Sister – Another name for Best Friend!
23 May 2012 6 Comments
in Family Tags: best friend, birthday, fights, life, moral, silence, sister
“Sticks and stones are hard on bones Aimed with angry art, Words can sting like anything But silence breaks the heart.”
This line just makes me nostalgic, you may not be able to connect the dots or you may not find a harmony between the title and the post but its just something that provoked me to write….as sisters we have been very close from the beginning….except for a few times, when competitiveness took over and we felt a little jealous of each other when only one of us got praised or got some extra attention.
I did act as the ‘Wise One” and stole the credit for cleaning, doing chores most of the times. Being the younger one, she would obey my rules and I loved bossing around! While growing up we have had our episodes of fighting physically, but as far as I remember, it never really ended in a WWE showdown! Our fighting was like a war of Silence….we did not talk to each other…and my sister will agree to this that both of us had humungous egos (we did not even know the meaning of ego then) but I conquered mine most of the times to show her the white flag! But that was all as children…when silence did not mean much, when cursing was only limited to the names of animals and when making up was one tight hug!
Well, things were so easy back then, we just looked at each other and we knew if something good or bad has happened,we didn’t have to utter the word,Sorry, it just stood there on the lips, and still we never felt uncomfortable of having or not having to say it. We did not need explanations, conscience always confessed. That one small chuckle told us the joke and we’d laugh out loud in our hearts. We have always been on the same team when we or our parents had different views about our future. We would be partners in crime when we would come up with some prank!
As we grew up, we encountered a lot of emotions, other than the hint of jealousy, which we did not know existed in this world. A sacrificing, ambitious, generous, loving soul. I keep learning new things about the self made, independent woman that she is today! I have no regrets at all about the arguments that we may have had because they have only brought us closer! The cover ups for me when I’d sneak out on dates!!The consoling she would do when carefree me would just forget or lose the house keys innumerable times!! The tough little battler she was when she would smell a rat or hear rumours about me! Her joy has been my joy, my pain has been her pain.Things still are the same….even if distance separates us…I am still the fragile one inside-out and she is the strong believer, the protagonist, the fighter, the survivor! She is someone who can never run out of words when you need her the most. She is like the pillow to absorb all your tears and let you rest your head when there is a whirlwind of thoughts! The only hiccup in my life is I have never really said it too many times and may be I never will, but I love her and respect her even if she is a younger sister to me. 
Moral of the story is, Go on, tell the person who matters to you, break the silence, tell them how life would suck without them, even if they are close or far, they deserve to know it! If you are away or estranged from a loved there is nothing stopping you except you!
P.S : This is a special post dedicated for my sister on her birthday!! Happy Birthday darling!! I love you!
Food and Mood
17 Apr 2012 4 Comments
in Food experiments Tags: aphrodisiac, banana split, food, health, hrithik roshan, mood, situation, sour, sweet
Often I keep comparing people, things, situations with food! That’s what makes me a food addict! The fact that chocolate is not tempting to me is a lil odd, but ice creams make up for it! My favorite Bollywood star is Hrithik Roshan as everyone knows!!!
He is a Banana Split,with three of my favourite toppings, please don’t misunderstand, banana in half is like him in real and reel life, the three scoops are his heart, mind, soul, a lil drizzle of my favourite syrup is like his words, yummy dry fruits are his abs, and whipped cream and cherries are like his soft hair and his talent respectively! So there, I have explained how I compare people to food! Similarly, I can compare everyone with food!
If I am in a gooey situation, it will be described as the last bite of junk food with lots of dripping mayo….that would be an ideal ‘I am slipping’ moment…..or a sticky situation would be like getting my hands into a pot of honey!! No wonder my dad used to jokingly say when I’d fail to remember the multiplication table of 13 and could memorize advertisements on TV, pointing to my head, ”Only onions and potatoes in there!’ It made me chuckle shamelessly.
