My Thoughts on Life in General

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T20:49:00.000-08:00

I found this year's Google's Valentine's day doodle so cute, I had to share with others. It shows that material things are not important when it comes to true love. Love it!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!!!!

Happy New Year: 2012

2012-01-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's to a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and a Wonderful New Year. Cheers!!!!!

What A Great Loss!

2011-10-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

What a sad day today to say the least.

We lost one of the most brilliant people in the technical world. The technical world will not be the same without Steve Jobs. He was such a visionary and came up with such innovative products which the whole world benefited from.

Personally he was such an inspiration to me. I always looked up to him. He will be very much missed.

Sad day indeed :(

I Love Lucy

2011-08-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

Google made this cool doodle to celebrate Lucille Ball's 100th birthday. The neat thing about this particular doodle is that it actually plays 6 different clips from the original "I Love Lucy" show that aired in the 1950's. So the knobs on the doodle are actually functional. So cool!! You can read all about it on the Official Google Blog: We love Lucy.

Really Cool!!!!

World "Cup" Cakes

2011-04-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Yay!!!!! India Won the Cricket World Cup finals. So how do we celebrate? By making Cup Cakes of course.

I started with white cake mix and baked some cup cakes.

Next we got some star shaped sprinkles and my kids help me sort them by color. My 3 year old enjoyed this job.

Next I mixed the store bought cream cheese frosting with some edible food color and frosted the cupcakes in 2 colors, blue and orange (our team colors).

Finally spelt out the words "CHAMPIONS INDIA"!!!

Way To Go India!!

2011-03-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

What a superb performance by Indian cricket team today in the semifinals of World cup cricket. It was amazing. When India beat Australia in quarterfinals a few days back it was unbelievable. Today they beat Pakistan, our arch rival. My dad would always buy sweets whenever India won a game, especially against Pakistan. What do I do for my kids? I baked a cake to celebrate their win!

Now we head to finals of the World cup. All I can say is way to go India. Good Luck in the finals!!!

Driving Through The Winter Wonderland

2011-02-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

My daughter has been bugging me since Thanksgiving for a vacation to Lake Tahoe during winter months. She wanted to go sledding. I don't blame her. It's been a while since we went to Tahoe in winter. So I finally booked a cabin in Tahoe for the President's day week. We were planning to leave on Sunday, the 20th and be back on Tuesday, the 22nd (to beat the traffic). The week before our travel the weather in California was gorgeous, almost spring like weather.

However as the travel date was approaching, the weather took a dramatic turn (no surprise there!!! Murphy's law always holds good!) There was a severe winter storm on Friday night leading to Saturday morning at Tahoe. According to local news there was a major gridlock on the roads leading to Tahoe because of the severe weather conditions. We were constantly checking weather for Tahoe to see if the storm cleared.

Luckily for us on Sunday it was clear blue skies where we live as well as in Tahoe, which made driving a breeze. We could reach our destination in 3 and 1/2 hours. Not bad!!! Also because of the recent snow storm, there was fresh snow everywhere. All the pine trees were covered in snow. All the rooftops were covered with a thick layer of snow, with icicles dangling on the edges. The drive was so scenic, it felt like driving through a winter wonderland. I took pictures along the drive with my iPhone. The pictures are not with the greatest resolution, I don't think they did justice to the scenery. However they say, pictures say a thousand words. I think it holds good in this scenario.

Enjoy the ride!!

Long Live Democracy!!

2011-02-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

What a great day for democracy. After 18 days of protests by Egyptians, President Hosni Mubarak has finally stepped down. It is truly a momentous day for Egyptians to finally have true freedom after 30 years of dictatorship.

Let me be clear, I usually do not follow Middle East (or North African) politics very closely and am not too clear about their conflicts. But when it came to Egypt, it was different. For once it was ordinary people looking for freedom in every sense of the way from decades of dictatorship. Also being from India, a democratic country and living in USA which also is democratic it is hard to imagine living in a country without freedom. From day one I started following it closely, mostly on BBC news and NewsHour on PBS. Both did a great job of covering it in-depth. Just yesterday, President Mubarak refused to step down until September 2011 as he has been saying for the past 18 days. Finally this morning I hear about the News of him stepping down.

What a difference a day makes!!!! What a difference the power of people can make.

Christmas Cheer!!

2010-12-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some reindeer I made for the Christmas decorations this year. I started with a template I downloaded and printed out in different color backgrounds. Then all I had to do was cut them, glue an eye, tie a jingle bell around the neck and finally punched a hole and tied a ribbon on top to hang from ceiling. Voila!!! You have this colorful Christmas decoration.

Trying to spread some Christmas cheer from my end!!! Makes me happy whenever I look at them. Smile on ....

It's all about number 10!!!

2010-10-10T23:18:00.000-07:00

So for a year now, my daughter has been telling me how important her 10th birthday is going to be. She is right. She turned 10 on 10/10/10. So I decided to make it special for her. She invited her good friends to join her on this special day. We decided to go with the cooking theme. This is the menu they got to work on: Fruit Kabobs, Make their own Pizza, Salad in a Cup and finally decorate a Mini Cake. I bought aprons for each child, so they could take it home with them.

For the pizza's I got individual pizza dough and sauce from Trader Joe's. Well worth it. They started off by making their individual pizza and topped them off with various toppings of their choice. I had quite a few choices for them : Colorful bell peppers, Tomatoes, Pineapple, Jalapenos, Basil and mozzarella Cheese. I had to bake one pizza at a time. That took the most time. I also bought some empty pizza boxes from a nearby pizzeria. Once ready we put it in their own pizza box to take home.

While the pizzas were getting baked, they worked on the fruit kabobs. Again they could choose from, grapes, honeydew melon, cantaloupe and watermelon.

Next they got to make their own salad in a cup. They first poured a little ranch dressing in a cup and then put some of the carrot sticks, cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes on top. It was time for lunch. They had their lunch and my daughter cut her ice cream cake.

After lunch they got to decorate their mini cakes. I had baked a dozen of these cakes the previous night and had them ready. For cakes, I gave them slices of strawberries, kiwis, raspberries and M&Ms. I also had both chocolate and white frosting.

I bought a white apron from Michael's for each of the guests to sign, so Hrishika can keep it as a birthday memory.

For goody bags I made personalized apron shaped cutouts with card stock and attached a $5 gift card from Yogurt land on the back. Yogurt land is one of my daughter's favourite yogurt.

The kids had a blast. After the party, before going to bed, my daughter gave me a BIG hug and said it was the best birthday party ever. That made my day. All I want is my children to enjoy their birthday.

Colorful Kitchen

2010-06-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

These days when it comes to kitchen gadgets and utensils, there is no dearth for color. They seem to come in all the shades imaginable. I for one love that.

These colorful ceramic measuring spoons. A departure from the usual. Love those colors.

These ceramic trays are lovely to serve food, with an added bonus of being dishwasher, oven and microwave safe.

These stacking cups are a perfect design. They occupy minimum space and make it easy to identify cups.

