Wish List

As I was looking at my blogspot profile today and trying to edit it I came across a hyperlink "wishlist".. Though its meant to probably put up a wishlist of your shopping cart or something it reminded me of a strange wish that I have had from a long time...
Back in bangalore whenever I rode on my bike (thats my Honda Activa :)) I always used to take the road beside Sankey tank back home.. This routine I dont know why built in me a strong wish to live in the Bangalore that is pictured in the 80's.. Having heard from Anna how bangalore was in the 80's and from my Biology Prof in PU II about how beautiful Sankey tank was in the 80's might have been the reasons for this wierd wish!!
Whatever the reason is this is a wish that I have cherished for a long time knowing that it is never going to come true..! :D Probably you cannot even say its a wish it could just be a fantasy..! Here are two pictures in memory of the beautiful  Bangalore it was :)

MG Road

Town Hall

Opinions change!

Amma always has a lot of stories to tell about how I was as a kid.. I have only imagined what I must have been like till today.. But I actually could fit a picture to Amma's description when I saw Kanchan on Saturday!
Kanchan is Kuba's cousin's daughter with whom we stayed during our trip to San Francisco.. Had seen a couple of her pictures before I actually met her.. She looked like a very cute baby in the pics.. But after spending 2 days with her I could only adore her more and more.. And this is from a person who always thought kids are really painful!!!! :)
From what Kuba said Kanchan too was painful a year ago.. But in the time that I spent with her she was just perfect! The biggest surprise to me was she spoke to me really well because most of my experiences with kids arent that good!
All the kids that I know always easily get along with Madhu and never me!!! She has a strong inclination for kids like Amma!! :D
I had always detested playing with kids all this while.. Madhu had Hari would vouch for it! But I actually played with Kanchan from building her ni-hao kailan puzzle to taking her barbies for a ballroom dance and painting in her drawing book when she told me how I should not leave white spaces while coloring!!
It was a fun time with her that I enjoyed a lot.. I don know if this was because there was something very special about Kanchan or because I am getting old and getting over some of my strange beliefs, but I strongly believe it is the former :P
Whatever the reason this is in dedication to the most adorable kid I have ever seen !! :)

As I turn 25!!!

25 is a landmark they say.. Though it is, it really feels bad to be turning 25 u see.. You kind of feel old :P But the good thing is there are friends around who are already in the club or atleast waiting to join soon :) So everyone's getting old!!
All of the previous 24 birthdays in my life I have always been with Amma, Anna and Madhu and not having them around this time on my birthday was really sad.. To add to it all KuBa was interning in NY and he wasnt there too..
But with everything it still became one of the most memorable birthdays ever! Lydia was majorly responsible for making it very colourful :) As customary she had invited all of our friends who were there in Santa Barbara and not out interning, which included Tejaswi, Avantika, Sandeep ,Malavika and Avantika's bro was there too! There was the yummiest chocolate cake ever and of course Watermelon! So for the first time on my 25th birthday I got to cut both , a cake and a watermelon :) (I still have the cake left even after a week and I am relishing every bit of it !!)

 A walk to Avantika's house at 2 in the morning, a cute little birthday card from Lydia, back home and there was an email from Hari about some website.. This indeed was the best quiz I had ever answered in my life! An e-gift from hari, laks and chai to answer 25 questions about the last 25 years of my life. It took me back to the first year of Engineering and the whole beautiful journey from there to here.. :)

 The next morning in office as I was breaking my head over some code I get a courier from the receptionist and I open it to see a potted yellow rose plant. I feel extremely happy about the fact that after all the love Anna has for plants someone thought I should grow a plant too! The courier had no senders address and I anxiously call ProPlants ( the senders of the courier) to find out who shipped it to me.. They are not of any help as it was booked from a third party website.. I call up KuBa and Lydia to figure out who could have sent a plant to me and they throw some light saying it could be Madhu! and it indeed was, though she had intended to send a bouquet of yellow roses, they delivered a plant :) Now I rush to Kmart to get a pot to grow the plant and there it is growing :)

