Comfort(able) Food

When we were all kids we had a favorite food.

Mine was Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati, it was a dish made with potatoes. Potatoes are cut julian, then cooked in water with salt, pepper, turmeric and chili powder. Once it is 80% cooked, it is then sautéed in oil till crispy. During my childhood years I lived for this. I used to eat it with everything, Chapati, Dosa, Idly (I used to slice the idly horizontally and put this dish in between, and make my own sandwich), rice and a lot more.

I used to always ask my mom I don't want anything to eat with this, just give me this. She never listened to me always served this as a side dish. When I was 10 or 11, I remember telling her that when I get old enough to decide what to make for dinner, I am going to make Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati everyday and eat it by itself.

Well that never happened, till today. For dinner all I had today was Ulakazhangu Mezhukuperrati and I'm so HAPPY.

So what is your comfort food?

Kattan Kapi

Kattan Kapi is one of the few items that doesn't get the recognition it deserves. There are a lot of ways to make this, it is black coffee with sugar. There are lot of variations to it, few add jaggary, few add karipetti (I'm sorry folks don't know what it is called in English), few add ghee, but the basic is just the same. Coffee powder, water and sweetener.

At my dad's house, the first thing that they made in the morning was a huge pot of kattan with no sugar. It was then poured into a thermos. Who ever woke up would come to kitchen, take a cup, put some sugar and then pour the hot kattan from the thermos into the cup. Then he/she would sit on the ari petti (it is a box found in old homes where things like rice were stored) and drink this hot kattan. If ari petti was already taken, then the person would sit on the katala (door frame). Be it grandkids, daughter in laws of the house, sons of the house, daughters of the house, son in laws of the house - every single person followed the exact same thing. When the thermos would get empty, more kattan would be made. Last thing that ammachi did before going to bed was empty the thermos, clean it and get it all ready for the next day.

Years have gone by the house is Kerala is locked. But even today when dad visits his house the ritual of kattan comes alive.

I drink a lot of kattan. Sometimes the kattan I make tastes exactly like the one I used to drink as a kid in Kerala. And till I finish that cup I become this little girl sitting on the ari petti listening to all the elders speaking and sipping my chood chood kattan (really hot black coffee).

This whole post was inspired by one such kattan that I had few minutes ago.

Pranks...

As most of you would know, I have an Older sister, Veena who is very very naughty (even till this day). So she plays pranks on me very frequently and I rarely get to pay her back.

Then there was this day.

We both were sitting on my bed and arguing over something ( I don't even remember what it was now). She wanted something that I had and I wouldn't give it to her. I remember holding it really tight and close towards my body and Veena trying to snatch it.

After few minutes of fighting, we had strict rules about fighting:
- No pulling hair as she had nice long hair and I had short hair, so I had an advantage
- No scratching each other's faces - We girls had to look pretty
- No matter what happened no complaining to parents

So we were fighting by our rules and then finally Veena's nails scratched my eye. I felt this burning sensation and I covered my eye and yelled out "My eye My eye."

Veena stopped what ever she was doing, and made my take my hand off my eye. I told her that it was hurting. She is a very caring sister and she ran to get some cold water to rinse my eye. She came back with some water and I was still sitting with my hand covering my eyes.

She finally made me move my hand and yelled "I can not see, Oh my god I can not see with this eye."

Veena sat there speechless all teary eyed and screaming "Are you sure?". "Wash your eyes again". I couldn't hold my self anymore, I burst out laughing I was kidding, I can see well.

Well, I almost got killed that day.

For all those worried souls, my sclera (the white part of my eye) got scratched and I had a red mark on it for a week. But the joy that little red scratch brought me was just priceless.

Even today I call Veena once in a while and yell over the phone, "I can not see, OMG I can not see"

Movie Update:

• Omakara - Was kind of slow, I liked it, even though I had read Othello and seen the Malayalam version.
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead man's Chest- was a nice watch. Towards the end, left so many thing unfinished that you know a sequel is coming soon.
  
• Running scared - Very nice movie, but now for the week hearted, lot of bloodshed, lot of cursing

I know I saw a lot more movies, don't seem to recall them though :(

Books and Me

Growing up I was one of those kids who read everything assigned to them and a lot more. Close to our home there was a library walk able distance from our house and Veena and I used to go there once a week and spend an hour there, and bring back few books.

We also subscribed to lot of magazines and lots of memories are associated with them.

Chacha Chaudharay - I remember reading this book too, but do not remember lot of details. I remember how Chacha Chaudhary looks. This was the only book in Hindi I used to read.

