Tag: life

Trips and tales..
Sunshine'n'Rainbows

Trips and tales..

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This was a draft I found in my dashboard that I never posted – don’t know why! Reading through something you wrote a few months ago, and seeing how much life has changed makes you realize the vulnerability of time. The memories of the trip mentioned below is still fresh in my memory and of course the difficulty of having to do work when you are all jet lagged, but I learnt so much in the last few months.

Anyway, I didn’t want to ignore this post that I never posted on time. So here it is! And I am posting pictures of a few goodies I got from India and also our sweet pup at my mom’s!

IMG_20140106_113710
Tom ( the sandal is his favorite toy! )
Ganeshji wall hanging
Ganeshji wall hanging

January 31, 2014

This is an account of the first trip from US to India and back to the US. So, it is my first trip back to India after a year in the US. I packed my bags and I am all excited to go. The journey is terrible, no doubt when it takes away 17 hours of your life just sitting in an uncomfortable chair. And what better to add to your misery than a faulty flight that takes two hours to restore its normalcy and start its flight. I was stranded at the Dulles Airport inside the airplane with Shankar and several other fellow travelers feeling sorry to have even boarded the plane. And we had a connecting flight at Frankfurt with just three hours of stop over. And somehow we managed to board the connecting flight from Frankfurt to Chennai.

And in Chennai, within a short time span of about three weeks, I managed to get my student visa. And back we flew after a tiring vacation back in India. While India just got hot, hotter and hottest during our vacation there (we call it ‘winter’ when the temperature is around 15 to 20 degree Celsius), we landed back in Dulles at a -11 F temperature. And there was our cab driver, an Indian(oh! I felt blessed to see an Indian take us home from the airport), who took us home. He was bothered about people smoking all the way on the roads, more than anyone I ever knew.

And yes, there we were at our home sweet home. Jet lagged again! Oh, what life!!!

I started work as a GRA a day after arrival and lose my mind around 2 PM when it is night time in India. It is so far doing no good, but I am hoping I will feel good by the end of this week. What drains me of all energy most is my inability to do justice to my watercolor brush. I still have an unfinished oil painting left on the easel, and watercolors drying up and waiting to be used. I just got a few Strathmore Tiles, which I feel is an awesome concept. I always needed a small watercolor pad to carry with me, along with my travel color palette, to do some quick watercolor sketches on the go. I have not done one single sketch on winter, and that feels disappointing.

And TGIF! I have a whole lot to do pending at home.

Artilicious · Sunshine'n'Rainbows

Miss you, Spring!

kruthika1 Comment

What is going on with nature?

Its the end of March and it is snowing. I was so excited when it snowed heavily for the first time this season, because I don’t usually see that much snow in this area. But I am done with handling snow days for the year.

Spring! I miss you! Truly!

It looks like there is going to be no Spring, we are going to head straight into summer. Rains play spoilsport too! Anyway, I have been looking out through the window grabbing every opportunity I can get to go out and enjoy the sun! Meanwhile, work has been rolling. I have been working on the software for my work project, and seems to be taking shape right now. It is always nice to know new languages and develop new applications, but the learning part while on the job is as painful as it can get. I would have just set up my system, only to realize that it has some new error waiting to be resolved. Oh, I am sorry, I am talking about software development. This is really a kind of experience working with a team of to-be-PhDs, knowing how they think and how they work. I have been learning a lot, both good and bad, but in the end, it all helps! Doesn’t it?! 🙂

Also, having no time to paint to sketch, I have planned to invite my friends over for a ‘Paint all you like’ day. It is going to be a lunch / dinner meet up with friends catching up and painting. And yea, for those who love, there is the wine! My hands are getting itchy to paint and I really need to get my hands on painting! I want to try the canvas and acrylic now, given I have two big albums full of watercolor paintings now and only a few of canvas work.

I submitted a few of my paintings to my University’s Art and Photography Contest this week. Lets hope to win. 🙂

 

Artilicious · Sunshine'n'Rainbows

On my birthday, with love..

kruthika2 Comments

Feels like ages since I sat down to write a post here. Well, life gets busy and priorities keep changing. Oh its right what they say – Change is the only constant around us.

