Of friends, family and other important things

Sometimes, in between blog posts, so many things happen that I want to chronicle. I make a mental note of it frenziedly  and then promptly forget. or something else happens and I forget or don't have the nerve or the energy to do it. 

Sometimes, I just cannot get myself to write about how I feel because there are other people involved and by the time I figure out a way to do it diplomatically, the anger or the excitement or whatever other heightened emotion I felt, has passed.

this weekend I had two friends come stay with me from out of town. they are married to each other... the guy was my friend and colleague and I always looked up to him for all things work related. its his opinion that is seek when i need a work related sounding board or counsel. he is the silent brooding type, but rarely if anything, escapes his attention... also, he is possibly one of the most discreet human beings i know.... i met his wife through him (obviously!) and after many years of being a friend's spouse... we hit it off like a house on fire...we have similar backgrounds and temperaments and can talk nonstop without even coming up for a breath of air...

each time they visit, they infuse me with a good sense of energy... its nice to discuss stuff with them, individually and collectively and get a different point of view. it helps me think more clearly.

we spent the weekend together, with their 8 year old son. who is a self contained, intelligent, uninhibited and these days (rare) well behaved boy. by the time they left, late last night, I was so exhausted with all the talking and listening and thinking. but it was the good kind of exhaustion. the kind that makes you drift off into deep, satisfied, refreshing sleep. 

weekends...come and go

Its 3.30 a.m and i just finished a piece of work i had been putting off this entire week. 

I've had a nice weekend so far. spent today almost exclusively with K. for some part of the day on the couch, sipping beer and eating biryani in front of the TV. Something I never do... but it was so enjoyable! then the three of us napped till it was evening. We had guests over. A girl i randomly met on the road and her friend. She stopped me when she noticed sage one day. we chatted, she was sweet and very chatty... we exchanged numbers and then in a random conversation i asked her over for dinner. Had a nice time talking about everything... its refreshing to see young people... to understand their perspective... their thought process...their ambitions and everything else. I hope she and her friend had a good time too. She almost balked when i told her how old i was.

I blanched too. because i realise i am at that age when 22 yr old people think i am ancient!

tomorrow we go to the IL's for lunch. its been a good week so far... 

Catch

The weather these days is so good, even the afternoons feel great...

this morning, i went off to the gym as usual...finished my routine, and just as i was completing the last set, my body veered off-centre and i had a muscle pull in my hip... i had a sharp pain shooting through my left side and my first thought was i hope i havent effed my prolapsed disc... 

i was made to lie down on a rubber mattress with an exercise ball under my legs. I lay there feeling bad for my friends who were so worried around me and the gym instructor, who i think had his BP shoot up a bit. I assured them i was fine... after about 5 minutes, i forced myself to get up, finished some hand and upper body stretches and drove back home.

Was in a lot of pain. My cook, Renuka is an excellent masseur. She can get a neck sprain out of your system in 5 minutes. So she massaged my back/ hip and i took a hot shower, felt a lot of relief. Rested almost the entire day in bed, without a pillow. its almost 9.40 p.m now, and but for a little soreness, the sprain / pull/ catch whatever it was is gone. I think I will skip the gym tomorrow just to play safe....

Sage somehow knows that I am not 100% ok. He has eaten his meals without bothering me too much and didnt even pull on the leash when i walked him this evening. 

is it just me, or do sunday's leftovers taste better when eaten for lunch on monday? how was your start of the week?

Sunday

Sunday's are getting better. I feel so rested and ready to take on the week ahead. I was up later than my usual in the morning since the gym was closed. Took Sage for a leisurely walk and visited his friends in the next colony who were delirious to see him (and me). They played for an hour. Walked back home to coffee and fruit. bathed Sage which he loves. You should really see the way he loves being soaped and watered!

breakfast was at the in-laws. K had requested for Puttu Kadalai. So we trooped there about 9.30 had a lovely breakfast and sat around talking till noon. Came back home and just rested. Its amazing how much good a little rest can do you. 

K went out at 5 PM, Sage and I walked for an hour... 

The saddest part of the day was the rescue and death of the 5 year old child Mahi who was trapped for over 80 hours in an 80 ft borewell in Manesar in haryana. I watched the last bit, with little hope that she would be brought out alive. How is a child who fell 80 feet and stayed in a tunnel that has most definitely asphyxiated her have any chance of survival? the media circus was as always in bad taste. 

stillness and weightloss hopefully

you know when i kept saying i am not a morning person? am beginning to think that is a different life. post the pooch, my body clock has been reset and i am able to wake up with no alarm around 5.30 a.m. thankfully, waking time has been set back by an hour.

