Harini’s WebLog

Now that I go to city daily,the travel is long,it takes me about 2 hours from home to work,in which i spend most of the time in the train.This has made me read books which i never thought i would!I used to read a few novels once in a while but now my life is up side down without a book i am not able to manage in the train.:)Strange!
Train commute is definitely good in a lot of ways,going out, little bit of exercise and a quality time for urself(this definitely includes the quality time sudhar spends without me all for himself because he comes home early and I come in late).The fun of watching people in the train is always there.One such incident happenned on wednesday,all the trains were late because of some power failure,I could get into the 5.56pm at 6.15pm,it was jam packed,defintiely reminded me of the mumbai local and the chennai metro.As it was very corweded i couldnt read my book but somehow got a corner seat along with 3 more people,out of which one was a gujrati woman,one american thatha and one more abcd boy.All of us were quite ,but the thatha couldnt sit quite for long , he started speaking to few women in the opposite seat showing his grand daughter’s photos.Talking proudly about her and telling them things hse does.The boy was busy over the phone and te gujju aunty slept.But suddenly she woke up and started calling someone, till now i thought how sweet and calm she is but the moment she said HALLO! i got shocked,it was so raw and harsh,she spoke to someone probably her son or daughter and asked them about their evening cup of tea and hung up.Now was this thatha’s turn,he started telling us about his Girlfriend.The abcd boy told us about his apt in manhattan and that its only 3 blocks away from his work.Now was aunty’s turn she siad she has newly joined Investor’sBank as IT Consultant and all these years she was with AT&T I couldnt believe her.Anyway!
My journey came to an end I was going to meet Sudhar at metropark instead of Somerville because we had to go shopping, Ranjini/Arvind were coming over the weekend.
We happily came home around 10.Ranjini Arvind cancelled their plans because of the snow,but we had Babu athimber coming in, he reached home in the aft around 3 after his hectic journey in njtransit.:)
I had work yesterday,athimber started in the morning,and Sudhar spent a quality time shopping,and freaked out :).Enjoying his day he was wiaitng eagerly for me to come home to show what all he purchased.The list was endless.:).

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week has been pretty productive,things seem to be falling in place, I got a job in the city,inspite of the commute I am enjoying it,As I said coming into the city has its own charm,The people, the atmosphere ,the commute everything looks wonderful!.
I am liking the office and the people and the best thing about the commute is the early morning refreshing walk to the office from the station :).
We finished a few things over this weekend,the long due HOMAM and the driving test.Now I am a license holder, the world looks different now.I fooled sudhar:)))))))))))), I called him from Mall saying I forgot the keys at home and if he could come and let me in.his imd next Q was if I passed but instead of telling him the good news, I said Iif we can talk about it later,in a serious tone.He got so scared and upset, and even thought of 1000 reasons to console me, but the moment I saw him in the driveway I took out my license and asked him if he would like to see it.He couldnt react for a while, the expression was good!.
This being a friday we are looking fwd to the weekend,but I am sure I would be looking fwd to the monday again!.

No its definitely not the IndiaPakistan border ,neither is it the US-Canada one, its the Borders Book Store.:)(silly! I know).Friday night suddenly we had decided to go and watch “The Incredibles“.The movie was good but nowhere close to Finding Nemo.I even slept inbetween:)…..We reached home around 1am and slept,thinking that we will get up late in the morning.
Saturday morning inspite of wanting to sleep late we woke up at 8am.Wondering of how to start the weekend,we decided to explore a shortcut walkway to Indian Grocery Store.It was only half the way we had reached when Sudhar exclaimed that this shortcut has lead us to the Borders book store.Unable to control his temptation of going into the book store, we walked in.I remember the days when he was preparing for MBA and he or sometimes we used to go to Barnes & Nobles and would spend the aft hanging out there.He wanted to do the same thing, and excited by a different idea,I also said ok, and we walked in.I bought 2 books,one about the origamy(art of making different things with a piece of paper-paper craft) and another about some vegeterian dishes:).I also took the 9/11 Commission report and started reading it, as I thought it was exciting enough to keep me engrossed in it atleast for about 1 hour.FYI I dont read books at all………..I dont like reading books, the only few books I have read in my life are my school/college books and few of the Robin Cook medical thrillers:).So as I said it couldnt keep me with it for long and at about 11am I said that I need to cook and we need to vaccum the house and we also had a tamil movie DVD “Jana” which we had to return today and we happyily walked back.:).Poor Sudharshan!
The day started with a good note, and also ended with one, we went to TJ Maxx and bought a new pair of shoes for me:).Defintiely the best thing which happenned today.:)
Hoping for more good things to come my way……
Cheers!

