These Days...

Lots of travelling these days. I guess its coz

A 'Calcuttic' experience!

I always get confused on what to do when I have too much to do. So, right now I have too much to blog about our trip to India, I am lil confused on where to begin. Though being with loved ones was itself so much fun, since we wanted more... my darling hubby took me to Sikkim and Darjeeling, along with a roam around in Calcutta.

I guess I had too much imagined about Calcutta, being a metro and all. (I regretted that later!...I should have had an open mind.) Seeing my awe-struck (definitely shock!) face, my hubby said, 'This is Calcutta'.

Hmm.. let me see..
Porters at the Howrah railway station cruising though ya indifferent even if you are a kid , an aged person, a handicapped person or even a pregnant lady,

Homeless men,women and children sleeping on either side of the road in the heart of the city,

River Ganges pipelined on the sides of the road - flowing in all spectra other than purity - for people to bathe,

Women wearing nothing around their necks for the fear of chain-snatchers,

Public transportation called a bus - reduced to a 50 year old box with pot-holes (literally!) on the floor,

Strikes and Bandhs in the blink of an eye,

Finally, I came in terms with reality... ' This is Calcutta'.

Maybe because I am a Chennaite and had lived in B'lore for a while, I had expected too much. Maybe only a few crore Indians are lucky enough to be in a place they dream.

Trips from Calcutta to Gangtok and Darjeeling were great too... Darjeeling was not worth mentioning... we dint even had to wear a sweater...It was hot.. :(

Gangtok was clean, simple and elegant. Still no sweater... no cool weather!..

Back from the trips, it dawned on me, why Calcutta is special when I visited the 'Mother House' the next day.It is special because the Angel of care and kindness chose Calcutta. It was a dream come true for me when I set my foot on the very same places where Mother Theresa did. I don't think I could ever describe how I felt. Meeting Mother Nirmala was overwhelming too. She resembled a lot like Mother Theresa, in her kindness in her stature and in her pure serving heart.

Finally When I was leaving Calcutta on a train back to Chennai, Calcutta didn't seem so ugly after all.

Am back...! Am 26 pounds lighter!

One fine evening last week, I was back home after nearly 3 months of vacation in India. Wonder how time flies when you are with loved ones. They say you add a few pounds when you are happy...well, I shed a few. Am 26 pounds lighter now! (ha..that feels so good to say it...say it again! say it again!).. feeling younger, healthier and even more happier.

Gone is the constant pressure to lose weight...constant criticism of self. I do criticize myself now, but in a good way though.

A Kolkatic Experience!!!

A Private Shopping Mela in Chennai!

Ever since we started our India trip plans, all I could think was, what should I buy from India..
Should I or Should I not buy sarees?... Should I stuff my luggage with salwars or skirts?

Its crazy time in Chennai... the 'sale' season called 'Aadi'. Everytime I perk up myself for a 'lil' shopping in T-nagar, I also dread the thought of the crowd that moves you from South Usman Rd to North Usman rd with little or no effort from your side....
Did somebody invite me to Ranganathan st?... Naa.. fuggedaboudit!

I had a good shopping season this time. I kinda love all the stuff I bought.
One nice and different experience was shopping at sowkarpet. Very nice embroidery fancy sarees at a very good affordable price.

Though I am happy about my shopping spree where I got everything that I really think have my name on them, there is one person who dreads with headache everytime I go for shopping... Well.. husbands are supposed to be like that! Else whats the fun in shopping?

My first Indie Flick!

Last week, we did a spontaneous deed of raiding a movie theater.

Hillary, the boat has sailed, babe!

Last few months must have been a heck of a journey for Hill and Ob.
Hah...imagine the constant travelling, across a country thats too big to have three timezones!
The moment Barack reached the specified number of delegates, the media went frenzy on why she didn't concede. I wanted to shout..'Come on guys!, give a break'.

From the time she started her campaign, it had been a real tough road ahead for her. Now that there's a considerable immunity against racism, Barack had nothing to worry about as opposed to what was expected. Hillary thought it would be a knock-out match, but it turned out the other way.

