Nearest funny fix

You know, I meant to write about this. That is the reason I came up with the writing prompt- this one!

How shameful that I never took up the prompt myself. More so because I had such an easy subject - you see, I had planned to write about someone who can almost qualify to be run the dial-a-laugh service. Someone who, for as moody as she is, can be just as amusing and entertaining. She can mimic, she can play act, she can keep you in splits with her practical jokes and tongue-in-cheek repartee. Her recent post prompted me to write about this now, albeit late ..its still good enough. Some of her posts- especially the tailor episodes one have me roaring every time I come back and dig up old posts when I am in need of a good laugh .

Whenever we read her matrimony chronicles, Amma and I shake our heads and go 'At this rate, she will never get married', but its hard to not laugh. To some extent, its probably better to look at the humorous side of such events, because as everyone knows, what is the point of being serious about it all? It is all about timing, and while you're waiting, you might as well enjoy the ride.

Oh and don't be under the mistaken impression she is the clown cum joker 24x7x365. No sirree. She is as moody as the moon. She can be crabby one hour and irritable the next...ever mercurial. Such is the price we have to pay for such brilliant comedy acts. So pity us and don't forget to laugh.

While the nitpicky self has pointed out to many a time to fix her punctuations and be more careful with the sentence structure in her posts, she wisely chooses to ignore the sage advice. Perhaps it is what lends a characteristic charm and style to her writing, I suppose.

So I will leave it at that and leave y'all to enjoy a rib-tickling morning with our resident joker.

Writing prompt #4

Rules: Take 10 minutes to write. Please time yourself. When you have finished writing, please leave a link to your response in the comments box. Have fun!

Prompt: Write about an ordinary, everyday event in your family's life. It could be something that your mother or father did every day - ironing clothes, cutting vegetables, doing puja. Or something one of your siblings did - washing the moped or scooter, perhaps. May be even something that all of you did together regularly.

She came as a new bride into a joint family, one that covered generations from a great grandmother to the inlaws to bachelor brothers-in-law. It was a different world to adjust to, different kind of food, different personalities, diverse expectations and such. An aging cook catered to the needs of the family. Since she usually got in late, breakfast was almost always bread. Why not, since it was the land of Iyengar bakeries of yore- the dear Bengaluru.

Tiffin at 4pm was a standard feature, the cook's masterpieces made its way to the table(no make it the floor, dining table didn't exist then). From akki rotti to steaming hot idlis and dosas, the cook's repertoire was matchless. But the audience was limited, given it was the middle of the day, specially with working male members of the household.

Then the older child happened. Many years later a younger child happened. The family moved out, became a nuclear setup.

For the first time in her married life, the bride(now a woman, a mother) found herself having to fend herself in the kitchen. First she bought herself a copy of 'Samaithu Paar', the legendary 'Cook and See', of course. It was not the era to make lengthy STD calls to her mother for 911 cooking assistance.

What can I start with? She thought to herself. Let me begin a tradition of the morning breakfast, Femina tells me its the best meal of the day. 30 yrs later, she forges on. She has now established herself as the breakfast queen of the household.

Come 7am, the daughters, even to this day, line up with plates, hawk-eyed, close to drooling, waiting for her crisp dosas with chutney, or the occasional idli-vada-sambar, or rava-idli with sagu, or puri with kurma, or pongal with gojju, or akki rotti.....the dishes each full of delicious flavor and a scent of hard work.

The father walks in from his morning exercise around this time. He finds his family(not surprisingly) cloistered around the dining table enjoying their morning fix, topped with some hot steaming filter kaapi. The girls dont allow the mother to enjoy her creation, till she has topped the masterpiece with a steel tumbler of her special filter kaapi.

'Whats the thindi today?" he asks

There is a if/not flow chart here. If its upma, avlakki sorts, he will move on to other chores and indulge in breakfast at 10am. If he hears dosa, akki rotti etc, breakfast will be early. No one wants to wait to dig into wholesome goodness, do they now?

Writing prompt #3- Nearest funny fix

Before you read the prompt, make sure you will have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write and please do time yourself. Once you've written it, please leave a link here so we can come over and read it. Here goes:


Write about who your nearest and surest clown/joke/humour fix is? Who is that one person you can always count on making you laugh, even if you werent looking for one? Is it someone in your immediate family, a close friend, or perhaps its you? You could be your own clown! Alright, go on now-tell us about him/her and maybe leave a number as well so we could dial-a-laugh perhaps, if we need one?

