Author: nourishncherish

I know why Indians are a religious lot. I know why we pride ourselves on being a secular nation. We love food. We have many festivals, all of them involving a special culinary adventure. I have heard various statements relating to food in my life, and some award winning statements bring a smile to my face everytime without fail.
1) Oriyas eat a lot of sweets, but nobody gets Diabetes.
2) Parattas without ghee is like a king without a crown.
3) Any food made as an offering to God, if consumed does not result in weight gain.

The third statement explains why we first offer everything to God, and then eat. Any undesirable effect the food may possess is negated when it is taken with God’s blessings. I have an aunt (bless her), who came to stay with us for a while. This was the period when my mother was posted in a different place, and having this Aunt around was helpful in many ways. When she left for her hometown, we waved her good-bye wearing pants two sizes larger, and had gone in for a sturdier vehicle to support our weight. We attributed the new vehicle to a better financial position, and did not try to tick off God by saying the extra weight from his offerings caused the previous vehicle to break down under the strain of the extra fat!

Back to my India trip: We dedicated one evening to the delights of Delhi – we crammed in Moomos (steamed vegetable rice cake – nope not vegetable idli, this one had spring vegetables stuffed in maida flour. I shall try making this one, and post the recipe soon), and Pani Puri followed by a round of parattas fit for a crown wearing king. We then crammed ourselves into the car with a driver who was slightly intoxicated with the food, and drove home using the safety rules outlined in the previous post.

By the end of the trip, my tongue was begging for respite. I love the flavours of good food, and had many a good meal at the hands of friends and relatives – Thank you all, now will you please help me stand up?

We had been to India for a glorious vacation. This time we travelled a bit apart from the customary visits to relatives, and making polite noises over coffee. We had been to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur in the first week. During my stay in Delhi, we travelled a lot by car, and it gave me a chance to observe the traffic.
Here are some traffic rules you might find useful in Delhi.

1) When you have trouble deciding whether you want to turn right or left, switch on the emergency blinker. This will warn other vehicles on the road, that you may turn right or left, and the onus to keep safe shifts to the other vehicles on the road. I find this most helpful, since both sides blink when the emergency blinker is on.

2) Stopping at red lights is considered belittling, and your driving capabilities are scoffed at by other drivers. While driving through red lights, it is prudent to sound your horn.

3) There are atmost three signals in a radius of 25 km where you really need to stop at red lights, and any localite could enlighten you about which ones to stop at for a red light. At such signals, please do not make yourself an object of ridicule by stopping before the line. When you do stop, you need to stop almost midway through the signal – that alone gives you the power to surge ahead before the light turns green.

4) Parking is a right – you may park alongside the curb (not cool!), or in the middle of the road, sideways perferably hindering other traffic. It does not matter as long it is not a very busy road. If it is a very busy road, the only risk you run is getting shouted at more vehemently. There was a time when I found a camel drawn carriage parked sideways on the National Highway. Many times, I found lorries parked diagonally across the road, since that was the most convenient method to unload the goods at the back. Traffic found a way of needling along despite this.

5) While it is useful for the car driver to have a clear view of the road, it is more useful for the vehicle to transport as many people as possible from point A to B. I saw various instances where there were 5 adults sitting in the front seat of a car. Unfortunately, I did not have time to count the number of children. I am assuming the gear change is achieved using a complex rhythm that involves nudging the correct individuals for gear shift. Push Bunty for gear 3, pull Bablee for reverse gear etc.

6) Roads are built for the convenience of the users. Rules are an unnecessary hinderance. For example, if there is a divider on the road built with the intention of having the left side for traffic flowing east, and the other side for west flowing traffic, it does not mean that east flowing traffic has to use the left half and the west flowing traffic has to use the right half. Since the right half is more appealing, all traffic can use the right half, leaving the left half free for parking vegetable vendor carts, and chaat carts.

7) Animals on the roads are not restricted to dogs, buffaloes and cows. Camels and elephants are a common enough sight. So much so that my daughter started asking to see tigers on the road! I couldn’t help laughing at her question when we showed her the Delhi zoo as we passed it. Her mind buzzed for a fraction of a second and quipped “Why?”

8) Rear view mirrors are meant to be folded in, lest they get damaged by other vehicles on the road. You can use other mechanisms such as asking folks in your car to look out, or simply turn your head in all directions everytime you want to make a turn.

A pat on the back to my brother and brother-in-law who drove us all around safely in Delhi. It is far more difficult than we imagine!

