Swimming and its related stories

I started swimming this summer and its always fun. There are so many memories of swimming and would like to document some of my observations

1 ) People don't care about whether you are fat or thin (Thank you America , I am not the big guy in the pool)

2 ) When I went to the Pool opening party , i was glad that I knew a bunch of people , one person is the one who organizes my place and there is another girl who helped me in finding my phone , I kept in my car and I tried to call it using the "whereismyphone.com" website , but I know it was there somewhere , but I was not able to find it.

I knocked this girls door , that too her Patio door , and asked her to help me locate my phone , to call my phone , she was kind enough to do that and also located my phone(I have fat fingers !! ). Thanks to her.

3 ) The amount of confidence you get when you know the depth of the pool is only 4 feet is a lot. Once you know that you are not going to drown and die , that takes a big zinger out of the fear of swimming, last time i heard , dieing not very cool :).

4 ) Never challenge a 10 year old girl that you can have a race with her in spite of the fact that she asks you 10 or 15 times, she can kick your butt very efficiently and dance around the pool with that creed.

5 ) Its always fun to see kids and their single moms (nice place to get to know single moms is the apartment pool ).

6 ) May be its me (or all men ), I find it sexy not when the women are in two-piece swim-wear , but wearing a simple shirt over it.

7 ) I have been going to the gym and was always thinking that the depth was 6 feet and never even ventured into the pool , I went for it and saw it was only 4 feet and its temperature controlled and next to it we have a whirlpool also. I have been paying for this for the past 3 years and never used it (Knowledge is power !! )

8 ) In the Gym , its a long stretch (may be over 25 feet), I struggle to finish one round even with 3 breaks, there was one person(may be in his early 50s) who was swimming so quick from one end to another , that before I finish one stretch , he will do 3 rounds, usually I will take it in my stride , because I will be under the impression , guys here are taught swimming from their kinder garden and I learned recently (by myself).

But after around 45 minutes when he left , I was speechless, he had only one LEG and he was not able to walk with support , but he swims like a fish. This was my source of inspiration now.

9 ) The first time when I tried to learn swimming , I had scheduled classes with the YMCA near my old place , I was working in New York and would come early for swimming. The last day of my class , they ask you to do a Dive (water depth 8 feet), I dived and sunk like a stone and I was sure that I am going to die, all good thoughts came to me and I was relieved , finally one of my swimming instructor pulled me out, it was such a nice feeling , just to come out of water and breathing. So the best thing ever said to me was "Breathe ! Breathe" , thats the best thing.

10 ) Young girls get offended when you say that they are younger than their look they do get offended, but if I said that a older woman , they would take it as a compliment.

In my Pool ,there comes a girl who says she is 14 , I tease her that she looks like 8 or 9 , she gets so mad and its fun to watch that expression. She will bring all her friends to the rescue, i am 14 and then she will kick my butt in Swimming.

My Garden

The following are the pictures of my garden , and I want to monitor this as it grows !!

Two years back I went to Home Depot in the middle of July to get a Herb Garden along with Tomatoes , we used to monitor that everyday and it didn't even do anything and the colder season started and there it went.


This year is a new year and new ray of sunshine is there , I have mentioned in my TO-Do list in my board to water the plants , so I have the following
1 ) Rose (I always liked Roses , no smell but they are good).
2 ) Lemon Grass ( loved the smell , just holded the leaf and smelled , it was a sweet aroma !! )
3 ) assorted vegetable garden , this has tomatoes and a whole bunch of herbs.4 ) Got seeds for Habenaros and planted them inside for now , thats what was written , so once it grows will keep it outside.


The following are some of the pics from my "GARDEN "

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya Review

After a very long time , I went to a theater to watch a Tamil Movie , (the last movie I saw was BABA and I had taken a resolution of NOT watching a movie in theater !! ). This Theater is in Edison and its a completely Desi Theater, only Indian movies , Hindi , Telugu and Tamil.
Theater has Samosas , Masala Vada , Cardamom and Masala chai to name a few in the concession stand.
The actual screen was so small , it felt like watching a movie in a KPN travels bus from chennai to Bangalore !
After all the build up , the following are my views on the Movie

Story :
Boy meets a girl falls head over heels , girls father doesn't approve , what happens next ? The story can be written in one line , but the screenplay is the one which makes all the difference. The dialogues makes you chuckle ( when simbu asks Trisha "you could have gone to church in madras " !you have to see the movie to understand the context ).

