Merry Xmas

Dear Santa,

I have not seen you around since I was all of ten years old. Been busy, huh? Did you get my chistmas list this year? I am awefully tired of assuming that my gifts get lost on your long journey or that you callously ignore them and bring me practical things I don't want at all. What's the deal? Was I not a good person or did you catch hold of the word 'atheist' under my religion on Orkut? Heck no! Getting loads of loot is a very spiritual experience for me. (Psst... besides, that site is evil. It forces perfectly normal people to convert into 'will you make friendship with me' maniacs. So just steer clear of it, okay?)

Woosh! Sure am glad we have that cleared up now. Let's move onto the loot for this year, shall we? I left my doggy at home when I started with college. It's been a terrible six years. I miss my best friends loads, tonns actually. I miss him everyday of not telling me how much he missed me when I came back home. You know, he could even untie my shoelaces in 2 seconds snap! That they required replacement every other month is okay. Could you fly him up with Rudolf and down my chimney this Christmas night? It would be awefully hard for him to find the way on his own, you know. Take care not to get the chimney soot on this white coat. He does not like that a bit. Just so that its easier for you here is a pic of him.

Second, I would also like the Fender highway one Stratocaster. I know, I have just started tinkering with my music, but one of these would be the best thing since hot chocolate and ice cream! Pick up the coolest looking one. The one with the built in tuner and just the perfect top string. Don't send in the pink one. Or the gray one either.

Let's get on with these two then Santa. I will be a good person. Honest. I will even switch off my laptop when I go to bed tonight - just so that your home in Greenland stays safe.

THUMP! THUMP! "Is that you Santa?" Doggonit!! Am switching it off, switching it off....

Resolutions ?!&*#!

A new year is coming up. Yeah, big deal!
Where are the cheap pay-and-go space rides? Where are the gravity defying cars that can wizzz around in dark tunnels?
Where are the mars colonies? Where are the personal robots and houses that adjust to your whims and fancies?
You call this the future???! HA !
And what about the floating cities? What about the chips that can cram up a billion years of information in your brain?
I mean, think about it! We still have to tie our own shoe laces?!&$#! Give me a break!

It is good to know that we are still around. That we have not managed, quite yet, to blow it up with our boosted fission nuclear bombs. That the Greenland ice mass still rests peacefully. We can't visit the rugged expanse of Mars yet. We can take a dip in the blue expanse of the Pacific. Today, we can jot down the 10 things to do and look at it every other day but sooner we have to understand the relationship between us and what is happening to our surroundings.

A friend said to me, "Don't tell me that not switching down my PC when I leave work the would actually cause the Greenland ice mass to melt and flood my home town. You can't be so big a nincompoop to believe this."

I know it won't tonight. It will a few years later. The Larsen ice shelf in Antartica melted due to global warming. But we were lucky back then - this ice shelf rested primarily on water so it's melting did not cause a significant rise in water levels round the globe. The Greenland ice is capable of raising water levels by 20 feet or more. That would give us enough impetus to re-write our geography books. Also, Santa will come from a land with no ice. Bums you out, dosn't it ? But then what would you say to the drowing of Indian coastal cities, Californian coast, Manhatten, Netherland and many of the British Isles ?

I was reading Calvin the other day and this is what he has to say regarding new year resolutions:
"Resolutions ? Me ?? Just what are you implying? That I need to change?? Well, buddy as far as I'm concerned, I'm perfect the way I am! For your information, I'm staying like this, and everyone else can get used to it! If people don't like me the way I am, well, tough beans! It's a free country! I don't need anyone's permission to be the way I am! This is how I am - take it or leave it! By golly, life's too short to waste time trying to please every meddlesome moron who's got an idea how I ought to be! I don't need advice! Everyone can just stay out of my face!"

Well, Calvin, maybe just a spiff bit!

C & H

Since no was planning to gift me The Complete Calvin and Hobbes *illustrated in color* sometime soon, I scraped and stole a decade worth of calvin from the net in neat htmls. These days am just short of plastering them on my room walls... If only Mum would understand how important it is to scare the monsters under the bed. Could also share the same with you if you can tell me what a transmorgifier is ?? ;)

Psst.... The Complete Calvin & Hobbes ( illustrated in color ) is kept right infront of the cashier at CrossWords. I promise you wont have to take more than 5 steps inside. Swipe your awesome card and bundle up the stuff to me. You will be bang at the top of my most favourite people ever !!! And Don't you say "like it matters......"

My beach vacation!