Chandamama - I used to love the Vikram and Betal stories.

Gokulam - This was a magazine published in Tamil Nadu. It was monthly magazine and I used to go buy it at a book store. I even to this day remember few of the stories they used to publish. They had a series called 13th window, in this a family moves into the house and a little girl counts total number of windows and she finds that from outside there are 13 windows whereas from inside there are just 12. And the story is about the little girl's quest for the 13th window. Then there was this other series called Undir stories. This was stories about rat, and these rats lived life like humans and each issue had something new about the rats life (sounds lame now, but was very very interesting back then).

MISHA - This is a Russian Magazine, they used to have real thick pages and a distinctive smell. Even tough the book was thin (maybe had 20 pages total) we used to read and re-read till the next issue arrived. I guess they do not publish this anymore. This was during my early childhood days so I barely remember the stories.

Panchathantra Tales - My parents got me this huge collection of panchathantra tales and I read and re-read them all the time. I knew each story word by word and still read it.

Tinkle - We all have read this, this was mainly read when we traveled. We brought this at railway station and read it. Suppandi was my favorite character. When I got to my grandfather's place Veena and I used to act out the whole Suppandi story for him.

Wisdom - This was a book that dad made us read. We were never too excited about reading this, but we still read it. What I remember on each page, at the bottom, a quote was printed. For some reason I used to enjoy reading them and used to make an effort to actually learn that quote (what a dork I used to be).

Readers Digest - This is the only magazine that I still read. As a kid I wouldn't understand most of the jokes, I just read it because Veena read and I wanted to do everything like her. Now I have started to enjoy it, and yeah Veena still subscribes to it.

Now I still read a lot, but mainly novels. I can not get myself to re-read them again. Now I just think re-reading is plain waste of time and lost all the magic a re-reading brings.

No matter now or then books just bring joy to my life

I Wish I Wasn't a Kid Anymore

So as promised here is my part 2.

1. Corresponding to the point 1 below, I always used to have bruises. My elbows and knees we always scrapped. I have so many scars even today from all those falls. The reason I hated every time I fell and scrapped my skin I would go home bleeding. Before getting any sympathy from mom I would get yelled at, hten she would wash that wound in Dettol. I call still feel the burn all that feeling comes back when I see a bottle of Dettol.
2. Hand me downs: This was one thing I hated the most. Having a sister older, who kept her things very neat and clean meant it would be passed down to me. In the earlier days my parents thought it would be so adorable to see both their kids dressed alike, so they would get us the exact same dress. Later we were told this was done to avoid conflict. So which meant when we outgrew our dresses I would get Veena's which was not a bad it, but it ended up being the same dress I wore years ago. Now after so many years, Veena and I are the same size so when we visit each other's we raid each others closets and take what we like.
   
3. Competitiveness: I used to be so competitive back when I was a kid. I had to win in everything I took part, be it sports or giving speeches. It has worked to my advantage now that I think of it, but I wish I had taken it slow back then and enjoyed school days than overly cautious about making sure I was the best (or at least tried to be) in everything I did.
   
4. Sunday School: My parents took us to church every Sunday, which was okay. But what I disliked was going to Sunday School (Sunday school is classes held at church before or after the service where kids are taught about the religion). Going to classes, learning new songs were all fun, but we used to have exams and competition which I wasn't much of a fan of. The main reason was none of my non-Christian friends had to do this, so every Sunday I remember complaining to my mom so and so doesn’t' have Sunday school why should I. But these days when I got to church I feel so happy that my parents sent me to Sunday school.
5. Curfew: This was more of a teenager thing. I was supposed to be home before 10.00 PM no matter where I went. When I was in college all friends would hang out till late at night, but my parents would never let me. I have had so many arguments with them regarding this. Now when I come to think of it I would act the same way when my 17 year old would ask me about staying out late at night.
6. Unable to keep in touch - I had so many great friends back in 3rd grade, 6th grade and most of us moved around so we never kept in touch. 9th grade and 10th grade we started writing letters. I so wish when I was younger I had a way to keep in touch. I'm able to track most of them now on orkut, but still am looking for a dear friend from 3rd grade.
7. School Uniform: We did not have a fun uniform, navy blue skirts and white shirts. But what I hated about the uniform was that fact we had to wear read ribbons. My younger days I had short hair, so it wasn’t much of a deal, then my hair grew longer and I hated those pig tails I had to wear to school with red ribbons at the end. Who wears ribbons anyways?

