Gold and Beautiful

...... the morning hug and a cup of coffee in bed :-(

Just read one of the headline news on TOI where Mayawati said that Gandhi divided the nation on caste and that the term Harijan was unconstitutional. Are you serious? Do you even know the meaning of the word???? I would really like to know what these so-called leaders have done for the lower caste people other than of course exploiting them and stealing their money in all sorts of fodder scams and God knows what other scams......I think we should have a law as to who can give their opinion on Gandhi.....I am not particularly pro or anti Gandhi.....But he definitely did a lot for the common people of India and for our freedom. Mind you, I am not saying he was solely responsible for anything, but he had a huge hand. And all that most politicians after him did was to pillage our nation some more....He did more good than anyone else and I don't think anyone should be disrespectful. Of course we all have our opinions on everything and we have a right to express those opinions, but there...

Every time I sign up for an account on a networking website this scary question always stares me in the eye "About Me"...I never have a clue about what to write. I mean, come on!!! I am from India. We don't talk about ourselves.....We talk about others :-) After thinking really hard it just clicked.....Linda Goodman knows me perfectly well.....I relate extremely well to her description of a Sagittarian woman. So from now on whenever I have to write about myself on any social networking website, I am going to write: A perfect sagittarian. Here are some of the things from Linda Goodman's Sun Signs that I think apply to me: She's not always going to say the kind of things you want to hear Now and then she'll say something so special and splendid it will make you feel like singing. Never lies, is always frank and outspoken to the extent of being a tactless speaker Independent, travelers, may live alone How she feels and what she thinks are identical with how she ...

The SGA took 35 lucky students to Six Flags. Obviously when you take students for an off campus trip, you need chaperons. So, 14 lucky faculty members were requested to accompany the students. An amazing trip......Of course I knew the students were not eager to hang out with faculty, but some of them did manage to surprise me......It was good to spend some time with the students and enjoy rides at Six Flags with zombies, witches, ghosts and skeletons walking all around the park, trying to be scary and at the same time posing for pics with the crowd.....I hope the Halloween Extravaganza next week is successful too......

I saw a commercial for an anti-depressant on TV yesterday. As in all medication commercials, this one also talked about the side effects of taking this product. One of the side effects of this product is suicidal thoughts . Are you serious????? You are advertising an anti-depressant and its side effect is suicidal thoughts???? How do you exactly help the patient???? Over the years I have seen numerous commercials that talk about different products and their side effects and I am not sure what are they thinking when they make these commercials or even products......It just seems senseless to me......If I am depressed I would rather stay depressed than have suicidal thoughts after taking some medication!!!!!!

When I was in India, I would spend half of my Sunday reading Times of India. That does not mean I was very well read or aware, but rather I would be busy reading Sunday review, which was pretty decent actually and my favorite columnist Shobha De. Her Hinglish isshtyle writing was definitely entertaining.....That trend sort of discontinued after coming here. But I still try to browse thru the online version of TOI. Now I don't have enough time to go through Sunday special, but I still manage to read Shobha De once in a while. For a change I once read Shashi Tharoor (of course, after he became the official Indian candidate for UN Secretary's position)....He now has this amazing glossary series going on where each column is about things that define India discussed alphabetically. I have read a few of these articles and they are great. My favorite is I for Indira, Illiteracy and IT . In this column he puts a really positive spin on stereotyping of Indians by saying "The stere...

Most of my friends don't like Jim Carrey. They think he is too loud. I absolutely agree. I am not a big Jim Carrey fan, but I did think he was perfect in Mask. And then he was super cool as Count Olaf in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events . There's nothing really different about this movie. It's a typical kids' movie, but has amazing graphics and Jim Carey in various disguises does 100% justice to the role of the wicked Count.

I am currently reading this biography of Hitler written by Ian Kershaw. I did not read the reviews of this book before buying it, but I liked the idea that this book was written about the rise of Hitler. It has events leading to World War II, nothing about the war itself. I had already seen so many movies and documentaries about WWII that I really did not want to read what happened, but mainly to read why it happened. I am not even halfway through the book yet, so can't say much about it, but while reading the book I remembered that I had never seen Speilberg's Schindler's List. So I rented the movie and saw it and really liked it......After that I was talking to a friend who reads Marx and Tolstoy and he said that he thought that he did not like the movie and it showed only one point of view. For example when According to him when Marx or Tolstoy write about something they take a neutral position and write objectively. I haven't read either, so I have to rely on his op...

I keep adding new songs to my iPod every now and then and keep listening to the new ones over and over again. Yesterday for some reason I decided to listen to some older songs and decided to go for Jhankaar Beats . I had completely forgotten how much I used to like this song: Dil ne tumko chun liya hai Tum bhi isko chuno na Khwab koi dekhta hai Tum bhi sapne buno na Dil ye mera tumse kuch keh raha hai Suno na.......... Not only had I forgotten all about this song, but I had also forgotten what a hardcore romantic I used to be. I don't know what about this song affected me so much.....The lyrics, the melody, the singer (Shaan, who else?), I guess everything about this song touched my heart. The past few years have been tough and I guess I sort of came to terms with it, but in the process put some of the old sweet memories somewhere in the back.......When I was listening to this song I was thinking, it would be so nice to have someone sing this for you.....And then suddenly that Pand...

When I wrote my TOEFL in 2000, my essay topic was whether I would like to live in a house or an apartment. Having grown up in a small apartment and exposed to big city life, at that time my preference was an apartment. Surprisingly enough after living in the US for so many years that has not changed. When I can finally think of buying my own place, I think I still want to live in an apartment. My parents live in a spacious apartment on the 6th floor, which according to my standards then was a high rise. Whenever I buy my own place, ideally I still want it to be a contemporary spacious condo in a high rise, though high rise now means at least the 20th floor. For some reason I have never understood the obsession that people have about buying a house or a bungalow as we call it back home. In a place like Mumbai, of course its a status symbol because space is so limited. But even then I feel if I had loads of money I would still buy a penthouse rather than a bungalow . In Pune I have s...

This weekend was another hiking weekend. This time we went to a smaller place (smaller in terms of hiking, more touristy!!!) called Stone Mountain....supposed to be Georgia's answer to Mount Rushmore. It is the "world's" (of course!!!!) tallest granite stone. We had to climb the mountain to reach the top and it was a li'l strenuous but worth it. The view from the top is beautiful and the breeze was much needed.... There are other ways to get to the top, viz the Skylift...The skylift reminded me of old Hindi movies; Shammi Kapoor singing Akele akele kahan jaa rahe ho......... or Raj Kapoor and Vayjayantimala in Sangam...But those trolleys (I think that's what we used to call them then) were so cozy and romantic, accommodating only 2 people. America loves money and so obviously the cable cars at Stone Mountain were for the masses, carrying many people at a time, everyone standing!!!!! That sight just ruined my desire to get in one. Well, hopefully the sight fro...