Baby Steps

Little Niku just took his first few steps. The family's run into a frenzy. Poor fella has no clue why his mom's whooping with joy and his dad can't stop grinning. Come to think of it...this is probably among the most celebrated milestones in a person's life; one that brings nothing but pure joy to the parents... I wonder how many whoops there would be when he goes off teary eyed on his first day to school or takes up that awesome job in another city or brings home a bride of his choice :P

Hmm..can't wait for the first tooth to appear...

Chennai-Noida-Orlando-Noida-Chennai

Just received an email from an old friend..."So where are you based out of these days?" he asks.

Good question...I would have to say..."out of a suitcase"

Two years after I thought I had left Noida for good...I had to pack my bags and go back for what I can only be thankful for...a short term assignment. Pity though that nothing has changed in this place. Most members of the male species...right from the rickshaw walas to the nice looking gentlemen will leer at anything that's female. Although, their perseverance does amaze me...once they catch sight of female footwear in the passenger leg space of an auto rickshaw, even the crazy traffic cannot deter them from craning their necks to have peek into the back seat of the auto where I am trying to make myself invisible. Hmm...maybe I should try wearing men's shoes the next time.

The traffic norms are mind boggling...its actually safer to keep driving when the signal is red...coz if you don't the guys behind you choose to use their weapon of mass ear splittuction (ok...thats not a real word)...this is one place where your car horn can actually make the vehicle ahead of you go faster. Although, watch out when the signal turns green...thats when the Schumachers on the other side think its alright to cut across in their Ferraris.

But I must say, this part of the country does have gorgeous looking people...sadly looks aren't everything :(

After a few fun weeks of reacquainting myself with the city and catching up with old mates...I flew to Orlando...a city that got me sun burnt and rain drenched on the very day that I landed. Touted to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, I did my routine google search on "places to visit and things to do". All I got was theme parks and water parks...hmmm kind of a damper for someone with an immense aversion to amusement parks. Not that I have anything against them...its just that my only reaction after a high speed/revolving/bumpy ride is a revolting urge to throw up on the person sitting next to me. Seems like a waste of money (10,000 bucks...are you freakin kidding me!!!) when I can get the same reaction by swinging my nephew around. Anyway, we did find a bunch of beaches that were quite nice. The night life, though not much, was pretty fun too...especially one particularly raucous place (can't remember the name though).

After a month of restaurant hopping, window shopping and wandering around in general (don't judge me...I did get some work done as well), me and my suitcase returned to Noida. Perfect timing...probably the best time of the year to be in this city. With winter starting to slowly creep in, the air is crisp and cool...and the pretty Diwali lights makes one want to stand around and stare...at least until the house owners start to get suspicious of you. With the short term assignment coming to a close... I'm actually a bit disappointed to be missing Dilli ki Sardi...

Back in Chennai now...I am however going to give it some more time before I put an actual location to the end of the sentence "I am based out of _____"...for now its still the suitcase.

Isn't age supposed to mellow one down... I seem to be turning into a brat!!!

Abseiling...!!!

"If you can walk…you can abseil" that's what the brochure said…or something like that. On a sudden whim, I pick up the phone and register myself with the Australian School of Mountaineering for a beginner's course in abseiling. So rubbing the last dredges of sleep from my eyes I caught the 6 AM train to Katoomba the last Saturday of February (yes, this is a long overdue post). The train ride was actually quite pleasant…although I guess it would have been a lot nicer without that slowly growing ball of fear in the pit of my stomach. A few hours later I got off at the Katoomba station and walked out into a pretty little town that was just waking up a beautiful morning. Realising that I was quite early, I walked into a cafe nearby. Pretty easy to forget all those scary mountain side images that your mind has conjured up, when you're seated at a dew drizzled table having freshly brewed coffee under the clear blue sky. Well, I guess such moments of bliss are not be enjoyed for long, and so on legs that suddenly felt like lead, I made my way towards the climbing centre.

The climb group was a small one, five members including me and an instructor. After a brief introduction we chose our equipment...a helmet, a smelly right hand glove (to avoid rope burns...eeks!!) and a harness that made no sense whatsoever. Anyways no questions asked, armed with our equipment and an extremely large picnic hamper (...oh goody!!) we drove down towards the mountains. After a few brief instructions we donned our equipment...in my case, I managed to get tangled a few times with the harness and had to be helped out by the chuckling instructor. As it turned out the glove that I had picked out...the smallest size that I could find...was still a bit too large for my hand and kept slipping off. Too late to do anything about that, so looking like bunch of troopers we headed off on the trail.

