Right Choice?

January 20, 2009
2230 hours

Getting to bed early or watching history unfold.
Getting to bed early or watching history unfold.
Getting to bed early or watching history unfold.
Getting to bed early or watching history unfold.

It's never easy to choose...especially when its between two men!

I am ...

Doordarshan (DD) has been repeatedly playing 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhaara' now that its close to Republic Day. Having lived outside India, I've always explained to my 'foreign' friends that India is like Europe in that there are so many different languages and cultures but all within one country. What I didn't go on to add was that heart of hearts though, most Indians do not think of themselves as Indian, rather South Indian, North Indian or whatever else. Yes, we should be proud of our heritage and culture but not to the point of thinking that one is terribly superior to the other. It irritates me that even among my generation (given the education and exposure that we have), there are still people who have pre-conceived notions about how you will be based on where you're from even before they've gotten to know you.

How unfortunate that what most people remember about this DD classic once its off-air is only its tune.


Read Atma Gyan's latest for her thoughts on this.

Festivals, fun and food! - Pongal

This year I've decided to blog about the million-odd (exaggeration...) festivals that are celebrated in India starting with Pongal. Not like an informative blog about the significance or anything (Wikipedia will have that) but about the different food that is cooked and eaten on those special days. And a little about my experiences cooking them.

Pongal is just about coming to an end. I don't think any other festival has this much food, especially the different dishes made with rice. I feel like I'm about to burst and we still have one more day to go. I've successfully (even if I say so myself) made vadai, semiya payasam, venn pongal, chakra pongal, avial and gotsu. Tomorrow's menu is thenga saadam and thakali sadam.
Reads like a whole host of dishes, but all very simple and easy.

Here are the lessons learnt from my experiment:

• Pressure cooking jaggery with rice, milk and water is not good. It alters the taste of jaggery as well as lengthens the cooking time (Read tart chakra pongal and complete waste of gas).
• Always put in a small 'blob' of whatever you're trying to fry in the hot oil and NOT a whole batch so that a quick taste and texture check can be done. (Luckily the first few pieces were used for the pooja so not eaten by us. Sorry God!)
• Anything that needs to be stirred should NOT be in the back-burner especially when there is something in the front burner also. (Burn marks...duh)!
• The pressure cooker must be closed tight. (It isn't really pressure cooking otherwise).
• All ingredients should be kept ready so nothing is left out in dish. (Raisins went missing in chakra pongal)

This post is a day too early you might wonder...we still have the last day of Pongal left and two more dishes to be made. The expert cook that I am, I'm supremely confident that nothing will go wrong with those. Maybe I'll post some pics to prove it.

Look who's texting / The Text Nazi

I've received a whole bunch of random texts in the past couple of years including notifications of already-approved loans, jobs promising great pay working from home, random advertisements etc. Today was a first though. Early in the morning, my phone buzzed to indicate a new text; Sender name: CHANDRABABU. In my sleepy state I figured it came to me by mistake and I was about to delete it but opened it by mistake. It was some mumbo jambo about Sankranthi and New year wishes to all proud Telugu people from Nara Chandrababu Naidu. After a second, I realised that it was a message from the ex-chief minister of Andhra Pradesh probably hoping to accumulate some goodwill and get some votes in the upcoming election.

Too bad it came at the crack of dawn and woke me and a bunch of other people up. No vote for you...NEXT!

TGFI

Tees with lace and frills and pants so tight that the seam is bordering on bursting through. Shoes costing 6000 rupees and only designer socks. The latest and greatest Bollywood tracks blaring...and then there's me with my fish out of water look...old tracks, comfy (old) tee, oooooooold comfy shoes and socks wishing for some quiet else some bearable music.

The joys of working out at a supposedly hip gym where the city's who's who work out. Thank God (or at least Apple and of course, you Shobs) for my Ipod.

