Masaledar Poha

Saturday i trued to cook a new dish called Maseladar poha. I followed all the steps and it looked like what the site was showing in picture. But frankly speaking it was Poha Upama, as called by my roomies. It was good in taste but it was not like poha i used to eat. I got a new recipe by default i guess. Next time i will try the dish that mom used to cook in poha. I have been trying to do all experiments to get some new recipe and have been successful but yesterday's one was really funny and i enjoyed it a lot. May be it is time for some dishes which has less oil and fat value and more healthier. This week it is going to be healthy food week.

I think in India you have so many food options, nobody gets faded up with food. But in US, you do not have the variety. US people that's why i guess loves cuisines of different countries. That is for variety, which is good as you get to taste food of whole world in a place. But as the chains are growing in US, all places have same taste. In Minneapolis, we have got a street called eat street which consists of 20 blocks and you can find cuisines from all parts of world, which is amazing. I miss that in Seattle.But in India each dish tastes differently in different places. India is also embracing the culture of US food chains, which is boring. I always loved the variety of food options available in India. I think Indian people have highest variety of dishes due to variety of culture and which is awesome. Now it is time for me to start my experiment for a different recipe. Till them friends keep on enjoying your food.

What the value the centuries hold for Indian tigers

what a crap as told bu a guy. I think the ton by Sachin and Ganguly is more satisfying factor for them compared to the crowd and team needs. May be people wanted them to stay and score some brisk runs instead of giving their wickets like chocolates. People in India should stop giving more importance to cricket so that India can improve in more games. Cricket has become quite boring. Only watching the Australians are fun who has raised the bar of the game. Other teams are crap. Bangladesh is doing good by getting six wickets of India. Nobody is interested in the old horses who has lost the faith of people. People want to see some spirited performance for them. Go after Bangladesh the Australian way. Tear them apart and knock some records. Then people will say that the old Indian tiger is roaring. I think till that happens,which i doubt may take some years to come, we can enjoy our life with out cricket. God help Indian team...........

Night brings the darkness inside me

Since i was child i always hated night. I do not know what happens to me in nights. May be i become deadly animal in night. When i was a kid, i used to wait eagerly for the day to come. May be i feel insecure in night. That brings the devil inside me. It had became a habit to think about all nonsense stuff and dirty tricks in night till i get a good sleep. Again woke up fresh for a new day to fight. I have been trying hard to go to sleep as soon as i hit bed. But they are of no use. I know one thing, if i can sleep peacefully may be the devil will go away. May be couple of times only in my life i was so tired, that i slept as soon as i hit bed. Else always i had to wait for half an hour and hour to get that snoring sleep. My cousin always tells me stories and what stuffs i need to do get a good sleep. I have never tried them. The problem is with my thinking and approach towards life i guess. It may take sometime to get away with that devil. May be i can try to avoid the afraid of darkness and try to make my nights more enjoyable to sleep. It has been a long time to have a good night sleep.Weekends are very boring nights and as i keep on watching movies to get a sleep which is of all vain. May be i missing those days in India, when i used to sleep like a dead man. But nothing to worry. As the sunrise will bring joy to the dark days of my life and make me a much happier person. As told by all whom i know that i always get more than what i wanted but never satisfied and striving for more and never ever stop laughing, it is time to enjoy the nights also. May be the time has come to enjoy the life. Hoping to get a good sleep today...........Have a good night friends.........................

Rainy Season Boring

Again the rain strikes Seattle. This week end has been a boring game. I had planned to go to Kayaking and Bowling games on Saturday. But the strong wind on Saturday blew away the chance for Kayaking. After that Nitin went for shooting blowing away the chance for Bowling game. SO for killing time me and Sandeep decided to go to grocery store for shopping. Boy that was a great mistake. Although we did not shop much but the cool window and what ever the weight of shopping stuff was a good exercise. After that we played TT for 90 minutes. As we could not found a court to play tennis, we settled for table tennis. I am improving in that game. I used to see Santosh play with his friends, this game. He used to play awesome. I have to learn hard to reach that level. After that we watched Lage Raho Munna Bhai, a gem movie for comedy. So most of the time was indoor. Saturday was done and whole Sunday the rain keeps pouring.

