Miscellaneous pictures

Other places around Lexington

Visit to Berea, the Arts and Craft capital of Kentucky

Berea is a charming town an hour's drive from Lexington. We passed lots of (what else) horse farms on our way there. I'm kind of hitting a saturation point with horses here. But I did see cows in one pasture. I have this doubt whether they are brought out on Derby day to make some of the non-performing horses look good!

Berea was full of handicraft and antique stores. Candle-making, quilting, stained glass, fused glass, glass jewelry, weaving and quilting studios dominate the little town. There's even an art college where attempts are on to revitalise fading arts and crafts. Did I forget to mention that Berea's a shopper's paradise too? Quaint little shops with the most amazing collection of knick-knacks and antiques! My credit card wanted to swipe for the most amazing quilt made with over 8,000 patches of fabric, but I had to put my foot down. My poor suitcase insisted that it possibly couldn't carry all that! I loved some awesome stained glass sun-catchers. But for the pain of transporting it!

Even Pa found something to his taste in Berea. See these thingies, they are made of recycled inner tubes. They are (supposedly) arty type of pins. It's not the Arty part of it that appealed to him anyway... hehehe...

Visit to Woodford Reserve Distillery at Glenn's creek

The distillery

sour mash under fermentation









copper vats

How could I be in Kentucky, and not see where and how Bourbon is made? Gowri drove us to Glenn's Creek, where Woodford Reserve is distilled. A charming distillery that blends into the surroundings beautifully in a picturesque vale. We had a nice tour of the old fashioned distillery where the mash is still distilled through three copper kettles. We saw the entire process starting from grain measures and cooking of the mash to bottling. But since we visited on a Sunday, when the law says that Kentucky stays dry, all we could do was sniff. No samples. How tragic... Ate lots of the bourbon candy samples and picked up a few as gifts.

Frankfort, KY

Gowra took us on a drive to Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky one evening. This is the Capitol. I expected the capital to be a larger place, but it was a small quiet town along the river.

We even saw a paddleboat!

This is the flower clock. The minute hand is 20 feet long and supposedly moves almost a foot to mark the minute!

And what's Kentucky's motto??

'Unbridled Spirit'.. with an abstract of a horse in motion!

Enough horsing around already!

Jacobson Park, Lexington

These Pictures were taken at Jacobson Park in Lexington. More than the well designed play area, Aditi is totally fascinated by ducks.

We see ducks where ever we happen to be in Lexington! By common consensus, we have decided to carry along duck food as well as baby food whenever we set out on any outing!


This utterly charming park has a large lake (home to the gazillion docks), sprawling grounds, and a lovely kids play area! If the weather is fine, we have plans to go boating in the lake some weekend.

What does Aditi remember best about the outing to the park? The utterly fearless goose that walked up to her and took a biscuit out of her hand!

I can't help falling in love with..

... NEW YORK. Clichéd as it sounds, I was totally floored by my visit to the Big Apple! It was like falling in love again... first time of course being with 'Death By Chocolate' at good old Corner House!

Manhattan is totally awesome. That place has an energy that's totally infectious! 15 minutes into Manhattan and all my fatigue and jetlag were forgotten. I was infused with a sudden burst of energy that left my folks and Murali uncle zapped. Aditi, the sweetheart that she is, kept up with my enthusiasm!

We started out with a visit to see the dame with the torch. Only ma and I had any enthu to walk up the pedestal and take in the view. After that it was off on a train to downtown Manhattan. The train from Jersey City took us straight to Ground Zero.

What happened at the WTC four years ago was a tragedy, but seeing that desolate hole in the ground in person did something to me. Somehow seeing it in person, standing that and seeing a big crater on the ground and skyscrapers all around, and the flags around flying at half mast made the horror and the sheer magnitude of the tragedy very real.

After that we all grabbed a bite and walked to the Empire State Building. Crappy part of it was that we stood in queues and went through all sorts of security checks only and finally got to the ticket counter after nearly an hour only to be told that visibility from the observation deck was zero. I hate cloudy weather!

