Faith in Humanity - Restored

    Sometimes, a single incident can change your outlook for the better. Today was one such. With all the Covid-19 negativity weighing around us, it was amazing to see how a genuine good deed could bring so much cheer. My husband and I were struggling to put the six patio chairs that we bought at Target into our SUV. Ten-Fifteen minutes and dozens of 'not so bright' ideas later, the chairs were still on the curb.

    We were debating whether my husband should make multiple trips with me waiting in the parking lot with the other chairs, when a random lady stopped her vehicle and offered to carry our chairs home for us. We politely refused and said we thought it would fit  albeit with some work on our side, but she replied with a smile that she’ll stand by in case we need help, which we eventually did. 

    She opened her vehicle's trunk , helped load our chairs and agreed to follow us home. As we drove in front of her and waited at the signal , the skeptic in us raised its head  and we chuckled to ourselves that it would be funny if she just drove off with our chairs since we all we knew was her first name. But there was no need for any worry as she followed us home and dropped the chairs off at our driveway.

    We thanked her profusely for her kindness to which she replied that all she wanted us to do was to pay it forward. Her smile and her helping nature dropped a ton of positivity into our lives and restored our faith in humanity! It only takes one good deed to make someone’s day , to lighten the mood, to make some one happy. So be kind! Help a stranger! Pay it forward! It will definitely make you happier and also make the world a teeny weeny bit better for it.

P.S : This incident happened in August 2020, but was languishing in my drafts as I somehow missed to publish it. Better late than never!

Fiction and Non- Fiction - Musings on Mother's day!

My son and I were watching Phineas and Ferb (a cartoon on Netflix where two genius kids do highly improbable and complicated things ) together.Suddenly he looked at me and said, "You know none of this can be real , right Amma?".

They had been learning fiction and non -fiction in school and I tried to bring in those concepts as I replied. "Of course this is fiction, it is an imaginary story. I'm sure kids like them would not be able to build such complicated things so easily. So is the other TV show with bionic humans",  referring to a sci-fi comedy that we all watched called Lab Rats which had  three bionic children as its main protagonists. To which he indignantly replied , "Bionic humans are not fiction, I'm quite sure science is very close to humans having bionic chips and implants, may be they have already done it somewhere."  Before I could get another word in, he got back to the topic

"I mean , I can totally get that they are super smart and able to create roller coasters , what I can't understand is , how would they ever get the money to build those things", he mused. Personally I had not thought of that as an impediment and to foster debate , suggested that may be Phineas and Ferb's parents were very rich and they gave them a lot of pocket money. At this he started laughing loudly and said "Amma,you don't get it , no parents would give kids so much pocket money. It has to be fiction."

I chuckled to myself.We live in an age where super smart children and bionic super humans are close to reality. But thankfully parents are still parents and children receiving huge amounts in pocket money is still fiction.

Many times , we tend to forget that our children live in a world far more advanced than we can comprehend and seeing it through their curious eyes is a gift to cherish.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

P.S : It does look like bionic humans are coming for real.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/elon-musk-humans-merge-machines-cyborg-artificial-intelligence-robots.html

The Lizard Incident - An anecdote on Friendship day

 "I don't know if you remember the card. But I haven't forgotten. I have it with me. All the best with your life."
These lines in my autograph book still trigger a memory of an incident that occurred when I was in class IX, referred to by our gang for years to come as the "Palli (Lizard)  incident." .That this incident was the first in a series of similar mid-adventures , is a topic for a different blog post , may be on another friendship day.  It was an afternoon full of boring lessons. There were six of us and a rubber lizard. Combining the rubber reptile with a surprise element , we had been trying to scare our classmates with varying degree of success. Then one of us had a brilliant idea. To try it on our Maths teacher who was a very friendly soul and liked all of us a lot. We decided on the last period of the day. As soon as she came in , we went to her desk with some questions regarding examination portions and as she was patiently explaining, out jumped the lizard , making her jump out of her skin.
The act went according to plan , but needless to say , we were at the receiving end of scoldings for better part of the next fifteen minutes. In some stupid fool's paradise, we had expected her to take it as a joke (!).

