I finally bought tickets to Bloomington. The idea of visiting Bloomington has been brewing for a while, and now I am going back finally. I miss several small things about Bloomington - esp being in downtown. I guess if I was living in seattle downtown, I wouldn't miss it as much. I miss biking & walking to a lot of places, I miss the small town feel & I miss wearing trackpants. But given a choice between living in Bloomington and here, I would pick here anytime :)

I am in Bloomington during the last but one week of February. I am going to freeze but driving in snow is a lot better experience in Indiana as opposed to Seattle area.

Next weekend some of us girls are driving to portland. It is supposed to be a book club retreat which reminds me I haven't read the book yet. Initially we were going to take a train & I was all excited about going on a train for the first time in US. However some girls wanted the comfort of being in a car and avoiding walks....sniff...and so a car it is.

I also may be driving to Vancouver for a weekend trip sometime this month. I am liking this. I am thinking of getting a GPS though that would mean the end of some adventure :). In my case I think it will also save time & increase potential places to go to.

Ok, so another year has passed by and I have decided to note down (or blog) some key events/observations/blah blah, so some day when I am a few hundred years old and have free time I can read this and laugh.

So commenting on my last year’s entry, I think I have touched some things that I wanted to.

I didn’t do all the things in my wish list (Oh wouldn’t things be too simple & hence boring then) though I would have liked to. I am putting the “try sashimi” into the failures bucket. I don’t think punting it to this year’s wishlist will do anything, I am sort of giving up on it … for now. Things that I did but not as much as I intended to include going to the gym, indulging in sports, swimming & traveling. So these will get punted to the next year - 2008

Now moving on to this years list (call it a wish list, set of resolutions or what you will – its all correct)

1. Read books - atleast 1 book a month (want to read all the Smullyan books that Roshan & I have).
2. Go to the gym, start swimming (grrr)
3. Travel & see atleast a few new places within Washington state
4. Learn one new snow sport (already started with snowboarding, but still in the ‘getting frustrated’ state)
5. Keep up with all the girls get togethers, books club retreats, potlucks, blah blah. (No, I am not a feminist, just enjoying girl talk for now)
6. A huge to-buy list – get down to prioritizing & getting them. (List is too long to put up here)
7. Code - Work on at least one pet project outside of work
8. Write letters (yeah what's a list without stretch goals)
9. Cook more often
10. Keep up on the spa visits

Some of my friends who visited me in the past few months in  Bellevue are thoroughly convinced that I am suffering from OCD. Its coz they think my place looks too prim & proper. “Disturbing, … too clean” as they put it. They may be right, but I think I find it difficult to keep it any other way. It just lingers in my head “Oh, it’s a mess … Oh I need to sort it… uggh…” until I get down to tidying it all. I went to Leavenworth during the thanksgiving break where Roshan caught me looking at this book at a book store titled “life is too short to fold your underwear”. I thought it was a funny title…and he said “yes it’s a message, buy it”. I didn’t buy it but am thinking that some things have the effect only if you spend money. Things that come free are not always given their due importance. That goes for my gym membership as well.

Anyways.

Looking back, it’s been a great year. I graduated (yay), took a 3+ month vacation doing absolutely nothing. I got to really spend time with family for the first time after my undergrad. I moved to Bellevue, found a decent roommate who is finicky about cleanliness (Thank you, phew!) and a place close to Bellevue downtown. Oh and found a hindi movie theatre in the area! After 2 years in Bloomington, I know how much this matters to me J. I am enjoying work; I actually look forward to getting to work most days except the really cold, gloomy days when all you want to do is stay in bed.

Here’s wishing everybody a Happy New Year! Let it be the best so far J

I have been busy with work, apartment hunting, car hunting and unpacking my things that arrived from Bloomington. I gave up on the plan for staying alone for a while because of the high rents near the Microsoft campus. So I spent more time finding an apartment where I was mostly certain of finding a suitable roommate. I am now settled and unpacked in a 2 BR condo near Bellevue downtown. Its about 10 min drive to where I work. The only problem with the place is that I cannot bike either way. Its steep and way too tiring for me judging by the look of it. That would mean driving to some bike trail & biking. I wonder if I will do that.

