Reborn

I start looking at life with my child, like my child.. and I am born again. I cant stop thanking life for this moment. And the more i thank, the more i want to thank. Is love so powerful? Or is it the feeling of being loved that turns the world upside down? Is it when someone means the world to you that you want to live more? Or is it when you realize you are someone's world that you want don't want to miss even a moment of living? Who cares... I just took birth, remember? I have my whole life to ponder...

Started again. From scratch. For those who stumble upon my blog sometime, do take time to stumble upon the other one as well.. :)

http://mylildiscoveries.blogspot.in/

Bhindelicious!

Whats wrong with Bhindi?

I dont understand why so many people dislike Bhindi. Agreed, it comes from a rather modest background, being an insipid vegetable and borrows its taste to a large extent from the condiments that go with it. But then with the right cooking and the right mix of masaalaas, with a tinge of tomatoes, it makes for one blast of a sabzee with hot chapatis! Add to that a red chilli pickle or raita garnished with pomegranate seeds, Ii dont think there's anything i can do to resist eating it! To say that it does not feel good in the mouth is utter nonsense. One should question the method of the cooking then. Onec the gooiness is removed with ample frying or roasting, it makes for a delicious accompaniment with meals. Tawa bhindi, bhindi raita, bharva bhindi.. the list of delicacies with the veggie is long. I mean obviously, people do have their likes and dislikes but then the hatred towards Bhindi is almost unanimous. Have we seen people going to restaurants and ordering bhindi? No. But paneers and alus, and gobhis are always there on the table. No matter how many times and in how many flavours we have had them in, they are always welcome. I remember once, when we had gone out for lunch with my bhaiya and his family, we had ordered bhindi fry with other stuff. As he uttered the fateful words.. 'Bhindi ki sabzee', the waiter moved his notepad from under his nose and looked at him from top to bottom and then all of us with a  'Lagta hain bahut bhookhe hain' expression. The bhindi came anyway and then much for its delight (not that we were doing it a favour), we liked it.

But then bhindi is not the only veggie that owns a place in the proverbial hall of shame, is it? The only respite for the poor thing :) is that there are others too in its gang of abhorred ones - to name a few..  Tinda, Gheeya (Doodhi), Torai, Brinjal, and so on. It cant even live up to the fancy name 'Okra'.. I can hear what they have to say about it... that 'Its like Vidya Balan on the red carpet'.... 'with a blah blah coloured gown that does little to hide her copious assets from the glare of this world. The satin bag with swarowski crystals looks from an era of evening balls and we wonder who told her that she looks good in the blah blah color we mentioned earlier.' No offenses, but this 'world' does belong more than proportionately to a country thats a south east asian peninsula... and it is the same 'world' that unscathingly barks at about anything large on 'the carpet' except if if it were about Karan Johar movie sets or discounts at Big Bazaar.... Sheh, double standards. Let me not digress... The point im trying to drive home is that bhindi has been underestimated like Vidya Balan. It has been taken for granted, criticised, and been a victim of preconceived notions wrt to taste/fashion in its respective senses. Nobody cares for flavor, goodness, nutrition.. like nobody cares about good acting/presence/respect one gets to stand for oneself. But Bhindi and Vidya Balan have stood the tests of time, have been through their share of criticisms and unwanted ingloriousness. Not that i think Bhindi and Vidya Balan are the same, now that i talk about them together. But dont you think Vidya does justice to both simple and tangy roles with equal glamour? See? And if it helps, lemme say that they hold equal relevance in my life. Okay, i dont think that argument helped. But you get the point, nevertheless, dont you?

So why this sudden empathy towards Bhindi? I just finished a bowlful of the vegetable that was left over from what we had last evening. I could almost see the disappointed and disowned look on whatever was left of its face. Lying amidst the gooey paste of a sabzee, with overcooked tomatoes and frayed coriander leaves, it screamed for attention. I couldnt help but realise how poignant the entire scene was.. sniff! My maid had stirred it like it were some cousin of Bin Laden. Not that she knew him personally, but the angst towards it was rather evident. If it were an heroine in a hindi movie, it would have very well made it to the scene as one taking her last breath, with a bloody heart and skin chipped off here and there... lamenting on how 'bees saal pehle' she lost a sister (okay, imagine now!).. and how now, after her, she wants her to be taken care of... 'mere behen ka haath mein tumhe sonp rahi hu'. Thuddum thuddum thuddum.. the sound effect.. she just died.

Much for the cringes and frowns people make when one utters the name. Hmph!... Good old Bhindi aka Okra.. or Ladijj Fingers or as Mumbaikars call it 'Bhendi', my heart goes out for you.

Love,

Ashen

Sealing it with a Kiss

Nowadays Sharanya is on a kissing spree. Having said that, the object here is only me and no one else. She'll amble towards me with her famous 'sweet-cute face', hold my face tenderly, the first kiss planted on my right cheek and the second one on the other, (the 'sweet-cute face' unchanged, mind you) which is then repeated with increasing velocity till she is tired (wishful thinking) or i get too ticklish/vexed (that's what usually happens). Here are the times she's on a roll - One, when I'm trying to potty train her. "Umma, Umma, Umma..." she'll go on... in the loo!!!! To distract me or herself, God only knows. "Sharanya, concentrate!" Ill dare her, as if Im teaching her multiplication tables, and then laugh at myself. . Concentrate on what?.. This madam's concentration would be like changing channels in a set top box wala cable connection. Some two hundred plus channels to watch. The more the channels, better it is.. you can keep surfing till an hour and yet not watch anything.
"Whatever's with moms and potties" 

Second, When she knows she is in big trouble due to tearing off/breaking/spilling something. It also happens when she accidently pokes/hurts me while trying to show how her truck can fly above the sofa. She'll run to me and release her 'brahmastra'.
  "Lemme remind mommie how sweet-cute i am so that mommie does not notice the not so sweet-cute thing that just happened".

 Third, when I'm trying to put her to sleep. She'd be sleepy like crazy but dare she even close her eyes.. what if she misses one second of doing masti? "Amma! Bee" - she wants a story about a bee, one of the few that she usually likes listening to before shutting down. When i'm through and the bee would have happily lived after, by which time i would be almost whispering and not talking so that she goes to sleep, she'll shriek, "Amma Teetittan!" - which is the story about Sree Krishna. Unfortunatelly, i have a habit of making stories out of noting, or rather everything that interests her which comrises flowers, butterflies, her cousin brothers, ducks, monkeys, teddy bears, Mini Mouse, dollies and a few more hundred things. So basically this would go on for about half an hour and by then, i would have started breathing deeply and counting till ten so that my dhedh kilo ka haath doesnt fall blithly (okay not so blithly) on her pav kilo ka thigh. But the moment she feels she would not be able to keep her eyelids open, "umma, umma, umma....", she'll go on till there's no tomorrow.
  "Maybe she'll get the point some day!"

 And i did not tell you that Im totally amused by this behaviour of hers and i totally totally love it, specially because no one else gets this. I also haven't told you that no matter how irritated i would be, i would invariably end up giggling after each episode. But it is surely be one of the things ill tell her one day, years from now, and laugh out aloud.. like i do (even) now... :)