The accident

There I go again, into silence and oblivion to the blog world. All other people must have churned lot of things during this one month and I am just contemplating on what to write and should I write and for whom should I write.

Our black Hyundai Getz is finally home after 3 weeks from the garage.

Happy 35th

2 weeks ago, I completed 35 years of my beautiful life on this earth.

35 looks like a simple number, but it has many hidden meanings. It is often considered as a sign signifying end of youth and beginning of old age. One has to worry about his health and expenses to cover them as now the energy saps and diseases start dwelling in the bodies. But for me, 35 is just a number and I am sure many of my friends will agree on this.

Got Published!

Blame it on the weather or blame it on my lazy bum. When was my last post on my blog?

Though my mother in law is visiting us for 2 months and now I have more time for myself, I haven’t blogged since a month now.

I am busy with cooking different types of cakes and muffins, visiting places, inviting people for lunch or snacks and then at night, I hardly have any inclination to write anything. I just watch a few serials and then go off to sleep.

But today I thought to myself. The hibernation has to end and I have to start writing again. There are so many things in my mind to write about. And I also wanted to share good news with you all. 

The pumpkin festival

When you hear the word pumpkin, what comes to your mind?

I am reminded of a story from my childhood in which an old lady sits in the carved pumpkin and saves her life from the wild animals in the jungle. She says one line ‘chal re bhoplya tunuk tunuk’ (speed up pumpkin speed up). And then pumpkin finds a regular place in our kitchen as it is a great benefactor of health. Pumpkin raita and pumpkin puris were the only two recipes which I knew related to pumpkin, but when I visited the ‘Kürbis Ausstellung’ in Ludwigsburg yesterday, I was amazed to see the different shapes and sizes and colors of pumpkin and also the recipes made out of this not very likeable vegetable in India, at least. 

Marathi Sammelan in Germany

The Marathi Sammelan (get-together) was held by the Marathi Mitramandal, Germany in a resort called Familiendorf, Hübingen on 30th and 31st August 2014. It was a two days event and there was a stay-over at the resort at night. Most of the people had got their cars, but there was also a pick-up arranged from the closest train station called Montabaur to the resort.

Tatu Tata

I stay on the main road in a small town near Stuttgart and I often hear the sound (siren) of police vans, ambulance and the fire brigade which Tanay and his friends from the crèche have lovingly named as ‘tatu tata’. Whenever one of these three vehicles is heard on the road, all the other vehicles on the road stop make way; move aside, no matter how congested or small the road is.

The clay story

A small act of kindness, no doubt brings joy in the benefactor’s life, which cannot be measured in terms of money. But when we are at the receiving end, the happiness is even more, because we haven't expected it in the first place and another reason is that it might come from a source, which is totally unknown to us. You would be thinking, what philosophy doses am I giving here, but now, I will tell you the reason for writing these lines.

Book Spine Poetry # 1

The concept of book spine poetry appeared in 1993 with Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books project. Katchadourian began collecting interesting titles and arranging them in clusters so the spines could be read like a sentence.

Thanks to Uma Chellappa for introducing this wonderful piece of creative writing on her blog. Check it out here.

 

http://mymaidenattempt.blogspot.in/2014/08/book-spine-poetry-1.html

 

http://mymaidenattempt.blogspot.de/2014/08/book-spine-poetry-2.html

 

The second post of hers set me thinking and since last 24 hours, I am trying to find some time to sit and write something of this sort.

Finally, after a deliberate attempt, I am ready with my maiden attempt at Book Spine poetry.  My mother-in-law, who is currently visiting me, also helped me with it.

Let me know how you like it.

 

The Notebook

(of) the pilot's wife

(unravelled) the Secret

(of) revolution 2020

(created by) the jewels of the sun

 

 

 

Independence Day

My dear daughters and sons,

You all celebrated the day of my independence from the colonial British Raj with great enthusiasm. How old have I been now? 67 years old? I will always be thankful to your ancestors for giving me a new lease of life and freeing me from the autocratic rule. I had hoped that I would flourish, make lots of progress and see India emerging as the super-power, but alas, my dreams are shattered by the sad reality.

Adios, Amiga (Goodbye, friend)

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival - C.S.Lewis

This quote holds true in my and Arpita’s case.

We both are from Mumbai. We studied Arts in college. We love Literature, Arts, History, Mumbai, Life and liveliness.

But we had never seen each other in India. Only when destiny brought us together in Germany in a common group did we realize that we share so much with each other.

Guest-o-mania

I have always been a person who enjoys people coming home. Be it family, friends, relatives, or just acquaintances, I like to be host to them and talk to them and entertain them. In Dombivli, when I was a school going kid, my grandmother’s siblings often visited us and I absolutely loved the time, when my favorite aaji, Sakhu aaji (grandmother in Marathi) came home to stay. I pestered her to stay longer and longer and never wanted her to go. She had a soft corner for my dad, as she was the one who took care of him when he was doing his military school in Pune.

