Finally. We can finally say it’s spring!
Made the most of it today.
At Waterloo Park.
Freesbee time.
Some were recovering from a night of heavy partying.
Some were being babied.
Some were being used as a couch.
Lounging around. Totally lazy day.
And now time to relax some more and read.
What a great weekend.
Back from the hairdresser.
A close up.
First the preparation.
Of course the kids had to chip in.
Outstanding soup!
Mussels. Tried it for the first time. Loved it!
Has to finished…. We willingly obliged.
Time for home made sushi!
… with wine, of course.
Yup… all that is home made.
Topped it off with a cake.
Lovely dinner as usual.
So in 2002, nanah munna Anurag Sharma left India for good to move to a better life (read for more $s) to the western civilization.
After living in Canada for 12 years $s were scarce so he acquired a beer belly
He was blessed with a daughter who looked like this :
to become this
He also keeps his dream alive of owning a Ferrai. But considering the iron grip his daughter has on him, the car will look like this :
See you soon India!
Why did the Boston Marathon incident affect me so much?
I mean for a period of 2 days I was walking around in a haze. I was doing what was expected of me at work and home but all the time I was essentially….sad.
The only reason that comes to mind is the fact marathon is a sport that is physically taxing. A runner deliberately punishes oneself to point where the person feels an exhilarating pain. This act of running is highly individualistic and gives one a supreme sense of accomplishment. Running is simple and straightforward. No complications. As a runner I sweat, I suffer and I look forward to that finish line. The world and it’s problems has no place in my life during my run. And in the last leg your energy is finished, your adrenaline is severely depleted, your will power is gone but the cheering of the crowd at the end adds a persistence to your legs that seem to drive through the cheers and claps, the high fives and the inevitable “you are almost there”. Most of the times it’s this factor that has forced me to finish with head held high and a smile on my face. And sometimes I have shed tears.
And then a bomb explodes next to you. An innocent moment utterly destroyed. I know that this happens in rest of the world at an alarming regularity and they are far worse than what happened at Boston.
But this happened to a sport I love and it hit me very hard.
I am better now. I am looking forward to the Waterloo Marathon on 28 April. I will try and run my best marathon and say a silent thank you to those killed and maimed in Boston.
This marathon run is for them.
The debate continues.
<link>
Since at least the 1980s researchers in many different fields—including psychology, computer engineering, and library and information science—have investigated such questions in more than one hundred published studies. The matter is by no means settled. Before 1992 most studies concluded that people read slower, less accurately and less comprehensively on screens than on paper. Studies published since the early 1990s, however, have produced more inconsistent results: a slight majority has confirmed earlier conclusions, but almost as many have found few significant differences in reading speed or comprehension between paper and screens.
I have now more or less switched to ebooks. The convenience factor of carrying all your books is too good pass up. Moreover, I have noticed that I read more. However, I do find that every now and then I want to go back to my paper books and I always notice the difference. Reading from a paper is far far better.
But then I come across a word I do not know and I try and invoke the dictionary on the paper book which then takes me back to my ebook.
The only hope is that the ebook screen becomes better. In the meantime, the debate continues!
Saw Discovery shuttle with 39 space missions under its belt!
Amazing! Also saw Enola Gay. The plane that dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima.
And here is the working replica of the plane that stated it all….
The view from my friend’s house.
This has been my running in the 6 months….a downward slope.
Am trying to be more focussed and pay more attention to my running but these are the hinderances that I face :
> My wife. She hates my running. Does not get it at all. Especially if I have to do a long run. Anyway, the situation has been improving. She is on a drive to reduce weight so we do not argue that much before my runs.
> Work. Seriously. Don’t know what changed in the last 6 months or so. Workload has increased like crazy! Sometimes am spending nights working.
> Cold weather. I don’t mind running in the cold but when I want to got for an hour I just tell myself…awww shucks, who is going to get dressed and then warm up and then run in the cold. Might as well spend time on the treadmill. And then I see some thing that I need to do around the house and before you know it…..it’s too late to run.
My new year resolution? Nothing stands in my way of running. Nothing.
Let’s see how long that resolution lasts :)
Today is one of those days.
Wife off today and constantly complaining about her staff. Man, if I had a dime for every time she needs to rant about her clinic, I would have paid off her debts!
Daughter just being opinionated. She woke me up this morning to let me know that she will not be wearing her snow pants. I don’t what it is with not wearing snow pants. Her argument boils down to “the key word is snow. Where is it?” Even though it is -10C outside!
