Am I Cynophobic?

For some reason I had an affinity towards animals when I was a kid. Usually kids my age used to be scared of going near them but I used to look forward to meeting my animal friends!

I should have been about 5-6 years and I used to love watching an elephant making its evening rounds on my street. If I remember right, the elephant and its mahout used to come by on weekends for close to a year. They used to stand in front of my house and I used to run to the gate to give the elephant a banana. My sister, being the timid one, used to stand near the door and watch me feed the elephant.

My other friend was the cow which used to come to our house every morning (5 am) with its master to milk. We used to get fresh milk and most of the days I used to get up and used to feed the cow.

Picture source: msnbc.com

Now I go no where near animals. For some reason I have grown to be really scared of dogs (cynophobia). Although as a kid I always wanted to get a dog, now I stay 10 feet away from them! I am not sure if it was a dog chasing incident when I was in 6^th grade which made me fear the species or something else.

Can you udnertsnad?

I funod smoehtnig vrey itnesreitng and shcoknigly ture!

Wnat to konw waht I am tlkanig auobt? Ciclk hree

Through My Eyes

This past couple of weeks, I turned into a complete movie buff! I watched so many new and old movies that it kind of got difficult to keep track!! So here are few of my reviews..

Bourne Ultimatum:

Cast - Matt Damon as Bourne, Julia Stiles as Nicky and others.

An amazing movie with great stunts and cinematography. The movie starts of with Jason Bourne being chased in Russia and someone in Spain trying to get information on the true identity of Bourne. A journalist in London has the information and publishes in the newspaper that he has details on Bourne’s identity. As expected, the journalist is murdered even though Bourne tries to save him. The scene at the Waterloo train station is very engaging! I loved the chase sequence at Morocco. It was very well taken. On the whole this movie is definitely worth the watch!

No Reservations:

Cast - Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate, Aaron Eckhart as Nick and Abigail Breslin as Zoe

If you have watched Chini Kum starring Amitabh Bachan and Tabu, the role of Catherine (Kate) is almost the same as Big B, the arrogant but excellent chef. Kate is an excellent chef with a bad temper. She has a sister and no friends. One day, her sister and her niece meet with an accident and her sister dies. Kate brings home her niece, Zoe. In the meanwhile, to keep the restaurant running, the owner hires the new chef Nick. The rest of the movie is about how Kate deals with the situation and what happens between Kate and Nick. Not exactly a chick flick but don’t watch it with great expectations.

Sathampodathey:

Cast - Prithviraj as Ravichadran, Padmapriya as Bhanu and Nithin Sathya as Rathnavel

The movie starts of with Bhanu getting married to Rathnavel who works for the Railways in Chennai. Soon the couple discovers that Rathnavel is impotent. Bhanu believes Rathnavel did not know about his disability and decides to give her marriage a second chance by adopting a child in spite of her family asking her to divorce Rathnavel.

One day Bhanu discovers that Rathnavel is a recovering alcoholic and that he was very much aware of his impotency before their marriage. Shocked by the truth, she decides to get divorced and returns home. Bhanu then meets Ravichandran and gets married to him. What happens between Bhanu, Ravichandran and Rathnavel forms the second half of the movie. Worth the watch if you have time to kill!

Small things

I remember the times when I was a kid, my parents, sis and I used to sit and watch Just for Laughs on TV.. Those simple times are memories to cherish!




Never get bored of them - even now :)

Don't forget your muscles at work!

Picture source: fitness.com

How many times have you felt really tired and worn out at work? An easy solution to that is to do some simple stretches.. Don’t worry these stretches are not going to look odd to your co-workers!

If your work involves sitting in front of a computer screen, the first thing which you should do every 2-3 hours is eye relaxation exercise. Close your eyes and move your eye balls up and down (3 times) then side to side (3 times). Once you do that, rotate the eye balls in clockwise direction (5 times) and then in anti-clockwise direction (5 times).

To relax your shoulder, hold one arm straight in front of you. Then use your other hand to bring the stretched arm to the opposite shoulder.

To loosen your chest, top of shoulder and lower arms, try this:

Make circles (clockwise and anti-clockwise) with your ankles and wrists.

Stand up, bend forward and try to touch your toes without bending your knees. If that is difficult for you, give a slight bend at your knees.

You can also do the same stretch seated.

To relax your neck muscles, move your neck very slowly up and down (3 times) and side to side (3 times). Then very carefully rotate your neck clockwise and then anticlockwise 3 times each.

This 10 minutes that you spend on relaxing your muscles will help you loosen up and feel better!

How many times a month?

