A dollop of tune

Saturday brunch : Mooli paratha, baked palak kofta kadhi, mango chutney and a glass of buttermilk!



















And to deliver the right kind of ambiance, a shot of this:

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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?

Raat ki baat

Our home in Bangalore is a 2 bedroom. Just enough for the four of us. That would be my parents and us two girls. Then of course, my parents are a holy union of the North and South pole. With the fan on, if one sleeps like a baby, the other gets migraines. If one has to have ALL windows open to sleep well, the other gets a chill. If one needs layers of blankets, the other get claustrophobic. Thus the list goes on. Before the thought crosses your mind, let me dispel them by saying the horoscopes were certainly matched and neither of them was coerced. So there! With such conditions, they had to be separated. Next, there was a time when life was simple and we had ONE tv. Then North and South pole developed(but, of course) diverse tv watching needs and by then West end(my sister) had grown old enough to proceed in a totally different direction with her channel demands. Thankfully West end and South pole decided to co-exist despite their differences. So they plotted to move in together into the 'girls' bedroom which I facilitated by moving out to the US. The arrangement then became North pole in one bedroom, South pole and West end in the other with their own tv. The guests didn't have a choice, they were categorically just not welcome.

So then what happens when I go home these days? Well lets see. Mother and daughter have now worked out a cozy connection between themselves. But they are also generous and want me to be a part of their communion. So the option of me sleeping on the diwan out in the family living room is ruled out. Unacceptable according to them, though it makes total sense to me. But no, I don't have a choice(please refer to the line : Guests don't have a choice; I am NOT a guest). So they insist I sleep in the 'girls' bedroom; that makes it 3 of us. Ok, fine. Adjusting, as a bharatiya naari, is but part of our heritage. Do keep in mind, neither of them wants to sleep in the middle. So what does that leave me with? Yes, you get the point.

Now West end is an extremely picky sleeper. She has to block every ray of light that could ever enter a room. She is also audio-sensitive, a gene her mother has generously donated . Wait, there's more. The DSL modem lands in West end's bedroom because she is the only one that uses the internet. Until my previous trip, there was no wireless router and now that there is one, signal strength in any room outside is weak. Now me, being me, I have a problem sleeping even in good times. Jetlag adds a new dimension altogether. Also, this time I had to work for 2 weeks and mostly to US times. So I set 4pm-1am IST as my work schedule. Keep in mind, West end needs to be up at 7am to leave for work at 8am. She has a hectic job and hence needs her beauty sleep.

Come 10pm and both mother-daughter turn the lights off. West end mutters under her breath for AT LEAST 30 mins about how my laptop light coupled with my keyboard sound is torturing her. Sometimes this happens when I am on a conference call, dialed over my VoIP client. I cringe at the thought that my boss might overhear some of it and make his own irrational conclusions.

After a lot of pacifying and promising to write away my first born to her, West end finally dozes off(I don't believe she is all that photo/audio-sensitive, but that's a different story for another day). At around 1am when I crawl into bed, severely exhausted, jetlagged and stressed, since I have to get in the middle of both of them, of course my knees hit one person's leg or I graze on someone's ankle or maybe even poke someone in their eye cos well..uhm...there is NOT a ray of light. I have to systematically shut down the laptop, the router, the dsl modem and the neighbor's night light(upon strict orders). At that time, I hear more muttering and cursing from West end and I am also running low on my stash of patience. But I bite my lips and wait for the storm to pass hoping I don't have to give away my second born as well. By then South pole wakes up asking if I got work done and promptly refuses to share her comforter(which I bought for her on her 60th birthday and she holds on to it like it was her third child).

I am left groping for something to cover myself with. Which invariably causes more muttering by West end. Oh, I also have to refrain from shifting positions, moving my limbs around and/or other such related activities that any normal person might indulge in while sleeping. All these are likely to 'rouse' the monster. By the time she's done and I get some shut eye, I begin to wonder if I did the right thing signing up to come stay with my 'family' for 30 days and spend time with them. And I don't even want to mention the episode where I wake up at 4 or 5am(cos of my insomnia). There's only so much I can snack on, watch tv out in the living room and/or read without disturbing either one of them.

