Namma Bengalooru ROCKS

One Kannadiga = Udupi Hotel in Singapore/ Seoul/ San Francisco
Two Kannadigas = Father-son political party
Three Kannadigas = Campus placements at Infy, scheduled to go to the US soon.
Four Kannadigas = Entire Kannada-speaking population of Koramangala and Indiranagar.

Tamil Nadu, the one place where every individual lands up building a vocabulary of at least a hundred words in Tamil ranging from the slang “po da” to the greeting more popular than good morning… “Saaptiaa?” Which means “had something to eat?” This is one place where the locals really love their language, culture and heritage and the thought of trying to learn a different language is the last thing on their mind.

I have a few friends who have been to Chennai and when I ask them how was their experience this is what they say: “These people don’t budge from speaking Tamil!”

On a wider angle, Delhiites don’t budge from Hindi: “Kyun, theek bola na?”, Bengalis from “tumi kemon achho?”, Keralites from “Yendada mone?” and Biharies from “Kaisan ho bituwa?”. Then there are Mumbaikars with a mixture of Hindi and Marathi, Hydrabadies with a mix of Urdu/Hindi and Telugu.

Any one who visits these places are bound to come back with a considerable vocabulary of the local language. The local language comes along with people like silver foil stuck on sweets (Sorry.. can’t help it… I just love food).

All this brings me to think about my land, and more specifically, my city, the garden city “Bangalore”. Every outside person who comes here does not face any language problem. They needn’t sweat it out to learn kannada or attend some rapid kannada speaking course. Given a span of three months a non kannadiga would learn a max of 30 words which include words like “Bartira?” (Will you come?), “Hogtira?” (Will you go?), “Yeshtu?” (How much?). All these words learnt widely because they can take you places, literally, if you want to use an auto to commute then you got to know these words and that’s where the need to know to speak kannada ends. The rest of the city just welcomes you with the language you know be it Hindi or Tamil.

Though I am born and brought up in Mysore, Bangalore is as special as Mysore is to me. I've seen this place change and more importantly I’ve seen the use of kannada fade away with time. This place has gotten more cosmopolitan with locals speaking in tongues of outsiders. It has reached such an extent that kannadigas themselves don’t know kannada properly.

Why is it so? Is it because people think it is not cool to speak in kannada? Or is it simply great hospitality of us kannadigas to make our guests feel really comfortable by speaking their tongue? I think it has got to do with a bit of both. If it were not for the dislike of the language the Kannada film industry would not try imposing all kind of bans on movies of other languages or Kannada activists would not go around spraying black paint on English boards. This dislike for the language gives us more scope to learn other languages and what we pick up is greatly influenced by our surrounding, like the way I picked up some Konkani from my neighbors. No offense to the North Indians but they have greatly poisoned us with Hindi. Almost every person who has a North Indian as a friend takes great pain to learn to speak Hindi than let the other person learn kannada. The other part, hospitality of us kannadigas… well we are world famous in India for this :), which means that we love to make our guests feel at home. And what best a way than to let them use their language and we sacrifice ours.

It sounds good that we are cosmopolitan and all that stuff but if you look closely you will see that all the metros, the places that have been important trade centers in India for decades now have not lost their language, culture and heritage. Delhi: people still speak Hindi all the time. Calcutta: Bengali reigns. Mumbai: Marathi never dies out and Chennai: come rain, come snow, come Tsunami… Tamil will always survive. Then why is it that Bangalore is in a hurry, a rat race to let away its culture and heritage? Is it good? India is known as “the land of many languages and cultures and rich in heritage”. But at the rate at which Bangalore is going India will have the original "many- 1" languages, the culture and heritage might just last a little longer.

As a helpless and lazy individual all I can do is pray that we do not let things fade away as rapidly and work towards growing our roots deeper and keep our language and culture strong. Let us not let people put so much silver foil on us that our actual color and flavor is lost. And more importantly let us learn to be proud of being Kanadigas.

(By kannadigas I mean we the people of Karnataka and not just the Kannada speaking masses)

Non Reliable Indians

I just watched 'The Namesake'. Yes, it got released a long time back. But I was able to lay my hands on the 'non-pirated' VCD version only recently. It's a storyline all of us are familiar with. But something about the execution of the film made it different from the other movies of the same genre.

