My Newest Toy!

It was rather unusual for me to stay at home on a weekday. I haven’t been feeling too well for the past couple of days and wanted to get all the bad stuff out of my system. I stepped outside the door for some reason and saw a little yellow note from the UPS guy saying that my package has been left at the rental office. I squealed with excitement as I ran to the rental office braving the drizzle outside. And guess what I got!

A Brother XL 2600i sewing machine. I had recently seen amazing craft products done by some people online and was very much inspired to make my own. I have even enrolled for a sewing class in Palo Alto adult school and its an incredibly enjoyable activity. I am a complete novice to the field of sewing and there are hundreds of great bloggers in the blog world who write about their crafts. Not to mention the beautiful fabrics, prints and patterns you get to see. I have been doing a lot of research about sewing machines, fabrics, cheap supplies and books. (I will be happy to answer any such logistics related questions.)

Have a wonderful wednesday!

A bit of soul-searching…

The past few weeks have been a period of great introspection for me. I have looked and criticized severely the way I lead my life – starting from how clean my room is to how sustainable my living is. I have held several discussions with my spouse in this regard and he has been lovely putting up with my not so fun rants. During this period, I have been inspired by a few, and I believe I am taking definite steps towards restfulness.

• I have made a resolution to awake early everyday. I have been trying, but its gone horribly wrong as far as I can tell. Easier said than done, I suppose.
• I am striving to bring organization in my life and leave the clutter behind. I have been putting away things that I do not use and do not need. Its amazing how much stuff I have.
• Differentiate between need and want. I admitted to myself that a lot of my purchases in the past 2 years have been fueled by want rather than need. Before this alarming trend can set in, I plan to ask myself a question or two before I buy anything.
  • What will happen if I do not own this product? Can I live with that consequence?
  • How often will I use this product if I buy it?
• We have removed Cable TV from our life. While this may not be a fun thing for most of you, this has actually allowed us to take up a hobby. I have taken to Sewing lately and my husband – another craft hobby. We are enjoying the classes we have enrolled in and exercising our creativity feels most nourishing.
• Stop aimlessly surfing the web. Now, this is probably going to be the most difficult of all.

I plan to blog more about each of the steps above and the fulfillment it provides. I particularly look forward to blogging about my new hobby: Sewing. I also love organization and home decor. I have been taking “before pictures” of our apartment and will be taking “after pictures” too. I tend to be away from the blogging scene for extended periods of time when I don’t have value added stuff to write. However, a little bit of reflection has resulted in me realizing that there are so many things in a day that can be of help to anyone. We just have to look for them.

Little Things…

Little things…

Oh! its nothing too deep. Nor too political. Nor too wise. Just plain old things that I have thought more than once about. (Considering me, that is a big thing). I haven’t blogged in some time now and I attribute that to the famous “writers block”. My husband makes fun of me when he hears me say that. He thinks I think I am J.K.Rowling when I say that.

• I had to mention this. I noticed that my husband, Swami (henceforth he shall be referred as that) *ALWAYS* wears his company ID badge. Even when he is at home. The reason: 1) he fears he will forget to pick it up when he leaves for work the next morning or 2) he just doesnt want to be seperated from work one single instant. He only removes it before going to bed, and he puts it back on when he is up next morning. He deserves a whole post to himself. Oh! the antics he is known for.
• “Hey PK, I didnt know you were in the bay area, what a pleasant surprise!”, I ask PK. “Wow, I never thought I would run into you” retorts PK. “Wonderful, we absolutely have to meet up sometime”. “Sure!”, says PK.

We exchange phone numbers dutifully. End of story. PK and yours truly never meet again. Ever since we all left our homely nest in Madras, we have been settling down in various corners of this country. Of all places, the San Francisco bay area is most likely the proud host of the majority, unbeknownst to us ofcourse. So imagine the joy when you discover someone you knew long ago, in the days of yore! What does one exactly do? I have met so many such people in the recent past, who I knew once. Has it happened to you that the list of people you need to meet up with is just expanding all the time and you just cant find the time to do so? Beats me!

