A date with…

Since my boss at home (a.k.a sister) and a friend had ordered me to make a mutton biriyani, I thought it was important to juggle some office work and be back home on time with mutton in hand! So, yesterday, my plan was to take one of the long-distance buses to Koyambedu (which is as close a bus can reach me to my house), do some inane things around, and take an auto to the nearest meat shops (which are like 4-5 km away!) So much for my planning! But, the evening had completely other things in store! Now, don’t imagine anything interesting or romantic; those are only in the storybooks we stole and read at school (the title deliberately misleads)!

Now, back to my evening date. First, the buses…they were late; I use the plural pronoun because these buses come in bunches of 3 or 4, and then, there’s none for at least 30 minutes, which are really precious moments when you are working under a biriyani deadline! Anyway, a video coach arrived, and I tried to will myself to watch some nondescript old Tamil movies, none of which were least bit soft on the ears! As if that wasn’t enough to irritate me, a tall, dark, handsome, (sic!) 40-something tried a couple of romantic nudges only to be gawked at by a daggers-drawn-self-defense-trained tigress (and, that’s me!).

Then, it was time to be unceremoniously herded and dumped at the Koyambedu bus stop! So, time to do the inane things (what are those? Content suppressed!)! There, I try to pay my bill, but my always-loyal debit card behaves badly! So, paying off with the last penny in hand, I trudge to the nearest mutton shop to check if they have any mutton; and as expected, no mutton! Then, started the ordeal of finding an ATM! The first one identified me by name (usually, they don’t, and I tell myself that since my account is still in Delhi…some tech problem, but I was surprised by this one!), but declined to part with any money only to me! And, again, another irritant in the ATM is almost volunteering to give cash, just because one’s alone and is female (Grr! I could have killed him, but just carried on!).

And, the traffic had to also put in its bit; it jammed for a good 20 minutes, which were punctuated by calls from the boss! Finally, found my own bank’s ATMs, which were all uniformly out of service! Even then, my brain didn’t tick that it may not be my account’s problem, but the bank’s, and have saved myself some angst about technology being a conspiracy against me and funnel out all my hard-earned money from my account!

To cut a long story short, I reached home penniless and mutton-less and had to borrow money even to pay the auto! As if this wasn’t enough, a friend tries to be funny and smses, great! Now you can save money! And when I don’t reply, he gets more ‘funny’ and says, it’s not a savings account, but a forced savings account, hahaha!

Now, aren’t you guys jealous of my life?????????

Now, for those you, more interested in whatever happened to the biriyani, yes! It was made this morning. Here’s the recipe for the cooking-inclined and some pics for the graphics-inclined.

Ingredients

1 kg mutton and Basmati rice
150 gm ginger garlic paste
50 gm curd
1 bunch of mint
2 tablespoons chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 green chillies
½ kg onions
250 gm tomatoes

Method

Marinate the mutton with some curd, ginger garlic paste (only a bit), tumeric, salt, and couple of green chillies. Leave it aside

Put the cooker on your stove and fry onions followed by ginger garlic paste and mint leaves. When the flavors are released, dunk the mutton with the remaining chilli powder and fry a little before you shut the cooker for 1 whistle. Then, open the cooker, put in the tomatoes and pour adequate water (if you take about 4 cups of rice, use about 6.5 cups of water) and check the salt (it must tasty salty). Then, put in the washed rice and shut the cooker. Keep it on high fire for 5 minutes and in sim for 5 minutes.

This is how it should appear when you open the cooker after 15-20 minutes.

A Response to the Times (Now)!

Yesterday, I had the misfortune of tuning into TimesNow, which I believe is definitely sponsored by some right-wing, casteistic, anti-people, anti-woman party. It’s one channel, besides of course CNN and NDTV, that strives consistently to remain true to upper-class aspirations. Be it Australian attacks, the Indian cricket team’s deplorable behavior in other countries, or naxalism (latest in their kitty), TimesNow and its journalist Arnab Goswani have shown to the world where their real interests lie, what they want to promote, and whose shoes they lick! All that they care about is just money! And, they go no holds barred to achieve their sinister goals by spreading lies, lies, and lies!

Yesterday’s debate (well, that’s what the channel called it) on naxalism (the new threat to internal security) left me hopping mad! Not only because of the hollowness or the stupidity of the debate, but also in the manner in which a TV channel, claiming to be the media, conducted itself! They just sunk to levels lower than what can be comprehended as the behavior of a demented and deranged mind! It seemed like a circus in which a drunken, illiterate monkey was doing a salsa with its own reflection! Of course, for some funny reason, there were the most radical of the dissendent voices on the debate, but what was undeniable is how the entire debate seemed just like a farce! I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was seeing; why should a clearly pro-establishment, highly regressive news channel appear to have a free and fair debate!