"I never expected such behavior from you, girls of all people."  She said with sadness in her voice and walked out.

We were upset that we had saddened our favorite teacher. We were scared that we'd be taken to the Principal or Vice Principal for disruptive behavior. We waited for her to come back and resume her lesson, but she did not return. None of us got much sleep that night with nightmarish images of getting expelled from school, on top of our thoughts. The next day, we decided to make a hand made card and place it on her desk. This was our way of telling her how sorry we were. With inputs from all , the card was designed , It had 6 :( in a row , each having some identifiable characteristic of one of the offenders and just one word inside it "SORRY". We placed it at her desk.

She never acknowledged that she got it , but we were were sure she had , because Math lessons from then on became the same as the ones in the "pre- Lizard Era". We were too scared to play any tricks in any class for the whole year and were so grateful that we worked extra hard in her classes to
become her best students.

Though I've had a lot of friends and fun in college and at various work places, when ever I think of friendship , my school life comes to mind first. ROFL and LOL were not invented back then , but anything and everything could make us laugh as if there was no tomorrow. Dedicating this post to my fellow conspirators in this incident, whom I haven't met or talked to for years now. When I look back , I can honestly say  " Those were the best days of my life. "

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda


Thank you BlogaAdda for choosing this as a WOW post. Made my day!.

Monsoon Memories - A Thunderstorm Saga

"Sun , it has come . Finally..". Her eyes were shining in excitement.
I looked up from my book and smiled
"Perfect. And it is Friday too".
"Did you ask if it is available?" I asked , slightly doubtful now.
"It is bound to be. If we don't get it today , some one else will and we won't get it for a week."
"Let's go now then. ". I said , discarding my Famous Five on the wicker chair in the porch.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.
"Amma , I'm going out with Deeps. We will be back soon. ".
"Don't get wet." she called out . "It looks like a thunderstorm is on its way."
"Don't worry Amma , we 'll be back in no time.". I called out, starting to get ready.

We looked for our black umbrellas , but could only find one. The other remained stubbornly out of sight. "Fine , let's just go with one then." I said as I put on my Verlon sandals. We started walking. A cool breeze was blowing . The rain had left the ground wet with an aroma of freshness that made me happy.We walked faster than usual , taking the shortest route possible to reach our destination. We made it just in time before the shop closed.

"I was about to close the store , but here, I have placed it in a plastic bag , take good care as it is the only copy I have."  He said as he pulled down the shutters and got on his bike to go home before the rain started.

As soon as we started on our way back , it started drizzling. Suddenly with the sound of exploding fireworks, thunder boomed , and a streak of lightening seemed to hit a tree  nearby. Rain was falling by the buckets and the roads were flooding. Walking through puddles and water filled potholes, our return journey was slow. And then the wind decided to play naughty and take our umbrella away. Now completely wet , we tried to chase down the umbrella which had overturned and was collecting water inside like a huge bowl. Deeps covered the plastic bag with her dupatta while I chased the umbrella that the wind was moving away from us.

"Got it . "I said as I caught up with the flying umbrella and desperately tried to put it  back in shape. We were almost home now. "Let us make a run for it , We are wet anyway". She said , and I agreed.

Photo Courtsey (http://www.kerala-holidays-and-hotels.com/images/Kerala-Monsoon.jpg)

We dashed down the mud road, into our houses , completely drenched , right into my Amma and Valiyamma (aunt) who immediately started scolding us for our escapade in the rain. But we knew that no scolding could take away the happiness of the possession in the plastic bag that
we had so jealously guarded. "Let's go change into something dry first .We'll watch it when the rain stops. " Deeps said. Her words were drowned by the bang of the next thunder bolt . Electric sparks flew from the electric post nearby and then all went dark. "The transformer was hit. It will probably be a day before it gets repaired and power is restored."  Our hearts sank as we heard this oft heard proclamation from my uncle who had gone out with his torch to investigate.

 We looked sadly at each other. For all the trouble we had gone to get the video cassette of Baazigar , we wouldn't be able to watch it after all..

In the candlelight , we sat on the verandah , staring at the dark moonless sky playing Antakshari as there was nothing else to do.

