So much happening everywhere but here...

I felt like we were living in the wrong city when I heard that Doolally's opened in a Pune. It's a micro-brewery. My husband would love this more than I would because it involves only beer, beer and more beer. My friend's husband raved about the place on his facebook - they even took along their dog and let him sample two beers. This totally brought back to my mind the Scotland Street books with Cyril the dog accompanying his owner, Angus, to the bar where he is allowed a saucer of beer.

Where I live, women drinking in public is not so common so we usually go to a few places around the city or out of it to really kick back a few. So far, we've been going to about three-four places where, thanks to the things we order, we've become quite well known among the staff (God knows what they say behind our backs but who cares as long as no one's spitting in my food). Waiters smile more and bring us our orders quicker and allow us to sit wherever we want.

Now, of course, we eat at home more often and we've stopped ordering food in on Sundays. That coupled with exercise is showing a lot of results and hence, I decided to stop going out for cocktails more than once or twice (in an emergency) a month. Most of my friends dont drink and hence, I only binge on cocktails when I'm with my husband. But I havent completely given it up, only got more selective. And, I need a change of scenery, more challenges than different alcoholic mixes in sweetened juices.

Like, a wine library. That's really rare and limited to most of the seven star hotels around here (because five stars are not enough). The prices are astronomical. HT Cafe (comes with our local newspaper) carries a wine index comparing the prices of wine all around the city. They also give a list of places that come under different price ranges. They're all not really a hop, skip and jump away which is why we stick to our few restaurants for a decent drink. But I love to explore; get bored by having the same things.

Bandra - considered the top-most suburb in Bombay city, on its merit of course - had a wine tasting fair in an open garden recently. Read about it and felt like I lived miles away in a sleepy little village. Not that I'd feel any different among the snootiest lot sniffing and swirling the contents of the wine glass. But it was a decently managed affair and for a price of 500 Rupees you could sample some really fine and diverse wines - both domestic and international. I really missed living just a half-hour away. It would take a 2 hour bus ride and a 1 hour rickshaw ride to get there from here.

Well, there's always next year. And one can't always have adventure in one's own backyard.

Cold Evening, Hot Soup!

It clouded over this morning and there was a constant drizzle. We got the feel of a typical Indian monsoon in November. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and there were messages of relief all over my homepage when I checked into facebook.

I had to switch off the fan overhead: it was so cool. I could have bundled up and napped the gloomy afternoon away but I had work - now that the brief holiday from the world was over (no internet connection). There were leftover spring onions, capsicums (red and yellow), and mushrooms waiting in the fridge. I switched on the computer and thought about making soup.

In the evening, as my husband took a short conference call with his colleagues from around the world, I made my soup. Chopped garlic along with the vegetables. Took out the olive oil and oregano. Tossed the veggies and garlic in olive oil and then added the seasonings. Added a cube of chicken stock powder to water and added the veggies. Added noodles and stirred. The kitchen smelled of soup.

A dot of butter completed the magic and a hint of tomato ketchup provided the bite it needed. Hubby and I slurped it all up, right down to the tiniest bit of oregano. The rain hung around for more.

What a relief!

8 days without Internet. Work on hold. Facebook on hold. A large portion of life on hold.

It was insane trying to get back online - a sea of government officials, excuses, frustrations, fights, pleading. Once we got re-connected, it seemed like we'd climbed Mt. Everest and back, such was our relief. And all I could do was email like crazy, check all my online networking games (cooked, baked, tended plants, harvested crops, re-activated properties within a few minutes), and then...put my feet up and read all the blogs I missed during my exile.

I love being back!

I finished reading French Women Don't Get Fat and learned a lot! Promised myself that I would not quit walking, will try the stairs once in a day, will develop my sense of taste and will never let myself go like I did in the past two years. It's a big awakening moment to know all of the things in the book and find it soo hard to follow through.

What will you be this Halloween?

I find it exciting that people are planning Halloween parties, here and abroad. I'm not attending parties or doing anything other than looking up costume ideas for my sis - who is going to one - but its quite nice to watch from the sidelines. And it does tempt you to have a Halloween party of your own. It's quite something to watch all your family and friends dressed up as someone or something different. My sister's going to a theme party dressed as a Goddess - which one she hasnt decided yet.

