Watermelon

Mangoes are are such a craze in India specially in western India. Mangoes come in varieities....the world famous Alphonso (anglized name of Haapuus Amba) , Payari(Another fantastic variety), Totapuri (has a parrot-beak like appearance), Langda, Neelam, Mangoa, Banganapalli and the list goes on......When spring is just about setting in, you can see the flowering mango trees......Late in spring, raw mangoes are out in market. These are yummy delights....you cut these, sprinkle a bit of salt and eat. They are fantastic appetisers and even go well ina salad. Mangoes are virtually consumed in every form in India. Raw Mango juice, Ripe Manago juice, Raw Mango pickle(many many varieities), Raw Mango Jam, Ripe Mango jam, Mango pulp with milk and sugar, Amrakhand(mango in cottage cheese), Mango sambar, Mango barfi....and the list goes on. Months of April, May are just Mango festival season in Maharashtra. Every restaurant will serve something to do with Mango. If you visit anyone's home, be sure to get a mango treat. Dur to advent of Mango drinks like "Frooti", "Maaza", the mango taste is preserved the year long. My grandmother used to go to the "Mala"(Marathi name for a garden or plot where vegetables are grown) and hand pick small ripe but sour mangoes to make her Mambayam(Malayam/Tamil name for Mango) sambar ot morkutan. I miss it Patti.

Now I spoke so much about Mango but I never liked mango (except in its raw form). Summer for me meant lot of watermelon.....I used to wait for Mom to buy those juicy large "Sugar baby" water melons. Mom used to already cut it into pieces before putting in the fridge lest on of us ate it all up. Our share was already predetermined so we had to guard our pieces. I remember having taken a knife and cutting thin slices out of others share(Sorry Mom, Dad, sis, bro) so that they wouldnt notice that their piece has gotten smaller. I suspect the same tactic was deployed by my bro and sis too :-)...anyway my appetite for watermelon never diminished. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I believe I would have eaten a watermelon a day(or at least half).......Yesterday I just purchased one large watermelon. I cut it into two. My daughter came by my side and asked for a piece. From that point we have been just competing on who is going to eat more- we just have a quarter left which I believe we will finish by the end of the day (he he he!!!) I am delighted to have yet another watermelonoholic in my house - Chip off the old block as they say :-)

Men in my Life

Well well dont get ideas here - I have written about the women in my life who help me get where I am, now I am just going to talk about the men in my life who mean a lot to me.

As a child I remember those loving hands patting me to sleep, carrying me around to show me cats, dogs, cows, trains....I am the apple of his eye....my beloved Dad....I still remember the times I used to be awake until Dad returned from duty. Since he was in the purchase department he used to travel to Mumbai often. He used to be home late and I used to keep awake until I saw him. I remember those rides on his scooter, then M80 and the times he encouraged me to take his Kinetic Honda by myself. His encouraging words when I was down and his advise to take IT as my specialization. I remember the pain when we had financially hard times but Dad was never cowed down. Thanks to him I know a lot of different songs, better general knowledge and I am the person I am.

We cycled long distances together, collecting matchbox covers, buying indrajal comics out of pocket money. I remember the "Payya payya" chubby loving brother of mine as a young child. I vividly remember the time he hit me with back of a cricket bat on my already fractured nose(Yes! I had managed to fracture my nose)..nevertheless that doesnt change anything. I still think of him as my kid brother though he now has a family of his own. He will always remain my kid brother. I admire his happy-go-lucky attitude to life despite going through a lot of trauma in life.

Then somewhere down the line, along came my knight in the shining armour. Yes, I always dreamt of my dream man to come on a dark horse with a shining armour (he he!!). Well actually he did - except that it was a black Yahama motorbike. I just cannot imagine my life without him. We have seen tough times, happy times, funny times, adventurous times ....and there is lots of go...still lots to come. He is my pillar of strength, the person I rely on, everything I dreamed of.....my life partner and my loving husband.

Then my four maternal cousins who are always there when needed, my uncles who doted on me, my friends who helped in tough times, my colleagues and supervisors who helped me excel at work ....I thank GOD for having so many wonderful people around me...

I also need to mention the little men - my nephews - Oh those sweet little kids - Always amaze me with the energy they have - evrytime I think of them, I cant help but SMILE :-)

Being on top - To be or not to be

I always wonder why one wants to remain on top or wants to come first always. Is it the high that it gives knowing fully well that it will not last long!

