A Simple Life

My apartment was locked up for most part of 4 months while we traveled on work and otherwise....each time i got back i had this eerie feeling that someone was in the house when we weren't.....that feeling didn't go away....it was roaches!! first they were few, then they came forward and multiplied....pretty soon, when the cutlery drawer was opened, or any other cabinet, they'd run for their life...i tried it all, laxman rekha, hit and all other kinds of repellers, but them roaches just didn't give up......its a very disgusting sight and thought and so in came the pest control guys...the effect was almost immediate.....I'd have a grin on my face when the maid would give me an approximation of the damages each morning after she swept the house......it got me thinking about how my mom managed without an AMC with a pest control company......we didn't have fancy cabinetry....we had what we called the 'meat safe' which was a wooden cupboard with the doors made of mesh for ventilation.....the cooked food, groceries etc were kept in this......(we grew up with cats as pets, so preferred not to tempt the darlings with milk and other goodies kept on the counter) ......there was a simple yet effective way of keeping ants, roaches etc out of the meatsafe......each leg was placed it a little plastic bowl which always had water in it.....if that dried up, you were sure to find a trail of ants in your food......most of my memories are of the kitchen......once the formality of breaking the ice was done with, everyone - friends, relatives etc were invited to sit in the kitchen while my mom finished cooking........we had a huge dining cum kitchen......now they have fancy names for it....its called an 'open kitchen' back then when my mom bought herself a 4 burner stove with oven and grill that looked like a fridge and realised that to fit it into the existing kitchen the slab would have to be cut, she just placed it adjacent to the L shaped counter and made it into an island kitchen!! added a wooden rack and she had additional work space.....it worked for a quarter of a century...i remember how i agonized was when the designing of my 'modular kitchen' was happening.........we had a black mud pot for water (my parents refused to drink fridge water) it was a uniquely porous pot that dripped water...used condensation to keep the water cool....the water that dripped was collected in a dish at the base and the dogs and cats would drink only from here........all this makes me marvel at how uncomplicated it all was.......today with gadgets and gizmos, we still are running against time......mom always says...the more options you have, making a choice becomes that much more difficult......so true...

Quiet Mornings

its been a few weeks now that i have fallen into this routine that only now has struck me as "me time" (i'm a little slow!!) since planting my feet in hyd these past weeks, i usually have the mornings to myself......with K sleeping till atleast 9.30 a.m and poor me having to wake up when the ringing doorbell heralds the arrival of the maid......i have a few hours to myself....... i've begun to so look forward to this time that i get a trifle worked up when K rises early or someone else pops in.......a myriad bouquet of feelings i experience.....i feel that milk takes unusually long to boil, that my eyelids open like a blooming flower flash photographed at 3000 clicks per minute.....and sudoku and the crossword awaits me......i was so intrigued by sudoku that i was tempted to try.....ok i admit i did cheat initially but now i cant believe that day on day i crack something relating to numbers.....i was perenially math phobic all my student life and that's what landed me in the arts stream!! there are days when this gaggle of birds have an impromptu chorus...i am tempted to feed them some grain but K's phenomenal phobia of winged creatures has halted me thus far....of late i have noticed a lovely pair of mynas that have built their nest inside a drain pipe....they keep going in and out accessorising their home...i just wonder if they're not feeling like stewed fowls by the end of the day in this heat! with the 'development' of city scapes, i have no doubts that what i witness is soon going to cease, so i might as well enjoy it while it lasts......i pore over the newspapers (we get 4 of them) and am sometimes at what makes it to the pages....i also chat with my mother in peace sparing an eyeball rolling K from exasperation and other emotions he goes thru when he's privy to our conversations!! in fact my mother can clearly tell if i am alone or not when i speak with her!! some of my best paintings and writings have come out of this time and the moment i began waking without an alarm i truly understood how much this time meant to me......i'm just thankful for the time that i have......i know its a privilege not many have......

