Lovely Loire

We’d been to a beautiful place in France called Loire. It’s also dubbed the “Val du Roi” or the Valley of Kings. And once you get there, it’s easy to see why. There are literally hundreds of Chateâus, each one prettier than the other. If the weather hadn’t played spoilsport, we could’ve seen a lot more and gotten far better pictures. But here, I leave you with a few sights to behold.

Chateâu de Chambord

Amboise centre ville

Chateâu de Chenonceu

Pretty, rustic and pretty rustic, isn’t it?

Outer body experience

Sorry to disappoint anyone who equated this similar to a NDE (Near Death Experience). This is literally sort of getting a third person view to something you are physically present to witness in. I had a presentation today… it’s sort of become second nature these days. There’s not the slightest whisper of nervousness and I seem to know what I am talking about so there’s no stage fear either. So, today while giving my talk, I knew my lips were moving, that I was saying the right thing… but I only sort of vaguely heard myself. Instead, the rest of my energies were concentrated on gauging other people’s reactions – were they following or lost, was I going too fast, was it interesting, etc. It almost felt like analyzing someone else’s talk. And at that exact instant, I thought I should blog about too. All this while tirelessly talking about superlattices. Weird third person perspective that.

Of forks n knives..

Well, we all know that the fork goes on the left hand the butter knife on the right hand. At least that’s how they place it around your plate during a formal meal.  But I’ve never been able to eat that way. The logic behind this arrangement is that the knife would be in your natural hand (predominantly right) to have the strength to cut whatever it is that you were eating while the fork held it down and then once it was cut free, you could use the fork that was still holding it to directly put it in your mouth. Makes sense on paper (at least to me). But while trying out, I’ve always found it bizarre. I switch hands. I use the knife on the left hand to hold the food down while I tear it away using the fork with my right and put it in my mouth. I’ve attributed this to the fact that it’s widely taboo to use your left hand to eat food in India (and we’ve been taught so). Even still, many many people have been able to make the transition to formal dining with etiquette and get it right. I haven’t. Consequently, once the waiters see the cutlery reversed around my plate, they assume I am left-handed and place everything accordingly (the wine/water glasses will go to the left instead of the right, etc). It’s a very subtle change but I’ve been amazed that so many places in France in particular have noticed and attempted to make it “comfortable” for me. For that matter, how many people know how to use the many different types of forks/knives/spoons that are cluttered around your plate during a formal meal? For this one, I can say I do. :D

Bye bye UCid

Boo hoo... They revoked my UC email account a little less than 2 years since I graduated. Well, that's pretty generous, you would think. And that it had to have happened sooner than later and I ought to have expected it. Not me... I don't remember seeing an email from them indicating that they were going to expunge my ID. All was well till last week when it stopped logging in. All those congratulatory emails, contacts, everything.. all gone in one second. And after contacting them about it, I realize all over again that it's all gone indeed. Now I realize that I should've backed up those things whether I needed all of it or not. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Happily ever after…

Everyone wants this… the happily ever after in their lives. The three golden words - where they find the man/woman of their dreams, get married and live happily ever after. Of course that’s the fairytale version. And it’s short and sweet. In reality and in this day and age, however, there are more coordinates in the equation, more things that need to be perfect- that perfect job/career for both of you, that perfect house to live in… those perfect kids in the future… everything needs to align for those magic words to come together – happily ever after. In the earlier days I think people’s expectations were in accordance to times or what maybe considered not-too-ambitious these days. More women were homemakers where they would follow their husband to wherever he was working because he was the “breadwinner”. As with everything, there were exceptions. These days… both husband and wife are career-conscious and let’s face it, for a luxurious life, two incomes are better than one… and it’s common for both men and women to work outside their hometown. Take the best standing example – the oh-so-common situation in the US these days. I know so many couples who started out in different states and had to work their way to the same one. It involved compromises on either end for the final goal of being together to be achieved. It was never this hard in “simpler times”. It used to be uncommon for the guy to quit his job, move to the city where his wife was and even considered “giving in” to his wife (this was equated to being subordinate – don’t ask me why). Even after everything, maybe one of them didn’t end up with their dream job, the best salary or any of the other things that matter to each one individually. But this was “happily ever after” till the other things worked themselves out. Or till you worked towards them. And once that first step - getting together has been achieved, the rest of happily ever after should follow in due course of time (or so we all hope). Here’s to fairytales and happy endings!