I cannot help myself when my husband says something provoking, I tend to retort in my foodie language…like ‘I am not the secret ingredient!?’ or 
‘I am not going to give a “tadka” to the situation.’ Even when I have to give a compliment, I end up saying to my sister ‘Wow your cheeks are so soft like the cream inside a tender coconut!’ or ‘Your hairstyle is so beautiful like sushi rolled in seaweed!’ or ‘Wow, you looking sexy today like a prawns pickle!’ I am not exaggerating when I say aphrodisiac foods affect me in the right way! My mind definitely secretes those fiery hormones when I look at presentable, delicious food! Food affects my mood, there could be science involved, but as far as I am concerned sweet makes me happy, spicy keeps me on the edge, sour makes me irritated!
While I cook alone in the house, I run a live commentary like ‘The water was boiling with anger when rice tried to calm it down. It jumped right in and there it was the calmness before the storm..and suddenly it got ferocious, frothing, I had to interfere …..and that’s how I cook rice…or while cutting veggies I pretend they are celebrities and I am the fashion police,”Here comes the carrot wearing a skintight orange bodycon dress and looking so ravishing in that size zero figure!” People find passion in all sorts of stuff, food is my passion! It starts a conversation! Food means the world to me! Benjamin Franklin said, “Eat to live, don’t live to eat!”, but I think I don’t eat to live, I live to eat!!!
Inglis is a berry phunny langedge
06 Mar 2012 8 Comments
in Myself Tags: Abbreviations, American and British English, Common mistakes, English, Indian English, London, sms lingo
Berries – Strawberry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Mulberry, Cranberry, Raspberry, Gooseberry, etc. The reason I mentioned these berries is because I have a limited knowledge of them. The same goes with the English language. I love the English language. In school I had this motivating teacher who would appreciate and encourage my love for the language. It made me write poems, made me read lots of Enid Blyton books, tricked me into trying to solve crossword puzzles, got me into a habit of reading (even the tiniest bit of scrunched paper I brought eggs in for breakfast!). I was taught in school the word ‘tortoise’ pronounced as ‘tor-toy-is’, which was rubbished by another teacher in college(a woman I respect for letting me develop my interest in the language) calling it tor-tus’! It intrigued me, have I been saying it wrong, this and many other things I thought I was good at!?
Post college, I stepped into a professional environment where everybody loved showing off their language skills and then there was enough British aura around that people wanted to act and sound like them. Fortunately, I happened to travel to Southampton, visited London and just couldn’t stop admiring the language. I was pleased every time I heard the , ‘You alright?’ although it was too casual to be called British English. I think British English is elegant. I have never seen any of my British friends using a shortcut while writing sentences! ‘I am’ becomes ‘m’, you becomes u, because becomes coz, so on and so forth….I blame it on the SMS lingo. I did that once during my exams, I realized it and immediately corrected the mistake! Even while learning German in school, I would get confused if the word ‘shock’ was spelt as ‘schock’! Even within the language there are variations. There is a Hindi song which questions if Put is ‘Pu-t’ why is B U T – ‘Butt’! The famous example of GHOTI = FISH (GH pronounced F as in Enough, O is I as in Women, TI is SH as in Nation). As if the complications weren’t enough, written and spoken forms of American and British English make it even harder. 
I had mentioned this in an earlier post, but Brinjal taught in school is Eggplant or Aubergine abroad, Capsicum is Red, Green, Yellow pepper or Bell pepper, Lady finger is Okra, Lotus is Water Lily, Petrol is Gas and many other differences. Then there are the phonetics! I find American English too casual. ‘O’ is ‘aa’, ‘A’ is ‘ae’ as in God is Gaad, Ask is Aesk, ‘T’ becomes ‘d ‘ as in Meeting is Meeding, the Rs and Ls are rolled! But I think that the funniest pronunciations are found in India when the local crowd in Maharashtra, South India, Punjab, Gujarat etc. have their own Ingleesh, Yinglish, Inglisha, Inglees! 
The mockery of the language has no barriers in my country!
Well, I have heard more good, much better, but not most best! Ha! We often make a mistake between carrier and career which are two entirely different words, accept and except, appraise and apprise, desert and dessert, and many other words. Revert back is one of the most common mistakes in business emails. I am not a scholar, but I feel insulted with sentences like, ” I didn’t knew!”, ” They does not feel that way” and I feel the need to go back to school days and start all over again!
