Laundry blues

I don't hate doing laundry, but I am just lazy about it. I always end up doing it when I am all out of clothes to wear and its either do laundry or buy new underwear. More often than not, I choose to do the laundry, but more than once have I ended up buying new stuff too. And actually - laundry isnt a big thing .. I mean you just put the clothes in, pour in a bit of detergent and put in the money .. hardly takes any time. So why the indolence? Who knows.

But this isnt about that. This is about the chagrin that I suffer these days when I go to do my laundry. I do it (the laundry) on weekends and apparently, so do a lot of other people in my complex. (big surprise). The last time I went there .. I took out my clothes from the washer .. put them in the dryer .. fed the money .. all the while talking on the phone, set the setting. There was a cute girl doing something similar .. smiled .. noting to try and get to know her better sometime .. and left. 45 mins later .. same scene .. her, me .. and about 4 more of my neighbours. I opened the dryer to take out my clothes .. and they were still soaking wet!! I was like .. WTF?? And that was not in my mind either. So I was cursing the dumb dryer when she came to me ..
she : are these clothes yours?
me: (in my head) of course (aloud) yeah ..
she: when you put them in .. you put them in the top dryer but you put the money in for the bottom one
me: !!??!???!!! WTH?? I did that??!
she: um uh.
me: stupid!! stupid!!! no not you .. me .. I cant believe I did that! well .. thanks for letting me know.

I could feel the whole laundry room sniggering at me .. just about the same way you are right now. Oh you think its funny is it? Well .. it is funny. Its hilarious .. I admit it. Except I still cant believe I did that. So I came up with a theory .. an explanation lets call it .. a plan to do your laundry for free once in a while .. a plan so twisted .. only a sick, demented mind could formulate it. Its kind of admirable in a way.

You wait for some sucker to come by and put his laundry in .. make sure noone else is in the laundry room .. when he leaves (it has to be a he .. girls fight back) you open the dryer (you dont want to do it for the washer .. the dryer clothes are clean) .. you take out his clothes and shift them to another dryer. Then you put in your clothes .. in the original dryer to dry. Wait until ilke 5 mins before the end of the cycle .. pull out your wonderfully warm and dry clothes .. and return the suckers clothes back into the original dryer. Leave. Or if its too late to leave .. offer the above mentioned explanation. Deadly huh?

I can still sense the neighbours' kids pointing to me and asking their moms 'is he the one?'. Not to mention that none of my friends bought my theory of the laundry freeloader.

Ahoy there!

Now I remember why I used to stuff myself crazy every so often till a few years back. I was in India; and the food here is not rivalled by the food at any other place I have eaten till date. Even a small roadside shanty will knock the socks off any Indian food restaurant in the US.

Just about half my trip is over and ..
Modaks, fish fry, prawn curry, sitaphal milkshake, pav bhaaji, onion raita, bajari chi bhakri, bhakarwadi, mosambi juice, dry methi sabzi, basundi, sukha mutton, biryani, afogato, veg manchurian, hakka noodles, schezwan sauce, anjir kulfi, kachori, roasted peanuts, mango milkshake, paan, methi kofta curry, gajar halwa, veg club sandwich, strong nescafe, sabudana khichadi, kulthacha pithla, puran poli, lasnachi chutney, shrewsbury biscuits, lasun shev, gulkand icecream, tandoori chicken.

Yes, I am home.

Diwali and all that..

So I was all ready to write a post on how I have been getting tons of emails everyday -- each with a single line which says something like "Wishing you and your family a very happy and prosperous diwali". I was really tired of seeing "12 new messages" every day and then finding that 90% of them are diwali one liners, and the rest are forwards. Maybe its because this is my fourth diwali away from home, that I am missing out on the festive spirit and all. Or maybe its because I hate opening emails to read the same line again and again.