The movie focuses primarily on life of NRIs. How much they have to adjust to their surroundings. The loneliness and the quiet life they have to face after living a much spirited one in their homeland. Of course, all this is applicable to only those who have been born and brought up in India. The others are already used to the abundance of freedom and for them less noise and decreased interruptions are always welcome.

I have been here for close to an year now, I can identify with some of the situations depicted in the movie. I need my personal space. It can be barged upon.. but only upto a limit. In contrast, my cousins don't need that space. I don't think they even have one!! You are always welcome anytime to disturb them from whatever they are doing. They won't even show the slightest bit of irritation.

But how much freedom should a parent give to their child ? In India, there are loads of people to run behind you making sure you get back home on time, you eat your food on time, to make sure you do all the right things at the right time. Outside, that extra attention isn't there. Your parents do keep a watch. But a child being influenced by his/her surroundings, is bound to get carried away by a lifestyle completely different from theirs. This makes it more tough for NRI parents. They have to make sure they give enough freedom to their kids. But still they have to curb it so that their children won't get uncontrollable in the future.

Another thing that Desis get a little paranoid about are their names, 'Nikhil' becomes 'Nick', 'Jasmit' becomes 'Jazz', Srivar becomes Steve' Anything to fit in.

We live such confused lives. We are the Non-Reliable Indians. Three cheers to us! :-)

I am thinking of changing my name too.
Nancy maybe ? ;)
What say guys??????

" I Do "

Lets be frank. I just love Christian weddings! Yes, more than traditional Hindu ones. The beautiful white flowing gowns are the main culprits. What can be more romantic than saying 'I do' to THE special person in your life looking like an absolute angel (even if you aren't one) ;)

I love to flip over bridal mags which showcase numerous gowns. I just ogle at them with a repeated 'Wow!' every time I turn a page. Mr. Vinod just insisted I buy a gown after my Hindu wedding and have a Christian wedding too... just for the heck of it! Hmmm....

And you know what's even more romantic ? Having a big fat white wedding in a beach. The most amazing event taking place in the most romantic-est (pardon my English) place ever for me!!! White gown, white sand, nature by your side giving you its special blessings...WOW!!

A white gown

A white dream

Purity of love

From seam to seam

I am dreaming now

Of a white wedding

With the Sun and sand

As the major setting

It's all a dream

Never to come true

Where I stand on the beach

Wistfully saying 'I do'

The women in your life ..... on International Women's Day

This is a beautiful mail I received from a dear friend a couple of days ago. I am sharing it with you all.

Here is a girl, who is as much educated as you are, Who is earning almost as much as you do
One, who has dreams and aspirations just as you have because she is as human as you are.

One, who has never entered the kitchen in her life just like you or your Sister haven't, as she was busy in studies and competing in a system that gives no special concession to girls for their culinary achievements
One, who has lived and loved her parents & brothers & sisters, almost as much as you do for 20-25 years of her life
One, who has bravely agreed to leave behind all that, her home, people who love her, to adopt your home, your family, your ways and even your family name
One, who is somehow expected to be a master-chef from day #1, while you sleep oblivious to her predicament in her new circumstances, environment and that kitchen

One, who is expected to make the tea, first thing in the morning and cook food at the end of the day, even if she is as tired as you are, maybe more, and yet never ever expected to complain; to be a servant, a cook, a mother, a wife, even if she doesn't want to; and is learning just like you are as to what you want from her and is clumsy and sloppy at times and knows that you won't like it if she is too demanding, or if she learns faster than you

One, who has her own set of friends, and that includes boys and even men at her workplace too, those, who she knows from school days and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners to avoid your irrational jealousy, unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities
Yes, she can drink and dance just as well as you can, but won't, simply because you won't like it, even though you say otherwise One, who can be late from work once in a while when deadlines, just like yours, are to be met
One, who is doing her level best and wants to make this most important relationship in her entire life a grand success, if you just help her some and trust her

One, who just wants one thing from you, as you are the only one she knows in your entire house - your unstinted support, your sensitivities and most importantly - your understanding, or love, if you may call it.

But not many guys understand this...

Well... Give it a thought now!!

YOU

You are more caring, protective and loving as days pass by which is when I started admiring you... in that special way.

You won over my entire family in a matter of days. Even my niece started preferring you to me!

