One Fleeting Moment: October 2005

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Autumn Thoughts - Part One

As Fall approaches the insecure little, young trees hurriedly turn yellow and red - screaming for attention...making up for all those moments of being overshadowed by the older, bigger ones.

10:15 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Winter is coming

back with a vengeance after last year's wimpy's performance. And so are the paper cuts.

9:51 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

Saturday, October 22, 2005

I Did It

Yes, today I managed to do the unthinkable, the unattainable...I managed to sleep till noon. Ever since I started working I have found it very difficult to sleep late on weekends. But today was different. I did the usual tossing and turning at 6:30 AM ( my usual time to wake up)....but I persevered and did not get out of bed. The fact that it was raining outside also helped. I slept on and dreamt warm fuzzy dreams of being served breakfast in bed by tall dark handsome men. By12:00 pm my stomach was rioting and would not wait any longer for the tall dark handsome men with food trays to materialize out of thin air. So I got up and made myself a nice fat Spanish omlette with lots of good stuff inside and then stepped out for some much needed retail therapy. The new car set me back by a few quid recently (to be rather modest) and on realising that, I had made a deal with myself - no more shopping till March. But like all my new year resolutions this one was also broken and I just came back with a nice , pretty white sweater. And it was promptly put into the cupboard with all my other sweaters....sigh!!

My life since my last post has been rather undramatic. I watched a bunch of movies. Proof was so so and left me confused. I could not decided which story I wanted to hold on to. Was it a love story, was it a story of paternal love, was it about the pain of disease and the burden of nursing....I still cannot make up my mind and I don't like the feeling. The comparisons with a Beautiful Mind are only natural. I loved G. Paltrow and Jake G is turning out to be the nerdy woman's dream...yummy yum!!! Also watched this monstrosity called "Metallica -Some kind of Monster" where the band members of Metallica prove what a bunch of moronic twits they are in the first 5 minutes and proceed to drive the point home for the remaining 115 minutes. Thanks to Netflix, I have been catching up on some mainstream Hindi movies too. I watched Page 3 and Bhumika. Page 3 was an hour too long and Bhumika made me angry. But a learned friend tells me that any movie:

whose abbreviated title does not have atleast two K's or D's along with some other random alphabets thrown in for variety
that does not have a English one liner as sub text for its title
or does not have a writhing female appear randomly ever 30 minutes or so

cannnot truly claim to be Hindi. After being traumatised by the likes of DDLJ, KKKG (K3G anyone) I am a little unwilling to venture that way unfortunately. So according to learned friend I watched two Indian films and not neccesarily two Hindi films then...very weird I tell you.

9:21 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Saturday, October 08, 2005

The Day the Earth Shook and Other Half Stories

After two days and three nights of constant raining the Rain Gods finally called it quits. Was woken up by my Dad at 4:30 AM on one of those rainy mornings to be informed about the earthquake. He was worried about future family members in Islamabad. They are safe but the number of victims has been climbing ever since.

Then Stan went ahead and destroyed scores of Guatemalan villages. I tried hard to figure out(after the customary tsk, tsking about the whole affair)Durga's conveyance of choice for the year (Google was no help on this front for once).True blue Bengali's might understand the significance of the above statement. Brakes were applied rather abruptly to this train of thought for the fear of turning into one's Mom.

A childhood friend came to town and will be living close by for the next six weeks. Childhood friend...hmmmm...nice phrase...brings a warm fuzzy feeling, excites a certain kind of pride. Perhaps the pride of achievement at the fact that some relationships remain untouched by time and space. We must have done something right.

Went to the Kalibari for Shasthi and found more than half of DC's Bengali population there. After much debating (while listening to hilarious pleas by the organisers to keep quiet) we left without getting any bhog.

The band is breaking up. The lead singers have graduated and left/will be leaving for other parts of the country to start life anew. It was good while it lasted.

What else..I had some good German wine, a piece of will-kill-my-grandmom-for-it good Tiramisu (if you have a Whole Foods store nearby go and get their Tiramisu) and a good Lebanese meal of kababs and mehisi malfouf (lamb and rice rolled in cabbage leaves) over the weekend.

One more thing...This and this made me really happy. Many thanks to the good bloke who added the subtitles.

