mad mallu's monologue

Conversations....

2012-02-06T11:03:00.000+05:30

So what do people who've been married 4 years talk about? If you've been a reader of this ~~blog~~ piece of verbal diarrhea, you won't have ANY trouble figuring out who's saying what!

1. "So if there's a zombie apocalypse and you've turned into a zombie, will you spare me or bite me too so we can be zombies together?"
(the answer for this became very convoluted - on how zombies are not human and he wouldn't want to make me one etc etc)
2. "Why do you love me?"
"Because you're special..."
"Special as in retarded???"
3. "What's the one job you'd NEVER EVER do?"
"Manual drain cleaner.... and you?"
"Oh! a butcher! Definitely never a butcher. I like being non-vegetarian."
4. "One super power you'd like to have?"
Me: Flight!!!
5. "If we were friends, or had friends in common, do you think we'd have still ended up together?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because."
6. "There's a 70% off sale at my favourite shoe store...."
"Are you competing with Imelda Marcos???" *looking exasperatedly at the 2 overflowing shoe racks.*
7. "If I died tomorrow, how soon will it be before you remarry?"
"Never, I'd miss you too much."
"Awww.... but you know I'd want you to be happy etc etc"
"Okay, maybe a couple of years."
"That's IT?? You'd get over my dying in a COUPLE of years??" *sulk sulk*

My Four Year Old...

2012-02-03T09:52:00.000+05:30

I have a 4 year old...... which is happy and giggly and bouncy most of the time, and sometimes weepy and sulky and stubborn. No, I do not refer to Serenity. Serenity and Calamity have now been married for 4 years, and the temperamental 4 year old is our Marriage!

How time flies!! We have days and weeks that'll go by in beautiful machine-like precision like a well-orchestrated ballet.... and then suddenly one day, we feel like we're all over the place and then sparks fly. I think the move to Tech City has been the best thing for us as a couple, given the fact that the City-which-wakes-up-early caused me nothing but angst. We're SO much better now (because I am so much happier now!)... happier - which I think is MOST important.

Yesterday felt like any other day - morning hugs, a working day.... and then in the evening we both got all dolled up and went for a fancy sushi dinner, came home and opened the Ardbeg and sat chatting on the balcony like we used to in the City-that-wakes-up-early. Those balcony chats were always special, sitting in the darkness, having a drink and just talking, talking, talking. It was how we got to know each other - and it was quiet time and it was for us alone.

Considering how we had a (not so typical) Arranged Marriage, we had a lot of "getting to know one another" to do. The balcony chats were when he told me what irritated him about me, and I told him about the things he did that pissed me off. It was neutral ground somehow, and nothing that was said could be taken offense to (that was one of the ground rules!).... and so over 4 years, we rubbed each other's corners raw, got angry, frustrated and wanted to break things.... and made up....and stayed together. We still fight, of course, but we're a lot better at dealing with it. Serenity has figured how to make a PISSED OFF Calamity laugh in the middle of her yelling and tears.... and then he shakes a finger at me and says "You laughed, so you can't be angry any more!"....and yes, it IS usually left to Serenity to make me laugh, because if Serenity laughs during a fight, you can put money on the fact that I will NOT be calming down - the opposite in fact!!

In our wedding pictures, there's more than one picture where I look worried and pre-occupied, questioning myself whether this was what I wanted - to marry him and move to a city I had no one in.... I look uncertain and scared even. I can confidently say today, I made the right choice. Marriage has been different from single life, but Serenity's been SO good to me, good for me. We've grown into this marriage, like a pair of leather shoes that pinch when you wear them the first time and now just fit your feet like a glove that was made especially for it, it feels sometimes like we've always been together..... and yet, just like those shoes, when you stop and look at them, they look great - a little scuffed maybe, but they make you feel like you're on top of the world and they warm and protect. (God! Typical woman - SHOE metaphors????? - I can SO picture him saying that!)

So yeah, like I said, my "shoes" are 4 years old, scuffed, comfortable and with a LOT of wear left in them - they're my favourite pair in the world !!

Regrets of the year gone by....

2012-01-06T10:18:00.002+05:30

1. I STILL haven't made my website. Bad, bad, BAD girl ! (how am I EVER going to widen that freelance web??)
2. I didn't stay in touch enough.....
3. I STILL haven't hit my target weight.
4. I made it to Thailand, sans Serenity, but not the other places I had planned to visit with him.
5. I didn't save as much as I should have.
6. Though I have mellowed (quite a bit, according to me..... not enough, according to Serenity), I'm still not zen enough to not yell and scream and get homicidal when we fight.
7. I STILL hate my killjoy partypooper bitch of a neighbour.
8. I don't get enough exercise.
9. I shopped wayyyyyy too much..... also refer point #5.
10. I've stopped checking my glucometer, I don't think I'm making much progress with keeping my blood sugar levels down.....also,
11. I haven't gone back to my diabetologist in a year almost.

.....and as far as resolutions go, well.... its the 6th of Jan and its not like I kept mine even on the 1st, so the less said about that, the better!

What's with the Invincible Corks??

2011-12-06T01:00:00.001+05:30

Mimi / Arliemol and I have history..... of the DISASTROUS variety!
The simplest, most mundane activities we try to perform (post Serenity's bedtime, post midnight!) usually end in disaster and de-wash-tation (to quote Mimi!)....
Here we present 2 case studies of the more memorable kind. The second is what prompted this post. Unfortunately, Case study 1 is not accompanied by pictures.

Case Study 1: 2 women trying to paint their nails.
Method: Volunteer to paint Mimi's nails RED. Shake bottle vigourously. Watch helplessly as said bottle flies out of hand and splatters on pristine white guestroom floor. Realise there's about 2 ml of nail-paint remover left. Try and prioritise whether to clean Mimi (who is spattered upto her knees in red nail paint) or the floor. Fail miserably at both.
Result: Guestroom floor now looks like a scene from Dexter.

Case Study 2: 2 women want to drink a mini bottle of Rosé
Method: Try and open with Corkscrew A. Helplessly watch as corkscrew A breaks, embedding itself in the cork. Proceed to sloowwwwly chip away at cork with knife, avoiding embedded corkscrew to further avoid blade joining corkscrew in the cork. Progress to potato peeler. Abandon hope. Resume chipping away at cork, tea- strainer on standby. Involve mighty Ikea toolkit. Successfully pull out remnants of Corkscrew A. Resume mission with Corkscrew B. Mission successful.
Result: 2 measly glasses of wine that in hindsight - a) we could have done without.... and b) REALLY did NOT justify the effort we put into it.

Mediterranean Madness Continues...

2011-10-18T00:06:00.000+05:30

And so, as promised, here are the pictures!

Sadly, these are the 'ones that worked' - the one which got away, is the image of my kitchen counter with a coffee mug that I used to mix the yeast in and left unattended.... Only to come back and see that what had previously 'not risen', had now risen, left the mug and overflowed onto the counter!! But I'm not going to show you those pictures, am I now?!!

The Pita bread came out PERFECTLY!! :)

ooooh! I am SO kicked!! (and very smugly proud of myself! - my pitas were "almost" circular! For me, that's saying a lot since I don't EVER make rotis!!)

The dough when it began to rise! :) yayyy!!

The perfect Pitas! (with my recipe book in the background!!)

The Chicken and the Chick pea! :)

The Spread! - Hummus, Pita Bread, Mediterranean Chicken and Zalouk!

Om Nom Nom Nom!! Pure Happiness!

Mediterranean Mania!

2011-10-17T14:32:00.001+05:30

I've been meaning to do a Mediterranean dinner sometime, and what better way to kickstart the week than with some yummy in the tummy?!!

The menu for tonight is :

Hummus
Zalouk (A Moroccan Eggplant salad - which is the ONLY form in which i actually LIKE eggplant!!)
Mediterranean(ish) Chicken (which doesnt really follow any recipe!)
and Pita Bread !! (that I'm MAKING from scratch!!)

Hummus

Ingredients: 600 gm cooked chickpeas

3 garlic cloves crushed

(of course, I used more garlic! I LOVE garlic, remember?)

100 ml Olive Oil (preferably Extra Virgin)

2 tbsp Tahini

1 tsp Ground Cumin (which I skipped!)

Juice of 1 lemon

Method: Blend chickpeas, garlic, olive oil, tahini and lemon juice till smooth.

Add 1/4 th cup water and blend again. Garnish with paprika and olive oil.

Zalouk (Moroccan Eggplant Salad)

Ingredients: 1 large eggplant - peeled and chopped

4 (or more) large tomatoes - peeled and chopped (I didnt peel them!)

3 (or more!) cloves of garlic - minced fine.

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup chopped parsley (also skipped!)

1 tbsp paprika / chili flakes

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup water

Lemons (optional, but best if you DID use the lemons!)

Method: Place all ingredients except the lemon in a pot.

Cover and simmer at medium heat.

Cook covered for about 30 mins till eggplant and tomato are tender.

Mash well. Continue cooking (uncovered) to reduce - upto 30 mins.

Stir frequently. Drizzle additional olive oil if required.

Squeeze lime over after cooking. Stir. Serve either hot or cold.

Pita Bread

Ingredients: 1 sachet yeast (about 1 tbsp)

1/2 cup warm water

3 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

Method: Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup warm water. Add sugar and stir until

dissolved. Let it sit for 10-15 mins till it turns frothy.

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.

Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture. Slowly add 1 cup

of warm water and stir till the dough is elastic, not sticky.

Place dough on a floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic

for about 10 - 15 mins.

Coat with olive oil and let it sit in a warm place until the dough doubles

in volume - about 3 hours. Once the dough has doubled, roll out as a

rope, pinching off small pieces.

Cover and let the pieces sit for 10 - 15 mins. Preheat oven to 250 C.

Roll out the dough into circles of about 5 -6 inches diameter and about

1/4 inch thick.

Bake for about 3-4 mins till the bread puffs up.

Flip and bake the other side.

So I'm off to knead and punch and chop and dice and mince! Will post pictures soon! :)

(Nothing) Lost In Translation!

2011-07-25T20:42:00.002+05:30

While in Phuket, on one of our shopping expeditions, I was looking at a stall that sold t-shirts. In most of these countries, where English is not the first language, bargaining happens in pidgin English with the help of a calculator... You ask the vendor the cost of something, he types it into the calculator... you shake your head and mime that you don't have that much money... he hands you the calculator and you punch in your figure.... and so on.

So my travel companion was looking at some stuff in another shop, while I looked at the t-shirts looking for something to get Serenity....and I told the shopkeeper I was looking for something as a gift for a boy... He pointed this one out to me... and WINKED!!

To which I laughed and shook my head....

and then he points to THIS one!!

To which, again, I shook my head to say no, then made an angry face and a "cut-throat" gesture and pointed to my ring finger to say "I'm married to him!" To which the guy made a sad face, shook his head sorrowfully and pointed out THIS one!!

And then we both laughed our heads off !!

Not one word spoken, but SO MUCH said !!

Picture This....

2011-07-25T20:27:00.000+05:30

So here I was, preparing to leave on a long-awaited GIRLS TRIP to Phuket.... Numerous checklists were made, wardrobe decided etc etc...

On the morning I was supposed to leave, I was enjoying a sleepy morning cuddle with Serenity and he asked me if I had packed my medicines (I am diabetic.. yeah - bummer!) and I, equally sleepy, said "Yeahhh.... I have to go to the chemist before I leave - need to get The Pill also..." Which obviously woke him up good, because he was like "The pill?? For what?!" And because I'm evil (obviously!) I said "Because I'm off to have lots of unprotected sex with strangers!!" And proceeded to explain that I didnt want that time of the month to coincide with my beach holiday!! And then I did a "Gotcha! Didnt I?" on him!!

