SPRING

I did not go to the gym today. Intolerable stomach cramp. Already have had 2 Tylenols and yet the cramp has not subsided. It surly is going to be one dreary day for me.
Rather than wasting my time sleeping, I decided to get up and make a fresh round of coffee and enjoy the morning routine of reading newspapers regardless of the pain.

I slip out of my pajamas,put on my rough looking jeans and quickly put on a cap to hide my rugged look and headed outside. The puddles ahead of me loomed large and soggy. With the remnants of a bad back, I attempted to step around them with as much agility as I could muster.

Why is there a puddle when it is such a sunny day? Maybe some inconsiderate person tried to wash their car and did not even manage to clean the mess. Usually, I use my front door to check my mails, however, since I had no exercise today, I decided to use the back door and this is what I had to deal with.

The puddle with just enough depth to force me to get my slippers wet, stared at me saying, “ I dare you to walk on top of me.” Why would I want to ruin my day walking on top of you, I thought, and quickly closed the door behind and walked back to my apartment and used the front door.

I was beginning to get exhausted. Exhausted of not doing anything. My stomach pain is not getting any better.

I got an email from my brother this morning. He had sent me a picture of “Sakura.” Cherry blossom. So, I guess SPRING has arrived. Looking at those pictures, I was reminiscing back my days in Japan. We used to live in a place called “ Sakura Shimanchi,” which means town of Sakura, and during this season the streets would be filled with Sakura. Over the weekends, all the roads would be blocked and there would be concerts, games and picnics. Really nice time of the year and I would just love riding my bikes enjoying the sakuras. It seems ages now.

The picture above is nearby my parent’s house in Tokyo.Across their apartment, they have a a long canal surrounded by sakura trees which is very popular for running, jogging, taking your dog to walk..all sort of doing relaxing thing. I used to run along this canal every night in summer with cool summer breeze. Three years back I was in DC around the spring time and it felt like Japan. Sakuras everywhere.

Well, spring is officially here. At least as official as weather gets around here. Sure, we could have six inches of snow tomorrow and nobody would bat an eye, but we'll just trust that won't happen. Knowing BOSTON, anything could JUST happen.

Let us speak no more of winter. And we also get to enter daylight savings time. That's always something. Beats setting the clocks back, anyway, though then you get an extra hour of sleep. And, of course, spring also means Easter. On the way back from my gym, I always notice one store with the decoration of bunny and Easter eggs. I don't know if its just coincidence that it happens during spring, but it's fitting regardless. So the whole thing is just cool. Well, warmer than it was. You get my meaning, I trust.

On the side note, Day light saving will start from Second Sunday of March, next year. That’s not Spring, it is WINTER , Thanks to the 2005 Energy Policy Act)

That said; let me end this blog as my throbbing pain is haunting me. A round of hot milk and hot shower will do me good.

Prasanna’s friend from school, Sagar dai and his wife are here from Delaware and they will be joining us for dinner along with Motu dai and Ishwar dai.

Have a great weekend!!

Beautiful day

Another beautiful day…

It is one of those days where you want to stay in the pool and happily soak up the sun.It looked sunny but as I was slowly walking home from the gym, I was bit disappointed when some clouds threw me into shadow.

Where did the SUN go??
Opening my eyes under my sunglasses, I stared straight up into the sky where the thunderheads were rolling in, one after another like celestial anvils. Storms mesmerize me.

Here is how the scenario looked like: Picture a stormy ocean in your head, now whitewash it: turn the deep blues to a transparent azure, the whitecaps to a brilliant white against the blue and the shadows beneath the wave crests from dark to charcoal grey. That is what the sky looked like, pockets of thunderheads with menacing gray centers.

These crazy weathers!!! they are like chameleon changing their pattern whenever they want. Really hard to trust them… and now look at this… all the thunderclouds are gone and it is sunnnnnyyyy again.

Dreams

A while back I started to get this déjà vu moments that would knock me off by my feet.Suddenly I would see something and it would bring back almost total but vague recognition of something I had felt there before. It’s really hard to explain. Dreams I had, I assume, would flood my mind, having dealt with that place. I would see the things I had seen before and feel the way I felt. It was more a flood of emotion than anything else. Welling up and overtaking me.