12:10 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Friday, October 07, 2005

Panchami

I never missed Durgo Pujo before I left India for foreign shores. The first two years in USA were spent in a sleepy college town in Western Massachusetts, the only consolation being the good food cooked by my ex- housemate on Dussehra. I think she even did some puja on the occassion and then proceeded to fill our house with the smells of Yankee Candle Factory candles and that of sugar melting in warm ghee.
The last two years have been really wonderful(due in most part to the multitudes of enthusiastic Bengali's in the greater DC area) and last year we even managed to do some very hectic puja hopping. This year might not be the same, friends have graduated and moved on while others are busy over the weekend. But then isn't that Pujo-Pujo feeling that we feel this time of year just a yearning for togetherness - to reach out to those we love and feel close? I think we will do just fine this year with all those who remain. For my part I have decided to cook some good meals for the Boy and myself over the next five days (tonight's dinner is paneer with peppers, dal and grilled salmon) to keep in mind with the spirit of Pujo's. As if on cue, the Boy just started playing some Robindrosaongeet on the system....gosh even he is feeling it.

So here's wishing a good food, good conversation with good friends and warm fuzzy feelings filled Pujo to you and you and you.

5:17 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

Thursday, October 06, 2005

My name is Anyesha and I Abuse Spoons

There I said it. I use way too many spoons while cooking. So let’s say, you need to poke the last remnants of solidified coconut milk out of the can and into the bubbling broth on the range. Most people (culinary gods and goddesses included) will either subject the can to vigorous shaking or poke the congealed mass with their digits. Some folks (like me) might use a spoon to do the deed. But then how many of these inveterate spoon users will proceed to fling the instrument into the sink with utter callousness, only to realise the next moment that it could have been used to coax some tomato paste out of its jar? What makes this casual abuse of spoons even more pathetic is the fact that I have about 10 spoons of various sizes and once I am through with all the spoons, I start with the ladles and forks. And in between I even turn around and grab a salad plate or a soup bowl to pour out a sample (for tasting purposes) of whatever it is that I am cooking. So by the time I am done with cooking, my sink is usually overflowing.
My heart usually sinks at this stage at the sight of my sink (how punny!!); but it has nothing to do with the fact that I am overtly lazy. Just thinking of all the water that will be wasted and all the ground water contamination that might result from the liberal use of detergent is heartbreaking. I usually find myself resolving (over the dishes and spoons) to refrain from such casual spoon flinging in the future. But at my next cooking marathon I am back at it with renewed gusto. I need help!!!!

9:28 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Why I Think You Should Drive a Stick

a. For starters you will get 2-3 miles per gallon more than your automatic transmission gets you. Don't you snicker, you will wish you had listened to me when gas prices hit the 6 $ /gallon mark.

b. Your right hand will be perpetually stuck to the stick while driving thereby keeping you out of trouble. A busy right hand might itch to pick up the phone while driving at 80 mph on the expressway, but then itchy right hand will soon learn from practice that it is not a great idea. By induction the hyperactivity right hand will also desist from doing any of the following while driving:

shaving
putting on makeup
trying to rummage through hand bag
eating a muffin or cleaning up the mess created after eating it
picking out favourite CD from among 100 CD's in the glove compartment
the not so friendly gesturing at fellow drivers

c.You will imbibe the virtues of self control and resist the temptation of inching closer to the car in front when waiting for the light on a roadway inclined at 45 degrees to the horizontal. Why??Well stick's tend to follow the laws of gravity and go back a wee bit when the brake is released.

d. Your foot will get good exercise whenever you are stuck in traffic. Women, you will finally have those to-die-for-toned legs without much effort.

e. If your daily commute usually involves 30 mins or more of driving at a snail's speed then you will soon develop excruciating aches and pains from over exercise and pray to the God's above for release. And then one day unable to bear it anymore you will just give up and start utilising public transit

f. A combination of a and e will make those left wing, tree hugging environmentalists happy ( not that you care two hoots for them!!). But your soul will rest in peace knowing that even though you share your private space with some obnoxious sub human on the bus daily, your progeny and their progeny will get to smell the flowers for years to come.

g. You will remain eternally grateful to me if you suddenly win the 10 million dollar lottery and wisely decide to invest some of it in a Porsche.

h. If you are a guy who feels that slight twinge of envy on entering the weight room of your gym listen up. Your world will suddenly change once you learn how to drive a stick. Behind the wheels of your car as you deftly change gears and go into overdrive you will slowly transform from a wimpy nobody to a confident somebody. The men around you will be impressed (and the women ...well lets face it, unless you are driving a Porsche it will not make any difference to them!!)

i. And at last you will be in the same elite league as yours truly

10:11 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

Sunday, October 02, 2005

No Kissing Please, We are Indians

I am really, really mad after reading this. It reminds me about the furore in the nineties when Shabana Azmi shared a friendly hug and peck on the cheek with Nelson Mandela. We throng to multiplexes to watch our movie stars indulge in sexual acrobatics on screen and we dutifully turn on our TV's to catch the latest extra marital coupling on our favourite soap but if two consenting adults kiss in public our moral antennae go up a couple of feet!!!