Hey, this is my first post from our new home in Malaysia. I don't have enough words at my disposal to describe this place. This beautiful city is blessed with mountains and the sea! I get to blog lying on a hammock with starry skies above me and cool waters below (okay, the 'cool waters' comprise of our pond and two goldfishes), laze on the chempadak beach in the evenings, free foot scrubs from the ocean sand and a golf resort I can see from my bedroom window. And incidently, where they won't allow me anymore coz I have richoted more balls off lakes, mountains and bushes than get them anywhere close to the holes. Its so funny!! They just keep sending caddies later waddling down the lake to retieve them!

Our neighbours are chinese. Its wonderful to notice their customs. They have their kitchen out in the back verandah and also their dining table. So they have all their meals out in the open. What an awesome way to spend time with your family. Said hello to them over our walls of trees. Their children play peak-a-boo with us through gaps in the banana and wild, sweet smelling flower beds. They don't speak english much and we are so just starting to learn Malayan, Chinese, Japansese and a dozen other languages. On this island it looks like every other person speaks a different language. Unnaturally they all do manage to communicate with each other quite fluidly with smiles and hand shakes!!! So coming back to the point, in my 15 mins conversation with our neighbours the only work we mutually understood was momos. And yes, well enough we had two steaming boxes of momos, complete with spicy red sauce at our dining table. The momos were over in 10 mins, the finger licking continued for a good 1/2 an hour. The reciepe will take much longer to understand! Mum decided to return the favour with her best gajar ka halwa. The kids loved it. We now have 4 more people to vie with for her delicious sweets. Join the bandwagon please.

Now let me see, the only other chinese words I understand are chicken hakka noodles, chicken satay, talumein soup, cocktail prawns.... umm, or are they?? What the heck... lets give it a try ;)

You always have trepiditions while moving to a new country for a long duration. We naturally had our qualms too. Some of them got washed away last evening. We were driving down a new road, searching for a grocery store. And as it happens in a new city we invariably took a turn on a one way. We stopped in the middle of the road, bound to be on the receiving end of much honking, blasts and angry glares. But nothing happened. The guy infront of us backed off his car, also made sure that others did the same One lone guy awaiting customers infront of his restaurant, walked down the road, stopped the traffic coming in the opposite direction and made sure we were safely on our way back. Is there any surprise then that almost every person on this island speaks a different dialect and yet manages to communicate.

Guitar Classes

Yay! Am so excited..... I finally started with my Guitar classes. Am still struggling to identify where do I catch the F note on the Top String from.... but thats okay, we will get there slowly.Thank you shourya. He is my teacher. You have to struggle to find his compilations, but I suggest you badger him for it because they are worth it. And my Dad is about as excited about guitar classes as I am. He is, as I speak, rounding off his colleagues to hear me play the guitar. I bet they all have been promised free drives in his spanking new car for that. Daddy - not a good idea. The best I can do till now is a distorted version of Smoke on the Water and Deep Purple would go scrambling down to their graves if they heard me play that!

Apart from that, am looking forward to my long deserved family vacation. We have not taken one for 4 whole years!! To make up for it we plan to vacation along the coast lines of Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore this year round.

The eastern Malayan coast is littered with tiny islands - big enough for maybe one mountain, a dozen fresh water streams which wind their way through the dense forests, a handfull of people and vast expanses of clear blue water. Tioman island perfects this to the very detail. Its an hour's scoot across the ocean from Dad's place. You could be daring and get a speed boat for yourself, but small adventures drill some sense inside you. Yeah, we gonna stick to the local ferry this time. But everything else still remains on the list - snorkelling, deep sea dives, swimming with giant sea turtles at their marine park, forest treks along cool mountain streams, walking across the perimeter of the island in a single day and frog legs (have been promised they taste as delicious as yuck! as they sound). In other words do stuff that God really, really send you to earth for!! He never wanted us to work on some brain crunching milestones.. did he?? I keep telling you, we just complicate things for ourselves!!

Friday, please come sooner!

and thats today in a walnut-shell

Life's got a knack of giving you more of what you already have! I picked up this guy from Waukesha.

And then my manager bestowed me with this GE one. I am not jobless, but I don't need 2 laptops either. Thus, now might be a good time to remind me of that one time you saved me life from a speeding truck or bought me a chocolate from the last 10 ruppee in your pocket!

I guess life is trying to pamper me these days! I received a prize at work today. And before you question... no, it was not because I finally figured out how to operate the vending machines at work.

Finally, thanks to Svetha I got my annual check up done. My heart got a perfect 120/80. :)

The Last Breath

Have you ever know that this was your last breath? Seen the water spans with blury eyes? Smelt that smushy fish odor? Felt water seeping in through your jeans, clinging onto you like creepers on a wall? And then, thanked god for every special moment in your life. Now thats something I always thought people do when they are about to die. So I tried the same.

