Sydney Stories - Week 49

Hello,

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

This week as to be expected was quite interesting. The Xmas spirit has been going on for the past few weeks and was reaching its peak this week. There were carols going on at various public spots. So far the only Christmas carol that I have been familiar with was Jingle Bells. This year I have been exposed to a new song - Rudolph  the red nosed reindeer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55j7rLp8iIY. It was played at Nandhitha's school concert and then I keep hearing that everywhere. At work the Christmas cheer was interesting. Not many people were there at work this week. On Friday the day started with champagne, berries and pan cakes. Our client's office was closed post noon. Merry Christmas!! I think one should not waste taking leave during this time. Just enjoy the good time at work.

The weather has been acting really crazy. We were lucky to have sun on Christmas day but so far 2 other days have been washed out by gloomy weather.

This was my first X'mas down under and yes had a fair bit of learning. The only shops that was probably open was the gas station and the mini marts with it. There was absolutely nothing else open. My friends and I planned on a trip to a place called Palm Beach. One of the scenic beaches of Sydney. Apparently the home of some of the rich and famous. The trip started with some adventure where I took a wrong exit on a Toll road. Ended up paying $15 ($5 each way) just to realize that the toll road didn't make much of a difference. We left home packed with a few snack tid bits assuming that there would be some wayside Maccas (Mc'donalds in Oz) or Hungry Jacks (Burger King in Oz). Merry Christmas - none of them were open. When we reached the beach it was a massive picnic spot where everybody had come absolutely prepared for a good barbie (barbeque). After scouring the beach for food the only option we had was a small snack shop. There was nothing they had that we could eat. Our lunch then comprised of different flavours of potato chips (or crisps as they called it), and cornetto ice cream. Kids had no problem with this LUNCH!! 

Spent a good amount of time in the water and in the sand. Nandha did a Krishna by taste testing the sand. Couldn't control him much beyond a point. He had a good time though exploring. Returned back home at around 5 PM. Had an early dinner at Billu's in Harris Park. After dinner went to see Man Madhan Ambu. Sooper duper movie. Incidentally this is a record of sorts. Our first movie in a movie hall down under and I suppose Nandha should mark this as his first movie in a cinema theater. The day ended well thanks to  MMA.

We were supposed to go to a place called Hunter Valley Gardens, thanks to weather and some lack of planning from our end dropped the idea. Hopefully we can catch up before the Christmas lights are taken off.

Traffic in Sydney - a big lesson here during the days after Christmas. Should never venture anywhere near a 3 km radius from a shopping mall. By mistake I thought of entering the mall to get some groceries the day after X'mas. After wasting petrol for about 20 minutes turned around empty handed. While we were driving today  we had to cross the mall area - bad idea. I think the best thing to do for Christmas is to stay put at home or travel to some remote place fully loaded and chill out.

Oki doki...1 more day to go for the holidays. Hopefully it is quiet.

Have A Great Week!!

Wishing you all A Very Happy New Year!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 47

Hi,

Hope you had a good week.

Looks like the maargazhi maasam (month of maargazhi)  music season has hit Sydney as well. There are a bunch of concerts happening in the last few weeks. Just that this is of a different kind - rock and pop. Eagles, U2, what not. One of my clients was mentioning that these days when every other country is watching every penny Aussies have the money to burn. Not sure how much of this is economically true...just an Aussie perspective.

This weekend we had the kids' birthday party at Hungry Jacks (equivalent of Burger King) near our place. It looked like a muhurtham day for b'day parties. There was a party before us and another after us as well. It is a neat concept where there is no worry of cleaning up the mess after the party nor the cost of booking a function hall. Just that the space is a bit limited and could've got cramped if more than 15 kids were in the group. Kids had fun I suppose jumping around. We had a Dora cake for Nandhitha and Spiderman for Nandha. Hungry Jacks was supposed to organize some "activity" for the kids but they decided not to considering the average age group of the kids. After the party couple of my friends came over to our place and we had a poker session at home. 

Today we went to Parramatta Park at around 7 PM. It was quite bright and sunny then. Nandhitha had fun cycling and playing in the park. It was getting darker and suddenly we realized that we were the only ones in the park. While trying to get out the park gates were closed. Then we read the "fine print" that the park closes at 8 PM and we tried coming out at around 8.45. Had to wait for 30 minutes before a park officer could come and open the gate. Luckily they had posted a number we could call if we had "overstayed" and yes, there was a fine as well. The most expensive public park experience so far. A couple of passers by on foot and bicycle stopped by and enquired. A desi gave some suggestions to avoid the fine. A chinese lady suggested that I go reverse (it was a 1-way loop that we had to drive on) on a curvy path for about 2 kms and find an "exit". However we stay put not to make more mistakes and increase the fine. Nandhitha almost lost her hope that we would get back home tonight and I had to prepare for answering her questions on why and what happened. Guess the weekend was wrapped up quite eventfully.

Photos uploaded at - http://picasaweb.google.com/ncchetty/KidsBDay2010#

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 48

Hello,

This week officially commences the Silly Season in Australia. Guess the term comes from people drinking silly during this season. At work we were told to come in casuals until the New Year. The only restriction was not to wear shorts, thongs and midriffs. Thongs...aka flip flops aka chappal.

The weather has been acting up really crazy. Today it was in the later 20s in the morning and was woken up to a good rain in the evening. Its all good. Keeps the weather pleasant.

Nandha is slowly experimenting his walking skills from today. Guess we will be soon start burning some calories running behind him. Hopefully we do after all the sweets and treats in the last few weeks.

Today we had a good breakfast in Parramatta called City Extra - a 24 hour cafe. One of a kind I would say for Aussie where nothing is open for 24 hours except for a select few Mcdonalds along a highway. A typical continental / European deal. Had good pancakes and eggs for breakfast after a loooong time. IHOP...miss you much. :-) We also tried a sea food crepe which was definitely worth a try (and worth repeating as well). 

Some more photos uploaded at : http://picasaweb.google.com/ncchetty/MiscDec2010#

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 46

Hello,

I had to go to the post office here recently to collect 2 parcels. One was a package from India and another from here. As expected the names were different on the envelopes. The guy - a Chinese I suppose got confused. He said, "So who are you BTW? You people always mixing up names. Me - was named Fung and will always be a Fung. No confusion.". I sure would've gotten into trouble if I had shown him the multiple identifications I had to prove either way.

Saw Guzaarish this weekend. Didn't realize Hrithik Roshan can act so well. A beautiful love story. I guess the tag line could've been "Do you love someone enough to kill them?"

Made it a long weekend this time to celebrate Nandhitha's b'day. Visited the Helensburgh temple. Got in there right in time for the Uchhi kaala (Noon) pooja and hence had "special" darshan. Had lunch at a convenience store. An interesting business model. You have a grocery story and if some customer feels hungry they can cook the food for you right there. Introduced Crumpets to Uma and Nandhitha. Crumpet is like a pre-cooked pancake with a gingery flavour. It is toasted with a dash of butter and honey. 

Nandhitha's long due visit to the beach was accomplished finally. All these days we visited a beach it was a short trip and just wet our feet. This time the weather cooperated and so was the time available. Had a good 1 hour without being too hot or cold (23 deg C). Nandha was not quite upto it at the beach. Guess he was scared by the sound of the waves.

Oki doki. Have A Great Week (the rest of it)!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 45 (and 44)

Hello,

Yes, I couldn't make it to write last week. Right about Thursday I had some time, but then it was too late and too early for this week's story. Suddenly life seems to be running on turbo mode.  Gotta slow down. :-)

I was reading a book review in a kid's magazine picked up in Nandhitha's pre-school. The title is "The Very Bad Book". Here's a sentence from the review - "This book is 172 pages of rotten rhymes, despicable drawings, crude cartoons and juvenile jokes that are anarchic, offensive and even funny". Apparently there no censor board for children's books!!!

It is spring time here and flowers abloom all over. There is this purple Jacaranda flowers all over Sydney. Didn't notice this in Melbourne seems like a feature of Sydney and Brisbane. Wonder if it is the same sampangi flower found in Bangalore but a purple version. 

This Friday we had a "Family Disco" event in Nandhitha's pre-school. A nice way of raising funds for the school. However I was not "prepared" for it.  Maybe a little more orientation would've helped. However did come back with a dinner voucher worth $50. Guess I should not complain. :-)  

The dinner voucher - we got it as part of a raffle ticket prize. It is one of the trends of the holiday season to have a Xmas raffle going around. Everybody seems to have one including our doctor's office. It's not too expensive - 50c a ticket so one would not feel the pinch.

Talking about donations, my Movember collection has been pretty pathetic. I was the only one who donated (to me) inspite of me reaching out to my "network" via email and also shamelessly asking people to donate whenever someone commented (positively) on my moustache. Firstly I wonder why I even wanted to do this, next wonder what I can do next year to improve the collection. 