These colorful kitchen gadgets ....

Even the mixing bowls come in a variety of colors these days.

Colorful indeed!!!!

Is This Product Necessary?

2010-05-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Photo: Courtesy Kleenex.com

Today, when I opened my email I saw this message from Kleenex® saying they are introducing this new product: Kleenex® Hand Towels. They think it is more hygienic versus a cloth hand towel used in bathroom. Click here to see what they say are some of its advantages.

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw this new product was how unnecessary it was. We already have toilet paper being used in abundance and which results in cutting down of innumerable trees. In the case of toilet paper, at least it is understandable. But for wiping hands, I mean come on. I think using a cloth towel is perfectly alright, as long as you wash your hands properly using an antibacterial soap. Then all the germs are already dead and all you are doing is wiping the wet hands. I don't see any harm in using a cloth hand towel. On the other hand if you did not wash your hands with antibacterial soap, wiping it off with a paper towel is not going to do any good. As per cleaning surfaces in the bathroom goes, I could use the toilet paper instead, which I already have in the bathroom. At least that's where I stand. That brings me to this point.

Is this product necessary?

Guess What? Guess How?

2010-04-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

First of all can you guess what you are looking at ( do not worry about the green stuff)? It is some kind of vegetable. I guess you know the answer. The color of the vegetable gives it away. Yes you are right. It is a carrot cut into circles and cored.

Now that you know which vegetable it is, can you guess how I went about doing it? It was quite simple to accomplish that. All it took was a carrot with a very hard core (in other words, a bad carrot). So once I peeled and cut them into circles, all I had to do was push the center core out with my thumb. That created the donut effect.

Cool isn't it?!!!!

What Were They Thinking?

2010-04-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today, when my husband got back from work, he casually mentioned that HP was going to acquire PALM for whopping $1.2 Billion. He also mentioned that PALM was in such bad shape financially that they were almost going to close down.

My 9 year old snapped back immediately. She said , "Have you seen the Palm Pre ad? One look at that ad and you will never want to own a Palm Pre." Actually what she said about the ad is so true. It kind of spooks you out a little bit. If a 9 year old could figure that the ad is not working, then why can't the people making these ads. It makes you wonder as to "What were they thinking?!"

That kind of reminded of the Burger King ads. One look at the king and your appetite goes out the window. I guess they were trying to copy the Jack in the Box ads without similar results. Even without any controversy I hated those BK ads. Then there was this King's gone crazy ad, which was considered so controversial, it had to be pulled off the air. That I feel actually worked out in favor of BK. At least we don't see that idiotic king character anymore.

I don't know what they were thinking?

Earthquakes: 2010

2010-04-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

Since I live in California, I suppose, I pay close attention to earthquakes (no matter where on earth they occur). Year 2010 has bee very peculiar in that regard. We are only one quarter of a year into it, and we have already seen eight major earthquakes (magnitude 6 or higher) and ten if we count magnitude 5.5 or higher. That's a lot of earthquakes in such a short time period. They have been all over the world.

Of these the Haiti Earthquake of magnitude 7.0 on Jan 12th was one of the deadliest. The other major one was the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile on February 27th. There was a quake in Mexico on April 4th of magnitude 7.2 followed by 7.6 magnitude quake in Indonesia on April 6th.

I do know there is a lot of earthquake activity that happens on a daily basis. However much of this activity is either not high enough magnitude or in densely populated areas. So they go unnoticed. Hope we don't see too many of these quakes, the rest of the year!

Happy Earth Day!!!

2010-04-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

I want to wish all the earthlings a very happy Earth day. As a living being on the planet Earth, it is our responsibility to take good care of our planet. So this earth day I researched the web to find some useful sites on going Green!!!

In the meantime we all can make some simple changes to help planet Earth:

Use cloth kitchen towels instead of paper towel, wherever possible.
Use a permanent coffee filter instead of paper filters.
Use filtered water instead of bottled water.
Bring your own reusable bag for grocery shopping.
Use bamboo products for cutting boards etc.
Use pressure cooker for cooking (saves lot of energy)
Try carpooling.
Use bicycles or walk whenever possible.
Minimize the use of water and electricity wherever possible.
Replace all the bulbs with energy efficient "CFL bulbs".
Use solar powered lamps for landscaping.
Use clothesline for drying clothes in summer.

Or maybe some big ones .....

Use energy star appliances.
Try to harvest rain water if you can.
Buy a hybrid car.
Try to use solar panels for power generation (if you can afford it).

The list goes on and on . So on this earth day and in the future, Think Green, Act Green and Go Green!

Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! That's the mantra.

Cock-A-Doodle-Doo

2010-04-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

Need I say more ..... You get the picture .....

Window Shopping

2010-04-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things about Disneyland are the colorful window displays. I have always enjoyed looking at them. Of all the windows "Ratatouille" captured my attention. Because they actually had a character moving. The display is so realistic, with all sorts of details. You can see a refrigerator, kitchen utensils, recipe book etc. Here are some pictures and the video of that window display. I only wish I did not see the glass reflection in my pictures and video.

It's A Small World!

2010-04-12T01:06:00.001-07:00

We had been to Disneyland just recently for my daughter's spring break. It was one hectic trip no doubt. No matter how well you plan your trip, there is only so many rides one can cover in a day.

Of all the rides, "It's a small world" is very different, and the message is wonderful - unity in diversity. It promotes the sense of togetherness and peace, which is so much needed in this world, with all that is going on.

Here are some pictures I took of the ride.

Easter Egg Hunt ....

2010-04-06T00:06:00.000-07:00

My hunt for Easter eggs started on Saturday, April 3rd. We are lucky we have a Walgreens close to our home for procrastinators like me. I found these cute Easter baskets, some pastel colored plastic eggs and bite size candy all in one quick stop. It cannot get any easier than this. I filled the eggs with miniature Snickers and Hershey's candy and hid them in our backyard.

Fast forward to Sunday, and here you can see the results of my kids' Easter egg hunt.

Refrigerator Magnets

2010-04-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

There are some things which get noticed lot more than others. I don't know what it is about them. Somehow most of my friends who visit our home, seem to like these refrigerator magnets. I got them years ago at Pier 39 in San Francisco. There is a store in Pier 39 just dedicated to refrigerator magnets. There is tons and tons of variety. I picked out these since they looked very cute.

I know, I know ....... one of the dolls is missing a shoe. I need to glue it back on. One of these days it is going to happen, I promise (myself)!!!

Melon Baller Magic!

2010-03-29T15:52:00.000-07:00

What do you get when you start with some seedless watermelon and a melon baller.

Voila !!!

All I can say is YUM!!!!
Cheers to some easy, healthy deliciousness!!!!

Choclate Chip Cookies!!!

2010-03-25T15:56:00.000-07:00

My kids love CCC (Chocolate Chip Cookies). I guess most kids do. There is always a request for CCC at snack time.

So I usually end up buying the cooking dough and baking them. There are so many choices when it comes to cookie dough these days. They really made it easy to bake cookies with these readily available cookie doughs.

