FMS

This happened during one of my trips during Engineering. We were about to have lunch (lemon rice and curd rice – packed from a caterer). It was in those paper packets, no fancy packing, no spoons.

All of us sat in a group. Since we were tired of playing around, as soon as we got the food, we started digging our hands and filled our mouths and started chewing. One friend of mine, opened the packet and was just staring at the food. I couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t even touched it. This was the conversation we had.

Me : Hey S, are you not hungry?
S : Very much
Me: Is something wrong with the food?
S: I don’t know. I haven’t tasted it yet.
Me: You don’t like rice?
S: I like rice, esp curd rice.
Me: Ok. Then what’s stopping you from eating the food.
S: Can I get a spoon?
Me: Emm.. I don’t think we have spoons. We have anyway washed our hands, why don’t you just eat without the spoon.
S: I can’t
Me: Look S, where are we going to find a spoon for you in the middle of the forest. Come on, go ahead and start eating.
S: I know, but I can’t
Me: Why?
S: I don’t know how to eat rice, without a spoon.
Me: You mean you have never had rice using your hand.
S: yup.
Me: You mean, never, ever?
S: yup
Me: Ok.. This is a situation. No problem. I will teach you to eat using FMS.
S: FMS?
Me: Flexible Mobile Spoon :) Our palm and fingers
S: ok.. lets try
Me: See the incentive is you get to eat your favorite – Curd rice.

After a few minutes, S could manage to eat using his FMS and thanked me a ton, for helping him and not letting him starve.

Benadryl!!!

Usually medicines are always taken with a disgusting expression. Medicines are supposed to be bitter. But when we have cough, there is one sweet medicine, which even acts like a sleeping pill and makes it so difficult for you to wake up in the morning. Its as if you have a hangover. I am not a alcoholic person, but then can I say for sure? Am I 100% non-alcoholic.

Ofcourse I don’t drink beer, whiskey or the likes, but that doesn’t rule me out from not having alcohol at all. Its not in the recent times. Since childhood, all of us have had some taste of alcohol, or we have liked it in some or the other way.

When I was kid, it seems when the coughs were unbearable, doctors used to prescribe – “Doctor’s Brandy”. This is supposed to be very good for the cough, and is seemed provided good relief.
And now, its benedryl. It sure is very tasty and effective too. One shot of this, oops I meant one sip of this, and you can be assured of a cough free deep sleep.

Incidents related to bendryl;

We were in mysore, and since I had cough my friend insisted we get benedryl. In a week the whole bottle was over. The reason was, my friend also had a sip of it everyday, inspite of she not being sick. I tease her of being a alcoholic. Till date, we laugh about this. Infact, even yday we discussed on how tasty benedryl is :)

I had come back from US and had jet lag, then got cough here. I started taking benedryl, I used to sleep at 11.30 and till 7 in the morning, I would noteven be conscious (deep sleep you see). I wondered how my jet lag vanished so quickly. After I stopped the medicine, I used to be awake like an owl, or even if I slept, I used to wake up a couple of times. I cursed benedryl for curing my cough.

Few months back, I was suffering from dry cough. We had a bottle of benedryl, I drink my sip and then my husband says, Its been ages since I have had a drink and gulps a little bit. Result is past 1 week, our eyes struggle to open even if its 7.00 AM. Now I have got used to this, and our plans of going for a walk a 6.00 seems like a dream.

Hail Benadryl!!!

Snakes

Our house was next to the GKVK forest in Bangalore. There were lot of eucalyptus trees and the forest was pretty dense. Whenever they cut down these trees, lot of snakes came out of the forest to our area. We could hear lot of snake stories. Infact, when I would come back from college, mom would have a snake story ready. That was one of the reasons, why everybody had a mesh door in front of the usual wooden door, so that they could keep that open for the air circulation.
One day, both the doors were open, and when mom came out, she saw a big, fat snake, resting under the table in our verandah. It seems my parents called the snake catcher, and with great difficulty, they got this out.

One of my neighbors had left the water sump (tank) door open to get something from inside. By the time she came back, there was snake which had fallen inside the sump. When I came back from college mom told me this, and I went to see the snake. That was probably the longest snake I had seen other than snake parks or zoo. Then they had to call people and get the snake out. They also got the whole water sump (tank) cleaned up.

I haven’t seen that many snakes as much my mom or my brother have seen. But I did encounter a snake story once. Let’s say I was just saved.

