Mirror, mirror, on the wall...

Who has the prettiest feet of all?

I DO :)

A totally narcissist post. Please don't ask me what this is about. I just loved my own feet that day I suppose :)









Click on the pic to see the pretty pretty design on my nails :D

My first love

Has to be Garfield!!! He is just so smart and witty!

Blog Haiku

Inspired by Chirag's haiku

Public Awareness!
Its hard to stay mad..... at the absent minded man who makes you Wai Wai at 2.46 am, decorates it with two grapes and a bit of coriander, and presents it with a flourish and a bon appetite!
So what's new?
I was watching a public awareness ad in morning


Awards for everyone!
Yesterday i saw Star Screen Awards, and i was wondering what the awards function have become...just a song and dance show?
It could have been any one of us.
So, winning Cuckoo's Trophy of The Month has made me greedy for more...


What's our Future?
This is the question that stares at IT grads fresh out of college.
The slumdog euphoria is in full swing.
A discussion in class today sparked these thoughts.

Am copying the instructions for making this straight out of Chirag's post...
"The way to do this is really simple. Randomly select three blogs from your blogroll and just write first line, it will all be connected and will make sense, give a title"

Have fun :-)

Raymond and Debra ... revisited yet again

For the uninitiated, please read the first two parts of the series :)

Raymond and Debra
Raymond and Debra - II


So...we were both working from home today, and went out to lunch. It was a Friday afternoon, and the restaurant was packed with people. We got our table, ordered our regular food and were sitting yawning and waiting for our food to arrive, busy in our own thoughts. One of the thoughts in my head being, all these people are talking and we are not. And that is fine, because we know everything that is there to be said anyway :) We don't have any catching up to do.

Then I started paying attention to conversations that were loud enough for me to hear.

As usual, there was an Indian on a table of maybe 10, giving investment advice to anyone who cared to listen. It made me wonder why do typical Indian men talk only about money and stocks?! Boring...so I tuned into the table next to me.

Two colleagues, a guy and a girl out on their lunch break. The girl was talking non-stop. And her statements made me chuckle...

"I am so dying to get out of this place, but I can't right now because of (*whispering*) you-know-why"
(This one was repeated a lot many times. I was dying to know why :)

"So I hear you go home, get online and work from home. Really? People do that?! I can't be bothered to carry my computer home. Its too much trouble to get connected. You know what I mean?"
(You kidding me? I would stop breathing if I could not "connect")

"I have worked in Novell, and then in an educational setup. You know what I should do now? Medical. I should get into the medical field. You know what I mean?"

And then the very next statement....
"You know what I have always wanted to do? Open my restaurant. We're thinking of a pizza place in the mall. You know like how you go to the mall and you get hungry? You know what I mean?"
(This one...you go to the mall and you get hungry, really made me laugh!)

And for some reason, the guy responded to this with "Baseball or football?"
Well, they do rhyme with "mall" and he was after all a guy, he had probably zoned out and was thinking about some game!

Then she started talking about her mother-in-law. And how she would not want her to come to her pizza place. Because she would mess it up. And then in a whisper...

"You know what I am scared of? That she will touch the baby!"
(My eyes went quite wide at this one!)

"Its not like she is my mom. You know what I mean?"
(Groaaannnn...I don't want to listen to this anymore)

We were done eating by then, and were SO sleepy! We tried to figure out whether we should sleep on our table, or the bigger one that the 10 people were sitting at, or in the car. We decided on the car since the table looked too hard to sleep on. And there was a tiny risk of being chucked out on the street ;-)

The husband, by the way, heard not a single word of the conversation. He loves his chicken too much, I guess :)

I rather liked this new version of Raymond and Debra ;-) No talk necessary, just eat and sleep :)

Dreams...

Dreams are supposed to be nice, right? Like when you say, "dream sequence" its always so nice and beautiful and mushy. Why then, are my dreams always so action-packed?

I don't remember having one single peaceful dream to date. Romantic, beautiful, idyllic...is a far cry from what I see. I see Osama, ghosts, accidents, death, fights, animals...always very disturbing dreams! I have so often woken up in bitter tears.

And some dreams like this last one from yesterday, I have "seen" more than once. So this one is completely wacky.

So we have this huge backyard, right? For some reason in my dream it was full of animals! All kinds! Bears, cats, zebras, giraffes. And the way I find out about them (in my dream) is I hear stomping of hooves, as if all these animals are running (ever seen the wildebeest migration in Africa? Like that!) towards my yard. Sometimes they run through the house and back out in the yard, like ghosts, you know? Through walls and furniture and people? They reach the yard, and then slow down, and then they are just milling around (hubby says he had invited them to a jungle party. whatever...)

I never go out to the yard though, just watch from the window. Once I think I had called the animal control people to take them away. Eventually, they go away one by one, as if leaving a party.

