Interstellar : The Nerd's Wife Reviews

I know I've skipped two promises, one the Italy trip and the Pujo. I frankly wanted to get writing about my October festivities reviews as soon as I got back, but somehow I've misplaced the photographs and that kind of dampened my spirits.. and Italy's been far too long it will take too long to recollect the data.

And Interstellar is still fresh in mind. And before I begin, a disclaimer: This review by no means implies I didn't get the movie or I'm less smart than anyone else. Let's just keep the opinions for the end of the review.. Boy! Can I make a mountain of a mole :P

Being married brings with itself a lot of work, enough for you to "rarify" your weekend outings from every weekend during courtship to can't remember the last movie we had seen weekends. Long and short of it, the movies have to be really epic to make us(him) move.

It goes without doubt that this movie has all the right ingredients to excite a Nolan fan: that it's his movie. And then he says I'm brand crazy ("Mirror"). And it also meant that we had to watch the movie the same day it got out. We were three of us, Him, My brother and I. 

We took the last show, we entered the hall and it was a nerd heaven out there! Anyway, doesn't help much that we were stuffed till the neck when we got into the hall (It's important to know, You'll see how). Now finally I will get to the movie, to the oldies talking on the screen about the dust and corn everywhere. The house, and the fact that they still drink beer (hopefully it's maize beer.. I read somewhere in one of the nerd showing off how cool he is to point out Nolan's bloopers saying how can you make beer when there is no wheat.. you don't have to be book wise to know everything.. mostly practical experiences beat all theoretical knowledge.. get what I mean? Of course you do!). 

The first half is just a drag, on this even the nerd husband agrees. I mean the movie implies that the NASA even though it's conducting it's operations in secret and everything so short of resources that they would ask a guy who just happened to get to their location to fly off to a mission. Of course he did spend a dedicated first hour establishing that how into science he was and how he had secretly revolutionized his farm to harvest bumper yields, but then the NASA had never visited his farms how did they know? For all the reason and science their belief in him was also a hunch (Yes! It could have also been an enemy country's evil plan to infiltrate their territory with a mole, but the very best (leftover) brains in NASA didn't even consider that possibility). The man even in the scientific days of mankind barely got off the ground. NASA's belief one side, is it really that easy to convince a father of two with no one else but his visibly wasting dad after him agree so easily to give it all up for such a thing? Just because they convinced him that was the only way to save the world, the a very bleak chance to even get back in time to help his family.

Any way both of them take the leap of faith, so much physics jargon and through all this time I'm wondering looking at all their faces how they have aged.. seriously I just couldn't help drawing comparisons with "The princess diaries", "The wedding planner". Age has seriously started showing and how!!! While absorbing their old age and embracing myself for mine,  I hear someone snoring (here is where the heavy dinner info comes in) and that's my brother :) .. I wake him up just in time for the interval. I will have to agree here that movie does get interesting, both plot wise and visually, once they fly off.  

      

While my brother and I were discussing the movie, on what would happen next. A weirdo who had come all alone to watch the movie, says "Excuse Me, I can hear you.." I was in a serious mood for some smart replies like "Oh can you really now? For somebody who's such a good listener how come you're alone here?" But then I checked myself thinking it will take away some precious movie minutes from him and then he'll have to watch the movie all over again as he would have failed to follow the rest as it is it looked like he was putting in way too much effort!

Moving on...

 

I really was impressed at the various representations of the new planets, and how it scared the living hell out of me when that giant wave took the most invisible person of the group away, little confession, drowning is by far my worst fear right after being hit by a car, falling off a high rise building, being eaten up by a dog infected with rabies. The snow clad planet with the evil Damon (Why so old why?!?) was pretty too. And where our hero is flapping around for the lack of oxygen was somehow funny, no I'm not a sadist, of course I knew he couldn't die just yet the world hadn't been saved till then :) 

What really puzzled me was the fact that how could they have assumed that if the transmitter was sending signals it meant their could be life on the planet? Had they not seen enough sci-fi movies earlier to know that technology always fails at the most fool proof scenarios? And humans by their very nature are selfish?

Any how.. The best and the worst part of it all was the climax.. so it was him all along who the NASA referred to as "they are helping us" or what I referred to as the hunch. "Kartik Calling Kartik" from future much?

I mean really? Of all the brains and all the alternate reality, you could add in any extreme explanation to it, for me I expected something less rudimentary than what bollywood has already come up with, or a physicists version of Ghost of the Christmas Future. You know it made me feel like all the intuitions I generally get is the future me (preferably from a black hole ) warning me against a mishap, and like the mcConaughey of the past, did I always ignore. 

And also one more thing I noticed, Nolan does have something for a world which is upside down, he imagined the new planet to be such and I also remember him showing a similar dream world in Inception as well. But well.. who am I to draw similarities I'm not a Nolan fan, nor am I a physicist, or a qualified psychiatrist. I'm just a nerd's wife who like talking way too much :)

Well there you have it: A non geek reviews a movie she wasn't very excited to watch in the first place. But let me be honest here, it was worth the watch, and unlike inception where there was a lot of thinking involved this one was fairly simple to understand even with it's complex gravity, time and distance concepts. If for nothing else, it's good that I did watch it to know what the whole hullabaloo is all about.. Thanks to the nerd husband I'm not left out, and neither is my sleepy bro ;)

The Honeymoon Part 3: Switzerland

As you can see from the lags between the posts, being married is a very time consuming activity. Not that I'm complaining or anything, Just saying.. Why this sudden burst of writing after all this inactivity.. you wonder?  Well this is September, and as many of you would know by your religious belief next month the "Great Hindu Festivities" start, which in the North is famous as Dusshera, for my new found family is madly popular as Durga Puja or getting the lingo right just "Pujo". And I want to be able to give real time updates for that without wasting time. So clearing out my backlog as fast as I can.

Ok.. so what was it that I had promised to chatter on in this post? Oh yeah Switzerland! Paris was a touch and go affair, but we had two and a half days in Switzerland. I was an amazing transition from Paris to Zurich, and amazingly  long one. It practically took our whole day in that bus ride to the favorite Hindi movie destination. Throughout the way what I noticed was that the European way of Hooliganism is confined to graffiti, it was all over the place. Every flyover/underpass had it's walls decorated with those colored messages (Pun intended!) One more thing you grow to appreciate while you are spending most of your time on the road, is the quality of the road! Europeans sure know how to maintain this lifeline. While it is expected that the national (or shall I say.. International) highways would be good, what was astonishing was that even the local roads were the same standard. We didn't run over a single pot hole the entire 10 days. Remarkable! And for someone who's now living in Gurgaon (The land with no roads) unbelievable!

To be very honest, I'm beginning to forget my journey. It's been so long, but writing about it is bringing back nice memories.

Now let me begin about the experience about our next stop. Zurich was spot to rest between all that beauty, it doesn't itself have anything very fancy to offer in terms of tourist spots, but hey what do I know, I was on a guided tour!

