Oh!! and I am in love with yoga. Not that I am great at it. But I seem to love it so much. There are a million websites which would give you how to do yoga and what each asana would do to your body. Here is one. The one that I use often. I love the animation guy. Very flexible and Very cute!! I am no good to talk abt the great benfits of yoga. But what I can tell you is that yoga unlike anything can make you happy. Atleast that’s what it does to me.

I am a human who can’t stop sneezing. Each day, I swear, I sneeze atleast 50 times a day, and that is on a normal day. But after being introduced to Pranayama, sneezing has not reduced, but has completely stopped. Besides these, a little more of mindful breathing (which translates to breathing, knowing that you are breathing, and realising every breath taken in and out) helps bring down your stress levels a considerable level.

Surya Namaskaram comes next. Six sets of it and you’d be fit forever. Cholestral and Sugar levels would be maintained and the general feeling of well being would set in.Most of these asanas work on your spine. It helps you to remain supple and young. 

Feeling well physically is the most important priority for man and if we can’t work for that, I doubt if we would work for any else. My advice: Please do spend your time, atleast 10 mins each day for yoga. This time is for you. Not for anyone else. You would feel great. You will feel better. Just 10 mins of breathing, and the feeling of content you get after that is unmatchable.

My sis is starting school tomo and it almost makes me feel jealous. I am here so vetti, with absolutely nothing to do and she is starting school. I never thought I’d say it, but yes hols can be a bore. All you ppl out there who would like to disagree with me please stay at home from November to June (with coll and exams very occasionally) you’d know what I mean. It gets tired. Movies get boring, sleep does too. Reading books is a great option but my library would not give a single book anymore until I return my TOOOOO LONG over due books. I think I will have to pay my entire inheritance if atall I intend to pay that up. So reading is out unless someone plans to loan me some books.

To go do something useful I am a little late, or that is what I keep repeating. With all the things that I need to and have to do I dont think learning salsa or knitting is really an option. In other words I am vetti and will continue to be so for sometime now. Singapore is going to be a welcome break or is it? The pounds, not kilos(coz I wouldn’t have lost kilos) I lost shall double and return to me in Singapore. The eight kilos I put on in 3 weeks, the last time I went there shall stand testimonial to that. Please donot wonder if that is feasible. Trust me it is.

CSK is playing against Rajasthan Royals now. I am just so sad that the darn Royals are gonna win. I hate it. But I know its gonna happen. True, CSK wasn’t bad but.. Just this feeling that our win ain’t gonna happen. So Kavin is really .

Since we are on the topic of sports, anybody can take a wild guess at which team I would be supporting for Euro 08. Portugal!! Duh!!  And if you don’t know why. See this.

Oh and totally forgot to mention, I brush my teeth twice a day and I am very proud of it. Please do appreciate me for that in the comments. DO NOT FORGET!!

P.S. Well!! Like I felt, Chennai lost!! And I am worse than depressed. But heck, the match was awesome!! We played brilliantly. Thought it would have been easy for the Royals, but chennai seemed to pose a good oppositioin. So.. Nothing to feel worse abt or so I tell myself!!

Chennai Kings have contained the Kings XI team to a menial 112. I really hope we can get that easily. But since we once were capable of losing to Dravid’s Royal Challengers I think its possible that we can lose. So keeping my fingers crossed. Ntini earlier was on fire!! Muralidharan misfielded twice but seemed to have bowled well enough. Goni was great with a maiden over to his credit. Chennai in short was great. Hope I can say the same in an hours time.

Wish me luck and them too. Will add on later as to what happened.

Chao!!

P.S. WE WON!!! YAY!! YAY!! YAY!! won by 9 wickets and now into the finals to meet Rajasthan Royals..

Just back from HDFC bank and made these conclusions. Had been there to pay my Visa fees. (Yup, done that; Yay!!) I was waiting for the help desk to get information for the visa application as the guy in the counter was explaining personal loan concept to someone. I wait and wait with etiquette, and so many others don’t bother and budge in with their queries, get them clarified and leave. I still patiently wait for the person to leave and then ask them for the challan.

Get it, fill it and now will have to go to the counter to pay the fee. Wait in the long queue and for want of personal space stood with a reasonable gap between the person before me. By then two ppl stepped in front of me, with no concern what so ever that a girl was standing in the queue too. I realise soon that time is more important than personal space and walk up to person in front of me now and stood so close, that air molecules would have found it difficult to fit in. NOW, nobody intrudes. Lesson well learnt!!

