Is it twelve o clock yet!??

It was birthday of a person very dear to me.
As usual, by the time the clock struck ten, my eyelids were carrying the weight of 10 sand bags. I managed to not look at the watch for an hour.
I just had to do it. Wish at SHARP twelve.
Saw a little bit of TV. All talk show hosts started to hypnotize. Every direction seemed to lead to the bed. I gave in. Set the alarm on my phone for fifteen minutes to twelve. I can almost swear that I was snoring before I touched the pillow.
Trust me, every blood cell of mine blessed me and got lost into deep slumber. I slept like a baby cuddling up with a doll. Just that my phone played the doll.
But, no. If only things could be that simple.
My subconscious brain was screaming its recital..Is it twelve O clock YET? Is it twelve O clock YET??

Alarm rang. Snoozed it.
Alarm rang again. Snoozed it again.

Brain: Wake up.
Me: I'm trying to force open one eyelid..wait..

Brain: WAKE UP.
Me: OMG! I have Ten Whole Minutes to go!

Brain: WAKE up!
Me: I think just five minutes would have past..

Brain: WAKE UP!!!!!
Me:I.. I... I....

I accepted my defeat to this conspiracy of the Brain and the Alarm. Gave a call. Guess what! I was the first one to wish. I was so glad I made it that we started off with a little chat about what's next, what plans for birthday and before I knew it was twelve!! *<:D
Spoke for around ten minutes.
And yeah, by the time I hung up...FINALLY, I wasn't sleepy anymore.

Twenty-five bucks for Two Aloo Paranthas!!?? My Gawwd!

I know! I can't help it. Thats the current market price.

With that sentence, my gasping Ma shoved Yet another parantha into my plate. You see, my household has had paranthas as integral to the menu, as salt to food.

We have never believed in the outside food. Or so we have been brought up to believe. Everything that is there in the market, can be produced in our kitchen. Now, I will HAVE to give the credit for the authenticity of that fact seeing the list of paranthas alone!!

We are offered;

1. Aloo Parantha (Potato)

2. Gobi Parantha (Cauliflower)

3. Paneer Parantha (Cottage Cheese)

4. Mooli Parantha (Raddish)

5. Gaajar Parantha (Carrot)

6. Pyaaz ka Parantha (Onion)

7. Methi Parantha (Umm, what's this called in English? : Basically the end product is a soft green-brown parantha, topped with a soft boat of butter, side-lined with a scoop of yoghurt and cream.Is that drool in my mouth?)

8. Dal Parantha (Lentils; there are too many different lentils! Result; different colored paranthas! + the previous description :D )

9. Then My fav; Cheese Parantha :)

10-21 Ok. Lets not even get STARTED on the "modified" ingredient stuffings. The above ones are the "plain, straight-forward" ones.

So you'll have to agree on the variety my Lady Chef has worked out to keep her kids from eating the nasty food from outside. Leave alone eating, she has managed to engrave the fact into our brains that, outside food is equal to trash..pure trash. OUTSIDE FOOD~=TRASH.

Starting from Pizzas, Chinese cuisine, North-indian tandoori stuff, South-indian grand meals...she offers it all. To the extent we have named our kitchen; Mummy da Dhaba. The drool-provoking, feel-good scents have had us go beyong limits of hunger. Trust me when I say that. The amazing aromas from The Mummy Dhaba have our nosy neighbours also asking what the Heck is cooking! Thanks to her exhaust fan.

While I finish my post, its already luncheon time...Bhindi Fry (Roasted Lady's Finger) and Raita (Curd with seasoning & cut cucumbers) on its way!

Bon Appetit' . :)

Moms will be Moms

M.O.M / Mom - Who would have invented this word? M-O-M...

Maybe someone who wanted to address "Mother" was going by the rhyming of S.O.S. ! I mean, they literally convey the same message!! From cleaning poop, to helping cut nails, to tying shoe lace, to endless times of spoon feeding; the lady does everything, you see. Thats why when a kiddo falls ill, its her who ends up with the racoon eyes.

Now, the most incredible feature of the M.O.M. is that she always believes that her offspring is The Most stunning creation by God, even though the little ugly duckling is fluttering right in front of her. Take me for an example, till date, my M.O.M. votes for my two-year-old portrait of mine than my present-day-hey-gudlukin'-kinda picture. See for yourself,

Me then...

Me now, with M.O.M;

You know the other fascinating characteristic of the M.O.M is her methodology of bringing up her duckling. She'll feed it-even if it's half asleep, clean its ears...after baths with those cotton buds, eat filthy unrecognizable remains from it's plates, never let ducky eat stale food- but will pretend to relish it herself! And then, tell the duckling that it needs to grow up and be independant! How see you're really confusing that little one there.

