And it rained today

I am not a rain person. I have waxed eloquent my dislike for rains in this post . But then life throws you into situations where you have to face your dislikes and displeasures and you have to chew your own words.

We all know how monsoon has not been favorable this year because of El-nino effect and yada-yada. June came and gone by, July is half passed but we had yet to see a good rain this year. The weather has been extremely hot and humid. Everyday temperature sour to above 40 degrees. Add to it the extreme stickiness of humidity and frequent power cuts. Every night I cried for this cruel weather and power-cuts and every morning I prayed for rains so that at least we get some respite from this situation.

And just as we finished our lunch today, ZZ yelled from kitchen ( No he didnt cook the lunch. He was just there to put his plate in sink. I know there is no need of explanation but I just want to make clear in case doubts arise in your minds :p) "It's raining. Take out clotes from the cloth line outside". I literally jumped from my seat and opened the door. It was raining!!!! I danced my way to ZZ (imagine the bhangara and jumping singing "yay!!yay!! yay!! baarish ho rahi hain".

And I did the unthinkable. I have never voluntarily danced in the rain. I never have this urge to dance in the first showers of the rain that few of my friends have. But today I just wanted to go out and enjoy in rain. And did I have fun getting wet in rain? You bet.

I have never waited for rains like this in my entire life (may be waited for rains to go away) and I have never rejoiced its showers like today. But then one gotta face this cruel hot and humid weather to appreciate rains.

Am I a convert from non-rain person to rain-person. Cant say. But yes I do understand how rains are a harbinger of hope and joy in life.

Pic Courtesy: Google images

Love at First Sight: My Beautiful Food

“Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress.”
Charles Pierre Monselet (French journalist and author)

And what if the poem begins with the fragrance. Have you ever smell the waft of roasted cumin and cinnamon. And cardamom. And of rice. Yes rice.  So subtle, yet so strong.  Heavenly right.  I am sure no matter where you are , you would take a second long breath to seduce your senses. Hypnotised,  I inadvertently moved in the direction led by my olfactory senses towards the origin of this enchanting smell. In that small wooden table beside the kitchen of that cottage, right in front of me was the world’s best biryani sitting regal on the exquisite flat-plated glass dish. A glass bowl  of spicy mirch ka salan was sitting pretty beside it.

Oh, I was never a believer of ‘love at first sight’. I thought only blind can see and believe in such illogical sense. But if the rush of desire and radiance of ecstasy on seeing something (one) first time is the proof, I may well have experienced my ‘Love at First Sight’.

It was the pile of wealth for the hungry: enticing and so tempting. The aromaThe tri-coloured rice some of the long thin grained basmati rice have taken the colour of turmeric, some with the hint of saffron and some pristine white, was  interspersed with the choicest of seasonal vegetables. Well garnished with roasted cashews and fresh green coriander leaves, thinly-sliced ginger and green chillies lie atop the mound of divinity. The orange of carrots and the green beans were hiding in-between the flavoured rice along with the supple paneer and mushrooms. The pretty yellow and red bellpeppers were  adding vibrancy to the visual delight. Thin round slices of onion and tomato spread around the biryani as if a fort is surrounded by moat. The mirch ka salan was garnished with mint and coriander leaves. The transparent glass plate on which the biryani was plated was adding to the whole glamour of the dish.  The whole plate looked like a page straight out of food-magazine cover.

But just as love fizzles out if there is no inner chemistry, only outer appeareance, in the same way there can be this case of love lost. But love makes you yearn for more, makes you hopeful, makes you exuberant of your next step.

I hesitated to disturb the equilibrium of the canopy of biryani but then how could I resist my temptation. I served myself a plateful of the deliciousness personified. I could see the roasted bay leaves and black peppers among the rice grains. I can imagine how the bay leaves must have danced with noise when thrown in the hot oil with onions. And how heavenly must the whole cottage have smelled when the choicest spices were added in the hot pan.

                As I took the first spoonful of the divinity, I sighed a pleased moan. This was perfection. I have never tasted a biryani so delicious in my whole life. As I was about to eat another spoonful, I heard the jolly voice of my dinner host Kavi, “When did you come? Of course I invited you for dinner but at least you could have waited to say ‘Hello’ to me..” And she laughed. I grinned sheepishly and before I replied, I ate another bite and with immense gratitude of a beggar who have ate his full,  I  could fumble only two words “Thank You.” Thank you for accepting this glutton of a friend for this dinner. Thank you for cooking this amazing legen-wait for it-dary Veg biryani that changed my whole world. Thank you for making me believe in “Love at First Sight”. Thank you for introducing me to the world of Borosil.

