Hangover 2 and Kung Fu Panda

I finally ended up watching hangover 2 this weekend and to be honest, I actually liked it. It had heard that it did not have good reviewed so Amit was not too keen on watching it but as we were in the mall and I cannot shop while Amit is with me( atleast without worrying that he is getting bored ( don't they all get bored when their wives wanna shop? :) we decided to watch Hangover 2. Movie is shoot pretty much out of US and it shows beauty of Thailand.. I some day would want to visit for sure.. Movie was pretty hillarious.. how they get into trouble again and again.. without asking for it, hard to believe..... on the other hand, Kung Fu Panda was super cute.. It is an awesome animation.. pretty comparable to first one... Above all, got my new iphone this weekend... OMG!!!! what the _ _ _ _ I was doing for last 4 years or so since it has ben out.. it is awesome!!! Amit and I are fighting over who will use it.. he is not able to take his eyes off of it. I am begining to believe it is his phone, not mine.. all sports apps are already downloaded on it.. :) so you can imagine what's new in my house these days..
long story short, it is a really cool think to have and I am thankful to technology.. ( However, Amit is surprised that I am using it as in his opinion, I am not quite a " techy" person.. ) hehe..

A wonderful City- Chicago!

Well, we recently went to Chicago to see our friends who are moving out of US and what a great time I had. I actually have not seen lot of cities in Midwest. Traveled to bunch of places in East coast and South but never really got a chance to see Midwest. we landed on a friday night. Uneventful, short and sweet flight took us to this wonderful city which just amazed me. Tall buildings, livable downtown, metro conectivity, a smaller version of NY..just more cleaner :)
Our friends live in downtown and the view from their building was mind blowing, view of lake Michigan on one side, down on other. Not to mention full view of football stadium. Next day we went to take a tour of the city and what to say, Maginificant mile was definately magnificant. we started with John Hancock building and went up to their sky lounge. We luckily got a seat next to the window with a full view of Lake Michigan . It was frozen and I have never seen a frozen lake before.It is definately nice, different than summer time. While I was sitting by the window enjoying the view, everything looked so small and petty. We had a drink and headed over to the Magnificant mile again. Made a quick stop at the mall and got to do some shopping. I had two guys( my hubby and a friend)with me, so had to rush but they were more paient than I expected. After that, made a stop at grand lux cafe which is another version of Cheese cake factory. Their pinapple upside down cake was out of the world! By now, it started to get dark and chilly. I still wanted to walk to our friend's home but as soon as I crossed the river, I just could not take the cold. It numbed my face if you can imagine how it feels :)
Second day started with a visit to Indian Market where we had parathas, a pan and ofcourse sweets. On our way back we saw that people were walking out of the stadium as Chicago bears game was over and bears had won. I was impressed at enthu level of the crowd who came out to watch the game in 5 degrees temprature. We ended up checking out a condo on sale right on Lake Michigan. It was really a treat! Evening ended with dinner with friends who we had not seen in a while and it was delightful. We paid a visit to Chicago's popular glass bean which reflects image of Chicago downtown in it and is a piece of art. Right next to that was ice skating ring where people were lined up for their turns to skate. It amazed me that people were so enthusiatic in such a cold weather. I guess you get used to cold weather after a while. It was around 7 degrees in F. Well, our visit won't be complete without listening to blues. We went to Blues Chicago in the evening and it was super crowded. Music was really nice and ambience was great. By now we were tired and decided to head home and next day flew back. All in all, it was a wonderful visit to a beautiful city, company of great friends and it made us realize that its not the city, its the people who live there make it beautiful and wonderful time we had with our friends made it even more memorable for us! Thanks GSV for being great friends! Chicago- I just loved it!!

Sisters!

Well, recently my sisters from Houston visited me. My older sister is married and has kids, so she always visited me with kids and husband and this was her first time coming to see me alone to have just a girls weekend. It was a great trip, we went to winery, I got bit tipsy( well, they told me that I was loud and kicked the wine bottle from the top of mountain) but hey, when you are tipsy, you just have good time and you care less about anything else, isn't it? :)
I had lunch with them, went to see early fall colors, watched bunch of movies and just had chit chat. It is great to have sisters. They are your friends who will always be there for you. Sometimes they are protective of you if they are older and you are always their little sister no matter how old are you. But you know what, I sometimes like being little sister someone looking over my shoulder and give their two cents to me. You do not have to pretend with sisters, you can be yourself with them and do not need to have your guards up. Deep down they always want your best and I agree that you fight, you argue, you disagree but at the end of the day, they are always there for you which is a great feeling. Thank God for sisters. Lovely, Shikha- Thanks for coming and I look forward to making it a ritual.. :)

Friends!