"Oh Mera ...Baazigar O.. Baazigar Tu hai Bada Jadugar". I sang  ."Your turn , sing with Ja".

N.B : This post tried to picture a typical monsoon incident in my childhood.  While all of it may not have happened in one single incident , it happend some time and chasing umbrellas , getting wet in thunderstorms , and playing Antakshari during power outages were part of my childhood monsoon memories in Kerala. Hope you like it.

N.B: This  was written as an entry for discussion topic Monsoon Memories in Darlings Of Venus

Give NRIs a break!

After having seen at least 3 variations of the same post bashing NRIs on my Facebook ,  I decided to take things to my own hand and answer to some of these common allegations against NRIs from USA by the so called perfect people back in India.

21. Tries to use credit card in road side hotel -

It is very rarely that I have to carry cash in my purse when I'm in the US, so excuse me if I make that mistake in some road side hotels. And yes times have changed now in India so much since the first time some one wrote this piece that many road side hotels actually accept credit cards these days.

20. Drinks and carries mineral water and always speaks of health conscious.

My family drinks tap water in our Minneapolis home But I would like the Desi who wrote this and all those who laugh and nod in ascent at the cleanliness of the NRI to swear that they never buy mineral water, not even in railway stations where the tap spews brown colored water ,  or even in urine stench filled road side rest areas that the private buses from Bangalore stop, or when the water that the tanker brought to your Rs 15000 monthly rent paid apartment looks yellow and smells bad. Do that and I'll agree about who is being health conscious and who's being obnoxious.

19. Sprays deodorant such so that he doesn't need to take bath.

I could say that about almost every alternate youngster in the country , so please..

18. Sneezes and says 'Excuse me'.

      OK, the next time I sneeze in your presence , I will sneeze a whole menagerie of germs unto you and walk away as if nothing happened. Will that make me a good resident Indian?

17. Says "Hey" instead of "Hi".

says "Yogurt" instead says "Curds".
Says "Cab" instead of "Taxi".
Says "Candy" instead of "Chocolate".
Says "Cookie" instead of "Biscuit".
Says "Free Way" instead of "Highway".
Says "got to go" instead of "Have to go".
Says "Oh" instead of "Zero", (for 704, says Seven Oh Four Instead of
Seven Zero Four)

The next time somebody returns from Delhi and says "Yaar" at the end of every word, or when someone returns from Bangalore saying "madi" at every second sentence , I will start calling branding them as being different from the rest of the herd. English is a language that has been butchered by every nation in the world. Getting an American accent is as natural as getting a North Indian accent in Delhi and a Tamil accent in Chennai. Accept it if you can.


16. Doesn't forget to crib about air pollution. Keeps cribbing every
time he steps out.
As if you don't.

15. Says all the distances in Miles (Not in Kilo Meters), and counts
in Millions. (Not in Lakhs)

Wait till you are here and people look at you with a puzzled expression and ask you what the heck a lack(!) is.

14. Tries to figure all the prices in Dollars as far as possible
(but deep down the heart multiplies by 43 times).

Might have been true a couple of years back , but with growing inflation , it is cheaper to think in dollars these days.

13. Tries to see the % of fat on the cover of a milk packet.

Who doesn't like to be optimistic and think that Indian products would start doing it some day. I also look at products hoping to see an expiration date.

12. When need to say Z (zed), never says Z (Zed), repeats "Zee"
several times, if the other person unable to get, then says X, Y
Zee(but never says Zed)

It took me 3 years  to change myself from Zed to Zee.
Wonder how many it will take for me to go back.

11. Writes date as MM/DD/YYYY, on watching traditional DD/MM/YYYY,
says "Oh! British Style!!!!" 

Ditto.After having forced oneself to say dates in MM/DD/YYYY to every other customer service call it is really difficult to get back to the other format. I almost resort to saying the months in words to avoid format confusions.

10. Makes fun of Indian Standard Time and Indian Road Conditions.

Come on, just because I lived for a while in  another country , you are not mean enough to keep me out of joking about the two things every Indian jokes about. It is a habit we grew up with. Our culture  and our upbringing.