Death beckons

My day started on a bad note today as I learned that my favorite Hollywood actor, Robin Williams is no more and he died of depression and committed suicide. A person who tickles the people’s heart with his indomitable spirit and energy and laughter cracking persona, dies of depression? Really!? Is this possible? What made him so sad and made him leave his countless fans behind in a world, which can never see him play a character again?

Raksha Bandhan

I quote Wikipedia’s definition on Raksha Bandhan.

‘Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu festival that celebrates the love and duty between brothers and sisters; the festival is also popularly used to celebrate any brother-sister like loving protective relationship between men and women who are relatives or biologically unrelated. It is called Rakhi Purnima, or simply Rakhi, in many parts of India’.

The earliest memories of this festival are from school times, where we girls rushed to tie rakhis to a few ‘mischievous’ boys in our class and they ran away from us saying no, leave us alone. But there was one boy called Tushar Shetty, who never shied away from getting the rakhi tied and he very sportingly and lovingly displaced the maximum number of rakhis tied on that day.

Tanay and his best friend Enya

Recently we were invited by Tanay’s friend, Enya’s family for a chat and snacks. We were actually invited for her birthday but as Tanay was not keeping well, we couldn’t go and hence to make it up, we were invited again, which was a very sweet gesture on the part of the German family. We reached there, parked the car and Enya, Tanay’s friend was already waiting for him on the road. They both squealed with joy and from that moment on they were inseparable.

Friendship Day

Friendship day has come and gone. Like every other year.

I am miles away from my best friends, but close to their hearts and in their thoughts and prayers, I am sure. The crazy friendship bands have got lost somewhere, the silly gifts also ruled out, and personal meetings, way too hassled. It is just the technology now which is keeping us together. Whtsapp messenger, Facebook and mails are the forums which we resort to when we want to ‘talk’ to our friends. They are just one call away, but do we call each other and hear the voice of each other? No. Pinging is easier than calling now. 

Beauty dignified - Rome and Florence

Being in Europe and not seeing Rome is a sin, according to me.

Capital of Italy left me amused, tired and happy. All emotions and same emotions experienced, which I would have, back in my home country.

Setting off on a trip to Rome and Florence for 5 days was not easy, especially with a two year old kid, who tags along with you day and night, not understanding much of what is going on. The hotel, we chose was very close to the Metro station and the moment I came out from the airport of Rome, I felt like I was very much in some Indian city, the only difference being, the majority of the people were bright skinned. 

The Indian Film Festival in Stuttgart

My colleague and good friend, Bala, sent me a mail about the Indian Film Festival in Stuttgart which was going to happen from 18th-20th July. I was delighted and excited at the same time. I immediately glanced at the programme and was happy to see many good and regional films that were going to be screened in this festival. They were going to be presented with sub-titles of course! It was going to be an interesting thing to watch the German people's reaction to Indian films as there is a enormous difference between the two countries, cultures and cinema.

After 20 years..

Technology has once again come to my rescue.

Yeah! After 20 years, the gang of girls from my school is re-united, re-connected. Thanks to the wonderful and magical App called Whtsapp.

Early this year, I got in touch with many of my old batch mates and realized that the boys were connected to each other all this time. Then why the girls shouldn’t also give it a try, I thought. Suddenly, it dawned on me to start such a group of girls and I immediately posted it on our FB group page. The responses started pouring in and within no time, we 4 gals took off.

Wedding anniversary

30th June 2006 and 30th June 2014.

What has changed and what has not?

We, once carefree individuals have become more grounded, no wonder why, because now we have the most important person in our lives, our 2 year old son.


We overlook each other's shortcomings and tend to focus on the good aspects of the personalities.

Coming Back

A person say C, who is very close to you and shares a lot with you, who is a very close relative, but more like a family, suddenly decides to stop interacting with you due to some misunderstanding and cuts off all the contact with you for many years. He/she doesn’t bother to keep a tab of any proceedings in your life and one fine day, after 7 years, he/she decides to come back into your life and asks you to forget everything that happened in the past and urges you to start a new chapter with all ‘goody goody’ relations.

How would you react to this person?

Happy birthday Aai!

My mother is my best friend.

I can talk to her about everything and anything. She is in general very enthusiastic about life and extremely positive spirited. She is a trekker and is extremely fit at the age of 59. She just celebrated her 59^th birthday on 28^th May and I had to make it special for my dearest aai.