 2 days later after bugging Kuba enough about the gift he booked not getting delivered on time it finally arrives on a Saturday evening! Thanks to my wrongly worded message on the door fedex delivers it in the next house. But thankfully they are home and I get a huge, light weight box shipped from Amazon! There it is the second teddy bear in my life ;-) a cuddly , cute, huge brown one ! The first one 23 years ago was similar too a brown small one ;-) For a person who always thought wasnt the type who could be gifted a teddy bear , getting one on a birthday makes you feel very special :)

 So though this birthday was a lot different from all other birthdays it was a very special one.. Away from home in a far off land with an unknown set of people who have become part of a new home now it just felt amazing.. 25th became a birthday that will be remembered always...
 But I did miss u all Amma , Anna , Madhu, Hari, Laks and Chai........
 

Shrimp and Beef Crispy Noodles

For the strict vegetarian that I am I have always had problems eating food in a lot of restaurants, especially in the US where they hardly serve vegetarian food.
The basic problem I have is I dont believe what they serve is vegetarian when they say it is vegetarian (I know its a little too cynical but I cannot help it.) I have been laughed at a thousand times by Lidya and Kuba for this , but there is also another strict vegetarian friend of mine who believes what I do is right, so a little bit of motivation!! We believe it to the extent that we only eat Cheese pizza and not the veggie pizza in all the corporate info sessions at the University where they have free pizza!! :)

My doubt always is how do u believe its vegetarian when everything looks the same! Trust me chicken looks like paneer to me and pork looks like pineapple!! :D
Yesterday I got freaked when the reverse happened. We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant (it was a treat for Lidya's birthday and it was her choice to go there). The menu as usual had a lot of non-vegetarian and only one vegetarian option in every category with only Tofu and veggies ,but surprisingly the menu read "Vegetarian dishes"!! So Kuba tells me it reads "Vegetarian Dishes" because they replace all meat in the menu with Tofu if you order it vegetarian. But me being my usual self to be on the safest side ordered rice noodles with tofu :P. And Lidya ordered a "vegetarian shrimp and beef crispy noodles" :P (btw Lidya is also a vegetarian though not as crazy as me). When her order arrived I freaked. The shrimp and the beef actually look like the real shrimp and beef and nothing like tofu! They tell me its a mould, its all tofu try it... The shrimp pretty much had a tail and a shelly body!!!!!!!!
You bet I didnt even dare taste it !!!! For the first time in my life I saw vegetarian food which looked non vegetarian! Now I am more confused what to eat and what not to eat.... Everything looks the same you see :D :D

The Best Gift

Everyone around seems to be blogging.. It felt like a great idea to just write what I feel like writing and force people I know to read them , because I know no one else will read this nonsense :) :) !!!!! As I was thinking what to write on my first post this is what struck me...

Have you ever wondered what is the best gift you have got so far?? When I was thinking about a friends birthday recently I thought about it... And I realised the best gift that I have ever got was more than 22 yrs ago!! When I got the gift there was an option given to switch the gift with a different one.. But I stuck with this!!! From the day I got the gift I started liking it. But like with anything else that you have there were a lot of times I didnt really take care of the gift properly. There are times in 22 years when I have even thought I didnt really need this gift and I have disliked the gift so much! But as I grew I started liking the gift more and more. With every passing day I realised how important the gift was. The day I really realised the true worth of my gift was when I left to US 8 months ago with the dream of doing the so called 'Masters'... I had to be away from my best gift! I didnt want to do it.. But the dream overtook my love for my gift.. But I know I'll go back to be with my gift very soon.. I only wish the day comes very soon... :)

Ok , now you might be wondering what is the crap I am writing on my first post! Or some of you who know me really well might have even understood what I am talking about.. 

But this first naive attempt to start writing blogs is in dedication to my little sister (she's not little anymore!! But I still feel so :) ) whos the BEST GIFT that I have ever got in my life! She has been a friend, a sister, a companion in everything that I have done....

Thank you so much Amma and Anna for the most beautiful gift ever :) :)