I could come up with only seven…(this too I had to think for a week)

If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older - Tom Stoppard

This is a two part tag, tagged my Silverine.
Rules
Write 10 things you loved about your childhood
Write 10 things you hate about your childhood
Tag other people.

I put together a list of things I loved and I seemed long enough to be a post so the things I hated will be a post by itself.
Things I love about my childhood:

1. The amount I could play. Everyday after school I came home changed my uniform and played with Veena and other kids outside till our mom called us. No I get back from work and need a huge motivation to even go to the gym. It used to be catch, then skipping, then Badminton. How many of you remember help sister? Even school had designated periods to play.
2. Friends - It was so much easy to make friends and keep friends. Nothing I said upset his/her feeling. We would be do (Katti) for a while then palam (batti) soon. Its not that I don't have friends now, I do but one has to very cautious what one says as one gets older
3. Food - The amount of food I ate had no bounds. I was never an obese child but I ate a lot. Not having to worry about carbs and sugar was definitely better times, all I had to do was munch munch munch
4. Sneaking and Eating - This is something that Veena and I did regularly. We would sneak into the kitchen and steal food. It was not because mom never fed us, but it was mainly for the rush and thrill one feels. Things that we ate were Maltova, Thenga (coconut), sugar and not just limited to these. Above all was the joy when mom woud take the Thega and see bite marks on it and ask who it was, we would both together say it was a mouse.
5. Sibling - Veena was the best sister one could as for, we are still close, but we both have lives of our own now. As a kid she watched my back, she stood by my side even when she knew I was wrong. In private she would come and tell me what I did was wrong. She played with me everyday, even though I was 3 years younger than her, she would play all my games with me patiently. We still talk everyday but miss chechi a lot.
6. Energy - Not once I remember getting tired as a kid. I can not even recall complaining to my parents that my feet hurt as opposed these days something or the other is always hurting.
7. Festivals - Be it Christmas, Easter, Onam my parents always made sure it was celebrated. Dad always took days off for Onam (Christmas and Easter were holidays) every year and he would tell us the same story over and over again. For Vishu our neighbors would come and wake us up take us (with eyes closed of course) to their house to see Vishu Kani.
8. Ela Podi (rice packed in a banana leaf) - After summer vacations when we travelled back to Tamil Nadu in train mom would make this Ela podi. It had Choru (Rice), Chuttu areche samandi (Coconut chutney), Etheykke mezhukuperrati. We were told we can eat our podi when we get to Ernakulum as that was the mid point of our journery. It is still fresh in my memory how Veena and I used to bug my mother from Kottayam asking is it Ernakulum yet, how far is Ernakulum. I haven't eaten a Ela podi for so long.
9. Time - As a kid I was never busy. I had time for everything, study, play, read and eat. Now I hardly find time, did the days get shorter as I grew up? I don't study or play these days, still rarely find time to read a book.
10. Passion - I had loads and loads of hobbies as a kid, stamp collection, currency collection, sticker collection and I used to be so passionate about them. I used to trade them with friends. It was all showcased in a book or album. Thinking about it, I believe it is still in storage somewhere. Now I can not think of one thing that I’m so passionate about, I do have new hobbies now but not the passion I had back then.

Part 2 to continue soon

Its Diwali...Play it safe

Everyone has his or her way to celebrate Diwali.

Ours was entirely different we didn't have any pujas (we being of Christian faith), but my parents did not want us to feel left out so they always bought fire crackers for us.

On the way back from work dad would pick up the crackers that we would like from the store, this happens like a day or two before Diwali. Veena and I would wait for dad to get back from work those days just to see which ones he picked out. In the beginning years he would only bring Chakram, puthiri and kabi thiri (I’m so sorry that I can not translate this, but this should help)

The day of Diwali like everyone who celebrated Diwali, we would take showers in the evening, wear our newest clothes (newest means - among all clothes, clothes we haven't worn that much, we never got new clothes for Diwali) and wait for dad and mom to light the crackers. Finally they would come and all four of us would enjoy spending the evening together lighting things. As we got older dad started getting us things that went boom, rocket and mala padakam.

All our fire cracking session would end with mala padakam, then we would call it a day and go inside and eat all the sweets our Hindu friends brought over to our place.

Years went by and one year Veena says “Do you realize we are just burning money on Diwali”. For which I replied, no not really, we feel happy when we burst fireworks so we are paying for happiness. Some how she convinced me (I was may be 13 years old) that it was better to ask dad for the cash he spends on fire crackers to be evenly divided between her and me. So for Diwali every year from then both Veena and I got cash and we stayed home and ate sweets while the whole neighborhood was outside burning cash. I never felt guilty about not enjoying that day, as I got cash instead.

