Saturday
Today is the day we move in. Woke up as usual. I notice these days without the use of any alarms I am awake by 6.30 max. Thank God! I remember those struggles with the alarm some days when I used to sleep late back in Sunnyvale.
We packed some milk (for the milk-boiling), some vermicelli and some jaggery, along with Y and S's Primus Cabson stove cylinder. Some water bottles. Subhash had asked Y's driver to arrange for a truck to pick up our luggage and take it to the new place. We were done loading and ready to go around 10 I think. We landed in the new place and got the keys to it and went in after a little adventure with the elevators where we got confused between one building's elevator and ours and finally, thanks to my Kannada speaking abilities (;)) we found the right one. (That is the one thing you notice in Bangalore, you hardly need to speak Kannada anymore. But I am insisting on speaking Kannada, to hone my skills. Afterall, its one-half of my descent:D )
Y and S were with us for the milk-boiling, we ate the Vermicelli (luckily we found the boxes and spoons I packed in one of those enormous suitcases) and then Y and S went off to see the Cisco campus, because S hadn't seen it yet. S really liked our place she said, so I was happy :) We got to unpacking. Subhash did most of it. I was amazed to see his enthusiasm and energy while he did it. Hopping from one room to another, one suitcase to another.
Y and S came back and we went to TOTAL Mall which is about a 10 minute car-ride from our place. Had lunch here (stupid fellow had a food joint but no tables, tck..tck..tck..so we had to eat on benches and it was highly uncomfortable I assure you). We then shopped for some absolute essentials (which was 6 bags full;) ) for the house like rice, pulses, dish-wahsing soaps, hand-washing soaps, and so on and so forth. Were pretty amazed at how expensive this whole settling in affair is becoming :( But I guess you have to bear the brunt of your choices ;)
We were going to meet SSK who was another friend of Subhash's in Engineering. Y and S were going to help us drop off our groceries at home and then drop us off at Koramangala where we were to meet SSK and his wife V. And then they were going to help us shop for our new fridge, microwave, washing machine and water purifier :D It sounds like we are these hapless kids who our friends are taking turns to take care of? Well, that is exactly how I feel and I feel thankful for these guys!
We shopped for a while in e-Zone. We liked some models in fridges. Likewise in Washing machines and Microwaves. We asked him when he could deliver and he said it would take 8 days. 8 days! In the heat of this city to have vegetables and milk out for 8 days was impossible. The enterprising shopper that Subhash is, he said OK, lets check out some other stores as well, and if they all say the same thing then we can see what to do. We went into Pai's which was just across e-Zone. So much for competing! We saw the same model in the fridge that we liked and we checked out some other models in washing machines as the one we saw there wasn't here. We finally narrowed down on everything we wanted to get. This guy said he would deliver on Monday evening itself so made an advance payment and got out.
SSK was hungry so we hopped into the nearby Sukh Sagar and I had Mosambi juice while the others had Badam Milk and Alu chat. I was having Mosambi juice for the second time that day (TOTAL Mall was the first) and the way this juice tasted both times, consistently, made me happy. Freshly squeezed and all. In the US I would get so tired of looking for freshly squeezed juices. Bah! Some menus were worse. They would say Freshly Squeezed and the fine print read "Tropicana Brand, no pulp". How that fits the definition of freshly squeezed only God knows! I am happy I am back home :) Now. For the juice. Yeah.
We went to Lifestyle next and shopped for some bath accessories like shower curtain etc and yet again complained about how expensive it was, concluded there was no way out till we knew which areas sold cheap stuff and got out;)
SSK and V dropped us home, checked our place out and said it was beautiful. Second compliment in that day and it made me happy. :D :D I made some Rice (Yay!!!! I have groceries now!!) and mixed it with MTR Puliyogare powder (that is always a life-saver), mixed up some soup and we had that soup and Puliyogare for dinner. Good :) Happy Stomach! :)
Monday, March 31, 2008
R2I diaries - Day Four
Friday
Today was pretty routine. Got to work as usual after that 1 hour commute. BTW, I must mention, the commute takes 1 hour because Y stays very far away from the campus. Hopefully once we move to our new place it will take much less time:)
Went to lunch with some of my new colleagues. Two women/girls. I prefer calling them girls ;) One of them relocated from the US too and so we got chatting about how it was etc. I bet the other one got either pretty bored or pretty amused;) And today would be the first time I have had Cisco's cafeteria food three days in a row;) My team back in San Jose would be very very shocked to hear this. I was very notrious for rejecting lunch invitations saying "I got my own lunch" I used to be very lazy to get up and go to the cafeteria;) I used to take my own lunch every single day. But hey, my kitchen is not setup yet, what can you expect guys!
