nirvana

This Post was due a year ago and is dedicated to the person who made this dream come true..

 
This was a well-spent vacation. No, I dint do anything people would term as 'useful', like studying something new, reading some HCM stuff, or learn a new language or attempt a weight loss regime or "rediscover self". Nope! none of these atall..

After all, this was MY vacation.No one (oh! the pure of pleasure of stating this brings goosebumps to me)- not a single idiot- would rate me for these 2 months time. No business goals, no personal commitments, no utilization to be measured! No assignments, no relative grading, no rating. This was my time and I am the sole judge of the usefulness of it. I had fun, too much fun that I sometimes felt guilty about it...:D

 
I did have a loosely knit agenda in mind. Prime time to spend with my boy friend, that apart, I got few books to read (checked with some friends about what to read to get back to the habit of reading and keep me engaged, and did a half day pleasure shopping in my favorite book store to pick up the books a week before I was going to fly), noted a some sites to learn some SAP from, I was going to bake, try new receipes,  I was to write a lot of journal entries and may be a book ( a ridiculous idea germinated from a friend :P), travel quite a bit, explore the bay area, get into a fitness regime and lose some weight...

 
I dint stick to my agenda. I did travel, considering that my bf was working full time, it was a lot. 'Places I have been to' page in FB now has Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, SF-Bay Area and Abu Dhabi added. 

 
I baked and am in LOVE with baking. I love the smell of cinnamon and vanila and chocolate filling up the house, I love the end product, and I totally love the adoration my bf showers on me after he takes a bite of each!!

 
I read almost all books I took with me. I never wrote a piece, except for one on my laziness. I did not get into exercising - thanks to baking and lethargy- I have gained some pounds.

 
What I did best and I am most happy for is the time spent with my boy friend. I think I know him a little more...which clearly reminds me that I dont know a lot...however I am relieved by the fact that we have a lifetime to discover the missing bits. 

 
I dont know if I will ever be able to get another vacation like this, ever in my life. But then good things do happen, and they sure do come unannounced!!

Sky caved in; its just hanging there, inches away from my nose...The walls around me moved closer. I panic..I cant breath... Palpitation...

 "Pull me out, Pull me out..". Ten seconds later, I am sitting there, in pyjamas, sweating inspite of the terribly cold air conditioning, shaking my head, "I cant do this, Is there no other way? I dont want to. There is no way I can be inside that thing for 15 minutes!!"

 What better way to punish a claustrophobe than shoving into a MRI scanning machine!

 I was in the clinic to get a really really expensive photograph taken. My orthopaedist refused to examine my almost-five year old neck pain without one and the pain was getting into my nerves, literally! I had severe headache, Neck and back hurt really bad and my hands refused to cooperate even for half hour. clicking the mouse had become the most painful thing to do.

 The radiologist started with the pep-talk. How do I feel? Where is the pain? If I am comfortable? He also briefed about the procedure, and the importance of me staying still on the course. That was all okay. I even refused his offer to have my boy friend in the room for mental support.

 I lay on my back in a tray (thats how I thought of it). I was covered with a grey blanket. (grey- ominous, sigh!) Two small air filled pillows for inserted by the sides of my head to ensure I couldnt move my head. And then a contraption was placed above my head and neck- it looked like the helmet batsmen wear in cricket. I could see the ceiling. All was fine. Then some orange lights blinked at the start of the MRI cave. The radiolist further added that the procedure will take just about 15 minutes and there will be a noise similar to that of household blender through out and there is nothing to worry. All set.

 Then the tray started moving into the machine. And the radiolist said, "Dont worry, the tunnel is hollow and is open at the back too.." That is when the sky caved in...

 In the minute that followed, through the panic, I did not forget to think , if I will get the money back; afterall I have not used the service; may be they will cut some amount.. sigh... the middle-class mentality!

 My boy friend was summoned and full five minutes of hugs and reassurances that it will be FINE to go in, and the top part of the machine cannot be removed and I HAVE to go through this and it will be over soon, I gave in.  WTF! Afterall I am , err, as old as I am, and cant behave like a baby!

 This time, I was asked to close my eyes and never to open them. That helped, I tried to meditate – well with attention span of a goldfish, that was hard to do. I tried to observe  what was happening, the vibration through my bone and loud noise!! All through, there was my bf patting my legs and assuring that he is around and I shouldn’t worry. Very sweet of him!! After a while I knew I was not going to get choked and even dared to open my eyes! It was probably the longest twenty minutes of my life!

 I guess it was all worth it, I got some very beautiful pictures of mine; and from the orthopaedist some pain killers, and a condemnation to wear collar throughout and house arrest for the next 10 days. I am serving the sentence now!