Zurich was the one place where we were on our own for a full day, while others made a visit to every bollywood crazy, The Alps!! To be precise the location where DDLJ songs were shot. Oh no it's not that I didn't go to the Alps, I went to the Alps the next day, which was every train crazy (Husband) would kill to go : Mt. Jungfrau, it's the highest railroad ever built in Europe. Don't ask why I agreed to this, I just melt when I see him go all puppy eyed about something.. But more on that later. First, the alone day. So remember how I've been very vocal about the fact that I was on a guided tour? Well.. this was the day we could get a flavor of being on our own. And let me be very honest, first one hour we had no clue how to even get out of the hotel! But then we figured out the train station was close by, we reached there and looked for the ticket vendor, but turns out Europe is short on people to work, so they have ticket machines, which are fairly complex to decode for people like us. Somehow we got the ticket. Now the next challenge was where to get off, if you think our stations are confusing, you should see their's. Needless to mention we got off at the wrong station where we were greeted by a very scary hoodlum, somehow we ran off from there, only to come out and realize we were at the completely wrong place with no human in sight, then all of a sudden we see a girl. Now the next confusion was if she knew English, the only way to know was to ask if she knew English. Luckily for us she did!! So we were now back to the station after receiving the correct directions and again with great difficulty surpassing that hoodlum again and a station later we were at the station we intended to be at! And now begins the onward journey to start the search for the Toy store my puppy eyed Husband had marked to buy his fancy game from, don't ask me again why I indulge him, I've got my own way of dealing with situations!

As I've mentioned before, Zurich is more like a pit stop among all that beauty, where our rich politicians park their money and where you could also shop for all the fancy Swiss brands and the Cow bells!! Man! The Swiss sure love their cows and every thing about them! Every where I saw there was a miniature cow, or a cow bell, or milk product derivative or just cow to eat :P!!

But have to say this for sure, an hour on our own we had begun to enjoy the freedom to not do everything by the clock. Not having a plan also makes you explore more. This was the place where we bought most of our souvenirs from (and at exorbitantly high prices to be honest!)  and this was also the place we went into a completely desolate Museum which housed the biggest succulent plant collection in Europe, OK may be I made up the biggest part. But that was the height of being aimless!! But the take away from the trip was discovering three churches while wandering, each so beautiful and serene! We shopped like the locals do, in their big bazaar, which they call coop ( it surprisingly had a very big bazaar type brand coloring as well.. hmm.. coincidence??) A word of advice, please do resort to these stores when in Europe, they house all the stuff you might need (Even Booze) at very reasonable prices. It was only from here we got our stash, of FOOD!! What were you thinking?!?

Day two in Switzerland was for the Mountain top tour. That's when the real beauty revealed itself! I have never seen such huge lakes, and never seem such picturesque locales!! And never heard such random nonsense as this : "This where they shot one scene where SRK drove his car through the road", " This the bridge where Kajol and SRK danced" and all that random nonsense. Having said that it should come as no surprise that every where I went I saw a huge group of Indians (yes more than what we were already carrying in our bus) Ooohing and Aaahing about these stupid facts (Made up or true, whatever way I didn't care much!) But this was the first time I went up a mountain peak so up and close. This was also the first time I saw snow.. it's a shame for me as my ancestors are essentially mountain people, but in my defense I'm a true blue Delhite with all the flaws!

First time snow I think is an experience of a lifetime, it was amazingly pretty. In fact the whole place was! Yes, this was the place where romance could bloom! And because there was nothing else except for the bounteous beauty, there is nothing much to tell. Only one things, you must go and experience it yourself :)

The Honeymoon Part 2 : Paris

So let's start with Paris, I must have mentioned this a zillion times but in case you forgot, this was my first international trip :) So it goes without saying, I WAS EXCITED!! And this was the volume I was talking in while we were landing, and was scolded ( By the never excited about anything husband.. Ooh I've been "to foreign" before it's no big deal for me.. Huh!) Anyway, that's how the trip officially started and now we were all off the plane and all looking for the one man who was going to be the most important man for the entire 10 days: Eric Patel, Sid and I thought it could be short for Ericeshwar :P 'cz he really didn't look like an Eknath to me :D. In case you're wondering (I know you're not) turns out, there were no English short forms, that's what his name was and he was a Parsi and not a Gujju as the surname suggested. I know not the most important detail anyone would want right now.

The funniest thing happened at the airport, we spent two hours searching for our bus. No.. the airport was not that big, in fact to my surprise it's way smaller than our Delhi airport and a lot less fancy as well. We spent this much time because our bus waited for us at departure, while we waited for at, of course Arrivals. He wasn't the most intelligent person, but it's alright honest mistake. Finally after shuttling up and down, back and forth we finally were able to find the bus and it was in the bus for the first time we actually registered the faces of our travelling companions, they could be easily divided into two groups:

1. The "Honeymoon" Couples : This included us and half of the group (Mind you, we were the oldest newly married there, that's what happens when you take studying too seriously :P)

2. The Parents of Honeymoon Couples (Probably on some other guided tour): Ha Ha! No seriously! The other half comprised of elderly couples who seemed to have completed all their social responsibilities and had finally come on vacation.

And there was also a group of middle aged men who sadly did not classify as any of the above, and I frankly have no idea how they even thought that a guided trip could ever emulate the "Euro Trip" theme!

By the time we reached it was already too late to do anything so we had dinner and we were dropped at the hotel, which was in the middle of practically nowhere. Well.. no not exactly, it was right next to the airport, but then that's where we came from why would we want to go there again? The hotel though in a desolate area, was extremely comfortable and I instantly started having a good feeling about the trip.

Morning after was the day we "did Paris"!! First stop: Arc de Triomphe, for whoever who's been there knows this is a war memorial monument built by Napolean. This looks very similar to our very own "India Gate" except that I couldn't locate Amar Jawan Jyoti anywhere. Where is stands it's the center for 12 streets. It stands in the very heart of the most busy intersection in Paris, it is said that no insurance is valid at this intersection. So basically if I met with an accident in front of the Arc, I'll have to foot the bill on my own. But trust me, French traffic is not even half as brutal as Delhi traffic, so as long as you've crossed a street anywhere here you'll do marvelously well there. When the guide was giving us this bit of info I was reminded of Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There" which is essentially a travelogue on Europe. The guy has an exaggerated sense of humor and he had also mentioned the same thing and a lot more, it's a good read though. At this point, it's important that I tell you we were given 5 minutes (Yes.. 5. No I'm not kidding) to click photographs of the monument and the entire history was told to us in the "Coach" to save on time. And yes, this would be the modus operandi of the entire trip (This was learnt later :P). Even so, This was my first real taste of Paris and I liked what I saw, of the 12 streets that lead up to the Arc was the very famous and very expensive Champs Elysees, which had almost all the high end fashion stores I'm aware of and even more of the ones which I'm not!! 5 minutes is not a lot of time to absorb all that was infront of me, but then almost everywhere we went thenceforth was one of the 12 streets and just a peep to the right of any street showed me the marvelous intersection. So that you know what I'm referring to, here's an original pic, the girl with the dazzling smile is of course me :D

We then moved on to the city tour, I was really amazed to see how the Parisians have so seamlessly infused the old and new. The banks of the river Seine hold so much history, every bridge looks onto something magnificent. The medieval architecture just blows you over! What blew me over even more was the very cleverly integrated new buildings which had retained the same architecture yet being modern in every functional way. The beauty of the central part of Paris is this: Anywhere you look, from the corner of your eye you can see the Eiffel Tower peeking at you! And if somehow you manage to block it from your view, there would be these street vendors trying to sell miniatures to you! There's no escaping the metal structure while you're in Paris!