Writing prompt #2

Before you read the prompt, make sure you will have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write and please do time yourself. Once you've written it, please leave a link here so we can come over and read it. Here goes:

Do you have any one moment in your life, when you were totally, madly, utterly embarassed? Was it a situation in which you did something, said something or just happened to find yourself in? If you recall those feelings of wanting to sink through the ground, or suddenly appear invisible....use this prompt to recount them and help us feel your plight!

Happy writing!

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Me : 'I can't do the climb down, puhleeeeeeeeeeeeeese. We've been at this for 4 hrs now, since 8am. And we walked like, I don't know, some ungodly kms last evening, when you guys made us get off one station early and hike from thereon to the campsite'

Team lead : 'Alt, how about some 'congress kadlekai'? That'll help you with the descent :)'

Me : (pouting some more) 'I refuse to be swayed by some paltry peanuts! I WILL NOT do the climb down. Somebody or SOME thing's got to carry me. My feet hurt!'
(more whining)

Team lead : 'Alt, listen. I'll keep pace with you. You can do it. See how well you made the climb. SavanDurga is your first trek/rock climbing trip. And you made it like a pro!'
(Muted sniggers around while the rest pretend to nod their heads in agreement)

Me : 'You don't mean it. I KNOW when you're trying to rope me in to sign up for more torture. I'm never coming again. '

After a minute's deathly silence while the wheels of my brain were churning..

Me : 'Why can't I hitch a ride with that friend of yours thats going down the hill to the village?'

Team lead : 'Um, NO. He has chores to do and that's why he gets to ride around in the bike unlike the rest of us that trek. Moreover, you don't want to give up already'

Me : 'Like hell I do! I am going to ask him to give me a ride down.'

Team lead : 'Don't tell me I didn't warn you, its going to be hard for you on the bike. Take it from me, you're better off walking down. If you take the bike, we'd definitely enjoy the sight of you going down the hill(literally and figuratively speaking) on it, but don't blame me when you see me at the bottom of the hill.'

Me : 'Hmph! You're just jealous that I won't be suffering like you will be!'

A few minutes later, a bike along with bike rider arrived. It was a customized bike...like boys at that age usually like their bikes to be. Definitely high-end customized. Looked fancy too! The chassis was tilted such that driver was no doubt angled over the steering like one of those formula racers, but the clincher was the pillion rider had to be sitting at a 45 deg angle(and if going downhill, get the picture?). There were no handles to hold on to.

Now, how was the ride, you ask?

Writing Prompt #1

I thought this was a good way to start off my new year's blog posts.

Before you read the prompt, make sure you will have 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to write and please do time yourself. Once you've written it, please leave a link here so we can come over and read it. Here goes:


Write about a sleepover, a slumber party or the time you stayed somewhere overnight.


My earliest memory of a sleepover/slumber party is from 2 years ago. Gasp! I know! When I was well into my 30s. Yessiree, that's probably the first time I participated in a real sleepover- an all girls night long slumber party. If I had participated in any during my childhood days, I probably don't recall them or I never had one :). Either way, this is the only one I can think of, for now. Two of my best girl friends and I, at my home. They brought their 3 girls with them. The young uns played for a bit and tucked in early. Ahem, that was around 10:30. And we went on till I believe it was 4 am. Talking...just talking.

They had come after feeding their respective spouses and making suitable arrangements for keeping them occupied/entertained. You know, when you start talking...there's so much of introspection and tangential topics you separate into, that time flies. Really, it does. At the end of the night, we had talked about everything under the sun, and really nothing that would change the world.

At 4, I could sit no more. And one by one, the other two were forced to tuck in. I began to believe if I had not caved in, they'd have gone on for longer. But then I have this issue. No matter what time I sleep, I always am up by 6:30. On the dot.

Hence I woke up at around my usual time and finished the rest of 'Palace of Illusions' :D. Yes, I was so engrossed with the book that before I realized, it was around 9 and the girls were slowly waking up, one by one. And in turn, waking their mothers up too. I had prepped the previous evening to make some khara bath/kesari bath for breakfast. We were to have 'brunch' and then disperse.

So it was a delicious, delightful brunch. The kids loved having us fuss around them while they tucked in a "very Bangalorean" thindi. After they were done, it was our turn. To sit in front of the TV and watch some random nothingness while we dug into the food. By 11:30, we were all done. Cleared the table, loaded the dishwasher- all along chatting nineteen to the dozen, laughing, reviewing movies, songs, singers- everything in specific, nothing in general.

How come when you're hanging out with cozy company, time just zips through like a speedjet, but times which weigh you down just seem to drag for eternity? All I can recall of this night was the camaraderie and the sense of being amongst like-mindedness which is so hard to find on a regular basis around you.

And thus it was, my first most memorable slumber party.