V’Day & Winter Olympics

Today is Valentines Day 2010. It always surprises me why there is so much brouhaha over it in India—despite a repetition of threats from the asinine Shiv Sena goons, thankfully the day was peaceful there. Abhi & I have decided to spend it at home watching lots of TV and resisting the urge to venture out. Last year we did the same, except that at 7 p.m. we finally gave in, got all dressed up and set out to North End – the artsy Italian hub of Boston with numerous ‘happening’ restaurants. In our excitement though, we forgot to acknowledge that other city couples have more foresight. After spending a half hour trying to find street parking, we were forced to park the car in a lot for 25$!! Then we strolled around the crowded restaurant row, peering inside windows, looking over menus, trying to pick just the right place. Our hearts soon settled on one, we walked in, only to be politely asked if we had made a reservation. ‘No’, we replied. “Okay then, you can wait for 2 hours!”..Hmm.. 6 other restaurants just simply refused to entertain walk-ins..Despondent, and frozen after walking in the cold for 30 minutes, I was ready to call it quits, when on our way back, we walked by this cool & ‘very full’ corner restaurant. And as though it was meant to be, we got a spot, right by the window! after waiting for just 15 mins. So yep, we did manage to eat in the North End that night with live music, candlelight et al. But advice in general, be more planned with your V’day voyages.

On a different note though, just watched the Indian luge contestant Shiv Keshavan on TV take his turn on the track. I didn’t know until the opening ceremony that India was even represented in the Winter Olympics and was very pleasantly surprised to discover otherwise! Keshavan actually did a great job—though I know very little about the sport. In fact, after watching footage of the terrible accident 2 days back, I was very skeptical if such a high-risk sport should even be played. However, as Abhi pointed out, most sports have an inherent risk and while such accidents can point the way to make them more safe, it probably doesn’t imply that they be given up altogether.

2010, Home Alone, Netflix, BPL and my SewMac..

Yep! a decade of the new millennium is already over (where did it go!) Well, come to think of it-- college, more college, Abhi, marriage & work—it was actually quite an eventful decade :)..How on earth did I get so reflective on the whole decade though—as I began the post, I intended to merely acknowledge our foray into 2010. CNN was having an inane poll today btw about whether most people will refer to this year as “twenty-ten” or “two-thousand and ten” and the resounding verdict was in favor of the latter (much to the dismay of the anchors who thought the former was more trendy!). I am always amazed at who comes up with these gazillion polls and who responds to these things. Abhi has actually put me down a guilt trip about this in the past---well no, not TV/internet polls, but my total non-commitment towards writing product reviews on websites, especially cause I base my decision to buy-or-not after reading gazillion reviews myself. He thinks it is absolutely necessary for the sustenance of the system for customers like me to contribute---he’s probably not wrong..I’m just really lazy about the whole thing, besides there seem to a whole lot of other interested folks to pen reviews :)

It is so easy to go off on a tangent with blogging..especially when you write a post (like me) after a break of 3 months..nonetheless, steering back, the past week has been an interesting experience of living alone at home and watching waaaay more TV than I would ever have had the time if Abhi was around. Part of it is that I like to have some noise in the house, although the bigger reason is, my rather late discovery of Netflix Instant Play and the fact that they have a reasonably good collection, including many new/old foreign movies. So, post-discovery I have already watched 8 movies in 3 days…infact my eyes were watery last night at 2 am after all the viewing, yet I gave in to the urge of another one – OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit with the watery part..but aleast they were all droopy :)..So the first movie I watched was the Ken Burns documentary on Frank Lloyd Wright—I had just finished the book ‘Loving Frank’ about FLW’s illicit affair with a married woman Mamah Cheney in the early 1900’s and was aching to piece that part in his larger life story and also ogle at historic photos & footage. The movie did just that. In retrospect though I have had enough of FLW for quite a while. The second was a documentary, Blindsight-about a mountaineering expedition in the Himalayas with 6 blind kids from Tibet. The movie was a bit heavy, yet well made and unique. Following that was a forgettable 1996 romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston—when you watch so many movies there are bound to be some unfortunate choices! Moving on though, ‘Wake up Sid’ was a delightful Hindi film that I had somehow missed watching when released last year. It’s fresh, contemporary and remains interesting throughout. Next, I watched ‘Outsourced’ – an Indo-Hollywood film in English about an American who is sent to a small Indian town to train call center employees—I was quite sure that I wouldn’t like the movie before I started watching, thinking it would be stereotypical & kitschy. And yes it was all that in parts-yet rather funny and very entertaining! Following that was the 2008 documentary Food Inc. about the corporatization of the whole food industry in the US. The movie was well-made but didn’t exactly hit me as it would have, had I watched the movie a few years earlier-- back in the day when I had never read a label on a food product before, and honestly didn’t even know/care how to interpret that info even if I did. Since coming to the US though, my approach towards food has changed..I no longer just buy stuff I like off the shelf and consume it gluttonously placing my trust in my genetically slender bodyframe (or atleast so I like to believe!) Not that I’m worried about gaining weight now, but am definitely concerned about dumping preservatives in my body just cause that food has to have a certain shelf-life. Make as much food from raw materials as you can, and buy right to make sure the ‘raw’ materials are truly raw, seems like the sensible thing to do—yet is easier said than done especially when you have limited time and budget. Yet, no harm trying! ‘Whats Your Rashee?’ was a painfully long hindi movie, funny in parts but tiresome overall. Next up was ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ a Shyam Benegal creation that I watched this morning- and what a delightful movie it is! Refreshing and original, with excellent acting, music and dialogues, the movie is satirical yet light – a must-watch! The invention of the HDMI cable and the fact that it allows all these movies to be viewed on my wide-screen TV makes life all the better—bless the people who invent this stuff!