Now dont get me wrong, I am definitely not against being on top. I have been living this - As a child I have always been first(or in top three) in the class. I have excelled in sports, music etc....but it then became benchmark. It used be a surprise if I didnt come first. So once in while I didnt make to top either in sports/music/acedemics, someone would ask "What happened, wasnt she feeling well or has she started to take it easy?". The constant pressure is definitely very hard on oneself. It is worse when you are forced to be someone else's role model when the other person doesnt want to accept that. To given example, my siblings were always told "Look at your sister, she is so good at maths, why cant you be like her?" - they despised being in the school as me ( I am being a little harsh here). It became diffcult when I joined work because everyone was equally intelligent and I found it difficult to reconcile to the fact that I am just one amongst the crowd.

On a daily basis I live this life of trying to be on top but is it worth it? I dont have an answer. Nevertheless my subconcious mind doesnt allow me to settle for less. I have seen companies who really wants to be underdogs just so that they dont have the constant pressure of being on top and be in the eye of the media constantly. I have also seen companies that have managed to remain on top for years together( I do not know the pressure they undergo to remaind there).

All I can say is when you have this question coming "What next?", its time to move to something new where you start from ground zero and go on to excel :-) The cycle continues.

Laundry time

I never liked doing laundry. The whole exercise of sorting out dirty clothes, putting them in different baskets and washing them is such a time consuming exercise. I remember as a child how my mother used to sort out the coloured and white clothes before soaking them in warm water with a liberal sprinkling of "SURF" powder. I used to then stand on the clothes in the bucket and dance on them so that the clothes are well soaked. The warm water felt good on my feet. My mother used to warn me to be careful when getting off the bucket lest I slip and fall. The maid used to come and use "RIN" soap to wash the clothes, carefully dry them on the line and put the clothes clip to prevent clothes from flying. We lived in a house than had a common courtyard(5 houses shared the courtyard) in the rear of the house. It used to be fun playing hide and seek, hiding behind the clothes from 5 different households. After the clothes were dry in the hot sun, I used to help Mom to bring the clothes inside. The smell of those dry clothes was so nice and folding was just so easy.

When we went to the US, it was funny not be able to dry clothes by just hanging them outside. Using the dryer was the only option. I never ever learnt the knack of setting the right temperature for the dryer. Either the clothes remained wet or the tore due to high heat. So I just used to dry the lighter clothes under the ceiling fan. Well now, even though I have washing machine at home, I found out that it is easier washing at the Laundromat. You spend 2 hours and all your washing is done in one shot. I also take my daughter along, who happily comes because of the acquarium in the laundromat and the "candy' vending machine. We spend time talking to each other when the washing is on. After the clothes are dried in the dryer, she helps with folding the clothes. So when we are back home, we just need to put them in the cupboard. I missed to tell you about something - there is a coffee vending machine in the laundromat, well the coffee is awful to taste but nevertheless feels good to sip on during those two hours in the laundromat.

April 28 2009

Yet another draining day - It was refreshing to come home and have a cup of hot tea. It was refeshing to hear my daughter's chatter and her phony accents. She was demanding attention! I pamper her though I hate to admit it. I think of myself being quite strict but she manages to get aroung it :-)

Shane Warne pulled in a great victory for Rajasthan Royals today. It was a wonderful IPL match and nice to see the RR team bouncing back after the last miserable defeat. Looking forward to their next match.

I was just wondering how my daughter seems to be so content with little things. It makes her happy when she 'thinks' that she is helping me by grating a carrot. Never mind that I have huge mees to clean up later, it just feels relaxing to watch her laugh. She split a whole glass of her chocolate milk on the floor and table. Took me sometime to clean up the mess. In mock anger, I told her that she will need to drink 2 glasses of milk instead (she hates drinking milk). She sat in the corner for sometime and then slowly said to me "Mummy, I am sorry I spilt the milk but dont give me two glasses of milk else it will spill out of my tummy". I just burst out laughing.

I hit the bed at around 11.15 p.m. Few minutes later, I realized that I didnt send out an important mail. Got up and sent it. Through the night I had nightmares of lots of mails floating around which are not being attended to and I am getting reminders on my cellphone. So to calm myself down everytime I woke up, I just kept saying my usual prayers until I drifted off to sleep. So much for being in the IT field!!

