The 26 year old student

France is a country with many provisions for students/people of the lower income group, etc. But I was really sad to discover that most student benefits end the day you turn 26. It's almost as if they think you shouldn't study past the age of 25 or that if you wish to study past this hideous age, you are on your own and the government doesn't plan to help you. One of the main places this affects me is the railway/metro pass. It costs a steep 90€ a month with a huge variety of places you can go to. Even then! I discovered that students under 26 can get a 50% discount on that. And students above 26? A measly 2%. I wonder why that's even there! And then for most working people, 50% is compensated by their companies in their allowance. Not for us... because you are supposed to be able to get the transport system offered discount. I am a wee bit disgruntled ever since I found out. Hmph. Also in tourist spots... students under 26 can get tickets also for upto 50% off with their IDs. Not if you're over 26. I think it's a national rule that once you cross 25, you'd better be contributing to the household income... or go jump.

Sadly, this affects the highest educated bracket, like us doctorates, or the latecomers who decide to go back to school. Hell, at least the second category had their fair share of bucks before return to academia... I think this is just one of those days, when you can find fault with almost anything. But something tells me I am a wee bit reasonable here.

The understandable English

I don't know how many of you do this, but I've noticed I do this ever since I realized that it makes it easier for non-English speakers to understand - I alter my English to be grammatically incorrect but structured more easy to understand.

Examples-

1. I tried running this experiment but it didn't work - I run experiment but it no work

2.I'll run you through this process and then you can do it on your own (or you're set) - I do one time, you see and then you do, then you ok.
3. I'm not done yet - I no do.

And so on... I suppose you get the point... At the end of it, I feel silly and like I've taught them the wrong way of saying things. But as they say, whatever works, right?

True love stories

Some love stories just touch you...like this one - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081012/ap_on_re_us/holocaust_love_story

And when it's like this, you know is meant to be. In a time of such difficulty... reunited worlds apart... Somethings just make you believe in fate. This is one of those.

A fresh look

As you may have noticed, MindBlogging has a fresh new look. I was inspired and helped to a great extent by Priya in achieving this final product. Do drop a line to let me know if you all like it!

Cheers!

Oh look it's fall..

It happens every year. One day there is the chill that goes with an ending summer and another day, you look out and the trees are all changing colour rapidly. It's Fall and it's here. And it's the most beautiful time of the year. the weather's great and the outside is gorgeous. I took these shots from just outside my office. If I don't feel like working, nature's to blame. Take a look...

Pretty, isn't it?

E-cigarette

I'd never heard of such a thing till I saw this video on BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/7658334.stm.

And then I read about it in wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-cigarette

The world is getting insane. That's for sure. This one contains nicotine too... but not as much, it claims and is a 'healthier' option. Why would one want to smoke an electronic device now? Of course the fairer question would be why one would want to smoke at all... With all the 'SMOKING KILLS' and every other sign brandished on the box, it's a big wonder that they still sell more than they used to at any given point in time. This, for a world thats supposedly more health conscious. Whatever!

Toilet seat ideas

Nope, this is not about the ideas you get while on the seat... But this is those ideas that make the seat a perfect place to have those other ideas. Confusing? Well, that sounds about right... Check out how most of the loos are in Japan. (Notice left of the seat, the option buttons)

And a close up of the options now...


Mind-blowing. Here's ushering in the age of toilet technology. They have seat-warmers, sprays, water pressure control n what not. Imagine, if men could spend hours together on the ordinary boring toilet seats, what must the situation be like when you can have warm seats and sprays and what not. The Japanese are way ahead of most countries in technology. And this is just an example of just how diverse their technology is and where all it has been put to use. Maybe most of their ideas sprung from here. What say?

In love with Japan

Some cities are just easier to fall in love with than some others. With Tokyo and more so what I saw of Japan, it was easy. It wasn't like love at first sight. But it was pretty close. At the outset, Japan looks very similar to rural India, maybe because the Narita airport is located far away from the main city. Once you close in, the buildings grow taller, the advertisements sleeker and the area busier. They have many many train operators and at first glance, it seems like a daunting task to find one's way in a place with unfamiliar directions and language. But the moment you ask someone for help, you know that you are in good hands. The Japanese are perhaps the most helpful people in the world. They go completely out of their way to help you, answer your question or direct you. Most of them understand rudimentary english and can with ease point you in the right direction. Some others go out on a limb for you, like a girl who walks more than 15 minutes in a direction unrelated to her just so she can point you to the right place or the station manager who runs down 2 flights of stairs to tell you that the train that he said would go had departed and the next train was in 10 minutes. I was blown away. Tokyo is as busy as any other business epicenter in the world but its not 1% as rude. People in New York, Paris and Bombay have a definite chip in their shoulders as opposed to the ones in Tokyo. Take the restaurants for example. The most popular method of ordering, for a foreigner is to point out the food in a colourful pictorial menu. But sometimes there are no pictures and then it becomes a game of charades between you and the waitress. And once you explain that you are vegetarian, 99% of the time, they make you something special... something not on the menu and at the end charge you a measly amount for all their effort. And all this with the widest of smiles, the lowest of bends and the sweetest of 'Arigato gozaimaaas' singsong greetings.

Even with the Metro ceasing operations as 11pm, the city never sleeps. People cram into the last metro after having had a long dinner with drinks with friends/colleagues. Then there is the light effect at night ofcourse. All those tall buildings emblazoned with lights, creating a Times-Square effect on all of downtown Tokyo, no matter what the area. The food and lodging are all reasonable. But the people are the best and have left a lasting impression on me and helpful as I am, I have vowed to try even harder from now on.

There's sooooo much I can write about Tokyo. And I will. Under subsequent posts... under different titles. But as of now, there's just one thing to say. Compaii to Japan!! (Cheers!)

Receipt Rani

So, I am in Japan... Yoo hoo... And since we all hail from Asia, we don't probably right away see the exotic nature of the country, perhaps, mainly because the airport is located over an hour away from the city center. And I took the Narita Express (Nex for short) to a connecting station called Shinagawa and another train to Ōfuna where my hotel of the day is located. And the whole ordeal from start to finish including negligible connection times took over 2.5 hours. This, for a country that's not even that big.

And so I found the hotel (no biggie considering its facade is visible from the railway station exit) and was told that check-in wasn't for another 5 hours. I must've looked a sight because no sooner had I coaxed for an advancement and I was asked to come back in 90 minutes. Wearing an unnecessarily thick jacket for the humid climate outside, I was in no mood to lunge it around looking for a decent place to lunch, all the while wondering what all went into it's preparation. Just as I dreaded walking out into the heat with the backpack and the jacket, I spotted this cozy coffee shop that belonged to the hotel. Like all hotel-adjoined coffee shops, it was pricier than it should be (or maybe all the yens just seem like a large number). Be that as it may, I pointed out to the coffee of my choice on the menu card, having rapidly exhausted my Japanese vocabulary of 2 words (Konnuchiwa - Good day and Arigato - Thank you). And it was delicious. Instantly, I ordered one more and decided to kill the 90 minutes by reading Harry Potter yet again on my laptop. And that's when it occurred to me that the lady hadn't given me a receipt. I marched back and asked for one and was given it immediately. That's what prompted the title of the post. Having never really cared for any sort of receipt in the past I was amused at my own instantaneous reaction on a business trip. Guess that's what everyone does, huh?