In between the movies though, books from the Boston Public Library have kept me company at bedtime, on the WC and on the T. The Public Library system is one of those things that I absolutely love about US cities..and BPL is supposedly the grand-daddy of them all, being the first public library in the US. It’s central branch is right next to my office and although it is quite difficult to find recent bestsellers, there is still a huge collection of books to choose from. I am also thankful to my SewMac (my 70-stitch ‘computerised’ sewing machine) for being there in times like these. Actually since Abhi doesn’t let me spend too much time on it while he’s around, this is probably the best opportunity to churn out the duvet-set and lunch-bags that I have been meaning to complete in ages!

So much for now..

I salute the light within you..

It is strange that I had never really wondered before what NAMASTE literally meant. I mean I knew it meant something that implied the act of bowing in Sanskrit. But wouldn’t have been able to dissect the word down to its roots and elaborate what its literate meaning was. So today when I heard the rendition in the blog title (in a yoga CD of all places!) it got me thinking.. Its pretty neat isn’t it? ‘I salute the light within you!’ ….Seems like a lot to say in a single, short greeting, yet quite remarkable! Its derived from the Sanskrit namas (bow) and te (to you). More accurately though, the implied meaning of the term is - "I respect that divinity within you that is also within me". Of all the countless times that I have spoken this word and greeted family, friends, acquaintances and strangers, I never appreciated its entire breadth. The act of pressing your palms together and bringing them close to the chest that accompanies the vocal address is a pose called ‘anjali mudra’. The symbolism behind the pose is that one hand represents the divine, spiritual self, while the other represents the worldly self. By combining the two, the person making the gesture is attempting to rise above his differences with others, and connect himself with the person to whom he bows. I am not sure if the meaning of the term will really come to my mind the next time I use the salutation—I will probably parrot it out of habit as I have been doing for so many years..Yet I at least know what it implies now and will hopefully try to make it mean more on some occasions!!

The Obituary of a Laptop

My laptop (of merely 7 days of age) died last evening. It came as real shock to both me and Abhi, primarily because of the mysterious nature of its death. I had been working on it all day, running multiple (and huge) graphic programs simultaneously, that too, with such remarkable ease ! It gave absolutely no inkling of any impending mishap. Rather its performance had been superfluous in the past 7 days since it came to be mine (well, other than the exasperating keyboard it had and the fact that its battery was non-existent, meaning it worked only when plugged in directly to the socket). Nevertheless, it was a GOOD laptop. Its sleek, black and grey body with sinuous curves strewn across the front were subtly attractive, despite the fact that it was slightly over-weight and that it ran on an early version of Vista..Nonetheless, it was mine and very newly mine. In its previous life of almost 2 years it had belonged to Abhi. I agree that this recent transition from being a straight-thinking , number-crunching nerdy laptop to a more creative, inspired and graphicy one had been quite hard on the poor (now departed) soul. Yet, it held up quite alright until yesterday’s fateful Sunday evening.

I remember it all so vividly –last night around 7.00 Abhi closed its lid, with a bit of a slam actually, and I shot him this reproachful glance, before we headed out to ‘Indian Dhaba’ for dinner. Bac k at 8.00, delighted that I had another 2 hours ahead to indulge in my illustrator dabbling, I opened the lid back up, noticing almost immediately that something was amiss..none of the usual lovely, flickering blue lights came on..except a stray wireless light that came on a couple of times, before extinguishing forever…almost as if the poor machine was breathing its last..:(

Well, this had to happen one day or another, except, I wish it hadn’t come as such a shock, it hadn’t come when the laptop had become MINE, and it hadn’t come at a time when for the first time in the past two years I happen to really have some use for a laptop except the usual email-internet-time-pass. Nonetheless, we are still deciding over the appropriate funeral course and will keep the blog updated, unless of course a new power cord overturns the pronouncement and brings the laptop magically back from the dead!