       This post is written for the Indiblogger Contest "My Beautiful Food".

Oh the joy

Oh the joy when you find a soul who loves the same book/ movie/ place/ moment as much as you do.

So on our way back home with a office friend, the topic moves to the kind of movies we watch.

And she remarked ‘I readlly loved that movie of Milind Somen’.

My eyes sparkled with joy. “Oh the one with the curly-haired girl’.

“Yes-yes. It is my favourite movie. The only Milind Somen movie worth watching. He is looking so delish.”

“Oh how much I loved that movie. That movie has such good songs. Oh God, we spent beautiful college days listening to those songs and dancing away in them”

“All its songs were nice. Even the slower version of few songs.”

“I am unable to recall the name of the movie..But it was so ahead of its time. The narration style, yada yada..”

“Even Tanuja as Dadi was a good cast. Name of the movie ?? hmmm.."

And talking about the movie and humming the songs we parted ways to our homes.

Back home, when I connected my phone to wi-fi, there was a deluge of messages in the Whatsapp group of my college friends. These are the same friends with whom I have spent the joyous years of college hostel. I asked them the name of the Milind Somen movie with the song “Aise Pyaar ke naam”. Why google when you can connect to the friends who have the answer and the nostalgic tit-bit information about things. Same happened and friend A replied “Pyaar ka Superhit Formula” and this is the same song in which you used to dance in our hostel room. Sheesh! Friend M quipped “Rules”. And I got the name of the movie. “Rules-Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula”.

So many happy afternoons and evenings may be nights or mornings have been spent listening to these songs and dancing to its tunes.

I searched the songs on the internet next day and listened to it. To my amazement, I still
remembered almost complete lyrics of two of my favourite songs.

Here is to old time's sake.


Pic courtesy: Google images

my kind of weather

7:30ish in the evening
sky was blue
partly overcast with orange clouds
away from me.
my part of sky was clear
and I saw stars above.
The moon played hide and seek
 with the clouds
in the cool breeze.
I sat down in the roof
and gazed for long at the sky above.


Today after many weeks, I stepped in my roof terrace and the weather was so nice. Clicked some photos with my phone.

construction around

one is star, another light from passing plane

moon above, star below:p

Bullets of my March

• ·         I noticed the “100 Day Happy Challenge” in some blog where one has to post Happy things/ quotes/ pictures in their blog/ facebook etc for 100 days. I got interested as I thought it would be a great way to you know, smell the roses along the busy rushing life. But knowing myself, I know it would be hard as no matter how much I admire happy people like my mother but I know that I am not a one. You know the kind of people who are always positive, cheerful in their disposition and don’t panic/ overthink a situation and just go with the flow, I am not the one. I have my days where I sulk over something which is not actually there and get miffed over petty issues. Thank God I have a husband not like me, or else some days would surely be very hard. Then I came across this very happy song by Phharell Williams and watched the  Oscar performance. I downloaded and this song has been a part of my playlist since then. I was informed that United Nations and Phharell Williams have organized this competition where people have to post “Happy” video of their city. I watched some videos of the entries in youtube.  Lovely thought. Enjoy the song:
• 
  
• As I was washing my hands in office washroom today, I realized what my problem is. The problem is of “ACCEPTANCE”. Hmmm, this got me thinking for like a minute but then other important things came up like watching Arjun Kapoor in "Locha-e-ulfat" song from his upcoming movie for the fifth-time of the day. What a nice song and choreography. Benny Dayal is awesome and well I could keep my eyes off Arjun Kapoor. He is looking so nerdy and handsome. Here's the video of the song:

• ·         I love reading but have not subscribed or opened account in any reading website. Bust many days back, I finally succumbed and opened my account in Goodreads. I consider myself a good reader but was appalled to notice that even after forcing my memory to remember the names of books I have read, I was not able to cross the 100 books that I have read mark. I tried to be very honest with my list and mentioned only those books of which I have clarity that I have read them. Today is an important day. As per Goodreads, I have read over 100 books and I am actually pretty elated. Last few months I have done some serious reading  and I hope to continue it this year.
• 
  