Once my kids tasted these semi homemade cookies, they do not seem to like the store bought ones anymore. The taste is not the same. I'm sure the cookies made from scratch are much more delicious. But for now, I'm happy with the semi homemade version. It saves me a ton of time.

Happy Ugadi : 2010

2010-03-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

Ugadi marks the first day of the Telugu New Year. This year it was on the 16th of March. Every year I try to at least make the ugadi pacchadi (chutney) which includes 5 different flavors. The 5 flavors include, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and tangy. So we use raw mango for sour, Jaggery (bellam) for sweet, neem flowers for bitter, chili for spicy and tamarind for tangy. This year I managed to get all the ingredients except for the neem flowers, which I usually substitute with neem powder which is easily available in Indian grocery stores. But not this year. This year they sold out all their neem powder, can you believe that?!! I know. So I made mine with four flavors, instead of five.

Anyways the reason I was told we make this special chutney was it represents the different situations we face in real life. Like sweet is supposed to represent happiness, bitter for sadness, spicy for anger. I do not remember what sour and tangy represented. I shall try to find out.

So here's to another fabulous and fun year. Cheers!!!

The Sun, The Rain And The ....

2010-03-08T23:48:00.000-08:00

Today we have seen the weather go from cloudy to sunny to rainy. It was changing all throughout the day. Very unpredictable. But with the unpredictability came a beautiful surprise at the end of the day.See for yourself.

I have been trying to capture the rain for a while on my camera, but didn't know how. Today I finally got the idea, when I saw the rain drops on my french door. It was a perfect shot.

It was a beautiful rainbow. My 2 year was super excited when he saw it. I don't know what it is about the rainbows, but it brings some kind of joy when you spot one, at least for me!! I'm so glad I was able to capture it on my camera.

Samosas

2010-03-07T17:21:00.001-08:00

The other day I had some left over potato curry from lunch. I also happened to have one of those Roti Land roti packs. So I decided to make some samosas.

I took each of those roti land rotis and cut them in half. Then I stuffed it with a few spoonfuls of potato curry and made it into a samosa. I used a fork to seal the edges.

Then I deep fried them all in oil. I just served with the chutney on hand. Samosas seem to go well with ketchup too.

That was one quick and easy way for a home made samosa. Didn't break a sweat.

Organize: Kitchen

2010-02-23T15:36:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to organize my kitchen a little better. So I went looking for some drawer organizers. I finally found the Expandable Bamboo Gadget Tray at Crate and Barrel. It is made of bamboo, looks sleek and it is expandable. It fit my drawer perfectly. What more could I ask for. So I have finally organized my gadget drawer. Here take a look ....

I was told that spices last longer and stay fresher when stored in a refrigerator. I decided to store mine in a refrigerator too. I like the idea of using glass bottles instead of anything plastic for storage. So I ended up using the Starbucks coffee bottles and Classico pasta sauce bottles for storage. It was very easy to peel of the labels off the Starbucks bottles. I just washed all the bottles once in a dishwasher before filling them with my spices. I could fit 4 Classico bottles in the back and 5 Starbucks bottles in the front row perfectly. It looks neat and I didn't have to spend a Penny on these bottles.

Spring Is In The Air

2010-02-22T14:10:00.000-08:00

The colors of spring. Wow what a sight. It's brings so much joy to see the blossoms and bulbs and all the new life that springs from spring. Those beautiful sounds of birds chirping away. Nature at it's finest.

What's not to love about Spring, unless you are an allergy sufferer .......

Gallery of Birds in Our Backyard

2010-02-18T00:09:00.001-08:00

I love birds. So whenever I see any birds in my backyard I try to capture it on my camera. This month I have seen quite a few variety of birds. All the birds were beautiful, but my camera skills do no justice. I need to learn to take better pictures. Also I need to learn to identify the birds.

Birds In Our Backyard : Videos

2010-02-17T21:49:00.001-08:00

Here are some short videos of birds in my backyard. I only wish I could identify the species.

Food 2009 : A Year End Recap

2009-12-30T12:06:00.000-08:00

Just making a simple gallery of all the different food that I made in the year 2009 which was kind of little different from the usual and for which I have pictures taken. A year end recap. Bon Appetit.

Christmas Wth A Change

2009-12-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

This year there are two things that are different on our Christmas tree. One is the kind of lights that we used and the other is the ornaments.

This year we used the new LED lights which we purchased from Costco. These lights have quite a few advantages over the conventional lights. For one they use much less power, which is great. Secondly they are a parallel circuit and not a series circuit. That makes a big difference, because if one of the lights is broken, the rest still work, which is awesome. Also they are far more vibrant.

For ornaments this year we exclusively used shatterproof ones. I got mine from Target. I got the Blue/Silver combination and I absolutely loved the colors. The reason we wanted shatterproof ones was because we have a 2 year old toddler who is running around. This option made it a very safe choice.

Change is GOOD!!!

Too Cool For California

2009-12-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

It has been really cold for the past 2 days. In fact I have some pictures to prove it. The temperature has been in the 40's. Here you can see the local temperature on my yahoo weather widget for Thursday, December 10th.

The water in the birdbath turned into ice overnight. So when I rinsed it off, the ice shattered and the pieces fell down. The white pieces next to the birdbath are all pieces of ice.

There was snow on the hill tops surrounding our home. Snow happens very rarely.

Home Made Pizza

2009-12-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

The other day I bought some pizza dough from Trader Joe's. I wanted to make a pizza.

I used some mozzarella cheese, Roma tomatoes, basil, Italian seasoning and a drizzle of olive oil for topping. Here's the pizza before I baked it.

I just followed the baking directions on the pizza dough package. Here it is after baking.

Looks delicious and tasted even better!! Yum!!!

Dancing Birds

2009-11-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I was delighted to see 2 birds kind of dancing on the fence in our backyard. They were just moving towards and away from each other in some kind of symphony. So I decided to capture it on my digital camera and here it is ....

What .... Green Thumb?

2009-11-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

We have been living in this house for past 11 years. But when you look at our backyard it seems as though we just moved in. It hardly has any plants. All thanks to my "not so green thumb".

We had this orange tree for so many years now. We only got one edible orange out of it. If we look over our fence our neighbors seem to be growing fruit in abundance. We also planted a lime tree at the same time as orange tree and we are finally seeing some limes. This morning my daughter was so excited to pick out a fully ripened lime. I took a picture, since in our house the home grown lime is kind of like a celebrity.

Then there is this bird of paradise plant. Apparently there are different kinds in that too. When we planted it we thought we got the usual "orange and purple" variety, but no..... ours is a super special "white" bird of paradise. It hardly ever blooms. So far it bloomed only once, a couple of years ago.

Then there are these 2 hibiscus plants (yellow and orange flowers) which I purchased from my local nursery and planted them. One with orange flowers died and the yellow flowering one barely grew in so many years and gives very few flowers. The only plants that keep coming back each year without fail are the bulbs which bloom in spring. We had these for past 6 years and each year from March to April we see them flowering.