I have told this many times already but will repeat again. Australia does not know how to deal with temporary workers like us. Or should I say temporary workers should be just that - temporary for a few months and not hope to have a decent living. One of my colleagues had their 2nd child last week. He is also on a 457 visa just like me. The health insurance for people like us works a bit differently compared to the normal private health insurance (am not talking about the public medical care). The coverage is so bad that one should'nt really be thinking about having babies with this visa. My friend was pretty nervous that nothing should happen over the weekend because the costs will increase and his insurance will not cover that additional weekend charges. The treatment itself seems under par when I compare to what I had experienced in US. Maybe it was just that hospital which apparently had underpaid nurses. There was a board outside the hospital...beware of underpaid and overworked nurses. 

Ta ta for now.

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 43

Hello,

The holiday mood is slowly settling in at work with the desks getting decorated with the red and green stuff. The week went by quickly as usual with all the fun stuff at work.

Our anniversary was celebrated by me doing a WFH (working from home). In the evening went to a Murugan temple in Westmead. It is run by Sri Lankan tamils and the day we went was Surasamharam I believe. It was interesting to see the crowd there. The men were wearing the dhoti in a very unique way with the borders (paettu) displayed in 3 different layers. Later in the evening went to a North Indian restuarant called Haveli. Had a nice "banquet" dinner. It was supposed to be like a thali meal with unlimited supply of curry and naans. They had a simple rule, we can ask for as many repeats we want, but we can't take home anything if it was requested for a repeat. However we couldn't even finish the 1st rounds. 

Weekend was quite hectic as well. Finally made a visit to THE Bondi beach of Sydney. Some of my clients and colleagues had planned on a 2 km walk along the beach where there were some sculpture exhibits. I had foolishly signed up for it thinking we can still manage with the 2 vaandus in strollers. Thankfully we got delayed with yet another commitment en route. Must've been a pretty scenic walk but would've been treacherous to attempt with kids. We finally caught up with the gang for lunch in a beach side cafe. Nandhitha had some fun later at the beach. And yes, finding a parking spot was a nightmare. Spent about half an hour just roaming around to find a parking spot. Lesson learned, never ever try to drive to Bondi again. Bondi beach can be considered the Miami or Santa Monica of Australia. It was the most happening place. In fact right when I was searching for parking there was some arrest happening and a  TV crew was interviewing some life guard. 

Slowly getting used to the road ways in Sydney. What is called as "car pool" or heavy occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in US  is called as a "T2" or "T3" lane which mandates a minimum of 2 or 3 passengers to be travelling in the vehicle. Continuing to be learning lessons not to rely on the GPS 100%. 

On Sunday went to the Helensburgh temple where my uncle had organized a Kanda Shasti pooja which apparently they do every year. If not for anything temples are a good source for socializing. Was fortunate to meet a  senior person in the IT industry. It was a bit unnerving to see Indian women visiting the temple in shorts and minis. Not sure if they were visiting the temple for religious or touristy purposes. I understand the foreigners (or should I say the locals) coming like that, but Indians? Oh well...let me not be judgemental. ;-)

Went to our neighbour's son's b'day party in the evening at Hungry Jacks. Hungry Jacks is the equivalent of Burger King (everywhere else in the world). For the first time in my life had a veggie burger (outside India) on recommendation from my neighbour. Was pleasantly surprised by the taste. Didn't expect to enjoy a veggie patty. 

The lifts in our apartment stopped working again. :-( Apparently some major fault due to some water leakage somewhere. Not fun to go up and down 5 floors with 2 kids.

Oki doki. Have a good rest of the week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 42

Hello,

Last week turned out to be quite eventful as I expected it to be.

After all it was the week when there was a "race that stops a nation" took place. Last year while I was in Melbourne it was a public holiday in the state of Victoria. They might as well announce a national public holiday. You might've heard of the solar solstices, the "Cup day"  can be called the lunch solstice of Oz. Whichever office is working it is considered to be the longest lunch of the year. In other words people leave for lunch and not return till 4 PM only to pack up their bags. The most "impressive" part was when we were in the middle of a very important meeting. The meeting facilitator interrupted the meeting at 2.55 PM announcing a break for 20 minutes. The race goes from 3 PM - 3.07 PM and everybody is expected to be betting on the horses and be rooting for their horse to win. This can happen ONLY in AU. I guess I shouldn't ridicule this...it is a part of local culture one needs to adapt to.

November is called Movember here. It is the month where men grow mustaches to collect donations to contribute towards mens health. Particularly for prostrate cancer and depression. Yes, men can get into depression too!! I got an invite from a customer to join the program and am participating as well. I am growing the 70s style mouche. Will post some photos later. If you are interested to donate, feel free to click on http://au.movember.com/ and search for my name to donate. 

The other day I was waiting for the train in Parramatta station and a desi guy walks up to me and starts a conversation. I was first very apprehensive (remember the Piyush episode?). He immediately started making connections just by knowing where I worked. He mentioned a person's full name who used to work at my client's office. So I let my guard down a bit. He then mentioned that he is also a Test lead. I thought...wow..must be handy to network with other peers in the industry. I asked him a few questions about the industry in general and by the way he answered I was pretty sure he knew what he was talking about. So, I let my guard down and exchange phone numbers. On Sunday evening he calls me and says..."So Chenni...would you be interested in an internet based business...". I don't know if there is a "E-vaayan" (loser)  label written on my face that I keep attracting such people. :-( Oh well...

Deepavali...this year was quite unique in many ways. The celebrations started on Thursday at office with a pot luck lunch organized by moi. I had taken tomato rice, masala vadai and coconut chutney. It was a good hit. I had bought some Pune's famous Chitale Bandu's bhakarwadi's from one of the Indian groceries here. In the gang there was a guy from Mumbai. I asked him if he was excited about the bhakarwadi coming from Mumbai. He had a rather sad face saying these exported ones are no where close  compared to the fresh ones they can get only in Pune. I just realized that I myself avoided Adyar Anandha Bhavan sweets in the same shop knowing it must've been cooked at least a few days ago!! 

Deepavali started off as any other usual day, just that I got home a few hours early. The best part for this year was we could burst sparklers which I never had an opportunity while in US. Friday night we had a dinner at a cousin's house. We had made kothamalli (coriander) chutney as our contribution. It was alright. The crowd was mostly my cousin's kids' parents so not a whole lot in common. Saturday night was the mega event. Our neighour and his group of friends had arranged a super Deepavali party. It was arranged in a hall about an hour's drive from our place in some secluded forest called South Maroota. It was like college culturals albeit with kids. The program started aptly with a song from Endhiran to set the mood. A clown was arranged to do some face painting and magic show for kids. There were a few kids entertainment activities and then the adults cultural events - singing and dance. Hats off to those who volunteered and participated in all those events. Apparently all of them working parents spending late nights practicing for these events for almost a month. Yes, there were a few rough performances, but definitely not bad for a set of amateurs. Sunday we had another fairly quiet pot luck at another friend's place. This time it was chicken curry with Mangalam masala. The other ladies were curious to get the recipe from me. ;-)

So long folks...

Have a good rest of the week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 41

Hello,

They say it is better to teach a person how to fish rather than catching a fish for him (/her). However, if someone was taught how to fish, also given a fish, marinated and grilled and at the end they say is this how you eat chicken? Well maybe I am exaggerating a little bit. However this is how I felt when one of my team members after an hour long lesson in Excel ignores every bit of it. The client who wanted something in Excel at the end did it himself and showed my team member what he was looking for. Ignorance definitely seems like bliss for someone!! 

Australia has a lot of things, but 2 things I haven't see so far is grape jam (or jelly) and egg substitute in any grocery store. Wonder what the deal is with that. Maybe the Sydneysiders don't care this?

The kids cartoons like Dora and Diego seems like serious business. There are PhDs as part of the research team for these programs. Next time someone completes a PhD in anthropology  he / she might be sought after material for the next kids program.

Halloween was celebrated in pockets here. The stores were marketing the spooky candies but definitely nothing like in US of A. 

Fairly uneventful week last week. Pretty sure this week is going to be interesting. :-)

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 40

Hello,

Spring is settling in here. However the weather has been just a tad crazy with temperatures going up and down within a day.

People continue to talk about racism down under against India. However some happenings keeps me wondering otherwise. If not for anything at least with food. One of the coffee chains here called Gloria Jeans (comparable to Starbucks) has samosas amongst other pastries. Nandhitha's recent day care (yes we changed one last week) has a list of suggested meal items of which there is a special section with Indian suggestions for lunch and snacks (idli, roti etc.). However the one that has topped the list so far is to find butter chicken masala and lamb rogan josh in an Italian restaurant. Simply shows the number of Indians and their impact here. Wonder if UK has similar things going on too. I remember getting excited to see chicken tikka masala in a cross country train in UK. 

