May mein...

Things am looking forward to in rest of May

• My ma-in-law's famous kozhakattais (modaks, sweet momos, steamed sweet south indian delicacy)



• Thalaivar's 'Sivaji'.



• Going home to be with my dad on his b'day.



• My Insti's alumni meet in Bombay. (hope to meet batchmates after passing out ages ago!)



• Buying some kurtas at FabIndia.

• And some good times...for good times = Santori times! (I love 'Lost in Translation')

Cooking in Hell!

As a child, with my parents and all living grandparents (3 of 'em) staying with us, I grew up royally pampered.Yeah, true!Never learnt how to make tea or coffee or even 'thayir saadam' (curd rice). I know it translates to 'ultra-spoilt' and sub zero cooking skills!

So that being the prologue, let me cut to the actual incident that occurred last evening.I decided to make a simple 'dal-palak' khichdi and cucumber raita for dinner last night.Decided one couldn't go wrong with cucumber raita.Peeled the cukes. Cut 'em beautifully. Salted 'em. Added milk, curd etc etc. And then tasted it proudly and professionally (yeah, like the cooks in 'Iron Chef').Then spat in disgust.

Did you know that there are some world-weary BITTER cukes in the world???
I learnt yesterday!

To the embarrassing sound of laughter-directed-at-you, I heard my beloved patidev go on to describe my cooking exploits many moons ago, to my ma-in-law. A hitherto secret gaffe,now out for the world to smile at!

I got married a coupla years ago. Traveled across many seas to a new home with a brand-new husband! Patidev showed me a kitchen bigger than my current house at Bombay!The next morn after he left for work, I decided to use my brand new Meenakshi Ammal 'Cook and See - I' and make a fabulous sambaar. (New Husband = Full Enthusiasm)

Like a good house husband, my patidev had stocked various colored spice-powders in similar looking jars in a row. There was a red one, an orangish-brown one and a yellowish-orange one. So I decided that the first one was 'sambaar podi', the second 'rasam podi' and the third 'Turmeric'.
Made sambaar EXACTLY as per proportions in the book.
Tasted it.
My tongues protested at the red-hot sting.
Screamed.
Drank a gallon of water straight.
Crying, I threw away the sambaar.

But I don't accept defeat too quickly. (at least I like to believe that!) So I tried sambaar the next day.
Same result. Trash.
Again the next. Same result. More trash.
Trash. Sigh!
Trash. Hated sambaar by friday evening.

Saturday arrived. My patidev announced he'd make sambaar :(

I decided to 'supervise' him :)To my horror, he pulled out powder II to make it(yeah the orangish brown one) So (with me quaking in my boots in 'realization waiting to occur') I asked him what the powders were.
yellowish-orange = Rasam Powder (turmeric is YELLOW only)
orangish-brown one = Sambar powder

red one = Chilli Powder (Drat, they powder chillies too!)
Did you know that there are three standard spices in a south Indian kitchen????
I learnt that day!

Felt as enlightened as Gautama Buddha.

Shall never stop hearing about this gaffe. Can already imagine a conversation 75 years later at a south-Indian wedding, with my grandson reassuring my grand daughter-in-law, "Oh, don't worry about cooking. You'll learn. Even in those bygone days, cooking was never an issue. Do you know what my grandma did....."

SIGH!!

Crossroads

Have you ever stood at crossroads, wondering which road would lead you to your destination?
Felt confused?
Bewildered?
Prayed you were choosing the right one?

I have!

Personally, it is difficult to choose between two options. And standing at the crossroads, confusion prevails.

It is probably a better idea to choose a road, figure out if it is smooth enough, and if not, return to the crossroads to choose the other.

But what if the other one is bumpy too?
Is it wise to keep going from one road to another?
What if choosing a road is irreversible?
What if crossroads are important decisions in life... such as family, career etc?

Decisions decisions... too many crossroads in life.

Reminds me of Richard Bach's 'One', where he talks about many of us starting at the same place, but turning out differently because of decisions we make at each junction.

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."

I promise...

...that I shall never be associated with Bacchus or Dionysus or Liber or the lot...grroooan!

"Little drummers in my head
Practising for the R Day parade
Did they slip in with the wine?"

The Comeback Kid

As my rickshaw was perilously close to being crushed between a monstrous looking truck and an overcrowded bus in the maddening Bombay traffic near the airport, I promised the Big Man Up there that I would do many things, but needed to live with 32 intact to do 'em. It included getting in touch with long-lost friends, cleaning my clothes shelf, being more regular in my calls to my grandparents, losing weight(always!), giving up chocolates, not arguing with my partner...and reviving my fledgling of a frozen blog.

The thawing and de-freezing attempt is this post. (yeah, 'the crushing embrace' was that close!) In an attempt to leave a memory for posterity (if the world is not destroyed and blog sites do not become dusty libraries) herez my list of favourites ever & dislikes ever(relatively in my 27 wonderful years of existence).

Lets start with the usual.

Books I swear by
JLS, The Godfather, Love Story, The Kite Runner, Gone With The Wind, Bridges of Madison County, The Alchemist

Movies I'd've loved to be in
The Godfather, Silsila, Lost in Translation, Brokeback Mountain, Sound of Music, Crash, Roman Holiday, Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire, Mouna Ragam, Bombay(the tam version)

Places I HAVE to see
Srilanka, Greece, The Great Wall of China, Egypt, Jerusalem, Alaska, Leh-Ladakh, Kashmir, Disneyland, Scotland, Germany, Turkey, My dream home

Food I can't do without
Coffee, Chocolate(!), Italian food, VennPongal, Vella cheedai, Kozhakattai, Bhelpuri, Sauvignon Blanc, Mint Tea

Fave Songs Ever(for their associated memories, the music, the lyrics)
Uyire Uyire(Bombay), En Mel Vizhuntha Mazhaithuliye(May Maadam), Dil Se Re(Dil Se), Edelweiss(Sound of Music), Sweet Child O'Mine(Guns 'n Roses), Time(Pink Floyd), Losing My Religion(R.E.M), Come Undone(Duran Duran), Like a Prayer(Madonna), Top of the World(Carpenters)

Best Features in a person (what I dig, baby!)
Sense of humour, Dignity, Crisis management, Ability to laugh at himself...easily, Honesty, A ready smile, Dimples (that had to creep in there!) Of course being Successful and Famous and Rich help, but not much!

