Tanisha's first birthday

Happy Birthday our little darling, Tanisha. Though we haven't met as of today but soon, your bua & fufu will meet you. We've heard you are cheerful and smiling and on this special day we wish that your life is full of happiness, health and prosperity. Wish you good luck our sweetheart! I am dying to meet you.

Five years from now...

The world as we know it is in for some dramatic and devastating changes. Explore the possibilities, see what other believe. Some say the Calendar is going to end on this date.. that is on Dec 21, 2012.

Well how I found out? Simple, I've read it in my school books about how the day is relatively small on Dec 21. And just to make sure if Dec 21 is the day, I went online and saw what? Not information of the day being small but this day after five years the world is going to end. Curious? Read for yourself!.


They are correlating with science at times and sometimes with the Mayan Prophecy!

Our dream car!

Finally the zoom zoom zoom is here! Yay, we got our new car home delivered this Monday afternoon. It's classy, it's gorgeous, it's sharp, and it's Black in color. The model we have got is Mazda CX 9. Motor Trend announced this car as the 2008 Sport/Utility of the Year. Some call it SUV [Sports Utility Vehicle] and some CUV [Cross over Vehicle].

Getting a new car can be one hellva job! Seriously, it’s been almost 2 months and over since we started the car hunting exercise. And we know how much energy we have drained into short listing cars, going through consumer reports, going to various dealers, trying to find out if the specific model matches the specs we are looking at. Hats off to Amit for working on this day and night, sending faxes to the dealers, calling them and doing the research, just to find out the dream car of ours!

In the end, all I can say is that it was worth it :).



Now that it's here, we took her (I guess I would call her she :)), on road first time yesterday. And her first visit was to the temple. We offered our prayers and seeked blessing for the new vehicle. I will post pictures soon of the ceremony. Amit is quite cautious while driving this new car as its bigger, heavy and new! And we both are too nervous and vigilant to make our car have a single dust particle. Wow! can you imagine how possessive we can be for our new vehicle!

We are now hoping to take this beauty for a long drive and for that we have to plan a long trip soon. I am hoping to accumulate some of my vacation time to zoom zoom zoom on our dream car soon!

Helping Hands for Indians..

If you have a function/party at your home/office and if there is excess food available at the end, please don't hesitate to call 1098 (only in India) - child helpline. They will come and collect the food. Please circulate this message which can help feed many children.

"Helping hands are better than Praying Lips"

Special Thanks to Ankush for spreading the news!

India's car market

Check this out. I was browsing through one of the online Florida newspapers and I came across a video link which analyzes India car market.

It's quite interesting. Watch the video by clicking here.

Me is Back!

Yay! I am back, not only to blogging but also back from vacation. I was in India this November and reached back Dec 1, 2007. Last two months went like crazy!

October - was an eventful month with activities followed by one after another. Mostly it was not a good month. And thats why I was not too active to the blogging space. Amit met with an accident starting of October (touch wood he wasn't hurt), our car got totaled and then we were hunting for a new car (and still are...)and one of our immediate neighbors expired.

Well I don't want to think about the events in October cause that makes me sad and bring back some sad memories.

But yes, soon after all those uneventful happenings, we went to India. We were planning since long and finally achieved our dream. I will write more in detail about what all I did. I must admit, I am loaded with plenty of stories and i will definitely write back soon!!!

Adios Summer

Urgh. Having a cold just makes everything else harder. Yeah, this past weekend was busy with fever, cold and body aches. Well, as you can determine that these are very well signs of flu. I had to give a farewell to the summer, and I guess my body immunity planned this as a way to give the summer an adios and welcome the winter. As my body is still busy fighting the infection, I decided to take a day off and get some rest.

Not used to sitting back idle at home, I browsed couple of website, and wallah, what did I find....Dig it dig it fellas'..

Being a Piscesan, it comes natural that I am attached to the the fish genere'. Yeah, I got a new widget for my blog template and named it "Feed my fishes". Watch how they eagerly swim toward your mouse hoping that you’ll drop a few flakes of food for them.

Time to play!!! yeah.

Ganesha Chaturthi and Visarjan

Last week, Amit and I, went to the temple as usual on Tuesday evening. We did our normal prayers without realizing that the same day was the day of Ganesha Visarjan. Although the Marathi community had already celebrated Ganesha Visarjan two days back, i.e. on Sunday, but still couple of UCF (University of Central Florida) students had brought their own stapit Ganesha idol to perform the visarjan ceremony. I consider ourselves lucky that we got an opportunity to participate in this great ritual.

Back in Pune (India), I realized the importance of Ganesha Chaturthi and how significantly it is celebrated in parts of Maharashtra. I was astonished to see how Ganesh ji is carved by creative sculptures & try their hands to make them come to life. It's one festival I was unaware of its popularity until I went to Pune and felt the festivity myself. It's amazing and hard to express in words...

