Kismis.. :)

From: Tina
Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 7:37 PM
Subject: Kismis.. :)
Bleary eyed was eying at the tasks to be done before leaving for wrk....
Maid had just made an entry and told something in telegu....
Normal conversation with maid goes something like this...

Maid : Telegu ...telegu ........bhabhi .....telegu....
Me : Ok ...Telegu radu (dunnot know telegu )
Maid : Phenyl telegu...telegu
Me : Phenyl khatam ho gaya ? Will be able to get only on weekend...Saturday....chalega
Maid : nods.
So after such attempts at communicating generally i am quiet thinking why to unnecessarily trouble her and myself....

Another day her conversation went...
Maid : Bhabhi ...hindi...
Me : Haan Hindi aatee
Maid : Telegu ?
Me : Little little..Koncham Koncham .(Actually know only Telegu Radu..)
Maid : Bhaiya telegu...
Me : Bhaiya telegu radu...(Now how to tell i knw atleast telegu radu , bhaiya does not know that too )
Maid : Kya bhabhi telegu telegu ( in a gist i guess...god knows how we will communicate)
So after a week of such conversation or rather no conversation

I braved and just attempted some more small talk...
Me : So baachee kaise? (thoda actions ke saath)
Maid : Telegu baache school etc etc telegu telegu
Me : Ohh Ok... (smiled sweetly)

Me gave up on small talk and went about with something in kitchen.

Maid : Bhabhi kismis hai ...
Me : (thinking - Gas connection bhi nahi hai ....She want to cook or what...No dry fruits also...Then dry fruits mein kismis se some cleaning. ohh maybe for kids) Kismis....Kismis kyun chahiye?
Maid : Nahi bhabhi....kismis telegu .telegu
Me : Kismis khane waala ...Pakane ke liye chahiye ?
Maid : Radu bhabhi ..kismis kismis....telegu telegu telegu..
Me : (Totally clueless)....kismis par weekend ko hii laa payenge ,....
Maid : radu bhabhi..

Both of us are looking at each other for communication gap...Almost at verge of giving up then realization dawned upon me...
Ekdum cartoon character zaise bulb jala siir ke uppar :)
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Me : CHRISTMAS .......Ohh ...Aap Christmas ke baarein mein pooch rahein ho ...
Maid : (thousand watt smile) haaa bhabhi
Poor thing was trying some conversation at her level too...
Me : Haa hain naa....(gave a brief description of x'mas)

Then we slipped back to oblivion ..i.e back to silence....
I guess we will take some more time to discuss abt "new year" or for that matter any other festival....but that will be another story...
Till then see ya and keep mailing

Take care
Tina :)

Being Engaged ;)

From: Tina

Sent: 10/11/07 02:48 PM

Subject: Being Engaged ;)

One of my friends asked that so do you feel engaged? I said yes ..Now slowly slowly i do feel engaged or committed.

On asking what exactly prompted the feeling ....i thought little bit abt it and then thought will better frame the answer in a mail.

Here are the reasons which include a bit on the wackier side :D

-- Of course phone bills increase and if you have pre paid then monthly bank statement seems like only prepaid recharges.

-- Guessing game starts whether whose SMS it is.

-- Everyone starts asking you are you all set for the 'D' Day.

-- ' What ur still doing in office ? ' or ' When are you going ?' As if ppl have nothing better than getting rid of me .

-- People are wondering whether you changed Orkut profile so as not to mislead others and if you have not changed then they want to know when you would.

-- All friends stop communication like as though you are hot potato... Like as though you are continuously on phone with ur would be better half. Thanks for the consideration :)

-- Casually ppl mention now you are going away from group or ur have already stopped communicating to the group. This esp after u have written a huge mail. And to top it all the explanation is 'It is expected that you would now that you are engaged.'

This was a mail which i almost did not send. but hope it makes out esp inspite of the mail sending restrictions ;)

Take care

Regards,
Tina :)

P.S : Ppl in cc will not get this mail ... If it can be reforwarded by some one that would be gr8 ..Thanks.

Marie Gold

From: Tina
Sent: 8/19/07 8:05 PM
Subject: Marie Gold

There are some movies that you should risk to see...some that are so inspiring that you can see multiple times...
But there are some which you should definately not see esp after seeing the rushes and promos...

Marigold was one such....
After seeing an good and inspiring movie.like 'Chak De' just a few days back....we went to see Marigold......