You were remorseless when we played uno and monopoly even though you knew I sucked at both. But somehow that just made me like you more..

You went against your own mature self sometimes to entertain the kiddo side of me which included dressing you up in my outfits for no reason at all!

You used to go all dumbstruck and wide eyed whenever I got angry and that expression was so cute it made me smile no matter how pissed off I was at you.

You used to make silly excuses to call me before we got married. I used to make even sillier excuses to call you.

You used to hate it when mummy pampered you by serving more n more food but you ate it nonetheless coz you didn’t want to upset her.

You believed in PDA (public display off affection) and used to wink at me even in a room which was filled with relatives.

You were right there at the station to greet me with a wide smile when I made my first trip ever at my own risk to be a part of your special day – your birthday, just because I wanted to see you and spend some quality time with you before you went off to another part of the world.

You knew that your intelligence on a wide variety of subjects and your ability to talk about anything under the sun impressed me no end and for this very same reason you used to enter into hi-funda debates to leave me all flabbergasted! I would scan newspapers word by word and even started keeping NDTV and google.com on 24x7… just to keep at pace with you.

Your hug used to make me feel that I was safe and shielded from all the bad things in this world… even though my head only reached till your chest while u did so and I had to tilt my head slightly to avoid suffocation.

Your presence and your smile was enough to make my day.

There are so many memories still alive..
Someday, I hope they will just die…
But right now I am not sad at all
I’m just left with a smile when I remember those times… before the fall.

I miss your presence when your not at home, All I feel is void. A very big one at that.
But, does it feel nice to be missed?

Social Networks

Imagine my surprise when I heard this brand new piece of information! According to an Oxford University neuroscientist, that is exactly what Orkut and Facebook does to you. Too many activities online can supposedly reprogramme your brain and make you act all 'weird'. Weird, in the sense, you start lacking social skills in the real world and end up getting depressed and lonely. How scary is that? Now I wonder if all those hours wasted on playing 'Pet Society' in Facebook ended up screwing my brain. Sheesh. But I am not feeling depressed or lonely, so I am ok. I hope.... If you suffer from the following symptoms, it's probably time to shut down your computer! 1. Depression 2. Loneliness 3. Short attention span 4. You stop focusing on external issues 5. You have trouble communicating with people I do think that Orkut and Facebook are a total waste of time. But that 'small' reason doesn't stop me from checking these sites on a regular basis :D I mean we do what we are told not to do right ? We have nothing to achieve from looking at other people's status updates or by seeing their pics but we still take interest. Men are social animals after all. And they do want to know what their friends or enemies are up to. Alas, staying in contact with friends online is now considered to wreck your brains. Blah! Some things are just better off undiscovered.... It has also been found out that autistic people who are generally weak in communication skills are at ease in front of the computer. This means that increased exposure to the idiot box and the smaller idiot box with the keyboard, can cause an increase in the diagnosis of autism. In spite of this, I don't think people would care a damn. Aren't mobile phones harmful for you too ? I don't see anyone stopping their use. In fact, nowadays I see 7-8 year old kids showing off their bright coloured cells to their friends. Makes me wonder why people discover such things anyway when half (and maybe even more) of the world don't even care! Now that I am over with this post... let me go check my Orkut scraps! Be right back ;)

My cullinary skills ;)

"There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves."
Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)

My hubby dearest is a big foodie. But over the years, his relationship with food has been constant...that of pure love (and his genes make sure that the love for food shows on him in the form of extra girth and a yo yoing weight:-)), my tryst with cooking has been rather fascinating and has seen it’s fair share of ups and downs…

As a 14 year old, the spoilt brat that I was, while a lot of my peers were beginning to nurture their cooking talents, I don’t think I was even aware of where in the kitchen, the spice rack was located (Yes…I was that obnoxious !!). That was a stage in life when I was mighty happy being fed on delicious food made by mom, my adorable grand moms, aunts and all the brilliant cooks in our oh-so populated family…and yes, every once in a while, on a rare Sunday afternoon, my brother would take over the kitchen to make that delicious Spanish omelet that only he could make, albeit leaving the kitchen in the state of a ‘hurricane aftermath’…

As a 18 year old, let’s just say this, while some of my peers were busy trying to woo their way into the hearts of prospective boyfriends, by cooking and feeding them home made meals, the seeds of feminism, already sown in my mind, made me glare disdainfully at anyone who dared to say anything that had the slightest hint of endorsing “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach” paradigm …I was determined to find a guy who would love me the way I am and would be prepared to live eating canned food, for the rest of his life, if the need arose …can you believe that !!

