Bake a Cake

This morning there was this big packet of candies in our office kitchen. I saw it when I went to get some water and told myself I would have one, just one after lunch. After lunch I went to the kitchen and it was all gone. Now who can eat so many candies at once? Has someone hid it in their office? I was so annoyed hmph! Lesson learnt- When you see a candy, grab it and eat it. I am so ready for the weekend I tell ya. Just to sleep in a little, not worry about work. And even more ready for holidays. This month and next, wow it’s like 2 long weekends, one this month and one next. So my resolution (Call it early new year resolution) is to experiment one new recipe every week, preferably on a Thursday or a Friday. Thursday to just get into the mood of weekend or Friday to actually celebrate the weekend. While I experiment and try out the new recipe, Jas adds perfection by tasting (now that’s a risk, isn’t it?) and adding any spices needed. Like he says, cooking is no art, just a science. You get the recipe and follow it perfectly nothing should go wrong. Well ahem! So this Thursday we tried Chicken Marsala. The first time I tasted it at Cheesecake factory, I simply loved it. When I looked up some blogs and website, realized its one of the easiest recipes. Am comparing this with rigorous Indian cooking involving grating and grinding coconut and all. So well all I needed was Marsala wine and patience. Voila! Yumm! Don’t believe me, try searching Chicken Marsala and you will find tons of simple recipes. What? Did you think I was turning my blog to some recipe blog? But since you all are so nice and are here reading my blog, I’ll share the link. Go ahead, try it and enjoy. And if any of you know some cool recipe link, please share. One thing I really want to learn is how to bake a cake. In India, there isn’t a huge tradition of baking cakes. My mum never baked one. I never learnt to bake one. Well, she did make some yummy Diwali sweets and I dream to learn them one day. But well, never a cake. Now being a beginner I would like to try out some simple cake, like mix and put in oven types. But I go to the store and look at these tons of packets, there is a dilemma of choice. So many brands, so many options, what to choose, which one? Oops its 5.37 pm gotta go. All you nice people enjoy the weekend cook some nice food and share some cake baking tutorials :)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

And it’s another Friday, time for another post. I don’t know when Friday became the day to blog for me. I guess it’s the happy feeling of weekend that motivates me to blog. Everyone around seems so cheerful and happy, just glad that it’s a weekend. I don’t have any gossipy gossip to share this week, so pardon me if this post seems utterly random. This morning started with watching a baby hippo video and god it made me so happy, yeah that’s how crazy I am. It’s been raining for 2 days straight and I am jubilant about it, even made ginger tea the other day. Seems just like July in Mumbai. When it used to rain in Mumbai I would run to the balcony to remove all the clothes put outside to dry. In that one moment I would look at the sky and forget the dry clothes, put out my hand and try collecting rain drops in my palm. Until Ma would yell “This girl doesn’t do one thing told to her”. Then I would run taking clothes from balcony to living room, dropping them on the sofa, while Ma would look angrily at the floor coz my feet would have wet the living room too. And then sitting by the window in train when it rained, oh how cool was that? I loved the wind on my face. Here it’s too cold to open the window hmph!

This morning my colleagues son came in office. He was screaming “Dad I want to be a fire fighter”. That got me thinking of all that I wanted to be as a child:

1. Wanted to be a doctor: Well yeah, until I realized they cut open stomach and such. I couldn’t imagine blood oozing and well just being around sick people didn’t make it all that exciting. Also my little brain would have squished due to all the trauma of studying those books.
2. Architect: I don't know what I liked about that profession. I just liked the huge drawing boards and sketching images. Until I realized how much math goes into building a one storey building and knowledge of sand and such errrr well I wasn’t so fond of it all.
3. Clown: I just loved that one character at the circus and decided that or the lion trainer, that’s it. That’s what I want to be. Until I saw the movie “Mera naam joker” or “Ek hota Vidushak”. Though I think, deep down am still a clown but putting up the act, nope not in my capacity.
4. Pilot: Oh man having wings, always wanted that. It was cool in those days, when women pilots were few. But the fact that I won’t see much land made me depressed. Skies don’t have trees, mountains, rivers, waterfalls hmph! And moreover I don’t take the whole take-off and landing too well ahemm. So that was dumped too.
5. Soldier: I was the one in my class to sing the national athem as loudly as I could. Stories of soldiers motivated me. I considered their attire was cool. But guess dodging bullet needs some completely different set of skills. One, I suck at running and two I am not sure I could ever shoot a human or any living thing for that matter.

Guess I still have a little streak of all these professions in me. I always was the medicine kit person for my family and loved giving a crocin or a cough syrup to anyone who asked. I still can’t tolerate a frame which is slightly misaligned. I still like to crack ridiculous jokes and make people laugh. Flying kite still feels like freedom. And finally, I am still a patriot, will always be.

Any of you wanted to join some profession you didn’t?

Trick or Treat!!

