High on life or publicity?

Paris Hilton finally got out of the prison. I wanted to watch her on Larry King Live yesterday but I got busy and didn't watch it. I just caught a glimpse of the program and this was when Larry King asked Paris what is the one thing she would like to change about herself/Paris? and she replies the way I laugh when I am nervous, apparently she gets a bit shrill, she said. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She sat there with sadness in her eyes (or feigning sadness I should say?) and trying to look gloomy and weak and if all the rest of the responses were as dumb and hollow as that one - I don't think I missed anything. I have definitely been enjoying Jay Leno's comments on her! And apparently according to him the reason Larry King was wearing extra pair of suspenders yesterday at the interview was cos his wife forced him to cos he was the first man she (Paris) was meeting after getting out of prison LOL :)

BTW I happened to read that Eva Longoria is being paid 2 Mil for exclusive wedding pictures of her and Tony Parker at their wedding by some Ok! magazine. (Angelina I guess charged 4 Mil for the pictures of her daughter to be published if I am not wrong). I sincerely hope there is a law passed which requires such type of income to be donated to charity. I would like to call this social waste.

Rozana..

I finally got over my cribby mood last evening with a garam cup of chai. I made some dondakayi curry with papu-chaaru which turned out so yum, husband and I enjoyed for dinner. And we watched this Hindi movie 'Life in a Metro', it was a pretty different movie, and as usual Konkana Sen's acting was very good. I thought Shilpa Shetty looked a bit old (watched her after a long time - but her body was great as usual), And I quite liked the song Alvida. I was yearning for a new Hindi movie for a while and I was glad when I was able to watch this last night. Somehow the way I enjoy Hindi movies I cannot enjoy others except very few Telugu movies. Even though a few friends of mine try to convince me that Telugu comedy is much better, its just something I cannot appreciate as much. I am not sure what it is; but after a long time if I get to watch proper Hindi movies I feel good to simply hear the language.

That makes me wonder the influence of Hindi movies on my life. My parents have been into movies since they were young. So when I grew up the Bollywood movies influence was immense. I used to listen to all the Kishore Kumar and Mohd. Rafi songs - and watch movies with actors ranging from Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, (upto here by dad was mainly in charge) Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh (70's my mom was in charge). With Doordarshan the only channel listening to all those songs on the tape was very common on weekends. And of course the radio would also be playing various songs. I have also watched most of the movies myself. So the trend to watch Hindi movies continued when I grew up. When I was really young Hero and Betaab were my favorite. My mom reminds me how I would listen to those songs continuously. I am sure most of you guys my age group would agree too. I still love those songs!

Then I lost touch briefly with Hindi movies (I don't think I missed anything other than a few Mithun movies). The kids I used to hang out with were evenly spread Telugu and Hindi speaking. So my Telugu phase began and lasted for a short period. I watched few of Balakrishna movies don't ask me why but he was my favorite (Duh! not now when I was I was a kid). Manga amma gari manvadu was my favorite movie and then this other movie Maapela Gopaludu I have absolutely no clue if I even understood the movie ;). Once Tezaab and Ram-Lakhan released I bounced back to Hindi movies and have stuck to it ever since until Ninne-Peladtha, Santhosham, Manmadhudu happened. Actually I think I did watch a bit of Rajendra Prasad also in between.

Hollywood movies of course were watched side by side. My dad was a big fan of Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer, Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas and a few others so most of the popular movies I would watch thanks to Dad. Once cable TV hit homes then it was easy to keep in touch with the latest movies of course.

I seriously cannot imagine life without Hindi movies, songs, dancing and the drama and of course the gossip!

Tsssssk!

I am so bored and bugged of all the pictures people put up in their Orkut albums - have you seen some of those pictures? - where in husband-wife are hugging each other, husband is kissing wife (bha!), and some depicting their entire life history from the dog they own, to the car they drive. Get a life mate! What is it that they want? Acceptance? People praising them and saying "Oh your so so lucky, you loooook so happy! " Oh please save all that self-love for some other time you needy souls!

Crib! Crib!

Environment

Its simply great that 'environment' in general is receiving attention from organizations and governments. For what its worth from Al Gore's global warming videos, to Australia banning the incandescent lights and plan to switch to energy efficient lights, to the most recent step taken in SFO banning bottled water in government department is simply wonderful. When I read it sitting in RMV yesterday - its so thoughtful, I muttered to myself! Just when sometimes you think things are going haywire here comes a ray of hope. In fact if you have read the Bloomberg-Schwarzenegger article in TIME, The New Action Heroes, you'd be pretty impressed what the billionaires are up to, Bloomberg actually takes the subway to work. Not sure if its one of those publicity stunts but surely helping the environment. I also found this link which gives a few good tips how to make your home green. I guess we can contribute to the environment using this as a starting point. But undoubtedly there must be drastic measures taken especially by larger nations such as China and India - long way to go ..!

License to drive

I finally managed to schedule my appointment for today at the RMV (Registry of Motor Vehicles) at Framingham, MA. Last year I was on a visitor's status to the US and hence did not attempt to take the license. This year I waited for the winter to pass and all the snow to melt. Finally after driving for 6-8 weekends (weekdays husband takes the car to work) I took the plunge.