For me Diwali was not about Ram coming home, or victory of good over evil, but it is about my parents spending time with us and making each Diwali memorable, even though it was something that we did not believe in.

No neighbors to bring sweets over, so I'm making Kesari today.

Happy Diwali to all.

Ayyoooo

Growing up I was a very naughty kid, I know it is hard to believe as on my blog I come across as this matured women (I hear Shekar scoffing). I some how landed in trouble. I used to be very curious, not about people, but about things. How does this work, what would happen if I did this? This quest led me to do a lot of stupid things.

During summer vacations trip to Kerala happened every year. These were loads of fun as there were more places to explore. So one fine day I walking by the Erithil (shed for cows), saw an empty bulb holder. And I went wow, let me stick my thumb in it and see how it feels. Gadagadagada - that is how it felt, I ran and told ammachi (grand mother) what had happened because by that age I had figured, you tell mom, you get yelled at, you tell ammachi, you get sympathy. Ammachi knows lot more than my mother, because she brought my mother up. (It didn't take a lot for me to change that view as I got older because I was convinced that I knew more than my mother - Now I'm back to mom knows more). Ammachi explained it to me that I should never touch things that I don't know about, and that was it as opposed to mom which would have been a chutta peda (spanking)

Years passed by and I'm supposed to get wiser, that is a myth. In my earlier teens I used to have short hair and the only hair accessory I had were band like this.

I had dozens of this kind of band, of which my favorite one was the black metal one; hence I wore it a lot. One day I was for some reason I was staring at an outlet (the thing where we plug in stuff), and I went voila, how fun it would be to put both ends in the outlet and saw what happened. As most of you would have assumed I felt the hair band go gadagadgada and I threw the hair band out of my hand, and that was the last I saw of it.

Mom had this huge thing about hair not being clean. Anytime we touched our hair we were supposed to wash our hands. As I grew older (again not wiser) I started wearing my hair long. So hair used fall on my face which very gracefully I used to tuck behind my ear. Then this one day I got this idea to play with my hair using my tongue (kinda gross now that I think of it). I would just go round and round and that kept me entertained (life was so simple those days). Then one day it happened, one single hair got knotted around one taste bud and boy did that hurt. There is no way I could go to mom for the rescue, the first questions I would get was what was hair doing in your mouth. So I quietly went to my room, looked at the mirror and worked on removing the knot. After 15 minutes of struggling I somehow got knot removed (or the hair broke or something). After this experience never ever has my hair got anywhere near my mouth.

These are just a few, I got loads more. But before I put those up, what stupid things have you guys done? Or am I the only one?

Amma Veshakunnu - Mom I'm hungry

Warning: This post has a lot of Malayalam in it.

Jaguu and Jiby tagged me this a while back to write about 10 Things I Miss Of Mom's Cooking. When I read his tag, I decided I'm gonna keep a list (me and my obsessions with lists) at work and home and when ever I think of a food I will it down. Today as I sit to compile these two lists together I have more than 20 dishes, so I'm going to put down 10 among those twenty.

• Achapam - Mom is the queen of snacks, she would randomly make snacks. Achapam is something she used to make often and she would make loads of it too. Now all her snack making schedule coincides with Veena or my visit. So dad asks us to visit more because he only gets to eat these when we girls go home.
• Adda - Adda is again very easy to make but requires bannana leaf that I have not managed to find it close to my place. Mom used to put little extra sugar in Veena's and mine and she would mark the banana leaf so we could spot ours.
• Appam - Doesn't matter Pal appam or Velyappam, mom used to make these so regularly on Saturday morning. She used to make mutton or potatoes stew to go with this.
• Beef - Don't get me started on mom's beef curry. I make beef curry too, it is no where close to what she makes. My beef curry's gravy is never enough to eat kappa, by pieces are usually bigger. Above all mine has an orange color and hers has a nice dark brown color.
• Chakka Kuru mezhukupurrati* (Jack Fruit seeds)- This is something that she used to make it when we were in Kerala, due to abundance of chakka kuru. It takes lots of effort as there are really small and to individually peel them is very time consuming. Veena, mom and I would sit around a heap of chakka kurru and peel. Veena and mine combined heap of peeled chakka kurru would be always less than moms.
• Kappa(Yucca/tapioca) - This is a favorite dish of everyone who has ever tasted it. It is not the fact that I don't know how to make kappa (yellow color, not the white one), but it never comes out the way mom makes. Sometimes it is over cooked and sometimes it is not even cooked well.
  