I decide to go for a walk everyday at 5am. Which means I have to set aside my track pant/t-shirt/ipod/socks out to the living room the night before(Why you ask? Lord haven't you been following the story? No lights remember?). After a good hour's walk, I finally decide to check email at a time I consider a reasonably sane hour erm...6am! By then I have said my prayers and even folded hands in front of the idol in Lalbagh on my walk and I pray everyday that West end doesn't kill me at the sound of my windows laptop booting or the light from the monitor or the sound of my breathing....any one thing is fair game for a trigger.

She doesn't but it invariably puts her in a bad mood till the time she leaves home for work. At this time, I conclude, I don't need in-laws, my own flesh and blood makes up for the lack of it.

Of gadgets and handymen

Growing up, being gadget-savvy had never featured in my list of wanna-grow-up-to-be. I've wavered between wanting to live in a thatched hut(have you ever sat inside of an umbrella and moved in your little doll-house belongings and pretended that you're living in a hut? Well I have and at that time I thought it was uber-cool!), to becoming an air-hostess, a doctor, travel guide, journo and so on and so forth. Fixing things, handling screw-drivers, hammers and what-not never featured in the daily agenda - painting, drawing, craft-work, reading, music- all packed in some very entertaining days and weeks and months, growing up.

Adulthood has been all about realizing an entirely new dimension to my personality; perhaps this is what makes one become what is called 'well-rounded'. Over time, I have become proficient in using screw drivers and hammers, pliers and some others the names of which I can hardly recall. Most of it has been due to the nature of my job. Some due to moving to this land of DIY where labor costs are an arm and a leg.

This weekend, I made grandiose plans to paint my bedroom. I had swapped the window treatment about a year ago, and there had been some remnants of a valance holder which I was unable to remove at that time. With this new project, I couldn't possibly paint around the plastic holder which appeared to be nailed(flat) to the wall. All efforts to pry it out with the limited gadgets that I owned came to naught. And it appeared that my project might come to a grinding halt, because unless I had the nail removed or found a way to break the plastic holder- there was no moving forward.

After finishing some long overdue chores, I landed at one of the two popular 'home improvement stores'. I rang the bell for assistance in the hope of getting some assistance in the form of humans over automated robots. Each one of them seemed pre-occupied and it appeared that it would be a while before someone could come to my rescue. I sauntered around the hardware/tools section- made a couple or more rounds. And returned more confused than ever. An elderly man happened to enter the section. After a second's hesitation, I walked up to him and explained my 'situation' in detail. With amusement, he asked me how I'd landed in this situation. And after a long spiel, he smiled and walked two aisles over to pick this up. "Here you go", he said, "this will be the best 10$ you will spend". A few minutes of explanation followed on how I should be using the tool and what else it could be used for. If there had been some spare nails and a test wall around, he would've even demonstrated to complete the lesson.

He ended it with "Don't even think of calling for professional help for this, you can do it!". Some pep talk that!

And thus I came home and if it weren't for the fact that I was ravenous, I would have proceeded right upstairs to get cracking. But 10 mins was all it took for 4 nails and holders to come out. And thus I now have a new tool in my kit and learnt a new lesson in gadgetry. Nail pullers! Who would've thunk?

Of bars and dates

The evening calm
A steaming meal
Some bread dipped in fragrant soup
Topped with pepper , what a deal

Digging the toes, deep into a pair
Of fleece socks with blue flair

Of candles, a soft light
Incense adds a perfumed sight
And thus its time to unwind
When a pull can be felt
Deep within the taste buds
That which just won't melt

Right now! it screams
With a pout and a wail
What can one do but rise
What's in, what's not avail

Perhaps this will do
Thus you surmise
A bar of goodness
A dates and walnuts surprise

Ahhh, yes this agreed
NOW time for a quiet read

After all, as they say- what's a craving
But a consuming desire to eat
In this case, for something
Nutty and sweet.

Premature

Nope, this isn't about preemie babies. And hence, read on :).

Recently, on a Friday afternoon, when I expressed to a friend that I was feeling lazy to get work done even though I had piles to do, she (with good intention) suggested I create a to-do list of my priorities and start working on them. Obviously, she meant well. For some reason, I couldn't help grinning at the idea. Because if there is one thing about me that tops my list of quirks, that would be my obsession to write to-do lists.

From what I need to be doing at work, to my chores at home, to what activities I have piled up in my spare time- everything is a to-do list. And when I'm done with one, I start creating more. If there was a way to set a to-do list to tell my mind about what to think about next, I would do it too. Its a perennial joke with my sister who spares no bone in taking pot shots at my expense. She has a similar outlook towards my anal retentive attitude towards revising for tests and exams. When she learnt I act in plays her first question was how many times I had re-re-revised the dialogues.

