okkkkk... the bug has bitten me again - the urge to fly off again.... and the biggest dilemma is where to go... Should it be Fatehpursikhri or Haridwar....

Both unique in its own way - one is a religious city and the other a historical city ... I am not sure which one to go to....

Hair and there

Hair cut makes or breaks you.... actually it is nothing as dramatic as that ..... its just that with a good hair cut you can look younger, sexier, prettier, thinner, hipper etc etc... frankly I have always had a bad run with hair cuts.... during my college days I sported a crew cut so I really didnt have much style... till a friend convinced me that I should grow my hair to see where it goes...

Some hair cuts have been pretty sucessful... but till very recently I never did get the hair cut exactly the way I envisaged it .... and finally I found a place and a hair stylist who actually gave me the hair cut the way I wanted it ... and I feel good sporting it... and most importantly my mom thinks its awesome too....

Well Baby George also had his hair cut .... except in his case he looks like an escaped convict hiding in his mom's house.... the only thing missing is his striped jail suit.... he he .... curiously he looks more like Christy or Kitty with his hair cut... net net Christy looks like an escaped convict too.... am sure my mom wont approve of escaped convict look alikes in her house....

Its so difficult not to get pissed.... yet everytime it happens I feel like turning into Jim Carrey in the mask, do a little dance on the persons head and bring out about 70 guns and set them blazing....

who am I venting about ? People who see other people go through bad things in their lives, look at their own momentary phase of good fortune and say "I am better off than this person".... people who need another person's bad fortune to feel validated .... I have come to the strange conclusion that some people are really weird - they just need competition in all aspects of their lives to get out of their mundane existence...

Dude, get a perspective!!!!! you really are not immune to the rule of life which dictates that what goes up must come down also or that life is all about series of twists and turns all intended to lead you to a balanced life... or as the Gita says - everything in life is transcient - friends, spouses, wealth, jobs, happiness, parents, children... why and how can you be proud of something that you really have no control over?...

All that matters in the end is whether the people in your life count on you and whether you can count on them ....

I am sure when Baby George starts counting he will count on me too...

Baby George's vocabulary

Well Baby George is learning ..... he has added an array of words to his modest vocabulary.... Christy is "Kitty", Akshara is "Aksra", Dog is "Dogu", crow is "Kaka" (mallu)..... and about the last one he also sings a mallu song asking the crow where its nest is....

All this is well and good.... but in the Lords name when is he going to say "East or West, Vavaaunty is the best".... I had started singing this song to him even when he was in my sisters stomach and I am surprised, nay, SHOCKED that it was not the first thing he said when he started speaking....

In other news, Christy or Kitty is upset that his parents didnt invite him for their wedding.... he feels bad that his parents had so much of fun without him..... I told him I would invite him for mine... he didnt seem too excited about that ... hmmm..... you think he will be excietd if I have a clown at the wedding ???

They say this is a man's world ... and I have to agree.... I mean look around you and you will see that the world couldnt have been so badly managed if it were not for the men.... for centuries we have heard nothing but the jargon that men are inantely superior to women and women are only good at managing the house... and thats where they should stay..... well all I can say that at least women are good at what they do!

I recently met a stay at home mother... and I could sense that she was feeling soooooo underrated amongst the working women... and tried to cover up her feelings of inadequacy by trying to talk about how to manage work force... while I was amused I kept thinking what is it about the working women around her that makes her feel like she is not doing enough... now does every woman have to be the super mom, super employee, super wife, super daughter, super sister... can we just not take one role instead of rolling all into one .........

and after all this we hear statements that women are meant to be in the kitchen only....my response, Buddy, thank god for that, imagine a man in a kitchen??!!!!!

This is unacceptable - I diet and someone else loses weight!!!!!

The latest person in my family to lose weight is Baby George - he is slim and trim... so much so I can feel his rib cage... and when I asked him why he had lost weight he told me (in his own language) that he lost weight as he always runs to get his food which results in a lot of calorie burning.... hmm.....

Anyways there is only thing that is consistent in my diet plan - I have been doing yoga and eating home cooked food for all meals - once in a while I get enticed somebody else's home cooked food....

Social Behaviour

Okkk I am no Miss Manners but there are certain fundamental rules that have governed my socialising... actually to be honest I have myself failed at complying with most of them but I feel angry/hurt when I see some really bad behaviour.... The rules are as follows:

a. Always smile when you meet a new person - no matter whether you are meeting Sonia Gandhi or Ratan Tata or even the local postman.... it is quite natural for me to smile at most people... but seriously - what does it cost you to smile at the new people you meet? Is your life so pathetic that you cant see other people being happy?

b. Always introduce the person you are with to others in a party - now it is a diff matter if you dont remember the name of the person you are meeting at the party but I think it is EXTREMELY RUDE to be with someone, meet someone else and not introduce the person you are with to the other person - confusing???? welll life is confusing....

c. Dont stick to your partner through the evening - well this is something you would do as a teenager cos you really didnt know better .... you should mingle about and let your partner also be free to talk to other people... I really get irritated by people who feel they have to be with each other all the time in a crowd.... okkk this is my personal view and most wont subscribe to this but what the heck - they are not writing this blog!...

d. However, if you see that your friend/partner not having a good time at the party, it is important to go and make that person feel ok... otherwise you are just a jerk who got lucky enough to get someone to come with you to the party...

e. Dont make comments about another person in front of others - you can ofcourse have your opinions (who doesnt) but it is RUDE to openly bitch about another person at the party

f. Finally, always thank the host for inviting you. How much of an effort does it take to actually say thankyou?

