Places re-visited

We visit places all the times & then on some occasions, we do revisit them. However, every time there is a fresh perspective, new outlook. Sanjay & me tool a memorable vacation in Canada during the summer of 2007. We visited Montreal & Ottawa for some 7 odd days & boy, it was so much fun. I had to visit Ottawa for some immigration related issues this winter, which after much deliberation I gave myself the extra push & landed in the much dreaded Canada winter. This time, I spent almost 5 days alone in Ottawa, which means lot of time for introspection in my world.

Ottawa was freezing, -33C to be precise! I was brave to walk almost 20 blocks the first night only to holler at a cab on my way back. The next afternoon, while taking a stroll through downtown, the canal where I took several pictures in 2007 was frozen & people were commuting on top of it with skates. The guard was missing; don't blame him! It took me back in time to realize that this place is still as interesting or boring, the way one would like to look at it, but minus my soulmate I was finding it cumbersome. This makes me think may be we should not revisit place where we have good memories from, just save them in some corner of our mind & move on. One may be disappointed the next time.

2011 Musings

Dear All,
I have been on a long hiatus from this blog. A lot has happened in these past 2 years while I was not writing anything. Not that I was not thinking, infact too much of it was going on. Just that was immensely confused about life in general, that part persists nevertheless. A good friend coaxed me into this & here I am. Thanks D for making me realize how this is such a big part of me :)
This is my space where I am who I am. Promise to keep; keep writing!

Idhar udhar ki baatein

Everybody around me tries to lose weight/stay fit & has much heartburn over 2 lbs gained over a lazy wknd. Now, yes one should be fit, period. But are we not worrying a lil tooo much over what we eat? I know so many people who drink soda with almost every meal, but won;t have a chapati with ghee or not willing to walk a few steps in a parking lot. I guess these damn celebrities are to be blamed to quite some extent! All that size zero show shaa! I think eating wholesome, working around the house (read exercising), walking, jogging should be enough to keep us going. Aur phir kabhi to ek ghee waalaa paratha banta hai na bhai!

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Bhaichung Butia won Jhalak 2009! way to go super cute guy!!!

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Subir has been blabbering a lot of gibberish these days ^"bubba"^"ananu"^& what not. Looks like he is going to start uttering words very soon. Can't wait for him to speak his first word! My dad says I spoke my first word when I was barely 10 months old. Whoops, like ma like beta. He also crawls around the house & I am exhausted keeping up with his histrionics! God bless my sweetheart!

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I am planning for a 3 month long India trip this year & would be the first time since 2002 when I would stay home for more than 3 weeks! Feeling blessed!!

Sense of Femina

Neera Chopra is one lady who must be on the 7th heaven now, and why shouldn't she be? She has well earned this after a lifetime of hardships. Usually I don't care much for the Miss India kinda beauty pageants, but this year Neera Chopra's heart wrenching story caught my attention. Yes she is the proud mother of Femina Miss India 2009 Pooja Chopra. By now I am sure everybody mmust have heard about her past & how she was kicked out of her husband's house because she had another daughter. Well too bad for the monster he doesn't have any claim whatsoever in Miss India's success. Yes this is our society who still discrimates between a boy & a girl. I always thought such stories were a thing of the past & now educated people don't care anymore if they have a girl or a boy. But, my sis-in-law who is a gynaecologist tells me an entirely different story. She had to say that some "good educated people" still feel bad if they don't have a boy. bhai ab kya kahe? kaise samjhaye?

Then we have another "feminist" brigade who think being a strong woman means being able to argue, party late night hours, celebrate woman's/mother's kinda days & wear skimpy clothes! Nope, gal pals! Neera Chopra is my hero, she is the true sense of the word "Femina". Someone who made all of us realize the power a woman can have to fight back for the goodness she believes in! I am sooooo very proud of Pooja Chopra to have kept her calm when the going might have gotten tough. Their story is definitely inspirational for me, I think & should be to all those who at any point of time felt weak because they were women. No girls, nothing to be afraid of, this family has put the words "every dark cloud has a silver lining" into life. Yes, whatever happens is for the best. My heart went out when I read Pooja's interview where she said,"All the girls worked hard, but my edge was my mother's Karma!". I wish you all the success in the world! Amen!!

April showers bring May flowers!