Once the shoe-hunting was over, we took the shuttle arranged by Steve's ATV to the Oceano Dunes National park, Grover Beach. We had a how-to-do-it video class for 10 minutes, at the end of which everyone was impatient to start the adventure. Helmets and goggles (and collar for me) were fitted. Sword and armour were worn (ok, I am kidding!).All of us selected our ATV, I got a particularly bright yellow one. :), 250cc powered beauty. There is half a mile ride to the sand dunes where your are allowed to get wild.

If you are expecting me to describe the adventures I had, you would be disappointed,but let me assure you, not as much my disappointment...First, I would not get the orientation of the stupid vehicle(see it is already stupid!). It would go to one side, inspite of being told that it will never topple (unless you try your extreme acrobatics on it), I would jump off the ATV the minute it would tilt a little bit to one side. Seeing my panic, bf advised me to let go if I dont want to continue. I was convinced that something was wrong with my bike. My betterhalf exchanged his ATV with mine, another yellow. After 10 more minutes of learning to balance I slowly started rolling towards the sand dunes. A minute later, I turn back and was actually scared not to find RK anywhere!! Prasun who had grown impatient not able to see us,had come back to check on us. He asked me to go on and he would check on RK. RK's ATV was stuck in the sand. The vehicle is very heavy and no matter how hard u try to lift it up, it would further sink in sand. Three of them somehow dug the ATV out and came. Meanwhile I got impatient and tried to turn back and got stuck in sand myself. So poor guys after digging RK's ATV out, had to lift mine out. With a collar and a concerned bf, I am not allowed to lift it :D.

Out of the 2 hours that we bought for 70 bucks, more than half hour was gone this way. Now we head towards the dunes, since getting lost in the vast dunes was an easy proposition,all of us wanted to be together. But that would not happen due to multiple "getting stuck in sand dunes". I got stuck 2 more times, and Nithya got stuck once; everytime lifting up the monster was the responsibility of guys. Poor ones, all of them must have had broken their backs. So we gals would stay back and ride on the plain sand with not much of dunes. A brave Kausiki ventured out with the boys, but soon was back as she could not keep up with them.

The boys had extremely fun rides, with steep uphills and gorges appearing so suddenly as if somebody conjured them with a magic wand! Some of them fell into gorges, and toppled their ATVs, and had sand splattered all over while trying to pull the ATVs out of the sand.

All of us met back at the plains when there was still about 30 minutes left and together we went for a longer ride along a trail which had manageable ups and downs. By that time I had practised enough with the ATV that I could ride comfotably too. And some pro had advised a simpler way of getting the ATV out of sand, instead of trying to pull it back, to push it downhill; so that the weight of the vehicle will do most of the work and it would reach plains without much efforts, from where you can ride it back easily.

I enjoyed it tremendously. The initial trepidition of "why did I venture out for this", soon turned into, "gosh, its getting over so soon!"

Once the ATVs and helmets were safely returned, we returned to our cars. Getting rid of the sand from inside the shoes and socks was a task!

We headed to Pismo Beach, but not before we got a caffe latte and hot chocolate. Water was so cold that the first time I stepped in,it felt like a thousand needles were pricked into my feet at the same time. I got used to the sensation in a few minutes. Boys braved the cold water to play beach ball running about in the water. And then the sun was setting in horizon. It must have been the cold water, it took just a few seconds before the brilliant orange disk disappeared into the water. It is another morning, in India :D..

Some photographs were clicked, with sun, without sun, with water in the background, without water...

It was already about 8 pm and we had atleast 3-4 hours of drive ahead of us. Had dinner in an Indian restuarant on our way. Caffeine for drivers was bought, bye-byes were rendered and we were back in our cars. I tried my best to keep my eyes open, listening to RK and Mani talk. But the heavy food, and a stiff collar holding my neck, made me so cozy that I slept till we almost reached Sunnyvale at about 12am in the morning.

The last time I was this exhilarated was on my trip to Pilatus Kulm.(http://iam-0.livejournal.com/21750.html). But this day evermore special because it was spend with
"the-one-single-person-I-would-spend-my-day-with-if-it-were-the-last-day-of-my-life".

Whattaday!!! I would say!!

30 May 2010
I am so elated. I would have said that so many times today. I have already thanked Kausiki quite a number of times for bringing the idea of Oceano Dunes and taking us all for the ATV adventure.

The "long -weekend" was supposed to be LA weekend. But changed due to myraid resaons. Then we were going to Yosemite. But these Americans plans their vacations months ahead. Not any
hotels available around to stay for the next two months! Crazy!! Then it was to be Lake Tahoe... and finally just on saturday night, Mani called and said we are heading to Pismo Beach with some of his friends.

