What can you say?!

Conversation at home

Me (for the 1000th time) : "guys! It's time to go to bed"
Kids: "........." (no sound)
Me: "GUYS"
N: " can we lie down and read a book?"
Me: "okay" (whatever just be in bed)
N: "kaaarthik, come! Mumma said we can read"
K: "ok"
Me: sigh of relief
K: (popping his head out of the room) "is it morning in America?"
Me: (irritated) "yes!"
K : (gleefully) "so we don't have to sleep, it's morning!"

I guess if Alan Jackson and jimmy buffet could drink because it was five O'clock somewhere... k got the meaning of "it's morning somewhere"

T.V. Tidbits

I was never a follower of any new series on the television while I was in America. I always watched ( I hate to admit it) re-runs of Everybody loves raymond, friends, law and order... later I got hooked on to NCIS and House. The point being I never really followed any new series. I used to hate reality shows, like the Bachelor, two years ago if someone asked me to watch I would've puked! However, things have changed, because beggars can't be choosers... of the entire line up of channels available here I am hooked on to Star World... I started watching it initially because they played Friends... I am a sucker for Friends.

I swear I tried to like other Indian Channels.. but somehow nothing was really appealing. There's too much Bollywood involved. After loving Master Chef Australia (again played a season late on Star World) I thought I should give Master Chef India a try. But it was nauseating to see Akshay Kumar being one of the judges! Like cooking and Karate are the same! They lost me when they brought Aishwarya Rai to judge!!!!!!!! I am sure she likes to eat good food, but can she be a reasonable critic of what masala would make a kashmiri pulao taste better? REALLY?

I was thrilled when I saw that Koffee with Karan was coming on Star World... until I started watching the show. Some times Mr.Johar really gets on my nerves. He has the same question for every one Ranbir or Imran the brighter future? Deepika or Sonam the brighter future? These are his rapid fire questions!!!!! By far the worst episode on Koffee... was the one with Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor... I personally like Priyanka but with Shahid... they both were like immature high school kids!!!! Kareena also was quite annoying with her "Saifu... Saifu..". I did enjoy the one with Deepika and Sonam, also the one with Bachan Sr and his daughter. Very dignified lady! Lastly, the one with Shah Rukh, really made me feel that gets quite lonely on the top!

Oh talking about Shah Rukh, does he ever refuse to endorse a product? I mean Emami Fair and Handsome for men ?! Really, he has to endorse that? Unbelievable, from endorsing high end watches to fairness cream for men, he does it all!

Anyway getting back to the shift in shows that I watch... I never once saw Top Chef, but I got hooked on to Master Chef Australia, I never watched the Bachelor, well I really didnt get hooked on to it, but I didnt get repulsed by it either. These days I watch old seasons of Two and half men, Royal Pains, How I met your mother... *sigh*

Totally Random

I was in one of world’s most boring training session and here are some things that I jotted down in my notepad. I thought I should transfer them over to the blog for posterity ;-)

~I wonder if this guy’s (the person who was presenting) family and relatives find his voice irritating too.

~I wonder what other people think of me…

~Do I have a work personality and a non-work personality? May be I do… I snap quite a lot at home… I am a lot more patient with folks at work… hmmm that’s what I think.

~My nails look horrible…

~I should never get acrylic nails in my life.

~My fingers are crooked… They don’t look symmetrical at all… Sh*t my fingers remind me of my grandma’s fingers…

~OMG I am so sleepy… I am so sleepy….

~Why did I sign up for this?

~2:30…. It’s just 2:30?

~May be I should drink some water….

~Or may be a loo break…

~This is probably my hundredth yawn…

~I hate that my eyes water when I yawn…

~Why is it that my eyes water when I yawn?

~Damn it looks like I am crying…

~I should buy an iPhone… everyone owns one. It looks so cool… and I can find out why my eyes water when I yawn..

~Wow, that’s her 4th cookie… How can some people never gain weight? Why can’t I be one such person? I don’t even like sweets that much! No fair!

~I should work out more often… what happened to my drive? I was so good with my work routine 2 years ago!

~Thank God they don’t make you take a test after this session

~This s*cks!

~2:40… WTF!

~Are we ever going to get a break?

~I should talk to V about going on a three-day trip after in-laws leave…. Miami? Key West? Puerto Rico?

~Let me chew gum… may be that will wake me up…

~I should start getting fruit-y flavored gums… Mint is not fun…

~WOW! Someone is asking a question?

~WOW! Someone is really listening…

~This reminds me of school and college…

~Fun times!

~At least we could bunk classes. I wonder how many afternoon classes I attended.

~How I wish I was in V’s** room….

~Aiyooooooooo… May be I should make grocery list…

I ended up making the grocery list… then thankfully we got a break… and the ordeal lasted another hour!

** - V is a very good friend of mine from college. We used to go to her house for lunch and invariably end up sleeping, watching a movie or just chilling out at her place post lunch. When our choice was to either sit through a class of System Software in a hot and sultry room… or to chill out in V’s room with air condition on full blast…. I guess we never had to think too hard.

Life with...

... In-laws has been going quite well *knock on wood*. I don’t want to say anything nice and jinx the way everything is going. I am pretty good at self-jinxing.

After having completed four weeks, I’d like to have said that I have learned to adjust, ignore and enjoy the company… but it’s staying at work really late that has helped me tremendously in the last one month.

Fortunately, the month of September is going by relatively quickly, as we planned few weekend trips. We kick started our series of trips with a visit to Florida. A day at Clearwater beach, couple of days at Walt Disney World and to conclude the trip, we took a river cruise at Fort Lauderdale, ogling at mansions of rich and famous.