• Koorka mezhukupurrati* (I don’t know the translation for koorka, I googled it and saw some references to Chinese potatoes) - This is also very similar to the above, very time consuming to peel. This was my favorite; even to this day I can just eat this as a meal. Now here in US we get frozen, peeled koorkas that one can buy. So when mom hears that I'm going to visit she gets 2 packets and makes this. 1 packet for me and 1 for rest of the family.
• Parupu Vada - This is a snack, Uzhunnu vada is more famous and u get them in all eateries but only few offer parupu vada. It is little hard to make, because we have to get the right texture so that it stays together when it is dropped in oil. I made it last month and as I dropped it in oil and it disintegrated, I served them as mini and micro mini parupu vada.
• Puttu and Kadala - (Kalada – Chole) Puttu is very easy to make and back when I used to stay at home I used to make it under mom's guidance. These days breakfast has changed to cereals, waffles and bagels, as I do not have time in the morning to make elaborate dishes. Mom says to make it in the evening, for which I reply who wants to eat puttu for dinner. My Kadala curry is good to be eaten with roti and not puttu
• Upperi (Banana Chips – Should be called plantain chips) - This is a mixed effort from both my dad and mom. Dad is the one who slices all the plantain. When we were kids, the weekend before Onam dad and mom would be making upperi. Upperi has become a tradition (detailed post on it later) in our house now. Anytime when we visit or when my parents visit they bring upperi.
  

Other day I made some rasam and I told mom that it is not as good as hers for which she responded, "I have been cooking for more than 30 years and you for less than 2 years". She also added "when I started cooking my food never tasted as good as yours do now, so don't worry you will be just fine". She then says "Your cake and Ethyekka appam is so much better than mine."

* mezhukupurrati - The vegetable (in my case, both are starch and not vegetable) is Julian cut, then cooked in water (80 %), salt, turmeric, chilli powder. Then tava is heated with oil and the vegetable is sautéed. We cook almost all vegetables like this.

All the above links are just so that my non-mallu readers can get a rough idea about the dishes. These are not my mom recipe's.

A-Z Tag II

I have already done a A-Z tag , but this is a little different, so here it is.

Tagged by

• Jagu
• Jiby

My Accent: While I'm talking to folks here I have an American accent.

Booze: Not huge on booze, but living in wine country, have wines occasionally.

Chore I Hate: (thought so much about this) There is nothing really I hate. I don't love to do any chore, but I don't mind doing them.

Dog or Cat: Dogs, cats I fear.

Essential Electronics: Microwave

Fragrances: Heaven from Gap, Mambo from Claiborne, Curve from Claiborne.

Gold or Silver: Silver, but I wear gold.

Home: Currently California.

Insomnia: Been blessed with the ability to sleep through anything every time.

Job Title: Blogger

Living Arrangements: With Shekar

Most Admirable Traits: Helpful

Number of times in hospital: Never been admitted *touchwood*

Phobias: Cats and snakes, fear of loosing a loved one.

Quote: "Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out." -- Vaclav Havel

Religion: Christian

Siblings: I older sister Veena

Time I Wake Up: Weekdays 8.00 AM....Weekends - do I have to wake up?

Unusual Talent or Skill: Can always strike up a conversation with anyone.

Vegetable I Love: I like them all, maybe everything other than Broccoli

Worst Habit: Short Temper

X-Rays, Last time: Dental almost a year ago.

Yummy Food I Make: Fish Curry

Zodiac Sign: Taurus - Now that explains a lot.

Dad and World Cup

This is the first world cup that I am watching without my Dad by my side screaming Goooaaaaaal, Eda Adi eda (hit a goal), Avante Karyam (this can't be translated).

We being a family of two girls, Dad has passed on all his passions to both of us. Football (Soccer) being the first and foremost.

I remember when World cup would come on TV Dad would ask us to join in. When we were kids we didn't care, we got to watch TV and we would sit next to Dad. As we grew older he would explain the game to us. He would say this is Corner Kick and would explain what it meant.

During the match he would quiz us and ask is this a Penalty Kick or a corner kick? Those few days the lingo around the house also changes. If we did something bad, Dad would say you are gonna get a Red Card. Veena and I used to run and hide when we heard this.

Veena and I started liking these matches and we would watch them and keep track of the points and would show off our knowledge to Dad. We used to say this team has 3 points and since that game was a draw that team only got 1 point.

Years have passed by and Veena, Dad and I we live in three different parts of the country, but everyday since June 9th there has been a phone call from me to Dad and from Veena to Dad just to discuss the matches that day.

Dad thank you for sharing your passion with us.