The following quote of Chomsky came to my mind as the actual reason for this farce:

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum - even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate."

Now to the event that triggered off this great, informed debate that this demented psycho kicked off. Even before the debate can take off, he looks all sad and deep into the camera and clears his throat and goes on and on about how naxals are terrorists and that they have resorted to Taliban style killing; well, I didn’t know the channel hired people who were experts on Taliban; it makes me wonder if Taliban actually trained these people! The point here is a TV channel seems to declare ‘truths’, even without proper investigation of proof! Of course, you can always resort to a tame apology the following day when the world has already been poisoned enough! This brings me to the next question: what does the channel and its monkey actually want! A country that is intolerant to any kind of dissent and people who condone extra judicial killings in cold blood. Isn’t it incumbent upon the media to play the role of a devil’s advocate? Why do the hell do we need a media like this? They are even worse than the state itself! They are already pronouncing judgments even when the cases on people are sub-judice! What do we, as sane people, do? I couldn’t find a more fitting call for all of us; interestingly the call has been sounding for over a century!

Only through the people's highest intellectual maturity and inexhaustible idealism can it (society) be brought safely through all storms and find its way to port.

Rosa Luxemborg.

Tears

When words die down
As the world closes its doors
As the blood congeals half way

When the stupid heart bleeds
As the feet forget their chosen path
As the hands wring in despair

When the winds stop blowing
As the crazy gods cast their die
As a soul dies within a body

When memories fail
As a tiny droplet gathers grief
As it flows down the living corpse

Can?

Can an actor pull down the curtain?
He doesn’t want to act any longer

Can the river stop flowing?
It’s tired flowing over hills and valleys

Can the breeze stop blowing?
It’s bored of the unchanging colors around

Can the greedy humans stop living?
Coz we don’t want to work to satiate their greed

Can the rich become poor?
We are furious about your daylight robbery

Can the world stop for a moment?
We need to take stock
We need to undo great mistakes
We need another chance!

Sickled Through!

When the lights dim
As a thousand stars light the dark sky
Your words lit the darkness that clouded my heart
Slowly, but surely
You nudged away the flickering light
Stationed yourself as my reading light

Was it a mistake?
A slip of your tongue.
An error in my understanding
Or in your lesson
Words from your mouth
Sweet nothings, faded, as the lights went out

A buzz you were in the depths of my heart
An imagination is what you think
Perhaps you are right
As always
Crashed yourself in
And walked away like none happened

Can you possibly know this?
Perhaps, never again
Will you take this road again.
I may be standing,
Please be informed, there’s no more me
For, you have sickled me through

Periyar; 130 Years!

A couple of days ago, Chennai was splattered in red and black, especially the Valluvar Kottam area; it was Annadurai’s birthday. Now, my readers please don’t embarrass me by googling Annadurai’s name. You must know him! Okay, anyway, for my young readers, here’s a small refresher: he’s the ex-chief minister of TN and one of the important voices of the Dravidian Movement, which had its beginnings in another very important movement called the Self-Respect Movement that was spearheaded by one of the greatest thinkers of this millennium, E. V. Ramasami, fondly referred to as Thanthai Periyar.

Today, the post is on Periyar since it’s his 130th birthday and there’s hardly any trace of the celebration! Never mind, Periyar would have liked it this way. I know some of you have this highly annoying habit of zodiacing the moment you hear someone’s b’day and have rubbed off that habit on me too! And, today, as I realized it was this great man’s b’day and tried to zodiac him, I almost had this ethereal experience, where I only remember a firm knock on my head with Periyar’s walking stick; perhaps, he tried to knock me out of such irrational nonsense! And, I thought it would be a fitting way to remember this great man by reviewing one of his books, Penn en adimaiaanal (Why did the woman become a slave?); it’s actually the first of Periyar's books I got to read, but that too a translation only!

Read the review in my other blog

Morning joys and pains

It was a nice bright morning; I woke up with a nice start, with the remnants of last night’s dreams (good dreams are so few and far between, you see)!

With Horlicks in hand, I started skimming through the paper when madam scientist (who actually should be awarded, or given discounts, by the movie theater owners for keeping their coffers running) described the story of the best picture, Kanjeevaram. Wonder if it was her description or the reality of the lives of workers in this capitalist system, I almost choked on my drink. Swallowing my tears, I restarted my newspaper reading (it had to be paused when the story was being narrated).

After groping my way through the Ishrat Jehan fake encounter, I was elated to see the Jet Airways fiasco! And, finally, the corporate employees have woken up to the reality of the capitalist system, and have formed some sort of a union, and are working up a strike that is striking the ruling classes (their own class, though)! So, now that put a song (revolutionary) in my heart and I trudged along to work.

