Turning Three O!!

Wake up by 7 (a.m. that is)

Lose 7 kilos by nov 2013

Follow discipline

Eat healthy and reduce the carbs

Hit the gym atleast 5 days a week

Attack procrastination

Read more in quantity and quality 

Improve photography

Process more photos

Learn a new language and photo editing software and may be a sport

Cook healthy and frequently

Another set of new year resolutions....NO. In about 10 months i will be (*drum rollsss)....30....denial, angst, worry....not really...because everyone will turn 30!!!!...muhahahahaaaaaaa. and these days people look better in their 30s than they did in their 20s (thanks to botox and surgery :) ). 

There is no way i can stop the clock or reverse it. Even if i could do either of the above, i will not avail the offer. But if there is an option of being better than i was in my 20s....that is something i would like to do. And i do have the option of being better than i was in my 20s..so i hope to adhere to my resolutions. 

Have a nice day....

Boheme!!

I have spent more than 5 years in New Delhi and have never visited Hauz Khas Village...or as I call it 'HK' :~P and when i made the maiden trip recently, i regretted why i didnt go there all this while. HK Village is a world in itself...mix of old world charm (with the ruins), and some crazy kitschy art..some villagers in ghagras and designers in dhoti pants...





Under this board mercs and BMWs were parked!!!



Kaanta laaga...

Where else can one find a jogging track along side a lake in Delhi!!

Tucked away in this 'village' is a small place called Boheme which over looks the 'Hauz' (lake)...situated on the 4th floor the climb to the 4th floor is sufficient to build an appetite...

Limited menu and unlimited view of the lake



I love quaint, simple, white and blue places and Boheme just has that!! The menu is limited, largely continental. The service takes a long time...but i will not mind because this is a place to relax, chat/read a book and the food is not really the highlight...we had ordered the pizza florentine, pasta with white wine sauce and prawn and the cookie crunch cake...and food was OK... its a great place to book to host a party for 25-30 ppl...

All images captured by embarassing P with the camera.. ;) 

Some day if i ever open a restaurant, the ambience should in all likelihood will be like Boheme... :~D now i just need to hunt for a cook in my restaurant.. :~P

Bruised Ego Weekend...Bring in Some More Alcohol!

What do you do when the car servicing personnel drops your car registered in your name at home and asks u 'oh ma'am u can drive'?!?!!

Or

When the security personnel asks you whether u are also working as a security guard because u 'report for duty' on saturdays and sundays??!!??

OUCH!...yeah OUCH!!!

We poach another fruit with alcohol and wash it down with vanilla ice-cream....





Now we feel better!!!!....

Eat: Pears Poached in Red Wine

Prey: Pears and Red Wine

Love: Yup!!!...(rather Slurrrrp!!!)

Old Monk for the Mallu

Eat- Rum Poached Apples

Prey- Apples and Old Monk (thats for the mallu in me)

Love- Yes

What happens when you are at home on a Sunday and (a) have no work..(b) friends live atleast 1.5 hrs away and have their own family plans on sunday (c) your one and only company is working away on his laptop creating and recreating ppts and worksheets...

(a) woke up after 11= check

(b) watched re-runs of sitcoms= check

(c) ate previous night's takeout pizza/chinese food for brunch= check

(d) watching Salmam Khan's Wanted/Bodyguard/Ready for the 5th time on StarGold= check

and your are still bored....

ITS TIME FOR ALCOHOL!!!!!

so sugar went into the saucepan with some water for caramelisation, then in goes some rum along with water and cinnamon and vanilla and plopped some cored apples and they cooked cooked and cooked....voila Apples Poached in Rum...pairs lovely with butterscotch ice-cream... :)



FYI my garden balcony is showing some signs of life (luckily this time i havent mananged to kill the plants!!!)

Calcium for the Crossfit-er

Eat- Bathua Raita

Prey- Bathua leaves

Love- Totally

After the move to GGN, i was on a hunt for a gym which provides functional training...

Now i dont like sports..NO...but i love having an athletic figure and stamina..(who doesnt!)..so the hunt ended at Crossfit. So 3 days a week i am seen trying to lift a bar, throw some sand bags on a wall, attempt a rope climb (and fail miserably) while competing with burly men who have quadraceps the size of my waistline (FYI my waistline will soon resemble Lara Dutta's 7 month baby bump, just that i cant blame it on pregnancy)!!

Crossfit requires healthy real food eating and since pizza isnt healthy, i am on the hunt for some healthy food apart from my usual affair with corn in various forms. The markets here are flooded with all sorts of leaves and one particular bunch that caught my eye was Bathua..

