Happy 2009!

Its been an eventful year - this year 2008 - we moving to Seattle from India to this moment now - time just flew in a jiffy for us. Over the telephone, with the fireworks cracking in the background celebrating the start of 2009 in India, I was telling mom about it and both of us remembered how last year we spent the new year's eve together along with my granny at my place in Hyderabad and how time has just rolled on too fast. Looking back on the months gone by, as a new year starts and an old one ends, I contemplate what brought us joy, and I think of our loved ones and family. Recalling all the happy times, remembering how they enriched our lives I am very happy to welcome 2009 in my life and hopeful to see better things happening to myself and around me.

I wish for you a holiday with happiness galore, and when it’s done, I wish you Happy New Year, and many more.

-Manasi

Guess What?

Guess what? My ex-mobile is not my ex anymore!

It's revived - Yes...It has come back to life! I am so happy today.

I totally had lost hopes on my mobile when it went in my denim's pocket along with a bunch of other clothes and churned happily in my sister's washing machine for a while before I realized its missing and then found it all washed up in the machine - on August 4th in Chicago - about the time when mom and dad had to leave for airport to fly back to India.

The gadget went through natural emergency treatments like:
-wiped it with a dry cloth to get rid of the excess water
-avoided to power up the gadget
-removed the battery and the card
-left it to air dry for 24 hours on the window sill
-used a hair dryer to dry the wet gadget the next day
-sun drying for a week after that

I tried all the possibilities of getting it back to life. I went to the mobile stores like AT&T, T-Mobile and Best Buy asking for help - to figure out whether the problem was with the phone or was it with the battery. What does it take to turn it on? I asked them to try the battery in their new phone and also tried their fresh battery into my phone. The phone either way did not turn on. They were of no help – they had no clue whatsoever. They said it was irreparable and even if I went for a repair it would cost me a fortune. It was disheartening. I left it at that. I made up my mind on getting the mobile repaired in India as anything and everything can be repaired in my country except for broken hearts.

This gadget always remained lifeless in my bed side drawer since then and I remember trying to bring it back to life by powering it up a couple of times as and when it caught my eye. Each time waited optimistically for that momentary spark which claimed– I’m back to life – I’ve started again! But nothing happened.

And today while I was fishing for something in my drawer I find my phone lying there. I take and hook it up to the charger … just in case … and leave to fetch something … And when I’m back … what do I see … Ooh La La! Its back to life … It’s getting charged … after almost six months! You should have seen the spark on my face!

After a few hours - when I check on it - God! It’s just getting charged endlessly… I have to really take it to India :( I was glad when it came alive … back in my life … and now I realize it’s not restituted … Sad! Sigh!!

-Manasi

behka... main behka...

Movie Week

A grand movie watching week just passed by. Watched 5 movies during the Christmas weekend in the theatres. All of them quite different from one another and based on stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end... but not necessarily in that order.

'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' - a love story in a very ordinary jodi who find true love in the backdrop of a dance competition called "Dancing Jodi". {***}

'Doubt' - it isn’t about certainty, but ambiguity, that no man’s land between right and wrong, black and white. It centers on a nun who grows suspicious when a priest begins taking too much interest in the life of a young black student laced with themes of religion, morality and authority. {****}

'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' - fantasy about a man who ages in reverse, descending through the years from newborn senescence to terminal infancy. { ****1/2}

'Yes Man' - romantic comedy - a man who signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything...and anything and transforms his life in unexpected ways. {***}

'Ghajini' - simple and straightforward revenge story - the film brings back the popular theme of the '80s and early '90s - revenge, romance, action and thrill with a touch of humour. {***1/2}

Watched some old ones sitting back home - 'The English Patient', 'The Usual Suspects', 'Taking Lives'.

Lots of movie watching all through the week. People take a break from their daily lives and watch movies ... guess I need to take a break from movie watching which has become my everyday life!

-Manasi

Christmas Night

Heavy accumulations of snow to be blamed for our car not reaching even the carport last night. The roads have become completely miserable to drive on. It was so difficult to force the car to be lined with the curb downhill inside our apartment complex. After several futile attempts of trying to drive through the snowy and icy path with one of us pushing the car to get it to even move was the biggest challenge ever. The only thing the car could do when accelerated was to spin its wheels at a high speed which in turn sprayed a fountain of slush formed underneath. It was very cold and we could not do any better than just leave the car stranded in the middle of the path and walk home.