So we navigated our way out of there and headed to Time Square. I asked Axe to meet me there. And he was annoyed that I stopped for a moment to take a picture of something. Apparently that makes me a "tourist" . Wow.... i guess that's a complete faux pas! How could I do something so thoroughly clumsy or inconsiderate!!! So native New Yorkers may now think of me as a 'tourist'. Damn... I brought that on myself!

I decided to call it a day after that, and just try to catch up on sleep. And I convinced my folks that we should go back there again the next day, and that's just what we did. But what with getting Aditi ready and taking a train to the big apple from NJ, we didn't get there till almost noon.

This time we played it better and took one of those hop-on-hop-off-tours. That was a really good call, imho. We got to the top of the empire state buildings, where dad took lots of videos (I really have no clue why), and Aditi was fast asleep. I take my daughter to the top of the world and she falls asleep...... those certainly aren't MY genes.

And then we spent better part of the afternoon on the bus seeing all the 'Patel points'. I was totally kicked at the sheer number of buildings with Art Deco trimmings. Some of the older ones, especially like the NY Public Library were really ornate. I never thought New York had that many old-fashioned buildings trimmed with scrollwork. And the guide on the tour bus was a bit of an architecture buff, and he pointed out some really lovely examples. We saw Greenwish village, Lower East Side, Wall Street, Time Square and other assorted 'must see' points of on interest.

The evening tour was great. Boy, does Manhattan light up pretty! We were driven over the bridge to Brooklyn, to see the lights of Manhattan.

Seriously though, I could spend a week in Manhattan and still not see all there is! I didn't get to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That was the one thing I really wanted to see! So maybe on my way back Singy I will..... This is one place I wish I could come to and explore it on my own. I could leave Aditi with Arun and come over to NY and explore and enjoy it to the hilt. Sigh.... total wishful thinking!

Pics?? definitely.... when I get around to downloading them. No enthu for that right now

Musings from Kentucky

All I could see from the window as the plane descended towards Lexington was lots of grassy paddocks and lots of horses! Imagine seeing that many horses.

It was great seeing Gowra after such a long time. This place is quite pretty. After all the highrises of Singy, a residential area where I can't hear traffic, where the houses are spaced wide apart, where there's no bright light shining thru windows late into the night, this is really strange! Which is why I'm awake all odd hours updating my blog.

And bear with me, people, about the word verification before posting comments. Got too much spam lately, so enabled that.

Off to spend a month with sis

It's been a totally hectic couple of weeks. I still havent figured out which way is up. But finally am off tomorrow on a nice holiday, and spend a month with Gowra..... Aditi is going to miss Arun like crazy. I just hope she doesn't cry too much at the airport! More blogging from the US.

Why ARE Men Happier?

Men Are Just Happier People- What do you expect from such simple creatures?

Your last name stays put.The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car Mechanics tell you the truth.The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another petrol station restroom because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress £3000. Tux rental £10. People never stare at your chest when you are talking to them. The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected. New shoes don't cut, blister,or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A 5 day holiday requires only one suitcase .

You can open all of your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. Your underwear is £5.00 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original colour. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe even decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes one colour for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter what how your legs look. You do your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

Thanks, Tina... this was a great start to the day. Enjoy folks, and have a good laugh.

A weekend of movies

Mangal Pandey - The Rising

We managed to watch it this weekend. I'd say not bad at all. With all the hype I expected more. The movie could have done very well without Rani Mukherjee and Amisha Patel. Two of the songs too could have been taken out.

Why is Bollywood so fixated with a love-interest for every protagonist? The two so called leading ladies were strictly decorative. And totally irrelevant to the plot!

If you're planning to watch it, ignore all the hype. A good evening's timepass.