I have written many times about how much i love my own company. not that i dont love the company of others, but I find it reassuring to be alone sometimes. There was a time when i was younger and i constantly needed people around me... not anymore.

the silence, the whirring of the fan, the sips of long forgotten and therefore now cold and yucky chai, the sound of my typing on this battered laptop, sometimes the clicks of the mouse when i play spider solitaire, the sound of the washing machine spinning crazily the last set of clothes in it, reverse horns of cars in the basement, sometimes dogfights in the next compound...and me.

i've made some very important decisions in this stillness, sometimes grieved and smiled all by myself, also done a lot of work and i have come to love it so much. so i may just change my stance and become a morning person :)

in other news, my brand new cot is almost ready and we will be moving from the mattresses on the floor onto a cot and bed very soon! now that Sage sleeps on the floor and uses the mattress as a pillow, i wonder how he'll react when we no longer sleep on the floor.

walks with Sage have begun, today is day 6. i havent spoken to as many people in 7 years as i have in this past week. all that walking will hopefully help me lose some weight now that nothing else seems to work on my girth.

weekend this and that

first things first...i am loving the weather in hyderabad right now.... everything looks greener and the digging of the road in front of our building not withstanding (since i dont go out too much) its been as beautiful as i imagined it would be. infact i think that i get through the severe summer just imagining what the rains will be like.... i sit here, watching the rain through the french doors on my balcony....fall rapidly and then ease off for a while. the sound it makes as it hits the fibre bottom of my balcony window box....it can sometimes get quite intoxicating....

its been a good week. i have been happy and productive and that is such an endorser....today i had to cancel my chocolate class because a couple dropped out and tho i offered to teach the one person who was keen on coming one on one, she preferred the company of the others....i feel extremely disappointed  when i have to do that...but that one thing notwithstanding, its been a lovely chilled out day....

on a day like today, i wonder if i need to take on more work so i can actually see the difference between a workday and a weekend... that's a question i havent been able to answer to my own satisfaction yet! its been such a gorgeous week....

comfort food for lunch and a snuggle under the razai....only to wake up a bit and chat with a soon to be father....how easily we fail to acknowledge both the excitement and the anxiousness of a father to be....its not comparable to what the mother to be is going through, but it is there...the hopes and fears and joy of bringing a child into this world.... we looked at baby names...they've fixed on a lovely girl's name.... but just in case, so we looked at boy names... i recall my own brother... he had no where to vent his feelings, his fear and anxiety in the aftermath of the birth of his baby girl....especially with nuclear families and the fathers being present for almost the entire process....earlier they were unaware of what happens...now they are so much present...and yet dont know if it is ok to talk about how they are feeling...the burden of being macho!

i will go to the gym in sometime and then a friend will bring his dog over. K and i will be doggy sitting a handsome Labrador for about 10 days next month, while the dog father goes to get married.... we asked our friend to bring him over for smaller periods of time so we can both get used to each other.... i am so excited, i can hardly wait to see how this household looks and functions with a dog. about the gym...i havent had much weight loss, but am already wearing one size smaller clothes...i went to try on some stuff the other day, and the pants i tried were in a size smaller than i am used to wearing... it has been such a fabulous reinforcement of the effort....i caught my reflection in a lift the other day...i can safely say that atleast some bulk around my middle is melting...albeit slowly... but its going...

i am having huge sugar cravings...with this weather, all i'd like is to sink my teeth into a nice muffin or a slice of chocolate cake.... i almost made cinnamon rolls today... i will try and hold out as long as i can....problem is, i feel very guilty to heat up the oven for just a small tiny portion of cake or anything baked....my conscience will not allow me to waste electricity like this...maybe i should bake bread or some rolls to have with soup.... lets see....

i think i have rambled on.... how's your weekend going? doing something fun? or lying low and lazy at home? whatever you do.... peace be with you!

the search that never ends

do you get into a frenzy searching for something and then realise that you've saved for some inexplicable reason every goddamn bill for groceries, beauty parlours, clothes and sundry other purchases, receipts from insurance payments, milk and newspaper bills etc and yet, can't seem to find the bill for the laptop you bought a few months ago?

i am seized with thoughts that are doing nothing for my self esteem right now.... i am hearing voices that are telling me that i am the world's worst organiser... yeah i keep a pretty home... but i cant seem to find one damn paper when i need it... i would have shoved it somewhere safe am sure... but where that is i dont know now... 

a few months later, when i need to find the bill for the vaccum cleaner... that's when i'll find my laptop bill.... in the meantime, the adaptor that needs to be replaced and will be done under the warranty will have to wait till i can get a duplicate bill from the store i bought it from!

in the mean time, bags and bags of cards and letters, from friends, family and people in the past....craft supplies i really ashamed to acknowledge i have had and done nothing with....and other stuff which i junked or organised as best i could... i then took the easy route out and asked the retailer for a duplicate invoice... today hopefully i wont forget that i need to continue to sort and organise stuff once my laptop is fixed....not a good way to start the week if you ask me....

