My brother as a kid ...

There are some memories from childhood that are permanently imprinted in your head and cherished in your heart! My little brother and I have shared all our childhood times with each other! I always wanted a baby brother to play with.. when I was told at age three that I was gonna get a sibling, I announced to the world that my brother was coming. It was my way of telling "Its a boy". I also picked a name for him (I don't know how I did that at age three). It now feels as if I was always prepared to welcome him to this world and build my budding years with his! Just as typical siblings growing up together, we fought a lot, took the other's side when the other was in trouble, played pranks on each other, planned pranks on others, loved, cared, and yet made life tough for the other one! Reminiscing  some of the days that  I vividly remember from my little brother's cute, mischievous and absolutely adorable toddler years -

• In his first grade he asked a friend cut his hair with the scissors that he took to school for craft work. His friend cut his hair from either sides of his head around the ear leaving the top of the head intact. He got punished severely by his school teacher and they banned scissors for craft work for primary school after this incident. But he looked so cute in that weird hair cut!!!

• During our trip to Goa as kids we were watching our older friends play water volleyball in a swimming pool and we were at the edge of the pool. Clapping and cheering every shot, the next moment my brother landed straight into the water and his mini slippers were floating around. An alert lady swimming nearby came to his rescue, got him out of the pool and thumped his back to get the water out! My parents were called for and panic struck everyone! Fortunately my brother was on his feet in no time but gave a good scare to everyone around!

• At my uncle's place on the second floor my mom suddenly realized that my brother was not in sight. We thought he may have wandered into another room or may be the neighbor's house while playing but that was not the case when we looked for him. He was smarter and more curious than we thought! He climbed down the stairs to the ground floor on his own to play with the cocks and hens wandering in the campus of that building.

• In another trip to Jabalpur, we reached the house of our hosts at 2am and they had prepared an awesome meal for us! There was a huge HOT pressure cooker in their kitchen just moved from the stove to the ground. My brother loved pressure cookers. He got excited when the cooker whistled and would be ever ready to hug the cooker while it was whistling! The family almost believed he would become a chef in future ... that night my brother missed his cooker hug narrowly when my mom rushed to him and grabbed him out of the cooker's vicinity!

• He was once asked by his school teacher to pick a bird that he would like to dress up as for the Annual Day at school. While his friends picked peacocks and sparrows and parrots, my brother's choice happened to be "crow". When he came home and told me about his choice, I burst out laughing! His cute defense was - "But no one selected crow so I did"! He did dress up as a crow ...

• On one hand he loved pressure cooker which was not a toy but on the other hand he was scared of balloons which is almost every kid's favorite! He hated attending birthday parties for the fear of balloons bursting around him! One day our neighbor uncle got a small balloon and put it in my brother's tshirt without his notice. That made him realize how harmless balloons were!

• My mom, my three year old brother and I were sitting in the principal's office to seek admission to the school for my brother. During those times the principal would ask some basic questions to the little kids and then approve their admission. My mom had spent days teaching my brother how to answer simple questions like "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" and so on... Now on the D-day my brother felt bored in the principal's office and opened the door and ran out of the building onto the main road. Seconds later my mom rushed out to grab him and I was left alone in that room to answer all the questions. I was told later that I had a lot to speak to the principal while my brother enjoyed his silence!

There is something about the ocean ...

I have grown up in Mumbai, a city that is empowered and outlined by the Indian ocean. I now live in the Pacific Northwest and from the time I moved here I have visited several destinations along the US Pacific coastline and the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific. There is something about the ocean that fascinates me and its hard to describe the connection that an ocean view makes with the depths of my heart!

That something is probably ...

the size, the depth, the expanse, the magnitude ... that humbles me!
the power, the force ... that is creepy and scares me!
the voice of the ocean in its waves ... that soothes me!
the horizon ... that makes me believe that the ocean meets the sky!
the life in the waters ... pretty and unique!
the changing colors ... reflecting the mood of the sky!
the beaches at the coasts ... that make the most beautiful relaxing destinations!
the sunsets across the water ... that makes me feel the ocean can drown the sun!

I spent the last weekend at Big Sur, California with a bunch of friends. We took the CA1 freeway along the coast and the breath-taking ocean view throughout our journey was a reality that still doesn't sink within me! We stopped at several vista points on our way and at each stop I was only more in awe of the picturesque sight than the previous! We sat at these lookouts and heard the waves run towards the coast and retreat as well. We spotted several whales coming to the surface at periodic intervals. We saw the sun through its journey from noon to sunset. We saw the color of water change from bright blue to pale to grey as it reflected the drowning sun's rays front and center. Our cottages were ocean facing which is why we booked those! However the icing on the cake was that each bed faced a full length glass wall facing the ocean so we could watch the blue waters as the first sight in the morning! I couldn't have asked for more from this view but I haven't had enough of the ocean yet! So here's a toast to more trips to the farthest islands and coastlines of the world ... that I will keep visiting and describing here :) Cheers!!!

My favorites Live in Concert!!!

