Yesterday I made a record - I took one hour to cut cabbage :( Started at 9.45 am and finished at 10.45 am :(. Actually I was not too good in my performance in cutting vegetables and as a result my cooking used to take too much time. But my speed had improved quite a bit off late. And with cabbage I used to be generally fast (as compared to beans and carrot)- hence yesterday when mom asked me to cut cabbage I was quite happy...But.... At the end of it I was so bored!!  I am still trying to gather where I lost time - I attended my brother's phone call in between that was about 10 mins, then chatted with dad for about 5 mins but that was about it. Perhaps the TV was on and hence I lost time!! whatever, but one hour to cut cabbage is surely a disastrous performance!!

I guess food processors or any form of vegetable cutters are important for people like me!

Wishing the_little_sasi many many happy returns of the day! may the day bring in much more joy, happiness and sense of achivement for you.

Pls welcome Rekha Singhal (aka rsinghal). More writings from Rekha are awaited!

A few minutes back I had gone to the office lobby to fill water and found my colleague Sandip sitting there and reading something. We started discussing about the topic he was reading and just then another colleague of mine came up the stairs with a boquet of red flowers in her hands and a slight smile and blush on her face (the color of the roses matched her cheeks :) ). Both Sandip and I jumped with curiosity, at this scene, to know who gifted her the beautiful boquet.

Her reply was 'Arre I fought with my husband today morning and he has sent this boquet through someone as a sign of peace' :). It was very ncie to hear that. Fights are a part of any relationship, it is nice to see people trying to resolve issues in their own ways! :)...The smile on her face was worth seeing! I wish happiness to this couple! :)

Wishing Naveen Kumar (aka moebiuscurve) a Very Happy Birthday and Many Many Happy Returns of the day! Have a great day and a great year! :) May all ur dreams come true!

sun meri behna...
tera kya kehna...
tu root na jaana...
tere bhaiya ka ha kehana

The above verses were written by my brother Hari (aka haricool) as an attempt to cheer me (I guess ;) )

Am listening to this song (of DDLJ). This song reminds me of my junior college days (my 11th standard). That was one of my best academic years. Had a lot of fun and also performed well in my studies. I had sung this song for some audition that year. This was the first time I had gone beyond bathroom singing, all thanks to my group of friends. We were a group of six girls (Shiji, Hima, Sharada, Abida, Hema and me) who had a ball of time, all throughout the year.

This audition was for our college fest and we had gone for it as audience. I am not sure what went into Sharada's mind when she announced my name to Sadhana mam's call - 'anymore participants'. I was speechless and they wanted me to sing in front of the entire class! Madam would not let me go even after all my pleads. Finally I was there - in front of the whole audience of 75 students. I started with another song of DDLj 'na jaane mere..' but could not continue after that first sentence. Then decided to try this song and to my surprise it came out quite well. Realised that when the entire class clapped (trying to give background score) as I was finishing the song. Will never forget Hima's smile for the lines 'Dekhe ghoor ghoor ke, yunhin door door se', embarrassing me completely...They used to tease me about this boy in our class who kept doing this to me :) (typical childish ways!)

Result of the audition - I was selected for the next round. And I performed miserably in the next one! ;)

Yesterday the rick I was travelling in had this interesting quote:

'I do not know the secret of happiness but surely the secret of unhappiness is wanting to see everyone around you happy.'

It made me wonder if this is true, because I always felt that secret for happiness is seeing people close to you happy. Like a mother is always happy seeing her children happy.

But maybe the above quote could be true if the emphasis is on 'everyone'. I remember my dad telling me once 'You cannot keep everyone happy!' Maybe it is true.

Wishing the_little_sasi a very very happy b'day! May this day fill your life with happiness and peace!