Finally got to finish watching Enthiran (Robot) this week. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I haven't watched any of the Hollywood movies that have been used as "sources of inspiration". It definitely didn't feel like watching a Tamil movie. Of course Shankar did ensure to give that feel by having Super Star chase around mosquitoes. Was that a copy of something too? 

Nandhitha is becoming more and more dangerous day by day. We used to spell words in English to say something that we don't want her to grasp. Last time Uma spelt a word to me and spat came the reply from Nandhitha. I know some of my friends had resorted to Hindi...but unfortunately that cannot be an option here.

Oki doki. Have a Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 39

Hello,

Happy Hump Day!!

Last week was extremely busy with work with a lot of "entertainment" in multiple projects. The trend is still continuing this week as you can see that it took me till now to write.

Here the trend seems to be celebrating events much in advance. One of my northi friends borrowed a ven pattu dhoti from me. Apparently they were having a Diwali party over the weekend and he and his wife were supposed to be dressed up as south indian wedding couple. The annual Christmas party which is a huge mega event for every company is also conducted sometime in November. 

Yet another Aussie word (or is it British?) that I am hearing often these days is "narky". Apparently it means sarcastic (or some similar tone). I tend to hear this more often at work when the "entertainment" gets more and more exciting. :-)

The era of what, why and how has started for Nandhitha. Recently she has discovered shadows and echoes. She gets thrilled by echoes in particular and tries it out every other time we are in the parking lot where there is a good effect. The other times she does a "manual echo" is when she doesn't want to listen to something that we ask her to do. Whatever we say gets echoed back verbatim by her and she calls it "echo".

The all smart GPS has some interesting functionality. It can read out every other street / road name in Australia, but it cannot read out the words "Metro" or "State". Whenever I have to take a highway ,say "Metro 88" it spells out "take M E T R O 88". Go figure!! 

Thass all for now.

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 38

Hello,

A fairly quiet week and weekend so its going to be a short one this time. :-)

While I was getting out of the Town Hall train station there was a lady handing out the free advertisement booklets to the commuters. In front of me a turban wearing sardarji was walking out and the lady said "Namaste" to him. That guy didn't care for it and went on. I did a quick wiggle to acknowledge the Namaste and she says "It was for him. Not for you." I had to stop for a few seconds there. Did I not look Indian enough? Oh well...

Thank You in Oz could be "Thank You - Ta" or just "Cheers". It does look funny as  you rush into the toilet and hold the door for someone and he says "Cheers". Sorry mate, am in a hurry. ;-)

Thanks to CWG, the local grocery chain Coles has been running an Indian special. The store employees were even wearing an Indian designed apron. Aussie - India Mate Mate. 

Some things our guys do does make us cringe. The other day a fellow desi was caught travelling without a train ticket. That guy had an absolutely shameless grin. Am sure he must've been a pro at this since he looked so confident not to have been carrying any sort of identification etc.

Oki doki. Have A Great Week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 37

Hello,

Its been crazy weather out here. One day it is in the mid-20s and another it goes down to 17 degrees. It's a long weekend here and it has been raining the whole weekend. What a waste!! Took Friday off as well. We celebrated Labours day in NSW. Yes, here the Labours day is a different day for each state. Had the best long weekend ever just lazing around the house. Friday night got SMSes from my boss and colleague from Gurgaon that I got the award for the best project manager for the past quarter. Not a bad start for a weekend. :-)

This weekend has been very important to Aussies. There were 2 major sporting events - AFL (Australian Football League) and NRL (National Rugby League) grand finals. AFL a.k.a "Footy" as the Aussies lovingly call it has a weird rule if the game ends in a tie. The finals has to be replayed all over the NEXT weekend.  The first finals happened last week which ended up in a tie between Collingwood and St. Kilda teams. The re-match happened on Saturday where Collingwood snatched the trophy. Not that I am a footy fan, but being here one doesn't seem to have a choice to get away from it. Last year while I was in Melbourne I was "officially" asked to pick a favourite team. I picked Collingwood since it was one of the stations on the way back home while I was there. Apparently the Collingwood Magpies were the most infamous team where people just loved to hate. I was given very strange looks by my clients when I told them I picked Collingwood. Last year they lost the very next day I announced my choice ended up making myself the joker for the day. This year they somehow pulled it off and won the "premiership". 

In Australia there is a perennial clash between 2 cities, Melbourne and Sydney. Melbournians hate Sydney and vice versa. It had to come up with a sporting event as well. AFL is a Melbourne based event (even though there are a few teams outside of Melbourne). NRL is a New South Wales or more Sydney based where all the teams are in and around Sydney.

I wrote to one of my ex-clients today that I was thrilled to see Collingwood win y'day and that I remembered them from last year's story. Apparently he remembered that incident too. Now the more funnier part is....I came to know today that they have yet to fill in the position I held last year!!! 

Keeping up with the sporty theme saw the opening ceremony of the CWG. Definitely was grand and a good show case to the Commonwealth. The one I was impressed the most is how they had created a mehendi on cloth. CWG has been the talk of the town here for the past few weeks thanks to all the infamous publicity. Hope some of my customers had a chance to see the opening.

Enough of ra ra ra (the Aussie version of blah blah blah) about sports.

One place I hate to like is Aldi. It's a german supermarket chain whose specialty is to provide low cost groceries (and others). They have the cheapest diapers without compromising on quality. As I was paying up I asked the billing clerk to get me a cardboard box to carry the stuff. It was a practice there to do so if we did not want to shell out extra money for their fancy shopping bags. That guy said "I don't have any here. Look in the other aisle, most probably you wont find one." So I did look around and came back empty handed. So I asked him again for a carton. He said "It is your responsibility to make sure you get a carton if you need to carry things out.". That was it... I just asked "Is that so?". Not sure if it was those words or my stare. He immediately ran around and got me a box to carry the stuff out. Unfortunately I will have to go back again there next time I need to buy diapers. :(

We made "tex-mex" cuisine for my relatives visit to our place. There were a few dietary restrictions this time as well (no preservatives, no soy sauce, no tomatoes) and of course mostly vegetarian except fish. The menu was "inspired" by one of our favourite restaurants in Phoenix called Sam's Cafe. Started with home made "red rock" lemonade (thanks to Emeril - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/strawberry-lemonade-recipe/index.html), chilly fish (this was a deviation from the theme), mixed lentil soup, veggie quesadilla and pasta. The soup was a hit with the kids. 

The day light savings for AU started this weekend. In other words more longer work days since we wake up an hour earlier and India wakes up an hour later. :(

Nandhitha had a good time at Lollipops playland. It's like a mega version of a Mc'donald's play area for kids to jump around. Went around for a drive at the Parramatta park today. Unfortunately couldn't spend much time since we went a bit late in the day. Hopefully a trip in the cards for next weekend. 

Guess my looong weekend has made it a looong story too. ;-)

Have a Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 36

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

Have you ever tried to dry your hands using the hot air blower in public bathrooms and ever had your hands dried up? In the Sydney Town Hall railway station they have installed a power blow dryer system. You need to insert your palms in a slit when two quite powerful jets of warm air dries you up. It was quite impressive. Never seen the air hand dryer so effective. Wonder how many other public toilets have caught up with this technology.

These days I happen to meet a lot of my apartment mates in the train. I guess you start to gain respect after you've been seen around with your wife and kids. The same guys never bothered to talk to me earlier. ;-) In fact one of them also works in the same building as mine. 

After a long break from good Malaysian food my appetite was well satisfied this weekend with Malaysian food for 3 days in a row. Friday is my usual Thai day took yet another deviation this time. This time, I found a small Malaysian restaurant tucked into a corner in a nearby train station. I happened to see that by chance while coming back from somewhere. The effort was definitely worth it. Finally had some decent char kway teaw. Keep getting confused for the right spelling. Maybe anything goes for Malay? 

On Saturday morning my friend Siva called me up and asked if we were interested to join them on a trip to Blue Mountains national park. Agreed to join without much research. It is technically about an hour's drive from our place. However it would've helped if we knew where we were supposed to go. I assumed he knew and he assumed I knew. Poor GPS can only tell us the way if we give a destination right.  It took about 5 hours to go where we wanted to go. Decided never ever to step out of the house "unplanned". 

The particular spot where we wanted to go was in a town called Katoomba. Ended up in yet another Malaysian restaurant for lunch. Had kway teaw, nasi goreng and hokkien mee. Wasn't disappointed at all. My friends hadn't tasted Malay food before, they were a bit hesitant looking at the dark coloured nasi goreng. They were quite happy too.

