Thursday, January 30, 2014

Retrograde

So my astrologer friend Bee told me this morning that that mischievous planet Mercury is retrograde. In case you didn't know what that means let me enlighten you. Basically everything around you has a tendency to get disrupted. There are often delays and technology can give you a headache. You could become forgetful and miscommunications become more likely than ever.

Now let me get to yesterday evening. I got to the mall and had an omelet which was half cooked and spilled all over my top. I burnt my mouth with the hot chocolate. Twice. I ran around like a headless chicken trying to get my new glasses and the phone and then get home in time for the man maid. He called me three times as I literally sprinted out and drove home. I finally parked at the entrance to the building compound, put the hazard lights on and made three trips to finally get everything home. Then I proceeded to open and play with the new phone for the next six hours straight. Then while I was making myself a yummy fruit preserve sandwich it struck me that I had forgotten to park the car. I ran down and saw the hazard lights barely blinking. The remote locking system was not working. I tried opening the driver's door which didn't open. I opened the opposite door and got in and then proceeded to climb over to the driver's seat and then climbed back over to the other side because I'd forgotten to close the door. And THEN I climbed back into the driver's seat, slid the car key in and turned. Nothing. Of course the battery was dead. I got out and realised the doors would not close. I called my husband and told him what happened. He sighed and said,"Why do these things happen? Wait I'm on my way." He didn't get upset. He's like an incarnation of the Buddha in this day and age. I'd probably have to burn bundles of currency in his presence to incur his wrath. But then he just might smile and say,"It's alright baby. It happens." He's that patient God bless him.

Finally I called the recovery vehicle and he promised to be there within the hour. He got there and called me. I thought I'll take Ninna for a walk. I picked up  the iPhone because after spending six hours with the new phone I was yet to transfer my contacts, the passkey card to the building, car keys and Ninna's leash. I got to the lift and realised I'd forgotten to put the leash on the dog. I went back in and took Ninna with me and then when I reached the lift I realised I'd forgotten to take money to give the recovery guy. I went back in AGAIN and finally the guy took away my beloved car. I had to call the workshop and inform them to expect the car so I dialled the number and proceeded to tell them the particulars of the car when the amused man at the other end said," Ma'am I just took your vehicle. I'm taking it to the workshop." Wrong number! You bet Mercury is fucking retrograde.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Love Note 3

So people I got me a new phone. The iPhone had been giving me trouble for a while and then finally I dropped it and the screen cracked really badly. I got the Samsung Note 3 which has a really large screen so it's like a mini tab. So far so good.  The point is that it has a fabulous camera. The iPhone camera used to suck. This is the first picture I took on it. It automatically made my skin look good and the other options are pretty good too. I've been happily downloading all my apps and generally setting up the phone which has taken me all afternoon. This phone is definitely great for blogging. It's easy to upload the pictures. The big screen makes typing quite painless. So far so good.

Yesterday was a miserable little day I'd rather forget. I was in bed all day feeling sick. I'm fine now. I finally got my IKEA shopping from the car to the house. Everything is still lying neatly packed in paper bags because I got hooked on to this phone. But I will get it all done in good time for now I have to figure out how to stop this phone from tik tiking every time I touch an alphabet. 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My girls

So my kitchen is in truly shit shape thanks to the duffer of a cook. Ankita the true Empress of Organisation drove all of us to IKEA to help me shop for some new jars and stuff. After a yummy Dhansak and rice lunch we packed into the car and I was only too glad being in the back seat with the kids. Sohana fell asleep in the first five minutes leaning against me. I put my arm around her and she slept like an angel. She's a handful when awake but I admit I enjoy her antics so much. I love the fact that she bursts into a song or a smile without warning or reason.
No trip to IKEA is complete without going to the cafe so we went and picked only three desserts. The coffee came free with the desserts. There were three machines. I fought with my machine punching the Latte button with a vengeance but not a drop of the promised brew. Ankita's machine overflowed with too much. Coffee machines are like that all over the world I think. I've battled a few personally.

That's Ahana and I taking a selfie in one of the myriad mirrors in IKEA. She is so different from Sohana. Amazingly articulate, graceful and careful about everything she does. I've had some wonderful conversations with her. For a while in the home furnishings section Sohana, Ahana and I were left alone by the mummies and we held hands and danced together to a peppy Beatles song. People smiled indulgently as they walked by but three year olds and a nutty woman didn't care about how they looked. Girls just wanna have fun is serious wisdom from Cyndi Lauper. We take it very seriously. 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Monkey's bum

So my face looks like a monkey's bum. I got my eyebrows threaded and I always go red and cry with tears escaping my eyes as the woman pulls each individual hair. I've complained about this before. These are times when I certainly wish I was I man although shaving my face everyday is not something I'd look forward to either. On the other hand I could be one of those long bearded Gandalf like mysterious and intellectual men. Yes I might enjoy that. On second thought I like being a woman too much.

