Getting used to 10000 square feet ...

Till ten days ago, we used to live in almost 10000 square feet of space in an 1800 square feet home !! This was a vast improvement over our previous home which was 6000 sq. feet and a 1000 sq ft, and we really got used the space.

In an over ambitious attempt to move to a bigger lot and a bigger house, we made some tactical errors and abracadabra !! . . .

We ended up in a 1300 sq feet apartment.. It is definitely not bad by apartment standards. Possibly the best apartment I have stayed in over my entire life in the United States, but I have had this empty feeling inside me for the last ten days..

I miss parking the van in the garage and walking into the kitchen, miss tending to the plants in the garden. More than anything, I always used to beam with pride on the fact that every little thing in that house had our hard work behind us..

We felt the same thing when we sold our first house and moved into the second, now we feel the same loss, especially compounded by the fact that we now have neighbours who bang our walls if we make too much noise. Over the last ten days I have mentally mapped the showering and flushing habits of people in all five families which share walls with us !! (of course I dont know "who" is "who" , but I know that within the family to our left we have a 10:00 PM shower, a 11:30 flush, a 1:30 flush and a 6:00 AM flush.. this within my normal hours of operation in the apartment!). For an entire time table one should contact my mother in law.

It is just a question of time before we will be moving into our next house, but we all agree that we are reallly reallllly reallllllly going to appaeciate our new home, especially after living in an apartment. I know some people are so used to apartment living that they think it is the only way to live... I was one of those people.

But once you get used to 10000 square feet...

you can only be happy with something bigger !!

ps. If you are going to remind me that all it will take is 6 feet when I go down, I know, I know. But while I am alive, I love the space baby !!

Megaserial english !!

A dialogue by Abhi in the Tamizh serial "Kolangal".

"I dont want to go there. Lot of people will Competete with me "..

Competition + compete = Competete

Webster : please note down

Made my day.. either this was really funny or it takes very little to make my day, these days. Cracked me up..

Sundary Snicketts

Or - A series of Unfortunate Events..

Now slowly over the hill and finally logged in to Blogger ...

I have now lived on "thayir saadam" (rice mixed with plain yogurt) for 7 straight days.. Any more thayir saadam and I will go nuts. (If you are a PG Wodehouse fan, please read "The nodder" or "Juice of an Orange" in Blandings Castle . .. it is a Mulliner Tale and it just about summarizes my state of body and mind !).

On to good things . . .

For those of you who came to this site only to find no updates, I apologize..

To leave you on a lighter note , here is a conversation that happened recently at home..

We had some discussion / argument with our daughter.. In an attempt to patch up,

Me : Its okay kiddo.. I love you. I am your daddy.. you have to listen to me.
Jr : Its okay daddy. I am your daughter. I love you too.
(my wife walks in and she is still upset with Jr.)
Jr : Its okay mommy. I am your daughter. I love you.. (and my wife smiles)
then my mother in law walks in..
Jr : Its okay Bombay ! I am your daughter too.. I love you !

we all burst out laughing.

Jr. used to call her grandma Bombay patti (bombay grandma) , then it has been shortened to just Bombay !! and now she is calling her "Bom" !! Laziness rules I guess.

Pooochies !!

My earliest memories of my sister are of her combing my hair for two straight hours when I was 9 or 10 years old. She was 4-5 at the time and was really cranky one day. I happened to sit with my back against the sofa and she was sitting on the sofa watching TV.

So, my mom gives her a comb and says "fix his hair.. he needs it". My dandruff problems were legendary in those days. Used to hate those baths with the Selsun Blue stuff ! She called the dandruff "poochies" ("insects" in Tamizh) and went on to remove the poochies for two hours straight. After my scalp had pretty much turned red and I started complaining she stopped..

Recently my daughter was given a comb at her daycare .. So her latest hobby is to fix everyones hair with that mini comb. This has exasperated the wife and mother in law because they dont want to be touched with the same comb that has seen Daddy's hair !! God forbid !! Combing is now a restricted activity and the comb has been quarantined for Daddy. The funniest thing is that today my daughter combed my hair for almost and hour and guess what she said

"Daddy there are lots of poochies in your hair.. it is going to take me a long time to remove them". I am glad my daughter decided to give up an hour earlier than my sister did in those days..The incident brought back so many memories.. My mom says that we (me and my siblings) have all drifted all over the world and she is saddened by it. But genes are genes.. and we are always in everyones heart.. just another incident that goes to prove it !

Bumper Sticker Ideas.

We were talking to someone at the bank, when she said "I would like to slowly build our trust". I laughed at this .. When she asked me why I laughed I said "Trust is Digital".

She had a "What is he trying to say?" look on her face. Then I realized that my engineering brain had summed it up a little too nicely. Then I explained it to her that what I meant was there are only two possibilities.. either you trust someone or you dont (0 or 1). there is no in between. So we told her that if we trust her now, we trust her 100%. Guess that made her very happy.

Later this week, my realtor shows us this fabulous house on a little hill, which is way out of our means.. Obviously my wife liked it and said "this house is nice". I had a disappointed look on my face. When she saw that, I said "Already nice, premium price!" (we are not going anywhere near that house, but sure aspired me to go towards something like that 5-6 years from now ).

Guess I was on a roll when it came to making bumper stickers last week..