So then, he left for work etc etc... and I decided to take off my rings (because I didnt want to get mugged / lose them) and I left them in HIS cupboard.... and it struck me much later that he would come home, empty his pockets, take off his watch and find that I've taken off my wedding ring!! :D

And then... just before I left, I was taking off my gold earrings and I dropped one of the screws into my cupboard. Not having the time to look for it, I wrote a post-it saying "FIND SCREW!!" and put that on my desk!!

While I was sitting in the cab on my way to the airport, I suddenly thought of this whole sequence and laughed my head off!!

And Yet Again...

2011-07-14T11:23:00.001+05:30

So I was having a really busy day yesterday - lots of damage control needed at one of my sites in Delhi and I was on the phone almost all evening. When I called my client to update her about some changes being made, she suddenly says,"I'll talk to you later, I have to go - there's been 3 blasts in Bombay!".... 3 blasts... again?

Now Serenity and Calamity dont have a TV... we didnt want a TV in our initial year of marriage... and then we just got so used to seeing movies on the computer or at a theatre that it stopped mattering... (psst... I'll let you in on a secret... I'm going to get me one when I hit my target weight!! :D All to prevent me from turning into a couch potato - an eventuality that is a definite possibility given what a TV Junkie I am!)

And so, for the SECOND time, I got to know what was happening in my city over the phone. With 26/11, I had friends call me and ask me if everyone I knew was okay.... I was like,"Huh? why wouldnt they be?"... upon which I was told about what had happened.... "Arent you watching the news???" (Would have been waayy too lengthy to explain the no-TV thing at that juncture, so I just left it and went to check live feeds online.)

Strange coincidence, yesterday was the birthday of that ASSHOLE we're keeping alive and feeding biryani to.... Arlie, now, is the Queen of Conspiracy Theories... Her personal investigations and follow-ups on the Aarushi Talwar case would put the CBI to shame! And I, in full steam, had a flame-war with an idiot on an online forum because he kept saying "Yeah, India's never going to learn." My only question is howw?? What CAN we do to prevent this from happening over and over again? We've been Gandhian for far too long and turned the other cheek / picked ourselves up and dusted off the carnage from our systems. What HAS been done after 26/11?

India is my home, and I dont feel safe in it any more. We elect new governments with the hope that each one will be better than the last, but to what effect? Suresh Kalmadi has raked in an INCREDIBLE fortune, while making India look like a fool in the international arena and he's sitting pretty behind bars, socialising with other birds of his feather. We've found Kasab guilty - no question about that... and yet we keep him alive to eat biryani?? Its ridiculous and a mockery of a judicial system that would allow a creature like him to live after he's butchered so many innocents. "Security has been beefed up" - SUCH a trite phrase. Sure, you think its been beefed up, but if a recurrence like this is how you "beef up" security, you need to check your definitions, pal.

A friend of mine said that she was looking at little boys leaving a madrasa and thinking "Potential jihadis".... which is SO sad, dont you think? Like I've always said, I believe that India's Muslims are Indians first. I dont want to tar everyone with the same brush because of a few... but when home-grown terror units are on the rise, I dont blame my friend for voicing what a LOT of other people may be thinking. What if a whole nation began thinking like that? What would that do to the cultural diversity of this country? This is as much their home as it is ours. Look what the 1947 partition did to us...

More than anger, I'm just really sad. I really dont have any answers and I honestly dont think the Government has either... Which is a pretty hopeless situation to be in, wouldnt you say?

Frying.... but not quite!

2011-05-16T10:32:00.000+05:30

You know how fried stuff tastes so good, but every morsel is accompanied by the weight of how unhealthy it is? The guilt has made me avoid the Chicken Parmigianas of this world in favor of the grilled, baked and oven-roasted. NO MORE!

I was going through one of my cookbooks and found this method of cooking crumb-fried fish... OVEN FRYING!! And since I haven't experimented in a while, I made this variation on the theme... with chicken! And it was gooooood!! (My very captive audience of two will attest to that, or maybe it was the beeeyoooteeful single malt that accompanied it!)

From mad mallu's monologue

I paired the chicken with mashed potatoes and a red wine reduction mushroom sauce!

And in case you're wondering how to make this, here goes the recipe! This is another one of my own recipes, so when you make it, do think of me! Bon Appetit!

Oven Fried Crumbed Chicken Breast

Chicken Marinade:

Olive Oil

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Lemon Juice

Mustard Sauce

Filleted Chicken Breasts

Crust Mixture:

Bread Crumbs

Garlic Bread Seasoning (I used Keya's readymade Seasoning)

Garlic Salt (Yes, I LOVE my garlic!!)

Method:

- Dip chicken in marinade to cover (Always stir the marinade before each fillet you dip!)

- Dredge in the crust mixture to coat completely.

- Spread on a baking dish

- Spray with oil spray (I used Pam butter flavour... you can also drizzle with oil or dot with butter, but that kinda defeats the low-fatness of the recipe!!)

- Preheat oven to 185 degrees C.

- Bake the first side at 185 degrees for 15 minutes

- Turn the chicken over and bake the second side at 185 for 10 minutes.

Quick, easy, lowfat crumb fried chicken... Voila!!

Amused to death!

2011-04-05T10:15:00.000+05:30

I'm a crazy woman, Serenity will attest to that. Also my motley crew of friends. I do crazy things and I have crazy demands with crazy moods to match. For the last three years, I've eaten Serenity's brain with the demand that I wanted to go to an amusement park. Why? Just because I haven't done that in a while - since school, actually. Serenity HATES crowds. He hates going to a mall on weekends, hates loud pubs with even louder music. Yes, I know I'm married to a complete antipode of me, but I love him anyway! Now that we're in Tech City, our friend circle includes a lot of couples with kids, and one family we're closest to is one of Serenity's childhood friends. They are a feature of our weekends, with either us being at their place, or they at ours. They have a 3 year old lil fella and since the weekend past was a long weekend, coupled with the jubilation of India's victory at World Cup Cricket, everyone was mellow enough to agree to a trip to an amusement park... on a public holiday!! :)

And so, we set off for an amusement park a little outside Tech City, bright and early in the morning. Serenity, Calamity, my gal pal Arlie and the family of 3 were up at the crack of dawn, dealing with me chanting "Picnic day, Picnic day!!" and doing a little picnic dance! We went to a place called Wonder La (?? seriously??? Wonder LA??) and I must say, I was EXTREMELY impressed. For a place that deals with such a HUGE volume of people every day, it was VERY clean (clean,dry toilets that smelt of lemongrass!) and their safety checks VERY thorough. That's actually very reassuring, because when you're tumbling 360 degrees at about 40 feet, you dont want harnesses that budge and move around!

Serenity does NOT like being surprised - not on his birthday, NOT EVER! I'm totally chicken when it comes to horror movies, but somehow, I still like the jumps and thrills and the being-scared-for-a-long-time-after! Not so, my Serenity. He will NEVER watch a scary movie and he doesn't like heights too much. I don't swim and I'm chicken and freak out over the strangest things, but yesterday, at that amusement park, Serenity saw me heading for the scariest rides with what looked like manic passion in my eyes!! I TOTALLY milked my entry fee!! The family put their lil fella on kiddie rides and us girls went on that water splash rollercoaster thingie, but I - I went crazy!! The first ride I made a beeline for was an insane shake-u-up and tighten-your-guts and hold-you-upside-down at 30 feet kind of ride! All of them looked at me with a you're-completely-mad-if-you-think-we'd-risk-our-lives-on-that sort of look.... and I gleefully stood in line... and went back to it TWICE more!! :D

LOVED LOVED LOVED it!! And no, I did not shriek or squeal !! I just had this gleeful grin right through! But yes, I must confess, those drop rides? The ones that take you insanely high to just drop you repeatedly? Yeah, THOSE FREAK ME OUT! And yes, I yowled for my mamma! On a school trip to an amusement park, there was a rollercoaster with a 360 degree loop - I stood in line for that SEVEN times! Not quite what you'd normally expect from chicken me! What is it about thrill rides that do it for me? I LOVE that adrenalin, the speed.... its like flying (which also, I LOVE!) Its about doing something for the thrill, giving the finger to your fear... it feels like coming really close to dying, and before you know it, you're back on level ground.

Its so much like LIFE, being thrown in out of your depth, of harnessing your fear ....enjoying the ride, before you come to rest. The boys came along for 1 of those deadly rides, Arlie came along for 1.... but for the rest, I was on my own and believe me, for those 2 minute intervals when you're being hurled around and spun around... its REALLY LIVING!

At the end of the (very exhausting!) day, Serenity looked at me and said "Happy now? At least for another 3 years there will be no more talk of amusement parks?" Incredulously, I stared at him "Are you crazy? I could do this every week!!!"

Bitten by the travel bug...

2011-02-07T20:51:00.002+05:30

I LOVE TRAVELLING!

Destination - not specific, just the 'getting up and going' is good enough for me.
Travel Companion of choice - Serenity
Ideal holiday - hmmm... anyplace that's not freezing, I guess.
I'm planning to give Serenity a holiday this year. Post 6 pm, in between work, its ALL I do these days! Research, research and more research.
So this here, is my Bucket List - my list of places and things to do before I kick it....
1. The Northern Lights
2. Amsterdam (!!!)
3. Machu Pichu
4. Turkey
5. Greece
6. Spain
7. Italy
8. Morocco
9. Snorkelling (CHECK!!)
10. Cambodia (CHECK!!)
11. Bali
12. Fiji
13. Kenya
14. Laos
15. Vietnam
16. Thailand (this may happen soon!!)
17. Austria
18. Belgium
19. France (surprise! this comes wayyyy at the bottom!)
20. Basically the rest of the world !!!
21. Take a cruise
22. Actually GO to a freezing place (just to see how long I last before I turn into an icicle!)

So if anyone out there has any suggestions on what corner of the earth I should drag my long-suffering husband off too, please feel free to suggest!

Constraints - should NOT be wildly expensive!!
Reward - I promise I'll get you a little something from there if I do take your suggestion!!

Three and counting....

2011-02-02T10:20:00.002+05:30

Three years since we stood before God and man to become one.

Three years that have passed like the shot from a gun.

Three years that I've woken up to see your face.

Three years and you've never ceased to amaze.

Lots of tears have been shed along the way

but I still count the smiles at the end of the day.

Three years you've protected, shielded and loved

while I've been frustrated, scared and bowed

by things I could not hope to change

In three years, you've let me find my own way.

Encouraged my growth as a wife, a girl, as ME

What you've seen in me, I could never see.

Togetherness, love, a companion... its all I've ever wanted

you've excelled... in more ways than I could have ever dreamed.

I will always remember the walk that clinched it for me forever...

few words spoken, but so much said.

You're more than a spouse, you are my friend

and this is one friendship, I hope will endure, never end.

I wouldnt trade you for all of humanity.

My friend, lover, fellow traveller, my Serenity

No one loves you more than your Calamity.

Here's to many more years of discovery, of living, of loving, of travel and togetherness.

Here's to many more meals cooked and relished together, of whiskeys tasted and getting smashed together. Here's to never being lonely when we have each other, here's to waking up always to sleepy smiles and cuddles from the other.

Here's to the journey - may it always hold more pleasure for us than the destination.

The Terrible Refrigerator.

2011-01-31T18:47:00.000+05:30

I dont know why, but I hate the refrigerator... I always have. I hate food odors and I do everything to see that my fridge doesnt have ANY - like obsessively closing EVERYTHING that is unfortunate enough to go in there!