After the completion of my post graduation years, I spent most of my time taking on the phone with Vinod, the ultimate personification of a foodie on earth :-)... but let’s just say this, cooking was the last thing on my mind during those days.

As far as my tryst with cooking, during the couple of months before I got married is concerned, my dear brother sums it up pretty well...he says that the 'daal', 'tomato curry', 'paneer' ,essentially everything I cooked, ‘tasted the same’…and when he says ‘tasted the same’ with that smirk on his face, it means you are supposed to read ‘tasted the same’ as ‘tasted terrible’…

But then something changed...after moving in with Vinod in the US, I realized that the person I got married to, was not just a big foodie but was a great cook as well…I reveled in the delicious food that he cooked while he barely managed to tolerate the tasteless food that I made…but the sweetheart that he is, he did that with a smile on his face. Given the kind of food I was cooking and feeding him (specially given the fact that he was a foodie, a great cook himself and the very typical perfectionist Libran), who loved me for what I was and was prepared to live eating canned food, for the rest of his life, if the need arose:-)

Over the past 4-5 months, I take the liberty of patting myself on the back for evolving into a rather decent cook (my perfectionist husband vouch for that,having been at the receiving end of my cooking over the past few months ;-))…I have developed a love for cooking dishes of different cuisines….I love to improvise on dishes, blending exotic regional spices and herbs…I have discovered and developed that skill of being able to bring out the taste of key ingredients in a dish...so now, all the dishes that I cook definitely don’t “taste the same” anymore….however I would still not claim to be extremely passionate about cooking…I do love cooking at leisure, as a hobby, and I definitely love entertaining people with home cooked food…but my dislike for cooking, on days I clean up the house persists, and I crib about it every time…

But there is one day in the year when I cook with my heart and soul and hope to be able to do so for the rest of of my life…and that’s on our anniversary….yes, yes its been a whole year since we got engaged…how I love that contented look and smile on his face when he’s fed a well cooked meal…I cooked a variety of his favorite dishes, just the way he loves them…

Well let’s just say this, though I didn’t woo my way into Vinod’s heart through his stomach, his anniversary dinner is my way of saying thank you to my foodie hubby for loving me for what I am ,as much as he does, and for having been prepared to live off canned food, for the rest of his life , if the need arose…

Happy Anniversary !

Face the book

Facebook may have a tons of flaws and may be called addictive and a waste of time and all the rest. I've read all the negative articles and I've heard a few parental concerns on it.
But at times like this, it's just pretty darned awesome.

My non-tech savvy dad-in-law has decided to join facebook. Imagine my surprise when I got a friendship request from a certain Mr. Manoharan

‘Nandu, I want to be your friend in facebook.

My dad-in-law asking my permission to be his friend. How cute is that? :D I just cant stop grinning.

I am sounding amazed coz he was the last person I expected to be in social networking sites. I’m aware of other uncles & aunties joining but never expected MY dad-in-law to join. Facebook is turning out to be my family site with my sister, almost all my cousins, nieces, nephews and now my dad joining. Like I said before, hum saat saat hain in everything & everywhere!

As of now, I am dad’s friend, he added me much before he even thought of adding the one and only Vinod Manoharan - who proudly claims to be daddy's best friend *Guffaw* ;)
He’s trying things on his own daily… which is so amusing! I am planning to leave in a message every day, so that he gets that cute smile on his face every time he opens up his facebook.....

