I know i need to write..

just that i think i shud, but when you sometimes sit down to write, thoughts dont seem to flow as easily - not a good excuse huh? well whatever!

July long weekend with fireworks was fun. The only difference this time was that I didnt go out to DC as always for the past 4 years. Its fun there when you go as a big gang, but thinking of the torment you go thru for 1/2 hr of spectacle - huh..no way, not this year, mabbe next, lets see.
We cuddled up at home, Radha and Sushee (my cousin . niece) had come over and we had a mini-party time at home.

The fun part was that my husband started playing his guitar - which had quite rusted from the time he got it about 5/6 months ago. Sushee had learnt to play too, so she was his temp guru for 2 days! they played - oh god! Twinkle twinkle rhyme and Happy Birthday tunes. The guitar was off-tune and so was my husbands new talent! but it was fun- he annoyed us totally playing these two tunes over and over and over annnnnd over...aargh.

back to routine, project might get over this month n then i plan to work part-time at the university. may be a good exp and will get to see some young folks :)

chao until next time.

Movies - 1

Year - 1975 - April 17th - the Khmer Rouge, a communist guerrilla group in Cambodia took power of the capital Phnom Penh - forcing all its citizens into labor camps. It is estimated that 2 million cambodians died of starvation and torture which was close to 30% of the then population.

The Khmer Rouge turned Cambodia to year zero. They banned all institutions, including stores, banks, hospitals, schools, religion, and the family. Everyone was forced to work 12 - 14 hours a day, every day. Children were separated from their parents to work in mobile groups or as soldiers. People were fed one watery bowl of soup with a few grains of rice thrown in. Babies, children, adults and the elderly were killed everywhere. The Khmer Rouge killed people if they didn't like them, if didn't work hard enough, if they were educated, if they came from different ethnic groups, or if they showed sympathy when their family members were taken away to be killed.

After the Vietnamese invaded and liberated the Cambodian people from the Khmer Rouge, 600,000 Cambodians fled to Thai border camps.

I watched a glimpse of this in a movie The Killing Fields (1984) - the terror people faced, shot and tortured for no reason. A newyork times reporter gets help from a local guy - Dith Pran and when the time comes to leave the country, cambodians are ordered to stay behind, a couple of american reporters try hard to save Pran, but in vain. The pains that Pran goes through and how he survives Khmer Rouge and escapes & re-unites with this friend and family is all the movie about.

one of a classic in its time - watch it when u get a chance.

Another list of movies that I'd recommend if you are suspense thrillers fan :

Vertigo
The Man Who Knew Too Much
North by Northwest
Rebecca (Best Picture Academy Award)

Movies

I intended to write about the latest spree of movies that we've been watching on NetFlix. Well heres one that we watched last evening ...Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" . Made in 1946 - a classic suspense thriller (Ofcourse!) featuring two of his favorites actors, Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. It has to it a Nazi flavor, bit of a love story and essence of criticality in time and history, and yeah classic Hitchcockian suspense!

What impresses me the most with his movies is the way audience is captured every minute, you are on the egde of ur seat. Unlike movies now which tend to take the extremities of fear/anger/violence/bloodshed, such simple yet captivating scenes is an art to create as a director - imagine that too in 1940's.

A new year's feast

Every religion celebrates the birth of the new year as per their calenders. Today happens to be the Tamil New Year (Varusha Pirappu). I read someplace that this is the day that the WORLD was created - probably a little too much :) I know, but just feels good to know that we are a part of the earliest clan.

Most of our celebrations, like any other indian festival, revolves around FOOD - what else ;) Sweet and Sour are the theame for today, that means two variety of dishes - Mangai Pachidi (mango, tempered with mustard seeds and red chilies, is cooked in a sweet syrup) and Neem (which is a thoranam) - I cant remember if we need to eat the neem also. "It means the bitterness of life has been dealt with and we are now moving forward. We don't believe in sweeping everything under the carpet. Accept reality and move on is the motto." - One gentleman says on an NRI website.

I took the day off today and prepared a good meal (more kozhambu, vaazhaikkai, paruppu payasam, rasam and vathal) and its hot and ready to eat!. Join me if you are tempted, the offer is valid until 9pm tonite.

Wishing all who mite end up reading this (one hand count wud suffice!!) a very very happy new year, success & prosperity shall be with us in our endevours!

Whats with Dreams??

Imagine someone sleeping next to you and suddenly get up in the middle of the nite and say "why did you throw away the wine-bottle and its cap??", wouldnt you burst out?? Well...meet Her Highness who said that last nite ..hee haw. My husband was flabbergasted and a bit irritated, but cant help, he's stuck with a nite-blabber for life-time! All he said to me this morning was if I intended to be a WINE-connoisseur or if I were in Napa Valley!
I do that sometimes and it was so real, cant remember the details thou -sadly. As always, i GOOGLED..and..

