Nothing's Permanent but Change !!!

When I think of the sudden changes happening in Life, the rude surprises..or shld i be saying Rude shocks..I , actually We(Vinod n I) seem to be getting in Life...I can't help but stress out n crib. Other than our Wedding , we have not been able to plan anything since 2006. Its been "Accept What you Get" for a long long time now. It gets super confusin n frustratin when u can't be sure of wat's going to happen or wher ur gonna be in the next 2 weeks...after every 3 - 6 months..Though I must admit, most of the things have eventually turned out to be good. I don belive in Regrettin anything..absolutely anything in Life ! I strongly feel there is a reason and Mind You, a positive Reason for Everything that happens. The key is to be patient n not lose faith n let God do his Job

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Everything happened as planned ....n we did move into our new apartment n its beautiful n the process of setting it up was fun n tirin..BUT...

Vinod's office gave us a new story...they want him working out of office, in Vermont for 2 weeks for the 1st few months.(Earlier they had said 1 week). Vinod jus left today...abt 2 hrs back...n I'm missin him sooooooooooooooo badly!!! Hope the next 12 days fly....

The Pursuit of My Happyness :-)

Hmm..this title is special for a couple of reasons...
1) Firstly it was Vinod's n My 1st movie ‘alone’ 'together'...the ones before this were with a bunch of frends...
2) It was my 1st movie in the US of A..
3) I looooooooov Will Smith
4) His kid is a Daaaaaaaaaaaarlin..awww..so cute!
5) Its an amazin story...a must-watch..we njoyed the movie a lot
6) n Finally i like the way 'happyness' is spelt!

I'm at that point of my Life again..when i'm all excited n eager...Vinod n I are moving our base to Baltimore on July 29th(less than a week away)..we finally are gonna have 'OUR HOME' (Rented of course!)
We are finally settlin down..atleast for a while…

Therz no more gonna be weekly travels n that feels sooooooo good…U have no idea how good ,unless u’ve been in these shoes. Believe me! This implies..no more endless waiting hours in various airports, no more wakin up in the wee hours of the morning on Mondays, n no more reaching at obscene hours on Thursday nites…n for Vinod..No more cookin!

And the more exciting part is settin up our home..I’ve never done that before..never stayed at a place permanently, so we could set it up the way we wanted. Hyd was for 3 mths..n Vermont..was a studio aptment wher most things were provided n the rest, we din really want to buy ‘coz we din know for how long we were gonna be there.We knew we would be Shifting sumtime. Of course before that I was livin with ma-pa…n settin up that home is a completely different thing…’coz I wasn’t ther to start from scratch n I wasn’t contributin financially.
Now we have to shop for EVERYTHIN..rite from the Crockery to mattress to television to all the furnishins…and Shoppin for anything is fun n xcitin ..not jus clothes n shoes ;-) Tho of crse..it creates holes in the pockets!!

The place looks really nice with hi-fi security n all..u can see the pic,one of those houses is ours!! It has a mall with Macys n JC Penny less then .3 miles away..so yayyyyyyeeee.. N well..it has a gym n a pool…..I’m gonna try work out…n I donno swimming:-(

Its exciting to have a new bunch of neighbours..My Mangaer in India is also movin in about a mile away from my place..so that’s nice..I’ll have company before we can make new friends.I’ve heard there are a decent no. of Indians in the apartment.

Also my friends at work tell me..there are plenty of places to visit n hazar things to do in Baltimore/Virginia/DC..so lookin forward to all that. Another advantage about bein in Baltimore is, its at a central point..DC,Virginia,Delaware are all soo close and NYC,NJ are jus abt 3 hrs or lesser away..So thts reallie niceee..will get to see many more places.!

I’m sure I’ll miss sumthings we used to do up in Vermont, like the innumerable hike trails less than a mile away from home, the Ben n Jerry ice-cream, Main Street, The Jewellery shop on Main Street, Burlington, drives to the countless lakes n other scenic places less than 2 hrs away from Vermont, Our landlord Rose n her funny tantrums n of crse the safety around the place (We hear Baltimore is not xactly known for safety!)

The first time a significant change was happenin in my life is in the year 2000…when I was to join college after 14 yrs of school and when I had to change my residence..after the same no. of yrs…I remember..i was so depressed..not wantin to let go of the beautiful moments n memories I had…But since then…things have been only getting better n plenty of things have changed.
Specially with all that’s been happenin over the last 1 year..I realize..changes no more scare me..they jus make me look forward to new things..

