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.