Get a better deal

After spending about a year in Houston i came up
with list of stuff!! which I should be buying in India.
I mostly kept this as a reference so that my
next trip to my mother country would be really fruitful
Here goes

1: Clothes.

Which woman is not obssessed with clothes. Unless you are one of the rare
Indian woman who is taller that 5.4 ft try doing most of your shopping in
India.
In US you are classified as petite and that brings down your choice by 80%
You have this small section in the entire store for you.
Don't bother trying on the other stuff.
Its really ill-fitting and you will never wear it
more than one.
India has very good brands now where you can definitely find something
a: Allen Solly (Office wear is great)
b: Wills Life style (Casual Wear)
c: Cotton World
d: You have a mulitute of Malls carrying different labels.
West Side , Shoppers Stop etc..
Make sure you pick all the cotton u want
Pure Cotton is expensive here

2: Makeup

Lakme foundation mousse. Its light and perfect for our skin tone
Their powder is also good but if u like the mineral stuf bare essentials is worth the money.
I do prefer Loreal for lip color. I like picking up this in India
as I find colours for me.


3: Earrings

Please buy all the junk you want from india form our road side
vendors. Here a small loop will cost you $10.

4: Cushion covers

I plan to buy this as I refuse to buy somethign for $14-50
When i would get it for 100-200Rs in India.

5: Ayurvedic skin care

We invented it and its a better deal back home
I am a fan of shenaz hussain. Pick all her stuff

6: Shoes

Yep this is somethign i would load up on
Espcially if u r the kind who likes to create a outfit
I like metro. but you ahve so many options
The full price in india would be the sale price for the
same shoe here.
So imagine if u get a diwali bargain on shoes.

7: Handbags.

Well this is really optional
you get good deals on both ends.

Well this is it for now. Will add more as time passes :)

Does the CIA need insurance ?

It was a chance remark on the radio that caught my attention. I tried to wake up and concentrate on what the section was on. This was very difficult as it was early morning and I still did not have caffiene in my system.
My hubby dear was dropping me of at work, dodging the traffic and we had the radio on some news channel just to keep us awake. They were talking about the CIA. The key word itself carries so much of signifincance. And to me an avid reader of Robert Ludlem spy novels it carried a lot of weight.
They were talking about how CIA officials needed insurance to protect their back.
I didn't get it obviously at first. What did insurance have to do with a CIA operative ?
They did go further to explain.
It seems the operatives could not depend on the government if things went wrong. It seemed that the government was famous of backing out when a risky assignment went wrong or when the media discovered some unethical activity. So the CIA was taking insurance so that they can pay lawyers when they were caught in some scrape.
My world of James Bond and other famous spys came crashing down. This seemed to be the limit, to have a government that sent you on some assignment and then pull the ground beneath just coz u were doing your job.
It shook my idea of the country's intelligence. This suddenly seemed like a small view of a very big chasm in system.
The news did go on to other gross things happening in the country and we did make it through the traffic to my office in time. But in that short period my vision of a worthy government came crumbling down.
I guess this is the reality of the world we will in today. You are alone and are left to protect your own. There are no guarantees.
Ah!! now that i think of it I shd be in the insurance biz. I will always have customers :)
This is the world after all.

Is feng shui rational ?

Feng Shui has been an interesting experience in my life. Most of my friends are non-belivers but they still listen 2 any advice i have 2 give. I never thought I would start consulting on the subject. It was only an interest which took a life of its own.
The most common question my friends have for me is that how can this be a rational science.
You see so many articles in newspapers and magzines talking about oriental words such as 'chi' and 'qua', your intellect can easily disregard this as glibberish.
So I present my argument here.

We start with defining what is rational ?
I can go into endless argument over this but I think we can keep it simple. What ever can be logically explained in terms of cause and effect is rational. Also the casue should always produce the same effect.

If we consider and experiement in the molecular level we can easily see how sensitive a molecule or an atom is to its environement. A slight difference in tempertature or pressure make all the difference.
Each particle is very sensitive to its enironment. An science students accepts this when he/she goes through the tedious chemistry classes or the physics experiments concering a magnet.
Yet articles such as color, water, light in a room or a house do not get percieved as an environment for an object such as the human being. What about direction ? Does direction affect a magnet ? Does direction affect a moving magnet (human object in motion) ?
Can such an environment affect cause a shift in the state of mind ?
These are almost rehtoric questions. The mind or mental acitivity can be compared to an electric powerhouse and i would say always has a balance state of energy.
What we call depression/elation are states of mind, as well as pride and confidence.
Each one of us understand at some primary level that other humans definetly affect us.
But inanimate objects ?
I say they do, as an inanimate object does not have life as in human life but it still has energy. It is made up of atoms in constant motion. That energy is emitted and affects other atoms near us. The result of this emition and absorbition of energy is relative to what is emitting and what object is observing.
So at a basic level i believe we are affected by what is around us.
Now we come to the question how can such can affects events in our lives.
The answer is simple, it does not affect our future or events in our lives directly but it affects us and we make our future.
So I believe feng shui does make life better and definitely livable.
There are many articles out there with strict rules as what is considered good and what is bad. All I can say is incomplete knowledge is worse that no knowledge at all.
I remember going to a my friends house and her mother told me she had read in the newspaper that keeping water at the entrance is good fengshui. When I went to see it i realized the whole objective of the excercise was not realized. She had filled a mug and kept it near the door. True your adding water element but this will not make you feel better.
Never add anything impractical to your surroundings. You should not be knocking on something each time you walk by. You should always have an environment which is pleasing to your eye.
Ground rule 'always follow your intution'.
We come back to our topic. Can feng shui be rational ?
Cause and effect was the basis of my argument. The cause is energy (u can call it atomic or subamtomic)
and the effect is shift in state.
I rest my case.