The year 2010 has been awesome for several reasons - we traveled to many different places in the US and to Canada, visited and hosted several friends and family, celebrated the arrival of our nephews, moved into and furnished our new apartment and I can keep going on and on. While counting my blessings for this year, the two other unexpected and major events that made it to the list were hearing my favorite musician A. R. Rahman and my favorite band Euphoria live in concert!


A. R. Rahman

Rahman's concert was announced in May and I was both overjoyed and disappointed. After years I thought I had the chance to fulfill my dream of hearing the maestro live but among the locations where he would perform, Seattle was not listed. However my gloom turned into glee when I saw the gift of my tickets booked for his concert in San Francisco. My emotions were filled with excitement with each passing day counting down up to the concert till they were drowned in sorrow with the news of the cancellation of the event. After several such hiccups, I had very little hope left, but I think I was destined to attend the concert this year and so on a beautiful sunny September afternoon in Vancouver my long wait ended. The stage was the grandest of all that I have ever seen. He started the concert with a fusion of "O Saya" and "Maa Tuje Salaam", one of my favorite songs. I was at the edge of my seat for each of his songs and often jumping like a frog only to amuse those sitting around me. The one thing that I would have loved to change about my experience was the passiveness of the crowd around me. Each time I screamed my heart out, leaped out of my seat to applaud and whistled and waved, all I saw around me were some raised eyebrows.. but who cares!! I did what I wanted to! Focusing back on the concert,  the stage, lights, sound, choreography, his entire crew of singers and performers were flawless. The stage was so dynamic, it changed structure with each performance and the variety ranged from classical and historical touch to acrobatic, western and digital wonders (3D projection of Lata Mangeskar to accompany Rahman for the song "Luka chupi"). Among the other popular singers in his team were Hariharan, who stole our hearts with his "Bharat humko" and Shaan. But words fail to describe my feelings hearing classics like "Yeh jo des hai tera" and "Dil Se" from the man himself. He also surprised us by singing one song from the center of the auditorium just few feet away from our seats. The grand finale to this unforgettable evening was expectedly "Jai Ho"!!!

Our response to the next announcement of the Euphoria concert in Seattle in November was a no-brainer. We booked tickets immediately and were pleasantly surprised to get to know on the day of the concert that we were the first ones to book for that concert! I love the songs Maeri, Kabhi aana tu meri gully and Dhoom Pichuk and have been a huge fan of Palash in my undergrad days. I attended their concert few years ago at a college festival during my undergrad days in Mumbai. And I was pleasantly surprised to experience the same sort of energy, and attitude in their performance even after so many years and in a different set up altogether. I could not stay put in my seat after 1 song and jumped out of my seat into the "standing" area closer to the stage. From then onwards there was no moving back from there! Every song pumped in more energy that the previous one and made me nostalgic as I relived the concert time spent with my buddies from undergrad days. The performance almost seems like a one-man show since Palash is only lead singer and the only one who literally keeps everyone on their toes. The same reason was a cause of disappointment for some who expected the whole band to be sharing the limelight on stage. Others were a bit taken aback by Palash's repeated sarcastic remarks to those comfortable in their seats to try shaking a leg and let go of the seat that they paid for. Since this was not a college concert setting they were justified in their disgruntle however I personally got more than what I expected from this concert and returned home  nostalgic and ecstatic with refreshed memories and renewed enthusiasm!!!

So 2010 goes down as the year of  watching my stars "Live" :)

A tale of 2 cities!

Last couple of weekends were spent in San Jose(again this year!) and Seattle respectively! Though Seattle happens to be my home-city, this weekend did not fit the just-another-weekend in Seattle category!

Another San Jose visit was planned without any hesitation by a huge fan of the God of music - A R Rahman - a fan who has always dreamt of hearing the maestro live! But when the weekend came, our excitement was dampened by the postponement of the concert. The trip still remains amongst the memorable ones for it will be remembered by the times we cherished with friends. After a long, long, tiring drive to the Bay area, I will not be exaggerating if I say that my spirit for the trip was regained just at the sight of my friends when we reached there. From there onwards, there was no looking back! We started with a grand lunch, followed by a barbecue party at Half Moon Bay later in the day. The beach, the beautiful sunset, the talks, the jokes, the pranks, the food, and the drive through the dense fog were all the pieces of a "dream evening" collage! Some of us were engrossed in food, others in the talks, one of us was busy capturing these moments in his lenses, and some of us gave memorable poses for his collection! Even nature couldn't stop itself from portraying one of the best sunset pictures in front of our eyes!

The next day in the Bay area was spent visiting friends and family and catching up on all the latest and greatest happenings in everyone's lives! A post dinner session of desserts and more talks with certain not-to-be-named Indian television shows in the backdrop and a successful attempt at a "Hum saath saath hain" snap was quite an unusual but memorable time from the trip!

