Just Bumming Around

Sure, I can bum around too, but it is true, I can't live on toast alone.

Does Anyone Remember Anymore

The pleasures of

1. Going on a walk alone minus cellphone, minus blackberry, minus connectivity.
2. Bicycling in the countryside on mud paths.
3. Sploshing around in ponds formed by the monsoon rains when the sun comes out.
4. Climbing trees to pick raw mangoes, tamarind, guavas or kadam ke phool.
5. Plucking gooseberries (ber) from swathes of gooseberry bushes, getting pricked by the thorns, and delighting in the handkerchief full of gooseberries one has picked.
6. Making balsa wood planes and trying to launch them.
7. Playing badminton on a lawn at home.
8. Messing around in chemistry labs and causing explosions.
9. Reading novels in craft classes.
10. Lying on a charpoy and identifying constellations.

I miss my childhood.

And Fishermen Hold Flowers

Lily Rosemary and The Jack Of Hearts

Pain That Stops and Starts - A Decade

1. It will be ok.
2. I can't manage you, but sometimes maybe you should give it a try.
3. I have many many many demons that we have easily identified. I'm not asking you to slay them, just soothe me while I'm dealing with them.
4. I told you I was contradictory.
5. Sometimes, even the world isnt enough when I need the space. Let me roam.
6. Whats the sense in changing horses in midstream?
7. I am back in the rain and you're on the ledge - You made it there somehow.
8. I'm just like that bird - singing just for you. I hope you can hear. Hear me singing through these tears.
9. Time is a jetplane. It moves too fast.
10. I remember but thats no reason for interrogation. Non?

Things I want to do before I die - Redux and Amended

Things I want to do before I die
14 Done! I'm pleased that I'm able to achieve atleast one thing every year. Talk of baby steps!

1. Run a 28 mile marathon.
2. Spend a summer in Paris.
3. Go backpacking across Europe.
4. Actually paint a masterpiece - a mural.
5. Weigh 55 kgs.
6. Walk on the Golden Gate bridge. - twice - yay!
7. Learn to speak French.
8. Watch a Bob Dylan concert.
9. See the Rolling Stones.
10. Bungee Jump.
11. See the Amazon Rain forests.
12. Go to Brazil.
13. Write a book.
14. Swim with a dolphin.
15. Meet Bob Dylan, even to get tongue tied and make an complete ass of myself.
16. See the Sistine Chapel.
17. Learn to eat Caviar without puking.
18. Ride a Gondola in Venice. - NEW
19. Shave my head.
20. Learn to fly an aircraft, even a tiny one.
21. Learn to play the drums.
22. Go to a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans.
23. Go ski-ing in the alps.
24. Grow my own herbs and tomatoes and own a tiny farm.
25. See the Louvre.
26. See the Great Barrier Reef.
27. Walk along the Great Wall of China.
28. Go snorkelling in the Lakshwadweep Islands.
29. Learn to control my road rage.
30. Drink feni at Dona Paula, Goa.
31. Drink champagne in Champagne.
32. Drink Bordeaux in Bordeaux.
33. Pluck tea in Darjeeling and run along the furrows in a tea garden. - NEW
34. Find out more about my family's past.
35. Totter on a Manolo Blahnik.
36. Go hiking in the himalayas.
37. See the wild-asses in the Rann of Kutch.
38. Go to the valley of flowers.
39. Make my own cartoon strip.
40. Learn how to use a potter's wheel and make myself a bowl.
41. Learn to fly a kite.
42. Plant an orchard.
43. Buy original paintings and not just prints.

My Life - It is LE OVER

I normally never wear Indian clothes. However, my professional area is rather stuffy and conservative, so I normally wear Pant suits or atleast a jacket at work and formal trousers. However, when dealing with the GOI, I wear churidar kurtas so as to not put them off completely, because it is all about Le Image.

Today while returning at a traffic intersection waiting for the light to turn green, a strawberry seller says to me, "BHABHI, le lijiye, ekdum fresh hai!" AIYYYYYYYYY....... When did this happen? When did I become "BHABHI" from DIDI? Do I look married to you, idiot? My youth is GONE and My Life is NOW LE OVER!!!!!!!!!