• I was in Portland recently visiting two good friends from college. We had such a lovely unhurried weekend. One interesting thing two of us did was to queue up the most recent radio hits, pull up their lyrics and sing the tunes real loud. What a sure shot stress reliever!
• We have been traveling quite a bit recently, we headed to Monterey bay for a weekend, and then to Utah for thanksgiving. There in the middle of nowhere are several amazing national parks. We only had time to visit three – Zion, Bryce and Arches. I still longingly savor the deep blue skies that I saw there. I will always remember Utah for those deep blue skies.

 

Honeymoon? Where?

How often in your life do you get to choose your honeymoon destination? Depends on the number of times you marry, but most would think this is a once in a lifetime thing. This blog comes awfully late, as we got married in June ‘07 and we went for our honeymoon during the end of June to beginning of July 2007.

We knew fully well that the days nearer our wedding would keep us so busy – wrapping up loose ends at work in view of the month long vacation (phew!), planning for the wedding itself (which requires an altogether new website!), planning for the trip to India (which is exacting even without a wedding on the hands), so on and so forth…

These thoughts motivated us to plan for our honeymoon months in advance. That and the fact its always exciting to plan a trip somewhere. I should consider taking up “trip-planning” as my career – I am getting really good at it these days! Since we lived in different cities back then, everything was long distance – over the phone and/or google talk. Google played a big role in our wedding and honeymoon – another blog about that later. OK! back to the honeymoon. Where SHALL we go?

Our geography knowledge is up for test now. Where are those lovely islands? Exotic locations are thrown into the air. Where is the country? What is the currency and exchange rate? How much is the cost? Cost – yes, cost always plays an important role. With a wedding just around the corner, our pockets were practically empty, and was bound to be that way until we are done with all the traditions and rituals AFTER the wedding. Well, at one point we even thought – you know what? lets not go for a honeymoon! Lets go somewhere really exotic after we have saved up some more dough. Fifteen minutes after thinking along those lines, we go “Nah, this is the only honeymoon of our life, lets go to a nice place and have a good time.”All that decided, we got to task.

“Morocco”, says Swami. Africa is a beautiful place. All those lovely pictures we saw of Morocco, the colorful, exotic spice markets loomed into my head taking me to dream land. “Nah, we are taking Singapore Airlines, its too out of the way”. “Europe!” . Rejected, too many countries, too little time. We have always wanted go there as backpacking tourists. People don’t backpack during their honeymoons, do they?

We browsed through numerous travel websites, pored over various “top 10 honeymoon destinations” on the web, scoured the world map. On one of those numerous websites, four little letters leaped up and caught my passing attention. I was intrigued, and searched some more. I showed it to Swami, who was excited too.

• It was small, but big enough to offer variety
• It was green. We totally dig green.
• It had a lot of culture.
• It wasn’t horribly expensive.
• Pictures looked beautiful.
• It was an easy stopover from Singapore, which is how we were traveling to India.

Bali it is, then! Hooray! decision made.

Now, all this is before the actual trip planning. Stay tuned.

Are we approaching peak oil?

I was recently driving amidst some pretty bad traffic towards Oakland from Sunnyvale with my husband recently. To kill boredom, we were trying to find our favorite music channel on the radio. At some point, a lovely bright voice set amidst a soothing tune started playing. It seemed like an ad, but it turned out to be one of the be best documentaries we had heard. So much so, that same evening, I was determined to pull it out of the Internet somehow.

