Awards and Tags

This is a long overdue post. A couple of very kind fellow bloggers presented me with awards and tagged me too. I was supposed to have written a post thanking them and passing the award in return to other people. Procrastinator, that I am, I am just getting around to this.

Without further delay…

I received the Liebster award from Ambika. She started blogging early this ear and puts out posts with diligent regularity. This is more than I can say for myself. I firmly believe that good writing happens only when one expends the effort to do so often. On that count, I am failing miserably so I have enormous respect for bloggers who are able to implement this philosophy.

Here are the rules of the Liebster Award:

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself.
2. Choose 11 deserving bloggers and tag them in your post.
3. Tell them you’ve tagged them.
4. Answer 11 questions the tagger has asked you and give 11 questions to the people you’ve tagged.
5. No tag backs.

I have said so much about myself by way of this blog, I wonder if there are 11 random facts that I can share that all of you are unaware of. However I am going to make an effort

1. As a child, I used to love eating bricks, chalk and slate pencils
2. I love the tomato soup that used to be sold (not sure if it’s sold these days) on Mumbai – Pune trains.
3. I received 23 proposals of marriage from my 12th year to my 23rd year when I finally married DH. My mother offered to pay for the psychiatric care of every one of those boys who proposed to me.
4. I had my physics text-book from 10th grade memorized from cover to cover
5. I remember the very first phone number I ever had

Well, that’s it, that’s about all the facts I can muster

I’m not sure I have 11 bloggers to present this award to,  I haven’t quite kept up with my pursuit of new blogs but here are people that I’d like to pass this on to

Smita of Books, Life n More

Filter Kaapi of Filter Kaapi’s random rants

Vishal Bheeroo

KP of Random Thoughts

Here are the questions Ambika asked me

Why did you start blogging?
The answer can be found in this post

What do you like best about blogging?
The interaction with the people who read and comment

What vegetable do you like raw but never cooked?
Avocados, to be honest, I have never eaten them cooked.

What is your idea of heaven?
A library

What do you like to do for fun?
Read, drinking tequila is a close second

Have you ever experienced something negative, then had it evolve into something positive in unexpected ways? Please describe.
Too complicated a question, will require a post  :)

What three things/approaches help you achieve happiness in your day-to-day life?
Organization, organization, organization

What is your favorite book?
Too many to name. Gone with the Wind and A Suitable Boy to start with

What is the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
Get married, it is truly a leap of faith

Are you punctual or tardy?  Be honest.
I always try to be punctual. I am always delayed by the DH  ;)

What does your name mean?
Ocean of knowledge.

Now I am supposed to ask questions of my own. However, I am going to leave that part out, primarily because I am too lazy to put together questions.

Thanks again Ambika for considering me worthy of this award.

I am also going to use this post to give a huge shout out to Vishal Bheeroo for having nominated me for an award in this post. Thanks Vishal, for the award and more importantly, reading me.

Paths not taken

This afternoon, on my way to pick up DD from school, it occurred to me that the life I live today is completely unlike the life I’d envisioned for myself when i was younger.

As a child, my biggest dream was to be a doctor. I had ardently wanted to be one so  whenever  I thought about my future (at night, right before I fell asleep), I’d see myself in a white coat with a stethoscope around my neck. Very quickly, I’d banish the vision for fear of jinxing it. So besides that one visual of me in the white coat, I never did imagine my future. I had no dreams of growing up and falling in love, of a house, dreams of settling abroad. I’d convinced myself that I’d have time enough to dream about all that once I became a doctor.

