This....And....That

Okay folks. Excuse me for the longish hiatus. I've been busy and also lazy. Honestly I dont know what had come over me for the last 3-4 weeks. Of course there was work and I worked (or rather slogged) like crazy for a week. Then came thanksgiving when I went to visit my dear friends AGAIN!!!! And then a bout of laziness, just a feeling to NOT do anything. No emails, no phone calls, no watching movies, just office, work, home, lunch, dinner and sleep in an unending möbius strip.

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The thanksgiving trip was awesome. Honestly all my trips to visit friends have always turned out awesome. The feeling that overwhelms me when I'm with my friends is nearly indescribable. I feel completely relaxed and at ease. We talk about the old times and discuss about the state of our lives, take advice and even argue on silly topics. Most of the time I'm at the receiving end of their puns and comments and I do get upset but then its just at the spur of that moment. A few minutes later everything's gone and everyone's back again pulling my leg. :-)

I flew in from San Diego to Charlotte...reached there Thursday morning, we drove from Charlotte to Baltimore, spent the night at TK's appartment. From there we drove to New Jersey, spent Friday night at Chabru's house. On Saturday took a train to Manhattan and kept walking and walking and walking in and around Times Square, 5th, 6th and 7th streets, shopping, searching for Indian restaurants. I brought a brown jeans jacket and slip-on semi-formal shoes for myself. Saturday night we drove back to Baltimore and after spending just about an hour or so in Baltimore, started to drive back to Charlotte. It was great fun. And I'll be re-living it, because I'm gonna be meeting them again for the long weekend during christmas. Yipeee!!

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For the last month and half or so, mom and dad have redoubled and intensified their search for a daughter-in-law. Why?? Firstly because I'll soon be 30 (WOW, I cant believe it myself) and secondly, I'm one of those guys who fall into the - Oh My God, you STILL havent found someone for yourself. You're such a loser!! - category. To be very honest, I am petrified at the whole scenario.

Sometimes, I feel it would be a great challenge to be single and to live life at your own terms and maybe even adopt a child and raise it as your own. The thought is very rebellious and just thinking about it, gives me a great high. Maybe such a thought has crept into me because I've lost hope of finding someone for myself. Some other times I feel living such a life would be so lonely - something which my mom told me when I told her of my idea of being single. In fact couple of weeks back, she brought up the topic of my marriage and told her - "I'm gay" and she just burst out laughing and said you're saying this just because you dont want to get married.

Mom and dad forwarded the picture of a prospective alliance some weeks back and I deleted the email as soon as I got it. Each time I called up home, mom & dad would ask just one thing - "What do you think about the alliance?". Tired of them asking, I stopped calling. I didnt talk to anyone at home for a week. To break the deadlock, they started calling me from India. They somehow convinced me to atleast look at the picture. With great resentment, I saw the picture. Mom & dad kept pestering me for my opinion and I told them that without meeting her personally, I cannot take any decision. For me the most difficult thing to do is to reject her (or for that matter any alliance). I feel it would be prejudiced and judgemental on my part to reject her. Who am I to reject anyone?

Anyways, a temporary status quo has been attained now. But this wont last long. It will be broken the moment I reach Mumbai, because then I will have to meet the lady.

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On a not-so-personal note, I'm going strength to strength with respect to my cooking. My repertoire now includes, Dal (Tur, masoor, moong, chowli) , Sambar, Rasam, Pulav, Biryani, Dahi kadi, rajma, choley, different combinations of dry and wet subzi involving aalu, mutter, paneer, flower, gobi, bhendi, capsicum and recently gobi-manchurian in corn gravy. I can also make green chutney, tamarind-date chutney, batata-wada, potato/onion/cabbage/bread bhajji. WOW!!! Thats quite a lot of variety eh?? :-)))) No wonder I've been gaining weight instead of losing it. hahahahaha.

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Throughout my stay here, I've brought a lot of gifts for my sister and brother. I brought a 14" DELL laptop for my sister. Got a pretty good deal for it. It has 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 160GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, integrated webcam, CD-DVD writer, extended battery and it cost me just about 700 USD. I also bought a jumbo 650 GB hard drive for my desktop at home. Brought a WWE-JohnCena T-shirt and a LAGalaxy-DavidBeckham T-shirt for my brother. Also brought a couple of T-shirts for my sister and a Chanel No 5 perfume too for her.

My wishlist is still NOT completely done. I still need to buy a wireless keyboard-mouse combo, an unlocked iPhone whenever its available (if not then maybe an iPodTouch), a hooded T-shirt for my sister and brother, a DVD pack of "I Love Lucy" for mom & dad and need to buy some stuff for my sister's husband as well. I wonder whether I'll be able to save any money after all this. :-)))

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Off late, I've been promoted to a car-owner from a pedestrian. Thanks to this great colleague of mine. He's perhaps the only colleague whom I can call my friend. Somehow, I am just not comfortable in making friends with my work-mates. I always tend to maintain a professional relationship with them. With this guy too it started off the same way but progressively we became very good friends. He's also on a project here in San Diego, but right now he's gone back to India for a month long vacation. Before he left, he told me to pick up his car from outside his apartment. So I got the keys from another colleague who stays in the vicinity of my friend and took the car. Thanks to this, I go home everyday for lunch. :-))) Thats the only thing which I'll miss once my friend comes back here to "reclaim" his car. I intend to get a car-wash done before I give it to him.

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And Finally, its amazing to find a lot of internet sites providing live streaming feed of the cricket matches going on between India and Pakistan. Recently, a colleague of mine just gave away his TV to me because he was getting one from his friend. The immediate next thing I did is to rush to Fry's Electronics and buy a S-Video cable and an AUX audio cable. So now, I connect my laptop to the TV through S-Video, connect the audio to the TV's audio jack and put on the streaming TV channel. Hey Presto! I can watch cricket matches on TV. Yippeee!!!! Today's the 5th day of the final test and I hope it does not turn out to be a damp squib.