Tracking the chain of thoughts

The house is quiet, earlier than usual. The routine has been usual for me. Picking up old newspapers, shoving them into the closet, putting back the sundry lotions, face powder, and knick-knacks into the dresser, collecting the clothes strewn around and sorting them out. These are programmed into my body and my limbs automatically carries out the tasks.

Voices in my brain complain and reason out alternatingly. Another track in my brain is thinking about a possible topic for a post on my blog. Ideas gather in an unruly manner, jostling to get ahead, vying for attention. I try to accommodate, give justice to each of them, fatigued in the end, not finding anything worth writing about. The train of thought pauses to ponder about my worth as a blogger. I shake my head to dust off the doubts. It shouldn't matter.

Image Source

A quick scan around the house registers a sense of orderliness. Satisfied, I spend a moment to appreciate what I see. It's a bitter-sweet feeling. Feelings of displaced and disappointment are mixed with gratitude and pride. This wasn't how it was supposed to end up. Is the feeling of 'homecoming' illusionary?

I open my laptop. My newsfeed, online and offline, is filled with people changing places, figuratively and literally. I look back. My life in snippets flashes by. I remember dreamy conversations with my bestie from our college times. How differently our lives panned out, changed courses, switched tracks. Life always surprises you. In good ways too.

I'm in an unusually lazy mode today. My mind is pushing me to write. Something. Anything. My blog dashboard is gleaming with fresh ones from my favourites and I sit to read them. Today, I've decided to savour the leisure, to cast away the self-imposed schedules of the day,  to be a little indulgent, to procrastinate, to laze, to take the time out to read and write.

A random post for today. I've tried something new. Could you sense anything different?

Read More

I'm like that!

Image Source

Like most of us, I've my idiosyncracies. Certain tendencies that are like reflex actions to me amuse others, for instance, my husband. Of course, I tell him off that he's the weird one. Now, don't we all display some quirky behaviour that seems absolutely rational to us? The operational words here are, of course, 'to us'.

I thought of sharing some of my quirks with you all. It'll be a fun exercise to see how many of you find them weird and how many identify with me. So, here you go:

#1. I need my mail Inbox to, at all times, have zero unread messages. Unread messages, some junk others spam, that keep piling up make me restless and I need to delete them, report as spam, whatever, almost immediately. The spam folder also needs to be emptied, pronto! There's something about those numbers within brackets denoting unread messages that play on my mind and I've to do something about it. So, you can imagine my state of mind after a long vacation where I haven't had access to my emails. This is an emergency. I come back and ruthlessly make a clean sweep, swiftly sorting the junk from necessary. A lot of emails come in as a result of subscription channels. Normally, these get a brief glance but not so during emergencies. Only the absolutely necessary ones remain from the pile and then a sigh of relief escapes through my senses. I immediately feel sorted and happy!

Likewise for WhatsApp messages. I'm, by choice or destiny, a part of scores of common groups that are active by the minute through the day. I've, to retain my sanity, put most of them on "mute for a year". Yet, I need to click on the group periodically and make the green pop-ups go away. And, it doesn't mean I'm reading the messages.

The husband, on the other hand, has 3785 unread emails lying in his inbox. Oh dear, I cannot express how it feels when I see those numbers in bold within a bracket crying out for attention! I asked him once and he shrugged it off casually saying those emails are not important, hence unread. Why not delete them? He shrugged again and then looking at my alarmed state, snorted with laughter. That annoyed me further!

#2. Same with spills, however minor, on the cooking stove. I need to wipe them clean immediately. Most people accumulate the spills over the course of a cooking session and then set on the cleaning task. Not me. The stove surface is simultaneously wiped off the sprinkles of oil, broth, milk, etc even as these said items may be boiling over the gas. I always have a wipe handy when I'm cooking.

C has branded me as half-mental or "ara-loosu" as he calls me. It seems once we had a tiff and in the midst of intense argument, I was simultaneously found wiping the surface furiously. He recounted the observation with great amusement much later in the day and chuckled to add that only because he feared for his safety he had stiffled laughter inside his throat and quickly escaped to leave for work.

