I stayed at a PG in Hyderabad for a few months when I was house/roommate hunting. It was the first time I live in a hostel like setting and had to share a room. I used to keep to myself most of the time as I didn’t know any of them and most of them had lived to together for a while then. Most of them only spoke Hindi. I was very concious of the fact that I was replying to them in English everytime they spoke to me in Hindi. Though I had a fair idea of what they were saying to me, I could hardly speak 3 sentences confidently in Hindi. In my defense, some of them spoke Hindi like Telugu. After a point it really annoyed me that my knowledge of Hindi or the lack of it became the general topic of conversation. It put me off so much that for as long as I stayed at that PG I plainly refused to speak in Hindi.
A couple of years and a really supportive roommate later, my Hindi actually got way better! In my smug moments, I think it is pretty good. But there are somethings I still don’t get about the language.
I can’t fight in Hindi! The words just don’t come out right. There have been times I burst out laughing at my Hindi in the middle of a fight.
I don’t know numbers in Hindi. I can say 10, 20, 30, 40 type numbers but 58 and 74 and the likes are beyond me. I just don’t get it!
I don’t know what vegetables and some ingredients are called in Hindi. For that matter, I don’t know what some vegetables are called even in English. So I sorta gave up trying to learn their name. I just go to the shop and point and say – ‘yeh kitne ka hai’ or ‘woh ek kilo deejiye.’
Last week when I went grocery shopping, I wanted to buy ‘ghasaghasa.’ I had no clue what it was called in Hindi and the shopkeeper didn’t understand English. The husband had no clue what it was any language. So I went online and searched for ‘poppy seeds in Hindi’ on Google!
I can’t swear in Hindi. I find it extremely eeky.
I definitely don’t get this Hindi poetry type stuff.
In spite of all this, the last time I was in Madras, I sat in an auto and started giving the auto driver directions in Hindi! Ouch
Last weekend, I wanted to do three things. Stay away from my laptop, sleep like a log and cook lots of yummy food! I’m very glad to report that I managed to do all three.
I slept straight for some 14 hours on Saturday! I was fully awake only by 8 in the evening! By the time I was completely awake on Saturday, other plans were made, which eliminated cooking. So I decided that Sunday was going to be marathon cooking day.
My current obsession is Nutella! Nothing is better that Nutella and Peanut butter on warm toast on a bluesy blah morning. I wanted to make another favourite dish of mine with Nutella, Crepes! I discovered these in Paris when there was a derth of anything vegetarian. The small stalls all over the place served these hot from the tava! I never got around to trying any of the other flavours of crepes cos I was completely in love with these and couldn’t get enough of them. I was tempted to try them at home when I saw them again on the menu at Crepe Station, Bandra one day.
Warm Nutella and banana crepes on a lazy morning is so filling that you can laze around some more without thinking for food for one whole morning.
2 eggs (get the husband to break them if you’re as eeky as I am around them)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup of water (made mine a li’l watery so you may want to eliminate this)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 big blob of melted butter
I put all the ingredients in the mixie and nicely whisked it and strained it. I put the batter in the fridge for an hour after covering the vessel with foil. After an hour, take a ladle full of batter and put it on a buttered non stick pan and swirl it around to get a nice big circle. When I took it out my batter was still watery. So my crepes were all shapeless when I tried making them. So to get better shape, I used my usual tadka pan (even an apam pan would work, i feel), which gave me better shape but my crepes became super tiny. I sorta like the tiny crepes as well!
When the crepe is still hot, spread some nutella generously and arrange pieces of banana on one half and close the crepe. Dust it with some powdered sugar if you want to and eat it when its hot!
So, if you want to see how it looked finally, here you go.
After an extremely filling breakfast, the husband had had too much of foreign food and wanted to eat something punjbai. So it was chapathi and channa masala for lunch. I was too tired and hungry by the time I finished making that, so no pictures. The channa masala was quite yum except for the fact that there was a li’l extra tomato puree in it that made it a li’l tangy!
All the para mokkas making its rounds its rounds on Twitter’s Mokka Mondays made me dig out my favourite mokka comedy!!
This movie has some super mokkas! It was on TV on Saturday and I was rolling in laughter. The other comedy that has me in splits every single time i watch is this one
No better way than this to start the Monday morning!
After just 3 days of posting, I missed a day. In my defense, I don’t think it counts as one day missed as a bunch of us were in office up all night fighting a deadline. I went to sleep at 5.30 am. So technically my body clock is still stuck at yesterday! So refuse to count this as a slip.
In spite of the racing against time sort of deadline, yesterday was a fun day and this is why
it was my first ever night out at work!! I thought I was going to dead by the end of it, but surprisingly I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5 in the morning and could’ve gone on without sleep. I totally surprised myself.
Dal Kichchdi is my latest comfort food! Its best eaten pipping hot with ghee and pappad. Sabari, a small joint at Santa Cruz makes the best Dal Kichchdi ever. Last night I finished almost an entire portion all by myself. Any more and I would’ve definitely slept off at the table.
