American Desi Pie

Guyz, before you really think that i have changed my profession from a S/W Engg to a Chef ... lemme clear thins. Today I am goin to speak about Indian employees goin abroad on an official trip, maybe say for a Project. Thanks to the generous givin away of H1-Bs these dayz and the visa processin being made so easy. So are you also one among these so called American bug bitten ones???
I recently had a colleague of mine come from the US of A. He was there on a short-term Project. I was quite taken aback by the change in his attitude ... the so called ' The US returned' attitude. This does happen with most of the professionals visitin America or any part of the world for the first time. So in this post I thought of jotting down some of these symptoms displayed by these so called ... hmmm ... lets call them ' American Desi Pie' ..... so the next time u tend to smell such symptoms in air.... watchout guyz !!! u r sure to be sittin or sharing ur room with one such American Desi Pie ....


Symptom 1 : U get to hear a loud and a crisp 'Hey XXX!! Whtz Up Dude??' (trying his best to speak in an American accent) instead of the normal subtle ' Hi XXX!! How are you??.

Symptom 2 : He becomes the most talked about team member .... ' Arre yaar!!! uski tho kismat khul gayi .... ' (tis guy was hardly noticed before or even spoke about).

Symptom 3 : U get to hear lots of " U know wht ...... it doesn't happen like tis there .... its only here we get to see/hear all this kinna rubbish ..... disgustin man!!!!!"

Symptom 4 : The usual formally dressed guy now appears in a Tommy Hilfiger Tee, Levis Jean and an expensive Reebok shoe.

Symptom 5 : U smell Davidoff's Cool Water instead of the usual pathetic smellin bodyspary.

Symptom 6 : Sight of headphones of the iPod in the poor ears throughout the day with also the poor head moving to and fro.

Symptom 7 : Lunch date with Female colleagues (who was even scared of speakin to them before and now .....).

Symptom 8 : U see Chopsticks and an empty ready to eat noodles box and not to forget .... empty Pizza boxes in the dustbin.

Symptom 9 : Fav hangout place would now include the biggest mall in the town and fav eat-out which used to be the Chat Chowpati would now be Subway and McDonald's.

Symptom 10 : The seat is graced by his presence once in 1/2 hr.

Symptom 11 : And finally ..... " Gosh!!! the climate is awful here ... how do u guys manage to stay in such kinna climate?? " (as if he was born and brought up at Antartica).....

Guess u all had fun reading the above post ..... these are some of the most commonly found symptoms I hav come across till date. Do lemme know if there are anyother symptoms other thn the above stated ones that u hav come across in particular .... :))

Are we still under 'Identity Crisis'??

Brenda Barnes, Andrea Jung, Marion Sandler and ofcoz Carly Fiorina and back home Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chanda Kocchar, Lalita D Gupte, Naina Lal Kidwai, Sulajja Firodia Motwani and not to forget our own Sudha Narayanmurthy. These are some of the names that we come across almost everyday.

The reason behind me mentioning the names of the Women CEOs around the world is something that we all need to think about .....
Do women still think that they are admist an 'Identity Crisis'??? Perhaps to this question I would get an answer which would be a strong 'NO' as well as a strong 'YES'. In person I would rather go with 'No as well as an Yes'. Let me tell you why ......

'No' because its simple ..... the names listed down ...... would explain it all ...... Women these dayz have moved far from jus what their place was considered till a few decades ago ..... 'The Kitchen'. Women have reached new heights right from managing a Company to landing on a Space-craft. A revolution has been made from wht was called ' A Man's World' to ' Our World'. A new meaning to womenhood has been discovered which I guess was never brought up or even thought about.

Now ... to the contradictory part ... 'Yes' ..... we first got to accept tht every coin has two sides. We just cannot stick to the notion that women have reached new heights, there still are women/gals who have been deprived of the basic right of being Educated, and this is mainly in the Under-Developed countries or the Developing countries. Lets take the example of our own country 'INDIA'. Women are being competent with men in almost all the fields. We see 'n' number of women working in different fields and in different time-zones, handling diffrent responsibilties and on the contrary you also find gals who get married at the age of 10. What would the future of such gals be?

We still see many well-educated women sitting at home taking care of the family and being content with the life within the 4 walls. Again there are well educated women who are forced to stay back at home to look after the family. Don you think such people are prone to really fall under what is called the 'Identity Crisis'?

All these can be answered only by time .........