They say April showers bring May flowers! How true it is indeed!! At times I think how impossible it is to live life without such basic philosophy. We all pass through these ups & downs & when everything looks dark, we need someone to tell us there is gonna be a bright light at the end of this tunnel. Someone who keeps saying, "when winter is here, how far is spring?" Simple words like "it's all going to be fine" keep us going through the day. Atleast that's how I get through the day. As a kid I always liked the saying, "Every dark cloud has a silver lining" & it is today that I truely understand what it means. HOPE is a big word & gives us the chance to expect goodness, positivity from life. How I hope I would never turn 30!! ha ha, only if wishes were horses!

When I look at Subir, I envy him for his innocence, I feel so happy that all it takes to make him merry are some treats (bananas, a cool breeze, & his aai besides him). This is totally out of context here, but life's greatest treasures are also the simplest! I wish I had that majic wand where I could go back & live the life of a toddler, on second thought naaahh, I won't have Subir with me then!

Dance of democracy 2009

Times of India came up with an apt caption for election 2009 in India, Dance of democracy & what a competetion at that! Can give all the Jhalak's & other dance shows a run for their money. Results came out unpredictable. Analysts have dropped their jaws for that matter! I think all of us should stop underestimating our "junta" who elects a Government. Same was proved in US when Obama made it to presidency. In India it is proved again that BJP doesn;t have a national image or any following as such except beyond some regional exceptions. Also people are tired of Hindu jingoism, ditto ram mandir et. al kinda issues. I mean we want some economic policies, lets talk about some reforms, lets talk about how we will get out or survive this economy! I am personally glad it's Congress again & with majority.
In one of my previous posts I had criticized some things about India & an angry reader left me a comment saying how I have no right to say anything about India since I might never have donated, voted or done anything good for India. Well what i have done or not is not for me to publish in a public blog. But my blog are my opinions, & honestly speaking, do we stop having opinions about our family when we move out of our parent's home? does that mean we are too good for them & don't love them enough? Certainly not!

Back to food blog.

I am back to my food blog. Will try to stick around tight this time around.

Maa ka ladla, bigad gaya

I finally checked out Varun Gandhi's outrageous speech on youtube, i just love youtube for that matter. Youtube has everything, right from how to make rasmalai's to VG's hatred filled speech. Gosh, his mommy dearest is a PETA activist & son all set to cut human arms if necessary! OK, now I am a congress supporter have voted twice when I was in India & would always claim to be a secular person who doesn't care for religion or castes. Why the hell should Indira Gandhi's grandson go out of his way to vomit out this venom under the name of Hinduism/? You know what being a HIndu is to me; being tolerant! What was he thinking when he said he has no remorse for what he said? Probably his political career is dead for this election & we don't know if worse or better is yet to come. Dude, time to get a little diploamtic!

Back to basics

Being at home & watching CNN reports on economy all day long has made me think about the dire economic state we are into in a completely different perspective. Like how we were encouraged to spend the money we didn't really have; "CREDIT", & to spend some more to keep the buck rolling until one fine day it all crashed. How they say life is a complete circle, so mantra of the day is back to basics! Only buy things you can afford, make atleast a 20% downpayment on the mortgage, have as few monthly installments as possible, save atleast 25% of your paycheck, don't waste food & energy! Jeez, I wonder why the world ever drifted from these simple basic principles of life? Bullish capiltalism is to be blamed for some extent, the system which forced people into the credit cycle until it collapsed is to be blamed. But if we are done playing the blame game; its time to start saving people!

Test of love

We cannot really give up doting on people who we love, can we? atleast i can't.

H.O.P.E

HOPE is only a four lettered word, but carries a lot of baggage in the worldly sense. Right now everyone in US or mbay be the entire world have their hopes pinned on Obama. I think he got elected because his time had come, considering almost everything was against him; inexperience, race, Hillary as a strong competitor. But destiny wanted him to lead this crisis & I am positive he will bring us all out of this situation. The man has some earthly charisma with his personality, not the Bill Clinton kinda sophistication or Hillary kinda confidence, but something which is very real, which I can relate to. He seems to be a very genuine person, his walk & talk; everything has a sense of common place. I guess that's why he got elected, because he is real person. Mr President I wish you all the best, lets hope we have a bright future ahead. Amen!