The Blue mountain national park is where one of the popular landmarks of Australia where the three sisters peaks are  located. Thanks to all the adventure in the morning we didn't have much time to spend there. Managed to take a cable car ride (the last one trip for the day actually) across the mountains. It was quite impressive. A lot of my friends had underplayed the Blue mountains saying there was nothing much except for the 3 peaks. I think we will be going back there a few times. 

And yes,  made a decent kway teaw (again for the 3rd consecutive day - "something wrong" (as Nandhitha would say)). It was kway teaw minus any meat. I think the chives and bean sprouts makes the difference. 

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 35

Hello,

Fairly quiet week this time. These days I have been making some frequent trips to visit "Justice of Peace" or in other words Notary Public officers. Have to go to them to get some documents attested once in a while. Wonder whatever training they undergo, they get to become next to "God" to prove the authenticity of myself and documents. The best part of this deal is it is free. Everywhere else there was always some nominal fee involved. In US, some bank officials had this "power" but they still used to charge a fee of $2 per signature (if you did not have an account in their bank). Here they sit in the premises of the city courts and do this as a volunteer job. Apparently any citizen could be a volunteer I guess. I saw a "trainee" JP - an asian lady who was attesting one of my documents.Talking about courts, invariably I see at least one TV crew waiting outside the city court. Noticed this in Melbourne, a similar phenomenon here as well. Probably awaiting for some hot news that's happening within the chambers?

The food courts down here have a good practice which I don't think have seen elsewhere. Towards the end of the day most of the vendors pack up their left over food and sell it at a discounted price. Thought it was a great idea to avoid food waste. The only problem there is they tend to mix up combinations which are not always suitable for my choice.

Last saturday was a Thai day at home. My cousin and wife had visited us as part of their visit to Sydney. Menu - fish cake, tom yum soup, chilli basil fried rice (kao pad grao) and fish curry. Except for the shrimp paste everything else was made from scratch. If at all I open a Thai restaurant it will be named Kaffir. :-) Any dish can become a Thai dish the moment you put in some kaffir leaves. The fish cake turned out to become a fish bonda and the fish curry ended up being a bit too salty. Learned a few lessons there. 

That's all folks.

Have a great week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 34

Hello,

Nandhitha and myself have been toying around with my new Nokia 5233. Finally I have been exposed to the touch screen interface on a cell phone and both of us were busy sliding things around. This phone has some real cool design features like the orientation changing when you tilt the phone horizontally.

The most dreaded thing that I dont ever want to think about happened last weekend. I was feeding some flavoured yogurt to Nandha (yes, I have progressed that far) and Nandhitha was also having some as well(sibling pressure). While she was half way through her yogurt she wanted to feed me her flavoured yogurt. There was no simple way I could explain to her that I can't take it and why I can't take it. She said "Try it daddy, try little you will like it". Now that was a boomerang!! I couldn't even move around since I was still having Nandha on my lap as she kept bringing the spoon loaded with yogurt. Had to really tackle it to have my shirt and jeans take the beating than my mouth. Now THAT was interesting. Uma was just watching this all along and laughing and she said - ok now you got some story for this week. Of course I did!! (Ok - you can stop laughing).

I got done with The Lost Symbol last week. Guess I should not reveal the secrets so will not talk much about the book. It was quite interesting till the end and I must say that I was a bit disappointed at the end. Maybe there was no other sensible option?

Had a busy weekend travelling around. Went to the Helensburgh Venkates(h)wara temple with a friend's family to wish Happy B'day to Pillayar. It was fairly quiet at the temple. The main events were slated for Sunday where the idol was supposed to be take to the beach nearby to be dissolved. I guess Nandhitha (and Nandha) will be missing on a lot of fun that happens in India with such festivals. If not for religious reasons, I hope to expose them for the fun part as much as possible. Let's see how it goes. On Sunday we went to Coogee beach. Had a good burritto after a loong time. The last time was while I was in Phoenix - missing Chipotle!!. The beach was nice. It was not warm, but not too cold either. Did the usual beachy things for a little while and got going when it started becoming chilly. On the way back did a bit of city tour unguided by the GPS. 

The GPS was too obedient for my own good to take me where I wanted to go. I wanted to drive on the famous "Harbour bridge", one of the icons of Australia, however I had also given a restriction to avoid tolls. It so happens that I had to pay toll to drive on that bridge. GPS being obedient it kept me going round and round within a few city blocks. After a few circles I switched off the GPS and followed the signs on the road  - the traditional way. I wish the GPS told me not to try for the impossible. :-)

Some recent photos - http://picasaweb.google.com/ncchetty/SydneySeptember2010#

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 33

Hello,

I have been reading the Lost Symbol by Dan Brown recently. I have a weird feeling with the number 33 and my 33rd week in Sydney. It has been the most terrific / terrible and rewarding week so far. For those who don't get this you need to read The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown has been keeping me good company these days. I hate it when my station arrives as I am in the last few chapters and it is literally a page turner. 

Work week was crazy with facilitating meetings between India and US - had to work till everybody came online which is sometimes till 1 - 2 AM. Coupled with a holiday offshore, things didn't move as fast as I expected.  However it had a good ending on Friday when one of my documents got approved after 8 months with a nice word of appreciation from the client. Yes, it took 8 months to get a document approved.

Last weekend I got several new things, a new mobile (thanks to an inconspicuous water spill on my 2.5 yr old Blackberry), a GPS, and even a car (2008 Toyota Camry - Altise). Australia decided I should get a new name as well!! Yes, I am officially now "Chetty Natarajan Chenni" where Chetty is my first name and "Natarajan Chenni" is my surname / last name. Thanks to a small error made in my passport years ago. I have traveled on that passport so many years, applied for various official documents using that as proof - NOBODY has questioned my identity so far. I got this rude awakening when I was attempting to register the car in my name. The lady in the RTA (Road Transportation Authority) explained to me what my name is according to my passport which is what they will go by. It was not a funny feeling when someone questions your identity and name. According to 100 point system I had to have either my bank account or a phone bill that will reflect my name EXACTLY as in my passport. Luckily got my bank account fixed without much discussion and got it registered on Monday. Now I have the simple task of changing the name on my passport because all of my other documents are documented as who I am.

The car purchase by itself was a bit of a story. I have been researching for the last 2 months. The initial few visits to a car dealer gave a completely different experience than what I've had in the US with car dealers. Here they almost looked at me like dirt when I told them that I am looking for a used car about 3-4 years old. Nobody even bothered to come around and show the cars that are available the first time. Car financing was yet another story. My visa is so special that nobody wants to give me a loan beyond my visa period (which btw expires in March 2011). There is a concept called novated leasing here which is almost like a company leased car. When I enquired around it seemed like a viable option where my visa didn't have to matter. I did get mixed inputs on that where some said it will be possible and some said it will not be. Finally one guy did say that he can get me a lease regardless of my visa condition. Ultimately he was wrong. My application got rejected after 1.5 weeks of processing. I had already booked a car by then (based on the earlier "promise" sent to me in email). Finally my uncle came to my rescue and pulled a few strings here and there with his bank to get it sorted out. As it turns out rules are rules but not for everybody. 

Anyway, it is a major relief to be able to move around as I wish without depending on public transport. 

The weather is getting nicer and nicer. Have shifted from a long over coat to a blazer now. Looking forward to spring and summer. 

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 31

Hello,

After several weeks of being late, this time for a change this is coming out sooner in spite of being one of the busiest weekends.

Had colleagues come over for lunch today. It has been close to 7 months since I've been here and only now got the opportunity to have them over. It was a completely south indian deal except for the appetizer - quesadilla. It was ven pongal, dosai (masala, egg, plain), bele sambar, chutney and chicken kozhambu. It was a north indian gang so most of them have had dosais only in restaurants and hence were excited to have "home made" dosai. 

This week I attempted to add Uma to my bank account. Yet another example for victorian age aussie rules. Yes, I couldn't add her to my account. They needed a "100 point" identification for Uma. All she had of course was her passport which gives you only 50 points. Why should it be so difficult to add a spouse to a bank account? For one, I couldn't add her to my existing account. I had to create a new one to include the spouse. I couldn't even get her a supplementary credit card because she "fails" to meet the identification criteria to be able to "utilize" any of the bank's financial "services". 