So, imagine my surprise when my sister sends me this. It made my day somehow. I played around with the lantern and lamps .. they are configurable and look sort of cool and certainly different from the standard stuff. Well, the surprise is actually that she always seems to send the best things .. whether its diwali or my bday or anything else. I have always looked at her as a kid sister .. still growing up, learning the ropes ... I realized something that I think I have been suspecting for a long time. My kid sister has grown up. Recently, I have seen her make tough decisions just as rationally and practically as I would have. And I am glad the way things are shaping up for her. Thats a diwali present if anything.

So heres wishing you and your family a very happy and prosperous diwali!! ;-)

Can't do without #2

So I have just shifted into a new apartment. The last week was totally crazy .. putting in 12 hour workdays and then coming back home to pack / shift / unpack. Plus I did'nt have an internet connection at home for the first few days and it was tough. What was worse was that when I finally got the cable connection setup .. I didnt know what to do with it. I mean .. I had just checked the email, read the news, figured out where to go for dinner .. looked at the menus of local restaurants that is; said goodbye to friends who were online, checked email again, rechecked to see if there was any breaking news .. before leaving work. So here I was, relieved that I finally had the net connection going at home .. but doing absolutely nothing about it. So I am scratching .. hold on .. don't jump to conclusions .. scratching 'internet access at home' or atleast 'internet access at home for a few days' from my Can't do Without list .. if it was there.
One thing that I found out I really can't do without is the goddamned microwave. It was so hard to eat anything without it .. primary reason being all I was eating was last week's carry outs from various restaurants. So here I am posting from home .. drinking a nice hot glass of Complan (courtsey microwave).

You can run, but you can't hide

Everything was going nicely at its own pace .. and .. Parag tags me! I wish I can write about the favourite books of my kid, but then we'd be giving out a few secrets wouldn't we? Oops. Well .. moving right along ..

Total no. of books I own: Close to 100 maybe? Add a few hundred more if we are counting comics as well ;-) Dad passed on quite a few, many I have bought myself. However all are in Pune. I have very few books here.

Last book I bought: Five point someone, What not to do at IIT - Chetan Bhagat.

Last book I read: The Dilbert Future - Scott Adams.

Five books that mean a lot to me I remember liking a lot:
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Blue Nowhere - Jeffrey Deaver
Any Calvin n Hobbes book - Bill Watterson
The Partner - John Grisham
Call of the wild - Jack London

Arguably worst book I have ever read:
In the Company of Women - Khushwant Singh

Tag five people to do this thing on their blogs
Chinmay
Prashant
Ajit
Shantya

Recharged

Had a refreshing vacation in San Jose. The weekend was spent with 10 friends from UMD and I enjoyed it a lot. Time well spent. Met roommates and almost-roommates. Realized how well these people have come to know me. Well, after all they are my friends. Also .. those who were there .. lets hope we never forget the 'sweet-meat shop story' ;-)

All for one and one for all

My friends make my life. Seriously. I am such a lucky bastard to have the friends I have. I have been lucky to meet really good people .. on the same wavelength as mine everywhere. Be it in school, college, US .. whatever. Friends who were recent entries are now categorised as old friends. Friends who were already old friends now are older friends :-P
Some friends .. you just know are going to be there for life.
This is to all of those. You know who you are. You better be there.

can't do without?

things i never thought i could'nt do without
-----------------------------------------------------
cell phone
cell phone hands free
listerine pocketpaks
chapstick
chocolate

things i always knew i could'nt do w/o
----------------------------------------------
loose change
my car
my friends

things i used to think i could'nt do w/o but can
---------------------------------------------------------
a pen
my watch
a better half
eating out
the internet
a baniyan
milk and sugar in tea/coffee

Open mouth, Insert foot

Shut up. Do not give away little things noone has to know even if they sound (and are) cool. You will be better off that way. Believe me.

Wait ToGo

Theres a ToGos near our office where I sometimes have lunch. Pretty good sandwiches, plus the added incentive of a nice scoop of ice-cream or maybe a malt. This particular franchise is owned by a desi, and interestingly all but one (as per I have seen) of the employees are desi. Anyways .. that is the only goddamn place where it takes more time to get the sandwich than to eat it. I watch painfully (and I might add hungrily) as the desi aunty goes on with her work slowly .. ambling along, gathering all the ingredients, yelling chatting with the other aunty all the while.