My mom on the other hand is a super green thumb. She once got a small branch of a white hibiscus plant (without a single root) from her friend and planted it in our backyard and it grew so well and all through the year it blooms and gives beautiful flowers. How do you explain that. She also planted a small sapling of an avocado plant last year and it grew into this giant tree. You should see it to believe it.

The only flowering plants I'm successful at growing are the "wild flowers". Thank God for the wild flowers, we had some color in our garden, even if it was temporary.

Hand Sanitizing Wipes!

2009-11-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Today I was packing my daughter's lunch for school and I wanted to keep one of those hand sanitizing wipes, wet ones singles in her lunch bag. With the swine flu scare and everything else going on, I wanted to be extra careful. So I had asked my husband to bring me one of those from upstairs.

He goes "Are you sure they have not expired?” I'm like, do those things actually expire. I never even thought of that. What does that mean anyways....? Does that mean, they no longer sanitize and kill the germs after the expiry date? Or does that mean they are harmful to use them once they have expired. I didn't know what to think of that comment.

Anyways that poked my curiosity and I went and did a query on the web. Just for fun. This is what I came out with. There is no expiration date on wet ones singles and the only expiration date is for the coupons to buy the wet ones.

50 State Quarters

2009-11-05T18:16:00.001-08:00

Photo: Courtesy usmint.gov

You can read all about the 50 State Quarters® Program and download the individual informational pages of all the 50 State Quarters from their respective links.

I had been collecting the state quarters since they started circulating them. I happened to have a See's candy box made to look like treasure box. It was kind of appropriate to collect them in that box since it was kind of my treasure. So far I'm at 44 coins. I need 6 more coins to finish my collection.

So close, yet so far!!!

Halloween, 2009

2009-11-02T15:56:00.000-08:00

Every year we make sure we get at least a couple of pumpkins and I carve them. This year we got just one big one. As usual I procrastinate and I started carving this around 6:00 p.m. on Halloween. I wanted to be done before it got dark and children started coming for trick or treating. Luckily I finished in 15 minutes. Not bad eh? Not bad at all..... I used one of those pumpkin carving tools - serrated knife. It is so handy. The pumpkin looked pretty good. I ended up using one of those battery operated tea lights inside the pumpkin. That worked out great and is such a safe alternative to real tea light candles.

Also this year I ended up making a Halloween costume for my 2 year old son. I started out with a 20"x24" blue cardstock.

I cut two rectangles out as you can see. Next I printed out the word "CRAYON" in green and cut it out and glued it on one of the rectangles which becomes the front of the costume. Next I used a hole punch to punch out holes for the shoulder straps. I used green strings from an old gift bag for shoulder straps.

Then I cut out a semicircle and made the hat for crayon top by stapling the ends together. Again hole punched the sides of the hat for the ties. Yes I used the brown strings from another shopping bag.

It worked out perfectly. It hardly took any time and was so easy to make. My son looked so adorable in his costume and everybody seemed to love it. This costume can easily be changed to either different color or different words like "PENCIL" etc. It's very versatile and easy.

Sandwich For Lunch

2009-10-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

Today I did not have anything made for lunch. I was lazy to cook something from scratch. So I wanted to make something simple. I ended up making a sandwich for myself.

I used 3 slices of wheat bread. Between 2 slices I used pesto sauce and thinly sliced English cucumber. Between the other 2 slices I used Cream cheese with sun dried tomatoes and thinly sliced fresh tomatoes.

Looks colorful doesn't it?!! Was yummy tasting too. Felt good about eating something healthy.

What Not to Use in Microwave!

2009-09-11T23:41:00.000-07:00

The following are some of the materials which should not be used in microwaves.

1. Metal.

It is a well known fact that we should not use any kind of metal in microwave. Everybody who uses a microwave is aware that any type of metal would initially start sparks followed by fire. We all know how bad it is to have any kind of fire especially when we live in wooden homes.

However there is yet another material which should never be used in microwave. I found out about it a couple of years ago. But what I realized was there are still lots of people who are not aware of that fact. So I wanted to use my blog to shed some light on that subject. This brings us to the second material which we should never use in the microwave.

2. Plastic.

We should avoid using any kind of plastic in microwave. The ill effects of using plastic in microwave are not obvious to the naked eye. However its effects are more devastating than using metal in long term. The reason being, when you heat food in a plastic container, apparently some toxins are released from the plastic container which can seep into the food. Some of these toxins are supposed to be cancer causing. So the best thing to do is use glass containers instead.

3. Styrofoam.

The reason you do not want to use Styrofoam is because at high temperatures it tends to melt. If you happen to touch it at that high temperature, you could burn your fingers. In fact I know somebody who had an accident and got a pretty bad burn.

Uniforms for Public Schools

2009-08-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

It is the back to school time again. In fact today happens to be the first day of school for my daughter. So the whole hustle and bustle in the morning trying to get to school on time started again. As it is, it's very hectic in the mornings doing even the simple things like brushing teeth, eating breakfast, combing hair and few other simple chores to get ready for school. Add to this chaos the dreaded "no uniform" anything goes dress picking in the morning. It throws the whole equilibrium out of whack. All the other chores take predictable time, but not the dress picking.

So it brings me to this question, as to why do public schools do not enforce uniforms for children? Why is that only private schools have that privilege? It beats me. There are so many advantages to having a school uniform.

These are 5 reasons why we should have school uniforms for public schools.

Focus will be on education and not clothes.

Whenever I see those advertisements for "back to school" on television, newspapers or anywhere else for that matter, all they talk about is the clothes, the shoes, how cool they are supposed to look and all that non-sense. Never once is the focus on the real thing, "the education". So if we bring back uniforms for all schools, regardless if they are public or private, we will indirectly help children focus on education and not so much on looks.
Everybody will be "uniform".

So there will be no distinction between the poor and the rich kids. Since everybody wears the same clothes, they all look the same. At least children won't be checking out each others clothes and shoes, which is a big positive.
It saves money.

We don't have to buy so many clothes for school. We can buy a few pairs of uniform and we are good to go. That definitely saves a lot of money (who doesn't want to save money in this economy?!!!).
It saves time.

You don't waste all that time in picking clothes to wear to school. If it is an uniform it becomes that much easier. It is a no brainer.
We can identify the child's school.

So if somebody is either cutting classes or doing some unruly stuff (like graffiti which seems to be common problem here), the least we could do is complain to their school Principal, since we know which school they belong to.

These are just my reasons for having a school uniforms for public schools in America. I wish our current president, Mr. Obama does something about this.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE

2009-08-19T22:46:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of talk these days about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the 3 R's campaign. Finally I see the government got involved in the 3 R's campaign in a major way. These days we are quite frequently bombarded with the water bottle advertisements, where they talk about the bottles ending up in landfill. So true.

I'm all for using the tap water with some kind of filtration. In fact who isn't. I guess we all agree that we need to keep the planet in a better condition for our children, grandchildren and the generations there after and so on.