i must say i had a great weekend. It began on friday night when j & b came over... we've not met up for various work related schedules and schemed... we pigged out totally... home made pizza, traditional south indian, indian chinese, parathas, biryani and italian inspired food... that was what we ate at the various meals... it was food and movies and a good time... the amount of alchohol stocked in our fridge was embarrassing. I had a chocolate class after a long time and enjoyed it so much. i need to keep this going. the summer's heat has ensured that i havent been able to have a class for ages...this time i shifted the timing to the afternoon and it worked well. So maybe this should work out for the next few weeks before it cools off. 

i feel much more calm now that i have managed to get the complaint for my laptop registered. Let's hope this ends well for me. take care and love to those of you who're still reading my rumblings here!

this and that

tgis~ seriously one needs to think i am demented about being happy for the weekend despite all the leisure i get! but the weekend is the weekend and i am happy its here.... went in to work for sometime yesterday....had a feedback session with a client for whom we recently did a prog. I really am amazed each time with how much and how easily corporates think they can bargain. they want top class work at bargain bin prices, and will then micro manage everything...whew.... i am however keeping my mouth shut...no one really wants to know what doesnt work, so why bother...

aside from that, it was a nice relaxed week overall. I am hoping to get much more done this week. i keep saying thaat each week and sometimes it works, sometimes...well it doesnt...

yesterday we spent the evening with a filmmaker friend and watched Kalyug...that shyam benegal film of the 80's. I loved it when i watched it on earlier occasions, but yesterday somehow felt it dragged in many places....K observed that it was funny, that for an adaptation of the mahabharata, it did not have two very vital characters, krishna and shakuni who were absolutely essential for the drama to unfold...Like you can make out, we're huge on movies...sometimes better ones and sometimes movies so bad you wonder why they ever got made. Thursday was self infliction of a double dose of mindless crap....the tamil remake of Main hoon na in aegan and allu arjun's arya 2. 

For Aegan, i have new respect for farha khan...she makes a masala movie look so good....and raju sundaram is obviously no match for farha khan....its not an apple to apple comparison cos of the changes that were made. I realise how bad MHN would have been if not handled well....i think i saw Ajith in a film after 1999 kandukondain kandukondain...he's aged...that's all i can say.....nayanthara...the less said the better...and i did think actor navadeep has talent...

Arya 2 the less said the better...apart from the fact that allu arjun is possibly one of the best dancers this country has seen, there's absolutely nothing else in the movie.... its a mash up of so many movies and such blatant hero worshiping megalomania that its shocking....how can you write a song called "he's mr perfect...." for a guy who essentially looks like darwin's missing link? 

today's lunch at my uncle and aunt's place, it was my aunt's birthday yesterday.... i got her a gift from Fabindia which i hope fits and she likes...yesterday when we went to pick out something, i picked up two pairs of sandals for myself as well.... i needed some everyday kind of footwear....

the digital photoframe K got me is up and running...i finally uploaded some pics onto it, but i need to figure out how to set up the dimensions and the orientation.....i love it tho...with over 5000 photos on my laptop and 10k on the hdd, i needed a digital solution to this!! its nice to see some of them and go back in time when they were clciked...especially the fish pedicure and rachel's impish face!

for once, i seem to have abandoned the photoblog for this one...i need to sort through the pics and upload them....happy weekend everyone...i hope you have a fun time

sleepless again

its monday...it's appa's star b'day...i hope i remember to call and wish him....happiness, health and peace above all....

its 1:30 a.m and i am unable to sleep....courtesy the longish nap i took hidden under the razai with the a/c on....had a restful day today...woke late... opened the door for renuka and devi and went back to sleep...i think i babbled something about mango dal and rice....she made steamed and sauteed raw plantains too...which i had after i woke and brushed...around 11.30 a.m in true (pseudo in my case) brahminical style...cos the idlies and multi dal dosa looked so meh!! K woke up a little later and with a few morsels out of my plate declared he was ditching the idlies too....

the people on the top floor were hitting and banging and hammering...and making such a din... i think some carpentry or something, but the noise of the electric saw is so agonisingly annoying that i didnt know what to do....imagine sleeping thru that noise!! K went upstairs to tell them the friction caused cracks on our ceiling, they came down to inspect and finally took the hammering downstairs... go piss someone else off and screw their sunday afternoon....

i had a bath and tried to sleep... K is like a child with an exciting new book...cant blame him, its my diary from '98!! The part of my life he asks me again and again of...the year i went to PSG...so intermittently he would ask me why i wrote something or who someone was...i cant remember a lot of them...some of the names enterred there are still a part of my life in some way.... i think i should start writing everyday again...if not anything it makes for a nice reflection of what your life was in the past....

i felt hungry again at 1 and no way was going to eat those damned idlies..so indian chinese from punjabi rasoi...they were rather (surprisingly) disappointing today... but noodles are noodles and so i fed myself and K...napped till 6 and felt so much better (that time of the month....bloody pain in the wrong place), chai on the balcony with K after ages...