Fat Hen, Lamb's-quarters, Pigweed, Goosefoot are the 'inglis' names of Chenopodium album commonly known here as Bathua....i approached an old lady who was choosing plum tomatoes (for her rich shahi paneer i guess!), seeking advise on what to do with leaves and she gave an animated description of the leaves and the recipes using it and 5 times in our 5 minute conversation said 'beta bathua bahut tasty hai' (i cudnt register anything apart from that line!). That was enough to sell me a big bunch of the leaves!! 

2 hours of cleaning the leaves, boiling then with some green chilly (for some heat),  blending the leaves into a paste, letting the water evaporate, adding chat masala and beaten yoghurt, i was ready with this...Bathua Raita

Had an entire bowl for lunch and felt good eating healthy.. :)

Bathua supposedly can defeat Spinach in terms of its calcium and other goodness...it is used in the treatment of various illness at home....guess Popeye the Sailorman wasnt aware of this!! Hence this recipe is submitted to Meeta's Monthly Mingle  hosted by Add to Taste as a Heart Healthy recipe...

But i am sure many of us 'city dwellers' wouldnt pick up this leaf because hey it hasnt been featured on TLC or Rocco doesnt make ravioli out of it!!

Now can we please have decent name for this wonderful, flavourful gourmet leaf!!

V-day Weapon

A lot has happened in my personal life recently....

Since Gurgaon is lot more 'happening' than Bombay (i hope u r getting the sarcasm and the fact that there has been a relocation to the 'up-north'!! UPDATE 1), my Ggn wish list includes- restaurants, cafes, hotels and road-side vendors!!! (i am too scared to venture out to other places late night..just not comfortable yet)

But the good part is...i've got company to fulfill the wish list... and the name is P. P is my guinea pig, food critic, restaurant reviewer, chauffer, body guard, friend and husband (yea..thats the UPDATE 2 ! and i still havent come to terms with it).

Yesterday was the first February14th after our marriage (damn! it still hasnt sunk in)...so like every good wife (&^%$^) , i finished my work for the day early, took permission from the senior to leave early and hit the gym! While i was being made to do 50 squats (the new gym is an all together different story), i thought i shud make something special today...voila..why not a chocolate cake!! (at that moment i lost balance and rod on my head was abt to hit my co-gymmie's head....!)

So i bought the ingredients, rushed home, checked how much time P will take to reach home and opened the recipe...

2 tablespoon flour...1 tablespoon cocoa...1 tablespoon baking powder...wait wait..1/8th teaspoon...egg...oil...why is this batter resembling atta kneaded for roti...may be it will make my cake so dense and moist...why cant i pour the batter....dense and moist...yumm...plop in the oven...ooh look the cake its rising above the cup....P will be sooo impressed...(i can ask him for that designer handbag...)...out of the oven looks like this...





This cake is dense for sure...moist??..let me insert a fork and see...fork is stuck!!!..lemme cut the cake..knife cannot cut through the cake...!!!! WHAT THE HELL*##%$%!!!

P them made his grand entrance!!! (the V-day surprise flopped and the designer handbag is now officially a distant dream!!!)

We then ate the store bought mother dairy vanilla ice-cream.... :-|

But this cake is not completely useless...the cake can be used as a weapon to protect yourself from those anti-V-Day protestors...its a Choco-Grenade... afterall its quite DENSE!!!!

Gourmet

With food, i have the habit of making things sound more fancy than it actually is (especially when i am cooking it and nobody can see what i cooked! :~P ). I blame it on my recent TV viewing.

I watch TopChef, Hells Kitchen, MasterChef- Australia, India, USA, UK, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson with thorough dedication. The pan fried seabass with potato pate or the lambchops with salad of grilled garden vegetables or the baked bread pudding with vanilla ice-cream inspire me. I then head to my humble kitchen and think creative and inevitably end up making different versions (purely by accident) of the same thing: Slow cooked thick creamy oats (aka porridge)..some days its just Slow Cooked Oats (when i add extra water and it gets all runny) or Burnt Creamy Oats (when i forget to pour the water/milk in time!!) or Burnt AND Runny Oats...but still when i tell people that i had  Slow cooked thick creamy oats ppl think that i had breakfast at a five star hotel :~D


[Image courtesy: theginlady.com]


But the other day this is what happend:

Me (feeling exuberant that my science project in the kitchent was successful)- Guess what...today my sandwich was highly appreciated by my colleagues in office..

Boy- Oh that is very good ...so what did u make?