Ganesha, is know for generating work, adding meaning to people's life and giving them hope for future. People during the Ganesha Chaturthi pray the lord for hope to return soon next year. 'Ganpati Bappa Moriya Pudhchya Varshi Lavkarya'

Help Suresh

I received an email from H4 forums, stating a story about Two of the Indian student had accident one passed away, one Suresh Penchala, 24 is in trauma ICU. It is sad as it is but it is more disheartening to know that Suresh doesn't have the insurance and the US medical system is not opening its arms to help...

Help Suresh!

Weekend is over

Why does the weekend goes by super fast? This weekend flew by fast and slow. When I wanted to spend more time resting, it was already time to wake up and rush to work. What did I do this weekend? Now couple of things...

- Shopping. We went to Kissimmee, which is about an hr drive to hunt for some good gifts for our India visit. In turn, I bought a bunch of stuff for myself!! Yeah, thats how we gurls are, aren't we??
- We went to Mustafa's birthday. He turned 31 this year. Amazing how time flies. When I came here to US, he was among the first few friends of Amit that I met and Motiwala's son was just born. And now, their son, Armaan is 2 years, all up and running around and asking us to chase him. Gosh, seems i have been here since ages!

Well, there is nothing more fruitful that we did this past weekend. Next weekend might just be a bit more happening, as a Mata ki Chauki invitation is lined up and I am looking forward to it.

Ciao for now :)

Happy birthday

Comm'n now, my birthday doesn't fall in September. All I have come across this mechanical video shot on You tube which I would love to share...Its kinda cute :)

It's really been a while....

Wow! I can't believe, I haven't blogged in a while. Yep. Last time was when I went to Chicago and its already been what, 2 months!!!!!!!!

Well, doesn't it explain itself that I have been keeping busy. Not sure where and how but these two months passed away like in a jiffy. Now I cant go over each and every instance but in the broader sense can just share that the major thing that happened in past two months is:

1- We have decided to go to India!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! And I am super happy about it. I can't explain how excited I am and how am I counting my days and hrs to reach the root land and smell that beautiful aroma of Desi darthi. Yes, thats one major reason for not scrapping here.

2- There have been too many baby news. To start of with, my dearest and most adorable cousin, Kangan was blessed with a sweet little angel. She named her Navika. I am dying to see her this time when I visit India. Gosh, its been almost 3 years I haven't seen my sister. The next baby newz came from Ancy in Pune who is again blessed by sweet lil girl, followed my friend Mansi blessed by baby boy, followed my ex-colleague Suman from Pune again, blessed with a baby boy. Wait!! Have I missed anyone? I guess not. Even if I missed mentioning someone's name here in the list of baby news, then that will be a good enough reason to come back and scrap. Correct?

Now let me scratch my head to figure out what else kept me busy.....mmmmmmm.

oh ya!

Akhil was in town for about 4-5 days. Akhil is my Mamaji's son and he was here with us from Dallas to spend the long weekend vacation time. It was nice to have him with us. However, sad part is that during his visit, he sprained his knee. And due to the hurt, he wasn't able to see much of the surrounding areas. Now i am sure he would have to plan again to see how beautiful our Orlando area is.

Coming down to the fourth major reason for me staying away from blogging. I made two new friends. Purvi, being one and Nikki the other. Purvi and Nikki are regular visitors to the library and one of our common friends brought us together. Both are very nice and have a beautiful soul. Purvi is blessed with a cute lil son, Ishaan who is just 5 months old and keeps her busy. Whereas Nikki is an avid reader and love books. Thats why Library is THE place to spot her!!

What else, mmmmmm... well we have started looking to buy a new car and have started exploring what to go for and what all pieces we should stay away from. About that, i think i would have more posts to fill in as and when we shortlist the no.'s.

Chalo, I guess thats quite an update from my end to catch up. Will post the next one soon. This time, I am hoping not to put such a long gap as I did this time. It looses the flow...

Alright, Ciao till the next time I hop in with more happenings at my end.

ALA- Gaming Symposium

I am finally back from Chicago.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. A lot of learning, a lot of running around, but overall it was nice. ALA Tech source Gaming Symposium was held at Chicago O Hare Marriott Hotel from July 22 to July 24, 2007. We reached there on Saturday afternoon at sharp 3 pm. Amit joined with me too. Soon after taking some rest, we went to the downtown area. The downtown area of Chicago is the heart of the city as it is surrounded by stuff that are of the tourist interest e.g.- tall buildings, nice parks etc. On July 21 that was Saturday, we took the train from Cumberland, [the place where we staying] to Downtown. Unfortunately, the train system were under the maintenance during our 3 day visit, but the CTA (Chicago Transport Authority) had started a bus service to avoid any interruption. I am too impressed by the public transportation system in Chicago and I really wish they imitate the same kinds here in Florida. Thanks to the transportation system, that includes both the bus service as well as the trains, the entire Chicago area and it's suburbs are very well connected and one hardly gets time to wait for the next arrival of the shuttle.

