~~This Weekend get away~~

I feel its been ages since I had my last vacation and I thought I deserve a much needed break ;)

So going to God's own country this weekend!!!

Books I read..

There were two books I took from British council few weeks back and both of them were related to cooking. One was Playing with fire by Gordon Ramsay and other was Indian takeaway written by Hardeep Singh. Incidentally both books were related to cooking.

The first one Ramsay talks about the story of how he built a successful restaurant chain,established himself a famous book writer and a host in famous film series.Talks about the challenges he faced in business,how he spends money in cars to charity.

Next one is a funny story about a person of Indian orgin try to discover his roots by travelling to different places across India.His journey starts from Trivandrum in South goes on till Kashmir in the North. Meets a lot of people trying to win their hearts by cooking few British dishes he learnt there.Book was filled with experiences which people from other countries face when they visit India and having Indian looks it makes his task even more difficult.

~~Sachin the Great~~

Once again its master class innings from the greatest player the game has ever produced, Sachin Tendulkar. Always beating every body's expectations. An innings making history one which is difficult to replicate. Linked the classic moment below.

I was in office when the match was going on,then and there used to get updates from Cricinfo. As the match progressed it got more adventurous,such that bringing the entire cricinfo server down,its one such day cricinfo failed when it mattered most.But it didn't stop us from getting updates from different sites,at the final moments our whole team gathered at a place regularly getting updates about the match.We were all set waiting to celebrate when Sachin had reached199 but last one run took sometime to come.Never we had abused an Indian player for hitting 4's and 6's but Dhoni got it from our gang for not giving strike to Sachin.Finally it took Amla's heroic save to get strike to Sachin and rest is history. Once such day the whole nation joined to celebrate!!

~~video I liked~~

Dont know whether you have seen this video earlier , it has got more than 26 million hits

I really enjoyed that I watched it more than once.

~~Reason for y day's pic~~

Saturday I checked with Keerthi on her days plan, she said due to unavoidable circumstances she needs to goto college (main reason to gather attention) and said to make some plans for the evening. So I watched MNIK a slow paced movie much needed one to kill the time. I enjoyed watching the first half then it became little cinematic.To people who want to know the reason for putting yesterday's picture in the blog. That was one after effect of seeing the movie.

Pic for the day!!!

~~My grandma's birthday~~

When I woke up and saw the daily sheet calendar, the date was 19th Feb, my grandma's birthday, I went to kitchen gave her a hug and wished her. Told her I had planned something for the evening and make herself available. She gladly accepted to come. Then I quickly got ready,packed my stuffs and left to catch my bus.

My grandma and Keerthi's mum share same birthday. On the way to office I called Keethi's mum.

ME:Hello aunty, Many more happy returns of the day!

KM: Thanks for wishing in advance!

(ooooops )

ME:Isn't your birthday falls on Feb 19th

KM:Yea correct but its Feb 18th today!

(OMG)

After few blushes I finished the call. Then I re winded what might happened that morning, my grandpa had torn an extra sheet in the daily sheet calendar and even my grandma thought it was 19th. When I reached home by evening the confusion was sorted out but as promised I took her out. We went to Madhar Sha ,spent more than an hour there and made her to select what she liked.When we came back home with three bags full.

All this happened yesterday!!!

Today morning I had repeated the same ritual as I did the previous day. Told her will take her out again and made sure not to cook anything for dinner. Evening took grandpa and grandma for dinner.Three of us to Bombay Halwa. During dinner I asked grandpa what did he get for his loving wife(!), he proudly said he did an archanai in the temple that morning.I asked what else, he told he had donated 1000 rs to an orphanage. I didn't want to pester him more as this was pretty much expected from him. I enjoyed the dinner but it was too much for both of them, they were almost full when they were done with starters and managed to have one fulka each for the main course. Such that starters were like main course to them and main course was like desserts.

Never again i will trust a daily sheet calendar , only with grandma I can make such kind mess and come out clean ;)

~~Bike Service and the guard~~

Since there were few sounds coming from the bike while driving apart from the normal ones which one hear while driving,I thought its time to give a service. Giving bike service is no easy task here,if I go and give it on a weekend the whole gang of weekend crowd will be there and I should make myself available there at least an hour early to beat that crowd.Since I never want to spoil my weekend doing that boring task I usually give it during the weekday. I should plan my time in such a way that after giving the bike for service I have enough time to catch the company bus,if I miss it then there is no other alternative than to stay at home and watch cricket match(seems a better alternative though).

