With pleasure

A new Vandi - 40,000/-

A new helmet to go with the color of the new vandi - 500/-

A thenga (coconut) for the vandi - god / god's so that he/ she saves me from prying eyes and wicked drivers around town - 10/-

A box of Haldiram Orange burfee for the extended family - 250/-

Amma riding the vandi and I sitting at the back facing the road with pearls of rain brushing past my face - Priceless!

There are certain things money can't buy. For everything else, nah, too cliched!

"Are you ladies wanting to have all the fun in the world?", they asked.
" With Pleasure" , we said.

:)

HDD

There is absolutely no space in my laptop, whom we shall call Betty's hard disk. One day when i was talking about my grave concern on Betty being fully occupied, a friend suggested that i ask appa for an external hard disk. Uhm, so that is exactly what i did. Went something like this.

Me : Appa

Appa: sollu.

M: You know, i have no memory left.

A: Snigger. Snigger. (looking at amma) See, didn't i tell you, she's been acting weird since she did that bungee jumping.

M: (haha!!) Arey appa, my Betty does not have memory.

A: (Putting his coffee cup down) Who? Who is betty? Isn't that a girl's name?

M: Nothing to do with section 377 , pa.

A: (regaining his calm) So, who is betty?

M: My laptop's name.

A: Laptop's have name and all? I thought you only named that teddy bear in your room. What did you call it? Some poo... poochi...

M: (cutting him short) Pooh ji maharaj ji.

A: Your friend tells me you sometimes forget their names. Infinite quota for such useless information, i wonder how you even have space for what actually matters.

M: Ayyo, appa. There is no memory left in my laptop anymore. I don't know what to do?

A: Delete few things :)

M: But, i don't want to.

A: What do you have in your laptop?

M: Why do you need all that info? Anyway, I have lot of this and that.

A: This and that, na?

M: This and that na purinjukoyen?

A: Your essays, photos, videos and project and all? (not with a straight face)

M: Yes, yes

A: Ok , let me see it.

M: You don't trust me, na?

A: I do, but i still want to see it. Maybe i could do something about it.

M: No, you can't .

After a lot of probing , the father realises that I have more movies , songs and the likes than any really "important" stuff.

A: I think, yes I need to get a new external Hard disk.

M: ( joyous smile on the face)

After I entered my room, i did the victory jiggle.

The day after this day. The father comes back home with a red HDD. My joy knew no bounds. I quitely waited for him to do the honors of handing the shiny gadget to me. He did hand it, later in the day to me and coolly said, " Yes, i did take your advice and have got an HDD for my use!! and yes, could you teach me how to use it?"

Something broke somewhere. Into a million pieces.

The father, I tell you!

RIP jackson!

I woke up at four today. I don't know why I did but, I did. Jackson succumbs to a cardiac arrest, they said. Five minutes and ten sites later, I gave in to the truth. I haven't listened to MJ in the last decade but I have patronized BSB, Abba, Elvis which were much before I even came to this world , but I had forgotten MJ whose music I grew up to and with.
I put on my never used playlist of MJ songs, song after song bits and pieces of the past flashed through my eyes. Most family get-togethers would have one common factor those days and that was the music. We were careful enough to divide time between our two favourites those days-Baba sehgal (oh yes!!) and the aforementioned King of Pop. I liked Pop and particularly Jackson because my brother liked him. One of the best things about growing up with an elder brother is you know what you must like, what the brother follows you follow, what he likes you like! Things are very different now, of course.
The family would sit in a circle, as the brother and I would take the black tiled centre stage. We went in ellipses albeit in our own orbits. Jumped up and down, moved our hands, stretched our feet, collided, fell down, got up back again and also did imaginary hooplas. When, I watched one such video a few days back, I bashfully put my head down at my own stupidity. The mother called it "rendu perukum saami vandha madhiri iruku" as the video watching crowd burst into peals of laughter that are still echoing. Our theatrics were a theatrical disaster. After we would dance for 20 minutes or so, I would be taken aside and the centre stage would be the exclusive property of my brother. People would cheer and jeer as though it was Mr.MJ himself! This performance, my dear readers, was the favourite of many to date. Anna would do the moon walk like only MJ could. I tried very hard, I secretly try it when I am alone even today but No, this particular thing escapes my physical faculty. I hated him for it. The way he sashayed across the floor like an eel. The semi-spoilt kid that I was I would sit on my Mom's lap and wouldnt look at him. Jealousy!
An hour would go by and I would forget everything else and would come up with my own walk known as the "mars" walk. It basically was pretty simple and do-able. You walk normally backwards but put your hands forward and move it like the leg-motion in the moon-walk. My brother would then cheer me and I would sleep a happy kid.
I would do anything to get those days back again. I would.
Some such best memories of my life that i take everywhere with me in my mind's eye has been created amidst MJ's songs. Every good, bad and ugly happenings of mine have always been associated with music.
So here's to the King of Good Times, The King of Pop and To the eternalised King of Moon walk, We bow....

