Smile to light up ur life

Today, I realised how profound the statement is ..
" A smile can light up the face "..
After a long time met up someone and smile perked up everything she said to me ...
Atleast brought out the positives in life and allowed me to refocuss on
"God's in his Heaven n All's right with the world!"
Things will work out.....i.e eventually ..

A wonderful day... :)

Its a wonderful day... Just something that you keep it save in your memories..
And a nice one to look back on ...
Just remembering a good time and chill out on best times ahead...
Awoke to get ready to go church ... Sleepy wishes were passed..
Got the coffee ready and sipped in the wonderful morning tranquility..
Spent time draping saree..(wearing it after couple of months hence the time factor)
Just finished 5 mins before the start time of the mass.
Warm wishes from the near and dear ones ... And yea we raced to be in time for the morning mass.
Breakfast followed in 'Taj Mahal restaurant' ... a place we hadn't visited in a while..
After which went to supermarket ..You bought milk and I did not want to spoil any surprise (not that i needed to worry about it) so was attending the wishes on phone...
After which on reaching home ...came the flowers :)
Nice to receive flowers ...though I guess I first worried about the expense... :)
But sometimes should give a miss to trivial issues of cost when the thought behind it is comforting :)
Got some more calls with some more warm wishes and some thoughtful messages.. Nice to be remembered.
Black forest cake followed ...after which there was not much appetite for lunch...
So cancelled plan of going out for lunch.

Instead had a light lunch ( if you could call it light) ...phulkas, egg roast, onion tomato raita plus pickle and yesterday's mango dal..

Wore the new salwar kurta for which we searched quite a bit for matching aqua marine duppata..
Finally found that in "Fab India" when we went to shop yesterday as ur treat...

Then you humoured me by taking me to "Walden".....Checked out books and bought some..
Took part in a lucky dip..
Bought some plum cakes for taking to office tomorrow to distribute it to team..

Then we were doing time pass browsing "Home Town" wondering how to redeem the Rs 25 parking ticket..
But got the news that dad's wallet was picked in his ride on the local train to catch the passenger.
However no major harm as no debit or credit cards though caused some anxious moments both here and back home.

Then when all was fine browsed through "LOFT"... just to check out and in search of the elusive pair of shoes... However nothing worth the price.
Left for " Our Place "..but we lost or rather did not remember the turns and gave up going there for dinner..

Instead went to "Uttupura" and had parotta and kadala and chicken curry ...:) I know cheap and modest treat but what to do since we could not find "Our Place".. Maybe that will be for some other time ..

Came back.. perused the books..got a call regarding the dip and saw the new serial "Custom Made for Vir Sanghvi"....
Nothing exceptional but a wonderful day...
Thanks for humouring me to go to all the shops esp on a Sunday evening ..

Wonderful yet simple though tiring way to spend a birthday :)

P.S(8th Aug 2009) : We won the Rs 1000 gift coupon at Walden ..Splurged today on books again :)

Of Shock Treatments...

From: Tina

Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 3:29 PM

Subject: Of Shock Treatments...

I think it began as a normal day…. I did get out from the left side of the bed.
But I don’t know whether there was anything different in the day… No trailer there …

It went right I guess with getting ready for work.. having breakfast sitting on the table.
As usually breakfast is done in combo with dressing up.
So I felt it was a nice morning where I have 2-3 minutes to spare ..chewing breakfast instead of gulping it down.

Took the bag, the cell and fortunately no umbrella. As anyways I guess the rains are gone.
Reached station with enough time to cross over to other platform using the overhead connecting bridge as compared to running over the tracks..

I guess the train is late…
A wonderful sunny morning…..Oops I said it too fast.

Met one of my colleagues at the station. She was not feeling well and hence was in this train having missed the earlier one.
Then with sore throat she asked whether I went to ATM last night..

I was like “No..Why “ …Seems like all the gang went to our local ATM to withdrawn money at midnight as they heard the bank has crashed.
There were a lot of crowd. Only for the fact that there were no shops opened, ppl were roaming as though it was 9 in the night instead of 12 in the mid night.
She was wondering how come I had not heard about it …

Wow I said had no idea about it … And for me no option as I have only a single bank so agar woh gaya toh gaya :)

Though I convinced her in order to alleviate her feelings that there is no need to panic as it is a big bank with so many ppl’s salaries, etc
So there is no need to worry… but in my mind I was like “Wow Lehman ke baad yeh…”
Anyways things were fine and no need to create unnecessary tension as by then train arrived.