I now have a *real* car, its a volkswagen passat glx. The good thing about it is that its fully loaded, all bells & whistles. Small change from my first car. I knew nothing about cars a month ago, and now I actually know a fair amount. No technical details, but about model/make and such. I learnt that the favorite desi car is Toyota Corolla. Next probably the honda cars. I am already thinking about what my next car will be. I am tempted to get a convertible, it will be fun in the summers. But we'll think about it when we get there. Winter is creeping in and I need to buy some new winter gear. My Bloomington snow jackets etc will probably be of no use here.

I am yet to explore Seattle like a tourist. I am hoping to do it on my own or with other newbies. There are three things that I put on my (stretch) goal list when I moved in.

1. To go to a gym

2. To go to office early & get out early (along 8-5 lines) and

3. To make more women friends.

I have failed in all 3 so far. Well actually, making women friends has probably been a success as in I do hang out with women more than I did ever since high school. That is one flip side of being a part of computer science. As an engineering student, the men:women ratio was very high during my undergrad, same with work life & grad school. And so, during my vacation I sat down and thought about the fun discussions that I have had in the past in women only groups... and I decided that I should do something to ensure that I do not miss out completely on those.

Though this is not my first visit to Redmond, this is the first time I am looking to live in Redmond. The longest I have stayed here is for 3 months as an intern during summer last year. As one may guess, it is different trying to settle in. I was hoping to find an apartment for myself close to campus but the rent is making me reconsider the roommate option. I also need to buy a car soon. If Bloomington needed a car, then this place demands one for sure. Public transport in both the places I have lived in US is poor.

On the bright side, I bought a new cell phone, actually a pocket PC - the 8525. Its cool.

My journey from India didn't result in any (baggage loss) surprises except that I was 9.5 hours later than expected thanks to missing my connection flight from New York. So not completely uneventful.

I am flying out of Cochin tomorrow after an unexpectedly long but rather pleasant vacation. Now that all work permit & visa issues have been resolved, I will join Microsoft, Redmond again as a SDE, this time full-time.

I have a 30+ hour journey ahead, phew! I am carrying two Kushwant Singh books along, these days I seem to enjoy his writing quite a lot. I hope I do not have any *interesting* stories to tell about my baggage at the end of this

The past few months have added more hindi movies to my experience as compared to the number and variety of hindi films I have seen in the past few years put together. I thought it was a good idea to write the names down, more for my reference given my bad memory with names. [Be it of books, movies or people J] And it might even help somebody with an interest to pick (what I think to be better) hindi movies. And if you are one of those who consider the previous sentence to be paradoxical, then go away. What follows is of no interest to you.

1.  Utsav – An interesting movie with two gorgeous looking women playing the lead, one as the wife & other as ‘the other woman’ as you would say in hindi. It is amusing to see Amjad Khan playing Vatsyayan, the author of Kama sutra peeping around to catch inspiration to sketch & write. Loved two songs Sanj savere & aadhi raat ko in the movie.

2.  Khosla ka ghosla – A satire on the situation with buying property in India today. Anupam Kher plays a middle class man retired from work. The story is his journey accompanied by friends & family in claiming his land as his. Quite funny with a reasonable star cast.  Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Navin Nischol & Ranvir are quite good in their roles.

3.  Life in a metro – Pretty good movie except for the annoying band that is desperate to show itself throughout the movie. The background score is not bad, but seeing those guys sing on bikes and railway terminals and everywhere else is no fun. Konkana Sen & Irfan Khan are awesome. Shilpa Shetty strangely seemed to act well too. Nafisa Ali & Dharmendra are awfully cute. Kangana Ranaut befits her role quite well, she was a major disappointment in gangster but doesn’t do much talking in this movie. Kay kay is good as usual.

4.  Salaam e Ishq – This film flopped at the box office, but I quite liked it. Its towards the long side but I think it is a reasonably decent movie to watch. Ayesha has potential, Akshay despite his occasional overacting is quite hilarious, Priyanka is quite good – I think I liked her for the first time in this movie where she is actually acting, Govinda is not bad. If I had a choice I would have completely erased John Abraham & Vidya Balan’s story from the movie. Sohail Khan is a born comedian. Hats off to whoever wrote the dialogues between the newly wed couple Sohail & Isha. Anil & Juhi do justice to their roles. The two new women are quite good too. It’s a bollywood masala movie with song sequences & dances.