There is so much to explore on this, instead I will sign off with these two versions…..
Love to be loved…
14 Feb 2012 11 Comments
in Myself Tags: being a woman, drool, hairdo, hankie, sugar n spice, sweaty hands
Disclaimer: Too mushy for the weak hearted! Stop reading now if you are allergic to love!
Sugar n Spice all things nice!
How do we know we are made for each other!?
It is just the smallest things he/she does for you with love….
Being a woman, if I expect something, my other half goes a small step further to fulfill those and when I think he is not expecting anything back, frankly he is….all the time….
When we were courting, I know he used to wait for my call as much as I did for him to ring the door bell! If I was to attend a family function, I wouldn’t care how I’d look, but on our dates I’d take hours to get dressed!
He’d not bother if he was driving over drainages, bridges, passing his favourite eating joint or met with his best friend who loves onions on the way, but would end up always smelling great!!
Thankfully, he is not fond of ice-creams and I am not even a distant fan of chocolate, so we never argue over it ever, but when it came to our favourite piece of chicken, he’d always make it a mission to sacrifice the last bite for me! He wouldn’t show it on his face, but he’d love to listen his name 100 times if I’d say it a 100 times!! I thought of him as a soldier or a bodyguard when walking in a crowd with him, he’d always have those hovering eyes to protect me and yet have the most fragile smile when I’d look at him and smile. He’d always drool at me in his mind when I’d talk to someone else and flutter eyelids, move my hands too many times or keep touching my hair purposely to grab his attention! He would notice all the little things I did for him, changing my earrings, matching the outfit I’d wear, even the craziest hairdo would be appreciated even if I was having a hideous hair day! Holding my sweaty hands was the most daring thing for him to do, but he never made a disgusted face, instead kept using his hankie more than he ever did for himself! He’d wipe my hands and smile…..
He wants to see me happy always, and wants to fight with everything that makes me cry. When he sees a happy couple, he wants to imagine us instead of them laughing away, looking deep in each other’s eyes. He wants to whisper those sweet nothings, wants to blabber about our future but would rather keep it to himself and keep saying ditto in his mind when I express the same thoughts! A single rose says it all, you don’t always need diamonds and pearls!
Cream on Coffee
Post marriage those small things may change because you are together now unlike weekends, you are with each other 24/7, you wake up next to the same person you dreamed about every night! But still he does those small little things like when he says You are beautiful, you just feel at the top of the world! When he cleans up the kitchen counter after I mess it up, when he calls me to check if I had lunch, when he wants me to wear his favourite dress, when he makes a pact of buying veggies, throwing the garbage and dividing other such household responsibilities, when he surprises me with a movie ticket, letting me sleep for those extra two minutes, you just know how lucky you are!A friend kept complaining how her husband has changed after marriage, but she did not notice, how she stopped looking at herself in the mirror! When I made her realize that you can’t keep crying over the partner changing after marriage, it’s marriage that changed you, she couldn’t stop crying! We just take our spouses for granted! But the Love never changes, its still there! May be playing a little hide and seek, but it’s your turn to find it!
Frost on cake!
Here’s wishing all the people in love and all those still looking for it, and to my dear husband a very Happy Valentine’s Day!
P.S : I have always maintained and I think it is true that Valentines day is celebrated for Love, the feeling….not just for a couple….so would also like to wish a Happy Valentine’s day to all my loved ones!
Welcome to the land of change!
11 Jan 2012 9 Comments
in Myself Tags: advertisement, america, change, food, tip, tv
The big American dream!? I was hoping for a drastic turnover in life when I entered the United States of America….and there it was staring right back at me – Change!
As soon as I stepped out of the airport, the first thing I noticed were the roads….clean and no potholes but weird signs on the roads!(which now I think are way more easier to read than the signals hidden behind tress on Indian roads) The same night we went for dinner, after 30 hours of travel, one can’t gather enough strength to cook!! The restaurant was a bar not a restaurant, the funny thing I noticed was if they say they have grill and barbecue, that literally means they have grill and barbecue only, no other fancy stuff like curries or exotic rice….there is no choice…I mean how do the vegetarians survive?