In yesterday's version, after the "party" was over, the doorbell rang, and I kind of saw a lion standing at the door. (Civilized lions ring doorbells, I suppose!) I was in my room, and couldn't get up because of the bad knee. So I just saw him at the door. Not sure how he got in the house, but he did, and came straight to my room. And then I saw that its a big, cuddly dog, not a lion at all! He's cute, but so sad, and climbed into the bed and tried to cuddle up to me, hit my knee in the process and what not. I petted him for some time and he calmed down. So he went in the yard (why oh why do they all want to go into my yard!). He found a ball there that he was playing with when I woke up.

The dream makes NO sense at all. But then can someone explain why my knee was hurting exactly where the dog was supposed to have jumped on it?

Just like that...

One of my favorite pics of me ...

Do elephants sneeze?

If yes, then do they sneeze through their trunks?
If yes, then how long after they "feel-a-sneeze-coming" do they actually sneeze?
How do they blow their nose..err..trunk?

I feel so sorry for the elephants!

Fortune

Orkut always provides some food for thought. Today's fortune for me:

You have an unusual equipment for success, use it properly!

Can't wait for tomorrow's fortune. I am hoping it will tell me what that equipment is, and also provide a user guide!

A happy one

since it was demanded by Ankur :)

My husband seems to think I am some kinda body-builder :O

He just asked me to lift a 6 foot solid pine wood door by myself.

Now why thinks I can (yes, I can) or will (no, I will not) do that, I don't know! Kinda cool though that he thinks so ;)

Don't you dare wake up!

Haven't written a funny memory in a while, and that's just not like me. So here's a story :)

In my single days, I had a strange "relationship" with my alarm clock. I am an insomniac since...oh, I don't remember when...so I would fall asleep some time close to early morning. And would have to go to work by 9, so every morning would be a fight with the alarm clock. It would ring for at least an HOUR before I would actually stop hitting the snooze button and get my body out of bed (the soul would still be there for some more time ;-)

Every morning, my brain would conjure up some weird dream close to wake up time...some how related to the clock, and why bad things would happen if I woke up. It would usually be something related to the hottest news in the world or whatever had been discussed heavily the day before.

During the 9/11 days...when Osama was the biggest news here in the US, I had this dream about him, right around the time my alarm was supposed to go off. I don't remember the details of what happened in the dream before the alarm went off. But when it did go off...I sort of saw Osama sitting on my clock, saying, "Don't you dare wake up, or I'll bomb you!"

It was very believable too! I snoozed a few times before my brain finally woke up and registered what was going on :)

I had quite a few funny dreams. Some thing new every day, that I don't remember anymore. I guess this one just takes the cake. No more dreaming anymore though. I am quite awake at least 10 minutes before Kishore Kumar starts to sing "Aa chal ke tujhe...main leke chaloo, ek aise gagan ke tale..." on my alarm.

Hello Mr. Murphy

So...Pri, should I blame you for this one (this post is going to be a proof of such an expert I am at blaming some totally unrelated, unsuspecting, random person for something that happens to me :)

Ok, so we start by blaming Pri.

She did a tag about what's in her handbag. She didn't specifically tag me to do it, just all the ladies that read her blog. So she did mean me, right?

So then I see what's in my handbag, I write it down, and also what's missing from it...my checkbook. I used to look for it in the mail everyday since I ordered it, but didn't really do anything about it not arriving until I did Pri's tag. Right after I did the tag, I wrote to the bank, asking them what happened to the 150 checks I had ordered 15 days ago. They promptly responded that they had sent them, the checks should have reached me within 10 days. Since they have not, they are assuming that they were lost/stolen, and are putting a "stop process" order on all 150 of them. I was so glad they were so prompt and careful and all that.

I went home that day, to find the box of checks on my doorstep. Checks that I can't use right away! Will have to write to the bank again.

See Pri, how it all ties in and how you're responsible :)

Mr S just made my day :)

Very short post...just for me to read and laugh again a few months later :)

The man is funny, gotta give him that. Poor guy had been in a conference call for over 2 hours with some gora guy. Finally phone patak ke uth ke bhaaga, mumbling...subah se angrezi bol bol ke munh tedha ho gaya.

I was in splits immediately,
M(e): kya ho gaya bhai?
S: Yaar, Bill se meeting chal rahi thi

** This Bill is on the east coast and is leaving the company, so S has to get as much info from him as possible...on the phone.

M: Yeah, and you can't even tell him we'll do this later, jaa raha hai to.

Another guy K walks by,
K: S bhai, main notice kar raha hoon, jisse bhi aap angrezi bolte hain, woh company chhod ke bhaag jaata hai
S: Haan yaar, woh log jhel nahi paate. Aaj to maine hi bol diya, bass, ho gaya, mera aaj ka angrezi quota khatam ho gaya.

Then we all went to lunch with a few other folks. The topic came up again.
M: Hey, do you know where Bill is going?
S: No, he didn't mention that he was leaving, so I didn't ask...
M: Ok, now don't talk to him again, nahi to nayi company bhi chhod ke chala jayega.

B is sitting next to me, and asks whats all this about. I tell him. B refuses to talk to S anymore :) But we all manage to convince him that its ok, as long as he is not talking to him in English, he is safe. We pulled S' leg some more, asking him what exactly he said to everyone that they got so scared and left.