A salute to 'WOMANHOOD' .........

Blogging ....... all the way!!!!!!!!

I recently came across an article in the TOI, wherein an employee of Google was promoting the advantages of blogging to a passer-by. It was a good article .... worth readin.

I feel blogging is the best way to express your thoughts, share your ideas about anythin ..... and its the new trend among all the tech-savvy ppl like me ;) ......

So I would suggest everyone to create their own blogs and start blogging ....

Way to go Google and 3 cheers to such free blogging sites ......!!!!!!!!

The "Much Awaited" Screening Test ..........

Hailing from a typical Hindu family, one of the most hilarious incident's that we actually come across is the "Bride/Groom Selection Process" and thus thought of penning down the same.... so enjoy ur ride ....... !!!!!!!

After a string of phone calls and adequate matching of horoscopes and lot of consultations with the astrologers regarding the match, the D-Day finally arrives when the guy and the girl meet formally and what i call as "The Screening Test". A typical such meet would have the room filled with at least 4 elders from either side, the grooms younger brother, brides elder sister and a few other people whose presence at that moment is thoroughly unwanted, undesired and yet mysteriously inevitable. More often the conversation would run something on these lines:

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The "Groom" arrives escorted by his courtiers.

Bride’s dad is trying to find the Groom among the courtiers .....

The groom is already having a tough time sitting among the crowd unlike his privacy in his cubicle. And of late he realizes he doesn’t even know half the people he has arrived with.

The Bride's father not knowin as to from where does he have to start the conversation, begins like tis ........

" Ah! It’s getting so hot/cold/damp/dark/sunny these days. This city is not what it used to be 15 years ago".

And the conversation takes new diversions right from maintaining roads to Politics.

The bride’s mother enters with the refreshment. She motions the elder sister to serve and the Groom is still panting for breath among the crowd.

And now its time for the Bride to enter and suddenly everybody's eyes are on this poor gal who is havin a tough time managing herself in the 6 yard cloth. She suddenly feels like an exhibit thts bein inaugurated midst a curious audience.

She is asked to sit among the curious lookin audience.

The Bride's father now speaks to the Groom about the Company inwhich he works for and appreciates him for bein a part of tht Organization. The Gal feels all the more demotivated ... " As if I am not into a good organization and this piece of nerd is tryin to impress evryone here".

And the Groom says "Yes"
The Girl's parents then ask the Boy to ask the Girl anythin.

And the next inmmediate thin tht he can think of would be " A Date".

The Boy would then ask her about her college riding high on his IIT credentials.

After such highly irrelevant questions, there is suddenly a lull all over again.

The Divine Messengers from the groom side"so is the month of August suitable for you to arrange for the wedding sir? "

The Bride and Groom are still confused as to when did they agree to get married.....


But the Groom's parents propose a later date for the proceedings.

And finally "THE END " of the Screening Test ......

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Is it that we Indians are still in the closet of Arranged marriages where it says " I know what is better for you!!!!!"????

And the question remains unanswered .................

A few lines from my fav song ......

Here are a few lines from my Fav song "Nerruu Illaatha maarum " , Film: Pudhiya Mugham, Music Director: A.R. Rahman, Lyrics: Vairamuthu. These are my fav lines ....

கடவுள் இல்லை என்றேன் , தாயை காநும் வரை
கனவு இல்லை என்றேன் , ஆஸை தோன்றும் வரை
காதல் பொஇ என்று ஸோன்னேன் உன்னை காநும் வரை

For those who cannot read tamil:

kadavuL illai enREn , thaayai kaaNum varai
kanavu illai enREn , aasai thOnRum varai
kaadhal poi enRu sOnnEn unnai kaaNum varai

தமிழில் முதல் முயர்சி

தமிழில் முதல் பொஸ்ட். என்னகு ரொம்ப ஸன்டொஷமா இர்ருகு. ஈதுதான் யென் முதல் முயர்சி. I guess its gettin a bit too much now .. coz I donot really know as to wht do i write further ... :)) ..... என்னகு ரொம்ப பிடிச Music Directors இல்லயராஜா, எ.ஆற். றெஹமான்.

I guess you all mus be gettin bugged now .... so end of it ..... have a nice day .... வனக்கம்

Murphy's Laws revisited

I suppose this is somethin which everyone of us come across in our daily lives. So, thought of publishing my own share of experiences with these laws.