Of Palakkad Iyer cooking and more!!

my parents in law were here 2 weeks ago for a week....in between the trip to srisailam, hyd bomb blast abd bandh for 2 days and a very important MRI scan for appa, i mnaged to apprentice with amma for a few days........she was busy trying to kick me out of the kitchen and i was busy trying to get her out.....both because we think the other deserves rest!! and so we struck this apprentice deal......what struck me was how simple their cooking really is!! i have reproduced everything with much satisfaction and obvious pride!!

long blogging break...............

a few things so clearly reflect your status as an amateur....for instance losing a post because the net signed out while you were typing....and not typing on a word doc.......after the long break from blogging caused by the induced lack of internet access, i wrote a post only to grit my teeth at my naivety and lost it....its never the same second time around.....

a friend i was chatting with after a long time said the nicest thing about my blog (which by the way i thought no one was going to read)....she said its like she's speaking to me and not reading!! it sure felt good...

the past month has been spent on a quick trip to bangalore to spend easter with family and see my lil rascal neice who has now begun to enjoy her victorious turning on her sides......she is learning manipulation very fast and is loving every minute of making monkeys of adults!!

the travel bug hasnt stopped the biting but the summer sure has made k and me change our minds about venturing on a trip....it makes me wonder how we vacationed in summer when we were kids....i think children are far more resilient than adults and that global warming is affecting us in more ways than we care to acknowledge....i havent spent a single moment in the sun this summer without feeling my skin burn......so we're waiting for the worst of the summer to pass and then take off again...the only blessing of summer is the mangoes....hyderabad has access to some of the best and i am not ashamed to say that i prefer the banaganapalli mangoes to anything else and am willing to forego regular food to satiate myself with this king of all fruit!!

i've had time to make peace with my balcony garden and ask for a second chance at being their caretaker...i was quite ashamed at the way i nearly killed them all off.....four months of being left to fend for themselves in captivity with water only every few days is hardly inspiring...only the more dogged ones survived...i have now learnt my lesson...have increased the number of plants that retain water...have painstakingly nursed them back and i am happy that all's well again...the balcony is awash with the colour of the crotons that i have acquired and the african violet bloomed so beautifully...my previous two attempts at growing this exotic plant died of failure....i am most excited about the little kitchen pots that i have started....since i dont have a garden i cant call it a kitchen garden...its mostly herbs...i have coriander thats just sprouting, methi that i have harvested twice since it grows so fast, karipatta isnt able to make up its mind about whether it likes being in a pot, mint thats just putting out a few leaves, onion and garlic leeks, and ginger......what a thrill to have a few sprigs of this in a salad or an omelette...now if only i eat eggs!!

we've had a lot of friends over....my friend who's here from the US of A spent a couple of days and we talked and talked and then some.....we've been privy to the journey of a couple who'remaking a home out of four walls....of the highs and lows and realising that no one has exactly the kind of soap dish you want, of packing and the nightmare that unpacking is going to be....it reminds me of the impulsive journey k and i made a few years ago when we bought our apartment....i remember this same friend almost choked on her coffee on our break as we were talking of what we did on the weekend i i said 'oh by the way, we picked up an apartment' that we havent lived to regret it is an added bonus....we've always loved having friends over and we've had the nicest compliments paid to us by people who have said they've found our home very warm.....i think the nicest times have been spent this way, chatting till 6 a.m, having coffee and then falling asleep....watching all night marathon movies......driving out at 2 a.m to buy ciggarettes for k......having chai at the bandi's outside cyber pearl.......and sometimes putting in a full work day after all of this.......

after a long time i went for a wedding and actually liked being there.....an old colleague was finally taking the plunge....what actually ended up happening was that it became a reunion of sorts and the wedding was the sideshow.....met so many old faces....it was great...i think i shocked quite a few people with my currently unemployed status...also inspired a few jealously shocked responses...all in all i was glad DP got married and gave us the opportunity to meet!!

i am hoping another induced break from blogging wont happen because i am sure missing the herapy it provides......

