MEINE CORNER IN THE BLOG WORLD!

In a recent trip to Wisconsin to meet cousins, we made a day's trip to Chicago as well , this city was beautiful. I loved the architecture, lake front, the fresh young feeling of the downtown. We went to the Hancock observatory, Navy Pier,a ride on the Ferris wheel, visited the memorial park that has the Cloud, the Buckingham memorial fountain, lunch at Taste of Chicago,took the architectural boat tour on the chicago river and visited the Devon street. The Devon street had representation of most Asian countries, the Indian grocery there was the closest to the ones back home. they had home made pickles which was the best part! We watched the fireworks by the Navy Pier before leaving that night. Ask anything different and new in architecture, I am guessing you will find them in Chicago - not just tall, there's most shapes out there! Overall Chicago was impressive - fun, modern and vibrant!! Alternative title : Chic Chicago!

A single game of Literati felt like life itself...did it cross your mind? The letters in hand at one time felt like phases in life, sometimes you have the best and sometimes not so great and other times really tough letters to make words out of. Given this, we look for opportunities to make words with what we have, almost like trying to make the most out of each given time/phases. While making words, we wished we for other letters and some other times wishing we hadn't use some letters earlier... But the key is we are trying to double/triple our letter or word scores at each given opportunity that is adding value to every phase/time! I just had to write and share this. I am sure there many metaphors for life in your own thoughts...

I got this article at Rediff. People view our country as poor, dirty and what not. Its now raining millionaires! The living standards have immensly improved and the middle class are having a pretty smooth life. It feels so good to note this piece of information. Ofcourse there is a growing gap between the "richer" and "poorer", but this is a fact world over.

I caught this movie last night and I must admit, it was full of fresh fun....I feel after a long time I saw a Bollywood movie that was light in all senses. It really has no new story nor attempts to make a big difference to Bollywood love stories. But the entire delivery of the movie is what makes the movie stand out.All the actors are pleasing and their characters well defined, be it the friends, parents and brother. The movie overall reminds you of your college times and the fun of teenage years... I loved the music specially "Nazrein milana" in the movie.Other songs blend well with the flow of the movie...The movie revolves around denial of love between Jai and Aditi and claim to be just "FRIENDS", of course realization takes time. The scenes showing the contrast of calm Jai compared to a easily violent Aditi have been enjoyable.Some attempts of comedy by Sohail and Arbaaz Khan , I couldn't really enjoy. Besides that all other comedy were more or less accepta...

Its been a year since we are married .Time flew, I can't believe we already marked our 1st anniversary! We went to Napa Valley to celebrate, it was a nice break being surrounded by pretty wineyards and valleys, a town that offers lots of activities too! We took the hot airballoon ride.Also visited the old and faithful geyser at Calistoga besides doing a production tour n wine tasting- overall good trip! within an year, we have grown and become so comfortable with each other. the experiments in kitchen, slowing setting up the house, making common friends, trying lots of cuisines, visiting near and far places, getting foto crazy, making continual promises of diet changes, dealing with arguments, lazing together, sharing frustrations, taking walks at night and hoping to keep up with it, cinema visits, long drives, blending music interests, surprising each other- its all been so great, touch wood! even though lots have happened in the past year, it doesn't seem like year! Btw, tod...

I attended a Planetarium show recently and completely loved it.The ever-expanding universe, our huge reliance on the Sun, the discovery of planets,more stars like the Sun, galaxies - the search for vaguness continues... The show made me realise how long its actually been since I gazed at the night sky. Now I am trying to and even make patterns and wondering if I have seen 1 star more often than the other?! The whole sight makes me glad, I believe its the power of nature that captures the heart... I was told we feel attached to stars due to the cosmic energy we share. Ages back the concept of astrology came up and even today in some traditions we are identified with a star as soon as we are born! According to zodiac signs we are connected to planets that rule our life. We may or maynot believe in horoscopes, but whats magical is we are trying to make a connection with the celestial bodies. Somehow the whole attempt is appealing! You ought to watch the clear night sky, the feeling is bey...

Thanks Athena for pushing me to resume blogging! :) Luckily time flew better in the month of May and even early June...Tied up with pursuing a certificate, I was caught up writing assignment, exams and the best part was soon after. I joined hubby to Dallas...The Big D is really impressive in terms of infrastructure , really huge town. I lived in the downtown and hence felt even more tinier amongst the hotel towers, the view from our room was great though! Soon after his conference was done we drove to Stillwater and visited his University. I infact loved the countryside as a getaway and walking around the large campus was good fun! Then a little part of me wished Icould have done school in a similar manner too...Anyways, Stillwater was enjoyable and hubby was all nostalgic. Boomer Lake was a great place to walk around as well. On our last day we headed to Hurricane Harbor water park. We tried almost all rides and I got freaked at the end of the kamikazee ride as I dipped myself and kn...