In the 12th standard when I realized that I did not make it to medical school (not for lack of trying), it was almost as if a death knell had been sounded. I cried for 3 days straight and I mourned for several years after, rightly so, since a part of me died the day those effing results came out. The part of me that dreamt unabashedly, that believed anything in the world was possible if only I tried, the eternal optimist died. In her place was  a Meera who was trying to reconcile an entirely new future, one without a white coat or a medical career, one who was jealous of her friends when they called to let her know their PCB/PCM (Physics, Chem, Biology/Physics, Chem, Math) scores, one who barely managed to spit out congratulations and then went out of her way to cut off contact with all of whom had made it into engineering and medical colleges, one who went around feeling like the word “Loser” was painted in scarlet letters on her forehead, one who contemplated suicide repeatedly over the next few years and never could quite bring herself to do it.

What also changed after that day was that I stopped dreaming. I refused to let my brain conjure up any dreams, specifically those that involved my future. I went onto get a Bachelor’s in Chemistry and an MBA from half decent schools in the country but I stopped believing in my ability to do anything ambitious. I worked hard since my thinking had warped so much that I believed without hours of studying I was incapable of even passing college.

This is not to say I did not have fun, I did thoroughly enjoy college thanks to a group of friends who refused to let me dwell on my “failures”. They brought me out of myself, cajoled, coaxed and even teased me out of my melancholia a number of times. Thanks to them, I learned how to be happy. I never got over the feeling that I wasn’t “good enough” but I smiled more often. I developed an edge, something I wasn’t allowed to explore fully because of the kind of society we operated in and because my parents wanted a more traditional future for me. They probably thought that my edgy behavior, if left unchecked, would be the undoing of me.

Today, as I drove past farms and horse ranches on my way to DD’s school I wondered how my life would have turned out if family and circumstances hadn’t intervened.

I would have eventually stumbled into the job I have now, although I’d have probably continued to stay in India. I would have stayed in my hometown and maintained residence close to my parents since that is something I’ve always wanted. The most difficult part of living in the US is my inability to see my parents whenever I feel like it. I would have been a loner. When I was younger, I was a people-pleaser. I wanted everyone to love me all the time and I’d do whatever it took to make that happen. It wasn’t obvious in my behavior but I was insecure about my friendships and my neediness must have come through for I did lose a lot of what I thought were close friends for inexplicable reasons. Now, I have learnt to enjoy my own company. There are a very few people that are my close friends and we are close friends since they understand that I’ve to burrow and be alone sometimes. I am what the DH calls “borderline anti-social.”

I’d have tattoos all over – intricate ink on my arms and legs and my back, Cyrillic letters, Sanskrit shlokas, butterflies, Ganeshas – the works. I’d have it all. I’d probably spend all my money on books and cheap jewelery. I would have definitely not married. I’d always felt and I still feel that marriage influences one without their even realizing it. The need to conform is ratcheted up several times the minute one enters matrimony. I’d have been a serial monogamist but would have eventually died alone.

I wouldn’t have become a parent and this surprises me more than anything else. I like kids and though I am not winning any “Mother of the year” awards I cannot imagine life without DD today but I would have probably never attempted to be a single parent or adopt, settling instead for the “cool but kooky aunt” status.

I would have never learnt how to cook, subsisting on eating out or not eating at all.  I would have been part of a band. Nobody would have heard of us, we’d play at dingy little nightclubs and get paid in beer and peanuts but I would have done it for the thrill of being onstage and I’d have been someone you would have liked listening to if you like dingy little clubs.

I’d have written a book, nothing popular or successful but there would be parts of it that would resonate with you.

As I head towards 13 years of matrimony, I’d like to raise a toast to the Meera that could have been. She’d be no better or worse than I am today, just…. different.

Food post – a litle bit of this, that and everything else

Spring’s here and summer should follow soon in its heels. While there are signs of spring’s arrival, my garden’s starting to bloom and I can hear the birds chirp in the morning when I wake up, weather-wise it still feels like November. We’ve had all day long rain showers, high winds and temperatures in the low 50′s. A weak sun will put in an appearance from time to time but soon hide behind ominous dark clouds. In this kind of weather, the body has been hankering for comfort food.  I have made a lot of rich daals, soups, stews and rice and we have all happily gained some unwanted pounds due to this kind of eating.