It was as bland as marie gold biscuit....
Salman was doing favor to be somebody by acting in it i guess.....atleast that favor was not to the audience...
Went with a couple of friends who were wondering what in the name of god was I thinking when i was taking the tkts....
They were like Rush hour 3 ke bhi lete toh burra nahi lagta....

Neways my sincere and warmest wish....try not to see marie gold in any decent theatre ..get a DVD or rent it yaar...

regards,
Tina :)

Aasman se uttare khajuuur pe atke....

From: Tina
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:46 PM
Subject: Aasman se uttare khajuuur pe atke....

(Rough recollections of my trip back from US to India.... Njoiiii broken Hindi /English Combo and yes Read at Leisure )

Aasman se uttare khajuuur pe atke....
thats what sums up my return trip back to India....
It is not that all these experiences can be termed as adventures but yea it does bring out the adventurous streak in me :)
Well it did not start with my getting to knw I am going back.... Well that will make the story more long .....
Let me start with the part when I came to knw abt booking my tkts....
As you know the policies which at that time pretty much i did not know ....
I thought if you send one mail summing up all your details then i guessed pretty much you can get the tkts....
But that was not the case instead I got templates of a couple of more documents saying that please fill up these then you will get the tkts....
So after all woh sab toh process hiii hai
Filled up a pile of documentation and send some mails then fielded some mails ...And after an all round performance at the mailing front finally travel desk came close to giving tkts....
I had asked for tkts from Newark to Mumbai....Instead after a couple of mails came to know that traveldesk is booking tickets for Newark to Delhi.....

After really being on the mail trail for the whole of morning when finally they came up with this option , 'had no option but to laugh' .....And patiently garner enough will to write a mail back saying 'Bhaiyon mujhe tickets mumbai tak kii chahiye Delhi tak kii nahi '
Sure enuf they rectified the mistake and gave me tkts from
New York to London to Mumbai....for the day after tmrw morning
Fair enuf ...only problem is that in London just hav one hour to transfer from American Airline s to Jet Airlines.....
And in I will have to catch the flight from New york , JFK which is kinda around 1.15 hrs frm where i stay and to top it all the flight timing is early morning 8.30a.m.
So counting that three hours earlier i have to be in the airport to catch international flight
and the time to reach the airport i would have to leave by 4.15 a.m.
Wow and then there were not many other options so had to go with this....as fortunately there was a flight from Mumbai to Pune .....though in mumbai i would have to wait for 6 hours.....
So monday all i was doing was fielding certain other sets of official mails running to my room and dumping my clothes and books (kaafi saare ikata ho gayein theey)
After all this and a quick lunch where some of my collegues had come down for a quick bye bye ....
then began the process of getting my bags to weigh 50 pounds...kuuch bhi karo jitna bhi books nikalo phir bhi it is showing more weight....

kapde nikal diye aur bas essentail stuff rakha phior bhi itna heavy .....
chocolates bhi nahi liye iss baar phir bhi itna weight.....
phir realise hua mera bag ka weight hii around 10 pounds hai ....
no time to change the bag.... after trying entire evening socha forget it ....clothes will buy new in india baaki ka reheno do and if over weight will pay that ,much ...tired of utak patak.....