Is East the new West?

The "R" word has hit everyone... No matter which news channel you're tuned to, you're bound to be bombarded by the word "recession" at least once during the whole newscast. For time immemorial, the "West" has been considered superior in many ways to the "East". Things are changing. Thanks to having been the most economically ahead, the West is also suffering the major brunt of the recession. People everywhere are insecure about their jobs, more so in the US and ever since the Obama administration took over, there's been a lot of job cuts (I don't know if they are related) and then there was the whole H-1 debate (as to whether immigrants should be given 'US jobs'), so on and so forth. Me being me, I have no clue about what this exactly translates into or how it directly affects us, etc. The only thing I know is that we need to be sound in our jobs, save on the side and curtail meaningless expenses, which make good sense, recession or not.

However what prompted this post was an ironic twist to things. In India, the "foreign" mappilai thing (a groom settled abroad) has held very high status for many many years. And typically "foreign" translated to the US. Almost everyone wanted to send their daughter abroad and hence preferred a "US mappilai". I was amused to learn then, that recently, a guy friend of mine who's settled in the US was turned down for the very same reason. The recession has taken a very real manifestation in this case, where the parents were now concerned to get their daughter married to someone who could lose their job any day. And no matter how much he assured the prospective in-laws about his job security, perhaps it seemed like empty promises to them because the proposals fell through. Maybe people are being ultra-cautious with the whole 'better safe than sorry' outlook, but this personally, was one of the last things I foresaw as a side-effect from the recession. Add to that the many people who are all of a sudden India-bound, or just moving east - to Europe, Singapore, Japan, etc.. where the recession seems 'lesser'? I maybe mistaken about this but I suppose that many other countries have better job protection schemes than the US. And the "termination packages" are entirely sustainable till one finds another job unlike the US where you are asked to clear out your desk on fine day. So, till the economy recovers or maybe beyond, is the East the new West?

Spring is in

I always wondered why Europe changed it's time for Spring almost a month after the US did. Now I know why. It's because when the time changed in the US, we were still semi-freezing. But slowly over the past month, unbeknownst to us, the light has lasted longer (it gets dark only after 8 pm now), flowers have sprung on the grass, the trees have started sprouting leaves again, the chill has left the air and the crowning glory - my office is warm again (Why is this the crowning glory? Read these.) And after bitching about the cold that much, it was only appropriate that I welcome Spring with widespread arms. It was a long winter but finally Spring has sprung in.

Subtitle Alert!

Does this happen to you? You’re watching something with subtitles… and all you can see and concentrate on are the subtitles? You miss people’s expressions, the scene and what not, even though you entirely understand what’s being said, your eyes are completely drawn to the subtitles alone? I HATE when that happens.

Vegetable Biryani

Today S had the biryani craving… and having only just restocked the fridge, the ingredients weren’t lacking. And so I set about making it.

What	How much
Veggies	Whatever you can find! Onions – 3 medium, Tomatoes – 2 medium, Carrots – 2, Potato – 1, Green chilly – 1, peas, etc.
Spices
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Jeera seeds	1/2 tsp
Bay leaves	2 small
Cinnamon stick (dal-cheeni)	1/2 inch piece
Dried red chillies	2-3 broken
Ginger-garlic paste	1 tsp
Turmeric	1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder	3/4 tsp
Dhaniya-jeera powder (optional)	1 tsp
Other
Curd	3/4 cup, beaten with equal amount of water
Cashew nuts/ raisins	As you desire
Basmati rice	2 cups washed well and cooked so that they are separate and not sticky
Salt	To taste
Oil	2 tsp
Coriander	To season

