50 posts and counting!

This is Bauma week in Munich, which means like the Oktoberfest all hotels are sold out, most restaurants are booked through for the week and the town is crawling with camera weilding tourists. One of my Uncles , Sudarsan Uncle, who lives in Nigeria is also in town and he works in the construction business and he says this is probably the most important fair for the industry. It was great to see him again. Never thought I would say it but I am counting the days to chucking my crutches, next Monday is walking day! My shoulders are constantly sore from carrying me around and Priya's patience from picking up after me is almost worn out. It will be back to the office for me from next week onwards, living in airports the week after and wishing I broken the other leg too the week after that. Can't say I am not looking forward to Nasi Goreng again but cannot afford to be away for too long because of my physiotherapy. Prasoon and Raji are blessed with a beautiful baby girl, not sure who she looks like but from all accounts she is not the night owl that her old man is. In other news the Siemens CEO, Klaus Klienfeld, will not be seeking an extension of his contract, another victim of the corruption plague that is currently rocking Siemens. I liked him, he seemed to want change and was willing to take on hard tasks and was not seeking consensual accord. I would be shorting the Siemens stock if I owned any. There are three long weekends in May, so its a popular time to take vacation. The first of which we are going to stay put, for the second one we will be hanging out with some friends visiting from the US (Abey and Dhanya) and not sure what we are going to do for the last one. With Priya working, our flexibility in taking vacations has greatly diminished so long term planning is required. We are thinking Portugal in September. My dad thinks I have too much time on my hand because I have 'written' so many pages on my blog, I am just glad he reads it. Another week of splendid weather in Munich! 4 more days to walking again, I am excited.

The weekend is here!!

I am not much of a TV show person ,though I totally dig movies, so when the American Idol buzz started in the US a couple of years ago I never really paid any attention. However when Google's News trawler keeps posting as one of its headlines the conspicious name "Sanjaya" (thats right with an 'a'), I was tempted to read. Last night I did some youtubing to look for the infamous 'item number' and then to find out that now I know where not to go for new hairdos. More power I say, more power to those who like to groove. Unconfirmed rumours have it for some in Singapore, last nights result have forced them to take a day off to greive the unexpected of exit of this rising star. Clearly I don't have much to do! Among other things, I managed to break another laptop this week so that makes 2 in a row. there was a small window where I did not have any access to the Net during which I honestly admit I was a bit jittery. Not having access to a PC and sitting at home with your leg in a sling is like death by boredom. Fortunately IBM came through. It was hard to wipe off the glee on my face even if you had snow scraper when I turned on my little black box. Life is good again. The last couple of days the wife has really been earning her bread, she has been working weekends and most nights. Now she has no reason to complain when I come home late (or never come home when I am travelling). Threatening to go shopping this weekend, I call it stress relief. We are back to the good Joyzee days now where we both worked late, had dinner at 10 and were always waking up half an hour after the alarm clock has rung. However no bagels for breakfast. Inspirations comes in all forms when it comes to overcoming extreme conditions and doing something different, in the case of some of my old classmates its continuous degradation of the environment. Global warming to some. Sean and Ed have spent the last couple of months training for a marathon they ran in the Sahara desert and around the North Pole. More details at their blog. Please do support their cause. Speaking of running, remember the crazy Irishman who ran across kerala? I really thought was very cool. The leg is coming along fine, Doctor seems to think everything is fine and has now asked me to come back in 4 weeks. Crutches go off in 10 days, Physio tells me its going to take about a week to learn how to walk again. Weekend is here again, not that it matters, and the weather in Munich continues to be splendid.

