Nail art again!

Its summer again and I visited the nail salon. This time with Amma, to celebrate her bday! But yours truly couldn't come out of a salon without getting a pedi done herself!! So this time's its sea blue (with sparkles) and a nice wave like design! Loveee it.. will go well with the water in the pool! :P

Mahabharat ravings

Last summer, I realized that Mahabharat was actually there on youtube. All 94 episodes in excellent print! Watch it here if you please! (If the link doesn't work, just go on to youtube and type Mahabharat episode 1 and so forth!) These episodes were such an integral part of my thesis writing! I don't think I would have written my papers/thesis without it! Here's why -
1. Its never ending. Trust me, a PhD dissertation thesis will end quicker than Mahabharat.
2. Somebody's always talking and it gives you perfect company even in the middle of the night while you burn the midnight oil.
3. It peps you up immensely. The pandavas go thru a lot of suffering but they end up victorious, thank God for that! It reminds you that all the 'struggles' that you have gone/going through is/will not be futile.
4. It teaches you to surrender! Now, I'm a hugee believer of this philosophy and I've had many a posts preaching (to myself!!) the importance of surrendering.

Here's a few other reasons why B.R Chopra's series is simply wowing!
1. Its so true to what you've studied/read. This series sticks to what you'd learned in school as a kid and ANY movie/televised program which is true to its text/book version is very dear to the heart!
2. Every single character has done a fabulous job. Nitish Baradwaj (Krishna), Gufi Paintal (Shakuni), Puneet Issar (Duryodhan), Pankaj Dheer (Karna), Arjun (Arjun), Mukesh Khanna (Bheeshma), Girija Shankar (Dritarashtra) are some of my favs. I actually thot Pankaj Dheer would have made a great Arjun, but he's awesome as Karna too! Nithish Baradwaj is Krishna just as you might have imagined him with a smile that can enchant you and make you do whatever he wants. In the making of Mahabharat (can be seen here - ) (again simply type out every single part if it doesn't show up), Puneet Issar very aptly says that every single character in the epic is a shade of grey. There's nobody whos pure white or pure black! It's just that some have more white than black! Even Krishna has shades of grey and even Duryodhana has shades of white, when he embraces the son of a charioteer as his close bud, while the rest of the world refuses to see beyond his caste/community!
3. You hindi language and vocabulary improves a LOT. Seriously!
4. Very highly nostalgic. Reminds me of Sunday mornings as a kid when I used to run to Hindi class to finish the weekly tests early and run back home just in time to watch Mahabharat!

So after last year's thesis/paper writing phase, I started watching the series again this year for the second time and I got done with all 94 episodes a coupla weeks back! Hooked Amma to it as well. Its supremely addictive. Never lets you feel lonely and its a lot of culture/moral values packaged beautifully. Try it, its really worth it. (Ps: some of the parts need to be ottified!!)
Many thanks to the Chopras for making some thing like this, to Rajshri videos for bringing it out on youtube and to guys like Chad Hurley and Larry Page for youtube and google!

The one thing I've always wanted to learn

I'm finally learning the one thing I've always wanted to learn. The first time I came to the US in 2003, I used my sister's apt complex pool and that was my first time ever to get into a pool. I realized it's a LOT of fun 'swimming'.. even if I wasn't swimming per se!! I observed some kids in the apartment being taught how to swim by their parents and just did what they did. I pretty much learned on my own how to breathe, float, kick and use my hands(albeit clumsily)! Never realized that all that sitting and splashing around in the pool actually meant anything!
I'm glad I'm finally getting the time and the chance to learn swimming! My first ever 'sport' class and totally loving it. After 5 years of PhD, I'm trying to catch up on life and learning things that I should have learned long time back. Just can't stop feeling excited about it! And yeayy that's one more check mark in my bucket list! :)