While waiting for the bank to open we saw a jeans shop which has some amazing deal going on. Since I was also looking out for one, decided to make use of the offer. While we were in the shop selecting a pair the attendant came around and said that the offer is no longer on. However since we were the first customers for the day (the shop had just opened), she agreed to honour the previous offer. That was a real time deal changer. :-) So any way, couldn't get a bank account came away with a new pair of jeans,

I have this ritual of eating Thai food on Fridays since 2001.  Of course there were exceptions ONLY where Thai food was not available. This Friday I was tempted by a malaysian restaurant close to work called Jimmy's Recipes. One, I think I've been missing a good char kway teow for a while and second, the ladies in the restaurant wore the traditional batik dresses (like in Spore airlines uniform). There's something in that design. ;-) So I took a deviation from the ritual. Damn what a disappointment. They gave me something which was a cross between a kway teow and a chopsuey. So, I've decided not to deviate from my ritual. Is this what happens when something is done "religiously"?

One thing I should appreciate about public transport in Sydney is the support people with handicaps get for their travel. They have a system when someone on a wheel chair boards the train, information is given to the station where they are supposed to get down. A guard goes there ready with a temporary ramp to be fixed in to get the wheel chaired person out. I guess that is one of the signs of a "developed" country - the support available for old and handicapped people. But of course, I have seen trains (in US) where this is done in a mechanical fashion. At the press of a button a ramp stretches out so that the wheel chair can get off and not have to wait for a person to come and help. Oh well, Aussies definitely have a long way to go. 

Today I was relaxing a bit in the morning and Nandhitha came up to me and asked me if I was tired.Not knowing what her intent was, agreed that I was tired. She came back with a pump (one used to fill air in balls) aimed it on my arm and started pumping. At the end she asked "Now do you have energy?". I was absolutely speechless. Wonder where she picked up energy and pumping part.

Have A Great Week !!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 30

Hello,

I should say that I am getting some pressure now to get week 30 out of the way. Am missing my SLAs consistently by a day. :-(

There is a non-stop radio station in Raaga - http://www.raaga.com/live/. I wonder what their logic is to mix up the songs. They have not failed to impress me so far. It has been the latest kitchen music for quite a few weeks now. Who care's for MP3 and iPod when there's such good non-stop music on the net!!

Using swear words seem like a norm here. This is a stark difference compared to folks out in the US of A. Over there, just in case someone uttered the "non-utterable" they will apologize for it big time. Here they simply don't seem to care...at least most of them. There seems to be so much of stress built up here in spite of having the "work life balance". You just throw in a small bit of a surprise element and you had it. 

Weekend was hectic as usual in spite of visiting a cousin's house for lunch. Beginning to hate public transport more and more over the weekends. All our plans went for a toss simply waiting for buses. An activity that should've taken 1 hour  took almost 3 hours to complete just because of waiting for public transport. As such time has a different premium on weekends. Don't feel this pinch during weekdays while I go to work probably because the frequency is not bad enough. 

That's all folks!!

Have A Great Week Ahead!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 29

Hello,

For a change a very relaxing weekend in spite of all that could be done. Getting the groceries done during the week makes quite a bit of difference for the weekend. 

A friend of mine and his wife from Melbourne had visited us on Saturday. Had a spread starting with sweet corn chicken soup, chilly fish, bhindi masala and pasta. The sweet corn soup from y'day morphed into hot and sour soup for tonight. The chilly fish was a complex mix of indian, european, chinese and thai spices. Turned out pretty well. Sunday was quite relaxing for a change without having to do much. The fact that I am able to write this by 11 PM means something.

Nandha has started moving around quite a bit making it dangerous to leave anything on the floor. He targets anything that has a LED or anything that is colourful. Food items if any left on the carpet is another source of attraction for him. We bought a play pen where he can roam around within boundaries. He has been fine so far however a bit of a circus when he is not in the mood for his pen.

-------

Apparently I dozed off y'day typing up to the above paragraph sitting on the couch. And I thought I had a relaxing weekend!!

Nandha has had a home-hair cut now. I suppose he looks more of a boy now. People got confused seeing his long hair (bound with hair-clip). 

So anyway, wonder what is up with food that "may" contain "traces" of something. Something is either there or not there. Noticed this while I was buying pasta. Every brand had this warning "May contain egg" or "May contain traces of egg". Not that I am bothered by the existence of egg or not, but I know people who are strict vegetarians. Wonder if they can eat pasta ever!!! 

Finished up reading the book called "New Games New Rules" for the Aussie industry. It was more about how to handle union issues and how restructuring the impact of unions will help Australia. However I can see the effect of it in non-union organizations as well. This country needs reformation big time. They've been living in their own little world down under, guess it cannot continue for too long. I still am not able digest the number of people the suburban railway system employs. One to wave the flag, one to see the waving of the flag and another to drive. And yeah, there is a guard in every compartment. No wonder the unemployment rate is low here.

Oki doki.

Have A Great Week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 28

Hello,

Last week was eventful because 2 of my colleagues returned to India after a short stay for one and a long stay for another. A couple of farewell parties including an impromptu dinner at our place as well. We managed to do masala vada and pasta. There was one guy by the name of Ashwini (yes a guy) I need to talk about. He is an absolute vegetarian to the core who cannot even consider cakes if they are made with eggs. He eats Indian and Indian food only. One of my achievements in the last 6 months is to have him try "other" cuisines such as salad and Subway. Every time he is in the mood for a salad or Subway I am his official "orderer". At Subway he used to rely on me to order the right bread, veggies and sauce that will suit his taste buds. Oh well, he was an interesting person.

Am currently on a book which talks about how the union system is affecting the productivity in Australia. Here for any job done by 1 person anywhere else in the world, it would take 2 Aussies to do the same.One of the unique things about Aussie police is that they always roam around in groups of 4. Not just police, in Melbourne even the suburban train ticket inspectors move around in groups of 4. I can understand having a backup, but 3 backups? Probably the police unions decided that no policeman should wander in the dark (or bright daylight) on his/her own. I kind of see this in many places. Looks like it is an union thing.

Oki doki...a short one for last week. Seem to be forgetting the stories a bit. Hmm...short term memory retainment. ;-(

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 27

Hello,

Last week was quite interesting. Got a chance to attend a complimentary conference conducted by IBM and other co-sponsors. It was inaugurated by a key note speech from Max Walker. Apparently he is a celebrity down under who has dabbled in international cricket, australian football, TV shows etc. His theme was "Imagination + Association = Possibilities". He seemed to start off on a good note, however somewhere down the line lost track in his own stories and time was running out. Eventually hurried up his speech constantly watching the time cue card. The rest of the session was quite interesting. The topic of interest I chose was Agile methodologies. It has been the talk in our office for a little while now. There has been a bunch of problems going on and someone said "Oh we need to go Agile. That will solve all our problems.". Until last week I didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about. Now I have some idea on what it is.  Basically, they have clubbed a set of good habits  for those with bad habits and given a nice little name. 

Apart from the topics presented, the conference was well organized at the Hilton in Sydney. Food in corporate parties here is something that I continue to be baffled by. They really give a lot of attention to keep the taste buds working full steam. Some exotic appetizers and desserts were made available.

It was a deciding week for the Australian Masterchef. Aussies have made their preferences very clear. They prefer a cooking reality show over an electoral debate. The TV timing for the electoral debate had to be shifted after the Masterchef finale was completed. Of course I couldn't get a chance to watch it live. It was dinner time and it means Dora time at home. :-)

The local chef tried his hands at chicken tikka masala over the weekend. On googling the recipe, the wikipedia on chicken tikka masala says there are 48 different variants of the recipe. I probably came up with a 49th version of it myself. Tried a new way of making grilled tikka by pan frying bite sized pieces of marinated chicken. Came out pretty well. 

Oki doki. Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 26

Hello,

This weekend marks 6 months of my stay in Sydney. Been quite interesting so far. On the work front, am getting to know stuff just enough to be dangerous. I had a colleague of mine in Wipro who kept saying this - "I may not know much, but I know enough to be dangerous". I think I know exactly what he means now. Last week happens to mark 14 years of professional life as well. Guess am becoming an old dog. ;-)

2 girls sitting in the train the conversation goes like - yeah...am not saying she's not nice, but she's a bitch. ;-)

Currently on a book called "New Game, New Rules". It is about what Australian enterprises should do to compete in the global market. Quite  interesting read so far. Most of the things in there is quite common applicable to any country. However he brings about certain specifics about Aussie work culture. One interesting thing, there's really nothing much being exported from here except for wool and beer (probably oranges?). More about it after I finish it.

Had an awkward situation in our GP's office. We had first consulted with an Indian doc for Nandha and Nandhitha a few weeks ago. We were not quite impressed by her and decided not to go to her again. This week had to go to a GP for Nandha since his coughing didn't seem to subside. It was the same office which had 5 doctors. So we visit this old Aussie doc. He does a few checks and calls up "Hey Geets...there's this kid...blah blah blah..". Apparently he called up the other doc whom we didn;t want to see to get an opinion. On the way out "Dr Geets" says, don't forget to come back on Tuesday for a follow up. Somebody should've  taken a pic of me...would've been interesting. :-) Is there a Doc - patient etiquette guide? 