5.  Traffic signal – This is about life around a Bombay traffic signal and no. of people who make a living out of those red lights that bring business. It is not the usual Madhur Bhandarkar film – at least not as strong as Page 3, Corporate (which I didn’t like) or Chandni Bar, it is more to the lighter side. If a firangi (foreigner) is going to visit India for the first time, I would recommend watching this movie.

6.  Chak de India – This is definitely a director’s movie. After Ab tak chhappan , Shimit Amin’s second movie did not fail my expectations. The annoying thing about Shahrukh Khan is that the stardom he carries obscures everything & eventually gives a superman feel to all his roles. This movie however, did not do that. The movie has 16 women; (all new comers I think) constitute a hockey team. The choice of women renders a realistic view unlike the usual pick of pretty models decked in makeup (even on a field) in a commercial bollywood movie. The language, humour & attitude reflecting the regional behaviorisms are carried out well.

7.  Honeymoon Travels – This was an okay movie. I liked the idea that people are trying different things in Bollywood. The representation of minority in mainstream hindi movies is usually as helpless or as being the laughing stock. To just see them as normal people in this movie was a pleasant change. The cast include Kay kay Menon, Shabana Azmi & Boman Irani. Also worth mentioning is that this is possibly the first Indian movie with a majority of women crew including camera person, director, asst director (3 levels deep) & choreographer.

8.  Partner – I don’t like David Dhawan, I did not like Govinda in the past and I definitely did not like Salman + David Dhawan combo:  Biwi No 1 was a little too much for me to take. However, despite all that watching the trio together (after much resistance on my part) wasn’t bad. In fact it was funny. I have a new found respect for both Govinda & Salman Khan. Both their characters could not have been played better or different by anybody in Bollywood today. Katrina Kaif looks sexy like always in the movie and Lara Dutt pretty. However, any young pretty face in Bollywood could have replaced them and the movie would have been just the same.  Of course there are some classic David Dhawan moments in this movie like a little whiz kid making a rocket that can chase its target through air, water changing course & direction. My favorite part is Salman Khan talking in “Chinese” to the bus driver in Phuket.

9.  Chini kum – Short & funny with a ~60 yr old Amitabh falling in love with 35 yr old Tabu and asking her hand in marriage to ~55 yr old Paresh Rawal (Tabu’s father). Amitabh looks very cute in his pony tail. My favorite character though is the lady who plays Amitabh’s mom. She is brilliant. Not the usual bollywood movie and so no songs & dancing around London’s eye.

10.Yun Hota Tho Kya hota – This is Naseerudin Shah’s first direction and he says the reason he made this movie is because he wanted to be able to tell the cast “Action” and “cut”. Oh well. The movie was an okay movie. It started out as a light & occasionally funny movie with a couple of separate stories and ended on a much more serious note.

11. Iqbal – I had liked Nagesh Kukunoor’s Deewarein and so I picked his next movie Iqbal. The cast is brilliant – the lead played by Shreyas Talpade, his little sister, his mother & father, his coaches Naseeruddin Shah & Girish Karnad are all great in their roles. Definitely a good movie.

12. Junoon – Roshan has a blog entry dedicated to this.

Some good but disturbing movies I watched include Maya, 15 Park Avenue (too much of a drag towards the end), Salaam Bombay, Khamosh pani aka silent waters , Water & Earth.

Wishlist includes Dor, Hey Baby (Akshay Kumar’s full monty – can’t miss it), Laaga Chunari Mein Daag among others.

Update (Sep 9): I saw Hey baby and it is bad. Hopefully that will save some prospective viewers.

I am reading some books by Kushwant Singh and came across a sher that I found very funny. The situation is that when Kushwant Singh visited his birth place Lahore he met the minister on a formal dinner and “offered him an appropriate sher (verse) for his next confrontation with orthodoxy”:

Mulla, gar asar hai dua mein

To masjid hila ke dikha!

Gar naheen to do ghoont pee

Aur masjid ko hilta dekh.

There is an english translation that I didn’t find so funny but will quote here

Mulla, if your prayer has power

Let me see you shake the mosque!

If not, take a couple of pegs of liquor

And see how the mosque shakes on its own

He then goes on to talk about the difference between Indian & Pakistani college girls saying that in India one looked at a group of girls and tried to see if there were pretty faces whereas in Pakistan it was the other way round, one tried to see if there was anybody not pretty.

While my vacation in Cochin has got prolonged I am making sure I read, eat & sleep as much as I can. In short, I am having a good time.