we headed out...just the both of us after many months...to pantaloons..i wanted a block printed pj...they didnt have it in my size...so picked a plain ochre kurta and patiala salwar and dupatta set, one kurti from lee cooper and 3 t shirts...then to levis for K's jeans... they have a real groovy store in JH....we wanted to check out hall of fame...the new sports lounge... it was full...and full of snob rreal estate funded boys ..  its now the new place to hang out... typical hyderabadi mentality...this will be the next best thing for the next 2 months...for some reason they were discouraging couples!! refreshing for the boys i guess!! we wondered where else to go... idlies in the casserole be damned!! just thinking that we never used to take so much time to decide where to go...we landed up at senor pepe's opp KBR park...they do decent tex mex...we had an assorted platter of  nachos...some fried spring roll type of thing and quesadilla ...large portions with sour cream and salsa...so we ordered one fettucine pasta dish for the both of us to share...which was very very disappointing....back home...i wanted to sleep before 11.30....K wanted to talk...he read me my old love letters...the emails i wrote to him.....i cant believe i wrote that well.....:) with all that....he chased my sleep away...w hich brings me to the present...we're both awake... him watching something on tv (the first its been switched on this week) and i am typing away...do you think i can force myself to sleep? i must try it...

loads to do tmrw...i need to finish two meetings and swing some business my way.... i think i will like doing it...may spend some time in office as well...

its been a good weekend....i am thankful for it...now to force myself to sleep...goodnight!

really long rant

I thought i would let it go, but its so much in my head that i should get it out of there for my own sanity.... in the last post i mentioned that i have now realised completely with no room for doubt in my head that i am not a happy person when i am not in control of a situation....its like this, where i or something i bring to the table are at stake, i would rather be in control...where i dont have to be a central, important to the plot character i am perfectly happy sitting on the sidelines....

what happens when the two are mixed is a recipe for total disaster in my book....have you found yourself trying to cook in a kitchen that isnt your own surrounded with alien gadgets and people bustling about, more like being in your hair and feet? the end product is always crappy and like shit luck has to follow you around...that one dish which everyone lapped up and begged for more, when you try to make it in someone else's kitchen turns out to be the worst kitchen disaster ever.... this is just an example... i mean when expectations are sky high, and circumstances not to your liking, the end result is always frustratingly disappointing....

i tried too hard to please a few people.... to cater to needs they didnt really have...and i was so bitterly disappointed. especially because i gave them the gift of my time, and it wasnt reciprocrated. I came home thinking of the 6 hrs wasted and how i would have rather had some me time....read a book, blogged or just slept.....a time when i could have rejuvenated instead of boiling my blood.

i could have taken control...ordered the pesky kids (i really need to develop a threshold for 8-9 yr old oversmart children) off and asked for everyone to pay attention to what we were trying to do....i didnt want to...appear rude...i wanted to make the most of the situation...and i failed miserably...

I've been teaching people to bake and make chocolates for 3 years now......many times, these sessions are not done in my house...i've done it at friend's houses, offices, office cafeterias and even at schools.... never once have the results been so disastrous... i had no idea who was doing what...disinterested minds, constant reference to "someone else making it this way", children demanding attention and wanting to be part of the melee....we forgot the sugar in one, added too much melted butter in another and abandoned the fourth recipe .....

no offense to anyone involved... but i really dont think i can repeat this performance...i dont need to please anyone....i dont need to prove my credentials....and i dont need to wage a battle...and all for what?? to bake a cake!

of this group, there was one for who's sole sake i agreed to do this... i think it would have been a lot better had i just stopped at this one person and we'd hung out and experimented together...just the both of us....

And the most frustrating part of this whole thing is, i am feeling angry at having disappointed everyone...i wonder if they even gave a thought to all that time of mine wasted...

sunday

Last evening didn't end too well.... what is it about a day, that you know it will swing either way right at the beginning?? i was sure glad i fell asleep and woke up rested and fresh this morning... thankful as always to be surrounded by the people i love and the stuff that is most important to me.....

After a good lunch and yapping with my mom, i fell asleep around 4.30 p.m only to wake up at 7.30p.m that was quite some nap i had.....K got home with excruciating Sciatica and couldn't find relief no matter what position he lay down or sat in.... around 1 a.m he braved the pain and drove to an all night pharmacy to get some medication... having slept that late in the evening,  i couldn't sleep till way pat 2 a.m....

thankfully the both of us woke up rested... we're looking forward to lunch with extended family now....am sure today will be a better day than yesterday.... how are you spending yours??

weekend tales

its terrible tuesday. we had a great weekend. filled with love and laughter and much money spent!! isn't it always better when you spend some cash? hail retail therapy!!