Last weekend, the dutiful son took his parents to the Big Apple, followed by a pilgrimage to Niagara Falls. I stayed back and had some “No Thangamani, Enjoy!**” time with a friend of mine. It was so much fun to finally have the house to myself and have some down time.

This Thursday we are off on an 11-day trip to the west. Plans include gambling in Vegas, seeing the Grand Canyon and spending some time in California.

After that, my countdown will drastically reduce to 6 weeks…! Given that there’s just three days before we start, is it wrong to think, “It’s just another 6 weeks before I can have my life back?”

***************************

“No Thangamani, Enjoy!**” - For the non-tamil speaking folks, this is a famous colloquy from a Tamil movie called Agni Nakshatram… The scene portrays a man rejoicing after his wife leaves him. At first he is quite dejected, but then he realizes that it can be such a bliss living without his wife. After I dropped the three of them at the airport last Thursday, I swear I said, “en maamiyar maamanar ooru vittu poyittango…yeehhahahahaha No thangamani, yennnjaaaiiii!”… (my mil and fil have left the town)

hmmm... Now does that look better?

Yep. I just completed an extreme make over for my blog. New look, New title.... Let's see if this change will make me write more often.

Lot of people complain that they don't like change. I feel I am completely pro change. I love the excitement. The feeling of starting some thing fresh. Looking forward to something new. In fact I get restless if there's a period of no change in my life.

I always look forward to moving to a new place, new house, new country, whatever. I know, it's crazy, who would want to go through the hassle of moving. I like everything except packing and unpacking part of it. I guess that's one of the reasons I never really got excited about buying a house.

I always get bored with my work. I haven't stayed in a job for more than 2.5 years. I've been in my current job for about 2 years and 7 months...

I get bored with hair styles. I have had some crazy hairstyles when I was young. I don't do ridiculous stuff now but I always have to get my hair chopped at regular intervals. It amazes me when I watch some of the makeover shows on TV to see some girls shedding tears when they see scissors touch their locks.

I rearrange my closet time to time.

I rearrange stuff in my kitchen cabinets time to time.

That's enough about me and my love for change. My point being, I was hitting a point with my blog where everything bored me. So there I changed it and whaddyaknow I have two posts in one day. All I can say is change works well on me.

Short Story

Nalini was proud to have the car all to herself; she could listen to music that she liked without her dad yelling at her “focus, FOCUS, Nalini!” She felt independent, strong and confident.

Being an only child, Nalini’s parents were over protective about her. They’d freak out if she didn’t show up home on time, so she had to call them every time there was a plan change or delay at work. Tonight, was different it was all worked out. Her parents won’t be worried about her, as they knew she’ll be coming late and that a friend, Preeti would be accompanying her on her way back from the party. Preeti lived two streets away and that put everyone at ease. Everything was going per plan and for once Nalini was not worried about the time or calling home. Only, Preeti decided to stay back a while longer and have her boyfriend drop her home instead.

It was her very good friend’s wedding party. She had so much fun catching up with some of her old classmates. It was past midnight now and she was driving down East Coast Road (ECR)… she turned up the volume on the radio and hummed along “endrendrum punnagai” She was in half a mind to roll her windows down and let the breeze from the near by sea in, but she decided against it. She was approaching a shady stretch of road ahead. Lorry drivers and roadside shacks and lot of drunkards. She kept her cool, what can happen when she is inside the car. Her palms were getting a little sweaty as she approached the red signal smack beside a “Wine Shop”. There were quite a few drunken men making noise on the road… she was relieved when the lights turned green and soon she was back in civilized neighborhoods.

A few kilometeres ahead, there was an intersection, she was completely confused which way to go... She had taken down directions in haste and Preeti had forgotten to mention this intersection. Luckily there was no one behind her, so she could get her bearings back and think about this. The area looked so deserted an empty, except few men smoking in front of a shop on the side. They stared at her shamelessly and Nalini quickly made up her mind… she couldn’t ask them for direction, they didn’t look trustworthy at all.. So she went with her instinct and turned left… not a good idea, there were potholes all over the place, there were no streetlights and at one point it just became a narrow mud road and then a dead end. Great, now she had to turn around… the road was so narrow that she had to turn and reverse multiple times… and at one point, the car went in to a pothole and she just couldn’t get it to move ahead. Her anxiety was not helping either. She noticed a few men ahead, starting to walk towards her car and she didn’t feel comfortable at all. They were in lungis and smoking beedis and they looked very unkempt. If only she could just get the car to move… she tried again, neutral, start, clutch, first gear, accelerate… and it was not enough, the car would jerk forward and stop. From the corner of her eye she saw that the guys were close by and they were talking and making some sort of signs to her. She closed her eyes took a deep breath… ignored them… until she saw that one guy had bent down and was staring at her through her window. She screamed and burst in to tears…. The guy kept knocking on the glass… she wiped her eyes and looked up… and then realized that they were signaling for her to calm down and roll the windows down. She didn’t know what to do, she went ahead and took the risk, and she rolled down the window... the guy asked her in Tamil… “Madam, where do you want to go? Looks like you are lost..tell me I can help you”. She blurted where she was headed and the guy calmly said that she was supposed to go right at the intersection and then pointing straight ahead he said “Madam, go straight past the signal and then third signal after that you will see Ganapati temple on your left, take a left there and that should put you on Mount Road. You know the way from there to your house?” She nodded and miraculously at that point she was able to get her car out of the big pothole and she drove past the men.

Later, when she was lying down on her bed, she kicked herself for not having thanked them.