This weekend had been to a friend's house for lunch. Had great sambar sadham a.k.a "bisi bele bath" after a long time. Decided to make it a day off for the kitchen and eat out for dinner as well. My favourite Malay restaurant had closed down. :-( Need to find a good Mee Goreng place now. Ended up with good old Thai. 

Oki doki. Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 25

Hello,

A quick week rather monotonous zoomed by. Just as I was wondering if I would get enough topics to write about, Sydney presents itself with something interesting.

It seemed like an orchestra at our place where all 4 of us were coughing and sneezing one after the other. Nandhitha was the worst hit and she picked up a fever as well. This morning I took her to a neighbourhood medical center since the fever didn't seem to reduce even after a day of paracetemol. 4 out of the 5 duty doctors available were Indians. Our luck we got to see a Korean (or Chinese?) doctor. He did the basics and suggested a paracetemol for fever and something else for her cough. I had already started on that dose for her for the past 2 days. (Oh athaan yenakku theriyme..) ("Oh I already know that...") . So he asked why are you here then? I said, I don't know, you tell me, she's had fever for the past 2 days and paracetemol by itself is not working. Doc says...Oh.. you need an antibiotic? Ok here you go.. I had to shell out $95 for this joke. 

Aussies or maybe Sydneites take security seriously, maybe a bit too seriously. I have written about the high security in my apartment lift. Have to time the entry like in Mission Impossible else I will lose the chance to get out at my floor. ;-) Maybe it's all for good. Safety is always good. However what I saw today seemed a bit over the line. Nandhitha wanted to use the bathroom in the clinic. I was shown the direction and just as I was about to move someone reminded me to pick a token. I was first surprised why I would need a token to use the toilet. The tokens were marked Male and Female with some number. Took a male token and headed towards the rooms. There was a female toilet alright. The male one had an out of order board. I thought...what the heck I will still give it a shot. Nandhitha was in a hurry as well. I tried to open the door...no luck. Thought maybe someone was inside...knocked a few times, but no sound. Then I realized I had to enter a "secret" passcode to open the toilet door. The passcode is what was given in the token. Technology.... 

Uma's b'day was spent quite uneventful since Nandhitha was not feeling well. Had to go out and buy medicines, thought will get some Malaysian. 8 PM on a Friday night the restaurant was closed!!! Ended up getting a takeaway from an Indian restaurant. Turned out pretty good. This weekend a cousin were supposed to visit us. We were all prepared and as I was just marinating the chicken (for chilly chicken ) on Friday night got a call from him that he mixed up the flight bookings and he was not coming this weekend. In a way it kinda helped because Nandhitha was not keeping well. All of a sudden Saturday seemed a bit too free since we didn't have to prepare for hosting a dinner. These days it's almost 50-50 deal with Uma on the cooking front just so I don't lose touch. Tonight made aloo gobhi (phool gobhi to be precise) with amchur masala. Had a different kick to it.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 24

Hello,

There has been lots going on this week in the world and in down under. Awesome Wimbledon record break. Were they human or what? I think the Energizer bunny has a new mascot(s) after Michael Chang. Australia's first woman Prime Minister - Julia Gillard was sworn in this week. Not that I follow politics here but was given a quick refresher at work. Obviously the views might be one-sided. Aussie soccer team the Socceroos as they are called won the war but lost the battle. Sounds unfair that a team's win depends on another match where they have no control at all. 

Finally finished reading "PowerShift" by Alvin Toffler. It took about 2 months to finish the 600 page book (of which more than 150 pages were dedicated to notes, references and indexes). It was a pretty interesting book but quite dry so easily puts me to sleep in the train. The core topic is about the shift in power from violence to money to knowledge. Concepts vary from corporate games to international politics. 

Weekend was quite hectic as usual. We were invited for a dinner hosted by 3 of my colleagues (2 girls and a guy) in the City. Dinner was good with rajma, aloo gobhi and chicken something. Came to know that amchur powder can do a lot to the dish. Sydney has a unique feature to promote family time and public transport usage. They call it Sunday Funday where a family can travel all around the city at the cost of $2.50 per adult (an unlimited adult ticket would otherwise cost around $25 - $30). The criteria is the travel should include kids of a particular age. What intrigued me though was the condition  the bus driver had that the kids should be of school going age. This weekend the train service was interrupted due to track work for a short distance. Had to switch 2 buses and a train to get there. It was about 11 pm by the time we reached back home. Felt like doing a "We did it.." as Dora and Boots would do at the end of their adventure. :-)

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 22

Hello,

A short work week - had lots to be caught up on Tuesday. It doesn't help when a country behind us is working when we are not. 

One of the days I got a call at home asking if "Jasmine Natarajan" is at home. I said it is a wrong number. The other guy persisted "Is this Natarajan residence? I got this number from the phone book. Is Jasmine home?" Ada paavi...kudumbathula kuzhappam undu pannaaatheengaiyya... 

Had Nandha's vaccination done during the week. Realized how "sophisticated" Aussies are in their medical systems compared to the US of A. The vaccination was delivered by a general practitioner, which was not really a problem. Firstly she (an Indian lady probably 50+)  wasn't well versed to give the vaccine to an infant. We had to do a bit of circus. After the vaccine (or before) she did not do any routine checkup - height weight, pulse whatever. We were used to all this in US. After a routine checkup the (qualified) paediatrician (not a GP) gives us a consultation based on the child's growth. Over here no such things were entertained. Here the response was "Oh sorry, we don't do anything like that here. The child looks ok, if you have any specific question you can ask." On insistence she did weigh Nandha and we came to know that he is slightly underweight for his age. 

We had a bit of a reality show at home over the weekend. Had to prepare dinner under tremendous time pressure. We had invited a relative's family over for dinner on Saturday. I had told them couple of days ago that they could come any time after 6 PM. Our planning went for a toss a little bit. The guests arrived at around 6.30 and dinner was yet to be prepared - I was just chopping onions. The kitchen was in a mess. Thankfully they were quite understanding so not a whole lot of formality was involved. We had made bhindi masala (my contribution), peas pulao and carrot phulka. The kitchen was in a mess with so many unwashed vessels. Oh well...got through it somehow. 

Alrighty, more next week. 

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 21

Hello,

Just in case you were wondering about the delay it was a long weekend here down under. It was Happy B'day to Queen. Apparently even Britishers don't celebrate this with a national holiday. 

This week the football fever had caught up at work (as I should've expected). Every now and then some fever is caught at work and people put together some money to bet on something. They call it "sweeps". While in US, I have seen clients pooling in money to buy Powerball tickets (in other words lottery) whenever the total prize money exceeds a few hundred millions. Here in Australia money is collected every few months to bet on a football game or a horse race and this time it is the soccer World Cup. There are few things one must do to be a true Aussie - drink beer, gamble (the only nation which has a state holiday for betting on horses) and relish Vegemite and toast for breakfast. I haven't tasted much of vegemite. I think the closest analogy I can think of is like having Dabur Chyawanprash on bread.

While I was on the train 2 high school girls with  badges stating that one was the student leader for the year and another as the deputy leader got on board. They were accompanied by an elderly lady who could easily pass for a principal. The leader says..."umm..I dyed my hair brown from my natural blonde. Blonde hair gets too much unwanted attention." The elderly woman says "hmm..a life changing decision indeed" with such a straight face. Is that called maturity?

This weekend we had a get-together at home with 2 other friends. It was housefull with 3 kids running around and 2 trying to crawl. Nandhitha had a blast. It was a pot luck lunch. Nothing exceptionally exotic in the menu. Not surprisingly the topics of discussion were about pre-schooling and what vegetables are being given to the 6 month olds. 

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 20

Hello,

Wonder what I would be doing if www.raaga.com did not exist. Early morning begins with some vedic shlokas and the day ends with ML Vasanthakumari's thaalaattu paadalgal (lullabies). I think I was first introduced to vedic chanting by some Adi Shankarar cassette (80s maybe?), the next significant incident was in Phoenix at the Udupi Puthige Matt. They used to chant this every Monday evening. Before you start getting ideas about ME listening to shlokas. Nothing religious about it. I think the music feels good to begin the day with. MLV was introduced when Nandhitha was born. Nandha seems to be liking it too. It is part of his sleeping routine now (especially the midnight round). Nandhitha puts her "baby Nandha" to sleep (Winnie the Pooh) with MLV as well. 

The week and especially the weekends are zooming past with no notice. I really wonder how the previous generation managed with so many kids. Probably, servants and maids would be a key factor. There seems to be a never ending pile of clothes to be washed and dishes to be cleaned. Wonder how my electricity bill is going to look like this quarter. Hopefully we come up with an improved routine soon. 