So to do our part, first we had a water filter installed in our kitchen a few years ago. Next I went and bought reusable water bottles. I got mine at container store. I liked that they came in a set of 5 and are perfect for my daughter's school, one for each school day. The designs are cool too. These days these water bottles are everywhere, which is nice to see.

While EPA is doing all it can to stop the water bottles from ending up in the landfill, there is a new problem cropping up. I think it is the same water bottles with some simple additives and new labeling.

For example Propel Fitness Water. This is what it is ... according to Wikipedia. So it is water with some added vitamins. I also noticed that they have "Propel Fitness Water mix powder packets" in different flavors. I think I like this instead. So you can use your reusable water bottle and your filtered tap water with their added mix. Another example of this is Glaceau Vitamin Water. As the name suggests, it is water with some vitamins and some flavor enhancers. I did not see any flavored mix with this brand. Too bad.

So what is the verdict? Don't you feel all the money the government is spending to educate people about the 3 R's is a utter waste if people are fooled into buying products like Propel and Glaceau water. Don't those bottles end up in a landfill as well? I think so!!!

How to Water a Plant While on Vacation!

2009-08-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I always seem to forget to take care of the indoor plants when I go on vacations. When we go on short (less than a week) vacations all seems well. It is those long vacations which are the killer (I mean of plants ....).

When we visit India it is usually for a month or so. There are lots of other things to take care of before such trips. Such as mail, newspaper, making sure to empty the refrigerator and the list goes on. For some reason plants seem to be forgotten, until when you return to find it all wilted and dried and in some cases dead.

So the other day when I came across this video, I wanted to share it with others . I have not tried it yet, but it sure seems it should work. It is a clever idea and done with things that you already own at home. So take a look ....

If you feel that this solution is not for you, I recently saw an advertisement for some "Aqua Globes" watering system on television. I do not own these, but from the advertisement it seems like it should work.

Next time I go on a long vacation, I shall definitely try one of the above solutions.

I Cannot Beleive I Met .....

2009-08-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

This summer I visited my sister's family in PA. My sister had planned a visit to the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam ( also known locally as Saylorsburg temple ). She had donated $500 to the temple for the "Gift for the Day" program. That donation covers a day of meals, utilities and operations at the temple. She made a donation in memory of my dad.

We went the previous night and they provided us with accommodations at the temple. The next morning was the actual Abhishekam performed to Lord Dakshinamurthi. So my sister's family and my family along with our mom we all got ready and we went to the temple and who do we see there .....

It was Pandit Jasraj Ji performing on stage inside the temple. Apparently Pandit Jasraj Institute for music, artistry and appreciation has it's annual Shibir at the Arsha Vidya Gurkulam every summer. We could not believe our luck. We were so thrilled to see him perform so up close. It is not a publicized event. We felt very lucky to have seen him. My mom was very touched. We all remembered our dad fondly. My dad was a great lover of music. He enjoyed music immensely and we would always catch him singing. So we all felt the connection of the great musician being present for our important day.

After the performance we all headed to the dining hall for our dinner. Pandit Jasraj Ji was there too. So I asked my daughter to say namaste to panditji, which she did. He was very kind and made some conversation with her. He is such a humble man for somebody who is so accomplished. Later my mom, my sister and I went and spoke to him a bit too. We were all so elated to have such an opportunity.

So you never know who you might see, when you least expect it !!

Formations on a Tea Cup!

2009-08-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

Other day I just made some tea and set it aside. When I came back to get it I saw all these formations on the top in the tea cup. This is the first time I had time even to notice such a thing. Anyways I thought it was worth taking a picture and here they are ...

This first one looked like a heart.

This next one looked somewhat like a Whale.

This one looked like a face of the bird with a beak and an eye in the middle.

just another picture of the bird face ....

This one looked like a diwali diya.

Am I hallucinating or is it for real ?!!! You be the judge !!!

Where is Matt? (2008)

2008-12-23T21:42:00.000-08:00

What an interesting idea! It apparently took him 14 months to make this video.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) @ Yahoo! Video

Take a Seat : An Ingenious Idea!!

2008-12-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

Take a Seat is a concept where a chair follows a person around a library. The way it works is that you swipe your library card on the square on the front of the chair. Once that has been done, the chair will go where ever you go; the magic courtesy of an RFID chip. Dutch designer Jelte van Geest created them for the Openbare Bibliotheek Endhoven Library Design project.

Le Idiot : Watch and Enjoy

2008-12-01T12:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a clip of a guy on the French version of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

Halloween : 2008

2008-10-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

Diwali, The Festival Of lights : 2008

2008-10-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

Harshul's First Birthday Party

2008-09-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

It was an evening to remember. Harshul turned ONE on August 26th this year. So we decided to throw a party to celebrate this major milestone.

After much searching we decided on a venue. It was hard to find since we were particularly looking for Saturday evening. So it was going to be Mayuri Indian cuisine in Santa Clara on 27th of September. Now that the venue and date were fixed, I could start inviting people.

This time I took the easy route and used Evite to invite people. That's where the trouble started. That's because Evite just then launched their new version. I was thrilled to use it because they were letting me customize the Evite. I liked the idea of customizing since I enjoyed doing that. So instead of using their old version I chose to use their new version of evite. God was it buggy. I'm not sure why Evite decided to release it to public without testing it well. There were lot of instances where some of them did not receive the evite and many other bugs. The most worst of all was failure on evite's part to send out the reminder 2 days before the party. I did not anticipate that one. That threw us off completely. So because of that reason alone at least 40% of people missed the party. When you put so much effort in organizing a party we want to be sure that people show up. It really bugged me.

Anyways the theme for the party was brown and blue. So I went all out on that theme. I made a birthday banner in those 2 colours. Then I made a bunch of number 1's again using the same theme and used them for centerpieces along with balloons. Since the chocolate coloured balloons were not available in the regular party stores, I ordered them online. So the centerpieces were 2 blue and 2 chocolate brown balloons tied together with the number 1 stapled to the tie. If you see the pictures you will get some better idea.

Also I made some cupcakes in the brown and blue and packed them in some plastic bags and gave a couple to each kid in their goody bags. Talking about goody bags, again I was lucky to find these beautiful gable boxes in my colour theme. Every child was happy to get one of those goody bags.

Since it was a first birthday party we wanted some older kids to perform. So there were 4 different performances. The first was by Sindhu. She danced for an old Hindi classic, "Apalam, Chapalam". Everybody enjoyed the performance. My mom especially liked the song. She did a great job. Next Hrishika and Ashi performed for a medley of 2 songs, "Mauja Mauja" from Jab We Met and "Maria Maria" from movie Partner. This was the first time Hrishika ever performed for a Hindi song. She did a great job. Both the girls were so well synchronized, I was extremely pleased with their performance. Also their outfits were adorable. Next Sindhu and Vinay performed for a song they learnt at their school. Followed by Vinay and Teja's performance for a medley of 5 songs which culminated with the "Pappu can't dance" number for which Hrishika, Sindhu, Ashi and Gowtham joined in. It was a memorable performance. Thanks to all the kids for their hard work and effort.