And finally post the Bus tour around the city, which also included looking at the entrance of the Louvre, who have sadly now inverted the glass pyramid and redone the whole look and it now looks more of a mall entry than a Museum (Yes, only the entry. You know this is a guided tour right? Who has the time for Museums!!) we made way for the star of the city, The Eiffel Tower. The whole structure is so over whelming, you at first don't know what to make of it. It obviously has no functional purpose, but it still is the most visited paid monument in Paris. And rightly so. The engineering is beyond fantastic, the way we get up to the deck is via lifts at the base of each of the four legs, which move diagonally upwards. This was the first time I even saw this direction was possible! And once we reached the top the breath taking view explained to me where the French get their romance from. The river, the Notre Dame, the beautiful Palace of Versailles, Hotel de Invalides and the new city somewhere in the horizon. It was a 360 degree view which did make me a little dizzy for a bit!

But even better than the Eiffel Tower in warm sun is the Eiffel Tower glowing at night. It looks beautiful as it is with a thousand light bulbs illuminating the structure, but at every hour strike for 5 minutes a marvelous thing happens: It starts twinkling! Yeah! And it's the most beautiful thing! And how we got to see it was also amazing. So seeing the Eiffel tower at night wasn't exactly in the tour itinerary, but I was hell bent on doing so. So after the dinner was done, I noticed one of the other "Honeymoon Couples" asking Mr. Eric what more could be done in Paris at night. And took this cue and jumped right into the plan. The best thing we ever did! So while we were on our way to the Eiffel Tower after exploring Champs Elysees again from the corner peeked at us the Tower twinkling in all it's might! I'm not kidding when I say this, I had never seen anything like it till date (Of course as the journey progressed more and more awesome things took its place, but at that time it was the epitome of beauty) We rushed and made way to Trocedero, which is a sort of the lookout Point for the Eiffel tower. But when we got there the show was over! We were disappointed. We asked around and got to know that it happens at every hour strike. The decision to stay was fairly simple to make. And as if to help us pass the time, a group of dancers started waltzing in front of us, that was an amazing coincidence that made the wait worth it. And when the hour struck, Oh man! It was such a marvel! For the first minute atleast.. then it gets kind of repetitive and you know I have a short attention span, but it was good fun till it held my attention :D  Again, why keep you in the dark, below is he video of what I'm talking about. (And please ignore the voices in the background, We didn't intend this video to go public)

In case the video doesn't play, we also took some photographs!! But this one doesn't bring out the twinkle :(

Another small adventure was finding a cab, at the dead of the night. With no one else but the four of us to guide ourselves and the hotel a good hour away, we had really lost hope of getting anywhere. But thanks to cabs fitted with GPS we did find someone brave enough to drive us all the way to the desolate place where the rest of the party was housed. Everything said and done, this Evening in Paris was worth not forgetting!!

Oh Paris, you left me wanting. Just one day was not enough to do you justice. There were so many places that I wanted to visit and spend time at: top of the list, Louvre. It was a shame I could not say my hullo to Monalisa. Quasimodo's spirit at the Notre Dame would have also taken offence. Mary Antoinette would have not appreciated that I didn't get to see how fabulously she lived in the Palace of Versailles(And yet, I did see where she most brutally died). Before leaving I have made a promise to be back and finish all that was left pending and a little more!

Next Stop: Switzerland!  

The Honeymoon! Part 1

Now that I have you here on the blog, look to the left side of the post. Done?

Now to the right.. Done?

Now scroll down to the bottom and come back to read the post.. Done?

Yeah! You saw? I've got ads on my blog!!! Yay!! That means Google has started taking my blog seriously. This is huge!!! Do you know what this means?? That my random nonsense might finally start paying! I know! Amazing right? Well.. not really.. why you ask? First, not many of the blog readers actually click on the ads and two, even if they do too few and far between and it pays peanuts! Good thing I write not for money but for sharing with the world :)!!!

Alright then, what was this post about? Yeah.. The Honeymoon. Before your mind starts racing and the heart starts pacing (or is it the other way round?? Anyway who cares!!) This post is about my first ever international trip! It goes without saying I'm a romantic and I've grown up on my dose of Bollywood movies, so when the choice of the destination arrived I had no doubt in my mind it had to be Europe!! We did have difference in opinion here as he wanted to go to New Zealand because one his favorite movies series LOTR was shot there, Yes.. this is how nerds decide where they'll want their honeymoon. But in his defense, I'm not better it's just that we follow different genres of movies, a match made in heaven aren't we?? :D It's pointless to even wonder who won ;)

So now that Europe was decided, the next question to be asked was where in Europe? Now at this point it is important to mention that I'm horribly bad at geography (Yes it's true, I'm not being modest here) and this (I) was the butt of all jokes all this while when we were planning what all countries to go to (His Favorite one, You which continent is Turkey in? I know The answer now It’s a transcontinental country Europe+Asia, but I’m sure I’ll soon forget :P True I am that bad). So for all practical purposes I was going to be no help in planning, it was all up to the Geo Wiz! And the timing was just so wrong, he had to shift his house and we were getting married (well this one was obvious) and there was office (which I think by now you know we're both practically in love with) and other commitments which left little time for the research required to plan out a fabulous trip. We were in a pickle you could say, but then we did make the customary visit to tripadvisor.com and makemytrip.com to get the ballpark expense figure. This is out of personal experience, makemytrip customer care is awful! But searching fares, well no one can go wrong with that. So now we knew that the air tickets were going to cost us around a lakh and the hotels were around 8K a night. Now what? This is where our research more or less came to a standstill, because let’s face it there is no known cure for laziness. So then I decided to take matters into my hand (You see if I wanted to see Europe so bad, it was my duty to make it happen) and I started scanning the Tuesday edition of HT city regularly. For the non-HT readers, Tuesday is the day for holiday packages. All the companies were more or less offering the same price, except for D’pauls they were offering 10K discount for the first 20 bookings. And like the discount hunter I am we landed up at their South Delhi office, two starry eyed newbies. I think the moment we entered the office, the agents knew convincing us would be a cakewalk. Anyway, they did make the effort, showed us some pictures (which looked precariously dated) gave us vivid descriptions and stuff and then told us rather seriously if you book now you get a discount which may not be available later. Now given that I’m any advertisers dream, I fell for it. We booked a trip in February, for the month of May. Too eager are we? Well.. better safe than sorry I say, and there was this 10K discount which was rather surprisingly, on till April end J Such innocent souls we are we believe in everything we’re told.

