Hudson water landing !!

If you haven’t seen the news, here it is -

I was at work when I came to know of the incident. I felt weak and shiver positively ran across my spine. And then I followed the news and was in relief and in awe of the phenomenal rescue efforts. Time and again, New York does not fail to impress me. If such mishaps have to happen in the world, let it happen in New York, because that’s where the impact is minimal –what an incredible effort.


I am especially inspired by the pilot’s reaction to the incident. Supposedly he was calm and composed, took important decisions and maneuvered the plane to land on water, like that was his daily routine. Wow! When failure is not an option, don’t you panic? Probably not!?

I don’t know how you can commend the heroic efforts from the rescue team. I am sure there are atleast 150 families who bless them whole heartedly.

If you were on-board,

It’s quite a life-enriching experience for the common man on board. It’s like having a second chance to live. It’s like you had an eternity to reflect on your past life, before you were lunged out to safety. Lastly, it’s one reality check for us to think beyond economy, losing jobs, mounting mortgages, broken relationships, and petty fights and find that common ground with that entire dissimilar unrelated people in our society.

Again it happened in New York, in my backyard. NY inspires in ways more than you know!

Winter special !

It was a Saturday. I was working a 6 am shift at the computer lab; half asleep I was supposedly assisting the inane med-students in their attempt to turn paper notes into slides! Those labs in med school was built with least respect for people working with computers, or so I thought, recessed in the insides of concrete jungle after miles of corridors from the nearest exit.

Two days ago, I had just peeped out of my window to catch the first glimpse of snow. The fresh flakes that seemed to be in a hurry to reach mother earth welcomed the concept of winter in me. I was happy, I remember- all those childhood dreams of America seemed to be turning true, the land of snow and year-around Christmas! (Well, that’s what I thought after watching Home Alone as a kid) However we did not venture out and the snowfall was rather short-lived.

When my shift was over at 2pm, I was hungry and after a long walk outdoors, I found it was snowing, rather heavily. I knew the forecast had been bad and was well prepared and yet I think I did not quite expect it to be this heavy. It was not anything like what I had watched on TV or that, that was two days ago, not a pretty sight by any means, not when my tummy was growling. And I had a ten minute walk through the campus before I can reach home. Not quite sure, how to steer my route, I was walking on fresh now; deep down I was scared if I would skid and break a limb or two. I was scared more so because, I did not see anyone else out ‘walking’ in the snow and if I did fall, I was not going to be able to get up without help; I imagined that if I fell, I would slide down the MLK road, slide down all the way until MLK’s gradient leveled. That big jumbo leather jacket from India protected me and brought me home. Later I came to know that was the heaviest snow in Cincinnati in 16 years!!!!

Today, as I was walking down to work on the streets of Manhattan, braving the cold and the wind, some tiny harmless flakes of snow, for some reason, I remembered this first venture with snowfall. I smiled. Well, I have definitely begun to love winter in my brief stay in USA!

Some pictures of Fall 2008

On a bright sunny Saturday afternoon, I took a stroll in the Central Park- the green expanse of beauty in the bustling city of New York.

Here is my first stint at photography !


Pictures are of very low quality after the upload :(

Happy Diwali !!

Diwali in my childhood was all about new clothes and fire crackers. I would start looking forward to it starting a good one month in advance. Shopping for different types of oothubathi, the latest and fancy fire-cracker of the season, the longest Sara-Vedi and the rockets that I always had to sneak in, long lines at TNSC – my memory is real fresh. As I grew up in to late teens, craze for crackers died down a little (call it becoming socially responsible ;-)), but foodie goodies gained importance. It was still a time when I devoured all the jamuns, coconut burfis, kaju kathlis, naada murukku, chaklis, cornflakes mixture and karaboondhi. Those were the times when health / fitness / figure consciousness were unknown; I also remember showing enthusiasm in trying out less known recipes like Mohandal :) All I remember now is that it was some form of sweet. Cousins, aunts and uncles huddled watching the idiot box all day long; nonstop rain spoiling our fireworks, Solomon Pappaiya patti mandram, Simran and Sarath Kumar interviews is another memory I have of Diwali. I don’t recall attaching any religious significance to Diwali at any time, save the customary stacking of new clothes in the pooja room the previous day, the early morning hair wash and a quick peek at the local temple- new years was more religious to me than Diwali ever was !!

Today new clothes still reign in high spirits, pot-lucks are more like the order of the day, sweets and savories are more delicious to prepare than to eat and gain weight and lighting little lamps seem to dispel the winter gloom of New York City.

Aug 18th, 2004 - Been four good short years !

Seasons went by
Chapters across the rainbow
Many things I liked
A few things turned dear
Only thing I miss
As hell as I do.

Cuisines across the orb
For palates of extreme kinds
Just like mine, to savor the love of food
Relishing from Mediterranean in the middle
To Caribbean in the west ; to Vietnamese in the east
Vegetarian I remain

Intimidating winters; No – not anymore
Love the white snow
Allow the pleasing jacket
To mask the flaws in form
Rove around sub-zero
Without fussing about sweat and smell

Football, the finest feast
Mannish Manning and the mob
Braving the cold and blizzard
To bring home the Cup
That we affectionately call
The Super Bowl

Those were the three things
That I came to love
As I remember my fourth anniversary
In this land of dreams
Differences and opportunities
For the mind that’s fresh and fearless

Silence !

I have always enjoyed a certain amount of solitude. Silence in isolation provides me the ambient atmosphere for some of my best and refined logical thought processes, be it writing a poem, cooking a new recipe or working at office. I am able to appreciate and understand my thoughts better and hence able to align them in order to arrive at meaningful conclusions.

