Life of Pi!

Saw Life of Pi only recently. I had read this book a long time back and I was moved back then also. And this time around it was no different. The underlying message moves me. For one second Pi left his family to enjoy the outside world and next moment his world was upside down. As if that wasn’t enough he is stuck in an even worse situation that doesn’t even give him time to think about what wrong happened to him. He literally sees people and animals fight and die. He only feels what happens around him. He writes about everything. Mere pencil and notebook become his best friends. He feels sad yet never helpless. He sees God. He makes use of smallest resources possible and shares them. He not only learns to control his own fierce emotions but also learns to control a fierce animal. One wonders how does a man find in himself this hidden talent to make use of such less and live just on one hope! Is hope after all that important. I refuse to believe that it was only his emotions that the tiger’s eyes reflected. It need to more than that. But then if it was anything more then the tiger would have said a ceremonious bye. 

It didn’t feel like a movie to me. It felt ‘Real’. It felt every humans life. When someone passes away, generally they just go. They don’t give anyone time to think or react, they just go. Will everyone just go one day, why does this realization exist in me and yet I feel like its okay to sleep for long hours or enjoy the sun outside. Shouldn’t this realization of less time left, time is passing by very quickly make me do what I should be doing every milli second.

If one really thinks rationally about ‘enjoying every moment’, one will realize it means that ‘live every moment like there is no other’. Enjoying doesn’t mean something external, its internal. Feeling happy in future for having spend that moment in past.

Life of Pi! Life of endurance, giving up everything most dearest to you, basic instincts, survival of the smartest, living close to nature and biggest of all – hope.

Rain

The most beautiful day in normal today. Standing at bus stop and thinking how neither the sun is beating down nor the cold is killing me. After so many days my hair can just fly and it needn’t be trapped in a Woolen cap. It’s the day after the rain at night. The wind is creating ripples in small puddles of water and everything seems just so perfect. I am wearing the light jacket that I love the most. If all days would be so perfect we might just not realize when it is like today!

Rain seems to inspire me to write most easily. So of course this is not the first time I am writing a random note about rain.

Jan 29, 2013, 9:33 AM

My 25th

Yes I have lost the chance to be the richest 25 under 25, I have not won any major scientific award neither have I come up with any contribution to the world for which the world would remember me. But you know what I am happy. I have accomplished more than what I ever could have, and I know alone I could not have done even ten percent of what little I did. Its all my family’s support and my tons of friends which helped me pass through each stage.

Also there were so many times I felt that I pushed myself to the maximum and got the best result. But when I think about all those moments now I don’t feel like I did it, I feel like a power beyond me made me do it. Otherwise I am sure I would been just an average girl getting along with life. I am very grateful to that special power(or whatever it is) who took such special care of me every second and gave me the inner strength to be who I am today. Special Thank You!

Lastly, I want to give a big virtual hug to my lil brother and lil sister who have always been such a factor of joy in my life. I just can’t think of a world without them.

Trick or Treat

Pretty much right in the middle of my first semester and touch wood its going great! I love what I am learning. I enjoy the company of my new friends, already comfortable enough to order them around . At work, I love getting appreciated for the effort I put in. I am a graduate assistant for one of the coolest and smartest person I have ever met. That is a lot about my life so lets talk about other random interesting things. Oh and just one last thing, I drove just a little bit in US, its just too simple without clutch.

Its halloween weekend. The most cutest and unexpected thing happened to me in Normal Public Library the other day. All small kids dressed up like mario, cindrella, vampires and fairies came up with families and marched in the library. Trust me nothing reduces stress and makes one happy more instantly than that did to me. Also, obviously all my shows are airing halloween episodes. I liked modern family episode and omg cam and lily were so cute in the last scene. Lily is absolutely adorable. The office episode was kinda sad, just liked andy’s look. Big Bang theory was as usual fun. Had I not been so busy, I would have loved to dress up and go for halloween party myself too.

Coming back to my life, a large chunk of it is all about designing a new information system as a part of my course work. Obviously it pretty much takes life out of me and my team.

Here we are burning the midnight oil before our third deliverable submission.