More on Japan in subsequent posts. I want to lace them with iconic photos... but I happen to have left the USB transfer cable back home. So I guess that'll have to wait. Guess what's impressed me the most in Japan yet? Their technology. Even in toilets. Toilet technology. Yup, a post on that is due very soon. Sayonara! (I guess tht's my third word then!!)

Boxing Kangaroo

For the number of laughs that this video has offered me, it warranted a post. This is about the 'boxing kangaroo'... watch it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_FVD0BR2Mc . And this shows 2 things -

1. They are almost like people... trying to hold you down with the hands and kick you... (and I love the head vs the rest of it ratio - it's sooo funny)
2. Let the animals be.. why string a rope on them, throw the boxing gloves on them and then suffer the consequences??

And of course I thank my husband for introducing me to this video.
In conclusion, HA HA HA.

The comparison of the Eiffels...

France is the head of the EU council for the ongoing 6 months. To commemorate the occasion, the Eiffel Tower glows blue instead of it's usual gold. That apart, there's a circular arrangement of stars around the centre. Here's what they look like -


I was blown away when I saw the blue one recently. Its soo pleasant on the eye and stands totally apart from the other lights of the street, the other buildings etc., almost all of which are yellow/gold. And the stars on the centre that look drab by day look spectacular at night. Even better is the show of blinking lights every hour at the hour. It goes great with the blue. More of a contrast, than with the gold. Maybe its just that it's different and I am sure other people have other opinions. But personally, I hope they vouch for keeping the blue throughout. After all, it doesn't hurt to add one more reason to the Le Bleu tag on France's collar.

Tea for all

I opened up BBC News as usual and much to my delight I discovered that my habit of 3-4 cups of tea a day might actually pay off in the long run. Here's the entire news article - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5281046.stm. Go TEA!

French Food - The Gaulion way

So my bro was visiting us this past weekend and we wanted to make the trip as special and wholesome as possible. And so to the normal sightseeing that one does, we added an authentic expensive French dinner on the list. A French friend of ours who'd been there recommended the place and so the reservations were made and after a long exhausting day of sight-seeing we landed at the place. The first look was a cozy barn-type place. And a closer look revealed that the short tight spaces was intentional for the restaurant was very large in itself, being multistoreyed and furnished entirely in carved wood, from the walls to the furniture. And it wasn't very brightly lit, giving it a cavern-like atmosphere... So we settled in to our reserved table downstairs amidst loud crowds who were celebrating a Friday, perhaps. And first things first we're told all the food is unlimited as is the wine. The latter lights up the guys' faces... And the next thing we know, a very large basket of fresh raw vegetables was placed in front of us with a bowl of mayonnaise. This was the starters with large loaves of freshly baked bread...

And no, I wasn't kidding. See? And so we crunched like cows on the raw vegetables which went interestingly well with the red wine. We were given huge knives too, to cut through the larger vegetables and from what I saw, the collection included carrots, radishes, turnips, spring onions, onions, cabbages, capsicum, cauliflower, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and lemon. ALong with this, one had the option of going to the upstairs buffet and loading up on unlimited meat chunks and some veggie salad combos as well.

While we were crunching away, the waiter dude informed us that we could choose main course between duck, lamb and steak. While my eyebrows vanished into my hair, he quickly mentioned that they also served ratatouille for their vegetarian patrons. Relieved as I was, I could also finally try that authentic French dish. And that's what sold me on the place finally. The ratatouille was phenomenal. Essentially just a stew of vegetables made in a tomato sauce, it was very nice indeed. And for dessert, we could choose between chocolate chip and a lemon sorbée. No prizes for guessing which one I chose, the chocoholic that I was. Tipsy as everyone else was, some chose the sorbée to clear their heads but the chocochip was a no-brainer.

A loud, long and interesting meal later, we all owed 41€ each, the menu price, more than a tad expensive but surely worthwhile for a once-a-time Gaulion experience. Oh and I didn't mention which restaurant, did I? Here it is...

Love-o-logy

Finally I feel content to say that we live in the age of love... where true love prevails... where so many of my friends have fallen in love and made unions of their choice and not through matrimonial services. I have been fortunate enough to witness inter-caste marriages, inter-lingual marriages and even inter-religious marriages and all of this within India... that is a huge deal. What's bigger is the consent of the older generation. Almost everything I've witnessed has been lovingly arranged by the families themselves... In the stories where there are 2 different traditions to choose from, both have been duly upheld causing no grief to anyone involved. It's all very feel-good. And importantly, I applaud the older generation for taking it in their stride and consenting to what their children think is best for them. Instead of the old-fashioned dramas that our Indian soaps never fail to portray... threats ranging from 'cutting off the will' to suicide. Futile and stupid. Finally the generation that is getting married are treated as adults and allowed to choose their partners, trust their judgements and plan their lives together. This face of India is almost unrecognizable from the days barely 20 years ago when the bride and groom 'met' at the mandap. At least the urban face of India. But even the rural part has come a long way in this regard. In comparison to the past of course. I know now, for instance that in my grandma's village the girl can turn down the proposal... that she is asked for consent before proceeding with the arranged alliance. At least that saves a lot of unnecessary bride burning and other mental trauma that goes with the territory. Lets hope India has more n more development to offer in many diverse areas in the years to come.

The Avalanche Effect

For 6 weeks, I sat as jobless as the yawning bench-hopper you saw in a park. And last week college reopened and all of a sudden there are a million things to be done... deadlines, presentations, papers, submissions, fabrication, cranking up the idea machine, planning conferences and trips and what not. The thing I am looking forward to the most is unsurprisingly my upcoming trip to Tokyo for a conference-workshop. It promises to be exciting and a fabulous opportunity to establish international contacts and importantly learn the MEMS game from the pioneers themselves.

Even as I fade away into the la-di-da world that is not yet to be, my huge checklist of things to do knocks me back into reality. High time I address those issues, most of which need closure before I board the plane. Wish me luck!

Bizarre News

A poor dog had eaten 13 golf balls over the course of over 7 months. Read that here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7599899.stm

P'urge

For starters, read the title as written... Next, try to understand what I'm talking about. When it comes to falling asleep, I have many many pet peeves. Everything's got to be just right for the miracle of sleep to occur. And anything can be a disturbance. Ask my roommates at UC... whom I used to torture with my supersonic detection of the drip of the tap in the shower. Sometimes they swore that I heard it only because I strained to. And yes, sometimes that was true. I listened hard to see if I really wasn't hearing it and discovered that trying that hard, I could hear it faintly. And once I heard it, it sort of reverberated into this unbearably loud sound that didn't work wonders towards my sleeping. And it isn't like if everything is silent, I can sleep well. Nope. I need the sound of the fan. I've told myself that its not weird and many people have that in common with me. And in San Diego, it was the sound of the garbage truck. Loud and clear... only on Saturdays n Sundays because on other days we'd have left by then. But recently, thanks to my downing bottles n bottles of water, its the urge to pee. The worst part is that I would've peed just before bed and invariably an hour later or less, I would be overcome by this huge feeling that I needed to pee. It wasn't that I had to. but the chilly nights don't help. It was just that the thought that the urge would get stronger in a few hours when I would've managed to sleep well, that I would rather do it right then. I think I have more difficulty than others falling back to sleep once something's woken me up. Crazy, huh? Even crazier, I got the idea for this post from one of my short dreams - title, and all.

Family Matters

Well, yeah, I did lift off the title from Rohinton Mistry. But the story is my own. I was just chatting with a cousin over GTalk and he was lamenting his separation from his family with him being posted in Hyderabad, his brother studying in Chennai and his dad working in Delhi, with mom left home-alone most of the day. That forced me to recount my own story. We're a close-knit family but I have had more than my share of separation...