We were out to see some Christmas lights in the downtown and got back a little early as we did not make it to the right show time for a movie we wanted to watch ... but all for good ... We almost took forty five minutes to get the car in the complex from the community entrance. My toes almost suffered a frostbite. Never did I experience some such thing even in the cold of Detroit or Chicago.

Eagerly waiting for this snow to melt. Weekends become very boring if not! Wanted to watch some movies in the theatres. Guess will have to stay home now.

-Manasi
"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway." ~ Maya Angelou

"There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. 'How much do you love me?' And, 'Who's in charge?' Everything else is somehow manageable. But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief, and suffering." — Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia)

Fish Fish!

I never understood the penchant for raw food here in United States of America. For some, eating their vegetables raw is a great deal by itself. The place where I come from, believes in the concept of cooked food be it vegetables, dairy, meat, poultry or seafood. I never could imagine people eating and relishing frogs, snakes and octopuses in some parts of the world. I have heard of an alligator eating a man, I haven't heard of a man eating an alligator. God! do I have to give ears to that too!

I was in Vancouver last month and there I chanced upon some Japanese cuisine. I tried a dragon roll to start with, which consisted of shrimp tempura, crab meat and eel and to my surprise I enjoyed it... It was delicious. And then I tried the oyster sushi which was yummy too. I somehow started feeling that the raw seafood is not so bad after all. It tastes different for sure but at the same time it really makes wonders on the palate. I've come to like it and guess have developed the taste for it now. I came back and narrated my experience to a friend of mine who spent some time in Japan and could never make himself give in to raw food like sushi or sashimi. He gave a scornful remark on that and told I have become a total 'junglee' of late.

My hubby also should have the same opinion I think given that he is a vegetarian.

I love seafood. I really get tempted when someone starts talking of fish that he or she has eaten and savored or when suggesting recipes of fish curries (Goan or Keralean) or the cookery shows on preparing various fish dishes that I myself watch on TV. Recently in a seafood restaurant on the ocean drive of Miami Beach, Florida I relished a nice and simple preparation of the Tilapia fish for dinner. After that, at the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Miami, I ate a local dish of a fish called Mahi Mahi prepared in an ethnic style for lunch - big chunks of the fish in a very moist, tangy, spicy and seasoned rice preparation. Yummilicious! Loved each and every bit of this dish. Then I ate some Tuna sushi on some other occasion in Key West. The reason why I am talking about fish today is that I have an irresistible craving of a good spicy and savory fish curry made Indian style ... Ah! the thought of it is mouth-watering ... but that's it ... can't go beyond that ... can't go fishing for the fish now ... I guess am gonna just suffice myself with my own preparation of some mushroom and zucchini in lieu of that.

I will make it up for this craving some other day. I promise myself!

-Manasi

A man's palate can, in time, become accustomed to anything. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaosto order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. - Melody Beattie

Winter Storm

Very dangerous winter storm is headed toward Western Washington this weekend.

They say this will be a major winter storm that will be life-threatening and disruptive to transportation and power for significant parts of Western Washington.

The temperature is 21 F (-6.1 C) and its going to go very low still. Packing snow, freezing rain and gusts of up to 75 mph, a stinging windstorm predicted.

I peep out of the window and everything is white with no commotion what so ever - just absolute stillness. I guess this is what's the lull before the storm as they say.

-Manasi

An encounter with the Birdman

We had to rush through long queues of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to make it to our flight to Houston with Continental Airlines.

After being seated comfortably in the middle seat I noticed that the person sitting beside me was working heads down on his lap top with his side of the window shut. I grew restless in no moment as I wanted to see Fort Lauderdale from the air. It was an uncommon scenario for someone like me, as I always found myself occupying the window seat and for once it wasn’t mine this time. Oh! How I longed to be seated there. I was wondering as to why people occupy window seats and not have their windows open. There was a pressing urge in me to request him to exchange his seat with mine. He would have done that for a lady I’m sure. But then I just contained myself and requested him to open up the window for a while so that I could view the city from the top. Just then a hostess appeared, called him a Scientist and addressed him to shut his laptop and pull his seat forward. The plane took off and after a brief exchange of pleasantries I came to know that he was a Scientist at Stanford and did a lot of bird watching. He was an ornithologist which was not that common a field to encounter.