Work is a pain! So much to do. And the fact that the teams are spread over China, Malaysia, India, USA and Canada does not help.
So what is one supposed to do?
MUSIC!!
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My daughter got a book from the library titled “I Survived The Attacks Of11SEP2001”. Why she picked this book, I have no idea but I think the covermight have had something to do with it. Tall buildings on fire; People running; bold letters of the book title in red.
She read the first chapter and suddenly, she was full of questions. Why it happened? How it happened?
And this question really threw me off : “Did they arrest the pilots?”
In the mind of a child, there is no concept of mass murder, no concept of someone deliberately harming another human being for no reason. In the mind of a child, your actions may lead to damage (even that is alittle hard for a child to comprehend “why would they hit the buildings?”) but everyone has to face the music after the act.In the mind of a child everyone is pure. It is us adults who ruin that feeling and ruin the mindset that is desperately needed.
But then again, she needs to see what the world really is….sometimes a beautiful place and sometimes a heartless monster. I can only hope her thoughts will remain on track that they are on right now for as long a possible.
My daughter (on right) and her best friend. Can you tell that they are only 11 months apart!?!?
Rhea and her cousins. Kids doing what kids do best……being kids!
My wife. She loves posing and her daughter loves taking pictures!
Rhea and Surya engrossed in a movie.
Monika and Charu. Wine tasting escapade!
At Moose Wonooski’s. Birthday special is a pie in the face. My daughter insisted that we go there for my birthday.
She got me pretty good!
Well, here are some pictures of the new house.
View from our backyard :
The kitchen :
The dining area :
Paintings to be put up :
Her highness’s room
Another view of Rhea’s room
The move had been tough. I have no idea how people move so often. The packing, unpacking, the new neighbors, new area.
Speaking of new area I like the fact that this place had a lot of hills. Hope to use them extensively in my running.
Yup! We are moving. From Mississauga to Kitchener. Just a 45 minute drive away from everything we have known for last 10 years. Definitely bittersweet. This is our first home ever! My daughter was born in this house! Our friends and family never more than 10 minutes away are suddenly far, far away.
Its exciting and scary. I hope that life continues with its own pace and momentum without compromising on peace and happiness.
Updates coming soon!
Bored. So took a picture.
At Buffalo Wild Wings. Her tongue got burnt by spices….so did mine.
At the edge of Niagara falls. Freakishly awesome!!
Breakfast in need. She was presently surprised!
My bro in law in hospital with dislocated knee. It was so bad that he was in surgery for 6 hours!!!
My baby, not a baby anymore!
So we were watching the latest episode of Satyamev Jayate (http://www.satyamevjayate.in/issue05/)
The simple act of falling in love opens up a world of emotions and reactions which sometimes culminate in crime – the death of the couple. Even if they escape death, lovers who go against religious and community barriers still have to face harassment and censure from society and, due to this pressure, rejection from their families. But the law is clear, that consenting adults are free to marry. And there is an organization which protects couples, helps them fight harassment and gives them shelter so they can marry freely.
There was a gentleman who was going on about how the idea that you need to live according to your ”tradition” was clashing with the law of the land. I vocally agreed with him and the wifey turns to me and says,
”you would be totally happy with the fact that your daughter might one day want to be with some dude who insists that she become a muslim or christian or sikh or bald if she wants to continue with the relationship”
It took me a few seconds but my answer was
”if my daughter says yes to any such demand, I would know in that instance that I have failed as a father”.
This conversation is part of the on going sedated argument with my wife on religion. Sedated, because it has not come to loud words yet :)
I think it is a complete waste of time for me or Rhea (my daughter) to focus on any aspect of religion which really pisses my wife. At the moment Rhea is listening to her mom mostly because I know she is afraid of her. But one day, I know it will happen. Rhea is just going to say, ”screw this”.
Am waiting for that day. She will have questions and I will be ready!
Me and my baby watching the French Open.
My daughter just visited the Kumon center for the last time this Saturday.
It was a bittersweet moment for me. Rhea joined Kumon in 2007 (she was 5 years old) and as far as I am concerned, it was one of the best decisions I have made as a parent. I am a huge fan of the center and they helped nurse Rhea’s reading habits (even though they are non existent right now!) and helped her with the basics of mathematics.