SLEEP TALKING (Somniloquy)
Talking while asleep is quite normal and really of no medical interest or importance. It may be caused by a break through to the surface of your dream world, or even a remnant of memory from an episode, possibly an upsetting episode, that occurred during waking hours.

Those who talk in their sleep seldom remember what they said or even that they were talking. ( I did! - does it mean I've had a breakthrough??)

Some problems, however, may occur because of the habit of talking in one's sleep. Sometimes secrets are revealed or things said that would have been better left unsaid. (Hmm...good thought)

Also, the habit may be somewhat irritating if it keeps a bed partner awake. It is even more annoying if the sleeper is mumbling or speaking in a language the partner cannot understand! (Hee..may be if I speak in Kannada!!)

A9 not K9 ;)

have you heard or used this site? a9.com ?? familiar or not..
if not - i think you shud visit it. A subsidiary of Amazon.com , A9 has been in operation since october '03. It has some cool columns that you can add which have links for your search criteria to specifically look into.

OB adikaradhu

heres some fun thing to read .....
Chells found this link on madras lingo and their transalations/ relations to other indian & the english language..
check it out when u have some time
Welcome to Madras_bashai

touched by a song..

was browsing my cousin Radha's blog and stumbled on her friends blog..Bhavayami Gopala balam Mana sevitham ... this is one song that always touches my heart, in the process of learning it. the lyrics are awesome. Listen and dwell in it for 5 minutes when you need a time out from the worldy commitments.

GOOGLE SEARCH in India

GOOGLE SEARCH in India - as shown in their Website.

Popular Queries
January 2005
1. tsunami
2. indian railways
3. sania mirza
4. trisha
5. aishwarya rai
6. anara gupta
7. ignou
8. bollywood
9. ndtv
10. australian open

Chandramukhi

Rajinikants "Chandramukhi" has been the talk for a long time now.I was looking thru this site Chandramukhi , just take a look at him, he "tries" to blend into the latest hip crowd - chek out his faded bootcut jeans!! That was too much to handle!

I realized I can do this atleast as an alternative to finding things to write on my blog..well from now on , dont forget to check out the 'Movies I watch' link on this site. We happen to subscribe to NetFlix and it seems to be a cool option to watch movies that you like at home and whenever you want! Its amazing, the kind of movies that have been made and are so thot provoking in various aspects. So chek em out ...

My cousin's wife Harini and I have been bragging about Train system in the US of A. Come to think of it, there's never been local trains in B'lore(well the KSRTC itself s'kd), only when we get to chennai - a couple of times we used to take the local train. After coming to VA - have I realized the value of time in commuting...man sometimes its a big waste. Most people in the northeast BIG cities (including the special me) use the train system. In the Wash DC area it is called Metro, Chicago - the CTA or EL and NJ- NJ Transit or A's B's C's etc..

I dont want to sound too biased, but seems like the Metro is the cleanest one of all the three! Possibly the most expensive too. However it is not extensively connected in and around DC - which is supposedly the worlds most important city - come on folks..can you believe we have only two-lane-clogged-all-the-time roads getting into DC?? Well thats that...

Metro has a policy that you cant eat or drink in the train. And WHEN you see that sign each time, your stomach growls, throat goes dry and you feel like a drop of water or a chocolate is the ultimate thing you want! Bad Bad mind huh.But the funny thing is how people (atleast 95%) of them follow this - Till date (3 yrs of Metro travel) I have seen maybe 1 or 2 of them eating some food. It is this discipline that is driving success into these systems. I see some people pick up papers left by others and trash it when they get out of the station, a simple gesture of helping them keeping clean.

I see - I observe - I wish to learn - I (try to) share!... Hope that picks some parts of some brains!

2005 - hows it going to be?

Wishing all my readers a very happy new year! I realised the the new year has something to give to each of us, memories - good and bad to be carried along our path of life. Events which bring us a smile and disasters that touch our hearts. Starting out with a prayer to those who suffered and died in Tsunami, Iraq and all aound the world, may their souls rest in peace. This is such a difficult thing to say - how can they rest in peace when they had an unfortunate death. How will we ever justify the loss of a life.

I dont want to sound too pessimistic right from the beginning of this year.

Alright then - lets start with some weird "Wacky Warning Labels" (found this off )

* A toilet brush with a tag that says "Do not use for personal hygiene"
* A scooter with the warning "This product moves when used."
* A digital thermometer with the advice "Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally."
* An electric blender used for chopping and dicing that reminds users to " "Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating."
* And a three-inch bag of air used for packaging that read "Do not use this product as a toy, pillow, or flotation device."

:) Hv fun y'all!