Sounds of little footsteps and laughter can be heard in the corridor since morning. My back is to the door and everytime I turn to see who is giggling, no one seems to be there. Around 3 pm this happened repeatedly. Finally tried hiding by my office door and suddenly a fairy, pirate and rabbit ran across my office corridor giggling. I slowly stepped out and tried walking noiselessly in the direction they ran. Suddenly I was poked by a fake knife and its hmm what is this? “Trick or Treat” said a 3 yr old, and I think he was a shark. I wonder what’s a fake knife to do with his costume? I looked at his dad who was beaming with pride. I had to sit on my knees to talk to this shark. Seems he wanted a candy no matter what. I had none, so I had to go steal some from next door. As soon as I handed this kiddo candies his face beamed. Boy this little one had collected quite some candies. I walked back to my office and turned on some Shankar Mahadevan songs. Then came a puppet, he asked me what I was listening to and to turn up the volume. Surprisingly he liked Shankar’s “Taare Zaamen Par”. “Cool” he said and handed me a candy. Funny, sometimes how little things can surprise me, totally unexpected. Last year, Halloween had come and gone and I hadn’t noticed. This year it’s what can I say, it’s different. I walked over to Jas’s office and there were so many kids and parents. Parents looked tired and kids looked super energetic after eating all the candy I guess. I saw an alligator, several butterflies, robot, vampires, and tortoise (hmm he was too fast though), also saw a dog wearing a hotdog costume. It was super fun. They have decorated the entire buildings with creative halloween decoration, every office has a basket of candies sitting outside. Among others there were twins in Dalmatian costumes, they were absolutely identical, I guess had their parents not dressed one of them in blue and other in grey jeans, it would be impossible to guess who’s who. A rabbit got scared of a fake spider and burst into tears, I couldn't stop laughing watching that. Whereas a lion almost squished the fake spider. I wonder if costumes reflect people’s personalities, even kids for that matter. I saw a mechanic with tools, this little mechanic dropped a basket full of candies not coz he didn’t want the candies but rather he wanted to check how the chipped basket could be fixed. Dunno why the alligator was crying, I remembered “Magarmach ke aasu” hehehe I know mean isn’t it?

I wonder if I were to dress for Halloween what would I wear. Maybe leave my hair open, put lots of kajal in and around my eyes, put a big rather a huge red bindi on my forehead and carry a trishul. Howz that for a designer Halloween costume? O ya and I would wear a odissi style saree. Also, a rudrash mala around my neck and rudrash earrings. In fact nothing like a kathakali costume. Next time I go to india I got to get one. So what are you guys up to this week? Any Halloween plans?

Politics Vs Politics

And I was thinking November-December means vacation time. Historically that maybe true but for some reason amount of incoming work is no way depicting it. For two weeks or so I was absolutely relaxing, I even got a book to read at work and today suddenly there has been an avalanche of user research study requests. My reaction to all this, all I said was woah, is this fun of what? I hate sitting idle, especially during times as these, when all you can read online is about recession and elections. Talking of elections, in India I wasn’t ever attracted to the subject. I hardly heard about ShivSena or BJP other than when dad or other elders discussed. The bandhs, rasta rokho activities sure did bother me but not so much that I could educate myself on the mysteries of politics. Here however people don’t openely speak as much of politics. I learnt quite early that it’s not as polite to ask political opinion of someone. This made politics mysterious and hence attractive. I watched the political debate the other day. This was the 2nd of such debates we watched. I don’t have much right to say which candidate is better than the other considering I don’t know much of their previous work record. But I do have an opinion of who came across as genuine, wasn’t just interested in pointing the other guys mistake and accepted rather than avoiding the current economic condition. I’ll tell ya, but only if you ask.

But this post isn’t really about these candidates; it’s about the difference in way politics is conducted in different countries. I don’t remember a single such debate between politicians in India. And I can’t really imagine how Lalu and Balasaheb would debate. Anywho, maybe soon times will change, educated people will be able to fight and get into the system to correct it. Maybe then we’ll get a chance to listen to some real promises. Yeah such dreams of mine! For now I am waiting for our short little vacation to Texas. New place, new environment, new energy. On another note, I requested a Marathi novel at KCLS library and guess what? They had a copy and I got it yesterday.

For now, ciao, take care and laugh lots.

Ghost moderating comments

The weather with no care or concern for me or my health has changed yet again leaving me sneezing, coughing and irritated. So here I am at work starring at the computer and wondering what to do which won’t involve humans. I notice I am scarring them away,no one wants to attend meetings with an infection carrier in the room. So I turn to blogging. As I lazily logged on my blogger site, I found two comments smiling at me (on my previous post). The only thing other than Dasera greetings that has cheered me today. I quickly hit on the publish comment button and guess what happened? Only one comment got published and the other disappeared from the face of the google publisher. Darn it! I was all gr@#$#. I mean seriously I already have a list of reasons tempting me to move to word press. I scratched my brain trying to remember what name or sign of the fellow blogger who commented. All I could recollect was it started with a “p” something along the line of purvi, purva, purv, pvur, paavam gosh! All I can do is curse google and apologize to the stranger. And cough violently on the google webpage while my colleague watched and aweeed me. What, I was just hoping to pass on the infection to the webpage. After pondering for a while about the blogger, I decided to stay put here.To move to another blogging site would be to find a new home, research, check the vastu shastra and all that. And well, this blogger has been my home for quite some time now. Agree it has its flaws but then home is home right?