I was a bit under the weather again most of yesterday hence no post last night. I watched a little bit of Chashme Baddoor for a while. I mean the original with Farooq Sheikh, Dipti Naval not the monstrosity that someone made last year. I loved those films ( rang birangi, naram garam, khatta meetha, choti si baat) with actors like Farooq, Amol Palekar and Vidya Sinha. My sister once made a funny observation about Vidya Sinha. "This woman is always either drinking tea or sleeping." She said.

The sun is hiding somewhere today and it's a peaceful day. I'm feeling much better than yesterday. I cooked aloo methi and dal yesterday. The aloo methi got a bit overcooked but tasted fine. I wish I could have made it crunchier. It became a bit of a bharta. Next time I guess. I still haven't fired my cook even though he is pissing me off every time that he comes. I just don't have the heart to fire someone. I just feel awful about it. Sigh...

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Cold morning

No I don't feel like writing but I made a promise to myself so here I am slowly allowing the words to flow. I was watching cricket yesterday in the afternoon. There was a time I used to hate cricket with a vengeance then I happened to see Flintoff and I thought he was gorgeous so I started watching just to ogle at him. My husband realised he could use this to his advantage so even when Australia was playing he would tell me Flintoff would be along soon and I would happily wait while he watched his game with a barely suppressed grin. Yes he fooled me like that for a long time and slowly I got into the game and actually started enjoying it. Now I love watching cricket and I find the commentary so soothing that I can easily take a nap while the TV hums.

I was thinking last evening I would have nothing to write about as I was feeling quite sick thanks to a bad tummy but something always happens. That's life. It never lets you down in the end. I got my eyes checked yesterday and they put some drops in to check my corneas. The good news is that my corneas are just fine. The bad news is that I had blurry vision for a few hours so I could neither read nor write so I watched Lord of the Rings. Suddenly the fire alarm went off. Now this has happened before and has always been a false alarm so we were a bit slow to react. Anshuman went out and Ninna followed him. He came back immediately and said,"It's a fire on our floor." I panicked for a second. I threw on a sweatshirt and got out, grabbed Ninna in my arms and saw that there was smoke coming out of the flat two doors down. And then I saw a guy walking towards me with a silly grin on his face,"I burnt something in the oven. It's nothing." He said to everyone who had come out into the gallery. I stood there in my short housedress with ridiculous giant flowers on it, a dirty sweatshirt, bare feet with my dog dangling in my arms. I wanted to slap the guy a little bit but then I thought that could well have been me. Yes I could easily burn something in the oven. I felt a kinship towards my fellow idiot and went back inside.

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning today and even though mornings are nice I need the sun to make a full appearance before I let my feet dangle from the bed into flip-flops. Still it's rather nice this cold morning. I hope you'll have a lovely day!

Friday, January 24, 2014

Sunny day out

I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you who have been coming by and reading my random writings and then launch into the lovely day it's been. So yes thank you.

I went to the Rugby Sevens ground for the first time. I have no  interest in Rugby. I don't even know how it's played. There was a display of six Porsches there so off I went along for the ride with Anshuman. On the way after having driven straight for quite a while my husband suddenly said,"Where IS this Rugby Sevens??" I looked at him, smiled and replied," Heh! Heh! Heh! I don't care." And I didn't. My motives are very clear. I just love singing in the car, buying Zatar and Cheese Manakish, muffin and coffee at the petrol station and hogging. I dropped crumbs and coffee all over my sweater and messed up his car but he's used to that sort of thing. He just smiles.  And since this beautiful yellow Cayman S was parked there I asked him to take a picture. I got to wear my blue scarf style necklace and it was gorgeous sunny day. Perfect.

It is an extremely rare and special day when my husband willingly takes me to a mall so when he offered to take me to the Outlet Mall I was obviously delighted. Everything is supposed to be at slashed prices so I was looking forward to getting some great bargains.  The first shop I walked into was not a major brand and I figured the prices would be fairly low. I browsed around for a while and when I checked the price of a skirt it was slashed down from 1,500 dirhams to 800 dirhams. In my mind I laughed,"Bwahahahahaha!!!!". I walked out right away. A Burberry bag that costs 7,500 dirhams was available for 4,000 dirhams. Again,"Bwahahahahaha!!!!". Finally I did pick up an Elizabeth Arden Green Tea perfume because it was the first perfume I ever bought from Dubai Duty Free and I like it. When I told Anshuman that he seemed deeply puzzled and disturbed. He'll get over it. He always does. He stopped trying to make sense of my reasoning a long time ago.

The mall

It was such a slow day yesterday. I decided to do nothing and I was being quite successful at it till evening came and I thought like a true resident of Dubai,"Let's go to the mall". Thursday evenings the mall is always buzzing with people. There were these three clowns making some raucous music and everyone was taking pictures and videos so I took a picture too. We the people of Dubai get very happy about little things. It's one of the charms of the janta here.

