The world I live in

3 tiny bites at max rating.   Now I’m trying to get the taste of it out of my mouth. Please don’t ever try the RIchBite Nutrition Bar. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!    

Nokia E72 is a nice toy to fill in all those hours when I don’t know what to do with myself. Especially when the power’s gone, all the world’s asleep and I’ve woken up again for the umpteenth time. Thanks to BV telling me about a few apps. Apps downloaded till date are KJV Go Bible, Google, Fring, NGPay, ICICI Bank, Google Maps, Ovi Mail and latest one being Sports Tracker.   -           KJV Go Bible is neat enough. I wish there was something like this for books in general. -           Google helps even with voice. Tested it a few times. Get a kick out of seeing the phone show a circular ring to show it’s processing my voice :) -           Fring – well! If you see me online late night on messenger, know that I’m in bed and chatting. -           NGPay ...

I have to write this down else I’m going to forget I ever wanted it :)   -           Books – plenty of them and mostly fiction though I’m not averse to non-fiction. Seen them on Barnes and Noble and then again on Flipkart and Landmarkonthenet and so many other online stores. I think I’ll have to create a ‘Buy Books’ fund. Besides the Eragon series, Twilight seems like a probable next in line to buy. Percy Jackson or Percy something too. It’s Complicated looks like an interesting read. -           Talking about funds, travel fund has been on the list for a long time. But nothing’s come of it yet. A fund to save up and spend on a lonesome ownsome vacation once a year. A trip to Jaipur, Nepal, Himalayas, Leh, Mauritius, Australia, Miami (just for the beach), Scotland, and so many more. -         ...

Echoing Garfield when I say this ‘I HATE MONDAYS!’. Though at work everyday seems like a Monday.   The weekend has not gone off well. The AI crash at Mangalore airport on Saturday morning was a shocker. It’s difficult not to think about it. Thankful for the uninterrupted television viewing on Sunday evening. Watched ‘Twilight’. Heard about the book series. Got to buy the set for myself now. Waiting for Shrutgal too so that I can buy that and Brisingr to complete my Eragon collection. Current read is Paths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer.   A week now till school re-opens. Still haven’t got Joel’s new uniform in place. Leah still has time till next June. Heard about ABACUS which is supposed to make 0-4 year kids geniuses. I wonder how they manage to do that. Really weird. And what would Mangalore do with so many wonder kids.

Totapuris and green apples.   The slight drawback - I can never enjoy the whole fruit. Leah always needs a share too. :)

Been in a state of limbo for quite some time now. Didn’t know whether I was going or coming. Couldn’t decide about a few situations and things. I’m not sure if I’m out of it yet, but I hope there’s better days ahead. Been cleaning up my web presence on social networking sites. Those I would like to stay in touch with feature on those sites now. If I can’t, then out they go without a thought. No regrets there since I know where I’ll be able to find them if I ever need them :). Effects of this are seen at my workplace too. My communicator list has zero contacts on it. Slowly edging towards removing the extras from my workplace too. By this month end, library should have a new look (big time hope provided I don’t get lazy about it).   Joel, Leah, Wanted to tell you 2 things today. Someday when you read this I hope it makes sense.   If ever you two wonder whether you were adopted. The answer is no :). I used to wonder abo...

Got this pic today from Deep. Remembered her wedding reception in Mumbai and the reception here in Mangalore once again. Miss you Deep. Have a real good solid married life together with Lovy :) From L to R: Veena Bhat, Anuja, Sachin, Lovy, Deep, Thanuja & Stuti, Leah and Joel with me, Nitish (at the back) and Jeethy

This year's Petit Infoscion theme was the Jungle. After thinking about umpteen things for Leah's costume, finally decided to make her look like the cute Jungle Babe. Here she is :)

Ideals icecreams are famous in Mangalore and then they became famous world over. Thanks to the Mangalorean word of mouth. @ Work: 2 days of continuous stock checking and adding certification manuals to the library system has got me feeling like a brainless idiot. Tried keeping the local FM stations on just to get me going through the day. Hope to have some music playing when I can here. Heard that Lourdes is charging 25k this year as donation for KG - 1. That’s quite a shocker for me since I paid 10k lesser for Joel’s admissions. Pantry discussions included fees and donations during the good old days to what it would be like for the current set and next set of kids. Talking about hikes, milk prices increased by Rs. 3 a packet. I dread what that’s going to do to all the those lovely pastries and ice creams I enjoy every other day. I don’t take milk in any other form. :( 2 days ago, I could have had a fracture while riding to work and I could have lost my eye while heating some food at h...

@ Work: I’ve planned my work for 3 days to just do 3 things Complete evaluation of the test that was conducted on Nov 29 th along with posting of result to schools Add all those attractive books and journals sitting on my desk and in the cupboards to the library system. Publish them to the junta at office Get to up to speed with the new training and learning enabler system and stop cribbing about it being on SAP With no pals to hang around with, I’m becoming a workaholic. Thankfully gtalk is not yet blocked on the network. A virtual social life is better than none. @ Home: - Thethu still has exams going on. Waiting for her to finish and then do something useful with herself. It’ll help keep her temper and tongue in check :) - Leah’s learnt to scream that high pitched scream. I’m thankful I’m not at home when she gets into her screaming fits - Joel finally got his school identity card. It looks real neat. Sigh! My baby boy’s looking so grown up with that t...