Level 1

Okkkk... I am officially in the league of good cooks.... today morning I had dosa and sambar... well nothing spectacular about that except that I MADE IT!!! All by myself.... I am sooooo proud of myself .... i never thought making dosa and sambar would be possible in my house...

it was a proud moment for me ... and one which I religiously called up my family and told them about.... my sister asked me "you called me to tell me that you made dosa and sambar????" as if it is an everyday occurence... oh comeon!.... it is a HUGE DEAL.... I am officially on my way to becoming a totally efficient and self sufficient person...

I need to do a liquid diet one day of the week.... I have to decide which day.... I would prefer it to be over the weekend since I dont have to come to office.... but then weekend is also the only day I can be at home and cook up something I like.... also need to also explore how I can liquidify chocolate... hmmmm....

Being on the plumper side of life is not easy.... and there are enough people to make you feel bad about it at some point in your life... as a kid you feel bad and sit quiet... now as an adult I feel another person commenting on another person's weight is totalllllly uncalled for and unwarranted and smacks of bad attitude..... and now my fav retort to anybody who by any chance comments about my weight is: "At least I can lose the weight. What will you do about your ugly face and the various personality disorders that cant be cured?"

hmmmmm.... harsh???? then please feel free to give me a better insult....

Update on the battle of the bulge

Okkkkk.... so today started with a one hour yoga..... all went well... except my body is still aching from all the twists and turns they made me do.... and I really pride myself on being really fit...

and then I dutifully made 5 dosas at home.... ate 2 of them for b'fast and packed the rest for lunch.... came to office... worked till about 12:30 looking forward to my lunch break...

that was until my friend came along and asked me to join her for lunch... ofcourse I resisted... I said - "what will happen to the dosas I have made ?" quick solutions were given by my friend.... will there be low fat, low cal food? My friend waved with such a disdain that jolted me from my seat and follow her blindly into the realms of culinary delights... net result was that my lunch comprised of parathas from "only Parathas" and half a slice of pizza and diet coke... and rounded it up with icecream (fat and sugar free)....

Okkkk since that deviation I have not eaten a morsel...

Self Evaluation: Learn to say no! to non dieting office friends

Christy has been giving me "lessons"... about how when I come to his house, eat and go off I should thank my sister.. ofcourse I chased him around the house and pinned him down till he screamed ..... and then started the process of telling Christy that I am his mothers sister and how she can come to my house and eat and vice versa (though ofcourse it is always the vice versa!!!) and we dont need to say thanks to each other...... Dont know whether he understood anything cos he was still watching me his mothers food when I went there the other day...

Baby George loves playing in the bathroom... he splashes around in the bathroom as if he was born a water baby... so once while he was playing I decided to take the mug and pour water on him... that excited him soooo much... he started filling up the mug to throw the water back at me ... but at all times losing his balance and pouring the water on himself.... he tried and he tried and he tried.... with no success at dousing his aunt.... until in frustration he walked up to his mother and asked to be taken out of the bathroom....

it was sincerely the cutest thing I had ever seen............

The strife to just be

One of the books that I am reading tells me that the aim of living organisms is to "just be"..... it was really heartening to know that the basic aim of every living organism is to just be.... yet I could not help but wonder why it is that we humans cant let another human just be.... we have to judge, poke fun at, pull down, pity, and generally behave badly to another human being who is not like you.... I find it extremely frustrating.... ... Why?... just be... and just let be...

Anyways the New Year has not started on a high note... first there was the Bhutto killing which marred new years, then there was the reported molestation of the women in my city, Mumbai, then the continuous stories of women being raped and attacked all over India..... its shameful and I am so glad everybody is as pissed off as I am....

I remember reading Benazir's autobiography when I was in school.... and now I recollect reading how as a girl growing up in a third world country you are soo scared that men would rape you and you would be defiled for life with no option but to cringe and go underground... and she recollected how this fear stalked her through her Harvard days when she would get scared just seeing a man in her dormitory.... if that is the plight of a powerful woman I wonder how the ordinary women feel....

I have no answers to such madness.....

Wooohoooooo....

My kitchen can actually produce good food!!! yeah yeah.... Good food meaning goooooood foood.... the one that your kids will call their friends over for.... lip smacking, happiness inducing, fulfillment guaranteed, nostalgia inducing foooddd.... food that takes you back to your small town house where lunch meant 3 vegetables, 1 non veg curry, 1 moru curry and several accompaniments......

What do you need to do to make all this good food, you ask?

Simple. Call Mom.