There is a time, I think, that this all stems from. In between sleeping and waking up there is a period where I hate dreaming such dreams and hate realizing they are slipping away. It is a terrible deep down sickness that makes my eyes squint and make me roll over and stuff my face in the pillow.Arghhh! There is so much physical distance in them; yet the difference in concept is uncanny.

It is bit ironic, if you look at the Nepali calendar, where they actually have the translation of your dream. Somehow it cannot be any more obtuse. Like really, if you see a bottle of a beer in your dream.. You will have a great source of income..

So much for the dream… What else…..

I’ve been going on a journey, a wild ride, a rush of emotions like a roller coaster, and now the wind is dying down.

Keeping up with WSJ somewhat seems impossible. Everyday, the newspaper feels more and more thicker. I guess it is good that Prasanna has an immense interest in reading this. Usually, he recommends me to read the article of his interest (which usually matches my interest as well) and then only would I take the initiative of reading it. Otherwise, it is just quick skimming...

For instance, I am currently reading an article titled “ Democracy isn’t Western,’ by Amartya Sen, a world renowned economist and a Nobel Prize winner in Economics. What I strongly agree with this is on the idea that the determinism of culture is increasingly used in contempory global discussions to generate pessissimism about the feasibility of a democratic state, or of a flourishing enonomy.

I would not have known about his article had it not been for Mr. D. Sometimes, there are so many articles and I have no patience to go through each one of them. My solution is to quickly read the headlines and my the time I need the editorial section, I am already tierd. But for the articles recommended my Prasanna, which are usually interesting ones, I usually make an effort to do the detailed reading.

I have a class today.. so I gotta go and prepare.

With that, I close my labtop and give you a hearty farewell… Adieu!

rest..

Just got back from the library after finishing the 3 hours of studying. My brain needs a rest.

I am sipping my first round of coffee for the day. I do not even remember the last time I had the coffee, the home made one. It really has been ages. Suddenly, I have become the fan of the “ boost.” Let me assure you the fact that I have not regretted making this change =) this was also one of my ways of escaping the mundane routine.

I feel surprisingly very relaxed today, considering the fact that I ran for almost 30 min and Must be the yoga I suppose. Yes, I finally did the honour of going to the class. Today was my first day, and I have the urge to fly.. fly….fly very high! It was very relaxing.

The music does it all.. some sort of chant... so soothing..

Let’s quickly recapitulate my weekend shall we…

Friday- Shailendra dai and Sanjay were at our place for dinner. We had a nice jazzy and candle light dinner.

Saturday- We had initially planned to finish couple of our errands, but to our dismay, the weather did not play his part. As it was not one of the pleasant Saturdays, rather than hastily getting up, we decided to have a relaxed morning. After having a quick breakfast.. Croissants and tea, we got ready to go to the "Tax session" hosted by the Net-Nep organizations. The session indeed was very beneficial for both of us being a newly married couple and the credit definitely goes to the excellent speaker Mr. Shambu karki.

Later that evening, we went to the Surprise party hosted for Anil dai and Neevs, (the to-be bride and groom) at Motu dai’s and Ishwar dai’s residence. The party was a blast. Meeting with Sebs and the Connecticut gang was fun =) one of the main highlights of the night of course was the beautiful songs sung by the great singers.. Motu dai and Prasanna. Om bikram bista’s song is still humming in my head… The party was great. Thanks to Sebi dijju.

Sunday was bit busy day..…. Lot of studying needed to be done.. Therefore, we were in the library till 11:00 at night… yeah.. it was a long day.

Just turned on the MTV.Spring break in on. It would take an eternity to recount the 'adventures' of Spring Break. I had come to Boston for my First spring break…

Wow.. it seems ages…

The weather is absoultely gorgeous outside. Must be in upper 40's. I want to Run.. everyone in running.I can smell SPRING and just thinking about this makes me SMILE. The next to do chores in my list is to repair my bike. the tyres are all flat... I am excited to ride my bikes again!!!