'the year of the yao'

my first basket ball match!!! well for all who wonder who yao is !! thats a 7.6 foot tall chinese..yep ..a dodo among the mogolian race and an all star of Houston's basket ball team Rockets.
My hubby is a big fan of basketball. let me rephrase he is a big fan of anything close to sports. :) i could have mostly probaly written the screen play for the movie 'fever pitch'. Let me give some background about myself. I come from a family of 4 girls, none who have the remote interest in watching sports and lets not talk about taking part in it.
My younger sisters shows promising signs though of becoming a short- put star and a throw ball junkie. So you see nothing prepared me for the sports mania in america.
In-house in India we have only one craze and thats cricket and in an over populated country getting tickets for wankhede stadium matches was a once in a life opportunity( what are your chances of winning a lottery ticket!! )
So when i went yesterday for my first match it felt very much like going to a movie theatre. At least on the outside. My hubby came in early and i... like the perfect wife :D was all ready and set to go. I have passed Toyota center a couple of times on my way to downtown. Huge space and very much like all other downtown buildings: cement and glass.
We managed to reach early so we were proud recipients of Tracy Mcgrady ducks ..yes bathtub ducks :)) and a yao poster. Being an indian u never complain when u get stuff free You such feel so proud of yourself !!
I was hungry and knew the tradition of eating a hot dog while watching basket ball. All those hollywood movies leave such impressions :) So we got our hot dog and went in search of our seats. Now the whole building is circular with food stalls in the outercircle and the stadium in the middle. So until we reached the 4th floor and walked into the stadium i had no idea how it was.
The feeling is indescrible standing at such height with the basket ball court in the center surrounded by almost 1800 ppl and with loud rock music blasting though the large speakers.
Your heart beat races and u can feel the energy in the crowd pulse through you.
I had no idea it would be like this. This can happen only in an indoor stadium..the energy generated does not dissipate easily and it results in such tangible force.
I took a moment or to recover and then accompanied my husband to our seats. And for the next two hours it was a drama unfold.
Rockets were playing against grizzles (memphis). I am not into sport technical terms. I can only relate it 2 what i know the best and thats theatre.
24 secs .thats the time given for shooting the ball. In real life it is so small but down there on the court each second counts. Initailly i tght the music wld stop when the game started but the music played along with the game. When the opponent team got the ball it would go defense defense!! and backgrnd music from the movie 'JAWS' .
When rockets got the ball and were about to shoot it would go to rock music.
And on every Rockets basket .wow!! the whole place would lit up...
this is better than a rock concert! During the intervals where you have cheerleaders dance to great songs and since it was kids night(the theme) there were lots of kiddie games.

The game got really interesting in the 4th quater (the last) where grizzles were not way behind. In the last two minutes i had my hand on my heart for i didn't think i wld bear it if rockets lost. but did they make it or what ! .They were sharp and quick. In the last 18 secs we knew rockets were winning the game as they were 8 points ahead. In such a situtation the team usually doesn't shoot (to show respect for the opposing team) but guess what happened in the last .2 sec rockets was fouled by memphis and Tracy Mc grady had take 2 free throws!! Now whats the best part here.Rockets were standing at a score of 98. McDonalds had an offer going ' a free mac buger for everyone if rockets scored 100 ' !!! Ah!!! so guess what happened. Tracy mc grady gave me my free Mac buger.

Yao came out the best with the max shoots. It so good 2 see him play. He is called the gentle giant and has a 88% shoot rate on average. Tracy is the best though !! dependable and reliable to take the team up. But my fav is bob sura. His job is to get the ball fast and quick and pass it quick. Its the intensity of that which i like. Dive through the maze and find a opening.
I shall start collecting bob sura paraphernalia soon, much to the charin of my husband ;)
I hope you guys r not bored now rather you have enjoyed the show along with me.

adieu

my new book

some authors take decades to churn out award winning novels. take margaret mitchel for instance .she took a decade to write 'gone with a wind' . i have taken a decade to try to write the next chapter in my novels. But finally i ahve equiqqed my self so that my lack of patience does not defeat me. I have a sony recorder with me :) and each time an idea a vision passes the maze of my brilliance i capture it in voice which is rather easier than the penned letter.
this one is called 'outside my window' and my protagonists are rhea and siddharth. Sis-bro .
They are the illegitimate children of a world renoun artist Dammini.
This is not a story of the children in search of their father rather it is a story of how change is the only thing constant. and it is inevitable.
In this book i hope to capture what i think about america and americans and draw paralles to our culture.
I have picked a lot from people i know. Each of my characters are an amalgum of people i know and when this does finish or earns a reputable length of woods i shall send to all involved.
For the first time I'm riting not because i hope it will be published rather becoz i want to remember all of this when im 80.