How?
1. Prepare the curd for marinating the veggies. Beat the curd with water. Add a pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of ginger-garlic and mix well. Set aside.
2. Wash all the veggies well. Cut carrots and potatoes and 1 onion lengthwise, in thin slices and let it marinate in the curd for at least a half hour.
3. Cut the other 2 onions also in thin slices and the tomatoes in small cubes.
4. In a large skillet, heat the 2 tsp of oil.
5. Once the oil has heated sufficiently, add the spices in the order mentioned from Mustard seeds to ginger-garlic paste. Toss in washed cashews/raisins once the rest of the spices have cooked to brown them as well.
6. Next, put in the onions and the tomatoes that have been cut separately and cook on medium-high with salt to release the juices. Stir constantly to avoid any charring. Add the turmeric and the dhaniya-jeera powder.
7. Lower the gas to medium-low once the onion-tomato mixture has cooked fully. Add the marinating veggies with the curd and peas to the skillet and stir in. Add the red chilly powder and any more salt (if required). Close the lid and allow to cook for at least 5 minutes. The carrots and the potatoes take a while to cook on an open container.
8. Open the lid, test if the veggies have all cooked. Once you’re sure of that, turn off the gas. You are ready to stir in the rice.
9. Add the rice in small quantities to the veggies, stirring in carefully to make sure that you do not break the rice. Adding too much rice will not keep the biryani moist the way it should be and adding too little will make it watery. Keep adding rice to the mixture till you are satisfied with the consistency of the biryani.
10. Garnish with fresh, washed coriander leaves and voilà, you’re set!
Notes: To make the flavor more authentic, you could soak 5-10 strands of saffron in water for 10-15 minutes and “color” some of the rice with this to give it the distinct orange color and flavor for a more authentic biryani.
It suffices to say that we probably won’t be eating biryani outside for a long time. It was perfect. The flavor, the color, the texture, the taste, all of it. Serve with raita/chips. I leave you here with one more shot. Bon Appétit!

I'm an IndYAN

I vaguely remember some rap song like that... "I'm an IndYAN.. I am an IndYan". This past week has been so weird. As Indian as I look, I have been confronted by a wide variety of people and been mistaken to be everyone from Spanish to Moroccan. I get that... maybe because of the jet black hair and matching eyes.. and maybe the kajal (kohl) in my eyes and brown skin, perhaps I look Meditteranean to the unitiated eye. Surprisingly though, no one guessed Indian. Hmph. Not even the Sri Lankan folks. Well, they often thought I was one of them. They would just break into Tamil with me... and well, of course I could reply... but our dialects were so obviously different that the second I opened my mouth, my Nationality was obvious. And this is all a shocker for I have always been told how TamBrahm I look. I think all us South-Asians (India-Pak-Sri Lanka-Bangladesh) look similar to many people... sorta how many people can't tell the difference between Indians from the east-China-Tibet-Japan. Funny how perceptions vary. If only perceptions could reach through to the varied cultures between all these countries.

Making the list

I am one of those people who needs to make a list for most things… even if it has just one item. It makes me feel organized and like I’ve thought things through. Even when I used to chart out my study schedules back in my student days (oh wait a minute, I am still there!)… I religiously made out plans to the minute hoping somewhere that I vaguely followed it. More often than not I would end up having spent more time making the schedule than sticking to it. And when I start making a list and have only one item, I usually add more things to it, whether they were entirely relevant or not. It makes me feel like I have an agenda. Very weird… but I know others who do it! Besides, having more than one thing to do promotes the need to complete at least one of the tasks enlisted. Indeed when I used to work for CTS, I used to have my own white board space on which everyday I would neatly enlist my “Tasks for the day”. As the day wore on, the guilt of not having completed any would slowly take over and I would work really hard to complete at least one major ‘bullet point’ because I took (and still take) extreme happiness in adding a check-mark to an action item once completed. That’s what seals the accomplishment, for me. My own acknowledgment of a job well-done (which I don’t give myself unless it’s truly done to the best of my satisfaction). And well, personally I need these silly boosts to elevate me to do the next item on the list (usually in the order of priority) and as the saying goes – If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Whatever works, works.

