Bangalore-SFO non-stop! Yeah!!!

How closer can I get to India than this?

I have been waiting for the non-stop Bangalore-San Francisco flight from Kingfisher, from the beginning of this year. It finally seems to be coming up, hopefully in time for my December trip :) !

Blasts in Namma Bengaluru

A total of 9 blasts rocked Namma Bengaluru on 25th July, killing two of them. While the loss of life is not huge, it is still a soul gone for the nearest kin. Since the blasts occurred mostly in the places that I used to pass by or frequently visit when I was in Bangalore, it seemed unimaginable to even think of the consequences otherwise!

Hopefully the people behind the blasts are found and brought to justice, and peace returns back to the once-peaceful pensioners’ paradise Garden City.

May the soul of the departed rest in peace!

Konjam Jabber, Konjam Sense!

While it has been eternity without a significant post on this blog, I wonder if I have been so pre-occupied to be active on the blogosphere. Well not really, but quite a few other things have kept me busy.

While the ever-cribbing part of me, still complains about the Tempe weather as usual, today has been such a different day. Not so long ago, I wanted to see a day in Tempe which would remind me of my good old Bangalore. My wishes were granted, and here it is, a day with constant drizzle, and all gloomy (not a good day for photographs).

Bangalore weather has always been like that, never have we seen a rainy season when it would rain heavily at once and stop. The drizzle would go on and on and on, day in and day out. The dampness in the air could be felt for days together, and not to forget the dampness in the clothes :) . Thoranams of ever-wet clothes (to hang clothes to dry) would be tied all over the house, with the housewife always saying ‘it’s been ages since the sun came out.’ Especially in a house with kids, the white canvas shoe will always be stained with wet mud and the like, and to wash it, the kid or its mother would never dream of, for it would take forever to dry.

I have forever loved to get wet in the rain, but my ‘very healthy’ immune system doesn’t permit me, though I have done it almost every season. While getting back from school, sitting as a pillion rider on my mother’s vehicle, I have had a zillion rain coat covering me, and more importantly my book, but not my face :) . The splash of the rain drops is something out of the world.

While here in the US (specially Tempe), it practically doesn’t make a difference when it rains, since it is just once in like 3-4 months that you have a short drizzle. And I get to know of that only if I step out of the house/lab. A couple of moments relief from the HIGH temperature is something that the rain brings along, and this week it surely did. A raging 110 F to soothing 65 F. Wow! That’s a huge drop!

At this time, the best song to listen to is Chinna Chinna Mazhai Thuzhigal from En Swaasa Katrey, and obviously Barso Re from Guru.

Summer in AZ

I somehow dread the aspect of being in AZ this summer. Having been in Bangalore all my 21 summers, including the last one, I somehow cannot digest that I AM going to be here this summer. I've heard summer being the most productive time for research, since you cannot head out anywhere till 7-8 pm any day, it's best if you are in your office/lab by 8 am. I hope this does some good to me. I am also going to be teaching, and my class is a 1 pm and I pity my students who will have to come by at that time. Fortunately, for me, my lab is in the same building, so I am saved from the torture of walking in the mid-day heat, unless I wake up later on in the morning and need to rush to hold my class :).
Bangalore is blessed and has one of the spectacular climate(unpredictable at times though). The temperature there never goes beyong 35 deg C(95 F) on most days of the year. If at all it goes beyond 35 deg C, it is going to rain in a day or two and this brings the temperature down.
Having cribbed about those few 100 F days, I see this as a oven to get baked, a frying pan to get fried, and a dryer to get dry(literally). I remember the day I landed here in Phoenix at 2 am, and when I stepped out of the aircraft, a gust of hot air greeted me. I felt as if a hair dryer was targetted at me. For a portion of a last summer(1 month), I was here, and the AC in my apartment was being too very good and kept the room hotter than ever. I hope it is better this time. But one good thing about AZ is that, there is very little or no humidity at all. It saves me from the sticky days that I used to see in Chennai.
How I survive this summer might be a good thing to write at the end of summer(does it ever end?). I might live on fruits, juice(as usual), and icecream(something I have been limiting for a while). Sunscreen would be a tool, if not an umbrella to shield me from the sunshine.
Hope the summer ends soon.