My way on the highway

It was a dream come true for me. I had an opportunity to go to england last week and knowing me, I jumped at it. I spent four days at gatwick for the visualization conference and spent two days seeing the sight and sounds of london and england. It's a very beautiful country. You have the ultra hip modern city london which has all the buzz around it and then the sleepy towns like portsmouth. London feels like being in any big city in any part of the world. The subway system reminded me of new york. Bond street was like fifth avenue. The singers in the subway reminded me of the singers in bombay's local trains. The only difference being the singers in london seem suede:) The love of my life pointed that out when I was gloating about that. I walked along hyde park and thames and was grinning like a jackass. All the books I had read were coming alive. As we drove along the rolling meadows there were familiar scenes from james herriot. Clapham junction as S pointed out was in sh...

I was at ULL at Lafayette for my friend's graduation last weekend. It was a very different setting. Almost felt like they had transported the computer science department from india in lafayette. This does go to show that we Indians are definitely the majority when it comes to getting a computer science degree in America. Nice to see R and her friends bonding together. D and me had good fun making our side comments about the alma mater song and the snooty woman who thought she was God's gift to mankind. Phew! I never understand how some women can be so mean. I wonder whether she was intimidated by my looks:) (Well high hopes). Anyway R was so sweet and she went out of her way to make sure we felt good. She has some really nice friends and they really love her. Anyway my life is always filled with strange incidents that strike me. Only me! So we were staying at this hotel over night. I woke up early next morning and went out of the room to drink some water from the water fountain...

I was deeply upset when I heard that Chandramohan committed suicide. He was someone I met when I went to India in June. We went tennis shopping and caught up at mocha. He would have been the last person that I would have thought would kill himself. But he did. Really sick! You never know what happens in those last crazy moments. It has made me realize the importance of life and how it's important to cherish every good moment. My mentor at work had a heart attack. He's better now. I just visited him today at the hospital. I heard this soon after I came back from thanksgiving. I just don't understand life anymore. You never know what will happen. It just suddenly hits you. I am thankful to God for all the happiness I've received till now. I hope that I will be strong enough to handle other major difficulties in life. I had a beautiful thanksgiving. I met up with my favourite girlfriends in charlotte and atlanta. I bond a lot with my friends from undergrad and they will re...

Yes he really is God. Today I went to watch a superb match between two older tennis players. Older yes but also legendary. I went to watch the standford cup at the River oaks country club. First let me fill you in about the nature of the club. I've never seen such grandeur in my life. It was one of the most upscale places that I've been too. I was the only brown person amidst the predominantly white "hoity toity" group. It felt---NICE. As I was explaining to my parents, it was madras club multiplied by 100 times and the locality was boat club road multiplied by 100 times. Fabulous is the only word that comes to me. The end result of the two setter was that Goran won. BUt Mcenroe made sure he gave him a run for his money. It was superb to see such classy stylish rallies and John's great returns. He sure is one helluva fit 47 year old. However his attitude was still the same. He was grouchy from the word go. All the ball boys and girls were shivering. He screamed at...

I think it's easy to say..."well google it and find out"! Google can be so misleading at times. I've really learnt it the hard way. Your search criteria is so important. If that's not good, you're dead meat. So this is what happened. My company uses visual studio 2005 with team system for versioning. However I found that some of the documents created under the documents folder is VS were not version viewable. So I decided to ask my boss. Of course the reply was he had not looked into it but it would be a good thing to research. So I researched and google searched. This pointed me to the MSDN blogs and there was another person who had the same problem. He very confidently wrote that VS did not support version controlling for word docs. However it was possible to do version controlling through the share point portal. Wonderful! I thought I'd found the answers and so armed with proof showed off to my boss. Oh not so fast ME! I should have known. So my boss co...

Another week rolls by and I'm amazed at the people I meet. It's official- The highpoint of my life now is kickboxing. Turbo Kickboxing is simply superb. It gives you a power surge. I mean you can pump all that frustration down with those punches and crunches. I'm really unsure about the calories I'm loosing but all I know is "I'M HAVING FUN". There are these amazingly thin and superly energetic women, who come for the class. I wonder why? Don't they know that they give us a complex. I have to be the fattest person in the class. I never thought I was so overweight but you go in to the class and you realize that your fat is so becoming.....if you know what I mean. It's like another person. Jokes apart I love it because I would prefer this anyday to the boring treadmill and cycle. This week I attended a class called the intro to RDM. The training course is a must for people in our company. The course content wasn't very applicable to me but I love...

June has lit my up my life. I love her!

