for EVER

In my earlier post, I said "some stories remain with you"! They sure do.
Some words or phrases also get inscribed upon our memory and very often find the way to our tongue...

"Et tu Brute" is one of these for me. These words of Shakespeare are always with me. In my thoughts , while I'm writing or randomly any time. Strength of friendship and the stab of betrayal are epitomized by this expression.

"Waiting for a response in affirmative" is a line I have always added at the end of any business letter possible. This , by the way, came from none other than my elder brother's English notes so many years ago!!

"Au revoir 'Arry" . This goodbye wish for Harry Potter by the breath-taking Fleur Delacour just dosen't get off my mind, probably because I loved the series or because I hate the word "Phlegm".

"Books are treasure, reading is pleasure". Rhyme created by my mom for my class7 English project! The rhyme is so like true for me.

"Hail Mogambo" ! This dialogue, by the technology loving villain, from the delightful movie Mr. India is my favorite. This is how I learned a new word , hail. Whenever doing some mischief  I utter these 2 words to my friends. And their obvious reply is "Mogambo khush hua".

"FAMILY= Father And Mother I Love You." My class1 teacher told us. And she remains a favorite.

happy day

Today has been the happiest of all these 80 days of vacation...
*Passed my driving test
*Enjoyed playing cards and cheating with Nanaji, NaniMa and Ma 

*Went shopping to my favorite places and had kulfi!!
*Relished Khaman and Sev~Khamani along with yummy Papaya Chutney

so happy.......:)

colours

So, what's cookin?

Thursday,8 July

including my latest craze for bloggin' ---an easier way to spend time on the net--or for that matter just spendin' time---evening walks and cleaning the clutter sprees whats keeping me occupied are my lil attempts in the kitchen.

like every indian home , mine too is usually complaining about my lack of cookery skills...rather the absence of the skills...seen as so important to lead a life.
May be, yes , they are integral afterall...

it all started as a fun moment--something that was planned in a couple of minutes...amazingly fast considering my other set of absent "skills"- of decision making!!
 it was Mother's Day some 4 years ago...mom had been watching the cookery show "Khana Khazana"---people like her , who are already masters of kitchen love to see such recipe shows to expand their horizons,or sometimes to improvise on the tv chef's already delightful recipe!!---would never understand what joy they experience in this exercise!!

@ the end of the show the amiable chef was ready with his cheeky goodbye line..."so all my viewers...i ask u to go straightaway to the kitchen and surprise your mothers"....he ended with his signature smile.
This end was the beginning of my kitchen story.
Mom fell asleep instantly as the show ended....but someone inside me just woke up... CHEF VINTI D.

cleary the most hilarious of my antics....i rushed to the kitchen,fatafat tore apart a packet of mumra...we call it phuliyan..... collected all the veggies i could lay my hands on , took a knife---[which had always been my dad's excuse to stop me from going to the kitchen...his line (borrowed from hindi films)--"ye bachchon ke khelne ki cheez nahi hai"...always "protecting" me from kitchen work]---cut the cucumbers, then chopped tomatoes,in went onions,added haldiram ke different namkeen,luckily found coriander chutney in the fridge,even put in some ketchup... mom had once told me the best looking dish is the one with all the colors-in my recipe there were white,yellow,orange,red,green,brown(nuts from the namkeen)...only missing one wasblue...easily solved as served it in a blue glass dish...i was proud of my thinking ...
 ....but something was missing...oh yes!!..potatoes....me in excitement grabbed a few potatoes ,washed, peeled and chopped them...added them to my masterpiece...tossing the recipe to evenly distribute the contents...garnished with coriander leaves....moving with confident strides....

...wake up ,mom, i screamed...SURPRISE....she was sooooo SURPRISEd.... happily started enjoying my sweet gesture...until...

...a piece of potato went to her mouth...she asked.."u added any potatoes"?? i readily nodded YES MOM....she laughed and laughed and exclaimed..."vinti,we humans usually like to eat potatoes atleast boiled...not kuchcha"

oops!!!!!
i had added raw potatoes!!! didn't boil them!!!!
no wonder like every indian home, mine too is usually complaining about my lack of cookery skills....rather the absence of the skills...


well, life comes back a full circle, as I say, its back to square one for me... hahaha... still struggling in the kitchen.... blogged the above writing about an year ago and had added the raw potatoes some 5 years ago..... but, yeah! have improved somewhat....or so I think..:)

train of thoughts

welcome to my brain train..... here goes....