To Dear Dad....

Father's day is on Sunday the 18th, so this year I decided to send a gift to my father as opposed to the usual Fathers Day card. So after hours of thinking and googling I finally decided to send him a coffee mug with Veena and my picture on it.

I am very particular about people getting gifts on time or earlier because it breaks my heart for fathers day to come and go and my gift is in still in the mail. So by end of May I had decided what I was going to give to dad, then I started looking through my collection of photos to get a good picture of Veena and me. I narrowed it down to three pictures and emailed it to Veena for approval.

Finally we decided on a picture and I placed that order. This was last week Tuesday and I have been waiting and tracking the package till today.

My cell starts ringing and I see its my parents calling. I grab the phone, yeay they got the gift. It was mom on the other line.

Mom: We got your gift.
Me: What gift?
Mom: The cup, with your pictures
Me: That isn't for you, that was for papa put him on the phone
Mom: (calling out for dad)Hold on, I can't seem to find him.
Me - holding and thinking oh dad must be so happy
Mom: Hold on, he is in the kitchen, making coffee in his new cup.
Me: (Excited) Oh really

Then dad comes on the phone

Me: You liked the cup?
Dad: The box the cup came in had a receipt that said this was almost 20 dollars.
Me: hmmmm (I see where this is going, the usual lecture about how I shouldn't spend money.)
Dad: That is an expensive cup.
Me: pakshe (but) you liked it right? Else give it to mom, she will be happy to have it.
Dad: Nooooo... its my cup I'm going to drink coffee in it every morning and every evening.
Me: :) (thinking - oh he loved it)

Happy father's day to a wonderful dad.

PS: Just an update, spoke to mom the other day and she says dad drinks juice, coffee and everything liquid like (oatmeal) in this cup.

Om Kreem Kuttichatha

Warning: This post has a good amount of Malayalam words used.

If you folks understood that title of this post then you are a great lover of Mayavi.

Growing up every household in Kerala had atleast one copy of Balarama (Children's magazine, published in Malayalam). We grew up in Tamil Nadu and did not know how to read Malayalam so we never got Balarama, but got Tinkle, Amarchitra Katha and as we grew older we got Reader's Digest, and then Competition Success.

But Veena and I used to love Mayavi in Balarama, and when ever we visited Kerala, our cousins used to read them to us. So our mom came to know about it and she got the text book for first grade and every evening she would sit and teach us to read Para pana thara . Veena was 13 and I was 10, and we use to complain that none of our friends had to learn how come we have to. Mom would ask "Do you want to read Mayavi?" We would start reading again.

As we got older, mom used to make us read Malayalam bible. In the beginning we would just turn to Psalms 23 and read Yehova ente idayan akkunu ... or Psalms 91 Athyunathante Maravil Vasikyayum ... as we knew those by heart (These are the two Psalms that every kid is taught during his/her childhood days). Mom figured it out soon and then she used to say which passage to read. Every evening during family prayer Veena and I had to read Malayalam bible after we read our English bibles.

Years went by and both Veena and I started reading Malayalam that was printed (reading Handwritten Malayalam is still hard for me.)

Last year when I went to Shekar's cousin's place I saw a Balarama and I just picked it up, turned to Mayavi and started reading. The whole family there just stared at me, I think they expected to pick up Vanitha (Women's weekly, also published by Manorama) which lay next to Balarama.

Little do they know that is it because of Mayavi I can read Malayalam.

Wake up

I’m one of the selected few who can fall asleep right after I lay down and once I’m asleep nothing wakes me up. This was something ingrained in my system. My mom used to say that I was the perfect baby I always slept and only woke up when I was hungry (life used to be so simple back then).

Back when I was in college, I used to pull a lot of all-nighters and since I used to work during the weekend I was always sleep deprived. Then it happened one Friday evening I got home around 2.00 pm and I went to my room and changed and went to sleep. My family was very understanding and they only woke me up when I have to be woken up. So I’m in this deep sleep and Veena (older sister) comes and wakes me up saying “Jolikku Pogande?” (Don’t u have to go to work). For which I sleepishly reply Samayam Enthu aayi (What time is it?). Veena says 6.30. I jump up from bed, as I have to be at work at 7.00 AM, and my work place was almost 30 minutes away. I grab the phone to call and let people at my work know that I’m running late, then Veena says I’ll call you get dressed. (such a great sister). So I dash to the bathroom and start brushing my teeth and then I get ready to take shower, Veena runs into the bathroom screaming and laughing and she says “Oh my god I can not believe you actually fell for this, it is 6.30 PM on Friday and not 6.30 AM on Saturday”

I got out of the bathroom and chased her around the house and I saw my parents just staring at us, there were probably thinking, wasn’t Thanu sleeping and now how come she is chasing Veena around or Do 21 and 24 year old siblings still chase each other.