This morning I woke up a bit nervous not sure what to expect cos I have heard various stories some of them claiming how easy it is to pass the test and other how rigorous it is. In New Zealand I know they were pretty strict which such stuff. I started driving a car from 2003 after moving to New Zealand. I took five classes and with little bit of practice it was a cake walk. However I was only eligible for "Restricted License". As I was under 25 I had to wait 18 months to take the Full license or take the Defense Driving training after 6 months as a short cut and take the final road test. With Restricted license you can only drive from 6am in the morning to 10pm and can only take your family members in the car. That was quite okay with me. Besides with 40 bucks each class I had spent 200 already, the stingy student in me did not want to spend more for the Defense driving and insurance (which is also higher if below 25 apparently). Moreover most of the people told me in NZ that the Full license road test is usually a 30-45 minute affair. They take you on the inner roads, make you do all the possible 3 point or 5 point turns (lol), parallel park, change lanes on motorway (freeway) and then they also ask you to narrate hazards at every stage (to check how observant you are?) etc.

When I called the RMV for the appointment the rep on the phone told me the test should take any where from 5 to 20 minutes. I was happy to hear that for a start. My driving is pretty decent but I can get nervous and flustered at times. I also never parallel parked and recently learnt it, I wasn't too nervous about it though actually I like parallel parking now :) but I was generally worried about mood of the person who would grade my driving - the silly stuff that can ruin my prospects.

When I reached the RMV I saw the inspector and was a bit nervous. Well inspector in uniform what can you expect eh? Anyways I was third in queue on a VW Jetta (which my husband painfully drives everyday cos I made him by the smallest car cos I am still not used to driving big cars), a Volvo in front of me and BMW was the first vehicle. Both the cars had teenage girls in them. The inspector took the girl in the BMW asked her the hand signals and got back in less than 5 minutes, then again the Volvo followed and got back in 5 minutes. That was quick I thought and was happy but there was no one else behind me in the queue so the inspector could spend more time to test my driving skills - shoot!

Anyways inspector came and sat beside me. My husband sat behind. I had hinted him enough times it was not required for him to be there (as two people watching me might make me more nervous). Anyways the inspector asked me the hand signals which I dutifully showed and then asked me to start the car and take an immediate right. I indicated the road was empty, thank god I thought and started driving and suddenly out of nowhere there is this really old Asian (Chinese to be precise) lady with a cart pushing (she even wore one of those Vietnamese/Chinese pointed hats) and walking feebly towards me. Bloody Hell! I thought in my mind thats it - end of story. Where the heck did she come from?. She was carrying some filthy stuff in the cart and looked like a destitute. I waited for her to pass, she acknowledged and waved - poor lady! I thought felt bad for her anyways I continued, indicated and took a right. The road led to a STOP sign with the red light flashing. I waited and he asked me too take a couple of left turns and stop near the kerb. He asked me to reverse a bit which I did. He asked me to take the three point turn. Now this was something I hadn't done for a long time but it was easy. Then I got back to the road from where we started and it was all over in less than 5 minutes. He asked me to take my temperory license (the actual license would be mailed out) and bid goodbye.

Yes! It was that easy. I was unnecessarily that scared - but yes that Chinese lady still remains a mystery (reminds me of some mythological stories when people would disguise and come to test your values blink!blink!). And my husband is glad to get rid of VW Jetta. That was the story of how I obtained my license in the US of A.

Little Women

Most of us have a strong attachment to the non-details we had in school. I had Little Women in my fifth class. Like most girls at that age I fell in love with that book and still love reading it once in a while. The best part about reading such books is how we get to imagine the characters, the background settings etc. I really enjoy reading especially such classics simply because I like to day dream while reading them. I finally got a copy of the Little Women in Walmart (Winona Ryder (who plays Jo) and Susan Sarandon (who plays Marmie). One afternoon I watched it and simply fell in love with it. It perfectly fell in place - the exact details I imagined as a young girl - all the characters of Laurie, Beth and Meg and Amy...simply perfect! even Hannah and Aunt March.

Moreover even before I saw this movie I had visited Lousia May Alcott's (the author) residence turned museum in Concord (Massachusetts) yes the place is the setting for the story as well.

Orchard House:



Hence this experience drew me closer to the classic.

If you have not already watched this version and your a Little Women fan like me - the movie is a must watch; but yes certain details were obviously cut. But no where did I feel that there was a disconnect. [It usually happens when I read the book first and then watch the movie (Ahem!)] but not for this one.

When you married n drunk, even if you cant walk the walk, you gotta talk the talk!!

Found this old forward when clearing my inbox!

Martin wakes up at home with a huge hangover. He forces himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of aspirins and a glass of water on the side table. He sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all clean and pressed. Martin looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect order, spotless, clean. So is the rest of the house.

He takes the aspirins and notices a note on the table. "Honey, breakfast is on the stove, I left early to go shopping. Love You!"

So he goes to the kitchen and sure enough there is a hot breakfast and the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Martin asks, "Son, what happened last night?"

His son says, "Well, you came home around 3 AM, drunk and delirious. Broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and gave yourself a black eye when you stumbled into the door."

Confused, Martin asks, "So, why is everything in order and so clean, and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"

His son replies, "Oh, that! Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you said, "Lady leave me alone! I'm married!"

Moral
-----
Self-induced hangover -- $100.00
Broken furniture -- $2,000.00
Breakfast -- $10.00
Saying The Right Thing While Drunk -- PRICELESS

Baale ele-oota/ the Banana leaf meal tradition!