the weekends are made better with spirit, food and music...not particularly in that order! suddenly all the new hip places to be seen at and eat at are opening around the place we live. About time is all i'll say! scrumptious restaurant cooked "homestyle" andhra food and a fun shopping trip, pictures taken over much laughter, giggling and cursing in a photo booth after which we had it blown up and framed. oh yeah, and much money spent in buying nothing in particular too.

back home, we spent another fun evening singing karaoke. this time the neighbours didn't complain. i wonder who learnt their lessons - them or us! dinner at 5 a.m? yes. and did i mention that the rains make everything spectacular? they did. on sunday we had a lovely late breakfast at lunch time and rediscovered the joy of home delivered food! rounded it all off with a rather  mellow evening spent in the company of Leo. 

i'd recommend having a nice weekend to everyone. no matter what is your choice... clubbing, shopping, spending time with friends or just vegetating on the couch....makes the work week so much dare i say bearable?

friday !!

i've been blogging a whole week!! that's a first for this blog...or any other blog that i write! the more i come here, the more comfortable i feel... i was totally step motherly with this one...and just slightly better with the other.

its friday evening...i've had a pretty nice day at work and so some of the irritation from yesterday has worn off. am waiting for k to come home from work....and while he's still not here, i've done all the girly stuff.... dim lights around the house (he likes the tubelights on!!), music and scented candles on the balcony from where i am writing this...

its going to be a great weekend... i just know...whether we go out or stay in, i just know it will be nice and relaxing and wonderful... i hope you have a good weekend too. Cheers!

weekend this and that

its been a week that i've been back. the week has been full of bits and pieces that make up my life... first factor to really tick me off was that the maid decided, since i was back from a trip, she could take off!! i leave her in charge of the house when i am away for 2 weeks, which means two full weeks with no work and full pay. all she had to do was ater the plants everyday and sweep and swab floors and washt he bathrooms before i got back. yet i come home to her stories of "oh how much work there was!!". i am very grateful that she is trustworthy enough. i am sick of the fact that despite asking her to inform me about leave (when and how many days) she (and all of the other maids i have encountered) doesn't. i simply cant understand why they dont get it, am beyond caring. really. as usual, she took off without any information and got back with a long face and a sob story and walks around with her head covered to signify that she has been very very sick. another thing i dont get. the "you need to be responsible for my health" chorus maids sing. they have free access to food in my house. i pay them a quarter more than the going rates. somehow i cant help but feel that the more i give the lesser it seems to them. bah!! anyways... no more maid tales... atleast in this post.

the sun burn is better. one patch on my neck is sporting new skin in a lighter colour. i guess it will be some more time before i begin to look a little bit like my old self. K too has a huge patch of molting skin on his arm and he's taken a fancy to peeling it off in the most disgusting fashion!

work's been good. its always nice to get back into the routine. also good when work seems to have missed you! the only thing was, for a few days, i woke up not knowing where i was!!

i've not been regular with my yoga. what with all the travelling. the yoga mat rolled up and sitting in the corner of my room beckons a few times, but not very forcefully. so am really not blaming anyone. the thing with my benevolent self is, i take full responsibility for my laziness!

on friday we went out pubbing with another couple. have i said it before? that when the songs you like are played on a "retro night" you know you've grown old!! we had fun. i just loved all the stuff they played and did a little armchair dancing!! stuck to my one drink per evening decision (on the days that we go out!!) the waiter was really surprised at my second order of diet coke!!

dear friend B came back from her europe trip (we were supposed to go together) on saturday and we pored over the pictures she brought back. she came bearing gifts!! a french coffee press, fridge magnet and an olive tree wood cross from the holyland.

Sunday was a lazy day. i cooked and cooked in the evening, but it was fun!!

while it hasnt been hectic, this has been a good week. only dampner was that k is still under the weather.

ahhh!! weekend.......

the weekend is over :(. i loved it..and am not so happy that it went away. sometimes, i cant decide what i like better, action packed or couch vegetation weekends!! this one was action all the way.

funny how much you think you will get done and how much you dont! also, how little sleep one needs when one has friends around. i got by with less than 3 hrs sleep every night and no day time naps! we had two sets of friends over on friday. sat chatting about single malts, books and management styles the entire night. the next day i prayed the maid would turn up and not turn back at the sight of the vessels that awaited her. she didnt, and i made her chai to keep her humoured.

two plays by an amateur theatre group were watched on saturday. it was fun, the plays. the second one elevated by the quality of acting. it did make me take the announcement of auditioning for thier next production quite seriously! nothing like seeking some spotlight. hung out with friends again post that. while i couldnt keep my eyes open and hit the sack at 5 a.m (damn this old age), k and my friend b called it a night (sic!) after having breakfast at a famous idli stall. while they slept till late afternoon, i woke bleary eyed to let the maid in, and then the sound of her anklets kept me awake (and irritated i may as well add). when she left, i couldnt get back to sleep and so put myself to use and cooked lunch.

