Nangu Beda.. Nimgu Beda!!

I was a kid when I heard this for the first time. Mom was saying this to some shopkeeper. “ನಂಗೂ ಬೇಡ ನಿಂಗೂ ಬೇಡ Rs.45 ಮಾಡ್‌ಕೊಳ್ಲಿ”. (not for me, not for u, lets make it 45) And this was when mom quoted 40 and the shopkeeper quoted 50. It used to be fun going shopping with mom, esp to see her bargaining. As years went by, this just rubbed on to me. Ofcourse, I am yet to master this, and a couple of years in US has surely reduced it. But yes, I cannot just leave it.

Some of the conversations which mom has had.

Location: Saree shop, Malleshwaram

Mom : ನಾವು ಮಕ್ಕಳಿದಾಗ್ಲಿಂದು ನಿಮ್ಮ ಅಂಗಡಿಗೆ ಬರ್‍ತಾದ್ದಿದ್ದು. (we have come to your shop from the time we were children)

SK (shopkeeper) : ಅದು ಸರಿ Madam. ಆದರೆ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಆಗೋಲ್ಲ. (that’s right madam but not its not possible)

Mom: ಏನ್ರೀ ನಿಮ್ಮ ತಂದೆ ಇದ್ದಿದ್ರೆ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡ್ಕೋಟಿದ್ರು (if your father was here, he would have surely done it)

SK: ಅವರು ಮಾಡ್ಕೋಟಿದ್ರು Madam. ಆದ್ರೆ ಈಗ ಆಗೋಲ್ಲ. (He would have done it Madam, but now its not possible)

Finally, after 5-10 mins of bargaining, she would actually get the stuff for the price she wanted.

My granny is no less.

Everytime she goes to a saree shop, she says this – ಏನಪ್ಪಾ , ಇಷ್ಟೊಂದು ಸೀರೆ ತೊಗೊಂಡಿದ್ದೀವಿ, ಒಂದು ಬ್ಲೌಸ್ ಪೀಸ್ ಫ್ರೀಯಾಗಿ ಕೊಡಬಾರದ (we have taken so many sarees, can’t you give a blouse piece free)

Or sometimes she says - ವಯ್ಯಸದ ಅಜ್ಜಿ ಬಂದಿದ್ದೀನಿ, ಇಷ್ಟು ಬೆಲೆ ಹೆಳೊದ (old granny is here, you are quoting so much)

It was always fun to go either of them. Best part about it was they would never be rude to the shopkeepers, my granny would even know how many kids that man had by the time she came out of the shop.

And next time either of them visited, they would be welcomed and many a times offered some cool drinks too. Ofcourse as a kid, these were my perks for going along.

Best till date is when mom and bro came to visit me when I was in Hyderabad.

We were in Charminar, it was my wedding time, so mom wanted to do some shopping.

We went to a shop where they sell, beautiful laces, some shiny threads etc. After, selecting mom started her bargaining.

Mom: क्या भय्या इतना बोल रहे हो, तोड़ा कम कीजिए ना (You are asking for this price, reduce this)

SK : नही मेडम जी इससे कम नही होगा. (no madam, cant reduce further)

Mom: अर्रे भय्या मैं Bangalore से आई हून, अगली बार घर में शादी होगी तो आपके दुकान में ही आना है ना? (I have come all the way from Bangalore, next time when there is a wedding, we will come to your shop only right)

SK :ज़रूर आईएगा आपही की दुकान है. लेकिन आप Bangalore से Hyderabad क्यों आओगे (ofcourse, please come. But why will you come from Bangalore to Hyderabad

Mom: मैं तो यहीं पे पैदा हुई थी ( I was born here!!)

Bro and Me: (stunned looks with the expression – what?)

After we came out of the shop, we told mom – all these years we thought you were born in Bangalore:)

Life !!

Its Gen-X era now.

We seem to have broken ourselves from a lot of superstitions. But there are some which we are still holding on to.

Incident which happened recently:

A family is searching for a suitable groom. An alliance comes through some matrimonial agencies. The mother of the groom calls the girl’s parents. Both the moms speak to each other on phone. The prospective groom’s father is no more. After the basic horoscope matching, the guy and his family decide to come home, except his mom. The reason why his mom wouldn’t come is coz she is a widow and since it’s an auspicious occasion, she wouldn’t go and visit the girl, the first time.

Why are we still having such beliefs that a widow would be a bad omen?

Isn’t she the guy’s mom, without her, he wouldn’t even be existing, how can he consider her inauspicious?

Why dint the girls’ parents insist that it’s ok, and that she could come over too?

I know if I ask these questions to MIL or even mom, they are gonna say, You’ve become modern? I am pretty sure, they wouldnt know the reasons either

An old lady, if her husband is alive, is given utmost importance in any ritual as she is Sumangalee (Suhagan in hindi – not a widow). But if another lady of the same age or even elder is a widow, is considered inauspicious.

So a lady’s worth is decided by the existence of her husband?

What kind of a society is this? I am not being feminist here. But, I have a question.

In case the guy’s father was a widower. Would he also get the same treatment? Would he also be barred from certain rituals or gatherings? If they do so, I am not aware of. If it’s done, it is definitely wrong.

Most of this is done by the women themselves.

And to think of Sati system was eradicated, to give the women life after husband’s death, What a Life!!!

Ugly mark for our beautiful future!!!

It was in 2008, when I first got the opportunity to vote. I was not very sure whom to vote for. I thought I will be wasting my vote if I randomly went and voted for somebody. Mom and dad went and cast their vote. It was nearly 4.45PM that day when I made up my mind, ofcourse mom dad helped me, and then we zoomed in the Honda active… We went there and dad easily spotted my name in the list, and that was when I cast MY VOTE for the first time.

The ugly blue mark on the index finger, gave me the sense of pride of being an Indian citizen. If not anything else, I atleast now had the right to complain against bad roads in our area, if the chosen ones didn’t do their work.

Last year, I was in Bengalooru, during the election time. There was an event organized in company too for this. It was a good experience to see 4 politicians on one stage, putting across their thoughts. Well that time again, I did vote and get the ugly blue mark on my index finger. I flaunted it with pride, esp. in front of those who did not vote, only to show them, they did not exercise their right.

Ofcourse, there were 2 people in my family who wanted to vote, but their name was not in the list, for no fault of theirs. My Father-in-Law, had gone to the office to make sure all our names were there, and all our names except his name was in the list. Same thing happened with my brother. He was so disappointed, that would have been the first time for him.

This year again on 28^th March, we had the BBMP elections. We went this time again to vote. There wasn’t any queue, there were hardly 3-4 people. We thought, since we went post lunch, people must have come early, only to realize this morning, only 46% of Bengalooru did the voting.

To all those who took some time off your relaxing Sunday, Kudos to You for doing a great job.

To all those who had all the time and still thought it’s a waste of time to go and vote – Well next time you complain, think of that as a waste of time too. If you were not sure of whom to vote, or if you thought nobody is eligible to be elected, you could still have chosen the option of not voting anybody. By not voting, you wasted one of the rights, where you could choose someone to better your society. The society in which you live.

