You know you have a dad who is NOT as tech savvy :

• When he ridicules mom’s time spent at the computer.
• When he insists that you talk on phone instead of e-chatting.
• When mail only means snail mail to him.
• When he laughs each time you say  “Wall” , since to him wall only means one thing.
• When he simply cant figure out why relatives who already commented on the pics on phone ,bothered leaving a comment on FB on the very same pics again!
• When he calls mom to login to HIS email to see the card his daughter sent HIM on HIS birthday.
• When he says he understands hardware but not software.

Taboo : 3/5

A documentary series from National Geographic Channel. Watched 2 episodes from Season 1, and found both of them quiet interesting. Made me feel we live in a weird world. Would still rate it only 3/5 because some of the customs they showed as facts were too hard for me to digest.

Dhobi Ghat: 2/5 ( 2, only for the style of narration)

I have no idea what Aamir meant when he said this movie is only for a certain audience. For sure, this one was not for me. Most of the time I kept wondering where the director was going with the movie.I thought there were lot of gaps which should have been filled (and could have been filled comfortably).

My Cousin Vinny : 4.5/5 : A must watch movie especially for the dialogues. I am still rating this as 4.5 because I definitely hope that there will be a movie better than this one. So I am reserving my 5  for that movie.

Other movies which I am planning to write reviews on sometime later are, Paranormal Activity, Saw 2, Cube , A tale of two sisters, Hyderabad Blues (both 1 and 2), and Dor. Absolutely loved these movies.

Here is the checklist: (Not all of these documents are mandatory, but if you go prepared with all these, it is highly unlikely that your Visa request will be rejected. Plus it doesn’t harm to be a bit more prepared, you see..so..

1)Your passport
2)A minimum of two photographs (‘US VISA’ photo format where your ears should be clearly visible)
3) Original marriage certificate.
4)Marriage photo album. (Total of 10 photos should be enough..Take photos showing Hindu dharma-related rituals — take couple of reception photos also …. anything to prove that the marriage actually happened )
5)Marriage invitation card of both the families.
6)Application visa fee original receipt issued by HDFC bank.(ORIGINAL — Green or White or whatever color — carry it)

Thatz about it! There are various sites that have information on the kind of questions you will be asked during the interview.So I am skipping that portion here.Should you have any more doubts on the interview process in general or the documents in particular, do leave a comment. I shall get back to you at the earliest. I can assure you that H4 visa requests go through effortlessly if your docs are in place. The lady who interviewed me put me at ease and finished up the whole interview in less than 3 minutes. She winded up the interview saying my VISA will be dispatched to me within a week.GOD bless her, and good luck to you! .

Before tying up the mango leaves outside my SIL(sister in law) asked me if the artificial leaves that were already hanging outside were not enough..I was supposed to be knowing the answer since I was elder ..Dint want to misguide her though and so called up mom to double check with her..My mom’s theory was artificial leaves were ok only if you din’t manage to get the real ones..Luckily we had already bought mango leaves, so we decided to stick to the custom..But I must say I love the way my mom bends rules for me every now and then..though I keep telling her not to do so, since as I said I don’t like religious compromises..There were some more rituals that were to be followed for the new year that included applying haldi kumkum on a nice clean mirror and tying up a gold chain around it, placing a thali full of uncooked rice and uncooked dal, along with a mango and notes of various denominations..When I was a child I remember my grandma used to neatly deck up a few 10 rupee notes, some 100 rupee notes ..the ritual was to see the thali first thing in the morning on the day of new year…after that she would offer to let the children of the house pick how much ever money they wanted to..I still remember how I would request (read force) my granny to start off with me before going to the other cousins and how I would pick away all the 100 rupee notes before anyone else did..LOL..btw my granny used to be extra partial towards me..she still is! So there was no question of her not acceding to my request..;)