i want to know what is the limit to expect or do we expect nothing at all?! Suddenly, I am wondering if I am so selfish to have asked for the basic things. Today was horribly dull for me, a day i wish hadn't even dawned! Nothing sounded right...There was absolutely no mood to even eat.. Sometimes i wish there was a routine, something to do every single day. Though i have kept myself busy with 2-3 things for a week, sometimes not having anything to do in the morning and waking up just to wonder "what now?" is something i am unable to handle.. i have been told time and again to enjoy this time period but what about it to enjoy? Today I couldn't even bring myself to watch some TV. Just too mad about situation n absolutely despise the helplessness of it. Arrrrghhhhhh! How out of sync can i get!

I got home from a "Boot camp" class last week. I am not sure how many of you have ever been to one, but the experience is refreshing! Firstly we were outdoors in a nice open space near the pool with curious ducks that watched us more than any others! :)The warm ups were to run from one end to another, touch a tree and return! Then we were made into groups of 3. A set does abs, while the others do biceps, yet another group does lunges. All this for a minute and then we rotate! In the end we were asked to go in pairs, do the jumping jack and get back to place at the other end. After stretches, we are all set to head back home.(phew!) The beginning was hard but then you want to keep up with it and while in groups its always more encouraging. It was fun, I felt like a child running in the open ground and was reminded me of Physical training classes at school. I always liked teams, groups and this one specially where it doesn’t matter who you are. You meet a random group, one minu...

I recently learnt from a friend that a planned port in Dhamra (Orissa), will bring about ecological imbalance by killing a very rare species of turtle as it ruins their breeding place forever!!! I believe in what Greenpeace is fighting for, if you share the belief, please support them at this link. Thank you!

So besides the calendar year, is the birth anniversary....hence as I add on to my age tomorrow, here's an attempt to recollect how the past year has gone. -Loads of shopping -Fun with Bangalore and Dubai friends -The WEDDING itself : laughs and tears -Landed in USA -Boredom overwhelms on weekdays -San Francisco visit -17 mile drive -Joined aerobics -Lake Tahoe visit : first ever parasailing,jet skiing -Trip to Las Vegas -Visited Santa Barbara and Solvang -Finally completed my case study -Joined ICC as a volunteer -A California Driver License earned -Trip to Los Angeles and San Diego -New year party at a club ,first ever -Yet another assignment completed -Joined dance classes -Hubby's business trip -A small time course taken up -A new dance class And in the meanwhile -Home sickness -Earned some good friends -Painful paper problems -Potluck dinners -Mixed thoughts about this place -Learnt some decent cooking -Few physical issues -Grasping the local laws -Relocation : its thrill a...

Recently I realised how big a mistake it was to go by a professional and the vibes of the theme, ....the result, an embarrassment. The debate was presented in a lame manner. You know we shouldn't really care which party in the debate you support, as long as you have firm points and facts attached to it. So being on a dependant status, already sucks, especially if you are nurtured to become independent. To add salt to this injury, you have people querying when you would settle with a job , to which i want to say -" I don't make the rules ", but of course I can't, cos I don't want to be rude! Yea, so here you are present a debate as to why can't the spouse work and instead of conveying the spouses as a smart, intelligent individuals- whining weaklings was put across. so if the woman had a car , she wouldn't be stuck at home ( how lame)....but how can a 1 income household possibly maintain 2 cars? Even education is expensive these days, so how much ca...

As weird as it sounds, its true....definitely,the ads will support my thought....i was reading an article the other day on India Currents, where in an overweight lady had rightly pointed out that food is just too accessible these days.... for example ,stores that have nothing related to food, would still have an area for snacks or drinks! A continuity to that thought-provoking article, I noticed how you have to eat or drink more, just to keep away from food! Drink power stuff, don't diet just eat low calorie meals, low calorie sweets, low calorie dips, 0 transfat or baked chips, easy packed food, eat to reduce cholosterol or diabetes and what not! Is all this really helping or just adding on to how much we eat. I miss the simple eating habits...eat well on the breaks and rest your tummy....i feel like we are giving into unwanted eating habits and no wonder we are falling sick more n more! we better learn to fast in between and give our system a break.... Imagine, eating so much, th...

It is a story of how the harsh world crushes the heart of little ones - little ones who have the ability to think bigger than their school books, little ones who stop to stare at nature, little ones slower than their peers because they enjoy the tiniest things- little ones that are misunderstood! So how many of us can really think out of the box? How many of us can use our mind to create? how many of us bother to build our own worlds of imagination from the most boring letters n numbers? World encourages stereotype people- so if you top in school or college you are held is high regard but if you can't get to think out of norms, rules that is okay....you read and read what others have written seldom thinking of writing something new. Here we have the protagonist , a 9 year old boy,Ishaan - filled with joy - joy collected from nature! Ishaan is extremely intelligent I would say more than even his elders at times, cos his imagination is extraordinary. While his brother just works ha...