The documentary is about oil companies and oil production and how the western civilization has impacted the oil we have used so far. It is called “Crude Impact” and you can hear it here:

http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=23053

I assure you that it is not some boring speech by a bunch of people. It is an eye opener and brings forward some totally horrendous truths that we have learned to ignore. In a nutshell:

• In the past 150 years, we have used up half our oil/petroleum reserves.
• Nearly 1 trillion barrels of oil have been consumed since the late 19th century : most of which was by western countries.
•  We are approaching peak oil, which is like a threshold point, beyond which the amount of oil left only keeps decreasing with time.
• The car to human being ration in the US is 1 to 1.4
• Our dependence on fossil fuels only increases as developing nations now start reaching new levels of oil dependency.

It is important to note that two of the most populous countries in the world are on the surge of a rising economy: China and India. Currently, most of the fossil fuels in the world is being used by a small percentage of the population. Sooner than later, these two countries will be competing for all these resources? I wonder how the west will take to this?

The documentary rightly points out that the American standard of living is not sustainable given the current position of earth’s resources.  I had to ask myself this question at this point: Alas! what are we heading to by aping the west?  I remember the days of yore when I lived with my parents. My father actually taught me to be frugal, despite having a fairly good income. To waste was never his motto, nor did he condone excessive dependence on material things. He would always follow Gandhi’s philosophy of “Simple living and high thinking”. Never have these ideals been more relevant than in present times.

How are you going to deal with a disaster?

Until a few months back, I used to live in the southern California county of Santa Clarita. With wild fires engulfing homes built with hard earned money and sweat, we can only add to the emotional trauma if we are not prepared for a disaster like this. I remember writing another blog about natural disasters somewhere in the past and the wild fires in So-cal got me thinking again.

Disasters never announce well in advance that they are coming. Most of these people who had to see their homes burn today probably never thought this would happen to them. They are people like you and me, who go to work and lead a normal life! What will we do if this happens to us? Can we take a few simple precautions that can keep us afloat if we were to lose all our possessions? Please let me know your thoughts.

1) Have a copy of important documents online

With the plenitude of online services available in the market, scan and upload important pages of your passport, drivers license, a few copies of your pay checks, important medical and bank records online. Security is important, so keep that on mind.

2) Always have back-up’s of your data on a DVD or external hard disk

This includes photos, credit card statements, bank statements, tax documents, visa documents (if any), school and college documents, medical records, insurance records. Life’s a lot easier without all the paper and its good to carry in a moments notice.

We have signed up for some paperless bills and any other paper that we want to retain, we usually scan and place it on a designated folder on our desktop and the paper goes to the trash bin, to be shredded later. The scanner is a good investment we made. Though not completely organized at the moment, its a project that I wish to work on soon enough.

3) Get the right insurance

And make sure your insurance records are accessible!)

I guess this is a no-brainer. Get renters insurance if you rent, insure everything of value. Of course, somethings are priceless for the memory they hold and not for the money they can fetch.

4) If you have less, you worry less

As hard as this may seem, getting rid of all your clutter in a timely manner can actually allow focus on all your important possessions. If you have less, you worry less.

5) Have you and your things ready to go in a moments notice

It might be a good idea to clearly identify well in advance which of our possessions we would want to take with us should a thing like this happen and to come up with a specific evacuation plan that everyone in the family is committed to.

As I write this list, I would like to point out that in my life, I have never come close to being evacuated to protect myself from a natural disaster. I have heard of friends and distant family that have been asked to leave their homes for safer grounds. The trauma that one goes through during these times cannot be imagined and the words I write here will never match their experiences.

As always, I look forward to your thoughts.

My five cents towards going green

With the entire world getting gung-ho about global warming (or climate change, as it is rightfully referred to as), with nobel prizes being handed out for pioneers of global warming, what are the little things that we, as common citizens, can do to help mother nature?

After reading a (rather long) Wikipedia article, I took home a few messages. Since the late 1800’s, when reliable climatic measurements became possible, 2005 has been the warmest year (second warmest according to some, but does it matter?) documented so far. Human influence on global climate began a whopping 8000 years ago!! Astounding!

