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

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....

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..

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..

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..

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

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..

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..