The mixed baggage. Called Life

I do miss my doing nothing days when I did get the time to write posts almost everyday at work. This was work - thinking about what I would write. With each passing day, I'm just falling deeper in love with my bed. :)

As my mom watches a gruesome episode of Man Vs. Wild, I've finally found the time to write a new post. Yaay! So the past couple of weeks (has it been weeks or days) were pretty awesome. I traveled to 2 cities - one out of sheer compulsion. And the other, to do what I do best - Girls' day out. Well, more like weekend!

My father was going on a business trip to Mysore - a place that means palace to me. Here's the compulsion part of it - Mom dragged me along to what would be a pretty awesome trip. What did we do? Hang out at the zoo. Yes, people still do that. It's not that I resent animals. It's because I love them that the whole idea of caging them, especially birds drives me ballistic. Oooh yeah, we did indulge in food experiments. :)

Girls' weekend out = Cochin = Shopping + Eating = Lifetime Memory.
I think this trip changed what my perception of Cochin was. Atleast to an extent. I'm so used to to the Calicut hospitality that I pretty much expect the rest of the Keralites to exhibit the same. And that is, most often, completely the opposite. This time around, the rickshaw drivers were absolute gems when it came to taking us around. Only did we realize later that they were big fat liars as well. We shopped till we literally dropped.

Pointers you should keep in mind when you travel to these places :

• Never speak Hindi in Cochin or Malayalam in Mysore. The auto drivers will definitely take you on a ride. A very costly ride.
• Check out the deadly pastries in Loyal Food World, Mysore and the desserts at Cocoa Tree, Cochin. To di-ee for!
• The Lebanese Shawarma at Oberon, Cochin. As close as you can get to the real stuff in Mallu land.
• NBC's Chicken Biryani. Now this is as close as you can get to my mom's biryani!
• Always pack your camera before you pack your undergarments. You can always buy new clothes, but you gotta be filthy rich to buy a new cam. 

Until the next time, folks! 

Sometimes its just about anything. Literally.

What a crazy 2 weeks has it been. As fancy as it may sound, I didn't travel or take off. I was married to my laptop. Now I am a self-admitted workaholic. In my case, I didn't choose to be one. Coming to think of it, is it a matter of choice?


6 months into my job of being in the travel & hospitality industry has taught me a few valuable things. December is the month to be petrified of and June is the month to sleep to your heart's content. You can never ever be thankful enough to Google or Justdial. Sir/Madam can never leave your vocabulary. When we say 24*7, we really have to mean it. I had this client who gave me sleepless nights - One thing I would never have imagined happen. Its a risky world - plenty of things can go wrong. But when you do know that you've built for someone a lifetime of memories, its so just worth it all. I've missed updating posts, I think about doing it and something immediately comes up. Mom absolutely hates me seeing anywhere near the laptop at home and well, she has been hating me every single day!

But I did find my moment of joy this week. 3 of my friends are getting their rooms renovated and whom did they turn to for opinions, but....? Smartly answered , yes, that was me :) This was probably the first unofficial consulting I could do and it felt so right. Like this is what I would be happy doing for the rest of my life.

I have to admit, I did find time for baking. And that one piece of chocolate cake awakened the tiny lil monster in me - munching has seen no boundaries. Guilt-free munching. :)

Yes, I have to kick-start Yoga tomorrow. In style. Let's just hope it will be tomorrow. And not the tomorrow-tomorrow!

The Foreign Funda

Its one of those conversations. I'm lazily slumped on the couch as I type this - after having broken my no-meal-post-7 pm rule for Mom's yummylicious Haleem and Creme Caramel. With just a generous helping of fish biryani (Minus the fish, of course). I read articles online and discuss them with Dad. I love every bit about that - even though he did spend a fair share of his life abroad, he has all the knowledge in the world. Today its about the FDI War - to let go of the strings or tie them even tighter.

Allowing 51 percent FDI in multi brand retail sure is a controversial topic. I can easily sketch the likes of Wal Mart, Carrefour and other giants redefining the Indian shopping experience. Impeccable Service, quality produce and wider choices.  On the other hand, we have the classic tale of our country being the kickass agricultural economy. Once the biggies sweep in, the kiranas (small stores) will be sidelined. More like butchered.