I told myself that I would not buy anything and simply walk around and browse. Then I walked into Borders and my resolve began to weaken visibly as I touched brand new books and swam around the aisles like a fish with glasses. I stopped at my favourite aisle 'Classics' and found teen fiction. My heart sank as I thought they literally did away with the classics section. But I found them neatly stacked and displayed prominently at the end of the aisle and the smile came back to play on my lips. I picked up three Thomas Hardy books and spent some time in the stationery section. I looked at all the writing paper and the paints and the canvases and I longed to paint again. I suck at it but I don't care. I just love throwing colour on canvas and it's been way too long. Soon soon.

I strolled along and soon found myself browsing through the dresses on sale in Debenhams. I mean how does one resist not trying out some? I tried six of them and picked a lovely black John Rocha number because I looked good dancing in it. To know if you look good in a dress I highly recommend dancing in the changing room. You'll see yourself move in it and know instantly if the dress works and more importantly if you're totally comfortable in it and when you find yourself smiling with pleasure buy it. My little secret.

I watched the new Jack Ryan film with Chris Pine playing the lead. The film is below average and Keira Knightly has a teenage boy's body topped with a pretty woman's face. She annoys me.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Films and book


So I saw this movie called 'Dirty Pretty Things' in the afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to find a really nice film on the free to watch selection on cable. Normally it is a place reserved for films of two categories- ones that no one wants to watch and ones that everyone has already seen. This one is the story of two illegal immigrants in London. It is a tale of their helplessness, struggle and the blatant exploitation they face as they try to survive. It is also an unlikely love story and I admit I had tears in my eyes at the end. Do watch it if you get the chance.







Then there's the George Clooney movie 'The American' a movie I love watching mostly because I've fallen in love with the place where it was shot in Rome. The story itself makes me wish it was in Italian instead of English. Yes it should have been an Italian film but still with George Clooney playing the lead. I noticed that he had chewed up his cuticles and I wondered if that had to do with his preparation for the role or does George Clooney chew his cuticles? I chew my cuticles when my nails are short which is why I prefer to keep them long. It's an awful nervous habit some of us have, I mean me and George. I hope one day I will visit Rome. I'll tell you if I do.








I finished reading 'And The Mountains Echoed' by Khaled Hosseini. I'd say it's a good book but over structured. The tales are meant to intertwine and even though the plot is carefully woven I felt as though Hosseini is trying to put his structuring ability on display when he didn't really need to at all. The story itself could have stood firmly on its own with a simpler structure. I somehow couldn't come to terms with the character of Nila Wahdati. I felt like Hosseini completely failed with her. She had no shades to speak of. She's just someone who is doomed from the beginning and it all seems to be her fault. He gives her absolutely no redeeming qualities. She's all dark. Alcoholic, promiscuous, unable to truly love anyone including herself. And then she self destructs. Naturally. As though there couldn't ever have been any hope for her. 

The rest of the story is nice but Hosseini truly excels at writing about childhood. That's where he comes across as most authentic. Sometimes he gets sidetracked as he tries to make a point about the concept of beauty. And yes it is relevant in the general sense but not in the larger scheme of the story itself. May be I'm being much too critical. I did enjoy reading it and recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed his previous offerings.

I made aloo beans today but the aloo didn't cook properly so I cooked them some more and resultantly burnt them a little bit. It still smells good though and is quite edible. One chapati out of six ballooned perfectly and I'm quite content with my progress. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Bikes and flowers

So some guy parks his bike right outside our building everyday and it sits there looking pretty all day. It's called Aprilia and I'm not sure which country she belongs to but she has some serious muscle and I felt like perching myself on it and taking a picture but then I thought what if the owner sauntered out of the building at that very moment? How embarrassing would that be. And then an image appeared in my mind of a six feet tall man with serious biceps encircled by tattoos of dragons, barbed wires and bleeding hearts. Yes I thought I would probably be intimidated by a guy

like that. And then I thought why must a guy who rides a bike like that look a certain way. May be it doesn't even belong to a guy. May be there's a drop dead gorgeous woman who rides this bike to her modelling shoots. I wondered why I love bikes so much. The first bike I ever sat on was my father's Rajdoot. The second was many years later, a Yezdi which I actually managed to kickstart after trying for about an hour. I actually almost rode the Yezdi or rather pretended to ride it as someone was sitting behind me making sure I
didn't fall off or ride into a wall. The third and my favourite has to be the Enfield Bullet. I loved that bike. Riding pillion on the highway in cold January with the wind in my hair and trucks swooshing by was terribly exciting. I was 21 years old of course and I think even now when I see a beautiful bike I feel just as excited. It's been so many years since then and I've grown so much older but still I long to go on a ride.