I thanked God I was not born a vegetarian! You can’t dream about options of Chinese, South Indian, Punjabi, Continental……like even if you go to a small, roadside hotel, you will still get the option of all the cuisines I mentioned above back in India!The tip part is also a little exaggerated! Now, if there is self service, why would I want to tip anyone!?
The society/colony where I live feels like living in a bungalow where there is no one around for miles and miles. No one has the doors opened, there ain’t a doorstopper can’t be an excuse!No one talks to no one, except for smiling at complete strangers and wishing them, “Hey/Hi how are you?” I turn behind to see if there is someone standing who I didn’t notice!My mom taught me ‘never talk to strangers’!Basic manners like holding the door for someone who is trotting behind you was never a concern back home!My bad!Independence means I can do whatever I want…it’s my country, they are my country fellows! Here Independence means I need to watch what I say, I can’t urinate in public, I cannot spit or litter around,I cannot point fingers, I must respect privacy, I cannot cuddle unknown pets or children!
The gush of cold air made me want to slap myself for being overconfident. My father kept telling me to carry some thermal wear, but hey, I am the sweatiest of the lot remember, cold is good for me, no sweaty hands!I struggled to keep up with the cold! People keep saying, Texas has Pune weather….no need for warm clothes….oh really!? I am shivering!brrrr…..To top it all of, we have specific knowledge of seasons(forget the meteorological department which is always wrong with it’s predictions) chucking that, I know these 4 months, I must carry and umbrella, these 3 months, I must carry a pullover(we call it a sweater, oh and school taught us capsicum- don’t worry if they give you that stark look, it’s pepper here, red, yellow or green – I thought pepper was the round black thing….let’s not get into that)but unless you see the weather report on TV I suggest you should not step out with confidence…it’s so unpredictable, at one moment it will be cold, at another, it will start raining!!!
I thought we had the most notorious criminals, like the Sandalwood thief remember, but here the mafia can kill you for a petty 20 bucks! The birthplace of slang language. The negativity that I see on TV here, we are doing pretty well with Big Boss episodes!!! They advertise for a medicine, but list down all the side effects, psychologically, you won’t even want to touch the medicine anymore!They have so many reality TV shows with fights, bitching, cursing, drugs, sex that believe me Roadies is the best thing on TV for us!The best place for junk food and I can swear by it! Well, a little high a little low, adjusting to these changes is living and enjoying a different planet of the universe….America!
Foodatarian
28 Dec 2011 6 Comments
The waft of Tandoori Chicken being cooked beseeches my attention in the shortest span of time. People say I have a very strong sense of smell! How can one ignore something as delicious as freshly baked patties! Or French Fries! If someone offers you a soft, succulent cupcake, will you be rigid enough to turn away!?
Be it an Italian Pasta, a Japanese Sushi, a Lebanese Shawarma, a German Black forest cake, a Russian Shashlyk, a French Croissant, a Chinese Fried Rice or an Indian Butter chicken! I am sure by now we are all day-dreaming, drooling over all these different foods! Frankly, good food is a big turn-on for me! And given the fact that I am Indian, I have so much to discuss what could be on my platter! And I could go on endlessly…..The love for food made me take up a free-lancing hobby (would not like to call it a job) of being a Food Journalist! I had started visiting the famous and sometimes the not so famous hotels all because of my passion for food.
I love my India for the variety it has to offer! Be it languages, ethnic groups, multi-cultural events, climate, food, everything has a variety. The aroma of spices lingering in the streets of India is more than enough to draw your attention to the Indian cuisine. Once you prepare your mind to indulge, the plethora of food available to you will be surprising!
If you move from southern India to the north, you will notice a fluctuating change in the spice intensity added to each dish. The state of Chennai will boast of using a lot of tamarind such as in ‘Rasam’ with rice which is a staple food there. Whereas Punjab in the north has a lot of ‘ Garam Masala’ in dishes like ‘Chicken tikka masala’ and the daily food consists more of stuffed flat bread called a ‘Paratha’. ‘Paneer’ or cottage cheese recipes are a perfect substitution of meat for vegetarians!