As usual at the entrance of the ladies platform there were few students debating whether to get down at this station or the next one.
All were standing at the entrance.. I don’t understand why do ppl create unnecessary hindrance especially at the door.
Not allowing ppl to get out nor ppl to get in. Somehow with pleas falling at deaf ears I squeezed through the middle rod of the door and felt something different.

Probably for the fact that my head hit somebody’s elbow or hand.
I looked at my bag in order to get that in front of me and then saw….

If there is a sub conscious mind working then I guess after this moment it was the sub conscious that was working as I guess I was pretty numb consciously.

What I saw was that the pocket flap which contained my cell phone empty.
Generally if I am wearing jeans, pants or coat with pockets, the cell phone resides there. For a brief moment felt maybe it is in the pocket.
But no I remembered putting in that pocket of the bag designed to hold the cell.

Then I saw at the entrance a thin boy roughly reaching a bit above my knees, standing at a door. I do not know what came over me but went and caught hold of his arm.
But they were empty. In my head I am chastising myself saying that it is not right to blame somebody even if it is a boy like this for no proof. I was going to give up when I just noticed his pant pocket and thought anyways have shamed myself. Checked and took out my cell from his pocket.

And the compartment entrance was like “OOOhhhhh”

I was still numb I guess with the cell in my hand and the little boy ran out from there….With the train starting it’s run.

All this happened in span of less than a minute but I guess it was subconsciously taken care of :)

Lucky for me that somehow I realized it. Not that it was Nokia N series or Samsung latest, but mera chota sa pyara cell phone with lots of contact details for which I had no backup.

But mostly we are not so lucky… I realized that I need to be more careful with my stuff especially while travelling in train.
And you need to be alert in an event of distraction as there are people waiting for those kind of moments.
And sometimes our misplaced sympathies are not worth it for people who do not care about the same.

If in doubt better clear it without being rude or hurtful though you might end up looking sheepish in case it is not right. Better wrong than sorry.

And yes the female students courtesy whom I got distracted and hurt my head, decided to get down in the next station.
A few seconds after getting my conscious brain on track, I gave them a piece of my mind for creating public nuisance.

So long I guess I am still numb… but good part is that the cell is there with me and instead of a “Lost cell – Give me your numbers mail” , I am just sending you the write up of the electrifying experience.

Ciao,

Tina :)

Thinking about tiffins

From: Tina

Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 5:04 PM

Subject: Thinking about tiffins

My latest past time is to read blogs (as you must have come to know by the mails I sent)… and notable among them being Food blogs :)

It generally helps to whip up an appetite for the cafeteria lunch..:)

Of course the downside is that it makes me feel the dishes shown there are easy to whip up.
So in order to surprise V, plan some different stuff to cook so that at least it is different from my usual routine khana.

Unfortunately, V ends up being shocked.

So after a few days of disasters, I mentioned that maybe over the weekend , I lost my special cooking skills.
As a result we were having disasters for the past week.

I knew the level of my skills, when V replied “Oh is it, were they not disasters before last weekend” :)

Just today when one of my colleagues was miffed about his mom not packing his lunch right, we all ended up discussing about Moms/Dads packing out tiffins.
I was thinking our moms(could be parents too ) were generally a class apart.

Dunno when they found time to whip up all the good stuff.
Not just breakfast but include a lunch and snack also for the evening apart from morning milk/tea.

Generally all I have time to whip up a safe breakfast of bread and omelets in the mornings.

But when we were in school, our mums used to send us to school with a tiffin bag. Tiffin bag containing a water bottle, short break tiffin , lunch break tiffin and Napkin.

And we people had enough nakharas like…

Short break tiffin will have something different from long break tiffin.
Short break tiffin will have something exceptional so that friends in the group share and say “WoW”.
Lunch break tiffin should have roti’s, Rice in rare scenarios permissible.
If Rice present then spoon also should be present.
If Rice present , curry should not drip out.
If Papad there then that should be in separate polythene.

Dunno how my mom found the time to give us such tiffin bags for all siblings, with rules directly proportional to number of siblings.