So now after we came back home, as an afterthought I started to read the reviews for the agent online. Yup! After booking the trip.. No I’m not a retard; I just believe there is good in everyone if you know the right places to look at. And the reviews were not cool… Then I called up the fiancé and told him, he also went hmm… should we have done this earlier? Yeah.. OK next day at the office I ask my friend who actually had gone on trip recently via the same agents. She was all positive about it, phew some respite. But even so the negative reviews still haunted me. And the fact that it would be a group of N00B (DOTA fans would know what this means) tourists which included us being taken around the country somehow seemed very shameful to us. This implied we were not capable of planning our own trip, which let’s face the truth was the case.

Anyway, this way or that, what was done was done. What came next was the part where we collected the documents for the VISA. Oh my god!! Never has anybody been that suspicious about our relationship’s authenticity, everybody took to agree that the two of us our together without us having to prove anything. But the French Embassy, No! It needed proof that not only were we together, our parents’ had no objection to our relationship. Only one parent would just not cut it, all four parents needed to give their blessings in writing. For the first time in the four years of our togetherness we needed an NOC from our parents! Then we needed to prove that we would for sure get married before we leave for the trip, which meant we needed to provide the wedding cards, and this was what four months before the trip.. and 3 months before the wedding? So my mother wasn't the one worried about the cards being printed, my father wasn't the one worried about the cards being printed, but it was our very diligent and extremely cooperative travel agent Piyush. He tirelessly bugged us for every random document the embassy would have needed. Oh by the way, did I tell you just these wasn't enough, they also wanted to see our wedding photographs, Yup! Before the wedding! Man! Such prudes these Schengen countries are. This was really a tough one as we never had any other formal ceremony except for the wedding, we provided random family gathering photos as proof J. But in hindsight it seems worth it as these random documents saved us from a visit to the embassy, which we later learnt from the fellow tour buddies had happened for all of them.

Finally when the VISA did arrive, it was official that I was going abroad! But somehow the excitement did not kick in until I boarded the plane. Oh before that, just when we arrive at the airport, I try to clean my specs for clear vision and pop, it snaps! Yeah! What a great start to the journey right? And as you would expect I carried no spares (In my defense, I prefer contacts and I did carry a spare for that. But as you would expect that was never needed :P) So here I am roaming around the airport with sometimes hazied sometimes clear vision, waiting for my first international flight. By the way, I must say this in writing, Qatar Airways are the best airlines I have traveled in, one may argue what would she know flying outside India for the first time. True, but the “Husband” also agreed and he’s a little bit well traveled than I am J We had a 3 hour stopover at Doha, which is an reasonably easy time to while away given the amount of gadgets we carrying on us. But no, we wanted to eat something, this even when we had been given breakfast in the last flight and were sure to lunch in the next. So we start hunting for food, first stop, Costa: a sandwich. Hunger not satiated. Next stop the airport cafeteria, I don’t clearly remember what I ate there but one thing was sure, this trip was going to be completely about food!

By the time we finally landed in Paris, we had already identified a few of our D'pauls gang. And then once at the Airport we now needed to find our Mr. Eric.

This post is turning out to be longer than expected, so why don’t we do this.. let’s split this one up into a part series. And I feel like ending this one here.


And now that you are at the end of this post do you see the ad below J Don’t be irritated I’m just too excited <It’s called being high Energy J>

Thank you for the Warm (Literally!) Reception Kolkata!

 

I know I really need to pick up speed on the updates, I’m currently running a month behind schedule. But then I don’t see anybody dying to hear the updates anyway, so I think I’m fine. But even so I will give an explanation for the delay, and that is I only came back today from my Honeymoon.. Yay! My first foreign trip! Yes I’m a typical Indian bride in a lot more ways than I would want to accept. It was the most awesome experience ever! But more about it later, now let’s first clear the backlog, shall we?

Bidding a brief farewell to my beloved Delhi, I headed on to my Sasural (Funny.. English has no apt for this J ) accompanied with my new family and for support by (Not so) little brother. It is customary that the newly wed bride takes along her brother. The logic behind is simple, among the sea of unknown people that she must now accept a familiar face would be reassuring. However, more than for my reassurance I was more worried about him as he didn’t understand the language at all and did not know anyone else but me, I on the other hand had my husband to make it simple for me. But then my mother-in-law is the sweetest person, she made sure he didn’t feel out of place or out of his comfort zone. This included letting the kid sleep till late (this she let me also do J Yes the age old rule the bride must wake up before everyone else didn’t apply on me J) and the breakfast the way we eat at home. So yes, that tension was erased.

 And now let me get on to the real deal. My first encounter with the Bong culture happened in the train itself, so all the Bong movies/serials so shamelessly mocking Kaal Raatri made me doubt if such a thing actually happens, turns out it does! What’s it all about you ask? Well the first night after being married the bride and the groom aren’t supposed to see each other. It was hardly a constraint as next day we were travelling J. This was lesson number one in Bong culture.

 Lesson number two was when I entered the house for the first time officially as the bride of the house, they had called a local makeup artist to do my makeup for the event, let me tell you the truth I did NOT approve of the RED lipstick at all! But Sid says that’s the locally accepted color of the bride (That does explain him wondering why would I deliberately change my lip color to brown.. Men I tell you..No sense of fashion!) Lesson number two every Bong Bride has got to have Blood Red lips!

Anyway that aside, the event of the bride entering the house for the first time is called Bou Bhaat (Literal translation would be Bride-Rice i.e the first meal that the Bride makes in the house). And I had no idea I was such a celebrity, or rather my MIL was so social. There were near about 100 people waiting to have a look at me at this “informal” ceremony. Seriously it’s like the North Indian Muuh Dikhayi, ever seen so many people at the house on the day after the wedding? I haven’t! On top of that was the unbearable heat in the house owing to the above mention sea of people, camera lights and the very obvious humid weather of Kolkata! I was seriously baking in the Banarasi saree, clubbed with the itching feeling of red lipstick on my face! But must say the irritation was relieved when the gifts started pouring in, no I didn’t open them as I was getting them, but I can make out a jewelry box from a mile away J. So I’ve been told Bongs don’t appreciate cash as gifts, this is a pure contrast to the standard gifting practices followed in Delhi, but then I saw why. Bongs put serious effort into buying gifts, true I got a lot of bed spreads, but I also got a lot of stuff that I have very happily incorporated in my daily life( Did I mention the jewelry? Oh of course I did J). This made it lesson number three: Bongs know the art of gifting!

The formal ceremony is pretty short though 20 minutes max. I know the word suggests I’m supposed to be making a meal, but did I mention I have the sweetest MIL, when I arrived everything was done (You can’t expect me to cook to a hundred people can you?) I was just asked to touch the utensils. This is not it to be true, all throughout the week I was there she didn’t let me do a single household chore! Blessed to me <Touchwood>  

I mentioned Kaal raatri didn’t I? The next night to compensate, the cousins do up the bed with flowers and everything (totally filmy.. and not forget so embarrassing) which is to be photographed for future mockery I believe as any other reason for keeping evidence eludes me. It was even more embarrassing as I we made silly poses, my brother just looked and felt awkward himself in the background!