I am not sure how many of you agree with me, but some of the best meals I have enjoyed so far (in my life) has been in a traditional southie style (south-indian), sitting on the floor and eating from a banana leaf (yes! Ele-Oota literal translation in Kannada means leaf-meal) and yes with my hand.

I never paid too much attention to food when I was a kid (I disliked eating, very strangely I was a milk drinker and I still am ;) a large glass of milk without sugar and I would be content, I was thus a poor eater). But once I visited Udupi when I was a little older and visited the Udupi Shree Krishna Temple and we all had a meal at the temple, and it was on a banana leaf. I remember rice and some curry and usual pickles were served and then came this piping hot saar/saaru (Rasam in Kannada and Konkani and chaaru in Telugu). When I mixed it with hot rice and ghee (clarified butter), SLURRRP!!!!! it was heaven on earth. The most tastiest meal I ever had. Finally it dawned on me that food is much more than for merely surviving, its an experience that can teach you to live for the moment (I seem to be dwelling too much in my past and/or present these days tsk!). Then my chickamma (aunt) explained to me that what adds taste to the meal is actually the banana leaf itself not just the tasty piping hot saaru. She showed me this mini experiment at home - in hot rice she added hot saaru and the color of the leaf actually turned lighter because of the heat from the food. Wow! I was enlightened, (Hmm so I guess the chlorophyll adds taste then eh?) and from that day I have been a great fan of food served on banana/plantain leaf. And you know what you have to develop the knack how to eat on the leaf else your saaru will be flowing outside your leaf and can get messy.

I am not sure how many people are aware of this but there is actually rules for serving the items on a banana leaf. The below diagram would describe in detail what a traditional Udupi-Kannadiga meal reconstitutes of and the arrangement on the leaf.

Source: http://www.udupipages.com/home/recipe/banana.html

Learn the traditional way of serving food on plantain leaves in the traditional Udupi style 1. Uppu (Salt) 2. Uppinakai (Pickles) 3. Chutney Pudi (Chutney Powder) 4. Kosumbri (Green Gram Salad) 5. Kosumbri (Bengal Gram Salad) 6. Kayi Chutney (Coconut Chutney) 7. Beans Pallya (Fogath) 8. Gujje Pallya (Jack Fruit Fogath) 9. Chvitranna (Lemon Rice) 10. Happala (Papad) 11. Sandige (Crispies) 12. Kadubu (Steamed Rice Cake) 13. Anna (Rice) 14. Thovve (Dal) 15. Sihigojju (Raitha) 16. Saru (Rasam) 17. Uddinahittu (Black Gram Paste) 18. BadanePodi (Brinjal Pakoda) 19. Menaskai (Sweet And Sour Gravy) 20. Goli Baje (Maida Fry) 21. Avial (Vegetabel Mix) 22. Gatti Baje (Ladies Finger Pakoda) 23. Gulla Koddel (Brinjal Sambar) 24. Chiroti Milk (Sweet) 25. Gojjambade (Masalwada Curry) 26. Kayi Holige (Sweet Coconut Chapati) 27. Vangi Bath (Vegetable Upma) 28. Bharatha (Sour Ginger Gravy) 29. Paradi Payasa (Sweet) 30. Mosaru (Curds) 31. Majjige (Butter Milk)

My grandparents are very passionate about food in general. Whenever there were any functions in our family we had a patented cook who would come and cook for us. We always made sure we had our meals in banana leaves and ate it sitting on the floor. Grandparents insisted thats how a traditional meal is enjoyed. Even to this day they do not use a dining table (They believe thats what actually keeps them flexible too which is true cos my dad struggles to sit on the floor now and prefers a table). BTW an advantage of using banana leaves is also that there is less dish washing to do :) (later days when the servant maid would bunk we would eat on the leaves to save ourselves from dish- washing ;)).

Finally, it also dawned on me (post enlightenment phase) one of the advantages of attending weddings besides enjoying all the dressing up (and keeping in touch with our contacts) was also to eat a good Kannada meal from a banana leaf. Unfortunately the trend slowly declined and now I am sure even in smaller towns in Karnataka people do not sit on the floor like before or don't quite use a banana leaf too. Gosh! Its almost dinner time and I am talking about food and especially about that tasty saaru on a banana leaf, my mouth is watering.
Long live the baale ele-oota / banana leaf meal tradition!

Continental airlines fiasco

Did everyone hear about what happened in that Continental Airlines flight. The flight from Amsterdam to New Jersey witnessed the most horrible sewage flow/seep and poor travelers had to sit through it. Can you imagine the torture. If your like me who flies through Economy and simply cannot sleep on the flight and struggles for leg room (Ah! my long legs) and dislikes the flight food. Ok what is it that I like about flying? Nothing! I hate it -in addition to all this imagine the stench! Urgghh!

My sympathies from the bottom of my heart to all those passengers. Apparently the flight stopped over in Ireland 'supposedly' got the loo repaired and in running condition, only for the problem to start all over again. Awww! what a shame! Continental apparently apologized that the travelers had to sit through human waste and gave them a 500 dollar gift voucher. Your kidding me! I totally agree with a passenger who says he felt physically abused and neglected. (Hmmm! I learn new forms of abuse each day besides my daily doze of Law and Order).

Now for the Jay Leno question of the day. Media was referring to sewage on the flight as 'raw sewage' ; so what other form of sewage exists? (cooked ?)

Kudos Amma!