My roomie was wrking late that day and was at a far office ...Toh by the time she came and one of my other friends came down it was close to 8.30 p.m
Phir socha jaake dinner karenge last waala kahi bahar...last time sakes....
As my roomie had to get a rental car for the next day ...she had to go to the Other state for project work....We went to get rental car.. All the places rental car agency was closed toh isliye we went till the airport.....
After going to a couple of rentals we got one at the airport....
Wapas aate waqt got stuck in traffic and then finally jab restaurant tak pahuche tab tak it was 11 and closing time....
Phir socha kahi toh khayenge....as all of us were really behosh with hunger.....
Then suddenly it started raining ...sudden thundershower kii hii kamiii thee
Bhaag bhaag ke phir wohi pe TGI mein chalein gayein and fast fwd mein order kiya but by the time we finished it was close to 12....
Wapas ghar pahuche and by the time I was close to going to bed it was 12.30 a.m.
Still worried abt the overweight bag ..went off to try to sleep for 3 hours as had to get up by 3.30....Roomie also had to go early . Both of us were not at all sure whether we will get up...
As I was worried kii i will miss the flight mere ko need hii nahi aa rahee theee...
Ghar pe bhi bolke rakha kii please mujhe utta dena aur mobile ko loud mei set karke sone kii koshish kii ....1.30 neend hhiiiii nahi aa rahee ...arrey yaaar ab toh so jao otherwise how will you catch flight.....
phir bhi no use....then finally around 2.15 aankh just lag rahee theee....tab ghar se call aaya at 2.30 uttane ke liye ....
arrey yaar 3.30 ko uttana tha ......
somehow i sent a msg and tried to get some of the remaining sleep.....
hazy hazy sleep mein finally 3.30 ko alarm ring hua....
neend kii toh watt lagee thee ...Got up ...woke my rommie ......checked for etkt....and finally took a couple of printouts and got ready.....
Final mein bhi weight check kiya toh overweight....
Fit of irritation mein khola ...jo samne dikha nikal diya and closed the bag....
Reached Airport....checkin kii toh bhayanak line chal rahee theee as they were giving first priority to a flight which was going in an hr....
after almost dozing dozing in the line finally checked in the luggage....hurrah overweight utna nahi tha....cool
somehow finished the security check inspite of the bag reached the final stage by 7.00 a.m.
Then begins the long wait for catching the flight....ek coffeee piii rahee huun uske baad doosre and almost trying not to fall asleep....uss beech mein jitne bhi log jagein theey sab ko call maara to say final good bye.....final US good bye :)

Finally got into the flight and got the middle seat with hatte katte ppl next to me all sleeping .....
and me for some reason no sleep at all.....
Took of and don't remember seeing final stages of US.....Just remember waiting for some one to get something to eat is as I was dying of hunger.....

Finally khane peene ke baad squeezed to sleep toh need hii nahi aa rahee hai
It was a 6 hours flight and managed to get an hr worth of broken sleep...

There was an American lady beside me and she was also on her way to Scotland....
We were discussing abt the next stage of our trip ..She abt her missing the flight and re-booking ,hence she would have to stay at the airport till next morning ...Me telling her I have a flight in an hour after we land in London .......she was like Pray that you get the flight....

Thats when it sank in kii agar flight nahi mila toh ....
We landed at Heathrow 20 mins late at 8.50 p.m local time and my flight was at 9.30....p.m.

Finally just ran out of the flight when everyone started disembarking .....
Actually had planned to explore Heathrow before going on to catch the flight.....
I barely saw Heathrow....Just ran with my backpack on me ....

International connections dikh gaya .....i was like wow this will be quick....
Door se Jet ke bhi flight nazar aa rahee thee.......Ran with the backpack....which of course seemed to weigh like a ton....

It was close to 9.00 p.m.....Ran around a flight of stairs ...managed to keep up in the line ....
Ran Ran par rasta khatam hii nahi ho raha hai ....
Reached ground floor and then again ascended up the flight of steps...
All I can see is International connections....Finally from far of I saw Air India..Jet Airways and Some more....
Cool ab toh pahuch jaayega....
Finally cleared the security check ....Door se hiii ready ok ....relay race kiii tarah bhaag rahee thee....Removed shoes dumped belt..removed cell phone and put the bag aside....
Poora check ke baad ....bhagtein bhagtein dumped all the cell phone , belt into the bag and just squeezed into the shoe and ran towards the Jet counter...

I guess there was a Indian /Paki lady there ... I asked her...'Please can you tell me the boarding gate for Jet flight to Mumbai."

Then she replied in the amazing Brit accent.... " Can I see ur boarding pass"
Showed it to her and then she was like ..."I think it is too late for Checkin"...
I was like ...."Checkin...who asked for checkin....It is through checked in "

Still she was saying the same thing ..."It is too late for checkin ..."
Me : " I have to catch a connecting flight after this ...If I miss this then wht"
She : Checking with someone on walkie talkie who was not responding to her at all "Ground _ to Flight Boarding "
No response...
Me:" I have to catch this flight and I am not responsible for My American Airlines flight being late..."
She : "Ground _ to Flight Boarding ".
Still no response ...after wasting 3-4 crucial minutes...finally someone replied.....
She : " I have got a passenger who is trying to checkin for the flight..her Name is _"
From there : "She is through checked in..She can come directly"

She :" Ok thanks" and to me " You can go ahead"
Me : " Same question I am asking which gate number ?"
She : "Ohh Gate number is 42..But you gotta hurry.....it is just 15 mins for the flight to take off.."
Me : "Thanks" ...(Of course no thanks for wasting my 10 mins)

Ran from there towards gate 42....
Just glanced through a bustling HEathrow with lots of restaurants and shops...And me could not explore a single one :(

In airports just like our Central escalators there are horizontal escalators....
Just so that it enables you to cover more ground in the airport....
Unfortunately for me those things were also not working ....