I have absolutely no idea how to end this blog. Everybody knows that the ending shouldn't be abrupt. Rather than boring you by dwelling into my redundancy or writing some banal thoughts, I suppose it would be very advisable for me to put a full stop to my blog at this minute.

Sayonara.

There.. it was not that bad… =)

MIT 50 K

“ Tere lie ham hain jiye, honton ko siye” - From Veer Zara

It was my first thought, this morning aside from the alarm clock, which is less a thought than a reaction, there was a song. It happens every now and then; I will wake up with a song resounding in my head that I have not heard in a while. But this was different cause; I had recently watched this movie. A powerful soothing song about love and destiny, the lust sin, and the mutual torture, which binds us together. It stuck with me this morning, forced by every step, measured by every breath, strikingly beautiful and foreboding.

This was the music that encapsulated my day… =)

What else…
The semi final round for the 50k was on Tuesday at the Stata Center, the most funkiest buildings at the MIT. The room was clustered with hundreds of eagerly waiting participants and somewhere in that crowd nervously stood our team, BOTICA.

There were 150 participants, and among that, 40 were going to be selected, so I guess the ratio was 1:5. To our dismay, our team was not selected. Jay, the chief developer of our team had really worked hard. In hindsight, we were probably a little optimistic with the revenue streams in our business plan. Nevertheless, everyone in the team still believes that the business and technology of our venture is viable. We'll see where this venture takes us.

This has definitely been a great experience for me. I got to meet or I should say, network with some wonderful people and one of our team members got the award for having been involved in the most number of projects.

The speaker for the event was a lady called Linda Rottenberg, a Harvard and a Yale graduate and who had successfully opened her own venture called “ Endeavor.” Such a strong lady who never capitulated despite the ghastly comments she got regarding her venture ideas. One thing that really struck me was when she said, “ Do not worry if people say your idea is CRAZY, you might need to only think back, if they do not say anything about your idea.” Fair enough!!

Her story about pursuing her dream was very encouraging. The most interesting one was where she practically went to wait infront of the men's bathroom to get hold of a person she wanted to meet. WOW!! I really admire her for taking her dream this far.

The event overall was very interesting. I found the atmosphere to be very casual and cordial.I am looking forward to going to the Final event. Two years back, Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist at Silicon Valley's Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was the guest speaker.

Aside from this let’s see what else is happening…

I got an A in my midterm paper for Accounting and yes I am thrilled. Accounting being one of my most disliked subjects, I was really ecstatic to get this grade. The weather is REALLY gloomy today. The forecast claims the temperature to be in upper 40s; however, it seems like in lower 30s. It is quite cold.

It is Friday night today. Yeahhh.

I just got back from the GYM. I was deprived of the energy today. I do not know why. I just could not RUN. I feel drained. Therefore, inorder to recuperate myself, I am sitting with a big cup of " BOOST." =)

Looking out of the window, the weather is making me go into a long blissful sleep.

Sweet Dreams

Yup, I have realized that I have been bit behind writing the blog.

It is about 1:00 in the morning. Prasanna is doing his office work and I decided to give him a company in this wee hour and supposedly write a blog as well.

We just had a dinner. Pad thai, masaman curry and some mike’s pastries for desert.

Nothing new has happened recently..

Let me recollect back…

My Thulo daddy was here in Boston. He came from Mississippi for a meeting for two days. I had not see him for almost two years and it was a wonderful to see him. I was very very excited. I was actually in MS with them for four longg years. Even though it was a very short time, we really had a great time. He will leave back for Mississippi tomorrow.

What else… I have become a very big fan of “ BOOST.” =) Actually, I have become very addictive and drink like two cups a day.

My blog may be representative of my train of thoughts… the thoughts which is not making an absolute sense. Streamlined forward in one dimension, but very fastly moving, clunky, and awkwardly belching .

Forgive the inability to articulate; although my writing is decent..I think

I guess you can blame it for the late hours.Speaking about hours, it is almost 2 now. 2 in the morning and Prasanna is still typing furiously. What is he typing I wonder...but I dare not disturb him. My battery in the labtop is running low and I really cannot be bothered to plug in the outlet.