#3. I once got a potted plant that had the sapling planted away from the centre of the pot. No, I didn't lose sleep over it but only mentioned it as a minor irritant to the husband. Ironically, we were discussing Sheldon (from the Big Bang series) and his OCD. C slyly remarked that I'm at times as crazy as Sheldon. For the record, I don't have any OCD. Just more particular about certain things.

#4. When I was younger, my mother used to have a harrowing time tying my hair into two ponytails. The difficulties were multiple. Firstly, I had very thick and silky hair rendering it quite tough to get all the strands together enough to tie them or braid them. To top this, I was very finicky about the hair being parted exactly at the centre point in the front of the head and continue as a straight line until the nape. A slight deviation and I'd know (sense the comb movement) immediately and ask mother to re-do it. Even at the cost of being late to wherever I was going to. I definitely drove my mother up the wall because the waterworks were also forever ready in case she didn't comply with my specifications. Sheesh! Now, that I'm a mother myself I'm completely in awe of her patience and kindness. And, so glad that karma didn't come back to bite me. I've a son :-p

So, now that I've bared my secrets with you, tell me I'm not all that weird. Even better, tell me your quirks and give me some reason to wink knowingly at you :-)

Read More

Being online yet not out of line

It's a long accepted fact that most of our communication today happens over Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter and the likes. The difference between a reply and a response is becoming blurry. Emoticons have replaced lengthy explanations; not to mention made it easier to convey a confused look or ecstasy over something. Whether you're feeling blue or euphoric, whether you want to cringe or ROFL at something, just click the right icon and you are sorted.

http://bit.ly/1Bz9kgz

But, not all is hunky-dory with the instant messaging world. If we aren't careful, we could fall prey to quick-sand of narcissism and impatience that throngs this world.

Haven't we all experienced the restlessness after we post something on whatsapp or FB? We wait with bated breath for that first 'like' or 'comment'. Much like the girl in this Tata Docomo Ad. The messenger Aps have made it worse by adding features that lets the person posting or sending the message know whether the message has been read by the intended person! So, depending upon which side of the message you are, you are either catching your breath waiting for that someone to respond or fuming that despite the double ticks in blue or 'Seen by', the person has the audacity to not reply!

The itch to respond immediately is quite real too. Over-analyzing thoughts crowd our head and we worry that we'd appear rude if we do not hit the 'like' button or comment on a fellow-comrade's post despite leaving our footprints of online presence elsewhere at that hour!

And, then there are the perils of over-communication (if there is something like that) and misunderstandings. A simple comment is torn to shreds by trying to understand the emotions and intentions behind it. Punctuation, pauses, smileys all play a crucial role here. A colon instead of a semi-colon can cause two friends to war. Could a one-liner reply to a lengthy discussion mean that the other person took offence? Is then an apology due? Oh, the confusions!

Fragile relationships do not stand a chance since you are always comparing how friend A reads and 'likes' every post by acquaintance B but ignores you (her bestie?!). Isn't it better to pick that phone and call the person to have a heart-to-heart chat instead of agonizing and staring silly at your computer screen?!

The truth is there is life beyond Facebook and Whatsapp and not everyone thinks about you all day like you do. They have themselves to think about, right? So, lets move on and not base our judgement about people in our lives upon how they behave in social media. Remember, there's always a side that is never revealed out there.

Read More

Hello everyone! I'm alive, thanks for asking.

It's been a month since I wrote something here. So, should I call this as my comeback post or will this be just a filler? It's difficult to say at this moment as I seem to have lost all interest/motivation/energy/creativity-call what you may-to fill up this space. Sadly, something that I though I was passionate about is withering away without no gardener to nourish its roots. I cannot place my finger on any one single reason other than a combination of the usual reasons- writer's block, busy life and sinking motivation.

There were times when ideas did crop up and I felt the familiar urge, albeit one with a far lesser intensity, to update the blog. The idea and feeling, sadly, passed away too soon in my recently accelerated routine life. Now, there's where there is some activity and excitement and probably why my energies are all diverted. The handover of the new house is to happen very soon and I'm in the midst of heavy duty work of getting all the documents in place, meeting up with my designer's team and following up with the site engineer to buck up with the finishing work.