Now's when Dad helped me with the reality check. The truth is, our farmers have always been poor and will most likely remain so. Here's why - the only people that make money now are the kiranas. When a farmer sells a kilogram of bananas, he gets Rs.10. The same is sold for Rs.30 by the middleman. Tomatoes have an even sadder story - a figure of Rs.2 compared to a whopping selling price of Rs.18. Its a sad story - They spend sleepless nights to bring about the yield and someone else gets away with the fruits of the painstaking effort. Not surprisingly, a large number of farmers favour the proposal. To teach everyone a fine lesson. And the argument that farmers will be exploited doesn't hold in my view. The ball will definitely be in their court.

Maybe a phased out plan will provide to be the solution. Bring about the change gradually. Much as you hate it or ignore it, you can't deny the change that it will initiate. IKEA will change your homes. Carrefour will bring French Croissants right to your pantry. You will know why everyone's bonkers over Starbucks. And not to forget the best part of it all, our farmers will become worrrld class :)

The missing element in my life

is MasterChef Australia. I think the show redefined what television meant to me. Its like I'm back to my Post Potter Depression Days. Took me so many days to recover - and I still am.

When I was 5, television meant Scooby Doo, Captain Planet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all the Disney Classics.Not to forget Crystal Maze, Small Wonder and Full House. When I turned 10, that graduated into episodes of Mind Your Language and all the new shows because of the the new era of the dish tv. Oh, the C.I.D craze. I hate to admit it but then ACP Prathyuman was the good guy who could dole out confessions with a mere slap. And Daya had just started Thoda-ling Darwazas :)

I think F.R.I.E.N.D.S dictated the later years. And the news channels. The former stayed but I've literally stopped watching news channels. I've realized its the perfect way to have a sour start to your mornings. For one, you're reminded of how corrupt and mean the society around you is. Along with that, the fact that the media blows every story out of proportion can't be sidelined. Depressing - About how you want to change things, yet, nothing can be done. When I did decide to watch recently, the Ash-Abhi baby stories. You don't need me to tell you how stupid (yes, I have to say stupid because no word would fit the bill better!) it is to employ reporters to say that the baby has the mom's eyes. *Rolling eyes*

And that's when MasterChef stole my heart. One show that has no drama, no sugarcoating. Inspiring stuff - even bestseller books wouldn't be able to achieve that. Give me any show that has travel or cookery or health and you'll regret that you ever gave me control of that remote control. Period. :)

Why the Indian education system will always be....Well, Indian.

This is one aspect of the country which will remain unchanged even if we become a developed nation by 2020. True, we can proudly boast of owning many of the brightest minds in the world. But in a country of a billion, that just probably amounts to a few thousands. Now that's a figure that is a mild guess, but a pretty sure one at that.

My sister studied what my mother studied, I studied what she did and my brothers study what I did. I'm not overlooking the fact that you have got to learn the basics, things that remain unchanged over a period of time. What I am underlining is that we never have new subjects introduced into our syllabus. Even if it is, it fizzes out as fast as it was introduced. Even if there are creative classes, seldom does it happen. And talking about sports, 3 years of my high school went in learning to dribble the basketball. There may be schools excelling in the same, but then again, I'm referring to the general picture. I always wonder how introducing mandatory sessions of basic carpentry/plumbing/gardening/cooking (had to being that in, didn't I!) or other stuff that we will need will be an interesting skill to learn.

A huuge effort by the CBSE Board to eliminate the spoon feeding process was the introduction of formative-submittive-blah blah. To put it in simple words, bludger away so many projects on the kid that he's left with no time to study. And these assignments, mind you, are most often copied. From the textbook. Or sometimes, the work is outsourced. For a Rs.10 Dairy Milk, you know. The thing that annoys me the most is giving extra workload on weekends. Or the holidays. Its called a holiday for a reason and no one realizes that. I can't count the number of times we've cancelled outings just because my brothers had work to do.

