General

Randomness

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Golden Gate, originally uploaded by suyogdeshpande.

Since I haven’t really blogged in a while, here’s a photo from our Golden Gate trip few weeks ago.

This also serves as a test post to test Flickr / WordPress sync up.

Better yet, it would be great if Flickr allowed me to batch select photographs and send it to a post. Perhaps there is a way – I must find out. If there is, then another photo post is on its way 🙂

Added a Captcha!

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This was long coming. Though I have been toying with idea of captcha for long, I only could do it now. Anyways, the captcha is a simple question – and hopefully, you my dear readers know the answer. Now with combination of Akismet and Captcha, I will reduce the number of spam comments on my website.

By the way, if you get the answer wrong… may the dark lord help you!

Change

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It almost seems forever now that I have last blogged. Almost 7 weeks have passed by, and while my lack of updates might have indicated busier lifestyle, writers block or just simply boredom, it was anything but that. The last seven weeks in my life have not only been life changing at some level, but mind numbing too. At times I wished that so many things didn’t happen this fast, but I guess that’s life. For a while now I had been having inclinations that something was around the corner, I just didn’t know so many things.

It all begin with the India trip I took this time. A successful yet totally harried tour it was for me. It saddened me a lot that this time around I did not get to meet so many of my close buddies; heck I could not even call up a few of my friends due to my packed schedule. Given the guy I am who loves to keep in touch with friends alike, the fact that I was not able to even call up some of my close friends bothered me (and still does!) quite a bit. Nonetheless, I hope those friends will forgive me – next time around I will definitely do better.

Better I have to 🙂 While on one end if friends were away from my radar this time, there was someone else in life too. Someone special. Perhaps more the reason why I did not find the time to meet up with my friends. After months of chatting and a brief dating period, we decided to get hitched. Parents met, parents agreed, and it was set. I was almost disappointed that this being a love story, there were no fireworks on either side. Either I am that good, or she’s that good, or perhaps the parents saw that there was no hope for either of us, and we were better off together rather than alone. All in all though, it ended well. And now comes the waiting part of it, the planning part and finally the d-day.

I can’t say I am not nervous, but at the same time I am looking forward to it.

Hardly had I come back from India to United States, within a two days, there was some other news awaiting me. I was expecting the news, but I did not expect it so fast. And yet it had happened. Our company got bought out by another company. That was the good news. The bad news: they wanted me to move to another state half way across the country if I wanted to still work with them.

This came as a pleasant as well as a rude shock to me. I still remember talking about the company with my friends in my undergrad years. I had gone to their campus selection though I was not qualified because I didn’t have the required aggregate. Over the years, i always dreamt of working for this company, because it was one of a kind.

And here it was, the company of my dream, buying us out and asking me to work for them. And yet, I was sad about it.

Not sad because it was not a good thing; sad because very soon I will have to leave all my friends and relocate to a place I don’t know many people. Over the years, I had built my social circle around here whom I love being with. Without them, I did be homesick five out of seven days of the week. Friends who begin their life in grad school, moving to areas close by, eventually marrying their wives – it was wonderful setup. I was next in line to get her so that there was one another gal in the group. One other girl to gossip, and one other sacrifice as my friends would joke.

And yet, when i will be back with her, I will take her now to a different place, a different state, where even I don’t have many friends to speak of, much less close friends. After numerous promises of how awesome my friends are here, and how she would never feel alone here, she will now come to stay with me, as alone as probably as I will be.

I hate such changes in life, and I hate it even more that this change means I have to rebuild my entire life again. I hate the fact that after so many years with my buddies here, I have to be the one to move first, and go away to rebuild my life, all over again. I almost don’t want to.

And yet, I know it is right. I know it is the right thing to do. Change is never easy. You fight to hold on. You fight to let go. I can’t let this opportunity go away. This is what I wanted for a while now, and perhaps the price of working at a place I wanted to for so long means I have to accept the change.

Hopefully it will turn out for the better. Though I dont have to move immediately, i start working this Monday for the new company.

This Monday, a long lost wish from my undergrad days gets fulfilled.

Non Stop Rants

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Ever since the JeDI has introduced me to Non-Stop Rants, my blogging has come to an absolute standstill.

There is no reason to 😛 – Now I can rant away to glory in short simple posts. Yes, nonstoprants is Twitter with a desi twist 🙂

Thanks Jedi for inventing it.

Now that means, my this blog will be in hibernation for a while now!!!! 🙁 – Or, I need to find a way to merge my posts on nonstoprants to this blog automatically – ah – now that sounds like a plan 🙂

Meanwhile, u guys check out what we’ve been TP-ing about 😛

A Beautiful Letter.