I'm all excited and anxious about the next phase - of getting the place done up. This is something I've been imagining about for the past many months and now as the time gets nearer, my anxiety level seems to have gone up by a new notches. Suddenly, everything seems overwhelming. I'm besieged by doubts of how things will shape up, what if something goes wrong-which I'm sure does happen in such cases, if the entire plan of design, storage, lighting, etc will all match up to our needs and expectation. 

My content writing work has also picked in past few months and I'm seeing some positive developments. So again, this is something else that has kept me on my toes, which, ironically has lead me to neglect the space that was instrumental in bringing the work to me.

The final and main culprit is of course, a lack of motivation. When I started out, I wrote because I liked to. Then when the reader community grew, this liking developed into a sort of narcissism. I'd be all excited to compose and publish a post and then would eagerly await comments. The fact that people read me and wanted to share their opinion gave me a certain high and I got addicted. Sadly, I noticed, my love for writing has been replaced by need for approval and recognition from fellow writers. I am unable to write freely because my mind is blocked with external factors.

I'm hoping to crawl my way back to when I began. Until then,a short update: 

 My parents were here for the past three weeks and we had an awesome time bonding. Celebrating Avaniavittam and Gokulashtami with them was so much more fun than usual. R got a huge chunk of special time with his grandparents and he enjoyed their attention to bits. The house feels so empty today as we saw them off to the station. R, who usually is brave while saying goodbyes, cried bitterly. Sigh! the pitfalls of living away from family and cousins.

Read More

My experiments in the kitchen

Something that happens not very frequently, much to my foodie husband's dissatisfaction. We are like chalk and cheese in the matters of food. While I subscribe to the philosophy of "Eat to live", he's quite the opposite, salivating even at the thought of his favourite food. And, his favourite can be quite a wide spread. So, try as I might to satiate even a portion of his taste buds, I can never come close to what he'd like me to cook up in the kitchen. 

But, to be fair to him, I don't really try much ;-)

Despite all the disparity in our thoughts and actions, I do surpass myself at times to bring something different to the table (literally). So, here are a few snaps of what I tried out recently.

A cinnamon tea cake- As usual, I combined two recipes, and forgot which ones ;-). 

Turned out Okay.

Paneer Kofta curry- which turned out a little extra salted, because while making the gravy, I disregarded the fact that the koftas were also salted- classic case of inexperience. I'm improving, though, thanks.

Recipe from here

Paneer Do-Pyaza- Turned out so well that the husband kept saying 'awesome' in a loop for the whole day. I gained extra weight just hearing that. See, didn't I tell you, I'm improving?

Recipe from here.

The next time I hear some complaints about my cooking, I'll just do a re-direct to this page. This should work for at least a while ;-)

Read More

Bitten by the reading bug

So, there's something I'm happy about-my reading quotient has gone up in the last couple of weeks. The Flipkart guy has been a regular visitor. Although, I order in bunches, the delivery sometimes gets pushed to different dates depending on the availability. I feel bad that the person delivering has to travel the same distance, at times, on consecutive days to deliver just one book. 

That apart, it does feel nice to have that parcel in your hands with new, crisp books to delve into, to lose the world by drowning into them. The books I've read so far have also not let me down.

My current loot:

Additions have been made to the above, but they are mainly books for R- The Eric Carle collection I mentioned earlier, so there is one more person happy in the household.

So, what have you been reading? Will be happy to get some recos.

Read More

Love happens...when nature wills

She braved the odds that nature threw at her

Bowing graciously to the harsh winds of summer

Wilting away slowly with every passing day

Biding her time until heat gave way

The summer was brutal and so were His men

But she clung on to hope, she had some then

Waiting to be kissed and loved

By a benign dark cloud

But, alas! The clouds were just passing by

Her redemption, was not so easy

Green turned into yellow and then brown

She soon began to lose faith,

Into the ground of sorrow, she was to drown.

Then he came, like a whiff of fresh air,

Blowing soft kisses, riding on a pregnant cloud

Every drop of love, wet her, healed her.

Caressing his beloved,

He washed away the dust,

Reminiscent of the painful past

Her face was awash in his selfless grace

Carrying droplets of pearls,

 Oh so many!

They danced in joy, happy and gay!

