Tracking evolution...

Some of us are going through some rough times right now, some just crossed it and some do not care, what happens and when does it happen, but Swamini Raji says - whenever you are dealing with stress, the best idea would be to change things around you, change your attitude, do things which are not in your normal regular routine..and you will be able to concentrate on things more than ever (but that simply doesn't mean that you do not think about the problem anymore!!, just take a break from routine..). (I do not know why when some one says the word Swami, the first name that follows in my mind is Nityananda, why can't I think of Vivekananda (I blame you  - dear media!!!!))

Sowshee and me were taking a break from regularly exercising our brains to think about what to write and me, being the one who needs to see different surroundings every once in a while, thought let me change the way the blog looks and restart writing...

Now, so that we keep a track of how the blog looked, down the weeks, (may be months and years too, who knows..), this post will be a living post and all the designs will be stored or rather pasted in this post. (I promised that to Sowshee, who otherwise was very reluctant to let go of her coffee background....). By the way, did you think I was about to talk something very serious - evolution and stuff??? (ha ha ha..)

The 2nd look of the blog. 

Blessed Smilies :-)

What happened to my life?? Why nothing good is happening to me?? Oops !! bills are not paid, I am late to office! Where is my phone charger? Why did mom scold me for this? Why dont they understand me? Why there is no hike this time, Some more deduction in salary this month! I am putting on extra kilos! Why things are not happening as I planned? Did my bf/gf think of me today? Was it my mistake? I don't like this s**t life.....STRESS in each and every activity that we do..Is STRESS our best pal or relative that stays together through out the day?? We are so attached with Stress that we share our feelings with it.. react with it.. go according to what it responds... We are so obsessed with it that we are not willing to ignore it.


All this week I was very stressed, I was unable to concentrate on anything (What I did this weekend is a beautiful blog written by me, please check and comment on http://sowsheelya.blogspot.com/2010/07/weekend-n-i.html ) Finally, I realised that I wasted a week's time in my precious life. The charger I searched, the boy friend who was busy,(of course its u Chiky) the bad cold I had, all these are not remembered after ten years. Its the Happy moments that we lived, the smiling faces that we had and the fun that lasted for a while
are all carried through out our life. We forget the truth that life is very simple and we complicate it as much as possible and blame that life isn't happening as we planned. The truth I found was - Life can be very simple and peaceful. Accept everything as it is and the best one is 'Expectations Hurt'. Oh ya .. This line is really awesome. It's a simple 2 word phrase but I bet, it has a whole lot of meaning in it. It creates wonders if u follow for a day and lots of positive energy is generated from us. Ultimately, at the end of the day we will have a smile on our faces. I envy the smileys, they always smile and spread them :-). It seems to be simple to follow but in reality we will have a tough time as beginers. once we realize the fruits of being simple without expectations we will be very happy in life.On sunday night I had a philosophical thought on my bed about how to reduce stress in life and decided to stay happy from monday morning. Monday morning came within an hour - it's 12.30am already. It's time for chiky to get up for his shift. I tried giving a wake up call, no responce. Tried once again. Remember I have to be happy, so with a smiling face I tried twice, thrice, slowly my smilimg face changed to what-to-do face. Ten minutes passed still chiky din't pick the call. Oops tensed about what happened to him..Did he get up?? getting ready?? reached office?? OMG tried calling him once again after half-an-hour.. Call is picked..

me : chiky ! u dumbooo. Its time to office.

Chiky : let me sleep.

me : u always do this lazy fellow... blah blah blah....U promised me many thing when u proposed me ... blah blah blah.. i am living her for u ... blah blah blah blah blah.... ............... ........ ............. ...... ................. ............. ............... ............. Blah blah blah ............ .........think of our future...... ......... look at yo friend ............ ............. ..........don't u love me any more....... ................ ................... ............. ............... have to face my father in near future.................. .......think of our kids... ................ ........... irresponsible .............. ........... insurance and bills................ .........blah blah blah.....................HmmmHmmm (breathing hard).

Chiky : Its my off today.

me : okay sleep. bye.

(Poor boy!!Duh!!)
What sleep he will get after listening to all this. Still it's okay.. It's just early hours of Monday let's keep up our words from Sunrise... thud thud thud... Someone knocking... Very consciously remembering to smile even after badly disturbed from a sound sleep. It's my laundry woman(Lw)

me : Akka,here is the money and keep the change.

Lw: Amma , your dresses.

me : Thank u Akka.

Lw: just wanted to tell u, my cousin came to visit me and tried helping me in ironing the clothes. by mistake he burnt your blue salwar.

me : whaaaaaaat?

Lw : !

me : what the hell are u thinking about yourself? Do u know how costly it is ... Blah Blah Blah Blah......give back my change.. never ever come here to collect the clothes..