The weather has also given us excuses to drink a lot of chai and there are days when all you want is a spicy, tangy snack to go with the chai. None of the daals, sabzis and pulaos will do the trick. So, a few days ago when we had some friends over and I was racking my brains to come up with food ideas, it struck me that I should do some sort of street food.

These friends of ours usually serve as my guinea pigs. They’re extremely nice and the husband M, is always up to eat my cooking, even when I have completely messed it up. M and D, his wife are a true pleasure to cook for since they’re extremely appreciative and quick to dismiss any mistakes I have made.  It’s also a good challenge to cook for D’s family since their younger daughter is a hard-core fan of Indian food. She’s one of those unique kids who in this day and age will happily eat rasam, sambhar and moong daal instead of pizza, pasta and french fries. Generally when M, D and family show up, I make Kadhi, daal, cauliflower Manchurian (something M likes a lot) and rasam, sambhar and the like.

Last time though, I wanted to try Indian street food. I wasn’t sure if their youngest L would like it, but I could quickly make rice and rasam if she didn’t. So I set out to make Ragada Patties and Pav Bhaji. If you have lived in Mumbai, you are no stranger to these 2. If you don’t know what they are, refer to the links provided.

I used  Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipe for the Ragada Patties. The tamarind date chutney was made following this recipe and tasted awesome. Here are some pictures of the chutney

The chutney boiling away

Still boiling

The final product

Refer to this recipe. for the Pav Bhaji, it’s fairly simple to make and not too time consuming.

For dessert I made this cake. The Huffington Post Food section provides some awesome recipes for cakes, snacks and the like. I have been going through their archives fairly often to see if I can try my hand at something new. The recipes are easy and the end results delicious.

The cake still in the Bundt pan

Out of the Bundt Pan

With the Bitter sweet chocolate glaze

The dinner was a huge hit that night. L enjoyed her food the most and I felt so incredibly thrilled. There’s no success sweeter than getting a picky child to eat.

Last night was the beginning of a long weekend. DD, DH and I were sitting around wondering what to do and generally looking forward to an insipid evening. Out of the blue, D and M called and said they were in our neighborhood and asked if they could stop by. And just like that, the evening started looking up. I was making Hasselback potatoes since I had a couple of pounds of baby potatoes. This is something we’d enjoyed eating when we were at a Water park in the winter and I figured they’d be incredibly difficult to make. Huffington Post came to my rescue again and showed me that they’re not difficult, a little time-consuming but not difficult. So  I went to work and made about 10-12 Hasselback potatoes. I replaced the seasonings in the recipe with garlic, salt, chilli powder and garam masala.

The potatoes before baking

Ready to eat

I had some pizza dough in the freezer. So I made a pizza for the kids using the recipe in this post. I also made some khichdi for the adults to dine on and served it with the date and tamarind chutney that I’d made a few days ago.

The cooking was tremendous fun as everybody hung out around the kitchen island. The kids kept running in and out eating potatoes and checking to see when the pizza would be done. The fact that we managed to burn the pizza a little bit did not faze anyone. They all liked it, all the same.

So go ahead, try some of this stuff out at home. Do it with family or invite friends over to eat. I’ve said this before and it rings true every time – the recipe for truly enjoyable evenings = Good company + somewhat good food + lots of laughter.

Musical shower

Once Spring rolls around, it typically means it’s time for recitals. DD’s piano teacher and her music teacher both put up one recital each, the latter sometimes choosing to have the kids participate in more than one event.

This year for the piano recital, DD played a piece by Tchaikovsky – the Sleeping Beauty Waltz. It is one of the more difficult pieces she has learned so far. It took her far more practice sessions to master the piece. Normally, DD shows shades of overconfidence when it comes to the piano recital. It’s easy to understand why – she generally picks ridiculously easy numbers to play most of which last about 30 seconds. Minimal practice ensures that she can play the piece without any mistakes even if her playing lacks inspiration.

