Pampering myself ..

After 22 years of leading a financially dependent life ..i suddenly got up one day and realised to my utter surprise that I was finally financially independent ..Now thats a big step in everyone's life ..and I should tell you it feels great ...

So I thought I should celebrate this momentous opportunity in my life ..and what better way to celebrate than to shop ..I went shopping my dear friends ..and I shopped till I fell ..for once I did not care to look at the price tag , convert it to Indian rupees and then stop to wonder if the stuff was really worth it . I bought what I liked and let me tell you it sure feels good ...we ought to pamper ourselves once in a while for all the other time we spend working so that we could get these few moments of pampering ourselves ...

Eating good food , wearing good clothes and doing activities you have always wanted to do ..I believe that should be the sole motive of the money we earn ..

Khali haath aaye the hum ..khali haath jayenge ...

Processed life ....

Every time i start to cook i begin to realise how processed life here in the US is ...wanna cook ...??? ..put ready to eat masala ..tomatoes ..well we have the tomato puree and the garlic paste ..ok now to vegetables ..frozen cut vegetables ..want a lemon squeeze to add the tangy taste or else take a pick at the preprocessed tamirand paste ...

Lets make rajma you would say ..now thats a exotic dish ..well no more ..you get pre cooked rajma soaked in sodium concentrate ..just put it in with the other puries you have and here you go rajma is ready ..

Well in no mood to cook ..why dnt you just take one of the ready to eat pizzas or paratha and put them into the microwave oven ..add a little salsa to taste ..and ya i guess you will have one of those fruit juices ..well its better we call them sweetend water coz they actually have no natural fruit content..

You dnt even want to do that ..take a cereal bar or a chocolate of the vending machine and eat it while you sit in front of your computer waiting for someone to come online ( sarcasm intended at the singlehood and hence loneliness of grad students ..)

This is not to say that people in India these days dnt do all this stuff ..Its just that I remembered how much time my mom used to spend trying to make stuff as healthy and as fresh for us as possible . Now we just do the post cooking of the already precooked food ..the aroma of the freshly made masalas ...the love and the energy my mom put in to make those dishes is completely missing ...

Somewhere down the line our entire lives are being processed by the technology and competition around us ..the freshness and the love is lagging behind ..but thats the real essence of life and we ought to keep it alive ..

-30 c

They always tell you but then who wants to listen . Minnesota - its really cold will you be able to survive the cold..think again ...but no we wouldn't listen ..after all we are on a mission to change this world by doing research , how can such small things matter ..surely they will not ..

So here we arrive , we stock ourselves with weapons for the winter a 1 kg downjacket , uncountable no of sweat shirts , gloves , thermals a nice fashionable cap ..who is afraid of the winter if you are so well stocked ..

And then comes my darling winters , it first tests your immune system with minor snow falls and winter chills , you are happy the free flu shots from boyton seem to working . Some one says that global warming has arrived and this time the winter is going to be mild . You ponder over the ill effects of global warming for a while and then realise that as long it serves to keep the winter at bay you would rather want it , than act to take GW away . With all the tensions for the winters pacified you get back to your task of changing the world .

But then winter has a way of catching you off the hold . All this while when you were being complacent about the winter , it was working its way through you immune system and just when the time is ready it strikes ...phew and then you suddenly realise its -30 C .

But then I was nicely stocked for the winter rite , the eternal optimist that I am , I think I can survive it . So here I go - Day 1 trying to make it to the univ , after all its just a 15 min , what worse can happen in 15 min . Here I am all decked ready to face the cold ..ok so now ..1,2 ,3 and I am out of the confines of my cosy apt ...First thoughts ..well its not that bad ..I can make it ...
5 mins down ..my nose starts freezing ..the cold vapours from my mouth and nose start freezing on my specs , I take them off to clean to them , realise the ice is frozen on top of it and it wouldn't go off ..so I stove them into my pocket .

Ok so now 5 inches of my face ..i.e my eyes and half of meter of legs ( covered only by a single layer of jeans ) are most prone to windchill ..but then thats very less ..what can possibly go wrng ..2 mins down ..my eyes start aching , i have a terrible headache ..and it seems some one has taken a ice pack , put needles into it and wrapped it around my leg ..Well there I am near the bus stop ,lets take a bus I decide ...I wait for 4 mins ..the next bus is still 5 mins away ..I decide I can walk rest of the distance ...there thats the biggest mistake I could have ever made ..5 mins at the bus stop has never killed anyone but 5 min walk in the cold has ..

5 more mins down the line I can hardly feel any part of my body and now to add to it all , the winter accesories that I have on me are pushing me down with their weight ..

There I can see the univ some distance away ...I wonder if i can make it till there but then I remind myself that I should survive to tell this story of mine ...

I survive ..

Finally I write ..

People have been wondering as to why I have stopped writing . Now I have no specific reasons actually . Lethargy and montonicity of life maybe . Life has become quite comfortable after being here for 5 months now . My apt feels like home and people I know feel like friends too . No offence ment but intially everybody starts out as aquantainces ....

I remember my initial days here ..I used to just wonder if I would ever feel comfortable in this place and with all these people around but its amazing how life has a way of making pieces fall into their place ..just give it the desired amount of time and life can do wonders to you .

The only regret ..I am moved far away from books ..been ages since I read one ...

The most happening thing ..my teaching assistantship ..I love it ..although I hate getting up so early in the morning and being their in the lab ..2 hours down the line I am happy that I did it ..for the first time in my life I am getting to put myself in the teacher's shoes and mind you ..it is a totally differnt world out there .

I get night mares the day before the lab thinking whether I will be able to perform satisfactorily or not ...and my joy knows no bounds when I am able to solve so one's problem and make them understand something . It sure is a noble profession ..as long as people take it that way . I have known too many bad teachers in my life to actually believe that ...

So that quite sums up what been happening around here ..apart from the minnesotan winter which has been making headlines .. - 34 C ..can you believe that ..feels like hundred of nails piercing your face ..everytime the wind hits you .

Keep surviving for you never know when you may find a reason to start living ...