Off late I have been super lazy to do anything.. When I come back from work, I watch TV, speak on the phone, eat and then sleep. This has been my weekday schedule for more than a month.. Probably the fact that I cannot access Gmail or blogger from work is one of the reasons for my sabbatical!!

Picture source: cartoonstock.com

Anyways, I got to thinking as to how many times in a month do we buy something online? I buy a minimum of 5 items online each month from electronics to chocolates! So on an average I spend about $150 on online purchases. There are a lot of websites which offer deals and discount coupons. But couponsChief is one which I use the most. You can find most of the coupons from fatwallet.com and slickdeals.com here. The main reason I like to use CouponChief is because unlike the other deals website, the coupons here are classified and categorized. So it is easy to find coupons without getting frustrated!

Some of the good deals going on now:

29% off on Adidas products
Savings on digital cameras from Circuit City
2 DVDs for $15 at BestBuy
The Body shop discount

Something which I have learnt after coming to the US.. Never buy something without googling for discount coupons.. whether it is car rental or some purchase. You can always find something!

Men, Women and Marriage!

I got this forward from my friend and just couldn't resist the temptation of blogging about it.. Here is fodder for 5 mins of laughter!!

• "When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her" - Sacha Guitry

• "Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them." - Dumas

• "I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me." - Anonymous

• "Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays." - Henry Youngman

• "There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage." - James Holt McGavran"

• "The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once..." - Anonymous

• "My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." - Rodney Dangerfield

• "Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy. " - Anonymous

• First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!" Second Guy "You're lucky, mine's still alive."
  

All that said and done, you cannot force yourself to love someone but it just happens! When that happens, marriage happens and the way your life is shaped after that is completely in your hands!

Amazing Amazon

Picture source: amazon.com

For me, Amazon has always been a great place to find books, electronics and DVDs at a very competitive/low price. One month back I got a memory stick for my then brand new Digital Camera! Since I had just moved to OH, I gave the hotel address where I was staying temporarily as the shipping address. I waited for about 3 weeks and then contacted the seller stating that I hadn't received the shipment. The seller sent me an email with the shipping details and told me that the item was delivered to my Florida address. When I looked at the address, I found out that it was not delivered to my previous home address but to the address where I was staying 1.5 years back! When I told the seller about the mistake in the shipping address, he simply told me that he cannot do anything about it..

As a last resort, I decided to try my luck with Amazon and wrote to them about the situation. Yesterday I got an email from Amazon.com telling me that they have credited the entire $$ I spent on my purchase to my account. I was amazed at their customer service. Amazon for sure knows what customer service is all about :)

Whom to blame this time?

Phew.. It has been exactly one month since I blogged! The past 40 days has been so crazy that I even forgot the feeling (contentment) of sleeping for 12 hours a day ;) Slowly I have begun to realize what 40 hours/week means.. It actually means that even though they pay you only for 40 hours per week, you must work a minimum of 50-60 hours/week just to make sure that you get your next pay check!! If your team or group has fellow desies, you will not only have to be careful about your work hours but also watch your back!! Competition in every aspect gets tougher with them around!! On the whole work has been a jumbo roller coaster ride, but only with twists and turns and no fall-outs so far.

Now that I have pretty much settled down at work and in my new home, I will definitely try to blog regularly and try not to blame time and/or work!

No time!!!

This past week has been so hectic. We have been having Project Management and financial classes. And the highlight of the week was a Quiz on Friday! We had a chance to visit a call center and we had a good time learning about the things they do there.

A few of my friends and I watched Ocean's 13 on friday. I liked the movie.. Although a few scenes were similar to Ocean's 11, it was way better than O-12.. I thought George Clooney did an awesome job as usual. There were a few scenes which seemed too far-fetched. I would give it a 2.5/5...

Oh, btw there are so many Indian restaurants in Cincinnati...I went to another restaurant last night and the food was ok but the service was good..I am slowly discovering desi stuff in Cincy..

At last !

It has been more than a week since I blogged. Work has kept me really busy.. Have to get up at 6.00 a.m. everyday and get back home by 6 - 6.30 p.m. Once I get back to my room, I am completely drained out of energy! I think it is because after one month of solid vacationing, my body thinks that I am still on vacation! I am guessing everything should be fine by this coming week!

I finally got hold of my dance video on Google! Eight of us performed for an Indian event in 2005.. It was a lot of fun! We choreographed the dance and had practice sessions late in the night..

Went with my friends to the Cincinnati reds baseball game last night! We had loads of fun.. This was my first ball game and I simply loved it.. There was this guy sitting in the row in front of us, he was so totally drunk and was very entertaining.. He actually made the game more lively and enjoyable..

Marriage = hell?