On a different note, the ugly blue mark this time is on the right index finger. It’s really ugly this time, is spread all over the nail L Well, I went home and applied some nail polish on the nails, it doesn’t look that ugly, except on the skin.

It’s that ugly mark for our beautiful future!!!

Siblings!!

A few days back, I saw a girl today crossing the road along with her younger brother. This just reminded me of school days, when my bro started going to school.

We were in Chennai when he started his LKG. I was in 6th. Our school was just 10mins walk from our house. I insisted that I was a big girl and dint need any of my parents to drop me to school. Our morning timings were the same, and in the afternoon mom would come to pick him up.

My routine was always like this:

Mom would pack lunch for us, I would carry both the lunch bags. As we entered the school, my classroom would come on the way, so I would keep my stuff and then continue to go to my brother’s classroom, keep his lunch bag in his room and say bye to him.

Then during lunch time, after my lunch, I would go to my brother’s classroom just to check if he has eaten. There were times when my brother would wait to see me come near his classroom. He would tell all his friends, his “akka” has come to see him.

As we grew older, different timings, different locations, dint allow us this luxury. But yes, even today we check on each other almost daily. Ofcourse, these days it’s not just about lunch.

Sasural Genda phool

Conversation with a friend:

Friend: so how are things at sasural (in laws)

Me: sasural is fine

Friend: in laws ke saath hi reh rahe ho na

Me: haan. ab unko itni acchi bahu mili hai.. unka to jeevan dhanya hogaya

friend:hahahaha

Friend: yeh unhone bola ya khud hi decide kar liya ???

Me: woh to speechless hogaye hain na..

Me: to kaise bolenge

Friend: hahaha

who says beggars cant be choosers

On Sunday, we went to Najungoodu. Since, it was the weekend just after Shivrarathri, there were lot of people. We dint opt for the special darshan (charged Rs.100). There was also another ticket for Rs.25 and then there was a free darshan. We first wanted to try the free darshan. I would say we were lucky that our darshan was over in 15-20 mins. After the temple, we came to the place where we had left our footwear. After paying him, my husband still had 2-3 rupees left in his hand. We saw lot of beggars, one of them was handicap, so my husband gave him the money.

I was busy putting on my sneakers, so dint pay attention to what he was doing. There came a old lady, who was begging for a long time, she asked my husband for money and he refused. All of a sudden, she turned towards me and started accusing me.

Lady beggar : Ninge yaakamma hotte kicchu aa yappa nange duddu kotre (why are you jealous if this man gives me money)

I was shocked and lifted my head to see why she was telling me this. My husband was equally shocked. He asked me if I said anything to her. I had no idea of what was going on. She was about to move murmuring something else and I still had no idea why I was accused, and why I would be jealous of her. I couldn’t control my anger at this point and said “God has given you hands and limbs. Why don’t you do some hard work and earn something, rather than begging”

My husband then consoled me and asked me to ignore what she said and not to react on such petty things.

But, my argument was I never said anything to that lady, only after she accused me of this, did I say anything to her. Moreover, I told her a fact. Did I do something wrong?

Names Names!!!

Couple of days back, I was browsing channels and found the movie “Yes Boss” in one of the movie channels. Since there wasn’t anything interesting elsewhere, I continued watching this. My father in law was also there, and he heard the name Rahul. The conversation went like this:

FIL : There are so many people named Rahul
Me : Yup
FIL : This is not fair to Ketu
Me : (Confused) huh??
FIL : see Rahul = Rahu + L
Me : ooooooohhhhhhhh
FIL : But there is nobody named Ketul = Ketu + L
Me : hmm..
FIL : That’s unfair to Ketu
Me : Well, there is the name Ketan, little bit modified but the nearest
FIL : But it doesn’t beat Rahul
Me : Yes Boss

Reasons Reasons

I have read so many posts where we crib about our company. Even though some feel we don’t have the expected monetary benefits. I still have a list of reasons why I wouldn’t crib about it

1. Joy on my parents’ face when I got the job.

2. Liberty to get them any gift, which I have always wanted them to have.

3. I found the love of my life here.

4. Roommates/training mates became friends for life

5. Superb onsite trips.

6. Amazing friends made at onsite, it was because of them that homesickness was not a routine. Infact, when I came home for a vacation, I missed them so much that I wanted to go back.

7. Learnt to be independent. Earlier, I wouldn’t even go and buy a chocolate on my own (unless for gifts), had never paid bills of any sort.

8. Financial independence.

9. Bought my first mobile phone.

There might be lots more, and I agree that any first company which we join gives us joy. The fact that in my case it happens to my company, just gives the company that vantage point that I would be ever grateful.

Namma Bengalooru

Bangalore, or Bengalooru as it’s called now, was always one of the best climatic places in India. It was not too hot, not too cold. We never felt the need of an AC, fans were more than enough.

For the past few years, due to increase in traffic and population, there has been a change, we have started to have hotter days. And when, we started complaining that Bangalore’s climate is changing from pleasant to hot, the weather just surprises us by a chilling morning.

Friday morning was one such day, when even at 8.30 AM, the Hosur Expressway was so foggy and it was so cold. It just felt like B’lore was just getting back to the it’s groove. Well, once in a while such nice mornings just bring back the faith in you, that namma Bengalooru is still the place to be.

To hide or not to hide

There was a discussion on who is the best actor oops!! I meant who is the super star of the country.

One of them wrote “He is transparent in all his activities, people know that he Smokes, drinks.” He refers to the actor and I don’t wan’t to mention the name, since my post is not about the actor.

I just cracked up looking at this. From when did Smoking and drinking become an offensive activity which needs to be hidden?

I don’t smoke or drink, but I remember when I first started working, attended a project party (not company sponsored), this was some birthday party I think. When my team mates ordered drinks and cigarettes, I was quite shocked. Call me naïve, but I had never been to a restaurant which had both veg-nonveg, no bar attached. This was probably my first cultural shock.

As days passed by, these never bothered me, ofcourse I don’t like people smoking in front of me, so I request them and they oblidge. When I went onsite, when any of my teammates ordered for any of the alcoholic drinks, I used to promptly ask for an extra empty glass, and pour my glass of coke into it and cheers with them. My teammate always said “Arre yaar, humesha alcohol ka apmaan karti hai… uss glass mein coke kyon peeti ho”. What can I do if people give these drinks in nice glasses and give coke in a ordinary glass. Anyway, that was not the point.

I completely agree that smoking and drinking are injurious to health, well lot of things are like eating junk food etc etc, but are these something to be hidden. I know, lot of people who smoke or drink hide it from their parents, but lets says the family knows about it. It’s not something you would hide from the general public.

So does hiding or making it public, make any difference to anybody, except for your own health?

Locked Up

New year has just passed by, and I remember the 1st new year party after joining the company.

We were in Mysore, and that was my first new year away from family. We had decided to have a girls night out. We borrowed speakers from friends, got some cake and chips and sodas.