I absolutely love the radio station 93.7. It's houston's classic rock station and it's called the aero. If anyone from houston, has not listened to it, I recommend it. Unlike other stations like 104.1 KRBE which repeats the same songs, this one picks a special artist each night and plays hits from them. It is a rock education. On saturday they had cream classics. I was introduced to this band a couple of months back but 93.7 goes on to give a history. Sunday was led zeppelin. Monday was aerosmith. Today it's a mixture of eric clapton and crosby stills. This group is really fantastic. I like the music. It's got an older feel to it. The lead guitars are amazing. In fact most of the times unless one has an ear for the lead guitar, you can never hear it. Somehow maybe it's sign of growing old but I like more earthy music. Gone are the days of "chemical brothers" and "prodigy"! In fact I'm a little ashamed that I listened to that group with t...

This has to be an experience which has to go down in my experience book. I could actually give Lord Alfred Tennyson, a run for his money:) Well so this friend of mine A said we should go out somewhere in jersey city. I should see the sights and sounds there. A was like "We should go to this gay bar. My friend has been asking me and I'm curious to go". I :"Babe I have a flight to catch and the final straw for me would be to go to place where not a single man would be interested in me!!!" A: "Come on..what are you worried about...someone hitting on you...HE HE..WONT HAPPEN". Well curiosity got the better of me and I decided to check out this experience. I was a little worried. I did not want to see men making out. I was really freaking out but of course, I am so used to putting on the fake, really cool demeanor. And A and me actually dressed up to go to this place. Why even bother(I think now)?? Well so we finally arrived at THE PLACE. I was really surp...

That describes my current state of my mind. I am happy and content. I thought I should blog when I'm like this because I don't want to seem like a whiny blog. I had a beautiful weekend just doing nothing after my hectic new york trip. New york and manhattan is amazing. I wish I could be there. Would have probably been there if I was working for one of those financial firms:) He he man is never ever satisfied. But the pulse of that city is simply superb. One has to be there to feel it. It truly is beautiful. I bought myself a CD player and radio and am quite kicked about it. It's in my loo and I love hanging out there now. It's super duper cool. It's such a destresser. I have aroma therapy candles and music and my shower gel! Bliss is all that comes to my mind. I can go on and on and on. I think the happiness is having a directly propotional effect on my weight. Yes it's increasing and I don't like it. It's quite scary. I hopefully should enroll in a gym ...

This weekend confirmed what I always knew. There is nothing like girlfriends hanging out. I've always had the most fun with my girl friends. This weekend was no better. I met SU after 5 years and we just reconnected. No ackwardness and we just took off from where we left off. It's so amazing to have such a comfort level with people. It's great to be yourself and su you really are the best! I also had something significant happen to me this week. It was my sign to move ahead in life. I thank that special person. That person is really a decent soul. May you find happiness and remain like this forever:) I wish you all the very best in life. You deserve it. Life goes on in it's hectic pace. There is so much to do. I've found a tennis buddy and we've been playing now for three days in a row. I hope this continues ...It's the best form of exercise. Especially for me with so much food around!!!

It pains me to see this subtle discrimination. I have not seen it maybe because I was transparent to it before. Coming from India one does not really see racism because everyone is the same color. It's not like I've faced anything but I hate the way people behave. I mean educated people questioning their safety because they are surrounded by black people. I mean I travelled half way across the world to see how it would be to work in multicultural teams and tp socialize with people from different backgrounds. Ofcourse nothing happens at work but to see people talking like this hurts me. Strip away the color and everyone is the same. Everyone is bothered about their families, loved ones, salaries, work, love life etc etc - So why think that you're some gifted race??? It also pains me to see Indians making such comments. Your brown for godsakes and you talk about hispanics and blacks!!! This is all a little strange to me. I remember hearing my little niece from england referri...

I am quite fed up of the amount of work that one has to do here. I mean one has to be so alert otherwise, one would get cheated. I am so fed up of being so alert. I've already lost so much in so many stupid deals. I'm unsure whether I will learn from all this. I've had a raw deal in many many things that I've bought over the past few years. I get hurt by my stupidness but I guess one should just go on. I spent 24$ on a local call in india using my credit card. Can you imagine how stupid I was? Anyway now looks like cingular might cream my ass with another deal! I'm the only moron who has paid 50 bucks for a time warner installation. Only idiot who paid 50$ every month with an old phone! Only one to pay a non refundable deposit on my apartment!PHEW!PHEW!PHEW! On a brighter note other things seem okay. I went to the museum of natural sciences with a colleague from work. It was nice. I think one can only really enjoy a museum if you go with another lady. Gosh last week...

I find it increasingly difficult to blog about my life. I don't know why maybe because whatever said and done this is a public blog and people seem to quote from it. So I've been seriously having doubts whether I want to blog anymore. It was nice initially but as I move into a new phase in life, I feel like I would like to open up more but people talk of spies and all that jazz. Woes of people losing their jobs because of blogging. So call me chicken or whatever but I'm going to be more careful and therefore curb the freedom to blurt out. Work is going on well. However I seem to already have some minor conflicts or difference of opinions with some people. They are unwilling to take me seriously because of me being fresh out of college and most people here have tons of experience. Anyway it's going to be a great learning experience. As the days pass I feel that I'm learning more about people. I am dying to write about it but unfortunately I'm sure atleast one of ...

