Nithya Babai

 I just realised that life has become so mechanical that irrespective of some intrusions, the mechanical aspect takes over.  My daily routine consists of waking up at about 6:50 - 7:00AM and somehow getting ready, gulp down some coffee and rushing out to the train station. 

The shuttle that picks me up from the BART station and drops me at work is so inconveniently scheduled that from the time i get off the train I have exactly 2 mins to run up 2 fleets of stairs, run for about a quarter mile and be there just in time for the shuttle. 

OR......

Do all this leisurely but wait for another 20 mins to get another shuttle.. and the last one being at 9:20AM. 

So getting back to my story .. i was running up the fleet of stairs yesterday and I tripped and fell .. my bag flew in one direction, my lunchbox in another. Inspite of this, I just picked up everything and ran again.. got into the shuttle..and then realized that every inch of my body was aching so badly that I could hardly move ... all of this I never felt until I got into that shuttle... 

Well the train back home is the same story... 

Tomorrow though is a holiday... I am looking forward to it like nobody's business. :D

I will be starting a new job at Dolby Laboratories from Monday... After having worked as a consultant for many years this is the first full time job I am taking up ... why I took this job?? I guess after a while one gets tired of starting from Ground Zero every time a new project starts and while some full time employees who don't work as hard get all the credit.. you are given none because you don't belong there..

Although there are certain perks to working as a consultant... great money, no appraisals, no company politics etc, I decided its time to really belong to one place and see how much I can take back to the company itself. I am excited and a little tense because I don't know what to expect... Fingers crossed.

 Want an idea about how much of an impact our desi brothers have created in Silicon Valley , I came across this ad which said how much... 

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rej/644624515.html

How does one torture oneself???

Go to an Indian Restaurant... pay them to eat really bad food... 

Add in all the Baking Soda into the stomach

Come back to work...

Sit next to the manager

and try not to fall asleep

i tried coloring my hair..and this time thought i need a drastic change... i tried a color close to blonde because my hair is very dark... and now i  think i look i landedn uo here from mexico or something..
pictures soon.

i seem to be in for calamity season i guess... i was walking past my directors room with a cup in my hand to fill up some water and since i saw him i decided to wave out to him.. 

the result of it.. the cup flew out of my hand and hit him square in the face...

Its so embarassing when you enter work start talking to someone forget that your coat buttons are already undone and you start unbuttoning your shirt instead... 

Its even so worse when the person watching is a 65 yr old bloke...

I actually spent the whole weekend cleaning my place.... i am completely exhausted but the cleaning never seems to be done ...

but on the brighter side my  home looks less like a bachelor pad and more like home... am i getting domesticated????

 I have been dreaming about hyderabadi mutton biryani for the last 3 days ...i really need to get myself some... but  i am still searching for that perfect tasting biryani though 

I wish there was fat free biryani though...i would eat it everyday....

I hate  people who have the dead fish handshake... somehow leaves this wierd feeling even hours later.
ewwwwwwwwww

 I had the worst morning of my life ever... 

it started out with the whole place drenched... but no it doesnt stop there.. we were driving over to work and to add to the chaos the car  got a flat tyre on the freeway which means we narrowly avoided killing ourselves thanks to stop and go traffic. 
We got off the freeway and pulled over to inspect the damage and called AAA... my call got through to the florida office thanks to my cell phone and they transferred me to the california office after making me give them all my details for over 10 mins getting drenched in the rain and then when i get thru to the california office they make me repeat all details again and then tell me " we will now transfer you to the san francisco office" F%&T^*&% bull shit.. after 20 mins of trying to talk to them and get someone over to where we were, Nigel and i decided to drop the call and change the tyre ourselves... 

Biting cold and rain did their bit in making this already horrible experience devastating.. after another half hour of grunting about the jack not being kept in the right place, screws gone missing and bolting the new tyre onto the slot, we started off again but thanks to more rain we had to abandon the idea of driving right up to work. Parked our car at the BART station ( Bay Area Rapid (not very) Transport - for those who dont know) but couldnt find parking anywhere so we had to drive further along and park the car half a mile away from the station which meant we got further drenched .. well finally got into the train and got to san francisco but the relentless rain kept hitting us and with a further 15 min otherwise pleasant walk i was as soaked as soaked could be. Got into office and my boots wwere squeaking... had to take my boots and my socks off.. and since then i have been getting wierd stares from people who keep wondering why i am walking around bare foot and my pants look so awfully muddy and wet.. 

am dreading to get out of the office now thanks to the fact that this rain still hasnt stopped.. 
AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 Its been a whole year since it started,

Havent written in such a long time.. guess i have been having a bit of a block. 