Second Honeymoon Anyone....?

the state of mind usually reflects in what and how you do things....I’m no different here.....the past few months have definitely been a roller coaster and I have gone on and on about it in my last post.....but no it didn’t end there...in fact there was more.....I have decided against two things most immediately....I am not going to have a pet anytime soon if the travel continues...and I have to grow more water resistant plants if at all any.......

this time k and I took a trip which was to be our second honeymoon....it was a trip for ourselves and not to meet familial obligations....it was also a trip to explore a few possibilities that had lined themselves up and ponder on a few thoughts......so we trekked out...excited that we'd be on our own for the first time in 3 yrs....we'd made promises that we would do this every few months when we had just taken our I do and don’t vows, but like many other things....we 'prioritised' this too....no regrets...I have always believed in that...so off we went....flew down to coimbatore....took a cab to yercaud...our destination in the hills....to escape from the heat that was now Hyderabad into the unbelievably lush green and cooler Salem was a relief......we climbed the small mountain about 1500 meters above sea and sank into the cooler climes.....en route we saw the perpetual primates...to which k commented "its shocking how much like us they are!!"

the hills were laced with the remnants of what we call spring in our tropics....its amazing to watch the palette of nature....huge trees, bushes and shrubs alike sported only two main colours...lavender that was breathtaking and sunshine yellow that was so uplifting.....I’m not particularly fond of these two colours say in a wardrobe....but out there it was simply breathtaking....


City slickers really are shortchanged for the concrete structures that we marvel at.....mother earth makes you feel completely inadequate......we spent 3 idyllic days at yercaud....we realised despite what one particularly cute dog says, there are still places in this country that thankfully doesn’t have network coverage and such slow internet access that you wont want to "check your mail" ever!! all we did was trek ....panting and gasping with the excess weight and side effects of smoking I guess....drive around the country side....walk through many coffee plantations (the mainstay of farming in yercaud) eat and relax..... its surprising how long it seems when you have finally lost track of the watch and calendar!!


K and I have always been instinctive….in everything that we have done…we believe that now’s the time…there may not be another time tomorrow….ala kal ho na ho?? So we decided that we’d not had enough and wanted some more… the seas beckoned so on a whim, return tickets were cancelled and onward plans we made….we drove 14 hours into kerala……

Kerala.....it never disappoints and is everything that it promises to be……the lushness of the terrain really surprises you….went to a place called Varkala, that is a couple of hours before the very ‘touristy’ kovalam…..i wasn’t prepared for what I saw and experienced over the next four days…..the water was so clear that you can see your feet even at 20 meters into the sea…..the beach is possibly one of the cleanest I have ever seen…..



the view was breathtaking and so relaxing that I didn’t mind the 10 shades I tanned after it all….our stay at the Taj was enchanting because of the famous hospitality ….they even decorated our bed with flowers one night to surprise us while we were having dinner!! We gorged on food and it has taken its toll……..i lolled about the swimming pool and realised that I must have looked like I was drowning!! Even if we didn’t want to go out explore the place, the sea view from our suite was picture postcard variety…….we’ve returned home on Friday night….relaxed and rejuvenated and thankful for the journeys of life that we have made…I have understood somewhere that the best laid plans may not work out and don’t be surprised when the unexpected gives you more happiness than you thought it would…..k and I have a few things on hand now….the first being to recover from the vacation, the second being to loose all the holiday flab……

we’ve decided to explore a tleast three places this year that are’nt covered by the travel books….family and friends were shocked that we shed the straightjackets we’d worn for so long and showed our maverick sides again……we’d already warned them that regular calls wouldn’t be possible from where we were heading…..plus the sudden detour sort of caught them off guard…..we are so used to living a planned life!! Hell we have insurance plans for everything these days…..i’m glad that the both of us are as mad as we are…..we’d have never experienced what we did otherwise….

to sound a trifle trite……. if this is what journeys are about then I am game and my bags are packed already……………..