Pop The Corn

What is the main reason which can drag you to a movie theatre. Ofcourse the movie.. but apart from that… Come on.. think about it.. Well let me just bring it out.

A large tub of salted popcorn, with butter as a topping. You spend the entire movie munching on one popcorn at a time. Well, this used to be my condition to go to movie while we were in US. Even if it happened to be the most boring movie, and if G wanted to watch it, I wouldn’t mind, as long as I get my individual tube of butter loaded popcorn.

Once we came back to India, the extra butter wasn’t there, but if the popcorn was fresh, it was still worth it. We used to get 2 large popcorns for both of us and enjoy at our pace. Now, we get 1 tub of popcorn for both of us together. Now, I am totally okay with this arrangement. Only problem is the way both of us eat our popcorns. I take 1 in my hand, and bite into half and relish each and every piece, while takes a fistful in his hand and shoves all of it in his mouth. So while I have just finished a fistful of popcorn, G has already emptied half of the tub, which leaves me furious. How can he just eat all of my popcorn. Alright our popcorn. I give him the ultimatum everytime that this is the last time I would be sharing the tub with him and he has to get his own popcorn from next time. He plainly refuses, saying whats the fun in that. And when I insist, he says, alright I will not eat from your tub.

The next time we went, I reminded him that I will not share my popcorn with him. He agreed, got me a popcorn tub and as soon as we sat on our seats, and I dug into the popcorn tub, I see a fistful of popcorn in G’s hand going out from my tub.

“My popcorn”, I said and pulled the tub away from him.

“Just once”, and he grinned.
“Whatever”, I rolled my eyes.
                                                                                               
After a while he dint touch my popcorn, but I couldn’t concentrate on the movie or the popcorn, and ended up sharing my tub of popcorn with G, coming back to square1. Even though I had lesser popcorn, even though I had to share, I was more content and happy with the movie experience.

This doesn’t mean, I don’t create this scene in the theatre when we go for movies now. I still claim for my individual popcorn everytime, and end up sharing my popcorn with him. Sigh!!! Now that I have got used to it, I probably cannot eat a tubful of popcorn alone, and need G to empty the tub. Oh!! Such complicated issues of life!!!

Rice Payasam

Rice Kheer or the Rice Payasam – I hate it, there I said it. I really really hate it.

Payasam or kheer, is as such my least favorite sweet dish. I prefer the barfis, the gulab jamuns, the rasgullas, basically something which can linger in my mouth for a few seconds, and I can squeeze out all the taste in my mouth, before I gulp it in. With Payasam or kheer its just sweetened milk, with something additional in it, either rice or dal or semia or sabudana or rava or even broken wheat. So the moment it goes in your mouth, its gone thru the food pipe. What the fun in that?

I remember, it was always a torture during festivals, when I had refuse these payasams. Mom would give some reason for me drink, and when you visit relatives, they would tell you hundred other things on why you should have this tasty drink. One of my aunt’s even used this wonderful trick. “If you don’t drink this, then it means you don’t love your mother” (Bah!!!!) as if I would listen to that.. I would just tell everyone, I don’t care if you think I don’t love mom, but I do, and I don’t have to prove it by drinking this. Slowly people stopped forcing me to drink it.

Even today, I do make the payasam or kheer on festivals, but I hardly taste a spoonful, just for the sake of it. I don’t mind sevai Kheer to some extent, if its thick enough, like made from milk maid, or if its in the rabri consistency, and I alos don’t mind chilled channa daal kheer, again that’s coz it tastes like icecream to me. I cannot tolerate the khus khus payasam and most of all, I don’t like the famous “Rice payasam”. And I am totally aghast or give a weird experession, when somebody declares. I love Rice Kheer!!!!