Wishful thinking - Being able to choose the subjects we want after high school. Why do we have to swallow down stuff that we know will not be used. And the concept of "using them in your future life". Please, that is far from reality. People don't even remember what they studied last month!

And I absolutely hate that classes only end by 4. Come on, that's a whole day gone. Start early and finish early. Would be so much easier on the public transport too.

I've been thinking for 5 minutes, and I simply can't point out something that I like. Maybe I hated being forced to study only what's in the textbooks. I absolutely loved library hour. And Math.

I know what would make a difference. If we had English teachers that could actually speak English. And public speaking classes right from Kindergarten. In my head, I've already built a model school. Which is kind of awesomee :)

What do you want to do before you die?

Visit Paris, for starters.

You know, how many million things we want to do before bid goodbye. And how more than three quarters of it is well, just a dream. But then, that's the point of it all. :)

Apart from becoming the best Muslim I can possibly can, this just about rounds up the things I definitely want to do.

1. Oh god, I'm so confused! I don't know which one to list first :) I'll go with the cliche one. Have a bloody awesome career and design a celebrity's house who'll take me to Europe for shopping
2. Take my parents on a world tour. And after they come back, go on one. Not alone though
3. Open a restaurant, a patisserie or a classic bakery. And that is after I do a professional culinary course. The best part is I'll do the interiors and be the head chef, and manage it all. Now ain't I a big dreamer :)
4. Bungee Jump. When and where, still got no clue.
5. Also try my hand at skiing, scuba diving, river rafting and para gliding. Don't send me to Goa, it doesn't have ALL of this
6. Become so thin, that no matter how much eat, I'll always be fit. Haha, coming to think of it, this should have topped the list!
7. Have Mom's cutlets and Bolognaise to my heart's content. With no brothers or sister to fight over it.
8. Visit Riyadh just for a while to relive all those good memories
9. Disney World. Yes Yes! I still have a thing for Mickey Mouse, Pooh and all the new entrants :)
10. Do some quality charity work. Other than the bits and pieces, something that really makes a difference
11. Get proposed to with a Tiffany Ring. Now, this is totally not something I can do!
12. Own a beachside house with French windows and a walk-in closet and a round bed and a super cool kitchen
13. Experience a REAL snowfall
14. Test drive a car that is faaar beyond my reach
15. Make a yearly ritual of taking off on a holiday

This can go on and on and on

Eid Mubarak!

This is definitely one of those occasions when I miss my childhood. And when I say miss, I mean really miss. Because Eid was so much more fun. The thing with Eid is you don't want each year to be different. You just have a routine and that makes it perfect.

Up until I moved back to India, I indulged in the festivities in Saudi and oh boy, did I have fun or what! My sister and I were so excited about our Eid dresses that we would make our mom hide it a month before. Just so that we wouldn't keep on checking it out and get tired of it before the "big" day came. I always liked my sister's clothes better, maybe its just a worldwide phenomenon. There was also the mehendi application. Now my family must be one of the only muslim families in the world which has no woman that knows the art of doing it. All three of us are super talented at drawing the sun on our hands. Even then, we'd do it for the fun. That smell reminds me of Eid anyday. And then the Chicken Biryani. Aah, to die for. That is one meal I would eat like there's no tomorrow. And then we'd take off to a nearby city for amusement park rides. Or witness the whole city celebrating with fireworks and malls open until wee hours in the morning. Its just the whole atmosphere of celebration. Even if it was more of strangers, it felt like everyone was united.

I sound like a pre-tty old lady when I say times have changed. I don't have the same excitement of new clothes nor the happening city around me. I miss having my sister around when we'd spend crazy times on taking pictures in our new clothes, all decked up. I've taken up trying to learn applying mehendi seriously by experimenting on Mom's hands. This time she vehemently refused to allow me, saying that she's tired of hiding her hands from people. Come on, I'm not that bad. Times have changed. But what still lingers is the smell of the Chicken Biryani. And I've started the tradition of making a new dessert every time around. One of the Mega events is usually the Beach Eidgah but the rains this year have ensure that that is not likely to happen. I shouldn't complain :)

Ooh, I'm off to make my Banoffee Pie :)