I am so in love with this Korean serial - http://www.mysoju.com/boys-before-flowers/. I have a thing for subtitles now.:D

I wasn't a TV or Movie person until few years back. Had never come across the Subtitles option in the CDs/DVDs that we would rent in my town. Most of them looked pirated ones anyway. I got hooked to Subtitles after I watched a Korean movie on a air journey. So much so that I turn on Subtitles even for Hindi/English/Kannada movies now:p

At the Art Exhibition in Library when I was staring at asimilar picture , a Chinese woman asked me if I know what the picture is all about. I did explain her a bit about the picture. I don't know if I left her all confused or she jumped at the explanation of how many Gods and Goddess we have.I find Chinese Mythology and their beliefs(Blind-beliefs?) quite interesting. Theirs is as complicated and interesting as ours. I think I read those books of Amy Tan just to get more of Chinese culture and belief than anything else.

I always knew how little I know about Hindu Mythology, deities and epics. It would be interesting to know in detail about the picture and the Gods and Goddess in the picture.

PS: Thanks to all those who wished me on Birthday. I had an awesome Birthday. :)

Came across this song on YouTube and have been listening to it non-stop.

It is so soothing, so melodious.

Googled to find out about the singer as the voice didn't sound familiar. No doubt it is sung by someone less known (at least to me) called Hemalata.

.

_______________________________________________________________________________


I had only watched and listened to the above version of the song. I had no idea it was a Remix( wonder why?). Came across the original song and the video yesterday. Oh! look at the beauty and simplicity of the original one.

We snacked so much that we skipped the dinner.Needless to say it tasted awesome.

Observation- I get really obsessed with certain colors for few months.

Currently, the favorite is RED. If want to pep up myself, I pick Red.

I remember, for some part of last year it was GREEN.

The year before it was WHITE and PARROT GREEN.

Before that it was BLUE.

Way Before that it was YELLOW.

Way, Way before that it was BLACK.

Bendekai Gojju ( Ladies Finger sabji )

Kadlebele Payasa ( Chana Daal sweet dish )

Ambode ( kind of dumpling )

Khara Pongal ( Rice variety )

Kosambri ( Salad )

Tili Saaru ( Rasam )

Papad
(  The Platter  )

..has kept changing every 2 weeks.

The first pic was taken sometime in Feb. Little did we know how the bare tree will turn into a beauty in two weeks!



The Bare Tree


I have woken up to this beautiful sight for 2-3 weeks. I could sit and just gaze outside.

( ..and it bloomed! )

The little white petals are falling all over now. It is a beautiful, beautiful sight. Feels just like snow. The green leaves are showing up in the tree.

I will have to wait another year to see all these changes again.

How many times has it happened that you send a Forward and majority of the people who receive it reply back saying that they liked/loved/found it good?

Many of my Friends loved this Forward.


A long time ago, before the world was created and humans set foot on it, God had put all the human "qualities" in a separate room. Since all the qualities were bored they decided to play hide & seek.

"Madness" was one of the qualities and he shouted: "I want to count, I want to count!" And since nobody was crazy enough to want to seek "Madness", all the other qualities agreed. So "Madness" leaned against a tree and started to count:
One, two, three..." As "Madness" counted, the qualities went hiding. "Treason" hid in a pile of garbage.. "Lie " said that it would hide under a stone, but hid at the bottom of the lake. And Madness continued to count "... seventy nine, eighty, eighty one..." By this time, all the qualities were already hidden-except "Love ".

For stupid as "Love " is, he could not decide where to hide.

And this should not surprise us, because we all know how difficult it is to hide "Love".

"Madness": "...ninety five, ninety six, ninety seven..." Just when "Madness" got to one hundred..... ....."Love" jumped into a rose bush where he hid.

And Madness turned around and shouted: "I'm coming, I'm coming!" As Madness turned around, "Laziness" was the first to be found, because "Laziness" was too lazy to hide. "Madness" searched madly and found "Lie" at the bottom of the lake. One by one, Madness found them all - except Love. Madness was getting desperate, unable to find Love.

Envious of Love, "Envy" whispered to "Madness ": "You only need to find Love, and Love is hiding in the rose bush."

"Madness" Jumped on the rose bush and he heard loud cry. The thorns in the bush had pierced "Loves" eyes.