Coming back to my story, we finished all the things that we had to do on the new year eve by around 1230 in the night. I don’t even remember when I dozed off after that. The next day we got up around 6AM. As the ritual demanded went and saw the thali and GOD first thing after getting up. Was wondering if I could go catch up on some sleep again because I dint have a proper sleep last night..Called up my mom , hurriedly greeted her and dad and checked with mom if it was ok to sleep for some more time, which she vehemently denied..Her theory was I could have slept slightly longer but going back to sleep after getting up on a festival day was a strict no no..So I tried really hard to keep my eyes wide open and started playing some divine songs to get myself off my sleep..that helped..The next challenge was to do up the home without a domestic help..because my maid was on leave that day..Supposedly she wanted to go to her hometown to get a voter’s ID..As much as I was tempted to ask her to stay back saying it wasn’t important, I decided not to, realizing social responsibility ..I anyway don’t vote..But why refrain someone else who wants to? So I just let her go..In about half an hour I would have called mom again to check with her if sweeping alone was enough or mopping was compulsory..She said “mopping inst compulsory considering your present health condition..Just make sure to sweep all the rooms and see if you can find an alternate maid for today alone even if it is just for sweeping.”. I replied” Mom please don’t tell me things considering my present situation..if something has to be done it has to be done..So if mopping is compulsory I’ll do it or get it done..Don’t worry”. She said it wasn’t..Relieved I started doing the other chores..washed some vessels for 10 mins took an half an hour break, called up mom to check if the kitchen slab and the gas stove had to be washed..was hoping to hear a no but she was like “Dint you already do it? You should have”..It was then that I remembered her having told me a dozen times the previous day, that I had to..I quickly hung up the phone saying I’ll do it then and managed to clean up the slab also..Finally my cook came over and cooked the offerings that had to be made..this included vadas, kheer, and some chutney, while I cooked rice and dal and got everything else in place before I could offer all these to GOD. Just when I placed the dal before the puja mandap my SIL asks me “Didi do we need to add salt to Dal?” I laughed as much as I could, NOT because I knew the answer but because I found the question funny and sensible at the same time..Called up mom yet again, put the speaker on and asked her if salt needs to be added to which she said “Itz ok..GOD will adjust”…both me and my SIL had a hearty laugh over what my mom said, and we exclaimed in unison “MOM!?!”.. Mom reassured us then that it wasn’t needed, and we finally decided to leave the dal that way..Here I MUST add that I love the enthu this girl shows in doing things the right way, despite the fact that she is a Gujju and is new to the Iyer household. . And like I said my energy levels double on seeing someone with a matching wavelength. Coming back to my story, it must have been like 1030 by the time we finished all this and we both had to rush to our respective offices..Barely had the time to take some quick pics..

Finally I called up my driver and asked him to pick me..Must have reached office around 11 and was already waiting for the evening to leave office..PHEW! Tired soul I was that day, who couldn’t even afford a power nap in between, because there is a belief that all the good you do in the morning on the festival days will not get counted if you sleep any other part of the day except at night..So managed to keep myself awake till 9…Dint even have the energy to watch Uttaran..something that I never give up otherwise…Don’t even know when I fell asleep…Long day I must say, but definitely a day that I thoroughly enjoyed, as I felt I did things to my satisfaction.

Note: I just realized this post turned out longer than I wanted it to..Kya karen..Aadat se majboor ..But on a serious note, I am letting myself be as elaborate only for some more days..after that I have decided to keep my conversations (be it posts/face to face talks/ IMs) shorter..which means my replies would be in the ratio of 1:1 as against the 10:1 it is now..LOL

“Last night I looked up and matched each star with a reason why I love you; I was doing great, until I ran out of stars….”

I still thought perhaps I can get more creative and so recorded a song in my own voice as a dedication to my DH (dear hubby) on this valentine’s day. Happy Valentine’s day Kannan, and thanks for making every day a Valentine’s day for me!!

Iktaara Iktaara..

An excerpt of how we ended up our call:

Chaitanya (Raji’s partner) : Let us meet up to discuss this better Sudha.
I : Oh yes , we should! It was a pleasure talking to you. Would love to work with you on this. (I reserve the last two sentences strictly for ladies, and there is no exception to this rule. It is kind of difficult to explain why).

We hung up after this.

I was waiting for Kannan to get back home to tell him about this very interesting chat. Told him that while the opportunity was anyway nice,  the lady in particular sounded very pleasant and positive, and seemed nice to work with. I insisted Kannan to join me for this meeting as this was to happen on a weekend, to which he willingly agreed.

After Raji got back, she gave me a ring saying that her partner had briefed her on the chat that the two of us had.
An excerpt of our telephonic chat:

Raji: Hi Sudha. Chaitanya(name changed) told me that the two of you spoke last evening, and also mentioned that you could meet. Can the three of us meet then, may be at coffee day in Koramangala?

I: Oh yes! I am longing to meet you. Chaitanya came up with some interesting ideas. Good reason for me to meet you folks. Coffee day works for me.

Raji: Cool! Alright then, Saturday 3PM, Coffee Day Koramangala. See you there.