I guess the only solution now it to bid farewell.

Good night.. sleep tight..

Relaxation

Happiness is …relaxing in preparation of impending relaxation.

Had a wonderful weekend. Also well invigorated this morning. I went to the gym and did brisk walk for 40 min and some weights. At this time, I can barely walk. I am assuming I am out of shape AGAIN!!!!

The last two days has been gorgeous. Bit cold but Thank GOD the Sun was out. the days has been BEAUTIFUL. I love being able to go outside without bundling up.. Coats, scarfs, gloves… Not that I have anything against these clothes, mind you, but still. It's a nuisance. Depite the outlook of the day, I nontheless try to dress very warmly. I have learned the lessons on my occasions.

Friday, I was successful in making my first Lasagne. =) Both Prasanna and Sanjay are my alibis. Really, it turned out quite good for the amateur level.

We decided to relax with a movie on Friday night.

Syriana.( Parking played extra favourbaly that night)

What a beautiful movie it was. George Clooney really deserved that Oscar.
The movie has succeded in depecting the role of “ Corruption.” How sometimes, even though you know it is wrong, you do not have any choice but to keep quiet and act like nothing has happened. Yup! It is difficult to do it this way, but that is how how society is molded. While watching this movie, you come across the situation like this in numerous occasions.

This is a definetly a must see movie. You will also get the clear picture of the role of the AMERICAN governmet abroad.

Saturday was very relaxing as well. Spur of the moment, we decided to drive down to Cape Cod, Plymouth to be EXACT. And I am very proud to say that I drove for 3 hours that day. I drove and drove and drove. The place was beautiful and yes, I did see the Stone with 1620 written on it.

That night, we had dinner with Shialendra dai. Initially, we wanted to eat at “ DALI,” the Spanish restaurant but the wait was for almost two hours. As it was so ludicrously improbable to control our hunger; we decided to go to “ Atascia, ” the Portuguese restaurant in Cambridge. Even though, the wait was for about 50 min, along with the GREAT company ( Mr. D and Shailendra dai, the two most gregarious guys =)) and the great ambience, it did not matter a whole lot and the FOOD was simply DELICIOUS.

Sunday was a laid back day. We both headed to the gym and latter in the day, we manged to do little bit of studying. We wanted to go to the St Patrick’s Day parade but really could not be bothered to.

It is cold Monday today. Really windy. I can hear the wind swooshing by my ear.

I just read an article in the Time magazine about the GOOGLE founders. Those guys are impressive. The owner of the $ 100 billion empire that is dominating the internet.. The most fascinating thing is how far they have reached in order to fulfill the needs of their employers. The most surprising thing for me was having a “Salon.” isn’t it.Their stock price has already soared to $475, from $85 and expected to reach $600 at the end of the year. WOW!

Who would have known two ordinary PhD guys from Stanford, now literally conquering the Internet world.

I guess it pays off to become a risk taker.

Is the life of non-riskiness; is the life of fear, sitting at home, and being oh so comfortable really worth a penny?

It's probably worth a lot more in terms of wealth, monetary wealth.

But can it hold a candle to ecstasy ??

On the side note, I am currently flipping through the pages of WSJ (I am tying my best to become an avid reader). “ The case against Vitamins” is the title. I am one of the gobblers of the “ Centrum.” And the motive behind is in a bid to ward off ill wealth.

Let see what this article has to say. I am excited to show this to my hubby who is always tells me to take the supplements =)

So long for now.

Rejuvenating thoughts.....

I was in an alternate reality for the past few days. I was journeying, walking along a road. And here I am now; miraculously resting until the next headwind or bog picks me up. The journey was fun! ...Superb I must say

Today is the last day of my medication. I am getting better. The flue is gone.. dry cough, still exists! I really do not feel the compunction to write, but I feel like I should write something for I have been in the hibernation mode for a while. =)

The exciting news first—

Yesterday, I met with Randal, the winner of the APPRENTICE show last season. He is the Rhodes Scholar and got his education from MIT, Oxford and what not. I had the 50k meeting(Yes, I am involved at the MIT 50k competition and hopefully our idea will get selected for the semi-final round) at the Marriot hotel in Kendal square and as we were wrapping up, this huge guy with a black over coat comes down the escelator.