Anyway, the day ended! The reception was not until 3 days and my parents arrived in 2, so that made the next day free for meeting the relatives who could not make it to the wedding. That was quick, and then to kill the time and mingle with my new relatives, we went for a movie. The movie should be easy to guess: “Two States”. I went to watch it looking like my own version of two states wearing the North Indian Chura and the Bong Shakha, Paula, Loha. People looked at me all kinds of confused for Bongs are not used to any other red and white bangles other than the ones mentioned above. The movie review? It was alright, too stretched, waste of time. Any way you get the gist, now let me skip to the reception.

So for the reception, first thing I must talk about is the makeup artist. Why you ask? Well.. she’s one of the most renowned artists in the city (Why I wonder!). She wanted me to be there 5 hours in advance! Yes, no kidding! What she was going to do with me I had no idea. Bottomline, I spent most of my reception day at the parlor, watching the painstakingly slow speed in which she worked on me. While she slowly did and re-did my nails, I realized why I was asked to spend 5 hours there. I was comparing it to the bridal makeup I got done in Delhi, she was super quick, super smooth and had me ready in two and half hours flat! But then , there was one thing that separates a Bong a bride from a North Indian one; and that’s called the “Chandan”. It’s the white motif design around the eyes that is quintessential to only Bongs. That intricate design making is an art in itself.  To the uninitiated, it may seem the same across brides, but each one is drawn with so much finesse and requires so much patience (both on the artist and the bride) that it cannot be over looked.

Post makeup I was ready to face the biggest challenge I have ever faced in my life till yet! Standing on 4 inches heels for a good 6 hours, to add to it was the extremely heavy (even heavier than the one in Bou Bhaat) Banarasi Saree and the extremely intolerable hot, humid still weather. Also, with all the jewelry I wore, I felt like female version of Bappi Lahiri.. No kidding! That didn’t help combating the heat either!

There were a 100 people who had attended the Bou Bhaat, to what it seemed to me a 10000 attended the reception. I might have been hallucinating due to the pain from the heels, heat and hunger, but I’m pretty sure they are more than the 500 official count. Oh god! The heat! It was unbearable! How unbearable? You ask? How about this? My Boss had also come to attend me reception as she’s also married to a Bong and was in Cal at that time and while wishing us her husband joked, “If a couple decides to get married in April in Kolkata they must really love each other!!”  True that! Or completely crazy! At that point of time I wasn’t thinking clearly! It was a long long night, I was introduced to so many people. Funny thing is, everybody my MIL introduced me to were either actual relatives (you know second, third, fourth, fifth relative) or just like a relative (mostly just like my elder sister.. why were there no younger sisters.. I wonder J) By the time the last relatives were introduced I had pretty much gave up on ever getting to sit or eat food. What’s with wedding functions and not getting to eat anything! Same with the wedding, same with the reception! But as I have already established, I have been married into a very compassionate family, so between introductions, I was being slipped in some knick knacks from time to time, but then to greet people with food in the mouth is not exactly lady-like. But I survived! Somehow! But whatever I got out of it, the food was super. I’ve gained 5 kgs since I got married (not that I was any thin prior to the marriage anyway..) Not proud of the fact L. And got my lessons number four and five: Four, Bongs are very social people. Five, They know and appreciate good food.

I spent the next day showing my parents/aunts/brothers around the city, the heat and humidity did bring down the general of enthusiasm though. My brothers made fun of me calling me aunty, so hate them!! But then I saw the pics they clicked.. they weren’t lying.. I looked so married J. But loved every bit of it! This was the end of my first trip as a legal Bong.

Next trip would not be too soon I know, but I know one thing for sure, this Pujo (Yes it’s Durga Puja for the non Bongs, for “us” Bongs it’s just Pujo J) I go Pandal hopping in the City of Joy!

The hard part was my trip back home, where for the first time my parents and I went to different homes, and that’s when my new life began…

The Wedding – In retrospect

This Sunday makes it exactly 3 weeks of me being married. And how does it feel? Don’t hate me for making this sound so easy, but it feels no different. Yes! I wasn't panicking then and absolutely cool as cucumber now. There were a few hitches in the beginning:  I was cooking my own food as I was unable to find a cook.  But that was a week ago, this week I found a cook and my cleaning lady ran away, but I managed to avert a catastrophe by asking the cook to help me through. Do you notice how domestic my talks have become? And how I have very efficiently taken upon the role of a good housewife? That said, this really does take away a lot of my TV, blog and random nonsense time J.

Anyway, as you can see I can really go on about my new found life, but I first want to get done with the event that happened 3 weeks ago!  So, in this and the next few posts in the series plan to focus on the entire event that was my marriage!

It is imperative that I first lay down the facts: I only went on leave only 3 days before my wedding functions started. My original plan was to take the Good Friday off and then attend the function Saturday onwards J.. It was only when one of my cabmates asked.. Are you taking a half day on your wedding day? And when my Boss advised me to take a few more days off that I altered the plan. It’s not that I’m a workaholic, it’s just that I didn’t know what to do with those days. As it is it was too few days to get the yet unfinished stuff done.  And now come to think of it, I can’t remember what I did on those extra leaves I took.  Oh yes, I know! My masi and sisters came a few days in advance so that was fun J

I won’t bore you with all the details of the wedding, let’s only focus on the emo part of the event shall we?

Ok first things first, if you have a lot of relatives in Delhi be prepared to late arrivals. It’s the same logic those who live closest to the office/school end up arriving the latest. But that’s alright as long as they all turn up (which they did, with gifts! Yay! J)

If you are not really a fan of Halwai cooked food, things are bound to get difficult for you. Because as you should have already guessed beloved mommy has other stuff to do besides taking care of your special dietary needs.

The actual wedding event is like a downward slide of a roller coaster, you spend so much time building up for that ultimate splash. Slowly inching towards the peak, you are excited to begin with but when the speed is so painstakingly slow you begin losing patience. And then when you are finally at the peak and ready for that ultimate adrenaline rush: Whoop! One long scream and it’s over before you even realize what happened. I’m not sure if I got the message right, but what I really want to say that it all happens in such a flash that you hardly get any time to reconcile. Having said that, even those very brief flashes of adrenaline rush is completely worth it!!

It also is a lot like being high (Don’t ask me how I know this) it’s like a movie playing where you by sudden stroke of luck jumped inside the screen and become the protagonist.  But then you were never told the script! There is so much activity happening around you, and you are just there.  Yes all cameras are on you and you are the star but still it feels unreal.

And you will NOT I repeat NOT get to enjoy any of the food that is served at the wedding, so if you really want to know what all was served at the wedding be mindful to ask the guests when they come to greet you “You had food?” When they reply affirmative, you promptly ask “What’s on the menu?” Trust me there is no other way you would know. Needless to say I didn’t get to eat the chaats and snacks at my wedding and by the time Bride and Groom are offered food after meeting everyone present at the wedding the hunger is long dead and you just peck at everything and then mourn over not having eaten enough food 3 weeks after the event.

