Obesity - a lethal weapon?

Aug 29, 2006 – Tuesday

What I enjoyed doing today:

In Belgium, there are only few channels that show movies in English (thank God!) and VT4 is 1 of them. Yesterday they showed a movie named – “Lethal Weapon IV”. I didn’t even know that there were 3 sequels to “Lethal Weapon”. Is there a 4th one too?

I started seeing English movies when I was in 10th standard when STAR Movies and HBO have just started their telecast in India. In those times, the English movies used to come with Hindi sub-titles and believe me, it was funny. Now you would know that in English movies, they somehow always have to say “the Shit” or the F*** word – as a curse or in sheer enjoyment. The translations used to state something like “dhatt tere ki” (oops) or “nalayak kahin ka”(you worthless fellow…) in Hindi. Funny, isn’t it?

I would love to understand the sub titles here too, which are in Dutch but I guess here they could translate the ” F” word literally, being on the same cultural plane. I hope so! Everything apart, I enjoyed the movie and besides, Mel Gibson is 1 of my favourite Hollywood star so this was the best thing I did today.

What I least enjoyed doing today:

I have always like “more”. If I get a salary raise of 1000 rupees, still I would have liked to get more. If I have got 80% marks in exam, I would like to get more marks in next exam. There are only few things that I like less – and my body weight is 1 of them.

I have gained so much weight in last year that I feel ashamed of myself. Though I could see this trend for 3-4 years but I had this strange feeling that it will stop some day. Magically? Yes! After all, there is a limit to which one’s weight could increase but alas, it wasn’t true. Why am I not able to restrict my body weight? I guess that because I love eating food especially in restaurants, at fast food joints or in my own grand kitchen (parathas, pooris, biryani…yummm………).

If I look back, based on my experience, I would categorise the whole process (process….heh!) of gaining weight and then loosing it to be fit in the following stages:

• Somebody tells you that you are overweight (being underweight is never a problem, if you ask me. I envy those guys who can eat anything on earth and still dont gain an ounce of weight)
• People keep talking. They are jealous. But in 2nd stage, you realize that indeed, you are overweight. The pants getting tight from waist every 2 months. The length of the pants increses – now this happens because the pant doen’t fit your tummy and it slides to reach the most stable state just beneath your tummy. While stting, you aften use your tummy as hand rest and finally your shirt keep coming out of your pant – I still have to figure, why this happens.
• In the 3rd stage, you think that you should exercise and restrict yourself from eting fried/unhealthy food to become physically fit again. Mind it, I said think!
• And in final stage, you actually do exercise and show some restraint to loose weight.

I am stuck in the 3rd stage for long now this feeling made me sad today. I have, yet again make plans to be in final stage. Lets see if I could persist.

Certification over Mood Swings

Aug 28, 2006 – Monday

What I enjoyed doing today:

Waking up on Monday morning, breaking the inertia of rest gathered during the weekend, is always difficult for me. However today, it was different. Shivani was going to take her certification exam in Java

Now, the exam is conducted online but still you cannot take the exam from your home or from cyber cafe. There are designated centres which conduct exams on bahalf of the organization, who owns the certification. This business idea was quite desruptive and innovative. The idea seems so trivial but still it worked and the organizations like Prometric are flourishing as a result.

She cleared her exam with flying colours and we celebrated in the evening. She was relieved to have this monkey off her back and that now she won’t have to sacrifice her favourite TV shows for studies. Well, we know it’s a short lived joy because we both have to clear 2 more certifications before end of this year….yeah…we work in IT and have to keep pace with changing times….

Did I tell you that I gathered some more brownie points by insisting and then going with her to the test center :)

What I least enjoyed doing today:

Mood swings. I hate this and I assume nobody likes when our mood swings to a “bad mood”. I was sitting with a friend when he stated that he was not feeling usual self and doesn’t knew why it was like. “I am just not in mood to do anything” – he stated.

How could one save himself from bad moods. I feel that it generally happens when something unexpected happens that doesn’t benefit you or doesn’t make you happy. More so, it is something that you were mostly sure that it won’t happen.

“I don’t know the reason of my bad mood” – this is something that I used to say a lot. Well over the time, I felt that it was not true. I knew the reason but I was just not man enough to admit that I could be brooding over such a trivial thing. Once I knew that I had to accept the reason and work upon it to get out of this mood – I found myself rational again. One more thing can also help lifting our mood, which is, speaking to someone who listens or writing whatever you feel in a diary. It helped me, atleast!

Bad mood is something that could ruin your day. I felt it for my friend and know that today, probably, was not a pleasant day for him.

No arguments over Parathas

Aug 27, 2006 - Sunday

What I enjoyed doing most, today:

Shivani knew that I enjoyed the breakfast, I made yesterday and that I had blogged it. By mentioning this 1 act of mine (that happens once in a while), and not mentioning numerous others done by Shivani (that happens almost every day), I was trying to gain some brownie points. I could have teased her saying that I did a nice breakfast for us and she didn’t simply because the blog doesn’t mention it. But whom was I kidding……ladies are smart!

