An encounter with emergency

On the way to office, we see lot of police cars blinking their blue, red and yellow lights. We wonder what it is. Far away, we see a giant fountain of water!

We move ahead... The two lane is merged to one...

We drive through the slush... There is so much water on the road...

Probably a water pipe is broken... But the gushing water is higher than the electric wires strung across the poles...

Water coming out with so much force!

But by the time we return from office, everything is gone... And if we did not see in the morning, we would not believe such a thing happened. The road was dry and clean!

Fall

It’s fall season... And this year it is not just for trees but also for my hair! Oh God! Every time I wash my hair, comb my hair, touch my hair; a couple of strands just fall.

May be because I was in vain after the Patdown incident... and this is the God’s way of making me humble.

I hope when the spring comes in, just as new leaves grow on trees, new and, hopefully, thicker hair will grow on my scalp. Waiting for the spring (for my hair)...

A Quarter

While I was checking in Google where to find rolls of quarters, I chanced upon something new.

It always happens. You are looking for information about something in the internet and you see a somewhat unrelated page in the search results. It catches your eye and you are now browsing on a completely different topic.

Oh where was I? Yes, I was talking about what I found out today. Junk silver. This is the name given to some of the coins that have silver in them and these were minted around 1900s. I read that the quarters minted before 1964 had 90% silver in them and that each quarter is worth $6.25. Imagine having 10 of those. We will be $60 richer! :-)

I also came to know that these coins are very easily found. Sometimes even in a roll of quarters or when we try to get quarters in laundromat! Just this today, I changed a ten dollar note to quarters at our bus station. I also had a half-roll of quarters in my purse. Thus, a treasure hunt started right at my office desk. I dumped the pile of quarters onto the table and started checking the years on them. The closest that I have, is a 1965-quarter. Just by one year I lost $6 of profit (Each of the silver quarter is worth $6.25, remember?)

Now I am looking at the well-worn 1965 quarter and may be if I stare at it hard enough and long enough, the 5 in the 1965 may change to 4! Oh well! We all know that can’t happen! :-)

A Patdown

In the airport, we are all accustomed to going through the security cube, lift our arms, wait for the machine to scan us, then move out and wait for the approval before we can proceed out and collect our carry-on bags.

This time at the security check, I was asked to wait and was told that I would get a patdown.. But where? They wanted to check my hair and plait more closely. The security lady was holding my plait and kind of pulling it a little and expressed a surprise saying how thick my plait was. She could not believe I had such long and thick hair. Needless to say, I was flattered! :-)

Stitching the quilt sandwich

Did you ever feel very much inclined towards a quilting project till the quilt-top is pieced together and then lose interest in it? 

I join all the pieces of the quilt and do some patchwork on some of the pieces. I reach the point where I need to prepare the quilt sandwich with backing and batting; then pin the three layers to hold them in position and start quilting. But no! I stop working on the project and take up another project. Why do I need a push when I reach this stage in the project? Several incomplete quilts are lying in my closet. They are waiting to be quilted!!!

What do I do? I need that little push to get going on the project! :)

Squirrels in our Balcony

There is one part of our house that has not been cleaned since last summer... We think of doing it but find some excuse or the other not to clean it... like it's cold or windy or raining or it's sunny (we prefer going for a long walk on sunny days!).... 

This place... our balcony... or patio, as it is called in the US,  is filled with dry leaves, twigs and branches... The two chairs and one table are covered in dust... There is a kitchen mat waiting to be freshened and taken back into the kitchen... There is also a dust-covered drying rack. Our bicycle also stood here before it got stolen... We can see almost the whole of our balcony through our living room glass door/window.

I love to watch our balcony. Even though it may seem untidy for us, humans, it is a fun place for lot of other beings. Everyday some activity or the other takes place here. The birds come to pick twigs for their nests... I love it when the squirrels come. It is their play area. They first come in and sniff around... probably to see if there is anything to eat... then they run all over the place... jumping onto the chair's backrest from the table... from the chair to the railing of the balcony... then to the drying rack... under the table... they do not leave any place untouched! 