We finally started at 11AM to the beach. I emphasize on 'finally' because, it took so much time to "collect" everyone from different places and set off in two cars. Its a mere 200+ Miles of the Bay Area!!( Holy!Thats how much we drive to go to Chennai from Bangalore...)But this is Yamerica! Here cars fly...

We took interstate 101(highway) South (towards LA ). GPS also shut its mouth as soon as we got into 101,we had next direction change only after driving about 200 Miles. 101 is a really long interstate highway stretching from Olympia in Washington to further than Los Angeles,California, touching San Fransisco and Los Angeles. There are stretches of roads where you get to see only hard rocks and trees for miles altogether, just re-emphasizing how vast this country is. There seems to be a road in Death Valley somewhere in Arizona, stretching a 150 miles , just one straight road and nothing else.. Not a human being, not a gas station, not a hotel, not an exit; if you are lucky you might find another car passing by sometime!! It must feel weirdly spooky driving through it.

After we set off, we got to know that we are heading to Grover beach first for the ATV rides and then to Pismo. After a drive of almost 4 hours, with a pit stop for lunch, (whereelse but Subway!), we reached the destination. Sea was visible right from the highway, and it was a beautiful clear day... We could also spot the sand dunes at a distance. Kausiki had seemingly done her homework very well. We drove right to Steve's ATV rentals who would rent us the ATVs and required gear.

I had a hard time convincing my bf (and myself) that I can ride the ATV myself and that my weak neck can be offsetted by the collar. After signing a form which must have included disclaimers for our safety and life, (no one read it, lest...) we were ready to jump into the ATV to ride off to the expected glory..

But toes must be covered!! That was THE major requirement!!Now people had come to beach with
their floaters on. Only my proactive bf and Kausiki and I had thought of an extra pair of clothes and shoes. So some of them had to buy a pair of beach shoes, which when worn looked like 'happy feet' :). Happy, we were!!

(to be continued)

I dont think I ever want to become a CEO.. no that is certainly not in my long term goals..
(if it sounded like I am already one, pardon my arrogance!)

I have had visions of being a busy executive something, wearing a perfectly tailored business suit, strutting through a busy corridor full of people looking at me with jealous admiration, juggling three phones and secretary (a good looking man ;)) almost running after me trying to keep up with my pace apprising me of my appointments while entering a meeting room ....ah, glamorous...cinematic...

I have to probably let go of the strutting.. I have never thought what I would do once I enter that meeting room... I have not thought beyond that, I mean doing something beyond that. Do u get it? Do you get what I am trying to say? Moreover I no longer find it comfortable to catwalk with my stilettos, it hurts!! Hence I can safely conclude... that is not what I want to do, after all strutting would be hardly be o.1% of my entire job…hmm, naah- not worth it!

So what is it that I want to do? Sigh… I dont know!

But may be I will know someday. When I wake up one day, the sky will be all clear...my head would be clear too…
(to be continued)

I have taken stop-overs at Dubai twice before. The first time my aunt made a pseudo hotel booking in my itinerary and I got the visa on arrival, by just paying 100AED. The only documents required was my passport, Swiss visa, my visiting card and return ticket. Now that was a fair deal...

Second time around, I took it too casually and went to the counter without a hotel booking, and they wouldn't issue me a visa without one. I could cry... After walking from counter to counter and bugging my friend and bf over phone, I decided to take the offer the airport staff made, to make hotel booking. I had to shell out 700AED for hotel booking, which I was not going to use anyway :( and another 100AED for visa. I got the visa and enjoyed my hot summer stay in Dubai.

This time around since I did not want the trouble I decided to apply for the visa from India. The website had a long list of documents to be submitted. In addition to a lot of this and that, they wanted the marriage certificate and NOC from my bf!!!!! It was a golden chance for my bf to showoff, so after having made use of situation and irritating me to the utmost core, he gave a NOC. Now I go to the agency and submit all docs and pay him 300AED (way cheaper than 800, that I spend last time). He says, marriage certificate and NOC not required as I am a working woman (gosh, now!! whatever!).

When they submit the documents to the embassy, the embassy insisted on marriage certificate! I am boiling with rage inspite of the cool temperature here! @#$^*($@#@@$%*&... Just because I am married!!!!!! Its not a dependent visa, it is the same visa that they issued in the past two years. Can anyone throw some light on what difference does it make to the authorities whether I am married or not? One of friend does not have a marriage certificate, which means, she cannot take a stopover at Dubai? Now will my bf's application(if he ever applies) require the marriage certificate (I really hope they ask for it!)??

Chauvinistic world....

