Clumsy coz I'm fallin in love.....

The first and the most important preparation before coming to America is to have learnt cooking!!! It does not matter if you don’t know cell biology or math (see, already half American, I stopped sayin maths!!!) or Matlab, you got to, have to, certainly need to know to freakin COOK!!! It does not matter whether it is Italian, south Indian, north Indian, French, Chinese or anything else that u know.. but u just gotta know…
I did not “learn” coz a) Chennai chicks always know how to cook well; b) genetically, I must be a great cook (anyone who has had mom and dad’s cookin will vouch for this); c) whats google for?? Do a search, find the recipe, cook, eat, clean!!; d) arre, will get RA/TA and earn.. so might as well blow money on food.. e) eat complex carbs everday? Noways… will buy oats or some other healthy stuff and lose some weight!!!
Let me see how many of those still hold true!! A is partly true… b,c,d fall under the category of “arch, what the hell were u thinking?” e is “u kiddin me rite? How can u eat such bland stuff, even to lose weight?”
By the way, I had the chance to cook “vangibath” on the first day of stayin at new house… now to list what ALL were wrong with the simplest preparation of rice!! We did not have brinjals, I had no clue about the proportionality of curry powder, I always add very little salt, I kinda mixed the order in which things are to be added…. But it tasted OK!!
But can I survive on my own cooking for 2 yrs?? I doubt it… but will I improve?? Hope so!!! Else, I am following the easiest way to survive my own cookin… boil pasta and veggies, season it with oregano and salt… And, there is food… : ) tasty, healthy, non-fussy, easy to cook, eat, clean!!!
Many of you must have heard abt the accidental buzzin of the smoke alarm when we were cookin roti.. oof, man!! After a month of eatin only rice n pasta (feels like forever actually), we FINALLY super FINALLY got some atta… and I got all-hyper and prepared the dough for rotis… wanted to eat paratha really bad… but all we had for paratha was cheese!!! No no.. not happenin, tat I eat cheese paratha…. So we mixed some random veggies (all our curries have broccoli coz its always there in the fridge!!!) and voila, had a fancy curry… curry all done, we truned our attention to the dough to roll out chapathis… I still cant do that part properly, which resulted in weird shaped rotis till my roomie sugs took control… I ONLY had to put it flat on a tawa and cook it…
Easy rite??? Apparently not!!! D’oh!! The roti was giving out smoke (the brainiacs that we are, we forgot to switch on the exhaust) and after 2 min, an ear piercing-kuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii sound started… I left the roti to cook (further till it charred) and all of us ran to the smoke detector and tried to switch if off… when tat failed, tried to reset it.. failed again (wonder how phoebe reset it in friends!!!).. finally yanked the thing off.. and put it back after 5 min… (know its not recommended, but what to do… dint want a fire engine outside our apt!!!)
Things are lookin up now.. thanks to MTR (and the fact tat they give instructions), the curry tastes better and I am on the fast-track towards better-cooking…. and lovin it!!!

oh India, where art thou???

