We are two!

15th Dec has brought a lot of anticipation and joy to us. Perhaps thats natural given the significance of the day. Usually Dec 15th was no different earlier until we tied the knot on this day two years ago. We turned two this year! Since the Doc was working his night shifts I went ahead and planned a surprise for him.

I reserved a table at the famed Olive Beach. By far, this is one of the most exquisite dining experiences we've had in Bangalore. The ambience and decor is really simple and stark yet leaves an indelible impression. Its a sort of a cross Spanish/Italian style structure with uneven whitewashed walls interspersed with niches, a warm ochre flooring with a slanting azure roof, pretty crystal chandeliers adding the little dash of color lit by candles that are placed in the niches and tables. The outside seating has a sort of quasi seaside atmosphere with white sands, rattan furniture, a little water body and some pretty greenery. The place is pretty simple but exudes an understated elegance. The DJ dishes out subtle & muted jazz . The whole atmosphere was simply awesome and heavenly. It felt like I could not have made a better choice, given that this was our first visit.

The Olive Beach dishes out a awesome Mediterranean style fusion menu. We really had to look at the menu and took a while to decide what to order. We ordered our drinks from a fabulous and exotic array. They serve quite a wide and innovative range of martinis like the Tamaritini (with a subtle tamarind base) or the Pinatini(pineapple based) in addition to the wine and other cocktails. I decided to pick a fabulous French Merlot and the Doc settled for the Pinatini. We began our first course with a vegetarian crostini and an aromatic salad of bocconcini, zucchini and tomato mildly spiced with olive oil, basil, parsley and thyme. The crostini was fabulous with toppings of mildly flavored tomato, aubergines cooked in olive oil and a simple tomato sauce and basil. The salad was very light, delightful and very refreshing.

We refilled our glasses a few times before our entrée which was the epinaca y verduras - a simple mashed potato base topped with lots of aromatic and flavorful greens, vegetables and again a mildly flavored spinach and cream sauce with olive oil and thyme. This was followed by a simple pasta in a simple and delicious arabiatta sauce.

The dessert was of course the best. I picked the chocolate mousse while the Doc had a praline gelato. The mousse came dressed in glory with a white flowery patterned ribbons of chocolate.
The deep dark rich chocolate stood in striking and attractive contrast to the white platter it was served on. Simply yummy and delicious, it makes me want to go back right away. By the way, we were also made to blow a candle and cut a little portion of their most fabulous chocolate fondant(a cake oozing with liquid chocolate)!! It was a very memorable private celebration and the folks at the restaurant have really done their bit with the personalized service and fantastic food.

We returned happy and content. It was an evening really well spent.

Hyderabad Chronicle - 2

Decided to finish this up finally. The nostalgia is done and now the real reason why we were at Hyderabad. My bro-in-law was engaged last Sunday. He always was sorely aware of this and awaited the axe to fall...finally it did. My sister-in-law to be is really quite sweet. She is a medical professional - a doctor to be precise, and that leaves me the odd one out. It began about 3 weeks back when her parents were eager to meet the 'elder bahu & beta**" in the true blue traditional Indian style. We went and they saw us. I guess they were pretty awed or should i mention horrified by what they saw. They never saw a typical elder bahu phenomenon, what they saw was a short haired female, hanging around with the elderly men of the house sharing a few jokes, walking all over the place with a big semi-professional camera hanging around her neck, managing a whole 6 yards of silk in quite an un-womanly manner and some how try hard to join a few Telugu words to speak a few broken sentences of the language. Well I guess it made a dent, a big one, because my B-I-L's mom-in-law to be took me aside and cautiously handed over a sari(while I thought "not yet another one...please") and entrusted her "little" girl to me. Well...I am not the sure what to think - all I can say is I am very happy that theres a wedding around the corner and my b-i-l has nice company now and a lot to look forward to.

Bahu: Daughter-in-law.
Beta:Son
Psst: Gowri (she's the bride-to-be) I won't eat you alive for several reasons one being I am vegetarian and secondly, I like you!