Being a Woman, Being an Ex President's wife, the facts that should've helped her win,apart from the fact that she's a successful lawyer and a senator brought her to the ground.Especially when someone displayed the 'Iron My Shirt' banner when she was giving a speech, for which she replied, "Ah, the remnants of sexism - alive and well," .Makes one to think... can't really weigh racism against sexism.

Anyway if Hillary is out of the picture, I can't imagine any other woman so strong and having a good media/political presence. Looks like US has to wait a few more years for a woman president.

The media must feel like a weight off their shoulders as they just kept Barack back on the ground for the final battle against McCain. 'Barack is realtively new to Politics.' 'Barack is Black, how can he survive the rednecks?'

Any decision that a voter makes depends on the media I would say. Its so powerful to raise or topple a government over. Anyway lets see what happens!

Last Evening's Xtravaganza!

Last evening, seemed like a same old boring thursday evening, but my husband came home with a tougne for seafood.

A Cute little Person!

A Few days back one of our friends had a baby boy. He was so cute and even looked like a cute little person who was ready to walk given a chance.

Freakin' Out Lethargically!!!

Atlast...after more than a year!!! I just struck me that I do own a blog.

Let me just cut all self apologies apart..and get to the point. I should let myself go and

put an end this stupid lethargy... Hope I blog more often...

O...Give Thanks to the Lord!

Hmm...After a long time. I should blog more often. I bookmark the things I wanna blog in my mind and sooner or later the bookmarks are archived and I do even forget that I own a blog. Being at home gives me a lotta things to occupy myself and when sometimes I keep on wondering what to do next, I end up doing ultimately nothing!! :)

Last few months were full of travels and trips. Last weekend was Thanksgiving and I got to experience my first Thanksgiving day experience in US.We had an authentic american thanksgiving day with Turkey dinner. (Hmm...Tasted good!).

The day next to thanksgiving is what people here call a 'Black Friday'. The term sounded like its some spooky day , but actually its a shopping day! All the stores in US advertise discount sales and blimey... you will get a laptop for 99$!

The sale time was from 5AM to 8AM in the morning. We went to 'Circuit City' an electronic store to find a long,long 'Q' of people waiting from the previous night! Wierd.
It reminded me of Ranganathan Street in Chennai during the 'Aadi Thallubadi' sale season in the month of August.

Anyway, Thanksgiving is over and people are getting ready for the big-day which is just less-than a month away. It would be my first christmas away from home... and I couldn't wait to experience it.

Lost and Found!

Being at home for some period of time leaves one wondering what to do at home.It's happening to me too.When in school and college, I wanted to improve my skills in arts-n-crafts.When I got in to a job which occupied me full-n-full...Ahh...forget the crafts...I need some sleep!.

Now that am taking a break(!) and at home fulltime, its time to search for the lost.My husband had to make some time to take me to the Craft store, where I was pleasantly surprised at the number of choices one has, to revive the crafty mind.

This is one thing under sky, I would always love to do. Forget Java now... I am a fulltime cooking,cleaning,washing and ofcourse a crafting person now...atleast untill I go to work again!. It really feels very good to find the-lost-soul-soothing things one always likes in life.

Infy 25

Being the family of an Infoscion, gave me this opportunity of attending Infosys 25 years celebration party. It was organised in a Desi restaurant at Philadelphia for Infoscions and family from Pennsylvania and Delaware. It was a typical corporate party with a presentation movie on the company.Needless to say there was singing and dancing.

Though am not the loyal employee of Infosys the great, I felt a little proud for this one of the Greatest Indian companies.I have seen some people dying to get in to infosys. Though am not a big fan of the company,I have a good opinion on what the company does. I watch with pride on how the company was started by a small group of friends. No doubt, Infosys is making India proud.

'A Big Fat Stupid White Man!' ( t'is not a racial comment boss!! Just the name of a book!)

Watching movies has become one of my favorite hobby. Hmm…Timepass would be the right word! Last week in the video section of the library I found the movie ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’. It was a documentary movie by Michael Moore. When my husband found me checking out the video, he said…’Hmm good...Worth watching!’