i dont know how many people will see the sense in repeating the last two days again on saturday night. i know my maid for sure must have thought i was soft in the head. just pulled together by the big fat salary i pay her. fact is, we always have friends over on most weekends, and i am terrified that i'll be left to do the dishes. yeah call me spoilt if you like, but i hate doing the dishes, almost as much as i love to cook. thankfully i live in a country where household help is affordable (atleast for some more time now...). so while the weekdays see the usage of about 2 plates, glasses and spoons and maybe a pot and a pan thrown in, on the weekends that we entertain, i have almost all of the crockery i own waiting to be washed. so my first thought on a morning after a party is "please god, send the maid"

anyway. the weekend ended early on monday morning after hanging out with some more friends. we did call it an early night because it was a work week and our friends have a school going child.

i dont know if i felt energised or tired. i did have a wonderful time, so i felt definitely better than before.

odd bits...and some fun times....

i wonder if i should make this a dear diary kind of blog....??

sometimes i think i am such a cribster .... go on and on about the same thing!! like K being so busy.... i have said it enough number of times here...but still like last week, he completely bowls me over with something done totally out of turn....

on thursday we had a couple of our friends drop in and stay over.... we haven't been able to catch up over a long time and sometimes i wonder if it is design or sheer coincidence....i also realise that nothing, not even the best of friendships will stay alive without nurturing...anyways, i was on one of my baking sprees and we did spend some time catching up before K came back from work...we chatted into the wee hours with mosquis having a buffet laid out for them...we still managed to stay up till early morning!! i rushed off to church for the good friday service and k left for work only when i was back.... so B and i spent the quiet day together..... saturday was nothing much to write home about except that the rain which began on friday went on through the rest of the week....i mean it poured like it was the middle of the monsoons.... i am getting more and more paranoid about this reality called global warming....and shudder to think what might happen now......

in the pouring rain on Sunday i went to church.....is it me or just being opinionated about everything....i noticed that unlike before, so many things have changed about church...i mean for one...no one ever comes on time...and the latecomers always want to sit right in front!! i noticed people walking up and down apparently searching for something during the service....talking on the phone or with each other...and kids aren't told to keep quiet anymore...i mean i would be told to behave and given a severe dressing down if i didn't listen (when we got home of course) and in many ways one stare would be enough....but not now...... anyways... i must mention here that i find some of the speakers extremely funny.....they really don't have a message contained in their sermons and just go on and on.....this person who spoke on easter morning, began by saying he had three things to tell us....rambled on about two things...suddenly lost track of what he wanted to say and narrated the entire story of a movie called "babeth's feast"...i checked online and i haven't found any movie of this name...but since i heard the whole story...i can tell it to you if you want!! so after narrating the story...he just forgot the conclusion of his sermon....realised that he had less time...and signed off with a song sung from the pulpit off key!! wow!!

it poured incessantly all through service and after....we got home to a really soggy balcony and water every where on the potholed roads.... one off season shower and this is the haalath of the hyderabadi roads!!

post a really late lunch.....we lazed around a while...and towards the evening gravitated to the balcony....its something else to be sitting watching the rain.....everything hazy and beautiful...kindof like the state of mind you want to remain in....chai gave way to mojitos...i'd seen this on my naesake's blog and it caught my interest...i'm not crazy about rum...but this one was fab...although i replaced two main ingredients...this was still great...and there we sat...k and i while it drizzled a few feet away .... listening to film songs from the 80's....umrao jaan....masoom, ijazzat.... bhupinder singing..."mere ghar aana...." and do deewane shehar mein" ...rekha...shabana and the wonderfully talented farooque shaik....we talked gulzar and jagjit.... rdb and asha...with a candle because theres no light on the balcony....and it was so wonderful.... k said like we were at our own lounge!! yeah he was right!! i didnt want to get up from there.....no phones...no doorbells....nothing!! ahh...i think i would have said yes if k'd have asked me to marry him...

Weekend update

What's a weekend spent with someone you love?? Just as I was beginning to forget….i discovered it all over again….K has been working his b@## off since the beginning of the year and it was beginning to get to me…..since I am not slave to the clock or calendar anymore, I would usually know that the weekend was around the corner because he would relax and we'd look forward to our time together….doing stuff or simply having a quiet weekend together….two days became one…and then none when he began working through the weekend….i try my best to be supportive, because normally I am not whiney…. And the last thing he needs when he's been working this way is to come home to a nagging wife…. But what I cant get over is the missing….i love being around him and I hope he does too….just his presence around me makes me less edgy and a lot happier….i seriously …. No matter what I am doing….look forward to the time of day when we get back home…. So all this being said and done….our weekends hit serious roadblocks…. the day we got back from our holiday….he went back to the grindstone…. If you spend time long enough or are interested at all to look at my profile you will see that I describe myself as a self confessed homebody…. But what's a home like without the person you want to share it with??