We stayed in a 2BHK, with attached Bathrooms. It was around 10.30 PM, my friend/roomie went to restroom, and since I had to change, I locked the bathroom door from outside, changed and came out of the room. After 10 mins, we were wondering why my friend hadn’t returned. And, I look at my phone, it’s the same friend calling. “why was she calling me, when we are in the same house” was my first thought. I picked up the call and she was yelling “Open the door”. I rushed and opened the bathroom door. After this, all of us were laughing non-stop for 10-15 mins.

We kept teasing her, why she had to take her cellphone in the bathroom. So she said, that saved her, else we would have celebrated new year by locking her up.

Phir Mile Sur

“Mile sur mera tumhara” – This is one song which most of us would have heard while growing up.

Yesterday, on republic day, Zoom TV in collaboration with Times Group aired the “Phir Mile Sur”. I was excited to see the new one. I couldn’t help but compare it to the old one. The video starts off with AR Rahman with a orange Keyboard (instrument) and green Kurta (the flag is suppose), and then the obvious Big B came up with “mile sur” in his voice. He sings one line and then makes it a prose. There was a mixture of musicians and bollywood personalities. In between, a few states were showcased. The song is too long, so I can’t mention every person in the song.

On the whole, this is my review:

Good points:

Good locales, scenic places
Girl education, women employment, showing the children with hearing and talking disabilities were shown
Other sports (esp. no cricket) were given importance. One of my friends said, atleast somebody ignored cricketers.

Not so good points:

Very long
Seemed like bollywood song or a film fraternity song
Overacting by some actors (SRK, Ash)
Voice didn’t match for many of them

Even if I don’t compare with the old one, I don’t see any national integration message here.

The old one made us feel that “Mile sur mera tumhara to sur bane humara” but this one has got too many surs, that the humara feel just doesn’t come.

It’s a nice effort, may be not be very good though.

Flower show

Saturday we had been to the LalBagh Flower show. This was my first time ever. I would say it was worth the visit...

Let the pics do the tallking














There are some more...but may be some other time :)

Alone Alone!!

Alisha, could sleep anytime of the day, the moment her head touched the pillow. One day, her parents had to bring groceries, so they left her at home to watch TV, while they came back in half an hour. They wanted to lock the door from outside, but Alisha insisted that she will take care and lock the door from inside.

Alisha was enjoying the TV show, but slept off in between. Her parents came back home after half an hour and were knocking the door, rang the calling bell, called out for Alisha. But she slept like a kumbhakaran. No noise could even bring a change in her face or sleep. Finally they found a long stick outside, and tried to poke her from the window. Luckily, she woke up and opened the door for her parents. No guesses on how much scoldings she got. It took a long time for her parents to leave the house on her responsibility again.

Hide and Seek

“Hide and Seek”.. Wait!!! I am not talking about the yummy choc chip biscuits, I am talking about the game.



Hide and Seek used to be one of the must play games, esp. during summer vacations when all the cousins would come together and we could hide anywhere in the house. All the cupboards, under the tables, under the cots, bushes would be occupied.

I heard this song in the morning, “Kanna muche kaade goode”. I realized all of a sudden, we used to play hide and seek saying this too..

There were times when we would gang up against the youngest cousin or the innocent (read silent and the usual bakra), and make him/her the seeker. As soon as we knew the bakra is going near one person, rest of them would make sounds. We would add in new rules and change a few existing ones. We were a little cruel that way. Unless, we made one person cry out of frustration, there was no satisfaction.

We used to play this with neighborhood kids too. There was a lot of favoritism when this happened. Irrespective of who was out, the main of the game wasn’t hiding and seeking, it was to trouble the seeker :

Probably, we still play the game these days. In office we keep hiding from the seekers… if you know what I mean ;)

Movie Marathon

I know calling it a movie marathon is an understatement. But, considering the situation of obtaining tickets here in B’lore, I would surely term watching 2 movies in theatres on weekend as a marathon.

Yes, I watched the hyped Avatar (3D) and 3 Idiots.

Do they live up to the hype? I would say, pretty much yes.

Avatar:

If only I could watch Avatar in IMAX, it would have done complete justice to the movie. It was a simple story, told in the most magical way. The story was similar to any bollywood movie (mind u just the story). The whole new world was created. As everybody else said, it was a visual treat. The animals, the plants, the way the Navi’s connected to each other was just out of the world. When they prayed together, you could sense that their ancient gods actually listened to these prayers. I personally loved the floating mountains, magical tree, also their home tree, the hammock beds. Jake was really handsome (earth waala), I liked his Navi avatar too, but considering his long plait and the long tail, I would rather stick to the earthly Jake. He was the Hero, no doubt, esp with his big orange dragon. For a change, it was good to see that we were the Aliens, but the bad part was earthlings went to destroy their beautiful Pandora. Well, each and every point is worth a mention, and I don’t want to leave out anything. So, I better stop here… Go watch it.. if you haven’t…

Watching it in 3D was good, but I wouldn’t say it was outstanding. Either I watched a lot of 3D movies or it was because of not watching it in IMAX. I felt it was long for a English movie (considering no intervals). But, watch it in IMAX, to get a thrilling experience.

3I:

Aal is well… This is the mantra of the movie. Most of them including the baby go by this mantra. From Millimeter to Wangdu, from Chatur to Virus, I loved all the characters. What can I comment about Aamir. He can totally convince the audience, that he is just a college boy. The speech from Chatur had the audience in splits. Everytime Virus had an encounter with Rancho, we would expect something to happen, and something unusual did happen. Ofcourse, Madhavan and Sharman made it look like cake walk. It wasn’t boring in any part. Every small incident, seemed to bring atleast a smile on your face.

All this aside, the beauty of Shimla and Ladak were so beautifully captured. I am almost planning my next vacation there.

Only misfit according to me was Kareena. I don’t know why, but felt that she looked older than Aamir. But as they say Aal is well… Way to go all you IDIOTS.

Baarish kar de paison ki

When I heard this line for the first time - “Main Baarish Kardoon paison ki jot u hojaaye meri”, we were travelling in car. I turned to G and we had this conversation

Me: “Ab baarish kar tu paison ki, main to hoon ab teri”.

He: “Meri to tu kabse hai, ab kyon baarish karoon?”

Me: “Pehle pata hota to itni jaldi nahi mannti :)”

Royal Bird

On Sunday, we went to the Royal Enfield showroom to check out the new 500cc classic. G is crazy about bikes, so this was going to be the first on his list.

This is the pic

At first, the guy in the showroom thought, it may not be possible for us to take the test ride, G being the persistent one, somehow got the bike out of the workshop. He took it for a ride and then asked me if I wanted a ride... Ofcourse, I went :)

Things I did not like :

1. Looks - Nothing special. Its a classic, so ordinary looks, esp with the back seat, looks too ordinary... Our Thunderbird has got super looks
2. Feel - It just dint feel like riding a bullet. Well, if it was 500cc, dint feel like it.
3. Sound - Well, seems for the wonderful sound, they would have to add another silencer for Rs.3000. Else, its bullet with no sound !!!!
4. It costs a min of Rs. 1,40,000 on road. Even if we are ready to pay the total amount in cash, it can be delivered only feb end.

