Gardener by accident

Earlier this year I wrote about how I killed off nearly every plant that I had…and only the ones more stubborn than me survived….the death toll included a coffee plant that was growing rather well in a pot, a pepper creeper and a table lime that I had brought from yercaud….not to mention the orchids, but they were the non edible bit of the massacre…when I revamped my modest collection of about 70 pots (small and medium) on the balcony the only thing I really wanted for the kitchen was a curry leaf plant….then I added some dying ginger that is so luxuriant right now that I cant believe a few months ago was a shriveled up piece in my fridge for many weeks…. And a kind of green that’s called bachili in Telugu and I don’t know what its called in english….makes yummy stir fry, is great in dal, but best as a bajji (bhajiya) …… about a month ago cleaning out the masala box used for tadka (the round tiffin with many small katoris holding dry red chillies, methi, etc) I dumped some of the debris that was at the bottom of the tiffin box into a pot on my kitchen balcony….not realizing that it would be crowded with saplings that I couldn’t even recognize in a few weeks…that’s exactly what happened…I had about 20 odd chilly seedlings (transferred and now prospering in 3 pots), some dhania and methi that I have long used up, some urad dal saplings, and a lime sapling (transferred into a medium pot and doing very well…about 6 inches with 12-13 leaves) …the only mystery plant was something that looked like amaranth…the leaves were very much like amaranth, only much larger with a different odor….intrigued I let it grow…and one morning some pods began to grow…..my maid then said it was sesame….. I somehow never imagined this!! I know its just one plant and it will not be enough for anything …but I haven’t the heart to pull it out!! Now the leaves have fallen and I think the pods will ripen or dry….i just want to see what happens next….. as for the chilly plants….i don’t think I will need to buy chillies this month

home front.....

there are so many things going thru my head.....be warned that this is one of those darned random posts.....

i was reading a few blogs yesterday...personal ones as opposed to the usual cooking ones that i read....i wonder now if voyeurism is officially acceptable now...i mean these are personal diaries right?? so what makes us want to publish them in cyber space?? what makes us want people to come and read it and what takes us to other blogs?? the same questions go thru my head when i browse through orkut and the other social networking sites....K has deleted his id from orkut because he said that it was unnecessarily artificial and he didnt want to be a part of it anymore...very brave...and very clear thoughts...that 's K for you.....very clear in what he thinks and not afraid to own those thoughts....am nothing like he is....orkut has brought me in touch with so many people that i lost touch with ...i like that....i'd like to keep in touch with them....and i still have reservations about posting personal pics on it......

when i read these blogs, i try and put a personality together, what they'd look like, where they'd live, what'd they read......

i hate the "i want to make friendship with you types" ..... why do these people do it? i feel abusive...but restrain myself.....low life children of you know who....yesterday i registered on a local Hyderabadi portal to make a listing for my chocolate making classes...by the evening i had vague people sending me requests for friendship....i wish i could give them one tight slap....

K has been saying that i am spending too much time online....i wonder if i am.....yeah i am on the internet about 3 hours a day...because i work online no....and plus what do i do when he is fast asleep....?? and i dont particularly like watching TV......

for the past few weeks, i was cringing each time i walked through the door...the look of the house was getting stale...i like to change the colours and the soft furnishings atleast every alternate month....my short span of attention applies to every aspect of my life...living space included and i need something to keep me from growing bored of everything thats around me.....K and i spent a good part of saturday (before the blasts happened and we stuck to the TV) changing the soft furnishings at home...i now have a turquoise themed drawing room...with the early morning light filtering through the aqua curtains...it looks ethereal.....we have mehndi green (dry mehndi powder) in our bedroom...i know, stand alone, i'd have barfed at the colour, but its come alive with a coordinated vertical stripes bedspread.....it makes the room look so alive and cozy.........for the first guest bedroom (which is officially amma's room) i departed from the till now blue look and gave it a dark onion pink curtains on one set of windows, light blue and pink striped ones on the other set of windows and a beautiful pink and white bedspread,......am not particularly fond of pink...hated it while growing up...possibly because of the girlie stereotype....but it is increasingly creeping up into my life....around the house and into my wardrobe.....for the third bedroom we chose a blue grey spread for the low lying bed, brown and white floor cushions, beige curtains with specks of blue and brown....its picking up all the colours of the bedspread and cushions and giving it a superb finish.....for the drawing room, (into which all the bedroom doors, kitchen and french windows open) we've finally put up the clotted cream sheers with orange and aqua horizontal woven lines...we picked this set up from a lady in banjara hills...she gets all this material from erode and tirrupur and will mix and match for you...she'll also custom make...she's also got loads of readymade stuff...curtains, cushions, bedspreads, dhurries....at very good prices...the way i shopped the first time i went there, she told me she'd call me whenever she gets new stock and i should drop in!!