It does not REALLY serve the purpose if I wrote the 3rd part of my blog a whole month after arriving here, does it?? But, you gotta do what you gotta do… So, here goes….
Wow… Wondering where to start!!!! First things first… The lanes run opposite to what we have back home!!! Oh yeah?? You think that’s small ha?? Nope… Its not I say, its NOT!!!! Its so confusing that I don’t even want a car till I get used to it (did not mention bike coz of same reason!!) I still look the wrong way while crossing the roads!!!
Crossing the roads!! Sigh… another depressing thing abt America… they have signals every 100 meters I suppose… which basically means, more stopping before crossing (guess what, these people are actually serious about following the “red=stop; amber=get ready and green=go” system here!!!) I don’t remember the last time I followed it while riding my scooty…… ;)
My scooty is being given away!!! My first loooooooooooooooove!!! Oooow!! Wait a min…. considering scooty was also my only love, is it time for luv!!!! Hmmmmm…. I wish I had time for it…. All busy with assignments already!!! Its only our 2nd week… show some concern plz people!!! Don’t I need time to get acclimatized with the funda of studying like I have my board exams every quarter….!!!
Another thing, 1 dollar ACTUALLY has value here… its like the American equivalent of 40 INR!!! Look, I cant say 48 cuz it pains me to see dollar rate increasing… hope it stops.. hope hope hope…. Ow, btw…. Photocopying (not Xerox-ing) costs 5 cents a page…. Which roughly translates to 5 INR a page…… oh man.. jus imagine tat.. I would never have passed BE if photocopy rates were so high in india…
Arre.. there is a red wriggly line under India in previous sentence…. I know tats India and not india… but Microsoft defaults “microsoft” to become “Microsoft” and “america” to “America” in word… why not india I ask???? Oi u Microsoft people…. Count the number of Indians in your company and show some respect to the best bunch of programmers you ever got.. and one more thing.. Microsoft might be American.. but English is Brit….!!! So, the default of English should be U.K. and not U.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait a min.. wasn’t the blog supposed to be about how I adjusted???? Hmmm.. I am happily settled into a routine here… no issues whatsoever!! Yay!! Dunno how it happened but it did…. And I aint complainin….
Missing India (set it to autocorrect) a lot from time to time… but I know exactly wat are the expectations from me…. So it’s a focused approach now… towards MS… and then head home… home is where the heart is.. and my head, heart, soul is all in India!!! :D

blore london philly

British airways is AWESOME!!! The only word that I could think of (and if u know me, the most used word too)… fantastic service.. esp the food.. or the brit accent in dunno.. maybe it’s the accent that was makin me all happy happy.. 

Felt a tinge of guilt, sadness when the flight actually took off.. the feeling that I am ACTUALLY leavin India was a little overwhelming.. an I sobbed a bit.. then the sleep took over… much against what people warned me (don’t sleep in the flight, or u wud be so jet-lagged)… but before tat I tried my best to watch movies (bad choice of movies for the BIG airline that it boasts of!!).. found only one good movie that I wanted to watch: kung fu panda.. but slept after 10 min of it.. all the excitement of meeting everyone had still not died down, but the lack of sleep thru the night was way too much!!!

The times that I was awake, all I thought of were the friends I left in blore... maybe 2 yrs is a very short time, but I dunno how I will be able to stay close to all the friends from school, college and office (gosh!! I still miss them!!!)… I still speak to soooooooo many of them, but dunno how long this wud last (will try my best, pakka pakka!!!)… I was already thinking what to mail most of them after I found a comp with internet!!! It was kinda creepy... but all I thought abt was tat…

London’s heathrow took my breath away… it is such a huge place!! And the London philly flight was a better one compared to blore London!!!! Stupid brit people giving preferences to Americans… one thing tat I noticed was that the air hostesses were not YOUNG!!! Nothin like the anorexic chicks who come in the airhostess academies ads in India… but, they are so courteous and helpful… wow!!! The flight was nearly empty and this old grandpa was there (wearing suit n all, lookin like touching 80) and this airhostess was with him... and they chatted till the flight landed in philly.. was the only “owwwwwwwww” moment coz I slept thru it.. 

Immigration was a cakewalk… the police guy who signed my visa doc was from kolkata (Calcutta for ppd).. he smiled n said “I don’t look like tat?”.. I smiled n said “nope!!!”… Thank goodness he still signed n said “u be safe in philly, miss!!”

lettin go of blore....

Blog was on holiday for a loooooooooooooong time, partly cuz I was lazy and partly cuz writing anything abt leavin India etc etc made me (and still makes me) very home-sick…!!!

This is a 3-part blog (to compensate for all the dayz missed!!!) and will have the 3-4 dayz between leaving India on 10^th and getting a new house on 14^th. This has to be the most eventful part of my life even when everything appears standstill… J new friends, new city, new college, new “friend”ly family, new prof/seniors to look up to (quite literally… oof… how can these guys be so tall!!!! I feel small in the country of giants), new attitudes to life (more abt tat later) and the list goes on…

Wait wait… back to square one!!! Leaving namma Bengaluru!!