Trisha looks good in certain angles ( but I was not able to see her Tattoo ! ) , she dresses up in saree most of the time and it really compliments her , also when she walks she has a duck feet and it sure looks funny when you look from behind. If we have to rub her makeup , it would take a day to look at her actual face. Certain scenes , particularly the ones in NYC , her makeup looks too clumsy. In some scenes , the dance between Trisha and simbu looks like a elder sister and a younger brother (remember the movie with Tabu and Abbas !! ) .


What I liked in the movie

1 ) Simbu has done a commendable job ( this was the first Simbu movie which I was watching on Theater! ) , none of his old mannerisms(his fingers were with him itself !! no more cracking etc and no punch dialogues).
2 ) ARR , I could not say anything bad , not only the music of the movie , the background score was also awesome (either the Mustafa Mustafa song in the middle , or the complete lengthy stretch during Simbu's search for Trisha in Kerala).
3 ) Camera, the camera has really played a vital role in the movie ,every song is a poem , particularly the song that was filmed in Italy and NYC. The boat which Simbu goes to meet Trisha's family , it has all the luxuries ( In all movies I only see a Apple Mac only !! ).

Things which I didn't like about the story

1 ) Trisha's character , very confused and in a complete disarray , she is not able to make a decision !! , she refuses marriage at the wee-end , and she dumps the guy , eventhough the guy comes back and says she will wait for her, once again she dumps him for someone else. Was she an opportunistic person just waiting for a better catch ?
2 ) The story goes in circles and it seemed like the director was confused on what to do with the characters after a while.
3 ) Trisha's voice(Chinmayi ! ) sounds too matured for her character, doesn't sync well with her.
4 ) The character of Ganesh , his voice is also very rough and it would have better if his voice was dubbed !!
5 ) I don't agree with the context , where a guy and girl have to be in the same field to have a successful life.


Overall its a perfect entertainer, don't expect much , but its a slow movie and may be a date movie.

Eating , Diet and Obesity ! are these true !

I am a big fan of Freakanomics , I believe its one of the better books written on economics , which was written for a normal human being.

There is a new podcast from their Team and it talks about the Obesity and over-eating , the following were the quick pointers.

1 ) If we see any 16th or 17th century paintings, Fat was beauty , you can hardly find anyone thin.

2 ) Till 20th century in most countries (even now ) , people are not well fed

3 ) The obesity industry is one of the biggest fads of this century.

4 ) The amount of money in Diet companies, Diet Doctors is worth billions of $$.

5 ) This one was interesting , till now all the research have never proved that overweight causes Diabetes , Heart Disease.

6 ) In 2004 CDC (Center for disease control ) release a study which said around 400 thousand people are dying every year because of overweight.

7 ) After analyzing the results , and checked by experts it was finalized that it was around 20 K people (same number of people who die because of underweight ! )

8 ) Till now the amount of money that is spent on educating people has just been water on the drain !!

9 ) is it true that lean people get more , and a little chubby people get it raw ?

So to lose weight or not , is the question !!

For more information , try reading this book , Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic,

Embarassing Event of the Day

Went with my friends to Chillis , the service was very slow. We were waiting for around 30 minutes, the waiter didn't even come to take our drinks order. I had consulted the seating girl to check out and talked to a couple of guys , even then there was no respite.

I found one more and talked to him , explained that we have been waiting for a long while and after 3 mins of explanation , he told me that I don't work here , I came here for food !!.

I was so embarrassed , went and talked to him again , that guy ensured that he is wearing his Jacket also to avoid someone else as a waiter in a chili's restaurant.

anyone else faced an embarrassing situation like this ?

Who am i !!Humanist ??

Started to read a book from the Library "Good without God " by Greg M Epstein. One of the coolest books I have ever read and not only that , I was agreeing to a lot of factors in the book.

Let me start with the basics , I started schooling in a a catholic school and I know the 10 commandments, so wanted to provide a table and the comparion to that of Humanist

Humanist Commandments Vs Default Commandment

No	Commandment	Humanist	Explanation?
1	Do Not Worship any god	Seek the best in yourself and others and believe in your ability to create a postiive difference in the world.	No
2	Do not make or worship any idols or images of God	Decaf	Yes
3	Do Not Misuse the name of god.	Decaf	Yes
4	Keep the sabbath day holy	Decaf	Yes
5	5	Decaf	Yes
6	5	Decaf	Yes7
7	5	Decaf	Yes
8	5	Decaf	Yes
9	5	Decaf	Yes
10	5	Decaf	Yes
3	5	Decaf	Yes

Mix Faith Marriages & Divorces !