But Sunday was important in another fact. A friend called Manoj, who recently joined CSC. He told an interesting fact. He said he is getting everything, money,car etc but he is not happy. I was not amazed by his answer. I have heard this story in US several times. People here have got everything but still happiness keeps them away. Though people in India are poor compared to US but i think they have got much self satisfaction and happiness much better then their counter part. Money can not buy happiness that is true. It can give you sometime to enjoy which is short term. Even i sometimes wonder about my future course of action and what to do stuff.
Pankaj called up asking about what to do thing. He was asking a difficult question to me as i am still search for that answer.It is getting late for that answer. May be i need to do some talking to my heart and decide what to do. May be i will get an answer soon. Till then i will enjoy the music of Rockford...........................

The Namesake......leaves some thoughts

Yesterday, i saw the movie "Namesake". As expected it is a great movie. Mira Nair has captured the essence of immigrants and their confusions nicely. That movie stirred quite a few thoughts in my thought factory. I could compare myself with the character "Gogol". In the movie though h plays the character of second generation Indians in US, his dilemmas were common like mine. As that character asks himself regarding his name and try to justify it so do i. When i joined my engineering in Paralakhemundi, i could find the complexity of my name. Usually professors were used to fumble while speaking my name. I used to stand up as it became a habit and i told them not to spell my name. Lecturers who used to speak in my mother tongue they do not had issues. As most of the lecturers were form Andhra and they do not have the letter by which my name starts. The funny part was one Andhra lecturer tried and he was able to speak my name with least modification. I was one of his favorite student. There was another lecturer, in whose class i used to feel sleepy and boring as he used to dictate a lot. Although he spoke the language "Oriya", my mother tongue, but he used to sell my differently in each class. Due to him, i got dozen of names. I was pissed of with him and lastly i told him to spell my name with last name.
That was most embarrassing part for me. Always i wondered why they gave me that name.

After that when i joined Cognizant, the Bengali people changed my name again. They do not spell "Kshyama", they spell "Khema". Finally i gave up trying to correct my name and i got bunch of names. When i came to US, again the issue with name came up. The officer who took my visa interview said, you have a very short last name unlike south Indians and a bit equivalent first name. When i went to join "Target", the name issue was prominent. My team was having member from India an US. Some US members were from Asia and had settled. Though my Indian member was able to spell my name, my US team members changed my name from "Kshyamasagar" to "Sagar". Another member who was from Asia but settled in US, used to call by my first name an she had list mistakes.I really appreciate her effort. Anyway day in Target went off. I relocated from Minneapolis to Seattle. During interview only i could sense the damage to my name with the new company. And boys it came true. They changed my name from "Kshyamasagar Das" to "Sagar Das". I was dumb folded. The also had issues with "Sagar". how to spell it. Sometimes "Sager", "Sugar" blah blah. Finally i told them to call by my last name if they have issues. The name "Kshyama" lost his importance, the name which my dad loved most and he used to call me by my name not pet name. He used my pet name to call mom and he used my first name to call me. He gave me that name thinking that his kid will be know by his unique name and maybe inherit some characters which this name means. "Khyamasagar" means "Sea of forgiveness". But in this modern world, my name has lost it's purpose. Peopple can not spell my name and they modify it in their own way. How far my character resembles, that my friends and family can only tell. But it was a unique name and i am proud of that.At the end it seems that what is in a name. It only gives you a medium to interact people. But my name will do that, as people usually get a surprise face when they hear my name. I can not change my name like "Gogol" did in "Namesake" because i love my name. I only want one day people in world Will become habituated with this unique name. The movie gave me one point though. When you get an opportunity bounce on that and do not fear to travel distant islands. I am trying hard to achieve that and implement it. "The Namesake" definitely leave an impression in my heart. It also tels how different man and woman think back in India. My dad thinks like the character of Irfan khan and mom is like Tabu. Well my thinking may not be as close as Kal Penn but it has striking similarity. It is a movie for all immigrants and more then that it reminds me of Kolkata from where i started the journey to US. All people should travel different parts of world as it gives more global thoughts. US is more like India in terms of diversity of population and culture.Sometime when i think of myself, i just wonder about my life here. what does i want from this. But after watching this movie, i am clear about that. I want my parents to visit this country once and i want them to see and understand it. That was my child hood dream. I wanted them to travel with me different countries.Enjoy the culture, nature beauty, food etc. At least this county and this project has given me enough time for my inner thoughts and to understand my self. I want to roam the world just like "Gogol", as i am free and i want to part of this huge planet which god has gifted to man kind. Whether that will become reality or not does not matter. But that is what i want and i hope one day everybody could spell my name......................