I, wait and wait and finally very near the only counter that is open. All other counters have a board which says ‘COUNTER CLOSED’. Now a lady comes sits in one of the counters, and DOES NOT bother to remove the signboard. But once a human is spotted in that place, ppl from my queue ran to that lady with all their money or cheques or whatever. A lil less than a stampede, but still stupid to look at. The lady started collecting but never bothered to remove the sign.

I, my usual self, stay in the same line and wait for my turn. There is a bright yellow line across the counter which says ‘Only one person beyond this line’. There were 4 ppl beyond that line, all peering over the one guy who was depositing a few five hundred rupee notes. They were looking into the slip that had his account no/credit card no. Basically these things are very personal to ppl. These ppl who were peering over, may not do anything with those particulars. Knowing how much the person has in his account or how much he is drawing or depositing may not be huge issue, but it still is something personal. No matter how innocent their ‘viewing’ may be, it still is irritating. High time ppl realise it.

It was my turn now and I stood behind that line until all cleared away. Then I went forward, by which time the guy behind me had moved forward to speak to the teller. Yup!! he just overtook me to deposit his money. I excused myself and went forward and paid the money, while he was withdrawing his from the bag. Thank goodness for some justice.

Paid the money, thanked the guy in the counter (for which he looked up and smiled) and left. On the way back the roads yet again proved the same issue. A junction with no traffic signal and nobody is willing to stop to give way to another. I was driving and I waited until the point of me realising that I was real stupid and started moving the car, and inched my way through the major traffic and reached home.

Start to End.. Its the only concept that works. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!! and I am so not fit to be here!! humph!!

Same issue with my dad. My dad is a super driver. A rash driver. He drives, drinks, smokes, eats and I have seen him changing shirts. ALL WHILE DRIVING!! Have I cared? No!! I trust him. Even when he goes at 100 kms/hr (which is a lot acc to me) I was cool.

Not anymore. I started driving and every turn my dad takes without me realising the decelaration I close my eyes and scream at dad. I started getting paranoid with my bus drivers driving. But I must really appreciate their precision. Two huge buses travelling side by side (that’s coz the drivers are racing against each other) and if I reach out, I can touch the next person’s face. The one that belongs to the gal sitting in the next bus!! One inch off, and at those speeds we’d have been spinning away to death. I do appreciate their ability to control their vehicles with such precision, but all these issues which were so oblivious to me, suddenly seem to completely disconcert me now. This explains why ppl say that IGNORANCE IS BLISS!! It truly is!!

So, why am I talking abt all this now?? I don’t know. I just realised yesterday that there is no way that I can ever drive. Two reasons.

1. The route to my dad’s office, a place to which I have been driven to, a MILLION times now. Do I know it? Do I remember it? NO!!

Do I know if SRMC hospital is in Porur? NO!! Not until my dad told me so last year and I have been passing that place for the past 4 yrs.

Basically I can’t remember routes to save my life.

2. I need discipline on the road, to drive.
When I see three auto guys occupying three diff lanes and all going in the same horizontal line, I just get soo irritated. They are deaf to the honking horns from my car. And there is no way that my car would fit between the two autos. Man!! Frustrating!!

Two wheelers need a completely new post. They, I do agree, have as much rights on the road as I do, but they should realise that the speed of a car and that of a bike are entirely two different things. So if they wish to travel in the middle of the road, the car will have to match to the speed of the two wheeler. Does it occur to them, that it slows down the entire traffic following. NO!! The road belongs to them and they shall travel right in the middle.

So what do I do? Decide not to drive!! Not that my driving is great. But I believe that I don’t intrude anybody, except for the once that I scratched someone’s car with my brilliant driving. Well I have been good since then, so lets not get into the details. My driving is great as long as someone sits beside me and tells me that I have to turn left, right, slow down, overtake now, brake and stuff. Basically I work with the precision of a machine, with absolutely no brains and yes I have a driving license.

Oh and btw, it isn’t just the guys, the girls too. I keep seeing them, I play with them, I run with them but they can’t flex arnd 14 facial muscles to make their faces curve to a smile. If at all I do bother to smile first, either I get weird looks or they turn away their faces even before I can complete my wide mouthed smile fully. I always wonder how they don’t crink their necks, at the rate at which they turn their heads off and no.. my smile isn’t that awful looking.

The reason why I say ppl ‘here’ is coz the only person who smiles at me is an Albanian lady.

Now to the topic that everybody has written abt already but I have to say this.