Now when Veena visits me or vice versa, or we both go home, I make sure I wake up early and wake her up, but every single time she wakes up before I do, be it my place, her place or our home. But, one day I'm going to get her.

Awesome Memory - Or is it Awful?

Of all the thing I take pride in, memory tops the list.

I have great memory for all sorts of thing. I just started realizing that in the last few years.

Bhavya called me the other day and she asked if I knew the name of our TA (Teacher's Assistant) for our math 3012 class. I replied back Austin? For which Bhavya replied, "Oh Yeah, Austin"

I took this math class at least 3-4 years ago, and that is the kind of memory I have.

Other day I met one of my friends after a while and told him an incident that happened like 3-4 years ago. This was our conversation:
Friend: Wow u remember that
Me: yeah..I have great memory
F: (Sarcastically) Oh yeah what was I wearing
Me: A white shirt with black trims on sleeves and neck
F: What kind of neck
Me: V-neck
F: (Jaws dropped, eyes popped out)You are crazy.

That is the reaction I get from all my friends. I also remember lot of things from my childhood, and I tell mom and she goes, "You remember that, you were a little kid". I also have great memory for faces and names. I remember street names, and so I’m known for giving the best directions ever. Now that I have started reading blogs I remember almost all my blog pals, every post.

But then there are also days when I forget to bring my purse to work or can never find my keys. And that my friends, makes me Normal

Are we there yet?

When we are going on trips this is one dreaded question.

In our childhood, during summer vacations we used to go visit our grandparents. Mom, Veena and I would spend all summer with them and Dad would join us during the last 1 week or so. We used to travel a lot with our mom, and we used to keep asking her "Are we there yet?" She used to get annoyed when we kept on asking so we girls used to split and ask. Veena would ask after 30 minutes she would signal me to ask. As we got older we got smarter and we rephrased our questions to "how many more hours?" and other different ones. After a while mom would cheerfully respond "We will get there, when we get there." Veena and I knew this was our que to shut up and look out of the window.

Years went by, I am in late teens and Veena in early 20s, and we go on road trips as a family. We used to take 1 road trip every year. So Veena and I would drive, dad would be in his own world and Mom would ask "Are we there yet?" Veena and I used to get so annoyed when she kept asking "How many more hours to go?" And finally Veena would just burst out with the response "We will get there when we get there." She would casually turn her face and look outside.

Veena and I would always say, see the tables have turned and we are in control. We were so happy to be the grown up now.

Years passed, I am married now. So when we go places Shekar drives and I sit in the passenger side changing CDs and I realize I am back to square one asking "Are we there yet?"

Sharing

When I did my schooling in India I used to love the day when it was someone's Birthday. He/She would be dressed in a color outfit while the whole school wore Navy blue and white. Both (Veena - my sister and me) our birthdays were during the summer months, so we never got to do this. (Now I think of it, imagine the amount of money our dad saved by not buying candy for 24 years - 12 for Veena and 12 for me for 60 some people).

When ever I got candy for someone's b'day, if they were real close to me I would ask them for another candy and would take both home so Veena and I could share. Veena did the same thing. I do not remember when we started doing this, but we did it since our primary school days. One day something special happened to somebody and they distributed cake to whole of primary section (By cake I mean the small cubed shape that is made for one person. I think it is called pastry cake). I was in 5th grade and Veena in 8th. So I got cake and Veena didn't. I washed my luch box, put the cake in there and brought it home to share it with Veena.

I came home and showed the cake to my sister and we both for so happy. Mom told us to go wash us so we can eat it. Veena and I went to clean up and mom stepped out for something. Then the most depressing thing happened, our neighbor's cat came and ate that cake. I was so sad that I started crying and I told mom "I was doing the right thing by bringing it home, but I didn't get to eat it. All my friends who ate by themselves got to eat it, but not me." Veena tried to tell me that it was okay and it was just a cake.

I was upset the whole evening till dad came home with a whole cake. And that was one of the happiest days in my childhood. And it is not because I got a whole cake (almost, shared it with Veena), but if that day my dad wouldn't have brought that cake home I would not believe in sharing anymore.


Even to this day I can share anything with my friends and families wholeheartedly.

Attached

When it comes to girls we are all (at least most of us) very attached and passionate about our hair.