Few minutes down, the narrow trail opened into a clearing with two cliffs in clear view. We were to descend the smaller one first...about 6 mts...for a bit of practise and then try our hands(& legs) on the higher one which was approx 15 mts. Didn't seem too bad until we turned around and saw the third target...25 mts!!! Okay...calm down...let's just focus on 6mts for now.. Turned out to be a piece of cake... this abseiling stuff is easy... whew... Moving on...15 mts...the bottom of the cliff is not really a pretty sight from the top...especially when in your mind's eye you can see yourself spreadeagled at the bottom. The trick is to descend as if your simply walking back wards….keeping your legs perpendicular to the ground...not that easy when the "ground" is really a rocky side. But somehow the knowledge that the slightest slip could either turn you upside down or could bang your face into the rocks makes it a bit more easier to maintain focus. Was a bit shaky at first, but I did quite well on 15mts as well.

25 mts doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, the sight of a huge rock overhang which we were told had to be negotiated by "sliding down till the tip of your toes, then letting go and swinging in" can make you go cold. The thought of doing that drained out all of my puffed up confidence. Nevertheless I did manage to sling in my harness and take a few steps off the cliff. Was it just a healthy respect for heights or was it a fear of bashing my head against the rock overhang, I'll never know for sure, but I pretty much hit the panic button and scrambled back up. After two more similar attempts, I gave up and sat on a rock stuffing my face with rice crackers while the other abseiled down.

With everyone in high spirits, we now move on to 35 ft...(yeah sure...big yayyee...) Any way after a quick lunch (the picnic hamper was really loaded) we made our way to another location. Thirty five freakin feet...we were standing atop a precarious ledge and couldn't even move our rubbery feet to take a peek down. I hung back, waiting for the other four to abseil down, trying to make up my mind on whether I'm crazy enough to try this. The shaken expression on another gal's face didn't really help...anyway egged on by the rest of the group (awesome bunch i must say...only wish they would pronounce my name correctly) I decided to give it a fair shot. To be honest, I think I did quite well...felt a lot more steady than on the 25 ft slope...At one point though, I lost my right hand grip on the rope (thanks to the large sized glove) and lost my footing. Must have slid down a couple of feet before I regained my footing.

Kept going steady again and then I saw my nemesis loom large right below me...a huge rock overhang... Sensing my fear (...and my pleading), the instructor yells out to carefully move to the right and slide down...not recommended though. Wasn't a wise move...should have listened to the instructor...anyway i ended up losing my footing. Involuntarily I let out a string of syllables that I can't really write down on a public blog...thats when I looked around and saw two climbers and another instructor a few feet away...grinning away at my outburst. Turns out I was only a couple of feet from the ground...

May not sound like much, but it felt like I could conquer the world after that. Like another fellow abseiler remarked, "You did this, now you can do anything!!!"

Six months down, the euphoria has disappeared, but I still have an awesome story to tell my little nephew. I won't be telling him the final bit though...we went on to 50 ft...didn't attempt that one though...saving it for my next stint at abseiling!!!

time to say goodbye...

Parting is never easy they say... Seated on a flight back to India, my mind wanders back to the day I arrived in Sydney. The summer night was crisp as I walked out of the airport to meet AV, a colleague who barely knew me but had still cared enough to come pick me up and take me to her home for the night. I’m not really sure when I lost my heart to this city; maybe it was the next afternoon on the train when I saw Sydney Harbour in its full glory, or maybe it was when I saw that childlike gleam in AV’s eyes when she saw the opera house. AV if you’re reading this post; have really missed you after you left Sydney... Tuesday movie nights and pizzas at Encasa haven’t been the same without you. Even the hot chocolate at Bill’s coffee place on wintery evenings is not that much fun without your gossip

Life has been quite a ride with my quirky house mate S. I think I have lost count of your peculiar aches & pains...now that I think of it, maybe it has something to do with your chilli fanaticism. My drinking mate and a great cook...it’s a pity we never got around to that salsa pub. Good luck for the future and do remember what I said about the Irish men in your life 

AN...just another friendly face at work...soon became my friend, counsellor and mom in Sydney. Thanks for all your care and concern...wish I could have come around to your place for fish curry once more before I left.

J the stoic man of few words, who would break into a smile at the unlikeliest of moments. Thanks for always being my saviour at work. M & E, my foodie friends....I think we have discussed food more than work. J & M, seemed like school kids when I first met them....turned out to be excellent work mates and great friends. I’m not really sure what the story is but I hope things work out great for you two.