April 26, 2009

Have been pretty busy over the last week so could not write. Yes, I know this should not be an excuse, anyway it is :-)

So my daughter is now pretty independent with her bicycle. One good side effect is that I am able to run alongside her which also provides me good exercise. So I feel that my efforts in teaching her bicycle not only benefitted her but also me. I look forward to teh time that all three members of the family are able to go for long cycle rides together.

Talking about effort, I was amazed to see the Rajasthan Royals captain during the match today. RR were down 56/6 and yet this captain wouldnt give up. He put a gutsy performance to keep face. RR lost but I beleive Shane Warne won a lot of admiration. This was also true in the previous match when RR almost lost but ended up in a tie and won the tie breaker. He showed faith in a teenager Kamran Khan who has not had any exposure to even first class cricket. KK also lived uo to the expectations of the captain by helping level scores and then restricting runs in the super over. It was heartening to see the captain lead from the front. I wish we have many such managers(they are there but need more :-)) in the IT field as well.

Oh by the way I tried baking a chapati in the oven today(rolled chapati dough cut into diamond shaped pieces coated with very little butter). The outcome was yummy crispy wheat crackers..... Maybe I will try a chapati base pizza next time -

OK - thats it for today - bye!

April 19 2009

I was working on different things today and the family TV was busy showing the IPL matches. My daughter has no interest watching those matches so she kept pestering me to play with her. I was a bit frustrated since we had done a lot of activities since morning -painting, cycling, writing etc .... Now I couldnt think of anything else so I was just getting mad at her - my better half not doing much to help the situation(was glues to the TV watching the match). I had so much to still do....cook, clean, iron, plan for tomorrow.

Suddenly I realized why not involve her in what I was doing.... I started to make potato curry. I handed out the 2 boiled potates(cooled of course) to my daughter to peel. She gleefully helped me peel them. Meanwhile I had fried the onions with garlic and ginger paste, added a little salt and chilli powder. I mashed these potatoes into the onion mix. My daughter helped stir the ingredients( I have a child safe induction stove) - Then I gave her 2-3 carrots (baby carrots) and handed over her plastic knife. She pretended to cut them in small pieces. I was done with the potato curry. I started to make dosas. While she 'cut' the carrots, I gave her dosas to eat. So the carrots and dasas quickly disappeared without my usual pleading for her to eat. I thanked her for her 'help' and she felt so proud. I could see her beam.

So I found a new way to keep her busy , do my usual household chores and yet feel satisfied of having spent time with her. She is as usual giving her cheerful smile as I write this blog :-)
Au revoir! A lundi....

April 17 2009

What a joy to see my cute little daughter ride her bicycle all by herself. The 4-5 days of effort and backache has paid off. It is such a fantastic feeling!!! Anyway one balancing act now completed, I need to focus on the skates and POGO stick.

So today I will talk about 'imbalanced' forces that are so refereshing in our normal routine work life. There are a lot of times where we feel down or just worked up. We all know diversion from that atmosphere is the best way out yet we do not try to do so. I call this the human tendency to be in state of 'inertia'. when we are working we just dont stop though we are worn out. When we are bowling or playing a game of cricket we want to just continue playing no matter how worn out we are. So Newtons law "A body in state of inertia continues to remain in that state until acted upon by an external imbalanced force" holds true in everyday life.

Now this external imbalanced force is extremely good for us :-).This external imbalanced force can be a telephone ring(so remember putting on 'silent' sometimes is not good), your child trying to get your attention, a wift of something being cooked that forces you to get something to eat....Heed to this external imbalanced force - you will come back replenished to continue to do what you are doing - probably much better!

Saying "Thank you"

When my daddy used to run small errands for my Mom , she never missed saying 'Thank you' to him. I wondered why she did that because whatever errand my Dad ran was probably what he should anyway do... But I always a small smile come across my Dad's otherwise tensed face when she said a 'Thank You'.

In my day to day work life I realised how mechanised we have become - so much so that we take everything for granted and forget to 'Thank You'. A few months back, I ran a workshop for a colleague of mine and spent half a day trying to explain some concepts. The least I expected was a mail that said the Golden words. Thats when I realised how many 'Thank You' notes I have missed sending.

Dear All, it was then I decided that I will make it a point to make this little gesture to add sunshine in some elses life and make the receipient feel special. I decided to acknowledge all help however small with a Thank you and a smile(read smiley for e-mail). I have the satisfaction of having someone else's day.