Must Love Dogs

Soumya and I decided to spare our other-halves the agony of a chick-flick and went to watch must love dogs. I loved it. It was quite hilarious, deals with the perils of internet dating. Funniest part was, it was just the 2 of us in the theatre! It was good watching a nice chick-flick after ages. Christopher Plummer and Stockard Channing are just great. And Dermot Mulrooney is getting old.....

I really wouldn't call it a romantic comedy. It's funnier than it is romantic. The romance fizzles where it should sizzle.

Not great or fantastic... but total relaxing timepass.

Betrayal

I managed to drag Arun to watch Harold Pinter's 'Betrayal'. Lucky for us we got seats right at the front of the theatre. The play was marvellous. Shabana Azmi was totally understated, but the star of the show was definitely Simon Jones. He was incredible funny as Robert. Total Brit style stiff upper lip and all that. Totally hilarious!

I guess this wasn't really Arun's cup of tea as far as entertainment goes. Until Aditi is old enough to go with me, I'll try to go with Soumya for any theatre productions. If I get lucky, Nayeem might even make biriyani for post-theatre supper..... so much wishful thinking!

Got around to uploading pics

To those of you who aren't quite that bored with pics from our totally predictable lives, here you go.

These are some pics taken on Aditi's birthday and at her party.
As usual no one got around to taking a decent pic of me with Aditi.

Aditi's first day at playschool. My little baby is growing up too fast

A quick count

I got this really funny optical illusion thingie in the mail today. I don't know if the animation is likely to work here, but its worth a try. So are there 12 or 13 men in the picture??

PS: no, it doesn't work. Can anyone tell me if there are any findas about using .GIF files in a blog?

Happy Birthday Aditi

Aditi is another year older. She's all of two years old. Seems it was just yesterday that I took her in my arms for the first time. Seems like it was just yesterday that she turned over, crawled, sat up, stood, walked for the first time. How time flies...

So another birthday came and went without my being able to carry out half of what I had planned. Suff happens.

Licensing woes

All I want is a birthday cake for Aditi, with a picture of Tom and Jerry iced on it. Apparently, according to 5 different cake joints that I called or mailed in the last two days, one needs a license for that. License for what? License to draw Tom and Jerry on a birthday cake. Apparently it would lead to copyright infringement.

For the love of God, this is a cake meant for a two year old's birthday party. What the hell is the copyright all about? The cake is going be history less than five minutes after being brought to the table. After the first few satisfied burps, no one is going to care whether they ate Tom or Jerry. This explanation didn't satisfy one persistent salesperson. He said he had a license for Sylvester and Tweety! Aditi doesn't know those dudes, so I (not so politely) declined. I guess the only other character she knows (and who's licensed locally) is Winnie the Pooh. But she had Pooh-bear on her birthday cake last year too.

As I was looking through what few pictures I have form Aditi's first Birthday party, I realized that her cake last year too had the copyright C in a circle followed by Disney thingie. And 'Happy Birthday Aditi' was relegated to an unimportant corner of the cake board! It was Aditi's b'day cake, dashit... not Disney's! And the colours on the sign were all wrong too.

I am still on the lookout for a Tom and Jerry cake. Anyone knows who's got the relevant license?

Death by... Dum???

I have evolved. Things have changed around me, things are changing around me, things will always change around me. I resisted change. I stuck to what I thought was the best, most sublime, and supremely comforting food... Death By Chocolate from good old Cornerhouse on Residency Road!

The best comfort food, henceforth, is ... (drumrolls)... the utterly delicious dum Biriyani made by Nayeem. Overate one of his really awesome creations yesterday, but am in a state of utter bliss.

Nayeem's creations have officially become #1 food for the heart, soul, and the belly too. Go Nayeem!

Why didn't I get a doggy bag... Damn!

Don't you dare stop!

I had a rather enlightening conversation with Axe about his vehement objections to tourists in New York. Yes, I understand how this can be a problem.