But I guess it is true that you start appreciating all this when you are trying to achieve one-tenth of what they used to do..:)

So long see ya.
Tina :)

Cooking -Male or Female Streak :)

From: Tina
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 7:27 PM
Subject: Cooking -Male or Female Streak :)

One of my friends sent out an email detailing a recipe he made over the weekend.
It was a well detailed account of how the subji had to be made….Some of the tadka rules which even I had missed out were listed there…

That set me thinking about when guys cook :) Strange about why it set me thinking…

But some of the guys I know cook real well :) somehow have the patience that lacks in general female.

One of the first male characters whom I saw cooking was not Sanjeev Kapoor (Khana Khazana fame) or Yan (From Yan Can Cook fame)
Though TV did popularize the two :)

It was Dad, who used to enter the kitchen to whip up something exceptional (generally deep fried ) when us kids and he had a holiday…
Basically when Mom was in office so that you get the whole day to cook and clean :)
But woe to us sisters who had to clean up after that…
Generally rules which coincided with the fact that it could be one of the lucky days when dad was cooking.
1) The kitchen was spotlessly clean.
2) Backup food was generally :) just in case of a disaster ( which generally did not happen)
Generally I guess men who have stayed as bachelors or with friends atleast some of them have a tendency to cook :)
One of the more ways to show off the creative side.
Most females (read moms) have generally come up with their own styles and fast forward tricks for the dishes they seem to dish out day in and day out.
Generally they are whipping up stuff daily just before the other household chores and before rest of the family gathers for dinner or an unexpected guest comes up.
Yet they are ready to dish out something from ordinary to something really exceptional.
Of course dad would also make something exceptional once in a while with us sisters as helpers and also audience.
Generally it used to be onion bhajji and by the time mom used to be back from office the spotless kitchen which she had left looked like Hurricane had just run through…:)
Then friends developed an interest to cooking…Guys generally I knew of some of them exceptional cooks some how things used to turn out good when they cooked.
Of course in guys generally they have thousands of ‘nakhras’ when they are at home and mommy cooks but when they cook no such thing :)
When ppl who enter kitchen once in a while cook they really dish out sumthing nice.. coz generally they take the own sweet time and patience required and the dish turns out voila ‘Nice’.
The carrot will be chopped at distinctly one inch piece…as though geometrically shaped. That onion and potato look like they have come out of geometry book instead of under knives..
So with lot of time and patience the time which probably likes of mom take to cook three dishes , our friends (read guys ) take to cook one :)
But seriously they have been better cooks though some of the stuff even beats them in terms of patience and notable in that is the desserts especially the ones involving Rice :)
This is not to start a post as to who is good and who is not…But generally cooking is what I consider one of the outlets to show creative outlets..
Guys or gals are good at it but the variation and cooking style differ in terms of who is cooking , how often and in combination with what all other things you are cooking…

Like in my case hopping from before the TV and kitchen :)
So long keep mailing and cooking or best eating :)

Warm Regards,
Tina :)

Disasters with cooking :)

From: Tina
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 7:36 PM
Subject: Disasters with cooking :)

They say ‘The way to a man’s heart goes through his stomach’ but if that’s the case then I guess I will never reach my hubby’s heart…
The type and edibility of the food I prepare is something which is highly debatable.

And ‘Amche Aaho’ comments that I cook in auto pilot…
Yea which is true I guess when Television is on but otherwise I do not think so...

Well missing putting sugar in coffee or putting too much sugar in tea is by default I guess…
But some curries turn out in such a way that he is forced to ask…exactly what this was before you demolished it.

Once it happened that I went ahead to cook cabbage by the time I turned on the gas and went ahead with putting all ingredients I realized I had missed out something and that ingredient was not available at home too. So went ahead with cooking just put some pepper. Got distracted while cooking and ended up with semi burnt sabji. :) That day at dinner convinced ‘Amche Aaho’ that I put extra pepper and that’s the reason for cabbage looking black…

Another day thought of making some dessert so tried Gulab Jamun. The ad in the ready to mix pack and the actual product were two different stuff.
If you know how rock is then you should have some idea as to how the Gulab Jamun was ….
Though putting it in sugar syrup did have some what better effect at least you could break the small rocks :)

Of course how difficult will making rice be…
Well I can make a mess of that too..
With putting in more water that I guess we had rice soup one day :)

The icing on all this cake is Cake itself.
Thought of whipping up a cake as a surprise.
Got all ingredients, mixed it and put it to bake …
Set the timer and went ahead to kitchen to cook sum other stuff.
After a while thought will check it out , but could not make out how the cake baking dish size reduced so much.
Quickly opened the oven and cake is crisp and burnt and cake dish is partially melted…
I by mistake se set it on conventional bake time instead of normal bake time.
That month our electricity bill was also a packet: D