It was on a weekend, my cousin brothers had come home for lunch. Usually my elder brother is fond of pulling my leg. He kept on teasing how I would believe anything he would say when I was kid. This had gone for a couple of hours, after which I gave him a warning that I would never ever believe whatever he said. As they were about to leave, we all went outside to see them off. My cousin was near the gate and I was near the door. We have a big garden, so he just happened to see something and shouted at me to move. I dint move an inch. He again shouted saying there was a snake, and asked me to move. This time I was determined it was a prank, I dint move. My other cousin saw this and pulled me, and the green snake just jumped. It would have hit my eye, if my cousin hadn’t pulled me. We were in a shock for a few minutes, and later I kept teasing my cousin, that his pranks would have cost me my life, if not for my other cousin. Till date, we remember that incident and laugh about it now, but it was pretty scary when it actually happened.

Even today, I am not scared of seeing snakes, but if its gonna attack me, I can scream like crazy and run around like a mad woman to save myself. By God’s grace, I have never encountered a situation like that except for the instance I mentioned above.

Power Cuts!!!

Summer is associated with many things – Heat, Sweat, Cotton Clothes, Mangoes, Juice, Cold water, Vacation (for kids), First rain and with rain comes power cuts.

It’s so stuffy inside the house during summer. We still manage to watch our favorite TV programs with the help of Fans or for luxurious ones, we have ACs. Sometime around 6.30, when there is either a cartoon or a movie coming up, mom is just done preparing some yummy snack, there is a power cut.
Instantly, people in the house scream “Oh no” or “Che” or “S**T” etc in chorus. Probably if you can listen carefully, this happens in all the houses in the neighborhood simultaneously. Everybody starts fanning themselves with the palms, or they grab the day’s newspaper. After a few minutes when the heat is unbearable, one by one they open the front doors and go out near the gate. Slowly, the kids in the neighborhood come out and start playing; the aunties come out with a cup of coffee in their hands. They start of with the conversation

Lady 1: There is so much of power cut these days
Lady 2: Yeah, it’s too hot and stuffy inside
Lady 3: I haven’t finished my cooking. I needed the mixer, now god knows when the power will be back
Lady 4: (showing off) I thought such a thing would happen, so I finished cooking beforehand
Lady 5: I just came back from office and now there is no power, this is unbearable.

All this while, they don’t realize that they are actually socializing, instead of sitting in front of the TV, which hogs all the attention most of the time.

Give them 5 minutes, and then a different set of conversation starts and this time it’s interesting. They are either talking about the corner house, where new tenants moved in or it is about Savithri’s daughter coming late to the house on a bike with a guy or discussion of a new recipe.

The men folk might just prefer to stand near the gates and watch people walking up and down. Very few actually socialize, when they do, its either politics or sports that they catch up on. Not very juicy to overhear what they are talking about.

The kids get together with their tricycles and bicycles and start going up and down the street as if they are chasing a thief. If there is enough light, they would even gets the bat and ball, to start with the gully cricket.

When this hustle bustle is going on, there is a bulb flickering somewhere, signaling that the time for gossip and time pass is getting over. In a few minutes, the road is lit up again. The houses have their tube lights flashing. Everybody, now comfortable in their chat, start back home, with a content of having a nice time during the Power Cut.

SubWAY

I had been a year since I joined the comapany, when I heard a Lady say, the food in subway is really good. I knew she had been to US, so she was talking about Subway over there.

Background : Subway meant those underground crossings which we have where pedestrians are not allowed to cross the road. Ofcourse in Bangalore they have these hawkers selling pety stuff over there, so I assumed she meant the food she got there was good. I thought, lucky people, they get good food even in subways, all we get here is peanuts/cut guava/ or something which doesn’t look very healthy enough for us to eat.

I never discussed this with anyone to clarify, what subway food was all about. Few months later, I was in US and one of my friends suggested we go to “Subway”. I was thrilled, and wanted to see, what it was all about. Off he drove and stopped in front of a sandwich shop, which was called “SUBWAY”. The conversation was like this:

Me: Here?
Him : Yeah… this is Subway
Me: Oh (laughing at myself)
Him: It’s ok right? Or you want to go to Indian restaurant
Me: Its fine… I can try it out.

The first time I dint know what to order. I couldn’t understand what the fuss was all about. Bread and few veggies, so why go ga-ga over it. I dint go to subway for a long time after that.

Later, on a trip, one of my friends showed me that we could add sauces to it, have it with veggie patty etc etc. I started loving the sweet onion suace, slowly mustard. They even started with a broccoli cheddar soup. I liked that too…

Today when I was ordering in subway, when I asked for sweet onion, southwest, spicy mustard and I saw so many people in the queue (esp new to the corp world).. I wondered, when I was like them, I dint even know what this thing was… How things have changed!!!