We got married and I came to USA on 22nd nov 2003.Iremember landing a small apt of ours on teh 9th floor in Portside Towers Jersey City.It was a small 600 Sq Ft apt, one beddrom,dining and a living combo with a kitchen and one bath .We had one closet which sudhar was using and I had a chest, we always used a laptop and small table for the laptop.We lived there for 11 months and today we are in our own new Townhome in Bridgewater.Its a 3 floor Townhome,with a formal living room , garage,patio,balcony,big eating kitchen,family room,dinings,furnace, and 3 bedrooms.Oh my god! isnt it?Whats this when compared to our old apt?A Palace?
The major difference we found in both of these was that…in our old house we would see many people walking around the apt building and we could many kinds of sounds,but here when we came we didnt hear any kind of a noise.It was deserted after 6pm in the evening, the day we moved and that night when we went ot bed we couldnt sleep for a long time,as there was no sound which were used to, and there was no light coming in from windows(we were used to it as well).
The immidiate next thing we did was to rush to the store early next morning and buy some night lamps.We felt better!The other most important thing being the curry smell in our coats,our coat closet right in front of the kitchen in our apt, and because of our flavoured cooking we always were a little contious of that,we used to buy all sorts of cloth freshners,sprays and perfumes.But here on contrary the coat closet so far off that even if we want them to smell they wont….what an irony but still its good:).
Our old house has only one bathroom and a small washing machinewhich was so easier to maintain,but sometimes it was difficult when we had to rush in the mornings.Now here we have 4 bathrooms, whats this, i remember the phrase”Bhagwan deta hai to chappar phaad ke deta hai!“Either we will get one or 4???????? this is too much, we hardly use the bath on the ground floor,but have to clean them all:( ………..
Our old house was so small that we could see each other from any corner of the house,whether it be the kitchen living or the bedroom,we could easily keep an eye on the other person as to what he is doing :)… but here we have to start an expedition as Columbus with a pair o binoculars in our hands……… and by the time we would reach the destination, the person would have moved out of there :) ha ha ha……….I dont know how Columbus managed!
The view from our old house was wonderful,we could see the beautiful “Statue of Liberty“.but here the view is of the worksmen mowing the grass and a guy with a blower cleaning the fall leaves.But rarely we get to see beautiful Deer roaming in the lawns around.
I dont like staying alone,when we were in #910 Portside Towers, i would do anything I wnated to do in the room(as if there were 10) where sudharshan was,but here its a little difficult,as I cannot walk up with roti maavu and make rotis in the bedroom,but hes being considerate , he watched tv when I work in the kitchen that way atleats we live on the same floor as each other.
Remembering the days for garbage and the days for recycling is another task which I have to handle,there in the apt it was left to our own convinience, we could clear the trash anyday we thought it was unbearable :).
Being independant was the major + point in Jersey City.With acess to all the light rails, trains ,buses and my own 2 legs, i never felt being left alone in a new country ,but its not so in Bridgewater,only a car can make u independant and self dependant.I shall be one soon:).
The closets in this house are too many, I always wanted a closet of my own as the one we had in JC was used by sudhar,but here I dont knwo what to keep in the closets.
I know I am being rude in writing all the negative points about this house,but the biggest positive point about this house is that its ours,we saw it after sseeing so many of them and we have taken so much of pains to decorate it,we have bought things in this house after so much of thinking and research and our love for this house only grows each and every second.The feeling of living in your own house is entirely different, even now sometimes we are not able to believe that its ours:).
Touchwood!