I believe that as responsible citizens of the earth, there are many things that we could do differently to make this a better place to live. Yes, I mean people like you and me. Even if you dont own a manufacturing plant that emits tons of gases, we are still responsible.

I decided to come up with a few easy steps that I would like to follow (at least some of them if not all) to give back to the environment.

1) Dont let that tap run!

Despite coming from Chennai, the water capital of the world (all pun intended), I admit with guilt that I dont think twice about using a lot of water to clean a small glass bowl. My people back home in Chennai would go into a fit of shock if they discover that the water I use in one day could easily match what they use in 4 days! (I have no data to back that up, but you get the drift.)

2) Plug out electronic appliances you do not use

I always have my laptop charger plugged in to the ac socket and never bother unplugging it when I am not charging. I read recently that some residual power still gets wasted. My laptop is just a small example. I can already think of cell phones, desktops, printers – all turned ON, but no one using the power. The only thing that should be ON when no one is at home is the refridgerator!

3) Always car pool atleast once or twice a week.

I know its hard to do this everday, given the very long driving distances in the US and inconvenience that we think we are under.

4) Think twice before you buy that huge SUV or minivan

My husband once owned an SUV that gave 15 miles to the gallon. He was the only one using it. We decided to sell it and switched to a smaller car. I have noticed people buy minivans as soon as they start a family. Why is not a regular sedan enough if you want to carry children?

5) Carry a bag to the grocery store. (my favorite one!)

Ever wondered what to do with those mountain of plastic bags that you get at the grocery store? I have started taking a few cloth bags to the store and filling it up with supplies. I even got a 5 cent rebate for doing so Matches well with the title of this blog, right?

Recycle! Recycle! Recycle!

I would like to work towards this effort and hence decided to write my thoughts on this topic. I am sure there are many such easy steps we can take to be environment friendly. I would love to hear the steps you have taken/plan to take.

The war with ingredients

I happened to pick up a box of a rather famous brand of vegetarian snacks from the frozen foods section of my neighborhood supermarket today. I usually tend to take a more than cursory look at the list of ingredients to catch that unsuspecting animal ingredient in the foods that I eat and though the box said “vegetarian”, I decided to look anyway.

I have to admit, I have been self-trained to quickly read ingredients and catch words like “chicken broth/stock”, “beef powder”, “gelatin” etc, after having lived here for four years now, I didn’t expect too much of a struggle with this one little box.

Alright, I can hear you say “get to the point, will ya?”. If an ingredient list on a simple food product alarmed me to such an extent that I would come home and remember to blog about it six hours after, that too after a self-imposed break from the blogging scene for nearly six months…give me some credit and allow me to beat around the bush, while I slowly set the stage for what is to follow!

Lo and behold, this product read like this ….