THHUUD... door closed.
These are the results of trying something new, all of the sudden. Anyways it's just a funny situation I encountered last weekend.
Stress can be reduced by various ways. I would like to share the adverse effects of it. Stress can trigger our body’s response to perceived threat or danger, the Fight-or-Flight response. Here I would like to tell about flight or fight response which means its ability to enable us to physically fight or run away when faced with danger. So there is a possibility that we run out of the situation and develop a fear to fight kind of attitude. It's a natural hormone that acts on us, which get conveyed as decisions that we take.





Stress can lead to :

1. depression
2. diabetes
3. hair loss
4. heart disease
5. hyperthyroidism
6. obesity
7. obsessive-compulsive or anxiety disorder
8. sexual dysfunction
9. tooth and gum disease
10. ulcers
11. cancer

Utilimately, the best way of living is to stay away from Stress . Now how is it possible??? Though not an expert I can explain few ways in which we can have a stress free life style.

>>Wear a Smile always.

>>Exercise everyday as we have very less physical activities in our day to day life.

>> Have a interesting and rarest hobby that no one can ever think off.

>>Make sure u walk in bare foot over the lawn...which releases lots of stress.

>>Clean yourself twice a day in stress filled day.

>>Meditate just the minutes equal to your age. For example if you are 25 years old meditate for 25 min everyday.

>>Don't leave your passion on anything for any cause. Be independent on your interests

>>Don't sit idle and think too much.

>>Have a good attitude.

>>Speak to god whenever possible. For non-belivers, speak to yourself whenever possible.

>>Never expect anything.

>>Yoga is a natural way of living disciplined life - follow it.

>>Reduce salt intake.

>>Have your favorite pleasant colour things beside your (like bag, cloth, pen, purse, bottle. screen saver), even though if its out of fashion.

>>Laugh aloud whenever possible.

>>Don't compare with neighbors (You may never know what they don't have and you have it)

>>Drink lots of water.

>>Belive in yourself more than anything.

>>Faith and Positive thinking is the key for a happy life.

Looking forward for comments from all our friends for more tips to reduce the distance between us and to increase the distance between the stress which is staying with us and Let's get united here with a stress-free coffee chat.

Love,

Sowshee.

I for I-Phone

Technology has advanced and so have the generations... A couple of days ago, me and my colleagues were having a discussion that cell phones, these days are everything but just a "calling" device. This has involved a lot of brainstorming and the results are awesome... I cannot believe that travelling to another country is all about the documentation, other than the physical proximity, you actually do not "miss" the person!! 

So, my question was that if there is some thing that we as a generation cannot imagine, what it is going to be like  after 25-30 years...I mean just imagine... did our parents anticipate living in different countries / cities could be so easy? 

Cell phones brought revolution to the world and now the data connected devices or the cell phones with data plans are just icing on the cake. I started all this conversation because of the following conversation with a customer service agent (CSA) - this is only a section of it - 

CSA - Ma'm I will be certainly able to e mail you all the information, but can you please update the e mail ID that we have here?

Me - yeah sure, its raji.852@gmail.com, is in not the same that you have there?

CSA - ma'm your voice is very difficult to hear.. there is a lot of background noise,

Me - hello, uuh.. can you hear me now?

CSA - feebly ma'm, if you do not mind, can you spell the letters?

Me - okay, sure, its 

r - as in Radio, 

a - uumm,, - as in Apple

j - as in Jam

i - uuuhnmm... i for say "I Phone"??? 

(Shocked... surprised... couldn't I have said I for India,,, Indiana,,, Igloo... I said I Phone??)


Woww...I thought over that after a while...my name just became a list of electronics....  A for apple (I cannot remember if I actually meant the fruit apple). 

I am pretty sure this is the broader US effect, narrowing to the "Apple electronics" effects, and narrowing more to the "I Phone 4" effect....

It is amazing to see the effect of Apple electronics on the market... no more do we have to press the buttons on phone to make a call.... its all as simple as touching them....

A couple of years ago, when I was teaching my mom how to play solitaire on the computer, she (who by the way was very new to the world of computers, mouse and other things..) asked me if she could directly touch the screen and drag the cards instead of using mouse. She asked me because of her difficulties with mouse and I laughed at her saying that "mom, sure!! pretty soon" and after 1 year, we saw I Phone entering the market. When it came out, I was shocked to see that we can actually use our fingers to do anything on screen!! What a revolution!!!!

I am not an I Phone fan and not even going to buy that (for my personal reasons..).. but definitely I Phone is the "baap of all smart phones", especially the touch phones. The applications have become an indispensable part of our lives... mobile networking... e mailing... banking.. everything with a cell phone and a few taps on screen... 