Sept 10 started like any other Bangalore holiday for me... Crawled out of bed at 830-9ish… With tat little start, ended any hopes of this being a “normal” day!!! I only jus got out of my room and found my aunt and uncle, waiting for me, so that they could wish me all the luck in the world and get on with their work… I smiled and spoke to them; all the time thinking that my D-day is here and I look so unprepared for the world tat awaits me… There was a steady stream of people who kept coming and going thru the day, and I was pleased that they took the effort to come home and wish me luck….!!! There were so many more who called through the day tat I was juggling my landline handset and mobile most of the time…

My aunt must have been so excited that she called almost every hour to check how I was doing…. My little sisters who could personally meet me called and challenged me to lose weight (btw, the workload here looks so hectic; I might come back a size 0!!!!!) Rajeev sent the sweetest msg after reaching home… Ll miss you too bro!! Girish, Shashi, Shubha, I owe you one big-time for teachin mom google-talk and I miss all the masti that I had with u….!!!

Lots of people from office wished me and I was soooooooooo happy that they called…. I did meet 3 of them!! And if I had not met Shamanth, Manoj and Sagar, I would probably reach here more homesick…. Just one year of work (and 40 dayz of unemployment) and its unbelievable how close I am to you guys!!! Missing you guys so bad!! You are great friends!!

Seema and ppd!!! Miss you 2 too… I know it got emotional towards the end and all, and that’s only cuz I will miss your company so much!! There were so many friends and classmates who wished that I felt so overwhelmed every 2-3 hrs…!! It was so tough to fight back the tears when everyone wished you luck so many times!!!

Nothing about my parents and bro here, cuz I would want that to be with me and me alone!!!! J

Blog resumes flight from Chilly Philly

its been 25 days since i reached philadelphia.. and frankyl, everyone and everything has been very kind to me (except the weather, which sometimes acts freaky!!! i dont understand how i can freeze at 2 in the afternoon)it such a nice city.. haven't explored it at all actually, but i wud love to do tat sometime (when i got some money to blow and the dollar rate is fallin).. the little bit tat i did travel (read, travel to walmart cuz we needed a microwave), i saw an oldish philly..there are these huge skyscrapers on one side.. and old vintage buildings on the other.. and the fascinating thing for me is that they have their existence almost like a symbiotic relation (eeks.. tats my med sci class influence.. love tat prof's class.. he teaches with so much enthu tat i jus sit n smile away)..oops.. back to philly.. hmm.. i stay on the side which is relatively quiet (yes, relatively).. there is a HUGE HUGE hospital at the corner of our lane and there are always people and ambulances in the area (creepy considering how much i hate hospitals!!)


guess what!! this place has so many indians tat am wonderin where all the americans went!!! there have 2-3 indian stores every street.. which sells marie biscuits for 1 dollar!!! imagine payin 45 bucks (or is it 47) for tat!!! and maggi is unbelievably expensive.. oof.. not missin it much cuz its so unhealthy. :)speakin to healthy, i gotta walk 10-15 min to class.. :D maybe i have lost some weight (added thanks to our combined culinary skills which makes reiterates the fact that "we eat to live"!!!).. aicho.. there i go again.. so, might have lost some weight (wow!!!!) but not for long.. i love my peanut butter spread and mozarella cheese.. not to foget the yummy chocolate flavoured cereal..and.. the cheese spread.. and all the carbs in the rice!!! oh o.. i can see where this is goin.. already hungry..


but nope... lemme focus on the blog now.. :D did i mention ( to some i did) that i started to hit the gym.. yup, jus started.. and ended the same day.. FIVE WHOLE FREAKY MINS SWEATIN ON TAT STUPID CYCLE N IT SAYS 10 CALS BURNT!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!so obviously i stopped proper gym stuff!!! but played badminton one day!! the next morn was the WORST ever.. and the next day was well.. PAINFUL!!! hurts to think abt it.. ;)
missing blore.. blore wud be so warm rite now compared to chilly philly.. but also miss all the food.. mmm mmm.. oh btw, with all the cookin, cleanin that i am doin now.. can assure people one thing for sure.. ms or ms.. phd or no phd.. will come back ready to be a housewife!! will keep the house squeaky clean.. :D (mom, are u listening??)