You know what I mean...

Yeah the bells rang, they rang hard enough, we thought! After 2 months, I mean after that luxurious trip to the land of Kiwis, reality started kicking in. Well you may relate it to any of those well played scenes by SRK and Rani from “Chalte Chalte” or to the comic strips of “Hum Tum” or you may find philosophical reasons to argue that men and women are from different planets, any ways, is it a thumb rule that men and women speak no same language? It is little dumb (with a B), I thought just to accept defeat that way. Communication, I believe in those esteemed universities is taught to stamp such trivia in its implementation.

“Well guess what? BITE MY…” said Sri frustrated, and he continued “Communication…ye? I told her 4 weeks back about this game!” letting his steam out and gulping his cup of Chai.

A telephone ring I thought could distract and calm him a little, but I guess Sri’s rambling was written in Richa’s horoscope for today. Smiling at her fortune, I answered the phone call and gleefully said “Hello, who is there?” My sad, mouse-trapped expression could be the only normal reaction to my own fortune.

It is Priya on the phone saying something I could not quite understand but I heard a series of questions in no particular order” Who thinks a stupid football game is more important than his wife? Who cares if he gives me a month’s notice? Does my health give me prior notice to fall sick?” She confirms that I was still there on the phone”hear this out…” I had to say with my entire fake-enthusiastic accent “what is it?” Not that my response mattered to Priya, she continued “he had the nerve to say, it is just a headache! just a headache!! Trust me Vamsee, these guys are pigs…” while I continued to hear out Priya, I couldn’t escape to hear what Sri was out pouring to Richa.

“Who needs a 24 hour beck ’n call service for just a head ache?” Without looking at Richa who buried her face by then in her hands showing least interest, Sri continued “She even had the guts to say that I am never attentive to her needs…If I am not, who else is?”

Richa looked back at Sri with a tiresome expression, hoping to be on the fine line between not being rude and not encouraging Sri to ramble more. Sri totally oblivious to such expressions continued “Can you imagine, Richa? All that I asked was few hours of Game time…is it so bad to ask?”

***
Why is it that when She wants to have a romantic candle light dinner, He wishes to have the TV on as well? Why is it that He has to wait in the car for hours while She gets her nails done? Well, this or many other versions of such arguments you have had or heard of, isn’t there a common dictionary/thesaurus that men and women share? Nah-huh! Not one of the below kinds ;-)

Skype user base reaching the sky...

Can you imagine 5 Million people in a single room?

Yes, that’s roughly the count of users who were online today on Skype :)




According to Jaanus on Share Skype, 5 million people is:

• more than 3 times the number of people in Estonia
• about 13 times the people living in Tallinn where we are building Skype
• about a third of greater London area
• a quarter of New York metropolitan area
• 1/260th the population of China

Staurt Henshal further explained what this means: “for those of you new to Skype, active online users represents the number of users currently logged into the Skype cloud and available to take a call or text message. Most probably use Skype at least some time during the day. It doesn't mean 5 million people are talking all at once. It does mean that more people are on Skype than live in many countries. It also means that Skype is larger than many national telephone companies. ", he said.

Congratulations and keep growing, SKYPE! btw, do you skype?

Considering the curiousity of BindasBay members here, following introduction about Skype is added:

"Skype - The whole world can talk for free!" - It is a peer-to-peer voice service. Users may call landlines and cellphones for a nominal fee; users may call each other for free. It’s free and easy to download and works from any part of the world. With all the globalization, Skype serves right with its easy-to-use features and amazing clarity of calls. Few friends of mine use Skype to call their families in India, Europe and USA, almost on a daily basis. Learn more about Skype on Skype :)

Know more about Skype:
1. Skype is ranked 3rd in a global brand survey. Read more: brandchannel.com
2. Check out Netgear to know more about their upcoming Skype WiFi phone.
3. Some pretty kool and funny Skype videos on Google.

Mar"rage" - is it?

Yeah yeah I am still alive, just sprinted through a deadline yesterday and I have to take the steam out now...No stop there, don’t start flipping already, I didn’t say you will be the scapegoat. So sit there and hear out the story.

Very short time ago, in fact just few hours ago, Ram sighed standing near the coffee machine, “We are anyways sacrificing so much…” Shyam, with a similar long face as Ram, continued “Yeah, what more do they want?” Time for a heroic entry and thus I walk into the room [heroine-ic doesn’t sound right]. Two confused souls turn to me as their last desperate hope [very exaggerated].