On another note, someone is trying to sell a used dustbin on one of our DL’s. This dude seems to be moving out of US and has listed everything barring his clothes for sale. The advertisement was posted a week or two back on the distribution list and travelled through thousands or more inboxes. Now really, is this some culture effect(seller is Indian) or it’s just an individual nature thing? As I scrolled down the list of things for sale, I couldn’t help but laugh reading the items namely kid’s potty seat and dust bin. Dude has even clicked pictures and put them on Picasa. If that wasn’t enough after a week’s patience, the guy published this ad again claiming- “Price Reduced”. I mean, I understand the economy is slowing; things are really bad around here but again are they as bad? Worth pondering!

As for all you nice readers, wish you a happy dasera, eat well, enjoy life, stay healthy and well keep laughing.

Reminds me of Tum Tum- the 8 seater rickshaw

Yawny Friday! You would say that too if you had to work this weekend like I do. So for me this week has been never ending. It started on a Monday and is progressing into yet another Monday sigh! I am suddenly noticing a lot of “Enjoy the weekend”, “Happy Friday” etc at the end of emails people are sending Grrrrr! On another note, I ran into this video of Tata Nano and simply couldn’t stop laughing watching the car.The wheels look so tiny and the fact that they have only 3 bolts makes me kinda uncomfortable. Back in India if it was a 2 seater, one could easily find 3 people merrily riding on it. Sometimes entire family of 4 would be on a scooter. Typical scene would be a little boy standing in front and a little girl in mum’s lap. A good example is the “Tum Tum”. Extremely noisy 8 people carrier. More so like a rikshaw. I have travelled in a Tum Tum only once I believe, thank god. I think it was near Pune or maybe Vidarbha I don’t remember now. What I clearly do remember is choosing a door seat coz I considered it best rather than getting squished in between people. You see Tum Tum is the last place I want to die. Anywho, I was squished against the door and I believe there were atleast 20 people in that Tum Tum if not more. I also occasionally saw a leg or a hand when I tried to look out the window. These must the people hanging on to the Tum Tum and enjoying the wind. Also I distinctly recollect getting suffocated and experiencing odors which can easily be traded for poisonous gas. I survived that journey. But I wonder if Nano would turn into modern day’s Tum Tum. And the pretty little, fragile looking car be able to take it. On a Ganpati Visharjan day when the eldest uncle in the family commands all the kids to cramp up in the car? Or someone orders all the women to get in their car with little ones? Well, we’ll just see what happens of Nano as time goes by.

On another note, did you read about the public smoking ban? Is that true? I mean if its on BBC it has to be real, right? In India my office was at a walkable distance from home. I made it a point to walk daily to my office and back. It took almost half an hour or 45 mins but still faster than driving to work or even taking a cab. Mornings usually I had no issue walking to work. Roads would be relatively empty (if I left home at 8) and it seemed as if the city is still kinda gearing up for the day. But in the evening, walking along with hordes of people and cars just added stress. I recollect the number of people who smoked in the crowd back then. Sometimes I would end up walking behind someone who would be smoking and I would have no choice but continue to walk that way till I reached home. I felt like a smoker. I would curse, grate my teeth, even say things loudly like “Kidhar se aa raha hai yeh smoke?” but would be talking to walls. Even if this ban is implemented in half of the crowded areas, I am sure thousands of non smokers will be pleased. On the other hand, I wonder what’ll happen to the poor pan valas. They won’t make much money selling meetha pan, will they?

Let pictures tell the tale!

I went backcountry camping last weekend, yay yay! Though I could write post after post describing the experience, I rather not, let the pictures tell the tale.

While the hike was moderate,the trails weren't one of those well maintained trails,reminded me of Grandpa's house in Goa

After hiking for a couple of hours I reached this bridge and then a lot more such bridges

As I huffed and puffed our way up the mountain, heard the sound of water. The happy, jumping sound of streams. Seem like they were playing hide and seek through the trails

Here's the Talamus Lake view, absolutely amazing, isnt it?


I searched for campsites for a while and settled for this one closer to the lake.
As I continued the expedition around the lake, clicking some more pictures I wondered what is it that attracts me to these places. Is it nostalgia for a simpler life? Perhaps finding myself, just connecting with nature. Or is it the stillness, the peace?

We struggled to cook while being surrounded by the crazy Chipmunks. Beware of these thieves, they look cute but can run away with all your food!

I wasnt sure whether I was still dreaming or awake when I saw the lake in the morning. This will be one of my most memorable hikes ever!











P.S Sorry about the poor formatting, google doesnt have a easier way of doing it and I suck at html.