Hearing the commotion God came into the room and saw what had happened. He got very angry and cursed "Madness" and said since "Love" has become blind because of u... ..u shall always be with him"

And so it came about that from that day on, Love is blind and is always accompanied by Madness.!

Today's fortune: The guy who reads your fortune lost his psychic powers (and his job). We hope you are feeling lucky.

A week ago Orkut Fortune said this

Wonder what is coming next!

Two gifts that left me touched and made me happy:

A perfumer by G.

T-Shirt with words cheering for Obama by S and K.

I am a Restaurant person. I have never liked going to Food Courts which are invariably crowded anytime, any day. For the first time ever I was glad that Food Courts exist. Where else can you have Quesadilla, Noodles and Spicy Indian Chai in one place?

Today's fortune: The guy who reads your fortune is not feeling well. We hope you are.

:)

What about yours?

This is the longest I have been sick. Ever since I got back from vacation, I have been sick. The reason for the sickness has only got clear now. It was combined effect of my weak immune system which is a result of living here for over a year and few months, apartment problems and multiple allergies.

I had ever running nose/nasal congestion and shortness of breath because of which I had to see General Practitioner a week after coming here. The GP was a kind of cool doctor who even before examining me said that most people have shortness breath due to stress and asked me if there is anything that is bothering me. I strictly believe however ugly or bad it is- always be honest with doctor. So, I ended up telling him that I have cockroach problem in the apartment and I have been trying to get out of the lease from past 4 months. No amount of writing letters/emails had been useful and this is bothering me a lot. The light-hearted Taiwanese Doctor started smiling and saying, “I know how bad it is to have roaches in the apartment”. He narrated his tryst with roaches during his student days in dorm. I felt nice and good and had a laugh with him. He did general checkup and also found that I have some allergy. He referred me to an allergist and prescribed Boric Acid for roaches on a blue Post-It! He is the Sweetest Doctor I have met till now.

I got an appointment the week after with the Allergist. I continued my efforts to get out the lease. I started getting signatures from my neighbor’s about how difficult the whole ordeal of going through Pest Control is and how futile this procedure has been in the past one year. Meanwhile we also gave a 30 day notice. We believed we have strong/valid reason to get out of the apartment. We contacted the Tenant Rights and they weren’t of any help to us. May be they didn’t feel that we have good enough reason to move-out.


The time I spent with the Allergist was the longest I have been in any hospital/Clinic. He turned out to be just as sweet as the GP. Numerous allergy tests were done poking my back and arms. Guess what they found me allergic to….. roaches!!! (and few other things of course) . The intern was reading out the result and listing out the things I am allergic to…da, da, da, roaches you don’t have to worry about this as there is hardly chance that you will be near them. We were like….WAIIITT. …What did you say???!!! I didn’t know if I had to be happy about it as now I saw a silver lining…..WE CAN GET OUT OF THAT PLACE. The tests said I am allergic to roaches. Muahhhhh….:D Who ever heard of allergic to cockroaches?!!! It sounded as though it was just newly, freshly made up by God. Next thing, the doctor gave a letter to the apartment manager requesting them to let us out of the lease. I was holding the most important document in my hand. It was like a prisoner getting his release letter. I was ecstatic.


The same day I handed out the copy of the doctor’s letter to the apartment manager. Next day, before noon I had a mail from her saying that they are allowing us to get out of the lease as we seem to be doing everything possible under the Earth to get out of the place. Oh yeah, the newly, freshly invented allergy!


Here I am writing from our wonderful apartment. We moved a week ago. This place has got a nice view- blue skies and trees. I can sit here admiring it for long. Had it not been the roaches, it would have been difficult to move out of the place for I was quite attached to it as it has been our “First Home”.

As I walked down the stairs in my apartment sometime ago, a woman was sitting on the stairs. I asked her if she was waiting for somebody she said, "yes". I said," It is cold out here and you can come at my place. She looked dazed. She said, "No.No." I am not sure if she could understand English or she didn't like my offer. I said that I will be back in 5 min and she can think about it. She was not there when I came back and my neighbor's didn't seem to have come back either. Wonder where she went. Did she doubt my motive? Or was she tired of waiting and just left the place? Or did I scare her off??!!!!!!! If I did scare her off then bad for her. My God, I can scare people off!!!!! Feels good. But I guess it works at wrong time.