The Hail-Nails challenge

It's high time... Finally I've decided that I've got to stop biting my nails. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, here's some reference to get abreast - http://jollyjaya.blogspot.com/search/label/nail%20biting. Having succeeded twice before on distinct occasions, I know I can do it. But I need to do it once more... NOW. My sad excuse-for-nails finger tops have become embarrassing especially in a professional environment (not that everyone's staring at my nails-or lack of)... but in this extremely Fashion-conscious country, every bit(e) counts. And if not for me, not for my poor long-lost-hope-nails, for the fashion element in this country, I have got to to grow my nails back. I realize that this is a hard task ahead. And so now, I am equipped with a lot of ammunition that needs to back up my flimsy will-power -chewing gum, weird nail polish, etc. All you long-nailed folks, wish me luck. Biters, join me in this challenge and let's beat it!

The reason I am making this public is in the hope that it will make me stick with it... and a few months down the line, I hope I can post pics of normal-looking, well-painted girly nails. Keep watching this space... I plan to post updates (not that anyone cares) but anyone else in on this challenge is welcome to post updates too!

The biggest pet peeve

Ah... anyone who knows me knows that I am a stickler for propriety in the written language (okay, even the spoken language). While errors on that end are not half as bad, especially when they're genuine mistakes, I think what crawls my skin unfailingly each time is when I read something that's written lyk dis coz dis iz d l8est shtyle in lyf. Big style-bhai alert!
I don't think I got the concept right even now... because try as I might, I can't write like that. This is how the younger generation communicates from what I've seen of the majority. Because you know, who's going to type all those extra letters in a word and waste, like 5 seconds! Time is galleons and so what if you spend it on Orkut/Facebook, etc? That doesn't mean that one should spend time typing the one extra letter that'll differentiate the word typed from what it was intended to be to what it was made out to be. Gosh! Even writing about me has me all irked and pouty. Time to end this post.

Gay-ping signs

Today I spotted a guy wearing pink sneakers. Guess what the first thought was that snuck into my mind… “He’s gay??” And I was thoroughly irritated by that. I was being oddly judgmental. And why? Because from where I hail from, pink shoes/clothing on guys is alright… Guys could hug, put their arm over one another’s shoulders and just be best buds… And I’d spent what, three years in the US and I thought I could categorize people? And even when they were right in front of me, I couldn’t spot it (read this post). I think the first ‘sign’ that became synonymous with being gay (in India), was a guy wearing an earring on his right ear-lobe (George Michael). What a loser theory! Then came the pink clothing – shirts, shoes, you name it… but I think it’s an American theory. Because here in Europe, guys wear pink a lot of the time… the really thin ones wear skinny jeans too… the runners all over the city are in tights and none of that means anything. But here’s the whole catch… why does one need to know anything? What’s with the stereotyping… and the labeling? Who cares? What difference does it make to anyone personally? Nothing. Like many other things… I think this is a preoccupation for the curious, perhaps, gawking is a reason to differentiate.. to make out any obvious patterns. But you know what everyone needs to do? Live and let live.

The joy in spontaneity

There is some true joy in being spontaneous. In fact one of the unadulterated joys in life is in giving spontaneous gifts to loved ones. And anything spontaneous as long as it isn’t life altering always leads to happiness… a trip.. a sudden shopping spree…a call to a long-lost friend… to name a few off the top of my head. It gives you that sudden surge of adrenaline and has you bursting with joy for the rest of the day at least. And then you feel like you slept with a hanger on your mouth – smiling all day. And these days make it worth existing past some of the horrendous ones that are bound to show by every now and then.

So on this Fool’s Day, do something silly. Make it one of those days you wanna think about to get past the terrible ones. Make it count! (And if you need inspirations, I’ll tell you about my most memorable Fool’s Day trick where I pretended to have a fracture in my arm on an English final exam in the VIII grade). Happy April Fool’s Day!

Oodles of Noodles

Pretty basic… easy to make and one of S’s favorites. It was a simple choice tonight… when I had no energy to make anything exotic. As always, I tossed in whatever I found. Featured here, the noodles has green beans, spring onions, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and peas. And it’s seasoned with garlic and provençal herbs. Bon Appétit!

Mirror mirror on the wall...