Soon after this call, I got a mail from Chaitanya which read:

Dear Sudha,

“Trust all is well. Thank you so very much for sharing your profile and it was indeed a great pleasure talking to you yesterday.

Raji also told me about the fact that you mistook me for a lady and we could not help laughing about it. Anyway, let us touch base again on Saturday, to concertize our plans. My wife Raji and I certainly look forward to meet you. “

Now, I am not one of those people who take such incidents lightly. I just cannot convey in words the degree of embarrassment I felt after this incident. I sheepishly replied to the email, bccing Kannan:

“Oops! Obviously embarrassed about the blunder..My apologies.. “

“Is Jeff’s wife also a techie…one of those stupid Microsoft valued professionals?”, I asked Kannan.

“No, I don’t think so.” he said.

Thoroughly intrigued, I kept away the paper I was reading and read the full foreword. It certainly is not a technical intro to the book, nor does it sing praises for the author. It is one of those outside-the-technical-circle-but-related person telling the story behind the book as-is. To me, it looked cute.

I have reproduced the full foreword below (took sometime to type, but I enjoyed it!), highlighting the areas I really liked.

Foreword

At first, when Jeff asked me to write the foreword for his book, I was so flattered! He must really respect me, I thought. Ladies, this is a common thought process error—trust me, he doesn’t respect you. It turns out that I was about #14 on his list of potential foreword writers and he had to settle for me. Apparently, none of the other candidates (Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Catherine Zeta-Jones,…) were that into him. At least he bought me dinner.

But no one can tell you more about this book than I can. I mean, Catherine could give you a mobile makeover, but I know all kinds of stuff about refection and exceptions and C# language updates because he has been talking on and on about it for years. This is standard dinner conversation in our house! Other people talk about the weather or stuff they heard at the water cooler, but we talk about .NET. Even Aidan, our six-year-old, asks questions about Jeff’s book. Mostly about when he will be done writing it so they can play something “cool”. Grant (age 2) doesn’t talk yet, but his first word will probably be “Sequential”.

In fact, if you want to know how this all started, it goes something like this. About 10 years ago, Jeff went to a “Secret Summit” at Microsoft. They pulled in a bunch of industry experts (Really, how do you get this title? Believe me, this isn’t Jeff’s college degree), and unveiled the new COM. Late that night in bed (in our house, this is what we discuss in bed), he talked about how COM is dead. And he was enchanted. Lovestruck, actually. In a matter of days he was hanging around the halls of Building 42 on Microsoft’s Redmond campus, hoping to learn more about this wonderful NET The affair hasn’t ended, and this book is what he has to show for it.

For years, Jeff has told me about threading. He really likes this topic. One time, in New Orleans, we went on a two-hour walk, alone, holding hands, and he spoke the whole time about how he had enough content for a threading book: The art of threading How misunderstood threading in Windows is It breaks his heart, all those threads out there Where do they all go? Why were they created if no one had a plan for them? These are the questions of the universe to Jeff, the deeper meanings in life. Finally, in this book, he has written it down. It is all here. Believe me folks, if you want to know about threading, no one has thought about it more or worked with it more than Jeff has. And all those wasted hours of his life (he can’t get them back) are here at your disposal. Please read it. Then send him an e-mail about how that information changed your life. Otherwise, he is just another tragic literary figure whose life ended without meaning or fulfillment. He will drink himself to death on diet soda.

This edition of the book even includes a new chapter about the runtime serializer. Turns out, this is not a new breakfast food for kids. When I figured out it was more computer talk and not something to put on my grocery list, I tuned it out. So I don’t know what it says, but it is in here and you should read it (with a glass of milk). My hope is that now he is finished talking about garbage collection in theory and can get on with actually collecting our garbage and putting it on the curb. Seriously people, how hard is that?

Folks, here is the clincher—this is Jeffrey Richter’s magnum opus. This is it. There will be no more books. Of course, we say this every time he finishes one, but this time we really mean it. So, 13 books (give or take) later, this is the best and the last. Get it fast, because there are only a limited number and once they are gone—poof. No more. Just like QVC or something. Back to real life for us, where we can discuss the important things, like what the kids broke today and whose turn is it to change the diapers.