Steady state Markov systems is my current assignment and I am totally into it. Suddenly, engineering is all fun! But more fun was on the way as we drove back home from a whole day of shopping and fun. Shankar had arranged a quick surprise for my birthday inviting all my closest friends for a birthday blast. My friends reached at a  totally unexpected moment.

I quickly changed into a dazzling pretty pink lehenga, and got ready to have fun. Cut the cake, eat some, blast some on each other’s faces, and have fun over a couple of drinks! Shankar had all of it arranged. And all this happened the evening before my birthday, given we both had a pretty packed Monday.

And now its time for the gifts. While Manisha surprised me with a bouquet of pretty orange roses, Rubina gifted me with a pretty pink shoulder bag. Did I tell you, ‘pink’ is my favorite color?

And Shankar’s turn it was. Shankar has given me all I wanted and all I needed to feel comfortable with. So he was not sure of what gift would surprise me. Poor Shankie! But a quick drive by the shopping centers can sometimes trigger your passion for something, as it did to me as we passed by the ‘Guitar Center’. I was a little reluctant to buy a musical instrument but I always wanted to learn to play one. And there we go, an awesome birthday gift.

And there goes my birthday resolution – ‘learn to play the piano’.

I am probably the most unconventional learner. I dived directly into playing one of my all time favorites with all the help from the web.

thats my pianoWhat more could I ask for? It was such a lovely evening, and thanks to my friends, to have made it to the party at such a short notice. And did you notice the iPad in place of the sheet music! Lol, thanks to today’s technology!

Sunshine'n'Rainbows

Life is changing \m/

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Life is changing at a rapid pace!

Two weeks back, I was calling the Admissions Office asking for admission decision dates. And today, I am sitting in the campus, trying to simulate the Markov models.

A quick shot of how my life is today!

IMAG0413

Haa.. From nowhere to here! Classes, assignments, projects, papers are all I think of day and night. I am feeling overwhelmed with the number of things that have deadlines. For nine long months, all I knew was wake up, cook, eat and sleep. And of course, paint! Number of art work I did then is directly proportional to the amount of time I had everyday. Today, I am desperately in want of time to paint.

Is it not a welcome change that I wanted anyway? I know I am yet to settle down and relax with the new schedule I have, but this period is just so fun somehow. I am sharing here, my latest watercolor doodle.

My latest watercolor doodle
My latest watercolor doodle
Sunshine'n'Rainbows

I remember…

kruthika2 Comments

Memories… Fond and hateful..

Everyone has it, good or bad. We always say – I remember when..
Is it not fantastic, you can rewind your whole life with a few memories in combination of good and bad? And what is funny here is – all it takes is a sense of smell, touch, or even photographs, music, the sound..

I remember a lot of good and bad.. from my life or even from my dreams.. Don’t you always think of snippets of your dreams every now and then? And are they not amazing? So, this post is all about memories..

I remember…

..when I first saw the rainbow..

..the first time I topped the class…

..the first time I got drenched in the rain..

..how my parents got me the first ever bike..

..how I cried when my parents left me at college..

..how I flunked an exam for the first time..

..how scared I was to meet with the first Irish Setter dog I knew in my life..

..how I stammered talking the first lines in Hindi after ages to my best friend..

..those moments when I got married and left my home to Shankar’s..

..the first kiss..

..the first realistic painting I worked on..

..those moments when I got stuck in traffic and was running late for my exams..

..the moment I got married..

..my first dance..

..the day when I first wore a saree..

..the walk through the slums beside my college campus..

..the smell of the local markets at Goa..

..how I felt dumbstruck at the most beautiful sunset ever..

..the first time I hosted an event..

..the first time I tasted success at event organization..

..the first time I had to learn corporate culture the hard way..

..the first office desk..

..the moment when I realized love..

..when I knew I can really paint..

..the first meal I cooked..

..the first time my dad mom tasted food I cooked..

..how my brother visited me every weekend..

..the first time I hiked..

..the first freezing temperature experience..

..the first international travel experience..

..the first interview..

..the first presentation..

..my first code snippet..

..when I chose the id for my first email account..

..the first time I got an award for work..

..the first time I shopped all alone in the city..

..how I first drove to office on the city roads amidst all traffic..

..when I first listened to music as I drove the two-wheeler..

..the first snow experience..

..how ….

…..

Endless!!!! For everyone… Isn’t that amazing.. ??

So, what are your amazing memories????

Memories..
Memories..