Thinks I liked:
Dint like anything... May be I like the thunderbird better.

As for G, I am still not sure if he liked it or not. But I dont think he is ready to pay the price for it... So the thunderbird is here to stay with for a while :)

Let's do charity instead?

I have read it in many articles, seen it on TV, but fail to understand. Why should we not enjoy just because it can go to charity instead?

Before, anybody thinks I am mean. Let me clarify. People say, instead of doing such and such a thing, you can give it to charity. I agree, charity is a very noble thing to do. But, I don’t understand, just for the sake of charity, why are we depriving ourselves of the little joy.

Let’s say I am spending Rs.1000 on something, it irks when people come and say, it’s a waste of money, and some needy person could have used it better. I agree, but this is my hard earned money. If I feel happy spending it in one way, why should I always think about a needy person. I might be donating a 5000, when I really feel like it. At such times nobody says, oh you really deserved it.

Charity shouldn’t be forced. If people feel like contributing, they will definitely do it. I also think sometimes people do charity more for the peer pressure rather than the actual feeling for it.

Next time, when somebody wants to promote charity, why tell people to kill their desires for the sake of charity. Instead suggest that they can share it with the less fortunate people.

PS: Nobody has come and told me anything like this. But I have seen people saying – Instead of spending money like this they can as well give it to charity. Come on it’s their money, their wish :). I do charity too. I dont need anybody telling me that instead of enjoying I should be giving this money to some one

Blunder

The incident happened couple of years back. I was at the client office in US. We were used to the people overloading their desks with photographs, magnets, souvenir and lot of stuff on their desk. One of client project managers also had a lot of photographs. He had his wedding picture, Then a picture with 3 beautiful ladies. I couldn’t recognize him in his wedding picture, it was a few years old. There was another picture with one beautiful lady in it. This lady was one among the 3 beautiful ones. I assumed it was the eldest daughter. I went and complimented him.

“Hey Brian, Your daughters are beautiful, especially the eldest one. She is very pretty”

And I pointed to the single picture. “Oh! She is my wife” was his response. This was so embarrassing, I wanted to go and bury my head in shame.

He sensed this, and then comforted me “Not your fault, This picture is 10 years older, and yes she is very beautiful. I take that as a compliment. I am sure my wife would be thrilled to hear this”

I was so relieved, that I just scraped out of the blunder I had just commited.

Techniques

Attended a session few months back. The instructor said this quote, which makes a lot of sense

The quote :

You tell me, I will forget
You show me, I will remember
You involve me, I will understand....

As I type this, I go back to my 6th standard, where we had to read details about a leaf (botany) and cockroach(zoology).

I am not the kind of person who can by heart/mug things... I need to understand what the topic is all about. I tried my best to read about these 2, but in half an hour I was just forgetting this. And my usual resort for all my problems is just one person –MOM. She has a very good ability to make me understand things. She read the whole stuff and explained it to me. My brain, I think had taken an off that day. It just wasn’t registering in my mind.

Point 1: You tell me, I will forget

Next my mom got a leaf from the hibiscus plant from the garden. She showed me each and every part of the leaf, according to what was in the book. I could slowly remember what a leaf is all about. The same thing with the cockroach. I could remember it for days after that.

Point 2: You show me, I will remember

I had to keep going back to the books to keep my memory fresh. An idea struck and I got a leaf from the plant and read the whole stuff again with the leaf in my hand, I did the same with cockroach(this was yukky!!). And I never had to read this part again as I had totally understood how things were :)

Point 3: You involve me, I will understand

Isnt it amazing that these simple rules are followed in our daily lives but we never realize that all we are doing is following certain techniques :)

Time

There are times when we wake up in the middle of night and wish the sun rises a few hours later than usual.

Last night, I happened to wake up and saw that it was still dark and there were no sunrays trying to peep in through the thick curtains. I thought it might be around 5.00 AM, and I would just have an hour more of the blissful sleep and then the rush for office would start.

I just turned around and checked the time in my cell phone. When I looked at the time, I felt like dancing around, but then I did what was best to do. I slept again peacefully, it was just 2.00 AM

On Call

When you are on phone, and if you happen to be in front of these:

computer or laptop.

On the desktop, keep clicking the right mouse button and then refresh. I wonder what special animation is going to come out of the desktop.

If you have a paper and pen

The artist in you emerges and all sorts of sketches appear on paper. The moment the phone call is done, the pen stops and you don’t know what needs to be done to complete the sketch :)

Candles or Charity

Recently, as a mark of respect to the 26/11 victims, lot of drives happened. People payed their homage in many ways. One of this was the candle lighting event. I thought like many other people, what a sweet gesture until I saw this programme in the evening.

I don’t remember the channel or the name of the programme. This is one, which my Father-in-law doesn’t like to miss. There is a senior journalist and every now and then he puts a lot of politicians on the hot spot and asks them some rigid answers to his questions. I like this show too. On 26/11, the guests were a retired army officer, 2 wives of late army officers. One of the ladies runs an organization, which helps the family of the officers who are no longer alive. When asked about the candle lighting event. This is what she had to say:

These are not the exact words, but the gist of what she said.

She respects and is very grateful that people have cared to remember the men who have sacrificed their lives. But, instead of lighting the Rs.5 candle, if they could have just collected that same amount from all of them, it would have actually helped the families.

This made me think. What she said really made sense. Just imagine, even if 10000 people had lit the candles, it would be around 50000. This could have really helped the families. May be the money which was collected by selling these candles were sent to these families. I don’t know what happened, but if such a thing happened then the candle lighting has actually served the purpose.

Whatever may be the way, just remembering them on the anniversary of this incident and then forgetting the rest of the year, is of no use. If we really need to help them and pay our respects, this has to be a progressive activity.

Belts on the seat

“Why don’t you wear the seat belt?” Anvesha yelled at Nikhil for the 5th time in 10 minutes.

Nikhil impatiently replied - “It’s not mandatory anyway”

Anvesha was tired of this excuse “You always wore it when we were in US. Why do you ignore these things when you come back to Bangalore?”

“You can also take it off. It’s free without the seat belt” saying this he took off her seat belt too.

A truck in front of them made a sudden halt and Nikhil put sudden brakes. Anvesha was sitting at the edge of the seat, and the sudden break and collision pushed her forward to the windshield.

This jolt suddenly woke her up. She was happy to see that, there was no collision. Nikhil was just frustrated with the traffic, and was trying to find a way out of there. They were still on Hosur Road. Anvesha checked if she had the seat belt on and drifted back to sleep.

Lesson learnt

Traffic in Bangalore is too exhausting. It can teach you the value of time though. Since we take a bus to office, we leave at a certain time daily. We reach office in half an hour. One day we were 5 mins late to the bus stop. Ofcourse, we lost our usual bus, but got another one in 5 mins. But to our dismay, the traffic had increased so much, that we had crossed only 2 blocks in 10 mins. This time it took 45 mins to reach office.