Well .. today I ordered a veggie (thought - would be faster somehow .. was terribly hungry) (normally 2 mins to prepare, 7 to eat) and waited and waited .. and waited. After 7 mins of hungry waiting .. with the smell of bacon and chipotle chicken wafting from my neighbouring table, I walked up to the counter. Questioning glance. I responded with my own gestures ..'wheres my sandwich' they (the gestures) said. 'Sir kheera (cucumber) nahi hai'. WTF???? Idiots. Then tell me that 7 freaking hungry minutes before!!! 'thats okay .. mein waise hi khaa lunga' on second thoughts 'to fir thoda avacado jaada de to' .. 'chalta hai sir .. desi store hai'. [Back to more yelling chatting with other desi aunty]. I felt like jumping over the counter and strangling her. I think my frustration was all too apparent. Usually I would have dished out crap .. but today somehow I was subdued. Aunty looked too stupid pitiable to hurt by my scathing remarks.

Worst thing is .. I know I will continue going there for lunch. They have a damn good veggie.

I crave

I yearn -
peace of mind, paratha, butter chicken and malai kofta, to be with my school friends again, to play with my dog, a Honda Civic coupe .. stick shift, to sit and chat with my parents and sister, a banana Snapple, a business of my own, to go for a long walk .. alone, kulfi, to live in the same city as most of my friends, better handwriting, a pet falcon, tender coconut ice-cream in Pune, a kick-ass battle tank, a place of my own, a nice river near where I'll live where I can go kayaking, a chipotle burrito bol with extra guacomole, a good nights sleep - every night, a blazing desktop with a sleek and tiny cpu cabinet, modaks, to know where I am headed, more will-power, a strawberry cheescake blizzard from Dairy Queen.
Thats it for now.

cant stress it enough

I posted this more than a week back. That was just me trying to get used to the idea of leaving Duluth. Now, the time has come. I leave in an hour. Can't get enough of this place now .. all the familiar places, faces. Went down by the lakeside and sat there at night .. alone .. 2 days back. Lake Superior, UMD, 1829 E 5th, Heller Hall, Green Mills ... you sure will be missed.

Time to move on..

2 years went by real fast. I learned a lot, changed somewhat; made some very good friends; had a lot of fun. I leave Duluth within a week. Looking at familiar places in a new light .. I may never come back here, but again - maybe I will. Leaving places is hard enough, I don't even want to start thinking about leaving friends. Time to move on. Thats life.

Another turning point
a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist
directs you where to go,
So make the best of this test and don't ask why,
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time,

It's something unpredictable
but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time,
Tattoos and memories of dead skin on trial
For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.

It's something unpredictable,
but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life

It's something unpredictable,
but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life

- GreenDay: Time of your Life

Clip .. Clop?

One can hear a significant clickety noise as I type these days. No, the keyboard is fine .. its just that .. how can I say this .. my fingernails are long. Not too long, not so long that you will stare at them, but long enough that as I type, their edge hits the keys of the keyboard. Plus me thinks I type with my fingers making more of an angle thus the propensity of the nails to touch the keys.

If I were still in school or college .. my kabbadi teammates would have kicked me out. There were strict restrictions on the length of your nails if you played kabbadi. Many a times have guys been disallowed from practice bcos their nails were not short enough. [cut them right along the edge .. where the flesh meets the nail]. Anyways .. thing is I can't find the damn nail-cutter/clipper. We had about 3-4 of them around the house .. probably each one of us brought one .. but for the past many months we are down to a single one. Dunno where the rest went. Probably some of our friends were short of a few at their own places. Buggers.

So .. I was complaining about the missing nail-cutter, when one of my roommates said that he has one .. and made a clikety-clack noise with his teeth, smacked his lips and looked at me. *shudder*. What? he said .. I need the calcium...

I don't care .. my nails no longer make a noise.