That's the only word that comes to my mind. It's my third week at H and I am getting used to everything. There is a new office, a new boss, new friends, new home, new bedsheets, new utensils, new laptop(at work)...PHEW!! The list goes on and on. I almost had a mild heart attack last week as I could not find my way back from walmart. Well anyway finally managed to call a cab and come back home. I was wallowing in self-pity and felt quite bad for myself. But once I came back home and made myself mango juice in my new blender:), I was back to normal. All it takes to cheer me up is food! I guess I'm really an easy girl to please.Pretty low- maintenance! Anyway so I've joined a non profit organization here which does some social work with NGOs back in India. I figured I'd be happy and will get to meet some like minded people. I've met a couple of nice people thru this organization. I've played tennis over two weekends with one of the guys I met thru this. This wi...

It's my first week in Houston and what can I say?? IS it hotting up? Yes it is and I really am looking forward to the action. My mood swings every day. I am really brave in the morning then things go haywire. I get all worked up and scared and wonder whether I can manage on my own. Then my inner voice gives me a little shout and tells me "this is why you came here to take a job. To be independent remember???". Then I am back to being tough. It really does not make it easy to know that my two best friends in texas are moving out of this state. Indie leaves by the end of the month and sri will move soon. Man!!! Why does GOD do this? My training starts first thing on Tuesday. I am reporting to work on Monday. I have fixed up a studio apartment for the time being. This is fully furnished and a girl from office lives there. She also takes the bus and is Indian. That will help in the beginning till I get my bearings. Houston is a place that is really huge and everyone drives. T...

The fag end of my holiday is being spent doing all good things like watching movies and FIFA world cup with friends. There is so much of bonding when one does this in groups. I watched a cheesy, cheap and gross tamil movie called pudupettai. Actually it wasn't as bad as I expected. The sad part was the way they objectified women. They are the "play things". My blood boils everytime that happens. It's quite sad but hey it's also the reality. Dhanush looked quite sick but hey what can you do about a guy like that. The good thing is he does not act like a hero. And there are people making references to his stature throughout the movie. He is the butt of all the jokes. Sneha looked nice but the other lady Sonia Aggarwal looked plastic. Yesterday I watched a visually pleasing film "fanaa". Kajol looks gorgeous. Aamir Khan does not. Manish Malhotra does really know how to make his women look hot. I did not see why the movie had such bad reviews. It was quite ...

She was sure of herself. She thought she was. She wasn't actually. She's always been dilly dallying. She never really knows. Atleast now she's sure. She tried. It did not work. At the end she is liberated. She is like a free bird. Yet she thinks that maybe things would have been different...NAh...no point thinking..she's never been one of those really analytical types. Of course she is a little hurt. The message was loud and clear. She would have been stupid not to read the signs. She was expecting it. In fact this is how she wanted it to end. Still "hope" was one thing pandora locked up when she closed the box. So she hopes! I've told her it's no use. She knows it's of no use but she still hopes. I want to squash all her hopes. Tell her it won't happen. But she is a dreamer and she dreams. I don't want to be the spoke on her wheel. Let her dream. Sadly for her this dream will definitely not come true.......

I had this opportunity to go on a war ship cruise into the bay of bengal the other day. I seized the opportunity. Who wouldn't? It was simply out of the world. The Indian Navy chief at madras is known to my dad and he had some space on his ship and the jobless one was sent to see the splendour of the ocean. So one friday morning I set out to the navy docks at INS adyar and set aboard sukanya. She was beautiful. Gigantic but very well poised. She was truly a class apart. I could imagine her if she were a person wearing a crisp cotton saree, a beautiful handbag, lovely sandals and neatly dressed. I imagined that she would be one of those ladies who would carry out intelligent conversations. Anyway so we boarded sukanya and travelled her length and breadth. I checked out her quater deck. A helicopter was there resting but ready to take off. The navy crew showed us many operation. Take off and landing of helicopters aboard sukanya. Firing from HMG shooting a rocket target. That was rea...

That just had to be my blog title. I have been having such a blast here that I am seriously rethinking on my plans of going back to the US of A. I guess it is always nice to be on holiday:) From day one I have been not only visting temples and relatives but also actively partying. I've just come back from a bangalore darshan and that city never ceases to amaze me. It is definitely a paradoxical city. On one side you have these beautiful IT offices and clubs and discos and investment banking firms and shopping malls..you get the picture right? The roads and the traffic on the other hand suck! I wonder why all that money cannot be pumped into the roads? Madras is definitely better in those terms. Anyway apart from all that India still does rock. I mean I am only reminded of the line in Shantaram(a good read by the way) "In india people know how to love". I really will miss all the love and affection. I am sure that's what is going to make me come back. Anyway this stin...