New york city dream of lots of people, city which welcomes eeryone, from rich to poor,from east or west.Its a place of diversity,a place where you can find everything possible on this earth.
When I was working in the city I used to visit the city daily and daily I would see various kinds of people and admire them, thinking and wanting to become one among them.Being a Newyorker is something in its own.isnt it?I quit job and we came to Bridgewater , now we hardly went into the city, and one day when I bugged Sudahr so much about goin into the city he agreed but finally we didnt go into the city , we came back without visiting Time Square.
It was not untill 2 days back that I went into the city suddenly.It was so different,catching a different train not the very own Path.I got down at Penn Station NY and had to go to 46th Street.I decided to take a walk.The moment I came out of the penn station i was frozzen.The winter was already in its peak there.People had taken out mufflers, caps,coats ,boots and what not.I looked a fool not very properly covered.I slowly started walking towards the destination.The tall buildings still had the charm,they were so inviting.The traffic people waslking very fast,the sirens blowing all around,things are still the same.People busy in their own world with a cell phone in their hands.No one wants anything more than a cell phone, may beif u can walk as fast as u can and if u have a cell phone in your hand you automaticaly become a newyorker.
On my way I saw fire in the 40th floor of a building,the traffic was blocked and cops were standing all around, I wondered how they r going to help those people.But they did.
Thousands of small restaurants and deli’s but still all of them over flowing,people rushing on all sides ,not even having a single mintue to talk to the person next to you.All kinds of food,all kinds of clothes and kinds if habitat,and a race to become a new yorker.
This is NYC.

Time flies! Its been a long time since i wrote anything, its not that nothing has been happenning, lots of things happen,but its jsut my somberithanam that wont allow me to write anything.:)
I think last tiem i left in vijayadasami, this time again its come up to some festival and bakshanams:).
Well inbetween we went to Florida and Ithaca, that is sudhar went to Florida on official trip and I went to Ithaca to spned the time with Sushi, she came and went to India and again she is back in Ithaca now.We went to Puerto Rico, for a small 4 day vacation celebrating our anniversary(sudhar has taken charge of writing a detailed weblog of our vacation),and last but not the least Diwali sweets and bakshanams.
Well The moment we started from Puerto Rico my mind was full of shoprite, diwali sweets,laundry etc. The moment we entered the house I started with my own stuff and dragged Sudhar to shoprite in the evening.
Once we were back from tuesday morning I was busy in my own world of bakshanams.
I decided to make a few,of the lot and my favourite mixture.After making few of the items I suddenly realised that for Deepavali the main dish is the “marundhu”.Now what to do, its not India where i can rush to the store and buy marundhu podi or the ingridients and the best part was that I have never made marundhu and i didnt know what all the ingreddients were.While chatting Sridhar came online and I was telling him about my marundhu problem, he imd suggesting making powder of anasin,analgin and gelusil and giving it to people :).
But I had decided about doing it, so I took meenakshi ammal cooking book and started searching for the receipe luckily I found it:) One step cleared.The next was the ingredients, I didnt even knew half of them but luckily as the book was in english it also said the name in english, I searched in google :),and realised that few of the spices are there in my spice holder.Its been a part of my kitchen for long and Sudhar has made fun of me so many times saying that I dont use them.Well this was the time i had to use them.I took the spices from them and started making a paste,my mixie didnt help me, it didnt come out to be a very good paste but bearable.Finally in the evening my Marundhu was also ready.I felt so good .Something to feel proud about :)))))))))))))))))))) .
We went to the temple for diwali, me sudhar and sushi and then sushi started and reached Ithaca safely.Wished Priya as it was her bday on diwali. :)
Weather has been getting bad day by day,dont know what to do….well may be there is nothing I can do about the weather :).
Have fun
Happy Diwali