Just last Thursday I was at the Train Station sitting on the bench waiting for the train. Two teenagers- boy and a girl, sat right next to me though there were many more empty benches. The guy started smoking and the wind was blowing towards me and hence all the smoke was coming on me. I requested the guy twice if he could go and smoke somewhere else. He ignored me both the times. The girl also lit a cigarette and they both stood up standing to my left, facing me with an attitude, " Whatya Gonna Do to us? Come on." They were typical teens- guy with long beaded hairs, blue jeans which seemed to fall down any minute, thumping to the loud music and the girl with colorful dress, makeup and a backpack. I lost my cool. Here I was probably 10 years older than these kids and they are challenging me! If I think back, I know I look almost like teens here and not any older than them. :( I know this because, I have been stopped at times in bus asking that I put in more money for the ride. Anyways, I got up and said, " I requested you guys twice not to smoke here. You should learn to be considerate. I don't want to create any scene by calling 911".( Now I wonder if that is a valid reason to call 911 and also what are the smoking rules in California?) Next thing I knew was I was terrified- what if the guy pulls out a revolver? I pretended to make calls standing far away from them. So, this is the first time I kind of got into a tiff in a public place here.

Wow! I could write this in less than 15 minutes! :D

Wishing Everyone A Very Happy Valentine's Day.

It's Valentine's day tomorrow and I am sick with severe cold, allergy and fever. Needless to say that there won't be cooking and celebration. I didn't expect it to be a dull V-day at all. Oh, I so love celebrations. Sickness was totally unexpected. I had plans to go to SF just on my own tomorrow as A is busy this weekend. I have been so longing to go to SF since I got back from India. It is as though I can feel that something is calling/waiting for me there! Weird, eh? I have no idea what I am going to do tomorrow. Everyone else already seems to have a plan. I finished reading two books- Eat Pray Love and Reading Lolita in Tehran just yesterday and dropped them off at the library. I have no books to read as well. It is miserable to be sick on festivals/special occasions and not being to able to celebrate.

I so wish I get well and do all that I planned to do tomorrow. Otherwise I will probably write posts after posts!

I almost met God today.

I think I almost almost met God today.

This morning I went to a Spirituality center with a friend. I had an awesome awesome experience. I was there for only 20 minutes. Can that be just enough time? It may be be real. It may not be real. It could be just a feeling.

Feels like something has changed for me today. May be.

I though I will just make a note of it.

....Biologically, I don't know in what timezone I'm in currently.

Unending cleaning ...
Unending unpacking...

Ever hungry...
Ever Sleepy....

Wishing everyone a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year.

We got back last afternoon after grueling 18(+) hours of journey. I am sitting alone here at the dawn of New Year. More because I dozed off till late evening. Fighting Jet lag and all. Pictures and updates will soon follow. :)

Note: Written on 30th December, IST

We got a wonderful opportunity to visit Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan's home yesterday. A had been planning this for a week now. With A and me falling sick in turns, I was not sure that we would be able to make it.

We called on the Rickshaw we hire on a regular basis to take us there. Chaitanya, the Rickshaw driver had a vague idea of the route to the Major's home. We set out at 6.30 PM last evening. Picked a bouquet on the way. It was pitch dark as we started again. The house is quite far from Yelahanka and it is more like in the suburbs. It is advisable to visit the place in the morning than at night as the roads are not well lit.

We just wanted to drop the bouquet at the doorstep and get back. But as we reached there, we met Mr.Radhakrishnan, a relative of the Unnikrishnan's who invited us inside even as we asked him to just accept the bouquet. Inside the home they had placed Major's photo with his accolades. The Major's picture shone with great Brilliance and Radiance. Except for his Uniform, he looks like one of us. It was very emotional as we laid the flowers and letters in front of his picture. Mr.Radhakrishnan wanted to know if we knew Major. A said, "Yes, I am his friend." In a way, it's true. We don't know him personally but if we knew we would have been friends for sure. :)

Major, you will be remembered for long. You saved us from much more shame and humiliation. And I am just so glad that Taj is saved.

There was utter silence between us and within us as we drove back home.

36 hours and we will be heading to the airport. Time did fly really fast. Every day here was a busy day. For the first 25 days, I have slept only for 5-6 hours even on weekends. The schedule had been much more hectic than my usual routine back in California. I am all set to fly back. It's been a very long holiday!

Till last week, I hardly bothered/ had any reason to know what day and date it was. Needless to say, I am not up to date on what is happening in the world.


OK. Enough. I have been really trying hard to post something. Bear with me!