I always liked documentaries and I would say I loved this one. When I was watching this movie, all I was thinking was the freedom of press and media. They form governments; they overthrow the same in no time, playing a major role in deciding a country’s future. Media’s reach is deep. Reaches one’s mind so deep that it makes one to write a blog on it!

This documentary – Fahrenheit 9/11 - is about the why Uncle Sam declared war on Iraq - which is neither the hidden nuclear weapons nor the once-upon-a-time-mighty Saddam. It’s all about how a country crowning itself the king of the world could do anything to any other country without a reason. It’s about their President Bush. It’s about his life as a President’s son. It’s about their family friend Osama. To me, more than the content of movie, the freedom of media was astonishing and interesting.

Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning documentary was ‘Bowling Columbine’. Based on the Columbine high school incident where two school students massacred the fellow school mates and teachers. Yes…It’s about the Gun-Culture in USA. Really…worth watching!

Michael Moore puts his thoughts on www.michaelmoore.com. But his foes put him in www.mooreexposed.com. They slam him, curse him and give every possible reason for people to hate him. To them he is ‘A Big Fat Stupid White Man’.

Apart from all these criticisms, fact/non-fact arguments, I liked both his documentaries.
Just because, they were interesting.

Customer Care or Customer Scare???!!

There were times when problems remained problems,without being resurrected to solutions.There still were times when folks had to scream for their problems be heard.Then came the new world of Customer cares.Suddenly people are enthusiastic about how you can just call up and tell your problems to sweet voiced ladies and gentelmen, so they would help us to get the troubles solved soon.Mildly satisfied that somebody actually hear their problems.

I had enough of Call centers when I was looking for broadband connections back in bangalore.But not so bad as calling the Citibank homeloans Customer care center,which has become one of my current nightmares.The service, taken care by E-serve, is so pathetic that sometimes I get sooo pissed off, like how in the world that an international bank like Citi would maintain such a bad, terrible,freakingly idiotic service.(hmm...am not getting the right words.!) ...the so called Customer service.

After paying off the loan amount we had to keep paying Rs.500 every month for an year before closing the loan account.We had sent the post dated cheques which after repeated calls and mails, they responded saying they received the post dated cheques of Rs.500. Before even we could relax that everything has been settled, Citibank tried to deduct its previous EMI amount of about Rs.16,000 from our savings account instead of Rs.500 which was supposed to be deducted. Since we had a lesser balance in our savings account,their cheque got bounced and we were penalised Rs.250 on our savings account.

Again we call them, mail them too, and this time the sweet voiced call center lady says, they have not received any cheques from us completely contradicting the previous confirmations, and she would confirm only after 2 working days.After two working days, we call them again, this time its another sweet lady, who again would confirm after a couple of days.(Huh...managing Indian subjects through international calls is really expensive!!)

After some days, We again find Citibank trying to deduct Rs.16,000 from our account...penality again.And this time it was totally pissing and I found myself get furious and restless even to think about these people.

Enough... please. Ladies and Gentlemen,eventhough you are not fully responsible,I no longer find your voices sweet.

Best hangout place!!! - The public Library.

This might sound corny for people who don’t love to stick their nose in to the smell of books…I love books…at least to be surrounded by them. Somehow my crazy reading habit is not that old. It all started when I was in college. But I still remember how I used to read through all the prose before even the school started.

Needless to say, I was the happiest person to find the Public library very near our house here in Bear,Delaware. I was stunned by the way public libraries function here. Of course, am in a different country and I should expect something diferent from India, but I long for such things back in India too. I remember how I and my ‘book-wormish’ gang used to go to the public libraries just to find torn papers for books, back in Chennai. Here the libraries function like communities. They celebrate summer festivals, arrange kids craft contests and so on. I love being here…at least with a library near home.

To Delware...with love.