She prepared wonderful “parathas” for me and I just couldn’t stop eating them. So this gourmet treat was the best part of the day!

What I least enjoyed doing today:

We often have arguments with people. It does not matter if I loose or you win the arguments, I always feel a bit down so why do I argue or rather why do we argue? Because, we have different opinions about the same thing. Why do we have different opinions? Because, our previous experience had been different and successful so we all think that “my opinion is correct because I did it in past and I was succesful”. How come 2 people have different experience for the same thing and still sucessful. It can’t be right….but it is. It is because the environment or perspective (the external conditions) to our experience were different.

Let’s take an example:

Question: How do you eat Dosa (pancake like stuff eaten in India)?
Anwers: North Indian guy will reply -- with fork and spoon where as a south Indian guy will reply -- with hands!

Both are saying right but they are also saying different things. We can argue over this but because we know that the perspective of both answers is different, we understand their answers. In north India, restaurants serve dosas with forks where as in south India, it is a normal practice to eat with hands.

So, often in arguments, there is no right or wrong answers and what we need to do is understand perspective and then start all over again. I am sure it wil lead to a more constructive talk than argument.

I had an argument today and I felt bad but the fact that I was able to understand other’s perspective, relieves me!

Sleeping tight over Scrambled eggs

Aug 26, 2006 - Saturday

What i enjoyed doing today;

I woke up early today morning. It was 9 AM and yes it was early because today is Saturday! On weekends, though there is no change in nature, I mean, Sun does not come out late or something just to let some people like me to sleep till late or the birds do not take a chill pill and get cozy in their nests but it's different for them. They don't have to go to office daily and spend 8-9 hrs. doing something that has to be done.

By the time I woke up, Shivani was already in action and was fully into her laptop preparing for her exam so I took the apron and prepared myself for a show in kitchen. I made omelet and half-fried (bull's eye) eggs for breakfast. I took special care that the shape of omelet comes out round and it's in 1 piece. I also tried to make it look good s I used some coriander and persil leaves for garnishing. Finally it came out perfect. Shivani relished it and it made my day :)

What I didn't enjoy doing today:

After we came back from supermarket from our weekly shopping, I was feeling a bit tired. I had a stiff neck for last 3-4 days and was feeling an urge to rest. I laid straight on my back after some time it happened. I slept!

There is nothing wrong with sleeping in the afternoon but I didn't feel good when I woke up.It was like I was sleeping the whole day and had wasted my Saturday. Even the aromatic evening tea couldn't lift my spirits. I think from next time, if i decided to sleep in afternoon, I will make sure to put an alarm and not oversleep. Oversleeping! - I think that this was the problem. I overslept and this was the reason that i was feeling weird. Did I tell you that I slept for 4 hrs!!

Indian curry with Five Point Someone...

Aug 25, 2006 - Friday

What I enjoyed doing today:

After a long time, I read a novel - "Five Point Someone" by Chetan Bhagat - and I completed it in one sitting. I picked this book because I wanted to read something light, and light it was. I would definitely recommend reading this book because:

• You can read it anytime; you really don't need to be in any particular frame of mind to read this book.
• The book is very well written, in a simple language and has a pace that will not let you bore.
• People, who had lived in hostels, would relate to the story. However, there is a chapter in the book about stealing exam papers in IIT, which is pretty hard for me to believe. After all, IIT is the most prestigious institute in the country.
• In the end, you would be left with a "feel good factor" and feel that justice was done with each character. They got what they deserved.

I think, I will definitely read 2nd book by the same author pretty soon but for the mean time I have started reading a book - Cross train your brain by Stephan D. Eiffert.

What I didn't enjoy doing today:

Today, I and Shivani, sneaked out from office for lunch. Usually, we don't go out and either relish the home made food or content ourselves with a sandwich. We first went to Fu-Hao, a Chinese restaurant, but it was full and instead of waiting , we decided to go to an Indian restaurant called "Sawad", which is also near our office. We were lucky to get their in time because only 1 table was unoccupied then. Now, we have been to this restaurant many times earlier and we have always liked the food but qfter lunch, we had a mutual feeling of not having great time. We didn't enjoy our lunch - why?

• It was a buffet. The quality of food was not bad but the staff wasn't caring enough to see if something needed to be re-filled. We have to wait for "Naan" - an Indian bread for about 20 minutes!
• It was optional in restaurant to have a buffet or order from Menu. I felt that more attention was being given to the people who ordered from the menu.
• No salad and pappadums in the buffet!
• We like the restaurants, which are peaceful, have good ambiance and we get proper attention of the staff. Sawad is one of those places but only in the evenings. It is not less than a mess in the afternoon - the place is always full of people, the staff is on their toes to server everyone and such hustle-bustle and not getting proper attention from staff - really bothers me. (Did I mention that there were only 2 staff members to serve around 40 people)

Next time , I think, I would go to a buffet when it just starts. There would be less people around, I would get proper attention of the staff and I would not have to wait for my breads!