Tag Six

Tagged by Srijith - six weird facts or habits about yourself
(Ok, where do I start? Just six? I need to prioritize then :) )

Stubbornness
I am very open in a lot of ways, but in certain things I have strong opinions. And people have said it is very very hard for me to change my views, and I agree. I do not change opinions unless there is hard enough data or information to back it up.

Books
I love books. I think they build character, provide you with the ultimate escapism and are one of the greatest pleasures in life. However, I do not read a book to pass time or to help me fall asleep. When I get my hands on a book I like, I do not put it down till I finish with it. I have lost count of the number of times I have got into bed with a book and completed the book at the expense of my sleep. Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of exams or when I am doing some other work, I take some time off by reading books...obsessive I guess.

Eating Decorum
I simply cannot sit down and eat without being involved in any other activity. I can't just sit quietly somewhere and enjoy the food, concentrate on its flavor and all that stuff. My family keeps scolding me, and rightly so, as it appears rude to be not paying attention to the food or the great care with which it was prepared and so on.
Frequently, I will be doing one of the following while eating any meal:
a) Reading a book
b) Watching TV
c) Having a serious conversation with someone face-face or over the phone.

Freezing People Out
I have this weird, annoying and sometime cruel habit of freezing people out for obscene amounts of time at a stretch. Its not that I don't like them or something, its just that I don't have the tendency of just dropping in one of those obligatory how are you calls or emails. I form friends easily, but I form close friends very slowly. And if I am close with someone, then I tend to think that they are also like me - you don't need to just call up every two weeks to stay in touch etc. If you need to, you should be able to call friends after being out of touch for months and be able to start talking as if you just called up the day before. This annoys a lot of people no end, but that's how I am...

Eating while traveling
I have this insane craving for food whenever I am traveling. It doesn't matter if I've just eaten before getting on a plane or train or if it is 1:00 AM in the morning. Something about being on the move makes my stomach rumble. My absolute favorite thing is to travel on a comfortable clean train with plenty of food, books and music available. I loved traveling on the train when I was younger (traveled often to Varanasi, Kanpur and New Delhi), and I made sure that I got something to eat at every major station along the way.

Open Face
People can see when I am angry, when I am upset or when I disagree by looking at my face. I am simply unable to hide whatever I feel. If I am meeting someone and I disagree with something they say or talk about, it shows up plain and simple on my face. People who are arrogant, people who exhibit a sense of entitlement etc make me angry. Leads to a lot of awkward situations.

Various ~ TP

Its been a while since I posted, and my apologies to h2bm and Ponnarasi for not getting back to them earlier. I'm working on Srijith's tag - nice one, made me delve a little deep...My sincere apologies [a public one] to Sattvic, for not making it to Lansing. Some plans fell through, and with the time we had, it was a big problem :(...

I started writing this post as I was sitting at Dallas Fort Worth, waiting for my ride to San Diego. At the risk of sounding condescending, I must say that this waiting at the airport has become a familiar feeling these past few weeks. In the past three weeks I have traveled to Pittsburgh, to San Diego, to Chicago, to Milwaukee, to Phoenix, to Dallas and then back to San Diego. My Dad was here for a week to meet some bankers in New York, and if it wasn't for a scheduling conflict, I would have traveled there too! I've had to travel for various reasons ~ meeting friends, conferences, work etc, but its been all fun. Especially since I rarely force myself to travel and visit new places, seeing 4-5 cities in the space of 3 weeks has been a unique experience to say the least.

In the middle of all this travel, I have also recently transitioned into full-time employment with this company. I'm part of their Learning & Organizational Development group, working on a varied range of initiatives and projects [could tell ya, but would have to kill ya]. The challenge now is of course to transition from a full-time to a part-time student. I have to work on my dissertation proposal etc from San Diego moving forward. God willing, I'll be able to meet this challenge and keep working towards my degree.

Anyways, I went to Chicago to meet my undergrad buddy Veera. We were joined by Pras, and the three of us spent a couple of days driving around downtown, going to Milwaukee and generally taking in the sights and sounds of the two cities. Pras is an avid photographer, and he took a ton of pics with his big badass Cannon Rebel. Veera and I were generally serving as male studs/models on whom Pras was able to practice his skills. Pras has them on his amazing Flick account here [page 2 onwards...damn I look good...too bad no one can recognize its me :)]

Veera is off to India pretty soon to tie the knot. Best wishes to him and fiance' may your lives change in many ways, but still remain the same in many other ways!

I was in Dallas, TX to present part of my research for a conference. Once that was over on Fri, I spent a couple of fantastic days with my school buddy and partner in crime Sanj and his wife Priya. I'm meeting Priya for the first time, but I guess we have known about each other for a long while. I was truly happy to see them together, and it is always sweet to see the love people have developing, transitioning, working out and blossoming after marriage. Touchwood.

Priya is an awesome and unassuming cook. I have rarely eaten such good food during my stay here. I think I did Joey's imitation quite well, and warmed up with idli's and dosas before moving on to chappatis and puris and to rice. Priya would always grumble about me and Sanj eating nothing/less [sample, only 17 idlis], and I would give the standard chinta kai ko? main hoon na! I even got some rotis to-go!

I also met up with my school buddy Anusha and her husband Ananth. Super smart people these. I guess their children will have a lot of things to live upto :0 [both of them are going for their PhD's]. It was nice to spend some quality time, going through photos, laughing at familiar yet forgotten faces and memories. In between all this, they found time to drill me on all "gossips", which invariably always tended to be directed on me. Hearing them talk, you would think that I dated every single girl in school.

Well, lots of things happening. Lots of changes to come, so will keep you guys posted.

Be good! Be beautiful!

Ram