He looks somewhat familiar. “ Isn’t that Randal from Apprentice,” I ecstatically told Jay, my fellow colleague who also happened to be the fan of the show?

Yesss...

We hurriedly walked towards Randal, shook his hand and had a brief talk.

My first question to him was “ Why did you not let Rebecca, (his competitor) to be the Apprentii as well”? Donald Trump had actually asked him if he would let Rebecca to be an apprentice as well.

“ I was clearly the winner and I did not want to share my gold medal with anyone but myself," Fair enough, I suppose!

Upon answering the question on how it was working at the Trump tower, he gleefully replied saying, " It's been a GREAT experience." I am sure..working with the Tycoon of NY must be an experience.

As we were talking with him,couple of other guys also came and shook his hand. There were people in the hotel who had no idea who he was. It looked funny. I only wished I had the camera and I was so excited that I completely forgot to take his autograph. Oh well... next time..

Lot has happened last week...... I was sick.. ugghhhhhh....

- Despite my sickness, Prasanna and I, we managed to go see the BASKETBALL game. Celtic VS Miami Heat and saw SHAQ!! Celtic lost by 3 point.. but the game was really exciting.. The whole ambiance was very thrilling. We saw couple of players from the Patriots.

- Daddy ( my father- in –law) was here. He was in Sweden and Finland for a talk and came to visit us in Boston. We had a GREATTTT time with him. Unfortunately, the trip was just too short.

- Over the weekend went to Connecticut l to meet with one of his teachers’ family. The weather was Great, the family was very hospitable and the trip was fun. We also had a chance to get a quick tour of the YALE University which was sooo beautiful.

- On Sunday, we went to New Hampshire to visit Bhola dai at “ Café Momo.” Sunday was unpleasantly gloomy, but the overall ride was fun filled one. In the evening, after doing quick shopping at Filenes, we had a dinner at Penang =)

- Daddy, also gave a talk at Chalphal on the topic of " Constitutionalism and Democracy in Nepal ". The turnout was very good. There were total of 20 people and the talk indeed was very interesting. For people who had no idea of what was going on in Nepal, this talk was very detail and helpful.

- Along with Daddy, I also got to attend the Talk show at the Harvard JFK school given by Shobha Gautam, one of the popular women activist in Nepal and friend of daddy. The talk was on the “ Women’s perspective on the Issues of Maoist.” Who would have known, I got to meet with Shobha ji, in Boston, of all the places.

- Since Daddy, studied in MIT and JFk, he has lot of friends here in Boston. We also got chance to meet and network with his friends and professors and hear their stories.. this was a very nice experience for us..

We also managed to the movie “ Veer Zeera.” The movie is long and Ok I suppose, but the songs are beautifullllllll.

It is really suffocating in the house literally and figuratively. I guess it is the heat. It is cold outside, but with the heat it is so dry and makes me fatigued with the antibiotic. Maybe this is my cue to stop the blog.

Weekend is here.. no plans.. If you recall—I believe in Carpe Diem Style. We have borrowed the movie “AMELIE” from the library. I have already seen it. I want Mr. D to see it. This is a very good French movie If you have not seen it. The actress of this movie is going to be playing with Tom Hanks in "Da Vinci Code."

What else-- Ah! it feels good to be back!

Beauty of getting flue

Sore throat
Running nose
Teary eyes
Throbbing headache

Bad ache everywhere
Lack of energy
No appetite

Tylenol, Vicks, Soup
Feeling Drowsy
Thermometer

Cough, Cough and Cough,
High Fever
Tissue everywhere..
Lethargic

Loving husband
Special care
Lots of attention
for one second it is painful
for the rest it's unearthly
ecstatical

Drink, Drink Drink he says..
I slowly feel better..
the temperature is dropping down
I think I will be allright..