Mother's diary I

Ever since I had Subir; my almost 5 month old boy, I have been at home. I wanted to spend time & look after him but at the same time had a million questions popping in my mind. Will I be able to stay home 24/7? will I not get frustrated since I have never really stayed home idly for so long? It has turned out alright since last 3 months of my stay after my maternity leave ended. I am really happy that my Subir got to stay home with his Aai when he needed me the most. I am glad I can have a 4 course meal ready on the dinner table before sanjay gets home. I am happy I am spending some quality time with my family for the first time without having to worry about deadlines & working on the weekends.

However, I have also started realising how much it takes to be a full time mom or a house wife (home maker is the word of the day). I see girls boasting of how they take care of homes & work & what all they have to go through all the time. Yes it is diffcult to work, & look after family. What is more difficult is to leave everything for your kids; your identity, paycheck, ambitions. Sometimes kids might take us for granted & forget what all these homemakers have done for them. But hey, parents are forgiving & they love kids unconditionally.

My Advisor's wife from Grad School had a Phd from Stanford University in Robotics & she quit everything after they had kids. I thought she was silly & how I could/would/should never do anything like that back in the "ambitious days". Today I have realised how wrong I was & how me staying home is the best gift I could have ever given to my little boy.

Going has gotten tough, but will the tough really get going??

Just yesterday, my friend who ownes a Subway store told me his employee walked for about half a mile when it was -8 F in the morning to report to work on time since her car was broken. My friend said he had to scold her for endangering her health just because the employee was scared to lose her job. Yes, this is today's economy; where 2000 people report when there are 200 openings, 87000 jobs were reportedly lost in a month, thousands of cars are just sitting at the dealers, american automomakers are about to collapse & society's morale is all time low. This situation will shadow dear India after 6 months or so may be. Its so bad here, that it cannot get any worse; hopefully. Atleast, from here on, americans should learn a lesson & emplasize on saving a part of their pay check. Atleast now, all of us should realize how $ should now taken for granted as constant incoming commodity. I will always tell this story to my Subir; importantly since he was born this very year.

Honestly speaking, aren't we all responsible for this condition in some way or other? Its us who have created this captalist economy & encouraged bankers to exploit us. I wish Mr Obama takes a control over this scenario & helps out the rest of the world! Amen!!!

When times change

It's been a while since I last updated my blog. Yes, I have been very busy with the arrival of my little boy "Subir". Having him feels like the best thing that I have done so far. He is almost 2.5 months old & keeps us all more than busy. I am on a sabbatical from work & hence I should find some time to post my thoughts here.
Feels good to be back though.

Smita Patil Jr.

I just watched the new movie Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. I so wanted to check this movie out for various reasons; first & foremost for this had a cameo by Smita Patil’s son Prateik Babbar. A glimpse of this young man & you know he is her son; you don’t have to know his name for that matter! He has that grief in his eyes which was seen in hers. This young man brought back lots of sad memories about the yesteryear actress. In Maharashtrians they say a baby is fortunate if a boy looks like his mom & a girl looks like her dad. I feel sad for this boy, how can I say he is fortunate if he never ever got to see his mom or hold her hand? I mean I am sure God has better things in store for him & life will always make upto his loss, but can anything really make up for spending a childhood without his mother around? Can any kind of success make up for the trauma he must have faced as a kid/adolescent? Life can certainly be cruel at times, but still I am sure God will make upto him.

Global Turm"OIL"

Phew! Gas was $4.19/gallon this morning. Price of crude oil has doubled from $65 a barrel last summer to $135 per barrel this summer. Only if this wasn't bad enough; the cost of a barrel of gas is expected to skyrocket to $200 sometime by the end of this year. US is still one of the cheaper places (after Russia, UAE & Venezuela) to buy gas as compared to European countries & Asian moguls like Japan. Gas has crossed $10/gallon in Europe already. Petrol is still cheaper in India as compared to the rest of the world; about Rs 57 per litre because of the Government subsidies. These are simple statistics presented by Economic journals all over the world.

What do these numbers mean for the common man though? To me it means that it’s high time we start car-pooling & buy cars with high MPG. Using public transportation can help in a big way. I am sure Governments globally will think about improving public transportations in cities where it was not so developed in the past. I have developed a simple practice for myself; I club my errands around the same area & avoid frequent unnecessary trips to the mall. This situation more than anything has made me realize that gas is a perishable asset that controls global economy to a massive level. Looks like future has some shock in store for us, but we should be prepared for anything to everything. Just because some of us may be above median income level doesn’t mean we can waste gasoline as per our wish! It is our civic responsibility to use fuel efficiently. Conservation should be the mantra of the day, what say?