Wishing that I had the backpack with wheels ...Ran....
1-10 here... 10-20 there...
But no sign of 42.....
All the escalators were not working .....

In US there were a new type of shoes for kids which was intorduced I guess last year ..
It was a high point of all the kids dream...
Sport shoes with one wheel at the end....in such a way that you can walk normally and if you tilt you leg at the heal then you can slide too.....
So in a way you can skate away :)
Wish I had a shoe like that :D

Finally after running and dragging my backpack along with me ....i reached the other end of the airport ..
ab toh 42 dikha .....par woh board hii tha....couple of flights climbed karke finally saw 42 and saw that I had 4-5 mins to spare....
Finally saw the flight and I was ready to drop...
Met a couple of flight karamchari who fast fast mein ushered me to the flight....

Just found my seat and dropped into it with my backpack....
And was in a situation kii mujhe paani do....

Got water and adjusted to sitting on my seat ...Finally was getting my equilibrium back .....
But the flight left after good 15-20 mins later .......

That was a close call......

Itna adrenaline pumping ho gaya kii neend toh sab bhaag gayee...
Finally after take off ....
Saw back to back couple of movies and also one of my fav serials re run...thinking kii ab india jaake yeh dekhne ko nahi milega..... :P

Barely made up with another hour and a half of sleep in between the movies food and announcements....

Finally landed in Mumbai....after the landing immigration went to claim the baggage ....
After waiting for almost hf an hour and searching all the bags which were coming ....finally a lot of the JET folks came to knw that our baggage had not arrived with us....

The whole multitude who caught this flight as a connection with British and Lufthansa and of course me with American did not have their luggage....
Finally after standing in a long line with other passengers got a form filled it with the description of what all could be there in the bag.

After another half an hour came close to submitting the form .....
I was worried that I would not be making the Pune connection waala flight....
as it was close to 14.45...
Some how submitted the form and finished security check and got out to go to the domestic terminal.. By then the mumbai heat was catching up....Finally after standing in an amazing big line to go to domestic terminal, got a seat in the airport bus to go to domestic terminal with the lady issuing a new boarding pass for me...
Reached the Domestic terminal with an hour to go to 16.30
In that hour met up with a UK groom going to Bangalore whose entire wedding trousseau was in the missing baggage
It is when your waiting or getting bored that you do feel amazingly sleepy....
That was what was happening to me too....
After having a extraordinarily priced coffee, finally it became 16.30 and still no boarding call....
Ohh did I doze off during the boarding call .....
Went and checked with the Flight attendent and she was like the call will be made for the flight at 16.30... I showed her my watch and said it is 16.30 p.m.
She is like no ma'm it is 14:00 .... It took me a while to click that still my watch was at the US time zone....
Feeling really sheepish , thanked her and was wondering how to complete the next 2 and 1/2 hrs without sleeping .....
Another amazingly pricey coffee and after that another amazing pricey sandwich and walking around the domestic waiting area and reading a couple of news papers somehow provided relief...
Offcourse a couple of times did almost doze off... but the scare of missing the flight woke me up....
Finally mushkil se woh 2 and 1/2hrs katein and there was a boarding call for Pune flight....
Somehow got my window seat in a practically empty flight....
Started dozing almost immediately....
Remember seeing cloud laden mumbai from up above and then remember getting up at Pune .....
Somehow in the hazy recollection got out of Pune airport ....Thanks to no luggage did not have to wait in the line .....Met my family ...Nice to get rid of the backpack....
Albeit they were more worried abt my luggage than me.....
As long as woh backpack nikal gaya I was no more worried....
Remember seeing the last of Pune Airport and slight showers in Pune welcoming me i guess....and then I dozed off till home.......zzzzzzzzzzzzz........

P.S : Got my luggage...Not that much of Jet Lag bas climate change ke wajah se Viral Fever ho gaya ...

Hungry Kya?

Phew !!! There was no way I could recover what I wrote earlier...
Did not save the draft so lost all that I had written.
So essentially the topic is the same, though the way the personal comments that have been written is different.....
---------------------------------------------------------------
It all began with a lunch time discussion on whether Maggi contains MSG(Monosodium Glumate) or not.