We learnt the lesson, delay of 5 mins caused us a final delay of 15 mins. If we had stayed someplace else, where its only 1 bus every morning. They would value each and every second.

It is said, every place has a lesson to teach, may be Bangalore is trying to teach time management.

Bus or plane?

Some people love to travel. I like visiting to places, but I hate the travel part of it. Sometimes I just hope we could just disappear from one place and land in any place of our will in seconds.

Everytime, there is an international travel more than 8 hrs, after you tell your itenary to people, they empathize with you that, it’s a long travel. I was just wondering, will the same people have the same feeling when you are travelling within the country. Sometimes we travel nearly for 10 hrs, in the bus. There is no food available, no restrooms or washrooms available. We are on the seat continuously for these 10 hrs. Sometimes people travel this distance every fortnight. They don’t get the same empathy which is given to people who travel the same number of hours in a plane, with food and restrooms.

Well, we have to be thankful everytime our journey is comfortable. That way our visit to any place will just get better.

Live to Ride, Ride to Live

"Live to Ride and Ride to Live" - is G's favorite slogan. He has it printed on one of his T-shirts too. G is crazy about bikes like I have mentioned it here.


Lot of people dream of sitting on a Harley Davidson, let alone go on a ride. But I am so proud of G, I have had thrice the pleasure of going on a ride on the Harley Davidson....





In India, G has a bullet - Thunderbird.When I was a kid, I dint like bullet since it made lot of noise. Little did I know then, that its the power thats making the noise. Again, thanks to G, that I learnt a lot about bikes. Ofcourse, if it goes too technical, I still dont understand.

But what matters is, G is happy that I love to be his pillion rider. And, I love it that he likes to drive around with me on this powerful motorcycle.

It seems like we are made for each other :)

Judge me or no?

Relatives are by chance and friends are by Choice, choose your friends correctly.
This was a sentence I had read in so many scrapbooks.

There was a time, when we had a lot of innocent friendships. It didn’t matter what we could do for each other. No matter, what we thought of each other. This was the time where we grew up with each other. We could tell each other anything, and our friendship would just remain the same or get even better.

As years passed by, we started making thoughtful friendship. We would observe and then try to be friends with people who seemed to have similar interests. As the friendship thickened, we helped each other to become better people. These were the friends, who would celebrate with us when we achieved something, who were our best critics when we did something wrong.

As we move on further in life, we try to analyze people and then want to make a friend. By now, we have grown so much that it becomes difficult for us to take any negative comments from anybody. We assume that people judge us and to be on the safer side, we befriend those whom we feel don’t judge us. But, can anybody be non judgmental?

Ofcourse, not everybody will tell you what they feel about you. Whether somebody is judgmental or not, how would we ever know?

Is it better to have a friend who is not judgmental, but doesn’t even tell what they think about you or is it better to have a friend who is true to you?

Same Same but Different

I used to be a good student in school. But, mom thought it would be better if I spent more time in my studies. I was always a night person. I would study in the nights, but could never read a line in the mornings. TV was my favorite passtime. Even now, on the internet I am on youtube watching something.

Few years back, the conversation would be
Mom : ಓದ್ಕೋ ಹೋಗೆ (Go and read)
Me : Hmm… ಈ break (After the break)
Mom : TV Connection ತೆಗೆಸ್ಬಿಡ್ತೀನಿ (Will take off the TV connection)
Me : (Sadly goes to the room).

Recently this conversation happened

G : Packing ಮಾಡೇ (Do the packing)
Me : Hmm.. ನಾಳೆ ಮಾಡ್ತೀನಿ (will do tomorrow)
G: Internet connection ತೆಗೆಸ್ಬಿಡ್ತೀನಿ (will take off the internet connection
Me: (Now that I have a iphone) No problem, I have 3G now :)

Blogging

I had no idea about blogging, before a friend introduced me to this virtual world. This is my journey of blogging. I was excited that there is a place on the internet, for the stuff I write. As days passed by, I would write about trivial incidents, some good thoughts, some travelogues. There was even a time where I would write some mundane things too. Later, I began to be discreet about some feelings.

Initially I sent the link to a few friends and I would insist G, that he read my blog and give his opinion. He was the biggest critic. It was always about grammar and spellings. It was never about my ideas or my opinions. Once I used a friend's name, and I got a big lecture, as to how I am not supposed to reveal anything on the internet. After this, I stopped insisting that he read my blogs, as I never got any word of encouragement from him.

G loves my writing, but on the internet, he was not very comfortable about it. We even had a few tiffs about this, but I was persistent and dint give up blogging. Somehow, even though we have our opinions on each other’s doings, we still don’t give up some things, just because we love each other. If, at that time I had given up blogging, I am sure nothing path breaking was missed, but I would have lost my space and that’s something which I am proud of. I am no big writer. I might just have a couple of readers, but the best part here is, I don’t write for anybody else. I am the person who is most eager to see a new post coming up on my blog.

Coming back to G. As I mentioned earlier, I stopped irritating G to read my blogs. One fine day, I told him some incident and he said, I read that in your blog. I was surprised and happy (thought I was calm outside). My mind was celebrating inside and outside I was this calm and satisfied person. But, he still did not like that I was on the internet. So, I decided never to ask him if he ever reads or not.

Last year, a few friends of his, said they read my blog. I was happy to know that. In a way I felt sad that, other than my husband, everybody else who reads my blog is appreciative of it in one way or other. I still did not ask for his opinion. Now, he reads it every now and then. Infact, when I wanted to change the look of the blog, he even offered to help me. Sometimes to irritate me, he opens the blog in front of me and starts reading it aloud. Even today all he does is point out grammatical and spelling mistakes. I have come to terms with this. Bottom line is he reads it and I am happy about it. I hope someday you actually tell me what you think about my blog.

So G, all I want to say is I Love You and thank you for being such a loving husband. This just goes to prove that, whether you are poles apart in your thinking or you are on the same page, love just makes life beautiful.

Home Alone

Alisha, smart and brave kid, just moved to Bangalore with her parents and kid brother. She was pretty good in her studies. Since they had just moved to Bangalore, they were staying in a rented outhouse. It was a single bedroom house, but they could easily manage. There was a very big park in front of the house and Alisha went there daily to play with her friends. There was a old man in the park, none of them liked him. He was a little weird, but Alisha and her friends always ignored him.

One evening, her kid brother fell ill and was to be taken to a doctor. Her mom and dad wanted Alisha to accompany them. But she had to prove to them that she was a big kid now and that she could stay alone for a couple of hours. So her parents, left her in the house, ofcourse they told the owner who stayed right in front of the house.

Half an hour and Alisha sincerely was doing her homework. She heard the sound of their gate. She wondered that it was too early for her parents to come back from the doctor. She waited for some time. She heard weird sound, she could see from the translucent window. She saw a white shirt. She remembered her dad wearing a grey one when he left. Also, there was no knock on the door, so, it couldn’t be her parents. Now the height where she saw the shirt resembled the old man’s height. She couldn’t imagine why the old man was here. What the hell was he doing at the window? She dint know if she could muster the courage to open the window and peep outside. But she was getting terrified from what she saw outside. Slowly she moved to the kitchen, and after some time began crying. She couldn’t understand why the old man was following her, she never even gave him a disgusting look at the park, unlike her friends.