I seem to be overly absent minded these days. The other day I saw two good chocolates at home and asked mom who got them. Mom was taken aback - she says that her friend had given those chocolates to ME (when we had visited that aunty's home). I canot recollect the aunty giving me chocolates and still want to believe that my mother was mistaken :(. Yesterday I wanted to call someone and landed up calling someone else - and I am still clueless of how it happened. Two days back I left my key on some other desk and had a tough time hunting for it.

These are just a few instances - these days I seem to be blank about what I do or what is happening around me! :( My parents wonder which world I am in - now even I wonder. I know that my mind is preoccupied with thoughts but will they be utilising so much of my CPU that there is no processing of other things around? I better free my CPU before I mess things!

Sometime back I recd an LJ comment from someone. From the name I knew who the person was and I replied to the comment after adding the person to my group of friends. This person was a student in last year's FP batch and I had taught him. I was pleasantly surpirsed to find him on LJ! A few days later I saw a posting from him mentioning that he was leaving for Indonesia. Then again a few days later I found this guy on chat. I asked him if he had returned to India. To my astonishment, his response was 'I have never stepped out of India'. I was lost! I mentioned about his blogpost and he said that he never posted any such blog. By now I started feeling that I had goofed up somewhere. I showed him the blog and he said that it was not his - infact, he never had an LJ account! ;)

I goofed up because of the first names - both are Nikhil. When I found a comment from nikhilkarkera I was sure that he was the FP student :). Wonder how he would have reacted if I had asked him anything about my lectures!!

This is from the few things I have tried to write. Though it did not come the way I wanted it to (I started with some thoughts n somewhere the path got changed) I just thought of putting it up here.

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Arya (Rekha's daughter) called me and told me 'Behosh ne phone kiya'. I was lost and asked 'KAUN'???...she went on again 'Behosh!'....

After sometime she came to me and told me 'Arre woh unhone phone kiya tha na woh Behosh woh abhi upar bhi aaye'...Then she went running to him and said 'idhar hi hai'...I stood to see who was Behosh???? I found her talking to Peeyush ;)

Please welcome haricool, AKA Hari of IBM/ Kharghar OSSRC fame

I attended my brother's convocation today at his college. It was an event I will never forget! The highlight of the event was the OATH taking ceremony in which all the young doctors took their OATH, and my brother was one of them! :). The guest of honor was one of the famous cosmetic surgeon. Also present were ex-chief minister Gopinath Munde who had actually come there as a parent to witness the function - his daughter is also pursuing MBBS from the same college, the college dean, the college founder and a few other doctors. The audience for the event included students' family members, junior students of the college and a few selected guests. The sense of satisfaction and pride on the faces of the young doctors was noteworthy!

The guest of honor, in his talk, mentioned about the hardships the young doctors may have to face and gave quite a few encouraging words. Most of these people needed the encouraging words from a senior like him, I guess - they are all worried about their future with MD entrances so tough! But still, they were all happy - after all, after 5.5 yrs of rigorous work they are all now doctors!!!

I wish my brother and all his batchmates All The Very Best for their future!

I have seen her once before in the train. She must be 70+ years old. She sells earrings/rubber-bands/hair-clips. She gets into the train with two boxes which she can hardly carry! The first time I had seen her sometime last week at around 7:45 pm, I purchased a hair-band from her then. I was quite touched to see her doing all the hard-work at her age, I have seen so many young, healthy women beg for livelihood (sometimes they send their small children to do the same while they will sit at someplace and gossip!).

Today I saw her again, with two boxes on her head filled with earrings,rubber-bands, hair-clips. Some girls sitting next to me took the earrings box. So she sat in the place opposite me. After resisting for sometime, I decided to speak to her. I asked her what makes her work at this age? She saw up towards the ceiling, with her hands pointing upwards - she meant to say 'GOD's wish!' And then she started talking - like any other old lady, she also seemed to love to talk. She was saying 'I don't want to beg for living. Whatever I can I, am doing. All my stuff are only for 5 Rs. I do not sell expensive stuff.....' I asked her 'Where do you stay?' She replied ' I stay in Mulund'. I was shocked - I asked her 'All the way you come here from Mulund?' She said 'Yes, the central trains are so crowded, I cannot get in. So I come here. I left the earlier train 'cos it was very crowded. On Sundays there is a lot of rush in the trains.....' After listening to her I picked-up one earring from her box and told her I m buying this. I did not do any selection, I did not buy it because I needed it, but here is this woman who wants to work to live and I wish to help her in whatever way I can. And the earring is very nice, I am going to wear it often!

