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.