Happy Vishu...

umm a new year has dawned and with it another year that seems full of hope and cheer. its been a hectic week and with that the final nuts and bolts that determine my next step were firmly being put in place.

yep, its packing time. time for me to fly, fly across the seven seas where I would be testing the turbid waters once again. That's my life you see just when I seem to settle down the monotony of things gets to me and I spread my wings and fly once again in search of better pastures. Aaah if ONLY I had the power to reign in my mind, I guess I would have asked "What exactly do you need in the first place?".

That’s enough as I write this I see adnan sami's new song "Teri Yaad". well apart from the fact that he has a rich voice, I am sick of his love stuck songs. He looks quite old and he always tries to serenade someone half his age which reminds me of those malayalam/tamil movies where the hero is usually the herione's fathers age and still ( I mean it) still plays the college guy running around trees.

Wonder of wonders, he is accepted in this role too and as usual the movie rakes in the moolah. clap !! clap !! clap !!. Producers happy, the actors are happy and so are the good entertainment deprived public. Therein lies the greatness of my home country. We are so used to being pushed around that eventually we begin to accept everything as a ritual rather than question it.

So coming to the point of this post. I decided to spend this new year a bit differently. Yep I decided to celebrate rather than rue the fact that I am once again all alone. The place where I am headed too, no one cares for anyone else and I guess at the later stages its only this skill that will allow me to keep my sanity alive.

So late evening I made a dash to the market and bought in all the veggies, spices and the works. Got down to business after the usual early morning rituals and ended up preparing a small sadya (feast) consisting of 2 curries, 2 accompaniments, rice and of course the sweet dish. At the end I was definitely pleased with my effort to such an extent that when I finally finished the decoration, I only had the energy to take a picture of them to show my mom which too ultimately conked out since there were only 2 shots left on the roll.

anyways just in case someone comes looking this is what the sambhar (spicy indian curry pronounced as "saaa-aam-bar") looked like....

and this the more koottan ( indian curry made using yoghurt pronounced as "more-koo-taan").

Finally I concluded:

• I can never be anywhere close to the league of my mom and sisters when it comes to cooking. Not that I don't know how to cook or something like that. I can whip up a decent meal in quick time and No you wont run around for a laxative to ease the matter either.

• Some people are born with the skill. Just like the kids I too believe that my mom is the worlds best cook and even at this age I stand by my belief.

• Gender equality matters aside WOMEN ARE BETTER COOKS. Call it skill or call it a belief doens't matter. I am yet to come across a MALE cook who can given women a run for their money and no I don't care to know the reason either.

Yeah don’t come and tell me about Jamie Oliver, sure he makes a billion bucks each day but ask a kid who he thinks is a better cook and he would yell out aloud "For christ sake, just listen and drill it into your ears, its my mom, my mom and my mom.." If my prudence serves me right, Jamie would probably be nodding his head at this point of time in agreement to the above statement.

A typical lad, I never ventured anywhere beyond the kitchen door as a kid and now as I whip up a meal I can sense my mom and the ladies I care for watching me, smiling at me, laughing and cheering me on.

sure they were disasters in disguise at the initial stages but neverthless they are proud of my effort and they know I would never let them down. That night as I sat down to eat, deep down in my thoughts I said a silent prayer. A prayer that came from my heart and I know god must have heard....

happy new year amma, ms Canada, laks, vids, tom, baby, michi, pa, sari, saji, rahna, nithya and many more. May the new year bring in all the happiness you so rightly deserve......

A Weekly Review !!!

FOR WANT OF SOMETHING BETTER TO POST !!!

Aah what a week this has been, too many changes happening and some too fast for my taste. But hey whoever promised life will move at your pace anyways !!!

Lets see where do I begin now umm to begin with I lost a friend. By losing I mean we decided to part. Now that’s awful most of us would say but I guess it was waiting to happen. Too many differences and too many issues all cropped up at the same time and the result was chaos. We all have the right to lead a peaceful life and perhaps acknowledging that we need some time apart from each other so that we don’t kill each other was important so there we go….

I finally got my exit process rolling and it was very heartening to see people closing off each phase partly because I had done my home work well and partly because I had requested them to expedite the matter. So for a change the typical filibusters HR, Administration, Travel and Finance issued closure notices…..

My bank balance had a few more zeroes to it, naa morons not just zeroes completely but more zeroes towards the right hand side and boy the way they made my heart flutter :), its amazing how something so materialistic can give you the initial feeling of euphoria....

