Living La Vida Horlicks

TK accuses me of hubby-bashing way too much. I tell her that until my life takes an interesting turn and I give up my desk-job and turn into some adventure-monkey, the hubby will be my primary victim. So here's one more to him...

Hubby has taken to drinking Horlicks at night. Yes, Horlicks (The Great Family Nourisher of India that usually kids below the age of 10 or expecting mother's drink). And I make it for him. People who know me know I am NOT the kind who mixes health drinks for family members who are not sick, however, much they might mean to me.

It all started when I have discovered an ancient relic: a jar of Horlicks with just 3 spoons left. I needed a jar badly to paint on (Don't ask for details, I'll save that one for another rainy day on the blog when there's nothing happening). So I emptied the bottle, mixed the remaining Horlicks in milk and gave it to Hubby to drink.(He can drink a LOT). Unfortunately, the Man liked it and in the next shopping trip, a full bottle replaced the empty one. I confess I did make it again as I longed to try a cuppa myself. I hoped this chore would transition to the rightful hands soon enough like making of the bed tea had.

Last night:
He: (walking into kitchen and standing around vaguely) This Horlicks at night is really good.
Me: *Furiously rearranging photos on Picasa and emailing people* Yes? Making a cup?
He: Hmmm. *taking a sip of water*. I could make it myself if you are busy.
Me: *Blow a kiss* (Come on, that's universal language for "Thank you Sweetie, you're the best, please go ahead)
He: *Poised with water glass in mid-air, waiting*
Me: *Blow another kiss* (Universal language for "Go on now. Why are we waiting?")
He: It's cool. Finish your emailing. Actually I think later is better.

Is this his second childhood or had he never passed out of the first one?!! Should I be worrying about the fact that he drinks Horlicks or the fact that I see many years of Horlicks-making in front of me?

Life is, well, it is what it is...

Sister can you hear me now
Ringing in your ears
I'm down on the ground
My luck's been tried for years

I'm lost in the dark
And I feel like a dinosaur
Broken face and broken hands
I'm a broken man

I've hit the wall
I'm about to fall
But I'm closing in on it
I feel so weak
On a losing streak
Watch my taillights fade to black
Taillights Fade (by Buffalo Tom)

Something snapped inside me yesterday. Somewhere in the middle of this huge life of mine, I have forgotten myself. I feel lost between my work, my family, my friends. I used to be happier, before I became who I am now. I never noticed I was going through some sort of change until last night, when the past year was put into perspective. I realized with a shock that it was really me, that I had actually done all those things, that I had deliberately changed my own life.

Hopelessness and "quiet desperation" might be the order of the day, but I know better. I've known unhappiness way too closely and way too many times to not learn undying optimism. To that I say Cheers! to me. :) "Everythings' gonna be alright"... Dory to Marlin in Finding Nemo

Call it growing up or growing real, but I suddenly hate using blogging as a vent to my frustration. And as always, I hate sounding like a crib pot! There's too much happening right now. Here's to the hope that things will sort themselves out.

And they will indeed. Monsoons are here, the grass is lush green, the flowers are in bloom, the birds are chirping. My tiny garden looks fantastic (although it is too early to say if the crabgrass will rear its ugly head with all the rain). My herbs are growing. The Oleander, Colocasia and miniature Erethrena look beautiful in the front. The hydrangeas with their pink and blue flowers are a delight to watch.

Got a new breakfast table for the balcony overlooking the garden and recessed lights in the living room and study. Meeting missy moi aka PS for lunch on Monday. It's been too long. Way too long. I can barely wait..........

"Keep swimming"... Dory in Finding Nemo

Reality Check

We sit cuddling together in front of the TV, cheering for Schumi as he wins the European Grand Prix. The romance is not yet lost, I think blissfully to myself. Maybe we should go on a trip somewhere in the mountains. No friends. just us. I might even do the weekly grocery shopping alone today as a nice gesture, knowing how much he hates to shop.

Breaking my flow of thoughts, Hubby abruptly says, ‘Remember you promised to make me some tea. Can I have some now?’

I’m aghast, but pout, "You want hug or tea?’ He thinks and constructs his reply slowly, ‘Both’.

I get up to make tea for the most tactless guy I know. "Now get your lazy butt off the bed and get the bags ready to do the shopping."

These are a few of my favourite things...