Anyways, talking of the places where we visited, the very first day we went to the Downtown area to see - Hancock Observatory. Hancock is one of the tallest buildings located right in the middle of downtown, facing towards Lake Michigan. It's known for its splendid views from the top as it spans up to 80 miles and 4 states. We were allowed to go to the 94th floor and the escalator took almost 2 mins to take us to the top most floor. The speed of the escalator is 25 miles per hour!! And the view was....mmmmm...Incredible!! Soon after the sunset view, when the lights on street started looking like twinkling stars, we rushed down to grab our dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, situated right at the basement of the building. Though we were running short of time, but we still managed to take a stroll at the Navy Pier which is about 4-5 blocks away from Hancock. Luckily, we saw the fireworks show during our walk. It was a nice breeze and cool weather added to the whole pleasant atmosphere. It was nice, and by the time we called off the day, it was 2 am already. Chicago being 1 hr behind, I was almost thinking it was 3 am :) and checking my watch to double check Orlando time!

Next day, that is July 22 [Sunday] was the start of the conference. I'll write down more about the conference later in this blog. It was a nice opening ceremony at the conference, where each key note speaker was outshining the other with their knowledgeable speeches. We called off the day at 6:30 pm that day and since we had time left, we caught the blue line train and bus service again and headed to downtown again. That day we got an opportunity to see Millennium Park and the Buckingham Fountain. The abstracts at the Millennium Park were quite impressive and that got me curious to know whose brain was behind these intrusive artifacts. I am not sure if it was an Indian, but I did see a name mentioned - Anish Kapoor in the support groups. Thanks Anish, you really made us feel proud!!

We wanted to go back to the Navy Pier but couldn't do so cause I had the conference early next morning and more so the back and forth route took forever due to multiple hops.

July 23, [Monday] was a full day for the conference with too many shuffle in the classes. Not many speakers were good, but there were some, that were impressive. This day we decided to take a walk at the Indian market, soon after the conference got over and we decided to take the day a bit slow. So, we went to Devon Street or Devon Avenue as they call it, as we were craving for some Indian food. There is a bus service from Cumberland to Devon and that takes about 45 mins one way. Upon our arrival, I was amazed to see the market that was set up in the same Indian traditional style. I also wanted to check out the stuff in some of the stores, but couldn't manage to do so as I realized that I have lost my bargaining skills:(. This skill I had back in India, and now I guess its overwhelming whenever the shopkeeper come back with a list of questions and now it seems like a push even if you don't want to buy yet explore. I wonder what will happen when re-visit India!

However, I was glad to see some Indian salons- and you won't believe - I got my eyebrows threaded after almost 2 years!!!!!! Wow- it was a remarkable feeling. I was so thrilled to see Indian beauty salons. The lady at the salon did not do such a good job though, but overall I felt as a queen after getting the eyebrows threaded hhehehe. I am not exxagerating, ...I guess thats a girl's thing!!

Moving on, we had some snacks- i.e. Chat papri and Bhel puri and walked around the street. Dinner was amazing! Though we were stuffed already but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to have Indian food, so we had Dal Makhani with Tandoori roti at a local shop named Tiffin. I guess that was one of the best restaurants, not only in terms of the ambiance but also from the delicacy point of view.

Well, well- now was the time 10 pm and we were running a bit late. So we rushed to catch the bus. At the bus stop we met this lady, who told us that the last bus for the day has already left. To tell you the truth it was a bit of chaos but we managed it well. We were left with no choice but to go a longer route and take the train. We hopped onto almost 4 vehicles to get to our hotel. Overall it was an adventurous experience. We reached at 11:30 pm, Monday night. I wrapped up stuff coz we had to catch the flight next day afternoon.

The next day started early for me, i.e. July 24- Tuesday. Wow, the days passed quickly there. The sessions were not all that good except for the closing key note speaker. Soon after the speaker ended the session, I quickly requested for the airport shuttle, which arrived in merely 5 mins and I rushed to the airport to board my flight to St. Louis., scheduled to depart at 03:10pm (CST). We had a connection from St.Louis to Orlando and reached our home at 11:00 pm (EST).

I hope you had fun reading my blog, as much as we did on our trip. Now I am back at work, all tired and waiting for the weekend to catch up on some rest. Overall- our trip was full of fun, excitement and learning!!

Ratatouille

Incredible Visual, animation and Fun! I loved watching this new Pixar movies release, Ratatouille.

I am a big time Pixar fan and always keen to see whenever they come with their new release. They always are fun to watch and this time around, they did a fantastic job, from script to animation, graphics, voice overs, editing, and everything in between. It was spot on!

Overall, I recommend that everyone see this movie. Though not perfect, for all ages- since it doesn't account for much comedy sequences, but keeps you gripped and I would not hesitate to say that it is one animated masterpiece in true Pixar form.