If it’s a cross cultural wedding be prepared for a lot of awkward silences J How? As both parties have their own traditions and neither is aware of them. So while stuff is happening nobody wants to be the first one to accept ignorance and hence lots of awkward silences. But it has its pros as well, because the neither sides know what actually happens, you can get away with anything random saying it's your "Culture" not that I did something of that sort.. Just Saying.. Ans because it's a cross cultural wedding you (both bride and the groom) also get double the importance J as nobody wants to harm your sentiments (to be read as does not want to offend your culture)

Finally, no matter how much you are in love with the guy you are getting married to, leaving your home will never be easy.. (I miss my mommie :( ) Even though the entire day/night had been extremely busy and by the morning you are dead tired, it still takes away all the sleep. Even though I can almost hear my brother shout somewhere (in my old house :( ) "It's just Gurgaon" It's never going to be the same.. I went home only last week and it felt like forever, I was really in two minds to send Sid away and tell him the functions were fun.. but let's not get carried away.. See you tomorrow at the office, You know where the exit is J 

Coming back from that brief visit was when the realization actually dawn in, now I am on my own! And trust me that feeling is damn scary!! <Goosebumps>

As much as I would like to give you the next lot of description of the journey to Cal and back, let's just keep it for another blog post. For now let me catch some sleep, I've been doing a lot of household chores lately.. You know being married is not all fun and games ;)

Hits and Mrs. :)

So now that I've been married for a week and almost settled into my new life (not quite, but started still). I thought it's a good time to pick up the updates again. So while my husband is happily playing DoTA (Don't beleive me? Well.. I can't prove it.. but I'm not lying) it seemed to be a good time to type away. I wont say I was short of matter to write today that I'm refrencing one of my old posts, but this was the initial list of fears, I must address them shouldn't I?

So remember sometime back in February when I had shared the things that were bugging me regarding this whole wedding business, today seems to be a good time to look at them in retrospect.


1. What if I fall while on my way to the stage?

I almost did!! Well not on the way to the stage, but while getting off it :) ... Yeah lucky save it was. But you see my fear was not baseless.

2. What if he doesn't want to share his closet space with me? Where do I keep my clothes?

Again my fears were validated, he didn't. But lucky for me there are two closets in this house. So while there is one room which he has very shamelessly occupied as his own (where I am sitting right now while he plays DoTa) I was lucky to get the spare closet in "OUR" room.

3. What if he doesn't want to share his house with me? Would he drop me home everyday even after we're married 'cz he doesn't like the "additional people" in the house?

This I agree was stupid :) He's alright with sharing the house. I'm guessing it's probably because he's getting cooked food.

4. Can I not ever wear my current clothes ever again? Will I only have to wear new clothes? What happens to all the ones I've collected till now? Oh God!! This can't be happening.. Wait a minute this should have scare point number one!

Well, this one holds true for now :( I left my old clothes at my parents' house and haven't been there since last Monday so yes this fear is slowly and steadily turning out to be true. Jitters.....

5. Everybody else looking prettier than me at my wedding

Ha!! Fat Chance!!! I looked awesome at my wedding!! And yes modesty is not my best virtue.. but honesty is :D

6. Wearing a sari to office (Oh no wait.. I am actually looking forward to it.. strike that :P )

I wish I could say I did wear one to office (Yup I started office yesterday.. Lame you say? What do you know I'd say :P) but there was one minor(major) problem, the new house does not have a mirror. Yes! This is what happens if you move into a boy's house. It is completely woman unfriendly. I've been getting ready partly looking at the shaving mirror in the washroom and partly at the office. So even though I tried my best to tie one without a mirror, I failed and hence I haven't yet worn a saree to office.

7. Not being able to eat the golgappas being served at my own wedding

I couldn't :( and breaks my heart into a million little pieces. I couldn't eat golgappas at my own wedding! Oh no.. now I want to eat golgappas now.. how on earth am I going to find golgappas at 1o clock at night!

8. Having to run the house all on my own

This one could be called premature as I've only been doing it in reality for two days; but I'm liking it :)

9. Being responsible of a household

Power corrupts :P I like being my own  boss :D

10. Being the go-to person for everything in the house ( Reminds me of the time (5 minutes ago) when solution to every problem is shouting mommie at the top of my voice)

Not many people have sought my advice in the new house yet, given that this is more like a Robinson Crusoe  and Friday kind of situation, this fear can be subsided for a bit

11. Not getting mom-cooked food daily :(

This would have hurt, but then turns out I can also cook like my Mom.. Yay!! But that doesn't by any means imply I don't miss her food. It's hard work, I knew when I didn't do it on my own, appreciated her then and now I appreciate her even more

Is it just me? Or you think I'm more scared of having to work more than anything else??

12.Living with a boy..

As I've already mentioned, this house doesn't have a mirror. Till yesterday night didn't have a nail cutter either. Everything one could need in the kitchen was on the counter (Yes everything). I think you got the gist :)

13. Not understanding Bengali.. worst not knowing when I'm being made fun of!! My in-laws are nice people they wont do that.. but I wont know any way, will I?

I must learn bengali, I absolutley must! It's not fun being talked about in third person when you are actually sitting right there in the centre of the group. You think I'm exaggerating? Well.. I'm not!

14. Being referred to as aunty by random kids.. wait a minute that happens anyways.. So I guess it's OK :P

Aunty hasn't happened yet.. but yes bhabhiji has happened, and I didn't now who was the shop keeper referring to until I realized I was the only female in the vicinity. Needless to say, I'm almost a matrmonial advert. model right now with all the possible marriage stamps on me, both North Indian and Bong. And what does Mr. Sen have? His old T shirt and shorts! Gender Bias I tell you!

15. Being asked very uncomfortable questions.. where in adults make jokes at the newly weds expense :|

It's too soon for this I guess, or maybe they were cracked in Bong I dont know... (Must learn Bengali quick!!)

16. Having to kill the pests in my new house on my own, but my dad does it, so that means he'll have to do it.. OK so this is covered then :D

I did squash a few ants today if that counts ;)

17. Acting all grown up and wise

Isn't that tough :D Nobody has caught my bluff yet :D

18. Having to play DoTa...

I will not succumb, I began this post by explaining the current house situation, while he plays Dota I'll whatever I please and he can't stop me

19. ... and liking it :/

Nope! Not happening yet!

20. Living without my mommie :(

I miss me mommie.. I do.... what to do:(

Panicking yet? Oh God! Why Not?

OK let me be brutally honest here.. it is eating me crazy, my nonchalance regarding marriage. I would be lying if I say I didn't have a few moments. Here are a few examples the most recent one just ended 5 seconds ago, when I realized not many of the groom's side is turning up for the wedding (I've already vowed revenge! :P )  It's my wedding and it's a big deal to ME! Well Kind of.. Moment two was when I was packing my clothes to be taken to the new house, and my brother said "Acha finally jaa raha hai (Yes.. he talks to me as an inanimate object) OK bye then.." Of course he was mocking me but it struck a note somewhere and then began the water works. He's mean, my Brother! And then there were only these two. Yup! That's about it.

So I asked my mom, as she's the only one I trusted to give me an impartial answer to my question. WHY AM I NOT PANICKING YET?!?!?? She said, "You are afraid when you are getting into something unknown. Where you are not sure of how and what to do. When you are not sure of the dynamics of the new environment you are entering into. You've known Sid for four years now, how long can a person fake who he is? Not four years, that's for sure! You've met his parents, they are such nice people. You chose the house you are going to live in yourself so no surprises there. So where is the scope to fear?"