Pandora totally Rocks...
I’ve been tinkering with Pandora the last couple of days, and I am hooked. For the uninitiated, Pandora is an online streaming music service that suggests additional music based off your initial suggestions and your opinion of what it plays. The operators of the service have catalogued tens of thousands of songs based off distinguishable criteria. The result is effective: in the first hour of use, I discovered several new bands I love based off one song of input.

Further, while a song is playing, you can either tell Pandora that you like the song, don't like the song, or you can add it to your favorites. It keeps track of songs you mark as favorites. With all of this information, your Pandora radio station evolves to your tastes. If you like more than one genre of music, you can add multiple radio channels for each genre. It's just a fun, cool, very likable tool (omigosh, I rhymed again—what's with me today?). Check it out and see what music Pandora helps you discover!

Konfabulator, now Yahoo! Widgets
Yahoo! widgets have completely changed the way I use my computer on a daily basis. For those of you who don't already know what a widget is, they are "little files that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather." The great thing about Yahoo widgets is that you can run as many as you want, but they don't slow down your computer; and of course the best thing is that they are completely free.

For instance, I’ve got a MiniPlayer, a compact and tiny audio player, on my desktop right now that plays music from my PC or the radio whenever I click it. I have a Day Planner that tells me what I need to do today and a Zonal Clock to know the time in different time zones around the world.

Soduku: My latest Addiction
I confess I am addicted to Soduku these days. I do them while travelling to work. I do them at home when I'm watching TV. I do them when I should be sleeping. I can't stop. It's a fixation. I've become obsessive-compulsive about them.

I just discovered Web Sudoku, where there are, seriously, billions of puzzles. In four difficulty settings. All fully printable. I do, maybe, six of these a day at work, when I have actual work I should be doing. On days when I'm bored, don't even get me started. Now I understand why this Japanese brainteaser has taken the world by storm. The only way to get over this game is probably to start the next one, Kakuro, which is supposedly more difficult than Soduku.

Another time pass has been my Rubik's cube....I have re-discovered the joy of playing with it after almost 2 decades, and trying to understand the mathematics behind solving it.

The Week-end Ends...

It’s been a terribly busy week-end albeit extended one with the Labour Day falling on Monday. But I barely realized when it flew past me and here I am once again on the threshold of a new week.

Went for a whirlwind trip to Coorg (also known as the Scotland of India) with hub and his buddies. Had the most fabulous time despite the heat and the crowds. It seemed like the whole of Bangalore had ascended on Mercara. We visited the Abbey Falls, Madhikeri Fort, Valanoor Fishing Camp, Nisargadhama, Talakaveri and the whole nine yards. We stayed at a quaint coffee estate converted into a guesthouse. Madikeri was rather uneventful except for some awesome milkshakes and spats with the local traffic cops for breaking a "NO Entry" sign, which wasn't there in the first place. :)

On the way back, we stopped at the Dubare Elephant Camp, wherein a large part of the fun is just the proximity with the tuskers and lazing in the shade. The most enticing part of this leg of the trip was to bathe the elephants. Here are some of my favourite shots.


















Met up with old buds at TGIFs last night, and noticed something very interesting -

They have this exhaustive cocktail menu. I'm not into drinking, but for a change, decided to drink; I picked something called 'PS - I love you'. The drink lived upto its name. It is like 'Love' itself:

* It comes in really tiny quantities, in tiny containers (relatively speaking).

* It is foul-smelling, in essence, but is masked with edible fragrances... they had to, or no one would buy it.

* It is over-sweet in a thick, viscous sort of way, but the sweetness is over-emphasized to mask the extreme bitterness of at least one of the ingredients.

* It is pink!

* Once you have tasted it, you are glad there's so little of it... you'd get very sick if you consumed large doses of this weird concoction.

You look at what the others are having - larger, less bitter, smoother, watered-down.. and you always, always, regret not having made better, intuitive choices.

Miss me much?

Hola!!! Spare me the glares, mutters and after-how-long looks!! I know.. I know.. Do forgive. I had work and lots of it. So much that I've actually been zoning off in the middle of conversations because I'm thinking up points for a presentation. I have been meaning to post about my brother's wedding but work kept me away. Anyways, I am here now, so here goes...

My little bro married his sweetheart on April 20. Eight years of love and commitment culminated into a lifelong bond. He and N are a great match and I am really proud of him for doing the right thing and standing by her.