Loved it!!!!!

Further insight about Web 2.0

Well there is a lot of talks going on about the Web 2.0. And the word out there in the market is about Librarians into blogging.

Being a part of the public library, I thought of sharing this intresting article and insight on Librarians Blogging and the Birth of Library 2.0

Check it out by clicking here.

Web 2.0

Yup- I will blame Web 2.0 as my reason to be away from Blogging.

I missed blogging here :(. I had another homework on blogs to focus on. Yeah, our workplace had started this blogging exercise where we had to go through a weekly course and complete the WEB 2.0 applications within 13 weeks. And finally, I did complete that assignment and in return, I got a very neat looking MP3 player. I haven't yet opened the box, but it looks decent enough. Hopefully, if I get time, I will take a picture and post it in my forthcoming blogs.


Well, I should not completely put that Web 2.0 assignment as my excuse. There was a slight tight schedule both at work as well at home.

At home, we had some visitors from Rochester. Soon after they left, Amit and I ventured in to a breakdown mode. I don't even know if thats the right word to use, but ya, it was a very uneventful week. Apparently, the electronic appliances started breaking up one after the other! To start with, our car broke down, just on the special day- that one plans for, for months. And that special day was our 2nd anniversary! Amit fixed one thing in the car and the other went out of order. It was like a domino effect. Then, our vacuum cleaner- blowed off, followed by Amit's laptop. Now I guess I should stop reading out the list, as thats like feeling the pain again!

Anyways, things are said and done, and now I am looking forward to the forthcoming weekend. Yes thats when we fly down to Chicago. I am excited to see this new charming looking place. Have heard lots of stories, so lets see what does this trip has in store for us. Perhaps, its going to be a working trip, so I am sure there will be loads to learn from the ALA conference, and enjoy gaming at the same time.

Will keep you all posted, how that went. But before that, I have to pack and get ready for the trip...

Motorola lays off employees

It’s rather a very sad news. I was shocked when I received Amit’s email today sharing this breaking news. My heart started pounding hoping that Amit’s job was intact. And God willingly, yes his job was secure. I called him soon after reading his email. Motorola cut down its strength by 10% here in the Orlando premises. I am not sure who all would have been in the list and I am hoping none of the sole bread earners are there in that list (Fingers crossed).

I looked up on the web and found these two articles which were posted in may, declaring Motorola’s plan of laying of 4000 people just to make a profit margin by June 2007. This computer industry is insane when it comes down to cost cutting or profit making. I have been in the shoes once when I had to call my team members and ask them to leave. It was rather hard for me to utter those harsh words to the team who works day and night and sweat out to roll out the good products in the market. There is this bond that comes and asking them to leave just for the mere financial reasons is so crazy. I felt what they were going through however I couldn’t help switch the decision coz it was coming from higher ups. Isn’t it so sad that the decision makers never face the ugly facet but bring there managers in front to face the brunt. I wish these companies realize what the people go through when they are called out like that and laid off! I am sure they are not inhuman however they are not on this side of the boat either. My heart cries out to those people who actually go through the misery of such lavish companies and are target of lay offs.

God bless these big manufacturing companies!

STS-117 Atlantis Takes off

Sorry for the late post! We couldn’t capture the video of the take of the shuttle, however here is the link of video taken from Nasa...which is rather close to the spot where we witnessed the Shuttle Take off. Watch out for the rumbling noise that comes towards the end.

Click here to view the video

Enjoy!

Countdown Underway

Launch Target: June 8
Launch Time: 7:38 p.m. EST

A seven crew member team is planning to fly once again from the Kennedy Space Center Nasa, Florida. The plan is to go to the International Space Station, and the news says that our Indian crew Flight Engineer Sunita L. Williams will return to Earth from the space station aboard shuttle mission STS-117.

I am sure the news channel in India would be flashing this specific news every now and then, however it doesn’t make much difference here as they are all a part of the NASA team. The other day I was reading her ISS journal, it is pretty interesting to see how they lead life there. They eat, have fun, exercise, look at the outside world thru a distance and do whatever they can to make it their home. I was also intrigued by their meals, as in one of the journals, SUnita wrote, that they had : “Indian feast,” saag paneer, palak paneer, pakora in sauce, as well as candy, shortbread cookies, Swedish fish, hummus, nuts and COFFEE WITH CREAM. I was really surprised to see the CREAMY coffee in there.

Though it will be cutting too short after work (June 8 is a Friday), but we will still try to go and view the launch at Cape Canaveral. I hope the weather is works for all of us.

Will keep you posted..

Greencard

Yeah!!!!

Amit got an email this morning about his Greencard approval. Time to celebrate! yeah. I was so happy and glad to hear this awesome news. We have been waiting for this for years!

Thats one reason, our marriage happened in such a fast manner. And today, I am so happy coz Amit is happy :). We got excited and called up both Amit's and my folks back at home to share this awesome news. Later did we realize to check with the attorney and got to know that Amit's GC is approved however mine is still in pending status.