[If he reads this .. good bye world .. his cooking turn is thursday .. so if I die of poisoning then, you know who did it.]

Crazy ppl

I don't have much time right now .. have to work on the final pieces of my thesis, but heres something for you .. yesterday after playing volleyball from 7 to 9pm, having dinner at our favourite restaurant, and watching Lakshya it was 3:15 AM and we were bored. So me and 2 of my friends .. we went to the gym! We have joined a 24 hr gym and always wanted to make full use of the 24hr facility [stupid grin]. It was fun though .. had fun from 3:30 to 4:30 am pumping iron (not that I do much of that too). A guy came in at 4:20am apparently after waking up early and before setting off on whatever ghastly workplace he goes to so early .. seemed really surprised to see someone already present before him (and a little pissed too .. 'darn these creeps beat me to it today') .. but managed to wish us a 'good morning'. We barely controlled our laughter and went back home for a blissfull sleep.

I woke up at noon.

Gotta Fast

I have had a very fleeting relationship with hunger as such. Luckily I was born in a house where (sounds a lot like the beginning of an autobiography does'nt it) the parents provided yours truly with food, water, shelter, love .. no problems there ever. Also I eat quite frequently .. its inbuilt. Not being from even a slightly religious family .. I rarely did the upaas etc seriously. An Ekadashi would mean hogging the special food for that day. So now I am seriously considering slowly introducing my body (and mind) to the unknown world of fasting. Why? Well .. (no .. I am not gonna say why not) .. I just want to try it out. [Did you notice Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism .. all endorse some fast or the other.. and I am sure Buddhism does too.]

I am not planning to do it regularly or anything .. just if and when I feel like it .. one day to start with. I am considering a liquid diet. (I have quite a large loophole here .. smoothies, milkshakes.. here I come).

Long List

Theres a long list of new movies I wanna watch. Somehow they have all ganged up and creeped up on the unsuspecting self. Shrek2, The Day After Tomorrow, Harry Potter3, The Terminal, The Stepford Wives, Farenheit 9/11, Dodgeball, Spiderman2 .. whew and probably more that I don't recall right away. I gotta buckle up and get down to serious movie watiching soon ..

photos up

I have finally uploaded (and labeled. the uploading didnt take time) a lot of photos on this site.
For those who know me and still wish to see me .. they are here.
For those who don't know me, and get a kick out of seeing pictures of strangers, they are here.

me is back

Texas trip was awesome. Had a lot of fun for 4-5 days .. thanks to a close friend there. Went to Arlington, Dallas and Austin. I particularly liked Austin .. now ranks high among my list of places I would like to live in. It's beautiful, not too large, not to small, has the right mix of everything.. had dinner at Chuy's in Austin where Bush's daughters were busted 2 years back for trying to purchase alcohol with a fake ID.
Arrgh .. now I am back to the same old grind .. vacation over. Double aargh.

So Long and thanks for all the wish..

First of all thanks everybody for the BirthDay wishes.. and those of you who did'nt .. well theres always next year (11th March). Me thinks I am not getting any txt messages on my cell - so I may have missed a few msgs from some of you. Also, I'm off for a little vacation in Texas... meeting college friends. It'll be a fun reunion. Me will be backon Friday the 19th.

In case you are wondering, the title is stolen and changed from So long and thanks for all the fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

me off

I'm off to minneapolis with my 3 roommates!! We have tickets for tonight's NBA game. Minnesota Timberwolves Vs Dallas Mavericks. Yeeha!! (Its gonna be an awesome game - The TWolves are my favourite team .. after that the Mavericks)

Thursday .. theres this Job Fair on the UMN Twin Cities campus - will attend that .. not too hopeful though - any of us. So see ya all on Friday ..

Jester of all games..