I would have made an awful forager, maybe I'd be a better hunter- gatherer. My older sister, on the other hand, is a forager! There is NO hiding ANY food from her! My mum would find the unlikely-est places to hide stuff that was meant to be eaten in moderation (read chocolates, dry fruits etc), but SHE WOULD LOOK FOR THEM... and (wonder of wonders!) SHE'D FIND THEM! And proceed to eat whatever it was! (And in case you were thinking this was her as a kid, no! She's a whole 8 years older than me!)

Me, on the other hand, would NOT dig in the fridge, for love or money!! My mum actually invested in a rice-cooker that would keep my food warm so that I would eat lunch! Anything that needed to be re-heated, would be written in big fat letters in a note that would not miss my eye. The note would read something like "Fried fish in blue dabba on top shelf of fridge. Heat and Eat! Love, amma". This continued through school and college. Now I have my own fridge, and I HATE having leftovers and Serenity despairs that I dont know whats in the fridge most of the time. (Yes, I am guilty of letting mint leaves dry to the point that they'll powder if you look at them!!)

But this story is about a box. Specifically... THIS box.

Now you'd look at it and say it contained almonds, right? THAT'S WHAT IT SAYS ON THE BOX! This box, was a 'return gift' at one of Serenity's friends (very lavish) wedding. So we brought it home and since we had loads of nuts and stuff already, we never opened the box. One day, we noticed a few ants around the box and so, promptly stuck it in the fridge so the ants cant get to it. (All of this while the box is in its original cellophane sealed packaging!!) so the box stayed in the fridge, our never-ending supply of nuts never ran out, so we never bothered with it.... Shifting happened, and while clearing out the fridge, I religiously took the box out, and packed it with the other non-perishables and brought it to Tech-City. By this time, the box has lived in our fridge for over 2 years and the friend whose wedding resulted in the box coming into our possession has had a baby!

Yesterday (and this is almost 3 years since the box came to live with us!) I needed almonds. So I opened the box! And THIS is what it contained!! I was MORTIFIED!

SWEETS!! Good, yummy sweets that now had the consistency of PETRIFIED ROCK! If any of you are dying to know what 3 year old barfi tastes like... sorry I cant help you, I was too scared to try them!

WHY ON EARTH would anybody invest in such misguiding packaging??? When I opened the box and stood gaping at the contents, Serenity was too busy laughing his head off and saying "She's had her baby already! And those sweets have been with us for THAT long!!"

"Almonds for you" indeed...
Disclaimer: My fridge is not all full of forgotten food, it has lots of yummy stuff in it too... :)

The Year that was...

2011-01-03T12:39:00.000+05:30

Milestones of the year that was....

Serenity and Calamity celebrated their second year of togetherness. Its been a bumpy road, but we have settled into a much more even pace... We are together, and we are happy and that's more than I could ever have asked for. In a month, we will be celebrating our third year of marriage, hopefully tucked away in some pretty locale!

Calamity inched closer to the big 3-O... this year seals her fate and puts the awesome 20s firmly into the pages of history! (Which was the main reason Calamity moped and moped on New Years Eve!!) Serenity prays everyday that his (mentally) 6 year old wife will grow up and finally be a responsible adult... to which I stick out my tongue and go PBBBBBBTTT!!! (so much for maturity!)

Serenity and Calamity moved cities... yup, just as I was beginning to get used to all the idiosyncrasies of the city-that-wakes-up-early! We moved to Tech City, and Calamity has never been happier - I have a lovely home, I have busy weekends, I have a GIRL GANG!! (something I've missed since I moved from the city-that-never-sleeps!)

We've acquired a couple of adopted teenagers!! (girls from the Girl Gang who're always here when I need them!)

Arlie, one of my girls from the city-that-wakes-up-early moved here within a month of us moving and has been a steady fixture in our home and in my heart. She's the closest I've gotten to anyone in the recent past, and it just makes me feel so good the way she just belongs! She's stellar, and I love her to bits...my Soul Sister and partner in crime - we stay up till all odd hours, watch Rakhi Sawant and Big Boss together and stress about our weight in chorus!

Ambils, or Chandu is my other adopted teenager - someone I had met only briefly, she was my first taste of fun in Tech City - we have danced in the aisles of the Spar supermarket solely to relieve the tedium of the ppl watching the security cameras! Arlie and I mother her, boss over her and take her tantrums in our stride! She is the kid sister we now have, and she's a RIOT!!

The Bangalore Bunch is a bunch of friends Serenity has had since childhood, the parents were friends, and now they are friends... they fill our weekends, the getting together after choir practise... to doing girls night movie with one of the wives...

Serenity and Calamity travelled to Cambodia... our first trip out of the country together, we fulfilled a dream we've both individually fostered for years. The experience of seeing the sun rise over Angkor Wat is one that I think will stay with me forever. Cambodia was beautiful, awe-inspiring and sad at the same time. Experiencing the ruins of a 9th century civilisation together but with no conversation necessary... Serenity actually excelling in bargaining - which didnt surprise me, it SHOCKED me! He would wander off in the markets, come back bearing armfuls of great deals and make friends with all the shopkeepers! Our culinary experiments and disasters... all in all, made for a great trip, hopefully the forerunner of many more to come!

Calamity got sick! :( bleh... what a way to end the year!

Serenity and Calamity FINALLY got a christmas tree, a star and went carolling! Serenity's sister visited and we all exchanged gifts and had a SUPER christmas, wheezing and phlegm not withstanding! No baking or appams and stew, but we got by just fine!

And now forward!.... The Holiday Season's hangovers are past and the New Year stretches ahead, bright and shiny... Who knows what may come... But in the words of Incubus :

"Sometimes, I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear

And I can't help but ask myself how much I let the fear
Take the wheel and steer
It's driven me before
And it seems to have a vague, haunting mass appeal
But lately I'm beginning to find that I
Should be the one behind the wheel

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there....."

Bring on the lions!! :D

Happy New!

2011-01-03T09:54:00.000+05:30

And I begin the year with a film review post - one I haven't done since my old blog, many moons ago. This one's not your happy, 'begin the year on a feel-good note' kind of movie. Far from it, in fact. The Black Swan, dazzles to say the least, in a dark, horrific kind of way...

Darren Arnofsky's Requiem for a Dream, has for long held the spot of 'most disturbing movie ever made', even for me, who's seen the film too many times to count. His new movie, The Black Swan, doesn't take that away from Requiem, but comes a close second. If you have not seen Requiem, you should... because it will shake you like nothing else will... Brilliant montages, stellar performances and a story that's sad and disturbing at the same time.

The Black Swan explores the dark underbelly of the world of ballet. Natalie Portman excels as the central character, taking on the duality of her role with great style. Mila Kunis, of 'That 70's Show' fame, is beautiful and plays the layers of her character excellently. The competition, the gruelling effort in the race to be the best, and the mental travails of a disturbed young starlet all come through beautifully.

Watch the trailer here.

But I will confess, I'm still partial to Requiem!

Pee-Noo-Monee-Yaa.....

2010-12-08T11:16:00.000+05:30

Long hiatus after disturbed depressing story, yes... only to inform the world that I'm down with Pee-Noo-Monee-Yaa.... yeah, sulk sulk sulk....

This would be my second run-in with the wonderful ailment, one that I would not wish upon anyone.... but my eternally optimistic mind tells me that the only good thing to come of this is that I may come out of this a few kilos lighter!! :D

Pneumonia #1 happened to me 10 years ago (and with much more severity, actually!) and involved me staying in hospital for well over a month... Everyone who visited me, brought me chocolate, irrespective of the fact that I couldnt keep anything down at the time... my sister who came to the hospital to keep me company, would munch her way through my goodies.... and now im down with Pneumonia #2, and this time too, I have loads of chocolate in the house, AND a bottle of Baileys that I can only stare wistfully at till I'm done with the antibiotics.... sighhhhhhh......

My mom will be coming down to nurse me back to health, thank god for that! Serenity seems a little lost with me being so sick.... He's put me on house-arrest till I'm totally fine, which is really BLAH what with the christmas season and all .... i SO wanted to get a tree and do up the house this year... :( so many plans.... so now, I'm ordering christmas cards online, and hoping to sit and write them out so as to get them out at the decent time.... sometime before new years is fine with me !! :D

...and this is how I end the year, with lots of phlegm and snorts and snargles.... !!
compliments of the season to you, world!

Epiphany...

2010-08-24T23:31:00.000+05:30

It was all so clear in his mind - the clarity of a dawn dream. "Morning dreams always come true", Ma always said... He could see it now, hear the applause ringing in his ears... feel the elation as he walked up in his crisp, smart uniform, shoes gleaming to get his report card from the head of the school. Beaming his beatific smile as he looked down at the row of A+ grades on the report card, feeling the applause reverberate in his very being as he lifted the card high...

He looked down at the report card, unable to meet the disapproving eyes of his teacher.. Looking down at a row of Cs and Ds, feeling his heart plummet right down into the toes of his ratty, shabby shoes.... "You will amount to nothing", he heard his father say in his head - words so oft repeated, they felt almost real as he heard them echo in his mind. His optimism evaporates as he trudges home, past the palatial houses he longingly stared at everyday.. to the wrong side of the tracks... to the beating he knows awaits when the cursed report card will be asked for and produced. He felt his knees tremble as if already imagining the hot wetness of his bladder losing control with each blow that fell on his defenceless back.

"You'll never do well... never.... EVER"... and it was then that he KNEW. He wouldnt ever be that boy in his dreams, the achiever, one of the "haves".... he'd always be a "have not", an underdog.... always be mediocre.... in his mediocre life. Never exceptional, always so-so. But in the haze of blinding pain that came with this knowledge, a glimmer of his long buried hope resurfaces... the only thing that could possibly work to break him out of the vicious cycle his life seemed to be stuck in.

Excellence in mediocrity - he smiled as the irony of his epiphany sunk in. His head, no longer bowed, his back erect, he makes for his future, optimism intact with the epiphany ruling him.

Tech City Madness!

2010-08-03T10:43:00.000+05:30

So the settling in has happened, hounding carpenter to come and put up all my lovely posters has happened.... but before we get into the good stuff, allow me to rant!

Serenity (thankfully!) got a relocation allowance - so we went with a highly acclaimed packing and moving company Aggravating Packers and Movers (get it? I cant take names, very aware of possibility of litigation you see? C.Y.A at all times is the motto - Cover Your A$$!!). They cost us a bomb... and my big 6 seater dining table (thats as old as Serenity) arrived as a tripod!! Yup, table and three legs as one piece, one leg as a separate piece. 2 big beautiful framed posters arrived with the glass shattered, the bed came with a bolt loose that caused it to collapse when Serenity sat on it! (which earned him the nick name 'Palankh Thod' which has its own off-colour connotations!!) Cartons packed by them, which bore their logo and the proud epithet of "Relocation Intact" came looking like a particularly overweight elephant had sat on them. Relocation Intact - HAH! And did they pay for any of this damage? Take a guess, go on.... No F%$^ing way!

So yeah, we got everything fixed, unpacked the zillion million cartons - who knew that in 2 years we had collected SO MUCH stuff... and now we're fully functional! This is a spectacular city - considering neither Serenity nor Calamity has to commute anywhere (Serenity walks to work!) the traffic doesnt bother us that much... and the weather, is TO DIE FOR!!.... Phew! After the city-that-wakes-up-early, its a VERY welcome relief. We spend a lot of time on the terrace, Calamity set up wi-fi so she even works outside! Add to this whole lovely equation a motley crew of friends who we love to hang out with and you have 2 very happy people! Never a dull moment on the weekends... Oh and the two of us have joined the church choir (where Calamity sings like a little mouse in the corner in the face of so much musical talent!) and we're learning the Halleluiah chorus from Handel's Messiah now.... Confronted with sheet music and having to learn the Alto part, Calamity's head swims...So much so that I looked it up on youtube and practise diligently!! Floundering, but ever optimistic we are!