9. Even after 2 months, complains about "Jet Lag".

Dear "Person who has never stepped out of your house ", Jet lag wasn't an invention of some moron who wanted extra sleep on his vacation.Though I'm certainly jealous of the person who gets to stay 2 months on vacation in India to complain about Jet Lag for that long . But it does last a week in some cases , air plane journeys being what they are today and granted that all of us aren't rich enough to afford business class.

8. Avoids eating more chili (hot) stuff.

I'm not sure where you got that from , but people like us crave chilli and pickle when we come on vacations. Although our kids who are used to American cuisine may be a different subject altogether.

7. Tries to drink "Diet Coke", instead of Normal Coke. 

   If something is available , what's wrong with watching your weight. It is not like normal Coke is some special nectar in any case.

6. Tries to complain about any thing in India as if he is
experiencing it for the first time.

When you are in India , you don't have a yardstick to compare with , and you still complain. Do you wonder that people who have seen better things do the same albeit a little more? Mind you, I'm not saying it is right , but just saying we are like ninety percent of the population who complain and offer no solutions.

5. Pronounces "schedule" as "skejule", and "module" as "mojule". 

   Same as point 17 though I 'm not sure if the second part is right, may be it is another dialect that I'm ignorant of.

4. Looks suspiciously towards Hotel/Dhaba food.

    May be some people do , but people like me make a list of hotels/dhabas to eat during a much awaited 3 week vacation , only to be ddiscouraged by people at home citing horror stories like the Shawarma that killed someone in Trivandrum.

Few more important

3. From the luggage bag, does not remove the stickers of Airways by
which he traveled back to India, even after 4 months of arrival. 

People are lazy and believe me , if Indian Railways or KPN travels ever had luggage tags , a huge majority of the travelling public would we walking around with luggage tags.

2. Takes the cabin luggage bag to short visits in India, tries to
roll the bag on Indian Roads.

Do you expect me to buy specific smaller bags to travel ingenuously during a 3 week vacation? Or carry my stuff in plastic bags titled "Pinky Textiles" and the like? And what's wrong with giving more preference to your back over your bag, by rolling it as much as possible?

Ultimate one

1. Tries to begin conversation with
"In US ...." or "When I was in US..."

Reminds me of the Malayalam movie in which the character played by veteran actor Thilakan starts every other sentence with "Pandu njan vardhayilayirunnappol..." (When I was in Wardha.. ). Boasting is not the monopoly of NRIs. There are inflated airbags every where , but staying abroad does provide a major catalyst , as does foreign travel , money and any number of factors which provide their own unique tag line.

Think about this before you make fun of us NRIs . The chances are you might end up working for one. Or more likely depend on one as a customer or financier for your completely Desi enterprise.

Lunch Nostalgia

I went up the familiar vendor in the cafeteria and stood in line , thinking about the meeting I had to rush to afterwards. 'Two soft tacos as usual' . I said 'and No meat' ,I added as an afterthought. I looked around and found an empty table for myself.  As I looked out of the fourth floor window into the snow covered grounds, I was struck by a wave of nostalgia .

I remembered the school lunches , where it was a race as to who would finish eating first and rush out to play catch catch , police and thief, run and touch the coconut tree and so on.

I remembered the lunch breaks in high school and 12th grade where we would gather around a cycle shed , post lunch , gossiping , and planning mischief until the rendezvous point had to be abandoned because of an allegation that we punctured the tyre of a teacher's son's bike.

In to my mind came the lunch times in college , where we would go out to the canteen to buy a vada or sit for hours at stretch at the Indian coffee house with just a coffee or a lime juice. And the awesome times we had at birthday treats where you gorged like you'd never seen food before and then with out batting an eyelid gave the name of the rival college , when some disgruntled restaurant owners asked us where we were from.

At Infosys , my first company , we had a small gang of friends who always had lunch together despite being in different projects and located all over the huge sprawling campus. As more people got busy with personal lives , the number in the gang dwindled , but the ones who remained followed the request acknowledge mechanism using emails and missed calls to have lunch together wasting minimum time.

As life took me through different jobs and different places , lunches became more of a time of introspection . A time to be with myself in my busy schedule. No missed calls told me that it was time to have food any more. My current routine was to rush to the canteen , usually minutes before they closed , get my usual food and find an empty table overlooking the window.