Ok, this was a very random conversation, total nonsense, but he had me in splits :) Good fun!
There was a lot more things that were said...but I can't remember them anymore.

Non-hindi speaking folks...can't really effectively translate this. sorry :(


Sigh, everything said and done, we all miss our own language, don't we. I miss speaking Gujarati so much, since hubby doesn't understand it much.

UPDATE: This day is just getting better.
There is another S, lets call him Su.

Su: So, did you hear of the latest internationalization bug in B's app?
S: What, the bug is that the app is not working?
Su: No, no, its working...
M(interrupting): So the bug is that the app is working?
Su: No, no (totally unperturbed by my interruption) it is working. But when B German language select karta hai, usko dhikhta hai Bhojpuri!

This is what happens when...

Dishwashing is left to the man of the house :)





No, no, I am not complaining. Not at all. He was busy working in the yard all day, so didn't get to the dishes. I am just amazed at how he makes the most mundane things so funny! I was in splits when I walked into the kitchen and saw this. I cleaned up while he was still working. He was so sad when he got back and saw that his "tower" had been demolished.

My water acrobatics

Whenever someone asks me, hey, you wanna go to this place, abc, or do this thing, xyz, I hardly think about what/where/why before jumping with joy and saying, Yesss!

This one happened about 6 months ago...

I can't swim, I took lessons, but am one of the few freaks who forgot all of it after a few years.
So last summer, a friend of mine, John, asked if I wanted to go water-skiing, he has a boat and all, will be fun. Nah, no swimming required, you'll be fine, he says. Who else is going? No plans yet, lets ask the others. John and I used to work together...we walked around the office, asking others. We got 5 more folks willing to go.

Coool...so I go home, tell hubby about the plan. He has a great fear of water. Big time! (My dad told us he was arranging a floating mandap at our wedding, and my fella goes, heck no, I am not coming to your wedding, take my picture and marry it. It all went ok though, he had asked John, mentioned above to come to the wedding...just in case he needed someone to save him ;)

But I digress...so I tell him about the plan, and he says, NO. You ain't going! You'll drown! But...but...but...John said it will be ok, I want to go, I want to go, I want to go. Ok, fine, WE will go, I am coming too, he says! Mighty brave of him!

So the big day arrives, 9 of us go to the lake, John gets his boat. He has brought his niece, Christine, along as well to help him, since all the others were first-timers, none of us had water-skiied before. John makes two trips, I was on the second trip. Water-skiing takes a lot of skill. You wear the board on your feet, its pretty heavy. Then you get into the water, sort of lie down with your feet and head out of the water, and hold this rope thats attached to the boat. Boat starts moving, and you have to stand up! If you can't, you gotta let go of the rope, otherwise you get dragged around. So you are sort of stranded in the water, while the boat circles around you, while you try to grab the rope again. And then you try the whole thing again!

(John!!!! How come you didn't explain all of this before!!!)

So...I was on the second trip. So there's John and Christine, another gal, S, my hubby was there, just to watch and take pics, and there was one more guy, A.

Christine does a bit of a demonstration for us. Man, she was awesome!!! Like a mermaid rising out of the water. Totally amazing. Then John does his demo, shows up a few stunts, making it all look so easy. We all feel very confident after seeing these two.

A goes first, tries to ski, gives up after 5-6 attempts. Then S goes. She got in the water, and panicked. John got scared, and jumped in to save her, with hat, glasses, t-shirt and all. Hubby comments, John, its ok, you don't have to jump, she's not dying. A comments, John, your hat...its floating away (all this while S is still struggling, and listening to all these comments!) John realizes he's lost his hat, saves it first, then brings S back. S is ok after a while, and tries to ski, does pretty well, but gets tired after a while and comes back. And then she accosts the commentators...was very very funny :))

Ab...bachi main, my turn. I hate cold water, I hate water on my face, and I had kinda forgotten all this when I agreed to this plan! Seeing how S had panicked upon contact with the water, John suggests I get on my life-vest and get in the water, get familiar with it, then come back and put on the ski. Sounds good. I get all geared up, say my buh-byes to all, some folks even say, so long, dear, was nice knowing you. I climb out of the boat into the water.

Holy hell, this is COLD!!! And there are waves in this darned lake. And...these waves are kinda taking me away from the boat. The boat suddenly seems very far away, and HELP!!!! SOMEONE BRING ME BACK PLEASE, I AM FLOATING AWAY!!! The folks on the boat are enjoying the spectacle, taking pictures and videos and all that. Finally Christine comes to rescue me, with a HUGE grin she asks me, you don't swim, do you? Ummm...no. John said it was ok, I didn't need to. She laughs, tries to drag me back, but I'm too heavy for her, bahut mehnat kiya, finally I got back to the boat. There's pictures of me being dragged around, but NO, you don't get to see them! Hubby has this smirk on his face as I get back, done? kar lee skiing? Shall we come back tomorrow?

John was really disappointed that I didn't even give it a shot, I didn't even put on the skis. But I did have fun, and thats whats important, methinks.

He is still hopeful that I will make some more progress the next time :)
Well....we'll see about that :o)