When machines started taking over the manual life a couple of centuries ago, people said we are getting more and more mechanized.. I wonder what that generation will say to us now...everything is electronic... digital.. computerized... Many people know and have heard about Pranav Mistry ( ya ya... our fella Indian!!)... an MIT guy, who is already revolutionizing the scientific world with his genius concept of using sixth sense to get things done.. just with a "thought in mind"..

Whats next??? Any thoughts??

Are days short or long ???

This post is about something that struck my mind when I was in the bank to get a Demand Draft( thought of the day!). Why this one hour in the bank was so dull and humdrum. Each second in the clock was so slow that I stared at the clock until the teller called to collect the details. Again had to wait for the Demand Draft in a long queue. The time which I was in bank was so tedious. I wonder why certain moments in life moves very slow and dragging, slow and steady, medium speed, fast and furious, super fast like jet. It's the same time span we spend, but where does this difference occur??? (Don't wait for the answer in this article !! even I don't know!). I wish I had a machine which is equipped to control the time (hmm! under 18 is controlled by their parents). And I call the machine as ' KAALA YAANAM ', controls in the machine would NEVER MOVE, MOVE WITH LIMITED SPEED, MOVE WITH JET SPEED. I have experienced some moments in life which passed by so quickly that I couldn't even enjoy completely, but some stay 'still' even if I don't want them. Now I recollect the dull moment when I stood before my mom to get the signature in my progress report, the time would just stand still until she's done with her scoldings. When we go out for a picnic in our school days the day would just fly by. Even our summer vacations which we think is two months long would roll by like a second and the next thing you know, you'd be wearing the boring churidhar with a fully loaded bag trying hard to break my back. In college its was reverse - the moments in college were very short and the holidays were long and boring. The night before the university exams were the shortest. When we attend our very first interview, the moment before we step into the cabin, time would literally crawl and it'd be so silent that we can even hear our own heartbeat (For that matter even my college viva-voce was like that !! LOL!!). The days in the company while in training was fun and quick but the days with overloaded work is long and tired (That's why we call the training period as ' HONEYMOON TIME'). The time when we fall in love with our heart-throb is very short and busy. The days just turn into seconds and blooming period would be like few minutes (until we face the reality , which are again long days in our lives). Especially, when we are waiting for a phone call from them or planning for a date, the time moves so pathetically slow until we reach the actual time and in a jiffy the moment would zoom into the past.

When a women is giving birth to a kid, the day is too long for her parents and husband. Eagerly waiting for everything to happen well. When they bring up the kid, its the shortest that the parents would experience, running around the daily activities of the kid, feeding, putting him to sleep, monthly check ups (OMG!!).

As I started this post with a wish that I need a machine to control the time for any moment in life. I would use it to the maximum in my day to day life. My sleep time will be set to least speed, my fights with Chiky which I'm gonna lose will be the maximum one. I hope you had the longest time of the day reading this fiction post ( imaginary time-machine called 'KAALA YAANAM' ). I gladly end this post with a beautiful quote which I came across by Henry Van Dyke - a short story writer "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” (This is what I was trying to explain in the entire article !!DUH )

Marilyn and her Legacy!!

This weekend, I attempted something which not many people of my generation attempt to - I watched movies of 1950s. I used to do that back in India, when my father and me used to sit and discuss the technicalities of the olden black and white movies and my father used to rewind and replay many scenes only to explain the advances in technology used in movies like "Maya Bazaar" and other mythological ones. They did not have computers but still made excellent stuff. But anyways, what I did this time was I saw Hollywood's 1950s (although still remembering the Sunday times spent with daddy). 

There was only one name ringing at that time - that of Marilyn Monroe. Recently her fans celebrated her birthday, I think 84th one, not sure, on June 1st. I never knew any other actress from that era, other than Marilyn. Of course Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery, but then they were 1960s type and not 1950s. I used to love watching them on screen as a child.. (they were beautiful, their costumes were excellent and their blonde hair was perfect in sync with their skin color). But after watching the movies - How to marry a Millionaire,  Gentlemen prefer Blondes, the Seven Year Itch, the Prince and the Showgirl, I was rather disappointed. 

I did not understand why Marilyn was so popular. I am not writing an article against her, but simply that I cannot understand why was she so great that other actresses, who had better roles to play and more magnificent personality, were overshadowed by her!! For example, I was smitten by the beauty of Jane Russell in Gentlemen prefer Blondes. She was tall, beautiful and had amazing command on voice and character that she played, but that movie was particularly famous for Marylin and her song Diamonds are the girl's best friends. Marilyn was just another blonde in that movie, with no substantial role. I really want to sit with some fans of hers and ask them why exactly she was so hyped!! She was watchable, but so were other females like Lauren Bacall and Jane Russell. I read a lot about them in the weekend that went, and they were all very famous in their own sense, but no one matched Marilyn anyways. Even the movie - The seven year Itch (which by the way, I recommend everyone to watch) was awesome because of Tom Ewell but is remembered for only Marilyn's skirt scene (which again, by the way, is nothing for people of my generations, ladies have shown so much on screen that the skirt scene is simply nothing to us!!)

