I'm Married!

Okay, I'm really late about this news! Sorry about that!! You know how busy life becomes once you're married! :)

So, I got married on the 18th of November, 2010, in Chennai. Its been a month now, and its been great being married!!

Well, as you know, I came to Chennai in August. Restarted my dancing and managed to give a few dance performances and it was amazing!!! I felt so wonderful to be able to dance on the stage after a loooong time!!! Then, on November 11th, we had the formal Betrothal Ceremony, and on November 16th, the mehendi ceremony, and the pre-wedding engagement Nichyathaartham and reception on the 17th, and finally the muhurtham on the 18th. And the week following that, we had a couple of temple visits. I'm so glad that we could visit Guruvayoor and do the thulaabaram! And the week following that, my hubby had some official work at Bangalore, and we were there for two weeks, came to Chennai for about 5 days, and then back to Bangalore again! We're still here at Bangalore! Oh by the way, while in B'lore, I managed to meet two of my good friends - one is a best friend from my high school (Chettinad Vidhyashram) and the other from my college (KCG College of Technology). It was great meeting them after a looooong time!!!

Coming back to today, since today is Thiruvaadirai, I had to perform the customaries, but unfortunately, I am stuck here in B'lore! So, I went to my aunt's place here, and did the little neivedhyam thing and ate the Kali and Thalagam. Hopefully from the next year, I should be able to do it in the proper way - by wearing the nine yards and preparing the items on my own, in my own apartment/house!

So anyway, will catch up soon!!! Got a lot to blog about!! Maybe I should start blogging about life as a Mrs!! :) I'm thinking of starting a blog wherein I include things like what events we have, poojas, special days, festivals etc for a young newly married woman. I am sure a lot of girls like me would be wondering about that and calling up and asking their mom about stuff, but I guess it would be nice to record them in some place for future generations. Also, it would be nice to know what customs different people from different regions follow. What do you think? Lemme know!

Okay then!! Tata!

XOXO!

Sad News

Well, during all these happenings, an unfortunate incident happened which literally broke my heart, as I suffered a great loss - my dearest Ammamma (maternal grandmother) passed away on Thursday, 14th of October, early morning, at 12:45am. We lost her to the deadly disease of cancer. She was always there for me since I was born and each moment I spent with her, I treasure fondly. I was hoping she would be alive to attend my wedding, as it is only a month away. But God thought otherwise, and decided to hurt all of us. I simply cannot accept the fact that she is no more as I always believed she will always be there, a witness to every important event in my life. If there was anyone with abundant compassion to every being, it is she. She never even harmed an ant; she would gently guide the ant along a different path, not wanting to kill it. And she was always smiling. I have never ever seen her get angry with anyone - not even her daughters (my mom and my three aunts). She was a strong, brave woman who always encouraged being independent and standing on one' own legs come what may and she was one of the most broadminded individuals of her time, who saw reason in everything and stuck to a practical way of living rather than a life submerged in unreasonable religious beliefs and superstitions. Every time I have stayed with her or she has visited me, she would always make my favorite kozhakattais and elai adais (a dish made with jackfruit poornam). I will always miss her, and no amount of years of her existence would be enough for us.
Ammamma, may your soul rest in peace. We will always miss you. I love you very much, and I wish you were still with us, guiding us and teaching us a lot of important things in life. I wish you had waited just for one more month. :( But atleast you saw all my wedding sarees. But you shouldn't have said that it was almost like seeing the entire wedding after seeing my sarees. :( You should have waited to see the actual event. :(

I love you Ammamma, and you will always be in my heart.
Sweet Kisses to You (Like how you always wrote in letters to us and also said to us over the phone.)

Exciting Events Ahead!

Its been really long, I know!! My apologies!
Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged. I shall try to squeeze in everything that has happened till now in as few words as I can!


First, I finally graduated with my Master's degree from ASU, after three long years of thesis work! I graduated sometime around May! And then I shifted to the California Bay Area for better prospects at job searching. And then, somewhere along the way, I decided to take a break and get back to India for about 3.5 months to resume my dance career, and am I so glad I did that!

I left the US on July 31st and on my way back home to Chennai, I stopped over at Dubai for a few days and spent three days there with my parents, who flew in from Doha. It was soooo nice to be back in Dubai after 13 years!! And I should say, it was amazing!!! I went to the Burj Al Khalifa tour (the tallest building in the world) and went on the monorail to kind of have a somewhat aerial view of Atlantis at Dubai, and the new malls etc etc.

I arrived at Chennai on August 5th, and since then have been busy with shopping and stuff. And also going back to my dance classes. And also losing all those extra extra pounds I put on these past three years, in the process!

And oh yes, I am also giving a couple of dance performances. One on October 26th and the other on November 8th. I would love it if you all could make it to my programs.
Here are the deets:
Date: October 26th, 2010, Tuesday
Time: 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai
Sabha: Gana Mukhunda Priya

Date: November 8th, 2010, Monday
Time: 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Venue: Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall, Alwarpet, Chennai
Sabha: Kartik Fine Arts

Please do come!!!

And yes, finally, I am getting married! Yes, me! :) Unbelieveable eh?!
Ok, so I am getting married in November! And here are the deets for that:
November 17th, 2010 Wednesday: Nishchayathartham and Reception (Evening)
November 18th, 2010 Thursday: Muhurtham (10:30am to 12:00pm)

Please do consider this as a personal invitation. I shall post a scanned copy of my invitation soon. So please note these events in your calendar and try your best to make it to as many as you can!!!