Me (trying to sound like the winner of Master Chef UK)- I made brown bread sandwich with chicken in marinara sauce and alfa alfa sprouts.

Boy- What??...Kaunsa sandwich?

Me (losing patience but still trying to remain calm)- Its a sandwich  and the filling was chicken in marinara sauce and alfa alfa sprouts....!!

Boy- How is this food? (!?!!)

Me (loses cool and all sense of sophistication in accent)- Maine salaaad banaya tha...with left over chicken and vegetables and sprouts in the redwala pasta sauce. Then  i put it between 2 slices of bread which is brown in color!!!!

Boy- Oh...so call it a Chicken sandwich...what is with all the marina..alpha centre sprouts!!!

I learnt my lesson.

Dedicated to all out there who know the humble Idli as steamed rice and lentil dumplings served with spicy lentil soup and a dollop of coconut chutney flavored with mint :~p

Ok so i have been absent from this space for QUITE sometime..no excuses this time...it was plain old laziness and bad time management.

For some reason this year the monsoons, which generally puts me in a laz-'ier' disposition, have charged me up to take up some interesting intiatives (interesting only from my prespective!). Why blogging after a two year gap one may wonder- i am now a senior...i DELEGATE work..(Muhahahahhaaaa)

An attempt will be made to feature the following activites on my blog:

(a) Eat. Prey. Love - This will largely be my science projects in the kitchen. My take on cooking with imagination. Why is this lawyer-chick doing 'another food blog' when we have enough and more good blogs-one may think- Simple..its for me to chronicle whatever i cooked (rather attempted to cook), so that when i run short of imagination, i know where to look. So the idea is to Eat the Prey identified for that meal and hopefully Love what i make.

(b) Reality Bites - My smart and charming neighbour S put forth the idea of creating a list some what on the lines of  a 'bucket-list' with respect to a city. Now her idea is before you leave a city, prepare a list of all the things you want to do in that city. Much to the neighbour's surprise, the only thing yours truly wanted to do was go to restaurants and eat!!! So the city identified is Maximum City and Reality Bites will mostly be about the food paradises and food hells explored in the city. The food will be rated on the basis of the emotion trigged in my mind. The classification will be as follows:

           (i) Orgasmic- wen the food is SOOOOO good that u see me banging the tables in delight :~D
           (ii) Heavenly- wen the food is SOOO good that i feel at peace inside :~)
           (iii) Down to earth- wen the food is such that they should be buried down to the earth :~(


(c) Miscellaneous- Attempts will also be made revive the regular BS that i used to dish out here.

I hope to stay regular...but only time will tell...

Just tucked in some divine mutton dhansak and cutlets for lunch today- courtesy the secretary!...and btw did u know that its sleep inducing...zzzz....zzzzzz..zzzzzzz......

Blinking Red

A blinking red light warns us about an impending danger, be it a police van, any electrical equipment or for that matter our very own BBs!!!

Every time the red light flashes, my heart skips a beat. MS Outlook does not have the same intimidating effect…may be because, unlike the BB, I have restricted my access to MS Outlook to 11 hrs of the day.

Given below is my reaction through the day on not finding the flashing red light:

Wake up - HAPPY
Before leaving for office -how is this possible!!! is there a problem with the e-mails??
Before leaving for home- Cool..i am such a dedicated associate..finished all assignments :~)
Before going to bed - Good I can sleep in peace
5 minutes after going to bed - how is this possible!!! is there a problem with the e-mails??

No matter how engrossed one is in an assignment, that small flash of red is sufficient to distract anyone. I was getting ‘advised’ (read reprimanded) for not honing my observation skills to a 11 (on a scale of 10!!!) Then played the BBpro_Sanguine in the background and followed by the small flash of red. It made me so uncomfortable that I succumbed to the temptation and checked the phone and my senior dismissed (read chucked out) me from the room. Irony!! I should have been lauded for my observation skills!!! I observed the small flashing red light!

I Like

… the warm sunlight hitting my bed in the morning.

… crossing 2 km on the treadmill.

... getting wet in the rain on my way back to the gym.

… the wind in my just washed-hair on my way to office.

… putting my face out of the car while travelling through Bandra Worli Sea link.

… tucking in Naturals Mango ice cream on a bored afternoon in office.

… full sleeves on formal shirts and wide neckline on civils.

… chick-flick on a Thursday night, sitcoms on other nights.

… salsa class with Y and N on Sunday.

… cheerful music in the morning and blues in the evening on FM Gold.

… 3 teaspoon sugar and ginger and lots of milk in my tea.

… long chats with friends at night.