Ok enough about bikes. There are flowers growing everywhere around my home. Above are the lovely bougainvillea ( I had to google the spelling and for the life of me I just cannot pronounce it ). On the left are my favourite gende ka phool. When I was a little girl I used to pluck out all the petals and eat leftover part which we called Gobhi because it looked like a little cauliflower. I wonder if kids still do that or are the parents much too careful these days. I remember plucking blades of grass and eating that too. I think my mother would be horrified if she knew or she might just laugh and remind me that my baby sister used to eat ants. Yeah she really did and I took them out of her mouth very often.

The bharta I made yesterday was such a success that Anshuman ate it again today. I thought I screwed it up because I didn't actually taste it. I hate baingan. I don't understand why someone would want to eat baingan but my husband loves it so I cooked it. I made stuffed capsicum and masala dal today. Everything turned out perfectly. Pushpita and Sohana had come over for dinner and later all of us went out for ice cream. When I told Sohana we're going out for ice cream pat came the question,"Today?"

Monday, January 20, 2014

Aubergine a la fuck up

So the good news is that the Matar Paneer from yesterday was successfully rescued by my husband and I enjoyed it for lunch today. The bad news is that I tried making the simple baingan ka bharta and fucked it up real nice. Where do I even begin? The learning is that when you grill the baingan it shrinks and hence the proportion of the masala to the sabzi gets screwed in the hands of a first time idiot. The good news is that I made perfect dal something I'm quite good at. The bad news is that none of the chapatis ballooned like they're supposed to. So all in all it has been a mixed day cooking wise. Tomorrow might be better or worse I really don't care. I mean I care about tomorrow in general just not about how good or bad my kitchen appraisal is going to be.

No change in the brilliant weather since yesterday. The breeze is cold. The sky is cloudy. The sunshine is just gorgeous. I watched a stupid romcom called 'How do you know'. Eminently missable film. I rented it from movie on demand from Du (the cable service provider) and I want my 12 dirhams back. While I was walking around I found another pair of shoes leaning neatly against a wall in the sunshine as if they had been drenched in the rain and the owner was walking around somewhere in slippers waiting for them to dry.

A thought occurred to me today. I think the most beautiful thing about life is that no matter how much detail you plan it in it never ceases its ability to surprise you each day. I mean I had five different dreams last night which also means that I woke up five times in the night and am falling asleep now. But my point is that even if the inconsequential thing that you observe on three different days is a pair of shoes, each time is unique and each story is unique and your thought process is unique and the story you build around them in your mind is unique.

And now I'm going to sleep. Goodnight folks!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Firing

So I've come to the grave decision of finally firing my cook. However much my cooking may suck his sucks far worse. And yet it has not been an easy decision because there was this mythical security in knowing that someone is going to make dinner. But now that I'm at home it makes no sense to have him come and mess up cutting and grating simple vegetables and then me doing all the cooking. He grates what I want cut and cuts what I want grated and does as little as possible. I lost my temper today. Nothing was done right as he was busy chatting with the man maid who is his room mate. I yelled at him and I think he understands that his stint as my cook is coming to an end. He is a good boy but he's just such a horrible cook and I have no patience to teach him. I'll just end up losing my temper so I've decided to lose him instead.

So now I will cook everyday and bore you with how bad I sucked or succeeded. Well you don't really have a choice because my space, my life and my words. Today I made Matar Paneer which turned out to be quite bland because I added too much water to it. I ate it right away anyway because I was really famished. Anshuman took one bite and put the sabzi back on the burner to boil it more and make the water steam away. I will taste it again tomorrow and report how bad it still is.

I have no idea about how much to cook. I always end up cooking for six people when the simple goal is to cook for two. Considering what a fabulous cook my mother is I should be ashamed of how terrible I am but you know I'm not. After all I'm not her and I never will be. I accept that.

It was really cold when Ninna and I went for our walk together. There's a place where she always turns left when she's supposed to go straight. Today I let her guide me and we took a circuitous route. She got to sniff new places and a variety of doggy pee I'm sure. She's usually very happy when I take her out but today she seemed particularly excited. She was running so fast that after a while I had to quicken my pace to keep up with her. The weather is beautiful these days. The breeze made the tip of my nose so cold. I love it when that happens.

Milky chai

So I made horrible milky tea today but I'm such a lazy ass I didn't bother to make it again and am drinking it as I write this. Bleth! So bad. I dreamt I was watching a movie this morning about multiple murders and it was such an exciting mystery but I don't remember much of it now. Dreams are so fragile that if you don't stay in bed for that extra ten minutes with your eyes closed you forget it very quickly.

It was a lovely day yesterday and I fell asleep so quickly I didn't write in the night. Pushpita made yummy chicken in the afternoon and and I watched The Little Mermaid on the laptop with Sohana perched on my lap. I fed her rice and chicken and had to remind her to chew at one minute intervals. She just happily sits there with her mouth full of food engrossed in the movie. I must say that Prince Eric is quite the dish. In the actual fairytale by Christian Hans Andersen the little mermaid does not marry the prince. She turns into foam and basically dies of a broken heart as the prince marries someone else. But thankfully that was too heartbreaking an end for the beloved Disney and in their version the mermaid marries the prince. I do love happy endings.

