Trip to Goa

Its a chilled out holiday destination. Still has the small place feel and lush greenery around it. It is state with a population of around 17 lakh only. Most of the land area is under forest cover and small narrow roads passing through it. Houses are built on the sides of the narrow roads and beautifully pained in bright pastel colors. Around 60% Hindus and 35% christians inhabit the place.

The place is one of the oldest churches in the country. St Francis Xaviers church has a more than 400 year old body preserved in the form of a mummy and it is taken out every year. The place has beaches- both sandy and rocky, Anjuna being the rocky treacherous beach and Calangute, Bagha, Miramar and Colva being the sandy ones. The sandy beaches have water sports like parasailing, motor boats, etc. There are shacks on the beaches with very cheap liquor and seafood. The water cruise has a lovely sunset tour where they present Goan dance and music.

A nice place for a sunny beach vacation

Marriages again

I just had a very hassled colleague come up to me and tell me" Anupama do not go for a marriage where you have a joint family" Stay with the husband only..Families are a hassle.

She was worried about the comments about dowry from her mother in law. The family rarely gave enough time to her to spend with her husband. ... hmm i thought.. the way women look so unhappy after marriage and always cribbing.. i wonder if my excitement or to be more realistic eagerness to get over with marriage is right?'

Saas bahu and marriage ...on the idiot box

Saas bahu and all have become such an integral part of my daily life in Delhi. Get back home, wind up the kitchen swallow my dinner and lock eyes with the idiot box lest I miss the saas bahu ....
Noticing the storylines of these indian soaps one day, I realized that all of them revolved around the same theme.. Indian marraiges gone wrong. . , and the number of lives affected as a result of that.. The one on Zee Tv, "chhoti bahu" talks about a guy in love with an adopted daughter of a poor family and who got married, by mistake, to the rebellious step sister of the girl. The guy cannot forget his love and the adopted daugther is a symbol of sacrifie and silent love.. phewwww. The second one talks about child marraige. The third one again talks about a struggling family whose daughter marries a blind man. The blind man breaks the marraige when he realises that the girl had a pre marital crush.. OMG!!! And then the daughter is pregnant and has nothing to eat at home ...phewwwww. Pavitra rishta on Zee tv again talks about a poorly educated girl married to a poorly educated guy and then the rishta seems to not get so pavitra and again she comes back to her mother's home... Agle janam mohe bitiya on Zee has a bihar rural setup and a thakur wanting a grandson but bahu cant give.. so he buys a low caste girl and son falls in love and so and so ,,,, and sacrifice and all

And the final fiasco is "Ichchhha" on colors..where a servants daugher falls in love with a rich man's son. But the thakur's daughter is jealous of the servants daughter so she creates ...phewwww

Is this the reality of marriage ??? Or are these exaggerations ... I wonder .. Time will tell

Food craving in winters

I am writing this post after a long long gap... work and other things led me away from writing for a long time ( included work, a lot of travel and winter hibernation of course!!). However, am back with some food for thought during winters. Just enjoyed some pakodas and kachodis with hot masala chai. My food intake during this season definitely increases... I think the body needs more calories to fight the cold... :))

a story

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam.
He called his parents from San Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've got a favor to ask.
I have a friend I'd like to bring with me." "Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know," the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting.
He stepped on a land mine and lost an arm an leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us.
We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives.
I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.

A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told.
The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son.
They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around,
but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable.
We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.

Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer
that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us!!!

Rains in Delhi

When it rains in Delhi, it pours...Last week when it finally rained, the city was in a turmoil.. A few days of rain and the capital is at the mercy of the rain gods. Gross mismanagement and life comes to a halt. This makes me wonder what happens to other smaller cities in rain when this is what happens to the capital.

On a more positive side, it helped in bringing down temperatures and the office got shut half day on two consecutive days due to incessant rains. However, we were stuck on road for hours and hours .. Roads were converted into mini black colored lakes full of gutter water...the gutters got freedom to flow ...And trees got uprooted. This also gave us a break from the usual well dressed and grommed selves. I wore an old tee and capris with chappals to work.

But there was no way to venture out. All you could do was to wait at home for the rains to stop. The place outside was a mess with mosquitoes, open gutters, puddles of water and what not. I silently prayed for the sun to come out so that our normal lives are resumed. And finally it did, after 3 days :)

Tulsi : Herbal qualities

Ocimum sanctum or holy basil: You must be guessing what it is? Right? It is nothing but the small herb that grows outside our homes in gardens, pots and bushes. Tulsi it is. I have had many mails by my friends on the benefits of the tulsi plant in the prevention and cure of the dreaded swine flu.
I have always cherished tulsi leaves in my cup of tea. A few leaves plucked from the herb and put in the boiling water adds amazing flavour and taste to your morning cuppa. It also has medicinal value during common cold and cough. Moreover, it is worshipped in Hindu households too.
Just go out, search for a small tulsi plant and give it home in your garden or balcony. Else put a few seeds in a pot and see the plant come up. Holy it is ..

Delhi's autowallahs

Driving is a very essential skill to survive in Delhi. Unfortunately, I quit driving after mastering that skill, a few years back. Driving in Delhi is a pain, it exhausts you to the extent that you are demotivated enough. That does not change the fact that it remains a very important skill ...
Now me being one of the unskilled ones, falls back on autos or someone to drive me to places. The thought of travelling in buses is scary and the reach of metro is limited. The thought of travelling by autos is also stressful with the general perception of autowallahs to be mean, dishonest, impolite and opportunists.
Today was an exception as the two auto drivers I happen to travel with were really nice. They charged me per the meter. The chap who took us back saw that my mother and I were tired of the heat and crowd so he immediately agreed to take us home on meter charges. He also noticed that I was thirsty and was trying to drink the last few drops in my bottle, so he stopped on the way and offered us some cold water from the rediwalla. Though we refused, he got two glasses for us and refused money. His small gesture really touched my heart and I realised that we should never extrapolate our experiences..

Coffee times

Why are we all so stuck up with meeting over coffee? Tea is the common person's beverage. Then why do we all end up in a coffee shop buying expensive cuppas more than we can afford or would like to spend? Maybe because we do not have tea shops? I do not have an answer to this question. All I can recall is a list of long exotic names and most of us have no clue how to differentiate one from another. Here is a small attempt to give you an overview

Black coffee: As the name suggests, is drip brew, percolated or French press style coffee served neat. ( no milk). It is bitter and you really need to cultivate a taste for it to relish it

Espresso: basic standard espresso with a shot of whipped cream on top. Caffè, espresso, is a concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing hot water under pressure through finely ground coffee

Americano: A single shot of espresso with about 7 ounces of hot water added

Caffe Latte: A single shot of espresso in steamed (not frothed) milk. The ratio of milk to coffee should be about 3:1, but you should be aware that latte in Italian means ‘milk’

Cafe Macchiato: A shot of espresso with steamed milk added. The ratio of coffee to milk is approximately 4:1.

Cappuccino: Usually equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and frothed milk

frappe: cold coffee

Irish coffee: A coffee spiked with Irish whiskey, with cream on top.

Mocha: This popular drink is basically a Cappuccino or Latte with chocolate syrup added to the mix.

Turkish Coffee (also known as Greek Coffee): Made by boiling finely ground coffee and water together to form a muddy, thick coffee mix.

growing out....

We all grow out.. grow out of things, of people and of jobs.. I've experienced this all my life. What I liked 2 years back is different from what I like today. People whom I left long back do not evoke much interest when they are back after a long gap. Work, whatsoever it may be, becomes monotonous after a time. Rare are the things, people, etc that keep your interest alive forever