The past week has been less than exciting….imagine the magic of Maldives becoming just a fabulous memory….but the tan you picked up a serious reality….and no amount of time spent looking at the pictures is going to take that away….i've spent more time than I like with myself….the internet…once a faithful companion…was irritating me…and I spent an abnormal amount of time watching tv..( I am not a tv person)…it fails to amuse me…..cooking lightened me up a little….it always does…. My plants are recovering and its making sitting on the balcony less painful….domestic chores were beginning to give me an ulcer…..

K like a knight in shining armour rescued me….. he'd been noticing how I felt….and on Saturday night declared he wasn't going to work the next day….oh what joy!! Infact the happiness began on Saturday itself…. He was scheduled for a meeting at 8.30…I fed him dinner and when he left home I went to a neighbours to teach her to bake a cake she'd requested….and in ten minutes he was back…saying he excused himself!! I was over the moon….Sunday morning we rose earlier than a weekday because I'd planned on going to church….i'm precariously at the risk of becoming a festive Christian (ie; attending church only on festival days!!)….K decided he'd come too….and have a shave (his favourite barber, who is across the road from church and breakfast at Taj is his attraction to drive me to church on Sundays!!)…so off we went…I met all the people I wanted to after service and accompanied by a friend we had breakfast…. No no….not the Taj group of luxury hotels but the homely Udipi hotel, heritage site and landmark of hyderabad Taj Mahal Hotel in Abids….dropped in to see a friend's mum who gave me some of the prettiest pansies from her garden for my vase….. I cooked lunch…none of which remained ….so I couldn't even take pictures…K said it was the best lunch in a long time….i'd kind of become predictable….we had a friend over for lunch….we sat a talked and talked some more…well into sunset, over cups of steaming hot chai….and laughed and mock fought!! When the evening came to a close…I realized what a precious gift K gave me….his presence has energized me for the week ahead….!! Cheers and here's to many more weekends like this one….. love surely makes the world go round!!

Culinary Escapades on TV!!

I get a lot of calls to enquire about the chocolate making classes that I conduct…averaging about 12 per weekday and double on the weekend, I have difficulty in placing people when they begin a conversation with “hi I am mallika, remember I called you 5 days ago about the chocolate making class??” so in this state of mind and a perfectly rehearsed script like fashion, I spoke to someone who claimed to be a TV journalist and asked if she can come to my class….i said yes….turned around and told K that I think some crank caller called….so imagine my surprise and slight panic attack, when I get a call at 10.15 a.m on Saturday from a person who began the conversation as mentioned above and simply added “we want directions from so and so point, I and my team are coming to cover your event for our entertainment and local events section …..” my session was to begin at 10.30 a.m

TV is’nt new to me…as part of my “jill of all trades” resume, I have had my share of time under the arc lights as an anchor for film based programs on local TV….. I spent some forgettable months mugging my Telugu lines written in English at a time when I couldn’t speak my mother tongue in the “acceptable” accent…..i also like every other person imagine I am the heroine each time I see chiffon, flower fields, beautiful hair and make up and the whole nine yards….I’ve harbored celluloid fantasies as much as I dare to admit and think and I am not ashamed to admit that I luuurve hindi films!! Okay now that I have admitted as much….. as much as it began, TV ended for me with an entrance into a prestigious college for a much more bankable degree in business administration……yeah I have digressed, but I know that already…..

So having said all that I have, the panic attack was because I wondered what the reactions from those who’d registered for the class would be like….i mean I myself have shied away and requested not to be photographed at public places when the press has been around….for the simple fact that I am shy….. and being told something like this at such short notice …… I wondered if they’d be angry….or worse…. I need not have worried…despite one person telling me quite dramatically “oh I am not at all camera friendly” I must say they put up quite a show!!

The 3 member team from the Telugu Channel TV 9 arrived and set up shop….filming most of the class and all the while I was worried that the chocolate would melt under the hot lights….long shot, close up shots, funny twisting shots of the class at work, me talking and explaining and the stuff we were doing…..it was funny to see people huddling to a spot where they’d get good coverage and chirpily asking ‘intelligent’ questions!! My family, mom, adoptive mother in law, K, adoptive brother in law and his wife……stood around….watching from behind the camera…smiling, rolling eyes and giving me a thumbs up or a wink once in a while….this drama went on for the full duration of the class…….when I entered the kitchen at some point during the session, K accosted me and said I was doing a good job….i asked why they hadn’t left yet….he said that they wanted to do an exclusive with me!! My first thought was…oh gosh….i am really tired….(3 hours of non stop chocolate making can sap you of your life’s blood) and my mouth is dry and I haven’t had breakfast and was really looking forward to lunch at Nanking’s……he glared at me and asked me to shut up…..so we finished the session on time….and I must say this batch as all the others…wasn’t ready to leave!! By the time they did, I had to get to work again…….