My cooking spree

I was tired of my own cooking routine and I wanted to break away from the usual roti-sabji, dal-rice stuff. As I am a strict vegetarian, I do not have many options to eat outside and I was tired of whatever options are available e.g.  Bread, pasta, salads etc. I wanted to eat something which was definitely vegetarian, but not from the routine. In Bangalore, I had a cook and she took care of the food there. But here, in Germany, every afternoon, the question ‘What’s cooking for dinner’ stares at my blank face. I then took to searching food blogs and I was amazed to see 'n' number of people writing blogs about their experiments with food and they had won a lot of accolades too. And I was even more surprised to see that many of the food blogs that I came across were for vegetarian stuff only! I read and referred a few blogs for a few dishes and prepared them in past 2-3 weeks. Tanay and Atul were my subjects for experiments, but they survived and me too!

I prepared apple-cinnamon muffins, mango muffins, sprouted moong paratha, onion-cheese paratha, corn –potato tikki, sabudana thalipeeth, semolina-coconut ladoo and I feel very proud of myself. I am not a person who enjoyed being in the kitchen and cooking for people. I could just do the bare minimum so as to not go hungry. But with these experiments, I gained confidence that even I can try different and unusual and healthy dishes. With practice, I can also master the different combinations and permutations. I felt elated and happy and I sincerely thank all those ladies who toiled to make their blogs and guide duds like me in this wonderful world of aroma and spices.

So, people like me, who would like to experiment and try some ‘out of the box’ recipes do refer the following links:

http://www.foodlyrics.com/

http://chakali.blogspot.in/

http://www.spicy-aroma.com/

http://www.spiceupthecurry.com/

http://www.aayisrecipes.com/

http://holycowvegan.net/

http://www.rakskitchen.net/

Mango - The King of fruits

When I hear this word ‘amba’ (Mango), it takes me to my childhood days, where my mother’s grandmother (in Maldoli village) used to open the room to me where mangoes were stored and she used to tell me, have as much as you want! We visited her mostly in summer vacations and that was the time when the whole house and everything in it smelled of mangoes. There were different types, the best one called Alphonso, which is considered the king of mangoes!! Mango itself is the king of all fruits and the king in mango kingdom means you can imagine the taste and the texture and the sweetness of it! We had mangoes for breakfast, when panji (my great grandmother) sliced the mangoes and put them in front of us. Then for lunch it was aamras (mango pulp) which was prepared by selecting the best of the ripe and fragrant mangoes and removing the pulp from it, by hands! And then the program of cleaning (licking every bit of mango) from the seed was a great event in itself. After a sumptuous lunch of aamras and puri or poli (roti), sleep was inevitable. After getting up by mid-afternoon, there was aam panna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aam_panna) waiting for us. And then after having it, we were off to the mangroves to see the trees laden with mangoes. The mangoes were sold in Mumbai, but only after the inmates had enough to last for the season.

My mother tells me a story, she has a younger brother and as a child, she thought that her grandfather loved her kid brother more, because he was an heir to their family and was his eldest son’s son. He kept the best mangoes for him and often took him maadi (upstairs) to eat the mangoes. We all laugh it out now, but childhood is such bliss and many of my summer vacations have the sweet memories of mango! I got to eat the mango of this season on Saturday, when we bought the type ‘badami’ of mango from the Indian stores and I laid my hands on it, just like I did as a kid. The mango got smeared on my mouth and I licked the seed clean and felt like I achieved something. I haven’t eaten Mango since 2011. And this year I let go of all the fear and inhibitions associated with the mango related to weight gain. I just couldn’t let this year also pass with mango drought. 

The export of Alphonso mango to Europe is banned. I read an article about the artificial ripening of mangoes in India and its health hazards. I was wondering, why people chose to risk the lives of people who will buy mangoes and eat it with great relish, just for the sake of quick money, people are not bothered about the side-effects of using chemicals on this highly in demand fruit. That is indeed very sad.  I had to settle with a lesser known and savored type here in Germany, but that is ok. And I look forward to eat the different varieties next year in India. I will definitely relish the delicacies made from mango: mango rice, mango milkshake, mango ice-cream and mango muffins (will be my creation ;). 

Namo Namo

Narendra Modi, (christened as NaMo) the messiah, the saviour, the future PM finally emerged as winner and his party, the Bhartiya Janata Party won a majority of seats in the Loksabha Elections held in different states in April and May 2014. Friday, the 16th of May was the day when the results were announced and the whole country was rejoicing and had come out in streets to celebrate this victory. The youth of India, who mostly shy away from the country's politics also was keeping a tab on the happenings over the passing day. I missed the vibrant atmosphere in India on this particular day and I am sure it was no less than celebrating a festival together.

I feel very bad for not being able to vote in the Elections, though I was entitled to. As I was away from my country, on a deputation, I lost the chance of choosing the right and person in my constituency. Not only me, there are so many like me who were not able to cast their vote. There should be some system in which the NRI or the NRE people should be able to exercise their vote in the elections. There are so many people, who are abroad, for education, for job etc. If their votes are combined too, the picture would have been much stronger than the one today. Anyways, this is not bad either. The people have clearly voiced out their decision. They no longer want incumbency, they want to see results, they want to see things progressing and moving forward, not only for the elite and the educated, but for the common man too.

