Happy Friendship Day

Well... Its been over a month for the friendship day I guess. I wanted to write something about friendship on that day. Guess I was waiting for some motivation to get me started. The motivation lasted just to get me write the topic! It happens to me many times. Enthusiasm just drops off from 120% to -20%. May be its because of the kind of food I eat I reason. I know, makes no sense right? Yes, makes no sense.

I spoke to Gauri yesterday... she reminds me how important it is to keep Kriya regular. I did Kriya today after hmm... 2 months! Feels so... me today.

So friends... yes, that was what this topic was about. I have 300+ friends on Facebook. I am not sure if I can call them all 'friends'. But we have crossed paths sometime in the past and that has made us stick to each other through FB. And I am glad we do. Otherwise how would I know that one of my school friends recently got a baby! Or it was 4 of my friends birthdays yesterday! Or someone loves her baby a lot! Someone just came back from Vegas. Like its a big deal! Before we got onto FB did we even care? But now that we are, we want to see more. See more of our friends and more interaction with them.

But what do you do when your friends are not on FB. They never check emails. They don't have an email id. They don't connect to Internet. Do you know anyone like that? Well, may be your question is, Is there anyone like that in today's world? Well, fortunately there are! I have to call them to get in touch with them. I don't have to wait for them to post on my wall or wait for them to send reply to my email. The only way to talk to them is actually TALK to them.

Just called a couple of my non digitally existent friends. Feels so good! Forgot to wish them Happy belated Friendship day!

Margaritas!

Last night, had great time with few Friends at a place called 'Margaritas' in Redwood City. 'Guys, if you don't mind I can fit you in that corner space', said the waitress. Sure! We were hungry and couldn't wait a minute more to put our hands on the MARGARITAS!!! And yes, this place has the bests of bests. Those in and around Bay Area should try this place out.

Here are few pictures taken from my old but still living Nokia N95!
After dinner we all went to Bond's place to have yummy rasmalai. Unortunately did not click any pictures there, but the rasmalai was super yummy!
Funny thing happened as we left Bond's house. We got into the car and headed out of the apartment complex. Suddenly I thought I forgot to pick my bag. Oh no... next thing I see is Navin getting all grumpy and angry and turning the car back. As we approached the house, I looked down near my seat and my bag was right there. Oops. Mishtake! I forgot to search for the bag. hehehe. Now Navin had more reasons to be pissed. Anyhow chalta hain boss... weekend hain :)

A fun Saturday evening

Weather forecast for saturday was light snow showers and rain. Due to bad weather we decided that we will not have the entire project mates to the party. So it was just few families get-together at our place. I was very excited and looking foward to meet everyone; specially the kids.

It was about 8:30 pm and I was running late. I was busy cleaning the house and getting all set to welcome the guests expected at 9:00 pm. Suddenly it strikes me.. .ah I forgot to get the rotis from the Indian store! Oh my gosh. People are expected anytime, so I could not leave the house. So I called Kripa; 'Need a small favor. Can you pick some rotis from the Indian store on the way to our house?'. I am sure Kripa would have cursed me; giving an unplanned task specially when Shweta( his wife) must have already been running late with the cooking and getting Ashi (their sweet daughter) ready.

But guess what! They decided they would prepare the rotis at home. In no time they prepared tasty parathas. Thanks to Kripa's assistance, Shweta quickly made the parathas and were just 15-20 mins late. Cannot compare the ready-made rotis to the hot, fresh, ghee covered yummy parathas.

Shyju and family were first to arrive. They were the only ones to drive more than 14 miles to our house and were right on time. Hats off... specially with a small kid at home it is tough to meet the deadlines :) Ann (their daughter) was bit unhappy to be woken up from her sleep. Moreover it was so cold to add to the irritation. She cried her heart out as she entered the house. But she was very pleased to get a bunch of cute stuff toys in an attempt to make her quiet.
It did not take much time for her to settle down in the new place. She is the cutest baby and I loved playing with her. Preeti (Ann's mom) made chhola and it smelled delicious.

Next to arrive was Sugu and family. He has 2 sons; Harish and Hrithik. Harish is in grade 1 and very adorable. He is great with kids and loves playing with them. All evening he was playing with the little ones and made sure he entertained them while he was awake. He made himself at home right away.
Hrithik is the quietest baby I have ever seen. He looked very cute in his dogie winter cap. Anu (his mom) made sure he lied down in a comfortable place and he laid there all the time. He woke up, slept, woke up again and slept again :) He was very happy to just be on his own.