Also, now I know Subway is just not the underbridge, but it’s a food chain.

PS: Hey the train system in New York is also called Subway… So if there was a Subway within Subway.. how would you say it?

Great Achievement

The project was due in a week and all his project mates had completed their part. Mayank was the only one, who was to finish his part of the project.
Though all his project mates were his friends, the anxiety if Mayank would finish his part was straining their friendship. He was so engrossed in what he was doing, that his mom was to remind him multiple times, so that he could have his meals on time.

The model would be evaluated by a panel of 3 people.

Mayank had spent days on the design. It had been days since he met his friends. Anytime, his mom came to his room with food, he would drive her away. At times, she would scold him, that his health would be spoilt, if he dint eat properly. He dint understand, how his friends implemented it so easily, while he was struggling to put everything together. The day before the project was to be submitted, Mayank finally completed the project. He informed his friends, and they were relieved too. Finally, Mayank and his friends submitted the project on time. They had to wait till the evening for the evaluation. All the worries which surrounded Mayank for all these days had come to an end. There were smiles of relief in his group. At 5.00 PMthe principal came out with both the science teachers. They were the panel of judges. Mayank and his group had won the science project competition at school.

For Class VII students, it was a great achievement that day

Autowallas

There was a discussion on how autowallas in different metros behave. This just reminded me of a particular incident which happened in Hyderabad. This was more than 2 years back.

On Monday morning, I reach Hyderabad bus stand. As soon as you get down, auto folks start with their bid.
Everytime, just to check, I used ask a few people, how much they would charge. Are you people thinking about meters. Come on 6.30 in the morning, who would use it. Meters don’t start their work until 8.00 AM

Near the bus the rate would be – 200
By the time you reach the entrance of the busstop, the rate would be reduced to as low at 150-120

After a few weekends, I found another way. I would go midway in auto, from there would take a bus to my place. The reason was, I dint know which bus to take from the busstand.

One fine day, when I was looking out for an auto, found another girl who was looking for one, to the same area. So we decided we could share the cost. One guy agreed for Rs.70, we thought Rs.35 is a fair deal and got in. Once we reached the place, we gave him 70 and he started shouting at us, saying its 70 per head. We told him that he never told us this, and since it wouldn’t cost that much using meter, we were not going to pay him 140 total. He threatened us that he wouldn’t let us get down. We were pretty aggressive too, and we asked him to drop us back to the busstand, and we wouldn’t pay him a paise for this wonderful behaviour of his. After much argument, he finally left us after charging us Rs.5 extra per head. Next week onwards I was extra careful and confirmed with the driver much ahead about the cost per head.

PS: I know Hyd has shared auto system, but this was not a part of the shared auto thing. Also, I have had auto problems in most the of the places I have visited… So its nothing to do with one place

Credit Market

This incident happened a couple of months back.
I was at my desk, trying to get past the chunk of code, when I heard the extension ring.

Me: Hello
Phone: Hello mam, I am calling from #### bank, we are offering
Me: I am not interested.
Phone: (uninterrupted) you a credit card with
Me: Excuse me!!
Phone: (still uninterrupted) zero percent interest.. blah blah..
Me: (phew!! She is done). Ok, now that you have finished what you have to say. I am not interested.
Phone: Why madam?
Me: Firstly, you don’t have the patience to listen to what I was trying to say. Secondly, I am just not interested.

15 mins later, another ring

Me: Hello
Phone: Hello mam, I am calling from #### bank
Me: I just got a call 15 mins back and I said not interested
Phone: we are offering you a credit card with zero percent interest.. blah blah
Me: Ok.. but I am not interested
Phone: Why mam?
Me: If I need a credit card, I will call you.

15 mins later, another ring

Me: Hello
Phone: Hello mam, I am calling from #### bank
Me: I just got a 2 calls in half an hour and I said not interested
Phone: we are offering you a credit card with zero percent interest.. blah blah
Me: Ok.. but I am not interested
Phone: Why mam?
Me: (Irritated) Why don’t you go and ask the other 2 people who called

After this, I haven’t got any calls from them, but a funny incident happened last week

There were around 6-7 people in the elevator. The phone in the elevator started ringing. After looking at each other’s face, one guy decide to pick the call.

Him: Hello
Phone: ******
Him: (After he kept the receiver back, announced) : #### credit cards

All of us burst out laughing… And this statement just came to my mind

“Credit card Lelo Credit Card..”
“Togolrappo togolli.. free credit card”

Queue or line

On Sunday, we went to Shrek Forever (3D). Wait!! I am not reviewing the movie here... But yes, if you are a Shrek fan, go for it.