Somehow, I never stuck to one sport. My school encouraged us to try different sports .. volleyball, kho-kho, kabaddi, football and some others .. and all of us had fun playing them. I also tried my hand at swimming and badminton .. and like both. Cricket is inborn to an extent in every Indian. However I never excelled at any of these. Am not even like the proverbial 'Jack of all trades' .. I'm something less than a jack .. more like a jester really. I amuse others when I play cricket and football (soccer), and try to amuse myself while playing other sports.
Swimming I can do pretty well, but not in the competitive sense. Hell, I even used to coach a bit. But thats in Pune .. where one look at our professors and you know what teachers are like. Carrom - I'm improving with leaps and bounds - but thats just cos there were leaps and bounds to improve by. Chess is pretty decent - but I had my nose rubbed in the ground recently there too.
This never stopped me from playing any sport with friends though .. thats probably bcos I've had such good friends who dont make fun of me and let me play along .. like a limbu-timbu if you get what I mean. So I dream a dream .. where I shall be a Jack. Heres to all my brothers. Enjoy.

Got Milk?

Doodh has always been a big thing with me. As a kid I dont remember loving milk, but I always drank my glass - twice a day. I started really liking milk probably around 9th or 10th standard. Milk plain, flavoured .. or anything made from milk has always been on the top of the list for me. Even today I find a lot of food stuff 'dry' and prefer to soak it up with milk .. cakes, cookies, a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Biscuits (Marie, GoodDay) soaked with milk has always been the after-dinner snack of choice for me. (except for ice-cream, which incidentally is also made from milk). My love for doodh is so blatant that my roommates have promised (threatened?) to gift me a buffalo in my marriage! (whenever it might be .. and with whoever - I might add. (Ladies - please note))

The thing that caught my attention tho is that here in the US a deliberate and guided attempt (and a successfull one) is being made to popularize milk as a regular beverage. Their Got Milk? campaign has been extremely successful. It consists of catchy print and TV ads featuring models and celebrities with a 'milk moustache' and a message from them encouraging the reader/viewer to drink more milk. This was/is partly supported by the milk processors themselves. They have launched a new campaign called 'Shake Stuff Up' featuring excellent ads for chocolate milk too. Reminds me of our Doodh Doodh Doodh Doodh .. Doodh hai wonderful ad by the NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) back in India. It was amazing. I'l try to get a video of that. You can see some of the Got Milk? print ads here. Needs Flash.

1 down 3 to go...

The first mid-term of my course is long gone and forgotten. (It was today). I still have 2 more mid-terms and 1 final to go. thankfully, this being my last semester thats the only course I have. The course itself is mind-numbing and the test reflected that. We are all cool though. Last night was spent with roomies and other friends studying together for a while. Then as we got tired of studying (in an hour or two) we settled down to business and played our daily round of carrom.

And now here I am, test done; yet still in my lab - writing a report on the work I did last year as a Research Assistant. It is due tomorrow. Its a battle between my brain and my ... brain. The sane part is slowly cajoling me on .. telling me to get this job done tonight. While the other voice in my head are telling me to .. sleep / go home and enjoy with my friends. Arrgh. double aargh.

Tis a snow day!!

Halleluiah !! It's finally a snow day! The heavens have sent upon us shitloads of pure white amazing snow, more than the super efficient Duluth road clearers can handle. Campus is closed!!

Finally I can put this time to productive use; like playing carrom or watching TV.

A picture is worth a thou

Look at the #&@*%^ windchill ..

And quoting Ms. Aguilera ..

So I wanna say thank you

Cause it makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
It makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Heh heh heh.

Here I am ..

Finally I have shifted the blog .. and this is the first entry on the new domain. I wanted to write this yesterday, as soon as India won the match against Australia; but sleep prevailed (the match ended at 6:00am or thereabouts). It was a tremendous victory and will go a long way in lifting my spirits whenever I think about it. (Lets hope it does the same for the team members).
Anyways, a new semester starts tomorrow .. the final one as far as I am concerned. It's always exciting to go to school on the first day of the new semester as Resh reminded us not too long ago.
Also, bear with me as I go on experimenting for a few dyas, and think about how to transfer my old archive here, as well as adding other, new stuff. Cheers ..