For a person for whom Maggi is the Quick fix meal... knowing more abt maggi is the big thing...
So it came as a surprise when someone mentioned that there is no MSG in maggi atleast not in the nutritional info given in the packet.(Here in US all foodstuff should have the calorie , fat,etc marking in the package cover.)

Maggi being the intial manna for most of the 'onsiters', this was something which did not gel well with what I had read somewhere... Also inspite of the fact that it contains MSG we all have it and can cook it in a variety of styles. All that differs is the water and veggie content...

So we have maggi in south indian style with tadka, or maggi in north indian style with garam masala or maggi in chinese style with soy sauce or just plain old maggi....

Coutesy google did find some more abt MSG and Maggi... which of course have pasted below for FYI.

http://thepaintedchef.blogspot.com/2007/01/fridgesaver-1-noodles-with-stir-fried.html

the MSG thing: look carefully at the packaging of the product you pick up. More often than not, it'll say :NO ADDED MSG. This doesn't mean that they haven't added any MSG. There IS the requisite amount of the vile thing needed to add shelf life and viscosity to the product. It's clever marketing meets semantics. If it were 100% MSG free, it would have said: NO MSG ADDED. It's that simple, it's that complicated.

http://www.nestle-family.com/maggi/eng/maggi_faqs.aspx

http://www.thetasteofasia.com/products.asp

Just wanted to share the info too.

As I was going through this thats when I started visiting the food blogs..
For a foodie that I am this seemed to be a real nice treat..
Especially since I am hungry... Have given below the links I visited in the order of visiting them.

http://thepaintedchef.blogspot.com

http://chachiskitchen.blogspot.com/

http://www.chubbyhubby.net/blog/

http://www.seriouseats.com/

Browsing through some of this I am really hungry u know....
So off I go for lunch and probably you can also njoiii some of these atleast.

Warm Regards,
Tina.

Another name for heaven... :)

"Where are you ? " A friend called up and was asking me...
I am in 'Barnes and Nobles' I said...
"Wow tumhare liye toh woh jaanaat hii hoga"
Yup it was heaven ...or rather very costly heaven...:)

Barnes and Nobles is "You have got mail" ka Tom Hank's Book Shop.
Swanky book shop a couple storied building...with Starbucks(one of the premier coffee shops)
You can get or browse a book and get a cup of coffee with brownie in hand...of course for us we would have preferred masala tea and samosa :)

I was on my way to buy a gift in the Mall and decided to go to Mall which housed 'Barnes and Nobles' as 'Barnes and Nobles' is easily opened till 11 p.m.

I just did not want to go home so soon as after going home there was nothing much to do.
So instead I went to explore Barnes and Nobles...

Similar to CROSSWORD in india... though the CROSSWORD I went to, had a coffee shop outside the shop...

So was browsing books from one end to other end...
Then went to CD-DVD section where you can hear some songs on the headset like how we used to do in CROSSWORD or PLANET-M.

The books seemed pretty expensive...Hard cover toh aur bhi...
After lot of search got a couple of books from Bargain Section usmein se finally fixed on one which I could read as well as keep.
By then I was almost late as I had come directly from office..

But that was a nice evening in Heaven (though buying wise it would have been very costly)

hope you guys get to see some heaven yourself sometime.

Take care
Tina. :)

Informative Ride...:)

There I was in the freezing cold. There was a glimpse of spring last week, when finally all of us were sighing from relief that winter and snow and cold was all over.....But that was not the case as it grew cold foggy and rainy with spells of thundershowers this week...Today was no different, though there was no rain but the wind was just as bad...It was freezing and nut that I was had forgotten the gloves and the ear muffs at home.

Morning had seemed so fine till I reached the train station. The wind just chilled .... I never knew where my nose and ears were before this.....Wow... I just wanted to reach home to a warm cup of tea and offcourse a bed where I could just wrap myself with a couple of blankets.... But I had left office late and just had to finish an errand. It was pretty almost 7.30p.m.. Roomie was not feeling well and I did not have the capacity to let alone cook but even boil water for tea.