Hyderabad Chronicle - 1

The weekend was rather eventful. The Doc and I were at Hyderabad. Just entering Hyderabad and driving into the city brought back a rush of memories for both of us. The drive through the city streets and lanes made the longing to return to it even stronger. This is where we met and this was the city where our future together got cast in stone. A whole slew of things came back to our minds:

• The Hang Out(pic featuring only the partial crowd)–the place (our dear old apartment) where a bunch of us lived, hung out with friends, got drunk silly, spent endless nights chatting over unending cups of chai**(then discussed who would make the tea next), swooned over books for our exams, held innumerable discussions on just about anything(even the poor fly's perch on a wall was scrutinized), danced on crazy music, celebrated birthdays by splattering cake all over ourselves and the floor(and spent the next day cleaning it!), cooked enormous amounts of food to feed 6 to 8 hungry souls with garangtuan appetites, there were of course the several fights and broken hearts... the list is endless.

• The Escapes – The Doc and I have always been heavily into this, till date. As soon as we met our only escape were the long drives down Jubilee Hills, Hitech city, Durgam Cheruvu** etc. This seemed the only 1 or 2 hours when we could simply enjoy the fresh air and each others company with nothing more than the wind whistling in our ears, the steady roar of the engine and the comfortable silence.

• Nothings Over Coffee – Our much treasured moments were spent at a special place on road no. 36 Jubilee Hills, it lay perched on a little mound and was called Qahwa. The most amazing coffee was served here. You could say that our futures were sealed here over cups and cups of steaming fantastic coffee. Its not around any more. It went when we left the place, sort of quaintly coincidental. We were indeed deeply struck by the loss and keep our fingers crossed for its resurrection. Also, around the corner from the same place was our favorite chaat stall. We used to be special guests deserving of his best services and huge discounts because we brought him tons of business thanks to the Institute

• The Institute – heres where we came to build our futures. We did do so successfully but not without causing a lot of pain to our faculty and especially our dean. But, we made it and we're doing pretty okay. Though I wish that we could be more in control of the Bohemian in us.
  

• The Rest – then of course there were the special dinners and dates and nice restaurants, great shopping, plenty of walks around the old city and Charminar(very quaint) to buy little bric-a-bracs and satiate my feminine side. More friends, more parties, short trips to vague & adventurous destinations, late nights...
  

We will return to Hyderabad some day. In the meanwhile, I guess its more Hyderabad rushes in many more short trips to relive a few instances and take away some more indelible memories.

**Chai - our tea was made with loads of finely grated ginger brewed with milk, water and sugar.
**Durgam Cheruvu - Secret Lake as it is also popularly called - is no more a secret though. This idyllic lake is in Hyderabad near Hitech City. The lake spreads over an area of 63 acres and is encompassed with rocks and hills. It used to be a wonderful retreat for silence, seclusion and serious conversation. We now here this is spoilt because of too much public nuisance and encroachment. It saddens us to think of it so.

D(h)oom(ed) 2

For this one, I seriously blame the movie junkie in me. Being averse as I am to a certain slinky blue-eyed “beauty”, I seriously questioned my initiative to get tickets for this latest flick for a Sunday afternoon. But, I must admit I was curious about the movie, especially after watching some previews.

The story line like its predecessor sort of had the entrapments of the quintessential Hindi movie. So here are the characters

• a slick, smart and ingenious thief (Jr. Roshan)
• a smarter and efficient policeman(Jr. B) who stays a step ahead of the criminal but never manages to catch hold of the guy
• the policeman's ignorable sidekick(never have/will like him) and his even more ignorable lady love(dusky Ms. Basu)
• our beloved blue-eyed leading lady((aka Ms. Rai) who is very predictably a small time thief in love with the big time thief
• yet another brief but really futile role for Ms Basu(I kind of like her and no, its not for the nonexistent acting skills)

I need to accept the fact that it was a really good attempt on the part of the movie makers to force me to give a second glance to Roshan junior. My ego hurts, but I need to admit that he looks stylish and suave in the movie. The movie is pretty tolerable in the first half.

Slick robbery scenes not so surprisingly, were like an assortment of several Hollywood flicks. The Doc and I had fun guessing which one resembled which one; we did see the movie too. My apologies if you were the guy next to me, you appeared disgruntled that we spotted the lack of originality! What could we do anyway when, the “super hero” robber's disguised antics seemed to have an uncanny resemblance to The Saint and Entrapment and... Oh! And theres this gadget that he uses to steal a gem right under the nose of the guards. Well this gadget is so big and obvious... the impossible nature of this stunt does not even motivate me to question it.