Never mind... i am still happy and my level of excitement is still the same as before...coz as I said earlier..I am happy coz Amit is happy :)

Yeah!!!!

Rain rain go away…

Well, that’s how this weekend was. Gloomy, rainy and my working Saturday stretched it so much that I didn’t want to wake up early this morning. Oh, perhaps today morning was not overcastted but the story of early morning is consistent throughout I guess. I don’t understand why early morning’s are my favorite and at the same time worse. Favorite, coz I get the best sleep around dawn time, and bad, perhaps coz of that alarm clock. Why are mornings so tough on us? And the alarm’s….urgh! Why do they have to go up right on time? Can’t they give us 5 ….just 5 more minutes so that we can catch up on our beauty sleep. I wish those alarm clocks could understand our plea and help the time stop for sometime.

Ahh- another 5 days to go, and then those gorgeous weekends we would have… The sat/ Sunday seem so far as of today. Long wait… but I am sure they will arrive soon.

Have a good week everybody!

Trip up North

May 25, 2007

This was the day when we flew of to Atlantic City, called mini Las Vegas. It was a hectic yet admirable trip overall, since we tried to cover a lot of land in minimal timeframe.

Day 1- we started as usual in the morning, as it was our half working day. Amit picked me up from work and we headed straight to the airport from there. At the airport, I was too hungry and as soon as I went to grab a pizza slice, I stumbled upon an Indian (not so famous) bollywood actress, Amit Nangia. She was flying off to Newyork and was on a vaccation to see Disney with her kids and hubby. I didn't get time to capture her or talk to her at a stretch, as our boarding time was cutting too close. I had to scratch my head several times to remember her name, and explain it to Amit as to who I met :). Anyways, we boarded our flight and we reached Atlantic City airport 10 mins late.

The car rental peeps were waiting for us and without wasting much time, boarded the shuttle and reached the rental place. The rental place was secluded and did not have much options to choose from. However, we got Toyota Corolla (red) car. We drove from their to New Jersey area to meet Sweeny, Manish and Tulika. As soon as we arrived at their house, we saw a man working in their front yard. It was hard to recognize, but very soon we realize, that yard man is none other than, Manish, Sweeny's hubby. Sweeny greeted us, and gave us the tour of their house. They have recently bought the house and it is beautiful :). Must be around 3400sq ft.
Hats off to them, they have furnished their house so soon! After grabbing home made food (which was incredibly yummy), we drove down to Philly (short form of Philadelphia). Tulika was still in her beauty sleep while we were taking the downtown trip. It was impressive to see such a nice architecture and nice master piece buildings. We stopped for quick photo shoot and headed back to NJ.

We might have reached back home around 2 am. And man! Manish was looking so tired but still was up for gupshup :). It was sincerely a nice stop over at Sweeny's and Manish's place.

DAY 2

mmmm our day started around 8:30 am and soon after finishing a very healthy breakfast (Aalo ke paranthe cooked by Sweeny)...we headed for New York, Battery park. Nice city, new roads, and new traffic pattern, was all new to us.
I have yet to post more, but will do so later...

~The Enchanted Frog~

Once upon a time, there was a king, who had a very beautiful daughter... Wait wait.. I ain’t narrating any fairy tale here. This is about the encounter I had with this fellow in the morning today! I met him in my bathroom- ewwwww!! And it looked so creepy and terrible that I cant explain. His black eyes were popping out and as soon as I got a glimpse of him, I screamed, yelled and jumped out of the floor and started crying! I guess it was the most weird reaction I had in the recent times.

I felt so foolish, yet vulnerable when I saw this eerie looking fella and to top it all, his ghostly image is still haunting my memories. Thank goodness, Amit was right next to the door that I could I swing by him for help. Thanks hun!

Reminded me of Ma, when Amit told me to be bold and strong . Mom is such a strong pillar in the family, that I don’t know how she gathers the courage to pick up these nasty creatures, whenever she comes across ‘em and throws them outta the door. I wish Ma, I could genetically get that strength of yours.

Tiresome

Yeah.. the day was tiring especially since we went out to watch this movie "Ta Ra Rum Pum". Thinking that it might be a good deal, both Amit and I thought it would be worth to stretch our day and watch this hindi movie that recently came to town. We had two choices- either Life in Metro or TRRP. After reading reviews, we both decided to go and watch TRRP since it was a commercial movie and we both were intrested to watch some good entertainment and walk out of the theater with happy faces.

Now our response....an average story with bundle of copyright issues.

Since we had seen Talledega nights- that tells the story of a car racer and how his talent is put to test.And also Fun with Dick and Jane and it seems a copy and mix of these two. The background scenes were nicely shot and glossy, especially coz we are planning for this getaway in NY around this week itself. They captured a glimpse of a Disney shop as well. Now that is what it left me wondering, if that Disney shop is a shot from Florida or Los Angeles??