Lucky for her, the landlady happened to hear her crying and came to the kitchen window. Alisha was so relieved to see a familiar face, she told the owner lady, that somebody was at the door. Finally, when she came there, all she found was a white shirt hanging on the clothes line. Alisha couldn’t believe that inspite of being a brave girl, she was fooled by this. Within half an hour, her parents came back.

Everybody had a good laugh at this. But for Alisha, it was a life changing experience. After this, she was never scared of living alone in the house.

Hindustan

I was excited to go back home after an year. The flight to Frankfurt was packed. I was just getting comfortable in my seat, a man in my adjacent seat, smiled. I returned the smile. We started talking and then he just popped this question. I don’t remember what the conversation was about, but this question has just made a place in my heart. The man was originally from Karachi, Pakistan, who was settled in US. He spoke pretty good Hindi. Infact, until he told me, I assumed he was from Northern part of India.

The question he asked me was – “Aap Hindustan se hain?”

I was shocked at this question. I have been asked several times if I was from India, but never been asked if I was from Hindustan. I don’t know why, but this question just added to my excitement.

Its been more than 2 years since this incident happened. But this part of our conversation has been etched in my mind.

Happy Diwali 2009

Deepavali or Diwali, is the festival of lights. It’s a time to wish our loved ones and ones around us for prosperity. Its time to clean up the house and mind to throw away all the dirt. Its time to burst the crackers and celebrate. Well, this time we dint get to burst any crackers, but we did manage to do the rest of it.



This was our first Diwali together. Last year, we were in different places, so this one was really special for us.

Saturday morning, started with a small Pooja, and an early brunch. Initially, we thought of going for a movie, we took a small nap instead. Evening was supposed to be a visit to the temple for a view of fireworks and then a potluck dinner at a friend’s place. We had decided on taking bisibele bhat for the dinner, so after our tea, G started on that. Around 8.30 we started for fireworks in the SwamiNarayan Temple. Well, by the time we reached near the temple, the fireworks were nearly over. So we headed back, so that we could have dinner. Since it was a potluck, we had lots of stuff to eat. There were so many sweets, rotis, dum aaloo, mix veg, gajar halwa, bisibelebhat. We were back home by 12.30 AM.



Sunday wasn’t a busy day, we just went for a movie and then dinner, with friends.
Monday, we had invited friends over for dinner. Its always a nice feeling to have people over for dinner. Also, decorating the house on these special occassions has always been my passion. Earlier, mom and I, would get new floating candles, new sheets for the diwan, new cusion covers for the sofa. It would just give a fresh look to the house. Well, I plan to do a lot of these things, but for this time, I got a lot of candles and flowers and tried to decorate a little bit.



The dinner was good too. Although this time I made limited quantity, as everytime I would have lot of food left over. But I must say, I was satisfied with the taste and so was G, I think our friends were too. I made vegetable cutlets, poori, mutter paneer, vegetable rice. G made awesome fruitsalad custard. Since it was a weekday, we had to wrap up the get together pretty early.



I must say I will cherish our first Diwali forever.

Sambar, Rice, and Spoon

Cookery shows have been my favorite since I was in school. Although at those times I used to tell my mom to make all those dishes. Recently, I have made some stuff, following these shows. It's kind of fun. Once in a while, I even see those clips, where I already know how to make the dish. I do this, just so that, I can see some difference and try it out.

So, I was watching this sambar recipe. Well, incidently, I know to make sambar, with the powder (which mom/M-I-L make) or ones where we grind the powder. Now, anytime anybody asks me, how do you make sambar? there is no single recipe. Every house, mind you, not every community or every caste, but every house has its own taste of sambar. The sambar powder mom makes is different from what my M-I-L makes, and who knows, someday, I might have my own recipe(thats in the far future). So, I just tell them the basic recipe if they already have a powder.

Now coming back to the show, the chef prepared the sambar, and for the taste, he mixed it with rice and started eating it. He was eating with spoon. As he ate 2-3 spoons, he kept on thinking what was missing, and then he realized, it was the spoon.
He makes this statement " Sambar, Rice, and Spoon, never go together". I was laughing out loud when I heard this. I have heard this a lot of times since my childhood "Who eats Sambar Rice with spoon?? " and sometimes its totally true. Atleast at home, most of us grew up eating our food using our hands without spoons. Exam times, study times were different when we would have the liberty to use spoons, but otherwise it was always hands.

Infact, until I had a lot of north Indian friends, I dint even seem to notice. Well I have seen them using spoon for a dosa. I have never understood that part. My roommate was one such girl. She used to make the dosa piece into a cone and put in sambar using a spoon and then eat. I would lose interest in eating dosa in such a way. Some of us even tried to tell her, how we eat it, but i guess she never left her comfort zone.

Well, all you people who feel eating rice and sambar using your hands is weird, let me tell you its not. Infact, using the spoon for this very reason is injustice to rice and sambar :)
Well, on a different note, when I go to Indian restaurants in US, and I happen to eat sambar rice I use the spoon, only because, I am lazy to go and wash my hands in restroom and they dont give a finger bowl here. But at home, it's always my god-made spoon :)

A place of worship or discrimination

You go in with faith and you see discrimination. How would you feel?

Temples are one of those special places, which give a boost to the level of faith in God. This is one place, where people find peace of mind (I somehow dont, but some people I know believe in this).
How does it feel when in such places you see discrimination? We have seen that in so many temples.

Lets take the temples near our homes in India. The purohits give special preference to people who are regulars at the temple. Why?

A few temples, you dont get the theerta (holy water), unless you give the purohits dakshine (offerings)(mentioned about this here). Why corruption in temples?

Then comes Sabarimalai which is the abode of Lord Ayyappa. Girls/Ladies of age group 12-50 arent allowed here. The are so many stories and theories to this. But the same God can be worshipped by all ladies elsewhere. It's only in this place they arent allowed. Why would god discriminate? If he did, wouldn't this rule apply in all the temples?

I wonder if there is a Godess temple, where men aren't allowed!

Well, the reason this post has found a way in my blog is because of a temple I visited a few months back, and came back home angry. Yes, you read it right, ANGRY.

Now, this is the Swami Narayan Temple. It's got beautiful architecture. The moment you enter the temple, you actually dont look for the god, but the architecture. This is the same one as the Akshardham Temple in Delhi. I havent seen this one yet, but have been to 3 of them in US. One in Chicago, other in Atlanta and another in Houston. Below are the pictures of the Houston Swami Narayan Temple.











Beautiful!!! Isn't it?

Well, we were waiting for sometime, so that it would open up for Darshan. As we were waiting, saw a board which meant, Men will stand in front and Women will stand at the back during Arathi. We were a little confused as to why we would have to stand seperately. Seriously, it was not because we are husband-wife, its not even that we had to stand seperately. But why, guys in the front and ladies at the back.