Anything out of order, I dislike. No wonder they say girls so finicky!!! :~

April Syndrome

There is something about April. I still haven’t been able to sort out my feelings for this month. It is ‘mixed emotions’ month.

The beginning of the month is good with the appraisals (at least for the last 2 years) and high which follows seeing the bank account ;~) and the planning for extravagance in the coming year. Then as the month rolls its time for re-location or re-organisation on the professional front and/or personal front. It is the time when one sees location and relationship status updates of one’s friends and acquaintances on Facebook. Leave & license agreements terminate or transfer orders are received. People formalize their relationship status and get engaged hoping to get a 7 month head-start in preparing for the big fat Indian wedding. (what they don’t understand is that is that everybody else follows the same game plan and the head start does not serve any purpose). Adding to the ‘fun’ is the infamous Indian summer in its top form draining out every ounce of energy, patience and sanity in me.

April (since birth-1987) – I never really had to do anything but for smile, sing a nursery rhyme and shake my booty when my parents wanted to show off their child’s talent at a gathering. I think I just wailed and got my things done.

April (1988-2002-in school) – Exam time!!! Need I say anymore!! But holidays began by the middle of the month and it was time to head off to kerala.

April (2002-2007- in law school)- First half of the month (like every semester in law school) we didn’t know what we were doing. Second half was spent in collecting notes for the impending exams in May.

April (2008- grad school)- In the first half my folks visited NL and we headed off for a mini trip to Paris and Brussels with Chech and Chettan. Back from the trip, I saw the syllabus and realized I should have started studying from January to clear my exams!!

April (2009- work)- Last April I moved out of home. The feeling was not very great initially. I moved in with a friend of a friend of a friend (typical mallu me!)- Nidhi from Delhi. When I moved in she had already planned her life for the coming year, she wanted to move back to Delhi by April next year and get married to a guy she had identified by winter 2010. I seriously thought that she not in the best frame of mind as she was missing her family while she was alone. Over time I learnt to appreciate the independence, luxury and the responsibility, demerits of living alone. With Nidhi coincidently there is a strange connection- we are the same person..upto 90% (10%- she is more motivated than me and has common sense!)... there are times when we both would think the same thing at the same time. The next one year saw me enjoying vegetarian food (and never missing non-vegetarian food), becoming better dressed and learning about the plumbing, electricity and other essential things in a house that has to be taken care of. With Nidhi came her band of friends who I really enjoyed having over or visiting and have had some real fun times. We both are chronic commentators, we have to pass a comment on anything on TV or movie hall. During our movie phase, every weekend we tagged a friend of hers T to the movie hall as a chaperon. Once in the movie hall, Nidhi and I would commence our running commentary on the movie while T would tell us to shut up! So much so we once ended up confessing that when either one of us is not home, we end up commenting to ourselves!!

April 2010- March gave me a tough time with work as I was putting upto 16 hours a day coupled with travel. With April came the appraisal and so I was in the ecstatic mood. I was hardly home, and could not really catch up on what was happening at Nidhi’s end. What I thought was a passing phase was actually a resolute decision. As destiny has planned out things along with concerted efforts from her end, Nidhi got a transfer to Delhi and her parents gladly agreed to her choice of guy - a news which I got when I returned home at half past 2 in the morning (it is really not the best time to break news which has a powerful impact!!). What then followed was a 3 night marathon bachelor party, the final one being on a MONDAY NIGHT at our favorite watering hole...Following day Nidhi was packed off to Delhi-lock stock and barrel.
Nidhi is getting married tomorrow. (slight change in plans by folks- wedding in winter 2010 has become wedding in summer 2010) I couldn’t have been happier for her. I am now on the hunt for a roommate. I hope it will not be difficult for the new person to step into Nidhi’s shoes. All the best for you life Nidhi and please look ravishing on ur D-day and after that too.

PS- April saw a low at the professional front- but I think 3 shots of watermelon juice has made me feel better.

April also saw 3 of my friends get engaged- I was pleasantly surprised by 2 and shocked beyond belief by 1. I wish you all patience and piece of mind while running amok organizing ur wedding.

April is also seeing my neighbors leave for far away place…Am I the only one with nothing worthwhile happening in my life!!!

…time to update the CV on linkedin!! :~P

Arranged Madness- I

So after eons I visited this l’il space of mine and saw that it is nearly ONE YEAR since I wrote anything. The reasons attributed for the absence are

1. Laziness


2. Long hours in office


3. Long hours sitting blank in meetings


4. Long hours dozing in flights


5. Laziness

Annie McBeal has been playing her part for nearly 2 years now. She has made some companies/individuals rich, her firm rich (a little) and herself also (reasonably) rich. In the process she has also driven lot many people mad with her queries, requisition lists and fast pace of talking. Now that there is (exponential ?!) growth on the professional end, it is time for growth on the personal end.