When my wife was away at NYU, the stress of running the house, taking care of Rhea and working in downtown did not leave me enough time for my daughter’s studies. Thanks to Kumon, there was some sort of focus in that area.
But over the past few months, I noticed that her studies at school have progressively gone on a tangent with relation to Kumon. Don’t get me wrong! What they teach at Kumon is vital. Basic building blocks stuff. I am also aware that at higher levels, Kumon (or similar institutions) are more aligned to the school curriculum. Therefore, my wife and I decided to book a tutor for Rhea. Add the fact that we are moving to Kitchener soon, it was time to say goodbye to Kumon.
Rhea wrote this lovely letter to the head (Terri). Love the way she thinks she is super smart :)
Here are some other pictures from this month (tagged):
Been a big fan of The Black Keys for a while now. I had thought that they had lost a little direction with their previous album Brother but they proved me wrong. Their latest album came out in December. Since I had put ordered it (yes i’m one of those fans), I was able to form an opinion on the album on the first day. This is the best album from the Keys to date. Even better than their earlier catalog.
So when I was offered the chance to see them live, I jumped at it. And the opening act was The Arctic Monkeys!!! What could’ve better than the combination. I was really looking forward to a fun evening of fantastic music. And then I see the seats at the ACC. That’s when I remembered the reason why I stopped going to large venues. I was wedged tightly between a woman making out heavily with her boyfriend and a guy who seemed to be having a competition with treat of the crowd. As in he was trying to prove he could drink more than 10 people put together.
The Monkeys were outstanding but the sound system was horrible! i’m surprised no one really complained about it. Since I was alone and wedged between the make out couple and the drunk, I kept quiet.
The enthusiasm I had for the show was dying by the minute. The worst was the time between the opening act and the feature act. Drunk got himself three beers, people behind me lite up a joint and the make out couple would not stop taking cute pictures of themselves, with the flash.
The moment The Keys came on, everything changed! From they opening song (Howling for you) till the end, they were outstanding. The art work on the screen was amazing but quite distracting. The music was good and the band was tight. I still had issues with the sound but the songs were good enough to tide over that short coming.
Overall it was a good experience but I have decided no more large venues. Young people are fun to around but sometimes they are too much. And with that statement I have officially become old!
btw, this is my first post on the Samsung Galaxy. Tried it several times on the iPod and the iPad but I was never able to finish a post on those devices.
Last week has been a whirlwind of wok at “WORK” and on the home front.
The business I work for is changing my role from developer (which I love) to deployer. Which I love but not as much as the former. It means that there will be a lot more work on the weekends (something I am not looking forward to as this would have an impact on my daughter’s extracurricular activities) and late nights as my reporting boss is in China. Not looking forward to the new set up at all!!
As to the home front, we are moving to Kitchener Ontario! Wifey bought a clinic in that city so we are moving closer to the investment.
We went house hunting last Sunday. The first thing I notices is that Kitchener is quite a hilly area! Perfect for hill repeats! The second thing I noticed was the conspicuous lack of non-white folks. Maybe I was in the wrong part of the town.
So, the entire Sunday was spent looking at houses ranging from the fabulous to beautiful. Seriously! We did not come to a single “ugly” house. Which just makes the decision harder. So far we scouted Waterloo (a very close neighbour of Kitchener) and some parts of Kitchener. I think we will be deciding by end of March on which houses to put an offer on.
Since we had these plans, I decided to do my long run on early Saturday morning.
The first thing I did when I stepped outside was to run back in and change from my shorts to slacks. My god was it cold!! The weather has been playing mind games with us poor Ontarians. So, I started with the intention of finishing 20K. My dreams of running a 50 K live on but I know I am not there yet. I am still in the process of building my long runs which have not topped 25K so far. Never mind. I have time. I think!
So I ran a random 20K. It was surprisingly tougher than I thought it would be. My legs were really aching by the time I finished. The only reason that comes to mind is because we slept really really late on Friday and we were all coughing or sneezing the whole time. I still have not fully recovered. I am hoping I do so cause I will run no matter how much snot I spew!
The week on the whole was tough. Probably the cold I was battling. The best run was on Friday. Sunshine + Friday + Downtown Lakeshore = Happiness all around. Except for the surly runners. Not a single one, barring a young lady (who received my best winning smile) returned my hellos. WTF! And Toronto is supposed to be a friendly city. Bah!
Hope to get in a solid week of running! Happy running everyone!
Desi In Toronto 