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Yesterday I recieved a beautiful email about a post that I made some weeks back. It makes me feel very happy that this post helped someone in some way. Thanks for sending this email, Renu.

Hello !!

I have been reading your blog for sometime , and really find them interesting…well I am sure you must be getting lots of messages just to tell you all that…so will leave at that !
Actually – I just wanted you to know that I liked the post ” Starry -2 nights” – so much so that I copied and sent to one of my very young friend as he is really going through the bad phase….personal problems coupled with not so great results – he also I think flunked in his exams….he will not tell me how many subjects…and with impatience of youth feels that this is not the chosen path for him….! I felt as if I was not enough of a support system to him to bring him back to his usual self….so when I was going through the post – it sort of gave me impetus and I have sent that to him….considering your studies background…and now what you are doing …I hope he gets the message that “life just goes on” and these are just exams….a phase in a person’s life…

So wanted you to know this- I mean – I hope you don’t mind….( I mean I have done it….!!)

Thanks –

From India

V

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Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

  • One of the very best introductions a character could give in a movie.

Thank You

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Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. – T. S. Eliot.

Almost everyone who knows me well knows how obsessed I have become about swimming ever since I started to learn it since last summer. Last summer ended with me being comfortable in water, and being able to drag myself a lap or two. I was satisfied with my progress last year, but did not carry on swimming once the outdoor pool closed. The result, the starting of this swim season, I was exactly at the same level as I ended last year. I could barely drag myself a lap or two. Ten laps would be a workout if I did it right.

There were several problems: I was still scared of deep water and treading in it – result? I was never that comfortable feeling the water. I had a runners knee problem, where my legs tried to imitate a running action in water, hence I could never lift myself or kick from hips – at best I would ferociously kick from my knees, which of course didn’t help as my legs would start dragging. Next, except for free style, I didn’t know any other form or style of swimming. This disappointed me greatly that my swimming skills were almost at nadir when compared with almost anyone who came to swim in the pool. Even 6 and 9 year olds displayed amazing agility, speed and technique in their swim.

But one guy changed all that.

In the course of last one and half months, he pushed me to the limits which I honestly didn’t think my body was capable of. He made me do drills that I couldn’t think I could carry of. One and half months later, thanks to him, I learnt treading water, learnt diving into deep water and feel comfortable about it, improved my technique tremendously, learnt backstroke and breaststroke, and finally, today, I went 101 laps in the pool, and still came out fresh.

Yes. 101.

It may be a small task for experienced swimmers, but for me, it was an achievement; an achievement as important as getting a job or graduating from college. Though I heard it consistently from him, today I truly felt that there were no limits I could take myself in water and swimming; I had to risk going that far to find it out.

It was exhilarating.

Thank you, my friend; for not only being there and pushing me, but in this journey, becoming a good friend as well. I wish you the best of luck as you now leave your school and join college to pursue your undergraduate studies.

Newly Wed Desi Couples In America!

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Ever gone to a Wal-Mart, a Target or Costco on a weekend? What do you see? Singles? Families? No. You will see hordes and hordes of newly-wed desi couples looking at every single thing on every single aisle with utmost interest and awe, noting down prices, making a mental calculation “My grocery store sells 1 Heinz Ketchup for 4$ – I can get three for the same price here!”, and then not buying it, because they already have 5 more left of the pack they bought 6 months ago.

And if there is something of interest that they do want to buy for their house, do they?

No.

“BJs is right around the corner – may be we should check there first before buying this here honey! If its cheaper, then we can surely drive back!”

ARRRGH!

Welcome to newly wed desi couple’s life in America.

Right after they marry till the time they have a child, most newly wed desi couples spend endless hours deciding if Rosso corsa red or Fuchsia red carpet would complement their bottle green theme of the living room. It doesn’t matter if the only thing bottle green in the living room is the vase.

“Everything else is a shade of bottle green! You men won’t understand it!”
“I think the vase looks green because of the green stems in it – that’s why its called bottle-green isn’t it?”
“Shut up. Leave this to us women!”

Having decided that either of the colors would complement well, what do they do? They buy both of them, lay out both of them, spend twiddling hours deciding which one complements the theme more, and decide to take one of them because “The other one has a maroon border, which doesn’t match our theme!”

However it doesn’t end there.

“Last week we were at this store, and wow, I just found the burnt siena red I was looking for to match my bottle green theme! So we are going to return our carpet and buy that one”

Another thing the newly wed desi couples immediately master in: returning, buying, and returning stuff. They can do this endlessly, week after week, month after month, without any kind of boredom setting in.