We were earlier planning to watch the movie with Girish Bhayia since he was in town, but I guess he could very well calculate the stretch! Good, that he backed out :)

Through the looking glass- ‘interesting finale’- Rating -10.00

Spoilers ahead

Lot of things got revealed in the last night episode and some new questions got raised. But to sum it up, all I can say it was a “good finale”.

We all knew Kate and Jack will survive… and it got confirmed yesterday night- but the question remains- who all survived and could make it back?

One major debate is - who is in the coffin? My verdict is that it was Locke. Cause, it would have to be someone important enough for Jack to feel bad, so depressed, and cry!

Jack's says "we shouldn't have left the island," and this so is in align with Locke's present perspective that "we shouldn't leave the island." Of course, Jack might have been the man responsible all the losties off of the island and now he realizes that it was a mistake reason for his depression. So in the end Jack realizes that Locke was, right all way along. And that’s why Kate says "why would I go to the funeral?" and disagrees with Jack that it was meant to be rescued. Jack realizes NOW what good the island did to him, made him a leader, defined a purpose, gave him hope, purpose, which after getting rescued has gone back to zero. The one man who shares his passion for the island, Locke, is now dead.

Charlie’s death came as one heroic event, in a musical way…. Singing “you all everybody”!!

And as a matter of fact, it has turned out that all the characters have turned up to be Heroes here- say Hurley, Locke, Kate, Sawyer, Bernard, Michael, Jin and many others. Oh btw- the best scene was when Hurley brings his magic bus back to the island and help everyone to kill Ryan and others.

Errrr…..but Tom got killed too 
Another fact was revealed that Noami is not connected in anyway with Penny.
There is an unexplored temple…
Why does Walt keep flashing around…
Who is Jacob and why does he need help???
Who is Kate talking about when she says- “he is waiting for me”..
Is Jack’s father alive?

What a nice quote….

I just recieved a newsletter that had a very nice quote...

Spring is in the air,
The flowers are in bloom…
‘N chirpy birds in flight,
Clearing all the gloom !

Friday Blues..

Yes you read it write. Everyone talks about Monday blues, but I actually encountered Friday blues.

Well, this was the day, when I was feeling all so nauseous, with butterfly in my stomach. Wondering why? Well, it was the day of the Webinar at eguild. The day started off and passed on to hrs and then to minutes and here I was – live presenting to the eGuild audience.

Ohh, and just hrs before, I felt as if I am joining this new job, where I don't know anything, but right after talking to Amit, I felt relaxed and comforted. I refused him to attend it as I felt I would be more nervous then ever!! Wow what a height of anxiety. This was the first ever presentation to the elearning audience here in US and fortunately, it went well :). And after I finisged the presentation, I felt such a big burden off of my shoulders. Reminded me of my school days when I used to come back home after my finals’.

Not to miss, I also received a shout out from Karen *host of elearning team, saying:

You both did a very good job and are a good team. This quote from a participant says a lot: “Very impressive concept and work - I'm ready to leave corporate America and work for the public library system!”

It was overall a nice experience …glad I planned to present it.

Eventful week

Yes you read the title right! This week is going to be super busy and quite eventful for us. Both at work and at home its going to be a super quick and at the same time will be full of activities.

Lets start with work. I have two crazy project deadlines, but I am not going to fuss about it. Coz I know they will get handled. Although the pressure of completing them on time is on, however if I am confident about the solution, handling the task is not going to be huge job. Apart from these two code based projects, I am also nearing the webinar day that is day after tomorrow – Friday at 1:00 ET. To be frank I am a bit nervous. Its been long since I have done any presentation and this is going to be my first time to the US audience. I am hoping that it goes smooth.

Before I forget, I completed my one year at work on May 15. I wouldn’t have remembered it. But my co-worker, Cassie, she keeps a track of all the activities in her super organized calendar. As soon as she saw the date yesterday, she reminded me of my first year anniversary at work. Wow, time flies!! If I look back today, I really don’t know how quickly the time went. It seems just like yesterday when I was preparing for interview. Hmmmmm… no no no.. I don’t want to start day dreaming and catch back with my Piscean instinct.

Onto home front. Well, we have couple of invitations – one is a graduation party that is tomorrow may 17. She is our neighbors’ daughter. This will be followed by another dinner invitation on Saturday at one of our friends house and on Sunday, my cousin, Girish is arriving from Newyork. And I am really excited and am looking forward to see him soon!!!

Now have to hurry to get to work….Ciao!

Lost- episode 3.20

Todays post is all about LOST

Thanks to Cassie, Nils and Jim, that i got hooked with the TV series LOST.

WARNING: The following information might have spoilers in case you haven't caught up yet.