• ·         Watched “Queen”. My first movie of 2014 that I watched in movie hall. Went ahead to watch it after reading some rave reviews in FB and blogs. Thoroughly enjoyed the movie.
• 
  
• ·         Half-watched “Highway’ at home. That means I have not yet seen the pretty mountainous drive of the Himalayan towns. Definitely going to finish it today.
• 
  
• ·          Whenever I have to travel a new place, I prefer researching online about it. And one of the sources that I search specifically are blogs as the blogs give a personalized perspective and nitty-gritty info which major websites fail to give. I was in a hill state for a vacation and there I saw women laborers working side by side with men clearing and building the road at height more than 12000 feet above sea-level. That day happens to be Women's Day. I saluted those women. Border Roads Organisation, which works for the maintenance and building of roads in the border areas of the country is doing such a tough job. Really, if making roads in those mountaineous terrain is not a difficult work, maintaining those roads in between umpteen landslides, rains, continuous traffic, tourist influx is sucha large part of their jobs. Whenever I travel in these roads, a sincere thanks goes to the people and this organisation responsible for the connectivity to the nature's beauty.
• 
  
• ·         I have never mentioned but I have received free gifts through my blog. Three times. Shampoos and conditioners sponsored by Sunsilk on participating in Indiblogger contests. No I did not win any position/ prize on my writing , it’s just that they hand out gifts to every participant and this is where I get lucky;).
• 
  
•     There have been many times that I have purchased a book based on the review/ feedback I read on some blog and downloaded and watched movies based on recommendations in blogs. April Snow, a Korean movie tops the list on my mind which I watched after reading rave reviews in one of my favourite blogger’s post. And I was not disappointed.

• 
  

Condition Serious Hain (in a non-serious way)

Seriousness is a very serious disease. And when I checked that Indiblogger.in have brought out this contest with Cadburys India to blog about your encounter with people jinki #conditionserioushain, how can I be left behind. This is my entry for this contest. 

If you have encountered such people, then this post is right for you. You can also head out to the Facebook Page of Cadburys 5 Star which is made for people like us and people jinki #conditionserioushain.

I am a woman. Brought up in a world where emphasis is given to your education and career and well, also marriage. At every phase of life one meets such people who nag, poke their nose in our personal affairs and blurt out without thinking and feeling about other person's feelings and emotions. Through this medium I have tried to share my encounters with such people at every stage of life.

जब हम छोटे थे तब वो पूछा करते थे

"बड़े हो के क्या बनोगे"

पढ़ लिख कर जब बाहर निकले फिर बोले

"तुम नौकरी कब करोगे"

उफ ये जालिम दुनिया सच में कितनी curious हैं

बच ले बेटा इनसे, इनकी #conditionserioushain

जब नौकरी मिली तो हम खुश हुए

की अब हैं दुनिया कदमो में

पर माता-पिता से ये पूछ के

उन्होने फिर हमे डाल दिया सदमे में

"चलो नौकरी अच्छी मिल गयी, बच्चा ambitious हैं

शादी कब करोगे इन्ही, ये उमर बड़ी precious हैं"

पर हम शान से चले

बेफिक्री से नौजवानी जिये

और फिर कुछ सालो के बाद

हम भी शादीशुदा हुए

पर क्या काहे उनके बारे में जिनकी #conditionserioushain

एक महीने बाद ही पूछ बैठे "बेटा गुड न्यूज़ कब हैं"

हम समझ गये हम जान गये

इनके सवालो का अंत नहीं हैं-

गुड न्यूज़ इनको दे भी दे तो फिर ये पूछेंगे

बेटा पेहला तो हो गया, दूसरा कब हैं

अगर हम मोटे हैं तो पूछेंगे

"तुम पतले क्यू नहीं होते"

और जो हम पतले हो तो कहेंगे

"घर वाले खाने को कुछ नहीं देते"

सच में इनके सवालो से हम भी थोड़े furious हैं

भगवान बचाये इनसे, उफ इनकी #conditionserioushain

An excerpt from Siddhartha

"When someone is searching," said Siddhartha, "then it might easily

happen that the only thing his eyes still see is that what he searches for,

that he is unable to find anything, to let anything enter his mind, because

he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search, because he has a

goal, because he is obsessed by the goal. Searching means: having a goal.

But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, oh venerable

one, are perhaps indeed a searcher, because, striving for your

goal, there are many things you don't see, which are directly in front of

your eyes."




Hmmm. Makes sense.