I went to Ravi with Ankita, Pushpita and Ravi with the kids. Somehow the food turned out to be quite bland and we were all rather disappointed. The kebabs were really nice though and the chana dal was good too. There were a bunch of French people sitting next to us and one of them spoke non stop the entire time that we were there. I realised I don't think I could ever carry off a monologue for that long even if I tried. I believe brevity and concise speech are highly underrated. Use your words very very carefully I say.


Saturday, January 18, 2014

Warmth

In the Khaled Hosseini book there's a passage where a little girl is delighted when her brother brings her a peacock feather which he acquires by giving away his shoes in return. It was the last thing I read before I fell asleep last night. In the morning I dreamt that I found several peacock feathers just lying there on the road and I was collecting them with the delight similar to the three year old girl. I woke up, went to the living room and saw that there was a dove feather lying in the middle of the room. I picked it up and I couldn't help but smile. Then I took Ninna out for a walk and I saw these abandoned pair of shoes. I think someone must have thrown them from their window judging by the way they were lying there and I was reminded of the little boy who gave away his only shoes for his little sister in the book. Strange but sweet coincidences.
Ahana and Sohana are obsessed with minions. There they are watching Despicable me 2 yet again and slurping down noodles. Playing with them is probably one of the greatest pleasures I've ever known. Both of them are so different and delightful in their own way. I smother them with kisses every chance I get and they giggle so sweetly as only little girls can. I hope and pray that they will have joys beyond measure all their lives and wherever they are they will always be loved. God bless my little babies.



I had an upset tummy so Ankita made me some Dal and rice. I must mention how crazy precise she is at cutting veggies. Each piece of onion, tomato and garlic was perfectly cut and fried and the dal smelled so yummy I was drooling. I was so happy as we chatted while the food cooked. I felt warm and loved and so grateful for having friends who have become my family. I don't have many friends to be honest and it is entirely my fault for being such a loner but God blessed me with a few gems who I will treasure all my life. Thank you Ankita, Pushpita, Ahana and Sohana for lighting up my day which would otherwise have been dismal.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Snoozefest

I kept reading And The Mountains Echoed and snoozing almost all day. I  also found that I have a copy of Anna Karenina which has a bookmark on page 143. Clearly I didn't finish it the first time I started it. I will pick it up again after I'm done with the book at hand. Maggi for dinner tonight as it is dinner for one and does not deserve cooking. Boiling is not cooking.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

War and Peace

The last time I read a book as riveting, romantic and epic was Gone With The Wind and this time War and Peace literally had me glued to the pages as the people became a part of my life for almost all of last month or so. Yes it's taken me a while to finish it but every second of reading this book was absolutely worth it. As I completed the last few chai stained pages a sadness descended upon me as it was time to take leave of Andrey, Pierre, Nikolay, Natasha, Marya and Sonya's world.

As people have said before the book should probably have been called Peace and War as only one third of it describes the war between France led by Napoleon and Russia led by Tsar Alexander. Even though Tolstoy's analysis and description of the war, the fate of the two armies and the politics of the leaders is extremely interesting and engaging I was more enamoured by the characters and their individual and intertwined journey.

Tolstoy's people ( I can't see them as mere characters) are perfect with their flaws. They struggle with questions about life, love and loss that are as pertinent today as they were then. The thing that touched me most was  the zest for life that runs through the entire saga despite dire circumstances. I don't think I can quite explain how much I've loved reading it. If you haven't read it let me assure you that once you start reading it the size of the book becomes inconsequential. I mean here is a story that needs each one of the 1400 pages. He reads the minds of his people and writes them with such simplicity and insight that you can almost imagine that if you ever met the man in real life he might be able to accurately describe your character and psychological profile within the first few minutes of the meeting. He is truly brilliant.

I've picked up the next spanking new book called And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. His most moving book of course was The Kite Runner. A Thousand Splendid Suns was not too bad but I've completely forgotten what it was all about which doesn't say much. I hope this one will be better. I did not try to cook anything too complicated beyond my control today. Today's dinner menu was Tehri (Masala rice with veggies) and Raita. The salt was too little but I really don't care. Pick up the damn saltshaker and shake it!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Bloody Aloo Paratha

The day started fine enough. I finished watching The Magnificent Seven and other than the fact they killed off some characters unnecessarily in the end I quite enjoyed the movie. I was quite in love with McQueen by now so I started watching another movie called The Sand Pebbles in which he plays a navy engineer. I fell asleep in the first fifteen minutes so I switched it off. I now realise that he was nominated for an Oscar for the movie. May be I'll try watching it again tomorrow and if I fall asleep I'll simply give up. I wasn't deterred and started watching Bullitt in which he plays a policeman. It is an inordinately slow film and when there was a twenty minute car chase I fell asleep again and decided I needed a nap a lot more than mcQueen's baby blue eyes.