I liked Marilyn more off screens than on screens, for sure. She was beautiful, great smile (she could afford to date the Kennedy's, both of them!!) and her dressing sense was impeccable. I disliked her for her roles because I believe that, to be called as an actress, they should do much more important roles than just paying eye candy...and with those standards, I can never like Marilyn. That was a stereotypical role which she passed on to generations where the heroine is just a supplement to the-color-and-the-glamor starved film. Although, at this time we cannot put Hollywood in the same pedestal, but Indian cinema is still the same. Even now, heroins are required to shed their clothes to fill in those 50% of seats in the theaters. Female oriented movies are rare here and I am not sure how long it is going to take for our actresses to seek some self respect. Telugu movies are even worse than Hindi industry, if we compare. All the movies in Telugu industry are "essentially" hero oriented. And to add to the pressure, we have more than 1 heroine all the times, the actors simply cannot act with just 1 heroine. While preparing dinner, I just wanted something to play on computer and I started the movie Dostana, and the same thought crossed again after seeing Shilpa Shetty. I am not saying that they cannot scorch the screens, but then for how long? Why don't Indian people get tired of seeing them half naked? I wish we have more Shabanas, Smita Patils and Konkanas who do movies because they want to "act"!! I hate the fact that we call Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra also as actresses in the same breath as we call Madhubala, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Konkana Sen and Kajol. 

I guess too many thoughts just crossed my mind as I started writing and I started jumping from (over hyped as per my standards) Marilyn to the eye candy heroines who do not mind just singing and dancing in a movie rather than emoting!! This could have been a very very long article about actresses, then and now, with their charm and grace completely lost and having no roles to fuel their talent, but lets talk about that later, time to sign off!!!

Love,
Raji

Queen of Gudur

I decided to write a Post on Vinu's engagement since long back (but was waiting for the Photos !!! ) . Vinu , the Queen of Gudur as we all know her for the service she did in college in spreading the glory of the Southern Railway junction (she says ,its a GK question in school!!LOL!!!). The Love and passion that she has for her place was indescribable . In college days there were fights, arguments (thank God she din't kick anyone) between Gudur queen (Only Vinu) and non-guduriens (rest of our telugu batch) . It was Vinu who wins always (cry baby !!!).

For the description she gave in hostel and college we were waiting for a chance to place our feet in Gudur to purify ourselves. For bottles and bottles of prawn pickles she had donated in the hostel room, we agreed all the greatness she described .

The best person to compete with Vinu is our Great Sashi of CSE , who had all points ready to attack Vinu. He was always busy jotting down points to make a list of comments. Top of the list were "Tina balle"(which means had to eat !!) , "Aamaina''(Guessing what it is ...Aa tharuvatha ) . Everyday she comes back to hostel room with full of blows and hits from Sashi. Those times were real fun (miss u sooooooooooo much guys !). Once all our friends planned for a trip to Hyderabad. Gudur was one of the stop in-between so we were excited to see the place from our windows as it passes by. The Whole Kingdom of Vinu went of in a wink of an eye. So poor Vinu had to defend all our comments once again (hee hee hee !!!). That's how we had fun with the innocent pretty gal (kind of flattering !).

Now this Queen found a King named Lenin. Lenin is a Google product. You can google anything out of him, except Vinu (He is totally lost in her world @@@ ). With all the happiness she had in her blooming love, she invited everyone for THE DAY - Engagement for Vinu.

I was so happy for her and booked the tickets for the engagement. On 18th June 2010 Chiky and I reached Gudur at sharp 9 O' clock (the birds stopped flying, water stopped flowing, as all old film directors 'still ' their picture for a shock treatment) and we hired an auto to Vinu's home, within 4 minutes we're on the other side of Gudur where we saw a beautiful home being decorated. We were welcomed with a warm smile and hot Tiffin (Which is very important).

The engagement was held at Nellore at 5 pm. The engagement started on time, the red carpet was rolled out and we were seated to watch the engagement. Vinu looked gorgeous, Lenin was handsome with his cute smile (No Chiky, don't get jealous. All right, you're cute too! DUH!). The pair looked so sweet and loving. It went on well till the snacks were served at the same place (no service charges). The items for snacks were tender coconut water, samosa, veg roll, chicken, paneer kabab, pav baaji, milkshakes. By 8 pm dinner was served (waiting for the menu , sorry guys, it's a list with no end) . Finally I would like to thank Vinu for everything.

(Hope Vinu will not take my comments serious, who else we have Vinu...)

