book is his discovery of his own roots..he goes to kenya and writes about those unique experiences..this man turns his life around..starts with nothing and makes and gets everything at the end..true inspiration..

Obama is also a loner most of his life like me trying to find himself and I kinda see his point and can relate to him..I can see some similarities in his life versus mine..since my dad passed away I started understanding how important it is to have a complete family..and Iam also trying to put pieces together always trying to make a family for myself...trying hard to still have something complete as a family though I know for myself too it is never the same without a father..that way obama inspires me..I like his definition of family..

obama writes in his book "what is family? is it a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me? or is it a social construct, an economic unit, optimal for child rearing and division of labor? or is it something lese entirely, a store of shared memories, say an ambit of love? a reach across void"

great book dont miss reading this book..If u are voting, u should read the book all the more..even otherwise it is an inspiring interesting book which will help u understand the racial system in america..a true education for me.

Movie I watched this weekend..

Happy Days a telugu movie by a young director sekhar kammula..watch it..it is bubbly teenage movie..so neat so real about engineering college students life..there is some strange honesty about this movie.. it feels real..good friends, their friendships, their college crushes ,combined studies..it was totally youthful supercute fun realistic movie etc., there is no moral or anything in this movie..light hearted really happy days kind of movie..makes me want to go back to college and be there...feel young, carefree, happy....I dont know when I was in college I always studied hard..too bad..

books Iam reading right now

Golden afternoon - mm kaye.. far pavilion author..that was a good novel to read..

surviving the slaughter - marie omatusu - still reading that..slowly..

Revolutionary wealth - Alvin Toffler

songs I listened to Iam still addicted to race song pehli nazar, I have to admit..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-yk-xXo6pY&feature=related

what else..

week looks busy at work..

body is tired, most weekend I kept sleeping dont even know why..may be I was just tired..so hopefully my body recovered with all that sleep..ear ache,sore throat it never seems to end.. I need vacation sometime soon..wishful thinking..

so much to do as usual...

goodbye to another year..

2008-04-05T10:55:00.000-05:00

me making idlis this morning in my kitchen..a typical telugu way to end this year...tomorrow is telugu new year ugadi..another new year starts...

goodbye to another year..april2007 to april2008..

I got up and while I was making tea called up home in India to chat...all the interesting gossips of my two little nephews fights...they talk on phone cutely..they tell me madhavi aunty send us a plane, we will come tomorrow morning to play with u...cute na..kids world..

I got up turned on my taperecorder fullswing listened to lalitha sahasranamam..prayer time while having my first cup of tea...then telugu movie songs from classical telugu movies of Kviswanath my fav. director..movie songs from movies like sankarabharanam, swarnakamalam...dancing to those songs..made idli and chutneys..

a typical morning in a typical telugu brahmin family...I miss being home...

the whole home will smell of filter coffee starting at 6am..and then the newspaper walla comes to deliver newspaper and people are busy reading newspapers and having morning coffee..then u hear cooker and mixer/grinder sounds..morning idli and dosa ready...someone would start MS subbalakshmi venkateswara suprabhatam..elders shower and then pray and then have breakfast..while kids are still playing , screaming and refusing to eat while grandma tries to feed all children with big idlis in her plate...this is a typical morning in a typical telugu brahmin home..

I missed that today..

the year that is ending today was significant and insignificant..joyful and painful..family came from India to visit me for 4 months..those four months were memorable..work kept me busy..I had oppurtunities to do charity work, ran three bone marrow drives for leukemia patients...I almost came close to marriage last year and broke it off thank God...Iam grateful to God for making me realise the guy was just so so wrong for me..I kept thinking I want a guy who looks like telugu actor mahesh babu last year though I dont go for looks at all...I ended up with a very good looking guy with no integrity or brains...so moral of the story may be never go for looks in a guy , looks can be deceiving..what else happened last year..