The timeline -

1983 - Dad left India for the Gulf when I was 1.
1985 - We joined him. The next 5 years was the only time that my immediate family, mom-dad-bro n I spent together.
1990 - The Gulf War. That meant dad went to our family home in Bombay to find temporary work while the Gulf War raged on. My mom-bro-I went to Madras where we set up a new educational base.
1991 - Dad returns to the Gulf. It is decided that we stay in India for the benefit of our education. My grannys close shop in Bombay and join us at Madras. This is our permanent base since.
1998 - After 7 years of my mom alternating 6 months with my dad and 6 months with us, my dad decides to return for good to Madras. Another few months of togetherness..
1999 - I start college. My brother finishes college and goes to the US to pursue his higher studies.
2004 - I leave to pursue my own higher studies.
2008- After nomading around the US with multiple bases, I get married and settle down with my husband in France.

Now, the family is spread across 3 continents. The saving grace in all of this has been that ours was a joint family with my grandmothers living with us and caring for us. And it is only now that I can appreciate the sacrifices that my parents made by enduring these prolonged separations - all for the greater good, for the betterment of our family and our lives. Thank you all.

Ramblings of a disgruntled writer

Anyone who reads a lot and blogs a lot or one of the above has surely entertained secret fantasies of 'being discovered' and writing a book. Of course the difference between you and me is that mine's not secret and hasn't been for a long time now. I read an article today about a young Indian babe who was indeed discovered and through her blogs. How come none of the blogs of people I know (including me of course) end up being 'discovered'?! And how come Penguin, Bantam and the million other publishers we know of don't seem to care about what we ramble on about? Hmph... Ok ok... I know... today is just one of those days. In a glassy-eyed vision of the future in a moment of weakness, I saw the headline 'Nanoscientist publishes first non-scientific work'. Of course, it's safe to say, some people live in dreams. And I'm not one of them. College opens tomorrow. Time to accomplish the first word of that distant headline.

Tamilgrounded

Well, I am sure many of you are aware of the 'popular' online Tamil movie site, Tamilgrounds. But what you're probably not familiar with is the pathetic customer service that they (donot) give. For starters, their customer service is restricted to 'creating tickets' to which the admin people supposedly respond. And get this... at the end of the monthly membership, instead of offering you the option of renewing it, they 'automatically' do it. And when you send disgruntled tickets asking them to discontinue the account and inform you about it, they delete your ticket to make it look like there is no record of it. I am appalled at the service and after repeated tickets, I think I am going to have to shut the bank account or block them out to have them NOT renew the membership automatically. For what it's worth, the movie qualities are pretty bad and most movies do not open at all! It's crazy how they rip you off and take absolutely no action to try and pacify their disgruntled customers! For anyone considering memberships with Tamilgrounds or Bollygrounds or any of their 'family', think again and please avoid it.

Update: I am happy to say that all my cursing has led them to discontinue my account. However, they have to 'discuss the refund' it seems. I plan to link this post to them so that they know what I am thinking. Hmph

Sleepless in Paris

I wish it were really as romantic as it sounds... apparently not, though. The vacations have screwed with my sleeping cycle. And more often than not I toss and turn for close to 2 hours every night before falling asleep and then get up with the alarm that wakes the husband, get him to rise n shine through the snoozes and then sleep away for another hour after he leaves. That leaves me all groggy till the first tea in the morning and contentedly sleepy in the afternoons, a temptation I've staved off... till today. I'd just had a hot shower, hadn't had that extra hour of sleep in the morning, had a late-nighter last night and a hell of a lot of walking in the morning trying to locate one of the dubiously located consulates in Paris. And I just couldn't resist the nap. What was supposed to be 30 minutes extended to the hour and here I am at 00:35. It's a vicious cycle I tell you. There's a bright note in all of this though - College resumes Monday. And so will my sleep cycle, I hope.

Hari Puttar

In this comedy of errors, Warner Bros is suing India's Mirchi movies because their latest movie titled, 'Hari Puttar - a comedy of terrors', sounds very close to Harry Potter. Of course, we all heard this analogy first on 'Kal Ho Na Ho'. But it seems Warner regards this as copyright infringement. It's pretty unfortunate for them that not only is Hari a common Indian name, 'Puttar' means son in Punjabi and has been in use for ages. I don't think they can win this case. Here's the full news item - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7580941.stm. What's your take?

Personally, I think Warner is being a bit unreasonable. There are many things that could end up sounding like Harry Potter unintentionally. They aren't going to be able to restrict everything. For instance, I wonder if they would have a problem with a tentative movie called 'Scary Water' which for all practical purposes rhymes with Harry Potter!

Second Attempts

I wrote this post quite a while ago. And once more I was reminded that some things require that second stab at it to make it work. Maybe its a true test of how badly we want something...enough to attempt it twice? Maybe it's something simpler like the second attempt takes the pressure off of you and you have a better chance for success. Whatever it is, once bitten twice is lucky. Let's hope that holds good.

More crispy vadais

They were a hit... and here's a follow-up effort..

The Varalakshmi Nombu

Before I get to the post, Happy Independence Day everyone. :)

Today was the first of many things... It was the first Varalakshmi Nombu for me post-wedding. For those unfamiliar with the rituals, here's a synopsis - http://www.hindu-blog.com/2008/07/varalakshmi-nombu.html. But this meant I had to shoulder the responsibility of being the 'woman-of-the-house', and cook the yummy treats that I took for granted all the years till now, wake up at 6:00 am to cook everything post a head-shower (I was allowed the luxury of sleeping-in in those premarital days), prepare everything for the pooja, etc etc etc.

Amongst this is what I consider supremely challenging - making the vadais and the kozhakattais (a.k.a modak). And I took down the recipe from Patti and followed it to the P. Who said victory isn't sweet? It certainly is when it's a sweet rice dumpling like the kozhakattai.

Or the crispy vadais (though I didn't shape them too well... hehehehe. There's always room for improvement!)

Memory-card

Not the storage device. It's about my memory with respect to my credit card (or debit card if you will...) Having gone to the nearby store, picked all the things I wanted after a lot of scrutiny, verifying my list to make sure I had everything, I went to the checkout counter and handed my card for the billing. She asked me to punch my code. I do it by reflex as is customary and usually it says 'Code Bon', meaning 'Good code' or all's well. But today it said 'Code Faux' over and over again and for the third time too. That mean my card was locked. I would have to reason it out with the bank to have them unfreeze it. And worse, I couldn't buy any of the things I'd chosen. And I couldn't use this card on an ATM which would swallow it. Instead, swallowing my pride, I called my husband to ask him for my code. When he told me, it instantly registered. I had been punching in my US credit card's pin instead.

India's own shooting star :D

Finally, for the first time ever, someone has managed to win an individual Olympic Gold for India. And that someone is Abhinav Bindra. Here's his wiki page. And news of his victory. Indeed a proud moment for billion plus people in India. With the National Anthem as the ideal background music, Abhinav Bindra was crowned champion of the Mens 10m Rifle event. At least I hope this paves the way for more sportspersons in India to embrace other sports than traditionally cricket which doesn't say much either, having won the only World Cup in 1983, agood 25 years ago. Let us hope n pray that the younger generation comes up with more diversity in their sport choice and do our proud by winning honours at the International Level.

On that note, good luck, Saina.