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Nandini Vinod Started adding friends n all huh :D

20 minutes ago · Comment · · See Wall-to-Wall

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Nandini Vinod Hello old man........welcome to Facebook

24 minutes ago · Comment · · See Wall-to-Wall

P.S : I hope to God my mom-in-law doesn’t decide to join. As it is, she complains daddy talks very less to her. All hell would break loose if he plans on ignoring her messages too! :D

Husband wanted

This is what I saw on a PSU prep forum.. this is from an aspirant for higher education in the US. Apparently she was denied a visa, and posted this (these are the exact words as they appeared on the post :-)

"alsalam alykomi m 27 years mthat forum was useful for me so much, i passed step 1 and 2but i failed to gain visa for usi hope to find a husband preferably american citizen ,i m so cute,smart ,average sizethank u"

Hehehe. You would think this is unreal..until I posted back:

"well you can have mine"

I hope Vinod dsnt get to read this :p *wink wink*

Life keeps amusing me..always :-)

To Mom with Love

Today is February 9... My Mum's birthday. And since I can't be with her today, I've already rung her and thought I'd also do a little birthday tribute here on my blog

When people ask who my heroes are, My Mum tops the list. She was always (and continues to be!) there for us, made most of our clothes, cooked lavish meals, packed lunches according to our preferences, encouraged us to do better, praised us when we had done our best, taught us to work hard to achieve our dreams, showed us by example to never be too busy to help someone, modeled true compassion and love and ... even when the whole world seemed to be against us and above all loved us unconditionally ... she wrapped us in the magical healing warmth of a Mother's hug! To me my mom is the most beautiful woman on earth and feel so proud when people droool of how young she looks.
If I grow up to be half the woman my Mum is ... I reckon I'll be pretty happy! :0)
So here I am indulging myself by paying tribute to the most beautiful, wise and loving woman My MOM

Mummy......
I would have given anything to be with you today and share your joy but as you know distance is such an issue.
I would sweep the yard, dust free the house and cook a meal.
Take pictures. Oh so many pictures of you - smiling, happy, candid ones.
To give you my gift, first.
Thanking the good Lord above for who you are, for gifting you to us and for all you mean to me.
I will remember all the special things we do - the cooking, reading, crosswords, chats over coffee, laughs over the phone, the goodnight stories, the hymns we sing.
I will remember all the difficult things you help me do - getting over my fear, writing my farewell speech, saying sorry, choosing clothes, jewelery etc.
I will remember all the times I don't even need to look behind me - I know you are there, always.
I will remember all the times I know you are my friend first.
I will remember how beautiful you are and always have been.
I will hear your laugh and I will laugh to myself, I will feel you pull my cheeks and frown at you.
I will remember how you cried the night before my wedding and how you love Vinod so whole heartedly, as only you can.
I will remember how you always teach me to see the good in others.
I will look at myself in the mirror and realize how much like you I am.

You are always proud of me.
In so many you have helped me become who I am today, and sacrificed so much to give me all these opportunities to learn and for standing by me through thick n thin.
I hope somewhere you remain proud of me.
Thank you for being my best friend.
I miss you

Happy birthday Mommy dearest
I love you.

Pongal-o-Pongal

Thai Pongal is an occasion for family re-unions and get-together. Old enmities, personal animosities and rivalries are forgotten. Estrangements are healed and reconciliation effected. Indeed, Thai Pongal is a festival of freedom, peace, unity and compassion crystallized in the last hymn on unity in the Indian spiritual text the Rig Veda. Thus, love and peace are the central theme of Thai Pongal. Thai Pongal is celebrated on the first day of the month Thai of the Tamil calendar. The day normally falls between 12th and 15th of the month of January in the Christian calendar. Thus, Thai is the first month of the Tamil Almanac, and Pongal is a dish of sweet concoction of rice, moong dal, jaggery and milk. This festival is celebrated by one and all as it is non-relevance to any particular religious faith. The whole Tamil population of the world celebrate it without any differences. Therefore it is widely known as “Tamil Thai Pongal” or the “Festival of the Tamils”. The Tamil festival of Thai Pongal is a thanks giving ceremony in which the farmers celebrate the event to thank the spirits of nature, the Sun and the farm animals for their assistance in providing a successful harvest. The rest of the people celebrate the festival to pay their thanks to the farmers for the production of food. Overall, it is a festival to encourage social cohesiveness and unite people by bringing them together in a common function. There are many songs about Thai Pongal and there is much Tamil literature about it. Thai Pongal generally includes customs & celebrations that are the ex-pression of jubilation over life’s renewal. On Thai Pongal, our family begins the day early. Every member of the family gets up early in the morning, bathes, puts on new clothes and gathers in the front of the garden to cook the traditional Pongal (rice pudding). The front garden is pre-prepared for this ceremonious cooking. A flat square pitch is made and decorated with kolam, and it is exposed to the direct sun light. A fire wood hearth will be set up. The cooking begins by putting a pot with water on the hearth. My grand mother being the senior member of the family conducts the cooking and the rest of the family dutifully assists her and the kids watch the event. When the water has boiled the rice is put into the pot – after my grand mother the family ceremoniously puts three handful of rice in first. The other ingredients of this special dish are vellam(jaggery), grated coconut, roasted green gram (payaru), raisins, cashew nuts and few pods of cardamom. When the meal is ready it is first put on a banana leaf and the family pray for few minutes to thank the nature sprit, the sun and farmers. Then the meal (Pongal) is served with fruits (banana and mango) among the family. Later it will be shared with neighbors, friends and relatives. Although every household makes the food, sharing each others ‘Pongal’ is the one of the important features of the event. Some Hindu scholars believe that the rice is ceremoniously cooked on the Thai Pongal day because of its importance as a potent symbol of auspiciousness and fertility. The evenings are spent in visiting relatives and friends followed by a late night movie with folks for the latest flicks released for the season. Now that I am so far away from home I am missing each and every bit of being around with family and friends but nevertheless I know I will be home one day to be a part of the same family saying.......
Pongal-o-Pongal !!!