Weekends at home also feature a character from the city-that-wakes-up-early - I have a pair of soul sistahs, and this trio is named in true blue Malayalee fashion (we take great joy in stereotypes!) as Arliemol, Ansiemol (yours truly) and Albiemol. Arliemol comes and visits, calls herself Wife #2 to Serenity and proceeds to be a complete riot! The days she stays over, we sit on the terrace long after Serenity has gone to bed, laugh like idiots and do insane things like splatter red nail paint on my pristine guest room floor and order 5 pairs of shoes online at 3 am... yup, full bundle of laughs! Arliemol was also introduced to our local bunch of friends and it was super cool to see them all get along like a house on fire! Perenially on a diet, on a good day she has 3 cornflakes for breakfast and TOTALLY cheats on her diet around us! Its nice to not have completely lost touch with the city-that-wakes-up-early because this clown moved here around the same time as us.

All in all, Tech City has been wonderful.... and I'm very happy to be here.

The Three Musketeers plus One

2010-06-24T17:35:00.000+05:30

There are many who believe that kids who grow up in cities, grow up without the luxury of wide open spaces to run and jump and play in. I did'nt. Strangely, even in the city-that-doesnt-sleep, are these oases of green (so far, so good - I'd say!) and we had one of those just over the wall! The folks call it the golf club - but for us, it was picnic spot, beach and park all combined. We were serial trespassers - and we enjoyed EVERY minute! We honed our athletic prowess on their grass! Slipping and sliding with no fear of hurting ourselves, jumping through sprinklers... Part of the thrill was running away from watchmen and vigilant members who tried to run us off. We called one of them Street Hawk (after an 80s - 90s TV series character) because he usually came after us on a motorcycle!

We had pot-luck picnics and long jump competitions into the sand traps of the 8th hole! We believed in "finders keepers" when it came to stray golf balls. For some reason, we believed they cost a ton of money! There are no pictures of those glory days - nobody had cameras their folks would let them take along, but they're so fondly remembered... We had races to see who'd get over the wall first when Street Hawk came along... and the last one was always the 'rotten egg'.... We sure were lucky - where else would a bunch of kids find endless acres of green fresh lawn to run and jump and tumble on?

The Three Musketeers plus One was us - born the same year, three girls and a boy - June, August, September and October. Today, one's in Australia, one's in Germany, I'm here and the boy is sailing the seas and seeing the world. He was a monkey - skinny and climbed to ridiculous heights to escape getting caught when we played cops and robbers (he actually scaled a coconut tree to the height of the second floor while we stood around beneath the tree screaming at him, and my mum and sisters having hysterics while watching from the third floor!)

The two girls moved away while we were still in school, but the monkey and I grew up together, going to school together and laughing about our respective schools and their 'sex education' classes. One fine day, the scrawny monkey suddenly ended up wayyy taller than me (big blah - I was always the tallest of the group!) and then he realised his dream of being a sailor. He's first engineer (I think!) now and we always catch up whenever we end up being home at the same time... All of us are married now and scattered all over, but in my head, this is how we'll always be - one curly-headed tomboy, one quiet girl, one chatterbox and one monkey.

TA DAAAAH!!!

2010-06-14T23:49:00.000+05:30

Let the packing begin! After a series of futile calls to a number of packers and movers, I've finally closed the deal! Packing begins tomorrow which means Calamity CAN join Serenity to ring in her birthday! Yayyy!

Simple pleasures of life, I tell you!

Calamity misses Serenity muchly. xoxox

Home, home again...

2010-05-24T15:42:00.002+05:30

Home, home again
I like to be there when I can
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire

Calamity is back... After a hectic 2 weeks of loads of running around, it feels good to be home. Not that the city-that-never-sleeps disappointed me in any way, hehehe, but Serenity left in 5 days and Calamity was just travelling the length and breadth of the city on sourcing trips. Of course, Calamity MADE TIME to shop on the way (how could I resist?!) and tried out lots of eating joints... and took Serenity to eat street food (with the dire warning that he was NOT to let any reports of tummy upsets reach his in-laws!).... also a sushi BUFFET! (awesome awesome AWESOME!). There's this place which has an all-you-can-eat Pan-Asian buffet - (we never make it to the main course) which allows you to bring your own booze! I swear, HOW COOL IS THAT?!! and then pay a minimal corkage on your own hooch! No hefty hooch bills - BLISS!

I love going away, sometimes... mainly because I love coming back to Serenity! I loooove seeing him in a crowd as much as I like looking for him - and then I love to see him smile at me, when I've been smile-deprived for a while! Much before we got married, Serenity gave me fair warning that he was not the OTT Romantic and that I'd be VERY disappointed if that was what I was expecting! He also claims to be zero imagination when it comes to gifts! But over the 2 years that we've been married, the surprises have come... I'm surprised he doesnt take the numerous clothes I leave lying around and throttle me with them! I'm surprised when he doesn't understand blatant hints... I'm always surprised by how he instinctively gets (some) things right when it comes to me!! ... those are the good surprises... like any marriage, we've had the bad surprises too... and the way we've come through those doesn't just surprise me, it AWES me.

But what I was getting to, was how Serenity surprises me with welcome-home gestures that I cannot help but smile at, and sometimes laugh delightedly! Once, I got home after we'd been fighting long-distance to find a BIG bunch of roses on the table.... and lots more in strange places like the fridge, my cupboard, on the laundry chest (I think that was because the clothes needed to be done!!) and even in the loo!! There was a bunch of t-shirts and blouses that the roses led to in the cupboard and the fridge! There was a sweet letter that made me cry - and the man claimed to be a staunch anti - romantic! See? pleasant surprise right there!... Another time, I get back home.... and I'd been whining and whining about my back and how my chair was killing my posture and I walked in to my room, switched on the light and there! There was this huge-ass office chair!

This morning, before Serenity left for work, he looked despairingly at my desk and said "You should clean your desk, you know?!" To which, I stuck out my tongue! Sitting at my desk for over 3 hours after the man left for work, I had a near miss when I almost spilt a big mug of tea... as I tried to mop up the spill, I FINALLY noticed the Lamy box near my keyboard. I'd said something weeks ago about how all us designer types could never afford those in college and how we always looked at one as a mark of having "arrived"! Serenity, now, owns a Waterman ink pen and a couple of other fancy-shmancies... so he just winced and said "A Lamy? That's all you aspired to?" :) But then Calamity explained and rambled on for a bit and then forgot all about it.... until this morning!

And as I gleefully scribbled my signature over and over again and read the note that came with it, I suddenly thought of that conversation we had... "So.. please tell me you don't expect flamboyant romantic gestures!" ... and my reaction "Uh...no...I don't expect flowers and poetry, no!" ... And now I'm wondering what romantic gestures I'm missing out on with these "supposedly" unromantic things that he does for me!

Calamity thanks you, dear Serenity... for being the best thing that's happened to me. XOXO

The more things change, the more they remain the same.....

2010-05-11T14:39:00.000+05:30

Serenity and Calamity are moving!.... Yes, go on, heave that sigh of relief.... there will be no more ranting about the city-that-wakes-up-early for a while. We're on our way to our next adventure in Tech City. This bodes well for Calamity's professional and social life, definitely... though Calamity is VERY apprehensive about giving away HER house! Serenity, as always, takes everything in his stride and Calamity has to poke and prod him to show some excitement!

Calamity, today, in the midst of her daily chaos, lovingly sat and wrapped up some of her crystal. (Packed 2 sets and then the heat got to her, so she ran back into her airconditioned den of coolth!!) Well at least I'm getting started with the packing, na? Its a month of travel - Serenity and Calamity take off for the city-that-doesnt-sleep tomorrow. Serenity will be dragged along, kicking and screaming till all hours of the morning to meet with assorted bunches of Calamity's crazy friends... then he gets back, and starts planning the last Boy's Night at Chez Nous! (while Calamity continues on her mad whirl in afore-mentioned city!) Boy's night is usually held at our place, considering Serenity's wife takes off ever so often!! I think Serenity will miss that... though there's another bunch waiting in Tech City for our house-warming pahteee!

Which brings me to the house! Calamity, though relieved to be leaving this city, has been apprehensive about the "what will we do about this house, what house will we get there" and other such questions! Well, it turns out that the Person Up There wanted us to move too... why else would it transpire that we would fall in LOVE with the very FIRST house our agents took us to?!! Calamity almost danced through the house, while Serenity followed at his sedate pace, not giving away anything. Calamity was like a child in a candy store and tugged and muttered to Serenity every chance she got "Its beeyootiful ! I want, I want, I want!!".... and it turns out that we got it! (just barely, actually! We saw 2 other parties who came there while we were there and they wanted it too!!) But we got it! Yay! And as we settled in to sleep our way back home, we both stayed awake for a long time... just thinking... and I reached for Serenity's hand and squeezed and whispered "I cant believe how lucky we are"... he squeezed back and he smiled.

So now, we're off on the next leg of our adventure, with another new start in a new place with lots of old friends. Its like a replay of the initial settling down... packing, unpacking, doing up etc etc...

And I squeeze Serenity's hand and he squeezes mine, I smile and go to sleep content.

Do the rich ever sweat?

2010-04-26T13:28:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: The following post IS a rant and may reflect badly on the poster, but frankly, ma deah, I DONT GIVE A DAMN. At the risk of coming across as a brat who needs air conditioning to survive, I'm still going to say my piece. (Air conditioning in a city thats already hit 38 degrees with almost 90% humidity is NOT a luxury - its a necessity!)

We've just endured a very VERY hot night with no power and no sleep and come this morning, there's still no power. Calamity is PISSED. Calamity has deadlines and ZERO tolerance for the ridiculously high temperatures in this city and the inverter has died too.
Calamity woke up scowling and sticky and VERY cranky.

No, its not Serenity's fault and no, I should not be pissed with him... but hey!someone's got to absorb the repercussions of the electricity board's inefficiency! Regarding the title of this post, I have to ask, EVERY TIME we have a ridiculous 12 hour power cut... Do the rich in this city sweat? More specifically, does the fat man in shades and a yellow shawl ever have a power cut in his home? I'm thinking no, considering he wears a SHAWL all the time... obviously indicates that HIS ac is working JUST FINE!!

So, consider this... a majority of the poor (non tax paying) populace sleeps outdoors, on pavements etc. so a hot stuffy house is not a problem there.... then there's another majority - the fat man's family... all of whom are oh-so-important peeble anyway. (I'm not even going to start on nepotism - will take up too much of my energy!)... so they're not facing any power shortages either, are they now? Which leaves who? ME! Middle class and not so far gone that I have to sleep outdoors, and not in that elitist bracket that power cuts dont affect... ME.. the one who has to STEW in the heat, walk around looking like a retarded flamenco dancer (yes, you heard me right - I spent most of last night with a black flamenco dancer's fan, trying to circulate the tepid, still air around me....) and take showers at 3 am, all the while, cursing cursing cursing!! Thankfully, the Electricity Board man I spoke to today, spoke English, so I didnt come off sounding like a deranged heat affected dodo... but I think I sounded pathetic enough for the man to rush to reassure me.

