Another Tag!!

1. What is your current obsession?

Acing something I love doing!

2. What are you wearing today?

track pants and a top!

3. What’s for dinner?

ODG... the most dreaded question! Probably just some salad and soup.. feeling very lazy today!

4. What’s the last thing you bought?

Ooooo I am really excited about it.. Dan Drown's "Lost Symbol"!

5. What are you listening to right now?

Crowd cheering...Nadal playing! Isnt he a hottie?

6. What do you think about the person who tagged you?

Funny, energetic, vivacious Anu bhabhi! Love to read her little anecdotes :)

7. If pigs could fly…complete the sentence?

they would probably need tiny "mud" runways to crash!

Wouldnt they be harder to catch...talk about a shortage of peperoni!!

8. What are your must-have pieces for summer?

A summer dress, sunglasses and suntan lotion!

9. If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Maldives...or Ibiza may be! Love the beach

10. What is one thing you want to learn to do? (changed)

Scuba diving... I wish J would stop scaring me with his "galeophobia" ( had to look it up =>fear of sharks)

11. What’s your favourite quote?

There are many....today's pick is:

Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it!!

12. Who do you want to meet right now?

Jim Carrey... can always do with a few laughs!

13. What is your favourite colour?

Red... the bloodier the better! :P

14. What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own closet?

My new swim wear!

15. What is your dream job?

Become an oceanographer or join the National Geographic and travel the world.

16. What’s your favourite book?

Tough! That would be tie between Client by John Grisham and Master of the game by Sidney Sheldon

17. If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on?

Buy some more books!

18. What is the biggest crime in the world in your opinion? (changed)

Betrayal!

19. Who are your style icons?

No one really! I wish I noticed this stuff more!

20. What kind of haircut do you prefer?

One that does not leave any strands on my forehead... it just drives me crazy! Apparently pulling my hair back all the time is causing my hairline to recede!! x-(

21. What are you going to do after this?

IIts tea time! So I will be off to make a hot cuppa chai!!

22. What are your favourite movies?

50 first dates, Parineeta, A Wednesday, Bad Boys!

23. What are three cosmetic/makeup/perfume products that you can’t live without?

Moisturizer... dry dry skin!! May be lipstick!

24. What inspires you?

Accomplished women!

25. Give us three styling tips that always work for you:

• Dark jeans
  
• A-line skirts and dresses
  
• rings and nail polish!

26. What do you do when you “have nothing to wear” (even though your closet’s packed)?

I pout and curse at my laziness for shopping! Then shrug it off and steal J's stuff!

27. Coffee or tea?

Tea... def. tea! the Indian brand and none of the Brit or American brands which are a lame excuse for Tea!

28. What do you do when you are feeling low or terribly depressed?

music time! or go for a drive or paint! IF nothing works I cook to pamper myself and watch a fav movie!

29. What is the meaning of your name?

Something to do with the eastern light in the early morning! Talk about Irony!

30. Which other blogs you love visiting?

Aparna's, MJ Akbar'sand Ramesh's are my top picks!

31. Favorite Dessert/Sweet?

Not much of a sweet person... but do indulge occasionally in brownies!

32. Favorite Season ?

Moonsoons... LOVE the rains!

33. If I come to your house now, what would u cook for me?

Ahh... tricky tricky! I guess I would whip up some paneer dish!

34. What is one book that you would suggest the whole world reads?(new question)

Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy! It is delightfully whimsical and neve fails to make me chuckle :) I have the audioversion if anyone is interested!

35. What is it that drives you? And what makes you happy? (Brand New one from me)

Desire drives me.... to become a better cook, to be less ignorant, to be stronger!
The rain and music can make me happy....instantly!

Rules for those who are tagged:

Respond and rework – answer these questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own, and add one more question to the list. Then tag eight or ten other new set of people.

I pass this along to Aparna, Ramesh, Ida and Zillionbig (time you come out of your self imposed time out!)

FEAR: Lessons of Life

I feared being alone
Until I learned to like Myself.
I feared failure
Until I realized that I only Fail when I don't try.
I feared success
Until I realized that I had to try in order to be happy with myself

I feared people's opinions
Until I learned that people would have opinions about me anyway.
I feared rejection
Until I learned to have faith in myself.
I feared pain
Until I learned that it's necessary for growth

I feared the truth
Until I saw the ugliness in lies.
I feared life
Until I experienced its beauty ...
I feared death
Until I realized that it's not an end, but a beginning.