This is downright ridiculous that none of the finger pointers actually think that the publishing of said pictures is an invasion of someone's privacy. In a country where almost any stranger feels it his/her moral right to ask a childless couple why they are childless, where neighbours routinely discuss the love life of the one single recluse amongst them, I guess such a notion does not exist.

And for a nation as obssessed with sex as we are ( or how else do you think we reached the 1 billion mark that quick) it is a little hypocritical to come up with such stuff. Or may be we Indians are so used to cutting to the chase in our haste (to make the one billion mark -what else!) that we never had any need for all that kissing stuff.

4:06 PM | Permalink | | links to this post

What is Your Thrill Number?

We went to Chocolate Town of USA yesterday. The drive along I-83 was beautiful and the weather goddess was beaming at us from the heavens above. The park is officially closed to general public for this season. But since we do not belong to the hoi polloi ( you already knew that didn't you!!) we had special access. The special access was brought to us by a friendly colleague who in turn bought it from his friendly neighbour who works in this friendly spice factory. This neighbour's employer rents the whole place annually for the amusement of his employees and this year one employee was not too amused so he sold his tickets for 5 bucks a piece (food included!!).

The drive along I-83 was beautiful and the weather goddess was beaming at us from her home above. After the two hour ride we were very famished so we headed for the food tents and pigged out as much as we could on squishy buns, barbecue sauce drenched chicken breasts, coke, baked beans and all kinds of processed brown stuff. The only thing green on our plate was the vinegary pickle!!!We polished it all off with some free Hershey icecream...we took only one and left the rest for the kids even though quantities were unlimited.

We then proceeded to walk around the park with coke distended bellies. We stood infront of one of those in-a-mere -35-seconds-let-gravity-rearrange-your-innards type rides and heard the folks suspended in mid air scream for their lives. Nah!! the Storm Runner with a thrill number of 5 was definitely not for us. We walked on and were confronted with a wall of water and some more screaming human beings who were sent crashing into a pool from a height of about 50 feet. Hmmm...interesting, look that thingie is the engine which pulls them up, the rest is left to gravity...Yikes!!!! After some more aimless rambling we decided to take the Canyon River Rapids Ride but only after the chappie at the door reassured us that we would not get wet as the waterfalls were not working. The folks coming out from the other side after the ride looked reasonably dry too. Just what we need - a nice river ride on a tire. Unfortunately those tires were meant for 8 people and the two of us could not balance it well enough and got drenched at every little artificial bump. But remember the sun was shining and soon our clothes were dry and we were two happy muffins on our way to the wooden roller coasters. They look tame enough, but hold on there are two of those hurtling towards each other and then there are 1,2...no 3 stomach churning bends.

And soon enough we realised what you might have by now - we are not roller coaster people. They just did not make those monsters of steel and wood in our thrill numbers!! Once self realisation has dawned life becomes much simpler, you learn to love yourself and stop fighting your inner instincts. In our case we walked over to the toy train and took a joy ride, followed by a ride on the monorail (where we had a creepy voiceover which pointed out the Hershey Kisses type street lights, for company).

Next stop - Chocolate World which was one big promo for Hershey's. The little buckets on a conveyor thingie ride through a simulated chocolate factory was way too lame. It was even more annoying when we were dumped in the giant chocolate store where everything was overpriced. We settled for some Scharfen Berger hot chocolate and two bars of dark chocolate. Might as well pay for good chocolate. We also had a discussion on the whole everything-is-a-marketing-ploy issue and the general vacousness of life forms dependent on roller coaster rides for amusement while sipping our exquisite artisanal chocolate drink. And Amlan we also thought about free trade cacao. But all that will be discussed in a heavy post some other day when I am in a less frivolous mood.

So there now you know a little bit more about me and God forbid you ever bring this up to mock me. I shall turn up my little nose, adjust my glasses daintily and proceed to burn you with a dirty look.

9:43 AM | Permalink | | links to this post

One Fleeting Moment

The way I see life as I cartwheel through it....one fleeting moment at a time