Wistfully , I longed for those lunch times when there was laughter and fun and jokes on the table alongside food. And friends to share them with.  I was jolted back into reality by the phone of the person at a nearby table and as I rushed through the rest of  my meal , I made a mental note to myself to call some of my friends from school soon.

I hope this time , it will not buried once again in the continuous monotony of life.

Parenting - in the Super Hero age

I ran up and down the store calling out his name aloud , all sorts of horrible images of missing children and  kidnappers to accidents floating in my mind. Just as I stopped for breath , I heard a familiar laugh from behind a huge aisle of clearance apparel .
"You can't find me , You can't find me!"

"Mom , I was hiding here" , he crooned as I hugged him close , while still pretending to be angry with him for the scare he had caused me.

Later , safe at home , I started a discussion with him about the dangers of going off by himself in public places.

" Darling , you should not go off by yourself in stores. You might get lost."

" Lost? I won't get lost. I was only hiding..Playing hide n Seek. It is so much fun in the store."

" But what if you hide somewhere , and I can't find you?"

" Hmm..But I know you'll find me. You always find me when I hide."

"What if somebody takes you way, you know , like bad guys?"

He thought for  a while ,before saying in a whisper

 "You mean real bad  guys might attack me? "

I nodded.

He looked really serious for a while and I thought he had got the gist of what I wanted to say. Then he piped up with a smile on his face.

"When real bad guys come and catch me , Spider Man will shoot webs and rescue me. "

I thought really hard what to say to this. I couldn't very well say that his idol doesn't exist. Not when that's the one hero who is omnipresent in all his personal belongings.

Cautiously I started

"But , my dear , Spider Man is in New York city , and we are very far from there. Even if he wanted to save you , he would have to first book a flight , and fly for 3 hours before he can reach here and fight the bad guys ."
and slowly looked at him to see if my words had hit their mark.

He seemed lost in thought as he realized the gravity of the situation.

Then he looked down at his Spider Man t-shirt and excitedly shouted :
"I have a Spider Man shirt, I can shoot web from my gloves and get away from the bad guys.. Can't I Mommy? And I ate all my veggies today and am really really strong."

I could only laugh helplessly till my sides ached and hug him tight , as I said,

"That's all true , but you have to stay with me so you can save me from the bad guys too , if they come? Will you?"

And he agreed.

Part 2- The first meeting

It was a Saturday and she woke up at 8:00 AM. She wondered why. She would have happily slept till 10:00 AM had it not been for the whole crowd of people coming to see her. 9 people , what were they thinking? And she was pretty confident that they wouldn't like her. All her friends were going for another friend's house warming and she had missed all the fun. But she was not rebellious , in fact she was a lazy laid back person. She got up grudgingly and prepared herself for the ordeal.

Aunt :  You are still in your night dress? We have to get you looking all gorgeous in Saree. We can't have them feel that our girl is not good.. you know..

Mom : (In frenzy over the arrangements. Talking to Dad): Can you go and collect the food . It must be ready now and (to the maid). Make sure the upstairs room is perfect and keep those 2 chairs and a side table for the boy and girl.

Maid : But that chair has a problem. The back-rest is loose. It will be bad if the boy sits on it and it gives away.

Mom : Then we have to get another chair . (To Dad). Hey do you hear that..

Dad (Over the news paper): What?? Oh the chair, Mole , you make sure to sit on that chair when you take him upstairs. That problem is solved (Goes back to the paper).

Cousins(To the girl) : The postman has come and it looks like he has a registered for you.
Every one gets the registered and it turns out to be a placement order to join a software company in Bangalore after college.

Mom and Dad : this is such a good news to come today. The boy is working in Bangalore too.

She wasn't listening. Her mind was a whirl of excitement and happiness at her job. She felt nothing could take that smile off her face that day.

****************************************

Girl (Practicing walking in Saree with ease and talking to herself): Hey I just hope I don't trip down the stairs when I take him up the room . And yes the right chair is the faulty one and I should sit on it . No. that would be way rude, I should somehow stand right in front of the faulty chair so that he will sit on the good one and then I will sit on the bad one..Hmm that's a better idea. And I'm going to be absolutely frank with him. If he does like me even after that..

