I have a hopeless Hope !

Title of the post says everything I have to say!

I think human species exist on hope. So I am not new. I want to know if everybody out there is living with some hope or its just few emotional creatures like me. Or may be some people have more than a hope. mmm .. may be they know for sure. I would call that also a hope. Just being confident about your hope wont change it to present:)

Just realized that since childhood I always had 'hopeful' hope. In the past few years its becoming 'hopeless' hope.

Here is what I remember on 'HOPE' from one of my favorite movies The Shawshank Redemption

• Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
  .....
  
• Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
  .....
  
• [last lines]
  Red: [narrating] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.
  

What kind of hope do you have? If any?

What I have been watching recently !

I noticed recently that every time I call or talk to friends. There is a common question. "Did you watch any new movie recently? " and I am doing mmmm hmmm ya.. looking at the ceiling to recall... and my brain is doing parallel processing and thinking.. Was this actually a question or its just to start a conversation.. am I boring? No no.. its a good question. this way we get to know about new movies and reviews. All is well! :) ( I know I am a sadist:) )

I am adding a list in the right side of this blog with the recent movie/TV series watch. two reasons:
- To help me remember good movies I watched
- and also to help others if they are looking for a movie to watch

ratings are based on my liking.
- less than 5: you are not missing anything
- more than 5: not bad just to pass time

Please do tell me if you find anything interesting to watch.

take care!

Movie Time!

So there comes a time when you watch as many movies as you can. During those years your feeling of achievement is really low. But movies, songs, socializing, trying new things.. alll goes high.

Okay okay no more suspense. I watched Elizabethtown. Never wrote about a movie before but I will try. Loved the movie. I am not sure everybody liked it as much as I liked it or not. Hilarious, inspirational, good direction. Liked Orlando Bloom(Drew) and Susan Sarandon(Hollie). Kirsten Dunst was also good but I found her character a little weird.

Why I liked it:
- Movie starts with the face of Orlando Bloom and little suspense too. (made me continue watching the movie)
- How your job could be good one day and bad another day.
- Loved the suicide machine. Hilarious...
- How traveling via flights could be irritating. When you dont want to talk to anybody but people come and talk to you. Later it turns out that they were not bad people.
- Funny people in the town
- My personal fav. 'Long phone call conversations' between Orlando and Kirsten Dunst. Been there done that...
- How irritating kids could be and yet could be managed with equally irritating tricks
- Susan Sarandon's speech at the end.. fantastic
- Finally Road trip:)

Fav scene: Orlando bloom seeing his dad's dead body and just thinking about the word which he can not recall. like.. "whats the word, whats the word.."

If you have not watched it.. go ahead. Dont have too high expectations after reading above lines:)

Other favorites coming to my mind:
- The Lives of Others (suggestion: be patient and watch till the last scene of the movie)
- Amelie

Happy Movie Time!

Phases of life...

Whenever in my life I have been on any kind of break or in a transition phase. I have been awake all night (like 6 or 7 or more..of coarse AM) and then will sleep when ray of sunlight is peeping through the window of my room. With a sigh I say, "Its high time I sleep now". Slowly I will hear people getting up preparing for the day. I will hear kids gathering for school bus and noise of racing cars to reach at work on time etc.. Ultimately I will sleep thinking what a loser I am. Later how the following day is also ruined is another long story.

Coming back to those phases. During those nights there is one good friend of yours who gives you company and that is a 'Television'. Who invented such an amazing thing! Yes, I should add 'internet' too. However, TV has its own charm(you can be as lazy as possible..don't even need to move your fingers.. hehe)

So these are the times when I have seen maximum amount of movies, explored new programs, learnt new things, made few very good friends and more...

I wanted to share a movie I watched yesterday. Now I think I will need another post for that. Right now, getting distracted by Australian open men's singles final and by Roger Federer :)

Interesting: Test your awareness

Just came across this ad:


I liked it. There were few more similar tests.

Interesting and true. We almost always ignore/miss things around us on which we are not thinking.

Its true for things in daily life and looking at a bigger picture in our life too !

Lohri and Makara Samkranti

Ignorance is a bliss(better than incomplete information). Recently during one of our chai sessions, there was a discussion that Lohri and Makar Sankranti (or Makar Samkranti) are the only festivals with fixed dates. I was not sure as I never heard it. What I knew was that Indian festivals are not based on British(English) calendar.

In India we used to go to Nani/Dadi or to nearest temple to get any information regarding festivals and used to follow it without thinking. Though they used to tell me the explanations behind that answer but I never paid attention to those details. Just have vague memories that there used to be some reasoning. Now when I am in US, either I have no information or I have too much information. We have people from different parts of the country with different ideas and then internet adds on to it. Now you have 1000 incomplete answers to one simple question. Amazing!

Anyway, I refer this website "mypanchang.com" regarding festival dates. This site has scientific explanations to convince me and my near/dear ones to stick to one festival date.

Coming back to Lohri and Makara Sankranti celebration dates. Lohri is celebrated the day before makara sankranti. Sun's entry into makara rashi is celebrated as makara samkranti and so the day before that transit is Lohri. Hence, I got to know that Lohri and Makara Sankranti are not celebrated on fixed dates. However, it happens to be that it(sun's transition) is on January 14th nearly 99% times. Sometimes it could be before or after. You can read the explanation here.
In 2009, Lohri date: 12th(USA) & 13th(India); Makara Sankranti: 13th(USA) & 14th(India).

By the way, I made Til Ke Ladoo(Sesame seed ladoo). Looked online and it was not difficult. It was my first try so I am satisfied with the results.

So, belated happy Lohri and Makara Sankranti. Be happy! its the start of warmer days:)

Summary of 2008

2008 was an year of change. It was definitely a big change for me. Like every year so many things happened throughout the year. Just to summarize I am jotting down everything in my shorthand style:

Winter: New Year hangover, WFH, Doctors, Yoga, Lawyers, HR, Resignation

Spring: Farewell, Road Trip, Housewife, Cricket, Virginia Beach - beach house, Graduation Time

India: India Trip, Daughter-in-law, Daughter, Indian Shopping

Summer: 1st Wedding Anniversary, Jogging, Moving to Univ Housing, Hiking-camping

Economy: Big-time Recession, Job Market

Autumn: Nephew Gautam's arrival:) (new member in family)

Indian Festive Mood: Parents visit, Fall Colors, Festivals, Happy Diwali, Thanksgiving

Holiday Season: Road Trip to Chicago, Meeting friends and Family, Kids all around

New Year: Pittsburgh, North Carolina

May Gob bless us all with a Happy, Healthy and Successful 2009!