Easter blessings

Easter meals for Syrian Christians are typically associated with meat overdose and extreme stretching of the stomach walls . This gastronomical extravagance is predicated on having given up worldly pleasures like meat, alcohol etc and fasting for 40 day prior to the actual meal. However our last 40 days were anything but pious other than me being dragged to church to attend Mass( and I dragging myself back home after that,literally). Nevertheless since I am bound to tradition we made sure we feasted lest people thought we were ungodly. The unlucky animal was a duck and some portion of lamb accompanied by Kerala's finest Appams (bread). However this year our american brethren, RIJANU aka my sister in law (who had nothing to do with the cooking), were crowned the new Lords of Gluttony - 4 different types of meats (one of which was cooked in 2 different ways). Lets hope they displayed some piety during the lent season. Made the usual 'Happy Easter' calls to India. Nimmy Aunty, Priya's aunt, shared some interesting commentary on the Indian cricket team and their well deserved worldcup exit. - Virgin Atlantic wanted to be the new sponsors of the Indian Cricket, however the Cricket board humbly rejected the offer. When asked why, they replied that the Indian team was getting screwed on every match. - Called a friend who said he was watching a blue movie. Suprised at this non-characteristic behaviour, I asked - 'Is it any good?'. He replied that this one was particularly painful, the Men in blue being hammered by Bangladeshies. - 'Wings Sanitary Napkins' is the new sponsor of the Indian cricket team because they are going through difficult periods!! Apparently these jokes are doing countless rounds on sms servers all over India. I finally passed the half way mark with my crutches, another 3 freaking weeks to go. Working for a few more hours now so the day slips by very quickly. Will start making some trips to the office next week. My home laptop died, motherboard got fried. However I must say that IBM laptops are one of the better ones that I have used. Arul was here for a few days, got my share of INSEAD gossip though he was mildly perturbed to see me hobbling around. It was good fun having him over for a few days. He still maintains that New Jersey sucks, some people just don't the bright of these places! Will ask the Sopranos to visit him to liven his life up a bit.

Stitches, books and muses

Went to the Doctor on tuesday, got my stitches removed and knee examined. He was very happy with me being able to bend my knee upto 90 degrees, he seemed to indicate that it usually takes more time. He has encouraged me to keep bending... Have another appointment with him in 2 weeks. Meanwhile my physio trips are beginning to get less painful and I am doing a lot more than when I started, however my right leg is noticeably smaller than the other one which indicate how much my muscles are atrophying. Overall the verdict is not bad! Last night was the first one that I made it through without any painkillers. Did some catching up on movies and books over the last couple of weeks and it feels good to be back reading fiction (purposeless reading) and being able to think a little more about trivial philosphy which was very important not too long ago. Priya recommended a book a long time ago, Shantaram, which she picked up at the Princeton library under the section which labelled 'Librarian's choices'. I picked up a copy a few weeks ago in KL knowing that I will have time to read now that I will be at home for a couple of weeks. Its a big book, about 1000 pages, but a fantastic read and worth every page of it. The book is mirrored on a true story which honestly makes it more irksome and gritty but perhaps a little more personable. Certainly in my top ten reads ever (I have forgotten the contents of the other ones, so cannot rank it at the top just yet). Its sense of adventure, spirit and dabbles of philosphy make it an unusually well written book with no real distinct style other than a very informal feel to the narrative. At the end of the autobiographical saga you are left with the feeling - My life sucks! I promise you will want to finish book after the first couple of pages. Its soon to be made into a movie with Johny Depp, the Big B and Shah Rukh Khan. I won't go into the details as it will spoil the story but I highly recommend reading the book!! Priya had bought this book, The Sunday Philosphers Club, as part of her Book club reading - Yeah she belongs to a book club. The author, Alexander Mccall Smith, has written the successful series No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency which by all account is quite engrossing. However I don't share the same sentiment for this book nor its characters. The language is OK but the characters are dull and for the most part not that cheerful either. The book is also written in a high handed context and does not reveal much as you read along expecting that finish will make up for it only once again disappointed. Prognosis - Don't buy book but instead buy the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Tuesdays with Morrie is a very easy read and was recommended by the wife to open my eyes to the real meaning of life. A lot of what you will read in the book is obvious and you have probably heard many times before however when presented as old man's life lessons narrated on his deathbed it reiterates those points. I think it also explores death and intimidates us into revaluating our lives again. A worthwhile read, perhaps one that will trigger some of those pensive mood swings. Jhumpa Lahiri's book Namesake which was recently made into a movie is credited to be an interesting (some say depressing) read. Rohit sent me a link which I think is true about many authors though only few will admit lest they lessen their genius! It seems she dated a guy who the book is based on but is not willing to admit it atleast that what the article professes. More can be found at this link. Perhaps its correct to say that most writers have real life muses and experience they are less willing to talk about and would rather lead their readers into beleiving that it is a products of the author's vivid imagination.