Sneezy Jane

That's me. It's embarrassing... but just as well...its involuntary too. Every morning as soon as I come out the bedroom, roll open the hall windows, 'Aaachoooooooooo', I greet the bright morning sunshine. I have had this issue for as long as I can remember. And earlier when I got these allergy tests done, I was informed that it was because of the sudden temperature change that I was exposed to - from the A/C bedroom to the room-temperature hall. That made sense in Chennai where we always had the A/C on for the night. But how did that make sense in France or the US? We didn't have airconditioners on at night. And the morning saw no temperature change either. Yet, on an average I sneeze at least 10 times before I stabilize. And it's not one of your hardly noticeable tchs which I have seen people do in buses and public places and mumble an 'Excuse Me' thats far louder. At these times, I am like, 'Excuse me? You call that a sneeze?' Mine's more the variety that jolts the dead into the living. Loud, embarassingly repetitive (sometimes even before I can warp out an 'Excuse Me'). And it's the grossest if I am caught without a tissue of course. Recently, I read wiki and a bunch of other websites and now I have attributed the sneezing to 'sudden exposure to light'. That makes sense at any rate. You can read about the whole deal here. And thankfully I have stopped trying not to sneeze, which results in a minor implosion of sorts. Apparently that can be damaging in the long run. S tolerates my sneezes but has no idea why its recurring and why it happens every morning. He suggested I see a doctor. But I did!! My temporary solution though is to ease in the light into the hall... one shutter at a time. I'll report back to tell you if it worked!

Fancy Date

Yes... it repeated every year for the past 8 and will continue for the next year as well. It's displaced by a day and a month every year. Of course, you know what I'm talking about.. It's 08-08-08 today. Happy Olypics Opening to y'all.. And Happy Friday as well. The weekend's here.

Holy Cramp!

The thing about gymming is that you need to be in touch.... or you need to ease yourself into it. The best part is that I knew all the gyaan. In spite of that, I think the sheer excitement (:S) or the enthusiasm of joining a gym with world-class facility overcame my senses. And so on my second day overall... and first day at the centre close to home, in the process of 'discovering' all the equipment, I ended up working out close to 2 hours. And I ended in exhilaration (because of the high heart rate), took a quick shower and then came home in sweltering heat (where I thought I was going to die of a sun stroke) and while everything seemed on a high, I cramped!! Muscles which I didn't know existed announced their existence in the form of pain... :( And so, today was a rest day. Going by the pain I am (did I tear a ligament or something?), I think I am going to skip it tomorrow as well! Here's to working out and the mini-breaks it provides us in not-so-happening ways.

Thepla Central..

The theplas I made :D

Pappi Bhelwali

That's what my dad called me when he learned I'd made bhel puri for the husband... Here.. take a look.

The ingredients (including the teekha /meeta chutnies) -

The end product (phenomenally yummy - ask S if you want)

And... I made theplas for dinner today. Pictures later!

Gymmu-Gimmu

Its a Tamil habit, I think, to rhyme one word with another that makes no sense most of the time. The exceptions are aadu-maadu (goat-cow), veedu-kaadu (house-forest), etc. But usually its really senseless things like paalu-geelu (milk-senseless_word), kaapi-geepi (coffee-senseless_word), or dressu-gissu (Dress-senseless_word)... Ok you get my point. Actually I don't know why the senseless word usually is a rhyme of the original but with a 'g'.

Anyhoo, coming to the point of the post, I joined the gym finally today. And they have a lot of interesting things going on... There are dance aerobics, even salsa lessons and all over at the gym. This seems to be a great way to melt away time (and weight, I hope) over the vacations. And on other days. I've taken an annual membership. And my Patti asked me over the phone, "Gymmu-gimmu poitu vandhiya?" (Did you go the gym-gim?)

Hence the title of the post. :)

Citysnoozers awakens...

And finally, here is the long-awaited post on Bruges on Citystalkers. Lets hope that the Kumbakarna phase for that blog is finally over.. Fingers crossed.

Happy Friendships Day

For what it's worth, Happy Friendships Day to you all... Well yeah, I believe in Friendships but not Friendship Days... Not now at any rate. Yes, I was one of the naïve ones that jumped the bandwagon and bought dozens of colourful bands to adorn the wrists of my closest friends, pledging my friendship to them and in turn flaunted a wristfull of my own. The irony of everything is that this phase was most popular when we were back in our undergraduate days or school. When you actually tied bands on your friends that you spent the entire day with... and went home and made calls and spoke to for hours on the end. People who you had with you all the time, yet felt the need to 'make you own' by brandishing a band on them. How things have changed over the past 10 years. Now we are all miles apart, talk once in a few months at most and yet, we are secure in our bond of friendship. A few years after college, the gestures dwindled to emails at most and nowadays - nothing. Even still, the friendship burns strong, a warm glow that ignites you from the inside when you think of those people and the times spent with them. And now I see these 'days' and the rest of them (V-Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, blah blah) for what they are... business tactics to lure the insecure into buying tonnes of junk that gets discarded anyways. Isn't it more special when you do something out of the expected? Like buy someone something for no reason other than that you thought they might like it... make a call to those friends on random days, not because of birthdays or anniversaries or emergencies... It feels so much better that way and definitely means a lot more.

However, K, M, S, G, NK, SO, VR, PT - I miss you all. Happy Friendships Day.

Cinema Cinema

Disclaimer: There is no doubt about Kamal Hassan's genius... Fewer movies have made as much an impact on me as Michael Madana Kamarajan. But did he have to do these 10 roles?

So out of sheer boredom and fueled by the summer vacations, I ended up buying an account with one of the Tamil movie online sites. I chose Tamil thinking S and I could see a lot of dinner time favorites. I don't know about that but the first choice of the movie was also the most obvious, Dasavatharam. This Kamal Hassan movie has made headlines all over the world for a variety of reasons from budget to plot and obviously the most important being the fact the Kamal, the lead in the movie has played 10 different roles. Having heard terrifically rave reviews about the movie from tabloids to reliable friends, we were very excited to watch the movie.... for about 15 minutes. At the end of the movie, I was left gawking... and not in the good sense. It became very obvious that the script was tailored to somehow accomodate the 10 different roles that the lead man wanted to play and create history. And in that sense, he did. I don't think anyone is going to attempt anything like this for a long long time. But the worst part was that none of those getups were really required. He could've been content with just playing 2-3 of the main roles and hiring accomplished actors for the rest. Instead they spent a whole lot of cash, time and effort in creating 10 distinct personalities, 7 of whom were totally uncritical to the plot and a couple ended up resembling one another! Some of the get-ups actually looked like the human version of Shrek in Shrek II. And chaos theory as the central theme turned out to be too chaotic and the tsunami scene that people raved about was total disappointment. It was crazy. And Kamal Hassan taking up the screenplay as a 11th role was probably the big damper in the whole fiasco..

On a totally unrelated note, I acquired a DVD of Dhoom II and decided it was well worth a wasted afternoon to gawk at Hrithik. So subconsciously as I watched it, I counted him wear 8 different disguises - all of which looked convincing and looked great on him. While I reached no.8, my heart beat a little faster. What a humungous disappointment it would've been to Kamal Hassan had Hrithik equalled 10 in a totally unintended and unassuming manner. Lol!