Update: An old classmate reminds me of my school performance on MJ's Heal the world.One of the best I have ever felt on stage was for it. :)

Heart Calls

His hand turned the golden of the door knob; a shiver ran through his veins on touching the cold metal. He entered the door to his empty home, no not a home, he thought to himself. This was just a house. The home is where the heart is and for him, it was amongst the Lodhi garden where he had let his sister score a ten thousand runs, the mama road staircase where she had written K anna with the mother’s red lipstick, on the study table in front of the window near the guava tree where me mugged for his board exams and the most in the kitchen that was once small but had been turned into what his grandmother pointed out was unnecessary extension by the new lady who had taken over the reigns. He remembered a particular day when he had tugged the sarree of his sleeping chitti at one in the night asking for roti and beetroot subji.
“Also a glass of bormee, chitti” he quipped, as she made her way into the kitchen from the bathroom.
He entered the coldness of the room and habitually switched on his laptop. The Microsoft opening credit gave a little tune to the otherwise serene surrounding. His stomach grumbled and mumbled as his laptop, Archie revealed the picture of his family. He would do anything for a plate of sambar sadam topped with the home-made nei. He waited for the wi-fi to connect him to the world he wanted to connect physically to but couldn’t. He carefully arranged his socks and shoes in the stand. Everything had to go to its rightful place after it was done, he always said.
“What about you? Don’t you have to go back to where you came from? Isn’t your work done in this place?” He closed his heart from taking over his head any further and made his way to the bathroom and took a quick bath while chanting the hanuman chalisa. He made his way to the semi-pseudo-ish God’s zone which he had tried to recreate like his pati’s, bare-chested but for a thread did the sandhyavandanam.He skipped to the kitchen to grab a bite. His mind half wandered through the pages of naukri.com and his institute job site and absent-mindedly re-heated the day before yesterday’s daal and the yesterday’s rice. The monster hunt for a job was taking a toll on him. The recession was sucking from within and without.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a wife who would make hot meals for you when you returned home? Why don’t you get married da?” the sister had casually pointed out yesterday during their usual morning conversations. She was half hoping he would reply that wives weren’t robots who only cooked and cleaned but equal partners whom you loved and cared for and vice-versa. When he hadn’t, she just rolled her eyes. Men!

(to be contd, when feel like)

And dinner again today :)

I am extremely jobless and satisfied with life per se.Three months of holidays.The results came as soon as we wrote the examination and The GPA was decent.I read at least one book a day.I have done a lot of things i have not in my last few years which makes me very happy.The 10 days (10-19 may) were one of the most beautiful and memorable in my life.Something I am going to cherish for as long as life is going to take me.So much of nothing to do makes me contemplate and retrospect over certain decisions in my life.It's unhealthy at times but it's good to know I still have a little motivation for few things in life.

I would have done hotel management if it wasn't for my extremely tam-brahmic sensibility of not touching anything that walks and then is killed to get into your stomach.Every time I cook i am reminded of this by friends and family.Someday this passion of mine will be a huge determining force in my life.I know.I promise this to myself :) How and when? We shall see.

We had people today for dinner.Close friends.So,i made some (white sauce) cheese pasta and Tiramisu.The mother and the other lady do not consume egg,coffee and kahlua (liquor based).So,i had to make two separate batches.But,it was all worth it.

Here is a look :)











And now for the dessert....




P.S: Somebody asked me if my last pasta was mix and cook type thing.No,it wasn't.I make my pasta sauces both red and white from scratch.Incidentally,the tiramisu here was also made from scratch.The base was baked,the whipped cream was made and the mascarpone filling was whipped by me :)

For supper today :)

We were supposed to Eat Out today.I had had three cups of "grande" coffee (one with an extra shot) in the morning today and could not take anymore of anything outside and moreover i was lazy to get dressy to go out.So, I decided to fix a quick supper.I went into the kitchen and here is what I came up with.I had made paysam/kheer in the morning but, I remade more of it again on popular demand by the brother.

Here's a look :)













They said , it was yum :)I believe them.

pseudo-secularism.

Proper punchat stuff.
KR sent it to me some time back.Just,opened it today.
Nice!

NAVRATRI was HERE!!