I am a half Kannadiga and Konkani, my native place being Udupi in Karnataka, that is my dad's side. Dad's family migrated to Hyderabad when my dad was really young. Hence he is more Hyderabadi than most people in Hyderabad :) (Yes with all the nakko and kaiku). While my mom is a Manglorean but born-brought up in interior Andhra, mainly based out of Rajahmundry. So how do you think cooking style was at my home? Very unique and what I would call a true Karnataka-Andhra blend. I am taking this opportunity to acknowledge my mom's cooking and her spirit in maintaining the individual cuisines (Kannada/Konkani/Andhra) in our house intact. Having married a Gult (Telugu/Andhrite) I am immensely thankful to her for the cook that I am turning out to be!

In my opinion Kannada cuisine constitutes very mild and tasty food. Its not that spicy nor is it oily. Some of the dishes are slightly sweet (No not as sweet as Gujju food). And yes they do use dessicated coconut quite a bit in the food and to make masalas. Use of coconut oil is somewhat moderate. Yes! coconut oil. I remember once a friend and I were chatting and she mentioned to me in astonishment when she realized Keralites consume coconut oil. She was a North Indian and she couldn't digest the fact. I dont understand what is the big deal about consuming coconut oil. Isn't it like any other oil sunflower, sesame, peanut, and so is coconut. Now was that tough to comprehend? Or for that matter every part of coconut is consumed so why not oil. As you can see I am quite passionate about this topic. Yes! I get a bit antsy when people cannot accept the fact that coconut oil can be consumed.

Anyway, Konkani cuisine is a mixture of all the South Indian cuisines (except Andhra) and Maharashtrian + Goan. Most liquids (like rasam, sambhar) are made out of coconut based masalas (including coconut milk). Most tadkas (seasoning) are coconut oil based. And konkanis consume a lot of pulses in their food. Its pretty different from your regular South Indian food, healthy and tasty not too mild not too spicy either. (If you have not tasted Konkani food yet and you know me ;) be my guest). And if your a foodie and want to know more what Konkani food is like, check out this blog - its pretty good http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/

While, Andhra food most of us are familiar with anyway curries are mostly in the form of fries/Vepudu. Bit spicy, bit more oily and the yummy varieties of daals /pappu, the pickles, gives a real kick when you eat it.

My mom cooked all three cuisines very well. She mostly preferred Andhra food herself. But she combined all three for our daily meals. For example curry would be Andhra style, the liquids (not sure what else to call it) would be Konkani style. Sometime it would be totally Andhra food and sometimes totally Karnataka. Its more interesting than I narrate it :)

I am finally trying to imitate my mom and do the same and am doing a decent job. I have never cooked until I got married. And hence when I started cooking I made sure I noted down all my mother's recipe in one book (yes title is very cliched: Amma's recipes) carefully. Thats my kitchen bible. I dont need to refer for day to day cooking but once in a while I do take a peep to make some authentic dish. Mostly Karnataka dishes cos Andhra food you find it on the internet very easily. Sometimes I feel everyday-food as in roj ka khana becomes more interesting when there are more than one cuisines involved in the kitchen like my mom's kitchen/cuisine I described. Thats a big plus and makes it less mundane and it mostly occurs when people from different communities get married for us desis.

Janmabhoomi

One fine morning in college (St Francis) we were informed that we had the option of working in the Janmabhoomi programme. The option was to make up our attendance (those of us who had less attendance). Mine was a borderline case, I had just managed enough attendance but thought to be on safe side might as well take it up by enrolling in this programme. Janmabhoomi was a State funded project in India introduced by then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Nara Chandra Babu Naidu, based on the concept of 'involving people' in governance (thats what democracy is all about eh?) to educate the less fortunate on illiteracy, hygiene and population control etc. Do visit this website http://chandrababunaidu.com/ . Our role would be to primarily collect statistics. We would also be paid Rs. 50 per day, so we were informed.

As mentioned we just took this up for our own selfish 'attendance' reason. Otherwise, we saw it as a pain to go in the hot sun to every home (rather be in a mall!) we had to collect the name of the head of the household and number of members and some basic statistics. I remember there were 10 questions in total. It was a five day affair if I am not wrong. Anyway we were all allotted an area we had to go in a group and then take up one street each in that locality and note down the statistics in a book. We started of with some middle class apartments near the airport (Begumpet, Prakash Nagar I think its called). People were surprisingly very welcoming and helpful. I was very surprised I thought people would be mad at us and react to invasion of privacy (imagine a stranger ringing the door bell on a hot afternoon and asking questions).

The real challenge anyway waswhen we moved to the semi-slum areas. It was what I can say 'heart-rending'. There were families with 5 to 7 members squeezed in one room two room houses. There was a family with with young children with oldest child disabled. The parents were working so hard to make ends meet and not having food to eat, proper drinking water and sanitation facilities. They were real people with real problems. Now that was something I was not prepared for. And they mistook me to be a government employee and started sharing all their problems with me. What could I do! I felt so helpless for the first time. I was not ready for such situations - I just froze! We were given one teacher from school/college who would come along with a group and monitor with us. I asked for her advise and she too didn't know what to do.

There were two more specific cases which left a mark. This particular family had way too many kids (11 if I am not wrong!) and that guy was in distress, unable to financially support the household. So what does one think in such a situation? (Yes, the gold question) Why so many kids if he cannot maintain them? Then he actually mentioned that he being a religious person could not adopt family planning options and will have children as long as god grants him. This sounded so ridiculous when I heard for the first time. But well how can I argue or reason with a person who is not very well educated, very religious and undergoing so much hardship. I just stood there dumbfounded. I usually do not like to comment when 'religion' is involved. And in this situation I was too scared as I was not familiar with the people and the surroundings.