Pet Peeves

• Spitting on the road...often
• Rudeness
• Raised voice
• Violence, abuse of any kind
• Letting parents/grandparents fend for themselves.
• Pettiness
• Money-mindedness
• Eyeing other women openly
• Kids crying (it breaks my heart)

I enjoy..

Being woken up with a smile, Smell of the first rains (petrichor?), Breezy walk by the beach, Romantic candlelit dinners, Surprise gifts, Sound of a deep-throated chuckle, Good Coffee, A movie/play/musical concert/speech that moves me, Stand-up comedies, Good simple food (Preferably my mom's!)

"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things"

Immigration and Cherry Trees!

Ps:(i start with one!) I decided I wouldn't blog, but reading a couple of articles got my fingers itching to b1tch?! Just kidding.. wanting to write again!

So today is May Day.. a holiday in India. My friends back home are on a holiday in a beach resort. I am at office. So are tonnes of other American residents. Today is a 'day without immigrants'. So many of the immigrant lot, especially undocumented ones are not at work atleast in LA. Including at radio stations, which've ended up playing mindless sad music.

American society has multiple opinions on immigration. Neo conservatives and nationalists opine that immigration itself should be disallowed, that there is no reason to hear a language other than English, no reason to dole out the American Dream to anyone. They wish to hermetically seal the country's borders and to deport the 'illegal aliens' back to their country of origin. And then there are the liberals, talking about sharing the American Dream with the world, and opening up borders to the world and remembering that America itself is a land of immigrants . And then there are the liberals who seek to have a bill to get the 'Undocumented immigrants' to pay taxes and to get started on the path to American citizenship.

Where do I stand on all of these?
* Immigration is unavoidable with the world becoming smaller (remember the phrase 'Global Village'?!) So people leave a place and move to another, sometimes another country.
* Once in Rome do as Romans do. So in the US, the immigrants need to understand the lingua franca of English, swear by the American law(and abide by it)and sing the anthem in English(can't imagine the Indian national anthem in Chinese.. ever!)
* Borders...yes, there needs to be better border patrolling.
* Also a better Bill(capital 'B' intended!) to deal with the current 12+ million immigrants. Better cultural acceptance and equal benefits.

US of A has currently not even scratched the surface of the pie. First of all, it classifies all, and I mean all the Spanish speaking immigrants as Latin Americans! (including Mexicans and South Americans and Hispanics!) And the immigrants themselves have a lot of dissimilarities.. an Ecuadorean is so so different from a Mexican from a Peru national! Even the language is actually different.. so a Spanish word intended as a compliment to one could end up being an insult to another! Secondly, not everyone has come to the US just now. There are people who just stepped on US soil yesterday and there are third generation immigrants who are as American as the descendants of the Mayflower immigrants. Everyone is being bundled together in one word 'Immigrants' and treated in the same manner. And then there is the issue of entire families having relocated to the US vs. breadwinners in US with families back home. And finally, treating documented and undocumented immigrants with the same contempt!

I think culturally we have a lot to learn. And a lot of prejudice to let go of.

A famous "latin american" saying goes (loosely translated) "to hurt a man don't hit his back, grab his b@lls instead!"

Finally a word on the other half of the 'subject'.. the cherry trees. The 'sakura matsuri' cherry trees are in full bloom everywhere.. i have never seen such beautiful blooms elsewhere. Washington, New York City and Philadelphia are especially blessed with exceptionally beautiful and bountiful cherry trees. The cherry trees so touted by the US as 'the harbinger of the US spring' and as a 'US beauty' etc. is also an immigrant!

Blogs and American Kids

6th April, 2006

I have to express wonder at the number of blogs that exist. I come from a generation which definitely knows how to use a computer, can write with a pen as well as type on a keyboard. May or may not be too gadget friendly. And blogging is perhaps not an uncommon activty, but not highly prevalent either.

Today's high school kids, as I view the spectrum in the US of A is vastly different. Kids here use laptops at school. Apple i-books at that. (and to think Apple is still to enter the Indian market in a big way!) It seems that one of the biggest difficulties parents face here is monitoring what the kids see and write on. Porn is easily available on the net. So are entire websites on how to be anorexic or bulimic or how to concoct the newest intoxicant or mindless games where all you do is kill figures hiding behind bushes. So are newspapers and literature and classical music. But those things usually do not excite the average kid. Parents am sure are worried! And how kids blog! Some blogs even have a count of number of times the blogger used the restroom et al. Gross.

My point is that the joy of reading or wandering around in a park, social skills and family time are the victims. Without these, I wonder how the adults would turn out to be. A world of computer savvy, somewhat unsocial, non book-loving adults? Sounds like a scenario that I don't care about. What can be done? can't ask the porn vendors to put an age restriction, can we?! Or restrict the sites a kid visits. Kids are too smart for that. So maybe actively involve kids in other activities. Maybe. I wonder.

On the subject of blogging, I kinda enjoyed http://www.meghalomania.com/ May want to read it too!

May the Force be With You!