Water Saving!!

I have come from a village. When I was very young, we did not even have water connection in our house. When mom was seventh month pregnant, she used to walk a mile to get a bucket of drinking water for the house!!! After a few years, we got water connection. Still, we used to get water once in 3 days. So,'fill water in every vessel you find and save!' (No overhead tanks to store water too!! ).
So, I have been taught very well not to waste water. In fact my pinni(Aunt) always tells me 'If you save water, you will be able to save lot of money'. It was fun to hear when I was a kid. Now, it makes a lot more sense to me! 'Knowing the value of things is not something everybody can do'.
Everyday, I see so much wastage of water in my own house here. These are a few observations made by me!
1.) We tend to leave the tap on while brushing!!!!
2.) Same is the case with shaving! Gosh..it wastes hell lot of water!
3.) Washing dishes!! Oh God!! people tend to leave it on as long as they wash!
Thank god! we have washers to wash clothes here. Else tons of gallons of water would simply go waste!

Simple Habits do change Lives!! India is not a rich country! Resources are valuable to us! Please save water & yourself too!

Cheapoair

Recently, I purchased my tickets to India from Cheapoair.
Initially I thought 'What a Breeze!'...I need not have to go through
the hassle of going after travel agents! Hell lot of calls saved!

Huh...Then I had a real chance to witness the height of stupidity of airline
industry as a whole.

The case is 'I had to reschedule my flights'. So, I called up 'Cheapoair'.
They impose a penalty of $150 for rescheduling. Fine!
Now, the ticket prices have gone up a little. The net rise in the ticket
price was around $120.
The first thing they said when I called them is 'Ma'am, you have to pay $150 penalty
+ price difference'. I agreed to that and asked them for a quote.

Shock of my Life!! They said I had to pay them $500 +.
I did not understand why should I pay so much, When I can book new tickets for much less
(they are charging more than $200 extra on fare change too)

I called them 6-7 times. Everytime, their customer service representatives gave
me different quotes none less than $500. I argued a lot everytime in vain!!

Huh....I ended up paying more than $500 ..:( ...I was just helpless
Lesson learnt : Never book from Cheapoair. (personal feedback)
travel sites suck!!

I got a call!

It is pleasantly surprising when you get a call from your old buddies!

Today , I got to hear from my high school pal (Intermediate)! I could not help myself being excited. Was too happy to hear from her. It was only a 5 minute talk. But, it is nostalgic bringing back my good old memories.

I could not have had better fun when my frens used to wake me up at 12 in the midnight to make me drink coconut water!! I still remember my excitement when Amala had been hiding 'pichu mithai' (papdi) from others to give it to me! Gundu's Mangoes!! My passion for jilebis! Jyothi's special godavari Sweets! Spicy Chicken fry from Siri's Mom!!

Hmm....I miss everything!! Thinking of all these makes me feel good and sadly bad too!

Great!

This incident happened when I was in 9th Standard!
There was a lesson on 'Veeresa Lingam Panthulu gaaru' in Telugu Subject! It was a public speech given by 'Veeresam'. For those who don't know him, he was a social activist at the time of independence who fought against Sati, Widow Re-marriages. Tough Guy!
The speech enunciates what he was doing and how people need to realize its significance in those days.
I asked my Lecturer..'Why is he telling about his activities so much in a public speech?'
I did not care much before asking that question! But , I could his eyes moist and with a low tone, he explained me..'Those were the days where print media or any media was literally non-existent! And people need to communicate what they feel and gather support to such activities through speeches!' It made sense though I could not understand why he felt so bad for my statement!

Yesterday, quite astonishingly I found myself in a similar situation! Strange! My eyes were moist too when I was listening to one of my all time favorites of Illaya Raja 'Maate Raani Chinnadaani Kallu Palike Uusulu' and one of my friends commented on it saying 'Why do you give so much of Hype to Illaya Raja and his songs? He is not all that great!'.
Agreed! He may not be the best! But I realized I loved his Music and associated myself with it so much that I could not take even a silly passing by comment! Believe me, he was kidding! But still my Heart could not accept it!