Once a squirrel even tried to pull the doormat and take it away with him. I went near the window and started talking with him as though he could understand me. I said, "Leave that alone!" in a sharp tone. He backed off a little and observed me from a distance. Then he came closer and closer till he reached the glass door (the door was shut...) and put his paw on it and stood on his hind legs and looked at me. I watched him silently. Then again he tried to tug at the doormat and I told him not to. He moved away but did not leave the balcony. As long as he did not touch the doormat, I did not shoo him or talk to him. In fact I enjoyed watching him run around our balcony...

Last evening the squirrel got a playmate along... (I keep thinking it is the same squirrel who visits us everyday... I can't be 100% sure though! :-D) Both the squirrels played 'catch' on our balcony... It was so joyful to watch them play... I just could not take my eyes off them... But I had to look disinterested, else they would run away! ;-)

We need not search for happiness... Happiness comes in bundles of little surprises like these day after day... We just need to keep our eyes open! :-)

Restroom at Charlotte Airport

Charlotte. I did not know the existence of this city until it became a via point of our flight journey.

Charlotte Airport. A place where I waited for V to catch up after we had taken our separate flights from San Francisco. 

Charlotte Airport restrooms. A pleasant surprise! 

I found the restrooms so unique. It was a pleasant surprise to see a bowl of candy with Welcome sign at the entrance. The caretaker was greeting everyone with a genuine smile. The whole place was spick and span. The caretaker would flush and mop right after the person came out of the restroom cubicle. While we washed our hands at the basin, she would pull out napkins and place them handy, right next to us on the counter, or hand it to us. I never had such an experience in any restroom before!

Knotty Tidbits: 10

Title: Moonlight Trail

A walk through the wild... In the moonlight... Hand in hand... 

These photos do not do any justice to what we experienced! It was such a wonderful feeling. 

The trail was lined on both sides with little serial lights. It was as though the little lights at our feet were leading us into another world...

At various spots on the trail, there were people with guitars, singing and playing their instruments. We were lost in the land of peace and calm.

There was light drizzle but the sky cleared up soon.

As an added bonus, we had a nice ride in the school bus from the parking lot to the moonlight trail. This happened at the Erna Nixon Park.

Sunglasses

I always thought that wearing sunglasses was not my thing. To me, some one wearing them looked like a blind person. I used to wonder what made people wear them. Now I know why!

After coming to California, I realize how harsh the sun can be to our eyes. With the roads in the east-west directions, the sunsets are tough times for driving. Don't we face similar situations in India? May be the horizon isn't this vast ... May be trees or buildings keep blocking the sun when it is closer to the horizon... Or may be... The roads are never in east-west directions... Hee Hee.. I never faced this problem in India. 

But being in California is a different story altogether. I remember the time when V almost skipped a red light because the sun was shining right into the eyes! Since then, we have been planning to purchase sunglasses.

It is so tough to select the perfect pair of glasses for our face. Some make our face look so large and others make us look like a don or dada... And then there are others that make us look like a guddi moham. Finally V and I zeroed-in on a pair that suited the structure of our face. We can say we are a proud owner of a pair of sunglasses. This might seem very silly to some of us, but I think it is a huge change in my perspective, that made me buy one for myself.

It was so relaxing to wear them while on a drive.

I also noticed this... After wearing the glasses for a long time, when we remove them, the world seems more brighter and clearer. Ever felt this way? :-)

I am now into sewing a perfect pouch for my sunglasses!

Knock! Knock!

A knock at the door... at the wrong time. 

Who is it? 

A man with a scribbling pad. 

What does he need? 

Some information for a survey. 

The Q & A begins:

"Are you from India?"

"Yes."

"Which part?"

"Hyderabad."