The wedding was a blast! 4 days of fun, gossiping or "catching-up" as the aunts called it, halla-gulla shor sharaba and nachna gaana. There was total mayhem, pandemonium even.. Truly, there's nothing to beat a "family wedding"!!!! The entire mad and ...er.. slightly khandaan was in attendance, 3 generations in all from the funny mamu to the short-tempered nana chachu to the gossipy mausi. Met scores of relatives who I never knew existed (and who were all very knowledgeable about me and my various childhood preferences and talents ["You could eat five ice creams before I could say Peekaboo!", "You once ate 4 plates of Poori and then you had most of my halwa too!", "You sang Midhundas songs all the time !!"..erm..(what the?!)..and so on]).

The ‘ghadholi’ was on April 17th, where all the aunties, bhabies and sisters apply ‘haldi’ to the groom. This does get a bit nasty cause they literally tear the groom’s clothes off. Bro was seen running along the swimming pool section holding on to his shorts. while the bhabies were after him, trying to get it off. After this chaos, we have the sisters and bhabies filling up clay-pots with water…with this groom has to take his bath.

Mehendi lunch was on April 18th with the bride side (again the first of it’s kind. We usually have separate functions). Here we had the ‘mehendiwalies and (some)walas’ along with few ‘chudiwalas’. So all the ladies went crazy over the mehandi and bangles, while the men were busy munching on the food and deserts. Once again, no wedding function is complete without some "dance shance". We had the ‘dhol-walas’ and the whole crowd got into the spirit of things and did an impromptu ‘filmi-ishstyle govinda’ dance.

Morning of April 19th saw us decking-up for the Sangeet and Cocktails (scheduled for the evening). Cousins opened a mini beauty salon at home. Moi in my peacock blue backless Lehenga Choli was the star of the evening. There was gaana bajaana, dancing and entertainment!!! Yours truly danced to gajra re, which incidentally got a lot of applause and requests for a repeat performance!! (Pointed Look!!)

On the wedding day, we had the "pagdi" and "ghur chari" function, where all the men have turbans placed on their heads along with the groom. Just before the ‘baraat’ is about to leave for the wedding place and the groom is about to sit on the ‘horse’. The sisters braid the horse’s hair or put kajal in the groom’s eyes. And then the baraat starts walking cum dancing towards the wedding venue.

The main wedding was at Le Royal Meridien. A typical Monsoon Wedding!! The timing couldn't have been more perfect!! Just as the baraat was getting ready to leave, the clouds burst over a sizzling Bangalore!!! Leastways, everyone got into the spirit of things and we did a rain dance all the way to the reception hall!! Then we had the old formalities, Jaimala, pheras, vows et al.

N looked gorgeous in her shimmery fresh green grass lehenga. Bro said yes to the seven vows so seriously, it almost made me cry!!! Ah, who am I kidding, I did!!! It was just beeeeeeooooootiful the wedding - will scrounge for pix and upload - hey, this is still the wedding of the year so pix are valid all the way till December.

While the wedding didn’t happen strictly according to family traditions but post-wedding, the family decided to follow the rituals to the T. So, after the vidaai when N came home and the Grihapravesh rituals were completed, she was asked who she would like to sleep with. Needless to say, she almost died! Knowing about a certain black-sheep slutty uncle in the family, who is known to have had some 25 girl friends in his salad days, she thought it was some twisted little family tradition where she had to choose who she could sleep with! Luckily for her, while my family is crazy, it is not that crazy!

Actually, according to the customs, the newly married couple is not supposed to spend the first night at the guys house together. It’s called some ratri. So, it was decided much against A’s wishes that N would sleep with Nani Chachi. N looked positively freaked; this was not the kind of first night she had imagined! But ultimately M (cousin sis), N and I slept in the same room. However, N had the last laugh when the next morning a couple of her friends called to ask indecent questions about the first night and she, rather gleefully, told them she had slept with her husband’s sisters!!! The love-birds left for their honeymoon to Malvides on April 22.

Ma handled the wedding pressure very well even though she looks a tad tired today and slept most of the day. She missed her radiation this week.. something which I am not very happy about. She was really the life of the wedding. Pulling everyone together and dancing to Mujhe Buddha mil gaya. She seemed so happy and carefree. La vie - c'est vraiment bizarre! C'est difficile, très difficile, mais on survivra!