my balcony boxes are flourishing...i just called amma this morning to report that i had a gerbera with a bud!! after killing off 9 of its cousins and friends that we got from yercaud last august, this is the lone survivor..... i also almost killed off the african violet amma gave me...was able to nurture it back in the nick of time and now she's putting out leaves like crazy......the emptying of masala box in the nearest empty pot resulted in 20 odd chilli plants(which i dutifully transplanted into 4 pots) that are now in bloom and 3 chillies are ready to be plucked i think... i wonder if i can grow capsicum like this.....i am looking forward to the tomato saplings taking shape...

we finally got the plumber today and he's fixing the tap in the bathroom.....after weeks of procrastination...all it took was one bloody phone call......now to get hold of a carpenter......

i'd better stop before this unfolds like a litany of domestic woes......

bomb blasts

Hyderabad is reeling under the blasts which took place loast evening at Lumbini Park (a major tourist attraction) and Gokul Chaat (another packed place because it is the best place for chaat in hyd)……I was blissfully unaware and only a frantic phone call from appa appraised me of what had happened….K was on his way back home and he too got a similar call, he was on his way back and not too far from home so I was relieved…..called some friends and checked on their whereabouts…….

I switched on the TV, to see what was going on……. The targets of both the places were extremely public….it was the weekend, and hardly any security……I mean these days guards are there more to open doors and issue baggage tokens….i doubt if both lumbini park and gokul had any kind of security in place…..the cops are saying that gokul could be a gas cylinder blast….that’s where several people died……the place is always packed and supposed to be the best place for chaat…its very popular with college kids and is in one of the busiest shopping areas in Hyderabad……

They’re still trying to figure out the number of people who lost their lives…i’m skeptical of the ‘official’ figures and what the news channels are saying….also cant get over how all these news channels showed uncensored footage of the blast sites, it was like a blood and gore show…I have nothing against it, but for some dignity to those who lost their lives…..where is your responsible journalism?? as expected, instead of pooling resources to provide relief – fast and effective, our politicians were busy settling scores and making statements…..

It’s the most traumatic thing for the families of those who lost their loved ones……I just hope they are able to complete the tedious formalities, get closure and grieve in private….my heart goes out to them……

weekend update

Its always surprising how fast time flies when you aren’t employed. I haven’t yet gotten over the weekend and its Friday again!! Yay!! Not that I am complaining….i love it….especially when every day is the weekend for me….. a few days ago I had a comment from Advaita Kala….the lady who’s written the book Almost Single that I finished a few days ago….pretty good…the ending was abrupt and a let down…it had much more promise than what ended like an M&B……but I loved the quirkiness of the lead character….it gave me quite a few smiles and I think was a good effort for a non writer type person’s first book………

Wednesday was such a full day….it was a total roller coaster ride….woke up early to make a batch of chocolates for U to take back to Syracuse….that’s the day the maid decides to come in late and hey imagine her thrill when I ask her to just do the dishes and leave!! Went over to U’s, she was getting the last things done….spent some time with her, got into an argument which led to a fight, hot words, and lots of tears……of course we hugged and made up because there can be no other end can there?? I guess the heightened emotions brought it on……no sooner had we bid goodbye for another year that K and I decided to have lunch and catch a movie…..Chak De! India……to say that I was looking forward to this movie is correct if only for that one scene that I have been watching on the promos, of shah rukh running with the 16 girls behind him…in slo mo…..hair, beard and the fantastic at forty khan having the kind of screen presence that has made him what he is…..i am no fan of SRK, I admire him for something else….he’s hammed in all movies but one, one of my most favorite movies of all time Swades…..he seduced me in that one…. I never wanted to be Simran to his Raj, but wanted to be Geeta to his Mohan Bhargav in Swades…….