“How about sky diving this Saturday?”
“No man, I and my wife need to visit Ikea to return the lamps we bought last week. We got some new lamps from Bova last week and they look much better, so we might as well return Ikea stuff”
“How about golf later on in evening?”
“Actually there’s a summer sale going on at Kohl’s. She got this new top last week, but that same top is now on sale this week. So we’ll probably go there from Ikea to return those tops and buy the new ones!”
“Lets meet up for dinner then”
“Let us see – we also need to go to Wal-Mart and buy some household stuff. If we make it in time, let us meet!”

However, buying things for the house that they like doesn’t mean they will keep it. After all others must like it too; if not, its going back to the store to be replaced.

“What do you think of this painting?”
“This? (Looking dazed at something)?”
“Yes?!”
“It looks like a collage of rotten eggs of various degree of rottenness”
“Rubbish! It’s a collage of marbles of different shapes and colors – rotten eggs?!”
“Oh! Marbles is it? They look too huge to be marbles – I think they look more like rotten eggs”
“Are you serious? My hubby said the same thing – they look too big for marbles…. But what makes you think they look like eggs?! Disgusting”
(Looking at hubby)
“Honey, what do you think – should we return it and pick up that other one we’d seen with flowers?”

A few days later, sure enough a new painting is up.

“What do you think now?”
“Umm… it’s a little too flowery!”
“What do you mean?!”
“Well, all you have is stems in that vase of yours, but you have flowers all over the painting – is that intentional?”
“They are not stems – they grow!”
“They do?”
“Yes, but how is this painting”
“Look at this flower – its almost the size of Antarctica. I think your rotten eggs looked better!”
“You’re so mean”
(Looking at hubby)
“I was telling you! We should have never returned it! Now we don’t know if it will still be there…”

However its not just shopping bug that affects the newly married couples.  Laundry is another area where even the newly married guys get trained in.

At the laundry:

“Dude, two loads?”
“Yeah man – the whites should be washed separate and the colors separately!”
“And I assume you will dry them also separately?”
“Of course – you don’t want the colors mixing”
“What’s that?”
“That – its called Bounce. You put one tissue in the dryer, and your clothes become “smoother” after drying up – its really awesome”
“Man you are actually going to pay twice for cleaning and drying – I could have bought a 6-pack with it!”
“Karna padtha hain man…”

But there are some advantages too of having a newly married couple nearby – there is always something to eat at their house, whether you are hungry or not.

“Want Halwa? I made it for him and made a lot of it!”
“You havvve to taste the Channa I made yesterday – too good!”
“Why don’t you make him taste that barfi you made – you will have no? You cannot say no – she will get angry”

Or drink…

“Do you want to drink something?”
“Yes how about…”
“…Tea? I knew you would say that – he doesn’t like tea. But you do – lets have tea and Jeera cookies I got from Indian store last week!”
(To myself)  “….a beer”
Hubby (hopefully): “I think he meant a beer” (so that he could grab one too)
“No, he wants Tea… say you want tea, because I want to drink tea!”

Newly weds in America also have everyone and their grandmother to visit on their weekends. So if they are not shopping returning or buying something, they are either inviting people to a boring party they host, or a getting invited to an equally boring party by someone else! (Note – in these parties, they never their friends [thankfully], but their dhoor ke sagevaale who couldn’t make it to their wedding, or some old aunty who was never important to them in bachelor life, but now they must seek their blessings after marriage and types. And usually its those aunty-uncle type parties they get invited to).

But before inviting or going to a party, another round of shopping ensues:

“What should we gift them? What did they gift us?!”
“They didn’t? Oh yeah, we are meeting for the first time – what do you think they will gift us?”
“Lets not take something very expensive”

And a day later….

“We got a gift for them yesterday, but I think its inappropriate; so we are returning it and buying something else!”

And then when you have your parties. Yes, the kind of parties you and your friends have when you do finally meet them on weekends – expect the newly wed couples to always cozy up to each other and sit as close as possible. They have to tell you about how they met, how he occupies three fourths of the bed, and how she feels cold even in 80 degree temperatures, and how they always fight when its raining, and make up once its stops raining, and how he has no sense of taste and keeps on watching TV, and she takes an eternity to dress up. All the while, the other newly wed couples will listen to it with utmost interest and happiness, then take it upon themselves to recite the exact same things the previous couple said, so by the time they come to you, you are already saccharine with the sugar floating around.

This is usually followed by a quizzical look and a question:

“When will you marry – we need another couple to share their stories now!”

Postscript:

I am not married.
I am not in a hurry.