Metropolis status is not coming to you anytime soon, oh city-that-wakes-up-early.
Not until you have your infrastructure sorted out - which I'm thinking is not happening anytime soon either. So go on, build your useless ugly domed monument to your own bad taste, spend truckloads of money on making sure your name goes down in the annals of history, but dont, oh no! never EVER bother to make sure that taxpayer's money goes to benefit the ones who pay those taxes in the first place.

The next time this happens, I swear, I'm just going to pick up my laptop and invite myself to the (obviously) airconditioned environs of his home. So screw you, fat B@$T@}D!!

(deeeeep breath. Aaah! that sure felt good! Nothing like some hysterical ranting to clear your head!)

Early to bed....

2010-04-15T11:26:00.003+05:30

There was once a girl, a girl who slept as little as the city she lived in... who called up gangs of friends to go and get their ear-drums banged out at noisy places that played 80s-90s rock... who then woke up and went to work the next day and lived her days like this.

Then she got married (whoa! surprise!) and the gangs of friends refused to believe she was going to settle down to domestic bliss. Well... she did! And she moved to a city that wakes up early - an unknown concept to one who had not seen a sunrise in a long time! Yes, you know her as Calamity!! In the initial days, Calamity was dismayed to know that a) the concept of nightlife as she knew it was redundant now and that b) Serenity was NOT inclined to bust his eardrums!

So then, one night (right in the beginning!), as hard-working Serenity prepared to go to bed (early to bed, early to rise etc etc) (yes, he goes to work in the morning!), his resident brat, Calamity, refused to let him sleep! (**starts whining**) "But its Friday night.... dont sleep! .... What can we do? Let's go somewhere... Let's...." .... After 5 minutes of this, Serenity snaps "There's nothing to do, alright? Just go to sleep!!!" (Calamity stops whining and starts sulking)

And now, I get the feeling age is catching up! Calamity still loves to party, but starts yawning at 2 am.... she can still work late, but the lure of the bed often makes her set (unrealistic) alarms for unearthly hours of the morning, so she can meet her deadlines... Serenity is still the one who actually WAKES up when the alarms go off... and prod Calamity to either "turn the damn thing off, or wake up"..... to which Calamity promptly obeys, only to wake up about 3 hours after the (unrealistic) alarm time, jump out of bed a la Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral, spewing expletives at the late hour!! sighhhhhh...... I hate clocks.

And yes, this post was prompted by the eerily real cartoon I found today. Good morning! (Irony - this mail was posted a half hour before noon!!)

Up or Down ?!!

2010-04-07T16:54:00.002+05:30

There's a lot of fuss in the world about the Up Or Down Dilemma.... Up or Down - what? Dow Jones? Price of basic commodities? Nike Deodorant? Stock Index????

I refer to the toilet seat, amigos!

Much has been said about women who get cheesed about the toilet seat up when they want it down and men who say it needs to be up, because its easier (and cleaner! thank god!!). This is not a situation with any grey areas... there is NO middle ground. Its always one way or the other! More has been said about when people get married and have to share their "space" with another diametrically opposite individual and how the Up / Down Dilemma comes into play.

I've never really known it to be a problem and I cannot understand why such a big deal is made of it.

Woman: If its up, put it down.

Man: If its down, put it up.

End of problem. :)

I just found this comic strip on this awesomely sarky comic site - yes, sarcastic little me giggled lots and is now waiting for her equally (if not more!) sarcastic S.O (significant other!) to come home so she can show this to him!

That was my very lame explanation for this rather lame post - or to put it more precisely "Why I wasted 10 minutes of work time to think about toilet seats"! Thank you for listening!

(picture credit - awesome site called www.thedoghousediaries.com )

Time flies...

2010-03-31T12:55:00.002+05:30

Time flies like an arrow... fruit flies like a banana....

ha ha and all that...

To get back to the point, time has been flying... faster than I've realised. I find myself longing for weekends on Monday mornings - and before I know it, its the middle of the week! That's the power of work, when you have enough to keep your mind occupied, that is.

Its been 2 years since I moved to the city-that-wakes-up-early, and as much as my initial posts bear testament to the fact that I hated it here, I've begun to call this house Home. Its this home that I think of when I'm away, this place that I'm constantly thinking up improvements for, this house that I find myself looking at curtains, lamps and cushions for. Strange feeling, this. But a good one, nonetheless. I still miss my bustling Maximum City (I think I always will!) and its incredible speed and the freedom that I feel in the air there... but here, this, doesnt feel as bad. The heat saps me, and I scurry to switch on my blast of coolth! (yes, COOLTH - I like that word... if there's WARMTH, then there's COOLTH... why? cos I sez so!).

I find myself taking powercuts in my stride, calling the Electricity Department and in terrible, awful, hideous local lingo asking a man (who's trying to contain his laughter!) why I'm being deprived of electricity when the sun is at its hottest. And then having the man, (still reining in his laughter!) tell me that there was a notice in the paper about a 9 am to 5 pm powercut - to which all that sheepish me could say was "Oh!"... I'm dealing with the heat, my being language impaired, autorickshaw men who see me and hear the "KACHING!" of cash registers... I'm dealing. And what's sweeter than knowing that I'm dealing remarkably well! (Aye, its very satisfying!)

Its a good feeling to walk down my road, having a flower seller smile and wave at me (I buy a bunch of yellow roses from her once in a while), having street people like vegetable vendors and shopkeepers that know you.... its like home, just like home. And it makes me smile. Its taken two years and lots of tears, but now, whenever I come back from whereever, I know I'm coming home. Home is where Serenity is, in more ways than one (and yes, serenity - the noun, does vanish from our home periodically too, when a hot-headed Gemini and a mule-headed Libran clash swords!) and I find myself wanting to be back here, though I know that he's the only one for whom I'll say this or be here for. Its a good feeling, and that makes me smile.

I do miss my bunch back in Maximum City though... I miss sitting on a sea-facing balcony with just one of them and lots of "talk" with a lot of vices thrown in for good measure. I miss my best boy buddy and I miss the evenings in office. I miss being around those people who know me, know when I want to be asked "whats wrong" and know when to just let me be. I miss conversations with Toe where I can just spill my guts and not have her say "eeugh". That non-judgemental love that some people there have for me, I miss... and I miss them every day. If I could just pull them all here to be with me, I'd be the happiest person in the world... and then the sorriest for all the abuses they would heap on me!!

But for all of that, I'm happy to say that I'm happy in the here and now. I'm happy to be where I am, with different groups of Serenity's friends, who are slowly but surely becoming mine as well. Its a wealthy person, one who can just let the people in their lives grow, connect and form that safety net that I've been yearning for since the day I came here. Some of them amaze me with their ability to assimilate another so seamlessly into a circle that's existed for them since boyhood. I'm a territorial beast, I dont think I could be that way. But the paintball gang shows me how its possible to grow that circle without breaking it.. and whenever we sit around a table and share a meal, I am just really really happy to be counted as one among them.

I'm growing my own safety net now... and this, for me, is the most poignant sign that I've put down roots here. City-that-wakes-up-early, Calamity is here to stay.

Quiche Lorraine!

2010-03-12T09:02:00.006+05:30

Q: What to do when one has bacon and eggs lying around begging to be used up?

A: You make a Quiche Lorraine!!!

This is just one post where I put up food cooked Chez Nous! The second is a Stuffed Chicken breast with a vegetable sauce and the third is Pork Chops!

(in reverse order actually - I can just NEVER get this thing to upload in the order I want it.... sigh!)

Yet another hiatus broken by food pictures!!

Bon Appetit!

Randomness for the day....

2010-02-23T21:15:00.002+05:30

Calamity is travelling far and wide...

Serenity, I miss you.

Its that time of the year!!

2009-12-24T09:48:00.003+05:30

So smile, be nice and get set to begin the new year with a clean slate! (err... I think I'll finish my rant and then get down to the smiling and the being nice!)

Rant #1 : is against that jackass from across the border who thinks we're a nation of idiots to believe the tripe he's talking now.

I mean, seriously!! Everyday, I read the newspaper to know what latest bullshit he's been spewing at the courts and ohhh! it makes me sooooo mad! Refer this to know what I'm talking about. So yeah, the selfsame jackass (for the sake of being civilised I shall desist from all the expletives just itching to break forth!) is now saying 'hey! I dont have a CLUE about Kalashnikovs. Kalashnikovs? what? huh? I dont know how to use one, I never seen one EVER... nyah nyah nyah....I want to see my mother.... nyah nyah...whine whine whine.'

This individual is costing us tons of money to keep alive, tons of angst by keeping such a man alive after what he did and now, he turns around and denies the whole thing!! wah wah!

At first, I could not understand why we bothered with a fair trial, then Serenity (see? that's why I married him!!) made me see why we needed to do that. I turned over to that school of thought that said 'we're a better nation, we dont condemn without a trial' (inspite of eye witnesses etc etc). So then the man (I wouldnt call him that, actually) gets a trial. And now, he's making a joke out of the whole thing??? He should be glad that he's not been turned loose on the Bombay junta, they would make sure he's VERY sorry for what he did. Every single person in this country knows his face. I would probably (yes, I am a horrible person sometimes!) think that more than capital punishment, a far bigger price to pay would be to let him live, let him live HERE, in our country, make sure he NEVER gets away and let the people make his life a living hell. Let him live, but let him remember every minute of that life, the lives he took away.

Rant # 2: is against my newspaper supplement.

When I moved here, to the land-that-wakes-up-early, I hated the main newspaper. Never has a format bored me so much to death and the news been so BLAH! Worst of all, this newspaper did not have a crossword! Oh Calamity, what will you do without a crossword?!!

Then came the launch of India's most read daily and I jumped for joy and immediately took a subscription (their marketing strategy was quite something, I must say!) so that I'd have my OWN newspaper! So a (not-so) typical morning has Serenity with his own paper (yeah, he actually LIKES that daily!) and me with mine! (I said not-so-typical because though Serenity is a morning person, Calamity is an evening person! 7:30 am is the middle of the night, according to me!) Anyways, I read my paper from cover to cover (aah the joys of not having to rush to anywhere in the morning!) and then I do the crossword, read the supplement with all its tinseltown gup (for entertainment!). Aah, but I digress! My rant is against my supplement, which has been consistently putting one (not-so) attractive starlet on their cover far too often for my liking. The woman has had page 1 exposure atleast thrice in the last month and considering she's

a) really not that hot (today's picture shows her posterior - big!)

b) has really nothing either interesting or intelligent to say

makes me really wonder WHY WHY WHY is she even there! Its not the fact that she's there that bothers me, its the monotonous regularity with which she appears that makes me scream. (though I must admit, she's definitely getting her money's worth from her publicist!! That one's a keeper, girl - hold on tight!)

(/end rant)

So NOW smile, spread good cheer, don't forget why Christmas is there to celebrate amidst all your seasonal fun and games!

(btw, please to notice my colours of the season text! :D)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fortune Cookie Starved...

2009-11-03T09:53:00.002+05:30

In a fortune cookie starved country, we still have things that make us smile. I stumbled this today, and yes, I smiled! :)

On Secular Christianity & Stupid American Teenagers...

2009-10-29T13:47:00.003+05:30

I'm a very secular person, I pride myself on being one. I'm also a Christian, but I believe that everyone is entitled to their own belief systems and is entitled to practise their religion of choice. If I haven't made myself clear about my stand on fundamentalism in the past, allow me to reiterate. I am AGAINST fundamentalism of ANY sort.

That said, I would like to introduce you to two exceptionally stupid and extremely ignorant teenagers who want to convert their friend. And then one wonders who vote for idiots like Bush? Here they are! Future citizens of the super power they call America.

Oh and below that, is one of the video reponses to this remarkable piece of film making!

Random Thought...

