Ok ok i know i sound like a broken record but I swear time's been scarce for me.....
The recent trip to Assam n Meghalaya was great! Yadav's wedding took place in Vijayawada - and i reiterate the fact that wedding planners is a booming biz. India desperately needs them - my husband should open a service maybe, given his experience in the area. And no give ur dirty minds a rest - he planned his friends' weddings, and quite a few of them. Vijayawada was really quite hectic but the week after tht was great.

We took Howrah Mail till Kolkata - Yadav n family joined us in Vijayawada. The train journey was fun - ate the whole way there :) My kind of fun. Thankfully no rains to delay our arrival, were off to the airport after refreshin at the CSIR guest house. Kolkata's NSCBI airport was an absolute disappointment - absolutely no food counter and yes my world revolves arnd food, if there's food arnd - u will not hear me whine. Two snacks bars, one inside Arrivals and the other inside departures - can you believe it. We chked arnd with someone working at the airport and he said 'Medame, khane ke liye kuch bhi nahin - bahut mehnga hein wahan pe'.

Guwahati from the airport was nice - we only got the see the place on our way back. Jorhat is a hot place during this season, supposedly no summers there but two months which are quite sultry and guess what we were lucky enuf to be there then! The RRL Campus is awesome, quite and green with birds all arnd and fireflies at nite. The reception was a hit - the hall was beautifully done up - extremely colorful.

We visited Sibsagar and a couple of old monuments built during the Ahom dynasty - Talathal Ghar and Rang Mahal.

The visit to the tea estates and manufacturing plant was informative - couldn't take pix there but got some grt shots at the tea gardens.

The drive from Jorhat to Guwahati was the only downside to our trip - rain-damaged roads are definitely not what u want to experience.

Oh this is getting continued after a coupla days .....
Guwahati was warmer than we expected - Kamakhiya temple is really quite nice - for someone from South India, the North Indian temples are very different. I'm used to huge gopurams and tall structures with large sized deities inside . Kamkhiya was an eye-opener - really dark passages with steps leading down to the main part of the temple - its very easy to identify those that have been into the main temple and those that are on they're way in -the face has a red portion on top - an no that is exactly how we all looked - i've yet to get the pix from my dad but they will speak for themselves once they're up here.

Shillong was a pleasure - the accommodation was superb, the weather was wonderful and the food was quite alrite :)

The HQ of the Eastern Air Command of the Indian Air Force as well as tht of the Assam Riffles , one of the oldest paramilitary forces in India.

Our day in Shillong was really relaxing and a great way to end the week long vacation.

Work has been hectic again - now i've moved full-time into Consulting and hoping tht the next couple of months go grt. Finally found a place and we'll be moving over the weekend - kinda smaller than our current place in T-Nagar but it cannot be helped. I'm not even going to start with the issues of rental costs in Chennai these days.

Gai's lil angel had her 1st birthday this month and so did Karuna's Manav. The evenings went off really well. In the midst of all this, we did get Mathu her housewarming gift but forgot to give it to her. Tht's another excuse for us to meet up again :)

Will blog again more in the days to come

The past coupla weeks

As usual I've been an extremely irregular blogger..... No excuses really.
The psst few days have been eventful - workload increased, sister relocated, weddings to attend galore, mom bought mobile

After weeks of trying to get the landline phone connection fixed - it finally was. Fingers crossed but get this - the damn company will not let me downgrade to a plan lesser than my currrent cost. Go Figure!!! I'm still waiting to hear back from them - my choices were either downgrade or turn in the connection. We've been shelling out 1K a month on a connection that rarely gets used. Absolutely not worth it.

My sis finally relocated to Bang, poor kitty had to stay back - their new owner was not happy with the thought of a Cat in the house......

On the workfront - currently helping out the RS team get the Samples out and done by Horizontals.

The spree of recent wedding and engagements - Nethaji tied the knot, Cheena got engaged ( a superfast engagement if ever, i kid u not), Yadav is getting hitched on Sept 1, an ex-colleague from work got married and yes Binu is getting engaged the following month.

Sivaji, the much-awaited blockbuster is finally out today and half of the office is absent - no guesses required. I know people who within a day n half are seeing more than one show, some even three :)) That's Rajini mania for you!!!!

Mithru is heading this eve himself - i'v been promised for later. No sense heading to the theaters anytime before the next three weeks - it'll be as good as not watching the movie and watchin the ruckus arnd :)

Seen that once for Stalin - Chiru craze will be nothin compared to this show stopper.