Making a promise, all in silence

To wait, hope, love and surrender

To bloom in abandoned joy

To let go in unrestrained ecstasy

A romance that is incomplete

Without him or her

And, such is nature’s legacy

* Tried to capture the love affair between a young sapling and the first rains. This was written for a contest hosted by Atta galatta. And, nope, this is not a winning entry :-)

Read More

What's your good name?

If someone can be named Sitara then why does Guitara for a name sound so funny?

If a person named Ram is no where close to having the personality or qualities that the original bearer of the name possessed, then why does it mean any one with the name Raavan will be anything like the original?

Names have always fascinated and baffled me. I fail to understand the frenzy with which modern day parents name their offspring with the most difficult-to-pronounce and unheard of names-in the quest to be more unique. Since the time I've stepped into parenthood, I have come across some really bizarre names of which I'd rather not allude to here for obvious reasons.

Names have come far from the olden times of carrying forward the grandfather or grandmother's name resulting in having at least five subramanians, krishnamoorthys, Lakshmis or Kalyanis from the same generation in the family and having funny nicknames like Paapa, Echimi (short for lakshmi) or Ambi or even having the residing city attached to the name like Delhi mani to different each one from the other!

Naming children after mythological figures have been the most favourite since time immortal. Yet, one does not come across anyone named Duryodhana or Shakuni or Draupadi. There is a lot of baggage attached to these names, no? I don't claim to know a lot of people but in my limited circle too, I have come across just one "Abhimanyu" so far. I love the name, actually. Does the superstitious fear of a short life attached to the name surmounts logical thinking? Maybe, so. One never takes a chance with one's children.

And, of course, while talking of names, how can you go without mentioning those dubious first names of a male that can also be names in full for a female causing confusions about the gender of the person and causing much embarrassment to the carrier of that name? I can see the male and female Lakshmi-narayans, Uma-shankars, Vidhya-shankars, and Radha-krishnans nodding away furiously. 

Indian English uses forms like asking, "what's your good name?" - something that doesn't make much sense since we cannot substantiate the answer by further asking, so what's your bad name then? If History or Mythology has any bearing on the goodness of the names, then perhaps there are many 'bad' names out there. Of course, they way many politicians with lovely sounding names behave today, a lot of 'good' names are going to be dumped in future.

Courtesy:google;sqidoo.com

Read More

Cooking in adversity and Gatte ki sabzi

With all the happenings of last week, the most neglected of the lot was the Kitchen. I absolutely didn't keep track of the stocks and ran out of a lot of groceries during the week, including the veggies. All this even though we have an emergency condo within the complex that also does home delivery!

Anyway, the fact remained that I had to make lunch on Sunday without any proper veggies-my favourite paneer and eggs were also missing. So, I decided to try out a new dish. Adversity does bring out the unusual in some people ;-)

I generally have a problem following one recipe. I scour the net for different versions of the same dish to see which one sounds better and which one prescribes the ingredients that are available in my kitchen. The result is that I always do a combination of a couple of recipes. *Wonders* Is that way my dishes always turn out different from what I expect??

In this case, however, neither I nor the husband had ever tasted this dish before so there was no benchmark to be reached or any expectations to be fulfilled. Also, for a change, I almost completely followed this recipe here.

Sharing some pics:

The dough for the gatte

The dough, rolled and cut

The final product- I picture adamantly remains in this position and no amount of rotating helps!

Oh, I forgot to add, the dish turned out quite well, although I have no idea how the authentic one tastes, but that's a different story, right?

Read More

Corn fritters, the Indian way

This was one of the rare occasions when I decided to make a yummy snack. Actually, a sting remark by the husband caused my generally thick nerves to take offense and I marched off in the kitchen to prove him all wrong (and to also to get rid of the small guilt that was also peeking its ugly head).

Whatever the reason, we were treated to a quick and very yummy fried snack that we gobbled down with some nice refreshing ginger tea.

The recipe was taken from here. 
I omitted the garlic, cloves and curry leaves. The taste was still good, so looks like you can make your tweaking.

The mixture

The final product

Read More

Chaat-experiences

No trip to Bombay is ever complete without gorging on the yummy chaats. The sweet, tangy and spicy pani-puris that melt into the mouth, and the perfect mix of ingredients that make the bhel, sev and ragada explode into a delectable and myriad mix of spices within the mouth, transporting you to a different world of gourmet, is simply an out-of-the world experience.