This episode of Lost left me awestruck! Really! I wasn't expecting Ben would shoot Locke, one of the best characters in this series. I hope he doesn't die :(.
Well everyone have different theories related to it. I have quoted some that was fwd by Jim:

“Someone said it would be ironic if it hit his only good kidney and he died due to that , I think it would be more Ironic if it hit where the missing kidney belongs and in essence his father saved him by stealing his kidney.

Locke is awesome .. i have to imagine a scenario where he isn't dead , as already stated this dude is hard to kill!”

driveshaft359 >>
“It makes sense, I read a post by someone on superherohype.com. Ben shot Locke on the left side, where his kidney was removed. What if because of that operation, the bullet shot wasn't fatal? Hence "everything happens for a reason" and will give Locke a new focus!
y real possibility. It's fate that Locke had his kidney stolen by his father.”

Only next episode will tell, what happens to Locke and what does the other team, headed by Jack and Juliet would do….

The series definitely took a deep turn when they brought Jacob into picture. And whatever happened between Ben and Locke inside the room was creepy! Did they want to show that Jacob is a Ghost? Well, I wasn't sure if they showed Jacob's face, until Cassie told me that. They actually showed the side pose of Jacob and it was I guess just a glimpse that goes unnoticed, until you see it again in slow motion or frame by frame. I looked for Jacob up on the web and wallah- they have the picture of Jacob saying Jacob revealed posted on the web.

Hmmm, well this episode did uncover some mysteries like Dharma initiative is taken over my the natives... and Richard did not age on the IsLand!!! Wow what nice Island is that But it added more to ponder upon!!! I don't know if the LOST script writers are keeping a track of all the questions they are putting in our mind, but man they need to come up with answers to all these weird mysteries...

I hope they unveil some suspense in the next episode...till then keep waiting.

Good going Bad Robot :)

Tweety Color

Amit, who is currently on his vacation, has taken up a project on painting our office room. Now deciding upon what color to paint was pretty tough decision. This time, he choose to paint the room with the color of his choice & thought of not sharing any details whatsoever with me. He also bought a software that could replicate the house in 3D format. I must admit, that he is a perfectionist!! He wants to be sure of the stuff before buying or doing it. That was cool. He actually went ahead and re-did the entire house in the 3D (computer) software, and based on the scheme, he started working on what colors to choose from.

Finally he gave me a pleasant surprise- he picked up the Tweety color- which is my favorite cartoon, and I am sure by now you might be aware of it too, after all this blog is based on the same theme! Tweety color looks good, bright, energetic and nice.

He also took help of some tools to decide the color- like behr and Sherwin and Williams website. These two are actually extermely helpful tools in case anyone wants to visualize their room before doing the paint job.

He plans to make the room something like this:



I am impressed and excited to see once he completes the project.

Good Luck Amit!!

Art of living

Have you ever heard about "Art of Living"?

I heard about the term "Art of Living" - a lot many times back in India. I even looked for Art of living classes, when I just came to US, as I wanted to explore and know more about it. But to my distress, there were none found in Florida. Yesterday, when both, Amit and I went to the Hindu temple, I saw the poster of "Art of Living" session, and got really interested and went ahead to participate in it.

What I gathered was...

Art of Living is a +ve way of living. Yoga, meditation, breathing, pranayamas and knowledge by Sri Ravi Shankar are taught at the Art of Living classes. They have various courses/programs and levels, under each which they try to make you a better human being. There were couple of discussions between participants and the swami ji who was preaching in the session and to my surprise, there were couple of arguments too. The topics/discussion was based on- meditation, yoga, how to attain happiness, how to deal with expectations, how to overcome stress, anger and fear. And everything boiled down to just one solution- "Be happy" and "Keep Smiling".

Well, it is a very debatable topic, so I won't discuss much about it. On my way back from temple, both Amit and I had a long discussion about all these things and it is quite intimidating to dig through all these various approaches people have started following recently to attain moksha and happiness....

Are you Game?

Well- everywhere you go, someone or the other is talking about Gaming! Its become as an essential commodity for everyone. And why not, its a freaking good way to keep you entertained!

Least expected, yesterday my work friend also bought XBOX 360!! Amazing! I never thought she would be into games :). Another work friend of mine is crazy about games. As soon he hears the word "game"; he would stop working and share his stories about the various games he is into. World craft, Madden, Tiger Woods and what not!

Now why go far, there are two gamers in our home itself. One being - Amit. These days he is addicted to game called "Arthur and the Invisible" . He likes strategical games- where one is given a challenge to hunt the goal, increase skill points as you play and is story driven. This particular game ties up with the movie that got released few months back.

Earlier his addiction was Ratchet and clank-infact he has nearly completed the entire series. As a matter of fact- I got PS2 as my birthday present coz I initially was a gamer and now its more used by him :p

Gaming is fun! So why don't we all join this big bandwagon and make it a fun way to play...

Namesake

Recently we went to watch this movie "Namesake".