Mum's heading to VJWD tonite, Dad's heading to Delhi for a meeting and the next couple of weeks are likely to be absolute wonkers! Treatment time for my father-in-law in Pdy. Hoping he recovers to whatever extent is possible!!

Hmmm otherwise the going has been ok. Oh yes, the weekend was lovely, we went to Dakshin Chitra - man is the place a wonder!! Been wanted to head thataway and did once but turned out to be a holiday (whoever heard of a Tuesday holiday). The place was awesome but we didn't get a chance to see all of it, need to head over earlier the next time. Then on our way back stopped off at the ECR Dhaba - swell experience. Will upload the pix soon but they have ducks, rabbits, emus, pigeons, cocktails, PERSIAN Cats for christsakes, goats, etc. Had a whale of a time!!!



This weekend will be a bore compared to tht.
It was Pratheep's birthday on Monday - so we all met up later tht nite, they stayed on over, Mathu n Danesh left after a while. Nice evening........

A song i've gotten hooked to recently. Just love it!!!

Time goes by

Well here i am - sitting at work, twiddling my fingers so to speak. There's plenty to get done but no will to work *sigh sigh* Its one of those days when all i really want to do is curl up and read - guess its after effects of yesterday :) One of those lazy but extremely hot days.

When we move houses - i am going to make damn sure that the kitchen has some decent ventilation. Arghhhhh just thinking of cooking in my kitchen is driving me nuts!!!!!

Hopefully no cooking this evening - Mithru is heading out for a floodlight match, a short one but maybe to make up he will bring food home :P I know, i know - am being greedy but wat the heck, small pleasures and all.

But seriously the current heatwave that's passing Chennai is no joke. And this even before it actually gets worse. Agni Nakshitaram is around the corner and no one in their rite minds is looking forward to it.......

Was planning on watching Pursuit of Happiness but completely slipped my mind yesterday, guess i'll end up watching Cruel Intentions - a weird movie to say the least - wat i remember of it from long long ago - a twisted relationship between stepsiblings.

One awesome movie series i finally got to see recently - Final Destination 1, 2 & 3. Man is that an awesome movie or wat!!!! The concept is completely thought provoking and can drive one arnd the bend completely :))
Death is chasing you every step of the way - makes one wonder really but yea does make sense in a completely offhanded way. Death's design !!!

Haven't been to the movies in the recent past - no time really wat with me being ill and then Mithru's dad's treatment this week. I sure hope he handles it as well as he did Cycle 1. The next few weeks are not going to be too easy and the heat won't help either. Fingers crossed !!!

Kas is going to come over tomorrow nite - hopefully we'll hit the bed by 12 atleast.

A friend recently saw Life is Beautiful - well i am at a loss for words when i think of the movie. The emotions that are portrayed and implied......... truly beautiful movie but one that I cannot watch more than once.

Life in reverse :)

A post on a friend's blog said it all -

"The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? 'A death.' What's that , a bonus?

I think the life cycle is all backwards - You should die first, get it out of the way. Then go live in an old-age home - after getting kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work for forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol , you party and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities whatsoever, you become a little baby, you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, and then you finish off as an orgasm!! Amen!"

Time to laff!!

Laff your heads off........

* 1. NAMES:
If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara.
If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.

* 2. EATING OUT:*
When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want the change back.

When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

* 3. MONEY:
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale.

4. BATHROOMS:
A man has five items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Marriott.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

* 5. ARGUMENTS:
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

* 6. CATS:**
Women love cats.
Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

* 7. FUTURE:**
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

* 8. SUCCESS:**
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

* 9. MARRIAGE:*
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change and she does.

* 10. DRESSING UP:**
A woman will dress up to go 4 shopping, to water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and read the mail.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

* 11. NATURAL:
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

* 12. OFFSPRING: **
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favorite
foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.

A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

* 13. FINAL THOUGHT:*
Any married man should forget his mistakes.
There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

BECOMING A MAN

- TWO-YEAR DEGREE COURSE

A new two-year degree is being offered at the University that many of you should be

interested in:

Becoming a Real Man. That’s right, in just six mini-semesters, you, too, can be a

real man as well as earn an MA degree. (Male Arts)

Please take a moment to look over the program outline.