Burgers at Bruges

A conversation last night reminded me about this incident when we'd been to Bruges recently... and I thought I had to share it with you guys... So, S had this incredible craving for a veggie burger the day after we reached Bruges. And all through our sightseeing, he checked out no less than 5 restaurants (read roadside joints) to verify if they stocked a veggie burger with a veggie patty... There is a serious dearth of this 'delicacy' in Paris where meat rules.. And though Indiana Café, one of his favorite joints here in Paris stocks them and he has that every time we go there, he just had to have it. So, back from the beaches of Oostende and after a day in Brussels, we reached Bruges well after 10:00PM. Having safely stashed the car away in one of the parking spaces, we went on foot (not a big achievement considering that it takes about 30 minutes to walk the longer part of Bruges) hunting for at least one of the places he'd checked out to be open. And we all remembered a different one and each of us led the way to a different part of the city centre. Finally we zeroed in on one that was tiny, seemingly shabby, but open nonetheless. With none of us having any other motivation after a long day of sightseeing and driving, we all settled in for burgers.

The guy at the counter was apparently the owner and he boasted pictures with celebrities who visited Bruges and his latest conquest was one with Colin Farrel who unsurprisingly starred 'In Bruges'. This substantially cheered me for the part that the decor did not. I assumed that if stars visited this place, the burgers had to pretty darned good. Even as S stood at the counter waiting to order, we witnessed the eccentric owner piss off a few potential customers into leaving the store. I, for one assumed that we'd probably not witnessed the part that they'd played in ticking him off. Soon it became apparent that they probably hadn't done anything. We saw a party of 8 enter and they all ordered 'Menus', which is a whole meal with fries and drinks and all. While 7 of them crowded merrily around the counter, one tired soul rested his eyes at the corner table, only to be awakened by the owner in a loud tone and to be informed that this was no 'hotel' where he could sleep. I thanked my stars for not having been discovered at the same compromising position barely a few minutes earlier before I got my Iced Tea. The friends of the offended guy explained that he was 'with them' and they were ordering for him too. But that didn't soothe our owner, who repeated that he had no 'hotel' and that he had to leave. One of the guys cheerily mentioned that if his friend was sent out, the rest of them would walk out too. And they were shown the door. Out walked 100€ of business. I watched in shock... hopefully assuming that the mask of disbelief was not obvious on my face. Presumably the guy wasn't up for making 8 menu meals at close to 11 in the night on a Sunday... but wouldn't it have been kinder to just say so rather than have them leave for what seemed very petty? And soon we were to witness another 4 parties of varying strengths being shown the door for offenses ranging from staring hard at the drinks refirgerator to choose a drink, to screaming out an order before it was their turn.

Amazingly though, he seemed pro-Asian and treated us and a Chinese couple with atmost respect. He even offered to play mild music in order to create a soothing ambience for us to eat in, even though we ate in silence and gulped down the food, lest we be kicked out as well. Maybe it was just that he knew how good his burgers were and that he was in no danger of losing any regulars, but just the tourists in that part of Bruges or maybe he was just trying to show everyone who the boss was or maybe he was just plain tired. But the burgers were absolutely phenomenal.

Tribute to Pausch

Not so long ago, I wrote about Childhood dreams, inspired by a professor at Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Randy Pausch. He passed away today. Click here for the news item. Many people touch lives in many different ways. Dr Pausch's wasn't totally unique but will absolutely stand out for his spirit and his message. If you don't know what I am talking about, go to this post. May his soul rest in peace.

Happy Holidays

Wow... July's been a drab month and there's absolutely nothing to write about... Of course you may wonder if that ever stopped me in the past where I have written about everything from the honeybees at my house in India to the dog across the street. Right now though, I am on vacation... And surprisingly that gives me even less to write. I don't commute so often, don't see anything different and this past week all that I have been doing is cleaning the house, arranging the cupboards, restocking the kitchen and the likes of the house-wifey things I wasn't too regular with over the school semester. Having played the role for a week, I am fast developing different interests. As a quest for the vacation though, I was out hunting a gym. Having had the convenience of apartment complexes in the US and the major REC center at school, I found it unsettling that people paid huge amounts of money to go to exercise facilities. My school gym here has only basketball courts and rock climbing.. There's no equipment! With physical activity threatening to die, I had to find action fast. And so I hunted my city for the gyms and found their rates. Shocking.. I'll add. So, there's this gym, lets call it, umm.. LF. They charge a membership fee and then a monthly fee, all totalling to about 1000€ a year... and here's the best part - They want you to come in for 30 minutes every alternate day only. No, you cannot go to use the equipment at any time you desire. You can pick your 30 minute slot of choice and land up there once in every 2 days. I was completely flabbergasted. They rip you off and they rip you off!! I consulted with a few regulars, some of S's friends as to what their solution was. Seems like there are lesser expensive options in Paris... but not really inexpensive ones. I have sort of narrowed it down to a yearly 700€ thing which allows me to go at will, take any of their classes offered (from dance to aerobics to swimming). It's still mighty expensive... Makes me wonder if I should just take the tennis club membership which amounts to about the same... but also entail depending on a partner for games. It's like Sophie's Choice.

Apart from the gym bit too, I have been thinking I should go out into the city and see Paris as a Parisian... experience the nooks and corners of this beautiful city while I have the time and the means. I discovered a few English book thriftstores... which are well into my agenda of visiting. Oh, and yeah, S and I with a couple of his friends were at Belgium last weekend, Bruges in particular... and I must mention what a gorgeous place it is... More about it in CityStalkers (right now its CitySnoozers having had no posts in eons).

For now, I hope I keep the blog rolling... There's so little going on!

The brand new wrinkle

So... I was creaming my face after a shower and suddenly I saw it... high up on my forehead - a demarkation... a distinct line. I stopped stunned... Was it a wrinkle??? I wasn't old enough to have one. In panic, I rubbed cream vigorously on it, trying to smooth it away... It didn't go.. I was devastated... Having prided myself on the jet-black mane of hair, was I going to lose it all to a stupid wrinkle on my forehead? And then I looked closer... at the line... it was crinkly... and went all the way from one side of my hair to the other..; Wait a minute... Wrinkles didn't do that... and certainly not the first one... And then it dawned on me. It was the line from the elastic of the shower cap. Phew!

Soldes...

Oh yeah... I have been on a little break from blogging... Its not that I have been upto anything phenomenal... But with school closing in a week and with my India trip down the drain... and with my hot plate burning the dear old mini fridge which then wreaked vengeance by flooding the floors, I can safely say that I have had a busy 2 weeks. Hmph.

Well coming to the title of the post... 'Soldes' in French is 'Sale'. When I first saw the word, I was bewildered as to why huge posters splashed across the entire glass windows of the shops would advertise the stuff they had sold out. Of course my translator husband to the rescue... But this was a good 5 months ago. Right now its the summer sale. The summer is welcomed by selling out the old fashions for almost upto 70% off the original price. Indeed when I went to one of the other stores I frequent, I found some of the very stuff I had bought previously on sale for ridiculously lower than what I bought it for. So why am I sitting and writing about this? Truthfully I don't know. I guess I missed blogging too much. Besides I noticed a pattern with the sales. They went all out to get rid of their winter fashions... something like selling crackers the day after Diwali or selling the golu bommais after Navarathri. And just as untempting as that is, is to buy sweaters and sweatshirts for measly 2-3€ equipped with the knowledge that you don't get to wear them for the next 7 months. But the deals are steals and as is my affection for sweatshirts, I ended up buying one that was not on sale. And really sales are finally a game that huge stores play with people's minds. I am sure that I am not the only person who has ended up buying something knowing entirely that I probably will never wear it... or at most wear it once... but bought it because it was just 3.99€. Know what I mean? And the ideas of having all those teeny-weeny trinkets near the checkout lines is sheer genius. Out of boredom, one tends to browse the bin for some precious trinket and in the end, precious or not, you've picked it up because it was really low-priced. I thought I'd outgrown my childish trend when I went yesterday to make the most of the lasting sales. I had to an extent... yet I did pick something up because it was cheap... more than entirely because I liked it. And I had set myself a budget to shop from... And just before going into checkout, I emptied my shopping bag and did a quick mental total... Of course I'd exceeded... Woefully I pulled out a couple of pieces... no brainers really... And there.. I'd met my budget... had a bagful of clothes... some gifts for the husband as well.. Thats what I am talking about.. Once a month, you need one fulfilling day of shopping... just to keep the sanity, maybe.