The thief, like super heroes must have a signature, a trademark, a little something to identify his piece of work. He should have an eye and passion only for the priceless, unique and perfect. He should also rob in a pattern only obvious to the heroic genius cop. Surprise, surprise! So the cop chases the thief & his blue-eyed sidekick to fabulous locales across the world. The cop should always be a step ahead, but never catch the robber.No, not even when he meets the guy in person merely inches away. Some more surprise!

Nothing much to say of the blue-eyed lady who initially is in the services of the copper to catch our thief. But alas, the love-struck woman is torn apart with the guilt of giving up her lover and avoiding her pending indictment thanks to the copper!! Our cornered superhero jumps down to his death. His lady is left behind in Rio and so is the cop's weirdo sidekick. But wait, the story is not over still. Several months later... in the picturesque islands of Fiji....In a very Hindi filmy style our superhero resurrects. He is not dead. His lady love and he fooled the cop to opt for a normal life and our genius cop of course who of course claims he knew it all the time

The epic** is generously interspersed with not so funny slapstick comedy, bikini clad women playing beach volleyball in Copa Cabbana, a Brazilian fanfare and a few mesmerizing locales and of course the forgettable songs.

I always had Rio on the top of my “must see” list, the movie at least enhanced that for me though the travel channels showcase the place better. Now that I think of it, should I have stayed home and watched some TV with my favorite cup of tea and relaxed. But the Doc and I did have our moments of fun, commenting and sharing our notions of the movie.

This time I should've listened to the critics.

**Epic like is how it felt, and the size of this entry convinces me.

PS: Apologies to the readers who are yet to watch this very forgettable flick. Take it from me you aint gonna miss nothing !

Chetty's Corner

My hunger pangs were simply intolerable last evening and the drive back from work seemed like a long ordeal and every fella on the street irritated the life out of me. As I mentioned this to the Doc while picking him up, he gave me a brilliant snack idea that made me salivate almost instantaneously. So we went to this little nondescript place in a very upscale part of the city. “Chetty's Corner” is on a lane that is very aptly named Serpentine Road. Its strategically located opposite a huge playground/park and dishes out the most simple, healthy and fantastic snacks. The location is probably appropriate since you can never return from the place without having overeaten and will probably be compelled to burn out the extra calories. The walk in and around the park is quite a pleasant experience. Come 6 o'clock in the evening, the place is flooded with senior citizens, families, teenagers and bachelors. The area was a “no parking” zone until a couple of months ago. But the joint seems to have won over the hearts of the traffic authorities too and there is ample parking** available here.

Anyway, let me quickly get to the most important part. You will find the most amazing chaat at Gullu's and the best veggie bun nippat** combos next door at “Chetty's”. The latter was what made me cheer up and I am taking the chance to go public in writing to say that I owe the Doc a big one for merely suggesting this last evening!!

Chettys' serve more than 50 or 60 people every 5 minutes and everyone almost always go back for seconds. The veggie bun nippat is a rather deceptively simple creation from a soft bun and a surprise ingredient. The bun is sliced in the middle and generously coated with a wonderful coriander chutney and a sweet and spicy tamarind chutney. This is then stuffed with finely chopped onions, tomatoes, cabbage, some sev** and finally the piece de resistance – the nippat is added and topped off with a load of cheese which of course is the sin you can opt out of. All this washed down with their masala cold drink** which is another amazing concoction that is simply a must try.

I am satiated, at least until the next time.

