Tagged

1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post & then create 11 new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3. Tag 11 people and link to them on your post.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

Okay - the folks I know have been tagged already. So I'll just tag Saumya and Shoefiend for this one.

And I do have a suggestion Shyam you can answer my 11 questions!! (Ha Ha).

1. Which city did you visit during your first visit abroad?
DUBAI

2. What was your first impression of it?
I visited Dubai way back in 1993 before it became the futuristic looking maze of skyscrapers. The very first thing that hit me - was the warmth of the air combined with a fragrance I can only define as being uniquely "Dubaian"- perhaps from the desert?

3. Your most favourite mode of transportation, and your least?
Most favourite would be train and least an air conditioned bus. I suffer from motion sickness and HATE travelling by bus.

4. If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Wow! That's interesting - it has set me pondering. I'll have to get back on that one.

5. Good or bad, what memory from your childhood stands out the most in your mind?
There's not just one memory. So let me talk about some of my earliest memories - waiting at the dining table for my Mom to make raagi malt; plucking tree tomatoes (tamarillos) straight out from the tree and eating them, being given my first doll, spending cold evening painting by the fireplace...

6. Do you like soft pillows or firm ones?
Firm - firm - firm. Out here you get those darn, soft, fluffy pillows that are too high to boot! GAH!

7. Did you like school?
Pretty much I guess. Had its good and bad parts.

8. What would you tell your least favourite teacher, if you were to meet him/her now?
"Grow up!" Looking back I can see how that guy was so immature and silly- everything a teacher ought not to have been.

9. Do you like your name? If not, what name would you give yourself?
When I was a kid I always felt my name wasn't as cool as those of my classmates. Later I realized how lucky I was not to have been saddled with a fuddy-duddy old-fashioned name or an ultra-modern one either!

10. Your opinion of fund-raising balls/parties/dinners organised for/by celebrities?

Hogwash and other synonyms.

and finally

11. Got any advice for me? :)
Nope. And that comes from a person who writes instructions all day for a living!!!

1) Which is your favourite Enid Blyton book?
2) Did you ever see an UFO or see something you thought was an UFO?
3) Which was your least favourite subject in school?
4) Where did you meet your spouse/ significant other?
5) Which childhood friend have you kept in touch with?
6) Are you still good friends?
7) Who was your least favourite boss? And why?
8) If you could change jobs what would you rather be doing?
9) Which book have you read as a child that you would like to re-read but can't find a copy anywhere?
10)Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, George Lazenby or Daniel Craig? Which one do you consider best suited for James Bond?
11)Your favourite poet?

Faking It...

...with my new black running shoes - that look like polished leather and my longer-than-usual trouser hems. So it looks like I am wearing formal shoes, while my feet are high-fiving for being able to wallow in comfort!

A Random Memory

There was a time when we used to frequently visit a small restaurant every weekend. It was small ans cozy and more importantly fit our budget those days. I used to observe two Sikh families that came every weekend too. There was an older couple with a teenage daughter and a relatively younger couple with a little baby (less than a year old). I remember one particular incident where the teenage daughter pleaded with the younger couple to allow her to feed the little one some Seven Up. The dad said, "Alright, just a little." And the girl was so pleased. I can recollect the pink of the mother's salwar and the fact she had her hair fashionably cut, but the daughter was in a long braids.


Funny how you can remember something so clearly after so many years and yet forget where you placed your car keys last evening!

Cuts and Bruises

I was neatly slicing the mango and thinking gleefully - no wonder I never got it right before coz the knife wasn't sharp enough - and at that very instant get a nasty nick on my finger. Luckily I had held the mango away from the bowl so the blood didn't drip onto my beautifully cut pieces. What can I say - thank God for small mercies?

In India, the husband bought a new "designer" bed for the newly constructed house. Designer as in designed to make your life a living hell if you decide to move the bed, make the bed or attempt to get the bedsheet straight. Now I happen to prefer my bed to be nice and smooth with bedsheet nicely and satisfactorily tucked in neatly in the corners - army precision et al (remnants from Boarding School discipline I guess). With this bed - no Siree - after a nights sleep it looks like a herd of elephants have rolled about in it. Anyway I manfully tug and pull, smoothen and straighten, and in the course of getting one corner to hold so I can do the other - BANGGGG - goes my leg on the designer edge (cutting edge - if I may add). All I have to show for my work is one badly bruised leg with a long cut and one bed that looks like it has just been visited by a mini tornado.

And did I tell you about my Laurel and Hardy routine? I have two towels in the kitchen - one for wiping hands and the other for the pots and pans. They hang demurely on my oven door and surprise, surprise sometimes manage to get color co-ordinated by some karmic coincidence of the weekly wash. Now one fine day, I was busy with grinding idli batter which involved constant use of said towels. Yep, you guessed it no sooner did I hang one towel when the other fell off - rinse and repeat...

Eerie Muffs and Scary Safety Videos

Why do all the people in Bangalore (I refuse to call it Bengaluru) seem to have developed a fetish for ear-muffs. Poorly designed, bad quality, army print ear muffs. From my mom's Gardner, to the maamis on their morning walks (sarees, hideous maroon cardigans, nikes or reeboks (no doubt handed down from the "foreign residing" daughter) and the omniscient ear-muffs); to the little boys down the lane. On the little boys, the muffs seem to be over-sized and they end up hanging lop-sided!

Okay, even given that to us from the land of minus, we didn't find Bangalore particularly cold - we still found the muffs hilarious. Of course our souvenir shopping didn't include these objects, though I was tempted to get a set as a memoir to the holiday.

Another thing that had us in hysterics was the Safety Video on the plane. The animation on the demo was priceless. The guy's expression was too ridiculous to behold - and I guess the general holiday spirits added to the silly state we were in.



(Poor kid will die from fright not asphyxiation!)

Are you a "Snob"?

A consultant (of a different ethnic origin) - let's call him GJ - joined our team today. (These consultants are rotated around projects in our organization.)

The Manager goes around introducing him to the team and in the process walks up to my desk.

Manager: GJ, meet Anu. Her area of responsibility is blah blah blah.

GJ: Yes, yes I know Anu, I had worked with her when she was a snob.

Manager: Snob??!!!

Me: (Thinking hard - what aspect of my behavior would be perceived as "snobbish"????)

GJ: You know when she joined - she came from XYZ company - I was the one who explained all about ABC project - she was a total snob see.

After a prolonged garbled explanation it turns out that GJ thought the word "snob" meant someone who's had industry experience but has joined a new team or company.

Don't ask - I don't know how he came up with that one!

Kolaveri - My 2 Cents

What can I say - "Why this Thalaevazhi (headache) di?"

But I am not going to talk more about it. It's garnered more than enough publicity right?

This brings to mind "Cotton Eye Joe". The very first time we heard the song we thought it had something to do with "Katmandu". Now that was a catchy song...



And of course not to forget this:



What's your 2 cents?