One song that I have seen on everyone's playlist,favorites & music player is PEHLA NASHA ... the starting tune of 2 seconds is more than enough to recognize this epitome of love.... 
..... love~~newspaper reads according to a survey, women are hopeless romantics!! I guess its a true find.... but my roomie comes across as an exception....           
....... the thought of the hostel , its stingy little room and the mess repels me!!! But that would make coming back home all the more beautiful...:)

Beautiful? Oh.... I had read somewhere SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL..... where? wherever! O, yeah... in my Geography text.... ???!!!....... it was probably related to Sustainable Development... there'll be no DEVELOPMENT if every time we wait for rains and then we endure the potholes and unseen bumps while driving.... Mirchi RJ cleverly dedicates the song.."TU NA JANE AS PAS HAI KHUDA"... road khudi hui hai...!!
.... but I love rains.... everything goes green...lush..
Green looks so good ... Green = Slytherin!! I had once had a dream in which my green school belt turns into Voldemort's snake Nagini.... well I'm done with HP mania!! ----------

 well they say human brain thinks very fast, thinks a lot of things and thinks a lot of things very fast.... my brain train just took a little ride this morning... and occasionally goes on these little and sometimes a little longer trips... especially during lectures or when someone lectures.... has yours ever gone to such excursions too? 

ghuma phira ke phir wahin...

well........ i'm back to square one!! hmph...!! too angry with myself.... infact tired of getting angry with me....

oh... want to ventilate my blocked mind out.... yes.... too full of things... trying to get rid of dreams I have all the time.... with eyes open and closed... and want to get back on track with the magical device..the clock!!
anyway... just saw Wake Up Sid... love this movie... seen it many times... oh! really love it!!

                             
                             


P.S: have tried so many things.... bhindi   printing ,clutter cleaning, Scrabble..... but still......                                      

STONE SOUP IN BOHEMIA- story from my class7

Many years ago three soldiers, hungry and weary of battle, came upon a small village. The villagers, suffering a meager harvest and the many years of war, quickly hid what little they had to eat and met the three at the village square, wringing their hands and bemoaning the lack of anything to eat. The soldiers spoke quietly among themselves and the first soldier then turned to the village elders. "Your tired fields have left you nothing to share, so we will share what little we have: the secret of how to make soup from stones." Naturally the villagers were intrigued and soon a fire was put to the town's greatest kettle as the soldiers dropped in three smooth stones. "Now this will be a fine soup", said the second soldier; "but a pinch of salt and some parsley would make it wonderful!" Up jumped a villager, crying "What luck! I've just remembered where some's been left!" And off she ran, returning with an apronful of parsley and a turnip. As the kettle boiled on, the memory of the village improved: soon barley, carrots, beef and cream had found their way into the great pot, and a cask of wine was rolled into the square as all sat down to feast. They ate and danced and sang well into the night, refreshed by the feast and their new-found friends. In the morning the three soldiers awoke to find the entire village standing before them. At their feet lay a satchel of the village's best breads and cheese. "You have given us the greatest of gifts: the secret of how to make soup from stones", said an elder, "and we shall never forget." The third soldier turned to the crowd, and said: "There is no secret, but this is certain: it is only by sharing that we may make a feast". And off the soldiers wandered, down the road.

---

well..... it so happens that a few stories remain with you.... this one's by an anonymous writer... so, I half expected it to be anywhere on the net... but, I guess, these days one should never dare underestimate the WEB ( chuckles galore!). This one's actually an inter-continental fable.... folk lore existing across Europe and the US .... so says the net...even varying ethnically.... and popular by other names such as THE BUTTON SOUP, THE NAIL SOUP and THE AXE SOUP..and then, there are many adaptations of it as well....

Incidentally... the words like chuckle and anecdotes first came to me through this story 


This story even brings back memories of those fun filled days when we weren't teens as yet.... and some of us were.... and the memories of English class.... the smart and elegant looking English teacher.... stories of Swaminathan from the MALGUDI DAYS..... that strict rule that all must converse in English... those playing with words... those little acts and plays and dramas and the Annual Function....... 

APNU AMDAVAD MA VARSAAT

Growing up in Delhi, rains would mean hailstorms as well. And coolness all around.And fear of dust-storms.

Mumbai's rains are a completely different thing. Downpour continues for hours and hours together and you love it. Then eating corn, feeling the cool breeze-carrying tiny water droplets along with it-on your face and being joyous becomes synonymous.
But, Apnu Amdavad ma varsaat has no match at all!
Ahmedabad is an amazing place as around five years back there was nothing like drainage system anywhere in the city. Of course, around 8 years back this was a desert land.
One uncle had once asked me how do I like here? My prompt reply was its a quiet place. He was shocked and inquired whether he had indeed heard me calling Ahmedabad a quiet place. Yes! Coming from the capital city of the country, that's what I felt about my new home.
But my quiet abode started acting like a chameleon during the monsoons. And the funnily inclined slope of my room came to my notice when rainwater started flowing inside my room , from the crevices of the closed balcony door. My room's  all the floor area was very soon converted into a shallow swimming pool. My first rains in Ahmedabad.
Last year, it so happened, it wouldn't rain otherwise, but whenever I had to go to/come from  the railway station or the airport, clouds would indulge in pouring heavily.