Being in Delware is one of the most pleasant experiences in my life.
This second smallest South Atlantic US state is one of the most quiet,peaceful
states in US.As far as I have seen,the place is very cool and decent.Last week one of our Indian neighbours moved out of the apartment and I could see three or four indian families biding farewell to them.It was like a mini-Indian

To my dear Yahoo id...

Two weeks back, I experienced one of the most horrible two hours of my life.That fine morning I woke up very peaceful and pleasant just to know that my personal yahoo id was hacked. Ah…there goes my peace. :(

All the attempts to retrieve my password went in vain.Even my alternate e-mail address was changed.Next thing I did was to search for the Yahoo Customer care number.The task was exhausting.Atlast, found one.

Here's another tough job.All my answers about my account was politely dismissed by the Customer Care Executive saying am not providing the right details. All my personal information were changed by some unknown Resident Evil. Whoever did this to me…please live long in hell!. Somehow after those dreading two hours over phone, on and off hold,I got a temporary password.

Then after changing the password, and completely backing up all the mails,I mercilessly terminated my yahoo account.

A couple of days later, I had a mail from one of my friends saying his e-mail account was also hacked.Later I was enlightenend on how both our yahoo accounts got hacked.It was because of a offline message in the yahoo messenger which had a link to an unknown website,which on clicking hacks your yahoo account and sends the same message to all the people in your own friend list.

Observation or Result : Your Friend could search for Yahoo Customer Care number!

Inference or Moral of the Story: Hah…figure it all up yourself!!!

Hiyyaaa....Howdy y'all?

It's been almost a month since I blogged.And I deserved a break.

Being in the country of Uncle Sam, thats so very new to me,
observing,adjusting and digesting facts!

Bump-less roads,Magical weather(atleast for a chennai-girl!) ,lush-green-litter-free road-sides, colored/color-void,strong/neutral accented people...
hmm...I guess its really.. really gonna take some time for this Alice to get used to this Wonderland!!

Lots lying in heaps to blog down.So...watch out for my write-ups. .. Pretty soon!

The Gnostic Factor.

Gnosticism. The word made popular by Dan Brown to the Layman crowd.
It was a year and a half back when this word was added to my vocabulary.
Since then I was curious to know more about that.
Why not google it?

Holy Cow!!! There is a lone, vast Gnostic world out there. There are people who do dedicated research on such a thing. There’s an online library with a vast collection of resources supporting their theories called THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY.
And I desperately wanted to know more and blog it down.

Gnosticism is getting enlightment on religious beliefs. Finding the truth behind religious facts. Seems that the term is strongly linked with Christianity. Gnosticism is considered heresy by Christian churches.

Gnostic issues keep surfacing now and then whenever some scrolls of papyrus from older times pop out .The very famous Gnostic finding was the issue of Mary Magdalene. The Magdalene factor was the prime highlight in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. Surprisingly, the world of literature has contributed a lot to Mary Magdalene. As per the Gnostic theory, she’s considered the Holy Grail who carried the bloodline of Jesus Christ.

There are many other Gospels which are considered Gnostic other than the canonical ones that are accepted and included by the Church. Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Gospel of Thomas, and Gospel of Judas which has surfaced now are a few to mention.

Gnostic scholars who consider Mary Magdalene to be a devoted disciple and presumed wife of Jesus Christ also believe that the Church has masked her under the hood of the prostitute, whom Jesus Christ defends when she was about to be stoned to death. Surprisingly it’s nowhere referred in the Holy Bible that Magdalene is the prostitute.

Similar is the latest controversy of Gospel of Judas. Judas betraying Jesus Christ is considered to be the Ultimate treachery of all times. But a crumbling manuscript which is claimed to be the Gospel of Judas portrays him not as a villain but as a Mr. Nice Guy who helps the Lord in his mission.

Orthodox scholars say, ’None of the "extra" documents could rise to the level of the Scripture’. True, Gnostic findings are hard to believe and harder to accept, especially when they try to change the very basic lessons which have already been accepted as facts and that’s why the Gnostic ideas remains at a secret depth from the presumed truth of The Holy Bible. It’s not easily possible to change something that’s etched in the minds of the staunch and orthodox Christians.