A Quick Conversation

It happened this morning, as soon as I came back home by taking an early morning flight from Canada...

Me: I have to make some dishes now

My Husband: It's ok, you don't have to cook now, just take rest

Me: Ohhh dear, it is not for you; I have to prepare food for "Cafe World" in Facebook

My Husband: WTF?!!!!!

Today - A Beautiful Day!!!!

I wrote this in my scribble pad an hour or two back.

This is one of the best days in my life. Right now, sitting in beautiful Hudson Waterfront park and watching a pigeon walking around in search of crumbs. Just loving it.

My day started off with little tension as we had to go to the Indian Consulate to renew his Passport. I missed to inform him that he does not have his photographs and visa copy. He was kinda tensed 'cos of that. We planned to be in the Consulate by 9.30 but managed to be there by 11.30 after getting the missing items in place. The receptionist looked at the documents and said that we have the wrong application form and we should get another form from the new website :-( Again, it was I who gave the link to him, luckily he forgot about it :-) We were not disappointed that we couldn't get the work done, in fact we were happy for some reason.

To get back home, we had to go to the subway which was few blocks away. But instead of going there directly, we started walking in search of a good restaurant or show room as he wanted to use the rest room. After walking 5 or 6 blocks we got into NY&Co. showroom. While he was using the rest room, I tried few dresses took snaps and also purchased 2 tops for 60$. I guess that's the costliest rest room he has ever used in his life :-P

He was much more relaxed now, and we started walking towards the subway. On the way, we came across a beautiful second hand book store. Loved the traditional English look of the store. It reminded me of "The Shop Around the Corner" from "You've got Mail". It had a good collection of books. I didn't know most of the books as I am not a sound reader but managed to pick 4 or 5 books. The hard bound cover with matte finish and the old look of the books were too good to resist. While going through those books the first person who came in my mind was Karen. I guess she would've spent the entire day going through all the books and probably end up buying them all. Karen, if you are reading this, tell me the name of your favorite author or poet, I shall get you some books. After picking few books and chatting with an old man there we headed back to the subway. This time we did not stop anywhere else.

After having lunch in a French Restaurant, he went off to work and I came to Exchange Place. I can never get bored of this place. I can see the Hudson River and the Manhattan Skyline from here now. These are the snaps which I took there using my mobile.

It is a wonderful feeling to be alone, reading a book, scribbling in the notepad, watching birds & people around and also getting to know that I will be going to Canada in a week or two for a project.

Am I Dreaming or LIVING MY LIFE?!

It's all about spirits and little fun!

He (means my Husband, he doesn't want me to use his name in public, as he thinks whoever reads his name will immediately become a nagging fan of him cos of his charming name) believes in evil spirits. When I asked him why do you believe in it so much, he said "Its cos I've seen one myself". I got quite interested in it and then asked him when did that happen. And this is what he said.

"During my high school I used to go to a tuition class, and a girl from that tuition class committed suicide. After few days we had to write a test and while submitting the test paper, I saw a test paper with her name on it. First I thought, someone is playing pranks, but later when I discussed with other tuition mates, we gotta know that no one did that, and didn't know how that paper ended up there. We were all scared, and another day we saw her slippers outside the tuition and we did not get into the class, just ran back home. The tuition teacher called a priest, and he said the evil spirit of that girl is over here, and did lots of prayers etc. to get rid of it."

Then I asked, "So they were able to get rid of her spirit, is it?" He said "Don't interrupt my story, it's not over yet, when we went to that tuition after few days to give another test, we saw her with long hair writing a test there. We all ran back home, and the tuition teacher also shifted to another house."

He narrated this story to me at 2'o clock in the night, it was kinda spooky and weird. I was thinking about the gal in the movie "The Ring". I was also wondering, of all the things why will a ghost want to write exams????? That's the one thing anyone will never want to do, even if they are alive. And I always thought, spirits do not have legs, and why does she want a shoe? Btw, how does he know if that was her shoe and not someone else's? Looks like he knew everything about the tuition gals, including wat shoes they wear. I should ask him how much did he score for that subject in public exam :-P

Speaking about spirits, my father's elder brother and his wife were very close to us. When we were kids we used to go to there house in Neerodi for all our summer, half yearly, quarterly vacations. (Even now I feel very happy to say those words half yearly vacation, quarterly vacation etc.) It used to be a lot of fun. During summer vacation, they used to play movies every alternate days in open theater in that village. It might sound posh, but it is just a temporary theater near the beach, with four walls made out of woven coconut leaves, and with no chairs, we have to sit on the beach sand :-) I still wish I can go back to those days. Ok, looks like I am diverting from the topic. Both of my aunt and uncle passed away few years back, it was a great loss for us. I see both of them in my dreams very often. It is always me vs anyone of them at their house in Neerodi. Even last night I had a dream about my aunt, she spoke a lot to me. I don't know if she was trying to tell me something, I wish I could understand that. I am not a believer of evil spirits but I strongly believe that the spirits of my beloved ones exist and they are the angels who protect and guide me.

Btw, for those who believed in my husband's story, it is just one of the few stories made up by him. He never saw any spirits. I am sure he wouldn't be here today if he had seen one :-P

Talking about spirits, this is one of my favorite songs related to it

Life in US.... Books I read

I've been thinking of writing about my life here since the day I landed.... One of the main reasons I came to US before April is to get rid of scorching sun in Chennai during April and especially May :-P and ofcourse I wasn't too interested in the project I was involved in and the most important reason is to get rid of all those questions "What is your plan? Sajeeve is in US and you are in India, what are you guys planning to do?" UFFFFFFF gimme a break, its not that now I don't get such questions. Nowadays they ask me, "So when are you guys coming back and have you started searching for a job there? Can you work there?" etc. etc. but atleast now I don't have to listen to them 'cos it's an ISD call and I don't get these questions every day...

I wonder how I was able to spend time all alone for the past 3, oh no it's gonna be 4 months now :-( other than watching lots and lots of movies I read 2 books and I listened to one audio book. These are the books I read,

This story is about a guy who kidnaps a 6 months old baby, the kidnappers name is Blaze. Initially he kidnaps the baby for money but he slowly starts liking the baby and wants to bring him up as his own. You will feel pity for this guy Blaze, especially when he dies in the end.

Another book is Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain.

I picked this book only 'cos of it's cover. And as you know don't judge a book by it's cover, I was not very impressed by the story. Didn't like the characters in it.

The other audio book was given to me by the owner of the house wherever we are staying in. His name is Andrew Wilson, a nice guy. He is the manager of some audio books division in some company. He gave me this audio book "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" by Stephen King.

The story is very simple but I liked it though, and it was a different experience to listen to it. Unlike reading a book you easily get distracted while listening to the audio book, and it is kinda difficult to keep track of the story unless you listen carefully and remember where exactly you paused the story previously. But with the background musice and the expressions of the reader you will be easily drawn into the story, and if you listen to this in the night you will kinda feel eerie. I guess these kinds of books are preferred by visually challenged people other than that I don't find any reason why anyone should go for this instead of buying a book.

I want to buy Amazon Kindle or

Sony Reader

so that I can read lots more instead of just sitting in front of my laptop throughout the day. But I am sure I will not enjoy reading in any of these as much as I enjoy reading a book.

Ok, I'm done with this post, it's already long, I shall probably write another post about other things I've been doing here.