According to me, and this is my personal belief and a long digression….. SRK is what he is today because of his insecurity and intelligence……his rise in filmdom is unbelievable with a man of his talent (or the lack of it)…..all his roles have been extensions of each other….the persona is bigger than the actor of course, but he took what he had and made himself into what he has become with his astute business sense…..i cant sit through most of his movies, quivering lips and flaying arms et al…..but he has calculated and plotted his ascent and has stayed there…is till remember more than a decade and a half ago, at the film fare awards when he received the promising newcomer award, he said that he was waiting for a time when people would quit asking “for the way Amitabh Bachchan does it and ask for the SRK way”…I was appalled and never thought this bow lipped, arched eyebrow, shaggy haired youngster with his hands all over the place would survive, but survive he did…with his outrageous comment, horrendous clothes and hair…..he became the icon of the people…it amazes me…..even if all this is just media created, kudos to the PR agency that works for Shah Rukh Khan……what they made of him, is phenomenal……..

That he is intelligent, is a reflection of his success…..he isn’t the best actor around, but he is super successful and no one can grudge him that success……I have never seen him atleast in the last five odd years, making a fool of himself in public, you will find him making a controversial statement, I’ve never seen him drunk / misbehave, he’s always so well behaved and has said the same boring things in zillions of interviews with more enthusiasm than the interviewer……..if not for anything, for this he deserves his success…..and he has said so himself that he is insecure about losing all he has and hence works non stop round the clock and has become an insomniac…and no, I am not on his or his PR agency’s payroll……I’ve never met him…nothing….I just respect him for the success he has made of his life…..there will still be the rumours of his bisexuality, being on drugs and thwarting the budding careers of other actors…. but who cares!! You rock dude!! And I think he’s never looked better than he does in Chak De….beard and all…….Fabulous at forty!! now if only i can watch it again without K to tell me to stop drooling.....i mean, i am the same person who is disgusted when people think SRK looks good......ooo but you should see him with that beard....its salt and pepper...the stylists sure missed many spots....and he looks so fit....there are scenes where you can make out his toned body through his clothes...and yeah the white shirt, beige trousers look better on him than any of those fancy armani clothes he's worn.....plus there he is running in the front in his track suit!! totally worth the miserable traffic....

Ok, back to the movie now……its possibly the best sports movie made in india….not that we have many, but counting all the ones that have been made….the script is king…the nuances, characters, etc have been worked out well….and SRK has only been used to get the audiences into the theatres…it could be anyone else in his place….he had less than quarter of the duration of the movie as footage and is just the character Kabir Khan……and it’s a treat to watch him become the character and not the star……the girls surprise you, with the realism and credit to Shimit Amin…who’d have thought he’d pull this off after Ab Tak Chappan?? Infact what I loved was how stereotypes were brought in and then conquered……for instance the regionality of the players……. The lady who plays bindiya(Shilpa Shukla) is a great find….she’s cocky and makes you want to give her a nice tight slap…..the pretty Segarika Ghatge who plays Preeti is a pretty good actress too and handles her scenes with finesse…..i loved the Punjabi Balbir (Tanya Abrol); and of course the pint-sized, defiant Komal (Chitrashi Rawat) takes the cake, the accent, the lisp and the devil may care attitude, so well captured on screen…..its a hockey flick from the beginning to the end…..it keeps you gripped and proof of the pudding was that the audience in the theatre exploded when goals were being scored like they were in a stadium!! It isn’t without fault…..There are a couple of trite dialogues….and very obvious scenes…but he’s allowed all of this for the net result of the movie….bottom line….Watch it!!

But it didn’t end there!! Post the movie we partied till 3 a.m cos it was our friend S’s birthday…we went out for dinner and she invited us up to her place…she shouldn’t have….cos we stayed till the wee hours of the morning!! Well….looks like I’ll have to spend the weekend recovering from this!!

Weekend update................

While I am very happy with the way blogosphere has enriched my life, so many people, so many facets of their personality, so much camaraderie and the sheer joy of realizing that it can be fun to be a voyeur….. I am also pretty confused with the way its taking the joy out of the act in the first place….hit counters, stat analysis, visitor maps, blogrolls, unique visitors……… yesterday I got caught up in this maze….. on one of my daily trawlings yesterday I chanced upon some tool that could be added to the html code to track and trace the number of hits and give you a ranking….intrigued and interested I went to the site, registered, explored and then couldn’t add the code…..spent more time trying to figure out how to do it….. I am technologically challenged and need the most user friendly stuff available….this didn’t work for me….then I wondered why I was bothered at all…..this is my personal blog and if people chanced upon and read it great, if not it still serves the purpose I began this for…..so I logged out and rested well!!