This weekend attended a friend's son's b'day party. He turned 2 today. My friend stays at a place at about 20 kms away. He came down to our place, gave his car (so that we can attend the b'day party) and went back with his friends. Now that's what I call an invitation. :-) I would normally take a bus (which would take about an hour or so) to reach his place. They were too particular that I don't take the bus this time with kids. On the way back he dropped us back. Preparing 2 kids to a party is not a joke. Again goes back to the same question - how did our parents manage? We were just about an hour late than planned. Thankfully they did not wait for us to cut the cake which reduced the guilt by just a bit.

Met another distant relative of mine in the b'day party. They also have 2 kids both born in December. We were discussing about hosting a b'day mela for December to avoid multiple invitations and trips for everybody.

Liverpool had an interesting street where it was lined with Indian shops. It was an unexpected surprise for that suburb. There was even a Fiji Indian restaurant. How much more Indian can it get?

Being a family man (re-instated) seemed to have added some extra qualification. Received a couple of phone calls from people whom I knew who wouldn't normally bother to call. 

Oh well, I better hit the sack soon. Yet another long week awaiting.

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 19

Hello,

Its 9.20 PM on Sunday night and am able to sit to write a few lines. I think this is not a bad sign at all considering how busy last week zoomed by. 

Have been living on Australian timing during the short stay in India. Probably that has helped not having a major bout of jet lag back in Sydney. However my system was confused quite a bit with respect to the meal I was having. Thankfully no major repercussions in spite of all the action.

My friend Dhamu's brother's wedding went on fine. I guess the only thing they did wrong was to have too many varieties of food and sweets. It took so long to digest that we had to cuss and discuss the shortcomings days after the wedding got over. I had a bit of a confusion as to which side I belonged to - the groom or the bride (I am related to the bride as well). 

Trip back to Chennai was not as eventful as my way to Salem. Luggage for an international trip for a family of 4 was a little more than hands full. Thankfully the weight limits are so restricted that reduced at least 3 suit cases. Nandhitha had a tough time to sleep in an upper berth (along with me). She said she will not climb like a monkey and sleep. Had a bit of a drama there trying to put her and her brother to sleep. The best part of the trip back was the ride from Egmore station to T. Nagar. All the 10 pieces of luggage fitted into the dickie of good old Ambassador except for 1 piece of hand luggage which Appa had to carry on his lap. The charge was Rs. 300 only. A very pleasant surprise for that time of the day. Had a short stay in T. Nagar till lunch. Headed over to Adyar post lunch. Dinner was a very "simple" - thanks to my aunt. Chicken 65 (or Chilly chicken?), prawn poriyal, mixed veggie kurma, puttu, kothu parotta, panneer stuffed dosai, tomato sambar (did I miss anything?), oh and of  course, choclate souffle for desert. Everything was home made except for kothu parotta. 

Headed to the airport after an early dinner. The check-in was a bit delayed when the agents got confused with Uma's old and new passports. However the treatment was royal after that since we were travelling with an infant. The infant carrier came in real handy. Couldn't imagine how we could've managed without that. Thanks Sis!! Nandhitha was excited during the first leg from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur that she hardly slept. Had a very short break in KL, just enough time to have a relaxed coffee and head to the gate. For a change didn't see any movie during the way back to Sydney. 

Was pretty drained out by the time we reached Sydney. An uncle of mine had invited us for dinner at his place. That was very helpful. That night we all slept like logs. Thankfully I had 3 days to settle down before I started with work. Weekend has been busy with shopping trips and arranging the house. Is that a chore or what!!! Guess will call it a night now.

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 16

Hope you had a nice week.

Week was busy as usual. Weekend was even more hectic for a change - more about that coming soon.

Wonder what it is with people and their Ipods and blaring music. If there is one thing that irritates me the most during the morning commute is when people have absolutely no courtesy for people around when it comes to listening to music. I was almost tempted to turn on the music player in my cell phone on speaker and keep it close to my ears as if I were deaf. On this aspect there is seems to be no racial difference. The only people whom I have seen not do this is probably the Chinese. 

Australia has a lot of Lebanese and middle eastern population. Not sure about other cities, but definitely tons of them in Melbourne in Sydney. It is very easy to identify a Lebanese - they tend to grow more hair on the back of their head than in the front - almost like a tuft. Wonder why!!

Weekend was quite busy. Saturday morning a friend of mine had invited me to take his family on a ride. Confusing? Ok..he has purchased a car about a month ago, but does not carry a driving license. Don't ask my why/how, but that is the case. So he has it parked in his garage for most of the time. I believe he takes it out to some short drives close to his house. So I took them on a drive (in their car) to the Helensburgh temple. The same temple which I visited with my uncle a while ago. It was a good 1 hour drive from his place. After paying salute to the deities headed towards the canteen to have a hearty south indian lunch. Had a masala dosa after a long time. Headed towards Stanwell park beach after lunch. The weather was just perfect. Their son (close to 2 years old) had a blast. Since we had not planned it well couldn't enjoy much in the water. Dropped them back at their place and headed back home. On the way stopped in Parramatta at my favourite Malaysian restaurant for dinner. Had Mee Goreng. It was Ok. At the end I asked the waitress if they had changed their chef. I was right. The main chef was off for a couple of days and a substitute was brought in. Seems like my taste buds are too sensitive. ;-)

Today was one hectic day. Started off early in the morning to Parramatta with a huge shopping plan. The first stop was to get a hair cut at a chinese salon. This guy is just amazing. This is the second time I've been there. I think I will go there until I live in this area. My haircut is usually simple - No. 2 on the clipper all around. This guy takes so much care to make it a perfect job. He kept walking around me over and over searching for  strand after strand of stray hair to trim it. As you can imagine it is not an easy thing with my hair. ;-) 

There was a Mother's Day sale going on for baby stuff at Babiesrus. I was hoping to cash in on this sale to get stuff for Nandha and Nandhitha. Had to do a bit of travelling to get to a branch where they had the stuff I was looking for. Finally got all I wanted to buy. Thankfully a sales rep came along with me in the shop suggesting better things than what I had intended to buy. The best part was her suggestions were even cheaper than what I had selected. Haven't seen such customer service before in Australia. 

On the way back an interesting incident happened in the bus. Well..actually 2. While I was walking I saw a bus that goes to my house coming even before I could get to a bus stop. I thought I will try my luck and waved my hand. Normally they wouldn't stop. This guy did. Once I got in he told me that he could've lost some (driving) points and close to $450 fine if he was caught doing that. A good samaritan and lucky me. On the way a asian (could be Chinese or Jap) family got on. A couple and 3 kids. During one of the steep turns the stroller toppled (the youngest kid - a little over a year maybe was inside). The mother trying to grab fell over as well. Boy...that was some scene. The driver immediately stopped the bus and came around to check if everything was alright. He gave them a piece of paper and asked them to write down their name and contact details. He later explained that whatever happened has been captured in the camera in the bus. If in case they got hurt and wanted to claim insurance, the bus company will cover them completely. Free insurance for the passengers. Now that was a first for me.

After I reached home, took help from one of my relatives to give me a lift back to the shop to get the goods I had bought. Luckily his car was big enough to get all the stuff. Finished the weekend grocery shopping along with him. 

This weekend the special here is Ginger Chicken. I tried hard to get a recipe from the internet to make it Indian style. No luck on that so made up my own recipe. Turned out pretty OK.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 15

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

This week went fast as usual. Had an opportunity to attend a free seminar in my area of work. It was 50% information and 50% marketing for their training programs. I suppose (reckon?) it is fair enough to expect a sales pitch when someone offers "free" information (coupled with food and drinks as well). Well I did get a new insight or two. So it wasn't too bad.

Nandha's visa process is taking 2 steps forward and 1 step backward. After some follow up I got to know that I had to produce proof of health insurance for us here. Initially when I asked about it I was told it was not necessary. Now that is required, thanks to Aussie efficiencies (in the insurance company) I have to wait for 48 - 72 hours to get a letter printed and emailed to me. That translates to 6 - 9 working days, which is 1 to 2 calendar weeks. On further persistence I was told that it may happen earlier but I cannot follow up until 72 hours. Oh well...

Saturday morning started with a few You Tube videos - thanks to my brother. Stumbled upon one over the other for about an hour. Got to know about another "self-help" guy - Tony Robbins. He seemed to make sense. His website has a free DISC survey as well. I had taken this DISC survey last year while I was in Bangalore. It is an amazing assessment of myself. I realized how badly "fish out of water" I was doing the work I was doing in Melbourne. No wonder it pushed me to quit. 