Finally called and we decided that I pick up some food since I was already outside and she could pick me up from station.
So went and picked up some food for dinner. As I was waiting for 'To Go' parcel to be made ('To Go' maney parcel leke jaaana) in the restaurant, I decided ab itnee thand mein there was no way i was going to station. Toh gr8 that I was I called the cab, I had exactly 20 dollars.(Whenever I need it, I am always short of cash)...I was dead cold and the restaurant seating area was colder while I was waiting for my parcel to be done....

I called the cab and the first fellow did not understand the indian restaurant I was speaking about. Told me to find out the correct address and call him back. Gr8 i thought ...
I was so so irritated...
The next was a desii cab, called them and asked Kitna lagega....bolein twenty Daalaars only...
(I know 20 * 50 = 1000... i stopped that conversion long back :D neways ab toh 43 hai rate :D :D )

I was like kaam nahi hoga...then he was like ok jee 19 $.. I felt foolish as though I am in some bhaji market....
I was like ok ..He said he will be on his way in 10 mins...

ok by that time toh khana bhi aa jayega,...
Kaafi chakkar kaatein ...saw lots of aunties, uncles with kids going to restaurant and coming back...
Then came a jhund of aunties who started 'Khem cho ' 'Khem cho' to each other..
Finally I went to the lady of the restaurant, got my parcel and then again the waiting game began ...
10 mins ho gayein .....I knew these ppl would do like this...
My old roomie used to call this cab and used to be horrified at their lack of punctuality....
It was soon becoming twenty mins...Trying to take a deep breath in and out from my already frozen nose....
I was trying not to lose my already high temper....

Just when I was about to call, the fellow called...'Ohh jee aap kaha rukhein ho ' ....
I was 'mein bahar aa raheee huun, ruko jaara'

I got into the cab ..what a relief...it was warm inside...car mein heater on tha... :D
And there was a sardarjee with a cap..playing bhangra on the Cab CD....
After giving my destination, I was looking out of the window figuring out kab tak pahuchenge...
Then he said ..iss restaurant ka khana aacha hai ..
I was 'jee haa theek theek hai'
Then there was silence with only that bhangra playing...

I was thinking bechare ne ek sentence toh bhi courtesy sake ke liye bola..
aur mein M'em ke jaise usko kaat diya....

Soch rahee thee kii kya poochun...
Then I said..'Yeh bhangra kaunse album ka hai ' ( 'What a stupid question to ask as if I will know the difference ' I thought)
No bhangra played after that... I was like aarey meine kuuch galat poocha kya kii he thought I got offended by the song kii usne shut down kar diya....
Phir woh bola 'This is Bhangra Club' or something like that...The pause was he was taking out the CD to read the name...

Then gana again continued...
Cabwallah (CB) : 'Aap Gaane maane bhangra suntein ho ? '
Me : 'Jee haa kyun nahi' (Isliye toh poocha - I thought)
Me : Aap movies dekhtein ho...(Neone knowing me will know that it is standard question...If not that then books padhtein ho but here it did not seem likely)
CB : Jee haan aap boliye hum toh dekh liyein honge. Aap ne kaunsee latest dekhii
Me : Meine toh 'Namastey London'
CB : Jee meine bhi woh dekh lii ...ekdum punjab dikha rahein theey...
Me : Toh punjab mein aise hota hai ...
CB : Haan jee bas aise ...then he paused and thought 'Well not exactly like that'
Me : Well shayad Dilwale Dulhaniya type hota hoga Punjab mein
CB : Exactly....Abhi toh filhaal koi khaas movies toh nahi hai ..