Went home and woke up the husband who was fast asleep to show him the T-Shirt I had bought him from the InkFruit sale at work. They have a really funky T-Shirts. Must check it out if its your kind of style. These are some of my favourites.
Woke up this morning to find out that the husband had made some yummy Nutella and Peanut butter sandwich for breakfast!
So far, lack of sleep has not been an issue. So I hope to post once more today to make up for the missed day!
I discovered Ilayaraja when I was in my 9th or 10th std. I heard ‘Kalyana Thennila’ one day and fell in love with his music. Since then, my love for his music has only grown immensely. Raja become a integral part of my life. I have a Raja song for every mood, every emotion and every situation. The more I listened to his music, the more I realised his sheer genius. His arrangements and preludes and subtelty play with you so much that his songs as fresh the zillionth time as it did the first time it took your breath away. It could be as simple a tune as a ‘Maanguyile’ or as complicated as ‘Isayil Thodanguthamma’!
SPB was my mom’s favourite singer, he is my favourite singer, and I he will, in all possibility, be my child’s favourite singer! He singing tease you, plays with you, talks to you and whispers to you in a way that is so personal that you feel a connection. His voice feels just as fresh to me today as it did in Ayiram Nilave vaa. I can’t imagine Sakalakala vallavan, Sippikul Muthu, or even Muthu without this genius.
When these two stalwarts come together, can it be anything but sheer pleasure!
I have posted 2 songs that are among my favourite SPB – Ilayaraja combination. Both these songs have a similar tune and feel. Even though they’re years apart, they’re just as wonderful. The song from Rajakumaran is one of their less known gems. What is your less known SPB – Ilayaraja favourite?
The weekend saw some good old street shopping at Colaba. The old world elegance and laid back nature of South Bombay suddenly feels more bohemian around this shopping area. There are times when foreigners out number the locals at one of the many famous joints on this road. Its definitely a paradise for street shoppers cos in addition to the usual stuff that is available on your Linking Rd/Hill Rd shops, there are loads of shops that sell some very beautiful silver jewellery. There are also these antique shops on the roads that sell everything from an old out of tune trumpet to a brass air horn to a marble chess board to clocks that are used on ships! A very patient husband and two hours later, I was left with 2 pairs of earrings, one pair of slippers, one dhoti pant and 4 tops. In all, it was some really good shopping that was easy on the pocket.
If Bombay Times is to be believed, dhoti pants is supposed to be the in-thing after the latest Lakme Fashion week! Who needs all these designer pants when you can get them for Rs. 150 in some very nice patterns in almost all of the shops on the street. It is almost as pointless as Shopper Stop wanting to sell Zoozoo T shirts months after shops on Linking Rd started selling them for Rs. 150!
PS: Again, blue was the colour of the season. I ended up buying a pair of silver earrings with blue stones, one blue shirt and a pair of blue slippers
Blogging feels alien now. I’ve lost the flow, the drive and things to talk about! In an effort to revive this space and reacquaint myself with the joys of blogging, I’ve decided to post everyday for the next one month.
I haven’t registered myself with NaBloPoMo or anything. But I hope to stick to this commitment for the next 30 days.
Its been so long since I last logged into WordPress that the new interface took me totally by surprise. (how long has it been like this for??) Since I last posted, the being married novelty has also kinda passed. No one inviting us over anymore for food. In fact, we had one of RC’s newly married friends and her husband over for dinner. Our dinner, was of course, nothing like any of the lunches we went to.
So, after all that “newly married” pampering, I suddenly found myself sitting at home, alone, for the most part, with nothing to do. I was in a new city where I knew almost no one. Well, almost no one who was jobless and who wanted to hang out with me. I read like I used to when I was back in college. Almost constantly through the day. But I was fast running out of new things to do everyday. So I started cooking. I diligently cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. I made something new, tried out something RC or I liked (its never and). I’m happy to report that I’ve thoroughly used every single cookbook I bought then. I’ve actually grown to quite like cooking. Yes, I still say that with a shudder. It completely amazes me.
I lived in Hyderabad for 3 years. We didn’t even have a stove for 2 and half years. We had an electric kettle to boil water, for cup noodles, of course. But that was it. Kitchen had a fridge, a few plates and cups, bottles (ahem) and a puja shelf. My mom tried very very hard to get me to make at least curd rice for dinner and failed miserably. After all that, I made Rajma chawal for her when she came to Bombay (what a fun weekend!), and she fell off the chair! Understandably so. Actually, my mother is still in shock.
RC, of course, has been the perfect husband and made all the oohs and aahs and has not complained at all. He deserves a pat on his back.
So does marriage make a culinary enthusiast out of a woman? Nah, unemployment does and very effectively so.