Have you felt in total comfort in silence in a group? I routinely felt that through my childhood. I would just be sitting there studying truly oblivious to my surroundings. Television would be intentionally off, I don’t recall having a phone; and everyone at home will do their own stuff at peace in absolute silence. I would only hear my pen scratch against the paper, sometimes the lone tea shop on the street will blare some music that will faint out across so many walls and doors. I can always count the ticks of the wall clock, hear the water dripping from the improperly closed wash basin tap, cannot ignore the slight hum from opening the fridge, until the cooker would whistle and announce the dinner time.

Even at college hostel though rarely, around exam times, we would all be sitting on the corridor with a bunch of books spread all around us, dimming light and scratching heads. It is a time when you hate the fact that we haven’t touched those books in months, love the fact that you would not have to touch it ever again and be in an unsatisfied yet acknowledged and time-honored frame of mind about the inevitable impending exams- Silence it is.

Today, when I sit downstairs on the riverfront, the calming timbre of the dashing water and it alone would be so soothing that no length or variety of ipod music on Bose speakers can truly provide.

I consistently listen to music on mp3s in the gym at dangerous decibel levels, definitely ignorant to the person next to me even if he was screaming at the top of his lungs. I know I am at the risk of NIHL (noise induced hearing loss) and yet…..

If I left the ipods at home, may be I will blog years later about the wonderful times I had in the gym - how the churning of the myriad treadmills made intonations in harmony with the rolling arm pulleys and ellipticals to produce some unvoiced melody !!

There is music in silence and I haven’t quite listened to it in a while.

It is not that I have been toiling for any significant step up in my life or personality that had kept my blogging at bay for so long. It is just that I have not had the drive and zeal to sit in front of my lappie for such a long time.

This being my first post in the New Year, officially, Happy new year!!

Have you had the opportunity to see a tiny little baby with in hours of her birth? I did! Yeah! My sister-in-law delivered a baby girl. Her little face was so full of innocence and peace. We have all heard about poetic associations of fresh flowers and new borns. But when I saw the baby, I thought it stood no parallel. Though I wanted to hold the tiny little thing, I was so scared that I might actually hurt her. Fingers so frail, eyes always shut; it must be hard for the baby to leave the protected fortress of her mother’s womb for the world. If there is anything called purity in this world, it is the virtue in a new born baby.

This virtue in all of us is adulterated with passage of time in hope of larger ego, higher prestige, greed in terms of money and respect and blown out self-image. If and only, when one is able to contain these false impressions about self, can the virtue last a lifetime, otherwise the comparison between a baby and a flower will reign as both lose sheen and succumb to their real lives!

Spring has finally arrived!

For people from Madras, like me, where the only three seasons known are hot summer, hotter summer, hottest summer, spring in the US is a welcome phenomenon. It’s a time when long walks are rejuvenating, evenings are refreshing and the breeze repairs the rusty soul. The fully bloomed flowers bedecked on either side of the roads, the town looks like a model garden. Every big campus looks young green and the everyday pathways turn in to arboretum. The variety of flowers, the array of aroma ranging from mild woody to luscious lavender to stinging citrus take you off to Utopia. Suddenly, everything in this world is perfect, everyone is just faultless and your life is ideal.

The smell that’s fresh is lovelier than the best perfumes from Rochas. The green hues from the fresh plants are serene and your boggled mind soothes down. The Yellow flowers remind of you childhood friendships, the unperturbed walks with your 2nd standard classmate and the power of lasting time. The greens are reminiscent of a new born baby, fresh and pure – mind and soul; it denotes balance, harmony and stability. Green is calm, yet time flies by faster – spring passes by sooner! Violets peek in a little bit blessing its calm, solidarity and peace. Energy and spirituality are kindled – it is an ancient color of intellectuality and life force. Purples purge the pungency out of you. Shades of red are plenty and so are the senses attributed to it. From passion in love to passion in violence, from seemingly opposite ends of the horizon, red is a stimulus. What is stimulates, is in the state of your mind. In the East, it connotes a young bride and a happy wedding in the offing while in certain parts of South Africa, red stands for mourning. As said, it is what you think it is.

Rainbow peeps in now and then; spring brings in all colors of rainbow too! Welcome Spring!

As spring smiles at you, get off your jackets, get some sun shine and beam back at it. Take 20 minutes of your time and indulge in the pleasures spring can offer. See your life changed before summer begins!

Nature speaks

In Portland,
rains 10 months in a year.. slow and steady.. that no one ever rushes around.. there is no disruption in life.. rain seems to be pleading "slow and steady, yet persistent ways of life makes a the city green"

In Madras,
If at all it does, it does 3 weeks in year, hard down pour, not enough reservoirs to hold the water, much of the water is wasted out to the sea with in 10 days of rain
The people you see are all in a hurry that they want to get off rain, asap. The people of Madras show an unwelcome attitude to the rain, that rain stopped showing its face these days. Worst water scarcity in history, today.

Nature teaches human kind a lot of things in subtle unknown ways. Rain was just another example. In today's modern world, with people getting busier by the day, atrocities galore. People are in a forceful rush attending their business that they often forget that benefits are better in persistent and slower ways of life. I am not advocating easier lifestyles but just some styles that gives her the time to fathom whatever is happening around her. Persistence pays, not pressure. A political campaign- vehement and forceful slogans often preaching non-cooperation to the youngsters of tomorrow ; A Murder - a exhibition of forceful brutality; cheating and manhandling a next-door neighbor (http://sbcbrutes.blogspot.com. You must have read this via the Email forward carrying the import of this link. ) , are all exhibitions of man-made attempt to forceful invasion trying to achieve supremacy teaching unproductive ideas to the next generation.

Cramming in a fast paced course is as unproductive as rain in Madras. Taking the time for things to sink in, apiece and using the full span of life to learn is the way to go !