Walks along the beach...sneaking sushi into Max Brenner’s and falafel rolls into the boat club... racing across the Sydney university courtyard...watching the ships from Lady Macquarie’s Chair...I will always cherish the sweet summer evenings spent with BW. I still have no clue how you would get tickets to all those bizarre movies that nobody else seemed to want to watch...btw you look way better than the real BW:)
I’m glad for all the laughs we had...wish they could go on a bit longer. Wonder how things could have turned out if I had stayed back...but I hope I have made a friend forever in you. As the plane leaves Sydney airport, my mind goes back to the evenings spent on Brighton watching the planes take off in the distance...it hurts to say good bye which is why I didn’t. Another time, another place, things could have ended differently... so until our paths cross again...au revoir.

Stay...

Lately this song seems to follow me wherever I go. Brings back memories from the early nineties when this used to play quite a lot on MTV. One of the few songs I liked...probably coz it was one of those videos that seemed to narrate a straightforward story to my kiddie mind.

The hero is deathly sick...the heroine (who I referred to as the ‘Stay girl’) is singing to him to stay and not die. Partway through the song, the ‘Doom Doom” girl enters... (mind you this has no sexual connotation but twas just coz of the change in music beats when she appears)...and tries to take the hero away from the heroine. Finally the ‘Stay’ girl’s love triumphs and the ‘Doom Doom’ girl has to leave. Woohoo...wonder why they don't make such bollywood movies anymore...!!!

The song "Stay" is a 1992 single from UK based pop duo Shakespears Sister

For a long time though, I thought these two girls were actually Shakespear’s sisters...

Australia is not racist they say... hang on... who’s ‘they’...??

Some Indian bloke representing the Indian community in Australia comes on the morning show to say that Indians in Oz don’t believe that Australians are racist. Personally I don’t have anything to refute this comment...lived for over a year in this country and I have never faced racial bigotry myself. If anything, I have dealt with more prejudice in India; I was kaali or blackie in school (referring to my dark complexion), called as south Indian or madraasi in Delhi, north Indian in Chennai...to the Australians however, I’m always the young Indian lady... sounds so much better...

But eight attacks on Indian students and hundreds more similar cases now coming out in the media...c’mon people...get real... there has to be something wrong somewhere. Who knows what the truth is... some say the attackers are not Aussies but kids from other ethnic communities...some say the attacks are on another community and it’s being twisted by the media to look like Indian racist attacks.

But the fact that Indian students continue to be soft targets, makes it a tad difficult to believe that these are purely opportunistic crimes. The so called well settled, well paid Indian community representatives need to realise that the victims are students coming from India; ones who don’t have the money to live in the better suburbs of Sydney, who have to work late shifts to make end meet, who cannot afford to take a cab home on late nights...

Again, I do not make any claims of racism; but the fact that these attacks continue unabated does indicate an underlying apathy towards Indian victims

Roop Tera...

Woke up this morning with a sudden yearning for old Bollywood songs. So got onto YouTube with a bowl of suji halwa that I managed to burn in my hurry to get into the retro mode. The burnt breakfast was soon forgotten amongst Shammi Kapoor’s body breaking dance moves and Rajesh Khanna’s head bobs.

At some point I came across the song Roop Tera Mastana…and realised that I had only ever watched the remixed version and never the original. Picturized on a very young looking Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore wrestling with the age old question…‘to do or not to do’…this is probably one of the most sensual songs from the 70s that I have seen. Forced to take shelter in some kind of a shed due to a very Bollywood istyle sudden thunderstorm, the hero with a lost puppy expression follows the doe eyed heroine around a fire trying to coax her into his arms. The clip goes on for about three and half minutes with nothing but the young couple gazing into each others’ eyes, holding hands, and the occasional half embrace which makes them both go pink in the face. Made me smile when I realised that my eyes had been glued onto the screen for the full length of the clip Without steamy scenes or raunchy moves…the song manages to tell the story without making parents jump for the remote. Kudos to whoever directed the intimate sequence with such innocent simplicity. Not quite sure if the same would work for 21st century Bollywood though… :)

“How many Test Centuries has Sachin Tendulkar scored?” asks my manager on a tipsy Friday evening after work. Seeing the blank look on my face he quips “You’re Indian, you’re a girl and you’re from Mumbai. How can you not know the answer to that question??!!!”

Cute guy from work…the first time we have an actual conversation he asks “Do you like sports?” Before I can figure out a sport that I may even remotely be able to have an intelligent conversation on, he remarks, “You probably like cricket don’t you?”

“Why aren’t you going berserk and taking pictures with the cricketers??!!!” a genuinely surprised Aussie friend asks at a celebrity cricket match at the SCG

After all, isn’t that what Indians are supposed to be…crazy cricket fans?!!
Somehow I missed that train...just didn't think it would come back this way...

This song makes me want to cry...maybe its just Meryl Streep...

why do I even bother!!?