I asked him simple questions about birds, his likes and dislikes about them, the way they migrate, about his studies, surveys and contribution to human life, role of environmental pollution and diseases, extinction of birds, scope and limitations of bird watching, wild life photography, his frequent travels to various countries, his life as a gypsy as he had traveled more than 60 countries - to which he went copiously answering each and every aspect related to my query with utmost interest and earnestness. It was nice to hear him talk. He showed some of his pictures of the different birds shot in the wild looking at which I was completely awestruck! I guess he talked for more than an hour on the same lines. He was radiant and open, open and flowing, filled with light that he generously shared through his words, smiles and gestures. Completely authentic and too young to be a scientist.

I walked out of the flight feeling like a million bucks - not only because he was highly competent at making me develop interest in his talks, but because he naturally knew how to make a layman understand the importance of his subject too, he knew how to add value to the moment, to our encounter – genuinely, just by wholly and truly being who he was. We talked and connected - it was easy - a simple being to being sharing, enriching.

I had a nice flight. God bless him and all the birds on the planet.

-Manasi

"if you're not willing to be changed by a place, there's no point in going."

Beach Therapy - Miami - Key West - Florida

Lovely beaches of Miami and Key West have inspired me to write this. Everything about these beaches was rejuvenating and refreshing - almost like a therapy - I call it 'Beach Therapy'.



My memories of the ocean will linger on, long after my footprints in the sand are gone.

Walk along the seashore and play in the sand
Smell the salty waters and sense the wind on the face
Splash in the water and bathe in the sea
Bounce with the waves and ride with the tide

Watch the infinite sky motionless overhead
Feel the sands slide underneath the soles
Listen to the voices of the wind and the sea
On a mile of warm sea-scented beach

Boats, schooners and catamarans sail you see
Giant whistling ships cruise on the sea
Fishermen eager to fish and cast their nets
Enthusiasts ready to surf and ride the waves

Girls make merry in the crystal blue waters
Then lay on beach and get some sun
Children play with empty shells and pebbles
Gaze up at slender coconut trees for fun

On the wet sands in the morning the seagulls flock
Sight the dunes, the grasses and the coral rock
Marvel at the hidden treasures from the sea unfold
Waves lapping the shoreline with stories untold

Everything about the ocean is at reviving spree
Where no worries no troubles of any sort reach
Lying empty, open, choice less as a beach
Awaiting a gift from the bottomless sea.

-Manasi

Missing Keys!

Kudos to a police officer from Miami Police Department who found us our missing keys to the rental car hired to drive during our trip to Miami and Key West. It was almost after nine o' clock at night when we were coming back from the Bayside Marketplace that we realised that we had dropped the keys somewhere along the Bayside Miami and could not figure out where. After a frantic search in the moon lit night on the twenty minute walk back to the market place again we lost hope of finding them. We then called up the car rentals for their help, but in vain. They said the insurance doesn't cover the lost keys. They in turn asked us to call up the lock smith by furnishing some numbers. Tried calling them for help. Nothing turned out. Nothing happened. Nothing helped. It was getting very chilly as the night progressed and the tension was obvious. We had our belongings in the car and were figuring out the worst possible case that could befall that night in a new place like Miami. Hovered near the car for a long time making phone calls to people from the parking lot where the car was parked at the Intercontinental Miami right in the downtown. And just then we saw a Police Officer beeping the car keys and trying to figure out a stranded car. I ran towards him - who finally found the keys to our car. God! we were so relieved to see them. He said it was a gentleman who found the keys lying at the park and got them to him and he then was going through each and every parking lot in the downtown area looking for the car before he finally found us. We thanked him a ton for being an angel - blessed the guy who found them and responsibly handed them over to the police. All this happened at the bayside - an area prone to crooks, looking for such opportunities - who might have misused and played with them if they had found them. Anyways...All's Well That Ends Well. We had a peaceful sleep that night.

I am just back from Florida which was very pleasant, warm and nice and its snowing like crazy here... Kirkland looks all white now with several inches of snow piled up. The temperatures are subzero and the cold is unbearable - what a dramatic change in the weather condition from where I had been, to where I am right now. And I must say I'm already going through some kinda missing syndrome. I have an emormous hangover of the great vacation we just had in Miami and Key West and I loved everything about my trip. There were so many things that happened to be the 'first time in life' for me on this trip to Key West.
- tandem parasailing trip - twice
- snorkeling adventure
- jumped into the middle of the ocean to swim to the waverunner/jet ski and ride it
- went on the banana boat - fell in the the middle of the ocean - an adventure by itself
- went on a sunset cruise for a spectacular sunset celebration
- playing in the waters of the ocean to my heart's content












Could this be more pleasurable...I'm urged to unlock my heart's lock with Florida Keys... I loved the Keys... I loved Key West. I miss them dearly.