I asked Anshuman yesterday what he would like to eat and of course pat came the reply,"Aloo Parathas." So I thought may be this time will be different. I mean how bad can it be? So I boiled the potatoes and peeled them lovingly with immense patience and my long nails helped. I cut the dhaniya patta nice and fine. I made the stuffing with spices which looked really nice and I was quite pleased with myself. The dough was ready but there was no ghee in the house so I drove to the grocery store. I bought bread, butter, tea and ghee. I paid and left. I got home changed and opened the plastic bag to find that the guy at the grocery store had bagged the ghee and butter in a separate bag and I had forgotten it. I couldn't believe it and raved and ranted about how can they use two bags to put in four items. I mean it just doesn't make sense. As if there aren't enough bloody plastic bags in the world.

Anyway all my raving and ranting wasn't going to get me the ghee so I changed back into a pair of pants and drove back to the grocery. Finally I managed to roll out a deceptively perfect looking paratha which got stuck on to the tawa and as I tried to get it off it crumbled into fucking pieces. I took a deep breath and threw it into the dustbin. I rolled out another perfect looking paratha which did not get stuck but didn't get cooked very well either. I was very unhappy by now. After another attempt I was ready to give up but I still had a little dough and some stuffing left so I made a little paratha which finally turned out to be perfect in every way. Anshuman actually ate two and a half parathas and said,They're the best parathas I've ever had." but I'm quite certain he didn't want to risk my wrath knowing the foul mood I was in.

So the lessons learnt today are as follows- one, a great looking and very cool actor will not be able to keep you awake if the film itself is boring, two- when you go to the grocery store, carry your own bag and check all the items, three- if you try long and hard enough you will eventually make a perfect bloody aloo paratha.

Monday, January 13, 2014

The Cincinnati Kid


So I decided to keep myself busy and on my feet today as opposed to being right angle with a book on the couch. I must admit I love cleaning my house. I have a maid who wants to leave even before he enters the house. I feel like I'm seeing everything in fast forward when he is around. My cook is even faster and makes horrible food. I'm so sick and tired of it that I've finally come to the decision that I need to start cooking myself everyday. 

So I cleaned all the little nooks and crannies and irritated the fuck out of my maid all afternoon. It was a great pleasure to arrange all the perfumes and moisturisers in descending order of height just the way I like them. Yes I'm a bit obsessive about that but then we all have our thing. 





And then I settled down to watch The Cincinnati Kid starring the one and only Mr. Steve Mcqueen. Oh. My.God how cool is he! It was a great story and I loved that vintage charm, the suits, the blonde sweet girl from the farm, the sharp old poker man, the shoe shining kid, the vamp and the player Mcqueen himself. The ending broke my heart and brought a smile to my face. I loved it when the old man says," You're good kid but as long as I'm around you're only second best." Ah it's like a dagger to the heart. Yes it's a story about poker, about professional gamblers and yet somehow I felt like it was a love story at heart.
                                                    
I started watching The Magnificent Seven but then I got busy cooking so only saw half the film. I'll watch the rest of it tomorrow.

I made Rajma Chawal and I'm very proud to say that it was a yummy meal. I'm not ready to admit that I enjoy cooking but I do love eating a good home cooked meal so it looks like I'm gonna have to suck it up and start experimenting with food.


Sunday, January 12, 2014

Movie night 'Dedh Ishqiya'

Watched Dedh Ishqiya today. I'm rather allergic to sequels. I think they usually end up disappointing but this one is a very well done film. The dialogues are superb, the plot engaging and the characters well defined and very well cast. The seven levels of love and the one missing eighth level has one in splits. I mean you have to watch the movie to understand what I'm talking about. Huma Qureshi is brilliant. In each and every movie she's done she manages to look seductive and incredibly strong never afraid to use her femininity to her advantage. I think her choice of roles has been absolutely amazing. I've totally become a fan. Arshad Warsi is fantastic and hilarious. He brings his character to life with finesse and totally nails the accent. Ofcourse the brilliant dialogues help him along. Naseer is plain brilliance on screen. There is absolutely no one like him. Do watch this one! 

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Happy days

I got Ninna's new bed yesterday and she hasn't really taken to it as of now. In her defence it still smells a little bit of the brown stain. I love it though, it is really cute although she will only use it to sun herself the spoilt brat that she is.










Pushpita and baby Sohana came over in the afternoon and I spent my day watching Alice in Wonderland followed by The Lion King. It was so much fun to spend time with the adorable little girl. She was swirling around on her toes all over the room as we watched fondly and fell in love with her all over again. There is really no better feeling in the world than cuddling a little one.










Ninna decides to join Anshuman and Sohana as he swirls her around. This has to be one of my favourite pictures ever!

















