burnt a hole in my mouth

quite literally....a midnight craving for an aloo samosa, led me to the kitchen the next afternoon when i was trying to figure out what to do with my 'down' time..... i followed the recipe from a food blog....and made up two batches...one the healthier baked option and the other the fried one....no sooner did the baked version come out of the oven, i pounced on it....tore off a bit, blew it rapidly to cool...was satisfied and popped it into my mouth....

what i felt for the next10 seconds is inexplicable....the molten aloo (potato) stuffing stuck to the roof of my mouth and burnt it through and through......i will not describe the gross details for fear of losing the few random readers who see this space...lets just say that i have been walking around for the past two days feeling like i drank some acid, like there is a hole on the roof of my mouth that has rendered me incapable of eating anything.....i've just been drinking stuff which is easy to swallow and non acidic and cooled to room temp or lesser.....the next time i will know better....than to act like a starved person when accosted with samosas however yummy they look.....

Sleepless nights and days

Two things have been churning my blood and making my hair stand on edge these past few days…..

I've been reading maximum city by suketu Mehta…am on the last chapter……..i like the narrative style….the flow and more so the way it manages to curdle your blood…chilling which is surprising as I don't think it was meant to….but the starkness of the life he writes about….the sheer edge on which the lives of many people I didn't even know existed lies on…..the lives of the bar dancer and the hitman in particular…… the non dramatic way in which he narrates their stories is what makes it chilling…..devoid of all the makeup….it so surreal…yet closer to you than you'd have imagined….the way they accept what they do for a living…..and carry on with it…..you realize it could be anyone….scarily enough….even you…..i realize with each encounter I have…….that what a "frog in the well" view I have of life….choices made are often so clear and simple for me….and yet I agonize…brand and label……I'm glad I picked up this book …. It was such a random choice…and trust me…for someone who reads like I do…sporadically and inconsistently…in frequency and the choice of material that I make…it was most unlikely a choice…..but with 2 hours to kill at an airport……there was something about the title that sounded vaguely familiar……infact I half expected it to be a page three of bombay type of fiction…..i really don't know why I picked it up….but am glad I did………I also realized that I am enjoying non fiction more than I thought I would….

The second is the death of Scarlet keeling….this 15 year old british girl was found naked and dead on anjuna beach in goa….. that a human being can be violated in the most ultimate way in such a public place is so scary that it made my hair stand up…I haven't been able to get it off my mind since the past few days….drugged, raped and killed…how and when and where and by whom?? Questions that remain muddled in the mess that is made of it…that a human being isn't given dignity even in death….cover ups and accusations flying fast …. Fingers being pointed to her mother's lifestyle…as though it justified what happened…..and to think that the system that is meant to protect us is where the needle of undoubted suspicion points at first……that a girl so young can access drugs and drink the way she did….that someone could be such an animal ….to rape repeatedly a girl who was so drunk and drugged that she was unconscious…..and then leave her to die……

How much more are we going to degrade ourselves?? As humans….and everything around us seems to make us so immune……I am not pointing fingers at race, religion, place or country….just at the animals that men and women have become….. and just that the occurrences have become so frequent, that we don't even bat an eyelid……

 

 

 

 

trip part II - maldives

i have two choices.....either i copy paste the whole thing i wrote for the other blog here and painstakingly upload all the pics again..... or i simply link up..... am doing the second one.... the whole story...be warned it is a really long post............

Trip part I…….Kochi…..meeting a food blogger and aqua delusions!!

It was Saturday, officially the day I was waiting for ever since valentine's day (since we planned it that day…) ….imagine the bombshell when K tells me bright and early that he "had to go to office for some earth and life shattering meetings" I was flabbergasted …. And also a tad bit annoyed…I mean didn't he ? then why this at the last minute?? Anyways…supportive wife that I am, is said please go….so we postpone our flight for later that day and I was left to lock up the house and pack….. oh I must add that it began with giving clothes to the dhobi for ironing!! In between all of this, I managed to finish and hitch a ride with a friend who offered very generously to drop me at the airport…..i'd warned K that if he didn't turn up at the appointed hour at the airport, I'd simply leave with the first hot guy I spotted at the airport…..anyways…I was sorely disappointed (;)) to find a beaming K waiting for me at the airport….pretty soon we were airborne….

Cochin I was going back to after a year….last year around the same time K and I went to Varkala and we drove through cochin…stopping for lunch….we reached the place we were staying, freshened up and popped in next door to D's…..my friend from college….as reunions usually are noisy…there were too many things being said at the same time….and god help you if her 3 and a half year old daughter M is around…the little pet will not allow anyone to get a word in sideways!! J her brother who is 13 months old entertains himself and lives comfortably in the shadow of his sister….M wanted to know if Amma and Anu aunty went to school together, how old we were, was I her only friend, and if no then how come she had'nt seen any other of her friends? We decided to catch up the next day as D's hubby had to catch a train…..

