Vacation-less me!

Did I mention that I finally canceled my Thailand trip? I don't know how to feel about it, Macavity and the rest of the gang are in Phuket right now, except for Sohna - who is in Switzerland. And yours truly here is in good ole Hyderabad, same people, same haunts, same cheap thrills - not to forget the shit load of work that the vacationers have left. The worst part is that they all left on the same weekend, which makes my situation seem a bit more morose.

Then again, I don't mind so much. I'm going away myself soon so no harm in taking care of work now which will just be nightmares if I go away now.

Anyway, look what I found!
And look where they ended up :-)
That's right, in our house.

I have been craving Maian for ages so finding this was like Manna from the skies. Despite it growing on the very poshiest, richest part of town, despite all the super fancy mansions right next to it, we went and filled 3 plastic bags unashamedly.

I didn't mind the puzzled and amused looks from the passers-by, but I ended up with a major rash on my hands. Ran to doc, who put me on a week's medication. But they are like the best Maian I've ever had, so worth every single rash. And I'm wiser, now I know how unpleasant it is to pluck those leaves, I will not complain anymore if I think a 'maian tel' in Mizoram is overpriced.

On to other things - meet the neighbourhood :-) Zorock and the object of our envy: Brownie! Not the kids, the Saint Bernard pup.
Anyway, we learned that some of the families in our apartment keep dogs, so we went and adopted a pup from Apatea. No more eyeing other people's Luckys or Brownies. At least until my flat-owner finds out :(
I love having a dog of our own although he keeps me in a tizzy. We call him Bozo because he looks like Bozo the clown. I get up earlier so I can take him out before I leave for work. And I go home earlier so I can take him out. I take him out 3 times at night, so he's not only good for my emotional health, but my physical health as well.

And the last picture - we're thinking of starting a new fashion line. Think this is something that will catch on?

My cricket run (ins)

(I'm making unworthy blog posts now because I have way too much on my work platter and I don't even know where to start and I'm angry at people and things and I feel zonked and just all round pissy. So, a mental trip away - far from the madding crowd to forget this bog that I'm in.)

Okay - this piece of update is totally funny. I was out with my friends one night last weekend, and sat around watching while my friends played pool with some other guys. We all exchanged hellos and stuff with them - the usual polite & friendly routine that one does with strangers - talked some, laughed some.

I saw some guys walk up to the pool players with a camera, exchanged a few words, took a picture with them then left. "What was that!? Are you famous or something?" I joked. Someone else answered and said yes, he's a cricket player, don't you know him. I said no. no watch cricket. no understand. "'But can I take a picture just in case you're really famous?" I joked further. We laughed about it and took some pictures. Like so -Woke up the next day, and on my way to work, I saw this big poster of some cricket promo thingy on the back of a bus. And guess whose faces peered back at me?! That's right - the pool playing guys. Dayum! Turns out they really are famous. Absolute neatness!

(An update within an update: I couldn't remember their names the next day, but a friend here just told me that one of them is Chris Harris, the other one's name - anyone?)

The cricket loving guys in the office are going ga-ga over my luck. And badgering me for information on where I met them and how. But I'm not telling, I don't want everyone to go meet them and dilute the cuteness and exclusiveness of my experience. I will brag a bit first, and maybe then...

Despite spending a lot of time at airports and airplanes, I never get the luck to be in the same plane as a famous person, or the luck to catch a glimpse of a celeb, while all my friends seem to have had at least one celeb sighting or the other at some airport or the other. I remember Cousin Unreal once ran into Kapil Dev, and even got him to sign her butt when we were in college (Even though she'd never seen him play even once, and it may have been a piece of paper that he signed..memory hazy) :-D

Now fate, be kind to me and let me run into someone like...Gerard Butler! I can think of 300 undiluted things I'd do to him :P

hehe This picture of me and my friends is so funny! Look at Harsha, she's the one in the middle. She's Sindhi, but looking at that picture, wouldn't you think she was Asian?!

Words have meaning and names have power

I love interesting names, particularly Hebrew names. For me, more than anything, what a name means is important. I love my name, even though for the first maybe 16-17 years of my life, I hated it. I had to endure a lot of teasing because of it, when I walked in the streets, it was common to hear people singing 'Jerusalem nute'n an fate Isua hnenah....' or 'Jerusalem lamah tukverh I hawng em?..' :-)

My housemates have pretty interesting names -

Marian (Hebrew) - Sea of bitterness (Also Egyptian, which luckily means 'My beloved')

Orpah/Orpi in Mizo (Hebrew/Latin) - She who turned her back (because she was disloyal and turned her back on her mother-in-law)

Tina (Old English/Latin) - river

Quite honestly, not names I would give my children ever :)

My name is also Hebrew, it means 'married' or 'possessed/possession,' but in essence, they mean the same thing. Once a woman is married, she becomes her husband's possession. In the name, it doesn't mean physically married, but being spiritually owned. It means I am God's possession. It's a very blessed name.