You Yes Yeah

After being fed with Cheese, butter, sugar, soda & chocolate multiple times, I was very much at peace with myself while landing at Portland International airport, feeling the happy li’l gal that I have started being these days!
Hours passed and I was counting minutes as the excitement in me, flying for the first time ever in my life had crashed, as you all know I am not a person who would sit in one place for more than an hour.
I need someone to keep yakking with all the time..... lol ....... and Vinod being this very calm & composed guy who is to himself most of the time decided to rest for the last leg of the journey which politely meant he had enough of my nonstop nonsense (no doubts he calls me 'Nimhans Queen') and here I was all to myself. As we were inching towards our destination. Only a couple of hours left for our final destination, We got offered some cold drinks, while people started sulking and kept constantly looking at their watches..... atleast I did, Babies started crying, food was fast depleting, toilets had begun to stink (or was that my mind working overtime), used headsets were passed on, in-flight entertainment was turned on, movies were repeated, and finally the ‘excitement’ in me died! I was bored, hungry, irritated, hurting and willing to jump off the plane! I walked up and down just to give my lazy swollen legs some exercise, watched 3 movies almost twice over, borrowed some magazine from a stranger, looked around repeatedly at people, and finally confessed to myself, that this is the most I can take as ‘excitement’ & ‘adventure’!
After 24 hours of continuous flying, Just as I was about to cry out loud–‘arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhh’ there was a dreamlike announcement made, And I say ‘dreamlike’, cuz it indeed brought a sigh of relief to everyone eagerly waiting to get off ! My ears tingled with pleasure & anticipation as I heard the captain say - Ladies and gentlemen, we are landing and welcome to Portland - The city of roses.
So, just as all our fellow country men, women & children started queuing up near the door as if willing to jump off the plane even as it was still taxiing on the run way trying to find parking space, the aircraft moved to its parking, and we got off!
As luck would have it, it was not about to end here… in fact it was only the beginning.. or was it the end.. yeah the end.. cuz we were at the end of the LONGEST queue at immigration, then the longest queue at the baggage claim section and finally the longest queue at the rental car desk !
Thank God for Portland’s smooth traffic after this. If it were like Bangalore’s, I’d have preferred to fly back home!

The upside – the weather was Horrible at that moment. It was just slightly hotter than the hottest and hence the AC is on again (there is a huge story behind the AC in the car being on all the time which only Vinod, Mummy n Daddy-in-law and I relate to hehehehe......:-p)

The downside – We drive and drive and drive, hence I get hungry, and since I’m hungry, I eat. And this time its not the cheese & butter & sugar & chocolate, Its Portland's very famous South Indian restaurant "Chennai Masala" which made me burst out of my clothes

The upside – I have an excuse to go shopping :P

Two more weeks, and it will be a month since I have been here in Portland.

What I hate about Portland:

* It is atleast 7 times more expensive than in India
* The food here is always salt missing in it and full of sugar, cheese, mayo and butter
* People here are more uptight and detached than in India. I made ‘friends’ loads of them in India, here – I am very far from it and I think will stay that way.