Life in Normal-Bloomington

Bus ride from Chicago O’hare airport to my town seemed like we were running away from civilization, somewhere in between corn fields and empty spaces. Born and brought up only in high density cities this seemed so unusual and made me think – wow this is going to be a new experience! On entering my town, one thing that re-assured me was the sight of my university. First few things that I observed were lots of university buildings, huge dorm halls, football stadium and the symbol of my university- The Red Bird.

It has been around ten days here now and I already feel so used to this place obviously except the part that there is no star bucks or dunkin donuts near-by (lol). It is quiet and relaxed. People are really nice and very welcoming. Lovely parks, constitution trail, awesome rec center, libraries, farmer markets. Very student friendly place with free bus ride in any bus just with the ISU ID card. All in all a place where one can easily spend couple of years studying whilst enjoying all that nature has to give.

Illinois State University Quad

 

My last few days in Delhi

First the random Thoughts:

• Hairband helps me focus
• Will I be able to complete my course before the test.
• Proud of my lil sister who started a new phase of her life yesterday. She joined a new company.
• Richard Feynman was so cute-looking in his twenties! The one in the center..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Now my main story, my last few days in Delhi:
Now that my random thoughts are out of my way I want to talk about how much fun I had when my friends were over. We are all five years matured version of ourselves from when we first met, and now we talk about real issues and we have real problems to tackle. But I love the fact that somethings never change like poking fun at others, talking about movies and songs, thinking about what our next stage in life has in store for us, reminiscing good old times, and being our free selves in front of each other.

This times getting together started with getting ready for one of our best friend’s engagement. I got curls done in my hair (which I couldn’t get enough of!) and wore my prettiest anarkali suit (which I got to lift to walk fast). My friend looked like a princess from a fairy tale with her peach dress flowing and lovely curls and long lashes. I truly had an awesome time dancing and being a part of such a joyous occasion.

From next day onwards we did proper hanging out at all the happening spots in Delhi. It was fun taking my friends from hyd and Mumbai and showing off my city. I am sure by the end of it they got used to yo yo honey singh, lovely chuski, being loud, broad roads and all the Delhi things we delhites take for granted. Then we also did a road trip to Taj Mahal in Agra which can be a separate story in itself. While going we made the usual 4 hour journey a 6 hour one because we took two good breaks, first at a dhaba and then for a coffee, and then also got caught for skipping a red light by the police.

Taj Mahal was first time experience for all my friends and they really enjoyed every bit of it (except the bit where the guide made us do a round of Taj Mahal before making us enter inside). Our guide was like our personal photographer – making us pose in every spot, in all these poses which was damn funny. But the fact is Taj Mahal makes you think about your loved ones. How if a person could be that much in love to spend 22 years, like most of his life time in building a shrine for his loved one then we should spend at least 22 secs everyday thinking about our own loved ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taj Mahal sight-seeing fun aside, road trip was fun! We had good 9-10 hours with each other to talk our hearts out and discuss everything including scope of banking in America, derivatives, loans to happenings in our personal life, life in India and abroad, marriages, friends, everything. It was a really good way to just sit and talk and soak in the nice view of large fields on both sides and we moving on our road.

They say all good things come to an end, this one also seemed to end too soon. I was the one who had to one by one drop everyone at airport and station and get left behind. Even though that day I was so tired to think of anything, it hit me the next day that I was back to my routine life, getting pending things done and running around to get the chores done.

So till next time we all meet again (seems will only be few years later), I’ll try to remember all the good moments including teasing Prat, getting pics clicked with Sahi, Nish’s party, talking about Chicago bits with Deev and all the fun, food, shopping, laughter, gifts which made it all the more awesome!

 

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Newness

The last time I blogged was a really long time back. Things that have changed within the last few months are actually a bucket full and somehow I can only remember all the good things that have happened. But then I guess I am that bright positive person who makes other people wonder and annoy as to why I am so chirpy? (lol, just bragging) Yes I would like to share the reasons of my happiness soon but this post is about what made me get back to blogging again. Trivial reasons include one of my best friends blog reaching the success of 5000 clicks, to increase my typing speed(ya one would think-really!) and to just get rid of endless thoughts in terms of Java invoking the flush() method which basically means what ever is stored in the buffered memory gets transferred into the file I want to.  But the main reason is the fact that I am at a place in my life where soon I’ll be away from family and most friends so to keep them connected with the happenings in my life, and to give them a taste as to what I am constantly thinking. Plus this somehow is an awesome stress-buster, helps me basically to just talk about life and say meaningless things(not always but ya most times!) which otherwise would get lost in high concentration and a new life filled with assignments, tests and reading books after books of the coding world. News for those of you who don’t already know- I’ll be going to USA for my Masters. After giving a go at Gate last year and not getting selected into IIT’s, I spend a lot of agonizing time thinking what is it that I want to do and then I realized that I got to do what should have been the most obvious choice from the very start. And so here I am ready and all geared up to start a phase of my life for which I am finally ready.