Be that as it may, this isn't about showing off my meticulous habits. Its about how I recently realized I left my childhood a long time ago. Prematurely, without being conscious of it. I don't recall the last time I did something childish and reckless and with the kind of abandon that comes from impulsive actions. I seriously don't. It almost seems like I was born with a sense of maturity and responsibility far beyond my years. And that is a sad realization.

One of the invariable side-effects of growing up prematurely is the fact that seriousness becomes a way of life. I can't remember the last time I did something impulsive, or rash or reckless like the last picture in this post .

Notes for 2009-2

* I watched 'Luck by chance' this weekend. Directed by Zoya Akhtar, starring Farhan Akhtar, Konkona Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Dimple Kapadia and many many others in guest appearances. Its about the struggle to make it big in Bollywood. To me, it seemed somewhat parallel to 'Fashion', but much better. Javed Akhtar's dialogues are crisp and relevant. Farhan and Konkona are brilliant in being true to their characterizations though I felt the end didn't tie up all the loose ends. Nonetheless I loved Sona's(Konkona's character) words in the last scene. Dimple Kapadia is superb as ever in her role as the insecurity-laden older actress. Worth a watch.

* In other news, the weather this weekend out here was a welcome break. It was warm and sunny, the kind of days one doesn't need a heavy jacket or gloves. And hence the entire population was out- at the malls or at parks or generally hanging out.

* There's a long weekend right around the corner and that makes this work week so much more tolerable :).

* Non-stop repeat mode on for this one :



Enjoy!

Notes for 2009-1

* Watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' recently. See, I have this problem- when books are made into movies, I take it in the literal sense. I expect every detail covered in the book to make its way to the movie. Especially if its a book I enjoyed. I have had this experience with many such...like 'Kite Runner' or something as simple as 'Devil wears Prada'...I expect one-to-one matches. Also, the advantage with books and words is the freedom it gives the reader to conjure up images and settings and backgrounds and characters that's hard to match with movies. In that sense, movies take away the fun of imagination by spelling everything out. There's no work for the mind.

Anyway, as always I was expecting Slumdog to be just like Vikas Swarup's book Q&A which I read back in December of 2007. I had loved the book and the plot and the theme. Slumdog, while the framework is somewhat like the book, the actual storyline differs. And honestly, I prefer the book.

The movie is great, don't get me wrong. It was typical Bollywood masala, woven into a Mumbai slum setting with liberal doses of intrigue and romance with a backdrop of the squalor and depravity we have come to know exists in the 'heart' of 21st century India. Anil Kapoor has definitely done a great job, considering I came away despising his character. My favorite song is 'Jai Ho'. The two young adult actors Dev Patel and Freida Pinto are impressive.

That's all I've got to say. Go watch for yourself, for sure. Its worth it!

* Read John Grisham's Appeal. A typical case of class-action on chemical poisoning in small-town US. Reminded me somewhat of King of Torts.

* And so in other news, being that I am a big fan of the 'Shopaholic series', I am actually looking forward to the movie. Oh, remind me to tell y'all about this book I am currently reading, once I am done.

L board

Some snippets of chat conversations on a wintery, lazy Sunday evening

Act 1
Me : Hiya S, whatchu doing?

S : Hiya Alt, nothing much. Whats cooking?

Me : Oh, today I made bhindi masala and roti.

S : Oh! isn't that something you put on your forehead? Why/How do you make a dish out of it?

[Exactly 2 mins of mute, while my brain wheels turn and work overtime and finally a bulb goes off......now at this point if you, dear reader, tell me what is he talk about? Well, you'll know in a few seconds, cos I know this guy better than you do!]

Me : S! You astound me. Bhindi is okra you nincompoop, the one you are talking about is bindi. Bhindi is pronounced Bh-in-dee like Cindy, bindi is b-in-di as in [ahem well english doesnt have a dha-eqvt now, does it?]

=============================================================

Act 2
Me : Hiya S, whats going on yo?

S : Nothing much girl. Whats going on with you?

Me : Me? Hm nothing much. Making pav bhaji for tonight's dinner.

S : Is this some dish with chicken legs?

Me : Hmmmm....

[Yes, you guessed right. More cranking of brain wheels, etc etc etc]

Me : S, you idiot! Pav is the bread that goes along with bhaji. Paanv means legs. Sheeesh!