Our tenth floor service apartment had a fabulous view of the backwaters along which it is located…so K and I sat in the balcony talking under the stars and faint nightly noises….what I noticed this time is that usually when you drive along Kerala, the single most reinforced imagery encountered is that of hoardings announcing the million jewelery stores…all the way from pallakkad to Trivandrum….this time I noticed that the love for bling has given way to mammoth real estate advertisements…..there are as many boards as there are projects…each one promising you the home of your dreams to a little place of heaven and even an "address you can finally be proud of" …no I didn't make that up…villas, apartments, condos, water facing bungalows, backwater apartments…..you name the kind of abode, and they all seem to be custom made Kerala style…..

Next morning…bright and early a phone call woke me up…apparently, alarmed at the impending departure of us without partaking of a meal at D's household, aunty decided to have us over for breakfast…..with our plans so fluid….we had told the family the previous evening that we'd leave on Sunday night so as to not risk not being able to make it on time to catch our flight to Male from Trivandrum….aunty had planned to host lunch for us …. But that became breakfast……so much the better cos after gorging on all that fabulous breakfast….i couldn't have slept a wink had I agreed to dinner!! A colossal table filled with puttu, payar, egg roast, vada sambhar, pazham (carmelised) and stew awaited us…..to say that we had a wonderful breakfast is the understatement of the moment!!

Uncle and aunty went off to celebrate the 80^th birthday of a friend, K who was totally in love with M by this time…smitten…spent time entertaining her, playing with her and making her feel like supergirl….because he kept throwing her up in the air and generally doing whatever she wanted….the whole room was filled with shrieks that only little girls can let out!! All this din while D and I tried to catch up…..

We had such a packed day and I really looked forward to the evening because I was to meet Aparna…a fellow blogger….she came with her daughter, a delightful young lady who thankfully for today's generation lists reading and books as her favourites!! A few days earlier, while chatting online, I'd mentioned to A that we may be related for all you know cos both our husbands had the same surname and came from the same region of Palakkad in Kerala….imagine our shock…and subsequent bizarre delight when it turns out that they share the same family name, come from the same ancestral village and their houses were 4 doors or something like that apart!! Infact when her husband came by to pick them up, we got Appa on the phone who was more than intrigued by this uncanny meeting!! Food blogging sure has its surprises!! Aparna came bearing a gift like a true blue food blogger….some fabulous chocolate and walnut brownies / muffins….which we had some and took the rest to devour in Maldives……

Lots of debates and deliberations later, we decided to fly from cochin to Tvdm as we found a later in the night flight……..After such an action packed two days, we didn't want to over sleep and rick not being able to catch the early morning train…..so off we went to Tvdm…checked into the ginger hotel by the tata's which I was so impressed with….and slept a lovely fitful sleep full of aquamarine dreams………. Ah bliss!!

Totally excited!!

Totally excited has been my signature line on my chat id ever since V day…..loads of friends…..intrigued by what the excitement is all about stopped by to ask…..those of them expecting some confirmation of procreation in the process were a tad bit disappointed ;) …..i've blogged about why I am totally excited here already….. so finally after all this wait and some major running about to fix things before we leave for a week's vacation, I am a little relieved that the 1^st of march is finally here!! The last week has been a haze of work work and nothing but more of it…..am happy to bits to be taking this break….first of all I stop by at cochin for a couple of days where I get to spend time with D….we were in college together …. And being in a hostel sort of makes you the kind of friends that last a lifetime….we've shared happiness and heartbreak…success and sorrow…..but living on either side of the Atlantic isn't the most conducive thing…..D dropped by hyderabad earlier this year…and now on the last leg of her vacation in India, I wanted to get some more time with her….hence the trip to god's own country….. a pleasant occurrence all thanks to blogging has also happened…something that I am looking forward to…..i get to meet a fellow food blogger!! Its adding so much excitement to today's trip…… A and I have exchanged notes briefly……she asked me some questions on chocolate making and we were chatting online….then I told her I would be in her part of the country on the weekend…and we decided to meet over coffee…..oh what fun!! This is the first time that I would be meeting a fellow food blogger…so I am much looking forward to this……I don't expect K to even get half a phrase in sideways!! He will have two foodie enthusiasts to deal with………the last leg of this trip will kick it into a different league….K surprised me with a trip to Maldives….so we leave from cochin on the 3^rd for a 4 day vacation in maldives……more on that when I am back!! Please be patient to deal with a giddy headed person!! And pardon me if I am being totally OTT!! Ciao…………