Anyway, one of the reasons I love going to movies is, I can eat popcorn. Not that otherwise somebody restricts me, but its fun while watching movies. I was standing in the already formed queue. I saw one guy standing next to the counter with money. He was not in the queue.

Me: Excuse me!! There is a queue here
Him: (Smiling) Oh Sorry!!

And then he came and stood in the queue.

In a minute, another guy came and stood outside the queue just next to the counter.

Me: Excuse me!! There is a queue here
Him: Yeah!! There is a line
Me: Yeah!! So can you please stand in the line?
Him: (Just Grinning and standing there)
Me: I think all of us are in the line or the queue for a reason, I think you should join the line.
Him: (Embarrassed by now) hmm

And then he left the place to stand in the queue or according to him the LINE.

Movies:Raavan:The Karate Kid

Its been raining movies for the past 2 days.
We watched Raavan and the Karate kid
 
These are not reviews, but just my opinions on the 2 movies
 
Raavan:
 
Reading so many bad reviews, should have told us what to expect. So we went to the theatre, mostly to admire the cinematography. And I must say, Santosh Sivan has not at dissappointed us. Only thing I dint like was the rain. It was raining most of the time. If it dint rain, Ash would just jump into the water and get wet. The movie was damp most of the time.
 
There is nothing much to say about the movie. As everybody knows there is a Raavan(evil) in everybody, and there is Ram(Good) in everybody. It just goes to say nobody is perfect. The movie potrays the same feeling.
 
By the end of the movie, you dont know if the Dev Pratap(hero - Vikram) is the good person or Beera(villain - Jr AB) is the good person. You dont know if you should be rooting for the Dev. You dont know if you should sympathise with Beera. Ofcourse thats the intent of the movie. But I all the intents are dampened by Ash's screaming all the time. She is either screaming or crying, or just staring with her red eyes.
 
Vikram was ok ok, nothing great to speak of. I hope he has done a tremondous job in Raavanan.
 
AB - He looks very ugly. I know he is supposed to be like that, but somehow not so appealing. He was better in other movies
 
Ash - Less said the better about the beauty queen. She is screaming most of the times. Ofcourse when her mouth is shut, I wouldnt say elegant, but yes beautful.
 
I liked Govinda and Ravi Kishen, both of them did justice to their roles.
 
Priyamani- Oh yes!! She was there, 3-4 scenes, may be 1 or 2 extra. She was fine.
 
If you really want to watch this, wait for it to come on TV.
 
Its a one time watch.
 
 
The Karate Kid:
 
Jaden Smith is great in the movie. I liked the movie. My husband was quite dissappointed, being a Jackie chan fan, oops die hard fan, he dint get to see too much of action from the action king.
 
Locales are breathtaking. Once again my wish to visit the Great Wall Of china has increased. Ofcourse its there only in a few scenes. There is one place where Mr.Chan takes the kid to. I dont remember the name of the place. But it looks beautiful.
 
As everybody guessed, movie is all about Jackie Chan training the kid. Well when you think of training, its not just about Kung Fu. The way he teaches the kid, really tells you, how you must percieve anything in life.
Determination to learn something is a must, along with certain basic values in life. The movie tells you, however strong you are, if you lack the basic human values, you will never grow up in life.
It tells you how after pushing yoursef to hard, you still need a break to rejuvinate yourself, which can bring out the best in you.
How great friendship is, and what levels it can take you to
How, we need to respect each other.
How different is being calm and doing nothing is.
How by being calm, you can actually control lot of things. Being calm on the inside, you can see things clearly, otherwise anything you see or do appears to be blurr.
And finally, if you fall, you can choose either to brood over it or get up and get over it.
 
Karate is the Japanese Martial Art and Kung Fu is the Chinese Martial Art. I wonder why the movie was named The Karate Kid. There wasnt 1 bit of karate in this (ofcourse I dont know the difference, but hey I know people who know the difference).
 
Even the movie has this dialog - its kung fu not karate.. then why was it named so? Well, I know we cannot get this answer, probably they were trying to bask on the glory of the previous version of the movie.
 
In one sentence, I would say, a Bollywood movie with Kung Fu in it. I dint think it was a waste of money. But, if you wanna go to see Jackie Chan, for his comedy or for his stunts, you might not find much of it.