At another home there were a really old couple staying with their divorced daughter. The daughter was working and was away when I got there. I happened to speak to her father. He mentioned that what she earns along with their pension is barely enough for their survival. The elderly man seemed educated and spoke to me in English. When I mentioned why I was there he was furious. He yelled at me that there is no use cos he knows no action will be taken and what is the purpose of collecting such statistics? He started of how the root cause of all the problems was Nehru's reign that began post independence and so on. As much as I respected his views I was once again so stuck in my situation.

In my opinion the whole Janmabhoomi experience and the concept itself was very good. It opened our eyes to all the different problems people were facing. Not only that - we got a snapshot of their lifestyle (when we visited their homes) and income levels and how they survive - large families in small homes with limited incomes. Especially encouraging students to do this task and enlightening them on the current realities, was a good plan. Unfortunately its should not have been restricted to collecting statistics alone. I wish a social worker from some organization would help us out from all the reports we had, so that we could find some means of helping those in need. I do not know how the statistics we collected was put to use. But I really wish the whole thing was better organized and taken more seriously. I am guilty of it too in the beginning.

Even though I collected the statistics and made note of all the problems some of the families were facing (I remember highlighting some families in real bad problems), I didnt know whom to approach with all that data. Moreover our reporting point was the office of HMWS (Hyderabad Metro Water works) there was no Janmabhoomi representative whom we could approach there. The school teachers and other lecturers monitoring the students were just like us. Just following around for our safety.

End of the whole program I think we donated that little amount we earned to some families. However I still regret to this day for having not been able to help the people in need. Those people actually shared all their problems with me. Only thing I could do was patiently listen to them. But kudos to Chandra Babu Naidu's Janmabhoomi program. I really hope this part of the program involving students is implemented and improved.

Those were the days..Part 1

Yesterday I met an old acquaintance of mine from college, St Francis days. It was really nice reminiscing about good old college days. Then we remembered how broke we would be most of the times. We never had money and would always borrow. I am so ashamed sometimes how broke we were. The college canteen and the roadside bandi guy were our creditors. We started this stuff right from 11th12th after school we would head to that corner in Parklane. His gol-gappe were so tasty "with meetha" we would insist. For our satisfaction we would ask him to wash his hands (as if all that dirt from his finger nails would disappear yuck!). That poor chap would simply smile and wash his hands (when young girls request who would refuse ;) anyway his gole-gappe was simply yummm! That guy would simply note down how much we owed him each time and if we had a few Rupees (not more than 10 Rs. usually) we would pay him something.

I remember once (we were such bhukkads), 11 or 12 in the morning/noon time when he just about opened his stall we rushed to him. (I particularly liked his aloo-tikki as well, spicy and chut-pata.) As usual we did not have money and asked him note it down. That poor guy was like "amma, aap pehle girak hain, boni ke liye do rupai tho de do" (boni - is referred to the very first order you receive from the customer (girak) and the businessmen usually prefer some money is received from the first sale for the day, as token of good luck for their business, not sure if its Hyderabadi word or not). We felt so bad for that guy, we managed to find a two Rupee coin that we could spare.

Even in school (St. Anns) when canteen was open (I remember they shut it later for some reason), my best friends and I used to be crazy for chilly rolls (rolls with chilly powder sprinkled). And then onion rings and fata-fat. Even then we used to go around asking for money one Rupee- two Rupees. Gosh! I feel so silly now. If any of our classmates found us during lunch time walking aimlessly in school during the lunch break they would know why we are making those rounds. Now if I think about it wonder how many people avoided eye contact with us during that period.

In college canteen too we had an account with Seenu (every Francisian will know him!) but it was not as much cos we started eating out in better places where they would not give credit ;) and moreover it would have had an impact on our status :)) But yes we have done some crazy things. I dont know if one post is enough to list all of that. Especially first year of B.Com when we got the freedom after 11th12th. And the location of Francis is such that - man! how can you be sitting in a class :) - Lifestyle, Shoppers stop, Amrutha mall - that's all was needed!

I remember another episode clearly. We were bunking a class in first year 12 of us in Hyundai Santro. God only knows how we squeezed into that. We had finished squeezing in and Princi passes right in front of us - what luck! She asks the girl who was driving some questions and asked all of us to get out of the car. And guess what it was like some Pandora's box the girls kept coming out continuously from the car, she was shocked, we ourselves found it a bit funny, she lectured us on consequences if only the car met with an accident how school authorities would be blamed etc etc she noted all our names and numbers, luckily nothing happened except for the girl who owned the car probably she received a phone call at home warning about their daughter's behavior. That was pretty stupid on our part.

I cannot help also recollecting Communication skills class - we had this subject in the first year. The lecturer was very bindaas. She would take the attendance in the beginning of the class and the class would be full and when she is done she lifts her head she would find half the class disappear. And since our class had two doors and it was a class of about 55-60 people and we were last benchers (have been forever!) we would bend and run out of the class. Now this was the time when dress code was introduced in Francis - really long T-shirts, no sleeveless, salwar kameez preferred and hair was to be not left open (though the latter was not stressed upon as much!). Unfortunately once when bending and running away from class one of the girls dupatta/chunni got stuck in the chair and the chair fell down with a huge thud! and dragged with her till almost outside the class, by that time me and couple of others were outside the classroom, we knew something terrible had happened. And heard the lecturer yell - we ran for our life - ran and ran and never looked back. Gosh! we never got caught but lost the attendance cos she took it all over again when this happened!