22


Navami h.52-45 , Uttarasadha Nakshatra h.54-38 , Atiganda Yoga h.02-08 , Balava Karana h.20-37

The last day of Navratri and yours truly has finally risen from her slumber.I wanted to post a lot of things for the last few days but too many journal,assignment deadlines coupled with quiz/sessionals/tests have prevented me against my wish to do so.
The season of coulours,dances,celebration,sweets,food was here.The celebration of Shakti/Devi,the consort of Shiva/Vishnu in all her glory.The celebration of Womanhood.Nine days of pure,unadulterated festivity.Brilliantly colored rangolis,pulchutridonously clad women,the bengali-pandals,the gujurati stick-dance and garbas and my Tamizh golus.

For the uninitiated,this is what the hindu festival of navratri is all about.

Goddess also known as shakti or devi is worshipped in three forms with nine names.One for each day.
Durga,the annihilator of everything evil and wicked is worshipped on the first three days.
Lakshmi,bestower of material wealth,money,power,fame on the next three days.
Finally Saraswati,the goddess of wisdom,education,knowledge is venerated on the third.

((The three together could be considered an equivalent of the powerpuff girls.))

On the ninth day all of us who normally claim to study hard throughout the year, give it a rest and let our brains and books cool.That is on Saraswati puja.
The next day ,on the eve of ayuthu puja we clean,bathe and dress all the intruments that make our living possible.Anything from a pen,scooter,AK-47,Bazooka,needle,zhadu is cleaned and given its share of manjal, kumkum.
Then,we have the Vijayadashami which is considered an auspicious day to start anything.Also,on this day we pay our obeisance to our teachers or guru's.
On the final day we celebrate Dusshera.On this day an effigy of Ravana is burnt in most parts of northern india symbolising the victory of good over evil.


According to smartha tradition Devi is considered as one of the five supreme powers.An equivalent of wonder-woman of the smarthan justice league.She is the female aspect of divine sans whom the male power becomes null and void.Hence,this festival celebrates the female divinty and power.
Three cheers to WOMAN-POWER! :)

Some of my best memories are associated with this time of the year.The most obvious being the GOLU.
Few things i really missed owing to me not being at home were:
1)The cleaning and laying of the ziggurat like golu padi and the dolls,which i claimed to hate but secretely loved doing, amidst all of my mom's obfuscatory instructions.
2)Cloying amounts of protein overdose on all nine days from all of my mom's friends.And an even priceless discussion of it's palatability ranging from "thu,ennadi idhu"."blech,yevlov uppu/oil","besh besh,perfect".
3)Sitting through croaking mami's singing who gently reminded us,"ippo thondai seri illai,avlova nalla padu midiyadhu".While, me and my friends discussed

"I wonder what sen aunty and gumbal are doing.i wish i was a bong,cha!"

"don't worry,you can still marry one di"

4)Waiting for the list of people invited to pack-off home so we could run off to our dandiya night,just to watch our gujju sisters majestically frugging around the dance floor while we desperately tried to catch on or just watched gapingly.

5)Misti doi,moti choor,sweet sundal,rasgulla,milk kheer......(sigh)

6)And ,not to forget the hours spent getting dressed in pink,orange,kajal,bangles,huge ear-rings and everything else.

Festivities are not times you just pray to a deity for something material,for me it is a time i thank Her for the family,friends and everything else i am blessed with.It is not about kolu,dandia,dressing,sweets ,it is about the memories and the people with whom you enjoyed all the above.

Here,i take this opportunity to give my season greetings to all mami's,mama's,uncle,auntie's,friends,pati,tata's,fellow tams and blog readers.

Yah,better late than never!

And,here is a small surprise for you.Since,i could not be at home and be a part of everything i wrote above.Here,is a little something i could come up with.Before that a small description.

KOLU means a sovereign sitting in her royal durbar. As per belief, the concept of arranging these Navrathri dolls on the plank is to depict that Goddess Mahishasuramardini is sitting in her Kolu, prior to the slaying of the demon Mahishasura.
Thanks a ton to SHANKY for helping me out with this.Few errors but i was too lazy to do it again.




No.You are not getting sundal until you sing or dance or mimic or show any one of your talents.Whatever it is that you do well,just record it and send it to me and i will showcase your talent on my blog.Then,you will be sent a complimentary pack of sundal,vathalai pakku,kannadi,pottu,seepu,valai. :) positively!
And for guys,will take you to the next dandiya raas :) positively!
you are just a camera or recorder away!

HAPPY NAVRATRI,DUSSERA AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!

(By the time most of you read this,you would have already digested all the edible and non-edible thoughts/entities of the celebration.Not my fault,Education kills.)