It has been a fabulous week for me…..i came back from Bangalore, began my chocolate making classes in Secunderabad as well, it was a good start. Ended up spending 3 days at D’s place. I was a little selfish I must admit…….the lure of free food, that too cooked by someone else waiting on you hand and foot is simply irresistible…..for the most part, K and I live a good life, our home, our work, our passions and the lovely times we spend together….every once in a while I wonder if we are cutting ourselves out of the social world…..we like spending time with each other…this I am thankful for….approaching 4 yrs of married life we still haven’t felt the need to murder each other is a reason to celebrate…..but I love going out and meeting friends……given that Hyderabad traffic is a nightmare, we don’t brave it very often and have friends over at our place to compensate…..but like Thursday, when I went over to D’s for my class and they insisted on us staying back, we indulged and gave in….. 3 days of someone else being bothered about what to serve for breakfast, lunch and dinner and me lolling around!! I made use of the time to finish stocking upon supplies for my class. Got to know from the shop guy that Ms. Czarina of chocolate making is as insecure as hell and actually enquired into my shopping list to gauge how Culinary Escapades was doing!! Insecure little daughter of a you know who!! Picked up some fabulous books from the new branch of Odyssey that’s opened at Vikrampuri….. 3 Sexy books on baking and one author signed copy of Almost Single by Advaita Kala which despite the smirks from K I picked up…..shopped for a barbeque which ended up in the microwave – griller in D’s place and had a fabulous time till 3.00 A.M. the next morning, made a batch of chocolates exclusively for D while giving his wife R a special class. Finally got home in the evening. Yesterday went to Church, during which K to amuse himself stopped at a bookshop and picked up a leather bound collectors copy of the complete works of James Joyce. Stopped over at S and R’s for drinks, dinner and a huge dose of Gulzar’s Ijazzat. Fabulous week by far, I think I can adjust to something quiet this week to compensate the giddy spell.

airline food anyone.....

On Saturday as I sat between two gentlemen enroute Bangalore aboard the jet airways flight, I wondered what was in store as the snack they’d serve……considering the stray dogs outside a few airports in india almost wag their tails when they spot me and the bouquet of airlines I travel by, I know what to expect…and I surely am not in the least bit expectant of good food on a domestic airline, I know that for the 40-80 rupees that the airline pays the five star kitchen for the meal, there is painfully little you can actually buy in the said hotel coffee shop… considering the food is cooked at least 24 hours earlier, there’s little the staff can do except reheat it to death before they smile their plastic with too much blusher induced cheekbones smile, pleasantly asking you as they roll the cart down the aisle, (they cant help it, I am not judging them….i am merely making an observation)…what can I serve you sir / ma’am, veg or non veg? here you go sir / ma’am, enjoy your meal sir / ma’am…..

I get airsick behind the wing, so the only seat as far in front as I could get on the stopover flight was the one that had me sandwiched between a man blissfully asleep, spilling out of his seat onto mine and hogging all of the armrest to my right with a man warned not to sleep during landing and take off on my left because we were in the emergency exit……

I’d just had time to eat some breakfast and apology of a sandwich for lunch and was famished enough to look forward to the food on an airplane by the time I was seated in it at 4 pm. I’d spent the previous few hours booking the ticket, closing up the house and packing for this surprise trip. I don’t miss an opportunity to pop by to see my mother, that this flu induced trip made me pine for her some more was making the plane fly too slowly……. both the gentlemen on either side of me refused the food and I looked like the glutton who wanted to eat so as to tell the story when I reached home…every bit desperately hungry I couldn’t care about public opinion…... I asked for the veg meal and carefully untied the complicated knot on the cutlery, spread the napkin on my lap and pulled back the foil…….with as less movement as I could….didnt want to wake my right side neighbour and the leftie was finding solace in the clouds so I could have some privacy with the meal