Wrapped in my own thoughts, I got into the wrong bus yesterday after work. Didn’t realize it was the wrong one until the bus slowed down couple of stops before mine and took a turn in an another new direction. The next stop came a few more random turns later, dropping me off at what looked like one of the plushest locales of Sydney. Feeling pretty optimistic that I’d be able to track my way back, I started plodding in the opposite direction of the bus. A few minutes of walking (…it was more of sauntering down the stoned pathways, gawking at the classy houses and the jazzy cars) and realization dawns that I am officially lost.

Oooh...out comes the GPS enabled phone…who knew providence would present the prospect of putting my phone to good use so soon :D
Unfortunately, I still haven’t learnt to use the GPS functionality nor have I loaded the maps.
Hmmm…time for plan B. I can still connect to the internet and access Google maps…how resourceful am I! Although, by the time I managed to type in the address using that tiny little qwerty keypad on the screen, I truly started appreciating my laptop keyboard a lot more. Typing with the tips of your fingernails is not exactly an agreeable experience. Anyway, I got the job done and the map started to load…uh oh…what’s that little message on the screen…”NO CREDIT”. Serves me right for not topping up my phone credit.

Backup plan (sigh)…put on your best smile and run up to the next person you see on the street. I guess, sometimes its better to stuff technology and go the old fashioned way…just ASK for directions!

Just spent most of the morning sweating it out at the gym. Then rewarded myself with a dark chocolate frappe loaded with whipped cream...talk about maintaining a balance...heh heh

moi new toy

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, the closest being a far-flung attempt to pen down some random thoughts which ended up as squiggly doodles on my note pad. For lack of anything remotely interesting to blog about, I take a trip down that dusty memory lane looking for something to mull over. This goes back to a time when mobile phones were still a luxury for students…well…for most students so to speak. Never really cared much for gadgets…that is, until I was bought my first mobile phone…an LG handset. Now the LG RD 2030 is far from being a glitzy device…but man did I love that shiny piece of contrivance!!! A fairly good phone for the price, but two years down the line, it became an eyesore…I don’t think I’ll ever get over that that hideous bright blue backlight. I wonder if this handset is still in the market though…hmm...

With his little girl finally leaving home for a University hostel, Dad decides to buy her a new phone…another LG handset… the LG RD2690. A bit chunky among the sleeker Nokia phones that my mates seemed to have; but I took an immediate liking for it. It served my limited needs of calling and texting…no ugly antenna…and a soft green backlight. Although the Nokia 1100 did make me a bit jealous at times…seemed like such a cool phone to hang around your neck (what was I thinking…)


Another few years down the line, comes the first job and along with it, the first overseas trip. Panic hits the family when they realize that my phone does not have triband and cannot be used outside the country. Tech savvy older brother steps in and buys me my next phone. Knowing my limited technological precincts, he picked out the perfect one…the Nokia 6030. Ideal for calling and texting, awesome battery life and robust enough for me to safely throw against the wall after fights with Mom.

Anyway over time, smarter & advanced handsets began to make my phone look like a plain Jane. Add to that the dawning realization that I was geographically challenged made me start coveting the snazzy GPS enabled gizmos that had hit the market. However, the insane price tags ensured that I kept postponing the purchase. The last straw though was the loss of my MP3 player…figured I might as well invest the dough in a good phone than in replacing the player.
So after three long years I finally dumped the Nokia 6030 (hope Daddy dear likes his present) and in came the… wait for it... (drum roll…)…the Samsung Omnia!!! … (Yes that’s right people…tough luck if you were expecting it to be the Iphone)

3G, Bluetooth, TFT Touchscreen, qwerty keypad, GPS, 5MP camera…the works…its got it all!! Although, I must admit…it’s been a few weeks into the purchase and I still haven’t quite learnt my way around the phone (the tech crazy older brother would probably disown me if he knew this). Woke up in the middle of the night some days back wondering why the room light was still switched on, only to realize that I screwed up the phone settings and the backlight would not turn off. Anyway, don’t worry about me…I’m getting there…

Meanwhile, just so you know, the purpose of this post was not to reveal my bumbling ineptness at gadgets nor was it to review the Samsung Omnia (although if you do want a review of it, visit this link http://www.cnet.com.au/mobilephones/phones/0,239025953,339291821,00.htm). It was just so I could gloat and shout ‘Hey look at me…I’m the chick with the new flashy phone!!!’ ;D

Turns out what I thought to be a sore throat were actually badly infected tonsils. Spent the last few days in bed, drugged and fuzzed out. Unfortunately that meant that new yrs eve saw me huddled feverish under the blanket watching the harbour bridge fireworks on TV… certainly not how I had planned to bid 2008 adieu. Anyway, ‘09 is here and here’s to a great year for everyone.