When I was a kid, mom used to cut my hair till I was 6, then we used to make a trip to a nice beauty parlor where a very nice girl, Vidya, used to cut my hair. We used to go there very frequently and became very close with her. She was 25 or 26, so I used to think, Vidya is so much cooler than my parents. I used to enjoy her company. I used to have real short hair, with a very guyish hair style.

Reminds me of an incident, when I was in Tamil Nadu (I was 12), I was taking a bus to go somewhere. I got on the steps and the conductor, he was standing above all the steps, told be Tampi, pinnadi poy eeru translates to little boy, go climb through the back. I raised my head and he smiled apologetically.

That is how short my hair used to be. All my friends by this time started having nice long hair, or girlish short hair. Still I loved my hair and planned to wear it like that all the time. Then something unthinkable happened when I was 14, Vidya now in early 30s got involved in an accident and was killed. That is when I decided that I'm going to start growing my hair.

To this day I have not got my hair cut short because I feel that it is something special that only Vidya and I shared. I do get occasional trims but that is it.

Now my hair is nice and long (little below shoulder), I often wonder what Vidya would say. In the deepest of my heart I hear her voice, "You look a lot prettier with short hair."

I know this guy

There are lot of perks about being married, but my favorite one is I do not have people (more like people I hardly know) coming to me and telling about this great guy that would be a good match to me.

I was 20 and an uncle (anyone older than me that I can not address by name), comes over and tells me about a guy.
Uncle: There is a Doctor in my family and we are looking for a girl for him.
me: (shocked this was my first proposal, I'm 20 for crying out loud) I don't wanna get married yet.
Uncle: That is the good thing, by the time it takes him to get to this country, you will be all ready
me: Then I'll marry him when he gets here.
uncle (smiles and walks away).

Never again has he approached me with any guy.

I was 22, there was this guy Binu who used to work with me and then he moved to Boston. One day he calls me from Boston.
Binu: How are you?
Me: (All surprised, its been six months after he left and now he calls me out of the blue): Good, what a nice surprise. It must be so cold in Boston (We were not that great of friends so I didn't know what else to say).
Binu: One of my colleagues, Shiju, is a nice Malayali guy and he is looking to get married.
Me: (Rolling my eyes..not again)This is so strange, I know a guy named Shiju too, who is looking to get married. I think they should meet.
Binu: Oh Come on..
Me: Hey I don't really wanna get married now.
Binu: At least talk to him and you might change your mind.
Me: That's ok Binu I really do not want to. ( I was 2 years older from the previous incident, so was more mature and hence the courteous reply)

Never has Binu called me after that, and what a relief.

I don't know when people see a single girl working, why they think "Oh, she is ready to get married and I know the perfect guy for her". What used to annoy me the most was that my parents never said anything about "we met this guy the other day", then why others.

So these days when I go anywhere, I flaunt my wedding band and Minnu and my beloved Shekar and no one comes to me with "I know this guy...."

I already have my guy and he is the BEST.

It's OK to talk to strangers

It was one evening when Didi received an email from a Rajat Thomas, who was currently working in LA. It was some random guy who got her email id from somewhere and emailed her. The courteous person that she is, she responded and they became email friends. They used to email like once a week and he emailed her a link to his personal website where she saw a picture of him. Like most sisters we shared everything so I knew who Rajat was, what he looked like and all.

2 years go by

Didi and I take a trip to India. We are standing in a train station to board a train to go to Tamil Nadu. Didi says "Don't look now, but the guy over there looks like Rajat". After few seconds I casually turn and look and I confirm that hunch. So I tell Didi, lets go ask if he is Rajat. Didi gives me the stare like I am crazy.

Between Didi and me I was the gutsy one, so I try to rationalize it for her.
Me: Let me go ask.
Didi: You are crazy, shut up. I knew I shouldn't have told you.
Me: What do we have to loose, if it's not him I'll tell I'm sorry.
Didi: I will not let you talk to random guys in train stations

While she is saying these words I walk over to that guy. Didi turns around acting like she is not related to me.

Me to Guy: Excuse me
Guy (looking all shocked):Yes
Me: Are u Rajat Thomas.
Guy (jaw drops, eyes pop out, he stands up): Yes and you are?

I beckon my sister to come over, she comes over.
Me (to Guy): This is my sister Veena who emails you.
Didi: Hi I'm Veena
Guy: Oh my god, I can't believe it.
…….. (they both start talking like long lost friends)

We ended up taking the same train and traveled half way together.

It is such a small world. When 2 people who meet here in US to be in India at the same train station at the same time I believe it is more than a coincidence.