Eating chaat was a matter-of-fact affair and never taken so seriously while I lived in Bombay. Only after I moved cities, did I realize how much we take smaller pleasures for granted and how special an experience this was to become. Only a few cities offer the perfect chaat experience and only people like me who have moved out of these cities to reside in certain other parts of the country that simply cannot match up to the standard, can feel the void in the gourmet world.

Initially, I'd filled with enthusiasm upon citing a chaat shop in these cities and would help myself to the similarly worded dishes. Alas! none has so far matched my expectations, not even coming close to bearing a faint resemblance to the masterpieces. Especially, the pani-puris. The puris of the gogappas or pani-puris cut a sorry figure, with neither the shine, size, crispness or the texture that is its essence. The pani too is a sad concoction without the distinct flavour that tingles the nostrils with its spice. The sweet and tangy chutney made of jaggery, dates/tamarind is never added unless specified and even then it's not the same.

In short, after a few disastrous and disappointing chaat escapades, I've now become wiser. My heart no longer beats faster at the sight of the chaat-corners. I completely avoid eating pani-puris and for the rest of the chaat-variants, I have reset the expectation bar to a much lower level.

Thus, when I am vacationing at the parents' house, visits to the chaatwallahs are mandatory and I make it a point to schedule more than one visit to stuff myself with all the flavours and carry back the memories that can be relished and cherished until the next visit.

Images: google.com.

Read More

Do you believe in ghosts?

The night is calm.  Tired souls are in deep slumber and there is not even a rat that is awake. The silence is so clear that you can hear your heart beating. Suddenly, you hear a clear noise from the house above you. It feels as though some one dropped a nail or a marble on the  floor, making a "cling" sound. Just a little worry here, who'd drop a nail or such like substance in the dead of the night?? And, then at times, I've heard the creaking sound of a swing in motion from the floors above at absurd times. 

Eerie, right? But it does happen, no? We may not believe in ghosts per se. It seems too juvenile to believe in something that belies rational thought. Yet, we cannot shrug off experiences that may not have exactly brought you face to face with a lady in white (or maybe even a gent for that matter) but has made you ponder over unexplained noises and happenings. Ever wondered why it is always a lady in white and not a man in white? Anyway, I digress.

It's been long since I've overcome the fear of dark, probable ghosts and of being alone in a house. But,then, any incident that does not fall in the line of usual occurrence does ruffle me.  Now, this incident happened last year when we had been to Ooty for a short break. We stayed in a heritage villa-the ones that retain their quaint, royal look and feel to the place.

The villa was named after a famous detective character of the fiction world and the rooms had pictures from the famous mystery stories- nothing super natural, though. I was pretty pleased to stay at such a place that brought back memories of my favourite ficition series.  

We stayed there for just one night. We retired to bed early after a lovely day spent lounging in the sun-soaked green lawns and having sumptuous warm meals. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, the mobile started to give out low beeps as it would if there is a low charge or signal. This continued throughout the night. R also did not sleep well that night. We put that down to a new place. The phone vibration/beep couldn't really be explained since there was complete battery power and there was no signal for it to vibrate. Though this did not bother us then, when we recounted this incident to our friends much later they planted this tiny seed of "eerie doubt".

My friend commented, "oh, its natural for unusual happenings in such heritage villa, y'know?" 

Well, I'm only glad that this doubt never arose to our minds when we were there!

Read More

All in the game

It's not often that I can boast about being good at a game for I'm a complete non-sports person: always short of expertise and stamina for outdoor games. Even with indoor games, I can just about save my face. With the exception of one particular game. It's called Boggle. Have you ever heard of it? It looks like this:

Yes, you guessed it right. It's a word game where you need to make as many words as possible-rules apply-within a stipulated time. There are points assigned vis-a-vis the number of letters in a word. Bigger the word, higher the points. The player with the maximum points emerges winner. A minimum of two players can play; there is no upper limit, though if there are too many then the fun is lost since common words get cancelled out. 

The grid holds the letter cubes and the box needs to be shuffled and placed with all the cubes falling into the grid. The timer is then set and the players need to write out as many correct words as possible.