Face washed and powdered, some lipstick and a brush through my hair….i did a demonstration of two kinds of chocolate for the camera….i must say I was trying my best not to grin cos I was living a childhood fantasy….of cooking for the camera a la sanjeev kapoor …. I’d do the “adha kata hua pyaz, thodi si haldi aur namak swad anusar” when I began helping in the kitchen as a young adult……. After the demonstration, they did a 10 minute interview with me…how I got into this and when I started etc….. I wrapped up and gift packed the chocolates I made for the camera and gave it to the team…thanked them and they left telling me they’d let me know when it would be telecast….. not before they asked me to inform them if I was starting any other kinds of classes….though I was tired, I was happy….amma said I was very natural an spoke well in telugu…. (natural!! Yeah didn’t I tell you I wanted to be an actress??) and all my years as a trainer has made me overcome the fear of standing in front of people you don’t know, and talking, training and expressing an opinion…..

We then went to Nanking and had a late but sumptuous lunch…..later while K and D got back home to watch the cricket match, the four of us women went to General bazaar to do some essential shopping…with the chocolate making classes, I need to make a trip once a month to stock up on my supplies…..i needed all four of us to carry my bags as a result!! By the time we got back home, I was sufficiently drained out and rather happy at the day’s outcome….

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 discoveries

The rains have come and seem to have abated for a while…..it poured unbelievably for a couple of days…I love the rains…I think it is my most favourite time of the year….and I like nothing better than to watch the sheets of rain fall…..to me everything seems better suddenly with the rain…the earth…it smells awesome when it first gets wet….looks greener (never mind the puddles and bad roads) ….from my fourth floor apartment, I can see a traffic signal about a kilometer away and the lights from there plus the vehicles rushing past always seem awesome… snug under a razai, reading a book or watching a movie, hot ginger tea as I watch the rains….. I am a true blue water baby…a crab….but much as I love the rains…I realize that to most people it is the most inconvenient almost difficult time of the year…..the slush, the puddles, the vehicles splashing water as you walk on water logged roads, daily wage earners not getting employed cos of the rains….the newspaper boy who does rounds when I am still snug in my bed….

Of late in hyderabad due to the bad drainage of water on the roads, manholes have been kept open and as many as three kids have gotten washed away….its sickening…and scary…and ever so often I feel guilty about all that I indulge in….i am truly grateful to my maker for all that I enjoy…the peace and security of a family, or a home, food and comforts that I don’t believe I deserve any less or more than the next person….i try therefore to be thankful …of course there are days when I crib, but they pass quickly…..if there’s some thing that I don’t seriously like about the rains, it is my exotic doormat made of water hyacinth that has gotten suddenly wet and refuses to dry completely……….

Its been a day since I began this post… I have been busy with my writing….for the articles and also Escapades…..it has become like a part time job, I spend so much time on it and on the various other links that I frequent that I’m thinking random thoughts must be feeling like a step child……am not going to succumb to posting just about anything for the sake of it! That’s not the point of this blog anyways…….

If you also read Escapades, then you’ll know that I have been cooking almost into overdrive since feeling better last week…..all weekend it has poured and comfort food was in order, so i made quite a spread and have been trying out different stuff, from pav bhaji, cutlets to subway style sandwiches, i even baked a cake!! that for those who are privy to my earlier baking disasters was a feat!!

We had guests on Sunday…actually cousins of mine….relatives are so different from friends….i mean I seldom “hung around” with my cousins….i’d have loved to but we almost always tend to meet at social and familial gatherings and that’s that….you don’t get to know them as the individuals that they are…since this drop in was devoid of any other agenda, we got talking and the fact that we were related became just a technicality…………….it was such a refreshing change and we discovered so many things that we had in common.....we had a whale of a time….i did, I don’t know if they were just bored to death!! It was like time spent with friends and that in my book is a huge compliment!!

K has been writing too…he began on the weekend…a chance meeting on a flight with one of the country’s best cinematographer, now turned director has resulted in a casual exchange of ideas for movies and a future collaboration maybe….…I was very excited…star struck as I am, this might be my only shot at actually seeing abhishek bachchan…….so he’s been on the phone and computer for the better part of the last four days…endlessly discussing story ideas and concepts…..what this did to him, was restarted work on his unfinished book………he is currently in what I call the “ZONE” ……..he’s just obsessively focused on his writing ….he has been up all night working on his book and hit the bed around 10 ish this morning so I guess he’ll be out till the evening…he’d begun writing the book a few months ago….and then hit a road block….i’d goad him to finish….(nothing more exotic than being the wife of a writer) and in true blue writer style he’d refuse until it all came flooding thru………last night he’d gotten back into the ZONE and will not want anything of the outside world till it passes….the best I can do is stay out of his hair…..and just hope and pray as hard as I can…for abhishek bachchan if not anything else!!

In the meanwhile, I have to finish what I am being paid to do…its so amusing that while you enjoy something immensely, the minute it becomes ‘work’ it begins to drag!!