Now, here, I see some men and women (again the corporate employees) holding some placards! Now, this can’t be happening…I thought, are we nearing a near-revolution…have the corporate employees woken up? Are they protesting against the indiscriminate laying off of their co-workers in the wake of the recession? Or, are they demanding more regulated working hours? My day-dream was brutally snuffed, as the letters on the placard became visible…road safety! Hug your children! Those of you who know me, can guess my expressions…no wonder the security anna singled me out and asked me for my ID. Of course, I said, “why only me with a pout” (forgive me folks, the morning was crazy), immediately, he relented and said, “no, no, never mind just carry on, madam” with a brilliant smile!

Yet another morning…a mixed bag!

Whys?

Why
Yes, why?
For what?
Then again why?
No, why?
Why the holy hell?
what the hell, anyway?
like who cares
anyway!
the anyways and howevers
a split second now
and then
gone away in a moment
been there
far away in the past
flippant talk
what the hell
like who cares
who cares
the unshed tears and careless whispers
why
and, why?

A moment to behold

A moment to behold
To treasure, to hold close
Dark skies, save a dollop of bright light
Grey clouds clearing slowly
As the waves heave and puff
Mirroring my heart
As my fingers feel the warmth
Of the memories
Of the sadness
Of the pain
Of the love
Of life ebbing away
Of life throbbing within
I close my eyes, holding the moment
As I let go the garb of childish whims
Shaken out of my cloak of fanciful dreams
As the clouds draw back
And the clear light of life emerges through
As the waves draw close
My heart smiles as it hears a new, strange voice
Of hope
Of reality
Of life
Of purpose

What has life come to?

Before:
Hunger pangs: trip to the nearest dhaba, one kadak chai, followed by a bread pokara (deep fried in oil)
Now:
Hunger pangs: trip to the fridge, one clean, healthy apple, followed by peeling and eating!

Before:
Boredom: trip to the nearest shop, salted, masala peanuts, followed by a masala butter milk and may be a deep fried puff!
Now:
Boredom: trip to the laptop, may be some music or books!

Before:
Lunch: lots of rice, with fish/mutton, dal, dahi or plain biriyani with chicken curry and raita.
Now:
Lunch/dinner: bland rice and dal with boiled veggies.


Before:
Evening snack: salted, masala peanuts or vadas or bhajis with kadak chai or coffee
Now:
Evening snack: Horlicks, period!

Homecoming

I am home! Yes, after 4 + 1.5 years, I am home! After, almost half-a-dozen years and tasting ‘freedom’ and all that comes with the package, it’s almost surreal to think am actually home. A place where I wake up to a steaming cup of coffee and at least one person ready for a short conversation. Even if choose to stay quiet, I simply have to walk out to my favorite place outside; the stone bench to enjoy my coffee and news paper.



The stone bench--my favorite place.

Frankly, I had my doubts about returning home, since I had almost worked up the reputation of a prodigal daughter! But, what I didn’t expect was the reception of the biblical prodigal son, well minus the ring and the fattened calf, that I received! A lot of people keep asking me why the hell did I return; yea, why the hell did I return? Mmm…my job, basically is fun in Chennai and yea, I wanted to be with folks for a while in the big house that my dad gets as his staying quarters.

Okay, the house. It’s a beautiful old building that has really huge rooms; but of course no privacy, in the modern sense of the term, in any one room! Talk about family bonding ;) it’s lovely nevertheless. Couple of rooms face just greenery and a park, which is sometimes visited by Egrets! Now that am down with Typhoid and I spend long hours in bed and gazing out, I have seen some kingfishers, some blue birds, and even a brown-colored koel! And, of course the song of the koel is ubiquitous. There are several little dogs and cats who also keep us company besides our own pets. As if these animals aren’t enough, once in a while our neighborhood snake also makes an appearance!


Can you spot the long, snake? It's a Cobra! AT least ma says so, though pop, poohs poohs it as a water snake! But, in such matters, experience has taught us to take ma seriously. :-)


Then, yes, the majestic Badam tree that greetes me every day in the morning; lush, huge green leaves on the tree and brown, dry leaves on the ground. Sometimes, all these leaves are collected to a pile and set on fire, which keeps burning for a while and spares the neighborhood of mosquitoes for at least that night! Enjoy some of the pictures…



The Badam Tree



The Brown-Colored Koel


The greenery from my room..:-)


Some of ma's jasmines.


Ps: If you want high-resolution pics, just click the pictures; next time round I'll keep the appropriate radio button selected! Technology, half the time seems is conspiring against me!