When I reached the service center around 8 o clock expect for the security guard there wasn't any other person in the place. So I asked him directly shall I give it or take it back since I cant risk waiting for the people to arrive. He gave me a polite reply that servicemen will be there in 15 minutes. To kill my time I was chatting with him, he wasn't talking like a normal frustrated security guy,rather lot more professional,friendly nevertheless he looked as if he was over qualified for the job. Further talking with him I came know he has finished his undergraduate degree and doing MBA HR side by side.The job he is doing is just to survive in the city.He talked about his ambitions of starting his own business once he done his degree. Our talk was interrupted by the serviceman who arrived there . Realising I need to catch my bus I told the problems which are to be fixed in my bike and left the place not before wishing the guard for his dreams to come true.

Its really unique to find such kind of people at such kind of places!

~~Architect in the making~~

Evening when I was chit chatting with my colleagues I got an SMS from Keerthi

"Hii Anna, I have come dept 1st with a GPA of 8.48 in 1st sem, yippee!! "

Seeing my reaction after reading the message ,my mate grabbed the phone from me to read the message, first he was disappointed since there was nothing fishy in it and then surprised how person can get inspiration from me can come out with flying colors.

Since I didnt reply soon enough she called from her mumma's phone thinking I havent seen the message. She told that only seven out of her 60 odd classmates cleared all the papers. Apart from that what was nice to hear was she scored a perfect 10 on the buildings we tried to make using matchsticks and a model we made out of thermocol.

Certainly deserves a treat right ;) planning one for it this weekend !

Movie I saw..

Last weekend I saw Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock. Basically I wanted to see the movie just because Sandra was in it but in the end liked the story as well other casts in that.

Based on a true story it show how a white American lady helps a homeless black kid. She allows him to stay in her house, appoints proper tutor for his education, ultimately helps him to become a American football star. There are lots of funny and emotional moments in the film which gets along with the story. Lets see whether Sandra gets Oscar for this one!

~~Wii and my nephew~~

End of last year myself and my nephew had a deal, if he gets good marks in his upcoming exams I will give Wii for a week. Given this inspiration he put all the extra efforts he could gather, burnt the candle and came up with a good performance. So as promised I gave Wii for christmas holidays.That fellow played like mad in the following week until his hands got sore. With all his determination he finished all the levels he could in that CD and he asked for more sounding like a drug addict.

Before my sister starts complaining about it, I thought I will change his interest to some other games but he gave me two options either its Wii or computer games. Then I started narrating about a great computer game and only genius could play it.He became excited and wanted to play that. I opened the computer Start-->Programs-->Accessories-->Minesweeper. I taught the basic funda on how to play it and told him that a surprise prize awaits for him if he completes expert level. I wonder he has the patience to finish it but if so it will be a good logical exercise for him!

~~Valentines day~~

One more Valentines day came and went as usual making no impact in my life !

Liked one quote which I got as an SMS

"When I look at you, I cannot deny there is God, because only God could have created some one as wonderful and beautiful as you"

~~Trip to Mystique Land-Day 7~~

Before KG's goes on describing his experiences at Bangkok I thought I would finish the Sikkim trip with the last episode which is pending quite sometime. Since it was about the final day and as I was busy(lazy) enough to write what I have been procrastinating this for a long time. Anyways its time to wrap it up. Day seven here it goes...

We got up past seven,woken up by the room boy giving bed tea, one of the luxuries which I will miss till my next vacation.With all things scattered around we dumped everything into our suitcases as quickly as possible. For breakfast we ordered momos,after having tasty momos the day before, our tongues detested the same momos which we liked two days before. After settling our bills with the hotel manager,he gave a wonderful farewell,a traditional one honouring us by tying a silk scarf around our necks.He wished KG to become the next Ambani of India and wished me to get married soon and come as a couple next time.

After the formalities we hired a taxi to the local Jeep station, since we had decided to take a shared jeep to Siliguri. The place was buzzing around with activity as soon as we landed there people began crowding us asking/demanding us to come in their jeeps. We choose a driver who said he will leave as soon as possible once we get in his jeep but after reaching his jeep we found that we were the first person to reach that place. After waiting for few minutes two other people joined us and off we started, picking up few people on the way. He said he is Gurka and the valued truth more than anything else.

On the way back there was a rafting competition organised by the Indian army and we could see people carrying the rafts all the way to the Teesta river. Given the speed at which our vehicle went I thought rafting downstream would be a much better way to reach our destination. When the jeep was turning at a bend we heard a DUDD sound and found one bag rolling across the road as if trying to commit suicide at Teesta river. It was KG's trolley which just missed the dive in the river, falling short by 10 feets. He had all his stuffs from his digicam to his mini laptop and we found everything was intact only beacuse of the speed with which we drove.