Ever absent, ever near;
Still I see thee, still I hear;
Yet I cannot reach thee, dear!

More about my trip in my next post.

-Manasi

Another Year

I am celebrating my Anniversary, and its the eighth year of our life together ... Here's wishing me

Another year to create

precious memories together.

Another year to discover

new things to enjoy about each other.

Another year to build

a life rich in love and laughter.

Another year to strengthen

a marriage that defines "forever."
Happy Anniversary!

The best is only bought at the cost of great pain

"There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain…or so says the legend".

-Colleen McCullough

Rainy Vancouver

A word or two on my trip to Vancouver, BC, Canada - where the mountains meet the sea -future host of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. A cosmopolitan mix of culture, culinary delights, fashion, fresh air, and walks along the sea wall that go on and on and on…

On a Friday morning right after the thanksgiving day, mounted on a high stool in front of a clean and glossy glass wall of the Moonpennies Café in downtown Vancouver’s West Pender street, munching on a crunchy vegetable baguette sandwich and spooning the creamiest of the lentil soups, watching people walk across the busy streets holding up their colorful umbrellas against a steady rainfall was one of the most refreshing vignettes of life and its shades in rains, making me feel as drenched in my memory at present as it did in that particular moment. The rain was kinda cozy. It was surprisingly rejuvenating. Vancouver has a vibrant independent cafe culture which fascinated me. Contrary to my visit in summer, this time Vancouver appeared to be a rain-saturated city, where umbrellas were a part of everyday life and the sun seldom peaked out. All wet and rain soaked everywhere with thin coffee infused air …I say, into every life, a little rain must fall.

-Manasi

Moment of Gratitude

I am grateful...

for the fruit juices, the precious sunshine in Seattle, for moments of rest, for mom who is the best, bubble tea, all the smiles received, for the breath I take, for the life I make, to the sun who radiates light and almost every day brightens my life…

for the books I read, for those I keep, to buddha, teacher and guide who helps me constantly find my light, to my sis who is always there with a soul that cares, to my friend, precious angel who heals - gives me all the essential keys, to bliss filled elizabeth gilbert who gave a new way of life with her eat, pray and love, for passing clouds who whisper to me, for all the marvels I see, for the thoughts that sow, for the words that flow, and the heart that knows...

for cherries, strawberries, blueberries and persimmons, to Her my goddess - for constant care and support, for the green revolution, for all the solutions - to problems that exist only in my mind, for music and melodies, for the four seasons, for the glory of spring, for the hot and sultry summers, for the colors of fall, for the sniffly , sneezy and snowy winters…

for rain who is dear, never mind she is far or near, for my life in my hometown for my life here, for F. R. I. E. N. D. S. back into my life, make me smile and grin wide :-)for my ex mobile, black and red, whom I think fondly of, to tiana traylor for her grace, for all my childhood teachers, for the ducks and the evergreen trees, for all the joyful moments spent in collecting stamps and magnets...

for aai and baba for their superfluous unconditional love, my ajja and ajji for good childhood memories, for all the family in my hometown and his, for almonds and pistachios, ice creams and smoothies, chocolates and desserts, my good health and energy, for internet, mails and information, for all that’s available on there and who make my day, for spinach and mushroom, and all the vegetable curries that I make in a hurry, to the amazing cuisines tasted and the divine experiences, to my clock ticking day and night, to wonderful dawn and dusk…

for walks by the lake, for drives through national parks and forests, for the new places visited, to the old ones revisited, to hyderabad, pune and bangalore for the wealth, richness and abundance, for the love that pours all the time, for trust, acceptance, grace, mettle and the spirit to walk the line...

I am grateful …

to my divine soul, joy of my life
and to rohit, for a life divine...

P.S: I intended to write this post on the eve of Thanksgiving in Vancouver, BC, Canada and I could not as I was perturbed by the massacre in Mumbai – coordinated terrorist attacks by the militants - hostage situation - survival issue of hundreds of people - my fellow Indians - a world of chaos and unrest everywhere.

I am grateful… for being alive in today’s world otherwise dreaming of peace.
-Manasi

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart