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An Afternoon With Maya Angelou

IMG00018-20090923-1504Some one at NIH decided that all the scientific minds at NIH could use a jolt of culture now and then. The result was the annual or semi-annual (not sure about the estimate of how frequently we need a culture dose) Cultural Lecture at NIH. This Wednesday’s lecture featured Maya Angelou – poet, author, teacher and in her own words a global renaissance woman.

I first read Maya Angelou in 2002. I was into reading African American literature those days, with a special emphasis on female authors. I had just completed “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest eye” and then Maya Angelou’s “I know why the caged bird sings”.  Incidentally all three books dealt with the travails of growing up as a black woman & described horrifying childhood atrocities with child molestation and the brutality against women.  All three books were thought-provoking powerful pieces of literature but I was uncomfortable with the depressing theme prevalent in all the books. Having grown up in a well to do Indian family, I was fast coming to the conclusion that it was impossible for me to empathize with the race struggles that African Americans underwent for so long. Although I was impressed with the spirit displayed by the protagonists in an abstract manner, I felt that I couldn’t completely appreciate the character graph since I couldn’t really get a grip on the horror that they had experienced. Frankly the stories made me uneasy, I stopped reading books in that genre and moved on to something else. Continued…

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By Deepa – September 24, 2009

Introducing the Food Blog

(not really)

fblog7There are two kinds of cooks in the world. One that can serve any food with élan and the other kind who serve even gourmet food with an air of apology. Unfortunately, I belong in this second category.  You must have met people like me. Whenever they serve food, they mumble about how the dish is not really that good, they constantly point out deficiencies that the guest has probably never noticed (this would have tasted better if I used real coconut instead of frozen coconut, this dish should be a tad bit creamier than it is, the koftas should have been golden yellow rather than yellowish gold…).  The ability to confidently state “this dish is yum” is probably the biggest challenge that I face in writing a food blog. Well that and the fact that I am too lazy to cook up original recipes regularly. But I wanted to see how complicated this process is. How do people manage to assemble ingredients, cook, take photographs of the food and then write about the same —what is it that they do?  I resolved to write at least one recipe. That was about six months ago. Continued…

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By Deepa – August 31, 2009

Its all coming back…

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Notice what is common in the photos for these actresses from the sixties and seventies?

All of them have similar earrings.  I know that fashions come and go and then come right back again.  I was still surprised when I saw similar earrings that were for sale at the local Target.  I dismissed them initially— but then was surprised to see several people at work wearing these styles.  And then I saw similar earrings at several of the top departmental stores here. A quick search on google revealed that the chadelier earrings are extremely popular and in fashion right now.

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Fashion is strange. It is stranger to see an American lady wearing a Sadhana style jhumka sitting in the bus next to you!

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By Deepa – August 20, 2009

Today at work I…

Today at work, I got my whiteboard hung in my room. This is how it happened. On my second day at work, I ordered office supplies for myself at work. This included, amongst the pen holders, staplers, binder clips and other assorted things that clutter up my table, a white board. I had almost forgotten that I had ordered these supplies when they turned up at the department secretary’s desk a full 5 weeks later.  After spending a couple of hours arranging and rearranging  my penholder , binders and stapler on my desk to achieve the most professional look, I turned my attention to the white board. While I was pondering the precise height my whiteboard should be hung at, the department secretary –J—poked her head in the office “ I have put in a ticket for maintenance to come and put up your white board”.  I didn’t know that putting up a whiteboard was a task for maintenance but I suppose I was thankful I didn’t need to bother with it anymore. That was two days ago. Continued…

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By Deepa – August 18, 2009

Chill and Grill Time

Isha is their daughter. Unlike her parents, she is the quiet contemplative sort. She enjoyed the party very much – so much that she adopted our house as her house. She especially liked this chair and sat there for a long time rocking away and watching the other kids play from a safe distance.
I am sorry I don’t have a better picture for Ajit. It doesn’t convey Ajit’s booming laughter and his cheerful personality. Ajit & Seejo have been working together for about 7 years. He is from Trivandrum originally. Laxmi & Ajit are our token Mallu friends and we like them inspite of that.
This is Aditya— he is a little hellion and doesn’t stay still enough for me to take a picture. He has the highest pain tolerance of any person that I know. He once fractured his hand and nobody knew about it till the next day because he did not even whimper. He is also extremely smart. I saw him one day with a lollipop clutched in both hands. He would alternate between licking one and then the other. So I asked him why he had two lollipops. Aditya looked at me as though I was a moron and replied “Because I have only two hands!”
For Aditya, the highlight of the party was playing with his friend Ismail. They climbed over the furniture. They climbed over each other. They climbed on Ashu and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Aditya and Ismail were born on the same day in the same hospital. Their dads became friends when they met in the hospital where their wives were having the babies. It is a unique friendship. When Bimal, Ajit and Seejo needed a fourth while playing tennis, Ajit thought of Anez. Now Anez joins them for tennis when he can and they have all become very good friends.
Anez comes from Muvattupuzha — the same town as Seejo’s father. He works in the US patent office here in DC and told us about Michael Jackson’s patent for the forward lean motion using specially designed anti-gravity shoes which he employed in his music videos. I don’t think Anez is demonstrating that here, though. No idea what he is doing but it looks like it is important. Anez’s wife Farzana was bought up in US but speaks Mallu very well. It is somewhat disconcerting to notice her accent when she switches to English. That is her with their second son —Amir. Amir distributed his time very generously with everybody— and went eagerly into any arms that were held out for him. He was cheerful through the whole party, even though all the other kids were tumbling all over the place
Dennis & Sherron came from Virginia. They decided to postpone sodding their lawn to attend the party— an act of intelligence for which they are to be commended. Dennis ,Seejo & Ajit work together at Hughes. Sherron pointed out very quickly that the word “work” is to be interpreted very loosely. So now I introduce the topic by saying that Seejo, Ajit and Dennis go to the same place to work. Sherron is a lawyer and works in Washington DC. Last year, she let us on the terrace of her office building so we could see July 4th fireworks from one of the best view points. She is originally from New Orleans. We attended their wedding in New Orleans at it was beautiful. She also makes wonderful red velvet cake. After eating that for the first time, Seejo liked it so much that he made it for two weeks consecutively.
Shweta and Ashu are newly weds. They got married less than a year ago. Shweta works in Siemens /voight Hydro. She is a true “classic “ engineer and helps in building dams across rivers. Ashu & Seejo have been friends since undergrad in Pune. But I like Ashu & Shweta so I have adopted them as my friends rather than Seejo’s friends.
Ashu’s parents came all the way from India to attend this party. Well that and to spend time with Ashu and Shweta. But the party was definitely on their list of top 2 reasons to visit USA.
This was Robin’s last free weekend before he starts graduate school at Johns Hopkins. He is excited about Hopkins but is apprehensive about the unsafe campus, especially after he got mugged last month near Metro station. He didn’t lose any money but lost his front tooth and had to replace it. Here he is showing off his new pearly whites. He is also worried about getting a girlfriend, completing PHD in less than 5 years, finding the right advisor, selecting one research area and global warming. Well may be not global warming but I am right on everything else!!!
There was plenty of food. Laxmi got some fish-sticks. We had semi-homemade chicken wings and we had satay chicken with peanut sauce and spicy jerk chicken on skewers.
For the vegetarians we had some tangy corn chaat, fresh caprese salad with baby tomatoes, mozzarella and my homemade pesto dressing. I also picked up some spankopitas with spinach and cream cheese filling.
For the main course we had delicious turkey burgers that were Seejo’s created recipe and some vegetarian cutlets. We had an array of sauces and burger toppings including sautéed onions, mushrooms, cucumber relish, homemade pineapple relish, avocado slices and other fresh vegetables. For dessert, I made some rum-cake, Farzana brought a cheese cake (no picture) and Roshni baked some awesome cherry-pineapple cobbler that was accompanied by vanilla icecream. That was so tasty that I almost forgave her for not making undhio for me.
I had made sangria for the alcohol philics and some orange strawberry fruit punch for the non-alcholics. Both proved to be extremely popular and I could only photograph the last dregs. I have however kept another pitcher of sangria in the fridge for me to enjoy in the next few weeks!
All in all it was a great party….and it was past midnight when the last guest left. Here is little Isha saying Bye Bye to all of us.

We hosted a small get-together at our place this Saturday. Here are some pictures of the party. I will start by adding the disclaimer that I have taken these photos with a friend’s point & shoot camera without adjusting the settings for the indoor photography. The photos are not professional & Seejo has not touched them. That also explains why you are seeing the photos within 2 days of the party!!

Continued…

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By Deepa – August 10, 2009

Top Ten Things That Indicate You are Working For the Government

TOP TEN THINGS THAT TELL YOU ARE WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT

After working in a small start up for the last 5 years, working for the government is an incredibly different experience.

  1. You need to fill two sets of forms justifying the need to buy a few blank CDs
  2. At 5pm, I close my computer , get out of office and do NOT have to think about work till the next day morning at 8:30am
  3. If you respond to some request after two weeks of getting it, you will still get a grateful email thanking you for your prompt reply. And it is not meant to be sarcastic.
  4. Colleagues encourage you not to answer your phone calls when they ring “ What is the use of the voice message box, they ask”.
  5. It takes about 3 months to get a blackberry. Or business cards. Or anything.
  6. At 2pm on a Friday before a long weekend, the entire floor is empty.
  7. “ I don’t know” is a perfectly valid response and it works for anything
  8. The language of communications is acronyms and form numbers. Sample : OLAW wants a XY541 filled to get GSA approval for STRAP.  Else you need to fill YT5623 and fax it to NIDDK. Yeah right. It’s a good thing there are no deadlines for anything— only guidelines!.
  9. Lunch breaks are a minimum of 45 minutes, about an hour on the average.
  10. Even after 5 years at the job, you can say that you are new here and nobody will bat an eyelid.

I have only been here for a  month but will add to this…

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By Deepa – July 30, 2009

Thrissur Pooram

After many many years, I witnessed the Thrissur Pooram again this summer.  Pooram is the Malayalam local lingo for almost any temple festival— and the one held in the town of Thrissur is supposed to be the grandest of them all. It is usually held between mid April & mid-May at the Vadukkunnathan temple in the town center.  Thrissur Pooram is especially famous for its gathering of richly decorated elephants sponsoredDSC_7022mainly by the two neighbouring temples of Parmekkavu and Thiruvambady who indulge in a friendly rivalry displaying colorful parasols or umbrellas. This is both preceded and followed by a stupendous musical display and some really amazing fireworks.  Thousands of people descend in Thrissur for the 2-3 days of the pooram to witness this spectacle creating a humongous crowd—possibly the largest public gathering of people that I have ever been a part of.

When I was in India, I spent every summer in Thrissur with my cousins. Pooram was a big part of my vacation.  Although the actual pooram lasts only for a couple of days, the excitement starts atleast a month back when the Pooram Exhibition opens. The pooram exhibition is a like a “mela” + expo where there are stalls from the smallest shopowner to relative big shots like the Railways and the big publication houses. I recall that a couple of times there was also a stall where the nearby medical college exhibited their jar of organ specimens from their labs.  In the pre-mall era, the exhibition and the shops was a big draw for all of us kids and we usually spent a couple of our vacation days and almost all our pocket money buying small knickknacks such as earrings, necklaces , bangles for the year. We would then eat some cotton candy, ride the giant wheel and religiously roam the entire grounds before strolling back home—happy & satisfied. Continued…

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By Deepa – June 30, 2009

Last Day at Work

Yesterday was my last day at Naviscan. I joined PEM Technologies fresh out of grad school. Over the past seven years, the company changed from PEM Technologies to Naviscan PET Systems to simply Naviscan, Inc. Colleagues have come and gone, The management has changed a few times.  I have grown from a college student who was awed that she could have a steady job into a workaholic who managed several projects.  I have gained recognition in my field and charted my career.  In these past seven years, I have moved from being a engineer to a physicist to a customer service manager to a programmer to a clinical study coordinator to an applications engineer to a data management position.  I have enjoyed every step of the way and met a few people whom I’ll always always look up to.