Of course ‘Aamche aaho’ had a good time clicking photos of the cake in Top view, Side view, on plate, with white background (to emphasize on the burnt color and texture ) etc.
He just wanted that ppl back home should not miss the wonderful top part like vanilla(i.e white) and bottom part like chocolate (i.e burnt black)

For the life of him, he cannot understand what I do so much in the kitchen with the final product sometimes questionable.
So best and healthy suggestion is just cut all veggies and brings it to the table so we can have a healthy non –burnt food…
Yea got to try that too :D

Well these are some of the disasters I could remember while penning this …will update more if I remember..

Till then will inflict such a pain to ‘Amche Aaho’ only
In case any one wants to try at your own risk, you are always welcome :D

Warm 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 ...

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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Old World Charm.........

As I was browsing rediff came across this article..... http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2006/oct/13sd1.htm

But instead of thinking abt the Diwali factor...(article was for How Bollywood celebrates the festival of lights) I went on a different track.....

This picture reminded me of how Waqt (one of my favourites movies) is so different from the movies that come up today .... Looking back at this picture reminded me of how chivalrous men were and how different were the get up of females then....

The bouiffed hair do and the stitched on to you clothes....Yet it was an era ...be it in regional cinema...bollywood or hollywood...

where actors charmed people by their graces.....and most of whom had an aura about them..irrespective of whatever the tabloids said.... there youthful Shashi Kapoor...a yahoo Shammi Kapoor... a charismatic Dharmendra and a wonderful Sunil Dutt......boyish Joy Mukherjee

Of course there were stalwarts like Balraj Sahni, Pran, Prithviraj and of course Dileep Kumar.

Who can forget the doll like Saira, the Sadhana in white, coiffed Asha Parekh,smiling Vyajayantimala, doe eyed Sharmila, the trendsetter Nargis or the effervescent Madhubala....

They had a grace which could be rivaled by very few.....

The different part about these movies were that most of them are not watchable with the current mindset...for these you have to go to the nostlagic mindset :)

All the movies had real good songs..hummable even now...and mostly with social messages which did not seem like a bitter pill to swallow....else it was the typical "Alls Right with the world" ending inspite of all the trials and tribulations the protagonist had to suffer through out the movie... And yes some fabulous scenaries prior to Yash Chopra discovering Switzerland ..........

So long those were the days of some real good different movies.......the magic of which can rarely be recreated now.....

A flashback weekend .................BOWLING

From: Tina
Date: Aug 22, 2006 1:31 AM
Subject: A flashback weekend .................BOWLING

RING RING ..................It was around 10.30ishhh --- 10.45 p.m.... I was just wrapping up the code change to move it to different environment...
One phase had already gone to production and the next was abt to go by next week....
"Hungry kya ..." wala feeling was just starting to develop.....
This was the time when we were in throes of work and so were working late in Hyd...apna golden office re ;)
So rather than tolerate the food at 9.30 ...my team mates would go for bread omlette or maggi which was available after 12.00
(it was a different issue even the non kitchen compliant nut could also make better maggi than what was being dished out at cafeteria)
To get that we would walk down to the dorms cafeteria....discussing abt the problems in general and problems in particular esp late night working which we all had unknowingly got habituated.....

wow woh bhi kya dinn thee :)

toh back to where I started ... RING RING......
my cell was ringing ...

For the first 2-3 rings i did not pick it up thinking some of my friends giving free miss calls for saying good night when their free smses were over...
but the call was continuing...
I saw kii my manager was calling....
mentally in span of 2 secs i reviewed kii was there any escalation or sumthing ...as itnee raat ko without reason toh my manager would never call
nothing i could think of.....

I picked up the cell with worst expectations though i started with all niceties....

"Toh tina jee where is bowling in hyd ....."

I was like 'yeh poochne ke liye call kiya ? '

There are lots of places in hyd , some of friends have gone to this place ...that place....i continued....trying to think at night where did bowling come into picture....

"Where did u guys go? "

I was like yeh kya hua ...we toh went a couple of weeks back ...that too when we had a get together of friends tab....
just to do something different with weekend rather than watching movie......

but how did that come into picture today....

sirjee we went to so and so place in ameerpet....