The Namesake- a novel by author Jhumpa Lahiri is about the story of the Ganguli family who move from Calcutta to New York and explores a whole new dimension as Indian American. Mira Nair - director of famous movies like Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding directed this movie.


I found Namesake, full of emotional, situational and cultural backdrops. It was nice movie to watch since I could co-relate more this time with the fact of the challenges one goes through with the change in country. There were quite some scenes which touched me deeply and reminded me of my mother land. It made me cry :(( too. After watching the movie, I wanted to take the next flight to India and see my family.

Well, I cant compare the movie with its original script since I haven't read the novel, but whatever I have heard from my friends is that the book is better then the movie. Nevertheless, I found Tabu'sacting the best. She has done a brilliant job in the movie.

It is for sure a must watch for the people who have experienced the country shift.

Share a laugh

Got this one through a mail forward and thought of spreading the laughter around:

Crazy Code

This has been a real crazy day, guys ! Well not from the day start coz, my work day started with a Donut offer from Denissa! Thanks dear, it was very nice of you to greet GM with a sweet donut. But it's so damn busy at work, I think I hardly get time to breathe ! Phew! With Nils leaving, I've been slammed with all of his work. All of his projects have been dumped on my plate. I don't go nuts except the project Balanced Scorecard, which as such is an internal project, but as you all know, Internal (inter-department) are more tough to deal with....

This project revolves around ASP+XML+ database driven coding. Yeah, you read it just right. It's coding. Sometime back, i was kind of always off of coding. i thought Adity and coding will never ever go along, but see here i am - swimming my way through Cold Fusion, ASP, XML and database. Well to look at the brighter side- I am learning new things and as everyone in the department knows that I am a beginner, they take it slow and don't give crazy deadlines.

Well, it's Thurday and almost lunch time, and now if I look back, it has not been that crazy day either except for struggling with code. I think it is more of a pressure coz of the presentation that I have complete by April 18. For all those who are not aware, guys i am going to popular soon! Yeah! I am going to be speaking at one of the famous eLearning forum, eLearning Guild. This has been my forever dream and it is going to get fulfill pretty soon. I am just keeping my fingers crossed for this. I hope it goes okay!

Disturbia!

As two movie buff's both Amit and I, look forward to good movies every week. This week, though it wasn't the weekend, both of us went to watch the advance screening of the movie called "Disturbia"

It was better than 300 for sure if it needs any comparison. But actually you can't compare this movie with any recent released titles, as it doesn't fall in the same genre. It was for sure was a part of good entertainment. Although I don't really acknowledge scary movies as much as Amit does, cause all those scary scenes and the loud screams send goose bumps and shivers in my spine. But still the storyline glued us from cradle to grave.

What next- well, do keep watching for my posts and I shall be now prompt to share my feedback on the new titles that we watch.

Now that was what happened yesterday. Moving on to Good Friday which is today- a day which brings hope to many people. And the journey will come to its rightful end on the Resurrection Day or Easter day! Plans to celebrate - no plans yet. Probably eat a dozen chocolate Easter eggs 

Welcome Spring

As the days grow longer and sunnier, flowers begin blooming and trees burst with green, who can resist feeling a touch of spring fever? Here, the children start looking forward to spring, not coz it is warm but cause of Spring Break. New fragrances and nature’s bright colors around make your day larger then life. But how many of us, actually see and smell the nature? I miss those days back in Chandigarh when we used to eagerly wait for Spring as it not only marked an arrival of new festivities such as Rose festival, but also brought a new flavor of excitement in people all around. Today, when wake up- we don’t feel any natural fragences of those fresh blooming flowers but instead we long and use artificial flavors such as perfumes, eu de toilet, body sprays, room fresheners, etc to make our day refreshing.

I am personally a great fan of perfumes as such, however I also strongly believe in the fact that artificial aroma’s can never replace the natural fragrances. There has been a great push by environment specialist on growing green, but I think we all are forgetting those pretty, bright, colorful, sweet-smelling flowers which used to make our life more colorful.

Hanuman Jayanti

This week is so eventful that I am gonna spend the whole week wishing my pals and I wish you do too ! It started with April 1 which is not just April Fool’s day but Ashu’s birthday as well. So I called him to wish him and gosh what a scootful surprise! He was in Boston reported flinging around taking a tour with his wifey and wonderful kids calling it a getaway. Another pleasant surprise that came my way was that Akhil got his H1b approved and he would be hitting the land of opportunities next week. Not sure, when I will get a chance to meet him but the feeling of another brother around gives good feeling.

Now talking about some festivity. Amit and I are both geared up for a Hanuman Jayanti; This is a day when we celebrate Hanuman ji’s birthday. To celebrate the occasion we both plan to visit the temple and pay our wishes to the holy God. You know, I wish there were more such days ! No kidding. I know there’s a heady mix of culture and faith, but the act of wishing and the fun of sharing and celebrating is what keeps me going in this firangi desh!