Confession of the day

Just some time ago, a friend of mine mentioned unitentionally that she found my blog a comparison between India & US. This struck me with more seriousness than probably what she intended. I would like to make it clear; it was never my motive to draw comparisons between India & US in my blogs! I always wrote my experiences, my opinions on life that I have experienced so far. My blogs are my personal opinions, interpretations, thoughts on changing times & societal functioning that I have seen so far. May be I have been right & wrong at times; like everybody else, but that doesn't mean I was trying to judge either cultures!

Baby "Blue"s

The news is out there! We are expecting & I am already in my 21st week of pregnancy. This is a very enthralling phase of life for me & Sanjay. Till now, it was all about us, now there is this never ending list of things to be done for our baby. BTW, it’s a Boy for us. My dad was against me finding out the sex of the baby, but I wanted to do to be prepared either ways, not that it really mattered but my curiosity took over listening to dad (once again!). There are so many things to be planned; his name, his day care, his school, maternity leave et. al. Right from coming up with a baby registry to deciding if we want to have his nursery done or not, there are so many decisions which need to be made. This reminds me of my young days, I mean we were born & raised with love but nobody ever bothered to have a nursery or selecting a theme of furniture for that matter! They say it takes a village to raise a kid, & I don’t want my son to be deprived of anything that a normal childhood boasts of.

This is going to be a huge step in life for me & Sanjay. From October onwards, we will have a permanent third resident in our home & lives forever & may be after that! Wish good luck to me my friends!!! These exclamations are witness to the fact of me being hormonal.

We don’t need no education

This morning, a colleague of mine who basically hails from Peru told me how most of the educated people in the states are; “foreigners”. In US it isn’t like in India; whether you are interested or not, you got to go to college or PG for that matter. To think of it, there are so many reasons why American society didn’t care for higher or education for that matter. Going back like 15 years or so, you could easily find a good hourly job after high school in a manufacturing facility or any local Government office which would help you make your ends meet. Insurance, gas, food was cheap & people didn’t always plan for retirement as they knew they could bank on their social security benefits. If people were talented, they worked their way up & got promotions. So today, I have some of these old school bosses who are at a higher position because of the years of experience they had. Families were bigger & with 4 or 5 siblings around, parents didn’t push kids to get college education if they were not getting scholarships. In any case, one could live a comfortable life without college education.
Well, this trend seems to be changing now. Now with the economic globalization, growing competition, sinking automotive market (which was a primary employer for most high school grads) & ever soaring cost of living, it has become absolutely impossible to make your ends meet without having college education which helps one make more money. Social security benefits all of a sudden seem to be finite & by the time our generation is ready to retire we may not get any SS check at all. This economic crisis is leading to some positive social changes though. In Indian society how educated you or your kids are linked to your social status, within no time we are going to witness this social change in US as well. So if Pink Floyd were to go back in time, they would never write “we don’t need no education”.

Analyze This, That & Them

Stocks have been soaring up & down as they please leaving all of us in turmoil. Hey, I am no Economist, but where is the world economy heading? Automotive manufacturing is going through the toughest times ever. Once it was a pride & joy to work, drive & live the Ford way. Today, Ford stock got listed as low as $6! This is grave, also an insult to one of the biggest manufacturer of the world. May be all this has a deeper meaning & things will get better. After all, it’s not always as bad as I think it is. Norms have changed socially & politically across the world & generations have got smaller. May be our generation has witnessed one of the most important transitions of the world in terms of globalization & industrialization.

Lee Iacoca published his new book, “ Where have the good leaders gone?” or something on similar lines. It is so true for the political scenario across the world right now. Americans are still not in a mental state to accept Hillary (female candidate) or Obama (Colored candidate) as their leader. Of course there is this vacuum where there is no hope to have another Gandhiji or Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela. I think on so many fronts; Indian politics may be corrupt, unstable, primitive but is lot ahead socially than American system. Even us Indians think far progressively than my American colleagues who could not digest the fact that I kept my maiden name after I got married. We accepted our leader in Indira Gandhi in 1960s & yes they have not had a Jhansi ki Rani yet for the record!