2009-10-29T11:45:00.002+05:30

Sashimi - Sushi Me!

2009-10-29T09:30:00.004+05:30

Don't you have days when you go thinking of food? Not food in general, but in super specific : I wish I could eat ________ from ______ (fill in appropriate food from relevant food joint). Well, I'd been feeling like eating sushi all weekend. Lots of sushi. :) The weekend came and went and sushi didn't happen. Sigh.

Now, sushi has not been a favourite food always, do not mistake me.Like every mallu, mad or otherwise, I love my seafood. But yet another quirk that Serenity and I share is that we hate fishy fish. Yes, I know fish is supposed to taste like fish and not chocolate, but its the fishy fish that we don't like, the fish that smells fishy. And raw fish? eeeugh. Calamity has always been wary of sushi because of the ickiness of eating raw fish... (yeah, getting over that was a jump) until, she went to a Japanese food joint here with a sushi enthusiast ! Before I ramble again, small foot note : I LOVE wasabi, I love pungent mustard that explodes in my sinuses! And Wasabi is what made me put my first mouthful of (raw fish!!) sushi in my mouth, with a warning beforehand that I would spit it out if i didnt like it....

I bit...I chewed..my mouth exploded with flavour and I was hooked!
Fishy? Not AT ALL ! Tasty? Most Definitely! And that, is how I swallowed my pride, along with the sushi(raw fish!).

So now that I've gone and rambled all over the countryside about how wonderful that was, I'll tell the rest of the story really short.
- I, Calamity craved sushi
- Calamity didnt get to eat sushi over the weekend.
- Calamity went on an insanely long shoot on Monday (6 hours - for the recording of a 20 minute shoot!) and called Serenity and told him how sad she was and how badly she neeeded sushi by this point.
- Calamity and Serenity got to the restaurant before it closed orders! YAY!!(Yeah, last order is at 9:30)
- Calamity and Serenity had a platter each of sushi.
- Calamity smiled all the way home and then smiled some more. So much happiness happened that she woke up smiling the next day!

And that, is how much satisfaction there is to be had in fulfilling a food craving!!

Just a random thought....

2009-10-23T18:00:00.002+05:30

Calamity and Honesty......

2009-10-14T20:22:00.003+05:30

Thankyou Primitive Lyric for my first EVER online badge. I'm rather kicked about it.
So then I get this comment saying I've been tagged, and having no earthly clue what that meant, I tracked back to her blog to see what "being tagged" entailed. And therefore, here are 10 things about me, honestly.....

If I like you and consider you my friend, I will trust you implicitly... and nothing saddens me more than when that trust is broken. The journey from friend to non-entity happens in one step.
I cannot tolerate stupidity, it irritates me.
I am easily irritated.
I expect too much out of poor Serenity... intuition, understanding etc etc. (much more than one can logically expect from a man !!)
I love and hate horror movies in equal measure.
I cannot draw to save my life ! (yes, and THAT is why I use a computer to render 3d spaces! My perspective drawing is Escher-esque in a most disturbing way!)
Being language impaired PISSES ME OFF.
I have a dirty mind. If there are two meanings to something, I will invariably get the dirty one first. :D heheheeh.
I grin and giggle when my flight takes off and lands.... I love flying !
I can eat chocolate all day.... Give me chocolate and water and I'll be a happy person. (high on sugar and obscenely obese, but happy!!)

And I tag:

Egg

An Excerpt from Desiderata

2009-10-08T20:17:00.002+05:30

Desiderata: (Latin for "desired things", plural of desideratum) is an inspirational prose poem by Max Ehrmann about attaining happiness in life....

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.......

.....And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul......

This is one piece of writing that I first came across in junior college.... it has comforted me, made me see a lot of things and meant different things to me at different times... Today, these particular paragraphs make sense to me as I try to make sense of the death of an old friend..... Of someone snatched away before her life even began...

Through everything we're all going through, the only things that came to mind when I heard that she was gone was

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence......."

And so I looked up the rest of it again to read to myself... and found meaning in it again.

Its an incredibly beautiful piece and if you haven't ever come across it, here it is for you.

I hope it gives to you all that it has given me.

Life is Short....

2009-10-08T01:28:00.008+05:30

... and never have I been made more aware of this fact as when I received a call late few nights ago saying she's in a coma. I wrote this post when I heard she was brain dead, but somehow held back on posting it because I still hoped with all my heart that some miracle would work and she'd step back from the brink. She didn't. She's gone.

Death never seems final until it strikes someone close to you. Suddenly she goes from being a person to a collection of memories. I know now that I'll never see her again, not even by accident. She's been more a good friend's friend than my own... part of the same circle, we've shared tiffins and friends.. She and my friend, they shared a name.. I think that made them closer than any one could imagine. By the time we passed out of school, they were practically one entity. We always spoken of them in the same sentence. And I spoke to my friend today and she sounded bereft... "There's only one of us now, ya.... Nobody needs to call us by our initials any more.... There's only one of us left..."

She danced her way through life.. she danced her way into our lives in the seventh grade... and though we drifted apart over the years, our paths met, crossed and parted again...She'll dance again... I know she will.. Somebody who loved the idea of love, she was to marry in a few months time... I called her crazy when her Michael Jackson obsession made her scratch his initials on her arm...laughed at her, laughed with her and shook my head sometimes when they played hooky... I remember shooting rubber bands at her in class, and her uncanny way of popping into photographs... I remember her covering for me (who could only serve really good) in a crucial volleyball match.. I remember the exaggerated "Bambaiyya" accent she used a la 'Rangeela'. Today, I'm not remembering the reason why we grew apart.

I'm aching today for my friend. For the one who's here and the one who's not here anymore. For dreams left undreamt and a life left incomplete. For the ones who have to pick up the pieces and move on. For the void she's left in the lives of those she belonged in. I'm aching for a boy left heartbroken and a family left grieving for their little girl. For people like me who're only left wondering why we never mended those cracks when they first appeared. I'm wondering whether she saw us all, all over, praying for a miracle for her, and now trying to believe the reality that we're trying to grapple with - a reality that doesn't have her in it any more.

Dear friend, be at peace where ever you are.

A Series of Unfortunate Events.

2009-09-30T10:08:00.004+05:30

I saw this on someone's blog today and remembered an article (true story, yes!) that I had written based on my flatmate's and my experiences with domestic help in the city-that-never-sleeps. It has languished in my drafts folder forever....

My mother often says that she'd like to write a book on her experiences with different maids over the years. From the one that bit my sister to the one who chased me around the house trying to break my skull with a butter-churn, to the one who had the bigamous husband (who was married to her sister, no less!!), they're all worth a lot of page space.

Having moved out with a fellow designer from the dry state and having polished off the better part of a bottle of very pricey scotch that a friend had gifted me, I was rather alarmed to see the remaining alcohol's level dip rapidly in the bottle. Does Scotch evaporate?, I wondered. I checked and rechecked that the bottle was closed tightly, but lo and behold! the next time I checked on it, the level had dipped alarmingly AGAIN!

Having come to the conclusion that flatmate had been having a night-cap to relieve work-pressure, I did not spare it a second thought, though I had assumed upto this point that she was strictly a wine drinker, while she assumed that I had been imbibing copious amounts of scotch!

It turns out that we were subjected to a rather one-of-a-kind specimen of the house help category. Let's call her Urvashi. Let it be known that Urvashi was a silent shadow upto this point, who came, did her bit and disappeared, with little conversation exchanged with either of us. And then one evening, came a phone-call that rattled us both!

It was our house-broker, who happened to be in the area while we were both at work, to register a tremendous ruckus ensuing from our humble abode. Initial suspicion that it was the TV was quickly dispelled when he, and a LOT of other people came upon Urvashi, who was not just a wee bit tipsy, but completely SMASHED!

So much so, that she could barely stand, and so was sitting there wailing her head off!

But wait, it gets better!!

Not content with the level of inebriation she was at, Urvashi had evidently intended to continue the party, because a search of her possessions revealed not one, but TWO bottles of country liquor that she presumably brought along to supplement my (now meagre!) quantity of hooch!

The little to-do involved her screeching, building people assembling, many tries to bring her to her senses (including water being flung at her through the balcony grill - we were on the ground floor), and finally ended in our broker taking away her keys, getting the woman into an auto and in both of us receiving calls from him, informing us of the exciting activities of the evening!! Since our building society mainly comprises of senior citizens, we were a little apprehensive and wondering when the eviction notice would come! But methinks, that this being SUCH an unusual situation, they figured it was really not something we could have predicted.

So now, we're looking for house help again... and this time the main question in the

interview is "Have you or any member of your family been prone to bingeing on alcohol?

If yes, then how many drinks can you take before getting completely wasted?"

Distance Education!

2009-09-29T12:24:00.004+05:30

This is actually in reverse order of posting:

So the first image is distance and places covered on Day 5.
Day 4:
Day 3:
This is Day 2.
The image below is the Day 1 of our Uttaranchal trip.

Well, the first day, we did a whopping 200 something kilometres all the way from Dehradun to a place called Pipalkoti. (thats a place that acted as base camp for 2 nights )

Needless to say, we couldnt feel our butts for a while!!

Its SNOW, no?

2009-09-29T11:23:00.002+05:30

Serenity and Calamity are back from their very eventful tour of Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Dehradun, Mussoorie and a bunch of other places in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal, even more formerly a part of Uttar Pradesh!) What Uttar Confusion, I say!

Monumental occasions on the journey:

Calamity saw snow for the first time in her life!! (Only saw - on distant mountain peaks. Snow angels will have to happen another time!)
Serenity spent 5 days with a taxi driver who spoke purest of pure Hindi. (He nodded and agreed to things he didn't completely understand!)
Calamity forgot Serenity's birthday (third year in a row - explanations to follow!)
Serenity saw the Taj Mahal (FINALLY! after being asked by many different nationalities in many different countries, and having to regretfully say he hadn't seen it himself!)
Calamity saw Fatehpur Sikri (FINALLY! after making numerous trips to Delhi, but never being able to do so!)
Serenity and Calamity got a man arrested for vandalising the Agra Fort (more to follow, but Calamity is very pleased with herself!)
We had a cup of tea at the Last Indian Tea Shop before the Tibet border!
I saw SNOW!!!! (yes, its a little hard to get over that!)
We discovered the most MAJESTIC landscape and discovered that neither of us is fit enough for high altitude treks!
Calamity rode in a ropeway (cable car?) and was severely disappointed it was not more of a roller coaster ride!
Neither of us got motion sickness or high altitude sickness (and yeah, we're damn smug about it!!)
Serenity met a lot of Calamity's friends... and finally met one who had championed his cause all along during the Great Arranged Marriage Saga!

There are lots of funny incidents that happened along the way. All in all, it was a GREAT ten days away. The funny bits will come soon... Watch this space!

This makes my blood boil....

2009-09-15T16:09:00.002+05:30

Yes, this is quite late and all that. But I just happened to see this on someone else's blog today. It is footage I hadnt seen yet and yes, it still makes my blood boil.

I spent the night of this carnage looking for minute by minute updates online,

looking for causes, but seeing only effects.

One man's holy war that orphans children and kills with no purpose.

No religion teaches hate this way, and any one who would say

"I'll call you back in an hour so I can hear you kill them"

deserves a very, very painful death.

As for the lone survivor, I dont know what he thinks he's playing at.

His crocodile tears and lame stories of being brainwashed just dont do anything for me.

I'm one who firmly believes that India's muslims are Indian first and last.

(Though I did have an interesting conversation on religious extremism with a cabbie

this time when I was in Bombay)

More than any other emotion, I felt only pride when I read the article that said that the

remaining terrorists' bodies were unclaimed because no Indian muslim kabristan wants them

buried on our soil.