So it still hasn’t completely sunk in that I’m married. Except maybe when I wash vessels cos its my least favorite thing to do. But marriage does change a lot of things, some of them startling changes. Say, for example, all the maamis and mamas who’ve hardly said a word to me in my so many years of my existence suddenly talk to me like an equal. Well, not really an equal but at least I see them wanting to develop some sort of kinship. You know, swap recipes for paruppusili and aracha vitta sambhar types. I don’t know what the polite way to decline invitation to the maamis’ club is. But when you just smile like a pretty doll and not say too much, they just take that to be coyness of the new bride and let you be. After all, how long can they carry on one sided conversations about where to buy the best puli and paruppu in Bombay and where to go to find the quintessential Tam crowd in the maida maavu city.
I digress. So there seem to be a lot of set rules and rituals that people generally follow to make the new couple feel welcome. Actually, its just for the daughter-in-law cos the boy is anyway treated like a king without kingdom (that actually depends on the dowry he gets and is subjective) wherever he goes. But, the one ritual that I couldn’t make too much sense of was the fact that everyone suddenly invited us to their house for lunch. We tambrahms never invite people over for dinner. Lunch is the first choice, if unavailable, evening tiffin is also acceptable but we never do dinner. I wonder why that is. Lots of people invited us over for lunch. Mostly RC’s people. The nice people that we are, we went to almost all their houses.
When you prepare a Tam lunch for someone who comes over, it invariably is Sambhar, Rasam, Curry, Kootu, Applam and Thayir. You know, like Saravana Bhavan meals types. Some of the over enthu ones also made pachidi and sweets. The problem started here. I don’t like Sambhar or Kootu. I only looked forward to the applam and sweets. In the meanwhile, word had gotten around that RC loved Pushnika kootu and vengaya sambhar (Pumpkin coconutty gravy and Onion sambhar). Since the boy is anyway the king, kootu and sambhar “followed my behind” with such a vengance, I still can’t bear to look at either of it even though we haven’t been fed that in over a month. I must be the only tambrahm on the face of earth that doesn’t like sambhar. I’m tired of explaining myself. Rasam I can have, just not sambhar. But then, people naturally assume that they must be my favorites too cos my husband loves them. So there was this constant pressure on me to make the yummy noises and ask each of them for the recipe of their version of the two dishes.
We South Indians are best known for our hospitality. Its the best. Honestly. But while serving guests food, the hospitality just goes berserk. We can never understand when someone says they’re full or insist that they’ve had enough. We always insist harder that they have some more. Its always a one-up game. Unless they notice some sign of distress on your face or hear uncomfortable sounds from your stomach, they will always insist that you eat more. The best way to avoid landing up with insane amount of food on your plate is to completely cover it up with both hands and almost shield it with your chest. One must be very careful to not give the host even the slightest space to wriggle their way through.
When you’ve eaten so much that you can’t move even an inch, let alone bend down to wear your own shoe, they will offer you a pillow to sleep off the carb coma or the unda mayakkam. After the nap, when you think you just might be able to stand up again, talks of “why don’t you stay back for tiffin” will scare the hell outta you. I never thought the day will come when I will groan at the thought of eating a meal.
In spite of all this, its a good feeling to be the center of everyone’s attention. Its the “Live it up while it lasts” logic, I guess!
I don’t know how the last few months whizzed past the oblivious me. Before i know it i’m crossing off my last few single days on my calendar. Taking a break from all the last minute errands, here are my pearls of wisdom:
- Being the ‘bride’ will be your new identity. You’ll breathe, eat and sleep wedding plans. And they keep changing every minute of the day, much like an army operation.
- Even if you start shopping months before the wedding, the list will grow and grow and grow and the shopping will not show any signs of ending. The once upon a time very relaxing activity will turn out to be the most stressful part of your day.
- You will expected to glow, blush and look coy everytime the word ‘wedding’ is uttered. Any other reaction will not be favourably received.
- I suggest you pick a tailor even before you pick the boy cos the process is just as intense and the decision life altering. The relationship you share with your tailor will be a love-hate one. But just remember that you picked him/her after a lot of deliberation and he/she has your best interest at heart. Without trust the relationship will not work.
- If you don’t make a list of the colours of sarees you already own before you shopping, your eyes will dance over to the colour of the season. Then you’ll end up with 5 sarees in different shades of blue like me. For the ignorant, there are more than 5 shades of blue.
- You know its time to call it a shopping day when all the colours start to fade in and out and merge.
- The skill of selective hearing must most definitely be cultivate. All the hints dropped about improving one’s culinary skills must be dutifully ignored. We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it.
- Pretending to understand the complex family tree is mandatory.
In all this frenzy, there’s very little time to even think of getting cold feet. This where i currently am. So do you guys have any gyaan for me?
When the crepe is still hot, spread some nutella generously and arrange pieces of banana on one half and close the crepe. Dust it with some powdered sugar if you want to and eat it when its hot!
SPB was my mom’s favourite singer, he is my favourite singer, and I he will, in all possibility, be my child’s favourite singer! He singing tease you, plays with you, talks to you and whispers to you in a way that is so personal that you feel a connection. His voice feels just as fresh to me today as it did in Ayiram Nilave vaa. I can’t imagine Sakalakala vallavan, Sippikul Muthu, or even Muthu without this genius.