Chicken Dumpling Soup

I love dumplings and have discovered they are fairly easy to make. Very easy in fact, if you have been cooking and know your way around a kitchen. This chicken dumpling soup is hearty and very satisfying AND easy to make. I normally make a big batch of dumplings enough for 3-4 dinners. These keep well in fridge for about a week. Sorry about the quality of pics. I cook at night ALWAYS and mostly am too tired to plan my pics. So, the pics here are meant to give one a general idea. Anyway, this is the recipe.
Ingredients
For the dumplings - Ground chicken 500 gms, celery 2 stalks chopped fine (optional - I love chicken and celery, so I use it), coriander about 2 tablespoonfuls chopped v fine, 2 green chillies chopped fine, 2 spring onions chopped v fine, 1 red onion chopped very fine, ginger minced - about 1 heaped teaspoon, salt to taste, fresh ground pepper, 2 eggs, corn flour
For the soup - basic chicken stock - about 1.5 litres/ 2 litres
Method
Combine the dumpling ingredients and add enough cornflour to make a mixture that looks like this.
Heat the stock to a boil, then turn DOWN the heat and drop tablespoonfuls of the dumpling batter into the boiling stock GENTLY. I used my hands because thats how I cook. Keep adjusting the heat and when the dumplings rise to the surface, they are done. This takes about 5-15 minutes depending on the size of your dumplings.

Drain and take out the dumplings and keep making batches until your batter is finished. The dumpling look like this.

Since, I am greedy, I ate some just like that. But, if you have more self control, wait until all dumplings are done, then turn up heat of the stock until it boild furiously, tilt all the dumplings gently into it, let them bubble away merrily for 2-3 minutes and then ladle out and eat.

The above picture does not do justice to the wonder of this soup, but it is restorative and very tasty.

Afternoons and Coffeespoons

Afternoons encourage the exchange of confidences. Based on wholly true incidents - WHEN ONE JUST DOES NOT WANT TO BUMP INTO AN EX-BOYFRIEND:
1. On meeting your daughter's in-laws at her wedding, your longtime ago ex from school turns out to be your son-in-law's piano teacher. You think, "God! WTF did I see in this loser?"
2. You wait for an hour at the gynaecologist, only to come face to face with an ex, who grins and says, "So, are we ready to be examined yet?"
3. At an interview you are taking, for personal assistants.
4. While watching the latest action flick, the idiots sitting in the front row keep necking. Lights go on and it is an ex with some 16 year old.
Just for the record, none of the above happened to me.

How To Say "No"

1. Just say "No", I really do not care you killed a fake uncle or how tired your poor, hardworking husband gets after returning from ummm... whatever.
2. If you have a story, stick to it. It can either be a dead fake uncle OR tired hardworking husband. Not both. One story per excuse is credible. Now, if you add a mumps ridden kid to it too, do you want me to write you a cheque too?
3. If it is an excuse used often, remember what you used last time.
4. Try to make it short, because rambling on and on makes your feeble lie even more feebler. Plus, just a "No" is enough. Most people dont really care about your reasons.
5. If "illness" is your standard excuse, I'm not setting a foot into your house ever, because who really wants a slew of infections? Ewwwwww.....
6. Most importantly, be gracious. Image is everything and you really don't want the reason why you were asked in the first place, flushed down the toilet, do ya?

Around The World In 80 Blogs - Calcutta, India

I made a commitment to everyday stranger and being the primary cardholder of the better late than never party, here I go...

I also have to admit that lately work and my other commitments have kept me very occupied and I forgot to take pictures, so good people forgive the pictures I stole from the Internet and I fully promise to post my own very soon. Anyway, this is where I stay now and it now feels like home.

I live in Calcutta and I have a love-hate relationship with Calcutta. Also, for those of you who don't know, Calcutta was renamed Kolkata but to me Calcutta it is and Calcutta it will be. For those who want to know more about this distant city, you may click HERE. However, in this post I shall simply mention what I love about Calcutta and what has, despite most annoyances made me stay here.

I moved to Calcutta after being stood up at the altar and after a decade, I can look back and really laugh at that. In part, Calcutta has healed me, restored my faith in goodness, enabled me to laugh from the bottom of my tummy and this is where I met the loves of my life - yes loves - sweetheart, passions and my missions in life. Sounds dramatic, but thats me - surprisingly melodramatic, which may be attributed to this very, very melodramatic city.

There are many, many places to visit in Calcutta and things to see, and when one visits Calcutta, one should know that this Indian city takes art and culture very seriously. When I moved to Calcutta first, I checked out all the touristy spots - the many (dilapidated) churches and the even more interesting cemeteries, the markets, the temples (though Kalighat put me off temples for life), the botanical garden and the bridges. Over the years, I have few favourites that I visit over and over again.