The weekend the schedule was a little disrupted when I got a call from my school friend (Siva)  to accompany him and his family on a trip to the aquarium. The aquarium was alright. Nothing spectacular if you have seen other similar ones. This was quite similar to the one in Melbourne. Of course there was always some new variety that I see in every new aquarium. I did learn one interesting fact though about Snapper fish. They are considered "protogynous hermaphrodites". In English, about 50% of them turn from female to male as they grow older. My friend's son (about 2 yrs old) was initially apprehensive about all the fishy fishy things around but got comfortable with the "environment" by the time we got out.

This weekend's cooking experiment was black-eyed beans masala and thai style chicken fried rice. Both turned out well. The key to make restaurant style fried rice (I think) is to really make it so i.e., to fry the rice. So far I have always added rice at the end. However, after watching a couple of YouTubes I've changed my strategy to fry the rice along with some veggies. Not completely healthy considering the amount of oil used. Guess an occasional indulgence can be permitted. :-)

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 14

Hello,

Guess you must be busy with IPL now. I don't know why...but I am on it too. It has been the most ridiculous thing I've done in the recently. Could think of a couple of reasons. I want to check out the entertainment value of the show. Who cares for the cricket anyway. Another reason is probably because tomorrow is a holiday for me and I can afford to stay up and watch the fun (?). Oh well...may the best team win. :-)  

Today is ANZAC day and hence tomorrow is a holiday for us here. It is equivalent to Veterans day celebrated in the US of A. ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. This day is to remember the thousands of lives lost on April 25th at Gallipoli in Turkey. The funny thing about these remembrance days is it has been about sending the troops to some other country to fight someone else's war. Australia in particular has had no enemies of its own - only enemies of its allies. However, Australia will welcome with open hands people from those "enemy" countries as refugees. I should be missing something here because it doesn't make sense. Anyway, I will be enjoying my day off so it's all good. 

This weekend my cooking experiment was Char Kway Teow. Went on a shopping spree to get all the ingredients. I skipped 2 of them by choice - chinese sausage and cockles. The taste came out pretty OK to what I can remember. However it turned out a little soggy. I think I know what went wrong. Hopefully next time it should be better.

Nandha's visa process is progressing. I am thinking to make a short trip to India end of May. Hopefully I can time it along with a wedding in the family.

Oki doki will keep it short this time. Let me catch up on the IPL fever.

Have a great week.

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 13

Hello,

A fairly quiet but hectic week at work. It's the annual appraisal cycle going on right now. It's an interesting experience to be talking to all the team members and their negotiation tactics. Not that I am doing this for the first time but it's been a while.

What is it with us folks and lack of courtesy? The other day while I was in the train on the way to work had another "interesting" experience. The trains have a setup of 3 seaters and 2 seaters. The very first seat though...is a tad smaller than a regular 3 seater. Yes, 3 "small" people can fit in, but not always. So there I was taking a such a seat (another fairly "built" lady was already sitting there). There comes this hulk of a guy...one of our own and squeezes himself in that "3rd" seat. I started choking to an extent that I couldn't breathe properly. I excused myself and got out of the seat and traveled standing for the rest of the way.Why!!

I have harped about inefficiency of the Aussies many a times. Wonder what it is with them to underplay the human capital. People are used to hand out restaurant discount coupons, announce the sales going on in a shop etc. They all look so old marketing techniques. Can understand that this provides employment to many - but can't those people be better utilized?

One of the cool things I am seeing here is the 3 way pedestrian crossing signals. I had noticed this for the first time near Flinders St station in Melbourne. I see that more in Sydney. Normally the pedestrians get a green signal to walk in one direction only. So, I were to reach a point diagonally opposite to where I am I would have to wait to clear 2 signals. However here esp where they are big roads and longer signals they have diagonal crossing for pedestrians. Basically the automative traffic is stopped on all directions and you can pretty much walk whichever direction you want. Apparently not all of Aussie is bad. :-)

This tennis partner of mine, he works in the same building as I do. I've never seen him before or even if I did woulnd't have recognized him. The other day I met him at the train station. He taught me new route to get off from a different station than what I normally used to and walk to work across a park. Glad that I found it because I always thought the previous station was too far from work. So anyway, I bumped into him 3 times the same day. Talk about coincidences!!

The over enthusiast in me wanted to compete with my favourite chicken masala to prepare my own. Turned out to be a disaster. Luckily I stopped the process midway before adding it on the the dish. Resorted back to good old Kumar's masala. :-) Got to figure out that magic ingredient. ;-)

This weekend saw a couple of hindi movies - Ishqiyaa and Jaane tu ya jaane na. Ishqiyaa basically was inspired to watch after listening (and seeing) to the Dil to bachha hai song and the suspense behind the plot. Unfortunately the language was soo rural that I could only get a gist of the overall movie - in fact not even that. :-(  Jaane tu was one complete masala. Kept me occupied during my weekly ironing. :-)

Have a great week!!

Chetty

Sydney Stories - Week 11

Hello,

Winter is slowly settling in. The minimum temperatures are getting below 20 deg C. The weather is becoming "pleasant".  I don't know if its the chilled breeze the fragrance from the eucalyptus trees is a bit more noticeable these days. The walk to and from the train station is a bit more enjoyable now.

The looong weekend is just about to get over. The first two days were quite uneventful. Was warming the couch pretty much the whole time on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday went to a cousin's place for lunch. They had prepared bisi bele bath. Had it after a long time. It was yummy.

Finished reading up on Angels and Demons. Good timing in fact since I finished it on Good Friday. :-) Interesting book - definitely a page turner. Now am eager to watch the movie. Have started on a new book called Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. Book loaned by my cousin.

On Sunday (Easter Sunday) a colleague of mine named Abhijeet and I decided to meet up in the city for a walk in the park. Reached the city at 2 pm and started our walk from one end of Hyde Park. The timing was good that we were able to see an  Easter procession. A rally with people from different nationalities (holding their respective flags) were walking around Hyde park. The interesting part was the rally was lead by an ass..oops should I say a mule? Apparently a Christian tradition. From Hyde park we proceeded on to the Royal Botanical gardens. It was an interesting garden. The key highlight was "heaps" of bats hanging upside down in the trees. (Heaps by the way is Aussie slang for "lots".) I have seen 1 or two bats here and there but never a cluster of them like this. It was an interesting sight.

One end of the botanical garden leads into the Opera house. Walked around the Opera towards the Harbour bridge. We initially thought of walking on the bridge but ditched it in the last minute. Looks like Easter sunday is a subha muhurtham day here. We saw 3 or 4 weddings that got over and the couples were being photographed with the Opera in the background. One of them was even an Indian couple. The photographers were asking them to do all the weird poses. Had a lot of photographs taken of me at various vantage points. Wonder when my mate would be uploading them on the web. It was a good long walk from 2 - 6 PM. After the walk headed back to my friend's room (the same hotel where I stayed initially). Had Thai for dinner and returned back home at around 10 PM.

Today (yes Monday was a holiday too) did a bit of cooking (more about that shortly). Finally got an opportunity to play tennis. Caught up with a Russian dude who lives close to me. He offered to give me a ride to the Parramatta tennis club. Had a good hour of tennis. This guy works in the same office building as mine. Now we are considering having a hit sometime during the week as well. Let's see how it goes.  In the evening went to my uncle's house for dinner. Had a nice south indian dinner - poori, masala, ven pongal, masala vadai with chutney and kootu. The kootu was something different - prepared without any onion or garlic. Have brought some back home for later use.

Over the weekend did a bit of experimentation in cooking of course. This weekend it was bhaingan bartha, pad kee mao (thai style flat rice noodles with chicken and basil leaves) and shitake mushrooms with bok choy in oyster sauce. Learnt a trick in making omlettes this weekend. The trick is to make the "batter" as thin as possible. Usually I beat up 2 eggs, mix up the onions, mushrooms and chillies and make it in one go. The omlette comes thick, sometimes burnt. Nowadays I make 2 separate omlettes with the same quantity of eggs and veggies. The result was restaurant quality. :-) Another trick (which I learnt from the web of course) is to add a bit of turmeric, cumin powder and garam masala (apart from salt and pepper). You gotta try this out. :-) Incidentally the garam masala which I've been enjoying for a while now is a Fijian brand. 

Thanks to the loong weekend caught up on a couple of movies - only Hindi this time. Saw Karthik Calling Karthik and Taare Zameen par. Beautiful movies both of them. KCK seemed a little dumb initially but the plot and the whole movie made complete sense at the end. TZP was brilliant, I wonder we - current day parents will get a message or two out of this.

On the home front, Nandha has got his passport. Now am waiting for the person handling the visas for my company to get back from her wedding vacation. Couple of more weeks to start the next process. It's getting there.

All in all a good week and weekend.

Have a great week ahead.

Chetty