Italyil Idli..

..romba miss pannen.Enna irunthaalum namma idli, dosa pola varaathu.I remember the times during my childhood when I used to avoid idli like the plague.Every single day of school ,just seeing that plate of 2 idlis used to make me go eww.It was a humongous task for my mom to make me eat just half an idli before going to school.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder,I can say.The first time we made idli after arriving here ,it was one hell of a feast.And,during the Italy trip,my love for this food group has only grown.Four days of croissants,cup cakes,pizzas .Had enough of it.

The cappucino was heavenly,though.

And,thus..

Suddenly,before you know it,two hearts start to beat as one.Two minds think alike (not great minds,necessarily )

A single look conveys a thousand words.You don’t have to speak to be heard.

From then,you can be yourself with this other alter ego .Your complexes,your fears,your most embarassing shortcomings all there out in the open.And yet,still the love remains.Perhaps,this is the love that was meant to stay.

To all those people celebrating their first wedding anniversary today, Cheers to you !!! And,to me

15th of August

Years back,15th of August was really special to me.Mainly,it meant no school.For the rest of the day.Except from around 7-8 am when we had to go in complete white and white,get the tricolor paper badge pinned on our shirt,take lots of that ten paisa green-wrapper chocolates that teachers gave us.And assemble for the flag hoisting and singing of the national anthem.And then get back home by 11 and watch the Independence day parade on DD.I was fascinated by the parade.Used to watch the whole procession right from the start till the end.I really wonder what made me do that.Childhood made me appreciate everything,I guess.

 

But now,this routine seems to have been replaced with Snehamudan Sneha and Maddyin galatta and various other budding,non-budding,already blossomed and faded actors and actresses giving their views about their movies,their interests blah.blah.And,yea,solomon paapaiya’s very informative debates on whom should the husband support-mother or the wife ( Naatla irukra prachanaikku solution theduveengalaa..atha vittutu veetla irukra prachanaiya public-la discuss pannikittu..).Also,India tholaikaatchigalil mudhal muraiyaaga thiraikku vanthu sila maadhangaley aana( well,no one watched it in the theaters,no wonder its come to the idiot box so soon) movies.

 

So much has changed.Do we really appreciate our motherland as much as we should be ?I don’t know.Everytime I see a dirty road,I crib.When I had to spend almost a whole day in the queue at the passport office to get my passport extended,I cribbed.Every day I had to wait hours in traffic jams before getting home,I cribbed.Potholes,I cribbed.Bad customer service at markets ,I cribbed.I cribbed so often.This country seems to be going to the dogs,I used to tell myself.

 

But,now that I am out of the country,I’ve stopped.Everytime I see something like “Madrasi” curry paste on the supermarkets,I excitedly point it out to my husband.[Yea,my sense of patriotism is still highly limited.Strictly only to vatha kozhambu and cheppankezhangu.]When I see “Indien” written somewhere,anywhere,I let my eyes linger on it for a while. I watch Hindi movies in German on German TV.Perhaps,I was taking my country for granted while I was there.And ,now that I’m not,I do miss it at times.Not all the times,though So,now that this post has grown longer than any other post,and as I still haven’t figured out what I really wanted to say ,I better stop.And say it like this ” “Happy Independence Day”.And also this,part of a poem that I got via email

 

“where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

where the mind is led forward by thee

into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom,my Father,let my country awake.”

-Rabindranath Tagore.

Yea ,he wrote better than I do.And in fewer words.

 

Mundane stuff

Make the bed.Vaccum the house.Clean the gas stove.Wash the utensils.Mop the floor.Oh yea,forgot.Make breaker,lunch and dinner.How the hell did our mothers manage all this ????!! And I thought sitting at home was easy.

Anyday,gimme my workstation,a few lines of code copied and pasted,a few meetings with technical jargons thrown in,lots and lots of caffeine free of cost anytime of the day,treats now and then by molaga-arachufying on friends’ heads, bad canteen food but still edible due to friends’ constant jokes about it,lots and lots of concerned phone calls from home about how their little daughter is living all by herself in the big bad world(heh little did they know Forum and Multiplex were her second homes)..ah,i’d give an arm for those good old days again..

Whoever said it,said right ,when they said “Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson.You find the present tense and the past perfect.”

The best things in life

   

• …hot rava kesari and coffee [ of course , made and served with love by amma] on a sunny evening.
• …hearing your little bratty but adorable 2 year old niece call you by name maturely over the webcam.
• …also hearing her distorted but sincere version of “Jana gana mana ” ,with words of her own choice .
• …hearing hubby say, “dear,buy the highest high-end phone that you ever wanted.no probs at all”.
• …hot onion pakodas and coffee and Shrek-1,2 or 3 on the laptop !
• ..hearing “munbe va en anbe va” and feeling the love in the air

What do you think?

I miss..

..seat numbers in movie theaters.Seriously.Those heavenly days in Hyderabad n Bangalore when we could book our tickets well in advance and get alloted some of the best seats in the halls.No point booking in advance in movie theaters in Germany(and in the UK ,I heard). The ticket just means you’ve a seat.For all you know,despite booking 3 months earlier,you might end up sitting right at the foot of the screen.Indian movie theaters,vaazhga.

I miss..

..the Coffee Day outlet @ my ex-workplace. In fact,I think I spent more time there than at my desk.Nothing like a cup of lukewarm(well,thats what they served) cappuccino to drown your coding troubles in. Back then getting my code compiled was my whole and sole ambition in life.Sitting there with best buddies,reminiscing over where we went wrong in life,gossiping about who’s going out with whom on campus,which manager sucks the most,who is sight-adichufying whom.Aduthathu endha padathukku mass-ticket book panni flop aakalaam ( our gang had this raasi,any movie that we see together ends up as an utter flop.Only Chandramukhi and Anniyan escaped our luckless clutches),Bangalore-la enga nalla dosai kedaikkum(of course,Krishna cafe was our regular weekend haunt),yaaru first kalyaanam pannipaanga,ippadiyaaga we sat @ Coffee day , while our code rumbled and stumbled @ our workstations..

A lot can happen over coffee.Yea,right,a lot used to happen ,except work.