After the final back breaking journey which lasted around 5 hours we reached Siliguri. We were dropped at place we didn't have any idea about,the people there were asking to have lunch but we badly needed to go to airport some 10km from that place.Finally I found an auto stand asked them for a drop,we agreed to whatever charge he was demanding because we didn't have any alternative. Now I should say about the auto rickshaws there, if you want to see an assembled auto you can go to Siliguri, the auto we travelled was made by welding few metal pieces together fitting a 100cc engine in the middle.It has a removable seat which and can be used as a tempo when its not taking passengers. Their average speed will be around 10km/hour and when it travels a slope it can reach 20km/hr maximum. After an 60 mintues of slow & bumpy ride we finally reached the airport.

Bagdogra airport is one of the kind in India, a small airport with a restaurant giving a magnificent view of the runway. We can have lunch or sip a drink by watching aeroplanes taking off and landing. I had cheese sandwich and KG settled for fish finger appreciating the fact that Bengali's are the people who know to cook fish well.Once done with the lunch we went for the check in being a military airport and seeing KG's look the military guy checked and rechecked his hand luggage ,disappointed not having found anything he gave the bags to KG.

Once on board, seeing a guy sitting in the aisle,KG ran to take the window seat giving me the middle one.Once the flight took off KG asked whether we need to take the trouble of settling the accounts,as a matter of fact both of us didn't keep track of what we had spent over the week. Since I believed KG would have spent more than me I agreed not to bother about it ;). We paid 20 bucks each for the cup of coffee and it was somewhat better compared to the coffees I had over the week.Its treat to see Chennai at night from the skies,lights all around as far as your eyes can reach.We landed at Chennai airport just on time to send off Diana and Ganesh who were leaving to US the same night.

Click here to read KG's version

A great trip with sweet memories to cherish for a long long time!

Book I read..

Last week I read Dork: The Incredible Adventures Of Robin 'Einstein' Varghese

Written By Sidin Vadukut.

This book was suggested by my colleague who read Sidin's blog regularly,

and he asked me to order a copy even before it gets released. Since the

deal in flipkart was good I placed the order right away.

The book is about the man working in a consulting firm in India after
passing through shining finest MBA school. It talks about the life style
of the people in the firm, their work culture and how the ideas
implemented can go horribly wrong. It remained me of Hangover
movie where the people think backwards on what had happened.
Same is written in a funny way when Robin wakes up after a hangover
to discover the horrible thing he has done,like waking in the plane,
seeing a duck in his bathtub or the ultimate one getting up and

seeing 250 odd messages in his voicemail.
A good time pass for the week!

~~Google's new Buzz~~

One good thing about google it never stops to surprise us with new products or sites now and then. The latest on the list is the BUZZ. The clever thing about its marketing strategy is just to keep the buzz link right below the inbox link with an attractive color to it. 9 out of 10 people will click on the link and check what is it. A simple and straight forward method to make people visit that site.

There are many similarities to twitter, but it doesn't involves the initial work we need to do in twitter to get some followers as it automatically assigns our close friends whom we mail often as followers. On the hind side it was discussed that other people might come to know with whom we were close such that they become our followers.It doesn't restrict the user characters to 140 and allows them to add pictures and meaningful links.

Only time can say whether it can match twitter's popularity given many celebrities got used to tweets and have a separate fan club. But Google has the potential to bring those celebrities on buzz!

~~Got this from my friend~~

Informative piece of news which my friend forwarded ;)

Drink beer for strong bones!

ANI, 8 February 2010, 11:53am IST

Beer can help strengthen the bones and prevent fractures in old age, a new study has confirmed.

Beer is a significant source of silicon, which is a key ingredient of the diet that helps to improve bone mineral density.

The best beers for silicon are the pale malted ales and lagers. Dark bitters and stouts contain lower levels because they are made with roasted barley, which has lower silicon content. Wheat contains less silicon than barley, so wheat beers are poorer sources of silicon.

Previous studies have suggested that a regular pint or two may help to prevent the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

In the new study, researchers at the University of California studied 100 commercial beers and found their silicon content ranged from 6.4 milligrams per litre to 56.5 mg/l. Paler beers have more silicon than darker ones because less heat is used in the malting process.

"Beer containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon. It is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most remains during brewing, significant quantities are none the less extracted into wort and survive into beer," the Independent quoted Charles Bamforth, who led the study, as saying.

The study has been published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

~~Visit to British Council~~

Snowfall in Washington DC continues,it gives me lots of free time, left office early and went to British council. Since I have filled up their membership form last week , I made it a point to go and collect the membership card as soon as possible before I forget it. I took my cousin along with me since I didn't know the exact location.

After a 15 minute ride we reached the place, once inside I was glad to see everything was computerised ,from borrowing a book to giving it back. Getting a card with my photo on it took hardly two minutes. The collection in library was different from the normal Indian libraries,many British biographies and travelogues which gave me lots of options to choose from. I took two books from the lot and a DVD. My cousin who is already a member took two literature books which I swear he will never read.