I've always like word games but this game is my favourite with scrabble coming a close second, not because I've a knack for it (pardon the immodesty, please) but because in my opinion, scrabble is also about chance. You need to be lucky to get favourable set of letters. However in this game, there is equal opportunity present to all. It is a game of quick thinking, attention and concentration.

Over years, the game was introduced and played with a host of friends, cousins, aunts and uncles- a wonderful way to pass time and bond. There are lots of good memories associated with this game. The silly fights and arguments over the validity of a particular word-we'd even sit with dictionaries to prove our point and in the process stealthily look for possible words that can be made, override the timer to scribble in the last few words,  fight over points, oh, the small joys!


Alas! being a good player comes with its share of disadvantages. What's that, you ask? Well, no one likes to lose you see and worse is to have the same person win almost all the time. The winner being, ahem.. yours truly. These people have even boycotted me from playing the game. Jealous people!

So, friends, that's the story of this lovely game, Boggle.  It's been ages that I've even looked at this. Maybe someday, I'll play this again. R might be my new game partner. 
I took this out specially to click pictures of it. Things that I've to resort to, to keep this marathon going!

Have a happy week!

Read More

A day linked to the past

The night is quiet, the brat off to sleep (unusually early) and the husband not in town. I can finally sit down to write something. With the husband travelling, the day seemed to stretch like an elastic. I had official work to do but was in no mood to write. The creative juices seemed to be on some strike too. Talk about ironies in life. The brat also seemed very bored and kept popping (the same) questions every 5 minutes in the time I decided to write something. 

Loved this!!! courtesy:pinterest.com

Since nothing better was being churned out in front of the computer, I decided to do the next best thing- tick off some long pending house work. I cleaned R's closet and mine. Oh! the satisfaction. Before you pass me off as someone with OCD, let me tell you this was totally unlike me many years ago. Each time, I clean up the cupboards, my past (it really feels like another lifetime) flashes by where I can almost hear my mother yelling her head off at me for being so clumsy, untidy, disorganized and lazy. 

Yes, I was the black sheep of the family. We had a shelf or two allocated for each of us in the clothes cupboard and mine would be messiest. You open the door and an avalanche of assorted things would be at your feet. Ditto with the books cabinet. I would rummage the shelves-like a dog would a garbage bin to find food-to search for my lost tie, sock, scarf, books, even the precious journal that would have to be submitted the next day.

I think my mother had almost given up on me. She'd finally set upon herself to organize the shelves and cabinet when I never yielded to any of her pleading, cajoling, and finally threats. I was also super thick-skinned then. I started to organize my things myself when I was older but never got around maintaining the shelves in the same manner. 

However, cut to the present- I cannot tolerate messy and unorganized surroundings. Things need to put away as soon as possible (there has to be a sense of order at least on the surface ;-)). I may not be able to maintain the orderliness of the closets but I get a sense of urgency the minute they are in a mess and get to organizing them soon after. Contrary to what my folks or even I, for that matter, thought about my housekeeping skills, I have surprised myself (and them, I think)  into not having a household that has a caved-in look. I may still not be the most organized person, yet I have as sense of discipline. 

Is it some dormant gene that decided to make an appearance late in life? Perhaps it has also to do with the fact that now I know that if I don't do it, nobody will and I have realized that I do prefer a tidy environment.

Read More

Take a break........have a Kit-Kat..

No, I'm not taking a break (much as I'd love to!) here, I'm talking about the Ad-world. As I was wondering about the topic for today's post, I came across an ad on youtube. And, bingo! came the idea for the post. Advertisements used to be such a cherished affair in the days of Doordarshan when the breaks were far and between unlike times like these when you could easily mistake the actual show to be a filler in between the array of ads!

Love them or hate them, Ads are here to stay. In fact, there are quite a few that are really creative and good on content. Lets forget about the irritating ones (you know which ones) for the moment and concentrate on the ones that have made a place in your heart. Ones that make you smile and feel warm in the heart.

So, here are some of my favourite ads.

Dhara Oil: Wonder, why it is not aired anymore :-( The little guy is so cute..

The cadburys ads are generally good, but I like this one a lot:

Good day Biscuit: such a cute little story..leaves you feeling so good..