Sound of calling bell and a general flurry in the house : (They have come . They have come. )

Boy's relatives ad girl's relatives talking :
"Yes her course is almost over and she has just got a job in Bangalore. Her joining order came today".

"Oh that is SO nice, (the boy) , he works in Bangalore too..

"May be we should let the boy and girl talk  for a while alone".

Dad : Mole , may be you should take him to the upstairs room where you can talk, while every one else has tea and snacks.

Girl and boy entering the room . (The settings are all ready , complete with a side table  with tea and some chips.)

Boy : You know , I was planning to ask you that dialogue from Sandesham . "The Das Kapital Vayichittundo one"? He laughed.. Oh and my cousins were warning me not to scare you with my loud laugh..

Girl : (Laughing ) My cousins have trained me to say "balaramayum poombattayum vayikkarundu.. " (I read Balarama and Poombatta , two children's bi weeklies that every 80's kid in kerala grew up with),if ever that question comes up.

As she laughs , he walks ahead and sits on the chair.

Girl : (for the love of god , I don;t remember which one was faulty. I  just hope it doesn't give away.)

Boy: No need to be tensed.

Girl sheepishly tells him the chair incident and they both laugh again.

Boy : So why did you take IT? Why not electronics?

Girl :  I just hate it when people ask me this. While choosing an engineering degree, every one wants Electronics and Mech and finally when placements come all they want to do is scramble for IT jobs. I just hate those Jaada people.

Boy : You know , I'm probably one of "those" people. I joined mechanical engineering for a year and then wrote the exam all over again just to get electronics in a good college and now I'm in IT.

Girl :(Regretting that she said that at all ) : I'm just too blunt. I didn't mean people like you. I just meant those that look down upon IT engineers.

Boy : So, do you really read? (Don't give me the movie answer please). I love books and poetry and all those things.

Girl :  So do I. Actually I just love reading books and even just looking at them in a book store.

Boy : Me too.
(And they delve into an discussion involving Jeffrey Archer to O.V Vijayan)

And I love old Hindi songs. Especially Mukesh.

Girl : I love old Hindi songs too. But I like Kishore Kumar better.

Boy : So what are you planning to do with the short vacation before you come to Bangalore.

Girl : Hmm haven't really thought about it , but probably learn a bit of cooking  , you know if I'm really going to get married, I'd better learn some basic stuff.

Boy: Sure you don't want to ask what every one wants to ask at these things? (About my bad habits?)

Girl : Since you are putting that topic back at me , I'm pretty sure you don't have any..You don't smoke ? Do you?
Boy shakes his head .

Girl : Good , that's something I can't stand..

Boy : (Looking out of the window ). Wow you have jack fruits in your back yard. I love them. Do you know how to cook them by any chance?

Girl : (shocked): No. (suddenly gaining her wits). But if you can cut it up for me , I can give it a try.

Both looked at each other and laughed at each other's candidness.

Boy: We'd better go back down. They must be all wondering why we are taking so long.
Girl : So what are you going to tell them?
Boy (with a  smile): Wait and see. It is a suspense.

They went down the stairs , the boy in front, the girl behind him . The girl feeling for the first time that she wanted this boy to like her after all and a trifle perplexed at his suspense talk. Did he really like her or was he that his usual demeanour?

The boy smiled to himself. He liked this frank and artless girl  . But he would make her wait a trifle more for his reply. There would be a whole lifetime to chat and joke about it later..

***************************************************************

The Day before the Pennu Kaanal -May 7 2004

Re-blogging from my old blog entry "Seeing the Guy" written on May 7 2007. My mom brought a bunch of my old blogs which she had printed out long back and when I read this entry , I realized that this had been written exactly 5 years ago about my first and only pennu kaanal which happened eight years ago!.

Three years back , on this day,  a girl was preparing for her first ordeal of seeing the guy ceremony or pennu kaanal.

Mother :Did you hear? There are 9 people coming tomorrow from the boy's side and you are sitting here and reading the news paper?

Father: So what? Let them come. Anyway, we are ordering the snacks from outside. They will deliver it tomorrow afternoon.

