I may be working in Richmond, Canada for a few months because of some visa issues. While normally I would have been very excited about working for a short while in a new country, right now I am not too happy about it. Bad timing.

From what I hear there are good Indian food choices. We shall find out in a few months and see how true that is.

Looking at the Indian restaurants in the area, I have a half baked idea about a new business idea. (I have a few of those). Of course this is for when I hit the jackpot and am like 50 years old and ready to move away from computers. Not very soon

So the new business idea is to start a Kerala food restaurant. The closest I know of, is a few thousand miles away. The restaurant will be started as a social service and not as a *business*, as in making profits will not be a concern. As long as no losses are incurred, I would think of this as a successful venture. Of course I have worked out some aspects in detail in my head and not thought about several other details.

Going back to moving to Canada, I am thinking how different things are going to be from the US. I have only been to Vancouver & Whistler in winter for snowboarding and had seen a lot of international crowd and heard a lot of British English. I doubt that is typical though.

I am also toying with the idea of staying some place where I can bike to work everyday. After all its going to be summer. Its funny how summer sounds so appealing to me in US & around. Making a trip to India in summer has the opposite effect. I will be making a trip to Kerala in June, in the thick of the monsoon. May be then I'll stop complaining about Seattle showers? Nah!

For over a month now, I have been observing how every morning when I step out of my apartment to the parking lot, my car is loaded with bird shit and all the other cars to either side of my car look clean. I had seen something similar in a movie long ago and it had seemed fuuny then. Now, its just irritating. It does not make a lot of sense to me (You may argue that I am not a bird etc, lets not get into that).
 
My car is green in color, there is a black car to its left and a red car to its right - aren't those colors more attractive? The branch of the tree over my car is dry with almost no leaves, the branches leaning over some of the other cars are much wider with leaves & flowers. (Now don't remind me that I am not a bird yet again).

When I came back form Bloomington after a few days of vacation, I was surprised by the amount (I am positive it can't be just 1 bird) of bird droppings on the windshield, window panes and roof of the car. That was one time I wish the Seattle rains had poured heavily & washed off the mess. I was forced to go for a car wash that day. The reason I did that was to avoid any unprecedented attention.  A week before that I had driven to the grocery store & parked my car. I sat inside for a bit before stepping out. It appeared to me that every person that passed by looked at my car and the droppings with *amazement*. The car glasses are tinted, so they probably didn't notice me in. Some of them even pointed the car to their partners and giggled for a bit.

I have now decided to catch the bird in action one of these days and shoo it away hoping that it will be scared enough to not come back to that very spot. If not that, then at least I know the ... uhh face behind the mess.

What do you do when you feel low? I have noticed that I stay home & watch movies.

Having a bad day? ... sit on the couch all day, eat junk and watch whatever movie you have. Listen to music that will help intensify what you feel, Decline all invitations...Ah, be a loser in short. Sucks eh?

Instead, I should just go to the gym or something. I sometimes even go shopping and come back without buying anything. I guess it is better than going on a spree and regretting later.

No, I am not particularly feeling *low* at the moment, but irritable enough to crib & whine.

I got back from Bloomington today. I carried two small bags with me to Bloomington with the intention of checking in one & carrying the other with me. However, before entering the aircraft the officials claimed to have a full flight & so checked in what was to be my cabin baggage.

So I reached Indianapolis airport with just a purse. Yeah, both my bags didnt arrive :-(

(If you are wondering what the big deal is, you don't know my history with travel & bag loss)

So no gloves, hat, maps, directions, ... and the weather was just perfect. Snow, rain, ice :- all but the sun decided to welcome me in Bloomington.

On my way back to Seattle, I got both my bags, flight was on time etc. Too smooth & simple to be true? Yes, a friend who was supposed to give me a ride form the airport didn't show up & didnt answer his phone.

I am beginning to believe that I may be jinxed with respect to flight journeys.

On the bright side, both my missing bags were delivered on the same day to Bloomington, my vacation was fabulous (I just kept wishing I had made the trip earlier, sigh!) and I did get back home 3 hours after landing in Seattle. Oh and its a sunny day here.

I am in Bloomington from Friday - Monday(Feb 22-25). Going after almost an year, I am actually excited. I hope the weather forecast is right and it is not snowing or raining.

Nothing much on the agenda except meet friends from school & take it easy. And give Rosh a hard time

I thought I had a clear notion of what curry meant before I left India. Now I am not sure. However, I do know that curry wrt thai, malysian, Indonesian & chinese food is different from curry wrt Indian food. I often wondered what curry powder that Indian stores sell is. I thought it was powdered curry leaves, until I picked one packet. The powder was yellowish orange in color and the leaves are green in color. Also the powder didn’t smell anything like curry leaves. It didn’t smell like any masala (spice) I had known. Then I thought curry powder was probably people’s notion of spices that go in an Indian dish [so does that mean dish == curry?]… so would that be like garam masala? Though ofcourse not all Indian dishes have garam masala. It is all very confusing.

While we are at it, I also want to point out that nan, roti, chicken curry & paneer are only a subset of Indian food. Back in India, every state has its own cuisine, dessert etc where some things overlap with some neighboring states and others are completely distinct. Kerala food for example is mainly rice based, a lot of dishes are cooked in coconut oil, curry leaves & coconut are ingredients in most dishes. I am yet to find a restaurant in Seattle area that serves Kerala style food. The closest we get to Kerala food is idlis, dosas & vadas. Which probably is more Tamilian than malayali. (I Think)

The last time I had Kerala food with my non-Indian friends, they were amazed & said they had never seen & eaten any “Indian food” like it. Many of my Indian friends back in Kerala were surprised with they were served “dal-baati-choorma” or even carrot halwa. Not to mention mom’s hurt feelings when one of them asked if the halwa was chutney (chammanthi).

And on that note, I need to get back to cooking my chicken err … curry.