Hopin for a new load of gr8 moments…

Smiles
Pavi:-)

Trip to Niagara & Pittsburg
( 23-25 Dec ’06)

I had landed the previous Sunday evening and we planned to travel to Niagara falls the Christmas weekend. ‘Twas my first weekend in the US. Nu too had gone to Niagara his 1st weekend in the US about 2.5 yrs back.

I was jus abt trying to get used to the chillin winters. But was definitely excited abt the trip..coz I would see the famous Niagara falls and It wld be my 1st long drive with my hubby. Sumthing I had been longing for. (Don ask me why!)

Come Saturday(23rd) , we set out early morning. The mountains around Vermont were white covered by snow. The long drive made me ‘oh..so nostalgic’ abt home ‘coz I was very used to these long drives to various places in Dads car with family. This was a 8 hr drive n we finally reached the Days Inn resort arnd 5 pm. In the winters, it starts getting dark as early as 4 pm. We freshened up and then as the falls was v.close to the hotel we decided to walk it up. So taking our winter gear (gloves, jackets,mufflers etc) we set out. We walked for obout 2 mins n the cold begun to sink in. The wind was so strong and the roads were empty…we were swayin n walking!. But not wanting to return we continued..the falls did look pretty, we took a long walk..the nite sky was amazing..but well..I think we almost froze ! There was unstoppable water drippin frm our noses (yuck!) cld see the revolvin restaurant on the opp side i.e Ontario, Canada,

The Canada-US border is a thin white line (like a zebra corssin) drawn on the road.But u need a passport n visa to cross that line:(

We went to a casino after that..my 1st experience in a Casino.. Was fun..lost some money though! N ya..i also lost Vinod's gloves. Now this is sumthing u ‘ll read as a regular feature in all my stories..I end up losin sumthign in every trip I make :

Next morning we went to the Balaji temple at Pittsburg. A 4 hr drive. Believe me the food (Prasad) available in temples is jus amazing..its sooooooooooo yummy ! n u will stop thinking “Wat a cheapo..” once u taste it. We wanted to pack some boxes for dinner too but din have cash ( thnx to the xtensive usage of credit cards at all places!). But the temple didn’t accept card so we drove abt a mile and got cash to buy food. N then drove back to Niagara.

The next morning we went to the falls agn..roamed arnd a bit, clicked pics (vinods fav thing to do) n then drove back home.

Was a fun trip…wit perfect no. of days to do the stuff we had planned to do without tiring ourselves too much.

Waitin to visit Niagara in summer ‘coz all the rides n stuff was closed durin winter! N long drives have bcom pretty much one of our fav things to do.

Pics at : http://picasaweb.google.com/vinodindia/NiagaraVisit
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinodindia/Pittsburgh

Wat Goes Around Comes Around…

My current project is in its closing phase. Now this project was for 4 mths but has been insanely adhoc n hectic…Our mgr has jus been makin things worse n as the weeks have passed by has proved that he is an amazing slave driver. My Tam Lead, on the other hand has been supportive, understanding and empathetic towards me. Though he has been getting slave driven himself! We have endlessly cribbed to each other about our manager. As an appreciation of how enduring he has been today I told him that I thot he has been good n kind. His response was “What goes around comes around Pavi. Ur good, so u get that in return. Noel has been a hard taskmaster, sometime he will be made to repent it”.
I have been confused & upset about a few things in Life at this point n hearing that made so much of a difference to me.
What goes Around indeed does come Around. So for all those things n people who have been getting on my nerves .I know they‘ll be made to pay for it. N I know, all that I have to do is continue fulfilling my responsibilities, God will take care n teach them a lesson when he has to. It’s not my business. N if it’s my turn to learn a lesson, I surely will be taught the same. I feel the lessons are learnt much easier when learnt early. Its important to stay quiet n let God do his job. I agree - Easy to Say, Hard to Do!
We are all equal Children of God’s. Have equal no. of ups n downs in Life. Things tht we are happy about n sad about. But having the faith n trust and not givin up is essential to survive. I have heard and at times feel its true that a plan has already been chalked out for each one of us. Then why do we make the mistakes we do, the things we repent n wish we hadn’t done? Has that all been planned? I often wonder. The answer maybe that God thinks, that’s the best way for us to learn.

Oh well. Thank You. N keep me a Good Human Being. That’s all I ask for.

Finalllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy…

I’ve been wanting to resume blogging forever now..but sumhow I wasn’t getting around to do it..Blame it on lack of time, lack of ideas, forgetting my Id, forgetting my password or very simply state the fact..I was plain lazzzy to put all the /emotions/events/minframes I’ve been thru’ the last few months into a written form.
But today as I sit in the airport ..wondering wat to do with all the time I get in the airport/in air these days (coz I finished reading the book I was carrying with me and ya I get a minimum of ½ a day in the airport/plane per week) I decided it was the perfect time to choose to write..no disturbance..n nothing to do!!