Recent research toh well updated I thought I will show off a bit :D

Me : Woh nayee movie aa rahee hai .. Tara Rum pum pum...Yash Raaaj
CB : Haan woh it is a copy.
Me : Arrey only casting is similar to Hum Tum.
CB : Haa woh toh hai par it is copy of English movie..
Me : (Wow yeh toh mein nahi jaante thee) Kaunse movie...
CB : Taradega Nights...
Me: Taraaa dega Nights ...kaunsa language hai ?
CB : Arrey yeh English hai ...Will Farrel hai
Me : (Ohh wow kya up to date hai) Ohh aisa kya..Will Farell kii toh last week Blades of Glory release huey theey....
CB : Haan yeh last 6 months mein release huey hai...
Me : Ohh ok ..Toh uskee copy hai ...
CB : Haan ..( in short poora english movie ka story ho gaya ) Par knowing Hindi movie it will be emotional
Me : Kyun english was not ?
CB : Nahi english was comedy...
Me : Ohh Ok... ( Then trying to make up for the lost ground ) Kaafi saaree movies aa rahee hai.. Isss haftein toh Shalaka Boom Boom release ho rahee hai .....
CB : Haan jee ...usmein Bobby hai naah..
Me : Haan.. Upen Patel bhi haii naah
CB : Haan Pata nahi usko kyun liya hai ....
Me : Haan all multistarrer mein toh woh hai ...36 China Town mein bhi hai...
CB : Haa Bobby kii toh bahut dino ke baad aachee movie aa rahee hai ...Sunny bhi aacha actor uskee saare movie hit ho jaate hai...
Me : Sunny ka bhi toh koi nayee movie aaye hai
CB : Sunny kiii ...woh kaunse ...
Me : Nahi meine nahi dekhi just saw some song being played with Priyanka Chopra..
CB : Arrey woh toh release nahi huey hai...
Me : Ohh ok...
CB : Waise woh Abhay Deol bhi accha actor hai ...Ahista Ahista mein aachee acting kii hai Woh bhi apne Taujee pe gaya hai..Aapne dekhii hai ...?
Me : Haan aachee movie hai ...Delhi is shown pretty nicely.. jee haan meine dekhii hai ...Socha naa tha bhi dekhii hai ..Waise he is cousin of Sunny n Bobby..
CB : Haa aap Virendar ko jaante hai
Me : ??? (Bobby , Sunny ka aur bhi koi bhai hai kya i thought ...how come I was not knowing...website waale itnee research nahi kartein kya) Virendar kaun
CB : Arrey Virendar, Dharmendar ka bhai ...Poora Punjab jaanta hai
Me : Ohh I did not know his brother was an actor..
CB : Jee woh aacha actor tha Punjab ka...
Me : Ohh ok ...Comedian thaaa?
CB : nahi nahi woh actor tha..emotional and all very nice...
Me: Ohh mane he was Dharmendar of Punjab...
CB : Sahii kaha ...But he expired at a young age...
Me : Ohh
CB : But Abhay seems good...All of them are acting in some movie..
Me : (Shining maarne ka ek aur mauka) Haaanjee 'Apne' ...
CB : Jee haa ..then he went on saying some famous comedians of Punjab are there....(I could find only Sindhu 's name which I knew...)
CB : Comedy toh bahut kaam log aachee se karte hai ...
Me : Jee haa.. Yash Raj kee kaafii movies aa rahee hai ..
CB : Haan last movie unkiii Dhooom....baadi bakwas thee...
Me : hmm but nothing like Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna...
CB : Jee Haan but that movie was boring ...that was also copy...
Me : Jee haa
CB : Waise my fiance is from Kerala
Me : Ohh is it? thats nice....(How is it that when people meet you there are always remotely connected to the place you are from..even if you know that they might not be true.)

Neways sum and substance was that he knew a lot more about movies...
Did not realise that my home came so soon...
Had a very informative and unusual conversation with that person...
Then when I gave him the 20$ and told keep the change as idhar tip bhi dena padhta hai ...
Toh he said nahi jee meine toh aapko pehle bhi kaha tha 19$ isliye you will have to take 1$
Waise yeh meriii hii company hii hai ...you can call us ne time ...
This is our card....

I thought sahii hai bhai...
Neways wished him good night and told him had a wonderful time...

P.S : Next day did find out that ...
1) That Tara Rum Pum is a copy of English movie..."Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" in which Will Farrell is there ......
2) Abhay Deol is son of Dharmendra's brother Ajit Singh Deol... And Virendar was a very famous Punjabi actor....Now if Virendar and Ajit Singh Deol are the same... No idea...:)

This is a long pending post...cya and hope you all have a good weekend...

Just reminiscenes...

A whiff of the tadka, mustards splattering and curry leaves crackling....and pressure cooker just finished whistling...
in another 10 mins mum calls out to have dinner with warm rice and hot sambhar and crisp papads ofcourse accompanied by the side veggies and pickles...hmm a vision drawn from some of the stored memory which i did not know existed....

It just came as a flash ...when i was making or rather trying to make sambhar... I never knew I relished the dish till I craved for the one mum made...Trying to emulate or rather get the taste of mummy's food..

For guys like us it is lot easier...market mein jao , packet lao, kholo , gholo aur ban gaya tayar ekdum jatpat...Upma toh totally easy...