Girl :9 People? What for? They are wasting a lot of money. Most probably they won't like me.

Mother :Molu, Don't say like that. Why don't you agree to wear a silk saree? Why are you so adamant?

Girl: Amma, I already told you. I'm not dressing up too much. If you badly want me to wear a saree , I will wear that cotton saree you bought for me last week. I'm just not comfortable in showy clothes and it just wouldn't be me... And I'd prefer they like me the way I am.

Aunt :(Whispering to Mother). She is like all teenagers, don't irritate her anymore. She looks good in that cotton saree though she thinks otherwise.

Girl: Why can't you just tell those people I'm not old enough? I'm just completing my final semester exams.

Mother :But the horoscopes , it was said that the match is perfect like that of Shiva and Parvati and also what can we say against them, the guy is handsome, educated and has a good job in the same city that you are getting placed .

Brother (coming in): So someone liked her photo and is coming to see her? Good Grief! and she will take tea and come down the stairs like in the movies (laughing his head out).

Girl : I'm doing no such thing.As it is , I don't even know how to make a decent cup of tea..

Mother : You don't have to take or make the tea. I will do it. You only have to talk and act docile for some time.

Girl : What?

Cousin 1 :(Coming in and imitating Sreenivasan talking to a girl during a marriage proposal scene in a famous Malayalam movie). "Vayikkarundo?" "Njan palappozhum undergroundil aayirikkum". ("Do you Read?" I am a naxalite and I will be in hiding most of the time").

Girl (Laughing) : If he asks that , I have answers.

Cousin 2: Yeah , tomorrow all this laughter will be gone. You will be the shy girl that we see in movies , not even looking up.

Girl :We'll see.

Aunt :Why's her face puffy?

Girl :(Pointing to her mother). She made me go to the beauty parlour for a facial. I think I have an allergy.

Aunt : Oh , that will be alright by tomorrow. Don't worry.

Girl (Thinking) : I hope they don't like me. I'm way too young to get married.

Mother (Thinking) :I just hope she behaves herself. Will she spoil this on purpose? Hope everything turns out well.

Brother and Cousins (Thinking): We are going to have a gala time tomorrow ragging her.

Read Part 2 here

Awards-Passing the torch on...

I have been away from my blog for a month now and was beginning to get lazy when I received two belated New Year gifts.

The first one , an award from Usha Ma'am  ( one of my favorite teachers and my biggest inspiration to continue writing )

 and the second the "Versatile Blogger Award"

 from a fellow blogger Smita. It was a real pleasure to know that other people liked my blog enough to give me an award.

Thank You So much Usha Ma'am and Smita. You have made my day.

And this poem is a special thanks to Usha Teacher.

I looked in awe
At the emanating light
The bright beautiful glow
Staring , Wishing to touch
Hold for a while
And bask in its glory

Admiring with all my heart
Yet knowing deep inside
That it was too high
I was but a little child
Wanting to take a piece
of the flaming bright star

A soft voice beckoned me
Said I could take
All the beautiful twinkling stars
And hold them for a while
All the shining bright light
The kind soul said she's share

Keep one I shall with me
I will not take them all
Hold it for a while until
I can give it away
And send brightness into someone's life
With this glowing light.


Ok, Though Usha Ma'm asked us all to take all the awards she got, I just couldn't make myself do it , so I took only one the 7X7 award.

So here are 7 random things about me

1) I love chocolates and chocolate flavored ice cream.
2) I am very bad at any kind of sports activity. I think the school record for running 100 metres in the maximum time still belongs to me (22sec).
3) I am a very absent minded person. I have gone for a tuition class with palm shoe in one foot and slippers in the other and never noticed it until I came outside the class.
4) I love ghazals and can listen to Jagjit Singh's Kaagaz Ki Kashti for hours.
5) I love rains.Watching it , getting wet. Everything
6) I like photo editing as a hobby.
7) I hate it when people who talk ill of others people I know and don't have a problem with.

Now I need to award this to 15 fellow bloggers. I don't think I can give justice to passing it on to fifteen people since I haven't been reading that many blogs recently. So here are ten blogs I enjoy reading in no particular order.