Happy Birthday Boo

My nephew Tarun turns 1 today. It's a mighty big deal. I remember this day last year. I was at Bioforce (on the way to work actually) and bcoz of my i-pod didn't hear the phone ring. I got a voicemail and I heard it in the sanctity of the coffee place at work. Tarun was born... My excitement had known no bounds and I was all jumping to plan my first trip to see the little boy... the little Boo. And now, all of a sudden, the year has rushed by... I nomad-ed to more places and have finally found my footing with my husband here at Paris. Things have changed and yet a lot remains to be seen, especially for Baby Boo. Here's wishing Tarun a fantastically Happy Birthday and a lifetime more of joys to come.

Imagination @ work

If this won't make you want to work at Google, nothing will - http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7292600.stm

The culinary weekend.......

And so it was... I made puri n chole and aloo parathas n chutney.. And we were out entire Saturday to enjoy the fête de la musique in Paris.. and so we dined at Sher-e-Punjab and the fête de la musique was more like the fête de la bar as we bar-hopped and caught snatches of some of the phenomenal quarter final lineups of the Euro Cup... The chole backed up as a spread for the baguette as well and all in all, I just spent a delightful weekend.. Back to the grind now.

Bruises

Well I suppose if it happened to inanimate objects, you would call them dents or scratches... But I've always considered My Darling Notebook as a living thing... I speak to him, coax him, chide him, cajole him and at times scream curses at him... Before you start imagining a vividly sad life for me, let me clarify that speaking to my computer makes me feel like it'll make him boot faster. For the unitiated, here's who we're talking about- http://jollyjaya.blogspot.com/search?q=my+darling+notebook. The beauty of this whole thing is that he responds just like a living thing would. I discovered this sad piece of truth when one day he accidentally fell off from a chair while I was cleaning around the dining table. I gingerly picked him up and hit the power button half expecting no lights to turn on. Surprisingly all seemed well... till I took a closer look that is. The upper row of lights were swelled up and elevated, almost like a real person's bruise. And try as I might, I couldn't push the bulge back in... Not just that.. Some particles had gotten under some keys and were creating havoc. I had to individually pry out those keys and clean them. Talk about a fussy computer... But the real message? He's as human as its safe to be.

Touché

I truly didn't know what the fuss was about... not when I bought S the ipod touch... not when he used it and was fascinated and told me so.. not until I found it in the dresser drawer last night begging to be used. And I granted it it's wish and it granted me... pure fascination. It is something to see the device respond to the smallest touch... The pinching action to view photos bigger or read text better... the music is ofcourse ipod quality and definitely superior to my cute little shuffle... But what had me enraptured was the WiFi. I fussed about it for half an hour trying to get it detect our network at home. While it detected it, it didn't seem to have connected to it. Until S helped me out and had it connected. And then... the magic began. I didn't have to open the laptop just to check email. A flick and I could view it right there on my palm... I saw youtube videos, checked the weather... tried signing into IMs and what not. Throw in a phone and a camera and you know why the iPhone is soo popular. Its most definitely a complete system for travel entertainment or otherwise, though I know S secretly prefers his PSP which lets him play games as well (without the touch factor in every nuance of course).

Happy Feet - the sequel

Yes red shoes... yes they're a fashion statement in Paris and needless to say, they ooze comfort (and no color yet on the socks!)... The clincher? They cost 10% of what the boots did... But you know what? They can't be compared...

Childhood Dreams

I had the great fortune of finally getting down to it and watching this video of Randy Pausch that my friend Ram sent to me about 6 months ago. I know that a lot of you would have probably seen it. The ones that didn't, please set aside 1hr and 16 min of your time -its totally worth it. And all of you must be admiring him just the way I did. The sheer spirit he channelized throughout the talk was most important for more than just the basic bottom line of the talk of how to live one's life, but also for the fact that he tried to put a positive spin on his entire life by showing that he had mostly accomplished is dreams. I read in Wiki that the NFL had him come and play for the Pittsburgh Steelers for one day or something to fulfill that half-baked dream of his. What it importantly did was to ensure that I put my childhood dreams down in writing... for me, for my future reference. So what are they?

(In no particular order)
1. Find a cure for AIDS - I think I first heard about AIDS when I was about 10 and finding a cure for something as gargantuan as that meant only one thing - eternal glory. This dream is sort of akin to winning a Nobel Prize or something - As I grew older and in the last minute favored Engineering to Biology, I now realize that this at least is going to remain a pipe dream. Unless I interpret it bizarrely that I wanted to become a Scientist and with this PhD on its way, I am well on my way to fulfill that one... Heck, yeah.. since its my dream, am going to say that in some askew manner this one is getting fulfillment!

2. Visit the Louvre - When I was about 9, I had this encyclopedia-collecting phase. I bought this book called 'The Giant Book of Facts' and to date it remains one of my favorite references. It had a piece on the Mona Lisa and it mentioned that she was housed in the Louvre - The Louvre- so fascinatingly un-pronunciable... I thought to myself that I would anyway want to visit Paris in life... so the Louvre would totally make my to-see list. - I am happy to announce that this dream has been entirely fulfilled... I have been to the Louvre multiple times. Thank God for that!

3. Write a book(s) - I have many amateur efforts sitting at home in India, many of them neatly typed and printed and bound in folders... But what I am shooting for is an actual book with an actual spine... something that people actually buy. As of now, I am working on a manuscript. Though technically no publisher is going to be paying me, I can say this dream is far easier to fulfill with the current self-publishing options. Besides, who knows... with a moderate success, I maybe able to interest a publisher! (Fingers crossed!)

4. Live in the Europe - While people all around me raved about the USA, I was always a Europe girl. No doubt, I followed the gazillion footsteps into the land of opportunity with higher study in mind, fate had different plans for me. I currently live in Paris - Score!

5. Part II of No.4 - Go backpacking across the continent - It must've been a movie that affected this dream... I am yet to do it.. But with the ideal scenario on hand, I can only hope nothing goes wrong!

6. Take an award-winning photograph - Pictures have been a huge part of my family and my growing up. Indeed you can find pictures of my childhood aplenty were you to visit my family home. Thanks to my dad, I have always been camera-savvy and my brother gifted my first digicam. From that Cybershot of 2.1MP to the current Canon EOS Rebel SLR, I have come a long way in digital photography. Though my shot of the Eiffel Tower just won a special mention at K, this isn't the kind of 'award' that I am expecting to win. I am thinking more in terms of National Geographic, etc. - Good luck to me, I know! At least I am on the right track!!

7. Win soft-toys at funfairs- I actually share this one with Randy Pausch - Childish as it may seem, I have always wanted to win the cuddlies.... I haven't succeeded in winning a whole lot... or anything BIG, but I have won many small ones (check this blog) - So yeaay... partly done!