I made my mother take leave one day. My mother worked in a school that required her to sprint to the train, and then hop, skip and jump onto a rickety bus. Cold, mist, rain – she weathered it all every day for 18 years to give me this life, and I am eternally grateful to her. Taking leave was a privilege she rarely indulged in – she saved all her leave for when we fell ill, she fell ill, or for a family function.

I made her apply for leave when nobody was ill, and nobody was visiting. Here’s why: I used to go to school, and we had a maid who would bring me hot lunch in the afternoon. I was okay with the arrangement. After all, I liked the maid, and I liked my friends with whom I sat on the grass while eating. But here is the thing – for all my friends, their mother brought their lunch. So, I yearned to see my mother bring me lunch. I actually dreamt of seeing her walking down the long, winding road that we could see from the hilltop in our school. She did one day – she took leave and brought me lunch. I can still envision the scene – she wore a purple saree with pink flowers(Amma – that katthiripoo saree Appa bought from Calico) the pallu hanging clumsily of her shoulder over the sweater. A gold medal wouldn’t have made me happier that day. I boasted to all my friends that my mom brought me lunch!

I took my daughter to the saloon, and gave her a haircut. Her hair required no special handling now – all you had to do was draw her hair back, and clip on a hairpin. For the past month, every other day in the evening; she tells me how nicely I comb her hair. Her father manages she assures me, but she feels her hair is “flooppy” at the end of the exercise.

“Can you comb my hair for school one day?” she asks. I answer I can if she gets up before I leave. That seldom happens.

Another favourite question of hers is if I could drop her in School one day. In her little mind, she probably has the probability calculated, and figures if her hair can’t be combed, getting dropped in school is an even farther shot, and doesn’t even bother asking this question as much.

Today, I indulged in both – combed her hair AND dropped her off in school. I could see the pride in her eyes, as she walked into the classroom, and beamed. “My mommy came today”, she announced, and introduced me to all her friends.

As I went round and round the parking lot looking for a place to park my car at the public transit terminal, it felt totally worth it. I loved spending the morning with her – life does come a full cirle!

For those of you who wear nail polish, I would like you all to start wearing pink nail polish. There are rich health benefits to pink nail polish. To those of you who don’t wear nail polish, I suggest starting off with pink nail polish. All non-pink nail related problems could disappear, and your nails could once again come to the pink of your youth and prime.

Okay…Okay I am coming to the story. My daughter and I went strolling through the aisles aimlessly one rainy day. She walks up to the cosmetic section, and picks up pink nail polish. I asked her why she needs nail polish in the first place. Her face had a serious expression while she explains:

Amma, I need this pink nail polish because it is good for health!

Everytime I pick up vegetables, fruits or any produce, she asks me why. I explain that I am buying it because it is good for health. I guess she thought it was a use-it-for-all-occasions type of statement – sigh!

There was a group called ‘Pessimism’
They used a term: ‘deadlines’.

There was another group called ‘Optimism’
They used terms: ‘achieve-lines’ or ‘goal-lines’.

Guess the happier group (there is something in a name don’t you think?!)
Deadlines sound so ominous for something you are trying to achieve in a regular work-day.

A widget is an application you can easily stick to your own blog page – it is a small window that has been programmed to show you what you want. Check out the Dilbert widget on my blog. The dilbert widget is free for downloading now, and is available in various sizes from http://widget.dilbert.com

How cool is that?!

Durian: The King of Fruits

I spent the whole day with my nose puckered up to avoid the strong stench emanating from my neighbouring cubicle. To me the smell (or stench!) was over-bearing. A close enough description would be: When one takes heavy antibiotics, and also take B-complex tablets along with it, this stench seems to be there in one’s pee! In one word: unpleasant!

My colleagues told me it was Durian flavoured wafers that gave that smell. They tried hard to sell durian cookies to me – if you can just shut the smell out, and eat it, it will be lovely. One or to adventurous ones tried it, and endorsed their claims of it being very tasty. But my nose (I have had reason to comment on the length of my dear bulb on several occasions, so I shall refrain) is just too sharp for that sort of thing. I wiki-ed Durian, and found it looks like a jackfruit, and is supposed to taste great.

Interesting piece of info that I could not cross-verify anywhere: apparently eating durian in Thailand in Public is banned, though Thailand is a major exporter of Durian – all thanks to its distinctive odour!

If anyone does try Durian despite the smell, do let me know how it tastes.