I have become lazy, very very lazy... no, not that I am sleeping all day or that I am sleeping late into mornings.. I have simply become lazy to think... to do anything that needs thinking or "processing of grey cells" for that matter.

To the extend that ,if you gave me a choice between reading a book and vacuuming the apartment, I will take up vacuuming, because it just involves mindless dragging of the cleaner than "processing" the information.
or
If you gave me a choice between writing a new post and baking something, I will happily take up the second as I just need to blindly follow a recipe.

This little note is to convince me that I am forcefully attempting to come out of this coma...

<Today is the day. I take out my mighty sword (keyboard in this case) to fight the evil away!>

Making of the 'Pasta Bianca Cremosa'

 

I must have had seen something on TV… I wanted to eat pasta, creamy yummy pasta...or so I said to my boyfriend one day. After researching for a long while on the net about Italian restaurants in the city, he finally took me to a Chinese restaurant (!), (ok, PK, I give in, we had a consensus on it, but Chinese for Italian?! I was being nice :P…) where we ate in silence, mostly because the place was noisy and I decided to give the "silent treatment" :D.. To make up for that, we went to a continental restaurant the next weekend where the pasta that I bought, killed my craving...

 

Then one of the days that I was "working from home", I decided to experiment. My lunch, my will, duh! And it turned out very well. I tried it again when mom came home and she approved!! Now that’s something, really! To get her to say that food is good, is really really something... Hence I decided to share the formula of my 'pasta bianca cremosa'.

 

The recipe that I would like to share is a combination of my experiments with some basic ingredients in kitchen. I cannot tell exactly how many cups of that, how many spoons of this and how many minutes of others. I use all the five senses while cooking and sometimes the sixth.

 

Going to the recipe...

1. Cut carrots and beans into small cubes, add some fresh peas - put it a small vessel, pour little water, add little salt and steam cook the veggies.
2. If you have three burner stove, on the second burner, you can boil some water and put the pasta to cook. I prefer the shell pasta, because it looks good with the veggie cubes due to its size and it blends well with sauce.
3. Do not forget to turn the stove off at the point where you think the veggies are sufficiently cooked. Do not over cook veggies. Half cooked veggies taste very good...(you can also add chopped cabbage just before turning the stove off).
4.  Remove the pasta from the flame, drain the water, wash it in cold water and keep aside.
5. And on the third burner, set your fry pan for the sauce-the creamy white sauce :). Put a small cube of butter; watch your diet; nevertheless when the aroma of fried onions starts to tickle your senses, you will anyway decide to forget diet and add some more butter.
6. When the butter melts, add finely chopped onions and fry them till they start to turn golden brown - the keywords are 'start to turn'.
7. Add three spoons of white flour, in common-man's lingo, known as maida. Stir and fry the maida in the butter along with onions.
8. When the flour starts to turn gold (not even golden-brown this time), pour some water and stir the mixture. Add more water (if required) until the mixture becomes smooth and consistent. Bring it to boil, add salt to taste. 
9. Mix the veggies and drained pasta into sauce. Take a small piece of paneer, crush it and add to the mixture, alternately grate some cheese into the mixture. Sprinkle some oregano and chilly flakes on top, mix it well. I am sure you get chilly flakes and oregano in the local stores. I got mine from Dominos...Serve hot.

Now I am trying variations of it. And it works well. Why do I pay 450 bucks for pasta in Little Italy!

 

New everyday colours- Yellow tread, green glass bangles, red sindoor, metti with multi coloured stones.:)

Requirements:

1. I want to be able to tie a rope around the moon and be able to pull it down. The rope should be long enough to be tied to my window sill. When I release the rope the moon should resume its original position. The light intensity of the moon should be adjusted based on the number of times I blink my eye.

 PS: Waning of the moon is allowed, disappearance altogether on the 15th day is NOT allowed.

 NB: This is not any fancy requirement but is absolutely required for the process to run.

 2. I want a field in the form which is able to conceive what my contorted mind is thinking the moment I look at it. If I am thinking about a numeric value, it should further be able to calculate the velocity of the train which is at that moment running between Paris and Zurich (TGV) and compare it with the numeric value I have thought of. If I am thinking of a non-numeric value, it may not be displayed.

 3. There is a requirement to capture the number of bacteria speard into 1.2789 feet radius of me when I sneeze. This has to be further used to calculate the possibility of the quality of anti-bacterial spray to be used in my workroom to .....

 These are some of the requirements from the Process Owner for "running" the process. And I am terribly busy here writing the functional specifications to "fit" these into tool. (Oh, btw, only standard tool is to be used, because there is no budget left for developments. And all these have to completed in 1 day and tested in 2 hours.)

Don’t I love my life!!!!