My first Amtrak train ride

Trains fascinate me! I dont know, if its the way the train honks or the way it sways while shifting tracks or simply the chuk-buk-chuk-buk sound that brings a smile to my face.

During my short visit to London in 2005, I loved travelling in trains and trams. Though my office was a walkable distance from my house, I always preferred to take the tram.

So last saturday, I had to go to my friend's house for our dance practice, which is at a decent distance of 40 miles. My husband had to attend a farewell ceremony at the same time, so we could not drive together. Thats when my first Amtrak travel materialized.

The train which was scheduled to arrive at 2.20 pm arrived only at 2.47 pm to my stop at Berkeley. I was initially sad at the long wait, but as soon as the train arrived, I was in all smiles. It was a double decker train! I had never seen a double storeyed train before. The train in all its glory thugged a grand stop before me. I got in following an announcement from the captain saying " This is 737 headed to San Jose". An officer checked my ticket and the placed a pink note on top of my seat with the letter G written on it. That made me wonder why he chose that alphabet. I soon convinced myself that since he had checked the ticket soon before, he must have indicated Green, which probably meant check passed. I leaned over and saw if the chair in front of me also had a G pink not, it has an I. Hmmmm, that was different from what I presumed.

I began noticing the insides of the train, clean blue seats, matching drapes near the window, compartments in the ceiling to store luggage, magazines to read, safety instructions and a bright yellow display where the train was headed to. It also had a snack car, I was said, unfortunately I did not know that earlier, else would have bought something to munch on, as I sat in the train.

The Next stop came, it was Emeryville. The captain announced, the train stopped, a 2 min halt, the captain again announced and the train proceeded. It was a 1 hr 11 min drive and I enjoyed it. Finally my stop - Santa Clara Great America Station was due and thats when it flashed to me, the letter G meant Great America station. I got down having accomplished my first train travel in the US alone. Not to say I had called my husband atleast 4 times in that 1.1 hour updating him about the travel status :)

The thin line between Self esteem and Ego

Whats Ego....its Aham....a self centric person has ego...whats self esteem.....its self respect.....a respectable person has self esteem..... an increase in self esteem gradually transforms itself into ego .....theres a very thin line that diffrentiates the two, yet there is major difference between them, one is considered positive and the other as negative. and usually in some scenarios these 2 words get interchanged

Marina Walkies

Walking is considered to be one of the very good exercises. In olden day’s, man used to hunt his own food, hence any special walking sessions were not required. But now with our vastly sedentary life style, we resolve to particularly include walks/ jogs in our daily routine, so as to chase our ideal body weight. There are many types of walking and walkers have their own way or style in it. I used to observe these when I went for walks along the Richmond marina.

The couple walk - this includes 2 people who spend less time walking and more time talking, my husband and I fall into this category.

The cautious parent walk - it has a couple and 1 or more kids around them running / cycling, the parents usually fretting about their safety.

The parent, kid and pet walk - it has all the above and a pet frisking around merrily

Me and my pet walk - this has the walker, the pet and some polythenes

Me cycling, pet running exercise - here the person rides and the pet runs

The tiny pet walk - the pet is so small, that only the walker along with the leash is visible at first glance

The boyfriend-girlfriend walk - this u can notice when there is quite some giggling and preening around....with frequent question-filled expressions on each other's faces....like the classic 'does he like me' expression ? 'Can I ask her out again' expression? Etc

The music walk - the person is very much involved in his/her music gadget, it feels as though they walk or run in the same tempo the song is tuned to

The weight watchers walk - the people who run/walk panting hugely with an expression of, let me complete this and I’ll treat myself to a giant whopper

The old people walk - old people neatly dressed complaining about the many things in life and walking too

The team walk - around 3 to 4 people make a walking club, the noise made by these is more than the calories they burn

I love my body walk - these are the tightly clad people, showing off their muscular hands or flat abs as they exercise

The barbeque walk - this group needs to finish walking fast as they need to ready the barbeque soon

The smiley walk - these people smile at others who come across and include an occasional Hi-Hello

Confessions of a Wary Hand

I do not write much.Writing to me for the past few years has meant jotting religiously the Things to do Today List everyday at work and finding great satisfaction by marking them complete just before the 5 pm bus, a promise to be consistent with my diary and still managing to put only occasional entries in it or more recently making a list of groceries to buy.

A Writing History, Eh?

When I was in school I've been told I write or draw nice by my mom, a few relatives and some friends,whenever I made these paper greeting cards scribbling happy Birthdays and anniversary wishes, with cartoons and color. My engineering friend took a giant leap and said I could write a book.....! For the past few months, my new husband advised blogging. I usually got away saying, blogging is for people who prefer to type than talk.He being his usual patient self, loaded with patience, smiled and said thats not what blogging is about. I knew that, to be true I was too lazy to start writing .... writing something new....something that I felt

But then i do start my blog:

The word Scintillate was what came first to my mind when I thought of my blog title. A noun form of scintillate would sound more appropriate, I thought. So Scintillations made way. I wanted it to look a little different so wrote S-C-I-N-T-I-L-L-A-T-I-O-N-S as the title, but the url would'nt allow me to use the same word way and the word scintillations.com was already taken. It suggested Sri-scintillations or Scintillations sri instead. Well it did'nt fall good on my ear. Then I thought why just a word, let me use two words, how about Sense and Brilliance. I liked it, but with my love for alliterations, the phrase of Sense and Scintillations doomed upon me. I always feel the choice of Like and Love is easy, the latter always thrives, is'nt it? So I am here with the blog title and url as Sense and Scintillations by Sri ........Phew!