When I have a son, I am going to name him Uriel (Hebrew) - "fire of God," also analogous to Uriah - "the Lord is my light" - after the archangel Uriel, and also partly after Uriah of the Bible, the soldier David ordered killed. I've always liked that man, he was a man of honor - "And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing." - 2 Samuel 11

I'm not sure about girl names, but I think I would like to name my daughter Elisheba (Hebrew) – “My God is my oath” or Anaiah (Hebrew) - Whom God answers (this name is male originally but I think it sounds kind of feminine). As a parent, giving the 'right' names to my children would be a way of blessing them. I know I would feel very blessed to be christened with a name like Anaiah, whom God answers! Much more special than being named Cindy, or Baby, or Julie, Tommy, Timmy et al - for no reason at all, or after random rock stars, or even worse, politicians.


Other than names with religious meanings, I also like names of seasons and months of the year. I know an Autumn, a girl, a June, a May, and an April . I met a man called Winter once - sexy man, sexy name. Me and my friends developed crushes at first sight. I don't know what I found attractive more, the name or the man himself :D I think I may even have a picture lying around...

There, found one! Cropped to death and hazy but you can tell he looks very 'Winter' haha! That's him standing behind me, he called me James though (because my helmet had James Bond written on it), not a very flattering name for a crush to call you by I must admit :P

Other names I like:
1. Gabriel - the Lord is my might
2. Jonathan - gift of God
3. Pi Hangi
4. Chirhchohpuii
5. Biangtaituki

:D

Something I found out while researching names - Orpah/Orpi, Ruth's sister-in-law of the Bible is the giant Goliath's mother! Did you know that?

Hyderabad and us - updates

1. Ganesh Chaturthi is over, and the gods are now finally resting on the shores..
But it's Dussehra tomorrow - according to Macavity, the day Durga vanquished Ravana :-) I know enough to know she's wrong and to find it funny, but not enough to correct her. And that's okay, I'm just happy that it's holiday tomorrow.

2. Hoarding at the train station warning coolies not to deal in any shady online money-making deals I assume...
3. DDR freaks! Our new major obsession - the Dance Dance Revolution. However, since we don't have a machine of our own, we have to go to the mall to revolt, and pay Rs 60 for a single uprising. It can go to considerable amounts when you are used to 5-8 rounds in a single go.
The funniest part is the amount of crowd we attract LOL! You would not believe the amount of people - kids and full grown adults, male and female, who will stand around for hours just to watch 3 girls making a fool of themselves on a little machine. But quite honestly, I think the mall's management should pay us for using their DDR machine considering the amount of crowd we collect for them, thereby popularising their arcade, which ultimately plays a part in popularising their mall :P (And if anyone knows where to get a DDR machine really really cheap, I'd love to know!)

3. My sister - the fearer of ghosts and mirrors, has decided to grace me with a long overdue visit and finally got to meet and love Lucky as much as I do :-)
Complete sweetness, both of them!

4. One of our favorite restaurant's Bengali food festival a few weeks ago now leaves us craving paani puris all the time. Paani puris, Golguppas, Puchkas - whatever you want to call them.
Shake off a few calories DDRing, then stop by on your way home to make up for the lost fat with unhealthy amounts of paani puris. Heaven!

5. Hussain Sagar - the filth and the stench is never going away. And I find this eternally depressing!

Issues of National Security

Do you ever feel safe these days? Not me! Crowded places immediately bring thoughts of bombings and deadly stampedes. But one still has to venture out for one reason or the other. And I'm pretty sure most of you are now used to being frisked everywhere you go - malls, parks..people feeling you up while you just stand like dumb animals.

Anyway, they annoy the hell out of me. These friskers (?), or whatever they're called. And their endless checking of bags, and their poking their sticks at my water bottles and my food and everything they can poke it at. And their orders to turn off my cellphone or camera, and their telling me to turn them on.

I know I know! In the interest of national security, it is my duty as a responsible citizen to cooperate. I'm only frustrated because none of these makes me feel the least bit safer. I have absolutely no faith in their shoddy equipments nor crew. (Just wondering, when they poke in your bags, do they know what they're looking for?)

We walked past "tight" security with a gun once. It was a toy gun, and a stupid dare that made us do it. But it certainly cinched my suspicion about their incompetence. We walked past security, who despite heavy groping failed to find the poorly concealed gun!

But guess what happened at the park yesterday? They found and confiscated my cigarette lighter. A tiny, pretty little thing, pink with pictures of little fishes and butterflies. How could they miss a gun (albeit a toy one, they didn't even find it to determine if it was real or not) but find and think a tiny, pretty, harmless thing like that would pose a threat!

Anyway, lots of this I know is crazy. But I'm angry because they took my lighter, a very loved gift all the way from Queensland. (And I was only entering a park, not a plane! ) And despite one cigarette lighter confiscated, I still don't feel safe. Maybe it would be worth it if I knew it would at least guarantee a certain degree of safety.

It freaking feels like the middle-east is all I have to say.