No bragging, my profession makes me spend all my waking hours at work. And there is no fixed time as to when the day begins or when the day ends. So with such work life imbalance (if I may say so), my luck with guys continues the way it was while I was in college or grad school. Over the last 2 years the scenario has been like this:

Scene 1- Ann meets people in a get together. Ann gets chatting with a guy.
Ann- ….hahaha..(trying to impress guy with her smile and fluttering eyelashes)…
Boy- its really nice talking to you….(phone rings)….ya baby…Sorry my girlfriend is calling…excuse me…be right back… K
They never come back!! :~

Scene 2- Ann works on a transaction where she gets into heated arguments with the other side lawyer. She then goes to a meeting, all charged up to bash up the lawyer. Meets the lawyer…he is a cute guy!!! And then has trouble acting aggressive in front of the cute guy. End result the deal closes, everyone is happy...Ann gets chatting with the cute guy… then her senior calls her into his cabin and says
Senior- Ann, remember the deal we did, well the clients are not on good terms now…we are gonna have tough time seeing them fight. You do understand what I am trying to convey, right?Ann- Yup! (storms out of the room)
Ann had to cut all ties with the cute guy!! :~(

With time (along with my youthful looks :P) running out, the stage is set for (drumrolls) *Arranged Marriage*

Arranged marriage as I see it is like entering into a joint venture arrangement. The parents carry a letter of intent (LOI), scouting for a suitable strategic partner for their child. Once an interested party is identified and the preliminary (commercial) points agreed upon, the parents and relatives do a due diligence on the prospective groom and bride. Instead of PwC or E&Y it is Kochuteresia ammai or Chackochayan who does the diligence check. Once the report prepared, disclosures made and risks estimated and understood, the parents decide to get the children to enter into a ‘formal’ arrangement in the parish church at 12:05 pm on a Sunday, followed by a sumptuous lunch in the parish hall or * hotel.

My family is presently in the LOI stage and preparation of this is NOT an easy task. My escapades in this arranged madness will be a regular feature here and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

First task is THE FOTO. The first impression is the best impression; irrespective of the fact that fotoshop did all the work. Softly lit background, woman (dressed in an outfit which she might never wear) standing with the support of a pillar and staring blankly in a direction which is NOT the direction of the camera. NOW THAT’S A MATRIMONIAL PIC!!! I look old’er’ and chubb‘ier’ in pose-y pics. Numerous explanations on the logic why a ‘normal everyday’ pic should be uploaded have fallen on deaf ears. Neither my folks nor I were ready to give up our stand. So we reached a compromise. I know have a formal posey pic taken- but my chubby cheeks and aging looks have been taken care of….here take a look!

Change is the only constant

The title aptly applies to my family. Over the years, with Dad's transferable job, we have moving lock stock and barrel every 2-5 years. Despite going through the same emotions everytime, the feeling is not nice when your home can be packed into a truck in 12 hours flat!

This time it is different. It may be the last move for Dad and Mum as he is retiring (unless i am rich enof to afford a home for them near mine or afford a home big enof to trouble them into living with me!). And i will not be moving.

Everything around me is changing- each day something 0r the other go... today the car is sold off, i will be forced out of home tomm, old books & papers will be sold off day after, the packers will be coming home to assess the furniture..blah blah blah...

Coming days will be exciting, trying and depressing too...and till such time i will be back to stress eating (i noticed i am gobbling up 2 sev puris a day and i jus cannot control my appetite)

(i shall patiently respond to all the comments once the brain is free. At present i have left it at home to do logistics for my shifting)

Home Sweet Home

[Warning- Long post ahead]

The past few days have had me waking up with a dream of Veliveed- my maternal ancestral house. With the superwoman talking abt Delhi-5 and Mathew’s antics at kudumbaprarthana, taking us on a trip down their memory lane, both of which I identify with, I thought I shall also follow suit.

Veliveed is thankfully not the family name but a name coined by my cousin J. Many years back when J’s was a cute little boy and shifting with his family he called the house which had Ammachi and Appachan and which was bigger- Veliyaveed and his house which was smaller as Kunjuveed. Soon the name shortened to became Veliveed and that became the official name of the ancestral house. Velliveed is very strategically located- on a slope with a graveyard on its right (meaning some of the neighbours were perennially (in high) spirits!).