This was followed by cake cutting. I ordered 2 cakes for the party from Satura cakes. This place was recommended by my friend Veena. I ordered a Satura short cake and a Chocolate souffle. Both the cakes were very yummy. Harshul enjoyed cutting the cake. This was followed by dinner. Everybody enjoyed the food and the cakes.

The dinner was followed by some DJ music to some popular Hindi songs. Everybody was on the dance floor. Hrishka and Ashi danced for hours. Finally by 11:30 p.m we started winding down. By 12:00 at night we left for home and called it a night.

Happy Birthday my dear Harshul!!!

Stand Up To Cancer!

2008-09-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

On September 5th there is a big television event to raise money for cancer research. This is our chance to do something to make a difference for cancer research. You can find all the details at their website. So tune in September 5th at 8 p.m. to ABC, NBC or CBS to watch this special event.

I especially liked the idea of launching a star in honour of someone diagnosed with cancer.

http://su2c.standup2cancer.org/

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

2008-07-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

Wow what an inspiration to us all to live our lives to the fullest. After losing my dad to liver cancer very recently (February 27th, 2008), it felt good to watch this video.

Here is the link to the speech .....

Randy Pausch Last Lecture

These are a Few of My Dad's Favourite Things.

2008-07-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

My Mom of course makes it to the top of the list.
My dad always said that he was lucky to have her since she always took very good care of him till the end.
Grand Children.
There is no denying that he loved all his eight grand children. He would do whatever they asked him to do, like playing board games, taking them to the park, playing ball games, singing to them, helping them sleep and the list goes on and on .... The grand children loved him too. I'm very fortunate that my dad got to see Harshul, the youngest of them all.
Meditation classes.
My dad was a member of Brahma Kumaris Spiritual organization for more than 25 years of his life. He enjoyed it immensely.
Singing Songs.
My dad had such melodious voice. He loved to sing all the time. He used to sing a lot of Telugu movie songs ( especially Ghantasala ones). In fact he was learning a Hindi song to sing on stage for Rakhi celebrations at his Brahma Kumaris institution.
Mathematics.
My dad's love for Mathematics passed on to all of us. He taught us all Math and made it look very easy. In fact when 2 of my sister's were visiting him, he said I'm very happy 50% of my daughters are here, instead of saying 2 of my children are here. That is how much we used math in our everyday terminology.
Cricket.
He loved to watch one day internationals. He even got to see a few of 20/20 games which is the latest trend in Indian Cricket. We feel sad that he did not get to watch any of the IPL matches. Else I'm sure he would have supported Bangalore Royal Challengers.
Tennis and Soccer.
He would be on top of the latest happenings in the Tennis world. He was usually supporting Federer in the recent matches. I remember him watching Soccer matches at odd hours at night.
Sudoku.
The numbers game. He too got the Sudoku fever. As soon as he got the newspaper, the first thing he would do is solve Sudoku. Later I showed him the daily sudoku on Yahoo games and he started doing the online version.
Mahjong
This is another Japanese board game of tile matching. He enjoyed playing this a lot on the computer. I'm not sure what his best timing was, but I'm sure it was under 5 minutes.
Music.
He learnt to play Banjo (a musical instrument) in his 40's. He loved to play key board and piano. My Mom tells us that he learnt to play Piano by watching his sister during her Harmonium classes. He never got any formal piano lessons. In fact the last time he played piano was at my friends place. He played a Hindi movie song, "yeh apana dil to awara".
Smile.
He loved to smile. Whenever I visualize my dad, I always remember his smiling face.
Roasted Peanuts.
He loved to munch these any time of the day, especially in the afternoons.

The list just goes on .... As I remember more I shall add to the list.

Homage to my Dad!!

2008-07-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I blogged. This is one of the hardest things I'm trying to write. It is hard since I lost my dad recently. My dad passed away on the 27th of February this year.

Where should one start when it is your parent who passed on. There are so many great memories which words don't do justice in describing them.

Let me start at the very beginning. I remember when I was little we lived in Hyderabad in a building called T.V. Nivas. I remember my mom making hot lunch right in the morning and she would serve it to my dad on a small folding table. It used to be a piping hot meal. To cool it down we used to use a small portable fan. My dad would eat it before he left for work. Also every morning right after his bath my dad would offer his prayers to God. On Saturdays he would chant Suprabhatam to Lord Venkateshwara. I also remember fondly the days my dad got his paycheck. We all would know it was his pay day because on every pay day he made sure he got all of us sweets (either doodh peda or jilebi) and something savoury. I always used to swap my savoury stuff with sweet from my eldest sister Sharada. She loved spicy stuff and I on the other hand loved sweets.

My dad lost his dad at a very early age (in his 20's). That put lot of responsibilities on him. Other than taking care of his four daughters, he also had to take care of his 6 sisters. Only 2 of his sisters were married at the time when my dad's dad passed away. So my dad took it upon himself to get the rest of his sisters married and saw to it that they settled down. Then came the responsibility of taking care of his own daughters. I remember in those days when anybody found out we were 4 girls, they immediately would make some comment like, God it must be hard on you guys. It is so expensive to get them married (thinking we would pay dowry when we got married) and so on .... But both our parents never made us feel that we were any less or any different. My dad not once made a comment which would put a doubt in our minds, that we could achieve what we wanted. He constantly encouraged us. Always giving us a positive feedback.

When I was in my 9th grade we moved to Bangalore from Hyderabad. It was not an easy move since we all had to get admissions in new schools and colleges. Also those were the critical years for education. However my parents made it seem so smooth and enjoyable. They always focused on the positives. Whatever needed to be done my dad would just do it instead of getting stressed out. I went to MES college Bangalore for my 12th grade. It was one of the top colleges in Bangalore at that time for those grades. The reason I got into MES college is because of my dad's perseverance. It was no joke getting into that college. Just high marks in 10th grade was not enough to get there. However my dad made innumerable trips to the Principal's place to convince him that I was a good student and should be given a chance. They did take me. I ended up getting 460th rank in Engineering Entrance exam. My parents were very proud of me. I owe it all to my dad for getting me that seat in MES college.

Next four years I did my Engineering at BIT, Bangalore. I remember an incident in my first year of Engineering. I was preparing for my Mechanical Engineering Exam and we had 2 big fat books to learn. I could only get through one of the books and it was almost 8 pm. The next morning was my final exam. I was so frustrated and started crying since I was in no position to finish both the books. My dad instead of scolding me for not preparing in advance, was so calm and he told me to do my best of what I can and use my time wisely. That made me calm down and I made a decision to read only 1 book and leave the other one out. I went to the exam the next day, I noticed that they changed the pattern of the exam that year for my good. Though I read only one book I could still answer the required number of questions and scored 85 out of 100. So my dad really helped me by giving me the right advice at the right time. Instead of stressing me out he calmed me down which worked out for my good.