I like goddesses with a little personality and plenty of colour in their lives. The ones who live a little dangerously. I took an online quiz (pretty predictable, most of them) and turned out to be Hecate. Now that's a goddess with possibilities. Three heads, a crone, a beautiful maiden...there was so much information on her. The interesting kind of information. She was a Titan - the only one that Zeus spared because of her unlimited potential. The one he blessed with the power to grant any wish and even take it away. She roamed through all the worlds - even the underworld. She helped children and young women. At the same time, she was more famous for her dark side that even the gods seemed to fear. She was more hated than loved. Avoided rather than popular. She was probably one of those who'd walk into a party and stop all conversation. In short, a very interesting life.

There's Nemesis - divine retribution of the winged variety to those who are too arrogant and wicked (pick your weapon from a choice of flaming torch, sword or hourglass - thy time hath arrived!!)

There's Oeno - turns anything into wine (good excuse for always carrying around a glass of merlot or sparkling wine)

There's Dementia - not much information about her but imagine going around a party wanting to turn people mad...now that's interesting!

Diana the hunter and goddess of the moon - there must be loads of interesting mythology there

There was Spermo - goddess of grain (you wouldnt be able to say your name without a smile or a wink)

Or the Queen Bee Hera who I think was really famous for throwing the most awful (understatement!!) tantrums that shook heaven and earth.

Now, gods and goddesses is a theme done to death, I'm sure. Nothing creative or new here unless you're making modernized versions of these gods or some punchy line to deliver while mingling with guests.

So, what are you going as this Halloween? It could even involve a costume while you're waiting for kids to "Trick or Treat!" at your home...all you need is the Halloween spirit, not just a party invitation although that does get more action than just sporting a pair of devil horns and holding a cigarette.

Do share what you'd love to be this Halloween - even if you're not dressing the part.

This time of the year...

...is celebrated as the festival of lights. Diwali started off with a bang (literally) in the wee hours of Saturday (probably 4 am) and is still going on. We got out at 7 am and had a bath, applying liberal amounts of fragrant coconut oil and sandalwood paste to our bodies and rubbing them in to maximise their effect. With glowing, sweet-smelling skins, we donned new clothes, jewellery and sat patiently as my mother-in-law explained and performed the necessary rituals and then brought out the sweets and snacks that Diwali is best remembered for.

Evenings are spent out of doors with some bursting crackers, others hanging out lanterns and creating rangoli designs outside their homes. We took my little neice and her mother out to a mall that they'd never seen before. It glowed like a white elephant with pristine floors and walls all light up with tiny yellow Christmas lights suspended from light-as-air net curtains. We did some quick shopping, took her for some games and fun and concluded our evening with a sumptuous feast.

The three days of Diwali were spent meeting relatives, going to my parents' house, having them come over. Lots of fish, chicken biryani, chocolate cakes (my birthday) and sweets! I'm slowly getting sick of stuffing myself with the calorific sweetness... yet, they're irresistible. As is a sparkler or two and the brilliant lanterns hung outside every home.

It's always sad to bid this festival goodbye and come to grips with reality...aka work!!!

So Cool!

It had been raining furiously last week. One sunny Sunday morning, we went off in the car to have lunch with P's relatives when a storm burst in from nowhere and there were mini-floods in the streets. We actually went round the house a couple of times trying to find a drier place to park the car. Once we had lunch and sat idly beside the balcony, it was gone...off to rain on someone else's dinner plans, I'm sure.


Now, every morning is sunny but noon becomes dark and menacing. Evening is sultry and night is cool. We wish we had a terrace to lie down in and enjoy the starry sky and the cool breezes but a big almost-french window's good too. We keep enough distance between the drapes to be able to watch the indigo sky with the chalky clouds and a slight drizzle until our eyes close and we're mentally transported to a dream or nightmare sequence.


We have a long weekend coming up and are wondering whether we should go to the hill-stations or the beachside - all a few hours from where we live. As yet we're just pleasantly floating around thinking about just doing this on the spur of the moment. Just checking train and bus schedule's driving us nuts. We want to drive there...but where do we drive?

This weekend I'm staying with my parents... looking forward to really letting my hair down. Can't wait until I'm on the bus, reading a paper or Mary Higgins Clark - where I've realized that most heroines are brunettes, heroes are blond and villains are, well, mysterious until the mask is pulled off and the one you're sure could never be him is him. Humm! Even better than that? Endless cups of tea once I reach.

The only thing that looks good on an IPod...

When I was buying my IPod, my friend asked me what message I wanted to engrave on it. After much soul searching and google-searching, I found the only one I'd want to be carved on stone (or IPod) ...

"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on..."

The rest of it's something else too:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.