I start for office at around 9 AM everyday coz i need to report sharp at 10 AM and it easily takes me an hour or more to reach office. Couple of dayz back when i started off early to office thinkin I would get late coz of the heavy traffic jam ..... to my surprise there was no Traffic jam and i reached office about half-an hour earlier thn my usual time. And again there was a day, which was supposed to be a public holiday, I started off a bit late thinkin i would reach too early. To my surprise I got caught in a heavy traffic-jam, it was worse thn the normal dayz and I reached half-an hour late.

I have experienced this very common law: The queue in which ur standin would move slowly when compared to the other queues and when u try to jump to the other queue, ur previous queue starts moving ahead of the present one. Tooo funny :))

There are again times when u come across people whom u really donot want to meet that particular day, :)). I mean times when ur Gal is with u and ur mom gets to see u both holdin hands and in a very cozy position .... gosh ...... end of the Kahani!!!!!!!!!

Finally its a weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I suppose the only thin that a S/W Engr most eagerly looks forward, is the weekend. I am not sure about others but I eagerly look frwd for a weekend to come. I get to spend some time at home, cleaning chores as usual.

This weekend I am plannin to watch a movie .... and I have no clue as to which movie would it be. Its been almost 2 months now that I watched a movie ...

My last movie was Salaam-E-Ishq, and trust me it was the most idiotic movie I have ever watched till date.

I would rate it -1.5/5 .

Latin affinity ......

Of late I have developed a new interest in Latin American music and dance. Jus a few weeks back I got the opportunity to watch this movie which characterizes the male protagonist as an ardent Salsa/Mambo dancer(Havana Nights).

Salsa music is a fusion of traditional African and Cuban and other Latin-American rhythms that traveled from the islands (Cuba and Puerto Rico) to New York during the migration, somewhere between the 1940s and the 1970s, depending on where one puts the boundary between "real" salsa and its predecessors. There is debate as to whether the dance we call Salsa today originated in Cuba or Puerto Rico. Salsa is one of the main dances in both Cuba and Puerto Rico and is known world-wide.

The basic movement occurring in the dance patterns of the various salsa styles is the stepping on the beat of the music. Salsa is best grouped in pairs of 4-beat patterns counted "1-2-3-...-5-6-7-...". The leader starts on count 1 by stepping with the left foot. On count 2 and 3, they step with right and left, respectively. On count 4, the lead pauses or makes an optional tap with the right foot. On counts 5, 6, and 7, they step with right, left, and right, respectively, again followed by a pause on count 8. The follower part is identical, but shifted by 4 beats, so that as the leader's left foot steps forward, the follower's right foot steps back. In most styles, the leader starts with the left foot and the follower starts with the right foot regardless of the pattern about to be danced.

There are various Salsa styles. Cuban Style, Los Angeles Style, New York Style are a few to name (Salsa)

About me ..........

I am a very jolly-go type and love to have fun. I was a very quite gal in my school dayz but thins turned 180 degrees as soon as I reached college. I was a complete prankster in my college dayz... I had loads of fun at college .... I still miss those dayz :( . I wish I could go back to college .... :), but I believe in the fact that life moves on ..... I still cherish those dayz of fun when we were made to miss our first session if we were late. Our fav hangout place was our college canteen, where we had lived our lives through all the ups and downs.

Nywayz ..... now back to "About me ........", I have done my schoolin in various parts of the country, so I tend to learn the local language quite easily .... one of my fav schools being St. Pauls English School at B'lore.

My hobbies include:
I am a complete music freak .... I lov music irrespective of its origin or source. For me music is somethin which conveys a lott without actually tellin anythin, somethin which amalgamates your body and soul.
I am also a die-hard SRK fan .... I nev miss watchin any of his movies ...... a very common phenomenon among gals.
I am also an ardent Cricket fan though its getting a lil difficult to follow-up these dayz coz of my work schedule.
And last but not the least, I love reading Fiction novels ...... my fav's being Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, Robin Cook, Frederick Forsyth, and many more .......

My Fav Color:
I donot really have any one particular color to mention as my fav, coz I lov all the colors tht nature has ...... by and large I would probably go with "Blue"

A New Journey ........

This is my first ever experience of creating my own blog and posting a message. I feel excited ..... :).

To begin with .... Hi, I am Vinithra Radhakrishnan and I am a software engineer with a company in Hyderabad.

My job and workplace are goin gr8 guns. Let me tell u somethin about myself in the next post ....