Notice board

 
Pallavi’s college, had notice boards in each floor of every building. These were the kind which had glass frames. One day, lot of new notices were put up on the board, Pallavi was staring at all these. When she came away from the notice board, her friends asked her, what was put up. She had no clue about it. They had no clue, what she was doing there. They then went up 2 floors, where their classroom was supposed to be. Again, they saw a notice board. This time again Pallavi went and stood in front of it.
 
There was one guy who was staring at Pallavi. Her friends were furious, before they could go and give him a piece of mind, they just turned towards her. She was looking at the notice board, but this time it was weird. They asked Pallavi to leave from there as the guy was staring at her. She couldn’t stop laughing at told her friends the secret.
 
“The guy might be staring at me, may be, coz I was staring at the blank notice board”
 
Her friends went blank, and then she told them about her fascination towards notice boards.
 
Pallavi was fond of mirrors. She loved to see her reflection, anywhere possible. If she happened to walk by a shop with glass windows, and if she could get a glimpse of her reflection, she would stand in front of the shop, like a child in front of the bakery. The onlookers would only feel she was admiring the merchandise inside.
 
 
They finally realized, the mystery behing Pallavi and notice boards.

Halloween

We were on our usual coffee break, in an unusual environment. The entire office was decorated with skulls, masks, RIP boards; in short it looked like a graveyard, with people dressed up as ghosts, witches. You guessed it right, it was Halloween. We were having a nice time in office.
 
Every friends group has 1-2 people who are scared of ghost stories or any such thing. We also had 2 friends like this. Our plan that day was to scare these two. So, coffee break was spent planning this whole thing. Our PM was also in this plan; he was to play a major part.
 
Planning:
 
PM was to wear black jeans, black jacket, black gloves, and SCEAM mask (from Wal-Mart cost: $10)
Another friend was to wear black jeans, a t-shirt which had green glowing skull
We at home, had to have our camera and camcorder ready.
 
Evening 8 PM:
 
One of the victims was sleeping in one room. We had closed the door. The other one was in the kitchen. The other 2 (i.e. me and friend) were busy on phone, atleast acting to be busy. I was on phone with the PM, informing him about the right time.
 
The door bell rang. My friend went into the room to fetch something. I was busy on phone to answer the bell. The victim was forced to answer the door bell. Next thing we hear is her scream. We had recorded the whole thing. Her expression was awesome. For 2 mins, she dint realize the prank. Later, all of us started laughing. We teased about her being scared. But I must say, the mask was pretty scary.
 
8.15 PM:
 
We could hear victim 2 coming out of the room. We sent these 2 guys out again, repeated the trick. This time Victim 2, screamed even harder. It took her more time to realize it was a prank. She was so scared, she dint touch the mask for a long time. We took quite some time to convince her, that it was just a prank.
 
After all this, each one of us wore the black jacket, gloves and mask and did some scary walk. We recorded each of this. Then we plugged these to the TV and had a hearty laugh at all this.
 
It was one of the best days of my life :)

Sarva Guna sampanna

I watching TV yesterday and I happened to see a trailer of some new serial. I don’t remember the channel or new serial name.

The trailer goes like this:

Girl is studying and her mom comes and asks her to stop studying as that wont help her when she gets married, she wants the daughter to stop all that and help her in household chores. Finally the Sarv guna sampanna (one who is bestowed with all knowledge) girl, gets a nice groom.

Now, learning household is totally fine, but why does the girl have to quit education for the same?

How does it make here Sarva Guna Sampanna if she isn’t a literate? No offense to anybody who isn’t a literate, but isn’t that also a kind of knowledge?

This is on national television. What are they trying to show, education is not important for girls?

Learning household chores and getting married based on your performance on this and good looks is the ultimate goal for a girl?

When so many NGO’s, so many people are striving towards Girl Education, why the hell is a TV serial trying to showcase something else, just for TRPs and money?

Cant they come up with something interesting, than such concepts?

It really irks me when such things happen around me. Be it on TV or in reality.

PS: My mom also told me to learn household chores. She also told me if I don’t learn these, what will my in laws say? But she always wanted me to be well educated and if possible and independent person.

Directionless!!!

This was the era, when I-phone had just started to become a common phone. Every other person, wanted to have THE I-phone. What better time to purchase it, than thanksgiving and Christmas (SALE, SALE and SALE) when you are in US.

During Christmas, I was in San Francisco downtown with a couple of friends. We had checked in Google maps for the place we wanted to go, we dint take any print outs though. One of my friends has an i-phone. We left the office around 5.30 PM, and followed the map. After walking a couple of blocks, we thought we were lost, searched for a bus stop. We checked the maps there, and continued walking. Our friend with i-phone was happily clicking our pictures, while the 2 of us were breaking our heads for the direction. All this while we were hoping that we had some GPS which would tell us how to go.

