My Musings

When I first started blogging, I had to ping the Mr. everytime I posted a new article, asking him to go and read it. Then I sent the link of my blog to a couple of close friends - who would often mention something about what I had written in their emails. It gave me a lot of happiness - to know that there was somebody who regularly visited my page. In fact, they would "bug" me to write if I did not write for a week or so - I love you girls for sticking by and inspiring me to write more ... Slowly I started to visit other blogs, dared to leave my comments on a couple and was so elated when she regularly visited my blog and dropped a comment or two. Then came Jihva food events and the few times that I would shrug off my lazy shroud and cook up something to participate in it, I would have a few visitors dropping by and leaving sweet notes on my blog. That is how I got to know this lovely lady , whose food pictures and unique recipes are just out of the world. And today, she gave...

"Firsts" in life are so special and will always remain a dear memory. Suddenly today I got reminded of many of the Firsts in my life. The earliest "First" I can remember now is my first cycle - which I got when I was about 8 years old. I can recall very clearly appa teaching me how to ride it, how i would take the bike out when we moved to a new place in order to "impress" people and make friends with them. The first "thing" that I made - of course with appa's help - was a kaleidoscope for my S.U.P.W(don't ask me the expansion - it was just a "timepass" class we had in school) class, when I was 10. Strangely I don't recall a bit of my first flight alone when I was about 8 or so. Those days it was cheaper to take a half ticket for my flight, than appa or amma coming to drop me at Chennai (for vacation) - take a week off and then come back later to pick me up. I remember my first trip alone in the public bus - when I was in Cl...

I am just so tired of feeling blue since about two weeks. Just nothing seems to be giving constant happiness (guess there is nothing of that sort). The Mr. has started saying amma's dialogue "Why do you have to overanalyze things so much? Why do you think that things have to be so special for you? People lead lives just like this . Wake up, eat , get ready , go to work, come back, cook, spend time with family and sleep. Why does this have to be so difficult for you?" I don't know .... Sometimes I feel it is my own self who makes myself feel so miserable. I always have this "something missing" sort of feeling. What is it - I can never put my finger on it! Grr.... I am beginning to dislike my own self... I am missing folks at home, missing my childhood, missing andhra , missing telugu, missing college.... just practically everything. Amma and appa who have gone back to india - don't exactly give me a comfort feeling of wanting to go there and 'settle...

Quite some months ago, the Mr. got a forward about “The Secret of Mallu Christian Names” . We laughed and laughed and even today it is a standing joke at home. You can read it here . Over the weekend, we were browsing some sites and came across a Mohanalal program being organized in many parts of the US . As we scrolled down the site, we came upon the names of the Contact persons and broke into a riot of laughter. Why? See this: Why in the world would any set of parents name his or her child this way? People who know the meaning would not. People who don’t – well I don’t think it is such a fanciful name that anybody would yearn to name their baby. One evening as the Mr. was signing out at the security gate, the guard asked him how he would pronounce the name of the person who had signed out just before him. The Mr. read it – “Ishith”. The Guard said – Yeah I wondered why would somebody call their kid “I” “Shit” ! Americans generally don’t care for the extra “h”. So, I be...

It is long since I participated in a “JIHVA” event. When I saw that the ingredient for September was Rice – I knew it would be too bad to let the chance to participate go by. Rice is the staple food in most of the South Indian homes. Personally I feel that there is nothing to beat the smell of freshly cooked rice – the whiff from the white pearly steam that comes out when you open the lid of the vessel containing rice that you put in the cooker or from the vessel that you cook directly on the Gas. Ummmmmm heavenly. When it is hot, just plain rice with a dollop of Ghee mixed in it also taste like the best food on earth. Rice that has been stored for a day, eaten with thin curds is considered one of the best ‘cooling foods’. Then there is my all-time favourite – Thair Chadam (curd rice). There would probably be no Tam-Bram who does not like this ‘symbolic-recognition-of-tamilians’ curd rice! Rice is also considered as an auspicious food item. In Kerala, it is the first solid food that i...

Disclaimer - This article in no way is aimed at throwing opinions about a particular race of humans. It is solely based on my experiences and my version of the events. I always thought i did not like Italian food. But during our endeavours to get amma-appa to sample different cuisines I found that I did like the Salad , breadsticks and Eggplant Parmiggiano - a bit too much - and even started to have a craving for it. So, I dragged the 3 of them to Olive Gardens yesterday evening to satisfy my palate, when this incident happened. We had often heard of excellent customer service in most American restaurants - we got our chance to experience one yesterday. We had ordered , amongst other things , a veggie pizza. This was the last item that the waitress was due to get. When she first brought it, I saw some wierd moulds of things on it and got a slight suspicion and asked her - She apologized and took it back and came back immediately. Kneeling down in front of our table, she apologized prof...

Carried stopped by at my desk today morning and gave me a cute little “Thank You” card. All the ladies in the office – which was quite a number , about 20 or so, got together and arranged for a ‘Baby Shower’ for her Last Thursday. It was lunch in this place called “Country Buffet” – where you can “eat-all-you-can” for just 9$. Unfortunately, as usual, the choice for Veggies is limited – though the dessert table pretty much compensated this deficit. All of us were quite generous and had given her really good gifts – a Stroller, a rocking and musical swing and couple of dresses. What I loved about the whole thing was – how eagerly she opened all her gifts and how she did not hesitate to show her real feelings. She had tears of happiness and gratitude in her eyes and she looked at each one of us when she said her thanks. Often I have noticed this about Americans – they do not feel ashamed to show out their feelings in public – especially the good ones. If you are wearing a nic...

It was Amma-Appa’s last weekend in the US . The depression has already started to sink into me slowly – a week from today there would be so much emptiness in the house. I guess this was a hidden reason why none of us wanted to do ‘Something’ over the weekend. I took them around for a round of last window-shopping and we all sat and watched a couple of movies, while munching some tasty and crispy vadas that amma made. Ulundhu vadais are my fav orite. This time for a change we added crisp cabbage into the dough and it was so tasty. It was pr obably for the first time that all 4 of us were sitting at home and watching a movie end to end. Just shows how busy we had been the past 3 months, ha ha, because before amma-appa came to the US – watching a movie at home was almost like a daily ritual. The first one we saw was ‘Prestige’. I have been wanting to see this movie since a long time. Of late I have become a huge fan of “Hugh Jackman”, so have wanted to see this movie for that pre...

It has been ages since I wrote anything here. I somehow am facing a huge block in getting a topic to write about here. Just about anything I think of does not seem inspiring enough to write about – or may I am not even thinking of anything … Everytime I visit those wonderful bloggers who regularly update their sites, I feel so ashamed of myself – for letting those friends down who open my blog atleast once in couple of days to see if I have written something there…. But it just is not happening… Anyway I decided to shake myself up and atleast write about what’s been happening in the recent past to me.. I finally did it! I changed jobs – got rid of all the murk that had got over me in my previous work… remember these “Queen Crib” posts? I quit my last job on Jul 27 2007 – a very significant and remarkable day in the calendar of my life’s events. I bid farewell to the place – not physically – that I was working in for the last 6 and half years. Though I had been wanting that for ...