Author: nourishncherish

Here is a pet peeve of mine. People make choices – what irks me is the justification for these choices. When there is a choice, a person takes what works for them better – period.

You could be a person who analyzes everything to death or be someone who makes a choice rather quickly, and lets life unfold. Whatever it maybe, I don’t like the approach of : “I take the high road because I am smarter”

Some choices turn out to be smart ones, some don’t. The important thing is to feel comfortable with the choice when the option to choose is given to you.

I was reading this morning about parenting, and again got me thinking. Guess what? I am not an ideal mother. I am irritable, I sometimes take shortcuts with my child’s food (soup is enough I declare – but that’s only because I don’t have the energy that day to get her to eat spinach and rice!). But overall, I am okay. My child and I enjoy each other’s company – well….let’s leave it there shall we? Did I make a highly intelligent choice when I initiated my daughter into reading? No! I just did what I enjoyed doing, and did it with her. Consequently, she started liking books. Instead of saying this, I could ramble on about the research that proves reading makes the brain more stimulating – guess what? I just alienated myself! Sometimes, we all make choices that may not prove to be ideal.

I hate the way parents obsess about the colds their children catch from other kids, the share and play mentality, the gentle approach – the swim class, the dance class. I may take my daughter to dance and swim classes in the future, and if she likes it, and sticks to it long enough, why not? But if at that point, you catch me talking about what a wise choice I made with the swim and dance classes – do me a favour and stop me will you? This sort of thing is infectious and the more I meet mothers, the better the chances are that I start talking like this!

I headed home from work with such a determined mind that day, that I was going out for dinner. This happens often, but what else I had made my mind about was the fact I was not going to set foot in the kitchen that lovely Friday evening! Dinner plans were made, and we set out amidst certain excitement that comes with getting your child to stop cycling outside, and wearing something nice.

We arrived at the haute restaurant and waited for an hour outside clutching out tickets in our hands, waiting for our turn with the menus. We finally went in and sat, and when the waiter busied himself with notepad and pen to take down our orders, we gave him the first order of the evening. A special order – nothing on the menu.

A boiled egg we asked with as much nonchalance as we could muster. The sure footed waiter faltered, he stammered for a response, and said – “a-a b-boiled egg?” Yes, we beamed. I stepped in and comforted him with the assurance that I would be ordering something from the menu. “We love your food“, we told him before he broke out sobbing. I could see the pride in his restaurant shattered in his eyes.

You can take my daughter to the fanciest restaurant with the most fantastic menus, but of late, what satisfies her immensely is a boiled egg. We all ate our favourite dishes, and handed a special tip to our waiter who had gone through considerable difficulty obtaining the boiled egg from the seasoned chef.

Everytime I step into Coldstone Creamery, and order a small plain vanilla icecream, I go through a similar experience. Don’t blame them – check this out!

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/icecream/original_creations.html

My husband and I talk minimally these days. No, we are not having a row. We are on perfectly good terms.

I finished the 7th Harry Potter book and he hasn’t.

Given my abyssmal track record of keeping secrets, we have mutually agreed to not talk (about it) till he finishes. But talk about it till he finishes became difficult because he is curious, and asks leading questions and before I know it…another oops moment!

So, dear hubby and I love each other, and don’t talk to each other! No one but J.K.Rowling could have done that!

BTW, hubby dear, you do realise we get insecure if we aren’t exercising the jabbering old mouth – so before we become really insecure, READ THE BOOK!

PS: This is also my 100th post.

Brainwaves (husband and co-blogger on our group blog came up with a comprehensive reading list based on KQED’s summer list) I thought I will include a link to his post on this blog, so that readers of this blog can get the list too.

Summer reading list. Bring on your suggestions:

Looking at KQED’s suggested list, some of the things stand out on first glance:
Blink
The Assault on Reason, Al Gore
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
Finding an Angel to Fund Your Business, Joseph Bell

For the comprehensive list given by Brainwaves, please visit:

http://am-kicking.blogspot.com/2007/07/summer-reading-list.html

In general, if you have any suggestions for good books, please suggest. I am bit stuck with books such as Nemo goes to School, Thomas & Friends Nursery Rhymes etc 🙂

My daughter has been terribly excited about starting pre-school। She has been telling everybody who cares to hear that she is going to school. So, I took her to the school one day, just so she can see what she is getting so excited about.

For the first time I realised that my little girl has always been in a protected environment, and I was curious to see how she coped. I let her play with the other children. One girl came up to her, and declared she couldn’t play because she wasn’t enrolled. (Yes….I was shocked too. this statement coming from a 4-year old seemed too much!) My daughter went to another area and started playing. This time too, the older girl followed her and said the same thing. I kept away on purpose. This happened twice more. then my daughter quipped- “But I am also going to school।”

That was brave! I am sure my daughter will have lots of things to talk about, and tons of interesting stories to narrate. I hope she makes lots of friends and enjoys schooling.

I have a unique experience with breakfast everyday.

An experience cannot be unique when it happens everyday. Here’s the thing: it is unique because it probably seldom happens elsewhere.

First of all, I make and eat breakfast at work, in the break room. Most of us do. Our office is in the city, and most of us live in the suburbs. We have some archaic kitchen devices to use. Have you ever seen a plain jane toaster give you the mental satisfaction of making toast, burning toast and making pancakes all at the same time?