It makes sense you know, this whole argument my mom gave. Panic would have struck if I feared something not in sync with my plan. I'm not saying it will always be as I want it, but then I'm a person of limited retention capacity, I would have forgotten what my plan was when crisis would present itself let alone crib and shout about it being out of sync. So given that I generally don't make plans, or let's put it honestly, given that I generally don't remember my plans much; the scope of panic striking restricts itself to the very moment the event happens (I'm still thinking it would happen then!).

So while people have been asking me if I feel different; Panic, nervous, scared.. You know the usual, none of them seem to ring true right now because the word I'm looking for is ANTICIPATION. Yes.. That's the word! Remember when I started the blog I said the one thing I was the most excited about was being able to buy all these clothes. Then a few days ago I didn't want to shop anymore because I had to wait so long to use the purchases. Well.. in about a day from now I can wear all my new clothes!! So yes! I am looking forward to the weekend. Also did I tell you, my post marriage abode is only 5 minutes away from my office? Now I save 4 hours of travel time! How cool is that? I know! Very!!

I'm now all out of words and thoughts to share. Don't know what my marital status would be when I get back to the blog again. But I'm sure nothing else about me would change!!

Let the charades begin!!

And the countdown begins

I'm sorry I couldn't upload the weekly update last week.. No No No! I wasn't doing wedding stuff, I was out on an office offsite: White water rafting trip in Rishikesh!!!! I'm back safe thank you for asking ;)
Just a tiny bit tanned.. but all my limbs are with me :D And while I was away my dear boy shifted to our new house where we would be staying after marriage! Yeah! Don't suspect me of being a shirker.. it was all coincidental. No Really!

So I'm getting married in about 8 days from now. I think I should panic just about now.. but somehow.. that ain't happening. The feeling is just not sinking in, that next Sunday I'll no longer be single and free :P I would have been married and domesticated like a house cat (Ha ha! Funny even though I'm saying it for myself!)

I've also been suggested (repeatedly) to get something done to my face to look pretty for the day. Let me be very honest here, I tried but then got shit bored in the first sitting and decided to let the rest pass as the mental agony of sitting it through was way too much to handle. But it is also important to tell you why I got prompted to give it a shot to begin with: So before this month I had an absolutely clear skin. I had absolutely no pimples or any marks of any sorts on my face. But that mind you was not this month, come April somehow my body decided it had been easy on me for too long. All of a sudden breakouts! Face, neck everywhere! For a while I was hoping it would subside as naturally and unexpectedly as they showed up. But when that didn't happen I decided to take professional help. I did go to the salon with a solemn resolve that I would sit it through. But as mentioned above it took too much time and I don't have the patience. But then the pimples need to be taken care of, right? Of course! So I'll tell you how I decided to deal with them.

Step 1: Look at yourself in the mirror.
Step 2: Point to the pimples
Step 3: Say it out loud, You wont win this you pimples!
Step 4: Angry Face and stare
Step 5: Now it's just a matter of wits, wait and watch the pimples wither away with fear!

Easy breezy.. Isn't it? It works! This or may be the magical made at home potion that I smeared on my face a few times now. Given that this blog is a random nonsense blog and nothing I write here must make any sense I'm in a fix as to share or not to share the recipe for that perfectly smooth skin..Well what the hell! My blog, I decide what goes where. So here goes:

1. If you have rough and patchy skin, which recently recovered from acne like I did; tomato juice mixed with honey should be your choice of magic. Believe me when I say this you would be surprised to see how smooth it becomes post this little trick.

2. Blemishes are a little tricky to handle, but this is the fix my Mom uses; Lemon juice and honey. This works too, but extremely slowly. You have to be really patient for this to show results.

3. Smoothing out those summer acne; My tried and tested application fullers earth, sandalwood powder, mixed with rose water and some lemon juice. This not only clears up the skin but also refreshes you completely

4. For that completely white skin; This one is a bit drastic and I only use it when I have to look good at a very short notice. Just plain lemon juice, that's it! You wonder how can that be? Try pouring some lemon juice on your kitchen counter and see how the stone changes color. If it can do that to a rock, imagine what it can do to your face. But please be careful with this one, this could go both ways, once i had a raw pimple on my face when I slathered my face with lemon juice. The pimple burnt like crazy and the mark didn't clear. The lesson I got that day, this quick fix is for days when my face is pimple free. On other days I'll stick to the diluted version with honey it!

So I've chucked the salon and gone organic. But what interests me the most right now is the fact that I'm imparting beauty tips at 1 in the night 8 days away from my wedding day, tanned from a river rafting trip I went on when my fiance was working hard at shifting into a house that I would be comfortable in. Am I crazy or what?

The mysterious tryst with vanity

Sunday was the day when I officially lost interest in shopping. Seriously.. Enough with vanity! For the past 3 months or so, I’ve been spending all my weekends with my Mom in some or the other corner of Delhi, looking for some or the other random item. I so miss my lazy weekends when all I used to do was watch back to back repeats of all my favourite shows. Now I have no clue whatever is happening to them without my viewership. And the worst part even though I’m done with shopping, it isn’t done with me! Yet!

Yesterday was the day when I told my mom I didn’t want any more jewellery, can you believe that? Me? Who starts behaving like Gollum every time I even so see a picture of the shiny metal (My precious.. My precious.. He’s cute in parts J like the 10-15 minutes of the movie that I’ve watched)

Something has gone wrong with me. Suddenly I’m not interested in anything cosmetic or aesthetic. I couldn’t care less if my shoes match my dress or my dress matches my jewellery or my jewellery matches the décor (Ok that one is a little farfetched never cared about the last one.. the others I did care at one point of time J ) The fact being that the wedding dress in itself is big enough to be a tent big enough to fit a party of at least three, I don’t think my little shoes have even the slightest chance of shining through! And where does that bring us to the status of the anklet and the toe ring I spent one full day looking for? Well.. let’s just say that there moment in the sun sure isn’t my wedding day. And still there was time I paid attention to all that detail.

And you know what is worse? I can’t even wear or use the stuff I’ve bought or another month! I can’t even wear the stuff I’ve bought after three months of painstaking labour! I’m not a hoarder, I am the kinds who has to wear her new clothes the very next day if not the same moment before leaving the store (this is to cover for the fat chance I’d want to exchange J And that happens a lot if I’ve bought something without my mother’s consent, somehow she never approves of my choice. Well that’s for clothes and other trivial things, for life changing events like who I marry she’s surprisingly confident about it .. this is I think material for a different post and a different time, lets’ not lose focus right now shall we J). It’s so frustrating looking at all these clothes scattered all over my room (Yes, my room is the official storehouse for all wedding shopping, even the bed spread L )

Oh wait a minute… it’s starting to clear out now.. brainwave!! I think that’s it! It’s not that I’ve grown tired of shopping all of a sudden, it is the inability to wear my new clothes that’s been driving me crazy all this while.. Thank god for this realization! I had begun to think my long standing affair with shopping had ended, that would have catastrophic! Now that I know it’s just a timing issue I’m glad. Minor road bumps J Just a little less than a month and I’ll regain the will to shop again and so will I have the freedom to not wait before a wear!