This is St. Paul's Cathedral, located in the middle of Birla planetium and the Academy of Fine Arts. This is where I go sometimes to feel calm and midnight mass at Christmas is traditionally Anglo Indian and very very interesting to me. I go to the Academy of Fine Arts that is located right beside St. Paul's practically every week and it is always very pleasant to look at the peace and calm of the Cathedral during the drive. The Academy of Fine Arts lets out its galleries to artists or whoever wishes to exhibit anything! It is always an interesting visit, as one can bump into famous artists, Calcutta Culture Vultures and a lot of people with intellectual/ arty leanings. Sometimes, one also comes across very talented lesser known artists and it gives me a lot of pleasure to discover and encourage them. So, this is the general vicinity in which I spend most of my Saturday evenings.
After checking out the Academy, more often than not, I like to go to Oxford Bookstore on Park Street, which used to be one of the swisher shopping addresses. Right now, it has dropped in popularity because of the millions of malls that are being built around the city, but Park Street has a charm and air that is truly unique to Calcutta. Oxford Bookstore, I think is well over 85 years old and a great place to browse. Nobody disturbs you, you can read full books without salespeople shooing you, has a great Tea Shop where you can settle down and read a book and sip hot or cold tea for HOURS at an end. You may also come across an old Gentleman in a tie (ALWAYS) pottering about. That, is a dear friend of mine - Mr. Motwani, who I feel has worked at Oxford for ever and if he likes you is most helpful. This behaviour, long forgotten is what contributes to the charm of Calcutta. A visit to Calcutta is incomplete without dropping in at Oxford and Flurys a tearoom, which is another Calcutta fixture. Now, I have LOTS of complaints about Flurys, even though I get excellent service because, well, I eat out a LOT. Foodwise, there is nothing outstanding about Flurys, but the atmosphere is charming and it is the best place to people watch.
Again, for most regular readers of my blog (Ok, who am I kidding - nobody, sigh!), my annoyance with clubs in Calcutta is legendary. Calcutta society identifies itself by the clubs it belongs to. Said society being umm.... on the wrong side of fifty now, which is my hugest grouse, since I am still very much on the right side of 34! Most clubs in Calcutta - Calcutta Club, Tollygunge Club, Bengal Club, The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (which is practically opposite where I live), the Saturday Club, The Royal Calcutta Turf Club, Royal Calcutta Golf Club, so on and so forth are mostly social clubs. Walking into them, one is transported into another world, and though I feel there is much that I dont like about polite Calcutta society clubwise, it is often interesting to indulge in gossip over a cocktail at whichever club you belong to. That said, MY the good people of Calcutta LOVE to talk! They even have a special word for conversing - "Adda". Adda at clubs over cocktails - that is also typical Calcutta for you. This is a picture of Saturday Club - a club I frequent sometimes and where I again indulge in people-watching! Another really interesting place that I have grown to like is the Calcutta Race Course. No, I don't gamble, but winter afternoons spent at the Race Course, particularly on Derby days is very pleasant. Soft winter sun, beautiful thoroughbreds, the pleasant grounds of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club, the Victoria Memorial gleaming in the far distance - interesting and fun occasionally.

Now, most of what I have described above is mostly South Calcutta. I live in South Calcutta and though I am sure there are many interesting places in North, East and West Calcutta, I dont know them well enough to talk about them. Hey, Calcutta is a HUGE 13 million people city afterall! Do you expect me to know everything?

I live close to the Birla Mandir(Temple). Well, what do I say? The picture below looks ok, but the temple itself is very artificial and kitschy. I dont like it at all, though it is a convenient landmark. What I like about the Birla Temple is the concert hall below the temple in the anterooms. The concert hall is used for classical music concerts, plays and the like. Very convenient for me and just a hop, skip and jump away from home!

Apart from Art/ Culture/ temples etc. food is the other passion in Calcutta. People in Calcutta live to eat. I could go on and on and on about food in Calcutta. One never can be ill-fed in Calcutta and if you are, well, you dont know me. Heh!

Sure, there are a LOT of annoyances in Calcutta. The local government, the poverty (an annoyance because one feels helpless in the face of local apathy), the grime, the lack of professionalism, the lack of young professionals my age and the lack of quality entertainment. However, Calcutta is still charming and very interesting. I like to think I am contributing positively and if one has the patience, one may even start loving this crazy city.