Picture source: cartoonstock.com

Most of the guys always talk like after marriage they were literally tortured by their wives.. Is it true that we women actually change? Do we start expecting more out of the relationship? Do we blow the smallest of misunderstandings out of proportion? I personally believe that it takes two to fight! So guys, stop blaming the wife for every fight... May be she has a point about your clumsiness, forgetfulness or laziness!

Here is a conversation between a husband and wife.. Have a good laugh!

Before the marriage:

He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.
She: Do you want me to leave?
He: NO! Don't even think about it.
She: Do you love me?
He: Of course!
She: Have you ever cheated on me?
He: NO! Why you even asking?
She: Will you kiss me?
He: Yes!
She: Will you hit me?
He: No way! I'm not such kind of person!
She: Can I trust you?
He: Yes.

Now after marriage you can read it bottom-up !!!!

May be next time

When we made a trip to Key West, I tried to book one of the inns near Duval Street but then all of those beautiful inns were completely booked. When we went to Key West and saw those inns, we decided that we should stay there next time.. These are old houses transformed into inns and have beautiful gardens, swings and close proximity to Duval street and the beach!

Picture source: hawaii.com

I remember the time when me made a trip to Munnar in Kerala, we booked a house rather a mansion and had lots of fun. There was a river flowing behind the house and there was a huge waterfalls 5 minutes from where we were staying.. It was an awesome vacation. It is always nice to stay in rental houses instead of hotels. You get the feeling of relaxing at home and still feel like you are on vacation! The same feeling can be got now if you are planning on a Hawaii vacation.. You can rent villas and have an amazing vacation! These villas are very well described, you can have a look at the photo gallery and choose the one which is spacious/suitable for your vacation..One cool thing about all these rental houses is that they are all located near the beach.. it is not like you choose a cheaper one and you end up in a house in the middle of the town! Now I am tempted to go on a vacation to Hawaii.. the only thing is that a vacation in Hawaii can cost you a fortune. So if you are planning to go on a super - dooper vacation to Hawaii make sure you book everything in advance, have your wallet full and be prepared to come back with an empty wallet!

Where next?

I am planning to take my parents to Orlando, the land of theme parks! There are a few parks that my parents haven't seen yet, so most probably this is going to be the next stop!

Picture source: wikipedia.org

One thing about Orlando is that not even one weekend goes by where you don't do anything but sit at home.. The three months I spent in this wonderful city during my Internship was awesome. Slowly I found out that water rides and roller coaters are not the only things this city showcases. Be it the Tragics - Orlando Magic games or the wonderful downtown with lots of restaurants or the vibrant Winter Park walks, I for sure had lots of fun! My friend and I discovered a German cafe and pub in Sanford downtown. We had a German friend and we went with him.. It was lovely, the live music and dancing was so much fun. Those good old days, I am going to miss all of that for sure once I leave the sunshine state!

Coming back to the theme park tickets, I found this website called Orlandofuntickets.com where you can purchase tickets at a discounted price. I am planning to take my parents to Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Last time we went to Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Sea World. I have been to all of them except Magic Kingdom. I have already purchased the Universal Studio Tickets. Hopefully there won't be too much crowd.. I know I am just hoping against hope! This time of the year is the peak season for theme parks and each ride might have a waiting time of upto 3 hours! But in sipte of that, you can definitely manage to have fun and thatz exactly what we are going to do!

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Have to write about it after all the frenzy the media created about their wedding. One thing which I don't understand is that there are thousands of Indians getting married each year, but why did this couple get soo much of attention? Is it because Ash kept denying the fact that she was dating Abhishek Bachchan while Abhi actually talked about it very openly with Simi on her show?

Anyways here is fodder for those who want to know about Ash after marriage..

Ash's interview with Rajeev Masand on CNN-IBN

Women - the unsolvable mystery?

God created men and women to strike a balance just like his all other creations. Whom did he create first - man or woman, which of the two was the blunder, which was the solution and why? Nobody knows the answer to these questions but a woman can definitely write about her gender and help in solving the mystery about women to a tiny weeny extent!

What women think of men

Picture source:beconfused.com

So here is my contribution : 5 things about woman married/in a relationship

1. When she cooks and serves the food, tell her it is good. Don't exaggerate and please don't say "I think the dish needs a little more salt". She takes this as an insult and especially if you are married she will definitely think/say that you never complain about your mother's cooking!

2. All of us have heard of "no means yes".. here are a few other truths : 'I don't know means don't you dare do it', 'I am not sure means definitely NO' & after a fight if she is acting like she is not going to talk to you, most of the times she wants you to keep trying to make her talk/smile!

3. Women are by nature forgiving especially of their dear ones. So if you fight and then she brings it up in another fight, she is just trying to make you fight back.. not that she wants to bury you alive.