Our toaster does it all and more. A judicious mix of perseverance, grogginess and lack of enthusiasm to get to work is what keeps us all going to the poor toaster everyday, though the toaster begs retirement. So, this is how is starts:

1) We pop in the bread, and select the darkness level.
2) Twiddle your thumbs and wait (maybe I’ll time this one day)
3) It pops noisily and the bread slides back into the toaster (yep it does)
4) You lift the toaster and shake it upside down to extricate the slice of bread
5) It is either too light or too dark, and only 1 side is toasted.
6) This is where you get the pancake feeling because you have to flip the toast and wait for the other side to get done!
7) Depending on the result in step (5), you adjust the darkness level
8) Repeat steps (2) through (4)
9) It is either too dark or too light now
10) End result doesn’t matter because the taste would cancel out the burnt portion and not toasted enough sides of the toast

That, with a hot cup of coffe somehow nudges the old brain awake, and I start work!

I admire people belonging to the other club, solely because I know I don’t have a chance of ever belonging to that club. I may do the things the other club members do, but forever I shall pledge my allegiance to the my prized club – the club I really belong to!

This is the way I look at it. You can categorize people into the following categories:

(1) Those who like to get up early in the morning when the birds begin their chirping.
(2) Those who like the stillness of the night, and prefer to complete all their tasks before hitting the sack.
(3) Those who neither like staying up late to complete their tasks nor like getting up early to complete their tasks. In short, those who don’t care about completing their tasks.

* By task, I mean anything from working, studying to watching a movie/cleaning.

Everyday, I get up early, leave for work early etc. But I really feel like I only belong to (2). I love my hot cuppa when the sun has moved halfway across the sky, and the birds are active and the world is already busy. Gone are the school holidays when the cold and inclement weather just made the morning snuggle even more enticing.

Ahh….late morning sleep!

PS: How coincidental that 2 days after this post of mine V.Gangadhar writes about the exact same thing in the Hindu!
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/06/17/stories/2007061750060400.htm

San Francisco has a lovely chain of eateries that cough up amazing sandwiches. It is called Specialty’s Cafe. Yesterday, I took my sumptuous bite into one of them, and guess what I found – a tiny dhania seed.

Nothing surprising – just was intrigued to see dhania seeds used in any other type of cuisine – especially American. Right enough, I wiki-ed it, and found that dhania seeds are not usually used in European (except in Portigal) and American cooking. Well…..what can I say other than I love the flavour of coriander and its seeds, and relished on!

I love playing the game of guessing the ingredients in a restaurant when I am eating my favorite dishes, and wonder every now and then as to how many people do that.

It is time for me to talk about it. I have tried to keep my silence, and wander on with the vague uncomfortable feeling. Slowly, the vaguely uncomfortable turns to slightly disconcerting, and then takes on a mildly put-offish, and soon reaches a point where it bothers me enough to blog about it. I feel so strongly about it. It never lets me feel otherwise. Everyday, every few hours, there it is to remind me of the sweet freedoms that I have almost forgotten. The sanctity of the experience seems lost forever with these designs. The joy of the cleanliness factor is nullified by the ‘lack of closure’ factor.

Yes…I am talking about the restrooms. Why have them conceal only a portion of the cubicle? Why expose a portion of your leg during the process? There you are blissfully releasing the pent-up “stuff” when you are suddenly aware of another presence because you can see their feet. Worse yet is when these folks actually recognize you by your footwear and holler at you through the cubicle walls?

What does it take for a little extra privacy?!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801960.html

I was reading this news article, about the Queen Elizabeth’s dinner in reciprocation of George Bush’s presidential dinner. The dinner was served in Manning’s residence (Mannings is the British ambassador in US)

“Under Manning’s roof, guests dined on wild Scottish smoked salmon (appetizer), roast rib of veal (main course) and a summer pudding (dessert). Four wines were served, and the queen asked everyone to drink to the president and first lady Laura Bush, to the future of Britain and the United States and to the countries’ “enduring friendship.”

I don’t know how hard it is to make roast rib of veal(http://www.kycattle.org/recipes.cfm?recipeid=4). Assuming it is really difficult, and takes hours of pain-staking effort – I have trouble stomaching the fact that there were totally 3 dishes. I suppose you can cut your roast rib of veal into 4 equal pieces and sample with 4 different types of wine, giving you the delusion of variety.

My Indian upbringing jarred when I saw this new item, and also realised just how much importance we place on food. I think all our social gatherings hover around food. Our wedding banters have the supreme ability of stumping the most gluttonous eater. The precise statistics are unavailable, but I presume 50% of the wedding banter involves asking one another whether they ate food. At my brother-in-law’s wedding, it was surprisingly easy to make conversation with folks I saw for the first time in my life. All I had to do was smile and ask whether they had food or would like some coffee.

At a royal dinner, there must be a hundred topics to steer clear of for political reasons. The weather is too boring. What do you ask people after the “How are you”, if food is out.

Manning had served as ambassador in India, and I am imagining the chefs of the the President (CP) and the ambassadorial chefs (CA) met at a bar.

CP to CA: Phew! This queen’s dinner tired me out.
CA: Really? what did you make?
CP: Pakoras, Salad, Soup, bajjis for appetizers.
Pilaf, Naan, Aloo paratha, Chicken Tikka Masala, Shahi lamb curry, Malai matter panner, Malai kofta, Hyderabadi biriyani, Raita and Pickles for the main course
Ras malai, gulab jamuns, Kheer for desser
CA: Yeah! Last night, I was really tired too. I had to make wild Scottish smoked salmon (appetizer), roast rib of veal (main course) and a summer pudding (dessert).
CP: HEY! That’s not fair.
CA: Sure is – took me the same time, and people enjoyed it too. See my news item – and where’s yours to compare?!
CP: BAH!