Now its time to say Thank you to my daughter who fetched me glass of water - As I say it I see a proud smile on her face. It has made my day :-)

April 15 2009

My daughter is learning three balancing acts - courtesy me ;-)

Today she went cycling. We have removed the stabilizers(side supporting wheels) - I was holding her bicycle while she was trying balancing. We have been doing this for the past couple of days. She seem sto be getting better though my back seems to get worse as I have to bend to hold the back of the seat. Despite protests from her we did go for about a kilometre and back. To my amazement, she seems to be picking up very fast. I hope that she is riding by herself tomorrow.

The second balancing act is roller skates. Thankfully she seems to be a pro with her skates and was able to skate in a couple of days. She needs to still improve on her technique but I am satisfied with her progress. We will try improvizing this weekend.

The third balancing act is her POGO stick. This is definitely going to take time. We are being careful here - she has her elbow gaurds and knee gaurds on when trying. She can now jump twice or thrice without support. Anyone who had guided their children with the POGO stick please post in some techniques to learn quickly.

So I wait until tomorrow to see my l'il one cycling on her own :-)

Simple receipes

I am no great cook and look for all short cuts though I do enjoy good Indian food. Blame it on the fast world ;-)

While working in the IT sector, the inevitable happened.....I started to put on weight not realising that I have put on about 15 kgs in about 5 years. When it dawned that I was really overweight, I started to seek some immediate measures to decrease weight.

I realised that I could start with very simple things. While I stopped buying the ships/crisps, chocolates, cakes, crossaints that I so much loved, I realised that some simple changes in cooking styles can make a lot of difference.

One simple receipe I prepare that has become a family favourite is as follows

1 bunch of spinach(chopped)
1 onion(chopped)
1 tomato(chopped)
4-5 pods of garlic(optional)
a cup of chopped vegetables(brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, capsicum etc)
a teaspoon of salt(or to taste)
a teaspoon of red chilli powder(or any other flavouring)
2 table spoons of moong dal or masoor dal or toor/arhar dal

Put all the above ingredients in a pressure cooker with 2 caps of water. Presure cook for 3 whistles - If using microwave, dal and vegetables need to be cooked separately. Mash the cokked mixture. You can season with mustard/jeera splattered in 1 teaspoon of oil or simply serve as is with a dash of lemon. This can be consumes as soup of with roti/rice.

Instead of spinach, a bunch of corriander or carrot leaves can be used.

While this dish is very tasty, it is very healthy as well -

If you try it do let me know your feedback

Human brain

A human brain is a very complex thing - Even before we had mutlithreading as a concept in software, the human brain has been eternally doing this. It can do many things are the same time -

Just the other day I was watching a friend of mine who was on a business cal on 'Mute', trying to decipher what was being said while trying to feed her little child and making notes all at the same time. Now I will not recommend this :-) but I have seen this happen.

It is amazing to think of the pockets of ROM and RAM we have in our brain. While it is sometimes seemingly difficult to remember a 10 digit phone number, I remember the registration numbers of all the vehicles that my father owned. The brain also seems to have some fuzzy memory and some fuzzy logic to retrieve it.

I endlessly imagine the 'ENGINEER' of this brain and thank HIM for everything :-)

Continous learning

At the end of each day I thank the Alimighty for the good things and pray to see another beutiful day. As I do that one question that haunts me is "What have I achieved today?". Well I am here because I need to achieve something for myself, my family, my city, my state, my country, this world......and this goes on...I laugh at these thoughts, brushing it like a fly on my nose....

But then I thought about it; shouldnt I be doing things that I like, rather than go through another drag day doing the mudane tasks and following the normal routine......

As I kid, I always wanted to lean the violin but then my parents couldnt afford to buy one; instead I learnt the harmonium. It is an instrument that looks like a keyboard but the player plays the keys with the right hand. The left hand is used to operate the bellows. Not that I didnt like playing it but I always wanted to learn a stringed instrument. This helped me learn the basics of music and I developed an ear for music.

Today(literally) I feel a sense of achievement when I was able to play the basic 7 notes on the little 1/8 violin which my daughter learns on. She is my teacher and taught me how to hold the bow with a "bunny rabbit" hold. People who teach the violin will know this. I also learnt today that there is no age to begin learning and no reason why your teacher cant be much younger than you.

With this feeling of contentment, I close for today. Will come back again with other such "small" achievements.