My dad was big time into sports. So all of us in our house got into sports. We were all great fans of cricket. It would be so intense when we were watching India versus Pakistan matches. It was always great fun when India won the match of course. Also we would watch the Tennis matches and Soccer. I remember when Soccer was being telecast in India it used to be at odd hours. Late in the night or very early hours. My dad would stay up late just to watch Soccer.

My parents made sure we all are well educated. I have done my Masters in Engineering from a U.S. university. Rest of my sisters are all very well educated too. I remember whenever we visited India and when it was time to come back my dad would go out and buy tons of stuff for us to bring back. Sweets, snacks, spices, books and countless other things. I would be like "nannagaru there is absolutely no place left to pack" and his immediate response would be "just try, I'm sure you can fit it in".

Whenever we needed help my parents were always ready. The last trip my dad made to US was when I found out I was pregnant. I was due on Aug 31st, 2007. So my parents arrived on July 3rd, 2007. First thing in the morning my parents would go to meditation classes. My dad seemed full of energy and he would go for his morning walks and meet some of his friends at the Evergreen Village Square. He would help my mom out with cutting vegetables (which he would do so meticulously). He was spending time with my daughter Hrishika helping her with some Math workbooks. He would accompany me for my walks in the evening. He kept himself very busy. We were all waiting for August 31st, my due date.

On August 4th, 2007 my parents and my husband threw a very special "Surprise baby shower" for me. They invited all our friends and made it a day to remember. My good friend from Engineering, Meena even baked a cake for my baby shower. My cousin Stuthi conducted some fun games. All in all it was a very memorable day. It is more special to me because I got to celebrate it with my dad.

One day I just noticed that my dad's eyes looked yellow. I didn't think much about it then. He too said it seemed yellow. Then we thought he should get checked by a doctor, all the while thinking it was something simple like Jaundice. So my dad went to the doctor and she did some tests and she said that he needed some more check ups.

On August 25th was Raksha Bhandhan. So my uncle Gowri Kumar and his wife made a visit to our home, so my mom could tie a Rakhi to her brother. It was a tradition in our family. Unexpectedly even my husbands' sister's family showed up too. So she tied a Rakhi to Rao and so on. Then we all had dinner and we were chatting. Suddenly something felt funny. I went to the bathroom and realized that my water broke. So immediately my husband and I rushed to the hospital and I was admitted for delivery.

The next morning I delivered a baby boy. I found out that my dad too was admitted in the county hospital for further examination. After couple of days I returned home with the baby. My dad was still at the hospital. He came home after 5 days. He looked very pale and weak. I could not control my tears, when I saw my dad so weak. He looked very tired. He was given lot of medication. Still my dad managed to smile through all that and said he was OK. I said he didn't look like my dad with overgrown beard. So next morning he shaved and said, " tell me how do I look now? Do I look like your dad?". I said most certainly.

The doctors had advised that he leave for India immediately for further treatment. So in a hurry Rao changed their tickets and my parents left the very next day. That was the last time I got to speak to my dad in person.

Next day they reached Bangalore and my sister Kalyani was already waiting for them in Bangalore and had made arrangements for his admission in Manipal hospital. So he was taken straight from airport to the hospital. I have to say my Mom did a superb job of taking my dad to India all by herself. It was no easy task.

The next few months I was in constant touch with my parents through phone. My dad was in and out of hospital for various procedures. It was a tough time for everybody to see my dad go through all this. My dad always put a brave front. Whenever I got a chance to chat with him on the phone and ask him how he was doing, his answer was always the same, "I'm OK". Never once did I hear my dad complain about a single thing, even when he had to endure so much pain from all those various procedures. My sister's Sharada and Kalyani took turns to be on my dad's side when he needed them the most. They are so lucky to have gotten to spend all that precious time with him.

In January of 2008 my parents made a very tough decision to go to Hyderabad to see a doctor in a reputed hospital to undergo a very important surgery. Once my dad went through that surgery he could not completely recover. His body was too weak by then, with all those previous surgeries he went through.

On February 22nd I received a call from India asking us to come right away. First thing we did was to apply for an Indian visa for my son, Harshul who was just 6 months old at that time and my husband went to San Francisco the same day to get the visa stamped. We left for India on Monday, February 25th and arrived midnight of Tuesday February 26th. My little sister Malathi and her family too arrived on the same day an hour later than us. We went directly from the airport to the hospital where my dad was admitted.

When I saw my dad that night at the hospital, my heart sank. He was hooked up to all that machinery for oxygen, water etc. He didn't look anything like what I remember of him. It was almost like looking at a stranger. He was just skin and bones. I cried a lot. I could not control my tears. It was one of the hardest moments in my life. After spending sometimeI had to head to my sister Kalyani's home to shower and take care of my son's needs. I fed him some Gerber rice cereal and handed him over to my husband.

All my sisters and my mom's sister Padmaja we all headed back to the hospital in the early hours (around 4 a.m. or so) of February 27th. We left all our kids with our husbands at my sister's home. Once we got there we were all very sad to see my dad in that condition. Then my aunt Padmaja gave us a brilliant idea. She said, "All of you take turns and tell your dad what you want to from your heart. He is definitely listening. He just can't respond back". We took that idea to heart and took turns and spoke to our dad. Instead of just crying, we actually started telling him all we wanted to say to him. For that I have to thank my aunt.

After couple of hours or so my mom ( it was I who convinced her to go home to just get a short break. She was by my dad's side all through out.), my aunt, my sister Kalyani and I returned home to take care of kids. My sisters Sharada and Malathi stayed back at the hospital. Later that morning we got the dreaded news. At that time in my mind I felt that it was the right thing. I could not see him in the state he was in. I felt that the soul had to be set free from that body. I know in my heart that my dad was waiting patiently as always for my sister Malathi and I. He gave us that most important opportunity to meet him one final time. For that I will be forever indebted to him.

Thank you nannagaru from the bottom of my heart. Your presence is always felt in my heart.

Funny Faces!!!

2008-05-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

During my visit to India, my mom cut a vegetable (I forgot which vegetable it was) getting ready to cook and this is what we saw. They looked like happy faces (and some not so happy). So I decided to take some pictures .... Funny isn't it?!!!

Our Bundle of Joy has Finally Arrived!!!

2007-08-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

What an amazing feeling to hold a new life!!!!!

My husband and I decided to keep it a surprise, the gender of the baby. So we had no idea as to weather it was going to be a boy or a girl. My due date was 31st of August, 2007. However my water broke on 25th of August around 9:30 p.m. We immediately rushed to the hospital. It took us half an hour to get there. Thank God that it was a Saturday and late in the evening. There was absolutely no traffic. Once we got there I got admitted and the whole birthing process began. I don't want to get into any details... I remember spending a whole lot of time pushing. Finally the baby came out. The nurse immediately took the baby and started cleaning the baby.... My husband was right next to her watching her clean the baby. That's when my husband yells ... "it's a Boy!!" The baby was born on August 26th, 2007 at 8:26 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs, 3oz and was 21" long. We named him Harshul. Harshul means "full of joy" in Sanskrit.