I prayed to GOD to give her good health and happiness. Then after a thought, I prayed that he should give her wealth too. After all, as she said 'Everything is GOD's wish'! I thought that there might be other people who might want to pray for her, knowing her story. Hence this post.

This lady is a motivation factor for me - I also want to work hard! :). I was tempted to tell her 'TAKE CARE' as I was getting down the train but I did not the Hindi/Marathi translation for it and I doubted if she would understand English. So I just kept staring at her without saying a word. Those unspoken words are there in my mind and I want to convey the same to her the next time I see her - 'TAKE CARE'

Spending time at home is so good and relaxing. After a great Friday evening, I had a wonderful Saturday at home. I have been feeling very tired for sometime now and so I decided to take a break and remain at home even though I have a lot of work, in office, to complete. I actually wanted to avoid long travel. Plus I love to spend time with my parents and bro at home - chatting endlessly with them :). Sometimes I start longing for that time with them, though my parents tell that I should not think this way, it happens.

So this Saturday I was home all day - sleeping, doing some cooking bit, cleaning home, chatting. Though this time I did not perform my cooking experiments like I do on the other days when I am at home - I actually did very little cooking. I did a lot of cleaning, arranged my cupboard - it looks so good now, though I am not sure how long it will remain like this. I slept a lot. And in the evening we went for shopping - my CST money utilised :). I enjoy going for shopping, even if it is not for me. Also went to the Sharda Ambal temple at Chembur.

It was a wonderful day and I am feeling very fresh today. :)

A.R.Rahman music is a treat to listen! I am big fan of Rahman. I always try to purchase audio cassettes of all his songs. Especially, when the team is Rahman and ManiRatnam I don't want to miss. One of my all time favourite is 'Kahna hi Kya' from Bombay. Its music is so melodious especially the music in the second stanza.

This time I am talking about Rang De Basanti. The music is superb! Like any of Rahman's earlier scores, this one too seemed very ordinary to me the first time - especially the title track. But there was something to the music which made me listen to them again and then yet again and now I don't want to stop. The music is so fine and so melodious - it keeps going on in my ears even when I am not listening to it. Plus, it is very refreshing. One of the most interesting things I have observed in Rahman songs is that he knows exactly which people to use for what kind of songs. And he knows which combinations will sound good. The title track of Rang De Basanti, for example, has Daler Mehndi and Chitra singing and it is a delight to hear the song - the combination does the trick and Daler seems at his best. Rahman simply rocks!

I had gone for 'Rang De Basanti' on Friday. After long I watched a movie which I really loved. The last were Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai. No, the liking for these have got nothing to do with Amir Khan :). The story of Rang De Basanti is just superb and the acting is A-grade! Everyone have done an excellent job - all have got equal share in terms of screen time. The director does a great job - the way he tells us the story is too good. I think, it is the direction that makes the movie even better. The narration style is so good that you are hooked to the screen all the time. And the message gets straight into your head.

Of the actors, I liked Sharman Joshi and ofcourse Kunal Kapoor :). Kunal looks too good in the movie. My poor bro had to listen to this endlessly, all through the movie :). And both Alice Pattern and Soha have done a great job and look very good. The music, as expected (after all the music director is Rehman), is just superb!

All in all I had a great time. Plus, after long I was going with my family for a movie - that made it more special. The corn during the interval was soooooooooo tasty...Ummmmmm...my mouth is watering.

Rang De Basanti - Paisa Wasool!