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Sundar Narayanan's Travelog

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Sunday
Oct152006

A simple misunderstanding

My korean buddy : That was awful !

Me : Why you are so happy saying it..

MKB : Why should I be sad ?

Me : Didnt you just say it was bad ?

MKB : I said it was awefull !!

Me : ???!!!!

This keeps reminding me of the guy who mixes up words in the Tamizh Serial "Kolangal".

Awesome -great !
awful - bad !

not awe-full as in full of awe !! But you never know.. they might make awefull mean awesome in the new American English dictionary..

Friday
Oct132006

"lazy" rules..

There was a time when me and the wife would come home, get ready, leave the house to eat outside, watch a movie, drive all the way to San Fransisco and try to get into Ghirardeli square ice cream shop just before the store closed (that too on a week day), have no sense of time .. enjoy life without a care..

Those days are gone, but never forgotten..

Movies were no issue then. We had a movie watcher card at the local theaters, where we would get one movie free for every 10 we watched.. We watched four free movies the year we were married !!

After the kids, we made up for that experience by buying a 52 inch TV, membership at Blockbuster, Hollywood video, all the local indian grocery stores. These days, we shout orders for the other person to go get videos from the store. Cupertino is not exactly close to video stores like Sunnyvale.. Everything is a long drive away ! And of the 21 movies we checked out from the local city library, only 19 were scratched badly (the other two wouldnt even load).

So, we have joined the bandwagon and taken up Netflix. Watched B13 on Balaji's recommendation. We loved it. We mean both B13 and Netflix. Now all we have to do is shout orders for the other person to go pick up the mail from the mailbox!

If only we could get the same price for ordering pay per view movies with dish network.. that would be heaven !

Tuesday
Oct102006

Ingredients

It is no secret that I am addicted to my kids. Here is something that really moved me..

We went for a Navrathri Golu dinner last week. I wasnt hungry, so I decided to play with the baby while my wife ate and fed Jr. Then it was my turn to eat.

Jr. came with me to the table pointed to a dish and said "daddy, please dont eat this okay. it has peanuts in it!". Of course, the peanuts were in plain sight in the lemon rice. But her sincerity in watching over her daddy, priceless!!

Someone recently asked me, what if there was a medicine or a vaccine that would cure your food allergy and you can suddenly eat peanuts and sesame seeds ?

I thought about it for a long time. My reply ?

Even if I get a cure for the allergic reaction, I would have to go to a shrink to be able to eat those, because I have conditioned my head to avoid these things. I see them as poison, literally. So, no matter how tasty, I will have to get over the fact that it wont harm me, before I can eat it.

That brings me to a recent find. My brother-in-law told me that he has found the perfect snack for me.. even buys me a bag from Seattle and brings it over.

It is indeed the perfect snack !!




God does work in mysterious ways. I am allergic to peanuts, but cashews and almonds are okay! This snack is so good that I finished the whole bag in two weeks..

Long live Mrs. Mays !!

In spite of being all those things mentioned in the cover, there was this label in the back which said "processed in a factory which also processes peanuts"!!

The only thing better than even this product, is one that actually has

" NO TRACE OF PEANUTS " for the label.

I will patiently wait for that day!!

Saturday
Oct072006

Every kid is different..

Our second child appears to be doing everything a few months earlier compared to our first one. I guess she has her elder sister to watch and learn. The older one didn't have that role model.

Baby is 11 months old and has started running, dancing ! and already watches Barney without batting an eyelid.

All thanks to her akka's (elder sister's) influence. She goes and finds the Barney toy everytime any of us sings the barney song !! See for yourself.



She really loves Barney! and daddy is starting to get irritated at the sight of the dino.. Too much Barney can be a bad thing..

Thursday
Oct052006

Untitled - a story

I have been thinking of writing a story for the last two weeks. Going to write it in bits and pieces.

