Wild Flowers

This is no way of saying I am back, but then thought (I do think contrary to what some people think..but then again it hurts when I use my brain..hmm..they might have a point) I would have photo blogs instead of writing posts. I recently took this picture of some of the wild flowers that Vandana and Megha talked about in their blogs. This is a picture taken very close to my work place in Dallas with my Canon A85. I donot want to readers feel they wasted their time dropping by my blog. You might find more such photo blogs till I start writing again.

Break Time!

I feel its time for a break. Break from writing or reading blogs. My blog ain't that popular anyway:). Jokes apart I feel its taking a considerable amount of my time right now and I feel the need for a break(A tax due to IRS didnot help either). It has become a routine writing posts, reading other blogs and browsing some others and before I feel monotonous and loose interest, I feel a break would be a welcome relief.

Blogging has become too important thing to loose interest or feel constrained, but I feel some time away from it would be a better option and would also help get back enough enthusiasm and interest to blog again for a long time. I guess everyone needs a vacation. I am not sure when I will be writing again, but it could be very soon, probably tomorrow or may be next week or next month. I just need to know how much I miss it. Or may be its just a ploy to get some comments and hits on my blog as I might have run out of ideas to blog. You never know. But comments from you definitely helps in getting back at it fatser.(I guess you saw that coming!!).

"Run" for life !!

I have recently started "conditioning" my body for making the 10mile broad street run in Philly on May 1st ,the same weekend a friend of mine living there is getting married and hence used the brilliant logic of hitting 2 birds in one shot funda. Years of lethargy and non-existent stamina and warming up my couch is not making the practice any easier. I think my astrological stars were in retrograde when I made that decision. Dang!!!... how did I miss my daily astrology.com predictions on that day.

Anyway looking for some inspiring company I hooked up with this colleague, Phil, who also happens to be a trainer much earlier in his career. The first time I ran was the day I wished I had rather me run over by the passing truck or at least have my colleague got run over so that in both cases I could stop. Unfortunately nothing of that sort happened and I had to come with different strategies to deal with the situation. He was very persistent, and would send me mails about how I did on the previous day and some graphs about the number of breaks I took which were more than the number of total steps in the run.

So the next time he would call or email for scheduling a run, I was prepared with excuses...err!! I meant respnses.

" My cat died today..can't make it"
" My cat ate my car keys before dying, oh! yeah! that’s why it died , cant make it"
" There is a new starbucks coffee house now on the place where I buried my cat. Would you join for coffee instead"

After I ran out of excuses I had no other choice but run (frankly it was hard on my brain thinking about excuses than the run itself). I panted, puffed, screamed and that was easily the worst pain I had ever put my body through. Phil , noticing this, would ease me up with some humor. He would take a dig saying " Hey, what's with you. I told you to quit smoking and stop beating your girl friend..else it would be hard". I would try to match his wits " I did, I did quit both. But she hasn't!! " :)

While I would bask in the glory of my humor , the talk would divert my attention from the pain of making that extra mile. Nice strategy. Phil persistence paid as I now can run 6miles straight. There are 3 weeks to go and I am already trying to have a back up plan of cutting short the run from 10 to 6miles by looking up the map of Philly and finding shortcuts to the finish line. You never know my girl friend might switch to Cigars and a leather belt:)

New and Happy Beginnings!

Ugadi Shubhakankshalu, Happy Gudipadava to everyone. I wish the New Year brings new and fresh beginnings, multifold happiness, health and prosperity in your lives.

This mango tree is from the backyard of my house in Vijayawada where I had spent some of the best years of my childhood. I happened to visit this place after a gap of 10 years in my last India trip in Dec'04 , even though we own the place, we don't live there anymore.

This tree holds fantastic memories. I remember climbing up on the branches and picking up mangoes , using the leaves as thoranam's(decoratives on the doors) and playing under it.I can never forget those sweet memories, the sleep-overs on the roof tops listening to "chaya geet" , and the gentle winds and of course the summers are the best back home. I miss them so much , but I am so glad and fortunate that I have those memories for life to cherish. This tree still gives around 3000 mangoes every summer and also the source for the pickles made in every household of that street.

Anyway that takes up the year quota of senti stuff I can come up with.To each one of you who read and put up with my blog and write comments and those who accidentally ends up here even though for a second before running away,I would like to take this opportunity and say THREE heartfelt words..."Thank you":) (Source is a fellow Texan and also happens to be the current President of USA)

Middle Finger and Hypocrisies!

Few months back I had the indignity of being told by one of my colleagues that I could offend people for using the middle finger while pointing stuff. It just happened I was showing this guy something on the computer screen with a pointed middle finger(not all fingers were folded inwards) though unintentionally, as I was completely unaware of what I was doing till he pointed out. Then I started noticing that I compulsively use the same M finger for lot of other stuff like pressing the elevator button or setting the microwave timings or operating any touch screen and many others.

Okie here's my rant, I am quite livid with people here in USA taking offense for it , specially keeping in mind their continuous stress on promoting the easiest possible options in every possible walk of daily life. There is perfectly valid explanation for my rant. If you notice that your middle finger is longest of all the fingers and the first one to reach/point out to any object if you open your palm thus making it practically illogical to use index finger for all the functions mentioned above. Moreover if you notice you have to do more work of folding your other fingers and reaching out more while you use the Index finger which goes against the very "fabric" this nation is built on, the fabric that couch potatoes warm up to in every household:)

Its upto you to interpret the above as a valid point or its just the way I show or tell myself about my subconsious grudge for this monotonous life in general or its just I still continue being a Lukha(a word stole from Megha's blog) from the time of my previous posts.

Messing with your Mind - Part Deux

Now that I have successfully messed up your minds in one of my earlier posts, its time I take it up a notch, thanks to my Manager for providing this info.

How Smart is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.
......And there's nothing you can do about it!

Now give a break to your legs...Will ya!! No.. you can't have some one else do the 6 and you do the leg thingy.