some recipes, photos, this and that...

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..

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..

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..

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

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..