8. Act in something - something on TV!! - Good luck to me for that one too.. hahahha

Thats all I can recollect at this point of time... I may consider adding more eventually. But as I was telling S about al of this, I suddenly remembered an inspiring childhood moment. I must've been around 9-10 at the time... And because I was going to be singing on stage with a bunch of classmates, I was looking for a specific kind of bindi - yes, apparently it was that important. I dragged my mom up and down many potti kadais in TNagar with no success... So I decided to make them myself... After actually finding biocompatible glue (yes, I was that particular and that aware), I fashioned my own bindis. And they turned out great... or so they seemed to the child's eye. And so, I proceeded to make 2 whole packets of these bindis. And then guess what? I actually walked to the parallel road to the Rani Fancy Store and offered them to the owner for sale. He didn't laugh me away or chide me off... instead he actually bought them at Rs 5 each... the going rate for the fancy bindis. I am grateful for that. It was indeed a sparkling experience. Thankfully, I didn't make anymore bindis to maybe be eventually turned away and hence heartbroken. So... my hope to accomplish the rest of my childhood dreams lives on...

I take this opportunity to invite all you readers to share a few of your own childhood dreams and where you stand at at accomplishing them. Cheers!

Sex and the City - Review

*************Spoiler Alert***************

So, I finally got to seeing SATC -the movie. Having been a total fan of the entire series, my expectations were pretty high for the movie version. Having intially assumed that it was going to be a synopsis of the entire 6 seasons, I was pleasantly surprised to see the trailer where it became obvious that the movie took off where the series left, i.e with Carrie n Big still together and a with a wedding plan, nonetheless. Watch the trailer here.

The movie begins with Carrie at her apartment as usual typing away on her Mac. And she gives a very rapid gist of the 6 seasons, basically how each gal ended up with her current beau... so she rapidly summarizes Charlotte's 2 marriages and an adoption, Miranda's 'lawyer' role (seldom shown and hard to believe), her having Brady with Steve and marrying him finally and Samantha's trillion sex positions before settling (almost) with actor Smith Jerrad.

The plot for most part is simple and begins with Big and Carrie looking for an apartment to move into, settling for a gorgeous penthouse (with a teensy closet and a promise from Big to remodel it for her). The scene where he reveals her brand new closet to her almost takes everyone's breath away at the theatre. And Carrie marks her territory by symbolically placing her brand-new Manolo Blahniks on the shoe-rack. And soon they decide to get married. The small-scale wedding planned at first blows out of proportion and scares the groom away breaking Carrie's heart once more. How she recuperates and how they get together forms the main plot of the movie. However it is sidelined by new events surrounding it... Charlotte gets pregnant against all odds, Steve cheats on Miranda (just the once) and loses her trust for a better part of the movie, and Samantha now lives in Hollywood with Smith. Bored out of her wits, eating to satisfy her sexual craving, she packs away some pounds and does the noble thing of not cheating on Smith. The rest of the movie has the SATC typicals - tonnes of brand names strewn around, a photo-shoot, a fashion show, the girls brunches, etc. The scenes of Carrie with her new assistant, Louise are particularly good too.

The movie is long (2 hr and 20 min) but makes up for it by being fast-paced. For the fans, it was a treat just to see the four gals back in action. Indeed most people in the theatre were a band of girlfriends (and I sorely missed my own). For the others, it is still enjoyable, providing laughs, unnecessary nudity and time-pass. Mr Big's role is vastly reduced and though his scenes with Carrie are great, there's a little too few of them. Being a big star has its perks as is seen by the disproportionally large screen time that Kim Catrall (Samantha) gets in favour of the others other than SJP (Carrie).

All in all, a definite must-watch for the fans and not a total waste for the rest.

Fan rating- ****

The others- **1/2

Happy Feet

Brown.... beautiful... brilliant. I finally found my pair of boots. And branded, nonetheless :)

For all about the search of my perfect pair, read this.

Choppu Time

This is strictly not the choppu set that we were given as kids... But this is what's available in the market for kids of these days. For me, choppu means those colorful wooden toys which came in this special handwoven bamboo leaf carton. The toys were all made to match the south-indian kitchen and were the typical Chennapatna handiwork. I remember there used to be this cool ammi the grinding tool of the olden days, pots n pans, plates and ladles, a whole young girl's dream, all wrapped into that cute bamboo box. This choppu set was the quintessential cooking set that every south indian girl in India must have gotten as a child. Look what they have these days - a microwave, a coffee machine... all evidence of everything having gone hi-fi. The reason I am writing about this all of a sudden is that I dreamt about it last night... About the times we girls sat under the lift room on the terrace in Sai Dharshan, all equipped with out respective choppu samaan... Some girls had it in steel... some in plastic, complete with a mixi... But I loved mine best and we would always buy it when we went to Tirupathi and such... We would play house-house and sometimes our moms used to fill our pots with a few grains of daal and rice to make it feel more real. Indeed during Navarathri, these were the vessels we kept in front of the Chettiar-Chettichi bommais as if these were the goods they sold.

With generations changing... with new and more technologically advanced games for children, its a little surprise that the kids these days seem to do things either way faster than we did or way slower. With PS3s and Wiis haunting every household, I hope some of them pick up the Wii Fitness too... something that seems a refreshing change from the mundane sit-down brainlessly violent games that have become common for preteen kids as well. The best bet? Everyone go out to play.

The business trip

Laptop? -- Check
Notebook? -- Check
USB key, blah? -- Check

Having never been on a business trip before, I really had no idea what to expect from our meeting with the partners of the project. The train was at 7:24 am and that meant I had to get up atleast at 5:30 am if I had any chance of having my wake-up chai and make it in ample time to the station (I had better get there coz I had my professor's tickets as well). And after what seemed like eons (15 months since the defense), I stepped into formals and made my way to the station.

7:00am - Paris Gare du Nord. Yup, I was there. The train wasn't. They hadn't announced the platform yet. That meant I had enough time to grab a croissant at the Bonne Journee downstairs and yet, there was no sign of the professor. He and I had decided to meet there at 10 past 7. So he still had time to show up. Having munched my croissant and whiled away time just idling & looking around (I'd forgotten the Ipod - no 'check' for that one!), I glanced up at the DEPARTURES board again. And sure enough the 7:24 Lyon Parrache had Voie 3 (Platform 3)next to it... A quick glance later, I figured Voie 3 was right there and I wouldn't have to walk at all...

7:15am - No sign of the professor. I did have his phone number but I didn't want to bother him. Maybe he was waiting on the platform for me. I waded past the crowds upstairs and located our coach number. No. 5. Surely he had no idea it was no. 5 because I had the tickets. I flipped out my cell phone and called him.

7:18am - He's at the station somewhere at a coffee shop having coffee.
"There's time but I'll join you", he tells me...
Really? There's 6 minutes for the train to leave. There's time? I see him come by in about 3 minutes and I had just started to get really nervous and was contemplating a second phone call. We swiftly wave our tickets at the checking people. And no sooner had we located our seats, hung our coats and put away the luggage, the train glides off away from the station.

Now its my professor's turn to be shocked.
"It was this close?", he asks me in disbelief.
Hmm... I guess its the Indians that have the habit of making the train stations at least an hour before departure. Hmph

Foire du Trone

My earliest memory of going to a fun fair was when I was a kid when my dad took the family to the Ram Leela mela around Navrathri in some huge grounds in Bombay. I remember eating a lot of junk chaat, chewing on those ice candies and buying plastic bows n arrows with which my bro n I would play for days. And of course we went on the Giant Wheels (for everyone who calls it the Ferris Wheel... sorry, to us Indians its always the Giant Wheel). In fact I was a big fan of the giant wheels... maybe because I was sat on them from a very young age... On the miniature versions near Rajawadi Gardens or even the ones near Lions Park in Ghatkoper. I somehow attribute these childhood experiences as the reason for my love of rides.