On the day of question, we all bundled into a car and decided to go kayaking and canoing at Fox River. We were super excited and I guess some of it showed! The rental guy took one look at us - "So, you guys are new at this?"
"Well, yeah!", we replied
He then very humbly tried to explain why today might not be a good idea to venture out in the river. Strong winds and currents and blah blah. The lake - Pewaukee lake which we were standing by was even worse. Even the pro's had opted out for today. Well, our group was dispersing next week for their respective countries. Combine that with the fact that this rental guy was all of 15 years old - It kinda hit most of the guys under the belt. Shoot the river. NOW these guys wanted to go canoing in the lake !! I'm not mentally ill. Am quite adventurous though. So I decided to dive right in. I'm going to be hip. I'm going to be cool. I'm going to go canoing.

The canoes were pushed onto the lake. 6 life jackets, 6 oars and 6 daring souls got in. The world still stood in all its magnificense, with sun tanned beaches and waterfowls crying across them. One oar in water .. 2,3. And BANG!! Crashed into the side pier. The water-force was too high to row against. Okay, so this was gonna take more muscle power. We sweathed and we swore. I guess within the span of an hour we had covered a 100m sprint across the lake. And were we looking cool or not!! Alone, along the entire expanse of the lake - with the sun dipping at the far end. Some splashing in the water, some spotting of fishes down the lake - and all was well with the universe. The waters looked reasonably fine. "Now, what was that 15 year old kid talking about ?? Lets cut across the entire stretch of the lake !! Yeah man.. thats cool"

Now anyone who is remotely acquainted with canoing knows that this was not a good idea. Especially when the lake happens to be 45 feet deep and there is nothing securing you to the flimsy canoe. However, coming back to the story. We managed quite well to the center of the lake. Mighty proud and bloated chests et al. Sang some songs. It's very sixteen year old, I know. But then, wasn't the whole idea of canoing in rough weather too?

Now thats when things started to get rough. For starters, the waves (Yes!! You do have waves in lakes too) began splashing against the boat. That was not so bad. Until they became high enough to get the water inside the boat. So, we changed jobs. 2 guys row. 1 guy throws the water out. It didn't help that I was sitting right in front of the boat with the weather unfolding in its own sweet way. The rowing was useless. The storm kept pushing us back to the center of the lake. I opted to believe that it liked us way too far to let us go back to the shore. The sun had bidden farwell. The moon was spying on us. And we were cold, wet, clammy and to be truthful, quite lost... Ahem! so thats why people carry compasses on waters. Pretty late in the day, you would say.

After, another hour (or was it two) of laborous pain we reached ashore. Tied the canoe to the first dock in sight. Treaded across to the rental shop. The 15 year old frekled guy smiles at us. "So, you guys did !!" Well, we were not exactly our human selves - with lake water smelling drenched hair and clothes and arms that ached like hell with the slighest movement. "Yes, We did !!" Flashed a smile from beneath that cover of filth. He understood. Came with us to the dock to take his canoes back. We saw some guys ripping across the waters in spanking new speed boats. Asked him if they were for rent. "Oh yeah! Thats what locals out here rent when the weather gets rough like this". Crap!

Horse riding and a few random moments at Wisconsin Dells

Who does not want to be called a cowboy... or a cowgirl for that matter?! Well, a group of friends & I got this dream true for an hour this Sunday.

I rode a horse past forests, canyons, lakes and beautiful bridges! My horse's name was Wiley and he was the most beautiful horse ever! A few basic lessons of horse riding - to go left pull the reins left, to go right pull them right, to stop the horse pull the reins back, hug your horse and pat him on his neck to tell him you love him and when he wants to go potty.. you really don't do anything much! My horse did that quite a lot. And you know, he had a moustache too. I never knew horses could but he really did! The perfect day minus the stiff back later.

Later, we also went on a boat ride. It was not exactly that cliche coz our boat cum ammunition carrier could ride both on water and on land! Isn't that a cool ride to get anytime? The drive back home did not fail to dissapoint us either. Got pulled over for speeding on the interstate. Yeah, baby!
Cop - "Maam, do you know how much you were driving at?"
Me - "I guess I touched 80" (It's always good to be honest sometime)
Cop - "You were at 85!" (Well, maybe I was not that honest.. Ahem!)

A few pokes inside the car with his crazy torch beam and...
Cop - "Have you been drinking?"
Me - "No" (Okay, this was honest）

He took my driving license and company badge for a good 15 minutes, while I was left at the mercy of freaky friends who were praying to see me get handcuffed. He came back and slapped a ticket to our car.

Us - "Thank you, Sir"

How many dreams do you have that ever came true? One out of a hundred? Thats my strike rate, to be quite honest. Make them true while you can. Its not worth waiting for the next time. Life comes once!