I read the most wonderful books last year..it was an amazing year intellectually..from kiran desais novel to so many good books I read last year..the books I loved reading last year are Drifters,Inheritance of loss, tokyo cancelled, Obamas dreams from my father, Aynrands letters, Aynrands journal, Dispatches from the edge, Lady and the monk, Hullabaloo in the guava orchid, On beauty, Born in Tibet,Intimacy,Transmission, my life in france, surviving the slaughter,The hindi bindi club, for matrimonial purposes, war antiwar...cant remember the rest...lots of interesting books...I also started working on my second novel and trying to finish my first novel..year was pretty ok..

my health went down last year..I kept falling sick more often...so I changed my diet, cooking more healthy food,so we will see..good thing is I learnt lot of new recipes last year and cooked a lot more variety and trying to eat healthy now..what a year..best part I would say was spending time with my family..It was priceless..4 months I got to show my family my life here in US, traveled , explored life here which was just the best thing that happened to me last year..

and probably the other best thing that happened is me not marrying that guy..it would have been such a disaster..Iam glad I had wisdom to call off my marriage...

year was just as usual like other years typical busy working girls year..

I miss being home today and probably tomorrow too.. so I make up for all that listening to tons of these songs which are so close to home, so close to my upbringing, so close to everything I grew up, values, culture, heritage, people..here are some telugu songs which bring home to me..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Wh1MQbdSA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl7v1nGKy8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ1yxSrgdm4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnbNK5662Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jaYQgR-j0k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1p9c-buSY&feature=related

all these songs leave me so nostalgic...so close to home..

goodbye to another year..

welcome to another new year..

Iam glad temple has lot of activities tomorrow..so want to spend and start new year at the temple..which is probably the closest thing to home here in Indianapolis..yet another ugadi, yet another new year..Hopefully this new year will bring in new joys, a much needed change in life and good health..and more time with family..may be more time with a real soulmate and may be family or kids of my own..wishful thinking....

Book: Dreams from my father, Movies: Shivaji, AMAV, some music,politics and todays chitchaat