Adios 2008, Hola 2009

(Title for this blog dedicated to my dear little Spanish-speaking Dora and Diego-loving daughter)

Another year gone by and so quickly too. Tonnes of dirty diapers getting dirtier, sleepless nights getting sleepier and still more tantrum-filled days getting...better, its been an interesting one. I wouldn't ask for anything else though. Honestly. As I get ready to welcome in the new year, I wonder what it is about this day every year that makes everyone list out their so called 'resolutions'. Things that they want to do or want to give up doing. Making a clean start on the 1st of the year and hoping that it will result in a better life or at least a better year. So here's my list. Promises, lies and all things in between.

I will exercise everyday.
I won't yell at the kids.
I will eat healthy.
I won't waste time surfing randomly.
I will read a book a week.
I won't get mad at my help everyday.
I will improve on my Hindi and Telugu.
I won't buy stuff for the heck of it.
I will blog more regularly.
I won't be too random in my thoughts. And I won't ramble on.

Happy New Year 2009!

Black Thursday

It's shameful what's been happening in Bombay since last night. When will they see that this is not the answer? Innocents injured, people dying on the job. God bless all those that have given their lives fighting this madness and God be with those that are still out there trying to save the rest.

Yes, it is shameful the way things are panning out but I find it even more shameful that the breaking news on almost all the channels is that England have cancelled the remainder of their tour. We all love sports, especially our cricket. But please, let's put things in perspective.

The Namesake

We loved it. It was short, cute and yet powerful. It wasn't a new name, just that we had never heard it used alone...by itself. It was a part-of-something-else name. But we still loved it. The reactions were mixed. The older generation found it hard to conceal their bewilderment. The younger generation (ours) thought it was cool. Whenever we mention it now, there's always a follow-up question...about the meaning and if there is more to it.

It makes me wonder if we've pulled a Gogol...

Resemblance bias...or is it?

The baby looks like...who? Mom? Dad? Mom's brother? Dad's sister? Paternal Grandad? Maternal great grandmom? None of them??? A completely random-looking baby? Isn't is amazing how different people can see whomever they want to see in a little baby? And it doesn't even stop with just overall resemblance, but goes into much greater detail.

Nose looks like dad's, fingers are shaped like mom's and so on. And you don't hear all this only from friends and family who have a reason to be biased. Step outside the house (at least in India) and you will have complete strangers stop by and take a stand on who the child looks like leaving the parent awarded the resemblance feeling--secretly, of course--very thrilled, while the other parent--visibly, of course--very irritated.

This must mean that all moms and dads resemble each other in some strange way. How else could you explain such a peculiar phenomenon? 

Train travel trial(s)

Every summer all through school, I took train journeys with my grandparents. Rocky motion, non-stop snacking, reading under the dim lift-up lights, sleeping in the upper berth...many fond memories but always one peeve. The loos. As a kid, I don't think anything was scarier than the thought of having to use those loos. Many years have passed, many new trains and routes introduced, many techie things added(like plug points in the compartments, cell phone towers for coverage etc) but the loos have stayed the same. And overall cleanliness seems to have worsened.

I discovered this at the cost of taking my kids on a long train ride from Hyderabad to Madras. Sky rocketing fuel prices increasing the cost of flight tickets and saying Bye bye to Begumpet prompted this experimental train ride to Madras. First a/c is the business class of train rides or so we thought. (First class would be attaching your own coach to the train). The compartment was far from clean, the berths needing quite a bit of dusting and washing. An orange coloured cheese ball turned black after being dropped in the gap between the window glass and metal fix (Our intrigued kid was keen to taste that as well). A half hour into the ride and a trip to the loo revealed a broken potty and dirty, messy floors leaving it absolutely unusable. The bedding that was provided was musty-smelling and sneeze-inducing. And to top off all that, the train staff were not friendly or helpful. It's ironic that there was a bell to call them if we needed anything, but even a face-to-face didn't accomplish much. The one thing that they promptly did was to wake everyone up at all unearthly hours indicating the arrival of an important station making sure to mention that it was their job to do so.

Overall, the experiment was a bit of a flop. We will most certainly fly on our next trip. What trials that may bring is anyone's guess.