After asking N number of questions about where we are from, what we were doing, our interests in sports and exercises, he asks me if  I am interested in Acupressure and Massage. I say, "No" He asks me if my husband is at home. I shake my head yet again. He asks me if I would like to try a 5-minute demo of their Acupressure massage. I politely decline. Then he starts a lecture on how it can help my neck and back. I try to cut in and say I am not interested. Then he says he wants to get into the house to give a massage to me. A five minute one!

What nerve? He is also an Indian. In which case he should very well know that the Indian women do not prefer strange male hands on their necks... And trying to get into the house when husband is not around? Oh my God! I wish I had chain lock at the door!!!

Dosa Making

While I spoke with Viji Athai(aunt), the inevitable talking of cooking sprang up. And when I told her that we got dosa mix for making dosas during weekend, she was asking if Yamuna was going to join us!!! Well, everyone knows that if we need dosas, it has to be Yamuna who would be the one spreading the batter on the pan and flipping the dosa until it becomes crisp and yummy! :)

Even after one full year of being the head chef of the kitchen... Not that Vikram does not cook... He does and there are a couple of dishes that he excels in and those are the ones that I don't even know how to make!!! Anyway getting back to me being the head chef of our kitchen... It is just two of us, so there is ample opportunity for trying out new stuff or improving my culinary skills.. But that never happens, because I do not like cooking!

Even during the time when I was with my sisters, I would prefer them cooking rather than me! But what we did was to divide the tasks amongst ourselves. So, Ganga was good at making bhendi fry and rolling round chapatis while I was good at making the mixed vegetable pulao. But the one thing that I could never do, was to try making dosas. I never had a chance to try because Yamuna was very good at it. Even now I do not know the knack of spreading the batter evenly on the tawa to make a thin round and crispy dosa.

Last weekend, while Vikram and I struggled to make dosas using the dosa mix batter, I was dreaming of getting Yamuna closer to our home, so that we would have the privilege of having yummy homemade dosas that are large and perfectly round without any tears and those that are evenly spread and nicely cooked on both the sides. Now you can imagine how bad our dosas came out! Anyway, I am proud to say that my hubby makes better dosas than me!!! That will help me get around the task of making dosas. I can peacefully eat them while he makes them for me! Oops...! Did I tell out the truth?

Anyhow, the truth is I will always remember and miss Yamuna whenever and wherever I see dosas... Needless to say that this post is dedicated to her and not to dosas!!! :-)

Carroms

We have been on look out for purchasing a carrom board for long. The sound of the striker hitting the carrom board and the coins falling into the corner holes.. Ooh! I simply love this game! This game was a must during all our holidays. It was a great pass-time.

Little did we realize that the meaning of Carroms on this side of the Atlantic ocean is very much different! In India, the game is played using a large striker made of glass or wood and the white and black coins made of wood. But here in the US, the coins look more like rings and are much smaller and the striker could be a cue stick too! That's quite a shock to us!

We can understand the concept of a game having a slightly different rules in different countries/cultures; but what beats me is the fact that the board itself is so different from what it is in UK/India!!! That's strange!

Good Old Days - Intro

I have been thinking of starting a new series of posts related to my childhood memories. And this is for what "Good Old Days" section is...

This morning while I was wiping my wet hands with a tissue, I was wondering when was the first time I saw/used one. 

Tissues are basically from western culture. In India, we use water for cleaning and hand towels for drying ourselves. In some ways it would have been better if we had stuck to the same. We can understand why tissues are a nessacity in Western countries; the weather is too cold to use water; but with a tropical climate like ours, using tissues is merely laziness or to flaunt class/status.

During our childhood days, Appa (father) would get us some tissues from the Air India flight. Some of them were wet tissues. We would sniff at their pleasant smell and keep it in some safe place for ages. I also remember stitching a dress for our barbie using a orange and white checked tissue. We would save the pink colored tissues and tissues with cartoon characters on them. Those were the days...

A Complaint and a Plea!