Somehow, after some map reading, and asking people we reached the destination. By this time, we were hungry, and wanted to check if any Indian restaurants were available. At that time, my friend announced “Hey, I can search for the restaurant using i-phone”. We both glared at her and said “All this while we were breaking our heads for directions and you just clicked photos, Couldn’t you search for directions?”

All she could muster to say that time was “Oops!! I forgot that my phone has GPS”

Only reason, she was saved by our beatings that day was, we were in public.

Even today, when we talk to each other, we recollect this incident and laugh at it.

One mischief

“Ragini, what are you doing, Let daddy sleep” called out her mom. Ragini, like an obedient daughter came out of her parent’s room and went to the kitchen to see what her mom was doing.

“Mummy, I want to show you something”, she was pulling her mom’s saree.
“I will come baby, let me finish the chocolate biscuits I am making. Then, all of us can eat this together in the evening.”
Ragini went to her room nodding her head. She got busy with her toys, in a few minutes; she slept with her favorite teddy.

After a while, the bell rang, dad happened to open his eyes at that time. “I will get it” he screamed while mom was busy with the special dish.
Murthy uncle was laughing loudly, when Ragini went out.

“Oh Ragini, you adorable kid. Where was your talent hidden all this while? “ was the question posed to her. She was confused, and disappointed to see dad’s face.

From that day, people would come, touch her cheeks, and say “naughty kid”.
**************************************

15 years later:

The groom hunting was on in Ragini’s household. She heard her parents say, she has always been a naughty kid.

“Few years back, when her dad was sleeping, she silently crept near him and put a rubber band, so that his head had a sprouted fountain, and so much of powder and bindi on the face, making her dad look like a joker.” Mom was telling this story to the prospective groom.

Inside the room Ragini was whispering, “Oh no mom, not again” and then sighed “I do one mischief and it’s stuck to me for life”

Ninantha Appa illa

“Ninantha appa illa…” (there is no father like you) song was on the radio a few days back. That’s when I thought of writing this post.
This made me recollect my relationship with dad.
I have always been closer to mom, regarding anything in life. But, this doesn’t mean dad is of any less importance.

Dad was and is still my alarm clock (when I am at my parent’s house).
In 12th STD, I had taken up the morning class, which used to start at 6.15. My dad used to wake me at 5.30 AM. I would ask for 5 minutes and in those 5 minutes, he would sit on the bed, wait for those 5 minutes and then again wake me up. I would again ask for 5 minutes, but this time, he would wake me up some 5000 times, that I would get irritated and wake up. Then we would leave home at 6, and then he would have to zoom in his scooter to drop me. I would keep yelling, “Fast appa, fast daddy, fast fast fast”. He never lost his patience though, and he would just say, “Why can’t you get up when I come to wake you, the first time” or, “that’s why I told you take the evening batch”. This would happen almost every other day.

During my Engineering days, I once missed my college bus; rather I realized it as soon as I reached the bus stop. My dad was in a Lungi and T-shirt; he drove me to my college which was 30kms from my house in the Bajaj scooter in the same avatar. He still recollects that and tells it to my husband. Even today, he is ready to drive those 30kms to drop me to Infy, if I happen to miss my bus. But I don’t make such a fuss getting up early, so no chance of that.

I have got lot of punishments from mom, but none till date from dad. At his angriest moment, he might have said “you are hopeless”, that’s it. Not a swear word, not even a single hit full of anger.
There was a song which goes like this “Papa ki pari hoon main”. That song just fits my situation. However the movie was, I love that song.

Even now when I go home, he is ready to dance to my tunes, literally. We don’t dance on any music, I just taught him a few moves and I sing and we dance. My mom says, we are crazy, but who cares :)

He was the one who taught me chess and carom; he never lost just cause I would cry, he wanted me to make an effort and win, ofcourse he would play a little easy, but never let me win unless I tried really hard. It’s because of him that I started following sports. We loved watching tennis and cricket together. Ofcourse mom was also interested in those days, so it was family time.

Every evening, I would sit and watch serials with mom and comment simultaneously. After that, I would sit with dad, and both of us would watch movies. Dad dint like movies, mom couldn’t sit through movies. So I would give them company. Ofcourse both of them, would sometimes wonder, if I am watching TV all the time, when do I study :)

There was a time when dad wanted to learn computers. There were times when I would get a little impatient, but then, I remembered the time when he used to teach me Mathematics, and understand what patience actually meant.