Veliveed takes maximum space in my ‘childhood’ drive. Summer holidays for us was all about trying our best to reach there by April 14 which was Appachan’s birthdays. Going to Trichur was the best incentive to study hard for the exams and just get over with it. Once we reach Trichur railway station, one of Mum’s four brothers, sometimes joined by one of her 4 cousin brothers would be there to receive us. The usual blahs exchanged btw uncles and Chech & Me- ‘ooh englishkaarigal vannu’, ‘paandiigal koolichattu indalvilla’. But what I always looked forward to- was driving into the porch of Velliveed to find Appachan on his rocking chair (a gift which is still intact) and Ammachi standing by his side. The innumerable times I have gone there, the scene was the same. And that to me is the best reception one can get, because I believe that is a sign which shows that someone is waiting for u, rather than the normal knocking at a closed door.

Every room in Veliveed had a name- Office room (the drawing room which was over-maintained, if I cud say and where kids’ entry was banned), Appachan’s room, Appachan’s bathroom (which was not a pvt bathroom as the name might suggests), Appachan’s shaving room (which was actually a bedroom, but Appachan kept his ‘cosmetics’), kunjuroom(which served the purpose of an attic and was my fav room), veliyaroom (the master bedroom which every uncle used when he got married till the next uncle got married). The cupboards in Veeliveed had secrets of my Mum and uncles and aunts. Baby boots knit for my mother, Uncle R’s flowery shirts and bell bottom pants (he considered himself a hippie back in the 70s), Uncles S’s school uniform (which Ammachi was insistent that cousin J wear it when he joined the same school after 15 years), innumerable lemonade sets given as wedding gifts given to aunts and uncles, etc.

Veliveed also had some other characters whom I identify with that house- Anankuttycheduthi- a caretaker and the governess to all the 7 children and their children, Vaasettan (short for Vaasu chettan), Appachan’s trusted chauffer, Achamacheduthi- who came to do the laundry and Kurumba, who came home for lunch everyday as she had no family. Some interesting neighbors too- Major Uncle, Lucy Aunty (who has green fingers and could even revive a dead plant), Saramaunty and her son Hawkins Chettan! (yes that was his official name and I used to tease him by the popular brand)

With Appachans heart attack, the office was shifted to Veeliveed- a makeshift arrangement on the terrace. Once the business grew, the terrace was converted into the office. Slowly the uncles started moving out into their own little homes. After Appachans death, Ammachi moved in with my aunt to the old Kunjuveed. And we say the ‘tharavadu moves with Ammachi’ (like the aircraft US Prez Flies becomes Air Force One-remember the last dialogue in the movie Air Force One) So Kunjuveed is the ancestral home now.

The bigger business needed a bigger office and once temporary make shift office in the terrace took over the entire house. Veliveed is now, if I can call the ‘corporate office’ of my uncles’ business. Although I was personally not very happy about, I also do not look at my uncles with malice for taking this decision. Afterall I have no claim or entitlement to that property (showing off little legal knowledge..ha!)- but only memories.

The last time I visited Trichur, about 2 ½ years ago, I requested my uncle to take me to Velliveed (before it was converted to the office). Along with me was Ammachi, Mum, Aunt and her kids. Most of the things in the house were still intact. I picked up an old wall hanging- Ammachi said J uncle got it from Japan on his visit for a tournament. I picked up a lock- Ammachi said it was the basic form a number lock made about 30 years back. She then told me everything in this house has a story to tell and I could sense her sorrow, but being the practical woman she is, she doesn’t block business decisions. As a token of remembrance, I took my mother’s gold medal which decorated the ‘Office room showcase’ and a face of Christ, made out of welded metal.

I have not been to Kerala after that visit, but when I see the Christ hung on the wall of my present house (i.e when I am not thinking about sickness, exam results, job security etc) I am reminded of the times spent at Veeliveed.

Sometimes I wonder- Mum showed us her childhood, her life through our summer vacations in Veeliveed. But what will Chech show Iz?- Apartments in metro cities???

Resolutions

The year started with me at 62.5 kgs and it is ending on a bloated note too.

The year was an important one in my life- my LLM, my first job, my first business card, my one and only convocation and my one and only niece- Isabel (towards the end of the year).

This was the year of travel- UK, Netherlands, Germany, Brussels, France, Monte Carlo [was I at London School of Eco or Lets See Europe!!??!!!]

This is also the year where I saw nearly 50 % if my friends and all cousins younger than me get married and pregnant.

Next year i am hoping we will all come out 0f the financial crisis as stronger & humble individuals.