"yes madam I can see you , vijay, sonia , manoj and smita bowling on TV...."

I almost fell off the chair......
I was like wow ..kya connection ....

I was like speechless for sometime and then manage to croak..... kaunse channel mein yeh aa raha hai ?

"This is coming in Etv telegu ...was watching with my wife...saw u guys toh introduced all of u to her via TV hehehhe
Tell me kab khelne gayein thee..bahut video footage hai ..koi competition tha kya ?"

I was like battti gulll .... .I don't remember coming when they were talking the views toh i guess am not there in footage

No No i said ...we all went with friends to the new place....and they were shooting the way the ball is thrown toh i guess we were just seen in passing reference i think ....

"Well you guys are all seen in full reference and you all seem like pros :) good to see you all in extra currilar activities .hehehe
chalo then njoiii ...just thought would like to tell you that atleast some one saw the prog "

I was just in rewind mode thinking kiii uss dinn meine kya kapde pehene theey (typical girl thought ) and where was that camera.....

Kept the phone aside....

Took the landline to ring up my friends most of whom were there that day....

Now there are three classes of friends...

1) Like me and my roomies who stay together but do not have TV though cable connection ka jugad hai ;)
2) Friends who stay together but definately have TV and who are generally there to see TV
3) Friends who stay in hostel or with someone and TV is accessible but they are generally in office or no where near it.....

I called up my roomate...told her... arrey jaldee se kahi TV hai kya dekh apna footage aa raha hai :)
she was like itnee raat ko all neighbours sleeping

call our 2nd category friends....
Called up 2nd category of friends....took 2 sec to explain them ( i was breathless by then)
they asked very basic question telegu ke toh bahut se channel hai kaunsa waala
i told etv ...ok they said they will try to find out if they hav that....
1 saal se cable tha par kabhi telegu channel nahi dekhiii
toh ek maharashtrian, marwardi, mallu aur gujju milke dhoond rahein they usss channel ko
jab kii waha ka ek lauta teleguite was in office.....

then called up third category and kinda blurted out .....
toh bhai saheb is like pretty cool way mein
behen shannnti se bolo mujhe kuuch samaj nahi aa raha hai ...
i was like jaldee jao apne hostel ka TV on karo apna bowling ka footage aa raha hai telegu channel ETV mein
ur the only one who knws telegu....
search it and see it man.....

behen i am out on the road going to my friends place and far away from my hostel....
are u telling me that it is that day ka footage.....

by then i was kinda parched ...toh bol diya yup....
will get back with more details

the ek lauta teleguite and another of the 3rd category were there in another office ....via official chat unko bhi update kar diya tha

then before I could drink water... the 2nd category friends called up....
Tina everything is written in telegu yaar
can you get more details of the channel ...
I was like ab tak toh manager soo gayein honge

well in 2 channels we can see some documentary ..hope so there will be repeat telecast sumtime tomorrow or today later news broadcast....

Yea....i said...mujhe bhi dekhna thaa,,,,, :(
Will update once I get more details.....
chalo then keep surfing and take care ....
Good night... I said...
the excitement it generated lasted for quite a while and I remembered that it was abt two weeks back that we all had gone bowling....

Some of our batchmates had come down from chennai and pune....
Toh after a typical dhaba lunch what to do....
Koi movie toh release nahi hue
kya karein
then some one suggested that we could go bowling....as most of the public had not gone to the new bowling alley....
chalo decide kiya
and went ahead.....
the strong 15-16 strong contingent went to the place
keeping the fingers crossed kii it should not be crowded.....
two rinks were empty and we divided ourselves into two grps...
and got ready to bowl ahead.....

Some of our friends had just been to bangalore toh it reminded them of the bowling they did at Forum....
Of course yeh toh bowling alley was no where as compared to that.....

Each of us were honing our skillls plus playing as two teams.... with many inputs abt how to improve the play....
thats when we noticed tht there were a video shooting of all the bowling balls which crashed all the pins....

wow said public chalo pose maarke kartein hain ....
we continued with the game thinking the bowling alley waala shopkeeper was getting footage because of us....
then some friends of ours went and asked ....

those guys were like they were from ETV for a documentary on Youth and their pastimes....
we were like kyun chunna laga rahein ho...
lagta toh nahi hai and we continued and almost forgot abt them

once the game was finished each of us calculating who was first and with how many points each of us were far from the person who came first...
tht we decided bas ho gaya kahi aur jaate hai.....
when we were putting back our shoes .. removing the bowling shoes thats when the footage waala came back for some comments abt the youth .....