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flower2I am looking forward to the next phase in my career.   These pictures are the the flowers I received from both Naviscan and the clinical department on my last day.

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By Deepa – June 7, 2009

Let us Cruise to the Bahamas…

Photos:  Bahamas Trip

Bahamas_139While I was transferring all my entries from my previous format into this new wordpress page, I realized that I had not written anything about our Christmas cruise to the Bahamas in 2008. Although this is delayed, I want to note down my impressions (or memories) of the cruise.  We went on a 4-day cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship called “Monarch of the Seas” to Nassau, Bahamas. This trip was planned as a “test–drive”. We wanted to see if we liked a cruise vacation before we went to Alaska next year.  And of course warm Bahamas sounded like a great place to visit in the winter.

I had no previous experiences of  how a cruise ship should be so I was pretty impressed with the humungous ship with its many lavishly decorated lounges. The food was delicious– there was both quantity and variety.  Almost all the dining rooms had free food— there was a few restaurants where we needed to pay but given the choice in the dining rooms and buffet area—we didn’t try any. Most of the ship’s employees were Indians: the guy who checked our tickets, some of the ship’s photographers, the dining room staff and a lot of the kitchen crew.  Three out of the four waiters at our table (bread waiter, head waiter, wine steward) were Indians. In fact our head waiter was from Bombay— Vile Parle to be precise. He was excited to know that we were from Bombay , and immediately said “Let me tell you my name, You will like it”.  His name was Anthony Gonsalves Continued…

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By Deepa – June 4, 2009

Year End Summary: 2008

Year End Summary: 2008

As in the last two years, here is a summary of  2008’s highlights for me.

Fresh start of the year: I started working from home, this year…thanks to my office being relocated to San Diego. It was an interesting experience getting used to working alone, and more importantly learning to stop working at a reasonable time. But now I have a functional and efficient home office. The only thing I miss:  water-cooler gossip sessions.

Achievements this year: The biggest accomplishment of this year was getting our Green Card, it took exactly one year from application to receipt but it was a busy, eventful and anxious year till we had the plastic card in our hands.  Career wise, I completed a professional certification in Clinical Data Management.  Otherwise, I started learning Urdu—now I can decipher the letters slowly.  I had started learning Urdu a couple of years ago but didn’t manage to get time to pursue it regularly but now armed with a book of Ghalib’s ghazals and the trusty internet I can make out the letters pretty well.

Travels the year: The major trip in 2008 was our 5 week India visit, which also  included a 10 day Rajasthan tour.  Then in summer, we went on a weekend trip to a hillside cabin in remote West Virginia, a day trip to the beautiful Longwood gardens in Pennsylvania and a week long trip to Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier National Park with family.  We enjoyed the fall colors early November, again with family at Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. There were a few official trips interspersed through the year including my annual pilgrimage in December to Chicago for RSNA. We ended the year on a relaxed note, a 4 day Christmas cruise to the Bahamas.

Re-Discovery of the Year: The brilliance of M*A*S*H.  Has the average IQ of the viewers dropped—why are today’s TV series more dumbed down than M*A*S*H.?

Moment of the Year: Undoubtedly the Obama Victory. Its rare that I envy the average American—but on Nov 4 2008 watching the Obama’s victory, I was envious of Americans in having a public political hero they could look up to, the ability to participate in politics without it being associated as “dirty”, the hope that he embodies and the pride that many Americans felt in having elected Obama, creating history. Amazing.

Summary this year: 2008 was good but 2009 is indeed going to be the year of changes at least for me.….Looking forward to 2009!

Here is to a wonderful 2009! Wish you all a very happy and exciting new year!

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By Deepa – January 9, 2009

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