I loved that other clip which showed an Indian Mullah telling Musharaf to back the hell off,

and to stop assuming that Indian muslims sympathised with his cause in any way.

This 26/11 carnage scared me beyond belief thinking of a friend's mother who runs a store

at the Taj, of a friend who had by then quit her job at the Oberoi.

Selfishly, I couldnt help feeling glad that the people I knew were okay.

But not everyone got that lucky.

Watch this clip.

It will open your eyes to levels of inhuman behaviour you never thought existed.

Holiday! Celebrate!

2009-09-15T13:11:00.002+05:30

I never EVER get tired of travelling. I think I'd happily do three trips a week between the city that never sleeps and the one that wakes up early. So its been 10 days there, and now I'm back to Serenity's company and yeah, I'm happy to be back. This trip back to the city that wakes up early reminded me of trips to the Dry State and stocking up the hooch for the semester. :) (Cue for yet another foray down Memory Lane!)

Serenity and I both appreciate our whiskey, but white wine is a habit that I seldom get to indulge here because of the beauty of a state owned liquor franchise that believes in catering to the masses, rather than the classes. On a recent trip to Pondy, I ran to a hooch shop on our way back to pick up a couple of bottles of wine, only to be told that the white wine was 450 bucks apiece. Deeply disappointed that my "sasta, sundar, tikao" brand of wine wasnt available, and deeply resentful of shelling out this much and getting only 2 bottles, I cribbed and whined. Until Serenity and I sampled our Pondy booty, and figured that the wine within was a sweet, pleasant white. Hmmm.... not bad.

Then I went to the city that doesnt sleep on work.... and one day I see this bottle on the racks. So, casually I asked how much it was, (fully prepared to gloat at how much less I'd paid for it in a Union Territory!!) only to be told it was 150 bucks per bottle! My jaw hit the floor! And the man who owned the store laughed his head off on being told I'd paid 450 bucks for the same. "Arre medem! you pay 450 for THIS??? 450 ke liye, you get nice wine, medem"

And on my way back here, I picked up the quota I forfeited in Pondy! :D heheheehehe.

Happiness is defeating the system!! :)

Khau Suey

2009-08-21T13:34:00.003+05:30

And yes, that's another long silence broken by yet another recipe. This one's for a Burmese noodle dish called Khau Suey, introduced to me by my college room mate's mum (for which i'm eternally grateful!). Its basically a D.I.Y bowl of noodles and stew, and the couple of times I've eaten it in a restaurant, I've always cribbed about paying for a dish that I put together!!

(but you see, I LOVE KHAU SUEY, so the cribbing only lasts till the first bite I take of it!)

I introduced Serenity to it (rather disastrously!) in the first few months of married life. (We didn't have such a well equipped kitchen then). All went well, until it came to the "spice" part of making the stew... Serenity, my sous chef, is one who likes adding random things to our cooking! (His favourite additive is carrots... in anything that he can put carrots, he will, and if he cant, it wouldnt be for lack of trying!!) But, I must admit, a lot of his "why dont we add a bit of soy?" and "a little bit of that thai chilli sauce would be good, no?" has worked for some of our collaborative culinary efforts. So here we are, cooking khau suey, and we wanted to add in some chilli flakes (which we didnt possess at the time!). So we throw in some dry red chillies into the chopper and lo and behold! they all fly to the top of the mixie bowl! So we keep adding chillies, to try and weigh them down so we'd have atleast some flakes and finally after adding some of it (the required amount), we discovered that we have a bit left over. Now since at this stage we had no handy containers to put it in and we figured that kashmiri chillies are all bark and no bite, we tossed the rest of the flakes in as well.... Needless to say, we passed our bowl of noodles back and forth, taking turns to pick out the chilli flakes during our (extremely burn ass!) meal!!

Here now, is a GOOD khau suey recipe. A note here, the toppings are SUPREME, and khau suey is quite pointless without these little crunchy bits!

Ingredients:

- 1/2 kg boneless chicken diced small. - 3-4 onions chopped fine

- ginger paste (1.5" piece) - garlic paste (6 - 7 cloves)

- coconut milk - turmeric powder

- chilli powder - lemongrass

- salt

Toppings:

- chopped spring onions - chopped coriander leaves

- chopped green chillies - crushed roasted peanuts

- chopped up boiled egg - fried onions

- fried garlic - fried maggi noodles

- lime wedges - soya sauce

- cooked dry shrimp

Method:

- Fry the onions till they're soft. Add in the ginger and garlic pastes and saute.

- Add the chicken, turmeric and chilli powder.

- cook till the chicken is done.

- Add equal quantity of thick coconut milk and water, add salt.

- Serve sauce poured over a bed of noodles and the toppings / garnishes of your choice.

One bowl of this and you're HOOKED!! Its filling and very very flavourful.

Healthy Tofu & Veggie Quiche (another one of my own!)

2009-05-20T18:38:00.002+05:30

So there I was again, wondering what to cook for dinner. And as is my way when I have a culinary creative block, I hit up my favourite food blog. It turns out that I had some pie-crust left over from the last time I made apple pie, so a veggie quiche was what I decided to make! The pie-crust recipe can be found here

For the calorie conscious, this crust is quite a killer (but it tastes soooooo good!!). However, for a 6" x 10" baking dish, we only used about a fist size of pie crust dough (thats all there was left!!) and we got a great thin crispy crust in the bargain! You can make the dough and freeze it till you need to use it again.
So thats the deal with the crust.

For the filling, I had french beans (about 100 gms), a couple of green peppers, 1 pkt of Tofu, onions and tomatoes. First, the onions and tomatoes are sauteed really well, you could add some chopped garlic to this if you like. Once the onion-tomato mixture is ready, crumble and add in the tofu. Tofu absorbs flavour really well, so you might want to add your seasonings at this point - salt, pepper and a tsp of thyme does it...give the tofu-onion-tomato mixture a few minutes on the gas. Beat 3 eggs (quiche lorraine calls for 5 eggs, but 3 did just fine!) with (technically!) half cup cream and half cup milk, but I halved those quantities. Add in some chives, salt and a generous shake of pepper.

Into the pre-baked crust, layer the tofu mixture (use half of what you have), add in the chopped beans and green peppers (and whatever other veggie you like!) and finish with another layer of tofu-onion-tomato. CAREFULLY (so the egg doesnt leak out of the crust), pour egg-milk-cream mixture and see that it spreads around among the filling.

If you want to add cheese on top you can (but that kind of kills the point of the tofu!!) but do so only after the quiche is almost done (or the cheese will burn).

Preheat your oven to about 200 degrees C and bake till a knife comes out clean. The egg mixture should set and thats what you need to look for.

I served this with a raw cabbage, carrot and corn salad tossed in vinaigrette.
Easy peasy and healthy :)

((My Own!!)) Sweet n Spicy Crispy Chicken!

2009-05-12T18:05:00.004+05:30

Aah... see, now THIS is not for the calorie conscious! Serenity (that would be my Significant Other) is having some friends over tonight.... As of this morning, we were ordering in, but then came afternoon and boredom, so I decided to do something fun! So here is my very own Sweet n Spicy Crispy chicken... and yup, its finger lickin good! :D
How to make? easy peasy!

Ingredients for the Marinade: 2 egg whites
4 tbsp soy sauce
garlic (as much as you like!!)
salt & pepper
flour
2 tbsp vinegar (optional)
Ingredients for the Sauce: 5 tbsp Tomato sauce (I used Hot ' n' Sweet n it worked great!)
2 tbsp Soy sauce
salt to taste
1 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Cornflour
Other Ingredients: (I used) 1 kg chicken with bone (but you can use boneless!)
Spring onions
1 large onion
1 green pepper (or other assorted veggies!)
Oil
Method:
1. Stir the marinade ingredients together and use a vessel with a lid to toss the chicken with it. See that the meat is coated with the marinade
2. Let it sit for atleast 20 minutes to absorb the flavour of the garlic and soy.
3. CAREFULLY (yes, much emphasis on that word) heat the oil in a wok and shallow fry the chicken in batches so they're evenly brown. Reduce the flame if necessary and see that the chicken is cooked through. Keep aside the fried chicken.
4. Mix the sauce ingredients together and keep aside.
5. Saute the onions, spring onions (again, you can add some garlic cut fine here!) and when the onions are brown and tender, add the other veggies and stir fry briskly. (remember that some veggies take longer to cook).
6. Add the chicken back and toss with the onions and veggies (or not!)
7. Pour the sauce over the mixture and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Note:
1. More water can be added to make this a curry to be eaten with rice. (I made mine semi-dry)
2. If you like your chicken crispy, then DO NOT pour the sauce over until ready to serve. Cook the sauce separately and reserve till serving time.
3. This sauce worked really well for me, I think it'll be great over chicken wings **I LOVE CHICKEN WINGS!!**

My Comfort Zone...

2009-03-24T14:37:00.002+05:30

I spoke to my comfort zone today, and I've come away feeling (as always!), like she's THE most amazing person in the world. She is a bundle of goodwill, she is... I kid you not and I've never met anyone who's not TOTALLY adored her when they met her. That includes Serenity, who probably digs her about as much as I do.... nah, not possible, I dig her THE most! Actually, I have quite a few of these comfort zone people scattered around the world, and I'm incredibly lucky to be their friend and to call them mine. ... and right now, I miss them SO much.

At a time when I was feeling like the bottom of the ocean, a conversation with her has made me feel like there are a zillion things I could do to make myself feel better. (and no, NONE of those ways has ANYTHING to do with a bottle of wine!)

This girl, has been my refuge in the city-that-never-sleeps, her home has been my home when I've needed a place to run to or a place to crash. She never ceases to amaze me with her optimism and her willingness to give EVERYONE (and I REALLY mean, EVERYONE) the benefit of the doubt. Someday, I hope to be even half the person she is, because I truly, TRULY think she rocks! I've never met another design professional who's half as socially conscious as this girl and she makes me very VERY proud to be her friend.

Here's to a "Towel" (you wont get the pun on her name, so dont try!) who makes my world a brighter place just by being in it. Thankyou, you brightened my day. I miss you.

Squill Babies!

2009-03-17T09:58:00.003+05:30

For the longest time, I've wanted a pet. Not with any misplaced maternal instincts, but just because I've never had one. Oh there have been numerous adopted cats along the way, Possi-billi, Poosa (because he was a pussa cat, not a pussy cat!) and a litter called Billi Idol, Billi Holiday and Billi Jalani.

My mum's been anti-pet (I dont blame her, a third floor apartment isnt really the best place to accommodate animals!) and so I spent my childhood feeding stray cats. One notable mention:

When I was in kindergarten (and just after a serious academic accomplishment), someone gave me a couple of Quality Street chocolates. Now these are those famous "Gulf" chocolates with different coloured cellophane wrappers for the different flavours. As a child, it was fascinating to hold these up to the light and see the world turn a different hue. (I think thats where I got my rose tinted vision from!!) So anyway, I was fooling around with these, and I thawt I thaw a puthy kat... HE was just sitting there and chilling. Was I to know that this was a particularly mean tempered tomcat? No way. I was just keen to have my animal friend experience the wonder of coloured vision. So I placed the cellophane over its eyes. Suffice to say, the cat didnt take too kindly to having the light taken out of his bright sunshiny world. (are cats colourblind?) And all I had to show for my troubles were a set of bleeding tracks which the cat (ungrateful b@#$&!d!) gave me for my pains. My mother was confronted by a howling child with bleeding furrows in her forearm. She didnt know whether to laugh or be concerned about the reason for my battle scars!! ....sighhhh....