ManU WON!!! YAY!!! YAY!! YAY!!! (acc to others)

RONALDO WON!!! YAY!!! YAY!! YAY!!! (acc to me)

This goat then jumped to the other side of the gate. They were just so adorable looking. Cute things and they were just outside the house I stayed at.

Yup!! That wraps things up!!

P.S. Ppl, I have just started watching football so forgive me if I seem not fit enough to write on matches.

P.P.S. I searched for a million pics of Ronaldo and found the worst and posted it here, didn’t want anyone to stare at him too much. (I do realise that the two ppl reading my blog are guys but still I don’t want you guys to look too much!!)

Got my I-20 from Rutgers. Been worrying abt that for such a long time that I didn’t bother to do anything abt what needs to be done after I receive it. Now, there seems to be too much of work pending.

* Got to find roomates

* Got to find rooms. On checking the houses available, I thought it was great. The floors were shiny, the rooms looked great, the kitchen was so pretty (but yes, I still don’t know how to use the stuff in the kitchen properly). I was elated, UNTIL… I read the reviews for the same.

Nobody seems to recommend them. Apparently there are a million bed bugs and roaches and they run around all night

* Have to book the visa date for which I have to pay $131 in HDFC

* Have to send $57 along with Intent To Enroll form to Rutgers

* Get my immunisation stuff done.

* Apply for the Bank Loan

* Learn Cooking

* Start Buying Stuff

Just so many things to do but please don’t .. DON’T ask me why on Earth I am blogging abt all this without actually doing any of it. The answer is I don’t know. Every morning I wake up with the thought that I am going to do something in the above listed. But at the end of the day I sit feeling lousy wondering why I am such a sombaeri without doing anything. ( I did pay the SEVIS fee today!! Good ol’ me!!)

I have just started cooking. I did Paneer Butter Masala. It looked good and tasted ok. Here take a LOOK!!

But I am happy all the same. I am glad I did something at all you know. Slowly going to work my way up and get doing so great that ppl are going to love my food than my mom’s.

Oh and another wayward incident worth mentioning. I met this coll senior of mine after a year. She was this real nice TamBram. Spoke Tamil, Long hair, no airs, pretty sweet honestly. I met her today after a year and heck had SUNY-Buffalo done a lot to her. A year in the US and she has TRANSFORMED!! Real Short Hair, Orae the scene, Whattey accent!! Came to me as a rude shock.

I was always under the impression that humans can’t change after they are 21. I mean, you are someone for some many years that you can’t change to someone entirely different just cause you move in to a new location. Man was I wrong. But of course she could have been this way all her life just didn’t get to bring it on or maybe I am just being too judgemental to say these things in a matter of seconds that I met her. Eitherways, I don’t want to give anyone the chance to think that I’d changed. I really hope not!!

Oh and BTW, I am getting real bored to blog. I am sorry ppl (who are unfortunate enough to read my blog) , can’t begin to imagine how boring it would be for you guys to read it!! Sorry Again!!

All that I need to give are two Food Reviews here. Of course I am no good at Movie or Book or Food review, but its more of a testimonial to great food. Tangerine and Barbeque Nation the two places which totally deserve the testi.

Well, Divi were to leave to Bahrain and we planned to meet up at Tangerine. Her fav eat out, mine too now, is Tangerine. Completely Continental. The stuff I totally adore. Divi’s fav was and always apparently will be Chicken Bell Peppers. Since I had had it once b4 I wanted to try something else and it was Chicken Desire. Of course, there was nothing more that I could desire then.

The starters are little drops of heaven and then comes the slice of heaven in the main course and then of course the entire heaven pours down as dessert. Trust me, that’s food in Tangerine.

Our starters were Chicken Take5 and Garlic and Lemon Prawns and Potato Skins. Chicken Take5 was chicken dipped in some tangy sause and The Prawns were Outta the world and Potato Skins is Chicken stuffed in Potatoes and Baked. You would have to be dead to not go UMMMMMM!!!

Divi’s Bell Peppers were spicy and Chicken Desire was a tad sweet. But every penny spent was totally worth it. The desserts, were Mud Pie and Tiramisu which translates to The awesomest things to be served on plate – EVER!! So basically, if you are in Chennai and you love Continental food, then please do visit Tangerine.