Another interesting fact is, there are a few common ingredients that one will notice if you are in a coastal region. The use of coconuts, bananas, and curry leaves is intriguing. A perfect example would be comparing Kerala and Goa. These two states have a lot in common. Apart from the coconut groves, both the cuisines include coconuts in the curries, especially the fish curries. Both the states also include pork and beef dishes which is not a common pursuit for the majority of Indians.
As far as the western India is concerned, the originator of ‘Wada pav’ many relate it to a Burger, is a very popular dish in Maharashtra, a state with one of the most cosmopolitan population in the country. The ‘Rasgulla’ originally from the state of Orissa is a heart stealing dessert of many across India. The ‘Dhokla’ from Gujarat is a must-have in snacks! The recent addition are the ‘Momos’ from eastern India that are getting some attention!
The many facets of Indian cuisine are a worthy experience. The country is not only rich in culture and demographics but has a lot to offer for foodatarians like me!
A short -story of the FATS
17 Nov 2011 6 Comments
in Myself
In the ‘Wonderland’, I often ponder on things which may be a similar saga for almost all my friends who are housewives. This is a new role I am playing. Here goes :
Act 1 – You say ‘You have put on!’ How on earth does one expect to lose weight when you have 10 types of colas, 100 types of cookies, 500 types of chips, and immeasurable cheese on everything you eat!!! And everything so readily available!? 
Act 2 – Did I hear you saying ‘Exercise’?? Really…. are you kidding me?? Let’s face some facts here…. Food makes you feel satisfied. Exercising helps you in digestion. Digesting food easily leads to increase in appetite. Good appetite means more hunger pangs. Pangs lead you to eating. And just to feel satisfied, you eat to your heart’s content! And feel satisfied again….so in this vicious cycle, how do you think Exercise helps?
Act 3 – ‘Control!’ Ah! now you are talking, and you are talking too much! Like the one who is advising is in the best shape!!… Oooh… I am Fergie… Don’t lie… ooh I am J.Lo…. Y’all I am Real! Ooh…Like you can bend it like Beckham! 
Look at yourself…. Free advice is so easy to give…..
I am just waiting for the right time, right opportunity, right advice, right food, right exercise….
Suspense – Will she ever make it? Will sexy back be sexy!? Keep watching….Stay tuned….
WHATEVER.
AND I TAKE A BOW!
What makes you happy!?
16 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Myself
What makes you happy? Shopping, talking to friends on the phone, gossiping, comments on your posts on FB, chatting on BBM, flaunting the latest fashion trend, new I-phone app, celebrity tweets, a hottie with an hour-glass figure or a hunk with a clean shaved chest!?
I was cooking chicken day before yesterday and the zesty lemon flavor lingering on my fingers when I squeezed a little lemon juice over the chicken curry, it just made me really happy from the inside!A small ray of sun while putting the clothes to dry made me literally blush as if it was teasing me! The joy on seeing Winter(my 8 month old Rottweiler) swim – indescribable! A little butterfly fluttering around the car while I was busy concentrating on my driving lessons.Stopping and listening to ‘When I was a just a little girl’ while surfing channels. Finding an old picture or a movie stub while cleaning the drawers is such a rare pleasure. A hidden note/poem/love-letter/coin/stamp/rose bring such fond memories back to life. When you feel you are having the best day ever!
Maturity mixed with a little childishness is my kind of life which makes me a very happy person indeed! So, what makes YOU happy?