Hmm… do I rewind n go back…well the last blog seems to be jus b4 my wedding..so I could say all that has happened over the last 8 mths (wow!!!! I’ve been married for 8 mths…seems like it wasjus yesterday that Vinod n I began our life together at times..n at times it seems like I’ve been married forever!) OR I could talk abt today..tomorrow and maybe yesterday…. Hmmm let me start with today..

Well..Div shld be on her flight..finally she is coming to the US too..ppl tease us abt being weird n lucky ppl..coz we get to be around each other most of the times..well Touchwood!...n cheers to our friendship wat else can I say!!
Mush was chatting wit me today…n he was feeling bad about all of us going away…n was getting nostalgic.I guess that alwez happens…Good Byes are so hard to say! I guess a plenty of changes started with my wedding..First I got married then Plumpy moved to Pune..n then I moved to Hyd for 2 mths..n then in Dec I came to the US , S got here Jan n now Div has also left Blr..so thers Guldu n Mush in Blr…well Guys…Blv me its not jus u missing us..we miss U too..(Ya Mush..i agree it mus be a li’l harder for u guys..coz we are all at a new place) But But… its impossible for true Bangaloreans to not miss Blr !!!
I feel it all really depends on the way one chooses to look at life… Gods been Gr8..Vinod coming to Hyd..was such a blessing..coz for those 2 mths we had a ball.. WE..meaning a lot of ppl.. Thnx to varun n S..it wasn’t hard to feel at home from the minute we landed..Mythilli was real friendly too..making outings sooo much more fun!The holiday with Guldu, Mush, Plumpy, Bidisha…well rocking time agn…Sumthing we din really think we wld end up doing! N of crse..cant frgt to mention Div’s visits..n endless tireless games of scrabble or the discovery of Suneesh’s xpertise in Bluff (hahaha..Don get me for tht S)
Back to Blr frm Hyd…I got to make a new frend in office..thnx to my joblessness n frustration abt when I cld travel to the US..n his frustration n wtg to leave the company!! We made an amazing companionship in terms of displaying the “I don care” attitude and cribbing endlessly..Jus got to spend a mth with him…but I knew I had a friend for a long time to come..Wasnt so easy to say bye to him too..n I know both of us were thinking we wish we knew each other earlier!I was so touched when the other day he said I was his li’l sister….really touched..Well Nevis…remain the same whacko insane self u are…coz it takes Crazzy ppl like u to keep the stability in this world!!
Hmm..US of A has been good to me..Its been lots of fun..Its jus 3 months since I got here.. n I have seen so many places already..I plan to blog abt each of the places I have visited soooon.Work is cool..I have got a new profile n it seems pretty interesting and challenging..
One way of looking at this entire scenario is to complain about how Vinod n I are not able to settle down or about how much of traveling I am having to do and how tiring it is… BUT BUT.. another way is to think of the lovely vacation we have been having at different places, about how I get to work in the US and not have to sit at home doing nothing, about how lucky I am to end up with a client close to home, about how I can travel back every weekend, about how Vinod n I wait for Thursdays with xcitement every week…Well perspective does matter! N of crse I do the cribbing at times.. But I prefer having the positive perspective majority of the times.
I remember having an ambition of wanting to travel abroad on work before getting married.But now I know im so glad I’m married to Vinod ‘coz bein all alone in a new country wher u have to start building relationships from scratch isn’t really like eating a candy..it can get bloody tough n lonely here..n Touchwood!..i dint have to go thru’ that. I got my job onsite and a wonderful person to share the rest of my journey in Life with at the same time
Of course I miss mom, dad, grandfolks, sums, darling Rishu…tons n tons…But I know they r so proud of me n so happy for me. That makes the difference! Without their well-wishes and support i cldn’t have made it as far as I have today in my professional life. I also miss the Blr carefree life of jus hangin out wit a bunch of frenz, losin our heads over which coffee shop to meet in, mavs, the stoooopid fights wit Vek for absolutely no reason, Pluto times, the sensible Pramod and certified nutcase Shihab ,eating food cooked by mom, silly arguments wit dad, working hard n partying harder..

Well…Life aint a bed of roses and one can’t xpect to have everything in life…U win some n u lose some..I’m jus happy to be where I am , Who I am and with whom I am

Back to Bloggin sincerely
Pavi