Being the last day of the year I couldn't resisiting putting up the last post for 2007. The beginning of reviw for this year would be the biggest event of my life - My wedding to cutie. Prior to wedding I had lots of fun with S&V, I had a shopping trip, there was a lot of excitement, I winded up from work in May, completed assignments before travel....June was the big month, July was relocation month and new beginning....we had lots of fun trips - Tahoe, Reno, Vegas, Santa Barbara and also the last one was LA n San Diego. I have made new friends, getting used to the life here, the driving I somehow managed to pass the test, wrote a TOEFL, read many novels,went for a dandia first time ever,got the chance to invite guests home and took up a volunteer job too. In short, quite an eventful year, but the new year would be challenging in terms of getting a job and better grip completely the life here.. Wishing all a Happy 2008 - hope it brings success, joy and peace! :-) Keep smiling ...

To begin with, animated movies have mostly been impressive,specially the Pixar ones are out of this world.The new addition to such creativity is Ratatouille!I guess I am late in viewing this movie, but nevertheless, here's what i want to review this flick as.... The protagonist is Remy ,a young rat, who desires more than a rat's life.He doesn't believe in "stealing" food from garbage, he desires sensible food like the humans...Remy apparently likes humans, learns to read,wants to walk on just 2 legs and manages to watch some TV....it is thru a cookery show where Remy learns about cook Gusteau and earns his inspiration to become a cook! Circumstances take Remy to Paris and to his delight to "Gusteau's Bistro". Remy can't resist to apply his cooking skills on a soup and the credit falls on Linguini, the garbage boy.It soon turns out that they become best of friends, Linguini is promoted to cook and while Linguini is hopeless at cooking, Remy instru...

Big Sur ,Santa Barbara and Solvang were our choices for a 2-day break during Thanksgiving holidays....Beautiful beyond words, you drive along the rocky coastline, the lovely Pacific , roads through mountains- very green adventure this time... We stopped at Carmel and Pfieffer beaches,the popular Rocky and Bixby bridges, many vista points in Big Sur - Freeway1 was just too good! We reached Santa Barbara by evening and by the time we pulled up some energy , it was time for dinner and decided to take a walk by the Stearns Wharf.they have a Flag project there, a sand sculpture had been done, the breeze is very chilly ,but the board walk is great in the day time.State Street is the highlight of the downtown, lit up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, its a pretty sight in the evenings! The following day we visited the Historic museum which is a decent overview of their barbaric forefathers, marine,mammal,plant life besides an astronomy center.We drove to Solvang , known as the Danish capita...

1st Sunday of November, the clocks moved 1 hour backward and the feeling is just great...like you are granted an extra hour and tested as to how you use it! this is the first time i am experiencing a time change and having slept till 10.30 i was guessing this sunday should be as lazy and eventless as usual...but i couldnt contain my excitement when i checked the time and it showed just 9.30, to add to it was the bright sun lighting up the mood , a long due hike was to be put into action ! :-) Mission peak was the nearest one and challenging enough for a first-timer like me. I was impressed by the crowd that hikes, specially kids who were at ease...i found the first half of the climb more challenging, getting used to the slopes- there are just about 4 resting spots in the entire climb and they are great to enjoy the view! Once at the peak, it gives you the "I am on top of the world" feeling...the salt marshlands can clearly be seen in white from that height and a lovely view o...

However sad this might sound, I had to put this thought down my blog....Halloween is today but we got "BOOO-ed" last night itself...it was a mutual feeling among most in San Francisco bay area! Mother Nature was the originator and she brought us an earth quake,a comparitively mild one of 5.6 according to Richter scale ! A little after 8pm, I was still tryin to finish my cooking and suddenly I felt a shake initially thought it was something to do with the above floor and then when it continued, I realised it was a quake ,atleast a tremor....that moment I was panicking, I didnt know if it was right to be inside, run out or look for the keys or take my mobile with me....it was my first ever experience! I must say inspite of the shake I saw , hardly anything was damaged and most of the things were still in place...anyways I managed to step out n speak to my neighbours and since I was alone, they could see the fear in me! one of them started speaking about a similar experience a f...

Its that dark feeling again, the lost,hopeless, the dimming light at the end of the tunnel...when you have worked so hard, when you have tried to do your best, but things still don't really turn out as planned, its the most disheartening state ever. The famous "why me" query bounces back...mind is filled with unanswered thoughts, lost its peace and now so hurt that basic routine things are disturbed , as a result health fails and its like a vicious circle. Life's such a challenge sometimes!