This year, its been like a long wait, and seeing all the other places drowning merrily in rains all over the tv news, it came as the most welcome change - it rained yesterday!







Savoring the aroma of tea and bhajiyas , like all fellow Amdavadis, I have in fact reset my ipod's wallpaper too- its a toad enjoying the rains- or is it a frog?

jealous

One emotion that always takes a toll over me is going green.
First pangs of jealousy were felt at the age of just 12, seeing my best friend getting closer to a new girl in our class.
This taught me that friends are a treasure which can't be owned. But until this realization dawned upon me, I had spent many sour friendless days.
Coming to a new place and being in the shoes of a newbie , now, I got a taste of somebody else being jealous of  me being a friend snatcher. Yes, friends aren't property, they are prosperity .
Second shot of envy came with seeing love blossoming all around. It seemed all my friends had reached a paradise I just can't tread into.
This lasted for a very short span, seeing the bubbles bursting very soon and I could only resist smirking . Bad me!
Jealousy then took many a shapes, sometimes being a cloud of grades with no silver lining whatsoever ,and  at times being minuscule matters like lovely long tresses my many girlfriends owned.
These days I'm jealous of the girls who cook well and look well! And I can admit this with a smile .

time changes all?

it so happens.... that you grow out of your cocoon.... into maturer, cooler or simply some other person......

i thought i did..... until of course i met my once bestie Nikita Batta..... after like 3 years...... she came and made me realize.... we remain the same with those who really know us..... its like you never really grow up when with a few people....

i do think i have drastically changed...... but no.... this chum of mine made me speak the way i used to, made me listen to her bizarre chatter the i way i used to and made me feel she hasn't changed herself...... though we change.... we HAVE changed....

she's still the same as i had known her..... the same i would picturise her as..... getting the exact reactions i expected out of her...... and the SAME everything i have always related her with....

time and tide failed this time?

delhi belly

well........... why the hue and cry about the 'cuss words'?? Don't we come across these words almost everyday?!
HUH! hypocrites, we are....

anyways...... loved the movie...... and loved Vir Das.... though preferred him in his curly locks..... and oh! the poor Orange Juice!! :(

and the poor scooter in the end..... :D ..... actually all through the movie..... poor already dilapidated scooter had to bear Kunal Roy Kapoor's weight!! hahaha......

anyway.... back to square one.... every time any new flick comes..... there'll be this hungama on its "abusive language" levels....  

coming back a full CIRCLE..........

well........ my everyday is enclosed in this CIRCLE, whose radius has vowed to remain constant.
Many a times I've taken the perimeter, touching just the fringes of things to be done and trying to go off tangentially at some particular points (my things of interest)..... but always following the circular path under this centripetal force of inner self.

Mostly living  the pi* r^2 of the routine...... and cursing the inevitable 'r'...... I often try to find out the centre of this orbicular diurnal life ...... self growth , I conclude.

Thus, day after day, I stick to this circle ..... and day after day accept the annotation supplied by my parents, the neighbours (by their verbose reports) , the people I usually see during the course of day and of course myself .
Sometimes, wishing that somehow, this circle transfigures into something else, an ellipse for the starters, I push the boundaries of monotony,  the inner self  bouncing it back, keeping it perfectly round, round the clock.......

here we go again.........

around an year ago..... 07.07.10 to be precise...... i started this affair..... this affair of blogging..... this affair with blogging...... it all seemed all very exciting.... as writing isn't just some vent for me..... its not a part of living.... its an art of living.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/y/blog


then, one not so fine day, yahoo announced that your blogs are going away..... well.... there came a blow.... didn't hurt though....( in sync with my rhyming obsession)....


after that..... many days have been spent Facebooking..... tele viewing..... Scrabble-ing.... word gaming....  and just plain time killing.... and yeah feeble attempts of cooking too...

yesterday, a classmate posted on fb.... my fun anecdote in our college magazine...... its a factual fiction.....


that made me try to rekindle my romance with blogging.... don't know if its going to be a MILLS AND BOONS..... or end up as WUTHERING HEIGHTS.... 

one thing's for sure...... i will write when i feel like..... and sometimes , when i don't feel like.....

signing off .....