FIRST YEAR

Autumn Schedule:

MEN 101: Combating Stupidity

MEN 102: You, Too, Can Do Housework

MEN 103: PMS-Learn To Keep Your Mouth Shut

MEN 104: We Do Not Want Sleazy Under Things

for Christmas

Winter Schedule:

MEN 110: Wonderful Laundry Techniques

MEN 111: Understanding the Female Response to Getting in at 4am

MEN 112: Parenting: It Doesn’t End with Conception

EAT 100: Get a Life, Learn to Cook

EAT 101: Get a Life, Learn to Cook II

ECON 001A: What’s Hers is Hers

Spring Schedule:

MEN 120: How NOT to Act like an arse when you’re

Wrong

MEN 121: Understanding Your Incompetence

MEN 122: YOU, The Weaker Sex

MEN 123: Reasons to Give Flowers

ECON 001C: What Was Yours is Hers

SECOND YEAR

Autumn Schedule:

SE#X 101: You CAN Fall Asleep without It

SE#X 102: Morning Dilemma: If It’s Awake, Take a Shower

SE#X 103: How to Stay Awake After Sex

MEN 201: How To Put the Toilet Seat Down

(Elective) (See Electives Below)

Winter Schedule:

MEN 210: The Remote Control: Overcoming Your Dependency

MEN 211: How to Not Act Younger than Your Children

MEN 212: You, Too, Can be a Designated Driver

MEN 213: Honest, You Don’t Look Like Brad Pitt

MEN 230A: Her Birthdays and Anniversaries are

Important

Spring Schedule:

MEN 220: Omitting %&*!@ from Your Vocabulary (Pass/Fail Only)

MEN 221: Fluffing the Blanket after Farting Is NOT Necessary

MEN 222: Real Men Ask For Directions

MEN 223: Thirty Minutes of Begging is NOT Considered Foreplay

MEN 230B: Her Birthdays and Anniversaries are Important II

Course Electives:

EAT 102: Cooking with Tofu

EAT 103: Utilization of Eating Utensils

EAT 103: Burping and Belching Discreetly

MEN 231: Mothers-In-Law

MEN 232: Appear to Be Listening

MEN 233: Just Say “Yes, Dear”

ECON 001C: Cheaper to Keep Her

Querky :)

A funny forward received from a friend............

RAILROADS

Does the statement, "We've always done it like that" ring any bells?

The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.

That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?

Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.

Why did the English build them like that?

Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the

pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did "they" use that gauge then?

Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools

that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.

Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.

So who built those old rutted roads?

Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.

And the ruts in the roads?

Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.

The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever.

So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses!

Now, the twist to the story

When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs.

The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site.

The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.

The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.

So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

- .................And U thought being a HORSE'S ASS wasn't important!

Are Men hard to please ???

Men Are Hard To Please - I wonder ??
A forward i received this morning and just had to add to my blog :)))

The problems with MEN:

If u TREAT him nicely, he says u are IN LOVE with him;
If u Don't, he says u are PROUD .
If u DRESS Nicely , he says u are trying to LURE him;
If u Don't, he says u are from VILLAGE.
If u ARGUE with him, he says u are STUBBORN;
If u keep QUIET, he says u have no BRAINS .
If u are SMARTER than him, he'll lose FACE ;
If he's Smarter than u, he is GREAT.
If u don't Love him, he tries to POSSESS u;
If u Love him! , he will try to LEAVE u.(very true huh?)
If u don't make love with him., he says u don't Love him;
If u do!! he says u are CHEAP.
If u tell him your PROBLEM , he says u are TROUBLESOME ;
If u don't , he says that u don't TRUST him.
If u SCOLD him, u are like a NANNY to him;
If he SCOLDS u, it is because he CARES for u.
If u BREAK your PROMISE, u Cannot be TRUSTED;
If he BREAKS his, he is FORCED to do so.
If u SMOKE , u are BAD girl;
If he SMOKES , he is GENTLEMAN.
If u do WELL in your exams, he says it's LUCK ;
If he does WELL , it's BRAINS .
If u HURT him, u are CRUEL;
If he HURTS u, u are too SENSITIVE!!
& sooo hard to please!!!!!

Family n Friends........

Been a while since I've written especially abt family n friends.

My sis will be in town for the weekend but i don't think she's have much free time - another classmate wedding so the entire jingbang will be in the city for the event.

Mom n Dad were with us during the start of the week. A week that has been vague really - finding out abt my father-in-laws illness and then all the running arnd to get the tests done, collecting report and meeting specialists has not been easy. But being busy has helped Mithru, doesn't leave much time to think really.
That's the dismal bit!

Suni has chopped off all of tht lovely hair but the new look suits her well :) Need to ask Tom wot he thinks of it - rather wot him mom thinks of its :)

Kas has been her usual self and not kept in touch - Kas if you read this - BIG hint *nudge nudge* But i know that she's got some looming deadlines and with the team being wat it is, she's under loads of pressure. Relax a big lady, the world won't fall apart if you take a breather.