After gulping some hot chocolate, “hmm…my case was different guys!” I said. “How can it be different, you are after all from a typical south Indian family yourself?” Shyam enquired innocently. “Dude, I met her dad, he belongs to 30th century” Ram answered for me. ”I wish my parents could atleast understand half as your dad” Ram continued with a sigh again. That’s it! the world turned topsy turvy and anger is all what Shyam could blurt out and a series of loosely connected thoughts are what we could hear thereafter.

“We work for 14 hours a day, and damn these suckers call us to work on weekends too!” “Why? Coz we are single… So what, if we are single, don’t we have lives!?” taking a breather, he continued “Even if these suckers let us have a weekend, our parents will suck our blood out with endless calls about 20+girls that they checked out for us...”

…Ram continued the remaining script “Now if we show interest, they‘d say “Are we dead that you have to look for yourself” common Vamsee, today they hit the roof telling me “What’s there for you to look at the girl, when we checked her out”…I am losing my heart from this marriage stuff…I just feel like getting it over with!”

I had no answer for Ram, except “hmm, don’t lose heart so easily Ram, you probably are not alone!” A little hug helped him, he said later in a quick offline, but the thought of how parents take this arranged marriage concept to the extremes and how kids get suffocated just being told ‘what-who-how’s of marriage stayed with me for the rest of the day.

This trend of how parents take it as their "responsibility" to find the grooms/brides for their offsprings, without realizing that their offsprings are old enough to generate a village full of offsprings has become a trend in the name of tradition.

Noooo, I am not taking sides here but when is it that our parents will realize that we are grown enough to at least sit with them and discuss about our needs and preferences in selecting our partners with out actually taking hypocrisy rides.

For all you protesters out there, take it easy for a minute, Once again I am neither against Indian parenthood nor Indian system of arranged marriages. All I am asking is for a tweek in the system, to allow the grooms and the brides to also be actually a part of the system. All I am asking is to make our traditional, colorful Indian marriages more of a union of souls, a Marriage than just another event of mad-rage!

PS: if you want to pull that times-are-changing card, I'd say think twice as the number of such strictly arranged marriages is almost proportional to the growing population of India. My dad who allowed me to chip in my preferences in the groom selection (only 'chip' ) is in reality considered as a person way ahead of his times. So, the times I guess havenot soooo changed yet, atleast not for our folks!

Tears of Joy!

I feel it’s been ages I wrote here, had been busy at work...and you all who know me, stop giggling there, ya ya I was just lazy!! Don’t blame me, blame the weather in the bay…Its cold (we actually needed a sweater to go out, can you beat that?), cozy, foggy and very…hmm hu me ain’t a poet to paint rosy images for ya…So while you poets ponder to set the mood, the first thing that our gang thought was Garam Chai and some munchies…even God approved our thought with more heavy thunders and then a idea flashed upon the smartest in the room. Sri, in his prophet-ic tone said “How about some Mirchi Bajji?” The very idea watering our mouths, rest of the evening was well spent with Garma Garam pyaz(onion) Pokoras, Mirchi and Aloo(potato) Bajjis, and of course what are these without the Chai, ye…;)
Yes,Yes, we kept saying the same too: “Kuch bhi ho, Joh Chaat/ Bajji humne India ke road-oh pe khaayi…”:) [Nothing is as good as the snacks from the stands on Indian streets]

Now, for all you poor souls drooling over your keyboards, Sri suggested I tease you with the pics of all the street side snacks we recalled today. If you think of any other snacks, drop us all a line at Bindas Bay.

Btw, for the bay area-ians who want to relive the experience of street side pani puris and chaat, go visit Daana Bazaar in Fremont for mouth watering thikka gol gappas and savory Aloo tikkis! :) I swear you will shed tears...tears I say of Joy :)

Connecting the dots...

• Heard/read/made too many resolutions for new years – How many of them really make a “difference” in the big world picture?
• We all dream of many colorful things everyday but what if there is only one color you could actually see?
• A small mishap can make a life of a difference
• Consistent yet determined steps can cover a globe’s distance
• Human mind is evolutionary

Without much delay, I will connect the above dots with the first idea submitted to BindasBay. I received a request today to post an article about Louis Braille. I read through articles that MS sent and the above are some of my thoughts.

I salute to many of those Brailles’ who turned their disabilities into their strengths and made a mark for themselves forever. Here are some links to read more about Braille…

Wiki's take on Louis - Louis Braille on wikipedia

The Story of Louis Braille - A small story about Louis Braille and the history of 'Braille'

Out of Darkness - A book on Braille

Thanks to MS for submitting such a good idea for our Bindas Bay! :-)