Few updates from my side:

#Shows: I watched Big Bang Theory’s complete season 5 and thought it was awesome. It is nice to see that Sheldon is showing signs of being a human. I specifically loved the last episode. Even the flow of it I thought was really cool. Also was it only me who could relate to the dream of going to space if given a choice. I kept relating and thinking wow it’ll be so cool to see the earth on the whole to why would I want to take the risk. But hypothetically thinking I am pretty sure I would also go in the end.

Plus I saw HIMYM’s new season too. I think the writers themselves are confused as to who they wanna couple with whom so they just wanna keep their options open till the very last episode of the entire series. Too many unanswered questions I feel, and why did everyone think wait for it is a cool middle name..i agree it is funny but then that’s it and I hope Marvin will grow up and be like really? But I would be lying if I say I didn’t enjoy this season. It was a pretty decent time pass.

Waiting to see the office complete season next..Last I saw Jim was being hit on by this other girl. Of course voice inside my head was shrieking ‘no that shouldn’t happen.’

#Movies: Simply Loved Avengers and Madgasacar 3:Europe’s most wanted! And my movie-partner, my lil brother Abu was a delight to watch with.  Loved lemur and sonia. Afro-circus song which me and Abu listened to on repeats. Avenger’s A is officially my cover page on fb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

#Study: If I was to show progress by a progress bar then that would say only 25% but think of that progress bar as the one which just finishes really soon after its 50% done. So I am really hopeful that by the end of it I’ll be able to achieve what I set out to do according to my time-table. Plus I am preparing for tests for which I can never be too sure as to how much is enough.

#VacationsAndTrips: I went on two vacations last month. The first one was a trip to Mukteshwar and Satkhol. The word Beautiful doesn’t do enough justice to the place. If I was to still describe in words it would be divine, peaceful, scenic and just what a hill-station should be like. Just a perfect get-away from the mad crowds and mad weather. Even the timing I would say was spot-on, it came at a time when I really wanted to clear my head. The second one was a trip to Jaipur with my close relatives and family. We all just had too much fun chilling out in that really nice resort and again timing was perfect as I don’t know when I will get another opportunity to go on a vacation with them all. We chit-chatted, played, laughed, all in all a good trip. Plus the perfect topping to this trip was our visit to Pushkar and Ajmer-Sharif. Loved the experience at both place. It was really heart-melting, I felt blessed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#friends: Spend some good quality time with two of my lovely gal-pals from childhood. Touch-wood we just can’t get enough of each other for like life I feel. Each time we meet its just super fun and we laugh so much. And this time it was all about treats and plain concerned gossiping..lol

#Baking: Meanwhile I tried baking a lot more things – diet cookies(papa’s special request), cup-cakes is my new cup cake tray, chocolate cakes, molten chocolate cup cakes. Next I want to bake big chocochip cookies, hopefully I’ll get time to do that soon.

#WhatMoreThisMonth: A lot is lined up. In no specific order, it includes my Master’s birthday Celebrations, my good friends engagement, friends reunion, my mama is visiting us and my last month at home before I leave:(. But I sincerely hope in between all this I study and follow my timetable as planned.

p.s. No topic gets over these days in Delhi without mentioning – its so hot. Waiting for monsoons and wonderful rain!