I know everybody’s dad is special to them. I also know its Mother’s Day which is nearing. So what?? I feel like writing about Dad today… so Dad, this post is dedicated to you.

PS: The post may not be well composed. But feelings need not be composed all the time :)

Gazab Kasab

Kasab, the moment we see this name, it brings out fury, for he has killed so many people in 26/11 attack. Most of the Indians want him dead. When I say dead, it’s not just hanging him; we want to torture him so much that he has to beg for death. And once we are done discussing the million ways to bring his life to an end, we start blaming Pakistan.

Something goes wrong in some part of India, we blame them. We don’t think twice, it might our greedy politicians, or it might even be frustrated common people.

When we want Kasab dead in the most painful way, what do we need to do to the Indians who were involved with him, helping him?

We blame Pakistan for promoting terrorism; we blame them for training their people to create such situations. But are we not all pure and perfect. Does India not nurture terrorism at all?

Do Indians don’t help people like Kasab to enter our country and kill so many people ruthlessly?

There is a saying in Kannada, am sure there will be similar ones in all the other languages. It goes like this “”, which translates to “There is a hole in every house’s dosa”, this means, we keep trying faults in each other, we never realize there is a fault in us too.

Let’s definitely punish people who do wrong things, lets just not blame others as if we are totally right. If Pakistan is nurturing terrorism and bringing out a new batch frequently, we are no less. We are doing the same thing. If you think about it, they are sending these people to other countries; we are doing the self destruction act.

Neither will Dad

“Wow!!! It’s such a beautiful place. Isn’t it Dad?” asked Sushma, while her dad was busy reading the newspaper. She got a cup of hot coffee for him, the usual in the morning. It did not change today, just because they were on a vacation.

Sushma, got her laptop, wherever she went. She wanted to note any new idea that stuck her. She couldn’t let these idea go away. She was a writer after all. She lived her life with her dad and her characters. When her mother, Latha, was with them, life seemed like a fairytale. Her mom told her so many stories. That’s how Sushma inclination towards writing started. She always wanted to write about her parents’ love story.

“A few girls were on a vacation, to this beautiful hill station. One of them was the blue eyed, Lalitha. She was not very fair, or very tall, but there was something which was prominent in her. You could just feel the warmth when you set your eyes on her.”

The alarm rang. It was time for dad’s breakfast. Sushma, got 2 plates of Semiya Upma and hot coffee. She loved tea, but she drank coffee just so that she could give company to her dad. They always came to their farmhouse for vacation. The three of them had so much fun here.

“Lalitha had finished her final year BA, and all the girls wanted to have one last vacation together. They never knew if they would even meet each other after an year and wanted to make the most of it. Just as the girls were walking around, they came across a beautiful estate. They did not see the “trespassers will be prosecuted” board and went in. The estate manager saw the girls enter and reported it to the owner. Just when the owner came out, his eyes met Lalitha. He was speechless, his anger vanished from the face, and he gestured the girls to come in.”

The bell rang, Sushma did not get up from her chair. Dad tapped her chair twice, but she just did not want to leave her story. Finally, after 3 rings, she went to answer her door. It was her dad’s friend, Ashok. She got him a cup of tea.

“The owner offered the girls coffee and some snacks. He asked them about their background, studies, vacation, duration of stay. He offered to show them around. He then called his youngest son”

Sushma, you really shouldn’t have to got your dad here is what Ashok told her. She had tried a lot, but then dad never agreed to go elsewhere on their vacation.

“It had been 2 years since Lalitha and Sumant got married. They had a beautiful daughter and they just adored her. They were staying in the outhouse of the big estate. Sumant was still the manager in the estate. He loved Lalitha, just as much, since the first time he saw her, when she came there with her friends. He always thought, the owner had good plans to make her his daughter-in-law. The youngest son Deepak, tried his level best to woo her. But destiny had other plans. Everyday, the manager accompanied Deepak and the girls and secretly impressed Lalitha.”

Sushma was called by the cook asking, what they wanted for lunch. Then, she helped dad go back to his room, to get a short nap.

“Deepak, was all set to propose Lalitha. He had gone to the city for a few days to get a beautiful gold ring. Sumant knew about the plan, and decided to propose Lalitha before Deepak came back. The evening before Deepak was supposed to be back, Sumant asked Lalitha to join him for dinner. She secretly wished that he propose to her. Instead of taking her to a fancy restaurant, he invited her home. He had cooked all of her favorite dishes. After some time, Lalitha declared that her stomach was full and she could eat no more. He offered her butterscotch ice cream, as she was eating the ice-cream, she saw a ring in the bowl.”