Weekends and catching up onTV

Well, ever since Abhi made a resolve to not watch TV during the weekdays, so that we 'supposedly' spend our time more productively, and through some sheer stroke of magic (must be one of those days when my reasoning powers are at their super-low), convinced me to join in the plan, our weekend beginnings have been quite interesting. Take today for instance, he called me up at 4.30 in the afternoon, convinced me to get out of work so that we could hang around and then, instead of enjoying those one-off warm days in Boston, we headed straight back home- with reasonable haste, mind you- to enjoy all the amazing programmes that were waiting piled up on our much-beloved TIVO! It's another story altogether that TIVO decided on its own, to not work this week, which actually makes it less beloved...hmph, yet we were able to find an online version of our fav show. So anyways, after sitting glued in front of the TV for a straight hour or so, thus having satiated our pent up TV-viewing urges, we decided to have dinner.

Which brings me to the other TV escapade tonight. While flipping channels for something adequately dull and interesting to accompany my dinner preparation of methi paranthas (believe me, its always a real challenge to choose something just right on TV while i'm cooking across in the kitchen--well if I choose something real intersting, that's all I end up doing while the dishes take their own drastic course, and if it is too boring, then I spend all my time flipping channels to find that perfect dull-intersting combo). So anyways, today happened to be the former instance. Thankfully the methi paranthas survived too, and i ended up watching 'The Great Debaters' on TV. It was quite a well made movie, and i didn't know till the credits rolled up that it was directed by Denzel Washington - so kudos to him, great acting and good directing! Two other intersting factors in the movie were connections to Boston (Boston Univ and Harvard, with shots in Cambridge), as well as references to Gandhiji and civil disobedience in the climax. Since I have now completely run out of my patience with this keyboard (you should really appreciate how there is not even a single mis-spelt word in my blog, cause trust me its mighty difficult to manage that on this laptop!!) i will bid adieu!

Not bad, third day and still counting....:)

How to be an early bird??..(consistently!)

Not bad, not bad...my second day of the blogging initiative and all I can think about in office is blogging...but as I have also resolved...these blogs will need to be spontaneous....yet revolve around topics that matter to me...willl hopefully allow me to share my views and also learn something new by doing some necessary reasearch..so following up on that train of thought..today i'm going to write about how I should train my obstinate self to get up on time..which is 5.30 a.m. and not a second later if I want to get everything done on my plate in the morning and not be the one to walk into office later than everyone else on my team...if not the whole frickin office!!

okay..so after googling for a few minutes...here's what I have learned..tan-tan-aaaa...there are 2 schools of thought on this issue...one leans towards training the mind and the other towards training the body...in short, the former focus on cultivating self-discipline while the latter on training the body...so that essentially at 5.30 a.m. getting up will be a bodily response to the alarm clock that I would have habituated myself to....hmm...they even suggesting trying this activity out several times during the day...even when I am not sleeping...just to get in the habit and so that my body knows exactly what to do when its time to actually get up in the morning...and the mind will have absolutely no say in it. Since i have been struggling with the self-motivation option since a long time...I think I am going to give this physical habit one a shot! Nothing to lose...plus from what I have heard personally from people who consistently get up early in the morning si that it invariably is like a habit....
Another intersting tip...no matter what time you sleep at night (ie. sleep only when you are actually sleepy..don't force urself to sleep at 9.30) get up at a fixed time every day 365 days a year...this is essential for the habit forming thing to work!
So summing up on what I have decided to do....will place my alarm clock away from the bed...actually in the corridor...directly after switching it offf...I will NOT enter the bedroom again...willl directly go to the bathroom and then the living room...drink water...open all the shades...and put on some music...this sequence of events should be enough (I hope) to have thrown me out of slumber....
So update tomorrow...or rather after a week on how this has fared out..

A naya-taaza resolve to start blogging

I still don't know why this seemed like a good idea..yet, this time around (so, yes, this is my second, hopefully , longer lasting attempt at blogging) I hope this blog remains active for at least longer than a week. I have resolved to try and blog almost every day, to not think too much while blogging...as I guess that defeats the whole purpose...to be as spontaneous as time allows...and ufff to use a better keyboard (this one's driving me nuts) and considering that i will probably have to use this if i blog at home .I'm amost thinking of taking care of all my blogging activities in office :)...wouldn't be a very bad idea maybe...so that's not bad....I've managed somethin that looks like a para already...and its time to go to bed..so ciao! and cheers to a happy, satisfying and interesting blogging future!