Funny Faces!!!

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?!!!

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Our Bundle of Joy has Finally Arrived!!!

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.

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Around The World

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.

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School Choir.

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.

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Visit to the Temple

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.

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Starting a New Blog for My Mom.

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!!!

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Back From an Interview......

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.

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Steve Jobs Commencement address at Stanford University

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)

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Winter Olympics February 10-26, 2006

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!!!!

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Just Got Back From India!

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!!!

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Ghirardelli Chocolate Company : Collectibles

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?!!

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