Played a virtual team building game, probably the last thing I would be doing before I quit and the response I got was just AMAZING. What’s best the enthusiasm they displayed was superb and we all had a gala time. It was certainly interesting to know hitherto unknown facts about your colleagues and that too straight from the horses mouth.

Pursued 2 adventure activities, rafting and kayaking, added 4 new friends, wrote 2 articles for my monthly company magazine and finally received 2 appreciation letters from onsite team. As I count my last few days these letters certainly hold substance

I sold my baby my bike. As I move on I would have pretty much wanted him to be with me, but I guess it would be botheration and I had no choice but to dispose it off. I had taken care of it like a baby and got a good price for it no doubt but it certainly hit me below the navel watchin it being taken away. Now I realise why my dad “Gifted” his old explorer rather than sell it away…

Finally am sitting around waiting for my gift from heavens to come. It should come pretty soon I guess so I am feeling all optimistic and hope in my eyes. Its been a delayed honor no doubt but I am glad atleast its coming. More than me, I find someone who’s waited 3 years for this to happen animatedly jumping up and down anticipating my arrival.

As I conclude I opened my diary and wrote

Dear God,

Thank you very much for keeping me occupied. I am very happy to say I just didn’t have any time to crib about how wronged I am.

Needless to say you must have experienced the lesser network traffic from this side of the border which undoubtedly must have left you pleased.

I promise I would endeavor to keep up this attitude. Thank you very much for your continued patronage. I assure you I will not let you down.

Thanks and regards,

The Avenger.

Tagged !!

Ms Canada, my friend Pri tagged me recently. I thought it would be a welcome change from the routine posts I do so here goes.

Summer vacations or for that matter any vacations were full of fun. Ever since I remember, I would have a ball of a time and would either be traveling visiting my relatives or holed up at Mumbai having fun. Summers were also a great time to freak out and good occasion for all my siblings to sit together and relish each event.

Being the youngest "GUY" in my family, I was pampered and preferred way too much. Trips to God's Own Country were a must and provided my parents are willing to escort us, we would make the trip to my ancestral house, where all we cousins from different parts would converge. Then would begin at least a fortnight of mayhem where all hell would break loose before my grandfather would step in to silence us nomads. But as expected, within hours the rampage would begin again hahaha.....

Summers meant "Eating time" and boy would I eat like there is no tomorrow. Those yummy stuff my grandma and after her my aunts would cook would make the best chef's hang their heads in shame. I name it I get it :) so right from dried fish curry to typical Kerala cuisine would be made available for me .... hehehe

summers meant stealing mangoes from my neighbor’s farm as he had a special type that we wouldn’t have in our farm. So that entailed enticing his dog with some heavy stuff like meat and then tying him to the stake and scaling the tree to get my hands on them. Apart from these stealing guavas, figs and pineapples were a regular part of my escapades.

Summers meant taking endless rounds of bathing and playing a religious guru just to get my hands on the "prasadam" from our family temple not to forget jauntily walking long distance across the paddy fields visiting cousins and relatives.

Tasting my brothers cooking. He would make noodles in some what a different way which would make them crisp and crunchy. Munching on them while watching movies were a passion :)

Participating in the summer camp was another activity not to be missed. Most of the members would be local guys and having fun staying away from home, doing team building activity was simply superb.

Summers were about planning where my brother would plan what would we do next. This would entail changing the decor of the house, painting, buying new stuff etc. it’s precisely at this time that such things would happen as we all would be around to monitor the progress. (Just proved that my parents were smarter than we thought they are :))

Summers meant buying new stuff for self. This included all sorts of apparels, shoes, bags etc. This also meant buying academic stuff like new books, guides, software etc that would be need in the next year to avoid the last minute rush.

Summers meant pocket money and pocket money meant eating everything from the roadside stall to the neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Didn’t I just say I LOVE to eat.....

Now I have cleared a quarter of my life and I earn 4 times of what my parents combined would earn during those days but somehow it never seems enough. I guess lessons learnt are few and my wants MORE maybe that’s why.

I remember fighting with the bus conductor for 2 rupee change sometime back when I went home you know why? Because my dad paid for the tickets before I could get out some money and that guy was acting too smart by saying he doesn’t have change. Hell!! That freak his leather bag jingled with coins and he was playing around thinking no one would argue at 11.00 in the night...

I fought like hell and got the money back from. You know why? Well that because my dad is retired and has spent hour's toiling to make the amount while I get the same amount in a few minutes time. In comparison his effort is more and hence needs to be accounted for and it’s as SIMPLE as THAT.

I am sure the rest of us too would agree....