Dissension in the ranks

Sometimes I can be a mobile time-table. I plan in detail...right from what I will be eating the next day to what time I expect to go to bed. No kidding. Note the irony, some months ago when HHGMom asked me to list the 10 things I'd like to get done in the next decade, I sweated and huffed and puffed. Cos thats how it is. I wouldnt know what I would like to be doing 10 years now or where I see myself that far ahead. But ask me to list all the things I plan to get done tomorrow or the coming weekend and I will recite a to-do list that puts ta-da to shame. Why, you ask? Its probably my implicit belief that I dont have full control over my destiny, that for most part, it is ordained by fate. Heavy stuff eh? Well not really! What happens to each of us in the long run is controlled a lot by the little things we do in the short run? Dontcha think?

If you've hung on this far, good for you, lets move ahead. A friend of mine sometimes calls and says this "Just come over. We'll do something or go somewhere. If not, we'll just chill out.". Okay, this is a perfect situation for someone like me to go into discipline overload and the said friend to feel like he was being admonished by the drill sergeant. My first question is invariably "Ok, how long do we chill? Is this an all-day affair? A couple of hours?". Because you see, I need to schedule a "chill out" time, I even have to schedule a time "to not do anything". I usually watch tv along with doing something else(its my queen-of-multitasking gene talking). Like chatting or cooking for the week or making long overdue phone calls. Watching TV by itself cannot be an activity. Neither can quite a few of my activities. They have to be paired and combined with a few others to feel fulfilled. Still there? No? No, there is no treatment for this kind of obsession. You know, truth be told, for a long time, when that list of quirks tag was going around, I'd cringe in fear that if I ever got it, I'd have to spill the beans.

Though, I solemnly swear I dont have any other such oddities. Seriously.

Well, for that matter, this wasnt the reason for this post. Just setting the stage for the real story. And only the staunch supporters will get to read it, cos those "Oh ye of little faith" didnt believe enough to persist. I am very disciplined in my daily eating habits(healthy wholesome food twice a day, no snacking, plenty of water) , the workout routine and of course work hours. Weekends are a long, predictable list of to-dos. Very boring, I know.

Now once in a while I sense my body and mind conspiring against me. And they follow a very unpredictable schedule for this(not surprising, of course). Thats when everything goes berserk. My body wont cooperate in the gym. My stomach rebels at the daily fixed menu being dished out. And all of a sudden, all my sensory organs crave for one food item. The item for this recent rebellion was.....chaat. Boy o boy, was it a severe case. I tried sleeping over it for a day. The next day, it relapsed with double the severity. Even after a filling breakfast and lunch, there was no stopping. I was continuously hungry and craving and drooling for chaat. Around 3pm, I could take it no more. I decided to tell my boss that I had an emergency and head to the nearest chaat place(some 20 odd miles away) and immerse myself in the soul food. Just for kicks, I called my good friend(Durga) and asked her if she wanted to go(and this after I knew that she and her entire family of four had been down all weekend with fever and cold and cough). Poor girl, if it were me, I'd have banged the phone down and gone back to sick bed. Not she. She cheerfully explained why she couldnt. And she also, as a patient voice of reason, calmly said "Why do you want to drive all that way to eat a bad plate of bhel. Go to your nearest Indian store, get yourself a bhel mix pack and go home and fix yourself some."

Awesome idea, I thought to myself. Thus I drove by my friendly neighborhood desi store and picked up the needful. Once home, I hurriedly set up the stage to mix myself some bhel. I chopped onions, set forth the bottles of coriander chutney, tam-date chutney, tomatoes and the bhel mix packet. Now I picked a huge plastic bowl, by no means can you call these small. They are humongous. I usually use them to wash cabbage or other mass vegetables. Here I poured the bhel mix, the chutneys, chopped onions and tomatoes, some peanuts topped with green coriander and green chilis for that extra oomph spice. And I could serve nearly 5 plates of bhel, if I were a bhelwala.

I proceed to the couch, turn the TV on, tune to Paula's home cooking on the Food Network(note this is just for the background), pick up a ladle sized spoon and dig right into the plastic bowl. No dearie, no fancy plate and dainty cutlery for me. The craving is so intense, I polish off the BIG bowl of bhel in record 5 minutes. AND still found it tasty enough to lick the spoon! Ever seen cats after a meal? They stretch out and doze off. Ya, I almost got there. But remember my "drill sergeant" tendencies? Those resurfaced, once the sadistic duo were appeased. Instantly, I whipped out my laptop and blogged about it, while watching TV and planning my to-do's for the rest of the day, and catch up on lost time(I also should get working on Dotmom's tag).

- a "bhel"ful mint