Can't think of anything else that was significant in this day except for S's Bisi Bele Bath for dinner:) I can't wait to have my mom's/aunt's though. My aunt already promised she would make it for me when i went to their place :D :D
Today was pretty routine. Got to work as usual after that 1 hour commute. BTW, I must mention, the commute takes 1 hour because Y stays very far away from the campus. Hopefully once we move to our new place it will take much less time:)
Went to lunch with some of my new colleagues. Two women/girls. I prefer calling them girls ;) One of them relocated from the US too and so we got chatting about how it was etc. I bet the other one got either pretty bored or pretty amused;) And today would be the first time I have had Cisco's cafeteria food three days in a row;) My team back in San Jose would be very very shocked to hear this. I was very notrious for rejecting lunch invitations saying "I got my own lunch" I used to be very lazy to get up and go to the cafeteria;) I used to take my own lunch every single day. But hey, my kitchen is not setup yet, what can you expect guys!
Can't think of anything else that was significant in this day except for S's Bisi Bele Bath for dinner:) I can't wait to have my mom's/aunt's though. My aunt already promised she would make it for me when i went to their place :D :D
Friday, March 28, 2008
R2I diaries - Day Three
Thursday
Another day. Another wonderful breakfast. Y again took the 7.30 shuttle to work. We again took the car. This time my stop at Cisco was the last and so instead of the usual one hour, I saw a two hour commute. But the upside to that was, I saw Koramangala, saw the Forum Mall, saw Indira Nagar and some other happening localities in Bangalore after a very very long time.
Ill-fated that I am, when I landed at work at 11 AM finally, all the important people were standing around in the corridors chatting away. Boy, did I look sheepish coming in !!
Day was pretty routine. Y and I went for lunch again and this time we met two other people and I know two more people now ;) One of them asked him if he was my mentor and he said "No, she is my friend, was my junior in Engineering" and as an afterthought he added "She is also actually my friend's wife" ;) Ha ha ha!! Some associations are difficult to put a different thumb-tack to, I guess! ;)
Evening we were supposed to go and sign the lease for the apartment so I was looking forward to it. Other than that the day was pretty routine. Y and I took an auto (Yes! after so long, an Auto in Bangalore!!) to go to that place. (On Day two even going up until our apartments which is 4 KM from Cisco took us 50 mins, I was dreading it today, but luckily it didn't take that long). Like a typical auto routine, he asked for more and we didn't agree to it, we started walking, then he compromised and so did we and we finally took the auto. We went to that place, saw the apartment once more, felt happy again signed the lease and headed home. Poor Y has been going home later and later everyday thanks to us. Another dinner and some more Cisco gossip and some chunk of Rang De Basanti on Star Gold and we called it a day.
Another day. Another wonderful breakfast. Y again took the 7.30 shuttle to work. We again took the car. This time my stop at Cisco was the last and so instead of the usual one hour, I saw a two hour commute. But the upside to that was, I saw Koramangala, saw the Forum Mall, saw Indira Nagar and some other happening localities in Bangalore after a very very long time.
Ill-fated that I am, when I landed at work at 11 AM finally, all the important people were standing around in the corridors chatting away. Boy, did I look sheepish coming in !!
Day was pretty routine. Y and I went for lunch again and this time we met two other people and I know two more people now ;) One of them asked him if he was my mentor and he said "No, she is my friend, was my junior in Engineering" and as an afterthought he added "She is also actually my friend's wife" ;) Ha ha ha!! Some associations are difficult to put a different thumb-tack to, I guess! ;)
Evening we were supposed to go and sign the lease for the apartment so I was looking forward to it. Other than that the day was pretty routine. Y and I took an auto (Yes! after so long, an Auto in Bangalore!!) to go to that place. (On Day two even going up until our apartments which is 4 KM from Cisco took us 50 mins, I was dreading it today, but luckily it didn't take that long). Like a typical auto routine, he asked for more and we didn't agree to it, we started walking, then he compromised and so did we and we finally took the auto. We went to that place, saw the apartment once more, felt happy again signed the lease and headed home. Poor Y has been going home later and later everyday thanks to us. Another dinner and some more Cisco gossip and some chunk of Rang De Basanti on Star Gold and we called it a day.
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