Playing Mahjong at office :)
Thanks to Christine for bringing the board. Others on table are Tracy, Tilo, Christine. The two watchers are John and Manessh.

Mahjong is like rummy with couple of interesting rules and tiles that are more interesting to play as compared to cards. Good fun!

Mihi Dana

Mihi Dana and Gulab jamun

Baba, O Baba
Come! Come here! Sit with me! Come inside!
How are you able to carry this sweet from so far away?
Are you not tempted to eat them yourself?
Don't you get tired of lifting this big bowl on your shoulders?

O Baba! Why are you laughing, Baba?
Do you know, I can eat all your mihi dana in one day.
But ma won't let me.
If you take me along, then you will not have to carry this load.
I will eat it all and it will again be light for you.


Baba! I have to tell you this.
Other than your Mihi Dana, I like your smile very much.
Baba, i have an idea - You should come at night.
That ways - you can avoid the Sun
and i can stay up till late.
It will be good for both of us.

Baba! Why don't you teach me how to make this?
You should teach me how to make Mihi Dana.
Then, we will go together, house to house selling Mihi Dana.
You can sell yours but i will eat mine.
Baba, why are there so many lines on your face?
Are you getting old?

O Baba! Why didn't you come last week?
I was sitting on my gate since morning, waiting for you.
Are you all right?
Baba, look, there is water in your eyes.
Ma, look, there is water in Baba's eyes.

Highway 1 - Big Sur

Aug 15-16: weekend trip to Big Sur.

Idea: Lets drive on Highway 1, stop where we want, enjoy the scenic drive and go to Big Sur or farther.
Underlying principle - Thou shall not make any plans.

Plans bring orderliness to life. Plans ruin the spirit of adventure. We will not plan anything. We will not take GPS. We will do it the old fashioned way - have a big map and a sense of direction. Sissies reserve hotels in advance, cowards worry more, enjoy less, we are better.

With that in mind Amey, myself and Vera went on this trip. (Correction - Poor Vera was not aware of this plot, but it was not late before she realized it)
So, we went to Half moon bay, lighthouse, and enjoyed the scenic drive. Highway 1 is very very beautiful. We bathed in the salty, cold bay water at the sand city. Having no proper shower there, we continued in same clothes to Monterey bay. Did 17 mile drive and stopped at random places. People were throwing curious glances wherever we went but we ignored them easily.

Then we went to Big Sur, again stopping randomly. We had not booked any accommodation there (Thanks to our great planning - aka to not have a plan) and it was 8 pm. Turns out that there is a car show in town and all hotels are booked in 100 mile radius. So we ended up sleeping in the car and waking up to a beautiful ocean view - Cant beat it. And i had a perfect sleep even though it was in a car seat but i slept like a baby.

Then we hiked on to Pfeiffer falls (1 mile hike to warm us up) and then to Mt. Manuel ( 4 mile hile - one way). All in the same clothes as the day before, salt all over the body, hair, and now sweaty too. But the hike was so beautiful that it was worth it. Came down, had a great burger, fries and cream soda and headed back home.

See the pics below. Thanks Vera for the pics!

Big Sur

Life in june 11 - Aug 7

Welcome to the life in series. If you thought that you will never see June 11 and Aug 7 next to each other, you were wrong. Wondering what i meant by it, keep wondering.

So, lets start in chronological order.

June 14 - my bday came and went. One day my bday will be on my terms not on the terms given by date.

Went to Yosemite with Vivek and Gautam. Drove all the way! Saw the perfect sunset on the way back. Photos are here -

yosemite

Went to atlanta for Udit Bhaiya's marriage. Good fun!

Went to SF Exploratorium with SriD. Good science museum.

Work in office was good. Launched new product called content view. Went to laser tag to celebrate.

Watched Harry potter 6 and Transformers 2 back to back (@ 1 ticket only). Wanted to read harry potter again - so one fine Sunday, finished the deadly hallows from start to end.

Took swimming lessons beginner level at rengstorff community pool. Good fun!

Taking piano lessons (3 classes so far). More about that in a separate post.

Learning knitting from Guy (from office). Making a kitchen cloth. Half way done.

Played poker with flatmate and some of his friends yesterday. Lost 5 bucks. But learnt like 10 different variations. Small price to pay :) ?

Somewhere in between the above, i was toppled from my bike, bought 7 books from a library book sale, (read zero so far), watched some movies, and ofcourse music.

Music time

So, as i am simultaneously discussing this thought with Justin, i felt that i should write about it.

First listen to these tracks -

These are the tracks that i must have heard them many times since childhood but never stopped to listen them carefully. On last thursday morning, somehow i did and after that the last two consecutive days have been listening to these two tracks only. Simply wow!

It is only when i have no time on my hand that i realize the beauty of these songs. On free days, i tend to waste time listening randomly (well not a waste of time). But when i have lots of work to do then i find myself giving careful attention to these things such as reading my google reader list or commenting out arbit person's imeem music profile.

So, with this learning, i have now started to intentionally delay my works. I postpone them until i realize that there is too much on my plate now and then the magic happens. Some call it tension time, but its the best mode to be in.