Sunny during the week , And rainy during the weekend!


Don't you think it's so unfair?
Yet again, we can't go anywhere...


Try to be more considerate towards us, O Lord!
We beg you!

The 15km walk

We both started for the library last Saturday and ended up at a Books-Sale. We selected all our books and reached payment counter at the closing time, just to realize that we had to pay by Cash ONLY and that we did not even have a single penny (or cent as in the US) with us. Reluctantly we left the whole bunch of books at the counter and decided to be back the next day(Sunday)

The library is around 3 miles away from home and we generally walk the distance. However that Saturday we stopped by at a grocery store on our way back home and the pedometer reading showed 7.91km. Around 8kms in a day! Oh my! Our poor legs were aching and even though I wanted to buy all those books the next day, I dreaded the walk. Also, we had to go to a super market to buy stuff. 

I thought we could take a bus to the library book sale. However, on Sunday morning, it did not feel right to take the bus. That's because we did not want to miss out on the beautiful walk and also we had to withdraw cash from the ATM.

We talked and walked and were at the book-sale in no time. It was a clearance sale. So, we could fill up a large grocery bag with books and be charged just $3 for the whole thing! Who would want to miss out on that! Happily, we picked up our favourite books and before we knew we had purchased around 45 paperbacks and seven hard cover.. All for just $6! That was a steal!

Later, we sat out on the lawn near the library and glanced through the books we had bought. Though our backs might have ached on our way back due the load of books and also the stuff that we bought at the supermarket, our faces beamed with happiness.. with the eagerness to get back and settle down with a book! What bliss! :)

BTW, the pedometer reading was 6.8kms on Sunday and that adds to around 15kms during one weekend... Never done that before!!! It's a record! :)

Under the spell of Python!

During my childhood days, I considered Python to the best amongst all the snakes. First of all, it is an Indian snake.. too much of patriotism, is it? And second of all, it is a non-poisonous snake unlike cobra.. that makes it a little less scarier..! ;-) And third of all, even if the python swallows a human being, there is a possibility of slitting the snake open and saving the person...! Of course, there is every possibility that the snake would wind itself around a tree right after it swallows me, but still...! Weird thinking!

Now you must be still wondering who is under the spell of Python... It is well known that a snake can come under the spell of the snake charmer but not vice versa.. Here I have a person, who lives in a trance and eats, breathes and sleeps Python! Not the reptile but the language! My hubby has gone so much into this Python programming language that last night he was blabbering about it in his sleep. "main...", "semicolon...","no curly braces...".. blah.. blah.. blah.. Even when I woke him up to ask him what he wanted to have along with Khichdi, he blabbered "blah blah.. curd..blah.. blah" using his Python syntax!

God knows when he will get out of the trance. Wish I could break the spell, but I am no witch!!! :)

Wondering what this picture has to do with Python. Well, nothing at all! This is a photo taken during the recent Fremont Fair. The spiraling things reminded me of snakes and hence it's a part of this post! :)

Car-ride with Karthik!

Car-ride with Karthik has always been a fun-ride... His funny comments and stories make me roll onto the floor clutching my tummy and laughing... His presence is like laughing gas...

 

In Karthik's own words: "Karthik's laugh and Yawning are contagious!!!"

 

Here are some of the rib tickling comments that he passes while driving:

• (To a pedestrian crossing the road): He is simply moon-walking, man!
• (To the vehicle-driver in front of his car, that is going at a snail's pace, even though all other vehicles are going fast): Nidhra mabbu lo nadipisthunnaadu! (loosely translated: He is driving in his sleep)
• (To a pedestrian crossing the road): Kallu mooskoni cross chesthunnadu (He is crossing with his eyes tightly shut)
• (To another pedestrian crossing the road): oorike itu nundi atu walking chesthunnaadu! (loosely translated as: He is on his morning walk and walking from this side of the road to that side!)
• (To another pedestrian who crossed the road in a hurry right in front of Karthik's car): Did you find only my car to commit suicide!!! :P

It's a pleasure to sit in his car while he drives and entertains us!!! May be that's why his name has the word Car (KARthik) in it!!! ha ha ha :D

Needless to say, this post has been completely dedicated to the funny driver.. Oops.. I mean.. to our dear Karthik! :D

Nimbu Soda

A glass of road-side Nimbu Soda is the right thing to quench our thirst on a hot summer day. It's cheap, it's quick and it's refreshing!! I simply love it.