Man! attendance was such a big deal. We did Janmabhoomi too cos we would get attendance. Later we realized why this is such a good concept (I will dedicate another post to it!). We took up march past on August 15th in college - something we wouldn't ever care doing (marching in sarees !) but for sake of attendance. Then choosing a sport was compulsory. Now I do nto knwo what options we had. But I remember we chose Table Tennis (TT) in three years of B.Com putting in 75 hours of some game/sport was compulsory. The ones in high demand were chinese checkers and caroms (am not kidding!). But we went ahead and chose TT. Now to this day I do not know how to play TT. Somehow we managed the attendance though. I am quite ashamed now to think about it, instead of wasting time in the mall and gossiping if only I had learnt how to play it.

I guess I should end this here there are even more crazy and risky stuff we got into...maybe I will have a sequel to this post!

Rugby and Haka...

When I moved to New Zealand like most immigrants I was 'introduced' to the game called Rugby (especially since I was coming from a cricket-oriented) country - I can consider this a new game. The very first time I watched it I knew it wasn't my cup of tea. Me being a girly-girl that I am - the scrummage, the maul and the tackling was something I could not digest. Not to mention the cauliflower ears that a few players possessed (Ouch!).

The most exciting/admirable yet daunting aspect of the game was the 'Haka'. This ferocious act of challenge put across by All Blacks (New Zealand team) to its opponents. Do watch this video and you will know what I am talking about.





Its extremely passionate display right at the beginning of a game which has been apparently, traditionally performed by the team. It is adapted from the Maori culture. It has different connotations but All Blacks use it primarily to throw challenge to the opponents.

This has had mixed reactions from various people and teams and I think they even changed the type of Haka in the recent past. However in my opinion its extremely passionate. But yes for an outsider its a bit too intimidating and cannot be easily appreciated. Though I am of the view that perhaps its something that does not necessarily fit into the pre-requisites at a start of the game. I hope its something they allow if the team is playing on the home ground in NZ. As when games are played overseas its totally up to the host country, then again IRB council would have the final say.

New Zealand is hosting the Rugby world cup in 2011 - I really hope I can make another trip down under to see and be part of the insane passion! :)

One other thing New Zealand has always followed a certain pattern in naming their sports teams - I know most of them but thought let me just collect few of the popular names for my records:

Rugby (Men)= All Blacks
Rugby (Women) = Black Ferns
Net ball (Women) = Silver Ferns
Cricket (Men) = Black Caps
Cricket (Women) = White Ferns
Basketball (Men) = Tall Blacks
Basketball (Women) = Tall Ferns
Others include:
Wheelchair Rugby = Wheel blacks
Soccer (Men) = All whites
Softball (Men) = White Socks ...and so on, aren't they quite interesting names!

..The Road not taken

Many people to this day ask me why I chose New Zealand instead of U S of A. The answer to all those curious people who ever asked me why New Zealand (why not United States of America...)? here it is...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Overdue farewells....

Yesterday I was chatting with an acquaintance of mine and casually she happened to mention that they do not intend to settle in the US and in 2 years time they plan to move back to India. Hmmm! Sigh! Not aggggain!!!! I am soooooo bored of these conversations now. Some of the Indians we know usually express this desire so many times unfortunately. Some of them even have deadlines. Phew! But somehow I have never seen anyone leave US personally (blink!blink!).

I am not new to this. In New Zealand too some fellow Indians even though over all appreciating the Kiwi culture would claim they would leave for India very soon. Well! that never happened. I am so over such people now. (Yawwn!) I miss home too. But I really get annoyed these days when people say they will leave for good and when time comes they keep postponing it each year - every year!. Especially when people have those goals of how much they want to save up and leave. Urgh! I wonder how much is enough? 50K 100K 200K 1Mil ....is there an end to it? I mean personally I do hope to go back some day - I do not know if I will - circumstances may change - I dont know. I certainly dont have some deadlines or dollar value to achieve though. I am sure when the time is right I will know (or rather my husband and I - we will know)........I sincerely hope all of us make the right decision for the right reasons - after all there are no guarantees in life! ....whatever it is keep those plans to yourself - and when your serious let the cat out of the bag!

Impulse shopping .....

For the nth time we went to IKEA this weekend. And every time we have been there we spend a couple of hundred dollars at least on stuff we don't really need. Everything is below 15 bucks and we keep telling ourselves its cheap and keep filling the shopping cart and by the time you reach the check out - your shocked when you hear the bill total. Even though we know their strategy - every single time we fall for it foolishly! Surprisingly I see so many others who visit there even some friends who came along with us once or twice - who actually don't fall for it. They have some amazing will power or maybe because their single they are kind of detached to this stuff - whatever it maybe!