And I'll be back to my usual state of mind as regards to shopping, very correctly articulated below:

Freak moment… less than a month to go.. what is wrong with the clock.. does is it really need to run this fast?? Or it’s just messing with me!

The way to a Man's heart!

This post has been shamelessly picked from the other blog that I write, no valid explanation. There may be this if anyone buys it: No body knows about the other blog :D. But this one felt like it belonged in this one.. so here I am, recycling my own material, give it a glance will you please :)

There's a saying which I've heard way too often.. "The way to a man's heart, is through his stomach". Although I'll think the way is a little down south than the stomach :P .. But I wont disregard this old adage, I mean this might or might not be true, but I don't want to risk it!!

So what does that mean? Well that simply means, I've started taking cooking seriously, not that I can't cook if my life depended on it, I CAN! But that's not the way you win a man's heart, even if its someone with as low as a benchmark as my man does (I mean come on he's a bachelor who eats office cafeteria food.. even if I feed him uncooked vegetables I'll beat that mark :) !!) It's enough to stay afloat.. Yes.. but to win his heart.. Umm.. No.

And the more I get to cooking, the more I'm getting addicted to the praises and empty trays :) .. I've always been very fond of baked goods. It always surprises me how magic happens in the oven. But I wont say I'm a born cook. I had in the past tried my hand baking, but I was so bad that even the dogs decided to let it pass. Seriously NO KIDDING! The dog actually did sniff the cake and walk away. And with that historic day in my vivid memory, and to my misfortune my Mum's memory any experimentation I did now was bound to scrutiny. Anyway, I decided I'll take baby steps, first step making my own breakfast :) .. Well there's no science to a bowl of cornflakes you'll say and I agree completely. But once bitten twice shy. I needed to gain confidence. Mixing milk and flakes right, ok i can do proportions now. Then graduating to making my own eggs, now I can cook on flame and not burn myself, great going. Milkshakes, I can operate the blender yay! and such small victories, made me a happy trooper!

There was a time when my mom was away for a week where I had to feed my dad and myself. It's then when I realised, I didn't lack the skill, I only lacked the patience :D .. my poor dad had to eat the same daal for the whole week :P But he's a sweetheart he doesn't complain ( I mean he did .. but while eating so I didn't take him seriously :P )  But Mom came back and I had no intentions of honing my skills further until "The Man" expressed his age old desire of having the wife cook delicacies for him, and how he'd never have that fulfilled as he chose me (angry face!).. That was a moment when the HWIMYM Barney style "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!" buzz came to my mind. Whatever happened to that show man! I was such a huge fan.. now I'm not even sure if it's still on air!

First step was obvious.. his favourite breakfast recipe, Pancakes!! How difficult is that, just flour eggs and milk, and you're done :) .. I thought the effort was worth appreciation, he on the other hand thought the pancakes needed a little more cooking.. *heartbreak*. In my opinion they were fabulous and edible. I even improvised and added orange and apple flavor to it! But what would a office cafeteria food eater know about culinary skills

Alright, we wont back down due to disapproval, only grow stronger and move on. Next up, appetizers, this time i decided Indian is safer, you see if you have the ingredients right, there's nothing much to it. So I thought Dahi ke kebab, and to my rescue came Tarala Dalal (who sadly passed away late last year, may that amazing woman's soul rest in peace, for she helped a million Indian brides, find their way to their men's hearts!!) and did they work up a charm! It got even my dad stand up and take notice.. which is for me the best compliment ever. And because the kebabs were so good, he accepted defeat happily gulping down those melt in the mouth awesome things :D

Now emboldened by my new found success I decided to pick up the one task I most dreaded and haunted by.. Baking. I decided to bake brownies, and thus began the hunt for the perfect brownie recipe, after hours of internet surfing came across one which seemed achievable, got the ingredients, the humble food processor every lazy cook's dream tool came to help, took the abandoned oven and viola! slightly burnt but perfectly edible brownies!!! And once you get over the burnt crust they tasted almost bakery purchased! And yes he agreed to that I can cook and that he only mocked me so he could get to eat the marvelous treats :D

And do I believe him? Of course not! He had to eat his words because the one considered out of the race has won it! :)

And there's nothing which tastes better than the taste of victory!!!

Happy Holi you all!!

Of Mamma's boys' and Daddy's girls'

This realization took me some time, but it is slowly and steadily dawning upon me that I've chosen an almost carbon copy of my dad. It's uncanny how two people from very different cultures and upbringing be so damn similar! And how did I manage to find him of all the people I've met in my life!

Now in what sense are they similar one may ask, let's make a list shall we? (I have this thing for lists J )

1.     They've got similar food habits, none of them consider a meal to be worth it unless at least one bird has been killed and served on the table

2.     It’s easy to keep them happy, good food (satisfying the above condition) to eat and they’ll give you no reason to complain

3.     They both do not care much for clothes and/or colour coordination

4.     Both won’t know subtle hints until one writes on sheet of paper, wraps it on a rock and hits them with it

5.     They find it difficult to be around people, in their different ways but they’re both pretty anti-social

6.     I’m the centre of their world (OK maybe the last one isn’t all true.. but it’s true in parts J )  

And this doesn't end here, he also states that I'm so like his Mom (I could add a list here too, but I wont  J ) and that his mom has scolded him for the most part of his life and the remainder I shall take over. 

He often wonders why all the women in his life (Whom he claims to love more than anything the world.. sometimes I believe him sometimes I don't :P) are so mean to him.. I said maybe it's because he just can't function without being told what not to do, but that's only to humour him, I have a feeling the problem is much deeper than that. I do see a very strong pattern here, and I've sworn to resolve it!

There do exist scientific terms for this: Oedipus Complex (for the Freud fans) and Electra Complex (For the other school of thought) but I’ve always thought Freud to be a crazy man and he took things to a completely different level. My thoughts revolve more around looking for traits one is comfortable with.

I would place my bets on the subconscious feeling of being protected when around someone like your Dad/Mom. If there is one person who could get me out of any soup, it is without doubt my father! Probably when I find the other qualities in this man, I de facto assume ( to be read as most optimistically hope!!) that he would also possess this quality as well. 

This logic sounds simple and understandable enough.. doesn't it? As this is the best that I could come up with. And lets face it I'm no psychologist so my opinion is only personal, so don't go quoting me any where. I don't have any lawyer friends who would bail me out in case this lands me into trouble. (In case their are friends who are lawyers I'm not aware of, could you please raise your hands.. I really need advise on how to get a court marriage done these days, his folks are really worried about it and mine have got no clue! Any chance it could be done online? That would be really convenient J )

And I’m not the only one who seems to think so, anyone I’ve mentioned this to, has at least once, if not for long but a second pondered over this observation of mine:

Women end up marrying their Dads and men invariably end up falling for their Moms! 

So much for running away from your parents in your teens and in-betweens J

Like all other emotions, my understanding of this emotion also comes from animation. What better example of father-daughter love than Ariel and her Awesome Dad King Triton J