Sohana, Ninna and I watching movies on the laptop equals total bliss. Such a lovely day it's been!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Old friend, new places

I slept through almost all of the first half of the day today. Felt like quite the bear and very lazy but I was looking forward to seeing Bee (she won't let me name her for some weird logic which I am not even going to try to understand). We met at Arte but there were very few vendors there this time and yet I managed to fall in love with a blue necklace. I cannot wait to wear it.

So Bee directed me towards Dubai Mall so we could sit in an open air space in Souk Al Bahar and have a cup of chai. The road to Dubai Mall was jampacked and as always we got a bit lost and ended up in the Dubai Mall parking. After taking a few rounds and trying to understand the layout of the parking lot we exited and finally went to this lovely place called Tea Junction where I had a wonderful cup of guess what? A yummy cheesecake and the Bee decided to take me to another place where she has apparently taken all her friends. And I must admit it is a very tranquil and beautiful place by the creek. The city was glittering in the distance and we chatted for a long time sitting on a bench under a half moon.

Bee indulged in some nostalgia about the place and jokingly kept referring to the yachts as yachets. We walked around the Park Hyatt. The rooms are most happily situated overlooking the creek. The weather was perfect and now comes the end of another wonderful day. Ah I'm falling asleep. Goodnight folks!

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Ticking ghost

It's been another lovely day I'm happy to report. I read all day as the sunlight streamed in through the window and the dog slept, farted in her sleep and slept some more. I took her out for a walk in the evening and there was hardly anyone around as it's the weekend and most people are out dancing, partying or whatever it is people do on Thursday evenings in Dubai.

So I was walking through this slightly lonely and quiet stretch when I heard tik tok tik tok tik tok. I looked around but there was no one in sight. I stopped for a while and the sound stopped too. As I began walking the sound started again, that eerie tik tok tik tok tik tok. I checked my sandals and realised that the sound coincided with my steps. I got a little bit spooked but I kept walking as the sound followed me closely. Then I stopped again and the sound stopped with me. I put my hands in the pockets of my sweater and then it dawned on me that my lighter was ticking against my phone when I walked. Honestly I really felt quite silly.

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Quietude

It's been a lovely quiet and sunny day. I saw 'The Butler'. It's a nice movie but somehow failed to move me as it aimed to do I think. From what I've read I understand that much of the story is fiction loosely based on the real White House butler. Still it's worth watching once. It's funny how you seem to blink just once and a whole day passes by. War and Peace is as riveting as ever and I'm reaching the end. One of the characters just died and somehow Tolstoy managed to not make me feel sadness or pity. He's really brilliant. I will go back to my book now.

Tuesday, January 07, 2014

Rain and words

It rained almost all day today. It's a rare occurrence in Dubai and when it does happen my heart soars at the sight of shiny leaves and the wet earth. I did go out and got wet in the rain for a while. It felt lovely to let the tiny drops of water touch my face and I thanked the rain Gods for blessing our desert city. I spent most of the day writing letters. I write a little everyday but I'm still far from writing to everyone that I want to. All in good time... For now I'm enjoying the beautiful weather and taking long walks with the dog for company. 

Monday, January 06, 2014

Almost forgot

Yes I almost forgot to write a post today and then I remembered my resolution and decided to write a post from my phone. I can type quite fast on the phone but I don't like it. It's been a rather tiring day. I had a strange dream in the morning. I was the protagonist in a play and had to learn my lines. I saw myself cramming away with papers full of words in my hands. And then everyone was getting ready for the play's first day and I realised that I couldn't see the girl who prompts anywhere. I looked for her everywhere and she had disappeared. A feeling of sheer dread came over me. There I was with my pretty dress and make up on convinced that I will forget everything the moment I step on stage. I've done plays in school and I've never suffered from stage fright but this dream was something else. I was petrified and prayed that the prompter would turn up. I kept thinking if only someone could feed me the first line I would remember the rest but no girl. I went on stage and fainted. I felt someone pick me up in his arms and carry me away walking through the audience instead of behind the stage. And then I woke up.

I didn't sleep very well after that. Even an afternoon nap didn't help. I'm still tired and I'd just like to go to sleep and hope that there are no dreams tonight. 

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Oh what a klutz!

So I went to Dragon Mart with Sameera today. It was so much fun as we walked around chomping on popcorn and walking in and out of shops. There were some very interesting and some quite weird shops. There was a shop with the most bling I've ever seen in one place. It was filled with arabesque gowns laden with sequins and I just couldn't look away for a while. I wonder who wears these things. Another shop was selling bizarre lingerie, ok not all of it was bizarre but the red and white satin, frilly French Maid costume was bordering on idiotic. I wondered again who wears these things.