Then I got to hold the baby for the first time. What an amazing feeling. Words can't describe the feeling. After the long wait you get to finally see the baby.

Around The World

2007-05-08T19:49:00.000-07:00

The following are some of the souvenirs and travel memorabilia from around the world given to us by our family and friends.

When I saw these different souvenirs from different parts of the world, an old Hindi song, "Mera Joota Hai Japani" from movie "Shree 420" came to my mind. So I searched the net and linked it above.

Enjoy.

School Choir.

2006-09-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of this school year my daughter has been missing her music class the most. That's because this year she started going to a public school and since the funds are low, music has taken a back seat at public schools.

My daughter has been telling me all along that she is really interested in a music class especially a class where she can sing. So just today we found out that her school was offering a beginner choir class for first graders. The music teacher was willing to take just the first 30 students. I was afraid that we may be too late and may not be able to get her enrolled in the class. To my surprise my daughter was the first one to get registered for the class. That was a relief. In fact they already had their first class today. The music teacher is great and my daughter loved the class.

The music teacher told us about the K8 Kid Tunes where she gets all her songs for the music class.

Visit to the Temple

2006-09-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

My family along with our friends went to the Livermore temple. It's been a while since we went there. My daughter was very excited about the trip just because her best friend was coming along. It usually takes us a while to wake her up, but not this time. She was the first to wake up and was eager to get ready and get started.

I decided to make some prasadam to offer to God. I prepared some yellow rice and halwa. We were supoosed to start by 10:00 A.M. in the morning, instead we only left home by 11:00 A.M. However everythng worked out well since we reached there just in time for abhishekam at Lord Venkateshwara. The pujari offered our prasadam to the God.

The atmosphere at the temple was very peaceful and relaxing. It always reminds me of India. After that we all had our prasadam, along with other prasadams offered at the temple and headed back home.

Starting a New Blog for My Mom.

2006-09-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

My mom is one of those people in this world who I look up to the most. She is always full of energy and there is never a dull moment around her. She plans her day to the fullest. She is one of those people who can easily make friends even with total strangers. Whenever she visits (from India) me and my sisters here in the US she makes a lot of friends on her way here.

Anyways the reason I thought I shall give her a blog is because, she is always giving great advice to me. I thought she can give great advice to many more this way. She wanted to write down her thoughts somewhere. I thought what better way to do that than to blog these days. She is technically savvy for her age using email and Internet for all kinds of stuff.

My mom loves to cook. When ever she is here I rarely enter the kitchen. She always prepares yummy food. She is good with coming up with recipes based on ingredients at hand and tries to speed up the cooking process. So I started a "Cook Book" for her. This way I could always refer to her recipes online without having to call her at some odd hours at night or day. Also this way even her grand kids could refer to her recipes.

The picture I have here is from her cookbook. It is from her "Dum Aaloo" recipe (mouth watering isn't it?!!!) Here is the link to her blog ......

Amma's Cook Book

Enjoy!!!

Back From an Interview......

2006-09-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Interviews are stressfull no matter what. Just got back from my second round of interviews. I had my first round a couple of days before that. I was interviewing for a hardware engineering position for a company in Silicon Valley. Why is it that you think you have done well in the interview and the result says otherwise. I could never figure that out. I was told that even if one person out of all the people who interviewed you does not want you to be hired, then the interview falls through. Not fair isn't it.... but then... who says life is fair.

I thought I was a good fit for the position they were looking for and had the right experience. Then I get this call from the hiring manager, who said I may not be hired as one of the managers who interviewed me thought, my experience was not what they were looking for... bummer. I was kinda surprised to say the least. Also it kinda upset me. I don't know is it just me or does everybody take these interviews to heart. To me it is like failing a test or something. I take it too personally. My husband always says it is the company's loss if they did not hire me.... just to make me feel better... but it doesn't seem to help at all. I'm sure I will feel much better about this whole interview thing tomorrow (or worse).

In the mean time since I'm done with both the interview rounds I shall relax.

Steve Jobs Commencement address at Stanford University

2006-08-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Photo Courtesy : http://www.stanford.edu/

I have always been a great fan of Steve Jobs and Apple Computers. I love all Apple has to offer. Such innovative products. Mac is simply awesome. The iPods are cool too. Steve Jobs is so innovative and always one (may be several) step ahead of everybody else in the industry. Apple is the first company to introduce color to the computer world!! Having said all that when I came across this speech delivered by Steve Jobs at Stanford university's commencement address I wanted to share with others.

Here's the link to his commencement address .....

Video of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address
Text of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address (2005)

Winter Olympics February 10-26, 2006

2006-03-06T18:32:00.000-08:00

The winter Olympic games came to an end a week ago in Turin, Italy. I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics, be it summer or winter Olympics. It is great to see the Olympic spirit among the athletes. I think sports are the best way to bring the world together and forget about all the acts of terrorism and war that has become part of the day to day news these days.

As always there had to be some drama surrounding these games. This time it was between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick of US speed skating team. I personally support Shani Davis in his decision, not to pursue the team event. He became part of history by being the first black athlete to win a gold medal in winter Olympics, winning the 1000 meters speed skating race. The other event which I found a bit odd was the silver medal for Sasha Cohen of US in spite of her falling twice in figure skating. Anyways who am I to judge!

I wish one day India too has an Olympic gold.....

Looking forward to the summer Olympics of 2008 at Beijing!!!!

Just Got Back From India!

2006-02-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

I just got back from India. Wow! That was a great trip. I last visited India 2 years ago. Way too many changes in India this time around. I had been to Bangalore and some parts of Andhra Pradesh. Suddenly Bangalore feels more like Bombay with way too many high rise apartments any where you look. Lots of new shopping malls (Garuda mall, The Forum, Central mall ... just to name a few) all over Bangalore. This is the first time I felt as if I don't know this place anymore. That's odd since I spent most of my growing years there and I visit India every other year.

The other big thing is the economy in India seems to be booming. It does feel like silicon valley with respect to companies, since most of the big names have an office there. However there is one thing that needs immediate attention. That is the roads almost anywhere in the city (even around the airports) need to be improved drastically. So what used to take 15 to 20 minutes to commute previously, now takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. It could only get worse from here on once all the new apartment complexes get filled up. That would be a real nightmare

Overall there are lots of positive changes in India and economy is boo........ming!!!

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company : Collectibles

2005-12-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

Living in Silicon valley, we are lucky to be so close to Ghirardelli Chocolate Company based in San Francisco. Each year during Christmas season the company chooses a new way to package their candy and sell it at Costco. This year it was a horse carriage, the old west style with all the details.

The details on the carriage were amazing. They had 3 metal tins made to look like treasure chests filled with variety of candy.

Here you can see the metal tins placed inside the wagon.

I happened to own a horse made out of bronze, which my in-laws got from India for us. I just wanted to see if it fits. Voila ... a perfect fit. A match made in chocolate heaven. Wouldn't you agree?!!