Now to my other great Food Experience. I went to Barbeque Nation. Want unlimited food, which also tastes great, go there. 10 starters, which have 5 veg and 5 Non-veg starters. Chicken, Mutton, Prawns, Fish, Paneer, Potatoes, Mushrooms.. Man, heaven!! I had almost over 30 rounds of these, that I was soooo full and I didn’t go ahead the main Course at all. Directly moved on to the desserts. So terribly full!! Great days with Great food.

By now it would be pretty apparent how mad I am abt food. And yes!! I am totally totally into food. Still have a whole list of places I need to visit b4 I leave to the US. Some including Cornucopia and Gallopin Gooseberries and Dhaba Express and Momo and Georgia and just so much more. Ah!! I am terribly hungry now. BYE for now.. Until my hunger is satiated!!

I got a 95.45% and all that I got was a mere ‘Good!! No Centums?? It is ok..’ Of course I am very happy for my brother. But still, You should have seen my mom telling everyone how he got 85% with her face all glowing and how she tells my marks like as if it weren’t good enough. Everybody keeps telling me that its coz of this word called EXPECTATIONs. They expected less for him and more for me so the reactions. I totally understand, he needs this support.

Of all his friends who wrote his marks weren’t great or worse. But so many family friends kids did a little less than expected. Poor things. They kept crying, Parents were not too proud to tell the marks to us. These kids did get above 90% and yet they were upset. Honestly speaking, even I would have been thoroughly depressed. But I believe that this system is doing it no good.

There are just too many rules and regulations for us to live our lives. None of which we define. If you get arnd 90, you HAVE to do Engineering. Then get a job, and a software job at that. Then earn and perhaps an MBA later and earn again and have a family and die later. Bad Bad rules to live by. These results especially that of 10th and 12th are just too over hyped. Some kids kill themselves coz they dont make their parents happy with their results.

How much we score in these exams are just one of the most trivial of so many things that we come across. Definitely, Not worth losing lives over. The 10th is just to get us into 11th and the 12th to get into a coll. That is almost the end of the use of these marks. Most parents who can afford it can get their kids to places where ever a 1170 can get them. For the others, if you can’t get in engineering, then that surely does not mean that the world would stop spinning tomo. So basically, life goes on and the least you can do is to make it all the better for yourself and the others arnd you, by accepting the life you’ve got and making the best of it.

Oh and advice and these philosophies are great to preach but if my bro or sis were to choose another path but an engineer or an doctor don’t think I would accept it openly. I am a hypocrite and forgive me for that.

Oh and Chennai Super Kings won against Delhi Daredevils. The match was great!! The last few overs were like nail bitting exciting. I am thinking of joining the gym. Its either the gym or aerobics class. Major dilemma.

Spoke to Lavanya and decided to stroll the entire length of Pondy Bazaar on Saturday. Can’t wait.

So many posts and yet I dont know what the undertone of my entire blog reads as. Each seem to have a different one. But again, why do we all crave for form. Why can’t it just be as formless as these. Guess it can!!

Yay!! I’ve become an engineer. Two days since I did. Exams over. Project over. Studying over. Me free.. atleast for the next few months. These days, I realise are the last few months of my life where I can enjoy complete freedom. Once grad study starts it ain’t going to be easy and then comes a job (hopefully) and then there couldn’t be much enjoying later, to come up. So these days technically mean the ENJOY ONLY days of my life. ( I know that this is the too much of fore-thought), but heck I am like that.

Exams were ok-ish – not great, just ok. The last day was filled with mixed emotions. Happy and sad. Obviously, duh!! Last bus ride back home, I kept my promise and didn’t sleep. So many plans I had made, when the exams were on, but now doesn’t seem like I can think of anything to do at all. Guess, awaiting hols is more exciting than having the hols. Coz that way, you are more excited thinking that you’d do all those things you want to do and finally when the days arrive, you are just too lazy to get up and get those things going. So ultimately, you sleep and waste your time and wait for the next hols to come so that you can plan and make all those things come true again.

Some of my plans,

TENNIS – Going for my first class tomo at 6:30 AM
DANCE – Don’t think I am ever going to get the guts to pursue this
GYM – Yup!! This I am going to check out tomo and talk to my dad abt it and beg him to allow me to join.

That’s the classes part.

The remaining are pretty much just checking if all my body parts are intact and alive and kicking – read, appointments with doctors, specialised in each of those parts.

Then comes the shopping and then the visiting everybody who know me part.

Oh!! How did I forget.. COOKING. The most major of them all!!

If all these work out well, then my hols would be just the way I had wanted them to be – PRODUCTIVE (For once!!)

Wishing myself luck on that!!