No sooner had we gotten over the hangover of this trip than the long weekend followed and this time a couple of friends from Bay area felt like teasing the Seattle sun but the sun hid behind the clouds for most of the time! The weekend began with a soccer game that happened while I was still dreaming, and then a drive to Mount Rainier that I distinctly remember since I was driving :) Snow fights, in fact snow war along the Nisqualy Vista trail interspersed with posing for our cameraman was not easy for me, especially since I was the sole warrior defending the Northwest side, but nevertheless was full of thrill and chills !!! In the peace time, Mount Rainier showed its true colors and left us marveling at its majestic look all over again! I wouldn't be doing justice to what we saw, and so let the pictures convey here. Our next day seemed to fly by with a drive to the Alki beach, Readhook brewery, Canam pizza and a certain not-to-be-named Indian movie with Independence day fireworks show seen from our deck!

My eventful but no suspense filled story of the 2 cites ends. If you are still there, you wouldn't mind a happy note that its mid July and finally the sun is enjoying outside daily while we are enjoying as well!

Halloween preparation!

This year my colleagues at work were excited about dressing up as X-men characters for Halloween! This was in the talks since quite a few weeks and I was amazed when we actually had a spreadsheet to keep track of who was gonna be which character. That's when it struck me.. I got to PREPARE!

I need to explain why this was gonna be a whole lot of preparation for me! I was till then one of the few souls who had not seen the X-men movies or read those comics! I wonder how I lived through this harsh fact for so long! Each time I brought up the X-men topic with my friends in last couple of months I felt like its time to rewrite those facts! So when one of my friends offered to lend me his X-men DVDs I grabbed the offer with both hands. This is when my preparation began.

Jean Gray - XMen

I took one whole week to watch the 3 movies. There was no doubt that I was gonna like those movies. Now it was time to decide which character I would be.. my teammates had already picked Storm and Rogue. So for me it was gonna be a choice between Jean Grey and Kitty Pride. I checked for their costumes online and loved the black shiny jumper suit for Kitty and hoped to find one for me in the local stores. I still had 2 whole weeks to go.. But weekdays just passed by in anticipation of weekends, then weekends passed by doing the other important things.. so on Thursday I decided to go costume hunting! At the eleventh hour! Not surprisingly the costume shop had no X-men costumes left and the jumpsuits were oversized for me! So I looked for some wigs and found a perfect red long hair wig for the Jean Grey look! The next day I walked into my office with long red hair! I saw a few eyebrows rise as I walked around, and heard a few chuckles! That was the whole idea, mission was successful! I was glad to see my teammates dressed up too!

Meeting deadlines for a party project is not easy!

This weekend we invited our local gang ("seattle-folks") over for dinner and games. Its worth mentioning how we both came up with this idea! Our random talks in the last week about cooking (we both love to cook!) made us realize that we hadn't cooked for a large group in a long time. We couldnt have asked for a more appropriate weekend than this one to DO IT since its his birthday on Monday. The project began with sending an email, and then deciding the menu. We came up with a very ambitious list and this is not one of those projects where deadlines can be pushed! So soon after the decisions were made the preparation began! As with every project, the race closer to the deadline (2 hours before our party began) was very intense.

The clock struck 8 so fast, and the table was all set! Vegetarian puff pastries, pav-bhaji, chicken curry (xacutti), peas pulav, dal fry, salad and boondi raita - was our ambitious goal that we managed to meet. As our friends poured in, the drinks were being poured too. And we hardly realized when the crowd grew from 2 to 15, and we were all singing the birthday song for him! Cake, chips and salsa were the usual party favorites and dinner followed.

We had a video of the gang taken in Feb while we were setting up the plot for a surprise birthday party for one of us. The 20 min long video was played for the first time after it was shot and the couple whose house was decorated could not believe the chaos, curiosity and confusion while setting up their house. After lauging our hearts out while watching the video we played a game that was never played by the gang before. It was simple but involved a lot of team effort, creativity and skills. A couple of these first time actvities interleaved with ice cream and dessert wine gave the party project a perfect sign off.

Snow or surprise? The obvious winner is ...

Having seen two white winters and then moving 3 hours behind time for the third winter to an area not at all known for its winters I thought my encounter with snow was over! But seems like it isn't yet over!

This weekend when he was planning a "surprise" party for me, weather decided to play spoilsport! So weather completely followed the weekend snow warnings to hold them true and down came the white from the blue!

In spite of the chills and no-thrills filled driving, the party rocked the weekend when everyone came to be involved in decorating the plot for the "surprise" (Should I call it "scare"?).

So the obvious winner to be crowned for the weekend is ... surprise! :)

A new beginning

Last two months of my otherwise "routine" life have witnessed scores of "special" moments!

Moments when I felt like I was on the "top of the world" when he slipped the ring of promise! (Is this the same song that I wanted to sing for "us" on the "D - day" ? ;-))

Moments when the pride of the degree being conferred on "us" overwhelmed me!
(Is this the Graduation ceremony that I was awaiting for 2 years!)

Moments when the meaning of "life" itself changed forever!
(Am I listening to Randy Pausch at my graduation ceremony?)

Moments when wonder seemed like a weak word to describe the picture portrayed by the power of falling waters !
(Am I lost in the mist of the majestic Niagara Falls?)

Moments when the abundance of glamor, beauty, lights, and grandeur hid the unrealities within that world!
(The Worlds Entertainment Capital at its best?)

Moments when the beauty of sunsets from the lake that overlooks my deck seemed like a fantasy!(Is this the house of my dreams?)