From then on the King and the Queen lived happily ever after....Waiting for the marriage episode...

Dosa on Roads..

I am quite excited about the post that I have decided to talk as its a heart-to-plate tie up for me . I have to start off with the relationship between dosa and me . In my final year of college days I had to step out of the college hostel for my project work (In reality, done by someone else;-;-D) . so I stayed in a hostel where they did not provide food for the inmates . I tried in few hotels initially but was too lazy to walk out for dinner everyday ( Yah! tired after studying for the semesters ;-D).Finally one fine day something struck my mind. I went to a Home Center nearby and bought a non-stick dosa pan ( that was my mistake!) and all other required apparatus for the experiments and to do the reactions in the kitchen that I had in my hostel . From then on I used to get an instant dosa mix on my way back to hostel . My dinner , breakfast and lunch in weekends was dosa . On weekdays it was my daily snacks and dinner . I made my meals interesting by trying out new shapes and innovative ideas in each dosa I made . I know , what would be the head-banging question u have! . Its about the curries and side dishes with these dosas (see how good I am in mind reading). For instant dosa instant curries worked out well (heights of my laziness) . I made thin dosa which is called paper roast when I was less hungry and thick ones called as uthappam when I was at the peak of hunger . Small and tiny ones for snacks and long strips for a change . I used tomato ketchup , variety of dal powders from the stores , eggs to spread on dosas to bring a feel of pizza and burgers but all with the dosa mix I bought.
This Dosamania continued for days , weeks , months , semesters . Finally there came the anniversary of the Dosa Day . Scratching head ? that how did I remember the day ??? here is the answer, while I was packing all my stuff to vacate the room after my college final year exam I found the bill of the dosa pan I bought (I preserved it for the one year warranty that comes along with the pan). If at all the shop keeper knew my usage of the pan which was 24*7*365 probably he would not have given me the warranty card (lol!!!) . Finally , I vacated my room and the first person whom I bid Farewell were the dosa; from then on I never ever looked at the word that contains D O S A . I became very reluctant to this one dish , so much that I informed my mom not to ever make dosas at home , never ever let anyone serve me dosa or even talk about it . There was this one incident which got to my nerve and I yelled at people with all my strengths . It was a few days before a marriage event for my cousin where we had a get together for all ladies in mehendi function to my surprise my aunt arranged for a Dosa mela ( yuck ! now u understand my temper) . Its a short past in my life in which dosa has a major role . Its been 5 years now , a life without dosa and continued like that.
As u know I work in night shifts , my eating and sleeping habits obviously changed . I will have to calculate the hours between my sleeps and meals (its not breakfast, lunch and dinner anymore). I eat food whenever and whatever available between the hours I am awake or at work . So here in office , I have few friends to eatout , hangout together (what ever u call it) . Since its late hours we have very limited source to arrange for food. At this point I have to mention my companion in office , its none other than Mouli (few of u know him already , the guy with the brainy brain) . The food which is available in my office pantry is limited to fresh juices and maggie noodles(which was half the time burnt) . We both have worked for 2+ , 3+ years in this office so already tired of these items . So we were finding out other options to fill our stomach after the shift . One day Chiky ( my man! ) came with a solution to try out something which is beside his office premises (which is also on-the-way to both of our destination).

It was 5 O clock , early in the morning , Mouli and I headed to the place suggested by Chiky . What we saw was unbelievable. Under a huge banayan tree there was a group of people neatly dressed and a neat pavement (which is very important to me !) and a welcoming smile :-) . With all this good sight that we had, we parked our bike and went near the table that had all the dishes arranged in a row . The guy who was on the other side of the table wished us and handed over the empty plate for us to serve from the dishes on the table. We were so hungry after a tiresome shift that the heavenly smell made us so happy to see the food that was arranged. We had 4 kinds of chutneys , sambar common for all tiffins . Idly was hot , Pongal was creamy and Poori was just out of the ocean of oil . I just turned to observe the corner of the table which had 4 dosa pan ready to make hot dosa quickly for the ones who ordered it . At the very first glance of the DOSA , I turned my head off it . Mouli felt happy to see the hot dosa (May be he did not have a past like mine!!!) . He ordered the dosa and He liked it so much that he went for the other one . This made me to have a thought about my old friend (The Dosa) . I ordered one . Within 2 minutes I had a golden brown crispy dosa straight from the pan folded in semi circle with 4 chutney around it .
Morning breeze , chilly air and hot steamy dosa in my hand (hmmmmm...). we really found a good place to eat . Since then I come to office everyday in a thought to go the tiffin center after my shift . It was a daily practice of Mouli and mine , but now there is a huge crowd from my project who would even wait after their shift ( not anytime for the project ) to eat with us. We go to the place will all our friends and have a hearty first meal of the day and with lots of fun but with a minimum expenditure . My relation continues with the dosa on roads..