On the way back cousin said he wanted to goto KFC which was not on our way home, after a 20 minutes of exhausting ride in the traffic maze we reached the place. I was stunned by the service time which was hardly less than a minute,my cousin took two chicken pieces and I settled for a veg burger. Once done we waited for the traffic to reduce but it seemed get jammed more the time it took. So having no other alternative we returned back home travelling 4 km in a record 30 minutes.

~~What snowfall in US means to me~~

Heavy snowfall in Washington DC -->Sri doesn't have any work in Chennai

For the past one week whenever I have a discussion with my friends,browse for news or have chat with people, the snow fall in America is one of the main topics. Today when I reached office I got message that the client office is closed due to heavy snowfall, since its the same case from last Friday there was no new work were assigned for us. Some told that the trend will continue this week also! There was not much to do rather to browse some 100 odd pictures which was put up in Washington post.

So what should I pray for.......?

~~Weekend nightout and lunch next day~~

One of my friend came down from Sydney , so met him up on Saturday night.After a long time had a night out and it was excellent, talked about lots of stuffs,experiences we had,opportunities we missed and plans for the future.

Sunday lunch we booked at Barbeque nation . Morning woke up late and planned to have lunch directly so that we can utilize the buffet effectively. We reached there on time, options were many for veg as well as non veg, there were 5 starter items from chilly garlic potato to paneer tikka ,from roasted pineapple to veg spring roll. Then main course there was a rice item noodles and naan with 4 side dishes. Then dessert was excellent with pastries. Except for the price which is little bit high everything else is good there.

~~Link I liked~~

There was discussion about super bowl in google wave with my relatives sometime back, after that I did a little search over the net!

I found an article which really tell on what happens that day!

One more pic

Any comments?

Book I read..

After seeing China from the Indian border at Nathu La, I was eager to learn more about it. A country which reinvented itself over the span of 25 years which takes enough care that negative things about it never reaches its own people.

KG sent me a mail two weeks back

Sri - i heard from one of my net-friend that this book is excellent. It's all about life in china, written by Pallavi Iyer. I knew the author and have read her columns regularly in Hindu. She was there for 5 years. Now i think she moved over to...(forget the country!).

“Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China”

Read it and tell me, how it is!“Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China”Read it and tell me, how it is!"

I immediately booked a copy from flipkart and got it delivered within two days. Flipkart has really changed the way I buy books making it much simpler easier and time saving one.

Coming to the book it broke all perceptions I had about China , there were lots of new information which were unique and thought provoking. The book had 12 chapters ranging from the makeover happened during the Beijing Olympics 2008 to train to Tibet launched in 2006. Apart from that the book was filled with funny perceptions Chinese have, common English errors people there make, the Chinese style of thinking,their devotion to work etc.

The chapter I liked the most was " The factory of the world" which gives a clear pictures on how industrialization took major leap during the later part of the 20th century. How all people in a unheard village called as Huaxi are millionaires only by depending on trade. In spite of the strict government regimes the people of the village found a way to come out of it and built their own empire. Its not a top down approach but rather a bottom up approach.

Reading about Tibet is something which I was looking forward and the author has dedicated a whole chapter to it.Finally a chapter comparing India and China, pin pointing the advantages and disadvantages both the countries has.Indians always use to compare themselves with China,its very difficult to reach their but not impossible,

A good,funny and informative read !

~~I am a British Council member~~

Every year people from British council visit our company,put some stalls and encourage us to register with them. A membership allows access to their libraries and events that take place there. Since we could reimburse the amount of membership from company there will be many takers every time, though most of the people wont even visit the place not even once in the year. Apart from that there's another hidden incentive which attracts people to their stalls

Last year to make the membership more lucrative they offered a free pen drive for all the people who register with them. As usual given the Indian mentality the response was over whelming. There was long queue to register,since I didn't have patience to stand for such a long time I didn't bother to get it last time.

When I reached office ,before I could even check my mails,my colleagues told people from British Council have and asked me to join them to the registration place.Before us there where some twenty people in the queue. This year they offered us a travel bag for who and all joining or renewing their membership.It took almost an hour in the queue to get registered but since we went as gang and chattering all the time I didn't feel bored. They gave me a form and told to go to the council to get the membership card. Hope I go there soon enough before an year passes by.

~~Link I Liked~~

Check this out

~~Sitcoms-IT crowd~~

For past two weeks I have been watching this UK based sitcom, it about two nerd guys working under a project manager who never knows anything about IT.There were many incidents which we can relate to our workplace. I watched all the three seasons at a single stretch given that one season contains only 6 episodes.

Its fun to watch ,linked a sample video where these people try to help their PM to prepare a speech about internet.

~~Laptop in a book~~

I came accross this while browsing, can you guess what's Mac doing on top of these old books

In fact those are not books but leather bound laptop covers ,wonderful way to disguise the laptop you carry around.

On flip side it takes 80$ to own one.