I bought a few cotton dresses that are really quite lovely and I can't wait to wear them even though they're more suited to summer. I bought this lovely bedspread and the moment I got home I laid it out on the bed. I was worried the measurements wouldn't be right. I can never remember the measurements of my bed or curtains or anything else for that matter. But fortunately it fit perfectly. I lit a candle and sat down to read. I put a tray on the bed and my favourite blue mug with chai sat prettily on it. And then I got up to get something and swoosh the whole mug toppled over and naturally I yelped,"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I rinsed it and stuck it in the machine and now my lovely bedspread is rolling in detergent. Poor Ninna got so scared because I shoved her off the bed. She ran away, peed a little bit and sat trembling in her bed. I picked her up and showered her with kisses saying,"It's not your fault my baby. Your mother is a klutz." I think she understood because she licked me right back.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

So lazy

It's been a lovely, sunny and wonderfully lazy day. The idlis for breakfast were perfectly fluffy and the sambhar was spicy and yum. The whole morning was dedicated to listening to music on Youtube and going through old posts on my blog. I was reading some of my poems and trying to remember why I wrote them. Most of the time I was able to remember the reasons but a lot of times my memory failed me.

Oh the candle in my room has gone off on it's own. That's never happened before. Let me light it again and continue to read War and Peace. That book deserves its own post but I will write about it once I'm finished. So until tomorrow Au revoir!

Friday, January 03, 2014

And we roll along

Ninna almost never leaves my side and her bed is usually unoccupied until the winter sun beckons her and she cannot resist. Sometimes she rests her little face on the window and sleeps like an angel till such time that she can smell someone eating and then the transformation to shameless beggar is instant.

It was such a beautiful morning and I woke up with a song on my lips. I sang loudly standing at the window caring very little about how terribly it might have affected the neighbours. I have a very clear policy in life- whenever possible sing. It really seems to work and has made me a very happy person.






And here's another car selfie in my aviators. We drove to Abu Dhabi to watch a cricket test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Anshuman's friend Gaurav from Delhi was covering the event and I got to see the control room with all the big and little screens. We were sitting right up at the top in an empty commentator's box and it was a lovely view. It was the perfect day to be out so we went to the upper pavilion and sat watching the match for a while.








Angelo Matthews was playing and we did see him make 87 I think. There were quite a few supporters for both sides yelling every now and then. I saw Waqar Younis who seemed a bit surprised to see a woman in the area reserved for the media. I also saw Mohammad Irfan who is extremely tall. I would have liked to see Sangakkara but unfortunately I didn't. There will be another test match soon and I hope to see him play then.

Can you believe the fact that the picture of me above was taken just a few hours before this one was?

Please don't worry. I'm neither crying nor sad. I just love experimenting with expressions. I think I succeeded with this one. This has to be one of my favourite selfies of all time. And with that I bid you Goodnight. 

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Keeping resolutions

New Year's Day was really such a happy one for me. I just woke up feeling somehow free and buoyant. Anshuman and I had a lovely relaxed lunch with Rajul, Sameera and Aayan at Aappa Kadhai and then went to Jones the Grocer for coffee and dessert. Anshuman's coffee came in this fancy contraption and had an exotic name which I've forgotten.

I had my usual cremebrulee and I loved breaking the sugar crust like always. The mocha was fabulous and the weather was perfect.









It was so good to spend the first day of the year with family. It's a bit hard to get the attention of the staff at Jones and that's Sameera waving to someone. Aayan is so cute and very proud of the fact that he's got all his teeth.

I'm grateful for a lovely day and I hope all days to come will be just as wonderful. Most of all it's the second day of the new year and here I am writing. I'm happy. Touchwood!!

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

2014 kicks in

Well 2013 comes to an end and the beginning of the new year certainly deserves a post so here I am typing away again after a hiatus of two weeks.  So how has 2013 been? It's been a bit of a roller coaster especially towards the end but nothing I couldn't have handled. I think the universe throws you challenges it knows you have the strength and skill to negotiate. We spent the New Year's eve at CK's place and that's me in the parking lot perched side saddle on his Harley. What a beautiful machine. I hope this new year will see me riding one and I'll wear pants of course.



Over the years the Dubai winter has gotten colder much to the delight of us residents. So once in a year I can dress up as a New Yorker, put on a pair of stockings and my big black coat. I loved the fireworks on Burj Khalifa. The whole atmosphere was joyous, roads were choc a block with cars waiting to glimpse the show. All of us stood in the balcony and screamed happy new year! as people from surrounding houses yelled back. It was absolutely perfect!

I spent most of the night talking to Shubhankar about his school. The young man is in 9th grade and a delight to spend time with. He showed me how to play Call of Duty on the PS3 and we had great fun killing each other. I'm seriously thinking of taking up gaming.




I met Shadow after a long time. The last time I saw him he was a little puppy and he's grown into a strapping young gorgeous Lab. CK had to restrain him with his collar the moment we walked in as he was ready to shower all his love all at the same time. I played with him a lot and he put his beautiful face in my lap to be petted. I think I fell in love a little bit.

Yes this year couldn't have started any better and my only resolution is to keep writing regularly. It's what I love, truly love.

So here's wishing you all a glorious 2014! May there be love and light in your lives all year long!