4. Don't ever ever tell your wife that your mother said something and you are going to do it when your wife is not ok with it. This will be the beginning of the "I have a MONSTER-IN-LAW" feeling! All a woman wants is you to discuss things with her rather than just tell her your decision. Convincing your wife is generally not as difficult as it seems ;)

5. Women are not big givers, but are definitely takers. They will never forget the things you forgot like anniversaries etc. but will very easily forget all the dates you remembered and the gifts you got. Get her gifts, never forget anniversaries, dates and make sure that you plan out things and surprise her even if she knows your plan!

A memorable holiday

Seven mile bridge - Key West

Last week was awesome. I took my parents to Miami and Key West. The three of us had a wonderful time. We went to the beaches and my parents loved the ride to Key West especially the 7 mile bridge. I have been to Miami before but this was my first trip to Key West and it was great. I was thinking that the whole place was going to be very crowded since all the hotels were booked, but surprisingly I could not find too many people.

Miami

In Miami we stayed in a hotel next to the Miami river on the 15th floor and the view we had from there was breathtaking. My dad utilized his camcorder to the fullest. He took video of every small thing that caught his eye. I could remember the times when my parents used to plan out trips and take my sister and I to various places. This time it felt very different. I did the planning..

My dad driving

My dad drove my car on the way back from Key West and he did an awesome job. Initially I was very scared to let him drive because in India we are not aware of 'lane discipline', 'speed limit' and 'honking'. But my dad has been driving for more than 35 years and so I allowed him to drive for about 50 miles and he drove very confidently and was able follow lanes and speed limit.. of course he didn't have the need to honk as everybody else on the road was also driving carefully!

Graduated! Wuuhu

Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I graduated yesterday.. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life! Although the moment lasted only 10 seconds (on the stage) it was well worth the hard work of 2 years. The announcer pronounced my first name correctly but KILLED my last name.. Poor thing, my dad was listening to the announcer totally mispronouncing his name!

The whole of yesterday was very hectic, had a lot of last minute things to complete. Somehow I managed to get all of that done, came home got dressed and went to the ceremony. My friends were able to make it for the ceremony. It was a great feeling to have all your well wishers next to you.

The ceremony took place at the Basketball stadium and the place was very crowded. It somehow felt like there were a lot of PhD students graduating this time. I saw a couple of my TAs graduating. We took a lot of pictures and my parents were so proud. I am very glad that I was able to share this important day of my life with my parents! It is only because of their hard work and encouragement that both my sister and I are who we are today. Kudos to them!

Signing off - Swetha Vaidyanathan MS ;)

Strange things

A very strange building in North Korea. It is called the Ryugyong Hotel. They stopped the construction of the hotel in 1992. If they complete it, this will be the tallest hotel in the world.. Any idea about the offices/hotels in Burj Dubai? May be there will be some hotel in the top most floor.. Imagine looking down from there ;)

I am planning to take my parents around Florida. One month of total free time and I am going to make the most use of it. Planning a vacation is pretty tedious and time consuming. Although I have decided the places I need to cover I am yet to make the Hotel Reservations. Places like Key West and Miami seem to be so expensive at this time of the year. But these are places which every person visiting Gatorland should see. I found out about this website Hotel Reservations.com where you can find hotels at discounted price. I first thought of booking hotel room through Priceline.com but then later thought about the kind of rooms people get especially at places like Miami. They also have offers on car rental and vacation packages. I like the way you can choose hotels and the diverse options you have to make your reservations.

Speaking of priceline, I need to write about the pathetic experience I had once when I went Tampa. I stayed at the Wyndham and paid $70 per night. I got the worst room which was so dirty and they refused to change my room. The bed cover had some stains and when I told them that I need a different room, they told me that since I had booked through priceline they cannot change my room. I had at argue with the receptionist for more than 15 minutes to have them change my room. Finally that guy budged. After that I decided not to book hotels through Priceline. Now that I am taking my parents along, I am surely going to book a hotel through a proper website!

Last exam for my Master's

It was a great feeling to write the very last exam for my Master's... I am unofficially done with my MS..Hurray! The whole of last week I just could not concentrate and study. I kept thinking about graduation and trips.. Finally I somehow managed to finish studying the night before the exam. To top it all there was a power outage in Gainesville on Thursday night for about 3 hours! Somehow I managed to study and finished my LAST exam.

Yesterday my parents came from India to attend my graduation ceremony. It is always a great feeling to see your parents especially when they are your best of best friends! I am sure the three of us are going to have lots of fun together. The only thing is that they did not get their baggage! I hope they deliver the bags home today.. At least we were saved the trouble of lifting the bags.