From time immemorial the common folk have been obsessed with seeing the future... what it holds for them, what they can expect and if they need to be prepared for adversities. Hailing from India, the land in which astrology still flourishes, I have seen a very large variety of means by which one's future is told. There are the traditional horoscopes of course, which are to this day a deciding factor in wedding matches. Then there are face-reading, palm-reading, sole-reading, tarot cards, parrot fortune (kili josiyam - for the unfamiliar, this is where a parrot picks a card from many which holds the key to your future), vaasthu, tantriks, psychics, and God-men just to name a few other. In a land with over a billion people, with faith factor from a very large chunk of the population it is not surprising that the "industry" is a flourishing one. But it's not restricted to India, of course. Astrology (zodiac, sunsigns, blah) has it's roots in so many cultures that there are billions of believers across the world.

What is it about unlocking the future that is so fascinating to billions? Sure if it were a proven Science, many would jump the bandwagon. But that's what baffling. There is absolutely no foolproof technique to tell anything in the future from any of the above-mentioned means. The stars... your face, the lines on your palm... they are not text that is read the same way by everyone. And there is not a single proven Clairvoyant person to date. Take Nostrodamus for example. He was revered... but he wasn't as right as many believe. Also, take horoscope-matching in India, for example. Before a potential wedding, the horoscopes (birth charts - positions of stars during the birth of the person) of the bride and groom are "matched" by astrologers. I would be inclined to "believe" in all of this the least bit if any 2 astrologers came up with the same level/ percentage of matching. But guess what? Every astrologer you go to gives you a different picture. Indeed so many matches have been skirted past because either the bride's side astrologer or the groom's side has words of caution for them regarding the catastrophe ahead should the match go through (In India, a potential match maybe predicted to not just wreck the marriage, but sometimes adversely affect the health of someone in the family, all the way to death, even). Some say the couple will live happily ever after, some others say that the match is doomed. So, who are you to believe? And even if you "believed" one and went on with the match/or not and things didn't happen as predicted (big surprise), does that make the other astrologer right? I bet he would have had failings of his own. People should at the most stick to horoscope-matching as a means to filter out the many many proposals that they are likely to get for their son/daughter. It cannot be mistaken to be a "sure" thing. Which is why as a person of Science, I choose not to believe. I am sure all of these factors, the stars, the lines, blah, control some small/vague/undefined strings in the grand scheme of things as we Marionette our way through our lives... but till we know how much or how little, there is little solace in believing in a pseudoscience. Astrology doesn't stop with predicting your life together with your partner... it can tell you the kind of wealth/health you can expect, how many kids you'll have and practically everything you care to know. Surely, out of sheer chance, some of these "predictions" turn out true, sort of akin to "vibes" that even non-psychic people may have... but none of this proves anything.

I guess if it was just a prediction you'd hear and still go by your life with not too many changes, it's still okay. It's shocking to see that the most educated of the lot are also sometimes the most stupid. Take the Mumbai businessman-Tantrik story (read it here) - how twisted would one have to be to want prosperity (as if!) at such a cost? While one can be absolved for using astrological predictions as a guideline to maybe change some things in their lifestyle for the better, it should not be misconstrued to be a sureshot thing. It cannot be mistaken to be a Science. Many things in life are unpredictable... which is what makes it exciting and worth living. Imagine if everything were laid out for you in the form of "sure" predictions. How boring would it be to fulfill such a life? Some things are best left unknown. Period.

Feeling hot hot hot…

Thanks to all of you who offered tips/suggestions to appease the terrible stinging. Something worked!

Well well well… wish it were as steamy as it sounds. Quite the contrary! I had the misfortune of slipping in my teensy kitchen on a piece of plastic wrap, whilst going to add red chilly powder to my paruppu usili. That meant that the jar was open and in the process of my fall, all of the powder spilt on my chin, my clothes, my arms, etc. Luckily, my eyes were saved. I was quick to jump to my feet and rapidly brush everything away. Or so I thought. But did you know that it can really sting? And that it spreads slowly as a subdued burning sensation? And that a shower just sorta feeds the burn? Indeed I felt the burning more after the shower than before. The only thing that the shower ensures is that nothing is physically sticking on to your skin, I suppose (unless it gets into your pores or something). With my skin burning in patches, huffing and puffing, I was all ready to get doused in an ice-bath.. but I got tips from many friends - from applying ghee/baby oil on it to patting buttermilk on it and I tried them all. Either one of them worked or it just gradually subsided. What a relief! I think the worst area was my chin… maybe coz it caught the most of the powder. But it had that exact feeling that you get on your upper lip after having something very spicy and then drinking chai (remember how chai/coke feeds a stinging burn on the tongue after something spicy?) To add to it, the fall ended up splitting a finger a bit and getting chilly on it. Fewer things burn more… I can say that with conviction and a cold water splash never felt better. Band-aided and burn-free, I am finally at peace… enough to blog about it in any case.