COOKED EGG SUBSTITUTE (EGG WHITES, NONFAT MILK, CALCIUM CASEINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CORN OIL, SALT, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, BETA CAROTENE FOR COLOR, IRON [FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE], VITAMIN D3, ZINC [ZINC SULFATE], CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, VITAMIN B2 [RIBOFLAVIN], VITAMIN B1 [THIAMIN MONONITRATE], VITAMIN B6 [PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE], VITAMIN B12), WATER, CRUMBLED VEGGIE PATTIES (TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN [WHEAT GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, WATER FOR HYDRATION], EGG WHITES, CORN OIL, SODIUM CASEINATE, MODIFIED TAPIOCA STARCH, LACTOSE, SOYBEAN OIL, HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEIN [WHEAT GLUTEN, CORN GLUTEN, SOY PROTEIN], AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, SPICES, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, SODIUM PHOSPHATES [TRIPOLYPHOSPHATE, TETRAPYROPHOSPHATE, HEXAMETAPHOSPHATE, MONOPHOSPHATE], SALT, DISODIUM INOSINATE, CARAMEL COLOR, CELLULOSE GUM, WHEY POWDER, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, MALTODEXTRIN, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, DEXTROSE, ONION POWDER, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, SUCCINIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID, LACTIC ACID, BREWERS YEAST, TORULA YEAST, SOY LECITHIN), BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), SOYBEAN OIL, CHEDDAR CHEESE (PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES, CULTURES, ANNATTO), ONION, GREEN PEPPER, RED BELL PEPPER, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF WHEAT PROTEIN, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, FLAX MEAL, MULTIGRAIN BLEND (WHEAT, RYE, TRITICALE, BARLEY, YELLOW CORN, MILLET, SOY, FLAXSEED), SALT, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, WHOLE ROLLED OATS, EGG WHITES, WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, MALTODEXTRIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, VEGETABLE OIL (CANOLA, SOYBEAN AND/OR SUNFLOWER OIL), SPICES, DEFATTED SOY FLOUR, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, LEAVENING (SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, BAKING SODA), RICE FLOUR, DEXTROSE, EGG POWDER, WHEAT GLUTEN, SUGAR, METHYLCELLULOSE, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, WHEY, DISTILLED VINEGAR, XANTHAN GUM, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, TURMERIC AND PAPRIKA EXTRACTS FOR COLOR, NATURAL HICKORY SMOKE FLAVOR, YEAST, CARRAGEENAN, NIACINAMIDE, MONOSODIUM PHOSPHATE, DISODIUM PHOSPHATE, IRON [FERROUS SULFATE], YEAST NUTRIENTS (AMMONIUM CHLORIDE, CALCIUM SULFATE), DOUGH CONDITIONERS (ASCORBIC ACID, L-CYSTEINE HYDROCHLORIDE), THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), VITAMIN B12, TORULA YEAST, ONION POWDER, GARLIC POWDER

And then, the box says its a “healthy” snack, with lots of proteins and vitamins. Now, I beg to disagree. Why exactly does a simple fritter like snack need carrageenan? Or pyridoxine hydrochloride? This contains Egg powder, Egg Whites and “Cooked Egg Substitutes” (which actually contains Egg Whites again). Yeast, Yeast nutrients and Torula yeast? Hello, do you know the difference?

Oh, I actually searched the page using ctrl + F5 for corn and foun” corn oil, corn starch, corn gluten, corn oil (again), modified corn starch, yellow corn powder, corn syrup solids, modified corn starch (again) and corn syrup solids? I get it, I got my corn fix for the day. I have a suggestion – why not just say “corn and derivatives?”. Hey, if you think thats legally incorrect, why not just list one ingredient once? Go figure!

In reality, how often do you realize that some things that we take for granted so easily, like this little fritter like snack, actually contains a million ingredients that you have never heard before? How do you feel about eating trypolyphospate and tetrapyrophospate? God, I cant even spell these things. Whatever happened to good old ginger, garlic, spices, salt and pepper?

I am fussy about getting my fresh veggie dose for the day. I doubt that a product like this will make its way into my freezer again.

Glad to be back after a long time! Keep visiting, dear reader.

Disclaimer: I do realize that the biochem major out there probably knows what each of the above ingredient listed above does. While I do not deny that some ingredients are absolutely essential to provide a longer shelf life to some products, I have to point out that I have seen many things that are made out of just one or two things and taste as great and stay as long !

Priceless moments…

A few days ago, I saw a picture on one of my friends photo albums, a picture of his parents making an indian snack for him (chakli/murukku) so that he could carry it back with him to the US. He had a beautiful caption for it, something to the effect of “parents making chakli for me to take to the US…priceless”. I found it touching, complimented him promptly and forgot about it. No offense intended, buddy, you know I am forgetful.

My cousin who lives 10 miles from me, came back from a three week vacation in India. I had asked my mother to send me a few little things. Nothing much, just a few shirts, a book, some DVD’s and some things to eat. Not a lot, by any means.