Does my heart need companionship.............

Aagain comes a weekend, which gives me plenty of time to write something in my blog. It has been kind of confessions which you make to god to feel light after heavy work. I can say it has been kind of releasing tensions from head. Thanks to deba for inspiring me. It is another way of expressing myself. I used to record my daily events in my diary when i was in my teen age. Somethings, which you can not share with the world but can share only with yourself. As i was walking today with my roomie, who recently got engaged, i was dicussing this. SInce he got engaged, i could see him spending half of his time over phone and half of time in front of movies. Whenever i think of companionship, commitment comes to my mind. In college, i have seen so much love stories, which were based on this theory. SOme faded and some got their way to glory. I thought for sometime about myself. Why suddenly i am more worried about all these (non-sense thing, which i always say to my friends) topics? Have i got more lonely in US among friends or i am in a junction of age where your heart does not go with mind. Am i afraid of commiting? I even do not know all these answers and i am also searching for them. When i was in college, i had only one theory. True commitment breeds companionship. But when i sit on my balcony seeing the distant greenery, i always finds myself in dilema. Even among friends i feel lonely. Everybody goes through this phase and i think this phase helps you get closer to decide what you want from life. Really this weekend seems pretty long for no reason. May be i am missing Rashmi's callas and Gunjan and Deba's phone and pinging in gtalk very often. May be i am missing talking to shiabni and tina, which i used to do every fortnight.May be even with all of them my heart feels lonely. May be it wants sometime alone in some distant park to decide priorities in my life. May be it is waiting for somebody to share my thoughts..............

Rainy weather sucks

Suddenly from no where sunny seattle is witnessing drizzles. When it rains in seattle, it is bad. It never rains heavily like Mumbai rain but it drizzles for weeks. The weather becomes gloomy.If you do not have a good friend circle, life becomes hell. Today, we had a bigger gathering at room. Nitin is there for training and Sandeep cooked Sambar. It was really good. It reminded me the taste of mom's food. We could not play tennis because of rain neither the drving practice, which i am trying hard to meet at both ends. Tomorrow onwards, we are having training till Friday. It will be student life again. So life will be fun with listening with 30 people who are from Client side. Rainy weather in US is not similar to India as the smell of soil is missing. Today another guy from office,Rexy, showed his brother's marriage snaps. Boy that was surprise. Also the marriage function of christians are like Hindus. I think marriage function is similar in all religions across India. No caste, no religion. I was happy to find this truth. Also Americans were surprised by the fact that arrange marriage works to such a great extent back in India. They were wondering about how compatible people are also they were feeling sad the x-generation of US are giving away what ever traditions they were having. That going to happen when you have so much technology dependence and life is only around gadgets. Well literally i was proud to see the colors in our functions. They are always pleasure to share....