.. of pills and spells

I've been almost entirely on liquids, through yesterday. It's not just the heat. I'd been having these dark, dizzy spells. Normally, I'm not a dizzy kind of girl - I don't faint, as a rule, and definitely not simply because it is hot and I'm used to air-conditioning etc.

But I guess the heat and my own erratic eating got to me. Yesterday, I was tottering every time I tried to stand, and worse, when I lay down, my head would feel wobbly - like it were filled with melty caramel custard (btw, why is custard spelt 'tard' and not 'turd'?). The whole ceiling spun.

I kept thinking it would pass, if I just lay down still and breathed deeply.... but that wasn't happening. So, I rummaged through the medicine chest (actually, an old chocolate box) and swallowed evey single vitamin-mineral-tablet I could find. Then, I made myself a hot cuppa chai, followed by milk shake, followed by some lemonade, followed by tomato soup... And it worked! Today, the feet are steady and the head, though it still misses a skull-like solidity, is filled with something more like frozen jelly than melty custard.

The week that it was...

My blog is gathering dust, says RM. I know, I know, it's been a real long time since I've updated.... My excuse is that life happens. And who was it that said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."? Here's the low down on all that has been happening while I was planning the agenda.

Let's start with Thursday. It was a big day for me. My directorial debut film was to be screened at the Company’s Annual State of the Union Address. As the evening approached, I was all “butterflies”. I had slogged my butt off to complete the movie on time and within budget. Needless to say, the movie was a great hit. The Super Boss, who is usually stingy with his praises, said that our SS’s talents are being wasted here. Everyone may want to take her autograph now because soon she will be a rich and famous Movie Director in Bollywood and may not have time for the likes of us. Truly, it was a Kodak moment for me. I was beaming ear to ear as I hogged the limelight. Good thing, on advise of a dear friend, I got myself a new dress. I looked stunning! Obviously, the weight-loss because of all the running around helped. :-) *grin*. Modesty is not quite my strongest point:-).

I transformed into a Blondie on Friday, courtesy TK, my wannabe hairdresser friend. She conned me into allowing her to highlight my hair and give it a beautiful burgundy hue. yet again! The last time around she gave me a makeover; I had to sprout a mushroom cut for over a year. She had cut my hair so short. I never learn from the past. I deserved to be a Blondie… and the brunt of the jokes at office.

Q: Did you hear about Pepsi's new soda just for Blondies?
A: It has "open other end" printed on the bottom.

Q: Why do Blondie's always rapidly flap their hands towards theirs ears?
A: They're refueling.

Q: Why did the Blondie purchase an AM radio?
A: She didn't want one for nights.

Q: Did you hear about the dead Blondie in the closet?
A: She was last years hide and seek winner.

Q: Why do Blondie's like lightning?
A: They think someone is taking their picture.

Q: Why do Blondie's have little holes all over their faces?
A: From eating with forks.

Q: Why do Blondie's drive BMWs?
A: Because they can spell it.

Q: Why do Blondie's have TGIF on their shoes?
A: Toes go in first.

Q: Why do Blondie's wear their hair up?
A: To catch as much as they can that is over their heads.

Saturday saw me rushing to catch the Jet Airways flight to Ahmedabad at 4:30 am. Less said about the travel the better. Air travel is becoming as bad as traveling by a Government bus. Ahmedabad was sizzling. Temperatures had soared up to 44 degrees. I was visiting Nirma Institute of Technology for an Off-campus recruitment. 900+ students appeared for the Aptitude and Skill Assessment Test. Over the next 2 days, we screened them and finally picked up 14 Associates.

Nirma has a beautiful campus. Well for starters, there is this 5 star fully furnished guest-house with the full works: AC, plasma flat screen TV, electric kettles, comfy beds, 24 hr room service, electronic lockers and what not. Then step outside the guesthouse and you have gently undulating roads branching out into the various corners of the 300+ acre campus. Lush green verdant lawns, gorgeous buildings, neatly carved out paths and the general lavishness about the place. As this say in Guju, “aavjo”, I will be back.

On Monday, I bunked work. My body gave up on me and demanded rest. I had got back to Bangalore at 2:30 am courtesy Indian Airlines. We were made to wait at Mumbai airport for 4 hours for the connecting flight… And they say privatizing is a bad thing!!