I am not being a feminist here, even if it was the other way around, I would have asked this same question. Why, in the name of Godm are you doing this discrimination? Its nothing to do with equality or anything else. It's plain faith. A friend of ours was sitting in the front, and she was asked to vacate that place, as the guys were to stand there. What kind of rule is this?

We scream our hearts out in the name of racial discrimination, we shout so much for equality. But, when people do such things in the name of God, we just sit, and watch. I, felt ashamed that day, as i was silent and didn't question anybody. I wouldn't blame the men for this. Women have accepted this, and thats why its continued. We keep quiet, just coz its in a temple. And since, we are taught from childhood, we shouldn't question certain things related to god, we don't question such discrimination.

Aren't we all hypocrytes? We preach, everybody is equal in God's eyes. And then we do something shameful as this. Are we not responsible for such deeds???

Disclaimer : I have no idea why its done like this. If anybody believes that its right and have good reasons for it... Good for you. I still dont think its the right thing to do.

Routines or Memories

We stayed in Mysore for a few months after our wedding... These months were when we were always together except office, and there were times when I used to steal my moments from our time.
I always used to wake up G by 6, asking him to unlock the gates. He would get so furious, and most of the times I would end up doing it at 6.30, then getting the milk and paper from the door. I was always the first one to read the newspaper. It was fun. I used to read the sections which interested me and watch the milk from boiling over simultaneously. Later when G started to read the paper and our conversation would go like this.

Me(giving the cup of coffee to him): Oh! did u see this happened???
G : I just opened the paper
Me : Oh ok...
G (reading silently and sipping his coffee)
Me : What do you want for breakfast
G : Anything will do
Me: What do I pack for lunch
G: Whatever is convinient to you
Me: You never help me decide all this... Now, are you done with reading, go take bath. blah......blah....blah.....
G: I am still reading
Me ( banging whatever is in my hand) : Fine, I'll go, you watch while the maid is cleaning... (murmuring some other stuff). Fill water in thr filter, clean your cup
G: Hmm...

Me(coming out of bath): You are still drinking coffee and reading paper, you dint fill water, u dint do this.. you dint do that.. I have to do everything here. I am not going to fill water in the filter, thats your part.
G: I know baby... I'll do it.. Relax...

In the evening, once home, we would decide what we want to see on TV. We had the Dish network... yeah yeah... dish Karo Wish Karo... Yeah right!!! You wish#$@

G: Do you want to see Star Movies
Me : Naah!! I want to see the dance show
G: Thats boring, lets watch the Bruce Lee
Me: Noooooooooooooooo
G: Come on its fun
Me: Dance show...
G: I cant watch a dance show
Me: I cant stand Bruce Lee
G: Ok.. let me take out the set of DVDs
Me: No English movie (come on they were all action movies... bruce lee kinds)
G: Well no hindi movie either (as if he had any)
Me: Ok lets watch animation.

And so we did, after much discussions we used to watch movies which both of us could manage to watch.

Later G would do his part of the chores. I would think I am just wasting my energy reminding him. But then, if any of this dint happen on any day, I would feel something missing. I dont if G ever felt like it. But I am sure he loves those days too.

I loved the way, we had started to build our sweet little world. It surely wasnt perfect. But I loved it. It was ours, just ours.

Things have changed now, we have understood each other better. We yell a lot less at each other, so many times things get done without saying much to each other. I think this is just another phase of life, where we just grow together. We even sit and watch programmes together, I still dont like the bruce lee movies. I just go, do the kitchen chores or read a book or just lie down on his lap when he his watching this. As per my programmes, I make sure I am done with them before he comes home.

But I just miss those wonderful times we had in our home. I know they are only memories now. We will never get back those days back, but, I surely hope, we will build a lot of new memories which we will cherish all our life.

Austin Trip

Austin, capital of Texas is 160-170 miles from Houston. This place was one of the first trips we took after I came to Houston. We went there with friends. It was a 3 hr drive, we reached there a little beyond lunch time. So we just stopped at a place and had bisibele bhat, sabudana khichidi, pickles and papads.











We then headed towards Lake Travis. The plan was to rent a boat and have some fun time. Since we reached late, we couldnt get the speed boat, but we did get a pontoon boat. We had an hr till we could get this boat. So few of us took ride on the jet ski or wave runners. It was fun. But, it was too hot.




Finally, when we got on to the boat, we sat in the shade for a while, just roaming around the lake... Riding this doesnt need much of training, so all of us tried to ride the boat and it was complete entertainment. We spent nearly an hour in the lake with boat just roaming on the lake...









We then left to Austin Capitol. Well, I wouldnt say it was as good as the one in Washington DC, but it was amazing in its own way. We just did a round of this, took a couple of pictures, then headed for dinner and then back home.








This was a trip to be cherished forever.

Your money, my money, whose money is it anyway??

We were discussing about a new hindi movie, how the guy sees 12 girls in 6 days and decides to marry one of them in 10 days. Its a story very near to what happens these days. The guy comes to India for vacation, sees a couple of girls and then marries.Well, as the discussion went on, we went to to tell a few stories which we had heard. Then came one story, there is a working couple, the girl's family needed some money and the guy asked why she was sending money to her parents. Few months back, when I was with roomies we had a similar discussion.

One girl said, she should have told him that its none of his business. I would have vouched for this, if I wasnt married and dint know what it meant to be married. I am not trying to say what anybody said was wrong. I am just trying to tell that, certain problems dont have clear cut solutions. Also, the way you look at things might change after you are married. Well, if people claim that they know how things change once you are married, or who say "I have lot of married friends and I know how they think". Trust me, you can only see the surface of whats between them. However good or bad the relationship seems, its only the surface. Its obvious the couple dont tell you their best or worst times. Like any thing else in this world, you have to experience this, to know it. There are certain things which we pledge not to change in our lives, but we do later, not due to the pressure, just because the situation is such, and we want to do it for our loved one.

There is a very popular saying in which it seems Girls say to the husband - "Your money is my money, my money is my money". Well whoever said this, I have one question for you. What happened to all that "women are equal to men"? First thing, if ladies want to spend the money on their family, go ahead, there is nothing wrong, but there is nothing wrong in discussing this with your partner. If you feel thats wrong, then stop checking your partner's bank balance Its none of your business too. Isn't it unfair on the guy, that he has to account for everything and ladies shouldn't be questioned. Ofcourse I do agree in our society guys are not questioned for a lot of things, but we are, so ladies also shouldnt have these obstacles or vice versa. I agree to that too. Lets do something, were both can come to agreeable terms.

Ofcourse, all the discussion can happen only if the guy is understanding enough. If, he is being a nut case and denying it, then you can think of different solution. But on the first place, before marraige did both of them discuss on this aspect. These days, be it love or arranged, girl and guy usually get a chance to talk to each other. If not personally, they atleast interact through other media. So, instead of asking which colour they like, or what is the favourite vacation spot, can't both of them discuss topics like these, which matter more. Wont this help you in choosing your life partner than the colour or vacation spot. I agree that you cant start off with such things. But once you reach a comfort zone, cant these be discussed? There are a lot of things which cant be discussed, since we can never anticipate what problems we might face. But whatever comes to your mind at that point of time, which is practical.