Okay then,
Gotta go!!

XOXO!

Tell me your dreams...

I know it's been a long time... Well, a lot has happened since I last blogged, but here's an interesting article that I wanted to share with you guys.

Every morning, when we wake up, we hardly remember our dreams, but some dreams do affect us to an extent leaving us either happy and gleaming or sad and disturbed. Dreams have baffled researchers as it is still unknown why we dream and their significance - yes, Sigmund Freud did give us his interpretations of dreams, but is there more?

Well, here's a new look at dreams - as tools to help us solve problems. But you may wonder how that is even possible, especially since most of our dreams are illogical and just make no sense at all. But sometimes, dreams can help you find answers or ways to tackle problems, says Deirdre Barrett, a researcher at Harvard who has studied and conducted several experiments on this for more than a decade.

Here's an excerpt from the article written by Rachel Rettner for LiveScience:

The slumbering mind might not seem like an apt tool for any critical thinking, but humans can actually solve problems while asleep, researchers say. Not only that, but one purpose for dreaming itself may be to help us find solutions to puzzles that plague us during waking hours.

Dreams are highly visual and often illogical in nature, which makes them ripe for the type of "out-of-the-box" thinking that some problem-solving requires, said Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard University.

Barrett's theory on dreaming, which she discussed at the Association for Psychological Science meeting here last month, boils down to this: Dreaming is really just thinking, but in a slightly different state from when our eyes are open. [Why we dream is just one mystery of the mind.]

Read the full article here.

Another Heads Up

Phew! That was all of my drafts that were worth publishing! Most of the other stuff were really outdated and some links and videos were not even working! Now, I guess I can synch my real-life and the blog! ;)

Girl sleeps for Nine Years

Okay, those of you who have slept for 20+ hours straight (I know a few of them personally!) someone beat you to the game! And by nine whole years!!!

Check out this story of a little girl who went to sleep on March 29, 1871 and didn't wake up until New Years Eve 1880!

On may 15, 1859, a child was born, She was the tenth child from a family of twelve. Her name was Ellen Sadler. there was nothing particularly remarkable about her, or any of the other children. Until Thursday, march 29, 1871, Ellen went to bed as usual. And did'nt wake up.
And just like a sleeping beauty, she didn't wake for nearly ten years.

Read the complete story here.

Musicians have better memory

Wow! This is exciting to know! Musicians have better memory than non-musicians! Well, from a lay-man's point of view, it isn't really surprising, because, musicians work with patterns, and anything that needs to be committed to memory, when sewn in a pattern, sits there for a long time.

This is also another draft, so pardon the delay! This article came out last May too!

Last night in the U.S. many televisions were tuned to one of the biggest spectacles of the year: the American Idol finale, where America would learn which singer had been chosen as "America's favorite" (or, more cynically, who inspired the most teenagers to repeatedly dial toll-free numbers until all hours of the night). Greta and I are suckers for this sort of thing, so we watched along with the rest of the nation.
What impressed me about the show wasn't so much the prodigious vocal talents of the two finalists, but how everything was put together so hastily: there had been only six days from the previous week's episode (where the two finalists were revealed), and during this time each finalist learned at least three or four songs. The musicians who played along with them had no score to follow; they had to commit the songs to memory. Everything went off without a hitch, because these professional musicians routinely hold an astonishing variety of music in their memories.

Read the complete article here.
Don't worry. This article isn't that long either. If you're a musician too, then you would definitely find it interesting!

Music affects how we perceive facial expressions

This is a very interesting article on how music affects how we perceive facial expressions. I actually came across a lot of good articles on the relationship between music and emotions and expressions and I shall share a few good ones here on my blog.
It is interesting to know that different kinds of music influence the way you look at a facial expression soon after. Hmm... This gives me an idea. Next time you think you might meet up with someone moody and irrational, listen to soft good music before so you don't get put off by their "face language"!

Music can be thought of as a form of emotional communication, with which the performer conveys an emotional state to the listener. This "language" is remarkably powerful - it can evoke strong emotions, and make your heart race or send tingles down your spine. And it is universal - the emotional content of a piece of music can be understood by anyone, regardless of cultural background.

Are the emotions evoked by  piece of music similar to, and can they influence, other emotional experiences? The answer to these questions is unclear. But a new study, which has just been published in Neuroscience Letters, provides both behavioural and physiological evidence that the emotions evoked by music can be transferred to the sense of vision, and can influence how the emotions in facial expressions are perceived.

Read the complete article here.
It's a short article, so don't fret!

First Full Face Transplant

Check out this story of Connie Culp, the recipient of the first full face transplant. It is amazing to know what science is capable of doing right now...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- - Shot in the face by her husband four-years-ago Connie Culp of Hopedale Ohio was left disfigured. For four years she had no nose. The bony structure that once supported her face was gone, as was most of her face. She could not breathe other than through a tracheotomy, could not smell, could not even drink or eat normally.

Several dozen reconstructive surgeries left her not much better off. Connie became afraid to go out in public where doctors say children would run away from her because of her appearance.

Read the complete story here.


Psst... This story came out about a year ago! Its been in my drafts that long!

Science of Scams Video: Psychic Readings

Science of Scams: Psychic Readings



Click here to watch the video on Youtube.