 

Srividya was the one to introduce me to it. It was probably on one of our long walks around Mehdipatnam or Abids or some other area in Hyderabad that she made us stop by at one of those bandis carrying a heap of nimbu(lemons). As I was an amateur, she ordered for me. And I could not stop with one glass. We had three glasses of Nimbu Soda before our tummies bulged and threatened to invoke the nature's call. We had to stop it there!!!

 

That was when I started having Nimbu Soda at every opportunity I got. I remember a day when we were went around the Mehdipatnam bus stop twice and also outside raithu bazaar and all the way to  Humayun Nagar police station road looking out for a Nimbu Soda bandi because could not stop the urge for having it. Those were the days when we did not have that many options in cool drinks that had lemony taste apart from Limca.

 

I have spread my addiction for this Nimbu Soda to Vikram too! He generally does not prefer the roadside juice stalls (at least not when he is with me!) However, Nimbu soda is an exception!!!

 

After a long tiring sweaty sultry day, this is the one and only one drink that we can gulp down and feel content!!! :)

Love at its zenith!

I read in a book: "In the love between a man and a woman, there always comes a moment when this love has reached its zenith- a moment when it is unconscious, unreasoning and with nothing sensual about it!" This holds good for any kind of relationship. When someone asks: "Why are you waiting for him when you are hungry?" We cannot answer because our love is beyond reason.

When we were children, we all used to love puris. But as we could afford this luxury only once in a month. On that special day, my mom and grandma would prepare puris and aalo curry. Each person had a fixed quota of 5 puris each, not more not less. By the time our grandma and mom would start their dinner , ours would almost come to an end. Then Grandma would ask if any one would want another puri(from her share). I always would wonder how could she give away a portion of her share, when she loved it so much. Now I do the same to my sisters and most of my close friends. Whenever I get chocolates, I try sharing it with all of my loved ones. At times, I am not left with any for myself. Yet the satisfaction that I get out of sharing is immense.

Our Paati is used to waking up by 3 or 4 in the morning. As she has severe arthiritis, she walks with a walking stick and she had recently recovered from Dengue Malaria. Every time I would hear any sound in the night, I would wake up with a start and call out for Paati just to ensure that she is fine... And Paati used to tell me later in the morning that I had call out for her several times and sometimes I would not even remember! Even in my sleep I would be alert for her!!! That's what love is all about!

When we have known our special someone for a long long time, the love for him/her matures. The love flows in our flesh and blood. It evolves from just being a physical attraction to a more meaningful relationship. A sharing hand at the kitchen... A partner while buying groceries and a help while doing our laundry... A bunch of carrots or a cup of curd bought just because they are my favorites... And the end of the day, a supporting shoulder to carry all our worries while we sleep in peace! I am glad that I found that kind of a love in him! :)

Knotty Tidbits: 2

Title: Favorite?

I saw this the other day in iGoogle Love quote of the day

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday".

- Noelle, Age 7 (participant in a survey of 4-8 year olds asked to define love)

This reminds me of my maroon kurta that I always put on for the sake of V. It is not that V loves me in the kurta nor it is that he bought me the kurta.. the fact is that he hates me wearing it and always remarks that he would tear it away or throw it in trash at the very first opportunity he gets!!!

Then why do I wear it at all? It's because it is sure to catch his attention. Whether praisings or scoldings, as long as I become the centre of his focus, that's more than enough for me! :)