**Parking: The severe space crunch for parking in Bangalore seems like the deciding factor for going anywhere.
**Masala cold drink: Your favorite carbonated drink mixed with the some freshly squeezed lime juice, chaat masala and a special jaljeera mixture. The formula is usually unique to each place and most often kept secret.
**Nippat: Flat round crispy snack made from a dough of roasted and powdered chickpeas, groundnuts and sesame seeds with a little chilly powder, salt and a dash of dessicated or freshly ground coconut.. This can either be deep fried or baked.
**Sev:Spicy and popular crispies made of riceflour and chickpeas

"Little" Big Pleasures

Sometimes there is nothing like rediscovering the present. And we did exactly that on Sunday. After 3 years of living where we live and doing what we do, we have seldom stopped to notice the small things that we would have otherwise enjoyed had we been a wee bit more patient and less cynical of everything here. We went driving on the route I normally take to work. I have been meaning to get some snaps clicked over a 4km stretch of a fly-over. Its really the simple and mundane things here that really seem to appeal to me. As I go to work the sites of people cycling and walking, stretching out on their terraces, the city market with the different sounds, colors and smells; the other drivers who pick the early morning hours to get to work at a leisurely pace, some really old and appealing building and finally the wonderful multifarious hues of the sky as the sun sets on my way back from work. This is one of those simple but big pleasures and an even bigger release that I enjoy each day. So the Doc strapped himself to the passenger's side and I drove slowly along the entire route and recounted each thought and each moment of pleasure through this little journey. I felt the rush right back...it was a simple but overwhelming pleasure !

Diwali - past & present

My parent are extremely enthusiastic about any sort of celebration. They have the incredible stamina and loads of energy to go the whole hog for every occasion. Right from preparing the numerous delicacies that is typical of each Indian festival to calling friends and family for elaborate and well thought out dinners for each occasion and just being able to celebrate every occasion with a lot of style and fervor. It was always very overwhelming and heart warming to see the detail and effort that went into each little thing while planning for such occasions. Diwali was the special”est” for us kids.

Each Diwali began at 4:30 am with a loving but really loud wake-up call from Dad. Coming from a typical Tamil Iyer family we had a typical Deepavali Ritual. Our day began with Mum massaging gingelly oil onto our heads, giving us our new clothes and finishing off the routine with a tasting of the sweets and savories prepared in advance with a lot of patience and care. That was then followed by the “ganga snanam”, more a ritualistic oil bath than a dip in the Ganges. After we were dressed in our new clothes and took the blessings of the elders at home we had to burst some crackers and all this had to be done before the sunrise.

Diwali came and went. We never expected that we would celebrate or use the holiday to spend some time together. In fact, we never thought we would be together for Diwali this year. I guess I got really lucky and the Doc dropped in for a flying visit. We actually ended up having a blast on the eve of my trip to Saurashtra. We woke up really early to have a long long day. We began the usual rounds of calls to wish close friends and relatives as is the routine for every "important" festival and something as simple as that had me spiral back in time as you just read above.

Well, we did manage to light some diyas and I made a nice rangoli, saw lots of folks bursting crackers. I must say that we're totally averse to the noise, smoke and smell they generate as a result. I am personally extremely sensitive to the noise and scared of all the "fire" works. As a result, we stayed indoors through the day except for a few short drives to our friends' homes. Our day culminated in a fantastic party at our favorite couple's home and we finally saw the end to a Diwali pretty well spent for the likes of us.

The many comebacks

So I am finally back after a really long and wonderful Diwali holiday. The Doc is back and I am back at work. The break was really long pending and truly well deserved in my mind. It was refreshing and one filled with many beautiful experiences of visiting a different place for the first time. Theres more on that coming later. I took the time to write in my diary, indulged in an excellent "gourmet" experience, finally invested in some pretty and unique pieces of jewelery (pretty rare for the likes of me) and clicked away on my camera(another prized possession).

Now I am back and ready to start afresh and ready to conquer the world !! It does take very little to get that feeling - I realized that in the last 3 weeks. I am all set for a heady concoction of lots of challenges and several happy beginnings and endings that I am eagerly looking forward to through the rest of the year. Amen to that!

Of days gone by...