Till then to all my relatives, friends and acquaintences who are worrying abt my 'unmarried' status- "This is the year of recession and i am trying to cut costs. No unnecessary expenditure this year..."

A Happy, Healthy and Posperous New year to one and all....

Izz est arrivé

Baby Iz arrived today...
meaning my 'baby'-status at home has been snatched away from me...but Iz is someone for whom i was always ready to give up the status..

So presenting the new kid on the block....Ms Isabelle Jose (a.k.a Izzy/ Iz)......she sure seems like someone who is going to break the hearts of many young worthy men!!

PS: Iz and Eljo are doing good. thank u all of you for praying for them

When IZZZ she gonna come???

We will soon touch another milestone....

Chech supposedly feels like a jumbo jet. Chettan drinks cerelac-tini, served in a chilled glass [shaken not stirred]. Mommie dearest is now with Chech. Dad, otherwise anti-baby man, now acknowledges presence of other stranger babies who are next to him in public places. I am dreading the name i will be called [Aunty...aunty...aunty.....]. This blog turned pink be hoping it would be a girl....

Short point, we are all waiting for u Iz! :~D (praying for your safe landing)

The journey back home….

Yay 2 posts a day!!!!

Warning- verbal diarrhoea ahead!

I was progressively delaying this post and it just could not have been more ill-timed because it has been nearly 4 months since I am back home and 2 pay cheques down ($$$$$ :~D ). Some of my blog friends will by now be aware of the fact that I am terribly prone to trouble in the airport and this is the mother of all such situations!!!

4 months ago, as part of finishing my exams (and I am still praying for my results and I request all of you to do the same), my dearest Chech and Chettan decided to treat me with a trip to the French Riviera and yes the place is beautiful and I would love to marry a rich old man who has a villa in Nice (but full and half monty by old uncles/aunties is NOT fun!)

After 5 days of fun in the sun and a nice tanned look (read ‘karambi’ or ‘kaliya’ for the Malayalam challenged) it was time to head back to London and after a day of packing, back to India and my lease agreement with the uni residence was terminating the day after. Ordinarily, I wud take a flight out of Amsterdam and reach London in 2 hrs after munching on the boring oatmeal cookies that British Airways provides. This time, being my last trip to Amsterdam for sometime, the ill-famed adventurous side took over and I was choosing between a train or a FERRY!!(thank god the ferry idea didn’t materialise) Now Annie McBeal saved 50pounds (eer…it was her father who actually saved the money-sorry dad) and booked tickets on the Eurostar on their summer plan, thinking she can see the deep blue English Channel ala Singapore SeaWorld style!

Amsterdam

So journey began on a tram in Amsterdam, which Chettan and I caught after beating Usain Bolt’s Olympic record time. Hopping on the next train to Schipol was also at record time and it was the last train from Amsterdam that wud reach Brussels in time for my next train! The only time we were ever on time was to take the nice NS train to Brussels.

Belgium

Sitting in NS train Chettan and I discuss on topics ranging from worldly wisdom to mallu stardom, choosing between oysters or moules for lunch and salivating at the thought of it. At Brussels Zuid- happy-thinking-about-moules me gets up to find….TADA!!

A STOLEN BAG!!... so what!!

Eer..the bag had my passport, bank cards, college id, return to London tickets, clothes, postcards from Nice, my favourite skirt, fake brasil hawaiana chappals and my pen drive with lots of fotos. So how does it feel to be in a country without your identification documents? Very nice I say- because I still had a smaller bag in which I had my camera and ipod!!...

Hey Bag-flicker-dude u attacked the WRONG bag and the passenger next to me had a laptop in his bag.


Chettan and I are among the few priviledged citizen who have seen the interiors of the Indian Embassy, Brussels. At first, they laughed when I said I lost my passport and I don’t have a fotocopy of it either…I am Ann..please believe me. Then the google search on Indian government website happens and after 15 minutes the lady came out with a paper and started asking me questions-
1) What is ur name?- Ann Mcbeal
2) Spell ur father’s name- Za…… (my father has a name that is nt easy for most non malayalee or non-westerner to pronounce)

Passing that difficult exam, I ws given a certificate saying yes I am an Indian and YES India will take me back.

I guess all of u might have experienced this- sometimes it is in the worst times that u find ur dream fantasies coming true. Now everyone is aware of my extreme respect (*ahem) for men in uniform. So when u have the hottest-policeman-i-have-seen-till-date attending to ur case, u can understand why the FIR was drafted by me was in shoddy shape. Inspectuer Nick Noël, with the biceps ripping out of his uniform (he has a proportionate body mind u!), armed with a pistol in the holster and handcuffs on his belt and to top it all- a smooth talker and a charmer and genuinely good-looking…sigh! (I wished that things would go forward like Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in Speed..but alas!