The Evening..the Night and the Morning that I do not want to forget!! (Post 2)

I wanted to be at home by 6 00 PM and I reached at 7 30 PM. Good thing was there was food at home, and I simply had to heat it and eat it. I tried all the beauty products on my face, hair products on my hair, took a warm relaxing bath (nothing like it at the end of the day) and checked the social networking sites and it was 8 50 PM, Sowshee had already posted second blog for the day. Her enthusiasm was showing in... 

Usually I have a habit of eating very early, around 7 30 - 8 00 PM. But I wasn't so hungry yesterday and my house was also a little messy (not by regular cleaning standards, but then I do not follow them, I have my own, when it comes to cleaning the house!!), so, I started cleaning the house and washed utensils and finally, at 9 15 PM, I started feeling hungry. It was unusually dark for that time. In USA, it becomes a dark night only after 10 00 PM, at 9 30 PM, you still have sun out... may be you can say that it is the sunset twilight...

It was cloudy, so I figured that it was going to rain pretty hard.. the wind (which was hot, 3 hours ago), was chilly now. But I did not have any presumptions about what actually happened. Elkhart (which is about 40 - 45 miles away from us, that is only 1.5 hours of time), was going to be hit by a Tornado at 9 30 PM, which will pass the outskirts of Warsaw too.. (which, by the way, is the place, I live in). It did not bother me so much, because I did not know about it all...It was only when I wanted to heat my food in the microwave, the lights started flickering... on.. off..on..off...and just when I thought it stabilized, it totally went off... I immediately ran towards the glass door that we have to see if it my house or entire apartment, it was pitch dark. Tall trees were mindlessly oscillating right and left and making the hissing noise that I never heard before. Loud wind outside and dead drop silence inside, was scaring for a moment, but there was some light from the computer and therefore, I was not totally scared. It rained like crazy. The lightening and thunderstorms were maddening. I never saw anything like that before. I have to admit, I had no courage to look outside doors.. my blinds were draped. The food was there on the plate, with no means to heat it (the cooking range we have in house is also electric). I tried swallowing cold, slightly hard tortillas with refried beans (which I made a day before) but was very tough to eat cold. Hunger actually died with the darkness and rain that scared the daylights off me. The rain did not stop, the thunders were growing louder and louder and the trees (which added a lot of beauty to my porch in normal times) were crackling against each other and making wild destructive gestures. I wasn't scared of darkness anymore because of the continuous and blinding lightening. 

The only thing I could think of at that time was playing Shri Hanuman Chalisa at loudest volume so that I can stop thinking about the noises outside, which I did successfully. I did not eat the cold food. Kept it back in fridge. I have candles all over in my house, which look pleasant and smell heavenly. Yesterday night, I had all of them (6, I mean) lighted at the same time, with different fragrances from each. House smelled like some perfume shop or some candle shop with nauseatingly strong smell of too many things. I spoke to friends for some time, the electricity did not come, so, I had to stop doing that, or else my phone would be totally discharged. So, I decided to sleep, finally at 10 30 PM (which I had to work hard to get into!!). 

One last thing I had to do before sleeping was to call my mom, she had her US tourist Visa interview from Delhi Consulate today (24th June). I was a little guilty that I did not help her a lot in preparation. Therefore, the only thing was I could pray hard for her. I called her at the right time, she was leaving in 2 minutes. I told my father to message me as soon as she is done with her interview, if he won't message me, I will conclude that she did not get it. I wished her good luck and was in a mixed state of feeling hungry, sleepy, irritated, frightened and may be more, which I cannot remember now. The rain seemed to have slowed down, but lightening and thunders did not. Slowly, I sank in to sleep. 

All of a sudden there was a loud noise and a very very bright light right on my face. The power came, I checked the time - it was 12 00 AM. I totally woke up then, and worked hard on getting in to sleep again. I do not know when I slept, but a totally disturbed sleep that it was, I woke again at 4 00 AM and could not sleep thereafter till dawn. I checked the cell phone and there was no message from him regarding my mom's interview, so I knew the result and that upset me so much that it was very difficult for me to close my eyes. Finally, the alarm rang and I started feeling sleepy, so sleepy, that I had to get up like that and the sleepiness is still there, even as I write this.  With a heavy heart I called up my father to ask what happened and why did she lost the interview, at 7 15 AM. He picked and told me that "she got it" and he simply forgot to message me. I was not sure if the happiness about her visa or my irritation (that since there was no message, I could not even sleep properly) dominated me. 

So, that was an evening, a night and a morning that left me hungry, scared and sleepless. But my mom got the visa, and so as some one rightly said, alls well that ends well!! 