Well, this year has been busy with lot of events, lot of visitors and recently had a reunion of my hubby's college friends from Penn State. We had around 14 people in our house with two kids and it was just like a wedding in the house. We were catching up, chating away and time just flew. Some of them I knew well and was getting to know others. It was amazing how we sometimes lose touch and when we meet again, we can just start from where we left off. I guess that's what friendship is.. :) Ofcourse, everyone was having different coversations at different corners of the house and it just felt so good. We slept on floor after ages and it reminded me of times in India when if there is a wedding, everyone get their sheets and blankets and just sleep in a big hall and chat till 4am. Having two kids in the house was another thing- Nina, who knows when to pose and how to be picture perfect. On the other hand, Tia who runs all over the place, ball of energy and does not like to sit. You have to really hold her to get her picture taken and it was amazing to see how year and a half olds can have personalities so early on. We played Halo( well, not me but some of them did to relive old memories), played poker, ate, talked and just had good time! It made me think that simple things in life like spending time with like minded people can give you so much pleasure. Also even though everyone is in different corners of the country and we hardly meet or talk, but when we all meet, it is a blast! So this post is dedicated to all those friends who gave me fond memories of a very memorable weekend and I look forward to more good times! Cheers.

Desires

We all have desires and one's desire can be other's aversion. As human being we are so different and still want things knowing we can never have it all. We crave for things and wanna have it right here right now. But does that always happen..may be not. When your desires are not fulfilled as planned, it makes you feel sad, feel angry, feel frustated and devastated. But at the same time it makes you look at the bigger picture. When things do not go your way as planned, at the same time one positive thing happens. It makes you count your blessings as well. You tend to look at what you have and things could be worse. At that very moment, you gain positivity in your life and things you desire do not matter that much and they lose their charm to some extent. We sometimes get so busy in running around and always wanting this that, but life teaches you in its own unique way to slow down and look around you. It is hard when things do not go your way, but it is an important lesson as well and it all depends upon how you take it..
So Get up, dust it and move on.....

Last few months

Well, have not written in a while and lot of things happened during this time. Changed jobs, traveled, got sick, hospitalized and had realizations I never thought will come in my mind. I realized how caring Amit is who used to get up at a speed of light in the middle of night when I was sick, took care of me like a baby. It made me realize what and who is important in my life. My mom came and took care of me and it makes me feel moms are just angels who are God's gift to us . They are our savier and just fills our heart with joy and happiness. People who I did not think were close to me cared and made me feel special. That one month was an eye opener for me. It made me realize how important is our health and it is the best gift given to us. In the midst of working, hanging out with friends, living day to day life, we forget to just take a step back and think about who we are, what we want in life, what relationships we want to build to create wonderful memories. But I had a lot of time to ponder on these things during the month of july when I was sick and bed ridden . My mom and my hubby just did it all for me and made me feel how fortunate I am to have such a wonderful mom and a caring husband. This post is dedicate to all those moms spouses who make a difference! Kudos!

3 idiots

What a great movie it was! I am so glad I watched it. It was very well made with great cast and very good sense of humor. We both usually have to change hindi movie on BW cinema after 30 minutes or so( I can tolerate more.. but he can take for no more than 30 minutes) and this movie felt like breath of fresh air. Amir- I am his fan now.. He is sooo cute in the movie. What I like about him is that he tends to do movies with a message and this was not an exception. In my opinion, It is so true that in India if you are someone other than Engineer or Doctor, there is something wrong with you. Statistics show that India has highest population of Doctors and Engineers( anyone surprised?). A lot of talented people who can be really good at for example playing Drums or can be a good teacher are forced to join Engineering college or a Med school. It would be so nice if our young generation is given a chance to be what they want to be and do what they want to do. I do not doubt that talent used at right place can do wonders and if there are movies like this, hopefully things will improve and we will see a decrease in number of Engineers who actually never persue Engineering as their profession.