There was a shopping cart incident that occurred. Our cart was pretty full. In fact a couple of items we left it in the lowest compartment of the trolley. After the check out we happily came to the car loaded our stuff and came home. After coming home we realized the stuff that was in the compartment below was not loaded. Well I was the one loading most of the stuff and was guilty with the short term memory loss I had. We called the call center staff immediately they said they had some emergency and took the item numbers and asked us to call back in 15 mins. We thought what the heck the drive is 25 mins lets take a chance and see if the stuff is still there in the cart where I had left it. When we finally got there, our cart was lying there all alone with the stuff. Phew! I felt so good it was in all worth around 30 bucks but thought of losing it was so very painful. Already it was an unnecessary expenditure and now if we happen to lose some of it - makes it even worse. Anyways we were lucky that it was not all that crowded in IKEA that day. Thank god for the indifferent attitude people showed towards that cart for once! So lesson learnt - be alert when loading stuff from cart to your car - CHECK the cart before you push it away! Ahem!

"If" by Rudyard Kipling: one of my favourite poems

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Watched the Red Sox at Fenway Park!

Finally last night my husband and I went to Fenway Park watched the Red Sox play against Colorado Rockies. Thanks to a generous friend of ours who managed to get tickets at work and chose to share it with us :). I was cooking dinner at 5pm and he calls and asks me if I would like to goto a Red Sox game? I had no clue there was even a game going on anyway my husband and I had a quick conversation and we decided to go. It was a nice experience thank god we decided to go. Stadium was so packed and 'red' (official color!). The only baseball I remember was watching in school (St Anns) and I thought anyone with a cricket background can follow the game but yes one needs a crash course to understand basic rules.

This was a very fast game for an ardent cricket fan like me. Not only was I new to the game, I thought to myself I wouldn't really care who wins the game (well I dont know the game very well nor the players to judge the performance). But I proved to myself yet again thats simply not my nature to be so detached. The passionate crowd chanting Red sox with the cheer clap lifts the spirits. Beer, Hot dogs and pop-corns flowing it was a celebration in itself whether Red sox wins or not. I was automatically drawn to support the home team well of course (I have been in Boston/New England area for over a year now what was I thinking!). Unfortunately Red sox lost - so we did not get to witness the crowd display their 'happiness'. So the last half hour we just killed time taking pictures. But last night a huge block against 'self absorbed' American games was cleared from my head to some extent. Who knows I might just end up following baseball to begin with....

Slow cooking

We had a few friends over yesterday for dinner (husband's birthday) and I cooked Palak Paneer, Pudina Rice and (my version of*) Bagara Baingan for dinner. I know this would sound ridiculous but I started cooking at 1pm and completed cooking at about 5 o clock (pm). I was cooking so-very slowly. Sauteing one item/ingredient at a time on medium setting as opposed to cooking on high setting and finishing it real quick. Waiting for the aroma to fill the room and individually paying attention to color of spices I fried, and allowing the masala-paste to rest too, (watching the Travel channel of course). My quick version of cooking would have completed this meal in 1 1/2 hours.

The food was much appreciated yesterday and I thought it was pretty good too. This morning my husband mentioned that he particularly liked the taste last night and the reason it was so tasty was perhaps due to the slow cooking method I had deployed.

Hmmmm!
Then I googled and found this: http://vegkitchen.com/tips/slow-cooking.htm

In this the author of the article talks about using a slow cooker to cook veges, its still the process of slow cooking though:

"...slow-cooking process enriches the flavor of the dish in a way that other cooking methods can’t match.....slow cooking also scores high marks for taste and nutrition since the long cooking time allows both flavors and nutrients to concentrate in the food. The gentle slow-cooking process actually draws more flavor out of the ingredients.

Yes of course! Then I remembered my mom telling me this cooking tip long time back. Thats why even now when I cook dishes in a hurry especially Sambhar or Gashi (Karnataka dish), it tastes better when I have it as leftover for the next meal i.e. when I have given it some time to rest and allowed all the flavors of the ingredients to blend in well. So from next time I suppose the key to a good meal is not just a great formula/recipe but also how long I take to cook 'quality time devoted'. Yes! much to the annoyance of working women unfortunately!


*Unique formula which is an amalgamation of my mother's recipe and couple of online recipes - I am almost wanting to patent it now!

Hollywood Mahabharata

At a get-together at our place, one of our friends was of the opinion that if Hollywood made the Mahabharat it would be a master piece yet again (undoutedly!). Back in the days when our (extended) family members from 'America' gifted us video tapes of Bill Cosby show (we felt pampered when they got us such gifts!) I remember one of the videos we received along with it was the 'Western Mahabharat'. The one thing I clearly remember about the western made Indian epic is that Mallika Sarabhai played Draupadi, (and now when I google it I see it was directed by Peter Brook and is approximately a six hours duration DVD).

Anyway this led to the discussion on: if Hollywood were to make the Mahabharat who would play the main roles as of today? Surprisingly without any debates or much deliberations this is what we decided on the casting, (some of the main characters only) quite easily:

Shree Krishna - George Clooney
Bheeshma Pitama - Morgan Freeman (Amitabh Bachchan if we could allow one Bollywood hero)
Balram - Denzel Washington
Yudhistir -Bruce Willis
Arjun - Brad Pitt
Bheem - Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson
Draupadi - Angelina Jolie
Dhritarashtra - Tommy Lee Jones
Shakuni - Dustin Hoffman or how about Al Pacino)
Duryodhan - Samuel L Jackson
Karna - Hmmm! dont remember what we discussed..any thoughts?
Abhimanyu -Matt Damon

When I rememberd Jim Carrey and wanted to fit him in too, it was suggested if at all he has to be part of Mahabharata he would play 'Lakshman Kumar' son of Duryodhan (if you have seen old Telugu Mayabazar you will remember the Relangi character) probably he would suit that role but I think he could be Dushasan or some such character.