“Hey! How are you?” I hear a genuinely surprised voice. A familiar face comes into focus, and my bleary mind finally places the face as one of the commuters I used to see everyday on the public transit. I remember talking to her once or twice, but the details of the conversations are blotched out. Gone. Erased. Clean slate.

My expression has turned from a dazed one into a smile that shows vague recognition, as I reply – “Good…how are you? I haven’t see you in a long time!”

I can feel my nerves rattle like a toy held over the head of a giggling 4 month old, as she remembers how far my workspot is from the transit terminal, the name of my office, and even my daughter. She fondly asks after my daughter, and I am still trying to get her name! How I wish my brain had a search functionality that could access archived areas of the “past” database.

I remember she has children, and ask vague questions about their well-being. I hope she doesn’t sense my desperation, but I am sure she does. I hastily take leave, still wracking my brain. It starts with an ‘N’ – I start down the path of listing all the names I know starting with ‘N’ and cross them out with plausible explanations. I know this will nag me till the next time a similar incident happens, and I start out with another alphabet.

I read somewhere that names can be remembered if you wish to remember it. But here is the thing: I seldom ask anyone’s name with the intention of not remembering it. I want to remember it, I can’t.

Any pointers to help me would be greatly appreciated.

Every time I go to Disneyland, I become a small girl again. This time was more magical than ever. You see this time I truly had a little princess with me.

One of the things I find about Disneyland is that we can never be dressed right for the place. To elaborate further, this time my sleigh(read: bulky stroller) was loaded with woollen like it was truly travelling to and from the North Pole. We had gone when the low temperature in Bay area was hovering around 0 degrees celcius. So, we dressed in layers, took along additional jackets and coats that would have put an eskimo watching a polar bear in the cold to shame. Guess what? The day was so fine, we were hot in t-shirts and jeans! So, I spent a wonderful day in a wonderful land with a huge bag containing jackets strung across my back! This…when I had the foresight to check the weather prior to the trip, and the temperature indicated a low of 3 degrees celcius on the aforesaid day – sigh!

The last time I went was August of 2005, and we spent the majority of the day skulking around in the shade, and fanning ourselves with the disney map because the temperature hovered around 90 degrees fahrenheit! We got active only by 6p.m. and rushed from corner to corner after that.

While I always enjoyed the music at Disneyland, this time it was more meaningful because my daughter was singing all these songs at home, and for the first time I knew all the songs being sung! I gaped at the parade, and loudly sighed everytime I saw a character I knew my daughter would recognize. Kee was so excited with all the activity in the morning, that she fell into a deep slumber just as the parade started. The parade went like this:
” Oh .. see snow white. Oh no….kunju please get up. Oh..mickey mouse. Oh no…please get up”
I admire myself for mentioning said phrases for every set in the parade tirelessly much to the chagrin of folks around me. At one point, I thought the parade was going to stop, and Mickey would come by and say, “Don’t worry – she can see me in the evening, can’t she?!”

I even tried to pluck her eyelids open, but she wouldn’t budge. I call myself a dutiful mother because I wriggled through the crowds, and found her a spot on the dustbin where she could see the 6 p.m. parade from – then I stopped whining about her missing the parade.

To beat the crowd weaving out after the fireworks, we left before the fireworks, and asked a Disney employee how to get to our parking lot. She helpfully pointed us in exactly the opposite direction, and we ran and jumped into the trolley – daughter, stroller, bag of jackets, old parents and all. We realised what happened after reaching the destination, and doubled back to the park entrance. Now, we ran towards the right direction, this time without opening out the stroller. I don’t know why we did not think of opening the stroller, but my husband ran carrying the bulky stroller folded and held most uncomfortably. I shall have to save this for another blog, but there is no comfortable way to carry a stroller and a car seat!

I ran behind him carrying the following:
1) My 3 year old daughter who was in splits laughing. I don’t know why she found my predicament so amusing, maybe it felt like a bumpy safari – I would never know, but I couldn’t help laughing with her too!
2) A huge bag weighing around about the same as my daughter with the jackets for protecting us against the cold on my back. I must mention I was sweating profusely with all the running!
3) A camera
4) A handbag

I was running at a pretty decent pace. That explains why people were staring at me like I was an ostrich taking weight training and sprinting to an extreme!

Disney managed to spin its magic as always, and we reluctantly plucked ourselves away from the magical kingdom to the real world in the right trolley towards the right parking lot in splits of laughter that had other tired folks jealous.

Wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

I know I say this every year, but 2007 has flown past (Well, I say – the past year has flown past)

Looking forward to an interesting 2008!