Today, most of the girls are financially independent. But when you are getting married, are you not committing yourself to your life partner. We still expect the girl to do the household work, along with careers. We fight for this, saying guys also need to participate. Some guys might claim that its not their part and that in the rules of marraige (if any), girls do this work. We girls, protest and some times get it our way, where there is distribution of work. Inspite of this, why do some of us still think that guys should provide. Is this not hypocrisy? Shouldnt this relationship inspite of financial independence, have the emotional dependency.
G always says there is always a difference between independence and freedom. We need to realize this difference.

Coming back to finance. This is my funda is "Your money is our money and my money is also our money".

Its said that Love is magic. Its also said "Falling in love is very easy. Staying in love is difficult". Getting into the wedlock is easier, staying in the marraiges is a 24*7 occupation. I may not have decades of experience in this, but half a decade of commitment and an year + of marraige has taught me this. And it takes a couple to keep this going. So, its better to sort this financial issue as early as possible. Comeon, dont you have other problems to work on... Like who's gonna ccok today :)

To eat or not to eat

I dont remember a time when I have liked Cauliflower. Sometime when I was young, I associated this vegetable with human brain. I still dont know why, but after that, I hav never ever liked anything made of this vegetable. I would rather eat plain rice, chapati with ketchup instead of Gobi sabzi. My mom tried several tricks so that I could eat this. But the moment I saw this vegetable in any dish, I used to throw a tantrum and never ate it.

Years later, once when mom tried Gobi Paratha, I liked this vegetable a little bit. Ofcourse, this was because, the vegetable was kinda mashed and I couldnt see the florets. Then one day we went to one of the fast food joints (The shanti sagar types). We had gobi manchurian as an appetizer. I tasted one, with reluctance and then there is no looking back. Gobi manchurian is my favorite appetizer ever.

It seems strange that I still hate anything else made of this vegetable, unless it very finely chopped and I cant see the florets. But Gobi manchurian, I can have it any time of the day. Its very sad that, most of the Indian restaurants in US, dont serve this. In India, we categorize this in chinese dishes. But I have never seen it in Chinese menu either. May be it completely Indian and just because we have Soy Sauce, we call it Indo-Chinese. Anyway, for all I care, I love this and was missing it a lot in US.

Since I am on the cooking spree, I tried this at home. And I must say, it was awesome, it was 99% like the ones we get in India...

Here's a pic of what we ate. G loved it. We finished the whole plate in a few minutes.

Poori

Pooris were our favourite when we were kids. We could gobble up the hot pooris anytime of the day. Those were the days, when people were not obsessed with fat-nonfat, oooo will I become fat sort of things.

Mom used to make excellent round and fluffy pooris. I used to love bursting the those. We would have it with Chole, Rajma, Sagu,Aaloo sabji. There were times when we had it with cabbage, beetroot sabjis too. Mom realized that she could get us to eat vegetables which we dint like with pooris. She then started making palak and beetroot, green pooris, red pooris so yummy and healthy too.

Well, it had been days since we ate pooris. I was trying out some new curry for chapatis. And then thought, why not make pooris instead. So this became our lunch for the day.

Poori and Pitla.



Pitla it seems is a Maharashtrian dish. Its made of Chickplea flour,onion, tomatoes and spices. Seems, its usually eaten with Bhakri.

Well I just made a poori-pitla combination and it tastes yummy :)

Hooked.. booked.. cooked

I happened to see a programe "First Ladies". Its all about the wives of famous people. Anyway, in this show, there is a section "HOOKED BOOKED and COOKED".

Now I can understand what HOOKED means, probably who proposed whom... I didnt understand what BOOKED means...
Finally, whos' getting COOKED. Well, I think in any marraige, it takes both of them as to how the life goes on... So both of them get cooked. And I must say, as time goes, and cooking is on, there is a fanatastic aroma and an awesome taste. The same way, once the couple are cooked with spices of life, the relationship just gets better and better.

Well, it takes both the partners for a successful marraige. HOOKED, BOOKED or COOKED, as long as both of them work on it, that is all matters.

Cooking expeditions...

When I first came to US all I knew was to cook some basic stuff. There was lot of work pressure those days. So cooking time was like relaxing time. I used to call Mom and ask for new reciepes. Slowly I learnt more about cooking. There were times when the food used to be a little messed up. The saviour would again be mom. I would tell her the problem, and she would give me a solution. This way, I learnt some tricks and tips too.

Recently, I developed this interest of trying new reciepes again. So, I tried to make some Khandvi 2-3 weeks back. It was pretty simple to make, but only problem I had was to flatten it. I succeded to some extent, and it was tasty. To add in my touch, I sprinked some sprouted green moong. We enjoyed a nice evening snack :)

Krishna nee Begane Baaro

Krishna Janamashtmi has always been my favorite festival since the time I have known myself. This is one day in the whole year, where I can sacrifice food and even water until dinner time. Last year we were in India for this festival. At G's place its not celebrated at a grand scale. The previous night G dropped me to mom's house and the next day, it was celebrated at the usual grand scale.

At home its usually celebrated like this. This pic was taken in 2005, the first year I missed the celebrations.

This year, I wanted to celebrate it with as much resources available here. And it was not bad at all. We set up the mantapa, decorated with flowers and fruits.


I made doodh peda, coconut burfi and kachoris for the pooja.


We did the panchamrutha abhisheka and then the pooja.


On the whole we had a nice pooja, and I was very happy.




At first, we thought of inviting friends that day for dinner. Since I was busy in the morning, preparing the sweets and making the other decorations, we thought it would be better to invite the next day.
The next day we had friends for dinner. It was complete fun. I had made vegetable puff, paneer-cucumber-tomato salad, bisibelebhat, veg-tofu fried rice, puliogre. And, I hope all of them enjoyed the dinner.We played UNO (card game). After dinner, we played Dumb Charades. All of us had nice fun. After the tiresome, Friday and Saturday, we had quite a relaxing Sunday, and we ended our weekend with a movie.

Koi roko na

This song was playing in the background, and I was telling this story to G, the nth time.

Its still so fresh in my mind...

Golden days :)

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai

Aane waala pal.. jaane waala hai.. hosake to isme...

This is a very famous song from Golmaal (1979)


The movie itself is awesome. Its entertaining till the end, and I have watched this multiple times
This is the title song and I used to love this song Golmaal hai


12 years back, I knew the screenplay of this movie. But at that time, I hadnt noticed the aane waala song much, until somebody sang this.

We had been to a Himachal trek when in school. Our camp leader was a very good singer. One evening when all of us were enjoying the camp fire, we all requested him to sing. He announced that he is gonna sing a song from Golmaal, I thought it would be the title song, since it suited the situation etc etc. But then he started singing this. It was awesome listening to the song.

Aane waala pal

The next time I saw the movie, I waited for this song. I realized that somehow i had never noticed this song in the movie.

Sometimes in life there are certain things we never notice, but when someone else recognizes it, thats when we realize, it was there all the while. We just failed to notice it.