I was at the farthest corner and the last one getting up...so i was kinda blissfully missed out...
but the remaining of us gave one or two comments in chaste english...
then they were like if some one knows telegu it will be real good...
Hunted for the ek lauta person in our grp who knew decent telegu and woh bola no ways....
mere relatives hai yehan.....will really feel weird .....

Neways most of us thought kiii shayad yeh chunna laga raha hoga Reporter.....he had a mike though.....

And conveniently we forgot abt it....
So it came as a pleasant surprise that it actually did come up on TV
though it was a tradegy of sorts kii none of us saw the footage....
Neways kabhi toh TV pe aaye :))

All the above thought procedure did not take much long but to write it definately took longer....

For those of who ...who remember the weekend.......Hope this is one more way to remind you of that....
:)

Tak care and warm regards,

Tina........

P.S : Revamping the mailing list....mostlywill be stopping this junk mail service..much to the relief of many.... thanks for reading till now and haa bahut aatyachar sahien ho baba..ab aaram kar lo :)

A Haatke weekend :)

From: Tina Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006
Subject: A Haatke weekend :)

The players :)

Guys : Vinayak,Prashant,Suraj,Vinay,Dipu,Vijay,-----Manoj,Santosh(Partly)
Gals : Minal,Shri, Hema and me.

As days go close of parting hues….
We try to do give everyone their dues….

In such a way that we are left with more number of things to be done together than the time which we have to spend together….

I guess that is what happened this weekend….


Ever notice that when u are conscious of the fact that u want to closely keep the time with you in wrap of ur hand it is like sand in closed fist….it spills out….
And when u pass thru time breezily … like holding sand in ur open palms …it stays intact…..

Too much of philosophy :)

With the public in hyd decidedly getting smaller and smaller each weekend is spent in trying to keep the time spend together to cherish memories when all this will not be possible….

This weekend was haatke in that respect…..it was as though tried to compress a couple or more weekends together…. :):)

It all started (as always in hyd) in the afternoon ;)…….
Dipu had cum back to hyd for his first visit as friend to hyd frm pune…..

I guess he came early by the morning bus and the brunt of his arrival was faced by his roomies I suppose (who were up late the night before )

As usual it was decided that we will meet for lunch…..
Where as usual inspite of all the precautions girls party reached just in time (according to them ) and way after time(according to guys )

Had dhaba type khaana in the spl AC room of the restaurant coz I guess the general restaurant was full with a bunch of people who were constantly chattering away to glory :)

In order to be heard above them we moved to the AC part of the restaurant where I guess the AC was just a blower…..

In the amazing Hyd heat (abhi toh humidity bhi aa gayee hain :( ) we all had more water than food I guess (reminded of the pre acclimatized to Chennai days )

Then uske baad kya…. Waiting for Santosh and minal to join us… par itna timepass karenge kaha….

Toh chalo movie ….the movie in pipeline was 3.45 kiii banaras in skyline….toh zip zap zoomed to Benaras (in rick ok )

In theatre not much of a crowd.. thought kii maybe there will be no tickets…

The ladies(shri,hema and me) went forward and took the tkts …gr8 for us that tkts were available…..

Proceeded to balcony of Sterling ….

No numbers in tkt so proceeded to seat ourselves accordingly …..
Placed ourselves in front of blower as it was better than the non existent AC :)

A lot of rap or rock was being played in background then we were as usual waiting for trailers

:(:( unfortunately none came… not even RS Brothers(Saree waala Telegu ad) ..directly movie….

Came to know that the most famous crooner himesh reshmaniya is the music director of the movie….. I was bracing myself for the torturous music

When Vinayak and others in his memory crooned ooooohnnnnnnn ohnnnnnnnnn khajooorrrr ……

This was followed by guys looking at the tri ladies (one with kid) who were placed further below us…:) and also manoj and vinayak ka running between the seats….not for them baba… aise hiii

The movie was followed without a hitch with most of us getting a headache by the interval… after interval was fairly decent and gratefully all the songs were sung by sonu except for one by all of our fav crooner :) (bkground mein tha) for which manoj and I were debating what is the case.