I feared my destiny,
Until I realized that I had the power to change my life.
I feared hate
Until I saw that it was nothing more than ignorance.
I feared love
Until it touched my heart, making the darkness fade into endless sunny days

I feared ridicule
Until I learned how to laugh at myself.
I feared growing old
Until I realized that I gained wisdom every day..
I feared the future
Until I realized that Life just kept getting better.
I feared the past
Until I realized that It could no
longer hurt me.

I feared the dark
Until I saw the beauty of the starlight.
I feared the light
Until I learned that the Truth would give me Strength.
I feared change,
Until I saw that even the most beautiful butterfly had to undergo a Metamorphosis before it could fly.

-Bobette Bryan

Thanks SG for enlightening me!

And the Award goes to!!

Me!


Yeay!! I won an award!!

Thank you SG! Receiving this brought a big dopey smile on my face!! :P

I would like to pass this along to my dearest friends:

Ramesh: For his humorous posts that never fail to make me smile
Anuja: For her wonderful narrative bits
Anu Bhabhi: For getting me hooked to the blogger world (it was ur blog that I kept coming back to!)
Ida: For her whimsical posts that are always entertaining
Zillionbig: For being a loyalist and the most frequent blogger on my list!

Tag-O-Mania!

No one seems to tag me and I was really bored... so thought of gate crashing!
Wooooooo... its fun!

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4 –
Headquarters: Leningrad (substation at Moscow)
Trying to finish Casino Royal by 007 Ian Fleming! (This is a first! This book is NOT better than the movie)

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can & catch air?
My wallet... was lying precariously at the edge of the side table! (wish there was something more interesting... like a wig maybe... that would have made a far whimsical post!!)

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
The movie Sunday! Used the S-Video cable to link it up!

4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
2:03

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
2:26! Phew... that is way off!

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
the clock ticking and the "gleaming" fan blades (I just cleaned them)... wow now that u ask.. its really quiet in here!

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Going to the gym... dont ask!

8. Before you started this Q&As, what did you look at?
Was trying to find a decent show to watch with my girl friend tomorrow. We are meeting after a year and it seems like forever!

9. What are you wearing?
Pajamas and my oldest shirt (how very comfy)

10. When did you last laugh?
10 mins ago.. I LOVE Arshad Wasi's comic timing! :) he is hilarious!!

11. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
An oil painting I created! Here you go... its much better in reality! I am a lousy photographer without a clue about lighting as evident in this pic!

12. Seen anything weird lately?
Yea...Things working out for a change!! :P

13. What do you think of this quiz? -
I Love it.. reminds me of scrap books...I filled out in my 10th grade!

14. What is the last film you saw?
easy: Sunday! but the last "first time" film... kaminey! "Very fweet!!"

15. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy? -
A house with a swimming pool! :) (All I wanted ever since I learnt to swim!)

16. Tell me something about you that I dunno! -
I think having somebody special in your life is the greatest gift ever. :)

17. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? -
tough one... so many things to change!
Try and get the government to levy tax on people for their "crassness" and "ignorance"! That would collectively solve problems of "stupidity" and "arrogance"!

18. Do you like to Dance?
Yes Yes Yes... its a great stress buster and a mood elevator.. plus you generate endorphins!

19. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? -
Krishnaa!

20. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him? -
Krishna! (with a single 'a')

21. Would you ever consider living abroad? –
Yep! doing that! Makes me love Mumbai more! (Something like the sour grapes I suppose)

22. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? –
Welcome home dear! I loved being your wing man!

