Happily Ever After : Chapter 2 :Newly Married !

Let me start by saying hello.. I am back ! Well, its been quite a journey from being engaged to being married.. Its been 40 days of playing wifey.. Everyone around me keeps asking me;so how does it feel to be married ? And I have just one answer.. Its different :P.. We had a wonderful time holidaying in Sri Lanka.. And then things are back to square one.. the usual work-home-work routine.. 

One BIG difference is that I actually cook !! And considering that we've survived so far eating that food.. i am going to take some credit for being a decent cook :).. Its not as complicated as I imagined it to be.. I realized that if you enjoy the process then it seems easy and simple.. Else its like any other job we all have.. turns sucky after a while ;).. And fortunately being a South Indian, the recipes are much simpler.. Plus cooking for just two people is easier especially when you know that the other person is not going to call your food bad :D 

The coolest thing about us is that "HE CAN COOK".. And why not I think everyone should know to cook.. Not as a hobby but may be as survival skill .. You can't be eating out every single day.. Lets not forget that there is truly nothing like home cooked food !! (Mom I miss your food !!! )

I have tried quite a few things actually.. And I am proud of the results.. quite surprised even.. Everyone who knows me go into a state of shock when I tell them I cook.. After expressing "OMG" look  they go ahead and ask me if my husband is okay after eating that food *rolls eyes* . I cant say I am the best cook but I am learning.. Slowly but surely learning.. 

So here's to newly weds where the girl is learning to cook:)

Cheers ! 

Project Roti

This is a post dedicated to the art of making Rotis/Chappatis/Phulkas;whatever you want to call them. Think of the nice wheatish round soft rotis that our mums' make everyday. Something that a typical Indian Meal is incomplete without (read north indian.. south indian meals typically consists of rice only). Until today I din't even think of the effort that goes into making something circular like that.

I was asked to lend a helping hand in the kitchen today, in the hope that I will eventually learn to cook a meal or two by myself;considering the fact that girls of my age should have mastered the art of cooking by now.  Better late than never, I decided to emabark on this journey into the kitchen. (Trust me it is a journey).Let me be very frank in admitting that while most woman find cooking therapeutic I have not come to experience the therapeutic powers of cooking until now( I think i need to enter the kitchen more often to see this miracle to occur). 

Starting with the kneading of the dough, there is this perfect proportion of the flour and water that needs to be used. I hate making it. Pour too much water and then it gets watery.Pour less and it just stays dry. Not to mention how annoying it is when the dough enters your nails. Takes forever to clean them :| 

Once the dough is ready you need to roll them into tiny balls of the right size.The roti can't be very tiny or very big either. And then heat the tawa for a while before cooking the rotis/chappati s on them ..And then starts the task of making the actual roti.Someone once said I am in shape, round is a shape.I am sure it was dedicated to a roti :P . No matter how hard I tried the was anything other than round. The fist couple of Rotis was amoeboid in shape :| but then I kept telling my self the shape doesn't matter its just the taste and after all they are simply going to tear and eat it.But then it started resembling maps of various countries and that is when I thought, this cannot be happening, they need to resemble rotis and not clay doughs children play with. 

So in an effort to make that perfect roti, after spending a lot of time in the heat they started resembling badly drawn circles :) And then put them on the tawa touch it with bare hands to turn them to the other sand. Concentrate on the rotis put on tawa while simultaneously making circular looking rotis requires quite a bit of multi taking!! Finally after about 30 mins I was done making them.

They werent so perfect but nevertheless they started resembling rotis when folded in half and they did taste good :)It gives me immense pleasure in announcing the successful completion of project Roti. 

Cheers !

Happily Ever After : Chapter 1 - Engaged

A LOT has changed in life.. My relationship status went from being single to engaged (yeah engaged ! ).. I actually found me a guy to get married to :) .. i remember writing about how the whole arranged marriage scene is too weird for me.. guess what! i actually went through that entire process.. and i am going to be married in a couple of months :)
Have been wanting to write about it for a while but just been busy with life as such.. It all started one fine evening when my mum emotionally blackmailed me to say okay to talk to this guy ;even though i wasn't really looking into any sort of relationship; forget marriage.. After a lot of thought I decided that it wasn't really that difficult..I just had to say okay to talk to him.. talk to him for the sake of it.. and then say a big BYE.. I just had to convince my mum that he wasn't right for me.. I could think of a million reasons to say no to some stranger.. But I guess someone out there had something else planned for me.. 
it started with some emails.. then got to chatting.. and then a few calls.. the calls started lasting longer.. the conversations got better, longer.. and then suddenly it just felt right.. and we decided to get married.. it wasn't like we knew each other earlier or through a common friend or anything like that.. we were perfect strangers.. but then after a few days it dint really seem that way.. it was like meeting an old friend after a very long time and it felt nice :)

A lot of people I know were very surprised at my decision(especially my mum) .. If you knew me as a person you would be surprised too.. They asked me how did I decide.. and i just have one answer.. I went with my gut.. sometimes you just need to go with it..

So here I am, engaged :) Its been fun since.. lunches, dinners, movies, coffee table conversations,late night calls, inflated phone bills :P and so much more... 

Its truly a beginning of a new chapter in my life.. Life is good :)

Cloudy !

One of my favorite pictures. Those are real clouds :)

Book Review : The Help

Over the weekend i read this book called "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.After a long time I read a book which I loved. Thiis is one book that I can truly compare with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird. The language is simple. The narration is perfect. The era is unmistakable.The characters come out really well. It feels like you are actually witnessing the scene in front of you.

Its not just a story of three woman-Contantine, Skeeter and Minny but of a community, of a nation , of an era. It is something that each of one can identify with. This is what makes this book interesting. It is truly unputdownable.It is a simple story of how maids are treated in 1960's Mississippi.About how they perceive the white woman they work for. The things that they have to go through. It touches upon racism subtly yet has a lasting impact on the reader.

A highly recommended book. Hats off to the author. Read something truly wonderful after a really long time.