Love,
Raji

The Evening..the Night and the Morning that I do not want to forget!! (Post 1)

Yesterday, 23rd June was just one of those days where I was planning to just sit at home, have a good meal and  write some blog and sleep off on a good note. I did not want to go out and walk or shop or do anything. Just be at home. (Also, from the 21  Suryanamaskars on the previous evening, my legs were slightly in pain and I did not want to stress myself more!!)

But it all started in the morning, the colleagues were discussing about phones and I happened to hear about the new HTC Aria, released just recently, may be last week. Its stylish, sleek and looks like IPhone but isn't one (very important for me), and the best part is it is GOOGLE Android. I am going to talk about this phone more in coming days but I wanted to see that phone so much that I decided to visit the shop and look at that. Since, I wanted to be at home I decided to go in the lunch break and see it. But, at 11 00 AM, all the colleagues decided to go to Chinese for a farewell lunch and I HAD to postpone my program to evening. I thought - nevertheless... it ll take only 30 40 mins and I ll be back home. So, the clock stuck 5 00 PM and I started back home. 

On the way, the traffic was one of those terrible evenings, 3 trucks collided and the police was all over blocking all the roads, with a single line of traffic for over 5 miles. An environmental friendly person that I am, I hate switching on AC in the car when I am alone, fresh air is much better in all the cases. So, the windows rolled down and Rahman' music was playing aloud out.. The point is no one can hear that because they all have windows up!!. I did not really mind the slow traffic because the wireless shop was right next to my house, a distance of 3 4 minutes and so, rightfully, by 6 00 PM, I would be at home. The sun was hitting right on the face, making it all oily..hot winds were exhausting... it was only "Ale Ale" from "Boys" and HTC Aria which kept me going.. After 25 minutes, I reached to the store..only to wait in queue to speak to the sales agent for 15 minutes more. For the kind information of all the Indians reading it, it takes me only 8 minutes without traffic to reach home, so 25 was a lot...Anyways, the point was HTC Aria was awesome, and I am going to get that baby pretty soon...therefore, more updates about that when I ll buy it. But the 15 minutes wait which I did in the store proved disastrous...

My eyes fell on my image in adjoining mirror and I looked terrible (even to my standards)..there was uneven facial hair all over my face. my hair was looking terrible... and oil was oozing out of my face. Not my regular day, by any means!! So, instantly I felt an urge to go to the saloon a few blocks away to the store to make myself presentable. After finishing business at the wireless store, I went to the saloon and got my face cleared of the mess and got a hair cut. Now it was not that I went to the saloon with closed eyes and came out eyes shut. The time span to get to the business is always dangerous. My eyes fell on the beauty products and hair products they were selling and with the compulsive shopper's disorder that I suffer from, I went ahead and purchased some hair clips, avocado and grapefruit masque and brown eye pencil (because black color simply doesn't suit my eyes and these people had the perfect shade I had been looking for). I did everything that I did not want to do for that evening. I walked, I shopped!!

Usually Unusual one..

I am writing this post after my graveyard shift with a thought that it will bring some enlightenment to my friends who will read this (either Raji or Me as of now). Life consists of many colours but as a whole it looks as a single element which is white. Similarly we are all running through many phases but ultimately we are living because we are alive .. ( waahwa waahwa..awesome sowshee ;-D ).Actually I want to talk about something which I realised yesterday - ever since I started blogging.Usually, Raji and I would start chatting right after we reach our office and get busy with our work (talk about multitasking!)We go to the extent of extending our shifts (see? didn't someone teach you about dedication). Even before our brains start processing the agenda for the day (well, at work), we would start our chats through websites that luckily dodge our company's firewalls (some protection).So that's how sunshines in her life and moon dawns in mine (yes, I work in nightshifts, if you didn't know that). We chat about fashion, vacations, and lots of other stuff.We vent our happiness, anger, frustrations, fears on each other.Now the usually unusual one is that after we started this 'You, Me and Coffee' blog we became busy working on this blog, all chats are about what to post here next and no more pointless talks. Raji and I would be so very happy to see all friends participating in this blog.Okay, I guess the coffee's over now. Refill it if you plan to move on to another blog or dunk it into your dishwashers or better give some excersice to your scrubs...

Movie of the week...