Sushma, kept her laptop aside. She dint want to continue with the story without her dad’s approval. She went to the room to see if dad was awake. He wasn’t on his bed. She then saw his lying on the easy chair. That was the chair, his mom had got him, so that he could sit in the balcony and relax. She went near him and called out to him. Latha’s photo was on his chest. She could see a tears in the tip of his eyes. He had a smile on his face. His eyes were closed. But he looked content. She shook him a little and his hand dropped down.

Sushma understood, she lived with her dad and her characters. Her characters never spoke to her.. Neither will her Dad.

Sparks!!

Every day, the sparkle at the corner shop, fascinated Anita. She was not sure, if she should share this fascination with anybody. She loved to walk in that road everyday, just to get a glimpse of that sparkle. It was always a mystery for her to know what the sparkle was about.

Anita used to run near the shop and stand to stare at the sparkle. But the shop keeper would drive her away saying it’s not for kids. It was the time she had started reading Enid Blyton books. She sensed some conspiracy, like how it was in her books. She wasn’t sure if her dad would have an answer to this. Also, she was scared her dad might not allow her to go near that shop.

One fine day, she came back from school, and found guys wearing masks and she saw those sparkles. Even though she loved to see those sparkles, she panicked that these guys were doing something to the house. She dint say anything, and silently went to her room. That day, Anita went to bed without dinner. She never made a mention about this to her parents.

Days passed by, it was time for her summer vacation. She went to her grandparents house in a different city. Anita, came back home just a couple of days, before school resumed. In the evening, she went for a walk with her dad, only to find her sparkle shop closed. She observed this for a week, and curiosity had reached a limit. She finally decided to ask her dad about this.

Anita: Dad, why is the sparkle shop closed?

Dad: Sparkle shop? What kind of shop is that?

Anita: The one in the road corner. It’s been closed since I have come back

Dad: Oh that… they have shifted the shop a couple of roads.

Anita thought now is the right moment to ask her dad what they did. So she mustered courage and asked her dad what they do. After all the explanation, Anita asked him, what is such a shop called. He then told her. It’s the WELDING shop

Roadside!!!

I have met very few people who don’t like road side food. But otherwise, 95% of the people I know love it.

Some of them I can think of right now:

Churmuri: with loads of carrots, cucumber, and these days mango pieces, murmura (mandakki or kadlepuri). And now we have so many options with yellow moong (heserbele), tomato puri, nippat (I don’t know what else its called)

JoLaa: the corn which is either boiled or roased on the coal, with some lemon or spicy chutney and many different flavours

Pani puri thelas: The big round puris with aaloo and spicy paani (sweet too) and the final puri where they add chat masala, make it spicy and top it with some lemon.

Masala corn: This is the American corn, which is mixed with different providing different flavours, pepper lemon, chat masala, salt. (it seems American corn has more calories than Indian corn)

The everpresent Chat gaadi: Masala puri, bhel puri, dahi puri, samosa chat, paav bhaji, dabeli, kachori chat… basically spicy stuff which just gives life to the tongue.

Lemon soda: Earlier, we used to have Goli Sodas, in the green bottle, where we would have soda and the shopkeeper would add lemon and salt and give it to us. Now it’s changed, and we have different flavors again – Salt, sweet and salt, jaljeera, ginger and what not

Dosa Camps: How much ever dosas you eat at home, there is nothing to beat the benne masale dose (butter Masala dosa)

Bajjis and Pakodas: Mirchi (mensinkaayi) bajji, Banana(baalekaayi) Bajji, capsicum bajji, onion pakoda, aaloo bonda, ambode (I don’t know what the English counterpart for this is)

Tender coconut: Paper Ganji, where after you are done drinking the water, we can just scrape the thin coconut film. Just sweet coconut water.

Sugarcane juice: Before CaneOLa s came on to our roads, we had those manual machines where the guy would put in the sugarcanes into the crushing machine and rotate the lever manually. Well they old or new, it tastes wonderful

Bakery: Aallo buns, khara buns (spicy), veg puffs and sometimes the hot tea and just baked biscuits (different varieties)

Peanuts: Either boiled or roasted peanuts, which are neatly given in newspapers which are cone shaped

Fruits n Veggies: Cut watermelons, Jackfruit pieces, Cut Guavas with salt and red chilli powder, Cut cucumbers, cut mangoes

PS: Thanks mom for introducing me to most of this. And thanks to G, he also loves all this, so we can enjoy it together