Gai has been - bemused for lack of a better word. Work has not been too easy but tat's the same sad story for all of us. Her migraines have been acting up something fierce and with hardly any time to herself, the going has been rocky the past few days.

Mathu celebrated her 2nd wedding anniversary in style - a day with Danesh and Teju by the beach and pool. The best way to beat the heat! Teju had a ball with all the water around and the proud parents enjoyed themselves watching their little imp. Oh yeah and Mathu is in the 'Bestest Daughter-in-law' mode for the present. Atta Girl!!! You can show 'em all.

Karuna has been ............. the past few weeks but Manav keeps her sane and stable :) She's tired with the current stagnation and needs to get out of the lull but the tide is yet to turn in her favor. Hold on girl, things are bound to change :)

Julie has become 'Chef extraordinaire' ! A bit lonely but she'll find a way to keep herself busy and we're all there for her, so she just needs to get on gtalk or the group to find company really. Fingers crossed that you'll find a job soon!

More in next!

Life sucks. And then you die!

Life sucks. And then you die!

Life!

An awesome video lifted off a friends blog - just had to - Thanks Adi!

The recent family wedding

Ajay n Nee's wedding went well. A rush trip for all of us and since we barely spent any time in VJWD - it didn;t quite feel like an Andhra wedding - with all the do's n don't etc but it went well!!

Ajay managed to get away with wearing a kurta -pyjama set, set my husbands ears to steaming (hee hee) - He was forced to wear a panchi - Andhra style over his trousers :)) Supposed to be the only thing he remembers of our wedding. Anyways the whole ceremony went well - lunch with the family, evening functions with band baajja and wedding at a God awful hour of 1.30 AM. Ofcourse that was just the beginning - the whole ceremony was done by 4 AM and we had to rush bak - train to catch at 5.30.

The mid-week reception in Blore went well too - shopping spree in the morn and then the guys went out to get some stuff - got caught in the usual traffic snarl and winded up several hours later :) My husband n I swore off Blore again but with my sis and BIL relocating there, we're bound to head thataway!

Pix of the wedding attached.

Actually one post i've been wanting to but never got around to - X'mas at the office!
All had an awesome time, 2 days of no work - team entirely busy in creating and spreading the Christmas cheer :)

Mathu n team recreated the Promised Land, our bay was the Santa's Workshop with the ceiling-high pile of gift, Pranav's was a Zen Christmas, and Adi's was the Live Christmas (see pix). With hardly any money spent, the whole team managed to pull it off excellently and everyone enjoyed. Ofcourse we only ended up with the best floor prize. Sales grabbed the best bay, and QA had an awesome one with eggs used for snowmen- it was highly creative but a small mishap in terms of a minor fire due to a faulty cracker candle :)

The evening was fun - exchanged gifts for the Chris friend game, followed by singing and some random entertainment but yea the floor decoration was FUN!

Ages once again

As usual - haven't had the time for blogging and finally decided that i had to get to it. The past few weeks have been eventful - work has grown (that's an understatement - if ever!) Organisationally a lot of changes - Kalai moved out, Ravin moved in and now Maddy moving out. Teams are growing, some shrinking :) My Program Management activities are shaping up finally. Ofcourse albeit snails pace still but i was expecting that - so no big surprise there.

The girlfriends met up for a session yesterday and hopefully its done loads of good for all involved. Women's day at work was celebrated with a luncheon at Towers. Was too many of us to really but we had fun with Gai's lil' angel.

Valentine's was uneventful really, infact the B'day and Anniversary were too but that's ok, we were not planning on anythin' extravagant. We were all in Yercaud for the 2nd Jan and enjoyed ourselves with the short break. Lovely climate as usual.

Last weekend at Gai's was fun, noon till nite at her place, sumptuous lunch, walk by the Puzhal Dam and then 'Lee' to wind the day. The movie was ok - nice start and middle, a bit of a let down towards the end.

M n me were trying to watch Thimuru but seems to be entirely jinxed - i think it was the 3rd CD were trying to see but couldn't get thru the whole movie -kept skipping and finally got stuck.

No telugu movies seen recently - nothing in the way of a recent hit anyways.

Oy yeah another cousin married in Feb - wedding in VJWD and reception in B'lore. Was nice n we all had a great time. We went bonkers at Chikpet shopping for sarees.

Hmmm guess that about sums up all that's been happening, more in the next installment