Laugheria
23 Aug 2011 2 Comments
in Myself
Generally, if you meet me for the first time, my first impression often comes across as a reserved, serious, quiet, introvert, arrogant, proud individual (all from the feedback from my friends). But once you get to know me, and of course I have to like you as well to open up the true facets of my personality, you will know I am almost the opposite. I can make fun of myself, I can laugh for no rhyme or reason, I can be mad, I can be overly sensitive, I can be crabby(Being a cencerian ), I can be crazy, naughty and fun to be with. I was just trying to remember that one mad time I have laughed till my back hurt! Uh…yeah, normally when you laugh, your stomach hurts, but if I laugh too much, my back hurts….! I laugh at really silly things….like the funniest thing I find is when you are about to fall, but you don’t and that one ‘Kodak moment’ on your face of being scared to death! HA HA HA….that is very funny for me…. If you fumble while talking….I do too sometimes…! When it comes to alliteration (figure of speech) For eg: Plain Paper Plates and if I stammer….P pp pppppp while saying that…I will start laughing! But I do not make fun of people who stammer… so I am kind! Also, I can laugh at sounds….be it fart sounds, gargling sounds, sneezing sounds, coughing sounds. I can also laugh when it’s completely silent around! I hate ‘Sannata’ I laugh with my sister the most….We do such silly stuff, like mimic jingles, make funny noises, while riding on a bike we used to honk in our own style and not use the horn. I laugh even when I fight with Vineet, when he starts singing Malyali songs in the middle of the fight….when he realizes it’s something not even worth fighting for! :p I laugh when I trip over on the road and I check to see if anyone saw me falling, that makes me laugh too! Once I was sleeping in the back seat and was really tired, so feel asleep. I made such a loud snoring noise in deep sleep, that I got scared with my own snoring and woke up. The first thing I checked if anyone heard that and saw me snoring, and it was my sister staring for a second, and we were in splits for the next half an hour! I remember going to a friend’s wedding, I laughed so hard that my friends announced ‘Disperse’ and everyone ran in random direction coz they were too embarrassed to be around with me coz I was literally…ROFL! And the reason….No reason! I go into a complete laugheria when I watch funny movies! Laughing is good for health they say, but I think, it helps in increasing my weight, everytime I laugh I feel like I have gained 500 grams! Ha ha ha! Some of my friends find my laugh so infectious they start laughing by just looking at me laugh! Forget your worries, just look around….there are so many things to laugh at…begin by laughing at yourself…I mean laugh not mock! Keep Laughing! Happy Laugheria to all!
WALL-E An Inspiration!
08 Jul 2011 3 Comments
in Myself
I watch a lot of TV…or may be used to watch 5 times more before I was married! I was so addicted to cartoons! I remember one particular episode of “Dexter’s Laboratory”, where Dexter is not allowed to watch TV as he is not old enough. So he experiments on himself to grow older to be able to watch TV. I now am addicted to watching animated films
. People call me kiddish/childish, whatever, but there is so much to learn from these cartoons especially from the movie WALL-E! How futuristic! Through the animation, they have proved a point! William Davies’ lines struck me:
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Really no time to appreciate beauty (excluding Vineet…his eyes are roving all the time and he has robotic qualities to find a ‘beauty’ in the crowd ). Now we all are just running the rat race…well now a days, we don’t even see rats! For good I am sure! But then, what is earth without animals, trees, water? The natural resources are depleting, our dependence on technology has increased so much that we don’t even remember the telephone numbers, mobile numbers, our own vehicle numbers! I am sure every one of us recited multiplication tables in school, but how many of us remember all of them (esp. 12-19) now? There is so much of change around us. I remember making Diwali cards/ Christmas cards/ Birthday cards for friends and family, making those friendship bands with three different coloured threads, etc. but now everything is commercialised with E-Cards, no letters to post, no Diwali Thalis to exchange! Technology has made us lazy bums and so intolerant! We want everything instantly, thank you to the person who invented Maggi…he/she was so ahead of his/her time! But this has also made us to succumb to shortcuts, hence the increase in corruption( We want to get things done faster , passport, licence, ration card, etc), pollution(everyone wants to own vehicles, I remember I didn’t have any in college, never felt the need). As wants increase, then called luxuries have become necessities! I remember as a child I knew “Naach re Mora”, “Asava Sundar Chocolate cha bungla”, “Gol gol rani”, now when kids are told to dance or recite something, they will dance on “Sheila ki Jawani” and recite “Munni badnaam hui” or “Bhaag DK Bose”!!!! We need Cartooons like “Captain Planet” with ‘moral of the story’, today Cartoons are full of violence! Even the childhood fun is lost in the world of machines….Though Transformers looks cool….but I wouldn’t want to live with machines! Please, if you have not watched WALL-E, you must!!! Provoking, what were we as a planet and where are we headed…the time is NOW to save yourself…This is the only time you can be SELFISH!!!