The show that was (My Food Show in Mumbai)

Both my parents work and hence the household chores are dispensed out to maids and cooks. Over the many years we have had a range of cooks. I disliked most of them, simply because I was a difficult, obstinate child (*pl. note the past tense, WAS... I have new respect for all my former cooks and salute them for their boundless patience.) who wanted to sample all the unhealthy food ever created by mankind! The cooks on the other hand were forced to listen to my parents (their employers) and cook healthy food!! In my early “tweens” (early 20s), I reformed and directed my food cravings elsewhere.... just ate out! But even before I had achieved my freedom and learnt not to blame the cooks, I grew fond of this particular cook. She was a very docile lady, always soft spoken and impeccably dressed. She was short (barely reached my shoulders), had really long hair that she wore in an elegant plait and was eternally in a hurry! She used to sprint from place to place that made her gait pretty comical! So this pleasant lady was my favorite cook not only cause she was a delight to cook with... but cause she was always eager to cook something fancy!

That's how it was in Mumbai for me... this cook used to do all the cutting and pruning and I would then arrive... and just throw some things in the pan and ask her to fry/cook it...once that was done to my desired level of perfection, I would then return to toss some masalas and then leave with my final directions!! My dear cook would smile and follow. She was very excited to learn new things from me and would be an ideal eager student!! She once even thanked me for teaching her how to make the basic pasta dish and operate the microwave! She was slightly intimated by anything more fancy than the stove and was very cautious when she handled the oven or the microwave. Alternately, she would play the part of teacher when I wanted to learn the basic, not so fancy everyday dishes. Very patiently she would show me how to make chapattis and even give me little tips that went a long way! For some reason she was in awe of me and that always amused me!

We also had another cook-+-maid who was very bubbly and a chatterbox. She talked incessantly and kind of butted in my life a lot... so she wasn’t my fav. but I still owe her a lot. She never backed out of my cooking missions and always shared my enthusiasm with equal zeal. When the other (my fav one) cook wasn’t around, she used to do the cutting and basic preparation for me. I also owe her for teaching me how to make “out of this world” phulkas! They would make even the most accomplished Gujrati cooks envious! :P

I do miss being the star of my own show... ofcourse, cooking was never a challenge thanks to these incredible women. And then ofcourse came my audience.... my mum and grandma... who instantly approved anything I made. Mum was always a GREAT sport.. she is not fussy about food and as long as she doesn’t have to cook...loves everything I made!


The chatterbox==>

Sigh!! If only there was a time machine that could take me back in time... on second thoughts.. if I would probably have to live through engineering school once again... so no thank you... I am happy being here, just reminiscing at times about my happy happy showitmes! :)

FOOD NETWORK!!

I have discovered Food Network and have fallen irrevocably in love with it (S. Meyer, Twilight)!

I LOVE food and do enjoy cooking! But doing it everyday?? That’s another issue! However, this discovery has brought me immense happiness... and an epiphany!

What I find extremely fascinating is the way these chefs handle and prepare exquisite cuisines. Certain shows are about 30 min meals for the everyday cooks, while some others showcase special dinners and fancy deserts!

This show I watched was being hosted by a size zero model making date night appetizers and cocktails. For the appetizers she fried oysters with apparent ease but I still refuse to believe that she actually tasted that particular dish! (In my opinion, size 0 = 0 fried meals)

But to be fair most of the other chefs are real characters who are ‘happily’ weighted and seem to have no qualms about it!

These chefs are stars who are extremely creative with food and handle it with utter nonchalance. This complacency is usually portrayed by their peers playing the part of seasoned military men in combat or doctors in their ORs and yet these cooks never seem out of place. They stand in limelight boldly wielding their knives as they cut a succulent vegetable with unbelievable pace! I gawk at them knowing I would have ended up chopping my fingers off.

Next they pull out their shiny vessels (I cannot possibly refer to them as pots and pans) and create extravagant sauces and purees! OOooo and the best part, they NEVER have to clean! Now isn’t that something.

To boost their ratings, their kitchens are enormous and are gaily colored and brightly lit! Most of them have a central table like thing with a hanger on top that houses more of those shiny vessels!

Tell me... if you too had that palatial kitchen, lustrous pots and pans, had someone to shop and stuff your pantry, to clean up after you and do the boring stirring and frying stuff during commercial breaks.... wouldn’t you too gladly cook day after day after day??

Dream on my friends.. you have just found out what constitutes my utmost fantasy! Sigh!!

Swine Flu Phobia! --> Wedding in Pune!

Courtesy: My cool friend Gayatri :)

Check out the matching masks on the bride and groom!