A region called South Canara

Dark clouds with sun playing hide and seek in between them, puddles on the streets, smell of firewood, sound of the rain water, brick houses ....remind of South Canara. Suddenly today, miles away in Toronto, sitting in the subway, when it rained and I came across a green patch, and the smell of firewood ,reminded me of my family's place of origin, Udupi.

Some associations and memories - Udupi:

Udupi Shree Krishna, Kuthpadi, Narsimha Swamy temple at my ancestral house, Malpe beach, Gadbad ice cream, the bus ride to Manipal, smell of firewood, piping hot rasam, sound of rain water, Aane Gudde, Mookambika trips, banana chips made in coconut oil, chaklis, jackfruit - chips and vegetable/jeev gujje (never liked the fruit), long beans/alsande, banana leaf-meals, long walks exploring Kuthpadi and and greeting people in konkani/amchigele and kannada. ....... a different kind of a paradise on earth.

Spring rolls!

Had the tastiest veggie spring rolls some days back when P was down here in Toronto. At this place called Spring Rolls. This is the best I have had after Mainland China in HYD, Slurp! (have to mention that Nan King was pretty bad when I visited HYD 2 years back).

Madrasi

Why are some people from the rest of India still so ignorant? I was thinking this whole concept of 'all South Indians being Madrasis' was gone with the last generation and this generation would be more aware of Southern India. Apparently not, I witnessed this ignorance through an aquaintance the other day.

Recharged at Chicago

Almost got a second consecutive long weekend - almost! My husband's good friend's wife's baby shower was in Chicago and it also was a kind of reunion of his batchmates from CBIT - Engineering college. A big bindas group; so was good hanging out. And one of them actually acted in Telugu movies too, so that added some spice. I wish I had taken Memorial day off, greedily went to work taking a morning flight from Chicago and after being with a big group for 3 days; I was antsy and sleepy all day.

This is the second big gettogether we have had after New Years and realized that it was like an Indian wedding setting. Where in all family gather few days prior to the wedding, and due to lack of space to sleep howmuch ever big the house maybe, people pretty much sleep where ever you find space ;) Kids busily running around. Ladies cooking and talking. Television running nonstop songs and Indian movies et al But doing the same things for less smaller occasions than wedding and outside India is something of an achievement to me truly.

Back in Toronto I am recharged for the next few days atleast ;)

Observation

Neither money nor education can neccesarily bring 'class' in a person.

ANTM

Thanks to Youtube followed the whole season of Americas' next top model. Whaaaat? A woman needs her guilty pleasures you know....!

Jinxed!

I am almost convinced now that I am jinxed in one section of my life. Added to it - the unavoidable mankind; some people have reached expert level in the field of jinxing me...and yes dutifully have been trying to avoid them.

Victoria day - Long weekend

My husband came down and we spent a quiet and good long weekend in Toronto for Victoria's day. Went around Toronto downtown and saw even the CN Tower, though somehow I thought we would skip it (done with tall towers and all you know!). But the experience was good. My husband simply loved Toronto as well! We also visited Little India and had some great food and did some window shopping. A couple of stores also made fresh sugar cane juice, sold chaat etc out in the open, India-style. And then spent some time at the Vaughan mall as well.

Totally sleep deprived and distracted at work today!!! Yawnnn!

Know thy self ...

There are genuinely intelligent people, there are not so intelligent but hardworking people, there are average people (who manage!), then not so intelligent people but smart enough to manage with their PR skills and various such permutations and combinations. But whats with totally complacent people? Complacency at work has actualy started annoying me now!

Know thy self mate, its survival of the fittest! I dont think there is anything called 'job security' now, we all know that dont we? sadly 'restructuring' can be just round the corner!

Boston pedestrians

Boston is the only city I have seen so far where the pedestrians are given high priority on the road, and well the drivers actually respect and follow the rule by giving way!

कभी कभी

सब्र का फल मीठा होता है, पर कभी कभी काफी इंतज़ार करने से , फल की मीठास कम हो जाती है ।

Necessity is the mother of invention!

......Oh Yeah!!!

Figured out something today cos I had no choice; however small and insignificant, I avoided doing such things earlier cos I didnt know how to and didnt want to observe and learn.

P, You will be even more proud of me today ;)

Nobody said it was easy!

As banal as it sounds, its true. To empathize is a lot easier than actually going through a situation. I know a person who went through a rough patch and her way of dealing with it was to shut off from the world. Other people criticized, that as much as we empathize and know its hard and tough, this is not the way to react! I thought but would I have reacted differently? maybe yes/maybe not. But I respect that individual's decision. And in the end well we all survive dont we? if we want to live we will endure it, we have no choice. But only the person going through it knows the real pain. Just to say that it depends on how you see things, or its not as bad as it seems and so on and so forth is not totally right. But the fact is our thought-process changes when we are actually going through the same situation. It might seem to you as an impractical way of dealing with hardship or pretty stupid that the person is getting so religious/senti or supersitious.

As much as you want to consider yourself practical and strong, no one can share the pain small or big, but you have to acknowledge to yourself that perhaps if you were actually, actually going through it, you would have also reacted the same way!

The reason I pen this down to re-iterate to myself is cos I reacted to a situation recently by criticizing as well, and realized its not quite right...