================================================================

No kidding, but seriously S is NOT a non-desi. He's an ABCD, his parents are from Kerala and during the time these conversations are happening his new year's resolution happens to be to learn Hindi- thanks to Rosetta Stone!

Sigh!

Supper and a wet paper story

I've been craving to bake all this week. So my supper for today was some wonderful zucchini bread, thanks to this recipe and c-o-b soup.

Enjoy the weekend folks!

Oh, right. Wet paper story!(A weird title, dontcha think?)

So anyway today, on a whim, while I was at grocery line checkout, I decided to indulge myself by picking up the latest copy of the 'People' magazine(Yes, please dont imagine anything fancy, I'm quite boring like that). When I got home and unloaded the bags, I happened to dump a water bottle into the bag that had the mag. So, what else, yes...the cap wasnt fitted tightly and hence the magazine got soggy. And me being me, I didn't have the patience to wait for it to dry. So a light bulb went off in my head...the dryer! Yes! I dumped the mag into the dryer and set it for 10 mins.

What happened? Did it work, you ask? Erm. I didnt realize, putting a mag in the dryer makes the binding to come out, so I was left with a sheaf of loose papers- dry though!

So I guess it kinda worked, what do you think?

Timeless, Ageless

A forward from many years ago, stored for posterity. NOT my penning, wish it was. If anyone knows the name of the author for this, please to let me know!









You Are You

You are strong. . . when you take your grief and teach it to smile.
You are brave. . . when you overcome your fear and help others to do the same.
You are happy. . . when you see a flower and are thankful for the blessing.
You are loving. . . when your own pain does not blind you to the pain of others.
You are wise. . . when you know the limits of your wisdom.
You are true. . . when you admit there are times you fool yourself.
You are alive. . . when tomorrow's hope means more to you than yesterday's mistake.
You are growing. . . when you know what you are but not what you will become.

You are free. . . when you are in control of yourself and do not wish to control others.
You are honorable. . . when you find your honor is to honor others.
You are generous. . . when you can take as sweetly as you can give.
You are humble. . . when you do not know how humble you are.
You are thoughtful. . . when you see me just as I am and treat me just as you are.
You are merciful. . . when you forgive in others the faults you condemn in yourself.
You are beautiful. . . when you don't need a mirror to tell you.
You are rich. . . when you never need more than what you have.
You are you. . . when you are at peace with who you are not.

~Author Unknown

Non-stop repeat mode on

......hooked to this!

Odd!

* Some THREE years ago, I used an online florist in Bangalore to send a bouquet to a friend, wishing him for his exams. So this morning I open my email and find this :

Dear Madam/Sir
auto-reminder.
Last year on ... you placed an order to be delivered to XYZ

To deliver again ,Please place the order online.
Thank you
Mrs ABC

Sender's Email Address : Altoid

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasion : Good Luck
Instructions : Please deliver by [date]
Card Message : Best wishes for the exam
Delivery Date (DD/MM/YYYY) : 26/02/2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recipient Name : XYZ
Care Of :
Recipient Address : [The entire address]
Recipient Country : India
Recipient Phone No. : [number]

Errrrrrrrrrrm, NOT EXACTLY last year!

Glitch in the system?

* I am woken up (albeit rudely) at 2am this morning by an SMS. The sender's number looks like a cell phone number in India. It reads thus :

'Best wishes on India's Republic Day. Jai Hind'- From the Krishnans

Now, I can recall no Krishnans that I know, at 2 in the morning nor now when I am fully awake and in my senses.

So either they got the recipient number wrong or I should remember the Krishnans which I am just unable to.

Oh! and Happy Republic Day folks!

Thawed

There are snow days and then there are pileups. Today being a day off, thanks to MLK day and the skies turning it into a snow day was somewhat perfect. This wasn't a pileup kind of day....just an hour or two of snow and then the sun emerged, bright and warm. There's that small window of photo op, a sliver of time to capture this wintry mixture for posterity.

The Potomac river is everywhere in the VA/MD/DC area. It originates near Harper's Ferry and is carried along the C&O canal all the way to the Tidal basin in DC. A small park hosts this river as it flows through the county where I live. Its but a few miles away, the river that separates VA from MD. Its a beautiful park, filled with walking trails, a golf course and camping grounds.

The best time to visit this serene place is right after a snow shower. Its my favorite drive after clearing the snow from the driveway and off the car, the warmth of the sun sets the mood for a drive along the Algonkian park.