This weekend, I had the chance to experience a fun fair all over again. Here its called the Foire du Trone (the Fair of Trone) and comes for a couple of months every Spring. It was a prime location quite in the center of Paris and indeed from atop the Giant Wheels, one could see the Eiffel Tower and other merry sights often associated with the Parisian skyline.


First things first, we got ourselves giant ice creams as we explored the length of the fair... There were quite a few rides, water and heights and all the works. There were also these fun stalls with the shooting games, the bow n arrow thingies, each with an enticing selection of prizes, mainly soft toys and sometimes electronic goods to be won. S being the boy, of course played out for the electronics and I as always for the cuddlies... There was also bungee jumping and some other utterly crazy rides for those who desired more than just a little thrill.. So, S, SK and I explored and played game after game, grabbed a bite of some yummy thing I can't pronounce and proceeded to win a whole bunch of toys... Here's my favorite one -


Recognize him? He's the dude from Ice Age scrambling behind the infinite acorns... It was total fun, I tell you... But at the end of the day, we were quite exhausted, having walked loops around the fair and quite broke (each of those games cost 4€ each types) and we'd ended up playing quite a lot. In fact we didn't realize just how much we'd played till we went to one stall and all of us emptied our pockets and still couldn't get enough change to pay for the game... and this given that we'd all made ATM withdrawals an hour ago. But you got to do what you got to do!!

Self Indulgence

Once in a while, not only is it forgivable to self-indulge, but its a requirement to... Self pampering is one of the best ways to all of a sudden feel good about oneself... I really didn't need an extra boost.. but while many others may have chosen to indulge in new accessories or clothes, I decided to indulge in my longest standing passion - books... I just finished ordering a bunch of books from Amazon for myself... half due to almost going crazy about not finding english books at bookstores out here and half out of longing to fill my half-empty bookshelf and do my bit for the wall of books fantasy. You may call me a nerd... But I can hardly get through a meal without having something to read or watch on TV. And guess whats the weirder part? I actually ordered them from Amazon USA and had them shipped to me international, rather than buying them at wee bit more extravagant Euro prices... Ah the considerations one must make before self-indulging! Good gracious me...

Tasty Tidbits III

I did it again!! I made Pav Bhaji on the husband's request and here's how it looked...

It tasted fantastic... had the perfect color, the perfect flavour n what not... The difference is my recipe... Its Pav Bhaji with a twist, with a few more additional steps than what conventional recipes tell you. But the extra effort is totally worth it. Its mouthwatering and beats any hotel Pav Bhaji you've ever had... If you want the recipe, all you need to do is ask!

Ooh by the way, the recipe to the paruppu usili is posted as a comment on its post. Check it out.. try it out and lemme know how you churned it out.

Tasty tidbits II

Ah... So I was making paruppu usili to go with the mor kozhambu that I made for dinner today. Usually, paruppu usili is made with beans or kovakkai (tindora), but I made it today with capsicum, the way my mom makes it. And it tastes as great as it looks... Wanna see?

If you like what you see and wanna know the recipe, leave me a comment.

Tasty tidbits

No no... I am not into food blogging.. But somethings I can't help. I usually fix this up when I am hungry and have to make do with leftovers. I just take a slice of bread, put it on the pan, sprinkle cheese on it and top it with anything I can find in my fridge - spread, chutney or subzi and it makes for a quick hunger fix. But yesterday at Franprix I found mini-canapes.. And they were sooo cute I just bought them. And so today I put that together today and here it is...

Isn't that appetizing? Bite-sized bread is cool and cute. I had topped it with the masala from yesterday's masala dosa and some tomato chutney. Was crazy tasty especially with the bread crusting n the other side. Here's another shot -

Help!!!

If you're the type that reads the news, you must be knowing about the devastating Myanmar cyclones. Read all about it here if you don't have a clue. Most of us are well-enough to do and definitely mean well. I made a donation through google. Remember- every penny counts. Here is the website - http://www.google.com/myanmarcyclone/. I urge everyone who can to please make a donation to help the survivors from succumbing to death.

Reality Check

So... I got down to making those dosas from that batter... And if I can say so myself, they turned out fantastic. But thats not precisely what this post is about. I had only 2 of us, S & I to make dosas for... Even so, I was taken back to those days in India where dosa invariably formed dinner for more than once a week sometimes. And my Chittipatti remains the master at the dosas and her dosas are paper-thin, tremendously crisp and with very little oil - its the ultimate combination all of us strive for while making dosas. And she's sooo good at it that people from all corners come home and request her speciality to savour. This post is about my Chittipatti, and occassionally Patti and definitely all Ammas in the world. An ode to them. How they unflinchingly make 30-50 dosas for the huge family/friends without so much a word of protest. In fact the more one ate, the happier they were... In fact my Chittipatti sits on the kitchen counter and amid the heat of cooking dosas sometimes, for well over 2 hours. Hats off!

I have done this a couple of times in the US.. A dosa dinner for the North Indian friends who were pretty enraptured with the dosa (they always called it DO(like TOE)-SA; never got the "Dh"). And as usual, after making about 20-25 dosas, I was pretty much full from the smell. But I had VR there to help me out and we used to make them together and she would make them for me when we had finished serving everyone else and vice versa. Here, I turned down S's chivalrous offer to make me my dosas once he'd completed dinner. And I had to make myself barely 3 dosas before I could appreciate what all our moms did for us. By the time the second dosa was being made, I realized that the first one was going cold. And everyone knows cold dosas are about as much fun as a damp sponge. So I ate it as the second one cooked. Following this pattern, I even had time to do the dishes while the third was cooking. With this discontinuity, its hardly a wonder that my Chittipatti after making those 50 odd dosas for everyone barely managed to eat the 2 that my mom made for her.

The next time I am in India and being pampered with "Innum onnavadhu saapdu" (Eat atleast one more), this reality is going to hit me and I swear I will try to partake their efforts in the making (though I doubt the people in question will ever choose my dosa over the Master Chef's!) But ther's no harm in trying. After all, S can vouch that my dosas were crisp and yummy too...

Sweater Dosa

I did title this right... The husband and I had this immense craving for dosa a couple of days back... And with a brand new mixi sitting at home, there is barely an excuse not to go about making it! So, I soaked the rice n urad dal last night and like a good girl, I arachified it this morning... And all I had to do after that was to let it ferment a bit before spreading out those crispy hot dosas for dinner tonight.

Problem: The vessel I poured the batter into is this saucepan of sorts (I don't have smaller handle-less vessels). The weather though dramatically improved, isn't warm enough for ideal fermenting, especially not with closed windows and shutters.
Usual solution: I leave stuff in the microwave when I want them protected and at a temperature a little higher than normal.

Today's problem: The microwave is too small to accomodate a 3 litre saucepan.
Today's solution: Batter kept inside the vessel cabinet snugly wrapped with my warmest sweatshirt.

Problems foreseen: The batter ferments soo much that it outspills the saucepan and ruins my sweatshirt.
Solution: The husband can buy me a new one in return for yummy dosas.

Ah.. there's a solution to everything in this world, isn't it?