Axe, apparently, doesn't like to go to Times Square, because "that place is full of tourists!" How dare they!! And what do they do? They stop suddenly as they are walking around the place! Imagine that... How dare they interrupt a "cynical, wannabe New Yorker"! Up in arms, I say!

Any lawyers out there want to take this up??

Kid stuff

As you all know, Arun has been giving public the finger for about 2 weeks now thanks to a cricket injury. But for the last week, the middle finger in question is sporting a vivid yellow band-aid with assorted cartoon characters. A cat playing tennis, a Hippo in a Speedo (shudder), among others.

Why? Very simple. The kiddie band-aid is the only one that sits snug on the injured middle finger.

And what does Aditi say about her daddy dearest wearing her band-aids? She's ok with it, as long as she too has one. So if you see Aditi sporting a band-aid, she's just copying her daddy darling. Don't waste any sympathy there. She isn't hurt at all.

Lots n lots of pics.

Took a post out of Denti's blog, and just made a BIG collage of lots of pics that I thought were worth sharing.

These are pics taken at home, and at Boat Quay.



These are a result of a few hours of joblessness. These are the views out of one of our 19th floor windows. You can see the Clementi Stadium, the West Coast Recreation centre, and the sea very far away.


Enjoy!

Is Rowling losing it?

I booked my copy over 2 months ago, and it was delivered to me at 8am. Needless to say, I put speed reading to the test and finished reading it before the evening set in. And I was really pissed off. 600 odd pages, and the story really doesn't go anywhere! Six hundred odd pages, just to pull the plot all over the place and still not go anywhere!

Spoiler Warning!
(Don't read any further if you haven't read the book yet or if you plan to do so in the near future!)

So what happens in six hundred odd pages of the 'Half Blood Prince'? Dumbledore is looking for hidden bits of Lord Voldemort's soul, which is what helps him stay alive. He finds one, but has a terrible mishap in the process. He returns to Hogwarts so he can ask Snape for help. Snape turns out the be the half-blood Prince, and helps Draco Malfoy kill Albus Dumbledore. All this happens only in the last 150 odd pages!

And turns out, Dumbledore died for nothing. The soul thingie wasn't there after all. And there's this note from 'R.A.B.' informing Lord Voldemort that he has the thingie.

If you really want to read the spoiler, highlight the blank space above.

Speculation
So anyone wanna bet that Harry is going to find the Horcrux at 12 Grimmauld place? RAB could be the initials of Regulus Black, Sirius' brother.

Bedtime reading

• "Let me tell you one vairy funny story about putting. It was one day I play at Nijni-Novgorod with the pro, against Lenin and Trotsky, and Trotsky had a two-inch putt for the hole. But, just as he addresses the ball, someone in the crowd he tries to assassinate Lenin with a rewolwer--you know that is our great national sport, trying to assassinate Lenin with rewolwers--and the bang puts Trotsky off his stroke and he goes five yards past the hole, and then Lenin, who is rather shaken, you understand, he misses again himself, and we win the hole and match and I clean up three hundred and ninety-six thousand roubles, or fifteen shillings in your money. Some gameovitch! And now let me tell you one other vairy funny story----"

'Huh', you say? 'What the...?' you think? Wait, and it shall all be explained. It is a parent's duty to develop their child's mind with good literature. And Arun is doing just that with Aditi. That is an excerpt from 'The Clicking of Cuthbert' from PG Wodehouse's Wodehouse on Golf. Arun is reading that aloud to Aditi at bedtime! Even as I blog, Aditi is listening with rapt attention to the words of the master, and makes a sound of protest when daddy dearest pauses for breath.

And just how did daddy dearest decide on Wodehouse? He has his objections to the standard repertoire of nursery rhymes and fairy tales. So he decided that bedtime reading should be happy reading and just picked up the first Wodehouse he got his hands on and started reading to Aditi about Cuthbert Banks' misadventures!

I'm off now... I want to find out how whether Cuthbert Banks clicked or not..