Met life insurance aaja aaja ad: really innovative and funny!

And, finally this Tanishq ad is fairly new. Really like the guy (of the English Vinglish fame)..

There may be more but these were the top most that came to my mind first. Do you like these too? What were/are you favourite ones? Do share.

Read More

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is about a lad,Pi, who survives a ship wreck along with four animals that includes an adult Bengal tiger. Pi's father owns a Zoo in Pondicherry and when they decide to move to Canada from Pondicherry, they decide to take all the Zoo animals along with them. The ship is hit by a storm and Pi is left with a life boat with a Zebra, Hyena, Orangutan and Tiger for company.

The movie starts with an interesting account of how Pi gets his name. Pi is an intelligent and sensitive kid who is deeply interested in reading books and learning from his surroundings.  The main actor, Suraj Sharma, who plays the youth Pi, seemed natural and at ease with the character.

The story is about faith, courage and test of character when faced with adversity. How Pi manages to survive seems incredible at times, inspiring at other times and also heart-rending in the end. 

I loved this line: "Letting go is a way of life and always tough but what breaks the heart the most is when one does not take a moment to say goodbye". So true!

We took R along since it is an animated movie. Although there is nothing gory shown, certain scenes seemed unsuitable since they were disturbing. At some parts, he got scared and started to wail, so the hubby had to take him outside to calm him down. Thankfully, he got back to his sunny self soon and enjoyed the rest of the movie. 

The pace of the movie is generally slow but drags further at some places. Overall, a good movie in terms of the plot and great in terms of the visual effects. I'd recommend this movie. People with young kids: use discretion.

Leaving you with a lullaby sung by Bombay Jayashree. It is the opening song in the movie. I loved this:

Read More

The birthday bash

After going over several times in my head and discussing it with hubby about whether we needed a birthday party for R, we decided that this time, we shall have one at home with all his friends over. Even after making a conservative guest list, I hit a figure of 35 odd invitees including the children and adults. Phew! all of them in my house for an evening had me in jitters. I had woken up to the party call just 10 days prior to the D-day, so that left me with just ample time to pull up my socks and hit the action button.

I was going to outsource all the food since I have neither the passion, ability or the resources to cook up a party menu for so many. It had to be all finger foods was something I was sure of. As a first order menu, I decided on Dhokla, some non-spicy kababs, finger chips, popcorn, cake and juice. Now, finding a good joint supplying these at a reasonable rate was a challenge. Most of the restaurants nearby were big names who would not undertake a relatively smallish order and also with their rates, even if I had managed a bargain, it would've still been a tall amount for a homely affair. Totally not worth it.

As I began my hunt for suitable eating joints in the vicinity, I realized how inadequate I was in terms of knowing my neighbourhood well. But, trust the internet and the blogosphere to come to the rescue. In the end, it was the typical case of overlooking something that was right under my nose. We have passed by this place practically every other weekend and I'd even taken note of the catchy name and made a mental note several times to check out the place. Obviously, that never happened and memory too failed to rise up to the occasion.

For those interested and lazy to click on the link above, the joint Chaipatty-a lovely name, right?- is a charming, warm and cozy place to have amazing snacks and kullad chai.  Not a big place in terms of area (at least this branch- they are located in four branches around B'lore) but I'd recommend this place for anyone looking to have good food and a quiet conversation or even spend time alone with a book for company. They have a few books and magazines stacked up for reading. If you are still particular, there is even justbooks right next door.

We sampled and ordered paneer pakodas and cheese balls from Chaipatty- finger chips and kababs were dropped from the menu instead.The dhoklas were to come from a different place. With the food and cake ordered, I tackled the rest of the itinerary- decorations, props and the (uber essential) return gifts without which no kid party ever ends!-in the next couple of days. Despite starting on the preparations a tad late, I managed to put together the logistics well in time. 

The party was quite a success with almost all the invitees turning up, food being appreciated and most importantly, the kids having a super duper gala time. For a moment I thought I'd go deaf with all the chaotic, noisy merry making all over. It's a different story that in the aftermath place looked like it was hit by Sandy. But, what the heck, we had a great time!

Leaving you with some pics... 

Lot of friends

The Birthday boy making merry

modest decorations

Add caption

Read More