2008-04-03T18:54:00.000-05:00

I was lost totally lost this evening..people kept calling me telling me how inspiring my speech was today..some said my presentation today was excellent so full of energy that they felt the whole room became energetic...another girlfriend said people around were whispering she is great she is great after I finished speaking..another friend said the whole audience felt touched, felt my passion, understood my emotion and connected with me the minute I started speaking..the team said I did a great job of all.. they just kept clapping and clapping..
I got half of the crowd who attended the meeting sign up my volunteer sign up sheet for various activities..
strangely I dont remember anything of what I spoke on that stage..All I remember is people clapping multiple times as I spoke..it was a strange experience..I debated all my life, spoke many times on stage and I always remember what I speak but this time I didnot..I was the group leader for community service and was trying to convince everyone in that lecture hall to sign up for volunteer activities..
And this meeting was before big people, four of my collegues spoke before me..and they were all dressed in suits..I just went in jeans and a sweater..I was too tired to dress up..and this wasnt a scientific presentation at all...I felt a lil out of place compared to everyone there as they were all so experienced than me..
but I guess speaking from my heart helped, I dont remember what I spoke, but people kept using my name multiple times during that 2 hr meeting saying we need madhavis kind of energy...
I started my talk I remember the first two sentences..they were..
" I see this room full of bright professionals contributing a lot to our company through ur work. But I also see in this room lot of human potential, lot of energy, lot of giving caring good human beings who can contribute a lot to community around us. That is the reason why we started this community service group to involve all of u in making a bigger difference to Indianapolis"
rest of the talk strangely I dont remember what I spoke..still feel overwhelmed by the impact it had on people..I get that often..People say I can convince anyone about anything when I speak...power of strong words I guess..power of speaking from my heart I guess what I truly felt..
anyways today was a memorable day..
Iam glad I got so many people inspired..
now it makes sense the card my best friend A gave me last week which said " madhavi u are a wonderful role model" she always told me I make an excellent sales woman and probably she was right..I now remember why our immigration senior associate told me 4 years back when I asked her why she selected me of all Indians in the company to represent them to meet senators, she said I had the right communication skills to convince senators in washington..may be she is right..
sometimes isnt it strange we dont understand who we are and how powerful our words can be , how much they can inspire others..
key is believe in urself..may be I should start believing in myself and power of my words too..and it is good to speak from ur heart I guess..u connect to people better..
interesting experience..
what else..
life is busy as usual..
scientist job, lots of drug screens and potential cures for medicines to look at..
evenings and nites reserved from some tv, some cooking, some reading...
Books Iam reading right now
"Obama's Dreams from my father". The more Iam reading the book, more I realise how real this man is, how tough his life was, how inspiring he is never giving up on his dreams whether it is changing lives of downtrodden in chicago suburbs or changing his own life constantly educating himself, it also is an interesting journey of a unique man with a kenyan father and a white american mother with white grandparents and black friends and an indonesian sister and an african brother letting all of them coexist, share his life and trying to figure out his own identity in all these confusing relationships making him a man belonging to a universal country..no wonder obama is so tolerant to everything. It is inspiring to see this man with no role models or father to guide him, gets down to drugs and everything and then turns back his life 360 degrees to turn out into a responsible adoloscent and a responsible socially conscious young man helping youth and also at the same time trying to help himself grow higher and higher finally getting a law degree from harvard..amazing journey of unique young man with unique heritage and background..a must read for all voters before u vote..
other books Iam reading right now.
surviving the slaughter by a ugandan refugee marie omatusu..
also revolutionary wealth written by famous futuristic writer alvin toffler..
two great books..
what else..
Movies I watched
sivaji - rajnikanthmovie..I never watched any of his movies before, so I wanted to see why people are so crazy about him in south..it was a pretty boring movie for me..And frankly I cannot see what is good about the movie..he acted just ok..had some strange mannerisms..shriya looks pretty like a doll cannot act much..dont know what the craze is all about..to me it was just a bearable or pretty hard to watch movie..pretty boring moving to watch too...
saw venkatesh telugu movie adavari matalaku arthale verule..meaning womens words mean something else..it was a lil better..comedy was ok in this movie..specially those scenes when they start showing the joint family in a village with no restrooms, everyone getting up early in the morning doing yoga together etc., trisha was ok..people say I look a lil like colors swati tv artiste all the time specially my uncles and some telugu friends..swati is in this movie..but then I dont think I look like her that much..may be a lil bit..venkatesh was ok ok.. not worth watching but better than sivaji, atleasts songs are ok in this movie..
what else..
politics is taking an interesting turn..
now indianapolis is in national news..obama hillary battle now is so intense now people are paying attention to states like indiana too..hillary was here a couple of times, obama will be in indy this week...I see obamas adv. on tv here..he has one adv. with his white mother, white grandparents photos in it, may be to get white votes..this adv. are very intelligent , short and sharp..lets see who wins..
good food I ate this week..
rice, achar, cabbage sabji, daal makhani, roti all home cooked by me..now Iam liking making and eating daal makhani a lot..
music I listened to thanks to MVs blog Iam hooked on to this song..pehli nazar I keep listening to this song often..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-yk-xXo6pY&feature=related
I also listened to a lot of norah jones this week
come away with me, nightingale, dont know why I didnot come are my fav.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBKcKQHZXks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP9m2pNFa60&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NDuj-MyVyA&feature=related
I dont know if Iam missing my soulmate or missing my dad or sad over this young leukemia patient sameers death whatever it is..Iam just listening to soft songs..
weekend is finally here..
saturday is telugu new year ugadi, so Iam going to go to temple that day..they have panchanga sravanam, interesting activities..sunday meeting friends for dinner..
life is going on..
lot of reading, lot of cleaning, lot of cooking to do..