You enjoy this winter scenery while I go fix myself some green tea.

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?

Embellish

White inside, white outside!

Its 6 in the morning and I am fixing myself a breakfast of strawberries and yogurt while packing my lunch box for the day. NPR plays in the background detailing the preparations for Inauguration day which is just 5 days away. The sound of it seems to send chills down the spine...a historical moment and I live in the metro-DC area. Who would've thunk?

I shake the sun room curtains open. The sun is yet to shed light on how the day will turn out to be. I catch the word 'snow' on the weather forecast. I turn on the lights of the deck and I see white. The white of snow that's blanketed the bare brown of the wood.

As I dig into my morning fix, the yogurt seems smooth and delicious as it rolls on my tongue, soothing the ulcers which have made a painful appearance. It reminds me how I begin and end my day with...yogurt. Just like the smooth white that covers the deck outside, this smooth white is my comfort food.

For as long as I can remember, yogurt has been my daily accompaniment at every meal. Since moving abroad, I have tried every brand that has seen the light of the dairy aisle...from Dannon to Yoplait to Stonyfield farm, to yogurt smoothies to fruit-at-the-bottom. I have tried the desi brands as well from Reeta to the latest Desi Natural Dahi(which is my current favorite, the low-fat variety). I could finish even the most hated dishes/vegetables with a dollop of dahi. Whether its a quick breakfast or a late night snack(granola or fruits with a yogurt topping), dahi is my life-saver. Lassis are right on top of my favorite drink list. Which is why I loved our Delhi-Agra-Jaipur trip two years ago. The lassi in the area is thick, frothy and unforgettably good! If ever a diet were to be created that said no yogurt, that'll be the death of me. I am not a chocoholic or caffeine addict or any such. But dahi-olic, that I am!

Before I launch into brand endorsements, have any of you tried Greek yogurt? If you haven't, try a small carton of this. Pronounced 'Fa-ye' its thick, full of active cultures(which one absolutely needs!), protein-packed and yummy! Don't ask me why its different and why I like it better than others, for some years now- this has been my absolute all-time must-have.

As I scrape the remnants of my bowl of yogurt, I smile to myself. Whatta morning!

White inside, white outside!

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?

The then and the now of travelling and everything in between

* 10 years ago, surviving 24+ hrs to get from Point A in India to Point B in the US(or vice versa) with a short transit stop at some EU destination was a sleepless saga with time spent feverishly between books, music, movies and plenty of restless walking up and down the aisles. I could never sleep on these flights. I would see everyone around me doze off the minute they tucked into their seats with the belts on. And I'd be the lone zombie easily polishing off 2-3 books per trip. Thats 2-3 books in a span of 24 hrs, no kidding!

And now, I cant seem to even finish one book. I am in a constant dazed state on flights, waking fitfully in between for the wonderful "asian vegetarian" fare that gets delivered to my seat at regular intervals. 7 or 8 or 9 or 10 hr flights just seem to get drowned in blessed sleep and the 2-3 hrs of layover serve as an intermission period for a restroom break and a cuppa.

Strange!

* Being away for a month, while it works out to be a decent break, its hard to get back to the rhythm of things back here. There's lots of work- both at work and home thats been piled up for sure. But everything gets tackled in a half hearted kinda way- the sights and sounds and smells from back home linger for a far longer period. Its cold back here- the sun doesnt see the light of the day till around 8 in the morning and decides to check out by around 4:30. The weather here in VA has been wet and miserable, to add insult to injury. All I do is curl up in bed and wish I were back home. Sleep doesnt seem to want to come to my rescue. I suppose all of it caught up with me on the flight.

* The program "Aap ki kachehri" run by Kiran Bedi on the Indian telly caught me by surprise. Judge Judy now has an Indian equivalent.

* How can we get over this disgusting trait back home of spitting? I mean seriously, what is it with getting the urge to spit all the time? Somehow civic consciousness about this has never gotten around. Just like Singapore has banned chewing gum, we have to find a way to curb this sickening trait.

* Watched Abhiyum Naanum at the theater on my last day at home. While it had shades of 'Father of the bride' the first half was immensely entertaining and a must watch. The second half drags for quite a bit with plenty of needless songs and dances. The Jogi character has been overly hyped, me thinks. All in all, Trisha was passable, Prakashraj and Aishwarya fit their roles to the T and the Ravi Shastri character was entirely timepass!