Phir ghar gayein then thought we will meet all in EAT street… Humare ghar chai peeke we went ahead or rather first guys went ahead to EAT STREET and then girls came behind as usual LATE according to guys but actually we were stuck in horrible traffic

After a customary argument with rickshaw waaala on the fare we reached EAT STREET where Sania mania was gng on ..there was a sort of karoke gng on where most of the singers were playing nasal tribute to the fav music director I guess…..

We then sang for vinay assuming that it is his birthday(which was not the case) so loudly that it attracted the host and she announced loudly to wish Vinay for his birthday …:) we all joined in by singing loudly Happy Birthday with the person who was singing on mike….

Had reminiscent talks in the lawn next to eat street…after which the talks continued in the boys ka ghar with parcels of food :) deadly hungry by then ….

Following which we all went home and grabbed a few hours ka sleep…..(really few hours :( )
Sunday dawned by afternoon…… :)
We got together for having food at gujrati cum rajasthani cum maharashtra mandal where we were joined by inbatch satyam couple :)

Yes u guessed it right the OZEs :) gr8 to see them after a long time…..after that wanted to go bowling but the place near clock tower was under renovation

Thought instead of roaming in hot sun we will just go to the boys house and atleast see sum movie and drink cold water (unke paas fridge hain )

By then vinay found out that ameerpet one is open so remaining people zoomed into ameerpet (bikes ke itne hii log ho gayein hain)..

Played bowling and had lot of fun esp coz when wanted the ball used to go by the sides without displacing a single bowling pin LL

Winners of the evening were Vinay and Vinayak ……

Finished the bowling and which was followed by trying a few remaining games while prashant and I went for sania mania T shirts which unfortunately after a long wait at lifestyle where we browsed cds ,cassette, clothes and discussed the pricing of iPods and mobiles…. No sania mania Tshits :(:(

Finally each of us went home so that we would reach near Yatri Niwas for Dipu’s Bus to Pune….

After which we planned of gng to Hi Tech for Santosh’s famed Malaysian Penang Soup at Wang’s Kitchen…Santosh ke gaon ka restaurant…. :)
The girls finally reached Yatri Niwas just in time with a minor heart attack that the Dipu’s bus had left as just before reaching an APSRTC bus had left…..

Gr8 that it had not left till then ..after all the bye byes Dipu ‘s bus finally took off….
When we thought that we are anyways gng to hi tech toh might as well go with the bus….

So all of us …zoomed with the bikes as if Dipu’s bus was the ministers car and we were the convoy :)

Finally bade him good bye and proceeded to the drive to Hi tech with a couple of film songs thrown in (without music though). Tried to remember a few but saarein words nahi yaad aayein

The drive was really good when finally we zoomed in to The restaurant…...

Sab bol rahein thee kii waha hain restaurant and I am like upper kahi board to nahi dikh raha hain phir dekha toh basement mein thaa :)
Santosh had already made reservations for us … but minal and I went and asked the person there for a place for 10 ppl and he was at loss to se that how we cud be accomadated esp when many places there were placards of Reserved…. Then Santosh with his late entry style came up and told that person there is a reservation of Santosh Satyam :):) making our popat esp with that guy telling I had asked u all earlier…..

The food was gr8 and we all njoiied it (courtesy Santosh) and even Prashant was happy with his American Cho suey :) (that’s a major achievement J…hai naa praashant)

Then it was decided kii either critically acclaimed CRASH movie or drive in Hitech as there were 5 bikes….

Went for the CRASH though…and again all of us zoomed to PVR where minal and I dashed for tkts but our hopes of seeing CRASH crashed as all the tkts were sold out….:(
But no probs Njoiied the drive frm hitech to PVR in under 10-15 mins…..

And amazingly our weekend came to a close……
It was a different weekend with many of us actually knowing abt others and their perceptions…
And we will cherish the weekend for not just the bike rides but also for a lot of interactions we all had….

Also were missed the 3 ppl in hyd who cud not have made it because of the total unpredicatability…… (mr and mrs oze and pankaj)

For all the sentimental fool I am … here was the gist of the weekend to pass sum magic(hypothetically) we all felt … so that you all cud all partake in it :)

For all the nawabi tehzeeb we have here in hyd….wht we did this weekend was nothing extra ordinary but very plain just I guess maybe emphasized by the fact that there very few of us remaining….

Hope u all njoied the long Gist :)
Keep mailing

Tina :)
P.S : All the feelings and imagery is mine alone …take it with a pinch of salt….. :)