The snack menu usually has a sandwich / idly/ vada/ cut pieces of dosa / uttapam or similar savoury snack, some fruit and a dessert of some sort….i was horrified…at first glance…..it looked like atleast a few day old idly, dried, revived and fried with some onions and something unfathomable in the way of a spice powder….i forked some into my mouth and wasn’t disappointed….it was tasteless and so I let it be….moved onto what looked like two pieces of white tyre….it was…..flubbery paneer…half cooked and tasted like what I think rubber tastes like…I was ready to burst into tears…..the aloo bonda that sat next to these two albinos was the only thing I could swallow……before I had time to react, I told myself that this wasn’t in the least tough, was warm enough and I had to eat lest my head pounds me to death…..almost tasted gourmet after the first two encounters with the food…….i tried my best to precariously open the little dish which I thought would have the fruit….. it contained something chopped and brown with what looked like a tadka….actually it looked like pieces of wood…..it tasted pretty close to wood too…what I suspect spent its life thinking it was dhokla, only it was wood in disguise drenched in chutney…..i closed the coffin…oops lid and let it lie….by now the lumpy excuse for chocolate mousse tasted divine….i sipped the packaged orange juice which I thankfully saved for the last to wash everything down, folded back the offending food in the foil and sat back hoping they’d clear the tray faster than I could cry……when the lady politely remarked “you’ve hardly eaten anything” I couldn’t hold back and said in my most solemn voice “I tried my best”. It wasn’t her fault…but it wasn’t mine either….i mean I know its precariously placed to serve a decent meal when you’re bleeding revenues, but serving cut wood is hardly the option…I mean a chutney sandwich would’ve been fine in place of the dead idly…..i have rarely been so scathing of my observations…mostly I refuse food…and I realized that I was doing the right thing….but what if you are really hungry?? And hey…I was paying for this wasn’t I ?? So I wonder if anyone reads the feedback forms that are filled and does it make any difference…..i don’t know…..what I know is I will continue to refuse food on this airline….i’d rather allow my head to pound me to death till I reach a place I know wont make me cry because of what they serve…..

I have been very step motherly with my randomness of thoughts here!! Not because I haven’t much to say (that my friends will never happen!!). Its just that I haven’t enough time. The classes are going well. The writing’s going great and so is life in general. Yet the step motherly treatment!! Well am about to remedy it now with this post. The dash to Bangalore last week still lingers on in my head. The relief of seeing amma after what seemed like eternity but was only 2 months, Rachel having really grown and getting to display some of my stuff for amma to praise as only she can!!

Rachel’s quite the little energetic 7 month old. She’s got everyone including Cindy the dog wrapped around her little fingers. Infact poor Cindy gets to feel her vice like grip around her floppy ears more than we’d like to imagine. She grins and whines and hopes that we notice she isn’t growling!! Rachel also has quite the sweet jaw. With no teeth, I guess that’s what you should call it……I found out when I tried feeding her some yet unfrozen roasted banana ice-cream I made. She wanted the bowl in her hand to make sure I was going to feed her all of it; you should have seen that mouth opening for the spoon!! If that wasn’t the most desperate baby I have seen, then what is?? Feeding her non sweet stuff needs the patience of an angel! She’s also at the stage where everything gets to meet her mouth first. So she gurgled with joy at the cat shaped cushion I made for her (of which I haven’t any pictures). She was good behavior personified all through her dedication tho. All dolled up in a little gown and matching shoes, she looked nothing like the mischievous little toddler she is. Am posting pics of the baby beds with pillows that I made for her. The pink one took me more time and patience than I had imagined. All my fault because my technique (which like murphy’s law I realized after I messed up) was wrong. It’s a nightmare to stitch cloth on four sides. The blue one is the one I made after wizening up. Attached vertical and alternate panels, then cut again to stitch them into a patchwork. I was dilly dallying over doing something handmade, then thought, more than Rachel it will be my gift to amma. She hasn’t been able to make her dream patchwork quilt because of her failed eyesight. And this was my humble offering to her. She was so happy, so is the little one, imagine sucking on all that lace!! It turned out better than I imagined. K says I can think of selling the stuff now!!

The gift of the hand mixer has been inaugurated yesterday. I made chocolate chip cookies. The rechargeable batteries of the camera refused to work and I haven’t any pictures of them for Escapades. I’ll just have to make another batch!!

While I type up this post, K is going around the house zapping mosquitoes with the new mosquito zapper. It looks like a badminton racquet but works like a barbeque of sorts. When on, whatever flies into it gets charred!! With the rains cometh the mosquitoes and this for the last few days since we bought it at a traffic signal, is K’s favourite sport!! I think this is the closest he will come to hunting!!