The first signs

I happened to look out of my office window sometime later in the day. The trees have started blossoming again with tiny white flowers and fresh green leaves.Sparkling in the tear drops of the new rain.The snow is gone and the trees have got their season once more.The mist still rises in the morning but it soon gives up.It knows that its time is over.

Uhh.. So thats how they make Wine!

This weekend's steal was a walk down Madison town and a winery !State street is the kind of place you want to roam around with your sweetheart. The warm sunny afternoons or the romantic evenings blend perfectly in the settings.Also the college crowd looked cute enough to be able to want to study there ;)But to top it all off they have The best student cafetaria ever !!! In the summers they have a couple of hard wood tables and chairs along the lake front or you could sit on the steps to the lake with the cool waters lapping up gently on your feet.In the winters, time to hustle up around the cosy fire places with good company.And no one would belive that the guys who play there like pros are still in college... Esp liked the first performance - The lead singer cum guitarist (Yes !! Yes !! finally saw a live performance of a guy who can do both) was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Dont know his name but he looked like John Lenon :)

Move over to Sunday and we drove to a Winery close by - Wollersheim Winery. The vines were pruned right now :( so the vineyard looked quite barren. Tasted some awesome wines .. and umm, some not so awesome ones.Bought two of them. :)The educational tour on wine making was not so educational. They would like to keep in their secrets of wine making.. won't they?If you wish to go around October time when they let in the guests through the vineyards and let them crush the grapes with their feet in the barrels. I dont know why but I find that awefully romantic !!But keep the foot crushed grape-vine away from me pls. First Shourya's music and now this student's performace and I really really want to learn music now. Advice anyone?

House on the Rock!

I redeemed myself at ice - skating. Smug face! The guys who were flying past me on the ski slope followed me at a snail's pace, and with quite a few falls, on the skating floor. But yeah, I do need to learn to balance better. Met a professional skater on the ice gliding as if in a fairy tale!

On Sunday our whole group rambled to quite an eclectic place - House on the Rocks. Nestled inbetween a snowy forest the place was a perfect adventure house. You reach the entrance by driving through a narrow pathway adorned with huge pots and fairies and some gargoyles too. Makes you believe they roasted their less favourable guests in pots, froze the beautiful ones to fairies and the hated ones to gargoyles. The rooms inside were weird if I were to be moderate. My favourite one was Streets of Yesterdays. Check out the pic beside. I still can't believe that it was only a room.

My words will fall short to describe the place. Just go and visit the place next time you are in Wisconsin!

Ski

One more cool stuff to be done ticked off my list! Sking down the slope, damn steep if I may add, was one of the toughest sport I have ever picked up. And neither did the blizzard warnings nor the skidded cars we saw on our way dampned our spirits.

It took me quite a while to get used to the sking shoes, which weight like a dozen elephants atleast! Once you actually manage to get them on.. you feel like you are walking on the moon. We had taken advice and hired a ski instructor for the day. He took us to the learner's slope.. Bah!!! What a rip off!!! You dont drive down 2 hours in the snow to get to be carried off to the learner's slope! Well, the first 20 mins of his lesson was... Walking in the snow! I mean, can you beat that! One lone guy from our group even shouted back, "Hey buddy, we got how to do that a few years ago!!". Oh god, this was hilarious! He took one step forward and was flat down in the snow. It is NOT easy to walk in the easy with ski shoes strapped on. We took the rest of the lesson pretty seriously. Right leg up. Push forward. Right leg down. Push self. Left leg... Okay, you get the drift. Scoop that with two metal rods flat below your legs and you are ready for the coolest ride in Aspen town!

Some of the guys were swishing down the slopes in no time. I bet this was not their first time on the ski, as they claimed to be. I tried to copy their turn-flip-slide-stop routine. That was converted to my turn-flip 180 degrees-slide down backwards-fall flat in the face routine 9 out of 10 times. And I do have a pic of the 10th time I glided down peacefully. (I actually think so I heard the people on the slope breathing a sign of relief). Had plans to go ice-skating on Sunday but we were...uhh... kinda nursing our broken backs in bed. But come this weekend, and ice-skating it is!

Weekend Plans

Yay! We are finally going sking this weekend.

Mithun went last week with some pals and he has refused to go again. Uh, thats not a good sign. What the heck! You gotta check out things atleast once.

Moving onto other good things in life - Shrivanya is getting married and moving to Australia. The bad part is that I will most definitly miss her wedding. Will miss her too. She is that comfortable companion with whom you would not mind going anywhere.

At work, with all the modality changes swishing around, Smita gave me a valid point of concern. She said, "Arre, teri salary kahan se aayegi ab US mein?"
Ahem! The most valid point. Time to confront the czars and ask for my petty paycheck.