I picked up a big bag from his home a few hours ago, drove home, and ran into my room with about the same excitement of a little girl who gets runs to rip apart all her beautifully wrapped gifts the very second the guests leave. How young our heart stays!

True to her word, my mother did a fabulous job. Do you know the feeling when you go to store to buy something nice and the shop-owner, who knows you from your childhood, throws in a few extra things for free as his appreciation? Know that feeling? I got the same one today. My mother not only sent all the things I wanted, but she sent a lot more tiny tiny little things which I enjoy a lot…

1. I had asked for 3-4 Indian kurtas, I got 10. Wow, and werent they pretty! (The awesome lady took the trouble to go shopping with my close buddy back home, so that the clothes would be my taste, kudos to mom and to my friend, Ramya).
2. A box of deepavali sweets.
3. Puliyodharai paste and podi’s ( an indian preparation that you mix with rice to have a quick meal) – i didnt ask for this
4. Vijayakanth DVDs – I am a fan. She went to the video store, asked the video guy for the best captain movies.
5. A lot of small little south indian delicacy packets – stuff that I can use in cooking. Pastes, vathals, etc. – I didnt even know I wanted them.
6. Filter coffee powder
7. A bunch of small things – I didnt ask them.

Ofcourse, she took all the effort to make sure I received everything I had asked for. And then all the extras. An hour later, my roommate and I were enjoying a steaming hot cup of filter coffee, and watching TV. There, I just defined bliss for you.

Oh, I just missed the most important part. Each and every article listed above, was securely packed into several small packets with clear plastic sheet, neatly taped all around, which I am sure my dad and mom did together.

If I have sustained your interest so far, I have just taught you my interpretation of another word.

Priceless.

Indeed.

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road….

So sang Green Day…

There have been numerous occassions in the past few weeks when I have come to this page, started writing a paragraph, looked at it with a menacing eye, deleting it and hitting square one. It looks like a comeback, is after all, a very difficult thing to do. Even if it is just posting something on your blog.

Ofcourse, this comes in only when I am swimming in a sea of deadlines! I am going to an IEEE conference next week (yay! my paper got selected, for some reason).

When something drastic happens in the world, it doesnt move me much usually, at least not to the extent that I start deciding my life based on that event. I am full of sympathy and sorrow for the victims of a disaster or an accident, but I must admit, I have let life move on. However, the recent spate of school shooting incidents all across the United States and Canada have kept me at my wits end. I shiver when I think about the Amish school incident in Pennsylvania where five very young girls within the age of 15 were shot at point blank range. This is not how young children should be growing. The lawmakers are considering letting teachers have guns on their person! I would never want to be a teacher here, as I might have to carry a gun. Its unimaginable. Of all things that you have dreamt of owning, did a gun figure on your list? If it did, God save my blog and me!

Incidentally, I have a choice. I do not have the power to turn the thinking of all the shooters and gun-men (no, gun-kids, the latest one is a seventh-grader, who has been plotting on a shoot out in a school for a long time). Coming back to the choice I have…
I dont have children yet, but I hope I eventually will. When I do have children, let me think long and hard, do I want them to grow up in this fabulous country – the land of opportunities – knowing that their teacher is carrying a gun?

Or do I take the other alternate and let them experience the warm and unhurried child-hood that I enjoyed, deluged in the abundant love showered by my mother and father – my glorious country with a resplendent history and culture?

Torn between two sides is what I am feeling now. The school shooting incident is just a pitcher of fuel thrown into an already raging fire within me. I am at the peak of my introspection, and hope to write more about it in the near future. The seed has been planted. I would love to hear your comments. I dont promise that it will influence my decision, but the perspective will be appreciated, if different from mine.

For the records, I love both countries. They have lovingly taught me the lessons of my life. They have prepared me to face the path that lies ahead. The other will be sorely missed. But, the decision needs to be made. My opinions are strictly personal.

Other small things: I just bought my copy of “Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai, this year’s booker winner.

Yay, I finally broke my hiatus!