With a shoddy FIR in hand and leaving Nick Noel behind, we ran back to the embassy to be issued a passport hot from the lamination press at 1745 hrs (15 minutes before the embassy closed for the day)!....chood chood passport! All said and done, I needed to get back to the UK to pack my things and move out of Europe-but minor problem- No UK VISA!!!

For some strange reason the British peoples think that they have to sit in a secured fort-like the Tower of London in every other country and they call such forts- UK Embassy! To prevent any non-british person from seeking justice/mercy/kindness or showing anger/frustration before the embassy, it is secured by towering gates I am told. So all we can do is make a fone call on the next day –

Ann- “Hi, I am ann, I am a student in London, blah blah…bag…blah blah stolen…sniff..i need to get back to London to pack and leave London for good!..if delayed I will not have a place to stay in London ”
Embassy ‘helpline’(bull crap!) lady- “Give me your number and I will tell the embassy to get back in touch with u”
Ann- “WHAT!!!...okay thank u so much for ur help”

With no call in the next 60 minutes, came brother-in-law’s last attempt at sending me across the English Channel- We reach the Eurostar counter and the UK Immigration Border and stage our Academy Award winning performance. So moved were they by our acting that the immigration lawyer gave me a 2 month UK visa and Eurostar gave me a free ride on the ticket which expired. (The cost of the ticket was 350 pounds on the day of my travel!!!)

London

Soon I was on the train to London, sitting next to a political journalist writing about Communism. And then the tunnel came- time for SeaWorld-ish view. But what I saw was a dark tunnel for 20 long minutes!!! The next 16 hours were spent clearing out my bank accounts, returning library books, packing everything and moving lock, stock and barrel out of Covent Garden to Heathrow. The 17th hour I was back on the India bound flight enjoying chicken tikka.

Ab Mumbai door nahi….

Points to note:
1) Always keep fotocopies of ur travel docs in all ur bags and with some close relative and soft copies too.
2) If stolen, after getting a passport try to ask the airways if anything (other than getting a new visa) can be done when transiting through countries.
3) The Europeans are quite understanding when u have a genuine cause.
4) Nick Noel is still my fantasy man. I even tried looking up for him on facebook (sheeesh!).
5) The UK Embassy at Brussels have still not contacted me.
6) It was not nice being stuck in Belgium without a visa to go to London or closer still Amsterdam.
7) If I had taken the flight out, I would not have had this trouble but may be some other trouble.
8) During our mad running around, I cursed the bag-flicker-dude, saying may his days from now be bad- to which Chettan replied- ever since he flicked ur bag his worst days have anyway began- WHY?- the bag mostly had only soiled clothes!!!
9) Had it not been for Chettan and the his company’s Brussels team, may be by now I would have been married to a Belgian and making waffles and frites in Grote Markt for a living. Thank you all of you.
10) If anyone of u sees an Indian woman on a ‘magazine’ in any of ‘the’ shops in Brussels or Playboy (if I am lucky) please do notify me- my pen drive had a back up copy of all my fotos. [u can compare the mag cover with my pic on the side of the blog]
11) Nick Noel….sigh!

Red Light Management

* title courtesy AJ's firm's new project

Dear youngster-on-the-pulsar-near-portuguese-church-at-10:45, 4/10/2008.

Sometimes there are many things in life that are more important than waiting at the red light. Dude that light wasn’t put there so that some men and women can solicit business under it at night. It has a purpose and that is to save your life and the lives of everyone around. Today morning u couldn’t wait for 3 minutes to get a green signal. Had my cab not been 5 seconds late, any/all of us could have been injured/dead or worse crippled for life. I know u r smart enough to know that my cab was approaching late, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. One of your drunk friends has already run into a friend of mine last week and he is already stitched up and hence I am pissed off with ur kind especially today. Hope u will pay some heed to this…

Regards
Girl-in-cab-in-the-opposite-direction

[After learning what happened to Alexis Leon a.k.a Alex Chettan, red-light-jumpers, as I call them, make me want to chain them up to a red light without food or water]

Week 1-3 Excitment to Dejection

Week 1-3

The excitement of the new job has waned away..these days I only feel stupid…I correct my previous statement- I no longer want to ‘prove my worth’ but just want to know WHAT am I supposed to do and HOW!!???!!!

Sitting in a dejected mood after failing the 3,4, 5th senior in office and most importantly MYSELF :~( :~(

A ray of optimism- hope these days will soon be over...