Anyway, apart from the background information, I have Squill babies!! (thats squirrel, you unimaginative goof!) I dont know how many there are yet. Serenity has forbidden me from poking the nest though I'm DYING of curiosity. I've always wanted a squirrel for a pet (meaning for as long as they'll stay. I like them better jumping on the trees - yeah, I LOVE squirrels.) This liking came about since Squishy. (Cue for another tangential deviation down memory lane)......

One (daft) woman in hostel (many moons ago) found a baby squirrel that had dropped out of his nest. Obviously the little critter was oohed and aahed over by the inmates of the hostel. (Women, remember? love little furry cuddly things)...so anyway, this guy was soooo little that you held him in a fist with his head poking out of the top... and as he was passed around among coos, one (slightly deranged but good intentioned) woman said "oooh I could just SQUISH him!!"..... and the name stuck. Unfortunate nomenclature - as you will soon see.

The original owner and her roommate grew really attached to the little guy and he had his own lil shoebox residence that they toted with them to the studios, mess and canteen... (they have to be fed really often through the day).... they also slept with the shoebox between them on the double bed and the (hitherto) unathletic little guy one night got out of the box between two slumbering humans.

The End. Fin. Finis. Khatam. Squishy got squished.

Months!!

2009-03-06T19:29:00.004+05:30

Q: What is a classic example of procrastination?

A: This post!.... Considering I began writing it on Friday evening and today is Wednesday morning... hmmmm... and so this would be what I wrote on Friday.....

OMG! Its been MONTHS since I spewed on this.... no be my fault,peebles, no be my fault.

Imagine if you attended TEN weddings over the span of 2 months!! And that's 10 weddings spread over the whole of South India, I kid you not!Okay so since November, I've been to:

Coorg

Kerala

(Then the husband came back from espana...)

Madras

Kerala

Madras

Bangalore

Kerala

....and yes, ALL weddings !

blah blah blah.... like you would be interested in my social life! (who am I kidding?!!!)

Whatever you give a woman, she will give you back in greater measure.
If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. (Don't get funny ideas)
So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of the same.

Somebody sent that to me.... actually, my English teacher from school did.

Okay enough randomness... the work scene is finally looking up, one is oh-so-happy about that!

There's enough work coming in to keep me busy, and leaves time for whatever else I might want to do... started a painting a few days ago, continued it today... F#$@ed it up BAD - also today....

baked (also today).... now off to meet people....

wooohooo! the weekend is here!

Long Live the Weekend!!

Yeah, my least favourite day of the week:

1) Sunday Night

2) Monday Morning

Sunday Night because you suddenly hear the whooooosh! as the weekend flies past... and yes, you have accomplished little of what you could have or should have....if you're away someplace on a weekend trip, this is the time that you head back and the

and Monday Morning because you can see the whole week just streeeetching ahead of you.. and Friday seems soooo far away!

(not so far now that we're mid week!! yippeee! the weekend approaches!)

I actually live for weekends, its the only time Serenity and I get together during the week and better part of Saturday is reserved for errands we need to run, groceries we need to buy, (i cant believe how domesticated this wild child has become!) people we need to meet, the weekly visit to the family... and then whatever plans might happen along the way. I missed a play last weekend that I feel quite bad about... looked forward to watching the Madras Players (I've heard they're damn good) but that plan never materialized.... wonder what to do this weekend... aah yes, a visit to the insurance office would be a great idea (more examples of my procrastination!!)

And now, we shall continue this some other time! (Grin!)

Serenity and Calamity.....

2008-11-17T11:59:00.003+05:30

So then my Significant Other came up with this title (very original - surprisingly!!) one that pretty much describes the two of us and our states of mind very aptly! As I have mentioned before, the man is Serenity personified and I am a walking, talking disaster on legs!

In fact, I think I'm going to mention a few notable people of my life in the city-that-wakes-up-early.... and I hereby christen the Significant Other "Serenity".... (which is what he shall be referred to in future posts).

Blog # 2 has been quiet (re: audience feedback) because I'd kept this one under my hat... but I've decided to come out (grin!) and name some peeble that I know in the blogosphere. One of them is a blogger celebrity - Egg (I'm really hot on privacy, so I shall not name many-who-shall-not-be-named!) and he's on here and yup, I'm super proud to be his friend! The other one is Baby Bump, who I like a lot and her husband Tummy who are frequent dinner companions. Tummy, Egg, Serenity and me (Calamity!!) have lots of balcony conversations that are usually elaborate leg-pulling enterprises!

and thus the week begins.....

Three Weddings and a blog funeral....

2008-11-06T14:15:00.003+05:30

Aah so yes, I'm in the city that never sleeps and I came here for three weddings ... and now a blog funeral... some written words have been erased from this page in an effort to keep this the way its meant to be, the way it was intended ... and not some sorry piece of outpouring that could have just as well been an email....
Therefore, this here, is a phoenix rising... goodday sunshine....
And coming back to the three weddings, yeah.... one down, two to go... AND ON THE SAME DAY!....sighhhh.... the thought of shuttling between 2 venues (thankfully close by) is tiring... but i've decided to divide my time (and me - literally.... mehndi on one hand at friend one's place and mehndi on the other at friend two's place!!!) between the two venues.
And then its away from the city that never sleeps to the city that wakes up early!!

Breathe.... breathe in the air.....

2008-11-05T11:46:00.003+05:30

*siiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhh*
so a long holiday has almost drawn to a close.... and as usual, one has NO clue where these last few weeks have gone! Its just sped by in a flurry of activity, meeting friends, dealing with some red tape and in general enjoying the feeling of being pampered, sleeping late.... being a brat! Its crazy, but this city moves on a rhythm that's so uniquely its own.... everywhere else I have lived, the slowed down pace has only amazed me more about how much more we cram into one day in the city that never sleeps! Some days it seems like the day is over before its even begun! (ahem, maybe that has to do with the fact that on some days I get up at noon!!!)

But yeah, after so many weeks of frenetic activity, it'll be nice to go back.... its been strange not having the significant other around - this is the longest we've ever been away... My very hectic life these past few weeks led him to ask me "Do you miss me only when you're alone?" n the only way I could explain was to say "Maybe I do so many things at a time to keep from thinking how much I miss you"....n I did.... n I do.....

The significant other and I have had numerous ups and downs since we walked into each other's lives...and we have a thread on gmail, that goes back to the very first email he ever wrote me and traces the way our relationship wrote its story... mush, gush and angry flush - its got all the makings of a potboiler!! Last night, I was re-reading some of the old communication, and it struck me that taken chronologically, our communication would make good reading! If it were possible to never EVER reveal identities, I'm sure my devilish mind would do it too... :) but my boy, he's a shy one... :) complete antipode of the dangerous mind.... his mind is as serene as it gets.... no idiot schemes brew in this one. And for his sake, and because I love him, you'll just have to do without! :D

Here's to a quiet thoughtful boy with a big rucksack and a big nose... :) your wife loves you.

books.....

2008-11-05T11:31:00.003+05:30

The books (novels) in blue I have read. You are supposed to italicise books that are on your reading list. I am not sure if at the end I'm going to be ashamed about my reading list!! Many of these are classics. Try this one out for yourselves too!

P.S I don't know who came up with the list and on what basis.... I would take out some and add a few more!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (books 1,2 &3.. finis!)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (not fully, yes i know im bad)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (in progress!!)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton (another favorite!)
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (one of my favourites!)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Rant, rant. RANT!

2008-09-25T17:48:00.004+05:30

what am i to do? this is not going to get easier on either of us this way....

i've moved here, and yeah, i dont like it much....would you blame me?

if you were in a place where you had no friends (well, there are 3 i think of, but thats it)

you dont speak the language (and people stare blankly at you and you stare blankly at them)

and yeah, you dont have a job..... hmmm.... would that drive you nuts, i wonder?

and well you might say go out and meet people, learn the language, and its not like you dont work...

dont expect me to fall in love with this city overnight.... i come from a place where autowalas are good people who go by the meter, where they dont tell you to take a hike if the distance is too short..... where the minimum fare is NINE rupees, not twenty... and where they return that ONE rupee to you instead of saying "no change"...

its funny that you'd expect me to find wings in a place where i cant find wheels...

its funny that even GUYS who've been here all their lives blog about how difficult autos are in this part of the country..... so i lock myself up here.... maybe thats because i feel safe here..... bored, definitely, but safe.

Cogito Ergo Sum.... I think, therefore I am...

2008-09-08T16:44:00.004+05:30

I am: outspoken to a fault!... also easy to get along with...also mad as a hatter!!
I think: too much for my own good... overanalysis will be the death of me...
I know: that this too shall pass.... that what goes around comes around... and that a kind word or act will always find its way back to you if you bother to expend it on someone else...
I want: lots of books, lots of travel and enough money to help me do that!
I have: finally found the man i want to be with for ever.
I wish: fights didnt have to happen
I hate: cockroaches top the list.... spongers come a close second... bitches and pseuds tie for third place....
I miss: my friends in Bombay and Ahmedabad and all the ones scattered over the world..i miss being 6 years old....
I fear: that i will lose my vision.... that i will have no ideas left one day....
I feel: very strongly about certain things and im not afraid of saying so...
I hear: very little when im on a bike.... its a constant source of irritation to my husband that im a space puppy pillion rider!!
I smell: the first rain... good most of the time!! (hehehhe!)
I crave: all things illegal, immoral and calorific! :D
I search: for important things that i have put away and cant remember where i've put them!
I wonder: if i will be mourned if i died tomorrow
I regret: some of the biggest harshest decisions i have had to take...
I love: my husband to bits, my friends to the ends of the earth, my family... the colour blue....
I ache: when i feel like im being judged... when someone misunderstands me..
I am not: as tough as i make out to be...
I dance: with great abandon.... :) i dance like im all alone and the music is mine...
I sing: loudly and lustily to some really silly songs...
I cry: when im sad or so angry that i cant say anything anymore...
I don't always: answer my phone. (i have that in common with the person whose blog i took these questions off!!)
I fight: with as much passion as i do anything else... life is no fun with no argument!
I write: better than i speak, sometimes.... long letters to people i love....
I win: when i complete something to my satisfaction
I lose: my temper ... faaar too easily sometimes....
I never: want to deal with loss of any kind.... yes, i am an ostrich in that respect...
I always: dream of utopian situations....worst case scenarios get me down...
I confuse: days, dates and times... i live on a different time zone :)
I listen: to my loved one's heartbeat every night before i sleep.
I can usually be found: sitting in front of my computer, cooking up a storm or laughing like an idiot!
I need: to know that im loved and will always be loved, no matter what.
I am happy about: the way my life has changed for the better, to my satisfaction.
I imagine: being successful and happy..and more than anything else, being at peace with myself.

mixed feelings.....

2008-08-09T17:45:00.001+05:30

Solo trip to somewhere.... i'm thrilled to bits, but very anxious too....
i somehow have a feeling all is not well, and hasnt been for a while....
feels like it'll get worse....
anxious me....
help.

why??? ... why not??

2008-08-04T11:41:00.000+05:30

so this would be my second blog ever....
and its kind of like starting over...
...."and besides that was in another country, and now the bitch is dead....."
(sorry Marlowe.....)
and actually, not a different country, just a different time.....
and the bitch is not really dead..... DAMN! :)
so yes, this is my second attempt to be verbal diarrhoea in print...
(so far, i'm succeeding admirably, methinks!)....
once upon a time design student, now just another wasted talent (!)....
i moved, and this is my new life... this is second life minus the surrealism...
welcome, to the machine!