Now, I completely understand what was wrong with my statement!

Gere Kisses Shilpa

After I came to US, My answer to anybody who asked me 'what does your culture preach?' was 'Our Culture preaches Tolerance'. Now I am re-thinking about my statement and the hypocrisy involved with it.
Just now I read the article and the meaningless protests by some extremists over 'Gere Kisses Shilpa' Issue. If you have not, pls go through the link Why_the_fuss_over_a_kiss_Shilpa

I wonder how these people come out as and when some so called 'breach' happens to the so called culture.
One of their Q's was "How much can you degrade yourself because you are being paid money to make an appearance?" ..I was just wondering 'Have they ever thought of any thing out side their narrow world? Why can not they go on a rescue operation of prostitutes and help them live a decent life.? After all, they are selling themselves for the hell sake of money?...No ..They wont...But they want to burn effigies of celebrities!

Another of the million dollar Q's goes like this "We are troubled with Shilpa’s behaviour." And they went on to the extreme step of filing a case against her..
I am in dilemma now..'Where is democracy in India?' ..Though you are above 18, legally eligible to do anything...Why is the so called Culture forbidding you not to even marry the person whom you love, not to even do what you like!! Strange..
I sometimes seriously wonder 'Is India going backwards in the arena of globalization?'

What is Culture to you may not be culture to me! It all lies in the way one perceives things.
And I strongly believe 'Moral Brigade' is something bound to one's own self. Not to be DEFINED by somebody else.
Please Let people breathe on their own!

back after 2 months

After long long time, back again.........
Many things happened in between!!
Two major things worth mentioning
1.) bought a used car (Toyota '96 corolla - Tan color)
2.) Got Internship for summer

hmm...and...Life is passing by!!

Hey...would like to comment on something..
My room mate's friend came from Virginia to see my roomie with her Husband.
I really felt delighted and happy to see such a sweeeeeeeet gal..
Bcos she is not like many gals (Atleast not like my "so-called" best friends), who forget everything on earth once they get a Boy. Hmm...that's all for their life!!

Initially I felt very baaaaaad when my closest of closest friend has not even got time to
send me a personal Mail also on her wedding..(I got a group mail though or may be I expected too much.) But now I realised...Afterall it is her choice...I should be glad to get rid of such friends...Anyway..let me wish 'Happy Married Life'!

:) That's all for now!!

After long time!

It has been long time since I made a new post!! Exactly back after two months!!.
Many things happened in between!!..
My first sem got over!! got my grades!!! 20 days vacation!!
Back to college struggling with new courses!!
Enough things to keep me busy and occupied!!

Today has been the luckiest day in my life!! :(
Got up at 8:00 am! planned to go to work (my good old peanut shelling) for 4 hours.
So far so good!!
Had a heavy breakfast with waffles and cereals to be energetic all day!!
And then just to check how the weather is outside, stepped out of house!!
Blast!!! Then I realised, I got locked outside..It's cold outside!!..
My roomate went out..I donno if other roomates are in or not!!
Hmm.....I had knocked the door for 20 mins...No body opened the door..
My hands started paining also!!. still no response!! On top of it, it's cold out..:(
I dont have cellphone also with me!!..
I went to a nearby friends house. Felt sorry to wake them up on a weekend.
But I am helpless..borrowed their phone..Lucky me!!..one of my roomates number is stored in her phone book...
I called my only roomate now for 20 times!! 'Hi! This is -----.I am not available right now to take your call. Pls leave me your message. I will get back to you as soon as possible. Have a good day'...
Leave about 'good day', my ears had a tough time hearing this again and again...
I had been lucky enough to get her after 20 times!

Finally at 9:15 am, Got back home and packed everything!
No college buses on weekend! so I started on my cycle..
Fine!! After half an hour of my cycling and walking, I reached my work place!!

Thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the heights of my luckiness today, I forgot lab keys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could not enter my work place..........felt so frustrated and helpless!!
I Sat there before the door just to give me some time!!
Cursing myself, I came back!!