What I love about Portland:

* The way its planned – The city is organized into zones, and if you are good with reading a map, you can almost get anywhere. The maps are easily available, you just cant get to the wrong place, except if you get the destination wrong, However, you will still be heading in the right direction
* People are extremely well-behaved, polite and humble here and though they eat so much cheese and butter and sugar, you would find 80% people in extremely fit conditions. I have only seen about 20% fat/obese people so far!
* The traffic ofcourse – The traffic respects the traffic rules and the pedestrians.
* Pedestrian way of life – You do end up getting atleast some amount of exercise even involuntarily, cuz you walk to office, else, atleast walk to the train station!
* Managers/Senior Managers + - Absolutely no one has a false ego about things like how you travel to office. People who do not have the time to go running or gyming, find it extremely comfortable and pleasurable to walk to work, Now that is something that is supported by the roads, weather and the traffic here.
* The apartments that I have seen have no paint chipping off, all have modular/German kitchens, top-notch furniture, dryer, washing machines, microwave, oven, geyser, and the works. I know apartments in Bangalore have all of this as well, but can each one of us afford them?

As for what I have been eating – Thai food, Chinese food, English breakfast, pizzeria, Mexican food, Italian food, jamba juice and all the junk in this world – yeah done almost all the foods! Over the weekend, Little bit of cleaning for sure as the cleanliness freak in me keeps kicking, lots of sleeping, little bit of cooking, lots of eating and outing is what I spend my weekend doing.

I finally got some indoor games, so I am going to start play house and keep myself busy.

Now this is the most important part of this post.

You know you're in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA when...

You start faking an accent.

The most often used part of your car is the horn.

You think a zillion times before stepping into a "Beauty Parlour"

Plastic money pouring out of your wallet.

Your ID is the most essential.

Communicating with people on the road only takes one finger.

You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a backyard

You start taking the road signs seriously.....very seriously......

You cannot live without coffee (Starbucks)

You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.

You consider using words like Downtown, Restroom, Trash, "upmarket".

You think grass all over is nature.

You see nothing odd about people walking around half-naked.

You're paying $1,200 for an apartment the size of a veranda in India and you think it’s a "steal."

You've been to The Mall and got hopelessly lost all the time.

You pay more each month to park your car than most people in India pay in rent for their house.

You haven't seen more than two stars in the night sky since the day you landed.

You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.

Your closet is filled with warm clothes.

You hear true absolute silence always, and when you don't, it terrifies you.

You pay $5 without blinking for a medium french fries that costs just Rs.30 in India.

You take haphazard dressing seriously.

Being truly alone doesn't matter anymore.

You have 27 different deserts in your buffet menu.

Going to the neighboring city just for a cup of coffee is considered a "Drive."

You take your car to get to your health club to exercise.

Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing at a 10 feet distance(even in a 'Q' lol).

$50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag..

You hate to live in a building with a larger population of Indians.

You secretly envy people for their highly acclaimed American accent.

You think $7.00 for a veggie burger is a fair price.

You stress on the words Hello, Good, Thank you, Sorry, Excuse me and most of all PLEASE.

Your door has just one lock.

You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

You stand still when you see a flashing "Do Not Walk" sign at the intersection.

You're handicap if you don't have a driver's license.

You're willing to talk to strange people simply because you have no friends.

There is no Left and Right... It's North, South, SE etc.

You know the differences between all the different salad dressing.

You're not in the least bit interested in staying home on a weekend.

Your internal clock is permanently set to know the IST.

You can never find anyone bump into you.....

You cringe at hearing Americans pronounce your name wrong.

Stop signs don't annoy you.

The homeless are invisible.

When you are able to make a right turn at a red light.. you think it's the best thing ever.

You wait safely on the sidewalk staring at the signal to cross the street unlike India where you wait inches away from speeding traffic waiting to cut through it.

Your local news is national news.

You think you know better than everyone else in the world.. when in reality.. well.. you do.

You order your dinner and have it delivered.. from the place across the street.

Lastly you never stop converting $'s into INR even after years of living here

The amateur blogger will, in the near future, ramble about efforts in settling here, observations of a culture different from the one I've been used to, raves and rants about a different city than in the past.

Now that the vision statement has been laid out I shall end this post here and wait till the next one to actually start reporting.