But I wonder, can this man alone bring a radical change in our day to day life? Aren’t we as citizens of India also equally responsible for contributing to our country’s progress? Shouldn’t we also start working at the grass root level and help curb corruption? Shouldn’t we be alert and look after the depleting natural resources and help conserve energy? Shouldn’t we as responsible citizens of the city, in which we live, start segregating the waste in different bags so that it can be recycled and put to use again for a fruitful purpose? Shouldn’t we stop honking at the signals when we see it as Red and that there is no place to move ahead? Shouldn’t we stop littering and spitting on the roads? Shouldn’t we in our own ways contribute to the needy people by educating them and making them independent?

So, I feel rather than expecting everything from Mr. Modi, we all should come together and work for a better cause and give India her due and make her the biggest and richest democracy in the world by propagating peace and harmony and tapping the talent of the country for further economical development.

Acche din aane waale hain, but we all should work towards it rather than expecting only our political leaders to do so.

Gharonda (The Nest)

The word home has so many synonyms -  abode, diggings, domicile, dwelling, firseide, habitation, hearth, hearthstone, house, lodging, pad, place, quarters, residence, roof in the English language and in Hindi, it is synonymous to ghar, gharonda, basera, makaan, sadan and so on..

 

Ye Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar Kisi Ko Dekhna Ho Gar
To Pehle Aake Maang Le Meri Nazar Teri Nazar
Ye Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar Ye Ghar Bahut Haseen Hai
Ye Ghar Bahut Haseen Hai Ye Ghar Bahut Haseen Hai

This song from the movie Saath Saath exactly depicts my mood today when my dad just called me up to tell that he has collected the property documents from the bank (after we cleared the home loan 2 months back) and the house, our dream home in Bangalore is finally ours! Oh! What a feeling! We are the proud owners now, the house is finally ours. The moments just flashed before my eyes. How we booked this particular flat in a single day and how we liked it very much and how we saw it getting its shape and size and how we got it adorned it with furniture and loveable colors and how we decorated it with nice, beautiful things, how we moved in and more good things happened to us! How we loved sitting in the balcony on the sit-out sipping our tea and listening to the birds chirping and seeing the parrots flying. How the rain drops trickled down to the balcony and wet the floor.  How Tanay arrive in our lives after moving here, his first steps, his first mischief etc. The list is endless. I can’t thank the Vastupurush enough. And of course our parents, grandparents and friends and well wishers also should be thanked who showered their blessings and good wishes on us.

I got this reference from google http://vastusecrets.com/vastu-purush-vastu-man.html for the people who might be new to this term:

Vastu purush is a concept of Indian vastu shastra which is very very powerful and appealing too. According to Matysa Puran,   (sacred scriptures of Hinduism) when Lord Shiva was fighting a war with asuras, a weird personality was created from a drop of his sweat. He was cruel, horrifying and devoured everything on his way. Terrified Deities went to Lord Shiva and prayed for protection. Lord Shiva pressed the weird man under his foot till the war was over.

The weird man surrendered himself to Lord Shiva and begged for his forgiveness. Lord Shiva named him as Vastu Purush and ordered him that he would go on the Earth and give Health, Wealth and Happiness to the people residing there. He blessed him that the occupants there will always worship him. Then 45 Deities including Lord Bramha collectively caught hold of Vastu Purush and threw him on the Earth with the face downwards, head in the North East and his feet in the south west. Each  body part of the Vastu Purush was given the name of the Deity who touched it. E.g. Lord Bramha touched the navel of the Vastu Purush so it was given the name of Bramha. So the centre of the house where Vastu Purusha’s navel comes is called as "Bramhasthan".

I am on Cloud Nine today and will definitely celebrate this moment with dear hubby and sonny.

There is great importance attached to having an own house in India even today. It is considered as a great asset and usually comes handy in the fallback times. The budget of the people buying property varies and so do the prices when it comes to different areas in a particular city. Everybody wishes 4 walls of his/her own, where one can come back, relax, chill and spend time and just hit the bed at night,

Have you seen the advertisements of Asian Paints on Television? I love its tagline ‘har ghar kuch kehta hai’. Watch it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdzRjvdK67w.  Houses have moods and colors too, exactly like the people they house, is what I believe! Why is that you go to somebody’s house and get uncomfortable and panicky and feel like getting out immediately and on the other hand to a house where you think you have always been staying for years, very quiet and relaxing? There may be houses which have the best of furniture and valuables, but there is no peace in that house and there might be also a case where people are pauper, but satisfaction and peace prevails. 

I am waiting to get back to my home sweet home next year, where I can be myself and enjoy the warmth and peace!