 

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baking:cakes::fun:yumm

Aside

OMG wat fun..So now I officially know how to bake some awesome stuff!
Even though for some it might not be a big deal but to me it actually feels like one of those things I can strike off from my life’s to-do list.
Over last two months, I created some delicious-mouth-watering recipes. It feels so great to be a proud owner of bringing those recipes to life. From basic lazy-daisies to beautiful upside down pineapple cakes, brownies, apple-pies, moist chocolate cakes; I made them all in various sizes and heart shapes and circles and with various icing.
Obviously the best part of all this is that my family loved it. I made everybody’s favorite stuff and as a rule none of my cake lasted for more then four hours no matter how much small I cut my pieces. I not only tried sweet-stuff, I made lasagna too, it was like cheese-heaven!
Actually baking rule is pretty simple, just keep tweaking every time you try the recipe again and it will go on getting perfect:)

Unfortunately I just took a few pics on mobile so putting them here to give you all a feel.

Also did I tell you I named my oven ‘Rococo’. Smiles.

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Stop corruption

What I don’t understand is when did govt. become so heartless that “they don’t care that someone who is above 70 hasn’t eaten for what is going to be a week now-okay!”

Heights of shameless behaviour by people who we elected to make sure things run smoothly is reaching a new level all together. Rising passive-aggression if I may call it is engulfing the country. There is only a limit to tolerance; but adhering to limitless tolerance just shows the brave character we Indians have. We are not only tolerating the hubris-behavior of the govt. for a greater cause but  in fact waiting for govt. to wake-up from this slumber fest.

The mass movement in India has begun. Looking at how it is developing, it looks like it is not going to rest after getting a perfect-lokpal bill, instead it is going for getting the lost glory back to India. I am hopeful that it is going to pervade through the system and pick up one issue at a time and work towards eradicating it.

But for the time being, coming back to jan lok pal bill vs. govt’s lokpal bill. I fully welcome jan lokpal bill with the clause of keeping the judiciary out of the scope of its action. Personally we all have been reading so much about all the clauses of jan lokpal bill that we all are bound to have our own naive or expert opinion about it. But at the moment it seems like I can trust a non-political figure with deep common sense and simplistic approach way more than who are stalling parliament despite being the ruling party and putting someone into the most dreaded jail for just voicing a popular sentiment-stop corruption.

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Once upon a time in Mumbai

Na I am good. I am real good. That’s what Mumbai taught me. After the initial whining about crowds and traffic, I was good..Real good!

I just had a month in Mumbai but almost every day I discovered something new and totally exciting. Whether it be the marine drive with the pizzeria in the corner and Jazz by the bay to light your mood bright; or all those small shops in Colaba and linking road which can make any girl go crazy. It was all a delightful experience; one I will always remember and cherish.

So I joined this new job and for the training I was asked to come to Mumbai. I was obviously excited about it majorly because of two reasons. A. This provided me with a chance to be associated with IIT’s for once and to do some cool work; and B. that I would get to see my college friends who reside in Mumbai.  Since my last few months were crazy preparing for several tests and deciding what I wanted to do with my life, this was a welcome break.

Day one was a mix of highs and lows. The whole day was fun and by the end of it, I was well versed with Hiranandani and near-about. It was the night time when I couldn’t get sleep and felt home-sick but my friends and family made me get through that. (Actually it was the same feeling when I joined my previous job too.) Day two was much better and from then on the graph just went high.

I met a whole new set of people who were very welcoming and the whole atmosphere was chilled out. Actually I learned more than what I was supposed to; like a whiny kid I used to always tell my trainer this is out of course but he used to anyways carry on. It was easy, within couple of days, I was their friend!  These new friends of mine took me to some really cool places. Some literally cool like ‘– 21 degree Fahrenheit’ and other places which included Gate way of India, Art Museum and famous Mumbai spots. I did the whole travelling by Mumbai local trains thing; had several lunches in IIT’s Hostel 5 famous mess; and of course had a lot of vada-pav’s, sugarcane juice and sandwiches from sandwich stands.

With my old college friends, things were just like always. After a long time we got the time to chill out like we used to. Every time we met- it was insane happiness. When we were together it didn’t matter if we were sitting in a hazardous place like that wooden-room Mocha, or in a fancy place. It was all about laughing, excessive chatting, being emo, being plain ourselves, being told off, nostalgic, wacky, crazy, rude( skip the inside joke), singing along, pondering over situations and feeling elated. They took me to their usual places and by luck we even stumbled upon some fine places.

Basically life was entertaining and I think that’s why Mumbai is special.

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