M.O.M. spend their entire life span trying to nurture the duckling into a beautiful swan. Only to see it fly away one day. Now, in today's world with people relocating abroad, I mean that literally. But, somehow, I think I will never grow out of this state. 24 years of my lady's hard work, 24 years of wanting the duckling to ACTUALLY GROW UP; I might have got some physical changes in myself ( hopefully, apparent from the pictorial proof)...

Nevertheless, everytime I start getting a sore throat, I dial in... S.O.S. :)

Custard-Apple Burp

One more cup of tea and I will feel much better. Or so I thought when the fever started shooting up again that day. It had to be Bangalore’s erratic climate or just plain food poisoning, perhaps. Something didn’t feel right about those inexorable fever bouts and well, the not-so-pleasant burps.

My thoughts where honked back to presence while the moron behind us blew his blasting horn. Excuse the profanity, but the wretched and persistent headaches had got the best of me. Still, my brain refused to agree that “I” might be hospitalized. Hospital; to me, just meant my dad’s work place or, somewhere other people went, when they were ill. Not me, I am born to a family of doctors, you see.

We reached hospital at midnight. Got blood tests done. Got admitted. I was found to be carrying the notorious bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. I know! Sounds like a scary one and causes, Enteric Fever or better known to us as Typhoid.
Well, now that I google-d on this ailment, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_fever, I seem to have had ALL those symptoms!

The fact that the doctors try to “hide” your illness from you, makes it look worse than it actually is. I was hospitalized for about a fortnight and trust me, when the fever wasn’t bothering I looked hail and hearty as ever! To the extent, that I had to see my IV drips to remind me that I was still there. But then, I did not really have strength to move a limb so I wouldn’t know otherwise.

The worst moments were only when I realized my appetite was dead :(! It aches right in the left chest, to imagine a person of my eating caliber, have NO appetite. Despite of my small frame, I have left a “lot” people gaping at my plate. I was asked to eat light, simple and boiled food to save some agony to my digestive system. So I decided, anything to get done with it!

Nevertheless, God’s favorite child got out of the hospital and now is on its way to recovery. :) I was welcomed back to office a month later, with my same half filled cup of tea, with all sorts of colorful vegetations in it.

It put a silly grin across my face while I just burped (excuse me) 'cause hey, custard apple shake did taste good at lunch! I’m back in the game! :)

Misaligned truth..

"Stinkoo! Brush fast!!" . I smiled when I heard my mom's ritual scream in the morning while a misaligned lower tooth line grinned back at me in the mirror.

When I look at my little cousins...maternal, they all have such beautiful pearly whites. I think its to do with the genes. Mom has them too. So does Mom's Mom. It HAS to do with the chromosomal conspiracy. Then what the heck happened when I was being designed?

I wont really degrade my God-gifted naturals. But, its a funny way they are set up. The top ones are really neat. HUGE, but neat. :D Its the lower line, that is decked up in a peculiar "floral" pattern, you see, seems like God was trying to make a flower out of them and half way through realized that it was supposed to be part of a homo sapien. Not just that, somehow my teeth always had a knack of being attracted to cavities.

Finally, my youngest cousin made me proud. He was my sole companion to share this fate. At tiny three, he was proud owner of a quite disfigured tooth set, stained with the relentless munching of chocolates.

Nevertheless, he appears cute to us. With his big head , round eyes and the adorable little nothings, no one seems to mind the minor detail of his missing incisors.

Besides, I don't think he himself really cares right now. It will only be i think a decade down the line when he'll ask his mom that who the hell gave him all those chocolates!!?

The Blog Shri-Ganesh..

When the whole Blog thing came up, it took me a while to understand how people can "openly" express themselves! With even Laloo ji starting his own blog and people from the Bwood becoming top bloggers, I was REALLY forced to think what the whole deal was about?

To be honest, my grey cells were put to work on this only recently. I wrote an article in my office's newsletter and interested people began asking me for "the url of my Blog". Hmmm...So now people made it sound like a You-are-from-iceage-if-you-don't-have-it thing. Grey cells put in a fix.

Now looking back, I did have a horde of write-ups but I never thought of a Blog. After a number of times of opening & closing of this page, I decided to do Shri-Ganesh of my "own" blog. :)

Some of them are my prior articles, some close to my heart, some just plain thoughts, I would love to see your comments / feedback on these! Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I loved jotting them down. Happy reading.