Anu made vegetable cutlets. The cutlets were a winner from the start! Sugu claimed he made those but we all knew Sugu cannot lie ;). Anu also made the tastiest vegetable biryani I have eaten. I am not lying.

We missed Venu and Madhuri. Venu was in great spirits on Friday and added excitement on the idea of having a get-together over the weekend. But unfortunately Aryan (their little baby) fell ill and was down with temperature. They are just back from India and it will take a while for the young one to settle down. Hoping to meet Madhuri and Aryan soon.

It was Anu's birthday the following day. I had baked a cake for her. Also Aryan and Ann had recently celebrated their birthdays too. We did the cake cutting. Anu also shared with us a little secret; Sugu gifted her very special diamond pendant! I hope Navin reads this and learns something from Sugu. But I know what he would say; 'See, Sugu took 5+ years to get a pendant. So you can wait a little longer'. :)

There was lots and lots of food! It was a potluck and everyone had made delicious items. Shweta had made paneer capsicum and I could not resist having just one more paratha with paneer sabji every time. Finally I stopped myself with a final half paratha and when Kripa looked at the half eaten paratha, it became a joke; him saying 'How can anyone eat half paratha'! he he Well, what can I say. You have to stop yourself somewhere right? So I decided to stop on one last half!

The kids had a gala time. We decided to play poker. As we laid the poker chips to get started the little monsters made their way right at the poker chips! Well, well, well! What was I thinking when I planned to play poker at the party and got the poker set from Tushar for the event. Frankly speaking I thought the kids would be fast asleep at the time. It was mid-night but the kids were as wide awake like an owl would be.

I am glad no one took the picture of the mess with the poker chips; else Tushar will never share the poker chips with me again ;)
I had a smaller poker set with me. So we gave them to the kids. They played football with the chips and hit and yell with the poker chips while we enjoyed a great game. Preeti took care of the kids while we were playing.
Sugu and Anu were playing for the first time. Everyone had their bit of luck last night. Everyone won a game or two except Sugu. In fact, Anu had an awesome beginner's luck when she almost won the first game. She had a straight! but I dunno why; for some reason I looked at her cards (I was helping her initially) and did not see her chance of winning. And I asked her to quit in the last round! After that she never asked me for help ;)
After an hour or so we decided we would have the last round of poker. Everyone started with big bets. And guess what? Sugu was the winner in the round and so was the one to steal the game. Lucky Sugu! He adds in the end 'I am a champion, you guys didn't know'. I am sure he didn't know either ;)!

After the game of poker, Shyju taught everyone Black Jack! It was very funny actually. While he was explaining, everyone was asking him silly questions. 'Why should I give you money?' 'Why should I add up?' 'But I have more than her, why did I lost against her?'

Finally, the mango pie was awaiting to arrive. After enjoying the tasty desert everybody left.

All in all it was a great evening. Here are a few light moments from that evening.

Shyju playing with Ann's toys :)

Hrithik the cutie pie playing with his elder bro

In the end, Ashi was wide awake while other kids slept

Ann baby!

Shweta will kill me for taking this pic :)

She is a slow eater and was one of the last people to finish dinner

Anu relaxed as her baby was fast asleep

Sweet Harish!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy birthday and belated wishes - Anu, Ann and Aryan

Here is one video taken while the kids having a good time.

Glad to meet you!

Last night I had set the morning alarm at 8:00 am but unusually I woke up at 6:30 am this morning. Since I was awake, I thought it would not be a bad idea to check out the apartment gym. It had been more than 3 months I had been to this 'not so exciting' place; at least for me.
I was surprised to see two other people almost half way through their workout already. Last time I was there at this time, I got to see only the cleaning service folks. I was happy to know people still do use our apartment gym :)

One of the people on the treadmill welcomed me with a sweet smile. Now, a smile from a stranger and that too in a place which can get dreadful at times, was good enough to give a kick start to my morning workout.

Since both the treadmills were occupied I decided to try the Elliptical. One of them was lying on the floor, broken into pieces. I climbed the other one. It made a cracking sound and I was not sure if it was the introduction to my weight that caused it to cry out loud! I did not want to claim the 'last person using it' tag for the equipment; so decided will wait for the treadmill. The lady looked with the same familiar smile and said "They need to replace those". I agreed.