Summer transport

Its fun traveling by subway to work (so far) but its not very bright (literally!). I got home by bus today and it felt good to be traveling out in the open, and on land with the warmth of the summer sunshine than the dark (and now I feel slightly gloomy, remember I mentioned earlier I associate subways with 'Law and Order') underground (most of the times except here and there) subway! Bus is a better transport during summers,perhaps.

Blasts! yet again..Jaipur this time

This happens, now and then to remind all of us - of the other part of the world - thats gory! Its frustrating, makes us angry, targeting innocent people for one's causes, beliefs and frustrations, UNACCEPTABLE! The images hurt, deep inside. And then its typically at a religious place or on a holy day or some such concept (pricks even more!). Reminds us of one of the causes of uncertainty in developing nation as India. This could be any of us! Time passes and we survive! (do we have a choice?), we have to move on; and life goes on......

Dear Samay,

Will this ever end?....

Idiosyncrasy?!

Spelling someone's name consistently wrong puts me off! I am sure it does to all. I had to correct someone the other day cos its been 1 1/2 month and it couldnt be a typo for this long, that the person spelt my name wrong.

I have realized I am a little bit obsessed with justifying paragraphs too ;) Makes me terribly uncomfortable to read someone's write-up which is not justified.

My shoes have to be displayed in one line ;)

Possessive with the way things placed in my kitchen, has to be my way :)

...these are a few things at the top of my head

Common cold

Its everywhere, downside of using public transport, you pick all the seasonal sickness.

Salads

I have been usually pretty 'indifferent' towards salads all this while. I enjoyed salad bars when I visited US the first couple of times and then it died. We have our own Indian salads (Kosumbri, raita etc) and was content with it, but somehow never got hooked on to the western salads. But off late since I have been living in Canada I have been enjoying it. Whether the basic green salad or macaroni salad. Currently I am in a state that I can eat red skin potato salad any time of the day and totally get into a potato salad- binge mode. Recently I also had this other salad which I have never had in my life - strawberry salad. I dont know if it has another fancy name, but thats what it was basically strawberries and almond slices and a great sauce! Yumm!

Now that I think of it these past two months I have had salads only from 'Pickle Barrel' - Caesar salad, Honey mustard salad, Mixed green salad and my favorite Greek salad!

Answers I dislike....

If ever anyone asks me where I am from I say I am an Indian first then a Kiwi, who has lived in the US and working in Canada (as long as it can get eh? :)). Then the typical question a fellow Indian asks is where in India do I come from? I say Hyderabad. I am first a Hyderbadi above all (born brought up there and lived for 21 years, so its easy, though I am not an Andhrite and belong to a different state). Well probably thats just me and a few others like me who are that particular with answers to such questions?

The reason I say that is cos I once met this Indian lady (way back in NZ) who was asked her place of origin (it was obvious she was an Indian her looks, accent etc but conversation-sake a fellow-Indian asked her and I am sure she was expecting an Indian city name) and this woman blurts 'I am from Portugal' I was stunned. Are you kidding me? Are you ashamed to claim your an Indian (I say in my mind!)? Just cos I dont know how ever many generations back 5-8? there was some intermingling of the races you disclaim that YOU are an Indian anymore? Phew! I dont get it! And then in Orkut the other day I saw someone's profile who also claimed a descent totally Non-Indian even though for 5 generations atleast I am sure their family has been in India.

This has nothing to do with citizenship, but would someone so openly claim to belong to a totally different race? It so happens the reason for both could be religion-based; the former lady was a Jew (Portugese-Jew connection!) the latter you know

Sleep

A good nights sleep - is so precious!

A speed-breaker

Voluntarily taking a decision is one thing but circumstances pretty much forcing you to make the same decision (leaving you with no other option or other unattractive options), is not easy to digest for an individual. For most people it injures their ego.

I wonder..

Is analyzing others (personality traits) a good thing? Does it really help us to deal with others diplomatically - improve people skills? Or we just end up becoming judgmental and end up typecasting people?

To Philly and back

This time on work I went to Dover, DE. Got off at Philly being the nearest airport and stayed at Dover downs (which had a Casino and a race track, thats why bothered mentioning it). This trip was good in a lot of ways. There is so much to learn; its amazing! Met the customer face to face. This is my second F2F already.

I also managed to sneak away again to Boston and fly to Philly from Boston this time. End up shopping each time I am at Boston. Husband and I have switched to a new brand of clothing and we are totally into it. Its like this phases we go through - and switch brands at the same time both of us and have fun shopping together :)

Awards etc

Couple of days back I finally saw Filmfare awards. I was told Saif and Shah Rukh Khan were funny and I couldnt miss it. And that they were, some of the things they said were hilarious. Person who still left me wondering is Amir Khan! He is an Indian, lives in India, makes movies for the Indian audience, the respect, image etc he has is due to the Indian audience . Yet he does not recognize Indian awards? I mean, I understand that perhaps he thinks the system is not effecient or whatever it is. I dont know his reasons. Had a quick look at that blog in his name and didnt really find anything related to this. But there should atleast be one of the awards he must consider isnt it? Makes me wonder that should Filmfare and other sponsors or whoever it is (the jury?) even consider his movies when rating the best film/actor etc? Why consider someone's work when he doesnt recognize you or your system? Doesent bother to attend those presentations, but instead aims only for Oscars?

And then we saw Tashan last night at a friends place. No comments. Saw U, Me or Hum. As expected Kajol and Ajay Devgan acted well, but definitely something was lacking....