Since this story is going to unfold along the lines of Tamizh Mega serials, and I have the added disadvantage of not naming a protagonist or their most critical relationship, there is no possibility of having a title like Lakshmi, Selvi or Manaivi, Chitti etc.

Feel free to comment.





Untitled

The four pistachio green Toyota Screamers zipped past a row of national monuments, to the security gates. Contary to their name, they were state of the art whisper quiet, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The two guards outside the green zone security gates were talking in hushed tones. They knew the importance of their guests. Once they verified the ID's of everyone in the vehicles, they closed the gates. For once, the convoy had managed to make it in, without any casualties.

Sacramento was not everyones cup of tea these days. A city that came to prominence as a sprawl after the tech boom in the earlier days of 2000, and made more recognizable by the governator, was now one of the most dangerous places on the planet. The only ways in and out of the city were guarded by the latest surveilance technology and missile defense systems.

"Do you really think, this would end today ?" asked Ronny Screwalla.
"I do not know. But everyone that needs to be present today, is alive and well. Now, that is a good start!" said Ibrahim Gwazos, the other security guard. They both fell silent, now that the people in the cars had gotten inside the building. The october afternoon had an eerie calmness about it.

Inside the dimly light courthouse, the Judge was preparing his final remarks. It had been a troubling three years, living in sequestered quarters, trying to keep his sanity through legal proceedings that involved a death a day on the average! He wiped his forehead one last time, and asked the defendents to acknowledge their presence. There was no jury. This was not one of those, run of the mill, Law and Order type Jury trials. In fact this was no ordinary trial. The world wouldn't witness the extraordinary events in this trial because it was off limits to the media or the public.

The defendents and their fidgeting legal council sat in silence. The honorable Howard Stern started reading his verdict. To the surprise of the twenty or so people in the courtroom, he started smiling. The situation warranted anything but a smile. Especially not one that suggested that the Judge was having some kind of sexual experience. Yet, the smile suggested just that! A few seconds later, the judge's eyes popped wide open and he went limp on his chair.

The security guards knew all too well what this meant. They started talking into their collars and went through their drill. Within minutes, the area had been secured and everyone in the room isolated in separate quarters within the courthouse. Ronny and Ibrahim had the same scared look on their faces. It was going to be another long day.

It did not take long for the SDF agents to determine what had happened. A remote controlled nitric oxide cannister had been activated, that too from the judge's gravel. Judge Stern had at least died happy. The gas had given him an erection first, before overdosing him and ending his life. They cleared the body and looked around. They just could not understand what was happening.

Chief Jenifer Lopez clicked the wheel on her secure federal issue I-fone and said "Mrs. President ?"
"Is it over ?" came the question from the other end.
"I am sorry Mrs. President. We have to find another venue for the trial. The judge has been assasinated!" said Lopez, sweating profusely.
The president was silent. She had expected to see this trial go through in a year. Three years had passed with no sign of closure. How did things come to this ? she wondered.

At the courthouse, the main accused was deep in thought. He was thinking the same thing.. How did things come to this ? How did things go so out of control, so fast ?

It had all started with the disappearence of Venkittu Narayanan..





to be continued..

Special Disclaimers :

1. This whole thing is fictional. Although real names of real people are used, there is no connection to them..Lets face it. I am not Tom Clancy. I am too lazy to come up with original names and have decided to use names of people who affect me at the time of writing in some way.

a. Was reading something about UTV and came across Ronny's name. Dont know if this is the same guy who ran a quiz show when I was a kid..
b. Ibrahim Gwazos, is the guy who sent me an email saying Mohammad Narayanan, who has declared that he is my long last brother in Nigeria has left me the sum of 10.8 Million dollars, and he needs my bank account number urgently so he can deposit the money!!!
c. Was going through an old entertainment magazine and saw a picture of Howard Stern. Used to listen to him when I was a fresh off the boat student. Have been ages since I listened to his show.
d. Narayanan Venkittu came in my dream last night..

The story will continue..