This year though, I colluded with the piano teacher to ensure she picked a harder piece of music. It took her a good 2 months of working on it to sound fluid. Even then, there were days when she would finger individual notes and the Waltz sounded disjointed.  On the day of the recital, we had to bolster her confidence and tell her she’d do fine – the first time I’ve had to do that since she started playing the piano. The only time she’s been more nervous is during her very first recital. Here then is DD playing the Sleeping Beauty Waltz. She did falter in one place but she got herself back on track rather quickly.

Tchaikovsky – Sleeping Beauty Waltz

DD’s music recital had her singing Raga Bilawal set to Taal Teen Taal. She and a couple of her classmates sang the song at a local temple on a Saturday morning. DD particularly had a hard time with some of the notes and the aakaars. Overall, though they managed to pull the song off without too many glaring mistakes. I am sure their teacher will have something to say to them about all the places they missed the beat, got the note wrong and went out of tune. All of which went unnoticed by the lay audience thanks to the teacher’s skillful harmonium playing and the great tabla accompanist.

Presenting Raag Bilawal in Taal Teen Taal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFAyyHiKfx8

I hope you enjoy DD’s performances. We have taken great pleasure in seeing her improve over the last couple of years and we owe all of this to the wonderful teachers she trains with. Both teachers have made it possible for her to enjoy music . We will remain forever indebted to them for this.

Transformation

So this post has been due for some time…..

I have shared these pictures before

Vadai, Payasam, Idli, Molagapudi, Sambhar, Sundal

Garlic rolls post baking

Now look at the following and tell me if you see the difference

DID YOU SEE, DID YOU NOTICE ?? We now have gorgeous granite countertops. It took me eight and a half years to make this happen. We asked for bids multiple times, were quoted ridiculous prices and told we’d not have use of our kitchen for over 3 weeks. Finally, about 3 months back a neighbor of ours turned us onto a group of guys who promised to redo our kitchen in 2 days flat.

DH came back from India in February, we spent a week looking for the right piece of granite. We spent a couple of afternoons looking through the stone and tile store in the city. Several pieces appealed but the price point was out of our budget. On our second trip to the store, just as we were leaving having made a choice we were not completely happy with, I chanced upon a slab of granite that was being put away since it was unused. The sunlight hit the slab and it was such a gorgeous buttery yellow that we had to have it. Fortunately, it fit in our budget. We put in our order and had the crew pick up the slab.We then high tailed it to the Home improvement store and spent an agonizing 4 hours picking out tile, sink and faucet. We came home and I spent hours looking at backsplash patterns on the internet. One weekend, actually, 10 hours over a Saturday and Sunday, my kitchen went from having plain, off white tile to having the most beautiful Granite countertops and a warm backsplash. We have a large sink that takes 3 times the dished my old partitioned one used to.

This is how we went about it. I hope you like the pictures, we enjoyed the process tremendously  :)

The Work-In-Progress

The sink being held in place while the glue dried

The backsplash pattern works itself out as we go along

The new faucet being installed

Grouting the backsplash

DD trying her hand at grouting

All grouted up

The BIG BIG sink

Alex – the guy who dealt with the nitty gritty

The superb crew that worked on the kitchen

The stove’s in place

The kitchen island

The complete kitchen, with flowers and accessories, too

People, if you are local to my city and need the contact details for Alex and crew, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to share. This here is a great bunch of people, extremely earnest, hardworking, cheerful and extremely clean. Kitchen makeovers can be absolute nightmares in terms of clean up. However, these guys cleaned as they went along and we never felt inconvenienced in all the time they were here. They deserve all the work they can get. They get a thumbs up from us and we have been recommending them left, right and center.

I have been cooking and trying some new stuff too – the new kitchen has provided inspiration. Will be doing a food post, soon.