The last month was filled with catching up and bumping into faces and people from the days of yore when we lived in the famous steel city – Jamshedpur. Its a little over 12 years since we moved to Pune and almost the same time since I visited the place where I grew up. Jamshedpur seems to always bring wonderful memories of my childhood. I could perhaps write volumes and volumes on my memories of this little town with about an 8 to 10 km radius. Some of the things that come to my mind right away are:

• My school: the fun filled rides to school in our school van/autorickshaws, the silly fights, the school “dosa-wala”, our sports days, school elections, feast days, prize nights and what have you;
• The Colony: the fun-filled games of catch, hide 'n' seek, cricket and football with the kids in the neighbourhood
  
• UC: The club with its library, movies, melas(fairs), basketball matches and swimming pool and meeting our friends there
• Outings and drives: Jubilee park, dimna lake, our drives to the wayside dhabas, visits to the neighbouring mining townships and the other nearby places with lots of close friends living there, our annual trips to the dilma hills and lots of smaller picnics in the outskirts of the town.
• Holi, Pujo, Diwali, Christmas, New Year and lots of other celebrations: Filled with fun, food and laughter. All the bespectacled, short haired aunties trying to discipline us unruly kids. A bunch of us who were the “senior kids” would shut the door of our room and read the “banned” novels, watch the so called “A” movies like Pretty Woman (give me a break for heavens sake), talk about the boy next door and our silly notions of romance; and generally do everything that would annoy our mothers and irk our siblings(for not being able to participate).

Those were a fun 16 years and as I gradually start reestablishing old ties and remember those days; the seclusion and the niche lifestyle of the place strikes me hard. Its a world by itself and a world I continue to love and cherish. With more than a decade gone by, I do long to go back and see the people, my school and everything that is so familiar, as familiar as yesterday.

Guess who's coming to dinner?

The Doc's been away for a month now. He is posted in a place far away from the usual civilization he is used to. He is training to become a surgeon & doing a lot of community work by giving sight to the impoverished and needy. The Doc is specialized to be an ophthalmologist and training to be a surgeon. He has been training even harder to be my husband for a year and a half now!

We started out all hunky dory and positive about this program and the farily long period of separation. You know the usual - it is the practical thing to do, it is a fantastic opportunity, great future...blah...blah...blah !

The 1st few weeks flew by like a dream. I had tons of time and space to do "my own thing" and really enjoyed it. It gave me some time to reflect and re-prioritize things in life and get it in order before anarchy hit.
However over the last few days, my skeptcism and irk about my non-existence in his calendar have risen. I am trying to shoo away all the dark devils but at times they really hit a low blow. I am trying hard to hold up and rejuvenate the free spirit and independance of being single. Alas ! After having shared my life upto a 90% with Doc over the last year or so, the spirit has started to wane and the loneliness at times is getting to me. Repeated fights with the not-so-nice half of my personality have been rather futile and I really need to accept the fact that I indeed miss the steady and constant companionship of the Doc. I guess in the little time that the Doc finds himself free from work, he goes through similar feelings too.

After much ado, we've decided it is time for him to make a short visit back home. Some mundane activity, some bickering and some fun should keep us going until next time. I am off now to prepare a special meal for the evening - perhaps with some exotic dessert(read - anything with chocolate!!), a good movie and a pretty center piece for the table. I plan to post my kitchen capers regularly as well. So see you around soon...the Doc's coming to dinner tonight !

Wanted CEO !!

So much for cheap thrills from a forwarded mail thats probably been twice around the globe. Nothing like a silly web script to make your day I guess !!

Je suis ici...finalement !!

Finally, a cozy corner for little dear me in blogsville. After a lot of hmms, haws and dawdling I decided to finally stop giving in to that nasty little fire-blowing fellow within me and cut the crap (spelt inertia) and got down to making my first entry. That brings me to the next question – is it just me or does everyone around need that final nudge to get around to taking that first little baby step and fight the inertia to begin something new? The Physics teachers back at school and college seem to have done one fabulous job of training my innocent young mind and molded(forgive the hackneyed done-to-death phrase) me to become a human demonstration of every law of motion. Well then how does one explain Newton's disproportionate possession of my being, that seems be such an inherent part of life?

Fortunately for me, this uncanny and perhaps aggravating side is well known to Doc. There are those funny symptoms such as the “glazed eyes, the craving to eat an apple(?? hmmm I wonder) and the so called pensive look(though its just another look)” that are such dead giveaways for Doc to exorcise me back to normalcy.

I am lucky and honestly relieved to be with Doc otherwise the “lost and found” posters would've been splayed across every wall almost each week. Luckily for me the “soul-connection” seems to have worked really well these last 4 or so years !!