So courtesy MTR Masala Powder , Sambhar was tayar and roomie was khush kii ekdum sahii sambhar hai but i was like yeh aisa nahi hai ghar ka ..yeh toh hotel ka sambhar lag raha hai ...

Next time I called up mum, I was like Maa what do u put in the sambhar..I know there is drumsticks and managed to get tamarind too also asafoetidia(Hing - i never get the spelling right) .Now we get it here in powder format also but how do u make right from scratch sambhar ? And mum is like you crossed seven seas to have dal and sambhar...didn't u have it enough when you came home...Go try some Pizza, Pasta or whatever they eat there ....

So long now am trying to make do with sambhar made by me till i can get back and hack into the trade secret...

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The weather is so so cloudy ...ekdum apna aug-september ke rain jaisa....I came to office and not a soul around...It was good 15 mins later that my next door collegue and I realised that we both are around and said Good morning...

With him wondering why is the office like a tomb ....Probably because of the spring break or i guess weather is bad bolke..

Feel so sleepy..and it is ekdum right weather for crisp bhajias and steaming masala tea....
although massala chai toh door kii baat....lunch mein onion rings bhi nahi milein ...
Onion Rings ...American equivalent of bhajiye..where huge rings of onion are soaked in egg milk and pancake batter..though i guess nothing can beat the true flavor of besan soaked onion rings...ekdum indian style...

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First Snow.......

Today Jan 18th I actually felt snow...as in real life :)
All this while in movies where you could just imagine how it is to snow.
The experience was different if you could say exhilarating ....
While coming to US it would have been in one of my wishlists....

Though with no sign in Nov or Dec, when H and Y were saying abt how it would be lovely to have white x'mas......I thought it would be one of the things I would not be destined to see much less feel it....

Of course there have been many false alarms and that kinda had me feeling that obviously i would not be able to see it.

It all started yesterday..By the looks of it, it was gloomy and looked like it would rain terribly...
But the had put a lot of salt in the parking lot...
Thats when Y mentioned that they do that when ever there is an impending snow forecast..I was like let it atleast snow...else all this is just false preparation...
But the temp was dipping and we were on our way back from lunch...when wisps of snow was falling...

I thought it was raindroplets falling as they were few and far between and b4 touching the car glass it would be water...

So i thought that it was just some raindrops
Thats when they said.."Looks like Tina will be able to see some snow"
I was like they call this water snow...
It was so tiny that it looked more like dandruff( for the want of a better word)

With pictures of what snow looked like in my science class text books i was surely on the verge of disappointment when Y mentioned that internally snow flake did look like that ..

But it looked gloomy and it really did look like there would be a thundershower...

One we got back to the office and into our cubes, it was as good as being locked somewhere..

Thats when I saw ppl gathering near the windows...it looked like heavy rainfall but it was actually snowing those tiny wisps.

Thought of going downstairs in the open to see or rather feel the snow..but we had a meeting..

The conference room is at the edge of the floor where except for the entrance all other sides are glass windowed.. So as the meeting progressed it was good to see snow falling with snow almost as big as hailstones....it was nice though it did melt by the time it reached the ground.

For quite some time all of us were looking at the snow...

By the time the meeting was over the snow was over and the ground looked more like it had rained....

On my way back it did not snow at all and that was the last forecast for the day.. I was like ohh no ...

Today I almost overslept..(i did actually) and groggily when I got up and saw outside it was white...Just like in Home Alone :D.. Cars were covered and evergreens also.. I was wide awake before convincing myself that it was after all now a dream. On my way to work slowly treading the ground...as you could have a good slippery fall on the snow esp when my sport shoes did not have any grip :(

It was sunny and all the white snow though just a cm layer... It was amazing view and for once in my life I regretted that I do not have a camera...Phone camera is real blurred.

Neways hunted up the internet for equivalent pictures so that you could also see what I saw.. Hopefully I could fill you in with real pictures.

As I was walking the snow layer used to crumble. It was at the station that temptation got better of me. Removed by hand from the glove and touched snow.. It just crumbled n it was cold you know. But it was so nice and flaky... And so guys n gals First Snow is here ....

I am not disappointed though I still have to stand while the snow is falling just like in movies :D

Felt like sharing the feeling with all of you esp since ppl I called up to tell were not around... :D

So now i guess it is one of the wishlist items which has been checked (as in a tick mark)..........

Here to more items to be ticked ............

Cheers,

Tina :)