November ended with a beautiful trip to hawaii which i never wrote about... guess the experience is too good for words. 

Went to Vegas for the 3rd time this year courtesy mom and dad and finally made a 100 Bucks which has been very promptly added onto my shopping budget yaay 

Had a quiet New Years Dinner with Mom Dad and Nigel which consisted of Shrimp Tempura, Shrimp Scampi , Crab Cakes and Tomato Red Pepper Soup. Nigel and myself then spent a Mojito Filled hour in TGIF with regular and mango mojitos.. and started our new years. 

Last year had been fabulous with my wedding and starting a new life .. hope this year has many good things to come as well.. have decided to lose some more weight, take some dance classes, do another music show, do some regular music practice, promote Dreamcricket some more and get drunk whenever possible i guess... 

Lets see what i can check off by the end of this year...

 Does  Dan Radcliffe make Harry Potter so enticing or is it Harry Potter that makes Dan so ...... ( I am at a loss of words here ) 

 

Just saw a video on CNN. 10 people forcefully entered a house in south florida and repeatedly raped a woman for over 3 hours.. and as if that didnt suffice , they made her perform oral sex on her son... 

I feel disgusted...

Why is our last name such an important thing??? 

I grew up with no such thoughts as to why my last name is "...." Until a few days back when I suddenly thought

How come kids never get to adopt last names from their mom.. why does it always have to be the father... 

On that note ..please, let me explain .. i do not want to have kids now... 

Just that the thought occurred and more suprising was the way a lot of people I know (or i thought I knew quite well ) had different ideologies about it.. some never warmed up to the thought.... while others thought it was ghastly while some others agreed... 

With the world changing so rapidly .. should our thoughts and ideologies belong to an era different from ours???
why cant a child belong to her mom as well dad on equal planes?? Am I being wrong in thinking this way ..

How many of you out there would be willing to let your child adopt both last names and how many of you have actually done something like that???

Got some lean beef tht was minced and made some really juicy burgers yesterday... ( make shift I would say.. i will get to that later though).

The Ingredients I used

1. Lean ground beef
2. Garlic : couple of cloves
3. Ginger : as much as you like .. finely chopped so you dont get pieces in your mouth
4. Masalas that I felt like adding... a little cumin powder, corriander powder and a little chilli powder
5. salt n pepper


Made these in a little different style... 


Gave the patties an egg wash  rolled them in bread crumbs and then put them on the pan .. about 3-5 mins each side.. make sure the bread crumbs dont get burnt.. 

Once they were almost there... i slicd pepper jack cheese .. put them on the patties and flipped them over which got the cheese melting .. yummmm oooooooooooooo

Got some nice wheat bread and dabbed some lite mayo on it(optional) 

Got the patties onto the bread with some sweet white onions and tomatoes a dash of ketchup and relish and that
burgandwich was good to go.. 


Next time I need to get some pics of the stuff I make.. Oh and i forgot some mint chutney a dear friend prepared...

I have been planning on writing about this but for all you cricket enthusiasts out there.. here's presenting 

www.dreamcricket.com


In addition to providing the regular scoop on cricket, this site also focuses on US cricket. Surprisingly, people out here do take their cricket pretty seriously. Ever since I started being associated with them, I have been in for a surprise with regard to the number of leagues out here as well as the magnitude of cricket tournaments. 

The Pavillion Shop on the Dreamcricket site is a good way of buying cricket related gear as well as memorablia so go ahead and check it out. Will post more updates on the matches happening out here and how ratings for the site are rising steadily.

I have been having my music rehearsals for the show in August.. there seems to be a problem point though... 

I havent been shouting my lungs out in the rehearsals for the fear of losing my voice at the final event... though some members of the group feel i need to really sing out loud during the rehearsals... 

Can someone advice???