I rested for a couple of hours and then got bored. Went out shopping with Ma. Didn't enjoy it much to start with. But a new skirt, two new tops, one kurta given to be tailored, not to mention two other cholis given for tailoring perked one up a little. That and telling BP exactly what I thought of him. (m still mad at him for even suggesting that he was making plans to go out with the boys. For heavens sake, I just got back that morning) Made me feel so much better.

Met Belly for lunch. She too had just returned... from the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She is a superb basketball player but basketball is a team sport and she cannot possibly win the matches by herself. She says Indians were a big embarrassment at the games despite being the 4th highest in the medal’s tally. The molestation of the female volunteer by an Indian masseur incident and doping by the weight-lifting team left a bad taste and Indians were shunned during the games. What a shame!

Tuesday: I came running back home early because BPS sulkily admitted that he was going flat-hunting and even said that I could come if I wanted to. Well, of course I wanted to -- as if I'd let him choose a place all by himself! In case I didn’t mention it earlier, we are planning to buy a flat. This particular place was in DD. A cute 3 BR duplex apartment with a terrace garden. I fell in love the minute I saw it. The owner is very greedy and has quoted an astronomical amount. BP is negotiating and is hopeful of closing the deal.

On Wednesday, Ma had invited people over for dinner. She is the best cook in the whole wide world. The yummy cheese fritters cheered me up tremendously. I wore this beautiful sari, wafer-thin, light orange chiffon with tatting flowers stitched on. The flowers were made by Di for my trousseau. Needless to say, I looked gorgeous. Hubby couldn't keep his eyes (and hands off)!

Today is (was)Thursday and I am down with a nasty cold. The star of the show is a runny nose, and of course I forgot my hanky! Can't wait to get back home. Have been staying with my mum since yesterday. I really needed the spoiling. Still have the blues… I could write the saddest poem tonight..

How life changes...

A while ago,
just a while... I was with you
& now here I am
a thousand miles away,
away from what was life to me...
and yet I live...

Promises

"When we were together you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above
You are my jaan
I’ll love you till I die"

You are still alive, aren’t you?

Science can be sexy!

Being a wonk (as Brits would say) or a nerd/geek is usually a bad thing. If you're too interested in science or (god forbid) you choose that as your profession, you can forget about ever being called hot or sexy. You're more likely to be that boring person in stuffy clothes and glasses that stands in a corner at party and bore people to death whenever you open your mouth to talk.

Well guess what? That stereotype is going out the window! Bono might be one of the sexiest men in rock, but the experts say Dr. Michael Manga is the sexiest man in rocks. Infact, the People magazine rated him as one of the sexiest men alive in 2005!

Dr. Michael Manga, a geophysicist of Indian origin, who is at the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley has been selected the 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People magazine along with Hollywood superstars Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt along with Matthew McConaughey, Matt Damon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Orlando Bloom among others.

"My first inclination, of course, was to say no, because that's not how I perceive myself," Manga, father of two boys, said. "But it is a way to let people know about science and that it is ok to be a scientist."

While idly browsing the net for any other articles on Dr. Manga, I also came across a blog by three women science journalists which categorises their blog-post about Dr. Manga under "men whose babies we want to bear!"

Thought for the day
Albert Einstein, Abdul Kalam, and now Michael Manga: Is being a celebrity scientist all in the hair?!

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall..

I have been wishing for a while that my life would slow down. Slow down enough to smell the proverbial flowers and listen to birds chirping. The wish came true! Partly!

I slowed down but the life continues to zip past me in full-speed. I ass-tobogganed down an old set of stairs last evening. I put my weight down on a step that was (1) slanted (2) green and (3) wet. I lost my balance and fell down 6 steps headfirst...but while that was happening I put my arms out because I didn’t want to break any bones. I ended up doing a number to my legs and smacked my cheek right on the door at the bottom of the stairs. I now nurse a bruise on my leg, which is phantasmagoric, horrific, and painful.

R, Pointy-Haired Boss' Boss being here does not help either. He has been keeping me on my toes since he got here on Monday and is likely to do so until he leaves which hopefully is this weekend. I am already turning blue. The man does not even give you time to breathe. We have always shared a love-hate relationship. He can be so irritating sometimes that he incites violence into a non-violent person like me.

The man wants to give a State-of-the-Union address to the employees and has tasked me to produce a movie showcasing our glorious years. This is my chance to show the world my directorial skills... Bollywood, here I come! Limping!