Soon I was on a treadmill and the new Friend and I were working out on equipments side-by-side. I am Linda BTW she said. Yes, friend had to have a name too! I told mine and we talked about how badly this place needed renovation.

Earlier, Linda was walking on the treadmill, and her hand bag fell off the machine and lots of papers fell off from her bag. Only later she told me that she was a writer and worked for kids. No wonder she had so many papers in her bag.

She asked me where I was working. I told her I was working in the IT department and that she might be interested in taking advantage of a discount for family and friends at my client stores. So that was how I got her email id and I promised to send the coupons to her. She was in a hurry saying that she had to pick a friend at work and left.

I continued my workout and in a little while was ready to leave. Suddenly I saw Linda's hand bag lying near the treadmill. I was not sure if she would be back; I assumed she wouldn't as it was already quite some time since she had left. In the hurry to leave early she had completely forgotten about the bag. I decided to leave the bag at the leasing office and drop her an email that she could pick it from there. I was happy that I had taken the email address from her.
I drove back home and first thing wrote her an email. But unfortunately the mail bounced back! Now I knew I had mistyped the email address in my cell phone. Why don't the 'g's sound like 'g's and 'p's sound like 'p's to me! I need to work on my american accent I thought.

Now what do I do? What if she comes to the gym to look for her bag? I had to contact her and let her know that her stuff was safe.

I looked for her name over the web. 'Linda Piepenbrink' and gosh! I found so many links on the net. I was very excited; one- I was sure that now I would get her cell phone # and secondly- I came across a person who was famous. At least to some extent I was sure. On the internet, I saw her books on sale on ebay, amazon etc.

I managed to get her office number and dropped her a voice message. But what if that's her old office? It said Wisconsin and I was not sure if anyone would go for a workout early morning if they had to travel to work so far. I looked for her on facebook and luckily found her in there. I left her a message on facebook too. Later I dropped her hand bag at the leasing office.

When I was in office I was happy to get a reply from Linda. She said she would collect the bag from office and was thankful for taking care of her stuff. And I was glad to have met her.

My trip to the gym got me a new friend along with few calories off.

Shining Stars

I remember this evening faintly. I was travelling from Goa to Mangalore in the Ganesh travels bus. I don't know why I was feeling lonely. But I remember I wanted to reach Mangalore as soon as I could and put down the thoughts on paper, well, rather type it down somewhere.
I doubt if any IT person would ever like to write on paper, say maintain a diary or something! I used to keep a diary long long time back but then I used it as a crib session to let go my frustration about studies and my fights with my sister. So I dumped it and moved on.

So that journey in bus, I was thinking I am lonely and was getting emotional about close friends. I would really want to go back to that day and find uout what made me think like this. May be I was missing my friends! Anyways. I came to Mangalore and posted it on my office bulletin board. I also sent it to few of my friends. And now, I thought why not put it here as a keepsake. This was written sometime Dec 2002 or Dec 2003.

.. a thought to share !

I think to myself... work and gain nothing! frustrations creep... health ruined... no fun! Nothing seems interesting...Dumb codes.. issue logs... dart... bugs... be productive at 9:00 Uhhh!

I want to get away from it all I thought one day. I land up on a lonely beach... i look around. Waves merrily splashing againt the rocks happy with the presence of just each other. Trees swaying, wind blowing all doing their own thing.

I look up at the sky. I see a star starring right at me. Ahhh! Thats him I say! This is whom I can identify myself. Just no one besides him, no one to talk to, no one to share a thought... no one to tell I am sad.. i am lonely. I call him aloud... "Hey! I understand your situation. You are just like me.. "

"No" he replies. "I might look lonely to you all... but see closely... there are so many more stars in the sky.. with me... all the while. You are right. You are me. You may find yourself all alone at times. No one around. But did you see around you? Its all in your mind. Your people are always there for you. They will be there for you now and forever. Some might be dull and maybe busy with their world but try to turn towards them and look for them... you will find them.... " ..

Thats what I did. I looked around and I saw all my stars! They formed a beautiful word "Friends". Thank you all for being my friend. You are special to me. I might be a fool sometimes to ignore your brightness and your twinkle. I pray to God that you reach the heights of the sky and do well in all you do. Enjoy your vacations. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Shreya