Kristin Trace (Jeffrey’s wife)

November 24, 2009

Here is how I made it:

Ingredients :

1. Six Bread slices 

2. One large onion

3. Two long green chillies( cut into small pieces)

4.Three teaspoons of rice flour (For the crispiness)

5.Two Large potatoes (Cooked and fully mashed)

6.Quarter cup of Coriander leaves (finely chopped)

7.Quarter cup of mint leaves (finely chopped)

8.Half an inch long ginger (finely grated)

9.Half a spoon of turmeric powder

10.Half a spoon of sugar (Make that quarter if you wish)

11.Three fourth tea spoon of red chilli powder

12.Half a teaspoon of Jeera powder

13.Half a teaspoon of garam masala powder

14.Half a teaspoon of Aamchoor (Black salt) (No compromise on this please, for this is what gives your dish a nice tangy taste.)

15.One and a quarter tea spoon of salt or as per your taste.

16.Oil

Procedure

a) Mix ingredients 5 to 15. Aamchoor is a mandatory item (I was about to type mandatory ‘attribute’ ).

b) Heat oil in a kadai, and fry green chillies and onion in it.

c) Add the above potato mix to it and fry it for two minutes, just to make sure that the mix is coated well with oil. (Some people don’t prefer frying the mixture in oil but somehow I feel, frying makes it complete and takes away the raw taste from it). Allow the fried mixture to cool.

d) In the meanwhile, wet the bread slices (slightly), and squeeze out the extra water. You have to do this very meticulously.The intention is to make it smooth enough to be able to roll the above mixture in it.

e) After you roll the bread with the above filling inside, roll it gently on the rice flour. Rice flour makes the roll crisper.

f) Once this is done,gently slide the rolls in oil one by one and fry them all.

By the way  this dish literally soaks oil, so calorie conscious people might want to use enough tissues to remove off the excess oil. Thatz about it! Crispy bread roll is ready now! You can have it with tomato ketchup or a sauce of your choice. Do lemme know how it turns out! By the way, should you feel heavy after eating this dish, drink a glass of buttermilk with a pinch of hing added. That should do the trick!

Even today when I go to my native, I convince my father to sing this song…It feels nice and I live through the same emotions. For some reason I felt like recording this song today in my voice.

Chandan Sa Badan

Also recorded a more recent song from the film Main Hoon Naa.

Tumhe Jo Maine Dekha

As always, your feedback is welcome..

Current Status: Waiting for my dad’s call to hear his feedback…:-)

Above songs (+ some more) are uploaded here

I used to love my short walks to the office and would be seen wearing a sweater even during the hot months of May and June. I remember how the landlady used to jokingly ask me if I was sick..:-)…But since then, a lot has changed…what has remained constant though is my liking for the place. With every passing year,  the temperature here has been rising, and this year in particular, has been unbearable.  This post will help you with some tips on how you can keep your cool this summer…

a) Good old buttermilk hasn’t gone out of fashion yet. I have gotten myself and my husband into the habit of drinking a minimum of two tall glasses of buttermilk everyday. There was a time when hubby would sulk at thought of it..but he has got so used to it of late, that these days when he comes home tired, he asks me “Sudha, can I have a glass of buttermilk?”,  and I feel extremely delighted on being asked this. BTW, you can tweak the taste of buttermilk everynow and then by adding some salt, hing, and a mix of pepper and cumin seeds powder. Or you could just add ginger, small pieces of green chilli, and finely chopped coriander if you so like it. I keep drinking it in regular intrevals, as a substitute for tea/coffee. It keeps me fresh and active.

b) Kokum juice is another drink that is said to have a cooling effect. The deep red color of the drink itself is very appetizing. I usually make the juice with kokum powder that I buy from Mother earth, in Inner Ring Road, Koramangala. BTW, you could use the same powder to make Kokum rasam too. The tangy taste of Kokum makes the rasam taste heavenly.

c) Nothing can beat the traditional tender coconut water. .. One thing that you should watch out for when you buy it is the straw. I heard from someone that some of these vendors reuse straws.. I know  it sounds gross…just try and use your own straws whenever possible.

d) Lime Juice! This is what you can instantly make  and that too quiet effortlessly….Salt+Sugar+Lime water is all it takes…Keep lime juice filled in those one litre bottles..if you are bored of the taste,  then it is time to experiment by adding some mint  juice to it. A great energy booster! It leaves you feeling fresh and nice through out the day.However do not drink this on an empty stomach..as it could cause acidity problems.

e) The plain and simple Mosambi juice is an all time hit. But I don’t recommend buying this from road side vendors, because I had read in the newspaper some days back that deposits of the juice left in the aluminum mixers used by these vendors tend to react with the metal, and can cause serious health related problems. So try and make it at home..

For now, this is it..I will summarize the post by saying that health is wealth, and  both should be taken maximum care of…