The restless mind

Abdul Kalaam: A dream is not what you see in sleep. A dream is what does not let you sleep.

However I am talking about the kind of mental unrest that results from some form of unfinished business. An unfinished task at work… an unfinished conversation with someone… the unfinished book… all of these are potential causes for a restless mind. And someone like me is pretty deeply affected by it. I can’t even break a book at a very interesting point without going a bit further and leaving it at a point where I can make peace with it and get a night’s rest. As weird as I am, if I leave some work behind, it haunts me in my dreams. I am a dreamer. I have dreams almost every night and I can remember most of it in the morning, color and all. I remember the time when we were learning Calculus in School. Every night, a different mathematical expression would present itself to my sleeping brain, which would then tirelessly perform continuous integrations and differentiations, whatever the case maybe on it till I got up exhausted, not having gotten a wink of actual sleep.

I think the real reason that such things affect people like me is that there is no closure in those situations. Even in the smallest of things. There is no conclusion to a certain thing which leaves a lot to the imagination. And having had no lack of that, it leaves me completely at unrest. A lot of them these days, turn into blogs as you regulars must be reading. But some others haunt me till I can ‘complete’ it. The different possibilities till one real ending are boundless. The end of a book… the settlement of an argument… the completion of a task at hand and so on are my closure elements. And I need them. They give me the sense of fulfillment and I need it for my sanity as vague and weird as it may sound. And if I am denied of the closure, it robs the pleasure of the whole thing. I know people for whom it doesn’t matter. It’s just a book/movie… who cares who won… can we not discuss it at all? Nope… doesn’t work for me. Which is one of the reasons that in all of my blogs for example, I need a closing statement. Something that effectively concludes a discussion. Ever noticed? This is your chance.

Makeup to go

Having lived abroad for quite a while now, I can vouch for the fact that personal appearances do make a big part of the whole first impression deal. I mean, you could be smart and everything on the inside and stuff, but you've got to be presentable on the outside. In India, this just meant that you didn't look haggard... your hair was in place.. your clothes neat... you didn't have spinach on your teeth and you were just about set. But in the US and France it's a whole level upward. In the US, I observed how almost all the women carried a huge backpack/handbag which had their workday essentials and a tiny teensy purse/tote that consisted of their makeup. I found it extremely odd that they couldn't bother to put the small one into the big one and just carry one thing at a time... but would rather choose to carry this dainty tote alongside a massive one. And this seemed 'unfair' when I used to dress in the dark for my 7:30 am ECSS shifts in UC by not turning the lights on hoping not disturb my sleeping roommates. Indeed I think I've gone days without bothering about my reflection. After I became a "working woman", I started caring a bit more... but just enough to look put-together.

Here in France, women carry just one huge handbag which presumably has everything in it. But here's the twist. Many many of them wear their makeup in public. On trains... in buses, no matter where... no sooner than they find a reflecting surface (or have a place to sit to hold up their compact), they go at it. And not just something simple like powder/compact/blush, but even the hard stuff like mascara and eye liner. France is a country of mascara. If you wanna blend right in, coat your lashes with oodles of the stuff but tastefully and you're set. And practically no one looks unkempt. I think what's striking is that these people who wear their makeup on the go have absolutely no qualms in peering at themselves from various angles to check their makeup, fully aware of the fact that gazillions around them are just staring at them for the lack of anything better to do (especially when the train goes underground and there's nothing to see on the outside). Not that this deters them in the least. I suppose they'd rather show up to the people they know, all well-madeup than bother about the strangers on the journey who aren't going to remember them anyways. In some weird way, it all makes sense. Each one to herself.