Was watching 20/20 yesterday and I came across this ,
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100217/catholic-father-jewish-mother-battle-over-daughter-s-faith/index.html

To Summarize , a Catholic boy loves a Jewish girl , gets married to her in Jewish fashion , including converting to Judaism , doing his circumcision also. They are happily married , the guy loses his job , but they have a baby girl.
One thing led to another and they were divorced with visitation rights for the father. As with any divorce where the women gets all , she got the house, the daughter , cars etc . The guy didn't have anything except for some moments with his daughter.
He is so helpless at this time.
The best way for him to score revenge is very simple , he sends her pictures of her kids baptism, ( i have to give to him master stroke !! , cool villain ! ) , this creates a huge storm.
Now the discussion was whether this young girl should be brought in as Jewish or Catholic.

It had become a big news when the guy called video cameras for the day he took her daughter to church, which infuriated the mom and this was against the court law.

My comment on this , I have no idea that the court has the right to say that the kid should not follow anything other than Judaism, the first amendment (one of the greatest pieces of work ! ) clearly says that anyone can practice any religion or none at all. In that context I totally agree with the Father.

But the guy converted to Judaism and agreed to follow the faith , now all of a sudden he has come back , surely shows that he needs to avenge his ex. Legally this is the only thing that he can do , which can surely make a dent on her. This guy does not have anything to lose.

But on the moms point of view , he agreed to her conditions got married with all jewish traditions and the kid should be brought in as jewish , which I also agree.

There was one point which was worth mentioning , the divorce laws always favor women , even when the women is the one making the most $$, eventhough the divorce was because the woman is having an affair with someone at work which he had proved using a bunch of emails, the guy loses and loses and this was the only way out.

I am eagerly watching this news and would love to see what will happen next . !

NY Places to Eat : My Review

I am always a good eater :) , obviously I am a vegetarian and that always has its own restriction wherever I go.

Currently I am a big fan of Food Network and each and every show has its own uniqueness to it and I am able to learn a lot of stuff.

There are two programs which I watch with a lot of interest

1 ) Best Places to Eat (http://www.foodnetwork.com/the-best-thing-i-ever-ate/index.html)

2 ) The Secret Life of

Best Places to eat , interviews a bunch of Chefs and it asks them what they liked to eat , and in which restaurant.

The program talks to the chief Chef of the restaurants and ask how the dish is made and how that dish is so unique.

There are lot of dishes which are specified , and my target to try all of them , but I had my own conditions for that. The conditions are like follows

1 ) Should be in tri-state Area. (NY, NJ and PA )

2 ) Should be Vegetarian items only.

My list has an exhaustive list , but I wanted to give my take on them. Eventhough they are the best chefs , afterall its their opinion. I like to view my opinion and check if it matches with theirs.

Apart from all this , you can also check for famous food locations across your area by going to the site (http://www.famousfoodfinder.com/ ).

I think I have given much of an intro , so without further adieu , here is my first food thought.

If you know me , one thing you will know is I love potatoes and believe that potatoes are heaven sent , its so versatile and anyone can hardly screw it up while cooking, either mashing , frying , toasting or just boiling it.

So basically when I watched a program which talked about a restaurant called Pommes Frites (http://www.pommesfrites.ws/) , I obviously wanted to go there.

Location : 123 2nd Ave. New York, NY 10003

Tel. 212-674-1234

Closest Subway : 8th Street and walk around 4 blocks to 2nd Avenue.

Review :

This is a very small eating place , which anyone can miss it if they walk by fast. This place is surrounded by a tons of Dairy places , so if you go there first , you may miss this place also.

There is always a long line in front of the shop and as soon as you enter you see the Spuds smell (which makes you hungry) .

The Staff are very helpful , and you can try a lot of sauces before the ones you like. I tasted atleast 4 flavors , before deciding on the Wasabi , Mango and a spicy sauce with Tomatoes and black pepper. They give you a free sauce also.

Almost all sauces have Mayo in them , I would prefer them without them. They have Jalapeno as a side , why cant we have a sauce made of it and even better Habenaro Sauce.

Pros :

Very good Taste.

Varities of Sauces.
Cheap eats.

The Cones in which they give you the Fries , are really cool. They are nicely shaped and will hold in a lot of fries and even you put a sauce in it , it melts in without disturbing the flavor.

Cons :

Eventhough there are 2 people there, the service is pretty slow.

The Place is so small that there are only two tables and if you are a tall person , you have to sit

uncomfortably.

Price Range : $5 to $10

Bottom Line :

Small eatery with awesome fries (dont call them French fries , they are belgian !! ) , but remember the quantity is so much that you will be overwhelmed by them.