Mahabharat is a great Indian epic and a Hollywood version of it I personally think will be very interesting to watch. But of course simply cannot forget to mention our good old Mahabharat that used to play every Sunday on Doordarshan - thats' simply the best. I remember 'Samay' the narrator of the tele-series (still remember the voice so clearly!). And end of every episode it would end with 'moral of the episode' recited as a poem which I loved to hear. And the characterization was simply awesome - each of the actors was so apt for the role, they just fit in so perfectly. Hats-off to the whole tele-serial production!

Good old games...

As a kid growing up in Hyderabad was fun, we used to play so many games in and outside school. Pittoo was one of those games I really enjoyed playing when I was young. To give a bit of background - I spent earlier part of my childhood in Kachiguda (very close to Tarakrama theatre and Lingampally Road (not the station!)) in Hyderabad. Every day I would come back at 4 o clock from school by bus (I had an Aaya who took care of me - picked me up from home, baby sat me during lunch hour and dropped me back home by accompanying me in the bus), eat some snack and hit the gullies. A group or 10 or 12 children all set to play Pittoo or Seven stones as we used to call it as well.

Basically there would be seven stones which were stacked, and we would divide ourselves into two teams and stand on either side of the stacked stones. Each person from the team would take turns by throwing the ball at the stones to drop it (its mostly torn down by the very first person on the first ball). And that person's team is now responsible to stack it however the other team members would not allow them to do so and hit them with the ball by passing it to each other when the other team members try to approach the stones to stack them up. If the ball hits the opponent that team is 'out', if the other team manages to stack it back before they are hit by the ball, they win.

I dont know if I have explained it very well but nevertheless it was just fun playing it, not to mention my back would hurt for days when I was attacked by the ball! I wonder if the kids still play that game? I wonder if kids still religiously play for 1-2 hrs after school in the colony like before. I really want to know?

Then there were other games like Mud and Stone or Mud and Water not sure what it's called but you would have to step on stones in order not to get 'out'. Then there was Lock and Key - where in the denner (is this how its spelt?) would lock you and some other person who is not already locked is the key and unlocks you :). Then the endless sessions of Name-Place-Animal-Thing I would have had like so many others at that time, in the bus, in class whenever we had spare time. Then another game called 'Killer' was popular - played with chits and one person was the killer and one person the police and killer winks and tries to kill everyone and police has to guess who the killer is :))

I also remember playing another game - not sure what it was called (although I think I mostly played it in school when quite young) - all girls sat in a circle and the denner would go round and round and drop the handkerchief behind a person and that person had to go catch the denner before he occupies your seat. And all the girls in the circle would sit with their heads bent and hands covering the eyes from the sides (so that they don't see where the denner is throwing the hanky) and sing the following:

"I sent a letter to my father, on the way i dropped it, the postman came and picked it up and put it in his pockettt! pockettt!!, Ducks in the water quack! quack! quack!, Ducks in the water quack! quack! quack!"

(Phew I had to sing it in my mind to remember the words!)

Now I remember another one:

"Oranges and Leeemonns, sold for a penny, all the school girls are so mannny, the grass is green, the rose is red, remember me till I am dead! dead! dead!"

I dont think I cane explain this game now but am sure most of us who have done their schooling in 80's (in Hyd) would know! :)

'Kitchen set' was an essential part of every girl's toys collection. I have also spent hours on hot summer afternoons in the verandah with other girls cooking with leaves and mud and water for god knows what! :) Then there was the 'five stones' fever; all thegirls at school were obsessed with playing five stones, finally the teachers and sisters (nuns) were so fed up with us they grabbed all the stones if they ever saw us playing with it :( I lost so many sets of stones like that. Then I think we discovered another game with some shells I dont remember it clearly we would had to keep hitting those shells (like striker on the carrom board!).....(some reason I dont seem to recollect it very well!). I also remember Thokudu- billa as well (or was it Chickkada billa?). Then in school during lunch we also played Throwball - I remember a few of us girls had accumulated cash and bought the ball and played every afternoon and we were very competitive and I think we had quite a few misunderstanding between us girls :))

Then Carroms (Carrom-Board has always been there - an essential part of summer holidays especially when there is a power cut :)) Then among board games the one I played the most was Saanp-Seedi/Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, Cricket, Chinese checkers, Business and Chess of course.

As we grew up and we were allowed to go play by ourselves (now we had moved to Marredpally, Secunderabad) we would go cycling, play on the swing to see who would go higher etc The burden at school had also increased. Most of the free periods at school we would now spend chatting - non stop on everything and anything. Obviously this is what we resorted to finally in high school up to 11th-12th (besides the Throwball fever in between) - endless chatting and gossiping. Finally when I was in R.K Puram the only physical activity was the long walks I had with my friend (from my place - crossing Robert Road go to Officers Mess and from there walk back home through Thimmaya quarters!). Well I was never athletic as a kid yet I managed to play all these games have so much fun - well I almost never regretted that I wasn't that athletic :)

Wow! those games we played back then were so very simple yet so much fun I cant imagine me being was so content with such simple pleasures in life. All your worried about is the upcoming tests and exams and no pressure and stress from anyone or anything! At the most I would have girly fights, cry and make up so quickly!

...Wonder when and how did I turned into this ambitious homo sapien!....;)