I am so excited about our new blog that is shaping up ..( Everythings looks great in NEW PHASE.. hope its not like that !!!) You , Me and a Coffee is all about we friends sitting together in a cool eveining in any of our balconies and having a chat during our coffee time..( one difference is all these precious chats are stored as blogs)
Today with all the happiness and enegry in me I wanted to share my views on the movie RAVANA...Chiky and I were waiting for this one movie for a long time as we both were Mani sir's fans.. I just love the way he narrates the storyline .. Hmmm with all these expectations we booked the tickets on the Second day of the movie release (on 19th of June) .. It was a sunny afternoon with less traffic in Chennai (god blessed me).. We already started late to the theater, Chiky and me were racing to reach the cinema on time. The man in the entrance said the movie just started and my heart beat increased. The first shot I saw was Aishwarya sailing on a boat, stunned to see two boats colliding (where did Mani sir keep his camera and which time of the day he sat and thought about the angles??). Finally, we settled in our seats and enjoyed each and every frame of the movie.
Vikram has already proved himself in many other movies and he used the opportunity well, Aish was as usually stunning , Pruthviraj was lucky to romance Aish in this movie .. I was happy to see old Mani sir's heros palying a major role like Prabu , Karthik, Ranjeetha. Priya mani was good in her performance (Obviously! National award winner).
Now coming to the storyline.. Its our Epic Ramayana with all these Cine stars on Silverscreen . In our busy lives we lost touch with our epics and puranas which are still precious with Non-Indians, Mani sir did an attempt to bring them back with new glitters (Ram in the epic was Police officer and Ravana was the Most wanted person ).
ARR (How can I forget the Blood of the movie) once again did an awesome job in making the audience to sail through the jungle in which mani sir took us. Love can be expressed through music and it can be only ARR's music ( I will the happiest one if he does it for my love story also :-))
As the movie progresses, we had a feeling of sitting in the jungle at the edge of the cliff with a huge bucket of pop corn in hand and coke in the seat pouch.
After a grand inauguration of this blog and heart felt posts about our friends.. hope this blog would be an entertaining one in our chats..
Finally it was worth watching the movie (but without boy friend's disturbance beside..Sorry Chiky )
Love ,Sowshee..

"6 of us"

I have no clue as in what to write here at this time. Like you said Sowshee, it is "intended" to keep in touch with friends more personally than Facebook and other sites and at the same time, keeping the thoughts alive in minds for a very long time. This could be the second and the last post or second post off many!! It would be good to see others also taking part in it, but I doubt.....

Since there is nothing in my mind to talk about right now (it is 10 30 in the night and I don't know why I started this post), I thought let me describe the picture which Sowshee has pasted in the previous post. That picture, with "6 of us" is a special one, since after that "6 of us" never met, sometimes, I was missing, sometimes 2 or 3 of us were missing, thereby making the picture a special one. From left to right - DP, UP, VP, RL and SDs - aka - Sowshee, Udaya Priya, Vinu, Raji, Sudi (top) and Sowmya  (bottom). Other than Sowmya and Sudeepta, no one is in the same place, after a few days, I can say, Vinu and I are in the same country (and same time zone too!!! - very imp in US). This picture was taken in our third year, 6th semester, and we were all (other than UP) leaving hostel to become free birds - which meant that we could have suppers outside, watch movies on Sundays, talk on cell phones anytime after the college gets over and go for shopping any evening. This is not so special for many hostelers but after staying in SJCE ladies hostel, all this was very rare and we looked forward for this so much..

In the bottom of the heart, it feels special that we did not go out always, which left "6 of us" with nothing but become close to each other, in fact so close that we could not see others coming in to our lives!! We lost the value of friends and took all for granted, egos clashed and we simply wanted to erase all the togetherness of 2 years. But after the college got over, suddenly we separated without any lasting tears in our eyes. This picture became a symbol for me for my college, rather hostel life. A glance at it brought all the memories back - the first sunday we went out together, the first time we spent all night discussing movies, the nights when 6 gals slept on 2 beds, but without complaints, the way sowshee and vinu used to feed everyone, the way we used to crack jokes to bring Sudi back to normal, late night talks in a secluded room simply about everyone in hostel, planning future (no one knew a day like this would come, things have drastically changed beyond anyone's imagination) and many more such incidents. I don't regret the shackles we were forced in, it only brought the hands together. 

May be in coming posts, we can talk about all that.. But for now, I want to sleep with those good memories in  thoughts :) Good Night...

Love, 

Raji

As Journey Continues ..

After much discussions, headbangings, hair-pulling (yea, yeah, I got first aid ready with me), and whatnots, Raji and I finally came up with this blog, where we intend to share our thoughts as friends over a virtual coffee (By the ways, I don't drink coffee but prefer a biscuit dipped in it :D).

Friends have always played an important part in my life. Staying away from family for most part of my life, friends proved a wonderful happening in my life (Of course, I still love my family, all the same). We intend to bore you with our everyday thoughts through this blog.

We talk about what might sound like mundane stuff (but not to girls, wouldntcha say so, girls?) like dresses, vacation plans, fights with our boyfriends, husbands (well, I do about mine and she does about hers - what else didja think? ;)), cosmetics, gossips (aahh, there couldn't be a better topic), and... oh, we're free for suggestions. Until mynext post... (It's you now, Raji)