Random

Posting has been light because I've been

• sick
• trying to figure out the intricacies of married life :)

So here's some random stuff:

1. Since I started working, I never really made a conscious effort to save; I just made sure I didn't splurge. The result was that I was able to put away about 40% of each month's take-home. I've been following the same strategy in India - making sure not to splurge, but definitely not being super-conscious of my spending. The result is that I'm not able to save much money at all. That bothers me.
   
2. I have a fair amount of indian classical music on my ipod. I manage to go through my other music collection using the 5-star rating system, along with dynamic playlists. I hadn't found a good way of going through my classical collection though. Using information from this page I've managed to build up 4 playlists (morning, afternoon, evening, night) so I can listen to the 'appropriate' pieces. However, I'm now longing for even finer-grained control of my collection. I wish I had a SQL front-end to the iTunes db.
   
3. One of my friends (Vikas) has an awesome cook, who's agreed to come cook at our place once a week. She makes awesome food. She's given me a list of stuff I need to buy though :) belan (rolling pin), some plastic containers, a bunch of specialized steel kitchenware (container for flour, plate for kneading dough, etc). To add to my already-over-equipped kitchen.
   

Oh and, just so it doesn't get lost in the jumble above, I have to mention separately: you MUST check out prince of ayodhya - a contemporary rewriting of the Indian epic Ramayana. It's the first in a 6-book series, four of which have already been published in India. I suffered the wrath of my wife for burying my head in these books the past few weeks. They're amazing. The story itself is so gripping, and Mr. Banker just makes it even more irresistable by retelling it in a vernacular that's familiar and easy to follow.

I'm at home house-sitting while the cook and maid do their thing. Sindya is out running a program for Dream-a-dream that she's planned, called Monsoon Madness. It's a day long talent-show/competition for underpriviledged kids. They'll be painting, dancing, acting, taking quizzes, and making collages. As soon as the maid gets done, I'll be back there shooting video and hanging out with the kids. Until then, I'm a domesticated husband (damn that sounds scary).