It’s funny how you expect things to happen and they never do. And when you don’t expect anything, they just don’t either!   On the work front, -           D has left work spot. A is on leave and her transfer to Chennai seems definite. J will be back on Jan 11 th . -           In the meanwhile, Ap – new lady – joined this Mon. P joins next week. Lots of KT to be given. Once that’s done, dump the entire load of dept admin work on them. Will concentrate on library only. Got to figure out a way for them to give a status report by eod or eow. -           Travelling between 2 offices has come to adjustable halt. This week I travel just for tomorrow. Very happy about that. Fridays in the new office is a pretty good mood boost. -           Glad that I won’t ...

Home is where the heart is. I’ve no home :(

Been thinking. I’m not sure when I began the thinking part. Just that thinking is a process that was and still is till date a major part of what I do every single day for the past few months. The thoughts came. The thoughts stayed. They shook me up. A lot.   Why? Becoz in the end, just 3 words came up real huge: Cheat, Dishonest, Liar. Am I talking about me? Yes and No.   Why Yes? Although I don’t like to be called or identified as any those 3 unpleasant words, I know that I have been that at some time or another.   Why No? How honest are you? Haven’t you cheated at least once? And no lies till date?

There’s much going on. And I’m too tied up with things at work and home to take a break and write a post. I don’t like breaks in a blog. And mine’s got plenty showing up more frequent than not.   @ Work: -           J goes on Mat leave by end of Sep. Already started taking care of few of her activities. Doesn’t help when appraisals are close and so are the certification deadlines. -           Just 2 more things to wrap up on library front. And then it’s a little bit of peace. I hope to complete them all before the coming weekend arrives. -           D is back from her leave. Worried about her more often than not. I pray that she has the strength to face each day with the same calm that she shows externally. She’s too nice a person to have suffered and gone through so much. -    ...

And I hope to be back more often than not. The joelamrit blog has ceased. What remains is this one. And this one’s going to be filled with Joel, Leah, work, non-work, personal, spiritual and don’t know what else kind of posts :)   Feels good to write freely as the thought flows. Well! in my head the thoughts don’t have many backspace or delete buttons being hit.   Cursor blinks here…   Time to get on with work. Shall post in later   I love this space :)

Trying to blog after a very long time. Hope this works.

Thanks to the rating process I've now found as much as I tried to live my life without God it just ain't possible to do so. Rediscovering that I do still believe in Him. Rating process first discussion happened this morning. It was bland since there was no answer to the question about on what count was I given the lowest rating. So discussion has been deferred to coming Monday. Didn't go for my swimming classes today. Got a poky pain in my neck and left shoulder. I've just taken it easy and haven't done much at all. Planning to go pick up a sandwich on my way home. Leah is full of 'ghee gees' and smiles today. Can't sulk much when she's around. And my sense of humor's coming back too. Mmmmuah Leah! :)

It's 3 days since I learnt that I've been rated as below average by my dear boss. It's a nasty shock. Would love to say more here about how I feel and what I think of the boss man. But not going to do so. Instead I'm going to concentrate on the good that's been happening in my life. It's 10 days since I've started learning how to swim. Today's got me so exhausted that I could barely move my feet. With a little rest and Leah's entertainment, felt good enough to get dressed and come to My Favorite CyberCafe to check on mails and of course post this. At 3:05 pm today, Leah finally was able to turn on to her tummy without anyone's help. I guess all the coaching and encouragement from Kala and Dad helped her. Now that she knows that she can turn, she keeps trying to do so whenever she's awake. No more placing her alone on beds anymore.

Well I'm not a water babe. I love the water but haven't learnt to swim till I signed up for the swimming classes last week. Since then I've learnt to bubble when under water, hold my breath and become a mushroom (weird thing to call the posture), float on water with head in water and now trying to learn to propel myself forward using my hands and feet. Coach Vidya also is trying to get us get over our fear for deep waters by making us straight jump into 10 feet water and come up by cycling (I call it kicking because I do seem to kick more than cycle) and try to stay afloat. Fear of water is slowly going away. I guess I'll be really happy when I've actually learnt to swim without breaks and increased stamina considerably to become an amateur swimmer. In the meantime, if I lose inches waist below and lose all those extra kgs I've accumulated over a period of 5 years, all the better. Noticed that I sleep better now. Don't mind the tan. Got a cream to take care ...

Been busy at home. It's school for Joel, groceries, provisions, bills to be paid...etc.etc on most weekdays. Rest of the time I don't know what to do with myself. Hence become a member at a local library. Came across a writer who studied in Mangalore and is nuts when it comes to writing. Reading his book 'The Revised Kama Sutra'. Check out his blog ( http://richardcrasta.blogspot.com/ ) when possible. Have already told the library to get complete sequels of fantasy fiction books. Can you believe they have part 2 of a book and not 1 and 3 in a triology? That gets me real mad. They haven't even purchased Brisingr (3rd books Christopher Paolini's dragon story). Trying to gather my courage and finally join up swimming classes at the local pool here. Don't know where I'm going to find a swim suit that's going to fit me. Most of the time I've seen suit sizes about 10 times smaller than I am. Sheesh! I didn't know skinny was in again! V day went on ...