1. Appu - The aspiring movie director who documents every movie he's ever watched . My Place before I decide whether to watch a movie or not.
2. Reshma - Cooks up the most amazing recipes and cute posts too..
3. Sameera - Her short stories are amazing. 
4. Anu Chettan - He always thinks from an uncommon angle. 
5. Kunal -The master of abstract poetry. I just love the flow that his poetry has.
6. Sumi -My writer friend whom I have known for a long time , her stories are amazing . Just makes me wish she wrote more often.
7. GodYears -He must have got this award tons of times by now, But as this is about which blogs I enjoy, I can't omit this one.
8. 9 and 10 PeeVee , Red Handed & Spiff (The 3 mallu blogger ladies whose blogs I simply adore).

Now the hard part. Linking 7 posts of mine which I think are good.? I never think any of my posts are good. At one time I used to tear up every page I wrote. So this is really hard for me. Ok here goes.

1. In Rememberance of a Friend
2. Some Things are to Live For
3. puttu-experiment
4. deja-Vu
5. Crazy Voices
6. Vindicated
7. Phoenix Song of Seasons

Finally it is done. All the linking and embedding. Phew took me an hour to do it...

The Puttu Experiment

At home , I was always a lazy girl and would spend all my time sleeping or reading and kitchen was place I came down only when mom would call me to come and get my food. All my mom's talks of other girls of my age knowing cooking and housework usually got transmitted straight over my head , hit the thick walls of the dining room , got lost in the deafening noise of the TV and died. Getting a job in a company that had a canteen and moving in with friends in Bangalore did precious little to improve my house-wifely skills. It didn't help , that I continued to stay with friends for almost a year after my wedding , before flying to America to start my family life.

To cut a long story short, my culinary skills included  just a little more than Maggi , tea and coffee.And I was stuck in a place where maids/cooks/Indian restaurants were not an option and my 2 helplines (Mom and mother in law) were half way across the globe.With frequent telephone calls to India and continuous reference to cookery blogs , we managed to survive. Then one day , my husband came with a packet of Double horse Puttu podi.

"Let us have some puttu this weekend ". He said.
I had never made puttu in my life and told him in so  many words that it was probably good to have some back up plan. But hubby dear was insistent. "It is really simple and easy. How many times have I seen

my mom make it.You just put a few drops of water in the puttu powder , put it in the kudam (vessel for steaming puttu) and steam it."



Saturday came and we woke up somewhere close to 11:00 AM and I followed his instructions one by one

1)Took one glass of putto powder.
2)Sprinkled water on it.
3)Added water in a pressure cooker and closed it with the puttu kudam as its weight.

(5 Min's of steam and the puttu should be ready. I thought happily).

After 5 Min's , I opened the vessel, and scraped a bit off the top to taste . It tasted just like heated rice powder.I decided to give it a benefit of the doubt and kept it back on stove on for 5 more minutes.

Result: super heater rice powder.

Puttu we hoped to make.
[Image is not mine. Copied from Google]

I woke up my husband who was still sleeping in anticipation of waking up to a sumptuous breakfast.

What my puttu looked like

[Image is not mine. Copied from Google]

What did you burn today?, he asked seeing my face. "Nothing , but the puttu isn't cooking,". He consented to wake up , but even with his expert supervision, the puttu stubbornly refused to cook and we just got rice flour with higher and higher temperatures.



It was too late in the night by Indian time and our cooking helplines were all unavailable and in bed.Finally hunger overtook our patience and we settled for the ever easy fall back option of bread /omelet.Later when I called home , every one had a hearty laugh at us .The reason  our puttu never got cooked was because neither I nor my husband knew that puttu powder needs to be mixed with water to reach a certain consistency before it can ever get cooked.

Lessons Learnt: The correct amount of water is one of the most important ingredients to good cooking.

 Anyway, after years of burnt vessels , hot , salty,salt less  edible , inedible and partially edible substances , now I am able to cook food that is usually palatable and occasionally tasty enough to get that random compliment.

 P.S : This post is intended to make lazy bums (like me) feel better. Rest assured.Knowing cooking beforehand doesn't really matter. You are bound to learn it in time, anyway and it will certainly give you a few moments like these to laugh out loud. :)